Allen Jackson - God's People, God's Power (02/08/2026)
The offertory prayer focuses on the church as the root issue—not politicians—urging believers to become the church so biblical values can influence schools, families, and the nation. The sermon introduces God's power among His people, highlighting biblical heroes' real-life engagement with God beyond theory, calling for transformed lives open to the Spirit amid increasing lawlessness, violence, and deception—concluding with a prayer for cooperation with the Holy Spirit.
Offertory Prayer: Church and Nation
For our offertory prayer, we want to pray for the church and our nation. You know, we don't have a politician problem. We've got a church issue. And until the church becomes the church, we're going to continue to struggle. Our schools will struggle. Our families will struggle. Those values, those messages, those biblical worldview ideas, they come from the church. And we've got some enormous opportunities in front of us. So God is moving.
Will you stand with me for that? If you're at home, you stand. I believe prayers change the course of our lives, of our families, and of nations. You know, I saw a senator this week look dead in the camera and say, I'm very uncomfortable with the notion that there are moral values that we imagine would come to us from God. He wasn't as uncomfortable as I was thinking somebody with no more sense than that is in our Senate. Fortunately, our founding documents echo that.
But, folks, we've got a church issue. And, you know, we want everybody else to be different so we can have a different outcome. But the change is going to start with us. So here we go. You ready?
Lord, thank you. Thank you for your church and the earth. Lord Jesus, I thank you that you're the head of the church. That you said you would establish your church and that hell itself would not disrupt it. I praise you for it. Lord, we want to join you. We want to be busy gathering those you want gathered. Lord, speaking what you want said, living out what you want demonstrated. May your truth be evident in us. May your authority be made plain through us. Give us the courage and the boldness to be advocates for you, to be ambassadors, to be ministers of reconciliation. Lord, lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from evil. And may you be pleased with our expression of your authority in this generation. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Before you're seated, you know the drill now, right? Find somebody that didn't come in your car and tell them God's moving in the earth. Amen, amen. You should have received an outline when you came in, whichever worship space you're in on our campus. And if you're joining us digitally for $19.95, you can download that same outline. I'm kidding. It's special for you this weekend. It's free from the websites or the apps. Can you imagine? Scare me.
God's People and God's Power: Introduction
I want to pick up a new topic for a few sessions, talking about expressions of God's power. What's it look like to have the power of God made evident in the midst of God's people? I have reached the conclusion that I don't imagine there is an outcome that will be acceptable to us absent the demonstration of God's power in the midst of His people. And I don't believe that that has been as prevalent in our midst as it might have been in recent years and even decades. So I want to spend a bit of time with it.
This particular session is a bit of the introduction to that. But so the title is God's people and God's power. You know, the biblical presentation is not offered to us in the context of a Bible study or some theoretical classroom. The heroes of our faith, the men and women were introduced to us as models of our faith or to demonstrate for us what it looks like to be the people of God. We don't see their stories lived out in terms of their classroom learning. Now, I'm not saying there wasn't some of that, but that's not the nature of the presentation.
The various authors and time periods all invite us into the life of people who were engaged by God. And that's really the invitation that I'm going to be putting before you in a more intentional way in these next few sessions. What would it look like for you to be engaged with God differently, more completely, more fully, in a more personal way?
Biblical Heroes: Real-Life Engagement with God
Abram, when God called him, told him to leave his home and to travel to a land that God said he would show him. You don't need to know the destination. You just need to move. Well, you know, we read that from the safety of a few thousand years separation. It doesn't feel too awkward, but that would be an awkward conversation if I went home tonight. and said to my lovely bride, Kathy, we're moving. Where are we going? I'm not telling you. How will we know when I get there? I'll just know. She has an amazing amount of confidence in me. But that would stretch its limits.
You know, the journey that Abram was invited to take included things that you wouldn't think you would have if God sent you on a journey, like enemies and adversaries. It required of him to be a warrior. I mean, traveling renegades took Lot and his families and all their possessions, and Abraham had to muster all the men under his authority and make a several days' journey to the city of Dan, and in the middle of the night, raid a city. I don't think he imagined that was in the bargain when God said, look, I need you to leave your house and just go where I'm going to show you.
I mean, when the Bible tells us the story, it's got the warts and all about the foreign king that took his wife. And Abraham was afraid enough, he said, yeah, that's my sister. That didn't go well either later on, I'm pretty sure. It's just not as neat and clean as you would imagine.
