In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of recognizing the greatness of God and His purpose for our lives. He discusses the consequences that can arise from disappointment, discouragement, disillusionment, and depression, leading to spiritual defeat. The preacher uses the example of the apostle Paul, who faced neglect and hardship but understood that these circumstances were part of God's plan to make him more like Christ. The sermon encourages listeners to accept God's sovereignty and trust that even the things that seem against us are actually working for our good.

Will you turn please to Romans chapter 8. This will be the first of several scriptures that we will see together as we explore the theme, the sovereignty of God as it relates to you, his child. Now should you be here today and not know him in the forgiveness of sins and in the new birth, then we assure you that the sovereignty of God is manifest in his edict, except the man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. And you began in your relationship with him by suing for peace, by coming as a self-confessed sinner to throw down the weapons of your warfare and to ask for pardon and forgiveness and eternal life. But should I be speaking to that one who does not know the Lord Jesus, I assure you that the truth that we are considering also has meaning to you. And so we invite you to give your heart's thought to it as well, but especially to the child of God, to the one that can look into the face of the Lord Jesus Christ and say with Thomas, my Lord and my God, that you've been born into his family, passing from death to life. I would ask you today to see the sovereignty of God as it relates to your life. Years ago an agnostic met a Christian, a preacher that sought to argue with him about the things of time and eternity. And when the preacher had finished, the agnostic looked at him and said, you have not convinced me, sir, your God is far too small. And I wonder if perhaps this is the reason why we have failed to communicate with our generation and lost men everywhere around us, that they see us and notice us and walk with us and discover after some conversation that our God is too small. Not that he is too small, but that our concept of him is. The indictment, as you well know, of Romans the first chapter is that they refuse to have God as he was revealed in creation, that is his eternal power and Godhead in their knowledge. And so they made gods in their own image and in their own likeness, shaped and formed out of the stuff of imagination, that which they could worship. We discover that it was first made in man's image and then in the image of mighty beasts and then creeping things. And finally, we discover that in this devolution, they've ended up worshiping idols, images made to insects and other forms of life. We would recognize that this is always the process downward, whenever one leaves the revelation that's given to us of God. And should it be, dear child of God, at some point in your pilgrimage or mine, that we have gotten our eyes off of him and begun to make God conform to our image and pattern of him, that our progress is also downward. And so the question is, is your God big enough? Is he big enough for your life and your problems and your needs and your heartache? The first thing I would suggest is that there's no question as to what the Bible is taught regarding God. It's true in all the statements of faith, the Judaic Christian tradition, that the Bible teaches from the Old Testament completely through the new, that our God is omnipotent. This means that he has all power in heaven and in earth, that he is able to do everything that he pleases to do. There is no limit, no boundary, no edge to his ability, to his power. But we recognize also that God has deigned that his omnipotence should be manifest in terms of his wisdom and his righteousness, his mercy and his grace. He made man in his image and likeness and gave to us the power of choice. And if we choose, as Adam did and Eve, if we choose to continue in rebellion against him, he does not force us by omnipotence to repent. The spirit of God can be grieved and wounded, he is, does not always strive with men. We know that if God moved in his omnipotence, that no man could resist him. But we do know that the spirit of God can be resisted. God therefore has modulated his operation and his actions among with men to the nature of man and to his purpose in making him. It behooves us therefore to understand that God's sovereignty is but one of his attributes. God does not act in his sovereignty as one aspect of his character, apart from his wisdom and his righteousness and his love and his mercy. Everything that God has done, every edict, every fight, everything he's pronounced in his word, he has done in the totality of his nature. He acts consistent with himself. A father, for instance, may have authority to punish children. But if he punishes apart from reason and apart from mercy and apart from the nature of the deed, then he is subject to a higher law dealing with him. And consequently, we recognize that when we speak of the sovereignty of God, we are not isolating this attribute from all the other attributes of God, but we are simply getting our eyes off of the things of time and sense that change and and turn and twist and fade and fixing them upon God who reigns and who has all power in heaven and earth and is able to do everything that he pleases to do. Now I'm particularly concerned that you should understand the direction that this omnipotence takes. Let me put it in these words, the explanation of his divine purpose is the first thing that we will see from the word relative to this. It's found in Romans the eighth chapter. Your bible is open to it at my request. And I read for you verses 28 and 29. Here we see the omnipotence of God at work in the life of a believer. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the first born among many brethren. This is a clear statement as to the divine purpose in sovereignty as it affects the life of his children. You'll notice that he did not say that his purpose was to make us famous or successful or any of the things that the world would use to as a measure of the operation of omnipotence. The purpose of God and the exercise of his power here is to make us like Christ. This is the purpose that he has fixed with his sovereignty. We know, said Paul, that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. And it is this purpose that now is before us. His purpose is to conform us to the image of Christ. And to this end he has said his sovereignty. He has said his power. He has said his wisdom. All of the nature of God is fixed in this purpose to make us like Christ. Now let me explain how that is. From the moment that you have repented, come under his grace, and I might even go further and and mention some instances where people have been providentially protected long before they ever repented of their sin. But we will speak with at that point of beginning at the time that you repented and received Christ. I say at that moment God's sovereignty came to bear upon your life. God's purpose in grace from that moment of beginning with him was directed to this end of making you like Jesus Christ. Now let me repeat it. His purpose was to make you like Christ. And so he has sovereignly ordained that everything that touches you or touches me shall be to this end. If you would you can speak of a piece of marble. You perhaps have are acquainted with the fact that Michelangelo took that piece of beautiful marble that had had a cut made in it that other sculptors said was useless. And in his genius he saw in it the colossal figure of David. And so he hewed away all of the tips, all of the waste, so that he could actually hew away this flaw in the marble, this cut in the marble that had been made with lack of wisdom and insight by some amateur perhaps. And he used even that flaw, even that thing which apparently made the marble useless, he used even that to add to the luster and the glory and the wonder of this masterpiece. And so it is that God in his grace is going to take you from the moment that you repent of your sin and all the things that sin has done, twisting, warping, wrenching, and marring. God is somehow going to take the past and sanctify it and say that I'm going to, by my sovereignty and by my power, force the past, even the sin, even the failure. I'm going to force the past to contribute to this end of making this like Jesus Christ. And then it isn't just to take the past and sanctify it. This wasn't just Michelangelo's problem to find out some way that he could get around the flaw and damage done to the marble itself. There was something else involved. It was necessary for him to remove all the waste. Someone has said it's easy to be a sculptor, just take away the rubbish and the statue leaps out. But the problem is to learn what's rubbish and what's statue. And this is the difference between the genius and the rock crusher. And so it is that infinite wisdom is seen in you and in me. This, the image of Christ and overlaying this is all of the past attitudes and traits and dispositions, all of the learned responses, all the habits of mind and spirit, everything that we were made us worthy of death. And since we've come to him in repentance and faith, he's put us into Christ and Christ into us. He now says he's going to chip away the rubbish. And so he begins. He uses every kind of means necessary. He's prepared to use a heavy sledgehammer and there are times when nothing else will avail. But he comes down on us with the heavy sledgehammer blows of travail and of accidents and of harm and of hurt as we see it and view it and others see it and view it. But oh, if we've ever seen him on the throne, all power in heaven and earth given unto him, then we realize that that blow, however hard it hurt at the time it fell was simply to the end of knocking away the rubbish and chipping it away that the image might stand out. He's even prepared to let Satan work at us. Oh yes, the enemy does have access. He worked on Peter, you remember, as he said to Peter, Satan has desired the siftiest wheat. And so there was great pressure brought upon Peter as Satan went to work on him. But our Lord Jesus said, I have prayed for you, Peter. I am not going to let it go any further than it should. I'm not going to let it damage that which I wish to preserve. And though Satan worked on Peter indeed, and Peter went out weeping and sobbing, the only way that God could ever get Peter to see his need was to break him on on the heart of the Lord Jesus. And so the Lord Jesus became the anvil and Satan became the hammer and Peter was the object and the hammer of Satan fell on the Peter, but underneath was the anvil of the Lord Jesus. And Peter's heart was broken and he got some insight into his nature. God turned this to the end of making it contribute to this purpose that he set to conform us to the image of his son. Then he uses people. He'll also not only use circumstances and Satan