Introduction:
God Says That He Is... (Isaiah 45:5-12 & 46:8-11)
- The one and only LORD: I cannot overestimate His Sovereign Reach (Isaiah 45:5-7)
1 John 1:5 - God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.
Genesis 45:8 - “So it was not you who sent me here, but God.”
Genesis 50:20 - “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”
Acts 2:23 - “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”
Romans 8:28 - And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.
- The one and only Creator: I cannot question His Actions . (Isaiah 45:8-12)
- The one and only Almighty: I cannot thwart His Purposes . (Isaiah 46:8-11)
- Decretive will
- Preceptive will
Philippians 4:6-7 - Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:29-01:32
All right, let's turn our Bibles to Isaiah chapter 45.
01:33-01:34
Isaiah chapter 45.
01:35-01:41
As you turn there, I wanna tell you that I'm actually gonna be celebrating my ninth wedding anniversary in three days from now.
01:42-01:43
Thank you, thank you.
01:45-01:52
So my wife Kate and I got married on July 26, 2014, and here's a picture of our big day.
01:54-01:56
Now, two things come to mind when I look at this picture.
01:57-01:59
The first is, I wish I still looked like that.
02:00-02:00
(audience laughing)
02:01-02:03
That was too big of a laugh, come on.
02:03-02:04
(laughing)
02:04-02:06
A little bit of a chuckle would have been nice.
02:06-02:10
But also, how does my wife look even better at 31 than she did back when she was 22?
02:11-02:14
And I can say that because she's not in the room this morning, she's back with the nursery.
02:15-02:19
You know, July 26, 2014 was a fantastic day.
02:20-02:26
It was a day that I loved to relive in my mind, but leading up to it, there was some anxiety that comes with planning every single wedding.
02:27-02:29
You know, Kate and I wanted to get married outside.
02:30-02:38
We got married at a place called Shady Elms, which is really, has great, gorgeous locations for pictures, has a small barn and a pond as well.
02:39-02:43
But if we wanted to get married outside, we had to have plans in case it was going to rain.
02:43-02:46
We live in Pittsburgh, and you never ever know what's gonna happen.
02:47-03:04
And so if we wanted to get married outside, we had to decide, are we gonna buy or rent this $2,000 awning that they offered in case that it rained because the barn was so small that people would have to leave after the ceremony as they tore down for the reception for 30 to 40 minutes.
03:04-03:09
If it poured, people would just be standing out there in the rain for 30 minutes with no cover.
03:10-03:11
And this has seemed like a big, massive waste of money.
03:11-03:14
We're like, why did we decide two weeks ahead of time?
03:14-03:16
We couldn't wait till the day before.
03:16-03:19
And so I just kind of agonized over this decision because I'm a cheap person.
03:19-03:20
I'm like, this is such a waste of money.
03:20-03:21
I don't wanna do this.
03:22-03:23
I guess people can just stay outside in the rain if they want to.
03:24-03:26
But apparently that's not okay to do.
03:27-03:30
So for weeks, I would just look over the weather report.
03:30-03:39
I would pull up my phone like 20 times a day and just stare at my phone and Kate would just be like, "Are you looking at the weather again?" I'm like, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, it wasn't." I would just agonize over this.
03:39-03:48
And eventually we decided, let's just risk it, let's not buy it, and thankfully the Lord honored that decision and it didn't pour until immediately after our wedding reception.
03:50-03:53
Let me ask you a question with a really obvious answer.
03:53-04:02
Did my obsessive worrying about the weather and my constant checking of the weather app do anything to affect the weather that day?
04:04-04:04
No.
04:05-04:07
I didn't make it a beautiful, sunny day.
04:07-04:13
I had 0% of an effect on the weather on July 26, 2014.
04:13-04:24
My hours of stressing out and staring at meteorology radars Weeks in advance was a complete and utter waste of time because I cannot control the weather in any way.
04:25-04:32
But for some reason, those moments, staring at that report and worrying gave me this false sense of control.
