What Kind of People?

All right, if you would turn in your Bibles this morning to the book of 2nd Timothy, we're going to take just two week break from our series through the gospel of Mark. And the reason we're doing that is because it is an interesting time that we find ourselves in we find ourselves in a day and a time. Where as my mother who I will not reveal how many years this has been but she said in all my years. I've never seen anything like this and so because we find ourselves in unique times. I felt like we needed to take a moment and remind ourselves of what kind of people we are. What kind of people we are is ultimately going to determine how we react to the coronavirus how we react to our government saying we need to enact social distancing how we react to all of the things. including the lack of toilet paper on the store shelves What kind of people are we? And that's going to be revealed in how we react in what we do out of this is going to speak volumes many many more word many many more words could not communicate. As much as our actions in this time, and so we ask that question. What kind of people are we well in 2nd Timothy we see the first thing that we ought to be at a time of pandemics at a time of social concern is that we are people of faith. We are people of Faith Red Hills. Is this true? Is amen right? If you said amen in your home in your living room, I didn't hear it. But I heard a couple amens here. We are people of faith and that has implications faith is not just the word. It's not just a good idea. This is meant to be at the core of who we are we are meant to be known as people of faith in 2nd Timothy Paul a faithful minister of the Gospel rights to his young Protege in the ministry and he is riding to encourage him. He's riding to say you are facing challenges in your ministry. You are facing challenges in your context. But here's why you can take heart. Here's why you can be Timothy a person of faith and we pick up it with that encouragement to Timothy as encouragement to us in verse 7 of chapter one. For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord nor of me his prisoners prisoner but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God who saved us and called us to a holy calling not because of our works but because of his own purpose and Grace what she gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began and which has now been manifested through the appearing of our savior Christ Jesus who abolished death and brought light and immortality to light through the gospel. Paul tells Timothy Paul tells us God did not give us a spirit of fear. God did not give us a spirit of panic. God did not give us a spirit.

That would be contrary to Faith instead. He gave us a spirit of power of love and self-control those things our faith in action. He gave us a spirit. This takes the reality of what Christ has done and what Christ will do and we live our lives in reaction to that. That's what it means to be people of Faith people who don't live in fear, but people who believe that Jesus Christ. I love the way it says this abolished.

Do we understand this do we get this? Every grass the reality of what Jesus has done. He has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

There is no need to fear.

for the Christ follower It's like in Fort for a christ follower.

to freak out in the current situation Would be like somebody who just inherited a trillion dollars freaking out about dropping a penny over the side of a boat. Write the coronavirus does not take away anything of Christ's victory over death. It does not change one with the promise of immortality for those who follow Christ. Do you understand that do I understand that? Then our shopping ought to reflect that kind of faith. Nnn are our conversation ought to reflect that kind of faith. And the way that we engage others on social media ought to reflect that kind of faith. We are not people of fear. We are people of faith it ought to be so readily apparent to this watching world. And if you guys don't know that the world is watching. The New York Times has posted articles about the church's response to covet 19. Mainstream media has been watching as churches wrestled with how do we act in a responsible way in this moment. How do we be people of faith in a moment when a lot of people are people of fear? The world is watching it. To be readily apparent to everyone who sees us that there is something different about the Christ follower. When a global pandemic threatens that there is something different about those of us who claim The Light of Christ those of us who live in light of not this temporary life, but the life that lives forever in eternity those of us who live in that reality have to be demonstrating hope right now. We ought to be demonstrating our trust one of the other pastors in our association our local Association heat. He said this and I'm not going to get this exactly right. I quoted it earlier on Facebook. But he said this is the greatest opportunity. The church has ever had to demonstrate our love and trust in God to demonstrate our love for one another our love for our neighbor and two with boldness declare the gospel. That is the opportunity. We are people of faith we have this opportunity, but because we're people have faith. We also have the ability to be flexible. We have the ability to not have our confidence in Christ shaking when we say, let's try to restrict our gathering under a hundred. We're people of faith. We can we can be flexible. We recognize that our worship of God is not dependent on a singular location. Jesus had a conversation with the woman at the well, and he said what she said, well our answers instead, you got to work with worship on this mountain your ancestor. So you got to respond this mountain. He says I tell you the truth there's a day coming. We're not on this mountain or that mountain. But spirit and Truth are what are going to be important. We are people of faith. We can be flexible. We can demonstrate hope most of all we do not give in to fear Jesus abolish death and his brought life and immortality the light through the gospel. That's our hope. That's our certainty. That's our faith. Second thing I want you to turn over with me to James. The Book of James just a couple pages to the right. a couple meaning dinner more James and look at chapter 4 with me.

