Transcription
Our world is changing at a speed and in a magnitude that is unprecedented in the history of human civilization. We're having to process change and the availability of information at a rate that we haven't been ever seen before, and it's going to require a nimbleness of the church.
You see, the message we have never changes. The truth of God doesn't change, but the containers have to change. They have to fit the hand of every generation.
There's things we see that are not encouraging. Lawlessness is exploding around us. Jesus told us it would in Matthew 24. He said when we got to the end of the age that the lawlessness would become so prevalent that the love of God in the hearts of God's people would grow cold. The refusal to obey the law is now practiced so broadly that it's embraced by major cities in America, even states. We have federal judges, federal judges who ignore the opinions of the Supreme Court. I give you those highlights because if it's happening at those significant levels of authority and structure, I assure you it's happening at the local level.
Ethnic hatred, Jesus said that would be a characteristic of the end of the age. And that same prophetic presentation in Matthew 24. And we're living in a time when ethnic hatred is coached. It's encouraged at the highest levels of academia. Find the reasons why you have been offended and be aggrieved. Ideas like cooperation are being dismantled around us. Propaganda and opinion is rising to flood levels. We used to just think it was the newspapers and the broadcast media that were filled with fake news. Now we have this wonderful new emerging source of information and communication called social media. And you could hide in your basement with a keyboard and bless us with your opinions. Truthfulness is being scorned. Hard work and self-reliance seem rather antiquated these days. They have succumbed to the invitation to live for the moment and get all that you're entitled to.
Science, something that we've considered a bedrock component, a process of rigorous observation of our world and the formulation of a hypothesis which can then be tested and lead us to a substantial theory. That is science. Science is not a set of facts. It is a process. Well, that process has been co-opted by political expediency and financial gain, but it's still wrapped in the holy shroud of science. And if you question it, you're a denier. Trust has crumbled. Truth is trampled. Truthfulness is seldom found, tragically frequently even in the church. The education of our children, too long ignored, has been engulfed in relativism. The uniqueness of the Christian faith, American exceptionalism, and civic responsibility are mostly absent in the preparation of the next generation of leaders.
And here's the awkward part of this, folks. We're responsible for this failure. We were busy with other things. Well, our future, apart from the prophetic direction of scripture, is not clear. Too much change, too much uncertainty, too many powerful forces. I think the determining factor has to do with the people of God. They're always the determining factor in history. The generation of former slaves of Egypt, had they chosen to occupy the promised land, they could have. But they declined the invitation of God, so they perished in the wilderness. I could take you through the biblical history and through the history of the church and those generations of God's people that accept his invitations. And although they face some challenges with that, they face the blessings of that, and those that decline them.
The question before our generation is which will we be? Will we awaken to holiness and purity and integrity and choose them as life goals? Or will we still live like a secular culture and occasionally wrap ourselves in a robe of faith and say, "Jesus"? It's not a simple time. It's not an easy time. We're being forced to make some rather difficult decisions, and that will continue. I've invited you, and I'll continue to do so. Let's decide to do the difficult things. To complete our course, to see the gospel proclaimed fully. To see Jesus' name exalted, to see his kingdom extended, to see his will done on earth as it is in heaven.
Whether it's popular or not, whether it's celebrated or not, whether it seems like the pathway to promotion or not, I'll tell you the way to get at this. The degree to which it lives in your heart, to what extent is that the ambition you hold for your children and your grandchildren? You have greater ambition for them in athletics, in academia, in social circles. What is the ambition of your life for those that you purport to love the most? That'll help you understand what is predominant in your own heart.
I've highlighted some of the things that are negative, but there's some remarkable things God is doing in the earth. If you're not keeping a good news list, you're missing out. It's essential. It's essential for me. I like to say God is moving in the earth. The people are always asking me, "I don't know. What do you say? I don't know how you could say that. I don't see God moving." Start keeping a good news list. Start, you start in your own personal arena and work out from there.
I brought you kind of a macro perspective. Our borders are secure. That's good news. We haven't been able to say that in more than a decade. There have been billions of dollars of our tax dollars that have been being spent fraudulently and being stolen, and it's been exposed and slowed. It hasn't been stopped, but we at least have some sense that maybe something's fishy. The largest audience in history heard the gospel presented at Charlie Kirk's memorial service. Out of such a senseless tragedy, God brought something truly remarkable. Iran, the global sponsor of terror for more than 40 years, has been humbled a bit. The outcome is not fully accomplished. But Hezbollah and Hamas, proxy groups, sponsored, funded, weapons provided by Iran, they have forfeited most of their influence.
Those are wonderful things. Tens of thousands of Americans have died and suffered because of the hate and the violence and the murder propagated by Iran. Citizens of Venezuela have experienced a breath of freedom. There's much yet to be done, but there have been hundreds of pastors that have been imprisoned that have been released, and they'll be free this Easter to celebrate. God is moving in the earth. The mutilation of our children in pursuit of trans insanity has been slowed. We're still forming a conscience around that. The US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which had made abortion the law of the land. It hasn't, in all fairness, it hasn't diminished the abortion rates. That's a heart issue more than it's a political issue. Gee, who would have thought of that? Folks, our problems are not political. They're spiritual.
We have to have a change of heart. Technology is making things that were previously impossible routine. You can be frightened by the emerging technology and all the things it offers, or you can recognize an enormous opportunity for the kingdom of God. All the technological things I see happening are aligning up with what scripture tells us was coming. We should just be looking, goes, "Oh, I've been expecting you." And as much as they have potential for evil or harm or manipulation, they have opportunities for the extension of the kingdom of God.
Let's not hide from it. Let's implement it. We can gather in a church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, which most people have to have practice and coaching just to learn to pronounce. And we have people join us in Azerbaijan and Armenia and all over the globe. That was impossible just a few years ago. God is moving in the public square.
Why does it matter? Because if you don't remember those points of deliverance in your life and those expressions of the power and the grace and mercy of God, then when you bump into a challenge, you are ill-prepared to have the confidence to say, "God can deliver me." You see, we experience God's help, then when we're faced with a challenge, we act as if we've never known God to intervene. Or we experience God's help, and then we don't serve the Lord with a heart of gratitude. Don't gobble up the blessings of God and stamp your feet like petulant children and demand more. Every time you can acknowledge the goodness of God in your life, God moving in the earth, whether it's personal or in a broader way, you recalibrate one notch more fully towards the Lord.
God, I want to align my heart with you more completely. You see, I believe we have a generational responsibility to tell of the goodness of God to those younger than ourselves.
Every one of us, this is where leading with your faith is so, so important. We've got to take the goodness of God. You have to be aware of it. You can't give away what you don't have. So, you'll have to let your heart and your awareness and your mind be filled with the good things that God is doing, the blessings of God that have come to your life. Don't take credit for them. Don't gather the generations of your family around you and tell them how brilliant you are. They won't believe you anyway, but share with them the goodness of God.
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