Kingdoms in Conflict - Belief & Unbelief [Recognizing the Conflict Around Us]

[Music] it's good to be with you again our topic for this session is kingdoms and conflict belief and unbelief we are witnesses to a spiritual conflict in our world on a proportion of magnitude that we haven't seen in in decades and decades it's not subtle anymore it's not hidden it is broken into the open it's a part of our public discussion every week in the media who's being canceled today because we don't like their content and on the other hand we allow some of the most egregious immoral content to flourish and be celebrated i hope you're paying attention we've got to watch and listen think and we've got to act we can't simply gather in our churches and sing our hymns we've got to be advocates for jesus in the midst of this world we've been called to be salt and light and the king will evaluate us for how we did with that assignment i'm excited to have this time with you grab your bible get a notepad most of all open your heart god has an assignment for every one of us today enjoy the lesson the topic for this session is kingdoms in conflict spiritual kingdoms not earthly kingdoms the kingdom of god and the kingdom of darkness are engaged in a conflict that's shaking the earth and is going to intensify before the outcome is made evident and our journey through that conflict requires us to stand in a position with a posture of either belief or unbelief and it's not a one-time decision it's not that you decided to be a believer and you never revisit the belief decision again it's one of the great travesties it's it's it's unfortunate and i've i've spent my life in the church so i feel some responsibility i've at least been a part of the system that we've encouraged people to make a decision with regarding their entrance into the kingdom and then we've pretended as if they didn't need to choose to believe anymore and your choices towards believing god today have a tremendous impact on what's in front of you so with god's help we're going to unpack that a bit in this session and in our next one this week marks an anniversary of sorts it's the anniversary of when a virus from wuhan china became an instrument of shall we say tremendous change and not just in tennessee across our entire globe and i don't want to take the time today to identify all the changes which have emerged we may do a bit of that in the weeks ahead but suffice it to say for this session that we live in a different world than we did in march of 2020. does that feel right to you i mean the calendar is the same and the days of the week are the same after that everything seems to be in play and after a year of struggle and sacrifice effort and adjustment we would prefer to be in a place we could proclaim as definitely better but that analysis just doesn't seem complete to me in fact there's a sense that the tsunami of change has not stopped now here's my reality i'm tired of the howling winds that demand new responses if you want the truth the pelting rains that are sweeping away familiar routines i'm done with those too but here's the truth the ark hasn't landed yet so how we feel about it is not the most relevant topic what we're going to do is what's relevant i continue to believe that god is moving that it's not just expressions of evil or attacks from somewhere else i believe in the midst of all of this the hand of god is moving in the midst of his people there are two great initiatives that are gaining momentum they're not new but they're gaining new momentum in a way i have never seen them in my lifetime god is gathering the jewish people and establishing them in the land he's given them he is in the midst of all the craziness historic peace accords things that seemed impossible just months and months ago now how whether they hold stable or not is not clear yet the enemy opposes it you can watch the conflict you can watch it play out it's not about political parties or ideologies god has said the jewish people will be established in that piece of land at the end of the mediterranean that they will flourish there and he didn't ask the un's opinion at the same time he is purifying purifying and preparing his church to which we say well i don't think we needed purified but we know some people who certainly did now these are not separate initiatives they're very much intertwined the head of the church is a jewish messiah and we will stand together as we complete god's purposes for this age but at the same time those things are happening with a clarity and an openness that we haven't ever seen before evil is also more apparent it's more emboldened it's more prevalent and with that there are things that are surprising to us in our culture the desire to crush dissent to silence opposing voices the demand for unthinking obedience those things threaten our freedoms to gather to speak and to grow in ways we've never seen before and if you don't know that you're not paying attention now god is not unaware he has not withdrawn from the arena i checked his purposes have not changed his commitment to his people in the earth is absolute and those who oppose god's people misunderstand they think they're opposing churches or people of faith or people of some world view and the reality is they're resisting almighty god it's not a fruitful endeavor i should suspect if we could vote we would prefer a safer gentler world but for now we're on assignment i want to invite you to yield your life to god as never before you may be a tenured church person you may not have missed a service since services have been a possibility in this season but i want to encourage you in ways you've never considered before to yield your life to god if you