It was going to come up, and they shut it down right away, thankfully. So then, now they have passwords on all of their things. So yeah, no. So this was initially, it was- I was like, look, can you see it? I mean, I can see it, yeah. No, no, no, I don't know. Oh. Oh, okay. We're going, yeah, we just- I'll do it again, too. Yeah, I can see it just fine. Yes. I saw you. And hopefully you can hear. Well, welcome to our living room. We're gonna be singing three songs tonight, and we have our good friend Megan here to help accompany the music with her voice and her guitar. One of the songs is gonna be a special that Davina and Megan will be singing called Your Hands by J.J. Heller. That's not a sing-along, but we're gonna provide the lyrics for you in the comments section for this Facebook video anyway. so that you can get into the mood of contemplating and meditating upon what the words are saying. The other two songs we sing are gonna be hymns. If you have your own hymn, you can go grab it, but we will post the lyrics to the hymns in the comments section of the Facebook page as well. The hymns are relatively familiar, Amazing Grace and Blessed Assurance. If you have any specific prayer requests or praise reports to share, we ask that you would please write them in the comments section of this Facebook post. And if you know of someone who, you know, you're pretty sure would like to be a part of what we're doing this evening, but you don't think or you know that they don't have access to Facebook Live, but you know they have a smartphone of some sort, you could try connecting with them using your smartphone and do like a FaceTime phone call. Just make sure you've got the phone up close to the screen and close to the audio so they can hear it. It's not an ideal solution, but it's an idea. Also feel free to share this video on your own Facebook page if you like. The teaching for tonight is going to be a recap of the emails that I've sent to the congregation in recent days. And at first, it's not going to feel like it's following a theme for Palm Sunday, but I promise you at the end it will all tie together and you'll see how it is indeed a Palm Sunday theme. I'm going through these emails for a variety of reasons. I'm not sure everyone has been receiving or able to read the emails. And on top of that, I know there are some people who are joining us via Facebook Live now that are not part of the regular congregation, and so they haven't received the emails at all. But it seems like there's people that are gonna start to join us regularly as long as we're doing Facebook Live. And I think it's important for us, with the situation that's going on, the timeliness of what's happening, that our communication is consistent and we do the best we can to remain on the same page together. So I'll be interspersing reading those emails throughout the evening. It's not gonna be a half hour of me reading emails, so don't worry about that. So, is there anybody coming that I can't hear? We're good as far as we know? No, I'm not seeing anything. I'm not seeing any comments at all. Alright, people joining us as far as we know? Make sure it's working. Okay, so it's working I guess. Alright, so let's open in prayer and we'll get started. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity to come together in the name of your son Jesus to have this time of fellowship. to honor what he did for us, to think about and reflect on what this week means to us, and ultimately what it means to us in terms of eternity. And we just invite the presence of your spirit here to speak through Pastor Troy, to speak the word of God, and we ask that you give us a listening heart, tender ears, give us understanding Holy Spirit, teach us all, Help us and write this word upon our hearts and help us to walk in it. We thank you, Lord, that you are protecting us during this time of crisis in this nation, and that you are making good come out of it. And we thank you and we ask these things in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Amen. Let us recall the significance of this particular day, Palm Sunday, with a look to God's word found in Zechariah 9, verse 9. Rejoice greatly, daughter Zion. Shout, daughter Jerusalem. See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. So let's open up our hearts and our minds in song by singing together a song about this righteous and victorious king. It's a tune that's familiar to most of us, I'm sure, Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see. Was grace that taught my heart to fear And grace my fears relieved How precious did that grace appear The Lord has promised good to me. His word my hope secures. He will my shield. And poor shall be as long as life endures. Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come. His grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home when we pray. A thousand years bright shining as the sun We've no less days to sing God's praise Than when we first begun All right, I'm now going to read emails that I sent to the congregation on Monday and Tuesday of last week, not this most recent Monday and Tuesday, but the week before. And I began Mondays with joyous Monday, my brothers and sisters. I hope you're well during the current craziness in our world. I wish I could have seen most of you yesterday. We had a beautiful day capped with a time of worship and devotion at my home. There were only four of us in our home during the day, unfortunately, and all four of us were my family members, as it turns out. Me and Dina and Tyler, of course, plus our daughters with us for a weekend visit. We will try this plan again this coming Sunday. Again, it would be helpful if you would email me that you intend to come to our house so that we, especially Dina, could plan accordingly. We will possibly try adding a new twist this coming Sunday if enough people express interest. If you can't make it to my house for worship on Sunday and you have a Facebook account, we could potentially experiment with using Facebook Live, ta-da, where people would watch on Facebook and add comments in the section underneath the video. As with attendance at my house, let me know if you would be planning to do this Facebook Live thing. Given that so many are currently cooped up in their homes right now, it's possible you're looking for things to do. One idea would be to listen to the podcasts of the radio shows that feature living faith ministries, The link to these shows has been added to the Living Faith Ministries Facebook page, and also here are directions for how to listen as well. Basically, you go to the WFMD website, wfmd.com, you find the Audio Vault section, and there you go to where it says Faith Debate, and you click on Faith Debate, and you scroll through the Faith Debate shows until you find those that aired on January 5th, 12th, 19th, and 26th. Basically, the four Sundays in January of this year are the four shows that featured Living Faith Ministries. So you click on the show you wanna hear first. I suggest you begin with the first one and listen to them in order. And as soon as you click on it, the audio will load and begin playing automatically, usually within a couple of seconds. Standing in Union with the Bridegroom, Pastor Troy. The next day I wrote, blessed Tuesday, my brothers and sisters. Let's maintain our perspective in the face of scary statistics dominating the news coverage at the moment. There is great reason For hope, there's always great reason for hope, knowing that God never loses control. However, there are also practical realities that give us great reason for hope. Sickness and death are bad, and all of us get sick, all of us will die, and yet we still live lives blessed by God in the here and now, seeking to be joyfully obedient, even amidst tragedy that has swirled about us our entire lives. The statistics regarding coronavirus are problematic, but not necessarily more problematic than some of these. Alzheimer's and dementia. More than five million Americans are affected right now. One in three seniors who get it will die from it. It will cost the nation $305 billion this year. 50% of doctors say that the medical system is not ready for the growing number of people diagnosed. The death rate is up 146% from what it was not so long ago. The source for these stats, the Alzheimer's Association website. Autism, an estimated four million Americans have currently been diagnosed and the numbers are climbing. The CDC has determined that one in 59 children is now affected. There's no trustworthy medical detection available. On average, a diagnosis will mean a projected annual cost of $60,000 per year for every year of life. Nationwide, the annual cost of caring for these individuals is expected to reach nearly half a trillion dollars in the coming years. The source for the stats, the Autism Speaks website. Seasonal influenza. The World Health Organization estimates that worldwide, there are up to 5 million cases of severe illness. The number of deaths is estimated to be 500,000. The CDC estimates tens of thousands of deaths in the United States. Medical experts report that it spreads easily with rapid transmission in crowded areas, including schools and nursing homes. And when an infected person coughs or sneezes, droplets containing the virus are dispersed into the air and can spread to infect persons in close proximity. To prevent transmission, people should cover their mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing and wash their hands regularly. Sounds familiar. The source for these statistics, the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control. The list of illnesses is long. I'm gonna share just three more tomorrow. Again, the point isn't to make us all feel depressed, but to help us all see a bigger picture. Ecclesiastes tells us that there is nothing new under the sun. There have been dramatic threats to our lives in the past. And when we pause to consider it, there have been dramatic threats to our lives for each and every one of the days we've been alive. And yet God uses all of it for the good of his people. And the COVID-19 threat is no different than all the rest. standing in unity with God's people, Pastor Troy. P.S., here's a link to ongoing resources that are designed to aid Christians during this time to strengthen their biblical understanding, encourage the body of Christ, and help answer questions we might all have right now. And it's a link to the Living on the Edge Ministries of Chip Ingram. And again, I'm gonna provide all the links I mentioned tonight, I'm gonna provide in the comments section of this Facebook post later on tonight. Where are we? Let's do this in order. I lost track of my page, where is it? Ah. So now, glad I looked, I was gonna skip it. We have a scripture reading. It's a scripture you might expect for a day like today, it's Matthew 21. Verses one through 11, and Angela's gonna bless us with the reading of God's word. Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to him, go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, the Lord needs them, and he will send them at once. This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet saying, say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey and on a colt, the full of a beast of burden. The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And when he had entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up saying, who is this? And the crowd said, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. Amen. The very word of God, those of ears to hear, let them hear. At this point in our time together, we're going to do what we call the prayers of the people. And our habit is to have the people participate as much as possible in the prayers of the people. When we meet in the sanctuary, a lot of us are able to participate. In this case, we're a little more limited, but we've got a handful of us here. And so anybody who's here present is going to be able to to pray aloud as they feel moved to potentially do so. How this is gonna work is Angela's gonna open us with prayer, and then if Megan and Dina would like to pray aloud, they're welcome to. After a period of time, I will close us in prayer. And at that point, then I'm gonna share the email that I wrote on the Wednesday that followed the two emails that I already read just a moment ago. So Angela, if you would start us. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for this This day of blessing, Lord, in the midst of so many challenges, Lord, we still have so much to be grateful for. We thank you for that. We thank you for your shed blood. We thank you, Lord, for the provision. We thank you, Lord, for peace. We thank you for hope. We thank you for joy. We thank you for provision during this difficult time, this time made easy by your grace, and we just We rejoice in all the goodness that you have stored up for us, all the expression of the goodness in our lives every single day. And we thank you for the victory that we have in your name, the victory of overcoming that your blood and your resurrection represents. And we just bless you and we thank you and we praise you. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Lord, there are other people who are dealing with illness not just related to COVID-19 and yet that seems to be in the forefront. So I want to take this time to lift up anyone who is dealing with and has been dealing with cancer and other illnesses. that are struggling, that are struggling even more so now because it's even more difficult to get their treatments because of everything. And I can't even imagine that hardship. So I lift them up and ask that you would bestow on them an extra measure of grace, that you would take care of their needs. I believe that you will, but I still ask that you give them the peace that passes all understanding that only you can give to them. I lift up my sister-in-law and ask that you give her strength, just reading in the comments section from a different Facebook post that her father fell and broke a couple of ribs. And so I asked that she would take care of him and heal him. She was very distressed by not being able to go with him back to the room in the hospital because of all the restrictions. And so it's creating a lot of emotional stress. And I know that she's not alone. There are a lot of people who are dealing with emotional stress because of what's going on. I pray that you would comfort them. I pray that you would find ways to let them know that you are an ever-present God, that you never leave or forsake your people even though we feel that we're alone. That is a lie from the pit of hell because the fact of the matter is we are not alone because of Jesus Christ and we are so thankful for that promise that you never leave us and you never forsake us. So I pray that you would pour out your spirit in a mighty way that your people feel your presence, that we can rest in that truth. Thank you, Jesus. Dear Heavenly Father, we just want to pray for those that have lost their job because of this crisis. I know that that was my sister this week. God, just pray that there would be peace, that they would be able to feel your presence throughout these times and also just know what the right next steps are, God, just so that they're able to be able to pay their bills, God, and just live. We just pray for their peace and comfort during this time, and also just a clear, sound mind as well, God. Also, I just want to be thankful for technology, God, that allows us, even though maybe not all everyone in person is able to still meet together and worship God, especially during this holy week, to make it just feel a little bit more normal that we can be with your people, even if it's only virtually. Thank you so much for those opportunities, God. Father, we come to you this evening with confused and hurting hearts, but expected hearts, perhaps hungrier now than we have tended to be in the past for