A Piece of the Puzzle
by Dan Gibson
June 27, 2021 · Cornerstone Apostolic Church (Chattanooga, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Luke 18:31-34, James 1:2

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/dan-gibson--a-piece-of-the-puzzle
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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would you say in jesus name say it again in jesus name praise god god bless you just for a few moments you may be seated if you would like i want to say first of all i'm thankful and i thank pastor for allowing me to minister today really feel something on my heart for you today and i really feel like that god's got a word that he wants to speak to someone today i want to thank pastor for allowing me to serve with him um and let me tell you something we're we've been talking about this building for quite some time and the things that's going on around here but you come up here you're going to see pastor here at some point he is just right in the middle of this his shoulders is hurting again today but you can see the vision and i want to thank all of the guys and i know pastor you've already said it but i guess because of age i appreciate this the guys that i see up here working pastor has cast a vision and and then to see them grab it and run with it is such a blessing so guys all of you thank you you ladies that come in here thank you thank you that is that's what the kingdom of god is about amen amen last week pastor his message and just really struck with me and again not going back through father's day but the scriptures that he he read from and he quoted from is that of what we call the lord's prayer when jesus was teaching us how to pray he went through and addressed who we're talking to right talking to our father which art in heaven but as he began to uh read that and quote those scriptures he got to the part and this is i think it's around verse 9 of matthew 6 may have been verse 10 but as he got there the scripture says thy kingdom come thy will be done everybody say his kingdom come and his will be done as soon as those words came across you've got to understand how my brain works i sometimes take a tail spin i i just i just started whirling over and over because jesus is teaching us to pray and we're praying his will be done and we're praying that his kingdom come but when it says his will be done there had to be a vehicle for his will to be done hello there had to be somebody that was willing to step up and say god i want to help you with whatever your will is i i want to be a part of whatever you have and whatever you're doing but then of course i take another rabbit trail you know i just there's no telling where we're going to end up today but i i chase another one and i i start thinking about the fact that that his will is to be done and yes i say i want his will but then i have to ask the question do i really know what i'm saying do i really know what it is to walk with him and heaven you know life is full of all kinds of of paths some of us today some of us are suffering in our families some of us are suffering from loss some of us are suffering from different things but life takes us in so many paths and as we take those paths ultimately god's will is being served no matter where you are or what you're doing when you say god's will be done you just might be that vehicle that says you know what i'm going to be the one that suffers or you may say that you're going to be that one because you're saying god your will be done when he taught us to pray he didn't really give you the insight of that scripture when he said thy will be done because there are many things that he's telling you in luke the 18th chapter luke 18 we find in verse 31 through 34 we find that jesus has pulled his disciples together and in this meeting he is having with them he begins and i don't know they may have it on the board i have it in in just a paragraph here guys but you may see it there on the screens but in the meeting that he has with them he tells his disciples he says we're going to jerusalem and when we go to jerusalem there's some things that's going to have to take place he said there is things that's been prophesied about there are things that has been said that must come to pass there are things that i am going to have to endure and you're going to and i'm telling you this because i want you to be forewarned that there is going to be some suffering there's going to be some there's going to be some they're going to spit on me they're going to ridicule me there's going to be a lot of things that takes place and then he goes on to say in verse 34 that and they understood nothing or none of these things that he said how many of you could agree with me today that there's been times in your life and you may be there today but there's been times in your life when you're saying huh what god what does this mean how many you've been having a good day and everything happening just right and then all of a sudden things just you ever been there and and we don't understand those things i i hope that you get the word that god has spoken to my heart today but i want you to understand that god has a big picture time has taught me a few things time has taught me that god has some wonderful works in in our life there's some things that he does in our life but we don't see that we don't see that immediately he doesn't give you a portrait and hold it up and say this is what it's supposed to look like he doesn't do that he gives it to us in parts there are things that he will tell us and and in my phone right now some of you if you were to open my phone there is a little a little app in there it's called notes how many of you use that and i don't use a lot of the typing part because um the autocorrect some of the words i come up with oh my but i hit that little mic button and i just speak into it and sometimes it's the southern southern way of saying things it picks something else up but i i will i will push that and i will put little notes in there because there are there are times that that god brings something to thought and again life has taught me to do this but there's just maybe the little two-liners the little things that just come up and i'll just speak it into the phone and just save it and then it's not long until i'll say well what was that and because something clicks and i'll go back and i'll find that that word and it's like okay god there it is there that is another piece i said him talking with my daughter last night katie beth i don't know how did she do this morning guys well i i i had nothing to do with that but i was sitting talking to her last night and and something that i had typed in i brought it back up we're just sitting there and so all of a