Welcome to 721 Live. I'm Sam Hunter. Thank you for joining us. I'm glad you're with us today. It's Friday. Maybe I'd get you to push back on all the different thoughts and distractions that are ping-ponging around in your head and focus in on what your Heavenly Father through the Holy Spirit is going to say to you today. We're going to talk today about chaos. Who is in charge? And we will get to that in just a moment. Let me remind you that last week I had my friend Dick Doling in, my Georgia Tech pal, and we titled this show, A Catholic and Jesus. A Catholic and Jesus. Dick, a lifelong Catholic, still a Catholic, loves Mass. talks about his story and his journey with Jesus. I think you'd find that fascinating. And so you can find that on our website, 721ministries.org. We've got all of our radio shows there, 721ministries.org. We have a YouTube channel on that site as well as graphs and different exercises. Check us out at 721ministries.org. 21ministries.org and then we have a sister website puttinggreenblog.com puttinggreenblog.com on that website you can sign up for our weekly devotionals that we send out every Thursday we've got books we've got two devotional books that have Great reception from lots and lots and lots and lots of people, sold lots of those books. And then we've got our most recent one, The Missing Link, which is about, The Missing Link is the Holy Spirit and it's about living in the power of the Holy Spirit. And in that we follow Peter and the other apostles as they learn to live and lean into the power of the Holy Spirit after Jesus has returned to heaven. So that is the puttinggreenblog.com. OK, 721 Lives, the Radar Arm of 721 Ministries, and we are focusing today on chaos. Who is in charge? So I'm going to start by reading a quotation to you, a statement that was made. And as I read it, I want you to think about who said it and when. Here we go. The streets in our country are in turmoil. The universities are filled with students rebelling and rioting. Communists are seeking to destroy our country. Russia is threatening us with her might. And our republic is in danger. Yes, danger from within and without. We need law and order. Without law and order, our nation cannot survive. Who said that? And when did they say it? Sounds like we can say it right now, doesn't it? Think about that. And I asked the men in our men's meetings, and most of the answers were American presidents. You know, maybe someone over in England and during World War II, but it was Hitler. Hitler said that. Let me continue this idea of perhaps there is nothing new under the sun, as Solomon said in Ecclesiastes. I saw this little thing that said if you were born in 1900, if you were born in 1900, then when you were 14 years old, World War I hit. and 32 million people died. 32 million. 32 million. When you were 18 years old, the Spanish flu hit and 50 million people died. 50 million people. When you were 18 years old, the Spanish flu hit. When you were 29, the Great Depression hit. And my parents were children of the Great Depression. It affected the rest of their life. When you were 39, Hitler invaded Poland, World War II started, and 44 million people died. Six million Jews in the Holocaust. Then when you were 52, the Korean War came along. Then when you were 64, and for the next 11 years, the Vietnam War came, and all the protests that happened during that time. In 1965, you had the Watch Riots. Lasted six days, resulted in 34 deaths, 1,032 injuries, 4,000 arrests, involving 34,000 people, and ended in the destruction of 1,000 buildings, totaling $40 million in damage. In 1967, you had the Detroit Riots. 340, 43 people dead, 342 injured, 1,400 buildings burned, and 7,000 National Guard and U.S. Army troops had to be called into service. 1970, on Kent State, four students shot. You remember that? Killed? And everything that spun out of that. And then in 1992, the granddaddy of them all, the Los Angeles riots. 50 people killed, 2,300 injured, thousands arrested, 1,100 buildings damaged, total property damage estimated at $1 billion. And I say all this to say that perhaps this chaos that we're living in right now is nothing new under the sun. So who's in charge? I started with the men's meetings and I said, let's put up on the whiteboard all the different emotions and feelings that you're experiencing now in this crazy time of politics and pandemics and shutdowns and riots and violence and jobs obliterated and no school and you even have an asteroid headed our way. And I think it'd be helpful for you to do the same thing. Because we've been in this thing six months now, or more, and what is it that's, like, get it out on a whiteboard, on a sheet of paper, and just get it out there in front. Because, you see, I have learned over the years that if I'll just write down my fears, the things that I'm worried about, my anxieties, if I'll just write them down, often that's enough, they start to lose their hold over me. Yeah, just writing them down. And many years ago when I was in a ditch, a deep ditch, and I had not yet learned that feelings are such disastrous masters, I was constantly overwhelmed by my feelings of fear and anxiety and dread and even hopelessness. So I sat down, I wrote down the worst things that could happen, and then I put them in a shoebox. I came back a year later or so. I pulled him out. And lo and behold, only one of them actually happened. Only one. And it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Oh, it was the worst case