3 Fears During COVID-19 and How to Conquer Them

but I want to welcome you to part two of our teaching on Psalm 91 and if you missed the first part of this it's very important that you go back and listen to the first section because there's some things you won't get and fully understand or appreciate if you don't listen to that Psalm 91 is I believe one of the most beautiful examples of Hebrew poetry in all of the Bible Hebrew poetry is different than English poetry English poetry we primarily rhyme and and and that's what makes it beautiful but the Hebrews had a totally different way of communicating a statement would be made followed by a second statement and the second statement is similar but not exactly the same as the first and so what I want you to see is it God giving you a slightly different view of a truth so that that truth becomes very real or tangible to you and the best way for me to describe this is through this toy that many of us had when we were young maybe some of you younger people have never seen one of these and in fact I marvel that they still sell them because of the advances in technology but it's like a viewmaster and I remember when I was a kid my uncle had one of these and I used to love to look into it because he had pictures of the mountains and I remember there was a picture of Central Park in New York City and when you looked in you could actually see these buildings as if they were right out in front of your face it was three-dimensional and the reason was because one picture was slightly different from the other and so when you look at these two pictures through this viewmaster it makes them appear 3d when in fact it's not if the two pictures were exactly the same you wouldn't get that effect it's the seeing them from slightly different angles not totally opposite angles but slightly different angles that allows you to catch the truth or a more realistic view and that's what Psalm 91 does so I want to go back to the first verse and lay this down again so we refresh ourselves with it he who dwell in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty so we have three pairs here we have dwell and abide secret place shadow Most High Almighty now those are the three things that match up their three pairs and the reason God does this is he wants to give us a slightly different image of a promise so that it makes it easier for us to wrap our minds around it now in the last session we talked about how God presents himself as a mother hen there is no animal in all of the animal world that cares for its young like a mother hen and the reason is the mother hen will likely have to die to protect her chickens because just about anything that comes into the barnyard is going to be able to kill the mother hen but she will give up her life totally different than a grizzly bear grizzly bear may fight for her cubs but that grizzly bear mom is at the top of the food chain and so the mother hen is a picture of God's care and that's what we see with Jesus he tells Israel or Jerusalem I would have gathered you like a hen gathers her chickens under her wings but you wouldn't permit it and he died for his people because he cared for them now this Psalm is pertinent to us especially in this day because it speaks about pestilence two different times and I want to read them to you Psalm 91 three surely he shall deliver you from the perilous pestilence Psalm 91 five and six you shall not be afraid of the pestilence that walks in darkness now earlier we said that it was Moses we believe who wrote this Psalm and if that is the case I think this Psalm points us back to the plagues of Egypt and it's interesting to me that when the plagues of Egypt were happening there were two examples of pestilence in those 10 plagues now you and I may think that the word plague and pestilence mean exactly the same thing but they're not a pestilence is a mysterious disease that has the ability to kill you there were plagues like the plague of darkness so the water turned to blood and all the fishes died that happened in Egypt the frogs the lice the gnats the Flies all that stuff happened the grasshoppers but didn't kill anybody it made life miserable it was unbearable but nobody died but two of those ten plagues resulted in death so two times we see pestilence spoken of in the Exodus plagues let me read to you four if you refuse to let them go Moses said if a row and still hold them behold the hand of the Lord will be on your cattle in the field on the horses on the donkeys on the camels on the oxen and on the sheep a very severe pestilence now your King James Bible will say miranium you are raim that's an old old English word we don't use it anymore but it comes exactly from the word pestilence in the Hebrew and then Exodus 9:15 now if I had stretched out my hand God said to Pharaoh and struck you and your people with pestilence then you would have been cut off from the earth so this makes it very clear pestilence is something that kills people it's not just a plague there were 10 plagues but two of them killed people the first outbreak killed many of Egypt's animals but the second outbreak killed the firstborn sons in every household so this seems pretty harsh but one I want you to understand is God was very much justified in dealing with Pharaoh and his people in this way first of all the Hebrews had elevated the office of the Pharaoh for decades not just one Pharaoh benefited several pharaohs benefited what we see is that when Joseph came into power and when he interpreted the Pharaohs and took over the agricultural programs in Egypt he saved Egypt from a famine from a grievous famine but he didn't just save them from a famine he positioned Pharaoh with great great wealth by his policies now God was absolutely just in releasing plagues on the Egyptians for a number of reasons may seem very harsh but you have to remember what had been happening in Egypt first of all the Hebrews had made Pharaoh rich Genesis 47 20 said then Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh Pharaoh was a powerful man but not supremely powerful before Joseph came along and when Joseph interpreted the Pharaohs dreams and implemented the new agricultural policy to save back food he saved Egypt from the land from famine that not just consumed Egypt but the whole Middle East and it made Pharaoh a very powerful powerful ruler but the new Pharaohs after this one forgot what Joseph had done and they made slaves of the Hebrews let's read it so the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor they made their lives bitter with hard bondage and mortar and brick and an all manner of service in the field they had to make these mud bricks and