Be Strong & Courageous, When You're Tired & Uncertain, Part 2: God's Wisdom for This Season

[Music] [Music] [Music] the message is different our theme for this week is to be strong and courageous when you're tired and uncertain i don't know about you but i'm tired of corona you know i wish that i could snap my fingers and make it go away but i can't and neither can you we're going to have to finish this course and we don't want to finish it by being reckless we want to finish it by learning the lesson that god has sent to us and so we're trying to listen more carefully than we've ever listened and respond to god with greater intensity than we've ever responded the challenges we face in this season are not the result of the depravity of the wicked i believe they're the result of the indifference of the faithful and if we'll change our hearts i believe god will respond to us with deliverance amen i know we're anxious for the scientific community to come up with a solution to our problems in the economic community to do what they need to do to to change things and the political scientists to do what they do but the reality is the church has an assignment and if we fail in that there is not a pathway through this the chaos and the confusion and the fear and the decimation will continue we desperately need the church to be salt and light so that's what we're working on through this summer our reading for this week was proverbs i'm going to take just a few minutes and unpack a bit of that with you the book of proverbs is god's wisdom for life under the sun you know you you are god created your spirit and your spirit is eternal one day your body will wear out and your spirit will continue and the book of proverbs doesn't tell us a whole lot about eternity doesn't give us a lot of instructions about that the focus of the book of proverbs is how to live the best possible life with your your journey through time what to do under the sun and it's a collection of very direct statements and my goal tonight is to really try to provoke you to a bit of thought maybe even a bit of study and a response to god but we're going to look a little bit of god's wisdom for this season i want to start in proverbs 3 and verse 25 says have no fear of sudden disaster or the ruin that overtakes the wicked for the lord will be at your side and will keep your foot from being snared a repeated message in scripture and certainly one in the book of proverbs is that we don't have to be afraid even when there's a disaster that approaches suddenly without warning without without us having been prepared for it the ruin that overtakes the wicked god said i'll stand at your side you see god's people have a resource in the midst of confusion and frightening seasons there should be a calm assurance of god's abiding presence that opens the door in the hearts of other people so that you can tell your jesus story we're different not because we the building we sit in on sunday morning or saturday evening or because of our wardrobe or our beverage list we're different because of the choices we make in life and the one in whom we put our trust and his name is jesus for too long i think we've been distracted we put our trust in the denomination we belong to we thought we made us better than somebody else or the way we kept the rules that we kept the rules with greater the tenacity than someone else did folks we can't earn our way into the grace and the mercy of god in fact proverbs remind us us that we have to take the whole counsel of god that if we cherry-pick our favorite verses we will not only forfeit our opportunity to honor the lord with our lives there's a very real op possibility we'll miss the kingdom altogether proverbs chapter 3 in verse 32 says the lord detests the perverse but he takes the upright into his confidence the lord's curse is on the house of the wicked but he blesses the home of the righteous he mocks proud mockers but shows favor to the humble and oppressed the wise inherit honor but fools get only shame do you have room in your imagination for a god who blesses and a god also who curses we don't talk about it a lot but it's a very plain part of the presentation of scripture it says the lord blesses the home of the righteous but the lord's curse is on the house of the wicked you see our life choices make a difference we've lost our balance a bit in contemporary american christianity i think we've worried more about how to be friends with the world than how to be separate from it not with a condemning voice or a critical voice or a judgmental voice but the bible clearly teaches us that there is right and wrong that there's good and evil and that we are called to cooperate with god in letting his righteousness emerge in the earth proverbs 11 20 carries the theme forward uses a slightly different word choice but it says the lord detests those whose hearts are perverse but he delights in those whose ways are blameless just as we have the category of blessings and curses we have these categories of those who in whom god is delights and those whom he detest god's not just a god of love he's also a god of justice the lord detests those who have perverse hearts but he delights in those whose ways are blameless proverbs 12 the lord detests lying lips but he delights in men who are truthful proverbs 17 acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent the lord detests them both the lord detests it when we acquit the guilty or when we condemn the innocent it's about the value of truth in god's sight in his economy the system under which we live the judicial system under which we live is built constructed to err on the side of