Joseph's family of origin is a mess. Now, he ends up, the prime minister of Egypt, very successful as the foremost advisor to Pharaoh. But you wouldn't think of that, if we were going to give you a caricature for what it means to be a man of faith or an overcomer, that it would be in those contexts where your family would betray you. You'd go to a foreign country and serve a pagan pharaoh that worships foreign gods. I mean, it's not the way the narrative we would imagine rolls out. And we're to easily succumb to the voices that say we should...we've been sidelined because of the less than perfect circumstances we face.
Daniel's a slave in a foreign court before he becomes a trusted advisor to a sultan. Spends his whole life as a slave. And yet God gives him these most amazing revelations about the end of the age because he knows he's a trustworthy servant. The school he attended, I have no doubt Daniel had some classroom learning, he was brilliant. But the school we're invited into is not a classroom setting.
Saul of Tarsus, some prefer the New Testament, he's a powerful figure in first century Judaism. There's a very significant career unfolding. Great influence amongst the most powerful, wealthy, elite, influential people in the city of Jerusalem and in the nation of Israel. And then he has an encounter with Jesus of Nazareth. And his whole life changed. His life changes on a dusty road on the way to Damascus. Not in some rabbinic setting.
Peter's a fisherman and he emerges as a leader of a group of God's people, so effective that they elicit violent, jealous reprisals from the most powerful citizens of Jerusalem. And on and on it goes. But in none of these instances are the characters we meet gathering for a theoretical discussion of God moving among his people.
Well, I want to submit to you that we've been invited to a similar experience of a living faith. And we've accepted a cheap imitation when we simply just keep presenting ourselves for another study ad nauseam. Now, I like to learn. I like to read. And I spend time doing that every week in significant ways with focused attention. But what I'm really interested in learning about is how God moves in the midst of his people and what God is doing in the earth and how I can be a part of that. I have no interest and no intention of being a part of theoretical Christianity. And I want to invite you away from it.
Or we make lists of the things we believe and we compare them to other groups of Christ followers and then we try to see how they're insufficient because they don't check out very well against our list. We take communion at the right time or we read the right translation or our worship style is better than theirs or something. The architectural style of the place where we worship is more pleasing. Stop. We need the power of God in our midst.
God's Involvement in Politics and Church
So I want to start with the places I get pinged the most. God's involvement in our lives. What's that look like? Well, I'm here to tell you biblically and in reality God's involved in politics. Well, what about the separate... Yeah, what about? I brought you a couple examples.
Daniel chapter 10. Then he said, do you understand why I came to you? Daniel is having a visit from an archangel. One of the most powerful angelic beings in all the heavens has come to see Daniel. And he said, do you understand why I came to you? I'll now return to fight against the prince of Persia. So I'm going forth and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come. However, I will tell you what is inscribed in the writing of truth. There is no one who stands firmly with me against these forces except Michael, your prince.
Michael is the archangel that is given the assignment to watch over the Jewish people. So Michael is referred to as Daniel's prince. He said, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I arose to be an encouragement and a protection for him. Him who? For Darius the Mede, for a Persian king. God has sent mighty, powerful, angelic support to help a pagan king. It's time for the Jewish people to return to the land of Israel. Their permission will be given for the temple to be rebuilt. There's tremendous spiritual forces in opposition to that.
Oh, it'll come through Persian kings, through edicts. But the momentum, the power for that is originated in the spiritual realm before those political edicts are issued. And God gives Daniel a bit of a peek behind the curtain. He said, I came to encourage you. And oh, by the way, God gave me the assignment of propping up this Persian king because he's got business to do for the purposes of God.
You see, we have to pray for leaders whether we agree with them or not. We have to pray for leaders whether we voted for them or not. But we've got to get over the idea that the only time the purposes of God can come forward is when the person we vote for gets elected. The purposes of God have to transcend those categories.
Now, we've got to stop supporting people that have blatantly unbiblical, ungodly ideas. You can't take your picture in front of a church and then be against the sanctity of human life and imagine you can bring the blessings of God to people. But having said that, we've got to become... We've got to believe in the authority that's invested in the people of God more than the authority that's invested in the politicians.
And because we're idolatrous and we put more faith in those systems of this present age and we're not always consistent in our beliefs, then we say, well, we can't talk about those things. We have to talk about those things. It's not about candidates and parties. It's about the value system that we belong to.
I gave you a New Testament example in Acts chapter 12. On the appointed day, Herod... Herod is the appointed... He's appointed by Rome, but he is at least in part Jewish. On the appointed day, Herod, wearing his royal robe, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. And they shouted, this is the voice of a God. Not of a man. And immediately, because Herod didn't give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down. And he was eaten by worms and died. It's rather a humbling end.
