What Do Christians Need During a Time Of Pandemic?
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Introduction:
1. What Do Christians Need During a Time of Pandemic?
A. This question has been on the minds of a lot of people.
1. It has bee answered in many different ways by sincere, honest Christians who are genuinely concerned for one another’s well being.
2. I would suggest that our spiritual needs are similar to our physical needs.
A. Physically, we need four things to survive.
1. Food
2. Water
3. Shelter
4. Safety
B. During the lockdown, the government has shut down all commerce except that which was deemed essential to our physical survival.
A. This dealt with but is not limited to...
1. Grocery Stores
2. General Merchandise Stores
3. Clothing Stores
B. This was to keep the public safe and physically well.
1. The lockdown covered all of the physical needs.
A. Food
B. Water
C. Shelter
D. Safety
3. The Christian needs the Same to be Spiritually healthy as well...
A. Spiritual Food
B. Spiritual Water
C. Spiritual Shelter
D. Spiritual Safety
1. If we were to deprive ourselves of even one of our essential physical needs, we would die physically.
2. If we deprive ourselves of even one of these spiritual needs, we die spiritually.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Body:
1. The spiritual body needs food to survive.
4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”
A. This saying was significant because before God had fed the Israelite with manna from heaven in the wilderness they had complained about not having food.
2 Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” 4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not. 5 And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.”
B. This saying was significant because God had told them why He gave them manna from heaven.
3 So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.
C. This saying was significant because He was the manna from heaven.
31 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” 35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
1. This is significant to us for the word that proceeds out of Jesus’ mouth is what sustains us because it is from the Father.
29 And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.”
D. Depriving ourselves of this spiritual food will bring spiritual starvation.
1. In today’s society, the generally accepted healthy physical diet includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
A. This means that we eat three times a day, but it does not mean that if we skip one meal a day that we are generally considered unhealthy.
B. However, not very many Americans are going to skip a meal.
C. Some might consider skipping one mean, but we are not going to miss to many because we understand that our physical bodies need nourishment.
D. Likewise, every single word that comes out of the mouth of God is necessary for our spiritual nourishment.
E. Therefore, not a single word can be skipped or overlooked.
F. If we don’t want to belittle the mission of our Lord, then we need to feed ourselves with the manna from heaven.
G. So we do not starve.
2. The spiritual body also needs water.
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
A. The body’s physical need of water can never be entirely quenched.
1. If one stops drinking, he will dehydrate and eventually die.
2. This is true of spiritual water as well.
3. The spiritual water Jesus is talking about “will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
B. Continual, persistent study of God’s Word becomes a fountain of knowledge we call faith.
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
1. Faith then springs up into eternal life.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
2. Without this fountain we can’t be pleasing to God but it takes hard work to spring this fountain up in our life.
6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
A. The reward is what springs up out of the fountain.
3. It is in the drinking of this water that Christ gives us that the Christian never thirsts again.
10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
C. We need to thirst for the living water to be spiritually quenched?
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.
1. Jesus is this living water because He is the Word.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
A. The Word is living and powerful and exactly what we need because it is it is sharp and can divide our soul and spirit and it for this reason it build faith.
1. Lets not die of dehydration .
3. The body needs Spiritual Shelter.
1 Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain.
A. A physical house is not physically build by God and the labor is not physically vain.
1. Even if God is not present in the building of the house, it will still preform its physical function.
2. The physical labor is not in vain, because it will still have worldly value.
3. However, if the Lord does not build the spiritual house, the spiritual labor is in vain.
1 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
4. A spiritual house that the Lord has not build has no value because it provides no shelter.
26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
1. The only value of a house that does not have God is physical, and the physical will perish.
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;
2. Spiritual shelter comes from laying your treasure up in heaven.
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
3. This is accomplished we we realize no other foundation can be laid to build a spiritual house than Jesus Christ.
11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
A. Without this shelter we will die of exposure.
4. Finally The Christian Needs Spiritual Safety.
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
A. The government has been trying to keep us physically safe, but it cannot keep us spiritually safe.
1. The only one that can keep us spiritually safe is God.
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
2. Worry exceeds simple concern when it distracts us from obeying God’s commands.
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
3. We only have spiritual safety when everything we do in word or deed is done in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
4. If we do not have the Lord’s authority for everything we do, then we do not have spiritual safety and our hearts and minds are not being guarded through Christ Jesus.
5. This causes us to be in danger of being spiritually lost.
5 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”
Conclusion:
1. Every human being must have spiritual food, water, shelter, and safety to survive spiritually.
A. This is only accomplished when we set our mind on the things that are above, not on the things of the earth.
2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
1. As you take care of your physical needs, do not forget your spiritual needs or you will end up separated from God and spiritually dead.
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. 2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.
2. This is something each Christian truly needs to be concerned about because “how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” Heb. 2:3