Okay, so you have been asked to make a presentation at your church. How do you prepare to teach? Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that you have been asked to speak on "God's Sovereignty" to a group of college and career adults. Where do you start?
Oddly, most sermons I have heard on this issue begin with "God owns everything because He made it all." Then, we get a bit about creation and how "the guy who makes it owns it" and "therefore he can do what he wants with it." This has always seemed kind of backward to me.
After all, my wife and I "created" my son, but we do not own him. We cannot kill him. We cannot make him be what we want him to be. Even things we make are not fully our own, in any sovereign sense. George Lucas can keep messing up his original Star Wars movies with "extended versions" and such, but he cannot come into my home and take the copy I purchased and do anything with it. He does not own Star Wars in the sense of having sovereignty over it. So the "He made it" argument is not really convincing, because it misses the point.
The creation argument is about "why" God is sovereign, but arguing "why" regarding the nature and characteristics of God does not get us anywhere. Think about it. God is love. Why? Because He is. That is all that matters. His name is "I AM," because He is. There is no explanation of "why" He is what He is.
The Bible does not argue for God's sovereignty; it declares God's sovereignty. For the writers of scripture, God's sovereignty is a given. God is sovereign. He is sovereign because he is God. Sovereignty is of the nature of being God.
So we do not start with creation, or "He made it," or George Lucas messing with Star Wars, we start with God is sovereign. He is, in fact, "the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see." 1 Timothy 6:15-16.
God Is Sovereign.
Oddly, most sermons I have heard on this issue begin with "God owns everything because He made it all." Then, we get a bit about creation and how "the guy who makes it owns it" and "therefore he can do what he wants with it." This has always seemed kind of backward to me.
After all, my wife and I "created" my son, but we do not own him. We cannot kill him. We cannot make him be what we want him to be. Even things we make are not fully our own, in any sovereign sense. George Lucas can keep messing up his original Star Wars movies with "extended versions" and such, but he cannot come into my home and take the copy I purchased and do anything with it. He does not own Star Wars in the sense of having sovereignty over it. So the "He made it" argument is not really convincing, because it misses the point.
The creation argument is about "why" God is sovereign, but arguing "why" regarding the nature and characteristics of God does not get us anywhere. Think about it. God is love. Why? Because He is. That is all that matters. His name is "I AM," because He is. There is no explanation of "why" He is what He is.
The Bible does not argue for God's sovereignty; it declares God's sovereignty. For the writers of scripture, God's sovereignty is a given. God is sovereign. He is sovereign because he is God. Sovereignty is of the nature of being God.
So we do not start with creation, or "He made it," or George Lucas messing with Star Wars, we start with God is sovereign. He is, in fact, "the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see." 1 Timothy 6:15-16.
God Is Sovereign.