Sovereign. God is sovereign. God is in control. People say God is in control of all things.

But what exactly does it mean for us when life feels chaotic or when grief and loss and sorrow hit our lives, like we talked about on Monday.

Today we define sovereignty straight from Scripture, tested against very real events, and discover

why nothing, not luck or chance, can derail God's divine purposes.

Today, on Ask Pastor John, the God over dice.

We're reading Psalm 115 together tomorrow. Psalm 115 verse 3 is such a potent text. Our God is in the

heavens. He does all that he pleases. And that leads us to this new question to us from a

listener named Jessica. Pastor John, hello, I'm trying to get my head around this whole concept

of God's sovereignty. I hear this term thrown around a lot in theological discussions, but I'm

realizing I don't have a clear understanding of what it actually means. When we say God is sovereign,

what exactly are we saying? Is this a biblical concept? And if so, where do we see it taught in

scripture? I feel like there's so much confusion and debate around this topic. Some people seem to

think it means God controls everything down to the smallest detail, while others push back and say that that undermines human freedom and responsibility.

I'm getting lost in all the arguments.

Can you help me understand what God's sovereignty really means from a biblical perspective?

That's a great question, Jessica.

Here's how Pastor John answered this very same question from Stephen in 2019.

Well, I like to make every effort to keep things clear and simple.

And I think one of the reasons we don't speak with much clarity sometimes is that we don't start with definitions.

So that's where I like to start on almost every conversation I have is let's make sure we know what we're talking about.

So let me propose some definitions and then we'll test them with the Bible.

And then we'll end with maybe what he's asking, one of some of the big issues surrounding it.

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