WWUTT 1170 Q&A Kung Flu Fighting, My Corona, COVID-19 Oh I Swear What He Means?

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What does the Bible mean when it says God will deliver us from pestilence? Should churches cancel services for the sake of everyone's health?

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And how do we talk to our children about what's going on? The answers to these questions when we Understand the

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Text. This is

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When we Understand the Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ, that you may trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

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In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will keep your path straight. Visit our website at www .utt

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.com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. This is a safe space that you are in.

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Yes. You are not receiving any infectious disease through the podcast. And yet,

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I'm in your home. Yay! Hello, everybody. And for all of us listening, you are free in this space to be able to refer to this pandemic as the

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Wuhan virus or Kung Flu. I knew that was coming. Those are perfectly acceptable terms in this safe space.

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Is it not elsewhere? Oh, yeah. People are going crazy over this. So, it used to be...

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Wait, what? Really? Yeah, I'm serious. Oh, I've missed it. It's racist. Oh. It's racist to call it the

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China virus or anything like that. Well... Even though that's not a race. No, it's not.

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Okay. It's a national label. It's the origin of the country that the virus came from.

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Like Asian Flu, Russian Flu, Spanish Flu, actual names for epidemics in the past.

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Oh, my. Even though the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times even, at one point, were referring to this as the

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Wuhan coronavirus. Right. Can't do that anymore. Oh, boy. You have to say coronavirus, which there's many of those, or COVID -19, specifically.

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Oh, that's why everybody's gone to COVID -19. Yeah, that was a World Health Organization thing. But again, this has all just happened in a span of like two weeks or something.

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Yeah, it's been crazy. Yeah. Back at the beginning of February, we were still calling it the

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Wuhan virus. Yeah. Or the China virus. Some were even calling it the Chinese flu because we still didn't know what it was yet.

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Yeah, so you got to avoid those terms that could, you know, set people off. Oh, boy.

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Not people are dying from this thing. No, that's not the urgent thing. Oh, no. Refer to it with the right terms.

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Yeah. That's the most critical thing right now. I'm just kidding. Anyway, I thought we would start with some scripture.

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We are going to talk about coronavirus. Okay. But we want to encourage with the Word of God, not incite panic.

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Right. So, Psalm 91. And the reason why I'm starting with Psalm 91 is this is a psalm that you've heard used a lot in the context of what's going on with this pandemic.

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But you're hearing it misused. Oh, boy. Because a lot of these prosperity hacks are taking

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Psalm 91 3 where it says, he will deliver you from the deadly pestilence and insisting that if you have enough faith, you're not going to catch this virus.

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Oh, yeah, I've caught that a few times. Yeah. From false teachers online.

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Paula White Cain, in particular, has asked people to sow a seed of $91.

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Oh, no way. Seriously. And she's chosen that number. Oh, my goodness. Because of Psalm 91.

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Wow. I just, I couldn't do it with a straight face.

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I mean, even if I was trying to be manipulative, I can't get that word out of the moment, you know, and trying to like, get everybody to just donate their money to me.

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Yeah, I still couldn't do it with a straight face. That's because you're not a fraud, babe. Well, that could be.

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You actually have a conscience. You know, I would probably give it right back if they tried.

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Yeah, that's that's the way this is going. I mean, if anything, if anything, this pandemic has exposed these health and wealth, name it and claim it, believe and receive hacks, has exposed them as being frauds.

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But people are still totally taken with them. Well, yeah. And clamoring on their every word. It's not, yeah, sorry.

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Yeah, you're hitting a chord down here. It's not, it hasn't hit everybody that they know yet.

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You know what I mean? Like once it's hit somebody, you know, then it gets a little more real. I don't know.

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I've never been taken by the prosperity guys, even when I was in charismatic circles in the past.

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There wasn't any of those teachers that had me convinced they were actually healing the diseases they were claiming to heal.

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Yeah, I didn't know they existed. Until when? Till you married me?

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Probably. I mean, you had Joel Osteen on TV and Benny Hens all over the place. How did you never see those guys before?

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I saw Joel Osteen, but I didn't really pay attention to him. Something whenever he talked like I wanted to listen to it because he was he.

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I mean, it's the Bible. You don't disrespect the Bible. So I would listen to it, but then just something about it.

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I don't know what it was, but I got uncomfortable and I'm like, oh, I gotta, I'm okay to turn this off.

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Yeah, he doesn't exactly do the, he doesn't do the faith healing thing. No, he doesn't. But he does.

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But he was the only one that I remember would, would, that I caught. I don't,

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I don't. The rest of the names were kind of foreign to you. Not really paying attention. Yeah, they were, they were in all my circles, even though I didn't believe in them.

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And then you would tell me about the hanky business, you know, like the sweat hanky. Oh, yeah. Send a donation and we'll send you our handkerchief.

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Yeah, my snot will heal you of all of your infectious diseases. No, that's the one thing that I, that's like my kryptonite that I don't do.

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It's like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles retro mutagen ooze. Or drool, I do not.

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No, so gross. Yeah, yeah, people are still clamoring after what these guys have to say.

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And it's almost like more than ever, but I would hope that you would recognize. That they have private jets and mansions, multiple mansions.

