I have put aside the sermon I wrote for this Sunday in the reality that we must respond to the 9-11 moment of this generation: The COVID-19 (Coronavirus) international pandemic that is slowly, but surely impacting the lives of most every person in the world. It was at one-time a distant conversation with no impact, but now it is damaging economies, closing colleges and schools, shutting down sporting events, and locking down military bases, nursing homes, prisons. There is an enemy out our gate, but instead of one that very visibly flies airplanes into towers and threatens the American way of life, this one invisibly threatens to overwhelm our existing medical infrastructure and simply stated, threatens every life.

1. Get your body in a good physical posture to focus your mind and heart on God.
2. Take a deep breath in through your nose for 5-7 seconds, “The Lord is my refuge!”
3. Hold slightly and focus your mind on God’s Truth.
4. Breathe out for 5-7 second through your mouth, “Fear not, I am with you!”
5. Repeat as many times as necessary to align your mind, body, and soul to God’s Truth.

 

Reading your Bible and praying, including what I am calling a breath prayer, are not new practices to God’s people, and please know that just because I am asking you to breath while you pray does not mean that this is not some new age thing. This is a focused way of praying to learn how to love God with all of you heart, soul, mind, and strength. God wants to align your whole human person to His will and His ways. And trust me when I tell you this: FEAR will find a way into your mind, heart, body, and soul if your faith is nothing more than an intellectual understanding of God!

 

In moments like this, when there is real reasons to be scared, nervous, worried, or anxious, God is not discounting the human reality of fear, He is inviting you to a better way to deal with your fear, anxiety and worry than giving yourself over to the fear, anxiety, or worry.

 

The reason the Bible says so much about the human experiences of fear, anxiety, worry, and such joy-robbing, life-threatening realities is because they are a reality of the human experience!

 

To fear is to be human and to be confronted by a fear-inducing situation is to be alive in a broken, fallen world where people fly airplanes into building and viruses exist that threaten national security and community well-being.

 

Let me give you a biblical principle from the Bible. Paul says in Ephesians 4:26-27, “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.”

 

Here is what we need to know:

1. Anger is real and in and of itself, a human emotion, not a sin.
2. When you have a real human emotion, do not give yourself over to it and sin.
3. Deal with the situation, QUICKLY, in such a way as to invoke God’s power and presence.
4. If you give yourself over the human emotion, you are not helping yourself, or others, because you are giving the devil a foothold.

 

This teaching is focused on the human emotion of anger in Ephesians 4:26-27, but the principle applies to all human emotions that can lead to sin: sexual desire, ambition, fear, worry, anxiety…

 

With that principle in mind, you should hear the following promises of God:

 

From Philippians 4:5-7, “The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

 

Let’s apply the principle:

1. Anxiety is real. Anxiety is generalized fear (like a spider web that captures us when there is an enemy at our gate). For Americans, anxiety is the current reality, if not a predisposition that threatens any aspect of our way of life.
2. Name it when you experience it, but don’t give yourself over to it.
3. Deal with the situation QUICKLY through prayer and thanksgiving!
4. God’s Peace will guard (military imagery) your heart and mind from the Devil.

 

Again with James 4:6-8, “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

 

Let’s apply the principle:

1. Pride is a real threat for every human. Pride is the opposite of humility, the enemy of meekness and submission.
2. Confess and repent of your pride by humbling yourself before the Lord.
3. Deal with the situation, Quickly, by drawing near to God and resisting the devil’s urging of you to give yourself over to arrogance (the American mindset that I know better than those in authority over me, in fact, I don’t need anyone over me…)
4. God will draw near to you!

 

I could go on and on. In fact, as you are hearing on Christian radio and as many Bible teachers are teaching right now, there are so many verses about “Fear Not!” in the Bible that you can follow this template with a unique Bible verse for every day of the year. I read one Christian author say that God has given us a reason to not to fear for every day of the year, including leap year.

 

As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

 

There is way of victory in this time, as there is in every human encounter with fear: “God is with you!” This is His promise and it is the one that I have been reminding you in every communication I have made to you all week as the Coronavirus has escalated to where we are today. I don’t know what tomorrow holds for our nation, our community, or your family, but I do know this, this one thing I know: GOD IS WITH US!

 

That sign that we put out on SR3 on Friday will stay out there as long as needed. It says, “Remain Calm & Pray… God is with us!” That is my message to you today in the face of a community trying to brace itself for an unseen enemy at the gate. The reason we are cancelling programs and events for 2 weeks, including providing an on-line (instead of in-person) service, is because we are locking arms with our community leadership and health department to respond as one people.

