WWUTT 1175 Q&A Praising God, Signs of Wrath, Trustworthy News, Is This the End?

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Is every disaster or calamity an expression of God's wrath? What kinds of sources could we be turning to when it comes to reliable info about this pandemic?

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Is this a sign of the end times? The answers to these questions when we understand the text. This is when we understand the text, a daily

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Bible study in the word of Christ. That we may always keep our eyes on Jesus, for the son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

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Tell your friends about our website, www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you,

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Becky. You're welcome. It is part two of our Q &A twofer. Part two. That we started yesterday.

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And I began yesterday's Q &A with some news that I forgot to mention, which was that we're now on Spotify.

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Yes. There was another piece of news I forgot to mention. Okay. So I got an email, can't remember when this was.

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You might have a better memory of this than I do, but. Not really. It was late at night, just checking my email, came up from like iTunes,

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Apple iPod, or Apple iPod. Apple Podcasts. Okay.

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And they had sent an email out to me and said, you are the number 29 most popular podcast in Angola.

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That's so awesome. Hi, Angola. That's right. Right there in Africa.

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South Africa. Here's the map right here. And you'll see that Zambia is right there next to Angola.

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Zambia is where Conrad Mbewe is at his churches, African Christian University is there,

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Vodie Bachum's been there. So I wonder if their outreach is one of the reasons why we've had some popularity in Angola.

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Maybe. But that was pretty cool. I probably cheered down here in my study late at night when

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I read that and succeeded in not waking you up. Yep, it's far enough away from the upstairs.

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But yeah, South Africa, that's pretty awesome. Yeah, so thank you everyone in Angola for listening to when we understand the text.

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I also received a message. I couldn't find where I left this message. So I don't remember if I read it on Twitter or Facebook messages, or if it was sent to one of my email accounts, but there was a fellow from Wyoming who had emailed me with a question and had mentioned to me that he listens to when we understand the text on his tractor because the

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Q &A was broadcast on a local radio station there. Oh, so they're only getting part two.

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Yeah, that's right. You have to go back to yesterday's episode for part one of today's

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Q &A. But he said they air them a week back. Just, I guess, just to make sure we've got the podcast up there.

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Right, sometimes it happens. I don't know what station that is in Wyoming though, because like I said,

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I misplaced the email. So if anybody knows, and you're hearing me talk about this, please email me and say, oh yeah,

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I listened to you on K da da da da da in Wyoming. It's going to start with a K. Yeah. I'd like to know.

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I'd like to know what radio station that is. And thank you so much for carrying us. Yeah, thanks. I sure appreciate that.

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This is part two of our Q &A. Actually on Friday. And now we're actually on Friday.

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Yesterday I mentioned it was Friday, and it wasn't, it's Thursday. That's right. But today is Friday. Yes. We take questions from listeners, and you can send those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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So for those of you who are new, we don't normally do Thursday Q &A. Right. We made an exception.

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That was a special day. Yes, because everybody is being quarantined. And I asked a lot of questions on the last

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Q &A. Well yeah, we went through Psalm 91. We did. And actually, I'm gonna begin with a

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Psalm here. I wasn't planning on doing this, but we were reading it, and I still have my. Oh, I kind of interrupted your flow in the beginning of all the info, like the website and whatnot.

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I mean, not website, email address. I mentioned it. I got it out. whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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Oh, okay. Then I was gonna go to the questions, but you jumped right in. Oh. But that's fine. Well, I jumped in at the right spot then.

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That's right, because I'll come right here to Psalm 107. Now we did this on the podcast a couple of weeks ago.

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I was in Psalm 107. Okay. But I wanted to come back into verse 10 here, where it says, some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons, for they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the

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Most High. So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor. They fell down with none to help.

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Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.

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He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and burst their bonds apart. Let them thank the

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Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man, for he shatters the doors of bronze and cuts into the bars of iron.

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So you have a people who were afflicted because of their sin, and then cried to the Lord and he delivered them, and they thanked the

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Lord for his steadfast love. We did this Psalm in our Bible study on Thursday evening that we host here at our house.

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We did this a couple of weeks ago on the podcast, but we're only as far as 107. Yeah. Psalm 107 in our own

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Thursday night Bible study. Starting in that. Yes. And in preparation for teaching it in my own home, which

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I didn't do this when I did it on the podcast, but I went to John Calvin's commentary on Psalm 107 and listened to what he says related to these verses.

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Psalm 107 verses 10 through 16 in his commentary on this Psalm. He says, it is a very different kind of practical wisdom which

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God expects at our hands, namely that we ought to meditate on his judgments in the time of adversity and on his goodness in delivering us from it.

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For surely it is not by mere chance that a person falls into the hands of enemies or robbers, neither is it by chance that he is rescued from them.

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But this is what we must constantly keep in view, that all afflictions are

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God's rod and that therefore there is no remedy for them elsewhere than in his grace.

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If a person fall into the hands of robbers or pirates and be not instantly murdered, but giving up all hope of life, expects death every moment, surely the deliverance of such a one is a striking proof of the grace of God, which shines the more illustrously in proportion to the fewness of the number who make their escape.

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Thus then should a great number perish, the circumstance ought by no means to diminish the praises of God.

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In any and all circumstances, we praise God. For we know it is by the grace of God that we are delivered.

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The only comfort that we have in any given situation, good or bad, is the grace of God.

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And this is really what Paul meant in Philippians 4 .13, where he said, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

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What? It wasn't that God gives me strength to win a marathon or an

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NBA championship. Sorry, hate to break it to you. Are you sorry? But it's the apostle

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Paul saying, whether it's in good times or in bad, I know what it's like to have plenty. I know what it's like to be in need.

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I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Our ability to endure and hold fast to Christ when things are good is in Christ who strengthens us.

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Our ability to hold fast to God and praise him even in our afflictions is through Christ who gives us strength.

