Dr. Robert Smith, Jr. – "An Adversity Theology"

even now Lord Jesus even now even now for ask this in your name amen god be praised what a privilege it is to be back in the First Baptist Church of Decatur Alabama for reunion I've met most of you last year and I told you that since we're going to heaven together and I'm gonna spend eternity there in that eternal state that was about time for us to get to know each other so I've come back again for those I missed last year to continue a perpetual getting into redemptive rhythm for the purpose of worshiping Almighty God when we've been there ten thousand years bright shining as the Sun we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun to this student pastor pastor Blake Kersey I say astute and I do not mean sophistication though he has that but I mean the effectiveness but I look at Jeremiah chapter three verse 15 I see you I will give them pastors according to my own heart who will feed my people with knowledge and understanding you do that with the best of those who stand in the first magnitude of pastor and so I'm very grateful to God to be alive to see how you operate in the realm of the word and spirit in this congregation and Dean Timothy George and all of Beeson Divinity School applaud you because you applaud God we praise God for you praise God for sister Lindsay cursey where is sister Lindsay alright will you tell her what I said sister Lindsay ministers to her husband and children that's a first ministry and ministers to this church and I'm telling you First Baptist you're blessed and I'm telling you pastor Kersey and family you are blessed this is a wonderful marriage and I'm grateful to be able to come into a place where the word essential where God is seen as he must be seen as sovereign and where there is a sweets fellowship going on inside these walls I want to talk about power in weakness power in weakness the Texas Madrid second chronicles chapter 20 verses 1 through 10 and if time permits a few verses on I want to contend that God is not initially interested in causing us to be strong but rather in reducing us to weakness so that we find that our only strength is in him God is not initially interested in causing us to be strong but rather in reducing us to a state of weakness so that we might realize that all of our strength is in him it's a paradox power in weakness a paradox occurs when two mutually exclusive statements meet at the intersection of apparent contradiction only to produce truth it's Jesus saying if you really want to live you have to die you want to be elevated you have to be unmoved you want to be first you have to be willing to be last you want to sit at the end of the table you've got to sit at the end of the table you want to be great you have to be willing to be the least of all because a paradox occurs when two mutually exclusive statements meet at the section of apparent contradiction only to produce truth it's the celebrated lay theologian of the Catholic Church in England GK Chesterton who says that a paradox is truth standing on his head screaming for tension what God is about in this particular episode allowing two mutually Scouten statements to meet at the intersection of apparent contradiction only to produce trees so that Paul's statement lives resides in us 2nd Corinthians 12 verse 10 I glory in my weakness in my hindrances in my insults in my persecutions in my difficulties for when I am weak then am i strong I want you to meet Jehoshaphat king of the southern kingdom Judah consisting of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin you see his biography in second chronicles chapter 17 verses 1 and following 2nd chronicles chapter 17 what in following Jehoshaphat is a righteous king verses 3 & 4 the Bible says there that Jehoshaphat walks in the ways of David he did it during his early reign in the kingdom of Judah and verse 4 he did not consult the Bailes the idol gods that others were consulting with in that Kingdom he is a righteous king verse 5 he's a rich King because the people of Judah brought him gifts and in verse number 11 the Philistines have brought him silver and the heir has brought him livestock he's a righteous King he's a rich king verse 6 he initiates a spiritual renewal in Judah the Bible says at verse 6 that he went up to the heels tore down the Astra polls those sexually deviant polls that were used even in worship and tore down the altars that we use the sacrificed idol gods he is a king who initiates spiritual renewal verses 7 to 9 he's a king who starts a spiritual revival because he sins Levitical figures all throughout the towns of Judah and they carry the Torah they teach the Word of God in all the towns of Judah because they cannot be a real revival unless the Word of God essential not the circumference but the center of it not the sidelines but the mainline you the man who has a strong military regime verses 14 through 18 300,000 soldiers verse 14 verse 15 280,000 soldiers verse 16 200,000 soldiers verse 17 200,000 soldiers verse 18 180,000 soldiers that's 1 million 160 thousand soldiers verse 19 not counting the soldiers in the fortified cities throughout the towns of Judah a strong military regime as result of that in verse 10 the Bible says in all the towns all the nations