Well, as I get wired up here, if you could turn to First Peter, chapter four. First Peter, chapter four. I bring you greetings from Greenville, South Carolina, especially, of course, to those who are part of this congregation, to your minister and others involved here. share a close affinity of course with the work of God being part of the same denomination, part bearing similar burdens in the work of God beyond our own local congregations. And I want to just share again my appreciation for the prayers of this congregation. I know that the minister and his wife have been praying for us as we've arrived in Greenville and settled there I guess a year and a half or so now that we've been there. And I know that among others, they have been praying for us. I know that some of you, others as well, have been remembering us. So it has been an interesting year and a half, I guess. You know, you're there a year. You're getting acclimated to life in a new city and with different people and a congregation that's different. other ways. Comparatively speaking, every congregation has slight differences here and there. So you're getting acclimated to personalities, to different ministries, to different responsibilities. It takes a few years, really, in many ways, getting a level of comfort between you and the people and vice versa. And of course, to have all that's happened this year thrown into the mix doesn't exactly help things. But we're here. And as always, I'm very thankful for this conference and its aim to be practical. And I've been here since 2016, I think was the first year we were here. Every year I go away with something to think about and something practical to take home and something that has shaped my own thinking in the ministry and I'm really thankful for that because I've heard many, many sermons and been to many conferences and I go to conferences sometimes and I come away with Maybe not a whole lot, you know? Not to be too disparaging, but it may be an insight into scripture, but it doesn't actually have a transformative influence upon how you perceive ministry or what you want to achieve or how you go about it. But here, I think pretty much every year, that has been the case that I have learned something and taken something that has been helpful in our foundation of ministry and what we are about. So it's good to be here. It's good to have the family with us. And I could go on, but my time will run away with me quickly enough. So let's get to the word of God. Let's consider it. And I'm doing something I never do. I'm taking my watch off. That's so I can just keep an eye on the time because, well, You'll be angry at me if you're late for your coffee and whatever treats you have at 10.30. So when 10.30 comes, I will be disciplined to stop. So anyway, 1 Peter chapter 4 is where we are. And I've been given that was part of the discussion, but this responding to crises in the church, responding to crises in the church. And I read from 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 7. But the end of all things is at hand. Be therefore sober and watch unto prayer. And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Use hospitality one to another without grudging, as every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth. And God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you. as though some strange thing happened unto you, but rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also. with exceeding joy. Amen. Lord bless the very reading of scripture to us this morning. Let's pray. Lord, it is good to be here. You know our hearts. We're always glad to be with thy people and it is a wonderful privilege to be here again this year. And while things have been uncertain this year over recent months, we're thankful for the desire of this congregation, the oversight of this church to proceed. Some may not be able to make it and we understand that, but we're thankful for those that are here and those that are able to watch on. Lord, as we proceed through this day and tomorrow and Saturday morning, continue to enlighten our minds. Help us, Lord, to be shaped by thy word and grant that what we learn will be applied by the Spirit in our own lives. Give us courage. Give us understanding. May we be men and women of wisdom in all aspects of ministry and raising our children and giving ourselves to the kingdom of Christ. Come by thy spirit then this morning and instruct our hearts in a helpful and meaningful way and may Christ be praised. In Jesus' name we ask these things. Amen. The date is March 18, 2020. Churches across this land and other parts of the world are at least beginning, if not already, have evaluated whether or not they should continue to gather in their public assemblies. And we're no different in Greenville, South Carolina. As independent-minded as many of the South Carolinians may be, the thought is still going through the mind, what do we do? The NBA had just canceled their season. And consequently, correspondence came from the executive committee of our prestigy, recommending that our churches suspend their services until at least April 4. So we cancel our prayer meeting. That's a Wednesday, March 18. We cancel our prayer meeting. Just the elders of the church gather. I preach a message that's live streamed, thankfully. We didn't have to scramble to figure out live streaming. When you have the founder of sermonaudio.com as one of the elders of your church, if you're not ready for such times as these, then no one is. So that's all been set up for years. We just then live streamed, communicated to the church, stay at home. live-streamed the message and then after that was done, we had a short time of prayer and I and the elders got down to business. And even just looking back on that message that I preached on that occasion, Psalm 31 verse 22, I mean you can just see where minds and hearts are going to go. And I look back on that message that I entitled, Say Less, Believe God, Pray More. Say Less, Believe God, Pray More. And that stands. You kind of wish everyone who has some kind of outlet on social media would kind of take that to heart. Say Less, Believe God, Pray More. Well, we got them to the business of our special meeting on that occasion and in light of the recommendation of the executive committee and all that