Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / May 24, 2020 | He's Still* Got The Whole World In His Hands - He’s Still Got WHAT In His Hands?

Transcript

May 24, 2020 | He's Still* Got The Whole World In His Hands - He’s Still Got WHAT In His Hands? · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Jim Congdon, lead pastor here at Topeka Bible Church, and we're so glad you've joined us this morning.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: Next week, I'm going to start a summer series.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to start a series called Restart, which of course is appropriate to the fact that our part of the world is restarting.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: But this morning, we have a really special morning.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: I've invited some of my friends here to help us.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and I was thinking about what I'm doing this morning with uh Psalm 96 uh as Melody and I were watching the closing uh scenes of American Idol last Sunday.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the winner of American Idol this year was a little girl from uh uh New York City.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Her name was just Sam, that's what she called herself, and just a few months ago, she was making earning quarters and maybe a few dollar bills, singing on the subway in New York City to keep herself and her grandmother in food.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: And and uh so uh now as she was winning, she's all alone in lockdown in a tiny apartment singing from her apartment in Los Angeles.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: And yet the closing song of American Idol was We Are the World, with pictures of all these famous singers joining, that famous old song from 35 years ago.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought, how strange that is, how weird, how kooky, because frankly, right now, we're not thinking of the world here in Topeka or here in America.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: We're just thinking about ourselves.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: We're asking questions about when is the lockdown gonna be over?
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: When can I go back to church?
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: What stores are open?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: What restaurants will allow me in?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's all about us.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought, you know, Jim, you're responsible for part of this here at TBC because you just finished a series called He's Got the Whole World in His Hands with three Psalms.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: Hope you watched some of that.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Psalm 121, Psalm 91, and Psalm 57.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: But we didn't emphasize the world, we emphasized the fact that he's got the whole world in his hands.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: So this morning's message is entitled, He's Got What in His Hands, and I want us to talk about the world.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: Now, to represent the world today, I have some of my friends, and we're gonna pick Brazil, the fifth largest country in the world.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: Half of South America is Brazil, both the population and area.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I picked some of my favorite people who've lived their lives in Brazil, Janet Rowdybush, who we've supported since Noah and the flood, and and Arnon and his wife Jessica.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: So let's start with with you, Arnon and Jessica.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: By the way, all of us met together.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: I came down to Brazil and met them at at the seminary that Janet's been associated with.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: Would you introduce yourselves, Arnon, Jessica, and your newly one-year-old little girl, Elise, who is miss personality, as you can tell.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, and she really needs a nap.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: So why why don't you start, Jessica?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: And tell us uh where you're born and a little bit about your family background.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Elise, would you tell us about yourself before you go take a nap?
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, uh I was born in Brazil, the north of Brazil.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm the youngest of the seven since.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: Youngest of seven children.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: Congratulations.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_04: And Arnoy Night in the camp.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_04: And you got married later.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: So you met each other in camp in 2011 and got married two years later.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: I tell everybody I found her in the woods.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: There was a camp in the Amazon region.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, goodness.
• 4:00
  unknown: Yeah.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Because the Amazon's in the north.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: Go ahead.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_04: And Dad took some classes at dinner in the 5 o'clock.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, did you?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: Janet?
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: So she was one of your students.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yes.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_03: I remember when uh he came single and he was sad.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_03: But the next year he brought Jessica and he was happy.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: He was happy.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: At least, at least, it's time for your nap.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: Is that okay?
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, she's happy about that.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna have a fun birthday party for you tomorrow, okay?
