Allen Jackson - The Prodigal Returns - Part 2
It's good to be with you again. Our series is on America, and in this session we're talking about the prodigal's return. We're gonna look at a bit of our history. You know, there is a series of awakenings that the Spirit of God has brought to our nation. The First Great Awakening wasn't just a revival. It certainly was that, but it changed the moral awareness of our nation to the point that the people were prepared for the American Revolution, to stand up to the tyranny of Great Britain, and it brought freedom to this nation.
The Second Great Awakening stirred the hearts of the people again. It gave us the moral courage to say that slavery was wrong and be willing to fight the Civil War. We need another awakening, another stirring of the Spirit of God in our nation. Not just so our churches will be busy and our worship will be more revived, but that we will have the courage to take the place in this season of human history that God needs the church to take. Grab your Bible and get a notepad. Most of all, be listening for God's assignment for you. Allen Jackson: God is in the awakening business. It's a part of our American heritage of faith.
Our nation has experienced multiple awakenings. You know when you're asleep, you're unaware, you're unconcerned, and your uninvolved. It's not wicked. Sleep's a normal part of a healthy rhythm of life, but if you sleep all the time that's not healthy. And we've been asleep too long. We've been unaware, uninvolved, and unconcerned about it. Wasn't our problem. Somebody else's problem. Wish somebody'd do somethin' about that. It's awful what's happening, but it's not my problem. We were asleep. We weren't being kind. We weren't being tolerant. We were avoiding. Ephesians 5, and verse 14 says, "For this reason it says, 'Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.'" Romans 13, verse 11, "And do this, understanding the present time".
I've said to you many times in the recent months that I believe God has begun a shaking to awaken us, so this present time captures my attention. "The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over and the day is almost here. Let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light". Stop tolerating wickedness. Stop it. The judgment of God will come upon us completely if his people tolerate wickedness. It's the story of Scripture. Has nothing to do with my opinion. It's repeated over, and over, and over, and over across generations and cultures. We're no different. God hasn't changed his mind. It's time to wake up.
The good news is, as a nation, we have a history of awakening. It was the First Great Awakening. I bet you've heard about it somewhere along the way. It changed the course of our nation. It began in the 1730s, lasted for a little more than a decade. It affected all of the colonies. We weren't a nation yet. In fact, the leading voices to that came to us from England. It started in England. Jonathan Edwards was probably most celebrated amongst the colonies. Some of you, in high school, if you're old enough, read his sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". Anybody read that? It's said that he dangled the individuals in the congregation by a thread over the flames of hell. More than one person passed out while he was preaching that sermon.
George Whitfield, the Wesleys. But that awakening, that spiritual renewal that took place in our nation in the 1730s and 1740s brought enough focus to our character and our understanding of the world that it was the precursor to the American Revolution. We had the courage to stand up to the tyranny of King George because of a spiritual awakening. I've read a bit of history and I understand there's more than one way to understand history. We can tell it in terms of military involvement, the evolving of military methods, and schemes, and technology. We can do it along political ways. I know this isn't the only way to understand history, but it's one way and it's equally legitimate. The transformation of hearts in the Great Awakening prepared us to take the difficult moral stand to fight for freedom.
There was the Second Great Awakening in our nation. Took place in the late 18th century. Reached all the way into the middle of the 19th century. It gave rise to things like the temperance movement. Alcohol and alcoholism was dominating particularly the frontier part of our nation. I've told you the story about the changes that came to Nashville with Captain Ryman. I won't revisit that story today, but it wasn't unique. Along with that came women's rights. Abolition as a movement in our nation emerged from that Second Grade Awakening. It was that Second Grade Awakening that was the precursor again to another war, this time the Civil War. It gave our nation the moral courage to say slavery is wrong and it has to be undone.
That didn't begin as a political idea. It was a worldview idea. It's absurd to think that meaningful change will come to us for the better without a heart change. There's no evidence of that in human history. We had a third great awakening. Now, these get label changes a bit, but since I wrote the outline, the third great awakening took place in the latter part of that 19th century, the 1850s to about the turn of the century. It resulted in more than a million converts in this nation to Christianity. Church participation increased dramatically. Did you know there's been an ebb and flow to church participation in our nation?
