Transcription
So, I'm so happy to be here with you all this morning. And in studying for these chapters this week, this has just been my favorite because I get to talk about my favorite subject, God, and I'm so excited.
And, um, so as I was looking at at everything this looking this this time, what I do at first is I get different versions of the Bible and I read the chapters in different versions. And when I picked up this study Bible that I had from that I bought a few years ago, it was an amplified study Bible and I opened up to Job 38 and I had an orange sticky note to myself there that I had totally forgotten about and it said, "These are the first chapters that I looked at in this study Bible." And it had the date and I was like, "Wow." Because these chapters mean a lot to me in my life and I'm going to be talking about that, but mostly focusing all on God.
So, as I was, um, getting ready and preparing for the last couple weeks, the Lord has had a song on my heart that I kind of have been singing as a prayer to you all for you all and it's an old song you might remember and it says, "Open the eyes of my heart, Lord." And I was saying, "Open the eyes of our hearts, Lord. Open the eyes of our hearts. We want to see you see you high and lifted up shining in the light of your glory. Pour out your power and love as we sing holy, holy, holy."
So, with that, let's pray. Dear heavenly Father, Lord, please meet us here now and show us yourself through your word. Speak your message into our hearts and souls. Fill us with your Holy Spirit, Lord, for all learning of your holy word. And as we study now, just focus our minds and our thoughts, melt away all distractions, Lord God, and let us see you in Jesus' name. Amen.
So, our God is not just some man-made God that's made up with the little g, right? Our God is the awesome great I am who I am. And right away we saw in Job 38 that it was the Lord who was speaking. That was capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D and that is God's name, Yahweh. So, I want to talk about who that really is because, uh, the Bible, the Holy Bible, every word of it is true and perfect and in it there's great treasure and I love a good treasure hunt and, um, there is one in Exodus chapter 3.
So, when you look at where God is revealing himself to Moses and he says, "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." And then he reveals himself as I am who I am. And when he said that, when you look at I am the God of Abraham and you look up the word God in the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, it says Elohim. I am Elohim of Abraham, Elohim of Isaac, Elohim of Jacob. That is God's name. That is a singular plural word. It is the identity of God being our triune God, God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Three individuals all in one and his name as he reveals there was YHWH and we pronounce that Yahweh. So, when he revealed his name in the four letters that are written and recorded, that's called the tetragrammaton. That is the four letters that are the Lord's holy name that he gave to us and to the children of Israel. And when he did that, um, you know, when it got going through the years and people would be pronouncing the name and they wanted to they added in vowels because YHWH it used to be a consonant only language, ancient Hebrew, but then as language went along, it they added vowels. So, then it was pronounced Yahweh and that's how it is. And then in the 16th century because they weren't quite sure if it was when the Lord spoke it out himself if it was two syllables or three syllables, they pronounced it Jehovah and so that came in the 16th century and whether you say Yahweh or Jehovah, it's both or Jehovah because that's how we say it in English. That is God's holy name.
And the Lord said, "Moreover, he said, 'I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.'" And Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look upon God. And then, um, the scribes as they went along, they would be transcribing the Bible and when they would get to capital L O R D because they were so afraid of mispronouncing the Lord's name and it was so holy to them that they started writing L O R D capital or Adonai to substitute for for the name of the Lord. And so when the scribes would get to the name and they're transcribing the Bible, they would take off all their clothes, they would take a full bath head to toe, they would put on new clothes that had never been worn and pick up a pen that had never been used every single time they did that. So, when you look at the word Lord in your Bible, you can understand the holiness of the name, which is awesome.
Isaiah 43:10-13, God says this of himself. He says, "You are my witnesses," said the Lord, Yahweh, "and my servant whom I have chosen that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed nor shall there be after me. I even I am the Lord and beside me there is no savior. I have declared and saved. I have proclaimed and there was no foreign God among you. Therefore, you are my witnesses," says the Lord, Yahweh, "that I am God. Indeed, before the day was, I am he and there is no one who can deliver out of my hand. I work and who will reverse it?" And that is our awesome God.
