The world we live in continues to look as if it’s spinning out of control. War, inflation, crime, disease, and a wealth of other issues weigh heavily upon people. It even seems we have returned to a world where nuclear annihilation is once again a real possibility. People are anxious and fearful.
Brothers and sisters of the Christian faith, this is not our calling. We are called to a life of faith that results in peace and contentment in the midst of the turmoil. Scripture is filled with statements such as do not be afraid or anxious.
How is that possible you ask?
The answer is simple; it is found in scripture. If you want to live a life free of worry and anxiety, you must learn who God is. You must understand His attributes. One key element of God you must understand, is that He is sovereign. This theological truth is stamped all over scripture. As you read the stories in scripture, start looking for who God is. The Bible is His revelation to you. In it you will learn about God and find out who He is and what he is like.
The sovereignty of God is clear but most of you have fallen into the trap of Satan, whose job is to deceive you. He does that by twisting the truth. He has many of you convinced that man is in control of the world. He is not and the Bible is clear about that.
This morning I began the Book of Ezra. In the very beginning of Ezra, we see God moving the spirits of men to accomplish His will.
Ezra 1:1-2
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:
“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Cyrus was not a believer in God. He had no care about God’s house. He was in charge of those Jews being held in captivity in Babylon. But see what God does?
“…the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia.” God moved the king of Persia to do His bidding. Even Cyrus understood who puts all authority in place. “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth.”
Stop reading your Bibles as if it were an assignment from your 8th grade literature teacher. Read it and meet God there. Start looking for Him in every story and what you will see, is that God is running the world. And if God is running it, then let Him and simply trust Him in it.
Just a few sentences later we again see God moves the hearts of people.
Ezra 1:5
Then rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem.
“Everyone whose spirit God had stirred.”
RC Sproul said this when teaching on God’s sovereignty.
“I like to explain it this way: if there is one molecule in the universe running loose, outside of the control of God’s sovereignty, what I like to call “one maverick molecule,” then the practical implication for us as Christians is that we have no guarantee whatsoever that any future promise God has made to His people will come to pass.”
But there are no maverick molecules. Not one. Sproul goes on and adds this, “If we have one maverick molecule running loose out there, we have no assurance whatsoever that this single molecule may not be the grain of sand in the machinery of God’s eternal plan. It may be the thing that runs amuck and makes it impossible, ultimately, for Christ to return to this planet. It may be the thing that destroys any hope for the consummation of the kingdom of God, leaving all those promises of God unfulfilled. There are no maverick molecules in a universe where God is sovereign.”
God is sovereign. Open up you Bible and start learning who God is and you will find that God is in charge and nothing falls out of His sovereign hand. If He is God, then He has the power to stop everything that happens. If He doesn’t stop something, then it means He allows it. If He, in His infinite wisdom allows it, who are we to question it?
We don’t have to fear anything except Him, if we reject Him. We have no cause to worry or be anxious. This is the key to faith, believing who God is. And the Bible tells us who He is.