but he uses people. And oh how hard it is for us to come to the place to recognize that in God's sovereignty nothing can touch us but what he allows it. It's easy to preach but it's so hard. I recall years ago in Africa after spending some three years in a task that I had not sought but had been thrust upon me. One day it was done away with and seemingly so thoughtlessly and so needlessly. And what opportunity there would have been for bitterness and recrimination and this was my nature. And I recall riding on the train from Kosti to Khartoum there in the Sudan and reading a book of poetry that had come to my hand. Someone had sent it from at home and the Bible and as I did there was something that just leaped up out of the page and I bowed my head over that stained tablecloth and the old dining car going across the Sudan desert and began to thank the Lord for the persons that had been instrumental in affecting this change in my life because they couldn't have touched me if father hadn't allowed it. And for the first time I began to see the sovereignty of God even as it affects people that touch us. And so we've got to have his purpose explained. It's not to make us famous. It's not to make us successful. It's not to do many many things that the world would say are the criterion of the operation of God. All it is to make us like Christ. We know that Paul had a service in the ministry but we also know that Paul suffered much of his life and died neglected and alone there in Rome and God's purpose in allowing Paul to write to Timothy and say send Mark and send the cloth, the parchments, and send the cloak because it's cold down here in the cellar and I want something to keep me warm. That all of these circumstances, here's a shackles around each wrist and a chain that goes to the other arm of a soldier on each side and here is the honored servant of God that's instrumental in evangelizing the whole of that area from Jerusalem to Yugoslavia and he's sitting there now at the close of his life neglected, forgotten, without sufficient food or wraps to keep warm. And why is all of this? Paul is prepared to see that this too is part of that all things that work together for good. Now if you can accept the fact that God has set his sovereignty in your life to the end of making you like Christ and you can bow to this purpose and worship him in this purpose then there's going to come to your heart and to all of our hearts a sense in which we can see the hand of God at work that the things which seemingly are against us are actually for us. This is his purpose. This he has said will happen. Everything that touches anyone who belongs to him will by his sanctifying grace and power be changed and turned to the end of making us like Christ. But then we need to have his plan explained for if he has a sovereign purpose he also has a sovereign plan. If you turn to Ephesians chapter 2 in verse 10 I think you will see the dimensions of this plan. Here in this second chapter at the conclusion of this portion dealing with our identification with Christ he sets forth in beautiful simplicity and directness the divine plan worked in the sovereign for will of God for we are his workmanship it reads created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Do you see the dimension of eternity now in your path? You say well I came to this place and I made a choice it was my choice freely made and I agree to this and I recognize that God is not going to arbitrarily force you into his plan but I do say that God has a plan for your life and if you are prepared to accept that plan and receive it then the end is going to be the fulfillment in that richest sense of all that he intended for you. But this is not complete without adding to it second Timothy 1 8 there in this second chapter second letter of Paul to Timothy we see the another side of this dimension of his plan. Paul is as we've said in Rome he's been in prison he's waiting for his execution and he's writing to the young man Timothy and he wants Timothy to realize that his being in Rome is part of the plan and so he exhorts him be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord nor of me as prisoner but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God who has saved us and called us with a holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Oh can you not see it dear heart you were created in Christ Jesus under good work which God has before ordained you should walk in them and you were saved and called not according to your works but according to his purpose and grace which was in Christ Jesus before the world began this is no accident you're not having to just sort of blunder along through life if you know him and understand that in his purpose he intended to conform you to the image of Christ and that he had a plan to do this and the plan would be tailor-made steps steps that would if you would accept would lead you the most directly and and quickly and happily into the fulfillment of his purpose here again accepting his plan does not mean necessarily that you're going to get your book into your name and and life story in the book of missionary heroes nor does it mean that you're going to become one of the nation's outstanding evangelists because God's purpose isn't to make you that maybe for someone this is his intention and purpose but it isn't necessarily for you but in that day when the book is opened and it is found out what you have done with your life it will then be revealed whether or not you committed yourself to your