A Date With Destiny

This show focuses on believing and relying on God even when the going gets tough.  

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You tuned into The Inquisitor. I'm your host, Dr. Evangelist Tanya Renee Lee. Today we're continuing on the Pathways to Providence series with a fifth and final installment, A Date with Destiny. And the goal of this message, coming from an outline from Dr. Tony Evans again, is to help you connect the dots of your circumstances so you can see the complete picture of God's larger kingdom purpose in your life, even when he causes or allows things to take place that are negative or evil to accomplish his will and plan. There's some nuggets that I want you to take away from here. Some sermon points from Dr. Tony Evans in this outline he provided. And there are three. The first one is if your God is too small, you will live with constant frustration and confusion. And he goes on to explain: if your God isn't big enough to handle your circumstances, whenever things go south, your mantra will always be why. If your God is too small, you need to expand your view of him, he says, so you will be able to recognize his fingerprints moving in your life's circumstances, even in non-obvious ways. Number three, point three, rather, he says, we need to be able to see God at work, because as we have learned in this study, sometimes God's providence allows for evil. God does not come commit or endorse evil, but he can use it to accomplish his greater purposes. Our responsibility is to be aligned with God so that we are being moved as he moves us, picking up the signals he gives us. And the second nugget is God is always moving to bring his conclusion about at the right time. And he points to Esther in the Bible. Esther chapter 9 verses 1 through 6, which you can look at later, and Esther chapter 9 verses 11 through 19. And points that are made regarding the scripture is God is situating the evil in the right place so that while he is delivering you, he is handling the evil. God always has a bigger plan than you are aware of. You just haven't gotten to the day yet to see it worked out. God is so precise in his movements that as we are living under his rule, he will sometimes make things seem worse in order to make them better. And Lord knows I know that. And that's very important to live according to God's purpose and not the world's purpose. Every time God comes through for us, you and I must ask the question of God, what spiritual influence do you want me to wield with the opportunity you have given me? God's will calls for your involvement. This is spiritual warfare, which means you must be involved. And we can see this in Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 18, 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 3 through 4, and Exodus chapter 17, verses 8 through 16. I'm gonna leave that for you to read on your own. Waiting on God does not mean doing nothing, it means not going outside of God to do something on your own. And sometimes, friends, we know that when we try to solve it or get at it and fix it, it just gets worse sometimes. We just need to let go and let God, as the old adage goes. The third nugget is don't get rid of part of the sin you're dealing with, get rid of all of it so the cancer of sin won't come back on you later. And this can be found in Esther chapter 9, verses 7 through 10. And the nuggets under the nugget number 3 are some points that he has highlighted, and he speaks of the fate of Haman and his sons, his vivid reminder of what God's judgment looks like when people cross the red line that are unrepentant. The reason we're having such serious moral and spiritual issues today is because sins in the past didn't get fully dealt with, so they keep coming up again and again. We've got to cut sin short in our lives. Amen. If parents don't invest spiritually in their children, they are actually perpetrating sin. We're seeing this nationally and generationally. We're seeing it over and over again because people don't want to call it evil. When we have done what God has called us to do, and we see his kingdom program achieved, we can celebrate his power and providence, as we saw in the case of Esther. And that can be found in Esther 9, verses 20, Esther chapter 9, verses 20 through 32, and Esther chapter 10 verses 1 through 3. Victory over evil is a cause for celebration. We should tell the story of God's provision to everyone and pass the stories along to future generations. The celebration of Pyram was for the Jews to remind themselves that God was a providential God. And we have some points made from Dr. Evans and quotes that I would like to leave you with that I think are very relevant to the subject that we've been discussing and exploring. Throughout this study on Esther, we've been attacking this non-existent entity called Lut. You cannot have divine providence in Lut, chance, fate, or happenstance, because the providence of God means that God is controlled by either causing or allowing all things. You cannot have a sovereign God, which God is sovereign, we know, and have him getting caught up by surprise. He's the only person in history to whom you cannot give a surprise party. And he never says oops, because his sovereignty is his rule over all. So no matter what you're going through, God is sovereign over all. Now think about it. Has God ever released you only to have the problem come back at you? Has God ever set you free only to have the thing you thought was solved come right back at you? I know I've experienced that and got frustrated. But friends, even though it may come back and you thought you would never have to deal with that problem anymore. And it looks like God did a number on his blessing, but remember, sometimes what God is after is something he will make things worse before he makes them better for his ultimate purposes. And finally, I want to leave you with this thought. Every now and then God will let things go downhill. He will allow evil to seem like he's achieving something that when he gets you to that day and delivers you, he knows he's going to get some mighty big praise out of you. He knows he's going to get some glory out of you. He's not going to get that trife stuff we just throw at him because we're supposed to. He's going to get some heartfelt celebration because of what he has done, how he did it, and how we defeated our enemies. Praise God. I know I've gone through that. Excuse me, I'm suffering with my allergies. I want you to keep me in prayer for that. Amen. And I just want to say that when he brought me through, and I had my exodus, I was just wanting to tell my testimony everywhere, and I still do about God's deliverance, and he's still delivering me every day. Amen. And he's delivering you too, not just me. Because it's not all about me, it's about all of us living according to God's purpose, doing his will on earth. Amen. And now I want to leave you with a word from our sponsor. Howard Harris funeral services is the best. If you're looking to lay a loved one to rest, they have two locations, one in Lawton, Oklahoma, and one in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The one in Lawton, Oklahoma, the telephone number, and Lawton is my home, is 580-353-8838. That's 580-353-8838. And the number in Oklahoma City is 405-682-1883. The number in Oklahoma City is 405-682-1883. I hope this message has been a blessing to you today. I hope something touched you and something will move you to action in your own life. I pray the best for you, and I pray that you will come back often and listen to the Inquisitor. We appreciate you listening because we know you have your choice of programming. And we thank you for listening and tuning in to us. And now may God's peace be with you. Always.