Hey, we're starting a new series today, and it's called Under Clear Blue Sky, and it's an epic story,

which fits the epic title package, but it's an epic story about Noah and the Flood.

Now, before we jump in, I just want to say if you're new to us or new to the Bible,

I recognize there's all sorts of challenges or obstacles with old

stories like this, stories like this and the story of Jonah and others of these Old Testament

stories. And it's why, honestly, oftentimes preachers skip these stories because there are so many

obstacles or potholes. I actually want to step in a couple of them, just to start right out.

I want to step in a couple potholes that maybe you might even be thinking, like some of you

are thinking you're worried about the historical accuracy of the story.

Like, can we really learn from something?

The truth is there's no archaeological evidence of a worldwide flood.

Now, some people would make an argument that there is.

There's a, there's a global flood perspective and there's a local flood perspective.

There's, there's people who would say there's no, there is actual evidence that there were

certain people and animals before and after the flood. So everything wasn't, wasn't consumed

the flood. And what about the dinosaurs? And so there's all sorts of questions about this, about historical accuracy. And I'm going to try to address some of those. But I know that's floating around in some of your minds. And I'm not, I just so you know, I'm not like oblivious to that. And then the second one is some of you struggle with the Old Testament God. Like some of you're thinking,

can we just stick to the New Testament? Like, I like Jesus. I love Jesus' teaching, but I can't

reconcile the Jesus of the New Testament with the God of the Old Testament. And if you're thinking

that, I'm so glad you're here because we're definitely going to address that. And while we're

going to address both of those things, here's what I want to confess up front. Neither one of those

are my primary concern. Neither one of those are going to be forward facing in this series while

we'll touch on them. Here's what I'm hoping we'll be asking. I'm hoping we're not just going to be

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