Allen Jackson - Unafraid... with Courage
Our topic is «Unafraid… With Courage». I would submit to you, it’s time for the church to understand the call upon us is to lead lives unafraid and with courage. We have focused for most of my adult life on having our systematic theology correct. We quibble about which translation of the Bible to read and what style of worship we prefer and what the wardrobe should be of the presenter at the front. And we have failed to understand that we will not complete the assignment without courage and unless we are willing to refuse fear. When God was preparing Joshua to complete the assignment that had been begun by Moses.
I often think that’s one of the most difficult job assignments in the Bible, can you imagine being Moses’s successor? And the instructions God gave to Joshua are surprising to me, it’s repeated multiple times, more than a half a dozen times. The message to him is be strong and courageous, be strong and courageous. I thought he might have said, go back and read Moses notes. Pool together all the people that left with Egypt and talked to Joshua, do everything you can do. Get Caleb, go over and over, no, that’s not what he said. He said, Joshua, you need to be strong and courageous. Church, If we’re going to be triumphant in the season before us, it will require of us strength and courage.
We’re gonna have to lead lives with less fear. We whisper too much. We retreat too frequently. We’re too often embarrassed. We have yielded the fields to our adversaries for so long that they expect us to cower in fear. We cannot any longer. I’m not suggesting we be angry or belligerent and certainly not violent, but we have to take the truth that we believe and live it out across the breadth of our lives in every arena. That’s our target with this session. I started with a quote from Charlie Brown, he’s a theologian I can understand. Charlie said, «I have a philosophy about fear. I only dread one day at a time». It seems to me that fear creeps around our lives. That it tugs at our minds in more persistent ways than I’m conscious of in my lifetime. It’s not difficult to understand.
We look around, there are reasons to be anxious. The economy is unsteady and there don’t seem to be easy answers. There aren’t any answers that anyone wants to embrace. We prefer not even to look at the truth. Our moral balance is a bit wobbly and very few seem to be willing to embrace the values which have stabilized us for centuries. We’re told we need to be more progressive in our thinking, more enlightened, more aware, less anchored to the past, yeah. Hatred and violence have escalated in cities across our nation and in nations around the world. We are mired in wars with an enemy that we’re afraid or unwilling to define, which makes victory impossible. Because of our own individual proximity to sin, we have chosen to hide from the tooth, truth far too frequently.
Tragically, even in the church we’ve embraced political correctness and hidden from the light. And we found that while we were hiding in the darkness, our fear has flourished. It’s time for a change. And I don’t think it makes any sense to wait for somebody else to be different. Why don’t we determine tonight, we’ll be the people where the difference begins. I’d like to begin in Ephesians 6:13. The assignment, as I understand it, is learning to stand, and Paul’s writing to the church at Ephesus, a church that understood riots, a church that understood a great widespread public repentance. They burned millions of dollars of paraphernalia they had used in the pursuit of the occult and wickedness. There was a very intentional public attempt to separate themselves from ungodliness. I look forward to seeing that across our nation.
And Paul writes to them in Ephesians 6 and verse 13, «put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you’ve done everything, to stand». And the assumption that Paul makes is that the day of evil will arrive. It can’t be avoided. We can’t hand it off to another generation. We can’t imagine it isn’t our assignment. Every one of us in our journey through time, our journey under the sun, will be asked to address evil. It’s an inescapable part of what we’ve been asked to do. And what we’re told we need to do in that instance, is be prepared to stand our ground. And after we’ve done everything we know to do, we have to stand. Standing is an instinctive response that is needed for survival.
So if you’ll allow me, I’m gonna give you an invitation this evening to begin to stand. Not in the midst of a worship service, but in the midst of the arenas of your life. Whether it’s at work or with your friends or your family or your neighbors, wherever you may gather, it may be at the ball fields. If they don’t pray on the ball field before your kids play, have a prayer in the bleachers. You don’t have to shout at the top of your lungs. You can just quietly say, Father, I pray for the children today. Keep them safe. May they compete in a way that honors you and help their parents not to act a fool. In Jesus name, amen. Because typically the kids behave better than the kids.
