God's Governmental Sovereignty

God's Governmental Sovereignty | John Bradshaw

Estimated read time: 1:20

Summary

John Bradshaw’s sermon on God’s governmental sovereignty presents God as the supreme ruler who governs creation, nature, history, and human hearts. Using stories from Scripture—creation in Genesis, Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4, the fiery furnace in Daniel 3, Peter’s deliverance in Acts 12, the Red Sea, Jericho, and the cross—Bradshaw argues that God’s power is real, but His greatest display of sovereignty is not force; it is sacrificial love. He emphasizes that God’s rule is seen in both dramatic miracles and quiet providence, and that believers are invited to trust Him even when circumstances are confusing or painful. The sermon ends with an appeal for personal surrender: acknowledging God as sovereign is not enough unless He is also sovereign in the listener’s life.

Highlights

Banksy is used as a playful opening analogy to ask, “Who is the real maker?” 🎨
Jesus calming the storm becomes the sermon’s big picture of divine authority over chaos 🌊
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego model fearless faith even when rescue is uncertain 🔥
Peter asleep in prison is a memorable picture of calm trust under pressure 😴
The cross is presented as the ultimate proof that God’s sovereignty is rooted in love, not domination ❤️

Key Takeaways

God is sovereign over creation, nature, and history—even when people don’t understand it 🌍
Jesus calming the storm shows that God’s word carries real creative power and peace 🕊️
The fiery furnace and Peter’s prison escape show that God can intervene in impossible situations 🔥
God’s greatest sovereignty is revealed at the cross, where power is expressed through love and self-sacrifice ✝️
Knowing God is sovereign matters most when we personally surrender to His will 🙏

Overview

John Bradshaw opens with humor and storytelling, then quickly turns to a big theological question: who is God, and what does it mean that He is sovereign? He anchors the answer in creation, pointing to Revelation 4 and Genesis 1 as the foundation for understanding God as the maker of all things.

From there, he moves through a series of Bible stories that show God’s authority in action. Jesus stills the storm, the furnace cannot harm the faithful, Peter’s chains fall off, the Red Sea opens, and Jericho’s walls collapse. Each story is used to show that God is not limited by nature, politics, or human power.

The sermon closes by lifting up the cross as the highest revelation of divine sovereignty. Bradshaw argues that God’s power is seen most clearly not in control or coercion, but in love, patience, and redemption. The final appeal is deeply personal: will the listener let God be sovereign in their own life?

Chapters

00:00 - 05:30: Introduction: Law of Love and Liberty The introduction opens the Law of Love and Liberty series by recalling earlier emphasis on God’s presence and the “finger of God” as divine power to defeat evil and write His law in the heart, framing the Ten Commandments through Hebrews 8. The host welcomes viewers to camp meeting and introduces Pastor John Bradshaw, praising his ministry and setting up the evening’s theme.
05:30 - 12:30: Who Is God? Creator and Sovereign of Heaven and Earth The speaker opens with light humor, thanks the production and broadcasting teams, and prays that the audience will be blessed as the message focuses on the sovereignty of almighty God.
12:30 - 22:30: Jesus Commands the Storm: Sovereignty Over Nature Jesus is introduced as the sovereign Creator whose spoken word brought the world into existence, underscoring that God’s authority is supreme over all creation. The speaker explains that the goal is not mere information, but a fuller picture of God that leads to greater love and deeper surrender.
22:30 - 30:00: Faith in Crisis: Weather, Trials, and Trusting God's Control The speaker reflects on a personal failure of faith in not praying for rain to stop, then shares a Kenya evangelistic story where he prayed for dry weather and saw rain fall all around but not on the meeting, reinforcing his belief that God is sovereign over the weather and able to control natural elements for His glory.
30:00 - 39:30: Sovereignty in Daniel: Fire, Images, and Refusing Idolatry The speaker highlights the fiery furnace in Daniel 3 as a dramatic example of God’s sovereignty, emphasizing that the flames could not harm Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego because God is supreme over fire and all elements. He also points to modern stories of burned churches where Bibles were preserved as a sign that God still protects and acts in extraordinary ways.
39:30 - 47:00: God Rules Over Kings, Prison, and the Impossible The speaker emphasizes that God is sovereign over nature and human power, citing examples like the Red Sea, the calming of storms, Jericho’s walls falling, and the fiery furnace to show that nothing is beyond God’s control.
47:00 - 55:00: The Cross: Sovereignty Revealed Through Love The speaker emphasizes God’s sovereignty through biblical examples such as Daniel in the lions’ den, Noah’s ark, and the fiery furnace, showing that God rules over nature and creation. Yet the key point is that God’s power is not best displayed through force, but through His patience and willingness to let human history unfold, even knowing it would lead to the cross.

