By

Shelby G. Floyd

How many of us can remember back when we were little children, school was out, we got up in the morning and we would play with our friends from daylight and there were no worries, no anxiety. When I was a child, I never worried about whether we were going to have food on the table; I just trusted my mom and dad and I knew that they would take care of me. I never worry about whether I was going to have a good coat when wintertime would come on; they just always took care of me, and I trusted them. I never worried about the mortgage payment or whether we would have a place to live, because I just took that for granted; I trusted my parents and they always came through. Many of us have that kind of trust, that kind of a faith in an all-powerful, all loving heavenly Father, that he will do the same for us today! I really feel like we need to get the lesson of God’s overruling Providence into our hearts in a firm and fixed way.

The Story of Joseph

One of the most beautiful stories to me is found in Genesis beginning with chapter 37 and continuing through that book. It is the story about the patriarch Jacob, and he had all of the sons. The youngest son was named Joseph. He really loved Joseph in a special way because he was born by his wife, Rachel, who he loved also in a special way. He loved him so much because he was born when Jacob was up in the years. Jacob was an old man. So, Joseph had a special place in his heart. But this created jealousy and envy on the part of Joseph’s brothers, and they hated him. They would not even speak peaceably to him and on a certain occasion when the opportunity was right, they even wanted to kill their brother, Joseph. But the way it turned out, instead of killing him, they sold him as a slave into bondage down into Egypt. Joseph was separated from his family, separated from his father, separated from his brothers. He was off in a distant land, but Joseph was a man who trusted the Almighty. He never lost faith. Whatever happened to him, he realized that God had a plan for his life. Sometimes he would be down in the very depths of despair, but he never gave up. He never lost faith; he never changed his character. He was true to his God whether he was at home in Canaan land or whether he was in the land of Egypt. God loved Joseph. God looked down from heaven, and God took care of him. God exalted him and ultimately, he became prime minister of the land of Egypt. God had a plan not only for Joseph, but God had a plan for Joseph’s father, Joseph’s brothers and God had a plan for the whole human race and Joseph was a part of that plan, even when terrible things happened to him down in Egypt. Later on when there was a great famine in Canaan and Jacob had to send his sons down to Egypt to buy corn and food so they could survive, after the second trip, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers and it was fulfilled what he had earlier prophesied that they would bow down to him like the stars of heaven would bow down to the sun and they would bow down to him like the sheep that bow down to the shepherd that was in the meadow; it was all fulfilled. When they realized that it was their brother, Joseph, they became very afraid and especially after their father died, they were afraid that Joseph would take vengeance upon them for the terrible things that they had done in the way they had treated him. But in Genesis 50 Joseph makes a point that I want to emphasize this morning. He said, “do not fear what I will do to you, because you meant it unto me for evil, but God meant it for good to save many people alive this day.” Now there is the point that we wish to make. If we really love God and we trust him and we are serving him, even things that seem to be evil in our life can turn out to be for good. God can overrule any evil that happens in our life and bring good out of it. Was it evil that Joseph’s brothers sold him into Egypt? Yes. Was it evil that he was falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife and thrown in prison? Yes. Did God overrule that and bring about good in the life of Joseph? Yes. God wanted to save Jacob and his children and his posterity so Christ could come into the world, and he did that through Joseph and through all these things happening to him. Joseph was at the right place at the right time to be selected as the Prime Minister of Egypt, to overrule the dispensaries of food when the famine came and save them alive and prosper them so they would become the great nation of Israel and later bring God’s scheme of redemption and reveal it to us by the Old Testament prophets and, ultimately, manage to bring Christ into the world. That is the Providence of God.

The Providence of God

What is the Providence of God? I really believe in the Providence of God. God controls and guides the events of our world in such a way as to bless his children. This is what we mean when we talk about the Providence of God.

Robert Richerson was the son-in-law of Alexander Campbell, and he was a teacher at Bethany College in Bethany, West Virginia. And in the Millennial Harbinger he made this statement about Providence: “It is indeed the very idea and definition of Providence that it is the divine agency exerted in sustaining and governing the universe. It differs from miracle in this – that its designs are brought to pass by means of the established laws and through the ordinary channels, while a miracle is the accomplishment of a purpose by other means.” He goes on to say, “By the Providence of God, then we need his care and his superintendence in preserving and governing the world. By the preservation of the world is implied in the upholding, the being, the powers and the attributes of all created things and by government is signified a controlling overruling power over everything which is thus upheld.” So, I think you can see from that definition that God and the word teaches that God is governing and superintending, and he is bringing his purposes about through whatever things are going on in the natural world.

The Constitutional Convention

God’s providence has been recognized by religious and political people, that even our greatest political statesman in the beginning days of our country recognized that God has an overruling Providence in the affairs of men. In the constitutional convention when they were having a problem trying to come up with a constitution and it looked like they were not going to be able to accomplish it at all, old Benjamin Franklin, a very wise man, rose up in the constitutional convention and he said, “I have lived, sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proof I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men,” and he said, “if a sparrow cannot fall without his notice, is it likely or possible that an empire can rise without his aid.” That statement, it seems, was the statement that really was able to conclude the constitutional convention, and they were able to get the thing together and we live under that wonderful document today.