acquitting the guilty it's a value we hold we think if if occasionally someone who is guilty is acquitted that's better than ever condemning someone who's innocent it's a protection in our system from the the weaknesses and the flaws in human nature but the result of that system is we tend to be indulgent a bit of acquitting the guilty god's not god is just don't think of somebody else think of it in terms of your own life the reason that repentance is a part of the life of a christ follower is we can't afford to face the consequences for our own failures the purpose of the cross and the redemptive work of jesus of nazareth is that we don't have to accept those consequences jesus exhausted the curse of sin but it's not for permissiveness it's not to give us the freedom of leading sloppy lives proverbs 8 and verse 13 says to fear the lord is to hate evil i hate pride and arrogance evil behavior and perverse speech my opinion and it's an informed one i've spent several decades now engaged in the church predominantly in this nation but it seems to me the church has been very busy negotiating with evil accommodating evil i don't believe the church should hate any person it's clearly against the teaching of scripture but we have a responsibility before god to stand up against things which destroy people it doesn't always make us popular and our names be made left off of a few socialists but we have to stand for god's truth because the god that we worship is a god who blesses and curses he's the god who delights in his people but he detests wickedness and we can't imagine that the building where we sit occasionally protects us from that it leads us to another theme in the book of proverbs and that's to embrace god's discipline proverbs chapter 12 and verse 1 says whoever loves discipline loves knowledge but whoever hates correction is stupid we had a rule at home when i was growing up we couldn't call one another stupid i got two brothers and if we called one another stupid we weren't waiting for god's vengeance it came from george and betty so when i found the verse of scripture where god called somebody stupid i'd go and show it to them it didn't help my case a bit proverbs 16 and verse 20 said whoever gives heed to instruction prospers and blessed is he who trust in the lord trusting in the lord is a sign of wisdom i want to say it again trusting in the lord is a sign of wisdom it's not avoiding the facts it's not ignoring reality it's the acknowledgement that there is a greater reality than anything in this physical world in which we live i pray that you on a daily basis are investing more and more of your life in trusting in the lord i understand for the majority of the population consider trusting in the lord to be naive perhaps a bit foolish insufficient may i ask you a question a personal question you don't have to answer but i want you to reflect on it what do you think to what extent and in what ways do you trust in the lord what's the evidence of that and in how many ways are you building safety nets in case the lord proves not to be trustworthy blessed is the one who trusts in the lord i suspect everybody listening isn't from the south we have a southern expression if you've been in the south along you'll know it bless your heart if you're not from here and somebody looks at you and goes bless your heart they don't mean that they're not inviting the blessing of almighty god upon your life most of the time when one of us uses that expression it's southern code for stupid well bless your heart it's the verbal equivalent of an eye roll whoever loves discipline loves knowledge i'll give you my opinion you can disagree i believe god is disciplining his people i honestly believe god sent us home because we needed to pray we need to reevaluate our priorities and we can learn from this discipline and i believe god will provide deliverance there's a there's a lengthy track record of god delivering his people from all sorts of destructive things we can learn from the discipline or else we will endure his judgment i believe those are the two options on the table before us the scientist will not deliver us from the judgment of god neither will the economist neither will an election neither will anything else but if god's people will learn from the discipline we can see the blessings of god showered upon us once again there's another theme in the book of proverbs i hope you're reading it i'm going to give you proverbs for another week i think it's important enough to to stay there and meditate and go through it there's 31 chapters it's a great routine to put in your life to read a chapter of proverbs every day and mark the verse that means something to you to that day i've had that habit for a long time and i've got bibles filled with the book of proverbs and i've marked the month or the date and you know it's amazing how different verses mean more to me in one reading than another but in proverbs 13 in verse 4 it says a sluggard's appetite is never filled but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied the book of proverbs draws a distinction between being diligent or being casual casual's really a little dressed up word for lazy and the book of proverbs talks a lot about that a sluggard's appetite is never filled but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied there's lots of conversations about work these days is it safe what should i do and there aren't clear answers in fact if you'll ask three people you can get 11 opinions but the good news is the virus wasn't as deadly as we were told it could be they said as many as the two million of us wouldn't might not survive and now that