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South Bay SDA Church

Preparing for the Crisis

Phil Mills

01 Lessons from the Coronavirus

When a hurricane is forecast, wise people prepare.

Windows are boarded up, doors are secured.

There's a far more severe storm coming than a hurricane, however, for us in the world.

Prepare for what is coming upon the earth.

And that's what we want to do this week, preparing for the crisis.

Our focus for this week of prayer, preparing for the coming crisis, which is just ahead.

In my 70-year lifetime, I've never seen anything like the events we've seen in the last few weeks.

The coronavirus, COVID-19, has captured the attention of the entire world.

The nations of the world are responding to this infectious disease like they would respond to a war, a world war.

By allowing COVID-19, I believe God is gently seeking to prepare his people for far more severe crises in the future.

And through this experience, God is attempting to teach us many lessons.

I've selected 10 for us to note this evening.

It's hard to remember that a little over a month ago, February 12th to be exact, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had its highest close in the history of the stock market.

But this summit was only the edge of a cliff.

And in the last month, a dramatic drop has occurred.

The median stock is now down 50% and the Dow itself is down 33%.

Coronavirus lesson number 1, in this simple world, unexpected things happen.

Unanticipated events catch us by surprise.

The coronavirus was an unanticipated shock.

Book Desire of Ages asks the questions, who can read the future?

There is assurance in nothing that is human or earthly.

Who would have guessed that an unnamed 55-year-old living in Hubei province of Wuhan, China was destined to change the world by a choice of what he ate for dinner?

A meal that included bat meat started a chain of events that led to the individual seeking medical attention November 17, 2019.

Now, less than 6 months later, and the world is different.

Unprecedented measures have been taken to combat an illness.

But there's a third lesson to be learned.

The report of the World Health Organization, China Joint Mission on Coronavirus Disease 2019, found that the highest level of infection transmission is found with exposure to an infected person, such as in a home setting.

Paul Auerwerter, the clinical director for the Division of Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins, echoes this finding.

If you have a COVID-19 patient in your household, your risk of developing the infection is about 10%.

If you are casually exposed to the virus in the workplace, that is, you are not locked up in a conference room for 6 hours with someone who is infected, like a hospital, your chance of infection is about 0.5%.

Those we are closest to, those we love, infect us and we infect them.

The fourth lesson we will note is the risk both to and from health care workers.

In the March 12, 2020 Journal of the American Medical Association, doctors James Adams from the Northwestern University and Ron Walls from Harvard pointed out 2 disturbing facts.

First, health care workers with repeated or prolonged exposure to infected patients, particularly in enclosed areas, have an increased risk of contracting the COVID-19 infection.

Secondly, healthcare workers run an increased risk of spreading the COVID-19 infection to other patients, their own families, and their community.

Those whose task is to save life are bringing death.

Those whose work is to protect the public become vectors for spreading the disease.

A fifth lesson to be gleaned from this virus is that asymptomatic carriers may exist.

These have been called stealth carriers with little to no symptoms.

This is somewhat controversial, but it's currently believed that the only way to find these carriers is to test the general population.

A sixth lesson is that this contagious disease can be controlled by social distancing and self-quarantine.

And like the flu, this approach appears to be effective for slowing the spread of COVID-19.

Lesson 7, the disease especially preys on the elderly and infirm.

It is also increased in smokers and vapors because of their smoke-damaged lungs.

The risk of death is increased in diabetics.

Those with good immune systems and those who are younger seem to have reduced risk of death.

The eighth lesson is the exponential growth of the disorder in a society.

Charts of data from John Hopkins University show the apparently slow benign beginning, which then develops into a sudden explosive growth, the so-called hockey stick shape of an exponential process.

The effort to mitigate the rapidity of the spread of the coronavirus has become a severe shock to the world economy.

A recession is felt to be a virtual certainty and many are arguing that a depression is inevitable.

Lesson number 9, saving lives is expensive.

It is now being argued whether the cost is worse the value of saving lives.

In a recent article, the New York Times reminded readers that government agencies calculate these trade-offs regularly.

The Environmental Protection Agency, for instance, has established a cost of about $9.5 million per life saved as a benchmark for determining whether to clean up a toxic waste site.

There are many aspects of this virus and its disease that are puzzling.

Experts disagree about many things about it.

However, our 10th coronavirus lesson is 1 thing experts agree on.

I took this slide from the website of the National Centers for Disease Protection, the CDC.

