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It Is Written

John Bradshaw

God Knows

What a blessing to be able to open the Bible with you and consult the Word of God.

Let's pray first and expect his blessing.

Our Father in heaven, we come to you in the name of Jesus.

Before we open scripture, we pray for your Holy Spirit's leading and ask that you would speak to our hearts.

A couple of years ago, Facebook had an especially bad week.

Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger all went offline for technical reasons.

And as if that wasn't enough for Mark Zuckerberg and co., a former Facebook data scientist then testified before a Senate subcommittee.

Haugen claimed that Facebook harms children, creates division, and undermines democracy in its pursuit of relentless growth and what she called, astronomical profits.

A study that found that 13.5% of British teenage girls say their suicidal thoughts became more frequent after starting on Instagram.

32% of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, made them feel worse.

She said Facebook's more sensational content featuring rage and hate and misinformation is popularized.

She said it's causing teenagers to be exposed to harmful content and that in some places, and I quote, it's literally fanning ethnic violence.

And she claimed that Facebook executives showed blatant disregard for the harmful effects Facebook could have on democracy and the mental health of children.

There is no question, social media companies are powerful and many people are worried that these companies can listen to conversations.

Now, a few weeks back, my son and I were talking about something mundane.

20 or 30 minutes later, an advertisement appeared on social media promoting the very thing we were talking about.

Social media companies say that platforms such as Facebook or Instagram are not listening to you.

But people everywhere are sure that it happens.

When Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress, he said that the idea that Facebook is listening to people via the microphones on their phones is a conspiracy theory.

I saw a story about a couple who had a baby they named Harton.

And mum was always calling the baby Hart.

Soon, she said, she was getting ads advertising the rock band Heart.

Social media companies will say that what you interact with and access on the web and on apps outside of Facebook or other social media sites are part of your data profile.

You do know that these large companies grab data about you from all over the internet.

But what experts say and what the social media companies themselves reveal is that by using information such as where you live, where you work, where you shop, and then tracking those things, as well as what you browse and search for in different apps, they put that information together and build a profile on you.

Moreover, it might be that you met with somebody at church or at the gym and you were talking with that person.

The social media companies know that you must share interests with that person.

So in some cases, what that person has searched bleeds over to you.

Social media companies say, well if you're interested in that person, you might be interested in what that person is interested in.

Companies now track your location down to specific latitude and longitude, even altitude.

But, truth is, no 1 knows for sure the extent of where the information is going.

10 years or so ago, an angry man went into a Target store outside Minneapolis, complaining that his daughter had been getting ads for baby clothes and nursery furniture.

He asked the manager if Target was trying to encourage her to get pregnant.

But here's what Target had already figured out.

10 or more years ago, pregnant women tend to buy larger quantities of unscented lotion.

They load up on supplements like calcium, magnesium and zinc, and large quantities of scent-free soap and extra big bags of cotton balls, hand sanitizers and washcloths.

When the manager of Target called the dad to apologize, the dad said, I owe you an apology.

His teenage daughter was, in fact, pregnant, just hadn't told her parents.

So 10 years or more ago, without the internet's modern day sophistication, companies were already proficient at tracking and analyzing what we do.

It's said that social media companies know more about you than your family and friends do because they know your interests, your friends and your moves.

They know what you think about because you search about that.

Things that you might not even talk to other people about.

Social media companies can know where you are at all times.

Now I'm about to shock you, stun you, you might not believe what I'm about to tell you.

But believe it or not, there's someone more powerful than social media companies.

And this individual knows what's going on with you at all times.

Matthew 10, verse 30, But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Jeremiah was told by God that God knew Jeremiah when he was in the womb.

I mean, God predicted the birth of Cyrus the Great more than a hundred years before Cyrus was born.

I was kidding with someone the other day saying that Amazon will soon be sending you things before you need them.

Psalm 39 verse 2 says that God knows your thoughts are far off, or from far away.

The wise man wrote that God knows the secret things about us.

He clearly knows the words we speak because Matthew 12 says, "...every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." Prophecy shows us God knows the future.

And Hebrews 4.13 says, "...and there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him to whom we must answer." Now together we're going to look at a Bible story that demonstrates this.

It's a story in which God reveals His omniscience, His all-knowingness.

Now the chapter starts with a young man losing the head of a borrowed axe in a river.

I can't imagine axe heads were especially secure things back in those days.

When Moses gave instructions about the cities of refuge, he spoke of accidental deaths caused by, among other things, an axe head slipping off an axe and striking another individual.

And then the prophet of God caused an iron axe head to float on the surface of the water.

Young man went to the prophet, look you won't believe what happened.

It was a borrowed axe, the axe head was on the bottom of the river.

Rather than remain on the bottom of the Jordan River, you know it's really interesting, they could have purchased another axe, don't you think?

It might even have taught the young man who lost the axe a valuable lesson about taking care of tools, especially tools that belonged to somebody else.

But instead, the young man learned a more valuable lesson about the God who cares about small things.

You know, not very long ago, I lost a pair of glasses.

We were out of town and we were about to leave them behind when we felt impressed to look in 1 more place.

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God Knows

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