Sermon- A time to take action
- If we look at the emotions stirring this year. We will definitely say this is the year that we are saying it’s time to take action!
- It’s an emotion that drives at the heart of unrest.
Q- Doesn’t that show us what Jesus was here for.
Matthew 11:28-30
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
- You will find rest.
- Constantly searching. We work, we express our hearts, & we fight to feel that we are
accepted. To feel that it’s a world unified.
- We live in a world of unrest, & this is why we desire for things to change.
- Before we pray, Think of the way it is. We call for something to change. Well, it
happens. Then, not too long after, we are calling for something else to change.
Q- Why is that?
- It’s because as much as this world changes, it will never be perfect.
- Let’s Pray to the One who will make it Perfect.
Prayer
- I feel that the growing unrest we are experiencing is because of, or heightened by, a fear of death.
- Something is going to change, & we don’t know what is going to happen.
Q- So, What are we crying for?
- We want to make sure that it changes to benefit us.
- Think back to the rich young ruler. He came running, & kneeling before Jesus. He
asked, what shall I do to inherit eternal life.
- The moment Jesus answered with, sell all that you have, & give it to the poor, the
young ruler was destroyed, very sorrowful.
- He wanted change, in this case eternal life, but when it wasn’t going to come
the way he wanted it. He wanted nothing of it.
- This virus has caused a great deal of searching in all of us.
- Some of the things that have come up, have been good, but I totally disagree with
the movement to defund the police.
- Of course there are bad cops mixed in with the good ones. There always has
been.
- Think about these verses.
Matthew 13:36-43
36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.
37 He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.
40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
- This world is very much like a farmer’s field. Within the field is what the farmer plants
(wheat), & What the enemy plants, tares(a weed or darnel). Both of these, at least at
first, look the same, but only one of these is what the farmer wants.
- In this parable verses 39 & 40 say, the end of the world & the end of this world. The
Word world in both of these verses is the word aión in the Greek. It doesn’t mean
world. It means age.
Q- What age?
- In the end of the age of the gentile. That is in the moment that all that will be saved
has come to an end. Christ has returned, & all of Israel is under the political control of
Israel at Christ’s return.
- This parable reveals to us that there will always be a bad apple in the bunch.
- No matter how hard we try, until the world as we know it ends, there will always be
a bad apple in the bunch.
- So When I look at the notion of defund the police. What that looks like is
exactly what many farmers would do before weed killers were made. They
would try & pull the tares up, & end up ripping a lot of their wheat up as well.
Q- Do we want to punish all the good, because of, I’m not going to say just one, but of
a few bad apples?
- That’s not the way it works in the church either.
1. We are to live out our faith before the brethren
- Listen, Paul wrote to Timothy about the rising false beliefs. They ranged from what
foods were acceptable to whether or not you could get married.
- Here’s How Paul told Timothy to handle the situation.
1 Timothy 4:4-6
4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
5 For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
6 If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.
- If we live a Godly life before these people. Those who are not a tare will be saved, not
by our works, but by allowing them time to grow.
- The Wise farmers, Before weed killer, waited for their crops to grow. Once the
tares were fully grown, you could tell they weren’t wheat. So, they would collect
them, save the wheat, & burn the tares.
- If we immediately defund the police. We will hurt, & maybe even remove all that
is good.
- When it comes to actually figuring out a solution for something. In this case,
something very wrong! The only way it can be resolved is by coming together.
- For The Church, this is something that is so plainly understood & accepted, Listen.
Hebrews 10:25
25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
- That scripture wasn’t just meant for the building up, & edifying the body as we think.
- It was meant that even in disagreements we come together & talk it out, we agree, &
we let Christ lead us to the right way.
- In no way would God allow disorder to be the answer.
- Believe me, if there were no police. There would be disorder, chaos!
1 Corinthians 14:33
33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
- If we want a solution, then we have got to talk about it.
- Here we are in this pandemic. We’re still sheltering in place, but we’re still
communicating. Whether it be by texts, phone calls, likes on Facebook, or replies on
Facebook we are still connecting.
Q- Is there Confusion in this Pandemic?
- There is out there in this world.
- There is out in the streets.
- There is in this virus.
- But There is no confusion in this house(body of Christ). We know what we
stand for, & what we strive for. Jesus is King, He is Lord, & He is my, & your
Redeemer.
Conclusion: So as I bring this message to a close. The Lord has put this on my heart. Death has stirred the world with an emotion of I must take action. It’s in this moment that the enemy comes in, because listen to a verse from David in the 23rd Psalm.
Psalm 23:4
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
- He says fear no evil. The evil is, I will jump on any movement out there, because I
have got to take action.
- I know we’re not seeing much of this in West Virginia, but the reality of the enemy
using this death to destroy, Listen, God’s creation is what Satan has wanted since
the beginning of time.
- So, as we walk through this valley of the shadow of death. Let’s remember, we do not
walk it alone. He is with us, His Children.
Let’s Pray
