In episode 15 of the "No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe" podcast, host Greg Ryan delivers a sermon‑style monologue titled "Sovereignty of God Final Look." He begins by acknowledging his personal insecurities, describing an inner critic he calls "the punk," and admits he lacks formal theological training. Ryan then challenges the common theological claim that God is absolutely sovereign—"above all and answers to no one"—by arguing that such a view is a dangerous, self‑defeating lie. He asserts that God has granted humanity free will and that blaming God for human choices is a logical fallacy. To illustrate his point, he cites Jeremiah 19:5 and Jeremiah 32:35, where God explicitly states He did not command the abominable practices of child sacrifice, suggesting limits to divine control. He also references Joshua 24:14 to emphasize personal responsibility in serving the Lord. Throughout, Ryan urges listeners to read, meditate on, and apply Scripture, presenting personal testimony of a 29‑year spiritual journey and encouraging believers to stop blaming God, to pray with thanksgiving, and to let the Word shape their lives. The episode ends with a call to reflect on the true nature of God’s sovereignty and to choose to serve Him personally.
Welcome to episode 15. I committed to 30 in a row and I am officially halfway through. You know how it starts.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast. Where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.
Well, all right, I told you that I was going to continue my lesson on the sovereignty of God and why I believe that it is a dangerous teaching. Not that God is not sovereign— God is sovereign— God— but the sovereignty of God, the definition that I have, that he is above all and answers to no one. He controls anything God wants to control. But there are things that God has chosen not to control. God has given us free will, and for us to blame God for us exercising our free will, I believe, is a catch-22 lie straight out of the pit of hell. And that's one of the reasons that I call the punk the punk. Is because he uses and tries to manipulate our feelings and our thoughts against us. But then he turns it, he turns it on God. I wanna give you an example what's going on in my head. You know, I'm talking to this microphone, I'm in a room pretty much by myself, and I'm speaking to you. If you're listening to this podcast, I am talking to you, but you are not here right now when I made this recording. But I have to picture you in my mind. But also in my mind, as I picture talking to you, I've also got all of these stupid thoughts coming in like, why are you even doing this? You have no formal training. You're not a theologian. You're not this, you're not that. And so I've got, and I call that the punk. I mean, that is a, there's, 3 voices going on inside of my head, and one of them I give credit to the punk. Now, it's not constant, but I, I don't walk around with the most self-kind— I don't know anybody that mentally— I mean, not, not how they project themselves out in the real, you know, what they put out that— I mean, I'm telling you this without the mask on. I mean, I'm just telling you, if you think that I've got it all together, I mean, that— and I apologize, I don't have it all together. I'm just a regular guy, just like you are. If you're a gal, just a regular person that don't have it all figured out. But I will tell you that when I read the Bible and when I start looking at myself through God's mirror, and so God's Word, and I mean, it shines a light onto me. And instead of me trying to pick that little speck out of your eye, the Bible tells me, hey, Bubba, get the board out of your eye. You know, pull the plank out of your eye before you, before you start trying to pull the little speck out of your neighbor's eye. So this is not me trying to tell you, hey, you got some— I think you got something in your eye, because until I get this board out of my eye, me trying to get to you and get to that little speck, I'm gonna beat the heck out of you with my board that's in my eye. So I've got issues, but at least I'm addressing them through the Word, and I'm coming before you to tell you, look, there's some things that God cannot do. God cannot lie. In fact, Jesus was a perfect representation of Father God in the flesh, and one of Jesus' names, one of the names he gave himself, and one of the 7 I AMs in John was, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." So God is the truth, so God can't lie. Another thing God can't do is God cannot be surprised. You cannot catch God off guard. And I mean, I don't think anywhere in heaven God said, "Ooh, I didn't see that coming." God sees the end from the beginning. The kingdom of God, God's way of doing things, he's not trapped in time. We've talked about this before, but God is not trapped in time. God is in heaven looking down He sees the end from the beginning. But I'm going to read a couple of scriptures from the prophet Jeremiah that you probably, if you, unless you were in Jeremiah today, you probably haven't read these in a while. I know I hadn't. I did, I don't spend a lot of time. Jeremiah, I think, was called the crying prophet. But, uh, I don't spend a lot of time in Jeremiah. I just, I just don't. But in Jeremiah 19:5 God is speaking to the prophet Jeremiah, and he said, they have also built the high places of Baal to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into my mind. And a similar verse in Jeremiah 32:35, and they built the high places of Baal which are in the valley of the son of Henom to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire of Moloch, which I did not command them, nor did it come into my mind that they should do this abomination to cause Judah to sin. Now I want you to think about these two verses with the whole idea that God is sovereign, God controls everything, and man controls nothing. And how did God— if it never even came into God's mind, how did, how did God make those people burn the offerings, the sons and daughters. I mean, God, it was an abomination. God was upset, and he was telling Jeremiah that, you know, this, this thing here is not right. So I really want to take this stronghold, and I just want to start breaking it down. If you still believe that God is in control of everything, I just want you to start questioning. I want you to start looking in the Bible and start thinking, I don't know if God controls everything. Did God control— now, to say that he didn't, was not aware of it, or didn't see it coming, that's a different thing. But free will— God gave man free will. And so with that in mind, the free will that we use and we take, if we exercise our faith and start building up our faith and say, God, I'm going to get in this Bible thing. And that's what I want to encourage you to do. I want you to— I want to encourage you to start reading, start building your life on this word, on the rock that Jesus said, and start getting into this word because it will change your life. God is not a respecter of persons. If it changed my life, it will change your life. I mean, I took 29 years— I know you're probably tired of hearing about that number, but it was 29 years away from God. I've been at this thing 28 years, and we're going to move off of the sovereignty of God tomorrow. You're probably thinking, thank God, I'm tired of this. But it really is— it's a big deal if you've ever blamed God for something not happening. And the bumper sticker that says nothing fails like prayer, I believe that is a direct response to us begging God to do what he's commanded us to do. And if we don't know the Bible and the Word, and we don't know what God's asked us to do— now, I'm not against asking God for help. I believe it's in Philippians, to be anxious for nothing, but in all things, through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. It doesn't say to not let God know, but to blame God. You know, the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but Jesus came for an abundant life. The Word should always take precedent over what you think it says. So go to the Word, find out what it says, and if it contradicts something that you're thinking, Just start meditating. That's why you're supposed to take some time and let this stuff percolate, or meditate, or whatever the fancy-pants words you want to use. But let's go to Joshua 24:14. Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the river and in Egypt. Serve the Lord. And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, Choose for yourself this day who you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. You're not going to answer for what I do, you're going to answer for what you do. And I want you to start thinking about the sovereignty of God, and do I truly believe that God controls everything. You may have not actually thought about it, but a lot of the decisions or a lot of the things that you do in the prayers asking God and begging God to do stuff that he's told you to do— we're going to dig into that some more, but I'm going to close this out today. And I do appreciate you listening if you made it this far. Thanks again.
Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.
