Major Bible Themes
Courtney Hemenway · Jan 30, 2011
Major Bible Themes (2011), No. 05
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926225124795

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We are in Chapter 4 of the Lewis Perry Schaefer Major Bible Themes. If you were prepared, we were to be doing, let's see, I think it was 1, 2, 6, and 8 in this chapter. And if you got the right chapter, Russ said he did it dutifully, but he did it in Chapter 3. So, the homework for next week for Craig, who will be teaching, are the ones you should focus on are 3, 12, 15, and 18 of chapter 5. Chapter 5.

Okay, the beginning of the chapter, what does Lewis Barry Chafer say the Bible is intended to be? You can cheat and look at it right away. I think it's the first sentence. and program of God. Yeah, the Bible is intended to be a revelation of the being, works, and program of God. Do you agree with this? No, of course. Because Louis Perry Chaffer said it or you believe it? No, I believe it. At times I forget. Yeah, you know it's... It shows his being. What's that? It shows his being, the Bible does.

It shows his works and it also explains his program. And we'll get into that later in some of the questions or some of the things we're going to identify between general revelation and special revelation and what the importance of the Bible is in that process. Now, Chafer makes the reasonable argument that an infinite God would seek to reveal himself to his creatures and is essential to God fulfilling his purpose in creation. It is only natural that rational beings should attempt to learn something about the creator who made them. Do you see this around the world and over the ages? People trying to seek a creator? Or is this something that is new? None seek me. So nobody seeks him. They seek a God of their own design. But they look at the creation and wonder. They wonder?

Romans specifically says that. We'll get to that. There's this Holy Spirit that loses. So it's not that we're just woke up thinking I'm going to seek God so much because God is bringing us all to faith. You're one step ahead, I think, looking at just God, that there is a God. Do we see that universally? Yes. Mike brought this up several times. I always bring it up because I think about this. In the Incas and all that, when they came here, they had sacrifices. They were sacrificing children. They knew there was a God and he was mad. So they're trying to please him.

Think of all the major religions. Think of all that. It's usually one, there's a God. Even when you go into these primitive cultures, they know there's a God. All of them think that there's a God, whether it's they know a God. So they all know that there's a God. So universally, there is a knowledge of God. I think, you know, you look through all the cultures and all the ages, it's always, everybody knows there's a God.

It's just how they seek Him, find Him, declare who He is, how they want to appease Him. Most of them realize there's a God and He's angry. So they got to appease Him somehow, either by works, by sacrifices, by whatever. They want to try and please Him.

Well, you know, nowadays it's almost like The Earth is God because they're completely Google. No, but it's true, isn't it? I mean, it's like Mother Earth and forget them. It's the Earth instead of us. And we're supposed to be the highest from all of everything. But now it's the Earth.

Yeah. Well, you know, that's that's actually, you know, I deal with that a lot in the water issues and different things, environmental side. It really becomes a religion. I mean, it becomes, you know, that Mother Earth, I mean, that's their God. is Mother Earth, and you can go through a very structured analysis of how environmentalism can be a religion. I mean, they have their high priest, the Al Gores, and the others. I mean, seriously, you can paint a very structured religion of this, and what they worship, and how they worship, and how they appease. I mean, you go through the whole scenario of a religion, you can really lay out real environmentalism as a religion.

And a lot of times, you know, it becomes facts irrelevant. You know, just we were talking about before, you know, we're running out of water. No, we have the exact same water that we had a thousand years ago. You know, whether it's clean or not is an issue, but we can deal with that, but there's the same amount of water.

So, but, you know, in their religion is You know, we've got to save the water, we've got to save the planet, we've got to save Mother Earth. So, I mean, there are religions. Everybody, well, and I'll get to that. Go ahead. No, but it's like you brush your teeth months a week because you don't want to use the water and don't let it run while you're brushing.