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna be there.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you for joining us, Jessica.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: We really appreciate it.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: So let me uh let me jump right into it.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: If you have a Bible, would you open it to Psalm 96?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: This is the Premier World Missions, sometimes called the Great Commission Psalm.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: Premier World Psalm.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's an amazing psalm, okay?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna just jump in.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think what I'll do is I'll take there's three falls into three parts.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: Sort of a sort of a why, a how, and a when.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll take the first six verses, the why.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'll ask Janet to sort of take the how, and you sort of take the when at the end of a psalm.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: But basically what this psalm is telling us to do is it's is it's telling us to take sort of two power chords and plug them into each other.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: And one power cord is the power cord of the globe, the whole world.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: This is such a huge place, the world, represented by Brazil this morning.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: And the other power cord is the power cord of your mouth, and all of all TBC mouths are clutched in the other hand, okay?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: Our mouths, our voices, our voices that sing, our voices that talk.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: And it's saying those two things need to be plugged into each other.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: Our voices and the world.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: Our voices talking and singing about God and the world.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: So let's let's read this psalm together.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: Grab Psalm 96 in front of you.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: It goes like this.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uses the word sing, notice, three straight times.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: Sing to the Lord a new song.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: Sing to the Lord all the earth.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: Sing to the Lord, bless his name, tell of his salvation from day to day.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: Notice three times it refers to the world.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: It says, all the earth, verse one, among the nations, among all the peoples.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: Six times you have a word for singing or talking.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: Sing, sing, sing, tell, uh, declare, and uh and and speak.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: Bless his name.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: So here is this assignment that we're supposed to talk and sing about the Lord.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: Why do we do it?
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: Verses four through six.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Because he holds the whole world in his hands.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: He's the Lord, he's the king.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: Verse four.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: He is to be feared, notice, above all gods, for all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: Splendor and majesty are before him, strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Why is it that we should sing and tell about the Lord before the whole earth, before the whole world, starting here in Topeka and going to Brazil and around the world?
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: Because the Lord reigns, verse 10, because the Lord is boss, because the Lord is greater than anybody else.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: In this coronavirus around the world, who is it that we sort of trust?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the answer is it's it's the people of the world, men of the world, great leader, leaders of the world, and scientists say, listen to me, obey me, trust in me.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: I can solve this crisis.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: And the Lord here says, whoa, whoa, whoa.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: Hold it.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: You can listen to brilliant men, to scientists, but don't trust them.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's idolatry.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: Don't put them on a pedestal because I am in charge of the earth.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: Though the wrong seems oft so strong, I am the ruler.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord is the ruler yet.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: I can't help thinking about the old joke about the cowboy who went to get um health insurance.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so they asked him, they said, Have you had any accidents this past year?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, Nope, none at all.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: And they said, Well, wow, you've had a really healthy year then.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: You've been worry-free.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, Well, not quite.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: I got bit by a rattlesnake and uh nearly killed me.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh my horse kicked me and broke three ribs.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: That laid me out for a while.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: And and and the insurance man said, You know, you don't call those things accidents, and he said, No, they all done it on purpose.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so our tendency is around the world to think this virus is an accident, therefore you look to us to solve it.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: And God says, No, there really are no accidents if I'm in charge.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: You can listen to man but trust in God because I'm the ruler.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: So the reason in verses one through six that we sing and tell about the Lord throughout the whole earth is that the Lord's really in charge, not man-made things.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: And and and I wonder as you think about Brazil, so I sort of see the idolatry and the man-centeredness up here.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: Does that resonate with Arnold with anything or Janet with anything that you see down there?
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_03: This happens in every almost every state in Brazil.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_03: They have the patron saint that's their idol.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_03: And so uh we see this not only in our area, but all through Brazil.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: And uh that's you know, when I was down there, you drove.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: I remember we drove and we saw some huge white person that was on a giant pedestal, and thousands of people were coming, and like, yeah.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_03: And that person, people say he is their savior.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_03: Their savior.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_03: And so this is the time when I think about a lady that was so devoted to this man that she moved to our city and she would go up that hill every week and pray and pray.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_03: And one day, as she was on the bus, one of our girls gave her a little track and it said, Four things that God wants you to know.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_03: And she put it in her pocket, you know.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_03: And and the lady said, uh, well, no, I'm not interested.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_03: And the lady said, Well, come to our church, come to our church someday.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_03: And uh she said, No, no, no.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, that lady kept doing, going up there to that statue, going up to her savior, she thought, and praying.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_03: And one day she got mad because he hadn't answered.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, so she said, I'm mad.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_03: I I'm gonna look at this little this little piece of paper.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_03: And she started to read it, and she read John 14, 6, that said, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_03: And she said, Is that really in the Bible?
