- God is Incomparably Sovereign... (Is 45:1-8)
- ...so I can either Resist or Rest in His sovereignty. (Is 45:9-13)
- Because resisting is Foolish. (Is 45:9-10)
- Because resisting is Futile. (Is 45:11)
- Because God has Proven Himself. (Is 45:12)
- Because God's Plan is for my good. (Is 45:13)
See 2 Kings 20
Two Reasons Resisting is a Bad Idea:
Two Reasons Resting is a Great Idea:
See Romans 8:28-29
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:04
Open up your Bibles with me please to Isaiah.
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We're going to be in chapter 45.
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And you remember in school when you had the opportunity to take a makeup test?
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How many people remember that?
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Like maybe you took a test and it didn't go so well, so you have an opportunity to do a makeup.
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Well, I'm going to give you a makeup test right now.
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Are you ready?
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I've asked you this before, I'm going to ask you again.
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Which of the following is like God?
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My dog?
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Me?
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Or an angel?
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What's the answer?
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The answer is none of the above.
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Right?
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And that's our whole series.
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Our series is called "Incomparable God." And the truth is nothing is like God.
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And that's what we've seen throughout Isaiah.
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God over and over and over says to whom will you compare me?
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To whom will you liken me?
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There is no one like me.
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There is no other God.
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And that's our series, "Incomparable God." And in this series, we've seen that God is incomparably holy.
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He is high and lifted up and exalted and there is nothing anywhere in the physical or the supernatural universe that is even close to Him.
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We've seen that God is incomparably just.
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That the day is coming that He's going to make all things right in the world as His Messiah reigns over all the earth.
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A couple of weeks ago, we've seen that God is incomparably awesome.
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However big you think God is, He's infinitely bigger than that.
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And then last week, we talked about God being incomparably loving.
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There is no kind of love that compares to the love that God has for His people.
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And today, we're going to be using another word that's really reserved just for God.
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The word is "sovereign." God is incomparably sovereign.
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I don't know about you, did you ever have one of those days that nothing just seems to go right?
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Did you ever have one of those days like you roll out of bed and you're like today, this is going to happen, this is going to happen, and I'm going to go to work, and then this is going to happen, and then nothing at all that day happens like you intended.
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Did you ever have a day like that?
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My entire week was like that last week.
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And Aaron will tell you, I get so frustrated because there's things I want to do and I have plans and this is my agenda and my schedule for the day.
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And everything kept getting flipped upside down and nothing happened as I wanted it to happen.
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And why did that happen this week?
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And I really believe, 100% of my heart, the reason I believe that that happened this week is because I was going to get up before you today that God is in control.
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And it was God's way of reminding me this week that I am not.
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God is in control of the entire universe, in control of 7.3 billion people on this planet.
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I can't even manage a household with four people, a dog, two lizards, and a guinea pig.
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I can't manage that household.
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God is in control of everything.
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That's what the word "sovereign" means.
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It means God solely reigns.
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It speaks to His authority.
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No one else.
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No one else reigns with God.
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It speaks to His power.
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He reigns over everything.
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Understand that there's not a molecule that moves in this universe without God's permission.
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There's not an event that happens anywhere - anywhere - unless God has ordained it.
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Nothing has ever or will ever happen without His sovereign permission.
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Nothing ever slips by God.
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That means, honestly, there's no such thing as luck.
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We use that word a lot.
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"Oh, that was lucky." Or a coincidence.
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"Well, that was an amazing coincidence happened and when we use those words it's just simply stating things from our perspective because the truth of the matter is God's perspective there is no such thing as luck or coincidence those things really don't exist to God for us they really don't either let's look at what God's Word has to say you ready Write this down.
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Number one, God is incomparably sovereign.
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Isaiah 45.
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Look at the first three verses.
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It says, "Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him, and to loose the belt of kings, to open doors before him "Gates may not be closed.
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I will go before you and level the exalted places.
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I will break into pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.
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I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hordes and the secret places that but you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name." Let's talk about Cyrus for a second.
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I want to give you a quick history lesson.
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After Solomon's reign, we're talking 1 Kings 12.
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Remember, the nation of Israel divided.
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There was the northern kingdom, which was called Israel, and there was the southern kingdom called Judah.
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And because both halves of Israel persisted in sin, God said that He was going to discipline, He was going to judge Israel, He was going to punish Israel by allowing them to be conquered by other people.
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It was a temporary thing as we've seen through Isaiah.
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It was an act of chastisement.
