WWUTT 516 The Beginning of Birth Pains?

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Jesus said that prior to his return we would hear of wars and rumors of wars, there would be famines and earthquakes in various places, but not to be alarmed because the end is not yet when we understand the text.

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Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text as an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty, visit our website at www .utt

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.com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. And greetings, everyone.

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Wonderful to be with you, as it is every day that we get the chance to open the Word of God and study the

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Bible together. We're going to continue where we left off last week, talking about the day of the

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Lord as Paul taught the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians chapters 4 and 5.

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We're up to chapter 5 now, starting in verse 1. Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you.

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For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

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While people are saying there is peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

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But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day.

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We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.

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For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.

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For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with him.

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Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

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So Paul concludes this part of the lesson the same way he concluded chapter 4, where he says we will always be with the

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Lord, therefore encourage one another with these words. And at the end of the next part of the lesson, he says, we might live with him, therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

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So when we read these things about Christ's return, we are encouraged, knowing that nothing that we are going through in this life, we're taking with us, right?

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Whether it is a struggle or a circumstance that you just can't seem to see the other end of, or maybe somebody is oppressing you or persecuting you, you are being ridiculed for your faith, it is a certain trial or a tribulation, whatever the occasion might happen to be, we have hope in Christ, knowing that he is making all things new.

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He is going to return and dry every tear from our eyes and hurt and pain will be no more.

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There will be no more dying, no more suffering, no more evil, all of these things will come to an end at the return of Christ.

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So whenever we read about this, we are encouraged and we have hope. And so let us encourage one another the same way as we go through these trials and tribulations, we can encourage one another and knowing this is but temporary.

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This is but a moment as Christ will come back and make all things back to the perfection that they had on the, at the conclusion of creation.

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So on day seven, when God rested from creation and he looked at all of his creation and he said, behold, it is very good.

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That is the way things will be restored to that former glory at the coming of Jesus Christ who is reconciling all things to himself, things in heaven and things on earth.

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May we be encouraged by those words, especially in the particular season that we're in right now when we're just reading about storms, hurricanes, earthquakes, that one that happened off the coast of Mexico, we're hearing about political conflict and just a general sense of dissatisfaction and complaining by just about everybody.

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Even as we see these things unfolding before us, we have our hope in Christ Jesus and there is no reason to be alarmed by, by even storms and hurricanes.

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I want to talk about that a little bit here and we're going to get to that here in just a moment. So in chapter five, starting in verse one,

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Paul says now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you for you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the

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Lord will come like a thief in the night. And this is a further hint for us that Paul did in fact teach the

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Thessalonians certain things about the return of Christ. He just didn't get the chance to teach them about the resurrection of the dead, which was how he started talking about the day of the

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Lord. This was, this was a point of distress for the Thessalonians who had a very Greek understanding that when a person died, they had no eternal soul that continued to live on.

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They just perished as the body died. So the soul died with it. And they thought,

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Hey, our brothers and sisters who have, who have died before the return of Christ, which we're all looking forward to, will they not be participants with us on that day?

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And Paul writes to them to say, they will be with us on the day of the Lord. In fact, the dead in Christ will rise first.

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So there's no reason for you to be alarmed. You can encourage one another with these things.

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So that's what it is that he addresses first. He did talk with them about the day of the Lord. He just didn't get the chance to talk about the resurrection of the dead.

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And I mentioned that because there is some teaching out there that tries to say that, that Paul has received some sort of new revelation from Jesus.

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And so he's telling the Thessalonians something that has not been taught in, in any other apostolic teaching, but that, that simply isn't the case.

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Like like it wasn't taught until Jesus revealed it to Paul, who then tells it to the Thessalonians.

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But he did tell them about the day of the Lord. He just didn't get to the specifics of the resurrection of the dead.

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Remember once again, Paul was only with them for a few weeks. He had to rush out quickly in the cover of night to escape the persecution that was coming at the hands of the

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Jews who wanted to silence Paul. So there were certain things that he didn't get the chance to talk with them about.

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So then when he gets into chapter five, he says, now concerning the times and the seasons, you have no need to have anything written to you because this is all stuff that he's explained to them before.

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For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

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And some of this language that Paul uses here is just like the language that Jesus used in the

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Olivet discourse in Matthew chapter 24. So let's go there. Let's turn to Matthew 24.

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And this lesson that Jesus gives to his disciples, we also find in Mark 13 and Luke 21.

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But the most famous version of this speech is in Matthew 24. Matthew singles out five discourses of Christ in his gospel.

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The largest, of course, is the Sermon on the Mount, which covers Matthew chapters five, six and seven.

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The fifth of those discourses is here in Matthew chapters 24 and 25. It would be the second longest discourse.

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And this is when Jesus is on the Mount of Olives. He's leaving Jerusalem and going back to Bethany.

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This is during what we call today is Holy Week. So on Sunday, Jesus came into Jerusalem, the triumphal entry on the donkey with the people shouting

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Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, laying down their cloaks and palm branches.

