March 30, 2020

Covid-19 The Curse, the Mercy, and the Response

Covid-19 The Curse, the Mercy, and the Response

Sorry for poor audio quality

Covid-19 The Curse, the Mercy, and the Response
The Curse
• This is a question I have been hearing both from believers and non-believers.
o “Why would a loving God allow this to happen?”
o To briefly answer this question, we must go back to Genesis 1 & 2
NASB Gen 3:17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. 18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field;
 This curse affects every area of our life to this day.
 But that phrase also says because of you.
• Hardship, pestilence, famine, disease came into the earth because of Adam, because of His sin.
o This wasn’t something God did, this is something sin did.
The Mercy of God
Jonah 3:10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. Jonah 4:2 He prayed to the LORD, “Isn’t this what I said, LORD, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
o Jonah was actually reluctant to preach to the city because he knew that if they repented God would have mercy on them.
o God is slow to anger and abounds in love, he relents in sending calamity.
 This is the character and nature of God.
• Of course, we also know that God the Father in His great mercy sent His son Jesus to end the curse of sin.
So how do we respond?
1. Prayer and repentance
2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
• Three parts here.
o Humble prayer
o Seeking His face
o Repentance
 A place to start:
a. Jonah 2:8 “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs”
2. Don’t give in to panic, fear and anxiety
Philippians 4:7 says that there is a peace that surpasses all understanding.
o This isn’t just meant for the good times, for the easy times.
o Remember Paul wrote that statement while in prison, not knowing if he would live or die.
2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
• This is a verse for our day.

o We need courage, power, love and a sound mind.
3. Obey the government
• I could give you Biblical passages like Romans 13 and others
• To see this as the government trying to control the church, or a rights issue, is to see it only from a human or fleshly perspective.
4. Have a Kingdom perspective
• We must ask and look to see what God is doing.
o God is very much at work in this.
5. Be Missional/Our commission is still the same
• As the church, as the people of God, we still have a call to be missional.
o Just how we go about that is going to look different
6. Be Kind and generous
Phil 2:4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
• Throughout global history there have been other pandemics.
o And Christians were known for their kindness and generosity.
• I can’t help but think of Jesus touching lepers to heal them.
Mark 1:40 Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” 41 Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” 42 As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed.
7. Seek His Face
• I had mentioned this as part of 2 Chron 7:14