Allen Jackson - Transformed Lives - Part 2
There's a power available to us that it can orchestrate a change of heart and may that change of heart begin within those of us who gather in the church. 2 Timothy 3 and verse 5, Paul is describing a lengthy set of characteristics of human character that will deteriorate as we approach the end of the age. He's warning Timothy and he makes a rather startling statement at the end of this list of 18 attributes of human character that will unravel. He says they'll have a form of godliness. They're not gonna claim to be irreligious. They will have to be a very religious group of people. They'll have religious services in religious buildings and recognize religious holidays and use religious language. They'll have a form of godliness, but to deny its power.
He said, "Don't have anything to do with them". And Paul's thought the power of God is evidenced in the cross of Jesus Christ. He said, "I decided when I was with you to the Corinthians not to know anything except Christ and him crucified". He said, "It's the power of God for the salvation of anyone who would believe". You see, the cross is a rather ugly declaration that humanity cannot save itself. If global cooperation would elevate the lives of humanity, we would have accomplished it long ago. The cross is a very powerful reminder that we need a solution that we cannot provide ourselves. We needed God's intervention. So he sent his Son through a supernatural intervention. The divine circumstance around his birth.
And the message of the Gospel is that he placed upon his Son the punishment that you and I deserved for our ungodliness that we in turn might receive all the blessings that would do his perfect obedience. It was not a just death, but it was a just resolution to the problem that we had of our ungodliness. So when it says that they'll have a form of godliness, lots of religious words and lots of religious language. But let's not talk so much about that sacrifice thing. Looks that gospel is too prevalent. And then we've majored on the focus on our conversion. And if we believe we've made a profession of faith and been baptized, perhaps we don't have to talk anymore about that.
I would submit to you, there's a change of heart that extends beyond conversion. In the same way, there's a life that is intended to exceed beyond a physical birth, there's a spiritual life that's intended to continue beyond a spiritual birth. And I'll celebrate with anyone at any time that spiritual birth that comes at a professional phase. It's not about joining a church or embracing a morality. It's the acknowledgment of Jesus of Nazareth as Lord, Christ, and King and giving him that first priority in your life. If he isn't your first priority in your life, there's a legitimate question, a serious question about the authenticity of your spiritual experience. But once we've made that decision, our lives have to be transformed more than by sitting in a church on the weekend.
If we sit in church on the weekend and we're indistinguishable from the people who don't the rest of the week, it's a fair question to what degree is our lives affected by our faith. It's kind of like watching the Olympics and calling yourself an international athlete. You may even know what needs to be accomplished. You may know that they didn't perform the gymnastics move appropriately or the swimmer didn't come in first. It doesn't mean you're qualified to step into the arena. Well, there's no such thing as Christian spectators. We're either in the arena of the spiritual conflict that defines our generation or we're in the bleachers and the ones who are in the bleachers are qualified as either having stepped out of time or they're not engaged.
I brought you some verses that just highlight. There's 1 Peter 2. It says, "Rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander of every kind". This is Peter writing to believers. And he said we have to rid ourselves of some things. God's not going to do this for you. See, I think we've mistakenly thought that God's just gonna poof, take away all of our desires for ungodly things. And, you know, the Bible says, we have to put those things to death. We have to execute them. We have to recognize they exist and choose not to give them prevalence. Peter's language is we have to rid ourselves.
And then he says, "Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk so that you may grow up in your salvation. Now that you've tasted that the Lord is good". Once you have been experienced the kingdom of God, he says, now we should have a craving. One of the most powerful desires that's present in a living thing is for that nourishment. My dad was a veterinarian. Many of you know that. I helped a lot of foals be born. One of my favorite things to do was watch a newborn foal 'cause almost immediately after delivery, they have a desire to nurse, except when a foal's born, from the knees down, their legs are the same length as when they're full grown. So they have more leg than they need.
And to watch a newborn foal try to stand up is high drama. They look like they're inebriated and they try to figure out where to get their legs so that they can find some sort of a standing position. And when they first stand up, they're very unstable, they just stand there and kind of weave. And about half the time as soon as they pick up a foot, they collapse again and we get to watch the whole circus start to go again. But in doing that, they gain strength through exercise and they have innately within them that desire, they know they need that nourishment. Sometimes the foals born were too weak for whatever reason and they couldn't stand. And I've been recruited on more than one occasion to help hold that foal up while he nursed his mom.
That is not a blessing. And Peter is using a similar analogy. He said that we have to crave that pure spiritual milk. It's more than a passing interest. It's not like, well, you know, maybe. It's the driving motivation of our lives. Folks, we need a heart change. Our world is unraveling. We've lost 60 million children on our watch and we kind of shrug our shoulders and go, "Well, it's a matter of choice". No, that's not a choice that should be okay. Look at 1 Corinthians 3: "Brothers, I couldn't address you as spiritual but as worldly mere infants in Christ". Again, he's writing to a church. He said, you're worldly, you're spiritual babies. "I gave you milk, not solid food, for you weren't ready for it. Indeed, you're still not ready. You're still worldly".
