Allen Jackson - Lest We Forget - Part 2
It's good to be with you again. We're working on this series about America, the church in America, and in this session particularly, we can't afford to forget our heritage. We have a wonderful heritage of faith, from the people who founded our nation, to the great reforms that have come to our nation around children's rights, and women's rights, and civil rights. The world has benefited from the impact of Christianity upon us as a people. Now, our story is not perfect, but no nation has a perfect story. It's not to excuse our shortcomings, they need to be addressed and improved, and we have to be honest about them, but I believe we have to respect the blessings that God has brought to us and be grateful for those, or we'll forfeit our future. It's also important that we be aware of that heritage. If we're not, we're easily manipulated by people with an agenda that would deny it or set it aside. We have a heritage as a Christian people, and I refuse to give it up, and I don't want you to yield on that, either. Grab your Bible and a notepad, let's listen to what God has for us.
Well, God's instructions are very plain. They haven't been changed. I gave you the passage from Deuteronomy chapter 5. In verse 6, the Lord said, "I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery," and then he begins to list the decalogue, the Ten Commandments. Now, I won't read you all those verses, but I didn't bring you the summary of the Ten Commandments. They're all spelled out in those verses with a little more detail, a little bit of commentary. It's worth your time to read at your leisure.
The first commandment, "You shall have no other gods before me". I don't believe it's an accident that's where God began. He said he's a jealous God. He will tolerate no pretenders. He will not accept the place in the pantheon, in a collection of gods. It's a very important principle. The Christian faith was very sorely challenge when it was just emerging in the first century. The Romans were not exclusive, they had a whole collection of gods. Roman culture was adopted from Greek culture, and the Greeks, I suspect you know a bit about that, but as the Romans conquered other peoples, they would simply incorporate the gods of those people into the Roman collection. It became to be known as the pantheon. And when Christianity began to emerge from amongst Judaism, Christianity began as a sect within Judaism, a subset of Judaism, and as that happened, then it made its way into the awareness of the Roman leaders.
The early Christians were given a choice. This Jesus that you worship can be included in our pantheon. There would've been no persecution. When they had the first church council and the leaders came from the various cities around the empire, when they showed up for the council, most of them showed up physically maimed. They'd either had their Achilles tendons cut, or an eye put out, a common form of persecution if you said you were Christian. They could have avoided all of that. They could have avoided the martyrdom. They could've avoided their time in the Coliseum being eaten by wild animals. All they would've had to have done is said yes, absolutely, just put Jesus in the group. But they understood if they had conceded to that request, that we wouldn't be worshiping on weekends today.
The second commandment, "You shall not make for yourself an idol. You shall not bow down to them and you shall not worship them". Now, most of us wouldn't think of bowing down to something carved out of wood or formed out of metal, but worship is about more than bending the knee to a physical statue. Worship is really about priority. I can tell you what you worship if you give me a little time with your calendar and your cash flow. It'll be very apparent what you worship. And God's very clear. He said, "You cannot make for yourself an idol. You can't worship anything before me".
I've said to you many times we're not hyphenated Christ followers. We don't put anything before that. We are Christ followers first and then every other distinction of our lives comes after that. The New Testament says in Christ we're neither male nor female, slave nor free, Jew nor Greek. All those labels are secondary. We are in Christ first. I don't want to try to imagine Jesus in my image, I want to try to become more like him. It's a distraction to try to imagine him in your image. I've got to let him be formed in me.
The third commandment is, "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord Your God," and that's a lot more than profanity. That we will use the authority of our words to give honor to God. We just finished reading the book of Job together, not everybody in that book did well on that assignment, and God took 'em to task for it.
The fourth commandment is, "Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy". It was a challenge when Jesus came, because they'd taken that commandment and they had used it to bring control to the people of God. Jesus said it wasn't made to control the people, you've perverted it. You'll help your ox or a donkey on the Sabbath because you've got a financial investment in them, but you won't help people. And he was constantly challenging their Sabbath rules as being off target. It's easy for us to drift off target. We're not the first generation to be here. So I don't want you to be offended, I don't want there to be a sense of shame or embarrassment. It's like a sense of relief when the Spirit of God begins to gently nudge us, to shake us, to say you've lost your way, let me help you back on the path.
We don't wanna stubbornly, like belligerent children, ball our fist, and clench our teeth, and say I'm not listening. We want to cooperate with the Lord, say thank you that you would help us. We weren't paying attention. We haven't been watching over our schools. We haven't been watching over the unborn. We haven't been watching over marriage. We haven't been watching over our culture. We haven't been teaching our children to work. We've been interested in other things. God, we're sorry. Thank you that you would help us. Let's not be stubborn. Let's not become entrenched. That's a very dangerous place. When God begins to invite us, gently, to convict us, and to draw us to himself, we wanna be tender of heart. Observe the Sabbath day, keep it holy.