04:33-04:38
It gave me the sense that I can do something about it.
04:40-04:46
You know, as human beings, we are experts at tricking ourselves into believing that we have more control than we do.
04:46-04:51
We have some control, but not nearly as much as we would like.
04:52-05:02
We would like to believe that we're in complete and total control of our finances, of our futures, of our health, but that's not true at all.
05:03-05:08
The older I get, the more I realize how little control I actually have.
05:09-05:16
I can prepare myself as much as possible to be a dependable pastor, but things can still come out of nowhere that I wasn't expecting.
05:17-05:25
I can do my best to love my kids, disciple them, teach them the word of God, but I cannot force them to know and love Jesus.
05:25-05:30
I can't give them the faith to believe in Christ as much as I would like to.
05:31-05:40
I can wisely invest my money and save for years and years, but something unexpected can come out of nowhere.
05:41-05:43
I could be in a really bad position.
05:44-05:46
This lack of control can be scary.
05:47-05:49
This lack of control can be discouraging.
05:50-05:52
This seems like bad news, doesn't it?
05:53-05:56
But it's actually the greatest news imaginable.
05:57-06:07
Coming to grips with our lack of control should help us to realize how dependent upon God we really are, how much we truly need him.
06:08-06:11
We're in the middle of our latest series called Did God Really Say?
06:12-06:20
in which we are focusing on important doctrines and realities of scripture, that our enemy constantly tries to attack, that he constantly tries to undermine.
06:20-06:29
He whispers these questions of doubt in our ears so that we will doubt in the goodness and faithfulness of God.
06:30-06:35
We've already answered the questions, did God really say that his word can be trusted?
06:35-06:39
Did God really say that every other religion is wrong?
06:40-06:50
This morning, we're gonna look to Isaiah chapter 45 and 46 to answer the question, did God really say that he is in control of everything?
06:51-06:54
Did God really say that he is in control of everything?
06:55-07:04
Now, to be honest, at the front end, this sermon will require you to put on your thinking cap and really face some really difficult and complex truths of scripture.
07:06-07:13
It will cause you to realize how small you really are how big God really is.
07:14-07:20
I hope and pray that the Lord will use this text to blow up that teeny tiny box that we try to put him in.
07:21-07:35
That Isaiah's massive vision of a big God will comfort our troubled hearts, ease our many anxieties, and lead us to recognize how joyful it really is to depend on the Lord from one moment to the next.
07:37-07:42
So before diving into God's word, go to the Lord and ask for listening ears and an open heart.
07:43-07:49
Father, you call us in your word to be still and know that you are God.
07:51-07:55
Well, so often we're just frantically running around and we forget about you.
07:56-08:01
We forget who you are, we forget what you've done for us, we forget what you continue to do for us.
08:02-08:05
Lord, let us still ourselves before your word this morning.
08:05-08:19
we would just be impressed with your majesty, with your glory, with your awesomeness, Lord, that our problems, our issues, our struggles would shrink in comparison to how big you are.
08:21-08:24
Lord, help all of us this morning, in Jesus' name, amen.
08:25-08:29
So our outline for this morning, God is, number one, the one and only Lord.
08:30-08:33
I cannot overestimate his sovereign reach.
08:34-08:38
God is the one and only Lord, I cannot overestimate his sovereign reach.
08:40-08:57
Last week we studied Isaiah chapter 44, verses six through 20, and we learned that the prophet warned the kingdom of Judah that because of their rebellion, because of their worship of false idols, God's gonna send the Babylonians to invade, destroy Jerusalem, and take them back to Babylon in exile.
08:58-09:13
Following this word of judgment, Isaiah offers God's people a message of salvation and hope he gives them the great news that the Lord's not gonna forget them in Babylon, that he will bring them back from this captivity.
09:14-09:23
But he adds an extra detail at the end of chapter 44, at the beginning of chapter 45, that would rub a lot of the people of Judah the wrong way.
09:23-09:33
He says in order to accomplish this, he will raise up a pagan king named Cyrus to destroy the Babylonians and send them back to their homeland.