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So in all things, Christ gets glory. And as we see here in Psalm 107, afflictions that come upon those who do well and afflictions upon those who do evil.

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And yet in all things, God is glorified. So God will be glorified in the deliverance of the righteous and God will be glorified in the destruction of the unrighteous.

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And God can use the same event to bring about both. So you take, for example, the coronavirus pandemic scare that's encompassing the world right now.

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Right, it's crazy. And yet God is gonna use even this crisis to bring him glory.

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It will be through the righteous who are delivered from it and give God praise. And it will be even in the unrighteous who are destroyed as a result of this pandemic that affects the world.

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In all things, God is gonna get the glory. So turn to the Lord and praise him.

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Again, as Calvin said, thus then should a great number perish, this circumstance ought by no means to diminish the praises of God.

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So there was my little return to Psalm 107 there. And now we'll head back to some more questions.

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As I said yesterday, some of these having to do with coronavirus. And I hope Ryan doesn't mind.

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He didn't send me this as an official question to be asked on the broadcast, but I'm gonna read his question anyway. He said,

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Gabe, if I might get your opinion on something, would you say that every seeking disaster is an expression of God's wrath upon a people, i .e.

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coronavirus, volcano, et cetera, et cetera. Would every disaster be an expression of God's wrath upon a people?

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And the answer to that question is yes. Yeah. Now it may not be. And I mean, everything listens to his word.

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He just speaks it and it happens. Well, it's Isaiah 45, seven that says, I, the Lord cause calamity.

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So everything that happens is in the providence of God. Even when God gave

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Satan permission to afflict Job, Job rightly said of these things, the

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Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Even though Satan may have been the agent that was used to afflict

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Job, it was still in the providence of God. But sometimes, and most of the time, it is most directly the

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Lord who causes these disasters to come. Just as we've been reading in Romans 1, verse 18, as we've been studying through Romans on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on the broadcast, verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

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So we know that the wrath of God is observed in all of creation. Yes. The very fact that we die.

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Yeah. Is evidence of God's wrath. Right, and he also disciplines.

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I mean, who else is he gonna allow to discipline us? Yes, the afflictions. Well, okay, so for us who are walking in righteousness, who are following in Christ, this is a discipline is an act of love.

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But for those who are not in Christ. They're being punished. Yeah, the affliction would be to bring them to repentance, but if not, it will result in ultimately the final judgment, the final wrath of God.

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See like whenever we use that word wrath, it doesn't always mean like the final judgment of God being poured out.

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Right, of course not. John MacArthur has a great sermon on this, which is, oh,

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I can't remember the title of it, but I've got it linked on the website. If you go to links and you go to notable sermons, it's on there.

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Okay. And it's, I think it's God's wrath of abandonment upon a nation, something like that.

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It's gonna bug me enough, I'm gonna have to go look it up here in a minute. But anyway, so we have various kinds of wrath and he talks about that in the sermon, like different kinds of God's wrath.

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And there is a final judgment, which of course is coming and that will be the apocalyptic wrath that God pours out on mankind.

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But we're talking - The one that nobody will miss. Yeah, everybody is gonna witness that. Everybody.

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Of course, we witness the general revelation of his wrath as well.

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And the fact that all things have been subjected to futility. Oh, I see. Yeah, but I mean like with Christ coming back, nobody's gonna miss that.

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Yeah, that judgment, everybody will be there for that one. Yep. But even in Psalm 107, so as I referenced

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Psalm 107 a moment ago, in verse 23, some went down to the sea and ships doing business on the great waters.

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They saw the deeds of the Lord, His wondrous works in the deep, for He commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea.

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They mounted up to heaven. They went down to the depths. Their courage melted away in their evil plight.

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They reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits end. Then they cried to the

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Lord in their trouble and He delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still and the waves of the sea were hushed.

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Then they were glad that the waters were quiet and He brought them to their desired haven. Let them thank the

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Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man. Same phrase I read earlier. Let them extol

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Him in the congregation of the people and praise Him in the assembly of the elders. So this is a demonstration of the power of God even in creation in nature.

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So to bring a people to repentance and the worship of God. The Apostle Paul, even talking in 2

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Corinthians 1 about the afflictions that they endured for sharing the gospel. And he says in verse nine, we thought that we had received the sentence of death, but this was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.

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Right. So for us who are brought to the Lord in Christ, these things are a discipline in love to bring us to Him.

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But for those who do not know Christ, yeah, it becomes a serious affliction that eventually leads to grief, death, and ultimately the judgment of God.

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Yeah. So may we in all circumstances turn to Christ. Everything that is calamitous in this world is a demonstration of the wrath of God.

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Now it may not be a circumstantial wrath. Like it may not be, well, this people is turning to this sin and so I'm now going to cause this disaster on this people because of their sin.

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Okay. So it may not be that. There are times when I think it would be that. Right. God knows everything.

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So He's, I mean, with Him being all knowing, He would know what would work and what wouldn't to bring

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His people back to Him. Yes. But providentially God working to bring a people to repentance.

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Yeah. Or to bring a people to judgment. Right. And like I said, He's gonna be glorified either way through this event.

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Yes. Through the righteous who are delivered and praise Him or through the unrighteous who are destroyed.

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So yeah, I do believe that when we see disaster occur, it is an expression of God's wrath.

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May not be a final judgment, may not be a circumstantial judgment, but it is all the judgment of God because God has cursed creation and subjected all things to futility because of the sin of man.

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Yeah. So we see things in this constant state of upheaval for that reason, because we sinned against God.

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That's God's wrath. Yeah. All right, next question. This is from Jeanette and I actually forgot to copy down the reference

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Jeanette was making, but I think I can use this to provide a good, a good solid answer. Okay.

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For reliable sources here. Jeanette says, I know where my hope and security lies, but it's concerning at the same time.

