The Church is Being Shakin' Part 1

This is Sam from the Masking Journey Podcast, and our goal with the podcast has helped you to try to find your way in this difficult world. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network.

They're devoted to breaking down the walls of race and denomination and challenging men to take their God-assigned role. Here's our hosts, Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr., a black guy and a white guy. Welcome back to ManTalk Radio.

This is Roy Jones. We're so glad you joined us. And, uh, Will, it's always good to see you.

We're through this pandemic where we only get to see each other about once a week. And, uh, but it sure is good to see you again. It's good, Roy. And, uh, I'm excited about today's show. We have a treat for you listeners out there. I'm telling you, it is going to be a treat.

T-R-E-A-T with a capital. And I, I'm so excited. It's because this is a subject, I think, that, uh, the church body in general, Roy needs to hear when it comes to, uh, being impartial and, and, um, we have a tendency, I think, sometime to lean to the right, lean to the left, politically speaking, you're talking about as believers, we tend to choose a side. Right.

And, and God don't want us to go there. So I'm excited about this. We're going to hear several clips from Dr. Tony Evans. Yes. So the backdrop behind this is he spoke at the N-R-B back in June, I guess, just a few weeks back and, uh, gave a, gave an unbelievable message, challenged believers, challenged the broadcasters, the owners of the stations, the content they're putting out there, but also challenged as a whole that we've got to get off this political bandwagon, if you will, and we've got to get lined up biblically like we've talked about on the show before.

We've got to be looking through a biblical lens and there shouldn't be any left or right, as you put it. Absolutely. And, uh, he speaks directly to it. So please, please encourage you to stay connected with this show and for next week's show, it's going to be a two part series.

Absolutely. And, uh, we'll walk you through this. So, Will, why don't you lead us off? Well, this first clip, uh, Roy, uh, Dr. Evans, he sort of opens up and he begins to talk about, you know, how the church in general is basically needs to be shaken up. So he sort of introduces this, um, how the church gets shaken up.

Yeah. And that's great lead in, Will, and not just the church, but how God uses the events across the world, right? And to get things shook up and then he correlates it back to the, what's, what he's ultimately wanting to happen within the church.

Right. So when he's shaking up, he's just using things at, at his disposal. The author of Hebrews says, when God has a fresh, fresh message to give, a new challenge to throw out, a reorientation to inaugural, he shakes things up. When God wants things done differently, when God does not want the norm to continue, when God has to uproot the ordinary and call us to the extraordinary, he shakes things up. When God has decided that we become too cavalier, when God has decided we become too at ease, when God has decided that we have become too comfortable, when God has decided that we're not on point with his purpose, he shakes things up. And you can always know when God is talking because he disrupts the ordinary things by crafting a crisis.

Let me say that again. In your life, my life, your family, my family, your ministry, my ministry, if you want to know where God wants to do something different, he does not want the same old, same old anymore. He will create a contradictory crisis. Now, Roy, when I listen to that, see, we as the church, we have did the opposite of exactly what Dr. Evans said not to do.

And, of course, the author of Hebrews in particular, where he's coming from. Number one, we've gotten too comfortable. So when things are not the way they typically are, then we start getting up and we start getting all out of shape with respect to why we're not going by the bulletin.

I hear that a lot. We're not going by the bulletin. We do all of these things to go by the bulletin and we're not going by the bulletin.

That's just a small example of being too comfortable. God may not want you to go by the bulletin. He may have you to put that out and then all of a sudden he move in a different way.

And I think this is what Dr. Evans is saying. Don't get stuck in a rut, but be open to the Spirit of God in the direction in which the Spirit of God wants to take you. And so when we get too comfortable, now he starts shaking the church and shaking members in particular. Yeah, and I think, Will, what's happened here is if you look at what's going on in society, because I think that's where the disruptions occurred, because the church has become too much like the world.

So, therefore, God is going to shake it up and get the church shook up through shaking up what's going on in the world. Exactly. The pandemic was allowed to happen, allowed to develop, to shake things up. It was to get people off the fence one way or another.

Lukewarmness was not going to be tolerated. We know how God feels about that. Many people sitting in the church today or prior to the pandemic were sitting there from a lukewarm state, checking a box there because it was the right thing to do. They weren't there because they were seeking God or chasing God.

They were there because, oh, this is what this group of people is doing, so I need to be a part of that. So God said, hey, enough's enough. We're going to get this thing woke up. We're going to wake the church, if you will, pardon the expression, we're going to wake the church. Exactly.