James chapter 4 weird to be people of humility In the midst of this in the face of this moment, we are people of humility. Look at James chapter 4 starting inverse 6, 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 be wretched and mourn and weep let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to Gloom humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you now, you've seen verse 8 floating around your social media for a little bit last couple weeks cleanse your hands you Sinners, right? Everybody's been talking about cleansing your hands, but we don't need to neglect the rest of this section and either End this call for humility. We need to recognize that while this threats may not personally worry us. We need to recognize that while we may think this is no big deal. What's the big deal? Everybody? Calm down. We need to recognize the danger for us of having a spirit of pride. There's a danger for those of us who who came this morning. And we said well, we're not going to let this stop us. We're going to gather we're going to be there, right? There's a danger for us that this morning instead of a Heart of Worship. We came in with a heart of Pride. At least. I love Jesus enough to show up. Are we got to watch out for that? We've got to be mindful of the fact that when other churches say we're not going to meet we should not respond with. Hello. We did. Where's your face? We understand that this is this is a complex situation. This is a time in which it would be easy for us to have made a different decision than the one we did. We do not gather here. Out of Pride, we don't gather here because we're better than anybody else were more faithful than somebody else. The message of the Gospel is this God did not choose the wise things of this world. God did not choose the strong things of this world. He chose the weak things and the foolish things welcome to the party you weak and foolish people. We are people of humility right as a church. We've committed. We said we want to love God we want to love others and we want to make disciples will this is an opportunity for us to demonstrate humility and how we go about that. We're going to love God by the clearing God. You knew this was coming before any of us did God you are sovereign over all of this. We're going to praise you no matter what we can love our neighbors by limiting our gathering. We can love our neighbors by being conscientious of the fact that this is really freaking some people out. It's always We Gather we do so not with the spirit of Pride but a spirit of humility saying we're here because we want to honor Christ not because we're amazing. We want to make disciples who don't look to us. And are machismo. For their help, but they look to Christ for hope. And whether you're sitting in the sanctuary today, or you're sitting at home. Pride has no place in the life of the believer. We cannot love God love others make disciples if we're strutting around. Pretending to be better than everyone else. I love what's a famous preacher once said he said I'm just one beggar telling other Beggars where to find bread. We're here for Christ. We're not here for us. We're not proving a point. We're pointing others to Jesus because we're not God's gift to mankind. That role was already taken. It was already filled by Jesus every action that we take needs to be one of humility saying it's not about us. It's about him. It's not about me. It's about Jesus. It's not about Red Hills. It's about his kingdom. It's not about now. It's about what he's going to do in the future. We have every reason for humility. We ought to be people of humility. We are also people of submission. And frankly, this is one of the hardest things for us. As Americans At as Christ followers who happen to live in the United States the idea of submission is very foreign to us the idea.

That we would have to not undergo or not undertake something that we want to do because somebody else told us. Is really really hard for us. And so turned to Romans chapter 13. We don't want to be people of rebellion. We want to be people of submission. This passage in particular was was instrumental for your pastors this week as we were talking about this as we were praying through our decision-making process. We are people of submission Romans chapter 13 Starting inverse one let every person be subject to the governing authorities for there is no Authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resist what God has appointed and those who resist will incur judgment for rulers are not a terror to Good Conduct, but too bad would you have no fear of the one who is in Authority then do what is good and you will receive his approval for he is God's servant for your good but if you do wrong be afraid for he does not bear The Sword in vain for he is the servant of God and Avenger who carries out God's Wrath on the wrongdoer there for one must be in subjection. Not only to avoid God's raft but also for the sake of conscience for because of this you also pay taxes for the authorities are ministers of God attending to this very thing pay to all what is owed to them taxes to whom taxes are owed Revenue to whom Revenue I would respect to whom respect is owed honor to whom honor is owed. It's a hard Passage. For us today, imagine how hard it was for Paul's original audience. We have we have an amazing blessing in this country. Not to get political. We have a president who called today a day of prayer. He called for us to respond to this in prayer. And we're going to do that as people we're going to pray at the end of our service. We're going to enter first time a special prayer together. We live in a country where our president could call for that. Paul is writing to people. Who are living under a government? That is vehement Lee opposed to their existence. Who see them as a threat to the very nation and he says to those people submit yourselves to the governing authorities. If that was the example of the early Church of that was the example of the church in Rome to submit to those who were directly opposed to what they were doing. What they were about how much more can we who enjoy Freedom how much more can we who have been given this gift of living in a nation where we have the not just the ability to gather but the encouragement to pray how much more can we be people of submission. So when are Governor this week said we'd ask the churches and all other Gatherings be restricted to a hundred people. We said we're going to try to obey that we're going to try to honor that we're going to try to give honor to whom honor is owed because God tells us we have to When we read that when we heard that we said this is what we can do to show people that not only are we people of Faith we're not afraid of this situation. But at the same time we are people who submit to the governing authorities as we can now would be a very different situation if the government came out and said you can never meet again. We were we refuse to allow churches to gather. That's what happens in Rome. Shortly after this letter was written. Churches don't gather and they said that we can't do that. What were they ignoring what it said to be submissive? No, we submit to the government as far as we can without dishonoring our commitment to Christ Christ Over All Is our submissive claim Christ overall is Our Hope in our faith, but as we can we submit to the governing authorities as well to demonstrate to them. That we are not a rebellious people. We we are not. We are people. Lucy Christ and his willingness to endure humiliation to endure the cross to be wrongfully condemned and killed we see that as an example for us. So we submit next we are people of Prayer. We are people of prayer turn the 1st. Timothy with me, please.

