Allen Jackson - The Lord Is With You - Part 1
We’re working through a study on breakthroughs. And I really began this because I was so aware of how many people amongst us (and you can put me on that list) we’re in places where we need breakthroughs from the Lord, those places where only God’s intervention can bring about an acceptable solution. You know, there may be other ways to navigate or to negotiate, but, without God’s help and engagement and involvement, the outcomes won’t be good. And breakthroughs are not always so mystical. I think there’s a great deal of information in scripture, and we can cooperate, we can catalyze breakthroughs, or we can be resistant to them.
The fact is, I’ve been working for these weeks… I’m gonna write another study on breakthroughs missed. I’ve become very aware of generations of people who missed the most obvious, the poster generation for breakthroughs missed, was the Exodus generation. They ate manna; they drank water from a rock; they came through the Red Sea; they followed a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. And they came to the borders of the promised land, and they said, «It’s truly a land that flows with milk and honey, but it’s too difficult. We don’t wanna do that». And they died in the desert. They missed a breakthrough. There’s all kinds of individuals: Pilate, the Roman governor. Think how different his life would have been, his future would have been, if he would have said, «I believe you really are the Messiah».
You say, «Well, it would have cost him something». No kidding. If you haven’t processed yet the fact that it will cost you something to follow Jesus, oh, it’s free, but it’s not cheap. Breakthroughs missed, but we’re not on that one yet; that’s coming. God is in the business of intervening in the lives of human beings, of individuals, of families, of generations. It’s a whole another subset of this study, the generational blessings that come. If you’re willing to catalyze a breakthrough, there’s a high degree of probability your children and your grandchildren and their children after them will benefit. We’ve been pretty casual with this stuff.
So, I’m excited about it. I’ve been consistently inviting you back to our little paradigm of watching and listening and thinking and acting, because we’re not doing theology in a vacuum, folks; we live in the real world. We don’t gather in our building and do studies about 1st century culture and ignore 21st century culture. That’s called academia; that’s not a living faith. We are practitioners of the Christian faith; our faith has to impact our generation. And, if you’re not watching and listening and thinking and acting based upon your faith, just exactly what is it that causes you to think you’re a Christ follower? Because you’re a theological theoretician? There needs to be the fruit; the biblical language around it is there is fruit in your life. There is something produced by the living vitality, the health of your spiritual vibrancy that is evident and tangible, that separates you from non-fruit bearing trees.
And you don’t have to go to Washington DC. This isn’t political. This isn’t about Republican or Democrat, elephants and donkeys. I look forward to seeing the Spirit of the Lord poured out on elephants and donkeys. We can just stay in our community. We’ve struggled mightily in our community on things as simple as removing some really abhorrent books from our school libraries; we’re just addled about it. And there’s goofiness all around the equation; it’s a bit, it isn’t confusing to me, it’s spiritual. There’s a couple dozen books that simply don’t belong in children’s libraries. They’re not simply pornographic; they’re vile; they’re perverse. And then the Christians say, «Well, I’ve got a list of 400 books». Stop it, they’re not Christian libraries. You’re not gonna remove every book, opinion that you don’t like in the library, but there’s a couple dozen that are so vile, they don’t belong there.
I don’t care if they came bundled in 100 million books. We know what the titles are; they need to go. You understand the debate on… people stop me on a very regular basis, very agitated because there are books in our little resource center at church, and they say, you know, they don’t have the appropriate view of some aspect of theology they like. Or there’s a Bible in there that’s a translation that they don’t particularly appreciate. And I’m like, «Of all the things in the world to be upset about, you’re on the warpath about a book in the next chapter». And we have trouble saying that these books in our children’s libraries don’t belong, and then we create all these completely false arguments.
«Well, I’m not in favor of banning books». That’s not true. We’ve seen any number of books removed from circulation because they carried racial stereotypes that we didn’t want to hand down to another generation, and we very willingly said, «Take those out of the libraries». We didn’t hesitate; we didn’t debate them for months. We said, «No, we agree. We don’t want to sow those seeds in the hearts of the children. Let’s see that they don’t belong in the library». It’s not the banning of books; it’s about age-appropriate learning. If you’re an adult, and you want to read books that are racially stereotyped, you would certainly have that freedom. If you want to read books that are perverse, you have that freedom. But we don’t want to subject our children to that.