think of your faith in terms of profession of faith and a baptism obligation and no open blatant moral sin and you've checked the god box you're deceived i don't mean that critically i'm not really trying to enlist you in anything other than an easter weekend and i confess i'm trying to enlist you in an easter weekend but that is a misrepresentation of what it means to serve the lord yield your life to god as you never have before accept a role in the advance of his kingdom and stand your ground wherever god asks you to stand be a voice for light be a voice for truth be an advocate for jesus repent of indifference turn away from selfish indulgence don't give yourself permission and lay down any willful sin it will destroy you give god your best not the minimum requirement not the part when somebody's looking give your heart to the lord i assure you you will rejoice for that decision when his kingdom is fully known you won't regret it in fact if you read if you're doing the bible reading with us the psalms the passage from psalms today was psalm 115 and i don't want to read the whole thing i put a portion of it in your notes it addresses this to a degree why do the nations say where is their god it occurs to me that nations and the leaders of nations are still saying that where is this god you goofy people that believe in a god you know that's not a new thing this is not the first generation where people with power or people with influence looked at people of faith and said where is this god you talk about goliath tried that on he defied the god of the armies of israel it didn't work out real well why did the nation say where is their god our god is in heaven he does whatever pleases him but their idols are silver and gold made by the hands of men it's a contrast between a god in heaven who is sovereign over all creation he can do whatever he chooses and the gods that we create of our own interest of our own resources of our own abilities they have mouths but they can't speak and they have eyes but they can't see those who make them will be like them and so will all who trust in them we are watching that play out before us people who have made idols of their interests of their resources of their power of their dreams they serve them their emotions are shredded if the things that they've wanted and they've sought after and they've tried to establish are threatened we've made idols it says those who make them will be like them they won't be able to respond or react they they have no impact on what's coming so will all who trust them and then the promises of god begin in verse nine o house of israel trust in the lord he's their help and their shield o house of aaron trust in the lord he's their help and shield you who fear him trust in the lord he is their help and shield what's god's message what's god's message for you today trust in the lord aren't i clever he's your help and your shield it was our reading today it spoke to me you know the the tagline of 2020 in almost every setting if you were looking outward was follow the science and we were trying i mean it wasn't always easy but you know science my academic career began in the sciences i'm an advocate for science i'm a science guy science is empirical i like that it can be measured it's separate from emotion sciences intend to be apart from values therefore you can follow the science because the idea is it's in the clear light of day it's empirical it isn't affected by social values or trends or fashion it's above that what fundamental to science is when i say fundamental let's step away from the idea of a laboratory or an electron microscope fundamental to science is awareness observation in its essence that's what science is recognizing patterns and then variations from the patterns and postulating a hypothesis regarding the event that variation and if further examination if you keep observing and that variation is repeated then maybe you form a theory and that theory has to be explored and all of these steps unfold from very intentional purposeful measured awareness and observation so you can't follow the science unless you're aware and paying attention it's impossible now the whole scientific process is undergirded by some very unscientific things this is true in fact the skeletal structure of science is not empirical at all it isn't just about measurements and facts and figures and statistics if the individual or the organization that are doing the observing and forming the theories and determining the outcomes is not truthful or if they have a bias towards a predetermined outcome or if the individual of the organization is just sloppy or untrained or a lazy observer then the findings the scientific facts are greatly skewed if you need an historical example of that just think about the tobacco industry and all of their scientific studies on the health impacts of smoking they had mountains of data bad data so when you're considering science we still have to watch and listen and think before we act in fact i would submit to you that our lives are greatly diminished if they become only empirical so you're ignoring all the underlying factors that impact science the data that's being given to you and you're taking that part of your personality and you're setting it aside your soul your emotions your intuition your life experiences your spiritual awareness all of those things feed into the data that's being given you they're a part of the presuppositions i promise you that are giving you the hard facts of science so you and i don't want to lead lives that are only empirical or we'll just be manipulated by science let me give you an example suppose i told you you had to identify the best hot fed fudge sunday we