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My friend who is from a different country posted this from someone from a different country.

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It was translated and I had to do the screenshot because of privacy thoughts. Personally, I just think it was something of a scare panic, but a scare tactic and panic, but I don't know.

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So it's related to the coronavirus. Okay. It was information she sent me and asking me, do I think this is legitimate or do

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I just think it's put together to cause panic? Like I said, I didn't copy it down so I can't read it for you.

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Yeah. But I think that even though I don't have the information in front of me here, Jeanette, I think

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I can use this to direct you to some trustworthy sources. We do need to be really, really careful about the stuff that we read on the internet.

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Oh yeah. Especially in the midst of a panic. Because the news nowadays is, well, it's not the most reliable source.

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It used to be truth, truth, truth, you know, uncover the truth and now it's like, ah, whatever way we wanna swing you.

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It's more, what do they call that? Persuasive. Yeah, they're revealing their bias. Yeah.

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And you can tell which direction a news source is leaning by what you're reading in the headline.

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Yeah. Because they're gonna try to lead you from the get -go in a particular direction.

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The liberal leaning sources, you can tell exactly where they're going with this. Yeah. They're already blaming somebody in the headline.

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Do you remember, it might've been a couple of years ago now, but they had like the same picture, the same event, but in two different states.

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Oh yeah, you see this. And so like one of them was a headline of, oh, it's so great, look at this. And the other one's like, oh, this is terrible.

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Yeah. It was the same event. I think it was the same photo. Yeah, it was. Yeah. It was the exact same photo.

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And it's like, ah, come on now, guys. You'll see that happen every once in a while or somebody will take -

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I love it because it's telling. Yeah. It's like, hmm, I wonder who they swing for. Yeah, right.

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You don't just take a news source as, well, they're just caring about us and making sure they get the information out.

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Yeah. No, no, they're trying to scare you or to make you excited or skeptical.

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Yeah, they're directing - They're getting feels out of this. Yep. They're trying to direct you a certain way. Everything's about feelings.

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And Albert Moeller had reported on the briefing earlier this week that people are starting to tune in to the nightly news.

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Like the nightly news numbers are starting to go way up in the ratings. Okay. And it's because when you're turning to a cable news network, it's just constant scare and panic, people talking over one another.

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Yeah. Who can have the loudest voice? It drives me crazy. I hear this all day long.

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I don't need to sit down and watch this on TV. Right. And then when you're talking about the nightly news, it's a guy sitting at a desk giving you the facts of the day.

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So it's not the constant barrage of noise and people talking over one another. So in the midst of a panic or a crisis like the coronavirus has been, people are turning to something that is less panic inducing, less panicky in their delivery.

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So they're turning to the nightly news. That makes sense. So now the nightly news ratings on the networks are starting to go up.

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And people are home. And people are home, right. They're not out in the evening anymore. But I would like to direct you,

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Jeanette, and everyone else as well to some reliable news sources. I had made a comment about something going on in the news last week on Twitter, I think it was.

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And there was somebody who made the comment, it's just a shame there are no trustworthy sources out there. And I disagree.

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There are some. There are some trustworthy sources. Few, but some. Yeah. I mean, you have to dig a little bit deeper to find them.

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They're not gonna be on cable news. And they're probably not gonna be retweeted by everybody. Yeah, you can just avoid those.

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It's good to screen those things. It's good to be scrutinizing with any news that we read, any source that it comes from.

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But there are some good reliable sources that you can turn to. Namely the briefing I've already mentioned from Albert Mueller.

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Still a great source of news from a Christian worldview. And he's even reading stuff that you would find in the

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New York Times, LA Times, online news sources, et cetera. Now, what is the briefing?

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Isn't it like a podcast? You can find it as a podcast, or you can just go to Albert Mueller's website, go to albertmueller .com,

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and he has the latest episode of the briefing right there on the front of his website. Okay, so it's all audio.

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Yeah, it's all audio. Right, it's no video, it's just audio. Well, I was thinking, whenever I think of news,

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I think of like written out paper, but I'm like super old school. Yes, if you go to the website, he's got the whole transcript.

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Oh, okay, there you go. Now, it usually comes later in the day than the edition of the briefing itself, but he's got it all there.

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So you can even find the sources that he's using. All that stuff is there through the website. Cool. So the briefing, a great place to go,

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Wretched Radio. Of course, you're getting Todd Friel's commentary, but then there's also news briefings in the middle of Wretched Radio on top of the things that Todd Friel chimes in with.

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So that's a good, reliable source. And where do you find that? Wretched Radio. Dot com.

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Wretched Radio dot TV. Wretched dot TV is their main website. But you look these things up as podcast.

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Okay. So just look it up. Oh, okay. So these are just podcasts. Whatever you're using as a podcast host, look up these names, you'll find them there.

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I think I missed that these were all podcasts. So I'm trying to dig at you. Yeah, okay. The briefing podcast,

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Wretched is podcast. This one is not, World News Magazine. And if you subscribe to World, you also get for free, just as a bonus, you get the

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SIFT, which is delivered to your inbox in your email every day.

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Oh, cool. Super convenient for me, because there's probably no better way to get in touch with me than through email.

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So I'm always checking my email anyway. Right. And Twitter's just too busy. I get too much on Twitter, so I'm not able to.

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Yeah, there's a lot that you miss on Twitter. There is, I do miss a lot. So sometimes Becky will say, hey, did you see this comment from so and so?

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No, I didn't get that. Yeah. But email, I'm always checking the email. So I get the

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SIFT from World, which is just quick headlines, giving the low down. Right.

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You can't wait for their bi -weekly publication to come out. They publish a magazine every two weeks. Can't wait for the next magazine to get your headline so you can get them daily through the

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SIFT that they'll send to your email. That's another great source. And also put out by World Magazine is

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The World and Everything In It. Now that's podcast. You can subscribe to that via podcast. I listen to it on RefNet.

