Allen Jackson - Breakthrough... Looting America - Part 2
I wanna 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. Statesmanship. Once upon a time, that idea flourished amongst us. That we would select people to lead, give them positions of authority, and imagine they would make decisions that were in the good of the people. The best interest of the nation, that seems bizarre in our current landscape. We’ve been looted to the point that we have lost the imagination of good character. The good of country over personal gain seems quaint. Polling in the political arena has replaced principled leadership.
How about doing the right thing even when it’s not popular? Another expression of looting has been the intentional marginalization of a biblical worldview. The removal of the Christian faith from public life in the corporate setting, in academic world, in government settings. We’ve been told consistently now for decades, our faith really wasn’t appropriate in those settings. Don’t bring your prayers, don’t bring your Bible, don’t bring Jesus. He’s not appropriate here. We don’t want anything that could bring disruption. And then we watch in all of those settings, corporate settings, government settings, academic settings, then they bring a worldview and a set of values that brings tremendous dissension and they say, «Shut up! And accept it». Looting.
We find within the church tremendous apostasy and unwillingness to acknowledge the truth. There’s an assault from without. Marxism, on the rise in this culture, in our academic institutions, in our political discussions. It’s a better description of our current way of life than almost anything I can imagine. It requires the diminishment of faith. This isn’t a mystery. Marxism has been on display for more than a century around the globe, and everywhere it’s come and gained authority, one of the first actions it takes is to almost totally eliminate expressions of faith like this. We can’t be silent while the looting continues.
Another expression of looting, I believe, is the refusal to use our American energy sources. We have the most abundant energy reserves of any nation in the world and yet we send billions of dollars to other nations to purchase energy while we deprive US companies and citizens of the revenue and the jobs. It’s looting. Terrorism is another expression of looting. Targeting civilians and acts of violence and war. It’s become so commonplace we’re numb to it. It’s not new, folks, I’m not talking about some current administration. If you think this is political, breathe, and watch and listen a bit. 9/11. Airplanes used as weapons to target innocent civilians. Terrorism has changed the way we live.
Some of you are old enough to remember going to the airport and getting on an airplane without security. Without a metal detector, or a search of your bags, or taking off your shoes, you just like walked through the gate. And it was safe. The terrorism is not exclusively the Muslim issue, but it is predominantly fueled from the Islamic community. We’re not allowed to say that, it isn’t politically correct. Trillions of dollars have been spent. We’re being looted. The blood and the treasure spent in response to terrorist acts is almost beyond imagination. We’re being looted by illegal immigrants, not the individuals, but the process.
American taxpayers shelled out last year in 2023 alone, more than $150 billion in care for illegal immigrants. $150 billion spent for people that weren’t invited here, that came here breaking our laws. Ignoring the legal process of immigration. Billions of dollars that we didn’t spend on our schools or our universities. We’re a nation of immigrants. I’m not anti-immigrant, I’m anti-illegal. Sanctuary cities are looting us. We’ve tolerated for decades this high-minded, arrogant, pompous attitude where we see some of our most celebrated cities and most arrogant leaders declare themselves sanctuaries. Understand what they’re saying. They are not going to abide by federal laws. But you’ll note they demand federal resources. If they wanna be a sanctuary from one, they should be a sanctuary from the other.
I believe our military as a social experiment, is a looting of our nation. As I understand the goal of our military, it’s to defend our country and defeat our enemies hard stop. The military is not intended to be a social experiment, and yet we find that these days totally preoccupied with nonsense like DEI. It’s a looting of our nation of our finest young men and women, they’re made vulnerable. We are all made vulnerable. The military should not be some grand experiment in LGBTQI2, whatever the new number is. And remember the principles, the looting is incremental. It begins in small ways, it grows. God’s waiting to see if his people will cry out, if they will change, if they’ll reorient themselves.