surrounding Judah we're afraid to attack Judah because of this outstanding leader Jehoshaphat but more importantly because of the God Jehovah Yahweh who fought for them so therefore they're set up they seem to be impregnable as a nation they seem to be insurmountable and verse 1 chapter 20 surprises us that Sarah tisha Slee secretively the ammonites the Moabites and the mere Knights who are the are planning a surprise trifold coalition attack on this nation of Judah who is headed up by jehosophat's it's surprising and yet God gets the word to Josaphat to let him know that there is a threat to the security of Judah I just believe that if you and I live close enough to God God will send you advance bulletins advance notices it may not be clearly explicit explicit but you get a sense of dis ease and sometimes he waits you up in the morning about three o'clock and you're saying your body is saying to God no but God's yes is louder than mine oh and you get up and you pray and you meditate and sometimes doing that day you're faced with a great threat test or temptation and the cause you got up and talked to the Lord and he prepared you for what he preparing you for you were able to effectively face what faced you because God sends you advance notices it's amazing that after this tranquility of a king who was rich who's righteous who leads a spiritual renewal a king who leads a spiritual revival King wears a strong military regime and the king that God is fighting for after tranquility follows turbulence it's always that way that's why we don't need a prosperity theology we need an adversity theology anybody does well doing tranquility but how do you do when turbulence comes and that is the way it is in the lifestyle of a Christian you might get in the boat with Jesus and the weather is fair and Mark 4:35 the 41 not a cloud in the sky and it's so comfortable that he even goes into the back of the boat and Cole's asleep with his head on a pillow but storm breaks out and you I began to try to stay afloat with our own efforts and the boat is going down and after a while we look over and see Jesus and start suing him for non-support master don't you care that we perish and he wakes up and says to the wind peace and the winds go back to the four corners of the earth and he says of the ways lay down be steel and they lay down like gentle lambs and we need not blame the Lord because if he's in the boat stop being upset because the boat is being terminally and basta Slee shaken be grateful that he's in the boat because if he's in the boat the boat cannot go down because he's the master of the sea situation in which tranquility is followed by turbulence it's true in the church is true in Nations is true in our families if things have been going so well for you and you haven't seen the devil and he has not caused an upheaval be careful because if you and I have not met the devil lately it's probably because we didn't go on the same way this is not a picnic this is warfare and he comes even when things seem to be going so well when God is blessing the devil starts missing after the baptism of Jesus when God the Father speaks and amplifies his divine approval from every this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased and the son is baptized in the tranquil waters of the Jordan River and the Spirit of God sits on his shoulder like Adele the very next verse that we read of after Matthew chapter 3 verse 17 is chapter 4 verse 1 and Jesus is thrust out in the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted of the devil when Jehoshaphat gets the word that this trifold Coalition is being formed Emma nice the Moabites and the he recognizes that this is a family feud Ammon and mold are the children of lot to an incestuous relationship that law had with his two daughters and either mr. twin of I of Jacob it's a family feud it's not people outside of the family who's attacking his people on the inside the family who's attacking I think we need to come to understand perhaps that our greatest threat America may not come from North Korea or Russia it may come from within these 50 united states where we are divided against each other and Jesus has already told us a house divided against itself shall not stand and it rapidly can told us many years ago we can no longer exist half free and half slave maybe our greatest threat comes from within our own nation maybe the greatest threat that we have as a church is not from prostitution brothels from crack houses from organized crime maybe it comes from the factions and the case that we have right inside of our fellowship and maybe the greatest threat comes to the family not from those people that we work work alongside of in the factories associate workers etc maybe it comes through a spirit of non reconciliation between fathers and children between mothers and children between husbands and wives people who have decided that they will not speak to each other because of what happened at daddy's funeral or mama's funeral and we have remained unreconciled all of this time no one declares Jordan takes in paraphrases in his cotton pants version sector in thien's 5:19 God was in Christ reconciling in the world backed himself and he said God was in Christ hugging the world back to himself what