[Joshua Creech] A couple of weeks back, we were taking a drive as a family. I can't remember where we were heading. And all three of our boys sit in the very back of the van. So they're always lined up back there. And a surreal reality sank in. Something struck real close to home. And I'm not sure what brought it on, but as we were driving, I looked over at Lizzie and I said, "You know, they're never going to understand what it means to be disconnected. They aren't ever going to climb into a vehicle and start driving and be disconnected." We are always connected through our cell phones now through GPS. Many of the vehicles we have now have Wi-Fi in them. Something they're not going to know. I remember I used to get in a car and we'd drive and you're cut off from the world until you got to where you were going. There was nothing else there. And as we talked about this a little bit more, I started to feel really old because it sank in that, you know, it's not just my children. We have young adults who now don't have that experience. Young adults didn't have the experience of getting into a vehicle and driving and not having some type of cell phone or something where they could get connected to somebody. We feel lost without our phones now. I know a lot of people say they turn around and go back home and get them. They feel that lost without the phone in their pocket. It's just something that they won't experience. They're never going to have that disconnect with the world.

This is going to make me sound and feel even older, but I remember the first cell phone I had. It wasn't mine. The first one I had, it wasn't mine. It was my parents' cell phone, but anytime I went to school or anytime I went out with friends, if we had sports activities afterward, I was expected to take it with me. So they gave us the house… it was the family cell phone. We had one for the entire family. So they would give it to me so I could take it with me and that way, if it was a sporting event, I could call them when we were leaving whatever school we were at and they knew what time to get back to our school to pick us up. So it made things a lot more convenient. It helped out with timing, but we were always connected. We had a way.

So it's not the small cell phones that you guys know today. This thing was a brick. It seemed huge to me. I couldn't carry it in my pocket. So as soon as I got in my car, I threw it in my glove box because the thing was a couple of inches thick, about 4 inches long. So probably about the same screen size that we have now, but just add two inches of depth to that thing. And then in order to talk into it, you had to flip down the mouthpiece, which was another two inches. It had the little antenna that you pull up. That was the first cell phone that our family had. And it'd been pretty popular for a while. So it wasn't the newest one at that time, but that's what we had. So I remember a time when I didn't have that. It was so big that if I did need to keep it on me, it looked like a little camera case, a small camera case to carry this thing around because you couldn't get it into your pocket. So that's what I had. That was my first cell phone. That's what started connecting me to the world. They didn't have all the capabilities they do today, but technology at that time was advancing quickly. Not quite as quick as it is today. We've seen a drastic increase over the past 10 years of how sophisticated technology is becoming. With all of these connections, with this technology comes distractions. Comes distractions.

So before we get fully submerged in this main idea that I want to talk about today of distractions and what we can do to try to avoid them, I want to touch base on a little bit of a bigger picture. Try to get an idea of where we're at in time and a little bit of the prophecy because I fully believe that we are either at the cusp of reaching some prophecy and getting into a new age or that we will soon be there. One of the two. We could see more prophetic events at any point in time. So if you would, if you look over in Daniel 12 with me, Daniel 12, it talks about the prophecy of the end time. Daniel 12:4.

It reads, "But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase… Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” This is a wide range of things, spiritually speaking. We understand what's going to come and that there's a lack of God's knowledge right now and understanding of what His words are and how people apply them to their lives. But I think this also has a physical aspect to it. This has to have a physical aspect of how we're capable of doing such things. So with these technological advances, the knowledge is increasing, we constantly have access to answers to any number of questions that we have. And it just seems logical to me that these two are running hand in hand right now, that our physical technology and the knowledge that we have and what humankind has been capable of doing is playing a part in the spiritual aspect of fulfilling this idea of God's truth will be spread. It will be known. So if you just think about this from the Church's standpoint, we have many possibilities. Our articles and our magazines, we can send them all over the world. We're able to send it all the way to the opposite side of the earth. A couple of days, maybe weeks, depending on how we expedite it, but it can get there at a pretty timely manner. Not too much trouble.

Logistically, there have been advancements where they can move stuff at a fast rate, but then we take a step back and we see there's been even more advancements. We have even more opportunities. They're more economical and they're more timely. We have the capability of sending sermons, Bible studies, BT Dailies instantaneously. Our media department is working tirelessly to produce new material because that's going across the world in the blink of an eye. That's all it takes anymore. We put it on our website, every inch of the earth is covered. There's no question about it. So that increase in knowledge, we have technology that helps that knowledge increase. And then he also wrote about running to and fro. Many shall run to and fro. So if we put these hand in hand, what do we see? Yeah. We see we are able logistically to ship things. We can personally fly to the other side of the world in a couple of days. We can move. We have ships, we have cars. We have any means of transportation, but spiritually, we see people running to and fro as well. We see this on a deeper level.

People are starving. They're thriving for some sort of truth, some sort of knowledge of God's word and understanding. And they have trouble. They have trouble comprehending the actual truth, so then they start bouncing. They find tidbits here and there. They bounce from religion to religion, different theories, different ideas that pop up because they're starving for it. They're trying to figure out what the truth is, so they just continuously bounce. They're searching all over. They're running to and fro, looking for it anywhere they can find it. They're not going to find it until God decides it's time to open their eyes. That's what's tough for us to understand, but we have to be in a position that we're prepared for. We're prepared to inform people all over the world when that time comes.

We have a scripture over in Amos. If you flip over to Amos with me, that hits this right on the head, we see that God's word said this is the way it's going to be. Amos 8:11. Verse 11 reads, “'Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord God, ‘That I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.’" Hearing the words of the Lord. Do we see people, the people we work with, some friends, maybe their neighbors, do we see them thriving, starving? Starving for those words, starving for some sort of understanding. The rapid growth of technology over the past couple decades has allowed us to reach the ends of the world. There's no point where we're cut off from.

Many of you have probably seen different news things going on this week. Oh, yeah. We had the meeting between President Trump and President Putin and then shortly after that, the Russians released they have five new plans for advanced weapons. They released some of the details of that, showing their weapons systems that they have. Or maybe you heard about the cyberattack on Singapore. Singapore's government health system database had a cyberattack where 1.5 million people had some personal information stolen.

These are things going on the opposite side of the world, but we know instantly what's going on and what's happening. So there's huge benefits. There are huge benefits and assets to being able to use this technology, the doors it has opened for us. But if we're not careful, these connections, this technology, it can also become a distraction. It can become a distraction. So as vague as some of these prophecies are at giving us the full details of how God is planning to fulfill each prophecy, He doesn't give us exact timeframes, He doesn't give us specifics now. He gives us a broad picture of what we can look for and what we can turn to. He doesn't tell us the specifics on how He's going to unfold His plan during the end times. But there are a few things in the Bible that we are 100% clear on and He gives us a few things that we need to work on, change in our personal lives. And one of those is being distracted. If you flip with me over to 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 7, we find it clear as can be about distractions. 1 Corinthians 7:35. Verse 35 reads, "And this I say for your own profit, not that I may put a leash on you, but for what is proper, that you may serve the Lord without distraction." We may serve the Lord without distraction. He's not trying to hinder us. He's just trying to help us refocus. He's trying to help us to understand what's important. What is the most valuable thing in our lives?

And there's another section I'd like to flip over to in Mark. In Mark, we find the "Parable of the Four Soils," and one of these four soils is exactly this, this being distracted and getting sidetracked. Mark 4. So this is broken up into two sections. The first section of Mark, he actually gives the parable. And what happens is there's a group of people who don't understand what he says. They don't understand the parable or the correlation that he's trying to make. So, after he gives the parable when they're a little more secluded and it's a smaller group, they ended up asking him like, "What did you mean by this? What did this parable mean?" And that's where we get into verses 18 and 19, Mark 4:18-19. It gives us explanation. He explains exactly what He was meaning by it. So verse 18 says, "Now these are the ones sown among the thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful." These are those distractions. These are those distractions that slip in, they try to detract us from paying attention to God's Word, being able to focus, focus our time, and dedicating it to what we need to, what's for the greater good.

And you don't have to turn there. But in Luke's account, it actually adds an extra piece that I really like. I'll read it for you. If you want the reference, it's Luke 8:14. It's the same example of this parable from Luke's account. It reads, "Now the ones that fell among the thorns are those who, when they hear, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity." That section of, "and pleasures of life," pleasures of life, those are the fun things in our lives. Those are the things that we want to make sure we do. The exciting things, the things we enjoy. We can't let them overtake what's most important, the Kingdom of God. We have to be fully dedicated, fully dedicated to making sure that that's priority number one. We have to make that a priority. We have to make that the priority because we're destined to be part of God's family. We are destined to be sons and daughters of God. That's what His plan is for us, and we have to make that the priority. If we don't, we've lost track. We've become distracted, distracted from our purpose here, our purpose of being created. Distractions come in all shapes, all sizes, all forms. There's no limit to them. Some of them are good, some of them just take up time. Anything that diverts our attention away, anything, from the main goal that we have, is a distraction. We can't forget that that Kingdom of God is where that priority has to be, priority number one.

So if we think about the story I opened with, never being disconnected, I don't ever see anything changing in technology to where we're going to lose that ability unless major disasters occur. But as far as our economy, and sustaining it, and advancing, it's going to keep advancing. It's hard to picture it accelerating at the rate it has been because we've moved along so quickly in the past few years, but that's the way it's leading. It has put us in a completely different category from 20, 30, 40 years ago. We have so many different distractions trying to take up our time. If you think about just going to stores, places we visit, normal activities. You can't go into McDonald's or you can't go into Starbucks anymore without them having TVs running different news channels, sometimes they run sitcoms. We're always connected. There's always something going on.

And if we're sitting there and they don't have something on that we're wanting to watch, what do we do? We either flip out our phone or we pull out our laptop because they have free Wi-Fi. They've given us the ability to be able to connect to whatever we want for free. Just hop onto their Wi-Fi. So those times, what do we do? We try to eat our meal or drink our coffee and maybe you scroll through, find a TED Talk, find a YouTube video of something that you wanted to learn about. So you start watching through it. Before that TED Talk is done, you end up finishing your meal. Then we're stuck. We're not sure what to do. We don't want to waste our time. Our time's valuable, right? We have lots of things to get done, so we don't want to sit there and watch the rest of it because we're done eating. We could be doing something else. Technology has given us an avenue out of that. You hit that little data button, instantly connected again. We walk down the street, we walk down the street, connected on our cell phone. Keep watching our YouTube video, keep watching the TED Talk as we're traveling to wherever we need to get to.

We are always connected. We have the capability. I looked up a Time... Time did a study on this. This was from a couple years back. Back in 2012, they found the following results from a study that they did talking about cell phones. So 84% of people surveyed said they couldn't go one single day without their mobile device in their hand, 84%. And that was six years ago, in 2012. I would imagine that's only gone up. They feel that they can't go one day without it, that lost sensation I said that when we get in our car and get just a block down, we realize, "Oh, man, my phone." That's that feeling. That's that anxiety that they get because they don't have it in their pocket because they're used to being distracted. Twenty years ago, I didn't have it, but it seems like I can't live without it now. And we're in a completely different era when it comes to technology.

Sounds like I'm bashing cell phones. I'm really not. I love cell phones. There's tons of benefits that come with it, but we have to be careful. We have to use it wisely. We have to be cautious when we think about how often we're using it because it is the easiest accessible piece to distract us, at least for me. I would imagine that most of you are the same way. It is the easiest thing to use as a distraction. It can suck us in real quick. And what does it distract us from? Distracts us from being focused on what truly matters. On doing God's work, focusing on His word, preparing ourselves for the Kingdom of God, preparing for the Kingdom of God. That's what we're doing. Does it ever distract you from your Bible study? If it does, we have a scripture, a scripture that will help with that, Psalm 119.

Flip back to the Old Testament. Psalm 119. If we read verses 15 and 16, this is why it's so important not to get distracted. The importance of what we're doing. Psalm 119, starting in verse 15 says, "I will meditate on Your precepts and contemplate Your ways. I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word." How do we not forget? How are we to not forget? It's by studying. It's by getting into it. We are closest to God when we're in His Word. When we buckle down and dig into the words that He's written for us, that's when we're closest to Him. That's how we don't forget His words, by going over them over and over again. This is how He's communicating with us. This is what He wants us to learn. This is what He wants us to know. It's not just on the surface. It's not just… yeah, you may know some here and there. This is at our very core. It's what makes us who we are. These are the actions that we live every day and that's what He's wanting. That's why it's so important that we not forget His Word.

I'm not the greatest reader out there. That's my wife. She'll read 10 books before I can get through one. And I end up reading the same page over and over again. I sit there and look at it, I get to the bottom, I realize, "I didn't get anything out of that." Read it again. Still, nothing. My mind's off somewhere else, distracted. So I read it again. If it takes three times, read it three times, but we have to know His Word. And it's not failure. It's not a failure that we've read it 3 times, or 5, or 10. That's not failure. That's focus. That's staying dedicated to God and doing what He's expecting of us, what He's asking us. That's focus. That's drive. That drive that puts His words in our heart. That's what it is. We want to know it, front to back.

