Allen Jackson - Breakthrough... Looting America - Part 1
We’re walking through a series under the general theme of «Breakthroughs». Interventions, God’s interventions in our lives. Those times where God steps into time and makes a difference in our experience. I don’t believe that we can fulfill God’s intended purpose for our lives without his breakthroughs. I don’t believe there’s any such thing as a faithful Christian disciple who isn’t engaged with the supernatural power of God. Because we can’t fulfill what God created us for with our own intellect and our own strength and our own intended efforts. We need breakthroughs. We need God’s interventions. And the Bible’s filled with them from cover to cover.
I won’t take the time to highlight all of them, but you know the characters. They’re your heroes. When God recruited Moses, he was a murderer and a failure on the backside of the desert and there’s an intervention, but the real breakthrough is God said, «I’m gonna deliver my people, the Hebrew people, from Egyptian slavery. They’ve been there 400 years». They didn’t have the power, the military. They didn’t have the votes. They didn’t have the finances. They didn’t have any advocates. They had no way out of the place where they were and God showed up and said, «I have seen their condition and I’m here to set them free. And Moses, I’m sending you».
And you know that Moses wasn’t overly enthusiastic about the assignment, but it was a breakthrough. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t comfortable. Some of you prefer the New Testament on the road to Damascus. Saul of Tarsus met one Jesus of Nazareth. At that time, Saul was an angry, violent, murderous man. He hated people who said Jesus was the Messiah and he met that Messiah. It was a breakthrough, but it changed everything about his life. You see those divine intervention, those times when God intervenes in our lives, those breakthrough moments are not simply to alleviate pain or to reverse a diagnosis or to open a monetary opportunity. They may do all of those things, but they’re really intended to open our lives more fully and completely to the purposes of God. To change the trajectory of our existence. To help us realign values and goals and perspectives.
See, the traditional… and it often flourishes in pulpits. The traditional idea of a breakthrough is we have a problem, we ask God to help, and we want him to solve our problems so we can go back to whatever we were doing before we asked God to help. And that, truthfully, is not a great blessing. It might be a blessing in the moment. It might be victory over a diagnosis or some form of provision, but ultimately you want to cooperate with God more completely. And so, when we talk about breakthroughs, we’re trying to understand the components so that we could cooperate with them more fully in our lives because folks, we need a breakthrough. We’re in a desperate place.
In this session, I want to talk specifically about the looting that’s taking place in America. But I want to do it in the context of a breakthrough, a deliverance, a revelation, insight, understanding, a redirection. When God’s purposes and plans are initiated, when they’re completed, when they’re revealed, when they’re advanced, when they’re welcomed, when they’re understood. Not that idealistic thing where we just get the answer we want and we can continue to do whatever we want. Life is very seldom ideal. It’s often more challenging. And I want to start with a biblical perspective that I don’t hear it discussed a great deal. I don’t think it’s anything unique to us, but this notion of looting, plundering could be understood in a biblical context in a different way as the judgment of God.
It’s a consistent, persistent theme of scripture from the Old Testament right into the New Testament, that when God begins to discipline his people, his protection is not there and they begin to forfeit things he intends them to have. If you want it in a spiritual language, Satan, the devil, steals the blessings that God intends for his people. If you want to evaluate it in a secular term, they’re plundered by more powerful people, people with superior technology, people who make better choices. However you choose to describe it, whether you do it spiritually or in a secular way, the outcome is the people of God are diminished frequently, incrementally, bit by bit, the idea being that they will turn their faces to the Lord and say, «We need help».
I brought you some examples. Again, this is a common part of scripture. We see it on the national basis, not the individual, not just the individual basis or the tribal basis. Israel or Judah often are presented in scripture as a vassal state subjugated to another nation. It’s an expression of God’s judgment. It’s not a failure of their military. It’s not an economic downturn that makes them vulnerable. It’s not the location of the land that God promised them. I assure you God is capable of providing and protecting Israel even though the land they occupy makes them seem vulnerable. Modern history is a great example of that. Most improbably tiny Israel flourishes today in the midst of hundreds of millions of people who are sworn to their annihilation. God is the only explanation.
