[MUSIC PLAYING] Well, it's Wednesday
night, we're usually have our midweek study,
usually we're in the Bible from 30,000 feet. This is going to be a very
different study tonight. It's going to be of a topical
nature, not what I usually do, verse by verse, or book by book. I've selected a topic. And I'll explain it in a minute. But this coming weekend, this
coming Sunday, we had planned-- and it's funny when I say we
had planned, because there's an old Yiddish Jewish
proverb that says, we plan, and God laughs. You know, so it's like we
have it all scoped out. And we're going to
do a certain thing. God says, no, I don't think so. I'm going to edit your script. So we had planned
to bring in Joel Rosenberg, a friend of mine,
who lives in Jerusalem. He is a New York Times
best-selling author. He was going to be
here, and he was going to talk about current events. And he was going to
talk about his new book that he just put out,
which is excellent, by the way, The
Jerusalem Assassin. I read it, and it was fabulous. So he was going to be here for
a book signing and to do that. And he still planned on coming
even with this crazy pandemic. He was going to get on a plane. And I was going to interview
him like this for a live format for our weekend services. But the state of
Israel, where he lives says if you don't get
back by a certain time, you can't come back. You're going to be under
quarantine out of the country. So he had to get back. That's where his
wife and family live. So he called and says,
I cannot make it. Now, let me just explain to you
what he had explained to him. He said to his wife on the
phone, I can't wait to see you. It's been so long. I can't wait to give
you a hug and a kiss. And she said, oh, no,
no, no, no, no, that's not going to happen. You don't understand. We're going to drive to
the airport in two cars. We'll leave the keys to one of
the cars on one of the tires. We'll wave to you from
the other vehicle. You'll get in that car. You will drive to our
home in Jerusalem. You will go straight upstairs
to the master bedroom and bath, close the door. We will bring you meals and
water and coffee at your door. You cannot touch us. You cannot have any contact
with us for 14 days. So he flies from here back
to Israel to be quarantined. And this is a recent picture of
Joel Rosenberg from his home. I want you to see it. [LAUGHTER] That is Joel in jail. Doesn't it look
like he's in jail? So he's wearing his mask. That's from the
window of his house. This is Joel Rosenberg. This is now a familiar sight
to people around the world as they are self-quarantining. You know, our world looks
a little bit different. I mean, the public places,
the familiar sights that you're used to seeing
around the world this week look like this. This is Disneyland,
completely vacant of people. Usually, it's wall-to-wall. Look at this next shot. Here's a picture of London. This is Trafalgar Square. Usually every time I'm
there, it is elbow to elbow. People are just
crammed in there. Now, it's empty. That's London. Here's a Los Angeles freeway. Now, I'm from this area. Even when I was a young
child, the freeways never looked like this. And I don't know
when this was taken. But that's just-- it's empty. Here's a shot of Paris
over by the Louvre, one of the bridges going
over the Seine River-- again, usually, wall-to-wall
people-- now empty. Here's the shot of St. Peter's
Square at the Vatican-- complete-- almost
completely empty. There's a few
stragglers out there. But, you know, Italy has had
some problems as we know, a little more that we need
to keep that in prayer. And here is a shot of-- Oh, wow. --Las Vegas. This is the strip in Las Vegas-- [LAUGHS] --just a few days ago. It's insane. So I think that's all
the pictures we have. But this is the world
now as we know it. All these places have been
designed to accommodate people, groups of people. They all have the
mass meeting in mind. But now, we're down to
groups of five or less or even two or less
in some countries. And everybody's talking
about quarantining and self-quarantining. So I want to bring
a message to you tonight called "The
Quarantined Life." And I kind of want to-- what I want to do in
this topical study is give you sort of a biblical
theology of quarantining. Now, let me say that I know a
little bit about quarantining, because when I was a
teenager, my father actually quarantined me in
my room, because I did something really bad. I won't even tell
you what I did. It's really not
germane to this study. But he thought that I
needed to be punished. And one of the few
things he put into place was a full one-month
quarantine in my room. I could only go out
to go to the restroom. I had to go back in the room. All my meals were just brought
to me like a little tray like I was a prisoner. But you're thinking, boy, that-- I want to find out what he did,
because that was pretty bad. It was pretty bad what I did. But I was quarantined. I was in lockdown
for a whole month. That was during the summer
