Don't Get Sick

Thank you to our octet. Really appreciate the beautiful music. Good words, beautiful lesson for us today. It certainly fits with, in a way, the theme of the day, that we need to stay close to God. We want God to bless us and keep us and make His face shine upon us and our children. It certainly is a reminder that we face a lot of challenges in this world today. Seems like there are difficulties all around us at times, doesn't it?

In fact, probably one of the biggest things that I don't know about you, but I cannot seem to get away from COVID news. It just surrounds us, it seems. Viruses are not only something we catch, but it seems like you can't get them off your mind. Because whether it's a notification on your phone or you turn on the news, it's like headlining everything. And I didn't want to learn about viruses. I don't really care about viruses. So the last thing I wanted to talk about was viruses.

So I thought I'd talk about viruses. Yeah, immunity. It seems to be the catch word of the day.

But you know, God gave us a system to fight off disease, you know, in order to be healthy, to have a detection device for pathogens. Not just viruses, but God made our system to discern the difference between something good and something bad, like a virus or a germ or a bacteria. And so the system God gave us is supposed to protect our bodies and provide us with a line of defense from harm so that we don't get sick. Who wants to get sick? Well, none of us want to get sick. In fact, God wants us to be in good health. He wants us to have physical health. And I read across an interesting section of Scripture that is just a reminder of what God's intent for us is all about. If you want to turn over to 3 John, we have an introduction to this letter that John writes. I'd say chapter 1, but there's only one chapter in 3 John. So if you get just before the book of Revelation, we find this third letter, General Epistle of John's, that he writes. And right at the very beginning, in the introduction of this letter, he gives a little bit of the news about this system that God has in place so that we can have good health. And as he begins here, he says, to the elder, to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. And he says, beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. For I rejoice greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that's in you. Just as you walk in the truth, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. And so here's John praying that everything's going well for Gaius, being strong, strong in body, strong physically, healthy spiritually, as well as physically, both of those things he's included here. So he's concerned about physical health, but he's really thrilled that he's in good spiritual health. And in fact, as you look at the beginning of this letter, look how many times he uses the word truth, testified of the truth in verse 3, walking in the truth at the end of that verse, and continuing to walk in truth in verse 4. And so it's not just about having truth when it comes to spiritual health, but living it, walking it, doing it. It becomes who we are. And so I'm sure when Gaius received this letter, he had to think about the connections between those two things, between that physical health that John wrote about and the spiritual health. Because certainly the healthier we are, the better we're going to withstand the infections that could plague us from this world. And the same is true, spiritually speaking. We want to avoid the infections of sin and be sure that we don't become sick. So I thought this afternoon maybe we could get out our physician's desk reference, which would for us is our Bible. We get out our Bible and begin to recognize some ways that God gives us to help us, to help us so that we don't get sick. When you think about that, a healthy person can ward off disease if they have a strong immune system. And without it, even those small little things, even things as common as a cold, could really bring us down.

And so are we strong spiritually to withstand the threats that might come against us?

Of course, we're not talking about viruses and bacteria in that regard. Spiritually, how about the temptations that we're going to face? How about trials that we have to go through? And whether it's lust or anger or difficulty that we have to face? It's an interesting concept that we're talked about here. It's not that it might come, maybe you'll have some struggles or difficulties. I mean, Scripture doesn't present it that way. It's not if there's going to be threats against us. It's when there will be threats against us. Because unlike what the NBA tried to do last year, you can't live in a bubble. You can't live in a bubble. It is inevitable. There will be temptations. There will be trials. We can't isolate ourselves. In fact, we're told you can't isolate yourself from the world. It's not possible. We can't avoid all contact, no matter how many masks we wear or gloves we put on. We're told in John 17, you can't do that. We are living in this world, but we're not to be of this world. So to combat it, God says we have to build up our resistance. We have to build up our resistance spiritually speaking. And there's a familiar section of Scripture that kind of lays out an overview to this concept. It's over in James 4. If you'd like to turn there with me, James 4. Verse 6 is where I'd like to begin because James lays out in a sense an overview of how we can build up a strong resistance to the things that would infect us from this world, spiritually speaking. And so he gives a guideline, you might say, for this concept. James 4. Verse 6. And it's also interesting, where does James go with this after chapter 4? Well, chapter 5 is about healing. It's about having hands laid on you, being anointed if you're sick. So leading up to this, he talks a little bit about physical challenges or spiritual challenges that we face. Notice the spiritual aspects here.

