Crisis Point!

Introduction

We receive a lot of suggestions and recommendations for gospel meetings and guest speakers. Some time back, Wally and Kimberly came forward and had a suggestion. Suggestion is too soft a word. Wally was insistent. But the elders asked Wilson to come anyway. I’m just kidding. Wilson Adams is no stranger to the congregation here at South Bumby through his writings, through his guest appearances with us before. We’re very familiar with his dedication to the truth, his devotion to the Word of God. And through his writing and his speaking, Wilson just has a knack for being relatable, of relating the message to our lives. And how it should affect us and really change us and adapt us to be God’s children. And we need that right now. And so the shepherds have called upon Wilson to come and speak to us today in these four four sessions to deal with our faith and our families during this difficult time.

And Wilson, would you come and speak the word to us?

Nehemiah chapter two, and beginning in verse one. It’s good to be with you here at South Bumby, and I’ve looked forward to this. I hope today will be a day of encouragement. I hope to say something that will help you and strengthen you and motivate you to seek the God that we all love and serve. And I just appreciate the opportunity so very much. It is great to reconnect with so many people I have known and loved for a long, long time. Brother Alan and I go back to Parr Street days and Brother Barfield and go back. We go back a long ways to the Washington, D.C. area, and of course Kimberly and Wally and their family. So good to reconnect with all of them and with all of you.

Thank you for letting me come. A lot more I could say. Let’s just get to the test. Nehemiah chapter 2, beginning in verse 1. Nehemiah 2, beginning in verse 1. It came about in the month Nican, in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, that wine was before him. And I took up the wine and I gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. So the king said to me, Why is your face sad? You’re not sick. This is nothing but sadness of heart. Smart king. Then I was very much afraid. And I said to the king, let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad? When the city, the place of my father’s tombs, lies desolate. And its gates have been consumed by fire.

The king said to me, What would you request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, if it please the king, and if your servant has found favor before you, send me to Judah, to the city of my father’s tombs, that I may rebuild it. Let’s skip ahead to verse 8, the end of the verse. And the king granted them to me because of the good hand of God was upon me. What is history going to write about the year 2020? It’s going to write about it. I marvel sometimes at people who say, well, I don’t like history. Well, I hate to tell you, you’re living it. You’re in it. And so what are the historians going to write about the previous months in which we’ve all lived?

It’s certainly going to be one we’re all going to remember for a long time. And I’ll tell you what it’s done. It’s taken more than just the starch out of us. In many cases, it’s taken the faith out of us. And we’ve got to get that back. It’s been a tough time for everybody. The crisis of a pandemic. The polarization of a political culture. The lack of respect for authority on any level. Livelihoods destroyed. Elderly marginalized. Anxiety in our young people. I read an article the other day. Anxiety in children is at the highest level that’s ever been found. Depression is huge. You think God’s people are exempt from that? We’re not exempt from that. And we live in a time culturally in which down is up and up is down and right is wrong and wrong is right.

It’s crazy times. So let me take you back to the first part of 2020. You remember when churches, churches like to have themes. And a lot of churches came out with this great theme in 2020. I don’t know, maybe you did or not. I have no idea, so hopefully I’m not picking on you. But a lot of churches came out with a theme. And it was 2020, seeing clearly.

We saw a lot of things. And they weren’t all good. You know, the church is not an island. Away from the unrest of our times. And the work of the kingdom has certainly been affected. Assemblies have come time have become times of separation rather than one another. And I’m not arguing against that, I’m just stating reality. And leaders of congregations have struggled mightily to keep everybody together. Do you not understand that they get bombarded with opinions from here and opinions from here? And trying to keep everybody together is hard. And preachers have become discouraged, and I know some who have quit. They’ve just given up. And kids’ Bible classes have stopped, and distance learning, and internet fellowship. I will say this. It was easier to go to church in your pajamas.

I was telling Pauline Kimberly last night, first time I preached a sermon in my shorts. Seated at my desk. Nobody could know, and I certainly didn’t stand up.

And you know, we get used to that. We get kind of comfortable with that, too comfortable with that. Technology has helped. Thank God for that. And yet, technology cannot scratch the itch of one another. It cannot do that. Because we were created for fellowship and faith. Not distancing and fear. So here’s what I know about all of this. I know God’s on the throne. I know that what he asks of me and you and all of his people is to press on in faith. And to rejoice in hope and to persevere in tribulation and to honor one another and to be respectful of somebody whose opinion may be different than yours. And above all, to be people of joy.

