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Today is part two of an ongoing sermon series. The last time I was here we did

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part one. The series is titled

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From the Beginning to the End. And so the last time I was here we looked at

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Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1

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and we saw how in the beginning God, God was there. God predates

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the beginning. The beginning begins because God willed it.

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God did not need a beginning. God started

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the beginnings. We didn't even bother trying to explain how we know that God

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was there because

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Moses didn't even bother that. He just said in the beginning

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God, God was there. Then we looked at how God is the creator and the sustainer of

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all things, that He created the heavens and the earth. And we

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we noticed that that was the beginning for basically

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mankind's history, humanity's history,

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not the history of God or even the history of the farthest reaches of the

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universe, but

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that what pertains or that which pertains to

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mankind. That's the beginning, the heavens and the earth. We also looked at a

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little bit of the Hebrew

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function of the words, the etymology of the words, and how

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God's plurality in Genesis 1-1

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shouldn't be construed to mean something about the Trinity,

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but it is talking about God and His grandness,

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His might, His power, because we're talking about a God

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who can bara, create, and only the mightiest,

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grandest, biggest God can do

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that because only that word is credited to Him.

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Men and women cannot bara,

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only God can. So using the Hebrew

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plural is a comment on

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His grandness, His majesty

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in the formation of all that we know.

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Today we're going to look at what comes

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after Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1,

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Genesis chapter 1 and verse 2,

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because we're going to follow through with this from the beginning to the end,

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and I almost forgot the to the end part is

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when we read Genesis 1-1 and we see that there is a grand mighty God who can

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create and not just create but can create heavens and earth,

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you need that when you need a recreated heart.

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You need a God that big because some of us are

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that bad and only He can make us anew.

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We need that, and that is

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from your beginning all the way until the end. Remember the work that He

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began in you, He will

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complete, He will finish, and we need a God like that.

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We are now going to turn to Genesis 1-2, you can go ahead and open your

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Bibles to that.

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Shouldn't be hard to find, it's the first book,

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the first chapter, the second verse in our Bibles,

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and actually, I know I brought this up here for a reason,

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I'm going to hold my Bible open, Bible closes on me.

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We begin though by talking not about

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God and

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and not really about creation, we begin by talking about

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the elites in our world or the elitists

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in our world. We begin by talking about the World Economic Forum.

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The World Economic Forum has apparently been around for quite some time but only in

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recent years

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have they actually been making more headline kind of news. They've even

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started live streaming all of their

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meetings. In case you don't know what the World Economic Forum is, the WEF,

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the WEF is comprised of the creme

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de la creme of the elites in our

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world. We're talking about elected officials,

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heads of states, billionaires,

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multimillionaires, CEOs of international corporations, we're talking about

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the movers and the shakers of those who move and shake.

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As high up that ladder in terms of the global

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ladder you can think of, that's where we find the World Economic Forum

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and businessmen and businesswomen and

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activists that are highly influential, that's where we find them. It's really

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only a tiny, tiny group when you think about the billions of people that they

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represent

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or that they have an influence over or that they claim to have authority over.

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So you really should kind of pay attention, I don't suggest getting

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lost in the weeds of it all, but you should kinda know what they talk about

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because a lot of what they talk about does come down and impact us

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on a real, real day-to-day basis.

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The first time that I really kind of looked into this

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or started paying attention was in 2020 in the midst of the COVID epidemic.

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The founder, the head of the World Economic Forum, Charles Schwab, at that

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time

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talked about the COVID epidemic not as

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how sad it is that people are sick and dying,

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how sad it is that we're kind of making or muddling our way through a novel

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virus and

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he didn't even talk about let's hold some people accountable for how it

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happened

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or what's going on, why should we do this. Instead Charles Schwab said this,

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speaking about the epidemic, there is now a brief

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opportunity for global leaders to cooperate to achieve

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a great reset. That was the first time we heard that

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phrase used. This is a step forward to a more resilient, cohesive,

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equitable, and prosperous world. In other words,

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don't let a good crisis go to waste.

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There's now an opportunity to take advantage of

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not it's very sad and tragic that people are dying.

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How can we help them? It was let's take advantage of it.

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He continued, he said this at the G20 summit in that year,

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if we look at all the challenges we can speak about the multi-crisis

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economic, political, social, ecological, and institutional crises,

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but actually what we have to confront is a deep systemic and structural

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restructuring of our world. And this will take some time and the world will look

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differently after we have gone through

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this transition process. When you talk about deep systemic

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crises and a complete global restructuring of things,

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I might summarize that as this is a man who's looking at

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an opportunity to take advantage of recreating the world after

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his ideology. That's how I might summarize it.

