Allen Jackson - Leading Significant Lives
The theme for this Memorial Day weekend is «Lessons in Leadership». Excuse me, leadership is not about titles or positions or org charts or labels or corner offices. Ultimately, leadership is about influence. I tell you that not to diminish those things, all those things have some merit and carry with them some assignments, but all of us have influence. All of us have spheres of influence. There are people who care about your opinion. There are people who look to you to see how you’re responding and reacting, the choices you’re making.
And as much as we may lament the lack of leadership or the poor leadership that we see in so many places in our world, we can choose to be people who lead with a biblical worldview. And if we will choose that, we can actually change the fabric of our homes, our communities, our neighborhoods, and ultimately nations. We’re not powerless, we are children of the King. The Spirit of Almighty God dwells within us. And don’t wait until you think you have a significant following or you get some post that goes viral or you get promoted to whichever thing you’re aspiring to. If you’ll determine to use the influence you have today for the maximum impact in the kingdom of God, then I believe God will give you greater influence.
If you choose not to do that until you have the kind of influence level that you want because you don’t want to lose anybody because your embracing of a biblical worldview, then you can’t be trusted with a larger opportunity. So let’s start where we are with the influence God has given us and lead with our faith. We can change our community. This session, I want to talk a bit about significant lives. I think most of us would prefer to lead a significant life. If the choice is significant or insignificant, I choose significant. Doesn’t mean famous or, you know, a lot of those things. There should be a difference in what we aspire to than what the secular culture does. And if you don’t have different aspirations than the friends you have and associates you have who don’t honor the Lord, then what exactly is it that causes you to believe you’re a Christ follower? A certificate? It’s the fruit of our lives.
Let’s start in 2 Peter 3 and verse 10: «The day of the Lord will come like a thief. And the heavens will disappear with a roar; and the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare,» wow. Pete just jumped right in, didn’t he? It’s all gonna get washed away. «Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be»? That’s a really pertinent question. Peter spent 3 years with Jesus, personally recruited and mentored. He was there when Jesus walked on the water.
In fact, Pete climbed out of the boat. He was in Gethsemane when they came to arrest his best friend. He stepped forward with a sword, intending to defend his Lord. He wasn’t great with his sword, he cut off an ear. I’m pretty sure the ear was not the target. Whoops. And Jesus said, «Not now. Later on,» he said, «you’ll need a sword». He just said, «Not right now». Later on that night, Peter would deny the Lord. Peter stood inside the tomb on Resurrection Day, wondering where they’d taken Jesus. And at a fish breakfast, some days later, Jesus reinstated him, gave him a life assignment that Peter fulfilled, and when we read 2 Peter, he’s a very different person. Much of the brashness and the great strength of his youth is diminished. There’s gray in his hair. He hasn’t been a fisherman for a long time, at least not on the shores of Galilee. He spent the intervening decades fishing for the hearts and lives of people.
And at the end of his life in this letter, he said, «I know I’m about to leave this tent of my body. And I wanna write some things down for you so that you don’t forget them. And in the midst of those last instructions from the fishermen that Jesus recruited, is this message». He said, «The day of the Lord will come like a thief,» unexpectedly. I mean, we understand there’s a higher probability that thieves will break in at night, so it isn’t just that it said, «But you don’t know which night and you don’t know why. And the whole point is they’ll come when they’re not expected». He said, «The day of the Lord will be like that. So you want to live with a constant sense of readiness, a constant sense of anticipation. And when the Lord comes,» he said, «it’s gonna be a destructive time. This present world order will be destroyed».
It’s gonna be shredded. It’s gonna be rendered ineffective and fruitless. It’s gonna be replaced by something else, so the message is don’t get too heavily invested in this present world order. It’s not that it’s wicked. I like everything God created. It’s a blessing, but I understand I’m a temporary resident. In Peter’s language, I’m an alien. I’m a stranger here. So I don’t want to become overly enmeshed. Then he asked this question, «With that in mind, what kind of people ought we to be»? I’d like to know what he thought. And what he says is a little uncomfortable. It’s easy to dismiss. We don’t take it very seriously. Said, «You ought to live holy and godly lives».