when I was a teenager. We discover our world
is very different. Everybody all the time says
to me, this is surreal. I can't believe
this is happening. This is like reading
a sci-fi script. And so what this is
causing is some Christians to sort of try to figure this
out prophetically and find out where we are. Are we in the Book
of Revelation? Is this the tribulation period? I've had people suggest that we
are experiencing some of what is predicted in the Book
of Revelation and last-time events, like Revelation 13. This is the Antichrist
about ready to be revealed. Who could control
the whole world, and the mark of the beast? Let me just say this
is not Revelation 13. This is more like
Leviticus 13, which I'm going to explain in a minute. But that should
lead us to practice 1 Corinthians 13, which says
love does not behave rudely. Love does not seek its own. Yeah. Now, there have been some
pretty famous periods of quarantining both in our
country, the United States, as well as Europe
and other places. For example, I've told you
before in the last few weeks about the bubonic plague
during the Middle Ages that hit Europe. It actually hit Asia,
Europe, North Africa. But I talked about in Europe
it killed so many people. And so what happened is because
it is believed that people were bitten by fleas that
came from a disease rats had and spread this
bubonic plague across Europe so that ships arriving
from Venice, Italy to different sea
ports in Europe were kept under lockdown quarantine
for a period of 40 days out at port before
disembarkation, before they could land and people
could go aboard. Then when the United States
was first established and states were given
much more authority by the federal government,
even then we enjoy today, and because of that states did
not monitor infection rates. There was an outbreak of
disease called yellow fever at the time, forcing
the Congress to mandate quarantine laws at
a federal level. That was back in 1878. Moving a little bit
closer to today, there was, in New York
City in 1892 a typhoid, a typhus fever outbreak
that hit the Lower East Side, that spread through
the boarding houses. And quarantine measures
had to be put in place. There was another outbreak
of the bubonic plague in San Francisco, California in 1900. And an entire 12-block
section of Chinatown was shut down and quarantined. Then probably the most famous
pandemic next to this one is what happened in 1918
with the Spanish influenza, the Spanish flu, but
by the way, killed 50 million people in the
United States and Europe. That's only a century ago. Quarantine laws
were put into place. Schools were closed. Public gatherings
were forbidden, very similar to what we
are experiencing now. And then there were
famous people that were caught in quarantines. Mark Twain is one of them. He was in Europe, and he
was visiting Europe in 1860c when a-- 1866 when a cholera
outbreak took place. He was in Italy. He was on his way
to the Holy Land. It's written about
in a terrific book, by the way, that he wrote
called Innocents Abroad. I recommend it to you. If you're shut down and
you want to find out what traveling to
Israel, the Holy Land, was like during Mark Twain's
day, read Innocents Abroad. But he talks about going
through Europe on his way there. And because of this outbreak of
cholera, he was aboard a ship in Naples Harbor for almost two
weeks, almost a 14-day period, where he was quarantined. So all of that is a setup to
where we are now, because this is now our present reality. So what I want to do
as much as possible is give to you, in the light of
that, a biblical perspective, because there is a
biblical perspective. The Jewish people have a long
history of self-isolation, beginning with their own
exodus, which is celebrated next month in Passover. So it goes all the way
back to that period. And then a little
bit later on Moses acted really as the first
public health official along with the priesthood. And I want to
explain that tonight. Here's why it's all
foreign to us as believers. As believers, fellowship,
being together is one of our cardinal values. It is so foreign for
us not to be together. We're to share life
with one another. So because of that,
proximity is a necessity. Did you know, in the
Bible in the New Testament the term "one another" appears
over 60 different times? So one another, one
another, one another-- it's how we do life, including
the love feast, where they would get together. They would share a common meal. And they would break
bread of communion. In fact, the Bible says all the
way back in Genesis, chapter 2, it is not good that man
should be alone, not good that man should be alone. And yet we find ourselves in
the exception to the rule. It's not good that
man should be alone, but right now it is good. [LAUGHS] So that's the
exception to the rule. The rule is not good
that man should be alone. The exception is be alone. [LAUGHS] So there are exceptions
to rules, by the way, in the Bible. Here's another