God's Governmental Sovereignty | John Bradshaw Transcription

Segment 1: 00:00 - 02:30 [music] [music] >> Previously on Law of Love and Liberty. So there is something special. Thompsonville is maybe a dot on the map, but we know that God is here. We are standing [music] in His presence on holy [singing] ground. This is the first sermon in our Law of Love and Liberty series on the Ten Commandments. Jesus is life [singing] to me. >> [singing and music] >> What is the finger of God? The finger of God, according to this verse, is the power of God. It's the power of God to cast devils out of people. It's the power of God to remove sin from our lives. It's the power of God to completely eradicate the devil. He's going to write in our hearts His Law of Love. That's what we see taking place here. This is the promise that we see taking place here in Hebrews chapter 8. Hello and welcome to 3ABN Spring Camp Meeting Law of Love and Liberty. Are you having a blessed time? I love camp meeting and the excitement of camp meeting and the time we get to spend in the word of God and we welcome you at home. Thank you for tuning in. We're already getting emails and messages hearing that you have been blessed by the meetings. This is our second sermon here this evening. One of my absolute favorite preachers, Pastor John Bradshaw. He is a man of the word, a man of God. But what I like the most about him is that he practices what he
Segment 2: 02:30 - 05:00 preaches. He is a genuine person who loves God and loves his people and I love to hear his warmth, his humor, and him share from his experience and from the word of God. He spoke preached for well over 20 years. He just returned last night from Australia. The message he will be presenting this evening is God's governmental sovereignty. Good evening, everyone. Really a blessing to be here. If you fall asleep while I'm speaking tonight, it's okay. You've probably done it before. Lots of people do. When I meet an anesthetist or an anesthesiologist, I say, "Hey, you and me, we kind of do the same job." But anesthesiologists will turn to me and say, "No, no, but a big part of my job is to wake them up." And then I say, "Well, that's kind of my job, too, is to wake them up." But if you fall asleep tonight, you know, like I said, it wouldn't be the first time I've ever seen it done. Uh however, please please watch for something. There's a fair possibility that I'll fall asleep tonight. Uh I mean, I'm doing okay, but uh last night I arrived home after being in Australia for about 32 days. We conducted four evangelistic series at the same time. Uh my colleague Eric Flickinger did two and I did two and we did four It Is Written evangelistic meetings in four different locations across the very large city of Melbourne, which has a population of around about 5 million people. How did it go? Well, with 58 churches on board, you can be sure that things went pretty well. God blessed lots and lots and lots of decisions made, many baptisms. We're just thanking God that He is on His throne and we have a a little privilege of being able to work alongside Him and walk alongside Him as He is doing His work. And so that's
Segment 3: 02:30 - 05:00 good. And before I get started, it would be remiss of me uh not to tell you this, and that is to pay credit This is a little backhanded bragging. And but you're not even going to notice. I'm going to be so smooth about it. You are going to say You're going to say, "Wait, is he Is he just bragging?" And the person next to you will be like, "No, because he wouldn't do that." And that's right, I wouldn't do that. But I just need to pay credit to 3ABN for having such fine um What are you laughing at? It's not time to laugh yet. For having such fine taste in Christian programming. Now, the reason I'm saying that is because five of the television programs
Segment 4: 05:00 - 07:30 that they air, which all happen to be produced by It Is Written, but five of the programs that they air between them recently won 18 awards. Isn't that fantastic? 18 awards. So I would Of course, I would like to thank our production team at It Is Written, but mostly, this is credit to 3ABN for their fine taste in choosing programs to air that win lots of awards. That's really all I'm saying. Uh Danny, that wasn't That was a compliment to 3ABN, wasn't it? That wasn't any Was it? There you go. That's all right. That's right. I knew you'd see it that way. What a great organization. They know how to pick them. Well done. Well done. Well, well, with that, it's probably about time for us to start. And so we shall pray. I I've I'm so glad for our subject tonight. I'm really glad. I hope that you're glad, too, by the time we get into it and done with it. I pray you're not only glad, but but blessed and encouraged. So let's pray together now. Let's do that. Our Father in heaven, we are grateful to be able to be in this place, which is your place, tonight. We're thankful to be in your presence. And as we gather together in in this room, but as we gather together around this planet, we are gathering together around your throne, asking that we would hear from the great monarch of the universe, from our great sovereign Lord. As tonight we speak about the sovereignty of almighty God, we ask, Lord, that we would be blessed, that our searching of the scriptures would yield uh many gems.
Segment 5: 05:00 - 07:30 We ask you to guide our thoughts and speak to our heart and own us and have us. And we pray gratefully tonight in spite of ourselves. We pray claiming the merits of the shed blood of Jesus. And it is in Jesus' name that we pray. Let us say Amen. Amen. Early in the 1990s, actually it may well have been in 1990, a little mystery emerged on the streets of England. Not only in London, but
Segment 6: 07:30 - 10:00 London largely and and in various places, but largely London. People would try to figure out just who this could be. Just who this could be. I'm not suggesting this is a mystery with any great eternal import. I don't mean that. I'm not suggesting that you've missed out on anything. I don't mean that. But for the people who walked the streets of London, this was a mystery because from time to time and from place to place, various uh works of street art would appear. Some of it was dark, much of it was humorous. And it was all really rather well done. Oh, no, there was nothing that rivaled Da Vinci. There were no Rembrandt there. There was nothing that looked like a Monet or a Gauguin or or Van Gogh, nothing like that. Street art, but kind of cool, kind of cute, very clever street art. I'm not endorsing all of it, by the way, but this was a little mystery because people started to ask then, "Who is this? Just who is this?" Well, it emerged that the works of art were being created by someone who went by the moniker of Banksy. Banksy, b a n k s y. Banksy. And from then until now, and this is the better part of 30 years, Banksy has become a tremendous celebrity. In fact, some of his actual works of art have sold for really rather respectable sums of money. And he would create his little artworks in surprising places, offbeat places, whimsical places. And these things would pop up and no one ever caught the artist in the act. Very clearly, he painted or created under some supervision, maybe under some guard, and very obviously in the dead of night. And from that day to now, no one actually knows who the artist is other