So, um, I want to go on now and I wanted, um, talk about Job as we've been sitting with Job in the ash heap through all of his loss and suffering that went on and on with no relief in sight and he thought that God had abandoned him. And when God answered him, we saw that he didn't come with cuddles, you know. No. He answered Job out of the storm and he answered him out of the whirlwind. And can you even imagine God's thundering voice as he said, "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now, prepare yourself like a man. I will question you and you shall answer me."
Job 38:2-3 in the Amplified version, God says, "Who is this who darkens counsel, questions my authority and wisdom by words without knowledge? Now, gird your loins like a man and I will ask you and you will instruct me." And it says of these verses, "Words without knowledge, the theme of the first speech of the Lord is given here. Job does not know what he was talking about. God quite quickly points out there that there is a wide gap of understanding between God and men. God was not saying that Job had sinned in the way that his friends had accused him. That's very important. But God was saying that Job had been presumptuous with his superficial knowledge of divine things. Job, along with his friends, had to learn that suffering may serve a purpose known only to God. And in this case, a follower of God will submit to loss and trauma without complaint to the glory of God. And Wiersbe said that the answer to Job's problems was not an explanation of God, but a revelation of God. Just as his friends, Elihu, had given and the four men had declared and defended the greatness of God, they had failed to persuade Job. When God displayed his majesty and his greatness, it humbled Job and brought him to the place of submission before God. So, we prefer that God would speak to us in sunshine, but sometimes God speaks to us in the storm. So, experiencing this majestic demonstration of God's power made Job very susceptible to the message that God had for him. God's address to Job centered on his works and nature and consisted of 77 questions interspersed with divine commentary related to the questions. The whole purpose of this interrogation was to make Job realize his own inadequacy and inability to meet God and defend his case as an equal. God revealed himself to Job this way and to mankind through Job's life in what Job or Bible scholars agree was centuries before God met Moses in the burning bush. So, God asked these questions to Job, "Can you explain my creation?" God was revealing his power and his wisdom in bringing the universe into being. And now Job didn't have the entire Bible and through the previous chapters in Job, we saw that Job could understand God's sovereignty and his attributes and and it was through these questions that God was asking Job. God was showing Job how limited his knowledge of God was and how limited his understanding was. And Job is one of the earliest books written in the Bible, if not the earliest. But we have the entire Bible and one thing that we can know for sure is that God's word always confirms God's word, right?
So, Genesis 1:1 says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And Romans 1:19 says, "Because what may be known of God is manifest in them because God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes have been clearly seen, being understood by things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse." And Psalm 33:6 says, "By the word of the Lord, Yahweh, the heavens were made and the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth."
So, this sent me looking for what is the breath of God's mouth? And I read about Genesis 2:7 and this is the climax of God's creative work when he did the extraordinary work of the creation of man. Genesis 2:7 says, "The Lord God, that is Yahweh Elohim, formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being." And the supreme creator of heaven and earth did two things when he was creating man. He formed him from the very dust of the ground and second, he breathed his own breath into the nostrils of Adam. This distinguished man from all of God's other creatures. This one passage passage contains three significant facts about man's creation. The first is that God and God alone created man. Man did not evolve under the influence of blind, meaningless forces. Accidental physics and chemistry did not create man. These are only substances that make up man's physical body. The Lord God formed man. The Lord God created the substances and then he used those substances to create man. And the word formed is translated from the Hebrew Hebrew yatsar, which means to mold, shape, or form. It gives the image of a potter who has the intelligence and power to form his creation and God is the master potter. And he created man in the image of him. His mind and who he had the mind, God had the mind to possess the image that he made man in. So, he designed him and he created him and God had both the omniscience, that's the all-knowing, and the omnipotence, which is the all power, to do exactly what he wanted. And second, he breathed his very own breath into man. So, man is more than just the dust or physical substance. Man has a spirit and we can picture it this way. Adam's body had just been formed and it was lying in the dust of the earth. A lifeless human body lying on the ground. Then God leaned over and breathed his own breath of life into man's nostrils. God is the source, with a capital S, of life and he directly placed his own life inside of man. And that's awesome. So, man then became a living soul when God breathed his life into him. As a physical, animate, rational, and spiritual being, man is unique among all living things on earth. Again, Psalm 33:6 says, "By the word of the Lord, Yahweh, the heavens were made and all the hosts in them by the breath of his mouth."
