The other day one of my coworkers
spoke a classic line.
We were on another Zoom call
dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
And he said this,
"I just expect people to yell at me
for no reason."
When he said that quote I grabbed a pen
and I jotted it down
because I think he's right.
It doesn't take a really huge reason these days
for people to lose it.
And by "it" I mean our patience
and our kindness
and our trust and our confidence
and our love.
Even for Christian people, it,
it's been hard to keep our faith,
to rely on God and live
with the kind of peace that goes beyond understanding.
Now, I'm not throwing stones here
because I think I've kind of been in the same boat.
A couple Sundays ago, our church had a service
and I was wearing my mask and trying to sing.
And I could just feel my faith shriveling up during the service.
I was sick of the warmth of my own breath,
sick of the smell of it too.
I was trying to sing those Chris Tomlin high notes
and they were killing me
and the mask was sucking into my mouth
and I was just getting to this point where I was so over it.
But then I remembered God.
I had my journal with me in church and
I remember writing down this exact quote,
"Mike, stop complaining
and start encouraging.
The service is about to be over
and you're not going to help anyone just by venting and complaining.
Remember to encourage people. They need it right now."
But my personal pep talk didn't work.
By the end of the last song of the church service,
my head was aching
and my heart was as bitter as Passover herbs.
And I remember seeing a staff member afterwards and I just, I vented,
"I'm sick of it.
I'm done with this."
And this was the first service we had.
So, how about you?
As the coronavirus goes on
and on
and on and on,
how's your faith?
Can you relate at all to my story of,
of struggling with the ins and outs,
with the inconveniences and the masks and the mandates?
Are you kind of done with this pandemic thing?
I wish that you and I could just break up with corona.
I wish that we could make it Facebook official
and post some pictures of us with our closest friends,
no social distance,
hugging and rejoicing as if the pandemic were gone.
But it's not.
It's still here.
It still shapes our lives
and dominates our headlines.
Which means that just wishing and just wanting and just praying,
it might not be enough.
You and I need to have a spiritual plan
to how we're going to push back against this
so that we don't lose our faith,
our peace and our joy.
And that's why I'm so glad that you're watching today.
Because this week I want to give you essential truths to hold on to
so that you can keep your faith
as this thing goes on and on and on.
And here's the first one.
Are you ready for it?
The first essential truth to remember during this pandemic
is Jesus.
I know, huge shocker, right?
The pastor wants to talk about Jesus, but it's true.
Two thousand years ago in the book of Hebrews
there was a group of believers who were suffering intense persecution.
And here's what the author of that book said:
I really love those words.
I love that phrase; "marked out for us".
Think about that.
Why are you and I living through this pandemic?
Because God decided
it would be part of our race.
This difficult race of life that we had to run,
we weren't born in that year or this year,
in that era of history or this one.
We were born and we live right here and right now.
This is our race.
And it requires perseverance.
The passage says, "Let us run with perseverance."
I don't know if you ever
run around the block or done a 5K or a marathon
but as a runner, I can tell you, there are so many times
when you just don't want to run.
When your brain is screaming
and your body is aching and you just want to stop.
And that's when perseverance is required.
And this pandemic is the perfect time for that.
Right? We're just done, we're just over it,
back to church, back to work,
back to sports, back to school.
We're ready to quit it, but we can't.
We're still in the race.
And so what should you and I do?
These are the best words,
"Fixing our eyes on Jesus."
If you and I fix our eyes on the headlines,
we're going to lose heart.
If we fix our eyes on the government and our governors
and our leaders and their decisions,
we're going to lose heart.
But if we fix our eyes on Jesus,
we can run.
We know that Jesus knows about this.
Jesus controls this.
Jesus forgives people like me when we lose it.
Jesus is patient with us.
He's kind with us.
He listens to our prayers and he answers them.
If we fix our eyes on Jesus
we have the essential thing that we need
to get through this.
I wish I could tell you how long this pandemic is going to last.
I wish I could predict the date when we all agree on the perfect solution.
I don't think it's coming soon.
So let's fix our eyes on Jesus,
the author and perfecter of our faith.
Let's keep running, day after day, step after step
with perseverance and love and joy.
Let's not lose heart,
because we have God.
That's the promise of Jesus.
So let me encourage you today to fix your eyes on him
and run your race.
Let's pray.
Dear Holy Spirit,
I pray to you today that you would help.
It's easy to fix our eyes on the headlines
or on the things going on in our world,
so we really need help to fix our eyes on our invisible Savior.
If we see him we see love,
we see hope
and we see the Prince of Peace.
Help us to do that today for his glory
and for our good.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
So, how do you fix your eyes on Jesus?
Christians have all different ways.
Through the Word, through music, through worship,
to fix their eyes on Jesus and find out what's beautiful and true.
I'd love for you to comment below how you do it
so we can encourage each other to do that very thing and not lose heart.