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The following message was given
at Grace Community Church in Mendon, Nevada. ...isn't taken from any one particular
text. I want to consider a bigger topic
with you. And in order to lead into that,
I want to begin by reading... I want to read you a passage
of Scripture. It's one that you know exceptionally
well. So I'm going to ask you to not
even turn to it. I just want you to sit, listen,
and try to hear with fresh ears truths that you've heard a thousand
times, but I want you to hear them afresh again tonight. The word of God says, to whom
then will you liken God? Or to what likeness would you
compare with him? In idle, a craftsman casts it,
a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts its silver chains. He who is too impoverished for
such an offering chooses wood that will not rot and seeks out
a skillful craftsman to set up an idle that will not move. Do
you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been
told to you even from the beginning? Have you not understood from
the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle
of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers who stretches
out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them like a tent
to dwell in, who brings princes to nothing. Makes the rulers
of the earth as emptiness Scarcely are they planted scarcely are
they sown? Scarcely as their stem taken
root in the earth when he blows on them They wither and the tempest
carries them off like stubble To whom then will you compare
me that I should be like him says the Holy One Lift up your
eyes on high and see who created these. He who brings out their
hosts by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness
of his might, and because he is strong in power, not even
one is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and
speak, O Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is
disregarded by my God? Have you not known? And have
you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God,
the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow
weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint.
To him who has no might, He increases strength. Even youths shall faint
and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. but they who
wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount
up with eagles' wings. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and they will
not grow faint. I want to consider the topic
with you tonight from kind of an overview perspective. I want to consider the sovereignty
of God, but I want to do it from kind of a particular angle, or
I guess I want to apply the sovereignty of God to a very particular area
in our lives tonight. I was, I'm in the process, those
of you who know me well know that when it comes to technological
skills, I'm somewhere between a, I'm below kindergarten level,
I'll just say that. And so I'm still trying to mesh
my files from King's Cross to the things I'm doing here, and
my desktop is just a total mess. And it was in the mindless sorting
of those things that I came across an old sermon that I'd forgotten
that I'd preached, and I happened to look at the date on it, and
it said November 6th, 2016. You might say, So what? That was a very particular
day. If you can go back, I know it's
pre-COVID, so all the cobwebs have to get dusted off, but that
was the day that our country was casting their votes, if memory
serves me, between Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton. I thought, oh, I remember that.
And then as I was looking it over, I thought, you know what,
nothing's changed. Nothing's changed. And something
struck me as I've been kind of, I guess alongside all of us,
living through this political season right alongside the rest
of you. I thought it odd that I chose to preach that sermon
on election day, because I happen to fall on a Sunday by God's
providence. And it was at the end of months and months and
months of nonsense. And so I thought, you know what
might be helpful? To hear that way up front. I know we're not
at the beginning of it, but we're near-ish to the beginning of
it and entering back into the oddness of the season. So I want
to consider the sovereignty of God early in our life here on
this cycle, hoping that we can navigate it with Well, eyes that
see in a way that only Christians can see. One author says that in 1902,
a young English boy came down to breakfast and he found his
father reading this archaic thing called a newspaper, which spoke
of the preparations for the first coronation in Britain in over
64 years. In the middle of breakfast, the
father turned to his wife, and he said, oh, I'm sorry to see
them word it like this. And she said, well, what did
they say? He said, why, here is a proclamation
that on a certain date, Prince Edward will be crowned king at
Westminster, and there is no Deo Valente, no God willing. If you ever see someone write
DV at the end of something, it means Deo Valente, God willing.
