Evans: We’re experiencing the passive wrath of God
Dallas | “We’re living in a day where we’d rather offend God and fear the culture than offend the culture and fear God,” James Merritt proclaimed to those gathered at the 2018 SBC Pastors’ Conference in Dallas.
The conference, which precedes the Southern Baptist Convention, kicked off Sunday evening June 10, with three speakers: Merritt, pastor of Cross Pointe Church, Sugarloaf, GA; Juan Sanchez, pastor of High Point Baptist Church, Austin, TX; and Tony Evans, pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, Dallas, TX.
Merritt, spoke from Romans 1:16, urging pastors not to be ashamed of the simple: 1) message of the gospel; 2) might of the gospel because it is the power of God; or 3) saving ministry of the power of the gospel.
Sanchez cautioned pastors, “We are not made to live in isolation…yet pastors are some of the most isolated people. Brothers, we need deeply rooted gospel relationships if we are to fulfill our calling.”
He encouraged them to remember, “Our confidence is in the Lord Jesus Christ who lived and died and rose again. The Lord chooses to use us and to him be the glory forever and ever amen.”
No matter what discouragement pastors might face, Sanchez reminded, “Our confidence is not in our building. It’s not in our city. Our confidence is in Jesus Christ.”
It was local pastor Tony Evans that roused the audience. Evans based his messaged on 2 Chronicles 15:3-6. “It’s a summary of why the world we live in today is the way it is,” he said. “It gives us a picture of chaos.”
He contrasted the chaos of the world then with that of our world today. “Family chaos, international chaos, urban chaos. It says there was social chaos comprehensively.”
“God determines in a society what he is going to do by the presence or absence of his people, Evans declared. “What you and I are experiencing today is the passive wrath of God.”
He described what God did then and what he said God’s doing now. “God troubled them with every kind of distress… He’ll use the distress to bring our undivided attention back around to him again to pray for revival.
But there is a solution if churches choose to address it. “If God is your problem, only God is your solution to the chaos.”
The SBC Pastors’ Conference continues Tuesday, June 11 and can be viewed online at http://live.sbc.net/.
iB2 News 