God Planned Surprises...

I say this because today a couple of prayers of mine have been answered and something that I have had on my brain for the last couple of weeks was preached about today. God has to be smiling. Don't you just marvel at the way he works sometimes...I was have been kind of worried about the money for the Africa trip while we have been remodeling the kitchen and today someone approached me at choir and asked me if I was still going to Africa. I said yes...then he handed me $125. I was floored...I said thank you but I don't know if it was audible, does that make sense, I know it was and I did thank him. I couldn't believe it and I am sure God was laughing at me for my reaction because he was thinking...you prayed about it didn't you? Then during our Sunday school class another one was answered. I have been stockpiling groceries along with many, many health and beauty items and I didn't know what to do with it all or who to donate it to. One of the ladies mentioned that she was wondering if we could start a ministry to send boxes to the troops in Iraq because she is on leave from the military and her husband is stationed over there right now and they are in need of health and beauty items...HOW FUNNY! I couldn't believe my ears...here was my opportunity to help God answer her prayer.
So God answers prayers and he hears our thoughts because I have been talking a lot about my bible studies that I have been attending with several people and how I felt that Pilate and King Darius in Daniel had a lot in common, they both picked the social status and their "job" over what they believed. King Darius in Daniel, with a lot of pressure from society, created a law that no one could pray God or man for 30 days unless they were praying to King Darius and if they broke that law they would be throw into the lion's den.

Daniel 6
3 Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. 4 At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. 5 Finally these men said, "We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God." 6 So the administrators and the satraps went as a group to the king and said: "O King Darius, live forever! 7 The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisers and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or man during the next thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be thrown into the lions' den. 8 Now, O king, issue the decree and put it in writing so that it cannot be altered—in accordance with the laws of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed." 9 So King Darius put the decree in writing.

This same thing happens in John 19 with Pilate. He was pressured by his job and by his people to crucify an "innocent man". He even had Jesus flogged so that the crowd might see that this man, Jesus, had paid enough. After the flogging he brought Jesus before them as if to say...hasn't he paid enough. He was shocked when the crowd said...crucify. He kept giving the crowd a chance to not crucify and yet the pressure of the people and the thought that he might lose his job if the people didn't like the decision, he caved. He even had the nerve to say to to Jesus...Don't you know who I am? Don't you know that I decide your fate, I have the power to set you free or crucify you. Jesus answered...You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Jesus was showing Pilate that he was just merely a chess piece and that God was the one controlling the moves.

John 19
1Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they struck him in the face. 4Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, "Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him." 5When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!" 6As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, "Crucify! Crucify!" But Pilate answered, "You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him." 7The Jews insisted, "We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God." 8When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9and he went back inside the palace. "Where do you come from?" he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10"Do you refuse to speak to me?" Pilate said. "Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?" 11Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin." 12From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, "If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar." 13When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge's seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). 14It was the day of Preparation of Passover Week, about the sixth hour.
"Here is your king," Pilate said to the Jews. 15But they shouted, "Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!" "Shall I crucify your king?" Pilate asked. "We have no king but Caesar," the chief priests answered. 16Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

This conversation between Pilate and Jesus is very significant with our lives. We are either on God's side or against Him. We are either holy or unholy. We are either good or evil. There is a clear way to live and not to live. The pastor said that if just 1 person is committed to God's side, they will do more than 1000 who are just interested in God's side. Satan's plan for our life is to get us discontented...disillusioned, discouraged, disgusted and ultimately destroy us. There is only a black and white for God...Heaven or Hell, no gray. If we keep searching in this world for what we can only find in God...which is peace and understanding, answers to prayer and comfort at our times of need and that reassurance that when our "dash" is over...we are going to get to spend the rest eternity with Him then our life will be much like "a blind man in a dark room searching for a black hat, that isn't there. " Charles Bowen

Sorry it was so long...but I couldn't condense it anymore than I already did. Thanks Powell...what an awesome sermon again!