Sermonette: August 14, 2023

I hear from time to time that surely, with all the strife currently happening, the world must soon be coming to an end. There have been, from time to time, people who have predicted the actual day the world was ending. Judgment Day! Christ's second coming! Yep, they knew the actual day it was going to happen.

Well, those days have come and gone and we are still here. Our earth has not ceased to exist. Early on when the coronavirus was spreading like wildfire, I had an acquaintance tell me that this pandemic was predicted in the book of Revelation. All you had to do was know where to look it up; it was there.

Yes, it is true, there are a lot of things going on our world today that we wish weren't. A lot of the maladies mentioned in the Book of Revelation are indeed happening. We read of them in the newspapers every day. But that doesn't mean the world is coming to an end. Nothing happening today is new to our world. Are people dying from disease? Yes, but think of the bubonic plague in the 14th century. “Black Death,” as it was called, when upwards of 100 million of people died, mostly throughout Europe. Polio, smallpox and others have come and gone. It wasn't so very long ago we were all worried about an AIDS epidemic. We were all going to die from unknowingly becoming infected through a variety of means. We are still here.

Wars? Yes, we have them today. Many countries in Africa since receiving their independence from European governments live from revolution to revolution, with civil wars killings hundreds of thousands. This is not new. From the old testament we have Cain-Abel, Isaac-Ishmael, Jacob-Esau, etc. Brothers against brothers.

Some will talk about the Islamic world and how it has a penchant for violence and a lack of tolerance for other faiths. This is not new either. The Crusades in the 12th and 13th centuries are a good example. Christian nations couldn't stand the thought of the Holy Land being in the hands of Islamic rulers so they went on crusades to kick them out, killing untold thousands of “the enemy.”

In our Civil War, a war between states in which Americans killed over 600,000 fellow Americans. No dear friends, things that are happening today are not new. God hasn't suddenly stopped loving us because we have strayed so far from Him and is now going to punish us.

But there must be some good news somewhere, right? Yes, of course there is. Great news in fact. In the same place we read of the wars, we read of peace; the same place we read of sin and deceit, we read of love and forgiveness. It is our Bible, our Holy Scriptures. Let's look at the 11th chapter of Isaiah. Isaiah is speaking about Jesus and the purpose of his coming. We're told he won't judge by what his eyes see or what his ears hear. He will judge with righteousness and with equity. We are told that the wolf will live with the lamb; leopards will lie down with goats. Even bears and cows will graze together and their young will lie down together.

Does this sound like a plan set for us by an evil God Like the tv commercials say: but wait, there's more. The Psalms are full of great news. From Psalm 4:8, "I will both lie down and sleep in peace; for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety." In the 103rd Psalm we read that the Lord is merciful and gracious, he is slow to anger and abounds in love. One of the great pieces of scripture in all the bible is here in Psalm 103. Verses 10-12 assures us that “He does not deal with us according to our sins, or repay us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us.”

Fellow believers, what this is telling us is that no matter what is going on in the world today, we have a great and wonderful future in store for us. Should we care about today's world? Of course. We should do what we can to help others. We can help feed the hungry, pray for those less fortunate than us. We should pray for peace. We should pray that those who don't have God in their lives will accept him and learn to love Him. Share with others that we have a loving and forgiving God who will bring us home when it is time. Some still try figure out when that will be. The disciples asked the same thing of Jesus and his answer to them was, it is not for you to know. Only the Father knows.

Dear friends, the only thing we can do to prepare is to make sure our hearts are filled with God's love. For when the day does arrive, that is where He will look; our sins will have been forgiven and forgotten. I find it difficult to be sad about today when we have such a wonderful future promised to us. Blessings to all.