heavenly father and to the plan that he had for your life now let me say it as directly as I can make it dear friend God has from today on a perfect plan for your life if you had all of his wisdom you couldn't make a wiser plan if you had all of his grace you couldn't make a more gracious plan if you had all of his love you couldn't make one that's more intended to bless you and others if you had all of his power you couldn't make a more successful plan he saved you and called you not according to your works but according to his purpose and grace which was in Christ Jesus before the world began it isn't something he has to work out it isn't something he has to figure out it isn't as though he had to say something like this well there's old bill well what do you know he's accepted the lord isn't that fine now what will I do with bill oh how utterly utterly condemning it is of the god of heaven and earth who's known the end from the beginning and who's seen you before the world was and known all about your nature who has beset you behind and before and there's not a word in your tongue but lowly knows it all together this god whom we serve knows you and he knows me and he saved us and he's called us not according to our works but according to his purpose and grace which was in before the world began is your god big enough to have known about you before the world was is he big enough to have made plans for you before the foundation of the earth is he big enough to have chosen the best and you don't need to choose you can choose him and let him choose all the rest is he the god of the bible is and if you serve that god then he is can you commit to him do you see the sovereignty of god at work in your life dear christian friend when you can resign yourself into the will of god and absolutely commit yourself wholly to the outworking of his plan my friend when you discover that god has a plan and you settle on that plan and choose that plan and you declare that you'll have nothing but that plan and commit yourself to it then god will set his sovereignty to sovereignty to the end of seeing that that plan is unfolded and fulfilled in your life and so i look at you today and i realize that if we as a people here were to simply say god has a plan for each of us oh god of heaven and earth i'll take that plan i don't need to know what it is i don't need to know where it'll take me i don't need to know what it'll lead me into i know you and that's all i need to know and because i know you and love you and trust you i can happily gladly commit myself to your will and plan for my life and rest in it this is the sovereignty of god at work in the life of a believer when you realize his purpose is to make you like christ and his plan is to the minute details of each day when the choice is to be made that choice is to be made not in the life of what seems good for you and wise for you and best here and best there the choice has to be made in what is the will of god and the resignation of heart saying i choose not my own way i choose thy will oh lord i choose thy will and then of course the divine the sovereignty of god at work in the life of a believer as the divine presence is enjoyed it is only when we have come to the place that we are prepared to look into his face and say thy will be done thy will be done in my life in every area and aspect in part of my life that god can afford to entrust to us the fullness of his presence while at council in miami i talked with one of the pastors for whom i have the deepest admiration and greatest personal affection in the lord but my heart was greatly grieved as he said to me i'm just becoming quite discouraged because i hear people talking about the fullness of god and the power of god but i do not see that power being outworked in the kind of measure that i think we should have i said what measure is that well he said on pentecost peter preached and three thousand were saved where do we see that happening today besides here or there and he mentioned the place or two i said yes that's true but remember there were 120 at least in that room on the day that day and they were all filled with the holy ghost and you only hear from the most from two or three of them you hear from peter and from john and from philip when james yes but what about the others what about mary the mother of our lord and what about matthew you'll never hear a miracle performed by them you'll never hear of any great sermon preached by them you never hear of any outstanding accomplishment by them were they less ill than was peter or john why do we always take the exception out of 120 that two or three percent in the divine purpose of god and say this is to be normal when we forget that there were 115 of them from whom we've heard absolutely nothing but they also knew the fullness of the holy ghost and they fulfilled god's purpose for them and it's only when you are prepared to come to the place where you say lord i'm willing for you to meet me on your terms whether i'm ever heard of again or ever seen again i want you not to use you to any other end i believe one of the greatest hindrances especially of students in school from meeting christ on the level he wants to be met is that somehow deep in our minds as a subconscious desire that by this means we might use god to a level of success where we otherwise would not be able to attain and i am sure that this is grieving to the lord god is to be sought not as a means but only as an end and it's only when we come to realize his purpose is to make us