Understanding God's Sovereignty Amidst Satan's Limited Dominion

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There is a sense in which Satan is the ruler of this world, and there's a sense in which he is not, and the Bible speaks in regard to both of those senses. So let me speak first to the first principle and I'll deal with this one first, the idea that Satan is the ruler of this world. [00:08:59]

Psalm 24 verse 1 says by the way this is also repeated in First Corinthians chapter 10 twice: the Earth is the Lord's and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell Within. Where Psalm 115 verse 3 but our God is in heaven he does whatever he pleases. In other words God's in charge. [00:11:13]

Friends, God rules and Reigns overall. Whatever Dominion or authority Satan has, it is because God has allowed it, and God has allowed it because he will ultimately work for the furtherance or it will ultimately work for the furtherance of God's great plan of the ages. [00:14:06]

So whatever Satan does he does it within the permission of God who rules overall. Satan does not have what we might call free reign to do whatever he desires. God restricts what Satan can and can't do. Now it is true, for example, First Peter chapter 5 verse 8 says that Satan walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. [00:14:35]

The Jewish feasts, such as Rosh Hashanah, hold prophetic significance, pointing to both past events in Jesus' life and future gatherings of God's people. These feasts remind us of God's ongoing plan and His faithfulness throughout history. [00:22:23]

I believe that the feasts of trumpets points to that ultimate holy convocation of God's people at the sound of a trumpet. That's what the Feast of trumpets was, there'd be a blowing of trumpets Rosh Hashanah blowing of trumpets to call together the people of God in a holy day of convocation. [00:22:08]

We have faith that God's will is good. Now that doesn't make us fatalistic, no, not at all. We believe that God as part of his will ordains his people to pray, to act, and we believe that prayer matters. You know I've been going through lately The Book of Numbers, and there's two remarkable instances in the Book of Numbers where Moses prays. [00:30:12]

If we are so focused on The Sovereign will of God that we think that human actions don't matter, then we've misunderstood The Sovereign will of God and we need to recalibrate that thinking. Both things are true: God has a sovereign plan for all the Ages which he is unfolding coming down to the participation of individual lives. [00:31:25]

I believe it's absolutely fine for pastors to be political leaders and to be politically involved. I think that there should be more of that and not less. Now certainly not every Pastor probably it's very few pastors that are called to actually take political office to run for city council, to run for the school board, to run for mayor or some other office. [00:33:46]

I think that Christians should be politically involved especially in a democracy. Listen, if God has placed you in a nation or a community that is a democracy, that means he's given you a vote of participation, a stewardship, and I believe that you should use that in a way that honors and glorifies God. [00:35:03]

Christians should be politically involved politically engaged without putting their hope in politics. And Gabriel this is a very difficult thing for many Believers to do. There's just something seductive, there's something powerful about the political process and political power in itself that makes it easy for Christians who start getting involved in politics to start putting their hope in politics. [00:35:40]

The concept of God as a father is not emphasized in the Old Testament. It's Not absent but it's not emphasized. Matter of fact I think that the imagery of God being the husband to Israel is more prominent in the Old Testament than the imagery of God being a father to his people but it's in there. [00:47:54]

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