Allen Jackson - Great Leaders In Difficult Times - Part 1
You know, our wars are thousands of miles away and for the overwhelming majority of us, we send others. In Israel, if the balloon goes up with Hezbollah in the north, it's 75 or 80 miles from Jerusalem. It's not some great long distance away. That's as close as the weather reports we get here. So if there's a tornado in Kentucky, you're in your safe space and they're recruiting 60-year-olds and they're volunteering, they're raising their hands. I pray we have the courage to stand up for freedom and liberty before it requires those kind of extreme measures on our behalf, that we use our voices as we gather with our families and our friends, that we will not encourage or overlook or applaud ungodliness.
Folks, we cannot practice immorality and ungodliness and wickedness and greed, and imagine the blessings of God. That is a false gospel. That's not the point of today's message. But while we're celebrating this week, let's thank God and pray for the peace of Jerusalem, but let's remember that God's blessings are what sustain us. "Great Leaders in Difficult Times".
I wanna start by trying to align some expectations. I think there's many misconceptions about what is necessary to lead a significant life. Unfortunately, within the church, I think we've allowed secular culture to define that kind of significance for us, based on how many followers we have or the resources we accumulate or something, whether we're fashion forward, I mean, just lots of things. I'm not opposed to any of those things, but they're not the objectives of my life. And if you're a Christ follower and you're allowing a secular culture to define those things, you are surrendering the greatest opportunities of your existence.
If you accumulate everything, if you're highly celebrated, if everybody on the planet knows you by a single name, and God is not pleased with you, what have you achieved? Wealth, power, pleasure, not bad things. But I can tell you I do enough time in the hospitals and I've done enough memorial services, every one of us are on a countdown clock and your earth suit is not permanent. Now, you may not have turned enough calendar pages yet to believe that, but just trust me and you cannot ignore God for decades and then imagine at some future point, you will find the courage and the boldness and the momentum to find a God switch. It occasionally happens, but it is a very improbable occurrence and I would encourage you not to bet your eternity on that.
Let's decide we want greatness in the context of the kingdom of God to be a primary objective. So if I had to choose one chapter to talk about that, it would be Hebrews 11. That's the Hall of Fame in the New Testament. They list for us the heroes of our faith, and the author, in writing Hebrews 11, they're listing them individually and kind of giving you their highlight reel, their CV, their curriculum vitae. And then it's like the "author" thinks, "Oh, I'm out of time," and so he dumps everybody else into a bucket at the end. Well, I'm gonna read you the bucket list. It's Hebrews 11:32: "What more shall I say? I don't have time".
I know, he's got a countdown clock in front of him, like they do to me. Actually, they quit doing that to me. You should be concerned. Said, "I don't have time to tell about Gideon or Barak or Samson or Jephthah or David or Samuel and the prophets". He said, "There's a lot more to say, but I'm out of time. They conquered kingdoms, administered justice, gained what was promised; they shut the mouths of lions. They quenched the fury of the flames, they escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies". The author's assuming you know some of this. He's just kind of punching their outcomes in.
"Women received their dead back, their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced cheers* and flogging, while others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated, the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground".
If you're counting and I did, there's two lists. They both have ten components. There's a list of the outcomes of ten great leaders. I'm not gonna run the references and give you all their names, but I'll tag what was listed there. You can number them in your sheet if you wanna follow. It says they conquered kingdoms, they administered justice, they gained what was promised. How many of you think those would be legitimate outcomes for your life? If you were all in, all done, strength spent, and God's evaluation of you is that you conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised, you'd say. "That'd be a worthwhile pursuit".
I would, but he doesn't stop there. He says that they shut the mouths of lions. You might know who that is. "They quenched the fury of the flames, they escaped the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became powerful in battle, they routed foreign armies and the women received back their dead, raised to life again". That's 10 outcomes of great leaders, people whose lives made an impact only because of the power of God and the intervention of God and the sovereignty of God. But the author of Hebrew doesn't stop with that. That'd be a little Pollyannish. That's kind of like the promise of a politician: "You can have what you want and there's no cost. We'll exact the cost from somebody else".
