The Hand of God-Anthropomorphic Descriptors for God's Anatomy

Father in heaven, even as we study to know a

little bit more about how scripture uses these

anthropomorphic terms to describe you, knowing

that you are spirit, Lord, we also know that

there is so much to know about you, and we can

learn our whole lives long, and then go to heaven

and be pleasantly surprised at the body of knowledge

that we did not gain. That's a very dangerous

thing for us to think that we know a lot, or

that we know best, or that we know enough. And

maybe that all comes down to arrogance. I think

about Job, who lost everything, and then when

his wife said, curse God and die, he said, who

am I to say to the Lord, be grateful when he

gives me things, and then to say he's treating

me unfairly when he gives me things. way. So

Lord, we ask you to show us what you have us

to see out of these texts that we're going to

look at today, the notes that we're going to

take. I ask you to be with us for the fun that

we do have, and then we'll walk away from this

place and help us to be humble servants of the

living God. Thank you for answering this prayer,

and it was like it in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright,

so today's trait, anthropomorphic trait of God

is the hand of God. So if I think about the hand

of God, it is the one that's most common. So

it is a lot. There's a lot of places in Scripture

that you could go to read about or hear things

commented about the hand of the Lord. And basically,

there are all different expressions to describe

God's work in the world. We know that God doesn't

necessarily have a physical hand, or he certainly

could if he wanted to. And the Bible uses...

this human image to help us understand his invisible

activity. So you might not see God's hand literally

ever, right? But like you can see the effect

of the wind without actually seeing the wind.

You might see the effect of God at work. The

hand is the instrument by which people accomplish

work. This is how we do things. I figured that

out already. We also extend help this way. An

open hand with something in it generally means

somebody's offering something to you. We defend

others, get in the way of what might be coming.

We provide necessities. We work for it, we collect

it, we give it to somebody in need. And we exercise

authority, cut it out, even make a fist. Likewise,

the hand of God symbolizes his active involvement

in creation history. So God is the same way.

God offers help. God will punish. God will correct.

God will take. God will give. God will shield.

He does all the same things with his hands that

humans do. But unlike human hands, God's hands

never grow weary. So my hands, after I became

a young Christian, I spent about 12 years where

I had pain in my hands every day. Started in

my mid -20s. Started before I was a Christian

and continued on for like a decade. I couldn't

do a push -up. I tried to do a push -up and my

hands would hurt so bad. And it was from all

the beating things up, including myself, that

I did in high school. Punching lockers, punching

vehicles, punching people, taking blows. And

so my hands hurt every day. And then I was, as

a young Christian, I was praying, praying, praying

for the Lord. Please, Lord, make my hands functional

without pain. And then I stumbled on a supplement,

but I couldn't get it. So now my hands hurt every

day. Praise the Lord. God's hands never lack

strength. He never misses its purpose, so God

doesn't do something and go, oh, shoot, you know,

like we might. And God never fails to accomplish

His will. The hand of God communicates at least

four great truths. These are the first four things

on your page. So the first one is, the hand of

God, the idea of talking about the hand of God,

God accomplishes His purposes. So God gets done

what God... What he desires to get done, what

he promises he'll get done, what he says he'll

get done, God gets it done. God accomplishes

his purpose. When God gets it done, if you like

that phrase better, the bottom line is God does

not fail to do what he sets about to do. The

second one is that God provides for his creation.

So throughout creation everywhere, we're going

to see it in the verses in a minute, but nothing

gets there. Like people don't get food, people

don't get medicine, people don't get money. People

don't get time. People don't live another day.

The whole thing, God is actively providing that.

If he wasn't providing it, we wouldn't have it.

So God provides for his creation. God protects

and upholds his people. This is one of my favorites

and also one of the things that I find to be

very dangerous because I've had it happen where

people, I didn't mean for it to happen, but people

would argue or fought or something and then some

bad things happened after that. You could say

maybe God did it because of what happened to

him, but I try not to do that. I don't make that

decision, but it scares me a little bit when

I'm disagreeing with somebody, especially if

I care about that person, which I should care

about everybody, right? And I don't want to see

something bad happen to them. There's one in

particular where I know I had an argument with

a mature Christian, and as we were finishing

up, he was not seeing the light. And I said,

Lord, if it's his heart, it's his heart, at least

it's him. I'm begging you, God, please, change

his heart. Deal with him however you have to.

But it's my heart. I'm the one that's wrong.

Please, deal with my heart. Whatever you've got

to do. And then afterwards, he suffered very

badly. And then when he was suffering almost

to the point of death, God told me to go and

pray for him. And then when I went to pray for

him, he was right to steal. So at that time,

God did show me that it was like this. You realize

sometimes when people come against you, God protects

and upholds his people. It means they're going

to suffer for coming against you. God disciplines

and directs his children. That's the last one.

So to discipline someone is different from punishing.

So don't make that mistake. The Bible says he

chastises those whom he loves, and another translation

says he disciplines those whom he loves. Those

two words are not perfectly interchangeable in

the English. So that word in the Greek means

that God will punish if he must, and God will

guide and direct and train. Always. So God is

always guiding and directing and training even

lost people. People that don't know God. Jesus

said that God would send a Holy Spirit and the

Holy Spirit would convict all men of their sin.

Not all saved men, but all men. So everybody

is receiving discipline and direction from God,

but we never fail. Christians never fail to be

disciplined and directed by God. So throughout

Scripture, God's hand is seen both in mighty

miracles. Depart the Red Sea. And quiet acts

of providence. Oh, there's just enough. Look

at that. The timing is just right. Oh, it rained.

Now it's muddy. Now the chariots are going to

get bogged down. Now we can live. Things like

that. Not nearly as big. So, a Red Sea to a discouraged

prophet, a person that's struggling and is comforted

by God, whatever. So, we're going on to the first

one. So, we're going to be under the hand of

God delivers. Before we do that, I want to share

a little story. A small child crossing a busy

street, they've been trained properly anyway,

will naturally reach for their parent's hand.

