Address—R. Thonney
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Ours to obey His, His to provide. Those cisterns be broken, and creatures all fail. The word He hath spoken shall surely prevail. His love in time passed forbids us to think He'll leave us at last in trouble. To think the Lamb in His glory is ever in view. The pledge and the proof He will help us quite through.
And since all we need must work for our good.
The bitter is sweet, the medicine is food, though painful at present, will cease before long. And then our triumphant the Conquerors song. I need some help in starting this game.
Since God is our God.
Is our.
Story.
This is the provide.
Stands I love God, I'm great jers all fails.
Prevail.
Is.
A stupid thing.
Ever in you?
The pleasure of.
He will.
Help us quiet.
And slowly me.
Work. Work for our goal.
This way.
Of assembly.
Let's pray, gracious.
Like to read a verse?
Back 2 verses to begin with.
Two portions I should say.
First of all, in Revelation chapter 4.
Revelation chapter 4 and verse 11.
Here we have a.
Seen in heaven.
The 24 Elders, the Company of the Redeemed, are around the throne, and they cast.
Their crowns before the throne, sang verse 11. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power.
00:05:02
For thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure.
They are and were created.
This is a tremendous thing to get a hold of in our souls, that you and I are created for God's pleasure in two Timothy that we've been talking about in our readings.
We have it mentioned about the last perilous times that they are characterized by people loving pleasure more than loving God, and that certainly is the characteristic of the place where we live here in the United States and Canada, the North American continent, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.
But I want to say not only to the young, but to the older ones too. You and I have not been created and put in this world.
For our pleasure, we have been put here for God's pleasure, and it's tremendous to look around the creation to see what God has made. Some time ago I was in the.
Hi Elsa Plano, Bolivia, 12,000 feet altitude, that high plane and we were bumping along across.
The salt flats of Uyuni over close to the Chilean border, Not much more than two tracks through the Wilds.
And all of a sudden as we were crossing a little flat place.
I smell this tremendous fragrance.
And it was so strong, stopped the vehicle. I said where in the world is this fragrance coming from? And I got looking around and there on the ground was a little cactus like plant, very thorny, but it had little flowers. I don't think they were more than 1/4 inch across.
And they were blooming and the whole area was fragrant with those little flowers.
He made those for his pleasure I got.
To enjoy it too. But all creation is made for his pleasure. And dear young people, we're living in a world that is pleasure mad. Want to have a good time? Even Christian young people get ensnared with that. Even Christian older people get ensnared with that.
You are not put here for your own pleasure, and that's important to understand if your life is going to have meaning. Remember, you are put here for God's pleasure.
And all that means so much more when you really can get a hold of it. My purpose this afternoon is to speak about that. God's pleasure and God's purpose. And for God's purpose, let's turn back to a verse that was read yesterday as well.
Romans chapter 8 very well known verse.
Sure, most probably know which verse I'm referring to when we speak of it this way. Romans 828 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called.
According to his purpose.
You know, sometimes this little text you see framed on the walls of a home, sometimes that last phrase is left off. But I think this means so much in the understanding of this verse. It doesn't say that everything.
Is good.
It says everything works together for good and there's a big difference.
We go through a lot of circumstances in life that are very difficult to understand.
It's down in Lima, Peru, not too long ago.
And on the Lord's Day afternoon like this, we went out into the South of the city.
The city of probably about 8 million people.
Where there are some believers to have a meeting out there.
We had the meeting in the home of a sister and one of her daughters, a believer too, the sisters in fellowship.
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But not well. It was several months ago.
They have.
They had an only son, about 20 years old. It was the joy of that family.
The Father is not a believer as far as I know yet.
But there are gangs in that area. He was out walking with some of his.
Cousins, girl cousins.
And attack and a gang of about 30 young guys attacked him.
And he defended his cousin's from.
Rape and whatever mistreatment they wanted to heap on those girls and they got.
Rods of iron and stones, and they kill them.
And you can see the pain written on the faces of those parents, especially the father who doesn't know the Lord yet, but the mother too. How are we going to explain something like that? It's too hard, and this life is hard.
But we know that all things doesn't say are good. All things work together for good to them that love God, to those that are called according to his purpose. There's the key to understanding that verse, to understanding those hard things in your life. And I know that life isn't easy. You have hard things in your life. I've had hard things in my life. Maybe there's people here, brothers and sisters, who are going through really difficult situations at this present moment.
