Auto Transcript
Note: This rough transcript was automatically generated by YouTube’s AI algorithm. We provide it here for your convenience, but know it will surely contain errors as it has not been proofread or edited by a human.
welcome to another Sunday school teaching can you hear me well or yeah okay um yeah my name is Jo penalosa for those of you who do not know me I’ve been in Calvary for about three years and um I think G the opportunity to over the the lesson today in Sunday school um in our previous Iron Man sessions of um um Exodus we were studying that book and uh when I um when we were going through the part of um where God uh establishes the priests uh I remember I thought at that time wellow that uh should have been a great honor and a great responsibility to to be called to to that Ministry and now that I am standing here for the first time doing this I say oh wow this is a great and and great responsibility as well so thank you for your prayers and your words of encouragement so here we go uh today as I mentioned is chapter three in our series of trusting God by J Brides the chapter is the sovereignty of God this is the outline of the of the lesson so we will going um through this uh um topics what it’s sovereignty what does it mean for us um how does it operate ER God sovereignty is not always apparent and when adversity strike us um last week Mark introduces to the concept of sovereignty and today are going to go deeper into into this concept most of the points come from the book from the book we’ve been reading uh but I made uh some additional additional points that I have developed myself and uh I have taken from other sources as well um feel free to add any comment or ask any question during the lesson you can raise your hand and you can just jump in that’s okay with me so let’s uh let me pray in order to start the lesson God uh I thank you for this time that we can um spend here to together during the the Sunday school thank you for this lesson that um we’re going to over thank you for this interesting series of um trusting God we ask that um that you bless us this morning and that uh ER whatever we talk here that uh um is um useful for us for our spiritual lives and that uh it uh gets into a blessing in our daily lives in Jesus name amen all right so we’ll start uh by reviewing some basic concepts about uh sovereignty oops um the sovereignty of God um what is the sovereignty of God um if you have been in church for some time um most probably you have heard about this Con AC the sovereignty of God um it’s one of the attributes of God yeah and we know the attributes are the characteristics that describe God how God is what is he like um along with several others I mean the sovereignty is is one of them there are many others as probably you have heard before he’s Almighty he’s Eternal he’s um everywhere at every time and um that is how how go is now um the war Sovereign and I think Mark mentioned this uh also last week the world sovereignty appears in the Bible only one time surprisingly it’s only one time mentioned in the bible if we go to First Timothy 6:15 we can see that uh passage where the world sovereignty appears so 1 Timothy 6:15 and it says which he will bring about at the proper time he who is blessed he who is the blessed and only Sovereign the King of Kings and the Lord of lords so there we see the word sovereignty on this on this passage um now even though the word appears only one time it’s a concept that is present in all the scripture which can see that from Genesis through Revelation in fact the creation is an expression of God sovereignty right he created this world because he wanted to and uh interestingly um when we go to revelation we see a new creation so he started the story by creating this world and he ends the story by creating a new world so that the creation is Sovereign night of Act of God and we see that in the beginning and we see it in the in the end of the story um now um we have uh here some definitions of sovereignty the first one I took it from the book of the attributes of God by Arthur pink uh and it says the sovereignty of God may be defined as the exercise of his Supremacy being infinitely elevated above the highest creature he is the most high Lord of Heaven and Earth subject to none influen by none absolutely independent God knows as he pleases none can toward him none can hinder him the second definition I took it from our book uh in page 24 we see this is the essence of God’s sovereignty his absolute Independence to do as he pleases and his absolute control of all his creatures no creator person or Empire can toward his will or outside the bounds of his will now when we see these definitions uh what sense do you get from this H what is that comes to your mind is anything that uh you see that stands out I think it it assults our pride and our our sense that we really have control yeah right right and um yeah that that’s uh one of the things that um I was uh also thinking um God is in control right he’s the one in control not us um and it also mention something that points to words aing right mentions that uh God is the most high the lord of the Heaven and the Earth he takes no counil from from anybody he takes no counil from us so when we think that uh we can know better than God I mean we see that he takes no counil on on anybody takes no counil on us he cannot be influenced by us by our actions by our thinking um so um let’s go now to our books and um in page 26 we see some Bible verses that go along with this um here uh Jer Brees quotes different Bible verses from in the Old Testament most of them in the Old Testament and