Questions about God’s sovereignty have been on my plate recently. Is He in charge or isn’t He? The straight answer is that He is fully sovereign, always is fully sovereign, and has never NOT been fully sovereign. But He has chosen to do things with His sovereignty that make the picture from here seem unclear at times.
This life isn't just about this life. As big and as complicated as this life is, it's really just a set up for what God has planned next.
This is about what's in the heart of the Lord God Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, Owner of all life and of all eternity. He is the One and Only God. There is no other. there is no equal. He really really wants you with Him in His eternal heaven where He can love on you, enjoy you, and indulge the passion of His heart in you. That's why He made you.
This world is loaded—year after year, century after century--with evil, with demonic inhumanity, with spiritual corruption, with all kinds of immorality and unrighteousness, with hatred, cruelty, gross injustice, terror, violence, and horror. Calling it sheer ungodliness doesn't seem nearly strong enough.
I'm not going to downplay how bad that is. I'm not going to blow smoke and say Aw, it ain't that bad because, well, it is that bad. It's even far far worse than that bad. Immeasurably worse. This world is no longer close to the beautiful, wonderful, very very good world that God originally made it to be.
God sees life and death very differently than we do. He is just as close to me now as He will be when I am in heaven. But for now, I’m only partially aware of His closeness. That will change when I leave this earth and this "earth suit" for His heavenly presence. For those who belong to Jesus, He sees our death in this world as a rescue away from the evil, corruption, trauma, and flat out horror of this present world age.
God is the only creator, there is no other. He made it
all, whatever it is and wherever it is, both the animate and the inanimate. If it exists, He
made it. If it exists, He owns it. Since He made it and owns it, He gets to do what He wants
with it, He gets to determine its purpose and reason for being. And that includes the purpose and reason for being of you and me.
This is Brother Mark. I've titled today's message "Have It His Way."
As the one and only Creator, God owns the creation...which is to say He owns everything, absolutely EVERYTHING...He fully owns this world and all that is in it. He fully owns every being, both in this physical realm and in what is to us the unseen spiritual realm.
He made it all, He owns it all, He alone gets to decide what to do with it and what He wants to get out of it. He has His reasons for making it all. Whether anyone likes it or not, that's just the way it is. So get used to it.
In this episode, I want to talk about God's authority, rule, and ownership...of everything. Absolutely everything.
You may find this uncomfortable or even scary. You may disagree with what I'm saying. It's your right to disagree. But I am confident in this: if you choose to disregard what I'm about to say, you do so at your own peril. If you let it, what I'm about to share will give you a new and wonderful perspective on life.