we've understood more about the virus and we're understanding treatment protocols and how to manage social distance and how to wash our hands and not to touch our faces with the frequency that we did we've got to figure out how to go back to living we're going to have to go back to work and back to school is there some risk in that there is there is and we have to do it with wisdom not recklessly but the reality is i've worked since i was an adolescent which has been 10 12 years at least and i've been injured at work i broke horses for a lot of horsepower me in the face and it wasn't good but i i didn't swear off horses i went back in the barn that same night you know i've been injured at play broken bones had my face crushed my nose broken teeth knocked out i did that just playing there's no guarantees in life one of the the unique not it's not a unique feature but one of the features of this season has been the disproportionate expression of fear and i want to suggest you start to think about fear in another way think about fear as a person without a body and when you find fear taking a grip on you grip on your heart and a grip on your decisions and it's it's not rooted in clear facts or or clear understanding it's simply paralyzing i want you to begin to speak to that fear say in jesus name you go i want to make a wise decision i want to make a prudent decision i want to make an informed decision but i do not want to make decisions driven by fear and if you don't begin to think of that spirit of fear as a person without a body in jesus name it'll leave you alone if i left tonight there was somebody sitting on the hood of my truck and they said i think i want this truck everything i just handed my keys and well you know it's more blessed to give here you go probably not i mean if a donkey talked to me or an angel visited you might but short of that not a chance and if you're bigger than me i'll get an equalizer that's my truck get out of it and i'm telling you when fear rolls in and it's not you tell it in jesus name to go we've got to find the way back to being fruitful proverbs 18 in verse 9 says one who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys we are seeing that lived out before us with unprecedented people out of work we're also seeing unprecedented destruction across our nation work is valuable and the confusion that has come to this season has it come from the lord proverbs 6 and verse 6 says go to the ant you sluggard consider its ways and be wise it has no commander no overseer or ruler yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest how long will you lie there you sluggard when you get when will you get up from your sleep a little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man may i interpret proverbs for you be as smart as a bug be at least as clever as an ant ants are pretty vulnerable how many you've crushed an ant in your life look at the person that just had their hand i'm shocked at you it's a pretty vulnerable way to go through the world and the author of proverbs is saying we've got to at least have as much commitment as a bug [Music] work is something god created us for when we're introduced to god in the opening verses of the bible god is at work do you know what you'll do when you step out of time into eternity if you're a part of the kingdom of god you will join god in his work if you're not engaged in the business of god with your days under the sun why do you imagine you would want to be a part of the kingdom of god for all eternity we're not going to sit around for an eternal worship service god will entrust you with authority there's assignments for you proverbs 16 and verse 26 says the laborer's appetite works for him his hunger drives him on we've put an unnecessary and impossible burden on work the author of proverbs said it's our our need our appetite that oftentimes perpetuates pushes us to work folks a job is not always a joy i hear the way we talk about where people say you know find a job that's fulfilling you want a job that when you wake up in the morning you're so excited to go to work that you can't help yourself for the record that's called vacation i want my job to satisfy me i want to be filled with enthusiasm sometimes we just need the benefit of earning a paycheck folks as a nation we are bankrupt 25 trillion dollars in debt and they're talking about giving away a few more trillion dollars now there are times we all need help and a hand up but we also have to pay that debt there's no mystical closet where the the american worker lives it's us and that that's going to be resolved out of our productivity out of our sweat equity and we're walking through a season where we desperately need god to open a door to enable us to begin to be productive again there's another principle in the book of proverbs and it's the it's a revelation of the tremendous value that is attached to righteousness big religious word righteousness is the ability to to stand in the presence of god without fear guilt or shame proverbs chapter 16 and verse 8 better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice it's better to be impoverished and be righteous than be tremendously affluent and be unjust may i humbly submit that we have an underdeveloped awareness of righteousness again i've been in church most of my adult life and it seems that we are very focused on the gift of righteousness that through jesus redemptive work and our faith in him any person regardless of our education our iq our language our nationality the color of our hair or our skin every person is welcome at the foot of the cross and the gift of righteousness is available to you