Navigating Crisis: From Concern to Faithful Trust

well friends I join you in all that's coming at us right now it has engulfed my life my world my family as it has yours the feeling of what's coming up next and how do we make it through figuring all of this out looking to our leaders and they're trying to figure it all out at the same time and trying to bring this crisis under control [00:00:03]

I was in Las Vegas not to gamble we were doing a taping on a Bible study on U-Turn how God can turn your life around in fact we started the Bible study off at the welcome sign in Las Vegas and we ended the Bible study with the goodbye sign where folk leaving in Las Vegas and everybody was leaving Las Vegas because it was shutting down [00:00:31]

I found myself in a semi crisis situation because flights were being canceled the hotel told us we were gonna have to leave and so we're trying to figure stuff out on the run so I like you I'm in the midst of this figuring things out and I'm doing it in the midst of teaching the Word of God isn't that how life works sometimes you're doing something that's consistent with the word of God and there's chaos happening all around you [00:00:55]

when we get into situations like this when we get into scenarios where you know we believe in God we have a knowledge of the Bible but then life hits us and not only hits us it hits everybody around us I mean it's hitting my family and we're talking to each other and I'm calling and checking on them and they're worried about their father who they keep reminding me is now in that vulnerable age group [00:01:34]

there is the temptation and the tendency to turn legitimate concern into illegitimate worry so I want to make sure we understand the difference we ought to be responsibly concerned because this virus is real we ought to be concerned about social distancing we ought to be concerned about our loved ones being protected we ought to be concerned about where we go what we touch and washing our hands because that's responsible concern [00:02:01]

worry is when the situation is controlling you and you're no longer controlling the situation and how you respond to it worry is concern gone haywire it tells you you can't sleep now I'm gonna keep you up it tells you I'm gonna make your heart palpitate it tells you you're gonna sweat now it begins to dictate your well-being when that happens you've crossed over from legitimate responsible concern to illegitimate worry [00:02:39]

if God allows for concern he does not want us to worry because we have a father now we talk about God but when Jesus talked about God in the context of worry he like he did in Matthew 6 he says don't worry don't worry don't worry he said three times and then he says because you have a father and if you can think about God now in the midst of this chaos as a father [00:03:12]

yes he's all-powerful he's all that but he's also daddy you can take a deep breath because that sense of his care in the midst of crisis brings a calming sense into your life into your emotions and it brings down fear you know in that same passage he makes a rather convicting statement he says oh ye of little faith because you've turned concern into worry [00:03:41]

do not let and I'm talking to me too because not only do I have me my family but thousands of people in our congregation and then the community that we're here to serve and then ministering even more broadly I can get a little shaky but Jesus told me don't do that don't let it go there because you have a father I just want you to know that this father that we have loves us [00:04:15]

even though he's allowed this crisis because it couldn't happen nothing happens if it doesn't go through his fingers first to look to the spiritual in the midst of the medical and the physical what is God saying to you individually what is he saying to your family what is he saying to our nation and even our world he is speaking by the way and the basic thing he's saying is I need more of your undivided attention [00:04:47]

crisis has a way of producing caring so people are caring about one another asking about one another we get news reports of people trying to help one another people are talking about unity and can we all get along now because crisis has a way of creating something that the absence of crisis does not do because you can become pretty independent when nothing is wrong [00:05:31]

what I want to come out of this for me and for you and for us is to raise the question God what are you saying I need to adjust it in my life because I've been forced now to sit home I've been forced to talk to family members that I haven't been engaged with yet when courage to reach out to other church members who need a word or some some relative that I haven't called in a while [00:05:57]