Church of God LifeBuilders

This exciting CD contains both talks by Christian futurist and leadership author Leonard Sweet from the 2008 Church of God General Assembly. These include his talk on “Reclaiming the Art of Disciple Making” and his speech “Leadership: The Art of the Future,” given at the Hall of Christian Excellence presentation. Today the church is challenged to enter a new world created by both technology and social changes. Leonard Sweet shows how we can present an effective message to reach those around us and disciple them.

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By Leonard C. Albert

God has always had “a man for the times.” In Genesis 6:9 the Word of God says, “This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.”

Someone said “that was then and this is now.” Consider where we are today and you will know that the times we are living in now also demand that God’s men become “men for the times.” 2 Timothy 3:1 says to “…know this, that in the last days perilous times will come.” We are living in the last days and these are perilous times.

Strong’s Concordance tells us that the word “perilous” means “difficult, dangerous or furious.” Thayer’s Lexicon says it means “hard to bear, troublesome and savage.” When they fly airplanes into buildings and blow up innocent women and children it shows we are in “perilous times.” When you can be shot just for changing lanes on the freeway, we are in “perilous” times.

I was thinking about these perilous times and I have come to believe that despite all the avenues available to spread the gospel of Christ, the world is in disarray. It is a crisis of both magnificent opportunities and infinite responsibility. It is sad to me that many men are content to be “men of the times” rather than “men for the times.”

God is calling His people to be spiritual and powerful as we live with evil all around us-evil that is now more brash than ever. We’re re-defining marriage. We’ve killed 50 million babies in this country through abortion. Tonight 33 million children will go to bed without a biological father in the home. We don’t need “culturally relevant” men. So many today are just men of the times. We need men who will step to the plate and declare “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.”

Where are those men?

Noah was a man like this-he was a man for the times. Like us, he lived in tough times. In Genesis 6:11, just two verses down from our opening reading it says, “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” Noah was faithful for about 120 years while he was building the ark. He didn’t fully understand what God was doing in his life and in the world, but he knew something was about to happen. We need that patience! We need to stop and take the time to really look at where we are in our relationship with God. In the midst of this the Bible says that Noah was a:

Just man
Perfect man in his generation
A man who walked with God

This is a record of a powerful, Godly man. Will you answer His call to be one also?

Available in English here

Disponible en español aquí.

In this special video podcast, Leonard Albert answers the question “What is a Crisis?” and how we can deal with one.

He delivered this at the Sunday morning worship service on August 31, 2008, at the North Cleveland Church of God.