What Do We Do?

Joshua D. Lee

Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

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Learn a New Skill

Enjoy Your Current Hobbies

Clean Your Room

Read A Book

Slow Down and Take a break.

We’ve been so busy for so long

Brooks from Shawshank Redemption “The world went and got itself in a great big hurry.”

Busyiness is a very easy habit to form and a very difficult habit to break.

Let’s take this opportunity to start a new habit.

Slow down, take a walk, take a break.

When God created everything, he instituted a day out of the week for us to rest and reflect on his goodness. But we ignore that most of the time.

So let’s slow down and take a break.

Spend some time praying.

Pray for health, pray for the economy, pray for everyone who’s job has been lost, pray for our medical professionals, pray for our government leaders, pray for your faith leaders. Pray that God’s glory will be revealed in such a magnificent way that only he can receive glory.

There are so many things that we need to cover in prayer.

(ESV) 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

(ESV)

We have much to be thankful for and we have much to be prayerful for. So during this time, PRAY.

17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Be Still and listen.

(ESV) 10 “Be still, and know that I am God.

(ESV)

This chapter talks starts by saying that God is our refuge and strength in times of trouble.

10 “Be still, and know that I am God.

I think our default when everything goes crazy is to panic. That’s why there’s no toilet paper anywhere in America.

But the Psalmist recorded what he believed God would say in this time.

We need to be still and remember who sits on the throne.

We need to get rid of the noise for just a little while and listen for his voice.

Could it be that he’s trying to speak to us, but we’ve got the news turned up so loud that we can’t hear him? Or maybe we’re too busy checking facebook for updates that we’re drowning him out.

Take 20 minutes a day. Turn off your phone, turn off your tv, even turn of the christian radio station and the new and never ending supply of sermon videos to watch. And just listen.

Study the Word.

The most common excuse given for not reading the Bible is that people don’t have enough time.

You have time now!

Easy Ways

Right Now Media.

You Version.

Just Open the Book and read.

Write in a journal.

In Joshua chapter 4, Joshua commanded the Israelites to set up stones of remembrance.

In , Samuel set up a stone and called it an Ebenezer and said, “So far the Lord has helped us.”

What does this have to do with a journal?

I know that it is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel right now. But this too shall pass and when it does God will be given glory.

How cool, when your kids or grand kids someday read about this in a history book, will it be for you to take out a journal and show them exactly what God was doing in your life and how he was answering prayers.

I don’t want to forget what God has done and I want to be encouraged that he can do it again. So write it down and remember it!

Use this as a time to check up on people and reach out to them.

People have a lot of different emotions right now.

People have a lot of different needs right now.

This could be an incredible time of harvest if we’re intentional about it.

When you read about similar events in history there’s one thing that you see over and over.

And that’s the fact that Christians were on the frontline helping to meet peoples needs and loving people.

There are people in the world today who believe that Christians are the exact opposite of loving. There’s plenty of reasons for this and whether they are justified or not isn’t important.

What’s important is that if people are looking at us they need to see Jesus and a lot of time that’s not what they see. They see judgement. They see hypocrites. They see a loud group of people and they know more about what they’re against that what they are for.

We have a really great opportunity to change the narrative. How will you love people? How will you give glory to God.

People are scared and desperate right now. If they feel loved by a Christian, they will be more willing to listen the the message of the gospel than any other time.

Be intentional about that. Reach out to your friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, and whoever else to see how you can be a blessing to them.

Have family discipleship.

Did you know that my job and role in the church doesn’t exist anywhere in the Bible.

That’s because the original design that is outlined in scripture was for parents to be the main disciple makers for their kids.

Now I don’t think that we’ve done anything wrong or sinful by having youth pastors. I think its great. But youth pastors have to keep perspective on the fact that they aren’t supposed to be the main disciplers of their students.

I will be exalted in the earth!”

That job is reserved for their parents.

(ESV) 4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

God wants parents to be the ones teaching the kids about him.

And guess what, if you are a parent watching this, listen, You are discipling your kids whether you are intentional about it our not.

If you are having these gospel centered conversations, then you are leading them and showing them what is most important to you and what is most important in this world.

But if you aren’t having gospel centered conversations, you are also leading them and showing them what’s most important.

You’re discipling your kids. You’re either discipling them for Jesus or you’re discipling them for something else. So choose what you want to do.

So parents, in this time of isolation and quarantine you have more time with your kids than you normally do. Don’t just talk about the weather or whatever sports you wish would come back on. Talk about Jesus.

And kids, make your parents sit down with you and have a bible study. It doesn’t even have to be structured. Just read a chapter together and talk about what it says.

However you do it, make family discipleship a priority during this time.

Shift your focus.

I think that our focus right now will determine our level of stress.

If we focus on the fear that is assosciated with the virus then we’re going to live in that fear and have a terrible time.

But if we focus on the Father, then suddenly we aren’t as worried. We aren’t as stressed.

(ESV)

8 (ESV) 4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Paul gave us a really good blue print here of who we can shift our focus and not worry as much.

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

He says we need to rejoice. We need to pray. We need to be thankful. We need to allow the peace of God to guard our hearts.

And then he gives a list of what he should think about.

true, honorable, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, praiseworthy.

That sounds like a list of words that are very descriptive of God.

Let us not focus on everything bad. But let us focus on the goodness of God.

To be clear,

Adjust your attitude.

I don’t know about you, but it can be really easy to have a bad attitude about this time of self isolation and quarantine.

I get it, things are being cancelled, we miss our friends, we miss our church, some people miss school. get it but. But I’ve also see alot of good come from this.

To be clear, If you or your family have been negatively effected by the coronavirus, I’m so sorry. Please know that I’m not trying to minimize the severity and sorrow of your situation. And please know that the the staff and the faithful saints at our church are diligently praying for you.

But for a lot of us, the worst thing to happen is that we’re stuck at home. And I get it, but let’s try to find the good in this situation.

(ESV)

(ESV) 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Even in difficult situations, God is working to make things good and to bring glory to himself.

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

I just want to point out some thing that I’ve seen that are good and i believe you are seeing things that I can’t see. I encourage you to remember them.

People are slowing down.

Families are spending more time together.

If you are in an abusive situation please reach out to someone for help.

Churches are being forced to get creative.

Churches are helping other churches and having a kingdom mindset.

Families are reinforcing what’s important.

The gospel message and the scriptures are being spoken into places that they normally haven’t been spoken.

People who haven’t been in church for a long time are engaging with church once again.

There is just as much Jesus talk on Facebook as there is any other subject.

We get to worship in our jammies!

Bottom line: There’s good in every situation if you look for it. We’re all in this together, It’s unavoidable. But we can have a good attitude about it if we want.

The last thing to do is keep being faithful to church.

(ESV) 25 Let us not neglect meeting together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

25 Let us not neglect meeting together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

It would be a really easy time to stop attending church services because there’s no accountability. There’s no one to ask why you weren’t there.

Obviously church looks different right now. I’m thankful that we have the technology to still meet in a virtual way. We’ll continue posting messages for you and I encourage you to have virtual watch parties. Do a group face time while you watch it together or just watch it alone. But make sure that you continue getting fed the same way you were before social distacngin was even a word.

What Do We Do?

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