they worked like dogs in the field and so they they were very very cruel but the children of Israel continued to grow so when the population of Israel was growing in Egypt Pharaoh was even more threatened and this is what he did the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives who delivered the babies and he said when you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women and you see them on the birth stools if it's a son you kill him now those Hebrew midwives did not do that and God blessed him for it so Pharaoh followed up with another thing Exodus 1:22 so Pharaoh commanded all his people saying every son who is born of you and this pertained only of the Hebrews shall be cast into the river and every daughter you shall save alive so this is not a good way to pay back to people who saved your country and made you want you were and so God was very just in dealing with those people and this is what I would say I've studied this all through history God has never judged any nation without first saving that nation and without first talking to and revealing himself to its king you know the Roman Empire eventually fell but do you know that is why it was so important for the Apostle Paul to go into the court of nero caesar and preach him the gospel and most of the church thought that paul was making a mistake when he did that but god wanted the gospel to be preached to the most powerful man in the world can i tell you this that even in today the the most powerful men and all of this planet will hear the gospel of jesus christ proclaimed directly to them most of them already have some of them have completely rejected it so when god's judgment comes on them they'll be with no excuse now what i want you to see is that pharaoh brought about something with this command that he had no intention of doing the hebrews responded to his order by hiding their babies the parents of moses made little basket and pitched it with tar and put him in it and put him on the edge of the nile river so that he could survive well you remember the story that the daughter of the Pharaoh came down to the river with a couple of her maids and they heard this baby crying in the basket and they picked up the basket out of the water and the the Pharaoh's daughter said this is a Hebrew baby I'm gonna keep it and Moses older sister happened to be standing there and she says to the princess she said do you need a Hebrew mother to nurse that baby and the princess said yes and so she a deal with Moses own mother to nurse this baby and what I want you to see is that the very thing that Pharaoh did brought the deliverer from far off and put Moses into his own household and this very action brought about his own undoing and Moses was raised up as an Egyptian general Acts chapter 7 and verse 22 tells us that Moses was a mighty in words and in deeds he became an amazing a Gyptian general and won great victories for them that there's a great body of oral traditions in the Hebrew culture things that we don't have a lot of access to but it tells us that Moses won battles against some of the the nation's to the south of Egypt and he was known as a great military leader well now he was perfectly suited to lead the children of Israel out of bondage had he been left alone he would have grown up with a slaves mentality but he was not trained as a slave he was trained as a warrior and a leader and that's why he wasn't willing to put up with what Pharaoh was doing to his people with what God was able to do to use him to lead the people out of bondage so Pharaoh set this thing up and it backfired on him can I tell you I think the same thing is gonna happen today with how this whole thing is working against our nation and against God's people and I'm not saying there aren't some things that that needed to be judged but I'm telling you that God has an amazing way of flipping things and turning them around now pestilence always generates fear Psalm 91 five and six you shall not be afraid of the terror by night nor of the arrow that flies by day nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness there's terror at night and a pestilence that walks in darkness now what's that mean fear is the very worst at night you will have more trouble with fear most the time in the night time then you do any other time and here's why because at night you don't have anything else to think about you're not preoccupied with work you're not taking care of a family you're not doing things on the job yeah you're not doing chores you have nothing to do you wake up in the middle of the night and all of a sudden these thoughts came or come at you and they trouble you that's when fear is at its worst the Bible says also the pestilence walks in darkness now most of you will not be able to remember this but when I was a kid I went to lots of rodeos my dad was a professional rodeo cowboy and almost every rodeo we went to how to fare associated with it and I can still remember going into these fairs they would have exhibits and I don't know why they did this but in those days every time you went to a fair you saw a man and an iron along and if you're a six or seven year old kid I'm not have been even five years old when I saw this the first time I was petrified of it mama why is that man laying in that big machine and she said his lungs are gone he has tuberculosis and the only way that he can breathe is to lay in that machine I said he can't get out of that and no he has to stay in that in order to live oh my goodness I couldn't think of anything worse and then there were lots of kids who had polio and every time we turned on television there was a commercial about polio and a public service announcement about polio about giving to support polio immunization and so forth and this was a big deal I got my polio shots before I started school and you lived in fear of this stuff we don't have those things now I'm not saying they aren't real that your polio could still hurt you tuberculosis can still kill you but it's not as big an issue today because we have it figured out this coronavirus is very frightening because there's so much about it that we don't know we don't know exactly how it spreads we don't know exactly how people get it we think we know we're learning more about it all the time what I want you to see because of the ignorance or the darkness about it it has the capacity to cause more fear we will eventually beat it God will give ideas to the right people and we will eventually learn how to shut it down but in the meantime were not fearful we have respect we don't put ourselves in harm's way unnecessarily but we understand that this thing is going to be beaten I see three