You see, we have wrongly imagined if we could benefit from the looting if we could share in a little bit of the loot, we just wouldn’t say anything. If we said something, we might forfeit an opportunity, we might lose some revenue, we might face some pressure. So, we’ve watched the looting take place and we said, «Well, that’s not really my problem». It is our problem. It’s not a political problem. We have cowered in our churches and say, «We don’t talk about current events because that’s political». It’s cowardice. We’re salt and light. We need to turn up the light so what’s happening in the darkness won’t be so shameful.
Our health care is being looted. Doctor’s focus has been turned away from caring for patients. They’ve been required to focus on government regulations, legal threats, a whole host of things that impede them from doing what they were trained to do and what the majority of them raised their hands to do, and that was to help people. Government and corporate entities greedily harvest profits and healthcare providers are seen as cogs in another profit-driven enterprise. It’s looting. Hospitalists have replaced personal physicians. Protocol has triumphed over common sense. And we all suffer for it. The people working in the system and the people supposed to benefit from the system, it’s looting.
Defund the police is a looting of our security. Our safety is being looted by anarchists disguised as social reformers. We better wake up. The ultimate outcome of the looting? I gave you a list. It’s not intended to be inclusive, but it is something of a summary statement. If we don’t have a change of heart, folks, I’m not talking about a political change. I’m grateful for elections, one of the most remarkable things I’ve seen happened in November. It wasn’t about campaigns. It wasn’t about debates or opportunities seized or missed. I saw millions and millions of Americans in the heartland of our nation, fly-over country, despicable people. I saw them make a sacrifice to raise their hands and say, «We don’t think we’re going in the right direction».
You say, «Well, that’s obvious». No, it hasn’t been obvious. We didn’t see it in 2022. We didn’t see, there have been a lot of times it wasn’t there. Only God could have stirred our hearts. But now we, the people, have to begin to say to the Lord, «We’ll be different. I wanna get to that next». Here’s the outcomes, if this looting is unchecked, I assure you this is our future.
And understand, you think, «Well, I may be in a season in my life where it won’t affect me greatly,» and you could be right on that. But it will affect your children and your grandchildren. If you care about them, you better do more than provide a vacation or a holiday meal. You better make the spiritual changes that give them a better future. If we hide from the realities that are taking place around us, our children and grandchildren will look back at us and say, «It was our lascivious lives, it was our ungodly lives that brought the judgment upon them because we walked through the incremental warnings and refused to change».
Honestly, I think we’re at a pivot point. I don’t think we’ve got two decades to sort this out. I think the Babylonians are at the gate. We can choose the Lord with a new heart and then experience freedom or we can continue to imagine we’re capable of solving our own problems and we’ll face even greater expressions of God’s judgment. I brought you two passages. Isaiah 1, says, «Come, let’s reason together. Though your sins are like scarlet, they’ll be as white as snow; and though they’re as red as crimson, they’ll be like wool. If you’re willing and obedient, you’ll eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you’ll be devoured».
Isaiah issued those words. They didn’t happen in Isaiah’s lifetime. He saw enemies turned around at the walls of Jerusalem. He was speaking to the looting of his people, the incremental decline of the people. And they didn’t listen. Then they lost everything. My concern for us is we’ll think we’ve got enough. We’ve stored up enough, we’ve saved enough, we’re far enough along in our journey. It’s not my problem. When in reality, it’s those of us with enough experience to recognize the change. The younger people don’t even know they’re being looted. They don’t remember the temple when it had gold shields. They don’t remember the public square when our faith was welcomed there. They don’t remember education when it was different. They don’t remember health care when it looked differently.
We have to use our voices. James gives us, I believe, the solution. «You adulterous people,» James’s writing to Christians, «You adulterous people, don’t you know». Anytime the Bible says, «Don’t you know,» what do you know? That the author imagines they don’t know. «Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God». In the New Testament, when he uses the word world, it talks about the prevailing order, the systems in place. He said, «To love the systems of the present age makes you an enemy of God».
