Would You Stand Up and Walk Out on Me? - Purity 888

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo— today's photo of Buffalo's Electric Tower decorated in red, white, and blue lights and Washington Street illuminated by streetlights comes to us from yours truly as I stopped long enough to capture this scene before making my departure just before 4 AM on Saturday morning. Even though I was raring to go, I try to be intentional about appreciating the journey as I go. And in that still early morning silence, it was as if the Holy Spirit himself told me to stop and take one last look around before I hastily departed the trip that I felt God had called me to take. Well, it's Monday again, and yes, it is back to life and back to the reality of work life again, but that's a good thing. As much as we enjoy our weekend getaways and vacations and impromptu mission trips, the vast majority of our lives are spent doing the things we need to do to provide for ourselves and our loved ones. And it is the place where, if we are walking in the Spirit, we will necessarily find peace and joy, just living as Christian disciples in our quote-unquote normal lives. Don't get me wrong, I was positively, uh, I was positively ecstatic over my latest adventure on the road. I was, uh, with Wednesday evenings walk through downtown, uh, through the downtown streets of Oswego, Thursdays drawn along the coast of Lake Ontario and stop in Niagara Falls before my hostel stay in Buffalo, and culminating in volunteering at the evening with David Jeremiah event on Friday night, I really got a small feel of what it was like to live the life of a beat writer like Kerouac, as I took time to appreciate the journey as much as appreciate the purpose of the journey. And I guess that's where I and Kerouac would have parted ways. My meandering journey had a meaning and purpose beyond the journey itself. To paraphrase the quote from Dan Aykroyd in the Blues Brothers, I was on a mission from God. In 2010, I was saved quite unexpectedly from a— by a gospel radio message by a preacher I didn't know, I didn't know, and who I thought would be fun to mock. But the joke was on me as I came to understand the gospel of grace for the first time in my life that fateful Friday in March. The message was the forgiveness of sins without works through faith in Jesus Christ, and the messenger was David Jeremiah. So early this year, when I heard about his, his upcoming tour and event in Buffalo that just happened to be on Veterans Day, I felt the call to go and serve the ministry that delivered the message that saved my soul. And as the Lord would have it, my role as a volunteer seemed to come full circle. As I was— I, who was saved by a David Jeremiah message, was given the opportunity to serve as an altar counselor, a person who would greet and pray for others like me who heard the truth of God's call on their lives and either made Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior or felt called to come forward and rededicate their lives to Christ. I, I talked about my experience of serving as an altar counselor in the opening minutes of yesterday's Bible study with the Sankatis for Such a Time as This. So if you want to hear about it, I, I am including a link to the video on YouTube on the blog today. It was a very joyous and humbling opportunity, and I felt honored to serve there. But there was one moment that happened before David Jeremiah completed his message and invited people to come forward that I will never forget. Before the altar call and before the musical performers started singing Amazing Grace David Jeremiah preached a message based on Jesus' Olivet Discourse found in Matthew 24 and 25, Mark 13, and Luke 21, where Jesus prophesied about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and what we commonly know as the end times. Jeremiah's teaching on this subject can be found in his latest book, The World of the End. Jeremiah's message was biblically sound and sought to encourage the audience that even though current events may seem chaotic, God was still in control and he had a plan to make things right that would come through the eventual return of Jesus Christ. I literally had a front row seat for the message and was impressed with Jeremiah's simple but hopeful teaching of what can be a frightening subject. I didn't find his delivery or subject to be condemning or off-putting at all. However, about midway through Jer— uh, through Jeremiah's message, I noticed something. As I watched Jeremiah's message from the right side of the KeyBank Center arena, I saw a couple in, in the seats on the left side stand up and walk out. And then I saw two other people walk out, and a group of three. Then I saw more leave. It wasn't a mass exodus or anything, but I would say that I observed approximately 15 to 20 people had to for the exits with their coats on and seemingly no intention to return. The evening with David Jeremiah up to this point was filled with music and general positive messages regarding the Christian faith, but when Jeremiah preached from the Word of God, from Christ's end-times prophecies, people left as if to say, "I don't want to hear any of your end-times preaching." I also saw this: I saw an older couple, presumably married, and when some people started to leave, the husband stood up as if to say, "I've had enough, we're done here." But the wife remained seated. She didn't move. And although her husband stood for more than just a moment, she basically ignored him until he eventually just sat down again. Can you say unequally yoked? You see, David Jeremiah wasn't speaking his end times message. He was reading and explaining the word of Jesus Christ. You know, the guy who is the truth, the way, and the life. And to get up and walk out, you know, to walk out after this rather basic interpretation of the words of Jesus really has to make you wonder about the spiritual destiny of someone. They could stomach the worship music and general niceties of Christianity, but when a message that was proclaimed that spoke of the urgency to believe and to follow Jesus Suddenly the show was over. Their religious tolerance had reached its limits. You see, David Jeremiah