was going on, do we cancel our services? Do we suspend public worship? Now no matter where you are on the issue now, mid-March everyone's wondering what's going on. At that time there's the rumours that the Olympics are going to be cancelled. Not just in America, not just the NBA that happened that day, I think, or maybe the previous day. But Olympics and everything is just a swirling news headlines of huge organizations, massive events that, I mean, we're organizing church, but this is tiny. These are massive. There's millions, maybe even billions poured into some of these events. And so we're trying to process all of this and think about what to do. And while I struggled with the very thought of suspending corporate worship, here we are discussing the matter and we decided to suspend. We went with the recommendation and the elders decided and that was the direction that we went. And I presented the case to our congregation from specifically Christ's healing on the Sabbath recorded in Matthew chapter 12 and Luke chapter 6 where he heals the man with a withered hand and he quotes in Matthew 12 from Hosea chapter 6 verse 6. For I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. And this application, therefore, you see the Lord elevates mercy above sacrifice. Even though sacrifices were instituted and commanded by God, there is this elevation of mercy. And in light of the transmission rate of the virus and the danger posed to people, at least as far as we were understanding at the time, certainly, I said to our church, and I quote now, though God called his people to sacrifice and though he mandated burnt offerings, what supersedes obedience to these matters is showing mercy. God mandates corporate worship, but never if it would impede mercy. The same principle that undergirds the Christian who misses worship to take care of a loved one is the same principle that undergirds the suspension of our services. mercy. That's the response in our hearts and the reason for what we decided. And in total we suspended corporate worship on the Lord's Day for seven consecutive Lord's Days. And in that time, you think, At least you should. Sometimes your thinking is a lot better when you turn off all the other voices and you just think about matters before the Lord. And in my thinking, I realized something. That when we asked, should we suspend our services, at least maybe, and I came to the feeling myself that this is the wrong question. So I want to share with you how I resolved that and other practical lessons I have learned through this time. My aim is to give you principles not just for coronavirus 2020, but that would be applied in other crises. Things you can take away. If you hear this, And then you find yourself in a crisis. You think, you know, he touched on some things. And that may be helpful to go back and consider those matters. So I've read from 1 Peter chapter 4. I don't plan to expound on the text. That's certainly my comfort level, just to stay to the text and give thoughts from it. But there are some things in this text that relate to the points that I will draw out. And I have five C's for you this morning. So if you follow along, you will see each of these. The first one is the most important, and perhaps I will spend more time in it. We'll see how the Lord leads in all this. But the first one is convictions. Convictions. If you look at verse 11, we are told, if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If you're going to speak, speak out. of speaking on behalf of God with the truth of God. And if you're going to do that, you need to be aware, you have to have this sense of conviction about what it is that you are communicating. Now when I use the word convictions, I mean in a narrow sense. You can use the word convictions in a broader sense, really as synonymous with the term beliefs. I believe this. These are my convictions. And you can apply it in that way and it fits. But what I'm thinking here this morning is that narrow sense of conviction, those beliefs that are immovable when faced with resistance. For example, our belief that the Bible is the word of God ought to be a conviction that is immovable. And if we're given the choice between denying that truth and taking a bullet to the brain, we hope we would fall on the side of, I'll take the bullet. That's how important it is. I cannot deny the fact that God's word is the inspired, inerrant, infallible word of the living God. To deny that is to deny God. Therefore better that I die than deny that truth. It's immovable. I can't budge on that conviction. I have other beliefs. As I say, I may use the term conviction. But this understanding of the Word of God is immovable. I cannot budge from it. And I could give other examples as well. In every crisis, you can expect at least one of your convictions, and I'm using that narrowly again, You can expect at least one of your convictions, your deeply held beliefs, the things that really when I analyse you say this is immovable. You can expect them to be challenged. So on March 18 our session faced a question that challenged that does this belief that we in leadership in the church have a responsibility to facilitate the assembly of God's people. We recall the Lord's people together. And we believe that. And the question is, is that a conviction that is meant to be immovable? Is that something like the Bible is the Word of God? The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, in his book, The Antichrist, elevated skepticism and criticized men of conviction He said, quote, great intellects are sceptical. But, and I quote again, men of convictions are prisoners. And I think I understand what he was getting at. The Pharisees, for example, had certain convictions about the Sabbath. And they refused to tolerate the miracles of mercy performed by Jesus on the Sabbath day. They had no room for it. Their conviction, their understanding of a behavior on the Sabbath allowed no room for Christ to show mercy in the way that he frequently did. Such convictions made them prisoners, unwilling to permit actions that would apparently break the Sabbath in order to help those in need of mercy. Westminster Divines, of course, did not take this position. They understood and argued for the legitimate place of, quote, works of necessity and mercy