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And Israel, the northern kingdom, actually conquered by the Assyrians in 740 BC. And the southern kingdom, not far behind, 586 BC, the southern kingdom Judah was conquered by the Babylonians. King Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem, he displaced the Jews, and the Bible says that he stole items from the temple.
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They took the best young men who ended up becoming slaves in Babylon.
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That was Daniel from the book of Daniel and his friends.
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They were taken by the Babylonians to be slaves, to serve the king.
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Well then Babylon was conquered by the next big world power in town.
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That was the Medo-Persians.
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They were conquered on October the 12th, 589 BC, the Medo-Persians were led by a Persian man named Cyrus.
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Persians allied with the Medes, that's why they're called the Medo-Persians.
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But Cyrus said he was going to be a different leader.
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He wasn't going to be one of these tyrannical, whipping everybody into shape kind of...
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He wanted to be nicer to the people that they conquered, so Cyrus actually let the displaced people go back to their homelands.
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And he allowed the Jews by the thousands to return back to Israel.
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If Cyrus hadn't come on the scene, if the Medo-Persians hadn't come on the scene to defeat the Babylonians who had defeated Israel, if that hadn't happened, hypothetically, if that hadn't happened, You could say there might not have been an Israel at all after that.
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You could take it a step further and say if that hadn't happened, there wouldn't have been a Jesus.
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At least not according to the plan that God had laid out in His Word.
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But I said if that hadn't happened.
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But here's the thing that...
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Are you wearing socks today?
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Are you wearing socks?
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Because you might want to reach down and hold on to them.
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Because this might blow your socks off.
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The amazing thing about this passage, when Isaiah wrote this, it wasn't history.
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Isaiah was talking about events that hadn't happened yet.
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In other words, God announced to Isaiah 150 years before it happened, that he would use a man named Cyrus to accomplish his purposes for Israel.
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You're like, "Oh, Cyrus, he sounds like a good, godly, God-fearing man." No, he wasn't.
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Cyrus was a pagan.
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God says that's the one I'm going to use.
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His name's Cyrus.
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He's coming.
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And I'm going to use him.
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To put it into perspective, About 150 years ago in the United States, do you know who the president was?
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1865. We'll go 1865, 1864. Do you know who the president was?
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Abraham Lincoln.
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Abraham Lincoln was the president in 1864, 1865. That was about 150 years ago.
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I want you to imagine with me that they discover in Washington, D.C., these ancient journals that were written during the time of Abraham Lincoln.
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And in these journals, they record that this certain preacher used to go to Abraham Lincoln and tell him things that the Lord was revealing to him.
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And one of the things that's written in these journals, It says that the preacher told Abraham Lincoln, "The day is coming.
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The Lord says My servant, Barack Obama, will send a strike force after a Middle Eastern terrorist." Now what would that have meant to Abraham Lincoln?
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Who's Barack Obama?
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But you see, 150 years later, we're looking at that and we're like, that was completely fulfilled.
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In fact, God mentioned Barack Obama by name to Abraham Lincoln.
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Wouldn't that blow your mind?
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That's exactly what happened in this passage here.
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God was identifying Cyrus 150 years before he came on the scene.
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He called him by name.
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This godless pagan king that God said I'm going to use you to accomplish My purposes.
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Look at verse 4. It says, "For the sake of My servant Jacob and Israel My chosen, I called you by name.
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I named you, though you do not know Me.
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I am the Lord and there is no other.
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Besides Me, there is no God.
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I equip you, though you do not know Me, that people may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none besides Me.
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I am the Lord and there is no other." I see the theme, God, speaking to Cyrus.
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I call you by name.
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I equip you.
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You don't know me.
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God's saying, "You don't even exist yet!
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You don't even know me!" But Cyrus, I have plans for you.
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What's the point?
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The point is this, God is sovereign.
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God is sovereign to the extent Even before and as Israel is being judged for her sin, God's already very specifically announcing how this is going to play out.
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Again, calling people by name that aren't even born yet.
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God is sovereign.
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God never, ever, ever does damage control.
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Did you know that?
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God's never in heaven like, "Oh, they messed that up.
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What am I going to do now?
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Ok, think, think, think, think.
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Huddle up, angels.
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How are we going to fix this?
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That has never happened." Do you realize God has never had plan B?
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God has never said, "Well, here's my plan, Cyrus.
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But if for some reason it doesn't work out, I'm going to do something else." God never has plan B.
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God says this is what's going to happen.
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Here's the plan.
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Here's the events. Here's the schedule.
