July 3, 2020: Still in Stage 4: Guarded
COVID-19 Updates
You can watch Governor Holcomb’s announcement here:
Video from Governor Holcomb July 1, 2020
You can see the Governor’s modified plan here: Back on Track Indiana Stage 4.5
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A New Message in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic (Week 2)
“Be the Church of Jesus Christ!”
Once again, I have put aside the message the message for this Sunday, to bring you a special word. This is a pastoral word, that both informs and encourages the people of God to stop seeing church as a building they are to attend a meeting in once or twice per week and to be the Church of Jesus Christ. I am blending a pastoral update on the state of FBC, as we enter week #2 of “The Siege”. That is my name for what is happening and I am actually calling my daily devotions, “Siege Devotions”, but I am getting ahead of myself. More on that in a minute. Today’s message, once again, is not my normal preaching style as I am not walking you through a scripture and teaching it to you verse by verse. This is a pastoral message for a time such as this.
Please lean in and don’t get distracted. I understand that it is easy to get distracted at home, too. Trust me; I get it! If you do, then this will be ready for you to go back to and listen or read as many times as you need on our media page and possibly through social media platforms. We are even considering a YouTube Channel because I have a group of brothers (a congregation I preach to at GEO, one of our state prisons in New Castle) who are missing my preaching, or at least that is what I’ve been asked to consider providing so the prisoners can get God’s Word into their hearts from trustworthy teachers. All Glory to God and for His grace to empower us all!
Here is the Scripture for today. From Matthew 16:13-20,
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.
PRAYER. Let us pray for people as they are being drawn to God for answers at this time.
Last week’s message is a must listen-to. If you did not listen, then please go to our webpage and click on it. There are other key communications and resources listed, right there on our homepage. Here is the link: www.newcastlefbc.org and you can scroll down on our homepage where we are putting COVID-19 resources & food resources. You can go to the media page to watch/listen. You can also go to our blog page where you can find my daily devotions, which I am writing and then calling you with every day and we are posting them as blogs so people who missed a call can go back and see what they missed. If you haven’t noticed, that 10 AM phone call is a not-so-subtle hint that every one of us needs to be reading God’s Word, every day, in unity as the one body of Christ—your leadership and I will do everything WE can during this siege to keep us united to Christ and to one another. As pastors and elders, WE will not let the enemy win! If you have not been getting those calls, contact us through the webpage or get us your phone number, today so that you can start with us tomorrow in Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount & the Beatitudes. This is a TEAM effort because no one of us can do it alone!
As Pastor Ken announced earlier in this broadcast, WE are investing the financial resources of our church to connect you—the Spirit-filled people of God, our church’s most precious resource—with everything WE can to help you during “The Siege” of 2020. As I said, last week: There is an enemy at our gate and one of the enemy’s tactics is to cut us off from one another so that he can divide and conquer. Remember, my first vocation was as a professional military officer—I am professionally trained as a Battle Captain by Fort Leavenworth’s CAS3 course—the Combined Arms and Service Staff School. The best defense is a strong offense! That is why we are all doing the intense cleaning at home—by the way, thank you to Jamie Forrest, our amazing custodian, who is cleaning champ and working super hard for you and the safety of the Henry County Health Department and any other civil authorities who have been given use of our church building to do blood drives, mass testing, whatever is needed to bring thriving to our communities! FBC desires to lock arms with the community and be 100% in to defeat the enemy at the gate. We are all in this together!
Beyond cleaning the building and practicing CDC-recommended and government-mandated “social distancing policies” until further notice, your church is going on the offensive in new and creative ways! The CHURCH of Jesus Christ is NOT CLOSED, even if our building is not available for our traditional usage. Even if we can’t gather again for a while, we can still take steps towards growing our church in depth and breadth. God is with us!!! By the way, please pray for your elders who are gathering tomorrow (Monday, March 23) night to discern and determine how long we will be closed and doing on-line services beyond our current March 28, 2020 date. As we all must agree to at this time, that date is no longer responsible or right, though at the time of setting that 2-week date, I couldn’t have imagined what I am seeing happen before my very eyes throughout our community and country. This is truly unprecedented! It’s an impossible task we have been given, but, honestly, any and all community organization leadership feels next to impossible right now. Please pray for all the leaders: your church, and leaders of all sectors throughout the community, state, nation, and the nations. We need you!