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_03: Then she remembered that many years ago someone had given her a New Testament, and she dug around and she found it.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_03: And yes, that's what it said.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_03: It's in the Bible.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_03: And the next day, the next Sunday, she went to church and she walked down and she sat right beside me and my friend.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_03: And in the middle of this message, she stood up and she said, Jesus is a savior.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my! And she's 91 years old.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, my god.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_03: And today she's just as faithful and loves the Lord as her savior as she was back there.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: And she moved her trust from that patron saint to that's a great story.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I just love it, you know.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_03: And she's one of these ladies that'll say to you, It's my birthday, this is what I'd like to have.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: So now you grew up in a little bit of a different part of Brazil.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: This is the Northeast, though you were there for seminary.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you grew up over in uh a huge city, right?
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: Two million people?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's the capital of the state of Amazonas, uh city called Manaus.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's about, yeah, roughly two million people.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, there's idolatry everywhere, but I'd say, especially for people my age, you know, those who are working hard trying to get through this season, it it's a lot about fear and who you turn to in the midst of it.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, government is letting them down, uh businesses are not doing well.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Would you mind updating us on uh uh so the pandemic has been pretty bad in America?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Can you tell us what is it like in Brazil right now?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think um Brazil is the third uh country in the world with the most number of people infected.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, really?
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: About 17,000 deaths so far.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_03: And um And today I saw that they were digging graves, just digging them.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_03: One by one side by the other.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that started in my hometown because uh the number of deaths uh went up in like 200 percent in three weeks.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: So they were not.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: Right right now, the the leveling hasn't happened in Brazil.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, it's still seeming to be up high right now, it's growing.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's sort of like in Africa today.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I've had two people, two of our friends, that died from that.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_03: Really?
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_03: One was Lucy Ma from the Amazon, and uh she was a she was 60 years old, and uh she died of the uh virus, and then even closer to home was my girlfriend's brother's son, and he was 40 years old.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: Now, have you known, Arnon, have you known of anybody in your relatives or circle of friends or anything that that has gotten COVID?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, my hometown has been very badly struck.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: And in fact, my my dad had the virus.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and his wife had the virus as well.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, she was ill for about a week, very like very ill.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_02: Uh he is a very healthy guy, so in about two days he was trying to get back to work slowly.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but yeah, we know people who've been infected.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: I I remember at least one neighbor who had a small grocery store uh by the apartment where I lived, and he he passed away.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_02: He was in his 60s.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_03: And then I just heard that one of my graduates, Susanna and Frankie, and she lives in a small town outside of Fortaleza.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_03: All the hospitals are closed, all the clinics are closed, and she has the virus.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: Now you would think that people would turn to God, you know, at after 9-11, people turn to God, but somehow in this coronavirus, find a lot of people not turning to God, but instead turning to scientists and so forth.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: Is that happening down in Manaus and in and where your your place is, or are the churches full?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: I guess the churches aren't full because there's a lockdown.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it it actually gets chaotic because people see uh that the government even doesn't have the structure to help them.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: So they have no helper they can really trust in in this season, and the medical system is collapsing because there are too many people, and and then in the Amazon, you can't imagine there's a lot of water.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_02: So sometimes you have to travel by by boat for four or five days to get to Manaus where you can get appropriate treatment.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: But then there are too many people in Manaus that need treatment.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's weird because the only thing I think of when I think of the Amazon and the river and so forth, are piranha and and and falling in the river and getting eaten.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: Did you?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: So now you've got the virus.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, so this is a relevant passage for Manaus and for Brazil, verses one through six, that that they too, like America, uh, even though we're in a different place than Brazil now, I feel like uh, we still have the same problem with trusting the government because the government and scientists say one thing and then they change it the next week.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: But but there's a call to worship and speak about God and put our trust there, not in man.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you know, that scripture, great is uh the Lord.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_03: That's how God called me to Brazil.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_03: Isn't it really?
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_03: Because God did a wonderful thing in my life, and because of my life, my whole family was saved.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_03: You know.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: Well, now that really takes us to the next section, verses seven through ten, which go like this.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: Ascribe, and notice we had sing three times in verses one and two.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: Now we have the word ascribe or tell three straight times.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, who?