Turn with me over to Hebrews. Hebrews 4. This section is focusing on the Sabbath, but it gives us, in a bigger sense, the power and significance behind His words. Hebrews 4, I'm going to read verse 12. Says, "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of the soul, and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart." That's cutting deep. That's cutting all the way down to our actions, our intents. Our heart, that makes us who we are, pumps the blood through us. God's Word, they're not merely words written on a piece of paper. They're not written down into books. They're not just letters and phrases. They're life-changers. They are life-changers. They have the ability to change our thoughts, change our actions. They can refocus us onto the Kingdom of God when we get distracted. They are truly relevant for our future. Impactful. That's what His words are. They're impactful.

If, if we dig deep enough, His words will change us. His words will make us a different person, but we have to allow it. We have to get into it. It's Him. It's through the closeness that we have with God that will change us. That will alter our thinking, alter our actions, to who we actually want to be, for our future. That's a big part of our daily Bible study. It's a big part of our prayer, whether it's sending cards to those who are on tough times, those who are sick, they're struggling with decisions they have in their life. Whether it's getting out and visiting. That's the changes that makes in us. It's the person we become. It's the person we're going to become. With all the distractions, that becomes really, really difficult. They get thrown in from every direction now. We are constantly trying to be blindsided by distractions. So, that focus, that focus is key.

Have you ever been engulfed with curiosity? Have you ever found a section of the Bible that you quite didn't understand, an aspect of our teaching that you didn't quite… you know what the teaching is, you know what our stance is, but you never really dug into it and actually researched it to understand the ins and outs and the scriptures that we use to understand and comprehend what God has. What do we do with that? When we have those questions, what do we do? Do we just let them linger? Say, "Somebody's done research before. We're just going to go based on what they say. That's it." No. That's not what we do. That's not what we do. We decide to research it, right? What do we do? We pull out our Bible, we grab a concordance. Maybe we grab our laptop, grab some documents from UCG. Maybe it's a booklet or some articles that have been written and soon you're sitting there and you realize you've completely barricaded yourself in. You're not getting out. You're ready to go. You have all your materials. You're going to figure it out. You're going to figure it out. You want to know, you want to know what God says. You want to understand why. We want to have that base. So we're there, ready to go.

So we get researching. We're looking it up, whether it has to… maybe it's word by word. You're going through every Greek or Hebrew word and understanding exactly what it is and where it came from, what multiple meanings it has, but you're starting to get it. You're starting to get with the studying. You're figuring it out. You're working on the next pieces that you need to work through and it's coming. You've got multiple tabs up on your laptop flipping through different translations. Maybe it's multiple commentaries trying to give you background on different scenarios and the society at the time, but you're getting it. You're pulling it out and you get tired of flipping through. You get tired of flipping back and forth between tabs. So what's our other option? What do we reach for? Reach for that cell phone, right? Either a cell phone or a tablet, something, because we don't want to flip it back and forth. So we pull the cell phone out and we sit it there and we pull the commentary or whatever we're using for our research and we set it there, so now we've got a laptop, we've got our books, we have our cell phone, and it's all working out.

We're accelerating the rate we're getting information. It's timely. It's intensifying. We're figuring it out piece by piece. We start circling, highlighting, write notes in the margins. We all have different methods, but we all have some method that we use to try to put it in our Bibles or in our notes so that we know for next time that we've researched this and it'll trigger something, telling us, "Hey, we know what this piece means." Just as you're getting to the end of it, you think you're just about there, you hear, "Ring, ring," so you ignore the first one. You're like, "All right. I'm busy doing this." You ignore that your cell phone just went off and you keep going, and then a second one comes through, "Ring, ring." So you're like, "All right. Well, let me see what it is. Let me check it real quick."

So you flip it up and it was something important. There was a prayer request that just went out. Somebody in our congregation has an urgent need, an urgent need for prayers. And that's what came through, whether it's through email or just an actual text message from a group of people, but it was important. So what do we do? We take a minute, we stop what we're doing, we pray about it. We pray about it and then we're ready. We're ready to get right back into that studying, get ready to figure out what's left. Before we can sit that cell phone down, "Ring," "Buzz," whatever it is. We've got hundreds of defaults on these phones now. That or you hear somebody's favorite song go off. They can make notifications, whatever they want, but in the phones themselves, they have hundreds built. Those aren't enough, though. We have to put our own songs in there.

But it goes off before you can even put it down and then we're sucked in because it's still in our hand. We get sucked in, whether it's the piano song, whether it sounds like a nuke going off. It distracts us. It distracts us. What is it? Facebook pops up. We've got a couple people who put little heart emojis. They love some pictures we had posted. My wife puts lots of pictures of our kids. A couple people liked it, who knows what's going on? Candy Crush. You got some new lives. They're ready for you. Come play. Come play Candy Crush. Amazon Prime, it'll notify you. “Hey, items in your cart, they've decreased in price.” So then you're thinking, "What did I put in my cart?"

So you pull it up. You're like, "Oh, okay. I got to see. I got to see if this is something I really needed. I've been waiting on a couple of these items." And then you start searching for other things. Get distracted. Or it's Facebook again. You got a friend request. Somebody wants to be friends. Expanding that network, our community. "Yeah, I'll accept you. I know who you are." Right after camp was bad for that one. I kept getting, like, 20 a day. Redbox, Redbox movies. They release new movies every Tuesday. Rent one, get one free. Do they even tell you what movies are out? Runkeeper, I have a bunch of friends on Runkeeper. They let you know when your friends ran. Lets you know how far they went, where they went. Domino's Pizza, two medium, two-topping pizza, $5.99 each. Dinner time, right? Yeah. Even my alarm clock. My alarm clock has a notification. It pops up and lets me know that I haven't set the alarm for tomorrow. It wants to make sure I get up for work in time. It's helpful. It's helpful when I actually forget, but it can be a distraction at the wrong time. It can be a distraction.

We are bombarded. We are constantly bombarded. Every app that has ever been created, I think has some type of notification. And if you're not diligent about going through your settings and turning every single one of those off, it's going to notify you. And very quickly, we get sucked down that pit and we get sucked into whatever that notification is and we're completely distracted, what we meant to do. Every time we reset, every time one of those distractions comes through, those are temptations. Those are temptations to quit. We were on Bible study. We were working hard. We were figuring it out. Those notifications, those are a chance to quit, a chance to keep us from what our true future is. Our true goal of becoming part of the family of God.

Proverbs 4, Proverbs 4 tells us how to battle this. What we need to do. Proverbs 4:25. It's a real short, quick one. Verse 25 says, "Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you." Look straight ahead. The Message Bible actually phrased this slightly differently. It says, "Keep your eyes straight ahead. Ignore all sideshow distractions." Ignore all sideshow distractions. Is that what we find? Do we find some of these distractions the sideshow, right? Something that's not primary in our lives that just kind of pops up, especially when we're trying to accomplish something and we have no intentions of doing anything else but we end up having to refocus over and over again because of these distractions. They're all over the place. And I don't think they're backing off anytime soon. I don't think society is going to make it any easier. If we look at social media, we look at video games, we have books, TV, movies. We have playing sports. Maybe it's crocheting, knitting blankets for friends. Maybe they're having a baby. All of these things can become a distraction. We make an endless list of things that we want to do that could become a distraction from what our focus is at the time. Because we sit there, work on something and we think, "Oh, I meant to do this." And we're sidetracked.

Most of those things are fun. They're the things we enjoy, but we also have necessary distractions. On top of all these fun distractions, we do have necessary ones and we have to be careful with those also. God has requirements. He has expectations. And if we're not careful, they become distractions instead of being part of what make us who we are in our lives. God expects us to teach our children, to teach our families to grow, to care for our families. That's His expectation. That's His expectation. We have to develop our families. 1 Timothy 5 goes over this. If you turn over to 1 Timothy 5, this section here is talking about caring for the widows, But verse 8 touches on a broader note. 1 Timothy 5:8.

It reads, "But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." We have to take care of our households. We have to care for our families. Not only spiritually, that's not the only focus. We have to feed them. We have to buy clothes for them. If you have little kids, it's usually buying clothes twice a year for them because they grow so quickly, but they have needs. We have to bond. We have to play with them. We have to grow spiritually and physically. So we have needs. We have expectations to care for our families, provide for them because if not, it says we've denied the faith and we're worse than an unbeliever if we're not caring for ours.

We have other expectations, too. How many of you have neighbors? Nobody has neighbors. Wow. I want to live where you guys live. I have one neighbor on one side. He's the guy that mows his yard twice a week. Makes me look bad all the time. But luckily, on the other side, they let it go till it's like five, six inches, like every other week. So I try and do it at least once a week, try to do a good blend between the yards. I don't want to disgruntle the one. You know, they always give you dirty looks if your grass is a whole lot higher than theirs. Those are things. Those are expectations we have. Those are the necessary expectations that we have of upkeep on our homes. If it's not a leaky toilet, or a running faucet, or a broken pipe, something that needs fixed, a light bulb, there's always something in the house. There's always something that needs done. After 10 years of owning a home, I've learned some valuable lessons. One of those is if there's nothing wrong with the house, watch out. It is guaranteed something will break. I've never lived in my house and had everything completely done. It's never been perfect. These are part of the necessities of life. This is caring for our families, taking care of the responsibilities that we have, the expectation God does have of us. The key is making sure that they don't become the distractions in our lives. If we don't let them get to that point of becoming distractions, then we're able to maintain it. We're able to focus and actually give it the time that it needs.

So if you flip over a couple pages with me to Titus, Titus 3:14, it says, "And let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful." That they may not be unfruitful. The urgent needs. These are those things in our lives that pop up. These are the things that we're not expecting or anticipating, but they do need done. They can become a distraction. But what's a bigger distraction is if we're not taking care of the other things that we should have already maintained and we've already taken care of because the urgent ones wouldn't be that urgent because we have the time to do it. So what is this all boiling down to? Where do we get to that we can make a concerted effort to make sure we're doing this in a proper manner? It all boils down to time management. Time management will help us avoid many of these distractions, many of these scenarios that become urgent instead of just taking care of them when they should be. We have to be deliberate with our time. That'll help us down the road in every aspect, spiritually and physically, because we'll have the time to apply it to what we need.

I found a quote, Rick Warren, he's a pastor and he was the founder of the Saddleback Church. He says, "Time is your most precious gift because you only have a set amount of it." We only have a set amount of it. It's tough to think about. None of us want to think about not existing. We don't want to think about when we're not here anymore. But the truth of it is that's the way it is. We don't know what's coming. Proverbs 27:1 reads, "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth." That's Proverbs 27:1. We just don't know. We just don't know what it holds. So if we're planning accordingly, we'll have a much better approach to being able to fully anticipate changes or urgent needs that come up if we equip ourselves, if we manage our time better. Even though we don't know what it truly holds, we can plan wisely. We can organize what we need to accomplish to help us battle these distractions, to help us stay focused.

If you flip over to the book of Ephesians, flip to Ephesians. Paul writes about the need of taking advantage of the time we have. Ephesians 5:15-16 says, "See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil." It's wise to redeem the time, to use the time is wise. And if you flip over a couple more pages to Colossians 4, we see this again. Colossians 4:5. It says, "Walk in wisdom towards those who are outside, redeeming the time." Redeeming that time. So what methods can we use? What methods can we use to manage our time more efficiently, more effectively? What can we do? Hopefully, by thinking about this, it'll help us be able to apply the right amount of time to each activity. We'll have it narrowed down so that we can do that.

So one of these methods is actually to sit down and plan. So to actually take the time to sit down and plan. If we sit down to try and do a daily planner, we'll figure out what we need to accomplish. Those must-have dones. And while we're in that process, it usually ends up extending out a week or two because we all have requirements, whether it's through our job, where we have deadlines or other things with the house. Who knows what it is? But we all have commitments. We all have something that, generally not do specifically today. So it helps to sit down and do that plan. Figure out exactly what it is and how we need to allocate each day so that we can fulfill all the requirements, how we can get to that end goal and be done without cramming it all in on that last day because oftentimes, that's not okay. That's not going to work. Just crammed it in at the last time. It's not beneficial to do it that way either, but sometimes it just won't work.

So plan, take some time to figure out what you need to do, how it's going to work out. Identify those urgent tasks, the ones that need done now. That'll help us. That'll help us with this time management. Another method is staying focused, stay focused on the specific items we're dealing with at the time. Sometimes that means dump everything else. That means get rid of all the extra items that we think we need to do and stay dedicated to that one. Dump all the distractions along with all the other items that may interrupt us. We don't want anything. We want to stay focused on the exact thing that we want to get done as much as possible. That means putting the cell phone in the other room or the tablet. Maybe it means locking yourself in the basement where there's no windows. I find myself just looking out the window at times, the kids playing. Whatever it takes, whatever it takes. That's what we have to do. We have to make a concerted effort not to stretch out tasks because that's what it does. That's what these distractions do. It's what they do. Something that should take us two hours ends up taking us four or six, or that's the only thing we did that day when it should have just been two hours and we could have accomplished other activities as well.

