YHWH (Exodus 3) 4- God Is Sovereign

Chapter 3, and we are in the next part of our series called Yahweh.

And so I know that doesn't look like that's how it's spelled.

Trust me, YHWH means Yahweh, as we are doing a study on the characteristics, the attributes of God.

And so it's going to be a lot of fun as we do this.

Make sure you get your Bible Bibles, your Bible journals, all of that.

But if you're first-time guest, welcome.

It is so good to see you today.

And I'd love for you to fill out your connect card and drop it off at the Welcome Center because we have a free gift for you.

But we also want to give you a free Bible so that next week you can be turning to your Bible, to Exodus chapter three.

And while you are finishing up doing that, I know it was yesterday, but I just want to say one more time happy birthday to the United States of America.

Can we do that?

Yeah.

I tell you, if you don't want to live in the United States of America, you should travel a little bit, right?

I I love I love a lot of different places, but there's nothing quite like home.

And living in a country where we can do this right here without having to be worried about somebody breaking down our doors.

That's a miracle.

And so uh we should be thankful every single day that the Lord has given us the opportunity to live in the United States.

Amen?

All right.

Now we are gonna jump back into this, but to kind of bring you up to speed with where we are, I've got this idea in my mind.

And that is that I think that we all in here have an idea about what we think God is like and his attributes and all of that.

And I would even say that we probably have a pretty good idea.

But what happens a lot of times through life is other things start to happen and they become bigger and bigger and bigger.

And if we're not careful, our view of God stays at one level, but our view of everything else goes to other levels.

And before we know it, there's things in our life that we think are bigger than God.

And so what I want us to do is just to be in awe of who He is again and just be reminded of how big God truly is, and that it just kind of just takes us by surprise a little bit.

And to kind of give you an idea of what I've got in my head, I know I told you a story a couple weeks ago about something else, but I had an experience in my life one time, and if this were to happen to us, I will have considered it a good time by the time we have finished this series, and that is about the movie Endgame.

Okay, now, how many have seen this movie, know what I'm talking about?

How many don't care?

A few of you, this is gonna be lost on you.

Try to just work with me here.

Okay, here's the thing.

So I I am a sort of Marvel fan.

I don't care that much, but I kind of like it.

But there was like 20 movies before this one came out, and this was gonna be the culmination of like 20-something movies into one big movie.

And I was interested to see how it was gonna go.

And I had the opportunity to pay a little bit extra money and to go to a private screening uh with a bunch of super fans.

I am not a super fan, but they were.

And what I mean by super fans, people were people showed up dressed like Iron Man.

They were people with uh Captain America's Shield, Thor's Hammer made an appearance.

I mean, these folks were ready.

And if you've never watched a movie in a room full of a bunch of super fans, you gotta try that sometimes, all right?

Every time somebody would just say a joke, everybody would just belly laugh.

I mean, when somebody would say something sad, I heard someone in the theater openly sobbing, okay, at this movie.

And so we get in here, we're watching this movie, and I have to say, I was sufficiently impressed so far.

It's like this is pretty good.

They figured out how to make it work, this is great.

But then something happened.

Almost toward the end of the movie, and it'll be lost on you if you've never seen it, but something happened, and this place went crazy.

It's this scene right here, okay?

There's a moment in the movie when everything just goes to a whole nother level.

And when it did, a miracle happened.

What I mean by a miracle is literally 90% of us, including myself, who was up to that point, was just sufficiently excited.

When this moment happens, 90% of us jumped up at the same time, and I couldn't tell you what happened for the next 90 seconds.

I mean, we were like, that's awesome! And here's the miracle.

I was high-fiving people and strangers and doing this, and never once took my eyes off the screen.

I mean, I'm surprised I didn't knock somebody out in Jesus' name, all right?

But I kept on connecting.

I was elbowing people, and I mean I was high-fiving somebody back here, but the whole time I was looking right there.

And it was, it was like I didn't even realize it.

I didn't even know I cared that much.

And so all of a sudden I'm on my feet going, that's awesome! That's what I want us to do at church.

But here's my idea, and that is that I want us to be so sufficiently impressed with God.

I want us to learn something new about God over this series that I am giving everybody a free, that's awesome coupon.

Okay.

And that you are welcome to cash it in at any time.

And that is that if you see something about God that you didn't know, you're welcome to cash it in and just say, that's awesome.

And then we'll be like, right?

You know, and then we'll go back to what we're doing because I want us to have an encounter with God that when's the last time that God just took your breath away?

Just you learn something new about how great he is that you go, I had no idea.

I had no idea he was that awesome.

And here's the reason why I think this series is important.

Because the two most important truths we believe are number one, what we believe about God, and number two, who he says we are.

I think the two most important things that define who we are is number one, what we believe about God, and then number two, what he says about us.

Because here's the thing: when we don't see God clearly and difficulties come, and here's the thing, difficulties will come.

I don't know if you've ever heard this before, but everybody you know has a private battle that you don't know anything about.