This isn't the first time church participation has diminished. COVID's not the first thing to run people out of the church. Our commitment to church was diminishing long before COVID showed up. It's not the first time this has happened. This awakening gained tremendous momentum in the armies as the Civil War concluded. Those who survived and saw the horror and the devastation turned their hearts to God. The names attached to this are people like Dwight Moody. He founded the YMCA, the Young Men's Christian Association, long before it got turned into a song. It's okay to laugh at church, I promise. Can we laugh at that at church? I don't know. Social assistance from churches began to emerge in that season.
Friedman societies to stand with the the slaves who were finding their freedom, understanding we had to stand together if we were going to go forward. It was that great awakening that really preceded World War I and then World War II, the courage to stand on a global stage and say there is right and wrong, and we'll make sacrifices for them. Again, we've become very complacent. We've become so self-centered, we're standing under that waterfall of wickedness and we think it's all about me and mine. We've lost our balance. We don't even understand. Our sensory awareness is so limited. We gotta get out from under that waterfall in order to hear the voice of God. Give us the courage to stand on behalf of truth and freedom on a global scale.
There was another awakening, another moving of the Spirit in the late 1960s and '70s. It stirred the hearts of people all across the religious landscape in our nation. Every denomination was touched. A moving of the Spirit of God beyond allegiance and loyalty to a denomination and a reminder that Jesus is the head of the church regardless of the label on the signs out in front. There were names attached to that, Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, and the list goes on. My question, my prayer is, will we see another great awakening at the beginning of the 21st century?
Now, here's the reality. Those things don't happen apart from us. God works through people. And here's the awkward part, he works through broken people. There's no perfect people, folks. If you dig through our lives carefully enough, we're all a mess. Stop pretending. You can look at the person right beside you and say, "He just called you a mess". Look at the one on the other side and say, "He's a mess too". It's okay. I'm not throwing stones, but God works through people. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 34 says, "Women received their dead back to life. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection".
This is a description of God's people, not the wicked. What do you think will happen to the wicked if God will allow his people to endure this? You don't want to be caught when the Lord returns standing in that waterfall, even with a snorkel. "Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned, and they were sawed in two, and they were put to death by the sword. And they went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, and mistreated. The world was not worthy of them".
The world was not worthy of them. They had citizenship in another kingdom. They had an earthly passport, but they have a kingdom elsewhere. This world was not worthy of them. You're a temporary resident here. There's a higher calling on your life. Don't sell your future for immediate gratification in this present system. It's not a good bargain. It's tempting, I understand that, but it's not a good bargain. "The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground". That's not a particularly inviting recruitment paragraph, but it's a reminder that God works through people.
You see, we live in a generation when celebrity trumps character. It results in an elevation of celebrity over substance. If you get enough followers, or enough likes, or enough shares, if you can go viral, if you get enough people to care about what you're wearing, or eating, or how you smell, the tendency then is to equate celebrity with authority. And that's problematic because the perception is if we look good, or we make good music, or we have exceptional athletic abilities, we should be culture shapers, because we've lost our worldview. We've lost our balance. We're standing in the waterfall and we've lost our perspective.
Well, it can't be that bad. I believe another formula would be more helpful. I believe it's time for Christ followers to accept some heroic roles. Not as influencers. Not as celebrities. Heroic roles as fathers, heroic roles as mothers, heroic roles as people of character, business people with principles and then profits, politicians who champion character in principle above personal aggrandizement. What a thought. We used to refer to those people as statesmen, people that had the good of the people they served ahead of any personal gain. In fact, they would suffer personal loss to lead well. What a notion. You gotta get out of the waterfall to even have that thought.