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That's sovereignty.
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God has it all worked out ahead of time.
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Even controlling events, we see in this passage, God even controls events through people who don't know Him.
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Look at verse 7.
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Would God really do that?
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God really use a pagan who doesn't know Him to accomplish His purposes?
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Verse 7 says, again this is the Lord speaking, "I form light and create darkness.
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I make well-being and create calamity.
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I am the Lord who does all these things." You know, it's funny, this passage is like controversial to some people.
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They're like, "Is this passage saying that God creates sin?
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Is this passage saying that God is the author of sin?
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It says nothing about sin at all in the passage.
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The passage really isn't difficult at all.
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Look at the context.
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Look at the context.
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What God is saying here is, "I create well-being." Some Bibles say peace.
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I create calamity.
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God says, "I make that happen." In other words, "Peace under Cyrus?" God says, "I make that happen." about calamity under Nebuchadnezzar.
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God says, "I make that happen too." So you see Israel with all of these events that are ahead - Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, and conquering and restoration - God says, "I am behind all of that.
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There is nothing happening here that is going to surprise Me, and I'm going to tell you ahead of time." That is sovereignty.
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That is sovereignty.
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Some will say, "Well, okay, so when you're talking about Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus and God using them as He has, does this mean that they didn't have a choice?" Here's the thing, God's sovereignty somehow does not violate our free will.
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God's sovereignty does not negate We spent some time already talking about Ephesians 1, about God's plan and election and predestination.
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We talked about John chapter 6 where Jesus said that you can't come to Him unless the Father draws you.
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We talked about those.
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We can also walk through the Bible and see Moses saying, "I set before you life and death. Choose life." You can see Joshua saying, "Choose this day whom you will serve as for me and my house." we will serve the Lord.
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You can look at Jesus saying, "Ok, there's a wide gate and there's a narrow gate, and you have choices that you need to make." And God's sovereignty does not violate free will.
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Because we have the ability to make choices, that doesn't mean that God isn't sovereign even over that.
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People get really caught up on this.
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I get asked this a lot.
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And in fact, we spend a lot of time in our small group talking about this conversation, but does it matter what I do?
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Does it matter - here's one of the people I've asked this - does it even matter if I pray?
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If God's going to do what God's going to do, does it even matter if I pray?
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And the answer is yes, it matters.
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Like, well, how can you say that?
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Because God did.
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What does James 4:16 say?
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The prayer of a righteous person has much power as it's working.
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You're like, well, how does that tie I don't know.
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I don't know.
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I'm just a preacher.
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I have to take out of a God. I don't know how it works. But it does.
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The Bible teaches both.
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Here's another example, since we're speaking of Isaiah. Just jot this down. I want you to read this because people try to do all kinds of hermeneutical acrobatics around this passage. But 2 Kings chapter 20, I'm going to paraphrase, you read it. Not now, don't Don't read it now.
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But 2 Kings 20, God says to King Hezekiah, very clearly, He says, "You're going to die.
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You're not going to recover." The Bible says that Hezekiah prayed and he wept and he cried out to God.
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And God says, "Okay, I'm going to heal you." It looks to me - just reading that straightforwardly Prayer changed God's mind.
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That sounds shocking.
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I'm just saying that's what it looks like.
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You're going to die. He prays. God's like, "Okay, I'm going to heal you." Prayer moved God.
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And somebody will say, "Well, you know, in God's sovereignty, in God's sovereignty, he already knew that was going to happen." And my response to that is, "Well, God actually very explicitly says, 'You will not recover.' Does that mean that God was lying?
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because God knew he was going to pray and God was going to heal him.
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So that meant God was actually lying in that moment when he said you're not going to recover because in fact God did allow him to recover.
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I don't think God was lying.
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It appears to me that even though God is sovereign, even though God has a plan, prayer moved God.
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I would just say this, how powerful do you think God is?
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How powerful do you think he is?
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Here's what I say.
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I believe that God is powerful enough to create a world where we do have a choice, where prayer moves Him, but it doesn't stop or change His sovereign plan.
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I believe God's powerful enough to create a world where man's choices and will and His sovereignty and His will aren't contradictory things that make our heads explode.
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I really think about it, me just making it very personal, I think about my call to ministry.
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1995, I was called into the ministry.
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And I did not want to go into the ministry.
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I'm just going to be honest with you.
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God very clearly called me to preach the Gospel.
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At the time, I wish I could tell you that I was like, "Yes, God!
