Allen Jackson - Breakthrough... Immovable Barriers - Part 1
We’re walking through a series on breakthroughs. The real goal is to try to understand the components that are present when God brings breakthroughs because I’m very certain that in all of our lives, there are places where we need God’s help. Circumstances or places or relationships or decisions where the only acceptable outcome will involve the supernatural engagement of God. It’s not a matter of effort or thinking or knowledge or contacts. We need God’s help. It’s a breakthrough and so, it’s worth studying and considering Biblical patterns so that we might know how to align ourselves. I don’t believe God is against us. I believe he’s for us. But frequently, I believe we have to change in order for the purposes of God to emerge in our lives.
So, we’re on a bit of a learning curve in this season. We’re gonna look at some immovable barriers tonight and how we can move them. I know that’s a paradox. If they’re immovable, they can’t be moved, but God can. But I wanna start with our little paradigm I’ve been inviting you towards and I’m gonna do it a bit more consistently because I think it’s necessary, this whole notion that we began back in COVID. It seems like at least a lifetime ago now of watch, listen, think, and act. Sometimes it’s good news, but when you see the truth presented or the wisdom expressed, it puts in stark contrast the foolishness that’s been present.
And this week, President-elect Trump said, I hope you heard, that if the hostages that were taken by Hamas were not released prior to his inauguration on January 20th, I quote, «There’ll be hell to pay». I think that is a very appropriate statement. I had a couple of interviews yesterday with friends in Israel and I can tell you the tone in Israel changed with that statement. But it’s not broadly accepted. There are people that say, you know, «It’s insightful rhetoric. It’s ratcheting up the tension».
I’ll give you my opinion. It’s at least an informed one. I’ve lived in the Middle East and I’ve been in and out of Israel since I was a boy and it’s been at least a decade. When the first American hostage was taken, I looked to the President of the United States to say, «They’ll be released tomorrow or we will come for you». Forget the Israelis' response. There’ll be no negotiation, there’ll be no humanitarian aid. You turn loose our hostages. And that’s been absent for well over a year and the suffering is beyond imagination.
So I thought it was an appropriate statement. In a season when it’s necessary we will have to see what God will do with that. Another expression that I think that surprises me, but I keep bumping into it and I’ll take just a moment with it. There’s been a conversation in our community for some time now about appropriate and inappropriate books in our children’s libraries and I’m continually asked about that. And the answer that is often given to me or the reason that people say they remain silent is they don’t want to support the banning of books. And I appreciate that perspective. I think it is misplaced. There is a handful. There’s 2 or 3 dozen books in the libraries that are beyond reprehensible. I mean they’re vile. They’re indefensible to put them in the presence of small children.
And I don’t understand the conversation to be about banning of books at all. I understand the conversation to be around age appropriate learning. Those books are inappropriate for children of that age. Certainly beyond parental involvement and supervision. It’s nothing to do with the banning of books. It’s age appropriate learning. We understand this. We don’t sell cigarettes in elementary schools. You have to have parental consent if you’re under 16 to get a tattoo. And these books are awful. But I think clarify the conversation, express your point, and then there’s business that needs to be done if the people that are serving on the school board are determined to keep those books.
Once the case has been made clearly and concisely and cogently, then I think they’d have other business to do. But I think you forfeit your right to lead long term in our community if you want that kind of vile material in our schools. But I don’t think it needs to be the point that chokes every meeting from now until. But you have to be wise enough. Don’t bring lists of 400 books that aren’t appropriate for the library. And bring the books that aren’t your favorite or you don’t like or have some expression of witchcraft in them. You’re not trying to bring a total worldview change to the library. You’re saying there are some books that are so inappropriate they don’t belong before small children. And we’ve got to be more mature. More than one person has come to me and said they will ban the Bible.
Okay, tell me who you are that I wanna know who that is that thinks that’s a good idea because I wanna remember. That we’re bullied, we’re intimidated, we’re frightened, we’re reluctant. There’s a lot of motivations around it, but don’t get caught up in the drama and the emotion. There’s a set of those books that are completely inappropriate. Make the presentation, stand up for it, and then let’s get on with the business that we need to make the decisions. Makes sense? Watch and listen, pay attention. I’m tired of the distractions and the subterfuge and the fear-based decisions. Make the right decision in the moment to the best of your ability and then we’ll make the next right decision when we have to. We can do this.
We get way heated up about Washington DC, folks until we can bring changes to Middle Tennessee where we live. We want somebody to change Washington DC. We don’t have the courage to change where we live. You understand that is backwards, right? Change the entire federal bureaucracy, but I don’t want to invest the time and energy to change… There’s the Hebrew word «mashuga». Means you’re crazy. In a God honoring, Jesus loving sort of way, so. All right. Keep watching and listening and thinking and engaging we’re gonna make a difference. God is moving. We’re not doing everything the way it’s always been done.
