*this blog is a summary of a sermon I preached recently at our church. You can watch the sermon above, starting around the 16:30 mark  -or – enjoy the whole service at Midpoint Baptist Fellowship 🙂

During this pandemic of 2020, our weakness has been revealed in many areas:

The weakness of our economy

The wiping away of literally incalculable wealth, almost overnight.

The U.S. economy – the largest in the world and affects every country on earth in some respects – is now projected to have a GDP contraction of -5.9%.

Here in the Philippines, the economy is predicted to contract. ASEAN nations are expected to experience a contraction of -0.6% – no growth at all.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said this week that the world economy will experience the worst recession since the Great Depression. [1]

By comparison, many people remember the global financial crisis of 2009. That was a -0.1% negative growth rate globally. This 2020 recession could be as high as -3.0% – a huge difference.

The cumulative loss to global GDP could be $9 Trillion dollars. Unfathomable!

The weakness of our expertise

We have seen that experts in the medical field and government have been wrong about their “projections”. Despite our sophistication and our technology, we have missed the mark on many things. Facemasks – to wear or not to wear? Is the virus transmissible to humans? To lockdown or to allow herd-immunity?

We have all learned a new phrase “social distancing” and have been told to stay 3-6ft apart, but at the same time other experts say that the virus can travel up to 20 feet away![4]

In all of this, who can you believe? Well, I think that is a question with no answer. It is like shooting at something in the dark. You may get it right, you may not.

This pandemic has revealed the limits of our knowledge and our understanding of the world we live in.

The weakness of our expectations

This virus has revealed the weakness of our reliance on and trust in the Lord – of our expectation of what He can and will do for us. Many Christians have experienced panic, anxiety, restlessness – all signs of a failure to trust the Lord with this situation.

I am not convinced that God is not using this to remind all of us of our frailty, our insecurity, and our hopelessness apart from Him.

If our biggest hope is in a new vaccine then we as believers have lost our focus, lost our vision. If our biggest desire is for the economy to come back to life, then we as believers have lost our center. My hope is not in a new vaccine – my hope is in Jesus! Our final hope is not in a comfortable, growing economy, our final hope is in the Lord! I’m not hoping in this world getting fixed, I am hoping on Jesus coming back and taking me out of this world!

Do I want the economy to come back? Of course! Do I hope we develop of vaccine? Yes! But those are not the limits of my expectations, of my hope.

Question: What are you looking forward to?

If you are only looking as far as the end of this virus, you are not looking far enough. If you are just waiting for all of this to be over so that life can return back to a normal routine, then we don’t understand the world that we truly live in and our place in it.

In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
John 16:33

Jesus told us that we would have problems in our lives in this world. This pandemic is just the newest iteration of that truth. But He has overcome the world. To overcome means to conquer or triumph over.

In other words, as Christians we are not living subject to what happens in this world, ultimately, because this world is not our ultimate home.

We belong to the Kingdom of God, and His Kingdom has conquered! Radical stuff, then and now!

[1] https://blogs.imf.org/2020/04/14/the-great-lockdown-worst-economic-downturn-since-the-great-depression/
[2] https://opinion.inquirer.net/128758/covid-19-and-the-limits-of-expert-knowledge
[3] https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/04/world-health-organization-blame-pandemic-coronavirus/609820/
[4] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/health/coronavirus-six-feet.html