7. Godly dreams don't always immediately bring about a wonderful world WEEP AND REJOICE

8. What happens to our faith when the things that we wish would happen do but in a different way than we planned? Are we willing to follow God through to a different future than we planned? What do we do as surprises invade our lives on a daily basis? Do we see God in life when what we expect does not materialize and what we can’t imagine and don’t want does? Matthew 1:18-25 “Your wife is pregnant........But the baby isn’t yours”

9. How do we view retreat as followers of God? When is it the right thing to back off or run away rather than saying, “This is a God thing so get with the program!” Matthew 2:13 “Your wife and adopted child are healthy and wealthy.......But the king of your country just sent an army to kill them”

10. How do we cope with the seeming injustice of who is safe, blessed, healthy, wealthy, etc and those that are not? Especially when we are the safe and secure ones? When things that we have participated in have gone bad for others? Matthew 2:16-18 “You and your family are safe in Egypt......But all the other boys born around the time yours was born have been slaughtered”

11. How do we handle not ending up in the place that we want to be at the end of our journey with God? What is our attitude going to be when, after being faithful and doing everything God has asked, we still don’t get what we feel we deserve back in this life? How do we understand God as all powerful when He can’t even bring us completely home, make us completely healthy, help us have a stable job, or loving family and friends? Matthew 2:22b-23 “Your families enemy, King Herod, is dead. So you can go back home.......But not all the way home. His son is ruling in his place so you are going to need to go into hiding in a Podunk town called Nazareth”

12. 1. God will get us through the good and the bad 2. There will always be opposition to God’s plan 3. Sometimes that opposition comes from “God’s people” So why is any of this encouraging to us?

13. God is with us; he is our leader. His priests with their trumpets will sound the battle cry against you. People of Israel, do not fight against the LORD, the God of your ancestors, for you will not succeed.” 2 Chronicles 13:12

14. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” Acts 5:39

15. 1. God will get us through the good and the bad 2. There will always be opposition to God’s plan 3. Sometimes that opposition comes from “God’s people” 4. Nothing can keep God’s plans from becoming a reality, nothing. 5. In the end, the very end of the story, not always during the story, but at the end of the story, the faithful will be rewarded and the unfaithful will be judged So why is any of this encouraging to us?

16. All of these remind us that God’s initiative in our lives is less about giving us a perfect present and more about giving us a defining future.

17. God does have wonderful plans for us as we follow Jesus, plans that make us rejoice!

18. Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first. Matthew 19:27-30

19. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. John15:19-21

20. God protects the life of Jesus so that He can live out his life If Jesus was only born so that he could be sacrificed (die) He could have been sacrificed with the other innocent children in Bethlehem and around Jerusalem However God the Father needed Jesus not only to be born and die but also to live as an example of how we are to live God’s plan is about a life and a lifestyle, not just a birth and a death

21. Hebrews 5:7-9 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. And that life was a life of obedience to the lifestyle that His Father had called Him

22. Our salvation is incomplete as well without a life of discipleship that reflects a followship of Jesus The plan of salvation is incomplete without the life that Jesus lived

23. Mark 8:34-35 The Way of the Cross Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. Salvation is not just about believing in Jesus it is about following His example

24. God does fulfill His promises.But it comes at a great price. Are you willing to follow even if some bad news comes with the good news?