Who's In Charge

With everything happening this week, we are going to push the pause button one more time on the Sermon on the Mount.

We are in for an incredibly interesting week, aren’t we?

Election Day is Tuesday, and we really have no idea how it will go.

Our hope and prayer is for God to guide it into a clear, concise victory that will be settled before the sun comes up on Wednesday, but with as odd a year as it has been, we don’t know exactly what to expect.

There have been some suggesting that it might be days or weeks before we know the final outcome.

Some of us couldn’t care less about politics, so the biggest annoyance with all this is that you probably are going to have to keep hearing about it for longer than you wanted.

However, for others of us, just acknowledging that fact makes our chests tighten up and our heart start to pound.

You rightly have deep concerns about the future of our nation and world, and for you, they all hinge on the outcome of this presidential election.

Here’s what I want us to do today. I want you and I to take the next several minutes together and take a step back.

We have talked over and over about the fact that those who have been saved by Jesus are a part of his kingdom, the kingdom of God.

We reminded ourselves of that in our prayer time for the nation last week.

So, for this morning, I want us to turn to an incredible passage of Scripture to be reminded of who this God is that we serve and follow.

Go ahead and open your Bible to Isaiah 40. If you are not sure where Isaiah is, it is pretty close to the middle of your Bible, and you may want to use the table of contents at the front.

This is one of my favorite chapters in all the Bible. It is one I turn to often when I feel overwhelmed, worn out, or afraid.

My hope is that, as we look at how God is described in these verses, we will remember that, regardless of what happens in the elections and over the next four years, God is still in charge.

Remember how we have said that you always have to look at things in context? Well, let’s think for just a minute about who Isaiah is writing to.

In chapter 39, Isaiah has told the king of Israel that after his death, God is going to judge the nation and take the people of Israel into exile.

That’s not good! The nation had plenty to fear, so this chapter was God’s reassurance to them that he hadn’t stopped being God, and that their exile wouldn’t last forever.

Start in verse 1-2...

This chapter is looking forward to the end of their captivity and exile, and it reminds them of the fact that God is still in charge.

We are going to cover the majority of the chapter, but we are going to jump down to verses 27-28. In some ways, they summarize many of the themes throughout the rest of the chapter, so this is where we are going to put down our anchor, and where we will keep coming back.

Read it with me, and then we will go back and look at each of the statements Isaiah makes about God.

First, we see that...

1) He is the everlasting God.

Notice that, as we start, we aren’t talking about just any god here. We are specifically talking about the LORD, the God who called Israel to himself as his special people.

As we talk about who God is today, we aren’t talking about just finding your higher power and following him, or that these things are characteristics of any god, so just find one you like and follow him.

No; the descriptions in this passage are of the one true God.

He starts with a reminder that our God is an everlasting God.

The God we serve, the God who is our king, the God who was going to restore Israel after their exile, is the God who lives forever.

To see that more clearly, go back to verse 6-8.

We have brought up the idea of how quickly grass and flowers die a few weeks ago when we talked about the way God cares for us.

Here, however, he flips the image and reminds us that even our lives are like a flower that is here today and gone tomorrow, especially in comparison to the God who is in charge.

If you are alive today, then you have a good chance of living into your 60s, 70s, 80s, and beyond!

However, compare that to the God who has always existed and always will exist.

We will fade away, but God never will, and neither will what he has said!

The God who is in charge of the world has always existed and will always exist.

There is never going to be a time when God isn’t there, because he is the everlasting God!

How does that help us when we think about the election or anything else that is worrying us today?

Because God will still be God, long after the next president is gone.

Let’s think about it. Fast forward to January, and the other guy, the one you voted against, has just been sworn in to office.

He has had a secret plan to overthrow all the democratic processes that govern our nation, and he puts it into motion, successfully installing himself as dictator for life.

Let’s say he lives and rules for another 25 years before he dies.

You know who is still going to be in charge? The everlasting God.

Let’s say that America enters into a tailspin, and all the freedoms we have enjoyed are done away with, plunging the world into chaos that disrupts lives around the globe for the next 400 years.

You know who is still going to be in charge? The everlasting God.

Perhaps it goes the other way…the right man is inaugurated, and we enter into 4 years of economic prosperity and health and peace.

You know who is in charge of that? The everlasting God!

Whether this leads to prosperity or ruin or somewhere in the middle, God is still the one guiding the events of history toward his purpose, and his kingdom will not end!

Isaiah applies this picture specifically to political leaders. Jump down to verse 21-24.

We will talk about God’s relationship to the world he has made in just a second, but did you hear what he does to princes and judges?