It's ridiculous. It was the one, she was a singer or something or whatever who wanted to save toilet paper. That was a brutal one. That was a brutal one. I forget who that was. You know that you can only use so many sheets per day or something or it was to save trees and it was like, whew, there's a lot of hygiene problems. Anyway, we digress. Basically, every culture in the past has knowledge that there is a God, and generally they realize that the God needs to be satisfied. This is in keeping with what the Bible says in Romans 1. Romans 1, 18-20.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so they are without excuse." Again, God made every human to have this innate knowledge of God. That which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them.

He's made it evident, okay? So, move on. Oops. Let's see here. Okay, this is one of the premise that Schaeffer puts out in this chapter. If God created the universe and man for a purpose, is it reasonable to assume that God would reveal his purpose and will to man. Is this a reasonable premise? Schaeffer puts it this way, if a man is the highest order of creature who has the capacity to recognize and have fellowship with the Creator, it is reasonable to expect that the Creator will communicate with his creature, revealing his purpose and will. I think that was good, you know, if man's highest work creature has capacity to recognize and have fellowship with the Creator, it is reasonable to expect that the Creator will communicate with his creature, revealing his purpose and will.

Well, and he did in the garden with Adam and Eve. Yeah. I mean, he told Adam to take charge of the animals and the plants and everything, and then he did commune with Adam and Eve in the garden. But then sin stopped all that. We'll get into that. He communicated everything to Adam. When he created Adam and Eve, he laid everything out to them and communicated with them. So right off the bat, God, and the reasonable premise is if you create something, you just don't leave it away and you go away.

You know, especially in the living organism, you want to communicate, you want to have fellowship. What was the reason for man? To have that relationship. Have a relationship. God wanted, and we'll get into it if we get the time, you know, what that purpose was, to share his glory, to have fellowship, to reveal his glory, all these things. Man was created for that purpose. And we look back in the time when the father, you know, the triune God, back before there was nothing created, they were together, but they wanted to share the glory. So they created man.

So it makes real sense that you would want to, once you create, you want to communicate with them what you're doing. Well he did, even when sin happened, he told, someday somebody will come and crush the head of Satan. Yeah. So he did lay out his plan. And the plan was before anything was even created too. That's the thing.

If we were in charge, would that make sense? You're going to create something that's going to sin and fall away from you? Would we even go there to begin with? No. But God did. God knowing full well that Adam would sin and that he'd have to send his son. That's not a plan we'd come up with.

The other thing which is kind of interesting, And now that Craig's here, we can get the full analytical of this. In Schaeffer's, if man is the highest order creature, I thought about this when I read that, and we're talking about religion and environmental that may have a religion, in evolution, I thought about this, and maybe, Craig, this was just an off topic. Man is the highest creature. Why did evolution stop with us? If evolution is a process that was going... I suddenly thought about this the other day. If evolution is a process, why did it stop at us?

Why haven't more monkeys become men? Well, okay, monkey to men. Why didn't we go man to... It's clear there's room for improvement. Well, yeah. I mean, if you're... you know, with evolution, how do you justify the stoppage point at man? That doesn't make any sense. I have a question. Yeah. What if... See this, and this is totally off topic. This was just when I saw that he is the highest preacher, I just kind of went, wait a minute, why did it stop? It's a process. Okay.

I'm going to single myself out because I am a Christian that believes in evolution. What if God started here and his full intention was to get here and evolution happened so that we could be? If you look if you look at that, you know, there's lots of physical reasons why One of the things you know, and I was when I was just a young believer and a couple things when you know, this is more You have to have more faith in that than Believing what the Bible says is just he created it and one of the things that that I look at when I was a young believer there was a debate up at CSU between Dr. Gish and the prime evolution guys up in CSU. Big debate. I was a brand new believer.

I was basically kind of near camp. Why couldn't God just do this evolution thing? He can do whatever he wants. Well, when he started going through it, here are these guys. Here are the top evolution guys going after these Dr. Gish and whoever it was. I can't remember who it was, but Gish and those guys destroyed the evolution people.