like christ and his plan is minutely worked out for us and we do not need to know where the leaders just know him that we can actually come to the place where we enjoy the divine presence because as long as we think that somehow our course and our work depends upon our skill and our cleverness our erudition and our choice we're going to subconsciously try to make god a lever to accomplish some purpose oh dear heart come to that place where you rest in him and you'll rest so completely in him that you say lord i want you not as any instrument of my own achievement or success i want you simply for yourself i i believe that this is honoring to him when you enjoy the presence of god rather than use him i do not believe god wants us to use him on the contrary i believe it's his purpose that he should use us and this brings me to the fourth point the divine power experience the sovereignty of god manifests in the power of god revealed in our lives so we've seen the divine purpose explained and the divine plan embraced and the divine presence enjoyed and now we'll look for a moment at the divine power experience where would you find this i think if you'll turn to second corinthians chapter 12 you'll find paul coming to that place that god was found it necessary to bring him in order that he could really be where the lord intended him to come here as we find paul writing to the church at corinth in the seventh verse he declares that lest i should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations there was given to me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of satan to buffet me lest i should be exalted above measure may i stop here and just comment saying we aren't sure what that thorn in the flesh is there are those that are absolutely sure it was a disease of the eyes because of other references but i would suggest that there's a strong possibility this thorn in the flesh was the judiah that followed him wherever he went the pharisees that just sort of stayed on him this trail like the fbi does on a public enemy when everywhere paul went and tried to undo everything he sought to do but whatever it was he sought he sought the lord three times that it might depart and he said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness then here the triumph of the apostle has he seen that god's purpose is to make him like christ and god's plan included even these this thorns and god's presence is in the midst of it listen to him most gladly therefore will i rather glory in my infirmity that the power of christ may rest upon me can you not see then that when he's worshiping a sovereign god and he's seen the purpose and the plan and has the promise of his presence that he says i'm perfectly willing as long as i know it's the will of god i'm perfectly willing to resign myself to his will most gladly therefore will i glory in my infirmity i take pleasure in infirmity in reproaches in necessity in persecution in distresses for christ's sake for when i am weak then am i strong this is the word of god to our hearts when we see the sovereignty of god at work in our life we can experience his power not necessarily in the removal but in giving victory in the will of god giving the power of christ upon him in the fulfillment of god purpose according to his plan now dear heart i ask you today is your god big enough have you seen that his purpose is to make you like christ that his plan is minutely takes you step by step the way you've come and is equally perfect for the future that his presence is the source of joy and strength and blessing and that his power can only be released for you have submitted wholly and unreservedly to him all what comes what great blessing comes but what dire consequences blow out of it i have talked to you about the seven deadly days you may recall it i gave them some time ago how the disappointment leads to discouragement and discouragement needs to disillusionment and disillusionment leads to depression and depression leads to spiritual defeat and disintegration of morale oh it's one thing to preach it you know dear heart but it's another thing to walk in it and about the turn of this year way back in january something that had meant so much to me that i'd been building for for some five years with you when i presented the little outline that we've had and i had them here before me they've been in the pulpit and i gave it to you and was building for it and when it was all over and they'd all come in and were all counted there were 25 28 as i recall and i looked at it and when talking with one of the elders one day and getting him to help me with them i handed it to him and said here's five years worth it was just a i didn't realize at the time it wasn't until this week actually that i realized how acutely enough keenly disappointment had settled in my heart how little i had how long i'd labored now little i'd seen in response and this became to me a disappointment that led to discouragement and discouragement that led to a disillusionment and a disillusionment that led to a depression and it wasn't until just this week that the spirit of god very graciously showed me the way and brought me back to that place of acknowledging that if no one ever fills in any questionnaire and if no one ever follows in the way it's his word it's his way it's his word it's his truth and all the results have to be in his hand then i utterly refuse to gratify the devil any longer by being disappointed and deal with it as the venal mortal sin that it is because we have god that