Allen Jackson - On Assignment - Part 2
There’s some questions I would like to ask. To what extent do you imagine that we are seeking to be free of God’s restraint? Remember when we started in Matthew 24, Jesus said there would be a great falling away. A falling away from what? From attending church? We’ve seen that. I mean, not so much in our particular location, but in the broader way with a capital C, a very significant following away from attending church. I don’t really think that’s the goal. What I think we’ve wanted to do was to distance ourselves from the idea that God would have any expectations of us. Or maybe state it another way, we’ve wanted the comfort of the blessing, but we’ve rejected the idea of boundaries. No one has a right to tell me how to live my life.
Well, I would disagree. God does. He’s given us a free will. We can choose to comply or not to comply, but as the design engineer, he’s told us the way we were designed to function in our journey through time. What would be required of us if we want to participate in his eternal kingdom, and he didn’t put it up for a vote, it’s not a community discussion. It’s called the sovereignty of God. And what that means in the simplest of language is God can do what he wants, when he wants, the way he wants, and he needs no one’s approval. And a sovereign, omnipotent, Almighty, all-knowing God has given us a pathway to participate in his eternal kingdom. But to do that, there are boundaries that have to be observed. We cannot lead our lives on our own terms. Dynamic faith. And he said he will give us assistance, he’ll provide his Spirit to direct, to lead, to guide, to help us.
In Judges chapter 21 and verse 25. It makes a statement about Israel. The book of Judges is that period in Israelite history when there was no king. After Joshua led the former slaves of Egypt into the Promised Land, their inheritance, and they began the conquest of that land for 400 years. Much longer than we’ve been a nation. For 400 years, that the people in the land of Israel, the 12 tribes, they had no central government. There was no capital city. There were 12 tribes loosely affiliated and when there was the threat posed to the larger group, God would raise up a leader. A judge. Not someone in black robes, but a person with a leadership skill set to face the enemy that was challenging them. Gideon was a judge. Samson was a judge. Deborah was a judge. But there’s a description of the people.
In one of those seasons, their rebellion and godlessness would open their lives to the judgment of God and he would hand them over to their enemies. They would plunder them. They were being looted. That’s exactly the problem that Gideon faced. The Midianites would come in and loot the nation every year when the crops were ready. They would come and take the harvest and the livestock and plunder the nation. They would loot the country. God had handed them over to their enemies. I think we could say that because of our lack of godliness, because of our willful plunge into rebellion, we have been looted for several decades now. But it seems to me that God has pulled back the curtain a bit and the truth is being told. And I think the determination of our future isn’t really going to be political. It will be the response of God’s people.
If we will choose the truth and step into the light and become people of the truth, we could see God’s deliverance more completely. I was in Judges 21, wasn’t I: «In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes». Sounds pretty accurate, doesn’t it? Just whatever feels, whatever you think. Folks, we have an assignment. Not just pastors, not professional Christians, all of us who imagine ourselves to be participants in the kingdom of God, we’re watchmen on the walls. Not just in our homes, certainly there. But in our schools, in our community, we have to have the courage to be advocates for our biblical worldview. «Well, I don’t wanna do that».
Well, I’ll take you back to Matthew 24, the assignment if we don’t wanna fall away, if we don’t wanna grow cold is we have to endure. We have to be willing to use our voice even when it’s not always the most popular decision. Sometimes we will stand in opposition to the voices with great influence that we’re standing on behalf of the kingdom of God, not in anger or resentment or bitterness. See, doing what is right in our own eyes is not a circumstance that leads to God’s blessing. Proverbs 29 says it slightly different. «Where there is no revelation». Or you could equally translate that vision, where there’s no vision, where there’s no understanding of God’s perspective. When the curtain isn’t pulled back and our old carnal selfish self is the only thing dominating the conversation. «Where there’s no revelation, the people cast off restraint».
Where there is no revelation of God, the people are unrestrained. Anything is possible. No matter how bizarre, no matter how absurd. That seems like a pretty accurate description of what we’ve been watching. So back to that question, are we seeking to be free of God’s restraint? Forget the people on the other side of the windows. Are we seeking to be free of God’s restraint or are we willing to submit ourselves to the authority of God and the boundaries of the truth that we know? Let me ask you another question. What’s our source? What’s your source of wisdom? Is it because we think we’re wise in our own eyes? Look at Isaiah 5 and verse 20. «Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes. And clever in their own sight»!
Woe, it’s a word we don’t use a lot. I grew up in Tennessee around a lot of horses. We use whoa a lot. But it’s a little different. Well it’s W-H-O-A. You know, our teachers used to try to describe words and how they sounded differently, and the difference between woe and whoa to me is pretty close. I know one is who-a, but we don’t say who-a. When I’m on a horse and it’s going faster than I wanted to, I don’t go who-a. I just say whoa. W-O-E is a word of warning. Of impending judgment. Don’t continue in this way. And it’s used multiple times in that passage. «To those who call evil good and good evil». We see a bit of that these days. We see more than a bit. «Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness».