was the last time you received a hug from someone within this congregation or someone within your family my wife's book the woman's speech she opens up with speaking to pastors wives all across the country and after that fellowship was over she had every one to hug each other and the women hugged each other and when she hugged his particular pastor's wife the pastor's wife started crying she said this is the first time in seven years that anyone outside of my family has ever hugged me I wonder if our greatest threat might not be from on the inside that we first start repairing from the inside so we can be effective on the outside notice the text verse three Jehoshaphat it's alarmed he's fearful the King says my grandchildren were safe scared what kind of King is that a real King and authentic King one who does not have a mask on fearful how about the great Swiss theologian said that courage is fear on his knees saying its prayers fear on his knees saying it's prayer it's that father at the bottom of the Mount of Transfiguration who says that Jesus what I really do believe but help down by unbelief he wants us to be real God has never called us to be super Christians he's called us to be Christians we have no need to impress anybody about our faith what tightens you what is paralyzing you Robert Smith what faces you that causes you to be fearful and God would rather for us to express our fear by limping to him in prayer then to express false faith by struttin in arrogance and pry I need Thee Oh I need thee every hour I need Thee Oh bless me now my Savior I come to thee the Bible says in verse 4 that's a harsh affair hmm we'll call a fast to seek help from the Lord to seek help from the Lord and no wonder Isaac Watts wrote that read him O God I help in ages pass I hope for years to come a shelter from the storm a blast and I return a home before the heels in order stood or earth receives a frame from everlasting thou art God to endless years the same we need God as a mission we need God as a church we need God as a family we need God as an individual and it makes no difference whatever you have God is our greatest help but if we turn away from him he is our greatest threats what happens to a nation who turns his back on God what happened to Egypt what happened to Babylon what happened to Syria what happened to Greece what happened to pleasure what happened to rule and we must call our nation every time back to God's righteousness exalts a nation I don't care anything about your political affiliation whether you're Democrat Republican or independent those names are not known in heaven you will not go to heaven and be an independent Christian I'll be a part of democratic Christians or Republicans but no no no Christian knows the heaven knows one name one designation one nomenclature Christian and therefore we call our nation back to God you know happened on September the 11th 2001 when the twin towers fair William Clinton and George W Bush Democrat and Republican President President and former president went to the Washington National Cathedral and sit down next to each other but as persons who knew they needed God Oh nothing in terms of their affiliation all they knew is that only God could deliver us and therefore we call our nation back to God that's what your host chef at does here here's this threefold this trifle Coalition of the ammonites Moabites and the that all sarah tisha Slee that all secretively planning a surprise attack against Judah and the Bible says that he calls them down to the temple to the church for prayer meeting for time of fasting and he prays a prayer that has three rhetorical questions and you know rhetorical question is a question that is already assumed in terms of its response verse number six it's a prayer that revolves around the sovereignty of God O God of my father's are you not the God in heaven do you not rule over the kingdoms of the earth and the answer of course is yes then he goes on to say all power and might are in your hand and no one can withstand you because God is suffering God is the God who came from nowhere in creation and stood on nothing because there was nowhere to come from and nothing to stand on and God spoke and something from something from his own word let there be light that's the very first command and like King traveling at 186,000 miles a second light on the first day but it's not into the fourth day that God takes and places the Sun in the sky without a stepladder or paintbrush and has been there ever since and now eight planets even from that town have been revolving around the Sun without ever colliding the first day lights the fourth day Sun how can that be how can you have light on the first day and the Sun shows up three days later because God is sovereign but when you read in the 22nd chapter of the book of Revelation the Bible says there will be no Sun there because God is the light of the city because light comes from God he is sovereign and here Jehoshaphat prays and says God no power on earth can withstand you you are in charge me I say to you I have to keep reminding myself don't please understand that you don't need to say God is still on the throne what else do you expect God to be he's not gonna abdicate his throne he is on the throne when faith