When you hear that, know you're being manipulated. The author of Hebrews goes on to talk about the great challenges those same people faced. And there's ten things in that list as well. It says, "They were tortured and refused to be released". They wouldn't renounce their faith even if it meant they could escape torture. "They faced jeers and flogging". Sounds a lot like the apostle Paul. I know most of us think Hebrews 11 is a Hebrew Bible, Old Testament passage. But I don't think that's a complete way to understand it. Says, "They were chained and put in prison". That sounds a lot like Peter to me. "They were stoned," as Stephen was in the book of Acts. "They were sawed in two".
It's not in the Old Testament, but it's very much a part of Jewish tradition and teaching that Isaiah was put in a hollowed out log by King Manasseh and sawed in half. Isaiah, the court prophet. "They were put to death by the sword". That was James, one of Jesus's followers. "They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, mistreated". The author of Hebrews says simply, "The world wasn't worthy of them". Well, here's where I think we've had a misalignment. We think to be a great leader means it's about the accumulation of privilege. You fly private, you don't stand in line, you get to go to the VIP section. You're applauded.
When the Bible gives us these presentations, those with true greatness, true kingdom accomplishment, true kingdom significance, they face real challenges. They don't lead just for personal opportunity, for individual aggrandizement, so they can be on the cover of magazines. It may be that some of that happens, but they understand there's gonna be real challenges and real prices to be paid and they pay them. That hasn't really been the coaching that we've received in the church. We've been told that if somebody objects, we should be quiet because we don't wanna be objectionable. That if someone's offended, we should withdraw because we want to build bridges. Well, I'm not opposed to bridges of understanding and I would prefer to be applauded rather than stoned. But most of all, I would prefer to tell the truth.
Now, I believe we can do it in kindness, but the truth is not always comfortable and the truth is not always something you wanna hear and the truth often brings with it a sense of almost revulsion. I've spent some time in doctor's offices lately and when the doctors come in and give you news that you never wanted to get, you're not inclined to jump up off the chair and give him a big hug and say, "Oh, thank you". I mean, I got a lot of friends in the medical community. When I get one of those kind of diagnosis or I hear one recited, I wanna look at my friend and, "I'm gonna go get another opinion. You know, I know you and on your good days you're kind of a knucklehead".
And then you go get a second opinion and a third opinion and they all line up and it's the same truth and I don't like it. And somebody's been telling those of us that fill churches and read our Bibles that when we're arbors of the truth, everybody should be happy about it, that everybody should enjoy the message. Now again, I don't want you to be belligerent or obnoxious or condemning or smug and self-righteous. I'm not talking about that, but we've been avoiding telling the truth because people who don't want to receive it get agitated. My Bible very clearly says that there were truth-tellers, great leaders, that faced some real challenges.
Well, probably my number one takeaway from my days in Israel, every time I go, I feel like I've been to school again, like I got another graduate seminar in what it means to follow with the Lord. And I was certain that, I was sitting on the plane in the dark coming home, with my computer open, saying, "Lord, you know, what", and what was so clear to me, and I... I struggle with words. I can't always get them the way I wanted, but the word I landed on, I'm gonna give it to you. We don't use it a lot. It's interdependence. But I wanna suggest to you that if I had to choose one word that I think is the key to us thriving in what's immediately in front of us, it's about greater interdependence upon the Lord.
See, we've been coached to be born again. If you're saved, if you're born again, you're baptized, you're like, you're golden. You got your insurance policies, long-term care. I don't have to think about that. It's fully funded. I've worked it out between insurance and resources, I don't even think about it anymore. It's on auto pay. I'm just living completely unaware of that, you know? It's secure, it's eternally secure, and it can't be assailed, and no one can take it from me. And so we don't really live with any sense of interdependence with the Lord. There are things in the earth God won't do unless his people do them.
Imagine if you lost all access to technology, maybe just a blackout. I don't mean you're gonna lose your appliances or your refrigerator or even your AC, but all the tools you use for communication, for the exchange of information. Suppose all of that just went down. Our phones, maybe just take our phones. If you wanna kind of practice that, take a 24-hour period and say, "I won't touch it". Turn it off, lock it away. Our GPS, all of our communications apps, our instant answers that we're used to getting. How old is somebody? "I don't know. I'll grab my Google". Our location awareness. Where are we and how are we to get there? "I don't know, but I'm gonna follow Siri, no matter where she goes".