that is the good news of the gospel [Applause] that's the message we're all assigned to share but i have to say that's not the total presentation of righteousness we have a very small awareness of the life of righteousness we don't earn our way into the kingdom of god we don't earn the blessings of god but we are called by the creator of heaven and earth to lead righteous lives we've been too sloppy for too long and god loves us too much to leave us in our sloppiness proverbs 18 and verse 3 says when wickedness comes so does contempt and with shame comes reproach wickedness brings a contempt for righteousness and we see that being lived out in our nation persons who choose to lead righteous lives who will embrace a biblically informed morality who imagine a biblically informed family union a biblically informed approach to human sexuality it's referred to these days as being quaint a bit naive a bit old-fashioned a bit out of date and the tone with which those things are typically said is contemptuous it's because we have accommodated wickedness folks if we don't speak the truth to wickedness the judgment of the wicked will come to us again not in condemning people the reason god hates sin is sin destroys the people that he so has such love for we have an assignment that we have looked past for too long proverbs 13 5 says the righteous hate what is false but the wicked brings shame and disgrace the righteous hate what is false what's your attitude towards the truth do you love the truth the scripture tells us to buy the truth and don't sell it it describes a purchase it is when you exchange something that you imagine has value for something that you think is more valuable so when it says buy the truth and don't sell it it's saying you don't have anything that's more valuable than the truth whatever you have to do secure the truth in your life and never release it we've got to become a people of truth the truth about ourselves the truth about the world we live in the truth about good and evil the truth about god isaiah 45 and verse 8 i know it's not from proverbs but it's become our verse for this summer festival you heavens above rain down righteousness let the clouds shower it down let the earth open wide let salvation spring up let righteousness grow with it i the lord have created it god created this earth to bring forth righteousness now adam and his descendants introduced rebellion and sin into the equation but god's design in this earth is that it would bring forth righteousness and the church is on an assignment what will bring our lord back to this earth to rule and reign in righteousness is the church giving ourselves wholeheartedly to lead lives of righteousness so god let your righteousness rain down upon us forgive us for our love of the world forgive us for our greed and our gluttony forgive us father for our immorality forgive us for the casualness with which we have treated you forgive us for imagining an appointment on the weekend could be equated with serving you with our whole heart forgive us for imagining you weren't aware of our lives or our words or our actions forgive us let righteousness rain down upon us again proverbs talks to us about rebellion against god proverbs 17 and verse 11 says evildoers foster rebellion against god the messenger of death will be sent against them it's serious business to encourage rebellion against god i don't want to be a part of that i don't want to support anybody who's a part of that i don't tend to add intend to advocate for anybody who is a part of that proverbs 17 and verse 28 it says even fools are thought wise if they keep silent and the discerning if they hold their tongues we live in an age of unprecedented communication opportunities there are new ways to communicate that are pushed at us almost every day i've given up trying to keep up with all the platforms and the apps and the ways that that it's possible social media has introduced a means of communication that it wasn't even on our radar screens a couple decades ago and in that environment there's a sense of anonymity or safety we can tend to use use words rather recklessly i would encourage you to limit your exposure far too often it's filled with foolishness everyone's entitled to an opinion but informed opinions are more helpful it's not the opinions of the ones who shout the loudest in fact we're watching a new kind of opinion be expressed right now across our nation it's the opinion of the mob [Music] and if you've never stopped to think about it the opinion of the mob is actually manipulated by others with an agenda mobs are not rational expressions of change a mob is an expression of manipulation by using violence and bullying and force to intimidate those who can't stand against the mob it's not a new idea there's mobs that we read about in our new testament there were mobs in ephesus they were generated by idol makers whose economic rhythm had been disrupted by the advancement of the jesus narrative so they incited a mob to try to shut down the people that were talking about jesus wasn't unique there in philippi there was a mob that came after paul and and the team that were traveling with him it was because a young woman had been delivered from demonic torment and in her deliverance her owner's income stream was it evaporated so they stirred up a mob to get paul out of town and to shut him down mobs are not a new idea we find them all through human history mobs are typically provoked by someone with an agenda when you see a mob be wise begin to ask who's the motivator and what's the agenda and very seldom is the agenda what it is that the mob is demanding evil doers foster