Infectious Faith | Psalm 56:3 | Gary Hamrick

hello church family and to everybody watching online today welcome to church we are living in unusual times right now and I have to say this is probably the most unusual thing that has ever happened in my experience in pastoral ministry where today I'm preaching to an empty house 2,100 empty seats here at Cornerstone while you are all watching online it feels a little bit like the rapture has happened and I've been left behind but be that as it may the coronavirus is here it is dominating our news and it is constantly on our minds and it is now a public health issue so in an effort to stem the potential transmission of the virus and in order to keep our building free from any potential contamination and in order to show our love for the flock and our community here I made the decision along with other area churches to close our building temporarily until it is safe for once again to come together in God's house and worship Him now I will be honest with you earlier in the week I had thought that we would just press through this we would just you know trust God and carry on and the reaction in social media was mixed half of the people were happy about that Hebrews 10:25 let's not give up meeting together let's just trust the Lord let's just press on the other half thought that we were reckless thought that we weren't really very compassionate towards the community and so it was a real split down the middle and after consulting with some of my pastors on staff and actually talking with some other area pastors and praying about this I made the decision to go ahead and temporarily close our church building for the health and well-being of people and then the opinions flipped the people who were happy were upset and the people who are upset were now happy so be that as it may here's the bottom line for me what most glorifies God in all of this and as it concerns our church services here I believe that God is glorified in our effort to show our flock and our community concern and compassion and I believe that God is glorified in our cooperation with medical officials to help curb this disease by canceling services for now but once this threat has been reduced we will once again gather here in the house of the Lord frankly we have never experienced something like this this is new at least in our lifetimes and this is new for our church how are we to deal with what is happening in our world this one virus has not only affected the health and well-being of thousands of people around the world but it has also impacted the financial markets it has affected business and industry major sporting events schools are closed so this is something that is of an historic nature we need to be praying we need to be praying for our president we need to be praying for our elected leaders we need to be praying for the sick we need to be praying for those who are most vulnerable to this disease we need to be praying for our medical community our doctors and nurses and physicians who are attending to all the sick we need to be praying people this is a time for the church to come together in prayer the coronavirus will awaken people to their own mortality and though God did not cause this disease he will use it for his glory because there will be open doors in the hearts of many people who are interested now in understanding what we know and so that we need to be prepared as a church as God's people to give people the good news of Jesus Christ in a day in which they are probably more aware of their mortality than at any other time I've entitled this teaching that you're watching online today I've entitled this teaching infectious faith infectious faith and I've kind of subtitled it how to have the Lord's peace in the midst of the world's panic how to have the Lord's peace in the midst of the world's panic now it's a play on words I did it intentionally because we have this infectious disease right now that is going around and with it infectious fear the fear that people have I think is even more contagious than the virus itself and so what I want us to do is understand how instead we could have an infectious faith where we trust God in times like these so that our faith is contagious to other people so that when people look at the peace we have and the trust that we have in the Lord they also might contract our infectious infectious faith now before I go into any of this this morning I want to first pause and pray because the president has issued a proclamation that today should be a National Day of Prayer calling believers together to pray for our situation at hand not only in our country but around the world and so in respect of the National Day of Prayer that he has called us to I'd like us just to first pray together so if we could let's pray father God we come before you humble this morning thankful for your love and your grace despite all of the turmoil and panic despite the disease Lord despite the tragic deaths we come before you and we ask you Lord for you to intervene and for you to put an end to this virus Lord and for you to make those who were sick well and for you to bind up the broken hearted for those who have already lost loved ones we pray for our president and our elected leaders we pray Lord for our medical community of people who are attending to the sick our first responders that you would watch over them bless them use them keep them well and father we pray that through all of this you will be glorified somehow and that many people will come to faith in Jesus Christ because they come to an awareness maybe for the first time well