Good morning. We're gonna be in the book of Job this morning. Job chapter 42, verses one through six. Sorry, letting my technology catch up with me. Job chapter 42, verses one through six. In your pew Bibles, it's page 526, I believe. I just looked at that, so I hope I remember that right. Easy to find though. It's the last page before the Psalms. And last chapter, last page of the book of Job, right before the Psalms. So Job chapter 42, verses one through six. This is the word of the Lord. Then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. hear and I will speak. I will question you and you will make it known to me. I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. Would you pray with me? Father, we do come to you now and we ask for your help. We ask just as exactly as we sang that your word would teach us and lead us and that we would, Lord, we would be changed by it. And that by your faithful word, by your word that is unchanging from eternity, that we would find hope and help. And that we would know that you are our loving God who is sovereign over all, with loving providence over all of your creation, that we might find rest in your arms. We praise you and we thank you. We ask for your help in Jesus' name, amen. Well, as soon as, it's probably happened, as soon as I said we're gonna be in Job, anytime you mention the name of Job or the book of Job, you think of suffering. I heard it, don't be shy, it's okay. You think of suffering, and that's understandable, because Job was a real man who really did suffer. He suffered greatly. But I would like to propose, I wanna contend that the book of Job is not really a book about suffering. It is a book that was included a man who greatly suffered, but the book of Job is actually a book about God. It's a book about God and God who has providence over all of his creation. It's a book that we can all come and look to and look to God and find comfort and hope. Romans 28, which goes, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. If that verse, and it often is, if that verse is the beautiful diamond which comforts Christians, then I would say the book of Job is the mine from which it came from. It's the foundation, it's the complex picture of the providence of God who is good and whose purposes are always good. The book of Job, understanding God through the book of Job helps us that when we hear Romans 8.28, we never think of it as a thoughtless cliche, that God is good. This is a passage that is not just for those who are in intense suffering, although it is for you, but it is for all Christians. Not only because we all endure trials of various kinds, but because our lives rarely go as we expect them to. I would say probably never. And when life seems to be out of control, even in small areas, Christians often become perplexed and anxious. If you read the book of Job, you will see that Job is not only suffering, but he's also confused. He's confused about his suffering, which leads him to look for answers and remedies. He does not get answers. What he gets is more of God. His confusion is not replaced with information. It is replaced with seeing the providence of God and submitting to it. This is the work of ongoing sanctification, which is promised to all believers. I pray now, as we head into the book of Job, that we will see God's providence and be comforted in the same way. We're in the last page of Job, so it wouldn't be right to talk about these verses without a brief summary. So I'm gonna go through Job in three minutes, which may not be wise, but it's what we have time for. I wanna give you the big idea here. Job was a man who suffered at the hand of Satan, but it was by the permission and the direction of God for the glory of God. We are told right away in the very first verse of the book that while Job was not sinless, he was blameless in regard to his suffering. He was a man who had feared God and turned away from evil. The entire life of Job is an example of God's gracious hand upon his lost and pitiful creatures. Just as all people who have or will be saved, Job was saved by the grace of God. By the same grace, Job walked in a manner that was worthy of his savior. It was by grace that he was saved. He was the workmanship of God and God faithfully built him up so he was blameless in regard to his suffering. He was a man who feared the Lord and turned away from evil. That is the grace of God working in him. And that is the place where God allowed suffering to come upon his life. That is where we find God. That is where God proposes to Satan, have you considered my man, Job? Have you considered him? Then under God's direction and permission, Satan set his hand against Job to tear him down to the ground. Satan's hope is that Job would curse God to his face. But by the grace of God, Job remained faithful in that way, and he did not curse his God. His friends, his friends came to console him, but like many people, they could not reconcile a good and holy God with a God who would bring suffering, allow suffering on a righteous person. So they assumed that he had sinned in some way, and they foolishly and sinfully accused Job of sinning, trying to lead him to repent. Job also was confused by his suffering. He was completely unaware of the cause of his suffering or the glorious purpose for his suffering. He was unaware that God would vindicate him before his friends and reward his faithfulness in the end. He was