Awakening

2 Chronicles 7:13-14

James C. Denison

If you thought 2008 was a long year, it turns out you were right. Time magazine’s online edition tells us that on New Year’s Eve, a leap second was added to atomic clocks around the world. It seems that Earth’s rotational period needed to be realigned with something called “Coordinated Universal Time.” Our planet is apparently decelerating at an average rate of two milliseconds a day, due to space dust, magnetic storms, solar winds, and our push and pull with the moon. At this rate, we will gain an extra hour in 5,040 years.

Do you think the world will last that long, that the Lord will delay his return until the year 7,049? I’m not sure he will tarry until 2010, and neither should you be. The first Christians lived in the daily expectation of Jesus’ imminent return. Those people who have known God most powerfully in the centuries since have shared that sense of urgency. Jonathan Edwards, for instance, resolved as a young man to do nothing he would not do if he knew the Lord were returning that moment.

Here’s the resolution I have made for this new year, the commitment I believe God would want to find me keeping if he were to return this morning: I will pray and work for spiritual awakening every day.

An “Awakening” can be defined as a socially-transforming spiritual movement. A “revival” is a spiritual rebirth which transforms a person or a church or even a community into New Testament Christianity; a “great Awakening” transforms a nation.

I believe that such a movement is the greatest need of our country in these days, and that believers should be praying and working toward this purpose in every way we can. Today and across this month, we’ll seek to understand what God is doing for Awakening, and learn how to join him.

Where are we?

As 2 Chronicles 7 unfolds, Solomon and the people of Israel have just finished their Temple. This is the high-water mark in the history of the Jewish people. Their borders extend from present-day Syria to the Sinai Peninsula. Their wealth and military might are unequaled in the region. The king has accumulated 100,000 talents of gold (3,750 tons) and a million talents of silver (37,500 tons; 1 Chronicles 21:14)—that’s a net worth of more than $58 billion. Solomon is also the wisest man who has ever lived. And now he has just constructed a fabulous house of worship for his nation’s God.

But Israel’s future prosperity was in no sense guaranteed.

Their Lord warned them that future rebellion would lead to his punishment. In this event he would “shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people” (2 Chronicles 7:13). In a world dependent on rain for crops, defenseless against ravaging locusts or plague, such events would be totally catastrophic.

As it turned out, their future was in greater peril than they knew. Shortly after Solomon’s death, their nation would be divided by civil war. The ten northern tribes would be annihilated and absorbed by Assyria; the two southern tribes would be enslaved by Babylon and then dominated by Persia, Greece, and Rome before their nation was disbanded and destroyed. Their nation would not be constituted again for 20 centuries, and today faces renewed hostility, as the conflict in Gaza demonstrates.

But all of this relates to Israel, the Hebrew people. Few of us gathered for worship here today are Israelis. Why is this warning in God’s word for all the generations and nations to come? Is it still relevant to our day and our nation?

America is the world’s only superpower. Our economy, even in these difficult times, is as large as Japan, China, Germany, India, and Great Britain combined. An atheist group has filed suit this week to prevent prayers or the mention of God at the presidential inauguration later this month, but they admit that they’ll lose their case. Meanwhile, more Americans go to church each week than in any other nation in the Western world. Surely our future is assured.

Or perhaps not.

We are facing the greatest financial crisis we’ve seen in 80 years. The Dow finished 2008 down 35%, the worst year for the markets since 1931. The crisis has wiped out nearly $14 trillion in market value. Tomorrow, members of the House Financial Services committee will begin their investigation of Bernard Madoff’s alleged $50 billion fraud. A yearlong recession has already destroyed 2.7 million jobs, pushing unemployment to 6.7 percent; many economists expect it to rise above eight percent this year.

Our military continues to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan as the conflict continues longer than our engagement in World War II. Global climate change is accelerating faster than even pessimists were predicting a few years ago. Militant Islam continues its ascent, constituting what I consider to be the greatest threat the West has ever faced. At its root it is a spiritual movement, and must be countered by a spiritual movement of even greater power and passion.

