In These Days

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

So, if you have your Bible this morning, I want to invite you to turn to a passage that I've just been thinking a little bit about. It's from Luke chapter 6. I started thinking about this last year, but this idea, I just can't get it out of my mind. And I want to share two or three thoughts with you from Luke chapter 6, a very familiar story. So, first of all, I do want to thank Pastor Drew for for the opportunity to come. We tremendously value you as a church. You're part of a network of about 60 churches in Johnson County and a little bit beyond Johnson County. And it's just, it's a blessing for me to have your pastor to work with. And it's a blessing to see what God is doing in this church. And especially think historically how the church started and the journey that this church has been on. I shared some of that with you last year, I believe, when I was here.

And just to see how God is continuing to move things forward, that is so encouraging and so like God. As Drew said, I am Scott. I'm married to Leslie. We've been married about 35. This will be our 36th anniversary coming up. Sorry, she's not here today. I was expecting her to pop in. I was sharing with Drew yesterday through some texts. My mom's been in the hospital. We've got some health issues we're trying to help her with. she's out of pocket following the text line this morning and not able to be here apparently, but thank you so much for your partnership in the Association. Let me just read this passage of Scripture and it's so familiar. Honestly, I hate to, I don't want to say I hate to read it because you know that sounds pretty sacrilegious I suppose, but I don't want you to just turn Turn me off because it's so familiar to you. Okay? So can I ask you to do that?

So let's just think for a moment about what God might want us to say. I ran across a verse in Psalm 119, verse 18, not too long ago that has really become one of my prayers each day. It says, Open my eyes that I may behold truths from your law. And I thought, what a great prayer that the psalmist prayed. Now we need the Lord to open our eyes because His truths are limitless in what He wants to say to us and how God wants to speak to us. And I think even that through His Word this morning. It says in verse 12 in Luke chapter 6, in these days, would you say that with me? In these days, we're going to focus on that phrase, in these days, Jesus, He went out to the mountain to pray and all night He continued in prayer to God. And when day came, He called His disciples and chose from them twelve, whom He named apostles, Simon, whom He named Peter, and Andrew, His brother, and James, and John, and Philip,

Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who is called the zealot, and Judas, the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor." Have you all heard these words before? Okay, these are real familiar, right? But the phrase that has really captured my attention is just this idea of in these days, in these days Jesus went out to a mountain to pray and he prayed all night and then after that night of prayer God had done something in his heart to give him clarity and direction about the next steps. But that phrase in these days and I want you to just think with me for just a little bit about that statement and really what the writer Luke is trying to communicate in these days. Sometimes we forget the context of Scripture. And I want to just remind you of what these days were like. You see, these were days of great spiritual darkness, so much so that the prophet Isaiah

in chapter 9 verse 2 said, when the Messiah comes, they will say, a light has shown in the darkness. John picked up on that theme in his book, The Gospel of John. These were days of great opposition, in fact, to the ways of God. Many of the Jews were only religious by nature. They were simply religious because of their Jewishness, if you will, their heritage as the people of God. But in fact, the Jews were greatly divided. They were divided into different tribes like Sadducees and Pharisees and scribes and zealots and then there were religious Druze and then there were totally non-religious Jews. There were Jews in favor of the Romans, Jews adamantly opposed to the ways of the Romans. They were a people divided. Not only that, morals in the society were at an all-time low. For as you recall from or perhaps your days of studying history, the Romans prized power and self-indulgence

above almost everything. They were days in which there was cultural and state hostility towards the ways of God. In fact, anyone who was a threat to Rome was liable to be put to death, just as we know from the Christmas story when Herod heard that a king of the Jews had been born, what was his response? go to the town and kill the infants that had been born around that time. That's not the only instance of Rome's brutality and cruelty and the difficulty that is exhibited here in this ancient land of Palestine. Perhaps you've seen the movie Spartacus that Hollywood has made somewhat of a spectacle about it. But you see, that is a real story. It describes a rebellion during the Roman Empire A few years before the birth of Jesus, that Rome squelched with an iron hand. Six thousand people were crucified. On the road from Rome to Apennia, a 120 mile stretch of land.

It was said that every 100 feet they had a crucified rebellure there. You see, Jesus came in these times. These were difficult days. These were days of misguided seekers, of people proclaiming to be the Messiah, and yet it was in these days that Jesus came. It was in these days that Jesus went up on the mountain to pray. And it was in these days that Jesus called forth that band of twelve that would forever change the course of how mankind relates to God. These days, in the midst of that, is when our text is speaking of. That is a little bit of a context. It reminds me a little bit of that sage who offers insightful perspective in his book written way back in 1859. You perhaps are familiar with it. It was the best of times and it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom. It was the age of foolishness. It was the epic of belief. It was the epic of incredulity.

