Pivotal Moments
– by Kent Wagner

Advancing the Kingdom by Living for God and Loving People

I love in movies when there is that one defining moment that changes everything.  The moment uncle Ben dies and tells Spiderman “with great power comes great responsibility,” or in Back to the Future when Doc is telling Marty about how the time traveling Delorean works and he tells him the story of inventing the flux capacitor (November 5th, 1955) and he sets the time traveling clock to that date before Marty accidentally hits 88 mph and travels to the 50’s to have to find his way back to the future.

I love those moments because they are pivotal.  They determine the entire rest of the story.  Without them, nothing else happens.

Knowing when you are at the crossroads of a pivotal moment is pretty important.  It takes wisdom and insight.  For the Christian, it takes prayer and discernment over what God is doing in the world.

Church, I just want you to know.  I believe Harmony is at a pivotal moment.  I have been praying for months now that God would raise up a revival in our midsts and I believe I’m starting to see some movement of the groundswell of that revival.  I’m excited and prepared for whatever God does.  But can I tell you clearly what I think will make this moment pivotal for Harmony?

I believe what will be pivotal as we look back on this time is our determination to reach the lost – not just fill seats.  I said a few weeks ago during second service that I have given my life to this work of the church.  I have given my life to the church because I really believe Jesus is the hope of the world!  I really believe that the whole world is in bondage apart from Christ – that they are slaves to sin and desperately in need of a savior.

Church; growing is exciting and good… but adding people to the Kingdom?  That’s worth throwing a party!  That’s opening the bubbly!  That’s cause to go crazy like you do when Kentucky stomps Duke!

Tell me when you see someone get baptized or come forward for prayer that it doesn’t do more for your heart than a hundred sermons or songs.  It’s because we ALL believe the Gospel and we ALL love to see people enter the Kingdom.

There are only a few prayers that Jesus prayed that YOU and I have a chance to help answer, one of them is, “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”  (Matthew 6:10).  You can answer this prayer by actually making your will subservient to God’s will.  By helping others come to know the Father and placing their will under His will.  Every time a person gives their life to Jesus – God’s Kingdom spreads.

Jesus said that Kingdom should spread like yeast through dough (Matthew 13:33)

It should grow like a mustard seed in a garden (Matthew 13:31)

It would be like an incalculably  expensive treasure you find in a field – you’d pay any price to buy that field to have the treasure (Matthew 13:44)

So, what if I’m right?  What if this is a pivotal moment?  You may be reading this thinking, “ok Kent, tie it all together, what are you saying?”  What I’m saying is that this January, as you are making decisions about who you want to be, why not embrace the mission of being a Kingdom Advancer.  Why not invite your friends to church who are far from God?  To start having spiritual conversations with them?  Why not BLESS your circle?

I’ll tell you, my prayer for this next year is that we would not see our baptismal settle down.  That God would start to move in me and in you to help lead people back home to Him.

I want to leave you with a story Jesus told about these kind of pivotal moments.  This is Luke 15:11-32 from the Message version:

The Story of the Lost Son

^11-12 Then he said, “There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, ‘Father, I want right now what’s coming to me.’

^12-16 “So the father divided the property between them. It wasn’t long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to feel it. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corn-cobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any.

^17-20 “That brought him to his senses. He said, ‘All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I’m going back to my father. I’ll say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.’ He got right up and went home to his father.

^20-21 “When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: ‘Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son ever again.’

^22-24 “But the father wasn’t listening. He was calling to the servants, ‘Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a prize-winning heifer and roast it. We’re going to feast! We’re going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!’ And they began to have a wonderful time.

^25-27 “All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day’s work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. He told him, ‘Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast—barbecued beef!—because he has him home safe and sound.’

^28-30 “The older brother stomped off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen. The son said, ‘Look how many years I’ve stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!’

^31-32 “His father said, ‘Son, you don’t understand. You’re with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he’s alive! He was lost, and he’s found!’”

Serving Jesus,

Kent A Wagner

Kent A. Wagner

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