Verse 6, I'll read this from the New Living Translation. It says, he gives grace generously. And as the Scriptures say, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. So humble yourselves, or King James, New King James says, submit to God. Humble yourselves before God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Draw near, in other words. Wash your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. So he's saying spiritually, get out the hand sanitizer. Isn't that what he's saying? Wash your hands. But it's not about germs and bacteria and viruses. It's about the things that would divide us from a right relationship with God. Your loyalty, he says, is divided. We get distracted by this world. He says, you've got to have singularity in your loyalty to God. He says, let your tears, let there be tears for what you've done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, gloom instead of joy. When we examine our lives and we recognize the world's impact on us and we realize, you know, my loyalties haven't been full-fledged to God alone. And we've allowed the infections and sin of this world invade our lives. He says, humble yourselves before the Lord. The devil has to flee and he says, God will lift you up in honor. And so he presents this overarching principle when it comes to fighting the intrusions of this world. He says, submit. Submit, be humble is the first thing. Are we humble before God?

If we're going to overcome spiritual sicknesses, we have to have a spiritual immunity and it has to be that way. So are our loyalties divided? That's the question that James raises. You know, one of the challenges that we've faced is with the difficulties that have surrounded us, it can be a real downer. It can be very discouraging. And it can get us off track just because we're discouraged by all the things that have happened. And that can bring on apathy. And you can feel like, well, what's the use? What's the use? I better protect myself. I better isolate myself because it's about me. It's about what I'm worried about. And that kind of leads to a little bit of self-centeredness rather than recognizing, hey, it's not all about me. It's all about God and His way. And I can't let these kinds of things get in the way of me worshiping God and drawing closer to Him. One of the things from this, you know, the time that we've lived through is it seems like I don't have to go out because I live in an Amazon world. And all I have to do is say, yep, drop it off at my door. I don't have to go anywhere. I don't have to do anything. And of course, it's interesting that people haven't quit spending money. And this idea of, I can just get it in a couple of hours. They'll just drop it off at my door and, yeah, I need that. I want that. And that materialistic point of view can begin to crowd out godly thinking.

And so it can be an intrusion even in that way. Or sometimes we get into a pattern of doing things and it is tough to get out of that pattern. And whether it's kind of a selfish kind of thing like that, that certainly can be one. But maybe it's just anger, anger. People are angry these days, it seems like. And we can't get out of that pattern. But God says it is possible. We don't have to live like that. We don't have to let those intrusions and that influence impact us.

And I'm reminded of what Paul wrote to the Ephesians. You know, that section of Ephesians that talks about putting on the armor of God. Famous section of Scripture. I think we all remember, yeah, we've got to put on God's armor. But just before he gets into that section of Scripture, in verse 10 of chapter 6, he says, Be strong in the Lord. Be strong in the Lord, and not only that, in the power of His might. That's the instructions that he gives us in Ephesians 6.10. Kind of mirroring what James said here. You know, resist the devil, humble yourselves before God. Yeah, if we're going to be strong, we've got to realize, I need help.

I can't do it on my own. And so it's by God's power through His Spirit. So you need an inoculation?

That's it. This is, if we're not inoculated with the Holy Spirit of God, we're in trouble.

We are in trouble. We cannot overcome spiritual sickness. We can't overcome sin without that. And being strong, he's saying, continue with that covenant that you made with God. You made a binding agreement with God. He says, hold on to that and draw closer to God by His Spirit. That's where our immunity is going to come from. Yes, we've got this natural immunity that God gives, this defense mechanism that's supposed to prevent us from becoming sick.

Yeah, our body goes into action when something comes up like that.

The other day, without even realizing it, I saw my body was going into that mode.

