Things I Don't Understand | Thetus Tenney

precious person soul winner and a flame of truth in these days and we are honored sister tinny that you are here with us you come take this greatest group of people in the world good morning first church what a wonderful handsome looking crowd well yo do look good you may be seated thank you pastor sincerely thank you for allowing me to be here and for the invitation I tell you we had a time this week I told him I got the prize though for the oldest one here but you never get too old to learn and when you quit learning just go lay down and die and it was just absolutely a great great meeting and I just have to commend this church I it looked to me like there everybody was working I never saw so many people working and helping and smiling in all my life and I commend this church for your wonderful wonderful efforts and I can tell you one thing they're going to pay off and when revival happens in those other churches God's going to look back to parallel and say that's where it started and you're going to be doubly blessed you never give to the kingdom that he doesn't return it I can tell you that and it also I have to say these things those who served I never saw working people so happy they were happy to be serving and that made you feel good if somebody is kind of half frowning and they're trying to help you you just as soon they not help you but that was not the case this this week it was just wonderful and God has given peril in a lot and it's not over with yet and you have become a channel of blessing to so many other people and I just want to sincerely thank you I'm telling you from I just have to say all this from the sound to the music to the facilities to the singing and then your pastoral team y'all have the best the girlies the girlies are such wonderful people and God has put a special anointing on them to lead and to help the kingdom of God and then Tyler and Tennille Tyler and Tamia a couple for now and the future and I am so thrilled to see people coming on that's going to lead us on and on and you're so blessed and then I have some old friends here by the name of Whaley not the young Whaley's the older Whaley's and they've been around with us a long time faithful faithful friends and then for your leadership top lead pastor brother Gurley such a vision he has and I just thank God for him and for what he's doing for the kingdom of God and then I also I know what you don't think I'm up here just to give a thank-you speech well I am and I'm enjoying doing it you deserve it and I'm enjoyed giving it to you but I also want to thank this church for your love and interest in the project and Calcutta that means so much to me my husband loved that city he roamed and groaned and wept and cried as he walked the streets of that place and talked about it often and now he's gone but they're building this memorial school there for him and you don't have any idea how much your pastor is playing in getting that done thank you brother Gurley and thank you church for what you are doing I have loved every minute of being here and I hope I've been sick this week I hope I don't have a coffin spell if I do well y'all just passed her and come up and take over but I hope I have something to share with you today and that the Lord will help me with it my subject today is things I don't understand but one thing I know you know life is full of mysteries tucked away in my purse over there there's a little little telephone a little cell phone now I use that thing all the time but I don't understand that you see I come from an era where you had telephone lines and right after we married my mother and father moved to Anchorage Alaska to establish a church there they were gone for years and my dad's health broke and they had to come home in that for years I talked to them on the phone one time and I was only 18 but it was just too expensive and what I'm going to tell you about that phone call is see I understand telephones from then when I placed that phone to my phone call to my mom and dad we were living in Monroe and the operator took the information and then she said ring down Shreveport shrimp Shreveport answered they gave them the information ring down little rock ring down st. Louis ring down Kansas City and finally they run down all the way to Anchorage Alaska now I just pick up my phone and calling and where in the world on my little cell phone I accept that but I don't understand it you know when they made the we got the first fax at the office that was just amazing to me I'm really showing my age up here order how you could send words over a line I just couldn't and they come up on the paper there's just a whole lot of things in life that we accept but we don't understand but because you don't understand it you don't do away with it I still have thoughts when I get on a big plane that's big as part of this building how in the world that thing's gonna fly and I've had a few cruises in my life and I get on board that ship and it's huge then you put all those people on it and you put all that luggage on it and all that food on it and all the engines on it and it still floats so there's a lot of mysteries in life that we don't understand you know the scripture mentions the word mystery 25 plus times and Paul used it about 20 times faith in prayer is something I don't understand I don't know how somebody in the United States can pray for somebody in India it happens there's no wires it's connection under there's just a lot of mysteries in life but just because it's a mystery doesn't mean that you reject it you accept it faith is a substance the scripture says faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen it's a substance you can't touch and an evidence you can't see but how many of you believe in God how many of you believe faith works how many of you believe that a prayer uttered here can go around the world and accomplish something just because you can't explain it doesn't mean it's not real we were never meant to understand everything the scripture says in Isaiah 55 and that