Is it possible that one of the reasons we're watching deterioration on so many fronts is that those of us that imagine ourselves to be godly are living too far in the world? Folks, we wanna say. Well, you know, it's the end of the age and things are gonna get really difficult. Well, I agree. I think we're approaching the end of the age, but I think that's escapist theology. On the Day of Pentecost, Peter stood up and he quoted Joel and he said in the last days and he said, now this scripture is fulfilled in your ears. There were worldly churches that Paul shepherded into existence. There were worldly churches that had the influence of that first generation of Jesus' friends and followers.
I would submit to you, it's highly probable we have some worldly churches in the 21st century. Ephesians, another group of believers, another city, similar problem. He said, "We'll no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming". He's describing God's people. He said it's like we're being bounced by the waves and scheming people with deceit will cause great instability amongst the people of God. He gives us the alternative. He said, "Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the head, that is, Christ".
Simplest language. Let's just decide, rather than being mad at somebody else or being mad at the process or the media is not fair or whomever you're anxious directed at. What if we began to in humility and persistently just say to the Lord, "Lord, I would like to grow up some more. I'd like to mature a little bit. Thank you for what you've done in my life. Thank you. You've forgiven my sin. Thank you for whatever your spiritual journey looks like". What if we began to say to the Lord, "I'd like to know you better. So that where I work might begin to reflect godliness in a new way. That the schools where my children go, there would be the light of the gospel in those places in a new way. That in our generation, the name of Jesus would be celebrated and not mocked. God, I would like to become that kind of person".
God has a long track record. In fact, he boasts that he uses cracked pots. He said I took the ones that were not likely, not wise, they weren't noble, there wasn't much about them to celebrate so that when something good happened, the whole world would go, "That would have to be God". That's how we got in the door. Look at the person on your right, say, "You look like a cracked pot". Look at 1 Corinthians 2: It says, "We speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing".
This is really the essence of what I'm inviting you to consider with me a bit. We're talking about a change of heart. And what I'm asking you to consider is that the prevalent wisdom of this current age, conventional wisdom, the wisdom of culture, the wisdom that drives the narrative in most of the social media and in most of our elite academic institutions, unfortunately, is a wisdom that's temporary. It's a wisdom that's not rooted in the objective truth of God. I'm asking you to consider being different, not weird goofy different, different by the set of the values, by the truth that you choose.
I brought you a presentation. We'll touch it really quickly. We can do this segment. It's about another power and another kingdom and another realm. And it's a set of discussions that are far too seldom heard amongst God's people. We imagine that our deliverance is coming from the economic systems. Our deliverance is coming from the political systems. And, you know, our deliverance could be expressed through those systems, but the deliverance will come from Almighty God because of a change in the hearts of God's people.
When we prayed our way through that COVID season, I said that our problem wasn't originally initially scientific or medical. We had a spiritual problem. And if we could tend to the spiritual problem, we could see physical deliverance. And I believe that same set of principles is true today. There is a power that's greater than any power that human beings can orchestrate through our united efforts, whether they're scientific or political or economic or whatever.
In Zechariah 4 and verse 6, the prophet said, "This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel". Easy for me to say. Zerubbabel was gonna build the second temple very difficult time, politically, economically, social, in every way. And this was the message, "Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit says, the Lord. What are you, O mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. And he will bring out the capstone to the shouts of 'God bless it.'" You see, God can make the mountains level. He can do what we cannot do. And we've lost a bit of that vision. We're a little too sophisticated. We've walked too far into the world. We use the world's solutions and the world's language.
In Ephesians, some prefer the New Testament. Paul is praying for the church at Ephesus and he's describing the power of God. He says, "It is incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all authority and power and dominion and every title that can be given". There's no title available to a human being this side of eternity that can compare with King Jesus. There was a power demonstrated through him on our behalf that exceeds any power that's available to a human being. It can change your eternal destiny. It can bring healing to your body. It can part a sea or open a blind eye.
It doesn't mean we don't walk through difficult places. It doesn't mean that we're spoiled petulant children that always get our way. But it means that in the midst of a fallen and broken world, we can understand the redemptive power of God to have a purpose for our lives that transcends the brokenness of sin both within us and around us. That is a tremendous power and it's the message our church holds. It's the message of the church in the earth in this generation. It's a message about kingdoms. You know, there's a very intentional effort right now to dismantle any allegiance to nation states to suggest it's inappropriate. I don't think we're conscious for the most part of the degree to which that's been diminished and weakened.
Even competing for your nation in athletics seems kind of trivial and novel these days. Once upon a time, it was imagined to be the greatest opportunity you could be given as an athlete. Now we think that idea is kind of quaint. It's old fashioned. We used to imagine that the way our nations were organized and structured was unique and significant to the point that we would colonialize the world. And I understand colonialization has become more detrimental than the mark of the beast. But it's worth pausing for a moment to recognize the degree to which they have tried to convince you that your citizenship is completely irrelevant.
