Wirksworth | 11/10/26 | Adonai | Sheldon Kryger

Good morning everybody.

I think somebody described the last time I spoke as being raw.

I like cake.

I don't like raw cake.

So it's certainly not a good attribute of cake, but whatever.

There goes nothing.

Could be a little bit raw as well.

But let's let's find out.

So Neil spoke last week about Yahweh.

And Yahweh is a proper name that God introduced himself to Moses, wasn't it?

And I think Neil did a great job.

We talked about a few different things about God's Almighty, the Almighty God, the creator of it all.

I like to think of it there's created things and uncreated things.

It turns out there's only one thing in the uncreated things category.

And that is God, Yahweh, is in that category, completely set apart.

Holy, holy, holy.

And then we have us and everything else in the created category.

So that that Yahweh and that introduction, the way God revealed Himself to Moses was just amazing, wasn't it?

So now we're gonna look at the name Adonai.

And I have to admit then that I didn't know what it meant.

So he gave me a bit of a hint then what it is that we're talking about.

And then I used the internet to help me.

Hopefully it was accurate information, I don't know.

But that the term Adonai, Adon being being a master or a lord, somebody with authority, and Adonai being more of that, an amplification.

So you think of Lord of Lords or ultimate master or sovereign ruler, that kind of a thing.

Okay?

So that's the the technical bit, I guess.

So that's what we're gonna look at, and that's actually a bit tricky then, isn't it?

When you think about this God being sovereign, being a master, ultimate master of everything, what does that mean?

I think there's a lot of complications, a lot of debate, a lot of things that we could look at.

You think about uh Yahweh, this this Lord God Almighty, uh that that has all power, that knows everything, but at that point, if we stop there, it could be that God created it all and just let go and kind of let it all spin and let it play out.

And so let's just see where this goes.

But as soon as we add an eye into things and things change significantly, don't they?

Now we have an almighty, all-knowing God that is getting his way.

Is that what that means?

What do you think?

Okay, so let's uh let's take a quick look at what at kind of some of what that means.

I'm gonna give you some examples of what God's sovereignty means and how that's how that's been played out in history.

Um Genesis chapter 15, verses 13 and 14.

Genesis 15:13

I don't know if I'll read it.

I'm trying without the presentation today.

So, but anyways, this is what I'm recognized.

So Genesis 15 is uh Abram.

So he was called by called by God.

And uh it's an interesting bit.

Should I turn to that?

Genesis 15, 13, 14.

Let's do that.

We'll take a minute.

So Abram has just revealed himself.

This is much, much before Moses then, right?

Because we had Adam and some other people, and then we hit Abram where God reveals himself, and then there's Isaac, Jacob, that's the beginning of Israel, and then you have Joseph, and then you have Egypt, and then you have Moses.

Okay?

But in uh chapter 15, when when God reveals himself, he says something very curious in verses 13 and 14.

I'm getting older, so now I have to hold my Bible further away to read it.

Okay, so in verse 13, this is that God spoke talking to Abram, or Abraham, says, and the Lord said to Abram, Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that's not theirs, and they'll be servants there, and they'll be afflicted for 400 years.

But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

Wait a minute, what kind of a plan is that?

For some reason, right in that spot, God's saying, just a little heads up, there's a blip here where things are gonna get a little bit tricky for a while.

Right?

And so actually, when I first was looking at uh talking about God's sovereignty, I was wanted to focus primarily on Joseph, the story of Joseph, because it's really interesting to see how God had all these things happen in his life.

Things that he did, that may be right or wrong, things that people around him did, either for good or for bad, um, God's intervention and visions and dreams and all manner of things that God was working.

And Joseph, at the end, I don't know if you remember, so Joseph ended up in charge of Egypt, so to speak, underneath Pharaoh, and was in charge of the preparation for the famine.

And so then his family came at some point and was were asking for food.

Now it was his family that had actually sold into slavery into Egypt.

And he ended up in prison for a while and all kinds of terrible things, right?

But Joseph said, you know what?

You guys can relax.

I've got all the power, you need food, it's okay, because what you meant for evil, God meant for good.

And so that's a really nice, it's a little mini, okay.

So Joseph's amazing.

Um, but let's not talk too much about that.

Um, so that's interesting then that God said, everybody's gonna be in Egypt for 400, your people are gonna be in Egypt for 400 years, and then of course, Moses comes along, doesn't he?