The church needs to be shook up, and when God allowed the pandemic to come, I think that was a grand opportunity for us to do a self-evaluation of our spiritual state, to look at ourselves internally to see where we are with respect to where God wants us to be. Yeah, a great introspective approach, but did people do that? That's the question. And that's the thing. And I think a large answer would be no.

Exactly. Because the church population, had they done that during this time period, they would be hungry to come back in the masses when the body of Christ is coming back together, and that's not been the case. We see it already.

The church has been fully opened back up, my own church included, yours, and we've got about, I don't know, maybe 40 percent of the normal attending population prior to the pandemic. So folks, that ought to wake you up and say, look, if you're one of these people who have gotten comfortable, back to the complacency that Dr. Evans just spoke about, the cavalier, the comfortable spot, then you need to ask yourself, what is it going to take for me to get moving again? Well, God's already shown you what it's going to take to get moving, and if we don't get moving, then we're going to, he's going to, there's going to be something else that's going to disrupt.

It could be the second phase, it could be this delta strain that's starting to move and gain momentum that we were just talking about prior to the show, Will. Exactly. And see, in this next clip, he talks about how God stacks the circumstances to shake things up. I love the passage in 2nd Chronicles, chapter 15, verses 3 to 6, it says, it says that there was no peace in those days. It says citizen were, they were at peace when they left home and when they came back home. There was conflict, personal conflict, family conflict. He goes on and says there was conflict, city against city, urban conflict.

He goes on and says there was conflict, nation against nation, international conflict. And then we get the zinger in verse 6 because it says, for God troubled them with every kind of distress. I would have thought it would have said, with all of this havoc, that the devil troubled them with every kind of distress. But it says God troubled them with every kind of distress because God was shaking things up to get things back in order again.

I would like to suggest to you, they were told in their distress, verse 3 says of 2nd Chronicles 15, when stuff got bad enough, when stuff was so chaotic, it says in their distress they came back to the Lord and he let them find him and brought them rest. Amen. See, and that, Roy, that should, I think, the listeners who are listening now, if you listen to that very carefully, there was a lot of content that Dr. Evans spoke about in reference to when people left home and then they came back, that just in that space of time there was conflict within the home. And then we see national conflict, conflict against churches, conflict against race, conflicts against political parties. We see that conflict. And so we even see conflict within our own home. Yes, we do. And even from the citizens to the police officers.

I mean, you can go down the local government to the citizens. It's just a disarray and total disruption, if you will, across the board, even from the top down in terms of leadership of our country. Within the cabinet there's even conflict going on. Exactly. And so God is tired. Very tired. And we should be tired because he's tired. Yeah.

Are we tired? That's the question, Will. And you as the listener, are you tired of the position we're in as a body of believers?

Absolutely. We know that the conflict's going to continue outside of the family of Christ. But if the family of Christ can't get it right, like we always talk about, how can we ever expect the world to get it right, Will? So when you listen to this today, don't just listen to a message.

Listen to the context in which the message is being spoken. And relate that context, if you will, to your own personal situation. Because this affects all of us. The pandemic, when it came, it affected all of us and it's still affecting us.

Yes. Because no one is immune. So you have to be cognizant of the fact that I am not going to continue in my current state. But I'm going to be an active representative for Jesus Christ. Well, and Will, you're speaking to the short view. The short view should be your personal impact and your personal life.

How is this going to change for me? How am I going to change what I'm doing to impact the kingdom? Then you need to have a long view as well, Will. And that long view is the larger context. How my personal build, and we'll hear about this I think in one of the other clips down the road, is how if I'm stronger, then my church is stronger, then my church being stronger makes my community being stronger. So I need to look at the long view, too. If I get myself right, get in line with God's will and direction and guidance, then I can help get my church in line with God's will, direction and guidance.

Then my church can help my community get us in line with God's will, direction and guidance. Exactly. And, you know, what that does is the short view is essential in order for you to have a long view.

It's imperative. Because if you don't have a short view, then there absolutely will be no long view. Because if you can't get the short view right, then the long view is way out of reach for you. Because your foundation, you can almost say the short view is the foundation. Exactly. And that becomes your foundation.

So if you've got a solid foundation, then you can move into building on top of that, which becomes your long view. Absolutely. Wow, that was a quick session. And so, hey folks, we're so glad you joined us. We are here to spread the gospel. We're here to let you know you're encouraged and that God's got control of your life. You just need to give it to Him in totality, and that means 100% surrender.