The very first step in protection is to clean your hands often.

This is important for the whole family, but how do you wash your hands?

Rub your hands palm to palm and wash the backs of both hands and in between your fingers.

Then palm to palm with fingers interlocked, clasp your hands together and rub, and then clean around the thumbs too.

Rub your fingertips in the palms of your hands and finish off with the wrists.

Rinse your hands really well with water and dry them thoroughly with a paper towel.

The coronavirus is emphasizing a truth revealed in prophecy.

Those who are prepared for the final crisis expect the unexpected.

When we truly expect the unexpected, there's nothing that is unexpected.

It is dangerous to drive when we are inattentive.

To be a defensive driver means to drive expecting the unexpected, prepared for any eventuality.

Auto insurance companies have determined that distracted driving is the leading cause of car accidents.

Distracted driving has significantly increased with the advent of smartphones.

Applying makeup while you're driving is dangerous.

All it takes is a second of distraction to cause an accident.

The second most common cause of accidents is drunk driving.

This leads to overconfidence and carelessness.

Volvo began to address inattentive driving in 2008.

The car company mounted a camera that watched the face and eyes to make certain they were attentive.

Chris Anderson

02 Self Quarantine: Stay at Home

Well, I want to tell you about an individual named Jose, Jose Salvador Alvarenga.

He was 35 years old at the time, and it was November 18.

He and his friend, Cordoba, who had a nickname of Piñata, and you can guess they were from Mexico.

They were out fishing off of the coast of Mexico and they've been fishing for 2 days and they caught a lot of fish.

They caught shark, they caught lots of different kinds of fish.

They were using tuna to catch them and they had fishing lines and buoys that they would hook out have out there that would help catch the fish and they would go back and collect the fish off the buoys.

But been fishing for 2 days, they had 1200 pounds of fish and they were headed in.

It was a significant day in Jose's life because things changed dramatically.

A storm began to build, the waves began to get larger and larger, they were crashing over the boat, beginning to fill the boat.

This was the first time for Pinata to be out, and he was very nervous.

He started screaming and yelling, and he was using buckets to throw the...

And this wasn't the first storm that Jose had been in.

In fact, he had been in many other storms.

But this storm, something was due to happen that changed his life dramatically.

As he was going along, his motor quit, absolutely quit.

There was nothing he could do to get it started.

And he fired up his radio and he began to call his boss and he said, hey boss, my motor has quit.

And his boss said, no problem, we'll come get you.

I said, what do you mean the GPS is not working?

I knew it wasn't working when I came out, but I didn't know I'd be running into problems.

So his boss said, okay, well, we'll come looking for you.

So they kept bailing and kept doing the best they could to keep the boat uprighted in the waves.

And eventually they tried to get back on the radio, but the radio had died.

After 5 days, they threw the radio overboard.

Jose picked up a big club that they used to kill the fish and he started beating the engine just to vent his frustration.

The next few days turned to weeks and then months as they floated on the water.

Jose learned how to submerge the upper part of his body in the water and watch for fish to go by and he would grab them with his bare hands and pull them in.

They had a few knives so they were able to cut the fish up in little strips and put them out in the sun to eat.

They were eating raw fish and they were starting to get thirsty.

Now, José had figured out a little system and it channeled all the water into some buckets and they were just overjoyed as they were in drinking this water.

As the two-month time turned around, 60 days floating on the water, wondering, is anyone going to see us?

His friend, Penata, said, I'm not going to make it.

He had been getting weaker and weaker and weaker and feeling despair and hopelessness.

He just could not overcome this isolation that they were in.

Jose just couldn't imagine being alone now on this ocean.

For 6 days he kept Pinata in the boat until he decided it was time and he pushed him over into the water.

Father in heaven, as we face life's challenges, sometimes we too feel like we are all alone.

As we go through this study tonight, may our hearts be encouraged to know that there is a place that we can be safe.

So the Bible tells us about another storm on a much smaller sea, the Sea of Galilee.

Jesus had been in doing ministry and he told the disciples, let's go to the other side.

And so they got into their boat and other little boats came along with them and they began going across.

He was tired from doing ministry And he laid down in the bow of the boat with his head on a pillow.

Now he was with a group of fishermen who knew how to fish.

But that night a storm brew up that was the worst they had ever seen.

How Jesus was still sleeping, I have no idea.

But the disciples began to fear for their life.

