So the three passages of scripture, a letter from Louis Giglio a couple weeks ago,

a conversation about the sovereignty of God in the Middle East back in November and the murder of

Ronnie Smith on December 5.

Those things have been simmering in the crock pot of my mind now for some time and what this message is is the result of that

simmering. So let's start with the letter from Louis two weeks ago.

Louis and I generally try to communicate ahead of time.

So I catch on to what God is doing in his heart and the team that move forward with these events and I've been

praying and God has never failed to blend my heart and the heart of the team into something that I was very happy about and

that was no exception this time and so there was a sentence that riveted me from

the letter I'll read it to you I am praying these are Louis's words I am

praying for a radical revelation of the cross that will obliterate our

inadequacies I am praying for a radical revelation of the cross that will obliterate

your and our inadequacies.

So that's where I want to go.

That's very much in sync with what I was thinking,

as you'll hear as the time goes by.

So there's the letter.

The Middle East.

Spent two weeks in the Arab Peninsula,

and one night I was lecturing on the sovereignty of God and I was arguing from the

scriptures that the sovereignty of God is is utterly pervasive it's utterly unstoppable, it is minute in its application.

God rules the roll of the dice in Las Vegas, he rules the rolling of the galaxies at the reaches of the universe,

...