Now that the election is over, I’ve had a lot of Christians who have asked me the question, “What now?” My response to these questions has been this: What’s different since the election? Has the Great Commission of the Church changed? Has something occurred here that going to interfere with God’s plan for His Church and the future of this world?
Nothing has changed as far as God is concerned. Our job is the same as it was the moment Jesus said to His Disciples, “Go therefore and teach all nations, make disciples, baptize them into the Kingdom, teach them my commandments, go do what I did: bring sight to the blind, freedom to the captive, minister hope to the hopeless, to be light in a world of darkness”—nowhere do I see in this Book where any of these things are contingent upon who is in the White House.
Our job description hasn’t changed because God hasn’t changed. We still have the same work to do. In fact, it could easily be said that if we, the Body of Christ, had been doing what we should have been doing all along, we would be living in a nation that looked much different. Yes, things are chaotic. Yes, the Word of God is mocked more now than ever before. And yes, we’re all wondering what’s going to happen with this new president—some people are fearful as to what this all means.
In John 13, we find the disciples in the very same emotional crisis. Up to this point, whatever Jesus may have hinted as to what the true Kingdom was going to look like, He rocked the disciples with the reality that all they had pinned their hopes on for salvation was about to be nailed to a rugged cross. Even with the beautiful picture Jesus painted for them through the Lord’s Supper…they didn’t understand, they didn’t want to understand—they were afraid; we were supposed to be on the winning team--this was not the outcome they had cast their vote for.
And as chapter 13 concludes with the disciples staring at each other with that look that said, “What is going on here?”
•Jesus begins chapter 14 with “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Jesus says, do not allow your hearts to be troubled. If your hearts are troubled, it’s because you’re allowing them. Jesus isn’t stressing. Jesus is about to go through the most horrifying experience of any human on the planet, and Jesus is saying, “Gang, do not let your hearts be troubled.”
The Greek word used for trouble is tarasso and it means to strike one's spirit with fear and dread, to render anxious or distressed, to perplex the mind of one by suggesting doubts. Jesus is saying, don’t go there…don’t allow this in your heart. How do I do this, Lord?
•Trust in God; trust also in me. Pist-yoo'-o: to believe in, to be persuaded of. Paul said to Timothy “for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.” (2 Timothy 1:12)
Jesus is saying, trust me. Has God changed? Is God any less omnipotent? Is anything outside of His scope of attention? Do you think that God woke up Wednesday morning and said, “Man, I didn’t see that one coming?” He is not anxious. He’s still on the throne. Trust in God…trust in Jesus.
•Vs. 2 “In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.” Our home is in Heaven. Why can I have peace even when this world seems to be in chaos? Because this world is not my home. Jesus came to this world to die on a Cross for me, and then He left this world and went back to Heaven to prepare a place for me to hang out with Him for all eternity.
•Vs. 3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” Jesus is coming back. And the only reason He’s not come back yet is that His Church, the Bride of Christ, is not yet ready. I’ve been to weddings where it took a long time for the bride to get ready. The groom is going nuts wondering what’s going on! Oh, but when everything is right, there’s nothing more breathtaking than that bride coming down the aisle. The Bride of Christ has been 2,000 years getting ready—Jesus is coming back for the Church (that’s you and me), and we need to be getting ready!
Jesus tells His disciples—Guys, I don’t know what you’ve been waiting for or expecting but I am the way the Truth, and the life…no man comes to the Father but through me. This is not the end…it is only the beginning.
Verse 27- “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
Were the disciples looking ahead to some difficult times? Why don’t you ask those who witnessed their Lord and Savior beaten savagely and nailed to a cross? How about those who would be persecute? How about those who left everything to plant churches far from home? How about those imprisoned, impoverished, and eventually martyred for their faith? From the moment Jesus shared that bread and wine, their lives changed forever.
There are many theologians that believe we are in the end times; that Jesus is coming back soon. And because of that, some things are going to be put in motion that the Bible talks about. And those things are going to separate the fair-weathered churchgoers from the Believers that endure to the end.
