Turning Point

David Michael Jeremiah: When you're anxious about life's troubles, it's common to pull away from others. But it's far better to reach out with a helping hand. Today on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah takes a closer look at how you can rely on God's provision and share it with others to feel assured in times of chaos. Listen as David introduces the conclusion of his message, "In a World of Disasters, Be Confident."

Dr. David Jeremiah: Sometimes I tell people when they report the difficulty of their life and they ask the word "why," I ask them to change the interrogative and ask the word "what." Not "why did this happen," but "God, what do you want me to learn in the midst of this situation?" That will help you get through a lot of trouble if you do that because what I've discovered is, when you ask the "what" question, God is ready to answer it, and he will help you know a little bit more about what's happening in your life.

Today we're going to finish up what we started yesterday, but before we do that, let me just remind you that Turning Point is hosting a conference cruise this July. The 12th through the 19th, we're going to Alaska. We'll be visiting Icy Strait Point, Hubbard Glacier, Juneau, Ketchikan, and Victoria. We'll have special music from Michael Sanchez and Uriel Vega. I'll be teaching the Word of God. We'll have a great time of fellowship on a new ship that we've never traveled on before, a beautiful new luxury ship. I hope you will come and enjoy this wonderful time of fellowship and just a little time of luxury for all of us together as we think together about the things that are happening. We can take a week away and think about what God is teaching us, and we'll help you with that by teaching the Word of God every day. So be sure and get your reservation in. We don't have as many reservations as we often do have, so we will run out of rooms before long. I hope that won't affect you. Don't wait until the last moment. Well, here we are with part two of "In a World of Disasters, Be Confident," a very appropriate subject for us to be discussing today. Let's do it right now.

According to Revelation 16:18, when the angel pours out the final bowl of wrath on this world, there will be a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. The ultimate end of what happens here as we know it today will be a magnificent earthquake. Isaiah 2:19 says, "They shall go into the holes of the rocks and the caves of the earth from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His majesty when He arises to shake the earth mightily."

I get this picture in my mind. God has been so patient with us. He's done everything He can do to try to get us right, and He's going to just grab hold of us and shake us. "I'm done with you." You can understand His frustration with our unwillingness to do what He asks us to do. When Jesus died on Calvary, do you remember what happened? The ground of Jerusalem quaked. Not anything like what it is going to quake when He comes back the second time, but the ground shook.

In special times throughout history, there have been earthquakes that have accentuated what was happening. In the Old Testament, earthquakes are associated with God's power and His judgment. When the Lord descended to Mount Sinai prior to getting the law, do you remember what happened? Mount Sinai was completely in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. When the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him by voice.

Go through the Scripture. When you see an earthquake, something important is going on. It's kind of like, "Okay, pay attention to this." Jesus on the cross, Moses getting the law, and there are others. When the Lord appeared to Elijah on the mountain centuries later, there was an earthquake and a still small voice. You know the stories. Psalm 18:7 says, "Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations of the hills quaked and were shaken because God was angry."

Now listen to me carefully. Winds come and go at random, and waves come and go at random. Much of the natural world is flexible and transitory, but the earth is not. Earthquakes are a specific sign of God's power and the Creator's control over creation. What is more grounded than the ground? That sign will increase as we move toward the end of history. I don't understand it. I can't explain it. For several years now, scientists have been warning about the possibility of super quakes.

I must tell you, every once in a while, I feel something at home or I hear something shake a little bit, or I wake up in the middle of the night and think, "Hmm, I wonder if this is it. I wonder if this is the beginning of it. Is this an earthquake?" Now, I have got you sufficiently scared so you will listen to the rest of what I'm going to say. What you need to understand is that global disasters are unavoidable. You can't stop them. You can't stop famine. Individually, you can do some things to help, and we'll talk about that.

But here again, I want to insert this thought. It is not about us trying to fix the circumstances. It's about the circumstances fixing us, making us better people. If we're not careful, all of this will make us shake. But the way to combat the fear of natural disaster is by supernatural discipleship, which allows the Holy Spirit to flood your life and my life with encouragement and confidence and hope. If you'll listen carefully during these next few moments, I want to tell you some of the things that can happen to us during the days that we're living in, things that are not things we should turn our head away from, but we should concentrate on.