sudden i look over and katie's got tears coming out of her eyes and she said dad that's exactly what i'm going to be teaching on tomorrow and i told her i said babe there's your confirmation may i tell you that there are things that we need to remember about every and and i i don't want you to think that i am running i i'm not trying to say categorize in detail but you need to detail the things of god there are things that god does and he moves in strategically ways he puts them into place and you can connect the dots at some point and say hey that's what he was telling me then that's what he was trying to get across to me then and you start seeing it and again time teaches you over a period of time hey that's god hey that's god hey that's god and all of a sudden you see all of these things connecting life is a series of paths ups and downs and sometimes we think it's not necessary but there are things that you must go through that are necessary there are things that you must pass that you must go down and brother herb you can't go with me there are there are paths that we take that there was there's sometimes that we're by ourselves and you can't go there with me but it's necessary the scripture tells us in genesis i i and i want to make this very clear i'm not here just to point fingers i i i am living some of this myself understand that but the scripture tells us in genesis there is there is a gentleman there that many of us we have heard the story over and over and you've probably heard me talk about him but his name is joseph and joseph ended up in egypt remember the story i'm going to tell you this joseph had to go to egypt you'll get that later but joseph had to go to egypt and you and i can sit here and talk about how that yes he did and that was a great thing but it was that path that got him to egypt i think that many of us we kind of overlook at times we overlook the fact that he is a 17 year old boy that that a young man and i'm sorry 17 year old young men but he's 17 years old and and his father has shown kindness to him and made him a really pretty coat i heard you think you could wear that but he takes and is shown kindness he's shown favor and then his father says look i've got some cheese and i've got some bread and i want you to go take this to your brothers they're they're working in the field now you know joseph's got to go to egypt i'm going to keep reminding you of that but it's this path to going to egypt that that none of us i don't know about you but i don't want to go down this path and so he takes the bread and he takes the cheese and he goes to his brothers and and what do they do they see him coming somebody tell me what they said behold the dreamer why because joseph is one of those guys that sat around the campfires with his brother and his dad and he said hey i want to tell you about this dream i had last night god's working right god is working details remember god is a god of details and and and god's working in his life and god's and god's he's maturing this spirit inside of him now just because you have a dream and it was because of pizza that's not god but god is he's bringing some things to remembrance and he says he says you know i was dreaming and and and then here comes another one and all of these dreams had to do with joseph's whatever being greater than theirs he was not being arrogant god was showing him some things and because of these dreams his brothers they despised him they they they wanted rid of him they just get rid of him and so they took and threw him what did they do they threw him into this pit now again joseph's got to go to egypt 17 years old he's in this pit and there he's in the pit and i don't know what's going through his brain the scripture doesn't tell us but i am sure he's probably wondering well what did i do wouldn't you what did i do you know i've got i got father's favor and i've been telling some awesome jokes around the campfire what did i do and then he sold into slavery and this entire time i i want you to see and and i have titled this today i've titled this puzzle pieces notice how many how many have ever put these things together how many of you how many you do have patience for these things ah but there are all kinds of pieces here and they're all different colors and the majority of the time when you do that you you have a picture right i don't even know these these here we couldn't do this one uh i think it had a hole in the bottom of it and probably half of them are gone but but we have we have puzzles in our life these things that's going on and again what did i say detail detail well this piece right here may have a little bit of a a green texture to it so i know it's going to go with another that's got green texture but that does not fit it doesn't fit but i'm gonna keep it right i won't keep it because it is a part of the puzzle and joseph gets to go in and he thinks that he's finally getting somewhere because somebody showed him a little favor and they've brought him into a house and gave him some jobs to do yeah made him overseer at this point he's about 30 years old a lot of times flown by he has not seen his family at all his brothers nobody he's got he's got something god's got a picture that he's trying to put together remember there is a picture that god's trying to put together and i don't know who you are today god sent me to say this there is there is a picture that god's putting together and he that peace that you've got right now it may be in suffering okay but but don't throw it away don't don't throw it away why because he's got he's got something he's trying to do how do you remember the old song it's going to be worth it all yeah it's going to be worth it because god's got a plan well joseph he'd been made ruler over a few things somebody false accused him now he's in prison thought i was getting somewhere he's been imprisonment but that's another one of those pieces god he knows what he's doing you may not see the picture right now but he knows exactly what you need for the hour you may not see where he's taking you it's just another piece of that puzzle it's just another one of those pieces yeah i i'm suffering now with some kind of illness i don't know what it is but christian is just a piece of the puzzle you get to a point brother herb that you say okay dad god what what do we have today what what what what do we hold today what is it how many yeah wake up and talk to him i do you say god whatever your plans are today whatever your will is today and again what where did we start pastor started it last week by saying our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come and here it comes thy will be done thy will be done did he say what his will was for your life at this moment he does have an ultimate