just how fragile life is and just how precarious things are and Lord may it be an opportunity for people to just really stop and recognize their need for you so strengthen us in our faith if we already know you move people to faith in Jesus if they don't and we pray that when all is said and done Lord that your kingdom will advance and that your purposes will be accomplished in our world and in our hearts and in our church we love you and we thank you for this time together in Jesus name Amen I want to first start by giving a little historical perspective and then we're gonna move to a biblical perspective to again understand what it means to have an infectious faith and how to have the Lord's peace in the midst of the world's panic in the 14th century the world faced a pandemic similar to what we're experiencing now and in the 14th century that pandemic was called the black plague the black death otherwise known as the bubonic plague and it killed an estimated 75 to 200 million people the population of Europe was reduced by an estimated thirty to sixty percent what eventually stopped the bubonic plague is when people started to read the Bible and apply what Leviticus 1346 tells us in regards to quarantine the sick this is what Leviticus 1346 says quote as long as he has the affection he remains unclean he must live alone he must live outside the camp quarantine sick people is not some medical invention it is actually biblical instruction that the medical community adopted from the Bible when people started reading their Bibles and realizing how can we stem the Black Plague they started applying Leviticus 1346 we need to quarantine the sick the bubonic plague started as a result of a bacteria that jumped from animals to humans infected rats bitten by fleas fleas then bit humans and thus the transmission of that pathogen ended up resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of people and the same quite honestly is true for most viruses not all but including the corona virus that we are presently facing most but not all viruses are the result of cross-species transmission when a pathogen of some kind jumped from animals to humans among that list are measles influenza A Ebola SARS the h7n9 commonly called bird flu even HIV HIV is the result of cross-species transmission from chimpanzees to humans and the same is even true for the corona virus this this kovat 19 as it's been identified matches 96% of the genetic code of a corona virus that bats presently carry so experts believe that this crisis of the corona virus that we're facing right now actually started with bats and part of the fear related to the corona virus the seal of this Cove in nineteen is the fact that it is a new virus it is a new strain it is one for which we don't have any immunity and it is one for which we have no vaccine not as of yet although I don't know if you've been watching the news the past few days but Israel has announced that they have discovered a vaccine for co vid 19 and now it is in the testing process to be streamlined quickly to be available to us once again leave it to the Jewish people to come up with a solution by the help and the hand of God but because of all this fear obviously is associated with all of this and because of the ways that our lives have been so turned upside down with all of this panic and confusion I've been asked by people is all of this part of the end times and I have to be honest with you it feels a little apocalyptic when you go into grocery stores and big-box retailers and you see some shelves empty of some basic essentials and you see restaurants and businesses are like ghost towns it does feel a little bit like end times I mean I don't know if you're aware but just here in our local Costco a few days ago the police were out trying to control the mob of people who were fighting over and scrambling to find toilet paper I have still not been able to find toilet paper in this town for five days I don't know who's taking it but it's not around and so all of these things happening make it feel like were under some kind of end times events and the president has issued a national state of emergency our governor a couple weeks ago issued a state of emergency and we're living in very unusual and troubling times so when you look at all that is happening right now schools are shutting down businesses are moving to telecommuting you you have a lot of these major events athletics sporting events March Madness gone I mean what is happening in our world a lot of people are asking is all of this associated with the end times and my answer to that is yes and no and here's here's what I mean let me explain there are some things that the Bible points to as harbingers or as a precursors of things that are to come in the end times but Jesus called these harbingers these precursors in matthew 24:8 he called him birth pangs these are events or activities in the world that precede the actual end times and are indicators that the time is near pestilences or widespread diseases is on that list of predictive events jesus said this in Luke chapter 21 verse 11 let me read it he said and there will be great earthquakes in various places and famines and pestilences and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven so Jesus puts pestilences on that list but just two verses earlier listen to me on Luke 21 verse 9 jesus said this do not be terrified for these things must come to pass first but the end will not come immediately Luke 21:9 and so while things like earthquakes and famines and pestilences will come Jesus says they are indicators that we are drawing near to