Romans 8:28 tells us that all things work together for good, but could that be true even in the case of the Coronavirus? What if God was trying to develop different spiritual muscles in His people during this time. What would that look like?

<p>Romans 8:28 tells us that all things work together for good, but could that be true even in the case of the Coronavirus? What if God was trying to develop different spiritual muscles in His people during this time. What would that look like?</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Bay City SDA Church

Taylor Hinkle

How to Thrive Spiritually During COVID-19 Isolation

Father in heaven, Lord, we're so thankful that you have blessed us with the ability to be able to meet together.

And Lord, we think of times past when people were quarantined or isolated, they had no ability to connect with 1 another still.

And we thank you that we live in a day and age where we can, And we can have a sense of church even though we can't gather in each other's presence.

Father, we thank you for your word that still speaks to us, especially in times of trouble.

You give so much advice and wisdom and comfort and counsel.

And so Father, we pray that you would help our hearts and our minds to be open to this.

Lord, we recognize as we turn on the news and we read articles online, we recognize that we're living in unprecedented times and people are scrambling to know how to relate to it.

And Father, we don't know what the repercussions of all of the sickness will be, its impact upon our own physical health or the health of others.

But Father, there's 1 thing that we do know, that you are a God who cares for us, that you're consistent, that you can protect us.

And Father, you're 1 that we can trust in regardless of what happens in this life.

And Father, I pray that during this time of uncertainty, we would become more and more certain of our connection with you, that you would use this time of difficulty to turn hearts and minds towards Jesus and to have a closer walk with you and a daily living experience.

Lord, I pray as we take time in your word this morning, you would speak to our hearts and our minds, that you would allow technology to not get in the way of worship, that we would have the ability to hear your word clearly from your scriptures.

Well we're going to take some time this morning to look at the book of Philippians.

And I want to invite you to turn to Philippians.

We're going to be looking at several passages this morning.

And the reason why we're looking at Philippians this morning is because we will recognize that the situation of the book of Philippians is very similar to the situation that we're going through today.

Now there are differences obviously and there's not a direct comparison but there are a lot of principles that we find in the book of Philippians that are similar to the impact that we're experiencing in our lives.

Now Philippians chapter 1, Philippians chapter 1, we're going to start by reading verse 29 in just a moment.

What we find in the background of the book of Philippians is that Philippians is written by the gospel writer or the epistle writer Paul.

And when Paul wrote the book of Philippians, it was not his first encounter with the church.

Actually years before he ever wrote this book, Paul actually established the church at Philippi.

And you can read about the establishment of the church at Philippi in Acts chapter 16 and getting a little bit more of the information of what was going on in the scripture.

What we understand about the book of Philippians is that when Paul established the church at Philippi, Philippi was not a place that was friendly to true Christianity.

There was a person going around who was demon-possessed, a young girl, the Bible says, and when Paul saw her, he cast out the demon of that young girl.

And you would naturally think that most people would be excited that this girl had been delivered from the demon possession, but the people actually became so irritated that Paul would cast the demon out of this girl, that they took Paul and they kicked him out of the city and they persecuted him there.

What that helps us to understand is that Philippi was not a place that was friendly to true Christianity.

It was a threat in the sense that it was a challenge to be a Christian there because of the worldly influences that were going on.

So when Paul established the church in Philippi, you realize that they really needed a church.

They needed a place where they could gather together, that they could fellowship, they could experience spiritual blessing.

But 1 thing that we also know about the Church of Philippi is after Paul was there for a short period of time, which was often his habit, he would be there for a period of time, he would establish leaders like elders and deacons, And after establishing that local leadership, he would then move on to start work in other churches and other areas.

Well, after Paul left, challenges started to come to the Church of Philippi.

There were some people who found that it was easier to live a Christian life when Paul was around, but when he was gone, they felt like it was a challenge to be spiritual.

And I think this is something each person can identify with.

There are some people or some situations or some settings where each 1 of us find that it's easier to have spiritual life.

If you go to a Christian revival weekend, it's an encouraging time, but then you leave that weekend and you're back to just normal life and it's easy to fall off the wagon.

And this is what we see is taking place in the book of Philippians, and we'll demonstrate that in just a moment.