09:34-09:35
Why is it such a big deal?
09:36-09:37
Why would they care about this?
09:39-09:45
Well, because in their history, God would raise up an Israelite who believed in him to rescue his people from trouble.
09:46-09:48
People like Moses, Gideon, Samson.
09:49-09:55
Why would God raise up someone who doesn't even know him or believe in him to accomplish his purposes?
09:55-09:58
Why wouldn't God just keep this in the family?
09:59-10:10
We'll get into that question more at the second point, but it's really important to understand that a decent chunk of chapter 45 that we're about to read is directed at Cyrus, who hasn't even been born yet.
10:11-10:17
This prophecy about his life won't come to pass until almost 200 years later.
10:19-10:26
The Lord, I mean, Cyrus won't know the Lord, but the Lord certainly knows Cyrus, and he has planned out his entire life.
10:27-10:37
He will use this man to accomplish his purposes and show his people that he is in control of everything, down to the very last and smallest detail.
10:38-10:43
So let's read what God has to say about himself in verses five through seven of chapter 45.
10:44-10:47
I am the Lord and there is no other.
10:47-10:49
Besides me, there is no God.
10:49-10:52
I equip you, though you do not know me.
10:52-10:53
Again, he's talking to Cyrus.
10:54-10:59
That people may know from the rising of the sun and from the West, that there is none besides me.
10:59-11:01
I am the Lord and there is no other.
11:01-11:04
I form light and I create darkness.
11:04-11:06
I make well-being and create calamity.
11:06-11:10
I am the Lord who does all these things.
11:11-11:17
Most importantly, God reveals himself as the Lord in these verses.
11:17-11:25
As we learned last week, this is the personal name of God pronounced something like Yahweh in Hebrew, meaning I am.
11:26-11:31
And God communicates so much about himself through this personal name of I am.
11:32-11:34
He's saying I am the greatest and most important.
11:34-11:36
There is no one and nothing like me.
11:37-11:38
I depend on no one.
11:39-11:41
No one can tell me who I should be.
11:41-11:42
I am.
11:42-11:44
I am who I am.
11:46-11:51
This personal and powerful name of God shows us that he is sovereign.
11:53-11:55
Now what does that mean that God is sovereign?
11:56-12:03
This means that God is supreme over everything and everyone else and he is a complete control.
12:03-12:06
He has absolute authority over his creation.
12:07-12:10
He has absolute authority over what happened in the past.
12:10-12:17
He has absolute authority over what is happening in the present and he has absolute authority over what will happen in the future.
12:19-12:21
Nothing happens by luck.
12:21-12:24
Nothing happens by chance.
12:25-12:26
God is sovereign.
12:26-12:28
God is in control.
12:30-12:31
Look again to what he says in verse seven.
12:32-12:34
I form light and I create darkness.
12:34-12:36
I make well-being and create calamity.
12:36-12:39
I am the Lord who does all these things.
12:40-12:49
So according to God himself, he's not just in control of the good things that happen to us, he's in control of the bad things as well.
12:50-12:53
To be clear, God is not the author or source of evil.
12:54-12:59
As the Apostle John says in his epistle, God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.
13:00-13:05
God is not to blame for evil, but he still uses it for his divine purposes.
13:06-13:11
We see in scripture that even Satan and his demons are under the control of God.
13:12-13:14
Satan is like a dog on a leash.
13:14-13:16
He can't just run wild and unrestricted.
13:17-13:20
We see this most clearly in the book of Job.
13:21-13:28
Satan has to come to the Lord and ask for permission to bring hard times upon Job.
13:28-13:35
You know, people often act like there's this really close battle between Satan and God.
13:35-13:36
They're in this arm wrestling match.
13:36-13:38
We're not really sure as they come out on top.
13:38-13:39
It's really close.
13:39-13:40
We'll see what happens.
13:41-13:49
I'm pretty sure the one who has to ask for a permission slip from the divine principle of the universe is gonna lose big time.