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That sounds like a great idea!" But the truth is, I was like, "God, that's a terrible idea." I am not a good speaker.
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I am not a people person, and I-- no.
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Preaching is actually at the bottom of my list.
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I don't want to be a preacher.
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And God was like, yeah, that's what we're doing here.
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And I'm like, no, I don't think so.
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And I remember in my arrogance and stupidity exploring other areas of work.
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And everything just hit a dead end.
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And finally I was like, "All right, God." Twenty years later, here we are.
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And I can look back on that incident in my life and I can say, "Did God choose me, or ultimately was I making choices as a response to what God was doing?" And I'm like, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
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God definitely called me to this, and God definitely chose me." And then I think to, you know, enrolling in Bible college and going through all of that, and I made some choices.
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So yeah, I had some choice in the matter.
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And I'm like, no, no, no, God was orchestrating all that.
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But I was part of it.
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I wasn't a puppet.
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I wasn't sleepwalking through my life for the last 20 years.
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It's just the way it is.
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God is sovereign.
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even over people that don't know Him.
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God has a plan.
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Look at verse 8.
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"Shower, O heavens, from above and let the clouds rain down righteousness.
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Let the earth open that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit.
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Let the earth cause them both to sprout.
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I the Lord have created it." Just as God predicted Cyrus, here's another spoiler alert for what's ahead.
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The days coming when righteousness will rule globally.
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Israel returning to her land was a tiny taste of what was ahead as all of God's people will be assembled under one perfect king.
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That was the whole sermon on February 28th.
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God taking us back there to say, "Hey, I have a plan.
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Here's where it's going to end up." So God is incomparably sovereign.
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And you say, what does that have to do with me?
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Here it is, write this down.
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I can either resist or rest in His sovereignty.
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Now we're talking about Israel and nations and things like that, but please understand church.
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I can take you to several Scriptures that show that God is in complete control not just of nations and people groups and world events, God is in complete control over every single event in your life.
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Every single event in your life, God is in complete control of that.
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See, in a passage here, God's turning to Israel and He's saying, "Are you going to trust My sovereign plan?" And church, we have the same question posed to us.
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When we talk about sovereignty, it's a biblical fact.
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And we can either rest in it We can trust the Lord, or we can resist it.
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Notice I didn't say we can understand it, because we can't.
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Understanding God's sovereignty is not an option.
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Understanding God's sovereignty, it would be like explaining an iPhone to a fruit fly.
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How do you think that's going to go?
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I don't know how this thing works.
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thing every day. I have no idea how this thing works. Imagine me with my limited knowledge trying to explain this thing to a fruit fly. Do you think he's going to get it?
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It's the same thing if we're trying to explain God's sovereignty to us.
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We're these finite beings.
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We're these temporary, you know, these spirits walking around in these bodies of dirt and water and we think that we're going to grasp the sovereignty of the eternal one? That's not on the table. That is not on the table. There are two options that are on the table and you're going to see them very clearly from the text. Your options are this. Resist.
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You can rest. Those are your options. And as the Lord is persuading Israel, I'm going to persuade you. Two reasons resisting is a bad idea. Two reasons resisting is a bad idea. First of all, letter A, because resisting is foolish.
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Look at verses 9 and 10. Resisting is foolish.
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"Woe to him who strives with Him who formed him." A pot among earthen pots.
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Does the clay say to him who forms it, "What are you making?" Or, "Your work has no handles." That's what it sounds like when I read the Bible.
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In my head, I'm just sharing that with you.
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"Woe to him who says to a father, 'What are you begetting?'" with what are you in labor?
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Resisting is foolish.
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These are two intentionally absurd pictures.
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Intentionally absurd.
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Imagine you have a lump of clay on the wheel, and you know, the potter's coming, and he's making something with the clay.
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Could you imagine the clay like, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
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What are you doing?
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You're messing this up.
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up. You're making me into a pitcher. I don't want to be a pitcher. I want to be an ashtray.
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Okay? And you're doing this wrong. You're making this wrong. Could you imagine how foolish that would be for a piece of dirt to say to a human being, "You're doing this all wrong.
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You don't know what you're doing?" That's foolishness. It just cracks me up. Your work has no handles. Everybody's a critic, right?
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What are you making? This is terrible. Look at the next picture. Talking about a father, talking about a woman. It's kind of the same picture here. Imagine, those of you that have kids, can you remember the day your child was born? Do you remember that? Those of you that have children? Imagine the day your child's born, you know, maybe you had a home birth or whatever, maybe you're in a hospital, wherever you were. Imagine and says, "Hey, what are you doing?