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Yes. I mean, if you really look into them, your money is not going to healing you.

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It's going to making them live comfortably. Exactly. Right. Very, very comfortably.

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There is only one person that benefits from the Prosperity Preaching and that's the Prosperity Preacher.

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Yeah, he's the only one benefiting from it. You donate all your money to this. Yeah, monetarily.

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You're donating your money to this and you're not getting anything out of it. You will not find these guys in coronavirus hotspots.

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As a matter of fact, I mean, this was just what was so laughable about the whole thing was a couple of weeks ago.

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This was a headline. This was an actual headline. Bethel Church in Redding, California, canceling their healing rooms for coronavirus.

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Oh, that's sad. I mean, how could you not get more obvious than that? Yeah, these guys cannot do what they claim that they can do.

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No, I don't get it. Never trust a faith healer with glasses, right? And that's Bill Johnson, the pastor of Bethel Redding.

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And that should be obvious right there. The guy standing in front of you saying, yeah, he has a bandage on his finger or something like that.

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The guy standing in front of you saying I can heal you and he's wearing glasses on his face. Clearly, you can't. Yeah. Anyway, we were going to do

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Psalm 91. That was where I was going to go. Sorry. I kind of derailed you a little bit. Now I'm getting worked up.

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Well, read 91 now. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the

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Almighty. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my

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God in whom I trust. Speaking of this statement here of God being a refuge and a fortress.

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We love that hymn. A mighty fortress is our God. Yes, and you have that line in the song.

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And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us. We will not fear for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us.

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Such a beautiful line. God is our refuge and our fortress. My God in whom

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I trust. Whether it's in depression, whether it's oppression, whether it's infection, no matter what it is, we trust in God and he is our refuge.

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He is our strength. Amen. Now, here's that line in verse 3. For he will deliver you from the snare of the

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Fowler, the devil's schemes, be another way from that, and from the deadly pestilence.

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He will cover you with his pinions and under his wings, you will find refuge.

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His faithfulness, a shield and a buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

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Do these verses, verse 3 and verse 6, which talk about being delivered from the deadly pestilence.

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Does this mean that Christians will not get sick? No, no, that's not what it means.

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Of course, we're going to get sick. Otherwise, the apostles would not have been ailed with anything, or been killed at all, or put in jail for that matter, or any of that.

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They suffered quite a bit. They would not have gone through all of that if that's what that meant. The apostle Paul got sick and that's what caused him to stop in the region of Galatia and plant churches.

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Right. And didn't he write to Timothy about his stomach ailment? Exactly. Yes. Yes. Why didn't

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Paul just drop one of those magic hankies that he had? Here you go. Here's my sweat. That's right. Drop it in the envelope. Send it off to Timothy.

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Here, rub this on your tummy. It'll take care of your stomach issues. I'm just,

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I'm cringing over here. I can't do it. Yeah. So sometimes they could heal and sometimes

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Paul even raised the dead. Yes. Raising Eutychus from the dead. Yes. But sometimes they couldn't.

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Right. Because it was all according to the Holy Spirit, the will of the spirit of God, not according to some magical mutant ability that the apostle

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Paul had. It's not like he was an X -man. Right. And I didn't make him perfect. Yeah, that was the Lord working through him.

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So even he got sick and by the will of God, his illness led to the salvation of many people.

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When Paul had to stop there in Galatia, preaches the gospel, plants churches, all because of an illness that afflicted him.

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So when we read that you will not be touched by the deadly pestilence that which stalks in the darkness, an enemy that you cannot see, and that's, that's a

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Kung Flu, you know, we can't see it. It's coming. It's gonna get us. We can't see it.

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Right. Nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. So what are we supposed to understand by this?

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Well, though you will get sick and you will even get sick and die. Yeah. Consider that most people who die died of an illness.

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Okay, the number one killer in the United States of America in particular is heart disease other than abortion.

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That's the one thing that kills the most people that is the deadliest thing going on in the US the deadliest single thing, but that's that's not getting sick.

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That's not getting sick. It's a it's a heart sickness, but you're talking about a physical ailment the thing that kills the that is the most deadly is heart disease.

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Okay. Okay. So what's going to kill you will likely be an illness of some kind you get older you die of cancer you die of heart disease, right?

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You could even die of anxiety just take such a physical toll on your body.

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There's any true any number of physical things will kill you so you will get sick and die likely.

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That's the way you're going to go some sort of sickness is going to be the thing that kills you but you don't despair because that sickness can't destroy you right?

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It might kill you but then after that it can't do anything. It can't destroy the soul.

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Yeah consider the words of Jesus in Matthew 10 26. So have no fear of them for nothing is covered that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known what

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I tell you in the dark say in the light and what you hear whispered proclaim on the housetops and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

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Now, of course, we're talking about persecution there that that tends to be where our mind goes right when we read that Jesus is saying don't fear those who can persecute you right?

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They might kill your body but after that they can't do anything to your soul, but you could also you could substitute pestilence in there.

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Yeah, plague and virus some kind of sickness do not fear that which kills the body but then after that cannot kill the soul rather fear him

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God who can destroy both soul and body in hell. It is the

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Lord whom we are to fear it Peter even says in 1st Peter chapter 2 that we are to obey the government and fear

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God. Yeah. Yeah, so as the government is making these decisions to try to protect people.