Jesus Believed in God’s Providence

You know, we had a reading just a moment ago from Matthew six, a wonderful statement from the mouth of Jesus Christ himself about God’s overruling Providence. He argues first and logically by what we call from the greater to the less. He says, “Take no thought for your life what you shall eat or what you shall drink nor yet for your body what you shall put on. Is not the life more than meat and the body more than raiment?” It would be like those of us that are parents – if we could go out and buy our children an electric train, do not you think that we would be able to supply the electricity for the train to run on the tracks? Well, that is the same way with God. If he can give us life, and he has given all of us our life, that is the greater thing. Do not you think he can give us the food and the water that we need to sustain that life? If he can do the greater thing, obviously, he will do the lesser thing.

The next argument is the same thing. If God gave us a body and he created our bodies, our souls and our spirits – if he can give us the body, do not you think that he can give us the clothes to put on the body, the raiment that we need to keep the body warm? Why, of course, he can.

And then he argues from the least to the greater, just the opposite. He says, “Look at the birds of the air. They do not go out in the springtime and plow the fields and sow the seed. They do not go out in the fall of the year and reap the harvest. They do not build barns and store it. Your heavenly Father takes care of the birds.” The birds are a lesser creation of God than man and I never fail to forget that when I hear the birds singing and chirping like they have been doing the last few days. Spring cannot be too far away, can it? With all these little birds singing, they are so happy; they know that God is taking care of them. Why can’t we be that way? If God does that for the birds, then he is going to do that for us, if we will but trust him. And by the way, Jesus said not even one sparrow can fall to the ground without God taking notice of it. If he takes notice of even one sparrow that falls to the ground, do not you think that he will do the same thing for us; that he will take care of us.

Then again, he argues from the least to the greater, “consider the lilies of the field. They do not spin. They do not toil. Yet I say unto you that Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” The riches, the glory, the splendor of Solomon is still a proverb in the Eastern countries. They have never forgotten what a wonderful king he became, and they have never forgotten the riches and the glory of his kingdom; it is proverbial. Jesus said, “consider the lilies;” consider the lesser creation of God. They are here today and tomorrow they wither and die, and they are consumed, but if God can clothe them with such brilliant and beautiful hues and colors, do not you think he is going to be able to provide us with our clothes, with our suits, with our jackets, and with our coats. Is not it beautiful the way Jesus express all of this and he wants us to trust God for everything and look to him for our sustenance.

He closed out this section by saying that the Gentiles are seeking out all of these things that they put first in their life. But he said to his disciples, “Seek you first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” They will be thrown in for extra measure is the idea of the Greek word there. Seek first the kingdom and his righteousness and all of these other things that you seek after will be thrown in for extra measure!

All Thing Work Together for Good!

In Romans, chapter 8, the apostle Paul expressed to the church at Rome God’s overruling Providence and how he cares for his people and how he takes care of us and how he overrules evil and brings good out in our lives. He sums it all up in Romans, chapter 8, verse 28, when he said, “For those that love God and are called according to his purpose, all things work together for good!” All things. He did not say some things. He did not say just the good things. He did not say just most of the things, but he says all things. All things work together for good. Maybe Joseph could not see how that his brother selling him down into Egypt and the bondage was ever going to work together for any good in his life. Maybe he did not see how being falsely accused and cast into a prison was going to work out for any good in his life or anybody else’s. It is only after the thing had been concluded that he could he look back on his life and tell his brothers when they were revealed to him, “do not worry, I am not going to hurt you. I am not going to take revenge on you, even though what you did to me many, many years ago, you meant it for evil, God meant it for good. God overruled the evil you did to me to bring about good in my life and to save a lot of people this day.”

Do we really believe Romans 8: 28, “all things”. What about these “all things” – the good, the bad, the joyful, the sad. They work together. It is like a puzzle. We will never really understand our life completely until our life is over and we look back and we see that God has been working in our life to bring about good.

All things, not just some things, most things, a few things, but all things. Number two, all things work together for good, and number three, all things work together for good to a certain class of people – to them that love God and are called according to his purpose.

Who are the people that love God? “This is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous.” (1 John 5:3). It is ridiculous for anyone to say that they love God, and they are not trying to keep his commandments. If we really love God, we will keep his word, and so the promise in Romans 8:28 that all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to his purpose is really all things work together for them that keep God’s commandments and thereby show that they really love God.