on the Sabbath day, on the Christian Sabbath, the Lord's day. And on this basis, for even before then but certainly after, Christians can in good conscience and do work on the Lord's day doing what must be done because not to do so would be unmerciful. And so again this is the basis that we presented this to our congregation. We suspended services in light of it being an act of mercy. This transmits easily. People's lives are in danger. Certainly a certain demographic of the congregation need to take precaution. So in mercy, let's just suspend the services. We put mercy before sacrifice. Seen in that light, our personal assembly with the saints is subservient to our personal call to acts of mercy. But when you look at Christians that are placed in a scenario of Either or. Now to attend church means to neglect some loved one who needs 24 hour care. They have no option. They have to decide. Am I going to neglect or just act in faith and leave them alone when they need attention moment by moment? I'm not going to do that. It's an act of mercy for me to stay with them, to be with them, to care for them. And so in that scenario, in good conscience, I don't have to be at the house of God even though God calls us to assemble together. That's an either-or scenario. So it's either sacrifice or mercy. You choose. But what if they could sacrifice and show mercy? What should they do then? Well, Jesus answered this question. In Matthew chapter 23, as he is addressing very soberly the Pharisees and the hypocrisy, he says in verse 23, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay a tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Jesus did not call them to pit acts of mercy against tithing of mint. He called upon them to do both. Now if it is a question of either or, then you elevate mercy above sacrifice. But not every scenario is an either or and you have to analyse what scenario you are in and determine on that basis. And in consideration of this, as I thought when I returned to the question we faced on March 18, in light of the pandemic, do we cancel our services? I realised that we had asked the question that demanded an either or response. when the circumstances, at least perhaps, did not necessitate it. So when I returned to the Bible, and this all came to light as I returned to the Bible and studied, well why do we gather in the first place? And that's why I begin with convictions. Because I went back to the Word of God. Why do we assemble? And I'm not going to expound that part. I'm not dealing with the assembly of the saints. That would be more narrowly relating to our present crisis. But just taking it as an illustration and laying that was part of the The convictions that I had to re-establish in my own heart. And so I learned Hebrews chapter 2 verse 12. Jesus calls his people to assemble together on the Lord's day because it is the desire of the risen Christ to acknowledge his gathered people as brethren. And the writer to the Hebrews in Hebrews 2.12 is quoting from Psalm 22, verse 22, which is the first text that comes after Psalm 22, well known as addressing prophetically the sufferings of Christ on the cross. And the first verse after the verses that deal with the suffering, the first verse that indicates his risen duty, his risen response, is to be with his people, to worship them, and declare them to be his brethren. which you see applied in the risen Christ, immediately following, where is he? He's found with his people, John 20, assembling with them that night, and again the following week and so on. Romans 15, verses 8 and 9, Jesus calls his people to assemble together on the Lord's day so that he can do what he never did during his earthly ministry, namely, sing with the Gentiles. He didn't do that in his physical form, but Romans 15 verses 8 and 9 says he does it through the church when they assemble together. Thirdly, Hebrews 10 verses 23 through 25, more common perhaps, Jesus calls his people to assemble together on the Lord's day to preserve souls from apostasy. There are three things motivating us to gather. I'm understanding this. I'm just taking you through my thoughts and study. Three things. The will of Christ. He gathers us together. It is His will to be there. The conversion of the Gentiles and the preservation of the church. Those three things. That's why we come together. A synopsis, an insight into why. And in light of this, I was brought to realize that the question and I charitably use the word perhaps, should never have been, do we cancel our meetings or not? But is there a way to facilitate the assembly of God's people for those willing to gather while giving consideration to the reality of the pandemic? Is there a way? And it may look very different, and I'll get to some of that in just a moment. But it was the fresh conviction concerning these things that gave me clarity to reframe the question. To realize that the question was the wrong question to ask. And that's why I begin, if you have this immovable conviction that Christ assembles his people together. Let's not forget that first Lord's Day they were gathered together for fear of the Jews. And they would have had motivation to not be together, and to scatter and to blend in with the crowd. But they came together, and Christ is there with them that first Lord's Day evening after the resurrection. So when you establish your conviction, and you'll see this, if you're ever in a time of crisis in the church, and perhaps it may apply in other areas as well, but we're thinking of the church particularly, your convictions are vital. When someone pulls a question to you and it challenges the conviction that you have made to be an immovable point in your life, you will rebut it with, is that really the way we have to do it? Could it be reframed? Could we do something else? Why does it have to be strictly this way? But you will not, or I should say, you're less likely to challenge that when you are without clarity on your convictions. Church leaders must have, must be, men who possess and carry out their convictions. Otherwise, we'll be blown about Whatever the culture says, dictates, mandates, will just drift and move and blow around. And it's because we don't have these immovable convictions. Not that we're prisoners like the Pharisees were. But there has