You don't need to hold on to any part of it, because this is what causes disruption, when you don't let God take 100% ownership. We'll be right back after the break. We'll be right back. We are back with Man Talk.

I'm so excited, because church and listeners, if you are taking this in, you are getting a treat today. Because we are here talking about don't be impartial with your thinking. Don't start looking at things through one side or the other. That being the political side. Regardless of what it is, regardless of what it is, we need to look at it from the standpoint of God. When you look at it from the biblical standpoint, everything else is pushed aside, everything else is shut out. And guess what happens when you push the side wheel?

The clarity should be much greater and much easier to obtain, and the noise and confusion should dissipate. That's right. And the reason why we said that, Roy, is because it's not just political, but it's racial.

It's sexual when you start getting into the sexes. So yeah, it's an abundance of it. But if we, as the church, just stay focused and look at things through the biblical lens in which God looks at it, we will not allow those things to come in. So Roy, this next clip, he is going to be talking about how evangelism is off point. And so listen, listener closely to this message.

And of course, we encourage you to listen to the whole message, which is available on YouTube. The author of Hebrews says that when God is ready to do something new, he creates a disturbance. And the reason he creates the disturbance, he says, is to shake created things, earthbound things, physical things, in order to reveal that which cannot be shaken.

In other words, God shakes our physical human reality to get us spiritually back on point. I would like to suggest today that evangelicalism is off point. I would suggest to you today that evangelicalism has lost its way. See, we lost our way, Roy, evangelicalism, is because we have all of these divides. We have created all these factions, which is no different than what the Church of Corinthians, they did the same thing.

I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Jesus. So they created all these factions and we're no different here. Yeah, and folks, be clear. We're not talking about just racial. We're talking about racial divide. We're talking about the homosexuality concerns. We're talking about adultery. We're talking about all those things that are classified biblically as sin. They created a divide when people try to weaken down the Word of God and say these things are acceptable by God's standards and they're not.

So when you look at the Bible and you read the Bible, you stand on your standards, which are the biblical standards, and then the divide is not there. And he talks about shaking up the created so that the supernatural and the spiritual will be more visible and revealed because it can't be shook up. It'll be manifested. It's solid. It's pure.

It's 100 percent, right? Exactly. And see, in 1 Peter 3, Roy, and verse 17, it says, And if it be the will of God to be so, that you suffer for doing good rather than doing evil. So if you're going to get backlash, get the backlash by standing for God. Stand for God. In the midst of all of the chaos and all of the criticism that we're going to get and have gotten, stand for that and you're going to be rewarded when that time comes. Either in this life or eternally, one or the other.

He's going to take care of you through this life because if he'll take care of the spares in the field, he's not going to let you go without. Exactly. So you need to be confident. And we, Will, you and I have talked about this.

It's so easy to get in that position of like, oh, I'm comfortable. I don't want to say something that might be taken wrong or offensive. But if you're speaking what the Word of God says, it's not your opinion. It's what the Word of God says. And if you're a follower of Christ, you're conveying what the Word of God says as a believer in Christ and a follower of Christ. And of course, those who are non-believers, they're going to take the opposite point of view anyway, Roy.

Of course. They're going to take things and saying, you know, that's your truth. And so you believe what you want to believe. I'll believe what I want to believe. And everything is okay.

Well, everything is not okay. Because God's truth is absolute. And the truth of the world is relative to what we think is right.

Right. And if you're based against the Word of God, then it's very clear. If you decide if it's truth or not based against the Word of God. And that's what's happened to our society. We've lost that ability to determine right and wrong. Because we've moved away from the Word of God as a society. And this is why Proverbs 14, 12 tells us, Roy, that there seems to be a right way in the sight of man.

But in the end are the ways of death. So we can justify anything, but that doesn't make your justification right in the sight of God. Because we have no righteousness to give to God that he will accept apart from what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross.

Amen. And so when God looks at us, he looks at Christ in us. He don't look at us. Because we have nothing righteous to offer him. Not one.

We can't pay. There's not one. That's right. Not one. Biblically it tells us that, right? That's right.

No, not well. There's none good. No, that's Romans 3, 10 through 18. There's none good. No, not one. There's none who understand.

There's none who seek after God. We have all gone our own way. We have all together become unprofitable.

See, that talks about men who can't do anything for themselves. And all we know is evil. All we know is wrong until God changes us. This is all we know.