There’s change afoot and we’re gonna need the wisdom of the Lord and it’s not simple, it’s confusing and there are professional confusers amongst us. Tremendous manipulation, deception, lies, rampant and you need to know the truth. You need the scripture, you need to have it in your heart. You need to know the voice of the Holy Spirit. And my topic is «Breakthroughs». We gotta go. It’s the time when God intervenes in our lives. Acts 9:3, I’m gonna continue to bring you some examples of this. The scripture is filled with these breakthrough moments. This one happens to be Saul of Tarsus as he neared Damascus. On his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him and he fell to the ground and heard a voice say, «Saul, why do you persecute me»?
This is God initiated. Saul wasn’t looking for Jesus. He was looking for Jesus’s followers and he intended to put them in prison. He had no intention of serving Jesus. And Jesus stepped back into time. The last time we saw Jesus was in Acts chapter 1 at the ascension on the Mount of Olives. We have a little window when Stephen is martyred and he looks to heaven and he sees the Lord. When we get to Acts chapter 9, Jesus is on the road to Damascus doing an intervention with one Saul of Tarsus. «Just exactly what is it you think you’re doing, young man»? «Well, I’m not sure, Lord».
I think we could all agree it was a breakthrough moment in Saul’s life. We say we want breakthroughs. It’s a complete career change for Saul. Means he’s gonna lose his friends. He’s not gonna be trusted by the community of believers because he’s been one of their chief prosecutors. It guarantees at least a season of isolation. I mean there’s nothing easy about it. We talk about breakthroughs and we think when breakthroughs comes it’ll all be easy. It’ll be like everything gets simple and everything that was confused will become clear and opposition will melt and… That really isn’t the biblical pattern typically.
There are some places where that’s true. I’ve defined breakthroughs rather broadly. There are those points of deliverance, revelation, insight, understanding, redirection. Those times when God’s purposes and plans are initiated in and through us, around us. Brought to completion, revealed, advanced, welcomed, understood. Our ideal breakthrough. I think the one that we pray for, that we imagine, that we dream about are those points where God intervenes. He responds with a complete solution and the imagined future is delivered whole and intact. It’s like God’s showing up at the burning bush in Exodus 3 and say, «I’ve come down to deliver my people and I’m gonna take them to the Promised Land. And if you’ll snap your fingers, we’ll all be there». That I believe is our preferred, the ideal breakthrough, right?
I don’t want any process. I’m not really looking for any learning moments. I want out of pain and into peace now. I mean, if I have to wait till tomorrow. But life is seldom ideal and the Bible shows us that we are frequently delivered out of something, but not brought into what God has for us immediately. We’re delivered from Egyptian slavery, but we’re not immediately in the promised land. We’ve got some steps before we get there. We’re delivered from our murderous rage against Christ followers, but we don’t become an apostle that impacts the world the next morning. We’re delivered out of something but not always brought immediately into something. We’re delivered from something, but frequently our adversaries aren’t removed.
You see, I think we believe God should deliver us from the pressure of the person, whatever, and they should be totally humiliated, eradicated, eliminated, neutralized. And sometimes God delivers you from those things and they flourish. And then you have to forgive because you’re standing over there saying, «God bless him with the botch and the itch and the scab». Sometimes we need physical healing and God heals us, but he actually uses a healthcare professional. «Well, I didn’t wanna go to the doctor. I don’t wanna make a co-pay. I don’t wanna meet my deductible. I don’t wanna deal with that. I wanted God to heal me».
Duly noted. If you pray then you’re better. There may have many points of contribution, but I believe God brought healing. He is our healer. I will gladly pay the doctor’s bill, but I will very purposefully give thanks to the Lord that he restores my health. Or sometimes God brings healing to our lives, but it doesn’t mean that, you know, we’re removed from the arena of aging. Christians get weird. It’s like we lose our balance. And when we talk about the supernatural and then we just shut down and go, «Well I just don’t believe in that». Because we don’t want to deal with the messiness of doing life with people. We’ve gotta have the courage to invite the supernatural power and presence of God into the midst of our lives.
Or sometimes God presents opportunities to us. They’re clearly God opportunities. God-initiated, circumstances line up. There’s something that presents that is most unlikely and most improbable, but in order to accept the opportunity, it will require significant investment of energy. We call that work and often the investment of resources, we call that spending money. And I meet people all the time who say, well, you know, «If God had done that, it wouldn’t have been difficult and he would have provided everything».
Well it’s a wonderful thought. It’s just not biblical. I mean, sometimes God will do that, but to demand that God do that all the time would make him your benevolent uncle. You’d just be a spoiled kid. We’ve had enough of those in the media lately. I want to look at a breakthrough. The biblical one. I didn’t take this one from the Christmas story. We’ll do several of those characters, but I thought it was helpful not to limit it to the holidays. I want to look at Joshua’s life. Joshua begins his life, when we find Joshua initially in scripture, he’s a slave in Egypt. He knows the sting of the whip from the Egyptian taskmasters. He knows the humiliation of being a slave.
Joshua was there when Moses comes in out of the desert and says, «You need to get ready, we’re leaving». He sees all the plagues visited on Egypt. He crosses the Red Sea. He sees the Egyptians drowned. He’s at Marah, in Exodus 15, when the bitter water is turned to sweet. Joshua is Moses’s aide de camp. He becomes his assistant. So, he spends decades with Moses, following Moses’s leadership. He sees Moses when he’s been spent so much time in the presence of God that he has to put a veil over his face because there’s a glow. He knows Moses when he goes up the mountain and comes back with 10 Commandments. I mean, he’s had a front row seat for one of the most remarkable leaders in all of the presentation of scripture. But Moses is unable to take the Exodus generation into the promised land.
