God is Sovereign in All Things

God is Sovereign in All Things Psalm 139 (NIV) For the director of music. Of David. A psalm. 1 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. 5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you. 19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! 20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. 21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? 22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. 23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Who of you have heard of Daniel Ritchie? He was born without arms. Up to the age of 15 he believed that he was a hopeless mistake. This is his story. I’ll never graduate. I’ll never amount to anything. I’ll never find someone to spend my life with. I’ll never do anything that matters in the long run. “Never” is a word I’ve heard a lot in my life. Having been born without either of my arms, I spent the first few years of my life being told all the things that I would never be able to do. I remember my mom saying, “Everything doctors said started to seem less like professional opinions and more like prophecies of doom.” In their professional opinion, I was a lost cause. I was too broken. One “never” builds on another that builds on another—and eventually you buy the lie that you will never succeed, that you will never amount to anything. For much of my life I faced the battle in my heart that I was going to live up to the doomsday prophecies that my doctors offered. For a time, I was convinced they were right. It was going to be far too difficult to make my feet do what hands were meant for. A man with no arms was never going to fit in a world where everyone has two arms. But God had more in store for me than to be a victim of a life defined by the things that I was never going to be. In the genius way He crafted me, I learned to do the everyday tasks meant for hands with my feet: brushing my teeth, combing my hair, fixing a bowl of cereal or even making my morning coffee. The things I was told I would never do—walk, eat, dress myself, live independently—I now do with ease. I pray that my story will allow you to see that God does not operate according to human logic. The Scriptures are littered with people who never should have found a way out of their circumstances: Joseph, Moses, David, Ruth, Job, and Paul were all people who should have been defeated by the enormities they all faced. Yet, God triumphed in the lives of each of these people. God doesn’t say “never.” Friends, I would like to remind you today that two different worldviews were on a collision course that day in the delivery room when Daniel Ritchie was born: the view of the doctor asked: “Do you want us to let him go?” – a view that said life was not worth it if you are deformed and the view of Christ that said all human life was worth dying for. Of course, this was not the first time these worldviews butted heads and it will not be the last time these worldviews will butt heads. Even the gospels contain a glimpse of this debate in John 9 as Jesus and the disciples stumble across a man who was born blind: As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” (John 9:1–3) The disciples assumed that the blind man was the result of a mistake. Surely, this man was born blind because something went wrong. They were certain that this man’s disability was the product of the disaster of sin. Yet, in the eyes of Christ, the man’s disability was the product of the beauty of design. He was made like this for a reason. He was born blind for the glory of God, even though the disciples could not see that. And truthfully, I don’t know if even the blind man saw the complete hope of God’s plan for his life at the time. So as the grace of Jesus intersected with this blind man in the gospel of John, one man was about to see his life changed and an entire town was about to be shaken by the work of God in this man’s life. In healing the blind man, Jesus displayed to the world the life and the power that He truly was. This ex-blind man was now an eager disciple who proclaimed the power and grace of God to anyone in town who was willing to listen. The man who was once a powerless, blind beggar was now powerfully proclaiming the remarkable grace of God to anyone who would listen. God was using a blind beggar who had largely been forgotten by his town to proclaim His power. God had fearfully and wonderfully crafted this man with blindness so that God’s power could be displayed in his life. That is the reality of the gospel and the hope for the world. When the rest of the world sees hopelessness and frustration, the gospel proclaims fear-shattering hope and redemption. Our lives are never defined by the circumstances of our birth or upbringing. God’s purpose and value are stamped on our lives long before we take our first breath. The Father calls every baby in the womb a precious life, and that remarkable value carries through to the grave. You are not defined by your greatest weakness or most recent failure. The gospel of God’s grace bids us to define our worth by what He says and not by the shame of our failure or the pain of our burdens. It was through the lens of the gospel that Jesus viewed the blind man that day. He was not the sum of his unfortunate circumstances; he was a remarkable vessel of grace in the marvellous, mud-soaked hands of the Saviour. The grace of Christ triumphs in every circumstance—even in the deepest possible suffering. God is steadfast. He made His perspective clear through Psalm 139. Every single bit of who we are is carefully crafted by the Father. Eyes, hair, nose, ears, teeth, toes, arms—or the lack thereof—are beautiful brush strokes in our personal canvas that God has painted. He did not make mistakes or leave us lacking. He gives grace and purpose to all of us from the moment we are conceived. He has moulded and shaped our bodies and set forth our days even before a name was thought for us. Daniel’s parents’ faith would be tested over the next few weeks and months as they ran him through a gauntlet of paediatricians and orthopaedic doctors in an attempt to get a game plan for what lay ahead. At each