Well, it’s true in history as well. So, when the looting begins, it’s an expression of God’s judgment. It is not principally about military might or political maneuverings. There are many accounts of God delivering his people in the face of overwhelming odds. It’s the story of Scripture. David and Goliath. I mean, it’s almost a limitless number of stories. Defeat is typically an expression of discipline. It’s very important to get these ideas grounded. They’re gonna support everything we’re gonna look at for the next few minutes. This incremental decline, the looting of the purposes of God for a people is not an expression of a superior adversary. It is an expression of disobedience in the hearts of God’s people that brings his judgment.
I can give you some examples in the book of Judges chapter 4. You have it in your notes. «After Ehud died,» he would have been a leader in Israel, «the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the Lord». These are the covenant people of God. They keep Sabbath and keep kosher. They celebrate Passover. They have lots of religious activities and religious rules and religious behaviors, but it says, «They did evil». Did you know you can sit in church and do evil? Look at the person on your right… no, don’t do that. The Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the Lord. «So the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaan. He reined in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived somewhere. And because he had nine hundred iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the Lord for help».
For 20 years, they suffered. Not because someone had superior military technology. He did. He had iron chariots. It gave him an advantage in the flatlands and the plains and the valleys. But it wasn’t his technical advantage that gave him the authority over the people. It was the fact that they did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so God sold them into the hands of Jabin. God’s people were being looted. Same book, the book of Judges chapter 6. «Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites». God did that.
See, disobedience is not arbitrary. We think we got away with it. There wasn’t a lightning bolt. We think we can be immoral and ungodly and greedy and filled with all sorts of things that we’re not necessarily proud of and we think there’s no consequence, but the Bible very clearly tells us that God is the judge of all and his judgment isn’t just for eternity. It’s not just a judgment of destination, heaven or hell. He judges our actions in our lives, both in time in history, and then he will judge them out of time. The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.
Again, these are the covenant people of God. They’re going to worship, they’re going to temple, they’re offering sacrifices. And God gave them into the hands of the Midianites, «Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain cliffs, caves, strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites and Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. They camped on the land. They ruined the crops. They didn’t spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys». What are they doing? They’re looting the country. Every year at harvest time, these foreign peoples would invade and take the plunder. They would loot the country. Why did they do that? Because God gave it into their hands.
1 Kings, there’s a monarchy now. There’s a king. There’s an army. You would think there’s a new power structure, perhaps they will be free of that. «In the fifth year of King Rehoboam Boam, the king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. He carried off the treasures of the temple of the Lord and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made. So the king made bronze shields to replace them and assigned these to the commanders of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace».
Israel becomes a vassal state of Egypt in the Egyptian kingdom. The temple in Jerusalem was the national bank. It’s the national treasury. It’s why there was such an ostentatious display of wealth. It’s the center of the country, an the Egyptian king sees it and he takes away, he loots the temple. It’s the most humiliating thing you could do to the people. They believe what gives them status and standing is the presence of God in their midst and the Egyptian king, the pagan king, loots the temple of God and the response of the king of Judah is to make bronze shields. Nothing to see here. It’s not just an Old Testament idea. When the New Testament opens and the Gospels begin, Israel is still a vassal state.
In Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, during the days of Jesus, it’s not a vassal state to Egypt or Assyria or Babylon, they’re a vassal state to Rome. And once again, it’s because of the condition of their heart. God sent Jesus. Jesus said, «I came to seek and to save those who are lost». He came on a search and rescue mission. And do you remember what the response of the people was? They stood in the streets of Jerusalem and said, «Crucify him». Be careful, because when Jesus comes back the second time, the world will be in such a desperate place, on the brink of total destruction. And he will come back on another search and rescue mission. When the Lord returns, you and I won’t look up and go, «Oh, it’s nice to have you back». The answer will be, «Without your arrival, survivability was not possible».
