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Thank you for watching! Thank you for watching! Thank you for watching! Hymn number 100 day by day. Hymn number 100. Can I get you to stand when you've found it? Day by day, in with these passing moments, Strength I find to be my final fear. Drowsing in, I'm frightened by this moment, I'm no cause for worry or for fear. In whose hearts is my beyond all measure, Give time to each day while it is best, Loving which I will pray in pleasure, Gambling to with ease and rest. Every day the Lord himself does give me, With a special blessing for each hour, For my case he framed with their ache in me, In whose name is Jesus, Lord of all. For the protection of his tongue and treasure, He's in charge and on himself he laid, And as I face the shame shall be in measure, For it's the best in any way, He helped me then in his revelation, So to trust thy promises of war, That I lose, I'll face the consolation, Offered me, relieved by all we were. Help me, Lord, let's all enjoy our meeting, We're to take hands from our Father's hand, One by one, the days of the moment's meeting, Till I reach the Father's name. Amen. The everlasting arms, hymn number 147. On the everlasting On the everlasting From day to day Leaning on the everlasting arms Leaning, leaning on Jesus A praise to Him from all our lives Leaning, leaning on Jesus Leaning on the everlasting arms What have I to dread, what have I to fear Leaning on the everlasting arms I have blessed peace with my Lord, so be Leaning on the everlasting arms Leaning, leaning Safe and secure from all our loves Leaning, leaning Leaning on the everlasting arms I have a song that Jesus gave me It was sung from heaven above It ever was a sweet melody Just a melody of love In my heart there rings a melody There rings a melody In heaven's harmony In my heart there rings a melody There rings a melody of love A love of Christ who died on Calvary For He washed my sins away He put within my heart a melody And I know it's there to stay In my heart there rings a melody There rings a melody In heaven's harmony In my heart there rings a melody There rings a melody of love To the relentless streaming glory With the angels I will sing To hear a song with glorious harmony When the halls of heaven ring In my heart there rings a melody There rings a melody In heaven's harmony In my heart there rings a melody There rings a melody of love Philippians chapter 2 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ If any comfort of love If any fellowship of the Spirit If any bows and mercies Fulfill ye my joy That ye be like minded Having the same love being of one accord Of one mind Let nothing be done through strife Or vain glory But in lowliness of mind Let each esteem other Better than themselves Look not every man on his own things But every man also On the things of others Let this mind be in you Which is also in Christ Jesus Who being in the form of God Thought not robbery to be equal with God But made himself of no reputation And took upon the form of a servant And was made in the likeness of men And being found in fashion as a man He humbled himself And became obedient unto death Even the death of the cross Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him And given him a name Which is above every name That at the name of Jesus Every knee should bow Of things in heaven and things on earth And things under the earth And every tongue should confess That Jesus Christ is Lord To the glory of God the Father Wherefore my beloved As you have always obeyed Not as in my presence only But now much more in my absence Work out your own salvation With fear and trembling For it is God which worketh in you both To will and to do Of his good pleasure Do all things without murmurings and disputings That you may be blameless and harmless Without rebuke In the midst of a crooked and perverse nation Among whom ye shine as lights in the world Holding forth the word of life That I may rejoice In the day of Christ That I have not run in vain Neither laboured in vain Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice And service of your faith I joy and rejoice with you all For the same cause also do ye joy And rejoice with me But I trust in the Lord Jesus To send Timotheus shortly unto you That I also may be of good comfort When I know your state For I have no man like-minded Who will naturally care for your state For all seek their own Not the things which are Jesus Christ But ye know the proof of him That as a son with the Father He hath served with me in the gospel Him therefore I hope to send presently So soon I shall see how it will go with me But I trust in the Lord That I also myself Shall come shortly Yet I suppose it necessary To send you to Epaphrates My brother and companion in labour And fellow soldier But your messenger and he that ministered To my wants For he longed after you all And was full of heaviness Because that he had heard that he had been sick For indeed he was sick nigh unto death But God had mercy on him And not on him only but on me also Lest I should have sorrow I should have sorrow upon sorrow I sent him therefore the more carefully that When you see him again You may rejoice And I may be the less sorrowful Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness And hold such an reputation Because for the work of Christ He was nigh unto death No regarding his life So supply your lack of service towards me Dear God thank you for this day Thank you for your word Please bless Pastor Kevin and be with him As he preaches in the film the ghost Jesus name pray be heaven I'm going to try to bring that series across On to Wednesday nights now But one thought that I want to take out of this Before I get into the meat of the sermon Is Philippians chapter 2 verse number 6 Philippians chapter 2 verse number 6 Just something interesting that we learn about Christ When he came to this earth You know we often say things along the lines That nothing is unexpected to God You know I mean God is in control of all things But don't forget when Christ came to this earth He came to set us an example It says in Philippians chapter 2 verse 6 To be in the form of God Thought it not robbery to be equal with God But made himself of no reputation And took upon him the form of a servant And was made in the likeness of men Alright so we know that God became in the likeness of men Christ being born in Bethlehem's manger And so part of that servitude Part of that likeness of men Is the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ came And put limitations upon himself Limitations that he wouldn't have otherwise In the form of God And of course we see these things play out Jesus Christ needed to eat Born in Bethlehem's manger He still needed a mother to take care of him As a little babe He still needed to sleep There were certain limitations placed on Christ We know the story when Christ speaks of his second coming In Matthew 24 He says that these are things that the Father knows But not himself He doesn't even know at that point of his return There are