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Others may disagree with me, but that that's kind of what I hear here.

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And at that summit he concluded with this, we have continuous partnerships with

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many governments around the world.

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Then of course we have NGOs, we have trade unions, we have all those different parts,

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of course media,

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and very important experts, scientists, and academia.

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Religious leaders and social entrepreneurs.

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This is not just big government telling

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people what to do. There is a spiritual component to this because there are

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religious leaders

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involved in these conversations. And we shouldn't

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we shouldn't think or or confuse ourselves or be

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naive enough to think that all the global religious leaders are all on

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the same page about all of the various religious moral things

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we consider. So maybe

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we should take note. This year,

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only a couple of weeks ago in January of 2023, I believe two weeks ago, they had

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their

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their big summit and he started, Charles Schwab, started off that summit by

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declaring the year 2023 as the year of the poly crisis,

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the multi crisis. It's the year of multiple crises.

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That's what 2023 should be defined as or known as.

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And he says this, we couldn't meet at a more challenging

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time, Schwab declared. We are confronted with so many crises

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simultaneously. What does it

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I don't want to say that just yet, I'm going to get ahead of myself.

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What crises come to mind?

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Is it fair to say that there is a financial crisis

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if not already present, it's right on the horizon.

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An easy example for me

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is the cost of groceries. I think the official number is somewhere around 8 to

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10 percent, but I know our grocery bill has not gone up only by 8 or 10 percent.

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Eggs, in case you haven't heard it,

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eggs are now one of the fastest growing black

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market imports illegally being smuggled into our country

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because of how much they're worth in our country.

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It's incredible. When border patrol

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is just seizing eggs by the crate loads,

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it makes me pause and wonder

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if this is a crisis. We can think of the natural disasters we've had.

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Tornado Alley, when I was a child, was that north half of Texas and

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Oklahoma and into Iowa and then Arkansas, that was kind of Tornado Alley.

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They're now proposing a new revamped Tornado Alley that's more

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Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, kind of

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right along the south now because the weather has shifted.

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A lot of people are talking about it and it's true, weather has kind of

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shifted a little.

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We know that there are earthquakes, we know that there are floods, we know that

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there are droughts, so you could say that there are

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natural crises that are occurring. We've got

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new viruses obviously and some are just

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antibacterial resistant strains because

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everyone's taking antibacterials. So these

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viruses and these bacteria do what they do, they mutate to live.

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So they become more and more resistant. We have

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I guess global strife with war. Have we heard of Russia and Ukraine?

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Have we heard of North Korea? Have we heard of China growing in aggression or

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what has happened in Afghanistan with how the Taliban is all of a sudden

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coming? Those are all crises if we think about it. There's loss of life and

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loss of

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buildings and

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livelihoods and the threat seems to always be there.

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So maybe it's fair to say that we're on a verge

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of a polycrisis. But this is where

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we need to look and we're going to swing this into our verse.

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When we think about multiple crises and people are very confused and people are

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very stressed and people are

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losing hope and people are doing all of that, I might use the word

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chaos to describe what we find ourselves in.

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Does that sound like a fair word

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to just kind of label across what we are confronted with?

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It's a little chaotic out there. We now have

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riots in Memphis because of more body cam footage.

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It's very sad but we have more riots.

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It feels like every time we turn around there's chaos

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and anarchy and people cheering on the chaos.

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But when this man is looking at the crises,

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fair enough, and he's perhaps considering it chaotic,

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also fair enough, what does this man say next? He goes, we are confronted with so

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many crises simultaneously.

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What does it need or what do we need

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to master the future? I want to pause for a moment.

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What do we need to master the future?

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I think to have a platform where all stakeholders of global society are

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engaged, governments, business, civil society, the young generation, I could go

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on,

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I think is a first step to meet all

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the challenges. When

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you are faced with something chaotic,

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how many of us have thought that we could take the chaos

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and fix it so then the future we could have mastered?

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How many of us are tempted to do that?

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Sure, sure. I like to be in control of my future.

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I like to kind of know where I'm going. I certainly don't like the chaos and the

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questions and the uncertainty.

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But can we, when we look at

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chaos, when we look at all of that, can we actually

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declare that we will bend all of our

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efforts and make others bend their efforts so that we can control the

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future?

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How successful is that endeavor?

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We can't. I can't control the future any more than to guarantee that I'm going to

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go from here

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to home without an accident.