exception to a rule. There's a rule that says it
is appointed unto every man-- Once to-- --once to die. But there are
exceptions to that. There are some
people, who die twice. For instance, Lazarus, who
was raised from the dead had to die again. Jairus' daughter, raised from
the dead, had to die twice. So that's an
exception to a rule. Not good that man
should be alone-- right now it is good in
the foreseeable future that we are alone. So I'm going to look at this
in a few different ways. First of all, to quarantine
is biblical, number 1. Number 2, to quarantine
is beneficial. And number 3, to
quarantine is practical. I want to show you that from
this topical biblical method. First of all to
quarantine is biblical. Next month, as I mentioned,
is Passover season. For us, it's Easter. But the Jewish people
celebrate the Passover. They're celebrating
a great deliverance that God made hundreds
of thousands-- or not hundreds of
thousands-- but thousands of years ago, as the
children of Israel were in bondage in Egypt. And they went
through the desert. And they were given a new land. During that period of time,
God afflicted their enemies with a number of plagues,
including a disease, an outbreak on their
animals, on their cattle, these plagues that hit them. And Passover--
think about it-- was a one-day mandatory quarantine. They had to go
inside their house. And the Bible says,
none of you shall go out of the door of his house. If they wanted to be safe
from this death plague that was coming to all the firstborn,
they had to stay inside. So it was a one-night
mandatory quarantine. Then later on, as
God gave them laws for managing health and
managing doing life together as a community, he gave,
in their health laws, a quarantine for
certain diseases-- very strict quarantine laws. Why? All based on love your
neighbor as yourself. Yeah. It's one of the dictums even
of the Old Testament law. So he gave quarantine laws. Leviticus, chapter 13
is where we find that. And there is a
mandatory-- get this-- 14-day quarantine-- [LAUGHS] Wow. --for those, who have
certain conditions of a certain kind of leprosy
if they tested positive. And in Leviticus 13 I'm reading
from, it goes like this. "And the Lord spoke
to Moses and Aaron saying, when a man has
on the skin of his body a swelling, a scab,
or a bright spot, and it becomes on the skin of
his body like a leprous sore, then he shall be brought
to Aaron, the priest, or to one of the
sons the priest. The priest shall examine the
sore on the skin of his body. And if the hair on the
sore is turned white and the sore
appears to be deeper than the skin of his body,
it is a leprous sore. Then the priest shall examine
him and pronounce him unclean. But if the bright spot is
white on the skin of his body and does not appear to
be deeper than the skin, and its hair has
not turned white, then the priest
shall isolate the one who has the sore seven days. And the priest shall examine
him on the seventh day. And indeed, if the
sore appears to be as it was and the sword
has not spread on the skin, then the priest shall isolate
him another seven days. Then the priest shall examine
him again on the seventh day. And indeed, if
the sore has faded and the sore has not
spread on the skin, then the priest shall
pronounce him clean. It is only a scab. He shall wash his
clothes and be clean." So if he tested positive, if
it was a presumptive positive as we like to say today, he
was unclean after this seven and then another
seven, 14-day test. Now, once he was
positive, he would have to shout out when he
got near a crowd of people. He had to self-isolate. He had to shout out, unclean! Unclean! So the crowds would see
him and go the other way. So the priests in
Leviticus 13 became, in effect, custodians
of public health, which is pretty progressive for
1,500 years before Christ. You know, this is
way before what we know in medical science. This is just what God
mandated back then. A little background-- if
you go through Leviticus 13 and it kind of
seems weird to you, it's because we call it leprosy. That's the translation
in the English Bible. But it is believed that we're
dealing with a variety of skin diseases in this chapter,
some less serious and then some more serious. And the more serious
is what we would call Hansen's disease, or leprosy. It was called living death. It might begin as a little
bit of a pain or a sore, then an oozing sore. Eventually, people lost
hands and arms and legs. And they just slowly
ebbed away and died away. So that's leprosy in
the Old Testament. That's quarantining
in the Old Testament. Then the Old Testament laws
were sort of expanded upon. Later on in Jewish
literature, the Mishnah gave rules for triaging those
with leprosy and sexually transmitted diseases. There were books
and chapters written about how to quarantine,
when to quarantine, how to confirm a case
as positive or negative, how to declare somebody
clean, eventually, to be integrated back
into the community. So that's leprosy. That's infectious skin
