Pandemic Panic?

Let's take our Bibles this morning and let's turn to 2 Corinthians, the book of 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. You follow as I read the first 11 verses. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother. To the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation.

And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings you will also share in our comfort for we do not want you to be ignorant brothers of the affliction we experienced in asia for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself indeed we felt that we had received the sentence of death but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on god who raises the dead He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessings granted us through the prayers of many. Let's pray. Father, now as we look into your word, we pray that the Spirit of God himself would minister to us, so that we would learn and we would grow and we would be what you would want us to be. Father, these words have not been written here so that we know some history of long ago and the journeys of Paul and the travails of a congregation but these are written for us today and in the situations that we find ourselves And so we pray that you would take your word today, minister to our hearts, and through it produce a people who are confident.

Grant that we pray for the sake of your name and the good of your people. Amen. Amen. it probably started with some women out shopping she was looking for some delicacy some wild game and the meat market in Wuhan, China was the place to go what she knew is that the market sold wild game and they slaughtered the animals right there so she could take it home fresh What she didn't know is that this kind of market made it easy for a new coronavirus to make the jump from its animal host to humans.

There's probably a lot of people buying that kind of meat. And so a number of mysterious cases started jumping up very soon. People infected with a strange virus. and then people exhibiting the symptoms of the virus started appearing in dago south korea before he knew it many people were sick outside of that city in the nation of south korea and then cases started popping up in italy on february 7th there were three confirmed cases yesterday there are 21 157 1440 people have died from it there in italy and everything's been closed in the entire nation, except for hospitals and grocery stores.

And now in Italy, they'll only allow one person at a time into the grocery stores. From there, it quickly spread to Spain and France and the rest of Europe. It arrived on our shores with an outbreak in Seattle. And of course, it has spread enough for government officials, including our governor, to ban any meetings that have 100 or more people. The NBA, the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball have all suspended or canceled their seasons.

And unbelievably the NCAA has canceled March Madness Now some of you here are saying this is absolutely ridiculous. This whole thing has been blown out of proportion. And some of you are here sitting saying, wow, nothing like this has ever happened in my lifetime. Well, you know what? we don't have to agree on that subject. We don't have to agree whether it's all out of proportion or whether it's as bad as everyone's saying it.

We don't have to agree about that. But one thing is obvious to everyone, isn't it? The whole world is in a panic. Everybody, it seems, is consumed by fear. Now God clearly says to his people, do not be anxious about anything. Philippians chapter four.

Don't be anxious about anything. That covers everything, doesn't it? God's people must not panic in a world gone mad with fear. We have a great opportunity to show an unbelieving world that we are different. We have a great opportunity to show them why we are different, why we're not in panic mode, why we are not consumed by fear. Now, some of you here may be as scared as you've ever been in your entire life.

I hope that what you hear from God today will help you so that you aren't anxious. Some of you may not be panicking, but the point is the world has to see that we're different, that we're not going to panic and fear like they do. Now in our text this morning, 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 8 and 9, you find how the Apostle Paul faced a similar situation, not with panic but with confidence let's look at our verses second corinthians 1 8 and 9 for we do not want you to be ignorant brothers of the affliction we experienced in asia for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself indeed we felt that we had received the sentence of death but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead Here the first thing You face dangerous situations You face dangerous situations.

Now, in this way, we look exactly like the world. We are not different from the world in this respect, that we face dangerous situations. When you become a Christian, God does not enclose you in a spiritual, supernatural, impenetrable bubble that helps you escape the brokenness of the world. It doesn't do that. Your husband dies. Your children still get sick.

You are in life-altering accidents just like your unbelieving neighbors, just like everyone else in the world. And as a Christian, then, you can't count on God to shield you from the COVID-19 virus. Just because you're a Christian doesn't mean that God's going to keep it from affecting you. The state medical director in Ohio estimates that probably 100,000 people in this state alone carry the virus.

So in terms of contracting the virus, we believers are just as susceptible as unbelievers. to it. Now Paul was in a similar situation. He was in a similar situation. He says that he and Timothy had experienced some sort of affliction when they came into Asia. Now we're not sure what that affliction was, but it was so severe that they despaired even of life. and in fact he says in verse 9 indeed we felt we had received the sentence of death how many people around us feel the same way right I mean whoa let's think about that Paul is saying we were as good as dead as far as he was concerned as they came into Asia something happened where he and Timothy said, we're as good as dead.

