A SICK SOCIETY, WEAK SAINTS AND A STRONG SAVIOR
H Lee Clay
From the decadence of Sodom and Gomorrah to the debauchery of Herod and Herodias we have seen in times past the despair, the decay, and the decline of a dysfunctional and dilapidated humanity. Solomon in his God-given wisdom declared in Eccl. 1:9, that “ there is nothing new under the sun”.
And that is so true because just when you have thought that you have heard and seen it all, sin has now become so bold and debased that it can blow your mind. As we speak at this very moment there are hundreds of same sex marriages taking place in this country.
As we speak at this very moment there are gunshots and mayhem going on in our communities in which we live while Crips are killing Bloods, Bloods killing Crips and a whole lot of folk are killing themselves with drugs and booze and running with fools. Oh yes, we are living in a sick society.
As a man sits reading the newspaper and his ears being tuned to the radio, he is astonished and amazed by world events tumbling in rapid succession. In our society we find on a daily basis that pain, panic and pandemonium are chasing after each other like June bugs in the summer sun.
We are living in a sick world. A world that has gone mad from the soul rotting properties of wickedness, lewdness, greed, hate, bigotry, perversion and a host of other social,psychological and spiritual diseases.
We have learned that we cannot live without each other but we still have not learned to live with each other while puny men are piddling and paddling with the passing of days.
We are living in a time where we call good bad and bad good. A time when despair and despondency has become the drum major of many of our communities and many of our Young people have never experienced the peace and serenity, let alone the sense of security
of growing up in a world devoid of gunshots,wholesale murder, madness and misery.
Many of our young people are upset and outraged by the spirit of infirmity that has invaded the home and has undermined the institution of “The Family”. Many of their fathers and mothers don’t have a clue about what it means to “raise up a child in the way that it is to go” because many of them are still children themselves.
While they are running the street and put the burden of caring for their children on Grandad and Grandma. Now these children feel abandoned, unloved and unwanted. That’s why so many of our cities have become breeding grounds for gang violence. It’s
because so many of our children feel that they “need to belong to a family that loves them and will give them the nurture and sense of belonging that any human soul would naturally crave”.
We are living in a sick society. Yes, spiritual, emotional, psychological sickness and dysfunction has become as common as the common cold in many of our homes and has pervaded and perverted the institution of “The Family”.
But then the family is not the only institution that has been affected and infected by the agenda of a devil that is hell bent on destroying everything that we and God would hold dear. The Church also has become infected by the spirit of “faithlessness, perversion and indifference”.
And with all of the madness that has come into the world just like that father who brings his son to the disciples, the world brings her problems to the Church of Jesus Christ looking for help, hope and healing. However, unfortunately, the world has brought her case to the footstool of “Weak Saints”.
In the context of our text in verses 1 & 2 we find Jesus giving His disciples “power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. 2 And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.”
But by the time they encounter a loving father in verses 37-40 they don’t have the power to cast a demon out of a this father’s son. There is a real problem when the power that Jesus gives His disciples to cast out devils can’t even last for 40 verses of one chapter. It is at this point that they have distinguished themselves as “WEAK SAINTS”.
In our text, we find “A Crowd; A Concern and A Challenge“.First we find “the Crowd”. Verse 37 tells of “the great multitude” that ran to Jesus.The son is the one with the problem but it’s “the crowd” that runs to Jesus leaving the poor boy behind. In verse 41 Jesus instructed the father to “bring him here to me”.
Ain’t that just like church folk? They’ll run to church and cry out to Jesus about the children that are driving them crazy but they’ll leave the children behind at home!They’ll say stuff like, “I believe in waiting for the child to become old enough to make up their own mind about coming to church. After all, they’re too young to understand the Bible anyhow”.
The devil is a liar! How can you dare say that they won’t be able to understand the Word of God?
If they can sit down, listen and quote Snoop Doggy Dogg, Little Kim, Naughty By Nature; Nelly, Master P, Wu Tang, G-Unit, KRS-One; Fat Joe; and Ice Cube,
They can sit down and listen and learn to quote, “the Lord is my shepherd, etc!
Folk in the church are crying about the kids at home but we ought to bring the kids to the church! THE CROWD ran to Jesus.
And next we find a discussion about “the Challenge”.
The challenge was for the disciples to operate and function in the power and authority that Jesus gave them but they failed.
This is a picture of the church today. The church on the mountain worshipping and the church in the valley flunking. There ought to be consistency between the worship of the church and the work of the church. The power of the mountain had failed in the valley.
The power failed. Why did their power fail? They were given power by the Lord to be strong but became weak. Well, what explains the power failure in the disciples in the text and why are there so many “Weak saints“ in the Church of Jesus Christ today?
Are you interested!