perplexed. He began to slip into hopelessness and godless thinking. Although blameless in regard to his suffering, he responded sinfully and presumptuously before the Lord. He questioned the work of God, the character of God, and even trying to correct and inform God, because from Job's perspective, God was either missing, he was missing altogether, or missing vital information, and that misguided him. Job was understandably perplexed and anxious and responded presumptuously in his trials. God very kindly brought Job to repentance, is where we pick up in the story, by a display of his power and a long rebuke. We read in Job chapter 40, verse two, that God says, shall a fault finder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it. That's a terrifying verse and also a comforting verse. God was gracious and kind to correct Job and to bring him to comfort through the display of his sovereign power. He answered Job in a whirlwind and asked him over 50 questions, which Job was not even close to being able to answer. Our text this morning is Job's final reply. He had many words, and then God replied to him. And finally, Job, in our text this morning, replies to God. It's a reply of repentance and trust in God. Job was rightly rebuked by God, who has perfect providence over all of his creation. And that as well. And this is exactly what he, as a perplexed and anxious child of God, needed. So I wanna consider, so here's what we're gonna do. I have three points. I want us to consider Job's three responses to God, which brought him great comfort and glory to God. So we're gonna look at three ways that the providence of God brings comfort to the anxious and perplexed Christians. The first is when God is unthwarted. The second, when God is unquestioned. And the third, when God is unveiled. I'm not usually such a good Baptist. I don't do alliterations very well, but this fell into place. So when God is unthwarted, when God is unquestioned, when God is unveiled. Our first point, when God is unthwarted. Job's first reply to God in verse two, he says, I know that you can do all things, and then no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Let's consider these two statements. I'm gonna take them just quickly, one at a time here. First, God can do all things. I think to that, we'd probably just scream amen. God can do all things. We know that, right? That is something we would say obviously. It's something Jeremiah, Jeremiah 32, he says, even trying to understand God's promises, he says, ah, Lord, it is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm, nothing. is too hard for you. Job was reminded through God's questions that God alone can do all things. He created all things, and by his hand, he holds them together. He feeds every creature, and even the wildest of beasts do exactly as God directs them to. It's easy to agree that God can do all things in theory. That is simple. But that theory must eventually come home. It must be reconciled with our lives. This was Job's problem. He looked at his life and it seemed completely out of control. From his perspective, chaos was reigning. And if chaos reigns, then God does not. Job was reminded by God in a full display of his power and through his questioning that nothing is random or left to choice. He spoke about nature. He spoke about the things of nature that we often think of as chaotic or random. When we see the lightning strike, when we see it begin to rain, and we see the rivers flood, we often think, that's just the way it goes. The river goes wherever the water flows, wherever the banks are lower. The lightning strikes according to the laws of electricity. We consider this to be all random chaos. that God reminds Job through his questioning of him. He instructs him that he is the father of rain who directs the lightning and has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain. The rain, wind, and lightning obey God perfectly. Job confessed, and so must we, that God can do all things. Life might seem to be out of control, but we have to remember that God is never out of control. Job confessed, not only can God do all things, but that no purpose of his can be thwarted. I love how he speaks of it positively and negatively. God can do everything and nothing can stop him. It's a beautiful picture. It is one thing to know that God is able to do all things. It is another to know that no one ever contends with God. Man does have a certain amount of free will, as does Satan himself, but the free will of no creature can ever change, diminish, or slow down the purposes of God. Men, angels, and Satan are all God's creatures who can in no way sway the providence of God. This is a change of thinking for Job. This helps him. In his trials and confusion, Job thought that something in the divine realm was off. I imagine in your lives, you probably have felt the same way. This can't be right. This can't be the plan. Something must be wrong. That's how we begin to feel. For Job, the evil that was taking place in his life seemed uncontrolled. He wondered if God had left him, and he wondered if evil was reigning. And if evil is reigning, then God is not. But some of God's questions to Job brought him assurance that God was in fact sovereign over every wicked, evil work in this world. God is not the author of evil, but he does have complete power and control over it. He questioned Job. These questions, you must understand, they're