What’s Next?

God’s will is fulfilled on earth through our partnership with Him in prayer and action, as He has chosen to work through humanity to accomplish His purposes.

Notes

Transcript

Service Order

Opening - Amelia

Worship

Video or Songs?

Transition - Shelly

Announcements - Kent

Offering Box (in the back)

Graduation!!

Richard Orencia

Robbie Tate

Colton Porter

Jaimee Clark

Ashleigh Messer

April Meggs

Dismiss Children - Brian & Selena

Baptism Testimony - Mike

Membership - Jaimee

Sermon - Kent

Altar Ministry - Julie

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What’s Next?

I really want to dispel a myth surrounding God’s sovereignty…this idea that God is in control and that everything happens for a reason…

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2 Peter 3:9

"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance”.

God’s will - none perish

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Matthew 7:21-23

21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Jesus says - some will perish

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1. The Sovereignty of God

Sovereignty - Supreme power or authority

Question - Does God always get what He wants?

I believe God’s will is one thing…and the fulfillment of His will is married to us partnering with Him to carry it out.

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John Wesley said it like this- “God does nothing on the earth save [except] in answer to believing prayer.”

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1 Kings 17:1 -

Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”

Elijah / prophet / spoke what God said / no rain

God’s will or plan = no rain for a few years

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1 Kings 18:41-44

41 Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go get something to eat and drink, for I hear a mighty rainstorm coming!”

42 So Ahab went to eat and drink. But Elijah climbed to the top of Mount Carmel and bowed low to the ground and prayed with his face between his knees.

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43 Then he said to his servant, “Go and look out toward the sea.”

The servant went and looked, then returned to Elijah and said, “I didn’t see anything.”

Seven times Elijah told him to go and look. 44 Finally the seventh time, his servant told him, “I saw a little cloud about the size of a man’s hand rising from the sea.”

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Then Elijah shouted, “Hurry to Ahab and tell him, ‘Climb into your chariot and go back home. If you don’t hurry, the rain will stop you!’”

What was Elijah praying for when it says he prayed with his face between his knees?

CLICK IN James 5:17-18

17 Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

Question - If it was already God’s will for it to not rain, then why did Elijah pray for it not to rain? And if it was God’s will for it to start raining in 3 1/2 years…then why did Elijah pray for it to rain? And if the time was already determined to be around 3 years…why did Elijah pray again that it would rain when it was clearly God’s will for it to start raining again around that time?

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Zechariah 10:1

Ask the LORD for rain In the time of the latter rain.

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Philippians 4:19

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

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Matthew 6:11

Give us this day our daily bread

If it’s boldly declared in God’s word that He WILL supply all of our needs…

…yet we’re instructed to ask Him for our daily needs…

Then why do we ask, except that God’s will somehow gets accomplished on the earth through our asking?

It’s almost like our asking releases Him to do what He wants to do on the earth.

Why is this??

This gets into…

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2. OUR ROLE

When God created Adam & Eve, He gave them “dominion” to rule over the earth.

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Genesis 1:26

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So complete and final was Adam’s authority over the earth that he, not just God, had the ability to give it away to another!

- Dutch Sheets

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In Luke 4:6-7, when Jesus is tempted by Satan…he says to Jesus -

6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.”

Jesus never corrected Satan about not having authority. He didn’t say, “You can’t give me something you don’t have.”

Because Satan did, in fact, have it. He got it from Adam when Adam and Eve sinned.

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John 12:31

31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.

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John 14:30

30 I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me,

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John 16:11

11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

Satan was called “the prince” (Greek archon) of this world; first in rank or power.

Again…

So complete and final was Adam’s authority over the earth that he, not just God, had the ability to give it away to another!

- Dutch Sheets

But, one day, a human (Jesus Christ | 100% God, 100% Man) would crush Satan’s headship.

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In Genesis 3:15, it says,

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.

Head (Hebrew rosh); headship; first in rank or authority.

So complete and final was God’s decision to do things on Earth through human beings that it cost God the Incarnation to regain what Adam gave away . . .

He had to become a part of the human race.

- Dutch Sheets

So, Adam surrendered his God-given authority (which was also fully given)…he surrendered it to satan when he sinned.

But God had a plan to regain that authority back to man.

When Jesus died on the cross He disarmed satan and took back the authority that satan had taken from Adam.

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Matthew 28:18

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

(If Jesus has ALL authority…then satan has how much? Zero!)

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Revelation 1:18

18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

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3. THE SIGNIFICANCE

Why is this important to understand?

Because it shows us the necessity of partnering with God in prayer.

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Matthew 6:10-11

10 your kingdom come,

your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us today our daily bread.

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Matthew 9:38

37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

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2 Thessalonians 3:1

Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you.

Why would we pray for these things, unless it were the case that our praying somehow makes the way for God’s will to be done on the earth?

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Daniel 9:1-3

In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom— 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet (Jer. 25; 29), CLICK IN that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. (He realizes, “We’re at the end of that 70 years! So what does he do?) 3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.

Again we see, it was already prophesied that this period of time would only last 70 years (as predetermined by God).

Yet, Daniel prays…

Through Daniel’s prayers and intercession, God brought about the restoration of the nation of Israel.

Just because something is God’s will doesn't remove our need to pray for it to come to pass.

(Low Hanging Fruit)

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Ezekiel 22:30-31

30 “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none. 31 So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord.”

C. Peter Wagner says this,

We must understand that our sovereign God has for His own reasons so designed this world that much of what is truly His will He makes contingent on the attitudes and actions of human beings. He allows humans to make decisions that can influence history. . . . Human inaction does not nullify the atonement, but human inaction can make the atonement ineffective for lost people.