I am convinced that God redeems all he allows or causes. We can debate the degree to which God has caused all of this, but we must admit at least that he has allowed it. For what purpose?

What must we do?

What must we do? “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” (v. 14). “My people, who are called by my name” includes us—you and me, all who have made Jesus their Lord. We are “Christians,” literally “little Christs,” those who are the children of God and thus own his name. Awakening in the nation starts with us, here, today.

How?

Our first step is to “humble ourselves,” to admit our need of God. We will return to this momentarily. Once we admit that we need God’s help, we “pray.” The Hebrew word describes a national plea for repentance. This will be our focus next week.

Now we “seek his face.” The Hebrew phrase describes a person who is returning to God in individual repentance. We see the need of the nation, then we admit the need of our own hearts and souls. This will be our focus in the third week of our series.

In that light, we “turn from our wicked ways.” We decide to turn, to change, to realign with God, to submit to him in all our ways. This will be our focus on our fourth week.

When we do these things, God promises to hear from heaven and forgive our sin and heal our land. The spiritual transformation of the culture is the result, a rebirth of nothing less than New Testament Christianity.

So we begin with humility before the Lord. It is a spiritual fact that God cannot do for us what we try to do for ourselves. If you do not believe that our city and nation needs a mighty movement of God, you will miss that movement. A doctor cannot heal a patient who will not admit an illness. God cannot give what we will not admit we need. If we do not believe that we need more of God than we have, we will not have the God we need.

God will not share his glory. Humility is the indispensible factor in divine movement. Paul commanded us to “be completely humble and gentle” (Ephesians 4:2). James, the half-brother of Jesus, told us to “humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (James 4:10).

A Roman centurion told Jesus, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof” (Matthew 8:8). And the Bible says that “his servant was healed at that very hour” (v. 13). A Gentile woman told Jesus that “even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table” (Matthew 15:27), and “her daughter was healed from that very hour” (v. 28).

Paul said of himself: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst” (1 Timothy 1:15). And God used him to write half the New Testament and take Christ to the entire Western world.

John the Baptist said of Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30, KJV). And Jesus said of him, “Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11). Now it’s our turn. We can point people to Jesus, or to ourselves, but we cannot do both. I cannot convince you at the same time that I am a great preacher and that Jesus is a great Savior.

The time has come for us to choose—will we humble ourselves? Will we seek to glorify God with everything we think and say and do? Will we be a means to his end, or will he be a means to ours?

Conclusion

I once heard Rick Warren say, “Stop asking God to bless what you are doing, and ask him to help you do what he is blessing.” What God Almighty is blessing is a global spiritual awakening, a movement of the Holy Spirit wherever God’s people humble themselves, pray, seek his face, and turn from their wicked ways. That is what God is doing in these days.

Here’s the question: Will you join him? Will you admit that our church and community and nation need more of God than we have?

Next week I will be speaking on the threat of Radical Islam and the need for spiritual awakening if the West is to defeat the greatest threat it has ever faced. I will be speaking to the global financial crisis and the ways God would redeem it by turning millions of people from their resources to his.

But let’s begin right here, right now, with us. Do you need to experience the power of God, a transforming spiritual movement? Do we? Will you admit your need of God, and humble yourself before him? Will you seek to glorify him with everything you think and say and do this week? Will you join me in praying every day for spiritual awakening to come to America, starting with you?

Emerson insisted, “One of our illusions is that the present hour is not the crucial hour.” He was right. We don’t have another year or another day to wait. The hour is upon us. The next step is yours.

Awakening and America

2 Chronicles 7:11-14

James C. Denison

Last Thursday, President Bush was visiting with a group of second-graders when one asked him where he’s going to live next. The president said that he is relying on Laura’s judgment about their new house in Dallas, and for good reason—he has never seen it himself. “That’s called faith,” Mr. Bush said. I drove by their new home in Preston Hollow this week, and am happy to endorse Laura’s choice. I’m sure the president needs more advice these days.

