A Call To The Church
Matthew 16: 13-19; Romans 10: 8-15; Colossians 1: 12-14
From the southern most tip of Florida to the northern most point of Maine, from the shores of Virginia, across the great Mid-west plains unto the star-studded coast of California, our nation has built many prisons in hopes of solving the ever-increasing problem of crime, violence and social decay. Nevertheless, it seems like the faster we build; the quicker they fill. For every criminal that is lock up, two has to be let go. The question that rings in our ears is who is to blame.
Our streets are constantly filled with violence. From the White Church to the schoolchurch to the crack church, our people are being gunned down. Our men and women are hooked and obsessed with themselves. Our children watch and listen to violence on television and on the radio, then turn on who ever they can find to act out what they have learned. The question that rings in our ears is who is to blame.
Parents are killing their children and children are killing their parents. We put pressure on our elected officials in hopes of solving our escalating problems. But the crisis continues. We spend endless amounts of time, energy, and money conducting one survey after another in hope of finding the answer to our ever-increasing problems. Yet, we still do not know whom to blame.
Some try to blame God for our problems. After all, He is to one who made man. Nevertheless, He is not the cause of our problems. We place some of the blame on Lucifer, the fallen archangel of God. After all, he did talk man into sinning. Nevertheless, he is not the reason for our problems. In our quest to find someone to pin the blame on, we must realize that the problem and the blame lie only with us. We are to blame for the way our society has become. We are to blame because we have turned away from the ways of God. We have been doing things anyway, we see fit. Because of this, man is to blame.
My brothers and sisters, I stand here today to tell you that I charge humankind. I charge us of being the greatest murderers on the face of the earth. I charge us of being the greatest destroyers. I charge us of being the greatest liars, and the greatest thief on the face of the earth. There is not much good that can be said about the human race, because everywhere we go we create destruction and havoc. So, I charge us.
Furthermore we are guilty as charged. We are guilty as charged because the evidence is before us. The evidence is in our prisons. The evidence is in our homes. The evidence is in our schools and in our churches. Because of the path we have chosen to take, we have brought disease, crime, and destruction into our communities. Murder, rape, and homosexuality have become common in our lives. In spite of what the Word of God says, we do not have a problem with it.
We seek to make a profit off the diseases that has infested our people, by selling them high priced cures that does more harm than good. We sell religion to the masses by wrapping it and calling it Television Evangelism. We seek to justify murder, by making abortions legal. We have tried to change what God has called sin by calling it an alternative lifestyle. However, there is a price to pay. That price is the many problems we now face. This is why we are to blame.
However, there is hope. Amid the boiling stew pot of international strife, confusion, and rebellion, beyond the smog-covered turmoil of urban violence, corruption, and social decay, there is a fresh breeze blowing. It is a breeze capable of cooling the stew and blowing away the smog. Something exciting is happening to the churches around the country. Like the rushing mighty wind, whose sound filled the church at Pentecost, this something is a breeze that reverberates as surely as it refreshes.
This breeze is the Holy Spirit of God. He is filling people with insight as well as inspiration, blessings and power. He is the Spirit of wisdom and revelation that not only inspired the writings of the Holy Scriptures but also breathes insight into the wisdom of the Word of God. The church, upon receiving this power, must get the gospel of Jesus out into the streets to the hurt and lost. For too long, we have sat still and watched as the unholy angels of Lucifer brought drugs, violence and moral decay to our front door. Now, it is time for us to stand up and say loudly, we will not take it anymore.
Each day, drugs, alcohol, illicit sex, and spiritual captivity have destroyed our loved ones. Each day, they are destroyed because we have allowed the very moral fiber of this great country to be torn to pieces by our enemy. Each day, our government spends our tax dollars to build more prisons and institute more programs to get our fellow citizens off drugs and to get our children to act right. However, when we accurately look at the figures, we discover that the more we spend the worse the problem gets.
The solution to our problems is not in the money that we spend or the programs that we institute. The solution lies in the gift that God has given to the world. This gift is His church and the spiritual authority that we possess. As saved children of God, we have already experienced Jesus’ love in our lives and know the ability of God to change us. Now it is time for us to take this knowledge and use it to save our country. We can take this country and turn it back to God, if we just get up out of our seats and get to work.
Paul writes in Colossians 1: 12-14, ‘ Giving thanks to unto the father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sin.’ Paul did not say will rescue us, as in the future, rather he said God has rescued us from the power of the darkness.
God has rescued or freed us from the power and authority of Lucifer. He has given us the power to defeat the already defeated enemy. If we use this authority, we can take back our children. If we use this authority, we can take back our spouses. If we use this authority, we can take back our homes. If we use this authority, we can take back our communities. If we use this authority, we can take our cities and our country from the grip of Lucifer.
