The Storm of Sovereignty

St. Charles | Sam Byers
May 31, 2026

Jonah 1:4-5

But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.” Jonah 1:4-5 (ESV)

1. God RULES over every storm. (v4)

• God is sovereign.
a) has UNLIMITED power or authority
b) has independent authority and RIGHT to govern
c) HIGHEST and most important—the first and best of beings

"Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? Lamentations 3:37–38 (ESV)

“Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.” Psalm 135:6-7 (ESV)

“If God is not sovereign, then God is not God. If there is even one maverick molecule in the universe … we cannot have the slightest confidence that any promise God has ever made about the future will come to pass.” RC Sproul

• There are no rogue waves in God’s universe.

• The God who calms storms is the God who commands them.

• God’s sovereignty shouldn’t scare you, it should steady you.

2. God REACHES through every storm. (v4-5)

• The storms of life are one of the ways that the Lord disciplines those who are his.

“‘For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.’ It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?” Hebrews 12:5-6 (ESV)

• Sometimes God disrupts our lives because He loves us too much to leave us alone.

“God's providence is his almighty and ever present power, whereby, as with his hand, he still upholds heaven and earth and all creatures, and so governs them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things, come to us not by chance but by his fatherly hand.“ Heidelberg Catechism

• God is reaching into our lives even through the storms we experience to draw us nearer to him and make us more like Jesus.

3. God REVEALS hearts in every storm. (v5)

• When you get squeezed, what’s in you is what comes out.

• Storms don’t create our hearts — they reveal them.