Allen Jackson - Nominated for Assignment - Part 1
We’re in the midst of a short series under the general theme of «Leading With our Faith». But it’s really targeted towards this unique season of the year and the opportunities it presents. You know, there’s some world class leaders that gather on our campus every weekend in all sorts of arenas. Some in education, some in business, some in communication, some in the entertainment world. And I find that we have tremendous confidence in those places where we’ve either pursued education or we have great life experience or we’ve had some accomplishment. But oftentimes I meet people that have tremendous confidence in their leadership skills in those varied arenas. But when it comes to our faith, we have little to none.
You know, I’m not a scholar. I don’t know how to pronounce all the names. There’s so much I don’t know. And we forfeit all those leadership skills, all that influence that we represent across our community because of that sense of inadequacy. And my real objective over these weeks is to commission you in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit to lead with your faith. In spite of all that we’re not, in spite of all of our inadequacies, the goal is to use the influence that you have your knowledge of the Lord, your life experience with the Lord and to share it from that place. Not something that you haven’t experienced. Not something you don’t know. Not something beyond your life experience. That’s foolishness. That’s arrogance. It’s pride. It’s presumptive. It’s destructive. But from within your life experience. There are many things I don’t know but let me tell you what I know about the Lord. And that’s a safe platform.
So if you wondered why you came to campus today or why you’ve tuned in or why you’re taking a moment to listen, it’s to accept that commission. I’m far more excited than you are but it’s okay. So here’s the premise. I want to inform you, if you didn’t know, you’ve been nominated for an assignment. Gee, I just wanted to come to church to make my wife happy. You know, I’m like, I want the kids to go to Sunday school and he’s up there nominating me for something. He’s gonna ask me for money before we get out of here. I know he is. He’s gonna try. Could be. You know, we’ve just survived and I suspect you know this, another election cycle. And it’s with, yeah, and in this particular cycle, there’s been an expression for some rather sweeping change.
So we have new imagination for government leaders now. We’re anticipating seeing some things we haven’t seen for quite a season. We’re considering we’re anticipating outcomes that we haven’t experienced. I would invite you to not adopt a passive stance. We prayed for weeks and weeks that we would be able to have an election that was perceived as fair by all participating. That those who wanted to vote and had the legal right to do so would be able to do so. Those who did not would not be able to do so. I think the prayers are perhaps more important now. We’re in a transitionary time. You know, that notion of transfer of power, the whole world does not live with that. And it’s a very, there’s a great deal of emotion on both sides of the discussion all the way around all the ideologies.
There’s a tremendous amount of very incendiary language that tragically has a home in much of the legacy media which still encompasses the primary messaging voice across our nation and your prayers that we be able to walk through this peacefully, respectfully, are very, very important. If you’re happy about the results, I would give you the advice they gave me when I was a child. I’m a tad competitive. You know, and they would say, «If you win, act like you’ve done that before. And if you’ve lost, have the dignity to treat those who won with respect». But I’ll tell you the real key. I don’t believe elections will fix us because I don’t believe our primary problem was political. I believe the fundamentals of our problems are spiritual which means an election is just a temporary assignment. We’ve been here before.
The administration that’s headed back to Washington has been to Washington before. And when the end of their term came, the changes they initiated didn’t last six weeks. So that would make you foolish if you like the changes you’re anticipating. And I do many of them. I think we need to understand that unless there’s a heart change broadly in the American people, whatever changes are initiated will not be able to be maintained. I look forward to the opportunity of having choices between a whole array of candidates across the political spectrum who all embrace the biblical world view. That’s our assignment.
So I have new imaginations of the people of God. That the responses we have not made before will begin to come forward. That outcomes we have not experienced will become a part of our expressions of faith. That we’re not just going to sit on our good intentions with a little happier smile on our face and imagine the problems have been solved and addressed. We have to be different. And I believe that has to have some very personal implications. How are we going to live out our faith so that it looks differently than it has in the past? I’m not content with this notion that I’m born again pastor. I’ve been baptized. I read my Bible from time to time. I attend my church occasionally.
