The Wild and the Waste | What Is God Doing in Our World (and in My Life)?

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Well, good morning, Awakening Church.

How are we doing?

Go ahead and grab your seat if we've not yet Matt.

My name's Ryan.

We're absolutely thrilled to have you join us today.

And happy Super Bowl Sunday.

Is it happy?

Is it?

I'm a Cowboys fan, so I don't want the Eagles to win.

And then who really does want the Chiefs to win?

Okay, there's one.

There's one.

Yeah, you just happen to be from Kansas.

Um I was just wondering, could it be the first year for the Super Bowl that neither team wins?

Wouldn't that be amazing?

Perhaps.

That's what I'm hoping for.

I don't think it will happen.

Um today we are continuing our series that we kicked off last week called Foundations, a Beginner's Guide to the Universe.

And the truth is, and we get this, we are all constructing a life, aren't we?

We're all building a life, and we're centering and founding it on all sorts of things.

Uh, whether it is, you know, perhaps a relationship, finding your person uh or your family or career or upward mobility or financial security or living your best life, you know, be the best version of you uh you possibly can or experiences.

We're all building and constructing a life, and the question we have to ask is what are you building your life on?

What is the foundation of your life?

Now, we're going back to Genesis, and as we're doing this, uh we are looking at the very first chapter.

Now, the very first chapter in the Bible, it's actually not just about how the world and everything began, but why it all matters.

Because wouldn't it be amazing?

Think about this.

In a world that's constantly changing, ever turbulent, the foundation shifting, to have something that you can build your life upon.

A guide or a manual to help navigate life well.

Genesis 1 gives us a foundation actually to build our lives upon.

Here's what we said last week.

It began this way in the beginning.

Anyone know that next word?

Wow, that was that was underwhelming.

Uh let's let's try that.

In the beginning, God.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

In the beginning, God.

Like God is the center of it all.

He's the main character of the story.

Okay, here we go.

Oh boy.

Foundation block, building our lives.

In the beginning, God, he's the main character of the story.

And so life makes sense when he's the center of our lives.

When we begin to orbit or have our lives revolve around God.

But the line continues.

It says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

That he is actually the architect of the universe, the designer.

And here's incredibly good news: is you are not a cosmic accident.

You have intention, you have purpose, you have design, you have intrinsic value.

And as a result, since he's the architect of the world and all that we see and know, life works best when we work according to God's design.

Life works best according to his design.

When we begin to go, God, you're the designer, you get a you made me, you made this world, and so I'm going to organize my life around the way you say life works best.

Now then this begins to beg another question when we look at the world around us, when we look at the state of things, when we look at the world within us, and how we feel, like, gosh, there, okay, God, if you're the center of all, if you're the architect, and I see so much chaos, confusion, not just out there, but in here.

Like, what is God doing in the world?

And what is he doing in my life?

I mean, do you ever look at the world around you and go, like, what's going on?

What's happening?

Doesn't it feel like the world just continues to spin further and further out of control?

There's chaos and confusion.

And then you go internally into your own world, and there's chaos, there's confusion, it feels like things are unraveling.

And we wrestle with this question: what in the world is God doing?

What is he doing, not just in the world, but in your life?

Uh, in Genesis, and if you got your Bibles, would you open up to Genesis chapter 1, verse 2?

Genesis 1:2

We get a picture of what God is doing.

The sermon title today is called The Wild and the Waste.

Oh boy.

Oh man, need to choose lighter props.

Um, Genesis 1 2, wild and waste.

Go ahead and say that with me.

The wild and the waste.

Genesis 1, 2 is actually going to show us what God is doing at the very dawn of creation, and what he's doing at the dawn of creation, he is doing and working in our world, and he wants to do this very same thing in your life and my life.

It begins this way.

Now the earth was formless and empty.

Darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And this singular verse holds the key to what God's doing in our world, what he's gonna do in your life.

So let's take a moment, roll up our sleeves, if you will.

Let's really break down this verse.

Uh the first thing I want you to know it says, now the earth was what?

It was formless and empty, or formless and void.

This is the Hebrew uh words, tohu wabohu.

Isn't that fun to say?

Say that with me.

Tohu wabohu.

Yeah, it even rhymes, it has a metric to it in the Hebrew, tohu wabohu.

It means wild and waste, chaos, emptiness, confusion, unreality, a wasteland.

It's the image of a world that is unordered and uninhabited.

Now, in the ancient Near Eastern mindset, non-existence wasn't just nothingness.

Non-existent meant to have no purpose or no order to it.

This is what our souls are suffering today.

So many of us are walking around with non-existence.

There's this craving to live and to truly live.

Like you're just walking around.

We feel like we're just sleepwalking through life.

