ST. CHARLES – Dean Inserra, founding and lead pastor of City Church in Tallahassee, Fla., described a social media meme, “If Paul could see the church in America today, we’d be getting a letter!”
“We’ve already got a letter to the Corinthians, Galatians,” he told Missouri Baptists, Oct. 29. “All are relevant and inerrant.”
Inserra then focused his sermon on the letter in Jeremiah 29. “This letter was written to a people in exile,” he said. “God wanted the people to understand His faithfulness in the moment where they lived. We are not the first believers to try to figure this out,” he said. “It has always been hard to be a Christian because the devil is active, and there is spiritual warfare. We are living in a place that is not our home.”
According to Inserra, verse 4 highlights the message from the Lord to the exiles in Babylon. “First, he tells them that He carried them into exile because of their idolatry. He then told them to build houses, grow gardens and multiply. He told them to increase.”
“This can be applied to us,” Inserra said. “God has given us three organizations: family, churches, and government. He wants us to invest in those, to be the salt and the light in our world. Light chases out the darkness and salt prevents decay and rot. God wants us to build and strengthen our families and be an active part of a great church.”
“I always say a great church is the best thing to be,” Inserra continued. “A great church is one that is dynamic, vibrant, committed to His Word and His mission.”
Inserra went on to discuss government. “Christians have bought into the lie that we are to be neutral on politics. We are the only group that is told by the world to be quiet on politics.”
He took the messengers back in time to pre-Civil War days and the days of Jim Crow. “There were pastors who justified their positions and those that spoke out against those evils,” he said. “But, there were a lot of pastors who were silent. They may have said, ‘We want to just focus on the gospel.’”
“We need to call evil, ‘Evil,’ wicked, ‘Wicked,’ and sin, ‘Sin,’” Inserra said, “I would not tell anyone how to vote, but we are talking about issues. It is important that these issues need to be addressed according to God’s Word. We are the image bearers of God.”
“He promised to restore us,” Inserra said. “We need to be promise-focused and faithful-forward. God is sovereign, and we need to have a heavenly mind that fuels our earthly good.”