Submitting to God's Sovereign Will
Pastor Tan Thai · Nov 1, 2020
This third sermon in the 'If the Lord Wills' series teaches that believers cannot determine God's will merely through circumstances or miraculous signs. Instead, complete submission to God's sovereign and moral will is the foundation for all wise planning and decision-making.
The sermon opens by summarizing two points from the previous week: God's will is never subject to chance or luck, and miraculous signs are rare exceptions rather than a standard method for discerning His will. The pastor presents three categories of God's will as outlined by Professor Haddon Robinson — sovereign will, moral will, and personal will — noting that Scripture clearly reveals only the first two. Therefore, the question 'How do I know God's specific will for every personal decision?' is not strictly a biblical question.
The first major section examines the relationship between God's sovereignty and circumstances. The pastor provides multiple examples showing that drawing conclusions about God's will from circumstances alone is a serious error: the islanders of Malta were wrong twice in their assessments of the apostle Paul (Acts 28:3-6); the disciples erred in attributing a man's blindness to sin (John 9:1-3); and Job's three friends made the same mistake. Jesus' teaching in Luke 13:1-5 also confirms that disaster does not necessarily signal divine punishment for sin. The key conclusion is that believers must not interpret circumstances as a reliable indicator of God's sovereign will without accompanying supernatural revelation.
The second section addresses the relationship between God's sovereignty and human planning. James 4:13-17 does not teach that planning is a sign of weak faith, but rather warns against the arrogance of excluding God from one's plans entirely. Proverbs 19:21 and 16:9 affirm that while people make many plans, it is God's purposes that ultimately prevail. Believers are encouraged to plan while remaining conscious that God retains the sovereign right to redirect and reshape those plans according to His greater purposes.
The third section presents two models of submission: Moses and Paul. Moses underwent a complete transformation through 40 years in the wilderness, where God shaped his character from an impulsive prince into a humble, patient leader. In his second missionary journey, Paul was repeatedly blocked by the Holy Spirit — first from preaching in Asia, then from entering Bithynia — until he obeyed and arrived at Troas, where he received the Macedonian vision. Through that act of submission, the Gospel was preached in Europe for the first time, fulfilling the prophetic mandate of Acts 1:8 to reach the ends of the earth.
The sermon closes with a call for believers to live in full submission to both God's sovereign and moral will — planning with humility, trusting that 'all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose' (Romans 8:28). This posture of surrender is the true foundation for experiencing peace, joy, and contentment in every season of life.