I can’t believe we’ve come to this place. It’s been two years. I know it’s cliché, but wow. Time has gone by so quickly. And yet, so much has happened in two years. It’s funny, really. In the spring and summer of 2022 there was a theme that God put on my heart. More a challenge than a theme. It was almost as if we were about to step into contradiction of terms. I can’t tell you how many worship song lyrics and Scriptures reference the idea that God’s people are unshakable!
David says this in Psalm 16:8, I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. In fact, multiple times in the Psalms the writer makes a similar statement. Isaiah says something like it. Paul will share this sentiment of faith in God being unshakeable. And so, it feels contradictory over the past two years to ask God to shake us! We want to be shaken! We need to be shaken up, jostled out of complacency, and moved with fresh boldness. That’s what we see in Acts 4. The Christians were shaken by the power of The Spirit, and it changed their lives and their communities in profound and lasting ways. So, maybe there are times when our faith needs to be shaken. When is the last time that you sincerely with reverent fear asked God to make you shakable?
I have been so incredibly humbled over these past two years of our Shaken initiative here at White Oak. The most generous two years in our church’s history! More than 150 baptisms! Hundreds of people gather in community in life groups. More than 1000 worship each weekend. Individuals and families are stepping into bold things. They’re leading others, they’re giving of their time and resources, they are serving, they are making disciples, they are trusting God in new and challenging ways. People are being forever changed because God’s power is shaking them. I see it in my life, too. I have been overwhelmed by the ways in which God has surrounded me with wonderful leaders and friends. We have a wonderful talented staff, godly faith-filled elders, and an army of volunteer servants giving of themselves for ministry impact. God has been convicting me personally in financial generosity, spiritual formation, and stretching me out of my leadership comfort zones.
There is another obscure verse in Nehemiah. He, too, mentions being shaken. Though, this seems to have third and separate meaning which differs from David’s (where unshakable means we don’t lose trust in a faithful God) or in the book of Acts (where shaken means that the Spirit is moving in and through his people with power). But Nehemiah is addressing people who have not been generous financially or approached their neighbors with care and compassion. They have been playing the religious role, but they have stagnated,
they’re self-focused, and unmoved. Their response to the rebuke and Nehemiah’s reaction occurs in chapter 5…
12 “We will give it back,” they said. “And we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say.” Then I summoned the priests and made the nobles and officials take an oath to do what they had promised. 13 I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, “In this way may God shake out of their house and possessions anyone who does not keep this promise. So may such a person be shaken out and emptied!”
Shaken out and emptied. That doesn’t sound good! I don’t want Nehemiah’s brand of shaken! I don’t want to be found complacent and stagnating in faith, hoarding my resources, and holding back from others my generosity.
And so, we are left with this Shaken theme in Scripture. Shaken isn’t a season. It isn’t an initiative. It doesn’t stop. We are asking God to move us with unshakable faith… not found shaken out and emptied… so that we would move forward shaken by the Spirit toward bold steps of trust!
Would you pray for your own heart and for the heart of White Oak to be found in this posture through the rest of the year and on into the next? I am praying for that.
See you at Shaken Culmination Sunday this weekend! Can’t wait to continue the journey and celebrate with you!
Nathan
Nathan Hinkle
Lead Pastor