First of all, we should be reminded of the confidence God gives us in His protection. From Genesis to Revelation, God is revealed as someone who watches over His people, keeping them safe in the midst of danger. Throughout the Bible, He's described in these following terms: He's our shield, He's our fortress, He's our hiding place, He's our keeper, He's our refuge, He's our rock, He's our shade, He's our shelter, and He's our stronghold. Those are pretty good words if you're looking for hope in the midst of uncertainty.

The Lord told Abraham, "Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you and your reward will be great." The Psalmist added these words: "The Lord is my fortress protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?" And Zechariah wrote, "The Lord of heaven's armies will protect His people." Over a hundred years ago, Anna Case Scott was on a primitive mission field when an earthquake occurred. She told about it in her autobiography.

She wrote, "It was January 10th, 1869, and we experienced a very severe shock of earthquake. I had just closed my Bible class of young men and was sitting quietly reading letters from the dear home people when I heard the rumbling as of a distant freight train, and soon the house began to rock and the frail bamboo walls began to bend. And then there was crash after crash as cupboards and wardrobes and mirrors were thrown down."

She said she rushed from the house to find the villagers standing paralyzed with fear. They were shaking uncontrollably and begging their Hindu gods to shush the elephant. They believed that the earth stood on the back of an elephant, and an earthquake was caused by the shaking of the elephant. It was so intense that everyone fell to the ground. Anna recalled the clock stopped and the river set upstream for a half an hour or more, and the earth opened in huge cracks in the yard where they all sat rows in apparent wavelets.

She and the other believers immediately pulled out their Bibles, and they began reading from Psalm 90: "Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God." The earth doesn't rest on an elephant's back but in the omnipotent hands of Almighty God who tells us in His book, "Therefore since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear."

When these things happen, they point us back to the stability of Almighty God. When we realize the eternal God is our dwelling place and we're surrounded by His very real, His very powerful, His very comforting presence, we are encouraged and our hearts are full of hope. Psalm 46:2 says, "Even though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, God is still there." So we should be confident in the Lord's protection.

We pray for that a lot, don't we? We pray all the time. You say, "Well, what about this?" I can't answer all the exceptions. I can just tell you what I know, that the more I pray for the God that I love to protect me, the more I feel protected. That's one of the things we do during times like this. We pray for the strength and protection of God to surround us with His presence. Confident in God's protection.

And then we can be confident in God's pardon. Here's an interesting sidelight to this story. I want to read to you from Joel chapter 2: "Now therefore, says the Lord, turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. And rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. Who knows if He will turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him."

Remember, this is the story of repentance. It's the story of the Philippian jailer. There was an earthquake that brought him to Christ. Remember that? In great fear he said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" What was that? It was a result of the earthquake. Something happens to us when we live through these events. God works in the lives of people in different ways, and oftentimes through tragedies, through things we don't expect, people are drawn to the Lord.

When something happens that we are out of control and it comes from nowhere and we aren't expecting it, what do we do? We automatically look to the one thing that at least in our hearts seems to be stable. We look to God. We don't use God when we don't need Him sometimes. If there's nothing going on like that, we put God on hold, we give Him timeout. But when things happen like floods and earthquakes and famine, we just automatically turn our hearts toward God.

People who've gotten saved as the result of things that have taken place over which they had no control, God often uses these things to bring us to repentance and to remind us we aren't the ultimate answer. There is an answer beyond us, and that answer is God. According to team member Bethany Duval, something happened to a Mexican woman named Gabby who had married and had children while very young. She liked the streets and had no interest in her mother's Christian faith.

When Hurricane Odile devastated La Paz in 2014, Gabby's makeshift home was obliterated. But a local ministry reached out to her, provided food and started helping victims rebuild their homes. Soon Gabby found herself making tortillas alongside a girl named Emily. And when Emily invited her to a Bible study, she decided to come. As the two studied the Bible and worked in the kitchen, the Lord dealt with Gabby's heart. Emily later said, "I really got to see how she was giving her life to Jesus and how God was transforming her. And we spent many, many days crying in my kitchen and just praying through things together."

And she found Christ as her Savior and began growing in Christ. Today, she's working in leading a high school diploma program and in the kitchen of the relief agency that reached her with the hope of Christ. "Knowing God and then living in Him is the best gift I have ever received," she said. That kind of sweet simple story has been repeated hundreds of thousands of times. I don't understand how it all works. I don't have all the solutions. I know that natural disasters bring out supernatural discipleship, and God allows His people to serve those who are hurting and to speak to those needing Christ.

