Meaning in the Mundane: Sovereignty and Providence

God directs every detail of life (providence) and through those everyday details accomplishes all His plans (sovereignty) which are for our good and his glory.

These doctrines really make the everyday details of life much more meaningful.  It is in the everyday elements of life that God is "working all things for the good of those who love him" (Rom.8:28). May God help us to see that the mundane is meaningful.

Mohler on God's Will

Last night at Bible study we listened to a sermon from Dr. Al Mohler on the will of God (you can find it here).  Below are a list of the 15 points he gave on things we know to be the will of God (numbers 1-2, 4 all are God's sovereign will that we can look back and see is true, the rest are God's commanded will- things we are called to do).

1 – that you were born
2 – that you will die
3 – that you will grow, especially spiritually
4 – that you are made male or female
5 – that you believe in Christ
6 – that you submit Jesus Christ as your Lord
7 – that you trust and obey God's Word
8 – that you obey all authorities
9 – that you be married (he gave caveats regarding singleness...for more on singleness listen to my lesson on the subject by clicking here or see the biblical principles on singleness here)
10 – that married couples should desire and welcome the gift of children
11 – that you develop and exercise God’s gifts to serve others
12 – that you are highly invested and actively involved in the Local Church
13 – that you lead others (by office, example, etc.)
14 – that you share the gospel
15 – that you do everything for the glory of God


Next week we will begin looking at biblical decision making.

Reflecting on the Sermon: 9/4/11

The sermon covered Romans 11:1-10. Rod began with four things we should learn from Romans 11 (which deals with God's promises to Israel).

1. The need for a genuine relationship with God.  Israel was extremely religious and yet most of them missed what mattered most.
2. The trustworthiness of God.  He won't go back on His promises to Israel, so we can be confident He will keep His promises to us.
3. We need to have a desire to see Israel embrace the gospel.
4. We need to see the big picture plan of God.

One more thing that stuck out to me.  As we looked at the truth that salvation is by grace, we were reminded that the quality of  our faith and repentance is not the basis of God's grace to us.  It is God's grace that produces the impulses in us in me to repent and trust.

Decision Making the Will of God: A Foundation

At last night's Bible study we began a short series on Decision Making and the Will of God.  Below is some of the key information I gave out to help us understand God's will and to lay the foundation for our understanding of how we make decisions biblically. 

There are two aspects of God’s will that we see in Scripture (Deut. 29:29):

Will of Decree (Sovereign Will)

God’s sovereign purposes and plans which are never overturned or thwarted. He rules over everything that happens (Eph. 1:11) from the smallest issues (Matt. 10:29-30) to the major events of history (Acts 4:27-28) to the details of your life (Ps. 139:16). This is God’s secret will that He carries out by His providence, and we cannot know it ahead of time (unless it is reveal in the Bible through prophecy).

Will of Desire (Commanded Will)

God’s desire for His creatures.  What God has told us He wants in His Word.  His sovereign will cannot be thwarted, but his commanded will is ignored all the time (though our ignoring it is not outside of His sovereign will – see Acts 2:23).  We are held accountable for doing or not doing this revealed will of God (Matt. 7:21). We grow in our understanding of His will of desire by studying His Word and obeying what we read (Rom. 12:1-2, Col. 1:9-10).

Presuppositions about God’s will and our decision making

1. You are never outside of God’s sovereign will (Rom. 8:28, Prov. 16:9).  Everything that happens is God’s decreed will (Eph. 1:11).
2. We don’t need to know God’s sovereign will and how He is going to carry it out before we can make decisions (Deut. 29:29).
3. God holds us fully responsible to know and do His will revealed in Scripture (Deut. 29:29, 2 Tim. 2:15).
4. God has provided everything we need in order to do what pleases Him (2 Pet. 1:3).
5. If we make a decision on biblical commands and principles, with godly motives, we can trust that we are pleasing God in our decision.

How God moves (His providence) is a mystery,

but how He speaks (His Word) is not

-Dr. Stuart Scott

Reflecting on the Sermon: 8/29/11

Rod preached on Romans 11:1-6 this past Sunday.  He began by noting that the existence of Israel (not necessarily the political state) is strong evidence for the inspiration of Scripture.  God promised to preserve His chosen people, and they are still here despite a very rough past.  You don't hear of Hittites or Jebusites or Babylonians anymore, but Israelites are another story.

Why does it matter to me (a Gentile Christian) that God has not completely forsaken Israel?  Because if He doesn't keep His promises to them, why should I have confidence that He will keep His promises to me?  But God has been faithful (evidenced by a remnant of believing Israelites).  Israel, as a people, is certainly under God's discipline, but He has maintained a remnant and will one day save an entire generation of ethnic Israelites.

This causes me to reflect on God's faithfulness to His promises and to worship Him for His kindness.  I pray it evokes a similar response from you.

Great Quotes on Temptation

As some of you know I recently preached on temptation (and am teaching on it in Sunday school).  Here a few quotes on the subject that I have found challenging and encouraging.  I hope you enjoy them:

The following are from Russell Moore's book Tried and Tempted

Temptation is so strong in our lives precisely because it is not about us.  Temptation is an assault by the demonic powers on the rival empire of the Messiah. That’s why conversion to Christ doesn’t diminish the power of temptation- as we often assume-, but actually, counterintuitively, ratchets it up (21).

Eat drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die is a sham. The alternative is not a refusal to eat, drink, and be merry.  That would be ingratitude. Instead, with the resurrected Jesus we sing out, "Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for yesterday we were dead" (75).

These are from John Owen's book On Temptation (taken from a the version of On Temptation, published by Crossway in the book entitled Overcoming Sin and Temptation)

If they would make work indeed, they are to set upon the whole of the lust itself; their ambition, pride, worldliness, sensuality, or whatever it be, that the temptation is united with. All other dealings with it are like tampering with a prevailing gangrene: the part or whole may be preserved a little while, in great torment; excision [surgical removal by cutting] or death must come at last. The soul may cruciate [torment] itself for a season with such a procedure; but it must come to this- its lust must die, or the soul must die  (180).

[speaking of those who don't take temptation seriously] When they are overtaken with a sin they set themselves to repent of that sin, but do not consider the temptation that was the cause of it, to set themselves against that also to take care that they no more enter into it.  Hence they are quickly again entangled by it, though they have the greatest detestation of that sin itself that can be expressed (187).

Fire and things combustible may more easily be induced to lie together without affecting each other than peculiar lusts and suitable objects or occasions for their exercise (Owen 190). 

Let no man, then, pretend to fear sin that does not fear temptation to it. They are too nearly allied to be separated…he hates not the fruit who delights in the root (193).

Evangelism Clips

I am getting excited about our upcoming opportunity for evangelism at FSU.  I hope you can come and be a part by praying or actually sharing the gospel.  We will be going to FSU on Thursday morning and Saturday afternoon.  Get more details and sign up here.  If you have a few minutes, you may want to check out these video clips from the Way of the Master website of some 1-1 evangelism.  They are encouraging to watch.