Don't let the phones become distractions any more than they have to be. Don't let them sidetrack us from the intended jobs. If we know something has the potential to distract us, time and time again, we've personally seen it with ourselves. We've seen it happen and we know, "All right, this is probably going to throw me off." Remove it, remove it before it gets a hold on us. Remove it before it becomes that distraction. Don't even take the chance. Don't take the chance of letting it mess with our focus and throw us off because we've planned. We've planned it out. That's what we need to get done.

We can make a big list. If you research ways to help time management, there's tons and tons of lists. There's one last one that I'd like to touch on to help avoid these distractions. And the final one that I'm going to mention is procrastination. Procrastination, this kind of goes back and forth between the distractions and procrastination because they bounce off of each other. We do not, for one, want to procrastinate when it comes to our spiritual growth. Absolutely not. We want to study today and we want to study now at the time that we've allotted for it, which hopefully is daily. It should be daily. We don't want to put it off. We don't want to put off the time that we have set aside because then it gets put off again and again. Distractions lead straight into procrastination. They cause procrastination because it pushes things out. It pushes those priorities away. Every minute that we allow distractions in our lives, it eats up more time. It eats up more of our valuable time and something has to get pushed back. And it's usually the things that we wanted to get done, that we needed to get done.

A lot of times it's actually more damaging because, at that point, it's already been procrastinated to some point. We got distracted earlier and it got pushed back and now we're pushing it back again. So we just see this cycle, the cycle of going forward if we're not careful. And we don't want to get distracted. Procrastination leads to big adjustments in our schedule. So all that time, all that dedication that we sat down and planned and got down into the specifics, the nitty-gritty of how we needed to do our day, how we need to go out just got thrown out the window because we spent a whole bunch more time on distractions. So then we procrastinate. So it changes that schedule. Don't allow the distractions. Don't allow the distractions to cause us to procrastinate and push back our plans and responsibilities. We'll find that as we go out through our time, our attention is completely fragmented. I find mine more and more increasingly fragmented day to day if we're not careful. Little bits of job and work, social life, everything takes up some of our time. That's our life. It is fragmented out into sections and it just keeps becoming more and more fragmented. We have to be careful that we don't let distractions come in and embed themselves and pull us away.

Never forget Satan. Satan is the cause of this. Satan is the cause of these distractions. He is the number one distraction. We read over and over again in the Bible, he is the tempter. He's called "the tempter" over and over again in the Bible. That's what distractions are. It's a temptation to pull us away from what we're trying to accomplish. And if that's our Bible study and our prayer, that's a big problem. And that's his goal. That's his job. He hates the family of God. He hates the thought of the kingdom of God. He wants to destroy every single one of our lives. He wants to distract us to the point that we aren't connected to God, that we aren't doing those things that keep us close. Reading His word to where it's embedded in us. That's his goal. He doesn't care how it gets done. He doesn't care how we're distracted. He'll use everything the world can throw at us and then he'll multiply it because every time one of us falls away, he has a little bit of success. That's his only goal. That's all he has left. He knows he's lost because God's plan is going to happen. And we are all supposed to be part of it. We are all supposed to be there. That's what He has in mind for us. That's what God's plan is for us. Don't let Satan's plan distract us from that. He wants to rip us out of the Kingdom of God, out of the family of God. Don't allow the distractions today to destroy our lives tomorrow. Take time to plan, focus on the plan, and take time to study.

As we approach these holy days, there does need to be the preparation time, as you heard in the sermon. And as we look at the Feast of Trumpets, it says, signals the time and symbolizes the time, as you heard, when Christ returns and the world, which has been in tumult for several years, finally is put to rest by Jesus Christ. He is the picture, and He is the sole focus in every single holy day that we observe from Passover, through the Days of Unleavened Bread, through Pentecost, through the Feast of Trumpets, through the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day. He is the reason there is salvation. He is the reason and focus of all of it.

And as we go through each day of God's plan, as we symbolize it and celebrate it, it's important to remember that without Jesus Christ coming to end what the world will put itself into a state of chaos, confusion that would lead to destruction, we would all just be doomed. But here we are nine days from the Day of Trumpets, or the Feast of Trumpets. And as we come to the Feast of Trumpets, the world is in chaos, growing chaos, up until that time, the Feast of Trumpets, when we're together on that day, we'll focus on what those trumpet calls are the return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the end of the world in this age as we know it. But leading up to that time, there are troubled times to come, not just at the trumpet plagues, but we see the world in a troubled state.

And so as we're nine days from the Feast of Trumpets, it would be good for us to think of where the world is today and see what the world will be like as we lead up to that time that we look at the Feast of Trumpets and those trumpet calls, because it isn't a pleasant time. It isn't a time that will try our souls or try our patience, try our faith, a time that the world will be changing dramatically. Jesus Christ said for us to watch, to be aware of what's going on so that we're ready when that day comes. But as so many things in our lives, they can creep up on us unawares if we're not paying attention to what's going on around us. So as I begin here this morning, I want to give what I used to say and my pastorate down in Florida a kind of state of the world that we're in today because a lot is happening awfully quickly and we can just kind of take it for granted, we can get used to the things, but we may not learn the lessons and see the direction of the world that is headed in, which ultimately is that Revelation 13 totalitarian government that we see at the time immediately before the return of Jesus Christ.

So let me run through a few things here that we've experienced that we can focus on, because we live in an ever-changing world, and it's not changing for the better. For two and a half years, we've been dealing with this new disease called or, this new virus called COVID. And COVID took the world by surprise, if you will. And as we were thrown into COVID, we experienced many things that we never thought of, never thought that we would ever be experiencing in this country or others. We had lockdowns. We had immediately even services that had to be canceled between a Thursday and a Sabbath because the world was in a state of alarm as this disease seemed to be spreading around the world so quickly.

It was the first really global pandemic, and it was really the first global response to that pandemic. And measures were taken that none of us would have foreseen. We were locked down in our homes for a period of time. Businesses were closed down, streets were kind of pleasantly empty. That was one of the nice things about it for a while. But we had these things that happened around us, and we just got kind of used to them as the government took measures that they didn't take before. You had people who had one opinion on what would COVID do, that they had their answer to it, and then the evolving discourse as time went on, we were faced with new challenges, new decisions. This is what you need to do. This is what you need to do. This is the way out of it. This is how you protect yourself. All decisions that we had to make, and the government started taking some latitude in making pronouncements.

And so we had words that we hadn't really heard too much in the time passed about misinformation and disinformation and the government deciding what disinformation was as they began to say, the truth is what we say it is. There is no more choice or more discussion on these matters. And so we had censorship. Never saw that in America before. Even in the most vile and perverse things were able to be discussed or put out on the internet, but all of a sudden, people are being censored. We had a new word. People would be “canceled.” If you said something that the media or the government and the leaders didn't like, you could just kind of be eliminated, right? They could just kind of erase you. That's what they wanted to do. So we saw certain celebrities just disappear from TV. We saw people lose jobs because they made a comment about something that you would have been acceptable before, but no longer.

So, beyond COVID, we found ourselves in a world that was different, and things that we began to see that became almost normal. Almost normal. It kind of conditioned us. And I remember a time when we were living in Florida that it probably happened here as well when the government was saying no more than 10 people in a place at a time. And the media down there, and the mayor of Orlando was like, "You know, if you see if you see that, if your family has more than 10 at Thanksgiving or if your family, if you see your neighbor down the street with cars or more, call the police. Call the police and report them." I remember thinking, "Wow, this is just the strangest thing." This is just the strangest thing. We're encouraging people to report their neighbors, to kind of look at what they're doing and just call the police on them? And as we went through that, I'm sure you had the thought, too. This is the type of time that the Bible talks about, when people will look at what you believe and what you do, and if it's not what they want done, they will turn in this person. They will turn in mom, dad, neighbor, friend, coworker, whatever it is. That time is coming ahead. It will be here before the Feast of Trumpets and those trumpet calls, those trumpet blasts that we read about in Revelation that will, I'm sure, to be talked about nine days from now.

All that stuff that happens that talks about what's going on, we now have had that in our experience. We now have that as part of our makeup, if you will. COVID has largely disappeared, but globalism hasn't. The talk of one world government, the talk of controlling everything and having one environment that dictates what you do, hasn't lost any steam. In fact, COVID sped that process up. And when we look at Revelation 13 and the government that the whole world worships at that time. We see we're a step closer to that. COVID had that result on us. Now it's disappeared. There's lessons you and I should have learned from COVID as we prepare for the next pandemic, which will certainly come. A leading person who kind of predicted that pandemic, has recently said there's another pandemic coming from a different pathogen, and this time we'll be more ready and more prepared than we were last time.

Now, what does that mean? What does that mean? Next time we'll have more control. Next time we'll be able to lock things down. It makes you stop and wonder, what is the purpose, and what is going on? Well, we kind of know. We kind of know what's going on when we look at where the world is headed and where the Bible tells us we will be. So COVID, COVID is not so much of an issue now. People still get it. We should still treat it with respect, and we should still isolate if we come down with a milder form of COVID. But as we emerged out of that crisis, that was a crisis, this war in Ukraine began to speed up, and back on what I think was in February, Russia invaded Ukraine. I guess people saw it coming for a few months, Russia was doing the build-up on the borders of Ukraine there. And that war, many people thought, would be over in a matter of a few days or a week. Given Russia's military capabilities, you would think that they could march right in and take over that little country in no time. But here we are seven months later, and the war still goes on.

It has these ebbs and flows, and for a while it looks like Russia is ready to make a huge move into it. But then things change and Ukraine takes over some territory. And all the while, as you watch what's going on in the war, you just see this complete destruction and desolation of all the cities and all the environment over there in Ukraine. Now, we've learned in the process that Ukraine is a very important country for Europe and for Russia. Forty percent of the wheat comes from that one little country. Who knew? Who knew the richest oil was over there? But now we know that's kind of a strategic place for a nation to control. So you would think Russia's real motive is, we want to take that country over. We want their resources, we want them. We want to control that. We want to control the food supply. And if that was the case, you go in, you take the country over as expediently and quickly. You don't systematically destroy city after city after city after city and totally just desolate it without any real mind or purpose behind it.

You don't let the wheat crop and destroy even those fields that we read about. Then you stop and think, "What's going on here?" Meanwhile, Western civilization, United States, keeps pouring money into this Ukrainian war with the hopes that Ukraine can withstand Russia and stop the advance of what may be communism from Russia progressing across, over, and closer to Europe. But in its wake, when we see the pictures on the TV, we see this desolation and how people's lives are just being continually upset. And we think about the time ahead before the time of Christ's return, that it talks about cities being laid waste, desolation that occurs. If you will, turn with me to Ezekiel. Ezekiel 6. Prophecies that are meant for the house of Israel. Excuse me, the nation of Israel. We read some harrowing words in Chapters 6 and 7 that pertain to today. But in Chapter 6 and verse 6. Well, let's begin in verse 5. Just to kind of get the context. I'll read verses 5 and 6.

Ezekiel 6:5-6 Here it says, "I will lay the corpses of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones all around your altars." There's a time coming where Israel, modern-day Israel, is going to suffer the consequences for how they behave. God is talking about here and what they've chosen to do. "In all your dwelling places, the cities will be laid waste. The high places will be desolate so that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate. Your idols may be broken and made to cease. Your incense alters may be cut down and your works may be abolished."

Everything in your land will be desolate. The conquering, whatever happens, they're not going to be interested in what has gone on. It will be complete desolation. Something that never happened in ancient Israel, something that hasn't happened, of course, in America or any of the English-speaking nations. Something that we begin to see this concept of just desolation for the purpose of desolation in Ukraine. Just hit every dwelling place, hit every city, destroy whatever is there. What spirit? What spirit is working in that? A spirit that we haven't seen in the world, at least during my lifetime. I don't know. Well, I have read about what it was like during World War II, but that was for the purpose of taking over and spreading your word, not just to destroy everything in its process. What we see in pictures coming from Ukraine will one day be, as we look at Bible prophecy, what we will be experiencing in this land and the other nations that are Israel, modern-day Israel.

So when we see these things and we see these images, we can think about the Feast of Trumpets, Jesus Christ's return. The inhumanity of man, the spirit of Satan that will become more and more prevalent, more and more dramatic, more and more visible to us as we see the world descend into all sorts of different things. Like we see in the world around us and in our own environment and communities around us today. So there's war and there's no indication that this war is going away anywhere soon. And as we look around the world, we see all these other threats of war.

We see China and Taiwan, right? There's always that threat out there. What is going to happen with that? With Taiwan? We hear about Iran and nuclear powers. What are they going to do? They have given threat after threat after threat. We would love to see Israel, the little nation of Israel, wiped off the map. We would love to see America conquered and destroyed. We would love to see Britain gone. We would love to see that group of nations that the Bible calls Israel gone. It's all there. We hear about these things going on in Iran and the nuclear buildups that are there. All these wars and wars and rumors of wars that are going on in the world around us today that could erupt at any time.

