Allen Jackson - God Is For Us - Part 2

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Hey, it's an honor to be with you again. We're gonna complete our study we began on the fact that "God Is With Us". What an amazing idea. You know it's a biblical principle, it starts as an observation in Scripture. We find it early in the Old Testament, the statement around various characters that God is with them, but it emerges, by the time we get to the New Testament, it's a blessing, and in between the two is Jesus. You know, the Hebrew word for "God with us" is Emmanuel, one of the titles attached to Jesus.

So Jesus is the physical embodiment of the reality that God is with us, we're not alone. To be a Christ follower means that God sent his Son to transform our journey through time, and for all eternity. Now, why does that matter? Because we're living in a turbulent season and there's so much uncertainty and so much fear and so many threats, if we don't live with the understanding that God is with us we will lead lives that are driven by fear and anxiety, and we don't want to do that. Don't spend too much time with the news.

You know, you need to be aware of what's happening in the world, that's important, but you want to be more aware of what God has said about you and your life and his role with you. If he is with us, it doesn't really matter what's arrayed against us. Our victory doesn't come because of a political party or a politician or the numbers of us that are standing together, our victory is secured by the creator of heaven and earth. God is with us, God is with you. So as you listen to the lesson today, open your heart to the Spirit of God, lay down those things that are frightening or the threats that you have perceived and begin to thank God that he is walking with you, he is our victory, and he will lead us safely through this season. Grab your Bible and a notepad, open your heart, God has something good for you today.

The Lord is with us. In 1 Samuel 3, Samuel is the last of the judges, he's a very important character in Scripture. Samuel's life, we are introduced to Samuel, really, before he's born, his mother is weeping, she's childless. And the priest Caesar thinks she's come to offer sacrifices inebriated, and he rebukes her and she says, "Not so, my Lord. I was weeping from a broken heart". She made a covenant with God, "If you give me a child, when he's born, I will give him to serve the Lord". And when he was old enough to ween, she brought him and entrusted him to the priest. Can you imagine? She would come once a year and bring him clothes she had made.

So Samuel's life was unique before the Lord, but it doesn't mean Samuel will choose to be unique before the Lord, parents' desires have limits. 1 Samuel 3:19, "Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall". In Hebrew, literally it means, "None of his words fell to the ground". Hebrew is an ancient language, it's very physical, and words, particularly in the Hebrew Bible, Old Testament, have this notion that they have a tangible substance to them, like blessings come upon you like dust settles over you. And here it says, "The Lord didn't let's Samuel's words fall to the ground," they were living things because the Lord was with him.

1 Samuel 18, the second king, Samuel is asked to anoint the kings, the people want a king, they don't like Samuel's leadership. How hard would that be? They vote you off the island and God says, "Well, I want you to go to anoint your replacement". And Samuel anointed Saul, and then God said, "I've rejected Saul because of his pride, go anoint David". Now Samuel's life is at risk because there is a king and he's going to anoint another king. If you anointed the first king, the people understand you anointing the king carries some authority, and if the current king sitting on his throne recognizes your anointing a pretender to the throne that's not a good place to be in. Samuel is reluctant but he goes. And it says of David, "Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with David but had left Saul".

Do you think of the presence of the Lord having that kind of a tangible impact upon your life? Saul has access to all the powerful positions, he's the commander of the army, he has the access to the tribal leadership, he has all the levers of power. David is a fugitive, he's a renegade. I know we know him from a historical perspective and we think, "Yeah, but he's on the rise". Yeah, but he is a a fugitive living in caves in the desert, and Saul is afraid of him because he recognizes the Lord is with him.

Folks, we need a church so determined to follow the Lord, so committed to walking in purity and holiness and righteousness and godliness, that the people who don't even particularly like you will say, "The Lord is with them". Are you with me? Not because our lives are easy or our family systems are perfect or every outcome goes the way we want it to go. We've been leading with other descriptors, "This is the group I belong to, I go to WOC," or, "I belong to this denomination," or, "I read this translation," or, "This is how I worship". Stop, we're children of the King, we need the Lord to be with us; and if he's not with us, we need to get on our knees until we're conscious that he is with us. That is the pathway to a better outcome. No matter what happens in the world around us, if the Lord is with us, does it matter who's against us? We have to have a heart for this.

"Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with him... So he sent David away from him and gave him command over 1,000 men, and David led the troops in their campaigns. In everything David did he had great success, because the Lord was with him. When Saul saw how successful he was, he was afraid of him". There's a pattern emerging. In Hebrew, again, it's an ancient language, it's simple to add emphasis, you duplicate words. Sometimes in English they'll pull it forward, it says, "They were listening listening". It means, "Listen carefully," "Listen with big ears". And here, in a short time it says twice, "Saul was afraid and the Lord was with David".

Saul was really afraid and the Lord was really with David. David is living as a fugitive, in the caves, hiding. His life being threatened, multiple attempts on his life, many searching for him, and yet the Lord was with him. In 2 Chronicles 15, a king perhaps a little less known to you, nevertheless a godly king, his name is Asa. This is what the prophet says to Asa. "Listen to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin," it's the southern kingdom; the northern nation is Israel, the southern nation is Judah, "The Lord is with you". But now we get a little more information, "The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he'll let you find him; but if you forsake him, he will forsake you".