diseases in the Old Testament. There was one of the
kings of Israel-- they came down with
leprosy-- named King Uzziah. And it says in 2
Chronicles 26 verse 21, King Uzziah was a leper
until the day of his death. And he lived in a separate
house, being the leper, for he was cut off from
the house of the Lord. So he had to be quarantined,
self-quarantined, living alone until the day of his death. By the time we get to the New
Testament, we also see leprosy. We know that our Lord Jesus,
very compassionate, even on those who suffered this worse
fatal disease called leprosy. And he was in contact
with those, who had it. But we find that leprosies
in the New Testament also practiced
social distancing. In Luke, chapter 17, Jesus,
on his way up to Jerusalem in the 12th verse, we are
told as he entered a village, 10 leprous men stood at
a distance and met him. That's how they met
him, at a distance. They didn't walk up
to him and give them a hug or a high
five or a holy kiss. They stood at a distance. Jesus healed them and/or-- and then two of them or one of
them came back to give thanks, and the other nine did not. So quarantining and
social distancing finds itself in the Bible. And once again,
to underscore, it is an act of loving your
neighbor as yourself. Let me remind you. We were in Leviticus 13. Let me remind you of
1 Corinthians, chapter 13, that great love chapter. He says in verse 2, though
I have the gift of prophecy and understand all
mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so
that I could remove mountains, but if I have not
love, I am nothing. Though I bestow all my
goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to
be burned, if I have not love, it prophets me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy,
does not parade itself, is not puffed up, does
not behave rudely, does not seek its own. It is not provoked. It thinks no evil, does
not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things. It believes all things. It hopes all things. It endures all things. Love never fails. We find ourself in unusual
circumstances, where we learn to apply the love
chapter of 1 Corinthians 13 to a situation similar
to Leviticus, chapter 13, showing love by isolating
ourselves so that others don't get this disease. Now, there is
another chapter 13. It's not Revelation 13. I said, it's more
akin to Leviticus 13. We talked about
1 Corinthians 13. But there's another
famous 13th chapter. That is Romans, chapter 13,
where the Bible squarely says that God has given
to civil authorities, his own authorities. So it says, the authority that
exist are appointed by God. What does that mean? It means that when Christians
follow government regulations and medicinal
regulations, that is not an expression of unbelief. Rather, that is an application
of love and obedience. It's a simple equation. The flatter the rate of viral
infection, the smaller number of people that get killed. So that's where we come in. We can help that. So the coronavirus--
once again, let's kind of go through the 13s. The coronavirus isn't
about Revelation 13. It's more like Leviticus 13. So let's act according to 1
Corinthians 13 until Romans 13 runs its course. [LAUGHTER] All right, that kind of is
the formula for all this. Romans 13, verse 1 and 2-- let everyone be subject
to governing authorities, for there is no authority except
that which God has established. So to quarantine is biblical. That's number 1. Number 2, to quarantine
is beneficial. We've got more
time on our hands. We're forced to stay home. Many people-- many of us have
jobs, where the job has closed. The restaurant has closed. The business has closed. You're wondering about
your next paycheck. You're wondering
about the future. You're wondering about
your retirement-- all of those things. But let's just think
of the short term. You have more time on your
hands, which can be good, even if you find yourself alone. Let me explain that. Throughout church history,
throughout church tradition, there have been what are
called spiritual disciplines throughout history for
the last 2000 years, especially in the earlier
part of the church. They took activities of
life, and they put them into a couple of different
categories called disciplines. There was one category called
disciplines of engagement. There was another
category called disciplines of abstinence. So in disciplines
of engagement, it's things like a prayer,
study, a service to your fellow believer. Then there's disciplines
of abstinence. So things like fasting,
chastity, and solitude is one of the early
church disciplines. So Dallas Willard in his
great book on this says-- and I'm quoting-- "Of all the disciplines
of abstinence, solitude is generally
the most fundamental in the beginning of
the spiritual life. And it must be returned
to again and again, as that life develops." Let me explain what
he's talking about. The very foundation of
what we call our quiet time comes from this