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That was on Sunday. And then this would be approximately Tuesday of that week. And during that week, leading up to his arrest and his crucifixion, his arrest late

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Thursday night, crucifixion on Friday, he was traveling back and forth between Jerusalem and Bethany, which was on the other side of the

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Mount of Olives. So here is he's leaving Jerusalem and he goes up to the Mount of Olives. The disciples come to him and they say, tell us, when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?

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Because at the start of the chapter, as they're going through Jerusalem, they're observing the things that have been built, like the temple in particular.

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And Jesus makes this comment. You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.

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And so that's what caused the disciples that didn't go to him as they were going back to Bethany and say, well, tell us about the signs.

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What will be the signs of these things happening? These stones cast down, the temple destroyed.

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And Jesus says in verse four, see that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name saying,

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I am the Christ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.

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See that you are not alarmed for this must take place. But the end is not yet for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

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And there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of birth pains.

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Now, there are people who will read this particular part of his discourse versus three through eight, and they will try to compare this with stuff that's going on in the world.

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So he says, you'll hear about wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed for this must take place.

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Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. So whenever we see a rise in war or we see an increase in natural disasters, there's a tendency to want to take this particular section and say, see, this is it.

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The end times are coming. Jesus is going to return in my lifetime or something like that. But that's not actually what

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Jesus is talking about here. He's actually telling his disciples these things are regular. They're normal.

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This is what's going to happen in this fallen world. And he says to them, do not be alarmed for this must take place.

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But the end is not yet. And then he goes into the next section, verse nine.

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They will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake.

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And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.

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And because lawlessness will increase, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

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And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations.

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And then the end will come. So let me ask you, is that not happening right now?

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Do we not see that happening in the world as we are living in it, that those who are in Christ who are the true followers of Jesus are delivered up to tribulation and put to death, hated by all nations for the sake of the name of Christ.

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And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.

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We see that happening. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

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The gospel of the kingdom will go throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations.

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Don't we see that happening now? And then Jesus says, and then the end will come.

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So these are the things that he says will happen in this world. This is not the end.

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And then starting in verse 15, he starts talking about there the signs of the end.

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And even here, he's specifically responding to the disciples about the destruction of the temple.

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And so what Jesus goes on to describe in verses 15 through about 21, as he's talking about the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, which would take place in 70

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A .D. Now, that would be fulfilled 40 years after Jesus had this conversation with his disciples.

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And that's the micro fulfillment. There's a macro fulfillment in the sense that even this, the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem was was kind of a sign of something that would happen on a much larger scale, on a more global scale preceding the coming of Christ, which he gets to later in verses twenty nine when he actually talks about what it will look like at the coming of the son of man.

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So the destruction of Jerusalem, the fall of the temple, all of these things were even pointing towards something bigger that was going to take place.

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So just like we can read the book of Obadiah, where the prophet is warning the Edomites about the wrath of God that is going to come upon them for their sin.

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And we can read that book and see also a picture of what the day of wrath will be like when

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Christ comes to finally judge the living and the dead. So we can also read Jesus telling the disciples here what it will be like when

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Jerusalem and the temple are destroyed. Forty years later in 70 AD, we can read that account and see in it something that is going to happen on a much larger scale, a much more global scale preceding the return of Christ, which

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Jesus does talk about there in the Olivet Discourse. And and again, there are there's language that Jesus uses there that is the same as what

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Paul uses in First Thessalonians chapter five, but where he's discussing about rumors of wars and nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

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There'll be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of birth pains. Jesus is not saying those things are signs of the end.

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He's saying, don't be alarmed by that, because that's what must take place. All of that is going to happen because we live in a fallen world that has been subjected to futility because of our sin.

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Paul also mentions that in Romans chapter eight, when he says that all things have been subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, all of creation is fallen because of the sinfulness of mankind, that the creation itself in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

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I'm in Romans 8 22 now, for we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

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So this has always been going on because of the fallen state of the world. We should not be alarmed by an increase of hurricanes and storms and whatnot and look at that and go, well, here it is.

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This is the return of Christ, for that's the way things are. Now, I do believe things will get progressively worse.

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We can observe that just looking back through human history. The 20th century was the bloodiest century in human history.

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More people died in wars in that century than any other century before it. And so we do see things getting worse.

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This is this is all of creation groaning in the pains of childbirth, but it's not going to be like there's one year that's worse than the previous year.

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And so then we know, oh, here we come. Here it comes. Right. Christ is going to return any moment now.

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That's not necessarily the way that observance will happen. So even now, as we have it happening in our world with these storms and these earthquakes and things like that that are going on, don't be alarmed by them.

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But know that all of creation has been subjected to futility. There still is a reason and a purpose even for Hurricane Harvey or Hurricane Irma.

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Now, Kirk Cameron came under fire earlier this week for talking about that very thing, saying that I believe that these things happen for a reason.