We're as good as dead. Whatever that was, they figured they'd reached the end of the line. Now, verse 10, if we look at that, verse 10 says, he delivered us from such a deadly peril and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. Verse 10 says that God delivered them from the peril. But Paul doesn't build his confidence on that because when they came into Asia, they didn't know that.

In retrospect, he's looking back and saying, yeah, God delivered us. But he said, when we came into Asia, we were as good as dead. As far as they were concerned, they were going to die. And so Paul is asserting, we may as well have been on death row. That's what the situation was. Now, listen, that's the way a lot of people are thinking right now. that's the way a lot of people are thinking right now this new virus coming out of china is a killer and we have to do whatever it takes to stay alive it's like a death sentence has been passed but we're going to try to get away from it why do you think there's so much panic right now why do you think everyone is in a panic it's really easy they're afraid of dying that's it they're afraid of dying they're in a panic they don't want to die this is a death sentence they essentially believe indeed like Paul indeed we felt that we had received the sentence of death that's what a lot of people are thinking right now so in one sense we're no different than the world around us in that sense we're no different than the world around us we are all in the same dangerous situation so then how can we face the same situation differently how is it that we're not going to be consumed by anxiety how is it that we're not going to be worried all the time because we know something that the world does not know and that's what he says in the next part of the verse indeed we felt that we'd received the sentence of death but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God you face dangerous situations for a purpose the world's looking around and they don't see any purpose in what's happening all they see is an enroaching killer that may reach their door but we know something else we know that this has been brought about for a purpose god says here that he arranges times like this he arranges he orchestrates times like this to make us rely not on ourselves but on God The frenzy going on all around us is serving the purpose of God to expose our hearts Can you imagine that?

Right? God's brought this thing spreading across the world so that you will examine your heart and expose your heart for what you have. All the events of the last couple months have been orchestrated of God for a purpose, to expose hearts of fear or hearts of faith. To help us to grow in that faith. To move us to a greater reliance on our Father and less reliance on ourselves. you don't have to panic because you know that those hundred thousand virus carriers serve the purpose of developing your faith you thought about it those hundred thousand are out there so that you grow so that your faith grows stronger so that you learn to depend on god and not yourself.

Some people say, wow, that state medical director, why did she say that? That's really blowing it out of proportion. Maybe, but it's serving the purpose of you looking at your heart to see whether you're going to depend on you or God. Whether they're there or not, it's going to expose your heart. Now, when you rely on self, you find yourself developing all kinds of strategies to deal with your fear okay there's the strategy of placing a barrier between you and the danger so that it cannot get to you now we should be thankful for barriers okay we should be thankful for barriers i mean there's a reason why we shouldn't be gathering in huge numbers it passes the virus on much easier but but those barriers like don't gather in big crowds, steer clear of folks who've been infected by the virus or been exposed to it, stay home if you're in one of the high-risk categories.

But what does that do? So you do all those things But there always the chance that someone maybe one of the dreaded 100 will stop by your house unexpectedly Or maybe the streets will be empty and you're walking down the street all by yourself, and you turn around the corner and bump into one of the 100,000. You can erect all the barriers you want, right?

Something may breach it. another strategy that people employ since they realize they can't prevent bad things from happening so they prepare for as many of the eventualities as they can they're going to prepare we know we can't probably escape it so let's prepare, let's stock up on food and batteries and toilet paper and so they store up enough gas so that they can make a quick getaway if their village turns into a covid 19 zombie land right so they're they're they're doing all this stuff and that sounds reasonable until you realize there's no objective limit to that like how much toilet paper should you have? Enough for three days? Three weeks?

Three months? Three years? How much? You don't know. There's a strategy of relying on information to rescue you. Google it.

Let's Google it. What are the symptoms? I've got to know the symptoms. Has the virus reached the uppermost sections of Wisconsin yet? Who's in danger of dying from this? But then the question comes, how do you know if you have enough information?

Or if your information is current enough? Now here's the problems with putting our hope in strategies. This is self-reliance. We put our hope in all these strategies. What's the problem with that? For one thing, you're running after desire.

