The Church, A Liberating Army

Do we have one today? If not, we'll be using the overhead, but we don't have the whole text up for today, so it would be helpful if you had your Bible to turn there. Ephesians 6, 10, "...against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." What a powerful verse that is. I wonder if many of you have had the experience I have over the last several months, maybe a couple years all told, as it relates to my attitude toward violence. A couple of years ago, when the L.A. riots broke out, I mean, I had some real feelings about it. I'd lived in L.A. for three years, and I knew a lot of the places they were describing and so forth, but I had to say in my heart, I felt, well, you know, that's L.A. I mean, there's a lot of problems out there. That'll never happen here. It's tragic, but I don't think we have to worry about it. And then when the reports of violence began to increase down in Florida more recently, I said, well, you know, ah, it's a passing thing. Plus, there's a lot of immigrants and a lot of riffraff that get in, and they're causing all the problems anyhow. That wouldn't happen here. And then more recently, the reports of the violence, the drive-by shootings, the gang-related things in Wilkinsburg, our inner city area here in Pittsburgh, kind of frightened me a little bit. I saw a picture of a man in a, not a man, but a man's car, parked next to a McDonald's by a phone booth with the door open, the phone hanging down, and the reporter saying he was shot making a phone call. A salesman in his BMW. But folks, when it really hit us all, it's been in the last few weeks, because the violence has now traveled not 3,000 miles away, not 1,500 miles away, not 20 miles away, but it's here. It's in Wexford. There have been six burglaries along this strip in the last two months. They didn't want you to know, but they've already been robbed. McDonald's, Pizza Hut. A woman was raped in North Park early, very early, like 6, 3, 7 o'clock in the evening. You've probably heard about that. And then, of course, the big Ross Park Mall incident, which everyone heard about because it was so unprovoked. And how many of us go to Ross Park Mall now and then? It's sort of a shrine. It's like being shot going to church for some people. And it got all of us, didn't it? I mean, we all said, wow. Why? Because we all realized, that could happen to me. And violence has come home. I've noticed, I don't know about you, people look at you differently now, especially, I say this to the men, I sense, as a man, when I'm by myself, people kind of look at you like you've got something you're going to do. I mean, they watch you. It's a strange thing that's going on. Time Magazine says it this way a month ago in their cover story, the broadening of targets to include suburban and rural preserves and the savageness of the crimes that fill the news, and I already described a few of them this morning, has left far more Americans feeling vulnerable. The fear is getting worse because there's no pattern to the crime, says a criminal justice professor. It is random, spontaneous, and episodic. And that's why it affects us all. We just don't know when it's going to happen. But the fear is in there that it will. I've had people say to me in the last couple of weeks, for the first time in all my life, they've said, I've thought about getting a gun. I've had women tell me that, and I've had men tell me that. Believers. I had one person say, do you think it's anti-biblical to have a gun? Our jails are full. We're building bigger ones and newer ones. Have you seen the new jail going up, down? I mean, what a jail that is. Huge. Plus, it's going to have air-conditioned cable TV waterfront rooms. Carol and I are going to think about spending a night there sometime. I mean, violence is so prolific. Do you know that there's now a channel on cable TV called Court TV, where you can watch the proceedings and hear the violence depicted and watch the emotions? I mean, folks, it is woven into the fabric of who we are, and it's affecting us. Now, without wanting to play on the drama of it all or the heartbreak of it all, the tragedy in some cases, I want to say a couple of things. The Bible, and these are the first two little blanks on the top of your page. The Bible says this violence that's so rampant and pervasive is an indication of the fact that we are moving in to the last of the last days. How do I know that? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself said in Luke 17, just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. Well, what was it like in the days of Noah? You don't need to turn there unless you want to, but it's back in Genesis chapter 6. The Bible says, Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. God said to Noah, I'm going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. The second thing I can tell you, the second little blank there is, that this spirit of lawlessness that 2 Thessalonians 2, that spirit of lawlessness will increase as the days go on, and it will be a mark of the Antichrist, a lawlessness, a rebellion. Now these events are symptomatic, these things that we're reading about in the papers every day, of a deeper, more profound conflict that's continuing to rise between good and evil. Conflict that the living church has been summoned to join into. Folks, whether or not you