could talk about the ingredients in the ice cream the composition of the fudge the temperature at which it needs to be warmed before you put it over the ice cream because you want it to be warm you want it to melt the ice cream you don't want hot fudge soup what other accoutrements do you want on your sunday whipped cream or cherries or sprinkles or none of the above or peanuts what do you want what's the absolute best hot fudge sundae well you can't determine that with just science because it reflects some personal preference some people that aren't saved yet don't like fudge [Laughter] when you meet those people lead them in the sinner's prayer you don't need any more information just say please pray with me god i'm a sinner suppose you had to identify in the last month the most beautiful sunset well we could talk about color variation time of sunset impacts of humidity position of the sun and this season there's a lot of data you can roll into that but at the end of the day it's not just a data driven decision is it there's more to it it's not as neat and clean as we would like it to be don't be frustrated by that it's the reality if i ask you to tell me the best place and the best method to catch a trout a lot of factors we could talk about the time of day the fish are more likely to strike and the places where the trout are more in abundance and the type of fly you want to tie depending on the time of the year and the insect population in that season there's a lot of factors that go into that but at the end of the day there's a subjective component to it as well what i'm trying to invite you towards and again i'm an advocate for science don't ignore it don't toss it out the window but understand there's a lot of factors that feed it and don't stop watching and thinking and listening it's important but beneath all of that know this a life apart from faith a life apart from belief is a tremendously diminished life it's more diminished than if you completely ignored science you are designed to be a person of faith there is a god and you are created to have a relationship with him to believe him to interact with him to follow him with your journey under the sun with your days on planet earth to be to be an advocate on his behalf never apologize for your belief in god you will see his kingdom one day and you will be very very glad i assure you that you've chosen to serve him with your days under the sun sometimes he said we separate these things as well you know i'm a person of belief or faith and i'm a person that's like naho people that reject the judeo-christian worldview they've got a belief system that feeds into their science perspective i promise you we've been incredibly naive now we haven't just been naive we've been so disinterested we could have cared less and god is beginning to awaken us i'm excited so our objective in these minutes together is to see what we can understand about belief and unbelief for our own lives how can we learn to trust god more completely not just to be more churched people not just to be more obedient people or more tame people or more polite people how can we truly begin to believe god in a way that we've never believed in before to walk with him in a new way are you willing to everything else is new why shouldn't we follow god in some new ways thank you for that enthusiastic response to my suggestion well let's start with this notion about god and miracles miracles by definition are beyond us we can't do them if we can do them they're not miracles we might use the word and use it a little inaccurately and say something that was miraculous when we actually just got a better outcome from our effort but a true miracle is something that's beyond us we couldn't orchestrate it no matter how hard we tried or how desperately we wanted it just to learn about those things i believe they exist i believe they fill our lives on a regular basis we're going to learn by watching and listening we're going to take the scientific method and apply it to the miraculous to the supernatural in john chapter 11 jesus is on the mount of olives he's at bethany one of his closest friends has died and they sent him a message to come pray for him when he was sick and jesus intentionally delayed until he died do you ever think god's intentionally delaying on your prayer list don't raise your hand so lazarus has died he's been buried he's been buried long enough that decay has set in the odor is not good it's just it's not a great day and now jesus rolls in the sisters are upset the disciples are a little befuddled that's your notes john 11 jesus once more deeply moved came to the tomb it was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance it was a common burial practice in the first century either a natural cave and they would cover the opening with a stone or they would carve out of the limestone of of the middle east and there's a lot of it a cave take away the stone he said but martha said lord the sister the dead man by this time there's a bad odor he's been there for days four days king james says he stinketh king james is more fun here then jesus said didn't i tell you that if you believed you'd see the glory of god so they took away the stone and jesus looked up and said father i thank you that you've heard me i knew that you always hear me but i said this for the benefit of the people standing here that they may believe that you sent me i'm using my words so that these people might believe they're going to walk away from this place today with the capacity to believe you that they didn't have when they came here today i'm going to keep inviting you to this that there's a way to believe god to know god to follow god that is not currently in