Rooted Pre Season: Episode 5

Is God really in control, or does life just happen?

In this episode of Rooted, we turn to Colossians 1:15-20 to explore what it actually means to say God is sovereign. When the world feels chaotic or out of order, Scripture reminds us that nothing exists outside of Christ’s sustaining care. Jesus is not distant from creation. He is actively holding all things together, even when life feels unstable or fragmented. This episode invites you to reconsider what “being in control” means and how God’s sovereignty can become a place of trust rather than fear.

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to, Rooted with Emily Talento, where we explore who Jesus is through context, culture, and covenant. Again, I'm so glad that you are here. Today we're covering day five of my Divo on God's character. The question is, is God really in control or does life just happen? And The answer is God is sovereign. Just a little disclaimer before we go any further. Today's a little tough. There's just some elements of our faith that we have to accept that we're not gonna understand. It's just the reality. I mean, we don't understand the trinity perfectly. We don't understand salvation perfectly. We don't understand what happens in the end times necessarily. Anybody who says they could explain salvation or knows exactly what's gonna happen at the end times, or can unpack for you how the Trinity works and how each part interacts with each other. They're misled. They can't, it's a mystery of our faith. We do not have the answer through scripture directly. We can make guesses and claims and we can have evidence to back up our claims, but nobody actually knows for sure. And God's sovereignty is part of that. God's sovereignty is an element of this greater conversation of we're really not gonna understand on this side of heaven, and that's okay. Before we go any further, I think we need to define God's sovereignty. I think it's a word we use, but how often do we actually sit with the meaning in simple terms, God's sovereignty means he's ultimate supreme power and authority over all of creation, controlling everything according to his will. Okay. What does that mean? What does that not mean? This should prompt a few things happening in your brain right now. One of which could be, wow, the state of the world is garbage, flaming garbage, and also looking at your own life and saying, wow, there is elements here that are just a complete mess. So, if God has ultimate supreme control and authority over all of this, then why is he letting this happen? It's a good question. This isn't really a simple answer. I'm gonna do my best to do it quickly so we could jump into Colossians, because it's a really cool passage. So, just because God. Has ultimate supreme power and authority over all creation, controlling everything according to his will. That's the definition, right? Just because he has that authority doesn't mean that he uses it. He could change any situation he wants. He has the power to, but oftentimes that's not what he chooses to do. I'll give another explanation. We live in a fallen world. We live in a world that's tainted with sin. There are natural consequences to living in a world with sin. And on this side of heaven, God's not gonna override that. I mean, there's a time and a place and he will, he will conquer sin. He already did start the process by his death and resurrection, but the enemy still has dominion over this world. Yes, God has complete authority. He can interfere with any and every situation that we are experiencing or seeing, but just because he can doesn't mean he chooses to. What did we talk about yesterday? God's wisdom is perfect. Sometimes he does fix situations, sometimes he does interfere. I, and I say interfere in a positive way, right? But we talked yesterday about his wisdom. He knows the outcomes of all things. He has perfect timing in mind. God actually knows what's best for us, for our good, for his glory. But here's the thing, it's not really my job as a finite, limited human being, which we've covered over the last few days on. When and why God should get involved in what situations? I just don't know. Again, I can't see five seconds ahead of me. I'll leave it to him to know when to get involved with whatever's happening in my life or in the world at large, because I trust with his wisdom that he's gonna do what's best. Let's dive into our scripture for the day. I'm gonna read it. He's the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth. Visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things. And in him all things hold together and he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent for in him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him, to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven. Making peace by the blood of his cross. Okay, there's so, there's so much here and we're not covering it all. Okay. Where do we even, okay. Okay, so to keep things organized and me on track, we're gonna do this by bullet points. Number one, God is sovereign because Christ is supreme overall creation. We can see this through verses 15 and 16. Jesus is not part of creation. He's before it and above it. No one gave him power. He just was, again, it goes back to one of those things that we're just not gonna understand. Number two, God's sovereignty means nothing exists outside of his authority. Verse 16. All things includes the visible and the invisible. Earthly and cosmic powers. Nothing rivals him. We could talk about how the enemy has dominion over this world. Yeah. Because God allows him to have dominion over this world. Nothing happens outside of God allowing it. Three. God doesn't just create the world, he actively sustains