Lecture by Rev. John Sim ( Professor in
Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is only one Lord [the only Lord].
Rephrasing … Listen attentively the Lord our God is one. Personalizing this Eddie listen carefully to what God has got to say to you. Ok! Lord I’m all ears speak to me ----------I’ll listen and obey-------
There are days when everything seems to go wrong. When things don’t seem to go our way. When unrests, unemployment, cyclone, gasoline hike, quakes, recession and even personal problems resonate. How can all things be alright? When all these happen all at the same time. The fact and question is …IS God in control?
1Chronicle 29:11 The bible says here “…everything” but when we read we see”…some things” So everything can be Ok! according to the scriptures because God is in control.
The bible talks about God as the absolute ruler and authority over nature.
We say the Sovereignty of God over nature, history and over our life. He is exceptionally sovereign.
Do I have any free choice; the bible says I do, we do have freedom in life in many areas but I do not have control over my total life. So if I’m going against God when He’s in control of everything---does this affect everything?
How does God’s Sovereignty affect me?
Since God is in control
- My plans have a limit (actually God determines the limit and not the sky as we tend to say Proverbs 19:21
- Some things don’t go as we plan most times and God has a better idea why that’s so. Proverbs 6:1
- Sometimes, I have my plans but God changes them as He wants. God changes our plans because He is in control of our/my plans and my plans are limited, too. Proverbs 27: 1
I don’t know the future, so the wrong attitude is to be PRESUMPTIOUS. If I feel to make my plans for the next 20 years but God has a better idea instead how do I relate with that.
God expects and wants us not to worry about the future. So what is the proper attitude James 4:13 -15.
It’s ok to make plans, it’s actually important to have vision or plan where you are going in life but you have to know that it is tentative.
Mature faith is flexible--- we must have the ultimate idea of God being in control.
Two (2) Rules of Stress Reduction
- Don’t sweat the small stuff
- It’s all small stuff in God’s perspective
Hence, the right attitude should be that of cooperation. Allow God to partner with you as you make decisions, trusting Him and knowing He’s in control.
D.V = Deo Valente (Latin) God willing!
That’s what it means to be in cooperation when our plans are being made
Proverbs 16: 9.
How do you do that? By asking …God what do you want me to do? What’s your plan and agenda concerning this and that? So when interruptions show up ----I’ll know exactly that God is in control, this helps to reduce stress in my life.
How God’s sovereignty does affect me?
- My plans have a limit
- My problems have a purpose 1 Peter 1: 6-7 (Philips edition)
Life is not a series of random accidents. Sometimes when bad things happen what are my attitudes towards them.
There are a lot of things in my life that are not God’s will, so we have to pray Lord let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
God has a will for my life---I can choose to go against it but that hurts people around me. God doesn’t cause sickness, He doesn’t cause all my problems, He doesn’t have to at all. I make enough problems on my own. He only permits them. The very fact that God has given us free will is why he allows the consequences of our free will to reign. So we pay the consequence of our sins. God does not cause evil and suffering, He does allow them because our problems have a purpose. Billy Graham said “the longest distance in the world is the distance between the head and the heart” God is an expert in turning good out of bad. Examples: Paul in prison, Daniel in the lions den, Pharaoh’s attitude towards the Israelites. God could have kept Jesus from the cross but He allowed Him to suffer and die on the cross so that men might be saved through salvation.
God loves to turn cruxifications into resurrections. God uses most of these things like hardship to shape me. There is more important stuff to gain from pain, it is what lessons I get from the pain encountered in life. When bad things happen to me the wrong question to ask is the “WHY? Question” But the right question is ---- What are you trying to teach me Lord?
Job is a typical example:
Job had everything but lost them all. In the scriptures we were told Satan was the one doing all the bad stuff to job but also because God allowed it all. Job1: 21 --- Job showed a great and incredible attitude.
Joseph is another example--- sold into slavery because of his jealous brothers, spent time in prison because he was accused wrongly in Potipher’s home; actually all was going down hill for him in his first 40 years of his life, but in all this God was in control. God was in control of his life, future and all.
Some of you (Eddie inclusive) the story isn’t over yet, the final chapters haven’t been written yet. God is in control.
How do I find strength in hard times? Joseph’s response ---- Genesis 50:20
What’s the key to my response? Look past the pain 2Corinthians 4: 16-17 see the phrase “and it came to pass” I might be going through stress, pain and difficult times.
My response and all I must know is that God is in control.
- My prayers have an impact: prayers does work--- why does it work, because God is in control. If God isn’t sovereign then it won’t work. But of course HE is. Prayer works because God is in control.
- Why does God answer one and not another? Because he is in control => Ephesians 3:20 “… infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts or hopes” Greek say( hupa ark parisu) God’s resources are available to me, but you have to ask. The bible says ask and you shall receive, so keep asking, just keep at it. (Keep asking is in continues tense)
Keep on asking, seeking and knocking. Only if you do would what you want come to pass.
A= Ask
S = Seek
K = Knock
Things that are out of my control are not out of God’s reach or control. I can’t change my situation but God can change them. So I can pray to ask Him to change my circumstances.
So why is it I don’t get everything I pray for or ask?
- God is not a genie
Even though we do ask in sincerity, God knows what’s best for me. He sees the bigger picture. If God answers my entire request according to how I pray then it would never be--- let your will be done but let my will be done.
- Sometimes Christians pray in conflict. (An illustration about the pastor in the
woods being chased by a lion).
- God knows what’s best for us and we don’t. John 5: 14-15
“according to His will”. He hears us when we ask Him according to His will. So our attitude to prayers should be like the attitude Jesus had --- let your will be done lord. Instead of complaining about issues we consider praying about the issues, be it Financial
Marriage
Relationships
Physical sickness etc
My soul magnifies the Lord. How do we magnify the Lord?
We do this by turning to Him and seeing his goodness, majesty and greatness and then begin to look at our problems, comparing and seeing how small our problems are or how small they tend to become at seen together.
PERSPECTIVE: David and Goliath see how David knew that God was in control. The people saw how big Goliath was and were scared to death but David saw how big Goliath was that if he threw the stone he wouldn’t miss him.
Prayer of Jabez 1Chronicle 4: 10.This isn’t a magical incantation ----- It worked because God is in control.
See Joshua 1:9 in closing.
