Does God Have a Plan for Brownsville?

Yes. God has a great temporal and eternal plan for the people of Brownsville… and he has a very specific plan for Brownsville in this generation. There are four ways that I want to develop the basis for this plan: historical and current events, biblical and personal testimony.

Let’s briefly look into the historical perspective… God has a Great History of establishing covenant with individuals and nations. Noah and all living creatures. Abraham and his descendents. In recent history, the Pilgrim’s and their calling to the New World to establish a New Jerusalem. Our Founding Father’s who were called to found a nation.
Let’s pause there and talk about the idea of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” … our unalienable rights as declared in 1776. Let’s focus on Liberty.
I believe that liberty is critical to unleashing God’s plan for Brownsville. It was notable Revolutionists such as John Adam’s who believed that liberty demanded action. I think that Adam’s would agree that liberty is the freedom to submit to the will of God. In his time, the cause of liberty demanded action against a tyrannical government. A tyrant is an illegitimate ruler.

There are illegitimate rulers in Brownsville today. Not because of some election fraud but because the men, women and even the children have given the prince of this world control and power in their lives. And by this same power, there are earthly religious and government leaders that are destroying the people of our community, culture and nation. Not by direct malicious intent but out of their own selfish and prideful pursuits of power, wealth and prestige... or from laziness, sloth and lack of concern for those they claim to lead.
In pursuing their earthly gains, they oppress or hold down the children of God and the people of our community. This is exactly the situation in the OT lesson today. The prophet Jeremiah cries out to these shepherds and gives them a word of terror for their negligence. The day is at hand when God will reckon with them concerning the trust and charge committed to them. That is God’s business.
In addition! This form of tyranny must be crushed in our own lives. Jeremiah reminded his people that the beginning of error in their lives was their failure to take God seriously. The people of Judah had lost contact with the word of God. They did what was right in their own eyes… not doing what they knew was wrong in the sight of God but becoming like God in judging what is good and evil. A regression all the way back to the fall of man.
But in the midst of the pain and suffering, the looming captivity and, for Jeremiah, a ministry that was marked by 40 years of failure as a prophet to a decaying nation… God gave a word of comfort to the neglected sheep.
The pain and suffering, the neglect as well as the words of comfort and hope ring true today for our time, our church, and our community. There are 4 parts of this word of comfort and hope.

1. Judah was a little remnant, that has narrowly escaped destruction. We are a little remnant…
2. God, Himself, will gather that remnant. God, Himself, will gather us…
3. And there they shall be fruitful, and increase in numbers. We shall be fruitful and increase in numbers
4. Formerly they were continually exposed and disturbed with some alarm or other; but now they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed. We have been exposed… but now we shall fear no more…

There is a well worn passage in the 29th chapter of Jeremiah that sums this up and reads “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” These plans are for us, for Brownsville and for you… as Deacon Don will bring to us next week.
Jumping back to our reading from the 23rd chapter this morning…
“The days are coming”, declares the Lord, when I will raise up to David a righteous branch, a king who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land”. This is, of course, the Messianic Promise fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. The leaders, even in our day, who are more like wolves than shepherds will be replaced by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And, even in this coming advent season, when we are reminded of his first coming, we are even more expectant of his second coming.

Let’s turn to the gospel reading this morning, where we find ourselves taken to the place called the Skull where Jesus was crucified between two criminals. I toiled to understand how and why this scripture was appointed for this morning. And as I was reading a sermon by Charles Spurgeon from over 100 years ago, I realized that this passage, for us, this morning is about the repentant criminal.
This man justly hung on a cross as punishment for his sins while a man with no sin hung on a cross for our sins. We are the criminal who must die justly but by the grace of God we are saved. The way Spurgeon said it is “The cross of Christ is to some a savour of life unto life, to others of death unto death”. There were two criminals -and one had a great faith - as he suffered in intense pain and certain death, also surrounded by scoffers and derision. He heard the priests ridicule the Lord, he heard the same from the soldiers and the people as well as his friend who hung there with him.
How easy for him to join the crowd, to follow these people, to suffer from the tyranny of his time and place. But he did not! His faith, like Jeremiah’s, was not affected by his surroundings.

I mentioned at the onset today that liberty is critical to unleashing God’s plan for Brownsville. This criminal, had one member of his body that was not bound (by nails to a cross), and with his tongue he rebuked his friend and asked Jesus to remember him when he comes into his kingdom.
What faith – even as he witnessed Jesus dying on a cross!
This criminal experienced the fullness of the grace of God and he submitted to the will of God in his painful and final hours. Liberty demands action. His action was a testimony, in front of his friend, the priestly rulers, the soldiers who nailed him to the cross, the common people, and our Lord Jesus. The testimony and proclamation is “Jesus is Lord”. What is your proclamation? What is your action? How will you participate in God’s plan for Brownsville?

We have heard about historical and current events, the teaching from our scripture readings today… now I would like to close with a testimony (short version) of how God has spoken and worked in my and my family’s like these 10+ years in Brownsville.
We were living in the Washington DC area where we were both starting our professional careers, she as an OT and myself as a consultant with PW. We were newly married, young, showed the signs of successful, building new friendships, involved with our church and active in ministry. God asked us to leave and leave all of that behind to move to Brownsville to minister to the young people here. We were married in this church but that was about the extent of what I knew and have ever seen of Brownsville. (Good thing too).
I couldn’t wait to move. I thought I was going to miss all of the action. I believed and still believe that God will pour out his spirit on this community and change it’s very character. Liberty is critical to unleashing God’s plan for Brownsville. Liberty demands action.

I pray that I live to see this day but if I do not, my children or my children’s children will be here to see it and be worker’s in this harvest field. I have come to see Brownsville as not just a lifelong mission, but a generational mission and an eternal mission… Until then God is calling us all to live like Jeremiah and to die like the criminal on the cross. But liberty demands action.
God, who set all the boundaries of the earth, loves and cares for Brownsville, He has a plan and purpose for Brownsville. And Brownsville will become a community known for its love for God and for each other and we will make disciples whom we will send to the very ends of the earth. God will be glorified… and it all begins with you. Just this morning, I came across an article about David Livingstone, a famous Christian missionary and (interestingly enough) contemporary of Charles Spurgeon. Livingstone, in all his difficult years as a missionary, was directly involved with the conversion of only one African. He wrote “we work for a glorious future which we are not destined to see.”
God is calling us to the hard work of discipleship … of building our families… of reaching the lost… of ministering to the poor, the needy, the addicted… of loving each other
And Brownsville will become a community known for its love for God and for each other and we will make disciples whom we will send to the very ends of the earth. God will be glorified… and it all begins with you.
I remind you, again, that liberty is critical to unleashing God’s plan for Brownville. We are called to a difficult task of building the road that other’s will enjoy. Livingstone’s life motto was “Fear God, work hard.”
Brownsville must be set free from its illegitimate rulers. You must first be set free from the power of sin and death. Liberty demands action and I submit to you that this day, that (like the thief on the cross) action begins with confession. When Brownsville comes to a place of repentance and confession, life and liberty will prevail, and God will unleash his plan on this city of hope.

Fear God, work hard. Amen.