So I've been working with some wood and there was this splinter in my finger. I didn't even know I had it until all of a sudden it kind of hurt. And I looked down there and there's this red spot on the end of my finger where my body recognized that splinter. That little sliver was in there and it didn't belong. And here's my body reacting against it. So it just went into action. And it said, that is not a part of you. That's not supposed to be there. And so my body began to take steps to expel what wasn't a part of my body. And that whole process is such an interesting one.

It got me looking into some other things and I got a little off track. I started reading about non-body parts that aren't yours and the challenges with those who have parts of their bodies that don't work very well. And what I was thinking of was transplants. Sometimes people get sick and they may need a kidney that would function properly. Or in really serious situations, some people even need a heart transplant. And of course, that's a surgeon putting a foreign body into a different individual. And you know what happens? The body actually reacts that same way that it does to that splinter, to that little sliver that's there. Because the body immediately recognizes, wait a second, that's not my genetics. That's not part of me. And suddenly, all these antigens rush to the lymphatic system and the body produces lymphocytes or antibodies.

Antibodies that are now going to fight off that intruder. That they're going to wage war against the invader, which would be that new heart that's supposed to be helping them. And so it's trying to repel the part that's not a part of themselves. And we've all heard the stories about those that reject a new organ. And that's what those antibodies are doing. And so the defense mechanisms not only work against transplanted hearts and slivers, but it's also for viruses and infections and all those foreign threats to us. And the interesting thing about the science behind it is that the immunologists have a problem. Because they're the ones that are sorting out, okay, how does the immune system work? Well, if you have a heart transplant, they don't want you to reject that new organ. You're going to die if your body rejects it.

So what do they have to do? They have to suppress your immune system so that it won't reject that new organ. And it's such a fine balance. Because they don't want to destroy your immune system, because if they give you too much medicine, you know, that tells your system, okay, that heart's okay, don't get rid of that. If they give you too much, you might catch a cold and die. Because now your immune system is totally compromised. So they don't want to do that. So what a difficult situation in that way. And I think in many ways that has a connection to how we live our lives today. Think of this evil world, this evil system that we live in. It certainly wants to steal our heart. It wants to take our heart from us and implant something that doesn't belong. It wants us to get us thinking in different ways so that we reject God's way. God doesn't want us to do that.

In fact, yes, He's giving us these principles as a guideline, but God also gives us some very specific ways that we can get the help that we need so that we don't get sick. So that we don't get sick spiritually speaking. And He gives us those guidelines throughout His Scripture. In fact, we could probably make a list that goes on for quite a time if we wanted to. But I wanted to zero in on just a couple of things that can help us as we hear the news and we see the notifications on our phone to kind of alter our thinking, to think in more of a spiritual sense. One of those things that we can do that also ties in with the physical side of things is to exercise.

If you're going to be healthy, should you exercise? Absolutely. No doubt about that. We are told over and over again, we got to get up off the couch and get out there, get our blood flowing, get that heart rate up. We know we're supposed to exercise to be physically healthy, but do we do it?

Which is the challenge. Do we really do it? Well, we're told that very thing and then the spiritual connection. If you want to take a look at Hebrews 6, notice verse 9, because here we recognize the Hebrews are encouraged to exercise spiritually speaking. In fact, many of the companies that some of us work for encourage physical exercise. Some companies, even in their insurance programs, will provide a little bit of money. So if you want to go to Planet Fitness or some other place, they'll help out with some money to do just that. Of course, I did hear about the one company that said, we don't have a physical fitness program at all, because all of our employees get plenty of exercising, jumping to conclusions, flying off the handle, running down the boss, you know, dodging, pushing their luck, all of those kinds of things. But we're not supposed to have that kind of a program either. Here in Hebrews, it reminds us of the program God's called us to. In fact, I'll read this from the New American Standard. It might be just a little bit different than your King James. Here's what it says in verse 9, even though we speak this way, beloved, we are confident of better things in your case. I love the way that's worded.

God's got better in store. When we are filled with anxiety, when we are fearful, when we are worried, when we think this world is going to overcome us, no, we can be confident. God has better things in mind. He says things that belong to salvation, ultimately to our saving, to our being a part of God's family for eternity. That's what He's talking about here. And He says this, God is not unjust. He will not overlook your work and the love that you showed for His sake in serving, serving the saints as you still do.

