God's Sovereignty

Introduction

God has a way of doing things, in many cases ways that we may not have if we had His power and authority. This is evident because He tells us in through His prophet Isaiah that His ways and thoughts are higher than His creation. We can have the mind of Christ and God does reveal himself to us as we commit to hearing him but we must acknowledge our challenge with fully grasping His will in the midst of all of the competing ideas and ideals that bombard us which is added to our own doubts, uncertainties, and inabilities. We just cannot fully understand God’s will all the time because honestly, we just don’t know all that He knows and we don’t have the capacity. We are not all knowing, all powerful, omnipotent, omnipresent. He is. He is the sovereign one.

His will is able to be manifested in part because we move as He directs us and uses the resources that He has allowed us to obtain for His glory (we are the hands and feet of Jesus). But this is just a part of how His will is made manifest in the earth. The goal of today’s message is to be a continuation of last week’s message that Elder Andre ministered on God being in control. This is also a continuation of Pastor James’ message series on The Mind. Our lives will always move in the direction of our beliefs and thoughts. This is why renewing our mind is so important. Our thinking plays out in how we view God, His sovereignty, and His control of our environment.

Message Body

When you hear the words “God is in control”, what does that actually mean to you? Does it mean that when bad things happen God knows about it and He’s gonna make it right. If that is your understanding of God being in control I hope to expand that understanding on that a little bit today. There are two things to consider when looking at happening in our world and our lives and my goal is to cover them the best I can in the time I have today.

1. It was a result of sin or free will

Sometimes things happen as a result of sin and free will in the earth. Sometimes people just got issues and do or say things that they shouldn’t. But even in that God can use that for His glory. Consider Pharaoh: God didn’t make him hateful but played on his hate. For Job, God used satan’s desire for destruction.

Romans 8:28 NKJV

28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

What we can expect is that God will work things out for the good of those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. What we should not expect is for him to do that for those that are not. He is sovereign and can do what He pleases but we may want to be careful with our expectation of it.

Think about Joseph, the son of Jacob (Gen 37). God has a plan for Joseph to get him to be second in command over Egypt so that He could save His people and get glory out of it at the same time. Through the act of sin he is sold into slavery. Then through the act of another sin he is sent to prison. Then he gets the opportunity to interpret pharaoh’s dream. Then he becomes second only to Pharaoh. When he finally reveals himself to his brothers they apologize and he says:

Genesis 45:4–8 NKJV

4 And Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near to me.” So they came near. Then he said: “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. 7 And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

What are you experiencing that God can work out for good in your life so that His will can manifest? What have you experienced that God worked out for good? Issues/circumstances/problems are always opportunities for God to work out for good in the lives of those that are called according to His purpose. You see, God is sovereign in the midst of sin and free will. i like to use the analogy of bowling with the guard rails up. There is a certain amount of freedom within the guard rails but the ball will never go in the gutter.

2. It may be orchestrated by God

This statement may come across as absurd to some and definitely so to the unbeliever. When bad things happen we can resort to attacking the individual(s) we feel are responsible for the bad, make moves that we deem appropriate to fix the bad, and/or praying to God to deal with the bad because obviously He knows, like we do, that it is bad and is something that should not happen. With this response we have already determined that it’s bad and not the will of God. But scripture doesn’t reveal this to us. There certainly are times where things happen that are not inline with God’s will. However, there are also times in the bible where God did things that would not be considered, on the surface, good. There are numerous times in scripture where God tells us that He is the author of such things. Let’s look at a few.

Through God’s prophet Isaiah we understand God’s sovereignty over the light and the dark, peace and calamity:

Isaiah 45:5–7 NKJV

5 I am the Lord, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, 6 That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting That there is none besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; 7 I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.’

We also see His sovereignty over His people:

Job 1:6–12 NKJV

6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. 7 And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” 8 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” 9 So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” 12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

Through the Prophet Jeremiah we see His sovereignty over the wicked and His people:

Jeremiah 25:8–12 NKJV

8 “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Because you have not heard My words, 9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ says the Lord, ‘and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. 10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. 11 And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 12 ‘Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,’ says the Lord; ‘and I will make it a perpetual desolation.

In Genesis we see his sovereignty over the elements:

Genesis 6:9–13 NKJV

9 This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

And in Exodus we see Gods sovereignty over plagues in Egypt, even hardening pharaoh’s heart to ensure that His plan was carried out to free His people, then destroying Pharaoh and his army.

In every case God got glory and His people got blessed. It didn’t mean that there wasn’t trouble or calamity though. Now some may doubt the blessing of Job’s children that died but the text shows that Job believed in the resurrection and that His children were covered through his sacrifices.

Consider that the things that we see in the earth and in your life might be orchestrated by God as a means of accomplishing His will.

Closing

So what does all this mean? It means that there are times when God causes things, not just allows but causes, to happen in the world in order to manifest His will in the earth. Then there are times when things happen because of sin or other circumstances that He allows and can use for His glory. It won’t always be comfortable but He’s God and He can cause His will to manifest in the ways that He sees fit. We have to let God be God and trust that He is exercising His will in the earth even when it doesn’t seem like it.

What is interesting is Job’s response after loosing his possessions, children, and being stricken with boils from the soles of his feet to his head, scraping the boils with a broken piece of pottery:

Job 2:10 NKJV

10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Understanding these things will help keep us in the right mindset when see issues in the world or experience issues in our lives. Satan would love for us to look at all of the issues and believe that he has unchecked power and ability in the earth. But that isn’t so. Not only do we see that he didn’t in Job, Jesus made it clear in Matthew 28 that all authority was given to Him in heaven and on earth. Satan does not have free reign in the earth, God is still in control and always will be.

One thing that we don’t want to do is rely on media to tells us what is happening because by then it’s likely already too late. When God is doing a thing we can know about it before He does it.

Amos 3:7 NKJV

7 Surely the Lord God does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.

We can know Gods plan and it comes by spending more time in prayer, understanding His word, and listening when God’s prophets speak.