What do you want? Well, it isn’t a matter of what I want. It’s a matter of understanding the invitation of Almighty God. And I believe the assignment isn’t to experience the new birth, it’s to serve him with our lives. And I think we have overlooked that part of the bargain. It’s easier to see in what we’re watching around us. With the new election comes a whole host, hundreds and hundreds of new appointments, new assignments. The party that wins the election takes the people that support their ideology, at least theoretically, with them into positions of authority. And we’re watching that happen. And if you like the outcome of the election, you’re smiling and if you didn’t, you’re probably uncomfortable.
We are watching local Pete Hegseth has been nominated to be the Secretary of Defense. We have a new department apparently emerging, The Department of Government Efficiency. That feels a little paradoxical to me. It’s like the Department of Dry Water. I don’t know how that’s gonna work but Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are going to lead that initiative. You know, what I would ask you to pause and think with me about just a moment because be absolutely clear on this. I’m asking you to change. I’m suggesting we cannot maintain the status quo for ourselves. And I’m gonna use those individuals kind of as a template for understanding this. Three weeks ago, those people I just mentioned were citizens, I promise, you with lives filled with responsibility. They weren’t looking at themselves thinking, «What am I gonna do today»?
Their lives were crowded. They were busy. They had assignments and families and children and commitments and all of those things. And today they’ve been nominated for positions of authority in the United States government. So they are dramatically planning significant changes to their lives. Reordering of their schedules, shifting responsibilities. When it happens that suddenly it’s an intrusion. You said, «Oh, it’s a great honor». Uh-uh, and I would remind you that they’re agents of temporary change. President-elect Trump has been elected president before and I’m grateful for his willingness to serve. I marvel oftentimes at positions he’s willing to take and the courage he’s demonstrated. But his ideas were resisted broadly and quickly swept aside. We have to have a heart change. Which brings me to this theme of leading with our faith. You see, I think we have a very critical role to play.
So here’s my question to you. I’m gonna get to the scriptures. You’ve looked at those scriptures that dear God we’ll be here to. You may be, doors are locked. Here’s the question. Would you be willing to accept a role in a significant change initiative? If your phone rang, if you got a text, would you be willing to accept a role in a significant change initiative if it meant you had to make changes. «Well, you know, actually pastor, what I would like is there to be significant changes and me just do what I wanna do. You see, I have a plan. I’ve been planning it for a long time. It’s the fulfillment of my dream». Yeah, I get it.
And if a friend of our church has been nominated for one of these assignments, Governor Mike Huckabee to be the ambassador to Israel. I promise you that is very disruptive to the life plan he had 30 days ago. And the acceptance of that would make a significant impact upon many people in his life. Not just himself and his wife. Not even just his children and his grandchildren. I have some friends and acquaintances who’ve been laid off from their jobs because Governor Huckabee is gonna be going to Israel. To accept those kind of decisions and the implications of them is not a small thing. You know, here’s the reality. It’s improbable that the majority of us are gonna be nominated by President-elect Trump for some position. But you may not be aware of the fact that you have been chosen by the creator of all things, the most high God, the king of kings and the Lord of Lords.
And that’s better than a piece of stationery with the presidential seal of the United States of America on it. And it’s a far more significant invitation. And if your response is, «I’ve been born again, it’s not my problem». You’re deceived. Or at least ill-informed. Or maybe you’re just a beginner and you don’t know. I brought you one verse of scripture. I could have taken many but I have another agenda. Mark 16. This was Jesus post-resurrection just prior to his ascension. In fact, in Mark’s gospel, it’s the last thing he has to say to his friends. Last words have heightened significance. «He said, 'Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.'»
The choice is either being saved or condemned. Those are the options. There’s no third bucket. But then he doesn’t leave it at that. He said, «There’ll be some evidence if you’re engaged in this». He said, «These signs will follow those who believe. They’ll accompany those who believe in my name. They’ll drive out demons; they’ll speak in new tongues; they’ll pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it won’t hurt them at all; they’ll place their hands on sick people, and they’ll get well». That there’ll be an accompanying presence of Almighty God on this Almighty God assignment. Things will happen that people who know you will go, «That couldn’t be them. I went to school with them. They can’t do that».
