SUPREME SOVEREIGNTY: The GOD of The BIG & The small

Believing in a Sovereign God can be a dangerous thing. Don’t get me wrong, I think you should believe in God, as He is…..and He is sovereign. But when you let your mind and heart bow before a God of SUPREME SOVEREIGNTY … it will change the way you live…the way you think…the way you act…the way you pray…and the way you worship.

This past weekend (actually it was Sunday night-Tuesday morning which is as close as a Pastor ever gets to a ‘weekend’), I took the family camping. Of course, you have to understand that camping (at least with me) is always a bit of an adventure. First of all, my truck doesn’t have air conditioning…so we piled the family into the truck, hooked on to the trailer, opened the windows and headed to the great outdoors. As we pulled out of town it was hot and sunny, within 10 minutes it was cloudy and cool. It even looked like it might rain…but it never did. SOMEONE chose to knock the temperature down 15 degrees and send a cool breeze as we spent an hour driving in the UN-air conditioned truck.

The next day, the kids were begging to go swimming but I knew that might be painful. The cloudy and cool temperatures didn’t do much to entice most people to the swimming beach, but my kids were not deterred. Finally, at about 11 o’clock I announced, “After lunch, go put your swimsuits on…We’re GOING TO TRY and go to the swimming beach.” We got to the beach, the kids walked towards the water…AND THE SUN broke through the clouds just as the kids reached the shore. SOMEONE chose to let the sun shine, while my kids swam. (In fact it shinned so well that Andrew had a touch of sunburn.)

As soon as we were done swimming, the clouds rolled back in. In fact that evening the clouds REALLY rolled in and began to look rather ominous. The camp host told Erin that storms were expected after midnight, and if it got bad enough we would need to go to the bathhouse for safety. That evening, we had one of those moments that only come when camping. All 5 of us huddled into the camper listening to KKOW radio out of Pittsburg. I serenaded the family by singing along with George Strait, then we would all quiet down to listen to weather reports. Once darkness came, Savannah slept (in spite of my crooning). Then Karissa fell asleep. Andrew stayed awake and tried to act like he wasn’t scared of the approaching storms…though he was. The DJ came on the radio and said that a big storm was moving into Bourbon County and Northern Crawford County, and that in 10 minutes we would be having a downpour. I waited…and waited…but it never came. I went outside and watched the lightening and listened to the thunder….but it was just North of us. SOMEONE chose to make the storm pass us by, while my kids slept. NOW, I ask, who might that SOMEONE be?

The next evening I walked over by the lake and beheld nature’s glory. The sky was lit up with pink, which reflected off of the calm lake surface. Birds glided effortlessly right above the water. Crickets chirped. Fish jumped. It was beautiful. As I sat there taking it in, I prayed. And I wondered what an atheist does in a moment like that. The Psalmist writes, “The Heavens Declare the Glory of God, the sky shows His handiwork.”(Psalm 19:1) Does an atheist look at such a scene and say “WOW!!! I love evolution!” or does he say, “The Heavens declare the Glory of the BIG BANG theory!” or does he say, “How glorious that all of this came from primordial ooze over billions of years of natural selection!”…..OR does he simply ignore it? Does he cynically scoff at the God who created him and the beauty that he placed him in? The Psalmist was right…“the Heavens DECLARE the glory of God” (emphasis on DECLARE). God screams His presence through the world…some accept it, some ignore it. But all will one day know the truth. It’ll be too late for them to follow Him as Lord, but they’ll know they wasted their life in pursuit of passing things. Indeed, they’ll know all too clearly…that there IS a GOD!

So, WHO was it that controlled the weather on our camping trip? It was God. In fact it was the same God who allowed the air conditioning to go out at the church that Sunday morning. And the same God that allowed all 3 of our kids to cough the entire first night of camping so that NO ONE slept. The first night was one of those nights, when I was hoping someone would break into the camper and say to me “your money or your life.” I would have responded, “you can have all my money…but PLEASE, PLEASE go ahead and shoot me anyway!” OK, it wasn’t quite that bad, but it was a tough night on everyone…and God allowed it. Then God allowed a raccoon to get into our ice chest and eat all of our butter and cheese…the only thing he left was the hamburgers I cooked the night before, which to be honest, kind of offended me. ( Later I found the wrapper to the burgers, so he actually ate those too…thank goodness.) God allowed us to get several mosquito bites, and a couple of tick bites, and some mild sunburn. This morning, God allowed the battery on my car to be dead. I promptly jump started it with Erin’s van, drove the van back to the garage, walked back around to my car, only to find it was dead again. At that point, I decided God had allowed me a nice walk to the church. And as I walked I thought, and I prayed. The God I was worshipping, allowed a train to roar through town and lay on it’s whistle for 45 SECONDS, almost causing me to curse the train, as I praised the Lord.

Do you believe in the God of Sovereignty? Do you believe in the God of SUPREME SOVEREIGNTY? Here’s the point. If you believe in a God who blesses you with little and BIG things…then you must also believe in a God that allows you to face trials in little and BIG things. Some want to have their cake and eat it too. They want God’s blessings with no trials. Or they praise God for good things…and simply curse Satan for bad things. Make no mistake, Satan is evil and vicious…but GOD’S Sovereignty TRUMPS Satan’s power EVERTYTIME. We must bow to the Sovereign ONE when things are good…and when things are bad. THIS is the very essence of worship. Anyone will brag on a God who blesses them. But mature, cross-bearing disciples will praise their King, even when He chooses to send pestilence and misery into their life.

God’s blessings always pose a veiled challenge…..Will we worship the GIVER? Or do we simply worship HIS GIFTS? The first option is Christianity. The second option is Idolatry. God is either Sovereign over all things….or He is sovereign over NOTHING. Anything less is a god of human design….and unworthy of worship. SO, praise Him in the sun…and praise Him in the storms. Praise Him in the air conditioning…and Praise Him in the sweltering heat. Praise! The GOD of SUPREME SOVEREIGNTY! For He Alone is Worthy….

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“The Heavens Declare the Glory of God, The sky shows His handiwork.” (Psalm 19:1)