your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, we ask you to give each of us individually wisdom and how to navigate an increasingly complex situation that changes by the day. We ask for wisdom for those that are tasked with making profoundly important decisions that have immense impact on millions, billions of lives around the world. In our country, we pray specifically for President Trump and Vice President Pence, and his advisors, those in Congress, those in the state houses, those who are leaders of the county and city level, and also for the leaders in our churches. There are very difficult decisions to be made, and it seems that no matter what decision is made, that there are those who would point fingers of accusation that they were the wrong decisions. So we seek your wisdom, Lord. And we seek patience and kindness and gentleness in our spirit so that we can demonstrate your love and your mercy and grace to the watching world around us. We thank you that you continue to provide for us, most of us, very well in the midst of all of this. You are a provider, God. But even those of us who are not feeling like our physical needs are being met all that well, we know that we have the assurance of your word, the confidence in your promise, that all of the pain and sorrow and struggle that we have in this world, in this walk on earth, pain and sorrow and suffering, that you assured us and promised that we would have, that for those that are yours, there is peace everlasting awaiting. Oh, how we yearn for the return of your son, for the full consummation of the kingdom of God. Help us to maintain patience, to be diligent in our obedience, to press into your word, to seek you in prayer, and to trust you, to have a holy and righteous fear of you and who you are, and to not fall prey to an unholy and sinful fear of the world. We praise you, Lord. We thank you that we can have confidence even when it doesn't seem like we should be able to. In Christ's name, by the power of your spirit, we pray. Amen. In just a moment, we're going to have the song, Your Hands. If you want to read along to the singing of that, the lyrics, I think, are in the comments section of this video. But before we do that, I want to read the email that I wrote about a week and a half ago on Wednesday. Hope-filled Wednesday to you, brothers and sisters. Our congregation is reminded today of the temporary nature of our walk on earth, this side of heaven. Hearts are broken at the passing of Diane's mother yesterday morning, and we all should pray today for the Holy Spirit to comfort those who most directly mourn this loss. We should also pray that God's word remind and convince his people that when each of his children dies, they each go to a life of flourishing in unimaginable ways, in intimate communion with the Lord forever. Yesterday morning, I emailed three groups of statistics for gaining perspective in light of the fears swirling around us regarding the coronavirus. Today, I offer one more group of three data sets. These were shared during last week's worship service, but not all of us were able to be in attendance that Sunday. So first, traffic accident fatalities. More than 40,000 people in the United States have been killed during this past year in an accident. Each day, more than 100 Americans die on our roads. Worldwide, approximately 1.24 million people have died over the past 12 months. That's more than 100,000 per month. This is now the leading cause of death, or one of the leading causes of death, among those between age 15 and 29. Middle-income and low-income countries are at greatest risk. Men are more likely to die than women. and the annual economic impact in the United States is an estimated $1 trillion. The sources for this information, the World Health Organization, Safer America, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and Allen & Allen. Induced abortion. Worldwide, an estimated 1 million will die this week. Globally, 25% of the world's very youngest people will die this year. This is a worldwide phenomenon with developing nations more greatly affected than developed nations. The region most dramatically impacted by this is Asia, followed by Europe. The sources are Singh S. et al. and the Guttmacher Institute. H1N1, also known as the swine flu. Side-by-side factoids from the 2020 pandemic that we're all going through right now, and the 2009 pandemic. These statistics are collated from the World Health Organization, the National Institute for Health, the Centers for Disease Control, and the U.S. National Library of Medicine. The first cases of COVID-19 infection are believed to have occurred December 2019 within the borders of China, a huge trade partner with the United States. The first cases of the H1N1 swine flu infection are believed to have occurred in March 2009 within the borders of Mexico, a big trade partner and neighbor of the United States. The COVID-19 strain of represents a unique or what's called a novel influenza virus never before seen in humans or animals. The H1N1 swine flu strain represented a unique combination of influenza viruses never before seen in humans or animals. Within a few months of the outbreak, the World Health Organization deemed the COVID-19 spread to be a pandemic with 121 countries reporting cases. Within a few months, the outbreak, the World Health Organization deemed the H1N1 swine flu spread to be a pandemic, with 214 countries reporting cases. At the three-month mark of the COVID-19 spread covering early December 2019 through early March 2020, the virus was estimated at that time to have infected many thousands in the United States who were not even yet diagnosed. with more than 1,800 confirmed U.S. cases and 41 Americans having died. At the three-month mark of the H1N1 spread, covering late March 2009 through late June 2009, the virus was estimated to have infected more than one million people in the United States, with more than 27,000 confirmed U.S. cases and 127 Americans having died. