(uplifting music) - Well, good morning
boys and girls. Normally I'd be
looking the other way and seeing a bunch of
boys and girls sitting on the steps here, but I'm thinking you're
watching from your homes and I'm glad that you're here
with us today worshiping. This story is about a
young man named Glenn. Now, Glenn was born in 1901. How many of you remember 1901? I don't think I do. I have doubt that you
probably know anybody that's even alive
that lived in 1901. But this man, this young
man, he was born in Nebraska, the state of Nebraska,
which is in the Midwest, and as he got older in 1918, he journeyed on to
Northern California, and he wanted to go to
school and become a doctor, a medical doctor. That was his heart's desire, so he left his mother and
father and journeyed west, where he started school, what is now Pacific Union
College in England, California, and everything was
going pretty well. But something happened
while Glenn was at school. In 1918, there is
something that was called the Spanish flu. Now, the Spanish
flu is very similar to what we're going through
right now with COVID-19. It was a pandemic, that's
easy for you to say, huh? Pandemic, and he got an
urgent call from his parents back in Nebraska, that
he needed to come home because they were both
sick with this flu and somebody had to
take care of the farm, 'cause that was
their livelihood. So Glenn traveled all
the way back to Nebraska, and helped out with the farm
until he got the flu as well. He ended up getting the Spanish
flu and was sick as well. And so he recovered
as did his parents, which was a blessing because
a lot of people did not. And he recovered, but he didn't make it back
to Northern California for many, many years later. Finally, he was able to
go back to the northwest, but not to go to school. This time he was
going to find work. It was during the late
20s and depressions, the depression was starting. And anyway, so he had journeyed
out that way to start work. And so he was in
the dairy industry and also he became
a timber faller with the trees and
the lumber industry, and so that's where he
met his future wife. And was in Northern California
and he met his wife, they got married and
had several children. Well, there's something
about that story. There's a verse in the
Bible in Romans 8:28 that says, "All things
work together for good "to those that love God "and who are called them
according to His purpose," and that happens to be my
mother's favorite verse. It was my mother's
favorite verse. And for me that verses
very special as well not because it was just
'cause it was my mom's verse, favorite verse,
but also because, and I'm not saying the
Spanish flu was a good thing, but for me, it kind
of was a blessing because Glenn was
my grandfather. And had he stayed
probably in college, he probably wouldn't
have met my grandmother, and her name was Alta, and
she is who I'm named after, and their daughter
was my mother. Her name was Bev. And so my grandparents went on and grandpa never
became a doctor, but he loved Jesus and he and my grandmother
raised their children and took me as well
to Sabbath School when I was young, so I'm so thankful that
my grandpa met my grandma and that I'm here today
because hard to believe, but from a Spanish flu. But anyway, here I had
Alex put up a picture. There's my family when I was, that was probably about 1960, and I'm sitting between
my grandpa Glenn and my grandma Alta. I'm the little girl. I was about five. And that was my family. My mom and dad are on the
other side with my two brothers and then my aunt Bessie
there next to my daddy. Sometimes we don't see good that comes out of things like what we're going
through right now, but Jesus has a plan
for each of our lives. So I hope you're doing well and we think of you
and pray for you. Have a blessed Sabbath. - At this time, we're gonna
have our scripture and prayer. And our scripture is a
short one, but very powerful is from 1 John
4:19, 1 John 4:19, and Alta, my lovely wife is
going to read that scripture. - All right, "We loved Him
because He first loved us." - Okay, very powerful message
in those few words there. So if you could, if you
could, well, if you're home, you wanna kneel fine,
or if you bow your head, we're gonna kneel right here. Father in heaven, Lord, as
we humbly bow before you, we thank you for the great
love you have for us. Lord, the love that
you have for us has awakened in
us a love for you. Lord, you've given us a
picture of what love is like through Jesus and His time
that He walked in this earth and reached out
and blessed others. Lord, may we do the same, may we allow your Holy
Spirit to live in us so that your love may
flow out of us, Lord, not just in word
but also in deed. Thank you again. We just wanna pray for our
speaker, James Rafferty as he speaks this morning, Lord, that you would give him
words to speak into season. We pray that you would be with all of our church family, Lord, that stay at home
right now, Lord, just ask you to watch
over them, protect them, send your angels
to be with them, and surround them
with your loving arms. And we just thank you again
for your goodness unto us. In Jesus name, amen. (piano music) ♪ My dwelling place
is God Most High ♪ ♪ My refuge and my fortress ♪ ♪ When plague and
pestilence draw nigh ♪ ♪ I'm hidden in His presence ♪ ♪ When terrors fall
and arrows fly ♪ ♪ His shield will be my safety ♪ ♪ When stones across
my pathway lie ♪ ♪ On angels' wings I'm carried ♪ (piano music) ♪ My dwelling place
is God Most High ♪ ♪ A present help in danger ♪ ♪ I rest secure in
love's pure light ♪ ♪ Beneath my Master's favor ♪ ♪ He freed me from
the fowler's snare ♪ ♪ Where sin and
shame had bound me ♪ ♪ Deceived I'd made
my refuge there ♪ ♪ Till fearless He came for me ♪ ♪ Wonderful, powerful ♪ ♪ My hope and my defender ♪ ♪ Mighty God, Emmanuel ♪ ♪ My dwelling place forever ♪ (uplifting music) ♪ My dwelling place
is God Most High ♪ ♪ I'll never seek another ♪ ♪ For I am His and He is mine ♪ ♪ My heart He'll keep forever ♪ ♪ I know the Name
on whom I call ♪ ♪ He promises to answer ♪ ♪ With life He
satisfies my soul ♪ ♪ And crowns me
