Brunson says be more than 'bird brains'

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FORT MYERS (FBW)-Telling the story of a climber who was stuck on a cliff and had to lean away from the mountain and reach out for his friend's hand to be pulled up, Mac Brunson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, said the only way for God's people to get out of where they are stuck in sin is to "reach up in repentance and grasp the hand of grace."

Using Jeremiah 8 as his text at the Florida Baptist State Convention annual meeting in Fort Myers Nov. 13, Brunson painted a historical picture of chaos, confusion, war, and idolatry for Jeremiah's tenure as God's prophet.

After being in power for 200 years, the Assyrians were defeated by the Babylonians in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar then invaded Judah, taking captives that included Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. In Judah, Jehoiakim, a bloodthirsty and idolatrous king placed on the throne by an Egyptian pharaoh who had defeated Judah reigned, Brunson said.

While politically Judah was in chaos, spiritually the nation was pluralistic, Brunson continued. Comparing the spiritual pluralism of Judah to the state of religion in America today, Brunson said people would go to the temple where they could worship Jehovah or a number of pagan idols also stationed inside the temple walls.

"You can worship anything and anybody you want to, that's where America is tonight," Brunson said. "We've become that pluralistic. ... We've had every person from every religion imaginable standing [in the National Cathedral in Washington D.C] and essentially saying to the world, 'We are no longer a Christian nation. We have become pluralistic. Anybody can be worshipped and we tolerate anything except conservative evangelicalism.'"

Israel was in the midst of sin and God was about to bring judgment, Brunson said. But that's not something people necessarily want to hear.

"But God is so good that before He ever brings judgment He gives people the opportunity to repent," Brunson said. It is the message of repentance that "preachers don't want to preach and people don't want to hear," he added.

"If you think I'm going back and I'm going to preach a series on repentance you better be sure you've got starch in your drawers, old boy," Brunson said. "I can assure you you're going to face the greatest days of spiritual warfare you've ever faced."

Reading Jeremiah 8:4, Brunson said when God's people are stuck in sin, He calls them to repentance. God asks two rhetorical questions in the passage, Brunson said: "When you fall, do you not get up? When you turn away, do you not return?" The obvious answers to the questions are, "yes," Brunson said.

"Why then has this people, Jerusalem, turned away in continual apostasy?" Brunson read from Jeremiah 8:5.

Brunson pointed out that the Hebrew word kw# (pronounced "shub") appears five times in verses four and five. The word is translated repent-turn away or turn back-Brunson said. All through this scripture, God asks why His people do not repent, Brunson pointed out.

Running through a myriad of scriptures from the Old and New Testaments reaching from 2 Chronicles 31:14 to Acts 17:30-31, Brunson showed how over and over God called His people to repent before He brought judgment.

"It is a word of reality to a generation that is living in unreality," Brunson said. "When you talk about repentance ... you'll get folks, they'll go out of here tonight; they will fuss and argue and debate this.... You'll do everything but preach it," Brunson said, pounding the pulpit. "You'll do everything but call your people to it. And a word of reality has come to the midst of us as God's people and God says from one end of the Book to the other end of the Book, repent, repent, repent ...!

"This is a word of reality that enters into our playing church," Brunson continued. "And from what we have witnessed over recent weeks in the Christian community among pastors, we ought to be the first to repent. If we ever experience revival it will be when God's people learn how to repent."

Reading from Ezra 9:6, Brunson talked about how God showed Israel grace after the people showed genuine repentance.

"Until God's people and God's preachers learn how to repent, you'll never have revival," Brunson said. "And a nation that is headed fast to unraveling will never have it."

Referring again to Jeremiah 8:6, Brunson said when God's people are stuck in sin, impenitence speaks of spiritual abnormality. God said He heard what the people were saying and they were not speaking correctly. No one repented of their wickedness, Brunson said. Instead they asked, "Well, what have I done?" Brunson said.

Giving examples in the lives of Michael Jackson, O.J. Simpson, Scott Peterson, Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich, Brunson said people in America also refuse to repent and instead ask, "What did I do?"

"I have listened and heard. They have spoken what is not right. No man has repented of his wickedness," Brunson read. "All I'm doing is reading this passage folks. I'm not doing anything creative with the text. It's best you don't do anything creative with the text."

Moving on to verse seven, which says even a stork knows the seasons and knows when to migrate, Brunson told a story about migratory shorebirds called Red Knot Sandpipers and said even a "bird-brain" knows when to turn around.

"God says that a bird brain knows when to turn, but my people don't have that much sense," Brunson said.

Brunson urged those in attendance to pray and repent of sin in their own lives.

"When revival comes to the life of the preacher, let me tell you it'll come to the church," Brunson said. "Could our repentance bring the revival that would spark this denomination and turn our country back to Christ?"