Just last week, was it? Queen Elizabeth died. Queen Elizabeth, we know the throne that she is sitting on. We know the throne that Jesus Christ will return to. She reigned for 70 years. It's hard to imagine being a monarch in a country for 70 years. But she has been, as you look at her legacy in her life, she has been a symbol of consistency over there, a symbol of stability. It's like the world in some way respected her and so everything kind of just stayed stable. And now she's gone at a time where the world is changing in so many other ways. What does her death mean? What will that bring to us? What will King Charles be like? We read of his ties to people in the World Economic Forum and these people who will espouse by 2030, you'll own nothing and you'll be happy.

Well, if you'll own nothing, who owns everything? And you see the message behind that movement that's out there and what that is and the grab of power and what is going on in the world. And who knows what happens now that Queen Elizabeth is gone and the world all of a sudden is in a completely different state than it was two weeks ago. Times are changing as we lead up to the Feast of Trumpets. As we talk about the return of Jesus Christ, we will see more and more why Jesus Christ has to return in order to save mankind from himself, what he will do, because the ultimate goal of what is going on as Satan leads and inspires what is happening is the destruction of the Earth, the destruction of mankind, and that if he could possibly do it, that all mankind would die. But as Christ said, he will return. And if he didn't return, there would be no flesh saved. That's what we look forward to. But we see the world progressing in those ways. We can talk about crop failures. If you listen to the news closely, you hear about the situation in Ukraine. You read about the drought in the west. What effect is that going to have? And there's many articles out there that talk about as this fall harvest season begins and comes about, what will it be like, what will the crops be? How are things going to happen?

Right now, everything seems okay. But if there's a disastrous crop season, and if it's not this year, is it next year? What happens? We're already facing inflation. Those numbers just came out in the last week about how food prices just keep escalating. Well, if there's a shortage of things, then we'll see that inflation continue. And the time of the Bible when it says in Revelation 6:6, you know, a quart of wheat was selling for a denarius. That'll be a real thing. A quart of wheat was selling for a denarius, a day's wages. It's a time that's coming on. Inflation is real. We went through many years without any real inflationary pressures in this country, in the world, but all of a sudden it's a huge issue.

Now we hear our leaders have some of the problem or some of the solutions that they say, "Oh, if we do this anti-inflation package, if we spend more, that's going to solve the problem." But I wonder what financial advisor would ever tell someone who is in a debt situation and already having a problem meeting any kind of things? You know, "If you go out and just spend more, that'll solve your problem." Doesn't happen, right? No one says that and yet we hear this is the solution. You have to wonder, do they just not know or is there something else that's going on behind the scenes? Satan is clever, Satan is cunning. Satan will do everything behind the scenes because we know where the world is headed and that is to Revelation 13.

And I can talk about things like abortion, which all of a sudden has taken front and center, right? as Roe v. Wade was overturned. All of a sudden it's become an issue and you don't hear anyone talking about let's just abolish abortion altogether because it is just legalized murder. It's well, let's limit it at this number of weeks. Let's limit at this number of weeks. Somewhere along the line we've lost focus of what abortion really is and that it is a murder of child and taking away a life that has promise, just like you and me had.

We can talk about transgender issues, things that we couldn't have even imagined 10 years ago that would even be talked about as a huge issue of the day, much less promoted as these are the heroes and these are the people we look at and same-sex marriage and children, mutilating children at 8, 9, 10 years of old because they tell mom or dad, "I want to be a boy or I want to be a girl," destroying their lives.

What government and what parent would ever do that? What is the spirit that's at work in the world around us today that's happening in every single area of our lives? You and I should know that spirit. You and I should understand that's not anything of God. This is all leading to that time that we read about in Revelation 13. So let's go back to Revelation 13 for a moment and just look at the world as it is at the time of Christ's return. A world that we're not at yet, but a world that we will be in sometime in what could be near future.

Revelation 13:1 "So as I stood on the sand of the sea," John writes this as he has the vision from God. "Then I stood on the sand of the sea and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having 7 heads and 10 horns, and on his horns ten crowns, on his heads a blasphemous name."

He's against God. He may kind of look like God, may kind of want to look like God, and what he says, probably want to position himself as the savior of the world, because the world at the time when this beast arises out of the sea is in complete chaos, complete destruction. Everything has fallen apart. No one knows when a global economy falls or the United States economy falls and breaks, what's going to happen. No one. It's unprecedented. When you hear about stock prices, when you hear about what would happen, when they talk and give, you see those graphs about how it compares to this time and that time. And many economic forecasters are saying it's the time ahead. No one knows what happens. What does that result in?

It is unprecedented and no economist, no one can tell you what that time will be like. But it will be a time where the world is completely hopeless, completely devastated. They have no way out. They don't know what to do. Everything, literally everything is broken. And then this beast, this government arises out of the sea, and it has answers. It has might, it has economy, it has money. And the world looks at it and says, "You're our savior. We're going to look to you." And they love that power. That power gives them the right to say, "We're God. You'll do what I say. You will think what I think. You will work where I tell you to work. You will worship who I tell you to worship. And if you don't do it, there's a heavy price to pay."

At the minimum, buying and selling is up to them. And in a world that we're already in, that has a lot of digital currency, in a world where they know everything that you have and every resource that you have and have the control over it all, it'll be very easy to say, "This person doesn't agree with us. He's got nothing to spend." The pressure will be on, and the Bible is clear that that mark of the beast, whatever the many things it could be the mark of the beast, that's a subject for another sermon, is that he cautions you and me and the people who would follow him, don't take it. Live through it. Have faith in God. He will deliver and put him first. And so as we look at that world around us and as we look at what's happening, and then the little beast that rides the major beast. It's a world that none of us want to live in, but it is a world that is coming as sure as you and I are sitting here today. It's happening. It's happening and where we will be at that time is God's choice, and He will lead us where he wants us to be. But it's time for us to be preparing ourselves for that time and taking the opportunities to build the faith, build the trust, but be very aware of the times.

Now as we look at the times that we're in now, we see what's happening. And six months from now, I could give another state of the world message and it's going to be so far different and so far along, much further along than I'm talking about right now. There are places in the Bible that kind of let us know what is going to happen leading up to that Feast of Trumpets and those trumpet blasts. So I want to look at those here and the back in the book of Isaiah that has so much detail and so many different prophecies in it. It's a very detailed, and if you will, complete book that takes some time to go through, to analyze, to understand what the Bible is saying. We find things in there that show us where we are today, because God does give us warnings. He says in Amos, "I won't do anything unless I tell my people and show my people where we are. I want you to know, I want you to understand I don't want that day to take you unawares. I want you to be getting ready.

And so we find in one chapter in Isaiah 9, where God gives us four kind of warnings, if you will, or signs of what that time will be up, like leading up to the complete destruction of the world. As we look at Chapter 9, we know that it's Isaiah who was prophesying during the times of four kings that he worked under. One of those four kings is a name you may not recognize. His name is King Ahaz. King Ahaz, if anything that marked King Ahaz, it was the fact that he was resistant to God totally. He's a picture of complete resistance to God. At one point, God tells him, "Ahaz, I will give you any sign you want. I'll give you any sign you want, that I'm with you and that I'm with Judah." He was the king of Judah. Ahaz didn't want it. He wanted to ally himself with the world. He kept looking at Syria. Well, the danger was from Syria and house of Israel at that time, the 10-nation group of Israel. And of course, Assyria was the power at that time, they were a ruthless country.

So in Isaiah 9, it begins with the birth of Christ. Talks about the child of... Yeah, Chapter 9. Find the right chapter here. Oh, yeah. Chapter 9 down in verse 6. You see the birth of the Messiah. Ahaz doesn't want a sign. So what God tells him back in the earlier chapter in seven is, "I'll give you a sign, a savior will be born." Didn't happen during Ahaz's time, but much of the prophecies in the early chapters of Isaiah did happen in Ahaz's time. And they have meaning for us today, because we see how God works. As we begin in verse eight, we see God, who is not pleased with the house, with the nation of Israel, not pleased with the nation of Judah.

Isaiah 9:8 It says this, "After the birth of Christ, who will be the Savior, the Lord sent the word against Jacob. Now, this is a warning, Jacob."

Now, we all know, I hope, who Jacob is and understand who Jacob and the identity of modern-day Israel is. If you're not sure and if you don't know, I would encourage you to go back. There's some sermons online about that. Read the booklet again. Get in the Bible and see where it is, because it is key to knowing what the prophecies are and the key to being prepared for what God is doing.

Isaiah 9:8-9 "The Lord sent a word, a warning against Jacob, and it's fallen on Israel. All the people will know." God says it's going to be clear. You see over and over when God is doing these things. He says that, "I do these things, that the people will know I'm God, right?"

Isaiah 9:9 "All the people will know. Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, which was the capital of Israel, who say in pride and arrogance of heart."

And pause there. What happened in Israel and Judah was pride and arrogance of heart. When we resist God, when those nations resisted God, when they not even rebelled against God actively, but just resisted Him, "We don't want to hear what you have to say. Don't give us any sign. We want to do it our own way. We're going to rely on Assyria, we're going to rely on this alliance. We're going to rely on the things of the world. We don't even want you to give us a sign."

The resistance, the pride that comes from the pride, and the arrogance. Israel had it back then. They refused to listen to God. Modern-day Israel, the English-speaking nations, there's a pride. God isn't even in the thoughts of people anymore. They move further and further away from even acknowledging that there is a God. "Who say in pride and arrogance of heart." On verse 10, there we see something that God does, right? to a people that have the pride and arrogance. Over and over in the Bible, if we have pride, God says, "I will bring you low. I will humble you." He does that as a blessing to us, so that we don't become full of pride. And when we have something happen that humbles us, we shouldn't be angry, upset, get mad, run away. Thank you, God, for checking me and seeing that that arrogance is there in me. I does thinking too much about what I do and how I do, rather than what you do and what you've provided. Too much about what my idea is, and less it needs to be more and more about what your idea is. And in verse 10, some words that were made famous back in the wake of 9/11.

Isaiah 9:10 It says, “The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with hewn stones.”

Many of you may remember a book that was out around and, oh, probably ten years ago now that took some of these words and compared them to the 9/11 attack on New York City and the trade towers that were falling at that time. And it was a pretty complete, a pretty complete and direct analogy that was put together not by the church, but by someone outside. Many have denied it and saying, "No, no, no." But it is a concept that's there. It is that what did happen at 9/11 was the first time there had been an attack on American soil. And god sends a warning. "I've blessed you. I've blessed you." But there's a time when we depart from God, as it tells us in Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26, that those blessings are being taken away.

He'll try to get our attention, try to get our attention through the things that happen that never happened before, like some of the things we've already talked about here this morning. But here's this concept. The bricks have fallen down. I've got this crisis. I have this crisis. What do I do with this crisis? Whether it's the attack on 9/11, whether it's COVID, whether it's whatever crisis it is that is facing the nations that God has so richly blessed. The bricks have fallen down. What's our response? Is it turn to God as He wants us to do, and as it says down there in verse 13? No, we'll build back better. We'll build back stronger. Those sycamore trees, they were just common trees. You know what? We're going to build it back stronger. We'll put cedars of Lebanon in there. When these things happen, we're going to build it back that God cannot shake us anymore.

It's the same attitude that Nimrod had at the Tower of Babel. What we'll do is build this tower so high that God can't possibly flood the earth. How silly and how foolish is that to think that man, could ever build anything back that God couldn't topple? It's the same thing. A Satan who will not listen or yield to God. Same thing in the nations who don't turn to God and look at these things and say, "I need to turn back to God." Something's happening. These warnings keep coming, whatever it is. But you know what? We will just build it back better and stronger. Whatever it is.

We can outstand anything that comes. It comes from a pride and arrogance of heart. If you and I see that in our personal selves, it's time to look at that and say, "No God, what is going on in my life? What is it that I have these trials over and over for? How do I need to turn back to you rather than thinking I'll shore up this or I'll shore up that or I'll look here and I'll look there in the world? When am I going to start looking at you that can guide and protect and lead us through everything that comes?" So because there's this attitude when God sends these warning messages and these catastrophes and these cross crises occur.

Isaiah 9:11 It says “Therefore…” Whenever we see the word therefore stop, look what happened before. Therefore. Because that's the attitude of resistance that was there and at that time of that crisis, “...Therefore the eternal will set up the adversaries of Resin against Him. He will... and spur his enemies on.”
Notice it's God. As you read through the book of Isaiah, you see God using other nations, and Jeremiah as well, see God use other nations to punish his people, to get their attention. And then there's always the hope at the end of it and we'll get to that in a little bit. But because they didn't get it, they didn't get it through these crises, I'm going to stir up enemies against them. And here in this verse with the groups of nations and multiple nations that came against Israel and Judah because they were in a time where they were completely afraid.

They were trying to make alliances with Syria, trying to make alliances with Israel, trying to make alliances with Syria, and all their friends left them. They were left there and they had no choice but to realize that Judah never fell to Assyria simply because God did not allow it to happen. None of Ahaz's s maneuverings, none of his weapons, none of his plans did that. It was only God. But even then he didn't turn to God. But anyway, “the Lord will set up the adversaries of Resin against Him that spurs enemies on.” Talking about terrorism, when you talk about the multitude of issues that are there.

