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#NoDespair2020
Shelton Place order. Self-quarantine, social distancing, April 8th in New Hampshire. I managed to find a face mask that will not be taken by the civil governing authorities. Commandeered, whatever they are calling it these days.
At least not yet. Alright, well, I don't know if you can hear the slight little cute adorable little cheaping behind me, but a postal worker came to my door this morning and delivered me a box of 10 live baby chickens, Rhode Island Reds.
They should be all females. However, they only guarantee about a 90 hit ratio, so I could have a rooster or two in there, who knows? But they're cheaping, they're kind of in a nice little warm area.
I'll show you guys a video of them in a little bit. Set everything up and they've got their water, they've got their food, they started eating immediately. Probably had a hard journey, the poor little guys.
But somebody today asked me if I was doing this sort of like an Armageddon kind of food thing, and I told them that the plan the entire time when I was moving was to find a place where I could have some chickens, because I've been wanting to have chickens for a couple years now.
And then when the coronavirus thing happened, I was like, no, we're definitely doing this. It wasn't a question anymore. And so Corona didn't spark the idea in my mind. However, Corona may have made it more of a certainty that I was going to have some chickens by the end of this year.
So anyway, pray for the little chickens, hopefully that I take care of them in a way that they can have live a long life and produce some eggs and all that kind of stuff. All glory to God. What an amazing thing, right?
God gave us these animals that can produce food for us. And it's so cool because, you know, the chickens have a relationship with humans that, you know, chickens can't really defend themselves, right?
And so we've got, you know, we can create these spaces for chickens to live, and it's more safe. We can keep them safe from predators and stuff like that. And in return, they give us eggs and meat and stuff like that.
That's pretty amazing. That's pretty amazing when you think about it. God's world is just an amazing world. Marcus Pittman was saying that there's a tree in Peru that has the chemical compounds that hydroxycut is made out of, which is amazing as well.
When you think about it, God has provided us everything we need to combat these diseases and viruses and all that kind of stuff. Hold on one second, my kids need me. I personally find it amazing that God planted a garden and he expected the man to work the garden.
I think that the plan was all the way from the beginning for us to improve upon God's creation. So God gave us like the raw materials, he created this awesome garden, and he wanted us to work on it. And not only work on it like from a utilitarian perspective, but also to make it beautiful.
He showed us where the gold was, the delium, the onyx, all that stuff. And I think that the plan was, so here's the raw materials and I want you to create, I want you to build, I want you to make culture.
I think that was the plan from the beginning when he created the garden. And furthermore, I think, after he rose from the dead, the Lord Jesus Christ, he appears to some people, they think he's the gardener.
I think personally because he was working the land. And it's almost, well, it's not almost, it is a recreation. It's a new heavens, a new earth. And I believe that Christ is reversing the curse, the curse of the garden that we got after we rebelled against him.
We did our own thing, we decided to do our, you know, we were our own gods kind of thing. Well, Christ is conquering every single enemy. He sits at the right hand of the father. All his enemies are being put under his feet.
And that includes coronavirus, that includes any of these enemies, it includes human traffickers, it includes all this stuff, all these sickos in the world that are being crushed right now under the foot of Jesus Christ.
That's right, baby. That's right. That's what I'm talking about. That's what gets me out of bed in the morning too, because I get to be part of that, man. I don't deserve it. I'm just, I was one of those that should have been crushed under his feet.
I was a rebel. I rebelled against Christ, but he reached down, he grabbed me and he said, no more of that. No more of that. And I died with Christ and I was going to be, I'm going to be raised with Christ.
I'm raised into a new life. You see, this is the amazing thing. I get to be a part of that plan. I've got three kids, three sons, and I'm training those sons in the way that they should go. And God, we're going to conquer this world.
The church of Jesus Christ is going to conquer this world because we have a good God. We have the ultimate ally on our sides. And it's not that he's just like this guy that, you know, he's a good resource and stuff like that.
No, no, no, no. He is the one who will do it. He is the one who will do it. And we're members of his body and we're sitting here in this land where there's enemies all around. Let's just face it. There's enemies everywhere.
Not all his enemies have been put under his feet yet. Many have, many enemies have been put under Christ's feet at this point, but not all of them, not all of them. We're in a target rich environment, so to speak.
There's all kinds of rebellions that need to be put down right now. And we're standing there and we're saying, look, guys, I see this rebellion. I see, it looks like you guys are doing a pretty good job, right?
You know, you've got the Supreme Court, you've got the House of Representatives, you know, you're probably going to get the presidency soon. All this kind of stuff, the enemies of Christ, they think, they like to pretend like they're winning, but the reality is that they've already lost.