Nothing’s going to steal my joy. And I think that’s what God wants from us. And yet we can’t keep driving the kingdom work. We can’t keep doing that. We can’t keep driving with the brakes on. Because kingdom work doesn’t stop. Preachers need to go. Classes need to be held, saints need to assemble. There’s work to be done. And every eldership, and I guarantee you this one, every eldership struggles with the what and the how and the when. And I’m so thankful for God’s wisdom with autonomy. I can’t tell the elders here what to do. I didn’t come to do that. I’d be out of place to do that. That’s not my place. None of my business. But I’ll tell you what I can tell you. I can tell you what Nehemiah did.

When Nehemiah was faced with a critical situation and a crisis point, do you notice what he did? He hit his knees. That’s what he did. And that’s what we have to do. Because there’s a lot at stake. We can’t have more discouraged soldiers dropping out of the ranks. We can’t have families falling through the cracks. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 58 still speaks to us. Therefore, my beloved brethren, being steadfast and movable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. I think of the song, soldiers of Christ arise. We run to the battle. We don’t run from it. As the song suggests, there is much to do. There is work on every hand. Yes, there is. So here we are now. April 2021. Crisis point. What do we do now?

Well, all of us every day have a choice. We have a choice. And it’s a very simple choice between faith and fear.

365 times. I didn’t count these. I took somebody’s word for it. But 365 times, whoever did count them, said the Bible says, do not fear. Do not fear. Why do you think the Bible says that over and over and over and over and over again? Do not fear. Fear not. Because God is sending us a message that says don’t be afraid. And I’ll tell you the antidote. The antidote to worry is worship. And the antidote to panic is praise and prayer. And trust and faith. And the reason is fear is deadly. Fear is deadly. Fear will kill your faith. Fear will breed uncertainty. Fear will make us skeptical and scared and suspicious and selfish. And so oftentimes, as those who are older understanding.

So let me give you three truths to write down. Real quick, three truths. Number one. Fear of the unknown scares us. Fear of the unknown scares us. And so we go around in that. What if? What if this happens? What if that happens? Or what if what if this other thing happens? And we conjure up all of these scenarios. Why do we do that? Because we live in a culture where we want to know everything. And isn’t it amazing that God in his wisdom doesn’t tell us? He doesn’t tell us everything. And so we can speculate and we can contemplate and we can guesstimate and we can do all of those things. But at the end of the day, we don’t have all the answers. And that scares us.

It scares us because we think we need to know everything. But we don’t know everything because God hadn’t told us everything. So number one, fear of the unknown scares us. Number two, loss of control shocks us. Because we like to think we’re in control. When really we’re not in control. And when we sense that we’re not in control, we sense that we’re losing something we never had anyway. I hate to burst your bubble, but you don’t control very much. You don’t. You can’t control the weather, you can’t control the traffic, you can’t control Washington, you can’t control the world. There’s a lot more you can’t control. And when you feel out of control, it kind of leaves us feeling vulnerable. So we can worry, and people are good at that.

We’re really good about worrying, which doesn’t really solve anything. That’s why Paul said, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication. Let your request be made known to God. Worry about nothing, pray about everything. But this feeling that I’m not, I’m just not in control. That’s that shocks us. And number three, write this down. Faith secures us. Faith secures us. Faith in the one who is in control rises above the fear because faith places everything in his hands. Now please don’t misunderstand. Faith is not foolhardy ignorance. You hear people who think that way sometimes, and that’s mind blowing. What I don’t know won’t hurt me. Well, yes, it will. That’s not biblical. Matthew chapter 10 and verse 16 says, be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves.

And so when you combine those two elements, faith and innocence, you find a God balanced approach that can live life without panic. And if ever there was a time to live life without panic, it’s now because people are watching us. Your neighbors are watching you. Your family is watching you. Your children and grandchildren are watching you. And so it is that all of these current events provide tremendous opportunity for testimony. And I remind you of what Paul said in 2 Timothy 1 and verse 7. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and soundness of mind. And that means reasonable thinking. So let me leave you this morning. I’m a numbers guy. I’m always throwing out five things to remember, three things that help me, whatever.

1. We Are Fragile

Let me leave you. Let me leave you this morning. Let me leave you with six truths that I hope we’ve learned. Six truths that I hope we have learned so they can propel us forward into whatever lies ahead. Six truths. Number one, I’ll tell you what we’ve learned. I hope we’ve learned. We are fragile. We are fragile. It’s a much needed reminder for all of us that we’re not quite as self-sufficient as we would like to think. In the 103rd Psalm, Psalm 103 and verse 15, he says, as for man, his days are like grass. As the flower of the field, he flourishes when the wind is passed over, it is no more. Life’s pretty short. And we are fragile. You know, history has proven that these health pandemics can overtake a population.

