I first heard a message on this text when I was attending college, and I've never forgotten it.  It was that crazy, mixed-up year during the Viet Nam War, the Democratic Convention riots in Chicago, race riots in Los Angeles, and people publicly burning their draft cards.  So many unsettling things were happening so quickly, it seemed as if the world was turning upside down and inside out.  The chapel speaker, Dr. Thomas Coats, rightfully spoke of things shaking all over the world, and it was calming and wonderful as he told us Jesus was the only One to hold fast to in life, the immovable One who could never be shaken.

          Things were shaky in 1967 and they are still shaky now.  But it's not only the shooting in our streets but shooting in our schools as well.  It's no longer smoking pot in the back alleys, but smoking crack in our living rooms.  It's no longer shaking our heads at what's wrong with society, it's a growing acceptance of things once considered wrong - illegitimate births, unmarried cohabitation, and forced acceptance of lifestyles once abhorred.

          And amid it all, we Americans are almost overwhelmed by an epidemic of apathy, a sense of helplessness brought on by so much knowledge about so many things over which we have no control.  Whenever people are swamped with so incredibly much questionable information, they can and will become apathetic.  The mind can only absorb so much, and it's becoming a chore just to separate the useful stuff we learn from the useless.

          An elderly lady was knitting a scarf, and found she had made a mistake.  As she unraveled the yarn back to the mistake, she said, "Sometimes I think our society is unraveling like this scarf."  How true!  The fabric of our society is unraveling and we're discarding the good yarn while being woven into meaningless patterns of useless design.

          I believe this is all a result of what happens when sin goes unchecked.  You see, government can't fix sin - it can only make it legal or illegal - or throw money at it!  Psychology and medicine can't cure sin - it can only label it a disease to be treated or a behavior to be accepted.  Schools can't fix sin - they can only enact new rules that make the school day less and less one of learning and more and more of dealing with social problems.  Try as they might, our social institutions will never fix sin because they won't accept its reality.  Only Jesus Christ can fix sin, and He's actually already fixed it, having given His life for sinful people everywhere and in every age, that all who believe in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life.

          It's been said people today don't like to hear about sin, especially when it's close to home.  We like to hear what's right with the world.  But that doesn't change what it is real.  You can sweep dirt under the rug for only awhile, but sooner or later the bumps and clumps tell you something's under there that shouldn't be.  There's so much good in the world to rejoice in when you believe the Good News of God.  But first we must know and understand what makes us need the Good News.  If you don't think you're sick, you'll never go to the doctor.

          Let me tell you about some good news out there.  At the most recent convention of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, delegates overwhelmingly declared altar and pulpit fellowship with the Lutheran Churches of Haiti, Sir Lanka, Lithuania, and Latvia.  In the tiny Balkan nation of Latvia, 18,000 children were baptized and 12,000 youth were confirmed in just one year, an average of 125 baptisms and 80 confirmations per congregation in that small country.

          In Haiti, the Lutheran church has grown from zero to 18,000 members in just 12 years, beginning only after the American military invasion of Haiti.  In Estonia and Lithuania, Lutheran Churches can't be built fast enough to house those coming for worship.  In Russia and China people are experiencing an epidemic, not of an illness, but of Christianity!  In those two empires where tens of thousands of churches were closed and hundreds of thousands of Christians were martyred, where atheism was taught for generations, people are flocking to hear the Word of God.  Christians in China are now estimated to number nearly 40 million, up from 10 million in the past fifteen years.

          Since communism fell in Russia, thousands of churches have reopened, public schools are teaching the Ten Commandments, teachers are showing the "JESUS" movie, and people are clamoring for a relationship with Jesus Christ.  In 1985 only 15% of babies there were baptized.  In 1995, just ten years later, 80% of babies are being baptized.  And all because of their hunger for the Gospel of Jesus.  He who said, "I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not prevail against it," (Matthew 16:18) is shaking up the world, by building His church on Things Unshakable.

