When God Considers Chaos (Pastor Aaron Trelfa, 01-28-23)

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

part one. The series is titled

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

Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

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

the beginning. The beginning begins because God willed it.

God did not need a beginning. God started

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

was there because

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

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

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

we noticed that that was the beginning for basically

mankind's history, humanity's history,

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

universe, but

that what pertains or that which pertains to

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

little bit of the Hebrew

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

God's plurality in Genesis 1-1

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

but it is talking about God and His grandness,

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

who can bara, create, and only the mightiest,

grandest, biggest God can do

that because only that word is credited to Him.

Men and women cannot bara,

only God can. So using the Hebrew

plural is a comment on

His grandness, His majesty

in the formation of all that we know.

Today we're going to look at what comes

after Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1,

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

Genesis chapter 1 and verse 2,

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

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

and I almost forgot the to the end part is

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

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

you need that when you need a recreated heart.

You need a God that big because some of us are

that bad and only He can make us anew.

We need that, and that is

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

began in you, He will

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

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

Bibles to that.

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

the first chapter, the second verse in our Bibles,

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

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

We begin though by talking not about

God and

and not really about creation, we begin by talking about

the elites in our world or the elitists

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

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

recent years

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

started live streaming all of their

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

the WEF is comprised of the creme

de la creme of the elites in our

world. We're talking about elected officials,

heads of states, billionaires,

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

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

As high up that ladder in terms of the global

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

and businessmen and businesswomen and

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

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

represent

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

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

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

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

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

The first time that I really kind of looked into this

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

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

time

talked about the COVID epidemic not as

how sad it is that people are sick and dying,

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

virus and

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

happened

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

speaking about the epidemic, there is now a brief

opportunity for global leaders to cooperate to achieve

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

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

equitable, and prosperous world. In other words,

don't let a good crisis go to waste.

There's now an opportunity to take advantage of

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

differently after we have gone through

this transition process. When you talk about deep systemic

crises and a complete global restructuring of things,

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

an opportunity to take advantage of recreating the world after

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

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

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

many governments around the world.

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

of course media,

and very important experts, scientists, and academia.

Religious leaders and social entrepreneurs.

This is not just big government telling

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

religious leaders

involved in these conversations. And we shouldn't

we shouldn't think or or confuse ourselves or be

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

the same page about all of the various religious moral things

we consider. So maybe

we should take note. This year,

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

their

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

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

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

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

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

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

simultaneously. What does it

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

What crises come to mind?

Is it fair to say that there is a financial crisis

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

An easy example for me

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

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

Eggs, in case you haven't heard it,

eggs are now one of the fastest growing black

market imports illegally being smuggled into our country

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

It's incredible. When border patrol

is just seizing eggs by the crate loads,

it makes me pause and wonder

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

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

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

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

Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, kind of

right along the south now because the weather has shifted.

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

shifted a little.

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

there are droughts, so you could say that there are

natural crises that are occurring. We've got

new viruses obviously and some are just

antibacterial resistant strains because

everyone's taking antibacterials. So these

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

So they become more and more resistant. We have

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

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

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

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

loss of

buildings and

livelihoods and the threat seems to always be there.

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

of a polycrisis. But this is where

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

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

very stressed and people are

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

chaos to describe what we find ourselves in.

Does that sound like a fair word

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

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

riots in Memphis because of more body cam footage.

It's very sad but we have more riots.

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

and anarchy and people cheering on the chaos.

But when this man is looking at the crises,

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

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

many crises simultaneously.

What does it need or what do we need

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

What do we need to master the future?

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

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

on,

I think is a first step to meet all

the challenges. When

you are faced with something chaotic,

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

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

How many of us are tempted to do that?

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

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

questions and the uncertainty.

But can we, when we look at

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

declare that we will bend all of our

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

future?

How successful is that endeavor?

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

go from here

to home without an accident.

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

road rules.

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

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

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

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

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

We're going to turn to Genesis 1

and verse 2.

The Word of God reads this,

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

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

would have been

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

Matter was present because

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

was without

form and it was void. But for it to be

void and without form meant that it was there but

formless. It was kind of empty and

there.