I have a desire to know. I have a desire to be ready. I have a desire to be safe. the problem with that when you put your hope in it is this desires are always deceptive they never deliver okay first it deceptive in this way it driven by a lie which is if you work hard enough you can keep death at bay And you can You can't. Also, like all desires, it will never satisfy you.

You'll never be confident enough. You'll never have enough confidence that what you've done is enough. In fact, if you throw yourself into putting up all the barriers and stocking up and self-quarantine and you're going to stay in your house for the next three months and not go out and you're going to hand sanitize everything. And if you go out in the yard for 15 minutes, you're going to come back in and wash all your clothes.

If you do all that and you do it as best you can, guess what? You still won't be satisfied. You'll be thinking, did I use the right detergent? Right? Desires are like a black hole. When you give in to them, they just suck you deeper, and they never satisfy.

And so when you rely on yourself with those strategies, it's a desire that will never deliver. You'll never have enough confidence. Another problem with self-reliance is just that. It's self-reliance. Here's the problem. You're relying on a flawed, finite creature who doesn't know everything.

Which means you couldn't possibly plan for everything, no matter how much you go at it. God knows everything. You don't. There may be something you miss. It's impossible then. hopefully this pandemic serves the purpose of helping you realize the utter folly of self-reliance and absolute necessity of trust in god now you can rely on god in this dangerous situation when you know the god that you trust okay he says this has come about so that we would not rely on ourselves but on god what god what is he like what is he like you know as i thought about this i thought man you know everything about god will help us here but i'm just going to pick out a couple things all right know that God is indeed a refuge for his people God is always a refuge for his people Verse 1810, the name of the Lord is a strong tower.

The righteous man runs into it and is safe. Does that sound familiar? Yeah, it sounds familiar. We sing that every year in Bible school, right? The righteous man runs into it is how we do it. And the question is, we know that, but do we believe that?

Do we believe that? Do we believe that God is really, the name of the Lord is a high tower, a tower of strength? that he is a refuge? Do you believe that he's a refuge? That he can take care of you? He's able to take care of you. He knows enough and is powerful enough to take care of you.

He's wise enough to know what it means to take care of you. So can you find refuge in him? Know that. Can you rely on this God? The God who's a refuge for his people. let's look at Luke 12 for a moment Luke 12 beginning in verse 4 again this is a fear context not quite the same but it still applies I tell you my friends do not fear those who kill the body and after that have nothing more that they can do but I will warn you whom to fear fear him who after he has killed has authority to cast into hell.

Yes, I tell you, fear him. Now he says, he gives us reasons why we shouldn't have to fear. Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God? Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, you're of more value than many sparrows.

Here's what we need to know. Know that God is vitally involved in every aspect of this pandemic. And he's not just involved in the big things like what nation will be infected next. Not just the big things, but even the small things like you. One writer put it this way. remind yourself that the one who makes the effort to keep an active census of your hair follicles is deeply involved in the more important areas of your life if he knows how many hair follicles you have then he vitally involved in your life The king of the universe is also the king of the coronavirus right Can you rely on this God Absolutely.

Here's the last thing I would mention. Know that God has a greater, more satisfying goal for you than your safety. God has a greater, more satisfying goal for you than your safety. Turn over to Acts 21. The same guy who wrote what we're reading right now also faced danger in another area. Acts 21, 10 through 13.

Story of the Apostle Paul on his way to Jerusalem. while we were while we were staying for many days a prophet named agabus came down from judea and coming to us he took paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said thus says the holy spirit this is how the jews at jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the gentiles when we heard this we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, what are you doing weeping and breaking my heart? For I'm ready not only to be in prison, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord.

And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, let the will of the Lord be done. Paul responded this way in the face of danger because he knew that God had a bigger goal in mind than keeping him safe in this life. There's a greater goal that God had for him than keeping him safe in his life. William P. Smith is a biblical counselor, wrote this as he looks at this text.

Does Paul's decision to trust God make sense to you? If your goal in life is to live as safely as possible, then it won't. It can't. It won't seem reasonable to put yourself in danger for the sake of what God is doing on earth Instead you will shrink his kingdom down to the size that your fears find comfortable Sadly you will miss seeing the kingdom of God as it moves forward on this earth reclaiming everything that was lost to the curse.