discipline of solitude. We get alone. There's no distraction. There's no competition. We isolate ourselves. If you want to use the
term, we self-quarantine that we might hear
God's voice and find out how He wants us to live. Yeah. So besides medical reasons
and social reasons, let me give you four benefits
of being quarantined. First of all,
physical restoration-- it can restore you physically. When we shut down
external stimulation, we get renewed physically. Do you remember when Jesus
and his Galilean ministry and his disciples-- he was
going everywhere with them? And it says in Mark,
chapter 6, then, because so many people
were coming and going, that they did not even have a
chance to eat, He said to them, come with me by yourselves to a
quiet place and get some rest. So when they went away
by themselves in a boat, they came to a solitary place. That's right. They were alone. This is to get rest. This is physical restoration. You know, I've had to
rest lately by force. Any of you who have followed
my life and ministry the last few months
know I mentioned in the last couple of studies
I've had three surgeries. And the doctors always
say, now, go home and rest. That's very difficult
for me to do. [LAUGHS] And in fact, there's
a verse in Psalm 23-- you know, the Lord
is my shepherd. I shall not want. You know the chapter. It says, He makes me lie
down in green pastures. Yeah. That verse came alive
to me in the hospital. He makes me lie down. Yeah. I'm not good at lying down. For most of my ministry life, I
have maintained a schedule that probably isn't a good schedule. I've worked six days,
and I've kind of taken that from the Old
Testament model of six days you shall work. One day you shall rest. The only thing is
I didn't always rest on that Sabbath,
which is for me on Monday. I worked six days a week,
sometimes 10, sometimes 12, sometimes 16 hours a day,
depending on what day it was. And so the Lord is just
showing me, you know what? If you're not going to do it,
I'm going to make you do it. Yeah. And we're all in that boat now. Yeah. The Lord has made us rest. And maybe he wants us to
get physically renewed for whatever is coming next. Oh, that's good. So Christian, dear
brother and sister, please use this time for
physical restoration. That's good. Here's a second benefit, not
just physical restoration, spiritual edification. Hey, enjoy God's presence
during this time. In the midst of
the chaos, I think this is when Christians
really come alive. This is when we shine. This is when-- this shows
the difference between being a believer and an unbeliever. You know, we have a peace
that passes all understanding. Yeah. We should be enjoying that. We should experience the joy of
the Lord, who is our strength. So enjoy spending time
in God's presence. You know, for me in
this period of rest, I find myself getting
up early, 5:30, 6:00. I like to go on prayer walks. I like to have time in the word. I go on walks just
talking to the Lord, pouring out my heart before
Him on a couple mile walk. And I find it very, very
spiritually edifying. Let me ask you a question. How often in the past
have you said, man, I wish I had more time
to read the Bible? Man, I wish I had
more time to pray. Man, I wish I had more
time to read that book. Now, you got the time. Yeah. So use it. Good. Oh, yeah. Use it. Psalm 46, verse 10-- you know it. Q still and know that I am God." That's good. You know, it's much
easier to be still when you're alone in solitude. Lamentations, chapter
3-- here's a great verse that speaks to that or
sort of buttresses that. The Lord is good to those who
wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should
hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Let him sit alone
and keep silent, because God has
laid that on him. So God has laid this on
us all around the world. As Christians, we can take this
time to meet alone with God regularly. Moses did that. Moses met with God, the
Bible says face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Deepen your friendship
with God during this time. Not only did Moses do it. Elijah did it. Jacob did it. Several others in
the Bible did it. But, you know, our best example
is the Lord Jesus Christ. He did it. He withdrew himself, the
Bible says, regularly into the wilderness. And there, He prayed. For example, Mark, chapter
1-- now, in the morning, having risen a long
while before daylight, he went out and departed
to a solitary place. And there He prayed. The words of that great
old hymn by Helen Lemmel-- most of us know it. "Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of Earth
will grow strangely dim in the light of His
glory and grace." Now is the time to put
that into practice. Yeah. So two good benefits-- to quarantine is beneficial-- physical restoration; number
2, spiritual edification. Here's a third--
self-evaluation. You know when you're alone,
you can think about you. Oh, you say, well, I do
that quite well anyway. Well, I know. We all do. We're all self-centered