Segment 7: 07:30 - 10:00 than calling him Banksy. That's what he goes by. Very talented, but clearly anonymous and happy with his anonymity. Who is he? He's Banksy. Ah, but who is that? Tonight we ask a far more pressing and far more important question. We are speaking about the maker of heaven and earth, and we ask ourselves, "Who is he?" There are many people who see the works of nature and they will say, "Well, that got here by accident. That got here by some cosmic mistake." That nature that you see, be it a mountain or an ocean, an animal of great complexity or rather less complexity. The laugh of a little baby, or the
Segment 8: 10:00 - 12:30 rather miraculous flight of a bumblebee or a bird. Who made that? How did it get here? Some will say God, others will say, "Oh, no, evolution did that." Others will say an accident that would did that. Some will say, "That was an explosion. There was a big bang. That suited that." WE WOULD SAY, "GOD DID THAT." And somebody might say, "Who is this God? You mean that tyrant? You mean that killer? You mean that bloodthirsty one? You mean that destroyer? Is that who you mean?" And we would say, "Of course, that's not who we mean." Ah, but who do you mean? We mean God. Who is this God that we should worship him anyway? Who is this God? You have your Bible or you have a device, please turn to Revelation chapter 4. And I'm going to confess to you tonight that we will be here and there as we look in the Bible at a picture of the sovereign God, absolutely fundamental and foundational to what we are looking at tonight. In fact, across this entire camp meeting weekend, we would look in Revelation chapter 4, and we would begin in verse 10 where the Bible says that the four and 20 elders fall down before him that sat on the throne and worship him that liveth forever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne saying, "Thou art worthy, oh Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created how many things? All things. And for your pleasure, they are and they were created." The Bible begins with the most famous words in all of literature, and I don't mean just Christian literature. In the beginning, tell me. God created what? The heavens and the earth. He spoke and it was done. He commanded and it did what? It stood fast. It is only God who can speak to the nothingness and bring somethingness out of it. There was nothing at all. God spoke. Boom! I believe there was A BIG
Segment 9: 10:00 - 12:30 BANG. BOOM! WHEN GOD SPOKE. He spoke and there was light, and then there was atmosphere, and then there was five, well, four, four, five, depends on how you want to term it, more days of creation. And by the time God had done, it was indescribably beautiful. The God himself said, the majesty himself said,
Segment 10: 12:30 - 15:00 "Very good." He spoke it into existence, with the exception, of course, of humanity. It was God who got down in the dust and formed man out of the dust of the ground. And then he got close, close. It was intimate. And he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. The man became a living soul. Adam was fashioned for Adam was created, and then Eve was fashioned from the rib of Adam, handmade by God, handmade. And so God is creator. He is Lord of all. He is sovereign. But let's go a little deeper than that. Well, a little further than that. I want to try to round out the picture of God just a little bit. God is sovereign. And let's stop to think about what that means. Sovereign, where does the word come from? Sovereignty is supreme power or authority. A sovereign is a supreme ruler. And you know why we have that word supreme? Because it comes from the Latin word super. That's where it begins. So a sovereign, and that comes from a French word souverain, from the Latin originally super. And this is where we get this picture of God. Super meaning above. So God sovereign over all, maker over all. In the beginning, God created. And I don't want to share anything with you tonight merely to put another colorful or otherwise thought into your mind. I'm not trying to fatten up your store of information or or or sharpen up your spiritual weapons. No, that's what I'm I'm not trying to do that at all. By the time we are done, my prayer is that we would have a more complete picture of God, a greater a greater understanding of God, even if it was this much, because this much could move a mountain, Jesus said, and a greater love for a determination to experience a deeper surrender to God. Who is this sovereign God? Who is this creator God? I want you
Segment 11: 12:30 - 15:00 to turn with me in your Bible to the book of Mark. Mark in chapter 4. We're not going to look at merely one passage tonight. We will look at several. Mark chapter 4, and we want to pick it up in verse 35. Mark 4 and verse 35. And the same day, when the evening was come, he said to them, "Let us pass over unto the other side." Now, I want to make sure that you've got that. Let's pass over to the other side. Where would they go, and can you tell me, please? To the other side. And what was the other side of the lake? This was the Sea of Galilee. We are going to the other
Segment 12: 15:00 - 17:30 side. That was the determination of divinity. And unless God spoke up and said there has been a change of plan, unless that happened, then they were indisputably going to where? The other side. All right. That's not our main point, but it's too good a point to miss, and we shall come back to it. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. There is another passage telling the same story, and it says they were in jeopardy. It was very clear they were in danger of losing their lives. They could swim, one would imagine. They were fisherfolk. But there was a storm, a raging storm. The waves were up, the wind was howling down from the Capernaum end of the lake. Rain was beating down. You've You've been in storms where you feared, I would think. You've been in storms where you have wondered what's going to happen next. I don't know if you've ever been out on the on the water and feared for your life. I have. I used to live not on the edge of, but with a great view of a of a beautiful lake back in my home country of New Zealand. And I wore a younger man's clothes at the time, and so I was not uh I was young and stupid is really what I was. And we had a friend whose dad had a little holiday place there, and he had access to a boat. It was a little aluminum thing, uh aluminum, aluminum. In civilized In civilized countries, we say aluminum. Uh Had a little outboard motor on it, and