You know, I find it amusing that married people in the car have fights about directions. I mean, Kathy and I don't, but we have friends who have a real problem with that. But we will follow the digital voice of someone we will never meet: "Turn left at the next light. Reroute, you missed it". And we're just as happy as clams going wherever they tell us. We have 24/7 funding available to us for desired purchases, whether you have any cash in your pocket or not. We have access to goods and services from a global market in the palm of our hand. The last 2 days, we were in Israel. Largely because, I think, of some of the larger issues going on in that country, our cell service was interrupted. And over a 24-hour period, we might have had functionality for 10 minutes.
You just didn't know when those minutes were gonna be. And it wreaked havoc on us because those were our free days and we were trying to coordinate groups of people and where we were going and where we were gonna meet and what we were gonna do. And we lost our GPS, we couldn't get our maps to tell us where we were going and we didn't know where everybody else was, and we didn't know how to find out. Nobody has pay phones anymore. I mean, we were like lost sheep. And I thought, "Wow, I'm perfectly comfortable interdependent upon a piece of technology that's controlled by companies who don't have my best interest at heart, and I'm very withdrawn, I'm very skeptical, of being interdependent upon the Spirit of God". Because I haven't had to be. Well, the world is changing. If you haven't noticed, trust me. And I'm submitting to you that we're going to need a greater kind of interdependence upon the Spirit of God.
Now, I grew up in the Pentecostal charismatic side of the world. I've seen weirdness. I'm not coaching you towards weird. Weird is not spiritual. But some of you have stayed out of the arena in the same way many people stay out of church world because they've known hypocrites. Can you imagine missing the kingdom of God because you knew a hypocrite? That's a bad bet. To spend an eternity apart from God because you met someone who was inconsistent in their own moral code is a really poor choice and to not take advantage of the helper, the person of the Holy Spirit, because you met someone whose character was impeded in some way and they blamed it on the Holy Spirit, is an equally poor choice on your part.
I believe we must develop a greater awareness and dependence upon the helper whom the father has provided. I'm not suggesting something new or extra biblical. I'm suggesting a different pattern, a different type of trust, a more personal awareness. I'm suggesting that the current season demands of us, here it is, spiritual growth. "Well, I don't wanna grow, Pastor. I'm going to heaven". Like, what I'm really trying to figure out is how much I can get away with and still go to heaven. Well, I suspect if that is your mentality and you hold it, you're gonna find out sooner than later. Not a threat. The landscape is changing and we're going to need God's help.
You know, the disciples had a great deal of experience. They had followed Jesus for 3 years. They had front row seats for the most remarkable journey. They fed a multitude with a little boy's Happy Meal. They saw Jesus walk on the water, they watched him raise the dead, open blind eyes. They saw him turn water into wine, still the storm, cast out demons. They were a part of that drama and then he gave them short-term assignments and they came back and said, "We can do what you do". And then at the end of that 3-year run, Jesus said, "I'm leaving and where I'm going, you can't come". And they were very unhappy with that. They said, "That's not the bargain. Wherever you're going, we'll go. You said, 'Follow me,' and we followed you and we intend to keep following you".
And Jesus says, "No, no further, but I'm going and because I'm going, I'll send you a comforter, a helper, and it will be better for you". I promise you they didn't believe him. But the fruitfulness of the next season of their lives exceeded the fruitfulness of their lives when they were with Jesus. They turned the world upside down. So I'm asking you, are you willing to become a group of people who can turn the world upside down? Or are we gonna stubbornly say, "No, I've got everything and I'm gonna go to heaven and please don't ask me. I don't wanna grow".
Well, not everybody would accept Jesus's invitation and I'm not imagining 100% acceptance today, but I want to plant the seed. I believe God has good things for you. Better things for me than if I get my own way. I'm like the toddler that knows they know the best way to run their life. They know what they want to eat. And when they wanna eat. Now they want you to prepare it for them and they want you to supply it. When they make a mess, they want you to clean it up. But they wanna live by the rule of me do it. And if you allow them to do that, they'll destroy themselves. And you and I are toddler-like a lot of times in our spiritual emotions. We wanna do it. We just want God to clean up our messes and provide what we want when we want it.
