Allen Jackson - One Nation, Under God - Part 2
Philippians 4:13, the Apostle Paul, who happened to be the murderer Saul of Tarsus, said, "Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am". If you cut your teeth on the King James, forgive me; that's the message. And, yes, I know it's a paraphrase, but the message is the same whether we use the 16th century English or contemporary. Paul said, "I have come to understand something, that, whether my days are easy or my days are difficult, there is one who is for me that enables me to continue forward".
You see, in times when there's great turmoil, and, if you haven't recognized it yet, we are in a season of tremendous turmoil, and it will increase. It is very important that we understand, what gives us stability and what gives us hope is not the systems around us; it's the kingdom to which we belong. The reason we can pray for our nation and for the nations of the world is our faith is not uniquely aligned with the Declaration of Independence. If I was a citizen of any other nation, I would pray just as fervently for that nation. This happens to be where God had planted us. In fact, if you've hyphenated your faith, and you've put anything in front of it, it's idolatry... please stop. You wanna lead with Jesus.
And let us all remember; let us all meditate, think about; take Philippians 4:13; it's not a bad verse to tuck into your memory. "Whatever I have and wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the one who makes me who I am". Who am I? I belong to Jesus. To what do you attribute the outcomes of your life? Well, mostly I belong to Jesus. I've stumbled a few times; I've made some mistakes. My judgment has not always been great. Sometimes I've gotten tired and sat down when I should have continued to stand up. But I'd have to say, in review over the journey, the difference maker has been my relationship with Jesus. Secondly, heroes are never weighed down by the mundane problems of life.
In Hebrews 12, in verse 1, it says, "Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let's throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let's run with perseverance the race marked out for us". Hebrews 12, you may be surprised to know, follows Hebrews 11. I was not a math major, but I've gotten that much figured out. Hebrews 11 is this listing of these heroes, these people we celebrate; they're held up to us as men and women of faith who have received great rewards in time and will receive greater rewards in eternity. And then it begins to list them and their characters, like Moses the murderer, whom God recruited to lead his people out of slavery. Or David the adulterer, then the murderer. And the list goes on and on.
Abraham, who would deny that Sarah was his wife because he didn't want to get labeled; I mean, that's an awkward discussion when she comes home. And the list goes on and on. And Hebrews 12 opens, it says, we're surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses. This is our season in the floor of the arena, but the stadium is filled with those who have preceded us, and our journey will be evaluated and looked at; we're gonna look at theirs and ours and how we're doing. And then we're given some instructions, to throw off the things that hinder and the sin that so easily entangles. Because you're not gonna compete well on the floor of the arena if you're carrying disproportionate weight or you purposely allow yourselves to be entangled. So shed any unnecessary weight, and extricate yourself from anything that would entangle because we've got a race to run.
You see, we're not removed from the mundane. The kids still get sick; the tires still go flat; the washing machine doesn't work; the refrigerator breaks down. Life happens. Evil touches you. Injustice rears its ugly head. We're not removed from the arena simply because Jesus is lord of our lives. We're not removed from the emotional responses that come from our old carnal self. It says, "God may forgive you, but I'm gonna work on getting even". And the biblical prescription is to crucify that old nature, to put it to death, not to feed it, not to give it any fuel, not to give it any sustenance. No, don't nurture it. Don't put it in the thought cycle and keep revisiting it and replaying it and live with that anxiety, hit delete.
See, I'd rather forgive than spend another 30 seconds angry. "But they're getting away with it". Au contraire. See, the God I worship is a just God, and he's told us we don't have to carry that burden. He will see to it that the scales are balanced. That's why you can pray for your enemies. God, if they knew you, they'd behave differently. No sane person with a shred of common sense would mistreat a child or one of God's people.
That's not my opinion. Jesus said, "If you cause one of these little ones to have a problem, just let me make a suggestion. Find a millstone..." If you don't know what that looks like, it's an oversized chunk of limestone. He said, "Tie a rope around that millstone and yourself and throw it into deep water. That'll be a better day for you than when I see you". People say Jesus was all about love. Yeah, I mean, except for that millstone story. And I guess we could say that was about love. He really loves the children, so don't mess with them.
Number three, heroes always have a clear sense of good and evil. Hebrews 5, "Solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil". The only way you can distinguish good from evil is if you've allowed the Holy Spirit into your life enough that you've cooperated with him, that you've got enough of a biblical worldview that you can distinguish good from evil. And that takes training. Have you ever been involved with a trainer? It's awful. Really; I mean, even if it's, like, a choice, like, you go to the gym and say, "I want a trainer", go, don't go to the... go to the gym, just don't get a trainer. You can go to the gym and eat doughnuts, walk around, look at all those healthy people.