One of the key things, and I'm sitting here going, when you look at all the fossil record, one of the things that just really flattened me right there was the fossil record. There has never, ever, and this is the top evolution guy that said, you're absolutely right. There has never been a transitional fossil. Between any of those, when you say, you know, God, was there any just pushed in, we went from, you know, chicken to whatever, you know, or reptile to, or amphibian to reptile to chicken to, there's not one. Now, you explained to me how you have fossil records that show all these individual species, but not one transitional one. And I was like, well, I've seen it. Well, no, you've seen artist's renditions of them. And these evolution guys went, you're absolutely right. I'm a scientist. I'm an engineer. This did not calculate.

Because if you have a fossil record that's here, here, here, but no transitional animal, ever. Not one. Not one. How do you say, well, it was so quick. Well, no, these things happen over your eons of time. Not one. And I'm looking at these evolution guys going, they're agreeing with him. I'm going, their whole theory went in the toilet at that point. And then he distorted them on a whole bunch of other things.

That was with the moon. They were gazillion, millions of years old. They were expecting on the moon to have 50 feet of dust because of the rate of dust that's coming in. If you had a million year trill, whatever. They were going to set down on the moon. They figured they were going to have 50, 100 feet of dust because they're calculated over a million years. When they got there, it was boom. Hey, wait a minute. Six inches. All the theories of evolution fall apart. Thermodynamics, you can get into all that. Everything tends from a state of order to disorder. Evolution goes contrary to that law. It doesn't work.

It's a lot easier to believe what the Bible says. God created, it was done, we're there. whole separate issue. I was in your camp to begin with as an early believer, but when I started going through it and figuring this out, it doesn't make any sense. From a scientific standpoint, an analytical standpoint, you can't justify. It just doesn't fit. You've got to believe things that are not provable. even in records don't fit. You're right, Lord. You did it. I'm happy. You said it. It's done. We digress.

Doesn't it make sense that we want to know about God and that He would want to reveal Himself to us? Don't you kind of wonder where you came from? Maybe not from apes and animals, but, you know, who you're from, who your parents were. You know, if you were a person whose father left at a very early age when you were a baby, don't you always want to kind of find out, you know, about your father or, you know, for the father and mother who left, you always kind of want to do an adoption. What do a lot of adopted kids want to do? They want to go find their, you know, when they get old enough they find out they're adopted or they know they're adopted. A lot of times they want to go back and find.

Doesn't it make sense that we would want to know about our Creator, the One who created us? I mean, it makes sense that we would want to do that and that the Creator would want to tell us about Himself and His plans. So, three critical questions come up.

What has God revealed? How has God revealed it? And how can we know His revelation? So, with question one, what has God revealed? Who's going to win the Super Bowl? No. No. Through having Jesus come to the earth, since He really is the Son, the Father, the One, He's revealed Himself to His Son. He's revealed Himself to His Son. So what does he reveal to us?

That he's God. That there is a God. That he's a God. Absolutely. First and foremost. What else? He's here in the love, goodness, and holiness of his grace. Yeah, he's done it, but what's he revealing? Well, he reveals kind of, that's kind of a subset of what Monequa's saying is, of who he is, God. I didn't feed it to her. I think she feeds you the answer. What else? I mean just the creation, like seeing the moon get close by the sun, all the animals and the eagle picking the crud out of the window, like creation, I mean, and all that stuff. Yeah, and that talks about God, but what is the second thing He revealed? His character. His character?

There's nothing higher than God. Yeah? So we know there's a God, and then what else is he going to tell us? We need to be saved? What's he going to do? His program. His purpose, his program. He's going to tell us that there is a God, and what is he going to do? He wants us to glorify him.

First he tells us through, and he makes it evident in every one of us, every human being, You know, even the atheists have got to believe that there's something. You know, I think they try and convince them there isn't, but that Roman says it's evident within them. So God has revealed the knowledge that there is a God and God's eternal purpose. And then with question two, how has God revealed it?