And again, this says there’s impending judgment to those who are wise in their own eyes. Proverbs 30 again, similar ideas, slightly different messaging those who are, «There are those who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers». The biblical command is to honor our mothers and fathers. And the author of Proverbs says, «There are those who curse their fathers and don’t bless their mothers; those who are pure in their own eyes. And yet are not cleansed of their filth; those whose eyes are ever so haughty, whose glances are so disdainful; those whose teeth are swords and whose jaws are set with knives to devour the poor from the earth, the needy from among mankind».
One of the challenges in Scriptures, you can’t just clip it apart for the pieces you like. We can get pretty widespread approval amongst all sorts of worldviews for helping people who are less fortunate than ourselves. But that’s not the whole council. We’re told to honor our fathers and mothers. Not to imagine that we can declare ourselves pure in our own eyes. That there is a judge. We have to be evaluated by the standards of Scripture. That the purity of our life isn’t up to what I think or I feel. And before we get to the portions about helping those who have needs and be expressions of compassion, we’ve got to submit ourselves to the authority of God’s standard.
One more question. Are you offended by the suggestion that God should be sought or pursued? I don’t find amongst those of us that fill churches that we say this out loud, but I think somehow it seems to lurk in kind of the periphery of our awareness. We seem a bit aggrieved by this idea. Conventional wisdom seems to whisper that God should be ready at our beck and call. When we’re ready to seek him, he should be ready to answer. Available during commercial breaks. Or for appointments scheduled when we are emotionally in a pretty good space. Psalm 74, verse 9 says, «We are given no miraculous signs; no prophets are left, and none of us knows how long this will be».
One of the principles of Scripture, we don’t talk about a great deal, but it is nevertheless a consistent principle is that God engages in different ways in different times and seasons with humanity. Scripture will say that in the days of Samuel that the voice of the Lord had been heard small. And the psalmist said, there are times when God’s engagement seems diminished. But it doesn’t absolve us of the assignment to seek God. Most of us know the story of Elijah and calling fire down from heaven on Mount Carmel. Well, it was a time when there were 7000 people in the nation of Israel, hundreds of thousands of people, and 7000 had chosen not to be idolatrous.
A tiny fraction, that New Testament verse of a broad gate and a broad road that leads to destruction and a narrow gate and a narrow way that leads to salvation, very much illustrated in the days of Elijah. Hundreds of thousands of people plunging over the cliff into destructive choices amongst the covenant people of God and a relatively small handful of people choosing to honor God. But it doesn’t absolve us of our assignment to seek the Lord. Elijah called a confrontation, a very public showdown on top of a mountain. Let the one who’s true call fire down from heaven. And when the fire fell from heaven, it didn’t eliminate him from the arena, it didn’t stop the conflict. Jezebel said, «I’ll have your head by the end of the day tomorrow».
And he ran for his life. The man who could call fire out of heaven, running for his life into the desert. Are you offended by the suggestion that God should be sought and pursued? Look at Amos chapter 8, «Behold the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will send a famine on the land. Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the Lord. People will stagger from sea to sea and from the north, even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, But they will not find it».
Again, very similar. I know the words are different, but the imagery, the idea is very similar to Matthew 24. A great falling away. People amongst the community of faith betraying one another. Breaking trust. Hating those who won’t step into the world. The notion that we would have to pursue God, seek God, make an effort, pray and fast and pray. Watch and pray. It’s not some onerous burden for the overachiever, it’s the pursuit of God. Why would we do that? Because there’s a God and he can be known. And we’ve had so much, so much affluence, so much freedom, so much liberty that it’s tended to cause us to arrive in a place where we feel entitled that God, if we’re willing to talk to him, he should jolly well show up and listen.
I believe God is raising up people with a new attitude. People who are willing to seek the Lord. To pursue God. To understand there’s a cost, the cost of time and energy and effort. I can promise you this. I have learned this over the course of my journey. That God will be no person’s debtor. That whatever you invest in the pursuit of God, God will restore to your life far beyond whatever you think you have committed. And any place you find yourself reluctant to fully yield to the Lord, with your time, with your talent, with your resources, there’s a point of invitation before you. And if you will accept that invitation and begin to yield to God with a generosity of Spirit about whatever it is that God is inviting you towards, you will see the hand of God. He’s not some heavenly vending machine. You won’t manipulate God with the giving of your money or your time.
