God: God Reigns Over Me
The Fundamentals
God:  God Reigns Over Me
Psalm 103:19; Romans 11:33-36
 
We are in a series of messages on the fundamentals.  There are four primary support columns that we are dealing with:  the Bible, God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  Everything the evangelical church believes and practices flows from or is related to one of those four things.
 
Today, we are going to study about God and specifically, the God who reigns over us.  We find that God, not just in the first chapter of the Bible, but in the very first sentence of the Bible.  The Bible presents a true story with a cast of thousands and an amazing storyline that covers thousands of years.  Not surprisingly, of all the personalities we learn about, the very first one the Bible tells us about is God.
 
That really shouldn't surprise us, because when you study the Bible you are not just looking for historical facts or biographical trivia.  You are looking for real eternal truth.  As we learned last week, the Bible is how God has chosen to reveal Himself to us. That means the Bible is all about God.
 
Now God put the key to understanding all the Bible in the very first sentence when he said these four words: "in the beginning God."  Without those four words, history is a mystery.  Life is a puzzle that would be impossible to put together.
 
There is one primary aspect of God that I want us to zero in on today and that is His sovereignty.
Listen to Psalm 103:19
 
New American Standard uses the word “sovereignty”. His sovereignty rules over all.
 
Think about that word "sovereignty".  You may have never noticed it before, but the essence of sovereignty is found right in the middle of the word itself. 
 
“Sove-reign-ty”.  Do you see that word "reign" right in the middle?  To confess the sovereignty of God is to acknowledge the reign of God over your life, and to understand that he has power over everything that happens.  Or as our verse says, “His kingdom, His sovereignty, rules over all.”
 
That thought has great implications for all of us.  If God is in charge, if God is sovereign then we should submit to his authority and live as if he is in charge, not as if we are in charge.
 
If God is sovereign then you are not in charge.  If God is sovereign, I don’t get to make decisions against His will. 
 
According to the Bible, God is sovereign over everything from the mightiest galaxy to the smallest atom.  He controls the angels in heaven, the inhabitants of earth, kings on thrones and beggars in streets.
 
Quite frankly, the sovereignty of God is not something you hear about in church much anymore and our "do your own thing, nobody tells me what to do, i did it my way" culture it is not a very popular concept, yet it is still there.
Sovereignty means that God is king.  He calls the shots.  He rules and reigns over everyone and everything.  He rules over events and circumstances.  Nothing happens unless he either causes it or allows it and therefore, nothing happens by chance.
 
You understand that God rules over everything and God rules over everyone.  He rules over all the happenings in Afghanistan and Iraq.  He’s in charge in North Korea.  He’s in control of anything or anyone you can think of. 
 
He rules over the rich, the poor, blacks and whites, republicans and democrats, men and women, conservatives and liberals.  So here’s the key thought I want you to take home with you today: 
 
God is sovereign and therefore, in complete control of everything and everybody.
 
Now, perhaps no writer in the Bible better grasps the sovereignty of God and talked about it more than the Apostle Paul.  In a powerful passage, in the book of Romans, he describes how God is sovereign and what it really means for us that God is sovereign.
 
Notice what he says in Romans 11:33-36
 
From that we learn -
 
1. God is Omniscient
 
That means He knows everything and everyone
 
The word "omniscient" comes from the latin word "omni" which means "all" and the other latin word "scientia" which means "to know." 
It literally means "all knowing." God knows everything about everything and everything about everyone.  Everything there is to know, God knows it.  Do you know what that means?  God is a teenager!
 
You can't tell him anything, because he already knows it all.  God's knowledge is not just intellectual.  It is personal.  Because God is omniscient, he knows you.  He knows you better than you know you.  That is a frightening thought if you think about it!
 
It reminds me of a prosecuting attorney in a small town who was trying a case and he called as his first witness an elderly woman who lived in the town all of her life and happened to be the nosiest gossip around.  He said to her, "Mrs. Jones, do you know me?"
 
She said, "Yes, i know you Mr. Williams.  I've known you since you were a young boy."  He was smiling really big until she said, "and frankly, you've been a big disappointment to me.  You lie, you cheat on your wife, you manipulate people, talk about them behind their backs, charge far more money than you are worth and you don't have the brains to realize you are never going to amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher.  Yes, i know you."
 
The lawyer was stunned.  Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and said, "Mrs. Jones, do you know the defense attorney?"  She said, "Yes, I've known him since he was a child.  In fact, I use to babysit him for his parents and he has also been a great disappointment. 
 
 
He is lazy, has a drinking problem, he cheated his way through law school, is single because no woman will have him and he is one of the most crooked lawyers in this state.  Yes, i know him."
 
At this point, the judge's gavel came down with a thunderous boom and he said, "Silence!  I want both counsels to approach the bench.”
 
When they got there, in a very quiet voice, he said with fire in his eyes, "If either one of you ask her if she knows me I'll jail you both for contempt of court!"
 
God knows you.  He knows what you are.  He knows the good side of you and the bad side of you.  He knows the clean side of you and the dirty side of you.   
 
God knows what you think.  God can read your mind just as easily as you can read the morning paper.  In fact, God not only knows what you are thinking right now, he knows what you are about to think before you even think it.
 
God knows the what, the when, the where, the why and the how of everything you do at any given moment. 
 
In fact, the Bible says in Proverbs 15:3,  "The Lord is watching everywhere, keeping his eye on both the evil and the good."               
 
God never takes his eyes off of you.  He is always with you.
 
