Serving God In The COVID-19

H h h. You know I like right well, those who are joining us online. I am lady Baker know casey ladies SNAr serving God in covid nintin serving Gods covid ntin era. And what I'd like to do is it takes some time to really look at as the scripture that I returned to offer in times like things, diseases like weeds, and we work through so the principles that fly here and to any circumstance like gods. And it takes some time to feel some questions. But before we start, that's beginning worth prayers. Am gracious God, my father, and thank you. Praise you for your goodness and your kindness and mercy towards us. Even in the midst of the days of the difficulty. We have reminded that you want fled in two us. Then we deserve we're a reminder of the providing for us, that you keep us, that you save us, that we've rested us and we redeem us the probably in times when it is difficult for us to rest in that we desperately need to be your minded to make today you have re minded for all of us of those truths. Pray for those who have gathered on, those who are here and those who are watching online, pray far you've used this time, you know you administered to the people, and that you do this for are good for your glory. We ask the question the passive description that our West Exana is Jeremiah chap Is Way nine. It's a very familiar passage description made teacher on the passenger description before. I believe that there are some things that are actorable here in terms of our current situation, and said it, And so what I'd like to do is for reads, you look at the context of and then draw some truths that are going to guidance. And that's true about three foots three things, three things that I want us to see here in JMN and twenty nine. I want us to be see that God is sopping, that God is just, and that God is faithful. I want those things to govern us, not just as we look at this text, but I want those things to govern us as we think about our current situation, in our current circumstance, and really any situation, circumstances, when we find ourselves in any situations, in circumstances that mean that brings fear in any circumstance that causes us in order that tends to cause us to wonder whether or not God is brought my side again. Whenever I say JM Mine and twenty nine, people even think about verse eleven GM on twenty athletic. I know the plans I have for you, any players of the world, plans for welfare or not well, to give you a future and hope. And whenever I talk about or teach on this text, I try to make the point that there are circumstances in our lives that force us to read this text differently. There are those who have a tendency to read this text and others like it as though it is just a naked promise and guarantee for all situations and circumstances. And if we read it that way, then circumstances like the ones that we're facing today cause us a great deal of difficulty. Because if I'm reading this and I'm saying, well, you know, the Lord has plans for me. His plans are for my welfare and not for evil. His plans are to give me a future and a hope. So COVID nineteen comes and all of a sudden, there's not welfare, but there's calamity all of a sudden. You know, I don't seem to have future that is secure, and I don't seem to have a hope. So the question that then comes is, so, has God somehow forsaken me? Has God somehow forgotten his promise? Or is God somehow incapable of keeping his promise? And all of these things are hugely problematic. If God has forsaken me, then God is a liar. If God is incapable of keeping his promise, then our God is impotent. How can I trust God to see me through to heaven if I cannot trust God to see me through something like COVID nineteen And so there is another answer, though, And that answer, of course, is that we have to read this text in its context in order for us to understand what it's designed to communicate to us. And again, what I think it's designed to communicate to us is those three things. That God is sovereign, that God is just, and again he's faithful, He's sovereign, he's just, he's faithful. No matter what the circumstance, those three things are true. And so let's look at this put it, put it in its context. Let's see those. And by the way, if you are on Zoom right now, please mute your microphone because we're getting some feedback from from folks who are on Zoom who have their microphones open. So if you are on Zoom, please please please mute your microphone. Okay, all right, Okay, there's some If you're on Zoom, please please mute your microphone. Mute your microphone. Okay, all right. So let's put this in its context. Let's go back and begin at verse one. These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the Prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets and all the people whom nebuchan Azer had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. So historically, this is when God is sending his people into the Babylonian captivity. The Assyrian captivity has already happened in the Northern Kingdom. This is the Southern Kingdom later on when they're going into captivity under nevcud Nezzar. And so God's people are experiencing something similar to a pandemic, if you will. They're experiencing something that is changing their entire reality. They're experiencing something that is bringing a great deal of fear and instability and insecurity to them. They're experiencing something that could cause them to question whether God is sovereign somehow, is there's some other God who's more powerful than God, or some force more powerful than God that has allowed this kind of thing to happen, that they're questioning whether God is just because they're questioning whether or not this is something that they deserve. And then finally they're questioning whether God is faithful because