his thoughts God speaking my thoughts are not your thoughts my ways are not your ways they're as far apart as the difference between the heaven and the earth and yet we try to humanize God and when we do it totally deflates your faith God is bigger than anything you could ever think of anything you could ever imagine and he can do things that you can't even think about because you don't even know what all God can do so things I don't understand but one thing I know after all of my fretting in life after all am i trying to figure things out worried until I have a corn on my brain I usually have to end up dumping out on God because I have control over so little anything you can take control over and do for yourself is really very minor everything is dependent on God and the sooner you learn that the more peaceful your life is because he is able to do things that I cannot do there are things I don't understand but one thing I know God is able regardless of what it is so after I have finished all my fretting and after I have finished all of my worrying I can turn myself again to God and know he is good and he does only good there is no darkness in him God don't have a dark side God's not planning some trick to trick you up he plans good things and I need to put my focus on that and believe regardless of what is happening around me that God is able to do abundantly above all that I could ever ask or think we worry so needlessly I have a little statement that I repeat to myself real often and I said a lot time to other people if he loved you enough to die for you he loves you enough to take care of you and my friend if that doesn't undergird your faith for anything your face and I don't know what could because no greater love hath a man than to lay down his life and that's what he did for all of us so I just want to talk to you a few minutes about some things that I don't understand there's scriptures things in the Bible I don't understand them the story the wedding at China is one of them you see God's ways are so far above ours quit trying to think you can think on God's level and quit trying to think you can figure out what can I was gonna do because he'll mess you up every time I was thinking about this nice tie at the wedding at Cana now the mother of Jesus was there and she goes to him and says we got a problem here he says not more business not yet she was warning him to do something because something in her heart told her that he was the one and he just pretty well left her off and said my time is not yet now that's Jesus talking and she went ahead and started the preparation anyway isn't that just like a momma and then you know what happened he turned the water into wine now the reason I mentioned to you that is because that that bothers me he said it's not time but he did it not messes me up brother girlie I don't understand that but I don't have to understand it that's the thing I don't understand why he said it's not my time and then he went ahead and did it but I don't have to understand it I just trust him and the sooner we learn the trust instead of question the sooner we will progress in our life God is good I want to say that over and over and God does all things well God is not mean God is not trying to trick you up God is pure love his essence is love quit thinking that God's after you if he catches you all he's gonna lose love you there's just a lot of things in a life that you won't ever understand that I don't ever understand but I don't have to understand them you know there's another another story of a woman that I don't quite understand the woman with the issue of blood these are all familiar stories did you know that she was considered by law to be unclean and the law said she could not touch a rabbi now I know my mind works a little different to others that bugs me she got a miracle doing what she wasn't supposed to do things I don't understand say I don't understand that but I don't have to understand it because God is above everything you ever thought and he understands and does things that you don't even have to know about and you don't have to make an explanation for it god is good always good and the sooner you can learn to trust that and quit questioning every little thing but what if and what you don't make the rules God makes the rules and he can change a rule anytime he wants to and he often does there's so many experiences in the Bible like this another one that bothers me the syrophoenician woman she was a heathen that's what the woman was she was at heathen and she had a need and she came to Jesus now remember we're talking about things I don't understand but one thing I know she came to Jesus and she need a miracle and jesus said sorry you're not a Jew you can't have one read it's in the Bible and she just came worshiping anyway and do you know that Jesus actually stepped across a dispensational line because it wasn't time for the Gentiles he stepped across the line and gave her a miracle now that don't compute with me you weren't supposed to do that Jesus but he did anyway because I didn't write the rules and I can't change the rules and he's God and he does what he wants to do and he always listened he always acts from love always acts from love I hope when you I get through with this today because it's a very simple message but that you understand that you don't have to figure it all out you just have to trust and believe and there are things that he will do that you'll never be able to figure out things I don't understand but this is what I do know God is good god is good and he has nothing but good in mind for you and me and then there's the woman at the well Jesus have started answering questions she didn't even ask she didn't ask a lot of stuff Jesus just started talking to her and answered all of her questions before she ever answered him and this is the thing that bugs me about that story it was one of the greatest revivals of the New Testament and she didn't even ask for it she didn't ask him to have a big revival in Samaria and not long before that he had told his disciples