Opportunistic Infections
An opportunistic infection is an infection caused by pathogens, that take advantage of certain situations. These infections usually do not cause disease in a healthy host, a compromised immune system, however, presents an "opportunity" for the pathogen to infect.
Today we are going to talk about the danger and cure for opportunistic spiritual infections. First we will look at some opportunistic scriptures. Then we will discuss the parallel between medical and spiritual conditions. Then we will discuss how and when we become vulnerable, and finally how to overcome opportunistic spiritual infections.
Mt 26:16 And from then on he [began] looking for a good opportunity to betray Him.
Lu 4:13 And when the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.
In the Matthew text, Judas is described as looking for a good opportunity to betray Jesus. In other words he was looking for a better set of circumstances to do an evil deed. In the natural world as well as the spiritual world there are circumstances and situations that are more conducive for certain things to take place. The bible tells us that our enemy goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. It doesn’t say he devours everyone he runs in to, because he can’t. Lions look for the sick, the weak, the isolated, these are all conditions in the natural, but speak to conditions in the spiritual that can produce opportunities for spiritual attack.
In Luke, Jesus has been in the wilderness for 40 days, and tempted by the devil. After numerous attempts the devil finally got it through his head Jesus wasn’t going to fall for his temptations. Yet the devil didn’t throw in the towel, he just thought there would be a better set of circumstances that would allow him to get his hooks into Jesus. Fortunately for us, the devil never succeeded in getting Jesus to sin. The scriptures in fact teach that the devil used every and any point of leverage against Jesus, and they all failed. It also tells us, that since Jesus has faced all these different opportunistic types of temptation, He is well suited to helping us overcome in every situation.
Heb 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as [we are, yet] without sin.
Heb 4:16 Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.
Ok, so far we have seen that sin is always looking for an opening and an opportunity in our lives. Let’s now talk about the parallel between medical and spiritual conditions.
I have longed believed that for every medical condition there is, there is a similar condition that can effect the spiritual life. For example someone in the natural could have a cancerous growth, likewise in the spiritual someone could have something very unhealthy for them growing in their spirit. In the natural someone could have ringing in the ears, in the same way for some people - the internal noise of life is hindering your ability to hear God. If that describes you, get somewhere alone with God and calm yourself down. Let Him lead you beside the still waters.
I enjoy reading science magazines, one of my favorite is Discover Magazine, and my favorite part of that magazine is a section called, "vital signs." That section is written by a doctor who writes about some medical mystery they faced in the course of their practice. The article follows a somewhat familiar pattern: A mystery illness, with, if not life ending, serious life altering consequences, initial inability to diagnose, an "aha," moment, and finally a cure or a remedy to mitigate the worst aspects of the sickness. (I think that is the format for the TV show "House," also.)
Many of the sicknesses they talk about will be extremely rare, maybe only a couple hundred or a couple thousand people a year in US will get them. That is what makes the diagnosis so difficult, its rarity. The solution is always found because some doctor somewhere had a cluster of the cases, or became a hub where people with that illness would come to him/her hoping for remediation. They became an "expert," with that condition and over time developed a cure or something that brings respite.
Again Jesus is the expert who has solved all the spiritual maladies we may ever face. Also, in some ways that is what Hebrews 11 is all about. It is the story of people who each faced, not a sickness, but a life challenge, or a faith test, and they became the successful model of what to do in those situations. In a couple of weeks we will have an illustrated sermon on the great cloud of witnesses and the unique challenge several of them faced and overcame. We could summarize Hebrews 11, and say that every spiritual medical condition known, that has attacked and come upon the lives of men and women of God, has been successfully faced and overcome. Leaving overcomers for now, let’s talk about how some people become overcome and I want to use medical issues as a teaching point.
Opportunistic infections illustrated by secondary infection.
What is an opportunistic or secondary infection? Simply put, a person gets cut open in some type of surgical procedure, and then some infinitesimally small bacteria gets in the wound, multiplies, and becomes a greater problem than what caused the surgery in the first place. People who get hurt in life are often attacked by a secondary infection that causes them to turn from, and not to God, let me explain.
My wife’s mother worked as a nurses aide at a hospital. In the course of that work she met a little 8 year old boy named Bobby, who was almost always hospitalized because of some rare disease he had. My wife’s mother invited Bobby’s mother to church, she became a Christian as did her son. My wife who was a young teen at the time, began to pray greatly for Bobby to be healed. His disease caused him enormous physical pain. Once my wife asked him, what he wanted the most in life, and the 8 year old said that he wanted to have just one day without pain. What a horribly amazing thing for an 8 year old to say. Before his 9th birthday Bobby died, and in the aftermath of that my wife almost lost her faith in God. Bobby’s death in a matter of speaking cut her open, and through the opening wound into her soul the devil tried to sow bacteria of anger against God, and doubt in His character. If God is love how could he let a little boy suffer so? How come God didn’t answer the prayer for Bobby’s healing?