rebellion against god our assignment is to invite people into to complete yielding to the authority of jesus of nazareth we have good news there's forgiveness for your sin there's deliverance from every form of bondage from every guilt and shame everyone is welcome at the foot of the cross folks we have a message and an assignment in a unique season one last theme from proverbs and it has to do with the nature of the lord's protection i love this one we need to know about the lord's protection we need to understand it this is not the last season of disruption we will see we will survive covet we will make it through 2020. but there are other disruptions coming and we need to be learning the lessons to gain strength to be gaining stability so that we're prepared so our children are prepared and our families are prepared and our churches are prepared for the next season of disruption we need to understand the nature of the lord's protection proverbs 18 and verse 10 says the name of the lord is a fortified tower the righteous run to it and are safe it's a wonderful promise but it's a little unsettling if you meditated on it very long run to the lord it's a clear acknowledgement that there will be enemies and enemy attacks and there will be times you won't go forward in the face of the enemy of the attack you'll have to run to the lord a moment ago we were talking about believing in the lord trusting in the lord you need to develop the trust in a season of peace so when the enemy is approaching you you know you can run to the one you trust it's an awkward time to have to introduce yourself the verse is more meaningful if you know just a bit about the nature or the function of towers and castles i've lived in the middle east there's a whole assortment of such things there they reach back for thousands of years some were built by romans some were built by crusaders they've been built by many different empires in many different seasons but they serve functions that we're not familiar with most of us don't spend a lot of time in castles or homes with towers in them in the northern part of israel as you begin to climb into the golan heights you leave the sea of galilee you can see perch to top a hill it's a ways off of the major thoroughfares that have been there for millennia there's a castle it was built by the crusaders it's named today nimrod's castle i don't know why they've given it that name but it's stuck but it's an outpost on a very important trade route through that part of the world it's poised well above the local roads whoever is secure in that castle could monitor the traffic and provide communication to another height so you could monitor the coming goings of a friend or adversary it's a secure place it's not a place from which you would actually actually be effective in engaging in conflict or in the battle but it's a place to be aware of what's happening one of the reasons that the name of the lord is a fortified towers we need his truth to know what's happening we live in an age of propaganda we don't have good sources for truth every time you change a channel if you're or change uh the site you're listening to that seems that the story or the diagnosis changes we need to know god's truth i could take you to jerusalem one of the busiest gates into the old city of jerusalem is the jaffa gate and immediately adjacent to jaffa gate is david's citadel it's a series of towers it was a fortification built by romans to see to it that that very important gate into and out of the city of jerusalem would remain secure it's a way of defending and protecting a point of tremendous significance when the name of the lord is a fortified tower he knows how to help you defend what's significant in your life if you'll learn to trust in him he'll help you secure your future and your children's future on the other side of the city of jerusalem there was a there's the remains of another roman fortification it was built immediately adjacent to the temple mount the temple mount still there but but the fortress has been destroyed it was the antonia fortress the floor of the fortress actually lifted above the temple mount the temple mount could have accommodated tens of thousands of people it was a it was a likely incubator for riots in fact we have more than one riot described in that area in scripture and so the romans wisely built a fortress immediately adjacent to it that that had a vantage point over the whole temple mount so if a disturbance broke out the roman troops could go down and quell the riot before it broke out and spilled across the city with destruction that fortress was a a way to protect against the manipulation of mobs again they're not a thoughtful proce process for for working through stress they're manipulators acts chapter 21 is a story when that antonia fortress came into play when there was a mob on the temple mount some of you will remember the story it's an event in paul's life he's come to jerusalem to offer the sacrifices appropriate he wants to ensure the the jewish public in that city that he hasn't abandoned his training as a pharisee that he can be a follower of jesus of nazareth and still be an observant jewish man and he's on the temple mount and it's acts 21 and verse 27 it says when seven days were nearly over some jews from the province of asia saw paul at the temple and they stirred up the whole crowd and seized him shouting men of israel help us this is the man who teaches all men everywhere against our people and our law and this place it was a lie lies in the public square are not a new thing lies in the public square directed at the people of god are not a new thing mob violence