is stripped to the bone and all your props and crutches are gone your knowledge of God that he is good and that he's still on the throne is the only thing that's gonna keep you going when health breaks down when jobs are lost when the a relational risks when they are changes etc when those props are gone the only thing that keeps you going is knowing that God is on the front so that's the first rhetorical question in their prayer it's a talk of course that revolves around the sovereignty of God verses seven through nine there's a talk a question that revolves around the history of God that God is involved in the history of Israel he says Oh God did you not dried out the former occupants in the promised land the holy land the land in which we live in order that we might take up residence in this land that's of course is yes he drove him out he evicted the girgashites he evicted the high vice he evicted the amur rights and all the other i'ts evicted so that the children of Israel could live in their land and now Josaphat says and now that we're in the land that you gave to us because you promised Abraham your friend in Genesis 12 I'm gonna give you a great land make you a great nation and give you a great posterity so much so that your posterity will be as multitudinous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore now that we're in this land we've declared that if calamity comes upon us whether it be by famine or by pestilence by plague by sword that we will come and stand in front of this temple that bears your name and in our distress we will call on you and you will not only hear us but you will also save and deliver us and that's exactly what God did God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt they've been down there for 40 years and God brought them out in fact God took and formed a superhighway in the Red Sea so that they went across the Red Sea without getting their feet wet and let them stay in the wilderness for 40 long years and after the death of Moses and after the death of those men who bought that caters for deer and did not believe God God raised up Joshua who led them across the Jordan River and God once again made a superhighway through the Jordan River so that they walked across over a million of them and not get their feet wet and God kept them in this promised land and now they're facing the possibility of not only decimation but extermination not just in their numbers but in their existence and God must keep his word why because he promised Abraham in Genesis 12 those who bless you I'm gonna bless but those who crush you or oppose you I am going to curse because out of your seed not seeds but seed there will be one who would be the Messiah who are blessed the world and if Judah is distort and exterminate it then you've closed off the corridor the channel to which Christ must come and so they stand there knowing that God has been in their history that God will be in their present history may I say this to you brothers and sisters past experience will give you present confidence when you see what God has done in your past how he has brought you through how he stabilized you and has not only blessed you by what he has provided but blessed you by what he has prevented we fake God for what he has provided but you look what he has prevented some of you been going from your house to your job for 30 years the same way and you've never had an accident and there's so many other things that he has prevented that we overlooked but when you look back and see what God has done mm past experience what he has done how he has proof faithful will give you present confidence and so David will say that giant Goliath who has just said to him I'm gonna give your body to the birds are there the beasts of the field he said look I want you to understand when a lion came to attack my father's sheep I killed a lion when a bear did the same thing I killed the bat and what God enabled me to do to a lion and a bear he enabled me to do to you you uncircumcised for listening because of what God did he's able to do now so I want you to lift up your head I don't care what you're going through God's able that's greater than your problem and God is able if you doesn't change the situation he'll change you so you can deal with what will never change because the greatest lure that goes to God is not just getting you out of trouble but your getting something out of trouble what'd you learn I'm just getting out of it but what do you get have it in terms of what you learn about the sovereignty of God and and of God being in your history because your history is really historic third rhetorical question involved in prayer verses 10 through 12 8 but now when you say it word but the conjunction something ready to change that but now those ammonites and Moabites and those individuals who when you brought us up out of Egypt he would not allow us to attack their family Eminem over the children of life what is the nephew of Abraham and Edom is the twin brother of Jacob you would allow us to tell them how we turn from them and now they're turning on us and they're trying to dispossessed us of the land that you've given us see how they are we paying us then that question in verse 12 verse a will you not judge them it's a rhetorical