KINGS AND KINGDOMS - WHY GOD DOESN'T INTERVENE MORE?
KINGS AND KINGDOMS
Why do bad things happen to good people? If God is loving, why is human suffering possible? Does the weight of a great life fall on God’s sovereign control, or are there human factors involved too? In this preaching series, KINGS AND KINGDOMS, we will explore how God has delegated to individual believers a kingship, with responsibility to understand the principles that make the kingdom thrive. We will learn how to engage spiritual authority, how to defuse the emotional shame that drives a king to live like an indigent, and ultimately how to live like God’s royal people. If you have ever had questions of why “God let this happen,” you will find nurture, freedom and a deep sense of security from this series.
TODAY’S SERMON NOTES
ROMANS 5:17 AMP For if because of one man’s trespass (Adam’s original lapse, offense) death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive [God’s] overflowing GRACE (unmerited favor) and the free GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS [putting them into right standing with Himself] REIGN AS KINGS IN LIFE through the one Man Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
IF GOD IS SOVEREIGN,
AND WE ARE KINGS,
WHY…?
THE ANSWER COMES UNDERSTANDING TWO THINGS
God’s Sovereignty (Last Week)
The Origins of Evil (Today)
BUT…
WHY DOESN’T
GOD INTERVENE???
PROBLEM TO OVERCOME
God CAN intervene (All-Powerful)
God SHOULD intervene (Redemption)
YET, miracle prayer is many times WITHOUT A MIRACLE
CREATION & PROCESS LAWS
GENESIS 1:1 NKJV In the beginning God created the HEAVENS and the EARTH.
ROMANS 1:20 NLT For ever since the world was created, people have seen the EARTH and SKY. Through everything God made, they can CLEARLY SEE his invisible QUALITIES--his eternal power and divine nature. So they have NO EXCUSE for NOT KNOWING GOD.
NATURAL (GENERAL) REVELATION
Knowledge about God and spiritual matters, discovered through natural means, such as observation of nature (the physical universe), philosophy and reasoning.
SPECIFIC REVELATION
Knowledge of God discovered through the highest authority and inerrancy of divine scriptures.
ALL TRUTH IS GOD’S TRUTH
“I hold to the classical Christian view of the relationship between GENERAL revelation and SPECIAL revelation, and the thesis that no truth of any kind can be discovered apart from God’s revelation. With Augustine, Aquinas, and all of orthodox Christianity, I believe that all truth is God’s truth.”
Dr. R.C. Sproul, Reformed Theologian and Philosopher
WHAT IS A PROCESS LAW?
A series of events that takes place
in any given circumstance with unvarying uniformity.
Gravity
Lift
Electromagnetism
Thermodynamics
Biogenesis
Chemistry
Planetary Motion
Mathematics
Logic
Uniformity of Nature
INTELLIGENT DESIGN & PROCESS LAWS
Organized
Structured
Systematic
Ordered
Harmonized
Standardized
Precise
Interpretive
Methodic
Predictable
Accurate
Definite
Concrete
Observable
Analytical
Scientific
"The greatest scientists have been struck by how strange this is. There is no logical necessity for a universe that obeys rules, let alone one that abides by the rules of mathematics. This astonishment springs from the recognition that the universe doesn't have to behave this way. It is easy to imagine a universe in which conditions change unpredictably from instant to instant, or even a universe in which things pop in and out of existence.”
Dinesh D'Souza, What's So Great about Christianity
”A law of physics is a pattern that nature obeys without exception."
Sean Carroll, Cosmologist at California Institute of Technology, quoted by the New York Times, nytimes.com; 2007
"Why nature is mathematical is a mystery...The fact that there are rules at all is a kind of miracle."
Richard Feynman, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist, Nobel Prize winner for quantum electrodynamics
"...to be a scientist, you had to have faith that the universe is governed by dependable, immutable, absolute, universal, mathematical laws of an unspecified origin. You've got to believe that these laws won't fail, that we won't wake up tomorrow to find heat flowing from cold to hot, or the speed of light changing by the hour. Over the years I have often asked my physicist colleagues why the laws of physics are what they are? ...The favorite reply is, 'There is no reason they are what they are--they just are.'"
Paul C. Davies, Physicist, Cosmologist, & astrobiologist at Arizona State University, quoted in edge.org/3rd_culture/davies07/davies07_index.html
THE EARTH & PROCESS LAWS
Sized Smaller – Atmosphere Impossible
Sized Larger – Atmosphere contain free hydrogen
Fractionally Further from Sun – We would freeze
Fractionally Closer to Sun – We would burn up
Moon’s Perfect Distance – Gravitational pull
Earth Rotations – Predictably every 24 hours
"One of the most important numbers in physics, the proton-electron mass ratio, is the same in a galaxy six billion light years away as it is here on Earth, according to new research, laying to rest debate about whether the laws of nature vary in different places in the Universe."