So, back to the questions God was asking Job. So, Wiersbe summed them up into three questions. Can you explain my creation? Can you oversee my creation? And can you subdue my creation? Wiersbe said that Job was sure that his speeches had been filled with wisdom and knowledge. But God's first question put an end to that delusion. So, who is that who darkens counsel with words without knowledge? And the Living Bible paraphrased it, "Why are you using your ignorance to deny my providence?"
So, we looked at God's questions in Job carefully in our Bible study this week. And so, I hope that you studied all of that and I'm going to focus on a couple of sections. So, let's read together, if you have your Bibles open, Job 38 verses 1 through 7 together. And it says there, "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now, prepare yourself like a man. I will question you and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know. Or stretched out the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone? When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"
So, God was pointing out that Job wasn't there when he had made creation. And Pastor Jack was just talking about this. Many may study and explore throughout the centuries, but we will never have God's understanding over creation and knowledge because we weren't there, right? So, Isaiah 40:12 says, "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, measured heaven with a span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure, weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who has directed the spirit of the Lord or as his counselor taught him?" And Isaiah 40:22 says, "It is he who sits above the circle of the earth and as its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in." And that is our creator God. He is awesome. He is Elohim, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, our one true God. And John 1:3, speaking of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, it says, "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him nothing was made that was made." Jesus was there. Jesus was one with the Father and the Spirit creating and everything was made through him. And Colossians 1:16 and 17 says, "All things were created through Jesus and for him. And he, Jesus, is before all things and in him all things consist."
So, I I can't even read these chapters without getting my mind totally blown every time. And it just is what, you know, a portion of that scripture that just makes you tremble in awe of the Lord. So, what God says next utterly amazes me because I am drawn to the ocean. And when my husband and I book a vacation, we always try to find something by an ocean so that I can stare at the ocean. So, have you ever been to an ocean and walked right on the shore when you're next to ginormous waves that are just crashing right next to you? And they come and you can walk right along the shore. And I even have pictures of my two little boys, I mean, they're grown men now, but when they were little guys, we were in Monterey and we were at a beach, there was no swimming at this beach because when you walk along the shore, the waves are huge right there and then they just crash and they stop.
So, let's read Job 38 verses 8 through 11. The Lord says, "Or who shut in the sea with doors, when it burst forth and issued from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and thick clouds its swaddling band. When I fixed my limit for it and set bars and doors, when I said, 'This far you may come, but no further, and here your proud waves must stop.'" He does that. That is awesome. Nothing can explain that except God, right?
So, I have another question for you. Have you ever tried to start up and maintain a saltwater aquarium? My husband, when we, um, met each other and then for years that when we were first together, he had aquariums, freshwater and saltwater, and he had special fish that went in each one. And God even made fish that can, uh, live where the saltwater meets the freshwater, and they're called brackish. But, um, my husband always had to check the water in the tanks all the time so that everything in there could survive and to keep everything healthy. But, when we would start a saltwater tank, there was months of preparation that you had to do before one single fish could go in there. So, here's how you start a saltwater aquarium. Ideally, 20 plus gallons of water for beginners, according to the Google. And it says, "First, install a heater, 78° Fahrenheit, lighting, and a protein skimmer. Then, add sand and live rock to create a biological filter. The tank must cycle for 4 to 6 weeks to build beneficial bacteria, after which salt levels are maintained at 1.025 specific gravity." Okay. For us, this is a lot of constant work, right? And attention on it all the time in order to keep everything alive inside the tank. But, now consider the ocean. We live by the Pacific, but there's oceans all over the world. Each one has specific plant life and fish and shells that are inside that area, and you look out into the waters, and it's vast. And God is maintaining everything all at the same time. And all everything that lives underneath it, it's just like a world that you can't even see with your eyes, but God knows every single thing happening in there all the time. And that is awesome.