And I believe that is the nature of this bargain. That there’s been a power greater than ourselves that has given us an invitation to be a part of his eternal kingdom. And then he says, «With the remainder of your days, once you’re birthed into that kingdom, you have the lifetime of a kingdom assignment». Not church attendance and surviving sermons. How long will this one last? Not a lifetime of dodging commitment cards. «I’m not serving with the kids. No way. No how». You see, I think the church has lived way below what God intends us to be. And so it’s why I’m asking you to consider leading with your faith. I’m not asking you to be weird. Weird does not make you spiritual. Weird makes you weird. If you’re aware, don’t blame Jesus.
You can say it this way, «You know, one of the great things I love about the Lord that I was so weird and he chose me anyway». But don’t blame him. There are some types and patterns in Scripture. Types is kind of a fancier word of saying God shows us something that he intends to reproduce. He models something that he will do in our lives. The Bible’s filled with them. One of the examples, one of the greatest leaders in all the Bible, perhaps the greatest leader until we get to Jesus, is Moses. And God recruited Moses. He’s a failure. He’s a murderer. He grew up in a broken family. He grew up with tremendous emotional strain and stress.
Genetically, he belongs to the Hebrew slaves. But his experience was growing up in the palace of Pharaoh. That will torque you emotionally. He had an anger problem because as a young man, he murdered an Egyptian. His own people, the ones that he shared genetics with, didn’t trust him because he grew up in the palace. The people in the palace where he grew up didn’t like him because he was one of the slaves. So with all of that, in spite of all these reasons he can’t, he shouldn’t. All those things that you and I experience, all the things the devil tells us why we’re not qualified, why we won’t be able to, Moses had his own list and then God recruited him. I put a bit of it in your notes. If I’d have looked at my notes before I put that in there, I gave you Isaiah. But let’s start with Moses.
Well, is this a work? It’s Exodus 3: «The Lord said, 'I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt and I’ve heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I’m concerned about their suffering. So I’ve come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians.'» After that point, you can see Moses he’s going like, «That’s so awesome». Tears running down his face, «They need help. It’s awful the way they live. They’ve been abused for hundreds of years. God, thank you. I’m so grateful». I mean, it’s an emotive point, right? I mean, it’s, you can feel the tremendous release. Thank God. I gave my future away trying to help those people. Moses is completely on board.
And then in verse 9, God says, «The cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I’ve seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them». Yes, yes, God, thank you. Verse 10, «So now, go. I’m sending you». You had me right up to the I’m sending you part, «I’m sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt». And Moses said, «Who am I, that I should be doing there»? And it elicits this rather lengthy discourse that we’re gonna use as our template a bit. The idea I wanna hand you for the moment is God saying to Moses, «I’m sending you». I’m sending you. I’m sending you. And I would inform you that whether you’re conscious of it or not, God has sent you. There are people within your sphere of influence that I believe God created you to be a point of contact for on behalf of His kingdom.
Now, if you opt out if you raise your hand and say, «I’m not interested». If you choose not to co-operate, I trust the grace and mercy of God to create an alternative to reach those people. But you will have forfeited your opportunity in the kingdom. I believe, I believe accurately from scripture. God has said to every one of us, «I’m sending you». He hadn’t sent us all to a pulpit. He hasn’t sent us all to theology school. You have a skill set that will bring the trust of people into your life that would never trust me. For many years my father practiced veterinary medicine. He was a Christ follower but he paid the bills and raised his family and fed his boys, which is no small task if you have three of them, by treating sick animals.
And I can’t tell you how many people I have watched. They bring Fluffy into the vet and fluffy doesn’t feel good and the doctor helps the dog get better. And whatever recommendation he makes after helping Fluffy, they are very open to. I’ve watched him impact more people with his faith, inviting them towards the kingdom of God than most ministers I have ever known. And there are people in your sphere of influence that will listen to you that have no intention of listening to me. «I’m sending you,» the Lord said.