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And that's only, I can drive as safely as I can. I can obey all the

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road rules.

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I can't control the future. I can't control

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when I might die. I pray I'm going to be here when Christ splits that eastern sky.

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But maybe that's not according to God's will. I can't control that.

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When I face chaos, what do I do and how should I respond?

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Well, I would like to learn of God and how he responds when he faces chaos.

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We're going to turn to Genesis 1

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and verse 2.

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The Word of God reads this,

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We go from the previous verse where God created the heavens and the earth and then

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the second verse we get a few more details to what the heavens and the earth

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would have been

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in the beginning. And in the beginning, things were there.

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Matter was present because

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it says that the Spirit hovered over the face of the waters. It says that the earth

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was without

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form and it was void. But for it to be

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void and without form meant that it was there but

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formless. It was kind of empty and

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there.

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It was dark. It didn't have any logic.

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It didn't have any order to it. It was chaotic.

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I read that and I think about the times in my life

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when I couldn't recognize

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form. I kind of felt like I was just moving along.

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I might have been going through the motions but perhaps there was a little

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bit of

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guesswork involved.

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I think sometimes people feel like that. They just feel like

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time is passing but I don't really have a purpose in my life.

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I don't really have a structure in my life. I'm getting

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older and I can see other people doing things but that's not me.

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I'm lost or

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questioning or wondering

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or what is the purpose to life at all if I don't have a purpose.

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And then if you linger too long on that

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maybe you start to feel a little more void.

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You feel a little empty. You feel like there's a hole

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and a depth to you that you want to fill.

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That you long to find that purpose or you long to find that someone or

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that something

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that can give you what you're so desperately needing in your chaotic

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feelings.

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And if you can't find it and you linger too long there so many people

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start to feel void.

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I think that's relatable.

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I want to consider a moment the words for this. Without form and void

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is really only used a couple of times in the Old Testament.

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It's used here in terms of

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what the earth was before God considered it

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and willed upon it. Empty

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and no shape and no logic and no purpose and

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darkness was there. And then we see it again as a part

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of the blessings and the cursings when God is talking to

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His children Israel and the prophets are giving them messages and they're saying

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if you're not

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living according to my purpose for you, my will for you

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then your land will become

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a wasteland because you see what we see what God is doing here is he's looking

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at

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the nothingness and in his

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infinite considerations he's going I'm about to prepare a place for my

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people.

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He was already thinking of you and I and Adam and Eve as

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he's hovering over all of that. He's seeing the darkness and he's seeing the

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lack of purpose and he's seeing the

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the voidnesses that are there and he's

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in his considerations he's about to prepare a land

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ultimately for his crowning creation

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mankind. Similar language is used for the promised land with

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Israel similar language is used when Jesus says I go to prepare a place for

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you.

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He's preparing land and a place to live

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and a home for his people but then the warning for Israel

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is if you don't live next to me and honor me as your Creator God

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then your land will become a wasteland. That wasteland word in that warning

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given

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that's the shared words that we find here that wasteland means

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if you're not connected to me this land I prepared for you

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reverts back to void

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no purpose empty

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it returns back to without form

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and void it returns back to chaos

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when you're not connected to me.

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Yeah the Greek translation for this and we're about to move

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we're about to move off of this the Greek translation for the face of the deep

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that's Abusos

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that's that's the same word in Revelation when

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Satan is bound and chained for a thousand years

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in the abyss in the Abusos same word

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what God shaped and created here when we get all the way to the end of time in

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the end of the biblical accounts and right before Christ comes back

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we can see alright this is what happens when a sinful world has wandered after

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a counterfeit God

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distance themselves from me the giver and sustainer of life

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it uncreates itself we've got plagues

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and we've got earthquakes and we've got hailstones and we've got sin running

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rampant

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and people with murderous intent and everything else going on

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and and then Jesus returns and the elements melt with fervent heat and

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so on and the result is that the earth

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as best we understand it finds itself closer to

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this state without form and void and it's just deep

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and just kinda broken and there

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in other words if you have found yourself without a purpose or a form in

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your life if you have wondered

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too long on that and you have found a voidness there

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it's good to ask the question have we shifted away from our

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creator God have we neglected to stay close to him in that relationship

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because he's prepared a home for us he's prepared us for him

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and if we find ourselves looking a little bit more like the early earth

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have we

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gotten away from him and tried to fill our

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voids with something else or someone

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else than him in other words

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is your life feeling chaotic

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and could it have something to do

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with your relationship to God we find so much chaos in our world today we find

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so many people wanting

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desperately to get rid of God out of all the conversations

