Allen Jackson - We Have A Choice - Part 2
If you're gonna be a Jesus disciple, one of the requirements is daily taking up your cross. Now, we know the cross to be jewelry. You hang it around the neck, you put it in an earring, you decorate clothing with it. In the Roman world, the cross was a symbol of torture. It wasn't uncommon. If the Romans rolled into some new community and they wanted to assert Roman authority, they would just crucify the first ten men they met. It was a way of saying, "There's a new sheriff in town". And I promise you, that would communicate the message. And Jesus, when he says to that audience, "If anyone would be my disciple, you must take up your cross daily and follow me". Because if you wanna keep your life, you're gonna have to be willing to lose some of it.
So there are some choices in following Jesus that will require us to do difficult things. Being a good parent is difficult. Choosing to cooperate with God's discipline is difficult. Cultivating generosity of spirit is difficult. Being willing to forgive is difficult. Folks, it's a challenge. If you follow Jesus through his narrative in the Gospels, it wasn't always easy. He was frequently rejected. He suffered many difficult things. And I wanna be candid with you.
If you want the best that God has for you, you're gonna have to be willing to make some choices from time to time that are difficult ones. Doesn't mean they're difficult every day. It doesn't mean they're without reward. It doesn't mean they're without a sense of accomplishment or satisfaction or gratification. It just means they're not always easy. We cultivate some phrases that give us some latitude that I don't think is helpful. You know, "I'm just not a person who likes confrontation". Oh, well, as opposed to the more belligerent amongst us that just walk around looking for some.
What I typically find is we don't have problems with confrontations about things that we truly care about. If it matters enough to us, the mama bears show up. God help you. In the previous session, I got stuck in telling animal stories, but I'll tell you one more. My favorite time of the year when I lived at home with my parents was the springtime, 'cause they would bring the broodmares to the farm to foal. They oftentimes have a lot of money invested, and they wanted to be sure the foal was healthy, and so we get to care for those mares leading up to their delivery, and you'd get to know them and their personalities.
And some of those, they'd be wonderful. Most of them were accustomed to being around people, and they were well broke and they were delightful, they weren't angry. But I learned that if you walk in a stall or approach a mama with a new baby, they have a new personality. I've been chased out of more than one stall by an angry mama. And I was quite offended, 'cause the day before, they were quite happy to have my attention. But when the new arrival comes, you better wake up. And I think sometimes we have lost a little bit of that love for the Lord, that intentionality on our part to please him, and we've become a little passive. There are times God will ask us to do difficult things. The best question is not always, "What do I want to do"?
I believe a better question is, "What needs to be done"? And then we have to begin to ask ourselves, "Am I willing to do what needs to be done"? There's a second component in this decision-making grid that I think is helpful: "What I want" versus "What is needed". Second Corinthians 6 highlights this so beautifully. Paul is writing to a church, to a group of believers that he shepherded into the kingdom. And he says, "As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way". He said, "We've been modeling behavior for you". And then he lists some of the behaviors that he and his team have engaged in. He said, "In great endurance; in troubles and hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments, and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights, and hunger".
That's a pretty intimidating list. And then there's a bit of a tone change to more positive aspects of character that they have modeled as well. "In purity, understanding, patience, and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love". And then he begins, the list changes again, and they're contrasting things. He said, "In truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report, and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, yet possessing everything".
Wow. I know you turned the page. You don't want to look at that long. "Let's move along, pastor". But the essence of what Paul is saying is, "We have done our best to do what was necessary for the churches to flourish, for the people to find their ways to faith. And oftentimes, it wasn't what we would have just preferred". I'm amazed how frequently I hear Christians respond to invitations that are put before them in terms of, "Well, I just didn't feel like that was for me". May I submit to you humbly, I don't believe that's the best response. The better response is, "Is it something that needs done? Is it something that truly needs attention"?
Have we been delegating our assignments to others? Have we been stepping out of the arena, going, "Well, I hope somebody stands up. Somebody needs to do something". There's a third aspect of this decision grid, and it's the distinction between disciplined and undisciplined. Proverbs chapter 9 gives us a comparison. Proverbs gives us a discussion of two persons, and it's described as a woman with two very different outcomes, two very different choices. In the first verse, it says, "Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn out its seven pillars". And it goes on to say all the effort that she has made on behalf of her family and those depending upon her.
And in the verse 13, it gives us the contrast to that. It says, "The woman Folly is loud; she is undisciplined and without knowledge". And then it lists all of the ways that it invites destruction into that family system. We have a choice between disciplining ourselves and accepting and cooperating with the discipline of God or choosing to lead undisciplined lives. It's a choice. Discipline has to be accepted. It has to be accepted. We have to choose to cooperate with discipline, and far too often we resent it. It's reflected in so many ways in our culture, defund the police. If we can find an officer who misbehaves and doesn't represent well, then we want to dismiss all of those in authority.