I believe that Barack Obama’s election is a step towards Christ’s return. But even with that belief, I’m not going to divert my attention as a Believer or pastor from the Great Commission to which Christ has called me and this church to fulfill. We’ve got a job to do. Am I concerned? Yes. But there’s some things we need to be doing…
I. THE CHURCH NEEDS TO PRAY.
2 Chronicles 7:14 “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Church, we’ve not been praying like we ought. I was very encouraged to see a great group turn out for the election eve prayer vigil. But you know what? I was thinking, why is it that we wait for 9/11 occasions before Christians really get on their faces before God?
Prayer is the only means by which we enter in the place where God dwells, and that is the spiritual realm. What about worship? The Word says, He inhabits the praises of His people. We praise Him and God inhabits that praise. When we pray, we are coming to His throne.
What is supposed to be the betrothed Bride of Christ has become the disinterested, self-absorbed girlfriend who doesn’t answer her phone and only calls when she wants something and doesn’t want to pay for it.
Prayer is such a privilege. We get a direct line, an audience with God. It starts with humility; it demonstrates a heart passionately seeking the heart of God. It cries out, “Lord-if there’s anything in my life that you didn’t put there, remove it!” That’s the kind of prayer worthy of the One whose name is above all names.
What do we need to pray for?
1 Timothy 2:2 “Pray for rulers and for all who have authority so that we can have quiet and peaceful lives full of worship and respect for God.” (NCV)
•I need to be praying for my new President-elect, Barack Obama.
Praying for him to have a Damascus Road, salvation encounter with Jesus Christ. Praying for the Holy Spirit to come upon his life in a powerful way. Praying for his family, their safety—God’s blessing upon their lives.
Some may say, "Well I didn’t vote for him, I’m not praying for him." Believer, you don’t have a choice.
•I need to be praying for my country.
Praying that God will have mercy upon a nation that has pushed Him aside. Praying that God will give America another chance to embrace once again the biblical principles it was founded upon.
•I need to be praying God to bring downpour of His Spirit upon the Church. We need fervent, continual, focused, persevering, Spirit-groaning kind of prayer. That is the only thing that when all else fails, when I’m all alone and it’s just God and me—the prayer prayed in faith is what makes the difference, it’s what changes the circumstances, when all hope seems gone, prayer says: “we’re not done yet.”
That kind of prayer, my friend, is what’s sadly lacking in the lives of Christians. We say we want to see our nation healed? Prayer is where it begins. We ought not to expect any change until we start praying. We will not see any change apart from it—a President cannot heal a nation; only God can do that. We’re in the condition we are as a nation because God’s people have not been praying.
II. THE CHURCH NEEDS TO PROCLAIM THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH OF GOD’S WORD.
2 Timothy 4:1-5 “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:
From the moment that Saul became Paul, and in doing so left the Jewish religious establishment, he was marked as a traitor. Paul knew every day that passed was a day closer to him being taken out. Seeing salvation come to the Gentiles was his passion, he wanted to know that the mission work would live on. So Paul is giving instructions to Timothy: when I’m gone, here is what you need to be doing. And the instructions are the same to us today—let’s break them down. I’m switching to the NAS for this passage:
•Preach the Word: The Greek is kay-ro-oo’-so: to proclaim in the manner of a herald. The herald was the guy who took the words of the king and proclaimed them to the people. And he proclaimed the words with authority; he could do that because they weren’t his words, they were the king’s words.
And what are we to proclaim? THE Word. Log’-os: The absolute, undiluted Word of God. My friend, the herald had no job, no reason to exist without the word of the King. The word of the King was final, it was the authority. It was not open for debate. You may not like what the herald says, but if he is reading it from the document bearing the king’s seal, your issue is not with the herald—your issue is with the King.
The herald doesn’t proclaim the word:
And then leaves out the parts that doesn’t seem relevant to today’s social correctness.
But live in open contradiction to the word he proclaims.
But instead close that word and tell a nice, happy, feel-good story.
By the way, who preaches the word? Every Believer is a minister unto the Gospel. You speak it, you live it.