So, in verse 16, God had asked Job, "Have you entered the springs of the sea, or have you walked in search of the depths?" And Pastor Jack was just talking about how it used to be believed that the rivers flow into the ocean, and now we know that the ocean came from the earth and the rivers flow out of it. So, this is again the Bible coming to life in our lifetime. And as we learned this week, the Lord also created and maintains what we call space. He knows everything that he has created, and he's maintaining it all the time. And we saw that in Job 38:31-33 when he spoke of the heavens and the specific constellations, and he's controlling everything all the time. So, Isaiah 40:25 says, "To whom then will you liken me, or to whom shall I be equal?" says the Holy One. "Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these things, who brings out their host by number. He calls them all by name. By the greatness of his might and the strength of his power, not one is missing."
So, let's look back to Job 38 again. Reading from verse 12, the Lord says to Job, "Have you commanded the morning since your days have began and caused the dawn to know its place, that it may take hold of the ends of the earth and the wicked be shaken out of it?" So, we see there that the Lord commands the morning like the master commander. And it is awesome to wake up before the dawn and see the first light coming up and see the cloud formations and the brilliant colors, and the colors get so bright and then they fade and then it's gone. It's only there for a moment. And God does all of that every day. He is a beautiful designer. But, these verses also show that God is he has a a plan for the dawn to shake the wicked out of it. That is the purpose. And so, this is what he answered Job about Job's complaints that wickedness is rampant at night, as Job said in chapter 24:13-17. And the Nelson Study Bible notes that God implies that it is only because of his control of the darkness that the activities of the wicked are curbed at all. Praise the Lord, right? The Lord grants some freedom to humanity, but the wicked cannot go beyond his set limits. And we have to remember that. So, Job had spoken intelligently about the distant horizons, but here the Lord exposes Job's limited knowledge by asking him to lead a guided tour to the abode of light and darkness. So, since Job had stated that the wicked do not know light or abide in its paths in Job 24:13 and 16, the Lord reveals again the deficiencies of Job's secondhand knowledge.
So, Pastor Jack, when he was just speaking about Job 38, he brought up the point about how when God was creating, he said in Genesis 1:3 and 4, "Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light that it was good. And God divided the light from the darkness, and God called the light day and the darkness he called night. So, the evening and the morning were the first day." So, then in Genesis, God keeps creating everything, the sky, the dry land, the waters, the seas, all the vegetation. And then in Job 1:13, it says, "So, evening and the morning were the third day." Now, in verse 14, so this is beginning the fourth day. "Then God said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night. Let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years. Let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth.' And so it was." Genesis 1:16. "Then God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. And he made the stars also." That's what it says. The millions and millions of stars, and he made the stars also. That's I love that. So, God created light and darkness and separated them and created day and night, and days later created the sun and the moon. And we can ask, "How can this be?" And it's because the Bible says, and we can all say, "God is light." He is light. 1 John 1:5 says, "This is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all." And Isaiah 60:19, that's chapter 60, verse 19, says, "The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for your brightness shall the moon give light to you. But, the Lord, that's Yahweh, will be to you an everlasting light and your God your glory." And that's our awesome God. He is light.
So, going on in Job 38 and 39, the Lord continues to question Job and reveal his power over the gates of death and the shadow of death, the treasury of snow and the treasury of hail, which God had reserved from the time of trouble for the day of battle and war. And there's many examples in the Bible of how God uses hail for battle and war, and I'm going to give you a couple. Genesis chapters 13, 18, and 19 talk about Sodom and Gomorrah. It says that the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord. The Lord said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great because their sin is very grave." In Genesis 19:24, it says, "Then the Lord, Yahweh, rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of the heavens." So, the Lord used hail for the battle when he came against them. Now, um, I'm going to give you the example of Ezekiel 38. And this is a battle that is still coming. It's a prophesied battle, which you can study all the details of what that is and who all the enemies of Israel are and and the details of this battle, but they are coming against Israel. And they are a huge enemy that's all come together. And it says there, Ezekiel 38, beginning in verse 18, "And it will come to pass at the same time when Gog comes against the land of Israel, says the Lord God, that my fury will show in my face. For my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath, I have spoken. Surely in that day there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel, so that the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all creeping things that creep on the earth, and all men who are on the face of the earth shall shake at my presence. Verse 22. And I will bring him to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed. I will rain down on him and on his troops and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding rain and great hailstones, fire and brimstone. Thus, I will magnify myself and sanctify myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord." I love that. God is going to do this against this giant enemy that's coming against Israel. He is going to save them with his own right hand and he's going to use his special hail for that. So, God is awesomely awesome. He is what my friend sent me this great word. He is all mazing. I love that.