with His pleasure ♪ ♪ Wonderful, powerful ♪ ♪ My hope and my defender ♪ ♪ Mighty God, Emmanuel ♪ ♪ My dwelling place forever ♪ ♪ Wonderful, powerful ♪ ♪ My hope and my defender ♪ ♪ Mighty God, Emmanuel ♪ ♪ My dwelling place forever ♪ ♪ My dwelling place forever ♪ (uplifting music) - Thank you Mikayla
for that song. What appropriate song for what we're going
through right now to have the assurance
that our dwelling place is our God most high, so
thank you for that song. Also, I just wanna introduce
my friend, James Rafferty. Some of you are very
familiar with that name. He's been on three,
being a number of times, been in ministries,
been all over the world speaking for over 30 years. And so I'm just looking
forward to James hearing what you have to say. We know we're at a
crisis right now, and I just wanna thank
you for being here with us to speak to us and
just share with us what the Lord has
put on your heart. Thank you. - And we've seen different
responses in our community, leading to different
impacts on society. Anywhere from compassion
and self-sacrifice to cover up, political
maneuvering, panic, selfishness and greed. What does the Bible say about the condition of society
at the end of time, and are we seeing this? I think the corona crisis is not just a medical
health crisis. So I think that corona
crisis is an economic crisis. It's morphed into
an economic crisis. It's a social crisis. It's a political crisis. A lot of people are being
impacted in different ways, and this crisis is
becoming far bigger than just the medical
health crisis that it began as we first encountered it. So what does the
Bible say about this? So I like to pause
for just a minute before we get into our
verses in Matthew 24, and just ask for the
Holy Spirit to guide us. Father in heaven, again, we just wanna pause
in your presence. We just wanna ask for your
Holy Spirit to be here with us as we study this chapter, and as we look at the
history of this chapter, and its future and its
application to us today. Guide us with your Spirit we
pray, in Jesus name, amen. Matthew 24 doesn't actually
start with verse one. To get a proper context, I want
us to go back to Matthew 23. And we're gonna look here,
beginning at verse 37. It's a time when Jesus is
finishing up His ministry. He's just openly rebuke the
religious leaders of His day because they are shutting away
His presence from the people and from the temple. And so He says in verse 37, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou
that killest the prophets "and stonest them which
are sent unto thee, "how often would I have
gathered thy children together, "even as a hen gathers her
chickens under her wings, "and ye would not! "Behold, your houses
left unto you desolate. "For I say unto you, ye
shall not see me henceforth "till ye shall say, 'Blessed is he that comes
in the name of the Lord.'" That's Matthew 23:37-39. There's some key thoughts that we need to
pick up right here. First of all, Jesus
wants the Jewish nation to come under His protection. He wants the Jewish
nation to come under His, "I would have gathered you "like a mother hen gather
her chicks under her wings. "I wanna protect you,
but you wouldn't let me. "Now, I'm leaving your house,
your house is left desolate, "it's left empty. "I'm separating from you because
you're not trusting in me, "you're trusting
in something else." I'm gonna find out what that
something else is in a minute because we need
to ask ourselves, is this our situation, not as
a church, but individually? This message is for
us individually. And this crisis,
this corona crisis is an opportunity for
us to examine ourselves. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, "And
see if we're in the faith." See if we haven't done
what the Jews have done, see if we haven't been
separated from Christ and been trusting
to something else other than His
protecting wings over us. Now, the second
thing we notice here, that's really important
is that in verse 39, Jesus says, "You will not
see me again until you say, 'blessed is He that comes
in the name of the Lord.'" Jesus here is speaking
specifically of
His second coming. Blessed is he that
comes, His second coming, in the name of the Lord. He promised the Jews they
would see Him sitting on the right hand power
when He comes in the clouds. This is what leads
us into Matthew 24. He's gone across
the Kidron Valley, He's sitting on the
mount with His disciples, and Jesus as He goes
out of the temple to head over to the Kidron
Valley to the other side, as He goes out of the temple, verse one of chapter 24, His disciples come
to Him to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus says unto them, "See not all this things? "Verily I say unto you that
there shall not be left here "one stone upon another, that
shall not be thrown down." So Jesus here is speaking
about the temple. He's speaking about
the structure, and He's talking
about the disciples who are so focused
on the structure and so enamored
with the structure that they seem to be too
taken in by its glory, and its brilliance. Look at this temple,
look at the structure, look at how glorious it is. And Jesus says, "Hey,
that's all going to go." Because you see the
disciples in a sense, we're trusting in the temple more than they were
trusting in Jesus. They believed in
Christ as Messiah, but they also had
a strong belief that the structure
of the Jewish temple and everything that it implied
was giving them security. They were trusting
fortifications, instead of trusting in Jesus. And so Jesus begins to
give them an understanding that this temple is going to go. The temple had been
fortified by God, He had led them to build it, He had led them to fortify it. It was his instruction that led to the
building of the temple. And really, when
you look at this, it's amazing because Matthew 24 is giving us a big picture of what we're
actually moving into. Christ is showing
us and His people what it's like to be
without His presence trusting in material
fortifications. During the destruction
of Jerusalem, and that's exactly
what's taking place here, Jesus Christ is speaking
about, in verse three, "And He sat upon the
Mount of Olives," He's gone across the
Kidron Valley now. He sits upon the
mount of Olives, and the disciples
coming to Him privately and they say to Him, "Tell us when shall
these things be "and what will be the
