Okay, so we need to get going here. God's Providence. If God controls all things, then how can our actions have real meaning? This is one of the hardest questions in the whole, to the whole Christian faith. And it's really one of the hardest questions that anybody faces in the world. How do we deal with, how do we deal with the fact that God is all powerful and yet our actions we think have some meaning. And our choices have some meaning. And then what are the decrees of God, that's just another little question that we'll get at the end. But before I get into this, last week I talked about the age of the earth. And not everybody agreed with me. Well, that wasn't so bad. But then family disagreed with me. Well, that was sort of bad. Well, then after class I find out my wife Margaret disagreed with me. It can't win. Oh, but EG agreed with me. All right. So anyway, but you were all gracious and I'm thankful for that. Clyde said to me afterward, you know, it would be good if I'd mention this other book. And I should have mentioned, I just didn't get to it. And I didn't, I didn't have it. And I didn't put it in the notes. But Walt Brown goes to this church. And Walt Brown has been just a stalwart defender of creation, of the biblical doctrine of creation, a stalwart advocate for arguments against evolution. And there's a lot of material in this book about that. This book is called in the beginning, compelling evidence for the creation and the flood. And I bought it from the bookstore here. It's also on Amazon.com. And I noticed it still sells quite well on Amazon.com. 7th edition, Clyde tells me the 8th edition is coming out. But the reason I mentioned it particularly here is that Walt Brown has a lot of scientific arguments in here that are taking the alternative view to what I said about evidence for the age of the earth light from the stars and things like that. And Walt Brown has a PhD from MIT, which is very impressive. And he's a retired Air Force colonel, West Point grad. How do you go to be a West Point grad and be an Air Force colonel? Okay, Air Force requested him. And he taught at the Air Force Academy. So there's a lot of scientific qualifications. So I'm going to, I just mentioned that, here it is, Walt Brown in the beginning. I've mentioned that because I want you to be aware of that. And when I present controversy of views, I want you to know that, at least here's information on both sides. And thanks to Clyde for mentioning that, and I'm sorry, I didn't mention it before. Then I had one more thing to mention, and is Margaret said to me after it, why did you talk about this at all? The age of the earth question. And I said, well look, here's my concern. My concern is my concern is twofold. One, for college students, growing up in the church or having influence of Scottsdale Bible, I think it's important for them to know that there are two viewpoints here in the Christian world. Because I don't want a situation to come about where all the high school or all the college students, we have think, if you're going to believe the Bible, you have to believe in a younger and 24-hour days. And that's the only option. Because I think for those college students who go into the physical sciences or into scientific study, it is going to be very difficult to retain that view. Now, if they do, that's fine, and they want to hold that. But I want them to know that there are Christians on the other side so that they don't think, oh, if I give up 24-hour days, I can't believe the Bible anymore. Am I making sense on that? So I think it's important to let people know that this is... And then the second thing is, honestly, in the political situation in our nation, I think that the possibility of getting any school board to approve the teaching of young earth creationism is about zero, any place in the United States, and having successfully withstand court challenges, to be honest. I just think it's a battle that is not going to be... And it was tested in Louisiana. And it went to an appeals court, and it just got blown out of the water. It was just, I think, a real setback for creationism. And I think it was a mistake for Christians, this is my own viewpoint, to push for not only teaching that God created everything, but to teach that you have to believe in a young earth view too. I think among Christians there's room to differ, but what we should push for, at least in public schools, is teaching that God created everything. And Wal-Brown has a lot of good evidence on that in this book. And so, when we teach for that, we're arguing for something that's a winnable thing. And it has a possibility... Now, it's a lot of school board disputes. And Delaware and Kansas and other places, I think that eventually, there will be more and more opportunities to... What should I say? It's a lot easier battle to win, anyway, in terms of the data. And so, push for teaching of intelligent design, I think, is very helpful. What's going on here? Okay. But I would not advocate that Christians push for the teaching of young earth creationism. I think we can argue that within ourselves and say that's an option. But saying that that has to be taught, I think, is probably biting off more than we can chew. Or trying to argue for more that is easily able to persuade others about. And is that making sense? I'm not trying to