question that revolves around divine equity or divine justice hmm what they're doing is not taking vengeance into their own hand but God based upon your word we're praying your word back to you this is what you promised that you would protect us and out of Judah you would bring the Messiah and therefore God vengeance is yours you will repay says the Lord I think we need to learn even from this stop trying to get back at people who make gallows for you to be hung on Haman will tell you you may make gallows for Mordecai to be hung on and wound up being hung on them yourselves you don't need as a Christian to cuss back when people pressed you you don't need to dig a ditch for someone else all you need to do is let God handle it and if you let God handle it he'll do a whole lot better than you can do he will fight your battles if you just keep still but if you want to you want to get in the boxing ring then God will take a ringside seat and watch you and I get beat up because we can't defeat the devil with flesh and blood but if we just let him have his way he doesn't have to battle he doesn't have to fight the victory is all ready he is well they have three acknowledgments three confessions twelve beef it's a confession of impotence we have no might that's what Joseph had to say the God and it sounds utterly ridiculous what do you mean you don't have it in my Joseph had you already told us what you had in second chronicles chapter 17 verses 14 18 you have 1 million 180 thousand men in your military regime not counting those in the reinforced and fortified cities and you say you don't have any mites oh but I'm not talking about military might Roberts we need might that's mightier than that I'm a patriot you be hard-pressed to find a more loyal Patriot than Robert Smith but I want to say to all Patriots don't be patriotic Christians be Christian Patriots let your Christianity describe modify and define your patriotism because nationalism is not greater than Christianity and therefore we need to look beyond yes look at the Bill of Rights but look beyond the Bill of Rights to the Bible don't try to be politically correct just be correct as relates to the divine approve of God's you and I have got to look beyond Capitol Hill thank God for capital here but look to a hill that's higher than Capitol Hill I'm not smelling Capitol Hill I'm saying that there's a greater yield and higher yield we got to look beyond the flag and every time the flag goes up I pledge allegiance to the flag to the United States of America you hear me Phillip beyond the flag to the cross because it was that the cross where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away it was there by faith I received my sight and now I'm happy all the day don't you take him transport the flag when you stand before God it won't be recognized I don't care where you're from I will cherish the old rugged cross where my trophies at last I lay down I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange it someday for crown you can't exchange a flag as much as I love it for cross I'm saying it's got to be higher you got to look beyond government to God you got to look beyond the White House whether it's President Trump for President Nixon of President Kennedy of President Obama President Lincoln you got to look beyond the White House to the right house in my father's house there are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you we need more the nation than bullets and bombs as a church we need more than a big budget a big building and a lot of bodies to fill its we need God there too many churches who have all three things that God has written Ichabod on it the glory of the Lord God half the parts we need more as families than nice houses and nice cars we need guards in the house that we have deed it's and are buying or will buy so the first thing is Joseph at acknowledge their impotence we have no mic you know God is waiting on us to do we're too powerful we're too substantial we're too important God wants to bring us to a place where we recognize how powerless and how helpless we know that pride but I'm one breath away from being a dust ball well hi driver Marseilles been wonderful my wife drives a Jaguar wonderful but you know what we are we are more sadie's bins Jaguar driving dust balls I got a PhD well I do too I'm a PhD one breath away from a decibel and a PhD really is a person who asked three letters of the alphabet the last time I checked there were 26 letters which means I've got 23 more letters to get so I can't be bragging about what I have oh we need we acknowledge our I impotence sick of all 12 see we don't know what to do we acknowledge our ignorance when I see he knows I don't mean stupidity I mean we just don't know and here is Elijah in second Kings chapter 6 down in Dothan it has a servant who takes and comes out of the little house where he and Elijah he is serving his master or staying and develops up but he sees that the hills are covered with Syrian soldiers their opponents they don't have any mites they're powerless outnumbered and then he says and not only verse 15 of 2nd 2nd Kings chapter 6 but also verse 15 he says the last master what shall we do have you ever been in a situation when you didn't know what to do just didn't