Open up your Bibles to the book of Philippians chapter 4, Philippians chapter 4, verses 11 and 12. We'll read that text and get to it in just a little bit. We're gonna go a few other places before that. The title of the message tonight is The Christian and Circumstances. So how is the Christian supposed to respond to things like we are currently experiencing? And what should our response be? I noticed there was a church this afternoon that posted they weren't having services tonight, or Wednesday night. I guess it's in reaction to all of this. I don't know that to be a fact. Maybe it's a reaction to the fact that Arkansas is going to close our schools this week, but there's been all kinds of different reactions to all of this that's going on, and some I understand, some I don't. I'm frankly quite puzzled. But how should the Christian respond? Where should we put our thoughts? What should direct our actions? These are the things that I want us to consider here tonight. Once again, let's go to the Lord in prayer before we read our text. Dear Heavenly Father, oh Lord, we ask your blessing now upon the reading of your word. We pray that you would give us direction and insight in how it is that we should be responding in such times as these. Lord, help us to understand that our most important responsibility is to follow you and your leadership and put our trust in you. and then act accordingly and help us, Lord, to know this and be confident in our reaction to all these things and the actions that we take. Lord, we just pray this all in Jesus' name, amen. I'm gonna start out with my first point using actually the first half of last Sunday night's first point. That first half was God has a purpose in all that he does. Okay, and we went on from there with last Sunday night's message. I'm gonna add to the end of it for tonight's message that God has a purpose in all that he does, even in disease and disaster. We used this verse last week in this first point, Romans 8, 28, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. But I want to focus on this idea of disease and disasters for a moment. And we should remember as God's people that God sends diseases and disasters as judgment on people who are willfully sinning against him. We find this throughout the Old Testament. One of the more striking examples is that of Egypt when God sent Moses to lead his people out of Egypt. He proceeded then to put 10 plagues upon Egypt, 10 things that were disastrous for them. It was because they had enslaved God's people. It was because they Worshiped false gods. It was because they refused to heed the true God God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and And therefore God visited them with judgment very severe judgment turn in your Bibles into the Old Testament to Micah and Chapter 6 Micah chapter 6 Micah's out there in the middle of the the what we call the minor prophets Minor not because they're less important than the major prophets Minor being they typically are shorter books in the Bible than the major prophets Micah chapter 6 we're gonna begin reading at verse 9 and And this is what the Lord has to say to the people of Israel. Verse nine, the Lord's voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name. Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it? What's the word rod a reference to here? It is a reference to something used in times of discipline. Maybe you've heard the verse, spare the rod and spoil the child, okay? So the rod here is God's instrument, whatever it may be, of judgment. And the statement is, and who hath appointed it? You should see, who hath appointed this? Well, God appoints these things. Verse 10, are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked in the scant measure that is abominable? Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances and with the bag of deceitful weights? For the rich men thereof are full of violence. and the inhabitants thereof has spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. He is recounting here the various sins of the people. Verse 13, therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee, and making thee desolate because of thy sins. Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied, and thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee. And thou shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver. And that which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword. Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap. Thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil and sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine. And sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine. For the statutes of Omri are kept, Omri is one of the first kings of Israel. It is he who built the city of Samaria as a place to go to worship other than Jerusalem. It is he who began some of the earliest of the idol worship in Israel. In all the works of the house of Ahab, we know Ahab well. He definitely led the people, the nation, into idolatry. And you walk in their councils. That I should make thee a desolation and the habitants whereof and hissing therefore you shall bear the reproach of my people. So what God is saying here he's pointing out all their various sins. The the evils that these people this people was that they were practicing Okay, and he is telling them that you're gonna make things and it's gonna come to naught you're gonna grow crops and it's you're not gonna be able to reap them that's gonna be part of his judgments and God has brought those kinds of judgments on peoples throughout history And we should understand that He will use natural disasters, what we would refer to as natural disasters, as a means of judgment. Now, we need to understand that God can and does do these things. We ought to be careful, though, in our estimation of those things when they happen. In other words, we shouldn't jump too quickly and say, yeah, see there, God's doing it for this reason or that