the end times but we are not actually in the end times it is a taste of things to come and thus the connection of kovat 19 with the end times is both yes and no certainly this virulent virus is a precursor clearly it has impacted the entire globe but again listen to what Jesus said there in Luke 21:9 do not be terrified for these things must come to pass first but the end will not come immediately again I want to emphasize in the beginning of that verse do not be terrified this is what Jesus tells us do not be afraid now somebody once counted I don't know this for sure but somebody once counted that there are three a hundred and sixty-five times in the Bible where God says do not be afraid that is one time for every day of every year for the rest of your life 365 times the Bible commands us do not be afraid the truth is that fear is the opposite of faith and the Bible says to us in first John 4 verse 18 that perfect love drives out fear well if we know that God is perfect love then in order to drive out fear I need to get more of him I mean the way that we really deal with fear as believers in knowing the Lord is our Savior the way that perfect love drives out fear is for us to get more of Jesus to drive out that fear and so one of the things that I want to call us to and this is just kind of an always a regular ongoing reminder right is that we really need to press into the Lord every day but especially at times like these and we need to really bathe our minds in the Word of God we need to be able to find our peace and our comfort in the Lord and one of the greatest sources of that is obviously opening up our Bibles and allowing God's Word to bathe our minds and our hearts we need to be reading the Bible more we need to be googling coronavirus less and we need to allow God's Word to just wash over our minds Isaiah 26 30 but the Bible says you God you will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is stayed on thee on him because he trusts in him and so that's what the Bible calls us to that we will have God's peace when we keep our minds fixed on him stayed on him because we trust in him there's a lot of miscommunication that going around concerning coronavirus and as a result with that miscommunication a lot of panic has set in by the way the root word for panic comes from the Greek mythological God pan panic means things pertaining to pan if you remember your Greek mythology pan was kind freakish half-man half-goat and he was God of nature god of the woods god of the forest out of the fields and in Greek mythology from the woods pan would be making these weird sounds from the forest that would frighten people and thus our English word comes from that panic things related to pan okay hey we need to be living in a way where our lives are things related to God we can't be caught up in the panic of all of this there's a lot of weird sounds coming from the forest as it relates to all of this surrounding coronavirus and there's a lot that we don't know about this virus so here's the deal we need to grab hold of what we do know of the one we do know and we need to really lean in to the Lord we need to trust the one we know at times like these and lean on him the Bible says in Jeremiah 17 7 and 8 blessed is the man busted as the woman blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord and whose hope is in the Lord for he shall be like a tree planted by the waters which spreads out its roots by the river and will not fear when heat comes but it's leaf will be green and will not be anxious in the year of drought nor will cease from yielding fruit God wants us to still be fruitful and God wants us to not wilt under the worries of all of this God wants us to be secure in him to trust him to not be afraid to lean on him and not on our own understanding I'm old enough to remember around the turn of the century which that sounds really old but if but if you're at least 20 years old you you have been around since the turn of the century I remember going from 1999 to 2000 and the big deal at that time was y2k and y2k was this big fear you know the year 2000 it was as big fear that the world's going to collapse economic disaster and people were living like that right up until December the 31st 1999 as people were preparing for y2k they were they were going to the grocery stores very similar to today and they emptying stuff off the shelves people were worried that computers were not going to flip over they hadn't been programmed to a new digit system with 2000 and so we were gonna lose all our money in the banks people were withdrawing money taking it home people people who are in such a panic it was ridiculous people probably still have toilet paper in their house today from y2k and I can remember as a pastor still back then talking several of us pastors within Calvary Chapel churches we're talking to Pastor Chuck Smith who was alive at the time was my pastor and we were asking him what Chuck what are you gonna tell your congregations when you know everybody's in a panic what are you gonna say to them about you know how to handle y2k and he just looked at us and he said I'm gonna give them Psalm 121 verses 1 & 2 I lift up my eyes to the hills where does my help come from my help comes from the Lord the maker of heaven and earth and that was it and that's what we went back and we told our congregations and you know what happened after y2k when it flipped to January the 1st 2000 hero nada nothing nothing happened we were all worked up over nothing now I'm not saying that the coronavirus is nothing it obviously has impacted people and a few thousand people presently