Worthy: When the World Is Out Of Control

Worthy: When the World Is Out Of Control

We’re in a crazy season:

Covid, post-truth, fake news, charged elections (maybe happy or sad...or still uncertain about what will happen), protests and challenges, military coups in other countries, leaders stepping down or refusing to do so, accusations, hypocrisy, inconsistencies...what if it gets worse? It can feel like we’re on the brink of the next thing that makes yesterday’s news seem old...can seem like the End of the World is happening or around the corner...the Apocalypse! Please! - REVELATION

The world can feel out of control…

Your life might feel that way...confusion about God’s will, mistakes, hurts, etc.

God is still God!

God is still working...Wants us to have an Apocalypse! wants to open our eyes with Revelation!

Can you imagine being Prophet John on the Isle of Patmos...seeing and hearing these messages for the churches...in the middle of their persecution and their eager expectation of the return of Jesus...the liberate them from their pain and persecution...to fulfill His Promises...yet being super confused about what the future would hold?

Revelation 4:1-11

Revelation 4:1–11 NIV

After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “ ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.” Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”

Jesus invited John to a higher place...a higher level...a higher perspective.

- What he saw there is a very different perspective compared to the places of pressure and persecution where emperors were using their power and position for themselves and even received worship as “god.”

What stands out to you from the first part of the vision in 4:1-6a?

What’s your overall impression of the whole scene from 4:1-11?

What are some of the descriptions given of the one on the throne?

Shining, Holy, worthy, Lord, God Almighty, who was and is and is to come, lives forever, creator,

- Who really has the power when the world is out of control? From an eternal perspective, God does!

GOD is on the throne!

...this is SIGNIFICANT!

When you have this REVELATION it doesn’t matter what has taken place, what might take place, or what does take place!

HE is the one in the position of Authority and Power! HE is on the Throne of the universe!

Same picture from the Prophets and the Apocalypses of the Hebrew Prophets...

One thing I would really like Christians to stop saying, and I’ve set it in the past myself, is that “God is in Control.”

- God is NOT in control!

- I think that most of us mean that God is on the throne...but being on the throne is not the same as being in control!

- If He is in control He is not only the General Cause of pain, problems, and sin in general because He created the beings that participated in it...but He is the DIRECT cause of these things by MAKING them happen…

- When we tell a child whose parent was killed in a car crash with a drunk driver that “God is control” we’re communicating that God caused this to happen...Not that a HUMAN chose to get drunk and get behind the wheel...this is inconsistent with a belief in a human will.

So, if you hold any other view other than Calvinism on how God’s will interacts with humans and history, it’s not consistent to hold those beliefs that Humans have a will and that God is “in control”

If you’re a Calvinist…this statement would be consistent with your interpretation of Scripture and you would have to grapple with these implications

- We say things like this, and can even form the image of a controlling God, because of our own desire to have things be in control and the realization as believers in God...that it’s not US...but SOMEBODY better be in control!!!

- I think what we really mean is that God is on the throne and He is not shaken by whatever the situation is that we’re referring to. That God is stronger, wiser, and has a higher perspective and that HE will still bring about His Good desires through this thing...

Three Wills at Work - God didn’t set up a Two Party System

Romans 8:28, Gen 50:20...ultimate master/lord of time, space, and matter...beginning and end...author and finisher...but not the controller.

Cake example: I am the author and the finisher of the cake period I am the beginning and the end of the cake!

I determined to make a cake, I buy the ingredients and I pay the price, I do the work and I invite others to be part of the work with me and Eli is enthusiastic and adds too much flour, but I can adjust the recipe to make sure that the cake that I am baking is a good cake, the electricity goes out because the dog gets crazy trying to destroy the cake. I adjust the time on the oven accordingly and the cake is still made.

I did not control the chemical processes of every element involved in the creation of the cake, but I was in charge throughout the whole process and I was working throughout the whole process to make sure that the end result was what I intended. A beautiful cake!

Romans 11 - Everything is from him and everything is for him!

Isaiah 40:21–31 NIV

21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? 22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. 23 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. 24 No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff. 25 “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. 27 Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God”? 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. 29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

God is on the Throne!

the author God is the beginning of all things.

He is the ancient of days (eternal one). He is seated on the throne.

He has all authority and all power.

Sovereign Lord - Translation of Adonai = has to do with Plurality of Majesty and Kingliness…not that He is a controller…but that HE is the supreme ruler.

He does not change...He is not a human that makes mistakes...He is not an elected official…You can’t vote him in or out of office.

AND when you get that and you TRUST in Him you can rest…you can have strength…you can walk and run…and life in HIS authority, power, and strength that He shares with you....even as YOU recognize that HE is the one who is the source of everything.

Join me in worshipping with my friend Donnie Mclurkin