sign of you're coming "and the end of the world?" The disciples here have
just been told by Jesus, first of all, that the
Jews won't see Him again until He comes in the clouds. But secondly, that the
temple will not stand, it'll be destroyed. And so they're asking a
question that they think is one, but it's actually two questions. When will the
temple be destroyed and when would you
come the second time? And Jesus gives
them, in Matthew 24, a instruction,
prophetic instruction that deals with both
of these events, the destruction of
Jerusalem in AD 70 and the second coming of
Jesus Christ, post our time, sometime in the future, even
at the time in which we live and definitely 2000
years into the future of the time in which
the disciples lived. So, I love this
verse right here. We're just gonna hang on
this verse for just a second because this verse
is key for us. We wanna contrast this verse
with chapter 23 and verse 38. Okay, here are
the two contrasts. In chapter 23, Jesus has
left the temple desolate. He's left the Jewish
nation desolate. He's left this building
that even the disciples are enamored with,
He's left it desolate. And in chapter 24
and verse three, Jesus is having a huddle
with His disciples. His disciples Come on into
privately and they say, "Tell us about these things." I call this a Jesus huddle. We need to have a Jesus huddle. We need to be
huddled with Jesus. I think one of the
things that we can learn from this coronavirus
is that we aren't in our buildings right now, we aren't in our
churches right now, but we can still
huddle with Jesus. Our temples in a sense
are left desolate. There's nobody there. They've been shut down,
they're on lockdown. And sometimes we need a
wake up call to remind us that our relationship with
Christ is not about a building. Our relationship with Christ is not about the
church structure. Our relationship with Christ is about an individual
abiding in Jesus. The disciples are
getting a taste of this. They go across
the Kidron Valley, they sit on the Mount
of Olives with Jesus and they have a Jesus huddle. Now, I don't know where you are. I don't know what
mount you're in, I don't know what
home you're in, what room you're in,
wherever you are, it's time to have
a Jesus huddle. It's time to take our dependence
away from the structures and get our dependence
back on Jesus Christ. I'm not saying there's anything
wrong with the structure, what I'm saying is,
is that that structure is coming down at some point. Buildings are coming down, our relationship with this world is going to be diminished,
completely diminished. Are we gonna be left with Jesus, or is all of our trust in
the building, the structure? And so Jesus directs us to
the destruction of Jerusalem. And I want you to look
at a couple things in relation to the
destruction of Jerusalem because this was a structure
that was well fortified. I mean, it could have withstood
Roman seas for many years. They had strong fortifications that could never been taken
by any of the Roman machinery. They had stores of
food, were told, and if you'd like to
read more about this, you can read the book, "Great
Controversy" chapter one. It talks all about this. I'm just summarizing it for you. The Jews, even though
it was Passover, and there were many
more people there than normally were there, the Jews had stores of food that could have
lasted for many years. So they had all the physical
preparation that they needed. They could have
lasted for years, and yet the city fell
in a very short time. Why? Well, because they had
neglected their Savior. They had neglected Jesus. He was not among them. He had left them. Their house was left desolate. They were without
spiritual preparation. The provisions of food
that they had stored up were destroyed by
their selfishness. The strong fortifications
were abandoned by the Jews. When the Romans came,
the Romans were amazed that they were left abandoned, and they said, "Our machinery never
could have taken down "these strong fortifications." So as we go into Matthew
24, and even Matthew 25, we need to apply this history and understand this prophecy
and apply it to our time. What lessons can we learn
from a biblical perspective? Now, we know that Matthew
24 applies to this 'till the end of time, not just the
construction of Jerusalem 'cause we've seen
this in Matthew 23, and again in Matthew 24, and especially in the
last part of Matthew 24. It's confirmed when
Jesus speaks about certain signs they're
going to lead to His literal second coming, the
literal return of Jesus Christ. And so as we look at this,
what lessons can we learn? I think one of the lessons
we need to learn is this, the coronavirus has
caught us off guard. The coronavirus has caught us worried about
material possessions. Do we have enough food, do we have enough toilet paper? Fighting over those
things, some of us are. And I'm speaking out
to humanity as a whole, to every person. We need to examine
our own hearts and know where we stand in
relation to all of this. But those material
possessions, even the food are not as important as a
relationship with Jesus Christ. And so the coronavirus
is a reminder, the corona crisis is a reminder that we need to have a
connection with Christ more than we need a
roll of toilet paper. We need to have a
connection with Christ more than we need to have food. All of those things are nothing when compared to
having that huddle, that Jesus huddle and
being connected with Him. So as we go into Matthew
24, let's keep that in mind because this is all
gonna come alive for us. Jesus was talking about a time when not one stone
is left upon another. And that connects us
with Revelation 13. Jesus is predicting that
His people in His time, the Jews of His time are gonna lose their
temporal position and place. Their the temporal
position was gonna be lost, the temple was coming down,
they were gonna lose everything. And they had poured a
lot into that temple, even the secular powers had
helped them to adorn it. The Romans actually helped
the Jews adorn that temple. And we could parallel
that with us today 'cause as a church, we
have a nonprofit status. That means we hold a position with a secular government today that allows people to support
