Who Are We?
10/15/2004
Introduction… I would like to thank the First Baptist Church of -------for having us here this evening, and I thank the association as well, for allowing me to be a part of this service.
And I want to thank my daughter, Katy, for that beautiful song… She inspires me in the way that she sings, and it inspires me to know that even when we are unable to do certain things in this world in which we live... we know a man who can.
In the 144th psalm, I can just picture King David as he looked heavenward and asked God… What is man that you care for him?
Friends….. Who Are We?
Now, many of you do not know who I am….
I was saved by the grace of God in November 1992, and I surrendered to the ministry in February 1998.
I was with a heavy equipment company for almost 15 years, in which I had been a parts man, a mechanic, and when I left that business to preach I was in management…
The reason I am telling you this to give you the background for what I am about to do…
Many years ago now, an item was placed in one of the offices at this heavy equipment company in Tupelo Mississippi…. And I thought about that item when I started thinking about this message….
So I traveled through Tupelo some time back, and they let me have the item that I want you to see this evening…
Now, I would like to go ahead and ask for your forgiveness in advance, because I am about to do something I have never done before and I may not do it right…
I am not used to having technological items involved when I am preaching… but I have been hearing of the tremendous impact this type of presentation has been having on people, so I wanted to share with you this evening…. for the first time ever in my preaching career, a POWER POINT presentation…
(actually a large poster}
Read Gazelle vs. Lion…
{Every morning in Africa, a Gazelle wakes up.
It must outrun the fastest lion or be killed.
Every morning in Africa a lion wakes up.
It must outrun the slowest Gazelle or stave.
It doesn’t matter weather you are a Lion
or a Gazelle, when the sun comes up,
You better be running.}
Again I ask the question… WHO ARE WE?
I use the term WE quite a bit in the messages I bring… because by the time a preacher is ready to bring a message before the people, God has already dealt with the preacher first…
So, I am not asking who you are tonight… but who are WE!
Now, WE are a lot of things…
We are Americans, Fathers, Parents, Spouses, Pastors,
We are The Rocky Bayou Baptist Association
Teachers, Leaders, business people, workers…
We are Christians.. We are SINNERS…
We are souls… pulled from the very pits of Hell by our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus….
My friends, WE are the Church of America….
But the Church of America… many Christians… many Pastors… many Leaders…. Have accepted or at least capitulated to the ways of this immoral and corrupt society in which we now live…
Friends, WE…. The church in America as a whole…. WE… are living like the Gazelle… we are running away… we are running from evil… we are running in FEAR….. when we should be the LION!
WE should be on the Attack!
In Matthew 16:18 Jesus Himself Says…
18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Now, in that passage of scripture Jesus is not saying that we can DEFEND ourselves against Hell….
Jesus is saying that Hell cannot defend itself against us!
But that’s not how we are living is it?
…………………………………………..
I remember last year at the annual meeting when the committee asked me to bring the message tonight, they told me I had 365 days to prepare….
And I thought… Man, that will be plenty of time….
Yea… that’s why I was still working on this message this afternoon….
I have spent this year, trying to decide just what tonight’s message should be about…
And, I don’t want to bore you or anything, but I just wanted to kind of spend a few minutes and carry you through the process I went through in trying to determine the message for this evening…
We know that wise King Solomon told us that there is nothing new under the sun…
I wont be bringing you anything new tonight, I will not be giving you any new revelations from God… We will just be looking at Gods word, that is relevant for the ages…
As I considered the message at hand, the first thought I had was that I could entitle the message… “Stand Firm”
Now, I am not big on titles for my sermons… the only reason I give any of them a title is so I can save my notes on my word processor… but I usually don’t even mention the name of the title of a sermon…
But stand firm has a catchy ring to it doesn’t it?
I have to admit, the second message I ever preached was entitled “stand firm”, but hey, that was a long time ago…
So, I considered this title… and then I looked at the scriptures…
Scriptures such as 1 Corinthians 15:58 where the Word of God says…
58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
The King James version says be Steadfast and immovable…
That sounds good does it not?
