What next

Does God have a plan?

Morning unless you have had your head buried in the sand or asleep for 6 months there’s a lot been going on.

We are in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic people have been asked to stay at home unless it’s essential & now restrictions are easing & we have had death’s, marches rioting because of the inequality in our systems & the evil that is rasiscm.

These are not easy times, they are hard for everyone, everyone is suffering in one way or another & people are hurting & people are angry & people are grieving & it’s not meant to be this way, what’s the answer, where does the answer come from.

People have a lot of questions & the answers are out there or should i say there in here.

People ask me when is church going to open, any news on when we will be able to meet again, it’s also on social media, facebook, twitter, Instagram when is church going to be open. at the moment physically we can’t but the church is still working each & every day loving people & thankfully we have the internet & so even though it’s not the same, the church can gather & worship Jesus online.

Lot’s of people have lot’s of questions.

So a series starting today called “questions”.

It’s gonna run for 9 weeks but maybe longer, maybe you have questions, what are you struggling with, what does God say about these days. Wev’e got questions, maybe you have a question too?

lets see together if we can find the answers in here, in God’s word.

What do we want from this series, i’ll be upfront from the start, i want you to know my God better, we want you to know you can trust God, that he loves you beyond compare, that he has plans & purposes for your life & that they are good, that what you face isn’t from God but He can help you face it, help you through it.

To help you understand that in Jesus every answer to every question can be found, listen he doesn’t say come to me & i’ll make everything rosy, but come to me & i will enable you to come through life with victory, He didn’t put us here to survive but thrive.

What’s going on? maybe that’s your question today, what next?

wev’e had 02-24 Sars, 09 Swine flu, 13-16 Ebola, 15-16 Zeka virus, 19-whenever Corona virus, all taking life, changing the way we live.

I don’t know how the virus will go, i won’t tell you it will be gone at this point, maybe we will have to live with it & as people say, live in a new normal, i don’t know. how many lives it will claim, what it will do to the world wide economies.

As i said before we are also dealing with inequality in this world, the tip of the iceberg being the murder of George Floyd, the anger that death has brought to the surface for so many.

Racism, Inequality of any kind is wrong & it needs to be eradicated & equality for all. The Bible says in

Galatians 3:28 ESV

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

We are created equal & i do believe that the only way we are going to see this is if we deal with it in our hearts first, if we can deal with it there, then we can teach our families building foundations that will spread out into this world of ours.

Maybe you have a question around this.

2020 has not been a vintage year so far & i don’t have the answers to what else we might face this year or beyond 2020 but i do have a perspective on the future & how to prepare for it.

So we start with 3 questions.

What in the world is going on?

Have you found yourself asking that question as of a week ago, 7th June 408,000 deaths worldwide.

Some say we are to eager to put Coronavirus as the reason for death for some, it should only be half but whatever the figures people have been dying from this horrible virus.

there hasn’t been anything like this since the Spanish flu epidemic in 2018-19, so this is new to nearly all of us unless you are over 100 years old.

So what in the world is going on?

What does the Bible say? Matthew 24:6-14 says

It says wars & rumours of war, make sure you are not alarmed these things must happen.

Famines & earthquakes & other natural disasters.

Persecution, false prophets, many will come claiming to be Jesus, there’s been a few. Apostasy, where people stop believing in God, we've seen that too. Increase in wickedness, we’ve seen over the years the way people have treated each other. Love will grow cold, people only caring about themselves, maybe some change is coming.

I think with confidence we can say we have been seeing this, but it’s not the end, there’s still time but it’s just the beginning.

This is not from God, but He knew it was coming, it’s the choices we have made, how we live impacts the world around us. If we live uncaring then people around us are uncaring to us & others, wickedness breeds wickedness, it’s our hearts that need to change. you see i can spot something inside of me that isn’t right, that needs to change, but if at the heart of me it isn’t put right then like a dog & it’s vomit i will always return there.

What’s the timescale, nobody knows, only God knows.

Jesus spoke of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem being within a generation Matthew 24:36-25:13.

The hour or the day of His return we do not know but Jesus says it will be on a day when people are getting on with life as usual, maybe today, maybe tomorrow i don’t know. Jesus says he will separate those that know Him from those that don’t. So Jesus urges His friends, those that know Him to be ready. This world will see what is happening now & throughout history occur again & again until He returns. So we see that Jesus is speaking about the period of time between the moment He ascended to Heaven & before He comes again.

2. Does God have a plan?

Romans 8:26–28 The Message

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

Yes, He’s working it out right now, in fact it started over 2000 years ago when jesus came to us, to tell us how to live.

More people are getting out of the kingdom of darkness & into the Kingdom of light, there are an estimated 7.8 billion people, of which 630 million are born again Christians.

God is equipping the church to share his love & His truth, God is sanctifying & cleansing us for eternity in Heaven & then His timing, when it’s right, Jesus is coming again to fix it all.

2 Peter 3:10–11 The Message

But when the Day of God’s Judgment does come, it will be unannounced, like a thief. The sky will collapse with a thunderous bang, everything disintegrating in a huge conflagration, earth and all its works exposed to the scrutiny of Judgment. Since everything here today might well be gone tomorrow, do you see how essential it is to live a holy life?

3. How can i align with Gods purposes?

1. Repent of Sin

2. Receive Jesus as Saviour

3. Live like your waiting for Jesus to appear.

4. Spread the word. not just in word but in deed, live the life. Talk about 1 John