March 29, 2020 |
Speaker: Pastor Brian Hill
Series: Current Events
Description
Our world has been turned upside-down by the Coronavirus. This has caused a lot of people to panic. How should followers of Jesus respond?
God wants his children to choose peace over panic. Peace is a common theme throughout the Bible. It is so important that the Apostle Paul refers to Jesus’ work of redemption as “preaching peace to those who were far away and peace to those who were near.” He even refers to the gospel as the “gospel of peace.” If we want to have peace, we should focus our minds on the Lord and take our needs to him in prayer. In order to choose peace over panic, we must make another choice.
God wants us to choose faith over fear. Fear enslaves people. God wants us to be free and remain free. One of the greatest fears people have is the fear of death. Jesus defeated the devil by his death and, in so doing, he set people free. Who? People who all their lives had been held captive to their fear of death. Instead of choosing fear, God wants us to choose faith. Faith is trust. We need to be careful that we place our faith in something that is trustworthy. In order to do this, we need to make one more choice.
God wants us to choose Christ over chaos. Life is chaos; it is not “under control.” Circumstances, accidents, diagnoses all enter our lives and create chaos. God created an ordered universe. Everything was in order in submission to God’s authority. However, once sin entered the world, chaos ensued. Yet when we choose Christ over chaos, we recognize that God is in control. He sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sin. When we choose Christ over chaos, when we place our trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. This does not make us immune to the difficulties in life, but it does allow us to choose faith and peace.