In this way, He turns curses into blessings. Don't underestimate how the Lord can use you when difficulty descends on your community or on someone you know. Number three, don't we only want to be confident in God's protection and in His pardon, but be confident in His perspective. We place our confidence in God because He tells us how it's all going to end. We're going toward something. We're not just sitting here in limbo. We're on a journey and there's a destination.

Matthew 24 says, "For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." And when you get to Revelation chapter 21, you read these words: "And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain for the former things have passed away.'"

One of the best ways you and I can communicate hope during times of disaster is to tell everybody that what we're going through is temporary. This world is not our home; we're just passing through. And the Bible tells us that we have a lot to look forward to. Let's don't forget that. That's why I think prophecy is such an important thing to preach on during times like these, to remind everybody that yes, these are some difficult days.

Natural disasters reflect the fallen nature of our world, but these calamities that we experience are only temporary. Each disaster reminds us that a disaster-free eternity is awaiting us, and each one inspires our hearts to long for our eternal home. Do you know, if we weren't so uncomfortable here, we wouldn't be so excited about looking toward heaven. God makes us uncomfortable enough so that we don't get settled down in the beauty of this world. God has something much better for us who know Him.

And then, not only in God's protection and pardon and perspective, but let me finish up by telling you about God's provision. In Matthew 6 in the Lord's Prayer, we read, "Give us this day our daily bread." Do you remember the Old Testament story about the widow of Zarephath? She used her last bit of flour and oil to make bread for Elijah, but from that moment there was always flour in her bin and oil in her jar. God just kept providing for her. It was a miracle. Most of us are trying to tap into that miracle, but we haven't figured it out yet.

Let me tell you about a family and about Danylo Kyryliuk who lives in the region of the hardest-hit areas of Ukraine. Danylo is the pastor of a small church made up of his large family and about 20 others. According to the Voice of the Martyrs, the Russian invasion reached their area but not their village. Pastor Kyryliuk and his wife have 10 sons and nine daughters. They decided to make bread and to share with those affected by the war, and in one night they baked 30 loaves of bread.

As people came to get the bread, others brought flour and oil, and the more bread they made, the more flour and oil they had. All the children and grandchildren helped, bringing the total number of workers in the home to 33. Even the youngest son helped as he learned how much yeast, flour, and salt to mix. The youngest daughter kneaded the bread. Soon the church was producing 160 loaves per day, and more than one ton of flour was donated. A ton of bread and counting.

But it wasn't only bread that was distributed. Gospel newspapers went out with every loaf, and one couple in the church with a distinct gift of evangelism shared the message of Jesus, the bread of life. If you were to see the picture of this family lined up by size, you'd praise God for such people whose hope overflows with kindness and evangelism in times of great danger aided by God's provision. The Bible says God will provide, and how many of you know God does His best work through people?

People like you and me. Sometimes I think one of the best things we can do when we're feeling a little bit anxious about what's going on in the world is to stop thinking about ourselves and to look around and think about some of the people that we might be able to help if we just opened our eyes to their need, if we just cared enough and thought about the fact that this is not just about us. This is about God using us, as He used this family in Ukraine to help people in need.

And this is not a time for those of us who are followers of Jesus to cling to our possessions. I don't want to get too specific here, but I know that one of the things that happens when you go through a time like we're going through right now of uncertainty is to say, "Ooh, I've got to start conserving my income." Some of you probably say, "I can't give that money to the church anymore because, man, I've got to take care of this, what will happen?"

That's the worst thing you can do. If you take God out of your equation, you're on your own. Don't take God out of the equation when you need Him the most. That's really not very smart. But we need to manage the resources God gives us to help other people. Can you imagine the joy that comes to your heart when you're able to help somebody who's really in need? Now, I know everybody says, "Yeah, but you're going to get ripped off and people are going to deceive you." You know, that's not my problem.

My problem is to do what God wants me to do and be an instrument of help and hope in a time when there isn't a whole lot of that waiting around. And the world is not going to do that. The world's going to hoard. The world's going to grab everything and cling to themselves. But if you're a Christian, you can't do that. If you're a Christian, you've got to say, "Lord, there's a need out there, show me what I can do." Maybe you can make some bread.