us and get a tax write off. And this is to a large degree, what gives our church
temporal prosperity. So in a sense, we parallel
this Jewish temple. The Hebrew temple is one of
the wonders of the world, and so it is with us today
in relation to for example, the health message, the physical temples
of adventism today. We are included in research and studies and we're
noted to live longer than the average person. We have a Blue
Zone in Loma Linda. We as a denomination are
prosperous Worldwide Church, and yet all of
that will be lost. We're gonna lose our favor
with a secular government. It's likely we'll lose
our nonprofit status. A time is coming when
we may not be able to go to any of our churches,
because anything that's 501C is really
owned by the government. So financial prosperity, we're not gonna be
able to buy or sell. How are we gonna pay
any of our bills? Our financial
prosperity is gonna go, and it's gonna be lost
and all of our temple, material possessions
will be lost according to Revelation 13. And when that comes to pass,
where are we going to be? Where are we going to stand? So Jesus wants us to
get ready for that. So in a sense, the corona
crisis is helping us to readjust our thinking and
evaluate or examine ourselves and see where we stand because if we are running
now with a footman, Jeremiah 12:5 says,
and they've wearied us, how are you gonna
contend with the horses? So we can ask these
questions today. We've been asking
them for years. We ask, is Jesus coming back? When is Jesus coming back? When will our church structure
look like it's about to fall but it doesn't? When are all of these
things gonna be happening and in a sense, this is
not the main question we need to be concerned with. Jesus encourages us not
to focus on the time, but He tells us that we should
focus on something else. And what is that that
we need to focus on? Well, this question holds
another preparation, another key to our preparation
for the end of time, and that's found as we move
through these next verses. Because we find the disciples
huddling with Jesus, privately huddling with Jesus, and receiving from Him
instruction that we need today. We need instruction today. We need the very instruction that Christ gave the
disciples, we need it today. And the coronavirus has
really made it clear how important it is
for us to have that private, personal
connection with Jesus. If we're His disciples,
we're disciples of Christ, this is vital. We've come to a place where we've lost church
fellowship right now, but it's an earnest
of what's coming. We never ever need to lose
our fellowship with Jesus. The disciples were
wondering about the temple, but they were
huddling with Jesus. And so this speaks
volumes to us today. Right now we need to huddle
privately with Jesus. All right, let's read the
next couple of verses here in Matthew 24 and see what it is that Jesus tells
His disciples and us about His second coming and
how we can be ready for it. Chapter four, I mean, chapter
24, verses four and five, And Jesus answered
and said unto them, "Take heed that no
one deceives you. "For many will come
in My name, saying, "'I am the Christ,' and
shall deceive many." Okay, of all the
signs or waymarks that Jesus gives
us in Matthew 24 regarding the
destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world,
this is the first one. This is the first
sign He gives us. I mean, He tells us that the
Jerusalem is coming down, the structure is coming down, but then He says, "Now the first thing
I want you to know is "there's gonna be deception." Isn't that interesting? He says this first, "There's
gonna be deception." Not only does Jesus
mention this first, but He mentions
that more than once. In fact, more than twice. He references this
sign three times. That's more than any other
waymark in Matthew 24. So most of the signs are only
given once, perhaps twice, but this one is
given three times. That is a reminder to us that it's vital that we
understand this sign. You see, deception
comes in many forms. In Christ day, men came
claiming to be sent of God, and that word, Christ means, anointed or consecrated
to a religious service. Many times we think, "Oh, that means that
people are gonna come, "and they're gonna come in
a white robe, with long hair "and a beard and they're
gonna say, "I'm Christ.'" No, not necessarily. In fact, probably not even
close, especially in our time. Men are gonna come
in Christ's name, they're going to come
saying they are anointed, or consecrated to
religious service. They've got a message from God. You need to listen to me, I've got a message
that God has given me for you to listen
to and to obey. But this message is gonna
be contrary to the light that God has given. And that's what's
happening today. And sometimes it's so subtle. People feel called
or anointed of God to communicate about this
very time in which we live, but often that communication
is not coming from God's word, but it's coming from
the secular world. Have you noticed that? We have a temptation today to gather information
about conspiracy theories, and we want to figure out
who's going to do what and why, but it's
interesting, I think, that Jesus doesn't encourage
us to figure that out. He doesn't encourage
us to figure out all the conspiracy theories. He tells us what's gonna happen, He tells us it's going
to be a big deception. He doesn't encourage us to go
and check out the deception, in fact He tells us
exactly the opposite. He wants us not to do this. Why? Well, because deception
comes in so many very forms. It's like chasing rabbit trails. These conspiracy theories can
take us all over the place. I mean, I've been in this
ministry for 35 years, and I don't think there's a
single year that has gone by that hasn't been one, at
least one rabbit trail of conspiracy theory to chase, and they all lead
us away from Christ. They all lead us to fear
and anxiety about the future even if they're correct. Let's just say the conspiracy
theory is right on target, it ends up being true, but
where does that leave us? It leaves us with
the reality of doom. We've got to take time
to huddle with Jesus. This is what the
disciples learned to do, but not at first. I mean, they were there, but they were still struggling with staying connected with Him. It wasn't until after