I think it's noteworthy that God responded to Herod's inappropriate response. Herod took the praise for himself. He said he didn't give the praise to God. You know, Romans 1, when it's describing the downward progression of human character that plunges us into perversion and worse, the beginning point of that, it says, although they knew God, they refused to give him glory. They refused to give him glory.
We've got to be careful with our attitudes regarding God. God took a hand in the political processes, the authority over the land of Israel, in Acts chapter 12. Now, I don't think God strikes down every leader who takes the glory to themselves, but I do think in this case, the label for it is exemplary judgment. There are times in Scripture, God expresses his opinion as a way of making an example to set a boundary for the rest of us.
Now, it intrigues me a bit. In this same chapter, we'll look at a verse. In this verse, Herod imprisoned the leaders of the church in Jerusalem. And he had James, the brother of John, murdered. And he saw that it made his ratings go up, so he had Peter arrested with the intent of murdering Peter. And in neither of those cases did God intervene. But in that same chapter, at the end of the chapter, when Herod took the glory to himself, God said, I won't allow that.
See, rather than try to figure it all out, sometimes I find it far more helpful to accept the expressions of the character of God. Look at Acts chapter 12. We just read 12, 21 to 23. This is the beginning. The very same chapter, so it's in context. It was about this time that King Herod arrested. some who belonged to the church intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. And when he saw this, pleased the Jews. He proceeded to seize Peter also. It happened during the Feast of the Unleavened Bread.
Some of you know the intervening story. Peter was kept in prison for several days. And on the night before he was to be brought to trial and executed, the angels came and released him from prison. But the conclusion of that chapter is the passage I just read to you. That at the end of the feast, there's this great celebration, and the people are shouting praises to Herod and he accepts the glory for himself and God says it's enough.
The beginning of the chapter, it looks like the church is under such a grave threat it may not survive. He's killing the leadership. And at the end of the chapter, the worms are eating Herod and the church is flourishing. I assure you, God's involved in the political process. But he's involved to see that his purposes come forward. And why I think we have to approach all of those processes with the desire to see the purposes of God come forward. For that biblical worldview to be extended. Because those are the only things that bring stability and safety and opportunity and something that resembles justice to people in the earth.
Politicians don't do that. Freedoms and liberties do not come from governments. And any politician that tells you they're the arbiter of freedoms and liberties apart from God are deceivers. Human beings do not bring freedom and Liberty to one another. There's nothing in human history that suggests that. And there's abundant opportunity to argue the opposite.
God's Power in the Church: Acts 5 Example
Well, I want to tag that with God moving in the church. If he's moving in the politics, he's equally moving in the church. We like to say that. When I first started in the ministry, I really didn't know what I was doing. I mean, I knew how to put together an appropriately crafted sermon. And I knew the fundamental functions of church. But if you ask me, you know, how was church? I'd say, well, the Lord moved. Well, how'd you know? Well, I felt pretty good about what happened. Nobody threw anything. And I don't think that's any more an accurate understanding of what's happening than if you ask the whoever's leading the manufacturing process at Nissan, how did it go today? Well, the Lord moved. Well, I'm pretty sure they have some other benchmarks they're interested in.
And I'm not suggesting the church is done by the numbers, but I think we have to have something that is a bit more tangible and understandable on our behalf to know if we are actually participating with the Lord. One of the weaknesses we've had is about the only number we ever kept was who got born again. And that's a valuable number. It's a good thing to know. But there's a myriad of decisions to be made for the Lord before and after the decision to become a Christ follower. There's a whole host of decisions that are made before a person will pray that prayer and take that step of commitment. And after making that step, there's a lifetime of decisions to be made after that. How are we doing with that? Do we have a pipeline stacked with people that haven't yet decided to receive the Lord, but they're gaining momentum towards that decision? And do we have an equal number of people that have made that decision, but every day and every week and every month and every year there is expressions of momentum in their growth and their spiritual formation?
Better understandings of a church. God's doing something in the church in Jerusalem in Acts chapter 5. Peter's trying to get their arms around it along with the other leaders. Acts chapter 1, Jesus went back to heaven by Acts chapter 5. The church is growing dramatically. It's stretching all their processes. People are selling property and bringing the proceeds and presenting them to the disciples for the needs that are gathering amongst the believers.
And Ananias and Sapphira come in. And they've had a piece of property and they've sold it and they're going to present it as if they're giving the full purchase price when in reality they haven't. they've held some back. No pressure. They could have given whatever they wanted to. But they wanted the blessing. They wanted the position. They wanted the opportunity. They wanted to be pretenders. As if they were making a sacrifice when in reality they weren't making it at all.