That's not just Old Testament. In the New Testament, Hebrews chapter 11, and it says, "God is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him". You don't earn it, we don't qualify for it, it's not merit-based, but you have to care, you have to be interested, you have to want the Lord's presence. And you can't just want it when you need help, when you need a parking place on the square on a rainy day. You can't go places where you hope the Lord's not watching, as a matter of habit, you can't engage in behaviors and you pray the Lord is distracted, as a matter of habit, and think that you can live and the Lord be with you. There are none of us perfect, we will make mistakes. I hit my thumb with a hammer, "Praise the Lord," may not come out. "Hallelujah," I don't know, many options. But you have to have a desire for the Lord to be with you, if you don't intend it, it's highly improbable it's going to happen.

Look at verse 3, "For many days Israel was without the true God and without a teaching priest and without law," why? Because they didn't care, they didn't care, they didn't think they needed his help. "But in their distress they turned to the Lord God of Israel, and they sought him, and he let them find him". It sounds a lot like where we are. We heard about a virus coming our way from Wuhan. We didn't pay much attention; they said, "2 million of you may die," we've got a little more focused.

"Stay home," we got a good bit more focused, some of us. "In those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in, for many disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands. Nation was crushed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every kind of distress. But you," this is the message to the king, "You be strong and do not lose courage, for there is a reward for your work". The Lord is with you. Folks, we have to care about this. Stop holding up our credentials and telling our stories of back in the day, and on a daily basis begin to behave in such a way as if we recognize we need the Lord to be with us. It's important. Israel, God's people, for many days were without a teaching priest and without the Law.

Okay, but let's not stay there. They lost their Bible. This is before printing presses, they had scrolls. When they remodeled the temple, somebody hid it in the wall of the temple. I'm sure there was a threat coming from beyond the nation they thought they could lose their Torahs, they hid it in the wall. They forgot they had a Bible. If you're in charge of worship and you forget you've got a Bible, that's a bad day. But if you take a casual glance at contemporary American Christianity you could come to the conclusion that we forgot we had a Bible. It's not authoritative, it's not our rule in faith and practice, it's antiquated, a little bit out of date, we have got to seek the Lord. In their distress they turned to the Lord. Let's turn to the Lord.

You understand the Scripture has value inspired by the Spirit of God for many applications? Matthew chapter 1 and verse 21, it says the angelic announcement, "She'll give birth to a son, you're to give him the name Jesus, because he'll save his people from their sins. This took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: 'The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they'll call him Immanuel' which means, 'God with us.'" Both applications are true, for Isaiah's contemporaries and for Mary and Joseph. Romans chapter 8, we've looked at it, "What do we say? If God is for us, who can be against us"? It's a promise of God to his people, "I will be with you. If you'll seek me, I'll be found of you," but we have to care, we have to seek him.

Psalm 1:18, "If the Lord is for me; I will not fear; What can man do to me"? Psalm 56, verse 9, "Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call: This I know, that God is for me. In God, whose Word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise. In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me"? Folks, if you find something being repeated through the Scripture, "Why would I be afraid? What can man do to me"? the answer is, "Quite a" bit. Jesus said to us, "Don't be afraid of the person that can only kill your body". Well, there you go. I suspect that the majority of the fearful responses we have in life and to this world and to other people have to do with those that we think could kill our body.

Jesus said, "Really, that's not such a big deal". He said, "I'll show you who to be afraid of. Be afraid of the one that, after they've destroyed your body, can send your soul to hell". Jesus said that's far more frightening. We want the Lord to be with us. We may walk through difficult places and pressures and things that are unfair, unjust, we may suffer, but the Lord is still with us. He will bring his best us, he'll put our feet on his path, he'll bring whatever outcomes he needs us to have in time. But if the Lord is with us, what does it matter who's arrayed against us? We've compromised too much, we've traded away too much.

Hebrews 13, he's quoting the Old Testament, "'I'll never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.' So that we confidently say, 'The Lord is my helper, I'll not be afraid. What will man do to me?'" I had to cut the verses right in front of that out, verses 4 and 5, just because of space, I couldn't have three pages tonight. But I want to read them to you because that promise is in a context and the context matters. It says, "Marriage is to be held in honor among all". That's our assignment, to hold marriage in honor, not just in the way you observe your vows, but in your advocacy for biblical view of marriage. Holding your vows is like loving your kids.

We stand up for the value of human life, we're standing up for children, not just our own. We've had a very, very narrow circle in how we've looked at the world and where we were willing to be vulnerable. "Marriage is to be held in honor among you, the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge". This is written to God's people. Fornication, sex without the benefit of marriage, adultery, sex beyond the covenant of marriage, he says they'll be judged. "Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for he himself has said, 'I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.'" It's not an abstract promise, it's a promise made in the context of the desire that God would be with us.