Mr. Bush has just finished eight years in the most stressful job on earth. An article in this week’s news called “The graying of the presidents” states that American presidents apparently age twice as quickly as the rest of us. Their hair turns gray, their faces wrinkle, and they usually die prematurely. Theodore Roosevelt, for instance, died 15 years younger than actuarial tables would suggest; Woodrow Wilson lived seven years less than normal.

During prolonged stress, our bodies release hormones such as cortisol; these in turn damage blood vessels, leading to heart attacks and strokes. Presidents also suffer from a lack of friends they can trust. It’s all a prescription for stress and suffering.

Can you imagine the stress President-elect Obama will feel when he takes on this office? What is happening in America in these days? What is God doing, and allowing, and saying to us? What does it all mean for you and me this morning?

Is national judgment inevitable?

Remember our setting—Israel is at their high-water mark, with the largest geographical, economic, and military strength they would ever see again. If any nation’s future prosperity was guaranteed, it would be that of the “people of God.” But our text begins, “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain . . .” (v. 13). Not “if” but “when.”

So it had been all through their history. Moses led them to the edge of the Promised Land, but they refused to trust God by faith and wandered 40 years in the wilderness until that entire generation died. After Solomon, Rehoboam’s cruel despotism would split the nation; the idolatry of the kings and people would lead to the destruction of the Northern Kingdom.

Eventually the Southern Kingdom would be captured and enslaved by Babylon, then ruled by Persia, Greece, and Rome. Jesus predicted of their mighty Temple, “I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down” (Matthew 24:2). Within a generation it was so.

Will every nation eventually face periods of spiritual darkness and resulting judgment? Tradition dates the founding of Rome at 753 B.C., the conversion of Constantine at AD 313, the “Christianization” of the Empire soon to follow. The world had never seen a mightier army or civilization, but the people fell into immorality and idolatry. Rome was sacked in AD 476 and the Empire came to ruin.

If you were asked to name the world’s greatest military, strongest economy, and largest empire in the year 1900, the answer would be Great Britain. If you were asked to guess the army with the most troops, tanks, artillery, and nuclear weapons in 1980, the answer would be the Soviet Union.

Is America in crisis?

Can the same happen to America and the West? Is it happening to America and the West? Consider the cultural crisis of our time, our battle with Radical Islam.

All Muslims believe that God’s final and superior revelation is the Qur’an, and that he wants all people on earth to convert to Islam. Radical Islam takes two steps further. First, they teach that the West has been attacking the Islamic world since the crusades and especially with the establishment of Israel. Second, they believe that since the Western world is democratic, where we elect our leaders and our taxes support our military, none of us are innocent in this attack.

Since the Qur’an expressly forbids Muslims to initiate violence but requires them to defend Islam, these points are critical to understanding 9-11 and the mind of al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations like Hamas. In their minds, lobbing rockets into Israel is the defense of Islam mandated by the Qur’an.

We have been at war with Muslim extremists far longer than most people realize. You could begin with the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979. In April of 1983, Hezbollah attacked the American Embassy in Beirut, killing 63 and wounding 120. In October of that year, another Hezbollah suicide bomber attacked the American barracks at the Beirut airport, killing 241 U.S. Marines in their sleep. In 1984 and 1985, terrorists hijacked airliners and cruise ships, killing Americans each time. In December of 1988, Libyan agents bombed Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 270 passengers.

In 1993, a truck bomb exploded in the garage of the World Trade Center, injuring over a thousand people. In 1996, a truck bomb attacked American soldiers in Saudi Arabia, wounding 240. In 1998, our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were attacked on the same day, killing more than 200. On October 12, 2000, a boat carrying suicide bombers attacked the USS Cole, killing 17 American sailors. On September 11, 2001, 2,740 Americans were killed by Islamic terrorists.