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I mean, really, what can we do? Do I need dehydrated food? Do I need lots of antibiotics stored up? Do I need solar panels? I mean, right? «You ought to live holy and god…» «Yeah, I know, but really, do I need a water filter»? No, his best advice is you ought to lead holy and godly lives. That’s not accidental, that’s not random, that’s not happenstance, it’s not intuitive, it’s not automatic. You will not lead a holy and godly life without a tremendous amount of intentionality, any more than you’ll maintain your physical health or your intellectual strength. You ought to live holy and godly lives, and then he talks to us about our attitude: «as you look forward to the day of God and you can speed its coming».
See, we have a role to play in the culmination of the ages. In Matthew 24, Jesus lists this rather lengthy list of characteristics of the end of the age, and the penultimate or the last one on the list, he said, «This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come». That’s our assignment. God may have not sent us to some foreign country, but he sent us to a neighborhood. He sent us to a community. He sent us to a workplace. He’s given us influence. «And that day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat». Everything about this present age is gonna be reformed, reshaped. It’s a wonderful place to be. I like life. I like all the things that come with it. I’m not trying to hide in a cave. But my future is not based on this present age. I’m not trying to win the current race.
I want to lead a holy and a godly life. I’m here to tell you, we need to acknowledge him. That’s gonna put you out of step with most of the people you hang with. It will. You’re gonna have to be willing. «What exactly is your goal for the year»? Well, I’d like to lead a more godly and a holier life. «What is wrong with you»? I’ll give you one of the components: I think we have to be willing to lay our lives down. See, as a Christ follower, it’s not really accurate any longer to speak of it is my life and my time and my schedule and my plans. We are servants of the King, which means it’s his life. So we can borrow biblical language: «The life I lead, you know, I lead for Christ,» but the reality is I have to learn, and this is not intuitive again either. It’s not automatic. I have to learn my nature.
My old selfish earthly nature says this is what I want and this is how I feel and this is what I think and I’m gonna assert those things, that’s my right. And you’re correct, you have that right, but the invitation of being a Christ follower was to take that old earthly carnal nature that demands its way and subjugate it to the Lordship of Jesus. Now that is not easy. I’ve been a Christ follower for a while and I’ve read my Bible a bit and I’m here to tell you that does not go away with birthdays. You know, teenagers think, «Well, when I get old, it’ll be easy to be…» No, it won’t, you’re just craftier. You know, if you think the old people around you don’t know. They are sneakier than you, yeah. Don’t ask. They’re not telling you. It’s a part of the code. But the reality is that part of us that is in rebellion, it does not age out. We have to be determined to subjugate ourselves to the Lord.
John 15:13: «Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends». That’s John. Romans 12 is the apostle Paul: «Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service of worship». A sacrifice, it’s blind to us. We don’t do animal sacrifices anymore, but they were accustomed, it’s a part of their daily activity. There’s daily sacrifices in Jerusalem, the aroma of the sacrifices that wafts over the city continually. It’s a big altar. It’s a big fire with a grate on the top, and the animal is slaughtered and the remains are put on that, the altar, and it’s burned in a fire. By the time the animal goes on the altar, it has forfeited all self-determination. No animal jumped off the altar.
And Paul’s using that imagery and he says, «Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God,» not one whose lifeblood has been drained out of it, but you voluntarily offer yourself and your life as a sacrifice. You set aside your self-determination and you say, «God, how might I serve you»? It’s not such a mystery. It’s not in big things or great things. We processed it in the previous session. If you missed it, you can go back and listen to it. We spent a good bit of time with that. Romans 5 and verse 6 says: «You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Yet rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man some might possibly dare to die». We all get that. Nobody’s gonna offer their life for somebody that’s arrogant and conceited and disinterested and ridiculous.
Paul said, «But maybe if there’s the best of people amongst you, you might sacrifice for them, maybe». He said, «But God demonstrated his love for us in this: While we were sinners». Well, we could have cared less. While we were steeped in rebellion, Christ died for us. There really is no explanation other than the love of God. «Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him»! Why did Jesus do that? So that we might have an opportunity to be spared God’s wrath. I think Peter was describing for us when we started this little discussion about God’s judgment coming on the earth. Jesus died, that we could be delivered from that judgment because he loved us.
