How should this truth of the providence of
God affect our lives?
First of all, this ought to fill all
of us with great humility, great humility.
Everything we have, everything we are, everything we
have accomplished, even the fact that you are
alive here tonight, sitting here tonight, is hanging
from the slenderest thread of God's merciful providence.
You have a strong body, so did Christopher
Reeve, Superman, until he got thrown from a
horse and became a quadriplegic who had to
be on a breathing apparatus for the rest
of his life.
You have good eyes, so did Fanny Crosby,
until the doctor put the wrong thing in
her eyes when she was a little girl
and made her go blind.
Are you athletic?
So was Johnny Erickson until she jumped into
that water that was too shallow and broke
her neck.
Mona and I were in a coma unit
a number of years ago, and there was
a fellow in there maybe in his 40s.
They said, what happened to him?
Well, the wife and husband were out riding
their bikes, and they got tangled up somehow
and fell down.
They weren't going fast.
They were just out for a little bike
ride, fell down, and he hit his head
on the pavement, and he'd been in a
coma ever since.
One little chance accident.
You have financial prosperity.
There are so many people in human history
that thought they had it made.
They lost everything just like that, and you
could too.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4.7, what
do you have that you have not received?
And we might well add to that, and
what have you received that God hasn't sustained
moment by moment, or you would have lost
it by now.
So I want to say to you, beloved,
what are you tempted to be proud of
tonight?
You girls tempted to be proud of your
beauty?
Do you realize you could lose that in
a second?
Are you proud of how smart you are?
One little thing and it could be gone,
and you can't even put sentences together.
Beloved, we're being upheld by this slender thread
of providence all the time.
Everything, everything you have, everything you are, everything
that you've accomplished, it's been accomplished through grace,
grace, grace all along the way, and every
little individual little things that have kept you
alive to get you here tonight.
If you're not a Christian, don't go out
of here without crying out to God.
If you are a Christian, God have mercy
on you if you've got pride welling up
in you, moment by moment sustained by unspeakable
slender thread of providence.
you