The Search: Seeking God’s Answers for Our Mess

By Keith Joseph

In times of crisis people are forced out of the normal and into the uncomfortable. It has been said that in times of comfort people are sometimes nudged into getting out of the box of the same old ways of doing things. However, in times of crisis the box gets blown up. In this latest study, we will face the reality of the mess in our world with truthfulness and with nine questions.
The nine questions that are explored in this book are questions that many Christians have been afraid to ask. The questions are real. They are asked out of a pastor’s desperation for answers. It is seldom that one can read about the intimate questions and thoughts of a pastor. With each chapter, the search intensifies and with each chapter the reader draws closer to the answer to all nine questions.
One of the toughest questions asked in this book is, “If the gospel is really changing lives, then why does the mess seem to be getting worse instead of better? If you have the desire to be stretched and if you have the faith to stay with the study, you can find the true answer for the mess we are in.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Keith Joseph
• Release date: Jul 21, 2020

Keith Joseph

Pastor Keith Joseph has been serving the church as a pastor for the past twenty-five years. Pastor Keith is serving as Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church in Jackson Georgia. Keith holds two undergraduate degrees as well as a master’s degree from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary.Pastor Keith has been blessed to teach God’s Word throughout the world focusing on reaching the broken, the forgotten, and unreached people groups. Keith spends parts of every year leading pastor’s conferences in some of the most remote places in the world. Currently, Keith serves as a board member of Hope for the Future, Malawi Africa.Pastor Keith’s humble and simplistic approach to teaching, preaching, and writing remains one of the most effective tools in his ministry. You can watch pastor Keith weekly on the “Continuing the Work Broadcast.” The church he serves is so instrumental in his work.Keith’s family is most important to his life, second only to Jesus. Keith has been married to Sherry Long Joseph for 25 years. Together God has blessed them with three children and one-daughter-in-law. Keith knows that behind every good leader is a better spouse.

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INTRODUCTION

Warning! What you are about to read will stretch you in ways that you may not want to be stretched. The material you hold in your hands comes out of a nine- month search for answers.

I am writing this introduction for the second time. When I wrote it the first time, I was truly in a desperate place. I have left my feelings from those moments in this writing, because they will help you to understand where I was. However, for two reasons, I am no longer in the place I was.

The first reason is, I have found the answers to my questions. The second reason is simply, I have been drawn closer to God than I have ever been in my life. I have spiritual scars to prove what God has done through humbling me, stretching me, and preparing me for the journey ahead.

Please take the time to read through the following paragraphs that set the scene for my search, and then carefully read the end of the introduction which is crucial to your studies in this book.

This morning I am sitting in my office chair with more questions than answers. The weight of the mess our world is in has truly brought me to a place of desperation. On every corner of life there seems to be a mess. I dare not attempt to hide from the mess or distance myself from the mess. I know the Lord has called me to be His messenger in this day.

Each week I lead our church to engage our community, and each week it seems that we are not getting anywhere with the mess before us. We are seeing people’s lives being changed, but there seems to be zero breakthrough in the toughest parts of our city.

Recently our leadership team came to a breaking point in a particular ministry focus because the situation became unmanageable. Our leaders could not handle the mess any longer, and to be honest, our staff was out of answers. I can still feel the after-effects of the hopelessness I felt and the utter defeat in my soul as we were minutes away from saying, we cannot minister to these people any longer. Everyone in the room was looking to me for the right answer. Emotions were high, and I had no answer. We ended the meeting with no real answers.

Brothers and sisters, somewhere in the night I made a decision. The decision was clear. I will not quit. I will keep asking God for answers as long as it takes. In the middle of the night I cried out to God, What is your answer for this mess? That one question led to a whole list of questions. In transparency, I want you to see them. They are raw, and they are real.

Why is the gospel seemingly powerless in our city?

Why do certain people attend churches where it seems that great things are happening, but still the mess does not diminish in the cities around them?

Why does it seem that our church is called to the mess when others are called to easy ministry where the church picks the easy fruit of the gospel?

Why is every event met with little community response?

Why am I frustrated? Do I want the glory or is this really about God’s glory?