by nature. But when you're alone and you
are in the presence of God-- so you are letting
God evaluate you, and then you evaluate yourself
in the light of that-- that becomes very powerful. This is what David
meant in Psalm 139 when he said,
search me, oh, God. And know me. Try me, and know my
anxious thoughts. And reveal to me,
show me if there's anything wicked in my life. God already knows you, right? All things are naked
and open before the one to whom we must give
an account, the Bible says in Hebrews, chapter 4. But then as you
evaluate yourself in the light of God's presence
and let him reveal yourself, that self-evaluation
becomes powerful. You know that even Jesus,
though He knew all things-- before He made a very what we
would call difficult choice or weighty choice,
He spent time alone. So before He chose
his 12 disciples, He spent time alone with God. It says in Luke 6, it came
to pass in those days, as He went into the
mountain to pray and continued all night
in prayer to God-- He was all alone
with his Father-- and when it was day, he called
His disciples to Himself. And from them, He chose 12
whom he also named apostles. So even Jesus, though
He knew all things, spent time alone with
the Father in prayer before making a very
weighty choice that was confronting Him. Now, all of this being
alone, self-quarantining, self-evaluation helps us
to refocus our priorities on what is truly important. You know, one of the things
this crisis does in a good way is lets us know
what is important and what's not important, right? Relationships are important. We're reaching out to people. I've heard from so
many people, who have texted me or emailed
me or have seen it on posts, how they're
reconnecting with their family. They're forgiving past sins. And sons and daughters,
who've been alienated are suddenly coming back. And a lot of that stuff is
just going away as chaff to the wheat. That's good. That's good. Those are good
things for to happen. We're reshuffling and
reorganizing our priorities. In fact, I was listening to
one apologetics professor, who said, suffering is beneficial,
because not only does it make us aware of our own mortality-- and God doesn't want us to
be secure in this life-- but one of the
great things it does is helps us fulfill the
mandate in 1 John 4. He said, do not love the
world, nor the things that are in this world. If any man loves the world,
the love of the Father is not in him. Right. God didn't want us to
be loving this world. And this time of suffering
and hopefully self-evaluation helps you realize,
yep, I've been loving the world a little too much. I need to get away from that. God accomplishes that
through suffering. So we have three things
so far as benefits to a quarantine--
physical restoration, spiritual edification,
and self-evaluation. Let me throw out a fourth-- inner consolation--
inner consolation. When you're alone, you can
deal with things like grief at its deepest level. Yeah. Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that
when you are going through a period of
grief, if you are, that you should
be alone and deal with it by yourself,
because we do need to share it with others. And we need to
pour out our griefs to those, who can give us
counsel and give us wisdom. But when you're alone with God,
that's when it's most powerful. You know, our Lord
Jesus was informed one day of the death
of His good friend and His forerunner,
John the Baptist. It was grieving to the
disciples of John the Baptist, grieving to the disciples
of Jesus, and even sad for our Lord Jesus Himself. It says, when Jesus
heard about it, he departed from there by a boat
to a deserted place by Himself. He could deal with that grief
with the Father in the presence of God at its deepest level. In Luke, chapter 22, Jesus
was distressed again, this time not
because of the death of a friend, but
his own suffering. He was facing the cross. It says, He withdrew
from His disciples about a stone's
throw, knelt down. And He prayed, Father,
if it is Your will, take this cup from me. He's wrestling with it. He's dealing with it
alone before His Father. So to sum it up,
there are certainly physical benefits and medical
benefits to being quarantined. There are spiritual benefits
and emotional benefits to being quarantined. So I see this as a time of
purification for the church, for believers, you know. We're dealing with life at
a whole different level. Don Whitney said,
and I quote, "One of the costs of
technological advancement, which is where we are
in this day and age, is a greater temptation
to avoid quietness." How many of us are captivated
by our phones, captivated by our devices,
captivated to binge watching a show on television? It's like we abhor quietness. And he continues and
says, "So many of us need to realize the
addiction we have to noise." Modern life tends to rob us
of the benefits of solitude. So we have to things so far. The quarantine is biblical,
and the quarantine is also beneficial. Let me give you a third. To quarantine is practical. We can turn this into one of