Number five, "Honor your father and mother". Honor your father and mother. They're not the government's responsibility. It's not about age. It's not about them being perfect. All of our families are a little torqued, admittedly some more than others, but the truth is God is sovereign over that decision, too. And I trust that his grace and his power is sufficient to lead us through whatever brokenness has touched our families. Our assignment is to give honor to our parents. That doesn't age out. If they're already gone, if they've stepped into eternity, you still have an assignment to honor them.
Number six, "You shall not murder".
Number seven, "You shall not commit adultery". I don't believe God's changed his mind. Do you know how far we've drifted? I've been thinking about this for weeks, and I'll tell you, it's troubling to me, the messaging that comes to us that has a presentation of morality apart from a biblical worldview. An attitude towards human sexuality apart from a biblical worldview. The number of programs we watch, the music that we listen to, the things that we're told that introduce sexual activity outside of the biblical presentation of that. Whether it's premarital sexual activity, the big biblical word for that's fornication, or it's sexual activity beyond your marriage, adultery.
The number of messages that comes to us, we've become anesthetized to it. You have heroes, and programs you're watching, things we listen to, we've just totally, it's as if it's not happening around us. Do you understand the impact that has upon us and our children? I don't have a simple solution, but I'm telling you it's destructive. We have drifted, folks, we have forgotten God. We've done exactly what we were warned about, not just in Deuteronomy. Solzhenitsyn tried to get our attention. He said 60 million of us died because we'd forgotten God.
"You shall not steal". You can't steal, folks. I'm concerned about our attitude as the government is our provider. The government doesn't have resources. They don't make money. They print a lot, but they're expecting us to pay it back. They don't create value, people do that, and we take those resources that somebody else has earned and working for.
"You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor". It's not spinning, it's not an opinion, you can't lie about one another, it's important.
"You shall not covet," and it says specifically, "Your neighbor's wife, your neighbor's house, your neighbor's land, your neighbor's livestock". We can't look at what other people have and go, "I want that. I deserve that. They must have done something wrong to have that, because I'm certainly as deserving as they are. I want one of those".
God said we can't do that. This list isn't about somebody else, this is about us. And again, I want you, it's important, we're not the first generation to lose our bearings. But not every generation will correct their course. We want to be one of those generations. We wanna be Gideon's generation, where Gideon went out and cut down the altars in the high places, and the Asherah poles, and God gave him a tremendous victory. We want to be like the Ninevites when Jonah walked through the city and said in 40 days, you're toast, and they humbled themselves before the Lord, amen?
Jesus told a parable about the wheat and the tares. I think you'll remember the story. It's about a man that had a field planted with wheat, and when the crop came up, both the wheat and the weeds were in the field. And while they looked similar, the primary difference was the weeds didn't bear fruit. And when they were alone, when the disciples asked for the explanation of that.
It's in Matthew 13. "The crowd left and they went into the house. The disciples said, 'Explain the parable of the weeds in the field.' And Jesus said," many of you remember this. "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man and the field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. And the harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin, and all who do evil".
It's a pretty simple parable. It's not overly complicated. It's a parable of the end of the age. At a casual glance at humanity and it'll look very similar. Both the wheat and the weeds, the godly and the ungodly, it'll take the angels to have the discernment to recognize the difference. The difference is one bear the fruit of the Spirit and one don't. This is not optional. So, Jesus is giving us a snapshot of the end of the age. That there is a prevailing message that there'll be very little visible difference between godliness and ungodliness. It's a warning to us. It's not just a warning about ultimate judgment, it's a warning about living at the end of the age. It's the prevailing model within the church, I would submit to you right now. Little significance to ungodliness. If something makes me happy it can't be wrong. After all, I can say I'm sorry.
Quick repentance is presented as a means of canceling consequences. Not significant grief over disobedience, not a brokenness because of our stubborn, unrepentant hearts, just kind of a catch. Oh, you know, I'm sorry, and we treat the sacrifice of Jesus in such a casual way, it concerns me. Again, we're not the first generation with the struggle. The question in the balance is what will be said of this generation? What is our future to be? Who are we becoming? And the weight of this messaging is almost crushing. That there's really not that big a difference between the Christ followers and everybody else. Not that big a difference which religion, how you wanna worship, what moral boundaries you put around it. People say to me, "Well, you know, it's really hard".
Announcement, godliness is not easy. Jesus came to earth with a God assignment. Anybody think it was easy? I certainly don't. He recruited James, and John, and Peter, and the whole crew, asked them to follow him. It doesn't look like to me their life assignment was easy. When he recruited Saul of Tarsus, he sent somebody to his house to tell him how difficult the journey was gonna be. Again, we've had kind of a bad, you know, I want to say the sinners prayer, but after that, you need to make me comfortable. King Solomon, one of the most celebrated of all the Israelite kings, he's David's son. I'm out of time, I can't read you those Scriptures.
Well, I could. You know the story. You know the story and you have the Scriptures. Solomon is King David's son, and he assumes the throne with David's blessing. Imagine that, having King David be your trainer. And Solomon has the most remarkable run. Gold and silver became so plentiful in Jerusalem during Solomon's reign, they were treated like common stones. But Solomon lost his way. He veered off course. There should be a warning to us, folks. This story of Scripture is so consistent, time, after time, after time, after time, after time. Every generation has to make a choice.