And so we read, okay, let's see, we read here, ah, sorry, there's a picture of Jose right there.

I forgot I had a PowerPoint here for you.

And that's the actual boat that Jose was in.

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

And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow.

And they awoke him and said unto him, Master, do you not care that we perish?

Jesus is asleep and they're fearing for their life.

You can't imagine 2 more polar opposite scenarios.

They are completely doing everything they can to save themselves.

He's asleep, not worrying in the slightest about what's going on around him.

The central part of what the disciples are fearing is that Jesus doesn't even care that they die.

He arose and he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace be still and the wind ceased and there was a great calm.

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

So their faith was, their lack of faith was revealed by their fear.

This fear was a manifestation of the fact that they didn't believe, think that God really cared of them in this moment.

How can we handle storms like this and to be like Jesus, asleep through whatever life may throw at us, instead of like the disciples, fearful and afraid.

John Wesley, that famous preacher, was traveling across the Atlantic on a ship, and he encountered a great storm, and many were afraid for their lives.

03 A Great Terror: Fearless in a Time of Fear

All right, our theme for the week of prayer is Preparing for the Crisis.

This evening I want to look at the fearless in a time of fear.

Do any of you remember the story of Ryan Bell?

Some here may remember hearing of him in the news 6 years ago.

Ryan was a pastor of a church in Hollywood, California.

In the 2010s, his church won the Innovative Church of the Year award.

However, 3 years later in the spring of 2013, he was fired from pastoral ministry.

I don't know, but perhaps he grew bitter at God for letting this happen.

As he ruminated on this situation for the remainder of the year, he decided on a New Year's resolution.

Starting January 1, 2014, he would go a year without God.

He wrote in his blog, for the next 12 months I will live as if there's no God.

Ryan Bell understood exactly what that meant.

Refer to God as the cause of things or hope that God might intervene and change my own or someone else's circumstances.

It means you live your life without prayer or Bible study.

It means you live a life without any reference to God as a cause of anything.

It also means, as Ryan Bell inadvertently acknowledged on his blog, it is a life without hope.

Bell's year without God did not start out very well.

Within a few days, he lost all sources of income.

His wife began divorce proceedings, but fame started coming to him.

An atheist raised 27, 000 for him, and for the next year he was featured in Salon, The Washington Post, NPR, CNN, the BBC, and other prominent outlets.

His blog site attracted thousands of hits daily.

What is so unusual about someone going without God, without life impacting Bible study, without genuine prayer?

Isn't that the way many, many Christians live their lives?

Going without God has been tried since the beginning of sin.

There's an interesting verse in Genesis that's often overlooked, Genesis 4.26, And as for Seth, to him also a son was born, and he named him Enosh.

Then men began to call on the name of the Lord.

From the earliest days of the race, there have been 2 groups of mankind.

1 group lives their lives as if there's no God.

The other group sincerely called on the name of the Lord.

Review in Herald 5, 4, 1886, there's many a prayerless home, and that too among those who profess to believe the special truths for this time.

Associated with this is a companion problem.

The Bible is not brought into the family as the guide of life.

And this of course is associated with a third problem.

The parents, not being men and women of prayer, do not train and command their households in the way of God's commandments.

These are homes that are engaged in the same experiment that Ryan Bell engaged in.

A life without God, living in homes without God.

2 years later, I should say 2 years earlier, the same author had written in signs of the times, I know of nothing that causes me so great sadness as a prayerless home." Now, please don't miss the next sentence.

I do not feel safe in such a house for a single night.

The secret place of the Most High is the only place of safety.

The secret place of the Most High is a place of prayer in Bible study.

No man is safe a day or an hour without prayer.

The quotation goes on, and were it not for the hope of helping the parents to realize their necessity and their sad neglect, I would not remain.

She only stayed in such homes to help parents realize the necessity of prayer and Bible study.

She sought to help them recognize their neglect of this privilege in duty.

The children show the results of this neglect.

What made the author sense danger in such a house?

She continues, the parents should make a hedge about their children by prayer.

Why was a prophet feeling unsafe in such homes?

There was no hedge of protection about the family.

Parents should pray with full faith that God will abide with them and that holy angels will guard themselves and their children from Satan's cruel power.

This is dwelling in the secret place of the Most High.

This is when he sends his angels and gives them charge over you to keep you in all his ways.

This, because you have made the Lord who is my refuge, even the most high your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling.

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