It was the season of light. It was the season of darkness. It was the spring of hope. It was the winter of despair. You see, it was in these days that the text emerges, that Jesus went up on the mountain to pray. These days... It reminds me that these days seldom ideal for the people of God. Instead, these days always seem to have some negative aspects that we wish were not present in our lives. Is that not true? I suppose every one of us could say, these days I wish this were different, or I wish this had been changed. But we don't have the choice of these days. In fact, these days are all that we have. These days are the days that have been appointed for you and I to live according to Paul and to move about so that we might reach out for God, to know God and follow God. We are bound to these days. And yet history reminds us so poignantly that in these days, often days of tremendous darkness,

days of turmoil and heartache, political confusion, discourse on this national scene. During the most darkest of days, it was decisions made in those days that impacted generations to come. I was thinking again just this morning. Back in 1864, the Civil War had already been raging for four years. half a million soldiers had already lost their lives. The Union Army is seeing victory after victory. In 1864, General Sherman is beginning his march to the sea where he's going to go to Atlanta, lay siege, destroy it. The city is practically all burned down. General Sherman continues on his march to the sea going through and laying low Savannah, Georgia. It's where where the Confederate forces are defeated, where the Union Army is planning to push all the way to Texas in what they called the Red River Campaign, where the Confederate soldiers that same year lost a decisive battle in the state of Louisiana to push back the Union

forces. Yet, it was in these days in 1864 when a group of nine Baptist churches got together in Alvarado just a few miles south of here and decided to form a union of churches so that all people in the county would have an opportunity to hear the good news of Jesus. In many respects we could say it was the worst of times and it was the best of times because now as you drive about the county all of those 60 plus churches have been birthed out of that beginning bent in 1864. Fast forward to 1970 and a small five acre piece of land became available on a small country road just on the outskirts of what we know now as Burleson County Road 716 it was called at that time. When the five acres became available the association of which you're a part of did not have $5,000 to purchase it, but they borrowed the money. And for the next year, they made payments in anticipation

that one day a church would be built. And this church became built in 1980 because of a decision made in that day when it was difficult, when finances were short, when nobody was here. You see, decisions made in these days have an impact for eternity. You see, my friends, these days are all that you and I have. And if we're going to make the most of these days, I wanna make a couple of suggestions to you this morning. If you wanna make the most of 2022, if you wanna make the most of what God is doing in and what you hope and aspire Him to do through your life this year, I wanna invite you, I'm gonna press upon you this morning to remember just a couple of key thoughts that just jump off of this text, at least to me, that maybe you could apply. In these days, remember that God is working. Perhaps you're not like me, but at times I look around and I get a little discouraged.

I see moral apathy and spiritual apathy. I see that our political officials seem to no longer have the ability to engage in decent civil discourse. I am alarmed at some of the trends are rising up within our nation. The breakdown of the family, the confusion of morals, all of these things might lead a person to despair. But we need to remember that it is in the midst of darkness that the light shines. It is in the midst of these days that God has the greatest opportunity to touch people's lives and to change people's hearts. You see, these days, I think of the days in which Jesus came. You remember that story? Stories that the Gospels and the New Testament remind us of that in these days when Jesus was sent by the Father to come to the earth, that God visited the priests, Zachari and the temple, whose wife was barren well beyond the age of buried children and announced to Him

but they would have a son. And this son would be the forerunner of the Messiah. It was in those days that Abraham was sent who stood in the presence of God and was sent to the Virgin Mary and told that she who is a virgin is going to be with child because the shadow of the Most High, God Almighty, would overshadow her. And God Himself would bring forth a child from her womb. It was in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that all those in the Roman Empire had to be registered in the towns that they grew up in. It was a great inconvenience, but it was in those days that Joseph and Mary made their way back up to where they grew up from. And in those days, a child was born and laid in a manger. And it was in those days that the angels burst onto terrified shepherds, announcing the good news that they brought, but for you today has been born in the city of David,

a Savior who is Christ the Lord. It was in those days that this strange, enigmatic prophet of God, dressed in camel's hair, eating locust and wild honey, appeared calling upon the people of Israel, of Judah, of Jerusalem, of the inhabitants of the ancient Palestine to repent. And in those days, that prophet came proclaiming that there would be one called the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And it was in those days that when John looked at Him, he recognized Him, he baptized Jesus, and he heard the voice from God saying, This is my Son whom I love. And he saw the Spirit descend like a dove. You see, it was in those days, in the most difficult, darkest, confusing of days, that Jesus himself entered into human history. Could I just suggest to you that this is a vivid reminder that when we don't see God working, it does not mean he is not working.

