Understanding the Times

This past Sunday I preached a message that has been on my heart for years. I preached about our need to reach this generation. Oswald J. Smith said, “The only generation that can reach this generation is our generation.” Keith Green said something similar when he declared, “This generation of Christians is responsible for this generation of souls on the earth!” But how do we do that?

There's an obscure but appropriate verse that challenges us to reach our generation...1 Chronicles 12:32--“Of the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their kinsmen were at their command.” The part that's of special note is that phrase, “...men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do...”

I’m always fascinated when I hear the story of how at the end of World War II, Robert Woodruff declared, “In my generation it is my desire that everyone in the world have a taste of Coca Cola.” Today, Coca-Cola is sold from here to the farthest reaches on planet earth…all because one man had a vision of what could be.

If a soft drink company could set their sights on reaching their generation with their product, shouldn’t we have all the more motive to set our sights on reaching our generation with the gospel?!?

If we're going to understand our time:

• We have to understand the time in which we live. We can appreciate and learn from the past without living in it. We have to embrace the present. The past is behind us. The future is before us. But the present is upon us!


• We have to understand that times change. I'm continually amazed at how different the world is from when I was a kid. We want to believe that we still live in Mayberry, but Mayberry was taken up by the bypass! At any given moment when we put our feet into the stream of our society, we are touching fresh people. The past is water under the bridge, as the saying goes. Every generation has to be evangelized afresh and anew! Along with this, we have to accept generational differences. Perhaps I'll discuss that in another post.


• More specifically, we understand that while we’ve never had more resources at our disposal to make Christ known, our culture has never been more lost! Where I live and minister, We have 126,000+ people within the Clarksville city limits and 162,000+ people in Montgomery County…86% of whom are not going to be in any church on any given Sunday. That means that almost 9 out of 10 people you meet anywhere you go has no meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ.
  

Until we can get our hearts around these truths, we’ll never understand the times…

And then we come to the question of knowing what we should do in the 21st century as Christians. We must be real, relevant, and relational.

Real because my generation (I'm a Gen-Xer) needs to see authenticity. Generations before us told us about the American Dream, but they gave us an enormous national debt to pay and a broken social security system that we fully expect never to receive a dime from. We’re inheriting political parties that aren’t really about solving America’s problems but securing America’s power! Factor in the explosion of broken marriages, HIV/AIDS, and a host of other global issues…and you can begin to see life though younger eyes.

Of course, my generation has sought to build relationships and find intimacy…but we haven’t been very good at it. We’d rather meet in virtual places online with virtual friends and have virtual conversations. But all of this just leads to further isolation.

Relevant because we have to touch people where they are. One of the great dangers of churches in this generation is irrelevance. But I want to tell you, being relevant isn’t preaching on “10 Ways to Improve Your Golf Score” or “Overcoming Boredom in the Boardroom.” Being relevant isn’t singing Beatles songs in church. Being relevant isn’t compromising the message of the gospel.

Being relevant is about practicing and proclaiming the good news of Christ within the context of our current culture. What good is salt that never leaves the shaker? What good is a light that never gets turned on? What good is a church that never connects with its culture?

Relational...bottom-line, we have to talk to each other…and walk with each other…across racial lines…across socio-economic lines…across generational lines. Truth is…people in my generation and younger really are interested in what those older than us have to say. But we want them to be interested in what we have to say, too. We can learn from each other…and in the context of real relationships, we can share Christ effectively.

“…men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do…” Wow! Oh, Lord, let me be like the sons of Issachar...