Measuring Life by The Wrong Standard

God’s overruling Providence is wonderful. But you know right here we sometimes measure life by the wrong standard. We see a righteous man suffer and we see a wicked man that is prospering and then we begin to question God’s providence in our lives and in our own hearts and minds. We say that if God was really governing the world, if he is really a superintendent over the universe and if he is really overruling evil to bring about good, then why is it that an evil person is prospering and so many good things are happening to him, and why is it that I look around and see so many good people with evil things happening to them. Harold Kushner wrote a book a few years ago and I checked it out of the library and read it, and he was dealing with the same problem. It was called “Why do bad things happen to good people?” And that is a legitimate question we all wonder about it. The philosophers and the sages down through the ages have wrestled with that question, why is it that evil things happen to good people and good things happen to evil people? Well, it is because we are deluded into thinking that this world is our permanent home and we think that it is bad when evil happens to us and it is good when only good happens to us, but we are looking at it and measuring life by the wrong standard. If we can look at it from this point – that everything that will bring us closer to God is good and everything that will drive us away from God is bad, then it might just be that the frowns and the displeasure’s of the world that are heaped upon us sometime can be good, because it might drive us to our knees in prayer and bring us closer to God. It just might be that if we are sick and we are lying on our back in a hospital bed while we think that is bad, it might be good, because it might make us think more about how short life is and how dependent we are upon God for our life and for our health and it might drive us closer to God. All human suffering can bring about good results, if we look at it and measure life by the right standard and it just could be that if we have unparalleled success and riches in glory and honor, that those things would not really be good for us. This could cause us to be puffed up with pride; cause us to be arrogant; cause us to be independent and not trust God for all of our blessings.

God’s Overruling Providence!

What I am trying to get across this morning is this – whatever our lot in life is, God can overrule it and bring about good for us, for our family, the church, and those we come in contact with if we really love him, if we really trust him, if we are really called according to his purpose. I look back in history and I think about how God has blessed this country. We appreciate the beautiful songs that were selected today. There is nothing wrong, in fact, it is right for one to love one’s country. A heating and air-conditioning man left a couple of those little posters out on the front of the door this week and I put one on the bulletin board, “have you prayed for your country lately?” We need to pray for our country. And it thrills my heart that the people of this country are recognizing it and letting it be known that we love America, that we love freedom, and that we hate aggression and people that would mistreat other nations. That is healthy. I cannot help but think back to the second world war when the Allied forces were ready to make an invasion into Europe and how they were studying the weather and that the conditions would be right for an invasion and on the day that our troops invaded, the weather was just perfect. It was foggy and rainy; they could not see our troops as they came to the shore. That was God’s providence operating. Now we look back on it after we won a great victory and we say God had to be with us. Even in the weather he was cooperating, but did not create a miracle. He just used the natural laws of the universe to bring about such blessings as to bless America, bless the church, bless the people that live in this land and our allies. I really believe that God’s providence, if we are right, will operate in the present conflict over in the Middle East and not only in international and national conflicts, but he will also cooperate in the conflicts that we have in the world that we are fighting for the hearts and the minds of people. We are soldiers of Christ. We need to arise, pick up the gospel banner and march forward for victory.

The Great Commission of Jesus!

I want to close our lesson this morning by the statement of Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20. On a mountain in Galilee, Jesus appeared after his resurrection to the eleven apostles, and he said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” As you will notice there are four universal statements that he makes? Jesus says, number one, that he has “all authority in heaven and earth.” All executive, legislative and judicial authority are vested in Jesus Christ, the son of God. Secondly, he says to “go make disciples of all nations.” We call this the great commission, because it is universal in its scope. We are to take the gospel like the Colossians and the early Christians did to every creature under heaven. Colossians 1:23 says, “Go teach all nations and make disciples of all nations.” Thirdly, after you have discipled the believers out of all nations, he says you “teach them all things that I have commanded you.” Our teaching does not end when we baptize somebody. We teach them all things and that means that we are to lay out all the duties and the responsibilities that are incumbent upon every Christian. And then fourth, I will be with you always, even unto the end of the age.” The Greek word there, always means all the days. We live in days, happy days, sad days, good days, bad days. There are days when a child is born, there are days when a child dies. There is a birth, there is a death. But Jesus said if we will recognize his all authority and we will go into all the nations and make disciples out of them and if we would teach all things to those disciples, his promise, his providence will be with us always, or all the days of our lives, even unto the end of the age. He will be with us all the days of our life, even until he comes again at the last day to resurrect the righteous dead and to transform the righteous living and take us home to be with him in glory forever. I do not know about you, but I love that promise, “Lo, I am with you always (all the days), even unto the end of the age.”

Christian brother and sister in Christ, are you relying upon that promise? You can if you love God and if you are called according to his purpose. Friend, you cannot claim that promise that he will be with you, unless you will give your life in allegiance to him and unless you will serve him and love him and follow him and join up in his army and go out and fight the battles that are before you. I hope this morning that as we leave here, every one of us will be able to claim that promise, “I am with you always even unto the end of the age.” Make that promise yours while we stand and while we sing.

Copyright © 1991, 2021, 2025, Shelby G. Floyd, All Rights Reserved



Shelby G. Floyd delivered this sermon February 10, 1991, at the South Central Church of Christ, 265 E. Southport Road, Indianapolis, Indiana. Shelby, his family, and about twenty-five others started this congregation February 4, 1986.