And He goes on in verse 11, we want each of you to show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope to the very end, so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Of course, He's leading up to chapter 11 where we have this faith hall of fame and all those amazing individuals who have gone before us and exhibited that diligence.

And so He says, if you're going to exercise spiritually, guess what? You're going to have to get up and you're going to have to work. And that is a work that means to labor until you're exhausted. It's going to take some work. In other words, being spiritual does not come naturally. It just doesn't automatically happen. It's something that we have to work at. And He says that ties in with the love that God showed us love. And we have to exhibit that same diligence, that same effort in other words, and not become what He says here, sluggish.

I suppose if we read this in a super modern translation, it would say, don't be a spiritual couch potato. And yeah, the last couple of years has kind of pushed us that way. I think I'll just hang out on the couch. I can get my groceries delivered to my door. I can watch the webcast. I don't have to go out of my house. I could be, you know, a monk. Well, He said, no, I don't want that for you.

In fact, if we're going to be God's people, that can't be who we are because there is work to be done. There's spiritual effort that has to take place. And without it, He says, we're going to get sick. We're going to get sick, just like people who don't exercise have health issues. It's the natural thing that happens. Here He's saying spiritually that same thing applies. And in fact, He kind of puts an exclamation point on it. If you read the instructions that Paul gave to Timothy, Paul writes to this young minister who has a great responsibility, pastoring churches, overseeing other elders.

Well, Paul writes to Timothy and in his first letter, he zeros in on how important this spiritual exercise in fact, he gets down to specifics. He gets down to specifics. So if you turn with me over to 1 Timothy 4, notice what he says in verse 7. In verse 7, he gives specifics when it comes to what we have to do spiritually speaking. And we can't give it a name to try to cover up the fact.

We need to have spiritual exercise. And you may have heard that story about the guy that goes to the doctor and he says, Doc, don't kid around with me. Give it to me straight. Don't try to, you know, coat it with sugar or anything like that. Don't give me a long scientific name. Just tell me straight out. What's wrong with me? Of course, the doctor looks at him and said, Frankly, you're just fat and lazy and you better get some exercise.

The guy kind of looked at him and said, okay, can you give me the scientific name so I can tell my wife? Yeah, I don't want to deal with it. But Paul says we better deal with it. We better recognize it straight out. Verse 7, 1 Timothy 4, he says, reject profane and old wives fables.

Boy, we are surrounded by the profane, the things that aren't godly. And I think lately we've been surrounded by old wives' tales. Maybe a new version of this might say, fake news. Old wives' tales. Where do you find the truth? It is so covered up at times. Yeah, we are surrounded by fables and things that are in exact opposition to God's way of life. And if we're to do that, he says, here's the solution.

Exercise yourselves toward godliness. That's what's important. He says, bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things. Having the promise of life that now is, yeah, it helps you physically, but also that of which is to come. And in fact, he feels so strongly about this and recognizes that's not coming from the Apostle Paul.

Verse 11, he says, these things command and teach. We have to labor for these things. In fact, sometimes he says we have to suffer because we choose to do what's right. We choose to stand up against the ways of this world. We choose godly actions and do whatever it takes to put those into practice in our lives. And that means you've got to exercise. And that word for exercise here is the word gymnazo in the Greek. And that's the same word we get gymnasium from. Same base word.

And so we've got to practice it. We've got to put it into effect. And it carries an implication to train ourselves. So we're going to have strong muscles. You've got to lift those weights. You can't just look at it and envision it and it's going to happen. No, I've got to actually pick them up and not just one time a week. If I'm going to grow stronger, I've got to do it regularly.

Every single day. So we work and it carries that kind of thing. Work hard. Work vigorously. Get that body going. But spiritually speaking, toward godliness. That's what's got to happen. And so we've got to exercise ourselves toward godliness, which means we've got to understand the character of God the Father in Jesus Christ and make that ours. Which of course, I think puts a label on this whole concept. What does it mean? How can I do that very thing? Well, if we remember the songs that we sing when we come to church, that can be a great beginning to recognize what that looks like in life. One of the songs that we sing oftentimes at church is right there at the very beginning of the Psalms. If you look to Psalm 1.1, don't we sing this many times? You probably know it by heart. If we start it, you could probably finish it. Blessed and happy.