And Peter has a word of wisdom. Actually, he has a word of knowledge. God gives him insight into the reality of Ananias and Sapphira's circumstances. I don't believe he had done an audit of their personal finances. I don't think he had a forensic review of their books. But God gives him a word of knowledge about the reality of their circumstance. And that's where we step into the narrative.
It says, didn't it belong to you the property before it was sold and after it was sold wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You haven't lied to men but to God. And when Ananias heard this he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. No kidding. I mean, in the context it's like there's a line of people who are presenting their gifts. It was a familiar custom. They would do it on the temple mount. So it's not surprising to me that they would do it in the gathering of believers. These public presentations of their gifts.
Jesus observed those presentations because some of you will recall the story. He's watching it all happen and people had made. significant contributions of great value and a widow came in and put in a couple of small coins and Jesus gathered the disciples and said that widow gave a greater gift than all the others and they tried to correct Jesus. They said, oh no, Lord. There have been some really big gifts today.
Well, that same pattern seems to be unfolding here and Ananias and Sapphira have gotten in line and they're going to pretend to make a sacrifice they haven't made. And Peter said, why would you do that? Why would you even consider lying to God? This isn't the place for that. Ananias drops dead and later in the day so does his wife. She comes in with the same story.
Now, I don't believe the lesson that is that every liar in church dies. Or we'd be having church in the parking lot. because nobody would come back in the building. I promise. I think it's back in that category of an exemplary judgment. Clearly, not all deceivers in church are struck dead immediately. But I can assure you that all liars and deceivers will face the second death, separation from God. The Scripture is very clear on that.
I know we're really sloppy with it. We've got a whole new vocabulary list for what it means to be liars and deceivers. You know, we spin. I mean, we've got a whole set of stuff. Folks, we can't do that. God is moving in the church. And we talk about God moving amongst His people. We're looking for more than numbers of baptisms or participation. We're looking for transformed character, changes in behavior that reflect the compliance with the principles of Scripture, with repentance and humility and changes of behavior, things that make us distinctive from from a secular culture.
We've got to talk about it a little bit so we'll begin to know it when we see it and we're not easily deceived by people that try to manipulate us. I'm weary with the lies and the deception in the church. It's far too prominent. It's far too prevalent. I'm not talking about you. But I have the privilege of engaging with the church in a broader way. And we are addled. We're confused. We've lost our way. We bring the same kind of selfish ambition and personal ambition and dishonesty that we find flourishing in a secular business culture.
We'll never have the power of God. We'll never live in the midst of the purpose of God. I don't care how clever we are with a phrase or how adept we are at presenting Scripture. If we're not living with our lives yielded to the authority of God.
Miracles and Growth in Acts 5
God is moving in the earth. He's moving in the midst of His people. I mean, it's noteworthy that when He needed political authority for the Jewish people to return and the temple to be rebuilt, He would move in the midst of pagan people involved in pagan practices. that we needed in a man of integrity that could hear His word and be trusted with a message. He found one, but He was a slave. God's still searching the earth for men and women who will yield to Him. Decide to be one of those people. Decide to be one of those people. God is looking for people He can trust with His power and His authority.
We've been told to stack facts. And again, I'm all for that. I like to learn. I love to learn. But I want to know God. There's an outcome that emerges from Acts chapter 5. I read you verse 4 and 6, but I want to step into the rest of the narrative in that chapter. Just like there was the rest of the story in Acts 12, there's a rest of the story in Acts chapter 5.
Look at verse 12. The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's colonnade. A couple of things. I think we should imagine that God does miracles in the midst of His people. We've got to come back to that. It doesn't mean we don't have challenges.
In Acts chapter 12, James is going to be beheaded. Peter is going to be in prison and held in prison for several days. And when the angels release him from prison, do you remember what he did? He went to the all-night prayer meeting. They wouldn't let him in. You can read it. He's knocking at the door and they come and answer the door and he says, it's Peter. And they said, no, no, no. We're in here praying for Peter. He's in prison. And he has to have an argument with the lady that came to open the door. He said, no, it's really me. And she went back in and said, it's Peter. And they came and he said, he didn't answer in the way I wanted him to answer. I wanted to go and give everybody a hug and say, thank you for praying. Now let's go back to the temple and finish the message. Because earlier in the book, they did that. Angel lit him out of prison. He said, now go back up there and finish the message. They interrupted.
But by Acts chapter 12, do you remember what happened? Peter said, tell the brothers I'm leaving town. Every time I read it, it's emotional to me because I don't want the clowns to win. But God has a bigger purpose. The message is going to have to go beyond Jerusalem. And it's going to take pressure for that to happen. because they're going to have to disperse the voices. They would have nestled in and settled down and worked out their systems and stayed put. It's where they're comfortable. It's what they've known. And God said, I have a bigger purpose. I've got a greater objective. We're going to have to take this message far beyond Jerusalem. It's going to Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. And you're going to feel the pressure that is part of that unfolding assignment.
