Rebuilding the Ruins of Society

by | Sep 25, 2022 | Pastor Bill Brannan Videos, Preaching Videos, Videos

  • Restoring the Ruins of Society
    1. The Fall
    2. The Flood
    3. The Faith – Looks to Redemption & Reconciliation and RESTORATION.
    4. CONTINUING FROM LAST WEEK: An example from Noah and Abraham.. “God does not deal despotically with His creatures.” If He sought no more than mindless submission to the divine will, He would have created robots, machines, or genetically programmed people who responded automatically to commands as dogs to Pavlov’s bell. God wants us to be mature, deliberative, to do His will because we understand or because we trust Him when we do not understand. He seeks from us something other and greater than obedience, namely responsibility. Noah’s end – drunk, disheveled, an embarrassment to his children – eloquently tells us that if you save yourself while doing nothing to save the world, you do not even save yourself…When it comes to rebuilding the ruins of catastrophe, you do not wait for permission. You take the risk and walk ahead. Faith is more than obedience. It is the courage to create.[1]
    5. He was only concerned about escaping the old world but did not engage in creating a new one.
    6. Nehemiah 1:1–4 (NKJV) — 1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. It came to pass in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the citadel, 2 that Hanani one of my brethren came with men from Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. 3 And they said to me, “The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.” 4 So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
    7. The Worldwide Liberation Movement
  • The Type of Christians the World Needs – Those that have found the treasure
    1. Matthew 13:44–46 (NKJV) — 44 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, 46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
    2. The Martyrdom of Polycarp – What a man looks like who has found the treasure
      1. Three days before he was arrested, while he was praying, he had a vision of the pillow under his head in flames. He said prophetically to those who were with him, ” I will be burnt alive.”
      2. As Polycarp was being taken into the arena, a voice came to him from heaven: “Be strong, Polycarp and play the man!” No one saw who had spoken, but our brothers who were there heard the voice. When the crowd heard that Polycarp had been captured, there was an uproar. The Proconsul asked him whether he was Polycarp. On hearing that he was, he tried to persuade him to apostatize, saying, “Have respect for your old age, swear by the fortune of Caesar. …“Swear,” urged the Proconsul, “reproach Christ, and I will set you free.” “86 years have I have served him,” Polycarp declared, “and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?”
    3. Paul talks about the treasure – Philippians 3:7–11 (NIV84) — 7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
  • The Type of Church the World Needs
    1. Raising up Sons of God – reproducing Jesus
    2. Storming the gates of hell
    3. Bringing the world into the obedience of the faith.
    4. Full of faith and the Holy Spirit
    5. Genuine life
    6. Dependent on Christ – Mature and Strong!
    7. The Relaunch
      1. A major activation
      2. Do not despise the days of small beginnings – there is a cloud on the horizon
  • The challenge of an independent church
  1. The glory of an independent church
  2. Continual improvement
  3. Real team.
  • People worshipping/serving for Christ first!
  • Rebuilding the Ruins of Society

[1] Sacks, Jonathan. Genesis: The Book of Beginnings (Covenant & Conversation 1) (p. 48). Kindle Edition.