God Has Everything Under Control Even on the Worst Day of Your Life
PPT 1 Title
To each and every one of us there is a day in our life, that from our perspective we would call , “the worst day of my life.”
Here are a couple verses that speak of either the worst day of our life, or the worst time the world will experience, both passages also give us insight on how we can survive that time.
PPT 2 , 3 text
Ephesians 6:13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. (NAS)
Ephesians 6:13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. (NIV)
This is the same verse from two different translations (NAS NIV) you will notice Paul is telling his readers they need to take up the full armor God to be able to resist in the evil day. He probably has in mind either a really hard day of trouble or season of profound testing, But it is no stretch that he is also implying that there will come a day that will be worse than all others and you can make it through that day if you put on all the armor God has made available for that time of onslaught.
In like manner Jesus in says:
PPT 4 Text
Revelation 3:10 ‘Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth.
In this passage Jesus speaks of an hour, or a season of severe testing, it is worded in such a way that it indicates this will be one of the most difficult times the world has ever had to endure, again it comes with a promise of God’s help in the worst time for his people. One last example will suffice:
PPT 5 Text
Daniel 12:1 "Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued.
Again we see a time of the worst trouble imaginable, and God delivers His people in special and marvelous ways. Yes there is a day that will be the worst day of your life, and there is a season that will be the worst season of your life. I hope you have already passed through that, but if not I am here to tell you God has everything under control even in the worst time of your life. I want to show you that from the scriptures.
PPT 6 text and picture of locked doors
Ps 76:10 Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. (KJV)
Psalms 76:10 For the wrath of man shall praise Thee; With a remnant of wrath Thou shalt gird Thyself. (NAS)
That text basically says the most evil and wicked things man can do are still limited and controlled by God. I chose the image of the locked doors to convey that thought. God has everything, and I mean everything, under control, even on the worst day of your life. He lets through what will bring Him praise and the rest He locks out.
If we look at Good Friday and what happened to Jesus we can get real insight to that truth.
In Revelation 13:8 Jesus is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
His death in all its gory details was known before the first blade of grass every sprung from the earth.
There are numerous prophecies, Psalm 22 for example, prophesies the parting and sale of Jesus robe. Psalm 22 was written 1000 years before his birth, many other examples can be cited. Like the plucking of His beard in the book of Isaiah, and the betrayal of Judas for 30 pieces of silver in the book of Zechariah. Both recorded more than 500 years before Jesus came.
The recording of minute details long before they happened shows that God knew exactly what was going to happen, but that doesn’t prove that He had it all under control, simply that He knew it would happen.
Nor does it explain how God could know such terrible things were going to happen and not stop them.
We go back to Psalm 76 for a partial answer.
Consider also some of the things Jesus said:
PPT 7 text
John 19:10 Pilate therefore *said to Him, "You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?"
John 19:11 Jesus answered, "You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me up to you has the greater sin."
I can almost see Jesus wagging His finger at Pilate and saying, “No, no, no, no. You are not in chargem you don’t have any authority but that which My Father gave you.” Jesus is clearly saying God was completely in control of all that was transpiring, even to who was in office that day representing the Roman empire.
PPT 8 text
John 10:17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
John 10:18 No-one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."
So we see the bible doesn’t simply say these things happened they, happened intentionally. But how could God let that kind of suffering go on and not stop it? My answer in line with Psalm 76 is that He probably did stop a lot, He didn’t stop it all. How many times had they tried to kill Jesus and couldn’t? When He was a young child, Herod ordered all males under 2 executed, another example is in Luke 4 very early in His minsitry, the Jews tried to throw Jesus off a cliff, but He miraculously walked right through the midst of them as if God had somehow made Him invisible. God stopped many things, but He what let through was only that which He intended to work out for good.
Here is the clincher that God has everything under control even on the worst day of your life.
PPT 9 text
Mt 26:39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.
God didn’t have a better way to get done what He wanted to get done. If He did, He would have employed it.
Jesus is praying and sweating drops of blood, do you think His Father simply turned His back on that level of suffering? No, the Father knew there was no better way, and Jesus knew it also, otherwise God would have intervened and changed things. That is all well and good for Jesus, you can accept that God had everything under control for Him, but you will say, “I am not Jesus, that doesn’t apply to me.” Oh yes it does.
PPT 10 Text
Romans 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren;
Romans 8:30 and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
I don’t have time to fully unpack these verses today but they say (short version) God predestined (meticulously planned) that He would weave all the events of your life to help you become more like Jesus. Paul they goes into a long list of wonderful statements that He summarizes in verse 31, If God is for us nothing can be against us, all things work together for good.
I want to wind this up, with what I believe are 3 prophecies given by unbelievers, showing that God even superintends some of their actions, because He has everything under control.
PPT 11-12 text
John 11:49 But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all,
John 11:50 nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish."
John 11:51 Now this he did not say on his own initiative; but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation,
Caiaphas is one of the Jewish leaders that pushed hard for Jesus to be murdered. In this passage the Jews are trying to figure out what to do to Jesus, He has just raised Lazarus from the dead and they are afraid they are losing their grip on the Jewish nation. Caiaphas basically says, “don’t be stupid the solution is simple we kill Him, and the nation is saved.”
The bible tells us that somehow God was involved in that sentence, and I think the sense is in line with what Joseph says in the book of Genesis, “you meant it for evil God meant it for good.” In other words, what Caiaphas said in anger and hatred, God meant in love.
I want to give two more examples that are very similar, but are not called prophecies. They are not said to be statements that God claimed ultimate responsibility for, but as we look at them we can see they are very similar in content, and we can easily say that what they said in hatred, God meant as a prophecy of His good intentions. Here is the first:
PPT 13 Text
Mark 15:31 Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save.
They are mocking and saying Jesus saved others but He could not save Himself. What they said as an insult is a dead on statement of truth. For if Jesus saved Himself from that suffering, our sins would not have been paid for.
Here is the final example, and I pray that it will become a lifetime prayer of yours.
PPT 14 Text
Mt 27:24 When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.
Mt 27:25 Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.
What they said in anger, and hatred, and meaning to put a curse on themselves if they were wrong God used as a message from Him to us, that the reason Jesus went through all He did was because God so loved the world. They meant it as let a curse be upon us, but I can see God meaning it as let the atoning blood of Christ be upon you.
The Nazi’s used this phrase as a justification in part to persecute the Jews, as do white supremacists. Their thinking is that the Jews killed Jesus, but as we have already seen Jesus said no man takes my life from me. And, if there is guilt, it is all our guilt for Jesus died for the sins of the world.
These people meant what they said one way but now we should take it as the heartbeat of Christ, and the reason He went to the cross. Take it as a reflection of His everlasting love for the Jewish people, and not only the Jews but for the whole world. Also let this, that was meant as a curse by man, be a prayer for you, and your family, “His blood be upon us, and upon our children.”
The blood of Christ hearkens back to the first Passover story where blood was put upon the doors of Jewish homes and everywhere it was the death angel was not allowed to go.
God didn’t let Jesus suffer any more than He needed to, but suffer He did, and yet on this the worst day of His life, we see that God had everything under control, even the words of His worst enemies.
Close: That is also true for you. I want to pray for those who may be going through a season of extrement testing...
Have the congregation repeat, “His blood be upon us, and upon our children.”