We’re called to be different, not weird because of our wardrobe. Not weird because you’re weird. Weird because you choose godliness, biblical values. Those will make you different today, they’ll make you weird in this world. Look at verse 7, he gives us the solution. «Submit yourselves, then, to God». That’s the first step. Submit yourself to God. Boy, submit is not a good word. One of the challenges we have… I read an article in the last couple of days where one of the most celebrated scientists in the world, his solution to gender problems in sports was he said, «Let’s stop competing as men and women, let’s measure hormone levels».
You know how we got in such a messed up place? 'Cause several decades ago the church stopped talking about biblical roles for men and women. We didn’t have the courage to talk about it. 'Cause there was words like submit, and we weren’t about to say that in public. Well, before you get into gender roles, you see the capitulation of the church has put us in a place now where we’re in the land of the absurd. We act like biological sex is confusing. Folks, I grew up in a barn, it isn’t confusing. Submit to God. Not go to church, not say the sinner’s prayer, not get baptized, not be polite, not limit your profanity, not don’t be drunk in public. Submit to God. Bend your knee to God. The only way we can participate in his kingdom is not attending church or embracing some heightened morality.
We gotta bend our knee to God. And say, «I will submit to you my time, my resources, my future. I don’t want you to help me get my way, I want your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven». Oh, that sounds like a prayer we were taught. James says, «Submit to God». Look at the next phrase. He said, «Resist the devil». Now, that we get a little more traction. I get a little more applause around that in presentations, but it’s nonsense to think you can resist the devil until you’ve submitted to God. The authority you have to resist the devil emerges from submitting to God. But then we don’t just resist the devil in our own thought life. We don’t just resist the devil in our own personal temptations, we stand against the purposes and plans of evil in the world in which we live.
We resist the devil. We’ve overlooked evil long enough. «Well, people will label us». No kidding. Welcome to the team. There was a government report, I think it was this week, I read about it this week that was released from Congress after extensive investigation. They said that COVID was caused by a virus that came from a lab in Wuhan. Four years ago, when we were having church outside, we paid two people to monitor the streaming of the service because if I happened to say the virus from Wuhan, the live stream would explode with hate. It’s where the virus came from. Whether it came from a lab or a wet market, it’s where it came from. I wasn’t suggesting a nuclear strike on Wuhan.
«Resist the devil,» that’s the second component. The third step there is equally plain spoken. It’s verse 8, «Come near to God». And then James tells us how we can do that. And you know, most of us could make notes right now of the people we know that need to come nearer to God. What if we just eliminate that list and begin to think of ourselves? «What could I do to move more near to God»? James gives us some very simple things, «Wash your hands». If you’re afraid of the virus, you’ll wash your hands till they chap. You’ll carry Purell in every pocket, you’ll put it in your car. You’d drink it just in case you got exposed to a virus. Little Purell shots.
When we talk about washing our hands before the Lord, be, «Oh, I don’t need that. I said the sinner’s prayer 42 years ago, how could my hands be dirty»? Oh, I couldn’t imagine a way. «Purify your hearts from double-mindedness,» James says. Until you are single-minded in your decision making, in your priorities. James says in an earlier passage, «To be double-minded is to have no faith». And thirdly, he says, «We could change our laughter to mourning». We need a sobriety, a seriousness. We are watching the looting of our nation. And it isn’t a political failure. It’s not the Chinese or the Russians. It isn’t globalism, it’s the capitulation of the church.
We need a more serious note. We gotta stop fighting over where we park and where we sit. And whether stick yard is appropriate for a Christmas celebration. You better come early tonight, it’ll be so appropriate you won’t get in. If you come late. And finally, James says, «Humble yourself». It’s one of the most consistent invitations in scripture. But there’s no place where God says, «He will humble you». It always says we have to choose to humble ourselves. It’s not saying we have no value, we have no merit, it’s understanding our relationship with God. There’s a God and it’s not us. You have gifts, and abilities, and strengths, and resources, and time, you have many, many wonderful things.