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And God is ultimately trying to show us something through hurricanes and earthquakes and whatnot.

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You've probably seen it through various secular media sources. I think the story that I read in particular was in U .S.

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Magazine, or at least the the Internet equivalent of it. They're their online publication where they were talking about how

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Kirk Cameron has come under fire on social media because he said that, oh, well, you know what? I'll just go ahead and play it.

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I'll play the video that Kirk posted from an airport in Florida as he was leaving

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Florida to go to Arkansas to get away from Hurricane Irma. That was that was on its way.

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He shared from the scriptures what God means to show us even through a devastating storm like this.

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Here's Kirk Cameron. How should we look at two giant hurricanes coming back to back like this?

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Do we write them off as coincidence? Do we write it off as a statistical anomaly?

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Wow. Who would have thought? Is it just Mother Nature in a bad mood? I don't know how you think about it, but I think it could be something much more than all of that.

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I'm going to look here in God's word and read to you from Job. In Job 37,

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God says through Job. He saturates clouds with moisture.

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He scatters his lightning through them. They swirl about, turning around and around at his direction, accomplishing everything that he commands them over the surface of the inhabited world.

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He causes this to happen for punishment or to water his land and demonstrate his faithful love.

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One thing we know about hurricanes and all weather is that this is not

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Mother Nature in a bad mood. This is a spectacular display of God's immense power.

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And when he puts his power on display, it's never without reason. There's a purpose.

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And we may not always understand what that purpose is, but we know it's not random. And we know that weather is sent to cause us to respond to God in humility, awe, and repentance.

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Again, there's not a random molecule in the universe, I believe. But that God is the

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Lord of the wind and the waves. And what this should be doing for all of us is causing us to remember that it's

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God who supplies our life, breath, and everything else so that you and I would reach out to him.

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So think about that. Maybe share that with your kids when they ask why this is happening.

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Remind them that God is the blessed controller of all things. He's the Lord of the wind and the waves, and he is the one who gives us peace, security, and strength in the midst of the storm.

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And that he uses this to point us to him and to his care for us.

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And you know what? Kirk Cameron was right on with that. And I love the way that he shared that. Not just giving his opinion, but he went straight to the word of God.

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Job chapter 37, starting in verse 11. He loads the thick cloud with moisture.

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The clouds scatter his lightning. They turn around and around by his guidance to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world, whether for correction or for his land or for love.

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He causes it to happen. He causes great big giant storms to happen either for judgment or for love.

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This is what God does. There's a guy on Twitter likes to think of himself as a

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Christian teacher. And he said of this statement that Kirk Cameron made. He said, I think Kirk Cameron has become such an embarrassment for Christians, but he doesn't go to the scriptures to show how

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Kirk Cameron was wrong. Kirk went to the scriptures to show exactly what God means and purposes with even giant storms like Hurricane Harvey or Irma.

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We have this said to us in Psalm 107, starting in verse 23. Some went down to the sea and ships doing business on the great waters.

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They saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep for he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea.

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They mounted up to heaven. They went down to the depths. Their courage melted away in their evil plight.

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They reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits end. Then they cried to the

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Lord in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still and the waves of the sea were hushed.

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Then they were glad that the waters were quiet and he brought them to their desired haven.

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Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man.

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Let them extol him in the congregation of the people and praise him in the assembly of the elders.

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That's exactly what is being said here in Psalm 107 is just what Kirk Cameron said and what we read in Job 37 as well.

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God uses things even like devastating storms, part of the fallenness of this world, the world being subjected to futility because of the sin of mankind.

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And God uses those storms for correction and for his land to water the land or for his love.

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It's for those things that he causes these things to happen. So let us not be alarmed by them, but turn from sin and worship

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Christ. And then we will continue to talk all the more about the day of the Lord tomorrow as we resume our study of First Thessalonians chapter five.

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Let's pray for those who have been affected by Hurricane Irma and are still being affected today and pray that the

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Lord would deliver them and they would seek his face and rejoice in him for his steadfast love.

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Our Lord God, we thank you that you have given us salvation through your son,

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Jesus Christ. And I pray that all would turn from their sin and seek Christ and worship him even in the midst of great devastation and destruction as we see happening with these hurricanes and with earthquakes and political unrest and whatnot, even in the midst of these storms, whether they're literal storms or they might be storms of conflict in people's lives.

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I pray that this causes people to turn from their sin and worship you, that they're corrected in their behavior and they are in awe of the great

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God who saves them for his name's sake. I thank you for your patience with us.

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And I pray that we would be patient with one another as we hold out the word of life, longing all the more for that great day of the

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Lord to come, protect those who are going through this storm, help the recovery effort to be swift.

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Let there be people coming in with the gospel to point others in a direction of more hope than what we have in the stuff of this world, which can be laid to waste by a devastating hurricane wind.

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But we have a love in Christ Jesus that will never be snatched from us for those who are in Christ.

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And let that be the message that we hold forth for the world to hear. And we pray these things in Jesus name.