They've already lost the war. And they're sitting here playing rebellion here. But the thing is, like, this is all conquered territory. This is the Lord's territory and it will belong to the Lord and his people.
There's no question about that. This is his. This is his. And I get to be a part of that. Now I'm an ambassador. So I'm telling you, look, here's the terms of peace. There's only one term. Surrender. Absolute surrender.
You must surrender or you will be destroyed. That's the message of Jesus Christ, by the way. I know people like to, you know, try to make that a little bit more warm and fuzzy and stuff like that. But really the message, when you break it all down, the message of Christ is repent or perish.
Surrender. Complete, unconditional surrender to the Lord's rule or go to hell. That's the message. It's like, this is really no option. You remember that scene in 300? Now 300, you know, in 300, this is just the mythology, right?
This is not the Lord. It's not an allegory for the Lord or anything like that. But it's like that ambassador from the Persians, right? Like they have a seemingly unbeatable army and they're like, look, here's the terms.
Just kneel and we'll be fine. We'll let you live. We'll let you still manage your own affairs and stuff like that. And things like that. But see, that was an ungodly king, right? So you don't necessarily have to submit to ungodly kings.
Here's the reality. When kings take their authority and they start doing all kinds of nonsense with them, like that king in that story was like, look, all will be well. Just worship me. Making some noise over there, those chickens.
Anyway, all will be well. Just worship me. That's what that king was saying in the movie 300. And the King Leonidas was like, no, I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. And you don't have to do that.
You see, the reality is that the civil governing authorities are put there by God. They're there for your good. They're there to be a deacon of the Lord, an avenger of the Lord. And all authority, no matter where it is, my authority in my family, your elders' authority in the church, all of that comes from God.
And so when Xerxes says to Leonidas, look, everything will be fine. Just worship me, that he's not operating under a real authority there because God didn't give him that authority to tell people to worship him.
No. So you don't actually have to listen when they step outside of their authority. And furthermore, I believe that, and this is something that John Calvin taught as well, when a king tells you to do something that's outside of their purview, that they don't have the authority to do, actually to listen to them is actually a sin.
To obey them in doing wrong actually hurts you, but also the king themselves. And so that's the thing. But the reality, this is sidetrack, side issue, side issue. Let's get back into our lane here. The reality is though that the Lord of glory is the ultimate king and what he requires.
So like the ambassador for the Persians, he's saying, look, guys, we're going to conquer you. This is unbeatable. You should probably just worship Xerxes. Similarly, we're ambassadors for Christ that are laying down Christ's terms of peace.
And Christ's terms of peace are unconditional surrender. But the big difference between the Lord Jesus Christ and Xerxes is Lord Jesus Christ is actually God and there is no other. There is no other God.
God is God, right? That's the reality. And the Lord Jesus Christ is a good king. He's not like Xerxes. Xerxes was a jerk. The Lord is holy and good and righteous. Let me just check my chickens here. Everything seems fine.
Anyway, the Lord is holy, righteous, and good. And so ultimate surrender, unconditional surrender, you need to lay your weapons down and change your mind. Start saying, no, God, you're right. I'm wrong.
You're right. Anything you say, that's right. That's good. That's holy. That's what I want to do. That's the message, man. That's how you surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you do that, there are blessings.
There are promises for God's people. There are blessings for God's people. And that's how you turn around all of this chaos and this terror. No despair, baby, because the way to turn the tide when it comes to COVID, when it comes to economic calamity, when it comes to war, when it comes to any kind of chaos, any kind of judgment from the Lord, the way you do it is to say, Lord, I surrender.
I surrender. I will stop doing it my way. I want to do it your way, Lord. I trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. I put my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't do it on my own. My righteousness is worthless.
It's garbage in comparison to the Lord Jesus Christ. I have faith in what he did for me and his people on the cross, and I will follow him to the end. I will follow him no matter where he goes. I will obey the Lord Jesus Christ no matter what it costs me.
And so that's the message. As ambassadors, there's enemies all around us, right? And this is why there's no despair. This is why I can run my family with joy and with cheerfulness. This is why I can buy some baby chicks in the middle of a pandemic, because what I'm doing is I'm obeying Christ no matter what else happens around me.
It doesn't matter how scared I get. It doesn't matter how much anxiety I have. My marching orders are simple. If I want God to bless me, if I want to demonstrate my love for Jesus Christ, how do you abide in the love of Christ?