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: O families of the world, ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength, ascribe to the Lord, the glory to his name, bring an offering and come into his courts.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness, tremble before them.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: Who?
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: All the earth.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: The call before, by the way, was seemed like to TBC, let's tell the world.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: Now it's actually the call has extended to the world to worship the Lord.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: Verse 10 say among the nations the Lord reigns.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, the world is established, it shall never be moved.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: He will judge the peoples with equity.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: So uh how or why we do it is that the Lord, you know, the whole world's in his hands.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: How we do it is is what happened to you.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: We sing and tell what happened to you when you were a teenager at Highland Park High School here, right?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: And the Lord moved upon you, and when you were a teenager, you said, you know, this is what I want to do with my life.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_03: And and because what I found the joy that I was always searching for, I wanted everyone to know.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_03: And my first mission field was my family.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_03: Because in Acts it says, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thy and your house.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you'll be saved, you and your house.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_03: So I brought my brothers to church and they were saved.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_03: Both of them are in heaven today.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: Daryl and Duane.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, we know them well.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that's part of your story.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, yesterday I was looking through uh my my letters to you, and I found a letter that I wrote you back when I was just a single here leading the high school group back in the past.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_03: I remember when you knelt down, when you were down there on the floor in Daryl's house.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah, and you said, Tell me about Brazil.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: So so as you as you two look at these, this suddenly the psalm seems to turn positive.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, it was about idolatry and stop worshiping the idols, worship the Lord, He reigns.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: You get to seven through ten, and all of a sudden it feels to me, Arnold, as though it's turning positive, that He's He's the God, He's full of splendor and so forth.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so our telling and our singing about the Lord now takes a positive turn.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like it's like these positive worship songs or something, right?
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it's it bursts forth in expectation here.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_02: Verses eleven to thirteen say, Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice, let the sea and all that fills it resound, let the fields and everything in them celebrate, then all the trees of the forest will shout for joy before the Lord, for he is coming, for he is coming to judge you the earth, he will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his faithfulness.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: So suddenly creation comes into the picture.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_02: And uh for those of us who've been reading the Psalms and you know prophetic literature, we often find these descriptions.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the mountains are invited to sing the Lord and the sea and the sea monsters.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Psalm 19, Psalm 148 are very known uh for that.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_02: And and there's now here this expectation of what happened in Genesis three being reversed.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you're tell us about that.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: What why Genesis three remind us?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: So uh there's a curse pronounced on the earth, and uh well, most people were farmers back then, and now they would have trouble with their crops and the earth wouldn't produce as it uh did before.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: And with sin and and cur the curse on the earth and the world, uh we see that really there's there's a groaning of creation, an expectation for uh where all this is leading to.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_02: This is precisely what we see in Romans eight, when Paul describes creation like an animal uh groaning like in in the pains of of uh labor, awaiting the revelations of the sons of God.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_02: And one day that this is what we're expecting.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_02: We're looking for the day where creation will be renewed, heavens and earth uh will be united, and we will all be a part of that, and we will sing and praise the Lord with all that He's created.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: At this point in my life, I think the trees will sound better in singing than I do.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: But that will be interesting.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: If, you know, maybe that's just an anthropomorphism or something that the rocks and trees won't sing, but it does seem to say that quite often.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: And you kind of wonder, you know, whether they're gonna sing harmony or whether they may have to carry the tune.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's right.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: So but in Romans, I'm glad you pointed us to Romans 8.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: So this is looking forward.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: No wonder they call it sort of a future psalm.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's looking forward.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: So is it telling us that we ought to sing and tell the world now in light of the fact that that's coming in the future or something like that?