And so, at the end of Moses’s life, Joshua is the next man up. It’s one of the more difficult job descriptions in the Bible. «I want you to do what Moses couldn’t do». «Oh sure». And I want to look at a bit of that. Deuteronomy 31:23, «The LORD gave this command to Joshua the son of Nun». You know, there’s 2 people in the Bible that were born without the father. Jesus, you know, it’s Christmas time. You know the other one? It’s Joshua. He’s the son of Nun. I didn’t go to comedy school. I went to seminary, okay? So, «Joshua the son of Nun: 'Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the Israelites into the land I promised them on oath, and I myself will be with you.'»
It’s an interesting passage in all seriousness, the way it’s stated. God says, «I myself will do it». It’s an emphatic way of making a point. Someone says, you know, «Did you lock the door at the house»? «I did». «Are you sure»? «Yeah». «Are you positive»? «I did it myself. I didn’t delegate it. It wasn’t done digitally. I did it myself». And the message that God gives to Joshua is, «I myself will be with you». Now as wonderful as that is, «I would submit to you,» it’s not the answer I would have preferred had I been Joshua. I would have preferred God to say, «I will do it myself». Remember the line we’ve looked at it with Moses quite a bit in Exodus 3 where God said, «I’ve heard the cries of my people, I’ve seen their suffering and I’ve come down to deliver them». And up until that point, Moses is like, «Yes». And then God pivots and he says, «Go, now I’m sending you».
And that’s when the debate breaks out. That’s when the debate breaks out for all of us. And when God is commissioning Joshua in this passage, it said the Lord gave Joshua this command to be strong and courageous, «You will bring the Israelites into the land I promised them, and I myself will be with you». Well I mean, it’s good news, kinda. I mean, God is emphatically asserting Joshua, «You’re not going alone. I will be with you». But he’s also saying to Joshua, «You bring these people in». I think it’s a very poignant moment for us. Many of us have been praying for change in moral behaviors and trends and attitudes in education and what’s being taught to our children and how we’re being led and how marriage is defined and human sexuality and all these things and we want somebody somewhere to do something.
And I believe God is still in the business of saying, «I’m sending you. Oh no, wait a minute. I’ll be with you. But I need you to do something». Are you willing? I think it’s a component of breakthroughs. Joshua chapter 1, Joshua was getting his instructions again, «Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. 'Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; don’t turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Don’t let this book of the law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you’ll be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous.'»
If you’re counting, that’s the 3rd time in this passage. The message is given to Joshua over half a dozen times. Be strong and courageous. You know enough about Biblical interpretation. If God says to you, «Be strong and courageous,» how do you feel? Weak, inadequate, and frightened. If you were filled with confidence, God wouldn’t say be strong and courageous. If you’re filled with an overwhelming sense of inadequacy and you’re frightened, God will say, «You’re gonna need to be strong and courageous». «Don’t be terrified; don’t be discouraged,» «Joshua, you look terrified. You’re a mess, son. Are you discouraged? Don’t be discouraged». «For the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go». He’s already said it, «I myself will be with you». It has to be restated, reasserted.
Difficult assignments are not picked up glibly. Christians, we should work to bring better alignment to how we share our stories because when we walk through difficult places and we take those first steps of cooperating with the Lord, in my life, I haven’t usually taken them with great confidence and glee and shouts of joy. I’ve taken them rather hesitantly. I said, «Lord, I wanna follow you, but this seems like a hard way to go». God makes a series of statements to Joshua. He said, «You’ll lead these people». And then he tells him there’s some things he’s gonna have to do, «You’re gonna have to be strong and very courageous».
Are you ready for that? Are you ready to have to demonstrate strength and great courage for the purposes of God to break forth in our generation? We want other people to be courageous. We want other people to step up. We’ve been saying for a long time now. This has to start at our kitchen tables and our holiday tables and then with the tables where we gather with our peer groups and our friends. Option 2, we’re willing to tell the truth in those expanding circles. Why should you expect somebody else to speak the truth in a broader way? If we hide from the conflict, the disruption, the awkwardness of telling the truth to the people that we’re doing life with, why should we imagine someone should go bear the weight of telling the truth in a broader way? Be strong and courageous. «Be careful to obey all the law. Don’t let this book of the law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night. Do not be terrified». There’s a theme, do not be discouraged.
I want to take a minute to pray before we go.
Father, I thank you that you love us. I thank you that you, that in your great mercy and compassion, you have made a way for us to be at peace with the Creator of all things. That you’re not angry with us, that you are not resentful of us, that you have welcomed us into your kingdom and made peace with us through Jesus Christ. I thank you for that today. Nothing’s hidden from you, no part of our past, no thought within us, and yet you love us. May that love grow in us every day and bring a boldness and a courage within us to face the challenges before us, in Jesus name, amen.