Pastor Ken and the Family Ministries leading this initiative and paying the $200/month bill for you are putting RightNow Media (https://www.rightnowmedia.org) in your homes. If you don’t use this, then you are making a strategic error in your personal & family practices to seize this moment for good and God’s glory. Additionally, your church, with Scott Underwood (elders) and Tiffany Lee (staff) are ensuring 572 people (as of Saturday) get a phone call every day from me personally by paying $110/month for Call Multiplier (https://www.callmultiplier.com). Delora Hartsock (with many volunteers helping her, especially to stay informed about prayer requests) is working hard to ensure you are getting updated via emails for information and prayer requests. In fact, we willingly doubled our monthly bill for our Constant Contact email platform to increase how many people can get email updates from the church. Utilizing Remind App and other technologies, Kevin King (youth ministries director) and Jody Maddy (children’s ministry director) are working hard using our text (Remind App) and Realm systems to keep families connected and equipped. If you haven’t been hearing from us, get us your info. Please, don’t add to your “social distancing” by not trusting your church with your contact information. Get that to us right now by clicking on “contact us” at the bottom of your screen.
After you do that, consider clicking on the “give” button on the top right of our webpage because during “The Siege” all that we are doing takes your prayerful commitment to keep us going. Don’t let the enemy win! The Church must remain healthy through this time for our culture to come out better than before on the other side. Please contact Lisa Abrams, our bookkeeper, if you have questions about how to get your gifts to the church at this time, especially if giving on-line or through texting is not an option for you. Thank you!
Our webpage and social media presence, combined with all the additional resources I mentioned above, are essential to your local church’s response. Please take time to thank Mr. Dick Kinnaird, who is an unsung and invisible hero, before and during all this. He is working with staff, elders, and people from our congregation to keep our webpage up to date. Him, with our Worship Planning Team (Kevin Stonerock, Winnie Logan, David Maddy, Emily Hurst, Brandon Atwood, Christy Ragle, Curt Ferrell, and Pastor Ken Durham) are working so hard to put these on-line services together.
Finally, brothers and sisters in Christ, let me tell you the final and critical aspect to our plan to be on journey together during “The Siege”: IT’S ALL OF US, YOU AND ME BEING THE CHURCH!
Listen to Matthew 16:13-20 again:
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.
Allow me to read from a fellow Bible teacher who provides material for Logos Bible Software,
The rock which Jesus referred to in this passage was neither Peter nor Himself; it was the rock on which they were standing—the foot of Mount Hermon, the demonic headquarters of the Old Testament and the Greek world. We often presume that the phrase “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” describes a Church taking on the onslaught of evil. But the word “against” is not present in the Greek. Translating the phrase without it gives it a completely different connotation: “the gates of hell will not withstand it.” It is the Church that Jesus sees as the aggressor. He was declaring war on evil and death. Jesus would build His Church atop the gates of hell—He would bury them.[1]
“Blessed are you, enter your name here! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail enter your name here. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
I believe, with the full weight of God’s Word behind me, that you are just as important to this generation as Peter was to his generation. YOU ARE THE CHURCH!
Pray and then start doing whatever God tells you to do! I won’t limit you. Let the Holy Spirit lead you because the gates of hell will not prevail. Use common sense principles to stay healthy in this time and get focused on doing the work of God. DON’T GET SUCKED INTO THE PATTERNS OF THIS WORLD! Which is self-medicating with Netflix or Marijuana. Now, is not a time to numb yourself and lose yourself in entertainment. Don’t put your head in the sand! That is not faithfulness!!! ENGAGE! WIN THE BATTLE! SEIZE THE MOMENT CHURCH! Make phone calls, send cards, text message, use Social Media like a champion for God, take care of your neighbors and love them as yourself, share what you have!! YOU HAVE BEEN BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING! Let God lead you to be the Church! Let God break you of the lie that being a Christian is about going to a building once per week. It is not! It is about living for Jesus according to faith God has given you and saved you with. You are the Church of Jesus Christ! WE ARE THE CHURCH!
There is an enemy at the gate and the Church must arise because only we have the promise of Jesus Christ: “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” This is a promise to and for the Church of Jesus Christ.
None of this is flippant—this is the strategy of God to defeat the enemy at our gate—your pastors and elders and leaders at FBC are connecting you to God and to one another and resourcing you to be in the Word of God to grow in what you know, how you feel, and how you live with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Why? Why spend more money at a time when money is not coming in due to us not meeting in person? BECAUSE YOU ARE THE HOPE OF THE NATIONS—YOU ARE THE CHURCH!! And God will always provide for HIS CHURCH, when HIS CHURCH IS DOING HIS WILL!!!! The gates of hell shall not prevail!
