Well, it's really good to see you guys. We're going to go ahead and start by opening with a word of prayer. And tonight we're going to be talking about God's providence, God's providence. So let's go ahead and pray and then we'll get it, jump right on into our subject. Most gracious heavenly father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for your love. We thank you for your mercy and your grace. We thank you that you are a forgiving God and a compassionate God. And Lord, I'm just thankful for the privilege and the joy and being able to come here and share your truth, your word with the folks in this room. Lord, we are all sinners. We have all fallen short of your glory. And so we need your mercy and your grace. We need your forgiveness. We need your power. We need your might. And so I pray that you will help us tonight to focus on your truth. Your word is truth. Help us to hear that truth. Help us to receive that truth and help us to believe that truth. And I pray that you will give us the strength to walk in that truth as well. Lord, I ask that you will hide me behind your cross and just allow your words to speak tonight. In Christ Jesus' name we pray, amen. So we're gonna be talking about providence tonight. This is our, as we continue our study of the Baptist Catechism. All right, so we're gonna be talking about providence tonight. Before we begin to talk about Providence, we want to go ahead and define it. Providence is a place in Rhode Island, right? Providence, Rhode Island, is it Rhode Island? But that's not what it means here. Providence means the care or preparation in advance. This is just your basic dictionary definition. Care or preparation in advance. Prudent management. Providence means prudent management or care or preparation in advance. And finally, in a theological sense, the care, guardianship, and control exercised by God, divine direction. All right, let me read that again and then we'll go ahead and talk about what we're gonna talk about tonight. Providence is the care, the guardianship, and control exercised by God. It is divine direction. So the premise that we want to base our study on tonight is the word of God teaching us that God is in control. Can you all say that with me? God is in control. And not only is God in control, but God is good. So the foundation of what we're gonna be talking about tonight are those two facts. God is good. Everything that he does is good. And God is in control. And what is God in control of? Everything. All right. God is in control of everything or he is not God. He is in control of all of creation. He created it and he can do with it what he pleases. God is the creator and he can do with the creation what he pleases. God is in control of all of creation. So if you got your little study sheet you have there, we're gonna have to go fast tonight. The other night it took us 55 minutes to do about 18 questions and tonight we got 41 questions. So we're gonna have to pick up the pace a little bit in order to get done. But I wanna share a quote with you to begin with. regarding providence. This is from a guy named Abraham Booth. Abraham Booth was a theologian back in the 1700s, 1800s. And he said, that abundance after which the carnal heart so eagerly pants is adapted to gratify not the demands of reason, much less the dictates of conscience, nor yet the legitimate and sober claims of appetite, but a fond imagination, pride of show, the love of secular influence, the lust of dominion, and a secret desire of lying as little as possible at the mercy of God's providence. All right, let me read it again, because that sounds really confusing, but it's really simple. That abundance after which the carnal heart so eagerly pants. All right, what is a carnal heart? It's an unregenerate heart. And so the carnal heart eagerly pants. Right? What is the carnal heart eagerly panting after? The desires of the flesh. And his desires are adapted to gratify. Not the demands of reason. Not things that are logical and make sense, but much less the dictates of conscience, nor the sober and legitimate claims of appetite, but a fond imagination, pride of show, the love of secular influence, and the lust of dominion, and a secret desire. So there's a secret desire in the carnal heart of man to rely as little as possible upon the providence of God. All right, so we started the class off by saying the providence of God is God's what? guardianship and control his care his guardianship and Control and what brother Booth was trying to say to us here is is that in our fallen nature? We don't want anything to do with God's care God's guardianship or God's control Because if God is in control then that means that what I'm not I And to the carnal heart, that is a problem. You see what he was saying? The carnal heart desires after gratification. It doesn't matter if it makes sense or not, it's what gratifies his desires. The carnal heart does not pay attention to the dictates of conscience. Even when our conscience tells us we're doing something wrong, we continue to do what is wrong. Pride of show. The love of secular influence. We like to belong. We like to be appreciated. We like to feel like we count. The lust of dominion. We want to be in charge. We want to be in control. We want to be the one calling the shots. and a secret desire to rely as little as possible on the providence of God. Have you ever noticed when it is that you really get close to God and pray and go to church and read your Bible and do, it's when we're in