Look at your neighbor and say he's still talking about you when that happens and we don't see God clearly.

Some of y'all clearly heard that before.

All right, we feel uncertain, afraid, stressed, angry, worried, agitated.

We don't know what to do.

Why?

Because we don't see God clearly, and our problems seem so big and our God seems so small.

But when we have a clear view of God, the Holy Spirit says that that kind of relationship with Him produces fruit.

The byproduct of that relationship is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

And you may not need that, but your neighbor sure does.

Because they're a little mean.

All right.

So look at them and say, You need this message.

Look back at them and say, Not as bad as you do, my brother, my sister.

Right.

Yeah, absolutely.

There's beef in the house of God now, right?

Absolutely.

So quickly move on.

Here's the big idea of the whole series, and that is the more we see God clearly, the more we can see everything else.

The better an idea, the more we can kind of clear off our glasses and we can see God clearly, the more we can see everything else.

Because God wants us to know who he is.

God wants us to have a clear picture of who he is.

As a matter of fact, that's that's where we get to Exodus chapter three.

The Bible said that for 400 years the nation of Israel had been in slavery, and it was time for them to be set free.

And the first thing that God wanted to do before he did any of the miracles is he wanted to remind them about who he was.

And so the Bible said that God showed up to Moses uh in a burning bush to get his attention so that he could kind of reintroduce himself to Moses because the more clearly they could see him, the more clearly they could see everything else.

This is what happened in the story.

The Bible said that when the Lord saw that Moses was coming to take a closer look because there was a bush that was burning but not consumed, the Bible said God called to him from the middle of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, to which Moses replied, Here I am, which by the way, if you ever get talked to from a burning bush, just say, What's up?

I mean, here I am, because apparently God's wanting to talk to you.

And then he said, Don't come any closer.

Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.

I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

And he said, It is time for my people to be free.

So I want you to go and tell them that I'm gonna set them free.

To which Moses said, as a great man of God, no.

He said, I'm not going.

Please take somebody else.

How's this gonna work?

And he said, Don't worry, I'm gonna go with you.

But then he asked a great question.

Moses said, if I go to these people of Israel and they they will ask me, What is his name?

Then what should I tell them?

Because here's the thing for 400 years they've been living in Egypt, and Egypt was a polytheistic culture.

In other words, they believed in many different gods.

And when the the Israelites get there, they have a belief in Yahweh, but over 400 years, he just kind of gets scattered among the rest of them.

And so they're like, So he's like, Well, which one of which one of the gods should I say sent them?

And and God just clearly sets him straight because he says, I am who I am.

Say this to the people of Israel I am has sent me to you.

Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, has sent me to you.

This is my eternal name to remember for all generations, and tell them, I see how the Egyptians are treating you.

So, in other words, he tells Moses that you're trying to figure out which one of these gods I am.

Mo, look up.

The reason why you don't see me is because you're not looking high enough.

I am not in competition with all these false gods.

I am the one and the true God.

And the reason why you don't know who I am is because you haven't been looking high enough yet.

I am above everything else.

And that's what Yahweh actually means if you're taking notes.

Yahweh is the word Y-H-W-H.

It's called a, if you want to impress your friends this week, it's called a tetragrammaton.

Don't ask me to spell it because I can't.

And it's actually an action verb.

It it's it God describes himself as a form of action when he says, I am the eternally present, the unique and the sustainer of all things.

In other words, I'm him.

I am the one that is above all, and that there's nothing greater than me.

I am not one of these gods.

I am the one true and living God.

The God is coming to take care of business.

I've been looking at what's been going on, and now it is time.

And as a matter of fact, the the people of God were so uh so revered the name of God that they didn't use it.

They wouldn't say Yahweh.

Instead, they would say the name Adonai, which means God, or Heresim, or Hashem, which means the name.

Not because they were afraid of God, but because they honored his holy name, his covenant name so very much that they would call him by other names as a form of respect and honor.

And so before God did any of those things, he said, first let's establish a relationship.

Remember who I am.

That's the goal of this series is that we want to remember who God is and remember that he is greater than anything else that we can imagine.

And so we've been walking through some of the different characteristics of God.

Today we're gonna talk about how he is holy, he is powerful, he is present.

But here's the new one: he is sovereign, which turns out to be a very hard word for me to spell.

So I'm gonna give you a moment to spell it.

Extra points if you put a crown beside it, but you gotta also put jewels on it.

This may take you a moment, okay?

We don't have any color pencils available.

Do the best you can.

We talked about in week one that God is holy, which means he is sacred in his differentness.

There's no one else like our God, he is above all things.

In week two, we talked about how he is all powerful, the word is omnipotent, that he has got all the power in the heavens and the earth.

Last week, uh Eric uh Leach did such a great job talking about how he is present in every moment.

And today we're talking about how he is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, he is sovereign.

Somebody say amen.

Somebody else say praise the Lord.

He is sovereign.