to be the immovable truths, the things we say, this is what God's word says. I'm not denying the possibility at times where you may come to the realization, yes, it is the right thing not to gather at all. I'm not saying that you can't come to that conclusion. I'm saying with the convictions, you won't just allow face value to be put in a position of either or. You will say, well, this means so much to me. How can I honor this conviction? in light of the circumstances we find ourselves in. Convictions, then, are utterly crucial. The second C, then, is creativity. Creativity. You can see in verse 11 of where we read in 1 Peter chapter 4, if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth. Isn't that an interesting way of describing the variety that there is in the church? You work according to the ability God gives. And you can't do beyond that. But in that, therefore, there is a variability among people and there is there is an ability to see things differently at times that some people possess that others do not. Now that brings us then to consider the whole aspect of creativity because creativity really is something that God gives and some have it in greater measure than others. And when you're dealing with a crisis you're going to see that creativity is an important thing. And it stems from the convictions. Because once you have the immovable, you'll also realize that there are some things that are not immovable. Some things that matter less. So, two things. First, creativity finds an alternative to the traditional. Creativity finds an alternative to the traditional. Once you establish your immovable convictions, Inevitably, there will be, as I say, matters of less importance and you need creativity to think outside the ruts established by good and essential at times traditions. They're good traditions that we perform every Lord's Day in this case and in other areas of our lives. These are good traditions and there should be ruts because we traverse them in the understanding that this is best. However, some of what we do is not as crucial. They're not as immovable. And therefore, we have to think beyond. Well, this is what we've always done. For example, and again, in the direct relationship of the crises that we are in, facilitating the assembly of the saints is essential. But the time of day is not. So some churches that have a meeting outside, because of the heat, they gather at 8 or 9 a.m. in the morning. Is that wrong? No! That makes perfect sense. You've determined you can't meet in a building. It's not the wisest thing to do. We're going to meet outside. Well, don't bring everyone out in the heat of the noonday sun when you have the option of coming earlier when it's cooler and more comfortable and facilitates better worship and people are in a better frame of mind. Singing is essential when we gather and assemble, but a piano and an organ are not. We don't have to have them. I'm thankful for them. But we don't have to have them. We need to break away. We need to realize, well, we're not going to drag the organ and the pipes or whatever outside or to another building or the grand piano and kind of wheel it out into the yard of the church. You're not gonna do that. That should be fine. You should be able to think beyond. Okay, someone has an accordion. Someone has a violin. Maybe no one plays anything and just let's go acapella. Prayer is essential, but doing it inside is not. You don't have to be inside to pray. You can do it with the birds chirping in your ears. It's perfectly fine. Reading and preaching of the word is essential, but the length of time we give to it is not set in stone. So if we're standing outside and you feel the heat or something else is going on, you see the clouds gathering and you're thinking, you know, let's just wrap this up. You know, that's 15-20 minutes. When normally it's 45. You shouldn't be the pastor teaching elder who says, no, if it's not 45 to 60 minutes, it's not a sermon. No, that's... No, you have to move with some of these things. So you get the idea. Creativity finds an alternative to the traditional. The traditional may be good. It shouldn't be dispensed with as if it's unimportant. But in crises, you have to think clearly. You have to recognize, well, this is essential. These other things, you know, we can bring them back again when things change, but they're not necessary. I went through a host of ideas in my mind. A host. You know, we could meet outside. We could meet once instead of twice. I mean, I was getting to a point at one stage where, let's break up the congregation. I'll preach 10 times in the Lord's day. I don't care. Just spread them all out. I mean, that was where I was going in my mind. But I work with elders. I work with a session. So you have to work with everyone's input matters. You could rent a larger auditorium. You know, all of these things are going through my mind, but here's the thing again. Once you are clear on the immovable convictions, you can start moving the other pieces around and adapting. As I say, preferable than to an either-or scenario is, well, We can continue with this immovable conviction but we change some of those things that are less important. So creativity finds an alternative to the traditional and also creativity finds a compromise in the impossible. It finds a compromise in the impossible. There may be times in a crisis when you simply cannot do what you normally do. It may be a result of the circumstances or it may be the result of a decision. So we made a decision not to assemble, not to gather. And I noted as I observed what other churches were doing, and so on, some of them were taking a strong stand that we will not live stream the word of God. Because they did, such was their conviction on assembly that they did not want to teach their people that Being at home watching on in any way is equivalent to the assembly of the saints. So rather than feed them on that, let's just stop it all together. But I'm not sure that was the wisest thing. If you make the decision that we're not going to assemble, are you just going to leave the people? And the only information, the only teaching and instruction they're getting is the news and the headlines? That would be helpful. So we made our decision. Creativity finds a compromise in the impossible. If