December 8, 2024

Who Determines my Tomorrow?

Preacher:
Passage: Matthew 1:1-17
Service Type:

Introduction

  • Who will determine tomorrow for you?
    • We have been challenged lately
    • Will it be the nations?
    • Will it be individuals?
    • Meaningless chance?
  • The Bible states that God is sovereign over all
    • He works out His own pre-planned purposes
    • Example of Christmas
      • Gen 3:15 – "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel."
      • All history would revolve around Jesus – to bring hope to us
  • This guiding promise in Matt 1
    • Who rules my tomorrow?
  • Overview:
    • A God of Sovereign Power
    • A God of Sovereign Grace
    • A God with a Sovereign Plan (that cannot be changed)

A God of Sovereign Power

  • To manifest His glory through the Lord Jesus Christ
  • Personal example – the little details
  • Matt 1 tells us God is the God of detail, who works out His promises
    • v2 – God makes a promise to Abraham
      • The purpose summed up from v2 and cumulating in v16
      • That Jesus Christ would be born
  • God’s promises are our certainties
    • He rules all of history according to these promises – Gen 3:15
    • He keeps His promises through good and bad – rouges and heroes
      • Example of Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa – v7
      • Example of Jehoshaphat, Uzziah – v8
    • His promises are divinely unbreakable
      • v9-13 – not the split kings who thought they ‘all that’
      • Swept away in the dust of history
    • There is an unseen hand who rules everything
  • God is always at work
    • v3 – Tamar (difficult times)
      • God can use difficult times – they do not stop His purposes
    • v5 – Rahab (a prostitute)
      • God brought her into His purposes
    • v5 – Ruth (a Moabitess)
  • He can order even the small details of our lives for His Mighty purposes
    • We can can confidence in tomorrow because God is trustworthy
  • God can also take our past and turn it into something beautiful – for His purpose

A God of Sovereign Grace

  • God rules not by the ‘performance’ of people but by grace
    • Personal example of family tree
      • We have skeletons in our family tree/cupboards
      • God has no skeletons in His cupboards
        • v3 – God ‘restores’ Tamar
        • v5 – God saves Rahab
        • v5 – God saves Ruth
        • v5 – God blesses Bathsheba [Urriah’s wife]
    • God pours grace into people’s lives
    • We are to be a Church and people built upon grace
      • God brings people from the ‘wrong pedigree’ into His family
      • God can work in our hearts

A God with a Sovereign Plan

  • Summed up in one Person – the Lord Jesus Christ
    • The point of the genealogy/history (v16) is Jesus Christ
      • To bring all things to the glory of God the Father
      • Christ’s birth – a high point in history
      • Christ’s return – a culmination of history
  • Who rules my tomorrow? – examples
    • Matt 1 – the same one who has ruled everyday from the beginning – the Sovereign Lord
      • Example of John Calvin
    • This God – Hallelujah