assuring to Job that evil is not reigning. He asks him, did you put the oceans in their place and place limits upon them? In a full chapter, chapter 41, he asks, can you put the Leviathan on a leash and take him home to your daughters? There's much speculation about what the Leviathan is or was, but the language here is poetic. Whatever the beast really was, it is poetic language. The oceans were considered to be a place of uncontrollable danger, and the Leviathan is a source of evil, the evil serpent who opposes God. We see this in Isaiah 27. In that day, the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, Leviathan, the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea. As Job is suffering, God shows him that his situation is actually worse than he ever realized. You are weaker than you ever knew. And there are things in this world which you cannot overcome. There are forces of the world that man has no power over and no ability to overcome. There is evil. Satan really is roaming and seeking to destroy. Even still, God brings Job assurance. I alone am in control. Evil does not reign. Evil does not contend with God. He is in complete control over it. He tells Job, if you try to leash the Leviathan, you will regret it. He will not do it again. But he says, I can easily do this. It is nothing to me. He tells Job, you are powerless, powerless against evil in the world. Not only does man not have autonomy though, neither does Satan, nor one drop of danger in this world. It is all under God's complete control. Nothing thwarts God's promises. Nothing thwarts the purposes of God. God does allow evil to take place in this world for his providential purposes, but this allowance must never, ever be viewed as a sign of weakness or limitation in God. It's only a sign of his patience and his perfect wisdom. Wickedness often seems to prevail, but we must know that whatever wicked people or even Satan himself intend for evil, God intends for good. This is a mystery. This is a mystery that we will never fully unravel, but looking to Christ helps bring clarity. It was Jesus who calmed the winds of the waves and the raging sea in the boat with his disciples. And it was on the cross that he defeated Leviathan. Our blameless savior, Jesus Christ, was tormented and nailed to a cross by evil men. They killed him. And by all earthly standards, that looks like defeat. That looks like victory for evil and defeat for God. But what seemed like defeat was the very good plan of God, which was carried out by evil men, completely under God's providence. Jesus died for the unrighteous so that they might turn to God and be saved. Then he was raised from the dead by God, who can do all things. and nothing prevails against him. We read in Romans 8.31, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will we not also with him graciously give us all things? These statements from this text itself form the beginning of Job's repentance. This leads into his repentance, because what's important to understand here is that not only is repentance, not only is it important that we understand that we are wrong, but that God is right. That is the fullness of repentance. We must understand that as repentance is, that we are just not in the wrong, but that God is always right. He is Lord over all. I love the irony here. And the irony of Job's statement in the midst of his confusion in verse two, look at how he begins. He begins and he speaks and replies to God in his confusion with perfect clarity. I know, I know, I know that you can do all things. I know that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Job came to know that he was powerless to save himself and that God alone had the power to save. I want you, I want us to know. It is by the Word of God brought to Job that he came to say, I know you can do all things. I hope that by reading the word of God and in prayer, you can say the same thing. I know that God can do all things and nothing thwarts his purposes. Be encouraged, set your hope upon God's good providence over all of his creation for all of eternity. The second point, the second way that we are comforted in our trials and confusion is when God is unquestioned. when God is unquestioned. At the end of Job's arguments, he had many words to say. It was a lot of words if you read through Job. God answered him with a strong rebuke. Back in chapter 38, verses one to three, God answers Job. He says, then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man. I will question you and you will make it known to me." That is a strong rebuke and a very kind rebuke by the Lord. Who is this who darkens counsel? Dress for action. In other words, gird up your loins. That's the picture of 1 Peter 1. And then in Job 40, verse eight, he says, God says to him, will you even put me in the wrong? Job, are you going to put God in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be right? He brings Job to repent. You are wrong, and I am right. Job summarized these in verse three. I go there because it's confusing thinking about what is happening. In verse three, Job is summarizing God's words to him. He says, who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? And Job replies, therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know." Job now admits that he had spoken out of place. He spoke for God in his creaturely ignorance. His heart had been deeply troubled and confused by his circumstances. And his response was to defend himself and to charge God with wrongdoing. He was right to defend himself before his friends, but he went too far. And he defended himself before God. In chapter 23, it says, I will lay my case before him. This is Job speaking. In his confidence, he says, I will lay my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know that he would answer me and understand what he would say to me. Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No, he would pay attention to me. There an upright man could argue with him and I would be acquitted forever by my judge. Job is right that God does always hear us. And he did hear Job, and he answered Job in his kindness, but he did not explain to Job his sufferings. He didn't in any way tell Job why he was suffering. He did not tell him why his life had been turned upside down, nor did he inform him of the great and divine glorious purpose for his suffering. God's charge to Job was simply that he had darkened the counsel of God without knowledge. Job spoke out of his ignorance. He was presumptuous. By doing so, he obscured the true words and the true character of God. In great power, God reassured Job of his sovereignty and great providence. He rebuked Job and he called him to be still and know that I am God. This Job's response, his foolishness, is really the folly of Proverbs 18 and 13 of answering without knowledge. And it's a temptation that comes about when Christians begin to doubt either the sovereignty or the ability or the character of God. In moments of affliction or confusion or any time that we think God is not doing a great job, we darken the counsel of his words. we arrogantly slip ourselves onto the throne. And we began thinking and talking in foolish ways that are opposed to God's word and his character. We began to doubt God. This was the way of Absalom. If you know the story of Absalom, David's son, he went to the gate and he began to propose to people that, my father's not doing such a great job. Now, if there were only a judge, a great judge, I could hear your words. I could do a better job than my father. It was full-on conspiracy. It's exactly what Absalom did. Well, it is full-on conspiracy when we doubt the words or the character of God and we slip ourselves into his place. Darkening the counsel of God is easier than you think it is. It is easier than you realize. Take prayer, for example. Presumptuous prayers are prayers of anxiety. It is not wrong to go to God when you're anxious and to pray, but it is wrong to go to God in prayer thinking that I have to ask him to be good. We do not have to ask and pray that God will be good. We need to pray to the God who is good and who has good purposes. We're to pray to God who is always good, and every purpose is good. Or consider, just think of parenting as an illustration. It's been on my mind a lot, so there's many ways we can think about how by our troubles, our confusion, our anxiety, that we begin to step onto the throne of God. But think about parenting, moms and dads, you have a God-given duty before the Lord to care for your children. to nourish them both soul and body, to raise them up to know the Lord. But you are limited. You are limited in this work. You're unable to make your children love you or love God. You are to instruct them and discipline them according to scripture, but when you go beyond your creaturely limitations or knowledge and power, you begin to darken the counsel of God. When you stop parenting by faith in God and you begin parenting with faith in yourself, it leads to parenting with fear and manipulation, anger and bitterness. It's very easy to darken the counsel of God. When we get to a place where we feel powerless and we continue to go, we doubt the work of God. And we must pray to the Lord who is always in power and always good. God instructs us to grow in our understanding of this world and to grow in our knowledge of Him. But as Job confessed, there is knowledge that is too wonderful for you to understand. This is the same language. Some of you know, I love Psalm 131. It's the same language as Psalm 131. It's David humbly trusted in the Lord. He says, oh Lord, my heart is not lifted up. My eyes are not raised too high. I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. These words, wonderful, great, marvelous. It's language that describes the extraordinary, wonderful works of God. The work of creation, of upholding creation by his hands, only that God can do, of having perfect knowledge and control over every molecule, over every moment, for eternity. Nothing is hidden from God. No thought of man escapes him. The smallest creature living deep in the earth obeys him perfectly. There is knowledge that is too wonderful for us, things that are too great and too marvelous for us. Like Job, we need to repent of insisting on having this type of knowledge. It only leads to anxiety and seeks to undermine God. It doubts his character. We're not able to know what the state of our children's souls will be in the next decade. We're not able to know when our last day will be on the earth. In fact, God asks Job, have the gates of death been revealed to you? No. These things are too wonderful for us. But we should seek our God who holds everything, every great and wonderful thing in his hands, and we are to calm and quiet our souls before him. Our last point is that we are comforted when God is unveiled, when God is