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God is Great - So I don't have to be in control

Jan 6, 2011

For the month of January Emmaus Road Church is focusing on the 4G's. The an 4G's are four truths about God that deeply impact the way we live our everyday lives.

I am grateful for my Acts29 brothers who developed a lot of this material. Tim Chester in his book You Can Change, Soma Communities for their audio recordings on the 4 G's and Luke Simmons of Second Mile Church in Arizona for his sermon notes and more.

The material presented here is a combination of the hard work of these men plus my own additions all contextualized for us here on the Eastside.

So this week we focus on the 1st G- GOD IS GREAT SO I DON'T HAVE TO BE IN CONTROL

Francis Chan reminds us of the greatness of God,

“a caterpillar has 228 separate and distinct muscles in its head...the average elm tree has approximately 6 million leaves on it. And your own heart generates enough pressure as it pumps blood throughout your body that it could squirt blood up to 30 feet.”

God is so great and yet we often live like we are in control of the universe.

Yet Scripture declares

God knows everything: 1 John 3:20, Revelation 19:20, Luke 16:15, Acts 15:8

God sees everything: Think of the story of David and Bathsheeba (2 Samuel 11:27), or Cain's murder of Able (Genesis 4:10), or Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:9). In each of these stories God knows exactly what was done without anyone telling him. These stories teach us that, when it comes to God, we can never do anything behind his back. Jesus teaches this truth, that God sees everything, as an encouragement for us to pray secretly and give generously, He says, "Your father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." (Matt 6:4,6,18)

God knows the future: This is why he so often speaks to people in dreams. Some examples are the dreams of Joseph, the dream of Pharaoh, the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar, and all the Old Testament predictions about Jesus. Jesus himself knew the future and predicted Peter’s denial, Judas' betrayal and his own resurrection.

God made us: As Isaiah 44:2 says, " The LORD ... made you,... formed you from the womb, and will help you."

God works out his good purposes despite the evil in the world: This is most evident in the lives of people like Joseph, Job and Jesus.

Joseph was sold as a slave by his brothers, falsely accused, ignored, forgotten, misunderstood and unjustly imprisoned. But God in his greatness orchestrated all of that evil and suffering to bring about good. God gave him the ability to interpret dreams and to save the nation from economic collapse.
Job lost everything, his family, his portfolio, his property, his reputation and his health. But in the end God blessed his life even more than he had at the beginning and his story lives on to give hope to people today who suffer.
Jesus was betrayed, falsely accused, denied, misunderstood and abandoned much like Joseph. He endured physical pain and suffering much like Job. But more than Job and Joseph Jesus' suffering culminated in being brutally executed on a roman cross after being publicly whipped. Joseph and Job suffered. Jesus suffered and died. Yet God took his suffering and brought forgiveness, salvation, redemption, reconciliation for the whole world. Romans 8:28 puts it well. "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God."

When we gathered for gospel community on Wednesday we asked the question: "What stories in Scripture show God’s greatness, his power and his total control of all that is?" As we started to discuss it we realized that almost every story in the Bible does just that. Splitting the Red Sea, all of Jesus' miracles, Creation, Noah's Ark and on and on.

Then we discussed: "What stories in Scripture show people not believing in God’s greatness and as a result trying to be in control?

We remembered Adam and Eve taking control of the fruit of the knowledge of Good and Evil. That was the one thing in all the world that God wanted to control for them. Yet they could not trust his greatness and so they had to take control and eat what they were forbidden to eat.
Abram and Sarai is another example of people taking control when they should have trusted God's greatness. They did not have a child yet and so Sarai gave her housekeeper to Abram instead. Abram went along with it. The birth of Ishmael and the conflict with Isaac began a family dispute that has lasted through the centuries even to the present day with the conflict in the middle East between the Jews and the Arabs. All of this turmoil is a result of people not trusting in God's greatness and trying to take control.
Korah, in the book of Numbers chapter 16, tries to take control of the Israelites and opposes the leadership of Moses. He thinks he could do a better job as the leader. The results again were devastating. These were not the only people to take control when they should have trusted.
Moses did not trust God was great enough to create a rock that was responsive to verbal commands. So instead he took control and hit the rock with his stick. What was the result? Moses was now forbidden to enter the Promised Land.
Peter is a good New Testament example of this as well. In the garden of Gathsemene when the guards come to arrest Jesus, Peter does not trust God's greatness and so he attacks with his sword and chops off a man's ear.

The Bible is pretty clear that God is great and yet that God's people do not always live like they believe it. We are the same as Peter and Moses. We know in our heads that God is great and that he is in control but we do not believe it in our hearts. When we do not believe God is great we try to take control through manipulation or domination. When we do not believe God is great we get angry. We stress out. We worry. Even though Jesus teaches over and over "Do not worry." (Matthew 6:25, 31, 34; 10:19)

But is being in control always bad?

No. God placed us on the earth to have dominion (Hebrew Radah), to fill the earth and subdue (Hebrew Cabash) it” (Genesis 1:26-28) It is part of our destiny to be in control of the rest of creation. However we are called to exercise that control as unto the Lord & to reflect his glory.

When Adam and Eve tried to control the knowledge of Good and Evil, it led to death. If our taking control comes from a place of rebellion or fear or worry it is sin. A key verse for this is Romans 14:23 "For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin." When we take control we must ask ourselves, "Is this springing from my faith in God's greatness and being exercised for his glory, or is it springing from my fears, my doubts, my worry, or simply from my need to be in control?" If it does not spring from faith it is sin.

The question is, "Where does your control spring from?"

Jesus gave two examples of exercising Godly control in Matthew 21:33-46 and 25:14-30. In each of these parables a master entrusts his property to his servants and goes away. He then expects those servants to produce fruit and to share that fruit with him. Jesus is the master and he has given us his property in the form of our jobs, our houses, our things, our talents, our good looks, our free time, our weekends, etc. ...and one day he will return. When he returns he expects us to share the profits with him.

In Matthew 25 the servant who sinfully takes control buries the talents of his master and does nothing with them. He is lazy and silent and does nothing. Yet that is his way of taking control. In Matthew 21 the servants who sinfully take control are anything but lazy. They generate a lot of profit yet they refuse to share any with their master. That is their way of taking control.

So taking control for our own glory can look a variety of ways. It could look like laziness and doing nothing, or it could look like a passionate work ethic. The servants who trust God's greatness get to work right away but then present their profits to their master upon his return. This is the biblical picture of taking control for God's glory and not our own. Their exercise of control sprang out of a deep belief in their master's greatness and it was greatly rewarded. The master returns and says, "Well done good and faithful servant, you have been faithful with a few things I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness." (Matt 25:21,23)

Conclusion

Many times the stress in our life is the result of trying to control things. We are in essence trying to act like little gods instead of trusting the One true God, Jesus Christ. Our calendars, our phones, our tone of voice, our spending habits, our apps, our mood swings are all tied to issues of control. We can either use these things to exercise God-honoring control of the world around us and reflect his glory, or we can use them to fuel our obsession with ruling the world for our own glory.

When we can believe (not just know, but believe) that God is great, it delivers us from these enslaving and debilitating ways of living. It frees us to serve one another in love.

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