If we find a teacher that doesn't fulfill their assignment and responsibility to the children, then we want to assert our authority and diminish all of those who are working diligently to teach and instruct our children. As a culture, we have cast off discipline. We don't like it. And it has to come back to the church. We have to be willing to submit to the discipline of God. One of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives that's listed in Galatians is self-discipline. And if we're not willing to discipline ourselves, there's no external source of discipline that will bring lasting correction to us. We become deceptive and manipulative, and we begin to cooperate with all sorts of unholy things because we refuse discipline.
And then we begin to make statements like, "Well, there really is no objective truth. All truth is subjective. You can't understand me 'cause you haven't walked in my shoes". Well, I understand there are certainly some things with perspective that can help us be more compassionate to one another. There is such a thing as objective truth. There is right and wrong because there is a God, a Creator of all, and he has set some boundaries. And he didn't ask for a vote or for my opinion, nor for yours. Cooperate with the discipline of God. The fourth category in making these decisions to please the Lord is the distinction between being diligent and lazy.
In Colossians chapter 3, and verse 23, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It's the Lord Christ you are serving". And ought to be completely candid, in its context, he's speaking to slaves. It's a New Testament. It's a very, it says, "Whatever assignment you're given, work at it with all of your heart". We've lost this. I read article after article that says, you know, that we wanna work a four-day work week. We don't like a five-day work week. And the all sorts of things that we don't like and things that we do deserve and how we should be treated.
I would just remind you that when we're introduced to God in the opening chapters of the Bible, he worked six days. I'm not trying to get into your calendar. I'm telling you that laziness seems to be celebrated more than diligence. And if you're gonna choose God's best, it will take your best. God will never accept a sloppy response from you because what was required for you and me to participate in his kingdom was the sacrifice of his Son. How dare us negotiate with God over a simpler path for ourselves? That's why the invitation we're given in the book of Romans is to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God. God has offered a sacrifice on our behalf, and our response to that is more than just a recitation of a prayer. It's a life yielded to the lordship of Jesus.
Let's please God. Let's make it our life ambition. You'll have to make choices between selfish and carnal options and godly and spiritual options. In Romans chapter 8, there's a lengthy discussion on this. I just gave you a sample. It says, "The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God". If the sinful nature, your carnal nature, your Adamic nature, your earthly nature, your "me first" nature is in control. You cannot please God. Now, I can hear somebody chirping in my ear, "I've done enough Bible studies. Well, it says they're controlled by the sinful nature, and as a Christ follower, I'm not controlled". Tomato, tomato. Because in the larger discussion, same chapter, same discussion, "Brothers, we have an obligation".
Now, he's writing to a group of believers, Christians, the church in Rome: "We have an obligation, but it's not to the sinful nature, to live according to it". If it had no influence in your life and if it had no authority over your decisions, Paul would not need to remind you of this. Paul doesn't waste words. "If you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God".
We've taken that last phrase, and we do a lot with that. It informs our decisions around worship and public gatherings, all kinds of conversations about being led by the Spirit of God. But in the context in which it's presented, being led by the Spirit of God means we're willing to put to death that old, carnal, earthly, "me first" nature. "Wow. I thought pleasing God meant I got to church on time. I thought pleasing God meant I didn't give the stink eye to that awful person that sat in my seat. I thought pleasing God meant no bad gestures when somebody cut me off as I was trying to get off campus". Well, they can include all of the above, but it shouldn't be limited to them.
We have to make a distinction between "I'm the one determining right and wrong" and when I'm accepting God's values. In Hebrews 12, it says, "We've all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live"! Men are often well familiar with the verse in Ephesians that refers to wives submitting to their husbands. Are you as familiar with the assignment to submit to God? Folks, we're not the arbiters of right and wrong. We don't get to define marriage. We don't get to define sexual morality and immorality.
God has defined those things for us. It's the reason we're at such a pivotal crossroads in American Christiandom, 'cause there are enormous chunks of people that are standing beneath the umbrella of Christianity that are completely casting aside God's instruction. It's overwhelming. It's disorienting. It's confusing. But I'm suggesting to you that if we're going to please God, we have to accept his values. We understand that notion of being under authority in a home. We understand that in some other arenas of our lives. We understand the degree to which we chafe against it. We've all seen the little toddlers look at their parents when there's a considerable size and strength and resource distinction and say, "No. Nah".
Go sit at McDonald's. Watch the little people with their french fries. I've seen parents reach across to take one, and they go, "They're mine". You could buy the box. "Those are mine". And I tend to do that with the Lord. Everything I have is an expression of his grace and his mercy. And he puts an invitation in front of me, go, "No, no. That would take my time. That would take my energy. That would require me to expend some resources. That's mine". God must just shake his head. "I think, knucklehead, I've given all of it to you". Submitted to God. Folks, we're not the arbiters of right and wrong. We reflect it.
The reason I tell you that I don't believe our problems as a nation are primarily political is we live with a representative form of government. The people that fill the halls of Congress and fill that White House on Pennsylvania Avenue are just a reflection of the hearts of those of us who live on Main Street. And if we think those people are corrupt and dishonest and ungodly and greedy and immoral, it's because far too many of us on Main Street are. If we will change, we will have different kinds of leaders, but we have to submit to the authority of God. What if we said we're gonna please God? You see, this is so available to us.
