Ryan Swanson: Survive or thrive? What does God expect of his church right now? While most of us are strategizing to maintain our relationship with the Lord, little attention is given to a game-changing promise. Today, Ryan Swanson challenges our goals for the coming weeks with an intriguing look into the panic promise. Hello and welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. This is Ryan Swanson and I’m broadcasting from, you guessed it, the safety of my own home. as most of us are to some degree quarantined right now. But I want to take a few minutes here to focus on this crisis that we’re in and really ask ourselves, are we accomplishing what we’re supposed to be during this time? Are we living up to God’s expectations for his people in such a crisis, in such a time of panic and pandemonium? Are we living up to the expectation that God has of us? There’s so many questions that have arisen about this pandemic, And most of them begin with, well, if I was the president or if I were the governor or the principal of my school or the boss at work, I would do things differently. I would do it this way if I were them. Rather than focus on everyone else and the politics of this whole crisis, what if we take a few minutes and look at ourselves, as painful as it may be, and ask instead of what would I do, ask what can I do, what should I do, what have I been doing? and is that lining up with God’s expectation? Much of the chaos and confusion that have characterized this crisis have been more of a result of our response to the crisis than the actual virus itself. And I don’t want to get into the politics and everything and what you view on that, but I do want to take a look at our response. When it was first declared to be a pandemic on about March 11th. That word reminded me of something I’d heard several years earlier. It was on a trip to Israel in 2017. We were at a city called Caesarea Philippi. And I’ll try to paint this picture for you. This is at the base of Mount Hermon. And there is a cave at the base of this mountain that used to be known for a stream that would come out of it. Now there’s a stream now, but it doesn’t flow from the cave. It’s right beside it. We actually caught a crab in that stream. I do remember that. But this stream used to flow, as I said, directly from the mouth of this cave. And the people at the time, the Greeks, didn’t know what to think of that other than to assume that it was coming from a different world. They deemed this the underworld. So this cave in the mountain was alleged to be the opening or the gates to the underworld. And because of this, they saw fit to build a temple in front of this cave to a god. This was the god Pan. Now this mythical half-man, half-goat god was known to sleep in that cave. And if he was accidentally awoken, he would let out a horrific scream that would cause, you guessed it, panic. That’s where we get that word, panic. Now I know, how random is this? The words that we use all the time, panic, pandemonium, they’re resulting from a Greek god who didn’t like to be woken up, and when he did, would evidently scream so loud that it would scare everyone into panic. I had to laugh at that. I don’t know if you know someone who is very dramatic when they’re woken up, but there was a gentleman who I went to school with, who will remain unnamed for obvious reasons, I remember his freshman year, he told several of us that he had this terrible habit. When he was awoken by someone shaking him or poking him, he would automatically swing in their direction with a fist. And it was inadvertent. He didn’t mean to. He didn’t know he was doing it. But it was quite a problem. In fact, he told us of a time in high school when he was sleeping on the top bunk in his room. His mom came in to wake him up. She climbed up the ladder to the top bunk, shook him to wake him up, and he promptly knocked her off the ladder. Of course, inadvertently. Pretty sad story, but he’s telling us all this. Of course, he’s a freshman and everything, so we’re deciding how much this is true. Well, it didn’t take long for us to realize that this was actually a legitimate issue this guy had and rumors and reports of this guy’s actions and the poor people in his dorm room started to travel around campus so that most people knew if you found him sleeping don’t wake him up and this guy you couldn’t wake him up by yelling there was nothing you could do to wake him up other than poke him or something but you had to do it with a stick or you had to keep your distance otherwise you’re gonna get pummeled. Well, there was one day when this was a real problem because we had a large banquet for our school. It was inside of our dining area, our fellowship halls. And this student happened to be sitting right in the middle of these fellowship halls. And at some point during the banquet and the events that evening, he fell asleep in his chair. The banquet ended and the crew came in to clean up, But everyone knew to keep your distance from this guy. So they cleared out the entire fellowship halls, including his table and all the chairs around him, so that at the end of this, after all the cleanup, there’s the student still sitting upright in his chair, fast asleep, everyone in the room terrified to wake him up. Well, I look over just in time to see one of the dear, sweetest teachers of our school, noticing what’s going on, felt for this guy, thought everyone was just making fun of him, and began to walk towards the center of the room to wake him up. And several of us saw it. We ran over there and said, no, no, no, don’t do it. Of course, she was shocked by this and a little bit frustrated on why we wouldn’t allow this young man to be woken up until someone very carefully reached out and kicked his foot, and he immediately and inadvertently swung in the air. And this poor professor about had a heart attack. But as random as it is for that word panic to actually be derived from the panic of someone who has woken up dramatically, it’s true, and it’s known to be true. In fact, the Wall Street Journal just weeks ago, doing a research on the different words pandemic and pandemonium and panic, they stated the same thing. It all resulted from this Greek god who didn’t like to be woken up. So these words we use quite often, panic, pandemonium, and although it technically has a different origin, but some say that the word pandemic was also influenced by this Greek god Pan. We use these words and have no idea the origin that they come from. But I say all this to make the initial point that panic is characteristic of a Greek god. And of course it is not characteristic of our god, the god that we serve. 1 Corinthians 14.33 says, For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. 