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the most at-risk members of the population are older adults, especially those over the age of 70, and particularly those who already face significant pre-existing medical challenges that have left them with compromised immune systems. During the H1N1 pandemic, the most at-risk members of the population were children under the age of four. the next most at-risk group, school children, kids under 18, followed by adults under 65. And as a result, 80% of deaths during the 2009 outbreak were suffered by people younger than 65 years of age. Until we were recently reminded, did most of us even remember the H1N1 pandemic all that well? With only 11 years ago, It infected 60 million Americans. With 265,000 hospitalized and worldwide, 575,400 people died. And yet here we all are, standing on the other side of it more than a decade later. Something that's dramatically different this time is the economic shutdown and the quarantining lockdowns, and these could be history-altering, and they, too, need our appeals to God in prayer, and a recommitment to being obedient to our Creator. Let's press into God's Word and ask the Holy Spirit to illumine our minds to His truth. Standing in the Gap, Pastor Troy. And then I added a PS, if you cannot make it to my house on Sunday evening, and if you do not have access to Facebook Live, there could be a third option available as a temporary solution. It's been suggested that we explore using Zoom. I have participated in Zoom meetings as an invitee, but never hosted a Zoom session. I will work to learn to do that if you tell me that you are set up to accept an invite and then participate using the downloaded Zoom application software. and then I provided information on how to do that if interested, and I asked if people would let me know if they were gonna do that. As it turns out, one person said that they were able to do that, but that one person was also able to join via Facebook Live, and so that's the route we went, and I don't know that I could pull off doing a Facebook Live and a Zoom at the same time, so we're doing Facebook Live. There we go. So now, the song that has great personal meaning in our lives. You couldn't possibly know that, but it's a song that's been important in Dina and my life in different contexts over the years, and it's kind of moving to have a chance to share it again this evening in our current context. Oh, gotcha. I have unanswered prayers I have trouble I wish wasn't there I have asked a thousand ways That you would take my pain away That you would take my pain away I am trying to understand How to walk this weary land. Make straight the paths that crooked lie. Lord, run before these feet of mine. Oh, run before these feet of mine. When my world is shaking, heaven stands. When my heart is breaking And you never leave your hands When you walked upon the earth You healed the broken, lost and hurt And I know you hate to see me cry One day we'll set all things right. Yeah, one day we'll set all things right. When my world is shaking, heaven stands. When my heart is breaking, I never leave your hands. Your hands that shape the world Are holding me, they hold me still Your hands that shape the world Are holding me, they hold me still When my world is shaking When my heart is breaking, I never leave, I never leave your hands. All right, so now we're gonna get into the meat of some stuff. The runway has been cleared with those emails from Monday through Wednesday, and now we're jumping into the emails from Thursday and Friday of last week. And let's see, Thursdays, if I can find it, I thought I had, there we go. Thursdays began, love-filled Thursday to you, brothers and sisters. The past two days, I emailed a few things that had been shared during one of our worship services a few weeks ago. Today, here's something else that was shared just in case you were absent from that particular week's gathering for corporate worship. And this is, by the way, an extended quote that's been modified. C.S. Lewis wrote something rather profound a little over 70 years ago at the dawn of the nuclear age when atomic bombs had dropped and the Cold War began and everyone was very afraid. Those of us old enough to remember know how scary that was, and particularly at the beginning of it, I think, it might have been even scarier. So that's the context. And what I did is I took C.S. Lewis's quote and I swapped out his language for atomic bombs and nuclear war and that sort of stuff and replaced them with language that relates to the coronavirus. So quote, in one way, we think a great deal too much of the coronavirus. How