13:52-13:55
God allowed Satan to take everything away from Job.
13:58-14:00
Satan did this to crush Job.
14:01-14:06
God did it to make him stronger and more dependent upon him.
14:07-14:14
There are many more examples of God's sovereignty over hard times, over suffering in Scripture.
14:15-14:17
There's a story of Joseph and his brothers.
14:18-14:22
He's sold into slavery by his own brothers.
14:24-14:33
He's thrown into a pit, like you know what, let's sell him into slavery, and he is taken to Egypt, where he is thrown in prison for a crime that he did not commit.
14:34-14:48
But Joseph gets the attention of Pharaoh because of his ability to interpret dreams, and he is made second in command of Egypt, and because of this, he's able to not just save Egypt, but his own family, his own homeland from this massive famine.
14:50-14:54
In a long story short, he's in a position where he can kill his brothers.
14:54-14:57
He can throw them into prison for the rest of their lives.
14:59-15:00
But that's not what he does.
15:01-15:03
Instead, he shows them great mercy and grace.
15:04-15:05
He has this to say to them.
15:07-15:10
So it was not you who sent me here, but God.
15:11-15:16
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.
15:17-15:21
To bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.
15:22-15:29
So instead of being so focused on what they did, Joseph stepped back and had the big picture of what God was up to the entire time.
15:31-15:40
And the ultimate example of God using suffering and pain for his own purposes is the crucifixion of his one and only son.
15:42-15:45
During a sermon at Pentecost, Peter preached these words in Jerusalem.
15:46-16:03
"This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men." God the Father planned the crucifixion and sacrificial death of his own son.
16:05-16:25
Yet he accomplished this plan through the actions of men who acted according to their deepest and most sinful desires. God planned this horrific yet glorious event so that undeserving sinners like you and me could be forgiven. I can't imagine sending my son to do that for any of you.
16:27-16:44
But God the Father willingly did it. From all these examples and the rest of Scripture, we see two realities in the Bible that are true at the same exact God is sovereign over everything that happens, but we are still held responsible for our choices and our actions.
16:44-16:46
Our decisions matter.
16:49-16:52
Maybe you're feeling confused about how all this works out.
16:52-16:54
That's good because that means you're actually paying attention.
16:56-17:02
Because the relationship between God's sovereignty and our choices will never ever make sense to us.
17:02-17:07
Our brains are just too small and we can never fully comprehend something like this.
17:08-17:16
Expecting us to be able to fully understand God and all of his ways is like expecting my dog to be able to figure out how to do my taxes for me.
17:16-17:17
It's just impossible.
17:17-17:20
It's just never going to happen.
17:21-17:30
But as hard as it is to wrap our minds around, there is great comfort and hope in believing that God uses difficult things for his purposes.
17:33-17:39
You know, over the course of my years in ministry, I've heard people give those who are suffering this advice.
17:40-17:43
They'll say, you know, God had nothing to do with what's happening to you.
17:44-17:47
That's not part of God's plan for your life.
17:49-17:55
And I get the heart, I get the motivation behind that, but how scary and how discouraging is that?
17:55-17:59
'Cause if that's true, whose hands are you in when you're going through hard times?
17:59-18:01
You're in the hands of Satan only.
18:02-18:05
and he hates you and he wants nothing good for you.
18:06-18:17
But if you believe that God is sovereign, if you believe that he is in control, you know that he has you in his hands and everything that he does will be to bless you and not to break you.
18:18-18:21
Everything is for your ultimate good.
18:23-18:27
Then, only then can we truly believe the awesome words of Romans 8:28.
18:27-18:35
And we know that for those who love God, All things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.
18:37-18:40
All right, secondly, God is the one and only creator.
18:40-18:43
I cannot question his actions.
18:44-18:45
He is the one and only creator.
18:45-18:47
I cannot question his actions.
18:49-18:51
Let's read verse eight of chapter 45.
18:52-18:56
Shall row heavens from above and let the clouds rain down righteousness.
18:56-19:01
Let the earth open that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit.
