Allen Jackson - Let's Choose Truth - Part 2
In Exodus chapter 3, God is recruiting Moses. You know, we all want to think if God recruited us, we'd go, "Well, yeah! Let's go! I'm in"! We wanna think that. Well, if I knew it was God. You know, I kind of had a thought. I had a premonition. Felt like maybe, but if I had really known, I would have said no more softly. Well, God's recruiting Moses in Exodus 3 and it says God said, "The cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people and the Israelites out of Egypt". I mean, Moses killed a man for that objective. I mean, he forfeited his entire inheritance.
So that's really good news to him. But God said, "I'm sending you". You would think he would go, "Yes! Now I'm going back with some real authority". "And Moses said to God, 'Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?'" Don't get lost in the biblical language. Moses said, "I'll take a pass, thank you". Chapter 4, verse 1, this is a rather lengthy dialogue, "Moses answered the Lord," God's trying to tell him why he can do it, "and Moses answered the Lord, 'What if they don't believe me or listen to me or what if they say the Lord didn't appear to you?'" Guess what they did? They didn't believe him. Frequently, they wouldn't listen to him. At multiple occasions, he would say, "Does God only talk to you"?
I'm wondering if Moses ever reminded God of this, this original conversation. Same chapter, verse 10: "Moses said to the Lord, 'Lord, I've never been eloquent, not in the past nor since you've spoken to your servant. I am slow speech and tongue". He really doesn't want to go. God keeps showing him his provision. He gives him a staff that has some really unique, you know, if you knew the code to unlock all the tricks on that staff, it was amazing. And Moses said, "You know, really gonna be great for parties. I can meet some new people. But if it's all the same with you, I'm good in the desert". And God said, "No, you gotta go". And he said, "Yeah, but I don't talk so good".
Verse 12: "Now go; I will help you speak and I will teach you what to say". The heaven, the Creator of heaven and earth said, "Listen, I'll write your script. I will put it in the prompter". And Moses said, "Please send someone else to do it". I've prayed that prayer. Haven't you? You ever recognized an opportunity, some kind of God opportunity, some kingdom opportunity, an opportunity to be kind or good or generous, and you kind of sort of thought, "Yeah, maybe there was a window there. I could have slipped in there," and I'm like, "No, God. Let somebody else do it". "And the Lord's anger burned against Moses. He said, 'Well, what about your brother, Aaron? I know he can speak well. He's already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you.'"
Moses took the assignment, but he took it reluctantly. I say that to you because, in all candor, almost every significant juncture in my life when I have said yes to the Lord in a new way, I have done it with significant reluctance, either because I really didn't like the direction, often, I felt very underprepared, or that I lacked the basic competencies to accomplish whatever it was. Most typically, it just didn't suit what I wanted to do. I understood for awhile, before I ever said yes to the Lord, that he was inviting me towards ministry, but I didn't want to be a minister.
I had a different plan. It was focused on things that I liked to do and a lifestyle that I wanted to see if I could put together. And I had invested significant time and energy and effort and resources in pursuing what I wanted to do. And I had this nagging, there wasn't anything shouting at me. I didn't have, you know, visions with neon lights. I just, there was this persistent, and I thought, "Ah". And that there was one component that's valuable. Perhaps it would help some of you. I was locked in a struggle to get my way. I know you've never done that, but pray for me because sometimes I get into that place. And I was locked in the struggle to get what I wanted. And it was in a program where there was a lot of attrition, and so it got really personal to me.
And I watched people, in my opinion, misbehave in order to create the rate of attrition they needed. They would do things to discourage people and to get people to drop out, and I hated 'em for it. I hated 'em for it. And I'm competitive enough that I think you're not playing fair and you're mistreating people, I might not make it over the top, but I'll give, and I wouldn't have quit. I would have been in that profession today if God hadn't intervened. He put somebody in my life through some circumstances that I didn't arrange. It involved an ice storm so I couldn't get away. And it was somebody that I respected enough that when they would ask me a question, I would give them an honest answer. And they began to ask me about what I was doing and where I was headed.
And I said...and they listened for the most of the day, and they finally said, "You know, you are filled with bitterness and resentment. And you need to be willing to get rid of that". And I thought, "Well, you know, that's really my fuel". I can study through the night or get up early for what I need to do or I can push through because that gives me a little edge. Nice people will quit. Mean, nasty, resentful people won't. And they cared enough about me that they said, "You'll never make an argument that will cause God to agree with you when you're wrong". And they asked me if I was willing to forgive, and I said I would. And they walked me through a little exercise simply saying I forgive and acknowledging my own need to be forgiven and releasing those people that I had been so frustrated with, that I thought were unfair and unjust.
You see, the injustice in somebody else does not give you the right to be filled with anger and resentment and bitterness and hate. It doesn't. And I forgave those people. And I finished that little prayer time with my friend. And we got done and they said, "May I pray for you"? And I said, "Sure". They prayed for me. When they got done, they said, "Have you ever thought about the ministry"? I said, "Never". And I was being "Never thought about that".
