Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Well, how about that student takeover week, huh?
[00:00:11] If Emily keeps on that course, she'll be keep competing with Billy Graham before this is done.
[00:00:20] And I also want to say thank you to Chet for the great job he did.
[00:00:29] I know God loves this church because of the good people he sends here.
[00:00:36] The churches he doesn't love, he sends the losers. Stupid.
[00:00:40] So we know he loves us because he sends us the winners.
[00:00:46] Our dear heavenly Father Jesus said that we experience something of eternal life when we know you the only true God.
[00:01:02] And so we pray that your spirit would guide us into a better understanding of you, and we could understand you as the God of absolute dominion.
[00:01:17] In Christ's name. Amen.
[00:01:20] Elsabiades lived about 450 years before Christ.
[00:01:28] He was from Athens and he was on the fast track from the day he was born. He was from a noble family in Athens. They had a lot of money.
[00:01:43] They got him the best education that money could buy.
[00:01:47] He was brutally handsome, athletic, I mean, the golden boy.
[00:01:58] And on top of that, when Athens went to war, they always teamed soldiers up. So you always had a buddy?
[00:02:08] Well, El Sobiades got teamed up with Socrates.
[00:02:13] I mean, the guy landed on his feet every single time.
[00:02:20] And in the Peloponnesian War, the Athenians chose him to lead their army against Sparta.
[00:02:32] He won the battle, but he was accused of sacrilege and his political enemies had him exiled.
[00:02:47] So what does he do? He goes to Athens worst enemy, the Spartans, and offers them his service.
[00:03:00] And of course they accept his service. They know he's a good general. Well, he beats Athens in a battle, but he just can't help himself. Chaos follows him.
[00:03:17] And he had an affair with the king of Sparta's wife. The king found out and he had to run for dear life.
[00:03:27] I suppose if you're going to have affair with somebody, it should not be a Spartan's wife.
[00:03:35] So once again, he did the worst possible thing he could do. He deserted to the Persians, who were at war with all of Greece.
[00:03:47] And of course, he got himself in trouble in Persia. He had to flee Persia. Athens needed help. They called him back.
[00:03:57] He won a battle, but they exiled him again.
[00:04:03] He was a man of remarkable ability.
[00:04:08] He succeeded at about everything he did except life.
[00:04:14] And he was a terrible. His character flaws ruined his life.
[00:04:22] And in about 400, he was assassinated. The historians aren't sure, but they think the King of Sparta finally caught up with him.
[00:04:35] I told you that story because often we think about God the way we think about people like Alcibiades.
[00:04:47] Very successful, beautiful, very powerful, but unpredictable.
[00:04:58] Is he safe?
[00:05:01] And because we have ideas about God being arbitrary, it's hard for us to fully trust him.
[00:05:14] And as we study the dominion of God, I'm going to try to show to you that God is not arbitrary in any way, that everything he does happens out of the richness of his character.
[00:05:34] Everything that he accomplishes is an expression of the wisdom, strength and dignity of his personhood.
[00:05:49] So the Psalmist said in Psalm 103, the Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.
[00:06:02] From this verse, we see the dominion, the sovereignty of God.
[00:06:08] I want to make a distinction. Sovereignty is not an attribute of his nature. It is a way that he acts.
[00:06:19] The attributes of his nature are things like love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, kindness, eternality, all knowing, all powerful. That's the character he is. But sovereignty is the way he acts, because God is who he is. He's naturally in charge.
[00:06:47] I'm sure that you all know people that because of the quality of their life, because their work history, when they come into a meeting, everybody knows they're in charge. Well, that's God.
[00:07:01] Because of the quality of who he is, because of the strength of his character, because of his proven track record, everywhere God goes, he's in charge.
[00:07:21] You see, we know God mostly by what he does.
[00:07:26] And Psalm 115, verse three says, our God is in the heavens. Listen, and he does all that he pleases.
[00:07:39] God out of the richness of his character, out of the brilliance of his wisdom, out of the strength of his ability.
[00:07:54] There isn't anything that God wants to do that he isn't able to do.
[00:08:01] It is an expression of his sovereignty, of his dominion.
[00:08:07] So let's push on this dominion a little bit. His dominion is absolute.
[00:08:12] What does that mean?
[00:08:15] It means there is nothing over which God does not reign.
[00:08:23] There is absolutely nothing that God does not have control of.
[00:08:30] I love looking at the pictures of the Webb Space Telescope. Do you? I've got a calendar with a bunch of space pictures. When I see the immensity of space, when I think our Milky Way is only one of millions of galaxies, somebody is making sure these galaxies work properly.