Well, wait a minute, Pastor. I didn't sign up to be a Christ follower to undergo any pressure. I want to go to heaven. I don't want to go to hell. I want my kids to go to a good school. We all want to stay healthy and happy. And God said, well, all of those things are available, but the assignment is to serve me. Amen. Oh, but I don't really want to do that. I want to go to heaven. I don't want to go to hell. I want my kids to behave, my wife to be kind, and I want to eat chocolate and not gain weight.
The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people and all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's colonnade. They're updating the translation. It says, in all the believers' live stream. No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Why do you think they were reluctant to join them? Well, three or four verses earlier, folks were dropping dead when they got the wrong answer when Peter was asking questions. I mean, you think there were people that were checking their math in the donation line.
Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. It's a pretty interesting... In spite of all the pressure, in spite of all the things, more and more men and women. believed in the Lord and were added to their number. I didn't know we were supposed to care about that.
And as a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed. And the high priest and all of his associates who were members of the party of the Sadducees were filled with jealousy.
It's a picture of the church being the church. There's the supernatural presence of God, the miraculous intervention of God. There's not an absence of pressure. There's not an absence of conflict. There's not an absence of challenges. It's just they're meeting together regularly. There's a fear of God in the midst of the people. More and more men and women are believing. Do you understand the dynamic? Those haven't changed in the 2,000 years that intervene, folks.
Need for God's Power Demonstration
The people that were there at the beginning in the upper room, they liked the group. We're the group that started with the Lord. We're the group that saw the stuff. We're the group that made the journey. By the time you get to Acts chapter 5, there's so many people, we don't even get to talk to Peter anymore. I mean, there's a fight that breaks out. By the time you get to Acts chapter 7, they're having a fight. We don't like the way you're doing business anymore. We're going to have to decide if the purposes of God matter to us.
And I'm really not talking principally about the way we behave as a community, but it's an attitude about the church with a capital C. We've got to have a passion. There's no hope for our kids and grandkids apart from the church, apart from the power of God. I mean, I hope the Fed makes policy decisions that are best for the nation and not politically motivated, but my hope isn't in the Fed. I hope the CDC is filled with people with integrity and character, and they really follow the science and not whatever other agendas may have been temptingly put before them. But at the end of the day, we have to trust God with our future and our well-being.
The outcomes, the pathway to God's purposes includes the supernatural. And I don't expect that to come from any other source than the people of God. We can no longer stand apart from the power of God and imagine that we're going to know His victory. We will not. And I'm embarrassed by the amount of effort that theologians, professionally trained Christians, I've studied with some of them, will put into the text to try to prove that we shouldn't any longer imagine the kind of behavior that we read in Acts chapter 5.
Did you ever buy something that comes with a manual? And I'm going to ask the question, but I know the men don't read the manuals, so the women will have to answer the question. But you ever buy something that comes with a manual? Cars will do it, but electronics, different things. And the manual is written for more than one model. Right? Like you've got all the operating instructions for like six different models.
Well, it always annoys me to a significant degree. Like I'm reading a manual and there's equipment that does things that mine doesn't. You know, and it doesn't call me cheap on every page or left out, but that's how I feel. It's like, you know, if you're air-conditioned, if you have the auto thermostat, no, I just got a button and a dial. And actually, it's a dial in the window. You roll it down and that's how you get cooled off.
Well, I feel that way about my Bible when people say, well, you know, the miracle stopped at the end of the first century, that they were to establish the apostolic age, but with the passing of the last apostles, we no longer needed the power of God. Oh, really? Well, it makes me go, well, which other parts of the book aren't relevant? And how did you decide that?
You see, there's an awkwardness when we read Acts chapter 5, because our lives are sloppy and messy, and we're bruised, and it's not simple, and we weep together, and we celebrate some together, and we're trying to navigate it and figure it out. But that feels a lot like what I read in the book of Acts. They're being arrested and beaten and threatened and martyred. And there are so many sick people amongst the church, they don't even have time to pray for them individually. They say, just line the road with them. We're going to walk past. And God's still moving.
We've got to have the courage to say, I believe God is involved. Simple things like, let's pray. We've got to live it out in plain language. The pathway to God's purposes includes the supernatural. I think we have to have a new valuation. There's a verse in Luke 16 that has captured my attention of late. Jesus is talking. He said, you're the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men. But God knows your heart. That's a concerning statement to me.
