Draw near to God in times of crisis. Today’s message encourages you to do just that.

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well the folks I’m coming to you today

from the den of my home where we raised

our children you see over the last week

and a half I’ve been around a whole

bunch of people and a whole lot of

different places I’ve even been on an

airplane and was feeling a little tired

and given the fact that I am 70 years

old my kids were telling me that come on

you you’re in that high-risk age group

so you need to be extra careful so in an

abundance of caution we decided to just

do my ministry to you today from my den

because I want everybody to be safe I’m

just able one of my family members who

has on the camera and has on the mask in

the gloves to do this taping because

it’s important that you know we be

vigilant and in protect not only

ourselves but the people we love and the

people that we are around so I’m coming

to you in a little bit more intimate

environment today to minister God’s

truth to you well needless to say we’re

in a major situation here a major crisis

but this is more than just about a virus

this

Korona pandemic is also Corona politics

its Corona economics and finance its

Corona government its Corona sociology

its Corona

you know athletics it’s it’s Corona

everything because it is affected the

systems of the world this is much deeper

if you just only sing the virus you

don’t see all that’s taking place right

now and I want to talk to you today

about a divine disruption I want to tell

you what’s really going on I shared with

you last time last week the principle of

how the world works

let me repeat it everything visible and

physical is preceded by that which is

invisible and spiritual so if you want

to address that which is visible and

physical you must

identify the cause and the cure to what

is invisible and spiritual or to put it

another way if all you see is what you

see you do not see all there is to be

seen something else is afoot here and it

is attached to the spiritual realm

that’s why I want to read to you verses

5 & 6 of 2nd chronicles 15 this is what

it says it says in those times there was

no peace to him who went out or to him

who came in for many disturbances

afflicted all the inhabitants of the

land’s nation was crushed by nation and

city by city for God troubled them with

every kind of distress here you have

described a world in chaos individual

lives worth without peace when they went

home there was family conflict

he said city rose up against City there

was community conflict then he says

nation rose up against nation that was

in a national despair and the common

denominator through all of them was

chaos no peace and I think you will

agree

everybody’s Restless right now afraid

nervous insecure no peace but what on a

catch your attention is the end of verse

6 of 2nd chronicles 15 it says for God

troubled them with every kind of

distress wait a minute God took the

blame for what was happening for God

troubled them God is saying I’m behind

your lack of peace and your disturbances

in the Old Testament when God wanted to

address the fact that people had

departed from him that would be judgment

with the death of Jesus Christ in

history God recast his relationship to

the world the Bible says in 2nd

Corinthians 5 the world was reconciled

to God through the death of Jesus Christ

so now God doesn’t rain down viruses he

doesn’t rain down fire and burn

though but we can experience what we’ll

call the passive wrath of God that’s

described in Romans chapter 1 verses 24

26 and 28 it says and God turned them

over and God turned them over and the

third time and God turned them over

because they would no longer take him

seriously because they had departed from

him he just released them to let them

see what life looked like without him so

he just like a dog on a leash and lets

the leash go he lets you run your own

way from him and then you run into the

consequences of that abandonment you see

what Romans 1 is describing is what

happens when an individual a family a

church or a nation departs from him it

creates a vacuum and we know nature

abhors a vacuum but it will be filled

with something and the something that it

is filled with when God is not filling

it isn’t too pleasant I’d like to

suggest to you the coronavirus is

filling a vacuum

due to the absenteeism of God now we

know God exists everywhere but I’m

talking about the relational absenteeism

of God and he says you don’t want me

you’re gonna have life without me but

you created a hole in which point things

are entering into it that you really

don’t want what we need to understand is

that what we are going through today

worldwide and individually is a divine

disruption he is disrupting the normal

natural and preferred order of things on

every single level individual no peace

they went home no peace cities no peace

nations no peace this is worldwide

because God is sending a world-wide

message what was the problem there were

three problems there were three causes

if you will

chaos that they were going through and

that we are going through and this

crisis that we face he says in verse

three of second chronicles 15 there was

no true God he didn’t say there was no

belief in God he said it was false no

true God

they had replaced the true God with

idols and called it God what is an idol

and Idol is any noun person placed thing

of thought that you look to as your

source independently of the true God but

true God is a false person place thing

of thought that becomes your point of

reference and that is called an idol in

the Bible the greatest sin in all the

Bible is idolatry because what you’ve

done is remove God’s exclusivity clause

no competitors allowed when we adopt

idols and they can be sophisticated they

can be technology money people

relationships they can be religion all

of those can be idols your career can be

your idol your education and your

degrees can be an idol whenever that

thing is placed alongside of or in front

of the God who has revealed himself it

will be rejected by him a distance will

