What does it mean in our lives that God is Sovereign?

God’s Sovereignty in our lives ----what is its practical meaning?

 

   Job as we have seen in chapter 38 finds out from God directly about God’s wisdom and Job’s own creation.  “   Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?”  God is the Creator and He formed us for His good pleasure and out of His own will He created everything from nothing.  God’s Sovereignty is seen in His creating power.  If He created the world from nothing then does He leave it without any direction or purpose?

 

    Some have said so.  They see in the world a God who may have had a hand in its creation but has left it to its own designs.  This is called Deism.  In other words , God is only the First Great Cause but has no involvement after that.  Job in 9: 6 says of God , “ which commandeth the sun….and sealeth up the stars”

 

     What does it mean to be Sovereign?  The root means” above or superior to all others ; chief, greatest; supreme in power, rank or authority; independent of all others”  It is said that the Sovereign’s word is the word that only matters.  We sing today, “ Where can I go from your spirit; everywhere I go you are there; Lord, You walk before and behind me, I’m surrounded by Your steadfast love; You are wisdom; You are majesty, Everlasting God.”  And yet many try and do just that not knowing they cannot escape God in this life or the life to come.

 

     Why would we want to escape from God?  It is only an extension of the rebellion that Adam and Eve began when they yielded to the temptation of the Serpent in the Garden.   So if you cannot ignore God, then religion tries to re-define Him to their own making.  God is love .  That will be enough they say.  If He is only love then, He will excuse my bad behavior.  It does not matter what I do or for that matter what I say behind closed doors so to speak they say.  Such a God who is limited by man’s imagination is not a God worth worshipping, so we see men mostly leave the church & as the man the sons follow…eventually the whole group of men and women go to their homes.  Why bother they say?  This religion is something I can do on my own.  For that matter His Word is up for negotiation as well.  It can all be made the way I want to live. 

 

     Others say, well look at the world.  You can not be serious that God is Sovereign.  It is a messy place and He obviously is not involved.  One of the most “ distressing aspects of death for many Civil War Americans was that thousands of young men were dying away from home….Most Soldiers would have shared the wishes of the Georgia man whose brother sadly wrote after his death in Virginia, ‘ he always did desire …to die at home.’ “   in This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust. In our own Larger Catechism we read: Q. 18. What are God's works of providence?
A. God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures; ordering them, and all their actions, to his own glory.

 

    Others say , I sure did not see that on my watch.  But not only does God preserve us and govern us, He provides a salvation for us.  Hebrews 10 says, “ sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared for me.” Vs 5  Here we read of the Second Person of the Trinity offering to take upon Himself human flesh so that He would be a sacrifice for us for salvation.  This was God’s Sovereign Will in our salvation.  Not one of us know the day or time of our death. We only know that God is good and He gives us more than we deserve.

 

    Then God provides a way of Service that is certainly Sovereign to our way of thinking.  It is way that the disciples did not comprehend or desire to either.  It is a way of being great by being a servant, a minister.  “ And whosoever will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all.  For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto , but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45  That is His way and His way is always the best.  In a give me world that is something.  That is the way of true love and it is past our own understanding.

 

    Ever since the fall of Adam men and women have been trying to re-define God and His ways.  It starts with a rejection of the Word of God, then moves on to pointed criticism of His body , the Church, and neglect for the moral law, the Ten Commandments which were written by the finger of God .  So it ends up with someone else being Sovereign, and that person is not recognizable as God.  Who is our Sovereign today?

 

    The only choice is the way of life , and that choice involves a submission of our will to God as Sovereign, not the God we have made and created.  Because that God never did exist,  except in our own minds.  This way of life is not easy but it is worth it and we follow millions and millions who have gone the same road we are now called to go down.  But Jesus is leading us and He has provided all we need in this life and in the life to come!