But to this day, Ariana, if we're in a busy parking

lot and it starts to get a little crazy and you

don't know where the cars are going, she'll take

my hand. Which is what we're told, right? Because

I have told, I've explained to her, and this

is the thing. You have to understand, when she

takes my hand, I am safer because she's holding

my hand. It may be a lesser percentage. But we

are bigger together, so now I'm safer, right?

But the truth is she's definitely safer because

I have a lot more experience, wisdom, knowledge,

a protector, I would get in their way, that kind

of thing. So a small child crossing the street

would take the hand of the adult that's working

with them. The child is not trying to do it in

his own power, but in the strength of the one

that he's holding on to. That hand offers guidance,

protections, reassurance, stability, and life.

can feel like that. Does your life feel like

you're crossing a busy street? That's what mine

does right now. So I'm dodging cars. Like I spent

the entire day today dodging crazy traffic. Not

literally, I don't know. Symbolically, things

are going wrong and I'm fighting and I'm winning

but it's taking some time. And so believers then

are invited to place their hands in the hand

of the one who never stumbles, never lets go,

and always knows his hand is back. And that's

the direction that we're going. God's hand is

infinitely stronger than ours. So Exodus 13 .3

then. So the first reference there under number

one is Exodus 13 .3. Exodus. And basically he

says, Remember this day, and there's some in

the middle, for by a powerful hand the Lord brought

you out of this place. So Moses is reminding

them that God did it, right? They didn't do it.

Moses didn't do it. Nobody else did it. God did

it. And, you know, the ten plagues make it pretty

obvious, right? So Moses couldn't do that. Moses

came on the staff, created the snake. There were

two snakes that the sorcerer had made, were eaten

by Moses' snake, but nobody paid any attention

to that, right? So God did all of that. So Exodus

became Israel's defining picture of God's mighty

hand. The truth is they should never have forgotten,

right? So later, he'll part the Jordan. And when

he parted the Jordan, they were reminded that

he parted the Red Sea. Later, he'll fight for

them in battle, going into Promised Land. But

when he fought for them in battle, they should

not have forgotten that he destroyed Pharaoh's

army. And that's the problem. If you've ever

seen God do something mighty for you, bring you

out of a difficult spot, overcome something that

you cannot figure out how you're going to get

past it, then from that point on, you should

be thinking about that. That should be in your

mindset. Like, God has done something here. If

God did something then, God can do something

at any time in the future when it's the right

time for his purposes to be carried out. God

can do it. In the story, Pharaoh, who thought

of himself as a god, and all the Egyptian people

were trained to believe that he was a god, Pharaoh

resisted God. And God essentially destroyed him

in the long run, but God also hardened his heart

so that he wouldn't stop resisting. But God,

of course, prevailed. It's interesting, by the

way, in the Book of Exodus, I don't know if you

know this or not, but the ten plagues that are

in the Book of Exodus, each one of those plagues,

including the last one where the Pharaoh's firstborn

son was killed, each one of those plagues is

representative of one of the ten major Egyptian

gods. So basically, God was defeating every god

the Egyptians had systematically up until he

did the last one, which was Pharaoh, and he killed

his son. who is the heir, who by all rights will

be the next God. And so the mighty hand of God,

God's irresistible power, our salvation then

begins not with our effort. This is why if you

say to somebody, you can pray to be saved, you

have not really said it correctly. If you say

to somebody, you can go forward in church this

Sunday and get saved, you have not really said

it correctly. Because that is not how people

get saved. People don't get saved by going forward

in church, they don't get saved by praying a

prayer. If you want to be very literal about

it, if you wanted to be very literal about it,

then people get saved by believing in their heart

and confessing with their mouth, Romans 10, that

Jesus Christ is Lord and that God raised him

from the dead. That's just a two -pointer. Now,

there are other places where it might be embellished

a little bit more, explained a little bit more,

whatever, but the bottom line is that happens

in the desert, has happened in the desert. That

happens in jail. Neither the people in the desert

nor the people in jail can come to church. There's

no walking forward in church. People are getting

baptized all over the world in places where they

can't get to a church building. And it's not

that people say, well, that's because they're

in church there. They're having church there.

That's not actually true either. So don't confuse

the issue. The reason is because it's God's mighty

hand that delivers. And you must humbly ask God

for that deliverance and be willing to accept

it from him. And in so doing, you will receive

it. God specializes then in delivering people

from situations that they cannot escape on their

own. So let me ask you this question. Not a rhetorical

question. Let's talk about it for a second. Why

do you think it is that all over the world, all

the time, God would want to be showing up to

help people out of difficult situations that

they cannot get out of by themselves? Why would

God want to do that? Take a stab at it. If he's

being nice, he's kind, he's merciful, he's loving.

Something more than that. What is he actually

accomplishing? Okay? So the whole of creation,

all of creation in your life, all of it is to

glorify God. So that's a big part. And there's

something actually... So let's say if he's glorifying

God, he's making a statement about himself. And

what is he making? What's the statement that

he's making? What is he saying about himself

by saving people from difficult situations? Let's

say... Guy goes out in the middle of the road.

A car's coming. He's going to hit him. And he

looks up and he goes, oh, God saved me. And the

car slips and he's robbed. Go again. God's the

only one who can do it. So the message of God's

mighty hand when he saves people from situations

that you know like, oh, come on. That had to

be a miracle. Something crazy just happened.

That had to be God. When he does that, that is

the message of salvation. That is that God can

save you from a car that's about to hit you.