are we to live in this pandemic age? I am tempted to reply, why, as you would have lived in the 16th century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night, or indeed as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of war, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents. In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the current crisis was invented. And quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had indeed one very great advantage over our ancestors, anesthetics. but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances, and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty. This is the first point to be made, and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by COVID-19, let that virus, when it comes, find us doing sensible and human things. Praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting with our friends over a pint and a game of darts, not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bathroom tissue. They may break our bodies. A microbe can do that. but they need not dominate our minds." End quote. And then I offered a link of encouragement from a worldly perspective, followed by a link of encouragement from a godly perspective. Again, I'm gonna post those links in the comments section of this Facebook post when we're all done here. The encouragement from a godly perspective was actually linked to a song. Dina says it's now her new favorite song, Holy Water, by We The Kingdom, with Tasha Cobbs Leonard joining in with them. Anyway, ended by saying, standing on his promises, Pastor Troy, and then the next day, on Friday, I wrote, the gift of another day from the Lord has arrived on this Friday, my brothers and sisters. When Martin Luther was dealing with the Black Death plague, he wrote these wise words that can help inform the way we approach things happening in our world right now. Quote, I shall ask God, mercifully, to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance inflict and pollute others and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me, and I have done what he has expected of me, and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person, but will go freely, as stated above. See, this is such a God-fearing faith, because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God." End quote. If you're curious, the source for that is Luther's works, volume 43, page 132. It's a letter that's been titled, Whether one may flee from a deadly plague, he wrote it to the Reverend Dr. John Hess. And then I posted three different links, a couple of more videos, and one had a really good Q&A page about the coronavirus. And again, those will be posted on this Facebook page later on. And I ended by saying, standing on the shoulders of the great people of God who came before us, Pastor Troy, P.S., If you haven't seen Kelly's email from earlier today, I encourage you to read it. I was particularly struck by the page that I've attached to this email. And I mentioned that PS here in this context with this Facebook Live video to encourage you, call each other, FaceTime each other, text each other, email each other, private message each other. If it makes sense, spend time with each other. Try to find ways to still be in each other's lives and encourage. one another. I think we all we all need it. Let's see. I lost my sheet that's telling me what I was going to do next. I do that every time. Here we go, I found it. Ah, so we're going to sing a song. We're going to sing a hymn. Blessed assurance. And if you go scroll through the comment section, the words are there for you. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine. Heir of salvation, Purchase of God, Lord of His Spirit. This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior all the day long This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, perfect delight, Visions of rapture now burst on my sight. Angels descending, ring from above Echoes of mercy, whispers of love This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior all the day long This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, always at rest, I in my Savior am happy and blessed. Watching and waiting, looking above Filled with His goodness, lost in His love This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior all the day long This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. Amen. And so now we're reaching the end of the emails I'm going to be reading. These are the emails from last weekend that I wrote and sent out on Saturday and Sunday of last week. And so on Saturday I wrote, preparing for worship tomorrow, my brothers and sisters. Here's a refresher on some of the things I shared during the most recent time that we all gathered together in the sanctuary. And here I quote myself. Quote, fears of dying underscore a reality for all people. Everyone dies. And let's not bury our heads in the sand. There are people really dying. from coronavirus. This is intensely sad. People are also really impacted by all the various economic shutdowns, lost jobs, fixed income challenges. This is scary and anxiety-inducing stuff, also life-threatening for some. Emotional angst is affecting people, people you know. They need hope. They need to know There's a sovereign God who is in control. They benefit from seeing Christ's people maintain hope in all circumstances. I'm reminded of James chapter one, verse two. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. We're not to ignore or deny suffering, grief, and pain. Bad stuff doesn't feel joyful. But troubles are avenues. to deepening our relationship with Christ. Troubles teach us how to walk more intimately with Him. Trouble isn't good in and of itself, so we don't pretend to be joyful. Rather, we are to count it as joy when we face troubles in this life. God uses these troubles call people to himself, to make his people more mature, to build up the believer's ability to endure by faith. And our Lord uses it all to refine his children in their sanctification. Our Father works everything together for good in the lives of his children, even in tragedy. Hence, we may courageously look for opportunities to grow as we suffer. Counting our suffering as joy, is certainly easier said than done, but it is made easier when we maintain focus on where our true hope lies. Keep in mind, for the believer, pain is not forever. There is a new heaven and new earth coming. This is good news." And then the email continues, to be as transparent as I can, Here's why my core principles led me to share the information that I have shared this past week. I am advocating for human flourishing, which includes remaining alive and also continuing to live. Fear and panic are not helpful to either of these. So I've cited data that aims to offer a broader perspective, which will hopefully help people relax a bit and therefore be better able to make reasoned decisions Put simply, I am opposed to panic, hysteria, and uncritical thinking. I am in favor of believing God and acting on that belief in obedience. Here are four weeks, four links rather, to short articles that I commend to you. It won't take very long to read them, so I hope that you will have time to squeeze them into your schedule today. And then the four links, one is an article on 10 ways in which the coronavirus pandemic can be for our good. Another is three specific ways the church can be a refuge in an age of coronavirus. Another is eight reminders in the face of the pandemic. And then one is talking about the need for prayer in the context of coronavirus. And then I ended the email standing with faith upon the rock. Pastor Troy, P.S. tomorrow if you're intending to be at our house for worship, or attempting to connect via Facebook Live or trying Zoom, let me know, thanks. And that continues to be an open invitation, and so let me know what your plans are so we can plan accordingly if you don't mind. And then the next day. I hope to see you this evening, my brothers and sisters, I wrote last Sunday. As we're ready to worship tonight, here are some words from a book I'm reading right now, and it's totally coincidental timing. By the way, it's a book that my daughter got me either for Christmas or my birthday this past year, I can't remember which it was. Quote, cowards die many times before their deaths. That's William Shakespeare. Quote, nothing is terrible except fear itself. Francis Bacon. The only thing I'm afraid of is fear. Arthur Wellesley. Nothing is to be so much feared as fear. Henry David Thoreau. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Life was meant to be lived. Eleanor Roosevelt. And here's one more from Eleanor. You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. And I included then three short video links to watch, and again, all of these will be included in the comments section. We have a lot of links in this Facebook page that you can check out later if you want. And then I ended by saying, standing in the service to the King, Pastor Troy, P.S., there are four people, when also counting those in my family who are definitely planning to be at my house for worship, with two others saying they will possibly attend. If you'd like to also participate in person, you are more than welcome to come. That is always the case, by the way. There's always an open invitation for someone to come to our home anytime, under any circumstances. If you need to spend time, you're welcome to come. If you'd like to also participate, let's see. There are some others who have said that they were going to participate via Facebook Live, which they're doing again this week. So if you have a Facebook Live account and you can't make it to my house, go to my personal Facebook page. We're going to do this at 6 p.m. We did it last week at 6 p.m. We're doing it this week at 6 p.m. We're planning to do it next week at 6 p.m. Between now and then, please share with a response to this email your praises and requests for prayer. You can comment while we're doing this live and put your praises and prayer requests in the comments, but you can also email them to me or comment on private messaging on Facebook or something so we can incorporate them into our prayer lives. So that's the end of the emails and the end of most of what I have to say, although I have a little bit more to say. But before I wrap up, are there any people that we need to give shout outs to or comments or questions we need to address? There are definitely some shout outs. I don't see there's some comments that have been just want to say hello to our daughter, Danny, Cindy Fox, Vicki Long, Bob Ledyard, Carrie Harvey. Jennifer