Sovereign God Is In Control

Inky Johnson [former Tennessee Volunteer Football star] has an amazing perspective on God's sovereignty. Pastor Tom mentions Icky's perspective in a message that reminds us that God is 100% POWERFUL - 100% GOOD - 100% LOVING - 100% ABOUT DEVELOPING US - 100% ABOUT FREEDOM OF CHOICE - 100% A PROBLEM SOLVER - 100% FOR JUSTICE. And he is OK WITH THAT.

MORE From Pastor Tom: 24Today.org - https://24today.org TomWhitesel.com - https://TomWhitesel.com 24TODAY Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/P.T.24Today/ 24TODAY PODCAST - iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/2... Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/listen#...

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT OF THIS PODCAST:

0:00 Inky Johnson believes in a sovereign God - and is okay with the fact that He [God] is Sovereign. I'm going to read you a few quotes from him.

0:18 One is this... listen to this.

0:21 "I thank God for ruining my career. I'm a firm believer that God has never made a mistake. I'm also a firm believer that the things that happen to us are not designed to stop us, but to reposition us, so that we come into contact with what God really has for us. But just being honest, I think people missed the boat on the whole concept of God. Being good. You know, most people considered God to be good if He blesses them with a big house or new cars, you know, it's mostly based upon superficial material things.

1:10 Whereas me, I can wake up and say, God is awesome. I woke up today... you know, somebody didn't wake up this morning. You don't know what God has protected you from while you were sleeping, you and your family. And so if a person is up, if a person is alive, and well, that's enough. I've been living 27 years... and so I get to this point when I'm 27 years old, and I pray and I lead a godly life and then I see something that I want and I feel I deserve it. I pray for it. I work for it. And then it doesn't happen.

2:00 I can take that circumstance and say, Man, I'm mad at God. Why didn't God give me this? I felt I deserve this. I worked for this. I've been patient. I've stayed prayed up, I've helped some souls come to Christ. Why didn't I get this? And I can forget about the other 26 years of my life when God has blessed me tremendously. I can make it look at this. I can make a permanent decision over a temporary situation and consider myself to be mad at God. This is where a lot of us find ourselves. Sometimes we're upset at God at something that ultimately is temporary and we make permanent decisions that affect the rest of our life.

2:57 Why do that? God blesses us in so many ways every day. Every day, and we don't even pay attention to it. STAY THE COURSE. God says in Jeremiah 29:11, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.

3:28 He goes on, he says... when you hear something like that, take it for what it's worth. It's not a man talking. It's not a lady talking. It's God."

3:39 [Pastor Tom] So I'm going to read that scripture, one more time You are the YOU in this passage, okay?

3:51 Here's the passage. [For I know, the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you, and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.]

4:12 For a few moments now... I want to talk about God... His Sovereignty.

4:20 Sovereignty is a word that you and I basically are familiar with... to the extent where some people over the history of the world have been known as Sovereigns. Kings and queen. I mean, this goes clear back to some of the earliest civilizations known on Earth where as people say... Okay, this one individual... this one man or woman has total sovereign power. They can make any law they want, they can enforce it, they can do whatever they want. They are Sovereign.

5:00 Now there's been some people like that throughout the history of the world, and there are still some nations that have Sovereign rulers. So we might be familiar with the term through that. But when we talk about God being Sovereign, it's not like a person who's acting like they are Sovereign. God is [truly] sovereign. And I want to (just for a few moments), show you the uniqueness of His Sovereignty, instead of what we would see in a king or a queen.

5:32 And God's Sovereignty (that of course)... means God is 100% powerful. God, is also 100%. Good. At the same time, here is a God who is 100% Loving (at the same time). And this is where complications arise. You and I... who are not Sovereign... you and I... who do not understand what one second from now really is going to look like... you and I know nothing about the future... you and I... who who know very little about what's going on now in our life... we tend to get real high and mighty, and we judge the Sovereign God, who knows everything. And so we say things like... well...