we're not going to be gathering, then the compromise is to get the word out in whatever way you can. Livestream the messages and get some way of feeding the flock, even if it's a deficient form of feeding the flock. So it takes an element of creativity in a crisis. You have to be able to be creative. You need to be willing even to invite others in. Most of our conversations in dealing with all of this were with the session, that is, with the elders of the church. But at a deacon meeting, I said to the deacons, I said, look, if you have some insight here, if you have help, please come. If we're missing something or you can see something that could be done, please let us know. If we take the position that we cannot honour our immovable convictions without holding our preferential traditions, we will fail to act in the will of God. So there needs to be a measure of compromise at times where we can. Thirdly, communication. Now the communication spoken of in this passage is that with the Lord, in verse 7, Be therefore sober and watch unto prayer. And that's part of the communication of several points of communication I'll deal with here. First, communication with God. It never ceases to amaze me how much clarity I can gain in a matter either in prayer or meditation on the Word. And I wonder at myself, why? You know, because you can pray and read the Word in a hasty manner and in a non-meditative manner. So you do it and you go through it, but it's not in light of the problems that you're facing. But when you give yourself to prayer and the Word in light of the problems, I never cease to be amazed at the clarity gained when before God with an issue and His Word and in communion with God, you begin to get clarity on those issues. So communication with God is crucial. Whatever crises you're in, church crises, family crises, anything, you must be in communion with God. And if you have been neglecting communion with God, you need to get there. Because all you're talking with the experts and all your research on Google for how to deal with this prodigal child and so on and so forth, I mean you can get all the answers that man and his wisdom can give. But if you're not walking in communion with God, you're essentially walking in unbelief and denial of the one who's really able to help you deal with the issues that you face. Communication with God, then, is essential. It almost doesn't need to be said, but I say it. Because as much as we are intellectually aware of this, when you forget. Communication then among leaders. That's the second part of communication. In a crisis, they can feel very alone. It's easy to feel alone. A family facing a family crisis, one of the difficulties is they feel alone. They can't talk to anyone. A marriage in crisis. They can't talk to anyone, at least they feel they can't talk to anyone. It's very lonely, it's very dark. So when you're dealing with a crisis in the church, the last thing you want to be doing is not communicating with those appointed to help you in leadership. If the elders normally meet once a month in a time of crisis, you can expect to meet more frequently. And they should expect it. You should expect it. And start again thinking to yourself, we only meet once a month. It's not scheduled. Forget it. You're in a crisis. You have to meet. You have to respond. You have to look at the matter. And whatever normally takes up your time in an evening, you need to set that aside. You need to deal with it. And deal with it with the men that God has appointed to stand with you. There must be frequent open communication between those making decisions. It's hard for the pastor, and I just say this then for those who are working with your pastor, working with someone who chairs the meeting, a good chair is reticent to always input his opinion and shape the direction of where things should go. He doesn't want to be the guy just asking the elders to come and rubber stamp his decisions. That's not chairing a meeting. That's not how a church should be. So the chair who tends to be the pastor in the context of a church will often be, if he's any kind of a man, he will be reticent in sharing his opinion. So just be aware of that. it may be that you have to ask them, we're all over the place with this, or we have our thoughts but we haven't really heard from you. That was just something I saw myself, I was very hesitant to bring matters of my own heart and I think it was wise actually. It's a wise thing to do. I stand by not being a dictator in Kirk Sessions. But you just have to be careful. Communication is really important. Communication with the leaders. And thirdly then, communication with those you oversee. Communication with those you oversee. In a church context, again, you oversee people. You oversee the families and the members of the church. And there are three ways you need to consider communication to them, at least three. There must be communication to inform. Keep them in the loop, up to speed on developments and changes. You don't have to tell them all the minutes of the meeting, you just have to give an idea of like, here's where we are, here's where we're going, here's why. And do your best at that. Now, inevitably, someone's still not going to get the message. Someone's going to miss the email. Someone's not going to listen when you were announcing it in the live webcast. And they're going to feel like you're not communicating. 