reason. We don't know the mind of God. So we should exercise caution there. But we should understand that these things are in his hands and that he uses them as a means to bring people to repentance, or to judge them if they refuse to repent. Way back in 1665 and 1666, there was a great plague that struck, in particular, London, England. and William Dyer was a pastor in London during that time, and he made this statement. He said, to whomever God bestows great mercies, if they abound in great wickedness, he will inflict great punishments upon them. I want you to hear that. To whomever God bestows great mercies, if they abound in great wickedness, He will inflict great punishments upon them. I believe that. God has bestowed great mercies on America. And we are abounding in great wickedness. We had better repent or prepare for great judgment. It may be, and I'm not saying it is or it isn't. This is in the hands of the Lord. It may be that this thing that we're, coronavirus thing that we're all talking about, could be the beginnings of a great judgment. It could be. It could be God sends something else. The point is this, if there's not a great repentance in this nation, there's gonna be judgment in one form or another. And we better repent as a people, as a nation, or we better get prepared for great judgment. Now, if you're in Micah, I read verses nine through 16. I want you to back up to verse eight before we leave here. Because in verse eight, we see something. This ought to be maybe underlined in your Bibles. It ought to be, if you memorize verses, and we should memorize verses, this should be one you memorize. Micah chapter six, verse eight. He has showed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. This is where America better get to. Doing justly. There's a lot of injustice in this world, in our country today. We ought to love mercy. There's a lack of mercy in our country today. And we ought to walk humbly with God. There is a lack of humility and a lack of walking with God in our country today. We ought to make this our theme and our focus. So, moving on now to my second point. How should Christians respond in the midst of judgment? I want you to go back to Philippians chapter four, if you had turned from that and didn't mark the place. Philippians chapter four, verses 11 and 12. And I wanna read these two verses now. Not that I speak, and this is, of course, the Apostle Paul speaking to the Philippians, and he is writing this from a jail. He is in custody and in prison at this time. Listen to what he says. Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. Paul indicates to us here that he has learned these things. I have learned in whatsoever state I am. therewith to be content. We must learn these things. This is not natural to us. When we are in a situation where we are abased, meaning we are brought low, meaning we are without resources, meaning that we are, in his case, confined in a prison, whatever it may mean, it's not good. We've got to learn. how to be in that situation. Paul says he had learned, no matter what state I'm in, I am content. That's extremely difficult to learn. He also said he knew how to abound. Now looking at this, maybe at first glance we think, you know, I think I could learn how to abound more than I can learn how to be abased. And I'm not so sure about that. Oftentimes, when we're abased, we're humbled, we go to our knees, and we cry out to God. And I think we probably handle that maybe better than we know how to abound. Now, abounding means everything's going our way. We're comfortable. We're not lacking things. Pretty much have what we want. You know what? That's how we are in America. There's never been a nation abound more than the United States of America in all the history of the world. And I don't think we know how. And I think that has led us away from God. And we haven't, we don't know what to do. Paul says he knew how to do both because he had experienced both. The only way to know how to be abased is to experience being abased. The only way to know how to abound in a way that pleases God is to experience abounding. He had done that. And he says, everywhere and in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. We need to learn when we're abounding how to look for what we don't have, for what we may be suffering a need for. We need to learn how when we're abased to look at what we are abounding in and be able to handle both at the same time. We're not very good at that either. Paul knew how to manage in every state. He learned to be content whatever his circumstances. If he was in prosperity, he knew how to be thankful. I think that's something we need to practice on ourselves, to be thankful for that which God has given us. If he was in adversity, he knew how to be patient. He was neither lifted up with prosperity nor cast down with adversity. So often our emotions rise and ride with our circumstances. If everything's going good, we're happy and ready to go. If the least little thing goes wrong, we get down and we struggle. Paul's saying we need to learn how to ride that and go with either. Kind of be leveled out. Not get too high. Not get too low. To take things as they come and make certain our focus is on the Lord. A Christian should be content in any and every situation. Now many are contented in some conditions, but not in every condition. They can be content in a wealthy state. Have you ever thought that? You know, if I only had this, I'd be happy. Usually it's some material thing that we think we must have. If I only had that, I'd be happy. Generally, we're not. We get that one thing, we're like kids at Christmas and we pour too many gifts on our kids. Not just Christmas, but all the time. They don't know how to appreciate things. Growing up, I might have got one toy or two toys at Christmas. The rest of my toys I made myself. I think that helped my imagination quite a bit. Some people can be content in a wealthy state. When they have the