Why Pray if God Is Sovereign?

(By Matt Waymeyer)

* Matt pastors Community Bible Church in Vista, California. He is a graduate of The Master’s Seminary, and a periodic contributor to Pulpit.

The story is told about a small town in the south. For many years, this town had been “dry” in that no alcohol was ever sold or served there. But one day a businessman in the area decided to build a tavern. In response to this new tavern, a group of Christians from a local church became concerned and planned an all-night prayer meeting to ask God to intervene. Shortly after the prayer meeting that night, lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground.

In the aftermath of the fire, the owner of the tavern sued the church, claiming that the prayers of the congregation were responsible for his loss. But the church hired a lawyer to argue in court that they were not responsible. After his initial review of the case the presiding judge began the trial with an official statement. He said: “No matter how this case comes out, one thing is clear: the tavern owner believes in prayer, and the Christians do not.”

It is very easy to dismiss the power of prayer, isn’t it? It is very easy to drift into thinking that prayer is a nice sentiment, but in the end, a waste of time because it doesn’t really make any difference anyway.

For some people, this kind of dismissal arises from unbelief and doubt that God really can answer prayer. For others, however, the question that paralyzes their prayer life is this: If God is sovereign, why pray?

In other words, if God will simply do what He wants to anyway, why offer prayers of petition and intercession? Why bother requesting that God do such and such when everything has been ordained by Him beforehand? If prayer consists of pleading with God to change His eternal purposes, isn’t such an undertaking feeble at best and arrogant at worst?

Although there are no easy answers to these questions, Scripture is not silent on this issue. My purpose here is to examine the Bible’s teaching on the sovereignty of God and the prayers of man with the goal of answering the question, “If God is sovereign, why pray?” This will be done by briefly defining what it means that God is sovereign and then by offering five answers to the question of why people should pray.

God Is Sovereign

When people make plans, it is not uncommon for those plans to fail or to be thwarted in one way or another. In contrast to His creatures, however, Almighty God always brings about that which He has purposed. In a word, God is sovereign.

This truth is perhaps most clearly seen in the words of Isaiah 46:9-11, where God demonstrated His superiority over the Babylonian idols by declaring:

Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, “My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure”; calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of My purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it.

In this passage, God indicates that He both purposes what He desires to happen and then actually brings those purposes to pass. In other words, God providentially brings about in time and history what He has sovereignly ordained in eternity past. As the apostle Paul writes, God “works all things after the counsel of His will” (Eph 1:11).

The truth of God’s sovereignty over His creation is taught throughout Scripture. The psalmist declares, “Whatever the Lord pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps” (Ps 135:6; cf. 115:3; Dan. 4:35); Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but the counsel of the Lord, it will stand;” and Proverbs 21:1 states, “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes.” As W. Bingham Hunter writes, “From a biblical perspective, your world-history book should be prefaced with 2 Kings 19:25: ‘Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In the days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass’” (The God Who Hears, 49).

(To Be Continued Tomorrow)

by. Pulpit Magazine

While We Wait

One of the hardest four letter words for us to comprehend and live out is the word "wait". We struggle with this while driving or shopping. We always want to be in the fastest lane or shortest line. We can't stand hearing that it'll be just "five more minutes" till we can be seated or seeing a traffic jam up ahead. We just don't like to wait. Yet several places in Scripture, we are called to wait. In fact, the word is found 142 times throughout the entire Bible. Several times we are even commanded to "wait upon the LORD" (Psalm 27:14; 37:7, 34). This is not easy for us who do not like to wait. Often we feel like David when he says, I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched; / My eyes fail while I wait for my God (Psalm 69:3). This song is a great reminder that just because God may have us in a place of waiting, does not mean that we should lie dormant and do nothing. May God help us to "take every step in obedience," "serve Him," and "worship Him," even while we wait.

In Christ,
Lee
Soli Deo Gloria!!!

Can We Fall From Grace In Eternity

If the angels in perfect harmony with God could sin and fall, how can we be sure this won't happen to us sometime in eternity? If it's at all possible, eternity is long enough that it is bound to happen at some point.

Yes, if it's at all possible, eternity is long enough that it is bound to happen. And so it's good, I think, to know that it will not happen.

I do not have an answer to why God would permit Lucifer, an angel, to fall. In other words: How can a perfectly pure being with no evil inclinations suddenly have an evil inclination? And the answer is: I don't know. The most ultimate mystery to me is the origin of sin in created beings.

I will say God oversaw it and ultimately ordained it without himself culpably causing it. Culpably causing it. How you could cause it any other way, I'm not sure! And yet God reigns and ordains from before the Fall that there would be a crucified Savior for sinners. Therefore, it was all in the plan.