As a pastor and fellow elders, I can say with confidence: We, the pastors, elders and leaders of First Baptist Church, are confident that we will not only survive in this time, but that on this Journey that God is inviting us all to be on together—as ONE PEOPLE CALLED THE CHURCH, that we will each be transformed more and more through a deeper more personal relationship with Jesus Christ, but we will also be experiencing thriving happening in our community that could not have happened any other way. Because we believe God will take what the enemy intended for evil and use it for good!
Here is OUR leadership call to you: Press into Jesus and pull together so that we can defeat the enemy at our gate! People pull together when we KNOW that we have a common enemy. I pray that all people in all places will realize that we always have had a common enemy–the devil, the enemy of all our souls! We are not one another’s enemy—we all need Jesus and we all need one another!
Join me again real soon because in my next message, I want to teach you about this Jesus and how knowing Him can help you live your life in a victorious way that helps you be part of the solution to bring about VICTORY!
You can listen to this message here:
Footnote:
[1] Michael Heiser, “What did Jesus mean by ‘Gates of Hell’?” https://blog.logos.com/2018/04/jesus-mean-gates-hell/ [accessed March 22, 2020].
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A New Message in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic (Week 1)
“Fear Not… GOD IS WITH US!”
On 9-11-2001, I was a Captain in the US Army and was away from home on assignment at Fort Carson, Colorado when the planes flew into the towers. I remember exactly where I was the moment I found out: I was in line for breakfast at Burger King before heading to my meetings for the day. Needless to say, life changed, not just for us soldiers, but for everyone! The base locked down and airports closed for day. In fact, I was on the first flight out of Colorado Springs a few days later to head back to my home at Moffett Airfield, to be reunited with my wife, and life was different. People were very scared! I know people, 19 years later, who still are…
In the same way that the National Guard was called in to protect us in 2001 and Americans experienced a change of lifestyle, this time it is our Health Department who have been called in to work for our safety and security in the face of an enemy that, once again, threatens our safety and security, and is confronting the illusion of invulnerability that we Americans like to return to as quickly as possible.
In both cases, we are called to respond to the enemy at our gate. We must respond as a community and as a nation. Our response will be different this time than it was after 9-11-2001 because the threat is different, but this one thing I know, God is with us!
The enemy may have different packaging, but the enemy is the same: FEAR!
As I was reading from the Psalter this morning, as part of my daily, early-morning rhythm of getting in the yoke of Jesus (I read 1-2 chapters from the OT, I read and reflect on a Psalm and then write and do a “breath prayer”, then I read a chapter of the NT, and then pray). It is a way of focusing my mind and heart on Jesus and getting my body in rhythm with Jesus for the day.
Psalm 64:9-10 said this morning, “Then all mankind fears; they tell what God has brought about and ponder what he has done. Let the righteous one rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in him! Let all the upright in heart exult!”
I wrote this breath prayer in response to this:
- Get your body in a good physical posture to focus your mind and heart on God.
- Take a deep breath in through your nose for 5-7 seconds, “The Lord is my refuge!”
- Hold slightly and focus your mind on God’s Truth.
- Breathe out for 5-7 second through your mouth, “Fear not, I am with you!”
- 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:
- Anger is real and in and of itself, a human emotion, not a sin.
- When you have a real human emotion, do not give yourself over to it and sin.
- Deal with the situation, QUICKLY, in such a way as to invoke God’s power and presence.
- 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:
- 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.
- Name it when you experience it, but don’t give yourself over to it.
- Deal with the situation QUICKLY through prayer and thanksgiving!
- 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:
- Pride is a real threat for every human. Pride is the opposite of humility, the enemy of meekness and submission.
- Confess and repent of your pride by humbling yourself before the Lord.
- 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…)
- 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:
- The enemy is at the gate and fear is gripping the hearts of people. This is real!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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:
- Call on the elderly, those shut-in, those who are the most vulnerable.
- Check on friends, family, neighbors who have complicated medical situations to ensure they have food.
- Send cards and hand-written notes to people.
- Help deliver food and be a part of the solution in our community.
- 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.
- Volunteer your time to the Henry County Health Department and become a part of the response effort.
- FBC is going to partner, as a church. Will you, as a member of the church?
As we always say, “Don’t tell God how big your storm is, tell your storm how BIG GOD IS!” Yes, we must take sober steps in this time, but we do so in faith, wisdom, and partnership, trusting God’s providence to use His Church in this time. We are God’s people and we trust in the promises of God, so we can respond with faith and not in fear!
Let me close with the reading of Psalm 91:
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge— no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
Are you dwelling in God? Are you trusting Him in how you now talk about this, pray about this, and serve others in this time?
You can listen to the Audio here:
You can watch the video HERE.
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