This is a strange Sunday, right? I'm making you guys flip all over in these Bibles.

1st Timothy Chapter 2 verses 1 through 4 first of all day and night urged that supplications prayers intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people for kings and all who are in high positions that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life Godly and dignified in every way. This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God our savior who desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

we've talked about prayer now for

Like forever as a church, we've talked about wanting to be people who are people of Prayer. M to a greater or lesser degree we've succeeded at that

But we have an opportunity now to demonstrate it. To be faithful to be constant in prayer to be making these supplications prayers intercessions and Thanksgiving for all people. and for our leaders write to to to go before the king of creation on behalf of our neighbor who's living in fear. To go before the great physician on behalf of our friend who's just gotten sick. To go before the one who rules over all on behalf of those who rule over us. That is our privilege every single day, but it is particularly crucially vitally important that we do that now in this time. I didn't put the the passage up there but in the Old Testament, there's a passage that talks about if my people called by my name will humble themselves and pray not talked about how bad is not a promise that we can claim for the United States of America but church. We are the people of God when it says if my people he's talking about us. He's not talking about America. He's talking about the church. If we pray when the plague comes that's actually specifically mentioned in that passage. He will turn and he will heal do we believe that or do we just pay lip service to that? We people have prayer indeed or we people of Prayer? by good intention I intended to pray that's like almost as good as praying. Where we wanted to pray that's pretty much like praying now. We want to be people of prayer and here's how we can do this right in this time. So Tuesday, This Tuesday churches from this area are going to be gathering at True Life Center, which some of you don't know where True Life Center is, but you do know where 2111 coffee shop is same place. All right True Life Center will be gathering there from 7 to 8 for a time of United prayer and worship and I guarantee you. That part of that will be focused on praying for this situation. P.m. 7 to 8 p.m. Not am right, and we're going to gather into everyone is invited to that right to gather and pray. Write Wednesday from 6:30 to 7:30 here at Red Hills. We're going to postpone our normal Bible study, but we're not going to fail together. We're going to gather to pray like Timothy or 1st. Timothy here tells us to and then next Sunday because we're still going to be on this restricted schedule for next Sunday as well next Monday at 10 a.m. We're going to gather to pray and so we encourage you to join us. But I encourage you to not wait for those special times. I encouraged us to be people of prayer right where we are where it where it where in joined in scripture to pray without ceasing. I'm right we're told that would early church devoted themselves to prayer may that be said of us? That we are devoted to prayer especially now. The final points that I want us to understand in light of our current reality. Is it we are people of Faith? Yes. We are people of humility. We are people of submission. We are people of prayer but the number one defining characteristic of God's people It ought to be seen at this time is that we are a people of love that we are people of Love Tour turn the first John with me. 1st John chapter 3

we are people of love.

Your first John chapter 3 verse 16. We read this by this we know love that. He laid down his life for us and that he would be Jesus to keep that in mind. By this we know love that. He laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him. How does God's love abide in him little children, let us not love in word or talk or but in deed and in truth right now it is absolute Mayhem. in our communities grocery stores

From what I've heard I've done my best to not go and check it out for myself, but there's no toilet paper. There's no flour. There's no this there's no that well. There is that. Just because it's not on the store shelves doesn't mean that it's not here. It's in your pantry. It's in my house, right? Each of us has things on hand. I'm sure. Some of us have things that we're running low on and it's starting to get just a little bit desperate. right How can we as those who are followers of Christ? How can we as people who are of love? How can we honor this? If anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes hard against him. How does God's love abide in him little children, let us not love in word or in talk but in deed and in truth, it can be as simple and this is going to sound like a joke, but I don't mean it that way. It can be as simple as giving a roll of toilet paper to your neighbor. It can be as simple as grabbing a couple of canned goods off your Pantry Shelf and driving them across town. Different people got caught in different situations different states of preparedness. We need to be mindful of that. We need to be able to meet needs as they arise. And this is not just true for those of us in the church. This is true for our community as well as so proud of one of our members and I won't mention them, but I saw on social media they were saying hey, I heard that this is hard to come by if anybody needs it. I've got this much shoot me a private message and I'll give you my address.