It's very simple. It's very simple to abide in the love of Christ. You don't have to work up emotions and you don't have to get these warm and fuzzies and try to figure out how to get the warm and fuzzies.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Jesus Christ tells you how to abide in his love. You obey his commandments. You obey his commandments. That's how you do it. That's how you get the blessings from the Lord.
You obey his commandments. And we can't obey perfectly. We all know that. And that's why the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is so important. That's why our faith in Christ is so important, because otherwise we'd just be cursed.
We try, we could try as we might, try as we might, no matter how hard, no matter how hard you try, no matter how successful you are, you will be cursed because if you break one law at one point, you've broken it all.
But this is why we can obey and try to strive to get that, to be holy as he is holy. We could do that with cheerfulness and righteousness and joy. And we don't have to be worried because we're not trying to earn our way anywhere.
We're not. We want to obey the Lord. We want to seek after the Lord. We want to abide in his love, but we could do it with cheerfulness because we know even if we fail, even as we don't measure up to his standards, those 10 commandments we don't measure up in any given day, we don't measure up.
Even though that's the case, we have a righteousness that's not our own. It's an alien righteousness. It's the Lord of glory. It sounds like a good deal, right? I mean, like I can just serve the Lord with cheerfulness and joy, knowing that if I mess up, I'm covered.
I'm covered because Jesus Christ was perfect. He did the law perfectly. He never bent a rule. He never, ever, ever broke that law. He did it perfectly. And that's why I don't have to worry about that.
I can go out there and I can serve the Lord. I can buy some baby chicks. I can do what I have to do. And knowing that if I mess up, God's got me covered. I'm still on his team. I'm still on the Lord's team.
And I could still be that ambassador for the Lord. That sounds like a pretty good deal, right? Almost sounds too good to be true. And I'll tell you right now, it is a good deal. It is a good deal. And it is completely true.
The reason why it's completely true is because that's what it says in that word. God can't lie. God doesn't lie to his people. God doesn't go back on his promises. You read that book, man. There's tons of promises there.
There's tons of promises there. And so what I say to the Lord is, look, God, I'm trying to serve you. And even in those moments when I don't, Lord, I pray that you help my unbelief. Because when I don't try to serve the Lord, that's unbelief, right?
That's unbelief. But luckily, I don't have to like muster up all the belief that I can. And if I have enough belief, if I go over that 51 marker, oh, then I'll be saved. No, no, no, no, no. That's not how it is, guys.
That's not how it is. The Lord is good. The Lord is in control. The Lord is sovereign over all things that happen to us. And he's totally good. And so we can be sure that all things happen for the good of God's people, baby.
That's what I'm talking about. No despair. No despair. It might seem chaotic, but that Lord is there. Nothing happens outside of what he commanded to happen. Nothing happens outside of what he commanded to happen.
And he is completely good. That's what I'm talking about, baby. No despair. No despair. Because the Lord tells us what is what. What we have to do is just believe it and say, God, you're right. I'm wrong.
I want to do what you say. Whatever you say is good. That is good. And I'm okay with that because I've tried it my way. And it's just a disaster. And even if it's not a disaster, you know your limitations.
Let's just be real about that. Let's be real about that. So there's no despair. There's no despair. If the Lord requires my life today, which you never know, he might. No despair, baby, because the Lord is good.
If the Lord requires that I do something hard, I get arrested. No despair, baby. The Lord is good. The other reason there's no despair is because we don't have to be vexed, right? We don't have to figure it out.
What's the best course of action? What do we do? No, we've got the law. The law is simple, baby. The law is very simple. And so there's lots of room to decide what you want to do today. I bought chickens.
You don't have to buy chickens, but you do have to provide for your family. And so you figure out how to provide for your family. You use wisdom. You talk to counselors, things like that. You can think whatever makes sense you can go with.
But the marching orders are simple, right? And God's not a micromanager either. He tells you, look, I want you to have some kids. I want you to raise your kids in the fear and admonition of the Lord. I want you to provide for them.
I want you to protect them. I want you to be my ambassador. I want you to spread that word. I want you to do it all in joy. I don't want you to fear. I don't want you to have anxiety. I don't want you to despair.
There's these big things, right? And then he gives you some purview to figure out how to do it. You have three kids, you have four kids, you have one kid. Do you send them to Christian school? Do you homeschool?
What do you do? You've got some wiggle room there. You've got some wiggle room there. And so this is what I'm talking about, baby. All authority comes from the Lord. All authority comes from the Lord and you only have the authority that he gives you.
So if you think about doing things in authorities that he has not given you, you need to stay in your lane, bro. You need to come correct. Think about it. All that kind of stuff. Anyway, I hope you found this video helpful.
I'm about to go back outside. God bless.