He reduces them to nothing and makes them like a wasteland.

God simply blows on them and they wither.

The only way a person can rise to political power is if God allows them to:

Romans 13:1 CSB

Let everyone submit to the governing authorities, since there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God.

The idea of submission to government is subject to submitting first to God’s law.

However, that means that God is directing the events that will allow the next president to be elected.

We may not like it, we may not understand it, and we may live our entire lives without being able to comprehend why God allowed someone to come to power.

However, we have to acknowledge that any power any leader anywhere has is only because God is letting them.

All he has to do is breathe on them, and all their power, all their prestige, and all their plans wither like dry grass.

I am not saying that things will be easy or fun or go like we want; what I am saying is that no matter how bad it gets for how long, the king we serve is the God who was and is and is to come!

What he says will happen will come to pass, because his word is everlasting.

So, we aren’t putting our hope in a presidential candidate, and nor are we going to despair over one.

Instead, we are going to trust that the everlasting God will continue to rule and reign, and that:

Proverbs 21:1 CSB

A king’s heart is like channeled water in the Lord’s hand: He directs it wherever he chooses.

He can direct the heart of our president, our representatives, our senators, our governor, and more for his purposes and plans.

How do we know that he is able to do that? Because Isaiah reminds us that he is also...

2) He is the creator of the world.

It is a quick statement in verse 28, that God is the creator of all the earth, but it is one he has emphasized over and over throughout this chapter.

I have always loved the outdoors, so these are some of my favorite pictures.

Look at verse 12.

These are poetic statements, because we know God exists as spirit and doesn’t have a physical hand, but try to picture them for a minute:

There are an estimated 332,519,000 cubic miles of water on the earth, and God measured that in the palm of his hand. [1]

Scientists estimate that the observable universe is somewhere around 93 billion light years across, with the actual size of the universe being at least 250x larger than that, and God measured that with the span of his hand. [2]

In a rough estimate, a 10,000 ft, cone shaped mountain made of granite is 3,670,344,486,987,776 tons (3 quadrillion, 670 trillion, 344 billion, 487 million tons).[3] There are over 100 peaks taller than this in the Rocky Mountains alone. [4] God can weigh them on a scale if he needs to.

Are you getting a picture here? When God created the universe, he didn’t make something larger than he was.

In fact, it is so small that he can measure it from one end to the other using just his hands..

Now, jump down to verse 15-17.

See why this matters?

The God who created the sun, moon, stars, and everything in, on, and around them is not impressed by the strongest nations in the world.

History is littered with powerful kings and impressive empires. One by one, they have all fallen, and yet God’s kingdom continues to march and grow.

While we sit here worrying and wringing our hands over the future, the God who created the world says that these mighty nations are like a drop in a bucket or a piece of dust on a scale.

For the people in Isaiah’s day, facing exile in a hostile nation, this was to comfort them and remind them that God could destroy the Babylonians just as quickly as they would destroy Israel. He had the power to deliver, to save, to do whatever he wanted.

God is the literal creator of the world, so he isn’t worried about the election at all. He has been here before America existed as a nation, and he will still be here long after it is gone.

And you and I serve him! We are a part of the kingdom of this everlasting God.

Let’s pick back up with Isaiah’s words in verse 25-26.

God didn’t just create everything and leave it alone; he brings out the stars by his power.

You know what else?

3) He is never tired.

Jump back to verse 28.

Man, wouldn’t this be great?

I had a few days this week where I didn’t feel 100%. I was exhausted by the end of the day.

The great, powerful, awesome God of the universe never gets tired.

He never needs a nap, and he never gets drowsy and drifts out of his lane.

God is always alert and always able to do whatever needs to be done.

He isn’t like the gods we make up on our own. Look at verse 18-20

I love this. On the one hand, you have the eternal God who weighs all the mountains and hills in a balance.

On the other, you have an idol that someone makes by hand.

If you have money, they will make your idol out of silver or gold.

If you are poor, though, you have to hope that you gave him some good wood for a pedestal for the idol. It would be embarrassing if your god were to rot or tip over.

Oh, but we are Americans, aren’t we? We don’t worship silly little statues.

No, but our hearts are idol making factories.

Our hearts long to worship something. There is something in every heart that takes the top place.

If that is anything besides the one true everlasting God, it is an idol.

Pastor J.D. Greear says it this way:

“An idol is whatever takes the place of God in our lives. An idol is whatever we feel like we could not live without; it is what we think is an absolute necessity for life and happiness...It’s usually a good thing that we’ve made into a god-thing that then becomes a bad thing to us.”

