Allen Jackson - Thoughts, Words, and Reality - Part 1
My title for the session, which my titles are usually underwhelming, but «Thoughts, Words and Reality». And there is a progression there that I wanna unpack with you because I believe truthfully your thoughts lead to your words and those will ultimately define your reality. That’s more than a myth and it’s more than some leadership mantra. But I wanna start really, this little study for me has come out of a meeting that I have had multiple times, different people, different settings, but it feels like the messaging in the meeting has been so similar, or the concerns in the meeting, that it’s just become a Bible study for me.
And so I’m just gonna share a little bit with you from the overflow of that. And I put a passage in your notes from Galatians 5. It’s the fruit of the Spirit passage. I suspect you know it pretty well. But the issue that’s been on the table multiple times is the challenge we face in initiating and sustaining either spiritual growth or momentum or even having the awareness that that’s important. And so we lose our zeal, we lose a lot. You know, in Revelation it says you lost your first love to one of the churches. And I’ve had this, some version of this discussion repeatedly in the last few weeks and over a variety of settings, people from different places.
And, you know, what do you do when you find that? And there really seems to be a great deal of if not ambivalence, a lack of a response. And I’m not a particularly complicated person. And the image that is so real to me, the reason I put the fruit of the spirit, I love summer vegetables in Tennessee. You know, if you don’t, you know, if you’re still eating pizza and chicken fingers, I’m happy for you, but you’re missing out. Kathy made something today with some little new potatoes that were fresh and, you know, the green beans and the new potatoes and the fresh tomatoes. And I mean, it’s just, it’s amazing. And, you know, most of us probably get those things from the farmers' market or the grocery store… but it wasn’t too long ago that if you were gonna have summer vegetables, you had to have a garden.
And I didn’t do that a great deal, but I did it enough to know that I didn’t wanna do it a great deal. And I remember the process: if you’re gonna have a garden in one fashion or another, you have to break up the soil whether you plow it and disk it or you till it or you’ve got a shovel or some way or another, you have to break up the soil. And then you prepare the soil and you plant the seeds and then you have to nurture those. You have to water them and protect them from the weeds and the bugs and all the stuff. And oversee that growth period and if you’re reasonably successful with that and there’s enough moisture available, you get to the harvest time.
And then, again, we’re kind of spoiled, you know, we have freezers and all sorts of things, but there was a time that if you wanted to maintain the produce from the harvest, you not only collected the harvest, then you had to have a provision to sustain it, whether you canned it or you transformed it into something else that was more sustainable or you only got the benefit for a very few short days or weeks. And here’s the challenge, if you wanted a garden next summer, you couldn’t just get out the pictures of last summer.
You couldn’t invite your neighbors over and say, «Tell me about your garden last year». «Oh, I would love to. I have pictures. We had an amazing tomato crop. The vines were breaking. There were so many tomatoes. Do you still look at the pictures that were made»? No, if you wanted that, you had to do it all over again. That I would submit to you that if you and I are going to have the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, if we’re gonna maintain an edge of spiritual momentum, of spiritual growth, disciples, we have all kinds of words and programs and vocabularies, but what I find is we’re really short on intent. If you’re gonna have the garden again, you gotta break up the soil. You gotta plant the seeds. You gotta care for 'em. You gotta weed it and spray it and harvest it and then deal with the harvest 'cause the harvest, you know, it’s overwhelming.
You get tired of tomatoes. It’s like I don’t want any more green beans. We had strawberries for a while. And, you know, for the first week fresh strawberries were great. By week four I’m like, God, if you want a strawberry, go get it. You know, then, you know, my parents would know that we were tired of the strawberry juice, «Don’t you want to pick some strawberries for your friends»? No. If my friends want strawberry that’s their problem. I picked all the strawberries, you know, harvest time can get overwhelming. And I think, if you and I, you know, we have all these things we say we want to happen and that we want the Lord to do and the real question on the table is, are we willing to engage in the behaviors that will allow God to bring new growth?
