Shake Well is a sermon preached by Pastor Ryan Rogers on March 28, 2020. This sermon is the second sermon in the series, Separation is Natural. This series calls us to endure difficulty without letting it separate us from the most important things in life.
The text for this sermon is Acts 2:37-39.
I was trying to tuck my daughter into bed. But she was “having fun”… running, and screaming and laughing. I corralled her into her bed. She was still laughing then suddenly starting crying. I asked what was wrong. She couldn’t get words out yet but she made hand motions. She had smacked her ankle bone on the wooden ladder when she was diving into bed. The first words she was able to get out perfectly summarized her experience, “I was having fun, until this happened.”
You know the feeling. Life was going along and going well. Then something happens that shakes your world. And you were having fun, until this happened.
In last week’s post we considered the reality that is printed on the labels of fruit juice that “Separation is Natural”. Fortunately the label tells us what to do about it. It offers this two word solution to the separation issue, “Shake Well”.
Right now our world is shaken. We were having fun, until this happened. But we have a God who is a master of bringing good out of bad. We can respond to the things that shake us in a way that grows us. We can allow God to shake us well.
What can we do to shake well?
This is the question asked in Acts 2:37. It was the day of Pentecost and the place was shaken. There was a mighty rushing wind and tongues of fire and people speaking in supernatural languages. They were so shaken that they were cut to the heart asked “what shall we do?”. So Peter told them how to shake well and it got result (vv. 40-47). People came to God, they were baptized, the church grew, they had fellowship, and they supported one another. There is glorious potential when we allow God to shake us well.
Our time of shaking can be a time of revival. We can come out on the other side transformed by God. He can shake us to our core and bring spiritual growth. I would love for God to eradicate COVID19 but I’d love even more for God to use a terrible reality like COVID19 to eradicate lukewarm spiritualty in our lives and our church! Maybe you have been waiting for some special circumstances to go deeper with God, this would be a good time. The world as we have known it has stopped and given space for some deep heart work. If you have been lulled into a spiritual sleep by the rhythms of life then, now, as the world is shaken, it’s as if God has come next to your bed and is shaking your shoulder saying, “It’s time to wake!”. COVID19 is tragic. But a greater tragedy is that we would survive this thing and not allow God to shake us well.
There is a kind of shaking that we don’t want! (Ps 13:4; Ps 16:8; 62:2,6; Luke 6:48).
In Peter’s sermon he identifies another type of shaking (Acts 2:25). He quotes Psalm 16, “I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken”. There is a shaking of evil that results in fear and defeat. But there is a shaking of God that results in growth and victory(Luke 18:9-14; Acts 4:31; 16:26).
FOUR WAYS TO SHAKE WELL:
All of Scripture is a guide for how to shake well. But there are 4 characteristics of the shaking that happened on that day (In Acts 2) that can help us shake well today.
#1 FEED YOUR MIND WITH TRUTH
Those who were converted in Acts 2 had an experience before they decided to shake well… they heard a sermon. It was full of the Scriptures. Truth is what leads us to conviction. It wasn’t the rushing wind or the tongues of fire or the different languages that made them ask what they should do. Those things got their attention but the truth is what cut them to the heart.
If you want to shake well during this time you need to fill your mind with truth. Put truth in your ear buds, on your screens, in your conversations. Read the Word, memorize it, share it. (Deuteronomy 6: 6-9). Our brain is changed by what we put into it, feed yours with truth. However you exposed yourself to the Scriptures before do it more now.
#2 FEEL THE PAIN OF CONVICTION
They were cut to the heart. That doesn’t sound comfortable. The truth hurts because we are sinful (Hebrews 4:12). Truth hurts when it tells you things like, “You’re not the person you are called to be.”, “You need to make things right with you sister.”, “You’re a jerk”, “You’re hiding in your sinful addiction.”, “You are failing to love your wife”, “You need to change the way you treat your mother.”, “You’re selfish”, “You care more about your phone that about your kids”, or “Your habits are destroying you.”
But when the truth hurts we have the choice to shrug it off or let it shake us. You don’t have to dwell in the discomfort but if you want to shake well, you should. The truth hurts but it also sets us free!
Let yourself feel until you resolve that things must change and you cry out “What shall I do?” (v.37).
#3 TURN TO GOD
(James 4:7-10; Revelation 3:14-22)
Peter tells them to repent (v. 38). Hosea 10:12 says, “Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you.” (NIV). Sowing righteousness would mean for you to start taking the small steps of doing the right thing. You might not know how to get to where you need to go, but if you know the next step, take it. You plant the little seed but what you harvest is unfailing love and that is from God. In our conviction we identify unplowed ground, but in our repentance are we willing to let God break it? And in our repentance will we refuse to stop seeking God until He showers righteousness on us?
#4 ACT ON YOUR COMMITMENTS TO GOD
Peter made an appeal for a specific action, baptism (v.38). Baptism is a public demonstration that we have been born again. There is an old person that dies and a new one that lives (Romans 6:1-11; 2 Corinthians 5:17). They took action to follow through on their commitment to God. And God took action in giving them new live, and forgiveness of sins, and fill them with the Holy Spirit (v. 38). What action do you need to take to experience these gifts!
DON’T WASTE THIS TIME!
We are in a strange and scary time but an important time. Don’t waste it! How you choose to be shaken by difficult situations shapes who you will be on the other side. God is at work in your life. Let Him shake you well.