wasn't telling anyone how to live their lives or telling people who to vote for. He was telling people of the desperate need that every man, woman, and child has to make Jesus their Lord and Savior in light of Christ's words. That's it. Jeremiah basically encourages his audience to not be afraid of the chaos of this world to put their faith in Jesus and to trust in the Lord. But that was too much, because even though he didn't say it, people know that if you put your faith in Jesus, there is an expectation to be changed, to become like Jesus by following his example in how we live our lives. Any gospel that tells you that— tells you nothing needs to change when you put your faith in Jesus denies what Jesus himself and what the whole counsel of God says. But apparently you don't even have to preach about repentance. For some, all you have to do is point to the exclusivity of Christ to save, or, or the belief that God will intervene in the course of history to have his will be done on earth as it is in heaven, to send people to stand up and walk out. And now I realize that there could be very good reasons why some people some people, some of these people left. I could even imagine that some of these people wholeheartedly identify themselves as Christian, Christians. But among all the reasons and categories of possibilities, I can cut it down to a few. One, they are actually a follower of Jesus Christ and they had other matters to take care of that demanded their immediate attention. Hey, sometimes you gotta go. Sorry, Pastor, I'll buy that book, tell my friends and family to put their faith in Christ, to follow him, because we We are in some dark times for sure. Two, they may identify as Christian, a Christian culturally, or know Christians, but they don't have a relationship with the Lord. They think Christianity is nice, but don't believe, or might not believe, that all of the Bible is true, don't believe Jesus is God, or find other things in scriptures like the call to sanctification or the end times to be highly questionable. They have no sense of assurance of salvation and suspect that religion might just be a game. Their faith doesn't have a part of their lives and doesn't have a priority in them. Or 3, they don't believe. They were dragged along for the ride, and although they suffered through the worship music, they couldn't stay a minute more after the Bible got brought out. That's basically it, I think. Those, those who actually believe, those who are along for the ride but don't really have faith, and those who don't know— are bored— and those who know they don't have faith. It gives me no pleasure to think about, you know, to think about those who would walk out, or if they should fall into the latter two categories. In fact, when I saw those people leave, I got a chill as all I could imagine, as I imagined the worst, that these people's departure was a concrete example of the rejection of Jesus Christ in the starkest way they could demonstrate it. I can imagine Jesus singing Joe Cocker's old song about his friends. What would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and walk out on me? Well, some people, I don't know which ones, got up Friday night at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo and showed that they are no friend of Jesus by getting up and walking out on him. All I can say is that, is that I hope a seed was planted. I hope that David Jeremiah's preaching of the Word of God disturbed them enough that they think about what Jesus what is said, and it causes them to investigate the Word of God for themselves. Because as someone who got up and walked out of church on more than one occasion in my life, I know that as long as we live, there is still hope for those who blatantly reject Christianity. As we walk through life and go through trials and suffer loss, there is the potential we will seek the meaning of our existence and we will instinctively ask God to reveal himself to us. And I know that even the most worldly sinner can find the truth when they humbly ask God for his help. So for those who know the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and who are living with the hope and peace that go beyond understanding, share the good news. Keep walking and talking with God and demonstrate how good God is by living righteously, okay, and for— and by caring for others. And if you're not sure or don't have faith, I won't preach, but I would encourage you to investigate the spiritual matters of life and ask God to reveal himself to you. Because the word that you may not believe in tells us that if we seek the Lord with all our hearts, we will find him. I'm really short on time. I think I'm out of habit because of this road trip, but, uh, so there won't be a gospel Bible verse for the day, um, for those who don't want to hear it. There you go. But for the, you know, I encourage, obviously we encourage Bible study. We do, and are sharing a link to our Bible study with the Zingadis on the blog today, so if you want to check that out, you know, click on the video. As always though, I do try to share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk, and today we are going to share from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Discipleship, also known as The Cost of Discipleship. And today we finish up in Matthew, the section on Matthew 6 that Bonhoeffer calls The Simplicity of Care— the Carefree Life. So if you want to see the end of Bonhoeffer's exposition of Matthew 6:25-34, go to mtforchrist.org and you'll see that at the end of today's blog post. So there'll be lots of Bible verses on that. If you're lacking from my failure to deliver. All right, I'm gonna pray real quick because I'm really short on time. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, thank you for all that you do for us. Lord, we pray for you to go before us today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and, and guide us in the things you want us to do. Lord, we pray for you to bless anyone who's listening or, or watching this on YouTube. Lord, that you would bless their lives and encourage them to go in the way they should go. And Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.