Right? Or five different times you're more at

this than Satan. I know a guy who died in the

opportunity and came back to life. Right? He

got his head got crushed. He was dead for like

four minutes. And he came back to life. And then

later gave his life to the Lord. You know? But

if God can save you from crazy situations like

that. There's two times where I know they called

the family in. They said, that's it. This person's

not going to last the night. They're going to

be dead. One of them was a teenager, one of them

was an older adult in their 60s, early 60s, late

50s. And when the church all started praying,

family was called in. It was done. They were

beginning to look at funeral arrangements. Right?

Both people were in a coma from which they were

not, their borderline brain dead, not going to

wake up. And when people started praying, and

the next day they woke up. And then they continued

to live their lives. By the way, both of those

two people are still alive now, still professing

to be Christians and still serving. If God's

mighty hand can save them from those situations,

then who else could? The doctors could. Medicine

could. The most learned men on the planet could

not save those people. But God could. And he

did. And when he did that, he proved he can deliver.

So as bad as it is, first cry out to God because

he can deliver. So God specializes in delivering

people from situations they cannot escape on

their own. That's your application. So God specializes

in delivering people from situations they cannot

escape on their own. You can reword it in your

own words if you want. Then we move on to the

hand of God provides. This one's a little less

obvious. So you go to McDonald's and you use

your debit card and you buy yourself a burger

and fries and you eat it. And who provided that?

Feels like you did, right? Debit card, I worked,

I made the money, put it in the bank, that's

why I can do the debit card. So it kind of feels

like you did, you provided it. But that's not

actually the way it is, as we'll see. So Psalm

140, I'm sorry. Yeah, that's right. Psalm 145,

16. Psalm just writes this about God. It says,

you open your hand and satisfy the desire of

every living thing. So now animals, Animals do

not dream about burgers. Animals do not dream

about vacations, right? They are looking for

food, sustenance, shelter, warmth when they're

cold, get cooled down when they're hot. Those

are needs. And so if that's what they desire

and that's what God provides, that's what the

psalmist wrote, okay? So every meal that you

ever get ultimately comes from God's hand, every

single one. Even if you want to oversimplify

it and say, well, who created the plants? Well,

God did. God said, we're going to make plants

rise out of the dry ground. So you can oversimplify

it that way. But the truth is, God set up a system

in which the farmer plants, the merchant sells,

the cook prepares the food, but God is the one

who provides it. There is no other way. And so

before it all begins, God starts the process.

God's open hand pictures generosity rather than

reluctance. So there's a verse, I don't know

the reference I'm talking about in the verse,

that says that God makes the sun and the rain

to pour on the righteous man and the wicked man

alike. So either way, and by the way, in that

verse it's reversed. We think the rain is a bad

thing, but actually because of the part of the

world they were in, the context of that verse,

they were looking for rain. They wanted rain.

So if they didn't have enough rain, their crops

would all die. The rain was the good thing and

the sun was the bad thing in that verse. So when

you're thinking like, I want the sun, that's

the opposite of what the verse is talking about.

But he says sun and rain, good and bad, they

both get it. Why? Because that's how God did

it. God set it up. So if you choose not to follow

God, you can still have a pretty good life because

God is providing you the sustenance of all the

things. Now you'll be empty inside. You'll feel

like you're missing something. There will always

be convictions of the Spirit about your sin.

You'll always be longing for something that you

can't quite find. You're looking for all those

places and it's not there. Things like that that

points us to God. But God generously provides.

People live their whole lives and live pretty

darn good and die billionaires and go straight

to hell. So it does happen. And it happens because

God provides. Creation continually depends. upon

God's sustained care. And Colossians basically

basically says that all creation only continues

because God says so. So it's all going to come

crashing down at some point. Some of it's coming

crashing down already, right? The world is falling

apart. We've got a lot of things that God wouldn't

want to have happening because man is doing what

man is doing. So that's under the explanation.

I'll go back a little bit. We're under number

two. You've got key points to the explanation.

Anything that jumps out at you, there's a couple

of things. So God provides everything. Every

meal. God set up a system where the farmer plants

and virgin sells and prepares. But it's always

God that provides. God always starts the provision.

And then man makes something out of it. Oh, I

just had a joke just came in. from years ago

where a scientist goes to God. They're going

to have a contest. Let me know this joke. Don't

be bored. Don't be bored. So the scientist goes

to God and says, they've done everything now.

They can clone human beings. They can make people.

They've done everything. He says, God, we don't

need you anymore. And God says, I think you do.

The scientist says, no, we don't. We can do everything

you can do. And God says, well, I propose a contest.

And the man says, okay, well. Whatever. We can

do anything that you can do. And God says, I

propose a contest. Making a man. We're going

to make a man. And the scientist says, okay,

fine. We'll make a man. We can do that. We've

done it many, many times. And God says, but we're

going to make a man the way I made a man. We're

going to make the man from dirt. And the scientist

says, okay, fine. And he reaches over to pick

up some dirt. And God says, get your own dirt.

Okay? So that's it. No matter how far we go,

we're always still just working with what God

has provided. Okay? Alright. And then the bottom

line of that, the application point is every

blessing is a gift from God's open hand. So before

you start thinking you can take something for

yourself and use it in a way that God would not

honor God, remember where it came from, basically.

Every blessing is a gift from God's open hand.

Moving on to number three. And after number three,

we'll do this time. Just once. Okay? So opening

illustration, basically. Imagine receiving an

unexpected check in the mail when your bills

are due. Like, oh man, money's going to be tight

this month. After we pay all this off, we're

only going to have a few bucks and we're going

to have to get through for a couple weeks, the

next payday or whatever. When the check comes

in the mail, the first thing you're going to

do is look at the amount. And the second thing

you're going to do is look at who sent it. And

you're going to attribute the money that you

received in that check to whoever sent it. You

might feel gratitude. You might be suspicious.

