The Rule of God, Part 2

God is so good at what He does, He can take a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, and a little bit of the other, and put it in His cosmic blender. Dr. Tony Evans says God works all aspects of our lives for our ultimate benefit. That's the good news about the sovereignty of God. He can even use evil to accomplish His goals. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, this is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative.

If God made everything, did He also make evil? It's a question people have been asking for centuries. But Dr. Evans says it's one that has a biblical answer. Today he looks at how God uses both the good and bad events in our lives.

Let's join him. But when it comes to now living your day-to-day life after having become a Christian, the most important thing for you to understand is God's sovereignty. To the best of my ability, I want to, based on His Word, help us to understand and relate to this critical dimension of God that is in fact critical for every aspect of your life. Now, this is not a popular truth that we're going over today because men want God everywhere but on His throne. We live in a day when men want a jack-in-the-box God.

When the grandkids come over the house, we've got this little thing we grew up with where you turn it and you play the music, and at the proper time, pop, up comes the clown. And when the entertainment is over, he's pushed back in the box until the desire to be entertained again, and it's world around until it pops up again. What people today want is a God that will pop up conveniently when we want Him or need Him. And then when we're finished with Him, He's put back in the box until such time as He's called upon to bless us, to forgive us, to help us, to encourage us. Oh, it's not that we don't want God, that we just want Him conveniently, but to understand this doctrine, this understanding of God, will blow your mind.

And if you understand it enough by the time we are finished and respond to it accordingly, it can also change your life. So what do we mean by the sovereignty of God? The sovereignty of God refers to God as absolute ruler, controller, and sustainer of all of His creation. To talk about sovereignty is to talk about rule or authority, and He sits on the throne of the universe. Everything He created, He rules over, and He created everything. What this means is that there is no noun—person, place, thing, or thought—that situates itself or operates outside of God's sovereignty. That there is nothing that escapes Him, nothing that can override Him, nothing that He is not fully aware of because He rules all things because He either causes all things to happen—one option— or He consciously allows things to happen. But there are no oops, mistakes, miss that one, or surprises. Because if it happened, He either made it happen or He okayed it happening even if He didn't directly cause it to happen.

So let's get this straight. Nothing exists outside of the rule of God, in your life, in this world, or in creation. The Bible says not one bird falls to the ground of which He is not fully aware, and not one hair of one's head is lost, that He is not fully overseeing that. So He is not just sovereign in the sweet by and by. He's sovereign in the nasty here and now. He's sovereign in the big things, and He's sovereign in the details.

He is absolute ruler over all things. Job chapter 23 verse 13 says God does what His soul desires. Job chapter 42 verse 2 says no purpose of God can be thwarted or overridden.

He will achieve His goals. Psalm 115 verse 3 says God is in the heavens and He does whatsoever He pleases. Psalm 135 verse 6 says God rules from the heaven and that even includes the fish in the sea.

Nothing sits outside of sovereignty. God will always accomplish His purpose. What you do or do not do will never block God from getting to where He's designed to go. He will go with you, around you, or over you, but you will never interfere with His end result.

God will always accomplish His purposes because God never limits Himself to one root. This church is 11 miles from downtown Dallas. There is a preferred route to go to downtown Dallas, a direct line, 35 North. You get on 35 North, it will take you directly to downtown Dallas. That is the preferred route. That is the quickest route. But sometimes 35 North gets blocked with an accident, gets blocked with construction, and the route is no longer the convenient way to go.

While because of Google Maps and other technology, you're not limited to 35. They will show you other options. If you know it, there are more than one option than your preferred route. God would prefer to accomplish His plan with your cooperation. That's what He would prefer. Because if He can accomplish it with your cooperation, everybody wins. But if you don't cooperate, don't think you were His only option. He's got multiple ways of accomplishing His goal. He can do it with you or without you.

He can go around you or run over you. But no human being will throw out God's ultimate plan. You are His preferred route, never His only route. And so when you understand that God's sovereignty does not negate your choice, it includes freedom to choose.

You are free to choose. God didn't stop Adam, and He's not gonna stop you. He'll give you indicators, but He will let you choose, because He made you with that, within certain limitations and boundaries. But you need to know, when you choose against Him, you have opened up the door for the manifestation of another attribute. Because God exists for His glory, and the glory is the manifestation of His characteristics, perfections, or attributes. God is so good at what He does, He is so good at what He does, He even uses evil to accomplish His goals. So even when folk are evil, He says, I can do something with that.