1. You can’t Cuss, lie, and live in sin like a devil and have power to cast out devils! Gal.6:3, “If a man thinks he’s something when he is nothing he deceives himself”.
2. You can’t reject the authority of God by rebelling against those that He has placed over you and expect devils to come under your authority. Even demons can identify a weak saint. Acts 19:15 quotes a demon stating to a fake believer, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?
The text quotes the father of the boy saying “I besought thy disciples to cast it out; and they could not” . Even in the here and now the world says just what that father said. “We brought the issues that we have to your church to cast them out but they could not.”
“They could not”. Maybe it’s because of all of the potentate preachers, big-shot bishops, egotistical elders, menacing missionaries; backstabbing brothers and sanctimonious sisters , running the church! "And I besought thy disciples to cast him out; and they could not."
Are you a part of the "could not crowd"? Do you belong to a "Could not church“? Do you know of a church that can but can’t? They can sing in the choir but can’t get the to Sunday School. They can have big programs but can’t pray away a little headache. They can have a big Church Business Meeting but that can’t have an effective Bible Class.
They have the name “church” but they don’t have the nature of the church. Lord deliver me from a ministry that "can not." I want to be in the can-do crowd. I want a church on fire in worship and in work.
Look at how Jesus responds, "And Jesus answering said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and suffer you? Bring thy son hither. “He called them faithless. Hebrews 11:6 says "But without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him”.
Without faith it is impossible to be used by God to accomplish anything. By faith Moses stretched out his rod and split the Red Sea. By faith Daniel survived a night in the Lion’s Den. By faith Grandma Irene could say, “I know that things might look bad, but I know that the Lord will make a way somehow!
If the church is going to be all that God has called and ordained her to be, we must live by faith! If we’re really walking with the Lord then we’ll walk by faith and not buy sight!
He called them “faithless”. Then Jesus called
them “perverse“. "And Jesus answering said, O faithless and perverse generation,.." Perverse means “twisted, backwards, out of order, screwed-up, mixed-up, messed-up“.
He is saying in effect, “This thang is not about you feeling good and prancing around as though it’s all about you. You’ve got this thing all wrong. The church is out of order.The saints have been commanded to go out into the world and bring sinners to Christ but they have instead brought the “world into the church”! And calls them PERVERSE!
The theme of our Association deals with the issue of “BEARING MUCH FRUIT”.To do this we must
become “Strong and Productive Saints”. But there are three things that we first must do. Are you interested in finding out?
(1) Remember, (2) Repent and (3) Return .
1. We ought to “Remember” how everyday with Jesus is sweeter than the day before and say “Lord take me back to when I first believed”.
2. But then when “faithless” we must “Repent”. (We must have a Change of heart and your mind)
3. And finally, “ When perverse “- We must “RETURN” (Change your ways and your walk)
As I hasten to close, yes, we are living in a “Sick Society“. There does indeed exist within our world an overwhelming abundance of pain, panic and pandemonium unlike anything that has been experienced.
Yes, as was the case in our text, like the father that brought his son to the church of old, the world has brought it’s problems to the footstool of “Weak Saints”.
But thank God Almighty that we have a “Strong Savior” Who is “able to do exceedingly and abundantly above and beyond all that we can think or ask according to the power that worketh in us”.
Finally, we see THE CONCERN of the “A STRONG SAVIOR”
Jesus says to the man, " Bring thy son hither“. In other words He was saying “Bring the boy to Me“. I feel a shout forming in my spirit about right now. It’s good to know that when others can’t, Jesus can. Not only is Jesus able but He is also available.
A preacher and songwriter by the name of JD Rufflin penned these words in his song.
“Can you catch the wind? Can you make the earth spin?
Can you pull the sun down? Can raise man from the ground? Oh no, but I know Who can. GOD CAN”
Jesus said “bring him to me”. And that’s what I want to leave you with tonight. Whatever your problem is, You can bring it to Jesus because He’s able. When that father turned the boy over to Jesus the Bible says in Luke 9:42 that, “Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.”
I’ve got a few witness who will testify that “The Lord is able”. I believe that father jumped for joy and said that , “the Lord is able”. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are witnesses. Daniel is a witness. McClain is, Grove is, Walker is, Wilson is, and even
Cousin Pookie is a witness to the fact that “CAN‘T NOBODY DO YOU LIKE JESUS“.
My Grandmomma’s Irene and Lelia are witnesses. My Mother Shirley is a witness. And I am a witness too. Christian Fellowship, do I have a witness out there that will testify that He’s able? I too am a witness and my testimony is: Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come. It was grace, etc
He’s a Strong Savior. Living He loved me, dying He saved me, But He’s so strong that He couldn’t even stay dead because early, early……………………..