some in the New Testament I will read three of them first one Proverbs 169 in his heart a man plans his course but the Lord determines his steps Ecclesiastes 713 consider what God has done who can strengthen what he has made grook Lamentations 3:37 who can speak and have it happen if the Lord had not decreed so we see basically same thing right God is in control not us so um and then we can see this passage in Daniel 4:35 all the inhabitants of the Earth are of no account but he does according to his will among the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of Earth and no one can fend of his hand or say to him what have you done so we see everything is consistent the passages that we read from the book of um Bridges this Bible vers the definitions everything points towards God only he’s the only one in control not those he’s the only one who can determine things not those he is in total and absolute uh control because he is the total and only Sovereign so let’s see our next Point oops soorry I have to turn back here because I cannot see clearly the the monitor in front of me um so what does it mean for us what does it mean for us that uh God is totally Sovereign well I have here made some points on this in general God exercises sovereignty over everything creation people and Nations right that’s what we read in the in the Bible verses now when we say everything everything means everything right so it’s an absolute concept so means nothing escapes his uh sovereignty and um we say creation people and Nations because it’s basically those Concepts um that um um we visualize the world in so when we think about the the world we basically think in these terms if in terms of creation people persons and and Nations but if we can think of any other um term that we would use to define our world uh God will be Sovereign on that as well so it’s not only limited to Creation people and Nations he Sovereign over everything the people creation people and nations are just our ideas to conceptualize the world that we live in um so how do we respond to to this idea how does man responds to this idea that God is in absolute control and and not us is this something that uh we as humans like or is it something that we don’t like yeah I think the answer is yes mik comten yeah right right I mean in general we don’t like it um if we are um Believers we even if we are believers we can’t struggle sometimes with this and uh foreign Believers say definitely they don’t like this because people like to think that they are in control people like to think that um they control their Destiny right we hear often this phrase We control our destiny we control our future nobody tell us what to do um that contradicts obviously God’s Vision because he’s Sovereign over us um so let’s uh look to Matthew 6 25 some couple of Bible verses that we can look to illustrate um what we are talking about sorry Matthew 6:27 Matthew 6:27 and who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life now let’s look at Job 145 job 145 since his days are determined the number of his months is with you and his limits you have set so that he cannot pass so reading these two verses we realize who is in control of our lives are we in control of Our Lives not really right he is the one that is in control of Our Lives now as a Nations um the Nations also like to think that they are in control right we see throughout history the race and fall of different world Empires and every Empire claims to be that they are the the ultimate Empire and they are in total control of the world but we see this is not the case either right uh in the scripture we see how the Lord has been in control of different nations throughout the history uh he was in control of the nation of Israel and um he was also controlling Egypt and Bab on and many of of all the different world Empires uh same as the Roman Empire and then the British Empire and in fact if um you read the the the lesson the chapter three you see that the lesson starts with the bridges telling us an example of a an incident in the British Empire the British Empire they were going to to Crown Prince Edward as as king and uh they has they had set up a day and everything was ready to do to do that to do the ceremony and then it turned out that they couldn’t do it because that same day that um Prince was supposed to be crowned he got sick and he couldn’t be crowned that day so they had to Pond the ceremony to another day so we saw there that uh you the the British Empire in the maximum of his power he couldn’t proceed as they had planned right so got uh got this in control now let’s see a passage um in John John 1911 this is um Jesus um talking to Pilot when he is before pilot um and it says Jesus answered you would have no authority over me unless it have been given from unless it have been given you from above for this reason he who delivered me to you has the greater sin so pilot thought that he had authority over Jesus but he here we see Jesus telling him no you don’t have authority because the authority was given from above it’s not your Authority it’s a that you receive from above so we see God is in control of the Nations right it’s not the Nations controlling the world it’s still um God controlling the Nations now sometimes doesn’t seem like that but uh we know in the end it’s God the one that is is behind all all that we see um on next Point got those as he pleases I think there is not much that we can add here Psalm tells precisely that right Psalm 11 153 but we’re go is in the heavens he does whatever he pleases so that’s very clear now on the personal on our personal lives what does it mean