I participated last Thursday in a fascinating discussion about Hamas, Gaza, and Israel. Dr. Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, was the keynote speaker. One of the most disturbing trends he is seeing in this conflict is the rise of public sentiment in the Arab world for Hamas and the Palestinians. Even Muslim governments sympathetic to America and the West such as Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey are facing uprisings among their people if they do not support Hamas. He is afraid that when this conflict is over, the enmity between Israel and the Arab world will be far greater than it is today. Who knows where that will leave us?

As I said last Wednesday night, Radical Islam is a spiritual ideology. This war is more like the Cold War than World War I or II. Killing Osama bin Laden will not end this battle. This is a war for the souls of mankind, the battle of our generation.

Madrassas are Islamic schools scattered around the world. Saudi Arabia has spent $100 billion exporting radical Islam through these schools. There are approximately 24,000 educational institutions in America; there are more than 37,000 Muslim madrassas in Indonesia alone.

So far, the West is not responding well to this threat. Four times as many Muslims go to mosque as Christians go to church in Great Britain today. Anglo birthrates in Europe average around 1.2 children per household; Muslim birthrates average around six children per household. Many are speaking of Europe as “Eurabia.” This is a spiritual movement, and must be countered spiritually.

This is to say nothing of the moral crisis of our day. You perhaps saw the recent Newsweek cover story, “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage.” Forty two percent of those who use the Internet view pornography on it. Sixty five percent of Americans see nothing wrong with premarital sex. Drunk drivers kill someone every 30 minutes in this country.

And the economic crisis of our day is graver than in 80 years. The nation’s retail chains confirmed on Thursday that they suffered one of the worst holiday shopping seasons in decades. Markets have continued their decline into the new year.

Our oil-based economy is more vulnerable than ever before. There can be no doubt that oil is the gold of today’s global economy. The United States has an estimated 29.9 billion barrels of reserves, ranking 11th in the world. The top five nations (in order) are Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, with a combined 716 billion barrels, 60 percent of the world’s supply. When the Muslim Arab world wants to shut off our oil, they can.

Conclusion

What can we do to face these cultural, moral, and economic crises? Undoubtedly our response must include military and economic measures. But you and I have a critical role to play in the future of our nation and culture. Our text calls us to “humble ourselves and pray.” The Hebrew word means to call for national repentance and turning to God. This is our mandate from our Maker for this day.

We must pray every day for the conversion of Muslims to Christ, for missions to the Muslim world, and for awakening to come to America. We must pray every day for a spiritual rebirth and moral awakening in America. We must pray every day for God to use this economic crisis to turn Americans from themselves to him. And we must ask for Awakening to begin with us.

A spiritual mystic once said, “There is one thing that must never be forgotten. It is as if a king had sent you to a foreign country with a task to perform. You go and perform many other tasks. But if you fail to perform the task for which you were sent, it will be as if you had done nothing at all.” Will you do what God has sent you to do for your nation?

An elderly father could not decide which of his two children should inherit his mansion, so he devised a test. He gave each of them $20, instructing them to buy something with which to fill every room in the estate. One bought straw and scattered it as far as it would go, but it did not nearly cover the mansion. The other brought candles, placed one in each room, and filled the entire mansion with light.

Which child are you?

Seeking the Face of God

2 Chronicles 7:11-14

James C. Denison

Unemployment is on the rise as the recession continues. In my desire to be a full-service pastor, I have come today with a job opportunity. Queensland, a state in Australia, announced on Monday that it is looking for someone to live on the beautiful tropical paradise of Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef for six months.

This person will stroll the white sands, snorkel the reef, and report to a global audience via weekly blogs, photo diaries and video updates. The person will be paid $150,000 and given free airfare from the winner’s home to the island and back. All this to increase tourism to Australia in these tough economic times. Applications are open until February 22; the winner will begin living in paradise on July 1.

Queensland is calling this the “best job in the world.” I know one even better—a job which will take us not to an island in paradise, but to paradise itself.

