(6/14/20) How To Find Peace During A Pandemic | Pastor Craig Cunningham | Shadow Rock Church

[Music] [Music] [Music] good morning welcome to shadow Rock Church online we're gonna sing to the Lord I want you to sing with us I want you to clap your hands [Music] you're totally where you can on this the Lord amen [Music] you beneath my shade give me please I'm Mary [Music] nah Oh all my failures I tried to hide [Music] me you call mine [Music] into [Music] you call mine [Music] to your glorious day good news [Music] my soul [Music] I know [Music] Jesus when you call Oh [Music] Oh you're you call go love yesterday lord thank you for calling my name you love you thank you Jesus [Music] and needed risk and my school is heavy cheese great [Music] when you call [Music] you call into your glorious day [Music] God we thank you that you call us by name and now we have life you defeated death Thank You Lord God we're in such an uncertain time and we believe greater things are coming hallelujah give me part so I could drown in the waters never turn you didn't like never seen from always working this is the end of the story this is only just the [Music] even [Music] you speak till the promise is complete even while I'm waiting the great [Music] didn't take I forget our faithful but in deadly [Music] you have read advance [Music] just the [Music] you speak [Music] me [Music] the Bible says he who began a good work is faithful to complete it so hold on to that verse right now and let's sing this next part what you started in male or what we started [Music] she said you you're not done then I'm not turning yet all the things and your you say [Music] done you're not [Music] done [Music] hallelujah thank you more [Music] good morning shadow Rock Church we are so excited you decided to join us here at shadow Rock Church online I know it can be really hard to try to stay connected during this difficult time but one of the ways we are staying connected is through our kids zoom call so if you are a kid or you know of a kid who is in elementary preschool or nursery there is a zoom call right after the service at 10:30 and you don't want to miss it it's gonna be so good and it's such a good opportunity to stay connected with all of the other kids and the teachers and the staff because we miss you so much but that's later right now is our time of giving so there are three ways to give there on the screen right now you can text to give you can give online or you can mail in your check to RPO box we just want to thank you so much for your generosity and for staying faithful we appreciate you so much and we really could not do this without you let's pray over this morning's offering dear God thank you so much for every person watching I pray for a great rest of the service and that lives are impacted god bless the gift in the giver in your name we pray amen thank you so much for giving we appreciate you so much we hope you enjoy the rest of the service and we really hope that pastor Craig's message up next really impacts you hi everybody welcome to shadow Rock Church online because of this pandemic we're exclusively online but we really want to be constantly in touch with you and so if there's anything that you want to let us know about or if you need something and maybe we can help you please email us at info at shadow Rock Church com if we can help we will we really do care about our community I always say I'm not just pastoring a church we're pastoring a community and we really want to minister you as much as we can we've been in a conversation that we have called how to find peace during a pandemic it's not all that easy is it and the reason we call this a conversation is we want to have talks that start other talks I know for me and my family and some friends we've had some really engaging conversations around the dinner table especially related to peace and you know you can have these conversations with anybody how would you define peace where do you find peace what does that look like in your life how would you apply that to your life you know you can have these conversations literally with anybody and maybe it's an open door even for you to share a link to this message that will continue the conversation in the person's life so hopefully you can have talks that start talks that is our hope and our prayer and this conversation I think has had unique relevance just because of everything we're going through being sequestered and being quarantined when the Bible talks about peace usually it's a Hebrew word that's translated from a word called Shalom and it literally means wholeness or completeness so it's a little bit different than how many people might define peace as just inner peace it's something that you can pursue it's something that you can catch try to create in your community it's a wholeness and completeness when you see injustice when you see things that are not as they ought to be it's a disruption in Shalom and God really does want to bring peace to your life in fact Jesus himself promises that peace he said peace I leave with you my peace I give you and I do not give as the world gives so don't let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid God's peace is unique and it's different and it's something that is a promise that he wants to apply to your life now through this conversation we've been looking at many of the different Psalms there's 150 different Psalms and the first week we looked at Psalm 125 the second week in this conversation we looked at Psalm 142 the third week we looked at Psalm 51 last week while I was in the hospital we looked at Psalm 22 and each one of those are very very meaningful Psalms and I hope that you've been able to really engage maybe you've never really read any of the Psalms and it's something that is so practical and so relevant to our lives and to our situations now what's unique about this