There’s no denying the world is in a state of crisis. Challenges like the coronavirus pandemic are a sign that we’re moving towards earth’s final days. Join John Bradshaw as he shares how we can have hope in these trying times and allow them to strengthen our relationship with God.

<p>There’s no denying the world is in a state of crisis. Challenges like the coronavirus pandemic are a sign that we’re moving towards earth’s final days. Join John Bradshaw as he shares how we can have hope in these trying times and allow them to strengthen our relationship with God.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

It Is Written

Special Edition

John Bradshaw

Three Important Steps

The Coronavirus Conspirator

Pressure

The River

Great Expectations

Five Steps to Spiritual Victory

♪ Music ♪ Thanks so much for joining me.

We are going to be blessed as we open up the Bible together.

I am going to share with you 3 steps to get you through a time of challenge.

Yes, this time of challenge but any time of challenge.

Our Father in heaven, we're grateful that we can gather around the Bible together.

We are grateful that while church doors are shut, your heart is always open.

Have Mercy on your faulty human servant by speaking through your spirit.

It started just like any Thursday would start.

In most cases, the moms were at home, the kids went off to school.

They went to work at an interesting place of employment, not unusual if it's what you do but if you're a bus driver or a doctor or if you fly a plane this might be quite unusual.

It was August the 5th, the year was 2010.

The men worked about 9 hours drive north of the capital of Chile, the city of Santiago.

Copper and gold was mined in that area actually.

As they went to work, they descended into the heart of the earth.

They were 5 kilometers or 3 miles from the entrance to the mine.

700 meters below the surface of the earth.

Things can go wrong and when things go wrong, they tend to go really wrong.

Well on this day, August 5, 2010, with 33 men, things went wrong.

There was a collapse in the mine and when you're 2, 300 feet below the earth and there is a collapse You would tend to think that things are not going to work out too well now for those up on the earth above the earth up on the ground What terrible news to discover that your family members, your husband, your son, your brother, or your dad is stuck beneath the earth and anybody who works in the mining industry is familiar with the hazards of mines.

Collapses happen, sometimes explosions, sometimes the earth moves and very often those who are trapped under the ground don't ever come back out.

So 33 men trapped and maybe they would never come back out.

We all have lived through experiences in our time that have lended us very little hope.

And right now the earth finds itself in a very difficult situation.

Now we will say to each other, we will get through for a couple of reasons.

And 2, because deep within us, there is a belief that we will get through.

But when the stores are closing and the restaurants are closing, businesses everywhere are closing, people can't get to work, there are skeleton crews in many places, hospitals are being swamped, there's a tendency to wonder just how in the world we're going to get through.

We're here together today because we couldn't get to church because churches are not open.

That's why we're gathered here, thanks to the marvels of technology.

It's 1 thing to be sick and not be able to go to church.

It's another thing to be well and to be told that you must not go to church because people have been discouraged or even forbidden from congregating and gathering together.

And when I say difficult, you know what I mean.

People are now unable to earn in many cases.

Some people have had their hours reduced.

People have watched their nest eggs diminish in size as Investments have rapidly become worth less than they were.

Families are now cut off from each other because of travel restrictions.

Ooh, this doesn't feel good at all, does it?

And I would say, and I will come back to this point, that what we are seeing playing out before us is a sign to help us understand what Earth's last days are going to be like.

Don't let me forget to come back to that because it's very important.

I want to give you 3 important steps that you must take during this crisis and I want to talk with you about how what we're seeing today is a sign of things to come.

God does for us what we could never do for ourselves.

God surprises us even though when he does we shouldn't be surprised, we shouldn't.

I was just reading about George Mueller, the great man of faith who opened orphans homes in the city of Bristol in England.

Mueller said that he bowed his head to pray and asked God to provide for a certain need that the orphanages had.

He prayed for 36 days straight about this certain need and then God answered the need.

And he was not surprised because God had been answering needs along the way.

God works, we shouldn't be surprised and we should be expectant.

Turn with me in your Bible to the book of Exodus and we'll discover that God has seen His people through before.

Exodus chapter 13 is where we will begin.

And I'll kind of skip through this because the story of the Exodus is a long story and maybe we'd be better off not reading every last word of it but let's hit the high points.

Exodus 13 verse 17, Exodus 13 and verse 17, Does God get His people through?

It came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near.

For God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war and they return to Egypt." 2 things, God understood the frailty of the human heart that when trouble comes we tend to have this idea that, oh, it would be better off if we went back to a bad situation, then struggle on our way to a good situation.

And the experience of the children of Israel demonstrated that God certainly knew what he was talking about.

Sometimes God will lead you by a harder way because it's better for you.

He didn't lead them 1 way, even though that was a nearer, a shorter distance.

Instead, He led them another because God understood what the people couldn't understand.

My friend, let me assure you that what God is calling to us to demonstrate is faith.

You don't understand why you have to go the long way and not the short way, but God understands.

You don't understand why this had to happen in your experience, but God understands.

You don't understand why God would let this certain thing take place in your life, but God understands.

And as long as God understands, that's enough for all of us.

Let God do the understanding, and we'll do the believing.

But God led the people about through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea.

And the verse goes on to say that on went the children of Israel.

Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had straightly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones away hence with you.

And that was a great demonstration of faith.

Right now You are here in Egypt, but God's going to get you out.

Series

Special Edition

Three Important Steps

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Special Edition

Five Steps to Spiritual Victory

49m

Repairer of the Breach

1h 43m

Evening Plenary

02 The Power of One

1h 7m

Closing Arguments

1h 10m

Seminars

End-time Events and the Great Commission: Finishing the Work

56m

Plenary Session

A Touch of Faith

1h 57m

SWYC 2008 Plenary Sessions

All or Nothing

42m

I Met God

I Met God 8

43m

Lost in Paradise

42m

Plenary

Pentecost Repeated

55m

Keeping Focus

Keeping Focus Part 5

51m

Last Day Events

A World in Crisis

1h 4m

Sound Doctrine