they're questioning whether this means that He will fail to keep his promise or he has failed to keep his promise. So when we understand historically what's going on here, by the way, this is the pre exile. This is before the final fall of Jerusalem, when certain members of the society were being taken off into Babylonian captivity. Probably the most famous pre exiles would be Daniel and his friends Hanna and I, Michel and Azariah who were taken off, and we read about that captivity in the Book of Daniel. This is before that final fall, if you will, So that's the context. Verse two. This was after King Jack and Iiah, the Queen Mother, the eunuchs, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, the metal workers had departed from Jerusalem. The letter was sent by the hand of Ilasa, the son of Chaffan, and Gemariah, the son of of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to Babylon. To Nebeka Nezar, king of Babylon. It said, so verse eleven comes as part of this letter that was sent, this letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent to the exiles. And so that gives us a bit of the historical context, and it helps us to understand this scenario that the Jews were facing. And you may think, okay, well, that scenario is different because this is something that's around the whole world. But think about this. The only reason you know that this is happening all over the world is because you have the news. You have the global news networks. There are TV cameras everywhere in the world, so you can see what's going on. Imagine if you are in this time, during this era, where you don't have global news, let alone your own local news network, and the only thing that you know that's going on in the world. Is what is happening to you right here and right now. For them, this is a global issue, if you will, this is the only thing that matters. And I think one of the things that is happening to us in the midst of this sort of COVID nineteen era is that even though we have access to the news and we have access to information about what's going on all over the world, this isolation that we've been forced to undergo causes us to think about the world only in terms of what's happening between our four walls. We don't get to go to church, we don't get to be around people. You know, we're having to wear masks. You know, there are people that we see and don't even recognize because part of their face is now covered up. And so for all of us, there is this sense of isolation, and that would have been very true for Israel during this time and for individual citizens of the kingdom during this time. There was also this uncertainty about when it would strike me. There are people who are being carried off. Am I going to be carried off? There are people who are being killed. Am I going to be killed? And there's that sense of fear that comes? And again, what are the questions? Is God sovereign? Is God just? Is God faithful? And so let's look at the answers to those questions, beginning at verse number four. Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. There's the answer to the first question, is God's sovereign? Does whatever is going on in my life bring the sovereignty of God into question? And the answer to that is a resounding no. And again, this is where I feel theology is incredibly important, because some people read verse eleven and they say, well, that means that you know nothing negative is going to come into your life, or if something negative comes into your life, it's because Satan got the upper hand, or it's because you didn't have enough faith, or it's because because, because, because, because, But verse four makes it clear God is sovereign. God is not surprised about what's happening. Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. And if you go up, if you just look, for example, into verse into chapter twenty seven, grew up into chapter twenty seven, and let's look beginning at verse four. That this is God's word to Jeremiah, that Jeremiah is bringing to the leader. Give them this charge for their masters. Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, this is what you shall say to your masters. It is I who, by my great power and my outstretched arm, have made the earth with the men and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever it seems right to me. Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuka Nezzar, king of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him. All the nations shall serve him, his sons and his grandsons until the time his own land comes, until the time of his own land comes. What does that mean, until the time God judges his land. Then many nations and great kings shall make him their slave again. So we see here in chapter twenty seven that God is in control of all these situations and circumstances. One of the questions that come is, you know, why would God use a pagan nation, a godless nation, in order to judge godly people. Because all nations other than God's nation are godless and pagan. Why would God use imperfect people to bring judgment. Because there are only imperfect people, that's why. And so the answer to that first question is yes, God is sovereign. Not only that, but go down to verse ten. For thus says the Lord, We're going to answer those other two questions here. When seventy years are complete for Babylon, I will visit you and will fulfill to you my promise. So when seventy years are up Verse twelve, then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, declares the Lord. I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord. I will bring you back to this place from which I sent you into exile. Now we know that he's talking here about something that's going to happen over one hundred years in the future. He talks about seventy years here and we'll look at that. But