don't go to the cities of Siberia then he went and spent two days there I don't understand all this but I'm not supposed to understand it I am supposed to trust I am supposed to praise I am supposed to believe I don't have to worry about writing the rules or who's keeping the rules I'm looking to one who made the rules is the rule and will always be the rule why do I spend my time Freddy why do I spend my time worrying why do I spend my time time trying to figure things out when all I have to do is go to my heavenly father who knows things that I don't even pretend to know and knows the end from the beginning and what to do all in between folks we waste a lot of time and energy worrying over stuff when God is able to take care of all of it things I don't understand but one thing I know and that is that God is able he is full of mercy there's no one gone too far that he's not merciful he is full of grace he is full of love and every bit of his character is beyond our understanding we try to measure him according to human standards and it just don't work there are so many mysteries in the Bible that I don't understand but they opened up my thinking to where I can know that he's able to do beyond anything I could ever imagine he doesn't have to worry about whether it's the rule now the law now or whatever he just does what he wants to do because he loves everything is done from a heart of love what worrying about God getting mad at you God don't get mad at you he may be exact upset over some of the decisions you make but he always isn't working for your good you know I'm preaching to myself today because all of us are human and we get caught up and worrying about this and when you ever had a case of the what-ifs what if this happens and what if that happens and what if something else happens you can't change it so why don't you just take it to God and then walk off singing because the he's the one that can handle the and save yourself a nervous breakdown on a lot of other problems David he's another character that bugs me the Bible calls him a man after God's own heart you know what he really was he was a murderer and an adulterer he was a cruel King some time and he was a sorry father and how in the world could have men like that be called a man after God's own heart I can tell you why his love and yearning for the presence of God brought him into favor that's encouraging to me God is not measuring me by a ruler of some sort of how good I've been how perfect I am but if I can just have a heart after him I can make it over and over and over again I hate to tell you all this but if the UPC was in charge of Saul and David we'd put David out and keeps all but God sees the heart and he judges from the heart and if you can keep your heart clean and if you can keep your heart after God then he can overlook a hundred things that you do wrong if you've got the repented heart and a love for him thank God for it y'all sent out I want to taste something else I'm tell you something David did and I went back and read all this again last night because it kind of bothers me over in the early chapters of the Bible you know they directed the building of the ark and they had the pot of manna and all that stuff was in the ark and when they finished it and they did the tabernacle they put it behind a heavy heavy curtain and it was limited access you couldn't you just dared not walk back behind that curtain unless you were supposed to go and you were the right person to go do you know what David did for that art he brought it into the city and put it in an open tap at a tent and everybody gathered around it and they had big praise meetings around this art no brother girly I read where if anybody it went into that presence of that art behind that curtain that could be killed but David did it in the middle of the city some things I don't understand but one thing I know God is good god is good and if you're acting from the heart and a heart that is pure before him I don't care what kind of nastiness you've got on your hands for what you've done if your heart is pure after him that's what God sees he counts that my friend always and then this is one big one I don't understand I don't even have an answer to this one why did God choose Bathsheba's son instead of Abigail's Abigail was a wonderful woman Bathsheba committed adultery with David and yet God chose her you see folks God's a lot bigger than you are his thinking is far different to what you are and he thinks he see things from a different perspective to what you do so quit playing like your god you're not God he's God and things I don't understand I can leave with him and trust that he's going to work it out it's not my responsibility that's God's business intellectual thinking that we do interprets God too much like us because they we're bound by physical senses and by emotions and our thoughts but God lives in another realm and he sees things from a totally different perspective where God lives laws are different and he suspends all other laws in favor of what he chooses you know I I have volunteered my help to God many times and I'm not talking about working around the church I'm talking about what to do you know I sometime I just feel like God needs my advice and and I offer it but seldom is it accepted and then if I get down the road two or three weeks later I think oh my god what if he had done what I wanted I am so glad his thinking is beyond me I am so glad I'm cradled in the arms of one who never makes a mistake who always knows what is best and when I don't understand what's going on my friend all I have to do is lift my hands and say I'm trusting in the God who is able to do anything that needs to be done he is a ball and to do more than what we get everything the scripture says as high as the heavens are above the earth his thoughts his ways are above ours please resign from playing God you can live a lot longer and a lot healthier life if you'll learn to trust and obey trust and obey that's all that's expected so this I know God is good because he is the essence of love when it