trouble. You ever notice that? It's like when I'm in trouble. When things have gotten out of control, I finally go, you know what, I better turn to God here. And there's a direct relevance, there's a direct correlation between how much control we give God and how much control we take and how much control we have in our lives and how lack of control we have in our lives. The more we allow God to control our lives, the more controlled our lives become. The more we turn our back on God and try to control things ourselves, what happens to life? It gets out of control. Why is that? It's because the carnal heart doesn't want anything to do with God. The natural man refuses to trust God. He doesn't want God in his life. And so we have to understand that there's a battle going on inside of us in our fallen nature to trust the God who created us. And it's only through the grace of God, the power of the Holy Spirit, and a trust in His Word that gives us the strength and the willingness to turn and to follow Him and to trust Him. So what we wanna do is we're talking about providence tonight, is we wanna look at some Bible verses and we wanna figure out why is it that I should trust God? Like, what is it that I'm trusting in when I say I trust in God and God's providence? So, our Baptist Catechism question tonight, question number 14, class says, what are God's works of providence? Okay, y'all can repeat with me, ready? God's work of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions. Let's read that again. What are God's works of providence? God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures and all of their actions. So God's providence is most holy and most wise. God sees the whole picture. God sees the beginning from the end. God sees eternity past to eternity future, and he knows everything that's taking place right now. He is the only one that has the right, the ability, and the knowledge and wisdom to make proper decisions about what is happening, because he's the only one that sees the whole picture. And so it tells us that his providence is most holy and wise, but he preserves, what does it mean to preserve? Save it, to take care of it, to keep it from harm. Preserve, govern, what does that mean? Yeah to have authority to lead and control and so he has the powerful preserving and governing of who all his creatures and all of their actions All right. So let's look at some Bible verses to back up what we learned there Psalm 145 17 Psalm 145 17 Psalm 145 and 17 says this, the Lord is righteous in all of his ways and holy in all of his works. Everybody there? Did everybody turn there? All right, I saw you all raise your hand with your Bible at the beginning of the class. I think they made you all do that for a reason, right? Make sure you're putting your eyes on it. The Lord is righteous in all his ways. Does God do anything unrighteous? No, why why not because he is righteous in all of his ways everything that he does is right All right. Why are you letting this happen to me God? And the answer is because Because I'm holy and righteous and you're not That's the answer when we ask God why is he letting this happen the answer is because I is for your good and my glory is what God tells us. Even the bad things that happen in our lives are for our good and his glory. We know that all things work together for, right? To those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. So Yahweh is righteous in all of his ways and holy in all of his works. So God's works of providence are most holy. We see that in scripture now. Let's turn to isaiah 28 29 Just to the right a little bit there isaiah 28 and 29 And what does it say isaiah 28 verse 29 says This also comes from Yahweh of hosts who has made his counsel wonderful and his wisdom great God's counsel is wonderful and his wisdom is great then back to Psalm 104 24 Psalm 104 24 Now we're quickly going over these things. I want to leave this piece of paper with you I'm praying that you'll go back and take this and dig into it yourself and pray and meditate on what it's saying Psalm 104 and verse 24 tells us this. How numerous are your works, O Yahweh, in wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your possessions. Who owns it? God, he owns it. What does he own? Everything, that's right. Everything, he owns it all. How numerous are your works, O Lord, in wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your possessions. Why did you make me this way, God? Because. Now the carnal heart wants to argue with God and argue with his providence. The spiritual heart, the one who has the spirit of God in them recognizes that God is the one in control and yields to what he says, to thus saith the Lord, okay? So his count, his providence is most holy and wise. It is powerful preserving, Hebrews 1.3. To preserve means to keep safe, right? To keep it from rotting. You got some fig preserves, you can put them on your toast in the morning at breakfast time and they'll stay for a long time in that jar without rotting. All right, but if you go out there and try to get some figs off of a tree and just leave them sitting there in the yard, what happens to the fig? They rot, right? Or either the raccoons and the possums come by and steal them from you. But the truth of the matter is, once you make fig preserves out of them, they'll last for a long time. You put them in that jar and keep them sealed, and then you got some good breakfast material there. So preserve. Hebrews 1.3 tells us, Hebrews 