your portfolio if you're interested i'm not coaching you towards foolishness or weirdness or something strange i'm tell i want to shake it with god's help it'll take the spirit of god for any of us but we want to move out of that smug certainty that we know all the big rock stuff because folks life is going to present us with some challenges that we don't currently have great responses to jesus is speaking he said i've said this that they might for the benefit of these people that they might believe that you sent me when he'd said this he called in a loud voice lazarus come out i'm the dead man john just says the dead man came out what do you think the energy level wasn't the group of people standing around jesus at least peter didn't speak up and say let's build a house in fact nobody said anything the dead man came out his hands and feet were wrapped with the burial clothes and jesus had to say to them take off his grave clothes let him go you don't have to social distance he's okay now that's one of jesus more prominent miracles that miracle probably perhaps more than any other set in motion the events that lead to his crucifixion because lazarus lives very near jerusalem he's he's a regular in the city and in the markets of the city and it's a miracle that it was a need that was so apparent that he had been dead and that he'd been resurrected again and that jesus was the instigator of that that jesus enemies couldn't deny it so they needed to shut it down they wanted to kill lazarus as much as they wanted to kill jesus understand evil is irrational it's important to understand that the forces that oppose the purposes of god in the earth are not rational you need that in your portfolio they'll do things you don't expect if you're a rational fair-minded person well that's not right absolutely correct because it's the reason we describe it as a battle is it's not played according to the rules of fairness there's a couple of other miracles i'm not going to take you there i think they're familiar enough that you'll you'll know the stories in john chapter 9 there's the story of a man that was born blind remember that and jesus and the disciples happened by him and the disciples called jesus attention to him jesus stops and he's really teaching the disciples and it's almost as an afterthought it says that he makes some mud and smears it on the man's eyes and tells him to go to the pool of siloam and wash his eyes the man does and it says he came home seeing and a whole lot of stuff happened after that the man causes the commotion because the pool of siloam was if you're in the upper city of jerusalem the pool of shalom is at the lowest part of the city of jerusalem so the man had quite a walk and for him to make his way back to where he started he's going to have to cross the whole city and he can see people i'm thinking he came home pretty happy what do you think born blind he's never seen the sun shine he's never seen green you know have you ever listened to somebody in the radio and then you see them and they're way different this man's having that thing on spades right i'm like i can just see him coming through the city oh you had such a pretty voice you sound so thin i mean he's just having a time now trying and the whole city is stirred and it causes the the leaders it causes so much commotion the leaders catch wind of it and they bring jesus in and i mean they bring the man in and they won't believe him so they bring his parents in i mean it's a lot of drama in acts chapter 3 there's a different but similar event it's not in your notes you know the story peter and john are on the way to the temple it's the hour of prayer there's a beggar he asked for money and they say well not no money today but in jesus name get up and walk and he gets up and he goes up onto the temple mount leaping and praising god everybody's had those moments where you come to a traffic light and there's somebody there asking for help so everybody coming under the temple mount has passed this person they've seen him they know his condition and now he is leaping jesus did this for me causes a whole another set of commotions miracles things that are beyond us not just an alignment of a series of good events for an outcome that we're really happy to find us something beyond us god does things beyond us so it's just some simple observations out of those miracle narratives there are physical changes that emerge from spiritual influences lazarus didn't get shocked the spirit of god brought life to his dead decaying physical body the man with the mud on his eyes didn't get contacts or have cataract surgery i'm grateful for all those tools that's just not what happened to him he'd been blind from birth he needed a miracle not a healing physical changes that emerge from spiritual influences do you believe that i don't know we're in church or you're taking time to listen to a church service and we go oh yes i believe that but in the context of your life if you really believe that you'll start to lean towards spiritual things more you'll stop treating them as an intrusion as an annoyance as a hassle you'll recognize that they are a source of things that you can't do apart from spiritual things the second observation has to do with the unexpected circumstances around these miracles and i think particularly in today's world we would call them even offensive circumstances imagine coming across a blind man who didn't ask for anything from you and your response is to smear mud on his face i mean by our standards today that's beyond awkward somebody's dialing an attorney and then you don't help him you tell him to go across town and wash his face or the lame man imagine a man who is physically disabled and