Greetings to you in the sweet name of Lord Jesus Christ. I consider it my great privilege to share the Word of God with you.
We are going through one of the toughest situations in human history. We know these things are inevitable or unavoidable. This pandemic is not the worst or the last, these calamities are going to affect mankind in one or the other shapes again in the days to come.
From South Asia to Africa to Latin America the pandemic is confronting developing countries with a public health emergency combined with an economic crisis and each exacerbating the other.
The present situation of the world also showing us that the most powerful nations, developed nations be it Japan, America, China, Italy etc. are incapable of so many things still. The nations whose GDP growth is the highest or the least have no control over so many things. They can only spend time in searching for the questions thrown at them by God.
Meteorologists, hydrology, oceanography, seismologists or any department of the science have failed to warn us about the Tsunami, hurricanes, storms, floods and famines and even if they warn us their predictions have failed us miserably, they warn us for heavy rain and it turns out to be a flood, some times they warn us for floods it turns out to be heavy rain. I am not telling that they are incapable of anything but they have failed us badly due to which many have lost their lives and many are loosing in spite of spending billions of dollars for these research centres they can not save enough lives. Surely there are advantages and disadvantages of these technologies.
In recent times these technologies and science were diverting our trust from God to these man-made lifeless stuffs.
Today I have entitled my sermon as Turn and trust in God alone.
Today's message theme or purpose is that you turn from these idols to the Living God.
For that
Let us turn our Bibles to Isa. 31:1 "Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are very strong. But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel not seek the Lord!
Before going deeper into the verse let us look the Lord in prayer,
Dear God heavenly Father, thank you for giving us the privilege to listen to your word, help us to turn and trust in you alone God in times of problems and calamities. Help me to deliver this sermon to the best of my ability Amen.
1) Stop trusting in any nations or men.
No matter how much that nation has developed, their infrastructure, education, hospitals, Medicare, defences, economy etc.
Stop trusting in these nations, experts. Coming back to the scripture here God is warning people of Judah and to their king
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses. Cursed is the man who is going back to Egypt for support and help, maybe at that time Egypt was best in the defence but what is this Egypt, who are these Egyptians are, it is the same nation who tormented Israelites for almost 400 plus years, and it is the same nation whom God made a mockery of their beliefs, gods, magicians, kings and the most powerful man in entire Egypt Pharaoh. By going down to Egypt they were despising the command of the Lord. In Deut. 17:16 'But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall not return that way again.’
Being a king of Israel, he should not acquire horses for himself, neither send people there to acquire horses, God doesn't hate any nation but it is a covenant with Abraham and because Israel is a peculiar, holy, set apart and an apple of God's eye, its 'woe' to them, today God loves us so much he gave himself for us, in time of calamities where's our trust. Medicines are our trust, doctors, the most popular hospitals, they will fail us, they will squeeze you and make you empty. Assyria was the world's conquering power at the moment, they had destroyed the northern kingdom, Syria and great Babylon and now they are heading towards this tiny divided nation Judah. King Hezekiah terrified and was trying to get help from the neighbouring country.
Isaiah 31:2?-?3
'Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster, And will not call back His words, But will arise against the house of evildoers, And against the help of those who work iniquity. Now the Egyptians are men and not God, and their horses are flesh and not spirit. When the Lord stretches out His hand, Both he who helps will fall, And he who is helped will fall down; They all will perish together'.
2) Your iniquities will bring you down
God is wise your condition will be worse than before because the nation which helps you will fall and you by trusting in flesh and not in God, Egyptians are men, not God, horses are just flesh and not spirit. God is the God in whom lyes the power of death and life,
Our PM Modi during one of the conference has expressed that one of the lessons learnt in this crisis is that India should be a self relied nation, because of the nations themselves are battling the pandemic. All the nations are expecting that America will come up with solutions, China, Japan, Italy, India but all have failed their citizens so far. This is the right time to Turn our trusts from these nations. No matter whom we are trying to trust all will fail.