You might ask yourself, why? Why did they give

me this money? Are they expecting something in

return? Are you looking for a contract on the

back or something? Basically, you usually thank

the person who mailed it, assuming there are

no strings attached. Like, yeah, great. That's

awesome. Believers learn to look beyond the human

instrument. And so this is why if that's ever

happened to you since you've been a Christian,

you probably went, God sent me a check at just

the right time. Something amazing happened. I've

got just what I needed at the right time. God

did that. And you don't go like, oh, you know,

so -and -so repaid me the money that they were

due and be super grateful that that happened

or super grateful that the church did whatever

or the bank did whatever. But God provided it.

And believers begin to realize, you should realize,

Scripture teaches that God is providing everything.

The hand of God upholds his people. Isaiah 41

.10 is the reference. Isaiah 41 .10. Isaiah 41

.10, most of it, says, Do not fear, for I am

with you. A little bit of a gap there. I will

strengthen you. Surely I will help you. Surely

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

As we look at the verse, we see that God is saying

to us, you don't have to be afraid. I got this.

I will strengthen you. I will make you able.

I will help you. I will hold you up. We realize

that God's hand is not only powerful, but it's

also personal. So everybody knows what a hammer

is. You know what a one -pound sledge is? It's

got a pretty thick hammer, pretty thick handle,

and it's got a pound of steel on the top, right?

You whack a nail or whack a board or whack something

you're trying to break or whack a dent, it hits

hard. It's a slammer, you know? But now, could

you take a screw out with it? Or could you cook

with it? I mean, would you be able to make s'mores

with it? It'd be pretty hard. You might be able

to set it on top there and try that or something.

Get it real hot and then set the mark on it.

I mean, it's not purposeful for those things.

It's mighty. It makes a big bang. It is hard,

right? But it's not purposeful for those other

things. God's purpose is not just in his strength,

but also he knows how to direct that strength.

It is personal. He uses his strength, his power

to strengthen you. He helps you. He upholds you.

He helps me. He upholds me. So the right hand

there, where it uses the phrase the righteous

right hand, represents honor and authority and

victorious strength, like overcoming opposition.

So the sword hand of most knights was their right

hand. And so when they accomplished something

by their right hand, They would go and lay on

sword or stripe with a lance or swing a mace,

right? And it would hit hard, like harder than

most of us could swing a one -pound sled. It

would hit hard, right? Break a tree, break through

armor, you know, bend a shield. It would hit

hard. And if you would look at a knight, right,

they would start swinging a sword when they're

about eight, seven, eight years old. They'd swing

that sword more times a day. And then when they

got older, it would be a thousand times a day.

By the time they were about 15 years old, you'd

look at them, and their right shoulder would

be easily twice as large as their left shoulder.

And if it was a left -handed knight, you'd look

at him, and his left -handed shoulder would be

twice as large as his right shoulder. So you

could look at a knight and know their handedness

by the size of their shoulders. Because the muscles

would be big from all that swinging of heavy

iron, right? And that's the idea of a right hand.

It's the one, it's the best one. It does what's

right, it exercises authority, and it overcomes

any opposition. God does not simply command his

people to stand. God is not telling you to do

the right thing and then walking away from you.

God is not urging you and saying, okay, come

on, please, please side with me. That's not what

God is doing. God is fighting your battles for

you and waiting for you to come along. Right?

That's what he says. He loves you and he's for

you and he's accomplishing it and if you're not,

if it's not working, it could be because you're

not going in the right direction, it could be

because you're resisting his purposes, etc. That

falls under other things. The bottom line is

God will strengthen you and he will accomplish

for you what he is trying to do. So the application

of that is when your strength ends, when you're

running out, when you're, and I've been there,

A number of times in my life, right? I was there

yesterday morning about 7 a .m. And you're like,

man, I just, I don't got it. I got it left. I

don't know where it's coming from. I don't know

what I'm going to have to accomplish what lies

before me. You got nothing, almost nothing left.

God's sustaining hand is still strong. The same

hand that could create everything. The same hand

that could conquer armies, that could destroy

Pharaoh, that could... Slay his own son on the

cross for us. Right? That hand is not weakened.

You're not falling down. You're down. And that's

the point of the hand of God unto his people.

Okay, can we take one second? It's a pretty quick

one, so I think that's about a minute, as long

as there's 10 or less people that would like

to participate. I will warn you, it requires

balance. Have a good one. So there are going

to be three possibilities. If you participate,

you get one ticket. If you succeed and hold the

cup along your head for the entire 60 seconds,

this is the task, so this is the task right here.

Okay? You can do that for 60 seconds. Then, this

way. I would do this way. Then you will get three

tickets. If you are the one who holds the cup

the longest, you will get five tickets. Oh, did

I forget to mention the last rule? You must stand

on one foot. Okay, you can turn the van off.

All right, let me get my timer started. All right,

so it's going to be, if you manage to do it for

the 60 seconds, you will get three tickets. Your

cameras are put on the rails, sorry. I think

he has an advantage because he's a little old.

There's a terrain change there. I need a haircut.

Downright. She's leaving. I'm ready to stay,

boy. Today is the day. Let's pay it off. All

right. So when I start the timer, you have 60

seconds. You must stand on one foot the whole

time. If you put your foot down or drop your

cup, you only get the one ticket. Mike, you might

want to move forward because if that foot touches

the rail, it will count. You've got to stand

on one foot. When I say go, you have to go on

one foot. Go. That was so sad. That's the best.

Going really good. I feel like it's Jax. You

get three tickets if you last the 60 seconds.

If you're the last person, you only get five.

But you have to be well -balanced individuals.

You should have totaled some balance first. That's

a total balance. Oh, there we go. Sorry. One

ticket for you. 20 seconds left. I did touch

him. I'm sorry. Okay, start. Go from there. Go

from there. And I'll give you, if you go, the

range of 5 seconds. Abby's locked in too, though.