We’re learning how to position ourselves for spiritual awakening in these days. If we humble ourselves, admitting that we need more of God than we are now experiencing, and pray for our nation to come to God, we are now ready to focus on ourselves.

God calls us to “seek my face.” This is the most amazing, exciting, transforming invitation a human being can ever hear. And the most urgent.

God is seeking you

The Bible clearly depicts a God who is seeking us. God sought Adam and Eve in the cool of the Garden of Eden. He sought Noah, calling him to build the Ark which would save the human race. He sought Abram in the land we call Iraq today, and called him to himself. He sought Jacob on that night they wrestled together, and Joseph in Egypt, and Moses at the burning bush. He sought David after the king had sinned horrifically, and the prophets to speak his word to the world.

Then he sought us in the most miraculous, unexpected way of all—he became one of us. He folded the glory and power which created the universe down into a fetus who grew into a baby who breathed our air, walked our dirt, faced our temptations, felt our pain, died on our cross and rose from our grave. We could not climb up to him, so he climbed down to us.

He sought fishermen beside the Sea of Galilee, and tax collectors in their booths and trees, and lepers in their abandoned loneliness, and demoniacs in their cemetery hideouts. He was the woman who sought the lost coin, the shepherd who sought the lost sheep, the father who sought the prodigal son. He sought Peter after his denials and Paul in the midst of his persecutions.

And then the day came when he made you. In fact, he’s been in the process of making you for a very long time. Bill Bryson, in A Short History of Nearly Everything, puts it well: “Consider the fact that for 3.8 billion years, a period of time older than the Earth’s mountains and rivers and oceans, every one of your forebears on both sides has been attractive enough to find a mate, healthy enough to reproduce, and sufficiently blessed by fate and circumstances to live long enough to do so. Not one of your pertinent ancestors was squashed, devoured, drowned, starved, stranded, stuck fast, untimely wounded, or otherwise deflected from its life’s quest of delivering a tiny charge of genetic material to the right partner at the right moment in order to perpetuate the only possible sequence of hereditary combinations that could result—eventually, astoundingly, and all too briefly—in you” (pp. 3-4).

He made all that is, and he made all of you there is. Your God has given you a heart which pumps enough blood through your body every 24 hours to fill a railway tanker. Every day it exerts as much effort as it would take to shovel 20 tons of gravel onto a platform as high as your waist.

He has made you of protons, the core of atoms. Look at the dot on an “i” in your Bible. It holds something in the region of 500,000,000,000 protons, more than the number of seconds contained in half a million years. Your Father made all of that, for you.

You live in a visible universe is now calculated as a million million million million miles across. Through a telescope you can see around 100,000 galaxies, each containing tens of billions of stars. And you’re watching all this on a planet which spins at the speed of 1,000 miles an hour at its equator. Your Father made all of that, to make a place for you.

And then he made you. His Son died on the cross for you and rose from the grave for you. His Spirit led you to this worship service, and now to hear these words. The God of the universe wants an intimate, passionate, personal relationship with you. He is seeking you.

Are you seeking God?

The question is, are you seeking him? The other day a friend forwarded me this question: “Is there any logic in believing that God started his Church as a Spirit-filled, loving body with the intention that it would evolve into entertaining, hour-long services? Was he hoping that one day people would be attracted to the Church not because they care for one another, not because they are devoted to him, not because the supernatural occurs in their midst, but because of good music and entertainment?”

The world’s religions have always seen worship as a kind of transaction. Make a sacrifice to Athena so she will bless your olive harvest. Practice the four noble truths on the eight-fold noble path so you can achieve enlightenment. Declare that there is no God but God and Muhammad is his prophet; pray to Allah five times a day; go to Mecca; fast during Ramadan; give to the poor—all so you will perhaps be accepted by God into his paradise.

Go to get. Transact business. Come to church, pray, read, give, so God will bless you or strengthen your marriage or help your family.

None of that is the biblical invitation. God says, “Seek my face,” not “Seek my favor.” Seek to know me, more intimately and passionately than ever before. Love me, for I love you. Want me, for I want you. Know me, for I know you. Seek my face.