your response to him is get up and walk or perhaps you're visiting a family whose brother has died and you couldn't be bothered to get there when he needed ministry and you get there days enough late that the burials already happened the decay has set in and you say open the tomb have some faith again i'm not counseling you to be rude and obnoxious i'm trying to walk with you through the text that this the miraculous often emerges from these unexpected circumstances when you find yourself and your thoughts are i didn't expect to be in this place i didn't expect to have to deal with this you are closer to the lord you're not further away from him well sure after the fact it's all part of the drama and we can have some fun with it but in the minute in the moment it's not fun if you're one of the disciples and jesus is smearing mud that's not fun if you're one of his friends that doesn't sound good to me there's a third observation i would make and that's that unbelief typically receives greater affirmation in both the john 9 story of the man born blind in the acts 3 story of the man who's healed there are more questions than congratulations go back and read them unbelief and the expression of unbelief the voices of unbelief are greater than the voices of affirmation now you wouldn't expect that you think a man that's born blind everybody be cheering but everybody's not cheering there's all sorts of threats swirling around him even his own parents won't acknowledge what's happened to him they're not weeping with joy and giving him a hug and giving him an eye test they're distancing themselves from well that's our boy yeah that would be him and yeah he used to have a hard time seeing and apparently he can see us but we have no clue he's an adult you ask him now isn't that an affirming response from the parents what is what's absent any belief whatsoever in jesus no willingness to be identified well there must be some explanation that's the response they're giving there has to be some explanation and don't tell us the explanation is jesus looks we're two millennia on the other side of that event and we're still using that line i don't know what happened but don't try to tell me jesus did it the lame man it says that people were filled with wonder and amazement greater unbelief than affirmation so if you're going to to walk a path that is going to include the supernatural the miraculous you're going to have to be willing to navigate more unbelief than affirmation so if you're praying that the power of god would be more evident in your life and you're doing it because you think it's going to make you a greater influencer you're not paying attention to the scripture again we're trying to learn we're trying to use a little bit of scientific method perhaps to understand how god moves so let's let's take a minute and talk about receiving from god the characteristics of those who receive this man in john chapter 9 or the man in acts chapter 3. don't you imagine there were other blind people in jerusalem i do i'm almost certain of it there were some i'm quite confident that were more affluent there were some that would have been more religious there's no affirmation of this man there's nothing to attest him to us it doesn't say he was a man of great faith you know of cornelius in caesarea when he saw an angel and it said you know go send to jaffa to get peter it said you know he was a man who gave generously and he was good to the jewish people there were some things that affirmed him to us in the narrative but there's nothing that affirmed either of these individuals so what are the characteristics that enable them to have a god-sized response it's an important question because there's some places in my life i need a god-sized response don't you and it's not an inclusive list and you might want to prefer your own but these seem to be apparent to me one the individuals are willing to cooperate when jesus said to the blind man with these the mess on his face and you go to the pool of siloam and wash there was all kinds of water within an arm's ring that length of him somebody had a bucket or a rag or a vending machine jesus sent him on a rather difficult journey and he was willing to go without any insight into the purpose the message wasn't you go wash the mud from your eyes and you'll be able to see he just said you go wash your eyes now see i don't find that we're very ready believers well why should i do that well you read it in your bible yeah but you know why else we're almost proud of our unbelief we almost gloat over our skepticism you know worship was so good there for just a minute they almost got me to raise a hand in fact he was i'm feeling so right i just had to put my hands in my pocket i was afraid so i was going to like break loose and i'm like whoa straight right there just almost almost and we do that in a lot more serious topics you know i almost decided that baptism holy spirit thing was real thank god i came to my senses cooperate with the lord wherever you are don't just cooperate with him when you like your circumstances don't just cooperate with him when he's doing what you want him to do we forfeit so much the second component or characteristic of those who received is their surprise their amazement they weren't searching for this the man the blind man wasn't asking for help he received a miracle without pursuit great change was introduced into their lives they never went back to normal one of the ways i can tell how far away from god we were church is the cry of our hearts is we just want to get back to normal let me back to where we were aborting thousands of babies a day or immorality is escalating in an unprecedented way or our television and music is