And, since I’m off topic, I’ll stay here for a minute. I don’t think the school boards ought to argue about it for a year. Read the books into the record; read the salient points into the record, then vote: I want that there, or I don’t want that there. And, if we’re aware enough, then we can decide who we want to lead our schools. This isn’t complicated; we don’t need to be angry or belligerent; we just make a decision. But stop with the goofy arguments. And I hope you’re paying attention. If you say, «I haven’t paid attention; I haven’t read the books,» then you be quiet. You shouldn’t get to vote; you shouldn’t have an opinion. You have to invest enough attention to pay attention, to be engaged.
You see, the issue really isn’t Washington DC. The question is, will we stand for a biblical worldview as Christ followers in our community? The people who aren’t Christians, I don’t expect them to stand up for that. Why would they? They have a different worldview. But, if you say you’re a Christ follower, it’s not our choices; we’re reflecting a worldview from our Lord. Watch, listen, think, and act. That’s called breakthroughs. They don’t happen in a vacuum; they happen when people of faith live out their faith. We get far more heated up about athletics. We have an endless stream of talk radio and television talking about our favorite sports teams, and we’ll travel… and how excited we… I’m not saying it’s inappropriate.
But, when the discussion comes to our kids, we won’t even take the time to look at the content. That’s really wrong. You say, «Well, I don’t have any kids there». That’s a lousy excuse. You don’t have any kids playing for the Titans either. Or most of us don’t have any playing for the Vol’s or Breakthroughs, when God intervenes. See, it isn’t theoretical. I’m happy to unpack the scripture, but we’ll find the breakthroughs when we begin to live out the truth that we know. We’ve got to stop having these biblical debates around something that happened 1,000 years ago and ignoring what God’s called us to do today.
The breakthrough I wanna walk through with you in this session is a statement that God made to Mary through the angel Gabriel. He said, «The Lord is with you». And I want you to know the Lord is with you. God is moving in the earth in a way I’m not sure I’ve seen him move in my lifetime. I’ve never seen people responding to the Lord with the kind of hunger that I see these days. I’m surprised, oftentimes, where it presents from and the people who don’t respond, but I’ve never seen the Lord moving in the way, the change coming as rapidly, the realignment, the expression of things. We could spend our entire time with examples of that, but the Lord is with you; you should know that; he hasn’t left you. His voice isn’t heard small in our generation.
The wind of the Spirit is stirring the earth. I was outside this morning with my dad for a minute, and it was real windy, and he said, «Weather’s gonna change». Well, I have that feeling spiritually. You can feel the breeze of the Spirit, folks; there’s change coming, and I want to be on the God side of that. Luke chapter 1, «In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary». You know this passage very well.
«The angel went to her and said, 'Greetings, you were highly favored! The Lord is with you.' And Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. And the angel said, 'Don’t be afraid, Mary, you’ve found favor with God. You’ll be with child, you’ll give birth to a son, you’re to give him the name Jesus. He’ll be great and be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he’ll reign over the house of Jacob forever; and his kingdom will never end.' Mary had a question, 'How can this be, I’m a virgin? ' And the angel answered, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth you’re very old relative is going to have a child in her old age.'»
Even the angels call Elizabeth old. It wasn’t just Gabriel. «'And she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. Nothing is impossible with God.' And Mary’s answer, 'I’m the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.'» Is it safe to call that a breakthrough? I think that’s one of those things, that’s an intervention; can we call that? And that’s not just Mary’s intervention; that’s a generational intervention. That’s one we benefit from. That changed all of human history. See, breakthroughs aren’t just about me and you and us four and no more. I think I would start with this; I’ve been trying to give you some breakthrough hacks, some lessons, observations, learning points and, at some point, I’m going to assimilate, and we’ll look at them in total.