And what I find is we’re far more comfortable getting at our pictures from the gardens of years past and telling stories of what God has done and what we have experienced with the, really, with the message that’s being conveyed is we’ve done the heavy lifting. We’ve made the big changes. We’ve turned away from the things that needed turned away from and we found freedom where there was freedom to be had and there’s really nothing much left for us to experience, so let us show you our pictures of our wonderful gardening experience. And that does not align itself with what I find in my Bible.
Apostle Paul went to Ephesus, spent a couple of years there ministering. The whole region was impacted. God did extraordinary miracles, it says, through his hands. You know what most of us would call an Ephesus experience? As a professional Christian, do you know what we call that? A career. We would, we’d have gone back home, we’d have written a book about what God did in Ephesus. We’d have done a video series today. We’d have written a small group curriculum, a list of prayers, prayers from Ephesus that will change your city. We’d have gotten on the banquet circuit and we would have taken some Ephesians with us. Tell us about what you burned in the big fire at Ephesus. You know the drill. But that wasn’t Paul’s attitude at all. He picked up and went to the next city and to the next city and to the next city and oftentimes there was a riot or a physical threat or violence against him or things to be overcome.
Church, we gotta be growing. Oh, I’m just talking, I mean, yeah, I think the community where we serve should be growing, but I think far more importantly, in our hearts, we’ve gotta have that same desire. We want somebody else to grow the vegetables and bring us a basket. We’ll sell them, but we’ll tell them they’re great farmers. Bring me a picture of your garden. I’d like to see it. But I believe God is calling us to a season where the only way to secure what is gonna be needed for ahead of us is if we’re bearing fruit. And so that’s really, I’m just gonna take one slice of that as we walk through this, but it has to do with our thoughts and our words and our reality. And it’s really simple. It’s a little bit of a tag to what we started on Sunday. But I’ll begin this session with the benefits of thanksgiving and praise.
And again, I think we kind of stretch and yawn and go, «Pastor couldn’t you, you know, couldn’t we talk about prophecy»? Well, I can, but you won’t survive it if you don’t understand the link between your thoughts and your words and your future. It’s through praise that we acknowledge the greatness of God and we’re reluctant to praise the Lord. We truly are. I heard a videotape this week. It touched my heart. It was some of the young people who had been caught in some of the flood. And as they had been rescued or gathered, they were in a van of some sort and they were singing a little chorus.
And I just heard the video and there was such a freedom in their words. I thought, oh, we missed that. We withdraw from worship if it’s not the chorus we like or the leader we like or the tone we like or whatever. We worship God not because he needs to be reminded of who he is. We worship God and give thanks to God and we give praise to God because there’s a continual battle in our hearts and our minds and our thoughts about who God is. And by a decision of my will, I will raise my voice in praise and thanksgiving to God. It is very seldom driven by the condition of my emotions. Just to be completely, there’s some days, yes, you feel like it, but at night, the majority of the time, I make that expression that comes out of me is by a decision of my will and my emotions have to find it.
Psalm 33, «Sing joyfully to the LORD, you righteous: it is fitting for the upright to praise him». That’s enough. If you imagine yourself to be upright before the Lord, if you desire to, what’s a behavior that will help you sustain that place? Praise him. Praise him. And don’t think about praise just when the band plays or the vocalist walks out and they, you know, it’s a music that’s emotive to you. Praise the Lord when you’re with your friends. Praise your Lord when you go to work. Praise the Lord when you have a good conversation. «How are you doing»? «I’m doing really well today 'cause God has blessed me». Just drag the goodness of the Lord into all your conversations. «Well, people will think I’m crazy». They already do. You might as well think they’re crazy for Jesus. You think people don’t talk about you already? Let’s give them a good reason.
There’s a second benefit of praise and thanksgiving. It dislodges, it breaks up, it dispels despair. In Isaiah 61, «To proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of the vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning». There’s an exchange taking place. «A crown of beauty instead of ashes». You put ashes on your head as a sign of grief or great mourning. «A crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair».
If you do those things, there’s a label that comes. «You’ll be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor». But there’s a change of attitude, a change of posture. A change of spirit that’s described there. Instead of ashes on your head, there’s a crown of beauty and instead of mourning, there’s the oil of gladness. Oil was a, really, means of monetary exchange. So I mean, there’s a sense of opportunity about you instead of a sense of despair that you put on a garment of praise and not that spirit of heaviness.