Yeah, who does never walk? That's Psalm 1.1. And it holds a key to this idea of spiritually exercising ourselves toward godliness. Sometimes we overlook it. We know it to be true, but we sit back on our spiritual couch and we don't do it. We don't do it. Look how simple this is, and yet, sometimes difficult. Psalm 1.1, Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. How do you combat that influence from the world? That virus of cynicism, that virus of sin that the world would love us to be infected with.

You fight it? It says by delighting in something else. He says, his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He's like a tree planted by the streams of water, which yields its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers well. Right? So he's telling us very clearly here. Do you want to exercise toward godliness? Read God's Word. Here's an easy exercise program. Meditating on the Word of God, it says twice a day, twice a day. Get up off that couch and read the Word of God, twice a day. Can you do that in the morning? Meditates on a day and night, day and night. A simple little program here. In fact, if you put this program into practice, you could read the Bible in a year. Read a chapter in the morning, a chapter at night, you'd be done. You could read it in that time. And so it's an amazing, simple thing that's telling us it's not about speed reading, just to get through it, to get through it. But focusing on it, meditating, thinking about it. How does this apply to me? How does it apply to my life? How does it apply to my job? How does it apply in my family? Focusing and deeply thinking about this. And when we do that, we recognize it's going to plant us by the riverside. And of course, it's a stream of water, a stream of water that's flowing. Where are we drawing our power from with the roots of this spiritual tree? Well, the water oftentimes throughout Scripture represents God's Spirit. By the power of God's Spirit, I can be planted right there. And I can then have my mind focus on how to apply God's Word. And so if we're looking at ourselves from that perspective, I'm going to be looking at the mirror of God's Word. I'm going to be studying His Word. And I'm going to allow that Word to correct me and lead me and guide me and straighten out my path when I get out and fend off those political antigens, those spiritual antigens that would take my life in this world. You can change my path, in other words. And so when we do that, what a blessing! Because we can really understand God's way and be planted with Him in that sense and fight the intrusions and infections of this world. And so God says, that's it. That's a beginning. That's a beginning. But there's also something else we can do that actually ties in with this concept of spiritual exercise that we can't forget.

Biblically, God wants to help us so we don't get sick by giving us rest.

Now, that's a little opposite of work and exercise, but it fits so perfectly in God's plan. Because after you exercise, or after you work, we need to be rejuvenated. We need to build up our strength once again. We need to be restocked and reinvigorated and recharged. And so athletes go through a rigorous program to do just that. Because if we don't, what happens? Well, you can compromise your immunity if you don't rest. And so you could suffer from exhaustion or suffer from burnout. And of course, this world would love to burn us out, would love to distract us, love to get us off course. But if we look to the example of the Bible, look to our Savior. Christ oftentimes throughout His ministry rested and took time to rest. A great example of that was over in Mark chapter 6. You can make a note of it. You're probably familiar. There are times where Christ said, let's take a break. And it wasn't necessarily the Sabbath either. But let's get away. We need some time to regroup, to refresh, have some downtime, because there's value in solitude. There's value in meditation. There's value in reflecting on God's Word. And undoubtedly, there's value in rest, because we function best by alternating between work and rest.

And it's interesting that God mapped it out that way. In fact, think about the Sabbath command.

Oh, the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord. We need to honor God.

But work's also included in that command. So if you read Exodus 20, or if you were to look at in Leviticus, of course Leviticus 23 maps out God's days, His holy time, His feasts. And Leviticus 23 starts with the Sabbath, the Sabbath. But you know what Leviticus 23 verse 3 says?