3) Trust in God alone
Isaiah 31:4?-?5?, ?7 NKJV
For thus the Lord has spoken to me: “As a lion roars, And a young lion over his prey (When a multitude of shepherds is summoned against him, He will not be afraid of their voice Nor be disturbed by their noise), So the Lord of hosts will come down To fight for Mount Zion and for its hill. Like birds flying about, So will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending, He will also deliver it; Passing over, He will preserve it. ” For in that day, every man shall throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold— sin, which your own hands have made for yourselves.
Situation may seem out of reach for you but not for God. If you trust him and in his power, he's going to defend. In order to explain why any situation is not too late for God, we will read about one more king.
The question will obviously rise if being king of a nation if he cannot acquire help from his neighbouring nation than what must he do. We have a king who had faced the same situation as Hezekiah is facing but he did something very very different. Which are very relevant to the present Presidents, PMs and leaders of a believing nation. Let us see it in:
2 Chron. 20: 3-4
The same and an even bigger problem than Hezekiah was faced by King Jehoshaphat
II Chronicles 20:3-4
[3]And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
[4]So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord, and from all the cities of Judah, they came to seek the Lord.
It's absolutely natural to be scared as a leader you are responsible for the entire nation. Entire church or family.
What was he afraid of
Vs. 1
[1]It happened after this that the people of Moab with the people of Ammon, and others with them besides the Ammonites, came to battle against Jehoshaphat.
Some five nations have had conspired against the king Jehoshaphat. So by hearing this, he didn't go first check his military, and defence or sent his people to Egypt but did something every one of us should be doing when facing the hardships, disasters, epidemics.
Vs. 3 Set himself to seek the Lord, in Isaiah God was complaining that they were going down to Egypt for help but not seeking him.
But here is a king, who forgot about his reputation, designation, ego, spent time seeking the Lord diligently. He confessed his sins, he understood that only God can deliver him out of this problem.
II Chronicles 20:1,12
[1]It happened after this that the people of Moab with the people of Ammon, and others with them besides the Ammonites, came to battle against Jehoshaphat.
[12]O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.”
Today all the believing nations leaders should forget their designation, reputation, prestige but should humble and spend time inquiring about the situation, ask the counsel of the Lord. Take advice from the Lord stop trusting experts they failed you in the past, they are failing you now and they will fail you in the days to come
2) He urged his people to fast and pray
V.4 So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord, and from all the cities of Judah, they came to seek the Lord.
People support the decree of a king or government, the lockdown would have not been successful if not enforced. People support the government, PM or President. Ask people to come, fast and pray. They will obey you
II Chronicles 20:1,12-13
[13]Now all Judah, with their little ones, their wives, and their children, stood before the Lord.
All of them came and supported the king's decree. Little ones, their wives and their children all of them stood before the Lord. Make use of people's support ask them to come on their knees, ask them fast and pray, join their hands in prayer. Through our prayers only we can conquer our battles.
Thirdly
3) He obeyed the voice of the Lord
[15]And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.
[16]Tomorrow goes down against them. They will surely come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the brook before the Wilderness of Jeruel.
[17]You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you.”
When you do these things the battle will belong to the Lord, your problems will be God's problems.
What Jehoshaphat and company did they obeyed the voice of the Lord.
Vs. 18 Jehoshaphat said to believe in Lord, belief in his prophets. Like his father David, he went in the name of the Lord. Their armsbefore even they extend their swords, the battle was won by God for him.
Jehoshaphat demolished his enemies by humbling himself. By seeking the Lord, by asking his people to join him in fasting and praying, and by obeying the voice of Lord. If we do these things in a time of storms and difficulties, God will go before you to fight the battle.
Today no matter what the name of your battle, no matter who is coming against you.
No matter how close your problems have come, No time is too late for God to deliver you, only he's the keeper and defender of Zion and Jerusalem.
Do not wait that somebody will come and help, either God or man, spirit or flesh, turn back your trust from experts, science, technology or any idol you made of silver, gold or in flesh destroy them immediately. I don't know who that Egypt is for you today, turn from that idol.
Times and circumstances may be hard but they will pass. The world may be coming against you but you will only see them falling flat and running on their own.
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God bless you all, may you start trusting in God immediately, in Jesus name Amen.