"Wish I looked like that. Would you like an old fashioned chocolate"? But, if you go to the gym and ask for a trainer, they're gonna give you some 14-year-old, all right, who still has the metabolism of a furnace and, like, 3% body fat. And they're gonna say, "Well, you know, we need a personal evaluation". I said, "I can help you. I'm fine. I walked in, I walk out, all is good". "No, we need to know your limits". My limits, I've had enough of you about right now; we're out. So, if you're as fortunate as I am, they'll put you in the middle of the gym with all kinds of people looking at you and say, "Start doing push ups". And then, when you start to fail, they get louder, "Six". Like, could we post it on social media? "It's for your good. We need to know your limits.
Now I'm gonna build a regimen that will help you get stronger". You mean like heavier donuts? I mean, you know, you get trainers at work. I mean, you know what this means; it means somebody is gonna push you to a set of behaviors that you probably wouldn't engage on your own. Otherwise it's not training. Now, if you have any discipline that you're willing to apply, you'll take those lessons and begin to engage them in a routine way so that you could accomplish something in the future you couldn't accomplish today. See, that's the outcome of training. Training lets you gain strength, gain dexterity, gain ability. It's easy to say, "Oh, I just don't do technology", or you can let a six-year-old train you.
If you'll let them, they'll help you, and you can be better at technology. Or you could just wear the T-shirt that says, 'I'm ignorant.' It's humbling to be trained because we have to say, "I don't know". See, it's much easier to swell up and say, "Well, nobody's gonna tell me how many push ups I should do or how fast I should be able to type with my thumbs. I learned to type the appropriate way with all 12 fingers". But the author of Hebrews says that, to grow up in the Lord, to mature, it takes constant training to be able to distinguish between good and evil, which means it's not easy, that the decisions aren't easy, that the calls aren't simple.
If the Apostle Paul submitted his resume for employment, he would not be employable in any contemporary church, angry, violent, murderous, hateful. To distinguish between good and evil, we have to be in training, particularly when we live in a time when propaganda is more prevalent than the truth. It is confusing. We need one another. Don't tolerate people in your inner circle, that you depend upon, that are deceitful, manipulative liars. The Bible talks about not being unequally yoked. I mean, I have friends that aren't godly or don't know the words to 'How Great Thou Art.' I have people I interact with, but the people whose opinions I value or I spend the majority of my discretionary time are people who share a set of values with me. We're trying to understand the world we're living in because it's confusing.
Number four, heroes always want to do the right thing. Galatians 6:9 says, "Let us not become weary in doing good". The Bible would not tell you not to grow weary in doing good if you never got weary in doing good. Don't raise your hand, how many of you ever get weary when doing good? Do you ever play Monopoly? Remember, it's Chance; you get the cards, and you get a 'Get Out Of Jail Free' card? I always thought it would be kind of fun, if, at church once a month, you got a, 'I don't have to be a Christian today' card. Not to be immoral. It's just, if somebody pulls out in front of you, you can hit them.
And then you can go knock on their window and go, "Hey, it's my day. Here's my card". Or you're in the grocery store, and you're in a hurry, you know, and you're in the express line; you got two items; you're trying to get out the door with a cup of yogurt and something. And the person in front of you has 32 items. And you want to reach around him and take the celery stock and beat them about the head and shoulders, not causing any real damage, just the humiliation of celery juice dripping over their head. And then you can hand him your card, "Sorry, it's my day". But the Bible says... oh, that Bible; it will mess with your business.
Somebody told me, I remember years ago, somebody said to me, "Once you become a Christian, you can't even throw a fit and feel good about it anymore". You know better than the act that way. You know better, ahhh, "Let us not become weary in doing good". Don't give in to the weariness. It's not that you don't get tired; don't give the weariness permission to direct your emotions; don't use the weariness as an excuse for your poor behavior. Let's not get weary in doing good. "Well, I should, they should appreciate it more". "For at the proper time we will reap a harvest". You need to circle that little preposition; it's the next word: if. "For at the proper time you'll reap a harvest if we don't give up".
See, when you give in to your weariness, you annihilate the reward. It's not worth it, folks. It's not worth the license to let your emotions run. It's not worth the freedom to let your words roll. It's not worth the license you give yourself to be carnal. "I deserve". No, you don't. Anytime you start a sentence with, 'I deserve,' there needs to be a warning light flashing because none of us want what we deserve. "Don't grow weary in doing good because, at the proper time, we'll reap a harvest if we don't give up". It's not that we always want to do the right thing, but we want to increasingly choose to do the best that we know. And, finally, heroes have heroic lives. They're not like normal people.
I read an article this week about a celebrity, really lifelong celebrity, his father was famous, and he's been famous. It sounded kind of arrogant to me; he said he wanted to know what real people, how real people lived. So he went to a makeup artist and had prosthetics put on his face so he could go out in public and be anonymous. And, after a half a day in the mall, he said, "I hated it. You had to stand in line". Bless his heart. I got all weepy and emotional for him. But heroes... No, I didn't. Heroes have heroic lives. Psalm 34:19... You know, we aspire to the wrong things. It's true; we've made heroes out of the wrong things.
