CLW - Feb. 9, 2017 - Joel Gregory "Divine Prearrangements"

4:24 Well, even yet once again, it's a delight to share these days with all of you at Carson Newman, President O'Brien, thank you, and all of your staff, faculty, students, community, for your kind and warm welcome here. These have been delightful days. I'm reminded anytime you're in a series of messages you run the risk that I've run a number of times sometimes with unusual responses a while back after being at a church several days someone came out the back door you know like they do after you preach and said Dr. Gregory we all feel the same way and I said how's that said every message you brought was better than the next one Thank you. Think about that. Okay. This morning, unexpected divine pre-arrangements. I call it a hazelnut moment. It's Christmas time. My wife Joanne was at the H-E-B supermarket.

5:34 She was shopping for a recipe. She needed some hazelnuts. I was doing what I usually do, push the basket. She was putting things in it. I have to confess when it comes to different species of nuts. I get lost after peanuts, pecans, walnuts, some of the rest of them. I'm not sure what they are. Hazelnuts fall into that category. She had a large bag of bulk hazelnuts. We got back to our home. I said, would you put some of those in a little glass bowl? I sat down in my reading chair, an old bad fake leather red chair. Had a new book by Richard Foster, Quaker. He's a devotional writer. Foster collected devotions to read for an entire week from 52 classic devotional writers. I'm eating my hazelnuts. I say, let me look in this thing. It fell open, just fell open, to the writings of a woman named Julian of Norwich, the first woman to have written devotional material in the English language. Norwich is close to Canterbury. I'm eating my hazelnuts. I read Julian's first paragraph. She said she looked in her hand and saw something small about the size of a hazelnut.

6:57 have you ever swallowed a whole hazelnut? She went on to say, God made it, God cares for it, and God can use it. Now, you may think it's just an accident that an English woman nearly 600 years ago wrote that, and I happen to be eating my first recognizable hazelnuts, but I don't think so. We're looking at some passages this week under a rubric of Carl Jung's word synchronicity, made up of two words, sun and chronos, things that happen with time randomly but come together meaningfully. He wrote a book about it in 1952. All kinds of anecdotes.

7:52 My favorite was the story of a Frenchman, Emile Duchamp. In 1805, he ordered plum pudding in a restaurant, and the waitstaff brought it to him at the suggestion of another man, Monsieur Fagibou. Ten years later, he was in another restaurant, ordered it, different restaurant, different waitstaff. They said, we don't have any more. That gentleman over there ordered the last bowl, and it was Monsieur Fongibou. In 1832, Emile Deschamps was at a dinner. They were serving plum pokey. He told the story of the odd coincidence of 1805, And 10 years later, they were eating their plum pudding in 1832 when a senile man burst through the door. And it was Monsieur Fonkibu.

8:51 That kind of thing. Well, in Mark 14, I wonder if two disciples felt that way. This is a passage we normally use Holy Week. It's Thursday. disciples come to Jesus. In Mark 14, 12, on the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, where do you want us to go and prepare that you may eat the Passover? And he sent out two of his disciples and said to them, go into the city and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water.

9:37 Follow him. Wherever he goes, say to the master of the house, the teacher says, where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples? Then he will show you a large upper room, furnished and prepared. there make ready for us. So his disciples went out, came into this city, and found it just as he said to them. And they prepared the Passover. Unexpected divine prearrangements. It was Thursday of Holy Week. Starting Sunday that week, Jesus had spent every night in the Mary Martha Lazarus' home in the suburban city of Bethany on the other side of the Mount of Olives. After he pronounced judgment on the city, he didn't spend another night there.

