Untitled Sermon

Is God In Control?

How many remember the book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People?

The purpose of the book was when the author had a tragic event happen in his life, and he was trying to justify how God could allow this to happen.

Kushner, the author of the book, concludes the writer of the book of Job is, “forced to choose between a good God who is not totally powerful, or a powerful God who is not totally good… chooses to believe in God’s goodness.

He further states in this gook, “God wants the righteous to live peaceful, happy live, but sometime even He can't bring that about. It is too difficult even for God to keep cruelty and chaos from claiming their innocent victims.

The struggle here is if God is both powerful and good, why is there so much suffering in the world? How can a good and just God allow this to happen? Either God is good and not all powerful, or He is powerful and not all good.

The Providence of God

The Bible teaches God is both all powerful and good. We can have it both ways.

When we use the words “God’s providence,” we usually only use it for the good events in our lives. But what about the bad and horrible things that go on in our lives? Are they not part of God’s providence as well? If we believe that God only controls the good things to bring about good in our lives, is He not capable of using the bad as well?

The other thing we inference we make a lot of times using this phrase is that God is only interested in certain aspects of our lives. That He only intervenes in the “big circumstances” of our lives. Is He not with us 24/7, keeping watch over us all the time?

J.I. Packer, a well-known theologian defines providence as, “The unceasing activity of the Creator whereby, in overflowing bounty and good will, He upholds His creatures in ordered existence,guides and governs all events, circumstances, and free acts of angels and men, and directs everything to its appointed foal, for His own glory.”

All events, all acts, unceasing activity - there is no stop and go governance of God in this

“God’s providence is His constant care for and His absolute rule over all His creation for His own glory and the good of His people.

Constant care, absolute rule, all creation.

There is a two fold objective to God’s providence: His own glory and the good of His people.

In the first lesson of the book, the question was asked, “Can we trust God? By understanding the doctrine of God’s providence, we can truly trust in God in all circumstances.

God Sustains

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

All things are sustained by God through the actions of His Son. All creatures, the air we breathe, the very action of the gravity of earth which we rely on, all operate out of the will of the Father through the actions of His Son.

The stars are at His command Isaiah 40:26

English Standard Version Chapter 40

Lift up your eyes on high and see:

who created these?

He who brings out their host by number,

calling them all by name;

by the greatness of his might

and because he is strong in power,

not one is missing.

Christ gives life to everything. Psalm 147:8-9

English Standard Version Psalm 147

He covers the heavens with clouds;

he prepares rain for the earth;

he makes grass grow on the hills.

9  He gives to the beasts their food,

and to the young ravens that cry.

God didn’t simply create and then walk away. He is with everything He created constantly.

He sustains us as well & 28

English Standard Version Chapter 17

25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

English Standard Version Chapter 17

for

“ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’;

as even some of your own poets have said,

“ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

God is with us in every step of our lives. He is there as we breath, He is there as we sleep. He is with us always.

In 6th grade, I contracted nephritis. Was God with me then? Did this disease just simply happen and was out of God’s control? If we are to trust God, we must trust that He is in control of everything which happens to us in our lives.

God Governs

He is called, “the ruler of all thing,” “the blessed and only Ruler,” “the One apart from whose will the sparrow cannot fall to the ground.” Lamentations 3:37

English Standard Version Chapter 3

37  Who has spoken and it came to pass,

unless the Lord has commanded it?

No one can act out of the sovereign will of God.

As His rule is invincible, it is also very hard to understand at times. His ways are higher than ours. It is hard for us to understand why God allows things to happen. Many times we question the sovereignty of God because we don’t understand what He is doing. We can’t understand the path that He has us on and the way He may be able to work it for our good.

God or chance

As Jesus shared in Matthew that even a sparrow which is worth very little in the market and God would know if one of them fell to the ground. How much more are we worth to Him? How would it make sense that God would leave anything to chance?

Kushner in his book says that calling earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, anything that is a force of nature, an “act of God,” using His name in vain. But yet if we are to trust in the full sovereignty of God, we must trust that He is in control of it all. If not, how can we trust God at all?

God’s Absolute Control

God’s is sovereign. He’s in absolute control. Nothing happens without His knowledge nor His will. Many times we want to take God of His throne so we can say that horrible events are not in God’s control. However, if God isn’t in control, we can’t trust Him. Only by believing in the complete sovereignty of God can we fully trust Him. If there is a single even in all of the universe that can occur outside of God’s sovereign control, then we cannot trust Him.

God permits people to act contrary to and in defiance to his will, but He never permits them to act against his sovereign will

Consider these verses and what they say: Provers 16:9

9 The mind of man plans his way,

But the LORD directs his steps.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

Proverbs 19:21 ESV

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.

Proverbs 21:30 ESV

No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the Lord.

Prover

Ecclesiastes 7:13 ESV

Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked?

Ecclesiastes

Lamentations 3:37 ESV

Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?

Lamentations

James 4:15 ESV

Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

Revelation 3:7 ESV

“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.

Revelation

No plan that we make will succeed unless it is in God’s will. Yes, we experience pain. Yes, we will go through hard times. But know that during these times, our God is with us. He knows and experiences our pain with us. We are not alone.