I probably watched a total of 10 minutes of both the Republican and Democrat party conventions combined. And that may be a stretch. My wife probably thinks it’s funny. Each election I volunteer to work the polls in our county and yet I have little to no interest in politics.
However, I did skim articles about the conventions which, quite honestly, sent the same message: we want a president who will right the wrongs in this country. Then again, that’s been true for every presidential election.
We elect a president and give him a “to do list” – “fix” the economy, “fix” gun violence, “fix” the education system, “fix” government corruption, etc. When he leaves office, the “to do list” remains virtually “unfixed” and covered in “Band-Aids”.
Ecclesiastes 1:9 captures the essence of this quite nicely. “The thing that has been – it is what will be again, and that which has been done is that which will be done again; and there is nothing new under the sun.” (Amplified)
What we are witnessing in our country today truly breaks my heart. (I’ve said that a lot lately.) Christians are continuing to put more faith in what man can do for them than what Jesus has already done for them. Satan has slowly and methodically stolen the Word of God from us – through the things we see, hear and experience – so that Jesus is not our first thought when life become unpleasant.
The reporting of the conventions showed me that many Christians no longer believe Jesus can influence change in America. They have essentially told Jesus what the good witch told the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz: “You have no power here.” Today she would be right in many ways. I can’t believe I just said that.
We have put Jesus in a “religious box” – you know the one we only open and use on Sundays and Wednesdays. He is not truly part of our lives anymore unless we need prayer for something. Ouch! The prophet Jeremiah describes it this way: “Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.” (Jeremiah 17:5)
I see in this verse the heartbeat of many in the Body of Christ.
Over the years, we have fallen out of sync with the rhythmic beating of Jesus’ heart. We have slowly developed another heart – a heart whose rhythm makes it easier for us to survive in this world. We believe we are in sync with Jesus – but we’re not. We believe we are not missing a beat – but we are.
This, in part, is what the word “departeth” communicates. By our actions, we have turned our backs on Jesus. We no longer trust Him with all our heart (Proverbs 3:5).
Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t believe Christians are purposely rejecting Jesus. But many have been deceived. They have strayed from the sheepfold and are not hearing the Shepherd’s voice (John 10:4). Instead, they are hearing and following the voices of strangers (John 10:5) who are often found in the pulpits of their churches.
How did we get to the place of taking our lives out of the hands of Jesus and putting them into the hands of men? I believe Jeremiah 17:5 holds the answer. Let’s read it again. “Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.”
Jeremiahs tells us “Cursed be the man that trusted in man.” Let’s read it this way: “You were not cursed until you rejected Me and began to trust and rely on man.”
How are we cursed? First, let’s make sure we understand something: Jeremiah is talking to people who have a covenant relationship with God – a relationship in which He, their covenant partner, has already made a commitment to take care of them – no matter what. When they didn’t seek Him in their time of need, they were telling God “We don’t believe you will keep your word.”
Christians don’t have a covenant with God. We have something more binding and more personal than a covenant. We have God’s DNA. We are His sons and daughters! “Beloved, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God ... Beloved, now are we the sons of God ...” (I John 3:1a, 2a)
When we place our trust, our confidence, in man we bring a curse upon ourselves and open the door for evil to come into our lives and affect our health, our finances, our children, and our jobs and so on.
The word “man” in Jeremiah 17:5 is repeated because they are two different Hebrew words. The first is “a strong man” and the second is a “frail man.” Why point this out? We are the “strong man” because God is our Father. He is not the father of the “frail man” – the man who is not born again. Let that sink in.
We have a status in this world that gives us the same power and authority that Jesus had when He was here. Jesus’ status gave Him access to 72,000 angels! This is who we are ladies and gentlemen.
Unfortunately, many of us have walked away from our seat of power and authority. We are living so far beneath who we are that we’re like the seven sons of Sceva who told an evil spirit to come out in the name of Jesus.“And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?” (Acts 19:15)
Who are you? Many of us don’t know. But Satan knows.
? In Romans 8:39, our Father says we are more than conquerors in this life.
O In Ephesians 2:10 our Father says “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.”