The wound was the suffering and painful life and death Bobby had, the secondary infection is when the enemy exploited an opportunity to try and destroy my wife’s faith. (She finally came to accept, that Bobby has since had many pain free days.)
Do you know that the hospital can be one of most dangerous places there is? Do you know how many people go in for one type of surgery and wind up picking up a secondary infection, because of all the germs there are at any given moment in a hospital? When a person has been cut open, it presents a ripe opportunity for a secondary infection to set in. I think a lot of people have suffered spiritual shipwreck, because in a vulnerable moment they fell prey to an opportunistic infection.
So what have we learned about secondary spiritual infections?
1st there is an injury, then into that wound the enemy sows bacterial seeds of doubt, unbelief.
If God was a God of love then why did my mother die? If God.. Then why did my wife leave me? Where was God when my child was so sick?
So the initial thing is the trauma, the secondary infection is where the devil takes advantage of the opportunity, seeing you have been cut open and tries to put a wedge between you and God. That is what a secondary spiritual infection is. So if you have been cut here is some advice for you:
1. Take your medicine even if you can’t see any obvious results.
If the doctor prescribes antibiotics do you feel better immediately? Not usually, and because of that fact some people stop taking them, or stop taking them when they feel a little relief. The danger with this approach is that if you don’t take the full cure, you will allow drug resistant and stronger bacteria to grow.
In like manner, reading your bible and praying, doesn’t always make you feel better right away. Keep taking your daily dose, it will work. The word of God will not return to Him void. Your heart will be healed.
Don’t miss doctor’s appointments - go to church.
Rehearse what the doctor told you. Go over and be sure to follow his advice and instructions.
When you face a situation you can’t reconcile with the love of God, remember what the bible says: "All things work together for good..."
How could this work for good? Some plants only thrive in harsh environments.
Mums do well in cold, some plants only grow in bogs, deserts, etc. In the worst life can throw at you, God has a way of turning it for good.
2. Avoid bad company.
1Co 15:33 Do not be deceived: "Bad company corrupts good morals."
Be careful who you are around when you have been cut.
Hospitals are full of people, who are full of bad bacteria. They don’t have normal levels of issues, they are so high they had to be hospitalized. When you are around them, their bad stuff can get on you. If you have been cut in life, be careful who you go to, and who you hang out with, their diseases might jump on you. For example, if when life hurts you, you get around a person who has a drinking problem, their solution is to turn to alcohol. If your marriage is in trouble and you get around someone who has been divorced 5 times their solution will be to flush your marriage, not pray it through. Get around godly helpful people when you have been hurt, that is not just wisdom, it might wind up help saving your spiritual life.
Let me close with a few remarks to those who are not in a season where life has cut you, those who are in good spiritual health.
Be mindful of those who have been cut by life, and are close to succumbing.
As in the natural so in the spiritual. Surgical instruments must be razor sharp, yet used with extreme delicacy. They have to be able to cut, but no Zorro’s are needed. Facial scarring is to be avoided at all
costs. People don’t need to be degraded when they are in operating room and cut open. People in surgery already have the humiliation of the gowns, we are to be the post operative care team, not the kick them when they are down committee.
Illus:
In April of this year in our nation’s capital, a driver lost control of his truck and crashed. A passenger in the truck was thrown from the vehicle and landed on the pavement of I395. It was the morning rush hour. Like the priest and the Levite in our text, most motorists sped on past, too rushed to bother with an injured man.
Odie Butler, an Army officer and military policeman, did stop. He stood over the victim, directing traffic away from the injured man, trying to get someone with a cell-phone to stop and call for an ambulance. It was five full minutes before motorist Larry Meade stopped to help and used his cell-phone to dial 911. During that time, hundreds of cars sped past. Some of those that were slowed by the accident actually became angry at the two men trying to help – honking, yelling, and making obscene gestures. One motorist rolled down his window, pointed at the victim, and screamed at Butler and Meade for not getting "that [stuff] off the side of the road."
Meade said that he was prepared for the carnage associated with the crash, but the anger of the other motorists shocked him. Said Meade, "People put appointments and memos above someone’s life." (Readers’ Digest, September 1998, page 45)
Close: Prayer for those whom life has cut, those who are struggling with doubts, and prayer for those who may not be attending church in this season because a secondary infection has become a wedge between them and God.
