Allen Jackson - A Life That Triumphs Over Evil - Part 2
Well, I would submit to you, we have a spiritual problem. That's far more than anything you can evaluate in the political arena. We have a fundamental spiritual problem. So, here's my invitation to you: let's decide to become a part of the spiritual response. Let's decide. And towards that goal, I brought you a short course in confronting evil. And I say short course, it will be. We may elaborate in some future sessions, but for this morning, it's an introduction. And I'll start with Matthew, chapter 4, in verse one. I'm back on your notes, There's hope. "My God, two pages of scripture and he's rambling off the path".
Matthew 4. In chronologically, just following Jesus's baptism, and the descent of the spirit, and the public affirmation of Jesus; nothing remotely like that in his life, up to this point. The birth announcements were private, maybe the angelic show in the fields outside of Bethlehem with the shepherds, but there's been silence and now Jesus is approaching 30 years of age and he presents to John to be baptized in the Jordan, and the heavens open and God speaks and says, "This is my son. I'm pleased with him". And now, we step into Matthew 4, "Then Jesus was led by the spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil, and after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came to him and said, 'If you're the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.' And Jesus answered, 'It's written: man doesn't live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
I would point out to you, as a beginning point, that first there's an affirmation of Jesus. God's not angry with him, frustrated with him. Jesus hasn't wandered from the path. He hasn't deviated. He's in the midst of what God has asked him to do. The Spirit descends upon him, he begins the public portion of his ministry, and the first response is the Spirit leads him into the desert where he's tempted by the devil. And the Spirit prompts him to an extended period of fasting. And just as affirmation, when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, they said, "John taught his disciples to pray. Won't you teach us to pray"? Jesus said, "Yes, this is how you should pray". You know the prayer.
"Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name". Do you remember that line Jesus slipped into that universal prayer, that we've repeated so many times, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one". You wouldn't need to be delivered from the evil one unless the evil one was in pursuit. You wouldn't ask to not be led into temptation if the, through reality of temptation wasn't real, and we don't have places where the Spirit of God puts us in proximity, there are times when you confront evil, it makes you more vulnerable to temptation. I would submit to you that both Satan, and all the demons who support him, recognized Jesus and understood who he was, and they still questioned him. The audacity of Satan to say to Jesus, "If you are the Son of God".
Look at Mark, chapter 1, I don't think it's, it's insignificant that this is in the introductory chapter of Mark's Gospel. Jesus has begun his public ministry in Capernaum. He goes into the synagogue. You can visit that location of the synagogue today, and it says, "A man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, 'What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are the Holy One of God.'" The demons know who Jesus is; I assure you, Satan knows. What he wants is to test the vulnerability of Jesus. He's alone, he's hungry. he's tired. "If you are really the Son of God, use your power inappropriately, betray your assignment".
We're going to have to be willing to become more aware of the truth and to choose it more completely than we ever have before. There's a third assignment I would give you if we're going to do this well, and that's that we'll have to have the courage and the willingness to warn the unsuspected. We live in a safety-conscious world. If you get in your car these days, and you have a newer model, it will annoy you until you buckle your seat belt. I'm of another generation. I didn't grow up riding in car seats. I grew up standing in the middle of the seat with my elbow on the driver's shoulder.
Now, I'm sure I had some trauma to my midsection from that flying elbow at the occasional yellow light. I didn't grow up, you know, I grew up on a farm, around farm equipment, and it didn't have a lot of safety features. If you got off of the tractor, the bush hog blade didn't stop spinning; you needed to be clever enough not to put your hand in there. And so, we live in a safety-conscious world with all sorts of warning buzzers, and lights, and precautions, and firewalls, and I'm not really opposed to that. I suspect it's for our good, but when it comes to spiritual things, it seems to me that we're very reluctant to issue any warnings. We wanna be kind. We don't want to assert that something might be more right or something could be wrong.