Remember.
His purpose?
He has a purpose. Nothing, absolutely nothing. I'm more and more convinced of it as I go on through life and see what God allows in the life of His people and in my life as well. I'm more and more convinced that nothing, absolutely nothing, happens by chance in the life of a believer. Everything has definite purpose in it.
Never doubt that God has proved without a shadow of a doubt.
That he is for us.
How the Christ of Christ.
God gave his best and man.
Gave that gift his worst, and God turned that whole thing around and made it the fountain of blessing for the whole world. That's God for you. That's the kind of God we know in the Lord Jesus. Somebody has said it's of man to return evil for evil. It's of the devil to return evil for good.
But it's of God to return good for evil.
And that's what he does. You know, it's so impressive to me to read through these stories in the Bible and to see how God does that. And I just want to say to you who are sitting here this afternoon, maybe you're going through tough times.
Maybe you aren't so right now, but maybe the Lord will allow those to come later on in your life. Just remember this if you can, accept every circumstance from the hand of one who has eternal purpose to bless you.
You're going to find blessing in the worst of trials. You're going to find blessing in it happens again and again.
And God has a purpose. What is his purpose then?
If he passes this through such terrific trials in this light, notice verse 29.
Tells us what His purpose is. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first born among many brethren. What's God's purpose? To make us just like Jesus.
Oh, how much I lack in that, but that's God's purpose.
And do you think God is going to give up his purpose just because I'm stiff necked, just because I'm willful? Do you think God is going to give up his eternal purpose that He purposed in Christ Jesus before the world began?
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Impossible.
And if even there is willfulness on my part, too bad. If there is, I only cause myself worse problems.
But.
God is going to have his way in the end, and I think it's so beautiful to see that in the life of God's people throughout the Old Testament. Oh, what a God we have that we have been brought to know in the Lord Jesus Christ. I really believe as we stand at the judgment seat of Christ, dear brethren, and see the way God has turned even our mistakes.
When we turn and repent, He turns them for blessing.
Oh, to God we have in the person of the Lord Jesus. So God has his pleasure and God has his purpose. Remember that you and I are not made to have pleasure down here. We may have pleasure, and I must say I've had a lot of pleasure in life.
But that's not the purpose of our being here. God's pleasure is the reason for our existence here. And so you'll see in other parts of the world today, Christians terribly persecuted.
They understand, perhaps a little better, that we're not here for our pleasure, they're here for we're here for his pleasure.
Try to remember that and I think it'll be a real help to you in your life. Dear young people, when trials come, it's God working His purpose in you, and God has purpose in Christ Jesus. Eternal blessing for everyone.
Those who are His redeemed.
I'd like to turn back to the story of Joseph because I think.
We can see there that Joseph went through Indiana, his life, a lot of dark tunnels.
God had His purpose for Joseph.
And I think he gave Joseph.
A little preview of his purpose.
But then Joseph went into some long dark tunnels in his life. Let's go back to the 37th of Genesis, where we get this start, really of Joseph's.
History.
Whom Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger in the land of Canaan.
These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being 17 years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren.
And the lad was with the sons of Bill Hun, with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives.
And Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.
Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old age and he made him a coat.
Of many colors. And when his brethren saw that their Father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him.
And could not speak peaceably unto him. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren.
And I hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Here, I pray you this dream which I had dreamed for behold.
We were binding sheaves in the field, and my sheep arose and also stood upright. And behold, your sheaves stood round about.
And made obeisance to my sheath, and his brethren said to him.
Shalt thou indeed reign over us, or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us?
And they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream, and told that his brethren, and said, Behold, I have.
Dreamed a dream more and behold the sun and the moon. The 11 stars made obeisance to me.
And he told it to his father and his brethren, and his father rebuked him.
And said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee?
To the earth, and his brethren envied him, but his father.
Observe the same. This seems to be as far as the.
Story of Joseph concerned the only inkling he had before of what God's purpose was for him in his life.
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And you might say it was not very much to go on. And I agree, He didn't have the scriptures like we have in the in our hands today. What a blessing to have this book in our hands. There's no book like it. The more I read it, the more I realize how little I comprehend of God's eternal purpose. But all the blessing there is in reading it and reading it daily. Dear young people, do you make a practice of reading the Scriptures?
I want to encourage with all my heart. There's blessing in it. You notice when a person.