At the end of that 400-year period.

And like Neil said last week, God revealed himself in that bush and said, Hey, this is paraphrasing, I think.

Hey, I kind of need you to do something for me.

And and Moses said, I'm good.

Thank you.

I can't speak, I'm just no, no, no, no, no, I'm not, I'm not gonna do that.

But wasn't it amazing?

So as we know, uh Moses did end up doing something and did lead the Israelites out of Egypt, and that's an amazing little look at God's sovereignty in that plan.

He's got a plan, and it is happening.

It's happening.

He plans ahead of time, so God not only does he have all power, he knows everything, and as he knows everything, he knows everything about us, knows everything about the person around us, he knows everything about our past, knows everything about our future.

He knows everything, and he is going to have his way.

Okay?

There's another one that's that's kind of interesting, and that is uh this is much later now, the kings have come, David and Saul and all that, and uh Judah is being not very well behaved.

God has laid down the law and said, You need to do these things, or else you will go into exile.

And so he did actually then say, Um, um you will be in exile, you will be pulled out of the nation, the land that I've given you, and you are going to be captive in Babylon for 70 years.

So this is another one of these spots that was, he said, this is happening.

This will happen, and it will only be 70 years.

And that's another one of those really interesting spots where God's plan, you cannot stop that.

He's put that in motion and it will happen.

Um, so there is actually then at the end of the 70 years, uh, so Jeremiah prophesied that it would be 70 years in duration.

At the end of that, in Ezra, uh, Ezra chapter 1, the first three verses, it says, this is interesting, he says, that God stirred the heart of Cyrus.

Ezra 1 · chapter mention

Cyrus was the guy in charge in Babylon, as far as I know.

So God actually said to Cyrus, Cyrus, I you need to let these guys go back.

Seventy years is up.

I didn't say, I'm paraphrasing again, sorry.

The seven years is up, time to send them back to Israel.

Now, I don't know if you've ever been to the British Museum.

We had a chance to go.

Super cool.

Archaeology, I love, this is a little aside.

I love that archaeology um supports what we read in the Bible.

I heard an indifferent account of somebody that that set out to uh use archaeology to disprove the Bible, and in the process, I came to the faith.

I said, sure enough, that's there.

So in the British Museum, there's a little, pretty unassuming, little clay cylinder.

Remember what that's called?

The Cyrus, Cyrus something.

There's a little cylinder, and this is a bit of archaeology that on it it's it shows Cyrus' decree to let the peoples that are captive go back and do their thing in their lands.

Isn't that cool?

So that's actually, you can actually go see that with your eyes.

Thousands of years ago, somebody, cuneiform or whatever, put that put that message in there.

Amazing.

Unstoppable plan.

It's happening.

It's amazing, isn't it?

There's another one that's quite interesting that you may be familiar with, and that's in Esther.

So Esther.

Anybody want to read a little bit?

Feel free.

If you want, can you get to Esther before I can?

Esther chapter 4.

Esther 4 · chapter mention

Oh, there's Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther.

I found it.

I found it.

It's here.

Okay, so what's happening here?

Anybody who can sit this up.

Um This is the Jews again, uh, in a bad spot, and there's a king that is uh doing this thing, and then there's the bad guy.

Haman, is a bad guy?

What do you think?

Yeah, I think so.

Haman's a bad guy, and he decides that he wants to go to the king and say, actually, let's get rid of the Jews.

All done with the Jews.

Let's do this, let's get rid of them.

And the king, for whatever reason, says, Okay, sure, let's do that.

Seems like a good idea.

Esther was a Jew, but she was, she didn't let the king know this, and the king actually ended up, she became queen.

So she's now a Jewish queen to a king that uh has now agreed to let the Jews be wiped out.

So Esther has a uncle.

Is that some right?

Mordecai?

I should have read the story thoroughly before talking about it, but I figured it should be okay, and I remember most of it.

Uh so Mordecai ends up hearing about Haman's plan to issue this decree and have all the Jews wiped out.

So then uh Mordecai comes to Esther and says, Hey, Queen, I wouldn't mind if you would do something about this.

And uh so chapter 4, verses 13 and 14.

Hold my Bible way back again.

Uh so oh sorry, I'll back a little bit.

So that Esther actually, there's a bit of a problem.

This is one of these kings that's kind of like a sovereign king in as much as he can be as a human king, in that he doesn't want to be interrupted if he's watching something on YouTube or whatever.