Well, what does that mean?

Well, that that means a whole lot of things.

But here's the most basic definition I can give you, and that is sovereign.

It means God is in control.

To be sovereign means that God is in control, he rules it all.

There is nothing outside of his ownership, nothing outside of his rule, nothing outside of what he is in control of.

God is in control.

Now, before we move any further, I want to give you a disclaimer.

Here is a disclaimer.

When we get into the idea of God's sovereignty, it has a way of kind of toggling out, spiderwebbing out into all these other things that are worthy of talking about, right?

But here's the thing unless you want to be here for the next two weeks, we're not gonna cover all those different things.

But what I did do is I actually put out a blog every week.

And if you would like to scan that QR code or you can scan that one.

Uh, the blog is it's kind of like the rest of the story after the message, it's all the stuff I didn't put in the message that I researched.

And I've got a lot of articles to different aspects of what God's sovereignty means.

If you are interested, I'm gonna talk about what Calvinism is, human freedom, the will of God, the problem of evil.

All of those things become part of the big idea of God being in control.

But before we can even get to what that looks like, first we got to prove that it's even true.

Like we're gonna talk about the big idea of God being in control, and then we can get into the different aspects of it in that.

And if you have questions about it, you are more than welcome to email Pastor Derek, okay?

No, you're more than welcome to email me and we'll talk about it.

But first, we want to talk about how that the God being in control is one of the greatest pieces of news that I could give you that God is in control.

Just try that out.

When I count to three, say, God is in control.

One, two, three.

God is in control.

It does make you feel good.

All right, God is in control.

I want to show you three evidences of how we see God being in control in our life.

Here's the first one of how God is sovereign.

He is in control, is in what we call his preservation.

And it's preservation.

God's word says in Colossians 1.17 that he existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.

In other words, God is sovereign and he shows it by how he holds it all together.

The Bible says in Genesis 1.1 that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Before God was, there was nothing.

In Revelation 22, he's still there in control and in charge.

And he shows his sovereignty by how he works in our life, holding us together in ways we don't even realize.

Like, for instance, did you know that the average heart beats a hundred thousand times a day?

We breathe 25,000 times a day, and we replace 300 billion cells each day.

And if you your body is working the way it's supposed to, you don't have to make sure any of that happens.

And if you don't think that's pretty awesome, try missing a couple of them, okay?

Try missing a couple of those heartbeats.

They call that a heart attack.

You know, try missing a couple of breaths, they call that passing out.

And I don't know what they call it when it they just they call it leprosy if your sales don't regenerate.

You know, it's just bad, it's absolutely bad.

But we don't have to sit there and go to regenerate sales.

God holds it all together.

Don't ever let somebody tell you that God's not good and God's not blessing you.

Every heartbeat you have is because of his good pleasure.

Every single time that you're able to breathe in and breathe back out again, it's because God is holding you together.

Somebody say, Amen.

He is in control.

Here's a second one, and that is because of his cooperation with us.

That when God made us, he didn't make us a bunch of robots who don't have the ability to walk through life, but yet he walks with us through life.

Psalm 139 says, You saw me before I was born.

Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

In other words, he said, God saw me from the beginning and he walks with me all the way to the end.

And what's amazing about God is then beyond.

I love this idea of how he walks with us.

Did you realize that?

Think about how complex God is in control.

Approximately 8.2 billion people are alive today.

That's hundreds of trillions of decisions being made every single day.

And God is big enough that he is able to walk with us in every single step.

The way that God walks with you is the same way that he walks with me.

It's the same way that he walks with somebody you've never met, and that God walks with every single one of us, and he never misses a step.

You don't ever have to refresh your screen when you're talking to God.

You don't ever have to wait for him to buffer.

But he's always there and he's always talking and with us in all things.

And the more we see God, the more clearly we can see everything else.

And God is in control and he shows it by how he is, by how he holds it all together, by how he is with us.

And here's one more, and that he makes everything for a purpose.

God doesn't have ADHD, he doesn't get anxiety, he's not forgetful, he has never lost his keys.

The other day, I thought one of my girls was teasing me, and I thought they hid my toothbrush.

I walked around the house going, I don't understand.

I mean, I love a good joke as much as anybody else.

I didn't actually tell them this because I wasn't gonna admit it, but here we are.

I like a joke as much as anybody else, but I didn't know why somebody thought it was funny to hide a toothbrush.

After about five minutes, I realized I've been holding it the whole time.

So God's never done that.

He has a purpose and he knows exactly what he's doing.

Romans 11, 36 says, everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory.

Nothing is an accident.

Even if your parents call you an oops baby, you may have been a surprise to them, but God knew you before you were ever born.

I see some elbows.

Even you, God knew you before you were born.

Let me give you a couple things that we used to think were random, but are not.

Did you know that the earth is in the habitable zone?

And what that means is if the earth was a little bit further away from the sun, we'd freeze to death.

If it was a little bit closer, we'd burn to death.