The word stuck in the boy's mind for the very reason that on that
appointed date, the future King Edward VII was ill with appendicitis
and the coronation had to be postponed. Just a small little
reminder that Man might think he knows what he's doing, and
man might think he directs all of his steps, but ultimately,
it's the will of God that guides and directs everything. And just like we did eight years
ago, our country is getting ready to elect another president, and
over all of it, we should put a big DV, Deo Valente, God willing. This election, now this is what
I wrote for the last one, but I guess it's just lost its potency
because you could say it of any election since then. I wrote
back then, this election, more than any other presidential election
in recent memory, has been so divisive to our country, and
not just to our country, but to our church. It's highlighted
the moral bankruptcy of its candidates and has been a source of fear
as well as anxiety. I wish that I could say that
it was only that one election that was fraught with anxiety
and moral bankruptcy and difficult, but it just seems to be that's
the world that we live in. And underlying those things,
is a presupposition that goes something like this. I guess
if you were to say maybe in our more unguarded moments of thinking,
reasoning, feeling, emoting, you could say that we fall into
the trap of thinking something like this. If the right person
gets the job, then we will have cause for hope. And if the wrong
person gets the job, then we have much cause for fear. And
I want to say, while there's certainly candidates I want more
than others or less than others, depending on which direction
you look at it, I fundamentally disagree with that presupposition
because that presupposition doesn't factor in, I can't say a massive
thing because it reduces God to a thing. It doesn't take into
account the sovereign workings and plan of God. That's the way the world views
things. And if you are looking at the propaganda of both sides,
that's exactly the way that they're reasoning through it. But I want
to suggest that Christians should reason, think, live, feel very
differently than the world. We should be different than the
world in all avenues, including that we don't put our hope in
princes, the Psalms say. So when we consider that and
we consider the days in which we live, I think a fresh look
at the sovereignty of God or a refreshing look at the sovereignty
of God might be helpful. And then I guess one more thing
before we actually get into it here. Mr. John Bunyan, who himself
lived in very tumultuous times, said this, the best of Christians
live in the worst of times. I want that to marinate for just
a second. The very best of Christians live
in the worst of times. And while I'm grieved by things
I see around us, we should be hoping, praying, and expecting
by faith that God would be at powerful work in his church.
So I want to consider this idea kind of under three headings
with you tonight. The first is this, what does the sovereignty
of God mean? Sovereignty is one of those words
that we use it in Christian vernacular, and it's in our vocabulary, and
it's something that you hear somewhat often. And we use it,
but if someone were to ask you, you keep saying God is sovereign,
what does that mean? And maybe after thinking for
a moment, and maybe you would kind of channel your inner word
nerd, which all of us have, whether we admit it or not, you would
say, well, it has the word reign or rule and sov, which is together,
so it means to rule all things together. But maybe you'd go
and do a brief little word search, and you'd find, well, Mr. Jerry
Bridges defined it like this. What does God's sovereignty mean?
It means God is in control. He's sovereign. He does whatever
pleases him and determines whether we can do what we have planned. This is the essence of God's
sovereignty, his absolute independence to do as he pleases. and his
absolute control over the actions of his creatures. No creature,
person, or empire can either thwart his will or act outside
the boundaries of his will. So that's how Jerry Bridges,
just a wonderful author, says, if you want to speak of sovereignty,
it's simply this. God does whatever he pleases,
and he's the only one in the entire universe who does that. freely, perfectly, fully. You could add to that A.W. Pink
who said of the sovereignty of God, what does it mean, the sovereignty
of God? We mean the supremacy of God,
the kingship of God, the very Godhood of God. To say that God
is sovereign is to declare that God is God. To say that God is
sovereign is to declare that he is the most high, doing according
to his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth, so that none can stay his hand or say unto him,
what are you doing? To say that God is sovereign
is to declare that he is the almighty, the professor of all
power in heaven and on earth, so that none can defeat his counsel,
thwart his purpose, resist his will to say that God is sovereign
is to declare that he is the governor among the nations setting
up kingdoms overthrowing empires determining the counts or the
course of dynasties as pleases him best to say that God is sovereign
is to declare that he is the only potentate, the king of kings,
and the lord of lords. I find it very troubling when
Christians kind of balk at or push back against the sovereignty
of God, because I couldn't agree with A.W. Pink on this point
more fully. To say that he's sovereign is
to say he's God. It's, You cannot have God and
not have him be sovereign. And the prophets speak of this
in lots of different ways. The phrase that comes up in the
Psalms and in the prophets, the idea, it's a little bit outdated
in the way that we would usually speak of it. It says, none can
stay his hand. You might say, well, what do
you mean, stay his hand? Well, if you've parented little
kids, or if you haven't parented them, but you're an older sibling,
and have served in that function in different ways, you've experienced
this. You've seen a little kid, an
infant or a toddler, reaching for something that they should
not reach for, and what does the loving parent who's perceived
by the little one as a tyrant do? Well, he whacks the hand
and says, no. The psalmist and the prophet
say, yeah, no one does that to God. Man might think he does
that to God. Man might think that he tells
God, No, you can't mess with this part of my life. Or no,
you can't interfere in human affairs like this. Or no, you
can't do this, that, or the other thing. No, actually, he does
that to man. Man does not do that to him.
