In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith discusses the power and awesomeness of God as seen in the forces of nature, particularly in a lightning storm. He emphasizes how small and helpless we feel when faced with the dynamic forces of nature. Pastor Chuck explains how God controls the water cycle, causing water to evaporate and form clouds, which then release rain upon the earth. He concludes by highlighting the importance of obeying and serving God, promising that those who do so will experience prosperity and pleasure in their lives.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that hold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life and make you whole Welcome to The Word for Today featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse venture through the entire Bible and on today's edition of The Word for Today we'll be following Elihu's exhortation on how God deals with man as we turn in our Bibles to Job, chapter 35, verse 11 Now with today's message, here's Pastor Chuck Smith If they obey and serve Him they will spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasures Now, if you're talking about spiritual prosperity, yes but not always material prosperity If you obey and serve Him, you'll be prosperous your years will be filled with pleasure but if you do not obey, you'll perish with a sword and you will die without the knowledge of God But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath they cry not when He binds them Now again here, as with the others of those that had come to Job there is that insinuation that Job is a hypocrite and hypocrites heap up wrath and they don't cry out to God when the problems arise they die in their youth and their life is among the unclean but He delivers the poor out of their affliction and He opens their ears in oppression Even so, would He have removed thee out of your straight into a broad place where there is no straightness and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness Job, you know, if you would get right God would deliver you out of this tight, tight place that you're in and He would bring you into a place of broadness and your table would be full of dainties, fatness again but you have fulfilled the judgment of the wicked and so the judgment and the justice are taking hold of you because there is wrath beware lest He wipes you out, takes you away with His stroke and then a great ransom cannot deliver you all of your money can't deliver you out of the hand of God when God begins then to strike for will He esteem your riches? you know, nobody can buy their way out with God so, gold nor all of the forces of strength really do anything to God desire not the night and He was desiring death oh, that I, you know, might die and be at peace He's saying don't desire the night when people are cut off in their place take heed and regard not iniquity for this hast thou chosen rather than affliction you would have chosen to be dead and all rather than to go through this affliction, Job wrong choice behold, God exalts by His power and who can teach like Him? God is using these things to instruct you and to teach you and no one can teach you like God who has enjoined Him His way or who can say thou hast wrought iniquity that is against God who can say God, you've done it wrong God, you made a mistake you ever accuse God of that? remember that you magnify His work which men behold oh, magnify the Lord with me let us exalt His name every man may see it and man may behold it afar off behold, God is great and we really don't know Him neither can the number of His years be searched out our minds cannot fathom eternity in either direction I cannot fathom eternity past back, back, back, back, back you know, how far can your mind go back? how far back can your mind take you? I cannot fathom eternity future my mind can only go out so many zillions of years and then it sort of, you know, I can't think beyond that and so He is saying really, you can't really fathom the length of God or the the number of His years, they're beyond our searching out for He makes the small drops of water and they pour down rain according to the vapor thereof now, as Elohim is talking evidently there is a storm that is beginning to brew the clouds are beginning to blow in they're at a conjunction of the north cold and the south warmth which creates tornadoes the cold air out of the north coming down and the warm air from the south wherever they meet, you get a tremendous instability in the air that creates thunderheads that creates lightning and the whole thing and so there's evidently this storm moving in these huge thunderhead clouds beginning to hear the claps of thunder the lightning off in the distance as this thing is moving in and so He sort of picks up on this storm that's moving in and in the remainder of His discourse He is sort of describing this storm as it is coming in and is liking it to the awesomeness of God's power how helpless we are in a lightning storm the forces of nature how powerful they are and how they cause us to feel so small and so helpless when really you begin to face the dynamic forces of nature and so He begins to describe this storm that is now moving in as He is talking and He said for God makes the small drops of water they pour down rain according to the vapor thereof He causes really the water to be evaporated taken up into the air and then carried by the clouds which the clouds do drop and distill upon man abundantly so God is the one drawing up the water into the air by of course the evaporation and the changing of the water into its component gases of hydrogen and oxygen lifting them into the air the formation of the clouds the moisture the gases in the clouds as they begin to cool off then the water begins to condense and drop as rain also can any understand the spreading of the clouds how the clouds are formed how the clouds are brought together how the clouds are transported or the noise of His tabernacle He's talking there about the thunder as the skies are sort of the tabernacle or the tent of God and the heavy claps of thunder behold He spreads His light upon it and He covers the bottom of the sea the light of course being the the lightning and the what they call sheet lightning where the whole sky just sort of lights and is charged with all of these electrical particles, these ions for by them judges He the people He gives meat in abundance through the rain He provides the grasses and the verdant fields with clouds He covers the light and He commands it not to shine and by the cloud that comes between and so even the sun is hid by the clouds as the clouds come between man and the sun the noise thereof showeth concerning it and the cattle also concerning the vapor it's interesting when you get one of these thunderstorms all of the electrical charges in the atmosphere how the cattle seem to recognize it and they sort of group together at this also my heart trembles and is moved out of its place hear attentively the noise of His voice and the sound that goes out of His mouth and referring here in a figurative way to the thunder as though God was speaking through the thunder He directs it under the whole heaven and the lightning to the ends of the earth have you ever been in some of those storms where it seemed like the thunder begins way down and rumbles and gets louder and louder and louder and goes over the top and keeps going on out the other way until it sort of fades out on the other end and you see the lightning as it just sort of lights up the whole sky it seems the whole sky is just bright with the lightning flashes I love it I love it He said God thundereth with the voice of His excellency and He will not stay them when His voice is heard God thundereth marvelously with His voice great things doeth He which we