If we weren't at the axis that we're at, which is goes all the way to like the third decimal, if we weren't like that, life couldn't be sustained on this planet.

Do you realize that that there's a reason why we are exactly where we are?

There's a reason why we have a moon.

It wasn't just so it'd be really pretty.

Look at it in the evening.

If we didn't have a moon, then we wouldn't have the tidal waves that we have and the currents in the ocean and the water would become stagnant and it would dry up.

That there's a reason why.

Did you know that up until about a hundred years ago, scientists had no idea why there are other planets in our solar system?

And then they begin to realize that actually we need the other planets, especially Jupiter, because it is perfectly positioned because of the gravity that's there.

It pulls a lot of comets into itself that would hit us as a planet, and that we probably wouldn't even exist anymore if it wasn't for the other planets.

There's a reason why all of that was put into place for the purpose of you being on this planet.

That's awesome.

Amen.

God is in control, and so if that's the case, what is our response?

I don't know anybody who argues whether or not God is in control as much as they argue, well, what has that got to do with us?

What do we do?

Here is our response because God is in control, we can do our best and trust God with the rest.

Somebody say amen.

Because God is in control, our job is to do our best.

And then we can trust God with the rest.

We can trust that our God is in control, and the more we see Him clearly, the more we can begin to see everything else, and we begin to realize where our human responsibility is with inside the sovereign will of who God is.

So here's the question of the day, and that is this how can God's awesome sovereignty give us peace in a chaotic world?

How is it that when I get a clear picture of who God is, even if I have that moment like I had at the movie theater, I'm just like, that's awesome! What do I do with it on Tuesday afternoon?

What do I do with it on Saturday morning?

Knowing that God is in control, how does that help?

There's so many places in the Bible that talk about this, but maybe one of my favorites is when the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write a letter to the city of Rome.

The Bible tells us in the book of Acts that the Holy Spirit had told Paul to go to Jerusalem.

And so his plan was is after he went to Jerusalem, he was gonna go to Rome.

But since God had spoken to him clearly to go to Jerusalem, he was writing this letter to them.

And here was the problem.

Every place he stopped on the way to Jerusalem, men and women of God would stop him and say, Hey, the Holy Spirit has told us that if you continue going to Jerusalem, you're gonna be in trouble.

You're gonna get arrested, you're gonna get beat, it's gonna be bad.

And it's like, okay, God told me to go, and I trust him.

And so he writes this letter, we now call the book of Romans, to the people, knowing that something bad is coming.

And what I love is Paul writes about God's goodness, even as he knows he is heading into hard times.

Because here's the thing it's one thing if you don't know something bad's coming.

I've learned that if bad news is coming, I don't think I want to know.

Because if I know, I'm gonna sit here and I'm gonna agonize over it and I'm gonna make a big deal out of it if I'm not careful.

And by the time it comes along, I'm gonna have it a hundred times worse in my head than it actually is.

Paul knows something bad is coming because he's gonna follow God and he has so much trust in God.

He knows that God is in control so much that he writes this ahead of time.

He says, We know that God causes everything.

Somebody say everything, everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

God knew his people in advance and chose them to become like his son, so that the son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters, and having chosen them, he called them.

To come to him.

And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself.

And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.

So what shall we say about such wonderful things as these?

If God is for us, who could ever be against us?

Since he did not spare even his own son, but gave him up for us all, won't he give us everything else?

Who dares accuse us, whom God has chosen as his own?

No one.

For God Himself has given us right standing with himself.

Who then will condemn us?

No one.

For Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand, pleading for us.

So can anything ever separate us from Christ's love?

Does it mean we no longer, he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity or persecuted or hungry or destitute or in danger or threatened with death?

No.

Despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved us.

I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love.

Neither death nor life, nor angels, nor demons, nor fears of today, or our worries about tomorrow.

Not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love.

No power in the sky above or the earth below.

Indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Paul got really excited right then and he just kept on going.

All right.

And think about it, he knows that bad stuff's on the way, that because he's following God, he's going to be walking into storms.

And he says, Man, before it even happens, don't you worry about me.

When you hear that bad things are going, remember everything works to the good, that nothing can separate me from the love of God, that all the things that you might hear about me, they may be 10 times worse.

But God is in control.

And when we realize that God is in control, it gives us peace.

Not that we will never go through a storm, but that it's never pointless.

That God is always for us and he's always doing more than we can imagine.

Look at somebody and say, God is still in control.

And so Paul shares with us the three things that kept him going.

In the middle of knowing he's walking into a storm, the first thing is that he remembered that God has a plan.

That he, God, has a plan.

And the more we see him clearly, the more we can see everything else.

And we can see that God preserves us, that he walks with us, and he has a purpose for us.

And what Paul is saying is, is before any of that bad stuff even happens, I want you to realize God has a plan.

He says it like this He says, We know that God causes everything.

One more time, say everything.

Everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

And that God knew his people, he chose them, he called them to come to him.