Segment 13: 15:00 - 17:30 we were in a bay, in a wee bay. And out beyond the bay, there was the wind was howling and the waves were up, and I don't mean they were giant, but they were up, you know. And it was as bouncy and rocky out there as anything, but where we were, it was gla- not glassy calm, but it was calm. And my friend Wilbur John, we call him Wilbur. My friend John and I uh said to our our friend Brett, we said, "Brett, why don't you take this thing out beyond the good weather and give us, you know, we'll have a little bit of fun." And he said, "Oh, no, no, that would be crazy. I'm not going to do that." He knew from experience you just don't do that. My friend John and I had no idea. We just thought this would be fun. Eventually, we wore him down. How's that for peer pressure? And he consented to jeopardize all three of our lives and take the boat out there beyond the calm water. Oh, man, we were up and we were down and we
Segment 14: 17:30 - 20:00 were rocking and we were rolling, and there was water getting in the boat, and we both looked at him and we said, "Whose crazy idea was this?" And he looked at us, "What are you talking about?" WE SAID, "GET US BACK THERE AS QUICK AS YOU CAN." HE SAID, "It's just not that easy." And it wasn't. And we likely wouldn't have perished, but man, we were worried. And I think about that when I think about these guys. I've never had really a worse experience than that on the water, and I don't want one. But here were these fishermen in the midst of a howling gale. The rain was beating down. The waves were beating up, and they thought they were going to die. And the interesting thing was is the Bible says that he, Jesus, was in the hinder part of the ship. The hinder part, in the stern, back there. He was what? He was asleep on a pillow. And they woke him up, and they said, "Master, carest thou not that we perish? Don't you care that we are going to die out here? Don't you care?" And Jesus' response was really interesting. He rose up and rebuked the wind in a way. I'll come back to that. He said, "Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?" I want you to think that through before we really get to the main point. Jesus said, "You all don't have any faith." Here they were in a storm, and they were about to die. I would not be surprised if one of them had said, "Man, that is easy for you to say. You were sleeping, and we were in the process of dying, and you were saying we saved you." >> [laughter] >> Jesus was right. They didn't have any faith. And how do we know that they didn't have any faith? Because Jesus had said, "We are going to the Didn't matter how much rain there was. Didn't matter if they sank to the bottom
Segment 15: 17:30 - 20:00 of the sea. It didn't matter. Jesus said it plainly and clearly, "We are going to the other side of the lake." There was nowhere else that they could possibly have gone. He spoke, and they were going. Come on, say amen. They were going. When God speaks, something is going to happen. The same word that Jesus speaks to us today is the same word that he spoke 6,000 years ago when he said, "Let there be light." There is creative power in the word of God. Amen. Great power. But come back up here. He arose, verse 39. He rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Peace, be still." And you could have said that
Segment 16: 20:00 - 22:30 till you were blue in the face, and it would have just kept on howling. Although, let me tell you this. I was at a camp meeting once, and we were in a tent, and it was raining cats and dogs. And of course, there was amplification, and there was a microphone and speakers that worked very well. But no matter how loud I spoke, they people just could barely hear me, barely. You know how it is when you can hear someone, but this rain, and I hadn't even started. And I had a whole sermon to go yet, and I thought, "This is going to be rough." I said, "Let's pray that the rain will stop." And so I prayed, "Father in heaven." And the rain, it's bucketing down. It's a hosing down. Lord, bless the message, and in spite of the preacher, bless the message." It is pouring down. And then I prayed, "Lord, we would really appreciate if this rain would stop." IT GOT LOUDER. POURING DOWN. Then I prayed, "Lord, if it's your will that the rain keep on, then let it go. We'll be happy. But we are asking you, if you wouldn't mind stopping the rain." IT JUST KEPT ON. MAN, IT WAS RAINING like you never heard. And I prayed, "AND WE THANK YOU." POURING DOWN. In Jesus' NAME. POURING DOWN. AMEN. STOPPED. RIGHT ON CUE. STOPPED. >> [applause] >> AND I DON'T MEAN it eased off. It didn't ease off. It was like you turned off the tap in THE KITCHEN SINK. BAM. JUST LIKE THAT. And of course, I was not surprised. >> [laughter] >> Who would be? So three or four weeks later, I'm at another camp meeting.
Segment 17: 20:00 - 22:30 This one's in Oklahoma. And there were tornado warnings. And by the time you Anyhow, and and and the the weather was really bad. And I say, "Okay, I can hardly hear me." No, it's not a tent, it's a tin roof. And I'm thinking, "Man, you know, I got to pray here." Last time I did this, I prayed and the rain stopped. Let's pray. Father in heaven, pray the rain is pouring down.
Segment 18: 22:30 - 25:00 And I'm thinking to myself right now, I'm betting a thousand on rain. I'm winning every time, one out of one. >> [laughter] >> And there was something back there that said, "Just go and pray. Just ask. If God doesn't give it to you, it's God's thing, not yours." I chickened out. I didn't even pray. I did I didn't even ask if the rain would stop. I'm thinking, "Not this time." Lack of faith, huh? Lack of faith. Who is God? He is sovereign. He is sovereign over the wind and the waves. He's sovereign. Now, if he determines that the flood is going to come and wash your house away, that's his problem. I'm not saying that lightly. I'm not saying that flippantly. But God has demonstrated that he is sovereign. He calmed the wind and the waves. They stopped. The disciples said, "Whoa, what is that that happened?" I'll give you another story, and I'm spending too much time on this, but this is such a great story, I need to tell you. So I'm in Kenya, uh holding my very first evangelistic series, and this was years ago. And the children said to me, where I was staying I was staying in a certain home, and the kids said to me, "Pastor, uh there will not be uh a meeting this afternoon. It is going to rain." I said, "No, no, no, it's not going to rain." They said, "It's going to rain." I said, "No, it cannot rain because I have to preach, and we're preaching outdoors." 2:00 in the afternoon. No, pastor, it's going I said, "No, no, it cannot rain. It cannot rain." And I'll never forget that the words of the 16-year-old boy, he said, "But pastor, it must rain." They could see the signs in the weather, and when it looks like that, it's going
