Hear the Word of the Lord given through the prophet Jeremiah, who
issued a warning to God’s people (leaders and followers), and then
offered hope:
Jeremiah presents a contrast between those
who cave-in to the culture, as opposed to those who live Godly lives no matter
which way the wind blows. The cursed are
eventually going to be stunted shrubs in the barren desert; there will be no
hope. But the Godly ones who resist the
cultural shift towards evil…they will draw from deep waters; their fruit will
stand the test of time. In short, they
have God’s blessing, which is the hope of all who trust in Christ, not the
culture.
I do not have to tell you that the early
Methodist movement under John and Charles Wesley bore the Godly fruit of
holiness, which blessed this nation and the world for generations. Among that fruit the world saw an end to
slavery, the beginning of sweeping spiritual revival, and social reform. In the mid-part of the last century
Methodists were also at the forefront of combatting racism.
But the shift of lukewarm waters into our
baptismal fonts of recent generations has made Methodism more like a social
club than a holy movement. Where once
Methodists were considered people of the Book of Books, now we’re a wide tent
of anything goes! God’s book lies
collecting dust on coffee tables and tucked-away in grandma’s cabinet, and even
absent in many church worship services.
United Methodists do have a huge book of
rules, most of which means nothing, because nobody wants to offend
anybody. We elect people to lead, but
the only place they lead whoever’s following is into temptation.
· Where is the deliverance of leaders and followers
in hot pursuit of God?
· Where is God’s remnant?
· Where are the Methodists who have God as
their hope?
· Where are the people of God who have a
backbone and not simply a wishbone, hoping problems will go away?
I’ll tell you where they are – they’re in
Africa.
While North American Methodism
grows more tepid and lukewarm with every passing liberalization of faith and
practice, our black brothers and sisters on the dark continent are standing in
light; they’re standing strong for Biblical faith, Biblical
marriage, and sexuality without perversion. And they are not slaves to money and
buildings, because they know they’ve got a King who owns the cattle on a
thousand hills, and a building not made with hands.
In 2007 I went to the South African nation
of Zimbabwe to help build a seminary building and teach African pastors the
doctrine of End Times recorded in Daniel, Matthew and Revelation. Many of these young pastors were so hungry
for the Word of God they walked 10 or more miles each day to the seminary.
After a full day of study and work on the
building they walked back home to tend their meager little farm plots and meet
with their congregations under a tree somewhere. They had little of this world’s stuff, but
they were covered in the anointing of God’s Holy Spirit. I taught them what I learned studying
Scripture, but they taught me what it means to be a real disciple, one who has tapped
into the power follow Jesus Christ, make more disciples, and transform the
world.
While we were in Harare, Zimbabwe we held
a 4-day outdoor Vacation Bible School for the children. I shared the simple Gospel through an
interpreter and more than 100 little girls and boys received Christ as
savior. I’m not an evangelist, but when
the Spirit of God is working you do the best you can, and then get back out of
the way, because wonderful things happen!
I was no missionary to them; they were teaching me what the real
work is all about.
The children I met that week were not
looking for cell phones, or more sophisticated toys to collect dust; their
parents had taught them well to respect others and to turn to the Word of God. This was evident because, when the invitation
to accept Christ was offered, the children were also offered a choice between
staying behind to make their decision to accept Jesus or go outside with their
teachers to play and have some candy.
Most of the children stayed behind.
These children rarely had treats and free time to play, so candy is
always a big draw. But, for those 8, 9,
and 10-year-old children, following Christ meant putting aside a momentary
treat in favor of eternal salvation.
There are those who think of Africa and
parts of South America as backward and third
world because of financial poverty and backward educational
levels. But in those impoverished places
the Spirit of God is moving, and they are rich in the things of God – something
of which all the riches of Solomon or Fort Knox will never buy or even understand. The only backwardness of
these people is they’ve gone back to God’s Word, while the rest of the
so-called civilized and progressive world
has gone forward to the shame of apostasy, Godless and proud of it!
Beloved, if you think Africa is full of
savages, I invite you to look at the savagery the so-called first-world
countries display. We kill each other
over stock portfolios, parade our sexual perversity as if it’s a badge of
sophistication, and snuff out the lives of the unborn like squashing a mosquito. Meanwhile, the so-called savages
of the African bush are sharing burdens, enduring hardship, and even
persecution; our African brothers and sisters protect life, gender purity, and
preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, pure, unadulterated and doctrinally-sound. I ask you, who’s the REAL savage?
We Americans like to call ourselves a
“Christian” nation. Friends, if ever we were
a so-called Christian nation, we have graduated to become the
evil, apostate, and lost nation we read about in Scripture:
What sorrow for those who say that evil is
good and good is evil...Isaiah 5:20a(NLT)
And the irony of it all is that we don’t
even know it; we reject it when we hear it, we squabble over nitpicking things
like whether the black people will be black in heaven…and we are still
murdering the prophets, the unborn, and persecuting the bride of Jesus
Christ.
And some of us will never find out those
things because heaven will never be seen, except from the side of the throne
where the goats gather! There is coming
a day when God is going to set things right; He is continually searching the
hearts of human beings, and Jeremiah’s warning includes
an assurance that, where he finds unbelief, there will be judgment:
“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately
wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But
I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according
to what their actions deserve.” Jeremiah
17:9-10(NLT)
The warning couldn’t be clearer; if a
person will not serve Jesus, the Cornerstone, then,
to you He becomes the Rock of Offense, a stumbling
stone that will crush whatever life you may think you possess.
Warnings without consequences may be what
parents do these days, but our Eternal Heavenly Father knows no such thing; what
He promises, He delivers!
Jeremiah also has a word of hope.
But blessed are those who trust in the
Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They
are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the
water. Such trees are not bothered by
the heat or worried by long months of drought.
Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit. Jeremiah 17:7-8(NLT)
This hope is simple; those who place their
trust in the LORD, receive the LORD as their hope. Jesus’ love and friendship to us is the kind
of eternal life and strength of deep roots in the heavens. There may be storms down here, but we stand
like the great cedars of Lebanon; we may stand here physically battered, but we’re
growing stronger with every wind of adversity.
How strong is that strength?
And I am
convinced that nothing can ever separate
us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither
angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about
tomorrow—not even the powers of
hell can separate us from God’s love. Romans 8:38(NLT)
And, by the way, that promise is sure, and includes whatever happens
this week, next month, or in the next thousand years.
The edicts of human kings and queens tend to fall apart like grass
withering and fading to oblivion, but the Word of God stands forever.
In the name
of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…Let it be so!