90% of the people got this. They knew it because we did. We sent emails. So that happens. But there is a notice in leadership and in dealing with matters of a crisis where communication must be as clear as possible. Communication to inform. There's also communication to inquire. You need to inquire. How are they doing? Especially the vulnerable in the church. How are you doing? And this way it may not always be coming from the pastor, but others. I'm recruiting others to help you with those that are vulnerable. checking on them, especially those you know that don't have a child that can take care of them, that lives near to them, you must be inquiring. In the middle of the crisis, in the cloud of decision making, it's easy to forget that there are people on the ground in your congregation that are afraid to go and get a loaf of bread. You need to make yourself available, make church people available to go and do groceries, check on them, take them to their doctor's appointments and all the rest. Now it becomes even more important in a time of crisis because in a time of crisis many conscientious individuals will be saying well they're so busy with this and so busy with that and they won't come to you and they will suffer in silence. So you need to inquire. You need to put the opportunity before them. Ask them. Talk to them. A crisis creates most fear among those that have least support. And thirdly, communication to instruct. Inform, inquire, and instruct. You need to help them think through the crisis. When, again, what was it? 22nd of March. There was just like a nosedive in the market. It was just boom. And you're seeing this and it's 5% down. It was going crazy. I mean, the market was 5% up, 7% down. It was insane. And I'm looking out on a people, well, looking out on imaginary people. In fact, I think I did preach on it because it was happening before we cancelled our services. But you have to address those fears. those concerns about the 401k that they thought this is going to get me through the next 20-30 years of retirement and they're watching massive chunks of their money just disappear into the ether. And you have to then instruct their minds. Console their hearts. When the economy is shaky, address the fears. When jobs are being lost, address the concerns. When the virus is spreading, calm the nerves. This is your responsibility. If you're in any position of leadership or even among your family, even as a father, do not be a father running around the home with all that anxiety pent up and sharing it and concern and looking at the news and being angry and cross and your children are watching you engage with the affairs in such a way that increases their anxiety. So that's what's going on in families. And you need to address that. You need to calm that. to get people to calibrate their thinking by the word of God and the promises of God and the assurances that God has given to all his people regardless of what is going on in the circumstances of their lives. But come then, I should just say, in terms of communication with your people, instructing them, try to put yourself where they are as well. Whatever the crisis, try to put yourself where they are. The first, approaching the first Lord's Day that we did not gather, I immediately, my mind was, these homes, especially with young children, are going to be a mess. Without the structure of two services on a Lord's Day, without what they normally do, on a Lord's Day, they're just going to be all over the place. So I wrote a fairly lengthy, just encouragement in terms of, here's how to approach the day, with your family, how to begin the day, how to structure the day, give it a sense of structure, with the live streams, how to fill in the extra time, what to do, and so on and so forth. And I ended up, you know, be careful what you do and what you put out there. Because one of my elders then took what I had written and posted it on the church Facebook page. And then the editor of the Denomination magazine reads it and goes, hey, could you do that for an article in the magazine? So be careful what you do. You gave yourself extra work. But try to help the families of the church. Thinking through their difficulties. Sending emails with resources. When you find out that because of what's going on, some people are helping, reaching out, making things available for free, send them. You come across something, you get an email that, hey, this is really great. They're giving this stuff away for free. Families are all at home with children wondering what to do. Don't keep it to yourself. Get it out there. Let your people be aware of the resources available. and try to walk with them through all that's going on. Fourthly, conflict. Conflict. You can see in verse 8 of the text we read, and above all things have fervent charity among yourselves for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Matthew Henry famously said, peace is such a precious jewel that I would give anything for it but truth. And if you're a crisis, you can pretty much guarantee there's going to be a measure of conflict. I mean, you're daft if you don't realize that. I mean, that's the first point in relation to conflict. You need to expect it. You need to expect it. You're thrown into turmoil and you think everyone's going to think exactly the same about what to do, how to respond, how to analyze information we're receiving, who's telling the truth, how to process the data, what the right response is. You think everyone's just going to be a cohesive unit? When they're listening to different friends, you have some people and their son or their daughter is a doctor. So they're taking very much a mainstream perspective, giving all the numbers, all the fears, telling you that when we see the scans of the lungs with someone who's COVID, it looks like someone with pneumonia. And they're telling you it's very dangerous, therefore it damages the lungs. So they're telling you all of that. And then, of course, there are other people analysing data in a different way. So to imagine that there's going to be no conflict in a crisis is naive. So the first thing in a conflict is expect it. Crisis creates conflict. And while some of it can be greatly helped or mitigated by good communication, as we've talked about, there's no foolproof way, underline it, no foolproof way to prevent a measure of conflict. And as much as the scripture encourages and gives clear instruction to the Lord's people to practice peace, Matthew 5, 9, and do your best to be at peace with all men, Romans 12, 18, it recognizes that conflict is a reality in a fallen world. The Lord's not in denial about it. It's not when there's conflict, the Bible says, just get over it. Matthew 18 days with the steps of resolving conflict and so on. But I'm beginning with this first thought. Expect it. Expect it. Prepare your heart for it. Do not be surprised if hurts inflicted in years past rise like fresh wounds amidst the crisis that you're now in. Expectation of difficulty and conflict is a matter of self-preservation. To be caught off guard is to create an opportunity for discouragement to set in. Therefore, expect conflict. Secondly, preempt it. Preempt the