The world is increasingly becoming disordered.

We try to create our own purpose because we're told there's no greater purpose.

And so life, no matter how full it is, at the end of the day, feels wild and waste.

Christopher Walken, theologian, says, Tohu wabohu is shorthand for each culture's worst nightmare of social disintegration, and its specter stubbornly lurks in the dark corners of our ecological and social imaginaries.

It's what we feel when life's confusing, when nothing makes sense, when you feel lost without direction.

It's the spiritual and emotional wasteland that we sometimes find ourselves in.

It's when we look at the world and see the brokenness and injustice and division.

That's tohu.

And it goes on.

It doesn't just say that the earth was wild and waste, it also says that darkness covered the surface of the deep.

This deep abyss is the word to home.

That word abyss is a word for ocean or sea.

It's the chaotic waters before creation.

In the ancient Near Eastern mindset, the vast, unteemed, uncontrollable ocean represented disorder, destruction, and the place where the forces of evil had their full way.

It was the most fearful place in the ancient world was the chaos of the sea.

See, so when the Bible begins with Genesis, this pre-creation state, it doesn't depict this like blank canvas.

I'm just painting.

But a chaotic wasteland, untamed, formless, deep in darkness.

Think Mad Max.

Post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Desolation.

And what is God doing in our world and in our life?

Says this incredible line.

Over that wild and waste in the darkness, and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

In the middle of disorder, in the middle of confusion, in the middle of no purpose, no meaning, the spirit of God was there, was present, was hovering over the waters.

And this is such an incredible foundation block when we're asking, what is God up to?

Don't miss this.

The wild and the waste is not where the story ends, it's where God's work begins.

The wild and the waste.

So often when we look at our world, when we look at our life, when we look at everything, it feels like the minute of unraveling, the minute that life begins to just fall apart, it feels like it's the end of the story, doesn't it?

And what the new uh the Hebrew writers are trying to tell us is that wild and waste is actually not your end of the story.

It's not the end of the story, it actually begins the story, and it's where God's work begins in your life and my life.

The story doesn't end in chaos, it begins there.

And so, what is God doing?

I just want to draw your attention to a few things.

First, God is present in the chaos, he's not absent.

I don't know what you're walking through.

I don't know the heartache and the pain or the disappointment or the disillusionment that you are walking through.

God is not absent and he is not indifferent.

God has not abandoned you in the midst of the darkness, the uncertainty, or the pain.

He is closer than your breath.

In fact, go ahead, do this with me.

Would you breathe in?

Breathe out.

And he is closer than your very breath.

The most often command in Scripture is do not be afraid.

It's repeated well over 300 times.

And most often it is coupled with this line, for I'm with you.

I'm with you.

Jesus' final words to his disciples was, I am with you to the very end of the age.

God is present in the chaos.

He is not absent, and he has not abandoned you, no matter what you're walking through.

And it's even better than that.

He's not just present, he's actually moving in the midst of the mess.

Even when you can't see it.

Even when you can't see exactly what he's doing, God is actually moving in the middle of the mess.

I love it.

It says that the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

Like in the middle of this turbulent picture, this wild in waste, and you're not seeing any activity.

It says that his presence was there and his presence was moving.

That word for hovering, uh, it means to flutter like a bird.

It means to tremble with anticipation.

It is the picture of a mother bird covering their young chicklings, like bringing protection and care and nurture and attentiveness.

It's like that is what the Spirit of God is doing in the midst of that moment.

He is moving in the midst of the mess.

Now, here's the thing: when we think about God and we think about our mess, what do we do, even when we know the right answer?

We think God is repulsed by our mess.

That He somehow moves away from us.

I was going to try to pull that back up, not yet.

That's just, I gotta watch out for the back.

Um, we we think, you know what?

I screwed up my mess, I'm in a mess of my own making, and what does God do?

He's got his arms crossed going, oh come on.

It says the Spirit of God's hovering.

Attentive, caring.

In Jesus, God is not just moving into the mess, it says that God stepped into the middle of the mess.

That is the gospel.

That God looked at the wild and waste, the emptiness and the void, the chaos and the struggle, and he looks at it and he doesn't say, go figure it out.

Sucks to be you.

You should have chosen better.

He steps into the middle of the mess.

Into the middle of your mess.

Why?

Because God is creating beauty and purpose from chaos.

That is what God does.

That is what God did from the very beginning.

And what he's done from the very beginning, he continues to do to this day, and he longs to do in your life and mine.

God is creating beauty and purpose from the chaos.

It's interesting.

Remember Tohu Wabohu?

You with me?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right?

Formless and void.

Wild and waste.

When you look at the days of creation, the six days of creation, it actually follows the outline of breaking forth new creation amidst the formlessness and the emptiness, the wildness and the waste.