 

This is not a lack of faith! Anything but that. Your elders, staff, and leaders have been praying and are faithfully responding to the needs of the community. This is community cooperation that shows our community that we love them and are here to serve them. If our vision statement is “we desire to see communities thriving to the glory of God” and when we ask the health management experts of our community the best way possible to bring human flourishing to our community and love our neighbor as ourselves right now and they tell us to limit the exposure of people to the virus for 2 weeks (that allows for 2 cycles of exposure and manifestation of symptoms according to what they know about COVID-19 as of yesterday at 4 pm) by closing down our big venues of gatherings, then that’s what we are going to do. This is not a government edict, it a request for our participation in a potential public health crisis that would overrun our hospitals and capacity to care for the least vulnerable in our community—the elderly, the children, and those with preexisting medical conditions. Friends, if you know our congregation, that is a lot of our gatherings—our elderly (defined by the healthy management officials as 60 and older), our children, and our people going through cancer or who have complicated medical situations. Have you seen our prayer guide lately? That’s us!

 

Let us be honest, if we opened our doors for services today or next Sunday, guess who would show up, even if I asked them not to—you got it, the faithful remnant of God would be here because we, your pastors and elders, opened the doors of the church—our elderly, our people with complicated medical situations, and many of our families. And I love that about us and you, but that is the very reason we are closing the building. Because our faithfulness to gather no matter what is what could rapidly spread a virus that doesn’t show symptoms right away. By closing down our large gatherings, cancelling events and meetings for two weeks, we are giving our community leadership and health experts time to get ahead of the Coronavirus.

 

I join with other community leaders in this sentiment,

 

As I said in my announcement to the church last night, “By making this decision, we are locking arms with our community and its leaders, instead of standing opposed to them. Please pray for us as we continue to make decisions and please pray for all of our community leaders and all who are being impacted by the COVID-19” (https://www.newcastlefbc.com/hp_wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/2020-03-14-Closure-Announcement-Letter.pdf). 

 

We love you! I love you! “Fear not… GOD IS WITH US!” And yes, I already know it is happening, judge me and us—your elders and pastors—as you may, to your own detriment. Someone has to make the hard calls and until you’ve sat in the seat of responsibility for one of the largest gatherings of people in our community that gathers on a weekly basis, then please know that your judgments are nothing more than the rantings of children. We love you as parents love their children. We are prayerfully providing faithful, wise leadership to you in this time. And just like every parent has had to tell their children, “no, you can’t have that” or “no, we can’t do that” even in the face of their cries and anger and protests, we, as under shepherds of Jesus, are prepared to provide that same kind of loving care to you now.

 

We applied the principle:

1. The enemy is at the gate and fear is gripping the hearts of people. This is real!
2. We brought it to the Lord: confessed, repented where necessary—our pride to think our plan to have 2 services and keep all programs and services open, no matter what the experts said, because we are people of faith and that’s what the world needs to see. Honestly friend, we, as elders, didn’t want our standing upon faith become a mutation of American arrogance or lack of submission to experts or straight up stupidity in the face of common sense requests made by the health department at this once in a generation threat.
3. We are dealing with the situation QUICKLY, rebuking the devil, with prayer and thanksgiving. We believe God is going to use this time to confront the idols of Americans, the hypocrisy of the American Church, and call many to faith and repentance.
4. God’s peace is guarding us! His presence is with you and me, with us!

 

After days of gathering in prayer about this and after last night’s meeting with the Henry County Health Department, this is the best way for us to fulfill our vision as a church to see our communities thriving to the glory of God. This is the first, but not last, step on how we can love our neighbors as ourselves. I am calling you now to love your neighbors in real and practical ways:

 

1. Call on the elderly, those shut-in, those who are the most vulnerable.
2. Check on friends, family, neighbors who have complicated medical situations to ensure they have food.
3. Send cards and hand-written notes to people.
4. Help deliver food and be a part of the solution in our community.
5. Be the hands and feet of Christ. I’ve asked our elders to lead us and organize us in this effort, not only for our congregation, but to help our communities.
6. Volunteer your time to the Henry County Health Department and become a part of the response effort.
7. FBC is going to partner, as a church. Will you, as a member of the church?

Walk through the steps I’ve given you today… “Fear not… GOD IS WITH US!