the crucifixion Pentecost that the disciples
really figured it out. And then they became more
concerned about preaching Christ than they did about
local authorities or who are trying to stop them or what conspiracy
theory was taking place. The disciples were put in
prison, they were beaten, they were shipwrecked,
they were maligned, they were persecuted,
they didn't care, they didn't chase
conspiracy theories anymore. They've kept their
focus on Jesus. And this is a lesson
we've learned today, otherwise, we're gonna
repeat the history of the fall of Jerusalem. I mean, when you think
about the fall of Jerusalem, there was a man who was
walking through that city for seven years, going up
and down in the streets, and he was declaring the
woes that were gonna come up on the city by day and by night, he chanted this
wildered woe, woe, woe. A voice from east, a
voice from the west, a voice from the four winds
blow against Jerusalem, blow against the temple, and eventually this man was
imprisoned and he was beaten, but he didn't complain,
insult and abuse, he didn't. All he said was (mumbles)
and woe, woe, woe, and his warning cries cease
not until he was slain in the seats that
he had foretold. And you can read about
this in "Great Controversy" in page 30. And the very next sentence
that Ellen White gives us from this story of
this strange being, is that not one
Christian perished in the destruction of Jerusalem. Now, I want you to
think about this. Here's a man who's preaching woe and doom and gloom
for seven years, and his predictions are true. He's telling the truth. But he's not
talking about Jesus. All he's talking
about is conspiracy, all he's talking about is woe, all he's talking
about is desolation, and they imprison him. He doesn't murmur,
he doesn't complain, takes it like a saint,
takes it like a champ. He's beaten, he's imprisoned. Could that be
describing some of us who are willing
to be persecuted, but we've got this
message of woe, this message of doom and gloom, but we're not
talking about Jesus? Not one Christian perished in the destruction of
Jerusalem yet he perished. Could it be possible
for us to perish even though we know what's
coming, the woe that's coming, because we're not
connected with Christ, because the love of Christ
is not in our hearts, because all we're
preaching is fear and anxiety about the events
that are taking place. God didn't give us
prophecy to fill us and others with
fear and anxiety, He gave us prophecy
to prepare us for what was coming
around the corner so that we could follow Jesus
and stay connected with Jesus. He gave us prophecy
to help us realize that this world can turn
upside down in one moment. Everything can change. Our economy can be
strong one week, and the next week, it
can be completely gone, and that's exactly what this
corona crisis is telling us. It's an economic crisis as
well as a health crisis. It's a social crisis. It is a political crisis, and we need to now more
than ever huddle with Jesus. Why? Because Jesus is going
to tell us where we are, and where we're going. Matthew 24, Matthew 25, is
an outline of our journey, where we are now and
where we're headed. And so as we move
through this chapter, we look at these verses and
we get instruction from Jesus, not from CNN, not
from the world, not from the
conspiracy theories, we need to get instruction
from Jesus, from His work. So here's some more instruction from the Jesus huddle. Matthew 24, let's read
verses six and seven, well, six, seven and eight. Jesus says, "And ye shall hear
of wars and rumors of wars, "see that ye be not troubled "for all these things
must come to pass, "but the end is not yet. "For nation shall
rise against nation, "and kingdom against kingdom,
and there shall be famines, "and pestilences, and
earthquakes in diverse places. "All these are the
beginning of sorrows." Now, that word sorrows in
some of your translations, that's gonna be
translated, birth pains. These are signs that are
going to increase intensity and frequency like birth pains, like a woman giving
birth to a child. It starts out
slowly and increases in intensity and frequency. And one of those
signs is pestilence, which means an infectious
or contagious disease and that's exactly what
we're facing right now. And you might say, "Well,
wait a minute coronavirus." Yeah, that's an infectious
and contagious disease, but it's been worse. I mean, also shared in
our children's story, the Spanish flu of 1918. That flu lasted a couple years. It took out 50 to
100 million people. I mean, they died. We've got about 50,000
deaths right now and things are kinda
flattening out here with the coronavirus, COVID-19, so how can we say increasing
in intensity and frequency? Well, it's really
important for us to gain this
instruction from Jesus. First of all, we wanna go
back just a little bit here and look at what Jesus says about how we should
relate to these wars and rumors of wars and natural
disasters and pestilence. He says, "See that you'd
be not troubled or anxious "or fearful about these things. "This stuff must come to
pass, the end is not yet." He says, "Nation is gonna
rise against nation, "kingdom is gonna
rise against kingdom, there's gonna be
famine and pestilence." All of these are the
beginning and sorrow, so are we heeding
Christ's instruction? Are we troubled,
anxious and fearful? Because if we are, it's an
indication that the love of God is not in us, in our
hearts as it should be. That we need the Jesus huddle, that we need to be
connected with Christ. You see, the more love comes
in, the more fear goes out. It says that right
there in 1 John 4:18-19, those were the
verses that we read. That when fear
comes in, excuse me, when love comes
in, fear goes out. So if we have fear in, that's an indication
that love is out. And God is love. And God is the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. So you have the Holy
Spirit coming in, filled with love
pushing fear out. And when we have fear,
that's an indication that we have the absence
of the Holy Spirit, are you following me? If the Holy Spirit, God is
love, and the Holy Spirit, love, pushes out fear
and we have fear, it's an indication that the