•Be prepared in season and out of season. The Greek literally translates to be ready at every opportunity. The Coast Guard’s motto is Semper Peratus: Always prepared. When the seas are calm they are ready. When the seas are stormy and most would agree, you know, we wouldn’t necessarily expect them to be on their best game; guess what? They are ready. In peace or war, They are prepared.
•Reprove, Rebuke, Exhort. Three words that describe how we are to proclaim the Word
Reprove. The Greek is el-eng’-ko and it translates as to correct, to bring things into the light. That’s what the Word of God does. It’s not always comfortable, and you’re not doing anyone any favors if you don’t speak truth in love.
Rebuke. The Greek is ep-ee-tee-mah’-o. And most of us know what the English word, rebuke, means. It means to admonish, to warn. But the original Greek gives a whole different meaning to it. It translates to show honor, to raise the price. Parents that care enough to admonish and warn their kids actually show their children honor. They are showing that they value their children. Christians, that is our job as the ministry of the Church. Gang, when you have a friend that you love, and they are going down a path. They don’t recognize it, but the devil is destroying their life. What do you do?
"Well, that’s not my place to tell them what to do." Are you doing them any favors? Is their eternal salvation important; is their life valuable to you? Do you want to show them honor? If someone is in trouble, you warn them with Truth.
Exhort. The Greek is par-ak-al-eh’-o: it means to comfort, to encourage, to strengthen. Par-ak-al-eh’-o is actually two words: para- to come alongside, kaleo- to invite. When we exhort we don’t do it from afar. To bring comfort and encouragement means we must come alongside, and in doing so we invite them to experience the same life-changing power that we have in Christ Jesus.
Reprove, Rebuke, and Exhort. Paul says we are to do all three. The problem with the church is that over history we’ve been real good at reproving, rebuking, but not exhorting. We’ve left encouraging out. Paul says do all three. Do them well.
•Do them with great patience and instruction. We’ve got to love people. We’ve got to see them as Jesus sees them. We can’t look at people as the enemy. Patience denotes not only not giving up on people, but also translates as demonstrating endurance and steadfastness to not giving up on the ministry God has called us to, despite the popularity.
Jesus said “You shall know the Truth and the knowledge of that Truth shall set you free.” (John 8:32)
How will the world, how will your family, how will your friends know the Truth if we don’t proclaim it? Why is this so important that we know what God has called us to do in proclaiming absolute Truth?
2 Timothy 4:3-5 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. 5 But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
Gang, this is the ministry God has called us to. We need not to forget this. We need to pray, proclaim the Word of God. And we need to…
III. BE VIGILANT. (not vigilantes)
1 Peter 5:8 “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
Peter says “be sober.” The Greek is gray-gor-yoo’-o: to give strict attention, to be cautious. Being cautious doesn’t mean I’m scouring through every email that gets forwarded to me saying so and so is the anti-Christ. That’s not the definition of being of sober spirit. What it does mean is that we, the Body of Christ, need to get back to doing what we should have been doing all along.
Gang, the church not taken a stand when we should have. We’ve not proclaimed the Truth when we should have. But most importantly, we’ve not been living it. And your living testimony is the only thing that gives your spoken testimony any power. We’ve been complacent and apathetic.
Am I concerned with a bunch of stuff I see happening? You bet. And it’s my job as a Believer to know the Word of God, know what’s going on in my town and in my country. I need to be vigilant in the knowledge that Jesus is coming back soon. The devil knows this too. There’s work to be done. And you better believe that the enemy is pulling out all the stops.
Every person on this planet matters to God. Jesus gave His life to save them. We’ve got a job to do.
This past Friday, Billy Graham had his 90th birthday. Nearly seventy years of passionately reaching the lost by being faithful to the Word of God. A couple of years ago, Dr. Graham gave a prayer for our nation;
'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good, but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free. Amen!'
You see, it all goes back to humbling our hearts in repentance, seeking the heart of God. That's the key. A president is not going to heal this land. We need to get back to doing what Christians should have been doing all along.