1.3, He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature. And what does He do? He upholds all things by the word of His power, who having accomplished cleansing for sin, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. So, number one, let me ask you this. Who accomplished the cleansing for sin? Jesus and who sat down at the right hand of Matthew, huh? Jesus. So who is this verse talking about? Right Jesus and what does it say about Jesus? He is the radiance of God's glory He is the exact representation of God's nature and he Jesus upholds all things by the word of his power He upholds all things by the word of his power. How many of y'all remember that little song? He's got the whole world in his hands. He's got the whole world. That's what this is saying right here in Hebrews 1.3. He upholds all things by his word. He's the one that's in control. He's got it all. Amen? All right. And governing all of his creatures and their actions. He governs all the creatures and their actions. Psalm 103.19. Won't be peeking out that top of my glasses. He was looking it up. I'll make sure y'all doing that Psalm 103 19 Psalm 103 19 says this Yahweh has established his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all He has established his throne, and he rules over all. He's established his throne. Where's his throne? In heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. Now, when you watch the news tonight, you might say, well, it don't look like he's ruling a whole lot. But the truth of the matter, God is in control of even the chaos. There is nothing going on that he's out there pulling his hair, going, I can't believe, oh, there's Earl, look at him. I can't believe he's doing that. God's in control of even your actions, Earl, and even who you are. Now, God is in control, but you're still responsible for your actions. You can't say, well, you made me this way. Why'd you make me this way? And then what did Paul say? Who you are, you're back with him. Can the clay say to the potter, why did you make me thus? So we ain't got no room to argue. All right, Matthew 10, 29 through 31. Matthew 10. Verses 29 through 31. And it says this. Are not two sparrows sold for an Assyrian? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. But the very hairs of your head are numbered. So do not fear, you are more valuable than many sparrows. Right? He governs all of his creatures. From the earthworm to the sparrow that eats him. Right? To you and to me. And he knows how many hairs you got on top of your head or how many you don't have on top of your head. Amen? Right? Every time one rolls down the shower and goes down the drain, he knows about that hair. There's an old theologian named R.C. Sproul that said it this way. He said, there is not a radical molecule in all of the created order. Not one radical molecule. There's not one molecule of oxygen out of sorts, out of balance. God controls everything down to the last atom, A-T-O-M, and the A-D-A-M, right? Think about that, there's not one molecule out of place. God's in control of it all. Yeah, and sometimes we forget that, don't we? Right, because as Brother Booth told us at the beginning of our lesson tonight, our carnal hearts don't want him to be in control, because if he's in control, I'm not. All right, so question number one to back up our catechism question, is God's providence universal? Yes, the answer is yes. And that 103.19, I think we've already looked at that, didn't we? 103.19, what did it say? His kingdom rules over all. God is the king. His kingdom rules. His kingdom come, his will be done. Have you ever wondered why we pray that when we pray? He told us to pray that, didn't he? When you pray, pray like this. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Well, it's already gonna be done, why are we praying it? Ever thought about that? Why did Jesus tell us to pray that way if his kingdom is gonna come, his will is gonna be done? Why am I praying that? Huh? Well, we do glorify him with our prayers, but think about this. Your prayers are not gonna change God. It's to remind yourself that God is in control. You know God does not change. I am the Lord, I change not. So when you're praying to him, he's not gonna go, you know what, you're right. I think I'll change my mind and we'll do it your way. We'll do it your way. But a lot of times in our prayer life, that's our attitude. I wanna convince God that what I need is right. Listen, he is not a Buddha that you rub his belly and get your wishes. Right? He's not a magic eight ball that you can ask a question and he's going to give you the answer you want to hear. He's God. And so when we pray, we're not praying to change his mind, we're praying to change ours. His will will be done. His will is being done right now. So question number two, does this kingdom extend to all the worlds? Yes. Whatsoever the Lord pleased that he did in heaven and in earth now notice that it said to extend to all worlds What is that talking about? Huh Well all of the worlds but remember even everything in this universe Mercury Venus Mars Pluto the Milky Way all of the galaxies out there. We can see that's all a part of this world and But there's another world out there too, isn't there? This young lady's reading a book called The Unseen Realm. There's a what? Spiritual world out there, isn't there? Well, it could be. The Unseen Realm. We don't see it, right? But that's God's world too. This world is God's world, that world is God's world, and any world that's out there is God's world. Because he created it all. All right? So does his kingdom extend to all worlds? Yes. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that he did in heaven and in earth. That which he pleased, he did in heaven and in earth. Now the third question, does this kingdom extend to all creatures? Yes. And y'all look, we're using that Hebrews passage again. He upholds all things by the word of his power. Without his word, there is no power. Without his word, there is nothing upheld. Could you imagine that if God stopped speaking, the whole created order would just unravel? It'd just be gone. He upholds this very moment in time that we have. He upholds that fan to keep it from dropping on your head. He upholds gravity. He upholds how fast the earth rotates around the sun. He upholds the little bitty baby in the mother's womb. He upholds everything. He's in control of it all. He upholds it all. Well what about the inanimate creatures? Does his kingdom extend to inanimate creatures? Now what is an inanimate creature? I had to think about that a little while when I read this one because when we think of a creature, we think of something that's alive. But this is more talking about the Pleiads and the band of Orion. What is that? The Pleiads and the band of Orion. Yes, the constellations, the stars in the sky. So that's actually in the book of Job. He binds the sweet influences of the Pliads and he loosens the band of Orion. Every one of those stars that's up there right now is there because he put them there. And they're there because he's up holding and keeping them there. And every month, once in a while, when the sun's coming up one morning, you're out there sitting on the porch and, Joan, we're not out there smoking, right? We're just out there looking at the sky. I told her to hear me. But we sit out there in the morning every once in a while. I just saw one this week, Monday morning. I was out there working in the parking lot and what happened? Star fell. You know what happened? God put up holding it. It's time for it to go. He let it go. And in a flash it was gone. Right? So yes, his kingdom does extend to all of the inanimate creatures. Well, what about to the animal creation? In Jeremiah 8, 7, it says, the stork knows her appointed time. What in the world does that mean? The stork knows her appointed time. Deliver babies? That's what I thought of when I saw it, too. Yeah, that's a great guess, but it's wrong, because that's exactly where my mind went, too. To move to another area? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the migration of the birds. Have you ever thought about that? I got, right now, I don't have as many hummingbirds right now as I had earlier this summer because most of them have gone, and I'm trying to get my hummingbird feeder in because them knuckleheads will stay around and die in the cold. If you leave hummingbird feed in the hummingbird feeder, you're liable to attempt one to stay instead of going, migrating south and going down to South America for the winter. And then they turn around and come back. Actually, most of them only make it about to Miami, but then they turn right back around when it starts warming back up, and they follow the blooming of the flowers all the way back up the coast. But they just know when it's time to do that, like nobody tells them that. And I've seen them, they tag ducks now, when they fly from way up in northern Canada, up above Canada, and then they come flying south, and it takes them like three days, but they get up to like 100 mile an hour, they find these wind streams, and they catch the wind streams, and they ride with the wind. And they time them and see how high they go and how low they go and where they go. And every year, they take the same path. And nobody gets, I mean, it's not like they can ask Siri. They don't have a GPS. You know, I mean, they just know where to go. Why? Why do they know where to go? Because God's ingrained it in them to do what they do. He ingrained it in the sun and the moon and the stars to do what they do. God is in control. and his kingdom rules over even over the animals of the creation. Number six, does God's providence order all events relative to particular persons? Yes, look what it says, Job 14, five. Man days are determined, the number of his months are with God. God knows right this very second when you're gonna draw your last breath. and you're not gonna get an extra one over what he knows. He knows if you're gonna live 10 more minutes, 10 more days, 10 more years, 10 decades. God knows. He knows right now how long you're gonna live and how many breaths you have left in your body. Man's days are determined. Now, the natural man don't like to hear that, do he? We like to think that we, oh no, my days aren't done, I got plenty of time left, right? That's what we think. But God is in control of even our days. Does his providence rule sway over the kingdoms and societies of men? We just had a big election in this country. Whether you're happy about it or not, the point is, is that a president was elected, And the House and the Senate both flipped over the parties. And whether you like that or not, it happened. And no matter what you think, God is in control of even the United States government and even the Russian government and the Chinese, the wicked Chinese communists over there and wherever you want to talk about. God was in control when Adolf Hitler was in charge with the Nazis. God has been in control all throughout history. Have you ever thought about, till