When we come to Philippians chapter 1, we told you that the place of Philippi was not a place that was conducive for Christian life.

And notice what Philippians chapter 1, verse 29 tells us happens with the Church of Philippi there.

Philippians chapter 1, verse 29, it says, "'For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, "'not only to believe in him, "'but also to suffer for his sake.'" Now, what is this that Paul's saying?

That these people have now started to suffer for Christ's sake.

How would we put that in different words?

These people started to experience persecution.

So we realize that Paul, in establishing the church, he had experienced persecution and now he's saying, hey look you're really joining with me in the same thing that I was doing and the same thing that Christ had.

You are now being partakers and you are also to suffer for his sake.

Now we also know that in suffering it's not an easy thing.

We wouldn't call suffering suffering if it was a joyous experience.

So the Church of Philippi is experiencing difficulty from without, pressures from without that's causing their Christian life to be challenged.

But then there's also pressures from within.

And the interesting thing about the Church of Philippi is there's no 1 phrase specifically that says exactly what the challenge is going on there, but there's several phrases that help us to get a picture of what's taking place.

Philippians chapter 2, and beginning in verse 2, notice what Paul tells these people.

He says, fulfill my joy being like-minded, having the same love, being of 1 accord and of 1 mind.

Now why would you encourage people to be like-minded, to have the same love, being in 1 accord and of 1 mind?

Could it be that this is the experience that they don't currently have?

Verse 3, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself.

They were needing humility because they were lacking that in their daily life.

Well, flip over to Philippians chapter 2 verse 14.

Philippians chapter 2 verse 14 gives us a little bit more of an understanding of what's taking place there in Philippi.

It says, do all things without complaining and disputing.

In verse 2, these people were told to be like minded, having the same love, being of 1 accord.

In verse 14, they're told to do things without complaining and disputing.

Well notice Philippians chapter 4 in verse 2.

Philippians chapter 4 in verse 2 it says, I implore Udia and I implore Sintike to be of the same mind in the Lord?

Are you seeing a consistent theme throughout here?

Being of the same mind, putting away disputing, putting away these challenges that are coming interpersonally.

What we start to recognize, and Paul gets a little bit clearer with it in Philippians chapter 2, we're gonna read that in just a moment, is that when Paul was close there, the Christian love and fellowship was wonderful.

But when their spiritual leader was absent from their presence, they started to fall back into old habits and to fall away from God.

Now I recognize that there are things that are similar in that scenario to where we are today and there are things that are dissimilar.

Number 1 is that you and I live in a time where we are not only separated from maybe the spiritual leader, so to speak, the elders and the pastor of the church, but you and I are actually separated from each other.

We're not even able to come together as a congregation.

And what happens sometimes is when we don't have spiritual fellowship is it's easy to drift away from God.

Hebrews chapter 10 verse 23 to 26 brings us out you can take time to read that afterwards but it tells us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together and the reason why it tells us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, is because there's a natural drift away from God when we don't have that spiritual encouragement.

What do we do when we don't have the spiritual leadership that brought us so much blessing?

Well, that's really what God gets to in addressing in the Church of Philippi, how is it that they could have a consistent Christian experience even when they don't have the core group of believers, or at least their spiritual leader present, like they wish they could?

Philippians chapter 2 verse 12, I believe God starts to give the answer very clearly for how it is that they could have a strong spiritual experience even in the absence of their spiritual leader.

Notice what the Bible says here, Philippians chapter 2 and verse 12.

It says, therefore my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now what?

These people were obeying in his presence, but now he's encouraging them to obey even much more in his what?

What he recognizes is that now that he's absent from the church that their obedience to Christ is waning.

Well what's the solution that he gives them?

We actually have passed by the first principle that Paul gives them to being able to have an obedient Christian experience even in the absence of their appreciated spiritual leader.

And notice what is the first word of Philippians chapter 2 and verse 12.

Therefore is not the way that you start the first word of a new book, right?

Therefore is the idea of a concluding statement for this reason.

So what we find here is Paul is saying, therefore, my beloved brethren, as you've always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence.

Whatever he said before was what was going to give them the ability to obey, not just when Paul was present, but also even after when he was absent.

So the question is, what is that therefore concluding?

How to Thrive Spiritually During COVID-19 Isolation

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