And so if we were to say, well, okay, well, that's a great big
theological idea, the godness of God, the godhood of God, that
he exercises control. Well, where would a Christian
point to if I was speaking to another brother or sister in
Christ who was wondering at the extensions of God's sovereignty,
or even myself, if I was asking, well, where in the Bible would
I see this played out? Well, the answer is everywhere.
Don't try to turn to all of these. Don't try to write them all down.
If you just want them, just email me and I'll send you all of the
references that I want to read by. I want to pile them up one
on the other and for you to be a little bit of like, okay, we've
really driven that into the ground because I think our hearts need
it. I think we need to be overwhelmed with a sense that God is God
and we are not. and that the world, though it
looks like it's not under sovereign control, is, and is perfectly
so. Job 42 verse 2, Job says, I know
that you can do all things, and that no purpose, not one, of
yours can be thwarted. Psalm 2910, the Lord sits enthroned
over the flood. The Lord sits enthroned as king
forever. Psalm 47, for God is the king
of all the earth. He reigns over all of the nations,
not just the ones who say that on their money. That's a different
translation, by the way. And he sits on his holy throne. Psalm 93, the Lord reigns and
he's robed in majesty. The Lord is robed, he's put on
strength as his belt. Psalm 96, say among the nations,
the Lord reigns. Yes, the world is established
and shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with
equity or justice. Psalm 103, the Lord has established
his throne in the heavens and his kingdom is over all. Proverbs 16, the lot, or the
dice, are cast into the lap, but every decision is from the
Lord. I can remember on that one in
particular having an argument with a, well, someone that I
thought was a brother, but ended up being a semi-Pelagian. And
his argument against Calvinism was, he said, God is not a micromanager. And I said, well, what do you
make of Proverbs 16? Every decision comes from him. He said, well, okay. He apparently
helps the dice land where it wants to, but he doesn't manage
everything like that. Which obviously, hopefully you'd
recognize as being ridiculous. Ecclesiastes 7, consider the
work of God. Who can make straight what God
has made crooked? Isaiah 14, for the Lord of armies
has purposed, who will annul it? His hand is stretched out. Who will turn it back? Lamentations
3. Who has spoken and it came to
pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth
of the Most High that good and bad come? I mean, often you might
see that framed in someone's kitchen. I mean, it's like one
of those, in the kitchen or the living room or dining room, right?