that seventy years just gets us to the edict of King Cyrus. But it doesn't get us all the way to Jerusalem being reinhabited. It doesn't get us all the way to Zerobabo, etc. So what's the point. Here's the point. Who can possibly speak with authority about what's going to happen one hundred years from now. There's a couple of things that's required for you to speak accurately about that, about what you're going to do over one hundred years from now. Number one, you have to have the ability to be here over one hundred years from now. Number Two, you have to have the ability to control circumstances between now and over one hundred years from now. In other words, you have to be sovereign. And God is sovereign, which is why he can speak about these circumstances in this way. God is sovereign. But what about the second question? God is sovereign, But is God just? Yes, he's just, because again in chapter twenty seven and then in chapter twenty eight, God is speaking about the fact that this is happening as judgment for his people. God is just, and God here is judging his people. But beyond that, we don't have to be able to go back and see the unfaithfulness of God's people, the idolatry of God's people, in order to answer the question is God just? Because the fact of the matter is God, by his very nature is just, and all God does is just, and all God can do is justice. In fact, he is the standard for justice. There is no injustice in God. There is no shadow of turning with him. There is not even the possibility of injustice with God. So we need not ask that question, regardless of the circumstances. But here's another reason. We tend to ask whether or not God is just because circumstances come our way, circumstances that we don't like. But know this, all have sinned and falls short of the glory of God. As the prophet Isaiah says it, all we like sheep, had gone astray, each of us had turned to his own way. And again Paul says, there is none righteous, no not one beloved. Every last one of us deserves death, hell, and the grave. And the only reason we question whether or not God is just is because we forget that. If we would stop, if we would just pause for a moment to think about what we deserve. We would never again ask that question. Never, because the fact of the matter is based on what you thought and said and did on last night. God would have been perfectly within his rights to kill you in your sleep, but he didn't. He didn't. So whatever it is that comes my way when I start asking the question is God just? I am completely ignoring the fact that what I deserve is the wrath of God. God is holy, and he is just, and he is righteous, and what our sins deserve is his wrath. Turn with me, if you will, to the Book of Romans, Romans chapter three, and look at beginning in verse twenty one Romans three, beginning of verse twenty one. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction for all of sin and fall short of the glory of God. We just quoted that verse twenty four and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ, Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood. That word propitiation means that he satisfies the righteous wrath of God as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. God is just. He is so just that he poured out his wrath on his only begotten son in order to allow for the justification of sinners without damaging his justice as God. So he punishes our sin. Christ atones for our sin and pays the penalty that we owe. He takes upon himself the penalty for our sin, so that God could demonstrate his love for us in this that while we were at sinners, Christ died for us. God is so just that his desire to save and redeem a people for himself required that the spotless, sinless Lamb of God undergo our punishment so that God's justice could be served. Don't you dare, beloved, question whether or not God is just. God is just, God is sovereign. God is just. But then there's the last one. It's God faithful. Again. We we find ourselves in the midst of a circumstance that is frightening. We find ourselves in the midst of a circumstance that that we have no control O over a and I immediately we we wanna know. Is God's sovereign? Is God in control? Has God somehow forgotten me? No? No, no, but he never slumbers nor sleeps. God is sovereign. Wa Is God just? It? It it? It doesn't seem to be fair. God is absolutely just, and he's demonstrated his justice and pouring out his wrath on his son. And then the last one is is God faithful? It is God going to be faithful to me? And he answers that go back to our text Jeremiah twenty nine. And let's look again beginning at verse ten. We didn't read all of this, but let's let's read all of that that section now, beginning verse ten. For thus says the Lord, when seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise. I will fulfill to you my promise. I will fulfill to you my promise, regardless of what the circumstances are right now that you're dealing with, I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. So his plan is to give you a future and a hope. So what does he say in verse twelve. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord. I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord I and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. Is God faithful? Is God faithful? I will I will well, I will I will I will. God is faithful. But be careful. Be careful, because God's faithfulness is not measured in the way that you think. It's interesting here that there's over one hundred and forty years that's going to elapse from the time this promise is made to the time this promise is fulfilled. What that means is this is a multi generational promise. God is making this promise to Israel. He's not making this promise to the individual Israelite. He's making it to his covenant people as a whole. And how do we know that? Look down with me again at verse beginning of verse thirteen. It's hard. It's hard to see this in the English because you know that you don't see the plural here. But if you could put it as you all, right, not you second person singular, but you all, second person plural. Here's what it would sound like if you put it properly. Then you all will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you all, you all will seek me, you all, you all, you all, you all. In other words, that you hear is plural. He's talking about Israel, the covenant people, not the individual. So the question whether or not God is faithful has to be answered this way. Is God faithful to his people? Is God faithful to redeem his people? And the answer to that question is always a resounding yes, God is faith to redeem his people. Now, for Israel, It's interesting for Israel that meant you are going to come back to this land of promise, that there will be a nation of Israel back in this land of promise after this Babylonian captivity. And we see that that happens. That happens when we read Ezra Namayah. We see God fulfilling this promise as they come back to the land of Promise, to the City of Promise, to Jerusalem. But what about for you and for me, as new Covenant believers. It's interesting that as new Covenant believers, we have a greater hope there is a new Jerusalem. So God's promise to you and me is not that after COVID nineteen or whatever you know, a tragedy or difficulty we're going through, that we will be brought back to a particular land in the here and now. No, his promise to us is that no matter what we endure in this life, ultimately we will be found in the New Jerusalem. Ultimately, God's faithfulness will see to it that we are found there. If you look for me, look with me. Rather in the last book in the Bible, beginning a look at Revelation, Revelation chapter twenty one, and again Revelation chapter twenty one is another reminder of god sovereignty. How can God talk with certainty about what's going to happen at the end of the age. The answer, God is sovereign. And so there's all of the turmoil that happens throughout Revelation and all of these awful things that come upon the earth and that are experienced by God's people and the martyrs who are crying out, how long before you will avenge our blood? And then eventually we see toward the end in eighteen and nineteen we see God pouring out his wrath and the horror of Babylon being judged. And you know, we see over and over and over again this picture, this cyclical picture of God pouring out his wrath, and finally we see that final picture there towards the end eighteen and nineteen. But look here, when we get to Revelation twenty one. Then I saw a new Heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first Earth had passed on, and the sea was no more. And I saw the Holy City New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new. Also, he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and truth. Again is God faithful. And he said it is done. I am the Alpha and the o mais the beginning and the end to the thirsty. I will give from the springs of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for the murder of the sexual, immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with the fire and sulfur, which is the second death. We could go on, but you get the point. God is faithful. For physical Israel, the promise was, after this catastrophe, I will bring you back to this physical land of promise. For spiritual Israel, the promise is, after this catastrophe, I will bring you back to the ultimate land of promise, not the physical Jerusalem, but to the New Jerusalem. So with all of that in mind, there's one question that remains. And if you've been paying attention, you see that we've skipped over several verses back in Jeremiah twenty nine. We looked at verses one through four, and then we looked at verses ten through fourteen. But what about verses five through nine? Verses five through nine answer the question, you know, to how do we live? What do we do now? Okay, this is true. I'm glad this is true. I'm glad that you've reminded us that God is sovereign, that God is just, and that God is faithful. But Covid is still here. So what do we do now? And God answers this question for his people in the midst of about Bolonian captivity verse five, build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce. This is amazing. You're going into Babylonian captivity. What do we do now this is terrible life as we know it is over? And what does he say? Build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce. Live. Live, that's what you do. Live, lay down roots. You don't curl up in a ball and die. You live. That's what you do. You live like you believe in a God who is sovereign, who is just, and who is faithful. You live. You do not go into despair and depression and discouragement. You live. You do those things that people do when they have hope. You live. Building houses, you do that. When you have hope, you do that. When you believe that there's a future. Plant guards, you do that. When there's hope, you do that. When you believe there's a future. That's what you do. You live. And then look at verse six. Verse six is very important. Take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there and do not decrease. You know. One of the interesting things is during times of pandemic, during times of war, you know, during times of plague, during times of famine. Birth rates always drop. And one of the reasons that birth rates drop is that people live as though there's no hope, and they say, we don't want to bring children into these terrible circumstances. That's what people say when they have no hope. That's what Israel would have said, had they had no hope. Here we are, we're