You know, it’s very popular these days, it’s really fashionable, to suggest that there’s really no significant historical evidence that a culture can be transformed. Because of that, my individual choice is not that important, so I’m free to give myself to hedonism, eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die, and that’s the best we can hope for. Well, I would strongly disagree both from a biblical perspective and a historical perspective. It’s Memorial Day. We can reflect for a moment our own history, our own national history, resonates with the courage of generations of men and women who have made enormous sacrifices so that we might enjoy the freedom and liberty which define us today.
Now we want to pretend that our economic well-being is the obvious choice for first priority. Everybody understands that. Why would you make any other kind of choices? Well, I would just remind you that there have been tens and hundreds of thousands of men and women that have made different choices, that had more courage. Don’t get swept away in the self-absorbed tidal wave that’s cascading upon us. Decide to be different. I saw a video yesterday. It’s an old video of the Higgins boats, headed towards the beaches of France. And the faces of those young men that were stuffed into those boats. Those gates would open and they’d jump into the surf. Knowing what was ahead, it was a uncomfortable piece of video. Sometimes we don’t reflect enough, we can’t afford to forget our history. World War I, almost 120,000 US casualties.
World War 2 was far more trying: over 400,000 US casualties. The bloodiest of our wars by far without question was the Civil War. You know, they say that we’ve done nothing to reconcile some of the failures in our history. I could not disagree more strongly and I’m just observing history; I didn’t live it. I understand, you know, history is constantly revised. I earned a degree in history, so I can have an opinion at least. Every time there’s a new wave of PhD theses you have to do some original research. You have to come up with a new perspective, you have something new to say. Well, the facts don’t change, but we change our opinions so we can get our newly minted degree. And in all the soft sciences that is the habit and the pattern.
I can pick on history for a moment, so we revise our history and it’s been common, fashionable, for a great long time now to say that the Civil War really had nothing to do with slavery, it was just economics. And we’ve peddled that bilge to so many students for so long, it’s made its way into the fabric of who we are. I believe it’s very disingenuous. Every war has some economic consequences to it. No, duh. But if there’s nothing else to it, I don’t believe you could convince hundreds of thousands of people to die in that cause. It’s worth recounting a bit. Gettysburg, have you heard of it? Fifty-one thousand casualties. Chickamauga, a bit closer to home, more than 34,000 casualties. Chancellorsville, 24,000 casualties. These are single battles. Shiloh, almost 24,000 casualties.
In fact, more Americans were killed in 2 days at the Battle of Shiloh than all of the previous American wars combined. The Battle of Antietam was only one day long, but it left more than 12,000 Union soldiers killed, missing, or wounded. Which, oh by the way, is higher than the typical estimates of allied casualties on D-Day. There were 23,000 casualties overall. It was the bloodiest single day of the Civil War. At Cold Harbor, Virginia, 7000 men fell in 20 minutes. The Battle of Stones River right here amongst us, more than 23,000 casualties. The report said that Stones River was pink with the blood of those who’d fallen.
The second Battle of Manassas, more than 22,000. Vicksburg, 19,000. More than 620,000 casualties in the Civil War. If we include the killed, the wounded, and those captured or missing, more than a million. I think it’s awkward and incredibly tone deaf to reflect on our history and then try to assert that there’s nothing worth giving your life for. It exposes the degree to which selfishness has almost totally captivated our hearts and our lives. We should live with something in mind beyond our own self-satisfaction. I understand we have an assignment for self-preservation. I’m not diminishing that. But I’m telling you, there’s other things to be considered.
Let’s talk for a minute about service. Jesus did. In Matthew chapter 10, two of Jesus’s best friends approach. They have a special request. It’s a request so special they don’t want to make it really with the rest hearing. And Jesus said, «What do you want me to do for you»? And they said, «Well, let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory». Well, you might as well swing for the fences. Wouldn’t wanna be your lieutenants. «And Jesus said, 'You don’t know what you’re asking. Can you drink the cup I’ll be baptized or the baptism I’ll be baptized with? ' And they said, 'We can.'» They had no clue what they were answering.