It simply means we don't see it naturally. God has always been at work. Oh, how we need to remember that deep truth that Jesus proclaimed in John 5:17. My Father is always working. how important it is for us to remember in our days of darkness and confusion and disconcerting events that God is still working. Friends, could I just remind you, South Berlus and Baptist Church, you who are here as members, you might be a visitor, think about your life. I want to remind you today that God is still working. He is still working in your life. He is still working in situations around you. God is not dead. God is very much alive. God has not been displaced from His throne. He is still on His throne, and He always will be on His throne. He is still working. Church, I don't know what's going on in your life right now. This morning, I looked back at my journal from a year ago.

We were just coming through the heels of a dark time for our family. My son and son's fiancé had developed a brain tumor and after over a year journey died. We had already grafted her into our family. Church, I won't lie, it was a season of heartache, of weeping. Yet I look back now and I see how God in His marvelous grace has sustained us. has allowed our son to, to once again, exhibit some signs of laughter and just a little bit of hope now. And I am reminded that God is still working in the darkest of times when we don't feel Him present. It doesn't mean He has been absent. Instead, there is a season that we have to go through, it seems, in our spiritual development. But in these days, I am reminded God is still working. Church, I don't know what's going on in your life, in your home, in your family, in your neighborhood, at the workplace, at school.

I don't know what's going on with your health, what your future looks like. But could I just suggest to you this morning that maybe God wants you to remember that in these days, what you're going through right now, God is still working. See, remember that God is still working. In these days, it says Jesus went out to the mountain to pray. In these days, remember that God is working as we pray. There is something powerful about the prayers of God's people. I wish we had time to adequately walk through the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts. The physician writer seems to give very particular interest in the prayer life of Jesus and the prayer life of the church, which are exhibited in the Gospel of Luke and then in the Acts of the Apostles, the Book of Acts. But time eludes us to explore in depth, suffice it to say that in these days, in the midst of all that was going on,

we don't see Jesus pacing on the side of the mountain, wringing his hands, wondering what to do. Instead, we find Jesus doing what he did in Mark 1:35, getting up very early, going out where people are not present, spending time with the Father in prayer. In these days, Jesus prayed. As Jesus prayed, God led him. As Jesus got alone with God, God clarified for Jesus what he was supposed to be doing. As Jesus withdrew from others, he was able to draw closer into the presence of God. You see, in the midst of these days, Jesus prayed. He consistently and consequently walked right in the center of God's plan. As He heard the Father speak to Him, He knew what the Father wanted Him to do. In fact, Jesus said it poignantly in John 12, verse 49, I said nothing of my own accord, but only what the Father told me to say and how to say it. Can you imagine a life lived with such intimacy with the Father

that whatever the Father wants Him to say, whatever the Father wants Him to do, is said and done simply in response to the will and to the working of the Father? You might sit there and think to yourself, well, that's easy for Jesus to do. But could I make a suggestion that Jesus lived as a man to show you and I the inspire team? what He wants us to live up to. For you and I also can hear the voice of God. You and I can sense His promptings and the quiet wooing of the Spirit behind us saying, this is the way, walk in it. This is the kind of disciple life that we are supposed to be aspiring to live. I was delighted to hear your emphasis on discipleship and making disciples. It's one of the core values of us as an association. To not only be an association that prays, but also an association that makes disciples. You see, making disciples is not an activity or an endeavor

relegated to those who are employed by the church, like your pastor. They are to be the foundational aspects and the core things that you and I, as the people of God, are to be involved in making disciples. That's a message aside, but Jesus went up on the mountain to pray. One of the things we have been working on in our association is developing a prayer network, encouraging the people of God to once again really seek after God and to pray. If anything, of my time of service in this association, which I came to pastor in 1992 in a little town outside of Cleburne, We left there. We served in a church here in Burleson for about 13 years. And then I've been in this role for about 11 years now. And if there's one thing I've grown increasingly convinced of is this. There is no preacher, no band, no church that is able to bring a movement of the Spirit of God. That will only come about

as the people of God desperately humble themselves before God and cry out to God on behalf of themselves, their church, their community, and the culture in which we live, God to revive our hearts. And church, it will not happen apart from the prayers of God's people. You look at the history of revival, and every revival has a group of people, it seems, who were praying desperately in the darkest of times in those days that God would send His Spirit to revive His church. So I find it so intriguing to me that here is Jesus as He is setting out on the mission that the Father has given him. He, the Son of God, spends the whole night in prayer that he might make sure that the ones he choose are right in line with the ones that the Father has selected so that his choice and the Father's choice would be merged together and would be completely unified. You see, as Jesus prayed, God led,

as Jesus prayed, he knew what God wanted him to do. I wish I could say prayer over these last 11 years throughout our association has advanced to the degree that I envisioned it would when I began to cast this vision for us becoming a people who once again make God's house a house of prayer for all the nations. But I would be remiss to say to you we have mobilized a great prayer movement. Instead in the natural eye it seems as if very little has changed. There are prayer groups here and there. I hear of little gatherings in this community or that gathering, but something inside of me yet my eyes have not yet visualized and seen in the natural. A group, a body of people that is firmly resolved to pray for revival and spiritual awakening, fervently, humbly, steadfastly, until the Spirit of God moves and works. Instead, what I often see is churches trying harder.