How can I mobilize First Baptist Church to see the mess and really engage the people in the mess?

Is our church body committed to the answers You will give?

Do You really provide the financial resources for the church to minister in the mess?

Am I in over my head?

I told you this book would stretch you in ways that maybe you would not want to be stretched. Oh, how I pray that you will be willing to be stretched!

The pages of this book contain God’s answers to my questions, but even deeper, they have provided the true answer for the mess our world has been in since the day Adam and Eve walked away from God (Rom. 5:12-18). Day after day I pondered these questions. Along the way, God introduced Covid-19 into the mix of my writing. This added a new level of searching for answers. As I sought God’s answers, God kept me focused on one particular book of the New Testament. This book is called the Book of Romans.

As I began my search, I knew if I were to receive God’s answers, I needed to be more prepared than I had ever been in my life.

This is why I often fasted in order to get my heart in line with God. This is why I consistently feasted in God’s Word as one who knew the answers lie there. This is why I seemed far away in my mind as I attempted to place nothing before me that would take me away from my search. This is why I sometimes seemed frustrated because the answers did not come easily, and the answers required more of me than I wanted to give. But the answers did come, and they are still coming.

As I was starting this journey, I received this text from a friend:

The Holy Spirit is preparing today those he wants you to influence tomorrow. He will lead you where he can best use you. If you will ask him for your kingdom assignment today, he’ll make it clear. And day by day, you’ll do what only you can do and touch the souls you are meant to touch.

Honestly, I was stunned by the affirmation of God concerning my search. That same day I was preparing to meet with a brother who God has redeemed along with his family. I was reviewing Chapter three of the book, When Sinners Say I Do. Again, I was stunned by God’s affirmation of my search. Here is what I read:

G.K. Chesterton once responded to a newspaper article inviting readers all over the globe to answer the age-old question, What’s wrong with the world? His reply was brief and to the point, I am. Cited from Pg. 52, When Sinners Say I Do."

Brothers and sisters, now I realized God was not only preparing me, He was humbling me to realize I too am in a mess apart from the gospel. The answers I needed came from outside of me. If you are a follower of Christ, you know this truth to be so in your life as well.

The best part of my search was in knowing that God delights in using flawed people to glorify Him along this journey called life. I admit to you that many things are different now than they were when I started this search nine months ago. But my goal is still the same. God, please mobilize your church to reach the world in its most crucial time of existence.

Mother Teresa understood the mess our world is in when she wrote the words:

The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread, but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty -- it is not only a poverty of loneliness, but also of spirituality. There’s a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God. –Mother Teresa, A Simple Path: Mother Teresa

In my search, I have arrived at the conclusion that Mother Teresa so wonderfully articulated in the quote above. I already knew God alone was the answer to our mess, but I have never known Him so well as I do now. I pray you will so search for God in this study that you will never be the same!

1

The Guy with All the Answers

ROMANS 1:1–7

It has been said that the guy in a room who does the most talking does not always know the most. As one who usually does most of the talking each Sunday at FBC Jackson, I can amen this truth. It is usually those who remain quiet at first and then speak who have the most wisdom. I truly believe many of us have much to say about the mess around us and in us, but are we asking the correct questions, and do we have the correct answers? I wrote the following in my personal journal: Our city is desperate for people who have the correct answers to speak up. Our entire world is desperate for the right answers. We have truly driven ourselves into crisis by only seeking our own wisdom.

The questions I have on my heart and mind have led me to listen to the wisdom of many people. My search has taken me to the community and to the church. In the community I have listened to both political and civic leaders. I have heard their frustrations and their theories, but like most people have discovered in these days, the answers are few and the questions are enormous. I also have listened to faith-based leaders who are fully committed to their particular ministries. Many of them are holding on, praying that what they are doing will eventually work. I have sought the wisdom of Christian leaders from multiple denominations. It seems that every leader has a reason for why they are doing what they are doing. Behind closed doors, I am not the only one who is asking, Am I in over my head? For most Christian leaders, we know our questions need more insight. So, I personally asked God, Where do I turn now?

