Keion Henderson - It's Contagious

Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1: I know y’all like, «Wendy’s gonna get out of here bruised!» I keep getting stuck every time I leave. I come back to it: Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1. Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Can I read it again? Wherefore, seeing we are compassed (meaning observed by or surrounded by) with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Do me a favor: tell your neighbor Pastor told me to tell you it’s contagious. That 's all I want to talk about today-it’s contagious, it’s contagious, it’s contagious, it’s contagious. So, the other day, I’m on the airplane and I see five to seven people of the Asian persuasion getting on the plane, and every one of them has a mask. Oh, I didn’t think anything of it until I got off the plane and got into the airport and saw some more Asians with masks on. I got on the plane to come home and saw some more; then I thought something must be going on that I don’t know anything about. I land and hear that beer has caught a disease. I guess some of y’all drink Miller Lite; that’s why you don’t know what I’m talking about. But for all you Corona drinkers, there’s this disease right now, and what makes it dangerous is that the Chinese population is about 15% of the Earth’s population-over 1 billion people in China. This disease is extremely deadly, and just recently, if you’ve been watching the news, they found a couple of cases here in America. So, this is very dangerous, and it is not only dangerous but also contagious. You can catch it. Look, when I heard that, obviously like you, I’m not throwing caution to the wayside. Wash your hands and make sure that when people cough, you hold your breath. Make sure that when they cough, you cover your mouth and give them a look like, «Do you have caution?» I don’t know if I’m gonna be around wearing a mask; too much swag for that. But if it gets bad enough, we all need to consider it. Can you imagine us all in here in church for nothing? I took it seriously, but let me tell you what shocked me today. I opened up my brokerage account and saw that the Dow Jones has dropped 1.6 percent and that the Dow has gone down almost 500 points because of a virus. Now we have something to talk about because you mean to tell me that this disease is so serious that it is affecting the gross domestic product of the entire globe? That this disease is so important or so potent that it has people worried about where they invest their money? This is important, guys! I want you to pay attention to this. So then I did further research. The United States of America has about a $1.5 to $2 trillion budget. Now, our gross domestic product is about $20 trillion. But we’re not talking about the money within the economy; we’re talking about the money that the government has to use, which is allocated as a representation of taxation from you and me-averaging about $12,000 per person in annual revenue from taxes that is given to the United States government. So, you’re talking about $1 to $2 trillion. Then I looked it up, and the EPA, or the Environmental Protection Agency, has about a $40 billion budget, which, if you allocate that on the 2015 numbers, means we only spend 3.5 percent of our gross domestic product on the environment. Three point five percent of the entire budget of the United States of America is 3.5 percent-less than a tithe. Three point five percent is spent on water, air, and pollution. Conversely, our defense budget is $600 billion, meaning we spend 54.7 percent on defense and 3.5 percent on the environment. Let me ask you a question: how many people have died on American soil this year as a result of a war? Yes, our troops have been over there. They were saying today, 50 of them have traumatic brain injuries because of bombs that Iran let loose. So, yes, we have men and women who deserve our prayers and blessings and all of the resources necessary to keep them safe. Yes, we need it, but we’ve got 55 percent on defense and 3.5 percent on the environment. Nobody has died here because of war, and yet people are dying here because of disease. Then I realized we’ve got a problem in the natural and spiritual realms: we spend so much time fighting and not enough on our environment. We spend so much time defending ourselves that we have not yet raised the cost for how much someone has to pay to get close to you. It is so cheap to be your friend; it is so cheap to be your boo; it is so cheap to be a homeboy or a homegirl. It is so cheap for people to get close to you because all they have to do is either be cute or have the right conversation, and you’ll let them into your environment and wonder why you keep getting sick. We need to talk today.