If God says it, it happens, whether good or bad. Did you catch which
book it came from? Lamentations. As Jeremiah watched his city
burn, he said, has not God said and done it? Does good befall
a city or bad and he's not done it? It's one thing to say that
when you find like five bucks in your pocket. That's a good day. It's another
thing when you're watching your nation crumble around you and
you say, good and bad come from God. Last one, Psalm 115. Why should the nation say, where
is your God? Our God is in the heavens. He
does all that he pleases. And we could go on and on and
on and on tonight looking at text after text after text that
God and God only is the sovereign ruler over all the affairs of
men. Both the things that we like
as well as the things that we don't like. I do not like it
when Christians say, When something turns out well, like, wow, that
was a God thing. You're like, yeah, so was the
bummer thing that happened right before all of that. And all the
other things that happened in your life. So when it comes to
God, when it comes to his kingship, when it comes to his rulership,
there's no such thing as a balance of powers. There's no such thing
as checks and balances. God cannot be filibustered. His
laws can't be vetoed. He doesn't answer to higher courts. His term in office is eternal. And everything that he promises
to do, guess what? He does. So you couldn't ask
for a further, well, I guess a more different ruler than the
one that we have with God when compared to those that we have,
well, in our day and in our time. The second thing I want to then
ask is, well, if that's what it means when we say God is sovereign,
how does that sovereignty impact human rulers? Now, some would
say God's sovereign in the fact like he's sort of like a, kind
of like a tired parent, a tired mom, a tired dad, relaxing on
the couch, and there's kind of this dull roar of chaos around
them. And so long as that chaos doesn't
exceed a certain decibel or intensity, he allows the freedom of the
rabble to just kind of continue on in the living room. And then
if he needs to, steps in. God doesn't rule like that. God
doesn't rule the way that I parent when I'm tired or wore out. God doesn't parent where he says,
well, I'm gonna give you all this, all of this freedom, and
yeah, you know, within degrees, I hope it goes well, but if it
doesn't, I'm always there to help out. That's not the way
that God interacts with human history. Again, even that's a
low-level way of putting it. He decrees all things that have
happened. So if you were to say, God is sovereign, and then you
were to ask a follow-up question. Well, does that mean he's sovereign
over rulers? What would your necessary answer
have to be? Without question. Without any
question. Proverbs 21, verse one. The king's
heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns
it wherever he wills. You might say, well, that says
king, not president, or king, not congressman. Yeah, well,
you actually extend all of them. Every ruler is like water in
the hand of God, and he can turn it anywhere he wants. He doesn't
have to work within the confines of that king's political party's
platform. He can do whatever he wants to
do. this point one of my just the
more I read of them the more admiration I have for mr. John
Newton he said the kings of the earth are continually disturbing
the world with their schemes of ambition They expect to carry
everything before them, and seldom any higher end is in view than
the gratification of their own passions. Does that sound like
anything familiar with what we're looking at today? Yes. Newton
goes on. But in all that they do, they
are but servants of this great king and lord, and they fulfill
his purposes. As the instruments he employs
to inflict This is where we get uncomfortable. Prescribed punishment
upon transgressors against him, or to open a way for the spread
of the gospel. They had one thing in view. He
had another. So Newton says, if you just look
at the political landscape, you find a bunch of people who, while
they're called public servants. They kind of only serve, well,
themselves and what they want to do, and it looks like that's...they
don't think anything beyond that. He says that's interesting, because
that's how human eyes would look at it. But as Christians, we
know that God's accomplishing everything that he wants. either
in punishing sinful wayward nations or he's using them to open the
doors for the gospel and the flourishing of the church. And
if you were to say, well, Okay, I understand, maybe that in theory,
but where in the Bible would we turn and see, like, how and
where would we see pagan godless kings that help, you know, that
work to God's ends or do God's bidding? I mean, if you look
at David in the Bible, you can look at David and be like, I
sort of get how that works. And maybe even Solomon early
on, you can look at that and be like, okay, I also get that. But how about the Ahabs and the
Rehoboams and the Jeroboams? Well, we could supply our current
candidates' names, or we could say, how about the Nebuchadnezzars
of the world? You see, Daniel was someone who
lived in exile under a king that was a pagan. And he had this to say about
the way that God's sovereignty interacted with kings. This is
Daniel chapter 2. Daniel answered and said, Blessed
be the name of God forever and ever. This is the night that
the king that he's under said, I'm going to tear your arms and
legs off. It's that kind of king, just
set context. Daniel says, blessed be God forever
and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and
seasons. He removes kings and he sets
up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and
knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and hidden things.