most of the Christians in this country were praying for a certain person to win the election, right? But there were some Christians that were praying for somebody else to win. Well, whose prayers is God gonna answer? You know, when your team's playing on one side of the field and another man's team's playing on the other side of the field, he's praying that his players do better than your players. Whose prayers is God gonna answer? I read a story about Mark Twain called Innocence Abroad. It was about him taking a trip when he was a young teenager and going over to Europe and seeing all kinds of things. And they was on the Atlantic Ocean and they were traveling from up around New York and going across to the United Kingdom. And the winds, the waves were terrible, like they really thought they were gonna lose their ship. And there was a bunch of people on that ship, there was a bunch of very pious religious people some Puritans on the ship and they all fell down on their knees and were all praying to God, saying, oh God, please give us safe passage. Now Mark Twain is an atheist, so I don't take anything he says for truth, but he said he was standing out on the deck holding onto the rail and there was another boat going the other way. And he was thinking to himself, he said, well if there's some people on that boat and they're praying too, and both parties are asking for fair winds so that they can have safe travel, somebody's not gonna get it. You know what I mean? If God answered this boat's prayer, the other boat's gonna get in a storm. And it's the same way in the mind of your lives. God is in control of all the storms. God is in control of the wind, the sun, the moon, the star, and the bee. And the best thing for us to do is just to hold on and ride it out. Get in the boat with Jesus and ride out the storm. Let Him be in control. Alright? So, Does God exercise special providence over some places? Well, in Deuteronomy 11, 12, it said that the land of Canaan was the land that God cared for. Are there times when God poured out his special providence on a particular country or a particular people? Of course. Yeah. And it says then, it says, over some persons. And it says that God exercises special providence over some persons. Well, He is the Savior of all men, but especially of them that believe. Does God show favor to people? Yeah, God can show favor to people. He's not a respecter of perfect, but God's favor is poured out on God's grace and favors poured out on people Yeah Nope nope Does he? This he does love everybody, but does he give everybody the same opportunities? Oh? You have more opportunities than the children of Israel did in the Old Testament. They had not seen Jesus yet and seen him nailed to a cross. They didn't have 66 books of the Bible to tell them about what happened and why it happened. So you've actually been blessed with something that they didn't have. The writers of the Bible even say that. They say that the prophets, they were dying to see the things that you've seen. So you have more favor as far as the revelation of God's will and God's purpose and God's plan than somebody that lived 2,000 years ago. Now, they can be just as saved as you are because they're putting their trust in God's promise. Whether they see it clearly or not, it's still His promise. Heaven's going to be just as real for you when you get there as it is now. You don't understand all of it now. You can't see the big picture yet. But that doesn't change the reality of what's coming. You see how that works? But God does show favor to certain people. You do realize, this is something that you should wrestle with in your life. You should think about this. There are people that have died never hearing the name of Jesus. Like there are tribes and nations of people that have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. What do we do with that? Well, first of all, we're supposed to go tell them. Absolutely. Yeah, we're supposed to send a missionary to go tell them about it. But there are people that have died and they were here. Yes, sir? I mean, not everyone's of the elect. Well, that's very true, but that's God's business, not ours. Oh, I know. That's what I'm just pointing to. Yeah. I know that. But so the question was, does God show partiality or not partiality, does God show favor to certain people? Yes. Yeah. And you know whose business that is? God's. Just make sure that the favor that's been shown to you, you appreciate. And you do his work. And trust him, and walk with him, and follow him. Absolutely. Because to whom much is given, much is required. Amen. So. That's about 48. That's about 48. Thank you very much. What was it? Luke 12, 48. If much is given, much is required. Thank you, Joan. You gave me something tonight. I'll do something with it. Thank you for that. Luke 12, 48. Alright. So, is it desirable to be interested in God's special providence? Should we be interested in that? Yeah. Remember me, oh Lord, with the favor which you bear to your people. Number 11, does God's providence extend to all actions? Yes. A man's heart devises his way, but God directs his step. Think about that. Boy, if that won't put something in your craw, wouldn't you a natural man? I got plans, God. I'm gonna do it this way. And what did God say? No, I'll direct your steps. And many of us in this room can look back on that reality and say, thank God he did, because I was stepping right into hell. My heart was devising hell and destruction for my life, and God directed my steps