says that God is love that means there's no room for anything else there's no spite in God there's no I got you this time there is no wishing bad thoughts I don't know how that makes you feel but in my frailty and the many times I've made mistakes and thought wrong and acted wrong I am so glad I have a God who is pure loved and loves me beyond all reason and anything I could ever think of even when I have made terrible mistakes say Jesus not always knows more than I do and he can work things together it's interesting to me to go back and just kind of delve into the characters of the Bible and it helps me understand where I am sometimes we interpret what is happening as though it is something really bad when maybe it was intended for good you say God judges and knows the end from the beginning I'm down here moving here he's already here looking back to here he knows the hole all I have to do is keep walking Paul said the Christian life is a walk you know how much sense it takes to walk put one foot in front of the other one and if you keep doing that over and over and over you're walking and if you keep doing that long enough you're going into where you're headed and he knows where you were headed or where he wants you to go and he plans it out ahead of time and sometime we misinterpret what is happening in our life and we think that gods after us are something bad has happened when really it's part of the pathway God has chosen Moses was a goodly child from his birth he was destined to serve in a special place but to be to serve in a special place didn't necessarily mean that he was going to have a wonderfully happy life see God had something very special for Moses to do and Moses needed a good education so God takes him away from his mother and daddy and puts him in Pharaoh's Palace and they give him the best education in the world there was a reason for that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible Moses recorded the laws of God God had a plan and that time in Pharaoh's house just happened to be part of his plan and if you're in the plan of God don't matter where you are God's with you and he kept him regardless of what was going on and then he had another learning session he was going to have to lead several million people through a wilderness so God gave him 40 years to learn the trails of the wilderness while he was taking care of his father-in-law's sheep God is so much bigger than we are and he sees everything at one time and if I can just keep moving one step at a time following him I will meet my destiny where he will say to me well done my child you did good and school I'm proud of you come enter into the boys and the joys of Lord Moses is not the only one that did that David David had a rough life he was kind of neglected at home you know we could go into a whole lot of story about that but God had a plan for David's life he had something that was very important for David to do he was going to become the greatest King they ever had the children of God ever had was David how could a kid sitting out on a hillside playing a harp and and playing with a slingshot be f king well God has ways so he just snatches him up puts him in Saul's house Psalm is treats him he proves faithful and that's how he learned to rule the government God's ways are so far beyond us and I hope I can leave the message with you that I want to and that is this if you just keep your heart right and keep following after God regardless of what's happening in the present he is working all things together for your good I don't understand it at the moment but I can trust him because he is nothing but good nothing but good Joseph the same way you know had happened to Joseph his brothers I mean what else could happen his family turned on him his brothers turned on to me did a good job in Potiphar's house and thought of her turned on him he helped the people in the prison and one of them turned on him everywhere he turned there was something going wrong but he never lost his direction because in one of the greatest trial moments of his life he didn't say I can't do this because of that he said how can i sin against my god he kept his faith in God regardless of what was happening and God completed the work in Joseph's life and he will do it for you he will do it for you you just can't always understand what's going on that's why you need faith and trust Trust holds faith in place when I don't feel like I've got great faith I can go back to the things God has done in the past and he has never let me down and he is not ever gonna let me down and when I can't see my way I can trust the one who knows the way that I take and if I commit my way unto Him he will direct my path all the way through life sometime I don't understand it I don't understand it but he knows and I can trust him you need to move your mind from understanding to believing you're never going to understand the spiritual ways of God you weren't meant to but you need to move your mind from understanding to believing man believes with his heart not his mind and faith must override your thoughts learn to control your thoughts and line them up with the Word of God your heart can embrace what your head can never understand that's what you call faith my friend when you can't understand it with your mind but your heart can wrap itself around it and know that it's true your mind can act as a filter to dilute the faith in your heart there's a story in mark chapter 6 and I'm almost through pastor you want to come mark chapter 6 Jesus was in the synagogue and the people were amazed the scripture says they were amazed and astonished at the things he was saying until somebody started s a question who is this is this Joseph's son and the minute they started asking the question they didn't understand and they were offended the scripture says there were no mighty works done their questioning can short-circuit God faith is so important I don't even know how to describe how I feel about it because God lives in a different sphere and the only way I can enter into that sphere is by faith and