decide that question by saying that. I'm just saying, hey, strategically, it's a good thing. Winn. Okay. Good, macro and microevolution. The difference is good. Yeah. And there's good material in there. So, I just was paging through some of it. So, I wanted that to be known. But that was my point is saying there's room to differ on this question. That's all. Anything else? Maybe I just wanted to say anything on this. Okay. Now, where are we? Are we on this? Ah. Okay. The biblical position. But I encourage you, if you want to get what Brown's book, read it and look through. And you can get this U-ross material too that I mentioned on the other side. And at least we've got both few points represented. Okay. No. Providence. So, I'm back here on Providence. If God controls all things, how can our action have any real meaning? Here's my kind of summary before I start talking about this. It's going to take us two weeks anyway. God has continually involved with all created things in such a way that he keeps them existing and maintaining the properties with which he created them. Whoa. I mean, that's right off the bat. That's a different view than most people in the world have. So that God actually keeps things existing. They don't need their own. Yeah, I think that's what the Bible says. Okay. Number two, cooperates with created things in every action directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do. Well, that has to do with all the actions, all the activities that go on in the world. And three, directs them to fulfill his purposes. Now, I'm going to say right off the bat that this isn't immensely controversial topic because it has to do with how we view our human decisions and choices and actions. And what I think the biblical view is, this isn't on your outline. It's in my book and I realized this morning that I hadn't added this. You can just look at it on the slide. I added it this morning as I came in. But the biblical position differs from four other viewpoints. The biblical position differs from deism. We talked about this when we talked about creation. The idea that God made the world, and he abandoned it basically. And here's the universe kind of going on on its own and God's up here and he's not involved in it. That's the distant God, not really involved in the world. The biblical position isn't bad. It says that God is involved in the world. And then the biblical position differs from pantheism, which says God is the world. Our God is nature. You know, the trees are God and the stars are God and the sun and moon are God and the oceans are God and everything is God. That's an Eastern religions view. But the Bible doesn't teach that either. It has God being distinct from the world but involved in the world. Okay? The biblical position also differs from fatalism. And I'm going to be fighting against this for the next two class weeks. Fatalism is what I do doesn't make any difference. It's all determined. So it doesn't matter what I do. So why don't I just lie down and go to sleep? Okay? That's fatalism. And Islam tends toward fatalism. All the wills. Why don't you have any food on the table? You see what I mean? Why are all these people dying? All the wills. Instead of actively choosing to do something and saying that your decision, you are responsible for your decision to the Bible. Thousands of places holds us responsible for our decision. So I'm going to say in contrast to fatalism, our choices matter, our actions matter, our decisions matter. You can't read the Bible without knowing that. Okay? So I'm differing from fatalism. The biblical position differs from chance. What is chance? Means, why did that happen? Oh, it just happened. See, events of the world are just, they just happened. Why did you get a flat tire? I just happened. Okay? Chance. See, chance is kind of saying it's related to this view that God just let the world operate on its own. And it's just random. Okay. Both fatalism, fatalism is everything is controlled. It doesn't matter what I do. And chance is, it's another kind of way of getting to. It doesn't matter what I do. Stuff just happens to me. Stuff just happens. That's chance. And that really leaves God out of the picture, doesn't it? So I'm going to be fighting against this view of chance or random events in the universe, too. So here we go. First, we've got three parts of providence. The first one is preservation. It's the idea that God keeps everything existing. God keeps all created things existing and maintaining the properties with which He created them. He brews one three. He is, this is talking about Jesus Christ. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature. And He upholds the universe by His word of power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the man just now. He upholds the Greek word, bro, there. And it's a present participle. Pharaoh means he carries, he bears. It's the ordinary word for carrying things. The friends carried their sick, the four men carried their sick friend to Jesus. Or the steward, let's see, the people carried the, remember when Jesus turned the water into wine at Cain and Galilee, they carried the water to the, they carried the wine to the steward of the feast. It just means pick up something and carry it and bear it along. So, well, what is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the eternal omnipotent Son of God, what is He doing? He's carrying along what? All things. Top Ponta in Greek, everything. All things by the word of His power. And this present participle, it's continual action. It means he's continually carrying along all things in the universe by His word of power. Why does this podium not just dissolve into water and flow down the aisle here and be gone? Well, because Jesus Christ, the Son of God, carries along, upholds, sustains all things by His word of power, He made wood to act like wood. It has certain properties. It's hard, but it's kind of soft so you can saw it and you can nail it. Wood, very, very nice properties of wood. And he keeps that property, he preserves that property of wood so that it continues to be wood. And I can pound on the podium and I know my hand is not going to go through it. He keeps it working and the floor that I'm standing on, it has properties that he preserves. And the water, I can drink that and I think that this verse in Hebrews means that Jesus Christ continues to carry along that water so it always acts like water. And I can take a drink of it and it's not going to suddenly turn into gasoline and poison me. As some, you know, science fiction movie might have it or something like that. It gives the sense of reliability to things in the universe. Okay? He's continually carrying along all things. There are clotions, 117, he's before all things and in him all things hold together. These are amazingly comprehensive verses and they're amazingly kind of surprising verses because you don't look at a bottle of water and say thank you Lord for keeping this being water. So it's predictable, it's reliable. So it doesn't just pass into non-existence and vaporize and disappear. As again, a science fiction movie might have it or something like that. He act 1728, Paul could say to the philosophers in Athens, in him we live and move and have our being. As even some of your own poets have said for we are indeed his offspring. More verses, Nehemiah 9.6, you are the Lord, you have made heaven, the heaven of heaven. They're hosts, the earth and all that is in it, the season, all that is in them. And you preserve all of them. Again, this is creation language. Heaven, earth, all that is in it, sea, all that is in it, you preserve all of them. That is again, here's this idea that the things in the universe don't just exist on their own. And like we can assume that they're going to exist forever, it's that there's an active role of God in sustaining them. Second Peter 3.7, by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment. Well again, there's an idea of preserving it for a future time. Job 14, or 34, 14 to 15, if he should set his heart to it and gather it himself, his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to the dust, don't think that you can just on your own keep on living. It's apparently God's sustaining work that enables us to keep on living. And if he withdrew his spirit from the sustaining work, we hear that the Holy Spirit has in the world, we'd just perish. And there'd be nothing left to us. I don't think we should think that God is continually recreating everything, like he creates it new every second. It's rather that he preserves what he's already created, and that means that created things are real and they have real properties. And so an example of rock, I was going to bring in a rock, and I didn't bring in a rock, too. Well, if this was a rock, see, and I hit myself on the head, I wouldn't do that. But it would hurt because the rock is hard, and this doesn't, because rubber filled with air is not hard. So that has a real property. Water is wet, and it's fluid, and it's liquid, and it flows, and God preserves those properties of it. And grass is green, and it grows, and you have to give it water. And you put gas in your car, which I did yesterday on the way to the Orlando Airport. And I turned the key and started the car again, and it drove, because God keeps the gas acting like gas after it's been refined from oil, and it has certain properties. And see, so I have it when I think about this, I don't think about it every time I put gas in my car. But when I think about this, I put gas in my car with a different attitude from that of a non-Christian. See, if I just stop and reflect on it for a minute, then I would be saying, Lord, thank you for creating the oil in the earth that has certain properties, so it can be refined, so it can make this gasoline. And thank you that this gasoline is going to act like gasoline acted yesterday, and the day before, and the day before. So that thank you, Lord, that there's predictability and reliability in the materials in your universe, so that I can put this in the car, and trust that it's going to drive the car, and it'll be reliable. See, I'm thankful for that. Those of you who build things work with iron or steel, things in construction or wood, I think there's a way in which you should be able to say, thank you, Lord, for making these things predictable and reliable. I'm really thankful. Our airplane's mostly aluminum. And Mike, a lot of our aluminum. Well, and so the airplane flies. It doesn't turn to lead. Well, it should be a big problem, if you're okay. And so I'm thankful for that. So I think I can say, thank you, Lord, for the predictability and the