Isaiah 9:12 “The Syrians before the Philistines behind.”

They're coming at you from one side, you got another side coming. You have this array of terrorism where things just happen. It's not like the planned wars that they had had before, but this kind of loose war that can kind of just come out of nowhere. Kind of like the terrorism that we saw with Al Qaeda and ISIS back after 9/11, where terrorism was the thing of the day. Now in one of the recent things that have happened, there's been a terrorism state in Afghanistan pretty much built up and sanctioned over there in that Middle East where these things can happen again. Terrorism is still in the news today in a different form as we look at things in a different way in this country than we have in the past. So you have this happen. So God says, "Here's the pattern. Crisis will come. You're not going to listen to what I have to say. This is what's going to come next. Here's terrorism and people." Now, you know, you didn't listen to the warnings. Now there's this threat of war and this this fierceness that goes on all around you.

Isaiah 9:12 It says, "For all His anger for all this, His anger, God's anger is not turned away, but his hand is outstretched still or stretched out still."

It's still there. Okay, Israel. Okay, people, are you listening? Do you see what's going on? His anger with people who turn away from him that have all those things that we talked about and all those warnings that come through pestilence and famine and roar and rumors of wars and those things that we've talked about as we led up that will lead up to the actual fulfillment, to the Feast of Trumpets. Those four horsemen that precede the Feast of Trumpets and the 7th Seal, all those things that precede that. Are you listening? Are you watching, people? Are you turning back to me? And that's what He says in verse 13. His anger is still there at the people who reject or take for granted God's blessings. And don't heed what he has to say, but turn further and further away.

Isaiah 9:13 "But the people, don't turn to Him."

That's what God wants. Turn back to me. A lesson, you know, that is falling on deaf ears in America should not turn should not fall on deaf ears with you and me. Turn back to me. Look at your ways. Are you doing things the way that God would have you do, exactly the way that God would have you do? Or have you moved off of the direct words of God and moved into an interpretation of them that you've come up with, that you think God is satisfied with? These holy days and how we are going to observe them, the time and the preparation and focusing on what they are. I appreciated what Mr. Wrangel said because I had the very same opinion about the Day of Atonement when I was growing up as well. If we can just get through the Day of Atonement, then all the fun begins, right?

The Feast of Tabernacles has much more meaning than just the place we're going, just the things and the sights we're going to see in that place. If God would have us keep the Feast of Atonement and the darkest dreariest farmyard in America, and we are all intense, we should still enjoy and celebrate at the Feast of Tabernacles. It's what we're picturing at that feast. It's what we're picturing as we get together, as we put the time together and we develop that oneness that God wants us to have, that zone that we should be in. Same thing with the Feast of Trumpets. As we think about what's coming on, the world is leading up to that. You and I will feel the effects of that. God gives us the opportunity in these warnings. He's talking to a nation, but He's talking to you and me too. His hand is stretched out still. Turn back to me. Do it the way I said to do it. Follow me explicitly. Know the word it and follow it.

Where the people don't turn back to Him, they don't seek the Lord of Hosts. They have their own ideas, they do their own things. They just kind of do it almost out of rote without really thinking about it. The way of God has become common and the way of God should never be common. It should be holy. It should strike something in our hearts every time we come to a Sabbath service, every time we come to a Sabbath day, every time we come to a holy day. We are on holy ground. This is God's time. Not times that we just think of as common and ordinary and something we do every week and have been doing for, you know, decades and maybe more. They don't seek the Lord of hosts.

Isaiah 9:14 Since they don't do this, "Therefore, the Lord will cut off head and tail from Israel, both palm branch and bulrush in one day."

What he's talking about there is we have people who are heads of states, right? The elite of the world, the elite of the country. And then we have you and me, the common people that are in the land, and it says there, they're all going to suffer. They may think that they're isolating themselves and setting themselves up to be at the top of the heap, but when it all comes down, everyone will suffer. Everyone will be on equal footing. No matter how much we've amassed in this lifetime, it will come to nothing when the world falls. No matter how little we have, it'll be the same. head and tail, palm branch, and bulrush in one day.

“Suddenly,” it says often in the New Testament, these things will come suddenly, but they don't really come suddenly. They build up over time. The reason they come suddenly is because people are asleep. They're not paying attention to what's going on around them. They're not looking at the signs of the things that are happening. So they don't see 9/11, COVID, stock market issues, wars, and rumors of war, famine, pestilence. The things that are going on around them that show it's all happening. It's all happening and moving in that direction. But one day it just explodes. Turn back to Isaiah 30. Isaiah 30. He talks about this again and this concept of things happening quickly, if you will.

Isaiah 30:8-11 Says, "Go write it before them on a tablet and note it on a scroll that it may be for time to come, not now, but for Israel later, forever and ever. This is a rebellious people, lying children and children who will not hear the law of the eternal, who say to the seers, ‘don't see.’” Don't tell us these things. We don't want to think about these things in this uncomfortable time ahead of us. “Don't see into the prophets,” Don't prophesy to us right things. We don't want to hear that. Speak to us, smooth things. Tell us everything is okay. Tell us what we're doing is okay. That we don't have to think about it. That as long as we show up at Sabbath services, as long as we can check the box here and there, we're okay. That's what we all would want to hear. But that isn't what God said. That isn't what he has called us to. “Don't prophesy to us, right things, speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits.” Make us feel good about ourselves. “Get out of the way. Turn aside from the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.”

You know, as the message goes out to the world in a stronger form, we're going to hear a lot of that, right? We don't want to hear about the God of Israel. We don't want to hear that message, and the world will do everything they can to quell that message and to eliminate it. As you talk about the two witnesses on the Feast of Trumpets, what will the world do? That word is going out strongly to the whole world. It can't be denied and all they want to do is kill those prophets, kill the word of God. We don't want to hear it. And we'll see that attitude more and more.

Isaiah 30:12 “Therefore, thus says the Holy One of Israel, because you despise this word and you trust in oppression and perversity."

Boy, perversity is one of the words we could use for the society around us today, right? We do live in a modern-day Sodom and Gamora that I believe has gone beyond what Sodom and Gamora has. Because you trust in oppression and perversity, the society that you live in, you rely on them.

Isaiah 30:13-14 “Therefore, this iniquity will be to you like a breach ready to fall. A bulge in a high wall whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant. And God shall break it like the breaking of the potter's vessel, which is broken in pieces. He shall not spare. So there will not be found among his fragments, the shard to take fire from the hearth or to take water from the cistern.”

You can picture what's going on. We can get used to problems in our homes where we could see, "Well, here's his bulge in the wall. I should probably take the time to find out what's going on over there. And I know something's not right." But you know what? It hasn't been an issue now, but I let it go. I can see another sign there. It's like it's working. Okay. Then one day the dam breaks and all of a sudden you've got this crisis on your hand and you have to move into it. And it's like panic, right? Maybe you're off at work and your wife is there, your kids are there. It's like the wall is broken, there's water everywhere. What do I do? If we'd just taken care of it, if we just looked at it ahead of time and not been in the panic state that the world will be in because they are in a deep sleep about what's going on around them. You and I shouldn't be in a deep sleep. We should be wide awake. If we go back to Isaiah 9, it talks about God will cut off. All these people that think that they're going to have it done, everyone will be in the same boat. When the economy falls, there won't be some that are saved from it. There will be worldwide panic and destitution.

Isaiah 9:15-16 "The elder in the honorable, he's the head, the prophet who teaches lies, He's the tale." Verse 16, note this “The leaders of this people cause them to err."

The messages we hear coming from our leaders today. They are leading people to err. No doubt about it. When you hear about the things that come out from our leaders today, leaders of the nation, "This is a blessing. This is good. Transgender is good. Abortion is good. All this stuff is good. Blah, blah, blah. I have the wisdom, I have the truth. This is the way we're going to do things because it's the right way. I'm going to quell every other thought." “The leaders of this people cause them to err.” And it's amazing when you see what the leaders of this land say and then how polls will show that, oh, all of a sudden people get transgenderism. All of a sudden people are saying, "Oh yeah, my child did say that he would like to be a girl, so let me take him to a doctor and start that process." It kind of boggles the mind how people follow their leaders. But we see that throughout the Bible. When a righteous king reigns, the people flourish. When an evil king rules, the people... Oh, when the righteous... The people are blessed, but when the wicked king rules, they perish. The leaders of this people cause them to err. And those who are led by them, those who buy into it, they're destroyed. They're destroyed.

Isaiah 9:17 Therefore, there's, therefore, again, "Therefore, the Lord will have no joy in their young men."

They may think they have a lot of young people, and the strength of a nation is in their young people. They may think they have a strong military, but God has no joy in them. He's not going to bless that effort of a nation that is going against Him in every way, shape, and form anymore, that he's going to bless you and me if we are doing things apart from what God's will is. We ask God to bless us. We need to be asking God to lead us and guide us in what we need to do so that He can bless us because we are completely yielded and committed to Him. He'll bless us and he'll answer our prayers when we are committed to Him and doing things His way and not our way.

Isaiah 9:17 Well, “Therefore the Lord will have no joy on their young men. He won't have mercy on their fatherless and widows. For everyone is a hypocrite and an evildoer and every mouth speaks folly.”

It's just foolishness what you hear is what God says. And we see this around us and He says, you'll see that around you. You'll see what's happening, what's going on for all this, His hand is stretched out still. His anger hasn't turned away. People aren't getting it, but it's happening and it's building and it's building toward the crescendo of the Feast of Trumpets and the return of Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 9:18 "Wickedness burns as the fire. It'll devour the briers and thorns that's the common people that will kindle in the thickets of the forest."

Wickedness evil, sin begets sin. And a nation that is in sin just continues to thrive in that sin. So we look at the environment around us. We see the sexual perversity that increases more and more, and I'm sure more is down the line that we can't even imagine. We see the violence in the cities, the random violence in places that should be safe, that you would never think that you could go outside and just be kidnapped and murdered without another thought.

And wherever we live, we now realize we could be victims of whatever it is that goes on around us, because we have a land that is moving more and more toward the violence and the corruption that God said at the time of Noah before he flooded that world with destruction, with the flood. It will multiply. As you watch the attitude, as you see what's going on, that wickedness will grow. It will not be stopped. It's on a roll and it will continue to grow, and it will burn like a fire and it will move through the masses and it will eventually destroy the society because sin never builds. Sin always destroys. And as you see that building in this world around us that we may get a little bit accustomed to or may feel a little bit numb to. Remember, sin destroys and sin multiplies and that's what God is talking about here.

Isaiah 9:19 “It will rise up like mounting smoke through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts, the land is burned up.”

It becomes desolate. Look what they've done. They have completely polluted the land. They have completely perverted themselves. They have become people I don't even recognize. They're like Gentiles who never knew God. They don't appreciate any of the blessings I have. They don't look at me. They have become so far away from God that it's an absolute offense to God and should be an offense to us. As we recognize and see what's going on and mourn for the world, sigh and cry for the abominations of the earth because they don't see what they're doing. But all these things will come about. In verses 20 and 21, you see things that are just horrendous that you can't even imagine. But as the world descends into the chaos and as the cities become desolate, and as the famine and the pestilence and all the things that we've been accustomed to are gone, you see people descending into they will just devour each other.

Isaiah 9:20-21 There it says, "No man, no man shall spare his brother." He'll snatch on the right hand and be hungry. He'll devour on the left hand and not be satisfied. Every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm.”

These are hard words to even think about, aren't they? Brother against brother. People doing whatever they can, even to their closest of kin. Kind of like the things that Jesus Christ talked about will be at the end time, as you see in the other pages, the prophecies and the Bible here. Manasseh verse 21 will devour Ephraim. Ephraim, Manasseh. Together they'll be against Judah. You've got all these people turning on each other, grasping for something. Wait a minute. What happened to everything? What happened to the wealth we had? What happened to all these things that we got so accustomed to? They're all gone. Where do we turn to? Let's devour them. Let's eat them. Let's do whatever thing they can. They still don't turn to God.

Isaiah 9:21 “For all this, His anger is not turned away. His hand is stretched out still.”

When are they going to get it? When are they going to wake up? The only salvation is God. The only way is God to pull us out of the society that we're in and where it is clearly headed. Chapter 10:1-4. It talks about unrighteous decrees that are going to come out of the land, things that we're not accustomed to. Believe what I believe, and if you don't believe, I cancel you. Do this and do that. Unrighteous decrees that are designed to enrich some but impoverish others. As the world marches toward a world where the elite would want to control. Now, there's a thing about money, right? You've probably read some of those studies. There comes a time in life where you might have so much money as so many people on Earth do today. The billionaires and the multi, multi, multi, multi-billionaires that money no longer is significant. So what do you do? Because the lust is still there, then you lust for complete power. I got enough money, now I want the power, now I want to control.

And so, as we talked about a few times ago, the kings of the earth today are not necessarily those who wear the crowns on their head, but who have some substance behind them, that they can make decisions and steer the world they think in the way that they want it to go. So as you read through Chapter 10.

