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I want to take a moment to talk to you about the fact that God cares. I think we need to hear that in the midst of this terrible pandemic that is sweeping all over the world.
God really does care. He loves you and He cares for you. He cares about everything that you are concerned about. I know some of you are thinking, "Now, wait a minute. God may be concerned about a president or a prime minister, but certainly not me or my concern about my baby or my job or whatever." No, God cares!
I know how you feel because I grew up in a church that taught me that God did not care. I went to that church for almost 30 years. They taught two unbiblical concepts: Cessationism and Deism. Cessationism is the idea that everything ceased in the first century: the Holy Spirit went into retirement, spiritual gifts ceased, and God stopped performing miracles. The other concept we had was called Deism. That is the concept that God is an aloof God who does not get involved in our personal lives.
Well, folks, both of those are lies! God is very concerned about you. He loves you. And, He wants you to reach out to Him concerning every concern you have in your life.
When I first started really studying the Bible in detail, those two teachings that I followed all of my life just fell apart. For example, over in 1 Corinthians 1:7 it says, "We will not be lacking in any gift as we await eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ." The gifts of the Spirit are going to continue right up to the time Jesus returns.
Then I discovered something else. I discovered that in Malachi it says, "God does not change." And in Hebrews it says, "Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever." God is immutable. The God of the Old Testament and the New Testament is the same God of today. He is the God who is on the throne, hears prayers, answers prayers, and still performs miracles. But, He wants you to reach out humbly to Him in faith.
I want to give you a scripture that changed my life, and that is the one found in 1 Peter 5 beginning with verse 6. It says, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you."
 
God Warning
I'd like to also share a few thoughts about what I call "God warning."
God never pours out His wrath without warning. He does this warning in two ways. First, He does so by sending prophetic voices to call people to repentance. If the people do not repent, then two, He begins to place remedial judgments upon a nation to call its people again to repentance.
God is so patient. He is long-suffering. He does not wish that any should perish but all to come to repentance.
So, what we are seeing, I think, in the world right now is God putting a remedial judgment upon all of the world. We have many signs in the Bible that point to when Jesus is going to return. We have signs like signs of nature, signs of society, spiritual signs, technological signs, signs of world politics, and signs of Israel. All of those signs are converging for the first time ever, clearly indicating that we are now living in the season of the Lord's return.
Look around the world today and we see all of these horrific happenings: wildfires in Australia, locust invasions in Africa, the Coronavirus pandemic spreading across the world, volcanoes erupting, and so many earthquakes occurring. We can see that these end times signs are converging — all of them — for the first time ever. It is as if God is shouting from the heavens: "Jesus is coming soon!"
I believe that this Coronavirus pandemic is a worldwide remedial judgment that God is using to call people to repentance, to get them to think about eternity, to get them to think about their lives, and to think about where they are going to be when they are no longer here. I hope you are giving serious thought to your eternal destiny.
And, I hope that if you have never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior that you will do so today, because He is your only hope. The Bible says that the only way to God is through Jesus Christ. So, if you've never accepted Jesus, and you don't know the peace that Christians can have in the midst of this kind of chaos, I urge you to pray to the Lord.
"Father, I admit that I'm a sinner. I admit that I need salvation. I come to you in repentance. I receive your Son Jesus as my Lord and Savior."
And then, when you've prayed that prayer, find a church where the Bible is preached and Jesus is exalted. Publicly manifest your faith in Jesus by both a public proclamation and in water baptism.
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