Gets down to seriously reading the scriptures. It makes a change in their life. That person themselves may not notice it, but others around will notice it. It is evident when a person really reads the scriptures. Seriously, it's living and abiding word of God. It can't help but make a change in your life.
Read it. Read it consecutively. Sometimes I see young people who jump around one day. One part, another day, another part.
There's nothing wrong with reading it in any way you want to read it, but I want to encourage you to read it consecutively.
That's why when you open a letter from someone, you start at the beginning and you read it right through to the end.
You might go back and reread some of the parts of the letter, but if you're going to understand that letter properly, you have to have an understanding of the way it starts and finishes as well, and so it's important to read consecutively through the scriptures.
Well, in Joseph's case this was seems to be and it seems to be the only.
Inkling he had beforehand of what God's purpose was for him.
And I don't thinking about it, I don't know how much encouragement Joseph had.
To live a godly life in his father's house. His brothers certainly weren't much of A help.
They were, some of them, downright wicked men.
You have the story of Judah, the next chapter.
Awful what that man did.
And.
So you remember his mother?
Rachel was one when they left her father's house, she stole her father's gods and then when her father came looking for his idols, she lied about it.
Don't know how much of A help she could have been to just. I don't know where Joseph learned his fear of God. I suppose it was his father.
Because even though his father was.
But you might say a scoundrel in many ways, the way he treated people and the way he deceived people.
Still, Jacob had a value of the things of God. He valued them. Somehow that must have gotten through to Joseph, but here he is, 17 years old. That's a young man.
And you don't think of a young 17 year old man completely?
Formed yet? He's getting close to maturity. But there is Joseph, and he goes. He's sent by his father out to find his brethren.
And when they see him far off, he only comes to find out.
To bring a report to his father of how they're doing. And when they see him, they grab him, they take off that coat of many colors. They throw him into the pit. I can imagine they didn't let him down very gently. They probably just shoved him into that hole in the ground, let him fall down in there.
Later on when they're talking before Joseph as the leader.
When Joseph was the leader of Egypt.
They speak about his tears and his pleadings.
He must have felt it terribly when his brothers treated him that way. There he was down in that hole until they pulled him up. Finally, with another purpose in mind to get some money, they decided to sell him as a slave.
That rejection must have hurt him terribly. A 17 year old boy.
What in the world? Why does this happen to me? This isn't fair. I hear people saying, yeah, it wasn't fair, was it? Life isn't really very fair.
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But remember, you and I are here not for our own pleasure, but for God's pleasure and for His purpose. Remember that. Extremely important when things don't go like you think they ought to go. We're living in a humanistic culture.
And people centered on man, it's called in One Corinthians chapter 4.
Man's day, It's recognized in the Word of God that that's what it is we're living in, and so people judge everything according to how it affects.
Us. But for a Christian, we need to have our thinking changed radically. It's not how it affects us, it's how it affects God and His glory, His pleasure, His purpose are the things that are to be considered.
And so Joseph has taken down into the land of Egypt and sold there as a slave.
Anybody around that might know him? I don't suppose so.
He was from a relatively small family, the Hebrews.
And I don't suppose there was anybody down there that knew Joseph. He's taken into the House of the officer of Pharaoh's guards, the captain of the guard. But notice what it says in chapter 39, verse 2. The Lord was with Joseph and he was a prosperous man. Isn't that beautiful? There's the secret. The Lord will never abandoned you.
If you're going through a dark tunnel, the Lord will be right beside you.
And I like to think in life it seems so unfair. God puts us into situations.
That are extremely different. That are extremely painful at times.
Always the Lord will be with you there.
God could have delivered Daniel's three friends from that fiery furnace.
But he chose not to deliver them from them. He chose to let them be thrown into it.
And there, that fiery furnace, they had the company of the Son of God.
Oh, what a beautiful thing to think about. Don't fear trial, the names, I say. Trials are a platform upon which God displays how sufficient He is for us in our need. We like things to go fairly smoothly and normally without too much trouble. That's the way we like it.
That's natural like that. But that's not God's purpose oftimes in prepariness for what's future. He's not preparing us for anything down here in this world. He's preparing us for coming glory with Christ. And no wonder He has to put us into the cauldron of affliction sometimes.
And if he does it?
Is right in doing it for as purposeless as it may seem to us.
As painful as it may seem to us.