19:01-19:03
Let the earth cause them both to sprout.
19:04-19:06
I the Lord have created it.
19:07-19:13
Once again, God is absolutely shattering the idea that he is cold and distant.
19:13-19:16
He doesn't really care what's going on with this planet.
19:16-19:22
He isn't leaning back in his heavenly lounge chair, the box of popcorn, and thinking, I wonder how this is all gonna turn out.
19:23-19:25
He is the creator of everything.
19:26-19:30
As you've already learned, He is leading His creation into a certain direction.
19:31-19:37
Even though there is darkness and brokenness all around us, God is still righteous and He is still at work.
19:38-19:44
God is bringing men and women to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ that bears the fruit of changed lives.
19:46-19:53
And looking forward in Scripture, we see that one day the curse of sin will be reversed and evil will be destroyed.
19:54-19:58
He's reminding us of where history is going, where his creation is going.
19:58-20:06
It's not a sob story with a sad ending, but a story of absolute triumph with the greatest ending imaginable.
20:08-20:20
So after providing his creator credentials in verse eight, God pronounces two words of woe or judgment against those who had questioned his right to do as he sees fit.
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Let's read verses nine through 12.
20:24-20:29
Woe to him who strives with him, who formed him a pot among earthen pots.
20:29-20:32
Does the clay say to him who forms it, what are you making?
20:32-20:33
Or your work has no handles.
20:34-20:36
Woe to him who says to a father, what are you begetting?
20:37-20:39
Or to a woman, with what are you in labor?
20:39-20:45
Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him, ask me of things to come.
20:46-20:49
Will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands?
20:49-20:51
I made the earth and created man on it.
20:51-20:57
It was my hands that stretched out the heavens and I commanded all their hosts.
20:59-21:09
The Lord compares us questioning him or complaining against him to a piece of clay mouthing off to the potter who is forming it.
21:09-21:15
It's like a piece of clay telling the potter, oh, your work is terrible, it's messy, it's not very good.
21:16-21:19
I love the second metaphor he gives, I think it's hilarious.
21:20-21:25
he compares our questioning him to a baby telling his dad that he doesn't approve of how he was conceived.
21:26-21:29
Or to his mom, I'm not a big fan of coming into the world in such a messy way.
21:31-21:35
It's like, kid, be happy that you're here instead of complaining how you got here.
21:37-21:42
You know, my son is almost four years old, which means that he just began his career in talking back.
21:43-21:45
And he loves to have the final word.
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He loves to tell me what to do.
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He definitely thinks he knows better than I do.
21:49-21:51
He'll say, "Dada, don't do that.
21:51-21:55
"Dada, stop doing that." Or I'll just try to be silly and sing and dance them.
21:55-22:00
He'll go, "Stop, stop, stop." It sounds funny to you, but it's not funny when it's happening.
22:02-22:02
(audience laughing)
22:03-22:06
And my blood pressure just rises in these moments.
22:07-22:11
And I immediately shut down this type of talk when he tries to boss me around.
22:11-22:14
I'll say, "Buddy, you're not in charge.
22:15-22:21
"I'm the boss, not you." And that's exactly what God is saying in these verses.
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To his grumbling people who aren't a big fan of Cyrus being used to save them someday, he's saying, you know what, you seem to be very confused, so let me set you straight.
22:32-22:33
I don't work for you.
22:34-22:37
I'm the creator and I'm gonna do whatever I'm gonna do.
22:39-22:41
God's way is the right way.
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When we disagree with him, who's wrong?
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Okay, come on, you guys say that louder.
22:49-22:50
'Cause some of us struggle with this.
22:50-22:53
Whenever we disagree with God, who's wrong?
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We are.
22:56-22:59
Listen to what the Lord says later on in Isaiah 55.
22:59-23:04
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
23:04-23:12
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
23:14-23:20
So right now you may be thinking, "Okay, Taylor, I just need to keep my mouth shut "whenever I'm at the end of my rope.