But if you will do it as a sincere desire to know the Lord in pursuit of God, God will respond to you. Isaiah 55 and verse 6, «Seek the Lord while he may be found; and call on him while he’s near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord». So there’s an awkwardness in that. God doesn’t think like we think. He doesn’t plan like we plan, he doesn’t have an imagination like we imagine. He’s different than us. Folks, he called our world into existence. There’s no way we can get our finite mind around the majesty and the magnitude of Almighty God.
The fact that he’s chosen to give us enough of a revelation of himself that we can seek him, pursue him, present ourselves as a living sacrifice before him, is an indescribable gift that’s been extended to any one of us. It’s the good news of the gospel. We were in Washington DC a few weeks ago and we had a meeting with a man who had worked diligently in the election in Pennsylvania. He was a digital expert. My old school word was he’s a nerd. But he did it as a part of a discussion we were having on what was happening in the media, but he told us how the behaviors that had been required to cause people to be engaged in the election. Regardless of how, the effort that it took. How systematic, how intentional, the repetition, the multiple times that they would reach out and impact the lives of people to motivate them towards one single activity just participating in an election.
And I think about our rather cavalier attitude towards the Lord. That we can live on our own terms in our own arena with our own thoughts and our own ways, but when we’re ready to invite God in, we expect him to be like really focused. 'Cause now I want his attention. Look at Amos 5, «Seek the Lord and live or he will sweep through the house of Joseph like a fire; it will devour, and Bethel will have no one to quench it. You who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground». That’s a very powerful passage. Seek the Lord and live. If you’re gonna take one phrase away, maybe that’s the phrase, «Seek the Lord and live». Please displace the notion. Your first response to every spiritual discussion about growth or maturity is, «Well, I’m born again».
Well, I’m grateful for that. I applaud that. It’s a necessity. It’s important, but it’s the beginning point. It’s the new birth, it’s not the finish line. If it were the finish line, Paul wouldn’t have said run in such a way as to get the prize. He’d have just said, be born again. Seek God and live. I meet people who have been in church for decades. They’ve been Christ followers for many, many years and have as little if any imagination of seeking the Lord. Seek the Lord and live. Look at the consequence, or. There’s a conjunction.
If you don’t want to seek the Lord and live, this is the outcome. God will sweep through the house of Joseph. Not the house of the ungodly. The house of Joseph like a fire and Bethel, Bethel, Bethel, it’s the house of God. That’s the translation of that word, Bethel. The house of God will have no one to quench the fire. How do you quench the fire of God’s judgment? Seek the Lord and live. In this culture, the people of God will either seek the Lord and bring life to the generation who follows us or we will face the judgment of God. We can’t continue on the trajectory we’ve been. Deconstructing boundaries. Limiting the exposure of the Word of God in a biblical worldview into our lives, we can’t. Our predicament is not something new. It’s a recurring problem, but there is a solution.
A remnant of people, not a majority. That’s not the biblical pattern. It is seldom the historical pattern, but a remnant of people who have the courage to seek the Lord and to serve as watchmen. What I like about it is this removes you from victim status. You don’t have to say, well, the legacy media is corrupt. Or career politicians are greedy or whatever, ministers don’t say whatever the excuse we might offer, that’s not the point in discussion. We can say to the Lord, «I want to seek your face and I will use my voice».
We don’t have to be the majority. The authority comes from the truth of God. And that’s better than just being mindless church attenders or imagine that we could join the right group or sing the right chorus or read the right translation. I’m not opposed to any of those things, but they’re not really the determining factor. Let’s decide that we will seek the Lord and live, amen. All right, I want to close a little differently, rather than just a prayer, I brought you a passage from Isaiah. And I didn’t change, I didn’t even change the pronouns. Which for me took some discipline. But I think we could offer it as a proclamation, a declaration of intent on our behalf, a recognition of the honor of standing on behalf of the Lord. I can’t think of a greater honor for a human being than Almighty God saying, I would ask you to stand on my behalf and you to stand on my behalf and you to stand.
If you got a call from Washington DC and you were invited… if it’s a group that you like and they invited you to stand on their behalf. You would think, wow. Well, somebody better than anyone in DC has invited you. Are we willing? It’s a wonderful proclamation. Stand with me. We’re gonna read it together. Now Isaiah presents this as if it’s a triumphant position, but you need it in the context of our larger discussion that not everybody’s gonna be thrilled about this. Not everybody wants to say Jesus is Lord. Not everyone wants the purposes of God to break forth in our community. You understand that, it’s why we tend to be quiet. Let’s read it together.
How lovely on the mountains, Are the feet of him who brings good news. Who announces peace And brings good news of happiness. Who announces salvation, And says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.' Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices. They shout joyfully together: For they will see with their own eyes When the Lord restores Zion. Break forth, shout joyfully together. Your waste places of Jerusalem; For the Lord has comforted His people. He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared His holy arm in the sight of all the nations. That all the ends of the earth may see The salvation of our God, amen.