Remember, God has purpose. We're here.
For His pleasure, not for our pleasure.
Well, the Lord prospered. Joseph, notice how often the Lord appears in these verses. In chapter 39, verse three, his master saw that the Lord was with him, and the Lord made all that he did and to prosper in his hand. Joseph found grace in his sight and he served him and he made him oversee over his house and all that he had he put into his hand.
Came to pass that from the time that he had made him overseer in his house and over all that he had that the Lord blessed the Egyptians house for Joseph sakes and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in his house and his field. You know it must have been that when Joseph was sent down there into Egypt, he must have learned to trust in the Lord. Sometimes it takes that for us to learn to trust in the Lord.
We don't like trials, we don't like hard spots, but God puts us in those places so that we learn to trust in the Lord.
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So important in our days, dear young people, not to.
Let that trust in the Lord be undermined.
In your life and mine. Trust in the Lord at all times, it tells us.
Oh, how important that is. Satan undermined that trust.
In the Lord, in Eve's heart, and made her.
Fall into sin and if there is a doubt in your mind.
As to the goodness that God has in his heart towards you, that Satan working, trying to undermine and to get you down to make you fall.
Joseph prospered because the Lord was with him, but there was still some dark tunnels to go through.
And there, in the House of his master, his master's own wife tempts him.
And he might have reason. Nobody is around. Nobody will ever know.
But Joseph had learned to fear the Lord.
Dear young person. Dear older person too, because it's not always the young that fall into sin.
Yet sometimes the older ones do. We know what it means to fear the Lord.
You know you wouldn't do one of these sexual sins that is spoken of here that.
Potiphar's wife was tempting him to do. You know you wouldn't do that in front of a big crowd of people. Why wouldn't you?
You know you wouldn't do that.
Do you know that the eye of God is on the ways of man? And he sees all his goings. He ponders them. Do you live before the eye of man, or do you live before the eye of God? Joseph had learned to live before the eye of God, and she tempted him again and again and again. He was a slave. He didn't have liberty to go and change his job.
Would have been good if he could have, but he didn't have that liberty.
He was put into another cauldron of testing. I often think dear young people of Joseph would have succumbed to that temptation just once. I don't think you would have ever come to the throne of Egypt. But because he was completely faithful to God, we're living in a day where there's an awful lot of sexual temptation, and I want to just speak what Scripture says.
About it, dear young people.
It's something that is a problem through all generations that have ever lived on the face of the Earth. That's why this book tells about it so straight.
Paul in First Corinthians chapter 6 says flee fornication.
Leah doesn't say resist it, flee it, get out of there. If there's anything that suggestion to such an activity, get out of there. Don't let your minds even travel through those channels.
Whether it be on a TV screen or in books or anything else, put it out of your mind.
Gird up the loins of your mind, it says. In other words, control your thinking.
Don't let your thinking go in that direction.
Sexual relations between a man and his wife are improper and beautiful in their place, Scripture says clearly.
Marriage is honorable and all, and the bed undefiled, but ************ and adulterers, God will judge.
Lord help us dear young people to fear God in these things.
To live in his fear. Joseph lived in the fear of God.
The result did he get?
Rewarded for resisting temptation.
Not yet.
It was down a few more steps. He got thrown into prison. This isn't fair. This isn't right. Remember, dear young people, it's not what's fair for me that counts. It's God's pleasure and it's God's purpose that will come through in the end. Live for that and you're going to find your life a life of fulfillment.
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You see so many young people that think that their pleasure is their life and I can see emptiness written all over their faces.
Don't fall for it. That's the American Dream, so-called. Don't fall for it.
It's his pleasure, it's his purpose that we want to concentrate on.
And so Joseph goes into prison.
How long he was in prison, we're not sure. I don't think there's anything. Maybe somebody can point it out to me if there is. But he was in there for a good while. And notice in chapter 39, in verse 21.
Again we see the Lord. But the Lord was with Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the present committed to Joseph's hands all the prisoners that were in the prison, and whatever they did there, he was the doer of it. And the keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was under his hand, because the Lord was with him. And that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper. Isn't that beautiful?
Have you ever heard of a prisoner being put in charge of the prison? Here's the case when the prisoner was put in charge of the prison.
