All right, am I recording, Mark? Okay. Got to get the batteries in the right place. All right, we said when We look at God's sovereign will, and we look at natural disasters. We are confronted with one of three options that we can take as Christians when we look at the natural disasters that come around us, be it tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, whatever they might be. One is that God set natural laws in motion when He created the world, and He just lets them run, and sometimes they go amuck because of the fallen condition of creation. So we have tornadoes just because of the sin, corruption that is in creation, and God just lets it happen. Secondly, Satan, when he was cast to the earth, was given control over the earth and weather, and Satan causes those storms and earthquakes and natural disasters. Or, God has created the natural laws, and He either allows or causes these natural disasters according to His sovereignty and His perfect will. Now as Bible-believing Christians, our conclusion must be number three. Three. People try to pick number one to get God off the hook. Well, you know, God's really not in control of that tornado that killed all those people. It just happened. Well, God doesn't take Himself off the hook, neither should we. And we will see, first of all, that God controls the weather. Over in Job 37, 10 through 13, clearly it says, from the breath of God ice is made, and the expanse of the waters is frozen. Also with moisture, he loads the thick cloud. He dispenses a cloud of his lightning. It changes direction, turning around by his guidance, that it may do whatever he commands it on the face of the inhabited earth, whether for correction or for his world or for loving kindness, he causes it to happen. So God is in control of all the events of the weather, be it the drought that they're now experiencing in California, where they are beginning to have to ration water, to the abundance of rain that we have here, and even sometimes the floods that will come. God's in control. He's the one that determines these things. He might do it in order to bring discipline, to bring correction, He may do it as a sign of His covenant love for His people. But nevertheless, He's the one that's doing it. Well then, what should our response be? Don't complain about the weather, Joel. You're complaining against God. He determines it, right? And as humans, we tend to never be satisfied. If it's hot, we want it to be cold. If it's cold, we want it to be hot. If it's raining, we want it not to rain. If it's dry, we want it to rain. It seems that we are always dissatisfied. And that says something about our human nature, doesn't it? Now that you know God's in control of the weather, just thank Him for it, no matter what it is, and ask Him for the grace to endure. Secondly, we saw God controls natural disasters as well. In Isaiah, He talks about Himself as the one forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity. I am the Lord who does all these. So all the earthquakes, the tsunamis, forest fires that burn thousands and thousands of acres, sometimes people's homes, all of those didn't just happen, not a matter of blind fate, but it's God who causes these things. Whether it's a tsunami that hits Bangladesh and kills hundreds of thousands of people, It's God who causes well-being and calamity. Well, what should our response be to that? Whatever we experience at the hand of weather or the forces of nature, all circumstances are under the watchful eye and sovereign control of our God for His plan and purpose." So if you want to write something just briefly in there, you might say, your response should be, realize that God is working all this out according to His plan and purposes. And He doesn't have to tell us what those are. He is carrying forth His redemptive history And it's going to culminate with him taking the bride of Christ and presenting us to Christ blameless, without spot. All of history, everything that's going on in the world, that has ever gone on in the world is for the sake of the bride of Christ and God's redemptive plan to save to himself a people for his own possession. Now that sounds very egotistical, you might say, but that's what Scripture teaches. God is at work carrying forth His plan, and somehow, someway, all the events we see going on, World War II, World War I, Korean War, Vietnam, all those things are working toward the purpose and plan that God has, which is to redeem a people for His own possession. They're not just happening. So God controls the natural disasters that we see going on. God controls childishness. If we have children or not have children, God's in control of that. Then God remembered Rachel. You remember that was Jacob's wife, the one that was attractive, and because of that her Womb had been closed, and then she cried to the Lord, and God remembered Rachel, and God gave heed to her and opened her womb. That's another way of saying the Lord allowed her to conceive. So she conceived and bore a son, and said, God has taken away my reproach. She named him Joseph, saying, may the Lord give me another son. So she had been barren for all these years. And the scripture attributes that to God. That God is the one who closed her womb. And now He opens it. But again, it's God that does these things. Now what should be our response to this fact? That God is in control over childlessness. If a person finds himself unable to Have children, what should their response be? Pray to God, because He's the one in control. All right, after praying, if there still seems to be that God continues to have the womb closed, what else should they do? Trust. Consider adoption, right? Trust that His sovereign will is best. And that may be a hard pill to swallow. But nevertheless, as Christians who believe the scriptures, we by faith say, God, if this is the lot you have for me, then I accept that. And consider adoption. That's another option, particularly for Christian parents. All right? God also controls physical afflictions. Again, we see people with birth defects, children born blind, born deaf, children born with spina bifida, children born with cleft palates, children born with feet rearranged in the wrong directions. I mean, there's no limit, it seems, to physical afflictions, or maybe you develop epileptic seizures, or you end up having a chronic backache. All right, is God in control of all these events and things? Or do we simply say, well, this kid was born with Down syndrome. It was just because the parent was old and things just didn't work right. Just this bringing together various chromosomes misfired. just fate. That's not what God says. Remember Moses, wanted to complain about not being able to speak well, probably thick-tongued or stuttered or something like that. So Moses said to the Lord, please Lord, this is at the burning bush, I have never been eloquent, never recently nor in time past, nor since you have spoken to your servant. for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue. But the Lord said to him, who has made man's mouth or makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? God said, Moses, that's no excuse. I made you that way. I