Allen Jackson - A God Designed Future - Part 2
The line I’ve often used and this bears repeating is that truth divorced from experience must always remain a theory, remain in the realm of a doubt. You have to combine truth with experience and when you do that, then your experience portfolio grows. James 2 and verse 26 says: «The body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead».
Our faith is not a theoretical conversation. It’s not a series of Bible studies. It’s a series of life experiences evaluated against the truth of scripture. And then we course correct so that the promises of scripture begin to fulfill our experiences. And if we’re not getting the outcomes defined in scripture, there are course adjustments to be made. There’s a God and he’s not us. For instance, you can believe that marriage exists. We can agree it’s an institution. It’s recognized by the civil authorities. It’s a biblical concept, all of those things we could agree on, but until you choose to involve yourself, it’s just an idea.
There is a huge gap between the concept and the experience, i promise. You may believe that exercise is good for you. You could spout data, show me studies, cite experts, PhDs, physicians, all sorts of scientific fact, but until your behavior matches your understanding, you get no benefit. I studied in multiple academic settings with some people who had spent their entire lives studying scripture but didn’t believe it to be true. And the benefit in there, so they were scholars of the first order. But the benefits did not come to them. Actions in our lives release the impact of God’s promises. In fact, the outcome is disproportionate typically to our investment. Forgiving someone else for the minor offenses against me, do not equate the forgiveness that God extends to me. He welcomes me into his eternal kingdom. And I’m just mad because somebody cut me off in traffic on campus.
Now, to experience the promises of God, the Bible tells us that there is a double trigger, that we have to have dual authentication. They’ve introduced that little jewel in my world. If you’re trying to access something on our IT system, we have to have dual authentication. I’m thinking if I say this is Allen that should get me access, but au contraire, mon ami. There is more required. And I’m sure it’s intended to grow patience in my life, and faith and patience are the two things that God says are required of you and me.
Now, I don’t like that. I’m on the record with you. It’s not my idea. I’m not making the news. I’m just reporting it. If you’re going to receive God’s promises, you and I will have to decide to cultivate faith and patience. I can give you examples. I can support it from scripture. Look at Hebrews 6, says: «We don’t want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised».
How do you inherit the promise? How do you make the promise as a part of your experience? What are the necessary components? Faith. Faith is believing there is a God, and then ordering your life to respond to him as if that reality is a truth. We will change our behaviors based on the belief that there is a God. Faith is about activity, it’s about action, it’s about behavior, it’s about thoughts. And it says they inherited the promises by faith, by acting like there’s a God, and by patience. See, I can have faith for 10 seconds. I believe, «but I didn’t get my answer,» and then I start to question. Look at 2 Timothy 3, Paul’s writing to Timothy, a young man he’s mentoring, and he said, «You know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, my faith, my patience, love and endurance».
If you and I are going to allow the promises of God to shape our future, we’re going to have to decide to cultivate, to cooperate with the formation of faith and patience. Isn’t that good news? And I thank you for that overwhelming response. Why? Well, I don’t know that the Bible ever gives us a full explanation. I don’t know why Abraham had to wait for the fulfillment of the promise of Isaac. I don’t know why God sent Samuel to David’s father’s home to anoint David from all of his brothers to be king of Israel. And then David had to hide in the wilderness like a fugitive for a decade. I don’t know why Daniel lived his whole life as a slave in Babylon, with physical suffering and torment and antagonists around him, but I do know that God said he was highly valued, highly esteemed in heaven.
I don’t know why the apostle Paul faced opposition and riots and imprisonment and physical suffering when he preached the Gospels. I mean, I can provide you some explanations in terms of spiritual conflict and adversaries to the purposes of God, but again, if I were writing the narrative, it’d be more fun to write it without that. But I’m telling you that the revelation we’re given is that if you and I are gonna have the promises of God describe our journey through time, we’re gonna have to be willing to latch on to these notions of faith and patience and say, «I’m gonna build those into my life».
There’ll be quicker ways to fulfillment than honoring God. That’s what we call temptation. Temptation promises a satisfaction, a payoff, of pleasure or contentment or advantage or opportunity. But it can’t fulfill it, it can’t sustain it. There may be a momentary benefit, but it’s not sustainable. That’s how we find ourselves with addictions and brokenness. But God said, if we will choose a pathway of faith, of expressions of obedience and patience, that his promises will define our future. That’s amazing.
I want to take the balance of our time. There’s a lot of discussion these days about the end of the world and the end of the age and the return of the Lord. I’m okay with that and I think there’s some biblical evidence to point us, we’re certainly closer to that than we are at the beginning. But I’d like to walk this idea out of promises and experiences and fulfillment as they’re shown to us in the book of Revelation. We can do it pretty quickly. You’ve got all the notes. The book of Revelation is the endgame promise. It’s the promise that when Jesus comes back, he’s gonna undo a lot of things that have been done. It’s like a whole new sheriff, a whole new authority, that this present world age will come to a conclusion and that Jesus will rule and reign on the earth in rightness, with true justice.