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Okay. So it'll come up on RefNet in the morning, weekday mornings, and that's how I listen to that.

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Anyway, The World and Everything In It is another great, it's almost kind of like Dateline on the radio.

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They also have World Kids. World News Kids. Okay, there's something for kids too.

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It's a magazine, yeah. And they send out emails. Great. I think daily or pretty close to daily.

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Good stuff for the kids too. Sometimes multiple times a day. So yeah, it's really neat that they have all ages.

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So if you have one that is able to read because there's a lot to read and is interested in what's going on in the world, it's pretty awesome.

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Did you ever do the thing in school where they would have like the kids magazine, might be Newsweek Kids or something like that.

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You guys would read it together in class. You would go through the whole magazine. Did you ever do that? I didn't ever read.

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You didn't read anything? No. It was read out loud. Yeah. You're all reading it together. I got so bored.

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I know, seriously, because I'm backing up a little bit. I didn't read because I have dyslexia.

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And so I just struggled with it. And so anything that I could do to get out of it,

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I would. And so I was so bored because I couldn't read along with anybody because I couldn't keep up.

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Okay, but you're given a magazine and the teacher's reading it. You just never did that? No. Okay.

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We had that and I went to - I mean, maybe, and I just don't remember. But I don't think so.

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I went to two or three different schools growing up. And every school I went to, we did this. So it wasn't always the same source, but it was some sort of a news thing, magazine of some kind.

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I might've been out in the hallway going to the bathroom or something, I don't know. I don't know what class it was always a part of.

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I was studious, I just hated reading. When I was in middle school, I know it was social studies. So we'd read that in social studies.

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When I was in high school, it was in government class. Yeah, I never took government. That was always confusing to me.

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Anyway, so I was just - I was mentioning that just to compare that to world kids.

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Okay, sure. If you did that, I was gonna ask, well, is it like that when we did that in grade school?

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No idea, I'm sorry. I tried. That was a whole -

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You guys will have to email us in and let us know. I tried going all the way around on that and we got nowhere.

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And then if you listen to RefNet, cause I already mentioned RefNet, but sometimes at the top of the hour on RefNet, depending on the time of the day, they'll do news briefings there as well.

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And it's a quick like five, six minute rundown of news headlines. That's a reliable source.

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So there are some good places to get good news. And RefNet is where? Just that's an app, you download it for your phone.

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Yes, it's internet radio, essentially is what it is. So a radio station app you can have on your phone.

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There's some good sources for you, listen to them. When it comes to understanding like the things that are going on with coronavirus, don't listen to cable news.

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Don't listen to the president's briefings either. I'm not trying to dog on the president, but yeah.

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A lot is said and there's a lot of hoops to jump through to get to what he said.

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And he's stumping too. So there are some - What's stumping mean? He's promoting himself for the election coming up in November.

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Oh, okay, got it. I didn't think of that as stumping. Check. Yeah. Okay. He's standing on a stump and proclaiming himself.

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Oh, okay, got it. It's the Trump stump. That's what those briefings have turned into.

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So don't listen to that for your corona news. You have to, you're gonna have to rely on some other sources.

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Now he's got some other doctors and things like that. They're probably providing some decent information, but you still have to be careful there.

26:51

When I was talking to our local county health official here in Geary County, Kansas.

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Right. We were told, he even told us, don't listen to cable news. Yeah. Don't get your information there.

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You need to contact and talk to your local county health official. Contact a local hospital, contact the local doctors.

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Ask them about the stuff that's going on in your community. Right. So you're not getting it from the bias and you're not getting the political angle on it.

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They'll tell you, well, we're forecasting, here's what's gonna happen in our community. Right. Here's what we've been looking at at local medical affiliates, what they're expecting.

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This is what we're preparing for, things of that nature. Right. Now, when it comes to the level of the coronavirus infection, everybody's always asking questions about that because we don't know just how bad this is going to get.

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We know it's a pandemic. We know we're like supposed to be practicing social isolation, distancing, stuff like that.

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But how bad is this really going to get? So let me tell you the numbers for our community. Okay. And this is gonna be different for everybody.

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Right, definitely. Here in Kansas. Yeah, here in Kansas, we're pretty rural. Yeah. And the places that are most affected right now in the

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US are New York City, Atlanta, New Orleans, areas of Ohio. Portland.

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And yeah, well, not Portland, but Washington State. Oh, okay, Washington. Portland is being afflicted, but it's not like what

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Washington State is. Oh, I thought it was. Yeah. Okay. Because my sister's there in Portland.

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California being another location. So those, and what do those places have in common? They're major metros. Yeah, the major cities in California, I should specify.

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Yes. Because California is a huge state. That's a big state. Talking like a sixth of the country. Right. And Texas is another sixth of the country.

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Yes, it is. Yes. Anyway, so those are major metro areas.

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And hence, we're gonna see coronavirus infections be bigger in those densely populated areas.

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Right. Kansas and Nebraska were pretty sparsely populated. So we're actually doing pretty well as far as our numbers are concerned right here in the

29:00

Midwest. Right. But they're still expecting here in Geary County, Kansas, they're expecting by the end of April to have 11 ,000 infected with the coronavirus.

29:09

Oh, wow. Our county population is somewhere around 33 ,000. So you're talking about. That's a third. A third of the population in Geary County, Kansas is expected to have it by the end of April.

29:21

Yikes. That's how fast it's spreading. Now that's not the hospitalization rate. Those that need to be hospitalized with the coronavirus infection, right now, now here's where you gotta be really, really careful with the figures.

29:33

Okay. Here's where you gotta be careful with the math. They're saying that those. Careful with math? Yeah. We're not

29:38

MSNBC here. We're not the New York Times editorial staff. They're gonna be given a hard time by me for a long time.