filled with ungodliness and divisivity you mean that's the normal we're hurrying them back to and the individuals in these narratives they never went back to normal not even close the third characteristic that they share is they have deep need and a need beyond the obvious beyond the need of eyesight or or mobility a need far beyond what was apparent they're leading lives that are filled with hurt with rejection with loneliness with loss with tremendous pain and most of us live in this this place where there's this the level we're conscious of the health we would like and to a much greater extent we're oblivious to the help we really need we don't know how to get it we haven't imagined god would be any help there we don't believe it so we borrow the world solution we need more we need more stuff or more pleasure or i need my way more often we don't have any we don't have any belief capacity that god could resolve those things and there's a fourth characteristic in each of these events they were intentionally purposefully public i would i could say for the glory of god but these miracles all stirred much public response and some very very very negative reactions intentionally public let me ask you a question are you willing for the awkward parts of your life to be public we talk about the power of god and the miraculous and the supernatural are we willing to walk through the negative the resistance the hatred the jealousy all the stuff remember there's there's more disbelief than there is affirmation oh you're one of those people yes i am would you like to be [Music] well so let's push this a little farther i've got a couple more minutes let's talk about the characteristics in these individuals lives they're beggars they're beggars now jesus didn't only minister to the very poor but he did minister to the very poor and it seems to me that one of the things in both of these instances that was very visibly present was humility a willingness to let a stranger interact with you in the way that jesus did without voicing objection or anger or hatred or bitterness or resentment without refusing to cooperate see some of us are so insulated in our pride and our certainty that we can deal with this we're not willing to acknowledge that we're in a place that is beyond us we don't really need a miracle we just need things to go our way we want some good outcomes we need a good run we don't believe we don't believe the truth about ourselves we don't believe the truth about god we're managing our lives just like the ungodly people are folks we can't afford that anymore that has been an accurate description of church in a general way but god's inviting us to a new place first corinthians chapter 1 and verse 26 it says brothers think of what you were when you were called not called on the phone called by god not many of you were wise by human standards not many were influential not many were of noble birth god recruits from the slow group but god chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise he chose the weak things of the world the shame the strong he chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before him you see the miracles aren't about us we didn't pray our way through god did something beyond us i've prayed just as desperately in other circumstances and i didn't like the outcomes so that no one may boast before him it's because of him that you're in christ jesus who's become for us wisdom from god that is our righteousness holiness and redemption therefore as it's written let him who boasts boast in the lord there's some very intriguing statements made about us in that passage because he's talking to us we're the people who are going to be the recipients the conduits the participants the people who believe are we willing to become that people i think so he says first of all that we're in christ it's in verse 30 it's because of him that you're in christ jesus that's the distinction that's the difference maker that's the uniqueness of this entire narrative jesus makes all the difference outside of lazarus tomb with the blind man it was jesus in peter and paul's life peter and paul peter and john's life in acts chapter 3 and it's christ in you we stand in christ we don't stand in our intellect the only status i have before the creator of heaven and earth is that i'm in christ i didn't earn it i didn't pass the test we're in christ if you don't get up every day and say god thank you that in jesus i can come to you this morning if you think you're so good that god was relieved to get you on the team you need to meditate on first corinthians 1 for a little while and then it says we've been called and chosen verse 26 says think of what you were when you were called god called you when you were a mess a mass me too he saw something in us nobody else saw and then he chose you he called you when you when you accepted when moses stopped to investigate that bush in exodus 3 god said if i got an assignment for you i wonder how many burning bushes moses walked past before he turned aside to check one out 27 it describes who god called just so we don't get too puffed up remember the humility thing he said god chose the foolish and he chose the weak and he chose the lowly and he chose the despised and he chose the things that are not so if you feel foolish when you look at your life and it's the reason you don't want anybody looking at it i mean you've got a carefully crafted facade that you're happy for people to see but if they knew the real you you think boy they know i'm foolish god doesn't believe the facade he knows the truth and he chose you people think i'm so strong god doesn't god looks at me at the height of my strength emotionally intellectually physically