unveiled. Once again, in verse four, we see Job repeating God's question to him. In verse four, Job repeats a question that God asked him earlier. God said to Job, hear and I will speak. I will question you and you will make it known to me. And then Job responds in verses five and six. I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. That verse five is probably one of my favorite verses in scripture. I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Church, I want you to know, I want you to know the wonderful gift of repenting and submitting to God. I want you to know how kind it is that God brings us low when needed so that we submit to him and we trust in him and repent before him, that he is working in our lives in the way that he worked in Job. Nowhere else that I know of is repentance before God shown to be so hopeful. How good is it that God pays attention to those whom he loves? He works sovereignly in their lives to bring them low when needed so that they might know him more and be comforted by his providential love for them. Remember that Job was a man who feared God and turned away from evil? That's the description of repentance. So Job was already a child of God. This is not him being saved. We would have looked upon his life from the beginning and say, that's a Christian, if that were today. We would say he was a person who belonged to God. But now he sees that he must continually submit to God. He must continually repent as a part of his sanctification. He's conformed to God and he knows him more through continual repentance. Verse five, he said, I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. I don't think Job literally saw the Lord in this moment. That's not the picture that we see in the book. But being humbled and assured by God's Word, he comes to have such a certain confidence in God. It is as if he is bodily with the Lord. He has brought such confidence and hope in the Lord, as if he does see the Lord with his own eyes. Previously, his thoughts and words had darkened the counsel of God. Job's presumptuous words clouded over the assurance of God, which makes God feel distant. God is never far off, but it feels that way when your thoughts and actions darken his counsel. You probably have heard people, maybe you have felt that way. I've talked to many people and they tell me, I feel distant from God. And the assurance is if you're his child, he is not far off. But when you darken his counsel, when you doubt his character, when you cease to pray to the God who can do all things, he does certainly feel far off. When you think and live opposed to the scripture, this is what takes place. But when you submit to God that he is good and his works are good, it feels as if he is near. This is the work of God in our lives. through discipline and trials that are not meant to punish us or push us away from God, but are to bring us closer and to know his power and majesty more. I mentioned 1 Peter earlier, 1 Peter 1, verses 6 to 9. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials. so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. This is the kindness and faithfulness of God, that through trials and discipline, and sometimes these trials are brought on by our own sin. They're the work of our own consequences. Sometimes these trials are disciplined. Sometimes these trials are simply so that God, as he did with the blind person, could be glorified, and that we would see the power of God. We're not always to ask the questions why. We are to look to the one who knows. But this is the kindness of God, that through trials and discipline, he draws us close. Never think of God's providence as cold or as deterministic. It is providential love that comes from the heart of God, meant to draw us close to him. It is truly a strange thing. It is a strange thing that as God continually works in your life, I wanna encourage you that this is true, as God continually works in your life, over the years and decades, you will begin to welcome these trials. You may even get a little excited when they come about because you have confidence. You know, you know that the Lord is working. and you know he is working for good, and you know his purposes are good, and you know he is drawing you close. As you walk with the Lord, you will come to see these trials as God's good purposes. You will not be confused. You will be encouraged and hopeful. When you see this happen, you go from trusting a God who one time seemed distant, to trusting in God, who you know is near, has sovereign power, he comforts you. It is as if you see him with your own eyes. That is the blessing of God's continual work in our lives, his work of sanctification. It is the continual work of God that being brought near to God by being brought low before him, his glory is unveiled to us. As the holiness of God is unveiled to us, we are more to see our sinful condition before him. This is exactly what happens to Job. As God is unveiled to him and he sees him as if with his own eyes, he went from merely hearing about God to seeing him. He sees his sin more clearly and he repents. In verse six, therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. Once again, there is poetic irony here. In Job's affliction, there was a mourning, a grieving about his condition, rightfully so. I wanna encourage you, it is not wrong to lament in our sorrows, in our pain, in our suffering. Lamenting is not wrong. Groaning