reliability of your physical universe that you sustain all things and carry it along, keeping it acting as you made it to act. And a non-Christian, he puts gas in his car and drives away, and he doesn't have any idea why it does that. It just kind of just happens. There's no explanation. See the difference. Is that making sense? So this gives a basis to encourage scientific investigation and find out the wisdom of God in designing the world. And as I mentioned before, a number of very, very well-known scientists in the history of the world have pursued scientification because they wanted to find out more of the wisdom of God. In making the world work the way it does. And that Ben Smith mentioned two weeks ago, this Francis Collins book, the language of God is the director of the Human Genome Project. And he's saying, when I got into working, looking at the wonders of DNA and the Human Genome, he said, how wonderful is this that God could design something that was that excellent. And so that has been the basis for much scientific investigation. It also gives the basis for technological development and for inventions. I think a Christian does this with confidence in God, pursuing trying to invent things with God's approval and with thanks to God. And a non-Christian just does it because it seems to work. But why? It doesn't know. So again, I mentioned we have friends at Abbott Lab, Abbott Lab's pharmaceutical research laboratory back in, and we were in our church. And one of our friends, I saw I'm working one day. And all he was doing was, he just had a yellow legal pad and he was writing chemical formulas on it. And then he'd sit back and think for a while. And then he writes some more formulas. That was an interesting kind of work. But he could do that with thanksgiving to God and with kind of encouragement that it's worth investigating because he thought God put order in the universe. Now let's go find it out. And so that gives a lot of basis for inventions large and small. So I think this doctrine of Providence should make us thankful. So here we've got preservation. God keeps all created things existing and maintaining the properties of which he created them. I'll tell you, I remember the first time I read about this, you know, theology book. I was reading actually a book written, well, was published in 1559, the version I was reading, John Calvin institutes of the Christian religion. He was talking about God's Providence and sustaining every blade of grass and I was looking at that grass and thinking does God really sustain every single of those thousands of blades of grass throughout the universe. And I think, you know, I think the Bible is saying yes. So that was a really mind changing perspective changing viewpoint for me. You want to interact with me on that for a minute. It's a pretty all comprehensive, all pervasive view of God's involvement in the universe. And it is a strong view of what we call in general Providence. John, it comes under the word sovereign. Yeah, that God is the ruler. I do occasionally use the word luck, but I don't mean it in the way people. No, I think this is different from a view of chance in the universe. It's amazing. Well, first come back here. Okay, how do you look at illness? Okay, on this outline that you have, see under B8, what about evil? That's the hard part. That will be next week. It's the hard part, but it's also the most comforting part. I'll say that in advance. Okay. I'm going to wait. Okay. And actually, I'm going to change. Ben didn't type this handout. I had a previous teaching assistant who had typed this a couple of years ago. And I revised it last night, but I didn't get down to the evil part and I see some wording there that I'm going to change. Wait. Okay. It's close to what I'm going to say down. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Here's the deal. How can you change that water into wine? Water is supposed to be water is supposed to be water is supposed to be water. Well, I think Jesus said, hey, I created it. I sustain it. I can do what I want with it. I want that to be why it's wine. I mean, that is really remarkable. That is really, it's amazing. But, sure, how can you walk on water? Well, I just did it. I mean, I think that those miracles, Jesus is saying we're seeing his lordship over the creation. Walking on water is a demonstration of that. It's, it's kind of a visual picture of his sovereignty over the creation. It's amazing. It's wonderful. Okay. What's your name? Kurt? No, I just would say it's just going on by itself. I hate it and let it go. No, probably not. Just created it and it's existing on its own. So here's where we're differing with theism by the idea of the universe is not God, but the universe has a really strong involvement of God all the time, but in a predictable orderly way. Okay. Currents here. Now God cooperates with created things in every action directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do. Okay. God cooperates with created things in every action directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do. So this is not just, this is not just kind of what it is, but how it acts. Ephesians 111 and him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of who works all things. And again, this Greek word top Honda means everything, everything in the universe. He