Allen Jackson - Character Counts - Part 1
We began a new study, a couple of sessions back under the general title of "Let's Please God". Let's Please God. I'm gonna talk a little bit more about that. But this session is really gonna be focused on the fact that character counts, and I don't mean principally of yours but God's. If we understand God's character correctly, it will bring an alignment to our lives that will influence everything. If we understand that inappropriately, it will bring destruction. Character really does matter. My image of that is my father, when my brothers and I were living at home, practiced veterinary medicine. And we discovered pretty early that there's a very wide array of attitudes around animals.
You typically don't ask the veterinarian to look at your animal unless there's a problem, which means he's gonna probe something that the animal doesn't want probed. And I can't tell you on how many occasions, whether it was a large animal or a small animal, a horse or a dog. You know, the owner comes in and then goes, you know, this is Buffy. And they kissed Buffy in the mouth. And you know, inevitably you'll say, you know, "Does Buffy bite"? "No, Buffy's never bitten anyone, but Buffy has some problem. And while you're doing the examination, Buffy would prefer you not". Are you with me so far?
And since Buffy has limited verbal skills, the defensive mechanism Buffy will choose is to chew on your arm. And so there's a little tug of war if you're the vet assistant slash son between trying to restrain Buffy, but make it look pretty casual. Well, Buffy's trying to make you an hors d'oeuvre. And if you don't get it right and Buffy gets to the veterinarian, things go downhill really quickly. And on more than one occasion, you kind of, the owner goes, "Well, I've never seen Buffy be so agitated". And my dad, I know it's hard to believe, but he does have a breaking point and I've seen him look at the owner of a horse or a dog say, "Well, have you ever done anything to Buffy that Buffy didn't want done"? "Well, I guess not".
So they have a very limited window into the character of their pet. We've made God a pet. We would like to go to heaven, please. And we would like to do that with very little intrusion on what we wanna do between now and then. And should we get outside of the boundaries that we imagine you would hold, we would like permission to say, "Do over". And then we expect you to eliminate all the consequences. And if you don't cooperate with the plan we have and the imagination we have, we're gonna cry foul and we're gonna threaten to withdraw. And don't you know, the angels are having panic when they hear Allen say, "Well, I don't know if I like the way you're doing your job".
We have such a limited awareness of the character of God that it has left us woefully unprepared to be the church in a season when there is a desperate need for the church. Not as an institution that facilitates worship services and classes and song services, but to be light in the midst of the darkness, to be salt, to be a voice for Almighty God. See, we've allowed ourselves to be co-opted. We imagine ourselves that we're like civic clubs. We just have a handbook. We're here to do good, to be kind, to make the community better. To show expressions of generosity when it's convenient for us. To show up a couple of times a year at events we sponsor and do good things and collect some things for charity and redistribute a few things and then live our lives really on the terms that we wanna live them.
As long as we show up for meetings occasionally and maintain whatever attendance requirements we think go with the civic club we're a part of and churches have all different sorts of imaginations around that. We don't really intend for our faith to be like intrusive 'cause then we'd change clubs. We've made a pet out of God. And I would submit to you that if we're going to maintain the best parts of our lives, the liberty and the freedom to share our faith and for our children in public places to be instructed about God and the nature of his kingdom, that we're gonna have to come back to understanding the character of God with a little more clarity. Because character really does count.
And so in this session, I wanna walk around that with you in a little more detail. You know, we're in trouble. Do you know that? I know we don't like to look at that. Raising my hand to participate in this new production for a television program and interviewing people across our nation and around the world is making me far more aware of that. We're in trouble.
Now, there's some remarkably good things happening. The Israelis rescued four more hostages, which is amazing. And while I applaud their determination and their courage, I hope you understand it is heinous and unthinkable to negotiate with the terrorist group that took over a 100 hostages. I'll talk to you when you've released the hostages. Until then, you should hide. And I don't care if the protest originated Columbia or Harvard or what other misguided institution, it's evil.
So I'm grateful for the Israelis' perseverance and determination and for every life that is spared. But the world is a troubling place these days and I know it's awkward to look but you have to. You don't have to spend hours every day. That's too much. But you need to spend a few minutes watching, listening, thinking, and being prepared to act. Not in anger, not in belligerence, not in violence, I'm gonna keep saying it, but you've got to engage the world. One of the things that has fallen in the wayside that's not even held up as a virtue anymore is telling the truth. It's stunning. It's almost, back during COVID when it began, one of the prayers we began to pray as a community was that the truth would be told.
And in my heart, when I really, when I first said that I thought I would like the truth, if this was Saturday, I'd like the truth to be told on Monday. I didn't wanna wait till Wednesday. And what I began to learn through that season is God has honored so many of those prayers. But the truth is always often told at some point later and it requires you to pay enough attention to go, "Ah, what we were being told was not the truth". Six feet of social distancing would not keep you safe. It was a helpful manipulative idea to raise awareness that there was something infectious amongst us, but 6 ft doesn't make you safe any more than a sheet of plexiglas.