10:35 After the triumphal entry, he went back around the mountain. Monday, after he cleansed the temple, back around the mountain. Tuesday, after a day of controversial teaching, he went around the mountain, spent a quiet day Wednesday. Then two anonymous disciples in Mark, they're anonymous, said, remember, it's Passover. It's always interesting when you think you have to remind the Lord what time it is. Here was the Lamb of God. And they're telling him, where are we going to go eat the lamb? As usual, he was ahead of them. Now they had to ask him that because Passover was best celebrated in Jerusalem. It's a fixed date, not like our Christian Easter. It's 14th day of Nisan. And there was a price on his head and everybody knew it. They needed a secure place on that day in Jerusalem.

11:32 So he gives them what must have sounded extraordinarily strange. Go around the mountain to one of the gates. Now Jerusalem had a lot of gates, water gate, fish gate, dung gate, many gates, temple gate. Set at a gate, you'll see a man with a jar of water on his head. Now ladies, I don't know any way to put this other than that was the job of women. It would have been extraordinary to see a man with a jar of water on his head. I don't know how many women had to go to the chiropractor because of that but here was a man at a gate at just the right time there's no evidence that he knew them or they knew him it's like one of those old movies where they used to say follow that cab follow the man and he made his way through that labyrinthine's narrow rabbit warren of streets until he came to the house of another man.

12:29 There's no evidence anybody knew anybody. Maybe he was delivering water. And Jesus said, when you get there, you follow him up the stairs. And he himself is very emphatic. Follow that man himself, this man you don't know, with a jar of water on his head. And when you knock on the door, tell that other man you don't know, the master says he's ready for my room. It's very sovereign, kingly Jesus. My room. And you'll find everything. Having been prepared. Now, Josephus or somebody says there were 250,000 lambs sacrificed at Passover. Maybe a million people in town. Josephus might have been a little exaggerating. But there's a lot of folks there. They would have found perhaps one of those lambs having been sacrificed. Roasting.

13:25 room cleaned of leaven, all the accoutrements of Passover, wine, bitter herbs, fruit, compote, unleavened bread, having been prepared. And all three of the synoptics say it was just like Jesus said it would be. You imagine that going to that man's house. It'd be as if I said to you, why don't you stand out here on the corner in the campus, going to be a red pickup come by, follow it, it's going to stop over in town. Where it stops, go knock on the door and say, I'm here for the barbecue. That's how it must have felt for them. I want to raise a question about this. It's the question of this week.

14:11 Do these kind of things just belong to the Bible? Do we get together and hold a memorial service here? Isn't it wonderful what Jesus used to do way back there? Or is he still the Lord of unexpected divine pre-arrangements? I've stopped by here from Joseph and from a runaway donkey and from trying to find a room to say, I think he still does it. some of what we're thinking about is cumulative sometimes it is incognito unknown people who cross our lives and lead us to our destiny we saw that in that unnamed servant the other donkey chaser saying we hear there's a man of God near here we saw it in the life of joseph here it is again these two unnamed disciples following this unnamed man they nobody knew that they were going to the most famous room in history Now wait just a minute. That's a big claim. Here's music.

15:33 Are we supposed to sing? Nobody knew they were going to the most famous room in history. Now you say that's a big statement, but what room is more famous than the upper room? Is the Oval Office more famous? No. That room's been known a couple of hundred years. Taj Mahal is not all that old houses of parliament I'd say the most famous room in history is that upper room no room compares with it and they were also on their way to the most famous meal in history now I don't know the names of many famous meals there was a Damocles banquet where a sword hung over people's head there have been some big state dinners remember when Queen Elizabeth II came to West Palm Beach, huge meal. But those all fade into oblivion compared to the most famous meal in history. I don't care where you are, Africa, Europe, Pacific Rim, Caribbean, anywhere. A billion people know about this meal. But here's a strange thing. They didn't even know it. Come close to me just a second about how God leads. Some people think God leads when a hand comes out of heaven and a voice says, now hear this, this is a big moment. No, I can't think of a single time in my life when a hand came out of heaven and pointed and says, this is it Gregory. More often than not it's like following somebody with a jar of water on his head and suddenly you're in midst of a big moment. Can I take a leaf out of my own life?