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: Talk to us about that, about what about this future thing and how that how that how that seeps back into the present.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's interesting because there seems to be a frame for the the the center of the psalm ascribed to the Lord.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: The Lord reigns.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_02: So the ground of our worship, why we worship, because the Lord is the only true God.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_02: You mean you look at the idols and well, you really want to go there.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: These are nothings, you know.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_03: Useless.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_02: Useless.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they wouldn't they would do nothing, but the Lord is king on all the earth.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_02: So there's this ground of our worship, and then we look forward to the future and expectation of uh God's salvation, you know, englobing the whole earth, the whole earth, and and we are called to participate in that, you know.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I think about it in terms of a vision that we're called to behold and to to be a part of.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_02: That's interesting.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: Go on, what are you gonna say?
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_03: And I thank the Lord for the many, many graduates of our seminary who are out teaching and preaching that Jesus Christ is the only way.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe, maybe a number of them like you were given this vision of what the future would be like.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: So can you can you help paint that vision for for us, Arnold?
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: Can I ask you to do so what verse 13 is sort of picturing the future?
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what does that look like?
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and and that's and it's supposed to inspire us today, right?
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, people often, you know, we we talk about going to heaven and everybody dressed in white robes, yeah, yeah.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_02: And then with their harps, and everybody, all the men will have big white beards or something like that.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_02: It seems rather boring.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah uh but you know, the kind of praise that that we expect in New Heavens and New Earth, uh I think of it like imagine one of those large conferences in the US, you know, Passion Conference in Atlanta, or uh for some of you who are a bit older than I am, back in the Billy Graham days, those huge crusades and hundreds and thousands of people praising the Lord together.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_02: People that you had never met, yeah, but you had one Lord, one salvation, and uh one renewed joy, you know, and in this expectation.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_02: And we look forward to to that kind of thing in the future.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_02: You know, uh I'm in Dallas Seminary, and my neighbors are from all over the world.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_02: I have friends from India, Pakistan, Australia, all parts of the U.S.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: And to think that we'll one day get to worship the creator of the world together, and we'll raise our voices, and we won't be thinking about what everybody else is thinking.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_03: And we don't know what language to you think it'll be English?
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I think it will be Hebrew, it's the language out there.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's gonna be the Hebrew, so it's gonna be the heavenly.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: And they've asked you to be sort of in charge of spiritual formation uh down there, you know.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: So you have these groups that get together, and I'm just picturing.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: So you have this person from Asia, and you have this person from Pakistan, person from Indian person from Brazil, and so forth.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: So you are sort of bringing the future, trickling back into the present now as you talk about God and praise Him among each other, right?
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's that's so powerful and it captures our hearts because you think about it, it's it's not so much about you read a psalm like this, and you know, what do you do this week?
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_02: But it's how our hearts are so captured by it that we start to thinking, Lord, you know, what do you want from me?
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_02: I want to be part of that, I want to be used by you to bring people into your kingdom.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_02: And in the last day, to beholding that great vision, think like, yeah, I didn't waste my life.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I you know, I I think of what happened to Jessica and me.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, we're in our you know, teens, I was 18, uh, she was 20.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we had met in a uh Christian retreat in the Amazon, and I was thinking of what am I gonna do with my life?
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I wanted first to be an accountant, and I was like, oh no, too many, you know, papers and government work, can't do that.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_02: So I went, um I uh enrolled for engineering school, and I was pretty excited to become an engineer, but something was not you know right.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_02: It was okay, but deep down there, I was I was pursuing, you know, the Brazilian dream, which is like, yeah, you sort of work hard, but you you're really well paid, you buy a house, two cars, and it's comfortable and it's it's great, you know.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: Because your dad or grandfather is a businessman, right?