Well, we had another little truth bomb this week, which I think is helpful, but that laptop that has had so much attention that more than 50 national security experts said, it had to be Russian propaganda was authentic. Now, if you're defending this nation and you've been given that trust and you got something that wrong, I have an expectation that you'd raise your hand and say, "I was wrong". And before you share an email with me, there were people on both sides of the political aisle using their voices on that issue. So that isn't a political issue. I mean, there may have been political advantage gained by it but folks, the truth matters and it can't be selective. The doctor that tells you the truth most of the time still commits malpractice.
A preacher that tells you the truth post of the time is destructive. It happens with such frequency and on such a scale, it's overwhelming. And a few days ago, it's been a couple of weeks ago now, I really felt a bit overwhelmed. And I was just as my routine talking to the Lord about it and trying to understand what to do and what to say and how to respond. And I really felt like the Lord gave me, at least on the inside of me, a place, a whole new place of peace. I don't have to combat evil, I have to please God.
And so this whole study, and we're gonna live with it for a while, so if you don't like it, buckle up. Is what would it look like if we said as individuals, as families, as a community, let's please God? We're gonna pay attention. We're gonna continue to look and listen and think and we're gonna be engaged. But our commitment, our personal assignment is to let's go please God. So how does that mean? And what does it mean in relation to the character of God for this session in Habakkuk? I didn't put it in your notes, I apologize. You got the cheap version.
Habakkuk 3 and verse 2 says, "Lord, I have heard of your fame: I stand in all of your deeds. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy". That's been my prayer this week. God, I'm grateful for all the things we can recount that you have done that we have seen you do that we can read about in scripture, but renew them in our day, in our time make them known. In a season when you would be most justified in expressing your wrath towards us, remember mercy. Does that sound like a good prayer? You can check me later. It's Habakkuk chapter 3 and verse 2, now, let's pick up this notion of pleasing God.
I would submit to you that pleasing God is a theme, an idea that you can find in every book of the Bible. It's not obscure, it's not simple, it's not small. It's in every book of the Bible. I chose 2 Kings 22. It's a piece from the history of Israel. Josiah is the king. Josiah became king when he was a boy. And when he's in his twenties, he's ordered the temple to be remodeled. And while they're remodeling the temple, they find the book of the law hidden in the wall. The shorthand is they lost the Bible and nobody noticed. Gee, it sounds a lot like the 21st century edition of the people of God. And when they find it, they bring it and they read it to the king. And you have his reaction in your notes.
It's 2 Kings 22. It says, "When the king Josiah heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes and he gave these orders to the priest," and to some other people with names that we don't use. And in verse 13, he said, "Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all of Judah what about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord's anger that burns against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with what is written there concerning us".
He became king at eight. This is 18 years into his reign. He's 26. He's a young man. There's much he doesn't know but when he's confronted with the Word of God, he said, "We're not cooperating. We are outside the boundaries that we've been given". He displays tremendous anxiety when he discovers that they're dishonoring God. If you'll allow me to an extraordinary extent, we have lost this as a reflex. We don't have enough fear of God. We've lost that respect.
Well, the character of God, we have lost our sense of respect. We've been fed such a steady diet of mercy and grace. I've heard Christian leaders of significant profile, say, "You know, I don't like to read the Old Testament. God is so harsh". Folks, do you think he finished Malachi and started eating gummies? We have to be aware of his character. Josiah tore his robes. It was a physical expression of grief. He brought a whole list of reforms to the nation. They had prostitutes on the Temple Mount with shelters for them. They have a temple. You're just reading the book of Leviticus with all the instructions around worship and the things that are necessary to go into the presence of God, from clothing to personal hygiene, to who's allowed and who's not allowed. And they have morphed so far out of that. It's the temple has been built and they have prostitutes on the Temple Mount.
Now, if that's the case, there's some things you know are also true. There were people who frequented them that thought it was a good idea. There was a power structure in place. There were people profiting from it. So it wasn't like it was just something that was the point of shame. It's one of the most prominent places in the nation and they've turned it into a public expression of immorality. And a 20 something year old king says, we're abolishing it. Not everybody applauded. How long are you going to be silent about the truth that you know, because everybody doesn't applaud when you deliver a God perspective? What has happened to us?
If we don't prepare the people to engage with the living God, God said that that will be on us, that the judgment that they deserve will come to us. Josiah was moved. He brought sweeping reform to the nation. We're gonna have to have the courage to say we have to be different. Not everybody will applaud and not everybody will agree. That doesn't mean you're wicked or evil or self righteous. It means you have a world view that is included a respect and a reverence for God that is more significant than your respect and your reverence of public approval. Well, I'd just rather not think about that.
Well, you can choose that way, but when you are asked to give an account, you will be required to think about it. Saying, I didn't see anything and I didn't hear anything and I preferred not to notice anything, will not absolve you of the responsibility. We practiced, for some time now, we've engaged this idea of let's pray. And the goal was really pretty simple. We wanted to give a very accessible way like a ridiculously accessible way for people to be able to engage prayer beyond the church. So we learned a way to offer a sentence prayer. It'll fit into almost any circumstance. It can be a chance encounter at the quick sack while you're getting gas or a soft drink or is it something that you could introduce at work? And it's really non confrontational. It's an invitation to God into the midst of a circumstance.