different challenges right now for people and this first of all there is the fear of the disease now if you're a younger person you probably don't battle this one because when you're young you believe you're indestructible you're very healthy my goodness I used to play touch football all the time when I had the flu but I wanted to play touch football so I'd go out and play even when I had the flu unless it was really extreme I was always out running around I didn't want to miss an opportunity to play touch football when you're a little older and you're more responsible and when your job depends on you working and so when you're at home and you're not out there the work force getting your wage you have a fear of financial ruin them and that's what happens to many of us were battling that fear right now how will we make it and we have a fear of financial ruin now I'm struck by this loads of people are buying weapons they're buying guns and and and I'm not against people having a gun to defend themselves but this tells me that there is a real fear of total breakdown and chaos and that's the reason that people are buying these weapons is because they're afraid that the police won't be able to protect us that people are going to start stealing food and breaking into houses and all this kind of stuff and they live in a fear of that and on the one hand they're very full of bravado and this home is protected by Smith & Wesson you've seen bumper stickers but then on the other hand there is a tormenting fear that says you better be careful because it's going to all fall apart I don't think it's going to fall apart totally I do not believe that and here's why I believe we're in the days before the coming of the Son of Man and Jesus said in the days before the coming of the Son of Man it will be exactly the way it was in the days of Noah in the days of Noah they were eating they were drinking they were marrying and giving in marriage now I've had four kids getting married two daughters I got to tell you it costs a lot of money to have a wedding and so that means to me that there is going to be a continuing economy right up to the time Christ returns he said my coming will be like a thief in the night and so what that means is life will be normal very usual it won't be in one of these periods where there is a worldwide crisis now that's what I believe the scripture teaches us so I wouldn't fall into fear if I were you I'm not saying that you don't have real challenges but there is no place for fear in the life of a believer if you know what the Word of God really teaches Satan always comes he always uses fear to come at the people of God this is a tool that he's always utilized when the children of Israel had King Saul and King Saul had compromised and had sin and darkness in his life Satan took advantage of that to come at the people of Israel and so the Philistines came to the valley of elah and there was a mountain on one side where the Philistine troops were standing and on the opposite side there were the Israelites and two times a day for forty days in a row a giant by the name of Goliath came and he yelled out curses at the people of Israel and he challenged any Israeli man who would listen to a fight and a duel and here's the proposition he but forth he said send out a man to fight me and if I win you will be our servants if you win we will be your servants and so that was the duel he really didn't want to fight the Philistines didn't want to fight the Bible says the Philistines stood on a mountain on one side and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side with a valley between them so nobody really wanted to fight Satan wanted to win simply with fear and what I want you to see is that when you understand how God works you understand that his first mission when trouble comes is not to stop the trouble my son's first mission his first mission when trouble comes is to take the fear out of your heart and mind and there is a way to do that now I want you to pay careful attention why I'm not saying I never have liked it when someone said don't be afraid that's good it's a good thought but if you can't tell me how not to be fearful you haven't really helped me in my next message I'm gonna tell you how exactly you keep fear from being a part of your life let's pray Heavenly Father I thank you for the privilege that we have to break open the bread of life the word of God I thank you Lord for making your promises clear and real to our hearts so that we may put our complete trust in them in Jesus name Amen hey before you go I just want to let you know about a few ways for you to just engage with us here's that here's the first this message ministered you you found it to be helpful we found it to be impactful would you do this for us would you share it go to Facebook go to YouTube click share send it to your friends send it to your family members send it to your co-workers but let's share the good news and share what we found to minister to us and what God spoke to us through this message on Psalm 91 second thing is this if you've been impacted by this message whether you're part of church on the move or maybe you're someone that's watching from afar someone that's not part of our physical churches I just want to encourage you would you consider giving and supporting the church financially the best way for you to do that jump onto our website at church on the move calm in a season where we could slip into self-preservation and just try to take care of ourselves we believe as Christians that we're called a radical generosity and I just want to encourage you in this season lean into that lean into giving lean into being part of something bigger than each and every one of ourselves and then lastly it's it's this life was not made to be lived of we believed in the power and the importance of small groups of all of our small groups right now at church on the move our meeting virtually there meeting via zoom FaceTime facebook Messenger several other platforms available to you I just want to encourage you jump on church on lucam click the group's button go through our finder we'd love to get you connected to a good we hope you enjoyed this message next week on April 8th we will be releasing part 3 on Psalm 91 7:30 c OT m dot live Facebook live in YouTube live would love to see you

Channel: Church on the Move

Views: 3,526

Rating: 4.8518519 out of 5

Keywords: Church on the move, God, religion, Christianity, Jesus, Real Jesus, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Churches, Worship, Whit George, Willie George

Id: VPl3QZuwGAs

Length: 23min 21sec (1401 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 02 2020