“Seek” translates baqash, a Hebrew word which means to search out, strive after, ask, beg, beseech, desire, request, require. It describes a passionate search for something of great value.

Such is to be our desire for God: “Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always” (1 Chronicles 16:11); “devote your heart and soul to seeking the Lord your God” (1 Chronicles 22:19); Rehoboam “did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking the LORD” (2 Chronicles 12:14); good king Asa “commanded Judah to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, and to obey his laws and commands” (2 Chronicles 14:4).

Scripture says of Hezekiah, “In everything that he undertook in the service of God’s temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered” (2 Chronicles 31:21). The Bible says of good king Josiah, “In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David” (2 Chronicles 34:3).

David assures us, “The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you” (Psalm 9:9-10). He later prayed, “may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, ‘The LORD be exalted!'” (Psalm 40:16).

Now the prophet exhorts us, “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6). God told Jeremiah, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13), a passage Janet framed for me to put on my desk where I can see it every day of the week.

Seek “my face,” the Lord calls to us. “Face” translates paneh, the countenance or presence. To seek a person’s “face” is to seek an intimate, face-to-face encounter with them. I cannot see the faces of those in the back of our Sanctuary, but only of those who are close to me. To seek God’s “face” is to seek a closer relationship with him than you have right now.

How do we seek God’s face? Want to know God more than you know him now. Want to be in his presence, to experience his Spirit’s touch in your spirit, to draw close to him. Make some time to do this. As with any relationship, it takes an investment of time and energy to build a closer intimacy with God. It is best to do this at the start of every day. How?

Seek God’s face as did the people who came to worship him in the Temple which Solomon had just constructed. As they climbed the steps into the outer courts, they came singing psalms of praise to God. These were called “psalms of ascent,” because they were used as the people ascended to Jerusalem and then up the steps to the Temple.

In the same way, we enter the gates of the Lord with thanksgiving and his courts with praise (Psalm 100:4). Sing or say a psalm, a hymn, a chorus. Praise and thank your Father for all he has done for you. Remember his last blessing and give thanks for it. Come to him in worship.

Now continue in sacrifice. The Jews brought the sacrifices for their sins to the priests, where they were laid on the altar. Jesus’ death is the final sacrifice, the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). Bring him your sins and mistakes, anything which would separate you from your Lord. Ask the Spirit to show you anything which displeases your holy God, and confess it to your Savior. Claim his promise to forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

Now you are ready to bring your offerings to the Lord. The people brought offerings from the harvest and from all the blessings of God. In the same way, we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God as our spiritual worship (Romans 12:1).

Submit and surrender your plans, dreams, agendas, and problems. Yield them all to him, asking him to fill you with his Spirit and use you for his glory. Ask God to make his presence real to you, to fill you with his peace and joy. And they will be yours.

Conclusion

God wants you to know him more than you want to know him. You must now decide—do you want to know God intimately and personally? Do you want awakening to come to your heart and life? There is an Oriental saying: “No man can carry two melons in his hand.” There is room for only one on the throne of your heart and life.

Thomas Kelly, the monk and author: “Over the margins of life comes a whisper, a faint call, a premonition of richer living which we know we are passing by. Strained by the very mad pace of our daily outer burdens, we are further strained by an inward uneasiness, because we have hints that there is a way of life vastly richer and deeper than all this hurried existence, a life of unhurried serenity and peace and power.”

Is it yours? Will it be yours?

Turning to God

2 Chronicles 7:11-14 / Acts 13:1-3

James C. Denison

If you’ve ridden on a Ferris wheel, you know that there is a moment when your gondola swings up to the highest point of the ride. In that frightening moment you can see nothing but sky, before you crest the top and see the ground again. As long as you ride, as many times as you come to that scary moment, it never gets easy.

Today is such a moment for us. I’ve often said that if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. What has transpired in the last month in my life and work are now Exhibit A. And so once again we come to that moment when we cannot yet see the ground beneath us and must trust that the God who is operating the Ferris wheel of life is in charge of it all.