conversation is I have really fought hard to pursue peace in my own life during these last four or five weeks that we've been together and in this conversation not only have we experienced this coronavirus and the pandemic and everybody's sequestered but as you know I've been fighting cancer and so I'm on these different medications and one of the medications that I was on was an anti-nausea drug and it causes a side effect and I really didn't know what it was but it was like restless body syndrome it's called a could occasi so the whole time you know weeks 2 and week 3 I'm trying to record a message and what it is it's like restless body syndrome you just cannot sit still you're moving around and and it is the worst feeling in the world I've never had anything like it at one time I got out of my house and I literally ran as far as I could down my street because I didn't know what to do I just had to move and I just could not sit still every time I sat down or laid down I felt really restless and I was very happy to understand you know where it came from and once we stopped taking the anti nacho drug 2 or 3 DS 2 or 3 these days later it kind of dropped off but weeks 2 and weeks three even as I'm recording and talking about peace you know I just felt like I had to move around and I'm trying to cross my legs and I didn't know what to do it just was a very odd feeling and then I went into the hospital I actually had an infection and they had to remove a liver pump that had been installed and we had worked really hard to install that liver pump and I was in the hospital what I thought was just a few days and it ended up being nine days in the hospital and in the hospital here's the unique thing you do not get any rest in the hospital they come and they poke you and do you know your vitals and test you and all kinds of things all right long all during the day and where I was at there was a nurse's station right outside my door and they'd be looking for different nurses there were intercoms and so I had this noise-canceling kind of thing on my phone you know rain in the forest rain in the rain in the urban streets you know rain light rain hard rain paradise on an island you know I had all these things that was trying to like provide some kind of background noise that it wouldn't distract me one of the noises that would come was this like loud beeping and it would just go on forever and ever and I finally asked the nurse what in the world is that loud beeping and they're like well that's everybody's heart monitors and you know it's just beeping them like why does it beep so long and then they're like well it's not really all that reliable you know it just kind of beeps and the heart monitor not that reliable so it just beeps and beeps and deeps so you have to laugh about that but you know just being in the hospital that long there are no visitors allowed and so my family could not visit I had no friends that could visit you know we were just facetiming and it was a long time I'm not gonna lie it was hard hard hard and had to fight for for peace and while I was in the hospital like many of you I was watching you know the TV screen and I was watching the news and just tracking everything that had happened at the tragic death of George Floyd who was tragically killed by a police officer or a group of police officers in Minnesota and and then watching the protest and then the riots and then the looting and the burning down of buildings and just feeling like the loss of control in our country and it was hard I had to fight for peace and you know I felt like I had peace but with all my health challenges with coronavirus with me the hospital with everything I was watching on TV it just felt like it was really difficult to hang on to peace and you may have felt like that right now in your life maybe you're facing some kind of relationship problem or there's a there's a career opportunity and the door is just closing or there's financial problems or you're facing a difficult diagnosis yourself and and you don't know how to deal with that or maybe even a death of a loved one a death of a family member you know all these things are it's hard to fight for peace we've got to pursue that homeless and that completeness pursue this promise that Jesus himself offers us you know peace is not the absence of problems we all have problems and sometimes it feels overwhelming the amount of problems that we have but peace is understanding that we're safe even in the midst of our problems much like a force field the world may be chaotic around us there may be all kinds of challenging problems that we're facing but we are hidden in the presence of God and that is the peace that he offers us the Sun we're gonna look at this morning is a psalm that I've referred to a couple of times through this conversation but I really wanted to dig into it because I love this particular Psalm it's Psalm 34 and it is a psalm that David wrote after he was miraculously rescued from one of his enemies he kind of was captured by one of these enemies and he didn't know what else to do so he acted like he was crazy and so they ended up letting him go and they're like this guy's nuts and they let him go and he just took it as this miraculous response to the Lord that the Lord had really rescued him and it starts out like this I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth and my soul shall make its boast in the Lord humble will hear it and rejoice o magnify the Lord with me and that's his invitation and let us exalt his name together and what an amazing invitation that that is and it's an invitation for peace because what David is really saying the Lord is our peace because he does two things he protects and he provides when were small children living with our parents and our families one of the reasons that I think we feel that sense of security is that we are protected and we were