conflict. Prepare the mindset of your people by preempting the conflict and the differing opinions. That's what I was doing the first Lord's Day. Say less, believe God, pray more. Where am I getting the focus of the people? On to the news? No. Social media? No. I'm getting their minds to the Lord. Stop speaking, because you don't know what's going on. And every day you have a conversation based upon the latest piece of information, and you're back here, and you're over there, and now you're here. This person, did you listen? This expert, and this expert says this, and you're just all over the place. Just shh. Shh. Say less. That's what David says in that psalm. I said in my haste. Stop. Say less. I'm pre-empting. That's what I'm trying to do. I'm getting up there. Pre-empting what they're going to do. And what the pastor is probably going to do. In his folly at times as well. So say less. Believe God. Just keep looking to Him. Pray more. That's pre-empting, preparing the mind of the people. Right, you're preaching on forgiveness, love of the brethren, unity of saints. All of this is necessary. You can see it right here in the text. Above all things have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Yes, above all things, above all the hoopla, Of the circumstances we find ourselves in, whether 1st century or 21st century, above all that, have fervent charity among yourselves. Don't be looking at members of the congregation. And because perhaps there's already a history there of differing opinions, you have blue collar or white collar, you have other distinctions in the church, and there's been maybe a history of hurt or words that have been spoken, And then you get a crisis that just exacerbates things. So preempt it. The very nature of a crisis means you're dealing with something that is rarely experienced. And you, nor anyone else, is going to get every decision correct. And even if you do, the environment of the crisis will make sure that others do not understand either your action or your inaction. They won't always get it. So the way you lead in the understanding that conflict is very likely, to some greater or lesser degree, expect it, preempt it, and then, of course, thirdly, resolve it. You have to have the courage to walk with people through the conflicts, especially when it gets personal, and starts hindering the testimony of the church. You may find yourself sitting, and of course I speak to church leaders predominantly here, but you realize an office bearer has gone silent. They're gathering together, but he's never giving his mind. He's not sharing his opinion, because he thinks his opinion will cause a problem. It's going against the grain of what other men are saying. But his silence, his deliberate silence, is noticeable. And that causes a problem. Everyone can see it. They can sense it. They think they're withdrawing from the issue. They think that they're not causing. They're trying to stop the problem. But their deliberate silence actually just highlights the fact that there is an issue. So you need to detect that. Talk to that person. You're not saying much. What's that? And talking through it. Help them to see that their science is not helping. That's what they think it's doing, but it's not. Others who maybe have a wrong manner, who you can see they're impatient with. Others who don't have the same opinion need to address that as well. Resolving these things. If you find a member of the church is struggling with what people are posting on Facebook, help them to see that the crisis is simply a tiny mark in the history of their lives. It seems so huge when everyone's talking about it, but tell me, what do you remember about other things that have happened? You remember at the event, oh, we remember, I remember Ebola. Do you remember all the little details? Do you remember some of the other tragedies of this land, 9-11? There are details you remember. But wouldn't it be awful if you were splitting with family and ruining relationships in the midst of the crisis and the emotional aspects of what's going on in the crisis? When will you look back and say, it came and it went? What was all the hurt and the name-calling? What was it all about? So, resolve and work to resolve and help people and encourage them not to make reactive decisions amidst an uncertain time. I'm resigning the church. Do you really want to do that just because you disagree? Maybe, maybe, you know, okay, we took seven weeks off. Maybe you would have been back in three. Once you realise what was going on, you think, well, this is being hyped up. Are you going to walk away over the difference of four weeks and beginning church? Really? But this is what crises do. They cause tension. They cloud vision. So I say to the leaders particularly, do not be overwhelmed by the opposition. Do everything in your power to link arms with the office bearers of the church, elders and deacons. charge them with reminders that the tone of the people's feelings in the church will come from the leadership of the elders and deacons. And so deacons and elders, as they mingle with the people, as they hear little, why are we not this? Or how come we did that? Their job, if they care for the unity of saints, is to, I understand where you're coming from, but is to give the perspective of the leadership, is to help. They may not even agree necessarily, but if you're actually working to maintain charity among brethren and work for the cohesion of the mission of the church, good leaders will listen, but they also guide people to see, well that's one way of looking at it, but let's understand another way of looking at it. If you don't do that, if you have members in the leadership of the church who are not doing that, it'll cause exactly what we're warned in Proverbs 26, verses 20 and 21, where no wood is, there the fire goeth out. So where there is no tailbearer, the strife ceases. As coals are to burning coals and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife. When the issue is there, pull out the wood. The spark is there of discontent, pull the wood away. And always remember that negative voices nearly always appear louder than supportive voices. And it's not always representative of what's going on. So exhibit, in a crisis then, in terms of conflict, try to rally especially the