sits upon the throne and reigns and rules and whether this message has any effect in your heart or in your life i assure you it does in mine for i'm speaking to you as i've read a renewed pledge of faith not in you and certainly not in me but in him for our god reigned it he's upon the throne and all authority in heaven and earth is in his hands we see his divine purpose is to make us like christ that's me and that's you we see his divine plan is step by step in what seems to be a defeat but always in his sanctifying grace it's to the end of conforming us to the image of his son and we see that his presence is unchanged and we see that his power can only rest upon us when we're prepared with paul to say i am glad will most gladly will i glory in my infirmities that the power of christ may rest upon me i take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions and distresses for when i'm weak then i'm strong beloved you were your god taken out does he sit on the throne does he reign does he rule i'm glad we can bow before the god of heaven and earth this one who's been exalted whose hands have nailed holes in them whose feet have been torn whose side has been riven and know that he holds the reins of the universe in the hands of infinite love and mercy and that he's our god and that we're in him placed there by the father and he's in us by the holy spirit and that we are serving not time not groups not organizations not denominations but we serve the lord christ and if we can come to the place dear heart where we recognize that our god is big enough for whatever circumstances whatever situations whatever failures whatever defeats we may have experienced that he's not changed by them nor his purpose has not changed for it is still that all things are working together for good to them that love god to them or the called according to his purpose for whom he did for no he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son to be like jesus to be like jesus all i ask to be like him all through life's journey from earth to glory all i ask to be like him this becomes the passion of our hearts then we're prepared to let him do anything he needs to do to make us like christ and oh how much more there is that he wants to do than he's done in my life and in yours and since his purpose is to make me like christ and nothing else and i want to be like christ then we can resign ourselves into these hands infinite love and he who shaped us and molded us and plumbed the world into being and set them aflame by nothing more than a pointed finger can take these little lives that he's redeemed at such an awful cost and shape them and mold them and make them as he wants them to be vessels unto honor cleansed and purged and meet for the master's use oh i'm glad dear heart that god is big enough for you and for me we serve the lord christ shall we bow in prayer we've seen thy purpose we've embraced thy plan we've enjoyed thy presence we would experience thy power oh god of heaven and earth thou before whom the angels bow with face and feet covered now before whom the redeemed of the ages come now before whom john fell upon his face is dead thou who's dead alive but thou is dead and risen from the dead oh how we thank thee and praise thee that we're thine we've been redeemed we've been ransomed we've been delivered we serve the risen christ we serve the lord god of grace and mercy of power we ask thee today that somehow the discouraged among us and the disheartened among us and the defeated among us may realize that our strength cometh from the lord our help is in the lord our wisdom is the lord and that we might worship again a sovereign god that sits upon the throne and reigns and righteous how we praise thee father that thou has tempered thy justice with mercy thou has tempered thy power with love we thank thee that all of this is met in the lord jesus christ we can come to thee therefore knowing that just as we see him and he's presented to us so is thy heart of infinite love and we tend we see thy tenderness and thy grace and thy mercy and thy compassion as weary we are with the journey and with the strife to come and throw ourselves upon the shoulder of thine omnipotence and rest and the arms and routes stretched on calvary for us and so gather us as a people close to thyself and help us to worship thee not just in some attributes but to see thee as thou are sovereign god whom we serve and whom we love with our heads bowed and our eyes closed i hope the spirit of god has spoken some out of your heart but if you found disappointment or discouragement or disillusionment or depression with anybody or with anything let it be that even in this moment that you come back and realize that god has been using these things just to cut you off from everything else so that he could crowd you to praise let us come back together and worship at the feet of our risen glorified exalted god and father and his son jesus christ you know what you're going to have to do you know what confession what acknowledgement what asking of forgiveness you know what you're going to have to do if god is to relieve the pain and the grief of your failure in your heart but remember this too is part of his purpose let us mind god together shall we stand now for the benediction now may the love of god our father the grace of our lord jesus christ and the communion and the fellowship of the holy ghost be and abide upon us until we meet again and are finally gathered with the company of the redeemed to the feet of our lovely lord amen