You know they’re wonderful 'cause when you consider them going away, if you had no more time, if you had no more money, if you had no more strength, you would understand the magnitude of the loss. Those are wonderful things, but it does not qualify us as God, he’s different. Humble ourselves. If we will do those things, if we’ll submit, resist, come near to God, and humble ourselves, God has said he will lift us up. He’ll lift us above every attack. He can deliver us from the brick pits of Egypt. He can provide food in the desert, water where there’s no water. He’ll turn back the most intimidating enemies. He’ll give us a different diagnosis. He’ll bring peace in the midst of turmoil. God will lift us up. But we have to choose him.
What if we decided, what if a group this size said, «We intend not to rest until the looting is halted»? Let it start in our community. Let it start with us. Only God can do it, but it begins in our hearts. I wanna invite you towards that prayer today. We’re gonna pray together. Stand with me, if you will. You better join hands. If you don’t know the person next to you, tell 'em who you are. If they won’t talk to you, turn loose of 'em. Rebellious prayers don’t help.
Father, thank you for your Word. For its truth, and understanding, and insight. I thank you that you’re involved in the affairs of men and women. That you’re engaged in the earth today. That you’ve not only called us out of darkness and welcomed us into your kingdom, but that you make a journey with us through time. And Lord, we see all around us evidence of the reality that we have been distracted. Or that our hearts have been misplaced. We’ve looked for ways that we might gain, that we might profit, that we might gain an opportunity that we could get our way, that we could get ahead. And we’ve looked away from the things that we knew were displeasing to you, or wrong, or inappropriate. We’ve just imagined that it wasn’t our assignment or somebody else should do it.
Lord we come today to ask for your forgiveness. We come today to submit to you. To yield our hearts to you, our calendars to you, our resources to you, our futures to you. Lord to stand hand in hand and upright before you to say, 'As you give us the wisdom and the ability that we will resist the devil in our own hearts, in our own homes, and our own community, and wherever you send us.' Lord we wanna draw near to you. We wanna enter your gates with thanksgiving and your courts with praise. We wanna be a people who dwell in the midst of your glory.
Holy Spirit, if there are places that we need to make changes our hands might be clean and our hearts might be pure, show us. We choose to humble ourselves. Not to be angry at others or demand that someone else change, but to offer ourselves. Lord, here we are, send us. Help us. And Lord, in the midst of that, we ask you to do what we cannot do, bring a breakthrough. May your intervention that we have seen grow. May it be multiplied, maybe it could expanded. May the truth once again be told. May integrity once again be celebrated. May moral uprightness be seen as a virtue and not a weakness. We praise you for it, Father, we thank you that our children can once again be taught in the truth and prepared for a future. We thank you for it, today. We give you glory that we will see you move in our midst. Father, we praise you today that you are well able, in Jesus’s name, amen.
Lord we come today to ask for your forgiveness. We come today to submit to you. To yield our hearts to you, our calendars to you, our resources to you, our futures to you. Lord to stand hand in hand and upright before you to say, 'As you give us the wisdom and the ability that we will resist the devil in our own hearts, in our own homes, and our own community, and wherever you send us.' Lord we wanna draw near to you. We wanna enter your gates with thanksgiving and your courts with praise. We wanna be a people who dwell in the midst of your glory.
Holy Spirit, if there are places that we need to make changes our hands might be clean and our hearts might be pure, show us. We choose to humble ourselves. Not to be angry at others or demand that someone else change, but to offer ourselves. Lord, here we are, send us. Help us. And Lord, in the midst of that, we ask you to do what we cannot do, bring a breakthrough. May your intervention that we have seen grow. May it be multiplied, maybe it could expanded. May the truth once again be told. May integrity once again be celebrated. May moral uprightness be seen as a virtue and not a weakness. We praise you for it, Father, we thank you that our children can once again be taught in the truth and prepared for a future. We thank you for it, today. We give you glory that we will see you move in our midst. Father, we praise you today that you are well able, in Jesus’s name, amen.