can use you. I knew I was going to call you when I made you. I'm the one that's in control of that. And so God says, Joe, he's the one in control of someone being blind or deaf or born with Down syndrome. Yes, you may, Minnie. I hear you on the Internet. I don't know if you will believe, but Paul is from birth. From birth. Gave him a big mouth to talk. Look at that, Paul. Amen. So when did he start talking? You don't have a tip of your tongue, do you? Did they cut it off? Just never was there. My mother said she didn't have the money to perform that surgery. And so she sits on the wheelchair. It was connected there. They didn't clip it, did they? Huh. Well, praise the Lord. Amen. That was no excuse. He made you that way, Paul. Amen. All right. All right. What should our understanding be when we look at this truth that God controls physical afflictions? First, God is a God of deafness, cancer, Down syndrome, and all afflictions. So God is a God of all afflictions. That's Roman numeral four, number one. They are all within His sovereign will coming from His love and wisdom. It's important we see that. It comes from His love and wisdom. And number three, when we cannot understand, we must affirm. And what do we affirm? That God's in control. That He's a God of perfect love, He's a God of infinite wisdom, and He's a God of absolute power. Alright, you remember we've been stressing that all these months that we're studying that. Those three truths, if you will get those settled in your heart, that God is all-powerful, that God is all-loving, and God is all-wise, that will carry you through any and every thing you might experience in this life, no matter how tragic you may think it is, because you know your God is in control. This has come from Him. The devil may have been the delivery boy. Somebody else might have been the delivery boy, but it's from God. and you know he's a loving God, so he only does what's loving what's best, and because he's wise, he knows what is best. Hold on to that, it will carry you through anything that can happen to you in this life. We read over in Lamentations chapter three, for the Lord will not reject forever, for if he causes grief, He will have compassion according to His abundant lovingkindness, for He does not afflict willingly or grieve the sons of men." You know what that's saying? God doesn't rejoice in bringing pain into your life. He doesn't enjoy that. He only does it because He knows it's what we need. I remember when our second daughter Lindsey was probably about three years old, maybe four. She fell and hit her chin on the table and her teeth went down through her lip. So I had to take her to the doctor to get stitches. But being that age, Joel, she was not inclined to sit still. So they put her in what we best could describe as a papoose, which is they strapped her in this contraption, which she was laying down flat, her arms bound, her legs bound. She could not move because they knew that they had to have her perfectly still. Now when they did that to her, and the look she gave me, like daddy, Help me. Daddy, can't you do something? I wanted to leave, but I didn't want her to have to go through it alone at the same time. But I knew she needed that in order to get the help that she needed. But it was hard. It was hard when they look at you like you're supposed to protect me from stuff like this. You're my daddy. Why are you letting this happen to me? And God, I think, feels the same way. He will bring stuff into our lives that's painful to us, but I believe what pains us pains Him. But He's willing to endure that pain because He knows we need what He's bringing into our lives. And this is what Lamentations says. Habakkuk gives us some more thoughts on this. though the flock shall be cut off from the fold." And that's some rough times going on here, right? I mean, the crops are not yielding, the olive tree is not producing, the flocks are dying, being cut off and not having new flocks. "'And there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exalt in the Lord and rejoice in the God of my salvation.'" The Lord God is my strength. He has made my feet like hinds' feet and makes me walk on high places." What's he saying? He's saying, though I've been beat down, though everything looks awful, though I am in the deepest valley of despair and affliction that I can be in, yet I shall rejoice in my Lord. He is my salvation. And He will keep my feet securely as a hind's feet on the side of a mountain. He will keep me secure, and He will make me walk in high places, that the Lord will deliver me. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers Him out of them all." He has afflictions, many, Joe. but that the Lord delivers them out through those. So what's our ultimate response as we think about God and His control over nature, be it disastrous events, be it physical afflictions, be it childlessness? Trusting God means in the midst of our pain, We accept it from Him. Not with resignation. Well, I can't do anything about it, but I sure don't like it. I guess I'll just have to put up with it. That's not the attitude. Not submission. Oh God, I submit to this in my life, but I sure wish it wasn't here and I don't like it. That's not what we're looking for, Joe. That's not the response. It shows trust in Him. But rather, acceptance. Lord, I accept this from your loving, all-wise hand to me, and your grace will give me and enable me to live in the situation in the way that will glorify you. In my weakness, your power will be perfected. That's what we desire to have. That's the attitude. That's the trust. that we want to have. You don't have to like it, but can you thank God for it anyway? And all things give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. And you can give thanks because you do believe God causes all things to work together for good. That's where you thank. It's an attitude of faith. It's faithful obedience to thank God in awful situations. because you believe that he will bring good in that situation, that he is able to do so. And you may or may not live to see how that good breaks and works itself out, but you may, but it doesn't matter. You go on his promise. We don't live on understanding our situation, Joe. No, we can't. We wish we could. That's what Job wanted. Why? Why? Why is this happening? Job wanted to understand it. All God would do is say, but Job, I'm the one. Look at me. Look at me. We don't live on understanding. We live on promises. Going through a horrendous situation, a tragedy in your life, and you know I use that term tragedy only in the sense of we see it as a tragedy. It's not a tragedy in God's sight. He's working good out of it. But the only way we can, we think if we can just understand what's going on, if we can just understand what's happening, that we can make it through, but that's a lie. We don't need to understand it. We just need to trust God. We need to claim His promises. We live on His promises, not on understanding our situation. All right, that brings us to our conclusion tonight of this study. Next week, Lord willing, we will look at God's sovereignty and our responsibility. How does those two fit together? All right.