for us see here nothing is so small or trivial to escape his sovereignty yeah we can see that even in our word that those small details that happen in our lives I remember um couple of years ago we were on a Sunday morning H coming to Calvary and in the middle of the way our car broke down so we couldn’t make it to church then we had to call road assistance they took the car to uh mechanic now it was Sunday so we had to wait until the next day to to see what was wrong with the car so the next day uh I called the the mechanic I went to to visit the mechanic and um um we were praying oh hopefully it’s not something big because you know car repairs are usually expensive so hopefully something that can be fixed quickly and not uh be so expensive so went to the mechanic and uh he told me oh you know what is the transmission trans transmission broke down completely so you need a new transmission so I said NE transmission that’s very expensive so why Lord why did happen but just immediately after that he told me well you know what um maybe this is still under the warranty of the of the of the car maker why don’t you take it to the dealer and maybe they can do it and so I said well okay let’s give it a try so I called Road assistants again they took the car from the mechanic to to the dealer so I went to the dealer and I was expecting okay they are going to tell me right now if it isover or not because I mean they have all the information of the car they are the dealership so they they they must know so I went there and um explained the situation they said oh okay well um we have to inspect the car and then if that’s um the case if what what you say is true then H we have to contact the automaker the head office of the automaker and they have to approve us before we can proceed with the repair they had to tell us if the warranty is still in effect so I said okay and well can you you call them now no we have to send them a message and wait for the reply so I said okay and how long is it going to take oh probably a couple of days okay well go back home and then still keep praying that uh the repair is cover under the warranty and um couple of days went by and didn’t get any call so I called him and hey what happened oh we still have no reply um we’ll call you back oh okay so another couple of days went by and uh finally they call me and they tell me hey yeah the we go the approval it’s going to be covered under the warranty a thank you God but it’s going to take a probably a couple of weeks because we have no mechanics they’ve been some of are sick and um we don’t have anybody else so please wait well okay a couple of weeks okay we can survive a couple of weeks so a couple of weeks went by then I go to the dealership hey what happened um the mechanics are still out and we have a lot of work so yeah you have to wait um maybe another week okay well now I keep praying oh God please help us so the repair is on as fast as as as possible so next week I call no still not finished so please give us a few more time okay well eventually they call me and they say okay it’s done now so go pick up the car the car is fine everything is is fine I said okay thank you God now um was it a nice experience it was not I mean because and being without a car I mean you have to make a lot of arrangements in our in in your life you have to move things around you have to rearrange your schedules and all that and it’s it’s a relatively difficult situation not a major thing in your life but uh definitely it’s an inconvenience and um when we when I see this backwards I said okay what um what’s the Lord trying to to to to teach me through this process to teach our family and I think one thing for sure was patience you have to be patient when you’re in a situation like that and uh I also think that um the Lord was trying to to tell us hey you have things that I have given you but uh if they are taking away from you you have to learn to live without a car you have other cars so you have just to rearrange and be patient and wait and trust that I will be working the best for you and uh looking back at that experience I see well yeah that that’s that was the case because first of all the mechanic was honest and he told me go to the dealership and see if they can do it under the warranty I mean who could he could have been not honest and and try to repair himself and cashing a big bill for me but uh he point me to theal dealer I went to the dealer and then they checked and then the answer came back was a good answer and the car was repaired so in the end it was on it was God’s um sovereignty acting in that small problem now why did the Lord didn’t want us to come to Calvary on that Sunday that I don’t know uh but um we saw the service that day later on through YouTube so everything went well um so next Point his sovereignty is not only for our Eternal lives but in our present which was even um designed before we were born so yor Richard makes also this point in in his book sometimes when we think about um sovereignty we think it only relates to our eternal life to the fact that we are going to heaven because he’s overing and he will take us to heaven when we die but that’s not only the case I mean he is acting in our lives he’s acting every day in in in our time and as um it’s pointed out there I mean the things that he planned for us were not uh um are not being planned on the moment as they happened they were planned even before we were born um there is also this um s sentence that Yori bres adds in in the book If there is a single event in all of the universe that can occur outside of God’s Sovereign control we cannot trust him