Prepare for Worship | Confidence in God's Sovereignty
Last Sunday, Pastor Will Jackson preached from Genesis 48-50:14 and encouraged us to trust the God of Jacob.
Read: Genesis 50:15-26
This Sunday, Pastor Jeremy Chasteen will close our journey through Genesis with a sermon from Genesis 50:15-26 and will exhort us to trust God’s good purposes. As you prepare for our gathering, let this word from Jerry Bridges bolster your trust in our sovereign God.
Reflect: “Confidence in God’s Sovereignty”
“Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3).
God does whatever pleases Him. This is the essence of God’s sovereignty: His absolute independence to do as He pleases and His absolute control over the actions of all His creatures. No creature, person, or empire can either thwart His will or act outside the bounds of it.
Even the mistakes and failures of other people are under God’s control. Did another driver go through a red light, strike your car, and send you to the hospital with multiple fractures? Did a physician fail to detect your cancer in its early stages, when it was treatable? Did you end up with an incompetent instructor in an important course in college or an inept supervisor who blocked your career? All these circumstances are under God’s controlling hand, as He works them out for our good.
Not even the willfully malicious acts of others can sidetrack God’s purpose for us: “No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the LORD” (Proverbs 21:30). The Roman governor Felix unjustly left Paul in prison for two years for his own political reasons (see Acts 24:27); Joseph was left in prison for two years because Pharaoh’s cupbearer forgot him (see Genesis 40:14, 23; 41:1). These two godly men were left to languish behind bars—one because of deliberate injustice, the other because of inexcusable forgetfulness. Yet both predicaments were sovereignly directed by an infinitely wise and loving God.
Nothing is so small or trivial as to escape God’s control; nothing is so great as to be beyond His power to govern it. The insignificant sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His will (see Matthew 10:29); the mighty Roman Empire cannot crucify Jesus unless that power is given by God (see John 19:10-11). And what is true for the sparrow and for Jesus is true for you and me. No detail of life is too insignificant for our heavenly Father’s attention; no circumstance is so big that He cannot handle it.
Confidence in God’s total sovereignty is crucial to our trusting Him.
“Confidence in God’s Sovereignty,” Day Three Devotional, in 31 Days Toward Trusting God, by Jerry Bridges.
Sing: Song List for Sunday
1. “Every Step,” by CityAlight
2. “You’ve Already Won,” by Shane & Shane
3. “His Mercy Is More,” Arr. Shane & Shane
4. “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” Arr. Crosspoint Music
5. “Sovereign Over Us,” Arr. Shane & Shane