Isn't this what Joseph said in Genesis 50 verses 19 to 21? You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good to bring me to this place. Guess how God got me here? God got me here by you boys getting jealous. God got me here by you selling me into slavery. God got me here by you accusing me of rape. God got me here by forgetting me in jail. God got me here from Pharaoh having a bad dream. And God didn't use all that mess to bring me to this place.

And see, that's the good news about the sovereignty of God. He can take a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, and a little bit of the other, and put it in its cosmic blender. By itself, it may not look like much. You take the flour by itself, it ain't much. You take the sugar by itself, it ain't much. You take the different ingredients of a cake by themselves, it's not much. But bake it right. And all those independent elements are joined together to accomplish something. That's why Romans 8, 28, all things work together for good to them who love God and are the called according to His purpose.

He says, I prefer 35, cooperate with me. He's so good at what He does. As sovereign, He even uses the devil to help Him out. That's as bad as you can get.

That's as low as you can go. Because the devil is not the devil, the devil is His devil. Peter, Luke 22, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. Satan has made a request.

Why? Because even the devil can't do anything without asking God first. We're going to let him mess with you a little bit to put you in your place. But when you have been converted, when your life gets right, when you stop trying to do this stuff on your own, when you learn your lesson, then I can use you. But I'm going to let the devil mess with you a little bit because you ain't thinking right, you ain't acting right, you're not living right. So I'm going to let him blow you up until you get right.

Then I can fix your life. The only reason Job's life fell apart was because the devil made a request of God, and God okayed it. And the great apostle Paul in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12, he said, there was a messenger sent from Satan to buffet me, to oppress me, and I went to God and I said, God, get the devil off my back. You ever said that to God? Get the devil off my back. He said, God, get the devil off my back. And God said, no. No, I'm going to let him ride you because I got to deal with something in your life that's a problem, and I need the devil to amplify it so that you see it, so that I can deal with it, so that you can get rid of it, so that I can do something special with you in a greater revelation. God is sovereign, and He rules.

Within boundary He allows choices. And according to Lamentations chapter 3, verses 37 and 38, He rules both the good and the evil. So friends, we'll come back to explain what that means for us when He continues our lesson in just a moment. But first, I want to tell you about Prayers for Knowing God. It's Tony's latest book, and it's designed to help you develop a healthy and ongoing communication with God, leading you to experience greater grace and peace. And if you visit tonyovens.org today and make a contribution, we'll send you the Prayers for Knowing God book, as well as all 12 full-length lessons from the current teaching series, God's Heart Revealed. These two resources are designed to help you appreciate God's motives, desires, and will for your life, leading you to move closer to Him. And today is the last day you can get them bundled together as our way of saying thanks for your support of Tony's ministry. Get all the details and make your request online at tonyovens.org, or call us at 1-800-800-3222.

I'll repeat that information for you after part two of today's message and this. Throughout any woman's life, you'll hold many roles, and so often it can feel like you're just plotting to get through. We know that this can feel like obscurity and mundane tasks, but whatever God has called you to do, plant yourself there, because you've got a harvest coming back to you if you do. Carrying the legacy of Lois Evans, daughters Crystal Hurst and Priscilla Shire encourage you to not just survive the season you're in, but thrive there with the new four-DVD Bible study, Seasons of a Woman's Life.

With your generous gift to the Urban Alternative, receive the classic book, workbook, and DVD series now. He rules both the good and the evil. Okay, now you understand sovereignty. You got a little handle on it. What does this mean? The first thing it means is that you change your vocabulary. First thing it means is you change your vocabulary and you X out the word luck.

You cannot have sovereignty and luck. Now, I know how we use it casually. We use it for everything. We got lucky dog. We got wish me luck. We got plain luck. We got luck, be a lady. We got lady luck. We got tough luck, good luck, blind luck, bad luck, rotten luck, and then pot luck.

We got luck for everything. You cannot have sovereignty and chance. You cannot have sovereignty and fate. You cannot have sovereignty and happenstance.