23:20-23:29
"Whenever I'm discouraged, I just need to plaster on "a big smile and just fake it until I make it "and act like everything's fine." That's not what I'm saying at all.
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I know that many of you in this room are carrying massive weights that I cannot even begin to understand or imagine.
23:40-23:49
I know some of you kind of almost dragged yourself here this morning, and you're not sure if you can go one more day with how things are right now.
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In this passage, God's not telling you to stay silent.
23:55-23:57
God's not telling you to suffer alone.
23:58-24:05
He wants you to cast your burdens upon him because he alone has strong enough shoulders to bear them.
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One pastor I read this past week gave this helpful distinction.
24:10-24:15
We can groan to God, but not grumble against God.
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Let me say that again.
24:18-24:22
We can groan to God, but not grumble against God.
24:23-24:25
Do you see the difference between those two things?
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You can be honest with God about your struggles without complaining.
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You can bring your frustrations to the Lord without blaming him or acting like he has done something wrong.
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This type of groaning leads you towards God while grumbling leads you away from him.
24:42-24:50
This type of groaning is a opening of your arms to your heavenly father, while grumbling is a stiff arm of rejection.
24:53-24:55
But sadly, it's so easy to become bitter against the Lord.
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It's so easy to become jaded.
24:59-25:05
You know, I've talked to a lot of people over the years who've told me something like, "Yeah, when I stand before God someday, "I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind.
25:05-25:09
"I'm gonna tell him some things he needs to hear." No, you're not.
25:10-25:11
That's a very bad plan.
25:12-25:14
You think you're gonna do that, but you won't.
25:15-25:20
In scripture, when people are before God or even one of his angels, they get as low as they can as fast as they can.
25:21-25:26
Any word of complaint that you would have would turn to dust in your mouth before God.
25:27-25:30
It's so tempting to think that we know better than God does.
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It's so natural for us to question him, to question his timetables, We need to resist that urge with everything within us because it leads nowhere good.
25:44-25:47
If you feed that kind of attitude, you'll become bitter against the Lord.
25:48-25:49
You'll become bitter against His word.
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You'll become bitter against His church.
25:52-25:59
Run to the Lord with your problems instead of pointing the finger of blame at Him because of your problems.
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All right, finally, God is the one and only Almighty.
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I cannot thwart His purposes.
26:09-26:11
God is the one and only almighty.
26:12-26:14
I cannot thwart his purposes.
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So in Isaiah chapter 46, the Lord repeats a lot of what we've already talked about.
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I'm the one and only, I am it.
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And he goes back to what we talked about last week, the destructiveness of idolatry and worshiping anything or anyone else besides him.
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And so he reemphasizes in this verse who he is and what he does.
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Let's read verses eight through 11 of chapter 46.
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Let's move a chapter over.
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Isaiah 46, eight through 11.
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Remember this and stand firm.
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Recall it to mind, you transgressors.
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Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other.
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I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning.
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And from ancient times, things not yet done.
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Saying my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose, calling a bird of prey from the east.
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the man of my counsel from a far country.
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I have spoken and I will bring it to pass.
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I have purposed and I will do it.
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The Lord not only reemphasizes his power, his control, his sovereignty, he goes a step forward.
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He says no one and nothing can stand in my way.
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No one can thwart my purposes.
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We look again when he says in verses 10 through 11, "My counsel shall stand, "and I will accomplish all my purposes.
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"Calling a bird of prey from east, "the man of my counsel from a far country." He's talking about Cyrus, who came out of the east from Persia to destroy Babylon and free God's people.
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"I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass.
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"I have purpose, and I will do it." There's a lot of shalls and wills in these verses.
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There's no maybes or mights.
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God's not crossing his fingers and saying, oh, I really wish that everything turned out way I wanted to, we'll see what happens. No, he's saying I've said that's going to happen and it's going to happen. We see this prophecy fulfilled many years later in the book of Ezra as Cyrus is stirred up by the Word of God to obey what was written about him years before. This proves that God's plans cannot be knocked off course. Now right now you may be thinking well Taylor I don't get how and how this can be true, there are people all over the world rejecting the Lord.