Rosenberg, Mrs. High, Tiesel, not old, not, she's young, but you know, former, that's a better word, age. Pastor Neal, and he's commenting throughout, I'll let you read those. He's agreeing with you and cheering the Lord on, singing hallelujah, Vicki Long. Maria from church is watching. So I promised at the beginning that this unusual thing that we did with me reading all these emails was going to tie together into a Palm Sunday message. And believe it or not, you heard a Palm Sunday message. Maybe I need to explain to you how that's so. I opened by talking about all the reasons, whether they be worldly reasons or biblical reasons, that we can have boldness and confidence and not cower away in fear, even though there are very real dangers staring us in the face. Palm Sunday, the triumphal entry, Jesus Christ gets on the donkey and enters Jerusalem in victory. It's a victory that is guaranteed and promised and inaugurated. And we, as Christ's people, if we are Christ's people, we are walking in that victory. His kingdom is now, not in the way that it will ultimately be, but there's an aspect of his kingdom that is now, and we are citizens of that kingdom. Christ on the cross said, it is finished, the victory is won, the kingdom is here, he is our king, now and forever. And so we can, with boldness and confidence, walk in that victory. And we should, with boldness and confidence, walk in that victory. Just as Jesus, with boldness and confidence, entered Jerusalem. But he did it with meekness and mildness. So we shouldn't be bombastic, we shouldn't be mean-spirited to others who aren't seeing things the way we see things, who aren't Christians, who don't understand that the kingdom is here. We need to follow Christ's example. And part of Christ's example is what awaited him just days later. He faced all of the dangers that he knew were coming. Jesus wasn't surprised that he was gonna be beaten, that he was gonna be put to death, that he would die. For him it wasn't a chance of death anymore than it was a chance for us. For him it was a guarantee of death, and for him it was a guarantee of death that week. and still knowing that he would die that week, he entered with boldness and confidence and walked in the promises of the kingdom of heaven. That's the call in our lives. There's a chance we will die this week. Odds are we won't die this week, but there's a chance we will die this week. Even so, We should be walking out our life with boldness and confidence and assurance that what awaits us is even better than what we're desperately trying to hang on to in the here and now. So I appeal to you as I appealed to you last week, please be of service to one another. Be of service to your neighbors. They need to see you filled with boldness and confidence in Christ, empowered by the Spirit. They need to see you demonstrate love, and it's hard to demonstrate love when we're hiding our lives away in fear. I'm not saying to be reckless. As the Luther quote that we shared earlier this evening points out, we are not to be testing God. We are to exercise wisdom. We are to seek out what God's best in our context would be, and we should act upon that. Our biblically informed conscience should be what we act upon. But if we think that our biblically informed conscience is telling us that we should go hide in the basement until it's all over, we have misunderstood the Bible. If we are that afraid to die, we have misunderstood the gospel. Death is bad. We shouldn't be rushing into it headlong, again, testing God and being reckless. But if we're called to wisely, judiciously put ourselves at risk, that's our call. That's what we're to do. And we should do it counting it as joy. Can we do that? Not so easily. So I need to reach out to each other, encourage each other, support each other, be iron sharpening iron, challenging each other to be all that God has made us to be. And when we feel like we failed, when we fall down, we fall short, our efforts aren't just weak, they are sinful, motivated by the wrong kinds of things. Even in those moments, maybe particularly in those moments, we can know that God forgives those who are his. The price for those mistakes, for those sins, for those errors has been paid. And whatever bad happens in the world, again, quoting Luther, or alluding to Luther's quote, it's not because of us if we're obedient. If we're doing what God calls us to do and bad things still happen around us, it's because we live in a broken, fallen world and that's not on us. Don't own what's not yours. but let's make sure that we do own what is ours. Eternal life and eternal, glorious, loving presence with God that we get a taste of even now. Let's walk in that. So let me end with a good word from God, a benediction taken from Psalm chapter one, the first three verses. Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked, or stand in the way that sinners take, or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season, and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever they do prospers. Amen. As we go in peace tonight, Let us be faithful to walk in this promise as we serve the kingdom of heaven in the mission field that surrounds us on every side. Amen, be well. And if I don't hear from you in the meantime, we'll be talking to you again next week at the same time.