Holy Spirit is not in us, that the Holy Spirit
is something that
is absent from us. And we know the Holy Spirit
is absent from the world because the world
is filled with fear. But the Holy Spirit should
be filling our hearts and pushing out our fear
and pushing out our anxiety. Now, if that is not
happening with you, friends, I wanna just pause for
just a minute right now before we go any further, and
I wanna just pray that God will convict you that you can
be right with Him right now. We have an intercessor,
we have a mediator, we have a Savior. It's not too late. Our sins can go
beforehand to judgment and you can give Him
all of your fear, all of your anxiety right now. You can get on your
knees right now and say, Lord, I've been fearful,
I've been anxious, I've been troubled, take
it away, take it all away, and fill me with your love
and casts out that fear and help me to trust
fully in Jesus right now, in this moment to
trust fully in Jesus, in Jesus name, and He
will answer that prayer. So Jesus here is telling us, "Don't be troubled
about these things, "don't be troubled about
these infectious diseases "and these wars." One thing we need to recognize is these are increasing in
intensity and frequency. Now, I want us to
pause here for a second and try to understand
this because it seems like the Spanish flu is more
intense than the Coronavirus. But we need to
evaluate what the goal of all this intensity is. And that's what
we're going to find as we move into verse nine. So let's just go to verse
nine here real quick, and we'll touch on it and we'll
come back to these verses. Then, in the context of
wars and rumors of wars and infectious diseases
and natural disasters, increasing in
intensity and frequency until finally something happens, then, what is it
that's gonna happen? "Then they shall deliver
you up to be afflicted "and they show kill you "and you'll be hated of all
nations from my namesake." All right, this is the
zenith, if you will, the goal of all
of these disasters and these wars
and rumors of wars and these infectious,
contagious diseases increasing in intensity
and frequency, all of this is
directing us to a time when all the nations will
unite together to hate you, God's people, for His name sake. And so the only way that
you nations can unite is for there to be a
fulfillment, Revelation 13 and control of the economy,
control of the money, control of commodities
and control of everything in the world, and
a fear upon people that cause them to acquiesce
all their liberties to this control. That is the ultimate
goal of the signs, that is where the
signs are taking us. So when we think
about the Spanish flu and we compare it to
the coronavirus today, yes, it's not as
intense and as frequent, but here's the deal. When we go back just a few
years, we have the SARS virus which was a coronavirus, just like COVID-19
is a coronavirus. And SARS was deadly but
it wasn't very contagious. Before that there
was the swine flu, which was another coronavirus. The swine flu was contagious,
but it wasn't as deadly. But now we have COVID-19. COVID-19 is a combination
of SARS and swine flu. It is contagious
and it is deadly. So there's an intensity and
increase in intensity there, but going back to
the Spanish flu, what's the intensity increase
compared with Spanish flu? With the Spanish flu, 50
to 100 million people died, but in this coronavirus,
COVID-19 virus, we don't see as many
deaths as the Spanish flu, but what we do see is
more of intense control that is taking
place in the world. In our country and
in other countries, there's a lockdown,
there's fear. Now, this kind of thing
is new on the horizon. This is more intense. This is a more intense reaction
than we've ever seen before. Are you following me friends? Our conclusion is not
necessarily the intensity of the events themselves, but the intensity
of the reaction that is going to
take us to a place where verse nine is fulfilled, where all nations
come together to hate and persecute and
control God's people, so no man can by himself. So if you're looking at
it from that perspective, if you're understanding
that perspective, then it is that
this is more intense than any other virus. The intensity, for example, let's just go back to 9/11,
there's the war and terror. Remember, wars and
rumors and woes. We have the war
and terror in 9/11. And that war on terror
was not as intense, let's say as World War II, where millions died
or World War I. Wasn't as intense even as
maybe Vietnam or Korea. But it was more intense in the sense that
through the Patriot Act, Americans lost a
lot of liberties, behind the scenes, of course, but we lost a lot of liberties. We gave up a lot of liberties. Our world was completely changed through the war
and terror in 9/11. We go through an airport in a completely different way
than we ever did before that, and that's not gonna change. And I think it's gonna be
the same with this COVID-19. Our reaction to COVID-19 has
changed our world forever, and we have moved majorly
closer to the fulfillment of verse nine of Matthew 24. Are you with me on this? Are you following this? This is really important to
get a biblical perspective of what is taking place here. We're talking about
the loss of freedom, we're talking about
moving toward a place where all nations are united, and we're seeing this now
more than we've ever seen it before in relation to COVID-19, what's taking place
with COVID-19. So this is a vital part
of the signs of the times that is helping us to
understand what is happening now and what is developing. We've got to remember in
9/11 and the war and terror. We've got to remember
that this coronavirus is bringing us to a place
where with natural disasters and fires and floods
and earthquakes, were leading to worldwide
movement regarding changes and loss of liberties. Climate change, for
example, is huge right now with these natural disasters and people uniting
behind the pope and behind religious leaders and we have all kinds
of political people lining up together
with religious people to put into effect
a day of rest, a day where we stop business and of course, what's
happening with corona is going to affirm that, it's
gonna help people to realize, hey, look, when everyone
was sheltered in, look at how our