works all things according to the counsel of his will. He works all things and again, that's a really strong statement from Paul, but he's saying God is the one who works all things, makes all things come about according to the counsel of his will. There are other passages like that. Now, I'm going to go from inanimate creation and then go to kind of kind of things that are not alive and then to animals and plants and then to the affairs of nations and other things like that. So, fire and hail snow and mist stormy wind fulfilling his word. Here, I've often thought that in the middle of a snow storm or the middle of hail. This is God's, it's obedient to God's word. He's controlling the weather on the earth. Or Job 37, this is a very extensive passage, beautiful passage to the snow. He says fall on the earth. Likewise to the down poor, his muddy down poor. He seals up the hand of every man that all men whom he made may know it, then the beast go to their layers and remain in their dens from his chamber comes the whirlwind and cold from the scattering winds. By the breath of God, ice is given. See, in this very poetic language, wonderful, beautiful language, it's saying God's involved in this. In the ice, the broad waters are frozen fast. He loads the thick cloud with moisture. That's rain. The clouds scatter his lightning. They turn around and around by his guidance to accomplish all that he commends them on the face of the habitable world. Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen. The lightning, the hail, the snow, the wind, the clouds. Psalm 135, 6 and 7, whatever the Lord pleases, he even heaven and on earth in the seas and all deeps. It is he who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightning for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses. No, I was just editing these slides last night, somewhere between Dallas and Phoenix, at about 35,000 feet or something like that or 30,000 feet, and below us was an amazing thunderstorm off to the right. And I'm sitting here looking out the window and I'm reading this verse, he makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth and unbelievably beautiful cloud banks and just off into the distance, saying thank you, Lord, that you're controlling this. They're wonderful. They're amazing. And lightning, so then I'm seeing the lightning flashing. That's God's hand. So I'll tell you, this view of God's providence, which I guess I have held for about 38 years or so. It really changes the way I look at the way it really does. It's a very encouraging view. It's a very comforting view because it's in God's control. Okay, so that's a wonderful thing for me to think about. Now, we're going to get to the point, what about natural disasters and things like that and what about evil things and what are human choices saying? I know I want to come to that, but first the broad perspective is a very, very comforting and encouraging perspective. What's your name? Marnie? Yeah. You're wondering about free will. Yeah, you can look ahead on the outline. I believe that we have that we make real choices and they're important. Okay, so, but I won't get to it until next week. Let's see. Okay. Hold on. That's all right. So that's a question. I'll give you a quick answer. God made the water to be wet. It is wet. God made the wood to be hard. It is hard. God made me to be able to choose. I do choose. It's one of the properties that he put in me and you. Just like wetness in this and hardness in the wood, choosing, willing choices, thinking about things, pondering them and making a choice and we're responsible and the choice has real results. That's part of how God made us. Do I think that God controls all that? Yes. Do I think that my choices make a difference? Yes. How do I put that together? I don't know. Now, that's where I'm going for the next two weeks. Okay. But I'm going to say people make big mistakes either by trying to rule out the reality of our choices and the consequence and then that dehumanizes us or they make mistakes by trying to take it out of the picture and just say we're on our own. And there's a mystery there how it all fits together. Okay. All right. You got me to tell the answer before now nobody's going to come back. All right. All right. Let's go on. So look at this. It's on 10414. You caused the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate that he may bring forth food from the earth. You caused the plants to grow. Well, you caused the grass to grow. Oh, wait a minute. I thought I made grass grow. I put the fertilizer on it. I water it. I can see it this time of year, right? And you get some sunshine on it. Don't I? Can I figure it out? It grows. No. It's almost saying God causes it. Well, how can you put those together? I think they're both true. Matthew 5.45. You may be sons of your father who is in heaven for he makes his son rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust. Even though we realize that it's the rotation of the earth that makes the sun rise on us here. Jesus himself is saying that God is making it happen. So I think they're both true. And here Jesus is saying God sends rain on the just and the unjust. Snow, wind, rain, clouds, sun, grass. The Bible does not hesitate to say that God makes all this happen. You know what? Instinctively, I think Christians believe that even