? In Philippians 2:5 our Father tells us to allow the same mind that is in Christ Jesus to be in us.
? In Colossians 2:10 our Father says “ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.” (Colossians 2:10) We really don’t grasp and understand this one.
Ladies and gentlemen, if we are the “strong man” who is more than a conqueror, who is God’s personal handiwork, who can think the same thoughts as Jesus and who is complete – lacking nothing – then why are we looking to man and a political party to be our voices? We can think like Jesus, so think about His prayer before raising Lazarus:
“... Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.” (John 11:41b, 42)
Do you believe that your Father hears your prayers? Do you believe that your Father always hears your prayers? Jesus did. Shouldn’t we?
Church, our hearts no longer trust Jesus. Our relationship with Jesus is always about “heart”. Jeremiah says when we rely on man instead of God our “heart departeth from the Lord”. Romans 10:9 says “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” The “hearts” of many in the Church today no longer believe what Jesus says or what His righteousness represents.
When we look at the Church today, we see a house that’s filled with anxiety, worry, strife and division in its views on racism, abortion, same sex marriage, gun violence, immigration, and religious rights, to name a few.
When we look at the Church today, we see a house seeking answers from man – not from the throne room of Grace. The shootings of African American men in Louisiana and Minnesota and white police officers in Dallas and Mississippi are examples of this.
Emotional responses often lack God’s heart.
An African American brother emailed me after the shootings. He says people in his community are asking “Where is God?” “They don’t want to pray anymore.” “They just want to fight.” I could “hear” how heavily this was weighing on him.
Ladies and gentlemen, he’s describing what happens when Christians allow anxiety, worry and feelings of hopelessness to take up residence in their lives. These are not African American issues. These are Body of Christ issues. These are “I don’t really trust God like I say I do” issues.
I want to briefly share with you part of my response with some additional thoughts.
? White police officers. Let’s not paint every white police officer with the same “racist” brush. (There are some white people who are doing this too.) Yes, these tragic interactions occurred but are they the norm? No. And, does the fact that white police officers killed black men make them racist acts? No.Satan is using the media to push his agenda – racial division with the hopes of keeping Christians divided so that they won’t act like family and stop him in his tracts. His strategy is working. Far too many daily interactions between white police officers and black men occur without incident to say “This is the mindset we must now live with in this country.” We need to remind our communities of this.
? Where is God? God has promised to never leave us (Hebrews 13:5). We live in a fallen world. And, quite honestly, we sometimes find ourselves faced with an uncomfortable truth: we are quick to respond out of our emotions, just like the world, when we are capable of responding like our Heavenly Father – with our hearts.
? They don’t want to pray anymore. This tells me they don’t believe prayer works and that they don’t trust God enough to seek Him. People don’t reach this point overnight. It’s a slow process. It’s a heart-numbing process. It’s a faith killing process. But it can be stopped and reversed. We must cry out to Jesus. He’ll hear us!
? They just want to fight. We want to fight when we feel no one is fighting for us. It’s frustrating. In times like these we don’t want to hear that the fight is not with people but with satanic influences (Ephesians 6). But we need to hear it anyway and we need to grasp and understand this truth. We must fight first on our knees and then with our lips like Jesus did (Matthew 4:4).
? I ended my email with this: The answer to true change in our country, and you know this, is for Christians to have, above all else, an uncompromising committed walk with Jesus. This is what needs to be preached in every church and in every pulpit in this country.
Ladies and gentlemen, in the days, weeks, months and years to come, we’re going to see an increase in ungodliness, which will lead to more violence and more ugliness. The book of Revelation says so.
But we must not let our hearts be troubled over these things (John 14:1). Instead, we must fill our hearts with hope. “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” (Psalm 27:13)
We can be the calm in the midst of this storm for those whose are looking for God’s truth.
We can be the watchmen who remind our brothers and sisters that our Father needs us to stand firm with Him if the lost and dying are to have any hope of eternal life.
We have to trust Him. He’s our Father. He’s our God.
Ladies and gentlemen, you were born for this day. You were born for this time. You were born for this hour. You were born for this fight. And you were born to win it!
Give Him some praise!