 
There was a country church that was having a big church picnic and there was a basket of apples at the very beginning of the serving line and someone had written a big sign that said, "God is watching.  Take only one apple."  At the end of the line next to the chocolate-chip cookies a little boy had written a little sign that said, "Take all the cookies you want God is busy watching the apples."  The truth is God is busy watching everyone and everything, because he knows it all.
 
Now think about this:  If that is true, then there is really no such thing as luck.  There is no such thing as chance or fate.  Do you know why?  A sovereign God controls everything and knows everything that is going to happen before it ever happens.
 
Take for example, lightning.  Most people consider lightening an uncontrollable act of nature; an accident. 
 
But the Bible says in Job 36:32, "He covers his hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark."            
 
In fact, insurance companies have a better understanding of that theology that most people because they refer to everything outside of their control as “as act of God”.
 
He is omniscient.  He knows everything.  Then think about this,
 
 
 
 
 
2. God is Omnipresent
 
That means He is everywhere with everyone
 
Romans 11:36
 
The reason why everything is from Him, and the reason why everything is through Him, and the reason that everything is to Him is because He is everywhere. 
 
Yogi Berra once made a great observation when he said, "I've noticed that everywhere I go, there I am."
 
Well there is a companion thought to that:   everywhere you go, there God is.  Has it ever occurred to you that God never really has to go anywhere, because wherever anywhere is, God is already there?
 
In a real sense, none of us have totally true privacy, because God is with us everywhere and sees everything.  Nothing can hide you from the presence of God and nothing can take you from the presence of God. 
 
Jeremiah recorded in chapter 23, verses 23 and 24,
  
"'Am I a God who is only close at hand?' says the Lord. 'No, I am far away at the same time. Can anyone hide from Me in a secret place? Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth?' says the Lord.'"
 
 
 
 
You cannot go anywhere in this universe where God is not already.  The reason for that is that God is not limited by time or space.  You and I cannot be two places at the same time.  But if you are not limited by time or space, then you can be in any place at any time and that is exactly what God can do.  God can be every place at one time.
 
Now there are a couple of things to keep in mind in regard to that. 
 
Even though God is in every place, He is not contained to any one place.  I Kings 8:27 says,
"But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built!"
 
And think about this:  Even though God is everywhere, that doesn’t mean He is present in the same way with everyone. 
 
Isaiah 55:6 reminds us to “call upon the Lord while He is near."         
 
What does that mean?  There is a difference between God being "present" in a place and being "near or close" to a person.  God is in this room right now, but He is at the same time very far away from some and very close to others. 
 
In fact, he is an eternity away from some of you because some of you here do not know him.  God can be present with you, but not present "in" you.
 
Think about the impact of that:  if God is both present with you and present in you wherever you go, that means you can worship God anywhere. 
You can pray anywhere.  You can spend time with God driving down the road, sitting under a tree, walking in the woods, sitting on your porch looking at the stars.  You can talk to God and hear from God anytime, anyplace, anywhere, because God is omnipresent.  That is why you don't come to church to worship; you come to church with your worship.  When you leave church, you take your worship with you, because you take God with you.
 
God is omniscient; God is omnipresent and
 
3. God is omnipotent.
 
The word "omnipotent" literally means "all powerful."  That means He can do anything.  Let me qualify that: God can do anything that does not contradict His Word or His character.
 
Obviously, there are some things that even God can't do.  God can't lie.  God can't die.  God can't do wrong. God can't tempt other people to do wrong.  God can't create a rock so big that he can't pick it up, because that would be inconsistent with his character.
 
On the other hand, God's power knows no limits.  Because he is infinite, he is infinitely powerful.  Isaiah 40:28 says,
"Do you not know? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired."
 
God never runs out of energy.  He never runs out of power, because he is omnipotent. 
 
 
God is omnipotent over anything you could imagine.  He has power over nature.  He can part a Red Sea or cause the sun to stop in its tracks. 
 
He has power over the devil and all of his demons.  One day, he is going to imprison them in a place called "hell" forever. 
 
He has power over disease.  There may be sicknesses beyond medicine, hospitals, doctors, and technology.  There is no sickness that God cannot heal. 
 
He proved with the resurrection of his own son that he has power over death.
 
Remember again what Paul said, "from him, through him and to him are all things." 
 
He was talking about the very universe itself.  God is so powerful he could just speak and all of this could come into existence.  Think about this - it took no more effort for God to create a universe than it did for him to create an ant.  All he had to do was say "let there be light" and the sun came out.  If he could do that with just a word, how much effort do you think it took him to create an ant?
 
The beauty of God's sovereignty is that all of these "omni's" work together.  God can do anything he wants to do, because he is omnipotent, anywhere he wants to do it, because he is omnipresent and he knows how to do it the right way, because he is omniscient. 
 
 
 
To put it another way, because God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, that means he is always wherever he needs to be and knows whatever needs to be done and has the power to do it.
 
If what I have told you is true, there is a big "so what?" and a big "now what?" for all of us. 
 
I can put it to you in this equation:
Control = courage and confidence 
 
If God is in complete control of everything and everyone and I have a personal relationship with Him and he has a personal relationship with me, then I should have courage to face today.  There is no need for fear and i should have confidence to face tomorrow.  There is no need for worry. 
 
Augustine was correct when he said,
 
"We count on God's mercy for our past mistakes; we count on God's love for our present needs; but we count on God's sovereignty for the future."
 
I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I do know who holds tomorrow: a Sovereign God who can take care of every need that I have, because He reigns over me.
 
Let’s pray.