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and the net result everywhere has been

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immorality in decency in

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unloving and unkind spirit narcissism and pride

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in an exponential growth and a loss of hope

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a loss of need to be alive a loss

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a loss of purpose in the life that we are living

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when we get God out of the equation

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our society is without form and void

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and darkness is over the face of our abusos that we find ourselves in

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we need God my friends

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but God

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one of the greatest two words you can combine when considering your spiritual

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experience and your spiritual walk in your discipleship journey

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is when you're feeling like this there's always that

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opportunity for but God but God at the end of this verse the Spirit of God was

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hovering over the face of the waters you see

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that chaos was not going on and God was oblivious to it

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the chaos the the darkness the without for all of that was there

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it existed the matter was present because God at some point

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in the beginning before the beginning whenever

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whenever in that timeline God thought matter should be here

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we've got a canvas now and chaos is there

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but God is drawing close to it God is inching ever closer so close that

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it's it's described as hovering over and hovering upon and and and like leaning

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in I can I can envision the Spirit of God doing that

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I can envision I can envision the Spirit of God coming close to the chaos

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not afraid of the darkness not afraid of the

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the the the disturbance that is existing there God is not afraid of what our earth

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was the condition of our earth at that time and God is certainly not afraid of

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whatever condition you find yourself in today he draws close to you but God

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draws close to you he hovers over you he looks at you and he considers your

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chaos he considered the earth's chaos at this time in the beginning and the

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Spirit of God is hovering near to all of his precious sons and daughters today

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considering your chaos he's considering where you are in your life and he's

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considering what trials you're going through he he looks at not just in our

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frailty how are we reacting to something but he's he's reading our our innermost

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thoughts and our feelings and our our intentions and our heart better than we

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could ever understand even with a million hours of counseling get

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counseling if you need it God knows us better than that he hovers close to us

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in those moments of chaos and when God hovers close I trust God as the master

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of the future capital M no man or woman in my estimation should declare

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themselves the master of the future I trust God to be the master of my future

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as he considers my chaos when he looks at me and he sees what I'm going through

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the highs and the lows I trust that in his loving kindness in his infinite

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grace he will pour out in me the purpose that I need he will pour out in me and

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fill up that void that I might be experiencing he will pour out in me the

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light from Jesus Christ so that I don't have a darkness over my face when God

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considers my chaos he will then give me and fill me and bless me and equip me

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with all that I need so that even if chaos continues it's not mine because I

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am in Christ what do you picture as God hovers over the face of the waters do

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you picture a helicopter parent that the term came up with the I believe the

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millennial generation as they started to kind of have kids it was it was you know

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they would they would hover over their children and then and really kind of to

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the kids detriment not allow them to do risky things safely I think kids should

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learn risky things safely because how else are they going to learn about

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getting through the challenges in life but a helicopter parent hovers and

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protects and bubble wraps and defends so much that the kids can't experience

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disappointment or a sprained ankle or or mud between their fingers in other words

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a helicopter parent protects them so much that the kids can't experience life

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comes to mind when we see God hovering over the chaos does God does God stop

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all the bad things from happening in our lives no he says in this world you will

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have trials and tribulations not might not possibly could will don't be fooled

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or deceived by the prosperity gospel that is a deception you don't give your

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heart to God and from then golden sailing and perfect harmony you will

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00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:55,880
have trials and tribulations things things are rocky in our world are they

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00:27:55,880 --> 00:28:04,680
not so when God hovers over your chaos what comes to mind

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00:28:06,160 --> 00:28:12,920
rescue salvation I think of I have two verses one as our scripture reading for

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00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:21,880
today and you can turn there if your fingers are still there this is from the

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00:28:21,880 --> 00:28:27,200
book of Deuteronomy Deuteronomy is Moses last sermon to the children of Israel

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before they entered the promised land after giving this final sermon he then

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alone only with God as his witness ascends a mountain sees the promised

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00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:43,800
land in vision looks at what the children are going to be experiencing

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and even the Messiah and so on and then goes to sleep dies on that mountain with

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God as only as the only excuse me the only witness but as Moses is bringing

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his sermon to an end we have this Moses spoke the words of this song until they

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were finished in the years of all the assembly of Israel this is Deuteronomy

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32 give ear oh heavens and I will speak and let the earth hear the words of my

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mouth and so on and then we get to verses 10 11 and 12 he that is God found

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him that is Jacob and Jacob's allotted heritage that's the promised children the

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children of Israel that's you and I adopted into the the bloodline of