Then I continued to look at the scriptures and the different people that the Word Of God refers to and how they walked with God and how they stood firm in their faith…
I have always loved the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego…
King Nebechadnezzar was going to throw them into a Fiery furnace if they did not bend to the will of the society around them… if they did not do as everyone else was doing…
But I love the reply they gave the King in Daniel 3:16-18
Daniel 3:16-18 (NIV)
16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
No matter what came their way… they would not bow to the pressures of the situation they were in… And God honored them!
Then there was old Peter and John who continually preached the Gospel message of Jesus Christ, and one day as they entered into the temple courts; a miracle occurred… a man who had been lame from birth was healed by the grace and power of Jesus Christ….
And Peter and John were in trouble…
They were taken before the Jewish leaders, the Sanhedrin, or the court system of that day and they were commanded not to preach or teach in the name of Jesus…
And their reply is recorded in Acts 4:19-20 where the Word of God says…
Acts 4:19-20 (NIV)
19 But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. 20 For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
Even facing imprisonment and possible death… they were willing to obey God and not man… THEY STOOD FIRM IN THEIR FAITH!
And we know of the apostle Paul, who stood firm in his faith no matter what….
And there were many many others that we do not have time to look at this evening… all who stood firm, no matter what the society around them had done, no matter what the leaders had decided, no matter what consequences were dictated… they were steadfast and immovable in their faith to God!
So, at first I thought that “Stand Firm” would make a great message for tonight… but then I realized….. we haven’t!
The Church of America…. The Christians in America have NOT stood firm…
they have wavered… they have given way… they have caved under pressure from the society in which they live.
We can look back to a certain time, a time when the Bible was taught in school, a time when Prayers were widespread in school, a time when everything revolved around the Word Of God… a time when God was proclaimed proudly in the public square, even in politics…
But my friends, those days are gone…
And there gone because we didn’t STAND FIRM!
Because of one court case some thirty years ago, millions of unborn children have lost their lives… Gods word has been dishonored… all because Christians did not STAND FIRM while they had the chance….
And so many other things that have been detrimental to our society, so many things that have dishonored God have been allowed, and we just don’t have time to discuss it all this evening…
How true the word of God is when it says in Isaiah chapter 7 and verse 9,
…If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all
WHO ARE WE…
Well, we are living like the Gazelle… when we should be living like the lion…
But… most of us were not responsible for that era… we were not involved in the things that started our nation down the slippery slopes of destruction…
So I thought I should go another direction with the message this evening… and I had an idea for another wonderful title for the message…
“Stand in the Gap”
Boy, that has a catchy little sound to it also doesn’t it…
Stand in the Gap…
In Nehemiah chapter 4 verses 13 and 14 Nehemiah said,
13 Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows. 14 After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.”
While Nehemiah was trying to repair the broken walls surrounding the beloved city of Jerusalem, a plot was aimed against the workers, to deter them from being obedient to God, to deter them from doing God’s work…
So Nehemiah stationed certain people with weapons to STAND IN THE GAPS of the wall, to stand and defend the lowest places so that the workers could continue to obey God without hindrance…
That would be a perfect message for us would it not?
We know that there are some low places in America today, and we want there to be a future for our brothers, for our sons and daughters, for our wives….
A message dealing with our standing in the Gap would be good….
So, I started to look over the things that have really come to the forefront of our knowledge in the last YEAR.. the things that have made news, just since our last annual meeting…
I looked at a lot of reports and a lot of statistical information…
One report shows us that among Southern Baptist Churches, there were over 10,000 churches last year that did not have a single baptism…
A George Barna report released in may goes along with that statistic, because it shows us that over the recent years, there has been a 92% increase in the amount of adults in America who do NOT attend church…
Barna did another disturbing report this year that shows that only about half of protestant pastors have a biblical worldview…
In other words, only about half of the pastors in America have a worldview, or an idea about this life in which they believe that absolute moral truth exists, and that Moral Truth is based upon the Bible…
Getting more specific in that survey, only about half of the pastors in America believe in the accuracy of biblical teaching, the sinless nature of Jesus, the literal existence of Satan, the omnipotence and omniscience of God, salvation by grace alone, and the personal responsibility Christians have to evangelize…
And friends, if only half of our pastors believe these truths from Gods word… how can we expect the average Christian in this nation to believe these truths….