He's talking to religious people, deeply religious people. Lots of rules. They read their Bibles. They know the Scripture better than I do. I promise you they did. And he said, you're the group of people who justify yourselves in the eyes of people. But God knows your heart. See, our audience ultimately is the Lord.
Look at the next phrase. He said, what is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight. Jesus is inviting us towards a different kind of valuation. So I have a question for you. And it's not a simple answer. So I'm not pointing you towards something. But where in your life do you accept a valuation that is identified by ungodly people?
The things we're striving for, the things that we imagine bring success or failure or to be celebrated or mourned, should not be the same as the secularists around us. Because what's highly valued in this present world order, it says, is detestable in God's sight. I'll hand you that verse. It's worth committing to memory.
See, one day the Bible says that when the Lord returns in all of his glory, that we'll be rewarded for how we've lived our lives. And at that point, you can't revisit it. There's not a do-over. And we won't have lived our lives in such a way that the Lord finds joy in rewarding us for it. And I'm taking a moment with it because it hasn't been the primary presentation that we've heard. Or at least that I have heard in much of my life around the church.
We've had this focus on don't be a sinner, be saved. And I believe in that. It's a wonderful message. It's just not complete. Things that are highly valued in a secular, godless culture are detestable in God's sight. And it's just not some obscure verse. Peter picked it up. He echoes it in 1 Peter 3. The context is a little different, but the idea is there.
He said, your beauty shouldn't come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. I mean, we understand those things add attractiveness to us. I don't think it means we have to wear worn-out clothes. But he said, instead, it should be that of your inner self. The unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.
Again, I don't think it's an either or. I don't think he's saying you have to wear shabby clothes. But he's saying that the external, the ornamentation you can hang on your earth suit is not what makes you valuable in God's sight. He said, what is of great value in God's economy is a gentle and quiet spirit.
How many of us think about that? How many of us actually pray about it? God, I would like to cultivate a gentle and quiet spirit. The things that are highly valued or detestable in God's sight. I tell you all of this because we're watching this Titanic clash of cultures. And it seems to me that within the church, and I've spent my adult life, my professional life in the church, that we have lacked the intent or the awareness of spiritual things.
And I played with those two words, we lacked the intent or we lacked the awareness, but it feels a little bit like chicken and egg to me. You know, we lacked the intent. We didn't intend to be spiritual. And the outcome, so we lacked awareness of spiritual things. Well, maybe we lacked the awareness so we didn't have the intent. I don't know the right order, to be honest. I don't. But both of them have been absent.
We haven't intended to be spiritual. And we haven't been aware of spiritual things. And we've got to change. We have to understand that what's tearing our nation apart is not political forces. They're spiritual forces. And the church has got to engage on this. And because we've lacked this intent and we've lacked this awareness, they have remained for us indistinct. They lack clarity, these spiritual discussions. We consider them untrustworthy. They're not really considered reliable. It's kind of a hope so, long shot, dark horse, hail Mary, maybe something will happen.
I've done everything I know to do. Let's pray. That's the wrong formulation. We've generally imagined spiritual things to be less than. You know, the blessing of God is less significant than money. We've imagined spiritual things to be less than. Medicine is better than having to pray. I mean, we can go right down the list. I know we're in church and we kind of cringe when we say, but if you look at our behavior, our aspirations for our children and our grandchildren, our dreams for them, there's so much we've generally imagined to be less than.
We've imagined obedience to God. It's not really that necessary, because you know, He'll forgive, and there's a lot of grace involved. And so we practice immorality, and we wink at it, and we nod at it, and we don't get anxious when we see it. And we certainly don't want to confront it. It might disrupt something. So we haven't given spiritual things a very significant role.
We're inexperienced in spiritual realities. And we're not new to this. It's the narrative represented in the Gospels. I didn't bring you all the passages. Many of them, I think, will come to mind. As the disciples begin to get to know Jesus day after day and week after week, they're challenged by Him. They're caught in a storm, and they think they're going to drown, and He speaks to the wind and the waves, and it freaks them out. Who is this?
They go in a synagogue with Him, pretty normal behavior, and a demonized man interrupts, and Jesus casts out the demons. And they go, wait a minute. He even has authority over demons. They bring sick people to Him, and they're healed, or tormented people to Him, and they're set free. And there's this constant tension. They said, well, we've never seen anything like this. They're inexperienced in spiritual reality.