certain limitations That Christ had and yet We still see his power We still see his ability to sometimes Read the thoughts of man Before they even spoke the things Christ knew things that were in the hearts That testify of his deity But there were certain limitations that he placed on himself When he came to this earth Let's keep going to verse number 8 And being found in fashion as a man He humbled himself And became obedient unto death And so of course God cannot die And yet Christ limits himself In a body that could die And so I'm just trying to bring those thoughts to you That even though we read stories of Christ In the four gospels When he came to this earth His first coming Yes he is God, he's 100% God But he's also 100% man That is a key doctrine of our church One of the fundamentals of the faith Is that he's 100% God yet 100% man When he came to this earth He had certain struggles Going fasting for 40 days and 40 nights Don't think there was some easy breeze Thing for God to do, no He still had the challenges He would have suffered with hunger, with weakness All those things that he went through When he came to this earth And so the reason I titled Well the reason we're looking at this Is because I want to look at certain stories of Christ When he walked this earth And I want to show you that there were times When even the plans of Jesus Christ Was the plan There were certain times that he was caught Unawares as it were And as I said to you the title of the sermon today Was expect the unexpected Expect the unexpected Christ came to set an example for us That we would walk after his steps Please turn to Luke chapter 9 That's all I wanted to take from Philippians 2 Just a reminder that Christ came And limited himself when he came to be a man Turn to Luke chapter 9 please Luke chapter 9 Don't forget the reason I'm going through this series Is there are a lot of things that for me Are subconscious Things that I guess growing up in church Growing up as a Christian That I don't tend to preach about all that much Because it's kind of just Second nature to me You know I operate sometimes on instinct And there are certain teachings of the Bible That I kind of I guess I overlook as far as preaching And I had to go back and dig down deep Hey what are some of these things That are subconscious things that I've learnt Many years ago that I forget to preach about Because it's so natural to me Okay and expect the unexpected Is what we're looking at here So obviously life contains Many things that are going to be unexpected You know we sort of have an idea Of what tomorrow would look like But tomorrow can change very rapidly You know we can kind of know What the next year looks like We can kind of make plans you know ahead of time And it's wise to make plans But even in the midst of plans You know things happening just like my man I wasn't expecting that to happen You know I was planning to do X, Y and Z And yet something has changed Something has happened Whatever that could look like in life Alright And you know I don't want to discourage Anyone from making plans though Alright There's a saying that goes If you fail to plan You plan to fail Okay If you fail to plan You plan to fail And you know just different conversations that I have with people You know Planning is such an important part of my life You know like I've already got planned out Exactly The trips that I'll be making down to Sydney I've already got those flights A lot of those flights booked Because there was a special discount With Jetstar I was able to get some $18 flights believe it or not Down to Sydney I don't think even the fuel of the plane costs And so you know you take advantage of these things You plan ahead Hey but you know what I mean The world could blow up in the next month Who knows Things can happen but you know It's wise to plan Alright But you don't want to plan to the point where You know you haven't considered The unexpected events might happen And this is what I want to talk to you about Because it's good to plan But sometimes people plan Such a strict idea Such a strict plan Where something unexpected happens And it breaks their plan And then they don't know what to do with their lives Because it just didn't work out the way that I wanted to And you know what We have to be You know be able to be flexible We have to adjust to different situations And I just want to show you a few stories Of where Jesus Christ has plans He has a plan to travel to a certain town Or a certain area And something unexpected happens He's unable to finish what he really wanted to do But I want to show you just the reaction of Jesus Christ And how he deals with unexpected events So let's look at Luke chapter 9 Luke chapter 9 verse 51 Luke chapter 9 and verse 51 Luke chapter 9 verse 51 It says Alright so Christ is making plans He knows his time is coming Alright He's planning his trip to Jerusalem Okay he's making these plans Look at verse 52 Now if you don't know Just let me give you some geography of Judea in these times So you've got Galilee Where Jesus Christ had his main ministry in Galilee And that's kind of north of Israel Now to get to Galilee all the way to Judea Or where Jerusalem is situated Jerusalem is situated further north But in order to travel from Galilee to Judea You have to pass through Samaria You have to pass through the land of the Samaritans as it were And so you can see Jesus Christ He's preparing his trip to Jerusalem But part of that is to stop in Samaria Okay and do a work And so he sends a couple of his disciples out there To repair, you know get himself ready to be set up there in Samaria Now what takes place? Verse 53 So don't forget there was a bit of a conflict between the Samaritans and the Jews And they're like well Jesus you're making your way to Jerusalem Hey you're worried about the Jews we don't want you here Because there was that conflict between the Samaritans and the Jews Hey but don't forget what it said there In verse 52 I don't want you to lose that point And enter at the end of it And enter into the village of the Samaritans to make ready for him Okay so Jesus sent his disciples to make Samaria ready for him That was his plan To go and preach there To do some works there To convince or to demonstrate himself as a Messiah of the Samaritans To have some of the Samaritans believe in him But they did not want him there They did not want him there Okay So look what happens Alright Now the disciples they you know they get a bit offended They get a bit offended Why aren't the Samaritans receiving Jesus Christ? And I wanted to show you the difference between The disciples who were not expecting this change And versus Jesus Christ who was ready for the unexpected Just show you the differences there right It says there in verse 54 And when his disciples James and John saw Look these are apostles These are guys that have been walking with Christ For many years now Learning from the teachings of Christ And yet even the most experienced guys When his disciples James and John saw this They said Lord Will thou that we command