Look, I can’t give you all the ways that we need to begin to stand, but in all the arenas of all of our lives, it’s time to stand up for Jesus. We have been sitting down, hiding in the shadows, for too long. Now I’m gonna add one more component to it that makes it more difficult, and it’s not the devil. It’s not instituted by something that’s demonic. I believe God is doing something in the, in the earth that makes standing more challenging. In the book of Haggai chapter 2 and verse 6 says, «This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'In a little while. I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.'» Now that passage is quoted by the author of Hebrews in the 12th chapter. It’s very clear, God «said, I’m going to shake the earth».
The devil is not doing it. It’s not the demonic host. It’s not the principalities and powers of spiritual darkness in the heavenly places. All of those things are real. When we’re asked to stand, we’re not asked to stand against governments. We’re not asked to stand against politicians or political parties. We’re asked to stand against spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. We’re still having seminars on whether or not we believe that. Stop it, the decision you have to make is whether or not you believe your Bible. If you believe your Bible, Jesus believed in all of those things. He cast out demons. He was tempted by Satan. He talked about it and demonstrated it in the plainest of ways. It’s difficult for me to imagine any person that considers themselves to be a Christ follower and doesn’t believe in spiritual forces of good and evil.
The angels ministered to Jesus. He addressed the demons. He was tempted by Satan. And we as the 21st century edition of people who follow him still have seminars and talk about whether or not we believe it. That makes no sense. Let’s decide to take the Bible at face value. God said, «Once more I will shake the heavens and the earth,» and the author of Hebrews picks it up, gives us the verse, and a bit of commentary. It’s chapter 12 and verse 27, «The words 'once more' indicate the removing of what can be shaken, that is created things, that so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we’re receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our 'God is a consuming fire.'»
The prophet says to us that God is going to once again shake the earth. God has shaken the earth many times. I’m of the opinion that we’re living in one of those seasons of shaking. I believe, and it isn’t so much that it’s one massive earthquake. It seems to me at this point, it’s been a series of shocks. 2020, with the virus that started our way from Wuhan, began a shaking. Everything, it seems to me, changed. October 7, a year ago, when the attack came by Hamas out of Gaza, it was another shaking in our earth. I never imagined I would see universities that at one time considered elite. I no longer imagine them to be that, but at one time I considered them to be institutions of considerable learning.
Clearly now they house uneducated students filling their minds with propaganda. But I never imagined to see that kind of hatred and ignorance demonstrated at celebrated university campuses in our nation. I didn’t expect to see it echoed in the halls of Congress. I didn’t expect to hear the silence of the churches. I think there was another episode in the shaking, when the Supreme Court ruled and overturned Roe v Wade. I didn’t expect the voices that were demanding the right to abortions to be louder than those celebrating the protections offered to our children.
I think God is still shaking the earth and I think the objective is to reveal those things that cannot be shaken. If our trust is in the economic system of our nation or the economic stability of the global community, I suspect that the not too distant future we’re going to see shaking in those arenas. If we imagine that our security was in the truthfulness and the forthrightness of the CDC, it’s been shaken. If we thought it was in the forthrightness and the absolute integrity of the FBI and the security community, it’s been shaken. If we thought the church was a place that would maintain orthodoxy, stand for the authority of scripture and the uniqueness of Jesus in a very unsettling way, it’s been shaken. God is making clear his unshakeable kingdom.
How many of you would like to live with less fear and more courage? Me too. We live in a frightening season, God is shaking the earth. That’s frightening stuff. We’ve watched two remarkable storms sweep across the southern part of the United States. You get the sense that if God wanted to, he could wreak destruction on a scale we cannot imagine. So when God says he’s going to shake the earth, if that doesn’t have your attention, you’re not paying attention. We’re not finished with the shaking, it’s just begun. But we’re given the opportunity to imagine that we could lead our lives without fear and with great courage.