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We do need to respect that particular authority. We do there are times when resisting the government might be necessary.

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But in this particular case when it comes to saving lives, we do need to respect the decisions that they're making for the sake of the safety of their citizens, but ultimately our eyes is it's irresponsible.

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Yeah, you can write it. We're not a rebellious bunch. No, we're not trying to advance the kingdom of God through rebellious rebelling against governing authorities, which is why it was so emphatic by the

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Apostles to tell the to tell Christians not to rebel against the Romans Peter and Paul both during the reign of Nero saying to respect and honor the

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Emperor Isaiah 66 to says this the Lord says this is the one to whom

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I will look he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word and in the book of Philippians chapter 2 we are told to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

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Yeah, so this fear of the Lord that we have is a reverent fear knowing. He is the one who is the ultimate judge and he can destroy both the body and the soul in hell.

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Yeah, but only a but the virus or or anybody who oppresses us any persecution or anything like this.

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All they can do is destroy the body. That's right. But our soul is safe eternally secure in God who is our refuge and our fortress my

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God in whom I trust right? So yes pestilence will afflict you you will get sick and die but we have nothing to fear of it because after that it can't do anything to us and then we're promised that eternal kingdom that Jesus tells us about in Revelation chapter 21 where there will no longer be any sickness or disease right all the former things will have passed away.

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He will dry every tear from our eyes sin and death will be no more. And we will dwell with him forever in glorious perfection.

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That makes me happy that exactly that is our hope in our peace. Yes, see things like this things like this virus that's going on this reminds us that this world is not our home and it makes us long all the more for the kingdom of God in 2nd

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Corinthians 1 9 the Apostle Paul was talking about the persecutions that they had suffered for sharing the gospel and he said we thought that we had received the sentence of death, but this was to make us rely more on God who raises the dead and then in chapter 4 he refers to the suffering that he goes through as a light momentary affliction right and let me tell you going through hard times really does bring you closer to God or it should if you're if you are in the fear of God if you tremble at his word and you understand the promises that have been bound up for us in Christ will because you have no control over the situation but who does

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God does so we trust in him who is sovereign who reigns right who is still in control and beware those who twist the word because they're going to turn it into meaning something that it doesn't mean and in so doing are going to take away from the promises of God that are bound up in Christ in glory when these prosperity hacks are promising you health and wealth they're actually promising you less than what

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God is promising you he's promising you an eternal kingdom in heaven above where Christ is these prosperity preachers don't promise you that you listen to what they say they don't promise you that right everything that they say is is all bound up in this earth yes it's all in this world because they're like I'll heal your body okay well what does that do for your soul you're well yeah and they could heal your body you're still gonna get sick and die yep true they may have prolonged it you know most

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I suppose most folks yeah yeah get sick and die eventually I mean you're all doom and gloom here

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I'm reality it's the reality of the situation this way this is a fallen world we live in we can't put any hope in it this this is very true that is very true it is corrupted because of sin it has been subjected to futility as Paul reminds us in Romans 8 it is coming to nothing and in fact it is coming to judgment it is being the fire of judgment is being stored up in heaven to pour out on the ungodly and unrighteousness of men as Peter talks about in 2nd

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Peter 3 and those who continue in their sin and unrighteousness deliberately overlook the facts as Peter says they don't want to believe that God created everything long ago that he is still in control of the situation because some of the people that I've talked to I'd say a good majority they always replace

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God with something else oh yeah like oh God didn't make it but I believe that this happened it's yes right and I'm like wait why not

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God instead of this something like you just lessened what it is that I believe it's not even as as majestic or no it's not incredible at all yeah it's worshipping the created things rather than the creators yes and it's like what what are you doing this doesn't make any sense yeah

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I just had somebody just today said to me be thankful to the universe for every breath is a gift oh and I said the universe doesn't give you anything yeah

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God is the one who has given you your next breath so therefore be thankful to God trying to remember what their response was immediately after that it was something like you see you're believing in imaginary things or you're attributing thanks to something that doesn't exist oh see it used to be to each its own you know yeah sure sure it used to be that but now it's like oh you know

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I'm gonna dog on you even more yeah because you dogged on me I guess but this person who said that who said you're attributing thanks to thing you're making up things to attribute thanks to and I replied you're doing the same thing yeah you're thinking that the universe is some sentient power that needs thing that needs thanks yeah what in the world how in the world is gonna give you more because you said thing yeah right what is the benefit of that exactly that doesn't make sense whereas thanking

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God is to acknowledge that he alone is worthy of all praise yeah and and we can't do anything without him no yeah

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Jesus said that apart from me you can do nothing yeah and I mean not to say that we don't find joy in the things that God has gifted us with on this earth we we very much love our family yeah

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I love this person sitting across from me right here spending time with my kids and our friends and our family it's such a great church we have oh amen yes and these things are all pictures of what kind of they're just glimpses just small tastes of the kind of glory that we're gonna dwell in forever with God but this is again this is not our hope and my my wife doesn't want that burden oh no no please don't she doesn't want me to think of her as being my salvation no of being my hope on this earth that is that's