scenario. But even that, it just wasn't that bad. And even then, Jesus brought good things out of it. So a whole lot of worrying and anxiety and fear for nothing. So what words would you put up on the whiteboard about the things that you're thinking, feeling right now? Just whatever comes to mind, because here's what went up on our whiteboard. Fear, anger. What about the future? Uncertainty. Our country. Frustrated. Punished. Payback. Enemies. Revenge. Lawlessness. Confused. Baffled. Hopeless. Who's in charge? All of these went up on the whiteboard from the various men. And then I said, well, what questions, if you could sit down with Jesus and ask him some questions, what would you ask him? And maybe you would think about that. Why do you allow this? Do you care about our country? Are you involved in the details? Do you even care about the details? Do you care about my personal details? And then that same question, who's in control? Now, I want to help frame our perspective on these questions, very real questions that I would like to ask myself. But think about it from this perspective. Is the United States of America eternal? Are the Democrats and the Republicans in the upcoming election, are they eternal? Is China eternal? Is this pandemic eternal? Is the media, the stock market, the upcoming election, Trump, Biden, Antifa, riots, economic collapse, are they all, any of these things, eternal? No. But here's my next question, and most pertinent question. Are you? Are you eternal? And the answer is yes, you are. All these other things, they appear to be macro chaos. But in the micro, you're the only one that's eternal. which takes us into what we're gonna talk about today, to pull back and examine the macro and the micro of our current state of the union. Now that would be the macro, the state of our country, but what's much more important is the state of the union that you have with Jesus. In the macro, if you ask me if God cares about the state of our union, about the United States, I would answer yes, I feel sure he does, but I do not know the how, the what, the why, the when, the where of his caring. I don't know the details of that. But from a micro, here's what I do know beyond a shadow of a doubt. He cares immensely about my union with Him, the state of my union with Him, because He cares immensely about the state of my soul, and the same would apply to you. You see, I'm certain that God did not allow this coronavirus just to boost Sam's spiritual journey. And I'm equally as certain that he is not allowing the chaos in our country just for the purpose of boosting Sam's spiritual journey or yours. But what I am 100% sure of is he wants to use these experiences to bring you closer to him and to bring me closer to him. to be a part of any distance that I have between him to close that gap together. Because he knows that the closer you are to him, the richer your life will be. the deeper your life will be. He wants the A plus life to the full for you. And the only way to find this life, the only way, my friend, is to close the gap between you and Jesus. So with all the macro chaos, which we'll talk some more about in a moment, the question for you is, how do I use this craziness to get closer to Jesus? Because that's the micro that is really the only thing that matters. So let's kind of jump into this thought process. Let's talk about macro and micro. Macro being this big picture and micro being your picture. So let me ask you this, from a macro absolute, macro absolute question, do you 100% believe that God is real? Now most people that I deal with would say yes. But most people that I deal with do not think about what that actually means. Now some people, someone listening today may say, well, I'm not so sure that he is. Well, that's fine. I certainly understand that. I respect that. That's OK. God doesn't mind that. He'd rather you actually admit that you're not so sure than just to lukewarm your way through it and not really care. But if he is real, then it is a macro-absolute that he's perfect, and that he's perfectly powerful, and he's perfectly in control, and he's perfectly present, and he's perfectly aware, he's perfectly involved, he always has a plan, and there is no force in this world more powerful than him. Those are those big macro questions that if you can settle those in your mind, you'll start to see through that prism of his perfectness. Now let's talk about the micro for you. Does he love you perfectly? Does he love your wife, your husband, your children, your mom and dad, your brothers and sisters? Does he love you perfectly? And of course we see throughout Scripture that he does, but one of the best passages is 1 John 4, verse 18. There is no fear in love because perfect love drives out fear. There is no fear in love because perfect love drives out fear. Once I settle in on the fact that he loves me perfectly, And the more I absorb that and live that and appropriate that into my life, then the less the chaos can have any effect on me, the less fear can have any effect on me. There's no room for it. because I am filling up on His perfect love. And therefore, the things that would ordinarily cause me fear, well, they just, there's no room for them. They can't find any traction. They can't get a foothold inside because I'm filling up on His perfect love. So as an example, if I'm gonna pray for my mother, who's almost 96, and if I start my prayer with, Heavenly Father, I wanna lift up my mother to you, about these issues