Don't knock, interrupt.

Um, so if you come to him uh uninvited, and if he doesn't extend his scepter, you just die.

Okay, so Esther had a little bit of a tricky thing because it had been quite a while.

I think she said it's been 30 days since I've been in front of the king.

I've not been invited, I don't really want to interrupt him.

Okay, so then uh Mordecai in verses 13 and 14, he says, then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther.

So they're sending messages back and forth.

Um Mordecai said to told them to Esther, do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than the other Jews.

You're still a Jew.

If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, and you and your father's house will perish, and who knows whether you've not come to the kingdom for such a time as this.

That's a good one, isn't it?

So the Jews, there's a plan to wipe them out, and God has a plan to not have the Jews wiped out.

And Mordecai knew enough to know that.

This is not going to happen, Esther.

I think you're queen in this spot for this time.

So you should consider doing this, but just know that if you don't, somebody else will.

Because God's plan is not going to be stopped.

That's amazing, isn't it?

Amazing.

I heard uh I heard a story of a person that had a property that they felt that God was telling them to buy for a purpose.

They wanted to make a Christian retreat of some center of some kind.

And so they were attempting to buy this place and uh certain that it was the right thing to do, and in the end, the purchase didn't go through.

Somebody else bought it.

And and so they were quite shocked and confused why this plan that they they thought God was telling to them, why didn't come to pass.

They found later that somebody else had bought it for that purpose.

Why?

Why too?

I don't know.

I don't know, but isn't that amazing?

Isn't that amazing that there's this there's this plan that cannot be stopped?

Um there is something interesting here though, isn't there?

Why is God using Esther?

Why why didn't he do the Cyrus thing?

And so in Cyrus it says that God spoke to Cyrus and said, Hey, I'd like you to actually let these people go back and rebuild.

But in the case of Esther, it was Esther that was meant to take that chance and go before the king.

So now that we're gonna switch gears a little bit here because we were talking about how God has his plan that's unstoppable, and then there's this funny bit where somehow it involves people.

Interesting, isn't it?

Um and why is that?

Why, why?

Um there's actually, I won't go to it, but in Luke chapter 7, verse 30, it talks about how the Pharisees rejected God's purpose for their lives.

Luke 7:30

So now all of a sudden we have we have an overall plan, and we have a plan that God has for our lives.

And I I think that if I understand Esther correctly, or and if I compare it to something like this, the verse talking about the the Pharisees rejecting God's plan, this is complicated, this whole God being fully in charge, but I like to think that that we do in fact have a choice.

God has a plan for us, and his plan for us fits into his overall plan.

And he says, here it is, what do you think?

Um and we can see that actually in Moses.

But before we do that, I've got one more.

I'm gonna go to Acts chapter 9.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

This is another interesting one where this is the conversion of Saul on the road to Damascus.

So in this one, I won't read, I won't read it word for word.

But uh the conversion of Saul, as you remember, Saul was a Pharisee, so he was a Pharisee that didn't reject God's purpose for his life.

Uh Saul was a Pharisee and he was attacking the Christians because he thought that's what God was asking him to do.

I'd have to assume.

I don't know.

Um so he was attacking the Christians and he was on the way to Damascus, and what happened?

Who intervened on the way to Damascus?

Jesus.

Jesus.

Jesus said, Hey, why are you doing this to me?

And and then Saul said, What are you talking about?

And and of course, then he understood.

Actually, this is Jesus speaking to me, to Saul, saying, you know, stepping in and saying, Hold on, you you can't do that.

You need to stop.

So that's fine.

But then what happens after that?

So he was blind, he lost his sight, and then there was a guy named Ananias in verse 10 of chapter 9.

So there's a disciple of Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord sent to him a vision, Ananias.

And Ananias said, Here I am, Lord.

The Lord said to him, Rise and go to the street called straight.

At the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named Saul.

Behold, he's praying.

And he's seen a vision of a man named Ananias come and lay hands on him so he might see again.

And Ananias said, Lord, I've heard this man, that he's the evil, the evil is done in the saints in Jerusalem.

He has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name.

Sounds a little bit like Esther, doesn't it?

So now we have Saul who's who's the bad guy, or was a bad guy, and was putting all the Christians in prison.

He's blind, and God says to Ananias, hey, go over there, pray for Saul.

And God said to Saul, hey, Ananias is coming.

Is that what it's saying?

