“The church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low and so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of God. This low view of God among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils… For it is impossible to keep our moral practices sound and our inward attitudes right while our idea of God is erroneous and inadequate… The only way to recoup our spiritual losses is to go back to the cause of them… The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian church today is to purify and elevate her concept of God until it is once more worthy of Him.”
A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy
No person or church will ever rise higher in their spirituality than their concept of God.
The Sovereignty of God
Definition: God is the owner of the universe and, as such, He has the absolute right to do whatever He wants with it.
Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me… Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.” (Isaiah 44:6-8)
Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases. (Psalm 115:3)
Whatever the Lord pleases, he does; in heaven and on the earth, in the seas and all deeps. (Psalm 135:6)
God is Sovereign over the Physical Universe
Have you ever commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place?… Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons? …Can you lift your voice to the clouds that a flood of water may cover you?… Can you send forth lightnings, that they go and say to you, ‘Here we are’? (Job 38:12-35)
And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And [the disciples] were filled with great fear and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that that even the wind and the sea obey Him?’ (Mark 4:39-41)
God is Sovereign over the Animal Kingdom
“My God sent His angel and He shut the lions’ mouths.” (Daniel 6:22)
Balam’s Donkey (Numbers 22:22-30)
Is it by yourunderstanding that the hawk soars… Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high? (Job 39:26)
The wolf and lamb shall graze together and the lion shall eat straw like an ox. (Isaiah 65:25)
God is Sovereign over the Political Nations
“The Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.” (Daniel 4:17)
“It is he who sits above the circle of earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; he brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.” (Isaiah 40:22, 23)
“And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and theboundaries of their dwelling place.” (Acts 17:26)
For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. (Revelation 19:6)
God is sovereign over every human life
This happens in several ways:
He is Sovereign over our Birth and our Lot in Life
“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you and before you were born, I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5)
“In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” (Psalm 139:16)
He is sovereign over our destiny in life
“The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts.” (1 Samuel 2:7)
He is sovereign over the inclinations of people’s hearts
“The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.” (Proverbs 21:1)
“Prayer is a request that God do something. But the only thing God can do to save a lost sinner is to overcome his resistance to God. If you insist that he retain his self-determination, then you are insisting that he remain without Christ.”
– John Piper
“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.” (Matthew 10:29)
“Many Christians rob themselves of tremendous blessing by not seeing that God’s sovereignty extends to the tiniest details of life.”
– Charles Stanley
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
Come, behold the works of the Lord,
how he has brought desolations on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the chariots with fire.
“Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
God is simply saying: “No matter what happens, I’m in charge. I’ve got your back side.”
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