We can do it. We can fight the good fight of faith and take our loved ones from Lucifer. But we cannot do it sitting behind the four walls of our churches. We must go into the streets. We must go into the jailchurch. We must seek and save those that are lost. This is why God gave us the Holy Spirit. It empowers us to do the work that Jesus commissioned us to do. That is to go into the whole world and make disciples. We can do it because Jesus has given us the authority over our enemies that try to keep us bound in sin. We can do it because Jesus has given us the promise that anything that we ask in His name that too will the Father do. We can do it because it is our right to do it because we are the saved children of the most high God. We can do it because it must be done.
Paul says in Romans 10: 8-13, “The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach. Because if thou shall confess with thy mouth Jesus is Lord, and shall believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shall be saved: for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture says, whosoever believeth on Him shall not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek: for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich unto all that call upon him: for, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” If we want to free our loved ones, we must introduce them to Jesus. If we want to save our country, we must introduce them to Jesus. We must get them to understand that Jesus is the only answer to the problems we face. Jesus is the only solution to the overcrowded prisons. Jesus is the only solution for the violence in our streets. We must introduce Jesus in order to solve our problems.
God is looking for people that are in love with him and that want to see people saved regardless of race, creed, color, social standing, or economic status. God is looking for people that are willing to venture outside the confinement of the four walls of the local church to do what He commissioned them to do. This is the reason God built the church we call church.
God built His church to seek and save His lost children. In order for us, His saved children to do this, we must transcend beyond the limited thinking that was introduced to us in our upbringing. We must transcend beyond the limited theological thinking that are being taught to us in our denominational churches. We must come to realize that heaven is not a denominational place. We must come to realize that God is not a denominational God. Even though, we are denominational people, we must not and cannot allow our denominations to hinder us from being apart of the church that God built.
We have been called by Jesus to carry His saving Gospel to the lost wherever we can find them. We are ministers to those Lucifer and his unholy agents have trapped into a life of sin. We must evangelize the communities that we live in and reap the harvest. We must venture out into the streets and knock on doors. We must witness to people in stores and in our workplace. We need to persuade them to make Jesus their lord and savior. We must teach them about the Word of God. We must introduce them to the church that God built.
The church that God built is made up of all people regardless of the denominations. The church that God built is constructed for all people regardless of the color of their skin or the nation of their origin. The church that God built is not made to separate man from man. The church that God built is created to reconcile man to God and then man to man. Nevertheless, most of, if not all of our denominations are endeavoring to rebuild those same walls that the blood of Jesus eliminated. Nevertheless, the children of God must stand differently because we are the church that God built.
We stand differently because we cannot afford to stand behind any wall that separate us from our lost and hurting brothers and sisters. We stand differently because we cannot stand behind walls of denominationalism, cultural superiority, racial prejudice, and erroneous ideologies. We stand differently because we realize that God has created us as new creatures. We stand differently because we realize that God does not call us African American, White American, Hispanic American, Japanese, or Asian Christians. He has labeled us as the saved children of God and placed on us a royal and powerful inheritance. God has placed us in the church that He built.
We stand differently and we stand proudly because we are called to stand for the very things that Jesus died for. We are called to stand for treating everyone with love, kindness, and care. We are call to stand for peace, hope and charity. We are called to lay down our lives so our fallen brothers and sisters may be lifted up to God. We are called to stand for Christ. This is why we are different, and this is who we are. We are just men and women that are totally in love with God. We are men and women who stand for Jesus Christ because we are the church that God built.
The church that God built believes that all men and women are sinners and have been or can be saved by the grace of God. The church that God built believes that the great commission is the first and most important mission statement of God’s church. The church that God built believes that Jesus is coming back for His church. The church that God built believes in everything in the Holy Bible from Genesis to Revelations. The church that God built does not compromise on the doctrinal belief set forth in the Holy Bible. The church that God built main concern is getting our unsaved brothers and sisters into the church that God built.
The church that God built is the only hope for the world. We are the solution God gave to the world. We must come out of hiding and get to work. Paul continues in Romans 10: 14-15, ‘How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?’ We have been sent to deliver the answer to the problems of our country. We are their only hope. We must deliver the good news.
We must give the good news to our lost and hurting brothers and sisters. We must tell them of our unique kinship. We must tell them that they have been place outside of the church that God built because of their unrepented sins. We must tell them that this will not stop them from becoming the saved children of God. We must tell them the only way for them to get in the church that God built is for them to believe in Jesus.
We must give them the good news that God want to make them a part of the church that He built. We must tell them to, ‘Come to Jesus. He can save you.’ We must tell them to, ‘Come to Jesus. He can heal you.’ We must tell them to, ‘Come to Jesus. He will forgive you.’ We must tell them to, ‘Come to Jesus, just now.’ If we tell them, they will come but we must tell them. We must get out our seats; we must come out of the four walls of the church and we must tell them and bring them to the church that God built.
Created by Reginald L. Walker – September 28, 2000