But in the book of Acts, after He's gone, they begin in their own halting way to walk it forward. God is inviting the church forward in the 21st century. I believe it with all of my heart. I think too often we're captured by our pride. We imagine spiritual things are unnecessary. We'll outwork evil, or outthink evil, or outorganize evil, or we'll just try harder next time. We focus on the things we've learned and the processes we've learned. We bring all of our secular training. And I'm not opposed to that. I got a lot of it myself. But I don't want to supplant the spiritual forces of cooperating with God.
Let's teach our children to pray. Let's teach them to pray for one another. Let's teach them about spiritual forces of darkness and wickedness in the heavenly places and how to stand against it. Let's let that become as normative to them, as familiar to them, as watching a ball game. How dare we Rob them of that? If we say we believe it's true, we don't prepare our children. We are cruel.
We consider ourselves to be self-sufficient. We can address life's challenges and opportunities, so we don't really have to be dependent on spiritual things. I'm going to run out of clock before you run out of outline. There's some cultural trends that I think give evidence of what we're watching, of what I'm describing to you.
We have churches, we meet in our buildings, and we read our Bibles, and we crank out studies, and we do all those things. But the power of God is not as prevalent amongst us as it might be, as I believe God would make available to us if we'll cooperate with Him. And because of that, we see these expressions. Now, the Scripture tells us they're coming. They're anticipated by Scripture. They're anticipated as a part of being the season before the conclusion of this age. But the church is triumphant through the end of this age.
And in order for us to overcome deception and manipulation and the hatred and the violence, it's going to be directed against the people of God. We're going to have to understand the difference. We're going to have to understand where our authority comes from, what power is available to us.
Cultural Trends: Lawlessness, Violence, Deception
Lawlessness is increasing. Have you noticed? Jesus told us it would. We shouldn't be surprised. It's like when He told the disciples, when we go to Jerusalem, I'm going to be arrested. And when He was arrested, they lost their minds. But it isn't just a battle over law and order. There's a spiritual battle unfolding.
I read this week that the Durham City Council, a city in North Carolina, passed a resolution this past Tuesday on a unanimous vote to shield city workers against raids and arrests carried out by the federal officials. They said it's a Fourth Amendment issue. Some of you may not be constitutional scholars. Neither am I. The Fourth Amendment protects citizens against unreasonable search and arrest.
So we had a city in North Carolina. I mean, not like the lunatic fringe of our country. And they voted unanimously to say that ICE was not welcome in their city, because if they came, they would be violating the Fourth Amendment. And the Fourth Amendment says citizens of this nation are protected against unlawful search and seizure. And they're imputing the privileges of citizens to people who are here illegally. That is the definition of lawlessness. And it's wrapped up in words like compassion and mercy. It's not. It's no more unfair than if you make withdrawals from a bank and you're not a depositor.
Think about that for a minute. The resources of the bank come from the people who have signed their name, made a deposit. That is the financial basis of the institution. And if you're not a depositor, you have no claim on the resources. Well, citizens make the sacrifices to defend, to protect. It's not a legal issue. The thin blue line of law enforcement doesn't keep us safe. The character of citizens keeps us safe. We are the ones that have fought in the war.
Of all the things, and we are so addled that they're using moral arguments because the church is so inept. We have district attorneys, people elected to enforce the law in our major cities that will not. Federal judges attempting to dictate national policies. Federal, regional judges trying to dictate national policies, even after the Supreme Court said, you should not do that. I could go on and on. Expressions of lawlessness amongst us.
And this isn't some other part of the country. Nashville is one of the more violent cities in the nation. Depending on the list you're in, usually in the top 20 rates higher than that on some of the lists. Which leads me to the second trend, violence. It's exploding. For all of our conversations about safety and security and protecting our children, our kids aren't more safe. I mean, I realize I'm so old, I walked to school when dinosaurs were a concern. But. nevertheless, I used to walk to school several blocks and nobody was concerned for my safety. I wasn't alone. There were lots of kids walking to school.
For all of our chatter and all of our prattling on, we're not more safe. It's uncomfortable. We don't like to talk about it. We don't want to look at it. Chicago, Labor Day weekend, 58 people were shot and eight killed. And the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois said, we don't want any help. We got this. Stay away from us.
Greed, graft, corruption. It's another set of characteristics that we told were ahead of us. You know, we started the year with those doing what they do. It was so awkward, they had to quit giving us the reports. Billions and billions of dollars being siphoned off. Dozens and dozens and dozens of politicians who make relatively normal wages become fabulously wealthy in short periods of time. They become genius in the market. I don't know where the hell they do it. Three of the wealthiest counties in America surround the District of Columbia. And we've become so acclimatized to it. We've become so accustomed to it. We go, that's just how that works. No, that's not how that should work. That hasn't been our pattern throughout our history. It's a fracture in our character.