fire And come down from Fire to come down from heaven And consume them even as Elias did What happens when someone is not expecting the unexpected? Hey they get angered They're quick to anger Hey instead of coming and preaching the gospel to the Samaritans How about we destroy them Jesus How about you give us the ability How about you give us the permission To call down fire from heaven And destroy these wicked Samaritans Reverend what do we learn there? You know what if we learn to expect the unexpected It will prevent you from being quick to anger Because my plans didn't work out Oh man we made it You know Jesus sent us the Samaritans We're trying to do nice things for them We're trying to preach the gospel We want to get them to heaven And this is how they treat us They don't want us here And guess what When your plans don't go according to plan When you don't expect the unexpected You'll find yourself getting angry Okay angry to the point That you forget the purpose of why you came to the Samaritans You came to save them Not to destroy them Not to kill them Not to wipe them out You came to give them the gospel And yet their anger is so angry God Jesus Christ let us cast down fire I mean you know there are times in the Bible Where Christ you know We see fire fall down from heaven You know the one that we probably remember the most Is Sodom and Gomorrah I mean look that was a wicked city That was a city full of reprobates Full of homosexuality Full of wicked acts And you know what I mean even then Lot is able to live there for some time Before God ultimately judges and destroys that place And these guys are asking the same kind of punishment from God To destroy the Samaritans Simply because they would not receive them When they came into the city How does Jesus Christ respond? It says there in verse number 55 But he turned and rebuked them And said Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of For the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives But to save them And they went to another village Hey that sounds good Jesus Alright I mean look Has his plan to Jerusalem His initial plan to Jerusalem Is he still going to Jerusalem Yes he's still going there But listen something unexpected happened Jesus Christ was expecting to go to Samaria And preach to these people But they rejected him So instead of getting angry What does Jesus do? Well we'll just go to another village Hey we'll just go to another place That will receive us It's not about getting angry It's not about destroying these people that don't want to hear from us How about we go somewhere else You see Christ's plan was still the same He's still going to Jerusalem But in the midst of that travel to Jerusalem The unexpected happened Jesus Christ was ready He expected the unexpected He knew that things aren't always going to go according to plan But the disciples weren't Alright James and John They weren't happy with that They weren't happy with their plans Not working out exactly how they wanted to And so they get furious They get angry And this is why sometimes people You know they make plans It doesn't work out They get angry and think Oh I'm not going to plan ever again Wrong approach Wrong approach Just adjust your plan Adjust your plan Go to another village Yeah I mean if you go door to door Soul winning is the best example That we can have here And they don't receive you They don't want to hear from you Go to the next house Alright Don't get all upset Oh man I came here And I wanted to preach the gospel They don't know what they're missing out on And you know what If you just have that attitude You're going to give up on the soul winning You're going to give up on doing service for God Say well you know what Oh well We'll go to another village We'll go to another place And you need to keep this in mind Now look Jesus Christ still went to Jerusalem Okay It's not like this one thing Caused him to completely His plans to completely fall apart The plans of Christ He could adjust Right And so All I'm trying to show you here That you need to learn That unexpected things happen You still have your plan for Jerusalem Whatever your plan is But you need to be able to adjust According to that plan Otherwise As I said to you You will become quick to anger You will get frustrated You will lose focus You will lose focus Of what you were trying to achieve In the first place Can you please turn to John chapter 7 Turn to John chapter 7 Let's have a look at another story here John chapter 7 verse number 1 John chapter 7 and verse number 1 John chapter 7 verse number 1 The Bible reads After these things Jesus walked in Galilee For he would not walk in Jewry Jewry is Judea Don't forget Galilee Then Samaria Then Judea So Jesus Christ is in Galilee He would not walk in Jewry In Judea Why? Because the Jews sought to kill him I mean that's wise It's wise If I go to Judea right now They're going to get a hold of me They're going to kill me And it's not my time yet To do that But let's keep going there Verse number 2 Now the Jews feast of Tabernacles Was at hand So you may recall on Sunday I preached about the feast The booths that they would prepare That's basically the same thing They're preparing for that same celebration The feast of the Tabernacles And you may recall the commandment was For all the Jews to go to Jerusalem Set themselves up there For a solid week And to celebrate that feast Alright so The instructions of the Lord of Moses Jesus knows he has to get to Jerusalem Okay He has to go there But he says look I'm not walking there right now Because if I go there they'll kill me Now what happens Verse number 3 His brethren Now when he says his brethren He's talking about his actual brothers His actual family You know Jesus Christ had half brothers Alright Mary had other kids with Joseph After Jesus Christ was born His brethren therefore said unto him Depart hence and go into Judea That thy disciples also may see the works That thou doest Now if you take verse number 3 alone It sounds like his brethren Are like really excited for Jesus Hey go to Jerusalem Do the works So they all believe on you Kind of thing They're actually mocking Christ Okay Christ was not received by his family At the beginning Alright They're actually mocking Christ I'll show you why they're mocking him He keeps going there Verse number 4 For there is no man that doeth anything in secret For he himself seeketh to be known openly If thou do these things Shall thyself to the world Yeah Jesus If you're really doing these miracles That we're hearing about These great works Why don't you just show yourself to the whole world Just go to Jerusalem Stop walking around Judea Hey now's the time to go to the feast Make your way there Make it all public Let everybody know that you're the son of God They're mocking Christ If you're really doing these things Then you have no problem You're not going and showing the whole world Now of course Christ would have to make plans If he's trying to keep the law If that's part of his mission Is to fulfil the law Part of fulfilling the law Is