[00:09:03] And it is the Lord God Almighty.
[00:09:07] From the galaxies of the universe to the tiniest little creatures who live on every one of us, microscopic little ugly things.
[00:09:26] God is sovereign over them.
[00:09:32] Some of you are saying, well, you know, Doc, really the universe is controlled by gravity and centrifugal force. Okay, I accept that. But I want to know who wrote the laws of nature? They certainly didn't write themselves.
[00:09:47] No one would walk into a lawyer's office and look at a set of law books and say, wow, isn't that fascinating that these books wrote themselves?
[00:09:59] But we look at something a billion times more intricate than human law and we say, isn't it interesting how this wrote itself?
[00:10:12] Church, you have to be willfully blind to believe that somebody had to write the laws that govern the universe that we live in. And that someone is the Lord God Almighty who has absolute dominion over all.
[00:10:32] I want you to know that means time, space and people.
[00:10:39] Time is not out of control.
[00:10:42] History is not random. There is a purpose. There is a pattern. There is an agenda. And the Lord God Himself is the one who established the purpose and the agenda.
[00:11:01] His dominion is absolute. His dominion is independent.
[00:11:08] God depends on nothing outside of Himself.
[00:11:13] Every one of us are dependent. We are dependent in ways we recognize. We are dependent in ways we don't recognize. But every single one of us are dependent.
[00:11:26] Every single government that ever existed in humanity was dependent in some way. Thank God we have a free government where we get to vote.
[00:11:42] The politicians depend on our votes. If you want better people up there, start voting for better people. Church, if you want people who will cooperate with each other, start voting for people who will cooperate with each other. Just throwing it out there. Just an idea.
[00:12:07] God doesn't need anybody's support.
[00:12:13] God's dominion is not based on how many people agree with Him.
[00:12:19] God is not running a popularity contest.
[00:12:23] God's dominion is independent and needs no propping up. It needs no support.
[00:12:33] God's dominion is righteous.
[00:12:37] When God rules, he makes no mistakes.
[00:12:43] I can't count how many mistakes I made last week.
[00:12:47] I'm not even going to try. Would depress me.
[00:12:56] In the entire history of who God is, he has never made a single mistake. Church, his dominion is righteous because he himself is flawless.
[00:13:13] Now, I want you to say that makes him trustworthy.
[00:13:19] Whether it looks right to you or not, god in his rule is absolutely trustworthy. He will always do the right thing. Can you hear me, Church? He will always do the right thing.
[00:13:36] Now, my problem in life is what I thought the right thing was. And what God thought the right thing was. They didn't always line up. Church made me think of Emily, but my track record of being wrong self explanatory.
[00:14:03] God has no track record of being wrong. He has been perfect in his dominion.
[00:14:13] I had to add this. God's dominion is nontyranical.
[00:14:19] Here's what we have learned in history. If you give one person too much power, they become a tyrant. That's what human history teaches. Power corrupts.
[00:14:31] The difference is, God's character is not corruptible.
[00:14:36] Power can't corrupt Him because he is incorruptible. He's perfect in holiness. His goodness is infinite.
[00:14:49] And so God reigns not as a tyrant, but listen, he has fatherly dominion.
[00:15:01] If you want to think about what kind of rule God expresses, it is the rule of an absolutely perfect father.
[00:15:16] Now, the problem is there are no perfect dads.
[00:15:23] My dad wasn't perfect. I'm not perfect. My granddad wasn't perfect, and my son won't be perfect.
[00:15:33] We do the best we can, right, Dads? But still young Dads, I can tell you this.
[00:15:48] My biggest regret is I would have been more gentle. Can I get any amens, dad?
[00:15:54] If I could do it all over again, I would have been more gentle. Dads.
[00:15:59] Young Dads it's the best I can tell you when you be gentle.
[00:16:07] I learned that from God. By the way.
[00:16:11] God's dominion is a fatherly dominion.
[00:16:15] What does that mean?
[00:16:18] In spite of my many flaws, I always wanted what was best for my kids.
[00:16:25] Can you hear that church? I tried to do the kind of things that I thought would end up being best for my kids.
[00:16:35] That's exactly what the Heavenly Father wants. He wants to rule in your life in the kind of way that he keeps positioning you in the best place. He keeps empowering you when you need it.
[00:16:50] He keeps teaching you, he keeps enlightening you. He keeps showing his grace and kindness to you.
[00:16:59] His dominion is a fatherly dominion in which he rules to make sure that his kids keep getting positioned in the very best place he can position them. That's your Heavenly Father church.