17:32 A couple of years I was pastor at the First Baptist Church of Dallas. That's back in the days when you go out and knock on people's door that came to visit church. First Monday night, I was there. I said, give me a card with some names on it. I want to go see if somebody might come to Jesus. They said, well, here's somebody to go see. He's a man, owns an insurance company, lives out in Turtle Creek. I said, let's go see him. Didn't know the man, didn't know he'd been there, knocked on the door, tall, impressive gentleman came, invited me into a beautiful home, introduced me to his wife. It'd been the second marriage for both of them. He'd grown up Roman Catholic. She'd grown up the daughter of an Assembly of God church starter. She wasn't going to be a Catholic and he wasn't going to be an Assembly of God. So they landed down at First Baptist. And that's where they were. I talked to Carl Singer that night, witnessed to him.

18:32 The next Sunday, he got out of his seat, came down the aisle, professed faith in Christ. I had no idea what had begun right then. A couple of years later, I suddenly left there, didn't have anywhere to live. He said, wouldn't you live in our condominium? It was the place where I'd led him to Christ. My son was a student at SMU, suddenly didn't have any way to send him. He said, let me take care of that. After I was publishing and preaching, we bought a magazine together. We worked together. He became the chair of my ministry board. He still is. But here's the point of the story. All the while that was going on, he had another friend. He was mentoring that friend, El Salvadoran, Jimmy Mellotto, who built the Willow Creek Association and the Summit Conference. I didn't even know it. Then a year and a half ago, Jimmy's CEO of Compassion International, that child sponsorship ministry that has two million children in 26 countries, 4,500 staff members all over the world. The man I didn't know knew my friend said, I need somebody to help me enlarge our ministry in the African American church and maybe on some campuses.

19:54 And Carl said, I know somebody. So I invited 26 African American pastors to Colorado Springs, and then we all went to Quito, Ecuador, and to Honduras. And now this next Sunday, one of those pastors in a mega church will sponsor more than a thousand children who live on less than two hours a day. Rewind that back to 1991.

20:25 I knocked on a door of a man who walked down an aisle. Somebody said any fool can count how many apples, how many seeds in an apple, but only God knows how many apples. in a seed strange how encounters unfold over the years and sometimes you can be leading someone or following someone to their destiny not even know it i find most interesting in the gospels these unnamed people it's kind of curious because these unnamed people are really more famous in history than famous people whose names we know I'm about to make a bold statement this man with a jar of water on his head is more famous than Lady Gaga before she ever was and after she's long been forgotten millions of people will be reading about this man with a jar of water on his head isn't it interesting he got famous for the ages and didn't know it. He probably didn't even know what he was a bit player in. And yet he was part of God's purpose, leading one man to another way. You know, it reminds me of some experiences I've had. Another night, I don't know, these kind of things seem to happen to me when I went out to talk to people about Jesus. It was an icy night in Fort Worth. I was pastor of a church across Street and seminary. It was a terrible night. Sheet ice everywhere. We usually had a hundred people show up to go out and tell people about Jesus. That night it was so bad. I was the only one who showed up, the pastor. I slid up into the, I went in, nobody was there. There was a table with cards with people's names on it. And I said to myself, this is so bad tonight, I'm just going to go home. Have you ever had God talk to you in an audible voice?

22:29 it was as if the lord said gregory you way-faced lily-livered spineless pusillanimous hypocrite or something like that said if somebody had been here you would have gone out all right so i picked up a card at random and i said oh lord not that one i put it down it was a firefighter he and his girlfriend had been to counsel with me he'd expressed his love for her by throwing her over an apartment balcony into some shrubbery i'm not very good at indirect counseling with that sort of thing i told him what i thought about that he didn't like me and i didn't like him i tried to like him just enough to get to heaven and it didn't work and that was the name i put it down and the lord said go gregory so I drove down West Seminary Drive to a little frame house slid up his sidewalk on the ice knocked on the door he opened the door I remember it was an old wooden frame screen and it was slit wide open that's never a good sign and he said strange to see you here I thought he doesn't know how strange it is I'm here and he said pastor I've been reading in the book of the Ezekiel, and he was holding a little green Gideon New Testament.