to go to this feast Of Tabernacle Of Tabernacles He'd have to go down to Jewry Where they're seeking to kill him Alright Look what it says here Verse number 5 sorry For neither did his brethren believe in him So there's just further confirmation They're mocking Christ They don't believe in him They don't believe he's the Messiah They don't believe he's actually doing these miraculous works You know that they've been hearing about Anyway verse number 6 And Jesus said unto them My time is not yet come Cause he knows if I go I'll get killed That time is not yet But then he says But your time Is always ready In other words I can't go to Jerusalem right now But you can You can always go Okay why can't you always go Cause it says here Verse number 7 The world cannot hate you But me it hateth Because I testify of it That the works thereof are evil So Jesus Christ says Look you're free to go to Jerusalem There's no controversy about you You're not testifying that the works of the world are evil I am I can't just do it right now Alright Let's keep going Verse number 8 So Jesus Christ says to his family Go ye up unto this feast I go not up yet unto the feast For my time is not yet fully come Is not yet full come And we had said these words unto them He abodes still in Galilee Alright so they're making their way to Jerusalem Okay He stays in Galilee Verse number 10 But when his brethren were gone up Then went he also up unto the feast Not openly But as it were in secret Okay So we learned a few things there Jesus Christ knows man If I go with a big group of people And people are talking about Jesus And his works And he's been on a public show He knows by the time I get to Jerusalem I'm going to be killed And that time is not yet So Jesus Christ creates other plans Okay He goes hey you go And then Christ makes other plans And goes by himself He goes secretly Okay So he's fulfilling the law He's going to the feast But he doesn't want to be caught yet He doesn't want to be killed yet It's not the right time Alright So what do we learn there Number 2 Jesus Christ was expecting the unexpected Jesus Christ said look I know it's the plan to go down to Jerusalem But if I go I'll get captured And I'll be killed And it's not the time Okay He's expecting the unexpected He's prepared for something like that to take place So the next point that I have for you brethren If you learn to expect the unexpected It'll help you be flexible It'll help you be flexible It'll help you be flexible In your plans You're not going to have plans that are so rigid And that you march yourself to death literally Okay Into the hands of the enemy You say look it's dangerous here right now It's dangerous to do it like that It's not going to work And so we need to adjust the plan And make it flexible So Jesus Christ had flexibility About how he sought out his work Sought out his business You know when I think about the word flexible Probably the best thing you can describe right now Is the microphone cable Hey this is a very flexible cable isn't it I mean if it was rigid And literally like a stick I really wouldn't be able to move all that much Alright I mean if this was just a rigid You know solid piece of cable here You know I'd be worried that as soon as I move Or I do something weird I might actually break that cable Okay and that's what happens If you cannot learn to be flexible Your plans will break Okay The idea of being flexible is to be Capable of bending Without breaking Capable of bending Without breaking And so when you plan You'll make sure that your plans are flexible The unexpected happens You make it flexible To work around that which is unexpected But your plans still don't change You still make it to the feast of the tabernacles You're still able to fulfill the law Or whatever the task was that Jesus Christ had to do But he was ready to be flexible You guys go without me I'll go by myself Of course Jesus Christ is going by himself He doesn't have all the fanfare You know people aren't talking about him You know those that are trying to kill him Aren't expecting a lone man to walk into Jerusalem To be Jesus Christ Right They're expecting this mass following of Christ And they'll be able to pick him out from there And so Jesus Christ is able to make it into Jerusalem Safe and sound Without that threat of death Because he was flexible Okay He still completed his plan But he was flexible See the inability to be flexible brethren Will equate to breakage It'll equate to breakage You know and we You need to be flexible with life Okay The unexpected happens And you need to be able to maneuver that And figure out what is the best way forward When this unexpected event takes place Otherwise like I said It'll cause breakage And uh You know probably an example that I can think of Potentially is if you're You know you got a plan to find a job Right And you're like okay I'm going to apply I'm going to apply for You know And you know sometimes people have Like they throw all their eggs in one basket Oh I found this one job And I've just got to get this job And I'm going to do everything I can to get that job Alright No flexibility No thought Well what if I lose that I need another plan Okay Or if I don't get that one I need to apply again Or if I don't get that one I need to apply again That's what flexibility gives you Alright You may desire a certain position Or a certain place But if it doesn't work out If you're not flexible And you don't get what you want It's going to break You're going to be discouraged And you're going to give up Okay well I wanted that job I didn't get it Therefore That's it I'm done I'm not going to look for work anymore No being flexible means hey I want this Lord if this is your will for me Please help me get this job But if it's not your will Help to continue applying for these other positions Flexibility gives us so many different options So many ways to manoeuvre When the unexpected happens You're ready You're ready with other options Available to you Instead of causing breakage Destroying your plans And Yeah And not accomplishing What you're seeking to accomplish So the first two points Breakpoint number one Expect the unexpected Why? Because it will prevent you From being quick to anger And number two It will help you be flexible Please turn to Luke chapter 8 Turn to Luke chapter number 8 please And verse number 26 Luke chapter 20 Sorry Luke chapter 8 And verse number 26 Luke chapter 8 And verse number 26 Alright verse number 26 reads And they arrived at the country Of the Gadarenes Which is over against Galilee And when he went forth to land So they're on a ship They're crossing over here They met him out of the city A certain man Which had devils long time And wore no clothes Neither abode in any house But in the tombs And when he saw Jesus He cried out And fell down before him And with a loud voice said What have I to do with thee Jesus Thou Son of God Most High I beseech thee Torment me not For he had commanded The unclean spirit To come out of the man For often times He had caught him And was kept bound With chains