whatever the peak the best i've got god looks ahead and go it says in that chapter the weakness of god is greater than the strength of men he chose the lowly and the despised so what do you celebrate what do you most about where is your confidence i know you're in church and we know the right answer but really where you're what are you trusting in matthew 19 jesus said to his disciples i tell you the truth you know when he says that you better buckle up you better buckle up it's hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven boom the disciples got discouraged and we need to understand by global standards we talked about statistics a session or two ago global statistics on poverty five billion people in the world population of eight billion five billion people live on 10 or less a day so by global standards we're all rich which means it's harder for us mark 4 19 the worries of life the deceitfulness of wealth and desires for other things will choke the word of god and make it unfruitful the worries of life well if i don't worry about it who will the deceitfulness of wealth deception means you're caused to believe something to be true when in fact it isn't true wealth won't secure your future and after the civil war the southern economy was in such tatters the wheelbarrows of confederate dollars weren't worth a loaf of bread i'll give you other historical examples i just happen to be one from the part of the world where we live things that you thought would secure your future that you'd trade your time for your effort for your resources for and in a moment's notice they'd go away when i was studying at hebrew university in jerusalem it's been a while but on more than one occasion while i was there we'd get up in the morning and they would have devalued the currency overnight 10 they were living through a time of significant inflation and they were struggling to figure out what to do imagine getting up tomorrow and your your assets are worth 10 less than they were when you went to sleep the deceitfulness of wealth it's not evil or wicked it's a tool but it's not it's not sufficient to secure your future only god can do that it's not that we don't care about it you can do things with resources you can't if you don't have them if yours are bugging you bring them to me matthew 3 jesus saw many of the pharisees and i'm sorry this is john the baptist he saw many of the pharisees and sadducees coming to where he was baptizing and he said you brew to vipers that is not a way to gather a crowd who warned you to flee from the coming wrath produce fruit in keeping with repentance who warned you to flee from the coming wrath don't think you can say to yourselves we have abraham as our father i tell you that out of these stones god can raise up children from abraham don't think you come from the right group of people don't think that your dna or the way you appear or the language you speak gives you status again what's our topic being the kind of people that can believe god and see his miraculous involvement in our lives there's a fourth characteristic and that's that self-righteousness is a bigger problem than unrighteousness self-righteousness is a bigger problem than unrighteousness in luke 7 there's an event in jesus life he's gone to the home of a religious leader and a very ungodly woman has interrupted them and the religious leader is agitated not so much by the woman is by jesus response he's got a reason he thinks now to demean or belittle jesus if you find joy by tearing down people that are seeking the lord you need to consider the condition of your heart i hope you weep when you see people stumble luke 7 and 44. he turned towards the woman and said to simon do you see this woman i came into your house and you didn't give me water for my feet which was a customary greeting but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair you didn't give me a kiss again a customary greeting but this woman from the time i entered has not stopped kissing my feet you didn't put oil on my head again customary but she's poured perfume on my feet therefore i tell you her many sins have been forgiven for she loved much but he's been forgiven little loves little and jesus said your sins are forgiven see righteousness is a gift righteousness comes to you or to me not because we earn it or we qualify it or we purchased it or we took it past a test it's a gift it's made available to us through jesus redemptive work on the cross if you will accept him as lord of your life you can receive the gift of righteousness status in the kingdom self-righteousness on the other hand is something that we have to give attention to it has to be deconstructed it has to be guarded against it's incessant in its creep it'll convince you that because you came to church during covent you're better than people who didn't come to church during coven and if you didn't come to church it'll convince you you're better because you weren't as reckless as the people who did and you can have people on opposite ends of the spectrum scientifically being self-righteous i think of self-righteousness like weeds in tennessee in the springtime they take constant attention and if you get the garden weeded or the vegetables weeded or the flowers weeded you're not done for the summer you're just done for the morning because the devil himself will come around lunchtime and plant new weeds right there where you got them all out in the morning when we were kids my dad had just i don't know who he wanted us to pick up rocks we were trying to pick up the rocks in the yard in tennessee how many of you know if you pick up all the rocks you can carry today tomorrow new rocks right you do it every day there you're never i