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, both are businessmen.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_02: So I was thinking I'll do engineering, get a public job, it won't work that much every week.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, make more money, and then manage their businesses, and we'll go fine.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: We call that the American dream too.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and then suddenly um I went to work, was listening to a sermon on Romans 12, uh, and this preacher, not an eloquent man, um, an American missionary, he was describing what it means to be a living sacrifice to the Lord, and it's a language of worship as well.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_02: And he said, You know, a living sacrifice has no future, no autonomy.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, it exists to burn and please the Lord, to be on the altar.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I was the only one in the car, and I was like, wow, this is this is for me.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I was at a uh port waiting for my grandfather's ferry to arrive, and I I I felt really personally uh struck by that.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I I went out and went about my my work and uh it wouldn't leave my mind.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: I was just overflowing with joy, and I was like, that that's it, you know, giving all up, all my dreams to become rich or have a comfortable life, whatever, you know.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I told Jessica about her, I think there's something strange.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: I I feel like I don't feel like being an engineer anymore.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_02: I really d dislike the idea at this point.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, months later I decided to go to Bible college.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_02: That's where I met Janet.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_02: And it's hard to be a living sacrifice, uh, I find every day.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't want to question you about that because so you're saying it's hard and sacrifice sounds hard, but yet you and Jessica seem to be totally bought into this and happy with the whole prospect.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: And here she is, as you can tell, she's still fluent Brazilian, you know, and so forth, but she's giving up years of her life happily.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, sure, because you're good looking.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that's part of what she's up here.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: But but you know, this is like this vision has so captured you that it seems to have captured your affections as well.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: So that it's not like, oh, I'm giving up so much because I'm not gonna be rich.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's like I haven't given a thing up.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I feel like you're so excited about this, right?
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and uh Jessica herself, uh, she had a similar experience.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: And we thought about it together, you know, when we met Jim in 2015, and this idea of going to the US, you know, I I worked in a rural area, I was preparing my sermons, and the cows were moving next to me.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_02: It was like typing there.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um and it was just too like too beyond me.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_02: And we end up here, you know, finishing uh master's degree and looking forward to going back to Brazil.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_02: And when I think about it, and in Jesus' metaphor, putting your hand on the plow and not looking back, we we think together often, sometimes uh multiple nights a week, and we're like, it is really worth it because we're participating in something that's got weight and substance.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and we need men like unknown in our seminaries, not only in mine, but also in the others.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_03: Men that will teach the word and with their lives show the students and motivate the students to give their lives to the Lord.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: So, Janet, you're one of the you're sort of like an energizer bunny over the years of everybody.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you you too, in this whole thing of singing and telling the world, worshiping and witnessing, don't seem like you feel like you're giving up everything.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: You've I I feel like that you feel like you've gained something that this is the most fun life you could possibly have lived.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_03: Amen.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_03: You know, the joy of the Lord is what has given me all these years.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_03: And there's a verse in in Portuguese that says, the Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I lack nothing.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_03: And that's what it says in Portuguese.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_03: And I just love that because really, to serve the Lord, you have so many wonderful rewards.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_03: I look out and see my students, not only in Brazil, but in Africa and Portugal and all these, they're giving out the word of God.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_03: There's no greater joy for me, and to see men like uh Miller and Jessica.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: Man, he's just a boy.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: So uh anyway, so that's that's what we wanted to share with you today.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I I I really, the title, uh, he's got one in his hands, and the answer is it's the whole world, folks.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: He's got the whole world in his hands, even especially maybe during COVID-19.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: So let's keep that in mind.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: Let's grasp this vision of this future uh and bring this vision into the present that catch this excitement and this vision of singing and telling, of worshiping and witnessing of the glory and the greatness of God, because one day, I mean it's coming, the Lord's coming back, and then even the inanimate objects of the world and the whole world will be kneeling, singing and praising.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: How can you be part of that today?
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: How can you capture that vision?
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: How can that vision capture your heart?
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: Arnon, would you uh close us in a word of prayer?
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, of course.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_02: Oh Lord, um what a beautiful psalm and what a challenge to look beyond the present circumstances and to look beyond the present challenges and contemplate you in your glory, a majestic king, and be captured by your vision for the future.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_02: What a joy to be part of your story, Lord.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_02: Please inspire us and fill our hearts to be willing uh to let things that are hindering us from participating in your mission, let them just go.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, encourage us and by your spirit strengthen us to give all we have to you, to call our families, to call our neighbors and relatives to your worship, and overflowing with hearts of praise, uh, proclaim your goodness and your kingship and your salvation in Jesus Christ to all the nations.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_02: We thank you for allowing us to be part of this great plan, and we ask you that you would inspire us together to uh contemplate this vision, be captured by it, and to live by it.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_02: In Christ we pray.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining us this morning.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: Please join us again next week for the first uh message in the series.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: Restart.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: Have a great day.