Blog / General / The Last Prophetic Presidency Part 2: A Poverty of the Heart
Nov
05
2012
The Last Prophetic Presidency Part 2: A Poverty of the Heart
Written by: zachneese | Found in: General | 15 Comments »
I opened my last blog by saying our nation is walking a tightrope across Niagara Falls (with is actually an allusion to something Abraham Lincoln said during the Civil War). But the peril of tightrope walking is that you can fall to the right or the left. There are two ways to take the plunge. And in this case there are two sides to our moral dilemma.
The central question for a Christian is, “should I submit my faith to my politics or my politics to my faith? Should my culture submit to God or should I expect God to submit to my culture?”
In “The Last Prophetic Presidency” I referenced King Manasseh of Judah and how his endorsement of depravity affected the nation he led.
Now I’d like to take a look at his grandson, Josiah. If Manasseh was the worst king in the history of Judah, Josiah was arguably the best. He cleaned up the religious, moral, political, and social dung heap left in Manasseh’s wake. But when Josiah’s sons came into power (reprobates in their own right) God reminded them of why their father was such a successful leader. Read on, ye “open-minded”:
“Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the Lord. – Jeremiah 22:15-15 (NIV)
Did you catch that? According to God (through the prophet Jeremiah), what made Josiah great was not just his moral righteousness, it was also his social compassion. Josiah defended the poor and needy, who are dear to the heart of a holy, compassionate God.
Moral righteousness and social compassion are the right and left hand of just and godly leadership.
Here’s another example. Think of Sodom and Gomorrah. Just the mention of their names elicits scenes of rampaging throngs of homosexual rapists, fire from heaven, and an extinction-level judgment of God. But what was God’s perspective on the reason Sodom was so morally irredeemable? This is God speaking to idolatrous Judah through the prophet Ezekiel:
“‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen. – Ezekiel 16:49-50
What the heck? What about gangs of gay rapists? God doesn’t even mention their “detestable things” until last. Why? Because Sodom’s moral implosion didn’t begin there. It started with a faith failure, which always manifests as a heart failure. Arrogance led to gluttony led to apathy led to immorality. Social callousness (neglecting the poor and needy) was just another brand of immorality.
Christians on both side of the isle have got to get their brains around this. God is not a politician. He never courts the approval of MAN. And He alone determines right and wrong. So what kind of religion does God approve of? James 1:27 sets the record straight, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”
Both! Both! Both! Are you a Christian Democrat? You must remain undefiled by the world, and you cannot approve of or endorse a fallen culture’s fickle “virtues”. Abortion and sexual immorality are wrong! Period. Deal with it and move on.
Are you a Christian Republican? You must embrace God’s gracious heart towards the poor, the needy, the alien, the fatherless, the widow, the beggar. There are so many conservatives with enormous, charitable, serving hearts. But the party has managed to paint itself as cold-blooded social Darwinists. Grow a heart!
Jesus shows us the way in Luke 11:42. Should we obey God more or love people more? Both, both, both! “You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.”
The bottom line is that politics cannot provide an answer to a culture that is arrogant, gluttonous, greedy, morally reprehensible, and socially insensitive. Want proof? Look at Rome. They overreached themselves militarily, true, but Rome also fell because they had moral gangrene. What were the symptoms? Apathetic rich, corrupt self-serving politicians, a culture fascinated with violence, pornography, and moral turpitude, and cities brimming with pandemic poverty.
We cannot expect to tread the same path Rome walked and reach a different destination. That is the definition of insanity.
What is the answer? The Church. Not that building across the street where people show up in their Sunday best once or twice a week and listen to preachers and pipe organs – No. I’m talking about the true believers. The Jesus-lovers. The radicals who will actually grapple with the heart of God until they put on His passions like a cloak. The hope of mankind, and of Rome-like America, is a million walking, talking, breathing Jesuses. People who will follow Him, obey His Father like He did, love and defend the hurting and needy like He did, lay down their lives and their pride like He did, and become living Truth, compassion, and redemption like He did.
And just like I asked in the previous blog, I’m asking again: please, if you are a Christian and you love your country, get on your knees.
2 Chronicles 7:14 is for us. “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Note: If you are interested in adopting a Biblical attitude towards the poor, try reading these scriptures:
Proverbs 14:31
, Proverbs 19:17, Proverbs 21:13,
Proverbs 22:9,
Exodus 22:25,
Psalm 15:5,
Proverbs 28:8,
Exodus 23:3,
Leviticus 19:15,
Exodus 30:15,
Leviticus 19:10,
Leviticus 23:22
, Deuteronomy 15:7,
1 Samuel 2:8,
Psalm 12:5,
Psalm 35:10,
Psalm 82:3,
Psalm 140:12,
Proverbs 23:21, 2 Thessalonians 3:10,
Isaiah 58:6-8, Zechariah 7:9-11
This Post Has 15 Comments
Robert Montoya
Pastor Zach, you are absolutely right. The hope of our nation lies not in the halls of political power, but with the church. “The local church is the hope of the world.” – Bill Hybels.
This comment was November 5, 2012 at 9:03 pm
Sarah Hall
Wow. Straight to the heart of the matter. I pray God opens every heart to this message!
This comment was November 5, 2012 at 9:26 pm
Ronald Kramer
Pastor Zach,
I felt the Lord spoke a number of very important things to me during my prayer time this past Saturday. One of them was what I can only call as a need for the Church to practice KingdomRrighteousness. I sensed the Lord explained this righteousness as a combination of grace and discipleship much like what Jesus showed to the woman caught in the act of adultery. First, He offered her grace. Then He told her to sin no more. In confirmation of your blog, I believe the Church needs to reach out to the poor, the needy, and those in bondage because of sinful lifestyles with grace. Then it must disciple them in order to keep them from falling into the same sinful patterns that led to their condition. In this way we show compassion without accepting sin, and we show righteousness without being pharisaical.