Now I need more information. In Luke chapter 21 in verse 26, Jesus is describing the end of the age and he list many characteristics, we’ll look at one. He said, «Men will faint with terror apprehensive is what of what is coming on the world, for even the heavenly bodies will be shaken». That’s a whole another level of shaking. The things that are clearly beyond our control. In John 14 and verse 27, Jesus is speaking and he said, «Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I don’t give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid». Jesus is talking to his friends, his disciples, and he’s telling them about his departure, he’s leaving. They’re quite upset about that, that wasn’t the bargain they thought they had struck.
When Jesus said, follow me and I’ll make you fishers of men, I’m quite confident their imagination as they would spend the rest of their lives, their lengthy lives they imagined, following Jesus. And now three years later, he’s rolled up and he said, I’m leaving and where I’m going you can’t come, but I leave you my peace. Now we read that and think, well, how sweet. But if you understand peace to be the absence of conflict, that’s not the life Jesus led. When he was an infant in Bethlehem, they killed all the baby boys that were in his age range. When he became an adult and began his public ministry, he faced conflict and rejection and resistance almost every place he went. From his hometown, to the temple in Jerusalem, to many of the synagogues throughout the nation. He was hated, he was rejected, ultimately, he was tortured to death by the Romans and he’s gathering his friends together and he said, listen, my peace, you can have it.
«My peace,» Jesus said, «I give to you». What we do find in Jesus’s life is that he’s never panicked. He can be in the midst of an angry mob whose intent is to destroy him, and he says, he just walked through their midst. He can be confronted by a demonized man with many a legion of demons in him, and with complete authority and confidence he says to the unclean spirits, come out of him. He demonstrated authority over that. He could be caught in the midst of a storm that terrified the fisherman. And Jesus stands up and speaks to the wind and the waves and says, «Oh, be still». He stands before a Roman governor who has the political authority and the inclination to have him crucified. The Romans were known for their crucifixion. And Pilate is agitated because of Jesus silence before him, and he said, «Don’t you know who I am».
Imagine saying that to Jesus. «Don’t you know I have the authority to have you crucified or to have you released». And Jesus said to him, «Sir,» living Bible, «you have no authority unless my Dad gave it to you». Don’t make me call Pops. Jesus had a peace in the face of some great threats, mortal threats. In fact, he told his friends, he said, «Don’t be afraid of those people who can only kill your body». Well, I’m pretty much thinking those are the people we’re typically afraid of. He said, you don’t have to be afraid of that. He said, «Be afraid of those, that after they’ve destroyed you physically, could throw your soul into hell». «My peace,» he said, «I give to you».
Now we want his peace, we’ve got to choose obedience. My peace I give to you, do not be afraid. And we’ve talked many times about Jesus saying, do not worry. If he said we don’t, we shouldn’t worry, that it’s possible to be free of anxiety. And if he said do not be afraid, I would submit to you, it’s possible to lead lives free of fear. Well there are frightening things in the world and fear will visit you, the same way anxiety will visit you. There are threats and challenges and reports that you don’t want and uncertainties in the world and expressions of evil. And if you’re paying, you know, when I meet people say, I’m never afraid, I’m thinking, then you’re not paying much attention. But we don’t have to be dominated by fear. We don’t have to be manipulated by fear. We don’t have to be owned by fear. If you’ll allow me, I’m gonna suggest that the root of fear is a spiritual problem.