Again, I'm not angry, I'm not condemning, I'm not saying we have done something so egregious it's never happened before. I'm telling you that the messaging of Scripture is a warning, flashing warning light to us. Pay attention, don't forget. We have to give attention to this. We're reading the book of Ecclesiastes right now if you're doing the Bible reading with us. In Ecclesiastes 2 in verse 10, this is what Solomon says. "I denied myself nothing my eyes desired. I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all of my work, and this was the reward for all of my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done, and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless. A chasing after the wind. Nothing was gained under the sun". It sounds a whole lot like a contemporary American success story.
Now, the phrase that defines the book of Ecclesiastes is "under the sun". Because as Solomon drifted further and further away from the attitude of his father, he came to think of his life only in terms of what was gonna happen under the sun, his days on the earth. He lost his God perspective. He said, "I denied myself no pleasure". And I had enough power that I accumulated a great deal. I took delight in all the things I could build, and achieve and, accomplish, but he said I have arrived at the conclusion that it's just meaningless. I can't take it with me. Pleasure won't be satisfied, he said.
Now, he's the son of King David. He inherited great wealth and power. He began with tremendous momentum, but he drifted farther and farther away from God. Again, he's a warning to us. Don't spend your years chasing things that won't bring fulfillment, the Scriptures told us. David had a very different perspective on life. Psalm 84 in verse 10, he said, "Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked".
Folks, we've lost our way. We have, not the ungodly, not the immoral, those of us that gather in churches. Solomon lost his perspective. He became focused on life under the sun. He thought it would bring fulfillment to him, satisfaction, contentment, peace. God made the world and everything that's in it for us. I'm not opposed to those things, but I'm not confused. We have a temporary assignment under the sun, and an eternity in the kingdom of our God. There's some essential things, and I'm done. You have to be born again. It's not about joining a church, or being religious, or where you sit on the weekends. It's choosing Jesus of Nazareth as Lord of your life. You don't have to have a preacher to do that. It's real easy, Father, I'm a sinner and I need a Savior. Forgive me of my sins. I forgive everyone who sins against me. Jesus, be Lord of my life. I can lead you in that.
People come up to me all the time and say, "You know, why don't you give an altar call at every service"? Do you give an altar call to every person you meet? I'm an advocate for altar calls, but I'm far more an advocate for every person that's a Christ follower knowing how and being engaged in leading people to the Lord. We can't relegate that to an event once a week, the need's too great. This has to grow in a viral way. We know a lot about viral spread now, huh? We need that kind of a viral spread of being born again. The only solution to the corruption that's in the human character, the only thing that nothing will reverse corruption. You can't turn it back. You can slow it down, you can diminish its acceleration, but you can't.
That's why we have to be born again. We've got to be a totally new creature, and that's why we have to take that old carnal nature within us and execute it, crucify it, 'cause it longs for the wrong set of stuff. And even when we're born again, we've still got to deal with that old carnal, selfish nature. You gotta be born again, it's essential. Then serve the Lord with your whole heart, mind, and body. Just lean into it, day after day, month after month, growing in what it means to serve the Lord. I want to serve the Lord with more abandon, more fullness, more creativity, more energy than I did a year ago. I don't imagine I know him fully.
What a goofy idea. I'm a beginner in so many ways. I need the discipline of holiness, the discipline of fruitfulness, the discipline of serving, the discipline of giving. And understand this, if you make room for sin, it's both addictive and progressive. You can't contain it. If you willfully practice sin, you may think, "Oh, it's just for a short time. I'm going to get to some point right there, and I'm gonna stop". No, it doesn't work that way. It's a dangerous thing.
I love our nation. There's no place on earth quite like it. The freedoms we have, and the liberties we have, and the blessings we have, the abundance we have, but they haven't come because of our natural resources, or the industriousness of our people, or the leaders we've had, they've come from the hand of God. I don't expect the ungodly to understand that. I don't even expect them to value that. But we have to tell one another that until we begin to believe it again. We've got to say it to one another more frequently than we've watched the immorality that is cascaded over us. We've become numb to it. It's so abundant, so prevalent. It interacts with us so frequently. We've lost our balance. But I believe God in his mercy is inviting us back, and I want to say yes to him. I believe you do, too.
I brought you a prayer, why don't you stand with me? We're gonna pray this prayer together. I think they'll put it on the screens for us.
Heavenly Father, you are the author of life and the sustainer of all things. Your light Illumines our path and dispels the darkness before us. Awaken your people in this generation. Confirm your word in our midst with great demonstrations of your power. May our hearts be turned to you in humility and great reverence. Open doors of opportunity before us and grant us the wisdom, boldness, and courage to move through them. Comfort your people. Strengthen the weary, deliver the oppressed, and lead us forward. May the name of Jesus be exalted through the whole earth, amen.