And then having called them, he gave them right standing, and then having right standing, he gave them his glory.

So what he did is he said, God's got a plan.

God's got many different plans that he does in our life, but the primary plan that he has is to go from wherever we were to life in Christ with him.

God works all things for our salvation.

He says all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purposes.

And then he lays out what that purpose is.

And whereas God has so many different plans for our life, the primary plan, he says, is that you would know him and that you would realize that you've been loved before you ever even realized it.

He said it like this: He said, God's plan of salvation was number one, that you were known.

That before you knew God, God knew you.

Before you wanted God, God knew who you were.

Then he said, Not only were you known, but you were chosen.

God chose to love you.

He didn't choose you last, but chose you first.

It's just like when you were a kid and you were, you know, you were there on the playground, getting ready to get, you know, picked for a team.

He didn't pick you last because there wasn't anybody else left.

He picked you first as the one he had been looking for.

He chose you and then he called you.

He called you and he reached out to you.

If you're in here and you're a Christ follower, there was a day when you'd heard about the gospel before, but then there was a day it was different.

And you began to feel a drawing in your heart, a drawing to the things of God.

And all of a sudden it started to make difference, a different kind of sense.

And all of a sudden you realize that that salvation was for you.

Who do you think that was?

That was the Holy Spirit calling you to himself.

And if you have never made that decision, that's where God's plan is for you today.

That the Holy Spirit is calling you.

Even now in this moment, that's what that feeling is, that's what that drawing is.

It's not because you can't wait to get home to watch the endgame again, right?

That's not it.

That is the Holy Spirit that's calling you to himself because he has called you for salvation.

But for those of us who've accepted that call and allowed Jesus to wash away our sins, the Bible said that he justified us, he forgave us of our sins and he glorified us, which means we have a home waiting for us in heaven.

That's God's plan for all of us.

Here's the great news, and that is that God is in control, which means he has a plan that factors in our missteps, our silliness, and our downright stupidity.

That last part is for me.

Okay?

Yes.

I am so glad that God factored in my stupidity when he called me because I can make a mess of things.

But God doesn't have to sit there and go, well, I guess I got to go with plan B.

None of us in here are on plan B.

God's got a plan for our life, and he may have to rearoute us, but he's gonna get us where we need to be, no matter what happens.

One of my favorite places that talks about this is in the book of James.

The book of James teaches us that we can be scattered but still on track.

And I love how he talks about trouble, like it's like seasoning for the journey.

You know, it's like he's already made this beautiful pot of stew, and he's just gonna put a little salt and pepper.

That's what that's what he calls trouble.

And the reason why is because the Bible says that in the book of Acts, when the Holy Spirit descended, that the God started spreading the gospel and people were getting saved and they were hanging out in Jerusalem.

And the leaders, they were getting beat up a lot.

I mean, they're having a bad day.

But the regular church folks, it looked like they were doing just fine.

Like there's this mental picture almost of almost like they were standing around a campfire, kumbaya, and everything was great.

You know, once again, Peter, John, they're getting the mess beat out of them.

Everybody else is fine.

All right, it's all good.

And then in Acts chapter 8, the Bible said that a guy named Stephen was stoned to death.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

He was killed.

All because he loved Jesus and he wanted to share Jesus with everybody else.

And the Bible said that Saul, who later became Paul, he saw what was going on and he decided we need some more of that.

And so he started attacking Christians.

And it caused the church to scatter all over the place.

And no doubt they were saying, is this what was supposed to happen?

Could God have had this in his plan?

Why did Stephen have to die?

Why is this going on?

Is this what this is all about?

And so James, the brother of Jesus, wrote the book of James and he's continuing to teach them about life in Christ.

But the first thing he tells them is this He says, When troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.

What kind of trouble?

Being chased down, being sought after, having to hide from Saul.

When these things happen, consider it an opportunity for great joy.

Why?

For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.

So I say, let it grow.

For when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

So in other words, he's saying God is gonna use even those bad days to do amazing things in your life.

And so God doesn't have to reroute you as far as in, okay, you made a wrong turn, so now we got to go with an alternate plan.

No, God is still working in our life.

Why?

Because he wants to grow us into maturity, into in wholeness, and to a place where we don't need anything.

And so, even the worst days ever, God is in control.

And here's the best news I can give you.

And that is that God is in control, which means we can have peace because God has a plan that factors in our worst days.

God has a plan that factors in even when everything is going wrong.

That doesn't mean that God has no idea what's happening.

But rather, God is in control.

And we can see that.

And the more we see clearly that he is in control, the more we can see everything else.

Look at your neighbor and say, God's in control.

Even on bad days, God is in control.

And here's the good news about the fact that God's in control is also that he is for us.

That he is for us.

That it's the best news ever is that God is in control because I will be honest with you, I don't want to be in control.

I have tried to be in control and it didn't work out.

And so it's, and so then I look at God and go, God, if you can do anything with it.

