God has a Plan

By Pastor Rey Diaz

God has a plan.  Let’s look at this story of Joseph from God’s perspective.

God: There is a famine coming that could wipe out my chosen people.  I promised Abraham that I would bless him so that he could be a blessing to the world.  And when I make a promise, I never break a promise.  So I have to save his descendants from the famine.

Angel: How are you going to do that?  Egypt has a Pharaoh that doesn’t serve you and they are the only country big and powerful enough to provide the food.

God: I will send 7 years of prosperity so that they will all have enough to last through the 7 years of famine.

Angel 2: But Pharaoh and his posse will probably just spend and overindulge during the 7 years of prosperity.

God: I need someone who knows how to manage prosperity, yet also knows how to manage in scarcity.

Angel: Who is that?  Jacob?  Reuben?  Judah? Potiphar?  The warden?

God: Nope.  It will be Joseph.  He has a hard life ahead of Him.  But I have a plan.  He will learn how to manage prosperity with Potiphar.  Then he will learn how to manage scarcity with the Warden.  Then once he trusts in me and is ready, I will make him governor over all of Egypt. 

Angel: But Joseph is going to be sold by his brothers to slavers who will then sell him to Potiphar…

God: I will be with him.

Angel: Then Joseph will be falsely accused of rape by Potiphar’ wife and sent to a dungeon….

God: I will be with him.

Angel: Then he will be forgotten in the dungeon for years.  It won’t seem like you are with him.

God: I will be with him through it all.  Sin, weakness, and tragedy- none of it can thwart my plans.  I’m in complete control.  I need someone to save the chosen people.  Joseph is that someone. 

Angel: I still feel bad for Joseph but at least you will be with him.  Can you punish the brothers for me?

Okay, I don’t think it happened quite like this but I hope you see that God was in complete control and he had a plan the entire time.  God was silent but he was not absent. 

I believe the same is true in your life.  Things have not gone your way.  You can’t believe the way things turned out.  You struggle to understand God’s purposes.  But I know That God has plans for you. 

Jeremiah 29:11-12

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. ¹² In those days when you pray, I will listen.¹³ If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.

What is God in Control of?

By Pastor Rey Diaz

God was in control. God is in control. God will always be in control. A snowflake doesn’t hit the ground without God knowing. God is in control of how many hairs are on your head. God is in control of all the cells of your body. Down to the molecular level, God is control of every neutron, electron and proton.

God is in control of every detail of your life. He is in control of you past, present, and future. God is in control of your immediate family. He is in control of your extended family. He is in control of you friends. God is in control of your finances.

God is in control of the stock market, and the economy, and the NASDAQ.

God is in control of the school system, and the crime rate and the unemployment rate.

God is control of your struggles, and weaknesses, and shortcomings.

God is in control of every detail of your life.

There is no arena of your life over which God does not have complete utter control. Nothing is beyond him. Everything is under his watchful gaze. And in due time he will lift you up.

You might not feel his control. It might not seem God is in control. All the evidence might suggest God is not in control. But this is a promise in scripture – God is in control. He reigns sovereign.

Can you believe this? Do you struggle to accept this? Will you vocalize this? Will you surrender control to God?

Colossians 1:15-20

"The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross."

God's Promise

By Pastor Rey Diaz

What to do when you don’t think God is there?

I have responded as if God has forgotten me, as if God is too busy for me, as if God doesn’t like me, as if God doesn’t care, as if God is not strong enough.

I could go on and on, but in my years of following Jesus, I have had so many responses to circumstances that it embarrasses me.  I so often allow my interpretation of reality to distort the promises God has made to me.

The truth is that God made a promise to me – I will be with you always (Matt 28:20).  This is a promise not contingent on me, my behavior, my record, my anything.  It is God and his infinite faithfulness that will fulfill this promise.  So the truth is that God is always with me.  In my failures.  In my victories.  In my doubts. In my beliefs. When I’m scared, anxious, and worried.  God is with me.  When things are going well and when things are going bad, God is with me.

That should change me.  That truth could change me if I would surrender to it.  How would my life be different if I responded to every circumstance the way anyone would respond if they were absolutely confident God was with them?

That’s my challenge. That’s your challenge.  How would your life be different if you responded like that?  How would your faith grow?  How would your family flourish?  This month there is a group of us who are experimenting.  In our everyday lives we are going to pause as ask, “How would someone in this circumstance respond if they were absolutely confident God was with them?” 

