Rabbi Schneider - Navigating Christian Compassion in a Divided World
A lot of times, if you tell a lie long enough, eventually people will believe the lie. It’s an amazing thing. You tell a lie long enough and often enough, and pretty soon it becomes so normal that without even realizing you get programmed by it. What’s the lie we’ve been hearing? Christians are bad people. When a pastor commits a sexual sin or when a pastor or an evangelist misuses finances, what happens? It’s all over the news. It’s all over the news. We’ve got I don’t know how many hundreds of thousands of pastors. We don’t hear about all the hundreds of thousands of good pastors. We don’t hear about the hundreds of thousands of faithful Christians that are doing their best to love Jesus, that are making the hard decisions to make sacrifices to obey Him, to help him. We don’t hear about those guys. We just hear about the few, you know, the few bad eggs.
So that’s what the whole Christian church community is being painted as, like we’re all bad eggs. None of the media is showing all the faithful pastors that are living in humble circumstances, that are loving their children. None of us are perfect. No one’s perfect. But there’s so many genuine, real lovers of God out there. But the world doesn’t know about them because the devil just keeps painting this picture about what a terrible people we are, the lovers of Jesus, the Bible thumpers. See, this is what Jesus is warning us about. «You’re going to be hated by all nations because of Me». And once again, Jesus said here that the sign of the end would be there be a vast increase of hatred in the world. You will be hated by all nations because of my name.
Do you know that hatred is a spirit? And we have to resist the spirit of hatred. We have to resist the spirit of hatred and fear and accusation. It’s a literal choice we’re making all the time. The devil’s always trying to come in. He’s trying to get us to have a hateful thought towards someone. He’s trying to get us to have a hateful. That’s what he’s doing to everybody. But you and I, we have discernment. We keep it out. We seize God’s word and don’t let the devil in. But as I was saying, you know, the woke culture is trying to make us think that it’s a better world. There’s more love. There’s more consideration. I’m not experiencing that. Are you? Are you experiencing more consideration and love in the world?
You know, see this river behind me? Cynthia and I went fishing down this river not too long ago. And we went about three, four miles down the river. It was beautiful. It was like no houses. It was in the middle of nature. We get to the place where we’re going to fish. I wanted to get to a dam. So we got down three, four miles, we got to that dam, I got within a couple hundred feet of the dam, and I dropped the anchor from the boat. Now, let me tell you what type of an anchor was on this boat that Cynthia and I were fishing from. It’s called a pole anchor. And what it does is it’s like a vertical piece of equipment that’s attached to the back of the boat. If you can imagine something like this attached to the back of the boat.
And then a telescoping pole drops down from this piece of equipment, it looks like about this thick. It drops straight down into the bottom. And so when that anchor gets all the way to the bottom through that pole that pushes itself into the mud, then it keeps the boat in place. So I push the button, the anchor goes straight down, this pole anchor. Bam. And now I start to fish. So I’m fishing for a little while and all of a sudden, Cynthia says to me, «You know, we’re not at the same place we started at. We’re drifting». And then I look and I say, «Yeah, we’re drifting». And we were drifting towards the dam where that water was coming over the dam. And all of a sudden, I got very concerned because I had a really bad memory about something like this.
And the memory is that when my youngest daughter was about eight years old probably, we were going canoeing. We took her to this state park where there was a slow, lazy river. I was gonna take my one younger daughter and Cynthia was gonna take my older daughter. But my younger daughter was afraid. And I said, «Look, honey, look how slow this water is. You’re with Daddy». So she trusted me. We got in the canoe together. We’re drifting down this real slow, sleepy little river, and all of a sudden, there’s a big tree that had fallen that was somehow just over the river. The current was taking me, and rather than being able to go around the tree limb, the canoe went under the tree limb. And when we went under the tree limb, the tree limb hit us.