We can make sex or alcohol or family or work or money or our legacy into idols if we chase any of those things more than we seek to honor God.

All of those things will eventually fall over under the weight of our expectations. They will disappoint and leave us empty, because they are not the one true God who is bigger than the world he has made.

We need to be careful not to give into a stereotype, though.

We often think of big people as the lovable oaf who means well but isn’t the brightest.

God isn’t that way at all!

God isn’t some big, mindless oaf, though.

In fact, we also see that...

4) He understands everything.

Look at the last line of verse 28...

There is no limit to God’s understanding.

Let that soak in. There is never a time when God has to stop and figure something out, because he always knows what is going on.

Isaiah challenges us with this in verses 13-14.

God didn’t need anyone to teach him anything or explain anything to him.

No one taught him right and wrong, because he is the source of all that is truly right!

That understanding led Paul to cry out,

Romans 11:33 CSB

Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and untraceable his ways!

We may not understand what is going on or why God is allowing and doing what he is doing, however, we hold tightly to the understanding that he knows exactly what he is doing.

I read a post from another local pastor a few years ago that said he didn’t think God knows with certainty who would win the next presidential election.

Can I, in the strongest way possible, let you know that that idea is completely wrong?

God knows everything that ever has happened or will happen.

That’s why he would say later through Isaiah

Isaiah 46:9–10 CSB

Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and no one is like me. I declare the end from the beginning, and from long ago what is not yet done, saying: my plan will take place, and I will do all my will.

God isn’t going to stay up all night, anxiously wringing his hands as the ballots get counted.

He isn’t nervously sitting by the phone, waiting on the test results from the doctor.

He is doing exactly what he has always done: he is working his plan through the world he created for the purposes he desires.

We aren’t God, though, are we?

We haven’t been around forever, we aren’t bigger than the universe we created, we get worn out, and we don’t understand.

So, how does Isaiah pull all this together?

By reminding us that, since God is all these things and more...

5) He can give us strength.

Read verses 29-31

The people Isaiah wrote these words to were going to go through a terrible, brutal battle that would end in them being taken off into captivity for 70 years.

You had better believe that they would find themselves exhausted, faint, and weary.

What is the promise? Look at verse 31.

This isn’t a promise for super human strength.

Instead, it ties into what we saw last week.

As we ask, seek, and knock, God gives us what we need.

Bible teacher and author Warren Wiersbe summed it up this way:

Be Comforted Chapter Nine: How Great Thou Art! (Isaiah 40–48)

As we wait before Him, God enables us to soar when there is a crisis, to run when the challenges are many, and to walk faithfully in the day-by-day demands of life. It is much harder to walk in the ordinary pressures of life than to fly like the eagle in a time of crisis.

None of us knows what this week and the weeks to come may hold.

However, we do know this: the everlasting God, creator of heaven and earth, who never tires and understands everything, is able to get us through it.

If we find ourselves in a crisis, he will give us strength to soar high and honor him.

If we find ourselves in challenges, he will give us strength to run from sin and run for his glory.

If we find ourselves facing the wearying day-to-day tasks, he will give us the strength to keep taking one step after another to walk with him.

So, as we look to the election and to the thousand other concerns ahead of us, let’s make sure we remember who is in charge.

Look to our king, our Lord, our God, and find the strength we need to face the day.

In case we needed even greater reasons to follow him, remember that, in Jesus, as the eternal, creator God in the flesh, was willing to take on a physical, limited human body.

In that body, he got tired and took naps.

In his physical body, he was beaten and his body bloodied and broken to the point that he could no longer stand up under the weight of the cross he was carrying.

The powerful God, the creator of all the earth, took on a human body so he could die in our place.

Isaiah would write this, predicting the suffering Jesus would endure:

Isaiah 53:5–6 CSB

But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds. We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.

Jesus suffered and died to take your punishment and your sin, and to offer you healing in its place.

He was raised from the dead to show that he had overcome all the effects of sin, and by trusting in him today, you can be saved from your sin and receive the healing your soul needs.

He is in charge, so why not surrender to him today?

Endnotes:

[1] https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/oceanwater.html

[2] http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160610-it-took-centuries-but-we-now-know-the-size-of-the-universe

[3] https://www.quora.com/How-heavy-is-an-average-mountain#:~:text=A%20cubic%20foot%20of%20granite,2.6%20*%2010%5E11%20tons.&text=What%20is%20the%20maximum%20possible%20height%20of%20a%20mountain%20here%20on%20earth%3F

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mountain_peaks_of_the_Rocky_Mountains#Highest_major_summits

[5] Greear, J.D.. Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary (p. 70). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.