going off into exile into a foreign land. We're going off into exile into Babylon. Oh woe is Let's just lay down and die. God says, no, you don't just lay down and die. You build houses, you plant gardens, you get married, you have children. Why because you have hope and it's a multi generational hope. Imagine this. God gives them a multigenerational promise and he says, this is what's going to happen one hundred, one hundred and forty years from now. Why would your response be to stop having children so that there's no one to receive the promise one hundred and forty years from now. That's crazy, that's crazy. There are some of you under the side of my voice who bought into this. I know because I've had comas with people, young couples who've said ah, we just I don't know. I just don't think I want. I don't think we want to bring children into a world like this. How does a world like this become better if we don't bring children into it? How do we have a hope? How do we have a future if we don't bring children into the world. If the people who experienced World War One decided this was a terrible world, why should we bring people into a world like this, then the generation that followed would not have come. But the people who experienced World War two had said, ah, another world war? Forget it. Why bring children into a world like this. The generation of our grandparents would not have had our parents, and we wouldn't be here right now. But there was hope, And there is hope because God is sovereign, God is just, God is faithful. The third one, seek the welfare of the city where I've sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. This is so counterintuitive. This is so counterintuitive. Here you are in the midst of Babylonian captivity, and God says, be a blessing even to your captors. Be a blessing. Even to your enslavers, it doesn't seem to make sense. But again, this is about hope. And remember what God said earlier. Babylon is going to get theirs. Amen, Babylon is going Judgment is going to come for them, because the automatic the thing would have been, Wait a minute, God, how are you going to use the Babylonians in order to judge us? These terrible, bloodthirsty people. You should be judging them. And God's response earlier on in chapter twenty seven is, don't you worry about them. They're going to get theirs, but I'm going to wipe them out. You I'm going to restore and so be a blessing. What does that look like? Folks, wherever we find ourselves, it's Babylon. I don't care where. You're listening to me right now, you're listening to me from Babylon. This is not your home. This is not your home. I was talking to somebody and I get this a lot from people. You know, we've been here in Zambia now to be five years next month, and people say, does it feel like home? And sometimes I'll say, you know, you know, we're getting there and it feels like home. But other times, in order to make this theological point, I'll say, oh, no, it doesn't feel like home, and they'll say, oh, you want to go back to America. I say, oh no, no, no, that's not home either. I'm yearning for a city whose builder and maker is God, Zambia, America, the UK, you name it. It's Babylon. It's not our home, but we bless it. We bless it while we're there. Well, then there's verse eight, and we'll finish with this. For thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, do not let your prophets or your diviners who are among you deceive you. Do not listen to them to the dreams that they dream, For it is a lie that they are prophesying to you, and my name I did not send them, declares the Lord. What is this lie? Well, we see this lie in a couple of places, chapter twenty six or twenty seven. Rather, look at the beginning of verse nine, similar phrase. So do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your fortune tellers, or your sorcerers who are saying to you you shall not serve the King of Babylon. For it is a lie that they are prophesying to you with the result that you will be removed far from your land and I will drive you out and you will perish. So there's the first one. In chapter twenty seven, there are prophets who are lying and saying, you're not going to serve the Babylonians. It's not going to happen. God says, ah Ah, they're lying to you. It is going to happen. Then there's another lie. We see that in chapter twenty eight. Remember Jeremiah puts on the yoke bars symbolizing the oppression of the Babylonians, and then the prophet Hannanaiah comes in chapter twenty eight, verse ten. Then the prophet Hannanaiyah took the yoke bars from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke them. And hanna Andaiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, thus says the Lord, even so will I break the yoke of Nebukaneza, king of Babylon, from the neck of all the nations within two years? But Jeremiah went his way two years two years. Huh. It's interesting. Well, if we were to continue on reading in chapter twenty eight. Here's what you would find. God says to Jeremiah, Hanna Andiyah is a liar and a false prophet, and he's going to die for it. And then in verse seventeen of chapter twenty eight, in that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hannah and Aiah died. So what are the two lies. One lie was it's not going to happen. God is not going to allow this to come to us. That's a lie. The second lie was it's going to be over quickly. That was a lie. That was a lie. Listen, God is in control. God is sovereign. And there are people who even in the midst of you know, COVID, they wanted to and I hear from people all the time. You know, there are people who sing this, and there are people who sing that. There are people who say it's not real. There are people who say it's over. There are people who say it's Listen. God is sovereign, He is in control. We're