Kingdom Tension

At Discovery Church we have a summer series entitled "you asked for it". Every week we take a question from the members and try our best to answer that question during our Sunday service. This week we had a tough one and I drew the short straw! Here were the questions.

What is God's will?

What is freewill?

Do the two work together?

Is God in control?

These questions are all good and require deep thought, but they also require them to be addressed together. In other words answering them separately would be easy, but not accurate. Whenever the question of will is posed (whether it's God's will of freewill), the doctrines of Calvinism and Arminianism come to the forefront. Simply, do we have freewill or does God control the fate of each person. Tough question. I can't write here all that was said, but I found a statement which I used Sunday morning, that many responded to and wanted a copy of of. It is not mine and I wish I could give credit to the person who made this statement, but haven't been able to find the original source. Here it is:

“God is in charge of what happens, when it happens, how it happens, why it happens, and what happens after it happens. This is true of all events in every place from the beginning of time. He does this for our good and His Glory. He is not the author of sin, yet evil serves His purposes. He does not violate our freewill, yet freewill serves His purposes. We’re not supposed understand all of this. We are simply to believe it by faith."