How many of you have had a let's pray moment outside of church? I talk to people all over the country. Tens of thousands of people have taken prayer. It's important. It's an invitation to God in the midst of our lives. It's a willingness to raise your hand and say, I'm a person who believes prayer makes a difference. We'll revisit that some more in some other settings, but I wanna introduce this idea of "Let's Please God" into that same context. It's a remarkably accessible way to think about living out your faith in God. What do we do in the midst of a world that is broken? What do we do in the midst of a world where darkness is celebrated and evil is applauded as good and good is denigrated as evil. What do you do? Let's decide that we're going to please God.
As men, as husbands, as fathers, as women and wives, and mothers, as citizens, as coworkers, as neighbors, as brothers and sisters in the faith, let's decide we're gonna please God. Let's stop arguing about which translation of the Bible to read or which style of worship we prefer or which day of the week and which time of day we're going to worship. Don't wait for life beyond time to begin serving God. We've had a very destructive idea introduced to American evangelicalism and that's that you get your eternity settled and then you're pretty much good to go. You know, that introductory phase gets a lot of attention and I believe in new birth conversion, salvation, but I also believe in growing up in our faith. And we've overlooked much of that. In fact, we built some rather elaborate theological systems that give us all sorts of off ramps.
So there's no consequence, there's no real reason to talk about it. I wanna submit, we begin each day and conclude each day by saying, "Did I please God today"? And to give yourself a bit of moment for review and reflection. You don't have to understand the Masoretic Hebrew text. You don't have to know how to parse Koine Greek verb to understand pleasing God. That's accessible to all of us. Whether you're a beginner on this journey, whether you're a prodigal that's coming back home, what I have discovered is the Holy Spirit is very willing to engage with us and make us uncomfortable with ungodliness. And what's incumbent upon us then is to be willing to acknowledge that, to recognize that, to bring alignment, to have a desire to please God.
See, when you don't have the desire, you go find somebody that agrees with your ungodliness. You'll excuse it, you'll justify it, you'll blame somebody else, you'll find somebody and if you're pretty determined, usually there'll be some sort of an authority. And yet all the time you have this sense on the inside of you, "I'm not really pleasing the Lord". And you recite all of the reasons why you're justified. Let's please God. Stop surrendering the field.
Folks, the problem we have is not the depravity of the ungodly, it's the indifference, the ambivalence of the faithful. You don't have to have a fully formed systematic theology, but you are going to have to have the intent to please God. Now, there's some foundations to this that are essential. When Jesus was born, there was an announcement from heaven. I know it's not the right holiday season, but it's still an appropriate verse. You can read it when it's not December. It's Luke 2. It says that, "Suddenly there appeared with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest. And on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased.'"
One of the unexplained principles of scripture is that it pleased God to show kindness to human beings. John chapter 3, it's not in your notes, but you know this verse, you've seen it in the end zone of football games for years, John 3:16. For many, many years with the rainbow wig, we've kind of gotten away from that, but this is, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son".
It was the announcement that the heavenly host made with the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. It pleased God to show kindness to human beings. God's desire is to be kind to you, but that doesn't mean that he's nullified the rest of his character. It means he has compassion on prodigals that he'll help us in our brokenness, that he'll make a plan and a way, a redemptive way for us through our failures. But he will not wink at ungodliness because it destroys people and he cares about people. And so he hates anything that destroys us. Jesus came, the scripture tells us, to reveal the Father.
The great revelation Jesus brought to us was of God, the Father. In the book of Hebrews, and the introduction to that says, "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he's spoken to us by his Son". He spoke to us through the prophets in many ways, many analogies acted out in many ways. Lay on one side for so long, lay on the other side, lots of instructions, lots of messaging. But in these last days, he's spoken to us by his Son. There's a revelation that a Son can give that no one else can give. The Son can tell us the nature of the Father. The great revelation that Jesus brought to us was with us God, as my Father.
Look at John 6, "I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me". I didn't come to keep rules. I came to do the will of my Father. Let's please God. We've been coached up on rules. Can I wear this? Can I watch this? Can I say this? Let's learn to please God. Much of Jesus' ministry that's recorded in the gospels is about completely realigning the imagination of what it meant to please God. I wonder if we have the courage to say we've implemented all kinds of things thinking we're honoring the Lord that really are not grounded in scripture. That we divide ourselves and we fight and quibble and argue and get all heated up about things. Listen, if we could disagree on a point and we can both go to heaven, I will extend to you a hand of fellowship. If we disagree on a point, it can keep us out of heaven, I will not say, "It's okay".
Let's pray before we go:
Heavenly Father, I pray you'll give us a boldness and wisdom to know when to speak and when to be silent. How to speak the truth in a way that it opens people's hearts and doesn't close their minds. I thank you for your presence in our lives and for your confidence in us to put us in this place in history. In Jesus' name, amen.