Yeah, yeah.

You've seen in a vision.

So what what's going on there?

Why did God speak to Ananias?

Speak to Saul and then say, Ananias, I need you to go over there and do this.

Wait a minute.

Saul's praying.

Why couldn't God just answer his prayer and open his eyes?

What do you think?

It's curious, isn't it?

Curious.

Why does God involve people in his unstoppable, unfailing, absolute plan?

I I've said the words probably much too lightly, and you might hopefully haven't heard me say them, but I've said them enough that you may have.

But I've I've said, if you've been in church long enough, you know that sometimes this gets a little messy.

Got a bunch of imperfect people.

I said the marriage as well, right?

You've got two imperfect people, you stick them together, and it's just it's this could get interesting.

And in church, that's sometimes the case, isn't it?

And you think, well, wait a minute.

I don't understand, God, you you can speak directly to people through visions and dreams.

You've got angels throughout the Bible all over the place that are doing your thing, talking to people, delivering messages, and somehow you've said, Hey, people, let's do this.

I need you to do things for me.

What God, we've just said earlier, God Yahweh, the great Almighty God, he doesn't need anything.

He does not need us to do anything for him.

He could do it himself, and it seems like it'd be a lot less messy.

Wouldn't it?

There'd be a lot fewer mistakes made.

So let's go and take a quick look at um back to Moses again for a second.

So Moses was reluctant, but God said, I've got a plan.

You're my guy, you need to go talk to Pharaoh and get my people out of Egypt.

God could have just did the Cyrus thing to Pharaoh and said, Pharaoh, I need you to let these guys go.

And he didn't.

So let's go look in Hebrews.

It's a little bit.

So sometimes uh Hebrews 11 is called like a hall of faith.

It's a it's recounting all these people in the Bible that did all these great things uh in their faith in God.

Um and there's a bit in there on Moses, Hebrews chapter 11, verses 24 to 26.

Hebrews 11:24–26

Come on, where is that?

Got it?

Okay, here's Moses By faith, Hebrews chapter 11, verse 24.

Hebrews 11:24

By faith, Moses, when he was grown-up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

Choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God and to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin, to consider the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt.

For he was looking to the reward.

And actually, I just gotta say that my some of my favorite verses are the beginning of chapter 12.

And I think it's in keeping with a lot of what we said this morning.

And it said, fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith.

For the joys of Before we do it the cross.

It's all about where we're looking, isn't it?

It's all about where we're looking.

I went to a driving experience thing the other day, and they showed some they showed some crashes.

They're trying to sell insurance.

You can pay extra to have insurance in case you crash the car.

And they so they were showing these accidents of these of these cars.

And and what one of the instructors said when he was showing this one where the car nearly went through a tire wall and nearly hit another very expensive car.

And he said, What's he doing wrong?

Among other things, he's looking at the car he's about to hit instead of where he needs to be.

And he said, more often than not, you go in the direction you're looking.

And I love that.

You think about where are we looking?

Where do we have our eyes fixed?

Because that's good, more likely than not, that's where we're headed.

So a little aside.

But uh back to Moses.

So what was he looking at?

So he had, and actually, similar to what Julia had mentioned earlier, we have we have this faith that living it out sometimes is a little bit tricky.

Moses had all the riches of Egypt.

He was uh you know, Prince of Egypt, adopted son of the Pharaoh, so to speak, something like that.

He had everything he wanted.

And in Hebrews 11, it says that he he would rather have the reproach of Christ than all of those riches.

That's amazing, isn't it?

You think about what what did Moses, what was his interaction with God through all that time in which he was talking to Pharaoh, that he was leading the Israelites out of Egypt, into the wilderness, to the promised land, not into, but Moses was interacting with God, wasn't he?

Uh it's it's told that we told we're told in the Bible that he spoke to God face to face, like a friend speaks to a friend.

Sorry.

You see that?

He had all the riches.

He had everything he ever wanted, the comfort, convenience, power, all of that.

Exchange that to be able to speak to God face to face and be a friend of God.

We see um uh Elijah is another one of these important people in the Old Testament, and he did many, many, God used him in many, many ways.

Although God could have used angels and everything else, but he's using a person, using Elijah.

And it's interesting, both Moses and Elijah got to a spot where they just said, I'm done.

I'm out.

I give up.

It's I'm I'm out.

You can you can take me out of the take me out.

Go to a place where there's no breathing.