It says, six days shall work be done. So work starts it. Yes, we have time to work, and there's a designated time to rest. And so it says the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. It is a time to come together. He says, that's not the time to work. That's the time to be rejuvenated. It's the Sabbath of the Lord, the Sabbath of the Lord. And that's just one example in Leviticus 23. There are all kinds of commands that relate to the Sabbath, and it opposes this concept of working and rejuvenation, rest, rest. And a vital part of that is not just hanging back, doing nothing. You don't find that example in the example of Jesus Christ. He just didn't do nothing. No, he was rejuvenated by meditating and praying and drawing closer to God and assembling together. That is part of the Sabbath command for rest. And throughout Scripture, we find that requirement for gathering together as God's people. And so gathering a commanded assembly, it is a commanded convocation. God says, you must assemble together. And in fact, in the New Testament, the name of the church reminds us of that command. We are the ecclesia of God, the church of God. We are called out of this world and brought together. That's what an assembly is. We're brought together. And you know, when you look through Scripture, do you find any exceptions to that command? There aren't any. There are no exceptions to God's command. Could we say, well, God, it's too dangerous. I can't meet together with your people. No, I don't think so. That's not there. Is there any exception for persecution? Oh, the church is being persecuted, so I better stay home and hide out.

None. In fact, you read the New Testament, the disciples were thrilled to be persecuted and beaten because they worshipped God and because they came together and because they preached the Word. So there's no exception for that. There's no exception for, well, there's a great game on today. I think I'll stay home and watch the game. No, no exceptions for that. There's no exceptions for, well, God, you know, I had a hard week, so I can't assemble to get... No. There's no exceptions for pandemics. There's no exceptions for anything. God says it is a holy convocation. We have to assemble together in order to worship collectively. We are the body of Christ and the body works together to worship and honor God. And when the family assembles, God expects us to be there.

To neglect the assembly, well, it means we're violating God's directives, His commands.

We can't sugarcoat it. That's what it says. I mean, how can you help each other? How can we support each other? How can we use the spiritual gifts that God's given to each one of us?

We could read through 1 Corinthians 12, where it says He gives spiritual gifts to each of us.

Well, can I just use my spiritual gift all by myself? No, we have to be together. We have to be together to fellowship. We have to be together to encourage one another. We have to be together to help each other and pray for each other. Yes, we do. You can't do that through a screen. We can't lay hands and bless little babies unless we're here. We can't do it. We can't anoint the sick unless we're together. And so God reminds us of that very fact. And so we can come together. And so rest means something entirely different than doing nothing. And we have this beautiful opportunity to really express our faith as we come together as the called out people of God. And so what an amazing blessing it is because it will help us to fight the discouragement and the anxiety and the fears that this world would love to crowd us out with. Because we can come together in joy and not be fearful of this world. So we recognize if we don't rest and we don't come together, well, what happens on a physical level? If you don't get rid of stress, well, you're more likely to catch a cold or some other kind of infection. Because if you can't get rid of the stress of this week, it leads to higher levels of stress and more problems and more difficulties. And then your body is going to have more problems and more inflammation and more difficulties in that way. And so God made it this way so that when we do these things, we can be blessed. In fact, I was reading just the other day an amazing study that was done. I forget the name of it and I didn't write it down, but you can Google it if you want to. They actually did an experiment that was kind of checking out the immune system a little bit. Actually had nothing to do with COVID, which was a relief. But they were just checking the body and how it works. And so what they did is they set up a group of people that meditated every single day over eight weeks. Now I won't get into what meditation was all about. I'm sure people in this program did different kinds of things that weren't necessarily biblical. But some of them took time to get out of this world and think about other things. And they meditated. There was another control group that didn't. They just did their normal kinds of things. Well, they came back and they tested the antibodies that, just general antibodies that were in their system. And you know what they found? Those that meditated literally had more antibodies than the group that didn't. So they had a heightened immune response.

And in fact, it wasn't just right after the program, then their antibodies were gone. They tested them four months later. And that group that was meditating still had a higher increased level of immunity than those that didn't. What an amazing thing. Now I'm not saying that that works for everybody, but it certainly tells the story that rest and rejuvenation certainly helps us physically. And how much more, how much more when we apply that spiritually speaking, when we deepen our relationship with God. In fact, a third aspect of this ties in with this whole idea of work and rest and exercise. When we hang out together, when we are with healthy people, that is another biblical admonition that we know if we're sick, yeah, we're not supposed to go to the assembly. You stay home. Biblical quarantine certainly applies. But when we're healthy, we come together and we are commanded to be with healthy people. That is a biblical principle. And so we should do that. When we are with healthy people and connected to the body of Christ, we can stand strong together. When persecution comes, we can support each other. When we face difficulties, we can stand together because there is a demonic realm out there that is fighting against us, that wants to control us.