Segment 19: 22:30 - 25:00 to rain. And I said, "No, it's not going to rain. You guys got to learn something." I opened up to a passage in the Bible, and I wish I could remember which one it was. Right now, I don't recall. I said, "See, God's in control of the weather, isn't he?" And they nodded, and they like, "Yes, he is, but it's still going to rain." I said, "No, it can't rain because the people have to hear the word of God. So let's pray." And so we knelt down to pray, and we knelt in a little circle in their in their living room, and I prayed and I presented this promise before God, and I placed my finger on it, and I said, "Lord, I know you can read this." And I'm praying two prayers at once. I'm praying that God would keep the rain away, and I'm praying the silent prayer, "You got to answer this prayer, cuz I've really stuck my neck out here, and these kids, I mean, this would be faith-building.
Segment 20: 25:00 - 27:30 So you got to answer the prayer." And so then we walked later in the day a mile or two to where the preaching was taking place, and the kids said, "Pastor, it's going to rain." And I looked up, and in the distance, it was just as dark that dark gray-blue color that you know is rain. I said, "No, no, we prayed. God will answer our prayer." The other prayer is, "You got to answer our prayer." I stood up to speak, and I'm looking out there to where the kids are sitting on the grass, and they're looking up. And they're looking at me. And they're looking up, and they're looking at me. Because by the time I was halfway through the sermon, there was rain pouring, not on us, but around us. 360° around us. Everywhere you turned, no matter where you turned, you could see rain hosing down. And the kids are looking at me like looking up. They came to me after the sermon, and they said, "Okay, pastor, it can rain now." I said, "No." I was pushing my luck. "It cannot rain now because we've got the Bible study classes, the baptismal preparation classes. Not until after that can it rain." And they looked at me like I was out of my mind. And so the classes took place for about 40 minutes. Still it's raining 360° around us, but not on us. They came to us, and they said, "It's going to rain now." I said, "No. Not for about 15 minutes because the people have to get home and stay dry." They couldn't believe what they were hearing. 15 minutes later, it was time for us to leave. I said, "Let's go." And as we started walking home, man, the heavens opened up. Boom. It rained like you wouldn't believe. I was had my Bible as under it whatever clothing I was wearing, walking, soaked, drenched to
Segment 21: 25:00 - 27:30 the bone, thought we were going to drown walking home. Can God control the weather? Why can he do that? Because he is sovereign. He is sovereign God. It's what he does when it works for his glory. When it works for his glory. Now, brothers and sisters, you talk about sovereign God, and you were saying, "Yeah, but but you know, the the wind blew away my house, or the rain came and and and flooded my basement." Yeah, okay. I wish I could explain that to And sometimes times good things happen. The good that you don't deserve happens to you all the time. So when the bad that you don't deserve happens to you,
Segment 22: 27:30 - 30:00 there's no point shaking your fists in God's face. HE IS STILL GOD. And let me tell you something. You are not going to get out of here with your possessions anyway. When we get there, we're not taking it with us. It's not ours anyhow. It is God's, not ours. God's. God is sovereign, and he spoke one day, Christ did, and he said, "Peace, be still." And it was still. I want to make an application here. There might be a storm raging in your heart, in your life tonight. It might be a storm of illness, financial challenge. There might be an interpersonal storm. Maybe the the foundations of your marriage is starting to crack, and you don't know how to polyfilla up the gaps quickly enough. It might be you name it. But Jesus is fully able to stand up and speak to the storm in your life and say, "Peace, be still." And if he doesn't calm the waves in the sea, he can certainly calm your heart. Come on and say amen. Because he is sovereign. He is mighty, and he is perfectly willing and able to be as mighty in your life as you need him to be. Amen. Where else is Jesus sovereign? He is sovereign everywhere, but I want to tell you he is sovereign over the elements of nature. He's Now, you might say, "Well, the weather is all of that." Yeah, but I would have only had one. This time I've got two. So I'm splitting them up like that. He's sovereign over the elements of nature, and I want to show you this in Daniel and chapter three. Daniel chapter three, you know the story. There shouldn't be any surprises here. I shouldn't even be able to take you anywhere in the Bible that would surprise you. You go to Daniel chapter three, and you know the story. The king set up a golden image, 90 ft high and 9 ft wide. Set it up on the plain of Dura, and he said, "Come on
Segment 23: 27:30 - 30:00 out, everybody, and inaugurate this image. We are going to have you all bow down and worship it." And it was perfectly acceptable for him to do that. Culturally, socially, religiously, no matter how you cut it up, what he was doing was entirely in sync with the times. Let's bow down and worship the thing. When you hear the music play, that Babylonian music. Babylonian music is especially suited for bowing down to idols. When you hear that Babylonian music, bow down. But there were three young men who did not bow down. Simply wouldn't do it.