Right. So we can't accept truth in order to be saved unless God gives us that ability to say yes to the truth with respect to salvation. And that's only, only with respect to salvation. So, when you read, when you read what Proverbs 6, 16 through 19 says, and Romans 3, 10 through 18 says, and reference how depraved we are, how can a man whom God described the way he does in those passages say yes to salvation when all we know is wrong?

Now, with that said, once you become a child of God, now you make choices whether or not to follow what the Word of God says in reference to the apostles of Jesus Christ. Well, you become a new creation, and then it's important that the new creation keeps the old self suppressed. And the way the new creation continues to grow and prosper is how? By renewing the mind.

Renewing the mind and staying in the Word regularly and surrounding yourself by a group of believers and becoming a part of a regular fellowship to chase and pursue God with. Amen. Keep, keep, let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, Philippians 2, 5.

This is what we need to do. We need to stay focused and let that focus be such that it'll keep us going in the right direction and always answering and always looking at things through the lens, the biblical lens, and we'll stay away from that. So let's roll back, Will, if we can, to that very point that Dr. Evans was making earlier about being complacent, comfortable, cavalier, all those things and all the adjectives that we can come up with that would fit into that. Our challenge to you as listeners and to each other is that have I become any of those descript adjectives in my daily walk? Am I complacent in my Bible reading time? Am I complacent in my prayer time? Am I complacent, cavalier, comfortable in my time alone with God? Or my interaction with my family, my church family, my community, you know, all of these as well.

Yep. And I think back to the earlier point, if we've got the top in order, the bottom comes in behind that, in the proper order. The top being the prayer, the study, the meditation, the fellowship with the Father and through the Son, and then all the other things will align as long as you don't become a workaholic at the church and you've got to create balance. God didn't intend for you to do it all, despite the fact that 20% seemed to do 80% of the work, but that wasn't the way God intended it. Exactly. And see, when we do according to what the Scripture says in reference to studying, Roy, then we make ourselves approve. So when we don't study, the opposite of that is true. Yeah, exactly. We're disapproved. You are disapproved in the sight of God.

So God, disapprove of what you're doing when you don't study to want to know more about Him. Yep. So as you're listening today, is your mind and heart more on your money? Is your mind and heart more on the worries at home? Is your mind and heart on your job? Is it on what you're going to do next, what the next goal is, what the next purchase is? Or is it truly on your relationship with God? You need to ask yourself that if you're listening today, because if those things are ahead of that last piece, ahead of God, then you need to sit down and ask God to help you get realigned. If not, if you truly are a follower of Christ, He will align it for you.

And your evangelism, just like Dr. Evans said, is not on point. Yes. It's not on point, because you're not taking care of the short vision properly. Exactly. And the short vision, as we stated, it builds on the long-term vision.

That's right. It has to be there foundationally speaking. And see, those adjectives and descript things, Roy, that you talked about, I mean, there's a whole laundry list in the scripture, and it just gives you just a snippet of what those things are. But the list is much longer than that.

Yeah. And I just want us to know, because we'll look at that list. Some people will look at that list and say, well, I'm not doing this, I'm not doing this. Well, I did that, but I've asked for forgiveness.

So we'll just look at that list and we'll say, well, I'm okay, because I've done everything that the list said, don't do. Well, do you have peace in your heart? And I would say we all need to pray, say, Father, just stir me. Stir me inside, deep down inside. Folks, there's a wake-up call on the doorstep for every one of us.

It is. There's a wake-up call, and you have heard the bell sound, you've heard the voice call, you've seen God in motion through this last 15, 16 months, and even before, and all the things that are going on around us. God is stirring it up. Are you going to make a difference in the future? And if you say that you are a representative of the Almighty God, ask yourself the question, what are you doing? What are you doing for Jesus Christ? What are you doing for God the Father? How are you out there making a difference?

If you want to join a group of people who just want to get out one day and protest about abortion, get on out there with your sign, Roy. That's what I say. Get out there. Let folks know where you stand. Don't be ashamed. Don't cower down to the world, and don't cower down to the government, because we have an all-powerful God. Amen, Will.

And like our old friend Dale used to say, let your actions speak so loud, nobody can hear a word you're saying, and that is, be visible, be present. God bless. We'll see you next week.

Next week. Today's show, be assured that TAWCMM, Talking and Walking Christian Men's Ministry, is building a community of men that are Christ followers with a desire to be servant leaders in their homes, communities, churches, and work environments. Check out our website for upcoming events and regularly scheduled meetings. Drop us a note for topics that you would like to have us visit in the future. Thank you for joining us on Man Talk Today. Visit us at www.tawcmm.com. Men walking the talk. This is the Truth Network.