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When Your Life Doesn’t Go To Plan

by | Fri, Jul 23 2021

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Jeff Vines

In this episode of Today with Jeff Vines, we ask the question, what do you do when your life does not turn out the way you thought? In this message in our series on King David, Pastor Jeff is unpacking what sovereignty really means. He’s looking at what happened towards the end of King David’s life and rule. When life turned out differently to what David had planned.

Jeff picks up the story of David as he’s riding a donkey out of Jerusalem and his supporters are few and far between. “I want you to put this in the context now of your life,” says Jeff. “What do you do when the love of your life leaves you, when a son is lost on the battlefield? When the tumor is not benign? When the disease is spreading, when dreams don’t come true, what do you do? Because David is on the donkey and his dreams are not coming true. Here he is, and his favourite son, Absalom that he hoped would one day take over the throne, is now marching into the city of Jerusalem with his armies, wanting to kill David and destroy his regime and take over power.”

Jeff questions if this is the time for David to have a life defining experience and realize that he’s on his own. Is this just more proof that when life gets hard, God does not exist? David might think he’s got somebody with him, but God is not real. This whole thing about God is just a delusion. Religion is the opium of the people, and belief in God is to give a spiritual buzz so that everyone can live in denial. That life stinks from dust back to dust with a lot of pain and suffering in between.

“The thing is if you walk away from God and say, because my life has not turned out the way I thought it would, I don’t believe there’s a God, there’s another problem,” Jeff says. “If there is no God, then what are you upset about? If there’s no God, you’re the product of atheistic evolution, which means time plus matter plus chance. You’re a freak accident. And if you’re a freak accident and there’s no purpose to your life, no meaning dust to dust, everything in between is just bad luck. So when bad things happen wrong place, wrong time, right?”

“This is what amazes me. When I read this article in the Los Angeles Times from this author in the secular media, who talks about the value of human life, I guarantee you if he heard somebody say we should start teaching creation in the public schools of America he would be outraged. But you can’t have intrinsic worth without creation.”

As Christians we say that God created the world, and the fine tuning of this universe demands a designer. God has created us through his son, Jesus Christ, who has been validated by his miracles and by the resurrection has proven to us the depth of the love of God. God is omnipresent, meaning that he’s fully present in our lives.

“He can be fully involved in your life while being fully involved in my life. It doesn’t mean that he has to say, ‘Jeff, I’m over here right now. I’ll get to you later.’ He’s fully involved in all of our lives at the same time. And yet as Christians when our life doesn’t turn out the way we want or something bad happens to us, we take another road. What’s the benefit of remaining faithful? It’s like we’re saying, ‘God if you’re not on my team or if this the best you can do, I’m going to get my own team.’”

“But here’s the irony. Christians get ticked off at God and run away when life isn’t going their way, while people who are far from God when tragedy strikes, they run to Him. Why is that?”

Listen below to the rest of Jeff’s message on what the sovereignty of God really means.

Listen to ‘Today’ with Pastor Jeff Vines weekdays on Vision Christian Radio.  Find your local times and more messages here.

More from Pastor Jeff Vines

Christianity is Not a Political Movement: A Conversation with Pastor Jeff Vines

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Saving Souls Through Love in Action: A Conversation with Pastor Jeff Vines

Jeff Vines joined Phil Edwards at Vision to discuss how love in action is more likely to save souls than condemning those struggling with unbiblical and controversial issues our society is currently facing.