So it stopped the canoe from going forward because it hit us. And then when the canoe couldn’t go forward, the water started pouring into the canoe. The canoe went sideways when it couldn’t keep moving because again, the tree limb had stopped us from going forward. Then all of a sudden, the canoe went sideways and the water started pouring into the canoe. And then when the water started pouring into the canoe, the canoe flipped over. And my daughter and I flipped with the canoe. And then we were under the canoe, completely disoriented. And we had to find our way up from out from that canoe, which, praise God, we did. But it was scary. And I had to calm my daughter down. But it was a bad memory. So why do I say that?
So when I saw that dam, when Cynthia and I were fishing on this river, and I saw that dam, I imagined us getting to that dam and that my boat hitting that dam and then that water pouring over the dam into my boat and flipping the boat over. So, okay, I say, «Oh yeah, we’re drifting». So I pushed the button to bring the anchor pole up. But you know what? It won’t move. It’s stuck. It’s completely stuck. And so I’m doing everything, nothing’s working. And all of a sudden, now Cynthia’s starting to feel sick on the boat. I’m getting very concerned. The sun’s beating down. I tried everything, I couldn’t disconnect the anchor from inside the boat. The motor wouldn’t work, it was jammed. So I jumped in the alligator-infested river here to see if I could go down and lift up the anchor from underneath. Wouldn’t budge. Wouldn’t budge. We tried everything.
And now Cynthia’s really starting to not feel well. So it’s like, «Man, this is a bad situation». I’m trusting God, but In realize this is a bad situation. So, it was very, there were no houses all the way down once we got past just a little way, but there was two houses right at the dam off in the distance. So I went to the front of the boat and I started screaming towards the houses, screaming towards the houses. And all of a sudden an older man walked out of one of the houses. I’m screaming to him. He screamed back to me, but I couldn’t hear what he said.
So eventually I had no choice to dive off the boat into this, I mean, when I say this is an alligator-infested river, I mean, I’ve seen a dozen alligators in this river. I dive into the river, swim to the shore where this guy’s house is, and he was able to get one of his neighbors. But here’s the story. I forgot to tell you this part. When we got stranded and the anchor wouldn’t move and I was in a dangerous situation, two other boats came by. And I’m saying, «I need help. I need help. Can you help me»? Neither of them did anything to help us. One of them said, «Oh, here’s a tool». And then he just went by a little tool. And another guy said, «Well, we’re fishing right now, but I’ll be back».
Never came back. My point is Jesus said people are gonna hate one another and betray one another. Supposedly, the world’s a much more loving place. But I imagine 50 years ago, if there was a fisherman that would have been stranded out there in a dangerous situation, the neighbors would, you know, my neighbors, I mean, everybody, just the society are neighborly. Jesus said, who’s your neighbor, you know, about the Samaritan person. I think neighbors would have helped. The people that just drifted by me that just wanted to keep on fishing, I think they would have helped me 50 years ago. But today they just left us there stranded. Well, fortunately, when I was able to get to shore, and that neighbor that I swam over to his house, he got his other neighbor. And the other neighbor happened to be a tradesman. He got his truck that had a toolbox in his truck, and he trailered behind his truck like a little paddle pontoon boat.
So we got the tools off his truck, put it on the little pontoon boat, we paddled out to my boat or the boat that I was using, we were able to disconnect the anchor from the boat and put the anchor on my boat. Cynthia and I were able to get home. It was definitely absolute answer to prayer. I mean, it was totally the Lord. To find somebody that had the capability to fix it, and then the tools and a paddle boat to get to the boat, I mean, how do you explain that but God? It was God’s perfect provision for His child, for His son and daughter. But the point is, here I am stranded in a very dangerous situation, and there’s other boaters that are going by, and they’re just leaving me stranded.