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Christ I am far from perfect yes our Christ is her salvation Christ is my salvation we're praying that our kids grow up and recognize that as well and I hope that in the midst of this of all that's going on that's what my children are learning from this how fragile life really is how uncertain tomorrow is yeah and that we put our trust in God for he is the one who saves everything is happening exactly as God said it would happen in this world you will have trouble yes but take heart

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I have overcome the world yes so our trust is in Christ it is not in not in these things and it's good to remember this now

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I think right now we're still kind of in a state of we're all under quarantine we're all in isolation it's not really hitting real hard just yet yeah we're just kind of sitting around going okay it's been you know a week can we get out of the house yeah can

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I go back to Bible study yet are we gonna have church this weekend yeah and then as the longer we go we have been in quarantine less than a lot of people yeah

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I still went to the store today yeah I went to Walmart is kind of funny I went to Walmart because Annie my oldest 12 years old she and I are gonna go play tennis together uh -huh she's really interested in tennis super tall she's almost six feet tall 12 years old but she doesn't want to do volleyball or basketball nope she likes tennis and so I went to the store

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I figured hey we're gonna use this time we're gonna go out and play some tennis I went to the store to get some tennis balls cuz they're all buried in our garage somewhere it's true or I threw him away something like that or the dog chewed him up something to that thing

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I went to I was walking into Walmart this young couple is coming out and they're looking at me with with kind of dejected look on their face they just have

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I think two bags of groceries between them oh and the guy looked at me as he's walking toward his car and he says dude

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I don't even know why you're bothering there's not a whole lot in there oh and I said I'm just gonna go get some tennis balls and he looked at his wife and was like oh yeah there's probably plenty of that in there go get your tennis balls and sure enough you walk into Walmart if you go to the right there's nothing over there and the grocery side the grocery side yeah if you go to the left all that stuff still here oh yeah

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I found my tennis balls there was a plethora of them nobody had been touching the tennis balls nobody's planning on doing anything in groups of ten or more yeah right but the further we get into this thing the more it's it's gonna sink in boy this is just it's never gonna stop yeah

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I mean when does when do we get some relief from this when do we get to go out and see the sunshine again you know and and visit with our friends and enjoy the company we're all making jokes right now about how oh hey social isolation

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I do this all the time you're just telling me to do what I what comes naturally to me yeah but at the same time

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I mean I look forward to those reliefs of getting together with friends and family and and making the the few trips across the the state and to see your to see your grandparents yeah both sets of grandparents that I still have and all that and it's uh that's hard yeah that part's hard yeah and our kids are kind of feeling it too wait we don't have a anymore yeah we can't go we don't have homeschool group yeah that's right we don't have

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Bible study anymore we're still homeschooled but we had that once a week you know we'd get together with our group and and now the kids are going where are all of our friends are we ever gonna see him again yeah so yeah that's and the longer we go into this the more you're gonna start feeling that so right now is the time to be remembering the promises of God the things you've been studying your whole life and maybe have not yet hit the situations where you're putting those things into practice yes go back to the

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Bible and read the same verses over again yes you as I don't you'll glean from it something totally different than even two months ago right it's got a different application yeah now for you there's a there's a way that this applies to your situation now that you had not thought of before right there was another time it applied to a different situation of course

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I think it was RC Sproul who said how many different interpretations does a verse in the Bible have one one it only has one interpretation yes there's only one interpretation that is the correct interpretation that makes this verse true meaning what

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God intended it to mean right but it may have 10 ,000 applications yes so it has one interpretation but 10 ,000 applications yes and now you're entering into another place in your life where you're finding a different way in which this applies it applied to your life in a different scenario now it applies to your life in this scenario and so we remember now verses 7 and 8 of Psalm 91 a thousand may fall at your side 10 ,000 at your right hand but it will not come near you you will only look with your eyes and you will see the recompense of the wicked hmm what does that mean well you may die and you will go be with the

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Lord in glory if you have trusted in and believed in Christ as your Savior but those who do not trust

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Christ as their Savior this sickness will overcome them and they will die and they will fall into judgment and the sickness and the death is the least of their worries for the judgment of God is coming next so in the midst of this we need to be sharing the gospel because as we've as we've been going through Romans 1 and I've said over and over again from Romans 1 16 mm -hmm

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I am NOT ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes right so we have to know the gospel this is the reason for the hope that is within us

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Peter saying in 1st Peter 3 15 in your heart set apart Christ is holy always ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within you but do this with gentleness and respect it was one of the last verses that I read in our

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Sunday school group at church before we broke we we've broken that group up now because of what's going on with the virus right

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I'm not gonna say what we're doing at our church it's different it's different than what we were yeah it's different than what we were doing but I'm keeping those things private because I don't

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I don't want to guilt anybody because they've had to make a certain decision based on the needs they know that they have in their own congregation yeah so I'm not saying we're doing this and therefore every other

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Christian needs to do it the same way that we're doing it and we don't want you to think that either we don't want you to be like oh well comparing churches and even your to your short your true right yeah don't don't judge your elders based on what we as elders are doing with our congregation right respect your elders submit to the decisions that they are making know that they are making the right calls for you unless you go to that one church that you know went ahead and met when where was that like Missouri oh no they're all over the place are they yeah there's there's all these charismatic churches that are saying