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

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

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

when I couldn't recognize

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

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

bit of

guesswork involved.

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

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

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

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

I'm lost or

questioning or wondering

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

And then if you linger too long on that

maybe you start to feel a little more void.

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

and a depth to you that you want to fill.

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

that something

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

feelings.

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

start to feel void.

I think that's relatable.

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

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

It's used here in terms of

what the earth was before God considered it

and willed upon it. Empty

and no shape and no logic and no purpose and

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

of the blessings and the cursings when God is talking to

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

if you're not

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

then your land will become

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

at

the nothingness and in his

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

people.

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

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

lack of purpose and he's seeing the

the voidnesses that are there and he's

in his considerations he's about to prepare a land

ultimately for his crowning creation

mankind. Similar language is used for the promised land with

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

you.

He's preparing land and a place to live

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

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

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

given

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

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

reverts back to void

no purpose empty

it returns back to without form

and void it returns back to chaos

when you're not connected to me.

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

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

that's Abusos

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

Satan is bound and chained for a thousand years

in the abyss in the Abusos same word

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

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

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

a counterfeit God

distance themselves from me the giver and sustainer of life

it uncreates itself we've got plagues

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

rampant

and people with murderous intent and everything else going on

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

so on and the result is that the earth

as best we understand it finds itself closer to

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

and just kinda broken and there

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

your life if you have wondered

too long on that and you have found a voidness there

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

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

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

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

have we

gotten away from him and tried to fill our

voids with something else or someone

else than him in other words

is your life feeling chaotic

and could it have something to do

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

so many people wanting

desperately to get rid of God out of all the conversations

and the net result everywhere has been

immorality in decency in

unloving and unkind spirit narcissism and pride

in an exponential growth and a loss of hope

a loss of need to be alive a loss

a loss of purpose in the life that we are living

when we get God out of the equation

our society is without form and void

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

we need God my friends

but God

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

experience and your spiritual walk in your discipleship journey

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

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

hovering over the face of the waters you see

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

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

it existed the matter was present because God at some point

in the beginning before the beginning whenever

whenever in that timeline God thought matter should be here

we've got a canvas now and chaos is there

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

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

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

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

not afraid of the darkness not afraid of the

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

could ever understand even with a million hours of counseling get

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

have trials and tribulations things things are rocky in our world are they

not so when God hovers over your chaos what comes to mind

rescue salvation I think of I have two verses one as our scripture reading for

today and you can turn there if your fingers are still there this is from the

book of Deuteronomy Deuteronomy is Moses last sermon to the children of Israel

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

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

land in vision looks at what the children are going to be experiencing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

drawing close to the earth and looking at the chaos and looking at the void and

looking at the the formlessness of it all there is a loving tenderness in his

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

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

to shelter and to pick up the young catching them bearing them up spreading

out the wings like a like a shield from the darts of the enemy chasing off the

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

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

it's very tender and it's very compassionate when the the Lord

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

to mind as as Jesus was entering Jerusalem for the last time and he looks

over the city Jerusalem Jerusalem right I'm paraphrasing but along there he goes

like a like a mother hen I will I tried to draw you under have we ever seen

those videos of a mama hen with a little chicks I get up underneath the feathers

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

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

the Lord alone guided him no foreign God was with him we need God to draw close

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

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

but we're not done yet until Jesus comes back and sin is no more and the enemy of

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

our chaos we still need God to consider us in the world's chaos we still need

God to hover over us through the ministry of his Holy Spirit holding out

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

lifting us up when we trip and we stumble we need a God who considers our

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

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

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

own participation in church where it starts to feel chaotic or without form

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

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

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

consider us in our chaos and by faith we claim that he will do that not just

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

heavenly father we thank you again for your love we thank you that your love

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

gave him to us Lord many of us face challenges some we share many are very

personal and very close but you know what we are going through you are not

distant from us you have not turned your back on us you have not started us in

your creation and then left us to fend for ourselves but you are involved and

interested in what we go through and you are sympathetic and empathetic in what

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

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

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

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

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

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