23:59 And through that screen, he said to me, over here in the Ezekiel, he couldn't even say Ephesians. He was so clueless. He said, I've been reading where it says by grace, are you saved through faith? I don't understand what that means. said would you like to come in I said yes I remember I sat down on an old green brocade divan the spring was coming through it I sat down on the spring I remember that and in 10 minutes he gave his life to Christ I ran into him 20 years later he said do you remember that night yes i didn't want to go i didn't want to pick up that card and there he was reading a new testament through a door screen well when these disciples followed the man with a jar of the water to the man who had the room the synoptic gospels all three are very precise in saying they found it exactly like Jesus said it would be. Not kind of, sort of, exactly everything having been prepared.

25:30 Wonder how astonished they were at that. Do you know later that night, after they left that upper room and were walking toward Gethsemane not in Mark 14 but in John 14 Jesus talked about another prepared room you heard it behold I go to what prepare a place for you that where I am there you may be also. And I wonder if Peter didn't look at John or Andrew didn't look at Thomas. So you know if it's just like he said in the lower upper room maybe we can trust him about the upper upper room because we found it just Just like he said.

26:36 those of us who follow Christ have bet our life, our one life, as the old commercial said, you only go around once. We bet our life on that statement in John 14 that he goes to prepare a place for us. And sometimes those divine prearrangements here below lead us to expect those above. It happens again and again in scripture. Here's Abraham with his knife in the air. and by his horns, a ram is caught in a bramble bush. Isaac needs a bride. They send a family servant over to the old home place. You talk about looking for an unusual synchronicity. He said, the lady who comes out here and waters all my camels, that's the one. And there was Rebecca.

27:40 Moses weaned crying infanticide going on they put him in a little ark for the second time all of God's purposes are in an ark and it floats down the Nile and about that time Pharaoh's daughter says oh it's a hot day I think I'd like to go jump in the Nile and a prince of Egypt is found.

28:13 David, having to deal with that psychotic king Saul, over and over, knows just when to jump out of the way. And Caesar Augustus wakes up with an itching desire to no wonder how many people I really rule. I think I'll make them all go to their hometown. He thinks he's a big wheel.

28:44 And a little couple that everybody would have called little wheels. Had to leave Nazareth. And go to Bethlehem. So an old promise could be fulfilled. Incidentally sometimes people who think they're big wheels are really little wheels. turning God's big wheel.

29:10 Joseph Gilmore 1862 that'd be 11 years after this school was started he was a 28 year old he was preaching the first baptist church of philadelphia one of the great baptist churches yeah i see wednesday night 23rd psalm like we preachers do he got stuck on a couple he leadeth me it took over the sermon He went on about it. They went to a deacon's house after church. They kept on talking about he leadeth me. He was there. His wife was there. Deacon was there. They were having refreshment. He took a piece of paper. It was the back of his sermon and penned some words. Just wrote them down while they were talking. He leadeth me, O blessed thought, O words with heavenly comfort thought, where'er I go, where'er I be, still tis his hand that leadeth me. He gave the paper to his wife and forgot about it.

30:13 Went off for three years, was a pastor in New Hampshire. Second Baptist Church in Rochester, New York, asked him to come, preach, see if he'd be their pastor. he went to the sanctuary said I wonder what these people are singing here picked up a hymn book it fell open to a hymn he didn't know existed he read his own words written on the back of that sermon he leadeth me oh blessed thought oh words with heavenly comfort he told his wife what happened she said I mailed that in to a news magazine called The Watchman.

30:58 I guess they made a song out of it. Incidentally, he went to that church. the strangest things happen. Sometimes it's a man with a jar of water on his head. Sometimes it's a hazelnut.

31:20 Sometimes it's knocking on somebody's door that changes everything for them.