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I mean you're a wimp if you don't meet yeah and so you've got I and I their mass congregations like over a thousand people that are getting together in defiance and they're gonna pay a price for that when when you check your heart first and then go to the

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Bible and make the wisest choice and each each family can make their own choice as well because as head of household you would make a choice yes even if if you're not the pastor and you we were just attending a church yes make that decision for our family yeah don't think of have someone with asthma that changes that right that changes our our consideration in this right we have somebody we're gonna go visit somebody soon right has health issues yes that I mean that would that plays a part in all of this yes by the way so as we're talking about this and this is still kind of in the context of our going through Psalm 91 here as we're talking about this there are some who will say well if if the government is telling us that we should not gather in large groups anymore because we could be spreading this virus and we could be putting a person at risk are we not listening to the government instead of listening to the

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Word of God are we not defying the Word of God that tells us to not neglect to gathering as it says in Hebrews chapter 10 are we not disobeying

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God's Word by breaking up the Sunday morning gathering here's the thing here's the thing related to that and this

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I'm getting this by the way from Martin Luther okay he wrote a there was when the bubonic plague was hitting in the 16th century oh wow yeah you had

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Wittenberg University had been shut down sounds familiar yeah Martin Luther is being urged to flee and there are pastors that are now asking him what do we do should we stay or should we go and so Luther wrote a very lengthy response and it was called whether one may flee from a deadly plague it was not a short letter it was it was rather lengthy but this was published to help pastors assess the situation and what their responsibility is and he said that we have to assess each situation accordingly yeah and each person according to their task because different people have different responsibilities very true the minister is gonna have one responsibility the person who is employed by the government is gonna have a different responsibility right the person who is the head of the household as you mentioned is gonna have a different responsibility yeah so each person according to the situation and according to their roles and but all of this needs to be in light of the command of God to love our neighbor right we cannot neglect loving our neighbor mm -hmm and as Martin Luther was talking about this he said that there are gonna be some people who are gonna think to themselves well it's better for me to just go ahead and face the virus because if I don't face the virus well the bubonic plague

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I should just face the plague right because if I don't face the plague am I not saying that I don't trust God okay and this world has fallen anyway

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God has subjected it to these things like pestilence mm -hmm so therefore I just need to face it and I'm a sinner and I'm deserving of this anyway so I just need to put myself in harm's way and trust in God and my soul will be delivered okay and here was here was the apologetic argument that Luther gave basically killing yourself okay yeah here's the thing here's here's the contention that Luther made with that he said if you were to fall in water do you not flail your arms to keep yourself from drowning do you just fall into deep water and just go well

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I deserve this anyway you know I'm a sinner God God created drowning as a result of the fall so I'm just not gonna fight for my life and I'm just gonna sit here

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I'm gonna sink in the water and drown or if you're in a burning building do you not flee do you not stand there and say well buildings that are burning are falling apart and collapsing in on themselves as a result of the fall right so therefore

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I'm just gonna stand here because otherwise if I try to run out then I'm not trusting God right that was that was what

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Luther presented there so if we are choosing not to gather as a large group of people in one place on a

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Sunday morning because it could be spreading an infectious and a deadly disease to somebody is that not the same as fleeing from a burning building yeah it's not that you don't trust

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God right you're running out of the burning building so therefore you don't trust God no that's not it at all and the same is the case with this plague with this virus if we can take these necessary precautions out of love and compassion for those who may be the most susceptible to catching this disease and spreading it is that not a godly thing to do yeah

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I think some are beginning to respond to churches that are closing the way that the

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Pharisees were talking about the Sabbath day and Jesus and his disciples are walking through the grain field and the disciples start to pluck the heads of grain and the

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Pharisees are looking at Jesus and going hey hey hey they're working on the Sabbath day what is this going on here aren't they doing what is not lawful on the

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Sabbath and then Jesus says to them the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath so the

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Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath as this pertained to a man who needed healing they asked him the

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Pharisees asked Jesus is it lawful to heal a man on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him and Jesus replied which one of you has a sheep if it falls into a pit on the

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Sabbath will not take hold of it and lift it out of how much more value is a man than a sheep so it is lawful to do good on the

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Sabbath and and some people are looking at churches breaking up so not to afflict their members with an unnecessary infection and they're looking at this and going see you're breaking

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Sabbath Commandments you're breaking the Lord's Day now we're not breaking the Lord's Day yeah you can still same you can still regard this day as holy and give it unto the

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Lord it should grieve our hearts we can't get together with our brothers and sisters in Christ it's not like we're running home even more exactly yes it's not like we're running home going ah great

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I get a day off a church right I get Sunday off a church it's hard it's hard and heartfelt yes decisions that they these men are making it's it's not an easy decision of okay or it shouldn't be at least

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I don't know some of those pastors are acting like it's it's a day off so I'm sure there's some out there yeah they're kind of like oh hey this is what

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I do anyway it was just easier to cancel it than anything else but those with that have really put in the thought and the study in God's Word about whether or not to cancel