Two ways. With his Son. Son. And the Bible. And his written word. Those are kind of all in the same, because it's living word and the written word. That's kind of, that's what we call special revelation. Okay, tell us. Then the first would be general revelation. Okay? He's done it through general revelation, which is just what Russ was saying. Creation, everything. So, what has God revealed? The knowledge of God, God's eternal purpose, and how has He revealed it? General revelation and special revelation.

Now, I see a question down at the bottom. Can an unbeliever have the knowledge of God? If it's within you, then yes. Okay, we're going to do this democratically. Yes. How many think an unbeliever can know God? How many say no? You were shaking your head. Well, we know there's a higher power in some people, right? There's something up there. There's something up there. We know the general revelation of God. It depends on your question, Courtney. Knowledge of God. Just God. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, it's absolute. Everybody knows it. That's what I just read in Romans. It's general, right? Yeah, just knowledge of God. Okay? And, you know, if we look at Psalm 19, 1-6, that basically is giving us general revelation of God. It speaks of that. And it goes like this, Psalm 19, beginning of verse 1. The heavens are telling of the glory of God. Just what you see. And their expanse is declaring the work of his hands.

Day to day pours forth speech. Think about that. And actually, that word, speech, I think the Greek in that says it's a non-verbal speech. It's by non-verbally describing something. So, day-to-day force-force speech, and night-to-night reveals knowledge. How many times, you know, I'll get into that. There's some cool things. Just seeing the expanse of the heavens, you know.

Look at that and you've got to know there's a God. There is no speech, nor are there words. Their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth. So this has gone out to all the earth. The most primitive culture to the most educated culture. It has gone out through all the earth, in their utterances to the end of the world.

In them he has placed a tent for the sun, which is a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. It rejoices as a strong man to run his course. Its rising is from one end of the heavens, and its circuit to the other end of them. And there is nothing hidden from its heat." So this is basically general revelation. And this is, going back to the Romans, it's evident in every one of us. Every human being, God says, it's evident that there's a God. And you can see that. Mike used to give me so much grief about scuba diving. Why are you doing scuba diving? Well, when I scuba dive, I look down and I see these creatures. And I know, I look and they're beautiful.

They're different. they're magnificent. And I see God's hand in that. Think if, you know, think if it was all just gray, everything was gray, gray, nothing. You know, that would reveal something about God. But when I look and I see this magnificent creation underwater, I mean, colors and things that are created, you know, fish that are, you know, that look exactly like coral. You know, they're kind of, you can't see them until they're, you know, or you see these beautiful colors, beautiful colors. You know, I look at that and I go, man, God is amazing. Somebody, somebody created this. Somebody created it. You know, the others, you know, when you're, you look at the stars in the expanse of the sky.

I mean, I look at that, you know, if you ever get, I remember I was backpacking when I was in high school, back up in the hills, no lights at all in this valley up near Aspen. And I wasn't a believer at that point. But I'll tell you, I knew that there was a God. Because I'm sitting there and it was the expanse of the heavens. I'm looking there and God was beginning to work on me. Because I just looked at that and I went, man, there is a God.

There has to be. I looked up in the stars, if you've ever been where there's no city lights, and you look at the stars, it's amazing. And when you look at it, you think about, you know, he knows everyone. I didn't even know that at that point. I'm like, somebody had to create all this.

And I, it just, so, so he, through, through, you know, nature, you see a sunset, beautiful sunset, you know, painted like a picture. Looking at the ocean and you see the waves and you're like a little sand, piece of sand. Everything is so tiny compared to this vast water.

And you go back to it, the heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands. Day to day forceful speech, basically telling about God. His whole creation tells that there is a God. That's why in Romans 1 it says it's evident. They are without excuse to know that there is a God. Creation can be thought of as a universal language that the entire earth can interpret or hear. I thought that was great. I think that really is. Creation is a universal language. From the most primitive tribe, to the most educated, to the most developed, to the underdeveloped, to whatever, creation is a universal language that speaks of God.