He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with him. I mean, that's a tough thing
to say if you're Daniel. Daniel saw the Davidic king of
Israel removed and the pagan king Nebuchadnezzar come to power. And while he might have had a
good health plan and maybe there was solid dental in place, I
would not have wanted to live under Nebuchadnezzar. Very often
in the book of Daniel, if you just add up the things that the
king says to people, he has various and sundry ways of killing people
in terrible ways if they don't do exactly what he wants from
them. So, Daniel lived in a difficult world, under a difficult ruler,
and you know what he said is? God's sovereign. Not even here. Especially here. It's not the
only occasion. You could turn to the book of
Jonah as another illustration. Jonah is called to go to what's
seen as like the most wicked city in the world at that time. He's called to go to Nineveh.
And he goes in, and he's not the most eager, zealous of evangelists,
right? He goes one day into a three-day
city. That's not great. His message, the recorded sermon
that he preaches, is five whole Hebrew words. And God uses that
for mighty ends. Jonah 3, the word reads, the
king of Nineveh, not by Jonah, by the way, but it reads the
king of Nineveh. And he arose from his throne and he removed
his robe and he covered himself with sackcloth and he sat in
ashes and he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh
by the decree of the king and his nobles Let neither man nor
beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or
drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth,
and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from
his evil way and from the violence that is in his hand. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn
from his fierce anger so that we may not perish." Now, because
we're so familiar with the book of Jonah, and because we know,
like, okay, it's a story about the, well, the confused prophet,
the big fish, and the city, and, like, the plant and the worm
at the end. we lose a little bit of the push. And so if you'd
allow a little sanctified, hopefully, imagination, if I could bring
the story into modern terms, imagine if tomorrow morning you
wake up, you open whatever news browser you browse the news on,
and as morning coffee is sinking in, you see a headline from MSNBC,
which would usually give you pause to not read it. But you
read on, and it says, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state
of emergency for the state of California, calling on all citizens
of San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Jose, and San
Diego to not eat or drink, but to call on God to forgive them
for the heinous sins of California. and even to not allow their little
dogs that they carry in strollers to eat. It would even extend
to them. You would think something had
fallen into your coffee, like rat poison or something, that
you were not gripping reality with a firm grasp. That is a small comparison to
what the king of Nineveh was like. As bad as our neighbors
to the west are, they didn't fillet their enemies like the
Ninevites did. It would be like reading that.
And then as a Christian, you would know the king's heart or
governor's heart truly is like water in the hand of God. And
at any moment he could say, repent at any moment, he could say that. You can see why I think one of
our applications is if we can call on the name of one who can
do that, well, that should be the church's response, right?
rather than just, well, being frustrated with some of these
things, we should pray and ask God to work. The last illustration
of this, again, is Nebuchadnezzar. He's the most proud, arrogant
human being that is existing as he's ruling over the world.