The New Testament, you’ve got it. Romans chapter 1, it says, «God gave them over,» his covenant people, «he gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to immorality, to the degrading of their bodies. And they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. God gave them over». He repeats it twice. Acts chapter 7, it’s talking about that Exodus generation, but it’s the New Testament. They’re helping us understand our scripture. If you look at verse 42, it says, «God turned away and gave them over to the worship of the heavenly bodies».
You see, when we see looting begin, what we can understand, you watch the behavior, the diminishment of resources, the diminishment of liberties, the diminishment of opportunities. We recognize that the protection that’s been in place, the provision that has been in place has diminished. It’s been withdrawn. It’s not as available. It isn’t a political issue. It’s not an economic circumstance. It’s a spiritual issue. It’s being worked out in those arenas, but it begins with the attitude of the people of God. It’s not about the technical superiority of the ungodly. It’s the withdrawal of the hearts of the people of God. The outcome of looting, if I can use the word, John chapter 10, these are Jesus’s words. He said, «The thief,» Satan, «comes only to steal, to kill, and to destroy; I’ve come that you might have life, and have it abundantly».
When life is abundant and opportunities are flourishing, there’s a cooperation with the Lord. It’s the biblical model. When the looting begins, we understand that God has stepped back. His people have walked out from under his protection. «Well, Pastor, what about God’s grace and mercy»? That’s why we use the word looting. It’s incremental. It’s bit by bit. It starts in small ways that you can overlook. You could maybe find a way to be distracted and think it’s not that significant. If you don’t pay attention, ultimately it ends in the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple and 70 years living in a foreign land as slaves. The thief comes only to steal, to kill, and destroy.
I’ve taken a minute with that because I want to take the next segment and talk a bit about what we’re watching around us. I believe we are witnessing the looting of America. And I don’t imagine it’s really a political problem. I don’t believe it’s about international events. I don’t believe it’s about technical superiority. I don’t even think it can be fully understood in economic terms or military terms. I think if the people of faith would honor the Lord and seek the Lord and pursue the Lord, the generations who follow us could understand freedom and liberty as we have known it. I think if we continue in the direction that we’re going, those things will be completely forfeited. It’s happening incrementally. Are you watching? We have a whole new vocabulary for looting. It’s almost become recreational. It’s smash and grab. It’s like an outing for the weekend.
Now, I don’t want to suggest that the looting of a CVS or a grocery store is the essence of what I’m talking about. That’s not really our problem. I mean, it’s happening with greater frequencies. Retailers are closing places because of our inability to protect them because we have the idea somehow we’re entitled. And there’s not the will or the desire or the intentionality to defend those retail outlets. But what I want to suggest to you is that looting on a rather small scale is emblematic of what is happening on a very grand scale. Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not talking about politics and political parties.
This has been happening for decades. This is a uniparty issue. This is a heart issue. We may see changes come in the political arena, but the motivation for the change will come from the hearts of the people. I want to give you some examples of how I imagine America is being looted today. One is they’re looting our heritage. America is the greatest experiment in self-government our world has ever seen. That’s the truth. We are bound together, not by ethnicity, race, or some tribal loyalty. We’ve been united by a worldview, a faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That’s been our story since the founding of this nation. We have never been a uniquely Christian nation. We have always been a very diverse nation, which means everyone doesn’t believe the same thing in the same way or worship in the same way, but we have agreed upon a set of values, a worldview which, oh, by the way, were derived from the scripture.
Principles like the sanctity of human life. The very young and the very old, that every life had a dignity. The biblical language for it is we’re the image bearers of God. We have believed in the importance of family. We have understood marriage as the foundational contract of our civilization. We’ve believed in equality before the law, that justice should be blind. We have believed collectively that it was not okay to steal, that you shouldn’t lie. There was a set of values that bound us together. We looked different, we had different accents, but we had a heritage. That heritage has been looted for years. It’s been mocked, it’s been ridiculed, it’s been denigrated. Our children have been taught this very systematically. Phrases like «Christian nationalism» have become derogatory terms.