Beloved, it’s not a safer world. It’s not a more loving world. Jesus is predicting that at the end of the age, there’s gonna be a lot more hatred, and the people will betray one another. And that’s what’s going on right now. Let’s continue on. Just a story that shows us, no, we’re not becoming more inclusive and more loving as the boat culture is teaching. We’re becoming more and more divided, more and more division and hatred. People caring less and less about each other. Jesus said, «And people will betray one another». Jesus says, «they will deliver you to tribulation and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name. At that time, many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. He said, many false prophets will arise and mislead many».
Now, I want you to consider with me that when we think of the word «prophet», we think of just Christian prophets. But Jesus had already told us at the beginning of Matthew 24, that many false people would arise, saying that they have Jesus' anointing on them. He said, many Christ will arise and will mislead many. False Christ coming in his name. So here, when Jesus are people that are selling says many false prophets will come in His name, these aren’t just necessarily Christian prophets. These all types of self-help to people, you know, whether it be, you know, how to live a more successful life, and everyone’s going to their motivational seminars and buying their books.
We’re talking about the fact that humanity is desperate for an answer. And many people will arise during this time claiming to have answers, whether it’s about eating a certain way, going on this kind of diet, going on that type of diet. People think they’re going to live forever by eating the right foods, right? Or whether it’s about exercising with this routine, or whether it’s applying these seven principles for success or for a better living. The point is there’s going to be all kinds of people that will be offering the world false hope. And Jesus said many would be misled by this. They’re going to be following people that are just cisterns that hold no water. They don’t have an answer. He continues, «Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold». Now, listen to this. Because lawlessness will increase, most people’s love will grow cold.
Now, when we think of lawlessness, closely connected to this concept of lawlessness is a lack of order, right? A lack of order produces lawlessness. Where there’s no sheriff in town, there’s lawlessness. Where there’s a sheriff in town, there’s order. So I want you to think about this together: Lawlessness and its connection to the theme of disorder. So since COVID and since some of the natural disasters that have hit the earth since COVID, the great hurricane that hit the west coast of Florida, which was the biggest hurricane in terms of financial loss to insurance companies to ever hit the state of Florida. The last hurricane that hit Florida just a few months ago, Hurricane Ian, it caused more financial devastation to this state than any previous hurricane in terms of insurance loss and insurance claims.
So you can think right now of all the people living in Florida that had their roof blown off and their home demolished. They’re needing to get it repaired and yet, where are the workers? There’s simply not enough workers here. So what’s happened in the state is it’s become largely in a state of… I’m gonna say, not lawlessness in terms of breaking the law, but lawlessness in terms of a spirit of contractors not showing up, not returning phone calls. And you get the feeling, if somebody does do business with you, it’s like they’re doing you a big favor. It’s like to do business with you, it’s like… remember the old days' customer’s king? Well, it’s completely changed.
See, what I’m trying to get at is Jesus said that lawlessness is gonna increase. I’m equating lawlessness to disorder and chaos. And notice what Jesus said next here. And He said, «Because of this, most people’s love will grow cold». And so you know what I’m observing happening? Is this state of being discourteous to each other, you know, especially in the business world where people just don’t feel responsible to show up when they say they’re going to show up, to be courteous. People oftentimes maybe being taken advantage of because of the desperation of the situation. It’s becoming normalized.
And so people are being treated like this so often they then begin to treat other people this way. It becomes a culture for everybody. And so Jesus said, «When the lawlessness increases, all this chaos going on, this hostility,» He said, «because of this, most people’s love will grow cold». But you and I, we’ve been called to love even to the end. Yeshua said, «All men will know you are My disciples by your love».
So as we close today, beloved ones, in this age of hostility and darkness that we’re living in, this time of extreme chaos, you and I have to keep on feeding on the love of God. We have to keep on rising up in the anointing of Jesus and loving even our enemies, even those that misuse us. We need to continue to overcome evil with good and show the love of Jesus and the glory of God all around us, because greater is He that’s in us than He that’s in the world. This is Rabbi Schneider saying to you, God bless you today and shalom.