So, we're back. Been a while. Been a while, for certain. Originally, the plan was to finish up Chapter 8 and then take a break from my knee surgery. And then we had this little rainy day that had other ideas for us and all of this stuff. But we do know that none of this caught God by surprise. And it is no coincidence that God's decision to pause our study occurred at the point on which we were about to embark on a new path in our study, one best titled, God is in Control. We have been, again, it's not a coincidence that this was touched on last week during the sermon and then Wednesday night during the Bible study. God is in Control. Now, those four words can bring about a lot of amens from those that claim to be believers. After all, who would deny that God is in control? Well, you might be surprised. It's a really easy statement to make, but it's so much of a harder pill to swallow when we push its boundaries. Simply because the harder we push, the more we realize that that statement has no boundaries. God is in control. Simple enough. Always has been and always will be. So that is, as we said, a four-word summary of the next few months of Sunday school. Lots more to it than that, but that will do for now. Several doctrines that we will attempt to cover, some new vocabulary to wrestle with, but all in good time. Suffice to say that we are getting ready to make a major leap from what some term as going from the milk of the word to the meat of the word. Thus far, through almost all of eight chapters, whether everyone agrees or not, all we have done is to take in the milk of the Word. From chapter 1, verse 1, to now, it has all been the food of babes. Paul, in Hebrews 5, that is if you believe that Paul wrote the book of Hebrews, or whoever you believe it was, referred to it as the basic principles, basic principles of the oracles of God. Basic. In other words, anyone who claims to belong to Christ should know this stuff. Okay? It goes on in chapter six to call it the elementary doctrine of Christ. Repentance and faith, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. All the things that we have spent eight chapters on is as basic and as elementary as you can get. Those who cannot get these correct are most likely not regenerate. Okay? And so we move from the milk, which every child of God loves and seeks and longs for, but there comes a time when those children must grow up. It's a sad sight indeed to see an 80-year-old sitting around nursing on a bottle. Anybody ever seen that? Something's not right with that picture. Again, from Hebrews 5, he says, By this time there are many of you that ought to be teachers, but know You're still sitting around sucking on a bottle. Well, where is the meat? About to cut into a large slab of it for sure. The thing that has split Christianity more violently than any other, and that is the fact that God is in control. Paul has hinted at it multiple times in these eight chapters, but now he is going to lay all his cards on the table, as it were, saying basically you want to know why all of this that i have been teaching you happened do you want to know why all of this happened yet how how it happened how it's going to continue to happen god is in control again every professed christian agrees with that statement right up until the point that they don't agree with it anymore There are very few that will take it through to its ultimate end without hedging their bets just a little bit. These differing views go back for centuries and are known as Lapsarian views. I'm not going to start digging into them, just going to touch on them a little bit, just to let you know what is out there. There are four main ones. The Armenian order, which pretty sure that everybody here is very familiar with uh... which teaches that man is the one who ultimately makes the decision with regards to salvation which means that man is ultimately in control and not god if man is the one who makes decisions who puts the who does that put in control I used to be one, and so I can avow that there is not a more prideful view to be found. Second is the Amaryllian Order, which is what we would refer to as Universalism. Yes, God did elect some to salvation, and those will be saved by faith alone, but Christ's sacrifice was for all mankind So in the end, all will be saved. Now, we all know that neither of these can hold up to biblical scrutiny. And yet the majority of professed believers for the last 100 years are devoutly Armenian. The majority of people you know on a daily basis are devoutly Armenian, okay? and more surprisingly still the universalists are gaining ground by leaps and bounds uh... there are two more views and these are the two that were and are approved by the post-reformation councils uh... including our own Westminster confession of faith these are known as infralapsarianism and supralapsarianism and to put these in a nutshell just to whet your appetite a little bit uh... they are differentiated by one main thing and once you start thinking about it it will continue to come up in your thoughts so here's the question did god's decree of election come before or after god's decree that man would fall which brings about the next question did god elect both the saved and the damned Or did God only elect the saved and the damned happened by consequence? That's the difference in those two views. Both of which, again, are accepted by the Westminster Confession of Faith. Okay? Now, I believe that R.C. Sproul, as R.C. Sproul says, that there is not a maverick molecule in the universe, so therefore I am superlapsarian. that