provided for verse four said this says this I sought the Lord and he answered me and he delivered me from all my fears they looked to him and were radiant now imagine that you looked at God and you're radiant your faces are lighting up with the glory of God and their faces will never be ashamed the poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of his troubles and the angel of the lord encamps around those who fear him and rescues them and when he's talking about the angel of the Lord it's interesting because he's really talking about Jesus himself pre-incarnate Jesus who is shows up on the scene throughout this story in the Old Testament as we see generations just moving through faith kind of pursuing this promise of the Messiah but the angel of the lord encamps himself and i love that that's why i use this particular translation it's not one I typically use this new American Standard but I had loved the language that is used here the lord encamps upon our lives he could can you imagine that the Lord is just just there he he sets up camp right there in the midst of our problems he sets up camp right there in the midst of our troubles he is there with us and he never is going to leave he protects us and he also provides for us in verse eight it says o taste and see that the Lord is good another great invitation for us how blessed is the man who takes refuge in him Oh fear the Lord you his Saints for to those who fear Him there is no want you imagine just being so content that there was no wants in your life the Young Lions do lack and suffer hunger but they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing and sin teresting when the Bible is talking in this this Psalm it uses that we're good over and over and over and over because God really does want to provide good things to you the Lord protects and he provides and he is our peace it's a promise that asks for us you know I have here I know many of you who live in the desert you don't even know what this is but let me enlighten you this is an umbrella and when it rains you can stand underneath a Sunbrella and many times if you're the only one with an umbrella people will run and and they're like let me get under that umbrella and I've had my whole family under an umbrella maybe leaving a little smaller than this and your head you know you're just kind of ducking in you're ducking in out of the rain because you're covered underneath this umbrella it may be raining all around it may be a hailstorm all around and hopefully if your umbrella is durable even if it's hailing you can be protected as you as you walk around underneath this umbrella and you can you know take walks and you can go to the store all because you're covered underneath that umbrella even though everybody else is drenched everybody else is soaked by the rain you're protected underneath this umbrella you're covered and here's the thing God wants to cover you even though the world may be raining trouble you can be covered underneath God's protection you can be protected and provided for because of who God is isn't that the coolest umbrella ever and David goes on in the psalm to talk about how to be covered how to walk underneath God's covering no matter what's going on you were protected the first thing he talks about is to speak what is true verse 13 he says keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit you know there's something I talked about it even just a weeks ago the God can do something really miraculous with an honest heart to speak what is true to always be courageous enough to be honest with yourself with others even with God to speak what it's true the second thing he talks about is to pursue what is right in verse 14 it says depart from evil and do good seek peace and pursue it and I love that I've referred to that particular verse many times to seek peace and pursue it that we can pursue wholeness and completeness through to simply pursue what is right intent and to pursue that peace and you know there is a lot of lack of of Shalom around us in our community and we're constantly trying to pursue what is right so we speak what is true we pursue what is right and we expect what is best verse 15 it says the eyes of the Lord are towards the righteous and his ears are open to their cry you know God has an open heart to you when you pray when you ask him for help his ears are open to you and we can expect what is best because that is ultimately what God wants for you and for me he wants what is best for our lives sometimes we don't want that even for ourselves but God certainly wants that for us and as long as we speak what is true pursue what his ride expects what his best we're underneath that covering of God and we're hidden in the shadow of his wings we're recovered and God can do great things when when we're walking around with that peaceful peaceful heart in verse 18 it says this verse 19 rather the righteous cry and the Lord hears and delivers them from all of their troubles the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit many are the afflictions of the righteous that the Lord delivers him but delivers him out of them all and listen to this he keeps all his bones not one of them is broken and of course that is an amazing prophecy towards Jesus dying on a cross that none of his bones were broken that he was that that cerimon and a lamb that was that was that died for our sins but it's interesting it says it keeps all his bones that word keeps means to to exercise great care over but God is exercising great care over you I remember when I was in the hospital I was telling Trish even yesterday that I think I was at the lowest point in my entire life and I just didn't have anything in the tank but I knew that God was there and I found such solace in the sense that I knew that his eyes were upon me that he had not departed from me because he keeps me he's exercising