Suddenly, as I searched, it was as if the Lord said, I believe I have found a guy who has all the answers you need. Immediately I wanted to know who this guy was. He had been recommended to me by others. Just a few days earlier my Student Pastor had recommended one of his books to me. I had read this particular book before, but now I was desperate in my search. You ask, Who was this guy? His name, The Apostle Paul (Rom. 1:1).

Honest confession, I have studied Paul’s writings which are two-thirds of the New Testament. I love his writings. The thing I love the most about Paul’s writings is this, they are not his own. Paul is simply the messenger who wrote under God’s inspiration (II Peter 1:19-21). The message is God’s.

Maybe you are asking which of Paul’s books to which I am referring. Oh, I have forgotten to tell you! It is the book of Romans.

It is obvious from the content of Romans that Paul is God’s chosen author. Paul was most likely in Corinth (Rom. 15:26) when he wrote this letter to the church at Rome. Paul’s great desire was to visit the brothers and sisters in Rome (1:13). His goal was two-fold: He wanted to build the church and to evangelize the city (1:15).

Out of all of Paul’s writings, Romans had and still has, the greatest impact on the church, as well as those seeking to know the truth. This book has been God’s sword for reaching some of the most significant church leaders the world has ever known.

"St. Augustine, the most brilliant theologian of the early centuries, came to conviction and salvation after reading Romans. Martin Luther recovered the doctrine of salvation by faith from his study of Romans 1:17. John Wesley was reached by the book of Romans, and John Bunyan’s inspiration for Pilgrim’s Progress came while he was reading Romans in prison." (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word in Romans {Wheaton Ill: Crossway Books, 1991}, 15)

I rejoice when I realize you and I have come to this study at one of the most crucial times in the history of the church and of the world. It could be that God is going to lead us into a Romans awakening as a result of our study. I know God is awakening my life, and I know that God is awakening many in His church. I also know the guy who God used to pen the book of Romans had an awakening in his life.

I wonder, how much you know about Paul. We see his name (Paul) written as the first word of the book of Romans. Certainly, the church in Rome had heard of Paul. By beginning the book with his name, we must ask, Was this Paul’s way of grasping the attention of his audience? One does not have to belabor the question very long because Paul launched into a resume of who he was and why he was writing this book. In the first seven verses of Chapter one we learn much about Paul. I have organized my findings into five statements concerning Paul’s life and ministry. These statements have led me to believe I will find my answers in Paul’s letter to the Romans. Here are the statements:

Paul was converted to Christ on the road to Damascus. (Acts 9:1-15)

Paul’s life before Christ was both religious and ruthless. In Galatians 1:11-14, Paul shares his story. Paul was a spiritual man, but not a saved man (I Tim. 1:13-15). But there came the day when God changed Paul. God made Paul into a new man. (II Cor. 5:17)

Paul immediately became a servant (slave) of Jesus Christ. (Rom. 1:1)

This is amazing. The very guy who persecuted Jesus’ church is now preaching Jesus, as a member of His church. This is what happens when the gospel impacts a person’s life. Jesus said, a true Christian will become a servant to all. (Mk. 9:35)

It was not that Paul was forced to become a servant; Paul wanted to become a servant so that all people would be won to Jesus. (I Cor. 9:9)

This word servant (slave) is hard for us to grasp. Tim Keller asks an important question, What was it that Paul was willing to slave for all of his life? (Tim Keller, Romans for You, 1-7 {The United States: The Good Book Company, 2014}, 12).

Brothers and sisters, here is where my questions started to find answers. I had asked myself, Why am I frustrated? Suddenly I realized I had taken back part of my life from God. I was serving where I wanted to and not all-in. Honest confession, I was struggling with too much on my plate, and I did not know what was essential and what wasn’t. Paul was no longer in such a struggle. Paul was willing to separate himself from anything - wealth, health, fame, friends, and safety, for the sake of God’s call on his life. My question now became What do I need to separate from so that I can slave only for Jesus?

The mission God calls us to is a mission to slave. We are to slave, not in the easy, but in the hard places. The people who truly need help have been pushed to the side by those who have the resources to cover their mess. Paul