When we get up today, "How would I please God? I'm going to work today. How can I please God there? Well, maybe I'd have to be kind. But they're awful". I know. One more. I'm 'bout done. Then there's this tension between syncretism and faithfulness. Syncretism is a little bit of a fancy word. It has a biblical connotation. It's those places where you don't reject God; you just assimilate other things. And you take kind of your biblical worldview, and then you bolt on whatever else was helpful. If we use the biblical examples, they didn't stop worshiping God. They didn't stop offering sacrifices. They didn't stop celebrating Passover. They didn't stop celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. They just put up an altar and worshiped Molech too.
And before we chuckle at them, it's not like we've said, "We don't believe in Jesus". We've just said, "Well, there's a lot of ways you can get to know God". And we didn't reject God's idea of marriage between a man and a woman. We said, "It just seems kind of narrow. Let's push out the boundaries a little bit". And we didn't say, "Well, I think God had it completely wrong around sexual morality, but, you know, it is a little confining, and this is the 21st century, and we have AI".
And so we pushed the definitions. The technical label for that is syncretism. It's kind of a fancy way of saying compromise. It's not a repudiation of what you believe; it's you become the arbiter of what else you can put in the cart. I thought it was worth noting God's perspective. Do you remember Solomon? He's the third king of Israel, the wisest of all of Israel's kings. God blessed him so that gold and silver were so common in Jerusalem during Solomon's reign that the Bible says they were like rock. Solomon was given the privilege of building the temple, the first temple.
And in 1 Kings 11, and verse 7, it says, "On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for the detestable god of Moab, and for the detestable God of the Ammonites. And he did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods. And the Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice". Solomon gave up his focus on pleasing the Lord, and God got angry with him. We don't think a lot about the anger of God. We talk very little about the consequences of displeasing God. We talk far more about mercy and grace, and again, I believe in those, but I promise you that justice is as much a part of God's character as his mercy.
And I think it's important that we not accommodate things that are ungodly. Again, you don't have to be angry and belligerent or violent, but you have to be willing to honor the Lord. In 2 Timothy chapter 4, it says, "Do your best to come to me quickly". Paul is in a Roman prison. He's already been on trial for his life once. He's awaiting a second trial, and he anticipates an outcome that is not good. He's alone, and he's writing to Timothy, and he says, "Do your best to come quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and he's gone to Thessalonica".
Doesn't say he had renounced the faith. It doesn't say he's denied Jesus. It says he's abandoned his post. I'm sure demons had logic for why he didn't want to be affiliated with Paul, a prisoner in Rome. I'm sure he had an answer that would have deflected any easy criticism. He had a reason for accommodating a culture that made it awkward and uncomfortable to stand with someone who was paying a price for their faith.
Folks, I think we understand that because most of us have looked for some of that as well. A place where we could just be silent and not bear the brunt of it, or we could step into the shadows and not be included. Takes great strength to choose to please the Lord. It isn't always fun. It's not always your happy place. There's a joy in it. I believe there's a satisfaction in it, a great sense of contentment. I believe it's worthwhile. I believe it will be richly rewarded. I believe there are times in our lives when it's a great challenge, and you'll need the encouragement of people who care about you and who are making the journey with you. Oftentimes, the encouragement won't come from the places you would like it to, but I found that the Lord will provide encouragement. I've always wanted a choir, like a whole group of people, hundreds, dozens and dozens.
You know, like running a 5K with the strangers lining the road, going, "You're doing so good". Feel like you're coughing up along, and they're offering you Gatorade and cheering for you. And I haven't found the spiritual journey to feel so much like that, but the Lord has always provided a voice. I've been amazed at the faithfulness of God. And I want to encourage you today. Begin to say to the Lord, "I would like to please you. I would like to lead a life that's pleasing in your sight". God doesn't need me to accomplish or become or accumulate; the earth and everything that's in it belongs to him. What I can offer to him is a desire, a deeply felt desire within myself to be pleasing to him.
And I'm trying to understand that framework. And I'd like to share that invitation with you. I believe it's the best counterpoint to the expressions of evil in our world. I believe it's the best way to take the armor of God and the weapons that have been given to us and put them on display. "What are you doing"? I'm doing my best to please the Lord. I want to please him every day. I want to lead a life that honors him. Remember what he said about Job? I mean, the devil showed up in God's office, Living Bible. And the Lord said, "Have you seen Job? There's nobody quite like him". Wow. Determine to please the Lord. Amen.
I brought us a proclamation. Let's say it together. You can stand with me. Sorry. At home, too. Put down the bagel and lox. There's a set of simple statements. They're all taken from scripture. It's just an affirmation of our intent. Proclamation is using your words to give the spiritual authority of your life to the direction you have chosen for yourself. Let's say it together.
I have decided to follow Jesus. I will take up my cross daily. I will run with perseverance the race marked out for me. I intend to run in such a way as to get the prize. I will throw off every hindrance and any sin which might entangle. I choose to say no to ungodliness and yes to obedience. I offer myself as a living sacrifice for the purposes of Almighty God, amen.