If we've been guilty of allowing outside perspectives to define beauty, and I think we have, the perfect weight, the body shape, the hairstyle, we've been equally guilty of allowing outside forces to define success and significance, even those of us that sit in the church. This is not finger-pointing. This is a reality for us. I don't begrudge Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg, their billionaire status. It's okay with me, but I do look forward to a valuing and rewarding of godliness, holiness, and integrity amongst the people of God; that we would aspire for our children to have those characteristics more than they would climb any other ladder; that our desire that our schools, our public schools, would become incubators for holiness, and godliness, and integrity. What a thought.
I like history and I brought you a few little biographical notes. Just bear with me. If you're a student of history and this is old news, take a nap. But if you can't recite it, pay attention. This is your story and mine. Maybe not as celebrated. May not be in rings of honor in the stadiums that occupy too much of our attention. I like sports, folks, but we're gonna have to have more time for the Lord than we do our favorite sports. If you spend more time with your fantasy team and your fantasy league than you do with the Bible, we're in trouble.
Now again, I'm not against sports. This is about priorities, and what we worship, and what we give our free discretionary time to. If we spend more money wagering than we do on giving, we're confused. I want to offend everybody equally, so I'm trying to check all the boxes as I walk through this. George Whitfield, we talked about these different awakenings and these characters come from different seasons of our history. George Whitfield was an English-Anglican cleric. He helped spread the Great Awakening in Britain, and then especially in the American colonies. He traveled on a boat to the colonies to preach.
In 1740, Whitfield traveled to America where he preached a series of revivals that came to be known as the Great Awakening. His preaching was a tremendous social leveler, people came from every class of society, and a great uniter of the peoples in the colonies. Our faith unites people. One of the great lies that you hear when you're standing in the waterfall is that our faith brings division. It's a lie. There's a tremendous amount of history that suggests our faith has united us as a people. He preached at least 18,000 times to perhaps 10 million hearers. At the time of his death in 1770, 80% of the population of the American colonies had heard him preach at least once. I can tell you, that's a sacrifice.
Whitfield has been called the spiritual founding father of the United States. A couple of quotes from him, "Take care of your life and the Lord will take care of your death," and "Fight the good fight of faith and God will give you spiritual mercies". Nathan Hale, do you know him? He's a hero of the American Revolution. In fact, some call him the first American hero. Even before he was a soldier for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, he was known for his great spirit and his devout Christian faith. Imagine being known for your faith. I don't mind your allegiance to your sports teams, or to your business models, or to whatever, but you want to be known first and foremost for your Christian faith. He had a heroic bearing in life, even before his capture by the British.
It's at the end of his life when he boldly volunteered to go behind British lines for his own personal hero, George Washington. His subsequent capture and his noble composure as he was hanged that forms the essence of his legend. We don't have a Youtube video of his final statement, but it's made its way to us. I can't argue against it. I choose to believe it. After being led to the gallows, it is said that Hale, only 21 years old, was asked if he had any last words, and he replied with these now famous words, "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country".
Folks, our nation doesn't exist because people were stamping their feet, demanding people to give them something. Our nation has persisted because of persistent sacrifices. Clara Barton, she's one of the most honored women in American history. She began teaching school at a time when most teachers were men and she was among the first women to gain employment in the federal government. Barton risked her life to bring supplies and support to soldiers in the fields during the Civil War. At age 60, she founded the American Red Cross in 1881. She led it for the next 23 years. That's an awkward retirement. Her understanding of the needs of people in distress and in the ways in which she could provide help guided her throughout her life.
A couple of Clara Barton quotes, "I may be compelled to face danger, but never fear it," and "While our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them". I like this one, "The surest test of discipline is its absence". Alvin C. York, he's a Tennessean. Do you know him? Considered one of the greatest of Tennessee's native sons. He was an American war hero and one of the most decorated soldiers during World War I. He's credited with single-handedly capturing over 100 German soldiers. A recipient of the medal of honor and the French Legion of Honor. Marshal Foch of the French Army said of York, "What you did was the greatest thing accomplished by any private soldier of all the armies of Europe".