And so is A, and he has to go 5 seconds longer

than the next person. He only dropped his cup

because of his poker. Got it. Okay, so you all

made it in a minute. You're all at 3 tickets.

We'll go another minute and see if somebody can

fall out. 30 seconds. Uh -oh, what happened?

Did it get weak? Did it get giggly? Uh -oh, Abby

teetered. I saw her teeter. She's holding. If

you both make it to 30 seconds, I'll give you

both 5. It'll be a tie. That's it. Okay, 5 for

both of you. Anybody else make it to 60 seconds?

You made it to 60 seconds? Okay. for having a

little fun. Abby, I'm impressed. Most guys did

pretty good stuff. Okay, here we go. Number four.

The hand of God disciplines. Again, this is what

we don't really care for very much. The reference

is Hebrews 12 .6. Hebrews... 12 .6. And it is

the one that I often quote, for those whom the

Lord loves, he disciplines, or chastises, depending

on your translation. Also, in Psalm 32 .4, it

says, day and night, your hand was heavy upon

me. So it's the same kind of idea. The reference

is in Hebrews 12 .6. So, sometimes, God's hand

is comforting, right? When I'm sad, when I'm

hurting, like that. With this, Reminds us that

sometimes God's hand is corrective. And it can

be everything up to, and I'm not trying to like

fear monger or be fearful. It can be everything

up to, God can take your life. Right? And the

New Testament talks about there is a sin unto

death. And so it's a pretty big deal. Right?

Most of the time, that's not what we're talking

about. Right? Most of the time, we're talking

about people who are off the course. exposed

evil spirits and demons, whatever, and God wants

to correct. So we can go back to facing God's

wrath as we used to do when we were unsaved.

His wrath is not anger. It is opposition. Wrath

is opposition. And so God can be opposing your

course of action. I will submit to you that as

a Christian, anytime you do something that is

not going to be good for you, which would be

sin. Sin's always bad for you, right? It creates

a break in relationship, could result in a spiritual

death, kind of thing, not losing salvation, but

could result in very bad results, basically.

Bad things can happen. If you're doing it to

yourself, God doesn't want that, so then God

is going to come on and correct. He's going to

subject you to wrath, right? So when David described

God's hand as heavy, And it was during that time

when David was resisting confession. So the New

Testament describes this as humbly confessing

to God, understanding that we need God, recognizing

who God is, and that God is the only one who

can deal with that, right? And if you just won't,

so you're doing what God wants you to do, and

then it comes to your attention that it's not

what God wants you to do, and you still won't

turn, right? Then you're in line for wrath and

discipline from God. The discipline is never

evidence that God has abandoned you. Right? So

think about it. The parents who do not love their

children do not discipline their children. Parents

who love, quote unquote, love their children

the way the world loves, often either A, do not

discipline their children, or B, the discipline

does this. Sometimes, you know, leave in... Your

dishes on the table is a whooping offense and

locked in a closet or burnt with a cigarette

or stuffed in the dryer. And other times it's,

please take your stuff to the kitchen, I already

asked you once. And the difference is so radical,

the change is so radical, that the discipline

is damaging. And it's because they don't love

the way God loves. When you love the way God

loves, discipline is consistent. and most corrective

when the child is doing something that will not

be good for them. So, for example, when parents

discipline their children because they stayed

up past their bedtime, even though they know

when their bedtime is, you're not disciplining

them or punishing them or chastising them or

whatever, however you want to say you're handling

it, because you now hate them because they stayed

up an extra 30 minutes. It's not like that, right?

You're doing it because it's not good for them.

And for the adults in the room who have struggled

with bedtime as an adult, making sure you get

to bed at a decent time, you get a good night's

sleep, and you have to do what you've got to

do in the morning, you understand that, boy,

it would have been nice to learn that earlier

on, right? To be able to discipline yourself

to go to bed when you need to. And so, and it

could be anything. It could be like when a kid

eats too much candy, sneaks the candy, and they

get punished by their parents. The parents are

not punishing them because they hate their kids

and don't want to give them candy. They're punishing

or disciplining them to train them to... Practice

self -discipline and not sneak, not lie, not

manipulate, not steal, and not overeat something.

It's a bad baby, right? And that's the way God

is all the time. God loves you, and you may feel

his heavy hand upon you at times, and I've seen

that in my own life and in the lives of many

others, okay? And it proves that we belong to

him, right? God would not bother. To be heavy

-handed with you, to correct you, to discipline

you, to set you on the right course if he didn't

love you. A loving father does not ignore destructive

behavior. It doesn't matter how tired you are.

It doesn't matter how upset you are. It doesn't

matter how much they push back on you or how

destructive their destructive behavior now is

directed at you. Right? A loving father does

not ignore it. He does what he has to do. Because

that destructive behavior is destructive, and

you can't continue, right? Now, a loving father

also does not get into destructive behavior himself

in order to prove his point, right? Because then

now you're a follower of God, you're suffering

wrath, you're supposed to be diverting any wrath

of God from your family by providing loving discipline.

And now you're not doing that. So that's why

it's so important that we... If you're a dad

in the room or an adult and you're responsible,

you're babysitting, whatever, it doesn't matter.

You can't refuse destructive behavior. You have

to do what you have to do to take care of it.

And that's what God is doing. So then just a

real quick re -summary of the explanation. You

could say often God's hand comforts. And then

you could say as often as necessary God's hand

corrects. Discipline is not evidence that God

has abandoned you. Rather, it proves that he

loves you and is responding out of his love for

discipline and pleasure. So whatever you want

to put in there of the summary, know that God

will correct you, will discipline you. And then

under application then, God's correcting hand

is an expression of his love, not his rejection.