That’s not the only assignment. I can give you multiple examples. I’ll put one more in your notes. It’s Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah is a young man. His career is not really established at this point. I mean, we know him as a prophet, one of the major prophets. But at this point in his unfolding story, he’s not that. He’s just a young man and he has a vision. He sees the throne room of God and all of its glory and majesty. And his response is, «Woe to me. I am ruined. I’m a man of unclean lips». He says, «I don’t belong here. Whatever this is, I am not this». «And I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty. Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he’d taken with the tongs from the altar. And with it he touched my mouth and he said, 'This has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for.' And then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? '»
And I said what? «'Here I am. You could send me.' And he said, 'Go and tell this people: Be ever hearing, but never understanding: be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'» That is not a fun message to deliver. Imagine if my message to you today was you people you are ever hearing but you never understand and you see a lot but you never really perceive anything. That is not affirming. That’s the introduction to the message God said he was going to give Isaiah. But Isaiah said, «I’m here, let’s go». He started with, «Woe to me». He recognized he was unprepared, he was unworthy, he was in the midst of a people who were unworthy. I would allow you if you will, I would suggest that is a lost imagination amongst the people of faith in our nation.
We say things like, «We can do anything we want to do. I’m forgiven, cheap grace». Well, I believe in forgiveness. But I don’t believe in being flippant about it. Isaiah had a different attitude and it qualified him for a role of great significance. Now God made provision for his sin. It was an expression of mercy. An angel took a coal off the altar and it wasn’t physical, this is a vision. Well, God’s made provision for our failures and our shortcomings. It required not a coal from the altar. It required His son.
So the nature of this invitation shouldn’t be considered lightly. It shouldn’t be imagined to be something flippant. It required the incarnate Son of God. The son of God to put on an earth suit and come amongst us and we did not treat him well. We wouldn’t listen to him. The majority of us rejected him. When push came to shove, we did both. We blindfolded him and hit him over the head repeatedly. We spit in his face and said, «If you’re the Son of God, tell us who hits you». Then we tortured him to death. And he endured all of that so that you and I might spend our journey through time, our days under the sun, as ambassadors for his kingdom. That we might be a part of his kingdom.
You don’t have to be. You could choose to live your life completely apart from God. You have that privilege. He’s given you free will. We’re not just creatures of instinct. We’re not like the swallows that return to Capistrano or the salmon that go back to the stream where they were born. We have a choice. And I’m inviting you to choose to honor the Lord with your life. God recruited Isaiah. He’s recruiting today. Are we willing to say, «Here I am». Or are we more likely to say, «We elected him. Let’s let them fix it». Well, they got a heavy lift. We’re in some kind of mess. I hope they’re willing to turn their lives upside down. I hope they’re willing to endure all the criticism, all the things said about them.
I heard somebody this week in the media on a large platform, a person with a lot of credentials looked at one of these nominees and they said, «They’re a Russian agent». I thought, «Really, haven’t we had that conversation»? And we expect those individuals that are nominated for those places to absorb all of that. It’s just a part of what goes with it. It’s a tough business. Politics is not a tougher business than standing up to the kingdom of darkness. «Oh, pastor, that’s not my calling». Oh, really? Tell me about that. You’re a covert operative. You’re an undercover Christ follower. I see. Well I should remind you of what the boss said. He said, «If you deny me in front of people, I’ll deny you before my Father».
I wanna pray with you before we go. Though God doesn’t abandon his people no matter what besets our lives even if it’s God initiated, even if it’s God’s judgment, he does not abandon us in those places. He gives us a way back to restoration. That’s the point of the cross. That Jesus exhausted the curse of our sin that we might receive the fullness of his obedience. Let’s pray together.
Father I thank you that you love us. That no matter our circumstances and no matter the challenges, no matter the choices we’ve made, that if we will come in humility and repent that you will bring restoration and renewal to our lives. We trust you for it this day and in this year in Jesus name, amen.