and fetters And he break the bands And was driven Of the devil into the wilderness So the first person That Christ comes across In this land Is this demon possessed man Alright And the devil's crying out to Christ The devil knows who Christ is The devil's crying out Hey you know leave us alone What do you want to do with us Jesus Knowing full well that Jesus Christ Could cast this devil into hell Verse number 30 And Jesus asked him saying What is thy name And he said Legion Because many devils Were entered into him And they besought him That he would not commend them To go into the deep And there was there And heard of many swine Feeding on the mountain And they besought him That he would suffer them To enter into them And he suffered them Or he allowed them Okay so the devils are like hey You know there's a whole bunch of swine There's a whole bunch of pigs over here Jesus don't cast us into hell Don't cast us into the pit Can you just cast us into this swine And so Jesus Christ allows them To do that Alright Verse number 33 Then when the devils out of the man And entered into the swine And the herd ran violently down A steep place into the lake And were choked Now notice this When they that fed them Saw what was done They fled And went and toad it in the city And in the country Hey so the farmers of the pigs Of the swine Alright they're like man We've just lost all our It's not cattle What do we call them What do we call pigs And we lost all our animals We lost all this money Alright Jesus Christ has come He's causing us problems So they go into the city And start to complain about Jesus Christ It says there in verse number 35 And when they went out to see what was done And came to Jesus And found the man Out of whom the devils were departed Sitting at the feet of Jesus Clothed in his right mind And they were afraid They also Which saw it told them By what means he that was possessed Of the devils Was healed And so they all recognise Hey here's Jesus Here's the troublemaker Right The farmers are claiming He's the troublemaker here And they also see the demon possessed man Okay who's been healed From his possessions And it says in verse number 37 Look at this Then the whole multitude of the country Of the Gadarenes Round about Besought him To depart from them So they're saying Look Jesus Can you please go We don't want you here You're a troublemaker You know we don't need you here Can you please go And look Jesus Christ has made this effort To get on a ship And literally cross the ocean Not the ocean The river there To go to this place Alright I mean yeah The demon possessed man He's sought that He's dealt with that But now they're saying Look get out of here We don't want you In our city You're a troublemaker We've got a promise for you Jesus So again The plans of Christ Just aren't quite working out Now of course the will of God Is that this demon possessed man Will be healed But there's something else That I want you to notice here About Christ The fact that You know he was ready for the unexpected Even though he makes plans To go to a certain place A certain town Once again we see the people Of this place Rejecting Christ Please go We don't want any trouble It keeps going there In verse number 37 For they were taken with great fear And he went up into the ship And returned back again So Jesus Christ says Alright Alright We'll go back So he goes back into the ship I like the next verses Verse number 38 Now the man out of whom the devils were departed Besought him that he might be with him So the man that got you know Healed from the devils The possession He says Jesus I want to go with you Right You've healed me Praise God You know I want to follow you I want to be one of your disciples Please take me with you And he keeps Sorry So Yeah But Jesus sent him away Saying So Jesus says no Okay Verse number 39 Return to thine own house And show how great things God Have done unto thee And he went his way And published throughout the whole city How great things Jesus had done unto him Wow That's amazing That's amazing This demon possessed man Who says you know what Jesus can I go with you Alright Jesus says no You stay in your city You go and publish You go and preach About the great things that Jesus Christ Has done for him And he does He does so The next thing that I have for you The third point here brethren If you learn to expect the unexpected You will develop tact You will develop tact Okay You will develop to be tactful Alright Being smart You know tactfully Tactics Alright Now you know One of the things that we could consider here You know Jesus could say look You know we've made the effort You know we've landed on your land I'm not going I'm sorry We're staying We're going to preach Jesus goes no You know what The city are against me They want me to go He gets into the ship Okay That's one option He takes the option to get into the ship The next option Do we take the demon possessed man with us The one that was demon possessed He goes no You know what Christ uses tact Hey He's got a plan He's got a purpose He wants the city to be reached With the gospel of Jesus He wants these people to hear About the great works of God But it can't be him It can't be Jesus They don't want him there In fact the more time he spends You know these are things that obviously Christ has to process In his human mind You know if I stay in this city They're going to be further They're going to be further frustrated By the message of the gospel So he says You know what I'm going to appease These troubled people I'm going to give what they want I'm going to leave Hey But I've got to adjust my plan I've got to use tact I've got a man who is recently saved Hey I can take him with me Hey He can be a great disciple I can teach him great things But more important Is that he stays in this city And preaches the gospel He wins his people to the Lord If I hang around here You know It's going to make his life harder If I hang around this city People are going to reject the word Hey But they'll receive him Why Because they've seen his life change They've seen him Trust Christ They've seen him He's from the devils Hey He's an open testimony Of the great things That Christ has done for him And so Jesus makes that decision It's better that I leave And leave this man to reach this city Hey That's tact Jesus still accomplishes what he wants For the gospel to reach this place But instead of it being him And his disciples He finds this opportunity This one man Demon possessed man Who's able to do some great works for God Brethren That's what tact is Tact Is the ability Of doing the right thing At the right time Usually it has to do with a difficult situation Where you're able to measure a difficult situation And come out with the best outcome You know Some people might say No, no, no You should stay there Jesus You know You've made the trip You've taken your disciples You wanted to be in that city You should just stand your ground And who cares who gets offended Jesus Christ goes You know what Now I'm going It's better that I go And it's better