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I mean that's hard that's hard on them it's a difficult decision yeah and I had to I really had to check myself too because originally when it started coming about that that there were different governors or mayors or health professionals that were saying we're we're gonna say you cannot gather in groups larger than 50 and I said something on Twitter that was something to the effect of I don't care if it's plague

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I don't care if it's the government I am preaching on Sunday now that's still my belief that is still the conviction of my heart but I did take that tweet down because I didn't want that to cause guilt in the heart of a pastor because the smart thing for him to do would be to break up his congregation on a

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Sunday morning instead of having everybody together as a group and thus spreading an infection

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I didn't want that to affect his decision he needs to make the decision based on the way that he is shepherding his flock yeah

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I've got certain convictions that I'm gonna follow but I'm not impressing that upon anybody else each one of these respective situations is different and I think that that we need to even even the different parts of town there there's different things

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I mean how many elderly do you have in your congregation how many of course how like we have mostly military so there they are coming over from overseas or they have been defending our country yeah military military tasks can't stop yeah you know there's still there's still things that the army has to do so we're we're serving people in our church that are mostly military but as we would be different than churches that are more stationary people always yeah civilians if you will our body is different so the personality of our church is even different oh yes and that's gonna even differ by state

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I mean you know that different parts of the United States different towns different countries yeah there's a different personality of people in in the different places that you live so you have to weigh all of these things accordingly as to what you're going to do right and do it in the fear of the

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Lord and in love of your neighbor right not in stubbornness and pride and not yeah not legalism yes that one's tough yes that's a hard one to check yourself because I mean yes

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I'm gonna do it no matter what okay yay but at the same time are you doing that with the right heart you know or is it for zealousness for God yes and this is all and I mean it's it's easy to make the criticism when you're not the pastor having to make the decision oh yeah

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I mean think of the sports we're not watching anymore all those critics have to critique something yeah right

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I'm gonna turn my guns on the pastor for canceling church on Sunday yeah but consider these words this is from the same document that Martin Luther had written regarding the plague and making the right decisions out of love for your neighbor he said the following if Christ shed his blood for me and died for me why should

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I not expose myself to some small dangers for his sake and disregard this feeble plague if you can terrorize

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God can strengthen me if you can kill Christ can give life if you have poison in your fangs

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Christ has far greater medicine should not my dear Christ with his precepts his kindness and all his encouragement be more important in my spirit than you roguish devil with your false terrors in my weak flesh

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God forbid get away devil here is Christ and here am

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I his servant in this work let Christ prevail amen so let's continue with Psalm 91 we'll see if we can get through the rest of this here verse 9 because you have made the

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Lord your dwelling place the Most High who is my refuge no evil shall be allowed to befall you no plague come near your tent once again does this mean that we as Christians will not face any evil thing in this world that evil will not come upon us you know that's not true you know that you are going to be afflicted with evil for Jesus even said they will hate you but they hate you because they hated me first yeah so there are going to be people that hate us you know of course in in my sermon series if you've been listening to that on Sunday I'm going through the

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Sermon on the Mount and it's in the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5 where Jesus says blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are you when others revile you you're blessed when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you so yes you are going to face evil in this world they're going to be evil people who will oppress you yeah and do not despair so so my question now is it is it wrong to pray for relief from such things no of course not

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I didn't think so but I wanted you to answer so yes you can ask

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God that he would take this away but be prepared that his answer for you might be my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness because remember the

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Apostle Paul prayed for this in 2nd Corinthians 12 yeah three times I asked that the Lord would take this thing away from me mm -hmm and what was

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Christ's response to him my grace is sufficient for you right so you may be asked to endure this a little bit longer remember the the picture that we have in the book of Revelation of the martyrs under the altar who are asking

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God when are you going to avenge us for the blood that was spilled for the gospel that we proclaimed and he gives them a white robe and says for them to wait a little bit longer for your number is going to be added to there's going to be other martyrs for the sake of my gospel the end has not yet come so you may be asked to endure this a little bit longer and there is something that is being accomplished in that Peter says in first Peter 4 12 beloved do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you but rejoice in so far as you share

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Christ's sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed

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Paul says in Romans 8 29 that these things that we endure are shaping us more into the image of Christ yes that we would give give glory to God and trust in him trusting in the

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Father as Jesus trusted in the Father mm -hmm trusting in the Father that he is working all things together for good for those who love

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God and are called according to his purpose Romans 8 28 yes and then 29 the reason for that because it makes us more like Christ right another question okay what do you recommend people tell their children do they leave them in the dark or do they let them know or do they scare them into submission see some fear is good because we are told to fear the

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Lord so you actually do have to teach your children fear mm -hmm and you have to teach them a right kind of fear a reverent fear correct yes so that they would because fear like respect yeah a fear of respect but but I mean when you come to Christ there is a fear of judgment well yes but I mean like they're not gonna like so much that they fear that they respect them not rebellious and those kind of things you know like I could really get in trouble here

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I'm going to not do that yes right kind of fear oh you're just trying to avoid getting in trouble for something sure yeah yeah so you want to teach your children to love

