Dr. Rick Mandl - November 16, 2020
2020 - Nevermore!
Devotional Manuscript: 2020- Nevermore
Message by Dr. Rick Mandl, November 11, 2020, at Eagle Rock Baptist Church
Recorded in Los Angeles, CA.
Hey church family I don’t know if you’re like me, in the sense that when you’re driving from home to work, and work to home you tend to take to pretty much travel the same route every day. I’m thinking that this probably isn’t that unusual inasmuch as if there was quicker way to make that commute I’d choose that route. On my regular drive to work there is a vacant lot, located about a mile from my house that I pass by all the time, and I actually look forward to passing by this particular vacant lot, because the owner regularly decorates it.
He doesn’t change the décor daily, but maybe every month or so, he’ll put up decorations or signs that correspond to what’s going on at that time, or the season we’re in. At Christmas - he puts up Christmas decorations. At Easter - he puts up Easter decorations. And he repeats this for the Valentine's Day. And St. Patrick’s Day. And Independence Day. But there’s one sign that has been hanging on this lot for a little while now, and it simply says, “2020 – Nevermore.”
Ponder that for a moment - “2020 – Nevermore.” If you’re not familiar with that word “Nevermore” – arguably, the most famous use of it is in a poem by Edgar Allan Poe, titled “The Raven” in which that word is repeated again and again by the raven. But even if you’re not familiar with Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, just go to google and search for a definition of “Nevermore” and here’s what you’ll find. “Nevermore” is an adverb meaning . . . “At no future time, never again.” An example of using it in a sentence would be to say . . . “I order you gone, NEVERMORE to return.” Once you understand that definition of the word . . . That sign that adorns that vacant lot that I pass on my way to work, makes a little more sense . . . “2020 – Nevermore.”
I think that sign sums up the feelings of a lot of people. They would love to say to 2020 - “I order you gone, NEVERMORE to return.” They feel like this year – 2020 – has been a year like no other. And you know what they’re right. 2020 has been a year like no other, except for all the other years that were like it. 2020 began with President Trump being impeached and then acquitted in a Senate Trial. That’s never happened before, has it? Well it’s actually happened twice before, the most recent being the impeachment of President Clinton in 1998. In February of the year, our economy officially experienced an economic recession. Has that ever happened before? Sadly, yes. Most recently in 2008. In 2020 we had rioting in the streets of America, and those of you old enough to remember, will know that that is the same thing we saw happening in the streets of America in 1968. When it comes to the pandemic, thankfully none of us have seen that in our lifetime. You have to go back to 1918 to see the last time that our nation had to endure something like that. This year – in fact, just a couple of weeks ago we had to deal with the aftermath of delayed election results, but we know it’s not the first time we’ve faced that. Rewind 20 years, to the year 2,000 and you’ll recall that figuring out who won that election was something that took a lot longer to sort out.
Much of what we’re seeing this year are things we’ve seen before, which ought to call to mind the words of the wisest man who ever lived, King Solomon, who writing in the first chapter of Ecclesiastes said . . . “What has been will be again, What has been done will be done again; There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). I wouldn’t argue with any of you who would say that 2020 is in many ways ‘a year like no other’ because even if everything we’ve seen this year, is something we’ve seen before. You’d be hard-pressed to find any other single year where all of these happened stacked one on top of another on top of another.
The bigger question, ought to be what should our response be in the face of year that we wish would go away and never return? I believe that as God’s people, the best response we can offer is prayer. .. 1 Timothy 2:1 is a good verse to take to heart. . . The Message Paraphrase says it this way . . . The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live.”
Methodist Minister Samuel Chadwick wrote, “Satan dreads nothing but prayer. His one concern is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion." Chadwick wrote, “Satan laughs at our toil, mocks our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.” I pray that you and I would be those who would make Satan tremble today – Amen.
Recorded in Los Angeles, CA.
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