cannot comprehend it's impossible for us to really comprehend the things of God even the things of nature we think that we understand and know but we're constantly having to change our theories for He saith to the snow be thou on the earth likewise to the small rain and to the great rain of His strength the light sort of misty drizzles which are great to walk in but then those heavy heavy downpours of rain He seals up the hand of every man and all men may know His work during the winter time He stops the work He seals up the work of man you rain and here we are you know fellas took off work this last week when it started to rain they couldn't do the construction anymore so the Lord knew that that concrete needed to cure and there's nothing better to cure concrete than these rains and the Lord is giving us the greatest concrete job you could ever imagine with these rains it's going to be a perfect cure perfect pour but when God sends these great rains and the snows He stops the work of every man that they might have time then to meditate on God's work it's in the winter time when you're forced to be in the house and you know it's too cold to go outside and so you just have time on your hands and before the days of TV it was a time to read and to learn more about God so that you could think more about Him and during this time of the year, the winter time the beasts go into their dens the bears into hibernation and all and they remain in their places until the winter time is past out of the south comes the whirlwind the warm and the cold out of the north and these two air masses meeting and creating these dramatic weather phenomena by the breath of God, frost is given I love that, it's very picturesque God breathes and the whole land is covered with frost and it's a poetic, figurative, beautiful method of speech and the breath of waters are straightened by His breath actually the waters are straightened also by watering He wearieth the thick cloud and He scatters His bright cloud it is turned round about by His counsels that they may do whatsoever He commands them upon the face of the world in the earth and so speaking of God sort of directing the clouds in their movements in the sky He causes it to come whether it is for correction or for His land or for mercy sometimes rain is unseasonable and rain can damage the crops at the time of harvest and so He is saying that if God sends the rain during the harvest time it's correctional it's destroying the crops but it causes men to examine themselves sometimes it's merciful it's in the springtime and all when the seeds are planted the crop is growing the rains are a blessing so God uses rain for correction and also for mercy hearken unto this O Job stand still and consider the wondrous works of God let God speak to you Job in nature now do you know when God disposed them or caused the light of His cloud to shine do you know the balancing of the clouds that is how the clouds are levitated or how they are there in the air how they are held up the wondrous works of Him which is perfect in knowledge challenging Job, Job you really don't know even these works of God do you understand the weather patterns how that when the south wind blows you're warm by that south wind have you with Him spread out the sky you know you look at this vast expanse of our universe and you realize how God has spread out the sky when I consider the heavens the work of thy fingers the moon and the stars which you have ordained what is man that you are mindful of him and so he is saying to Job you know just consider this vast expanse skies that God has spread out which are strong which are like a molten looking glass teach us what we shall say unto him for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness shall it be told him that I speak if a man speak surely he will be swallowed up and now men see not the bright light which is in the clouds but the wind passeth and cleanseth them so the Lord then sweeps the skies clean fair weather cometh out of the north and with God is awesome majesty touching the Almighty we cannot find him out it's impossible for us humans to understand the infinite God we cannot find him out he is excellent in power and in judgment and is full of justice and he will not afflict men do therefore fear him but he respects not any that are wise of heart you think you're smart no you won't respect that but God is fair God is of excellent power now while Elohu is talking evidently there is this whirlwind maybe close to a tornado that passes by and the Lord speaks out of the whirlwind and when God comes on the scene and begins to speak then they begin to understand the full picture the full story not completely but they realize that they've only been like children playing on the beach picking up a pebble here and there to examine it and thinking that they understand all of the vastness of that ocean there's so much to be known of God we stand on the shores and we see some of his power and some of the evidences of his hands and then we suppose that we know all about him but yet there is that vast ocean to be explored far beyond our capacity to really understand or know and it brings you actually to that place of confession of humility Lord I am nothing I stand before you as nothing overawed with your greatness with your power but the amazing thing he loves me that's the thing that keeps me going as vast and awesome as his majesty and power may be he loves me why? I don't even worry about that I just accept it I think it's foolish to meddle with some things just accept it we'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study through the Bible in our next lesson as we listen in on what God has to say to Job and we do hope you'll make plans to join us but right now I'd like to remind you that if you missed any part of today's message or perhaps you'd like to order a copy for that special friend or loved one you can do so by simply contacting one of our customer service representatives and they'd be more than happy to assist you with the ordering details simply call 1-800-272-WORD and phone orders can be taken Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time once again our toll-free number is 1-800-272-9673 and for your added convenience you can order online anytime when you go to thewordfortoday.org and while you're there be sure to browse through the additional resources that include Bible studies, commentaries, CDs, DVDs and so much more once again that's the word for today online at thewordfortoday.org and for those of you who still prefer to write you can use our mailing address which is the word for today P.O. Box 8000 Costa Mesa, California 92628 and be sure to include the call letters of this station with your correspondence and now on behalf of the word for today we'd like to thank all of you who share in supporting this ministry with your prayers and financial support and be sure to join us again next time as Pastor Chuck Smith continues his verse-by-verse study through the book of Job that's right here on the next edition of The Word for Today and now once again here's Pastor Chuck Smith with today's closing prayer Father we thank you for your love for your word and we pray that you will bring us a little closer to the understanding of your purpose and your will for our lives that we might surrender ourselves to you to be guided to be directed by your hand that we might become Father all that you want us to be and so Lord we pray that your spirit will work in our lives bringing forth your good pleasure in Jesus name Amen Amen That's a great way to study and learn God's word For more information please call The Word for Today at 1-800-272-9673 or visit us online at thewordfortoday.org This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today in Costa Mesa, California