want to be engaged, you're going to be. This is not a day to run and insulate ourselves. No matter what happens with interactive TV, there'll never be a day that the church is conducted in homes apart from one another. The church is called to embrace the culture and be salt and light in it. The church is the army of God rising to stand against and even disarm the powers and principalities that give rise to this evil. What can we do? How do we live in a violent world? Well, my answer is that it depends. It depends. It depends on what you really believe about what's causing the evil, because I fear that some of us maybe have adopted not a biblical worldview, but one that's sort of an assemblage of different thoughts and things that we've experienced. You see, the Bible clearly says that what's causing what we're experiencing out there isn't just flesh and blood. It's not just a couple of people gone bad. It's not just an ethnic problem. It's not just a couple of people who are on drugs and causing all this. Folks, the Bible says that there are demonic powers, strongholds, authorities that are in place seeking to disrupt, seeking to bring down the very fabric of the culture that we find ourselves in. You may hear that and not believe it. You may hear it and think that it's probably true, but so what? Or you may really be convinced that those powers are causative. If you are, then you're in the minority. Author George Otis, who spoke at North Way several years ago, young, very bright, world-renowned in terms of admissions strategists' insights, says this, The spiritual battlefield of the 1990s is increasingly becoming a supernatural place. There are those whose personal theology is resistant to this idea, but these are often, listen, untraveled Western theoreticians who have yet to put their assumptions to the test of reality. By contrast, the vast majority of today's international pastors, missionaries, evangelists, and intercessors have no need to be convinced that something is out there and this something, in quotes, is manifesting itself in our material world. The question, again, I have to say, Church, do you really believe that that's so? Because if you do, it will change how you act. Interestingly, I heard, I've been reading General Schwarzkopf's biography and Colin Powell's recent biography, and they both say how totally convinced they are that what caused that Persian Gulf War to be such a quick, decisive victory was a strategy born in heaven. And they say it openly. They acknowledge it. Now, they don't say it in political places, but they give testimony to it. How much more, if the war for international peace was won in the heavenlies, how much more can we be convinced that the war for our streets and neighborhoods can be won likewise? It will take just some people who rise up and believe that it can be so. And I'm not just talking today, by the way, about the kind of violence that maybe is so public. I'm also talking about the violence that some of us experience in our homes. I'm talking about some of you today who are here, probably not that many, but some in this service from abusive homes. I'm talking about the violence that comes in relationships that are ripped apart by hatred and bitterness. Some of you through divorce and other kinds of pain. Folks, God has solutions to those things, but it depends on how you see yourself. Jesus came to set all captives free. He came to raise up a liberating army. Folks, we've got a destiny as liberators of those who are captive to violence and fear and hatred in our world today. Let me just offer three simple priorities for each member of the army of God. Number one, get to know, and I mean really know, your commander-in-chief. When I served in the United States Marine Corps, one time I had a chance to meet the commandant. Never got to meet my president, but he was my commander-in-chief. Most soldiers serve without ever meeting the commander-in-chief, but they know that his word is their ultimate order. Now, have you ever noticed how infrequently the name of God gets interjected into your normal everyday conversations in the workplace? Ever notice that? The only time I ever hear God's name batting it around in the health club or at a restaurant is when He's cursed in some way. Isn't that true? I mean, I hear the name of God, but it's usually not in some kind of positive, man, this is an exciting way. It's usually calling upon a curse for somebody this or someone that. Or then I hear Him blamed for things. You ever hear those people? People say, well, you know, if there really was a God, they'll start that way, then why do these kinds of unpredictable, random, tragic, why do little kids get caught up in crossfire? Why is there an earthquake in India? You know, and they go on and on. Well, I've heard this recently. You know, if America is a Christian nation, like all those fundamentalists say, why is there a hundred times more violent crime in America than Japan? It's a totally non-Christian nation. Good question, by the way. Well, the answer is to be found in God's Word. I'd like to pick it up and show you, but everything will fall on the floor, so trust me, it's here. The answer is in God's Word. Scripture is given for two reasons. You may want to write this down. It's not in your notes, but you might want to write it down so you can respond to these kinds of