Let us not lose a sense of God’s presence and of His providential workings in our every day lives.

<p>Let us not lose a sense of God’s presence and of His providential workings in our every day lives.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Amazing Facts

Doug Batchelor

Divine Appointments

Father, we thank you for your blessings, another day of life. And we just pray your spirit will be present as we consider your word and how to apply these truths to our lives. We thank you and ask in Jesus' name, amen. Morning. Morning. You know, I'm always amazed that God knows everything. And I know that sounds like a kind of an obvious statement, but I love reading the stories in the Bible where God makes it clear that he not only knows our address, he knows everybody's address. And you have a number of occasions in the Bible where God sets up what we call divine appointments. Have you ever had a divine appointment? One example of that is here Moses is in the wilderness and Moses being called by God and this is Exodus four 14 and he's reluctant to go and he's really reluctant. God shows him signs and wonders and miracles. And Moses is just recoiling at the idea that he is gonna go and stand before Pharaoh. And here he ran away, he was being hunted for murder and that just a whole thing really frightened him. Finally, it says, you know, God says, look, if I tell you to do something, I'll, I'll, you should always do what I tell you. I've got your best interest in mind. It's amazing how long it takes us to learn that, that when God asks us to do something, we should do it regardless of the consequences. So the anger of the Lord was kindling againsts Moses, he says, and he said, is not Aaron the Levi, your brother? I know he can speak. Well, Moses was reluctant to speak, he hadn't spoken to Egyptian in 40 years. And look, he's coming out to meet you and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. And the Lord said to Aaron, go into the wilderness and meet Moses. So it's like God says, look, Aaron's on his way to meet you. And Moses doesn't know that, Aaron doesn't know it, but God says, look, I'm gonna work out an appointment, Aaron, I want you to go meet Moses. Moses, I want you to go meet Aaron. Here's your brother. You work together. And God is guiding them both to run they somewhere before they go and they meet. And I just think, you know, God arranges those appointments for us all the time. Sometimes he might tell you, someone's coming to meet you, but how often have you ran into somebody and you thought, oh, that was a divine appointment. God sent them to be at the right place at the right time. And then he sent me to be there at that exact moment. Sometimes God arranges divine appointments where you're not supposed to be somewhere and he helps you avoid disaster. My father missed the plane and he was really upset when he missed the plane and the plane crashed. You've heard stories like that. Well, that happened to my father and someone told me it happened to him twice in his life. He used a pilot. So you know, he flew more frequently. You can read about Elijah in one king, 17 verse seven. And it happened after a while. The brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. And there Elis is waiting on the Lord. There's no water, there's no food. And the word of the Lord eventually came to him and said, UN rise and go to Zera fifth, which belongs to Zion. And well there, see I have a commanded, a widow there to provide for you. Now, when God said that the widow knew nothing about it, do you know the story that when he finally meets her and says, go make me a piece of bread, she says, if I make you bread, my son and I'll starve. But God then spoke to her and said to do what he said. And God had a person picked out that was gonna take care of Elijah. She didn't know it until the moment came. And but Elijah knew that there would be someone there. I can't count how many times in my life that God has arranged just the right person at the right time. Think you've heard my testimony before. I was hitchhiking cross country and there are two places I was trying to go in California. One was I, I was gonna move up to the cave, but I wanted to stop and see grandma in desert hot springs. She lived right by the cave. I'm in Oklahoma and I'm hitchhiking, I'm not religious, but it was one of the first prayers I prayed and I'm sure it was, you know, a very muddled prayer. But in effect I said, you know, Lord, help me get a ride to where I'm going. I'm getting picked up by these drunks and these crazy people and, and I'm so tired. I'm so cold if you just get me a ride, I had no money. And I, I prayed and I think in that prayer, I apologize. Well as a pagan could for my sins. I don't even know if I called them sins back then. But soon as I finished praying this white van stopped. He picked me up and he drove me 1500 miles to my grandmother's house, had me meet with my grandmother and then took me to the cave and then gave me $40. And he fed me all the way to to California. It's an interesting story. He was a born again Christian, but he also wanted to go meet David Carradine who played Kung Fu. So I stopped with him in Hollywood so he could meet David Carradine. And then he took me to Palm Springs. It's very, a lot more to the story. It's not in the book, but it was clearly a, a divine appointment when he took me exactly where I needed to go. Nathaniel John 1 48, Nathaniel comes to Jesus, he says, Lord, how do you know me? Sometimes we meet the Lord and we think you mean you knew me? And Jesus said, before Philip even called you to introduce you to me, I saw you under the fig tree. Ellen White says he, he was under the fig tree praying about this message of John the Baptist that he had found the Messiah. So Nathaniel's there praying and he's under a fig tree, a probably hot day and one shade. And he's praying about, you know, is this the one Lord? And then Philip comes and says, we found him. And he said, I saw you. And he said, rabbi, you are the king of Israel. If you saw me praying, that would be evidence. And Jesus says, are you impressed by that Nathaniel? Ah, you're gonna see