And he's like, Well, I've been doing it anyway, my friend, and I got you.

I got you.

Look at the way Paul said it.

He said, if God is for us, who could ever stand or be against us?

Who then will condemn us?

No one.

For Christ Jesus died for us, he was raised to life for us, and he was sitting, he is now sitting in the honor at God's right hand, pleading for us.

So, in other words, Paul said, first of all, God's got a plan.

And the good news about that, that God's got the plan, is that God is the one who loves us the most.

And he said, Let me prove to you that it's such a good idea that God has a plan.

It's because he said, Here's the three things that we know that God is for us.

Number one is that Jesus died for us.

But then not only did he die for us, Jesus rose again for us.

And then not only did he rise again, but that he is working now for us.

At some point, we have got to stop holding God hostage to our next prayer request.

We have to stop saying, God, you're worthy if.

God, you are faithful if, hasn't he done enough?

Hasn't he already proven himself?

Because let me tell you what, he didn't have to do any of that.

But he did all of that and he did it as though we were the only ones.

That's how much he loves all of us.

And Paul is saying, when you realize that Jesus died for us, and the Bible says God's demonstrated his great love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

He didn't die for us on our best day, he died for us on our worst day.

But then he rose again and he's working in our lives.

Here's the greatest news, and that is that God is in control.

Therefore, we know God knows us and likes us anyway.

The one who loves us the most and the one is the one in charge, and he will never abandon us.

God is in control.

And the greatest news about that is God is the one who loves us the most.

Can I tell you?

I wouldn't want someone who didn't love me to be in control because I wouldn't know what they'd be up to.

I hope they were having a good day.

If they were having a bad day, I'm afraid I might reap the benefit of it.

But the one who loves us the most, he's the one who says, I've got you.

And here's the best news too, and that is that God is for us even when it doesn't always look that way.

Can I tell you, I need to hear that?

I need to hear that God has not lost his way even when it doesn't look like what I thought it would look like.

I thought it would be so easy to get from point A to point B.

But God took me from point A to point B, all the way around the room and back again.

It could have taken five seconds.

God took five years.

God, can I see your map for just a moment, right?

Maybe that was a wrong turn.

No, God knows exactly what he's doing.

There's so many places in the Bible that show this, but one of my favorites is in the book of Genesis.

And we talked about this before.

But God showed up to a young man named Joseph, gave him a dream, and he said, one day, you, even though you're the youngest, which is not the way it was done, you're gonna lead your family, you're gonna provide for your family.

Well, he did what you're not supposed to do.

He went and told all of his other brothers, he's gonna be in charge one day.

Don't do that if God ever gives you that dream.

And so they said, uh, no, you're not.

And so they were gonna kill him and then decided they were gonna make money off of him instead.

And instead, they sold him into slavery.

That doesn't sound like God could do anything with that plan, but they did.

They sold him into Egyptian bondage, and while he was there, he got lied on while he was in prison, or rather he was in slavery, got put in prison.

That doesn't sound like that that's a good plan.

And while he was there, though, he met somebody who knew the Pharaoh.

And he told him, Hey, when you get out, tell Pharaoh about me, because I'm not supposed to be in here.

Well, that guy got out and forgot about it.

And so then, for like some some scholars say up to seven years later, Pharaoh had a problem.

And then, oh boy, remembered poor Joseph back in prison.

But it was the perfect timing because Pharaoh's problem, Joseph had the answer, and it was this amazing turn of events where Joseph woke up in prison, he went to bed that night in the palace and became the second most powerful person in the known world overnight because he was right up under Pharaoh, and he God used him to save the entire nation because he knew how to protect them from a famine.

And then a couple years into it, a few years into it, his family shows up.

And what God had told him, possibly 14 years earlier, came to pass.

Can you imagine being those brothers standing in front of the guy you sold into slavery?

And he's like, uh, can we just be friends?

We just call it, you know, whatever.

They were terrified that Joseph, because of all this that was happening, that Joseph was going to be vengeful toward them.

But look at what he said.

He said, Don't be afraid of me.

Am I God that I can punish you?

You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good.

He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.

In other words, what he was saying is, I know my God has been in control.

Is it the way I would have done it?

No.

Is it the way that I thought it it could have been done?

No.

But I realize now that God is in control, and this whole time God has been for me.

And look at what the Lord has done.

He would have never known.

If you'd have told Joseph when he was 17 years old that one day he was going to be second in command of the whole nation, that that's too big.

But instead, God said, Can you trust me with the next step?

And God got him.

Is it possible that in your life that God is saying, Can you trust me with your next step?

That I've got a plan and that I am for you?

And then when we see how big God is and we see him more clearly, he helps us see everything else.

One more time, say God is in control.

And because God is in control, we know that he has a plan, that he is for us.

And here's the last one, and that is that he will not let us go.

That God will not let us go.

That's what, remember, that's what Paul is saying.

He is saying, I know my God is in control.