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Who said that you could have a baby?" You're like, "I'm sorry, you are again?
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Who are you to tell me whether or not I'm allowed to have a baby?
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Who do you think you are?
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Just walking in here telling me, you know, I can't have a baby?
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What's the matter with you?" They're intentionally absurd pictures.
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Well, I mean, I mean, I'm not saying I mean, it sounds absurd.
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Until we do.
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We do the same thing to God.
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God, what are You doing?
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God, why would You allow this?
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God, why would You allow this person to be suffering with cancer?
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God, why would You allow this person - this person of all people - to be in a fatal accident?
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Why would you allow that to happen?
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We get mad at God and we're angry with God and Suddenly we're the clay. What are you doing?
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Do you think you know better than God?
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And I want to know why Here's why God allowed Whatever you're going through financial issue health issue relationship issue, whatever it is you're going through, God allowed that for a reason.
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That's just where trust comes in.
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Your question is are you going to trust your finite mind and your limited perspective?
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Are you going to trust the sovereign, all-knowing God who lives outside of time?
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Resisting is foolish.
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Letter B, resisting is futile.
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Very hard to say that without sounding like a robot He's a super villain.
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Resistance is futile.
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Look at verse 11.
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God says, "The Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and the One who formed Him, ask Me of things to come." Will you command Me concerning My children and the work of My hands?
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Look at verse 11.
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God says, "Ask Me." Will you command Me?
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Are you going to command God?
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Are you going to tell God what to do?
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How do you think that's going to work out?
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We don't tolerate questioning from our kids.
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We're talking about the sovereign and holy God of the universe.
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I'd like to remind you once again that He is God and I am not.
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Neither are you.
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God takes prayer requests.
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It doesn't take orders.
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Requests come from humble, dependent hearts.
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Orders come from spoiled brats.
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It's the issue of are you going to submit to God's will?
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Are you going to try to command God's will?
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That's what he's saying in this passage.
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Are you going to ask me what I'm doing?
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Or are you going to try to tell me what to do?
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And I know there are people in this room with this, struggling with, why would God allow this?
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Maybe some circumstances entered into your life that you have prayed for and things haven't appeared to have changed, and you've been praying for so long, and you've been trusting God, and you've been asking people, and you're just quite frankly worn out with praying for it.
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And over time, you've stopped praying for it, Maybe you've gotten even angry with God because He hasn't given you this thing that you've been asking for.
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And you're at the point now that even hearing a message on God's sovereignty, you might be sitting in your seat right now just kind of gritting your teeth a little bit saying I don't like this.
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I don't like this.
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And I want to tell you there's only one thing that changes when you resist God's sovereignty.
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There's only one thing that will ever change when you resist God's sovereignty, and that's you.
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A life of constant questioning, constant demanding, constant anger, constant resentment.
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You're going to end up bitter, to the point that you're not going to have anything to do with God.
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God's sovereignty is a bad idea. It's foolish.
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It's futile.
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I want to leave you with this today. Two reasons resting in God's sovereignty is a great idea. Two reasons resting in God's sovereignty is a great idea. Letter A, because God has proven himself. Look at verse 12. I love this. You know, God's not like scatterbrained that all of a sudden he's talking about one thing and then all of a sudden, "No, something completely different!" I know a lot of people that are like that.
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You'll be in the middle of a conversation with someone, and all of a sudden you're like, "Wait a minute, I have no idea what they're talking about now.
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Has that ever happened to anybody else?
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Thank you, I thought it was just me." I'm like, "You're going to have to back up.
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You change subjects like five times in one sentence.
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God's not like that." I'm saying that before we look at verse 12, because verse 12 he says, "I made the earth and created man on it.
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It was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their hosts.
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See, God's not like, "Sovereignty, sovereignty, sovereignty, sovereignty." "Oh, by the way, creation, where did that come from?" The point is, God has proven himself.
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God's proven, oh, not that he has to.
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God doesn't have to prove himself to anyone.
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But, he gives a reminder here, if we start to wonder about his sovereignty, Is God in control?
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Does God really have all power?
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Does God have the ability to manage my life?
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Newsflash, God is managing the universe.
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And He has from the beginning.
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All of these planets and stars and asteroids and comets and all the other stuff that's out there that's going around the sun and spinning and all the moons spinning.
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He's managing that.