That’s the promise. And he’s gonna use us, we’re gonna have assignments. I don’t understand it to be like this endless church service. Like it’s beyond the scope of this session, but I don’t understand that that whole opening of Jesus’s return and the millennial reign, all of those things, that’s not all about happy clappy times. His will will have to be enforced. I’m a little off topic. But the book of Revelation is this endgame promise. Revelation 21:7 says: «He who overcomes will inherit this. I’ll be his God and he’ll be my son». The key to understanding the book of Revelation, I believe, is recognizing the role of being an overcomer. There are no promises unless you’re willing to overcome. Isn’t that happy news? Romans chapter 12, and verse 21 says: «Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good».
It’s a necessary action. You have to be an overcomer. Can we establish that if you’re a Christ follower, you are expected to overcome evil? Not to overlook it, not to avoid it; to overcome it. But it doesn’t say we’re gonna overcome it with anger or bitterness or violence or hatred. It says we’re gonna overcome evil with good. When we see evil express something against the will of God, it didn’t say we’re gonna overcome evil with kindness. It didn’t say we’re going to overcome evil with passivity. We’re gonna overcome evil by asserting what’s good. Well, that idea is not good, that idea is evil. And I’m gonna stand up for the good. But the presupposition, the requirement, is that if we’re going to be Christ followers, we have to overcome evil. «Well, I don’t like that». Duly noted, now let’s go do it.
There’s a second part of this promise, and it’s dependent, in the book of Revelation. It’s dependent upon our ability to follow direction and to be obedient. The phrase that is used over and over is, «He who has an ear, let him hear». We have to be listening, and we have to be willing to follow direction. If you’re not listening, you won’t hear. You can be present and not be listening. Wives, do not look at your husbands. You weren’t listening, you looked at him anyway. Now, many of you know you can be present and not be listening. So what we want to learn to do is present ourselves to the Lord as men and women with open hearts who are listening. We are open to input. We would like direction. And then we’ve got to choose obedience.
That’s that little phrase, «He who has an ear, let him hear». I gave you a collection of seven promises to seven churches. They’re in your notes. Revelation 2:7: «He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes». Same chapter, verse 11, another church: «He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes». Verse 17, another church: «He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes».
Repetition is a very old, but a very effective way, not only of teaching but of adding emphasis. Every church is given a little self-diagnostic, an evaluation, from the head of the church, but every one of them begins with «the one who is listening and willing to be obedient, you’re gonna have to overcome». Every church has challenges. And these churches are written to the church in a city so every community of believers beyond just a simple congregation. Every community has challenges. We live in a fallen world. Verse 26: «To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I’ll give authority over the nations».
Chapter 3, verse 12: «Him who overcomes I’ll make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I’ll write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, and the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven». And then Revelation 21, in the conclusion of the book after it’s all said and done and the King has returned, the Antichrist and the false prophet have been addressed, it says, «He who overcomes will inherit all of this». But the next line says: «But the cowardly and the unbeliever, they’ll be outside».
So the invitation, the promises come to the one who is listening and willing to be obedient. Let me just tag those promises. They’re listed there in those verses. Verse 7, there’s a promise to the tree of life, paradise, Genesis, the opening chapters of Genesis. In verse 11, it says we’ll be unscathed by the second death. There’s an eternal judgment into a lake of fire, but it has no bearing to the one who overcomes, to the obedient. Says we’ll have a new future, in writing, in verse 17, a new name. It suggests a whole new future. When God called Abram, he said Abram means exalted father, but Abraham means the father of many, a multitude. Abraham got a new name and a new future, and that’s what Jesus does for you and me.
Expanded authority in verse 26. He says we currently live under the authority of the nations, but by the end of Revelation, we’ll be subject to the will of God on earth. That’s what Jesus taught us to pray. Remember, «your will be done on earth as it is in heaven». We’ve been given permanent residency. In chapter 3 and verse 12, he said, «You’ll be a pillar in the temple of God, and I’ll write on him the name of my God, the name of the city of my God, and I’ll write on him my new name». We are given the passwords to the kingdom of heaven, the access codes. Are you kidding me? Y’all are pretty, come, «Well, I don’t know why I have to overcome».
So you can get the access codes. «Well, I thought you said it was a free gift». So was health, but you have to take care of it. We don’t earn our way into the kingdom of God, nonsense. But who said there was no responsibility? Jesus was the perfect sinless, obedient Son of God who accepted the invitation to the incarnation. In Philippians it says, «He laid aside all the privilege of heaven. Didn’t consider equality with God something to be grasped, but he made himself nothing. He took the form of a servant. Became obedient even to death».
In Hebrews it says that Jesus learned obedience by what he suffered. We get to listen in to him in Nazareth in the synagogue when he’s talking to the people he grew up with, he knows them by name. He knows the good cooks and the bad ones. He knows the good parents and the lousy ones. He knows all the private sins of the people that are there with him in the synagogue. He doesn’t point any of that out. He reads to them from the book of Isaiah and he says, «Today this is fulfilled in your ears,» and he kind of pushes it into their face. And they wanted to kill him. He had to overcome that. It would have been easy to be completely sidetracked with resentment, bitterness. We hear him in Gethsemane, praying, «God, I don’t wanna do this. I don’t wanna face this. I don’t wanna be arrested and tortured to death. I don’t wanna be humiliated in the streets of my city. Nevertheless, not my will».