people. Scripture has two specific purposes. Number one, it is to help us understand the reason for human dilemma. Scripture is given to explain to us why man is in the predicament that he is. It's not given to condemn. God's not saying, you know, I'm fed up with you, and I just want you to know how lousy and rotten you are. No, Scripture is given so you can read it and see that this is the case, that you were created, we all were created in God's image, and part of that image is free moral choice. How many of you know we are not robots? God said, I'm going to create you, and you will have the privilege of deciding your own destiny. But, He says, keep in mind that what you decide is what you will live with. And man is in the predicament he's in because he's made choices, free moral choices, that have resulted in consequences that we see manifested as war and violence and hatred. Man against man. Man against woman, and woman against man. And the Bible is very clear, it goes into great detail about why that is so. But secondly, the Bible also is very clear, the second reason why it's given is to teach us that God didn't leave us in that predicament, but He sent to us a Redeemer who loves us and reaches out to us in the midst of our predicament and says, despite everything that you're worthy of deserving, the judgment, the separation, the punishment, I have come to bring your life. And that's the second purpose of the Bible, to help men and women find the reason and the way to salvation. Dear ones, listen, God could in this moment step down and stop every war. God in this moment could step into Wilkinsburg and stop the gang violence. God could step in in any place that you can name or think and bring an end to it all. And how many of you know there's going to be a day He's going to do that? Just as surely as the Bible prophesied that Jesus would come the first time, did you know that there's about 30 prophecies you can relate to His first coming? Did you know that there's 200 prophecies you can relate to His second coming? Two hundred. I'm pretty convinced He's coming back. But I want you to know this, the only reason He doesn't step in and just end it all and say, No more war. No more Somalias. No more Bosnia-Herzegovina. No more Vietnams. No more Adolf Hitlers. No more gang violence in the streets of America. No more suburban violence behind closed doors. You know why? God, the Bible says, is patient and desirous that no one would perish. And the only reason why God hasn't come to put an end to it all is that He's waiting for the last possible moment when the maximum number of people can be saved. How many of you are glad God didn't decide that was 10 years ago? Where would you be? If God had put an end to it all 10 years ago, how many of you wouldn't be in the Kingdom of God today? And I say to you, Lord Jesus, as awful as it can seem sometime, thank you for being patient. 2 Peter, if you want to jot this reference down, I might have put it in your notes. I don't remember. But 2 Peter says it this way. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He's patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. Get to know your Commander-in-Chief, and you'll realize that He has a heart of compassion, that He cares about the suffering that's going on, but that He will put an end to it one day. And remember this. The first time Jesus Christ came, He came as a suffering servant, a Lamb of God to be slain. He was despised and forsaken and rejected, and men knew Him not. But listen, the second time that He comes, every eye will behold Him. Every voice will declare Him as Lord. The Bible says that He's coming. John the Revelator says this, I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice He judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on His head are many crowns. He has a name written on Him that no one knows but He Himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following Him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of His mouth came a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has this name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. That's the Jesus that's coming back. Amen. There will be an end to violence, and dare I say it, it will be a violent end, but not for those who know Him and love Him. You see the reason why I try every way I know to help you to reach to people, people that you interact with far more frequently than I. I mean, the minute people know I'm a minister, they are skeptical and cynical, and they don't want to hear what I have to say. That's the truth. But you're still an undercover agent. The reason I want to empower you to go out and give a little card or whatever it takes to say to someone, Hey, would you come and check this out? Because some of those people, God has ordained unto salvation. But they don't just get saved. Somebody, God still limits Himself to somebody reaching out to Him. And I don't know what to say or to do other than to say, For the mercy of God, reach out to people. If there's some way you want to help us change the service to make it better, if there's something you want to do to participate, let me know, but let's reach to these neighbors and friends. Let's have it so when we invite our guests to receive packets, it takes an extra couple of minutes to get them all out, because people are going to die without the