a different way. Does God's providence extend to all natural actions? Take that one, Acts 17, 28. In him, Christ we live and move and have our being Acts 17 28 in him we live and move and have our being I Like this one number 13 does God's providence rule in fortuitous actions. I Now, you might not know what a fortuitous action is, but I'll show you one. Look what it says there in 1 Kings 22, 34. A certain man drew a bow at a venture and smote the king of Israel between the joints of his harness. What had happened was, Ahab was going out to fight the battle, remember? And one of the prophets came to him and said, you gonna die in this battle? And Ahab said, no, we'll go ahead and go anyhow. And they went, and it was a soldier, and he just pulled back his bow and he just basically let it go. and it landed right in between the armor and hit the king, killed him. It was just a random lucky shot. He didn't even know he was shooting at the king. But God's hand was on that arrow and made sure it got to the point it was going to. So a fortuitous act is something that just seems to be like random and just falls out of nowhere. Like, a fortuitous act might be you get a call and say, hey, you know, yeah, this fellow was dying down here and he had a winning lottery ticket in his hand and he said, make sure to give it to Henry. You know, and that's a fortuitous act. Earl, you're getting a free lottery ticket. You know, and you go, well, why did I deserve this? Well, the man was dying, he said, make sure he gets it. That's a fortuitous act. God is in the random, because with God there is nothing random. It's random to us because we can't see the big picture. But nothing's catching God by surprise. And what all of these things should be doing is driving us to rest and be assured in what God is doing. Just knowing that he's in control, all right? What about the good actions of men? Psalm 37 says, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. What about evil actions? Is God the author of evil? No, that's a big no. But God does permit evil, doesn't he? God allows wicked men to be wicked, does he not? So does God's providence rule sway over evil actions? Well, look at Genesis 45, eight. It was not you who sent me here, but God. Now that was who? Who's saying that? That's a big quiz. That'd be a hard one to just pick up unless you didn't. Genesis, who is it? It was not you who sent me here, but God. It's Joseph. He was in Egypt. Remember what he told his brothers? Don't be hard on yourself. You thought it was you that sold me into slavery and sent me here, but it was God who was making sure that I got here to preserve your lives. Was the actions of his brothers evil when they sold him into slavery? You better believe it. But God used the evil actions of men to make sure that his man got second on the throne in Egypt so that he could take care of him later on. So does God's providence rule in evil actions? Yes. Even when the wicked men are being wicked, God is still in control. He took wicked men and had them nail Jesus to their cross and brought salvation to all of his people through their wickedness. God allowed them to be wicked. He allowed them to do what they did. And they thought that they were doing something that was going to get rid of Jesus and shut this man up finally. And in reality, they were bringing salvation to the world through their own evil actions. You ever thought about that? It's like the most wicked act that ever took place on the face of earth, and God took the most wicked thing that ever took place and turned it around and used it for our salvation. So, can God bring good out of evil? You thought evil against me, but God meant it for good. That's Joseph again. Remember, that's what he said. You meant it for evil, God meant it for good. Our God's providence is mysterious. You better believe it. His judgments are a great deep. His ways are beyond finding out. What does he say? My ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts. We think we got him pegged. We think we got him figured out. Oh, the devil thought he had it figured out too, didn't he? The devil thought he was going to destroy the creation, and through sin, God brought a Savior into the world. Through the sinful acts of men, God made sure that a Savior got into the world. All right? Now, His providence is mysterious, but are they harmonious? Is His works of providence harmonious? Tonight our singing was not very harmonious. If the neighbors heard us, they probably thought somebody was getting beat in here. But that's okay, because we were making a joyful noise unto the Lord, right? But harmonious means what? It's all in symphony. It's all in harmony. It's all in accord. So even all of the random chaos and all of the random beauty that you see going on around you, there's nothing random about it. It's all God's creative symphony. doing what he does, all right? Is preservation an act of providence? What does it mean? We already talked about preservation. What does it mean to say you're being preserved? You're being kept alive, right? So is preservation an act of God's providence? Yes, he holds our souls. He holds our souls in life. God is the one that upholds you and keeps you and preserves you. Did God preserve us in our infant state? Now what's crazy about this, this question was asked back in the 1600s, 1700s. And this has more relevance today than it ever did, doesn't it? Did God preserve us in our infant state in our mother's belly? Did he? You better believe he did. What did