I don't know how He uses you or how He uses me, but I know what the Bible's teaching us is that in this time of life going through the uneasiness and the anxiety and the angst of all the stuff that seems to be falling apart around us, this is the time for you and me as believers to stand up strong and be the people of God we were called to be in the first first place. Let's make a difference in our culture. Let's don't complain about it. Let's let the culture make us better and quit worrying about changing the culture because if we do that, God will use us like you will not believe. We are living in a time of great opportunity to serve Him because the need is so great. Find somebody who needs your help this week and help them, and see if God doesn't bless you in the process. Oh, what a challenge that is to my life, and I hope it is to yours.

How do you live in a time like this? How do you know what to do? I don't think I've ever said, "Lord, I don't know what to do" more than I've said in recent years. 12-year-old Jacob Smith stood atop an 11,000-foot mountain in Big Sky, Montana. He was about to free ride a triple diamond-rated slope. Now, if you don't know what that means, let me explain. Free riding is when a skier tackles a mountain without following a defined path, just a person gliding through the trees and the rocks and the ridges. That's free riding.

Now, why anybody would want to do that defies my imagination, but that's a sport. And this 12-year-old boy hurtling down professionally rated ski slopes without following a trail is impressive, but there's something else you need to know about this story that takes it to another level. Jacob Smith can't see. His vision is technically 20/800, which is four times the level at which a person is declared legally blind. You say, "Pastor, you're making this up." No, I am not.

On a chilly morning in Big Sky, Montana, Jacob became the first legally blind skier to complete that legendary run. And he doesn't stop breaking barriers. He's well on his way to becoming a professional in this sport that he loves. How does he do it? Well, according to Jacob, he has a secret, and I want you to listen carefully. The secret is his father, Nathan. On every run, Nathan speaks to his son over a two-way radio. And when Nathan describes the terrain, Jacob visualizes it in his mind.

And when Nathan tells his son to make a turn or to move in a new direction, Jacob obeys instantly. One interviewer asked Jacob how much he trusts his dad. He said, "I mean, enough to turn right when he tells me to." And I want to just ask you, is that not what we're into? We're going down a hill, we have no idea where the path is, we're going through trees and stumps and rocks, but here's the good news: our Father is in our ear and He tells us what to do.

Listen to me: if He tells you to turn right, turn right. If He tells you to give somebody something, give it to them. Listen to your Father because there's no way for me to tell you where this is all going. I don't know where the path is downward; I just know we're free riding. But we're not alone because we've got the Almighty God who created the mountain in the first place, and He's telling us what to do.

And if you believe that, if you really believe that God is in your heart and He's in your ear, you won't go to bed at night and not be able to sleep because of what's happening. You'll know tomorrow when you get up and you start to go down the mountain again, God is with you and He'll tell you what to do. If you trust and obey, there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. Hallelujah. Amen.

Well, that's what I hope will be your takeaway from this message. We put the strategy at the end so you can be sure to use it. And I hope you will do it. Try it today. See if God doesn't meet you at the point of your prayer.

Tomorrow we're going to talk about how to be prepared in a world of persecution. Ladies and gentlemen, that is not a subject that is about some other places; it is a subject that is beginning to take form in our own country. I'll have much to say about that tomorrow and Monday as we continue our discussion of "The World of the End" here on Turning Point. Let me just remind you that Turning Point has a magazine that we're so very proud of because it is such a great value to those who receive it. Filled with biblical truth, devotions for every day of the week, Monday through Friday, and one for each weekend, all kinds of spiritual series, spiritual strategies, information about Turning Point, beautifully done. You can get your copy if you ask for it. Do it today. We'll send you the next issue. Thanks for listening.

David Michael Jeremiah: Our message today originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Senior Pastor Dr. David Jeremiah. Will you take a moment to tell us how our ministry is an encouragement? You can write us at Turning Point, PO Box 3838, San Diego, California 92163, visit our website at davidjeremiah.org/radio, or call 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of David's book, "The World of the End," with a special "Be the Answer" bookmark, yours for a gift of any amount. You can also download the free Turning Point mobile app for your smartphone or tablet, or search in your app store for Turning Point Ministries to access our content. Visit davidjeremiah.org/radio for details. That's davidjeremiah.org/radio. This is David Michael Jeremiah, join us tomorrow as we continue the series "The World of the End" on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.