The story of Joseph is a very frustrating story.  But it has a lot to teach us.  This young man loses it all.  He is betrayed by his brothers, stripped of his identity, sold as a slave, and sent to a different land.  How does he respond?  Like anyone would if they were confident God was with them.  So now God is going to bless him and save him and rescue him.  Nope, instead he is falsely accused of a crime and sent to prison.  He is being punished for the very crime he refused to commit.  So where is God in all of this?  The Bible is clear that God, though unseen, was very present with Joseph.  And that is how Joseph responded.  As a slave, God is with Joseph.  In the dungeon, God is with Joseph. 

Where are you?  Can you believe this truth?  Is it hard to accept?  Where can you grow? 

 Read Genesis 37 and 39.  Share the story with your family.  Come to hear part two of this story (sorry for the cliffhanger).  It will get worse before it gets better. 

Don't Surrender

By Pastor Tim White

If God is for us who can be against us?  Is that poetry or is it something we can count on?  I bet my life on this concept from Scripture.  No matter how long, how hard, how overwhelming, how or impractical, I refuse to give up on the dreams that I believe God has given me.  In the words of Winston Churchill “I will never, never, never give up.”  I know that 99% of us do not know what this means.  But God does. 

I think about the founding of the United States of America; The Declaration of Independence took place on July 3^rd 1776.  However, after the war - after the election of the first president of the United States – they were still pounding out democracy.  They slowly were moving the government system from federalism to democracy.  Eight years into the Washington’s presidency it still wasn't settled.  

The 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln brought about more battles on many of the same issues. Oh how Abraham Lincoln was tempted to give up, but the resolve he expressed in the Gettysburg address continued until the day he died.

My point is simple.  Don't surrender to discouragements, setbacks, or to opposition.  Don't surrender to mistakes, to your insecurities, when your friends give up on you, and certainly don't surrender to evil.  Surrender only to God.  We want his way, because if he is for us who can be against us?

I pledge to live by this verse; how about you?

Your friend for the rest of my life,

Pastor Tim White 

Take the High Ground

By Pastor Tim White

August 11th, 1938 was the day that Dr. Bob had his last drink, he and Bill W. began the 12 step program.  That may seem like a long time ago but two of my mentors, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and Dr. Bruce Larson, knew Bill W. and had met him in a small group Bible study.  Both Dr. Peale and Dr. Larson have passed on to heaven although their impact remains in many lives still carrying the torch.  Both of them often spoke of Bill W. and his commitment to Jesus Christ as well as the inspiration of the 12 steps in the program coming from the Beatitudes. 

Do you know how many people have been set free of addictions and given a life of joy and sobriety since 1938?  That is a real question because I don't think anyone knows.  I know that the American Psychological Association has stated that this seems to be the most effective method for overcoming addictions in history.  You can find an AA group almost anywhere or anytime.  It has been said that today AA makes up only 20 percent of all 12 step groups.  There are Narcotics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, Crystal Meth Anonymous, Marijuana Anonymous, Sex Addiction Anonymous, Neurotics Anonymous, and many more. Recently, Dr. Rick Warren started another program Celebrate Recovery which is sweeping the country in churches where they believe that Jesus is the most powerful higher power.

It all starts with Humility - and that is the first Beatitude.  I admit my problem is unmanageable without help.  Jesus put it this way.  Blessed are the poor for theirs is the Kingdom of God.  In that radical statement in Luke the first point is made.  God is against the proud, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up.  In Luke, he seems to be saying more than that:  Maybe in this Sermon on the Plain he is talking to his disciples first.  But the Beatitudes which are in the Sermon on the Mount and in Mark are given a special emphasis in the Gospel of Luke.  They are condensed to four dynamic life points, which we are entitling “Take the High Ground.  These points will transform our lives and our church even if they are very difficult to swallow. 

‘Blessed are the poor’ means God has a special affinity for the poor.  It calls back to the rich young ruler, the definition of true religion in James and so many places that say God cares for the poor.  It takes a way a false notion that somehow the rich are the only ones that God loves and that wealth is somehow a definition that God has blessed someone.  Osama Bin Laden was multi-millionaire and was not specially blessed by God. 

Watch out! Don't let pride grab you into thinking that just because you are rich or successful that somehow you are better than the poor.  God loves the poor.  They are blessed.  This is not saying that God loves poverty.  He doesn't like it when kids have to eat garbage out of a dump.  But you would be blind not to see that the children of the dump posses a blessing that many of us need to learn from.  That is why when we send a mission trip to Honduras many times the kids come back and clean their room, do their chores and get straight A's.  Because they have a new appreciation and a dream to be a follower of Jesus Christ.  