right now I put this sentence kind of backwards um then I came to this sentence following this this line but because there is no single event in all of the universe that can occure outside God sovereign control then we can trust him see so the fact that he’s in total control Mak him a reliable God makes him a God that we can trust right um and um last Point God is sovereing over good and bad now this point is a point that um sometimes generates some conflicts inside I thought so let’s uh review this in a little bit more detail okay here we are so go God Is Sing over the good and the bad well first of all this is indicated in the scripture here we see a passage in Ecclesiastes 7:14 on the day of prosperity be happy but on the day of adversity consider what has made the one as well as the other so that a person will not discover anything that come after him and there are many other passages that corroborate this one so God is is um the one who causes prosperity and adversity so um how do we understand this how do we process this um is coming well there is a a nice paragraph in in in the book that I put here um it’s from Margaret Clarkson and it says the sovereignty of God is the one impregnable Rock to which the suffering human heart must cling the circumstances ring our lives are no accident they may be the work of evil but that evil is held firmly in the mighty hand of our Sovereign Gods all evil is subject to him and evil cannot T his children unless he permits God is the Lord of human history and the personal history of every member of his redeemed family so we see the statement go this behind the prosperity and adversity we see how we can understand this I think this is a beautiful paragraph that can help us to to understand this this situation um but how do we apply it in our in our lives how do we uh go from just understanding to processing this in our daily lives and I think Romans 828 offer us a good advice on this Romans 828 says and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God to those who are called according to his purpose now this is easy to say right but uh in reality it’s not that easy to to to live um I was thinking about this passage on Romans 8:28 and um thinking how how this can be really related to our day-to-day lives and um so let’s start uh by going again and trying to get deeper on this passage it says that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God so who are the ones who love God that’s us right uh everyone who has received uh Christ in in their hearts has the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit U make us to want to love God we have the desire in our hearts to love God now when we get that desire does it happens that we go from zero desire of loving God to a full desire of loving God it usually doesn’t happen like that right usually happens in a gradual process when we start here and we are moving like this slowly upwards um and how do we know that we love God well I can point out to John he tell us that uh if you love God then you will obey his Commandments right that’s one of the signals that we can that we can um point out to the fact that we love God right and um when we think about obeying his Commandments um so I initially thought okay obeying his Commandments is related to those big Commandments uh about um not uh murdering not adultery and all that so be Commandments that prevent us from doing the big sins but um there are also other Commandments that are I would say more um relatable to us that have more a direct application in our daily lives for example if you are a husband then you are commanded to love your wife right you are commanded to lead your house if you are a wife you are commanded to ER submit to your husband and respect your husband right if you are a child you are commanded to honor your father and your mother and if you are a parent you are Comm commanded to instruct your children in the ways of the Lord right and in our um day-to-day jobs we are commanded to work as if we are working for the Lord not for other men and um for the people that work with us we are commanded to treat them with respect uh and dignity so all these Commandments that uh have a direct application in our daytoday life are Commandments that when you think about that the more you do this I think uh that produce that the more you will love God and there’s also other the other Commandments that relate to the spiritual disciplines you are commanded to pray right you are commanded to study the the word of God you are commanded to congregate and have communion with other believers so when you put all that together that are commands that are Commandments that are related to our day-to-day lives have a direct application every day because every day we talk to relatives every day we talk to our co- workers and we constantly come to to church so the more we do this then the more we are going to love God right so you the more you obey that means the more you love and the more you love God then the closer you are to make this a reality in your life right now we will never get to a point that we can say oh you know now I am totally love God I am fully 100% no it doesn’t really happen like that I mean nobody can say that I mean we move towards that direction and sometimes we stumble we fall but we get up and move up again and uh that’s what we are called to be so thinking how we can do this uh a reality in our lives I think that’s a a practical way that uh you can work on so that when adversity comes in our lives we can relate to this and we can relate to this not only from a a theological point of view not only from an intellectual