2 Timothy 1.7 Panic, though a natural response in certain circumstances, is opposite to the nature of God. But with all the panic going on, even if it’s not coming from us, We still feel paralyzed by this, where we hope to just be able to survive all the pandemic, all the pandemonium, all the panic. We just want to wait this thing out. Well, we understand now that panic is characteristic of a Greek god of panic who was called Pan. But remember I told you that this cave at the base of Mount Hermon, where the temple to the god Pan was located, This cave was thought to be the gates to the underworld. Well, specifically, it was known as the gates of hell. Now, does that ring a bell? You may think back to Matthew 16, 18, where Jesus said, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Now, when you look into earlier in that chapter, you’re going to find that Jesus is having this pep talk with his disciples in Caesarea Philippi. Now, wait a second. Jesus is in Caesarea Philippi and uses this term, the gates of hell. I don’t think that’s any coincidence. Jesus is likely looking or pointing in the direction of this very cave, this very temple to the God Pan and saying, this temple, the gates of hell will not prevail against my church. now look at this promise right here he’s pointing to the very temple of the god Pan the god of panic and although this promise would include all the tactics and attacks of the devil demonic influence worldly ideology spiritual warfare of any kind he’s specifically in Caesarea Philippi he’s saying these gates of hell this temple the temple of the god Pan the god of panic will not prevail against my church. That’s a promise. And it’s not just a promise for any time, although it is a promise for any time, but it is specifically a promise for this time. We are enveloped by panic. And if the ancient Greeks were here today, they would know what’s going on. They would know who to blame for this. They would know where panic is sourced. They would be saying, all right, who woke the goat? this panic as a result of this God over in his temple sleeping in the gates of hell they would know where it’s coming from they know it’s coming from the underworld they know it’s coming from the devil but we just think this is a natural response we just need to hold out and get through when Jesus to that very God to the very response of panic said this enemy and this tactic of the enemy will not prevail against my church are you acting like that in what you’re doing for christ right now are you acting like you can’t lose are you acting like this pandemic can have no ill effect on your relationship with the lord on the ministry of your church on the advancement of the cause of christ in your region are you acting like this pandemic cannot touch that because god’s power in his hand will not allow it Now I want to take this one step further though, because we’re talking about gates, gates to hell. This is an opening in a mountain. And one commentary I read said that gates don’t often attack people. They are tools for defense, not for attack. You know, unless you’re Samson and you’re going to pick up the gates of the city and storm up a hill and chuck them, which could be dangerous. Generally, gates are not going to be a weapon or a form of attack. They’re for defense. So if you end up in a tangle with a gate, likely you initiated it. So what does this mean for us? It’s not enough to hope that we are not changed by this crisis. Let’s pray that we are changed by this crisis. Not only can you be confident that you won’t lose ground during these months, but Jesus gave you a direct promise that the devil and his tactics, specifically panic, cannot hold you back from advancing. It cannot hold you back from advancing in your personal walk with Him. It cannot keep your church from advancing. And it certainly cannot keep the gospel and the cause of Christ from advancing. Like Mr. Bosler has been encouraging us on TG Talk YouTube channel lately, get creative, find a way to advance. Knowing that there is nothing that can hold you back from growing closer to the Lord and advancing the cause of Christ, ask the Lord for an idea and act on it. right away. I think of a very common biblical example of this is Peter, who is in the midst of a storm on the Sea of Galilee. All the other disciples are panicking because of the storm, but they look out and see Jesus walking on the water. Now, at this point, they already have their trial. They already have their crisis, and panic is at an all-time high in that boat. But Peter looks out, and he sees Jesus, and you would expect him to say, Lord, if it be thou, then save us. save your disciples, save our lives from the storm, get us out of this crisis. But that’s not what he says. He says, Lord, if it be thou bid me come unto thee on the water. Now it’s like, Peter, don’t you have enough to worry about right now with this storm? You can just picture all the disciples looking at him like of all the things to ask, why? Why, Peter? We just don’t understand you. You never make sense. But he asked Jesus, Lord, if it’s you out there, bid me to come unto thee. Peter wanted to advance in the midst of crisis, in the midst of the storm. But notice he didn’t just see Jesus and cannonball into the water. He needed to hear it from the Lord. He asked the Lord, bid me come unto thee. Why did he ask that question? Because if the direction for his next step is coming from Jesus himself, then he can be confident that the power and ability and enablement to take that step will also come from Jesus. Peter needed to know that it was Jesus giving him that step. So in the same way, we’re in the midst of a crisis right now. We’re in the midst of a trial. Panic is at an all-time high and people are going to think you’re crazy for wanting to do something like try to advance in the midst of a crisis, but you have a promise, a panic promise. You know that nothing can hold you back. Not only are you not going to get involved in the panic and the worry and everything yourself and doubt God and his plan and everything, but you are going to look for an opportunity to take a step to advance personally and to advance the cause of Christ during this crisis. You need to get before the Lord and say, God, I am not content to wait this out. I am not content to try to survive. I want to thrive in the midst of this crisis. What a better time to practice surrender and dependence on Christ to advance because this is an absolute impossibility. Ask him to put that impossibility right in front of you. Show you what that step is and be willing to take whatever that step is, whatever it is. It’s not going to matter what anyone else thinks, whatever. It might be a little unorthodox, out of the box, in a way that you end up giving the gospel or what you do to further the cause of Christ in these odd circumstances. But I can tell you that whatever it is, if that step comes from Jesus’ own lips, then the power is going to come from him too. The ability is going to come from him too. That’s why we’re depending on him and on him along.