Jonathan encourages us with this timely message. Even in the pain of this current crisis, God is working to build His kingdom. He has a purpose and destiny for you that is greater than the trial.
What’s going on, everybody? These are
crazy times that we’re living in as
we’re going through this coronavirus
that came from around the world. And, to
me, I was thinking to myself, Lord, is this
a plague? Like, are you taking us back to
Egypt with these plagues and it quite
possibly, that’s what it could be. I mean,
we’re living at a time where there’s all
these crazy nuances that are happening
that are totally out of our control. But
even though they’re out of our control, I
know that God is in control. And it took
me back to exodus chapter 7 through
Exodus chapter 12 when all of those
plagues were happening and God’s people
were experiencing them. Just because
those plagues were there to free the
people doesn’t mean that the people
didn’t have to experience the plagues
that were there to free them. You know,
they had frogs
coming in their house, they had the
pestilence and the locusts, all of those
different things that they were
experiencing. But even in the pain, they
had to remember and have trust and
belief and faith that those plagues that
were there, were there to send them to a
purpose, to send them to a promise, to
send them to a destiny, to unleash them
from bondage that had been
holding them back. And when I think about
the things that have been holding God’s
people back, I mean, building our own
brands has been holding back the kingdom
of God. When I think about the narcissism
that we face in our societies where it’s
about not the Holy Trinity but the human
Trinity: me myself and I. When I think
about all of the things that may even be
holding back the church, God is shaking
us up right now because He wants to
set us free from those things in the
culture that are holding us back.
Being more cultural than biblical has
been holding us back. Families being
split that now have to be together based
on all of these things that are
happening, those things have been holding
us back and God is using pestilence to
set us free. And so we have to keep a
mindset that we know that even in the
pain, there is a whole lot of gain that
the kingdom of God is trying to have
through everything that we’re going
through personally, collectively, and even
globally. I remember my dad told me this
illustration when I was a kid. He just
kind of talked about how there were two
kids. There was one that was a positive
kid, there was
that was a negative kid. And they put the
negative kid in the room where there was
a whole lot of toys and they put the
positive kid in the room where there was
nothing but a shovel and horse manure.
And when they watched the the negative
kid in the room with the toys, he played
for about ten minutes but then he became
dissatisfied even though he had a whole
lot of toys around. When you looked at
the positive kid, the positive kid was in
the room shoveling the horse manure, I
mean he was just shoveling
the horse manure and they asked the
positive kid, “Wow in the world are you in
here shoveling the horse manure? What’s
the point of that?” and he said, “Because if
there’s this much horse manure in the
room, there must be a pony somewhere.” In
other words, even though you’re going
through a stinky situation, even though
this is bad, understand there must be
purpose somewhere and there’s a lot of
complaining that’s been going on even in
my life when I thought about, you know,
all the stuff that I have and all the
the toys that God has given me and all
of the promises that I have in my life,
and the purpose that I have in my life,
the family that God has given me, I still
was dissatisfied and sometimes you have
to sit down to realize that you just had
the wrong perspective. All of the things
that we’ve been going through in our
family have taught us about the power of
perspective and I want you to be
thinking about that. What can you do
right now to shovel in this mess? What
can you do right now to actually have
purpose in this pain? What can you do
right now to actually grow closer to God
and use this time? For me, it’s gonna be
my family. You know my son just got on me
the other night. I was supposed to be
playing video games with him and he
looks over and I’m on my phone still
handling business and he said, “Dad,” he’s
six years old, Camden, then he said, “Dad,
you’re on your phone again?” And it just,
you know I was just caught up
like, “Oh, here I am in the house
supposed to be spending time with my
kids and I’m still not using it for the
reason why I’ve been put in this
situation.” And you’ve been put in this
situation to actually spend time. And so
I put it down, I turned it off, I created
a new rule in our house there’s no
electronics until dark. Because even
though it makes it harder, harder is
better and I know that there’s going to
be purpose in it. And so I sit my
children around the table with my wife
and and we learn God’s Word and yes,
they’re rolling their eyes and they’re
saying, “Oh my gosh, here we go again.” You know, all
of those different things. But I know
that this is going to be a fruitful time
because God is sitting us down. God is
sitting us down but it’s also a time
where even when we’re down, even when
we’re in our house we’re still covered.
You have to believe that this is a time
of covering. This is the time where God
is using this to take you, to take me, to
take our families, to take the church, to
take the community, to take the whole
world to a whole nother level of
dependency on Him. And that’s what my dad
has been teaching me. He’s been teaching
me to be dependent on the Lord no matter
what you go through.
We lost our mom, my dad lost his brother,
I lost my cousin, my dad’s niece, I mean,
all of these different things and all of
these losses that we’ve had in our
family have really just been teaching us
really how to look at God and be
dependent on Him and know that through
everything we go through we don’t have
to worry, we don’t have to sit in anxiety,
because we’re actually covered and we
know that there is a purpose in it. “There
is therefore no condemnation to those
who are in Christ Jesus.” We have been
redeemed by his blood. There are people
right now who are wearing gloves and
they’re covering their hands and they’re
covering their mouths because they don’t
want to get infected by this infection.
Well, understand all the believers out
there, those who have placed faith in
Jesus Christ, there is a purpose in this,
and we are covered in this. He’s covered
more than our hands and our mouth
from the coronavirus, He’s covered us for
an eternal experience with Him but also
to understand how to take his purposes
and use it right now. Sometimes when I
got hurt in football, it was an
opportunity to be in my own cocoon or I
couldn’t be distracted by all the
activity that I was originally called to,
but I could go back to the playbook so
that when I hit the field again, I’m a
better player than I ever was before.
Right now you’re in the huddle, right now
you’re in the training room, right now
we’re all marginalized and kind of put
in this situation of isolation. And when
we’re in this situation we need to get
back to the book, get back to our
families, get back to the little things,
because it’s the little things that
produce big things. It’s the little
things that will take you to a whole
nother level
and ultimately take God to a whole
nother level through what he wants to do
in our cocoons while we’re learning. So
continue to be steadfast, unmovable,
always abound in the work of the Lord
and know that this situation, no matter
how bad it gets, it will not go in vain,
because God has a promised land for us,
God has a promised land for his church,
God has a promised land for all of those
who are believers in Him and we are
going to get there together.
Let’s grow.