our most productive times ever. And I'm glad I have worship
leaders up here around me. So I'm going to
throw out a challenge in a minute to our
worship community and those who are
watching online. Think of it this way. Paul the Apostle gave to us
some of the best New Testament letters while he was in jail. He was quarantined
in a Roman prison, and he wrote Ephesians,
Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, those four
letters in one single bout of being quarantined. Here's another one, though not
a spiritual source necessarily. But in 1606 when a
plague struck England, William Shakespeare was
quarantined in his home. During his quarantine, he
wrote these three works-- see if they ring a bell-- Macbeth, King Lear, and
Antony and Cleopatra. That's while he was
quarantined during an outbreak of a disease. So here's my challenge,
worship leaders. [LAUGHS] Some of your best work ought
to come from this time. As you're on downtime and
you have time to think, you could produce the next
set of hymns for the church. That's good. So we have some practical
things we can do. One of the most practical
things is more family time. Get to know your family better. You say, oh, man, I
got my kids at home. They can't go to school. We're all quarantined together. Again, how many
times in the past have you longed for more
deeper authentic family time? That's right. Now, you have it. Yeah. One father on
Twitter said, at last I'm practicing more
homeschooling for our boys. He went on to explain, my wife
did all the homeschooling. Now, I am able to
participate in that. We've even had one, who
uses that Connect with Skip and Lenya, that table
talk that we're doing live on Tuesdays and Thursdays
as homeschooling curriculum for his kids and his group. So that's very, very creative. I was on a website
this week called Crosswalk.com, which
is a Christian site. They gave all sorts of
great practical ideas for families, who
are stuck at home. Let me toss out a few to you-- board games. It's a great way to know
somebody and great way to deal with
frustration and anger-- [LAUGHS] --during a board game. Putting a puzzle together-- Yeah. --that can be a challenge. How about projects
as the family-- cleaning out the garage,
cleaning out the pantry, both of which my wife
says we need to do? Here's another thing. Journal this experience. I don't know if you practice
that spiritual discipline, but it's a good thing to journal
what is happening in the world today. It's something that I do. And we're living
in historic times. Teach your children
the value of a journal. How about this? Say, kids your assignment is
to, in newspapers or magazines, cut out headlines. And we'll paste them in a
little family scrapbook. I'll do the writing, and we
can all contribute together. Or you assign one child
one aspect of it one day, one child another. But learn about this together. The more you talk about
it, the better and easier it will be for them. Here's another example
on Crosswalk.com. Teach your kids a new skill. If they're older
kids, teach them how to change the
oil in their car. Yeah. Teach them how to
play an instrument if you're a musician, you know. You've got time to do that. Teach them to weed the
yard, if you'd like. Yeah. [LAUGHS] Another good
practical thing would be is to sit down and
look over old photographs, whether you have
old photo albums, or you have them on your device. Kind of take your kids, your
family through your own family history. And go through
those photographs. And talk about what
life was like as you share those memories
and make memories. And by the way, be
sure to photograph this time of quarantine. Yeah. You're going to want that
later on for the future, for posterity. Another practical thing is
make cards to send to people. This is where you actually have
to use something called a pen-- [LAUGHS] --and you pick up the pen. And you actually write
words with your hand instead of typing or texting it. You write it out. You even draw pictures. My granddaughter is a
beautiful little artist. And my grandson
and granddaughter, when I was sick in the
hospital, wrote out by hand what they were feeling
and what they were wishing and what they were
praying and drew pictures. You could make cards,
like one a day, and send them to loved
ones, even people in the neighborhood. Here's another thing. And then I'll end with this
practical stuff on family time. Have a picnic as a family. [LAUGHS] You go to the mountains. You go to your backyard. You could camp in your backyard. You could camp
inside your house. You could go outside
and cloud watch and say, what does that
shape remind you of? Let's make animals in the sky--
all those silly little things that your kids will
treasure in years to come. Yeah. I even say this. Get a pair of binoculars
or telescope-- I love to do this
with my grandson-- and look up at the
stars and the moon and talk about God's
goodness and God's greatness. So all of those are