pollution came down, look at how everything changed in our world as
far as the climate and the effect and
impact on the climate, and so we're going to see a
lot of people speak into this, even as we move past
this COVID-19 virus. So the coronavirus is huge and what the world would label as a necessary
restriction of liberty, a necessary
restriction of liberty. And that is the
ultimate consummation, these birth pains in Matthew 24. The wars, the pestilence,
the earthquakes are not as noticeable
for their intensity as much as they are producing the desired effect
of Matthew 24:9. All right, so COVID-19 though
not affecting the world, like the Spanish flu
is a greater birth pain because of its impact
on uniting all nations to restrict liberty. All right, so all of these signs that Jesus said would
develop together lead to verse nine in control
and that's the key verse. This is the key
change in the world. Let's just look at
those verses again and let's read a
little bit further now and see if we can connect them to our scripture
reading in 1 John 4. "Then shall they deliver
you up to be afflicted "and they shall kill you "and you should be hated of
all nations from my namesake. "And then shall many be offended "and shall betray one
another and hate one another. "And many false prophets
shall arise and deceive many. "And because iniquity
shall abound, "the love of many will wax cold, "and this gospel of the
kingdom will be preached "in all the world for a witness "and of all nations and
then shall the end come." So these verses are
so instructive for us. It's vital that we understand
what's going on here. See, the test is
going to be love. The test is not gonna be
about conspiracy theories and who's behind the
scenes pulling what strings and what is the pope up to and what is the U.S. up to
and what's going on behind? That's not the test. Will our love wax cold or
will it endure until the end? This is not so much
about physical survival as it is about
spiritual survival. How will we endure spiritually? Will our love wax cold? The coronavirus is a test for us because as we look back
on the last few months, we had this opportunity
to examine ourselves and see if we
stayed in the faith. And I noticed this, it doesn't say examine others. We can laugh about other people
fighting over toilet paper or the extremes they
went to importing, we can laugh about that, but it says we need
to examine ourselves. We need to prove our own self
to see if Christ is in us. Were we afraid,
driven by our fears, were our actions
and our reactions based on self-preservation, or were we focused on Jesus? Were we thinking
more of ourselves or were we thinking
more of others? And that is the question that
1 John 4:18-19 reminds us of. It reminds us that God's
perfect love casts out all fear. That's a beautiful
promise, isn't it? We can't drive out fear. But God's love can and
will drive out fear. And that is what
He promises to do as we huddle with Him. As we huddle when Jesus, Jesus will send us the promised
gift of the Holy Spirit, just like He did with
the early church. And when the Holy Spirit
filled the early church, when the Holy Spirit fills
us with a love of God, because God is love and
the Holy Spirit is God, then fear will have
no place in our hearts or in our actions. And we will be
focused not on fear, but will we focus on the gospel and preaching the
gospel to all the world. That is what God
is bringing us to in our experience with
this COVID-19 virus. And our focus now is
gonna be primarily on how we can be a
witness to the world. So we wanna focus not just on how the coronavirus
is affecting the world, but how it can wake us up to stronger spiritual
connection with Christ. The coronavirus has had a
huge impact on our church and our religious gatherings, but what should our
response be as Christians to governments, to
government recommendations? What is it appropriate to do and what is
appropriate not to do? So Romans 13 tells us,
Titus 3:1 tells us, the Bible tells us about
the role of government in the last day events
in Revelation 13, and it's really important for us to submit to the requirements
of the government as much as possible. Romans 13, Paul talks about
how we should pay taxes and all that is due
to the government, especially in relation to
the last six commandments. Now, he doesn't mention any of
the first four commandments. So it is important
for us to realize that if our worship
of God is impeded, if we're restricted
from worshiping God, then we're gonna have
to stand against that. However, are we being
restricted from worshiping God? We're having worship right now, and the early church
that we remind you were shut out of
their synagogues, they were shut out of
their assembly places, their structures, but
they met in houses and they worship God freely. And we can do the same. Even if we're in prison,
we can still worship God. And so we need to get
perspective on this, and we need to make sure that we follow the counsel
of Romans 13 and Titus 3. We also need to recognize how
quickly things have changed in our world. There's a lesson we
can learn from this. How fast the world can change from normal to
abnormal overnight. And it's taken a lot of people including the
church by surprise. It's a sudden
unlook for calamity that brings the soul
face to face with death. It's a wake up call. What kind of people are we? What kind of
character do we have is revealed in this crisis. The crisis doesn't develop
character, it reveals character. And so now we still have
an opportunity to repent and prepare, by God's
grace to prepare for the bigger crisis
that's just ahead of us. So how can we prepare
for these future events? Well, Matthew 25, Jesus says, "We need to have the oil," which is the character,
which comes to trial. Romans 5:1-5 tells us that we
have to be justified first, by God's free grace and that justification
leads us to endure trial and to develop
character through trial, and this is the
extra measure of oil that God is giving us
through the Holy Spirit. So a meaningful
response from Christians and from the Christian
community would be for us, according to Matthew 24,
be faithful stewards. Look at verses 45 and 46
in Matthew chapter 24. It says there in verse 45, "But who then is that
