How to Deal with a Pandemic

The title of the message that I want to speak to you today is how to deal with a pandemic.

This has been declared now finally a pandemic by the World Health Organization and CDC. And as Christians who know the Lord, how do we deal with something like this? Fear seems to be rampant.

Uncertainty is rampant. So what do we as God's people do? Well, I have four suggestions for you, and then we're going to answer the most important question, but we'll get there in a minute.

Here are my four suggestions. Number one, in a situation like we're in, number one, we need to first be certain that we have eternal life. We need to be certain that whether it's here on Earth or after we leave Earth, that we have eternal life. That Jesus dispenses and that we're going to be with him in heaven. Because my friends, it's so true, when we're not afraid to die, then for the first time, we're not afraid to live.

And fear comes from uncertainty. And God wants there to be no uncertainty whatsoever about our eternal destiny once we've given our heart and life to Jesus Christ. God says, First John, Chapter five, verse 11. And this is the record that God has given us his son and that he has given us eternal life in his son. He who has the son has eternal life. And he who does not have the son of God does not have eternal life.

I don't know how you can say it any simpler than that. Verse 13 says, These things I have written to you who believe on the name of the son of God. And that's us, if we believe in Christ as our Lord and Savior. Now watch. These things I've written to you so that you may K-N-O-W. So that you may know for certain that you have eternal life. The Greek word that's used here for K-N-O-W. Is the word oida, which in the Greek language means to know something empirically as true and as certain. There's another word translated know, K-N-O-W. The Greek word ginosko, which means that we know something more because of an experiential situation. We've experienced it, so we know it.

But that's not the word that's used here. Our experience has nothing to do with it. It has nothing to do with knowing that we have eternal life. We know it intrinsically and we know it without a doubt because the word of God says it.

And when God says it, we can take it to the bank. And I think of the many people around the world right now who don't know for certain what's going to happen to them after they leave this life. And I appreciate the fact that they're scared. I appreciate the fact that they are in terror thinking about facing death with this pandemic.

And I was at that place as a young college student, not having the slightest idea was what's going to happen to me on the other side of the grave and listening to all the theories about being blown out like a candle or just sleeping, going back to sleep forever or whatever those they were. But, man, when I came to Jesus Christ, he made me free from the fear of death. Jesus said, John Chapter eight, if the son of man makes you free, you shall be free indeed. And he meant, yes, free from the power of sin over us, free from those self-destructive passions that will destroy our life.

Absolutely. He means that. But he also means free from the fear of death. And Hebrews Chapter two comments on this when it says that God in the form of Jesus came to the earth and one of his purposes was to free those of us who had been subject to fear, the fear of death all our life because of Satan. And so a child of God, it's part of our birthright, my friend. It is part of our inheritance as children of God through Jesus Christ, that eternal life is ours. Jesus said, he who believes in me has, present tense, eternal life. You and I are not going to get any more eternal life when we die as followers of Christ than we have right this moment. We have all the eternal life that God's ever going to give us when we die here on this earth. All that happens is that people who already have eternal life go to the place where people with eternal life spend eternity.

And that is heaven. So having that confidence, having that assurance is central to facing any crisis in life, not just a pandemic, anything in life, cancer, an automobile accident, whatever it may be, a financial crisis. We need to know what our eternal destiny is beyond any shadow of a doubt. And that kind of certainty is only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I know that we all run into people that when we tell them we know we have eternal life, they become very put out and they say, what an arrogant statement.

You know you have eternal life. How arrogant can you be to say something like that? Well, friends, we're not being arrogant. We're just reflecting the truth of the word of God.

And we're not. We don't have eternal life because we did anything special or because we're good. We have it because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, because he shed his blood to cover us from the holiness of God and to cover our sin from the judgment of God. So there's no arrogance in it.

It's a simple fact. And we need to know that. And may I say before we move on to the next point, this is a wonderful time to tell other people about how they can know they have eternal life. People right now are thinking about eternity. They're thinking about their mortality.

They're thinking about the mortality of their loved ones. What a wonderful open door for us to tell people how they can settle this issue and know for certain they're going to heaven. We need to be bold with the gospel, with our relatives, bold with the gospel, with our friends and our co-workers at this time. And right now there's an open door because of the coronavirus that normally we don't get with people because they're not normally worried about their mortality like they are now. So may I encourage you to step up, step out and be bold in sharing the gospel as Paul said, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes for the Jew first and also for the Gentile.

And this needs to be our attitude. Lord, help me not to be ashamed of the gospel, proud of the gospel instead and willing to share it with everyone from the door dash guy who delivers your food to the cashier in the supermarket to our co-worker at the next desk with the gospel. Now, number two, how do we deal with a pandemic?

First, we have to be certain that we have eternal life, but the second thing that I would say is that we need to be bold in prayer against this pandemic. I'm reminded in the book of first Chronicles and you can also find it in second Samuel where because of something David did, God sent a horrible plague upon the nation of Israel and people were dying by the tens of thousands in this plague. And because people were praying, including David, God suspended the play. He told the angel, the destroying angel.