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There are people all over the world resisting his will.
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And that's a really good point.
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And it brings to mind this reality in scripture that we see that there are two wills of God in the Bible.
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Please stick with me here.
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First, there is the decreative will of God, or to make it more simple, his will of decree.
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This has been what we've been talking about the entire time.
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When God says that something will happen, It's going to happen, whether it's something big like the election of a president, or something small like the roll of a dice, which scripture says God is in control of.
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But there's also his preceptive will, which is how he instructs us to live in his word.
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The Lord has revealed to us how life works best.
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The commands of the Bible serve as boundaries for how we are to live our lives.
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Unfortunately, many people resist and rebel against God's word.
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They rebel against his preceptive will.
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People choose to reject God's ways, not follow his word, even as believers.
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We fail to obey God's preceptive will on a daily basis.
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We lie, we envy, we boast, we fail to do what God's called us to do.
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God's will of decree is like a freight train that cannot be derailed.
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that his preceptive will is like a passenger train that we can either jump aboard or jump off and go our own way.
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Again, you may be thinking, "Taylor, my brain is hurting.
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"How does this all work?
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"There seems to be some crossover between these two wills." Again, we're never gonna fully understand this in this life.
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It's just beyond us.
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We weren't created to understand everything.
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But in light of those two wills of God, let me ask you a question.
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Which do we often want to know more than the other?
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We want to know God's decreed of will.
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We want to know what's going to happen in the future.
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We want God to give us a crystal ball of our futures to see what the next year looks like, what the next five years looks like, what the next 20 years look like.
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We want to know this because we don't want to do the hard work of trusting in the Lord.
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We don't want to do the hard work of leaning into Him and depending on Him.
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You know, whenever I was a kid, I used to read those choose your own adventure books.
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Anybody else ever read anything like that?
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All the young people are like, "I have no idea what you're talking about." Reading? What is reading?
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But choose your own adventure books give you several opportunities in the book to determine the outcome.
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At certain points, you'll have the opportunity to make a decision like will you face the villain or will you turn tail and run?
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Will you go in door A or will you go in door B?
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And sometimes when you chose door B or door C, you would fall off a cliff and the book would be over.
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It was like, oh, I guess I'm done.
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And I would just agonize over these choices.
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I would just worry about making the wrong decision.
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And we often feel the same way about God's decree of will.
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We anxiously try to figure out God's specific will for our futures, like, should I stay put where I am or move, should I change careers, should I have a new job, should I go to college, where should I go to college?
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And again, these are important decisions.
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These are things we should take seriously.
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We should be responsible and prayerful when making these big life choices.
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But we sometimes become overly preoccupied with these kind of decisions because we worry that we'll somehow be outside the creative will of God the wrong choice.
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Like a choose your own adventure book, we'll just fall into the cliff, into the void, that'll be outside of God's reach and his control.
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But as we've already learned, God's specific will for our lives will happen.
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Some way and somehow, God's sovereign plans and our choices work together to form our futures.
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We can never be outside the decree of the will of God.
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But we can be outside the preceptive will of God not obeying his word, by going against our beliefs, by going against our convictions.
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This should be our main focus and concern.
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We shouldn't be worrying about tomorrow, we should be concerned about who is God calling me to be today?
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What is he calling me to do today?
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Am I following Jesus?
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Am I loving other people?
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Am I setting a good example for my family, for my friends, for my coworkers?
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Am I fighting against my sin?
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Instead of focusing and obsessing over what you can't control, focus on what you can control, which is your thoughts, your words, and your actions.
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God wants us to become wise and discerning men and women of his word who can make important life decisions.
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We need to look at our futures through the lens of God's word.
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And this is amazing news that frees us from the bondage to worry and indecision.
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It's like God has given us this fenced off yet wide open area of his word.
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He's saying, stay within the boundaries of my word and make wise choices.
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This kind of view will help you to not worry about what's gonna happen, but instead focus on what God is calling you to do right now.