is not a new thing it says the whole city was aroused and the people came running from all directions they seized paul and dragged him from the temple and the gates were shut and they were trying to kill him and news reached the roman commander that the whole city of jerusalem was in an uproar he took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd they came from the antonia fortress the commander came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains he asked who he was and what he'd done and some in the crowd shouted one thing and some another since the commander couldn't get at the truth because of the uproar mobs don't deliver truth he ordered that paul be taken into the barracks take him into the fortress it's a safe place what was our verse the name of the lord is a fortified tower we better learn how to trust the lord we better learn what brings god's blessings and what causes his curse we need to understand the list of things that god delights in and be familiar with the list of things he detests because when there's seasons of interruption and disruption and confusion you want to be able to run to the lord he's the fortified tower says when paul reached the steps the violence of the mob was so great he had to be carried by the soldiers and the mob kept shouting away with him proverbs uses that theme a lot of a fortified tower of a walled city proverbs 18 11 says the wealth of the rich is their fortified city they imagine it a wall too high to scale may ask you one more question what do you imagine secures your future i know we're in church and the right answer is jesus but what do you imagine secures your future your financial stability your resources your job your education your strength your family system one of the things i believe we're being invited to to reflect upon and to think about and to to reorder a bit in this season is how to put our trust in the lord our god is faithful there is no challenge that has beset us that frightens or intimidates him in the least god's not intimidated by a virus that came to us from wuhan china he's not intimidated by confusion he's not intimidated by the closing of our economy there's nothing that has beset us for which god doesn't have a resolution the responsibility for the way through this doesn't lie at the doorstep of the wicked it lies at our feet it's the attitude in the hearts of god's people that will bring the responses of god god would have spared sodom and gomorrah for ten righteous people he didn't talk about depravity or the wickedness or the immorality he said if there's just ten righteous people there i'll spare the city and there weren't we've got to understand how to lead lives of righteousness and care about it our word has to be good we have to live with integrity we've got to turn away from our greed and our selfishness and our immorality we've led sloppy lives and thought a flippant prayer of repentance and god would forgive us i've spent weeks now walking and repenting walking through seasons of my life and chapters in my life and saying god i i want to lay that before you again i don't want to be built over with bent over with guilt and shame i'm not suggesting that at all the blood of jesus will wash you clean but if you've imagined some casual prayer of repentance and and you could just throw your past over your shoulder and it was inconsequential you haven't paid attention to the story ask the holy spirit to help you get serious with the lord i've spent my entire adult life listening to people quote me the passage from second chronicles if my people and we've treated it like it's a get out of jail free card a short panacea to any problem that besets us i believe if god's people will humble themselves and pray and turn from their wickedness god will heal our land but that's not a casual thing that's a heart that is rent before the lord that's days of humility and prayer and fasting and seeking the lord and saying lord i am sorry join us every week for another exciting message from pastor alan jackson and until then visit us online and discover remarkable information and resources to help take your christian life to the next level and when you visit online consider joining our effort to continue sending this powerful and challenging message around the globe we want to share this program worldwide but we can only do it with your help so consider partnering with us today and if you're visiting the nashville area we'd love to see you at world outreach church in murfreesboro we're easy to find so look us up when you're traveling through and don't forget to connect with pastor jackson every day through social media thanks so much for joining us and being a part of this ministry we'll see you again next time for another encounter with pastor alan jackson hey this is pastor allen thanks so much for giving me just a moment of your time i hope you enjoyed the video if you did i want to encourage you to do a couple of things give it a like share it with your friends most importantly subscribe that way when there's new content or a live stream you'll be notified i pray god blesses you in your spiritual journey i'll see you soon

Channel: Allen Jackson Ministries

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Keywords: Pastor Allen Jackson, allen jackson ministries, pastorallenjackson, allen jackson, allenjackson, world outreach church, worldoutreachchurch, worldoutreach church, Jesus, Hope, Faith, God, Strength, bible, encouragement, murfreesboro church, church, murfreesboro tn, courage, faith, uncertainty, COVID

Id: kzz8AbPJX-E

Length: 39min 23sec (2363 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 17 2020