You can read about it. Stop. That's it. That's enough.

Finito over done and the angel stopped right then and there and so did the play. My friends, I believe that God has the power and I hope you do also to shut this play down simply with a thought. He doesn't even need to speak. He's so powerful.

Just a thought. God can shut this thing right down. And I think as followers of Jesus, we need to be bold in praying that God indeed will do that. Now, I know that the president referred to this a number of weeks ago about a miracle happening and he has taken some tremendous criticism for that from people saying this is folly and and silly.

Well, yeah, I'm not justifying the president one way or the other. I'm just saying miracles happen. God still injects himself into this natural world and does things that are Ephesians 3 20 that are exceedingly abundantly greater than we can ask or even imagine. Jesus said, Judge Jeremiah 33 3 call unto me and I will answer, sayeth the Lord, and I will show you great and mighty things that you know not. This is our God, the one who opened the Red Sea. This is our God, the one who made the sun stand still for Gideon. This is our God who brought the plagues upon Egypt. This is our God who triumphed over death at the cross and then rose from the dead to prove it. This is our God who is made the world with a word. Hebrews chapter one says this virus is no problem for our God to stop if he wants to.

Now, I don't know if he wants to or not. I'm not God. I don't know his plan, but I know enough to pray and ask him to do a supernatural intervention in our world and simply tell this plague to halt. And I believe God's people who understand the power of God and understand the power of prayer that we should be doing this.

I don't care who thinks it's silly. Let them think whatever they want. We know God, we know what he can do, and he says pray and I will answer. And we need to be bold in our personal prayer life and bold if we meet with a group for prayer that we are praying to this end. Number three, how to deal with a pandemic.

Well, number three, I would say is don't over spiritualize it. You say, what does that mean? Well, I had a friend of mine who had terrible gout in his feet and in his legs. And I don't I don't know too much about gout. Well, but I know it's an inflammation and that it makes it like on a scale of one to 10 in pain, 10 being the top like it can be an 11 and you can't walk.

And it's horrible. And so when I would talk with him, I would say, you know, there's medicine for this. Ollie Pearson is a good medicine for this.

And you take it and it will once your gout is reduced with a shot, a steroid shot or a cortisone shot, then it will control gout. And I kept saying to him, you should go. You should go see a doctor. This he can make this better. And my friend kept saying, no, no, I'm trusting God to heal me.

And I kept saying, yeah, but don't you understand? God uses medicine and the natural laws of what we've discovered about diseases. He can use that to heal you. It doesn't have to be a completely supernatural healing out of nowhere.

And my friend would not do it. And he lived the last few years of his life in incredible pain. He's passed away now and is with the Lord because he over spiritualized this thing. You remember the old joke about where the man's caught on his roof with with a flood and and two boats and a helicopter come by and he refuses to get in because he says, no, I'm waiting for God to save me. And then he gets to heaven and says, God, why didn't you save me?

And God says, well, I sent you two boats and a helicopter. I mean, sometimes we over spiritualize this and we try to tell God how he's going to take care of us instead of letting God tell us how he's going to take care of us. What I mean by this, my friends, is in the middle of something like this, you know, we can say, well, I'm trusting God. I'm not going to get this. Yeah. Okay. I'm trusting God, too.

But you know what? I'm also washing my hands a lot. I'm also saying six feet away from people doing social distancing. I'm also being careful not to get around sick people. I'm also coughing into my elbow if I have to call for sneeze.

I'm doing all these things where I'm wiping down all the handles in my house once a day, like they recommend with Clorox wipes. Why am I doing all that? Because this is just common sense. And I'm not going to over spiritualize this and say God will protect me and I don't have to do anything. Yes, God will protect me.

But he also expects me to use common sense and modern medicine and to follow their guidelines. This would like be saying, well, I'm going to trust God not to give me polio, so I'm not going to get the polio vaccine. This is not smart. I'm I'm not going to get measles, so I'm not just going to take the measles shot.

This is not smart. My mom didn't give me the measles shot when I was a child and I didn't get measles recently. But a few years ago, I got the mumps because, you know, it's the measles, mumps, rubella shot. And I was sick as a dog. I was in the hospital. One hundred and five fever for days.

They were packing me in ice. I was so sick is because my mom didn't get me a simple shot and said, oh, God will take care of him. Friends, don't over spiritualize this. Listen to these people who are trying to tell us how to reduce our chances of getting it and trust God. The Book of Proverbs says a wise man sees trouble coming and gets out of the way, but a fool keeps right on going and pays the price for it. We need to be wise men and women and do what we're being told to reduce our chance of getting this.

Not a fool who just keeps on going over, spiritualizing everything and walks right into the middle of it. Number four, not only do we need to be sure of our eternal life, not only do we need to be praying for God to intervene and miraculously stop this virus. Not only number three, do we need to be careful we don't over spiritualize what doctors and health professionals are telling us. But number four and finally, we need to be comfortable.

We need to take joy. We need to relax in the sovereignty of God. You know, the sovereignty of God simply means that God is sovereign. You say, Lon, that's brilliant.