Man, that was profound when I read that. Right? If all you live for is for your safety, you will shrink his kingdom down to the size that your fears find comfortable. Listen. running and hiding only brings regret. God promises joy and satisfaction when you get involved with his greater work. There's more to my life than preserving it.

My life is to be spent for serving God. Can you rely on a God like that? so we can face this pandemic with confidence because we know that god has a purpose in this dangerous situation he wants us to rely on him more than ourselves he wants such god-relying people to stand out in a world that's just gone nuts with fear we need to stand out lastly how else can we show our distinctiveness in an anxious world well the very last thing he says is that we rely on god who raises the dead you face dangerous situations with a different perspective with a different perspective what is that perspective it is this we will be raised from the dead now do you see the kind of faith that paul exhibits here. He and Timothy faced a situation that seemed to mean certain death, but he doesn't say he trusted God to keep him from dying.

Do you notice that? He doesn't say he relied on God to keep him from dying. Rather, he grew even more confident in a God who brings people back to life after they've died. That's not very popular, is it? Well, I'm really fired up. Why?

Because if I die, I'll be raised again. No, no, don't you want a God who save you from dying And he says no we relying on a God who will raise us from the dead Again listen to William Smith We prefer to trust a God who promises to get people out of dangerous situations not one who might let them die now and raise them later We have a hard time dealing with a God who promises implicitly that we will face temporal loss or danger if we want to love him. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.

Matthew 16, 25. Many of us might prefer a different God. Listen, if you're going to live in this frightening world without being consumed by fear, you have to learn like Paul to have greater confidence in this uncomfortable God. If you want to be unique in the midst of danger, then you have to know, you must know that God guarantees something better than the life we now possess.

It's the resurrection life. It will be better than the one we have now compare your life now to what is coming life is good now okay life is good now for most of us but it will be infinitely better in the resurrection now why is the world in the throes of panic and fear why is the world in the throes of panic and fear here's why because they think that when this life ends everything ends there's nothing more and so therefore this biological life as one one person i once said this incredible lust for biological life grips them because this is all in their view when this ends there's nothing there's absolutely nothing life ceases to exist there's nothing more you'll find confidence in the face of this pandemic if you truly believe that God raises people from the dead and listen the bottom line is do you really believe what God says about eternity do you really believe what God says about eternity? Do you really believe that if you would die, you'll be with the Lord, and then on that great day, you'll have a body that will never ever die, living in a perfect environment where everything is operating as it should?

You are what you should be, everyone else is what they should be, and we're in harmony with nature, with God, and with everybody else. The curse absolutely removed. Do you really believe that? You really do? Now's the time when that kind of faith is coming out. Do you really believe when he says, we rely on God who raises us from the dead?

Is your hope only in this life, or is there something better coming? and it's times like this where you really start to understand whether i really believe what god says is true you know what i have been with people as they're dying one of the things that that god gives those who minister the word of god as shepherds is they often often are with people as they are in the process of dying and as they get closer to death, you find out where their hope is. I been with people who have said I know something better is coming I'm convinced of it. And they die well.

And our hope has to be built on the fact that God raises the dead to life. He may not keep you from dying, but he's got something better for you and so you can face dangerous situations with this different perspective do you really believe that do you have you have you planted your mind out there saying when i'm there what will this look like right so you see the world is consumed by fear because the people around us are afraid to die. That's the bottom line.

But then what do we know Jesus died to put to death death itself Do you believe that? And he was raised from the dead to show that he succeeded in that endeavor. He conquered death. And all those who belong to Jesus, who've entrusted themselves to him, share in that victory. And so we have nothing to fear. Literally, we have nothing to fear.

We have hope. and we need and the world needs to see people of hope right now not people of panic but people of hope who can say to them I belong to the one who conquered death I not afraid God help us to be that kind of people Oh God we confess to you that we slip into that fearful mode and we ask that through all of this now you would strengthen us, you would mature us, you would cause us to rely not on ourselves, but on the God who raises the dead. Father, help us not to waste this moment of history instead help us to stand out that the kingdom of Christ might advance that you would give us opportunities to minister the gospel to people who are dead in their sins and who might face death grant it we pray for your glory oh that Christ would be magnified by us at this time help us to do it we pray in his name Amen