have lost their lives what I am saying is that at the end of the day we have to lip lift up our eyes to the hills from whence our help comes from when the psalmist wrote that Psalm 121 is a psalm of ascent what he was saying was we have to cast our vision higher than the hills we have to look up and look above and remember that the Lord is our help the maker of heaven and earth he's got this and we can trust him and we can rely on him you and I have a choice when we're faced with situations beyond our control we can either have a firm reliance on God or we can have an unhealthy alliance with fear I'm going to say it again when faced with situations like this we have a choice we we can either a firm reliance on God where we can have an unhealthy alliance with fear the choice is ours David said it this this plainly in Psalm 56 verse 3 and maybe this is a good verse for some of you just want to write this down put it somewhere where you can see it every day David just said this in Psalm 56 3 whenever I am afraid I will trust in you whenever I'm afraid I will trust in you David was a man's man and he's a warrior but there were times he admitted he got afraid about things and yet he says in Psalm 56 30 whenever I'm afraid I'm gonna trust the Lord because the truth is if it's not coronavirus it's gonna be something else life is filled with unpredictable things that can cause us to go into a tailspin it can cause us have fear life has its share of worries I'm reminded of something that Corrie ten Boom once said about worried Corrie ten Boom of course many of you are familiar with she survived a Nazi prison camp and she had a wonderful ministry as a result of that she died a few decades ago but she said this quote worried does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow it empties today of its strength worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows it empties today of its strength it's true we are weakened by worry we are strengthened by God the Bible tells us in 2nd Timothy chapter 1 verse 7 God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind as you and I never gave all of this over the next few weeks we're gonna do a couple of things number one we're gonna trust God number two we're gonna read our Bibles we're gonna bathe our minds and our hearts in God's Word getting his perspective leaning on him and number three we're gonna pray more we're gonna pray for God's peace we're gonna pray for the the vulnerable we're gonna pray for the medical community and our first responders we're gonna pray how God might want to use us as a church as an outreach in our community to those who are suffering in some way and we're gonna be examples of God's peace to people who are anxious and worried around us this is a time for the church to set the example of God's peace in a crisis and to be ready to respond to the open door with the gospel I'll close with Philippians 4:6 and 7 be anxious for nothing but in all things through prayer with supplication and Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus may you do that for us and may we pray together even now let's pray father we trust you we look to you these are very unusual times Lord we don't have a lot of answers except leaning on you we pray for your peace in the midst of this crisis we pray for the sick and the vulnerable that you would make them well and protect them we pray Lord for wisdom how to navigate all of this for ourselves our church for our families we pray for our leaders our first responders or medical community and we pray Lord that you would be glorified in all of this that you would take all of this and you would use it in some powerful way to bring more and more people to the realization that they need you help us as men and women and young people who know you and love you to be an example of your peace in a very turbulent world where people would look at us and see our peace and our trust in you and our faith would be infectious that they would want what we have and that we would take advantage of those open doors to help people know that you're in control that you love us that you're gonna take care of us and that Jesus is Lord may many people open their hearts to the truth of Jesus Christ and may you use us Lord as examples of peace and as conduits of your truth in very troubling times we trust you Lord we lean on you we look to you we lift up our eyes to the hills our glance is above all of this our help comes from the Lord the maker of heaven and earth we love you and we thank you in Jesus name now Church family before I sign off be checking our web page and social media we'll have regular updates for you about things that are going to be happening in the days ahead going forward we're just going to take one day at a time one week at a time we'll be posting all this stuff communicating to you through our web page and through social media until then stay well stay home and may the peace of Christ rule in our hearts I love you god bless you you

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

Views: 7,285

Rating: 4.9512196 out of 5

Keywords: Cornerstone Chapel, Calvary Chapel, Gary Hamrick, Biblical sermons, leesburg va, cornerstone chapel leesburg virginia, great sermons by great preachers, infectious faith, How to have Infectious faith, how should we respond to fear?, when you are afraid of coronavirus, What does the Bible say about the coronavirus, How to overcome fear with faith, Is the coronavirus going to be the end of the world, faith based response to anxiety

Id: GfEgF6tj1l0

Length: 28min 37sec (1717 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 15 2020