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Living Hope SDA Church

Christian Martin

The Painful Side of Social-Distancing and its Remedy

Father in heaven, Lord, we are so thankful, even beyond words that we can express in human language for your unending love, for your amazing grace.

And today, Lord, we open our hearts to receive all of it, all that you have in store for us today.

And just now, Lord, as we open the living word of God, We pray that it would speak gently yet powerfully to our hearts today as we seek to hear your voice and receive a message from you for us today.

That is what experts are now calling COVID-19.

This worldwide pandemic has caused a public health crisis, a global economic upheaval and widespread uncertainty.

If only the coronavirus could be as easily contained as our other viruses in a game board called pandemic.

Many studies have shown that people can be contagious 48 to 72 hours before starting to experience any kind of symptoms.

In other words, that is to say that they can be contagious before they even know that they have been infected.

The first known case in the United States of America was confirmed January 21 and now less than 5 months later more than 1.3 million are infected and more than 75, 000 have died on US soil.

And for this reason, certain measures have been taken to stop or slow down the virus or the spread of this highly contagious disease.

As all of you know, 1 of those measures is called social distancing.

Although the term was only introduced in the 21st century, social distancing measures back to at least the 5th century BC.

In fact, did you know that the Bible contains 1 of the earliest known references to the practice of social distancing in the book of Leviticus?

That's right, Leviticus chapter 13, verse 46, actually mentions the practice of social distancing.

It reads, and the leper in whom the plague is, he shall dwell alone.

Outside the camp shall be his habitation.

And so the practice of self or social distancing, although it may be helpful in preventing the spread of disease, today I've come to the conclusion that social distancing goes contrary to the human psyche.

After all, Genesis chapter 2, verse 18, records that our creator himself made the declaration, it is not good for man to be alone.

The apostle Paul experienced social distancing while in the island of Patmos, and he longed for the day when, as recorded in Revelation 21, verse 1, there shall be no more sea.

That is to say, no more separation, no more distancing, no more isolation.

Paul longed for the day that he would no longer have to be distanced from his friends, from his relatives, from those closest to him.

White, prolific and inspired Christian author in the mid-1800s, made this statement, man was not made to dwell in solitude.

Joshua Morgenstein, he's a disaster mental health expert, He concluded that for some people, and I quote, a lack of social connectedness feels as impactful as not eating.

You know, regardless of one's temperament, I've come to believe that in every heart, in every human heart, there is a healthy yearning to know and to be known by someone else.

There is a yearning in the heart for intimacy.

There is a yearning in the heart to connect, to be united together with.

There's a longing in the heart to love freely and to be loved in return.

That's why this social distancing just does not feel right.

And because that's the longing of the human heart, we have different things that bring people together.

1 of those is something that's well quite popular.

In fact, their mission includes, and I quote, to bring the world close together.

Facebook, it was created in 2004 in a Harvard dorm room for a class project.

His name was Mark Zuckerberg and he turned his social networking website into a global phenomenon in just 5 short years.

That's because he tapped into the human spirit.

To friend someone, to update your status, or write on your wall has become lingo for more than 2.45 billion Facebook users today.

This includes people in every continent, including Antarctica.

There's someone there with a Facebook account.

If Facebook were a country, it would be the most populated in the world, with nearly a billion more users than the population of China.

1.73 billion people on average log on to Facebook daily and are considered daily active users.

This reveals something about the human spirit.

The reality is is that we are driven by an innate desire to belong, to connect, to identify with, to have a shared experience.

No wonder in the last few weeks and couple of months, no longer the headlines have recently read that in some states, large crowds have headed to the beaches despite the statewide stay-at-home orders.

Why is there an open disregard for social distancing rules?

Because human beings can't help but to want to congregate together with other human beings.

It's the way we were wired, it's the way we were created.

God designed us to long for companionship, to long for community, to long for connection, for togetherness, for sweet fellowship, to desire all these things as a result of sharing common attitudes and interest and goals.

An enemy who has his own demonic interest.

This enemy is known as the devil and Satan.

And he comes for a single purpose, and that is to separate, to isolate, and to distance the hearts of the fathers from their children.

He wants to distance the hearts of the fathers from their children.

He wants to distance the hearts of the children from their fathers.

He wants to distance the hearts of spouses from each other.

To distance the hearts of disciples from their fellow disciples in the body of Christ.

Today we're going to take a close look at the painful side of social distancing.

Jesus himself exposed the enemy's tactics when he said that the thief only comes to steal and to kill and to destroy.

He comes to kill our love and he comes to destroy us.

By hugging us with his lies, with his lies.

If there was 1 reality, something that we all ought to be aware of that exposes the enemy's tactics is this, that the only power that the father of lies can exercise in our life is the power of the lie.

His bewitching influence brings us under his sway.

The Bible, the Bible calls it stronghold.

The term stronghold appears about 50 times in the Bible.

A stronghold In the mind is a spiritual fortress made of wrong thoughts.

It's a fortified dwelling place where demonic forces can hide and operate and power against us.

It's giving the enemy a base of operation by which he can continue to create havoc in our lives and hold us under his sway.

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The Painful Side of Social-Distancing and its Remedy

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