[00:17:18] That's how he rules. He's not ruling for his own ego. He's not ruling for some great hand clapping in the future. He's ruling with this great idea that because he has absolute dominion and he loves you with a perfect fatherly love, he's going to rule in your life in the kind of way that he helps you to become everything a father wants their child to be.
[00:17:50] You are not living by chance.
[00:17:54] You have a Heavenly Father who directs your way by his divine providence.
[00:18:02] I want you to hear what Providence means again, because it is an explanation of the dominion of God.
[00:18:11] God, the great Creator of all things, upholds, directs, disposes and governs all creatures, actions and things from the greatest to the least. By his most wise and holy providence God is at work in ways beyond what we understand to keep things unfolding according to his perfect purpose. And we get to be part of what our Heavenly Father is doing in this generation.
[00:18:51] The Psalmist also said in Psalm 103 as a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him.
[00:19:03] In his absolute dominion, god fully expresses his Fatherly compassion toward us who hope in Him.
[00:19:13] Can you believe that God enjoys working in your life to help you?
[00:19:30] Can you believe that the same way a dad enjoys coaching their kids? Your heavenly Father enjoys coaching you church.
[00:19:44] He enjoys it. It's meaningful to him.
[00:19:49] Can you believe in a God who actually celebrates the victories of your life?
[00:19:58] Can you believe in a God who says, this is exactly the way I wanted it to be. I'm so glad you enjoy this victory. I'm so glad you get to have this moment. I'm so glad you are delighting in this. This is exactly what I wanted for you.
[00:20:14] Can you think about God as a God who says, this beautiful moment in your life is what I have been waiting to share with you.
[00:20:26] And now you get to enjoy it. And I find delight in your delight.
[00:20:33] Can you open your heart to that kind of God?
[00:20:37] God Sovereignly, designed to meet us with compassion in the brokenness of our life?
[00:20:47] I have I have been with my children in some difficult things.
[00:20:58] I I have held my daughter in my arms when she was crying so hard she couldn't talk.
[00:21:09] Listen.
[00:21:11] That's what a good dad does.
[00:21:14] Do you hear this?
[00:21:16] I didn't have to say anything, but she had to feel loved. Now, please listen to this. Your Heavenly Father loves you more than you will ever imagine.
[00:21:30] And when your life is broken, he's not turning away from you and scolding you and giving you a timeout or grounding you or some other obnoxious thing.
[00:21:45] When your life is broken, the Almighty, as part of His Fatherly dominion, he reaches out for you. He wraps his arms around you and says, I'm here to comfort you. I'm here to befriend you. I'm here to show you that you're cared for.
[00:22:09] When you do wrong, do not turn away. Turn toward your hope. And your comfort is in the loving dominion of God.
[00:22:20] It's not wandering farther from Him, it's drawing closer to Him.
[00:22:37] The psalmist said again in 103, for God knows our frame.
[00:22:46] He remembers that we are dust.
[00:22:50] As for man, his days are like grass.
[00:22:54] He flourishes like a flower of the field, for the wind passes over it and it's gone. And its place knows it no more. It's a little beautiful piece of poetry and it asks us to use the poetic images to understand a bigger idea.
[00:23:20] He knows our frame.
[00:23:26] If you read this in the Septuagint, it says, he knows how we are framed.
[00:23:37] From that I take god doesn't treat all his kids the same because we're not the same.
[00:23:46] He knows your uniqueness. He knows your frame. He knows who you are.
[00:23:54] He doesn't have a one size fits all plan.
[00:23:59] He tailors his Fatherly dominion to what he knows we most need.
[00:24:11] Can you hear this church?
[00:24:16] And the psalmist says, can you remember seeing dust being blown by the wind?
[00:24:28] You have a memory in your mind somewhere where the wind was pretty strong and it was blowing dust somewhere.
[00:24:36] Listen what the psalmist said. The psalmist said, god understands how life blows you around.
[00:24:48] God understands that you can be trying your very best. And then the winds of life kick up and then we get blown somewhere we don't want to be. Has that ever happened to you?
[00:25:00] I've had good intentions. I've been driving to work and I've said, I'm going to have a good attitude all day. I'm going to be polite to everybody I see. I'm going to say something encouraging to everyone and I can really, really mean it.
[00:25:16] And then the wind starts blowing and some idiot cuts me off on Mark's Road.
[00:25:24] And then somehow or another, all those good intentions that I really, really meant, I wasn't kidding. I meant it.