But, in this one, I want to begin with preparing for a breakthrough. Mary had to live in such a way to qualify her to be a part of the intervention. She hadn’t led a reckless life; she hadn’t led a sloppy life. She prepared her heart and maintained boundaries. Live to honor God; walk in the light you have. You can’t go back and undo what you’ve been, but you can start today and make a brand new future. Live to honor God. Stop talking about how bad you were, and start talking about your intent to honor the Lord. Prepare for a breakthrough. Prepare to be a generational difference. Live in such a way that, if God were searching the earth to look for someone whose heart was devoted to him, you’ve already established momentum around that objective.
Be an early adapter. Take the simple things you know: read your Bible; pray; be in community; use your voice; do the simple things that you know. Spiritual momentum is not drastically different than physical well-being. If you want to be healthier, you need to move more and eat less. Then, if you wanna start to get really weird about it, pay attention to what you eat. Or you can buy my book on the chocolate diet. Spiritual momentum is not so mysterious. Begin to treat it as if your future depended upon it because it does. And then breakthroughs, I would suggest, secondly, are frequently unsettling, just disruptive. They present a whole new direction to your life.
You see, the breakthroughs that I want, the ones I’m usually asking for, I don’t imagine that it’d be disruptive at all. I want God to remove the disruptions because I see something as a hindrance, an obstacle, an impediment, something unwanted that I want removed, some resource that I want provided. And so I imagine that the breakthrough will give me momentum to get on with what I wanna do. And my experience in life and, as I read my Bible more carefully… is that these breakthroughs frequently are unsettling; they’re disruptive. They bring new directions. Like, «Well, that’s not where I wanted to put the building». Yeah, I know, dummy; it’s taken us months to get you to pay attention.
The angel says, «The Lord is with you,» and Mary’s really troubled; she’s frightened. Are you prepared for God’s intervention in your life, to bring a little anxiety bubbling up with it? Again, you see, I’m not even sure we’re in the market for these kind of breakthroughs. I think the reason we don’t see them more frequently is we’re not really candidates. We don’t want God to redirect anything; we know what we want. And we’re a little bit like children; you know, we’re either gonna get the way we want it… Did any of you have parents that, when you were kids, you had to eat what was on your plate? I think parenting rules have changed; that’s no longer enforced.
Now chicken fingers and macaroni and cheese rule. And I’m pretty much okay with that, but I grew up in a different generation; you had to eat what was on your plate. And I’m not as stubborn as my brothers, but probably more so. And my mom used to make this five-bean salad. Even the Lord himself didn’t like it; it was awful. And I remember being in the kitchen when everybody’s gone from the table, and the lights have been turned out. And we didn’t have a pet; I couldn’t feed it to anybody. And, if we’d had a pet, they wouldn’t have eaten that. That was just not a proper, I mean, I thought I could probably sleep with my head on the table if it was, you know, sleeping at the table or eating that. I was pretty much, I could make that decision. And I find that we come to the Lord that way so often with that stubborn, «I want you to do what I want you to do, and I’m not really open to a lot else».
And we’ll check the boxes on kind of the big, you know, we can’t be involved in immorality, and we shouldn’t be stealing, and we’ll kind of take some big rock ideas, but, beyond that, God pretty much needs to do what we want him to do. And I would submit to you that the most fruitful part of our lives is when we cooperate with God on his purposes. If, as a parent, your primary goal is to fulfill the ambitions of your child, you are failing. Because your assignment is to shape their character so that they can mature and fulfill God’s purposes for their lives. And they’ll never do that if self-satisfaction is what they’ve been totally trained in. And I can tell you that the Spirit of God loves you and me enough that he will arrive and say, «You are highly favored, and I’m about to mess over your whole plan».
Well, in Matthew’s Gospel, we have the other side of this rather dynamic breakthrough, it’s Joseph and the angel’s message to him, «This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came аbout: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit». We read that like it makes perfect sense.