without looking at these verses. You have a sense that God is so great that he must be making all this happen. What about animals? Well, okay, we get to a little more complicated part of creation. These all look to you to give them their food and do season when you give it to them food. They gather it up. It's the bird. The Robin pulling the worm out of the ground. When you give it to them, they gather it up. When you open your hand, they are filled with good things. When you hide your face, they are dismayed. When you lay their breath, they die and return to their dust. As God sovereign control over the animal kingdom. Look at the birds of the air. Jesus said they neither so nor reap nor gather into barns. But look at the language that Jesus can use about birds. Yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? He's connecting this idea of God feeding the birds to our being confident that God will care for us. That interesting. So Jesus is believing in this view of God's providence or God's sovereignty. I can use both words. God's providence or God's sovereignty with regard to the animal kingdom and saying, hey, isn't God going to even care for you more than that? And that's encouraging to us. Are not too sparrows sold for a penny and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. Same point. Jesus will care for you. Seemingly random or chance events. What about this? The lot asked into the lab. But it's every decision is from the Lord. Modern equivalent? Let's try again. I shouldn't try that and then I can run the risk of failure. But that was my own choice, wasn't it? To do that. So now I'm responsible. Okay. And I'm just going to tell you something. What's your name again? Buddy, if you ask me, do I think that God ordained before the foundation of the world that I would toss that quarter in the air and miss it? I would say yes. Did I choose to do it? Yes. Do I feel a little foolish about missing the quarter? Yes. How do I put that all together? I'm not sure. Okay. But I want to keep the reality of both of them. But random or chance events. So the lot has cast into the lab and I'm just going to let that fall heads or tails. What do you think? Garth is saying heads and he got it. There you go, Garth. I thought I was quarter from you here. No, I'm not gambling in Sunday school class. Oh, no. Where did it go? Did we lose it? Oh, here we go. Got your reward. So I think the perspective is this. That events are fully caused by God, fully caused by the creature as well. God directs and works through the distinctive properties of each created thing so that these things themselves bring about the results that we see. What makes the grass to grow? Well, a botanist could tell me sunlight, certain temperature and some moisture. And some nutrition in the ground that makes the grass to grow. If you say to me, did that make the grass to grow? I say, that's what makes the grass to grow. And then you say to me, oh, did God cause it? Yes. I thought you said the sunlight caused it. Well, both. Well, how is that? Well, God worked through the sunlight and the water and all that stuff to make it happen because he made the distinctive properties to act as they did. And what makes the rain to fall? God does. Well, wait a minute. I thought I could make rain fall in a weather chamber in a laboratory. You know, you get certain atmospheric pressure and certain humidity and I don't know what else you need. And you can make rain in a weather laboratory. Make a cloud and make rain. Well, don't we know what makes rain? Yeah, okay. But then the Bible says God makes it. So I think both are true. And I think that goes to the affairs of nations. And this could comfort your heart at this time of year actually. Or well, I think it shouldn't comfort your heart no matter what your hopes are for the outcome of the election in three weeks or so. That God is sovereign over the affairs of nations. He makes nations great. And he destroys them. He enlarges nations and leads them away. That's Job 12. Proverbs 22, 28, kingship belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations. He rules over the nations. He is sovereign. See, ultimately, a nonbeliever can really be worried about the affairs of the world and the future of the world. And North Korea has a nuclear bomb now and maybe Iran is going to have one pretty soon and terrorism and unrest. I tell you, I get concerned about these things too. But deeper than the concern is the knowledge that God rules over the affairs of nations. And he's going to bring history to a right outcome to the outcome that he wants. And so, ultimately, I don't have deep worry about it. I have short-term concern about now, I think, and hope things turn out. But I know that overall God is wise and he'll do right. Acts 17, 26, he made from one man, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined periods and the boundaries of their dwellings. So, a lot of periods for different nations, nations rise and fall and all aspects of our lives. So, we have here, even in the Lord's Prayer, give us this day our daily bread. Well, I thought I went to the store and bought bread. Well, how am I supposed to pray for that? I thought I went to work and got a paycheck to earn bread. Well, Jesus said, give us this day our daily bread. We're to pray for God to enable these things to come