29:46

They need to be. They need to be buried over that whole thing. I mean, these people are telling us who to vote for and this is the kind of math they do on the economy.

29:56

Okay, so we've caught everybody up on that, right? Yeah, this was the thing that Brian Williams did with Mara Gay, who was of the

30:05

New York Times editorial board. Okay. I'll just go ahead and play it here. Hang on, let me see.

30:11

You see it as a possibility if he wants to spend a billion bucks beating this. Okay, they're talking about Mike Bloomberg.

30:17

Okay, right. When he dropped out of the presidential race. Because he's a billionaire. He's a billionaire. Right. And he spent over $500 million, which he could have done that 120 times before he ran through his fortune.

30:31

That's how rich this man is. So he spent $5 million. He spent over $500 million.

30:37

Right. Remember when we were talking yesterday about the total accumulated wealth of these celebrities who had sung this song,

30:46

Imagine. And together they were worth over 500 million. Right. That's what

30:52

Mike Bloomberg spent on his presidential campaign. Right. And he could have done that 120 times.

30:58

That's how rich this guy is. Oh my goodness. Okay, but listen to this. So Brian Williams and Mara Gay are talking about how much money he spent.

31:08

And listen to their math here. This guy, he could do it. Absolutely.

31:14

Somebody tweeted recently that actually with the money he spent, he could have given every American a million dollars.

31:20

I've got it. Let's put it up on the screen. When I read it tonight on social media, it kind of all became clear.

31:28

Bloomberg spent 500 million on ads. U .S. population, 327 million. Don't tell us if you're ahead of us on the math.

31:35

He could have given each American one million dollars and have had lunch money left over.

31:41

It's an incredible way of putting it. It's an incredible way of putting it. It's true. It's disturbing.

31:47

It does suggest what we're talking about here, which is there's too much money in politics.

31:53

And it makes it difficult because what we want. Anyway, so that's what we're joking about.

31:59

So if you're confused and you're not a math whiz and you can't do that in your head.

32:07

Every American could have received one million dollars if the population of America was 500 people.

32:13

Exactly. With the population of America being 327 million

32:19

Americans, each American could have received about a dollar and a half. Yep. It's not even enough for a coffee.

32:27

They weren't even in the ballpark with those figures. No. And they were being totally serious.

32:32

They were. They weren't even like giggling about it or anything. There was no sarcasm. Yeah. They were dead serious.

32:39

And the awful part is like, it just gets worse because you think about how many people are involved behind the scenes.

32:47

Yeah. And it had to go through all those people. There was a graphic. Before it came, yeah. They put a graphic up.

32:53

A graphic. Who among the producers was like, oh yeah, this is gonna be great.

32:59

Nobody takes out a calculator. I mean, a calculator's on your phone and the phone is attached to your hand now.

33:05

Doesn't even need a calculator. It's just common sense math. It doesn't matter. Even if you're terrible at math, you can use your calculator on your phone.

33:13

Just saying. And nobody stopped and thought about this because Mara Gay was mentioning that she read this on Twitter and then

33:20

Brian Williams was like, yeah, it's astounding. And he threw the tweet up and they're all just like, yeah, it really is astounding to think about just how much money is being thrown around in politics.

33:29

Oh, it's just terrible. It's still a lot of money being thrown around in politics. It is. I'm not gonna lie. Not arguing that.

33:35

Yeah. But not a million dollars each. But it wasn't, yeah, that every American could have been given a million dollars each.

33:42

Anyway, so Mara Gay is part of the New York Times. Brian Williams, of course, an anchor with MSNBC and we know how much of a cad he has been.

33:52

And then MSNBC is Microsoft. Okay. NBC. That's where MSNBC comes from.

33:59

And so it's the New York Times and MSNBC together throwing in their math skills. Oh boy. And that's what they came up with.

34:06

So in other words, don't trust the media. Don't trust cable news.

34:12

Cable news. So when they're throwing out figures of coronavirus, it's like, yeah, but how well does

34:17

New York Times do math? It's just so embarrassing. How well does MSNBC.

34:23

I'm embarrassed for them. Yeah. I'm embarrassed. Well, supposedly after the commercial break, Brian Williams came back on and said, so we got our math wrong and we're sorry about that.

34:32

Really? He did. Oh wow. Mara Gay though, on the other hand, she wrote an op -ed for the

34:38

New York Times claiming that all of the guff that she got in the days following that segment with Brian Williams was because of racism.

34:46

Oh, oh yeah, right. Okay. It's just because people are racist. Not because her math is awful.

34:52

Well, I mean, maybe some of the comments were racist, but. Oh, I'm sure there probably were some pretty terrible people.

34:58

Right. Being terrible people. Right, because we've seen people being terrible people, being terrible people.

35:06

I've been on the receiving end of that plenty of times. So sure, maybe, but no.

35:12

Yeah. So yeah, you gotta be careful with who's giving you these numbers and these sources and things like that.

35:18

Right. Because. Sometimes it's better to wait till the end of the day when we're gonna cut all your facts straight. Now, amazingly,

35:26

I'm still able to remember where we skewed off onto that rabbit trail. Oh good, yeah, yeah, yeah, keep going.

35:31

I mean, typically I would be totally gone off of the subject at this point, but I still remember what we were talking about before we got on that.

35:37

Okay, yeah. So I mentioned that this is where you gotta be careful with the math, because you can get into like MSNBC numbers or New York Times reasoning here.

35:47

But the figure right now is, so using the number of people who would be infected in our own county.

35:56

Right. 11 ,000 people infected. Now the figure is that of those 11 ,000, 30 % would be hospitalized.

36:03

But you have to be careful with that number, because we're talking about a 30 % hospitalization rate only among those who get tested.

36:12

Right. And show up positive with COVID -19. You have to meet a certain criteria to even get tested for it.

36:20

Right, yeah, because they're not, in our area at least, they're not giving everybody a test who comes in.