faithful and wise servant "whom his Lord has made
ruler over his household "to give them meat
in due season? "Blessed is that servant
whom the Lord when he come "shall find him so doing." We're not to be taking,
we're to be giving. We're not to be hoarding,
we're to be sharing, We're to be faithful
students, wise. If indeed this is the end, then
we should lift up our heads and rejoice because
Jesus is on His way, and we don't need to be worrying about our material
possessions any longer, because in a very short time, all of that is gonna be gone, and this world as we
know is gonna end. So a meaningful
response would be for us to be faithfully
sharing Bible studies. In the last few weeks, I've had more requests
for Bible studies than I've ever had in
the last few months. I mean, from all over the
place, Australia, California, all over the place, people
have said, Hey, can you?" Next week I'll be doing
a whole Zoom class on the book of Revelation
in Pennsylvania. People are interested. Right now is the time for
us to be in the Word of God and sharing the Word
of God with people and helping them to
understand these vital truths, not to be panicky,
not to be fearful, but to be focusing
people on Jesus, to get people into
the Jesus huddle. And then there's
the health message, the right arm of the
third angel's message is the health message and the health message is huge in combating the coronavirus,
exercise, fresh air, sunshine, temperance, proper
food, trusting God, all of this God has given us and it's a very
good way to resist the influences of
the coronavirus and any virus, any sickness. So the guidelines
that God has given us concerning health practices can be a huge
blessing for the world and we need to follow
those guidelines today. So these are the
lessons we can learn and that the focus of Matthew 24 is to make sure our
love doesn't wax cold. So as we close out, I want
us to think about this, I want us to think
about 2 Corinthians 13:5 and examine our hearts. Take an assessment of
ourselves individually. Are we repeating the
history of the Jews? Are we trusting in
our fortifications, in our material possessions,
in our food fortifications and desolate of Christ
and not connected with Him in the Jesus huddle? Has He walked out as
we focus on preparation when we focus on Jesus and
the spiritual connectivity, we need to have with Him? Examine ourselves, is
God's love in our hearts? How did we respond in
this crisis initially? And can we let God take
over and change that for us? And are we following the
health message as never before? This is a time when we
can follow the principles God has given us. I'm not just talking
about what we eat. We need to exercise,
we need fresh air, we need to be temperate. Some of us just overwork. All of the principles
that God has given us and the health message
are vital right now. So it's time to
take an assessment. It's time to look
to the Word of God, to look to Jesus,
to huddle with Jesus and to get direction
from Jesus for the events that are yet to come. And I pray that each one of us would take that assessment
personally, individually and that each one of us
would follow the counsel God has given us in Matthew 24, and be in that huddle
session with Christ and to be faithful
servants sharing the word as the opportunities
arise around us. And I'm just asking now
that God will do that for in Jesus name. (piano music) ♪ How sweet are the tidings ♪ ♪ That greet the pilgrim's ear ♪ ♪ As he wanders in
exile from home ♪ ♪ Soon and soon will the
Savior in glory appear ♪ ♪ And soon will
the kingdom come ♪ ♪ He's coming, coming,
coming soon I know ♪ ♪ Coming back to
this earth again ♪ ♪ And the weary pilgrims
will to glory go ♪ ♪ When the Savior
comes to reign ♪ ♪ The mossy old graves
where the pilgrims sleep ♪ ♪ Shall be open as
wide as before ♪ ♪ And the millions that
sleep in the mighty deep ♪ ♪ Shall live on this
earth once more ♪ ♪ He's coming, coming,
coming soon I know ♪ ♪ Coming back to
this earth again ♪ ♪ And the weary pilgrims
will to glory go ♪ ♪ When the Savior
comes to reign ♪ ♪ There we'll meet ne'er
to part in our happy ♪ ♪ Eden home, sweet songs
of redemption we'll sing ♪ ♪ From the north,
from the south ♪ ♪ All the ransomed shall come ♪ ♪ And worship our
heavenly King ♪ ♪ He's coming, coming,
coming soon I know ♪ ♪ Coming back to
this earth again ♪ ♪ And the weary pilgrims
will to glory go ♪ ♪ When the Savior
comes to reign ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, Amen ♪ ♪ Hallelujah again ♪ ♪ Soon, if faithful,
we all shall be there ♪ ♪ O, be watchful, be hopeful,
be joyful till then ♪ ♪ And a crown of bright
glory we'll wear ♪ ♪ He's coming, coming,
coming soon I know ♪ ♪ Coming back to
this earth again ♪ ♪ And the weary pilgrims
will to glory go ♪ ♪ When the Savior
comes to reign ♪ - Amen, amen. Father in heaven, we just want
to pause in your presence. We wanna thank you for
the instruction manual that you've given
us in you your word especially Matthew 24. We wanna thank you that the
overall message of Matthew 24 is a call to huddle with
Jesus like the disciples did. And even then they
were still fearful after Jesus was crucified. And we find ourselves
being fearful of the events even though we know
they're coming, and yet, at the same time
we see that you promised us the blessing of
your Holy Spirit. And we need that
Holy Spirit right now because that Holy Spirit, power, the third person of the Godhead, the presence of
that Holy Spirit is, He is love and love
casts out all fear and we're filled with fear. Naturally, we are
filled with fear, and so we need that love
to come into our hearts, and to cast out that fear. Father, there's not one of us
that are not in desperate need of your Holy Spirit right now, so please, send Him to us, allow our hearts to
be open and receptive, help us to give
you our failures, our weaknesses, our faults. We confess them
freely right now. We humble ourselves before you
as a church, as individuals, we pray that when
this horizon changes, that when the things
that we look to are gone as we're tasting right now that we'll know that
you are always with us that you'll never forsake us. Hebrews 13:5, we claim that
promise, in Jesus name, amen. (uplifting music)