No, no, no. That's what it means. And to say God is sovereign means that God can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, wherever he wants, however he wants and for whatever reason he wants.

Now, I know why ever is not a word, but I know it fit with what I was saying. This is the sovereignty of God, whatever, whenever, however, to whoever, for whatever reason. And I don't know why God has allowed this virus to break out and neither do you. But I know God is sovereign. I know Isaiah fifty five where God says, for my ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts for as high as the heavens are above the earth.

So are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts. God has got a plan here. I don't know what it is. I may never know what it is on this side of the grave.

And you may not either. But believe me, God has a purpose. Believe me, this is not an accident because there are no accidents because God never says, whoops, no, no. Everything God does and everything he allows to happen is because he has it already fitted in to his sovereign plan for the universe. And somehow the Corona virus fits into his sovereign plan for the universe. And I would love for God to step in and just stop it like that. And that's what I'm praying for. But if he doesn't, I have to take comfort in knowing that my sovereign God is allowing this to go on for his sovereign purposes, which I may never fully understand, and that my job is not to question him or to judge him or to argue with him or to impugn him.

My job is to trust him whether I understand or not. You know, lots of people who are in the Bible had to do this very same thing. In fact, that's how they got into the Bible. These people in the Bible were not made out of different protoplasm than you and me. I'm talking Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, Joseph, Naomi, Ruth, Esther, and on and on and on we could go. They're not in the Bible, David, because they were made of different genetic material than you or me.

They're in the Bible because Hebrews 11 says they were men and women of faith, men and women who trusted a sovereign God, even though they didn't understand what a sovereign God was doing. Joseph didn't understand why God had him thrown into prison by Potiphar's wife. Noah didn't fully understand why God told him at first to build the ark. Abraham didn't understand why God said, leave your people, leave your land and follow me. Moses didn't understand why God would trap him at the Red Sea with Pharaoh sweeping down on him in his chariots. Naomi and Ruth didn't understand why God would take their husbands and send them back in poverty to Bethlehem. David, you know, went out to face Goliath.

He brought rocks to a sword fight. But he knew God had directed him to do that, even though he didn't understand exactly how it was going to work out. My friends, God put these people in the Bible to show us what faith really is, what saving faith is, what faith that honors God is.

It is trusting God to do what he said, even when we don't understand how he's doing it or what he's doing. Abraham didn't understand where he was going. Hebrews 11 says that he went out not knowing where he was going. Joseph spent 13 years from age 17 to age 30 in prison for trying to be a godly man. He didn't understand that, but he trusted God anyway.

Abraham trusted God anyway. That's what we have to do. We have to be able to say, well, I may not like this coronavirus, and frankly, it may have made some people I love really sick. And I don't know why God's letting this happen, but I take great comfort and I am at total peace in my spirit that my sovereign God is running the show and that this coronavirus is happening right on schedule.

Now, I hope this all helps. Let's review. Number one, we need to be certain we have eternal life. Number two, we need to be in prayer for God to do the miraculous, wouldn't stop this virus. Number three, we need to be careful we don't over spiritualize, but that we trust God and we follow good medical advice. And number four, we need to take deep comfort in the sovereignty of our God. Now that leads us to the very end of this message, and it's time for us to ask our most important question. So if you're watching wherever you are, if you don't know what the question is, it's so what? So are you ready?

And you scream it right there into your screen. Ready? Here we go.

One, two, three. Oh, baby, how sweet it is. Yeah. Anyway, you say, Alon, this is all great.

So what friends? And so what's very simple. We, as followers of Jesus, ought to be able to face this crisis with a different level of fear and trembling than people around us who don't know Jesus. I'm not saying there's not reason to be careful. I'm not saying there's not reason to be cautious.

Of course there is. But if we know we're going to heaven and we know our sovereign God is in charge of this and we know we've done everything we can humanly to protect ourselves. And we know that we are praying for God to do a miracle and he's chosen not to up to this point. Friends, if we know all of that, then we ought to be able to rest in our spirit. It should be well with our soul. Not that we're not concerned, but in our soul, we know our God has everything right on schedule.

That is part of the birthright that we have as children of God. Not only to know we're going to heaven for sure, but also to be able to face crisis with a different kind of response and a different kind of peace in our hearts than the rest of the world. Jesus said, my peace I give you.

He said this to the apostles in the Gospel of John. My peace I give you. Not like the world gives do I give you, but I give you my peace. Friends, the world can't give us the peace that passes all understanding, Philippians 4. Only the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit in our heart can do that. But it's based on knowing we have eternal life, knowing we have a sovereign God, and knowing that that sovereign God is in charge and that we've done everything we can humanly.

And now our sovereign God is in charge of our life and every other life that we love and care about in this world. Well, it's been a pleasure to be back sharing with you and Lord willing and the creek don't rise. We'll be back next Sunday with another live from long message and we'll all get to shout.

So what again? And I hope you have a wonderful week. Remember the peace of God, the peace of God, the Bible assures us that God's will will never take you where God's grace won't sustain you. Hey, love you guys. God bless and we'll look forward to seeing you next week.