doctor’s appointment, his parents were greeted by another dark prognosis. Daniel will never write. Daniel will never walk well. Daniel will never be able to feed himself. Daniel will never be an independent adult. His mom and dad felt like they were being crushed to death with the picture the doctors were painting about what was to come. They could not help but to feel unqualified to bear the brunt of such a trial. Yes, even as they absorbed blow after blow of bad news, they fought on and never once had a thought of giving up on me. I thank God for giving Daniel the parents that He did. As doctor after doctor only saw him as a baby who had little hope, his parents saw him as a gift from God—a fearfully and wonderfully made image bearer of his Creator—who just happened to be born without arms. Even in his disability, he reflected our Heavenly Father. No bit of bad news or discouragement would shake his dad and mom off the fact that he was a perfect creation in the hands of a perfect Creator. God defined the precious value of his life even when his delivery room doctor saw little room for value or hope. God had woven together the baby that Harry and Emily had waited for. God had revived the lifeless baby they had prayed for that day in the delivery room. God would define the preciousness, hope, and future for the baby God had blessed them with. Friends I believe that verse in Jeremiah provides us with a perspective that we all should accept as true for all of us: Jeremiah 1:5 (NIV) “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” This was true for Jeremiah. It was true for Daniel Ritchie. And it is true for you and me. God knows us before we are formed. He created us the way we are and prepare us for what lay ahead, and He would work all things together for good—to those who trust Him. Isn’t that exactly what Paul argues in Romans 8? Listen with me to Romans 8:28–29 (NIV): And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. I think one of the most difficult things for most people is trusting God. Trusting that God is in control. Trusting that God knows best. Yet, this is what we are called to. Allow we to remind you of the appeal in Psalm 62:8 (NIV) Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. That single premise of trusting in God is set to be our greatest struggle in life. Attempting to trust God as our trials and frustrations swirled around us often create resentment deep in our hearts. At one time or another we come to despise the things that make us stand out from the crowd. Every time someone points out a difference, it feels like someone is chucking a rock at us. • You’re too short. • You’re too fat. • You talk funny. • You’re not smart enough. • You don’t have enough friends. • You don’t make enough money. The deadly lie we buy into is that we are defined by what we do not have. But that is not what Scripture says: in Psalm 139:14 (NIV) the Psalmist reminds us that we should praise God because we are fearfully and wonderfully made. We are reminded that all God’s works are wonderful, you and I should know that full well. Psalm 139 reminds us that when we cannot understand ourselves or comprehend our feelings, God invites us to take our internal struggles to Him and ask Him for insight because He knows us inside out. He understands what we do not, and knows what to do when we don’t. Our body shape, language skills, IQ, success, popularity Viability and independence are terrible indicators of the value and worth. We are more than the sum of how we or others see us. John Franklin Stephens, a man with Down Syndrome, said in front of the United Nations last year, “I am a man. See me as a human being, not a birth defect.” Views that demeans or devalues people on the basis of what they have or do not have is downright evil. In contrast Psalm 139 provides us with marvellous insight into the Father’s perfect knowledge of us and His abundant love for us, just the way we are. He knows how we are made. He knows our weaknesses. He knows our sinful desires, and our transgressions are not hidden from Him. He knows our innermost hurts, fears, and frustrations—and yet He longs to gain intimacy with us. Jesus has chosen to put His unmatched presence into these scarred, earthen vessels. He is at home in these tattered earthly tents. We need not be ill at ease, but instead we can relax and enjoy His fellowship, knowing that He died for us while were yet hopeless sinners (Romans 5:6–8). He has permanently accepted us into His family, with all our undesirable baggage. We are His—lock, stock, and barrel! What is my desire today? Some of you may come away from this story inspired by what Daniel was able to overcome. If that is you, I thank God for that. But I desire so much more. I wish that you will be able to see that without God and His redemption, you are still be a victim of your perceived inadequacies. Without true understanding of His redemption you will still feel hopeless, unlovable, and despondent—much like Daniel Ritch was before Christ rescued him as a teenager. It is that rescue that makes us who we are—and He has created you to be rescued, too. I pray that you will rest in the same grace that Daniel Ritchie received has received. He sees himself today not as a disability or an aberration, but as someone who was fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God. If anything sticks with you, I pray it is this: We are all made in this God’s image. We are all given talents and abilities. We are all worth being given a chance at life, no matter how small the chance may be. Daniel Ritchie, you and I are the living example of that. So rejoice because we know that God has planned for us in Christ is infinitely better that what we can comprehend. He is better than our sin. He is better than any of our relationships. He is better than our most glorious victories or our darkest defeats. Surrendering your life to Him is the sweetest victory that you will ever tasted. Nothing is better than knowing you have been adopted by Christ to do His work and that you can trust your life to a perfect Heavenly Father. Ephesians 3:20–21 (NIV) Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.