We've stepped almost totally away from the notion of objective truth, that there is a God and he could be known. And so, there, there are some principles that are not subjective, they're not left up to us in our personal experience. And because of that, our voice has become so small and so meek, and our light so dim that the darkness is more intense. When Matthew 15, Jesus has been talking to the religious leaders of his generation, and he was chastising, and he was really challenging some core beliefs they had about what made them righteous in their practices, and he said, "Don't you understand that what you eat does not make you ungodly"?
Farm-to-table is not new. And they didn't understand that because they were convinced that they had a fork that made them more godly than people that didn't eat the right foods. And so, they're very offended at Jesus, and when they're alone, the disciples come to Jesus and they said, "'Do you know that the Pharisees were offended?' And Jesus said, 'Every plant that my Heavenly Father hasn't planted will be pulled up by the roots.'" It's the next phrase that is remarkable to me. He said, "Leave them," Get away from them, "They're blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into the pit". He didn't say, "Stay and pray for them". He didn't say, "Well, you have many friends in that community". He said, "They're leading you in the wrong path and you'll both end up in the pit".
We really haven't had the courage for that kind of language yet. Don't sit in churches that dishonor Jesus. Don't sit in churches that disrespect the Word of God. Don't sit in churches that diminish the redemptive work of Jesus, that set aside fundamental biblical principles so they can be applauded by the culture. The New Testament is abundantly clear, that as we approach the end of the age, deception will escalate, apostacy, it's a fancy word for "a falling away," will rapidly increase, and the false church will flourish, as will false prophets. False prophets aren't just shadowy religious figures.
Folks, the role of the prophet in scripture, is a person that would speak the truth. They weren't primarily for tellers, they were people that would give the clarity on a God-perspective about what was happening; people that were anticipated to tell the truth. So, a false prophet is someone who stands in a position where you expect the truth to be de be delivered and they don't. With that definition, false prophecy is exploding far beyond churches and pulpits and religious language. There's a fourth thing I would submit to you is critical, if we're going to confront and overcome evil, and that's we need to embrace expressions of the power of God. We're not gonna out think evil, or outwork evil, or out organize evil, or out advertise evil.
In Matthew 14, it's a familiar story, "As evening approached, the disciples came to Jesus. So this is a remote place". They're in Galilee, in the, in the rural parts of Israel. "It's getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food". Who's really tired and hungry? The disciples. "Can't you send the people away? They are so tired," and then, in parenthesis, "and we're even more tired of them". And Jesus replied, "They don't need to go away. You give them something to eat". Bad day for the disciples. And they said, "Look, we've only got a little bit of food, a little bit of bread and a little bit of fish". And Jesus said, "Bring it to me".
One of the gospels reports that Jesus did this, he's really testing the disciples, it's not so much even about feeding the crowd. He's about to introduce them to something, the power of God, in a way they haven't known it. He does that consistently and persistently. Not often in places where there's huge crowds. Occasionally, there's a miracle that crowds observe. There's a healing or something supernatural, but so many of the miracles Jesus did was to expand the imagination of those that were close to him. He could speak to the wind and the waves, or he would walk on the water, or he would say to those closest to him, "You feed these people," knowing full well they lacked the means to do it or the opportunity.
There are places where if you will allow the Lord to awaken you, he has met you. He has met you. He delivered you from sin, he's broken addictions over your life, he has restored places where your stubborn rebellion opened a floodgate to godlessness. You have experienced his power, and if we'll have the courage to share this, not with everybody, not like a fire hydrant, where everybody that comes by gets totally drenched, more like targeted irrigation, where there's a need for that moisture, you release it. If we're willing. And it's not just telling your God story, it's when you've been awakened to right and wrong, and someone says, "This is God," you're saying, "I don't think that's a good idea. I wouldn't encourage you to stay on that path. I love you, but I think if you stay in that journey, it's gonna be really painful".