In Ephesians 6:10, it says we’re in a wrestling match with persons without bodies in the Living Bible. I like the living translation, It’s not in your notes, you can check me later. And I think of the fear as a person without a body. And when you’re confronted with fear, it’s not a time to be polite or religious or pretend like you’re not. You need to understand the authority that you have, to say to that person, in Jesus name, you go. You weren’t invited here, I’ll not tolerate your presence here. The psalmist said, when I’m afraid I will trust in the Lord. The antidote to fear is not more courage. You can do courageous things when you’re battling fear. The antidote to fear is trust. Lord, I will put my trust in you. I’ll trust you more than the strength of the dollar or the Federal Reserve or the integrity of a politician or the potential of a fair election. I will trust you. I will take my stand for godliness and righteousness, for holiness and purity. I’ll stand for those values and principles that you’ve given me in my Word. I don’t have to be afraid.
Second Timothy chapter 1 and verse 7 says, «God didn’t give us a spirit of timidity». An alternative translation that’s legitimate is cowardice. «God didn’t give us a spirit of cowardice, but a spirit of power and of love and of self discipline». We do not have to lead lives that are dominated by fear, amen church. Now in all fairness, not all fear is debilitating. Not all fear is bad. God created us, a part of our defense mechanism, a part of our self-care that God put in us is an awareness of things that present a threat to us and you have some internal messaging that says, that’s not good. It sparks fear in you. So it doesn’t mean that we’re brash or bold or foolish or reckless. We have a fear of new things, a fear of new places. We have a fear of animals. But we’re so naive, so removed from the reality of the world, that some of those natural fears God has given us have been turned off.
One of those fears that I believe is important and essential is the fear of God. When God said don’t, he didn’t really put it up for a vote. One of the assignments of the church is to teach about the sovereignty of God, which means God can do what he wants, when he wants, any way he wants, and he doesn’t need anyone’s permission. He is sovereign over all creation. He can part a sea. He can bring the dead back to life. He can open a blind eye or he can initiate judgment. He is sovereign over all. We should respect God. We don’t have to cower in terror, but we need a healthy respect for him. And when we lose the fear of God, we make ourselves incredibly vulnerable.
You see, if we will begin to build a new trust in him through one simple act of obedience after the other. When we make a decision that we know is displeasing to God, it’s not particularly complicated. We simply say, God, I’m sorry. It’s a wonderful habit, that the end of each day, you pause and say, God those things today that were displeasing to you, forgive me of those. If you can identify him, do so. Give the spirit of God permission. If there’s anything today I did that was displeasing to you, help me to be aware of it. I wanna honor you tomorrow more fully than I did today. You see, begin to put statements in place, habits in place, practices in place, that represent a respect, a reverence, for God. And you’ll find his presence far more real in your life. And with that will come an authority over expressions of fear you never even understood were present. You’ll stop whispering. Do you know how much we whisper at church? Pastor, thank you for talking about that. Like, we’re at church. We should be able to talk out loud here. We’re so conditioned. We’ve lost our courage. We’ve given a place to fear that it shouldn’t have.
So I wanna close tonight, I brought you a proclamation. We’re gonna pick this up in the next session. We’ll talk about some fear that’s destructive. There’s a certain fear that’s healthy. I brought you a proclamation from the book of Psalms. Can you see your notes? Is it light enough you can see your notes? I see everybody holding up your paper. All right, we’re gonna pretend like you can read that with me.
Now, we’re gonna stand together to make this proclamation. We’re gonna learn to stand. Look at the person on your right and say, I’m learning to stand. Look at the person on your left and say, you look a little wobbly. Uh-huh, have you found the proclamation? It’s from Psalm 56 beginning in verse 9, we’re just gonna read it together out loud. It’s our declaration. We’re gonna say what the Word of God says about us. Folks, there’s an election coming up and elections have consequences. We all understand it, but our problem isn’t political, our problem is spiritual. And until we make spiritual changes, it’s nonsense to think the politicians are going to resolve our problems. We wanna make this proclamation for all of heaven to know. Are you ready? Let’s say it together.
My enemies will turn back when I call for help. By this I will know that God is for me. In God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? I am under vows to you, O God; I will present my thank offerings to you… That I may walk before God in the light of life.