[00:25:35] They blow me out of the way and now here I am, Mr grouchy, finding everything I can see wrong and grouching about it. And that's not what I wanted.
[00:25:49] God knows that we are like dust and life blows us around. But guess what? He says, I have a plan for that.
[00:26:01] When you get blown off track, I got a plan for that. I have dominion over that.
[00:26:08] I'm going to walk you back home. I'm going to get you back on track.
[00:26:12] I have Fatherly care for you.
[00:26:17] He says, we're like grass.
[00:26:22] Now, some of you are lawn people and you can probably talk about this better than I can.
[00:26:34] My lung gets cut as good as the lawn service cuts it, which, by the way, is better than I do.
[00:26:43] All right?
[00:26:53] When we think of grass, we probably think of it differently than the psalmist did.
[00:27:00] When we think of grass, we think it as what covers our yard, right? And you get stuff sprayed on it so it doesn't have dandelions.
[00:27:13] All right?
[00:27:15] The psalmist didn't think of grass as a decorative thing. The psalmist thought of grass as the prime source that fed his animals.
[00:27:30] The psalmist thought he didn't live in Ohio and lots of places of Israel. Grass doesn't grow.
[00:27:39] So when grass grows, you got to be there with your sheep and your cows, because when it's gone, you got to move your sheep and cows somewhere else. So the psalmist didn't think of grass the way we do as this decorative thing. He says, for man's, days are like grass. He's saying, in the very same way that profitable grass is there for a short time.
[00:28:06] Our lives are much shorter than we think.
[00:28:10] Church I used to be young. It's really true.
[00:28:18] I had a full head of jet black hair.
[00:28:24] There's pictures to prove it.
[00:28:28] And now I look in the mirror and say, who are you and where did you come from?
[00:28:40] Just like yesterday. Just like yesterday.
[00:28:44] All right.
[00:28:46] God knows how quickly we're going to pass through this single adventure of life.
[00:28:58] He knows it, and because he knows it, he says, I have a good plan to help you make the best run you can possibly make. You don't have to figure this out all by yourself. I have Fatherly dominion and I have some good ideas. And if you will walk with me, you'll live a better life than if you try to do it by yourself.
[00:29:27] God knows who you are and God knows who you are becoming. And he has a good plan.
[00:29:35] And then the poetry says, mankind flourishes like a flower of the field.
[00:29:48] I like to buy my wife flowers.
[00:29:52] Grocery stores do just fine.
[00:29:56] I don't have to go to the fancy places.
[00:30:04] I appreciate when they put that little pack of stuff in there that makes the flowers last longer.
[00:30:12] But here's what I know about flowers.
[00:30:16] They look really good for a couple of days, then they start getting a little WILTY, and then it isn't too long that somebody's got to say, all right, cram those things in a garbage can or DA DA. Right? They're very, very delightful, but for a brief time and then their beauty, the reason we bought them to begin with, is gone.
[00:30:52] And so the place of honor we gave them is taken away.
[00:30:59] And we wash out the vase and put it in the drawer until the next time I buy flowers.
[00:31:06] God says he understands that the beauty of life is temporary.
[00:31:15] He understands that.
[00:31:21] I was thinking this week, remembering my mom when she was young and she was an absolutely beautiful woman. I'm not kidding. I mean, all kids think that. But my mom was a gorgeous woman.
[00:31:38] And then I'm thinking, where did that go?
[00:31:49] Where did that go?
[00:31:54] The flower faded church.
[00:31:59] Listen, God understands that the flower fades and he's got a plan for it.
[00:32:09] Can you hear that? In his dominion, God has a plan and your flower is going to fade, and the place that you maintained is going to pass to somebody else.
[00:32:27] And before we know it, this church is going to be full of people who never knew we were even here.
[00:32:35] But listen, God has a plan for it.
[00:32:39] It's not happening randomly. It's not just one random biological function replacing another biological logical function. It is people that God sees more beautiful than we see flowers. And he says, Your flower is going to fade, but you don't have to worry about it. I've got a plan.
[00:33:05] And I've taken this all into account in my plan church.
[00:33:13] I hope you know you can't wander into paradise. You have to be led there by the God of all dominion.
[00:33:22] Nobody ever wandered into paradise. Everybody who is in paradise has been guided there by the gentle hand of the One who controls all.
[00:33:42] And then the psalmist said, but the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting, to those who fear Him and his righteousness, to children's, children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.
[00:33:59] What is my response to knowing that God has fatherly dominion? How should I respond to that?