Isaiah 10:1-3 "These decrees that come down, they write misfortune which they have prescribed. They rob the needy of justice. They take what is right from the poor of my people, the widows, that widows may be their prey and that they may rob the fatherless." I want it all. You'll own nothing, but you'll be happy. "What will you do in that day of punishment?" God says. This is where it's going. It is a hopeless world that we look at. When you look down the road and you can see the clear path that's going, god asks the question. “What will you do in that day of punishment? And the desolation which will come from afar? Where will you flee from help? And where will you leave your glory?”

It's a good question, isn't it? Good question for you and me. What do we trust in today? What do we what must we trust in? We're going to look at the things and the fixtures of this world. They're going to fall. God says they're going to fall. We know they're going to fall. We see the writing on the wall. Where are you going to look to for help? Only God. Only God. He is salvation. And those of us who have been called, those of us who are working with God or letting His spirit, work in us, building that trust, building that reliance, understanding the times we live in, understanding that it will be Jesus Christ who saves the world from itself. It's not just a nice story and a festival that we celebrate or observe every year, but it is absolute reality. And we will live in the times, probably most of us, when we will see that happen. The world will be completely out of control. It will be Jesus Christ who will come and save the world from destroying itself. And we see all those patterns along the way. Where else do we have to look?

When you get down to it, there is only one place to look, and that's to God. Down here in verse 4, He talks again. His hand is outstretched still. When will the people learn? But when complete desolation comes, and when Christ returns, and when Satan is put away, and when the kingdom is there and the remnant of Israel continues on, and the other people at that time, they will learn.

Isaiah 12:1 "In that day when all these things come to pass, and Israel…” Ancient Israel who well lost everything to Assyria. If you read Ezekiel 6, I'm not going to turn to verse 9 there, but you see that God says, "They will know that I am God. They will turn to me in that day. They will loathe themselves for what they have done. The recognition, we had it all and we just blew it. We trusted in ourselves, we thought we were so great. What we should have done was yield to God. They will loathe themselves for what they did. In that day. You'll say, Isaiah 12:1-3 "Lord, I praise you. Though you were angry with me, your anger is turned away and you comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. For YAH, the Lord is my strength and song. He's become my salvation.”

Now I get it. The Word will say, now I see it. For you and me, we need to see it now. We need to see that now and be working and examining ourselves that God is our only salvation.Well, we won't be with you here on Trumpets. We're headed down to Florida, but probably on the days ahead you'll be talking about the things leading up to the Trumpets more, because there is the 5th seal and the 6th seal that will be there. I know as I go away, that's what we'll be talking about down there as we remember and rehearse what is going on in these holy days. What should we be aware of? What leads up to all this? What does God want us today? Know and observe them and look to Him with all our hearts, minds, and souls.

[Victor Kubik] I felt this to be an important and appropriate scripture to begin the service today. Romans 8:35, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written 'For Your sake we are killed all the day long.’" He's quoting from Psalm 44:22. “'We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I'm persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord." Nothing will separate us from Jesus Christ, from His protective wings that watch over us. Nothing, absolutely nothing. But as mentioned in this passage, there are challenges that we must endure, remembering always that God is with us. That's our life. And that's the story of what we will be talking about today. As we live in dangerous and uncertain times, we have been speaking about these warnings for years. That's been an important part in mission of our proclamation work of preaching the gospel into all the world, but let us always be mindful of all of God's promises of care and protection.

Just a month ago, events related to the spread of the Coronavirus seemed to be unfolding painfully in slow motion. We thought of it as just one more thing that will pass. One week ago when I posted the cancellation of church services around the world, I came to work on a Thursday morning and I had two versions of an announcement. One of canceling services for the next two weeks, and one saying, let's go forth and wait and trust in God no matter what is out there. I decided to go with the one relating to canceling services for the next two weeks, wondering if I had done the thing, the right thing. I wondered if we were acting prematurely. Now, every day brings new reports, new information, and new challenges of what we're going through in the world as the world is reacting to a common enemy. This trial has enveloped the entire world as nothing previously has. One hundred and sixty-seven countries as of an hour before services today are affected. It's only been discovered three months ago. And this is not persecution from the outside. This is not division from within. We have never had anything quite like this, that we as a church have gone through, but this is a threat from the outside endangering all of mankind, all races, beginning with the oriental, then the white, and then the black. It affects governments of all sorts, whether it'll be a pure democracy or whether it'll be a totalitarian system. All nations have hunkered down together to themselves.

What do we make of this and what can we learn? Well, one thing, well here at the Sabbath service where we have a very small group, but I feel just as our sermonette speaker, Mr. Scott Delamater spoke, I feel joyful. I feel happy. I feel happy with the people I see here, I feel happy about the conversations I've had, I feel overjoyed at the music that I heard that truly lifted my spirits and really gave me an extra boost to come up here and speak to you. Beautiful acapella music. I’d like to share some news from around the world though, I feel it would be good at this time, I'd like to give you an update from Italy, which is the second hardest-hit area in the world and where our director Carmelo Anastasi lives right in the epicenter of the Coronavirus area.

He writes the following. This is just a day and a half ago. "All the brethren in Italy are doing well so far, thank God. We are contacting church members almost daily to encourage them and to be updated on their real status. Everything is fine to date. Everyone will celebrate the Passover at home, but all of them will be able to follow the reading of the scriptures via WebEx, a technology that we have used successfully for years every Sabbath. But the situation is difficult. Tens of thousands are infected in Northern Italy and the rest of Europe and for the first time in history, 60 million Italians at almost total quarantine to combat the spread of the virus. All factories, restaurants, hotels, cinemas, theaters, and churches are closed. The streets in squares are completely empty. Everything seems spooky, especially in the evening. We are all forced to stay at home and only one member of each family, if he or she has not been infected, can go out and buy necessities, basic necessities, food, and medicine. This experience is putting a strain on the mental and emotional state of many people. We are all like prisoners in our own homes, but it's for everyone's protection. Our church members trust in God's protection and pray that this epidemic will soon end."

"The methods adopted to combat this pandemic seem to mark the beginning of a new era, a sign of what will happen in the future. It's awakened some from their spiritual lethargy so that they have turned to pray to God. Messages of prayers and thoughts that praise God arrive every day on my cell phone from our members and subscribers. But most people continue to rely on their human strength singing nationalistic songs. We alone will defeat the Coronavirus. I'm reminded of what the Bible says. They did not repent of their ways despite the plagues, but after the storm, they continued worse than before. And so, to perpetuate the false idea that men can do everything. None of them say, 'Let's repent and turn to the true God, the only one who can truly save.' As far as we are concerned, we will do what is possible to avoid any contact, but what is fundamental is our protection from God. His will be done. We, confined in our homes continue to pray for everyone awaiting that day when the eternal kingdom of peace and justice will finally be inaugurated by our God. Please receive a big hug from all of us." And I can see Carmelo saying that. I can almost feel that hug from him right now from Carmelo Anastasi. A beautiful letter. A beautiful letter, not only expressing the situation, but also a hopeful appearance for the future.

People are returning to their home countries from abroad. Nick and Megan Lamoureux flew back yesterday from Malawi, from Lilongwe Malawi on a scarce crowded Ethiopian Airlines' flight. Most flights are canceled, and actually, the bigger problem is that you can't go through certain countries. You can't stop off in South Africa. You can't stop off in other countries. You have to go to countries that at least allow the plane to land. The plane was crowded with Chinese, Americans, and Europeans coming from South Central Africa, via Addis Ababa.

They were on a pastoral humanitarian mission for one year, from the Church in a sense doing a lot of the pastoral work in our Church in Lilongwe and Nkhwazi, Malawi. About a half an hour after he landed, we talked to him on WhatsApp in Washington, D.C., where he described the semi-deserted Washington Dallas airport. It was they're connecting to get back home to Vermont. We're just so thankful that we got him back in time because he got the last seats, I understand, and there are hardly any flights out. It would hate to have him be stuck someplace which was not home.

This past week, we had to make some tough decisions, but actually, some weren't so tough because they were made for us like canceling services. That would have been done anyway. As far as other meeting announcements they've been made for us. We weren't necessarily courageous. We have to go with what was going on. For the first time though, in our history, we canceled the face-to-face component of our General Conference of Elders, which is held every year. This was to be a special year, 25th anniversary, silver anniversary of the United Church of God, and it was canceled because of the virus. We've also taken other deliberate measures. We don't want to lead by reacting to things. We want to lead by making deliberations and saying, "This is what we will do. And we will plan to do this." We won't just get up to the last minute, and then just react to what happens. Passover and the Days of Unleavened bread, will be conducted online. It's pretty much Mr. Myers announced. There'll be no physical congregational meetings until further notice. We don't know when they will start. We're also canceling other conferences through the summer and that is not necessarily because of the virus. We're taking a look at what's going to happen with the economies of the world, with priorities and spending. I'll say a few things about that here coming up.

We need to reprioritize what is essential and what is discretionary. What is that absolutely essential for our worship? I feel like meeting here in this way and being thankful for the streaming technology we have is essential for our lifeblood. Mr. Myers talks about the calling circles. I'm not sure exactly what the official title is, but he and his wife, this last week, put together a system of several groups that call each other and we've received their first call this morning from somebody we hadn't talked in a long time. How wonderful? How wonderful? I can't wait to call my first person as well. How are you doing? Because in the busy world that we live, with a lot of people around, we can be very lonely and very busy and say, "I could always do it." Now, it's just less certain, and it's been wonderful to make these connections. We're going to ask ourselves, "What can be done differently? More efficiently?" Anything involving travel is going to be severely restricted or canceled for the foreseeable future.

What is being done to the economies of the world is a parallel problem with the virus. The virus will come and go. I have no idea what will exactly happen there, but the loss of equity, one-third of the equity in the U.S., and the world markets will have an effect. There's no question that there will be a fallout from that possibly recession and even depression coming as a result. Markets are unstable and disarray, trillions of dollars in capital lost. And that won't be corrected overnight, even if the health crisis is resolved. So, we're bracing for that. We're very grateful for the fact that we've been able to have some reserve and we will put our members first in taking care of their needs.

I wrote an article for the January issue of "Beyond Today." I didn't realize what I was writing necessarily. And the headline article was "The 2020s are here: Are you ready?" I wrote it in November or December for the January issue. And as I reread it, I hadn't read it some time, reread it again a few days ago, but I say at the very end, "They're just not shopworn platitudes and glittering generalities." They are things that are very, very important to becoming prepared and ready. Instead of just rewriting something we've said over and over again, it really has very direct meaning. Following public health guidelines issued at the state and federal level, we've switched Ambassador Bible College to an online-only format, which means no further assembling of our wonderful students in the home office. This last year, I have really become attached to the students. It's been a wonderful class, 20 wonderful people, who I've gotten to know their personalities, their senses of humor, their questions, their natures. And it was heartbreaking for me to address our ABC students on Monday telling them that we probably won't be meeting like this in-person for the rest of the semester. I'm not sure when we will be meeting again. I had tears because I knew that I'd walk away and we wouldn't be walking back into this building together as a class in that way.

Many of our home office employees now work remotely, some can't. There are certain things that we have to do, sending out literature and doing things that require being on the job. And I plan to be here myself. I plan to be here as much as I can, and the remainder who need to work in the office, exercising social distancing measures, which I keep forgetting about. I saw our song leader this morning and I stuck my hand out and he stuck his elbow at me. I had forgotten. Remember to use your elbows, wash your hands, but use your elbows. We hardly knew the definition of social distancing a week ago. In fact, as I was writing the column for my last week's e-news, the one before this last week, we're using the word self-isolation. One of my assistants said, "You know what, it really shouldn't be that. It should be social distancing." I said, "Oh, no, no, no. What is social distancing…?" Should have had what she had advised. But now, social distancing is a common term. Now we walk by one another at the home office, being cautious not to be in the personal space that is less than six feet. I think our home office administration team that is eagerly and wholeheartedly responding, and we plan to meet a great deal this coming week to work out instructions and details for the Church.

Lots of information needs to get out to the people. We have to get out of an easy way. Right now, a simple way to see what the latest information is we have a Coronavirus blog going, coronavirus page, which still isn't fully there, but under ucg.org/members, you will there find all the articles, all the podcasts, everything having to do with what we've said about the Coronavirus and the latest information. But I get a lot of questions including, "What kind of wine should I buy for the Passover? What kind of fruits are allowed?” you know? …Grapes, you know. "What type of wine?” “How will we do ABC graduation?” “What about summer camps for our children?" We just get a ton of questions. We want to be able to have instant answers or as best we can on our websites. So, be sure to check the reports and also at this service, which we will have as the home office service, it will be geared for going to the whole world where we will have announcements dealing with things that have occurred the past week at the home office. Now, after this week, your local pastor may start a webcast for your church, which we do recommend. We really do want your local pastor to stay in contact with you, at least in that fashion. And so, we highly recommend that. But we also recommend that you leave the spot 2:30 in the afternoon, open Eastern Daylight Time for announcements from the home office so that people can tune in to the local webcast and also can hear announcements at least from the national or international webcast.