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Abraham if you will that's us God found you and I in a desert land in the

417
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howling waste of the wilderness in chaos that wilderness word in chaos God

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encircled you and I he cared for you and I and God kept you and I as the apple of

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his eye he thinks very highly of us he looks on us with love and tenderness and

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mercy and and and compassion and he encircles and then in 11 like an eagle

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that stirs up its nest that flutters over its young spreading out its wings

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catching them bearing them on its pinions or on its wings imagine a mother

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eagle strong and majestic beautiful and the symbol of mightiness as it as they

424
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soar on the winds but in her nest moving the sticks and the twigs and and

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shaping the leaves and kind of softening it a little not for her sake but for her

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young one's sake preparing that nest and and doting on the young the fluttering

427
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over the young the fluttering is the exact word for hovering that the spirit

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was doing on the earth's chaos exact word when the Holy Spirit is coming and

429
00:31:00,200 --> 00:31:04,360
drawing close to the earth and looking at the chaos and looking at the void and

430
00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:11,560
looking at the the formlessness of it all there is a loving tenderness in his

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considerations about to prepare this nest for my young when God is hovering

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close to you he is this mother eagle fluttering over his young hovering close

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00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:33,920
to shelter and to pick up the young catching them bearing them up spreading

434
00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:39,140
out the wings like a like a shield from the darts of the enemy chasing off the

435
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other birds or the snakes or the other animals that would seek to do harm and

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if the baby birds need to be fed feeding the baby birds that's you and I

437
00:31:48,320 --> 00:31:55,240
it's very tender and it's very compassionate when the the Lord

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considers your chaos not like an iron rod but like a loving eagle this brings

439
00:32:04,240 --> 00:32:08,440
to mind as as Jesus was entering Jerusalem for the last time and he looks

440
00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:15,560
over the city Jerusalem Jerusalem right I'm paraphrasing but along there he goes

441
00:32:15,560 --> 00:32:20,600
like a like a mother hen I will I tried to draw you under have we ever seen

442
00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:23,920
those videos of a mama hen with a little chicks I get up underneath the feathers

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and they're warm and protected and Jesus thought of that of Jerusalem his people

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you and I Moses is saying that about God's people you and I and in verse 12

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00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:45,920
the Lord alone guided him no foreign God was with him we need God to draw close

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to us we need to be found in whatever desert land we are living in or if we

447
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have been brought out of it praise God for salvation and saving and redemption

448
00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:04,440
but we're not done yet until Jesus comes back and sin is no more and the enemy of

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souls is finally chained up in his abyss os we still need God to consider us in

450
00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:21,200
our chaos we still need God to consider us in the world's chaos we still need

451
00:33:21,200 --> 00:33:27,360
God to hover over us through the ministry of his Holy Spirit holding out

452
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his wings and fluttering close and kind of drawing us into a prepared nest

453
00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:38,880
lifting us up when we trip and we stumble we need a God who considers our

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chaos we need a God who will guide us out of our wilderness and out of our

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wasteland my friends when you are when you are looking at all the headlines

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and you are looking at your own family experience and you're looking at your

457
00:33:57,800 --> 00:34:04,920
own participation in church where it starts to feel chaotic or without form

458
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and void pray that in those moments God draws even closer he helicopters a

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little bit nearer and he full holds out his wings like a loving eagle like a

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mother hen seeking to protect and feed and bless you my friends we need God to

461
00:34:23,960 --> 00:34:28,280
consider us in our chaos and by faith we claim that he will do that not just

462
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today but all the way to the end when Jesus comes to take us home let's pray

463
00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:38,840
heavenly father we thank you again for your love we thank you that your love

464
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and your your sacrifice your service on our behalf was embodied in Jesus for you

465
00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:53,760
gave him to us Lord many of us face challenges some we share many are very

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00:34:53,760 --> 00:34:59,640
personal and very close but you know what we are going through you are not

467
00:34:59,640 --> 00:35:04,720
distant from us you have not turned your back on us you have not started us in

468
00:35:04,720 --> 00:35:09,920
your creation and then left us to fend for ourselves but you are involved and

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00:35:09,920 --> 00:35:16,760
interested in what we go through and you are sympathetic and empathetic in what

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we experience heavenly father I pray today that you would be that God who

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considers us that God who blesses us that God who fills us with what we need

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that I pray that no foreign God would be found among us but that you as our

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sovereign our creator our Lord and our Savior would be foremost in our lives

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would be primary in our adoration that you would be who we seek after day by

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day or we pray all of these things in Christ's precious name amen