And I believe God in his wisdom is raising up a generation of great leaders, people that make a difference in his kingdom. I'm not talking about huge platforms, but you'll lead well in your home and in your family, in our communities. You interested? I'll give you an example of this kind of interdependence. Acts chapter 16, Paul's in the midst of his missionary journeys and it's not easy. "Paul and his companions," it's in your notes, "traveled through the region of," somewhere. Let's just call it Smyrna, "and Galatia. And having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia".
Don't you wish there was more information? The Holy Spirit kept him from preaching the word in Asia. How? Did his flight get canceled? Couldn't they rent a car? We had somebody whose flights got messed up in New York and they rented a car; couldn't they rent a car? I don't know. All we're told, all Luke chooses to tell us, is "they were kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of," someplace, "they tried to enter," someplace else, "but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to". Well, wait. Can you tell us some more about that? The Holy Spirit kept him from doing something in one place and the Spirit of Jesus kept them from doing it, did their flight get canceled again? I want a new travel agent.
"So they passed by Mysia and they went to Troas. First night, during the night, Paul had a vision". This time, we got a little bit more information. "He had a vision, and a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.' After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them".
They got two "No's" and an invitation to go someplace they hadn't planned on, all because of directions from a helper that had information they didn't have access to, had perspective that they didn't have, and they were willing to cooperate to the point that when Paul had a vision in the night, he got up the next morning and said to the team, "We're going here; not there. Cancel the flights, book new ones. Call our host in the other city and tell him we won't be coming. And if you know anybody in the place we're headed, see if we can meet with them".
I travel a good bit, folks. People would call you reckless. If I told you I was leaving for the weekend to go to Philadelphia, and then you saw me on television in Baltimore, you would think I probably hadn't represented the facts to you accurate. And if I said to you, "Well, the Lord told me to go to Baltimore". You go, "Whatever. Are you smoking"? Well, I was in Colorado. It was legal. No new rumors. Everything that's legal is not godly. I wanna walk you through some people that I think were pretty interdependent upon God's direction, that they modeled some things that we could pick up.
In Exodus 3, it's a familiar story. Moses has been recruited. "The Lord saw that he'd gone over to look, and God called to him from within the bush, 'Moses!' And Moses said, 'Here I am. Yeah? Speak.'" And God tells him what he wants him to do. "Go, I'm sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt". And Moses said, "Who am I"? Who am I? I tried that, remember? That's why I'm living in the desert and smell like a sheep. I'm a fugitive there. I'm not going back. Isaiah chapter 6: Isaiah is being recruited by arguably the greatest, until you get to Jesus, of the Hebrew prophets. Certainly one of the most poetic, insightful. And when he's recruited, he says, "Woe to me! I'm ruined! I'm a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King".
If you prefer the New Testament, Luke chapter 1, Jesus is recruiting teenagers. This isn't age-dependent, this leader thing. Don't get puffed up because you have gray hair and think you should go to the front of the parade. You may be spiritually immature. And if you're on the younger end of the spectrum, don't say you get to sow your wild oats. You could be forfeiting the opportunity to have significance in the kingdom. Most of the great leaders in the Bible were recruited when they were pretty young. In this case, you know the story. It's Mary, she's a teenager. Gabriel, the archangel, says, "You'll be with child and give birth to a son, and you're to give him the name Jesus," and Mary asked the angel one question, "How will this be"?
I haven't engaged in the behaviors that would make that even a possibility. I mean, it's a polite discussion, but she's saying that's just simply impossible. I know how that happens. And the angel said, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And the holy one to be born of you will be called the Son of God".
I know the language is very poetic, but that didn't really answer the question. If I said to you, "God's gonna use you to change our community". And you said "How"? I said, "Oh, the Holy Spirit will help you". Well, that clarified everything. Well, that was much the answer that Mary received. And she said, "Okay".
Before we go, I wanna pray that God will give you a revelation, a vision of who Jesus is that will change your future. Let's pray:
Father, I thank you for your Word and the value it has in us. But I ask that by your Spirit, you would open our hearts to understand you and your kingdom as never before, in Jesus's name, amen.