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God right not not simply to hey say these things believe these things and be like a magic spell and then it'll keep you from going to hell you know right if if what your tea is sorry

43:30

I'm gonna tag on to that go ahead if what you're teaching your children is starting to sound a lot like the shows they're watching on TV on this break if it sounds like Disney you need to stop just okay that was it so how are we telling our kids about the virus is that kind of what you're saying yeah

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I mean we tell that our kids what's going on we do there are certain things we know they're not gonna understand but we let them know there is a terrible sickness that's going on and it's killing people and some of the precautions that we're taking are so people that we love are not going to get sick right and potentially die because of the spread of this virus we tell them the name of it we've given them some information only the wrong name it's there we go

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I have not yet you make me giggle every time you sorry

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I haven't yet told my son that I think he would he would really get a kick out of that way I haven't said that I intended it's like wow kung flu the one reason out of it a kick out of it yeah there you go

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I didn't even think of that it was it was a pun for the taking right there you go didn't even think of that what was

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I gonna say I'm totally derailed so the kung flu oh because it's not the flu and I mean there are a lot of medical professionals out there that are saying we need to help people understand that this is not the flu this is not your average run -of -the -mill seasonal flu now the flu can be as deadly as this particular strain of coronavirus right yeah it's the

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Wuhan virus mm -hmm there is there are flus that have been that deadly but we've developed immunities to them mm -hmm and it's for the most part yeah right you know like the

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Spanish flu has not disappeared right swine flu h1n1 bird those things still exist but the thing is that we've developed immunities to them mm -hmm so with this it's called a novel virus because it's brand new we haven't developed any immunity to this and brand new to an extent it has been around for a little while but it hasn't been afflicting people like this yeah right now yeah and it originates from China it comes from the

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Chinese wet markets that is its source of origin we've been talking about this for months mm -hmm end of 2019 beginning of 2020 but it's only again just in the last few weeks suddenly that's become deeply offensive to reference its point of origin but that is where it comes from if you've been listening to the briefing with Albert Moeller with any regularity you knew this before this was even declared a pandemic that kovat 19 comes

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Wuhan China yeah the World Health Organization knows that the at one point all of the media sources were reporting that but I guess they've they've backed off of that significantly so anyway back to telling your children about all of this yes yeah

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I you tell your children the truth you tell them the things that are going on I there's a tendency in us as parents to try to protect our kids from the truth because we don't want to startle them or scare them or cause them to panic right nightmares at night yeah stuff do you remember you remember the movie interstellar yes okay mm -hmm so the main character who's played by Matthew McConaughey mm -hmm and there's at one point where he says

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I can't remember if it's to his father but anyway he says that there are certain things you don't tell your kids because one of your responsibilities as a parent is to make them feel like they're safe mm -hmm okay and there's some element of truth to that and some that's not

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I think you do need to tell your kids the truth but whether or not they panic is gonna be dependent upon if they see you panic right your behavior and your response to things like this are also going to be teachers to your children as to how they respond to these kinds of things yes and especially if they see mom and dad panicking but they don't know why oh yeah that's bad then that just develops all manner of uncertainty in your children because their imaginations are gonna take that and run whether or not you tell them the truth or whether or not you leave them in the dark yeah they are gonna know that you were nervous about something and they're just gonna

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I mean Zej was thinking that bad guys are gonna break into her home in the middle of the night and I don't

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I don't know what that was all about that was a couple years ago yeah I remember that it was just the crazy stuff that he comes up with I mean he it was causes him to not sleep at night it wasn't it wasn't even that simple it was in detail about what he's gonna do and to protect the family and what the bad guys are gonna do in response to him doing this stuff and I mean he had it played out all of it and I let him develop those plans of action because I thought that was pretty cool it was but at the same time the his imagination yes where did he come up with that I'm not even sure right

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I don't remember now thinking of this because I remember this whole phase that he went through and I remember it wasn't it wasn't just short -lived it was a long time yes it was and I remember having a conversation with him in his bedroom one night with the lights off he's going to sleep it should be going to sleep but he said he's concerned about bad guys coming in one of the things that I talked to him about when

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I was helping him to understand the world how it works I did not tell him bad guys are not gonna come in our house and kill us

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I didn't say that I didn't say that they might but I didn't tell him that wouldn't happen right because it could it could it is a possibility and then you would be an automatic liar right and he would be stunned and then yeah and then my son how much does he trust what it is that I say to him from that point on right how much does he trust the

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Word of God when it says that the Lord will protect him so I tell him the truth but I tell him to trust in God we don't know what's gonna happen we have no certainty that we aren't going to be afflicted by something bad that enemies won't come against us that that we won't get sick and die we haven't we have no certainty regarding those things right we have to trust in the

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Lord in every situation yeah with all your heart leaning not on your own understanding mm -hmm in all your ways acknowledge him you lean on your own understanding and you develop these panic modes right like he was developing it was so bad and he was so little it's like you don't you don't have to think about these things yet yes child right oh that was just so what my point was was that if you don't tell them and they see you're nervous they're gonna fill in the blanks with whatever is in their head yeah at that point and so yes

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I mean you have to teach your kid it's a teaching moment it is for your children you're teaching them real -life stuff