Jeremiah say? You knew me before you formed me in the womb. All right. Will he preserve us in our declining years? Yeah. To the hoary head I will carry you. What is a hoary head? Come on guys, y'all know this one. I got the wordsmith back there in the back corner. He can tell me what it means, but I want somebody else to tell me. What is a hoary head? Hoary, H-O-A-R-Y. Hoary head. You got a hoary beard. Yeah, a grave. Yeah, so even when we get gray and old, God is still preserving us, even in our declining years. Some of us, if you're in this room, don't you mean, we can raise our hand, I'm 55. I'm on my declining years. There ain't no way I'll make it to 110. I can tell you, I'm on the downhill slope. I will not make it to 110. I'll be lucky to make it to 65, the way I've lived my life. And some of you in this room, it'll be the same thing. You beat yourself up pretty good when you were younger, and you're gonna pay for it when you get older. Just go ahead and count on it. Right? But in our declining years, God is still sustaining us. Isn't that good to know? Right? Even when I creak and I crack and I hurt, and I can't hear good anymore, I can't see good anymore. God is still sustaining me, he's still taking care of me. That's wonderful to think about. In our declining years, he will take care of us. Does he give us food? You better believe it. Acts 14, 17 says he fills our hearts with food and with gladness. Does he give us rest? Now this is one thing that I can always give God praise for this. I don't have any trouble sleeping. Man I can go yeah right now. I can get out in a car and sit down go to sleep It's nice to be able to lay your head down know everything's gonna be okay There's been times in my life where I had a tough time sleeping But what does it say does he give us rest yes, he gives his beloved sleep Who are his beloved? The beloved the ones that be loved I That's what it means to be the beloved. You be loved. And what does he do for his beloved? He gives us sleep. He lets your body rest. We're the problem a lot of times with that, ain't it? We're the ones that don't wanna rest. We're the ones that don't wanna, we fret and toss and turn. Just simply will not trust him. Does he preserve us from threatening dangers? Have you ever thought about that? I mean, how many times have you come that close to dying and didn't even know it? There's been a lot of times you come close to dying and you know it. But think about all the times that you didn't even see that car. And you never even know it came close to you. And God's preserving you in all of that. Does he endow us with wisdom for our several trades? Yeah. We actually did this, this was actually in our Bible study at my church, my senior Bible study on Monday nights. One of our deacons is teaching through the book of Exodus. And we're talking about Bezalel and Aholiab. And he just said B and O because he was having a hard time saying those two names. And I don't blame him. Bezalel and Aholiab were filled with the spirit of God in all manner of workmanship. filled them with His Spirit and gave them the skill and the ability to work with their hands and make the stuff needed for the tabernacle. And so for you in this room, God will give you talents, God will give you skills, He will give you abilities, and He gives those to you so that you can, for your good and His glory, so that you can glorify Him and you can bring others to Him. So, Does God's care extend to even the meanest of creatures? Now that's not talking about grizzly bears. That's not what it's talking about when it says meanest creatures. Meanest being in the smallest. Remember mean, median, mode? Y'all remember that in math class when you were a kid? Mean, what is mean? The smallest. Mean, median is the middle, the average. So, does God care extend to the meanest of creatures? Even the little slug, I just found a slug today and some fruit, I was at my store and I found a disgusting looking little slug in there. It looked like a snail without a shell, you know what I'm talking about? But it was big, it was about as big as my thumb and he had a little tongue sticking out of it, disgusting. But God took care of even the little slug, he got that big, he didn't get no bigger. He's not a slug anymore. He's a spot. He's a greasy spot on the floor. But for a while, God sustained him. Got him that big. Got him as big as my thumb. And I was just a little old slug. Earthworms, crickets, tadpoles. You ever thought about that? Little, you know, what about bed bugs? Right? What about... Yeah, they're disgusting, but God's in control of even them. Well, you don't have bedbugs. But if you have them, then God's in control of them. Right? That's what he means, but it means the meanest creature. Like the little smallest of creatures that you don't even ever think about. And God's even in control of them. Creepy-crawly things? Okay, so let's end that phobia tonight. Who's in control of them? No, you're not. Yeah, but who's really in control of them? All right, so rest in him and he'll keep the creepy-crawly off of you. And if he don't, it's for your good and his glory. I mean, but all seriousness aside, I mean, and I'm not joking about that. Do you know people with phobias about like, they're constantly washing their hands and worrying about germs and things? Like, what's the point of worrying? You can't see them. And you're fretting over something you're certainly not in control of anyhow. Just wash your hands when you come out of the bathroom. Don't put your