This morning I need to tell you what many of you already know, and then put it into biblical context for us all. This may be a day when your gondola is cresting the top as well. If it’s not, it will be one day soon.

What God has called us to do

A month or so ago, Dr. Randel Everett, Executive Director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, asked me to consider becoming Theologian in Residence for Texas Baptists. In this role I would be able to do all the things I love doing—speaking to current events in Christian perspective, writing, teaching, leading conferences, talking with pastors and Christian leaders.

He and I also discussed the need for an independent ministry we are now calling The Center for Informed Faith. Its mission would be to equip the Church to reach the world. The Center would promote cultural engagement, spiritual renewal and Awakening, and practical discipleship. It would be an independent ministry, hosted by the BGCT.

This ministry would speak to current events with biblical truth, addressing such issues as radical Islam, Israel and the Middle East, evil and suffering, science and faith, same-sex marriage, and so on.

Its discipleship emphasis would focus especially on people coming to Christ who need discipleship materials—new believers in Cuba, South Texas, the underground church in China, Latin America, critical places where the church is exploding in growth but few resources for spiritual maturity exist. It would partner with numerous other ministries in equipping Christians to reach their world.

From the time we began conversation together, it was obvious to Janet and me that God was calling us to do this. But from the beginning, both Dr. Everett and I intended this ministry to be done in partnership with Park Cities. I would preach on Sunday, teach on Thursday, and do this new ministry during the week.

However, in the last few days, as we began exploring the practical issues in this idea, it became obvious that both are full-time jobs. This new ministry would require a great deal of travel and attention. Park Cities deserves a full-time pastor. So we came to the difficult conclusion that we must resign this ministry in order to follow God’s call into this new work.

Jeff Byrd has been my best friend for 20 years in three churches together. He is resigning as Associate Pastor for Missions to become the Director of the Center. Minni Elkins, my longtime assistant, will join us in this ministry. Start-up funds for this new ministry are coming from friends who offered to help us, as well as other anonymous donors.

Church leaders have been incredibly gracious to us in this endeavor. The trustees spent a great deal of time praying for us last Monday night. The deacons laid hands on Jeff and me Thursday evening and prayed for us. Our congregation has been remarkably encouraging as we have sought God’s will together.

See your need of God

This experience has led us where we never intended to go. It illustrates for me again the fact that God’s will is a flashlight in the dark, showing the next step but no further. If we would experience true spiritual awakening, we must humble ourselves and admit that we need God’s power and purpose. We must pray for the nation and seek God’s face personally. Then we must align our lives with his call. That is the point of today’s text.

The last phrase of our key text makes the point in the negative: God’s people must “turn from their wicked ways.”

“Ways” translates a Hebrew word for road, path, journey, mode of action, course of life. It pictures the normal ways we live, places we travel, our lifestyles. “Wicked” translates a Hebrew word for superlative evil, that which is exceedingly wrong.

Note that God believes that “my people, called by my name” live in these wicked ways. We are not talking about radical Muslim terrorists, or serial killers, or child pornographers. We are talking about the things you and I do each and every day, the ways we live. God says that some of these ways are “wicked,” evil in the extreme.

Do you think of your sins as “wicked”? You probably haven’t committed adultery or murder this week. I doubt that you mean to harm other people. Neither do I. But the white lies, the sinful thoughts, the little things we know we shouldn’t do—all of them are called “wicked” by God. If we humble ourselves, pray, and seek his face, we will see ourselves in the light of his holiness. Then we will see our sins the way he sees them.

That’s what happened to Isaiah when he saw the Lord high and lifted up—he cried out, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty” (Isaiah 6:5).

That’s what happened to Peter when he saw the miraculous power of Jesus—he said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8). That’s what happened to John on Patmos when he saw the glorified Jesus—he fell at his feet as though dead (Revelation 1:17).