Intolerance. For all of our language around tolerance, we're more intolerant than we've ever been. We're intolerant of discipline. We do not intend to be this. We will work from home in our pajamas. And be far more productive than when we actually got up and washed our hair. We're intolerant of moral boundaries. How dare you say that my behavior is immoral? Well, I'm not really saying it. I'm reflecting what the Lord said to us, and we're trying to comply with that. Well, who said God had an opinion? Well, He created us. We're intolerant of authority. We disrespect symbols of authority in ways we've never seen before. Simple things. We disrespect the flag. We disrespect the national anthem. I'm tired of multi-millionaire athletes disrespecting the fundamental expressions of authority in our nation that made them welcome.
We're focused on our personal rights. Our personal preferences have transcended almost everything. All of it's an expression of intolerance. We want to do what we want, when we want, the way we want, and we're intolerant of anything else.
Deception is increasing. I read a report this week from the Barna Research Group. Some of you may know Dr. Barna. It was unsettling. For a long time, I've called him Chicken Little, because whenever I read his reports, it feels like the sky is falling. But he said only 52% of Americans believe that they sin. It's about half of Americans say they don't sin. Sin's no longer fashionable.
But the deception isn't limited to just the secular voices in our culture. The multitudes of churches, entire denominations, promote marriage profiles other than the biblical directive of a man and a woman. Or they deny the uniqueness of Jesus and say there's many ways to get to know God. And we see it in broader, bolder ways, more brazen ways, public lies. We lived for months and months, years, with the notion of a Russian collusion to dominate our elections and manipulate the people involved. And after years of drama in the media, drumbeat echoing it day after day, getting Pulitzer prizes for it, it was all proven to be a political scheme. Nobody apologizes or repents. We just move on to the next. And we've started to accept deception in broad scale. Well, everybody does it. No, they don't. And we shouldn't be surprised.
It wasn't too long ago we had a Major League Baseball team that cheated their way all the way. We should see it. It's demonstrated so broadly, so consistently, that we shrug our shoulders and the church gets swept along. There's other characteristics. Perversion. Sexualizing small children. Defending the practice as a matter of free speech. That's evil. This isn't some distant struggle. We've wrestled with it in our own community. Well, you're in favor of banning books. No, I'm in favor of age-appropriate learning. And it's the reason we have no heart for it, no stomach for it at that level is we're tolerating it in much broader ways, whether it's Epstein or Diddy. Folks, it's been amongst us for a long time. Perversion.
There were 400,000 children brought illegally across our border in the last four years, and they've disappeared. 400,000 children. Debauchery. That's a fancy word. I had to look it up to be sure I really knew what I was talking about. It comes from a Greek word that means wastefulness or unrestrained living. It's a pretty good description. We don't want any limits. We watch celebrities. We watch their postings, their social media. We want to live like that. We want our behaviors to look like that. We want the trappings of our lives to look like that.
What if we decided we wanted to be godly? What if we decided to begin to accept God's evaluation? What if we began to celebrate things like a meek and quiet spirit? What if we said the things that this current culture values God considers detestable, and that we wouldn't sacrifice our soul for them?
What if we began to invite the power of God into our lives? I believe God is not only interested, I believe he has the intent of doing that, that he's looking for men and women to participate with him. I'm out of time. The key to it is the presence of his spirit. And I'm going to spend the next several sessions with you talking about how we can open our lives to the spirit of God more fully. How we can cooperate with him. So that we don't imagine that our savior is coming through a political party.
I'm grateful for politicians to stand up for biblical worldviews. God will use the most unlikely characters. We've witnessed that. They have a courage for biblical values and biblical things that leaders that we've chosen who had much lengthier church resumes were unwilling to do. It's stunning to me. But I'll celebrate the grace and mercy of God we can receive. But at the end of the day, the church needs to be the church.
Again, I like to learn. I'm happy to have a study. But the point of the study is the objective of being transformed. We need freedom. We need freedom from darkness. We need freedom from the spiritual forces of wickedness that challenge us. We've got to bring the truth back into our homes. We've got to rear our children with a different set of values in the secular culture. If you live like the devil, but you say a prayer before you start to live, that doesn't make you a Christian. It's time for a realignment.
Closing Prayer for Cooperation with the Spirit
I brought you a prayer. Would you stand with me if you were going to read it together? Did you find it?
Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your spirit into the earth, for his presence within me. Grant me an understanding heart that I may cooperate fully with him. Holy Spirit, direct my steps that I may fulfill that for which I was created. Lead me in paths of righteousness and deliver me from evil. Open my eyes to understand the fullness of my redemption. May Jesus be glorified through my life. Amen.