That's coming. We know it's coming. And like those infections that are out there, they don't necessarily attack the whole body. They attack one cell. And if I can get in that one cell, that infection goes right to the heart. That virus goes right to the nucleus of that cell.

And it begins to reproduce itself. And then it shares that information with another cell that's next door. And that individual cell spreads that virus. And so when you think of it in those ways, boy, Satan would love to knock us off one by one by one. If we're together and we stand together, we can have that spiritual resistance that we need so that together we can help each other when we stay connected, when we stay together. And we can leverage that spiritual immunity so that we can stand against the infections of this world that we live in, those spiritual things that would bring us down. Because if we're fighting alone, like that lone cell, it's going to be trouble. We're bound to lose. And so it's such a great reminder of our relationships with each other, how much we care about each other, that we have to have that connection spiritually, because we can overcome the challenges that we face. And so 1 Corinthians 15, 33 is certainly a reminder of that very fact. It reminds us that we stand together. We stand together and stay together. We spend time together. In 1 Corinthians 15, you probably remember this passage, it says, evil company corrupts good habits. Yeah, we don't want to hang out with the viruses of this world, the ways of this. Stay with healthy people. And that section of 1 Corinthians 15, which is interesting, it's the resurrection chapter, you know, we come alive, he says, awake to righteousness.

That has to be our focus. Don't sin. Don't sin. Don't be misled. Bad company corrupts good morals, good character. And so be with healthy people. Surround yourself with healthy people, those that are pursuing a right relationship with God, because we can help each other and edify each other and build each other up. And we can accomplish more when we each do our share.

Just like the body, when every cell, every part does its share, the body grows. And that is such a beautiful spiritual principle that we can spur each other on to love and good works. And maybe that principle is summarized over in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 23. Here we find that God Himself is inspiring the Hebrew people, those that He has called out of Judaism into His way of life, like us being called out of this world. They face challenges and difficulties and persecution and the diseases of the era of the first century that surrounded them, much like we do, much like we do. But if we're going to overcome that disease and the sickness that's out there, the demonic viruses of this world, I think we got to follow that admonition that we see here in Hebrews chapter 10. Notice verse 23. It says, hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.

And of course, we realize the only way we can do that is trusting God, having that confidence in God. It says, He who promised is faithful. God is faithful. He won't allow us to be overwhelmed. When we follow Him and we draw near to Him and stay close to Him and hold His word near and dear to our hearts, He says, I'm going to be with you. Hold fast. Stay close to Me. Verse 24, let's consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, which sounds like exercise yourself to godliness. Yes, that's what we need to do. He says, verse 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhort one another and so much more as you see the day approaching. And when we look at the events of this world, what's going on all around us, do we really think that day is not approaching, that it's not any closer? There aren't things happening all around us that are indications that that time can't be all that far away. Well, all the more so, He says, let's encourage each other. Let's strengthen each other. Let's not take a part of the body and try to set it aside because we need each other. We need relationships. And we've got to be together and be close to God to be spiritually strong because we each individually are cells, you could say, in the body of Christ, but collectively we are His body. And so we want to stay connected. We want to stay close. And so maybe that's something to think about this week because you're not going to get away from the next COVID news that's going to be there. It'll be all over all the time, it seems. But I think when you hear that, next time you get that notification on your phone, next time you're watching the news and they're talking about it, turn your mind in a little bit different direction for a moment. When you hear it, make it your goal to be reminded, I need to exercise spiritually. I need to make sure I get the rest and rejuvenation that I need to stay close to God. I need a change of perspective and be sure I am with healthy spiritual people. And if you can turn your mind in that direction, I think that will help motivate us and move us to where God really wants us to be. We don't have to be a victim of the virus that's all around us, the virus of sin in this world. Together, we can be a blessing to all of those around us. And in fact, turning it around, we can, with the Spirit of God, infect others for good, for good. And so with God's guidance, let's do whatever it takes. Let's do whatever it takes so that we don't get sick.