Because the Lord was with him. Oh, I think that's so beautiful. Again, I say, dear young people, the Lord sees fit to put you into a cauldron of affliction. Don't hear it. Count on His presence with you even when you can't feel him. Don't trust your feelings. Trust the Word of God that says I will never leave you nor forsake you. His Word is true. And even though you may not feel His presence with you, He's there. He's right there for you.
And so Joseph prospered there.
And in the course of time, here comes two other prisoners in Chapter 40. We won't have time to read much here now.
But it was the chief Butler and the chief Baker that were put in there, and in the course of things they dreamed.
And Joseph interprets their dreams.
And according as he had interpreted their dreams, it came to pass.
The chief Butler was restored to his position. The chief Baker was hung.
And.
Joseph gives a request to the chief Butler.
Oh, maybe this is a way that God has given me to get out of this affliction. But remember, God has his timetable.
And his timetable is what has to govern in our lives, not our thoughts. Again, dear young people, it's God's thoughts that count. How important that is. And so.
Joseph requests this chief Butler that he would be remembered to get him out of there, but the end of chapter 40 says yet did not the chief Butler remember Joseph but forgot him?
How long was that? Verse one of chapter 41 Says after two whole years. So it was two years from the time he interpreted their dreams until finally God brought a series of circumstances from the palace of Pharaoh that the chief Butler remembered his dreams and remembered that person in prison.
It says in the book of the Psalms Joseph's soul came into iron.
Circumstances are hard. Downright hard. You don't find much give in iron one way or the other.
And his soul came into iron.
And that's the way sometimes circumstances seem to be in life. Remember, it is all part of God's.
Purpose.
Informing us for something future.
It is what he is doing in your life, not what you are doing.
Try to keep that in focus as you pass through life to your young people.
We who are older need to try to keep it in focus too. But because I have to confess that oftentimes I forget about it, I get so distracted with life around that I forget about it. I'm not here for my own purpose. Do I have my purposes? Yeah, I still, I have quite a few purposes of my own, but that's not what I'm here for. I'm here for God's purpose. And God is not going to give up. He's going to order circumstances in my life to bring His purposes to fruition, not mine.
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And so finally, finally and.
He's 30 years old when he's brought out of the Egyptian prison.
And in one day, if this thing is of God, one day.
From the prison to the second place in the government of the country.
You ever heard of such a thing? I don't think I've ever heard of anything even in secular history. But this is what God was doing. He had his purposes in mind. So when he left his father's house, he was 17. When he was brought out finally into a position of power and glory, he was 3013 years of dark tunnels. He might have said, whatever happened to those dreams? Everything is going wrong in my life.
Dear young people, if you're bound in those kinds of situations at time, remember.
God has His purpose, and His purpose is blessing, and it's blessing that He will not repent of. He's going to bring you through for His purposes, His thoughts, His pleasure. Oh, what a tremendous thing to get a hold of in our life. How it helps to go through tough times.
All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.
Isn't that beautiful? Just before we close, I want to read the end. You remember all this?
History of Joseph in time made known to his brethren.
Actually, it was another seven years that he was.
A ruler in those years of plenty and then two years.
More, until he was made known to his brethren. So he was 39 years old when he was made known to his brethren.
So from 17 to 39 is 22 years. He didn't know anything about his family that we know of. 22 years. That's a pretty long haul, I would say. We're so used to instant communications in our day that we're not used to situations like that, but.
After Joseph had made himself known unto his brethren, and they had been brought down to Egypt, and into blessing.
And Jacob saw the fruition of God's purpose in his own life, the blessing that had come because of God's promise.
Why Jacob passes away and the brothers come.
To Joseph, worried that he's going to turn on him because Jacob was now dead. But I just like to turn to what Joseph says to his brothers. To me, it's so tremendously beautiful.
And this illustrates the verse that we had at the beginning. All things work together for good.
Verse 19 of chapter 50, Genesis.
Joseph said unto them, Fear not, for am I in the place of God?
As for you, ye thought evil.
Against me but God meant it unto good. Isn't that beautiful to bring to pass as it is this day, to save much people alive now, therefore fear ye night I will marry you.
Ye men, that evil.
God meant it for good.
Dear young people, if you're going through hard situations right now, take it from the Lord. Maybe you say somebody has it in for me. Take it from the Lord. He has a purpose in there having it in for you.
And there will be blessing ye minute for evil.
God meant it for good. All things work together for good to them that love God, to those that are called according to His purpose. Let's pray.