One overarching directive drives our decisions, and that's this, is the welfare and protection of you, our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, and members of the family of God. That is above everything else. We want to protect you, we want to protect you in every way, spiritually and also physically. One thing that drove my decision to cancel services even when others said we should go ahead with it. I know the demographics of our congregations. I see our people in wheelchairs, with canes coming to services. And some of these people are the ones who want to be at services the most because that is their only recreation. You might see that as their only outlet to the world all week long. And they will be here sometimes ahead of those who are more able-bodied. And I would hate to have one of those people come who are more vulnerable after age 60, I've heard various statistics, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80 about one who becomes infected and the mortality rate, it becomes very, very high, or more elevated at those ages. And I would hate to see anybody of our elderly demographic become sick and die. And that's why I'm very, very interested and very concerned about doing anything to endanger these people. While we devote considerable resources to proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom of God, the other part of our mission is to prepare a people which includes doing whatever it takes to protect, safeguard, and nurture our wonderful families and members.

The decisions that we make are not decisions that we just, kind of, decide very haphazardly to make. Any medical decisions have been done with counsel from medical professionals, from skilled and experienced people, including highly qualified medical professionals who have weighed in on important decisions to help us in a factual, sound, and objective way. On the internet, there is so much bogus information. News is 24/7. You can get any kind of news you want or any variation of truth that you want and it depends upon the kind of people that you follow. When I was growing up, the news used to be 5:30 PM. Walter Cronkite. That was it. That was the news. And there was some other local news, maybe at 10:00 or 11:00. But that was the news. And what they said was the truth as we took it. Now, you have many channels, you have many different versions of it, you have many biases, there's so much quackery and there's so much false information that's out there.

But we've sought the counsel of two doctors, Dr. Daniel Berendt and Dr. Rick Berendt, who are seasoned medical professionals and church elders, both in the Edmonton, Alberta church, who advised me, members of my staff, and the council of elders on what steps we should take as a church in the activities we had. I recorded the podcast on Tuesday morning with Dr. Daniel Berendt about the COVID-19 crisis, and he made several insightful comments. You can tune into that. And I advise everyone to go and hear the podcast because he talks about from the standpoint of the Church, the standpoint of how we can protect ourselves, but also what we can do and some very implications because he's not only a medical doctor, he is an elder. And the easiest way to find podcasts, the Inside United Podcasts are to go to ucg.org, to the main homepage of ucg.org, and on the menu line, there is a Podcast button. Click or tap on that button and you'll get our podcasts. Very easy to find.

In the podcast, Dr. Berendt discussed how public health administrators reflect biblical principles of quarantine, hygiene, and crowd control. I would like to add to the Passover service that is nearly upon us eloquently demonstrates the principle of quarantining oneself and family from harm. People think, "Quarantining, they're telling us we can't go anywhere. I hate that." Well, one of the first things that God did working with the Exodus was to quarantine Israel. Stay in your homes, kill a lamb a few days before, take the blood of that lamb and apply it to the doorpost and lintels of your homes, but stay behind those doors because the angel… pardon me, not the angel. I had that wrong in the e-news. The death source or the plague of death is coming, and it will kill anybody who is not protected by that blood. The people were quarantined. Exodus 12:22. "None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning." You stay inside because death will be on the outside. Thus, they will be self-quarantined and protected from the death plague.

The lesson of quarantine, you know, we are self-quarantined right now in great degree. Listen, when you're told to stay inside, listen, don't go out, don't defy orders, stay together, communicate, don't take matters into your own hands, don't panic, don't be disruptive. Trials always bring out the true nature of people. It's interesting that when the trial comes, you just see the true nature of people pop out through their personalities. The first that we see are the fearful. We also see the courageous, the dandies, the selfish, the courageous, the caring, the sacrificial. We even see that in our neighborhood. We have people that are walking up in our neighborhood and asking people, "If you need anything," young people, I'm just amazed, "Give me a call. Can I deliver something to you? Can I do something for you?" We'd gone to our neighbors, even though I know that they're elderly couple. Even I know that they have a son who lives somewhere in the area, I'm not sure how far he lives away, but we told him, "If you need anything, please let us know." You may want to go to your neighbors, the people that you maybe haven't seen that much, or don't know what their schedule is, or who they see to just maybe ask if they could use some help or just make yourself available to them. But there are lessons, very important lessons to us from the Exodus and the first Passover, more than just the quarantine.

Let's start with the Exodus is referred to in many places in the Bible. It's not just something that's there in Exodus but is repeated through the Psalms, it's listed 13 times in 8 specific locations in the New Testament. Jesus Christ Himself spoke of Moses. Acts 7, indictment of the Jews by Stephen, the Martyr, who spoke very proficiently and eloquently about the Exodus. And Jesus referred to Moses in His ministry. What are we to learn, and what is the basis for our learning? Please turn to Romans 15. Romans 15. The apostle Paul makes reference to what had been recorded and written before in the Word of God, which to us is the Old Testament. Here's what he says about the Word of God. Romans 15:4. "For whatever things are written were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." Let's read that again. What's the purpose of what is in the Scriptures and how it applies to us “that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” We don't have hope because of finding a vaccine necessarily. I hope they do find the vaccine and this abates the infections and finds a cure, but my hope is in God, for my family, for my wife, for my children, and for my grandchildren. That's where my hope is. And I find that in the Word of God because that's what's been recorded and written before time.

“Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may be a one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” But more specifically as to the Exodus events, let's turn to 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10:1. The apostle Paul makes a similar statement about the applicability of the Old Testament. "Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,” a reference to the Exodus, passing through the Red Sea. "All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea." He likens that going through the Red Sea as a baptism of the nation. "They all ate," verse 3, "the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ." Talking about Jesus Christ's preexistence, and Jesus Christ's place in the Old Testament. "But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness." And this, we look and see the story of the Exodus but it's a hopeful story of redemption, the beginning of a new nation, of God's continuing His fulfillment of promises that began with Abraham and continuing to the building of a nation into a spiritual nation.

That Exodus of the first groups that went out from Egypt was not a rosy story, it contained many bad examples. And the apostle Paul says so in Verse 6. "Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evils things as they also lusted. Do not become idolaters," verse 7, "as were some of them. As it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.’" Before this time, they were given exemption from death that took the firstborn of every Egyptian family. It didn't happen to the Israelites. They went through that Red Sea and the Egyptian army was buried and drowned. And after this, they still sinned. They really didn't get it. Just now, talking to our people in different places when colleges have let out and said, "We will have no more classes." Just before that, the spring break, the partying, and drinking, and debauchery is continued without a real serious view. It hasn't brought about change in people's nature, changing people's character.

Verse 8, "Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and the one day, twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer." Now, all these things happened to them as examples. And they were written for our admonition, for us to learn from them upon whom the ends of the ages have come, how more applicable can we become, talks about those about whom the end of the ages has come. That's more applicable to us and it was even in Paul's time and talks about the bad examples that they set and they were written for us as admonitions, as warnings. So, what do we learn?

Is there anything more in the historic Passover in Exodus account that we can learn from into how to conduct ourselves in the current distress? Yes, there are a number of parallels that we could learn from that we could apply to ourselves. God imposed sanctions first in the appearance of plagues on the Egyptians. Waters turned to blood, frogs, lice, the wild beast, cattle boils, hail, locusts, darkness, I mean, all these plagues took place. And the Israelites watched them afar, some of them, they were involved in, not all, and they saw these things happen to try to humble the nation of Egypt, but it's as much humbling as the sanctions that are placed on Iran. You know, these people take them, but they don't really change as a result.

The first lesson which we've already covered was that of the quarantine. None of you shall go out of your house until the morning, because the next day they were to leave altogether 600,000 men plus women plus children. It was a massive Exodus, even by today's standards. A convoy, a grouping of people that would have been upwards of 2 million people left by night, the next night after the quarantine. They all left at once. Exodus 12, where we were, they all left at once.

Exodus 12:40. "Now, the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of four hundred and thirty years— on the very same day— it came to pass at all the armies of the Lord went out to the land of Egypt." This was a night of solemn observance as a New King James has it, or as the Old King James has it in a term that we used more popularly in the Church, it was a night much to be observed. That was the next night, after the Passover, which is a very serious service. We have the Night Much to Be Observed. It's translated as a native solemn observance. Solemn observance does not necessarily mean sad. It means just a serious observance. And I'm sure that the very first one was very, very seriously taken as God was now liberating them from the tyranny of living in Egypt for hundreds of years. This is the night of the Lord, the solemn observance of all the children of Israel throughout their generations. And as it says in Exodus 14:8, this was to be as the people left with a high hand, victorious, triumphant, free at last, thank God we're free at last, as they begin their journey towards the Promised Land.

One thing that the people saw very quickly as they did this because the first lesson is quarantine. Second lesson is that they were to move together. There wasn't advanced party, this wasn't to be in different chunks, and nobody's going to find their own way to the Promised Land. It was all together and it was moving east, but here's something else. Exodus 13:20. "So they took their journey from Succoth and camped in Etham at the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night, a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.” The people all walked together, following the lead that God was showing them. Exodus 14:1. Because here was a change in direction. The people started East, but “Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn and camp before Pi Hahiroth between Migdol and the sea.’" This was a change in direction. Not something that people necessarily were expecting. They saw where they were headed. They knew that they were headed towards safety. And the obvious route was the main highway that led to the Middle East. The main highway was the one that led up through Beersheba, up to, you know, what was Jerusalem, you know, and towards the Babylon. But now, the people stop and take a right turn into a box Canyon and the Red Sea. That's where the cloud was taking them. They took off from the main freeway down into a way that was a dead end.

Well, the complaints started coming. Exodus 14:9. So, the Egyptians pursued them, probably, saying to themselves, "Those silly people, look what they're doing. That's the dumbest thing they can do." They're taking off and are boxing themselves in, suicide. "All the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen, and his army overtook them camping by the sea beside Pi Hahiroth before Baal Zephon. And when Pharaoh drew near," verse 10, "the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. Then they said to Moses,” I should say verse 11, "Because there were no graves in Egypt, you have taken us to die in the wilderness?" Very sarcastically. They said, "Moses, what are you doing? Wasn't enough cemeteries in Egypt, now you're taking us out here to kill us?” “Why have you so dealt with us to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that you told us in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For would've been better for us to serve the Egyptians that we should die in the wilderness." People saying what a silly decision. But here, we see the leadership of Moses. The reason that they took that turn was not because of Moses. Was because that's where the cloud and the pillar took him. Moses said to the people, verse 13, "Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today." Here's leadership. "Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord… For the Egyptians whom you see today, you'll see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace." In other words, shut up, stand still, be quiet, and see the salvation of God.

You know, one of the lessons that I have learned and have seen repeated many times in the United Church of God, we've had to make some bold moves, bold steps, wondering how things would work, starting even with the beginning of the United Church of God, 25 years ago. We've had several box canyons that we've walked into. Very first one was the very first one after we started in 1995, where we all had to go through the Red Sea. We didn't know what to do. We had no resources. We've been part of a church for 25 years that gave us a message of don't ever leave us. We had some very, very tough decisions to make, things that really gnawed at us, brought tears, anger, frustration in the beginnings 25 years ago with the silver anniversary, just about this time was in March of 1995.

But we have looked back as to the many ways in which God has delivered us over and over again. He gave us a new home, He gave us a church. Yes, we've had our run-ins, we've had our difficulties, we've had our trials, we've had our cliffs to stare up, but, you know, God has delivered us over and over and over again. And He will continue to do that to the future. The Lord said to Moses verse 15, "Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward." Don't sit here, just to go forward. This is after he says, "Stand still, listen to me." Now, He says, "Now, you go forward. Lift up your rod, stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea." Who, when, how are we going to get through this? One of the greatest geologic miracles was performed as the Red Sea parted.

Another lesson part of this was that they were to go through that Red Sea together. There was only one ticket. There wasn't, "Take another flight." It was at that time, they were allowed to go through at the same time. Verse 22. "So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them and their right hand and on their left. And the Egyptians pursued and went after them in the midst of the sea, and the horses, Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and horsemen. And it came to pass, in the morning watch," verse 24, "that the Lord looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and He troubled the army of the Egyptians. He took off the chariot wheels." Another miracle is that the chariot wheels fell off. So, they drove them with difficulty. And Egyptians are beginning to get it now and said, "Let us flee from the face of Israel for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians." They've beginning to understand how this whole… what was going on. "Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand over the sea,’" this is on the other side, “'the waters may come back upon the Egyptians, on their chariots, and their horsemen.’ And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and when the morning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth, while the Egyptians were fleeing from it. So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.” Verse 28, "And the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that went into the sea after them. Not so much as one of them remained." Total route. "But the children of Israel walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on the right hand and on the left. So," verse 30, "the Lord saved Israel that day.” He saved this nation through a series of miracles out of the hand of the Egyptians “and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.” They saw the evidence, “Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt; so, the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and His servant Moses."