I meet people all the time, frequently, on a route, «You know, pastor, I just don’t watch the news. It’s too heavy». No, watch the news to see what God is doing. I have to step into that world a bit more than I once did, and I can tell you, every day there are things for which I can… only God could have done that. Oh my God, yes, every day you can find something the devil’s doing. You find that in the opening chapters of Genesis. God created the heavens and the earth and everything that’s in them, and he said it’s very good, and here comes the devil. And that theme is gonna follow you all the way through to the end of the book of Revelation. So you and I have to decide that, every day, which of those things we’re going to put on? Are we gonna put ashes on our head? We gonna take on an attitude of mourning or are we gonna put on a garment of praise?
I’m not trying to bring some quick fix, some facade. I’m telling you there’s a fundamental change in the thoughts that you welcome into your life, how you view the world around you. And that’ll be reflected in the words that you use, not just your church words. Thanksgiving and praise prepare a way for God’s involvement in our lives. Then we could spend multiple sessions unpacking this. I brought you a couple of familiar stories because I didn’t think it would take much time. One is Jonah. We all know Jonah. He’s a rebel of the first class and he’s a prophet of God. Can you balance those two things? I want to disrupt your smugness.
So many of the people who were introduced in Scripture are very deeply rooted in a life with God and very uncooperative. Jesus told a parable about a Pharisee and a very public sinner. And the public sinner had a better God attitude than the very religious person. Should give us pause, we’re in church frequently. And Jonah’s a prophet, somebody God trusts with a message. Somebody that God has designed an assignment that he thinks is unique enough that he’s pretty persistent with Jonah. And yet Jonah says, no, I don’t wanna do that. And I really think the root of it was he didn’t like the political implications of it. He understood Assyria was the rising empire, the greatest threat to the liberties and the freedoms of the people of Israel and he would have much rather seen God’s judgment poured out upon them than God’s blessings.
And when God said, «I want you to go give them a message to repent,» he said, «No, I don’t want to». In fact, when they did repent and judgment didn’t come, remember what Jonah said? «I’m so mad I wanna die». And God said, «What’s wrong with you»? Living Bible. «What’s wrong with you? You’re more upset about your shade drying up than you are the people of this city». And the real answer was, «Well, I perceived them as a threat». But in the middle of the belly of the whale, Jonah realizes he’s desperate. It’s in your notes. «From inside the fish Jonah prayed,» no kidding. «And he said, 'In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry.'»
And then we’re given just a little bit of the prayer. «With a song of thanksgiving, I will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good». With the song of thanksgiving in a dark, frightening, uncomfortable, terrifying, miserable place, Jonah said, «I will give thanks to the Lord». That’s just not easily done, folks. That’s not an emotional response. That’s not feeling-based prayers. Well, our Christianity is way too squishy. If you’re gonna have a garden, you don’t just tend it on the days where it’s comfortable and cool. If you’re gonna get a good harvest from your efforts, you’re gonna work it when it’s inconvenient, you’ll have to put in effort that most people won’t put in. You gotta have a vision for what you want weeks and months before you’re actually going to attain it.
There’s some delayed gratification in that. There’s an investment that’s somewhat faith based 'cause without the part that you can’t do, without the moisture and the sunshine and all the intangibles, you could invest all that effort and not get very much for it. Are we willing to give thanks to the Lord? It starts in our thoughts. And it’ll find its way to our words and if we will stay focused and determined and persistent, it will end up defining our reality. I brought you another example. Again, it’s a very familiar story. It’s Paul, and at this point, his traveling team is Silas. And they’ve been stripped and beaten. That’s humiliating in any generation. Arrested in public, stripped and beaten. That is not the way to launch your ministry.
See, if we start a small group initiative and you invite four people and three of them say no, you’re like, oh, I tried. I invited four people and three of them said no. And one of them was my wife and the other was my brother and, I mean, I read this and we read it like it’s normal, but there’s nothing about this scenario that fits into our experience profile. «And after they’ve been severely beaten, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer commanded the guard to guard them. And he put them in the inner cell, and he fastened their feet in the stocks». I mean, everything about this is uncomfortable. «At about midnight Paul and Silas,» were complaining about who had planned this missions trip.