Instead of flooding social media with what if we flooded social media with that. I've got plenty of this if anybody needs it. Let me know. I've got plenty of this.

I need this, right? Okay to be humble and to admit I need when it comes up use social media for that. And so how do we love our neighbors ending in truth are some ideas in addition to how we interact on social media how we meet needs right here some other ideas we can support our local businesses. This sounds so unspiritual to me. This is Avi. I literally was as I was reading and I Was preparing for this message. I was like well, how is that spiritual? Here's the deal. Sometimes the most spiritual thing you could do is go buy a gift card from a business like a restaurant that everybody's avoiding because of like literally the plague right go buy a gift card. You don't want to go out to eat out now. That's fine buy a gift card use it later. But they can have that money and they can use it now. Something as simple as that supporting our local economy is an act of love for our neighbors. Did you know that? Right and so we can do that we can we can offer to provide Manta as a church. This is something the pastor's talked about the other day Brian and Dan were talking about what can we do we could we could offer the church and we can say hey to our local emergency management people like if you need us we're here and here's how many are here. Right if you're willing to be a part of any efforts to assist our community if it were to come to something like that. Shoot me a text. Text Dan text Brian text Richard and we'll try to put a list together. And when we have requests come in from our community we can respond.

That's actually why you have a bulletin today because you noticed like none of the announcements are pertinent anymore. The reason you have that bulletin is cuz on the back of it you have each of the pastors names and phone numbers take the bulletin with you leave the information card. We don't want to pay to print more of those right to take the bulletin with you and call us text us if there's a need or if you're willing to help we can provide manpower to local healthcare agencies. We could offer to help schools with decontamination, right? There's all sorts of things that we could do in our community. We just need to know if we're ready. We need to be willing. So let us know if you're willing. Push comes to shove things get crazy. We could open up our building and offer it for use in our community. We can go to it. We can go to the city of Enoch say if you can use it. Here it is.

We're glad to help. However we can but it also can be really personal right? It's not just this churchwide response, but it's also what do we do? Well, we can look for ways to minister to one another. Right. Take a moment. Just look around real quick.

Yeah, you can wait if you can do all that you cannot. They are high five. There's people who aren't here because there is at risk their there in those categories of the government said please you know, stay home. There's people who aren't here. You can pick up a phone and call someone with it. You can text somebody and if Godly somebody that just maybe the Holy Spirit tugging at you and saying check in with them. Love them. Well offer to come over and bring him anything. They might need right one of our sister churches up in Salt Lake. They had a sheet and eight and a half by 11 sheet that their members could print out and it said dear neighbor. Hello. My name is this I live at this. I just want to make myself available to you in this moment of Crisis. If there is anything you need call me knock on my door. I'm glad to help. And then he said and you know, some of your neighbors might be afraid to answer the door. Don't just knock tape it up on the door and walk away. But you're there you've made you made them aware that you're willing to help them. We have a Facebook group as a church, right? We have this Facebook group, not our page. The page is worthless. No, it's not some of your watching on Facebook. Like they're sorry but for communication if it doesn't work very well, but our group does because if you're a member of the group you get notified when somebody posts in it, that would be a great clearing house. If you're on Facebook for us to put needs or share things that we have available would be through that Facebook group. You can text the pastor's again and let us know of any we want to be able to do that. Another thing that we recognize in a time like this one way that we can be loving. Is to remind you that you don't have to come to church. To have spiritual needs met if you are in need of counseling if you are in need of someone to pray with you, you can always reach out and we can come to you to do that then. So please do so. Another thing to recognize is the economic toll of this. I mentioned earlier with local businesses, but the economic toll could hit within our midst and their baby some of you who are looking at a couple weeks without work and thinking can be awful hard to make the bills. Going to be awfully hard to meet my obligations. Let your church family know. That's part of being people of humility. I know but we are people of love and so we want to know so that we can help if those issues arise. I would also challenged some of you who are maybe in a little different life. Speech. challenge landlords challenge business owners to Think Through how you could be a person of love in the midst of this crisis. They eliminating late charges for rent for the next couple months. Say lowering prices on unnecessary Goods. I don't know how God would call you to respond, but we are people of Love who don't just love with our words. But you love with action and with truth not trying to impress anybody. But because this is who we are because of who Christ is church. That's my call to us to be people of Faith who don't live in fear to be people who sees it that the moment and who sees it for Christ instead of just expressing ourselves. We are people of humility. We're no better than anyone else. We're just Beggars telling other Beggars where to get bread. We are people of submissive submission recognizing the authorities Romans 13 tells us are God's gift to us. And submitting ourselves to them as far as we can while still submitted to Christ. We are people of prayer and you got opportunities for that. We are people of love. This is Who We Are.