So, in the rest of Job 38 and 39, God's questions to Job tell of how he cares over his creation. He knows when the animals give birth, when there's no one there to see them. He knows when the dry land needs some water in a wilderness where there's no man, and he waters the wilderness when nobody even knows. And he gives wisdom to one of his creatures and to the other one, like the ostrich which we were reading reading about, he deprives her of wisdom. So, he gives power to the horse and that the horse can just devour the distance. And it says with fierceness and rage that he runs into the battle without fear, and God gives him all of that power and strength.
So, let's look together at Job chapter 40. We're going to read from verse one. And it says, "Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? He who rebukes God, let him answer it." Then Job replied to the Lord and said, "Behold, I am vile. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand over my mouth. Once I have spoken, but I will not answer. Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further." And the Wiersbe or I'm sorry, the Webster's 1828 dictionary defines vile as despicable or abhorrent, physically repulsive, disgustingly or utterly bad, obnoxious, or contemptible. And Wiersbe explains it this way. God uses language that reflected Job's desire to take God to court and argue his case. God asks, "Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let him who reproves God answer it." That was from the NASB. God presented his case. Now he gave Job the opportunity to present his case. But Job had no case to present. His first words were, "Behold, I am vile," which means I am insignificant and unworthy. I have no right to debate with God. Job had told his friends to cover their mouths. That was in Job 21:5. And others had covered their mouths when Job had appeared. That was Job 29:9. But now Job had to put his hand over his own mouth unless he was going to say something that he had nothing to say at that moment. So, until we are silent before God, he can't do for us what he needs to do in our lives. As long as we defend ourselves and argue with God, he can't work for us and in us to accomplish his plan through us. But Job was not quite broken and at the place of sincere repentance. He was silent, but yet not submissive. So, God continued his address. And Wiersbe quoted, I'm going to try to say this name, Gerhard Tersteegen, who said, "And this is excellent. As long as we want to be different from what God wants us to be at the time, we are tormenting ourselves to no purpose."
So, this brings us to Job 40, verse six, when the Lord answers Job out of the whirlwind a second time and says, "Now prepare yourself like a man. I will question you and you shall answer me. Would you indeed annul my judgment? Would you condemn me that you may be justified?" And Job had mistakenly thought in his pain and in God's silence that God had abandoned him. But these questions from God taught Job and they teach us today that although God isn't changing our circumstances immediately when we're asking him to in our timing, and if we have been called to a season of testing and we are forced to wait on the Lord, he is still with us. He's still working in our situation. He might not be doing things on our timetable, but he is working. We can trust him that he is faithful. And he says in his word, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." So, we know that. So, he he shows there that he was listening to every word that Job was saying. God equated Job's words as wanting to annul God's judgment. God asks, "Would you condemn me that you may be justified?" And then God goes on. He says, "Have you an arm like God? Or can you thunder with a voice like him? Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor, and array yourself with glory and beauty. Disperse the rage of your wrath. Look on everyone who is proud and humble them. Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low. Tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together. Bind their faces in hidden darkness. Then I will confess to you that your own right hand can save you." And the Lord has been using what some Bible scholars call holy sarcasm. Like when God said to Job, "Do you know it because you're you were born then or the numbers of your days is so great?"