You're a global citizen. That there are no boundaries. That there really are no laws that should supersede another. There are many attempts to suggest that our own nation, that our own laws, our own constitution should be subjected and submitted to higher authorities in this world like the World Health Organization 'cause they're such stellar leaders. Well, I would remind you that as components of the church of Jesus Christ, you have a citizenship that reaches beyond time into eternity. And to do that, it begins with an allegiance to a kingdom that has an authority beyond any kingdom in time so that we're not hyphenated Christians. I'm not an American Christian. I'm a Christ's follower who happens to live in America.
Jesus made this distinction for us in John 18. He is on trial for his life. He's standing before a Roman governor who has the authority to free him or crucify him. And the governor is not really able to find any fault with him. He recognizes that the only reason he has the audience is the jealousy of the Jewish leaders. And he's interviewing Jesus. He's in a very difficult spot, Pilate. He understands it's a pivot point in his career. He needs to get this right. Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place".
And Pilate heard his opening. Pilate was clever on some levels. He was spiritually dead, but he had some political astuteness. He said, "You are a king, then! And Jesus answered, 'You are right in saying I'm a king. For this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth". It's an amazing interaction. Jesus is acknowledging a kingdom, a kingdom of greater significance than Rome. A kingdom of greater significance than Judea, a kingdom that stretched beyond time. And he said, "Of that kingdom, I'm the king".
Please understand that to be a Christ follower is the most significant descriptor of your person. And if we put anything before that, it's idolatrous. We need a change of heart. We are being divided by things that shouldn't divide us. We're being manipulated by things that haven't come from the Lord. Deception is rampant because we haven't understood some of the simple truths that are presented to us. We are citizens of the kingdom and the authority in our life is one King Jesus. He has a name that's above every name and ultimately every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. That's a good day. Power and kingdoms and realms of authority.
And I'm out of time. I gave you two passages. I liked them. Their book ends. One is the Old Testament where the prophet prayed and the adversaries were struck blind. And it's very popular amongst contemporary Christians to say, well, you know, the Old Testament is so harsh. But in the New Testament, it's a group hug. Well, in Acts chapter 13 and for those that are following along, that is the New Testament. Someone tries to obstruct the sharing of the gospel to impede a political leader from hearing the gospel. Imagine that. And this is the response, "You're a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! And you're full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord"?
Imagine if I made that set of statements about any public figure while you're being political. But he didn't stop there. "Now, the hand of the Lord is against you and you're going to be blind, and for a time you'll be unable to see the light of the sun. And immediately mist and darkness came over him". Can you believe that's in the New Testament? Must be a misprint? How is it that we have lost sight of an authority that is intended to be resident amongst the people of God that transcends all the power that were available to marshall as human beings.
See, that's the only way we make it into the kingdom of God that there's a power able to deliver us from the kingdom of darkness and bring us into the kingdom of the Son. That's not about joining a church or getting some new morality 'cause we're not that moral. In the church, we've lost sight. We've just traded away the authority of a living God that transforms lives. We'd rather have a seminar on healing than pray for one another. I love to pray with the kids 'cause the kids, we haven't built in all these things into them yet. The kids will pray like God listens.
We give the kids, last weekend, all the kids were anointed in age appropriate ways. We invited them to be prayed for and to pray with one another 'cause those little rascals will do it. You know they're praying for you. They are with an innocence and a remarkable faith in God that we tend to forfeit because we want the approval of other things more than the approval of God. Folks, we need a heart change. I love you. You're in church on a Sunday. That's a wonderful thing. You're watching online when you could be watching something else. I'm not scolding you. I'm telling you, we've been entrusted with something that our world desperately needs and we need to be awakened to the power in it so that we can extend it to our world. I brought you a prayer.
Actually, I brought you a proclamation. It's an unusual one. I don't think we've ever made this proclamation together. It's from the book of Jonah. Do you remember Jonah? John is the fish story in the Bible of a sort. God gave Jonah an assignment. He wanted him to go north and east and Jonah went south and west. And from the moment he started to disobey God, things deteriorated until he found himself in the bottom of the ocean in the belly of something. And then Jonah had an epiphany. Maybe God's idea wasn't so bad. And he prayed and the Bible says that God caused the fish to vomit Jonah onto the beach. Isn't that a pleasant thought? I didn't put it in your notes. But the verse immediately after the verse I put in your notes says, "The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. Go to Nineveh".
You wanna know what Jonah did? He went to Nineveh. Clever guy. Jonah had a change of heart. I would prefer to not have to spend time in the belly of a fish. So I brought you a proclamation. It's a desire to have a change of heart. Once you stand with me, we can read it together. I gave you the reference. You can check me later to see if I told it accurately. You know what a privilege it is. God looked across history and he saw this time when there's kind of some... it's kind of a bumpy season and he called your name. That person on the right that you told a minute ago looked like a cracked pot. Why don't you look back at him and say, "You know, you're pretty important to God for a cracked pot". Let's make this proclamation together:
When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you and my prayer rose to you to your holy temple. Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed. I will make good. Salvation comes from the Lord, amen.