know as educated as my 95 your mama would say you are you just don't know what to do and God wants to bring us to a place where we say to him Lord we don't know what to do the diagnosis is not good the relationship is on thin places our child is acting like he or she never grew up in this home we've suffered a great financial reversal we don't know what to do and God wants to bring us to the place because then we come to the one who is our mission that is one who knows everything I love that Texan Isaiah 65 24 before you all I will answer and while you're yet praying I will here because he's quicker than right now and sooner than already he's got the answer before you have the question not only does he acknowledge his impotence that is his weakness in 12b his ignorance in 12 C but in 12 D he acknowledges the need for enlightenment but our eyes are upon you and you know what in 2nd Kings chapter 6 verses 16 and 17 Elijah says to the servant who says the Syrian soldiers are surrounding us we're outnumbered who says Master what are we going to do we all know what to do Elisha said Lord open his eyes verse 17 that he might see and when his eyes that is the servants eyes are open he saw more than just Syrian soldiers who are opponents he saw the hillsides covered with horses and chariots of fire so much so that it Elisha was right when he says those who are for us are more than those who are against us turn your eyes upon Jesus look full in his wonderful face and the things of Earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace well the battle in verse 15 was not theirs it was the Lord's that's what jahaziel the Prophet like priest said to them and you see Joshua fat in verse 20 and particularly in verse 21 Jehoshaphat now sees his faith he says to the children of Israel take and have faith in God and He will sustain you have faith in his prophets and you will be successful in verse 3 Jehoshaphat was seized with fear but in verse 20 Josaphat is embraced by faith it took him 17 verses to move from fear to faith and what God wants to do it may not happen overnight but to grow your faith to increase your faith so that you're going to trust him even when it seem like you are outnumbered and then Joseph added verse 21 does a very strange thing he takes and puts the choir before the army that's strange but with God is not because God is more interested you know worship before we even get to do any work and they sing one song the song is or give thanks to the Lord for your steadfast love endures forever you see what they really needed was to worship God and when they began to worship God then God these three competing forces the Bible says that the ammonites and the Moabites turn on nothing and slaughtered them filled ammonites and the Moabites committed mutual homicide so much so that while they were singing God was working and will these shoots over Josephus army looked up there was not one single opponent that was left and they spent three days giving God some praise well that's a wonderful story but I got a better story than that there was one who came from the same tribe of Josephus for when you read in Matthew 1 and H it says that Jesus will come from the tribe of Judah and he will fight against a greater opposition he Fox on Mount Calvary and there he died on the cross but the cross was not enough for head he died and stayed in the grave it would not have been enough to save us from our sin but Sunday morning he rose from the dead with all power in his hand and so I want to encourage you today keep on praying because the last prayer is in the next to the last verse in the Bible for revelation 22 and 20 says even so come quickly Lord Jesus so keep on praying pray until mercy and truth meet together and right to this and peace kiss each other until we become one as the Father Son and Holy Ghost our wanna pray until the governments shall be on his shoulder and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our God and we shall reign forever free until will beat swords in the plowshares and spears into pruning hooks free until God shall plan up this earth from the frozen baits of the North to the burning shores of the South pray until the heavens will roll up like a scroll and not with fervent Heat pray until will stand on the heavily shore and ring the blue waters of tribulation from the hem of our garments pray until God says the Gabriel put one foot on the troubled sea and one foot on the quaking earth and declare that time the House bill will be no more pray until will bow down on the throne of God and give Him praise for what he's done all hail the power of Jesus name that Angels prostrate for bring forth the royal diadem and crown him crown him crown him Lord o those who are for you are greater than those who are against you and God is not initially interested in making us strong but rather than reducing us to weakness so that we realize that our only strength is in

Channel: FBC Decatur AL

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Keywords: Throwback Thursday, FBC, First Baptist Church Decatur, Decatur, Dr. Robert Smith, Beeson, Adversity, Theology, Sermon

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Length: 46min 20sec (2780 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 02 2020