about, though we also act in them. Philippians 4 and 19, my God will supply every need of yours. According to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus, a wonderful promise that has to do with this dependence on the fact that God rules over the affairs of our lives. Psalm 139, 16, in your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them. Isn't that interesting? That for every one of us, I think, David, it means this to apply to every one of us, God has planned the numbers that will be alive on the earth. I don't think that means I should be reckless. I buckle my seatbelt, right? And I try not to be reckless with caring for my life, but then there's a deep piece that says, God, you know the days of my life, and where I want to be is obedient to you, and that's where safety is. So, Job 14, his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you. So, Paul, I'm just piling up verses here about the events of our lives. Paul says, he had sent me apart before I was born to be an apostle. Jeremiah 1023, I know, Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that is not in man who walks to direct his steps. Now, I don't think Jeremiah means that we don't have any influence on it, but I think it means ultimately it's not in us to direct our steps, that that's from the Lord, or man's steps are from the Lord, how then can a man understand his way. And a lot of times when you're walking through the affairs of life or you're going from one point to another and doing things and you just see God's hand, directing and guiding, so you come to the right place at the right time, what's your name? Fill, yeah, fill. No? Yeah, does it sound like fatalism? Well, the thing is, yeah, I'm glad you asked the question because what's going to happen is, when I start piling up all these verses about God's control, people can start thinking, oh, fatalism, fatalism, it doesn't matter what I do. But then I go back to the right of the beginning where I said, I want to guard against chance, and I want to guard against fatalism. So chance is God doesn't have anything to do with it, fatalism is, it doesn't matter what I do. The Bible always says that it doesn't matter what we do, our choices matter. So how do we guard against it? Not that we can ultimately explain it, though I'm going to try a little bit more here, but because the Bible's affirmations on the reality of our choices and the fact that they make a difference. The plan long demand, but the answer to the tongue is from the Lord, just amazing with these very words of art, or look at this from where he sits and thrown, he looks out at all the inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the hearts of them all and observe all our deeds. No, that's very significant because the heart in the Bible is sort of the culmination or the focus or the sum of all our deep convictions and desires and intermost motivations and thoughts, he fashions the hearts of them all, very strong verse. Or Philippians 2.13, a good assurance, it is God who works in you to will and to work for his good pleasure. He works in you to cause you to want to choose the good, to will for his good pleasure. I can think it's right to pray, Lord, help me want to decide what you want me to do, okay? So review, God directs all aspects of creation, causing them to act as they do, inanimate creation, the snow, the light clouds, the animals, the birds, God feeds them, seemingly random or chance events like the lot or the casting of dice, the affairs of nations, all aspects of our lives, this is a lot. No, we have to be careful to guard against misunderstanding here, we should not deny the reality of our choices and our actions. Here's where I'm trying to guard against fatalism now. We really do cause events to happen, just like water causes the grass to grow and sunlight does, so we cause events to happen. We really do have choices and those are real choices that bring real results and all day long we're making decisions about what to say, what not to say to people, where to go, what to do, those choices bring real results and God holds us responsible for our choices and those choices have real and eternal results. I imagine I could list a thousand verses in the Bible that talks about holding people responsible for their choices. I've been reading through second Chronicles now and the people of Israel sinned against God and then he let them fall into the hand of their repented, they turned back to him and then he gave them victory over their enemies again and again and again is that refrain. So our choices have real consequences and eternal results. But how can the reality of our choices be put together with a strong view of God's providence? And here is the question, how does this work? I'm going to tell you I don't think we can fully resolve this question, at least not in this life, but I want to continue to affirm all the Bible teaches. I want to affirm God's sovereignty and his control over the events of the earth and then I want to affirm the reality of our decisions and our choices. I'm going to give one analogy here, I don't know if this helps you, it helped me. The analogy of a Shakespeare play, Macbeth and King Duncan in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth. Now maybe it was a long time since he read this, maybe he read it in high school, I don't