You cannot have sovereignty and accidents because nothing sits out of sovereignty. So now, when you get that straight, it changes your prayer life. When Paul says pray without ceasing, the reason why he can say pray without ceasing because now you've included God in everything. He's not included in everything because if he's in control of all the details, then the little things, the medium things, the big things are all God's. So I'm talking to him all the time about everything, sometimes formally, sometimes informally, sometimes walking, sometimes thinking, sometimes driving. I'm bringing him into everything.

Why? Because he's sovereign over everything. It don't affect your prayer life. Now, now God is engaged everywhere. You are now looking for him everywhere. I love 1 Corinthians 8 verse 6 because 1 Corinthians 8 verse 6 reads this way. Paul the Apostle says, Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for him. And one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through him.

He says two powerful things. He says, God the Father, we exist for him. God the Son, Jesus Christ, we exist through him. So we exist for God, and that is made possible through our relationship with Jesus Christ.

So when you accept Christ, you now can exist for God. And you are now operating, or designed to operate, under his rule. And when you decide, when I decide, because we all have failed in that decision on various levels, but when we decide to align our lives under his sovereign rule, that's when you get to see how real he is in your life. Many of the problems that we are facing in our lives, with our strongholds, in our relationships, in our careers, with our finances, are due to the fact that God is not allowed to rule in certain areas. We'll let him rule over here, but you better not touch over there. When we exist for him, that is the only reason you exist.

You just get bonuses along the way. God is sovereign. So I close with a passage that says it all. I can't improve on this one. Daniel chapter 4.

I'm going to read it and comment along the way, because it says it all. Do you remember King Nebuchadnezzar? I'll call him Nebby for short. Verse 28 of Daniel 4. All this happened to Nebuchadnezzar the king. Twelve months later, he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon. The king reflected, so he walking on the roof, and he just thinking. He reflected, and now we're told what he thought. He reflected and said, Is this not Babylon the Great, which I myself have built, as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?

So he's walking on the roof, smelling himself. Says, Is this not the great Babylon that I have built? You the man. You all that and a bag of chips.

You, you. You look at what you done done, boy. While the word was in the king's mouth, while he was still talking to himself, a voice came from heaven saying, King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared. Sovereignty has been removed from you.

What you just said, I just canceled. And you will be driven away from mankind and your dwelling place will be with the beast of the field. You will be given grass to eat like cattle and seven periods of time, seven years, will pass over you until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over all, the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whomever he wishes. Immediately the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled and he was driven away from mankind and began eating grass like cattle and his body was drenched with dew from heaven until the hair had grown like eagle's feathers and his nails like birds' claws.

He went insane. Verse 34, but at the end of that period, seven years, completion of time, Nebuchadnezzar raised his eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored him who lives forever. What did you say, Nebuchadnezzar? For his dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but he does according to his will in the host of the heavens and among the inhabitants of the earth and no one can ward off his hand. And at that time, my reason returned to me and my majesty and splendor was restored for me for the glory of my kingdom and my counselors and my nobles began seeking me out so I was reestablished in my sovereignty and surpassing greatness was added to me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, honor the king of heaven, for all his works are true and his ways are just and he is able to humble those who walk in pride.

Okay, pay attention. Whenever God sees you infringing on his sovereignty, he gonna make a lesson out of you. Whenever he sees you think you all that, he gonna show you at whatever level is needed there is one God and you are not he. What he's gonna do is drop the mic on you and he's gonna let you see that he is the sovereign. He's in charge and you are not to compete with him. If you ever hear Tony Evans say, look at the great old cliff that I have built. If you ever hear me say, look at the great prizes and the people and companies and organizations and resources that I have built, you better grab me quick because the hammer is getting ready to drop on me. To God be the glory, great things he has done. He is to get the credit.

He is to get the glory. Dr. Tony Evans, wrapping up his 12 part series on God's heart revealed. And that means today is the last day to take advantage of that special offer I mentioned earlier. You can get all these messages in their entirety on both CD and digital download as well as Tony's brand new book, Prayers for Knowing God as our way of saying thanks when you make a donation to help support Tony's ministry. Just contact us any time today at 1-800-800-3222 to make the arrangements.

Resource team members are standing by to assist you 24-7. That's 1-800-800-3222. Or make your request online at TonyEvans.org.

That's TonyEvans.org. When life gets thorny, many times our only instinct is to do whatever it takes to get things back to normal. But tomorrow, Dr. Evans will explain that God just might have something bigger in mind. Be sure to join us. The alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is celebrating 40 years of faithfulness thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you. ? ?