There's a new program. There's a new method. There's a new study. Friends, if we had enough studies and programs, we would have had revival a long time ago. But the reality is, revival is a sovereign work of God in response to the heart condition of the people of God. And I don't know of anything that turns our heart towards God more quickly and more effectively than when we seek Him and pray. You see, I want to encourage you as you launch into 2022, perhaps you've already made your new year's resolutions, and perhaps you're going to the gym, perhaps you're eating better, perhaps you're going to start saying, I'm sorry more, perhaps you're going to be quiet a little bit more and listen to other people more. Whatever those resolutions might be, could I just least implore upon you to make this the year in which you personally take prayer to the next level?

I don't know what that needs to look like in your life, But I see its impact right here, because as Jesus prayed, He affected the kingdom of God. As Jesus prayed, it altered the lives of the people around Him because He chose the twelve. And friends, that forever changed our Christian history. As Jesus prayed, their lives were changed. As you and I pray, the people around us become changed, as we ourselves become changed. And so as Jesus prayed, He went up on the mountain and He prayed all the night long. And when day came, He called the disciples and from there chose the twelve whom He named as apostles. In these days, in these days, remember that God is working. And we need to be reminded of that. I was talking to Larry, pastor at Marystown, just this last week. Larry has been slugging it out, trying to be faithful. Like you battling the pandemic. The crowd comes, the crowd goes.

Like any pastor wondering, does anything I do make a difference? Heck, yeah. Oh, I was reminded afresh this week that God works even when we don't see it because He reported to me last month, Scott, we baptized 11 people. You see, we're not responsible for the harvest, but we are responsible with this good news. We are responsible to live our lives in such a way that we're hearing from God and we're doing what the Father tells us to do. We're engaging the people the Father wants us to engage. And as we do our part, I have found a peculiar thing. God will do His part and He does it exponentially better then we do our parts. So church, I want to challenge you. I want to invite you to be a people that pray. You live in the midst of a community that has heard the gospel in various ways over many years, perhaps. And yet there are still some people around us who have never entered the doors of a church.

Pray. You live amongst the peoples whose hearts have grown hardened and calloused, where the love of the world is more important to them than the love of God. But as you pray, God begins to change people's hearts. You see, I am growing increasingly convinced that much more is accomplished by our praying than any of our working. Because prayer expresses not only our deep humility that we can't do it on our own, but our acknowledgement that unless God intervenes in the lives of people around us and in our personal situations, we have nothing sure to stand on. There will be no effect whatsoever. In these times, in these days, God is working. In these days, God is calling upon us as His people to pray, so that we, like the disciples of old, might change our world and literally turn it upside down with the simple reality of the good news. Friends, don't grow weary of praying for your friends.

Don't become disillusioned thinking God is not working. God will work in response to your praying, And God is working right now for the furtherance of His Kingdom. And He gives us the incredible opportunity to be a part of that personally and missionally. My prayer for you as a church is that you would become the people of God who pray and believe that God is working and that with your own eyes you would see revival in His Church and spiritual awakening in our county. Let me pray for us. Father, thank You for Your Word that just reminds us in these days You are still working. In these days we can partner with You in our praying, in our steadfast faithfulness. I ask in the name of Jesus Your blessing here upon this church. I ask Your blessing on Pastor Drew and his family. Father, we cry out to you with people all across this county saying, God, revive us. God sends spiritual awakening.

We're desperate for you, Lord. And unless you intervene, we are without any hope. So Lord, our eyes are fixed upon you. You know our personal situation. You know the situation in this church and every church across the county. Lord, you know how much we need you. So come, Lord Jesus, come is our prayer in Jesus' name. And God's people said, let's stand and sing. When darkness tries to roll along my bone When sorrow comes and steal the joy I own When brokenness and pain is all I know Oh, I won't be shaken No, I won't be shaken This mouth of fear doesn't stand a chance When I'm standing on my feet Doesn't stand a chance When I'm standing on Doesn't stand a chance When I'm standing on my feet This dream no longer has a place to hide And I am not a captain to the lies

But I'm not afraid to leave my past behind Oh, I won't be shaken No, I won't be shaken Cause my fear doesn't stand a chance When I'm standing your love My fear doesn't stand a chance when I'm standing your love Doesn't stand a chance when I'm standing your love Reject this power that can empty out this resurrection power that can save your name This power that can break off every jamb I'm not a That in your love