He's warned to humble himself. He ignores it. He is made to
live like a cow for seven years. And at the end, I mean, so God
takes his sanity, which some would say, well, God would never
violate human will like that. Oh, yeah, he would. And then
he gave him a little bit back, and with the first glimmers of
sanity coming back into the king's mind, Daniel chapter four, at
the end of these days, I, he's writing from the first person,
might be the only section of the Bible written by a pagan
king, by the way. Well, used to be pagan. I, Nebuchadnezzar,
lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and
I blessed the Most High. I praised and honored Him who
lives forever, for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and
His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All of the inhabitants
of the earth are accounted as nothing. And he does according
to all his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth. None can stay his hand or say
to him, what have you done? He sounds like the psalmist at
this point. I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the
king of heaven, for all his works are right. The guy who just had
his sanity taken for seven years said every decision that God
does is right. Wow. Every one of his ways are
just, and those who walk in pride, he is able to humble. Oh, we do well to listen to the
words of Nebuchadnezzar and to the king of Nineveh, as they
considered with a very clear mind God rules over all things. That doesn't mean that everything
works out with sunshine, rainbows, unicorns, and cupcakes, but it
does mean that the world as we see it is working to the ends
that God has. You might say, well, there's
rulers who do bad things. God is working there. He's working now. He's worked
in the past. He'll work in the future. It's
one of the reasons why I think the book of Revelation is so
desperately important. Not because I think it tells
future prophecies for us to be like really intent on looking
for in the newspaper. I think the book of Revelation
is really important because it looks at life from two different
vantage points. From one vantage point, the beast
and the harlot of Babylon and the dragon, I mean, the raging
and people, there's sections in the book of Revelation that
you're watching going, this is not good. This is chaos. And then there's a whole nother
perspective of the very same season in human history. It looks
at things from God's perspective and where is he? He's seated
on a throne, and he's ruling and reigning perfectly. It actually gives us, I think,
a way of understanding, down here, it looks one way. But if we could see with eyes
of faith what the sovereign God is doing, we would see it from
a very different vantage point. And so while I won't even dignify
the things we're seeing by using them as examples, but it's, I
think it's safe to say that if you consider the current situations
that we're sitting here looking at in America, I would just,
chaos is, that's a good word for it. It's just chaotic. It's
not, I can't believe the things we're reading. I just can't. And is that outside the rule
and reign of God? It's not. Is He using these things
for His own purposes and ends? He is. Will we always like those
purposes and ends? Not in one sense. But maybe if
we had eyes of faith and hearts of faith, we would say, like
Jesus taught us to pray, not our will, but His be done. So
I want to consider thirdly, How should we as Christians live
in chaotic times knowing that God is ultimately sovereign?
Right, that's a big question. How do I respond? How do I not
just live as a person? How do I guide my family? How
do I engage in church life, work life, society life, Facebook
life? No, that's not real life. Anyway,
how do I engage in all of those realms Knowing these two things,
the world is a sinful, chaotic, seemingly chaotic place, and
God rules and reigns perfectly on his throne. How would I do
that? Well, I wanna give at least two
things that we shouldn't be. Now, some of you might resonate
more with one than the other, and one or two of these might
just not be, I might say it and you might think in your heart,
yeah, I'm not tempted to do that. The first is we shouldn't be,
with regards to human government, overly optimistic. You might
say, I am not tempted to be overly optimistic. Well, there's, be
careful. Our hopes rise and fall when
certain candidates lead or fall behind. I think we're subject
to it more than we think we are. But there are those who think
if one candidate wins, all good things flourish. If the other
candidate wins, all good things come to an eternal, abysmal end.
I wouldn't put all my eggs in a candidate's basket there. Alexander
Carson, a really convicting thing he said is, as God can protect
people under the greatest despotism, so the utmost civil liberty is
no safer to them without the intermediate protection of his
almighty arm. I fear that Christians in this country have too great
a confidence in political institutions, rather than in the government
of God. Really want to be careful on
this part, brothers and sisters. And I hear, and even in my own
heart, I feel the fear of, oh my, where are we going? I want
off this ride, please. Keep in mind, the church grew. Think of, well, the end of Paul's
life. Who was ruling the world when
the church was exploding in a good way? You can say his name. Which Caesar? Nero. Would you vote for Nero? I wouldn't. I don't know who the other guy
would be, but he'd probably be better. And yet, what did God do? He
spread the church across the known world. And so, the church
can endure and thrive under tyrannical despots. Carson's also careful
to say sometimes the church gets comfortable thinking she's safe. when in fact she is not. So we
need to actually not pick one or the other. I think we actually
need to hold on to both. God cares for his church no matter
who's in power. And we shouldn't be overly afraid
if it's the wrong person or overly comfortable if it's the right
person. We should trust in God's government. I don't care who's in office.