I want to take the balance of my minutes, and I just got a few, with some lessons from a practitioner, and you gotta know this week, I'm gonna borrow them from my mom. In Matthew 13:44, it says, "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. And when a man found it, he hid it again, and in his joy, he went and sold all that he had and he bought that field". That's really the beginning point for this whole initiative, all the way back to the beginning of this lesson. We've got to become more convinced that what we have found in the kingdom of God is better than anything the kingdoms of this present world have to offer. We have to believe that more. But I would rather be in good standing in the kingdom of God, than to have any accolade, or receive any reward, or achieve anything, or accumulate anything, that this present system has to offer.
I cannot tell you how many times I've met with people and said, "Pastor, I'm gonna serve the Lord, but first," and then they tell me what's, what's first. It's an incredibly dangerous path to choose, and it starts with Jesus. I love Peter, in Matthew 14. Jesus is walking on the lake, the disciples are in the boat. They're scared out of their minds. They've seen a ghost. And somebody says, "I think it's Jesus," and Peter. God bless his pointed head, Peter says, "Lord, if it's you, I wanna walk on the water. Lord, if you're on the water, I'm on the water". I wanna build a little bit of that into Allen. Lord, if you're doing it, I'm in. If you're recruiting a team, here I am. If you wanna turn up the light, I'll go look for batteries. We gotta grow past this place where we say, "I've done my God business".
Folks, I concede the point. We're not gonna earn heaven. Okay? I'm not suggesting a works-based doctrine. Please, I don't need to, to read that theological argument again. I love you, but if the only callous you have is on your rear end when you meet Jesus, it's gonna be awkward. He'll have nail prints in his hands and we know his story, and it was real enough that his closest friends spent their lives in the pursuit of sharing that Jesus story. Peter, James, and John, the whole crew, they were relentless. The more they threatened him, the louder they spoke. When they began to martyr them, the more determined they were.
Now, what are we gonna do? Jesus matters? It's real. This isn't beyond us. We don't need another seminar. And the second piece I would give you from the practitioner is tell the truth. Folks, we live in a culture of such rampant deception, and the antidote is the truth; just tell it. Matthew 8, "When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and he said to those following, 'I tell you the truth.'" He's talking about this Roman Centurion, who has greater faith than all the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the synagogue leaders. He's got more faith than Peter, and James, and John. Jesus turns around, he says, "Listen, I'm about to tell you the truth. Buckle up. This pagan godless Roman Centurion has greater faith than anybody in the nation".
They wanted to kill him for saying it. We struggle with the truth. We struggle with the truth into our culture because we struggle with the truth in our lives. Don't lie. If you make a mistake, admit it. When you're wrong, ask for forgiveness. Those simple little practices will bring a momentum and a strength to your spiritual life that is beyond your understanding.
Number three is prayer. Decide to pray. "One of those days, Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray and he spent the night praying to God". If I had to summarize what my mom was committed to above anything else, I would probably have to say prayer. It annoyed me as a kid. It annoyed me as an adult. I mean, you just couldn't do anything without her wanting to have a prayer. And sometimes she'd forget she just said that, and we'd had one. And before we got started, she said, "Well, can't we pray"? And we're like, "Again"? "Well, they wouldn't hurt anything".
You know, and I hear the casual way we sweep it aside, "Well, Pastor, I don't know how to pray, or I don't pray a lot, or prayer has never been that big deal to me". It's because we haven't been in desperate enough places. I've been with enough people, when it gets really desperate, you'll break out of prayer, or you'll ask for one, or you'll try to find someone that knows how to do one, or, I mean, you're not nearly as opposed. There are some exceptions, but in general, when the pressure is in, why not learn to pray before the pressure? Why not put the pressure on the enemy? How about your life be so committed to inviting God into the midst of the world we live in that the enemy hates it because you pray all the time?