great care over my life and here's the promise to you he's exercising great care over your life - without a shadow of a doubt no matter what it is that you're going through God's there and he cares for you and he wants to protect you he wants to cover your life with peace and this psalm ends in verse 22 it says this it says the Lord redeems the soul of the servants and none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned it reminds me of what Paul said in Romans chapter 8 very first verse it says therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus you know when we're outside of Christ when we're outside of faith we get rained on and and we kind of suffer the con nation for our own actions but we even come into the covering of Christ when we're hidden under Christ even God looks at us and he doesn't see all the times we messed up he only sees the righteous life of His Son Jesus he sees the perfect life of His Son Jesus you know heaven is a perfect place and only perfect people belong here but because we're in Christ and we're hidden in Christ we belong there what's true of Jesus is now true of you and me and we're no longer condemned we have passed from death into life but old things are gone the new things have come and there's a unique transformation that happens when we put our faith in Jesus and so I want to invite you and I'm gonna use one of the invitations of David in this Psalm I'm gonna invite you to taste and see that the Lord is good maybe you've been walking out there all alone by yourself and you're just getting rained on you're getting dumped on you're feeling condemned I'm going to invite you to taste and see that the Lord is good he wants to watch over your life I'm gonna invite you to come underneath his covering by faith you can do that and let him shelter you with peace and no matter what it is you're going through no matter what troubles there may be that you might face you can be rest assured that God is watching over your life and that there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ that nothing can separate you from the love that is in Christ Jesus that he will surround you with perfect peace even in the midst of trouble and that is my prayer for you as I said every week I'm just going to say Shalom to you I'm praying wholeness and completeness over your life I'm praying that you experience this promise of peace that it's from Jesus himself taste and see that the Lord is good if you want to enter into that faith I'm going to invite you to pray this prayer with me this morning dear Jesus I thank you for dying on a cross from me I thank you for promising me this amazing gift of peace and I want to come under you're covering I want to be hidden in Christ I want to experience Lord the peace that comes from knowing that I'm right with God because I'm right with His Son Jesus Jesus I thank you for dying on a cross for me thank you for paying the price for all of my sin I thank you Lord that all of my sin travels 2,000 years it dies forever dead and buried 2,000 years ago but at the same time your righteousness travels 2,000 years and clothes me and hides me in you and in your grace it's the Lord I invite your peace over my life invite your grace over my life and I'm so thankful that now there is no condemnation for me and for all those who are in Christ Jesus I think you that I have moved from death to life that I've moved from the old things to the new things and that now I'm covered in Jesus I thank you for that and the name of Jesus amen I love you so much I'm so proud of you and we're praying that peace over your life you know there's a song that I used to sing about 25 years ago and I wanted to sing it again just in the close of this conversation and make it the prayer for you and for your family as we invite him to be the peace in the midst of the storm [Music] when the world have been 11 grumbles ethey when my life is all tattered and torn see up and when swift i've been battered but i'll clean to his cross he gives me peace in the midst of the store and he gives me the she didn't list out the store the store but he is my [Music] yeah Jesus Christ he's my refuge Arkan oh yeah when the world you've been living in will they make gumbo actual feed if your life this all tattered tattered and so on see I wanna just if I've been win Swift I've been bad her but I'll cling to his cross she gives me peace in the midst in the midst of the storm oh and one more thing you see when I come to the end of my journey had all eleven seems but one moment when my doctor shakes his head and looks for no Jesus Christ he makes my bedside you makes it a cathedral babe and he gives me peace in the midst of to stop the stone ha he'll be your piece yes she will [Music] they start the sky you don't have to worry tonight cuz she'll be your Iker you can put your feet oh Jesus Christ I refuse and in here surely can give me your piece in the midst of in the mist of the score and he'll be your piece in the midst of the stars keep looking to Jesus cuz you'll be your he'll be or you can tilt your face before Jesus Christ here's my anchor and in here Oh [Music] and you'll be in the midst of the star there's no doubt about it the Snoopy your piece little missed out the stone [Music] keep looking to Jesus cause he'll be your P Hillel if the midst of the [Music] hey thank you so much for watching that service if you missed last week I want to see more click the video right there and if you want to never miss a video you can click that subscribe button and be a part of our online family god bless and we hope to see you again soon [Music]

Channel: Shadow Rock Church

Views: 326

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Peace, pandemic, quarantine, covid 19, corona virus, shadow Rock church, Craig Cunningham

Id: frIi3gpEJV4

Length: 38min 49sec (2329 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 14 2020