A Lesson In Sovereignty
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Recap of the past few weeks.
Don’t be a Jonah Lessons:
Disobedience leads to death.
A sinful heart makes a foolish mind.
God will have his way.
You might be a Jonah if…
Your actions betray your words.
The world is more gracious than you.
Tonight, we are going to talk about the Sovereignty of God.
I’m calling this message…
A Lesson in Sovereignty
And our text for the night is the entirety of chapter 2.
So, a lesson in God’s sovereignty, via, the second chapter of Jonah.
Let’s first pray and then we will read through the text together.
***PRAY
Start in 1:17
Explain Context, Read Chapter 2, Explain As You Go
Definition of Sovereignty: Supreme Power or Authority
God’s Sovereignty is Perfect (v. 1:17)
As in, god’s sovereignty is complete…it needs nothing, it lacks nothing, and it can’t be made better.
Read Verse
There’s two routes I want to go with this that are sort of related and sort of not.
Is the connection between what it says about Jonah here…and what Jesus experienced.
40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
I bring up this point to help you worship God all the more.
God is so sovereign to be dropping this beautiful hint of the gospel hundreds of years before Christ!
It connects even more in verse 6.
6 at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land
whose bars closed upon me forever;
yet you brought up my life from the pit,
O Lord my God.
And we see this connected in
1 Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—
20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,
God is like this brilliant artist, painting a series of pictures, leaving hints towards his ultimate masterpiece…
Or like a brilliant author writing a series…
The point is…God’s sovereignty is perfect…and understanding that it’s perfect, especially when it comes to how he masterfully works throughout time and history…is a reason to worship him all the more.
I told you there were two routes to go on this point, first one was connecting it to Jesus. Second is just understanding that God’s sovereignty is just perfect in what he is able to do.
There are a lot of things that we as humans try to do and have done. But yet there are still things that only God can do. And he can do them because he is perfectly sovereign.
Think of the accomplishments of mankind…
We can tell you how cells grow back, restore, die, separate…and yet we can’t make them do that. Not truly, not perfectly.
Another illustration?
Think about this instance with the fish.
We can study fish, know what they look like, how the act, why the act, we can even trap them and train them like the whales and dolphins at sea world or the shedd aquarium.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs3Ldqa7nm8
Anyone ever been to one of these types of shows?
How do they train them?
The point is…we can train and accomplish great things….but we can’t appoint them. Not like God can and God does.
God’s sovereignty is perfect.
And because God’s sovereignty is perfect….because that is true, we know that we can trust.
God’s Sovereignty is a reason to trust (v. 2: 1-6)
Look back at the verses with me.
We remember that it was the sailors that threw Jonah overboard…after they didn’t want to but eventually realized they had to. We see that in …
15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.
And yet…we see the story in a different light in 2:3
3 For you cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
passed over me.
What this shows us…is that…
That all things are done within his will (v.3)
This is a hopeful statement. Some would look at verse 3 and find hopelessness. They would find blame. They would find anger.
GOD DID THIS??? HE’S CRUEL, HE’S MEAN, HE’S LIKE A KID WITH A MAGNIFYING GLASS.
But those that would look at a situation that way are looking at it wrong…because we should rejoice that all things are within God’s will.
God did this? YES! Because if someone else truly did this then it’s the will of somebody i don’t know, somebody I don’t trust. Somebody who hasn’t revealed themselves to me.
But if God did this to me then I know it’s the will of a GOOD God. I know it’s the will of a GOD I KNOW. I know it’s the will of a GOD I TRUST. I know it’s the will of a God who is FOR ME and not against me if I am his.
30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
God’s sovereignty is a reason to trust because if it’s his will that’s being accomplished than I know where I fall in that will…I know what he says about me and therefore what his will will do with me.
If it’s his will that is being accomplished than I know that not only when I am cast into the deep like in verse 3, I am in the hands of a Good GOD, but I also know that i will be brought up like in verse 6 because of a good God.
And verse 6 is our other way that we can trust God because of his sovereignty.
That he can accomplish all things (v.6)
Not only can I trust God’s control because he DESIRES to do something in my life. But I trust his sovereignty because can ACCOMPLISH those things in my life.
Not only does he want to do things, but his sovereignty means he has the power to get the job done.
This whole book proves that…but we see it for sure when he causes a storm, and then when he stops it, and then when he appoints the fish, and then when he causes the fish to spit Jonah back out…and we will see it even more in the next couple of chapters.
I saw this often, but I’m going to say it again. Isaiah says it best about how God accomplishes things…
10 declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
So what do we learn about God’s sovereignty? It’s perfect, and because of it we can trust. And the last lesson we can see tonight is…
God’s Sovereignty includes our prayers (v.7-10)
Look back at the verses. Especially verse 7, and look at how verse 7 draws back to verse 2.
Can I explain this to you fully? Absolutely not.
But the beauty is…I don’t have to explain it to you fully for it to be true. But rest assured, I can prove to you that it’s true.
1 Peter 3:12 (ESV)
12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer.
12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
24 Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.
Guys even one verse would be enough to prove it to you, but there are many and I just gave you four!