You see, most of us don't want to pray because we're afraid if we don't get the answer the way we want it, we'll be embarrassed. Stop it! It's much more embarrassing if God answers. "How did that happen"? "I have no clue". "Can you do it again"? "I don't think so, I didn't do it the first time". It's our pride and arrogance that thinks the outcome we want is better. What we wanna be guilty of is inviting God into the midst of our world. That's what we call prayer. Pray for your kids, put your hands on them. "God help my children to grow up to be a young man or a young woman who honors you in Jesus name".
Just hush! Invite God, let them hear you invite God into their lives. Be that person at work that people knows if you were invited, that you would pray. Not the weird one, not the one that tries to invent every headline, in terms of a verse and revelation. Stop with your super-spiritual baloney! That will require follow up, but not today. I'm done. Prayer. There's one more. What's the next one? Hospitality. People matter. I was exhausted when I left church Wednesday night, hundreds of you came to express your appreciation for my mom, and almost everybody had a version of the same thing: "she cared about me, she prayed for me in a way that made me feel like she cared about me".
One at a time. And it's true, she did. Again, this is my day to confess. Made us nuts as kids. She would invite anybody into our house and tell us we should enjoy it. And then she would include us in the recruitment process. "You know, I need you to go pick this person up. They can't drive and they're gonna have dinner with us". "No". The only thing God did that kind of level the field was he made her about this tall. If she'd have been 6'4'', it'd been completely unfair; we would have been at a gross disadvantage. We, at least, felt better about ourselves because we could physically look down upon her while we dutifully obeyed instructions. But people mattered, they weren't an intrusion. She and my dad would open our home or open their checkbooks.
They'd make space for people. They told more people about Jesus while they vaccinated their dogs or served in pecan pie than any evangelist I ever met. People matter. The people you work with, the ones you hate, the reason you're praying to be transferred, your neighbors that you think are a scourge from the devil, and my mom was enough in love with Jesus, she understood people rejected her. She wasn't clueless. She understood that in their own ways, they would make fun of her or stand apart from her, but she was so determined to stand close to Jesus and invite anybody else that wanted to make that journey, she would go.
I've taken a minute to tell you her story because it's accessible to every one of us. If you'll put your hand back there and take that baton, you can be that kind of person, if you're willing. People can matter to you. You can be a person who prays, you can practice hospitality, you can invite God into circumstances, you can weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice, or you can stay silent and show up for church when it's convenient, and roll the dice that you're good to go.
I would not encourage you to do that. I believe what's in front of us will demand a different response than what's been before us. And I'm excited because God called our name. If he recruited us for this season, he's given us everything we need for life and godliness. You don't have to be afraid, but you're gonna have to be strong and courageous. Are you ready? I wanna ask the Lord for an anointing on our lives today. Alright? If he recruited one from amongst us, he will give us what we need for those of us who are here. I'm gonna take that baton and I'm going to encourage you to do that as well.
Why don't you stand with me? If you're at home, you can stand with us. If you haven't finished the bagel by now, you just wait for lunch. Why don't you join hands with somebody? If you don't know them, tell him who you are. If you don't know them and they won't talk to you, turn loose of them.
Lord, thank you. Thank you for your great love for us. I thank you that in every generation, you call men and women for yourself. I thank you that in your mercy, Father, you bring people alongside of us that give us glimpses of what Christ in us might be. And I pray today, Father, that we would say, "Yes" to you in ways that we've been reluctant, that we would open our hearts to you, and our lives to you, and make space for you where we haven't. Forgive us for our arrogance. We're imagining there wasn't really anything significant left we needed to learn. Forgive us for our indifference. We're looking at a broken world and hoping someone else will respond. For today, we raise our hands and say, "Here we are". Lord, give us a double portion. Give us understanding hearts and eyes to see. Give us a new boldness, a new fear of God, a fear of God that's greater than any fear of man we might hold. Holy Spirit, help us. We thank you for a harvest beyond anything we've seen or imagined, so that when our days are spent and our strength grows small, we are prepared to see you. In Jesus's name. Amen.