He's able to come with me It's better that he stays He's able to reach his people With the great news of the Lord God Of what God has done for him And so this is tact Alright Difficult situations Unexpected situations What do I do You've got to be able to measure the situation And it's not easy to develop tact Because every situation is different The thought there is Jesus Christ has to consider himself His disciples Consider the people of the city Consider the man that recently got saved And go What is the best outcome in this situation So he leaves And puts that man in charge Of reaching the city That's what tact is all about You know These are things that you know You'll develop If you get thrown into difficult situations And you've It falls on your shoulders To figure out what is the best step forward So many possibilities You know And tact allows you To narrow down the best possibility The best outcome And move forward with that outcome But brethren again You need to be able to be flexible You need to be able to consider That things aren't always going to go according to plan And work toward that Please don't take the view that I just want plan for anything I just want don't do anything Because I can't expect I don't know what's around the corner tomorrow Yeah none of us know what's around the corner tomorrow That's why we have to expect The unexpected That's why like Jesus Whatever plans we have You know what We've got to figure out What is the best way to do things Hey when things change You know what I'm going to adjust my plan I'm not going to get angry I'm just going to adjust my plan Hey when things change I'm going to look for The different flexible opportunities That I hear What is the best way When things don't go according to plan Hey I'm going to use tact What is the best way to reach these people The gospel of the Lord Okay Whatever it is brethren When you're able to stop And assess your plans Stop and not be full of pride Because things did not go according Exactly how you want You know what We see these examples of Christ I love these examples Because again we see the humanity of Christ He's got his plans He's got his mission You would think that Whatever Christ wants to do It should just happen But hey There are times when the people Just rejected him And Christ has to be Able to adjust his plans To expect the unexpected I think that's definitely The best way to live your life Is just know Know full well That tomorrow could bring Something that you just never expected Okay And the difference between Those that give up and fail And get frustrated and angry Versus those that Hey find a way around things Is the one that finds a way around it And is able to still push forward And accomplish what they're trying to do Is that they were expecting that That was a consideration They're already open to You know Are my plans not going Exactly how I want But here are the ways Here are the ways around it Here are the answers That I can take And move forward Can you please go to another passage Please turn to Ah sorry Turn to Acts chapter 16 Turn to Acts chapter 16 please Acts chapter 16 We're not looking at Christ this time We're looking at the Apostle Paul Acts 16 verse 6 Acts 16 verse 6 please And Yeah I love I love this little passage here We know that Of course Paul had A lot of plans He had three He accomplished three Missionary journeys As you read through the book of Acts And he's always playing out He's like alright We're going this way We're headed to this direction We're going to these cities We're going to preach the gospel here We're going to visit the brethren here You know Paul has all these plans To start all these churches And it doesn't always go According to plan Alright Now sometimes Things don't go according to plan Because It's just the way the world is You know Just Trouble develops And Just situations develop Sometimes you may have a plan And you think it's And you think it's Exactly what God wants And It's not what God wants Okay Even if you think Man How can this not be something That God wants I'm doing some great work for God How can God turn around and say No Not that Well that's why I love this story here In Luke Sorry in Acts 16 Acts 16 verse 6 It says Now when they had gone Throughout Phrygia And the region of Galatia Look at this And were forbidden Of the Holy Ghost To preach The word in Asia Now that Asia of course Is modern day Turkey So hold on Paul You're planning to go to Modern day Turkey To Asia To preach the gospel But the Holy Ghost prevents you Isn't this something That God wants you to do To preach the gospel To these people Interesting That the Holy Ghost Is preventing him From going into Asia Anyway Verse number 7 After They would come to Mysia I like that Okay well God doesn't want me to go to Asia So let's go to Mysia Okay That's where you go You know Alright Let's be flexible Let's adjust this to the situation And they would come to Mysia They are saved To go into Bithynia So they're like The next plan is Alright Now we're going to go to Bithynia After this Notice what it says But the spirit Suffered them not The Holy Spirit said no You're not going that way Hold on What Paul's doing some great works here He's preaching the gospel He's seeing people saved How can you stop this great work sometimes Lord Twice Paul's plans Are now out of whack Aren't they But does he give up Does he get frustrated Does he get angry Is it all over It didn't work out No He's sensitive To the Lord's leading You see sometimes God closes doors And you're there trying to open that door And say no God I need to go this way And God says no You know I don't like it when God says no I don't like it Because I'm like Okay I want to do this God God says no It's like Surely it's what you want Lord Sometimes it says no You see when you expect the unexpected The next point that I have for you It makes you sensitive To the Lord's leading It makes you sensitive To the Lord's leading You know I'm always praying to the Lord Lord when I'm developing plans Thoughts ahead You know personal plans Or plans for our church Or plans for Sydney You know I think about the options And I say God Can you just open the doors That you want me to walk through And Lord can you close the doors That you don't want me to go You know can you make it difficult And here's the thing When God makes it difficult You know I'm like I want to go that way Sometimes I'm not sensitive I don't realise that God is saying no Okay And then I'm like Oh of course I asked God to close that door Why am I getting frustrated That door's not closed Alright That door's closed And walk the way that God opens What did God open for Paul here Let's keep going there Verse number 8 And they pass in by Mysia Came down to Troas So instead of going to Bithynia Well Paul goes alright Second time we can't do it We'll just go to Troas instead So you can see Paul's definitely He's got a plan He's got a mission Alright But his plans are flexible You know He's able to adjust He's not getting frustrated He just goes Well we'll just go somewhere else