office bearers, but the entire troops of the Lord people. Link arms and love fiercely. Prioritize loyalty to the cause of Christ. Not to vein opinions. That brings us fifthly then, leads into this. Commission. Commission. We have a commission. Of course, in part you see it reflected in verse 11. That God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ. That all things may be glorified. That's what we're committed to do. We're called to do this. And in the glorification of God, it has many aspects. But I focus here, as I draw to a close, upon the outworking of the church's mission to the world. In a crisis, it is very easy to become looking in, considering everything that is internal, reacting to the problems, responding to this disagreement, hearing that this person has an issue, and you just go around and just kind of knock in the head this and the other and that and just try to silence this person, make this person think differently, help them with this, and you can spend all day doing that. But in a crisis, you must continue with the outworking of the mission of the church. It's commissioned to preach Christ to every creature. The Apostle Paul amidst his own crisis and those of Philippi concerned about him, he alleviates that concern by saying, I would you should understand brethren, that the things which happen unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. Don't think that this is stopping God. And I'm not sitting here bemoaning the crisis of me being imprisoned and not in the marketplaces and the synagogues. I'm not doing that. They're souls that God is chaining me to. They can go nowhere. And I get to preach and pray in front of them all day long. And so there's always a Caesar's householder getting converted. And actually, they send greetings to you, by the way. So God's doing a work. The church is going forward. And amidst all that we've considered, in the midst of a crisis, it's very important that we have still doing what we can. Now the present crisis has hemmed things in. Our juvenile detention centre won't let us in. The Generation Boys Home where boys have been abused and stuff, we can't get in. But it hasn't stopped everything. Those involved with Generations particularly have been doing videos and sending videos in. Bible verses, Bible messages, singing to them. memory work whatever sending it in to these teenage boys reminding them that we still love you we want to be there to minister to you and as soon as we can be there we will be there we haven't forgotten and of course this church is well aware that we had our we have annual vps vacation bible school and i can see everything is transpiring i'm not directly involved in the leadership of that but again we had a session meeting And one of our elders, of course, is directly involved with that. And I can see where things are going. And I said to him, what would be the final day? You have to decide whether we can go forward with this. And he gave a date and so on. I said, look, I'm throwing it out there. How about if we can't do it in person, we do it virtually? And his jaw nearly hit the floor. I was like, what would that look like? And how could we do that? And he was, but here's the thing. I knew if I waited to suggest that after they decided to cancel everything, that the likelihood was that we're just not going ahead with it. But I planted a seed. And I've been preaching along these lines. We need to keep reaching where we can. And I planted to say, when you're making that decision, whether we can go forward, consider the possibility of doing it virtually. And so they did. It wasn't the same as having the kids together. It's not the same. Just as it's not the same to be in a pulpit preaching to an empty auditorium, looking at a camera lens and hoping people are listening. It's not the same at all. But it was something. And the Lord used it to encourage families that were able to come together and do the craft and hear the stories. And even just before I left on Monday, I got a letter from two older people. I think this lady is maybe, I don't know. She's older anyway. I'm not going to say what age she is. I'm not sure. But her and her husband are older. And they had just finished going through the VBS themselves. And they were really encouraged by it. And they're somewhere out west, hundreds of thousands of miles away. So, the Commission, you must continue in the midst of a crisis to think about building, not just maintaining and patching in holes. There needs to be that outward focus. Don't miss the opportunities that are created by the crises, because there are some. So keep building, keep winning people for Jesus Christ, shift gears, Come at it from a different way and the Lord will bless our meagre efforts as we do what we can amidst the crisis. We're going to be hearing things later today and tomorrow that will help us and prepare us in that outward working of the church. May God give us ears to hear. May we have courage. This will pass. It will go away. It will become a distant memory. And let not the church falter. Let her not be torn apart by arguments over the viability of masks and what they're going to do in forcing us to be vaccinated. Do I have an opinion on these things? Sure. But the church must keep focus. Put it this way. If you're going to be remembered, and you will, For one thing, is it going to be that I never once put a mask on? Or will it be, amidst all the nonsense, I kept telling people about the Lord Jesus? May the Lord bless His Word. Let's pray. God, we are thankful for Thy Word and for thy grace to us and we may not have come through this present crisis in the way that has best glorified thee and we confess where we may have fallen short in our understanding and in our action and decision making how much more wisdom we need but thou knowest our hearts continually we have sought to glorify thee and while lessons may be learned We are thankful that we aren't the king upon the throne, that Christ is ruling and reigning. And even amidst our errors of judgment, he rules and reigns. And we pray that we would still be in the battle, waging warfare with the devil and winning perishing souls to Christ. Continue to bless us in our fellowship and our hearing and meditating upon the word these days. And we'll give thee praise in Jesus' name. Amen.