36:26

Right. And from what I've gathered, they're not doing that. They're not doing that anywhere. But they're trying to make them more available, the testing, but it's so.

36:38

Oh, we've only been talking about coronavirus since December. Yeah. November, December timeframe. I mean, this test is not just rapidly manufactured and available everywhere.

36:48

Why not? We're America. I know, that's. We're entitled. You can order something on your phone on Amazon and it comes to your house the next day.

36:57

Or that day, depending upon where you live. Depending on where you are. So people just have this instant gratification mentality and they don't understand this test has not been mass produced.

37:06

You don't even have to pick up your phone. You can order it through your devices, verbally. That's true.

37:11

Oh yeah, you can tell, hey Alexa, order me this. Yeah, now it's. You're gonna get so many people in trouble.

37:18

Doing it again. I'm setting off everybody's Alexas. I'm sorry, this,

37:25

I laugh as a response. It's my nervous response sometimes that it's easier for me to laugh in a situation and through a situation than it is to cry.

37:36

So you don't want me blubbering. So I'd rather be laughing. So forgive me for not taking this.

37:42

I am taking this coronavirus seriously. But at the same time, I want to let you all know that is my, what do you call that?

37:52

My natural. Your disposition. Disposition. You're a good, you have a good humor disposition. Okay, sure.

37:58

That's what I'm going with. All right. You just have good humor about it. You can't fall into just general panic and despair over this.

38:05

But the point I'm making here is that the numbers just are not reliable because we don't know.

38:11

That's true. We don't know the number of people that are infected. So this has been inflated. Now, I don't think that we should have an attitude of this not being a big deal.

38:22

Because it is. It is a big deal. It is a serious and a deadly disease. And we're seeing that in the world, not just in the

38:29

United States, but Italy. Spain. Spain, yeah. Spain has been hit hard, especially.

38:36

But not panicking over these numbers and over these figures because they're estimates.

38:42

Yeah. We're forecasting how these things are gonna go. We're preparing for the worst, which is a good idea.

38:49

Yes. But we shouldn't panic over the worst. Right. And it's this panic is the reason why you can't find toilet paper anywhere.

38:55

Oh my goodness. Even Al Mohler has joked about that on the briefing.

39:01

It does not make sense this run on toilet paper. That just doesn't make sense why people have behaved in that way.

39:07

I could see the way things were going a month ago. And so I started buying meats and putting them in our freezer.

39:15

Our freezer is now stocked. We have a full freezer out in the garage because I was buying meat up before everybody else was.

39:23

At that time when I was doing that, you couldn't find toilet paper. I haven't seen a roll of toilet paper in a grocery store in over a month.

39:31

I don't know why people were doing that, but they were hoarding bottled water and toilet paper. And I was buying up meat.

39:37

Because I knew in three to four weeks, I was not gonna find any more meat products. People were gonna be rushing the grocery store and buying up the meat and bread.

39:46

So I was getting that stuff early. And now sure enough, when I go to the store, the meat fridge is gone.

39:53

Everything is cleared out of the meat fridge. And I can't find any bread either. Well, I appreciate you going to the grocery store for us.

40:00

Yes. All the time. So I've stocked up on that. And I've been listening to numbers, like I chat with the guys when

40:06

I go to the grocery store late at night, because they're a lot chattier than they are during the day. They're way busier during the day.

40:13

So they're even planning on like whittling down staff at the store. They're preparing for when the virus is gonna hit the hardest in our own community.

40:22

So some of those things we do take seriously and it's right to prepare for those things, not in a panic, but just being wise.

40:28

Right. And unfortunately we've had enough toilet paper. So far, yep.

40:34

But we're gonna run out. We are, we're a family of six. We can't find it anywhere. With a potty training toddler.

40:41

Oh yeah. That's true. We, a girl on top of that. I just, you know, we got to mention there's a difference between potty training a boy and potty training a little girl.

40:51

It's very true, very true. Anyway, so wisely preparing for these kinds of things, just not panicking over this kind of stuff, preparing for the worst.

41:00

But one of the things I think to just put you at ease of mind over the kind of numbers and statistics that we're seeing is because these, we just are not seeing an accurate representation of the population.

41:11

You think that's what you're seeing when you see these numbers, but you're not because not everybody who's even had coronavirus has been tested to affirm that they have coronavirus.

41:22

And one of the things I've heard from medical experts, I've talked to medical experts personally about this and Albert Moeller even mentioned it on the briefing.

41:31

Children are getting coronavirus and not showing signs of it. And they become transmitters of it, but it just doesn't affect little kids like it's been affecting adults.

41:41

Now that doesn't mean it doesn't affect kids at all. There have been serious cases of this, but so far of everybody who's been tested for coronavirus, less than 2 % are under the age of 19 and less than 2 % of them end up with a symptom so serious that they have to be hospitalized.

42:02

So that's how this virus has been affecting people. This is why it's important to still protect your children because they will give it unknowingly and spread it that way.

42:13

Certainly, yeah. And yeah, why the social isolation thing is a good idea, I think we've gone a little overboard with it, quite frankly.

42:21

We either needed to do all or nothing. I agree. Because right now what we're doing is...

42:27

Packing everybody into the grocery store instead of their own individual workplaces. When I went to the...

42:33

Or the beach. Have you seen those pictures of everybody at the beach? Now, granted that's outdoors.

42:39

It's outdoors, but they are so jam -packed. It's like, how do you know that you're not breathing somebody else's sneeze?

42:47

And somebody, yeah, somebody has to just spit in the sand and if somebody walks on it, boom, you've got coronavirus.

42:53

So... Something like that. That's not a scientific fact. But it can be that easy to spread it in public.

42:59

It could, yeah. This is why you still find laws on the books today of like in your own town, you'll find this law that says it is against the law to spit on the sidewalk.