in our life? Well, that's one way to start, but if I said, Heavenly Father, I want to lift up your daughter whom you love perfectly, my mother, but your daughter whom you love perfectly. If you were to lift up your husband or your wife or your children, instead of starting with, I want to lift up my child or my husband or my wife to you, if you said, I want to lift up your child whom you love perfectly, So the micro of all this big stuff is he loves you perfectly. The next question is, is he aware and involved in your details? And Jesus was very clear about that. Matthew 10, 29, he said, look, sparrows are worth a nickel maybe. I want you to understand not one falls from the sky apart from your father's will. Not one, nothing happens apart from your father's will. And he's so involved in the details and he's so aware of the details that you might as well say he knows the exact number of hairs on your head. Yes, he's involved in your details and he's aware of your details. And then the last question is, is how much does he care about him? And Peter answers that in first Peter five. He said, put yourself on to humble yourself on to God's mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxieties on him because he really cares for you. He really cares about the details of your life. That's the micro. The micro is he loves you perfectly. He's fully aware of the details in your life and involved, and he cares immensely about you. So in the midst of all this chaos, and again, let me come back because I deal with a lot of people who have chaos inside their lives. They have so much chaos in their lives that they don't care if the country falls apart. They cannot care because they're so consumed with the pain in their own lives. That may be you. So your macro is not all the craziness in this world or this country. It's what's going on in your life right now. And it all comes back to the same micro response. So he loves you perfectly. He's aware of the details in your life. And he cares and he's involved. So I'm going to keep bouncing back and forth between macro and micro. If you get into Daniel, I love reading the book of Daniel. In Daniel 3, Nebuchadnezzar set up this huge statue of himself, and everybody has to bow down and worship him. And of course, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they refuse to do it. And Nebuchadnezzar likes them, so he comes to him and he says, is this true? But I'll tell you, I'll give you a second chance. If you'll just fall down and worship the image I made, then that's good. That's good. You're OK. But if, listen to what he says, but if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. And then what God will be able to rescue you from my hand. See, from a macro standpoint, Nebuchadnezzar is, he is God of the world. There's no cavalry coming in to save Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. There's no hero that's going to get them out of this. Nebuchadnezzar, he is the macro. He's in charge of the entire world, or so he thinks. And he says to them, if I say you're going in the fire, you're going in the fire. And then who's going to save you? That's the big macro of this world. It looks chaotic out there. But here's Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego's micro response. King Nebuchadnezzar, we don't need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve, number one, is able to deliver us from it. Number two, he will deliver us from your majesty's hand. Number three, but even if he does not, we want you to know your majesty, O Nebuchadnezzar, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of Goliath you have set up. What a great micro response for any of us to look at the chaos in this world. Anyone you think is against you politically is on the other side politically. We've got an election coming up. We've got this pandemic. Somebody looks like they're in control. The odds are stacked against you, against us, however you want to say it. Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, the God we serve is perfectly powerful. He can save us from this. And because we know how much he loves us perfectly, he will. But even if he doesn't in the way that we want him to or we would like for him to, we won't lose our trust in him because we know that he is actively executing a plan even amidst the chaos and you, O Nebuchadnezzar, are not in charge. So whoever you consider to be powerful in this equation that we're in, if you're conservative, then you think Antifa is in control, you think the liberal Democrats are in control, you think that the media that's on the liberal Democrat side, you think the corrupt judges and prosecutors, local prosecutors, you think they're all on one side and that they have control. And that Trump doesn't stand a chance in this election. Funny thing is, I have conversations with men who would say the exact same thing, but they're on the other side. They say the same thing about Biden, and they feel the same way about, let's say, those that are wanting Trump to get back in. So the whole question, this macro stuff, comes back to the micro, is he involved in your life? Now, let me give you a couple of examples that I think really help out on this macro and what really matters most in this. Jesus on the beach with Peter, post-resurrection, John 21, takes him down to the beach. He tells him three times, or asks him three times, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? That's to drive home, Peter, that you actually don't love me, not yet. I want you to understand that. I'm going to have to ask you three times so you'll see that you're actually not yet, you're still operating in your own power. You're still really loving yourself or your fishing or whatever it is more than me. But each time Jesus says, here is your mission, Peter. Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. Take care of my people. That, Peter, is your mission. That's your macro mission for the rest of your life. That is it. He tells him three times, you got that, Peter? Do you understand that this is what you are to do for the rest of your life? Is that clear? Now, Peter, being just like you and just like me, he doesn't get it clearly. He doesn't receive that. He doesn't say, Roger that, Jesus. I got it. That's my macro mission. Instead, he turns around and sees John. He goes, what about him? What about him? And Jesus says to him, what is that to you? You follow me. And that's what he says to each one of us, whether it's the chaos in this world or the chaos in your life, you follow me. Don't let all those other things be a distraction. Do not let them get in the way of our relationship. You follow me. Here's another story. That's Jesus and Peter on the beach. How about the Israelites and Moses on the beach? This is another macro-micro setup. Here we are in Exodus 14. The Israelites have just gotten out of Egypt, and Pharaoh changes his mind. So he marshals his army. He gets 600 of his seal team chariot people, 600 of his best chariots, plus all the other chariots, as well as his army, and he takes off across the plains. And here he's coming after them, and the Israelites have bumped up against the sea, and they're stuck. And they start wailing about questions, just like we've seen. How could you do this? How could you let this happen? The macro is chaotic. We're doomed. How could you let this happen? And Moses answered the people, and listen to this. This is Exodus 14, 13. Do not be afraid. Stand firm, and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you. Okay, stop and pay attention. The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still. The Lord's going to handle it. You need only to be still. And when I was reading that and I saw that word still, my mind immediately went to Psalm 46, 10, be still and know that I am God. So I wondered if that was the same word, the same Hebrew word. So I go and I look it up and they're not the same Hebrew word. But neither one of these words has anything to do with movement. You need only to be still, God says through Moses to the Israelites, standing there in the face of all this chaos. In Psalm 46, 10, God through David says to us, be still and know that I am God. Neither one of those words have anything to do with you standing still. They both mean you become still in your heart. As a matter of fact, the word in be still and know that I am God, it has this strong undercurrent of your hands go limp. Your hands go limp. Think about that for a moment. That's the opposite of what most of us do when we come under stress and we're faced with chaos. We white knuckle things. We grab it. We try to white knuckle it. We're going to fix it. And your Heavenly Father says let your hands loose. Just let them go limp. Quit that. Be still and know that I am God. Now, in this Exodus story, it's such a great one-two punch that I'm getting ready to lay on you. So we just read Exodus 14, 13 and 14, and the last thing we see is, "...the Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still." And the very next verse, "...then the Lord said to Moses, Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on." You get it? You see this? God has just told him to be still. And then he comes back and says, quit all the crying, get moving. Which is exactly what he is saying to you today in the midst of either this national worldwide chaos or the chaos in your life. Be still in your heart. That's the micro message to you amidst all the macro chaos and craziness. Be still in your heart, but keep moving. Do the next right thing. Watch me, follow me, let me lead, but you keep moving. No one is advocating that you go hide in a closet and pray and think God's gonna take care of everything. It's a great one-two punch. Be still and keep moving. And it comes back to this statement about Jesus, about anyone who's a follower of Jesus, that we should have a calm, relaxed pace. Oswald Chambers says this over and over, but it's his August 5th devotional in My Outmost for His Highest. A Christian is someone who believes and trusts in the knowledge and the wisdom of God, not in his own knowledge and wisdom. If we have a purpose of our own, then we destroy the simplicity and the calm, relaxed pace that should be evident, should be characteristic of a child of God. Have you found that stillness in this macro chaos? Have you found the micro stillness in your heart so that you can move through life with a calm, relaxed pace that should be characteristic of a child of God? Isn't that the message to each one of us? Find that stillness in your heart amidst all the macro chaos and keep moving through your life. Keep doing the next right thing. Have that calm, relaxed pace. Don't have a purpose of your own. Let your purpose be His purpose, but you keep moving. What a great message, my friend. May you learn to find God's micro message amidst the chaos of all the macro all around you. I'm Sam Hunter, and this is 721 Live. So long, God's peace to you. I hope to see you next Friday.