You know, at that point in my life, the ministers I knew wore long black robes and vestments. You know what I'm talking about? I didn't ever remember seeing a minister smile, and I thought, "Lord, if I got the job, they'd fire me day three". I knew I wouldn't make it to the second weekend. And I was a reluctant recruit, but God brought the voice I needed so that I could get the spiritual freedom so that I could buy the truth I needed for what was next, and he'll do that for you. I want you to understand that saying yes to the Lord it's not always a life-changing career, but oftentimes, we're reluctant.
You know, in the last few years, several years ago now, really, we are an independent interdenominational church in the center of what has been the epicenter of the Southern Baptist and the Church of Christ. That's a collision course. And if you're the, like, the lone voice in that, it's a collision course where you're gonna be identified as a heretic. Particularly, if you start in a tent. I mean, it doesn't take much imagination to begin to attach things to that. And so a few years ago, somebody said, "Well, why don't we put our Sunday morning service on channel 2? It'd be like pulling the curtain back on church, and people could see that we don't handle snakes or drink Kool-Aid or, you know, whatever". I thought, "Well, you know. Then that means we're a TV preacher". And I said, "No, I don't think we really wanna do that".
You know, it's one thing if you get in your car and you drive to church, you walk in the building. I feel the freedom to kind of, you raised your hand and said, "I wanna be here". I feel free to tell you the truth. But if I show up in your house 'cause you're looking for the ball game and I say, "I believe Jesus of Nazareth is the incarnate Son of God and that he healed the sick and raised the dead and he's coming back to the Earth. And you need to know him or you won't be ready. Or that I believe demons are real or praying for the sick or speaking in tongues".
I don't know. Do I have to say that outside the building? And so, we took that little step, and I did it begrudgingly, reluctantly, hesitantly. Didn't tell anybody. And I watched what, you know, the Lord kept putting those invitations, and I thought, "Lord". I mean, have you ever watched TV preachers? I know you have because every time I say that to a group of people, they chuckle, just like you do. Then you know the assumptions that are made. I was reluctant again, but I wasn't so reluctant that I ultimately wasn't willing to say, "Lord, whatever you ask me to do. I'll tell the truth wherever you give me the opportunity, to whomever you give me the opportunity".
So I'm trying to be honest enough with you to understand that I'm not just pointing at biblical characters, and I understand that for you to say yes to the Lord and his invitations in your life will not always be fun. if you think they're fun, you're not paying attention to all the right ones. I give you another example. Again, I think you know the story. Gideon, he's one of the judges. This is before there's a monarchy, before there are kings in Israel, and there's a national threat. There's a threat to the well-being of the 12 tribes, which means that they're greatly outnumbered. The enemy is overwhelming. They have been just decimating the economy of the tribes, and God needs somebody that can lead a defense of the people.
And so he recruits this character by the name of Gideon. And it says, "The angel of the Lord came and sat down under an oak," and watched Oprah. Well, that's kind of what it says, "where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep him from the Midianites. And when the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, 'The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.'" Wow. I'm thinking that's pretty good. How many of the angels in heaven have said, "You know, where we come from, you're a mighty warrior"? You know, I've felt that way myself quite often. But Gideon said, "If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us"?
He's not at an emotional peak. He's in a very, very difficult place. In fact, he's hiding to thresh enough wheat for his family. "Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not the Lord bring us out of Egypt?' But now the Lord has abandoned us and he's put us into the hand of Midian". So Gideon's in a very difficult place, "And the Lord turned to him and said, 'Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?' But Gideon said, 'Lord, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh,'" my clan's the weakest in my tribe, "'and I'm the least in my family.'"
If he was in the South, he just said, "I'm the runt of the litter". "And the Lord answered, I will be with you, and you'll strike down all the Midianites together". And some of you know Gideon's story. He didn't relent just yet. He continued to put some questions before the Lord. He's a reluctant recruit. I understand the reluctance. We have routines and lives and plans and dreams and aspirations. And we're aware enough to understand that God might rewrite the story. He might ask you to give birth to something. He might ask you to accept responsibility for something, to redirect time or energy or effort or to raise your voice or to raise your head up or to raise your hand.
I would submit to you that God is searching the earth, he still is, just as he was for Moses or Gideon, just as he recruited Isaiah, that the Spirit of the Lord is still searching the earth for men and women who are willing to prepare themselves to buy the truth and not sell it, to engage in the discipline that's necessary to be the people of God in their generation. The Bible's very clear. There are times and generations when people were not willing to do that. May it not be said of our generation. Should we talk about renewals and revivals and awakenings as if it's something that happens apart from us, away from us?
Completely, you know, whether it's just a sovereign something, and I agree, only God can change a human heart, we're talking about outcomes that God has to engage, but God works in the earth through his people. And it may be that you committed yourself to prayer with a discipline and a determination and a quiet that opened the doors for the Spirit of God to move in ways that would change the course of a nation. I don't think it's we're called... it's necessary that we're called to do things that are perceived as significant by the world. I think we're asked to be faithful, and then God brings about significant outcomes.