happen from him and it will open up a

hole for wrong things to enter into that

space you see we like to use the name

God but if you’re going to use his name

the information you give must be correct

about him you can’t make up stuff call

it God and think he’s okay with it just

because you have the right nomenclature

we’re living in a day when God has been

put on the loop like those highways to

go around a city we want God close

enough to be respectable far enough not

to be bothered with we want to be able

to reference him on Sunday but we don’t

need him

formation direction decrees on Monday we

want to say we believe in him but we’re

not dictated to by him and so we don’t

wind up with the true God even when we

were praying singing songs and going to

church we often wind up doing it for an

idol that we use the name God for he

said there was no true God there was no

real God he had been replaced by false

gods but why why was there no true God

well verse 3 says because there was a

second problem there was a void of

teaching priest he says there were no

teaching priests you see a mist in the

pulpit is gonna be a fog in the Pew when

the pulpits fail and the pew becomes

confused because of the pulpits family

then the culture is not gonna be led in

the right direction the problem is the

failure of the church our churches have

failed with thus saith the Lord

we placated ourselves to the culture and

dumbed down the deity by ignoring his

word we’re not teaching what God says

we’re teaching what we think well we’re

teaching people what feels good for them

and to them we’re teaching what is

preferred and what is popular we’re not

teaching us how God thinks and what God

says and how God feels on every subject

you see there are two answers to every

question God’s answer and everybody

else’s and everybody else is wrong God

has spoken and he has not stuttered he’s

done that in his word he’s an arrant

errorless book to speak to all issues

for all of life and he’s wrong about

none of them

he wants to yes tell you how to live

your personal life yes he wants to

define your sexuality for you not have

you define it for yourself yes he wants

to define marriage and what it should be

and what it should not be yeah

he wants to define what it means to be a

man what it means to be a woman what it

means to be parents how children should

respond to their parents yes he wants to

define that he wants to define how

religion is supposed to work

our church is supposed to operates and

our governments are supposed to fair and

operate for the citizenry he wants to

define all of that especially since he

says I created governments so will you

go out and you create your own rules

about any of those subjects or any other

subject you come up with you have

insulted him and when the pulpits fail

to do that when the pulpits are giving

people votes on what God has said like

this is a majority rule situation when

it comes to what he has spoken about

then there are no teaching priests and

we’re not conforming people to God’s

standard we’re just making them

comfortable with their own standards

leading to all kinds of confusions that

we’ve already seen in our lives in our

culture and now in our calamity he says

no there was no teaching priest no God

wants to speak into the issues of

righteousness and justice and how to

handle the poor and equity and economics

and how to handle finances and all of

that all of that he speaks about and

it’s the job of the teaching priest to

declare it to speak it yes with love but

with clarity there should be no

uncertain sounds from the pulpit not

when you’re speaking on behalf of God

and His Word must become this new

standard the old book must become the

current standard by which all issues are

addressed by which all people must

conform and by which all systems must be

adjusted no matter how high they go or

how low they go no matter whether

they’re political or social or economic

or entertainment when we take the true

God seriously and when pastors and

preachers and leaders take what he says

seriously and stop

countering to the culture and start

speaking with spiritual authority and

Holy Ghost guts so that the people know

God has spoken here and I’m going to

conform it from church and then I’m

gonna go public with it in society yes

letting people know we care we love them

and we want their best but the only way

I can give you my best is to give it to

you what based on what God says so we

live in a world where the truth of God

is being watered down dumbed down and so

it’s being camouflaged while we still

quote verses or reference God but the

God of the Bible is being lost because

we’ve leaving the Bible out while trying

to keep God you can’t do it God has

raised his word above his name you must

take this word seriously that is if you

want to take solutions seriously this

must mean that the pulpits must preach

in such a way that it overrides what

people think it overrides what your mom

and daddy taught you it overrides what

your professors have to say it overrides

what the media is trying to are promote

when it disagrees with him now this is

time this is this is not a time for

sermonettes this is the time for serious

communication of thus saith the Lord

without apology but with love with carry

with understanding and with compassion

so we started off by saying there was no

true God the true God had been replaced

by false religion and that’s because

there were no teaching priests I mean I

mean the church is it supposed to be

more than just sitting on on a hill it’s

supposed to be influencing the

environment and then it says there was

no law in other words people had no

guidelines to govern their actions

do you hear people going around today

talking about well this is my truth

this is what I think this is how I feel

this is what I believe no you don’t get

to believe apart from God you don’t have

truth that disagrees with God because

then you call God a liar and you know

how we feel when people call us a liar

don’t you I think God feels we folks are

you a liar because I believe discard

even though you said that and I’m gonna

go by what I believe not what you said