Folks, you don't wanna be a celebrity nearly as much as you want to please God. You don't want to vacation in all the chic places nearly as much as you want to please God. You don't want a stack of cash or awards or recognition, none of that, and forfeit your soul. Psalm 34:19, "A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all". Even righteous people have troubles. Now, do you look at people that you think have a great life? And I've had the privilege of being around a diverse set of people, different nations, different places. And I have one observation: that everybody's life has all the stress they can take. There are seasons that are sometimes less stressful. But every life comes with a full plate.
If you can't see it, it doesn't mean it isn't there. There would be no suicides or addiction amongst wealthy, powerful people if there weren't pressure and pain there. More will not make you happy, I mean, neither will less; I mean, poverty is a curse, and blessings are a gift from God. I'm not advocating for poverty. But don't live with the fantasy that, if you had more, your life would be better. Heroes, I'm gonna wrap this up; I really will. Heroes really are larger than life; larger than life in the sense that they don't allow life to overcome them, that they have a different agenda. They're overcomers; they face the hardships, the challenges, the difficulties, the problems, and, with faith in God, they triumph, and they provide light for others who are struggling to make it through the challenges that they face.
Now, those aren't the heroes that typically movies are made about; they're not often celebrated. But they will be by God. Revelation 21, in verse 6; if you don't know, that's very near the end of the book. And it's a triumphant statement from our Lord, "He said to me: 'It is done. I'm the Alpha and the Omega'", the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, the A to the Z, "'the beginning and the end. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. And he who overcomes will inherit all of this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.'"
The promises of the Book of Revelation, the triumphant conclusion of this age, when our Lord will take his throne, those that will benefit from him ascending that place are those who overcome. "I don't wanna overcome". Duly noted; now let's go do it. "Well, I don't know why". I know. I don't either, but let's go. "Well, it doesn't seem fair". Okay, let's go anyway. "Well, it might be difficult". Uh-huh, let's move. "Well, everybody doesn't want to". All right, I'm going. There's a broad path and a narrow path; which one you gonna choose? You gonna complain your way along the broad path? You gonna compare yourselves with the Joneses? You gonna compare yourself with the person across the street?
I went to the hospital one time; it was late at night; the man was having dramatic surgery the next day; he didn't know the Lord. And I said, "I wouldn't want anybody to face the surgery you're gonna face in the morning unless I knew you were prepared to step into the presence of God". And he looked at me, he said, "Allen, I'm so much better than the man that lives across the street from me". And he was as earnest as he could be. And I said, "Well, that's a great answer, if, when you step into eternity, the person across the street is sitting on the throne. But, if it's almighty God, that comparison won't help a bit".
And I think it's easy for us to look around us and think, "Oh, I'm better than them. I mean, I know I'm not perfect". Okay, if you know you are living in sin, stop it; it will destroy you. It will destroy you. I mean, granted, none of us are perfect, but there's a difference in acknowledging our flaws and our struggle to honor the Lord and intentionally practicing ungodliness. Please don't do that. Be an overcomer. 1 John 4:4, "The one who was in you is greater than the one who's in the world".
So how do we live out our faith? In the next session. But I brought you a prayer. I love that part of church. Ok, when I go visit, when they invite me someplace, and I go someplace and speak, and they say you have 19 minutes. Well, I'm thinking, "Wow, whatever I'm gonna say, whatever's gonna be said, it's gotta be wrapped up, at church? We start again the morning". Ah, what a privilege. It's an honor to do life together. Keep going till morning? Not even my mom would say that. So why don't you stand with me, huh? God's moving in the earth. Don't you wanna be a part?
Can you imagine having the Spirit of God as your personal trainer? I'm thinking you're gonna get the fatigue because that's the only place strength is. You can't gain any strength until you exercise to the point of fatigue. You can't do it physically; you won't do it emotionally; you can't do it spiritually. And the only way to continue to gain strength is continuing to push through those places, which means it's often uncomfortable. It's not always fun.
You know, I meet people, and they say, "You know, I just get a runner's high". I don't trust those people because I think they get high and then they go run and they get confused. Because, when I run, all I get is runner's sweat and exhaustion, all right? I mean, a little bit into it, my legs are going, "What has happened to your mind"? And sometimes you'll do that with the Lord. You'll make a commitment. I'm gonna read my Bible every day; I'm gonna do that Bible reading thing. Or I'm gonna pray over here; I'm gonna take "Let's Pray" to work; I'm not gonna go to work one day this week without a 'Let's Pray' moment. And you have a morning that doesn't go well; you think, "What was I thinking"? Did you find your prayer?
Heavenly Father, show us your way that we may walk uprightly before you. Deliver us from deception and give us a love for the truth. Awaken us from our slumber that we may worship you. Do not let us fall prey to our enemies. In your grace and mercy look upon us and bring deliverance. Once again may the name of Jesus be exalted in our hearts, our homes, and our land. You are our hope and our redeemer. In you we put our trust, Amen.