streams of milk and honey, now they're content. But if the wind turns and is against them, now they are discontented. Thomas Watson, great theologian of old, says this, while they have a silver crutch to lean upon, they are contented. But if God breaks this crutch, now they are discontented. That's exactly how most people are. We get to leaning upon and riding upon those things, those blessings that God has given to us, rather than trusting in God who gives them, rather than depending upon God who gives them. Many would be content with their affliction if God would allow them to pick and choose. Some may better endure sickness than poverty. Some may bear the loss of their estate rather than the loss of children. Watson says this, if they might have a cross of their own choosing, they would be content. And he further goes on and elaborates on this. He says, but a contented Christian does not desire to choose his cross but leaves God to choose for him. He is content both for the kind of the afflictions and the duration of the afflictions which God gives him. A contented man says, let God apply whatever medicine he pleases and let it lie on as long as he desires, I know when it has done its cure and eaten the venom of sin out of my heart that God will take it away. Now that's the attitude we should have as believers. That's how we should view our circumstances. A contented Christian who falls into captivity under the word of God will desire to be entirely at God's disposal and will cheerfully live in whatever circumstances that God places him in. Does that sound like you? I know, sadly, that too often it does not sound like me. I'm prone to grumble. I'm prone to complain. God gives me manna, and I complain about it, just like those Israelites. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. 2nd Corinthians chapter 12. We'll look at verses 9 and 10. Now this follows a time of difficulty in Paul's life. Where he has been troubled. And he has called upon God to remove his troubles. And he learns a lesson that he shares with us here in these verses. Verse 9. And he said unto me, this is God saying unto Paul, my grace is sufficient for thee. Can you say that about your circumstances? Can you look at whatever it is that may be troubling you and say that? Can you look at whatever it is that might be making you happy? and say that, my grace is sufficient for me. No, for thee, rather. For my strength is made perfect in weakness. God's strength is perfected in the weakness of his people. He delights in overcoming our weakness with his strength and providing for us. in taking care of us, in seeing us through difficulties for prosperity. Most gladly, he continues, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Notice what he says, glory in. my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Verse 10, therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then am I strong. I said Paul was in prison. Today, many would look at this and say he ought to have been in a mental hospital somewhere. I mean, who would say something like this? Well, none other than a man who had been beaten, who had been stoned and left for dead, who had been shipwrecked, who had experienced a multitude of infirmities, Was it present in prison? He wrote this Because he believed this and because he was living this Paul wasn't a Superman He was a man called by God to be an apostle and given great and tremendous responsibility, and he had lived his life serving God. And he had learned what mattered the most. What matters the most is God's will. What does God want? And how does God see whatever it is that I'm going through? From our perspective, we look at something like a pandemic, and we might shrink in fear. We may be overwhelmed. We may become concerned about just exactly what is going to happen. But I want you to flip your perspective from underneath looking up at it to on top of it looking down on it. How does God view this? Is God afraid of it? Is he unsure of what may happen with his creation because of this pandemic? Well, absolutely not. He's in control. Just maybe he sent it for a purpose and that purpose is judgment. Again, We should be careful not to presume too much, but we know he's done things like that in the past. Thus he has certainly a purpose for this thing. So how should we look at that as believers? I think we should see this as an opportunity to grow closer to God. I think we should see this as an opportunity to put our faith to the test. Do we really believe what we say? We say we believe God. We say we trust God. We say we know God's bigger than this. We say we know God can deliver us. We say those things, but do we believe them? We need to believe them and act accordingly. That doesn't mean we go out and purposely take risk and expose ourself to the virus. That's the approach of the snake handlers up in the hills, you know. You know, they take a verse of scripture out of context and think, you know, I'll handle this rattlesnake. If it bites me, I'm not gonna die. How many of them been bit and died? I don't think that's exactly what God had in mind. And so we shouldn't be rash and presumptuous in that way, but we can trust God. And we can be a voice of calm and assurance for people out there right now that don't know God to trust him. For people out there right now who may believe in God, but are struggling with what's happening. We need to be that voice of assurance. We need to be that light that points them to Jesus, the lighthouse in the storm, if you will, that points them to the Savior. We need to act like Christians. We need to act like Christ. That's what the Christian must do in times like these. You see, the Christian does not only submit to God's dealings, but rejoices in them. Our response should be pandemic, praise the Lord. He's got this. He's in control. Can you say that? More than that, can you live that? That's the question. Let's bow our heads for prayer. Brother Den, would you dismiss us in prayer?