My journey this week takes me to a message preached at First Baptist Church, McCarty Lane, on Jan. 31, 2021. Pastor Lonny Poe, adjunct professor with our pastor, Chad Chaddick, at Logston Seminary, had been asked to supply preach. I have permission from Poe to use his notes for this column.
Pastor Poe titled his sermon “Let No One Lose Heart” based on I Samuel 17:11-32. He remarked that this story is applicable to today, and I quote: “The Pandemic has challenged church worship and how we live out our faith. Isolation and social distancing (to prevent spreading COVID-19) has changed where we worship Christ! No longer ‘going to church’ calls for us to live out our faith not in churches but through the active presence of Christ in our lives where we live, work and play.
“In I Samuel 17, we learn that in the reign of the first King of Israel, Saul, his army was encamped against the Philistine Army with a large flat wadi in the Valley of Elah between the two opposing forces. For over a month, every morning and evening, a voice from the Philistine side taunted Saul and his men. Goliath, the giant of Gath, shouted to the Israelites asking for a single combatant to come forth for representative warfare. Goliath shouted, ‘Our best vs your best. If I win, Israel becomes subject of Philistine; if you guys win, we become your subjects.’ Verses 11 – 24 of the chapter describes the fear of the Israelites. Then young David shows up, bringing foodstuffs from home to his brothers at Elah, listens to Goliath and is offended by his words. He is called before King Saul and volunteers to fight the Giant. Now, before this time, Goliath had set the agenda for battle for 40 days; and the camp of Saul was unsettled and talked in circles without any action! Today, the Pandemic has been setting our agenda without any action. David knew God had already delivered him when fighting a lion and a bear and he clearly saw the taunts as an affront to the Lord God, whom he trusted. In Verse 32, David says to the King ‘Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine, your servant will go and fight him’ and with God, David confronted Goliath using only his slingshot and five smooth stones. Goliath was killed.”
“Let no one lost heart? Over the past months in the United States, we have been taunted and let the temporal set the agenda. One-third of the population admits to increased anxiety/ depression. Isolation, fear, financial issues, to say nothing of political struggles, have made it easy for us to lose heart. But have we put up a fight? We are in the same camp conversation as the Israelites if only we focus on our problems, our perspective, our needs instead of living in the Kingdom narrative. We are children of the King the living God. We are the salt and light and City on a Hill because of God’s redemptive work.”
The question for you readers, are you a David? How are you handling the challenges caused by the COVID-19? The battle is a spiritual challenge! The churches must trust God in redemptive work.