So there are people that feel like, I just feel

like I can't hear it from God. They feel like

God is rejecting them. I've had people say, well,

I can't go to church because I've sinned so much.

God doesn't want me anymore. God is fed up with

me. I'm like, God was actually the way you say.

If he didn't want you, if he was fed up with

you, you wouldn't still be here. Because as a

believer, you're talking about, at that point,

you're talking about the sin unto death. You're

saying you're absolutely useless to God. No,

I'm not useless, but I have been useless, and

I've got to continue to be useless. And so God

has rejected me. That's a tough place, scripturally,

to support. So God's correcting hand is an expression

of his love. Number five, the hand of God guides

his servants. And these two together, it's important

to talk about discipline. So Ezra 7 -9 kind of

ends with, according to the good hand of his

God upon him. They did what they were doing,

guided by God. And there's a ton of it all over

the Bible. All over the place. There's places

where it says that God guides, directs, and so

on. So Ezra repeatedly credits God's hand for

every success. If you did it, and you did it

right, you probably did it right because God

led you to do it right. And it could be because

your parents taught you. It could be because

you learned it in school. It could be because

you tried this before and it didn't work out,

so you're doing something different now. Right?

whatever, but all of that is in the provision

of God. And so, it's a wise thing to always give

credit to God for guiding us. Whether it's safe

travel, whether it's royal favor, as with Ezra,

because not only did they get released, but they

got a ton of resources to do what they were setting

out to do. Whether it's God's provision, so you're

not going hungry, you got a roof over your head,

you got somebody in your life, you're not desperately

alone, that kind of thing. You've got leadership,

so there are tools, there are people, servants

who will help you figure out the right course

and things like that. All of those things are

part of God's guiding hand. The government is

a big part of God's guiding hand. You may be

fed up with some of the rules and laws that the

government makes. They may not make any sense

to you. There are a couple of pet peeves that

I have with that, like basic laws that the government

has made, but I just think they don't make any

sense. They're not godly. They're not what God

would want. And so I might passively resist.

I'm not supporting it. But at the same time,

I realize that's the government that God has

put in place. And so we pray for our governors.

We support our governors. And police officers

and everybody like that. So God's invisible hand

orchestrated All of these events, these visible

events. So even though you couldn't see him guiding

them, he guided them. When I was a young child,

I went over to my friend Quentin's house. And

Quentin's dad was a huge train collector. And

he had a whole base HO scale train set up. Like

four towns. The trains would go from town to

town. And he had a little like... radio -controlled

or wire -controlled machines that would take

stuff off the trains and load it on trucks, and

then the trucks would go on a long -tailed track

and stuff. It was super cool. Occasionally, he

would let us play with it. This one particular

day, we went over to his house. I was pretty

young. We were, like, first grade. And his dad

wasn't home, so he wouldn't let us go in the

basement to play with the trains. So instead,

we went to Quentin's bedroom, and we played with

a racetrack, right? And it was, like, just a

black figure -eight track. And he set the car

as a track, and he picked up the controller,

and he pushed the button, and his car started

to go. And the car was probably in the corner,

and it curved right around the track. Well, I

was looking at it from across the room, and I

had never seen a track like that. And probably

a bunch of you haven't seen it either now, too,

because they're pretty well dead now, right?

There might be a few still out there somewhere

here that I can find on the Internet. Anyway,

the point is, I didn't understand why the car

wasn't just going right off the track. And I

was like, what's that? And I ran over there to

see what it was. And I realized there's a track.

There was a track under the cars guiding the

direction. God is like that, right? So God, his

invisible hand, you can't see it, but he's guiding

you so you don't run off the course. Now you

can decide not to take the guidance. You can

say, well, I think I'm gonna. I think God wants

me to. You can find Bible verses to support your

decisions. You can get people to give you the

advice that you want. You can listen to... When

we were moving to Michigan, we listened to the

loan officer who said we could buy that house

in Michigan, even though we were still alone

in Ohio. That was bad advice. We weren't supposed

to buy the house. We didn't ask God that. We

knew where we were supposed to live, but we didn't

ask him whether we were supposed to buy the house.

We ran on ahead. She was like, you can do it.

You can do it. So we're like, oh, yeah, we can

do it. We're excited. We get to do what God wants

us to do. But God never told us to buy the house.

He just told us to live there. And then two and

a half years later, when we got out of that house,

we found out that we could have lived there for

a little over half. of what we were paying monthly

if we didn't buy it and just rent it. That's

crazy. And we were now moving out of it and had

to try to rent it because we couldn't get it

sold and we couldn't rent it. And then we finally

did rent it and the whole time we rent it, we

couldn't rent it for enough money to pay the

mortgage. And so it was tanking our finances

even more. And then it was eventually going to

go to share sale. And then we repented, turned

the whole thing over to God via tithing like

we're supposed to do like that. And God fixed

it all. God sold it. The day before I went to

sheriff's sale, and he worked all the debt out,

paid off all the bills, or like that. But God

was guiding us. At the time, we decided not to

ask God another question, not to listen to what

God was saying, but instead listen to that loan

officer. So be careful. The world is very ready

to give you advice that does not line up with

God's invisible hand. Okay? Brings us to the

application then for that. It's when you cannot

trace God's hand. Because you can't see it. You

can't figure it out yourself. You can still trust

God's heart. God is still for you. He still wants

you to do the right thing. He still actually

is there guiding, right? He may not be the kind

of guidance you exactly want, but he's still

there. And in the end, he is the exact guidance.

So real quick, between four and five, notice,

right? Discipline is like this. This is what

discipline is. Discipline is training in doing

the right thing and will, as necessary, become

forceful. So like my kids, when they're acting

up, I say, you know what, if you don't stop,

you're going to get your butt whipped. And then

if they didn't stop, now I put myself in a corner,

I have to spank. Or I say, she's tired with her

eyes. Anyway, so you might say, Now you can't

go to your friend's house because you did this.