43:10

Oh, yeah. Why? Well, because that law was passed back in some sort of flu pandemic 100 years ago.

43:18

And to stave off the spread of the flu, it became illegal if somebody would spit on the sidewalk.

43:23

So that's where that law came from and why it's still in the books in your town. Right. Because people actually listened to the laws back then and obeyed.

43:31

Yeah, sure they did. Like they're obeying them right now. Well, more so than what they do now. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah? I'm fudging those numbers too there, babe.

43:39

Could be, could be. Anyway, talking to local medical personnel about what they're seeing, what the chatter is, what they're talking about.

43:52

And pray for them. Yeah, absolutely. We have some medical personnel out there working really, really hard.

43:58

Yes. They are literally risking their lives. Yes, they are. Because they could quit their job and probably protect themselves for a little while from getting infected, being in such close proximity with people who have coronavirus.

44:14

Yeah. But then we wouldn't have any medical personnel serving and helping out people in a very deadly situation.

44:21

Yeah. What's gonna happen when the medical personnel, those nurses, doctors, et cetera, are getting infected with coronavirus?

44:29

Yeah. Then that's gonna inflate even more the number of people who catch it.

44:35

Because now we're not getting the medical experts to help us and treating us. Right. For the things that we have.

44:41

So it is a serious threat. And there are places where hospitals have been overwhelmed, hospital beds are overflowing, or they've run out of hospital beds, things of that nature.

44:53

We do need to take this serious. But I'm just saying, be careful about those numbers and about that math. Because it's giving us kind of a picture, but not really an accurate one.

45:02

Right. I mean, the only one who knows is God. Yes. So who should we be focusing on?

45:09

We need to - Or what? What should we be focusing on? Right, precisely. That brings us back to what we've been reading in Romans, brings us back to what we read today in Psalm 107, that we trust in the

45:20

Lord. That we not be filled with anxiety. But again, that instruction we have in Philippians chapter four, is that with thanksgiving, we present our request to God.

45:30

Can even in these days of a pandemic, you trust in the

45:35

Lord with all your heart, leaning not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge

45:41

Him and He will make straight your paths. In all of our requests, in the prayers and supplications that we present unto the

45:49

Lord, we do so as Paul instructs there in Philippians chapter four, we do this in a spirit of thanksgiving.

45:56

Knowing that the Lord has rescued us from the eventual destruction of this world.

46:03

All of this is gonna come to destruction anyway. Yep, it will. And every single day, you're a breath away from death.

46:10

Yep. You never know when you're - It's only by the grace of God we live. Precisely, you never know when your hour is gonna be.

46:16

We are trusting in the Lord with every second, every breath that we breathe.

46:22

Let it be as praise unto God for knowing that in His grace, He has forgiven us our sins in Jesus Christ.

46:29

We have laid up for us an eternal treasure, an eternal reward in heaven, where all of this stuff is gonna be no more.

46:38

So remember the words of Christ, Matthew chapter six, where he says, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

46:45

All the things you need, the Lord will provide for you. But we seek first His imperishable kingdom and the righteousness that we have given to us in Christ Jesus.

46:56

Now, having said that, that doesn't mean that calamity is the sure sign of the return of Christ.

47:04

Like for example, earthquakes happen, tsunamis happen, tornadoes, hurricanes, pandemics.

47:10

When we see these disasters, that's when people start talking about, oh my goodness. It's the end.

47:15

Here it comes. The end is coming upon us. But remember what Jesus said in Matthew 24, 36.

47:22

Concerning that day and hour, no one knows. Nobody. Not even the angels of heaven nor the son, but the father only.

47:31

For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the son of man. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day when

47:45

Noah entered the ark. And they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away.

47:52

So will be the coming of the son of man. And so that's the way those days are gonna be like.

47:58

There are going to be places that are not affected by serious disaster or calamity.

48:05

People are just gonna be eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage. So don't just be looking for when things get real bad and then it's like, oh, now here it is.

48:14

Here's when Jesus is coming back. You might live in an area where things are not really all that bad. You're not experiencing some of these major events that are happening in the world.

48:24

But don't sit back and go, well, I don't have anything to worry about. The Lord's not coming back. It's not gonna be today, obviously, because life is pretty good for me.

48:31

Some people are gonna have it pretty comfortable. And that doesn't mean that that's not the day that the

48:37

Lord could return. It could happen any day. We don't know. And there's a lot of bad stuff that's been going on in the world.

48:45

Great tribulation that's been happening since Christ ascended into heaven until now. There are some places in the world that are so bad and Christians are being persecuted to such a degree.

48:54

They think this is it. This has gotta be it because of the suffering and the persecution that we're enduring.

49:00

Didn't he say that this is what these days were going to be like? Well, some Christians live in comfort.

49:07

Some Christians live under persecution. We should mourn for our brothers and sisters in the

49:12

Lord that have to endure much worse than we're enduring. All things considered, we have the scare of a pandemic that's going on, but you're listening to a podcast on your smartphone.

49:23

You've got it pretty good. That we can even have such availability of food to us that you can go stock up and then hunker down in your house for a little while.

49:33

That's some pretty good benefits. Definitely. That's a pretty prosperous nation that we live in when that's what's available to us.

49:42

So thank the Lord for that. Be on your hands and knees for your brothers and sisters who are being afflicted.

49:47

Some people are panicking as a result of this. We can't be like that. Don't behave as the rest of the world does.

49:54

Our security is in Christ. And love on your families that are next to you.

50:02

I will say that I've enjoyed not having to go to the office. Yeah.

50:08

Being able to stay here with you and the kids. That's, yeah. Yeah, we spoil you a bit. It's a good bonus. Now, granted,

50:16

I can't record a whole lot because the kids are running around and yelling. Oh, yes. But it is nice.

50:22

It's nice to be here at home instead of going to the office. Yeah. The kids were pleasantly surprised whenever you were able to stay.