«And because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and he didn’t want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he’d considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She’ll give birth to a son, and you’re to give him the name Jesus, because he’ll save his people from their sins.' And all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 'The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they’ll call him Immanuel' which means, 'God with us.' Joseph woke up, and he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and he took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus».
If you’ll allow me, I know it’s in the Bible, and it’s a wonderful story, and we celebrate Mary and Joseph, and they’re in our pageants, and they’re venerated because we’re looking back on them from two millennia’s perspective. But I would submit to you, if you were involved in that, if it was your name on the invitation that had been mailed out, or if it was your child in the midst of that set of circumstances, I think one of the most appropriate words I could find would be disappointment. Joseph, I assure you, was disappointed in Mary, or he would not have needed the visit from the angel. Mary’s words to him were not sufficient. He understands the circumstance; he’s very well versed in it. He’s decided he’s not going forward with the commitment.
So Mary’s words to him were not sufficient. The disappointment in him is more real than her assertion that it’s supernatural. Is that fair? I’ve done no injustice to the text. So, what I’m gonna suggest to you is that disappointment in my life, or your life, as it was in Joseph’s life, could be a signpost for a breakthrough. You know what a disappointment is? If we break the word down, that little prefix dis, D-I-S, means without. A disappointment is an appointment that shows up that you didn’t have on your calendar. «Oh, I didn’t want that. I didn’t want to make time for that. I didn’t wanna have to deal with that. I wasn’t planning on this». That’s a disappointment. Matthew puts it this way: «Mary was found to be with child».
It’s really disappointing if you know it’s not your child. So here’s my question: Are we willing to turn our faces to the Lord and, «Lord,» say, «there’s some disappointments in my life this Christmas season. There’s some things I’m not really just, wouldn’t have been the way I scheduled it. It wouldn’t have been the way I had planned it. It wasn’t what I had dreamt of. But I believe you’re moving, and I wanna follow you. I don’t want a pout. I want to follow you».
See, I’m pretty certain that, in this circumstance, at least a part of what’s going through Joseph is you feel pretty vulnerable, the community knows. Nazareth is a town of 1500 or fewer people in the time that they were there. It’s a small community; they all know about the intentions of Mary and Joseph, and there’s not really any way to hide what’s happening with Mary. I would submit to you it’s the reason she hurried off to see Aunt Elizabeth immediately after the announcement of the angel. It’s easier to process that at a distance. But Joseph, you’re pretty vulnerable; there’s a sense of rejection. «You’re what»? It’s humiliating.
And I want to suggest that those things typically have to be navigated in the midst of a breakthrough. Breakthroughs, when God intervenes, it’s typically not that all the people around you, the secularists and everybody, go, «Oh, that is so awesome». That hasn’t been my experience. There’s always some loud skeptics. «Why are you doing that? How come you can do that? I’ve never seen that before. That’s not the way we did it. I don’t know if I like that». You’re living through it thinking, «I’m not even doing it. If God weren’t helping, it’s not happening». Are you willing to say yes to a breakthrough? What did the angel say to Joseph? «Don’t be afraid to take Mary home as your wife». What do you think is at the heart of the problem? «I’m not taking her home».
The fourth observation I would give you is that breakthroughs are about the purposes of God. See, we start asking typically because we know what we want. But the real interventions of God are about the purposes of God more than they’re about what I want. That’ll be another session, but I could give you a litany of examples from my own life and my experience with other people, Breakthroughs that were far more about the purposes of God. In this particular case, the message from Gabriel was, «You give this child the name Jesus». «Well, that seals it; everybody will know he’s not mine». «Well, it really isn’t about you, Joe. You name him Jesus».
I don’t like to deliver religious lectures. If I wanted to do that, I’d stay in the university. I love making a journey with people and getting to know the Lord better. I wanna pray with you. Let’s offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God. We want his best in our lives. Let’s pray:
Father, I thank you that you love us, that you have a purpose for us. I pray that you’ll give us understanding hearts and eyes to see what you’ve called us to be. We offer ourselves to you today. We wanna serve you with all that we are and all that we have, in Jesus’s name, amen.