God decreed both and then decreed the fall as the means to bring both of those about. Now, there are others who believe differently that God decreed, like we said, that God decreed the elect to be saved and the damned are damned out of consequence, okay? Out of what happens after that. So, that's as far as I'm going to go with that. You need to think about that and make up your own mind. See what I mean by people hedging their bets? It's easy to say God is in control until you are faced with an uncomfortable proposition like the loss of a loved one or some illness or malady overtakes us or some natural disaster or the damnation of the majority of all the humans ever created. it's much easier to say as many have and this is the viewpoint of the majority is that the devil when it was in charge of all of that bad stuff and God was in charge of all the stuff that I agree with and like that's that's the viewpoint of just about everybody you know okay so there's your five minute lesson on lapsarianism and we have effectively solved that problem unlike the scholars that have debated this for about five hundred years now. Now, all that being said, let's jump in and see as Paul introduces us to what it would look like if God really were in charge. We are in Romans chapter 8, of course. Been there, I think. And we're going to start with verse 26 and go through verse 30 this morning. He says, Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought. But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified." Now, remember I said that I used to be Armenian, and so I read really fast when I got to passages like this. Okay? That's what's required if you're going to be Armenian. You've got to read really fast when you get to that. That word predestined gave me all sorts of fits. But since I was smarter than Paul, I just wrote it off to his not understanding like I did. All right? So basically what this looks like from the Armenian viewpoint, and this may be an oversimplification, but that's where we're going to go with it, okay? What this looks like from the Armenian viewpoint is that God at creation looked down the passages of time and saw all of those who would at some point choose him. And so in response to that foreknowledge, God was then able to predestine that those were the ones who would be saved. well that's what you have to do when you don't want god to be in charge that's was that that's how people had their beds but now member the majority of you know sixty six percent i think we're down to now that professes to be christian in the united states of america vast majority of those are many if you're free will or whatever. Baptist church, that's your belief system. That's what it is. So, it's all about foreknowledge. God looked down through time because God could see down through time and he saw everybody that was going to choose him and therefore he elected those people to be saved. So, who's the one that is actually in charge according to that viewpoint? song god now guarantee you that you have friends and family members that no and love this passage uh... that we just read and have no idea what it's even talking about in my favorite passage for the last forty years even before i knew what it was talking about because i made up something that suited me and that made it my favorite passage okay uh... everything happens for a reason. That's their summary of it. Okay? Anyone ever heard that statement? Everything happens for a reason. That's where this, that's where that statement comes from, is this scripture right here. Okay? And as John Wayne says, sometimes the reason it happens is because you're stupid and you make bad decisions. While that may be true in part, that's not who or what is being referred to here. So how do we make sense of this passage and its application for us and to us? Well, there's this thing called the Old Testament. And while we may write that off as a collection of cute stories and some historical narrative, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that all of those stories were written as examples for us. And so anytime we have a conundrum as to what any of the writers of the New Testament might be referring to, there will be, 100% of the time, a multitude of examples found in the Old Testament that will clarify what is being referred to. We're going to look at just such an example that is a direct parallel to our passage that we are looking at this morning. So turn with me, if you will, to Genesis chapter 42. Genesis chapter 42. We're going to start with verse 1. It says, When Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he said to his sons, Why do you look at one another? And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die. So ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with his brothers, for he feared that harm might happen to him. Thus the sons of Israel came to buy among the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground. Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them. Where do you come from? He said. And they said from the land of Canaan to buy food. And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them. And he said to them, you are spies. You have come to see the nakedness of the land. And they said to him, no, my lord. Your servants have come to buy food. We are all sons of one man. We are honest men. Your servants have never been spies. And give you four doctrines this morning that we see in both of these passages that we have read. Lord willing, we'll be able to explain them as we work through these two passages side by side. Number one is the doctrine of the sovereignty of God. Number two is the providence of God. Number three is the revelation of God, which is the doctrine of the word of God. And finally, the doctrine of election. That's four. Sovereignty, providence, the Word of God, and election. All four seen as clearly here as anywhere in the entire Bible. Sovereignty, providence, revelation, or the Word, and election. Therein is our hope. Therein is our only hope. Now, being good Reformed Presbyterians, we should already know These doctrines. We should have been and should still be teaching these things to our children, to our grandchildren, to everybody we meet. Raising them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. Disciplining them, teaching them, giving them all the things that God says to give them and protecting them from all the things that God says to protect them from. Hope that you were raised that way. I hope that you have or are or will raise yours in that way. uh... that is the method that is the means that god has given to us to use toward our end goal which is their ultimate salvation that being said what we see here in front of us is that if we are trusting in our efforts or our or the methodology rather than trusting in the sovereignty or the providence or the revelation and election of god then we quickly become guilty of idolatry. Why is that? Because you believe that the end result is up to you. Likewise, if you did not raise your children properly, or have slacked off, or not been doing as you should, and so you think that there is no hope to be found for your children, that is again, that is idolatry. The end result was never up to you. Yes, Follow God's instruction with all your mind, like your life depended on it, but understand that the end result is reliant on God's sovereignty, on his providence, on his word, and on his election. This was written as an example for us of that. Now, talking about Jacob, one of the patriarchs, a man who had a direct encounter with the living God. was probably the worst excuse of a father that ever existed probably the worst excuse of one of God's chosen people that ever lived it's all right here in our short section of scripture there is a famine in the land of Canaan this land that once flowed with milk and honey you know we've read all about that Now it has nothing. He and his eleven sons have laid around and lived off the fat of the land with no effort required on their part, didn't tend anything, didn't put anything by in store. Jacob didn't teach his children how to care for themselves. They just consumed day after day. And now it's all gone. There's a famine. full-grown men 30 years old 40 years old some of them 50 years old plus still living with their daddy and the famine comes what is their response says they sit and look at each other they don't know what to do they sit and look at each other why don't they know what to do they were never taught what to do these full-grown men again still living with their daddy are going to sit and stare at one another and take turns starving to death the children of a man who had a direct encounter with god raised by a man who had a direct encounter with god and they are absolutely helpless and hopeless and so jacob says Why do you sit and stare at one another? There's no suggestion that they seek God's face. No suggestion that they ask for God's guidance. They haven't been doing so during all the fat years. No reason to start doing so now. There is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy some so that we can eat and so that we can live and not die. Now, Joseph was the governor that was selling the grain. And his brothers came and bowed down before him. And we could insert, there's a little parenthetical statement there. We might read there that it says, just like his dream said they would. Y'all remember that? His brothers came and bowed down before him, their faces to the ground, just like his dream said they would. just like the revelation from God said they would some 20 or so years prior. And Joseph recognized them, but they did not recognize him, and so he spoke harshly to them, called them spies. Oh, we are not spies. We are honest men. Murderers? Maybe. Slave traders? Maybe. But your servants have never been spies. Now, back to chapter 8 of Romans, verse 26. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. You and I do not know what to pray for. We need somebody to help us. Who is going to help us? The Spirit is going to help us. Why? So that we can get what we want? Nope. He's going to help you to pray in accordance with, all together now, the will of God. Okay? And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified." Four doctrines. The sovereignty of God, meaning God's exercise of power over his creation. Sovereignty has to do with authority and ability. Sovereignty is the reason that God can tell Joseph in a dream, here's what's going to happen. The only person who can tell another person what's going to happen is a person who has the authority and the ability to make that thing happen. He says, I'm going to cause you to be elevated to a position of authority so that your brothers will bow down before you. And that is what happened. Why? Because God has the authority to do whatever he wants with his creation. That's why. Over and over again throughout the story of Joseph we see God telling Joseph in his dreams or in somebody else's dreams, he's telling him what's going to happen. Always in pairs with good or bad results culminating with the dreams of Pharaoh signifying