This comment was November 6, 2012 at 12:00 am
zachneese
Ronald, I have to agree. Jesus always loves people where they are, but never leaves them there. He always says, “follow me.” He reaches out with love and grace, then transforms those who follow. Grace always reaches down to us, but it also always lifts us up to be like Him. It saves and transforms. That’s why we are called to love AND speak the Truth. Anything less is not love; it means leaving people in spiritual poverty.
This comment was November 6, 2012 at 2:04 am
Tyberious
I just can’t fathom how people can read the bible and believe every word. It blows my mind. Talking snakes, God murdering everyone but Noah and family. Then desided to send another part of himself to be sacrificed by his creation, to save them.??? Them take into account all his followers sins (killing, judging, ect) all in the name of Him… Makes no sense, none what so ever. Where is the proof of any Gods existence? The bible in my opinion will be studied like other ancient myths are, given enough time. Romans, Greeks, ect. All had Gods worth killing and dying for, just like the Christians and Muslims do. It is in my opinion, holding the advancement of the human race back. And the churches, are to blame.
This comment was November 6, 2012 at 2:19 am zachneese
Tyberious, I would have agreed with you until I met Jesus when I was 23. I still agree with you on several points: first, nobody should ever kill or harm anybody for disagreeing with his faith; second, the Bible is already being studied as myth. But one person’s unbelief does not alter a fact. We call the Greek and Roman Gods “mythology”, but they called it “religion”. When you have done some traveling outside of the spiritually tepid U.S.A., you begin to see things that are not explainable – even things of “biblical” proportion. And history (not just mythology) is full of such things. Do you really want to meet God, or do you just want “proof”?
I think your third point is worth talking about. Bad religion does hold humanity back. And bad churches do nothing to help society. But good churches and strong faith do nothing but help people become more like Jesus, and he’s the only hero I’ve found worth emulating.
Faithlessness on the other hand, brings man to the level of the super-evolved animal – a pointless pile of randomly assembled chemicals. If we are all pointless, why live? Why love? Why serve another or be kind? Why not kill, steal, destroy, and die. There is nothing but darkness on the other side. If there is no God, the only life worth living is the short, hedonistic one. And I tried that. It was hollow.
So, if you are right, then I may be deluded and wasting my time, but at least I am a better, more fulfilled, happier, and more productive person than I was. If I am right, I get all of that and eternity thrown in to boot. And I get a a relationship with the actual living God who loves me (which is the most valuable relationship in my life).
It may be worth looking in to.
kevinmelton
Hey Zach! Good stuff! We are “in” this world but not “of” this world. God is interested in His Kingdom, not our culture. I don’t see how we Christians can vote on cultural issues when they are completely opposite of the Kingdom we represent. It’s way past time for us to lay down our selfish agendas and pick up His agenda and follow it!
This comment was November 6, 2012 at 3:21 am zachneese
Kevin, that’s right. It reminds me of when Joshua was about to start marching around Jericho and met the Angel, “Are with us or with our enemies?” He asked. “Neither. I’m the commander of God’s army.”
So is God a REpublican or a Democrat? Neither. We keep asking who’s side he’s on. It’s not about who’s side he’s on, it’s about who’s on his side. Oh, dang…I’m gonna tweet that.
Ken Kozak
Zach,
After reading the first portion of the blog concerning the election, I was left wondering where compassion came in. I have typically sided with one side versus the other, while failing to see the compassion that is equally needed. It was this failing that has caused me to move the other way, not because I felt it was my main core value, (I have several) but rather it was the one core value that Jesus exemplified that was being deserted at a rather rapid pace. I would never say that this is a right way, in fact, to turn our backs on the less fortunate in society (including orphans and widows) is an equally appalling action in the eyes of our Lord and Savior. He wept for them, prayed for them, fed them and cared for them, to turn our backs on these attritubutes and commandments, is no less a sin as turning our backs on the unborn, and that is something that HAS been lost in the message. A society without the good works and compassion of Christ, is just another society that is built upon idols. They are ALL disgusting in Gods eyes and until that perception/reality is changed, the church is doing nothing but building bigger buildings in the eyes of the lost.
zachneese
Ken, these are great thoughts. And in many ways the Church has exacerbated the problems we are talking about by doing exactly what the pharisees did: valuing rules (many of them man-made) more that people. Then Jesus came along teaching that morality is actually FOR people – to bless them. And character is not just a set of laws, but it is what God is really like. Because God is good. And that goodness always leads Him to love people, even when He is correcting or disciplining them.
I am particularly proud of my church because they have upheld the Truth of God’s word including His giving heart (He gave His own Son). This is the most charitable, serving congregation I have ever known. So there ARE good churches out there. There just needs to be more of them.
Brandy
Thank you for you blog Zach! Such a blessing to me. I repost quotes often! Keep ’em coming!
This comment was November 6, 2012 at 3:24 pm Ken Kozak
lol…Zach, I have been to your church. We tithe there. I am sure that anything that is given, is used wisely. with the purpose of god, and the love of god, intertwined beyond question. It is a joy to be involved, and more than that, it creates a confidence when I am reaching out to those who unfairly paint ALL the churches within the context that I was referring to. This is a good thing.
This comment was November 6, 2012 at 8:41 pm
Carolyn Kozak
THIS.IS.AWESOME. It physically warms my heart. As a foster parent and hospice volunteer, serving both the widows and the orphans, I am so thankful that you posted this. It is exactly what we need to hear, and what we need to do, if we say we love Jesus. Thanks, Zach. Really. Thanks so much.
This comment was November 5, 2012 at 7:59 pm