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Ypao Ordot SDA Church

Mesikt Idechong

Christ in the Coming Crisis

Our dear, loving, gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you so much that we have come for no other purpose than to saturate our hearts and our thoughts with you and your divine love.

And Father, as we do that, we humbly plea once more that you pour your Spirit into us and onto us and around us today, that we may feast and drink upon your wonderful words of life.

Be with us, Lord, and we anticipate a wonderful blessing all through the day.

This is our prayer, in Jesus' name, amen.

So you probably knew that a sermon about the virus was gonna be coming, and this is it.

The coronavirus, or the COVID-19, as it is also referred to, it seems to incite different feelings in other people.

You go to the big stores and it's caused panic, and people have overstocked in their supplies.

And yet you look on social media and some people, instead of an overstock, they're making this a laughing stock.

They're making jokes and memes and all these things about the virus.

Some of them very funny, but some of them maybe very unrealistic.

The reality is, where does the Christian then, and how does a Christian then respond to the crisis?

Does a Christian overstock, or does he make this a laughing stock?

Where do we then draw the line when panic ensues left and right in our own islands?

And you know, it's sometimes hard to see the panic in Guam only because we've been through so much.

I've always heard of Guam being the typhoon alley.

I never knew what that meant until I finally lived here.

And I used to visit Guam and I would see these things called typhoon shutters, or storm shutters, and I thought they were really for keeping people out.

I think that there was some kind of security door.

And the first typhoon I experienced here, it was like, I thought, wow, it almost seems like the end of the world.

And yet, once it was done, everything was back to normal.

And then A few months later, another typhoon.

And after a while, you learn to kind of be normal with Chamorro typhoons.

And so people here build a resilience, that oh, there's a typhoon coming, okay, we'll just get everything set.

And so we build up a resilience and it seems like nothing can faze us.

And it wasn't too long ago when a certain North Korean person aimed his missiles at us and declared that if the US wasn't gonna back off, that they would bomb us, essentially.

And I don't know where you were that day, but I remember praying and going to sleep and waking up in the morning and no, we were not attacked by North Korea.

And so it seems as though that we have been through so much That 1 other thing that may panic the whole world doesn't seem to panic the people here as often.

But what does a Christian do in a crisis?

When medicine is unavailable, while death tolls are rising, and when there seems to be a heavy saturation of panic in the news and in social media and everywhere we turn to.

Well, this morning we're gonna study a story when a crisis struck and what the disciples did in the crisis.

And our sermon this morning is entitled Christ in the Crisis.

If you have your Bibles with you, I'm gonna ask to open up your Bibles to Mark chapter 4, to a very familiar story that we may have grown up listening to or may have heard in passing.

Chapter 4, verse 35 and 30, the second book of the New Testament Gospels, Mark chapter 4, 35 to 40.

And the same day when the even was come, he saith unto them, let us pass over unto the other side.

And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship.

And there was also with him other little ships.

And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.

And when he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow, and they awake him, and said unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?

And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, peace, be still.

And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.

And he said unto them, why are you so fearful?

There are 3 promises that we learn from this story that can help us not simply survive a crisis, but to thrive in a crisis.

That while others may sing the woes and lament, the Christian can still sing, Jesus loves me, this I know, and that everything will be alright.

So we learn the principles of this story, 3 of them.

The promise of his word, the promise of his presence, and the promise of his power.

So we go to the book, once again, verse 35.

It says, in the same day when the evening was come, or the evening came, He said unto them, let us pass over unto the other side.

So he has basically determined the destination, and now he's simply saying, let's go.

You see, the fact that Jesus says we're gonna get there should have been promise enough that even though the boat was rocking to and fro, it should have been promised enough for them to believe that, hey, Jesus said, we'll get there, we'll get there.

This is the promise of his word, that when Jesus promises something, he means it, Whether you feel it or not, whether you believe it or not, he means it.

You know, when you get your iPhone or Samsung or Blue or whatever kind of cell phone you may have, after a certain number of years of using them, you've noticed that your battery life begins to diminish lower and lower and lower until it doesn't charge as well as it used to and you have to go ahead and get a new 1.

With the promises of God, no matter how many times you use them, the power never diminishes.

And here's the promise in Romans 421, the Bible says, in being persuaded that what he promised, he was able also to perform.

And as long as you believe in what he has said, regardless of how you feel and think, if you simply believe, then God will keep his word.

Romans 8, 28, he said, the promise is, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.

This is 1 of my favorite passages because I love to expound on this text using a certain word.

And you've probably heard of the word providence.

Providence is when God works to make everything work out for you and your good.

Providence is when, let's say you make a wrong turn out of your life, and you go and live a sinful life, providence is God rearranging circumstances and inspiring people to minister to you at different points in time in order to turn your mind back to God.

Someone may be here, and you didn't want to be here, but you're here.

Because it is always the right place, and it is always the right time to hear the message of God.

And the thing is, it doesn't matter where your heart is as long as you come and be prepared to have it filled.

God accepts us where we are so that he may take us to where we need to go.

And so providence is very unique because God has to arrange certain things to happen to your life in order to turn your eyes to Him.

And somebody once said that providence is different from a miracle.

It is easier for God to do a miracle than to work an act of providence.

Now God can work a miracle and turn water into wine.

That's easy because it's not dependent on anybody's choice.

But Providence is dependent upon your choice.

And this is why it's so amazing that the gift of choice is so sacred, is so unique, and so cherished that God gives it to us.

But also with the freedom of choice comes also the risk that we may choose wrong.

But you see, choice, the sacredness of it, is so precious that The highest expression of love is to give somebody that freedom to choose.

And so you may make wrong choices, and God has to work around and based on your choices to bring your mind back to him.

But look at the beautiful promise once more.

Wouldn't it be great if 95% of the time, everything in your life works out?

You took an exam in college and they said, you have a 95% chance of getting an A+, even if you didn't study.

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Christ in the Coming Crisis

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