it. Okay, so this is where I wanna camp out for a second because we can learn so much about God's character. The concept of sustaining, makes me think of our founding fathers and how a lot of them. Were Christians, kind of, but in a way that we wouldn't recognize today. They were deists, not all of them, but a lot of them, they were deists, which means they believe that God created the world, but then he doesn't intervene. He just kinda left us not relational. They would reject the idea that he's sustaining all things in traditional deism. This is very what, what, what emotion. I mean all of the emotions. It makes me sad. It makes me confused. I just, I don't understand where you're getting that from. Scripture. Literally pick any book. I don't care which one You can see. God being a relational loving God. I know. Crazy. We could find him being relational and loving, even in Leviticus and places like that. There is purpose in why he does the things that he does, but his, his character remains true from Genesis to Revelation. It's just weird and inconsistent with what I know about our God from scripture. Where he builds this world, does everything. And then is like, all right, well I'm gonna go. You guys are good. Everything fine. You guys got everything you need. No questions. I'm gonna head out. But um, yeah. Catch you never. That's kind of the concept of deism. It just blows my mind because that's not who our God is we have established thus far through the days leading up to this, who our God is so beyond us, creating the heavens with his hands and the foundations of the world, all these things, right? He still chooses to be involved with the intimate areas of our lives. Why does he do that? Because he loves us, because he's our father, and it's a concept. I guess because I'm not a parent, I don't fully understand at this point everyone who's a parent tells me that like, you'll get it. I will take your word. Verse 17 says, in him, all things hold together. He's actively holding all things. I have other verses. Hebrews one, three says, he upholds the universe by the word of his power. In Psalm 1 0 4, 27 through 30, it's paraphrased. It talks about how creation waits on God for provision when he gives, they live. When he withdraws breath, they return to dust. Nehemiah nine six says, preserve all of them, and the host of heaven worships you. Job 1210 says in his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. These are just a few verses, right? When we think about even just all the things that need to go right in our bodies for our bodies to function, that doesn't happen by accident. Could have God set things in motion and then, you know, hands off. No, because it's not consistent with his character. God is involved. He wants to be involved according to His wisdom and goodness. That was a bit of a lengthy pit stop. Number four, God's sovereignty is purposeful, not chaotic. Verse 16, talks about how everything exists for Christ moving toward his intended end. Sometimes I think we forget that we are not living for ourselves. Even the mundane tasks, like literally everything is about Jesus. It's really not that complicated. We make things complicated, and we involve ourselves in so many conversations that we have no business being in, and we're entitled to things that we should not be because we think somehow we matter, have say, and at the end of the day, everything exists for Christ and is moving forward his intended purpose. It's God's sovereignty versus our free will. Where does one begin? And the next one, and I don't know. I hate to say it like this because I never want this to come across like I don't struggle with this. No. Daily I do, but God already took care of the biggest problem that we ever had, conquering sin and death. Through his death and resurrection on the cross, right? That's the big, like we were separate. We had nothing going for us. Truly, we as humanity we're completely at a loss and he fixed that problem in a way. Not interfering with people's free will. I just don't think you guys are making very good choices here. You guys aren't getting it. I'll just. Help you out. And he didn't do that. He did help us out, but in a way of still keeping our free will intact while still being sovereign over all of creation. How did he do it? Again, it's a mystery of faith. I understand it, but I do trust that when it is time for us to understand, it will make perfect sense. So let's jump to the rooted moment of the day in Ancient Israel sovereignty was often pictured through the image of a shepherd king. This is a figure that held authority, yet remained closely involved with those under his care. The image brought together the rule and responsibility emphasizing leadership that guided and sustained rather than ruled from a distance. What a cool picture. You have a king that's to be respected and revered and feared in a sense, and then you have the shepherd. Who doesn't really have a lot of earthly respect typically, but has this sense of guidance and compassion and love for his flock. To mix the two concepts again, he is our shepherd king. How cool is it that our God does both? That we get to respect him for who he is as the king, but also be led by him? Comforted by him as our shepherd. That's just one of them that I can't get over, the paradox of that. Well, on that note, if you enjoyed today, please like, comment, subscribe, anything that you would do on any of the other podcasts you enjoy listening to. Follow me on Instagram if you haven't already. At Emily Talento and at Rooted with Emily Talento, you could also subscribe to my YouTube channel Rooted with Emily Talento. It's about to be a lot more active, so stay tuned for that. I hope you have a great day and I'll see you next time.