practical more family time type of activities. Then finally, as a practical
adventure, more ministry time, more ministry opportunity-- one of the things I
have noticed and I've been so happy for
and proud of you for is how you've all
stepped up to the plate to see how you could minister
to the community, especially the most vulnerable. Thank you for getting involved
in our Kindness Campaign. We're collecting food, items--
toilet paper, disinfectants, bleach cleaner. We're sending it out
to different homes. We've been making runs all day
long in the last several days. Here's a few highlights
from our Kindness Campaign. There was one man who had COPD-- has COPD, chronic onset
pulmonary disorder. He's on oxygen. So he has to
have a cannula in his nose. He has arthritis. He cannot leave his room. We sent somebody out. And when he saw our
staff member show up on the second story,
where he lives, apartment with a bag of food
and supplies, he was so elated. It was so excited. It made his day. That's one story. And then there
was a, mom who had her one-year-old
baby hospitalized, suspecting coronavirus. When the baby was
cleared to go home, they said, you can only
go home if the house is cleaned and disinfected. And so the grandmother,
who was in the area, didn't have cleaning supplies. So we were able to go
out there with bleach, go out there with
a cleaner, and give those supplies to disinfect
that house to allow that family to go back in. So that's just a practical
and beautiful way. And then number three-- a disabled man who had no food-- we were able to bring
him food and just change his hopeless state
into a more hopeful estate. This is what Christians do. During times of challenge,
they step up to the challenge. They meet the challenge. They go above and beyond. And I'm so thankful to be able
to do church a different way. Yes, we have to come
to you this way. But we can go out to the
community in that way, delivering these items curbside. Now, I want to take you
back to the early days of the church in closing. The scene is the Roman Empire,
first couple of centuries. In 165, a plague, an
outbreak of smallpox pervaded Rome and started
spreading through the Roman Empire. And here's from a
book that I found. In 165 AD, a plague swept
through the mighty Roman Empire, wiping out one in every
three people in the population. It happened again in 251
when 5,000 people per day were dying in the
city of Rome alone. "Those infected were
abandoned by their families to die in the streets. The government was helpless. And the emperor himself
succumbed to the plague. So the emperor died
of this outbreak. Pagan priests fled
their temples, where people had flocked
for comfort and explanation. People were too weak
to help themselves. If the smallpox
did not kill you, hunger, thirst, and
loneliness would. The effect on the wider
society was catastrophic. Yet, following the plagues, the
good reputation of Christianity was confirmed, and its
population grew exponentially. Why is this? Christians did not come armed
with intellectual answers to the problem of evil. They did not enjoy a
supernatural ability to avoid pain and suffering. What they did have was water
and food and their presence. In short, if you
knew a Christian, you were statistically
more likely to survive. And if you survived,
it was the Church that offered you the most loving
stable and social environment" close quote. That's right out of
the pages of history, and we're able to make
history right now. Amen. So we're making
history in coming to you live this way,
through this technology. We're making
history by be able-- giving you all sorts of
resources on the internet. And we're making history by
going out into our community in a whole different
way to spread the love of Jesus Christ. Let's pray together, and
we'll close in worship. Father, we want to thank
You for Your love for us. We don't doubt Your love
for us during this time. And we don't doubt to say
God is good all the time. All the time, God is good. We believe that today
more than ever before. We have hope in our hearts. We have joy in our lives. And we have peace. It's the peace that passes
all human understanding. [MUSIC PLAYING] We don't know if we're going to
be symptomatic in a day or two or week. We don't know the future. We do know that is appointed
to every man once to die, after this, the judgment. So Lord, we want to
say, we're ready. And until then, we're hopeful. And we want to be the Church. We want to be engaged
in our community. We want to offer prayer and love
and support to those around us. We pray, Lord,
that you'd fill us with your spirit in a very
new, dynamic, and fresh way. And I pray, Lord, that
during this time of isolation or self-quarantining,
we would be most productive in our
creative abilities of writing songs, making phone calls,
writing cards, ministering to our family, ministering
to the community. Help us to do that. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. [MUSIC PLAYING]