not waiting for some modern day prophet to give us the answer to when this is going to be over. That's not the point. We don't know. What do we know? We know that God is sovereign. We know that God is just, and we know that God is faithful and beloved. That's enough, That's enough. Amen, Alright, we have a few minutes remaining. We have time for some questions. M So I'll stop here and we'll take questions. We got some folks here to field the questions. Are we using the microphone for the questions? Okay, so there you go, Hello, there you go. You're on that. Yeah, okay. So one of the questions that I'd like to ask, which I think a lot of people would like to know, is so how do I then save God in this era? Aware, I'm not able to just talk to a person like this, walk to their home and talk to them about Christ. I'm supposed to give it, keep it, social distance and so on. Just how do I do it? Do I just like you say, pull into my show and wait for the pandemic to end. Then I start saving God? How do I do it? See, here's one of the big problems. One of the big problems is we think that we think the way you let me back up, we undervalue common service to God. And I think a lot of times women today have been duped into undervalue and common service to God. So being a wife not enough. I need to be out there doing something else. Being a mother not enough. I need to be out there doing something. Being a keeper of your home Titus, too, right, is just not enough. I have to be in this. I have to be in in in this ministry, and I have to be in that ministry, and I have to be in in this project, in that project. And I'm not saying that those projects are are are in themselves bad, but here's what we've seen. We've seen that there are a lot of women who are neglecting the ministry of the home to which God has clearly called them, in favor of something that they've been duped into believing is more significant and more important. And if that's the lie that you've brought into, then right now you feel like you're not doing any ministry of value. That is a lie from the pit of hell. This this ministry right now, walking our children through this time, right now, walking our loved ones through this time right now, This is of great value, you see, taking care of our homes right now, when when when the money is different than it used to be, and you know, we still need to have nourishing meals, put on the table, and we still need to figure out how our children are going to be educated, and they can't get off to the school, and you know, we still need to figure out this, that and the other. These things are incredibly important right now. The ministry of the home, and I write about this in What He Must Be, you know, the ministry of marriage, the ministry of the home. It's incredibly important. This ministry to our loved ones, this ministry to our parents, this ministry to our children. This ministry is incredibly important. It is not less important than the things that we do outside of the doors of our home. And so I think that's one of the things that people are coming to grips with right now is that we've redefined what is important and what is valuable, and wrongly so. And because we've redefined what is important and what is valuable, there are some important and valuable things that we can and should be doing right now that we feel guilty about because we've told our souls for so long that they are less valuable than they actually are. So that goes to that build houses, plank, gardens, these simple things, marriage, family, household. You see this simple thing again, same stuff. What do you find titles too, marriage, family, household. These things are valuable, They're vital, they're important. Discipleship that happens in our homes. Right, the account that you have given us according to the Book of Jeremiah, it is so clear and relating it to our time now with COVID nineteen, my question is do we stop praying about this pandemic and they start living our lives as you have explained it in the Contests Jeremiah. That's great. So verse seven, seek the welfare of the city where I've sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. No, we absolutely pray in the midst of this pandemic. We pray for ourselves, for our neighbors, for our city, for those who govern us. We pray. We absolutely, we dig down deep and we continue to pray right, not only for our welfare, but for the welfare of all of those who are around us as well. Yeah, we definitely continue to pray for God to alleviate suffering. And yeah, absolutely we do. That's h and again, that's the beauty of this text, right, because it just has all of those things right, there, you know. Okay, So Dr belcome, I'm living alone, Litsten, I'm alone. I don't have the family are talking about. I'm a single person. I'm at home. I'm not able to go to work because we have to work at home. I'm not able to I'm not supposed to go visiting people because we are this cuarrantine. So how do I in my home alone? Save God? Yeah, here's the beautiful thing. You know, our we have seven children here with us too in the US, and we have two grandchildren now in the US. We talk to them so much. Now we're using Zoom and Skype and and WhatsApp and all of these things so that we can be connected to people in different ways. You know, churches now are using these online things that we haven't used before in order to find creative ways to engage with people and to be involved with people. And so I think it's incredibly important right now to find creative ways to be engaged and involved. Then I heard about something else. It was on the radio. There is a nursing home in the US. You know, here people take care of their elderly parents. In America, you send them to a nursing home personally, so there's a nursing home where all of these you know, older people who are