Therefore, even though I know that before I get to see you, church at Rome, something bad is gonna happen.

I don't know what it is.

I've been through a lot of it already, and God hasn't left me yet.

And I know that if he hasn't let me go yet, he's not gonna let me go now.

Look at what he says.

He says, Can anything separate us from the love of God?

Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity or are persecuted or are hungry or destitute or in danger or threatened with death?

No.

He said, Does that mean that God is not in control if bad things happen?

No.

Despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ.

Why?

Because he loves us.

I am convinced that nothing could ever separate us from God's love, neither death or life, nor angels or demons, nor fears for today or our worries about tomorrow.

Not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love.

No power in the sky above or in the earth below.

Indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from God's love that is revealed in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

He said, Listen, I've done been there.

That is not him just wondering.

That is probably him showing them his resume.

These are all things that's happened to me.

And God hasn't let go of me yet.

And I love that he does that because it reminds us that no matter what we face, an updated version of this might be don't give up.

Nothing, not sickness, not divorce, not conspiracies or addictions or politics or wars, difficult kids, not even cats, can cause God to change his mind about us or lose control.

Look at somebody and say, Don't give up.

Look at somebody else and say, Not even if you own a cat, don't give up.

Don't give up, don't give up, don't give up.

Here's the good news.

Here's the good news.

When we feel we cannot hold any longer on any longer, we realize it was God who was holding on to us this whole time.

It reminds me of when I when I was uh I was younger, my girls were real little.

One of my daughters was deathly afraid of the dark.

Okay, she's still mostly afraid of the dark, but she was deathly afraid of the dark.

And the reality was that her father was just a little bit less afraid of the dark.

I maintain that's just fine.

I'm not afraid of the dark, I'm afraid of what's in the dark that I can't see.

Amen?

Right?

Okay.

And so when she was little, this particular young lady, uh, we would be walking somewhere and it would be dark.

And I would try to say, You okay?

Is it gonna be all right?

You go okay?

And she would say, Don't worry, daddy, I got you.

I got you, daddy.

It's okay.

And and I'd kind of play it up.

I was like, You sure?

You sure you got me?

Are you sure?

I got you, daddy.

Then as soon as something would happen, she goes, Oh, carry me, daddy, carry me, carry me.

You know, I was like, I thought you had me.

All right, come on.

I was kind of I was kind of hoping you did have me.

You could carry me a little bit, you know.

And I was like, isn't that cute?

I wonder how many times God says the same thing to us.

When we look at God, God, I got you.

God, I'm holding on to you.

God, nothing's gonna let nothing's gonna take your place in my life.

Nothing, nothing, I got you, God, I got this.

I wonder if he's like, that's so sweet.

Come on, buddy, it's gonna be all right.

Because, and then as soon as something bad happens, God carry me.

I know, buddy, I got you.

Because the whole time we weren't holding on to him.

The whole time he was holding on to us.

The whole time he was the one that was keeping us from falling.

He let us think it was us, but the whole time it was him.

The whole time he was the one that was keeping us where we needed to be.

And we get to the end of our strength, that's when we begin to see just how big his strength is.

And he says, I'll never let you go.

And I'm in control.

I have a plan, I am for you, and I've got you.

So, how do we have peace when everything is in chaos?

We realize that God is not in chaos, that God is in control.

God is not worried, God is not nervous, God is not anxious, God hasn't had too much caffeine.

He is in control, and he's got you.

It reminds me of, as we get ready to close, uh we've been reading through the Bible together and we're about to finish reading 1 Thessalonians, and we're gonna be beginning the book of Psalms.

It's gonna be great.

I can't wait to start the book of Psalms together.

Soundtrack for life.

It's gonna be wonderful.

If you'd like to join us, you can text RLC Bible to 94,000 or scan that QR code.

But I love if you've been reading it with us, the reason why the Holy Spirit inspired 1 Thessalonians to be written was because this small church was going through a terrible time of chaos, of persecution, of suffering.

They had more questions than they had answers, and they were just worried.

And so the apostle Paul writes to them with this same confidence that he has that God is in control, and he says this he says, We pray that to our God and Father about you, and we think about your faithful work, your loving deeds, and your enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The first thing he says to them is this He says, Man, God's doing great things in your life, but realize it's because He's got you.

You are never intended to do this by yourself.

You do this because God is with you.

He has been with you this far, and he's gonna be with you the rest of the way.

One of the reasons why God being in control is so good is because we don't have to wonder if he's gonna be with us.

The challenge is making sure we stay with him because he is always gonna lead the way.

And so the more we see God clearly, the more we can see everything else.

And we see that God holds us together by preserving us in more ways than we can imagine.

He works in cooperation with us, he walks with us, and then everything, even Jupiter, has a purpose.

And because of that, the apostle Paul, knowing that bad things are coming, he says, I trust God anyway.

God is in control, he has a plan, he is for us, and he will never let us go.

And that same God gives us this promise today, and maybe this promise is for you.