Also God makes knowledge of himself evident in every person, that's in Romans 1.19, because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. So the general revelation is a universal language that speaks of God. Okay, so the knowledge of God through general revelation Creation declares God's glory, His deity, and His power. So, what does a person see through general revelation or creation?

Can you see God's mercy? I'm getting a yes and a no. No, I can't see it. Can you see? Bruce can. Can you see his love? No. Oh, we got a split group here. I love it. Okay, but if you look at the world and all of the wonderful birds flying around and whatever. Okay, that's great. He did that. And so you know there's a higher power, there's God.

But mercy, how does He show mercy? Unless it happens to you, you're sick and you pray and then you get better. If we truly wanted to see His wrath, we wouldn't be here. Well, but tell me how you see His mercy? Because I am here. But if you just had creation, you're going way beyond. You know, if you just had creation, Could you see his mercy? You don't know anything else. You're just born, you're put out in the desert, and that's all you see. Can you see his mercy? He supplied me with all the necessary ingredients to live. What about the starving people? You're going beyond. You're going beyond to where you know revelation that God is love, God is mercy, because of what?

The special revelation. But through creation you can't see those things. Just in and of itself, you put yourself in a box. In creation, you can't see God's mercy in creation. You are going ahead where you know God and yes, I'm a sinner and he sent his son and saved me and yeah, you know then his love, mercy, everything about it. But what do you see in creation? Huh? You haven't read the Bible yet, so... Right, I mean if you haven't read the Bible, you weren't alive with Jesus, You don't have the Bible and you weren't alive with Christ. What do you know about God?

Nothing. It's deity and it's power. Deity and power. Everybody agree with that? But what else? He's there and he's powerful. He's what? He's there and he's powerful. Yep. What else? Anything else? Are we going to say something else or is it? I think you already said it. Okay.

Look at Romans 1.20.

For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." So, it says right here, what do we get from creation? His power and his divine nature, that there is a God and he's powerful. He created all this stuff. That's what you get out of creation, and I think that's right. If you didn't have, if you, you know, I said out in the middle of the desert. Well, if you never had the Bible, or you never saw Jesus, or had people give you the word, what do you know? You know that there's a God, and that he's powerful.

Yeah, but not merciful. What? Not yet. No, yeah, you don't know any other attributes besides his eternal power and his divine nature through creation. That's what it says. So I'm not, I'm not. You're jumping ahead, Bruce. See, you know, you have the word.

You're already getting to the second half, which is now let's look at how God reveals himself through special revelation. Okay, if we look at, you know, Psalms 19, one through six tell how God reveals himself through general revelation. Psalms 19, seven through 14 tells us about special revelation. Okay, remember we read that in basically the Heavens Declare, the Expanse, all that. That's in 19.1-6. When you go to the next section in Psalms 19, 7-14, beginning in verse 7, the law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul.

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the temple. Testimony could be translated word. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true. They are righteous altogether.

They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey in the dripping of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Equip me of hidden faults. Also, keep back your servant from presumptuous sins. Let them not rule over me. Then I will be blameless. And I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

God reveals his eternal plan through special revelation through what two methods? Special revelation comes through two sources. And what are those? One is the Bible. And the other one is Christ. Yeah. The written word and the living word. Two different things. That's where we get the special revelation. Things that you can't get out of general revelation. You can't get all that Bruce was jumping ahead with on his knowledge. The only way you get that is through the living word and the written word.

We looked at 19 for the general and let me look at 1 John 5.20. for special revelation through Christ.

1 John 5.20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and what He has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. So why did Christ come? He has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true, that He is the Son of God, one of the triune Godhead. So through Christ Himself, He gave us understanding. He came to give us understanding, the living Word.

And then if you look at John 1 verses 1 and 14. So John 1 verses 1 and 14. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, verse 1. And then in 14, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

So what did we see? The only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. So what do we see through Christ? Grace, truth. We now begin to see grace. We now, Bruce, love, grace, mercy, all the attributes because we're looking at Christ, we see this. What was one of Christ's purposes for becoming flesh? Why did he become flesh? what we just talked about. So that we would know him. So we'd know him.