point of view but from practical point of view right because studying the word of God is Not only just a study as you study a science or your study mathematics is study but also application relating this to your life making this a reality in your life right so I was thinking about this and wanted to to mention this to you don’t know if you would like to add some comments or make a question yes I was just thinking how how of God isal and all love is very yeah right right love and Sant go Hand by hand yeah love I realize in our humanness like we’re not naturally going to be to obey him we’re always fighting the Flesh and I find that well I want things to be comfortable I also know that if I’m too comfortable I’m not going to be as obedient as I should be you know so God in his Mercy puts pressure on my life to help me to be focused to reallyy him and love him better I just know that personally certainly not the only one who can relate to this right where I need that kind of external pressure in my life yeah so that I will really be obedient and love him more and I don’t like it sometimes but recognizing that that’s his purpose as you comfor yeah yeah you’re right you’re right sometimes we have to be under pressure to to grow and we will talk a little bit more about that in in the next the next slide so okay let’s go to to the next one um oops keep pushing the WR but all right um so we have seen how uh God sovereignty impacts Our Lives now we are going to see how does it operate yeah um well first of all let’s start uh first uh first point God sovereignty does not neate our responsibility to live a responsible and prudent life um yeah we can fall into that extreme that say oh got is sovereignty and everything so I don’t need to do anything I’m fine um but um let’s go to Psalm 1271 P 12 1271 it says unless the Lord builds a house they who build it labor in vain unless the Lord gots a city The Watchman stays awake in vain so when we see these Psalms we see that um and God is not telling us hey don’t build a house I will build it for you or don’t guard the city I will do the job for you now he’s he’s not telling us that he’s telling us okay uh you do your job and I do my my job as well so it’s a joint responsibility right it’s not that I just sit and do nothing I mean I’m I have to take my actions and uh same applies for example in prayer I mean you could say oh why why do I pray if go anyway will do what he he wants to do so then but now you are commanded to pray so um it goes uh Hand by hand and uh in fact there is a chapter dedicated to to this specific topic that we will see later on in the in the series God Is Never surpris Never C of guard never frustrated but not expect the developments um yeah um we are the ones that are C of God sometimes right we are the ones that get frustrated we are the ones who sometimes have to change change the course of actions where the ones who have to have a plan B in case something fails doesn’t turn out as we expected and we are the ones but he is not he is uh never surpris uh um on anything um got um exercis his Sovereign in wisdom and love he perfect in love and Infinate in wisdom um we saw last week in Mark’s lesson um how he was commenting about these three factors working together and and that you were mentioning love so we have um um love wisdom and sovereignty and we saw that uh if uh there is no wisdom that mean means that God can make make mistakes right if uh there is no love then we will be punished eternally if uh there is no s guarantee that means that uh God is weak so all these three factors have to be combined and have to work together and only really God is the one that can that can do this I mean because some sometimes if we try to do it then most surely we usually go more to the love we usually try to go more to the sovereignty or the wisdom but balancing all this in a perfect way is only that only God can do and and about this topic I was thinking about um uh the sermon that Pastor D gave was on um hopelessness uh you remember a few weeks ago he was talking about Elijah the Prophet Elijah and we saw in that uh in that sermon how Elijah was going through a very difficult time he was in distress he was a a good Prophet a man of God but at some point uh he was um really disappointed because things didn’t turn out to be the way that he expected and uh he came to Aint that he said okay I’m done God I quit uh things are not working and um I’m just going to run away and uh I cannot do this anymore right and what happened how did God deal with Elijah um he didn’t rebuked Elijah at that moment he let Elijah to sit and wait he conforted Elijah he showed love to Elijah right in the mid of that uh distress but after for some time he said okay Elijah now it’s time for you to get up and move on so he was showing showing Elijah love and uh we see also the wisdom of God because what he was doing in the turned out to be for the good of of um Eliah and and all the story and in fact if we see the rest of the story we see that shortly after that Elijah is um kind of goes into retirement and he has to um appoint another one who will take his place Elijah so um this was going according to God’s plan I mean it was the time that Elijah steep aside and then someone else came into his position so that was part of the wisdom of God and we see the sovereignty because in the end everything turned out to be as um according to God’s plans I mean Elijah thought that uh things were going bad terribly bad because he said okay I’m the only one there is nobody else and God said no there are many others who who um are still following my my word so he wasn’t surprised Elijah