The Shaking Hour

Tonight I want to speak of a subject that for many may be a powerful subject. With all the Nation tore apart with storms and destruction, it is in this hour that me must look around us an become humble. Realizing that this nation of man made items, simple treasures laid up and collected, that in the face of storms are but dust, frail items that as the Bible teaches are but things not to lay our heart upon. However the kind of shaking our nation has endure of late, has done what? Made people think? Made them join together, finding some sense of it all in prayer? Understanding that no matter how brilliant man may think he or she may be, our creations are limited, temporary, here today and gone tomorrow. This sort of shaking is not what I am refering to. Though it does have precident in it's context. In the Book of Hebrews Chapter 12:25-29 which say,

"For if they did not escape who refused him who spoke on the earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, who voice shook the earth; but now He has promised , saying, Yet Once more I shake not only the earth , but also heaven. Now this , yet once more indicates the removal of things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are recieving a Kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have Grace, which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear."

Wow! Need we say more? I go back to a song, King David sung when he was king, burdened by the troubles he had caused himself. His enemies were around him, the other nations and leaders of his court plotted against him, forgetting God, forgetting the covenent and the promises Jehovah God had given them.
He sings in Psalms Chapter 3;
"Oh Lord how they have increased who trouble me,
Many are they that rise up against me saying;
There is no hope for him in God

But you Oh Lord are my strength
my glory and the one who holds up my head

I cried to the Lord with my voice
and he heard me from his holy hill;

I lie down
I awake for the Lord sustained me"

Oh if we but would sing songs like this today in our boastful modern world. How far in debt would our nation be? How ravaged would our economy be? How enpoverished would our people be?

You see the Lord the Bible says, just sets up there and laughs, for he knows the hour and the day of our passing. He knows our limited timespan, and the very hairs on our head. There is a shaking going on throughout our nation. But I fear the shaking needs to be also in our churches, in our homes, in our schools, our public buildings, even our very businesses. It bring to mind an story from Isreal. You see when the people of Isreal harvest their olives, they have to go to the trees, and when the olives turn a dark black color, they shake the trees violently allowing the ripest olives to fall to the ground. Then they can gather them and take them to the oilve presses to form the richest of oils. Now the American people are like those olives, ripe for harvest, containing the oil of blessing, but just remain the unshaken, unstired, lifeless, useless. It takes a violent shaking to release us from our stagnant state so God can use us and press us for the annointing of his oil. Too many of us are content to remain on the tree, just hanging there waiting for others to fall of and be used for God's plan. We sat on the pews, afraid of being called out to perform, afraid we will offend someone, afraid that we will be seen as politically incorrect, or offensive. I tell you tonight that unless we get up and stand for the Lord in this nation, God is going to render a shaking upon this nation that will seperate the good olives from the spoiled. Going back to chapter in Hebrews, what God is telling us is that when Christ spoke on earth over 2000 years ago people turned away from him, for this the Israelites shunned this great responsibilty and were judged for not believing in God's promises. We too will be judged for disbelief and I feel today we are seeing but a foreshadow of God's shaking us up trying to wake up the nation. The Earth shook at Mount Sinia when Moses was given the law, it shook on the day Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice, and it will shake again in the latter days the book of Hebrews tells us. However the great news for believers is that the kingdom of God will not be shaken, for it will endure throughout all eternity.

Being a Christian these days is tough, it means mockery, it means being different, being apart from the world and its many temptations. Jesus never said believing in him would stop the shaking, he said his kingdom would endure the shaking. When I lived outside of his love, I never found peace, or joy, or inner rejoicing. Since I gave my life to him, there's been some tough trials, and days when I felt like quitting altogether. So did Paul, so did Moses, so did all the apostles. However if we can do as David did, and allow ourselves to be shaken off of the tree and used for God's service, our lives will be rich in the oil of annointing. Not of riches or material things, but rich with the blessing of God's promises. We can lie down, with torments and temptations all around us, and sleep, we can wake knowing the Lord sustained us. Unless this nation returns to its foundation and place the Lord as the chief cornerstone, we will become as the nation of Israel did in AD 70, when the Roman Empire destroyed it. God uses his own methods of shaking to give the people many chances to turn to him. People have said to me, if God is so good and holy how can he punish or destroy. I tell them that it is now he who turned his back on us, but the other way around. Like a parent who has tried everything to make a child obey them, he will enact discipline on his people. Or worse, he will lift his hand of protection from them. To be isolated from the Lord is true emptiness. True persecution without hope. Let us lift up our voices and shake the trees so that the olives flow into the olive presses and onto the annointing that God intended for us all. Together we are a strong voice, a voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the pathway for the Kingdom of God is at hand!

I hope tonight's message shook you up a little. The people in the time Hebrews was written were at a crossroad, many of the believers of the jewish faith had found themselves isolated, persecuted for their new belief in Christianity and this Jesus Christ. Rome had placed its boot heel on them, false teachers and prophets were feeling their ears with doubts and fears. Many began to question whether their faith in Christ was enough to gain eternal life, returning to their old Jewish customs and practices, foresaking the teachings of Paul and Peter. It was for this reason the Book of Hebrews was written, to confirm once and for all that returning to the bondage of the law was foolish and fatal. Faith in Christ was the new covenant which had replaced the old Hebraic Abraham Covenent and all they had to do was believe on his name and salvation to everlasting life would be theirs. Today we see alot of the same fears, the same doubts, even the same threats and plagues. We hear all the time of employers threatening an employee for reading their Bible, or a person ridiculed in public for speaking opening of their Love for the Lord Jesus Christ. I hear on television how being a Christian is foolish, or based on myth, a waste of time, or based not on "scientific reasoning". I grow tired of hearing people losing faith in the Lord, because they lost their jobs, or failed an interview, or didn't get the promotion they asked the Lord to grant them. Folks, this same false teaching and ridicule is not a new idea, it's existed before the time of Christ. Jesus warned his followers in the book of Matthew that you shall be hated above all men, but those who endure till the end shall be saved. We are going to be in a time of shaking folks, those who follow Christ will soon face trials unseen,people will hate you, ridicule you, mock you, even your own family will turn against you. However God's shaking will make us strong, he will lift us up above all this, and plant our feet on firm soil which he has chosen. I don't know about you, but I want to be an olive that produces so much oil of anointing that it fill five gallon buckets to their overflow. Solift up your voices as David did, let the Lord know that he is your glory, that he is your light of the world, that he is the one who lifts up your head and sustains you. I promise you that he will never leave you nor forake you. No matter your enemies, no matter your river, he will be there if you surrender your life over to him. Amen, and God Bless