Segment 24: 30:00 - 32:30 And this is quite phenomenal. I'll get to the main point second. I'll get to the secondary point first. The secondary point is what one would think is the spectacular point, but it's not really. And so we read in verse 19 that they wouldn't bow down. Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury. I love this. And the form of his visage, his appearance, was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So he went from calm and serene to just angry and twisted and bent. He commanded the most mighty men to cast them into a burning fiery furnace. Now you're going to love this. So these three men were bound in their coats and their hosen and their hats and their other garments and were cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. Therefore, because the king's commandment was urgent and it was exceedingly hot, the flame of fire slew the men that threw our three friends into the fire. But these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Nebuchadnezzar was astonished. He said, "Didn't we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?" They said, "True, King." He answered and said, "Lo, I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire. AND THEY HAVE NO HURT. AND THE FORM OF THE fourth is like the son of God or a son of THE GODS." CAN YOU imagine somebody going into the flames and having no hurt? I just read a fascinating story. In fact, Melissa found this when she was doing some research for her My Place with Jesus ministry. And she found this wonderful story just very recently in West Virginia. A church was devastated by fire. Absolutely burned to the ground. And you think that this is fiction? It's not. I've seen the picture. Everything was burned to virtually nothing except for the Bibles.
Segment 25: 30:00 - 32:30 Except for the Bibles. No joke. This was in mainstream news just uh Don't give me you can't trust anything in the news. We're not getting political here. But in your regular news, just recently, churches burned to smithereens and the Bibles have been preserved. So God is able to do it and he does it again and he does it again. But here went these three men into the fire, the fire couldn't touch them. Why? Because God is sovereign over the fire. He's supreme over the elements. There is nothing over which God is not supreme.
Segment 26: 32:30 - 35:00 Nothing at all. Now I've never had that happen to me. Never. I've been singed, a little burned. Thank God, never anything terribly bad. But whenever I have tangled with fire, the fire wins and I come second. This was different. And now I want to get back to the main point. Not the secondary point, the main point. Because Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter." They were not being smart alecks. They were simply saying, "We don't have to think twice. We don't have to sit here stroking our chins wondering how we should respond." They said, "IF IT BE SO, OUR GOD WHOM WE SERVE is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace. And he will deliver us out of your hand, O King." THAT WAS BOLD. BUT THEY FOLLOWED IT UP. This is the main point. "But if not, be it known UNTO THEE, O KING, WE WILL NOT WORSHIP YOUR GODS OR SERVE the golden image which you HAVE SET UP. IT doesn't matter to us whether God delivers us from this MESS OR NOT. WE ARE still not going to bow down." And you know that Daniel chapter 3 is simply a mirror of what takes place in Revelation chapter 13. Why was God able to deliver them? Because they threw themselves at God's feet and said, "We are hanging on. We have nothing else." And they have said, "It's up to you. We simply trust you. It's up to you." Somebody asked me a question the other night during this event, one of the evangelistic meetings that we just did in Melbourne, Australia. And they said, "Should I tithe on my income because I have a lot of bills?" And my answer was, "Absolutely you should. You are not going to see God
Segment 27: 32:30 - 35:00 work a miracle unless you put it out there and say, 'I need you to work a miracle.'" And that's when he does. When the boss says to you, "You got to work on Sabbath." Now I can't promise you exactly what's going to take place except that God is going to come through for you. I know many people who have lost jobs over the Sabbath, but I have not known anyone who's ever been worse off. My own wife's father, he said to the boss, "Listen, I I've had a change of heart. I've given my life to the Lord. I've I've had a a kind of a a reconfiguration of my Christian experience. I can't work Friday night to
Segment 28: 35:00 - 37:30 Saturday night, sunset to sunset. I'll work any other time. I'll work Sundays. I'll work Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night. Do whatever I need to do." He said, "You be here on Saturday, you're going to lose your job." He said, "No, no, no, no. I cannot be here, but I don't even bother coming in Monday." So of course Friday night he's at home. Sabbath morning he's in church. Monday morning he's back at the work site. And there's someone else doing his job. And the boss said, "I told you not to come back if you weren't going to be here on Saturday." And this was a few years ago. This I he didn't know anything about public affairs and religious liberty. He didn't know anything about that. He didn't even think to call a lawyer. He figured he'd go to his lawyer in heaven and talk to God. He said, "Well, man, I'm in a bit of a fix here. I've got three girls in church school. And we got bills to pay and we are trying to get ahead." And the Lord said to him, "There's another way." "What other way?" He said, "Why don't you open a business doing those things that you're good at and like so much?" He said, "A business? Me? I don't know anything about opening a business." "Well, give it a try." So he opened a business. The story does not end with him becoming as wealthy as Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos. But the story does end with his three girls going through Christian elementary school and church high school and church college as well. And he made it with money to spare. Did God come through for him? Yes, because as somebody said, "You can't walk on water unless you get out of the boat." God is sovereign, ladies and gentlemen.
Segment 29: 35:00 - 37:30 HE IS SOVEREIGN. And these characters here in the book of Daniel and chapter 3, they weren't going to bow down to no lousy golden image, NOT EVEN IF THEIR LIVES DEPENDED ON IT. Because they recognized that the monarch to whom THEY WERE ANSWERABLE WAS NOT NEBUCHADNEZZAR, but the God in heaven WHO IS SOVEREIGN over all. Come and say amen. That's right. There they were in Egypt. You seen Egypt? Big old place. You can hardly get from one place to another from where God was trying to get him without the Red Sea getting in the way. And God said, "Out you go." And they said, "Whoa, all right." And God led him. He had already shown himself in a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud. And so at least Moses was trusting. And they get down to the edge of the Red Sea and God says, "Keep on going. Keep on going. Hold out your hand. Something great is going to happen." And he held out his hand and you saw something happen then that had never happened before.