was surprised but here we see the Lord acting in love wisdom and sovereignty in that story right um go does care he exercises his sovereignty for his glory and the good of his people yeah that’s also um a consequence of all the the acting of wisdom love and sovereignty that is pointed towards his glory and the good of his people and we are in his hands uh God controls every circumstance of our lives and rejoices us and rejoices in doing us good we see Jeremiah 32:14 I Will Rejoice over them to do good and will Faithfully plant them in this land with all my heart and all my soul so in the end there is there is that objective in in our lives right to make us good and everything is for the glory of God so when see when we think about the sovereignty of God it’s not just God doing arbitrary things in the world in in our lives there is a purpose and there is an objective in that to do good for us and to exalt his name so let’s go now to the next oops so God’s sovereignty is not always apparent right that’s a topic of the book that I particularly liked and in that um in that section um Jory Brides um tell us about two cases in the scripture uh one in a stair and one in Ruth and um I know that’s the those are the books that the ladies are going to study in the their side by side meeting so I’m not going to spoil the the this for you but uh just briefly going through this through this um books what is interesting is that uh yor points out to different uh facts that happened in a very um unexpected way during the course of those two stories in the story of Esther um the people of Israel is going to be exterminated by an uh person named Haman he had made up a plan to kill everybody to kill all the yous and um it seems that uh his plan is going to work seems that there will be nothing that can stop him from doing that until one night something unex totally unexpected happens out of nowhere and we can see this here the seven points that y points in the book at that night the king couldn’t sleep um why well she just couldn’t asleep he got insomnia we don’t know why but he couldn’t asleep um and because he couldn’t asleep he asked for the register of facts to be read um why did he ask for that he could have asked for any other thing but he asked for that and uh when he was read that book he learned about U mory’s action morai was uh another person who had um um prevented uh an ass assassination attempt of the king some time ago and um and he realizes the king realizes that uh he didn’t reward morai so why did he didn’t reward morai at the time when morai did that the king knew that but he didn’t do anything why didn’t require morai at that time well didn’t do it but now he realizes that he didn’t do it and then he at that time determines to do something he determines to do the reward that he that morai deserves and just at that time this um evil character Haman appears he goes to visit the king because he wases with an intention to move on on his plan of killing all the Jews and he appears at just at that moment and the King asked that man Haman what should be done to honor morai now he doesn’t tell hamand uh that he’s planning to honor moraki he just tell him oh there was a that did something great for me what should we do to honor him hamand know that he’s talking about morai but uh then morai then Haman thinks that he’s the king is talking about himself so he says oh we have to do this and that and all that and then the K says okay well do that for for more and then the story starts to change right but uh the point is that all these seven points that uh yor riches points in in his book they all happen um suddenly out of nowhere in the story right but uh to they just happened just because they happened not right it was the the the hand of God the Lord acting in his sovereignty uh doing all these steps and uh we see this a similar story in the Book of Ruth um Ruth was a woman from Moab she married a a man from Israel but um his husband died so he was left uh with uh her mother-in-law and um they to decide to go back to Israel and um they both are Widow because her mother in law also lost U her husband so they are both Widow they go back to Israel and um being Widow at that time was that uh you were very unprotected so uh they went back to Israel and uh because they were unprotected unprotected they had no money so um Roots um mother-in-law tell her well go to the fields to pick up to glean the fields and get some food for us so he goes to the field now there were many fields right but he goes to a field that belongs to a man named boas and then um it happened that uh when she went to that field then both a arrived from Bethlehem he wasn’t there he arrived when uh Ruth uh also arrived to the field um and then B ask one of the foremans whose young man is that uh who young woman is that and um so he learns all his rude and so why did um rud got uh his attention well we don’t know exactly but uh uh Ruth got the attention of boss and then the B boss um then gets to meet Ruth and somehow they make click in the story and um in the end they end up being married but all these events happen ER just at that time at uh in an very unexplicable way right and then there is still one more that comes in the last when um both uh discovers that he’s not the closer closest relative to Ruth because according to the law at that time um the one that had the right to marry Ruth was the closer um relative of uh his um of her diseased husband and BOS was not that man there was another one who was a closer relative than him but uh turned out that uh he does not want to marry Ruth so then both Mar R and uh all these events