there and their families can't come visit them now. So what they did was they started a pinpal ministry, so I say ministry. You know, it wasn't a Christian organization, but they found, you know, people online who would agree to write emails and then write actual letters to these people. And so now they're so looking forward to receiving these letters and receiving these emails from people all over the world you see, who are connecting with them. So right now, even if you're somewhere by yourself, praise God that we live in a time and in an error where there are so many things available to us that can connect us in ways that people in the past could never have imagined. Yeah, that is true. We are really thankful to go that Corona virus whatever COVID nineteen happened in such an era where even right now we're able to communicate to thousands of people because of this technology. But not everybody manages to connect to access this technology. What can they do, because we're talking about especially in Zambia rural setting, all they do even in the compounds. Are they not to get encouraged with is to go to church mingle with the believers, and they're not able to do that because not every church has opened that because they need to fullocity in guidance. So what then should they do? Well, I don't know if I should answer that, because they wouldn't be able to hear the answer, right, they can't hear the answer, and we can't go tell them the answer because we're in quarantine. So but here's the beauty, you know, you even you go to the bush and you find phones. It's amazing. You go places and I think I'm in the middle of nowhere and there are people with phones, you know, people who are connected to other people. The other thing is this, realistically, people who are that remote, they're not they're not quarantining themselves, they're not. Yeah, so they're the ones who do have access to each other, right because they're out there in that remote location, in one small area, right, They're not leaving out of their village or whatever, so they're you know, so they have those advantages. Again, whatever circumstance you find yourself in, you you have to figure out, Okay, what do I have access to? Right? What can I do? So It's interesting that those people who don't have access to the technology we have, oftentimes they are so isolated from other communities that they can actually interact with one another in ways that perhaps you know us, we're in the big city, can't Yeah, MT sorry, just before as we have another course, there's a question we could uh respond to before this one. There's a question from Facebook. What word of encouragement would you give to Christians who might not have this opportunity? What opportunity? Uh? I think that would go to what we just yeah, yeah, okay, thank you so much? As encourage us what expects us to live a normal life? Trusting you, hoping metem, I'm believing more him ye man. And then so the challenge to us is then, uh, what is my circumstance? How do I continue to live like Christian life? Uh? As regards they they they they the guidelines. They don't treat the Bible what it says to me? Kay, how do you invent their lives? How do I event their lives? And we didn't like some kind of stuff the how basically do I use at a house? Yeah? Do you man? They like to be bout between college? Uh? How do I in college chapels. What needs to I have and maybe quantit time others a quart of times others that those quart of times uh, And I of course I stay others are living a normal life in the world. Yeah. So the challenge that I think is uh for me to appreciate and the stun uh that good expects me if you still do like you to as a Christian? Yes, yeah, amen, you know, and when I'm finding for a lot of people as well, and this is true for me. I have read more books in the last couple of months then I I can't even remember ever reading so many books, you know. And there are a lot of people who have book clubs, and so they're like, hey, let's let's read this book together and meet on zoom and talk about it or whatever. What an amazing opportunity. What There are a lot of people who have not engaged actively in discipling their children, right send them off to the Christian school, send them off to yp They can't remember the last time that they were the ones, you know, who were discipling their children. And now they're having to engage in this, which is which is their duty biblically, you see. And so it's it's it's wonderful. There's there, there's there's a silver lining, you know, there's a silver lining here. And so there are these things that are happening that that that that are blessing if we will look to them. And when we get discouraged is when we decide, this is the way I serve God, this is the way God blesses me. And now all of a sudden, if this is not there, then I can't serve and I'm not blessed. That's you know. And so if anything else, COVID is shaking that and it's causing us to have to rethink those things. And that's good. Okay, we've got about three minutes. Got another good one, good one, you see a good one. Alright, Well, thank you for joining us. I hope that this was helpful. Thank you so much to the Ladies Ministry at uh KBC, and for the ladies who were here and the ladies who have joined online, and any man who snuck in even though you weren't supposed to. Yeah, it's it's really been a pleasure. And I I thank you for inviting me, for giving me this this opportunity, and for entrusting me with this time, God bless you, and uh let me pray for you. Father again, we thank you for your faithfulness. We thank you for answering our prayer, the prayer that we brought to you at the beginning of this time. We believe that you have used this to encourage, to bless, to edify, and for that we're grateful. Be with us now in Christ's name. Amen, Amen, be clear.