how do you describe faith it is believing in something beside you it is leaving in something bigger than you it is believing in something that you can't understand it is accepting words that were written in a book that tell you things that you can never figure out and I just have to blindly accept them that God is God and he is able to do abundantly above all that we could ever ask our thing it doesn't matter what the problem is the problem can be your circumstances or it can be you he is bigger than a tall friend God is bigger than any of it so stop trying to figure life out so much and put it in the hands of God that can be trusted - you don't have to understand to trust it is one thing to know that he is able to do exceeding above all we could ever ask our things do you understand what that said you can't even begin to comprehend what God wants to work out in your life and all it takes is for you to throw your hands up in surrender and say whatever God wherever God trusting you and go on your way singing with a song in your heart knowing that you've got a God you can do anything there is nothing impossible with God the scripture says there's nothing impossible there's nothing too hard for God and I close with this in the middle of all your questioning just look to Calvary and know that if he loved you enough to die for you he loves you enough to take care of you when I don't understand and there's many things I don't understand I just simply accept it on the love and mercy and grace of God and know that he is working all things together for my good and I commit my way unto him and he will never ever let me down things I don't understand but one thing I know my God will never fail me I may fail a hundred thousand times but he's ready to pick me up at any minute put me back on my pathway he's full of mercy he's full of love he's four there's no darkness in him no shadow of turning nothing but light and love in the heart of God when he looks at you he don't think about the things you've done wrong when he looked at you his heart leaves with love because he gave himself for you father I thank you I thank you because we have the assurance of your words we have the assurance of the feelings that you give us in our heart we have the assurance of the holy spirit dwelling within us that evidence itself as we speak in our heavenly language talking directly to the Spirit of God what an awesome also place we live in thank you lord thank you Lord can you join me in saying thank you Lord for loving me thank you Lord for loving me [Applause] [Music] across this house could we just stand all over the place right now would you just lift your face toward heaven and say I don't understand Lord but I trust you I trusted your good heart I trust in your ways I lean not on my own understanding I trust you God I trust you Toriyama ha we stirred the Blitzkrieg the Blitzkrieg of the Second World War when the German bombers were coming over London the bombs had begun to fall [Music] it's in a certain neighborhood of London that the bombs hit especially hard and houses and structures begin to collapse and shards of stone wood metal were flying in the end a father had awakened when he heard the sirens took his little boy they began to race down the stairs and as they began to race out a bomb hit the structure that they were again to begin to shatter around them they became separated and finally finally there the son saw his father struggling out from under some temper they raced out the front of the now collapsed structure and the dad knew we just got to find shelter and he saw he saw the hole that had been formed a crater that had been formed by an exploded shell and he dove into it and then he turned around and said jump son junk the little boy said that I can't see you but the father said this but son I see you jump this is faith folks we can't see him but there's got to be something that causes our feet to move and there's got to be something that causes us to relinquish control and to take a step into the Oblivion and into the unknown knowing that he's already there and he's waiting on us I don't know what you came into this building with what you're struggling with what's your face with this week but I can promise you every human being in this house God is asking you to let go of something and God is asking you to lay aside your rationale behind and to take a leap of faith into the arms of the unknown and don't you know he'll catch you don't you know he's waiting for you don't you know he's already in the biggest mess of your life saying I'm sorting things out I'm getting them all all across this building I wish you would just go ahead and take some steps into the unknown which you find your way out into an aisle find your way out of a row and just began to come and stand with the rest of the body here and just say god whatever it is I'm letting go I'm letting go of my worry and my fear and my anxiety I'm letting go of my anger my temper I'm letting go Lord of my fear my anxiety cause I'm laying there my sorrow God I'm laying down a garment of heaviness my faith knowing that you're gonna give me the garment of praise I'm laying down God my problems my issues God that have clums of me all of my life I'm laying down oh god things that I really can't understand and I can't explain go but this one thing I know you said you would never leave me you would never forsake me that you are faithful that you are always there that you are the friend that sticks closer than a brother today God I relinquish control Lord I let go in this building in this house right now God and I say take it Lord take all of me take my yesterday smart today said my tomorrows take my past my present my future take my successes my failures gonna I put them all how would you cry out to God right now would you just begin to cry oh god I let go right now in this room

Channel: First Church

Views: 6,103

Rating: 4.9574466 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: U9C_nBLkN8M

Length: 43min 18sec (2598 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 20 2019