Lord. And whatever it takes, church, I want to say this, and I didn't intend to. Our new building will be a lighthouse and a beacon of hope where people will drive by and say, Maybe there's an answer in there. But we've got to get ready for it. We don't have to wait a year. We can start now. Very quickly, the second thing you need to do is to get equipped and trained. And I have to just touch on this. Here in Ephesians 6, the Bible clearly tells us that the... You know, God knew that we'd be under attack. He knew it would be a violent day, so He gave us some armor. Could you flash up the Ephesians 6, please, Leroy? Here's the armor that God's given to each of us, and I'd like for you to read it out loud with me. And let's pick it up right there at the very top. Therefore, read it with me. Put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm, then, with a belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up this shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Folks, that's how you dress for success in a violent world. Put on that armor, and you'll be able to stand. You won't be buffeted by fear. God's provided for us. I've done a whole series of messages on the armor of God, so I don't have time to get into it. I just want to talk for a couple moments about the positive weapons that we have now to fight. It's one thing to stand defensively, but let's go ahead and put up all four of those, please, Leroy. Just flash them all up there. Four weapons God has given us, at least. There's others, but these four, I think, are the most important. The first is the sword of the Spirit or the Word of God. Again, if you want to drop this on the back of your outline, you can do that. The Bible says that we've been given the Word of God in our lips to go after these strongholds, these powers and forces. The praise of God. Listen, when we came in here today, some of you came in depressed. Some of you were angry. Some of you were hurting. When we began to praise, when we began to lift up a joyful noise to the Lord, how many of you knew that something was happening in your life, something was starting to break loose? Anyone have that experience? Let me see your hand. All right. Thank you for sharing that. I've had that happen scores of times. Why? Because Satan and God do not inhabit the same space, and where the praise of God is going out, the presence of Satan is bound to flee. That's what was happening. I have no guilt from this. I just think it's part of the battle that we're in. But I want you to take some conviction from it. Prayer changes the climate, the atmosphere, the environment. Somehow, I think we've made progress. I think we've retreated a little bit in the last year or two, and I think it's time once again, and today I'm not going to get into it, but we need to have a strategy of prayer that's going to point the way through this dark hour. I want to say this, however. Flip your notes over. Why not start today? Look at the back of those notes. There's room on there for you to add your list. But those four things, if you'll just pray this week, those are the marching orders. Every week, I produce those. Most of you never pick them up, so I decided you can't miss them today. Take them home with you. Just pray for those four things in agreement. Use the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, and your prayer of faith, and we'll see things happen. You say, well, do things really change when you pray? Listen to this. Jesus said, Every city or house divided against itself will not stand, but if we stand together, spiritual authority is present in proportion to the harmony of relationships among believers moving together toward a common goal. Isn't that good? You didn't get it. Let me read it again. Write it down. Here we go. Spiritual authority is present in proportion to the harmony. Spiritual authority is present in proportion to the harmony of relationships among believers moving together toward a common goal. That's so good, I'm going to get it printed up and put it next week. 1984, a friend of mine, not a close friend, but someone I've met, someone I know of, John Dawson, who recently led the prayer conference that was over at Pittsburgh East, was charged with the mission of mobilizing the entire city of Los Angeles, if you can imagine it, for the Olympics. They had an outreach in the Olympics, and one of the things they prayed against was crime. Listen to this. One of my friends, John writes, is the police academy chaplain, and he reported that a coroner had told him that normally the morgue receives 78 bodies per day, including four or five who are victims of murder every day in Los Angeles. My friend asked, during these two weeks of the Olympics, have you ever seen a radical change in these statistics? The coroner gave an exciting answer. Yes, he said, during the two weeks of the Olympic Games there was not one single murder in Los Angeles. Can prayer change things? You bet it can. But folks, we are so divided, we're so torn, we're so preoccupied. I understand the business of our lives. But let me see your hand. How many of you are part of some kind of a small group right now? Just put your hand up. I want to challenge you, even if you're not the leader, go to your leader and say, could we spend at least a portion of our time this week in our small group praying for the needs that confront