Tremendous event here. Timing was important. They had to stay together. There's a beautiful song that's written after this, which is Exodus 15. They're actually two songs. The lyrics of two songs. One is called "The Song of Moses," and the other one is called "The Song of Miriam" inspiring Psalm of redemption, victory, and intervention of God. "I will sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown from the sea! The Lord is my strength and song, He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him. My father's God, and I will exalt Him." As the people sang this newly composed song. "The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is His name. Pharaoh's chariots and his army is cast into the sea. His chosen captains are also drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them; they sank to the bottom like a stone." And you can read the rest of that song, but the birth of a nation right here as they cross over the Red Sea and come to the other side. But the complaints continued.

Now, they've come to the side to chapter 16 of Exodus. It didn't take too long for the people to start complaining again after several miraculous events. And this is the admonition to us. We have seen so many miracles in our life, and we can easily just fall back on business as usual as the way our lives continue and to start complaining about what we see around us. "As they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin, between Elim and Sinai, and the fifteenth day of the second month…” This is only one month now, one month after the Exodus and after “they departed from the land of Egypt. Then the whole congregational children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, ‘Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt,” how ungrateful! "When we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full! But you brought us out into the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."

“This is a conspiracy. He let us out here so he can kill us here. He's got to be in cahoots with somebody. He brought us out here to kill us here. How silly. We could have just stayed in Egypt.” And this rumor started and panic began. “Look, we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, and the melons” as this is described in numbers 11. “And all we have now are just drive-thrus.” They're talking about the things that they didn't have now. Let's be grateful for everything that God gives us to take life when it's good, and when we had to go through some inconveniences and disappointments, but always to have that joyful spirit as it brought out so well in the sermonette before I started speaking.

These are lessons to learn from Scriptures. Stay together, be united, look to God's guidance by the cloud, and the pillar of fire. As God shows us what to do. What does it mean when we pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, thy will be done, thy will be done?" Do not be unwise, in not understanding the will of God. And we try to the very best of our ability to beseech our God, show us the way to go, show us the way that we should lead, show us as your representatives here the things that we should be doing, please let me not complain and grumble.

Starting rumors and grumbling and complaining is so ungodly. And that was the downfall really of this first group that led to them, not even making it to the Promised Land, to separate a few people who were the spies they were righteous because of constant complaining and grumbling. Don't complain. As well also brought out by Mr. Myers, we should be using this time that we have to fortify ourselves. One thing I've found that was the cancellations that we've had, I didn't realize how much extra time I had. I actually had time to work on the sermon, I had time to read these chapters in total. There's certain things that I did not have to do. I found that last Sabbaths when we heard the sermon by Mr. Myers and afterward, my wife and I had opportunity to talk, had more time to pray, to talk to God, not being rushed, to do different things. Let's take the time to talk to one another online. Let's take this time to share. Let's take time to appreciate the things that we normally don't in life.

This morning, I appreciate the daffodils in our backyard. You know, it's a simple thing. My wife brought in a real big one. I thought, "How do these grow so fast?" It was so beautiful. I actually had time to look at it, you know, look at it in detail, look inside of it and enjoy it. I do believe that in this time when we have inconveniences that there are many, many good things to help us to fortify ourselves as human beings one towards another, to take time to talk to one another. In my office this last week, you know, we've had a lot of conversations, but a number of things were canceled as well. I know people felt free to walk into my office and just sit down, plop down at my big round table and just talk, sometimes for half an hour, sometimes for 45 minutes. You know, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I couldn't schedule it that way normally, but I have enjoyed talking and having that type of conversation. I look forward to being able to talk to more people, to just become a real human being with more people. Right now, there are many things that we don't have to do. Let's take a look at the things that we don't have to do. Now, there's certain events for this summer that we are canceling because we don't have to do them. We can survive as a church. Perhaps God is getting our attention in this way to help us to focus on the things that are important regarding relationships, regarding the building of strength between us as human beings.

In my planning, I'm rethinking things that we need to do, you know, in the Church because one thing I'll promise you, things won't be just quite the same after the virus passes. There are going to be certain consequences as a result of what's happened economically, even as far as the direction of the Church. We have been on a high economically. The stock market has grown, it seemed like there was no end to it, we didn't know how the correction, as they say, would take place, we didn't realize it was going to be overnight and over a virus. We didn't expect companies like Boeing to be even talking about the bankruptcy word, company that was so big. And now, air travel probably won't be the same as it was. And they say that what happened in 9/11 with the aviation industry was nothing compared to what's happened now with the Coronavirus. Of course, I don't want to start, you know, thinking about the worst, but I'm just saying, it's not going to be the same for a while. It may come back, but, you know, we have been prophesying these things. The thing is, is that our business in the Church is to prophesy, to talk about, "This is coming, this is coming, this is coming." Then when it come, “Ooh!" You know, affecting us. It's inconvenient. You know, “I can't go to Ruby Tuesdays.” You know, “It's affecting my life, it’s slowing me down.” No, there are going to be inconveniences and we're going to have to live through them.

Interesting that I got to talking to one of our workers, Natasha. She is the one who is our Russian language specialist and she handles our Russian translations and handling our Russian literature. We got to talking one of these chats in my office because her parents lived through World War II and the invasion of the Germans, all the things that took place then. And I talked about my parents who went through World War II, also were taking this teenage slave labors from Ukraine to work in German factories in World War II. And then we would talk about these events and what all took place. And, you know, Natasha and I were talking to each other, and you know, something I've never had the feeling like my conversations with my parents and talking about those hard times like right now. She said, "You know, something, that's the same thing true with me. I feel that same, kind of, feeling as our parents talking about these difficult times." The upside of that is, is that their parents adjusted to that. My parents still lived in their country a year after the German invasion, when the Germans were in control, and they, kind of, got used to it. They, kind of, learned to adapt to it and live with it. And they even went as teenagers, of course, they had no choice, but to work in German factories. They, kind of, learned to live with the difficulties that took place.

What kind of adjustments will we have to make in life? How will we live with adversity? Perhaps, this should be part of our thinking about how will I adapt to making it? Was a market that took one-third of my retirement, or how am I going to adapt to what's taking place here? How will I adapt to certain losses that will take place or losing my job? Now, right now, we are thinking about our brethren and the things that they may have to go through. We already have certain thoughts about making sure that good works is ramped up to make certain that we have our brethren, you know, who need help, that where the government cannot help, you know, to be able to stand by as a priority to help our people. What we're going through perhaps very well is a test. Just to see a test of how we respond. Do we respond with courage? Do we respond with sacrificed? Do we respond with helping one another, or being encouraging, or are we going to respond with fear? Are we going to stick together and say responsible, encouraging, and energizing words to one another? That's what we should be doing. There may be a time that we may come to having to do things that we do not like or understand.

If you listen to the podcast, I really hope that you do listen to the podcast because Dr. Berendt speaks not only as a medical doctor, he speaks also as an elder. And he talks about all the good things that are being done by public health service in Canada, which he said was very well organized because it's organized centrally by the government when the U.S. public health service is a little bit here, a little bit there, and is not as responsive as he felt it was in Canada. Maybe I shouldn't be saying this, but I did. And he said that people need to be doing things from a pure heart to help one another. This could be an opportunity for us to really show the good side of ourselves in helping others. Do we live a life of love or are we too busy to be helpful? Are we servants helping people where we possibly can, and helping those of the household of God? A lot of people do help, but more people could. I find that when we talk to people about helping people, it's only a certain group and they're the same group over and over and over again that does it. Maybe we need to expand the group to another sector of the people in the Church of God.

This is a time where we need to renew, establish, and maintain a better, stronger relationship with God our Father, and Jesus Christ, and our elder brother from where we really seek our true refuge and where we seek our strength. So, please continue to take sensible precautions. God intimately knows our needs, He knows the needs of your family, and He knows your personal situation better than you even know yourself. Christ said, "Do not be anxious for your life." That wasn't just where to go. I hope things go well for you today as we might say. When Christ says, "Do not be anxious for your life," it’s because He can back it up and He can make certain that he provides the way not to be anxious. Let's drive to praise God, cooperate with one another, and serve one another with genuine humility.

I'd like to conclude with a psalm that really, really meant a lot to me this week. I turned to it randomly to be truthful. It wasn't one of those things you got to read this one, but it Psalm 77. So, I'm 77 because it really seemed to strike a chord. And I'd like to read it all these 20 verses odd ones because it really, to me was the start of Coronavirus and the solution. "I cried to my God with my voice— to God with my voice; and He gave ear to me. In a day of my trouble I sought the Lord; my hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing; my soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God, and was troubled. I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed." How many times do we feel just overwhelmed and just, just overwhelmed like just enough of this? Stop the world. Verse 4. "You hold my eyelids open; I'm so troubled I cannot speak. I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. I call it the remembrance my song in the night; I meditate within my heart, and my spirit makes diligence search." So, now it's the Psalmist saying, "Okay, I'm going to pull myself together now and thinks the things I shouldn't be thinking through this trial. And I remember when this happened before. Okay, what happened when this happened before?”

Then he asks verse 7, "Will the Lord cast off forever? And will He be favorable no more?" You know, God did wonderful things in the Old Testament, wonderful things in our life at one time, but will He be favorable no more? Is He not responding? What's going to happen with the Coronavirus? What if it increases? What if it gets into our neighborhood? "Has His mercy," verse 8, "ceased forever? Has His promise failed forevermore? Has our God forgotten to be gracious? Has He in anger shut up His tender mercies?” One thing about David is that he was very honest with God. When he wasn't getting an answer, he said, "God, what's the matter. What's it going to take? This is the way I feel.” He took ownership for his feelings. "And I said, ‘This is my anguish; but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High." Okay. Now he's beginning to think, not only to think but also to think back of how God had delivered him in the past. "I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely, I will remember Your wonders of old. I will meditate in all Your work and talk of Your deeds."

You know, I take a look at my life from the time that I was called by God, my years of Ambassador College, my career, so to speak, I'll put it that way, in the ministry. I take a look at all the ways that God had delivered me and helped me and helped me in the Church. Not only me but helped others. Even the current history, the current existence of the United Church of God is because God has us here, He's taught us lessons. And through miracles over and over and over again, He brought us here. United Church of God began in 1995. We had the Exodus in April, May of 1995. Our first overall service was the Day of Pentecost in 1995. It couldn't have been timed better. It was a sign that God was pleased with us. He was bringing us to a new existence. We had obstacles with leadership, with people that wanted to be leaders for reasons that were not the right reasons. I'll be very bold about saying that. You get God delivered us over and over and over again and brought us to where we are now. And when I say, when we have difficulties in the Church, whether it be financial, manpower, there's all kinds of issues that come up. I say, "God, you have delivered us before and you will deliver us now."

There are many things in my work that are stumbling blocks with personnel, mostly getting older, not being able to serve. We had deaths. We need to have new ministry injected into our workforce. We have many things that we need to be doing. Then I say, "God, you have delivered us before and you have brought us the people we need. You have given us the vision, the mission to perform. I know something God, I know You'll do it again." And this is, kind of, the way that David is leading in this psalm. “Oh, I feel rotten. I feel awful. God, are You going to do anything about this church? Oh, wait a minute. Maybe, maybe you will. Maybe you have in the past.” Verse 11. "I'll remember the works of the Lord; surely I'll remember Your wonders of old. I will also meditate on all Your work and talk of Your deeds. Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary; who is so great a God is our God?”

So, right now, he's just very openly praising God, praising Him because God has done these things in the past. "You are the God who does wonders; You have declared Your strength among the peoples. You have with Your arm redeemed Your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah. The waters saw You, O God; the waters saw You, they were afraid; the depths also trembled. The clouds poured out water; the sky sent out of a sound; your arrows also flashed about. The voice of Your thunder was in a whirlwind; the lightnings lit up the world; the earth trembled and shook. Your way was in the sea,” he's talking about the Exodus. What he's talking about is a problem that the Israelites had at the very beginning, the problem that Moses had, and God was coming through with the Exodus, with the Red Sea crossing the waters, the earth trembling, the waters breaking up, the waters coming down from the clouds. "Your way was in the sea, your path in the great waters, and Your footsteps were not known. You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron." I just really feel like this Psalm really meant a lot to me in some of the challenges that we have right now, where we've had challenges, we're not sure exactly how things will work out, but also, I do remember what God has done in the past and what He will continue to do, and that He will have a great passing through the difficult times.

So, I'll end on that and I'll just end with a short prayer because I feel very pleased, indulge me that I feel moved to conclude with just a few words and thanking God for what He has done.

Our Father, we thank You very much for the Church. We're thankful to You for all you've done for us. We're thankful to You for the ministry that You have raised up that are serving You with their whole hearts and beings at this very, very time. We're grateful to You, Father, for deliverance over and over again. So, we ask you to protect your people, to protect all demographics, the very old and the very young. Please protect them, Eternal God. So, we're grateful to you for what you have done. As we prepare for the Passover and as we examine ourselves, let's examine how You have worked in our lives. We're thankful to You for all this. In Jesus' name, we pray, Amen.