don't know that's how i think of self-righteousness you work through it but you'll need to give attention to it tomorrow and then finally and i'm done there's attitudes attitudes attitudes thought patterns emotional patterns the interplay of your thoughts and your emotions that can separate you from god's intent things god would do for you if your attitude were different i don't believe that that's my point luke chapter 4 jesus is in his hometown he knows the people he's in the synagogue it's the sabbath he's grown up there this is his hometown he said truly i say to you no prophet is welcome in his hometown but i say to you in truth there were many widows in israel in the days of elijah when the sky was shut up for three years and six months and when a great famine came over the land and yet elijah was sent to none of them but he was sent to a foreigner the prophet didn't help any of the widows in israel and there were many lepers in israel in the times of elisha the prophet and none of them was cleansed but only naaman the syrian he helped a foreigner and and all in the synagogue were filled with rage don't tell us that we don't want to hear that who do you think you are we know you you know your brothers and sisters you won't even go to kickball they tried to kill him the king of kings the lord of lords he did miracles all over the region but it says in his hometown he couldn't do any significant miracles because of their remember because of their what their unbelief we are not going to believe in you no we're just not going to it's an attitude and we have championed that attitude within the church i don't mean just this congregation church of the big c that's just not how we believe news flash change well i tried it once oh first time i tried riding my bike around the block i had to push it home because it was bent and i was bloody but i didn't quit we don't try god we yield to god we don't serve god because he gives us what we want every time we want it and the timing we wanted and the fashion we wanted it we serve him because he's worthy of our service our attitudes need some adjusting we don't just want his blessings so we can be more prosperous or affluent or we want to do his will do you weep because the name of jesus is held in such a low esteem do you grieve because jesus isn't welcome on college campuses does it bother you but in our nation we don't want to talk about him in our public schools our attitudes have separated us from god or we've cared about lots of other things so god began to disrupt us a little bit i believe we can be stronger i believe we can be changed i believe we can participate with god in his purposes at the end of this age beyond anything we've ever seen and it has very little to do with the hearts of the wicked or the immoral or the ungodly or whoever you think the problem is it has to do with our hearts and our attitudes i brought you a prayer that i'd rather close with an easter proclamation it's we will need god's help to celebrate easter and i don't mean just our congregation i mean across the earth but i believe god will help us and i want to get in front of it and start to say what the bible says about easter and jesus so if you'll stand with me we're going to make this proclamation together if you're watching online i'm pretty sure they'll put it on the screens you can say it with us there do you know your words have spiritual authority you know don't get too heated up about big tech and what they're trying to do use the spiritual authority you've been given jesus didn't get nearly as heated up about the scribes and the pharisees as the scribes and the pharisees got heated up about jesus we need a change of focus amen let's just read it together easter reminds us that life is greater than death faith triumphed over fear suffering must give way to rewards and restoration this easter is a declaration that jesus is lord in our world jesus is lord over every pandemic jesus is lord over every government and government official jesus is lord over the media and big tech and all those who imagine they can control information jesus is lord in our homes jesus is lord over our future jesus is the head of the church he is the image of the invisible god the firstborn of all creation by him all things were created both in heavens and on earth visible and invisible he is before all things and in him all things hold together those who are with him are the called and chosen and faithful jesus is the faithful witness he is the firstborn from the dead he is the ruler of the kings of the earth he loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood he has made us to be a kingdom of priests and to serve his god and father to him be glory and power forever and ever amen hallelujah don't forget your easter card and i'll see you soon [Music] hey this is pastor allen thank you for watching this video if you enjoyed it like it and most importantly share it with your friends if you want to be notified when there's new content when we post new material if you'll just subscribe to my channel and hit the bell you'll get the notification most of all i pray god blesses you as you continue on your spiritual journey and open your heart to the lord god bless [Music] you

Channel: Allen Jackson Ministries

Views: 10,487

Rating: 4.8966408 out of 5

Keywords: Pastor Allen Jackson, allen jackson ministries, world outreach church, alan jackson, sermons, preachers, how to be saved, Finding Jesus, pastor allen jackson sermons, Kingdoms in Conflict, Belief and Unbelief, Recognizing the COnflict Around Us, Spiritual Battles, Forces of Darkness, Be the Light

Id: Z9MMxFu1-GM

Length: 57min 2sec (3422 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 12 2021