You know We'll just do the work Somewhere else Verse number 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night There stood a man of Macedonia And prayed him saying Come over into Macedonia And help us And after he had seen the vision Immediately we endeavoured To go into Macedonia Assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us For to preach the Gospel unto them You see Paul was sensitive to the Lord's leading The Holy Spirit said no Alright God no We'll go somewhere else And then he's doing the work He says alright We're gonna go somewhere else The Holy Spirit says no I mean I can imagine People getting frustrated at this I can imagine right It's not working Why God why say no? Well now we know why Macedonia needed Paul Macedonia needed the Gospel And as you keep going through that chapter You know we have the great chapter of the Philippian jailer That believes in the Lord Jesus Christ with his whole house You know the great story is there leading up You know being sensitive to the Lord's leading And going exactly where Jesus Christ wanted him to go And he was able to do some great works for God Seeing many people saved There in Macedonia And you know what even then Hey we think about the Philippian jailer Hey he follows the Lord's leading And he finds himself in jail You could almost say Hey Paul it's just not working out for you But he had to go to jail To meet the Philippian jailer He had to go there To have that you know That meet where he was able then To preach the gospel to this person And to the whole family And that they will all be saved You know and even Even though Paul Look at this Even though his plans are so messed up Just in this one little passage there It's not going the way he wants Even thrown into jail Like I said to you Alright I love what he says Don't need to turn there You guys know this passage You know Paul's able to say I was able to finish my course You know the plans that I had The things that I was doing for the Lord I was able to accomplish it all And yet during that plan we see Many times And I'm just saying I'm just looking at different stories here But many times His plans were interrupted Many times the unexpected happened But we learn with Paul That he was prepared for the unexpected And he said well We just have to adjust our plans We just have to be flexible Let's not give up on the ministry Let's keep doing what God wants us to do And then he's able to say Look I finished my course I did exactly what God wanted me to do I reached the finish line I did not faint I did not give up I was not a broken man I continued doing the things That God wanted me to do And so as I said to you The fourth point You know if you expect the unexpected It makes you sensitive to the Lord's leading You know I'll give you this story I've given this story to a few of you guys But I'll give it to the whole church And the closest that I can The closest thing to me That's developed most recently Was that time that I went down to Victoria And I went down to Victoria To do a funeral service And so many things went wrong So many things did not go according to plan And brethren yes I started to get frustrated Alright I lost my wallet I lost my licence I needed to rent a car I needed my licence And because I lost my wallet I lost my debit cards And then my phone could not get recharged Because I couldn't You know when they tried to recharge my phone The card was declined And so I was struggling with communication I didn't know how I could hire a car without a licence I went to the local Queensland Department of Transport The day that I went there I went there urgently Early in the morning they told me All the systems are shut down You know you need to go to Maroochydore I went to Maroochydore That place was packed Alright that place was And I'm like man Am I gonna get my I need my licence I need to hire a car To get to Melbourne And rent a vehicle I go to the rental car company Saying look The booking that you've placed for six thirty Or six o'clock I think it was Or six thirty I can't remember Was too late You're not gonna make it in time We shut too early So I organised another flight To get an earlier flight I'm thinking no worries I'm gonna get there Two hours before The rental car company closes And then the plane's delayed And then there's no fuel On the Sunshine Coast So we gotta stop by Brisbane The pilot says It's just twenty minutes No It's gone for hours You know what I mean Just stopping the vehicle Getting fuelled up Taking off again And by the time I got to Victoria It was too late The place had shut down You know I'm just I'm like Lord did you not want me To come to Victoria Like Am I Is this not your plan You know And this is the thing I'm getting in the flesh A little bit I'm getting frustrated right It's just one day One thing after another One thing after another It's like You know what I ended up getting my emergency licence I got my passport So I had a photo thing But then okay That place is shut down There were other Rental car companies I go to each rental car company You know Look do you have a car No It's Easter It's public holidays You've come at a bad time No cars Go to the next place No cars No cars How am I going to get to Country Victoria How am I going It's the funeral It's there tomorrow I've got to get there Lord did you not want me To come I don't understand You know what And then it dawned on me It dawned on me Because this happened to my life But as I said to you When God closes those doors I'm trying to bang them open God Can you It's not going to go into my plan God What's going on And then don't forget These are things we pray for God close the doors That you don't want me to go through Open the doors That you want me to walk through The only solution Is to get the answer Oh I called brother Dennis Danny Melbourne I thought you know Hopefully he's able to get Do me a great favour I'm driving to Country Victoria I'm calling brother Dennis He's already in bed If you're listening to brother Dennis Oh well Praise God for you Man Who's going to help me out here Right The only solution was to get the Uber You know it's a bit expensive It's the only option It's the only way that I'm going to get there tonight To be ready there tomorrow morning To conduct a funeral Catch the Uber I'm frustrated at this point And I'm also talking to Christina She's a little bit worried for me Like stuck in you know Melbourne You know No cars You know She's a bit worried And then it just dawned on me I just guess God did not want me to drive You know It's just You know This has to be the hand of God How can so many things go wrong? Like it just dawned on me This has to be the hand of God And I've just got to accept it I've got to expect the unexpected I wasn't expecting the unexpected And brother when I wasn't expecting the unexpected I got in the flesh I got frustrated I was getting angry Yeah I probably would have prayed down fire To fall upon Melbourne or something I don't know Okay Not that bad But I was getting frustrated Right I was already travelling to Sydney