In 1 Samuel chapter 17, it's another familiar story. David, he's a shepherd boy. By all probabilities, he's still a teenager, probably a young one. He's not old enough to be in the Israelite army, but there's a challenge, and his older brothers have gone and serve in the army. And David was sent by his father just to check on his brothers and take them some food. He's not old enough to count. So he's sent with food for his brothers, the warriors. And the entire Israelite army is frightened and intimidated and threatened. They're unwilling to respond to the invitation of Goliath. You know the story, you've learned about it if you've been in church since childhood.
And David hears Goliath bellow his challenge. Goliath means warrior, mighty warrior. He hears this mighty Philistine warrior bellow his challenge, and the entire Israelite army hides in fear. And David said, "Oh, I could do this. I could do this". And they're in such bad condition, because for 40 days, morning and evening, they've been being taunted, that they're going to consider letting a teenager fight the battle that they're unwilling to fight. That's pretty messed up. They're there to protect the young people in the nation, and they're gonna push one out onto the field of battle to do something they're all afraid to do.
It's David's commentary that I think is helpful. He said, "Your servant," the king calls him and he said, the king, Saul, who stands head and shoulders above everybody else. He's the physical specimen you'd be expecting to go take on Goliath. No, he's not interested. "Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he's defied the armies of the living God," David understood something. It wasn't the armies of Saul that were being challenged. It's the armies of God, "'And the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, he'll deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.' And Saul said to David, 'Go, and the Lord be with you.'"
Just real, David was prepared. His preparation had come when he had a job that nobody else wanted. The shepherds were the lowest rung on the social ladder. That's why they got the invitation to that birth party in Bethlehem. So David's had the job that nobody wanted. He wasn't good enough or strong enough or old enough or mature enough to go with his brothers. You could take us some food to eat. But while he was doing that job that everybody overlooked, he's preparing himself. He's facing the challenges that come to him in that place. Don't begrudge the challenges that come to you. Don't be overcome with anger or resentment or bitterness. It's easily done but choose not to do it, and if you have, repent, forgive, and release. It will change the trajectory of your life so that David's prepared.
He said, "Yeah, he's big and he is ugly. And his spear is intimidating, but a lion's intimidating and a bear is intimidating and God delivered them into my hand. And I know God, and he'll deliver him into my hand". What amazes me at the end of that little passage we read is that Saul is unwilling to accompany him. I'm reading it and I'm thinking, "Well, at least Saul would say, 'Listen, we'll do it together.'" No, no, he said, "God be with you. God be with you".
I've learned some other things along the way. When you begin to cautiously and hesitantly and awkwardly begin to say yes to the Lord, there's some people you think will go with you, and on a lot of occasions, they'll say, "You know, Lord bless you. I don't feel called to that. The Lord called you. I'm sure glad God called you to that". Changed the trajectory of David's life. So what can we do? Well, I wanna say that a little differently. I wanna close with what we can do. We're not powerless. We're not victims. We're not without resources. We're not without hope. Hebrews chapter 12, remember our title? "Let's Choose Truth". Let us choose the truth.
Well, Hebrews 12 is gonna add to that: "Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses," this is our time in the arena floor. This is our opportunity to be engaged under the sun, but we're surrounded by all of those who have been engaged before us, Isaiah and Moses and Gideon and David and the whole list. This is in Hebrews 12. Hebrews 11 is listing many of those people. And it says, "Since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us". We're being called to some things: personal faith, a personal choice, personal preparation, and then the corporate collective expression of that. "Let us," it doesn't say "let me" or "you".
Forgive me, in the South, it's saying "y'all". "Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that can easily entangle us and let us run with perseverance. The race marked out for us". And we're being asked to cultivate a discipline by the truth. With it comes some things: wisdom and discipline and understanding. So this year, we're gonna read. Let's read a little bit. We're gonna pray. Let's pray a little bit. We're gonna share our faith. Let's talk a little bit. But we're also gonna throw off everything that hinders, and we're gonna begin to run with a new kind of perseverance. And we'll just see what God will do.
After all, he initiated this way back in 2020. He began to turn the lights on. There were things in the room that we didn't know we here, and God's began to make them clear to us. And if he's made them clear to us, I believe he intends to see them changed. And he's recruiting. Let's raise our hands. I brought you a prayer. Why don't you stand with me? It's really a proclamation. It's a little longer than most of the prayers I would bring you. Well, let's make it together. It's a declaration, really, of hope and encouragement. But even though God is beginning to let us see the truth, we don't have to shrink back in fear or anxiety or frustration. Are you ready?
I put on the garment of praise and hope. I choose the joy of the Lord as my strength. I lay aside the spirit of heaviness and raise my voice in praise of the Living God. May my eyes be opened to the provision of God and my ears attentive to the sound of His deliverance. Holy Spirit help me, in You I find power and revelation. God has restored my broken heart and set my feet on a path of victory. I have hope for today and the strength to complete the course you have chosen for me. Let the people of God arise triumphant and may the name of Jesus be lifted up throughout the earth. In Jesus's name, amen.