50:29

And we've been playing games and. I have to say I love it too. It is kind of nice.

50:36

Yeah. So enjoy the time that you have. And certainly. Pretty soon life is gonna get back up and running.

50:43

Granted, it won't be the same. I think that it'll be much different. But at the same time, they're trying to get

50:51

US of A back up and running. Yeah, eventually we gotta go back to work.

50:56

Yeah. I mean, you gotta. Become lazy. Yes. Make the best use of the time. Yes. Be listening to good

51:03

Bible teaching. Get that honey do list done. Yeah, that's right. You got some stuff to do around the house. Yes.

51:08

Keep your hands busy. Don't just sit around and do nothing. Idle hands make. Idle hands are the devil's handiwork.

51:14

There you go. That's the saying. That's not in the Bible. I was thinking what's in the Bible. No, it doesn't say that.

51:19

It says something about being idle though. Yeah, second Thessalonians chapter three. If a man doesn't work, let him not eat.

51:26

Sure. Is that what you're thinking? Yeah, that'll work. I was thinking it was a proverb though. No? No, it's not.

51:32

There's not a statement in Proverbs that's something to the effect of. I mean, it does talk about the fool in his idleness several times in Proverbs.

51:39

There you go. That's what I'm thinking of. Several times in Proverbs that comes up, but there's not a statement that's idle hands are the devil's handiwork.

51:45

So don't be a fool in your idleness. Yeah. I was meaning on doing a what video on that. In fact, I think I did the script and I just haven't recorded the video yet.

51:52

Well, get to it. Idle hands are the devil's play things. More on your honey do list. That's right. Well, we're gonna wrap up there.

51:59

Yes. So let's bring this to a close and pray. Okay, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the goodness that you have shown to us, this kindness that we have received in Christ Jesus.

52:11

We were sinners. We were worthy of the wrath of God. We deserve destruction because of our rebellion against you.

52:19

And you showed us kindness and patience that we would come to repentance, that we would see our sin, that we would hear the gospel of the

52:27

Lord Jesus Christ and so repent of our sin and be saved. And I pray that we continue in this attitude of repentance and growing in faith.

52:36

And we never just rely upon this day we prayed a prayer one time, but we're constantly growing in the knowledge of you and in Christ Jesus so that in our sanctification, this growth in holiness, we would be presented before you on the day of Christ without spot or blemish or any such thing because of the goodness that you show to us daily.

53:00

So let us not just sit back and relax and be confident in ourselves, but let our confidence be

53:05

Christ, drawing closer to you all the more each day. As we study your word, as we as Christians encourage one another, as we raise up and lead our families, help us to make the best use of this time, as Paul says in Ephesians 5, because the days are evil.

53:22

Help us to be as it says in Philippians 2, lights shining in the world, doing all things without grumbling or complaining so that we might be spotless and blameless children of God in the midst of a crooked and depraved generation in which we shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, giving the gospel of Christ to those who so desperately need it.

53:43

As we talk about these things in the world, may we also preach a message of repentance for this nation, this world has much to repent of.

53:55

And it's not just a matter of, hey guys, just buck up and trust in God and it's gonna be okay.

54:01

Many need to repent of their sin. And this pandemic, this affliction that has come upon the people is to convict them of sin, that they might recognize their fallenness against a holy

54:15

God they have sinned and that they would turn to Christ in order to be forgiven.

54:21

May a people fall on their faces, oh God. May we mourn over the sin and rebellion that this country is so guilty of.

54:29

May none of us think that we are innocent, but all understand that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

54:35

And we are justified by your grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

54:41

We preach Christ and him crucified for our sins. He is our salvation.

54:47

As it says in Psalm 108, the salvation of man is vanity, but it's in this salvation that we have in Christ that you would be glorified.

54:56

And may our desire, the desire in our hearts be to the glory and praise of Christ our

55:01

King in all things. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Testing, testing.

56:22

Babe, did you fall asleep over there? Might as well, love. Did you see that the

56:30

Peeps factory is shut down? I did. Okay. So is there not gonna be any

56:37

Peeps for this Easter? Oh, they've already shipped them out. Oh, okay. I'm sure.

56:43

Just not as many. So no Peeps for next Easter. Gross.

56:51

Well, hey, all the candy corn in existence was made in like 1874. It's still the same candy corn.

57:00

Stop. Stop. That stuff is gross. I don't buy it. It's plastic.

57:06

It's plastic. Somehow they sprinkled it with sugar or something. It's like wax. Like those wax lips.

57:11

Yeah, yeah, wax, yeah. Yeah, that's right. From childhood, I remember chewing on. It's kind of like after you carve the candle and the shavings that are left, they made into candy corn and they've been selling that since 1874.

57:23

No, it's flavored sweeter than that. It's not flavored anything. Yes, it is. It's gross.

57:30

It's sweet. It's the wax that had dripped down from the candle making onto the wood floor.

57:35

So the flavoring that you're getting is like the wood and everything that the wax was taken from.

57:41

Molded into candy corn. Is that why it goes good with like nuts and whatnot? No, it doesn't go good with anything.

57:47

Sure it does. No. Chex mix. Cognitive dissonance. So good.

57:52

Your brain is convinced you that it's okay. And it's not, you're eating dirty wax from 1874.

57:57

I kind of like them. It's kind of like me and Whoppers.

58:06

Just, I can't do it. I don't care for Whoppers either. I know you don't. Annie does. Sonia does. Yeah, Sonia's thing with Whoppers.

58:13

John does, my brother. So they're keeping Whoppers in business. Oh yeah. And they can keep it in business all they want.

58:21

I'm not gonna enjoy it ever. This is your deal. Oh yeah, oh it's right there.

58:34

Right there. This is when we understand the text. A daily Bible study in the word of. Sorry. Try that again.