our church at this time and confront our city? If just that many of you will begin to be on the same page, we're going to begin to see things. We have a Wednesday night intercessors meeting during Wednesday night light. We have a Friday morning gathering at six o'clock. There's other groups going on. But if just those small groups would pray, imagine the power. Imagine it. Finally, let me end with this. The third thing that you need to do is get your assignment. You know, the church is a puzzling mystery to me when it comes to people being assigned to something. Name me any other organization in America where you can belong and do what you please. I mean, imagine today when the great NFL gets cranked up here in just a few hours. Imagine a 300-pound running back that runs the 60-yard dash in 4.6 seconds. If you have no idea, that's big and that's fast, okay? That running back would be in demand in every team. But imagine that running back saying, you know, today I want to play for the Dallas Cowboys. And next Sunday, he shows up in Cleveland and says, I want to play for the Cleveland Browns. And the following week, he ends up in St. Louis and says, I want to play here for St. Louis. Well, what would happen to a player like that? They'd laugh him out. They'd say, you don't know our scheme. You don't know our offensive plan. You don't know how we operate. You don't know the signals. You're not any good to us. Church, why is it? I mean, think of any other organization. I mean, here in the church, we tend to just kind of show up and expect to know what's going on without really being plugged in. And we all must get an assignment. You need to find a group that you say, you know, I don't know about the whole. I don't know necessarily everything that's going on. But I know in this group what my assignment is, and I'm plugged into it. And I'm not giving up on it. I'm not retreating from it. I'm going to be there faithfully making it work. I want you to know, that kind of person begins to see fruit. That kind of person begins to see change happen. And if this church will just say, wait a minute, I have an assignment. I'm going to do it. I'm going to fulfill it. This whole church will change in the next six months. Do you know your assignment? Where are you plugged in? Where are you responsible to be playing each and every week? What an amazing difference it would make. If you're part of the Army of God, you've got an assignment. I know this. When I got my orders in the Marine Corps, I didn't say, you know what, I don't think I want these. I want to go over here. And when I got there, they said, you're here. You're here until I tell you to leave. That's the Army. Actually, it was much better than the Army. No, I'm just kidding. What happened, if anyone just left their post? Know what that's called? That's right. Desertion. Not a good thing. So folks, let's get to our posts. And let's man those posts until God releases us. I just want to commend some of you. You know, some of you are so inspirational to me. You have hung in there when everyone else told you that you were crazy, give up on it. You know, some of you have been standing for pro-life things. You've just been an inspiration. You've just hung in there. You know, it'd be easy right now to give up on that post. You know that? The whole administration seems to make a mockery of it. But I want you to know there were, what, 450 people who stood their post last Sunday up there in Cranberry, just prayed along the road and just said, God, we're standing right here. I don't know what your post is, but get there. Stay there. How do you live in a violent world? You get to know your commander in chief. You get equipped and trained. You get your assignment. Let me add one thing here just for those of you who are wondering about the practicals, as if this wasn't, but let me just say this. There are some things that you need to do. As violence increases, you need to be wise about how you conduct yourself. And I don't want anyone to miss this. We need to change just how we view our goings in and goings out now. I don't know about you, but I'm much more careful about different things. I mean, I've heard some weird things. I heard one time just recently, if you were driving through the city, I was told, and you saw a car coming at you without its lights on, what would you normally do? You'd blink your lights. Hey, put your lights on. I was told that that was a signal to gang members. If a car blinked you, you'd shot it. Heard that just last week. I don't know about you, but I don't make a point of going to an ATM in the middle of the night anymore or late at night. I just don't know. When I go to get in my car, I'm just a little more careful. You say, are you afraid? No, I'm not afraid. I'm trying to be wise. I watch who I pass in the roads. If it's the police, I usually back off and get right behind them again. And there are things. I don't know about, I mean, I'm not sure how wise is going out by yourself into the city and those kinds of things or even some other places around here anymore. If you can possibly go with someone, do it. And parents, can I tell you, we need to help our kids understand these things too. We don't need to tempt evil. We need to be wise. But the most important thing is we need to be part of the army. Let's stand together and ask for God's grace in that.