Scripture: Matthew 28:18
Title: “God Is Still In Charge”
Introduction: Sometimes when we look at how bad things are going it is easy to allow yourself to wonder if God is still in charge.
Remember when we had prayer, and God’s commandments were read in school and chewing gum and being tardy was the worst problems that we had? Now murder, drugs, assault, teen pregnancy, and survival of the fittest rule, but guns and knives were never a problem, till we kicked God out of school."
Why are things the way they are? (It’s simple!)
·When Christians put God in charge of their lives then we will see things change and not until then.
·People have forgotten God. – They have left God out of things.
·"Our laws ignore our deepest needs/ Our words are empty air./ We’ve stripped away our heritage./ We’ve outlawed simple prayer./ Now gunshots fill our classrooms./ And precious children die./ We seek for answers everywhere./ And ask the question "WHY"?/ They regulate restrictive laws./ Through legislative creed./And yet we fail to understand./ That God is what we need!”
·We are seeing the results of what happens when people haven’t put God in charge of their lives.
·Adam & Eve forgot God and look at what happened.
·Pharaoh forgot God and the Red Sea engulfed them.
·Belshazzar forgot God when he took the holy vessels from the temple and had a drunken party using them. (Handwriting on the wall)
·Psalms 9:17 “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”
·Why are good people suffering? – Many good people get swept into the flood tides of judgment because of bad decisions others have made. Nehemiah & the three Hebrews in Babylon for instance.
If God has all the power why doesn’t He do something to stop all of this?
I believe in light of the Scriptures that God allows things to happen to us to prompt us to turn to Him and allow Him to be Lord in our lives.
Every time God executes judgment upon the earth mankind attempts to explain it away by scientific and intellectual methods.
I fear that even Christians of today want God to reveal His displeasure by some other way than just through the Bible.
How can we prove that God is in charge of things?
First of all the Bible says He is.
·Reading and believing the Bible will help us to accept the fact that God is in charge.
·I believe we could very easily join the ranks of those in the Gospels who asked for a sign so they could believe Jesus was really who He said He was.
Why doesn’t God do something?
·God is doing something, He is extending grace, He is being longsuffering toward mankind.
·Jesus said,“I give unto you the keys” Mt. 16:19
·Could it be that God is waiting for you and I to do something with what He has already given us?
·1 John 4:4 “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.”
·WHY DON’T WE PRAY? Jer. 33:3 “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”
·Mark 16:17-18 “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” (We’ve got to do the casting out!)
The Christian Church has neglected the “Great Commission.”
·God left the Church in charge of doing the work of the kingdom.
·God sent the Holy Spirit to give us the power and authority to accomplish that work.
·God has given us the “Instruction Book” to go by so that we can do things the right way. (The Bible)
UNBEIEF has really HINDERED the PROGRESS of the work of the Lord.
·Mark 6:5-6 “And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.”
·Ps. 78:41 “Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.”
·Matthew 13:58 “And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”
Satan only has the POWER over us that we give him!
God is allowing us to experience what it’s like to go through life without putting Him in charge of our life.
How can you tell who is in charge?
1 Samuel 8:7 “They have not rejected you they have rejected me.”
(Page 5)
God makes no apologies for His actions. Why? Because He is perfect!
Who knows the mind of God?
Romans 11:33 “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!”
Oh, what a wonderful God we have! How great are his riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his methods!
ARE WE AFRAID TO FOLLOW GOD.
·We need examples to follow.