God's word says this in Isaiah.

It says, Don't forget this.

Keep it in mind.

Other words, if we were at real life church, we would say, Write this down.

Remember the things I have done in the past, for I alone am God.

I am God, and there is none like me.

Everything I plan will come to pass.

In other words, he's saying, Remember the things I have done in the past.

Remember how many times I have proven myself over and over and over again.

Remember when Noah had no idea, all he knew was that God told him to build a boat, God was in control.

Remember when David was hiding from Saul and he had no idea what was going on, God was in control.

When David stepped out on that battlefield facing a giant, having no idea but defying that giant to make fun of his God, God was in control.

When Daniel had the worst thing to ever happen to anybody in the history of everything other than the crucifixion, he was thrown into a pit of hungry cats.

Didn't get worse than that, he trusted God, and God was.

In control.

And then you look in the New Testament.

Paul did eventually make it to Rome, but in chains.

And when he met them, God is in control.

God is in control.

And it was because he was in chains.

He was able to meet with kings and governors and dignitaries.

And he was able to be in the courts of Pharaoh.

He wrote in the book of Philippians that there are those in Pharaoh, I mean in Caesar's own household who now know the gospel.

He would have never had that audience unless he had followed God.

That his prison actually became a platform for him to do greater things than he could have done.

If the Holy Spirit inspired it, because God was in control.

And the reason why knowing God is in control is so helpful for us is that the Bible tells us that in this life we will have trouble.

But we can trust him.

And that is actually the main point of this message.

And that is that when we see how big God is, sometimes we just want to say, God is awesome.

But then that doesn't quite do it.

What do I give to the God who has everything?

You ever tried to buy something for somebody who seems like they have everything?

It just seems like another coffee cup is just not gonna do it.

And sometimes I look at God and go, God, you're so amazing and you're so awesome.

Like I don't have the words.

What can I give to God?

Because the more I see him clearly, the more I'm humbled in his presence.

And you know what's amazing about God is he doesn't need anything.

I don't I mean this respectfully, he doesn't need you, he doesn't need me, he doesn't need our worship, he doesn't need our service, he's fine all by himself.

Before we were, he was, and he was doing just fine.

He doesn't need us, he wants you, he wants you, he wants you to trust him all the way back in the garden of Eden.

That's all God ever asked for.

The Bible said he put Adam and Eve in the garden and he put all the trees in the garden.

He said, Have a good time, enjoy it, have everything you want.

Can I ask you to do one thing for me?

Trust me, and don't eat this one tree.

Why?

Just trust me.

Can you tell?

Can you just trust me?

Well, we failed.

And God began the work of redemption to bring us back to that place of relationship.

And even to this day, He says, Will you trust me?

I know it's not always easy, I know it's sometimes hard, but can you trust me?

And I don't know about you, but it is it is so easy for me to trust God with about 90%.

But it's that last 10 that I hold on to, and it's that last 10 that has a tendency to want to destroy our joy, our peace, our our happiness, our contentment, because it's that last peace that we hold on to so much, and the whole time God doesn't rip it from us, he just says, Will you trust me?

Will you trust me?

I'm in control, I have a plan, I am for you.

I will never let you go.

Will you trust me?

God, I do trust you.

With 90%, can I have the last 10?

I don't know who maybe God is saying that to today, but can I tell you?

Our God is sovereign, He is trustworthy.

And today He's asking you for the final 10%.

And can I tell you on the other side of it?

He teaches us we do our best and we trust him with the rest.

And he always does, exceedingly and abundantly above all we can ask, think, or imagine.

In just a moment, the band's gonna lead us through a song of worship.

And I don't know exactly what you need to give to the Lord.

I don't know.

That's between you and God.

Maybe in just a moment, when we stand, we're just gonna lift our hands and maybe you just need to say, God, you are awesome, and I'm giving that last 10%.

Maybe you want to join us in the prayer table and say, I want to give God that last 10%, but I don't know how.

Will you pray for me?

Or maybe you want to find a quiet place up here in the altar.

In the Old Testament, they would bring a gift to the altar and lay it before the Lord.

Maybe you need to bring that as a symbol to the Lord.

God, I'm giving you my health.

I'm giving you my children.

I'm giving you my unforgiveness.

I'm giving you this pain I've been holding on to, the bitterness I've been holding on to.

I give it to you and breathe a fresh air of freedom for the first time in a long time because God is in control.

Maybe you're in here and you don't have a relationship with Jesus.

Can I tell you?

It's time to let Him be in control, to give your life over to Him.

That's what salvation is.

It's letting go of 100% and saying, God, I can't do this on my own.

I have sinned in my life, but I know that you can forgive me.

Will you wash away my sin?

Inside your worship God, on the back of your connect card is the plan of salvation.

And that's what salvation is it is asking God to wash away all your sin and to be the sovereign Lord of your life.

If you will come to Him, He will make you new from the inside out.

Let's pray together right now.

God, thank you.