You see, there has to be consistency with your desire for God to be with you, and behaving in a godly way, they go together. The Lord is our helper, but we have responsibilities as well. He identifies sexual purity, our character free from the love of money. Do you have that notion that greed and envy attack your character? They're corrosive. "Be content with what you have," he said. That's not easy to do, we're a consumer society. You know how many multiplied billions of dollars are spent to make you discontent? People would like you better if you drove this car, wore these clothes, drank this beverage, follow this fashion trend. Probably not. Be content.

So it lives as a promise, but then finally in the New Testament this notion emerges by the time the church is gaining traction, it comes to be spoken as a blessing. Remember where we started, all those verses we walked through where it says, "The Lord was with Abram," or, "The Lord was with David," or, "The Lord was with Joshua," or, "The Lord was with Asa," or, "The Lord is with Hezekiah," or, "The Lord was with Jehoshaphat," or, "The Lord was with Mary," "The Lord was with Gideon". It's a descriptor of their lives, and then we're invited into this notion where it's a promise that if we will seek the Lord, the Lord will be with us. But by the time we start to read the letters that are being written to these fledgling Christian communities it has become a spoken blessing.

Now, this is really what intrigued me, 2 Thessalonians 3:16, "Now may the Lord of peace himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. The Lord be with you all"! If you didn't have the background to the rest of the story you would think, "Oh, they're just empty words, verbal styrofoam," but that's not at all what it is. "The Lord be with you," the way he was with Abraham and he was with David, and he's was with Joshua and all the rest of the crew. "The Lord be with you". You serve the Lord, he'll be with you. If God is for you, who cares who's against you? Why does it matter? Because these churches were birthed into some really tumultuous places. Paul hardly plants a church without a riot, right? or a threat or a challenge or an imprisonment. And they're struggling in some powerful ways, and he writes to them and he said, "And now the Lord be with you all".

It doesn't stop there, Romans 15, imagine the pressure in Rome, most powerful city of its day. At the heart of Rome was a pantheon, the collection of all the Roman gods, the ones they started with and the ones they've collected from all the nations that they captured. It's an idolatrous city, it's an immoral city, the Coliseum and the murders and the blatant immorality. You know enough of Roman history. I suspect you don't need much imagination. And in the midst of that, the church is beginning. Paul got sent on a missionary journey to Rome. Remember that? It takes about a fourth of the book of Acts to get him from Jerusalem to Rome.

Last forth he's arrested, falsely accused, assassination plots, imprisoned in Caesarea for almost two years, makes multiple presentations for his life and there's always some legal maneuvering that keeps him in prison. Finally, he's put on board a ship, he's gonna sail, he's going to take a cruise to Rome and there's a storm and a shipwreck and a poisonous snake, and he finally gets there. And for two years, with an attendant Roman soldier, it says he lived in a house and preached the gospel. And when he ends this letter, "Now may the God of peace be with you all, amen".

God be with you all, God be with you all. God bless America, again. He has been with us, and much like the people of Israel, we forgot him, we forgot our Bibles, we forgot the source of our strength. I'm talking about the church, the largest bureaucracy in the history of civilization, our government, and somebody had the bright idea that the church shouldn't speak into the government. Okay, how many of you think there's any chance that the largest bureaucracy, the largest collection of human beings in human history, without the influence of the Word of God, will bring good things to us? And yet when that was said, we said nothing.

We've accepted it when it's not appropriate for us to do that, we're not supposed to do that. And the government's not supposed to spy on us, they're not supposed to limit our free speech or close our churches, but they don't do what they're supposed to do because we stopped being salt and light. It's not their problem, it's ours. We didn't care, we lost our biblical worldview. Hebrews 13, I'll close here, there's hope. It's a complex sentence, it says, "May the God of peace," and then there's some phrases interjected.

"May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep. May the God of peace... equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever, amen". Hallelujah, may God be with us. He's willing, if we will seek him. You are not powerless, we're not left alone. Yes, there's turmoil in the world, it's not just here.

We had an update from Western Kenya from some churches that we work with, and the challenges they face make me embarrassed to think of anything we face is a challenge. It's not just here, but this is where God has planted us to be salt and light, to be advocates for Jesus of Nazareth. God is with us, seek the Lord, cry out to him, call on his name. Don't tolerate ungodliness, don't excuse it, don't justify it, don't be silent in its face. You don't have to be angry or belligerent or hostile or condemning. God is with us, God is with us. I want to pray Hebrews 13 with you. Have the courage to make it personal, you're not doing an injustice to the text, but I brought you a prayer. Can we pray this together?

Heavenly Father, we humble ourselves before you today to acknowledge you as the creator of all things. You have made us, we are the sheep of your pasture. Through your truth we have found freedom. You have given us a home in a place of liberty. Give us the wisdom to maintain what has been entrusted to us. Let the darkness be pushed back and the light break forth in this season. Awaken your people in this generation. You are our hope and our great redeemer. Let the name of Jesus be exalted and all who oppose him stumble, in Jesus's name, amen.