          Events may shake us up, but God stands firm.  He takes away the false gods of pleasure and possessions and passions and seeks our repentance.  He sees us people bitten by the bugs of emptiness and futility and folly, and soothes us with Things Unshakable - His forgiveness and love to heal broken hearts, His strength and power to live useful lives, His faith to love God above all and to love our neighbor as ourself.  And the greatest of the Things Unshakable is the most simple and profound, that God will always be God and that He loves us because of His Son Jesus.

          A number of years ago, a young pastor visited with Jim, a man whose lungs had quit working due to smoking and his work in a factory.  At age 65 it was the first time Jim had ever been hospitalized and now he had to be connected to a respirator in order to live.  He had decided he didn't want to live that way, so he'd asked to be disconnected from the respirator.  It would mean his certain death, and his family was truly shaken by his decision.

          Even though the young pastor didn't know him, he was a bit shaken too, wondering if this was the right thing.  But then things took a different turn when Jim came down with pneumonia.  He called for the pastor to come one more time, a frail man, barely alive, who had some last things to say.  He hadn't worshipped God in years, but he asked to have a decent funeral, because he had no church.  He'd just retired and the rich and full life he had planned fell apart with this unplanned illness.  They prayed together.  He said he trusted Jesus and wanted to go home to heaven.

          At some point Jim couldn't speak any more, so he wrote things he wanted.  The last word he wrote, in a very shaky hand, was "HOME", and he fell asleep.  About two hours later he died.  Then the young pastor knew why God had shaken up this man's world.  He needed to hear what he'd closed his ears to for years.  All the old man's troubles had an eternal purpose.  God gave Jim the time to open up to Him and to believe in His Son.  God is giving us time to do that, too.

          In the hymn "Abide with Me" we sing, "Change and decay in all around I see;  O Thou who changest not, abide with me."  Amid all the changes and shadings going on outside us and inside us, here is the message we all must believe and we all must proclaim - Jesus Christ is Lord.  Only in Him do we have hope.  Without Him we are nothing.  Without faith in Him we will be constantly shaken up and will not survive.  But with Him we have what we truly need.  Christ is our unshakable Savior for all who have lost their nerve in a troubled society.

          The harvest of unrighteousness is upon us.  Fruits of the tree of sin are ripe and are pouring down on everyone in their path.  But Christ is the One who is shaking the tree, getting rid of the spoiled fruits of dissolution and destruction.  And when He's done, only Things Unshakable will remain.  So many people today remind me of a farmer back in Minnesota who fell into the center of a round flax bin.  He slowly sank and suffocated because there was nothing for him to grab on to.  And it was a terrible way to die because there was no one to help him out.

          Slowly, with no one to help and nothing solid to grab on to, millions of people are being sucked under and suffocated by the slippery deceit of ungodliness.  Please don't be one of them!  Satan is disguising sin in the cloak of acceptance and legality, political correctness and worldly wisdom.  People are slowly sinking into the hell he has prepared for them, and it will be an eternity of separation from God - the worst imaginable thing that can happen to anyone!  In Christ we have something to hold on to, a Friend who will never leave us, a Savior who will deliver us.

          What's shaking up your life right now?  Is it your marriage or your job or your finances or your health?  Is it your faith in God or your faith in your own self-confidence?  Do you feel like you've fallen into a grain bin and are slowly sinking?  Then reach out and grasp the hand of Jesus, our true Savior and our Lord.  In Him there's solid ground and there's salvation.  We sing, "On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand."  Now it's time to live it.  But you can't depend on the world at the same time you depend on God.  The world will disappoint you.  Its fickle ways will change every day.  Styles come and go, but only Christ and His love remain.

          Our personal world may seem in bad shape, but Jesus has already put it into good shape with His death and resurrection.  This world's troubles will not last forever.  One day they will fade away, and in their place will come the unshakable things of God:  His love, His forgiveness, His grace and peace, His loving Son Jesus, and a place for us in heaven that can never be taken away.

          The writer to the Hebrews says, "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe." (Hebrews 12:28)   And let's share a soothing word with a frightened world!  Let's share the hope that we have with the hopeless.  "And as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers." (Galatians 6:10)   And may the peace of God be with you always.  Amen

Copyright © 2001 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.