for your life but did he say what path you're taking today no maybe a loss of someone in your family and you're saying god you you could have healed them how many you ever see had to say that prayer god you could have healed but you didn't just to find out that a few a few years later there was a reason why he took them home and you s by and by you'll understand it by and by why because he's the master he he he is the heavenly father he's the one that knows what pieces you need he knows exactly where you need to be right now he knows exactly what you're facing and he knows he knows what piece you need today and then we we hit those stumps in the road that's an old saying and then all of a sudden we have a good day and he blesses us with a car another one of those pieces of the puzzle and i'm saying thank you lord thank you for another piece of that puzzle why because every everything here is in serving him i serve him because he knows what's best for me has nothing to do with me it has nothing to do with what's what i think needs to happen it's because of who he is and we sing about it all the time because of who you are lord i give you glory that doesn't feel like glory but i serve you i give you praise that doesn't feel like it but i give you praise lord that may not be what i'm looking for god but i know that in everything that you have for me i wonder if somebody's here today and you've been wondering about that puzzled peace in your life now you say well you're going to play on words there yeah that's what i'm doing it it's a puzzled piece scripture tells us that he gives us peace for every circumstance in this world you're going to have trouble but he spoke into our lives so that we would have peace in the midst of all of it i i want to tell you this today and this means nothing to me it means nothing to you but this right here for the last week i've been praying over and my wife gave she pulled this out for me so that so that i'd have it today but i've been praying over the fact that there are people that that you've been suffering through that piece of the puzzle and i've been praying over this and i want you to know today that god knows exactly what this piece of the puzzle is all about and maybe you're here today and you you you understand exactly what i'm talking about i want you to walk to this front i want you to get up from where you are you say well they're going to think that no they they got pieces of their puzzle that's messed up too but maybe you understand exactly what this piece is all about i want you to get up and i want you to come you go with her you don't understand it don't don't understand it don't can't quite get my hand on it can i don't know why god don't understand it can't can't quite get there don't i i don't get this i don't get it i i'm i'm not there yet come on folks i got some people that's wanting two or three of them because you've got some of those puzzle pieces right you don't understand it why why is this god why is it come on somebody help me here chris give one to your wife to be there because there's gonna be plenty of those pieces and you don't quite understand don't understand it james puts it this way consider it pure joy brother when you're faced with this kind these kinds of trials and tests once you take that piece that you've got and i want you to i want you just to say this joy is coming why it's just a piece of the puzzle this is not the whole picture this is not the end this is just a piece of it am i saying that the next piece is going to be any better i can't say that but what i can tell you that when it connects to the other you start to understand it a little better ah i can see his eyes now no i i don't see the ears yet but i can see his eyes and you add one more piece well look at there there's his nose no can't see the whole picture yet god's working on us folks there's nothing that you get out of this today but that where i'm at right now it's just a piece of the puzzle it's just a part of it i want you to know something this morning i got up and i prayed over every one of these i soaked my hands in this and i prayed that god whatever this individual is faced with whatever this piece of the puzzle may be today that you understand that there is true peace in the puzzle because in the end he's going to look at it and say well done and you're going to say i get the picture now that's what you're going to say would you pray with us right now in the name of jesus god you see us today you know exactly what's going on in every situation you know the picture i only have a piece but i know that you're working all things out you're taking care of it piece by piece god i see your hand i see your hand at work lord jesus why don't you surrender that to him right now just surrender to him right now god i know you're working all things out i know you're working it out you know exactly where we are and you're working all things for the good joseph had to go to egypt historians tell us it was some something like 24 years later that the big picture came into play i know his brothers didn't say it then but they can say it now thank you joseph for enduring the hardship i put you through because god had a bigger picture you see sometimes we go through things and we i don't know about you but i have feelings and sometimes feelings get hurt and i immediately think oh they're out to offend me the truth is have you ever thought it's a part of that peace it's a part of that puzzle and see when you understand the peace of god and you understand that he has a plan no i don't see the big picture that's why he can say this the word can say that none of these things shall offend me why because god is working on me may i tell you this if you've been offended by something or some hey you need to repent because god's working some things out yeah god forgive me because i know you've got a picture you're working on and i don't need that kind of spirit in order for this piece this little piece right here to fit i can't i can't allow any of that in my life lift your hands again pastor in the name of jesus i love you lord i love you lord come on would you pray right now spirit of the living god spirit of the living god it's all working together only you know the final outcome only you know the final outcome jesus you know the final outcome come on church god's working on you why don't you love him right now for his patience for his power for his love that's right come on thank you lord for what you're doing in me thank you jesus thank you jesus thank you jesus i love you lord i love you lord oh that's right come on god's working on you he's working in you he's working through you yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah working for you good he's working for you good