the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine. All brought about by the one who has the authority and the ability to make them happen. Our God is enthroned in the heavens. He does whatever pleases Him. That is the sovereign God. That is the God that we serve. Seven years of plenty. Who caused that to happen? God caused that to happen. Seven years of famine, who caused that to happen? God caused that to happen in accordance with His will. That's why we can have a story like this where we can have two sets of young men. One set grew up in the home of a man of God who encountered God personally and had his life forever changed. The other grew up in a pagan land in a pagan civilization in a pagan household twenty years later they made one another and one of them is better off which one well we can add to and two together and yet for what happened that it didn't turn out like that in this situation it's called the sovereignty of god not the sovereignty of systems or sovereignty of means, it's the sovereignty of God. That's how. Does that mean that we can go out then and live haphazard lives? Absolutely not. We employ every means God calls us to employ, trusting that God is sovereign over the ends as well as the means. We do everything that God tells us to do because we trust in God not in the things that we do. Here's a news flash. This one stings a little bit. I have a tendency to think that our children are better off with us than in a house of sinners. What would be our first mistake in that thought? There you go. We think that ours is not a house of sinners. Our number one prayer should be that God would rescue those under our influence from our influence, especially our children. The sovereignty of God is our hope. It is their hope. Not only the sovereignty of God, but the providence of God. Remember how sovereignty is about God's ability and authority. Providence is about his governance of all things. Wayne Grudem. Ever heard of Wayne Grudem? He said the definition that goes like this, God is continually involved with all created things in such a way that he, one, keeps them existing and maintaining the properties with which he created them, and two, cooperates with created things in every action directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do, and three, directing them to fulfill his purposes. Okay? Holds it in his hand. All things he holds in his hand. Holds it together. If he turns it loose, what happens? Destruction. Okay? Now, we're talking about the way God governs creation. Not just authority and ability, but we see from the evening and the morning of the first day, God's governance of His creation. We see that as clear as day in the life of Joseph all the way through. How everything worked together according to the plan and the will of God. Now, also notice that God does not violate anybody's will in this entire process. Jacob, Joseph, the brothers, Pharaoh, God did not make them, any of them, do anything that was contrary to who and what they were already in their hearts. So it's not as though, and we have to remember this about ourselves and about others as well, that when we know God, it's not as though that when we know God and love God that suddenly the change that comes about in us as believers is something that changes who we are basically on the outside. It changes who we are on the inside, but we still have the same language, the same accent, the same mannerisms, for better or for worse. Some of us are just as big a smart aleck now as we were before any of this happened, okay? It's just the way it is. There are practices in us that God does change over time as we are being conformed to His image, but we are still the same people. We don't become somebody else. We are who God created us to be. He uses what He created us to be and works toward us fulfilling His promises. okay so everybody has different talents different mannerisms different ways of dealing with people in situations if we all were the same would that not be the most miserable idea if everybody was like me man okay how else do we explain the pagan sovereign of egypt pharaoh putting Joseph in this position. It's the providence of God. And he used what Pharaoh was and believed to accomplish his purpose. The brothers? Oh my! God used who and what Joseph's brothers were in order to get Joseph to where he was. This is the providence of God. the ends as well as the means by which those ends are achieved. And God's providence extends to all of creation. Jesus said that two sparrows can be bought for a penny, but not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of God. That's God's providence. Something as cheap and plentiful as a sparrow, not one falls to the ground apart from the will of God. This is the lesson that is taught in both of our passages this morning. Whatever the outcome, it's the providence of God that brought it about, not luck or fortune or a system. It is the providence of God. We trust the Sovereign Lord of the Universe to work things in accordance with His will and to be actively involved in every part of that process, directing every part of the process. When we can finally do that, that's when we will be totally, completely, fully at peace with everything. B.B. Warfield. says that faith in the universal providence of God is the solution to all of our earthly troubles. Faith in the universal providence of God is the solution to all earthly troubles. It's almost equally true that a clear and full understanding of the universal providence of God is the solution to most of our theological problems. All the great