Well, its evident in our society today, that the average Christian does NOT believe these truths…
A movie came out this year, a movie in which a mockery is made of Christians and Christianity….
Now, I know that’s nothing new…
But what really struck me is when I was reading about this movie and some of its reviews in the American Family Association journal from August of 2004.
The AFA journal gave some comments from a man who writes for two of Canada’s largest newspapers, and this man stated that this movie
"Shows how mainstream, respectable and upscale Christian fundamentalism can be."
He then added that this movie: “ is about a religion for the comfortable, people in spacious suburban homes who drive sport utility vehicles. They listen to sexy Christian rock, wear designer clothes, watch game shows and know that Jesus is ’the ultimate CEO.’"
And we could say well, that is not necessarily a bad thing, in and of itself…
And that’s true, but the AFA Journal went on to make this statement…
“If evangelicals live a life that is a virtual carbon copy of their unbelieving American peers, how can such Christians be salt and light?” …..
And we would sit here this evening and say that Christians DON’T live a life that is a carbon copy of unbelieving Americans…
Yet the statistics would not bear witness to that statement…
The divorce rate is virtually the same between Christians and non-Christians… as a matter of fact; I saw one report that showed the divorce rate among Christians to be just a little higher than non-Christians…
What kind of testimony is that to world that is looking for something to make a difference in their lives…
Christians watch the same movies and television programs…
Where is the salt and the light… where are the people standing in the gap to save our families and our nation…
This year, we have seen Homosexual unions become legal in one state in our nation…
And the lawsuits have been filed in other states to make those unions legal nationwide…
Where does the worldview lie?
On June 3rd of this year, the Arkansas Democratic Gazette had a letter to the editor from pastor Randy McCain from Sherwood, who said that he was proud to be the pastor of a homosexual man.
He went on to add that he could “say with all honesty that this mans "lifestyle" is one of helping others and caring for those around him. He is a follower of Jesus Christ and lives his life as a great example of the savior he loves.”
Friends, If the so called Christian leaders don’t hold to the word of God… who will?
The Federal Marriage Amendment didn’t even have enough support from our political leaders to come up for a vote…
Evangelical Christians have started to get involved…. But is it to little to late?
I know that one of the most important things we can do for our nation in the next few weeks is to vote…
This next election will have an impact on our society possibly such as none before it ever has…
And I personally will never vote for the economy.. I will never vote for a political party… I will never vote for someone who supports abortion or homosexuality…
I will only vote in such a way that when I stand before the Lord some day one thing I will not be ashamed of is the way I voted in this nations election…
There is a group of Christians today that consider themselves to be ultra conservative…
This particular group considers themselves to be so conservative that they call Southern Baptists liberals…
Anyway, I like a lot of what this group stands for, but just in the last month I have seen where they oppose voting in our nations elections… they say we should not be involved in the political process at all, they say we should not vote, because Jesus never voted…
Understand friends, that Jesus did not live in a society where people were able to vote…
But Jesus did send out his disciples to change their society, and the world…
God sent Jonah to change the entire society of Nineveh…
God sent prophets to deliver his message to try and bring nations back into obedience to Him…
And God gives us the ability to make a change in our society today…
Yet over 20 million Christians did not vote in the last presidential election…
Friends, it is not just a privilege, I believe it is our Christian DUTY to vote, and to vote for morality and for justice…
it is our duty to vote for GOD!
And again, this is only the tip of the iceberg, I could go on all night long… but how about the message being geared toward the title… “stand in the Gap”
But as I was studying the book of Ezekiel recently I read Ezekiel 22:30 where God said,
Ezekiel 22:30 (NIV)
30 “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.
God was speaking of the nation of Israel who had turned to idolatry and turned their backs on God…
God said He could find no one to stand in the Gap…
could the same thing be said of our nation today?
