Westside Church of Christ

Sickness has swept through our numbers unlike any time in recent history. Every phone call makes us flinch. Young and old alike have been affected by it. Flu here, colds there and Covid lingers in the air like a dense fog. We mask up, hide out and keep our distance but still feel unsafe. It seems we are stalked by germs.

The unseen cause becomes visible through external evidence. The “bugs” travel undetected until the coughs, drips, headaches, sneezes and various other unpleasant symptoms crop us. Then we know. We have caught something, or, perhaps a better way to see it is that something has caught us. The invasion begins with microscopic germs and quickly knocks seemingly strong humans to their knees. Temperatures soar along with chicken soup sales. It’s a mess that we try to avoid. After all, we’ll feel lousy for a week, maybe more, if we catch the crud.

We turn away from anyone who hacks in our direction. Are we as careful about sin? The current round of sickness will send us to bed for a while. Sin destroys forever. It works its destruction on our hearts and minds. It originates with the evil one. No sin, not a one, begins any place else. His deceptive skills lead the unsuspecting to believe lies. Those untruths harden us inside (Hebrews 4:13). The condition of the heart is invisible to human eyes. Only the Lord can see in there, and He is looking.

He observes the distortion and deadening that occurs within (Ephesians 4:17-19). It is a warning to every Christian of the extraordinarily contagious “bug” that is sin. It wreaks havoc on our reasoning. One look at the world around us makes it clear that people are not thinking right. They’re engaged in practices that are abnormal and inconsistent with the will of God. It’s nothing new (Romans 1:17-32), and it spreads with all of the lethal power that it has had from the Garden of Eden until this very minute. The consequences are always the same if it goes untreated: Death.

Thankfully, the Great Physician knows all about it. He saw it from its origins. He knows that it spreads rapidly, and there is only one solution. Sin means death. He looked with love at a sick creation and sent the cure. The Lamb of God came to take it way (John 1:29). Humans cannot solve it on our own. We need supernatural medication to heal us. It takes blood and not just any blood. It must be pure and innocent. There is only one who could offer it, and He did. Nothing in the air today can compare with the eternal devastation of sin. The current diseases can stop us for a time. Sin ruins us forever. Are we as cautious about it as we are about Covid and the flu?

Call to Praise: Matthew 16:13-20

His word on it: Acts 20:28

Sermon: “The Lord’s Church”