Do we want to die in our religion or die in our devotion?
We have prioritized our needs and our comfort and our convention over the needs of the world around us. We need to repent.
All that we need to reach the world is the Bible and the Spirit of God.
These statements, or something like them, were spoken by David Platt, pastor of Church of Brook Hills (Birmingham, AL) at the SBC Pastor's Conference on Monday night. I didn't get a chance to listen to his message, but from perusing the Twittersphere afterwards, his words made quite an impact. Several people said that they were deeply affected by the Spirit of God while David spoke. Praise God! I've heard of David Platt for a few years now and hear that he is doing great things at his church in Birmingham. From the gist of what I have read about his message, I would have loved it. I can't wait to hear it.
It seems that God is speaking to people in the SBC about the state of our heart, our ties to the world and the world's ways, our selfishness, our consumerism, our pride, and our self-sufficiency. It is time for repentance and a return to allegiance to Jesus Christ alone. All of the other things that we are worried about must bow before devotion to Christ.
Putting aside our idols of success, numbers, wealth, consumerism, power, politics, and our own personal goodness and what we think we can bring before God, we must humble ourselves before God and look to Him alone. We need a fresh wind of the Holy Spirit to blow through our lives, our families, our churches, and our communities. We need God to move. For too long, we have hid behind our big churches with great programs for all ages and our "stuff" has masked the fact that God's Spirit has not been working in our lives the way that He wants to. Even though, as Baptists, we have been a religious people, we have not been a repentant people, and we have done what we could do in our own strength instead of what God could do if we were to really lay everything down and cry out to Him.
We need people who will pray until God moves - until He pours out His Spirit on us and awakens us. We need to lay down every dependence except Him. What if this happened in our churches, our state conventions, our national agencies? What would happen if Southern Baptists all over America began to repent and cry out to God; and then began to live like Jesus and carry out God's will? This nation would be changed in a matter of months - I really do believe that. The reason that I am a Southern Baptist is because messages like David Platt's can be preached and people say, "Amen," and "God, have mercy on me," instead of saying that he is ignorant or unsophisticated. That at least gives us a chance for repentance, reorientation, and renewal to take place. There is a God in Heaven and He hears the prayers of men. It is time that we started crying out to Him and realigning our lives to the person and work of Jesus Christ.
It seems that this message is getting out at the SBC Annual Meeting through people like David Platt. Praise God for that! More, Lord.
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