know, I didn't read it in high school. But in the play, Macbeth kills the king in Scotland, kills King Duncan. And so now I say to you, who killed King Duncan? And you say, Macbeth. But then what if I say, whoa, wasn't it Shakespeare? He wrote the play. Now you say Shakespeare didn't kill him. I didn't see Shakespeare come on stage and kill him. I saw Macbeth kill him. Okay, and I'm saying at one level, yes, it was Macbeth that killed King Duncan. But in another level, Shakespeare planned that it would come about that Macbeth killed King Duncan. So there's some way in which both are true. Within the play, Macbeth killed King Duncan. But at some level, William Shakespeare caused Duncan's death. But now you say, wow, okay, but that's just a play. These are fake. These are fictional characters. They're not real. And my answer is, yeah, because we're just human beings and we can just, we have a limited ability to create things like that. But God can create real people who make real decisions and really do bring things about. And yet can he still plan the events of the whole world and all of history? Yeah, I think so. Wanda, I think that what you say is really important Wanda. Wanda, what happens in any question like this is people can get into reading verses just on one side. Don't worry, don't be afraid, be at peace, go to sleep, don't do anything for the rest of your life. You can get in that mode. What I do doesn't matter. And there's a constant struggle. It's a constant tension to try to be faithful to the whole of the Bible here. And that's what I'm trying to do. Not being neutralized by fear. Yeah, right, right. Yeah. He wants us to be in relationship moving forward. Yes. And doing things, praying for things or taking actions, then when they turn out right, it's really fun. But then you say, thank you Lord. Okay, so it's putting all that together. And I don't want to lose the truth of anything that's in the Bible. It's hard for us to think that the Lord would allow, cause, design, hardship, evil, really good things to come into our lives. It's a hard concept to get around. We leave a loving God as wonderful loving that we did. And then we have others that will put in words, well, that person, maybe that when my husband died years ago, my aunt said, hey, you must have had an interest in it. And that's why I'm playing with it. So it's like it's, I don't know. I get a lot of risk in the sovereignty of God, but I'm sure you don't understand it. Okay, I'm going to repeat that. Many of you know that Pammy's first husband was an Air Force pilot who was killed when his plane crashed and was a tragedy of just, you know, life changing proportions and Pammy's testimony about God'sness and this is wonderful. And of course, Margaret and I with our son Alexander and his wife being killed a year ago in the same way. But what you said just a minute ago, what Alexander is saying and what Margaret and I would say is this teaching on God's sovereignty gets us through this. It's ultimately there's there are puzzling things that we can't understand, but it is a great comfort. It is a great comfort knowing that things are in God's hand. And that's why I want to go. That's the payoff on this. And I think it's right to kind of ponder back and forth. Is this fatalism? No, it isn't. Well, we don't ever want to blame God for evil. And sometimes things are mysteries that we don't figure out in this life, but ultimately, I think it's a great comfort. So I want to come back to the scripture passages on all aspects of our lives. You have us to stay our daily bread. My God will supply every need of yours in your book. We're written every one of them, the days that were formed for me. When as yet, there was none of them. These are wonderful passages of scripture that I think when I just get troubled and I can't figure out how it all fits together. I come back to the Bible and say these should give us comfort and encouragement in times of difficulty. Next week, I want to go on to the question of evil and sin. That's really the heart. It's one of the very, very hardest problems in all of Christian theology to work out. I'm going to try to be fair to the whole Bible on this question, but thanks for sticking with this week. Let's pray. Oh, Lord, I just have a sense in many of us, I think, have a sense, Lord, that these are things beyond our understanding, beyond our ability to understand. Yet you've told us about them in your word. You say that not as feral falls apart from you. You say that you close the flowers of the field that you feed the birds of the air and so that you will also take care for us. We give you thanks, Lord. Thank you for your amazing power, for your love, and for the wonderful way you've made us with a will and with choices and with responsibility and with decision. We'll give you thanks. Lord, help us now. Help every man and woman here as we think about and ponder these things during the weekend and look at the creation you've made and look at human actions and look at the offense of the world. Help us to take comfort in you and give thanks to you for your wisdom and your goodness. We know that you know all things from the beginning and that you will bring history to a wonderful conclusion for your glory and for our good and our joy. And we thank you for that in Jesus name. Amen. See you next week.