[00:34:09] What thought should that spark in my head that God has absolute control over everything? Well, the first thing that sparked in the psalmist mind was that the God who has absolute control over everything is a God of steadfast love.
[00:34:30] Instead of thinking about God as in control of everything, and then worrying about is he going to make you do something you don't want to do, is he going to be arbitrary? Is it going to be tyranical? Instead of letting those thoughts fill your mind, when you think of the sovereignty of god. Follow the psalmist to the second thought of the sovereign. God, who is in charge of all, is characterized by steadfast love.
[00:35:01] What leads him to do all that he does? What makes him the leader that he is? His steadfast love is from everlasting to everlasting. He does all that he does in controlling everything out of the pure motive of steadfast love.
[00:35:23] The God who runs everything is a God of steadfast love. He doesn't rule the human soul through intimidation and threat. He rules the human soul by the precious kisses of steadfast love to the human psyche. And God says, I love you with an infinite love.
[00:35:58] This steadfast love is from everlasting to everlasting. You know what that means? It's timeless.
[00:36:05] Everybody in this room has experienced being liked better when you were good and being liked less when you were bad, right?
[00:36:15] Everybody has experienced that when you made somebody happy, they were nicer to you. When you made them not so happy, they were not so nice to you. We have experienced that again and again in life, except God is just the opposite.
[00:36:35] God does not like you better when you're good and less when you're not. You know why? Because his love is steadfast. It doesn't change by the way we change. Do you get it? God doesn't love me less on my worst days and love me more on my best days. His love is timeless. It doesn't work that way. God never says to me, when you get your act together, come back and see me.
[00:37:03] He always says, dude, you're not going to be happy with this.
[00:37:09] You're not going to like the outcome of this, but I'm going to love you anyway, and I'm going to be there. I'm going to be there for you through it all. Can you hear it, Church?
[00:37:21] His love is not just his dominion is not just steadfast love, but it's also righteous.
[00:37:32] It's righteous because God's dominion over you not only affects you, it affects your children's. Children.
[00:37:44] What the psalmist said.
[00:37:46] You see, if you walk in the love of God, it's going to make you a different kind of person and you're going to have a different effect on your kids.
[00:37:57] Do you hear this?
[00:37:58] If you don't follow in the way of the Lord, if you choose another course, if you doubt his goodness, that's going to affect you and that's going to affect the way you treat your kids, and it's going to have multigenerational ripples. Can you hear this? The plan of God to love us and make us better people is directly connected to God loving our kids through us and making them better people.
[00:38:37] Parents, open your ears to me. If you got kids, follow God's example. Remember, your kids are only dust. They're children.
[00:38:46] They're not adults, they're children. You were a child once too. I know you've forgotten, but you were a child once.
[00:38:58] Let God love your kids through you.
[00:39:03] Let God begin to rule in your children's heart in a beautiful way through you.
[00:39:08] Let your kids see something of the majesty of God in you because it's part of his eternal plan. He says, I want you to partner with me in raising better kids. It's what the verse is saying to your children's children.
[00:39:32] Now, I'm old enough to say, and grandchildren. And great grandchildren. All right, how should I respond? I should respond by saying, god, your dominion is a dominion of steadfast love.
[00:39:50] God, your dominion is a dominion of righteousness. And the good you do in me is going to affect my family in the years to come. I should say, I want to keep your covenant. Now I'm thinking differently about the way you rule. Now I'm thinking differently about your plan, and I just want to cooperate with you.
[00:40:15] Can you hear this? When I think of the sovereignty of God, I need to remember that it is a loving sovereignty. And my response should be, Dear God, help me to cooperate with you. Better help me to cooperate with you. Better help me to remember your commandments when I need to remember them.
[00:40:40] How do I respond to the dominion of God? I submit myself to his absolute dominion.
[00:40:49] I yield to his independent dominion.
[00:40:53] I give thanks for his righteous dominion.
[00:40:58] I take joy that he does not rule as a tyrant, but he rules as a loving and gracious and good and kind Father.
[00:41:12] How do I respond to the dominion of God? I trust Him and I submit to Him in all things.
[00:41:21] Our dear Heavenly Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit will do what only he can do.
[00:41:29] And I pray that these good ideas about who you are, I pray that they would take root in our thinking.
[00:41:37] And I pray that we could return to them again and again, and we could think about you in ways that are healthy and we could yield to your sovereignty, and we could what it means to be enriched by a God of steadfast love and fatherly care.
[00:41:59] And I pray that it would have the kind of effect on us that we would have a better effect on the people around us. In Christ's name. Amen.
