ESC Shabbat Service: Be Still and Know - Andrew Gudgeon

Notice what this psalm is not saying. Be still because everything is going really well. Be still until you have a sense of control again. Be still because the storm isn't real. Be still because there are no dangers around you. The psalm is written context of war and chaos. Though the earth give way, though mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though the waters roar and foam. I just sense that the Lord is giving us another invitation as a community in this season to be still and know that he is God. [01:49:02] (50 seconds)  #StillInChaos

When God reveals himself as I am, in the burning bush, he's revealing more than his name. He's revealing that he is. He is self existent, unchanging, dependent on nothing, threatened by no one, subject to no one. Everything else in our lives as humankind is subject to time. Our circumstances change, our emotions fluctuate. Yes, they do. Our health changes, our relationship status change, our children grow older and then have children of their own, Lord willing, our loved ones and friends pass away, our plans succeed and fail, but God remains. [01:45:39] (49 seconds)  #GodUnchanging

The soldiers think they're taking control of Yeshua but in reality, Yeshua is surrendering himself voluntarily. I think it's important inside of time, let's just look at this for a moment, it's just under fifteen hundred years roughly between the burning bush and the Garden Of Gethsemane and God is still I am. It's just shy of two thousand years from the garden to us sitting here in this room today, and God is still I am. [01:45:07] (32 seconds)  #YeshuaSurrenders

Man, I wanna know the Lord. I wanna know Yeshua. When I think about God being outside of time or if you wanna say looking at all of time at once, you think of scriptures that say he knew you before you were born, that he numbers our days. And if I start thinking in holy imagination to that day when we stand before his throne and all of our lives are before him, the only thing that I care about is looking at Yeshua and he's looking at me and Yeshua says, I know him, he's mine. [01:41:13] (39 seconds)  #KnowYeshua

The problem is not simply just technology. The problem at its root is the human condition and the human heart. Frontiers in psychiatry have found in a recent study that many of us who use smart devices are actually addicted to dopamine rush provided to us with a constant, easily accessible source of information and entertainment. They said, smartphone addiction and drug addiction have similar manifestations, both involve a strong craving for the target object, drugs or smartphones, leading to uncontrollable and repeated use, and both are related to the activation of the brain's reward circuit such as the dopamine system. [01:23:47] (43 seconds)  #DopamineAddiction

And the result has sadly become that many of us who truly love Yeshua, who truly love the Lord and are called to be his disciples are finding ourselves being caught up in this wave of distraction, and we're uncomfortable with silence, let alone boredom, and we're restless in what should be Sabbath stillness. But God is still calling us to be set apart by the truth of his word. Be still and know that I am God. Notice he's not saying be hurried, be more informed, be more intellectual, be more productive. He's simply saying to be still. [01:32:28] (39 seconds)  #DistractionVsSabbath

Our addiction to dopamine is such a drastic juxtaposition to what God calls us to do as his followers and disciples. And so, I want us to be able to start and turn to the word of God today with Psalm 46. And I'm gonna encourage you with this. Again, this is not an anti technology message, but I'm gonna ask that we just put our phones away, not because they're not great tools. They have Blue Letter Bible and all these things, but because it's so easy to be distracted with other apps and notifications. [01:29:05] (31 seconds)  #PutPhonesAway

While we live in a world where everything is competing for our attention and our eyes, algorithms are designed to just keep us scrolling and scrolling. Content is training us to be curious. Maybe the next video will be even better than the last. And the message of our culture is quickly becoming, don't stop. Don't stop scrolling. Keep shopping. Keep buying. Keep producing. Keep worrying. Keep moving. Wash, rinse, repeat. [01:32:00] (28 seconds)  #AlgorithmScrollLoop