Like I do care who doesn't to some degree, but with regards
to the way that we rest securely, I shouldn't rest easier or less
easy. I'm always under the kingship
of Christ. Now one might be harder to deal with, but ultimately
we're in God's hands. Psalm 20 warns against this.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the
name of the Lord our God. that needs to continue to be
the cry of God's people. Now, all that to say, so again,
I don't want to nuance this to death because I'm not a fan of
that, should we pray, plead, and strive for rulers that will
rule righteously and justly? Absolutely we should, right? Like that's part of what we should
be longing for is that God would raise up godly men to rule and
that God's laws would run through the land in all aspects. But when that doesn't happen,
that does not mean God's plans are thwarted. So let's not be
overly optimistic with regards to the merits of a human government. The second, and maybe this is
the ditch that we drive in, Don't be overly pessimistic. This would
be kind of the retreat hide in your bunker, or if your friend
has a bunker. Remember how Revelation sees
God. Seated on the throne. Remember
in Isaiah chapter six when a really good king dies. And Isaiah kind of knows the
guy who's going to take over for him is not the brightest
light bulb in the store. Who is seated on the throne,
high and exalted? Well, God is. So on the earth,
monarchs coming and going. In heaven, no movement, no change,
no swapping of offices whatsoever. So let's not be overly pessimistic. So if the, I don't even like
saying this, but if the person you don't want to get it gets
it, that doesn't mean we give way to complaining. That doesn't
mean we give way to gossip or slander. That doesn't mean that
we have bitterness towards others. What would it mean? Well, not
to be melodramatic, but it would feel in some ways like exile.
And so maybe what Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 27 would just be
particularly important for us. Remember, Jeremiah is speaking
to the exiles, and if you were writing to friends and family
that lived in Babylon and Assyria, not great places. We might not
choose to write what Jeremiah wrote, but he wrote it in the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He says, seek the welfare of
the city where I've sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord
on its behalf, for in its welfare, you will find your welfare. Jeremiah,
speaking from God's perspective, writes to an exiled Israel and
says, even in exile, work towards the good of your city, because
your good and their good, it's kind of bound up together in
a lot of ways. So the response of God's people
would be, well, I guess a couple fold. Continuing to be good citizens
and seeking the good of the place where God's planted us, and then
the greatest thing that we can do I know what you're thinking,
it's like Facebook groups. No, that's not the greatest thing
you can do. Those are terrible. Pray to the one who has the hearts
of kings in his hands like water. We should pray. And this is what
1 Timothy says when Paul is writing to Timothy, the young pastor
that's serving in Ephesus, not a very godly city at all. He
says, first off then pray, or I've urged that supplications
and prayers and intercessions and thanksgiving be made for
all people. The idea is all kinds of people. And then, in case maybe he knows
pastorally our tendencies, for kings and all who are in high
positions. So he says, pray for everybody.
And you can see the church being like, okay. He's like, even senators
and presidents. Even them too, okay. But he gives
the church a reason or a why that might take us a little bit
by surprise. He says, that, or in order that,
we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in
every way. So we should be praying as a
church ardently for God to raise up righteous rulers. We really
should be praying for that. We should pray for it, not because
of the other side's policies annoy us, not for all the weird
reasons that we could get into for praying for this or that
or the other thing. Paul gives a really good reason. Pray for
them so that you could lead a peaceful, quiet life devoted to godliness. I would say that Paul seems to
keep the main thing the main thing. The main thing is that
we are able to serve the Lord wholeheartedly with clear conscience,
unimpeded. That should be the longing of
the church, that she could pursue Christ her King in a peaceful,
quiet way. Mr. Bridges adds to this. I mean,
he doesn't add to the scripture, but he goes along with this same
idea. The fact that the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord
is meant to be a stimulus to prayer, not a stimulus to fatalistic
attitudes. So it's not like, well, God'll
do whatever he wants, just, I guess what'll be will be. No. I mean, on the one hand, yes,
but in the response of, he doesn't tell us, hey, the king's heart
is like water in the hand of God, so whatever, he's gonna
do whatever. The reason he tells the church that is that we would
pray, that we would storm the mercy seat in these ways. You
have, as the church, the ear of that one. And I'll just confess,
I do not pray for our leaders like I should. I desperately
need to change that. We need to be praying that we
would have rulers of such quality that we'd have peaceful, quiet
lives, not just for our generation, but for our children, too. I should be praying more for
the world our kids inherit as well. We also need to remember,
lastly, that our citizenship is in heaven. Philippians 3 says
our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a savior
the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform our lowly bodies to
be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to
subject everything even unto himself Hebrews chapter 12 so
again remembering who we are as the church therefore let us
be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken He's not
talking about the USA, he's talking about the kingdom that Christ
rules over. And then, let us offer to God
acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming
fire. Colossians chapter one. God has
delivered us from the domain or the kingdom of darkness, and
he's transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we
have redemption, the very forgiveness of our sins. And lastly, Philippians
chapter four. Don't be anxious for anything.