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So let me ask you, what are you stressed out about right now?
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What situation or decision is making you feel sick?
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keeping you up at night, or making you doubt in the goodness of your sovereign God.
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Most, if not all of us, have worries and anxieties running laps in our minds.
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I know I do right now.
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But you have to realize that worrying is playing out a version of the future in your mind that God is not in control of.
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At the heart of all our worry and anxiety is a deep-seated distrust in God, a belief that he's not really in control of our lives.
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And this is really convicting for me because I really struggle with worry.
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But worrying doesn't help, it always hurts.
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It's one of the most dishonoring things we can do to God.
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It damages our entire being and it drains the life out of people around us.
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Worrying is one of the most useless things we can do as human beings because it contributes nothing to our lives, but it robs us of our joy, our contentment, and our peace.
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You know, the verse I turn to more than any others when it comes to anxiety is Philippians 4, 6 and 7.
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Paul says, "Do not be anxious about anything." I read that and I think, how is that possible?
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But in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
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And he tells us how this is possible.
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and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.
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He's saying, pray to the Lord, ask for his help, ask that his perfect peace will be like a strong and intimidating bodyguard that stands at the door of your heart and keeps worry and anxiety from taking over.
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You don't need to worry about what's gonna happen tomorrow.
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God's in control of tomorrow.
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You don't need to worry about what's gonna happen next year.
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God's in control of next year.
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What is God calling you to do today?
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How is God calling you to change today?
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So the bank can come forward as we evaluate our question for this morning one final time.
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Did God really say that he is in control of everything?
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The answer is yes.
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Even though we don't often feel that to be true.
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You know, I shared this illustration years and years ago and I was a guest preacher at Harvest, but it really just has been on my mind all week.
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You know, this life is very similar to standing really close to a piece of art at a museum.
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Imagine that you're like one or two inches away from the canvas and you kind of walk down the canvas.
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That's what life is.
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At one point you see awesome colors of yellow, of blue, and red, and you really like that part of the painting.
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You keep going down the painting, you come across ugly splotches of brown and gray and orange.
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You don't really like this part of the painting that much.
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It kind of rubs you the wrong way.
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And then you come across one of the part of this painting that's just black.
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It's just darkness.
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It's like someone has thrown a bucket of black paint against the canvas.
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And this part of the painting kind of depresses you, and you really don't like it at all.
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But then when you get to the end of the painting, you step back several steps, and you are blown away by the scope and beauty of this masterpiece.
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Even those gross colors you weren't a big fan of add texture and nuance to the painting.
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Those dark sections add shadow and depth to the piece that make it that much more awesome and beautiful.
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One day, we'll step back from this life and see our lives from an eternal perspective.
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The purpose of God's plans for our lives will come into focus and make sense.
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Even the dark and painful seasons were used by God to bring himself glory, help others around us, and form us into the servants that he created us to be.
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We'll finally see that he was in complete control and he knew exactly what he was doing the entire time.
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Our lives were not pure chaos, but the work of a divine painter.
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So instead of doubting the Lord's goodness and stressing out about our lives, let us trust that he is a masterful artist who will make something truly beautiful out of every single thing that we go through.
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Let's pray.
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Father, we come to you humbled and in awe of who you are.
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Humbled and facing the fact that such a big and massive God stooped down to love people like us.
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We thank you that the one who created the stars, the one who hung the sun, the one who created this world, cares about us, cares about our lives.
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Lord, you care about our lives more than we ever could.
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Lord, I pray that we would lean into you, that we would trust you, and that we would believe that you are in control.
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Lord that the reality that we're not truly in control would be great news instead of bad news. In Jesus name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Isaiah 45:5-12 & 46:8-11
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What does it mean that God is sovereign? Why is this good news?
What is the difference between groaning to God and grumbling against God? How do you see yourself grumbling and complaining in this current season of life?
What are you anxious about right now? How can you fight against the temptation to worry about the future?
Breakout
Pray for one another.