Now you've actually opened your corner. Or you

might say, well, you're grounded for 30 days.

30 days, you can't do anything. Which, by the

way, you should never do that. Because if you

do that, you now are a slave to that decision.

For 30 days, you have to push yourself to enforce

that decision. So who's actually suffering? You

are. Because you have to work the whole time

for 30 days to make it happen. The better you

do the punishment, it's like right now, it's

over. Anyway, the point is, discipline and guidance

work hand in hand so that God is constantly guiding

you. And when you refuse God's guidance, you

run right afoul of the world system. And typically

you crash, run off track, crash, things go poorly,

like that. And if you go off for a while and

don't jump back on, you don't come back to God,

then you experience the wrath of God. So then

we're on to number six. No one can escape God's

hand. Classic New Testament verse, John 10, 28

-29. And Jesus said, no one will snatch them

out of my hand. A little later in 29, he says,

no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's

hand. So Jesus is talking about security in belief.

If you trust God and have been saved, you're

going to lose it. You're not going to fall down

one day and it falls out of your pocket and suddenly

you're going to hell again. That's not going

to happen. It's settled. Our salvation is not

maintained by our grip on God or our faithfulness

or how well we follow a set of rules or if we

do what somebody told us will work. Salvation

isn't based on any of it. But rather, it rests

upon God's grip on us. Does God have you? If

God has you, he will always have you. Even when

you're screwing up or going the wrong way, he

will still have you. And it happens, looking

back at the previous two, that people go off

course, they've fallen with the wrong crowd or

whatever, they're Christians, they've been saved,

and now they've fallen with the wrong crowd,

and they walk away from God for years, decades

even, or they die in their sin. They start hanging

out with their drinking buddies again, get knifed

in a bar fight. They're dead. And they go straight

to heaven. And when they get to heaven, on the

way in, they're feeling pretty stupid, right?

Because that was really dumb. And they have to

deal with the consequences of that on the way

in. The bottom line is they didn't lose their

salvation. They just suffered really bad consequences

for choosing the wrong course. So God's hand

is stronger than every enemy. You cannot picture...

Anyone or anything, no matter how big, who's

as big or as strong as he is. He will not slip.

There's no accidents. There's no mistakes. You

can't squeak out. There's no spills. So then

under the application point is our assurance

rests in God's faithfulness rather than our own

strength. So there are times where I'm a good

Christian. I read my Bible, pray. fast, serve,

give. I got spiritual disciplines out the roof.

I'm trying. I'm exercising my spiritual gift

doing everything that I want to do. Sounds really

great. There are other times where a day goes

by and I start to go, oh, I'm supposed to be

doing this. I'm working really hard and I'm doing

the things that God wants me to do. Like I'm

pastoring or counseling or I'm serving the life

station. I'm hauling cargo, whatever. And I go

to bed at night and I realize, oh man, I only

talked to God just a little bit today, and I

didn't hardly read my Bible. You're no less saved

on the days that you don't do it right than you

are on the days that you do it 100 % right. And

if there are any days that you do it 100 % right,

which there probably aren't. If you start thinking

you've got days where you're doing it 100 % right,

then you're probably getting arrogant, and that's

a whole other problem, which will also result

in the wrath of God. So our assurance rests,

thankfully, on God's faithfulness, not on our

strength or our ability to hold on. We should

take his hand when we cross the busy parking

lot, when we're going through the crazy times.

We should want to do that. But if we don't, we

can trust he's still going to take a hold of

us. You're walking out from the truck, he's still

going to grab you by the scruff of the neck and

pull you back. Right? Assuming you're willing.

Okay. And then seven, the last one. The hand

of God commissions his servants. So Acts 11 .21.

Acts 11 .21. Acts 11 .21 says, And the hand of

the Lord was with them, and a large number who

believed turned to the Lord. So God authorizes

the great working of the kingdom. He's the one

who sets it up. So they realized that what they

were doing was successful, not because of anything

that they were doing, because they were doing

a good job, or even because they were being faithful,

right? But because God was doing a thing. And

we start realizing that about when the kingdom

advances, the kingdom doesn't advance because

the people of the kingdom are trying to advance.

The kingdom advances because God does it. He

makes it happen. He softens someone's heart,

someone's heart. He opens someone's ears. He

solves someone's problem. I was at Tony Paco's.

The lady, she was in a car accident and nearly

died and couldn't walk for like two months afterwards.

horrible. And during that time, she had to relearn

all kinds of things, like how to feed herself,

how to walk, how to dress, and everything. She

had to relearn it. It was terrible. And she was

not saved. She was not a Christian. And then,

about six months after that, me and a youth pastor

and two teenagers from Mississippi ran into her

at Tony Paco's, and I asked her, we were talking

about the Bible, and I got to the point where

I said, have you ever experienced a fresh start

in your life, like a new beginning? And she said,

well, you know, I kind of did. I know what you're

talking about. After my accident, and she experienced

it, and I said, how do you think all that happened?

How do you think that plays into your being here

today, having this conversation? And she said,

I think God was showing me that God can do what

I cannot do. And I realized I need to be saved,

not from my car accident, because that's already

happened. I went back to work, and all that's

been done. But from her head. Tears streaming

down her face. It was the bartender of Tony Paco

standing at the table. She had five on the table

that she was waiting on. And she bowed her head

and prayed out loud to receive Jesus Christ the

Lord and Savior. Because she understood. She

figured it out. Right? And somebody shared the

basic truth with her. So the hand of God commissioned

her into the kingdom. He brought her in. He made

it happen. And I didn't do that. Nothing I did.

You say, well, you were faithful and shared.