But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known to God. Brothers and sisters,
we've been moved from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom
of God's Son. Our citizenship is in heaven.
King is in heaven. We live in this brief, temporary,
vaporous life. It's short in duration, while
it might feel long, it's short in duration and inevitably coming
over I mean, just over the horizon, this is one of the things I think
is so beautiful about the Song of Songs, right? It anticipates
this greatly. We have a country that we will
inherit, a new heaven and a new earth, and Christ as the eternal
King will rule and reign perfectly there. That's that's our that
I mean it sounds weird to say like that's our destiny. That's
that is where every Believing man every believing woman every
believing child will eternally dwell Keeping that in mind is
of utmost importance So do we live faithfully here and now?
Yes is our treasure here upon the earth and No, it's in heaven,
kept for us, imperishable, where neither moth nor rust can destroy. Our hopes are not wrapped up
on this, so regardless of however things go in the next bit of
stretch of time, that reality isn't changed a lick. It's held
there by Christ for his people. And no one can take that from
you. Therefore, we should live differently. The world that you're
seeing rage around you, they're raging because their idols are
being threatened. And their heaven is this earth. What a depressing thing to even
say. This earth is the best they will ever endure. For the Christian, the opposite's
true. This is the worst we will endure.
And heaven awaits us. Live lives circumspectly with
that in our minds. Our hopes, hearts, are there. Living faithfully, yes, in this
brief life, but recognizing He's given us a few brief fleeting
days on a bit of dirt flinging through the universe. Live faithfully
for Him there, recognizing that one day, the last day will dawn,
and we'll be with Him eternally. Let's pray. Our Father, we pray that You
would indeed give us eyes to see that Christ rules perfectly
from his throne. Lord, help us to live not as
the world lives, but as the church should live. Help us not to be
in anxious people. Help us not to have our treasures
here upon the earth, but help us to be a heavenly minded and
a heavenly hearted people. whose treasure, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is in heaven waiting for us. Lord, in the few days
that you give us to live, we pray that because this place
is not our home, we would be willing to spend and be spent
for you. That we'd be willing to not build
our own little kingdoms, but we'd be willing to be used in
the building of yours. We pray for all those who counted
not their lives as precious and willing to go that Christ would
be worshipped in foreign lands. With that on our hearts and our
minds, we do pray for our sister Megan as she prepares to go back
to Poland, Lord. Thank you that she desires the
kingdom of Christ more than the kingdoms of this world. And while to degrees we all long
for that Lord, we confess at the same time we do not long
for the kingdom of Christ like we should. So help us long for
him all the more. Make us faithful in tough days,
we pray. Amen. We hope that you were edified
by this message. For additional sermons as well
as information on giving to the ministry of Grace Community Church,
please visit us online at gracenevada.com. That's gracenevada.com.
The Sovereignty of God
Series Single Message
| Sermon ID | 815241853193722 |
| Duration | 51:50 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | Isaiah 40 |
| Language | English |
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