When we see our sins as God sees them, the way to get off of the wrong road is to stop now. The further we go, the further we’ll have to go back. Decide we want to go the right way, “turn from our wicked ways,” and go there. How?

Follow the call of God

Now we turn to the positive. Fast-forward with me a thousand years to the incredible church at Antioch of Syria in AD 46. Here we find “prophets and teachers,” preachers who shared God’s revelation and teachers who explained his word and will. Five are named, perhaps in order of importance:

Barnabas (literally “son of encouragement”), a wealthy man and (Acts 4:36-37) and spiritual leader.

“Simeon called Niger”: as “Niger” is Latin for “black,” some believe that he was African in race. He has often been identified with Simon of Cyrene, the man who bore the cross of Jesus (Matthew 27:32).

“Lucius of Cyrene”: “Lucius” is a Latin or Roman name; “Cyrene” was the capital of Libya in Africa (cf. Acts 6:9; 11:20). This man may have been a Roman, a converted Jew, or most likely another African.

“Manean (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch)”: a relative of the Herod who had beheaded John the Baptist (Luke 9:7-9). Suntrophos, “had been brought up with” can be translated “foster-brother.”

“Saul”: this was his Jewish name, as “Paul” was his Greek name. As he moved more and more among the Gentiles, he would increasingly be known by the latter (cf. Acts 13:9).

The church was capably led by these men of remarkable spiritual maturity and vocational and cultural experience. It would seem that their future was stable and secure. The church was “worshiping the Lord and fasting,” two words which indicate the spiritual fervor and depth of the congregation. Both are in the present tense—they were constantly worshiping God and fasting from food so they could focus on the Lord. This was not just their Sunday morning activity, but their daily lifestyle.

It was in the midst of such concentrated service to God that the Antioch Christians heard the next word from their Lord: “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (v. 2). “Set apart” means “to mark with a boundary,” to set something off by itself. “The work to which I have called them” was not specific; they did not know where they would go, what they would do, or how long they would do it.

The congregation responded with immediate obedience: “after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off” (v. 3).

They “fasted and prayed” to confirm that this was indeed the word of the Lord. Then they “placed their hands on them,” conveying their support and God’s blessing. And so began the second half of Acts and the missionary expansion of the gospel across the Roman Empire.

David Harper, our deacon chairman, read this text Thursday night at the deacons’ meeting. Then the men gathered around Jeff Byrd and me, laid hands on us, and prayed for us. It was a deeply moving and powerful moment. I did have to remind them of the way Paul’s story ended, with him in prison and then beheaded—I hope for a different end to our story.

But the text does show us how to follow God.

When we turn from our wicked and wrong ways to God’s paths of righteousness, we must first get alone with God. We must pay the price to listen for his voice. He speaks in stillness and solitude. He can seldom be scheduled into a Sunday morning hour. We spend time with our Father, fasting from the distractions of the world.

Then we do what his Spirit says, even if we don’t understand it. This ministry direction was nothing Jeff and I sought or expected; it is like nothing I ever thought I would do. But it is God’s clear and surprising voice, and we will follow it together.

Conclusion

Now, where does this message find you? What decision, problem, or opportunity stands before you this morning? How can you know and follow the call of God? First, turn from anything which is “wicked” and wrong. Ask his Spirit to show you anything displeasing to your Father, and stop in that road, confess, and ask God to forgive you and heal you.

Then get alone with your Father, asking his Spirit to reveal his word and will to you. Choose to submit and surrender—whatever he asks, wherever he leads, whatever the cost. You won’t know the future, but you will trust the One who does. The safest place in all the world is the center of the will of God.

We are all on pilgrimage with God. The good news for Janet and me is that we will step into this next chapter while staying in Dallas and in Park Cities Baptist Church, doing much which will partner with this church we love.

You will find and follow God’s next steps for your future together as well. Christians in Antioch had no idea that people in Rome would come to Christ because of their faithfulness. You cannot measure the eternal significance of present obedience.

This is the promise of God.