bigger things than this. And he would become one of the apostles. Look at the things he would see. And he said, you are the son of God, the king of Israel in Luke 22. Jesus tell the the apostles, he said, look, we're gonna, we're gonna have to borrow someone's house for our, our Passover meal. We don't own a place big enough. And he says, but I, God's worked out a place. Behold, when you enter the city, a man will meet you carrying a picture of water. Follow him and you can see them. This guy's going up and down the street and maybe he looks over his shoulder. He says, I, you guys are following me. He goes in the house, they follow him upstairs and this is maybe a servant. And then they meet the person of the house and they found it just as he had said to them. So they prepared the Passover. How many of you have heard Tim Jones's testimony that he was watching our programs and he became convicted about the Sabbath truth? And after I don't know how long he was watching, one day he says, well, I can't just know this. I've gotta do something about it. Today's the day I'm gonna go to church. I just, and he struggled with convictions. So he woke up and he was fighting so much about the conviction. It never occurred to him. He didn't know where to go. So he gets his suit on, he walks out his front door, he lives somewhere near Antelope and he's standing there and said, okay Lord, now where do I go? And right at that moment another family walked out to their car and they looked like they were dressed nicely and they got in their car and the Holy Spirit said, follow them. Never met them before. So he hopped in his car and he starts to follow this family and he figured they were, maybe God was gonna lead them to a church. And so they were, he thought they'd go up and down a couple streets and go to a local church. He said, but he followed them and followed 'em. They went out in the freeway and they're going down 80. He thought, this is crazy. They might be going to San Francisco. What's wrong with me? I'm losing my mind. But he kept thinking, follow them. So he kept following them. Now that that really takes the leading of the Lord when you get out on the interstate and you're still following, you don't know if you have enough gas and you know how long it's gonna be. They finally turned off in Natoma somewhere and he followed him and they pulled into a school and he thought, oh, why'd I do this? They're going to a school event. Well so happens. It was an Adventist group, actually one planted by central that was meeting up in Natoma. And so he followed them in and saw it was a Sabbath keeping group. And he met there for a few weeks and then he came over to Central. But I always thought that takes a lot of faith to just follow somebody. The Holy Spirit was certainly leading him. I think Jesus said, follow that guy with a picture of water. And you go to Psalm 1 39. Now whenever I preach about Jonah, it says, where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I send into heaven, you're there. If I make my bed, bed in hell behold you're there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even you're there, your hand will lead me and your right hand will hold me. And even back then they knew there were birds that could fly for a thousand miles. And it was just saying, no matter where you are, you can't run from God. Jonah didn't read this verse. Evidently Mark 11. Now when they drew near Jerusalem to Beth in Bethany at the Mount of Wallows, he sent two of his disciples and he said to them, Jesus often sent 'em out two by two. Go into the village opposite you means you know right there in front of you. And as soon as you, you entered the city, you'll find a cult tied on which no one has sat. Don't ask permission, just loose it and bring it. Now how does a Christian do that? Is that like God led ceiling? Just take it. I mean, when God tells you there'll be a cult there, loose it and bring it. And if anyone says to you, why are you doing this? Say the Lord has need of it. Have you ever tried that before? Just find an open car door. Step in the keys are there. Someone says, where are you going? Says the Lord has need of it. And so they went their way. They found the cold tide by the door outside the street and they loose it. And someone who stood there said to them, what are you doing Lucy, Nicole? And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded. So they let them go. Ought to try that sometime Karen and I got pulled over for speeding. I should just say I got pulled over cuz I was driving a couple of weeks ago and the policeman actually pulled over two of us and coming back from Kolo and, and so I played the mercy card. You know, I didn't want judgment, I didn't want justice, I wanted mercy. So I told the policeman, I said, can you have mercy? I said, I haven't had a ticket in a long time. He didn't answer. He walked away and started writing things down. I thought, oh well, traffic school, here I come. And a little while back later he had Karen open the window. He shoved in a card and it said, warning, he said, slow down. I said, praise the Lord. And so they let him go. And that became the cult. That Jesus, it was borrowed. And you know, most of what Jesus did, it was borrowed. He stayed in borrowed homes. He ate in a borrowed upward room. And he wrote a borrowed donkey, Luke nine, five. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked down and he said, Zakia make hasten come down before I have an appointment to eat at your house. Today I'm paraphrasing. He says, not only do I know your name, I know where you live and I know what you're having for dinner and I'm supposed to eat it. God has these appointments. Acts nine now there was a, a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias. And the Lord said to him, Ananias, he said, here I am Lord. He said, arise and go to the street called straight and inquire in the house of Judas for one name, Saul of Tarus. For behold, he's praying, not only do I know the street, I know who lives in that house. I, I know what they're doing in the house. Does God see us in the house when we're praying? That's kind of touching. Does he see in your house if you're not praying? Says, I see he's praying. I'm about to answer his prayer and I'm gonna use you to do it. Now in all these stories, it's interesting that God has angels that can do it, but he uses people. Acts 10 verse five, now send men to Joppa and send for Simon, whose surname is Peter. He's lodging with Simon a tanner in a house by the sea. I'm gonna, they didn't have GPS back then. They didn't have 33 0 5 Joppa Street. And so he says, you know, there's a house, he's a Tanner's house. They usually have smoke coming up from it. They're tanning leather and it's by the sea. And town was small enough you could find it. And he's got someone named Peter in his house. I mean, God has the, he's got the GPS on everybody, doesn't he? And so they sent and they found Peter and Peter came back to their house and there was a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit. God could have used angels, but he sent people. And then I always like this one here in Daniel nine, this will be the last verse I'll give you Daniel. While I was speaking in prayer, the man, Gabriel, who I had seen in the vision of the beginning earlier in the book being caused to fly swiftly reached me about the time of the evening offering. And he informed me and he talked with me and he said, oh Daniel, I've now come forth to give you skill and understanding. At the beginning of your supplication, the command went out. And I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved. Therefore consider the matter and understand, Daniel started praying and God sent angels to answer. Does he only do that for Daniel or does God send angels for his people that pray so often we may not know that they've been sent. I'll tell you one more story that I never forgot. I was in New York City during the years when I was a runaway. I think I must have been 15 years old at this time, maybe 16, but I think I was 15 by myself. You know, it's, I look back and think about with my kid was 15 years old roaming the streets of New York. That would terrify me. And it was not as safe back then as it is now. And I, I had, I, my mother lived in London now, I had no family in New York City. I had one friend named David McClean and he had run away with me once before. If you read my book, that was the kid that ran away a way. And I thought, well, I'll call David. I'm young and stupid. I thought I'll call David and realize I don't have his number. Well, I'll go to a phone booth. And back then they had phone booths and they had these gigantic phone books in the phone booth. And I was young and stupid. It didn't occur to me in New York City and how many Irish people there are. Now he, he was actually from India, but he had the name McLean. And I opened up the phone book and there were pages and pages of McLean's and I was looking for his parents' name and I didn't even know their name. And I called a couple of 'em and he had to pay for a phone booth back then. And I was getting nowhere. And I got so discouraged and I was tired. I hadn't slept well all night. And I just, I just prayed and said, you know, well Lord, what am I gonna do? I, I have nowhere to stay tonight. And I just slumped down in the phone booth and I was staring, you know, they glass phone booth, I'm in the phone booth. I slumped, slunk down and leaned against the door. And David walked by. This is New York City, I didn't even know what part of town he lived in. And I started banging on it and he jumped. He thought there's some crazy person in the phone booth. He jumped. I said, David, David. And he looked at me for a minute and he said, duh, what are you doing here? And so he ended up helping me get a place to stay. The interesting part of the story is that was the last time I saw him for 40 years. And he used to be like my best friend. And then we got a call at the front desk. I don't remember who took the call, whether it was Becky or Militia or somebody. And they said, there's some guy named David and says he's your old friend wants to talk to you. And you know, we get a lot of strange calls. So then you don't ever know. So I talked to me, it was, he turned into a colonel in the army and he's now a retired colonel. My friends on Facebook. But to me that was, and I'm able to share my faith with him. I play racquetball with him. So it's interesting, the divine arrangements. What are the chances that you'd be in New York City and you pray as much as a pagan can pray and the very person you're looking for in the phone book walks by, I mean God, he sees us all the time Anyway. So I'm just always encouraged by these stories, thought you might be too. We have some prayer requests came in. All right, why don't we kneel? Father in heaven, thank you so much for your blessings for this new day of life. We thank you Lord for the way that we see that you've blessed the ministry and that hearts are being changed and touched. But we pray for the many requests that have come in, some who are asking for deliverance in their thinking, others that are struggling maybe with alcohol or drugs, people face with severe financial challenges. And also pray, Lord that you guide regarding plans for the ministry, for the future. Please be with a building project on the hill. Remove the obstacles, bless the ongoing construction through the coming rain so that it doesn't create a serious delay. And keep everyone safe working up there. Please give us your Holy Spirit. Help us find courage in knowing that your eyes see everything. You watch us all the time and you are always arranging divine appointments to strengthen our faith and opportunities to minister. So we look forward to sensing your angels with us through this day in your, your spirit, and our hearts. Before we pray, in Jesus name, amen. This media was brought to you by Audio verse, a website dedicated to spreading God's word through free sermon, audio, and much more. If you would like to know more about Audio verse or if you would like to listen to more sermons, please visit www.audio verse.org.

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Divine Appointments

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