What’s he doing? He’s overcoming. You and I have an old carnal nature, an earthly nature, an Adamic nature. The Bible uses all of those terms, but what it really means is there’s a part of us that’s hardwired to be ungodly. We don’t have to get all the kids together in church and teach them how to be selfish. It’s not a requirement, is it? We have to teach them how to share. I had brothers, still do, as a matter of fact. And my parents had these weird ideas. I was the oldest, and they had these weird ideas that if I had chocolate, if I had M&M’s, that I should share with my brothers. So they would ask me questions, foolish questions. They would say, like, to me, «Allen, wouldn’t you like to give your brothers some of your M&M’s»?
What’s the answer to that? «No! Absolutely not,» and they weren’t really asking me a question. It was a little character formation. They wanted me to mature. I didn’t want to mature, I wanted to eat chocolate. But I learned, under threat of discipline to share. Well, God cares enough about us not to raise spoiled kids, because he’s a holy God and a righteous God. And we can’t dwell in his presence if we choose ungodliness and unholiness and unrighteousness. And it’s not an automatic response to us, so he sends his Spirit into us to begin to invite us towards the right, and we have to wrestle with this.
So what do you call that when you have to deal with that part of you that doesn’t want to be godly? I don’t wanna give. I don’t wanna serve. I don’t wanna yield, I don’t wanna be kind. I want my way and I want it now. Yesterday was better, but I’ve had to wait, so now will be acceptable if you hurry. The definition of saying no to that is overcoming. You will not dominate me. I’ll not give you license. Nobody can do that for you. Now what’s on the other side of that effort? The promises of God right in your future. It’s worthwhile. It’s not simple. It will require faith and patience, more faith and patience with ourself than anyone else. But all of that is incubated. It begins with an intent.
If you don’t intend to be a listener, if you don’t intend to be obedient, it’s highly improbable that you will be familiar with the voice of God and very obedient. But it all begins with an expression of, «God, I would really like to do that. Not even sure fully what that means, but I would like to do that». It’s like saying, «I’m going to school». You don’t know what that means when you say you go to school. You just say, «Well, I’d like to learn». Learn what? «Well, that’s why we have teachers, and I don’t know».
We don’t always even know what we need to learn and we don’t know what we need to learn as Christ followers. It’s why we have the help of the Holy Spirit. There’s so much pretentiousness and I live amongst the people and I’m grateful for that. I love, but folks, we know, we wanna study what we wanna study. What if we just present ourselves on a routine basis to the Word of God and say, «I would like to learn. I’d like to have your character formed in me». I had an outline, and I’m out of time. How to become an overcomer. We’ll come back to that, it’s really important. But I brought you a proclamation that I want to make with you. It’s such a beautiful scene. It’s taken from Revelation chapter 5.
John sees the throne room of heaven. And it’s really not the throne room of heaven. He sees the expanse of heaven because he’s gonna have a vision of 100 million angels. That’s a lot. US population about 300 million people, plus or take, plus or minus. So, like, a third of the US population, so you couldn’t put all of them in one room. In fact, if you put them, in Kansas, you couldn’t fit them in Kansas. They’d spill out across the prairie, beyond the horizon. So John has a vision like that. I mean, it’s really beyond imagination. I’ll read it to you and then we’re gonna make the proclamation.
It’s in your notes, but he says, «They sang a new song». And they’re speaking to Jesus in this vision he has: «You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you’ve made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth».
Those who overcome and believe the promises of God will reign on this earth. «And then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand. And they encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. And in a loud voice they sang: 'Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise! ' And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that’s in them, singing,» every living thing, singing, «'To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever! ' And the living creatures said, 'Amen.'»
Amen just means so be it, be it unto me. So we’re gonna make that proclamation from verses 12 and 13. What they’re singing in heaven, we’re gonna say together in the earth today. It’s coming to the earth. Folks, the greatest invitation of our lives is to cooperate with the Lord. If we’ll just present ourselves as learners and say, «God, I wanna know you. I’m listening. I want to cooperate with you. I want your promises to define my future more than my way or my will,» God will write a story for you that is unbelievable.
The cheap imitation of that and it’s a cheap imitation unfortunately that’s been distributed by the churches, is to say that somehow you can manipulate God to do what you want him to do. I understand how it emerges. I’m not angry about it. I’m just telling you there’s a better way. Say to the Lord, «Let your will come to my life. I wanna follow you,» and he will write a story for you.
In the midst of the brokenness and the evil that may have touched your life, and all the ungodliness, some of it of your own initiation and some of others, God will write a story for you. It’s not about your age, it’s not about your income or your IQ or your education or your family system. It’s not about the social group you’re attached to. The Creator of heaven and earth has promises for you. Let’s stand together and make this proclamation. Remember the setting that we’re introduced to this. It says in heaven in a loud voice, they said this. So I don’t want you to be disrespectful, but don’t whisper, all right? Don’t scare the people in front of you, but we can use our outdoor voices, all right? You ready?
Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise! And to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever! Amen.