2. We Are Equal

And in our day and time, with the amazing speed and rapidity of travel, it just goes even faster. So apparently this isn’t just something that happened, you know, back in the dark ages. And even though we are technically, with technology and all of the information we have, we’re so smart, and we have all of these apps on our phone for everything. There’s no app for this. And so suddenly we feel very vulnerable. We feel very fragile. Number two, write this down. We are equal. We are equal. What we have experienced over the last several months is no respect for persons. Have you noticed? Ethnicity. National borders, cultural. Now, in the eyes of the world, we’re different. Our skin color, tone, our gender, by the way, I will affirm there’s two.

Our languages, our culture.

3. The Battle Between Faith and Fear

But in the eyes of what we have experienced, it has reminded us that we are equal. Because in the eyes of a global God, we’re all the same. There may be things about us that are different, but we’re all the same. We all bleed as one. Number three, write this down. Every one of us faces the battle between faith and fear. All of us face that battle between faith and fear. Some people’s response, some people’s reaction has been so paranoid, they can’t even function anymore in any way.

Take precautions? Absolutely. But ultimately, we have to put our trust in God to help navigate us through the storm. You know, when Jesus was asleep in the boat and the storm was raging, and he stands up and he says, Peace be still. I thought about that the other day. And I know he was speaking to the storm and showing his power over nature, and I know that the text says it became perfectly calm. But I wonder sometimes if it did not have a twofold meaning. When Jesus said, Peace be still. Could he also have been speaking to the hearts of those men? Who were shaking him and saying, Lord, wake up, wake up. Do you not care that we are perishing? And Jesus said, peace be still.

4. Our Dependence Upon Prayer

Maybe the storm that is raging is within you. Maybe the message of peace be still by Jesus speaks to your heart. To your trust. What’s the song that we that we teach our little ones to sing? He’s got the whole world where? In his hands. He’s got you and me, brother, in his hands. Now, either we believe that or we don’t. But we all battle this faith fear, faith fear. Number four, I’ll tell you what we’ve learned through all of this. I hope we’ve learned this. We better learn this, and we better use this moving on. And that is our dependence upon prayer. Our dependence upon prayer. In the midst of this global crazy time, what can I do? I’m one person. I’m small. I’m insignificant.

What can I do? What you can do is what Paul said to do. As Paul challenged the people of his day, he challenges the people of our day. Pray. Pray. Pray for our leaders. Somebody said, Well, I didn’t vote for that guy. I didn’t vote for the last guy. I don’t care. I don’t find anything in what Paul said about that. What I find Paul said was, pray for your leaders. Not just for them. You pray for your leaders for you. Pray for leaders and all who are in authority that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life. There’s a lot to pray for. We pray for one another. We pray for the shepherds of this church. We pray for the progress of the kingdom of God.

5. It Wakes Us Up to What’s Really Important

There’s a lot to pray for. Number five. I’ll tell you what we’ve learned, hopefully. That it wakes us up to what’s really important. It is so easy for us to get busy and busier and we lose sight of the most important things. In a culture of blessings, in a culture of abundance, it is so easy for us to just take everything for granted. Our jobs, our homes, our way of life. The times of sacred fellowship. And it’s easy to just take all of that for granted. And if any good has come out of the last year plus, it has taught us the big difference between what is meaningful and what is meaningless. For example, we are a culture saturated with sports. You know, somehow, some way we got we got we got through a year without any of that.

6. A Renewed Sense of Hope

Things got kind of pushed down and pushed aside, and hey, we’re still here. You know. We can make it without a lot of things. And suddenly the things that really mattered really did matter. Hopefully, we’ve learned that lesson. And hopefully that will take us forward in a very positive way. And last, I’ll tell you what we’ve learned, hopefully, and that is to have a renewed sense of hope. And I say that because I wish to God that people were concerned as much about the pandemic of sin as the pandemic that we faced. Because I’ll tell you a little secret that’s not a secret. The vaccine for this pandemic has been around a long time. Jesus walked into a world and faced the most lethal virus of all that affects all of us.

Romans 3 23, all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And in chapter 6, he says, the wages of sin is death. That is sin separates us from God, separates us from the life-giving one. And so Jesus becomes the only hope we have. The antidote for this life-killing virus. And so Jesus came down. And he came down to where we walk, and he came down and breathed the same air, and he ate the same food, and he walked among sick and sorrowful and hurting and sinful people like us. And as he looked around the people like us, he asked a very simple question in John chapter 11. He said, I am the resurrection and the life. Do you believe? Do you believe?

Conclusion

Either we do or we don’t. There’s no middle ground. You either believe or you don’t. This last year has taught us a lot. It has taught us a lot. And if we would just pause long enough to think about what it has taught us, then and only then can we move forward in the year that is ahead and the years that are ahead. And learn the lessons that God wants us to see. At 2.30 this afternoon, I’m going to talk to you about how all of this affects parents. And how all of this affects families.

There’s your antidote. Put him on. Live for him. Live for the one who died for you. And you can do that this morning. Why don’t you come while we stand and see?