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on the earth with 7.3 billion souls and all of the events and you know locally and individually and globally and he's managing all of that and that's his reminder here in case you're wondering can I handle it I can handle it I've been handling it since day one that's one of the reasons that I rest in God sovereignty because God has a pretty good track record batting what thousand He's got it. He's got it.
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And finally, because God's plan is for my good.
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Because God's plan is for my good.
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Look at verse 13.
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God says, "I have stirred him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways level.
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He shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for price, but for reward, says the Lord of hosts." He's talking about Cyrus again.
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He's circling back. He's like, "Oh, by the way, I'm just going to cap this section off by saying I mean it. Seriously, I mean it. I'm going to use Cyrus and I'm going to plow the way ahead for him so he is going to easily conquer the Babylonians and let my people return home. I'm going to make it easy for him." I mean it.
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It's going to happen.
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God's plan is for my good.
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That should be the most reassuring thing you ever hear.
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I'd like to close with just one part of one verse.
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You know Romans 8.28, don't you?
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Doesn't we know?
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For those who love God, all things work together for good.
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And God's plan is for my good.
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Break that down.
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All things.
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That's totality.
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There is no such thing as a wasted trial.
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No such thing.
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They're like, "Oh, but my ministry would be so much more effective if I didn't have to face these health issues." Or, "God, don't you understand?
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I could do so much more if I had more money." Or all things.
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God's using whatever you're going through to accomplish His purpose.
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Everything.
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Next work together.
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That's harmony.
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See, the purpose of whatever trial or trials you're going through, that's just a little piece of a bigger project.
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You know that.
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Your trial, your thing that you're struggling with, that's just a puzzle piece as part of the bigger picture that God is bringing all of these pieces together.
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work together.
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Romans 8.28 - we know that those who love God, all things work together.
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Last two words - here it is, church.
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We're good.
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That's outcome.
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That's outcome.
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God's sovereignty is about taking all of these pieces of your life and working them together to ultimately benefit you by making you the person He has called you to be.
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That's what Romans 8.28 says.
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The very next verse, Romans 8.29, says that God's purpose for you is to be conformed into the image of His Son.
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Every single thing that God is bringing into your life, that God is allowing into your life, however you want to describe it, God is behind it.
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All these things that God is allowing to happen in your life is the purpose of making you more like Jesus Christ God's sovereignty never results in random outcomes.
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God's never in heaven saying, "I wonder how this is going to turn out." Never random outcomes.
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God's sovereignty never results in you being defeated.
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His sovereignty graciously, gloriously, is ultimately for your good.
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You just have to be grateful for it.
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I'm not going to trust you.
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Father in Heaven, Father in Heaven, I confess before You and before my brothers and sisters here, this is one that punches me in the heart.
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Because God, I've questioned Your sovereignty.
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I've questioned why You would allow certain things to happen in my life that just don't make sense.
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to my shame.
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I've even said that to you.
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It doesn't make any sense to me.
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It seems pointless.
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Your Word brings me back to the place.
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And I pray for my brothers and sisters here that it brings them to the same place.
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It brings us to the place where, Father, You are in complete control.
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And even if things look bleak now or for the next week, for the rest of our lives.
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If things don't look optimal for us, that's not outside of your control.
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You are sovereign.
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Father, I pray that every single one of us could leave here today in full confidence knowing that there is not one thing that's going to happen to us today or tomorrow or however long you give us on this earth.
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There's not one thing that's going to happen that will catch you by surprise.
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that you were already ahead of us like a shepherd.
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Leading us, protecting us, guiding us, using all of it, so that we can be conformed into the image of your Son.
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Doing it all so that we would be more like Jesus Christ.
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I pray against the resistance, Father.
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I pray against the foolish questioning, the futile arguing.
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I pray against that, Father.
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I pray against the bitterness, And I know I've been tempted to carry in my own heart.
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I pray today, Father, is a new day.
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A day of rest, a day of trust.
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We look again at your Word and say, God has proven himself.
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We look again at your Word and say, I know what God's ultimately after.
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He's ultimately after my good.
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for us all in this area, Father.
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We pray in Jesus' name.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Isaiah 45:1-13
What does sovereign mean? If God is sovereign, why do people resist / challenge God’s sovereignty in their own lives? (Is 45:9-10)
What’s the difference between someone asking the Lord and demanding of the Lord (Is 45:11)? What is the heart condition of each position?
Breakout Questions:
What trial / circumstance in your life have you struggled to trust God’s sovereignty?
What trial / circumstance has caused you to be frustrated or even bitter? Pray over these things.