Language has been crafted, manipulated to suggest that if you love this country and you combine it with an awareness of the sovereign and intervention of God, that it’s inappropriate. In fact, we’re told now, publicly, that it’s dangerous. There’s a bit of an aside. Christian Zionist is another term that is frequently used. People suggest that if you believe God has given the land of Israel to the Jewish people, you’re a Christian Zionist and you’re dangerous. «The Jerusalem Post» recently printed a list of the most recognized 10 Christian Zionists in the world. They included us. I considered it an honor. Another way we’re being looted is globalism. I’m not an isolationist. I understand we live amongst the constellation of nations, but there has been a relentless march towards a global economy, a global currency. Both of which require, demand, necessitate the diminishment of America.
Globalism, to an alarming degree, has hollowed out our sense of purpose. It is diminished amongst us things like the dignity of work. National exceptionalism has been replaced with selfish ambition. It has greatly diminished our manufacturing abilities. We just don’t make anything anymore. I mean, there are some exceptions, but as a general rule, compared to our historic productivity, it is a shadow of our former selves. The movement of manufacturing away from America, it really gained tremendous momentum in the '70s, the 1970s. Manufacturing began moving overseas, offshore. As a result, last year, the United States had a deficit of goods and services in excess of $500 billion.
I wanna give you a little products you’ll know. Converse shoes, Gerber baby food, Schwinn bicycles, craftsman tools, Under Armour, the sports apparel and equipment company, York peppermint patties. How many of those products do you imagine were manufactured in the United States? Oh, you got a bias, I know. None of them. None of them. All of them, with the exception of Gerber, tells us where it was the products were made. Indonesia, Taiwan, Central and South America, Mexico. Gerber doesn’t even do that. They simply acknowledge that they have company manufacturing factories in 418 places, in 86 different countries. The outcome of that is the things like pride in our work, effort, sacrifice, a job well done have evaporated amongst us.
Globalism has contributed to a great diminishment of nationalism. And this isn’t just something that’s heartfelt, it’s being taught in our finest schools. Our children are being indoctrinated. The pride of country or accomplishment, we’re told, are inappropriate. And associated with that is the demonization of our history, things like colonialism. It wasn’t unique to this nation. It’s a part of the story of civilization’s advancement and it’s been demonized. And along with colonialism being demonized, missional activity by people of faith has been demonized.
It’s wrong the children are taught. Academia often teaches that Christian missions are a reflection of an antiquated view of people and culture. That we should no longer presume to have a message of salvation which needs to be shared. And they’ll frequently cite examples, the worst-case examples of people in the name of faith bringing cultural changes that have very little to do with faith. Our educational system is being looted. Discipline has been removed to a great extent from our schools. Parents won’t tolerate it. Hatred for our history has replaced the love of our country. It is being taught in our schools and our universities.
There isn’t anything to be celebrated. Judeo-Christian values have been diminished. Marxist, secularist values have been championed. Folks, this is not theoretical. Education has been perverted to focus on experience, not disciplined preparation for a better future. Teachers unions now openly, blatantly, boldly assert authority over children’s lives that they believe should supersede parental authority. Parents have been largely distracted while the looting has been taking place. Our political process has been looted. Fair elections, those seem very difficult to secure these days. We just concede the fact that there are highly orchestrated schemes to manipulate. We accept that as the norm. Why would we accept that?
Jesus was frequently in trouble because he wouldn’t keep ungodly rules. I don’t intend to yield to ungodliness. I want the Lord to be pleased with us. Let’s pray:
Father, we want your approval more than we want the approval of any person or any organization. May you be pleased with us in Jesus’s name, amen.