Yeah, and so should we all. And to do so does

not make someone special. You're supposed to

do that. We're all supposed to do it all the

time, right? To not do it might be disobedience,

but to do it is not a certain kind of obedience

that's going to win more souls or make more stuff

happen, right? It's just what we are. And so

God's hand produces spiritual fruit. Ministry

succeeds. Because God is actively working through

his people. Not his people are actively working

through God, but God is actively working through

his people. And then that brings us to our application.

God does not simply call his servants. God doesn't

go to a dark place and find somebody and say,

hey, come on. And that's all he does. Stop there.

He calls you out of the darkness to be the assembled

church, to do something for him. and then he

empowers that something so that it will turn

into something big and blossoming that you never

even began to realize it could be. You never

dreamt about it. So he takes that tiny thing

that was you huddled in the dark, wishing you

could change your life, and he turns you into

a light, salt, grace, warrior, armored up, changing

the world for God. He does it. So then we're

going to have a summary, and then we're going

to do prayer. The summary looks like this. The

hand of God teaches us these things. This is

on your sheet. It's the bottom right box. So

first of all, he teaches us about his power.

Nothing is impossible for God. He teaches us

about his providence. God provides for every

living creature. He teaches us about his protection.

So God securely holds his people. I've said it

this way, and I believe it with all my heart.

If you are doing what God would have you to do,

you cannot be stopped. If you are in the process

of doing what God wants you to do, a bullet couldn't

kill you. A bomb couldn't kill you. A car couldn't

run over you. If you are actively doing what

God wants you to do, you cannot be stopped. His

protection, he securely holds his people. His

discipline, he lovingly corrects his children.

And again, that is guidance, always, and when

necessary, breaks out in punishment. His guidance,

he directs circumstances according to his will.

All the details are called into place. Acts 17

says that God decided where you will live, set

up the boundaries of the nations. He did all

of that so that people might grope around for

him, and having groped around for him, find...

that he was never far away in the first place.

So he has orchestrated every little event of

your life, every detail, so that you can be where

you are and look for him. His sovereignty. We

talked about that one on Sunday, for those of

us who were in the sermon on Sunday. And we should

not whittle away. That was the topic of the sermon,

which is available online on Facebook and also

will be on, God willing, if my week sorts itself

out a little bit. So we shouldn't rule away at

God's sovereignty. No one can overcome God's

purposes, and if you are trying to overcome God's

purposes, you will fail. However horrendous that

winds up looking, you will fail. And lastly,

his faithfulness. He completes what he begins.

And then the wide box across the bottom. You

can write any of these in there that you want,

but here's some applications that I came up with.

Trust God's strength rather than your own. So

out of this, I see God's hand is bigger than

me, bigger than mine, bigger than my church,

bigger than my ministry, bigger than the podcast

reaching across the world. And I dream about

the mighty things that God might do. I'm not

trusting in my strength. I'm trusting in God's

strength. Thank God for his daily provision.

We should be grateful. One of the reasons you

pray before meals is because you wouldn't have

that meal if God hadn't given it. Thank God for

his daily provision. Rest in the security of

his hand. Stop beating yourself up. Obviously

be found faithful. Do the things that God wants

you to do. And then when it doesn't quite work

out the way you think it should, start beating

yourself up. Say, okay, I screwed up. It's up

to God anyway. But don't go off rails and then

say that because you'll be facing wrath. And

if you get real used to wrath, And you have a

real problem. Receive his discipline with humility.

I've had a number of children and grandchildren

over the years who did not take the discipline

well. And it resulted in punishment. And then

they did not take the punishment well either.

And it was usually only for a period of time.

And then they figured out, well, the punishment

I don't really like. And it keeps happening.

It might keep going this way. And so I'm going

to try something different. Or they got really

good at hiding in some cases, right? Because

they didn't want to. So receive God's discipline

with humility because God is a wise discipliner

and a loving discipliner. And the last one is

look for his hand in ordinary circumstances.

So whatever's going on today, look for where

God is working. Blackaby, I think it was, was

experiencing God. He said, look for where God

is working and then join him in. You just did

that. This is a two -point life. Less than after

accepting Christ as Lord. That's all you did

every day. You'd be awesome. Your results would

always be godly, honoring. You'd be awesome.

So here's an illustration. A master sculptor,

chisel and hammer. Bang, bang, bang. Bits of

rock are falling off, right? He strikes the rock.

He goes around and around. He's going around

and around the rock. He's striking it. Many tiny

strikes. Bits and bits. occasionally a larger

piece will come off. But almost always it's bits

and bits, little bit, little bit. I mean, slivers

so small that you think, why would he even take

the time to swing a hammer? Take off the tiniest

little dust of a rock, right? But years later,

when the sculpture is done, those same blows

show up as the skill, not the cruelty. Not something

bad that he did to the rock, but as the steel,

as the picture that he had in his mind comes

out. Who saw the picture first? Say God, right?

And then the sculptor. And God is like that sculptor.

He sees the picture, and sometimes God's shaping

feels uncomfortable. Trials, corrections, waiting,

whatever. But every touch of God's guided, hand,

every application of his perfect wisdom, every

installation of his steadfast love, God is not

trying to destroy his people, but to conform

them to the image of Christ. So you could really

say whatever you're going through, as bad as

it ever gets, or as good as it ever gets, but

all together, the best moment and the worst moment,

all together and everything that's in between,

they're all designed with one purpose in mind.

And that is that you would become into the image

of Christ. That you could go to be in eternity

with God forever. And then you'd look pretty

good there. You'd fit right in. And that's what

God is trying to do. And so if we're resisting

that, then we're resisting the hand of God. And

so Scripture teaches us that. So if you want

to be like Christ, if you want to be a person

like Christ, then don't resist. Rather, humbly

accept that direction and realize that you can

work in every moment and rest in Him. Okay? Do

we have time?