theological debates could be put to rest were we to just remember the providence of God over all of it. So we see the sovereignty of God, the providence of God. And thirdly, we see the revelation of God, that God has revealed himself. He did so here with Joseph. Remember, they did not have the written revelation, so at this point in time, it was done through visitation and through dreams. remember all the Old Testament stories the angel came and said this and the angel came and told him this you know and through dreams and this one had this dream and this one had that dream we now have the word so there is no more visitation there is no more dreams I'm a cessationist that's all done away with we have the word it's all we need God used these dreams with Joseph And Moses communicates them to us in writing in order to reveal himself to us and to reveal what it is that he is doing. So Joseph had the dreams. Moses wrote to us how those dreams were and how they happened and what happened because of them. We don't need the dreams. We have all the proof we need written down by Moses, okay? to reveal how it is that he is controlling the situations and the circumstances the entire old testament is all the proof that we need that god is controlling the situations and the circumstances has been is and will be it is god's word on which we rely as the only absolute truth we don't know or understand anything else What we can and must trust is the Word of God. That is all that we can rely on. That is what we see here. What does Joseph have to hold on to? He loses his family, he loses his freedom, he's made a slave, loses his freedom again. What does he have to trust in? God's revelation. Will he ever see his family again? Well, according to his dreams, his family is going to bow down to him. That hasn't happened yet. So he's still got that to look forward to. So does he believe his circumstances or does he believe God's revelation? Same applies to us, good or bad. It's not about our circumstances. If we were called, then we are justified. We are being sanctified and we will be glorified. All the circumstances in the world cannot change that. None of them. In fact, God is working all of those circumstances together to make sure that it happens. That's the good that is being referred to here, okay? All things working together for good. There's only one good and that is God. It's not talking about cars and houses and money and jobs and whatever else that you want to throw into that scripture. Okay? There is only one good being referred to here. Most of the time, all those things, all that stuff, are just distractions from the ultimate good. We are being conformed to the image of Christ. That is the ultimate good. There is nothing else that matters beyond that. And the final piece here is the doctrine of election. Election is an act of God before the creation in which he chooses some people to be saved, not on account of any merit in them, but only because of his sovereign good pleasure. Only because of his sovereign good pleasure. So who saves? Do systems save or does God save? Does the right home save or does God save? Do you have to find yourself in the ideal situation or is God more than able regardless of your circumstances? It is the doctrine of election. Did God rescue Joseph and his family because there was something good in Joseph? There are a few characters in the Bible about whom not much negative is said. Joseph is one of them. But here's the absolute facts. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That includes Joseph. Just because God did not see fit to fill us in on all of Joseph's shortcomings, doesn't mean that he didn't have any. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Joseph was a sinner just like his brothers were. This is about the doctrine of election. You cannot understand Genesis or much of anything in the entire Bible unless you understand the doctrine of election. and just to burst your bubble a little bit more, you can't even understand the life of Joseph unless you understand the doctrine of election. Interestingly enough, in the life of Joseph, we see the doctrine of election. We have this whole story, Joseph did this, he did this, he did this, this happened to him, this happened to him. It's an entire narrative about Joseph. Guess what? story's not even about Joseph who is the elect one who's being protected through all of these 22 years of Joseph's life is it Joseph it's Judah God is using Joseph to bring his family through but particularly Judah the one through whom the Savior of the world will ultimately be born. It's the doctrine of election. It's through our understanding of these four doctrines, especially the doctrine of election, that we can understand scriptures such as Romans 8, 26 through 30. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." Do you understand that Joseph in the pit was praying for what? He was praying to get out of the pit. You all think that's pretty reasonable to think? If some of us knew him and came to church and asked for prayer for Joseph, what would we ask for people to pray for? That he get out of the pit, okay? He never prayed, God, please have my brothers throw me in a pit and since I'm there, could you have our archenemies come by and could you have the Ishmaelites take me out of the pit and Maybe let them take me to Egypt and put me in the home of a man who loves me and trusts me. But could you please have that man's wife try to defile me? And as a result, could you please have me sent to prison for several years? And only then would you elevate me to a place where even Pharaoh would look on me with favor. Oh, and I'd also like to have a foreign wife who worships a foreign god so I can have children in this foreign land. And God, maybe I could spend 22 years apart from my father who loves me so much. That's not what Joseph prayed at 17 years old. But that is exactly what God's will was. We don't know how to pray. We don't know what to pray. Because in our flesh, this is our prayer life. Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. Bless brother so-and-so who's sick, because I really like him. Still a gimme. Bless sister so-and-so who's having surgery, because I really like her. Still a gimme. Gimme, gimme. Gimme some more. In our flesh, that is our prayer life. It's all we know. We don't have sense enough to know what to pray for. Joseph had no idea what the sovereign God of the universe was doing in his providence. He had no idea the glory that God would gain through crushing him. Because that is what God did for 22 years. God crushed a 17-year-old boy for over 20 years in order to bring glory to himself. listen to this at the end of it the grown man version of that seventeen-year-old boy what did he say thank you lord thank you lord and we know that for those who love god all things work together for good now most everybody reads this and if you love god really hard then god is going to make good stuff come into your life Oh, he says they work together for good, meaning that some of these things aren't going to be so good in and of themselves. It's the ultimate good that is being referred to here. It's not about you or me. It says for those who are called according to his purpose, all our lives, everything that happens to us is being worked out together to accomplish God's purpose in our life. We are called to fulfill a purpose, and God works all things together so that we will fulfill that purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that we might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified. Ultimate Purpose. that we be conformed to the image of his son. And that's not even for our sakes. It's for Christ. We are conformed so that Christ can be the firstborn among many brethren. God gave the elect to Christ as a gift for Christ, not for you or me. So here's our takeaway from all of this. Everything that has happened since the evening and the morning of the first day has been working together for the good of those whom God has called according to His purposes. If you are here today and you are a Christian, if you are His, if you have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and repentance of your sins, if you have taken hold of Christ's finished work on the cross as your own, Then one of the things that God worked together for your good was the life of Joseph. The thing that God did for Joseph was for you. He was preserving the line of David that would be the line of Christ for you. He did that for you. There was a famine on the way. Jacob couldn't see the famine. None of his sons could see the famine. God saw the famine because he decreed the famine. The famine that would ultimately lead to the slavery of the children of Jacob to Egypt, from which God would have to rescue them. See how that works? I mean, all of this is all, it's all in the line, right? All to teach them to rely on him. which they still refused to do. Jacob, the patriarch, was fat and lazy, living off the milk and honey of the promised land, not trusting in God, not teaching his sons to rely on God, not teaching his sons to provide for themselves. And here comes the famine. First thought was not to seek God. First thought was to seek help from the government. Remember, Providence is God's governance over his creation. Man does not like the way God governs his creation, so man creates his own government. And the next thing you know, he is enslaved by the very same. God used Joseph to ensure that the line of Judah, which was to be the line of Christ, did not starve to death while sitting and staring at his brothers. provided for them out of an abundance of mercy and grace even though they didn't deserve it. All that Joseph went through was because of the famine that was coming. There was a purpose. The will of God was the purpose. The glory of God was the purpose. I have no idea what God is doing in and with and through your life, but what I do know is that it is not without purpose. And ultimately, it is not all about you. It is about your life hidden with God in Christ. Are you not His? We need to constantly remind ourselves and one another that we are His. Sure, there are circumstances that are bad. Woe is me. Remember that the spotless, sinless Lamb of God that God crushed and killed for his own glory. And we think that we don't deserve to have a bad day. On our worst day, our very worst day, we have not received a fraction of what we deserve. We can't see the end, but we have the revelation of God that says that the end is our good. God is in absolute total control. God is governing his creation, holding it all together in his hand, ensuring that just as his word has promised, God's elect will ultimately be glorified. Romans 8, 18. It's a precious hope for those who may feel as if they are being put upon. He says, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Not even worth comparing. Let's pray. Father God, I do love you. I do thank you so much for your word. I do thank you for your sovereignty, your providence, your word, and your election. Help each of us to place our trust in you. not in ourselves. These things I ask in Christ's name, Amen.