well you just said God you a liar I know

more than you I’m gonna tell you how are

we gonna do this says there was no law

so guess what they wound up with then

and guess what we have now chaos

distress that God allowed not because

he’s raining down viruses but because

we’ve dismissed him and so it’s opened

the door for viruses and other things

that bring about dismay and confusion

and conflict and yes what he says here

is lack of peace well I raised the

question that it is their solution if

God is the cause and thus God is the

cure what’s the cure for the cause well

verse 4 of 2nd chronicles 15 tells us it

says but in their distress they turn to

the Lord God of Israel and they sought

him and he let them find him did you see

that did you hear that in their distress

well that’s the same thing that was

spoken up in verse 6 God caused their

distress then it says in their distress

so let’s look at that word distress God

used the distress to create the distress

because it was the distress that put

them in distress that they wanted to get

out of let me say it another way God

will let things get as chaotic as they

need to get until he gets our undivided

tension not because he wants to be mean

but he wants our attention we do that

with our children right we make things

inconvenient until they pay attention

this virus it’s a health crisis we need

to listen to our health leaders we need

to keep not physical not social

distancing that’s not the best word its

physical distancing because we still

need to be socially connected because

technology will keep us connected but we

need to keep our space yes and we need

to be aware of the symptoms and and act

accordingly yes we must be wise in that

but don’t think that that’s all you’re

dealing with or we’re dealing with as a

society in the world now we did it with

something much deeper in their distress

they cried to the Lord they saw him you

know what God is wanting now he why he’s

wanting a return to him from your life

with your family with our churches and

with the government yep even the

government since he created government

he wants to return him he doesn’t just

want to us using his name doing an

introductory prayer no he wants to set

the agenda call the shots and have us

adjust our plans to what he says should

happen that’s what he wants he wants

conformity to his will submission to his

authority and a relationship with us as

his people they sought the Lord their

God how do you seek Him you pursue a

relationship while simultaneously

submitting to his authority those two

things you pursue a relationship while

simultaneously submitting to his rule

his authority where he has the last word

over your word over your thoughts wow

you were raised their distress woke them

up

we better get right with God so our

distress and like a peace can be

corrected by the God who gave us the

distress and it says he let them find

him

you know why because that’s what he’s

after all the time

he’s after that he’s after this

relationship but we’re out of alignment

we’re not we’re not in alignment with

him and he’s letting us know through

these things that happen yeah I know

that a lot of people will dismiss this

because it doesn’t look like it okay

this sounds more religious than

practical to the virus no it is at the

core of the issue of the virus so I want

to challenge you now I want to challenge

you to make knowing him drawing near to

him connecting with him your goal he’s

given you a direct route by the way it’s

the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of the

Living God born of a virgin lived the

perfect life died a substitutionary

death in your place for your sins to

give you the gift of eternal life and

connect you with the father and anybody

who comes to Christ for the forgiveness

of sins and for the gift of eternal life

you’ll grant it to you for free don’t

have to earn it can’t work for it but

he’s giving it away if you come to the

Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation you

will ignite a relationship with God and

then as you cultivate that relationship

reading his words reading the book of

John reading Isaiah 42 understand how

he’s in control of everything and using

this word to get the know that God

through his son you’ll begin to see he

can speak peace while we wait on him

solving to solve problems well I’m in

the denim I was married to my wife for

49 and a half years of course a few

months ago she went into eternity due to

about with cancer but I was reflecting

on how we met when we met I saw this

lovely young lady but she was not

responding at the rate to which I was a

custom girlfriend was moving a little

slow so I had to I had to help her

sister how I’d help out so I took it to

an amusement park in Baltimore Maryland

called the wild mouse wild mouse was a

roller coaster for two it did all those

rollercoaster things but it did

something else they’d act like it was

going to jump off the track and

turn real quick I said give me two

tickets they gave me two tickets we got

on the wild mouse the wilder the ride

got the closer she got by the time the

ride was over you thought only one

person got on it see I created the

stress because I wanted her to get

closer to me

you see that’s what God does he creates

distress because he’s after a

relationship but he knows as long as you

don’t have that distress you’re gonna

stay on your side he doesn’t want you

that far from him God has put us in

distress or allowed us to be in distress

because he wants us to snuggle up close

now is the time to run to him seek Him

pursue him be passionate afters after

him to come to know his son and through

his son come to know him to get into his

word and grow in your commitment to him

and then to submit to whatever he says

whether you feel it or not because your

feelings must be the caboose not the

engine and then let’s watch him deal

with the problems because he had the

ability to draw near to us and change us

may God bless you as you pursue him and

as our culture learns that the God who

causes the distress also alleviates the

distress when we return to Him

you