A few weeks ago I was invited to be the guest speaker for a youth snow camp weekend up north, and the theme of the weekend was all about God’s sovereignty. It’s one of those words we use a lot in the church, and yet even for those of us who understand it, or think we understand it, it can be hard to accept or appreciate it.
As I was preparing for this Sunday and next, the concept of God’s sovereignty came back to me and I thought it could be helpful to take what I had studied for and prepared for that weekend and use parts of it to hopefully bless this congregation as well, recognizing that God’s sovereignty touches on some of the biggest concerns people have with believing in or following Jesus, whether in or outside the church.
What does it mean when people say that God is “in control”? How could a good God allow suffering? Why is God allowing me to go through these circumstances? All of these questions connect back to a proper understanding of sovereignty.
Over the next two weeks we’re certainly not going to answer all of them, but we are going to look at a few different stories of people in the Bible who had events happen in their lives beyond their control—situations of suffering and hardship—and through how they responded to these events we’ll hopefully together be able to grasp a better picture and understanding of what it means for God to be sovereign in the midst of it all.
