Sunday Sermon
By the Rev. William A. Secrest Lebo Baptist Church
Originally published 02:02 p.m., May 30, 2008
Updated 02:02 p.m., May 30, 2008
When I was a student at Central Baptist Theological Seminary there was a couple who worked at Bethel Neighborhood Center.
Bruce and Jene Bridgewater worked at the center when I first entered seminary. Part way through my school experience, they decided that it was time for a break.
They both had given many years to serving in the inner city of Kansas City, Kan., and they felt God calling them to take a break from all that this life had encompassed for them. At the school, we had a ceremony honoring their commitment to Bethel. During their ceremony my theology professor made the point that the scriptures tell us that there are moments when we must lie down for a season.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 states, “for everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.”
Life is full of moments where there is an appropriate course of action. The problem becomes how do you know what the course of action should look like at this moment in your life? Sometimes uncontrollable circumstances force us into a season of life for which we were not prepared.
Marvin George, who is the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Greensburg, spoke on the CBS morning show about how the community has been brought together by the tragedy that occurred a year ago.
When that community was destroyed the people had a decision to make. They were either going to stay and make something happen or leave for another community. Many are working hard to rebuild Greensburg and when that season is over the next season will begin.
What season of life are you in right now? Right now the season that we are dealing with in our community is one of physical loss. People are moving away for employment opportunities as our economy is suffering in Lyon County and Coffey County. These are moments of sadness as we will begin to miss people that we have grown close to over the years.
Even in the midst of difficulties in our lives and our churches, we still have responsibilities as Christians. We must never lose sight of the one who has given us the many things in our lives that we hold dear.
The most important part of being a Christian is knowing that you are forgiven. That is a constant season in a Christian’s life. The next constant season has to do with serving the Lord where you work and live.
Matthew 9:37 states, “the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.” Christians who live in this world have a responsibility to share the gospel by the way they live their lives. Maybe that is the reason why so many of our churches are struggling to exist.
So many Christians look so much like the rest of the world that non-Christians become uninterested in what we have to offer them. To be a follower of Christ is to know that our hope and future is already determined no matter what circumstances may come our way. It is that belief that gives us the ability to continue serving the one who has always been faithful to us. The Lord is calling us to live in his constant season of service.
Rabbi Shammai, in the third century of the present era, noted that Moses gave us 365 prohibitions and 248 positive commands in the law. David in Psalm 15 reduced them to 11 and Isaiah 33:14-15 made them six. Micah 6:8 binds them into three and Habakkuk 2:4 reduces them all to one, namely, “The just shall live by faith.”
The apostle Paul shared these same thoughts with the church at Rome. Romans 1:17 states, “For in it (that being the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, ‘the one who is righteous will live by faith.”
God has called us to live by faith because of the work of his son, Jesus Christ. Let a solid faith guide your walk with the Lord. Then we can serve him faithfully during all the days of our lives.
• “Sunday Sermon” is a forum for Emporia area ministers to share their sermons, thoughts and observations. This week’s sermon is from the Rev. Bill Secrest of Lebo Baptist Church.