Mercy Drops From Heaven

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Beaverdam Baptist Church has been holding Revival Services this week. We have heard some great preaching from Pastors Roy Broughman and Condy Richardson, and we are looking forward to Craigan Blankenship tonight and Dearal Rodgers tomorrow.




I preached Sunday morning from 2 Kings 4 about us being empty vessels that God could fill. We are blessed; but we still need the Lord. The man of God said to the widow that when one of the vessels got full, to set that vessel aside. The application is strong. When we get satisfied and are convinced that we have enough of God and are full of Him, then He sets us aside. Now I'm not questioning my Baptist heritage. I still believe in eternal security. I'm speaking about blessings not salvation.



The New Testament precedent would be the church at Laodicea. The church said, "We are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing." Also notice that Jesus stood outside the door of that church. So when we come and cry out to God for more of Him, guess what? We get blessed. Sometimes that comes in the form of a little mercy drop from God. Sometimes it is as simple as a greeting card sent in the mail, the words of a small child, a great sermon that hits home, or even in a voicemail left on a forgotten cell phone. You hear God speak to you through those things, and know that all is still right in the universe.



I am blessed. But I need You Lord. I need more of You. May I never get so satisfied with my stuff, that I get satisfied with You.

New Messages

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I've put a few new messages up at our Sermon.net site.


Shamgar
and
Jonah

are both from Revival at Shamrock Baptist Church. They're a tad on the long side, which is why I'm telling you it was from a Revival.

The Glenn Beck Gospel

I love Glenn beck as an entertainer and his political views somewhat align with mine. But we must never confuse that with his religiosity. Glenn Beck is not a Christian, he is a Mormon. He follows the teachings of a cult. And when he talks about revival, he is not describing Evangelicalism, or bringing America "Back to God." His ideology may be conservatism, but it is not the Gospel, and we must, MUST, stop believing the lie that it is. This is no different than what Satan told Eve in the Garden, or Jesus in the wilderness. The lie never changes, it just wears new clothes.

The following link is to a post by one of my profs at Southern, Russ Moore. It is a must read on this subject. Here is a snippet...


It’s sad to see so many Christians confusing Mormon politics or American nationalism with the gospel of Jesus Christ. But, don’t get me wrong, I’m not pessimistic. Jesus will build his church, and he will build it on the gospel. He doesn’t need American Christianity to do it. Vibrant, loving, orthodox Christianity will flourish, perhaps among the poor of Haiti or the persecuted of Sudan or the outlawed of China, but it will flourish.

And there will be a new generation, in America and elsewhere, who will be ready for a gospel that is more than just Fox News at prayer.


Well said Dr Moore. Read it in its entirety below. Please.



http://www.russellmoore.com/2010/08/29/god-the-gospel-and-glenn-beck/

Where in the World is Jonah Going? 5/23/10

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Shamrock Baptist Church's Revival...5/23/2010

Attitudes of a Would-Be Disciple 5/23/10

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Shamrock Refocus

No, I'm not suddenly a consultant for Ireland! Nor have a made any mission trips to Dublin. (Although I would like that very much!) Shamrock is a church up the street and Refocus was the theme for their revival. We finished up last night and hopefully, prayerfully, the people are filled Spiritually for awhile.

Their pastor, Roy, asked our DOM and me to preach for them. I led twice Sunday and then Monday night and Tuesday night, our DOM Jimmy led Wednesday. The theme God wanted was apparently on refocusing on His will for the lives of the people at Shamrock, as both Jimmy and I targeted that message.

The will of God for our life is often camouflaged by the busyness and stress of living in a world of full of distractions. It is one thing to be uncertain about the will of God and miss it, but it is a totally different matter to know will of God and still refuse to do it. The classic example of this in all of the Bible is the story of Jonah.

The word of the Lord cam to Jonah, the son of Amittai saying... It does not matter what the word was, it was clear and distinct. Jonah was to Arise and go to Nineveh and preach. But he did not want to do it, so he arose and went to Tarshish. Complete and unabashed disobedience.

When we run from God's will for our lives we put time and distance between our relationship with God and our service and availability to be used by God. This is what Jonah wanted--to not be used by God. How horrible.

Are we modern day Jonahs? Do we become so comfortable and complacent in our luxuries that we don't want God to "upset our apple cart?" That we would rather miss God's will than be disturbed by His calling? Would we rather dodge our duty rather than do His command? In-other-words, have we become so comfortable where we are now, that we are afraid to take a chance on God and find and be somewhere better? God has a plan for each and every one of the elect. However, we must claim our victory and follow God's plan.

The book of Jonah ends with a question. God asks Jonah about why He (God) shouldn't love the Ninevites. (Only two books in the Old Testament end with questions, and both focus on Nineveh. The other is Nahum.) Why does God leave us hanging with a question and no answer? So we will fill-in the rest as an application to our own lives. So I leave you with a question...will you refocus your priority to finding and fulfilling the will of God for your life?

Revival

So I have been asked to preach revival at Shamrock Baptist Church. What is revival? Most of us, especially us SOUTHERN Baptist, believe that revival is a series of church services held for evangelistic outreach and exponential church growth. (In-other-words...a time when a bunch of lost heathens get saved in a short amount of time.) Wrong!