How many of you know the story, we’ve all heard it a 100 times in a message of one kind or another, they’re praying and singing hymns to God. And we read that like, oh, isn’t that sweet? No, it’s not. That’s hard. It’s difficult, it’s uncomfortable. It goes against every emotion they had, it’s illogical. They didn’t feel like it. Paul, we got here 'cause of that stinking vision you had. It wasn’t a vision, it was indigestion. What were you thinking? I mean, I read that and I think, how did they have the awareness and understanding to recognize there was a spiritual conflict raging that had left marks on their physical body and yet they didn’t disengage? They didn’t say, «This is too difficult. We have contusions. We are bleeding. We’ve been humiliated. We have lost all of our momentum».
But rather than seeing it from that vantage point, they said, «God is doing something. There’s tremendous opposition so there has to be something tremendous God has for us». There was something in their thoughts that is too deficient amongst us. I live in the midst of the people of God and I’m grateful for that, but I’m telling you there’s a great opportunity in front of us. If we can transform our thoughts and then our words, we will have a different kind of a future. The devil will be so concerned when you roll up in a new job or a new community or a new season of opportunity that he’ll start disruptions ahead of any logical reason to do it.
You know the end of it. There’s an earthquake and the chains fall off and the jails opened and the jailer and his family accept the Lord and they’re baptized and they care for Paul. He makes the magistrates of the city come down and apologize. Not sneaking out of town. But the bigger principle is important, that thanksgiving and praise, they prepare a way for the involvement of God in your life. If you would like God more involved in your life, if there are circumstances where the only imaginable outcome, acceptable outcome is that, you begin to thank God.
God, I thank you that you’ll make a way, that you’ll open a door, that you’ll bring life to our bodies or peace to our minds or hope to this circumstance. Whatever it may be, Lord, there’s an immovable wall or an impassable barrier and you can make a way through that or around that or over that or under that or whatever you need to do, God, I wanna give you thanks for that. Or, God, I’m discouraged and I’m tired and I’m weary, but I’m gonna choose to say thank you. I’m gonna give glory to you.
Whether you move the rock or not, you are worthy of all glory and honor and praise and thanksgiving and I will not relent. You see, there’s something fundamental that we’ve got to bring to it. It doesn’t matter if anybody else joins you. People say to me, «Well, pastor just nobody worships». Why don’t you? When everybody else is worshiping, adding one more, that’s not difficult. That’s groupthink. That’s not too hard to build on. And there’s times and places, there’s a momentum in that and we may use it to help extend something, but the reality is it’s an individual decision. I’m really not talking to you about something corporate.
I’m talking about if you want a crop of godliness in your life, it’s gonna have a great deal to do with the thoughts that you intentionally cultivate and the words that give expression to that. Every bit is intentional, if you wanna lose a bit of weight. If you’re past about 25, that’s not random. If you’re 19, I don’t wanna hear about your diet. Your metabolism’s disgusting. And we’re jealous. Praise will silence the enemy, which is a very, very, very powerful tool. If you can silence your enemy, you know how powerful that is, to shut down the opposition? Psalm 8 and verse 2 says, «From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger». Wow. We have underestimated this.
In Revelation 12, it says, «The accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night has been hurled down». It’s a scene in Revelation of the throne of God, and Satan is portrayed, presented to us, one of the titles given to him is the accuser of the brethren. In the book of Job, you get a little snapshot of that. Satan presents himself with the angels of light, critical of Job. Attacking Job, diminishing Job. You know that battle. Forget how Satan got to heaven with the, you know, sometimes I’m fascinated at how we process this stuff.
I’ve been in multiple Bible studies. We spend the whole time discussing how Satan managed to appear with the angels of light. Does he have access to the throne of God? I mean I’m okay with the questions, but here’s the reality. Satan puts all kinds of thoughts in your head on a very regular basis. And I would submit to you it’s far more important to know what to do with the ungodly thoughts that will cripple our momentum and our growth than it is to answer every theological nuance and subtlety that you can find with the persistent study of Scripture. And I’m an advocate for the persistent study of Scripture.