Days one, two, and three, God forms and brings order.

Day one, he separates light from darkness.

Day two, he separates the sky from the water.

Day three, he separates the land from the sea.

God brings structure to the formless.

Day four, five, and six, God fills and brings purpose.

He then orders and creates order and structure for life and flourishing.

And then he brings a purpose and fills it.

Day four, he fills the heavens, sun, moon, stars.

Day five, he fills the sea and air, fish and birds.

Day six, he fills the land, animals and humans.

This is what God does.

He brings abundance where there was emptiness.

This is the pattern of God.

And what he's up to in our world and your world.

And the pattern follows that, by the way.

He brings order before he fills it.

So often we want God to fill our life.

We go, God, would you okay, I get it.

God, we want you to fill our life, but I don't want you to order my life.

And then we're wondering why we're struggling.

But he says, I in the tohu, the emptiness, the void, the wabohu.

I want to form and I want to fill.

And this is where many of us are.

We feel empty.

And when we think about building our lives, really what we're building upon is just things to fill the void.

It might be that relationship.

If only I meet the right person, then it will finally fill that void.

If only I have a career that like sets me up.

I need the right education.

If only I can be upperly mobile.

If only I can be like that influencer that I'm following.

Like if I had their life, that would fill my void.

And we keep building these things only to find it empty.

And then here's the thing: God's like, I want to fill that void.

And here's our picture when we think God fills the void of our life.

It's like this gray brick.

He fills the void, and you're like, sweet, I don't really want that.

I mean, I'm glad that it's filled.

But if God were to order my life and to fill my life, it's probably the most lame life ever, right?

Like, he's a fuddy duddy.

He doesn't want what's good for me.

Yeah, sure, it might fill it, but it's gray and it's bleak.

And God is the one who creates beauty and goodness.

He wants to fill your life with purpose and meaning.

Boom! That one didn't go.

This is what God is up to in the world.

This is what God is up to in your life of bringing beauty.

I know, isn't that beautiful?

I had no part in putting that together, by the way.

You can thank Bailey.

Where once there was bleakness, where once there was lifelessness.

Where we walk around, don't we do this?

We walk around filling our lives, trying to somehow eke out an existence that feels like living, not sure how to get there, and on the inside it is just gray.

He says, I want to bring life.

I want to bring life and purpose and meaning.

That is what God does.

And he did it from the very beginning, and he's doing it today.

This is who God is.

So, what is God doing in our world?

Well, he's present in the chaos.

He's moving in the midst of your mess, and he's creating beauty and purpose from the chaos.

And then, in the midst of whatever storm you're walking through, the chaos you find yourself in.

The things this world throws at you.

God is not threatened by the deep, he rules over it.

It's a home.

The sea.

The uncontrollable, the untamable.

It was the thing that struck the deepest fear in the ancient mind.

What strikes fear into your heart and mine?

Jesus, one day, after a really long day of ministry, he tells his disciples, hey, let's go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, this is the sea.

And he hops in the boat.

Many of his disciples were professional fishermen.

So they're gonna go across the sea in the middle of the night, and though it is the place of greatest fear, it is the place of their work, and so they have some mastery over it, though they still have fear in it.

In the middle of the night, as Jesus is asleep, says a furious squall hit the sea.

The wind came rushing in.

The waves began to buffet and break over the boats, the way the rain pelvic.

Their faces.

These professional fishermen are at the mercy of the violent sea.

And they respond the way we often respond in the midst of the wild and the waste, in the deep abyss, when we think, God, where are you?

What are you doing?

Because they're in the middle, afraid they're gonna drown, and Jesus is still asleep.

Isn't that how we often feel when you're going through your wild and waste through your storm?

You're like, God, where are you?

You're asleep, you're absent, like show up.

They wake Jesus and they ask the question and we all ask.

Don't you care?

Jesus, don't you care?

Don't you see that we're struggling?

Don't you see that we're about to lose our life and you're just asleep.

You possibly couldn't care.

He gets up.

And he rebukes the wind and the waves.

Peace be still.

And at his voice the waves cease, the rain stops, and the wind comes to a silence.

And they're left in the boat, and they're asking this question: who is this?

Because only God can still the sea.

And the God who hovered over the waters was the same God asleep in the boat in the sea.

And friends, what they interpreted as uncaring was simply Jesus unthreatened.

Jesus was asleep not because he was uncaring, dispassionate.

He's asleep because he's the one who ordered the seas from the very beginning.

He has all control, all dominion.

And with a word, he spoke the universe into existence, and with a word, he can calm the seas.

He is unthreatened by whatever storm you're walking through, walking into, or that is surrounding you.