happen in a unexplicable way but we see again the hand of God going through this series of events and acting in in that way to accomplish his purpose now have you had any story in your life uh similar to this probably you have probably you say maybe not so much um but if we think about um our story there’s a common story through all of us here and that’s the story of um our Salvation how we get to know the Lord right and if you think about that was probably because of um someone talk to you about the Lord maybe your husband maybe your wife maybe um friend maybe a coworker maybe some someone in college maybe um someone at the mall that you were just walking by and they gave you a flyer um or maybe you were just scrolling your your cell phone and found a video in YouTube but however it had happened it required that all these factors came together uh in a similar way to what happened here it required that you and that other person or that other source where you learn about the Lord came together at what time at the right moment so you get to know the Lord yeah um maybe you say well maybe it wasn’t exactly like that it was more like a process I it was not like at that exact moment in time I turned to the Lord it requireed more of a time and then my heart was touched and I and I surrendered to the Lord but uh on any way it all started with one one point it all started with someone telling you about the Lord um so um yeah it’s as an application point you can think of something this uh during this week uh how did you get to know the Lord what uh did God have to do in your life so you could be here today right um and you will see that um most likely there is a a really nice story behind that so when we have um new members being baptized we hear the testimonies and that’s one of the things that um I think they are very encouraging for everybody know to hear how God called people from very different backgrounds and how God acted in their lives uh in a very similar way to he acted in these two stories so they could be here um being bti baptized and um even after we are um baptized After we receive the Lord the way the the Lord Works in our lives is pretty much like this in in in many aspects um I can uh tell you um in my life when um in 2015 I um got an offer to go to Chile to live in Chile and work there and um it was a good offer a good job offer so talk to my wife and we decided okay let’s let’s do it um because it’s obviously a good job offer we speak Spanish so we said okay it will not be that difficult for us to adapt to the local culture so we were living at uh Tampa Florida at that time we had uh been uh living there for over 15 years and at that time um I had to recognize I I was a Believer but uh I wasn’t really growing up um you remember that uh growing that uh we talk about where you have to to be growing I wasn’t really growing up my my relationship with the Lord was kind of flat so then we went to to Chile and um but because we were Believers we said okay now let’s look for a church in Chile because yeah we want to continue attending church so um one day I was looking Churches online and found a video of a church it got my attention we started to go there and um when we started to go there um I think something uh click in my in my heart um I realized that um yeah um I had to I I wasn’t GR and I wasn’t moving upwards and I said okay well now I have to really to really start moving upwards what was that probably you could say okay what’s the teaching the teaching I was receiving back in Florida maybe it was not the best teaching it was not a sound teaching and uh in ch everything changed I mean the teaching was much different and uh I felt that uh at that point we were really starting to grow um and then we started to make some friends and everything was very good for us um um so I was thinking well why uh did it have to happen that way why it didn’t happen when I was living in in Tampa in Florida were there not uh good churches in Florida in Tampa well for sure they are but uh for some reason I was not part of them and it had to happen um that I was sent to literally the other side of the world for me to to start to grow and to uh realize that uh that I had to to change the course of action and that a trip to Chile that started just as a good job offer turned out to be um something much more than that was something that really changed our lives um me and and my family and um we see the the way that God was acting in in that time and now after being um there for two years the plan was to be there for two years only then I got an extension in the contract so we stay for two more years and everything everything was going well for us everything was okay yeah very good uh church was good we were growing we had a lot of friends our children had friends also at the school at the church life seemed to be really nice for us and we were financially good um paying debts and all that and um so the when um the second term of two years was coming to an end uh I talked to my my boss and said okay what’s going to happen um can I stay for more time or do I have to go back and he told me well I mean would you like to stay say well yeah I mean why not I mean we’re doing so good here so he said okay well let me see and I think um yeah you you could stay for for more time so he told me that and um later on he told me yeah I think there should be no problem that you continue to be here and um so we said okay well that’s great we’re going to continue here and um our daughter and paa had finished high school at that time so so we we’re already making plans for her to attend a local College there because we