Segment 30: 37:30 - 40:00 Who could do that? I'm going to tell you tonight, if God can keep a couple of men from being three men from being burned in the fire, if Jesus was with them in the midst of that fire, if Jesus can calm the wind and the waves and keep the rain from stopping on a on a evangelistic meeting in the middle of nowhere in Africa, if God can cause the Red Sea to open up and let his people cross that thing on dry land, then God can move in your life. He's not only sovereign over the wind and the waves. He's sovereign over what's going on in your life, too. Oh, yes, he is. Sovereign. Super. He is the supreme ruler. That's what God is. And here we are, human beings. We ignore God and we go about our own business and we build monuments to ourselves. They They were at Jericho. They had a handsome city. And it was a walled city. You read the story in Judges and chapter 6 and God said, "No problem. Those walls are going to fall." "Okay." How's it going to happen? God said, "I have a very high-tech plan. It's going to involve walking and shouting." You know, Joshua good for Joshua. But what about the men in the army who were just taking orders? They must have thought, "We don't trust this guy." Vote of no confidence. I'm I mean I mean I'm thinking somebody had to have thought that. Can you imagine them walking around Jericho and someone's explaining to his friend, "Yeah, you know what we're going to do? We're just going to walk around the city. And on the seventh day we do it seven times, we shout." The guy's going to defect. I think I'll go fight for them. And they walked and they shouted. Have you seen Have you ever seen a walled city before? You know what these walls are like?
Segment 31: 37:30 - 40:00 They're not made of of cardboard, man. They're not papier-mâché. They're the real thing. Great big stones carved out of a quarry of some kind stacked on top of each other. Some of these walls are big and wide. And they walked And they walked. AND THEY SHOUTED. And what happened to the walls OF JERICHO? FELL DOWN. JUST FELL DOWN. God is sovereign even over the monuments we make to ourselves. There's a great
Segment 32: 40:00 - 42:30 story. Peter was in prison. In prison. He's behind gates and walls and there are I'm going to read it. I can't I can't help but I got to read this. We're going to go to Acts chapter 12. This is such a beautiful story. Acts chapter 12. I want you to know tonight that God is sovereign. Ladies and gentlemen, he is sovereign. He is Lord. He is the supreme ruler. There was Behold, I am the Lord the God of all flesh God said one day. And then he asked the question, is there anything too hard for me? Oh, no, there's not. For God is God. Peter therefore was kept in prison. Acts 12:5. But listen, prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. I think this had a lot to do with it. And when Herod would have brought him forth the same night Peter was sleeping. That's got to tell you something. James had just lost his head. It appeared that Peter was going to lose his and he's in prison sleeping. Sleeping. I just read I wish I could tell you what where somebody said, I couldn't sleep. I was awake all night. Peter was sleeping. What does that tell you about his trust in God? This brother believed that God was sovereign. Whether he lived or died, it was of very little consequence as long as God was glorified and Peter knew that his heart was in God's hands. So Peter is busy snoring in a jail cell. He's bound with chains, plural. And the keepers of the prison, sorry, and the keepers before the door kept the prison. Soldiers is plural as well. More than one. Behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him. A light shined in the prison. He smote him on the side. >> [clears throat] >> He was a heavy sleeper. He raised him up saying, arise up quickly. AND HIS CHAINS
Segment 33: 40:00 - 42:30 FELL OFF. HOW CAN THAT HAPPEN? IT CAN HAPPEN because there was a sovereign God stronger than any human chain. Chains fell off. The angel said, gird yourself, bind on your sandals. He did. He said, cast your garment about you and follow me. And he went out and followed him. He didn't know that it was true what was done by the angel. He thought he saw a vision. When they passed the first and the second ward, you got to love that. They came unto the iron gate that led unto the city. It opened to them of its own accord. They went out and passed on through one street. The angel departed and people Peter said, what in the world? In fact, Peter said, God is great. God is supreme. God is
Segment 34: 42:30 - 45:00 sovereign. You know, in Revelation chapter 16, hailstones about 70 lb each are going to come battering down on this earth. They will absolutely devastate the monuments that we have built to ourselves. Every last one of them because God is sovereign. God is able. God is supreme. God is over all. He is the sovereign God. And so when God then says, I am the Lord your God that brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, you shall have no other gods before me and so on, we know who we're talking about. We are talking about the creator, the one who spoke and it was done, the one who said to Jeremiah, I knew you while you were in the womb. I'm going to tell you something. This is the People are forgetting that God is sovereign. You know that. The people in the world acting as though there is no God. Taking life. Acting God. I just read a terrible story. It's so terrible I'll tell you about it. 17-year-old woman in in the Netherlands. 17 You you got to believe that the devil runs the government of some countries. In spite of of what otherwise you would call good people. The devil is in charge. 17-year-old girl was euthanized. Euthanized. You know they do euthanasia in some countries in Europe. Now she had had some terrible experiences. Some terrible experiences. I won't go into the details. Terrible experiences. And she said, I'm 17 years old and I'm so depressed. I just don't see how I can face life. Now you have to have a doctor to agree that ending someone's life is best. No sweat. Doctor signed the certificate. Kill her. And her life was ended. Because she was depressed. I'm not minimizing depression. I know it's a
Segment 35: 42:30 - 45:00 beast. It's a monster. I understand that. But we can't think A, that there's no way out. And we cannot begin to think that we are that we are sovereign. That we get to choose who lives and dies. That we can say it's just a clump of cells. Let's remove it from the womb. It has no right to go on. The heart may be beating, but what does that mean to me? Huh? No, no, no, no, no. We allow God to make those decisions. Not you and me. IT IS GOD WHO is sovereign over all. We got no right going down those roads. I'll tell you what, it's going to be a fearful time in the judgment for those folks who decided that they would play God here on the earth. A fearful fearful time. God is sovereign over the animal