So, chapter 40 ends with God talking about his sovereign control over the behemoth, a created beast that no one agrees on exactly what it is, which proves again that only God knows, right? And he's he talks about it. He speaks about its physical body in great detail, where it eats and where it rests, and how it is fearless and no one can control it except God. So, Psalm 104:24 says, "O Lord Yahweh, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your possessions." And so, in reading these chapters, again, every single word just makes us completely in awe of our awesome God. And through these questions that the Lord is asking Job, he is revealing his sovereignty, that he is omnipotent, which means all powerful. He has unlimited power and he is able to do anything. He is revealing that he is omnipresent. That means that he is everywhere all at the same time. And he is revealing that he is omniscient. He is all knowing. He knows everything. And he does allow us to know him personally, but we can never know the fullness of him. David said in Psalm 8:3, "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you visit him?" And God does desire that we do know him personally. John Schneider said in Behold Your God, "God has revealed that he is essentially incomprehensible. He is beyond our understanding. In short, this teaches us that though God can be known in a personal way, he can never be figured out. So, no matter how hard or long that saint or that seminary professor studies, no one can ever fully grasp the boundlessness of God. Being incomprehensible is just part of who he is. God knows himself perfectly, but he is the only one who possesses this ability. And his attributes converge and form a multifaceted divine diamond. No matter how we turn these truths in front of our mind's eye, there is always more splendor to behold." I love that.
So, I found in studying these chapters that even though God is speaking to Job from the whirlwind and I can imagine his voice just thundering and being pretty terrifying, that when I read these chapters, I have peace. I have peace that I can trust the Lord. I have peace that he is all-knowing and all-powerful. That he's intimately acquainted with all of my weights. That he's working in my situation. And that his understanding is unsearchable, but I can trust in him cuz he's completely trustworthy and faithful.
So, Jesus said in Matthew 10:29, "Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And one of them falls Not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will." So, the Lord knows everything. He not only knows exactly what's going on with all of his created animals and the earth, but he knows every single detail about every single person living that he has created down to the thoughts and the intents of our hearts. Jesus goes on in Matthew 10:30 and 31, "But the very hairs of your head are numbered. Do not fear therefore. You are of more value than many sparrows."
So, A. W. Tozer speaks of the imminence of God. He says, "Then there is God. God has the attribute of imminence and immensity. God is imminent, which means you don't have to go distances to find God. He is in everything. He is right here. God is above all things, beneath all things, outside of all things, and inside of all things. God is above, but he's not pushed up. He's beneath, but he's not pressed down. He's outside, but he's not excluded. He is inside, but he's not confined. God is above all things presiding, beneath all things sustaining, outside of all things embracing, and inside of all things filling. That is the imminence of God."
So, in Psalm 111, it speaks of God's works. It says, "The works of the Lord are great. The work His work is honorable and glorious. He has made his wonderful works to be remembered. He has declared to his people the power of his works in giving them the heritage of nations. He has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name."
And in conclusion, I want to share a quote from Tozer. Now, he was quoting from a little book called The Revelation of the Divine Love, written by a woman named Julian, and it was written 600 years before, which says, "God holds what he loves. Did you ever wonder what holds things together? Did you ever wonder why things didn't fall apart? I have. I've wondered how things didn't tear loose at the seams. I marveled, she said, how it might last. Since distance is involved, since matter depends on God's word, and since life is a ray from God's heart, then there isn't too much we should worry about. But she said, 'How can all this last? How can this be held together?' Then she said, 'It came to me. I saw that all things have their being in the love of God, and that God made them, and he loves them, and he keeps them. That's why you don't fall apart, because God made you, he loves you, and he keeps you.'"
Let's pray. Dear heavenly Father, Lord God, we just thank you so much, Lord God, that you are not a distant God. You are with us and you are in us, Lord. You sustain us and you carry us. You control everything. You fashioned our days before we ever lived one of them. And when things don't make sense in our life, we can still have peace and rest in you, even in the worst storm, because we can trust you that this is not the end of our story. You have a future and a hope for you and for us, and your plans for us are good, Lord. So, I pray for everyone here, Lord God, that they will look to you to be their strength. And we praise you, Lord God, for who you are. In Jesus' name. Amen.