or grumbling against God is wrong. But Job was lamenting, he was grieving, and I think he approached some grumbling. He went from grieving in his condition before God and dust and ashes, which we see in Job chapter 30. Job said, God has cast me into the mind. I have become like dust and ashes. I cry to you for help and do not answer me. Stand and you only look at me. have turned cruel to me. The might of your hand, you persecute me." Job had felt as if God was absent. He sat in the ash heap of grief. But what was an ash heap of grief is now an ash heap of repentance. His condition doesn't change. He still, he has lost all that he has. He's in terrible pain. His family is gone. His friends are accusing him. He's sitting in the ash heap, scraping his painful boils. But everything changes. Nothing has changed in his life, but his perspective completely changes. Instead of looking to himself and his sorrow and his pain, now God is near, and all he sees is the glory of God. And his suffering isn't his biggest problem. His sin now becomes his biggest problem. I see the Lord, he is near, and he repents in the same dust and ashes that he had once grieved in. His suffering was still a problem, but it paled in comparison to being in the presence of God. Job was brought low by God and repented, and his anxieties and fears were put in their proper place. I want to assure you, this is not a quick fix for anxiety. There is no quick fix for anxiety. But this is the right response when you are anxious before God. When sinful fears and anxieties come, which threaten to darken the counsel of God, when you're anxious, you will tend to turn to yourself and the anxieties will only multiply. Because you are helpless against the troubles of this world. When you are anxious, turn from yourself and to God. Do the same as Jehoshaphat did when the great armies were approaching him and he was anxious and fearful. He says in 2 Chronicles 20, 12, for we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you. Let that be our response when we are anxious and afraid. These are three right responses that Job had, and when they're brought about, they defeated Satan, they brought comfort to Job, and they brought, most importantly of all, glory to God. They are responses of a heart that submits to God and extols his perfect work, that God is enthroned in all that he does, that God's providence cannot be questioned. and that God unveils himself to those who draw near to him. There is no doubt that without the powerful and gracious hand laid upon Job to bring him to repentance, Job would have quickly cursed God to his face as Satan had hoped. I am convinced of that. What we see in the chapters before this, there's a place where Job stops and God's answers to him. And he says, I will stop talking. I will put my hand over my mouth. I have to wonder, how long would it have been in this spiral that Job would have cursed God to his face? But do you see the gracious hand of God who is faithful, who brought a strong word upon Job and stopped him in his sin, who brought him into submission, brought him low before him in his kindness. It is God who was faithful. And in his faithfulness, he brought Job to be faithful. Back into his repentance and submitting to God. Job realized that he was weaker than he ever thought he was, and that God was stronger than he realized. He realized that he was wrong and that God is always right. He realized that he was weak and God is always strong. He realized he was limited and God is without limits. And he rested in God's perfect hands. By God's faithfulness, Job laid his hand over his mouth and did not curse God. His inward spiral was stopped. And Job saw God rightly. I know from experience, and you probably have experienced this, that when somebody comes to you and they're suffering, and if you ever bring Romans 8.28 to them, that God is always working for good, that just feels like a thoughtless cliche. And people will just swat it away. Like, give me something real. Give me something that really helps. I don't want those words. I want something better. That's what I see that happens in people. I want something that you can tell me to do. I want you to fix this. Don't just tell me that God is providential and that he's good. I want something better. What better could there be? There is nothing better. There's nothing better than knowing that God is good and he is provident and has sovereign power over all things. Never think of God's providence as a thoughtless cliche. Even if it is delivered in that way, never think of it that way. Take hold of it so that you can respond like Job and say, I know, I know that you can do all things and nothing thwarts your purposes, Lord. Let the Lord be your comfort. Let his providence be your hope so that you may go from hearing the Lord about him to seeing him rightly. Let's pray. Father, we do praise you. We thank you for your greatness. Lord, we cannot conceive of your power or your providence. So much is too wonderful and too great and too marvelous for us. But we know you. And Lord, I pray that by your word, by your kindness, by the work of your spirit, We would all leave resting in your providence, and we would go from hearing about you to seeing you. And we would trust in you and your sovereignty and your love and your kindness for us all the more. May we treasure your good purpose as always. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.