You know, we do that a lot in life. And most of the time, that’s really probably better. I’ve done lots and lots of weddings. Did anybody really understand when they said, «I do»? Probably a more honest answer, «I got no clue, but yeah, I’m willing». I’ve been to the hospital for lots of babies to be born, and particularly the first ones, they’re the most fun. So much excitement and pictures and enthusiasm and grandparents and tears. And clueless. I met a young man in the lobby sometime back. I’d seen him at the hospital for a new arrival. It was their first and I saw him in church the next Sunday. And I said, «Wow». And he said, «Oh, Pastor, pray. They made us leave and we weren’t ready to go home». «'We can, ' they answered, 'And you’ll drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I’m baptized with, but to sit at my right hand or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they’ve been prepared.'»
When the rest of the crew heard about it, it says: «They were indignant with James and John. Jesus called them together,» and he’s gonna give them a little lesson on influence. «He said, 'You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles, '» and Gentile just means you’re not Jewish, «'lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. But not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you…'» I wanna be significant in the kingdom of God, don’t you? You know, Christians, we can be really dishonest. «Oh, no, Pastor. I’m not interested in being significant. I read the Psalms and it says I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord».
Well, if the option is to dwell in the tents of the wicked or be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord, yes, vote for doorkeeper. But if you’re looking at the menu of options in the kingdom, and your answer is, «I vote for total mediocrity,» don’t do that. I mean, I mentioned the Titans already. Rookies are reporting. Imagine the new rookies show up, the highest draft picks, and he said, «I’m so delighted to have been selected at the top of the draft. I just want everybody on the team to know I don’t intend to make the effort to be, like, the best. I just want to cash my check». Be a little deflating. We’d think there was a character flaw.
Jesus said, «I can tell you how to be great in my kingdom. Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant». The word there is the word that we translate for deacons. So it’s somebody that accepts some responsibility, a bit of oversight. Doesn’t have to be for huge numbers, but you care enough about people to say, «Look, together, let’s see if we could get to a better place». It’s not about a command and control position. It’s influence through a willingness to serve for the betterment of others. What a knowledge, little platoons of people can change our world. «And whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all. For even the Son of Man didn’t come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many».
You know, I began to think about that. The people I know who have the most influence in our communities, the people who make a difference, they’re not the ones that are taking a lot of selfies, typically, and I’m not opposed to that. We do some stuff in social media. But I have a friend who’s a general surgeon. Retired not long ago, served our community for decades. And he certainly earned a living for his family, but he paid a price to do that. More than a decade in school and training. The physical demands of that, the call that you have to take, the middle of the night when you answer the call to come help somebody who’s been in an accident.
You know, the skeptics will say that our healthcare system’s broken and that our doctors make too much money. The skeptics haven’t been to the places that have no health care. You invest more than a decade of your life in training. You face the job difficulties and the choices of each day. Good doctors, they give their lives to make their patients' lives better. I’m not telling you everybody that has the title is a good doctor, any more than I can tell you everybody that stands behind a pulpit is a good pastor. But I’m telling you the good ones make a difference. Doctors with no incentive for excellence would be like too many bureaucrats that we’ve already seen. Service is an idea that we have almost lost.
I had a friend, he’s gone to heaven now, but I knew him as he was retiring from years of practicing. He did the same thing over and over again, as an orthopedic surgeon. And his hands were arthritic from the physical effort of the job he had held. I have a friend who’s an oncologist. Gets up and goes to work every day, battling cancer, to help sick patients find hope in the future. That’s not an easy job every day.
Another friend’s an electrician. Has a young family, kids depending on him to do his part as father and husband. And he does a job that’s very difficult. It’s taken a toll on him physically. There’s another man in the church I have watched for many years. He’s quiet. You could walk past him and you might miss him. He’s been a part of this community for a long time. But I could point to you any number of people whose lives have been transformed because of the persistent gentle service that this man has brought into their lives. He’s changed their futures.