Jun 18, 2023
Neil McClendon, Lead Pastor
Understanding How God Does What God Does
Acts 7:9-34
1. God orchestrates things before we get there, v. 9-16
Favor is best defined as demonstrated delight. To have the Lord’s favor means that the Lord has joyful trust in a person and has shown gracious kindness towards them.
“His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said. But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.
-Genesis 50:18-21
2. God has a plan for what happens when and why, v. 17-29
“I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land."
-Exodus 23:27-30
3. There are things you only learn in the wilderness, v. 30-34
“And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.”
-Deuteronomy 8:2
Wilderness wisdom…
a) Your real heart is most on display in the wilderness
b) God has not forgotten you
c) You never deserve forgiveness, you just come to believe it
d) Sin changes the way you think about God but not the way God thinks about you
e) God uses people with a past to deliver other people with a past
Mental worship…
Do you ever think of yourself as having God’s favor on your life?
What need are you most often trying to meet when you sin?
When you think of your past do you feel grateful or fearful?
Are you asking God to be for others what you’ve never let Him be for you?