Though it feels like it's going to take you out, he says, I am present in the middle, I am moving, I am working, and ultimately I am going to bring things out for beauty and purpose.

And so when you're in the middle of it, what you need to know is you have a God who is not threatened by it, he rules over it.

And the good news is God's spirit still hovers today.

He hovers over that heartache.

He's hovering over the longing of your soul.

He's hovering over that desire for healing.

He's hovering over the areas of your life that you've been praying, that you've been seeking, that you've been desiring, that you keep trying to fix in your own way or take back into your own control.

The Spirit of God is still hovering and still working and still moving.

This is what God does in the world.

It's what he does in your life.

What the Spirit did in creation, he's still doing today.

Bringing life, beauty, and purpose to the places that feel empty and dark.

Let me ask you.

Where do you feel the most chaos right now?

What areas of your life do you feel wild and waste, lost, uncertain, out of control?

Where do you need God to move?

Is it over a relationship?

Is it about your future?

Does it concern healing?

The reason we keep our lives so busy and so full is just so that we don't have to feel at all.

Jesus talking to a religious leader named Nicodemus, he said this very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they're born of water and the spirit.

Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit.

Unless the spirit of God comes into your life and animates everything you do, you'll remain empty, lifeless, dead.

What we need is not better strategies, more self-help.

And those things aren't necessarily bad.

But what your soul needs more than anything else is a fresh move of the Spirit of God.

The same spirit that hovered over the waters, the spirit that breathed life, and that's what the word here in Hebrew means.

It's ruach, it means breath, it means spirit, it means wind, the same spirit that breathed life into Adam and Eve from dust.

The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.

We need that spirit to move afresh in our life.

And the same spirit where Jesus told his early followers after he ascended, wait until the spirit comes on you and you'll receive power.

Wait.

See, I think we miss out on the work of God because we just don't have patience for it.

We live such fast-paced, hurried lives, and you're gonna run from this place because you have, you know, some snacks to make for Super Bowl.

Right?

I do.

I've been thinking about my marinade for my steak that I've got to make from our Super Bowl party, right?

This morning I'm thinking through all the ingredients and we spend our lives distracted.

And would we wait long enough?

Would we be desperate enough for new life to break forth into our life that we would wait and we would say, breath of life, breathe into me.

Come, Holy Spirit, come.

And I'm not gonna move until you move in me.

And so that's what I want to do.

As we close our time, I want to wait.

Whether you're brand new to Jesus or have yet to start a relationship with him, and you want to wait, you long for the emptiness to be filled, and you simply say, Come, Holy Spirit, breathe life into me.

Or you've wandered away, you've walked away, you're in the middle of your mess, and you think God wants nothing to do with you, and He's no, I stepped into the middle of that mess, and would you just invite me?

Would you just invite me?

I've been hovering, I've been waiting, but I'm not smothering, I'm not a smothering God, I am a hovering God.

I'm hovering, I'm waiting, but I wait for an invitation.

Come back.

Or maybe you had a first love and you had that first fire with God, and it's grown cold.

Rhodes, and you long for the Spirit of God to move afresh in your life.

That's what I want to do.

Would you wait with me?

I have a little prayer that I wrote.

I want you to get comfortable.

I will.

Take a deep breath in.

Breathe out.

Settle your soul.

Would you pray?

Breath of God.

Breathe life into me.

Breath of God, breathe life into me.

Breathe life into my mind where the noise of the world drowns out your voice.

Breathe life into my heart where fear and hurry have taken up too much space.

Breathe life into my body where exhaustion and striving have left me empty.

Breathe life into my soul where I long for more but settle for less.

Come, Holy Spirit.

Come, Holy Spirit, come.

You hovered over the waters at creation, moving, stirring, ready to bring light where there is only darkness, order where there was chaos, life where there was nothing.

And you have never stopped moving.

So hover over me now.

Hover over my mind, my soul, my body.

Hover over my family, my friendships, my future.

Hover over this world so desperate for your presence.

Come, Holy Spirit, come.

Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.

Slow me down to notice your presence.

Wake me up to what you're already doing.

Where I've grown cold, rekindle the fire.

Where I've become rigid, make me soft again.

Where I've lost my way, guide me home.

I don't need more noise, I need you.

I don't need more striving, I need your presence.

I don't need more control, I need surrender.

I don't want to live in autopilot going through the motions, chasing after things that don't last.

So, Holy Spirit, have your way in me.

Holy Spirit, have your way in me.

I wait for you.

Breathe into the dry and weary places.

Fill me with your power, your presence, your peace.

I open my hands, my heart, my life.

Come, Lord Jesus, and make me new.

Breathe into the places I thought were dead.

Make me alive again.

Fully alive in you.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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