Dr. Emily Baldwin, Earth's Laws Still Apply in Distant Universe
HUMAN EYE - The eye distinguishes over 7 million colors. It automatically focuses on over 1.5 million messages.
DNA - DNA is made up of four chemicals that scientists abbreviate as A, T, G, and C. They are arranged in the human cell like this: CGTGTGACTCGCTCCTGAT and so on. There are three billion of these letters in every human cell. DNA is a three-billion-lettered program telling the cell to act in a certain way. It is a full instruction manual.
BUT…
WHY DOESN’T
GOD INTERVENE???
God designed the the universe so that even DIVINE MIRACLES WOULD BE EXPERIENCED through the predictable and organized execution, or management, of SPIRITUAL PROCESS LAWS
FREE CREATURES are FREE to be IGNORANT, DISREGARD or FAIL TO ACCURATELY EXECUTE spiritual process laws, removing the probability of miracle-intervention
Miracle interventions are therefore CATEGORICALLY IMPERSONAL and INDEPENDENT of any INTERPRETATION OF GOD’S ACTUAL WILL and LOVE for His free creatures, removing the possibility of God’s negligence
The GODHEAD is CATEGORICALLY PERSONAL, providing HELP, GUIDANCE & SUPPORT for human execution of miracle interventions
TRUTH & PROCESS LAWS
JOHN 8:32 NKJV And you shall KNOW the TRUTH, and the TRUTH shall MAKE you FREE.
SPIRITUAL PROCESS LAWS
Unresolved Sin
Low Word Feeding
Pride
Unforgiveness
Bitterness
Wrong Motives
Bad Attitudes
Rage / Criticism
Lack of Honor (Spouses)
Sowing / Reaping (Sparing)
Disobedience to Generosity (Tithe – 10%)
Inattention to God's Spirit
Lack of Serving God's Kingdom
Lack Seeking God's Kingdom
5-Sense Domination
Unbelieving Talk
Etc.
WHAT ARE SOME
SCRIPTURE EXAMPLES OF
SPIRITUAL PROCESS LAWS?
CHURCH TITHING – 10% GIVING
MALACHI 3:9-12 NIV You are under a curse-the whole nation of you-because YOU ARE ROBBING ME. 10 Bring the whole TITHE into the storehouse…Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that YOU WILL NOT HAVE ROOM ENOUGH FOR IT. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty.
CHURCH MATERIAL GENEROSITY
2 CORINTHIANS 9:6-8 NIV [Remember] this: he who SOWS SPARINGLY and grudgingly will also REAP SPARINGLY and grudgingly, and he who SOWS GENEROUSLY that blessings may come to someone] will also REAP GENEROUSLY and with blessings. …8 And God is able to make ALL GRACE (EVERY FAVOR and EARTHLY BLESSING) come to you in ABUNDANCE, so that you may ALWAYS and under ALL circumstances and WHATEVER the need be SELF-SUFFICIENT…
IGNORANCE OF GOD’S WORD
HOSEA 4:6 NKJV MY people are DESTROYED for LACK OF KNOWLEDGE. Because you have REJECTED KNOWLEDGE…
BINGEING IN GOD’S WORD
JOHN 8:31-32 NKJV Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you ABIDE in MY WORD, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall KNOW THE TRUTH, and the TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE."
DISHONORING SPOUSES
1 PETER 3:7 AMP In the same way you MARRIED MEN should live CONSIDERATELY WITH [YOUR WIVES], with an intelligent recognition [of the marriage relation], HONORING THE WOMAN as [physically] the weaker, but [realizing that you] are joint heirs of the grace (God's unmerited favor) of life, IN ORDER THAT YOUR PRAYERS MAY NOT BE HINDERED AND CUT OFF. [Otherwise you cannot pray effectively.]
IT’S NOT ABOUT PERFORMANCE,
OR MERITS, BEFORE GOD;
IT IS ABOUT PROCESS LAWS!
WHAT WILL YOU ALLOW?
MATTHEW 18:18 CEV [Jesus said] I promise you that GOD in heaven WILL ALLOW WHATEVER YOU ALLOW on earth, but HE WILL NOT ALLOW anything YOU DON'T ALLOW.
WHAT ABOUT THE SCRIPTURES
WHERE GOD IS CURSING PEOPLE WITH SUFFERING?
PERMISSIVE VERBS
DEUTERONOMY 28:15, 20, 22 KJV But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God …that all these CURSES shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: ... 20 The LORD SHALL SEND upon thee CURSING, VEXATION, and REBUKE, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, UNTIL THOU BE DESTROYED…; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me. ... 22 The LORD shall SMITE thee with a CONSUMPTION, and with a FEVER, … they shall pursue thee UNTIL THOU PERISH.
WHAT NOW???
EVALUATE your trust in God
ACKNOWLEDGE your relationship to spiritual process laws
ACTIVATE to God’s process laws