The simple truth my friends, is that Christians have not stood in the gap…
So, here I am, I am trying to decide where to go with this message, and I feel like Christians have not stood firm in their faith here in our nation…
And I fell like Christians have not stood in the gap…
Who are we…. Well, we are living like the gazelle….
So, not only did I not yet have a message for tonight.. I am getting pretty discouraged and depressed as I look around at our society today…
But friends, I did not want to bring you a message of discouragement…. I did not want to just discuss all the bad things that you already know about our nation…
I actually wanted to give you hope… I want to encourage you… I want us to leave here excited about our nation… and our God…
So, although it will just be a short message, let me give you the message I believe we need to hear tonight…
For our scripture reading, if you have your Bibles would you please turn to Luke Chapter 5
When you get to Luke Chapter 5, we are only going to look at two verses and those two verses will be verses 27 and 28…
Luke 5:27-28 (NIV)
27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.
WOW….. those two verses of scripture are exciting to me!
Boy, some of you look like you have experienced a big let down… kind of an anticlimactic ending…
But let me tell you friends, in a society that is in a state of moral decline, in a world that is turning away from God… those two verses of scripture are the Christian life in a nutshell….
To study the original wording there, Jesus called Levi, or Matthew to be his follower, to follow Him… and Matthew got up, or Arose, or rose up..
Now, not only did he rise up, but he left everything behind….
Understand friends, he did not just leave all the tax money he had collected, he did not just leave important documents, he did not just leave a lucrative job and a life of ease…
Matthew left all of the things of the world behind him to faithfully follow Jesus Christ.
And friends, THAT IS WHAT WE ARE CALLED TO DO!
When we are saved by the grace of God, when we are grafted into the kingdom, when we become heirs and joint heirs with Christ Jesus… we are to leave all the worldly things behind us and follow Him… we are purchased with a price, we are bought with his blood, we are servants, yea, bond servants to our Lord…
What am I saying…
Friends, I am saying that it is time to RISE UP!
Who Are We?
We are Citizens of the greatest nation in the world, and its time to RISE UP and vote for God! Its time to RISE UP and let the politicians know where we stand… and that we are not going to allow them to side with a handful of people… our voices must be heard…
We are Fathers… and as fathers, its time to RISE UP and become the Godly fathers we should have been all along… we are to be the spiritual leaders of the home, instead of putting it off on the mothers…
Pastors, its time to RISE UP and stop worrying about pleasing men and get back to the business of pleasing GOD!
---- ----- ----- Association, its time to RISE UP and leave the things of the world behind, so that we may be completely obedient to God…
The old song says rise up o men of God, be DONE with lesser things….
Sinners, its time to RISE Up and thank God for the gift of salvation that has brought us out of the pits of hell….
Christians, its time to RISE UP and then fall on our knees, weeping and crying for those lost souls that are going to hell each and every day…
Its time to rise up, and fall on our knees in repentance, asking forgiveness for where we have allowed this great nation to go…
Friends, its time to Rise up…. And I’m here to tell you, that if we don’t do it here at the end of 2004 and on into 2005, we may not have the opportunity in 2006….
Illustration… I read a story on Adrian Rogers web site some time ago…
The story tells of union soldiers riding through a confederate cornfield.
A little old grandmother was so angry to see what was happening that she grabbed a poker from the hearth and ran out with it in here hand.
Somebody called out… Granny, come back! You can’t stop the whole union army…
And granny said, Maybe I cant… but I can sure let them know whose side I’m on…
Friends, today, more than ever before, we are called to show whose side we are on!
Illustration… The tombstone of Annie Armstrong appropriately summarizes her life… it simply reads… “she hath done what she could”
Let that be said of us this day….
Some tonight may be saying… “well, I sure cant do it… there is to much work to be done, the nation has gone to far… I just cant do it…
And my reply to you is…. I CANT EITHER…..
But as the words to the beautiful song my daughter sang tonight…. I know a man who can!
Thomas Edison once said, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
Friends, let us not miss the last opportunity we may have….
Church… its time to RISE UP!
WHO ARE WE…
We are the LIONS… we have already won the victory through the blood of Christ Jesus… but we still need to be running….
Lets start living the life that God has given us…
RISE UP!
