Trusting God Amidst Fear and Uncertainty

"Fasting is really a step of humility if my people who humble themselves pray turn from their sin and seek me is it fasting is in all four of those areas it's a it's it's a form of of repentance and humility saying God my hunger for you outweighs this hunger every time that hunger comes on I'm going to seek you with all of my heart my strength I'm gonna pray and we're gonna contend for our nation." [00:04:32]

"Fear do you know fear and chaos need a host the virus needs a host meaning it needs a body and chaos cannot dwell without a host in other words come on into my house let me host you let me host you fear and anxiety and it and it needs fuel so many of you out there let me tell you this if you don't know who God is that's where it must start you must turn your life completely over to him and stop watching a bunch of junk that is gonna fill your heart with fear get into his word get into prayer get into worship." [00:27:46]

"Prayer is available if you need that just reach out and I want it want to remind you also especially mainly our local body here and again I might look at these pictures to remind myself who they are we are starting our fast today we believe that God looks at the heart of the person and fasting is really a step of humility if my people who humble themselves pray turn from their sin and seek me is it fasting is in all four of those areas it's a it's it's a form of of repentance and humility saying God my hunger for you outweighs this hunger every time that hunger comes on I'm going to seek you with all of my heart my strength I'm gonna pray and we're gonna contend for our nation." [00:04:32]

"Embrace God's wake-up call yes we don't like it we can become bitter and angry but we have to embrace it and say God what are you doing in and through me why are you doing this and like I said in one fell swoop all of our idols have been to throned but from a biblical perspective this could be a wake-up call medical staff I just read this yesterday they are calling the situation in Italy the apocalypse because of the the the caskets and the death rate and different things." [00:16:04]

"Minimize the media and maximize the moment medium minimize the media and maximize the moment what I mean by that I was googling something and it said the top 10 movies right now are about pandemics on Netflix my kids who are my kids let's watch that no no no we don't need to watch about a pandemic during a pandemic you need to put on things that build you up spiritually that's why the psalmist said turn my turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things direct my steps back to your word." [00:23:23]

"Prevailing prayer that is answer number one you depend on Jesus okay not your retirement not your 401 not your not your boss not your job God can take everything away from you and he says now will you worship me I depend on Jesus and Jesus alone you are my sustenance you are my ever present help in time of need I'm looking to you and then he lists number two are you ready for this forsake all known sin forsake sin God told the Prophet he said I can hear you my ears not my ears not short or my hands not short my ears not my I'm not hard of hearing but your sins your sins have separated you from me so that I cannot hear." [00:31:48]

"Shepherd your child's heart not break their heart you need to Shepherd their heart kids need to see faith right now not fear and I haven't perfected this in our home my wife and I we still messed up a little bit but we're not gonna look what the news says oh look what's going on we're going to turn this into a positive look what God can do if the truth be told I've had two of my kids so far say I like this because I have more time with you so our kids are and again not minimizing what's going on it's terrible we're praying against that but also whatever the enemy tries to intend for evil God can turn around and make it for good now is when you contend for your families now is when you you pray over your children st. we're praying at lunch we're praying at breakfast we're praying at dinner where are you at in your walk with the Lord let me pray for you and over you take them through a study get them through the Word of God during this season Shepherd your child's heart they need to see faith not fear." [00:34:37]

"Rebuild your faith and strengthen your soul so here's what happens anytime something is removed from your life you can add things in the problem as many people are adding the wrong things in we have to add the right things back into our schedule into our soul so again we keep those idols torn down let me just tell you people have been asking okay what is what should my day look like and it has to be it has to be built around who you are but let me tell you what I do I tried to get up early and I seek God first I pray I read I worship a couple hours in the morning then I'll go on a walk a prayer walk and then I'll get back and pray with my family talk about the day maybe go out and do some things with them outside and you use that day to start to build and instill good habits my wife started something as well where there's a quiet time for at least an hour to where the kids no media just unless it's something productive but get getting in the Bible read a book do something something then we have Mills together we pray together maybe a good movie in the evening and then and then just get through the day because we're looking to God so you can't begin to rebuild these idols or build new idols the key is to allow them to be torn down." [00:37:37]

"Keep building keep trusting despite what you see you have to keep building it was this was so funny when I was in construction we were going onto a construction site and people will come by and saying where's the building weren't you starting why are you digging down you're not building up and I would say because before you build up you got to build down you got to go down deep into the earth you got to compact and build the foundation that is sturdy so I was building as I was going down I was strengthening the building as I was going down and down and down and lower but when God says hold on I'm not done yet as you build down I will raise you up so you keep building you keep trusting despite how things look." [00:39:59]

"Chaos is not the absence of God doesn't mean God's gone chaos means now you're going to look to me because you figure it out you can't fix the problem chaos is really disorder because people are not ordered around God so chaos is not the absence of God it's God trying to get the attention of his people and again you can shut the doors of churches but you cannot silence the truth God is an ever-present help in time of trouble." [00:41:48]

"Consecrate a fast call a sacred assembly and gather the elders and the habitants of the land into the house of your God and cry out to God cry out to him what does that work cry out me well first I want to tell you this consecrate a fast that would show the magnitude of what's going on when something was serious they would fast so when something is serious like this we must fast I'm not going to tell you how to do it but I will say this it is a it's a depriving of food you know people say oh it went on a Daniel fast well it's good it's really a Daniel healthy eating program and it's hard don't get me wrong but a real fast a real fast is when you do you deprive yourself of food it doesn't mean you make a 1400 calorie chocolate smoothie it's when you deprive yourself of food and you fast some people can't go long so people can let God direct you and fasting meant there's the magnitude is great and then he said call a sacred assembly in other words there is unity there is unity is that interesting have you ever seen the church more United you've got Baptist and Pentecostals coming together let me tell you that's unity alright somebody recently tell me what about this worship band you know how people country I said I don't care anymore about that stuff we're dealing with the pandemic this is time to seek God get away from all these little trivial trivial things and and and some of these things are serious I understand but at some point we've got to be united and come together so we see magnitude of this we see a call to unity elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of your God in other words it's a priority so there's a magnitude there's unity in it's a priority of what was the answer and cry out to God cry out to God and here's here's my concern is I don't see that yet I don't see people truly crying out for God in the Old Testament here's what it meant there's an earnest now we're getting there don't get me wrong I'm not being negative I'm being very positive but I also have to be very truthful what's happening is the pressure is being applied but people are still holding on to their bank account they're still holding on others they're still well maybe this will be over next week you know it won't be over next week let me tell you that much and they're holding on to these things well hope maybe this will happen maybe I know you've got a total abandonment to all that say god I'm crying out to you the sooner we do that the sooner we'll get through this but if God has say are you still counting on the economy chip chip chip you're still counting on that your job chip chip chip you're still counting on the food and Costco being open and oh well we can least get supplies we can least do this we know you well you've got to get to a point of total desperation and saying God unless you move we are lost so crying out meant there was an earnest there was an intense it was a priority it was heartfelt it was urgent and revival never came without travail the pain of travail the pain of seeking God now is the time to do that don't keep resting in the economy your bank account what might change what now is the time to cry out to God and say God I've been wrong I intercede on behalf of our nation we have shed the blood of innocent children we have aborted millions of innocent children we have called good evil and evil good we have been perverted by pornography where the sex slave trade industry lured it's in an epidemic and we call on you we cry out oh god save our children save our families we look to you and you alone we're crying out and we're not stopping we're not going back to our idols we're looking to you and you alone and that's how we find hope in the midst of this struggle." [00:41:48]