I'm done.

Both of them got hit that spot in in walking through what God was asking to do, where they they could not take it anymore.

But interesting, in the gospels there's this bit where there's the transfiguration of Jesus.

So Jesus went up onto up onto a mountain up high somewhere, and he was transfigured into his, he was, into uh amazing state.

You can look it up, Google it.

It's there.

It's there.

But what happened in the transfiguration is Moses and Elijah were there.

And and that one of the accounts at least basically says they're catching up.

Like, how's it going?

Jesus, how's this whole coming down to earth as of man to execute this plan to make a way for us to approach God?

How's that how's that going?

Isn't that amazing that these two guys that did all were used by God in this way, were at that spot of desperation and inadequacy and overwhelmed, where I believe we're friends of God.

That's an absolutely amazing thing, isn't it?

Amazing.

So I got to the spot in preparing for this where I hit that hit that wall of why is God using people in his plan, and how do we fit into that plan?

And you can see from that story of Moses that God interacting with us, us becoming his friend, us approaching him, used being used by him, being led by him.

That is the plan.

Isn't it?

Can God do his plan without us?

Maybe without you, without me, but not without people.

We are the plan.

Aren't we?

Jesus came in part of that grand plan, gave himself for us, took on our sin.

We get that righteousness to come near God and know him.

Amazing.

Amazing.

I'm I've mentioned on Tuesday at Alpha, I get quite a few spots in my life as I'm doing this.

I'm not quite as desperate as Moses and Elijah.

I'm not quite ready to give up, but I do wonder every once in a while, can I do this?

Can I keep going?

Seriously?

And it's these spots, isn't it?

Like we were talking earlier.

Fix your eyes on Jesus.

Seriously, we can approach Yahweh, the Lord, the ultimate master, and know him, be adopted by him.

We are, some of the scriptures, I'm just about done, uh, are talking about the body of Christ.

This is another incredible mystery, isn't it?

Jesus was on earth and then he said, Actually, I'm gonna leave.

The helper is gonna come, the Holy Spirit, and you are gonna do my work.

Now we're working together, interacting, supporting each other, encouraging one another, and doing this great plan that God has laid out.

Absolutely amazing.

Absolutely amazing.

So that doesn't answer all your questions about how this whole sovereignty thing works.

But isn't it amazing that somehow in that God is sovereign and we can play some part in that?

In his great plan.

Okay if I pray?

Yeah.

Great God, creator of the universe.

Lord God Almighty, you know everything.

You have all power, you have a plan, you have a good plan.

Sometimes we don't understand what's going on around us, and sometimes it's incredibly difficult.

But you've made a way for us to be adopted as your children, to be your friends, to know you, and be known by you.

Would you help us to accept that, to accept that mission, uh, as Iris had said earlier, to each day that we would accept that mission, and we would take the great offer of being able to know you and to be your friend.

And we would consider that a great treasure compared to anything around us, a convenience, a comfort, whatever it is.

You give us that strength to live that out, to play our part in your great plan.

We need your help with this, so you ask us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let's respond to this overall plan of his sovereignty.

If you want to come forward or if you just want to stay in your seat, just really think about what God is claiming for you for your life, what his his his demand is for your life, because he is sovereign.

It might be that you're thinking, actually, time has come for me to get serious with him.

Might mean giving stuff up.

But it's part of God's plan because he loves you.

And his desire for you is to become more like everything he dreamed and imagined for you and your life because he loves you so much.

So if you want to make that prayer now in your heart, or if you want to come forward, you can look out for people that are wearing um a blue, a blue badge, a blue, I can't think of the word right now.

So well, but yeah, come forward, have a group of people come and pray with you.

If you want to get really, really serious about him, I really encourage you to do that.

Don't leave here today without getting serious with God, because by golly, he's serious about you, and he wants each one of us to be part of his plan.

Because by golly, he's unstoppable, and he wants everyone to come into a relationship with him.

As we finish now, I just really want to pray for you that that Lord, as we as each one of you, that you would really catch a glimpse of God's plan for your life, that you would catch a glimpse of his incredible love for you.

And I pray that his face would shine upon you, that he would be gracious to you, that he would strengthen you, and most of all that you would know his peace, a peace that passes all understanding, of the knowledge of how much God cares for you and has a plan for your life, has a plan for you for tomorrow and for this coming week and all your days ahead.

And I pray that you in Jesus' name.

Amen.