In Luke each of the four Beatitudes is accompanied by a woe.  What happens if you don't make this choice of living?  “But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort” Luke 6:21.  Jesus was followed by rich and poor, Jews and Samaritans, slaves and Roman soldiers.  They knew that the temporary achievements of this life were not the end solution.  In fact, they loved and respected each other as the family of God.

I share this hard message with you to set our church free.  Free from the pride that can destroy an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ – thereby preventing each of us from being the leaders God has designed us to be.  Last week as I preached, I was overwhelmed by the love and response of the congregation to this little preached on passage.  Rich and poor alike left with a better understanding of the Kingdom of Heaven.  I felt like our church took a giant step towards becoming the great caring network that we were meant to be.  I was so excited to hear people testify as they left, of a new sense of God’s Kingdom at work in our midst.  

Join me next week as I talk about what it means to regain your hunger for Jesus and life.  This word will change your life.

The Unlikely Invite

By Pastor Rey Diaz

In seventh grade, I received an invitation to join one of my teachers for lunch.  His name was Mr. Manning. I had no idea what he wanted to talk to me about but I assumed it was my bad attitude, bad influence, and bad grades.  I was not the model student.  I had just been arrested the week before for fighting.  I had been suspended for 3 days and had served a number of detentions.  It was just going to be another teacher rebuking me for my bad decisions. Mr. Manning was everyone’s favorite teacher.  He also coached a flag football team for the school and led a Christian Bible club. 

I’ve never forgotten what Mr. Manny said to me that day.  He basically said he didn’t think I was a bad kid.  I can’t tell you what this did for my identity.  I saw myself as a bad kid, yet here was a teacher telling me I was good.  And he invited me to come to his Bible club.  That was the beginning of my return to God and one year later I accepted Jesus as my savior.  A simple invitation started a domino effect. 

There was no one more unlikely to receive an invitation from Jesus that Matthew, the tax collector.  He was bad and he knew it.  He had abandoned God, the synagogue and his faith.  He wasn’t an ‘accidental’ sinner.  He was an ‘on-purpose’ sinner.  Yet Jesus makes an invitation. An invitation to follow.  And it’s an invitation that would change Matthew’s life. 

Every single day, at every moment of our life, Jesus is making an invitation to us.  It’s the same one he made to Matthew.  “Follow me.” 

And this invitation was the first and last words Peter heard from Jesus.  Follow me.  It was a reminder that it doesn’t matter whether we have been following Jesus for 30 minutes or 30 years. Discipleship is not a destination or location.  The question is not “Where am I?” but “Am I following?”

It’s the question I want to answer this morning.  It’s the question I want you pray about today. 

Are you following?

Matthew 9:9 “As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.”

Ask for Water

By Rey Diaz

It was 2006.  My best friend was living in Arizona, the site for the college football national championship game, where my Florida Gators were 15 point underdogs.  Somehow, hopefully legally, my friend found us two tickets to the game.  I explained to my wife, “It’s a once a in a lifetime opportunity.”  I couldn’t believe it when they won.  It was everything I expected.  After years of waiting for this happen, my team finally won the championship!  It was glorious.  It was amazing.  And it lasted about one hour before I started thinking about next year.  Two years later it was another “once in a lifetime opportunity” as I flew to Miami to watch my team again win the title.  2 in 3 years.  But was it enough?  Am I satisfied today? H –E –double hockey sticks – NO!  I want another title. 

I thought that once my team won, I would be satisfied.  But it didn’t work that way.  In fact now I am even thirstier for championships.  And that is why, in a nutshell, this world will never satisfy.  Because we all thirst for something this world cannot offer us. 

The Bible has compares the pleasures of this world to sand, in the sense that sand will never quench your thirst.  That is the questions I asked us last weekend – how many cups of sand does it take to quench your thirst?  How many successes, how many resources, how many promotions, how many relationships, how many fill in the blanks until you are completely satisfied?  The answer is none.  Sand doesn’t ever quench our thirst.  In fact, sand actually compounds our thirst. 

Into this mess, Jesus speaks with authority.  As our creator, he knows about our unquenchable desires.  He knows about our longings.  And he offers us a gift.  He has living water for us.  And he promises that if we drink this living water, we will never thirst again.  Never.  As in, not for the rest of our lives.  Not most of the time.  Not on weekends, not when we are older, but never.  It is possible to be fully satisfied in God.  Most of us don’t believe it because we haven’t tried it.  That’s the challenge. 

Will you admit that all of your efforts, that all of that this life has to offer has left you thirst?  Jesus wants to put you in touch with your thirst.

Ask for the gift.  Ask for the living water.  Drink it.  And thirst no more. 

Where are you?  Have you realized that sand will not quench your thirst?  Have you asked for the gift?  Have you tasted of the living water?