It was after his military service that intrigues me. He took part in several speaking tours and sought to improve educational opportunities for area children. It culminated in the opening of the Alvin C. York Agricultural Institute in 1926. York worked to found the Tennessee State Guard. He served as the colonel of the 7th Regiment. I like his quotes, "Liberty and freedom are so very precious that you do not fight and win them once and stop. They are prizes awarded only to those peoples who fight to win them and then keep fighting eternally to hold them". He said, "In my case, God helped me out. I'd been living for God and working in the church sometime before the army, so I'm a witness to the fact that God did help me out of that hard battle. For the bushes were shut up all around me and I never got to scratch".
Folks, it's too late to figure out who you believe in when you hear Goliath bellowing his challenge. There's some lessons from those American heroes. If we're going to get out of the waterfall, we need to know the lessons. Character counts. Your character counts more than success, more than ability, more than beauty. Your character matters. Give attention to it. Give more attention to it than you do those other things. Understand what grows godly character. Understand what depletes it, diminishes it, weakens it. Find people with godly character. Do whatever you have to to spend time with them.
Faith is necessary. Not some theoretical discussion, faith simply is a life yielded to God. Faith is about understanding Jesus's redemptive work. That is the pathway to human freedom. Not ideologically, not educationally. And I'm an advocate for education, but it's faith in what Jesus has done for us. Faith is necessary. It's an essential to a blessed life. You will not achieve a fulfilling life, a rewarding life, a life defined by contentment apart from faith in Jesus Christ. You can do a lot, achieve a lot, become a lot, accumulate a lot, do and see a lot, but you'll miss the essential components of the journey. You're in the waterfall. You may not even know it. And it seems to me that every one of those heroes reminds us that hardship is not optional.
Hardship's not optional, folks. If hardships come to your life, you're not unique. If it hasn't come to you yet, you better be learning 'cause it's gonna knock. Here's the truth. Life's not fair. Equity, there's this new notion of equity, equal outcomes. Equal outcomes require manipulation of you and others. We're different. Our experiences are different. God is the just Judge. There's no justice apart from him. We can't reject his truth, and his principles, and his perspectives, and imagine that we will find justice amongst ourselves.
I asked you to circle the word "compassion" when we looked at the prodigal story. I want to close with a prayer of compassion. Folks, people matter. You matter. You bring more hope to my life than any political movement, any politician, any economic report. You bring more hope to me than any medical breakthroughs, or technological breakthroughs, or scientific advancements. And I appreciate all of those things, but God's people make the difference. And we desperately need to begin to look at the world with compassion, not with envy, not with covetousness, not with anger, or resentment, or bitterness. We've got to begin to see the world with compassion, because we understand that greater is the one who is in us than all of those things that are arrayed against us. We've been in the waterfall too long. It's affected our hearing, and our balance, and our perceptions.
In Matthew 9, it says, "Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues. And as he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them". In Matthew 14, it says, "He saw a large crowd and Jesus had compassion on them and healed their sick". Matthew 20, I love it. It's a story of two blind men that come to Jesus and they "said, Lord, we want our sight". He said, "What can I do for you"? He said, "We want to see". Might as well just ring the bell. "'Lord, we want to see.' Jesus had compassion on them and immediately they received their sight".
I think the church has to come not with an angry message, not a condemning message. We have to begin with humility to say we've been wrong. We've been wrong. We've been asleep on our watch. We've been indifferent, ambivalent, uncaring, unconcerned. We've acted like the ungodly. We just hung out in some different places. Then we got with one another and we were ungodly. The messaging in that waterfall has been cascading over us and we've lost our balance. We've gotta have the courage to say, "Lord, help me".
I think we're always strengthened when we hear the stories of the faithfulness in the lives of other people. Well, I wanna plant a seed. Live your life in such a way that when your story is told, it will encourage other people to be godly. That's my prayer for you today.
Father, help us to live in such a way that not only will you say, "Well done," to us, but we will strengthen those people who come behind us with our faithfulness. In Jesus's name, amen.