I don't know about the origin of sin, but us I know about, because the Bible talks about us.

"He who began a good work in you will complete it" (Philippians 1:6). If you have eternal life, it is eternal life! It's eternal life. He gave us eternal life. It's not 8 billion year life. It's eternal life: it lasts forever: "Nobody can pluck them out of my hand."

So the doctrine of perseverance in the New Testament is the doctrine that assures us that that work of perseverance in us lasts forever.

"I know my own, I make them mine, I chose them, they follow me, and nobody—not themselves or anybody—can pluck them out of my hand" (John 10:27-28).

by: John Piper

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Measuring Success

Pro Ecclesia: For the Church
by Larry G. Mininger

About forty people scattered on metal chairs greeted me on my first Sunday in my first (and only) pastorate in a quaint little sanctuary nestled in the woods between massive orange groves just west of Orlando, Florida. There were no pews, organ, carpeting or paved roads leading to this place. Snakes in the breezeway and gators in the nearby lake -- I thought I was in the jungle!

About one year into the ministry, a visitor complimenting my sermon whispered to me: "You won't be here long." Puzzled at first, I realized she meant that I wouldn't have to labor very long in this obscure setting. I was good enough to get a bigger church! Feelings of flattery mutated into frustration. Was I supposed to be unhappy with my congregation? Were these people not worth my life's sacrifice? Is the pastorate like a business where you climb the corporate ladder to "real success"? I determined that I would not allow that mind-set to direct my ministry.

Fascination with bigness obscures the truth that Jesus, the builder (Matt. 16:18) and head (Eph. 1:22) of the church, has built many more small congregations than large ones. Small churches, not large ones, are the norm. The congregation in the United States that has more than seventy-five members is above average. A recent report from one church-growth-oriented denomination revealed that one-third of its congregations have under fifty members and one-half have under one hundred.

While the first church in Jerusalem began with three thousand souls and quickly expanded to five thousand, similar results were not forthcoming in Asia. How big were the congregations in Ephesus or Colossae? The visible church of Christ grew immensely, but not all in one place. The size of its congregations varied widely then, as it does today.

That it is the Lord's decision for congregations to vary in size may be gleaned from several texts. First, in Matthew 25:14-29, we have Jesus' parable of the distribution of talents. Each servant was given a different amount with which to serve, and each returned with a different increase. We all know pastors who not only preach to their congregations, but also turn their sermons into books for "additional mileage," and then put those sermons on the radio for an even bigger ministry. This illustrates that Jesus has entrusted different amounts of talents to different servants producing different results. Credit the difference to Jesus!

Second, in Matthew 13:23, Jesus proclaimed that the seed sown on good ground (that is, the Word preached) yields various harvests -- thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold. According to Jesus, we should expect varying results from the same seed and the same labor. God, not the preacher, causes the diverse increase. Salvation is of the Lord. He builds His church as He wills. Third, consider that "there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone" (1 Cor. 12:4-6).

Note that the Holy Spirit has deliberately created a variety in His church -- a variety of spiritual gifts, a variety of services, and a variety of activities ("kind of working," NIV). Does not this divinely determined variation help explain the varying sizes of Jesus' congregations?

Also, experience tells us that not everyone does well in a large church. Some souls get lost in the crowd, while some do so on purpose. Others do not relish the attention they get in a small church -- the natural accountability is too glaring for them. A large church may offer great programs (which, by the way, often bless smaller churches), while most saints feel more needed in a smaller church. A large church has multiple and specialized staff, while in a small church every member can relate to the pastor as to a personal trainer of his soul.

Usually a small church has the most favorable pastor-to-member ratio. In this respect a small church is more like Jesus' ministry to the twelve or like the average New Testament church. A pastor of a small church can visit every home, know all his people well, and intercede for their most intimate prayer needs.

Finally, what is most important to Jesus in any church? Is it not the combination of biblical proclamation of His Word, faithful administration of His sacraments, as well as loving care and Jesus-like discipline of His people? A good small church can provide all these to Jesus' sheep, and, in the case of care and discipline, probably more intensively than a good large church.

There isn't a right and a wrong when it comes to size. Though size is surely affected by our faith versus our sin, in the end it is the Lord Jesus who makes that call. He builds the church as He wills. He distributes His gifts, ministries, and results, and gathers His people in flocks around the earth according to His own wisdom. Large, medium, or small churches are truly not in competition with each other, but are diverse parts of the Lord's comprehensive, eternal plan for gathering all His people into one visible church -- eventually -- in glory. So, each pastor and congregation -- each according to diverse God-given abilities -- responds to Jesus' Commission, and the results, and the glory, belong to Christ.

You are loved!!!

Jesus Christ is Everything - Paul Washer