Segment 36: 45:00 - 47:30 kingdom. There was Daniel in a den filled with hungry lions and Daniel chapter 6, the king was beside himself. Man, I got tricked. I got shanghaied into this. And here I am casting the best guy into a den of lions. Oh my goodness, I got buffaloed. And then he comes down to the to the to the lions and then Daniel Daniel and Daniel cries out, I'M FINE. I'M FINE. IT'S NOT WRITTEN in the text, but you know he said, lions need to be fed though. >> [laughter] >> Send down that lion food. Lions need to be fed. But I'm fine. I wouldn't trust myself in a den of lions. Oh man, we wouldn't want to do that. But God is sovereign over those lions. It was God who caused the animals in twos and sevens march from out of the jungle, out of the woods, from across the fruited plain and all take their place orderly on Noah's ark. God. He's sovereign over all of that. He is God. He is sovereign. And so he speaks and he says, thou shalt and thou shalt not. And we say, yes. Now, granted, it will rub your fur the wrong way. If you are halfway human, the will of God will often cut against yours. Because we are growing. But what do we say? Not my will God, but your will be done. Let me tell you something. There's one area where God is sovereign, but he demonstrates his sovereign in an interesting way. Could God change the human heart? Could God change your mind if he wanted to do that? Yes, he could. But when Eve was about to take that fruit from the serpent and put it in her mouth and bite it, could God have intervened? Yes, he could have, but he chose not to. Knowing full well that death would come to this earth. Knowing full well that Jesus would die
Segment 37: 45:00 - 47:30 on the cross. Any other sovereign that you know of who could have known that the earth would have been plunged into chaos, that death would come and his or her son would die would have stopped it immediately. But not God. So God is either the crazy one or the only sane one. God understood that his sovereignty would be demonstrated not by power, not by force. Look at the wind and the waves and see God control them. Amen. Look at the the lions closing their mouth instead of opening them up. That's beautiful. Watch the animals go on the ark. The fire didn't even scorch the hair on Daniel's arms. Didn't even singe his eyebrows. Sorry. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Didn't even singe the hair on their
Segment 38: 47:30 - 50:00 head. That's not the greatest evidence that God is sovereign. One day Jesus Christ was hanging on an old rugged cross. And some smart aleck started baiting him. And they said, he saved others. If he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him. He saved others. Himself he cannot save. Wrong. He saved others. Himself he WILL NOT SAVE. WHO IS THIS? WHAT KIND OF SOVEREIGN DOES THAT? Woman taken in adultery as guilty as sin, Jesus says, I don't condemn you. Woman at the well, where's your husband? Oh, no, I'm not married. Ain't that the truth? Ain't that the truth? You're a serial marrier. And instead of rebuking this woman whose morals were so lax, she didn't go to the well when others went. She didn't want to incur their wrath or see their frown. Instead of rebuking her, Jesus said, hey, there's a way out of this, lady, and I am the way. Because even though you deserve to die, I shall die for you. Now that, brothers and sisters, is the supreme example of God's sovereignty. It is a sovereignty of love. The sovereign absolutely didn't have to go to the cross, but he went because that's what sovereign love does. We're not talking about sovereign anger or sovereign wrath. Sovereign love. We are going to see fire come down from God out of heaven in the end of time. Boom. The earth is going to turn into a lake of fire. Sin will be gone. Sinners will be gone. But no, that's not the greatest demonstration of the sovereignty of God. Jesus was hanging on an old rugged cross and about the ninth hour he cried with a
Segment 39: 47:30 - 50:00 loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. And that is to say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He was repeating the words written by David in Psalm 22 and verse 1. And Jesus, when he cried again with a loud voice, verse 50, yielded up the ghost. And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. The earth did quake and the rocks rent. And God said in the silence, "I am sovereign."
Segment 40: 50:00 - 52:30 Sovereignty is demonstrated best not by force, but by love. And the sovereignty of God was revealed then and for all time by the sovereign, the creator, the one who spoke, the one who with his own finger wrote the law on two tables of stone, but here, he wrote love on two beams of wood. His head rested on his chest. He perished before long. Blood and water flowed. And God said, "That's what sovereignty looks like." The mighty sovereign who caused the rain to fall or not, the mighty sovereign who caused the fire to burn or not, the mighty sovereign who caused the lions to bite or not. Ah, the mighty sovereign who hung on an old rugged cross and died so we might live that sovereignty. And so we know about God's sovereignty, but will we experience God's sovereignty? Will we? What do you do about God's sovereignty? It's good to know that he spoke and created the things we see and much of what we don't see. But is he speaking to your heart tonight? Does he have your heart? You could talk about God being sovereign until the cows come home, but if he's not your sovereign, then that knowledge will ultimately be a curse to you and not a blessing. Is he your sovereign? Does he have your heart? What's he speaking to you about tonight? It is God who would work in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure, as long as you let him. He won't force his way. That's sovereignty. Days of old sovereigns would behead, execute, have, killed, and and and and have hung those who disagreed with them or ticked them off, but God no. God gives us time. He is patient and he is he is loving. He is merciful and he is gracious. And he says, "Will you
Segment 41: 50:00 - 52:30 respond? Will you respond?" The sovereignty we see in the spectacular is designed to lead us to the cross. And God asks us today, "Will you respond? Will you accept? Will you surrender to the sovereign and to the sovereignty of love?" Let us pray together now. Our Father and our God, in the name of the mighty sovereign Jesus, we come to you. Mighty God, we know you are supreme. You are the supreme ruler. You have supreme authority. Of course, that perplexes us
Segment 42: 52:30 - 55:00 sometimes. Because we know that you could heal grandma. You could heal this child or that child. We know. But you have given us evidence plenty that we can trust you in spite of what may perplex us. There is only one God who opened up the Red Sea. That's you. You caused the flood to inundate the earth. You are supreme. Only you could do that. You closed the lion's mouth. You caused the flame to back off instead of press on.