The Perfect Script

…a script?

God’s script is perfect

… and in His sovereignty He is guiding ALL elements of His script - good and bad - to fulfill it perfectly.

In this world we see evil…

Job

David

Solomon

Jeremiah

Hab 1:2-3 (ESV)

2 O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save?

3 Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.

God goes on to answer Habakkuk’s complaint but it reinforces the reality that…

Our sovereign God’s script is perfect - trust Him!

In today’s passage we will see that God’s plan doesn’t look fun… God’s promise involves trials!

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READ Act 7:17-21

When faced with man’s threats the early church acknowledged and leaned on God’s sovereignty…

Act 4:24-29 (ESV)

24 And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them,

25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain?

26 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’—

27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,

28 to do whatever YOUR hand and your plan had PREDESTINED to take place.

29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness,

Our sovereign God’s script is perfect - trust Him!

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Act 7:17 (ESV) “But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt

Our sovereign God’s script is perfect - trust Him!

What was the promise?

Gen 15:13-14 (ESV)

13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.

14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

Gods PROMISE included trouble and trials…

Remember what Jesus told His disciples on the night He was betrayed?

Joh 16:33 (ESV)

33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Our sovereign God’s script is perfect - trust Him!

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Act 7:18 (ESV) until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph.

Act 7:19 (ESV) He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive.

All things - including things we see as evil - happen for a purpose

Our sovereign God’s script is perfect

Paul, when talking about the purpose of the Law…

Rom 7:13 (ESV)

The purpose of the law was to contrast good with evil. “This is good, this is bad”

Our sovereign God’s script is perfect

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Act 7:20 (ESV) At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God's sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father's house,

Our sovereign God’s script is perfect

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Act 7:21 (ESV) and when he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.

God used Moses’s exposure – Which was intended to be his death sentence – as the means to bring him into Pharaohs family…

Our sovereign God’s script is perfect

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Isa 55:8-9 (ESV)

Rom 8:31 (ESV)

Put your trust in the sovereign God who has laid out all of the universe for HIS purpose! You can trust him with everything.

Know and pursue him! All other things are secondary.