hands in your mouth. But y'all remember when COVID came around, boy, the world went gone crazy. Stay six feet away from me. And, but God is in control. God's in control of the viruses. He's in control of the germs. He's in control of everything. Don't go out there and wallow around in a, you know, in the flowerbed or something. You wind up with chiggers. I mean, that's being stupid. But God's in control of everything. The spiders, the crickets, and everything. I always tell my cat, my cat's always coming in the house with My cat's always coming in with mice and birds, and he even brought a baby raccoon in one day. I didn't even know it was a baby raccoon. It was a little tiny one, about that big. I thought it was just a big marsh rat. My neighbor who rescues animals, I showed her a picture after he had already killed it, and she said, oh, that was a baby raccoon. And my cat just brings stuff in all the time. And you know what I tell him every day when my cat goes outside? One day that owl or that bald eagle that's out there is going to get you and fly off with you, and then I'm going to laugh. Because it's gonna, you know, you've been killing all these little things, something's gonna get you. But even if that happens, I can't live my life worrying about my cat getting eaten by a bald eagle. Like, he's ignorant. If he goes out there and gets eaten by a bald eagle or a coyote or something, that's what's gonna happen. I can't live my life worrying about that little cat like that. And it's the same thing with everything. with our families, our loved ones, our friends, our kids. They're in God's hands and you're fretting and worried about them ain't going to change it one lick. Well it could be, they could be an idol. That could be a problem is that you're worshiping them and looking for them to give you something that only the It's not that you don't care for your kids and you take care of them and you love them and you pray for them. That's not the point. The point is when you lay around worrying about them all the time, you're being anxious. And what does he say? Be anxious for nothing. And you know what? The reality is that you probably had a mom or a grandma that was worried about you the same way. And you weren't even thinking about it, were you? Well, your kids ain't thinking about it either. So God is in control of everything. And a God who's in control is terrifying to someone who doesn't trust Him. But for those of us who call Him our Father, our Lord, our Savior, it should bring us comfort and hope and assurance that He is in control. We got to wind down. We're going to do just a couple more questions and then we're going to finish for tonight. You can go through and get the last of the questions for yourself. Let me just read them and then we'll close with a word of prayer. God is in control of the government. God is in control of The laws and the ordinances of nature. He's the one that tells the sun how long you sit there and shine. He's the one that tells the earth how fast to move around the sun. He's the one that tells all the stars where to be and how to be. He tells the tides when to come in and go out. He's the one that brings the hurricanes and the tornadoes. He's God. He's in control of all of that. He maintains the laws and ordinances of nature. He sometimes suspends them and acts contrary to them. There have been miracles that have been taking place where God just simply flipped nature over on its head. And said, nope, you're not going to work right today. You're going to work the way I tell you to. And he upholds all of the creatures. And he can restrain those creatures. Remember how he shut the mouths of the lions with Daniel? He exercises government over the church. God's government is supreme over the governments of this world. God's providence is most wise. God's providence is most holy. God's providence is absolute. It is effectual and uncontrollable. God's providence is effectual. What does that mean? Effectual. If something is effective, what does that mean? It works. God's providence is effectual and uncontrollable. You're not going to change him. God's providential government is an argument for trust and confidence, for silence and submission, and for praise and thanksgiving. So let me read those three again and then we'll close with prayer. Because God is good, because God is in control, because God's providence is maintaining all things, that is an argument for us to be trusting and confident of God, to live our lives in silence and submission to his will, and to praise him and thank him for all things, amen. Father, thank you for this time you've given us together tonight. Thank you for being a God who we can trust to take care of us. Help us to realize that when we fret, when we're anxious, when we're constantly worried about this world around us, we're constantly worried about what tomorrow is gonna bring, we're constantly worried about having enough food or enough money or enough medicine or enough love or enough relationships or enough whatever it may be, God, you will supply all of our needs according to your riches in heaven in Christ Jesus, and I pray that you will help each and every one of us in this room to trust that reality, that you are God, that you are good, that you are in control, and that we can trust you, that we, oh Lord, can be assured and confident in you, that we can be silent and submissive to you, and that we can be filled with praise and thankfulness for who you are. In Christ Jesus' name we pray, amen.