We believe this because culturally we have come to expect a series of services like this to be conducted by a person we refer to as an evangelist. Generally this person is a fiery, charismatic, hell-fire and brimstone orator who practices the fine art of making people feel small and un-worthy. He prances around and touts his own spirituality in an attempt to make you feel un-worthy of Christ's love (which we are) and seeks to help you find peace for your troubled soul in his baptismal waters. I suppose you can tell that evangelists are not high on my fav list. There are many great men of God, Billy Graham for instance, who are my heroes and evangelists. But by-and-large my experience as a church pastor or staff minister, is that evangelists tend to be a mile wide and a mile long and only an inch deep.

Salvation is instantaneous, but it is more than an emotional response to impending need. It is about the discipline of sanctification, an understanding that to be a part of the elect is a laborious and pain-stakingly difficult task. And true discipleship, by its very nature, should preclude us from the whims of emotional fluctuations. "Oh, my! Maybe I am lost. What harm would there be in being baptized again? The evangelist is right! I should walk down the aisle right now. Better to go a second (3rd, 10th?) time and be sure. What if he is right?" Friend, let me tell you something, anything I can talk you into, somebody else can talk you out of.

That is why God gives us a know-so-salvation. If I walk with Him daily, trust in Him fully, read my Bible regularly, pray often, and give Him preeminence in my life, I won't have doubts. But if I never converse with Him, never study about Him, never seek Him, I will constantly be full of doubts.

Now, it is my hope and prayer that if there are lost people in attendance that they will find their way to Jesus and accept His assurance of faith and grace. Any time a lost person receives Christ at a revival, or anywhere, it is a time for rejoicing. But at revival, it is icing on our cake, gravy on our biscuits, and jelly on our grits!

What is revival then? Well, listen, the very word itself teaches us its meaning. To revive something, it has to be alive in the first place. The lost person is dead, spiritually. Dead. Not near death. Dead. Some have equated salvation as a person in the ocean about to drown, and someone throws them a life preserver. They grab it and are towed in to security. But that's not right! The lost person is dead. I have never seen a dead man do anything, much less grab hold of a life preserver! A dead man can't take a sip of healing medicine, can't take a piece of bread from another beggar, and (my favorite) they can't vote in an "election" between God and Satan! Let me say it as plain as I know how-- they are doornail, double-dogged DEAD! You see, in all the above scenarios, the lost person is actually doing something to facilitate their salvation. Wrong, again! It is solely by an act of the Grace of God and the sacrificial love of Jesus that we are saved. A better illustration would be, the man in the ocean is dead; a drowned like a rat-not breathing-blue lipped-corpse. And Jesus swims to him, hauls him in to shore and breathes new life into the corpse. He becomes alive, not revived. See the difference?

We can't be revived when we're dead, so revival then, must by its definition be for those who have been made alive through Christ Jesus. In-other-words, disciples. And if the disciples can be shown how to be more Christ-like, how to be more passionate about ministry again, how to be more focused on living a sanctified life, then they will share their faith and lost people will be saved. Then even more people who do not have a relationship with Christ will hear the Gospel, and see the Gospel being lived out in the lives of those in the community of Believers. Then revival will come. For revival, true revival, is a byproduct of the work of the Holy Spirit.

With this thought in mind I will preach revival at Shamrock. Their Pastor, Roy, records their services, so I am guessing that these messages will be up on their website, located here. (Now, Roy tried to record me at the first Gathering, and failed miserably. Something he blames on me, but I told him I was digitally challenged before he gave me the blasted thing. So no promises.) However, if all works well, I think I might buy me one of them there recorder thingys and I can share my messages on the blog here. Up first is Luke 9:57-62. The Would-Be Disciples and Sunday Night will be Where In The World Is Jonah Going?
Stay tuned...

Happy Independence Day!

Consider the following...

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.... We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
(Full text found at http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html)

In my younger days I was a patriot. It was all about the USA. I was a citizen of the United States. Not an American. One could be an American from Canada (a North American), or Brazil (a South American.) naturally, I knew many people that thought of South Americans as people from Alabama. Come to think of it, I think they all were from Alabama.

At any rate, my older years have been consumed with another citizenship, with another “nation.” A Kingdom, actually. I still love my country, still love following politics, I'm just not as consumed these days. Despite what Governors may or may not do, (for the love of all that is Republican, Haley Barber, please keep your zipper up and don’t resign!) Despite what law the president overturns or rules he disregards, I love my country. Mostly I worry about what this country will be for Luke. And my grandchildren. And I realize what we need is not another conservative congress. Not another conservative, CHRISTIAN president. Not a new Supreme Court. What we need is revival. Listen to the Psalmist

When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, We were like those who dream. 2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter, And our tongue with singing. Then they said among the nations, "The Lord has done great things for them." 3 The Lord has done great things for us, And we are glad. 4 Bring back our captivity, O Lord, As the streams in the South. 5 Those who sow in tears Shall reap in joy. 6 He who continually goes forth weeping, Bearing seed for sowing, Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, Bringing his sheaves with him. 126

As we celebrate our Indepence today, let us remember how Dependent we are upon God. The Bible says that if God’s people will call upon Him, He will restore the Land. (2 Ch 7:14) Pray for our country today, and ask God to bring revival, that we may bring in the sheaves.

Blessings

Steve