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I know it kind of seems easier to teach them from a textbook can't I just go to the book and point to the answer right well you can open up your

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Bible right yeah you you have to be regular with your kids with your family about this and not just reading it and then like okay guys that was it yeah yeah okay let's pray our

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Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name you know and then you do your prayer and you're all done mm -hmm you have to help them understand it do you understand what this means like one of the things

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I do with Annie and Zeej since they're our oldest two and they're the ones who can read mm -hmm is we're opening up the

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Bible they have their Bible I have mine and we're reading a passage and I'll ask them now what are the verbs mm -hmm so they're looking for the action words in the verses that we looked at and then asking them now what does that mean we're being told to do something here what is it what is it we're told to do so it's not just reading some words on a page but helping them process it and understand it and getting it into their hearts it's through catechism and through the basic things that we teach them that they know

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God is real God is triune he is father son and Holy Spirit the

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Bible is his word his word is true it is sufficient it is sufficient it is going to endure forever mm -hmm the word of the

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Lord endures forever the the through those basic teaching things that we give to them they know those truths mm -hmm so now when we come to the scriptures with all of that received in mind and heart whatever

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God says whatever the Bible says I'm gonna believe it so now we're going through the verses they're finding the application for that they're understanding what

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God is saying to us in those verses when we process it and think through it so you're teaching your kids what it says and how to understand what it says so that the promises of God that you have clung to in your life the assurances that you have that this thing is not going to destroy us it is not going to overtake us it doesn't affect the kingdom of God right it may affect this world that is falling and coming to waste mm -hmm but God's kingdom endures and and the

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Lord is not shaken off of his throne right amen those promises that have sustained you are now the things that your children are learning and are gonna sustain them through these trials as well and it will bring them comfort absolutely and if you start with them young then they will grow up in that definitely yeah start up start him young a lot harder to teach him this stuff when you wait till later in life now we say that and you might be going well

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I've got some kids that I've waited too long with do it today yep you do it today and you just say

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I'm sorry I waited so long right we needed to have this talk we need to do this exactly we need to sit down we need to go through the scriptures together husbands you have a responsibility to do that with your wife if you need some help you need some tools to assist you a couple of places you can go mm -hmm go to founders org and get their catechism books mm -hmm or go to Ligonier and subscribe to table talk magazine yes and those are two places that you can go to receive some tools that will help you through those things grace to you has some stuff too

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I don't want to leave them off the table wretched you can go to wretched TV they've got resources there look for those things that will help guide you through the devotional stuff that you do and like I said earlier on the podcast this week we've got people that write in to us and say we start with you every day so as we're eating breakfast in the morning mom dad kids we're listening to when we understand the text and this is helping to guide us through our devotionals in the day oh that's great too

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I'm glad you can utilize this resource for that we're coming down to the close of the program we didn't get to any questions here at my questions your questions that's right we got

54:07

Becky had some questions we answered her questions here sorry guys but let's finish let's go ahead and finish our reading of Psalm 91 and then we'll conclude with prayer for he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone you will tread on the lion and the adder the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot because and now this is the

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Lord speaking here in this part this is verses 14 through 16 because he holds fast to me in love

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I will deliver him I will protect him because he knows my name when he calls to me

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I will answer him I will be with him in trouble I will rescue him and honor him with long life

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I will satisfy him and show him my salvation amen and amen amen let's pray

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Heavenly Father we thank you so much for the goodness that you show us in Christ and I pray that we would not despair in these days and these uncertain times and as this thing gets longer as it goes further we're going to it's gonna sink in even more the reality of the situation the loneliness we might feel and and even begin to wonder all the more deeply than we're thinking even right now when is this gonna stop when are we gonna get any relief from this we're gonna know people who get sick we may even know people who die from this let us not lose heart let us not fall into despair let it cause us to trust in God all the more and holding out the gospel to those who are being afflicted by these times so that they may know this this all of this is happening in the world because of sin because of man's wretchedness because of our rebellion against God and God is subjected all things to futility as part of the curse but he loves us and has sent his son

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Jesus to die on the cross for our sins so that all who believe in him will not perish under the things that this world is going to come under but we have the promise of everlasting life forever with God in a kingdom where these things will be no more as Jesus said

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I am coming soon behold I am making all things new and we pray with John the

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Apostle in Revelation chapter 22 come quickly Lord Jesus we pray and ask these things in Jesus name amen as Jesus said

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I am coming soon behold I am making all things new and we pray with John the

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Apostle in Revelation chapter 22 come quickly Lord Jesus we pray and ask these things in Jesus name amen all right thanks love you're welcome so you didn't have any questions tonight yeah

58:05

I did yeah I had a hole yes I didn't think you had any questions here it is right here oh

58:13

I've got no yeah I had a couple of them related to coronavirus and then there was some about Romans since we're going through Romans right now okay so here's what we can do we can do a bonus

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Q &A okay we'll actually do questions and answers now okay that sounds good when

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I think I'll keep the Saturday scripture okay reading that's good and maybe

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Monday all right you've got you've got Philip again yeah so you probably don't want to record

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Friday night no probably not this is tough we'll find we'll find somewhere on the weekend we can record yeah and we'll do a special edition