Before that I was just I was tired I just wanted things to work out So you catch the Uber You know what I'm in the Uber I'm still frustrated If I say to Christina Look I think it's God's hand Who knows Maybe it would have crashed Maybe it would have got lost Who knows God did not want me to get that vehicle Alright And getting back to Melbourne We'll sort that out later Who knows That's what the plan is Anyway We're driving to the Uber It's just me And this one Hindu man Alright And because I'm still kind of in the flesh I'm a bit frustrated I'm like I'm alone with this guy for like three hours I should give him the gospel But I just don't feel like it I'm just like frustrated Like the last thing I want to do is open God's word Again It's this battle between the flesh and the spirit Isn't it And I said no Hold on If this is God's hand Maybe he wants me to give him the gospel These are the opportunities we pray for One on one opportunities Where there's no distractions Alright Well this is what we ask for So I guess Give him the gospel In fact He's the one that asks me the questions We start talking about work So how long have you been driving an Uber What do you do for work I'm a pastor So he asks me the question So what are the differences between Christianity and other religions Because sometimes it's a bit awkward to get to that conversation But he's the one that opened the conversation Praise God Everybody give him the gospel He calls upon the name of the Lord The Macedonian call This one Hindu man At some point in his life Would have prayed to God God tell me who you really are Show me who you really are And that was the answer I had to go through those struggles My plans had to fall apart You know the unexpected had to happen Because God had to move me You know In a place where There was a special meeting for this one man This one driver For him to hear the gospel Maybe the only time he'll hear it in his life Who knows For him to believe in Jesus Christ And understand that his religion was false But you know what brethren Yeah it's frustrating when your plans don't go according to plan This is why We need to learn this We need to understand Unexpected things happen You can get frustrated like me Or say well God Maybe you wanted this to happen What do I need to do You know How can I learn to be flexible Lord how can you teach me to To be tactful in this situation How can I take advantage of this situation Lord How can I not get angry And just see your hand Lord how can you demonstrate to me The leading of the Holy Ghost And your closing certain doors Help me to just accept your will in my life Instead of getting angry And frustrated And scared And whatever it is that you might go through That's what happens when your plans don't go according to When you're not expecting the unexpected And your plans don't go the way you want You're going to feel all of those frustrations But I think these stories that we have in the bible And there's so many stories in the bible that we can turn to But it teaches us a few things You know I love the fact that Christ came and limited himself as a man You know he's trying to do the great works of God There are some limits to his knowledge There are some limits to his planning But again these things are here in the bible So we can learn from Christ Christ how did you react How did the disciples react I don't want to react like the disciples I want to follow after your steps Christ Teach me to expect the unexpected There is one more passage I want you to turn to Please turn to Proverbs 19 Please turn to Proverbs 19 and verse number 21 Proverbs 19 and verse number 21 We'll conclude on this one Proverbs 19 and verse number 21 The bible reads There are many devices in a man's heart You know there are many things that we think about Many plans that we make You know many thoughts that we consider for our future There are many devices in a man's heart Nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand The counsel of the Lord that shall stand You know what all the devices in your heart All your best made plans All your best made thoughts for your future They're not going to stand Did you know that But God's counsel will always stand Okay and part of that journey Discovering God's counsel God's direction in our life Is for our plans to fall apart Is for the unexpected to happen For God to move us from this place to this place And God will allow something to develop When we get frustrated And go why God Because he wants to move us to the right place On his counsel, on his will To his works to do what he wants us to do And we need to learn that in life Okay we need to learn to expect the unexpected It's the counsel of the Lord that we're seeking It's his guidance that we're seeking Yes it's good to plan It's good to plan Alright But sometimes that plan is just the will of man And you need to be able to adjust That will of man When God's will says no Okay Expect the unexpected And you will not be frustrated You will not be angry You'll learn to be flexible You'll learn to be tactful And you'll be best You'll be in a better position To follow after the steps of Christ Okay let's pray Heavenly Father I want to thank you Lord for this Our teaching Lord I thank you for the examples That we've seen in Jesus Christ Lord even the best made plans that Christ did Did not always work out But I thank you that we can see his reaction To these things And he's able to be intelligent, smart Lord And seeking your will He knows your hand Lord When you guide him And Lord we see the difference with the disciples Who are in the flesh and get frustrated and angry In different situations God I pray we would be people that would not That would not make no plans Lord We don't want to be those kinds of people Lord help us to have devices Help us to have thoughts Plans in our minds Lord To achieve but be sensitive to your leading To understand Lord When you say no about certain things When you direct us on a different path Lord Help us not to fall into the flesh But to seek after your spirit We pray these things in Jesus name Amen Your hymnals And I believe I want to sing 242 let me just turn there Okay yeah let's turn to hymn number 242 And we'll sing it took a miracle 242 it took a miracle And I A God of might and miracles Tis written in the sky It took a miracle to put ourselves In place It took a miracle to ever grow In space the way he saved my soul Please then make me whole It took a miracle of love and grace Though here his glory has been shown We still can't fully see The wonder of his heart is bound To take eternity It took a miracle to put ourselves In place It took a miracle to hang the world In space the way he saved my soul Please then make me whole It took a miracle of love and grace The bible tells us of his power And with the whole way through And every little bird and clown A testing on his tune It took a miracle to put ourselves In place It took a miracle to hang the world In space the way he saved my soul Please then make me whole It took a miracle of love and grace Thank you for watching!