This is the special revelation. But there's other stuff which I like. Yeah, and God's eternal plan for us to become believers, become in Him, our identification with Him. I look at John 8, 28 and 29 So Jesus said, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He. And what? And I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak these things as what the Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me, and he has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him. So, what do we learn from Christ? What do we learn about through Christ? What do we learn? I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak these things the Father has taught me. We learn about the Father through Christ. We learn not just a nebulous God, but we now start seeing more detail about God. God the Father.

Because I do nothing on my own initiative, Christ says. I speak these things as the Father taught me. In John 14, 9 and 10, it also says, Jesus said to him, Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know me, Philip? He who has seen me has what? Seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father abiding me, abiding in me, does his works. So the special revelation through Christ not only shows us Christ, but what?

The Father. So the attributes of the Father are now exposed through Christ. Grace, love, mercy. You now understand understanding grace, love, mercy, all these attributes of Him, this creation, even though it's a dying creation, He didn't make it all great. He made it beautiful. He made it so we could see Him in it. So Christ now starts giving us a picture of the Father. Because if you've seen Him, you've what? You've seen the Father. Because everything He does, it's the Father's initiative. So this revelation through Christ shows us Christ in attributes of the Father. We would never get that through general revelation. Never. Through the living word and the written word.

So, what are some of the aspects of God's eternal purpose? What's His eternal purpose? So that we would get to know Him. Get to know Him. What else? That He be glorified. You always think that's a selfish thing. He created us just to glorify Him. That one gets shot down pretty fast, but that's the first thought you usually think of when you do that. What else? Anything else? Okay.

God's eternal purpose. One, to declare His glory. Second, to share His glory. Third, to reveal His glory. And fourth, to be glorified. As you step down these, these are the different steps to get to the end, which is to glorify Him. So, to declare His glory, to share His glory, to reveal His glory, and to be glorified. That's His eternal purpose.

When you look at Genesis 1, 26 and 27, then God said, let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

God created man in His own image. In the image of God He created him. Male and female He created them. This shows man was created in the image of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Us. Our image. Our likeness. This was shared with Adam. In creation, He created Adam in the image. We'll see in Colossians that Christ will be in the exact copy, but he created Adam in the image of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The other part which I like, which I want to get before the second bell gets here, also look at John 17.22. I love this part.

This is about sharing in His glory. 17.22 The glory which you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, just as we are one. Do you understand what Christ is saying in this intimate prayer to the Father in John 17? The glory which you have given to me, Christ speaking, which you have given to me, I have given to them, that they may be one, just as we are one. Just get a glimpse of what that means.

God sharing His glory with us through Christ. Unbelievable to share His glory. That's part of His purpose. He wants to share His glory with us. Whatever did we deserve to share His glory? The only value we have is being placed in His Son, the identification.

Well, yeah, I got lots more. We still have many more slides, but Craig will be next week on Chapter 5. And we have those questions. Supposedly 3, 12, 15, and 18 were the ones to focus on, if you want to do that. I didn't focus on exactly those ones. All right, let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. Father, we thank you as we just get a glimpse of your eternal purpose.

We thank you that you want to share your glory as you expressed in John 17 in your written word. Father, that's an amazing thought that you want to share your glory with us. And Father, we realize that the only worth we have is our identification in Christ. Father, our identification in Him allows us to receive that glory, to understand that glory. Father, we thank you again just as we realize you're sovereignly in control of all these things.

You've made it evident through the universal language of creation that there is a God and through special revelation you have shown that through Christ we can have eternal fellowship with you by being identified in Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. So Father, we thank you for who you are. You're an awesome God. We couldn't ever think of plans like you have made, and we're thankful that it wasn't left up to us. Father, we just thank you again for this time, and we just thank you for all that you do moment by moment. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.