said well maybe if even if she doesn’t finish a college but it’s good that she keeps studying doing something and um the very day that she was going to sign in at the local college and we were going to put up the first tuition payment that very same day I got a call and I was told Jose you are going back to the US so what what happened why but you told me that I could stay here for for more time now my boss um that told me that he had already been transferred to other location so I had another boss and I think the new boss had other plans and then I was told you have to go back so I I tried to try to argue try to put on my case and said no but you told me that but in the end they they were not um there was no room for discussion it was a decision they they made so well okay and then I was shocked I was uh sat for for several days and I was telling God why are you doing this to to us why I am very happy here I am going through a very good time I growing in the church don’t you see how I have learned a lot how I am praying more reading the Bible more and now you are taking me out of here why what what’s going on no and uh looking backwards um um once uh everything has passed and have some time to reflect on that I I think probably the Lord was telling us that uh were telling me specifically hey you know um the time for you here was productive you learn you are moving upwards um but now you have to to learn to move into this direction when the circumstances are not the ideal circumstances you are here and everything is going fine in your life now I’m going to put you in a circumstance where you will have to start again but still moving in the same direction even if I take you out of this church where you feel so comfortable and you are learning a lot you still have to move in the right direction even if your life changes and then you have to go back to to the same point where you started you have to keep moving in the right direction I think that that’s what the Lord was um teaching us through through that process and uh that’s um yeah personal experience wanted to share so I’m pretty sure you all have experiences like that in your lives obviously there is no time for for everybody to to express those here but but uh yeah I invite you to explore your life find those experiences and see what the Lord uh has done in your life how he has uh move you through these special circumstances how the Lord has put those different uh points at the right time at the right moment for you to grow up in in in his knowledge and um finally um all these stories that we have commented here they have kind of a happy ending even so they had some difficult times but um there was not really a big tragedy in this stories but um there are moments when tragedy strikes in our lives and um the stories do not end up as nicely as we have been telling here that happens um and that’s basically the end of the chapter right when Jerry riches a knowes that uh yeah tragedy strikes and um it’s difficult it’s difficult at the time because when tragedy strikes it is a tough toughest tough um yor riches puts that towards the end of the book uh when tragedy strikes when things go really in a bad way um it’s not easy the pain is real the suffering is real and as we saw in the story of Eliah um God acknowledges that as he acknowledged elia’s pain distress he acknowledges our pain and distress and and it’s not around to cry out to say to the Lord why Lord why is this going through me why am I going through this but in the end um we have to make a decision we have to choose uh to trust God the trusting God uh is not only depending on our emotions it’s also a decision a conscious decisions that uh we have to make even in the middle of those difficult circumstances even if tragedy strikes even if um things are not going the way we want uh because in the end everything is that God does in our lives is for our good and as we were mentioning that is not just a theoretical concept it’s something that has to be a reality in our lives so page 42 Bridges uh he concludes basically it’s one of the conclusions that I take away from this lesson um when we go through this tragedy in our lives we we tend to make our first priority the gaining of relief from our feelings or heartache or disappointment or frustration this is a natural desire and God has promised to give us Grace sufficient for our trials and peace for our anxieties the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 129 uh in that passage he is telling God to take away a pain that he is experiencing his life and God replies by grace is sufficient for you so God didn’t take away that pain why don’t know exactly but he said my grace is sufficient for you and and Paul acknowledged that and and he move on even in desite of that pain and Philippians 467 do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and pleading with Thanksgiving let your request be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and mind mind in Christ Jesus so that’s the conclusion of this chapter and again it’s not easy it’s tough but um God is with us even of in the middle of all these difficult circumstances that we Face day today so time is over um if you have any question any comment you can talk to me afterwards and let me finish in prayer God thank you for the time that we could spend this morning and meditating about your sovereignty thank you for all that we have uh studied um this morning we ask that you bless us um everybody and that you be with us during the rest of the service in the fellowship and then in the in the service later on um thank you again for this time in Jesus name amen thank you