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How Should I Respond To 9/11 And The Current Crisis In America
Pastor Floyd's 4th message from the series "Questions."
$6.00 — $12.00
How should I respond to 9/11 and the crisis in America? Jesus talks about how we should respond in moments like these, most of them lesser moments in our lives, but they’re still critical moments that our response is like He wants it to be. He mentions it and talks about it in the 5th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, and I would like for you to look with me to the Word in chapter 5, and I want to read verse number 38 through verse number 48.
Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and) do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Where were you 10 years ago today? I was in my study, as I always am in the morning. Jeana came down the stairs and she said, “We’ve got to turn the TV on. You’ve got to see what is going on.” Within moments our hearts were broken and frightened over the events that were going on in our nation. We knew that those events would not simply affect the people of New York City and beyond, but they would affect the future of American life. As I watched even though our leadership team on our staff had met the day before, I called my assistant and I said we need to have a called meeting today at lunch. Tell them to cancel whatever’s going on, and meet me at Panera Bread Company. And on that day we dissected to the best of our ability what appeared to be happening. And we determined that we were going to gather as many people as we could on that evening at our Springdale Campus, and ask them to join us in prayer for our nation.
This is before the days of social networking, and high impact emails. In fact at that time we didn’t have anyone’s email address. And through that, all of a sudden we began to meet and pray with hundreds of our people that showed up on that evening. We knew that on Sunday it would be influenced and affected, and it was not exception our church was full like the rest of the churches in America. That evening hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of our people gathered for a special prayer night all for our nation.
Do you realize that 10 years ago today, 2,819 people died that represented some 115 nations of the world? This past week on the front page of USA Today it quoted a lady, an author of a book, her name is Priscilla Warner, who wrote the book The Faith Club, and the quote that was there on the front page of USA Today was the following, “September 11 brought God out of the closet.” Now this was and is an interfaith book that tried to show the commonalities between Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. And it was concluded, and I quote, “That the religious rush did not last, but attitudes did change.”
The Barna Research Group, which conducts surveys all across America, shows that the weekly attendance over the past decade in the region of New York City is up from 31% to 46% weekly. In fact, the good news is that since 9/11 exponential growth has occurred in the number of evangelical churches now located in central Manhattan.
A friend of mine named George Russ, who is the Executive Director of the Metropolitan New York Baptist Association writes, and I quote, “The number of evangelicals,” now remember that 31 to 46% who attend church, listen to what he says, “The number of evangelicals went from less than 1% to 3% in center city Manhattan. And 40% of evangelical churches have been planted since 9/11.” He says that since 9/11 evangelicals are now working together. There’s a renewed interest to see the city reached for Jesus Christ. And there’s an awakening to the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact George shared with me these words, he said, “Ronnie, what Satan meant for evil in city, God has meant for good.”
You see every one of us will have our own 9/11 experience. Prayerfully it will not be as devastating as what occurred 10 years ago today. But all of us will have our foundations shaken. Our 9/11 could be an illness, loss of a job, loss of wealth, loss of a friend. It’s usually defined in some way around the word loss. But every one of us we will have our own 9/11 experience. In fact, this past Friday at MD Anderson Hospital my mother was informed by the doctors at MD Anderson that there’s only one other thing that they are really reaching to try to help her. They gave her an option to do it or not to do it. She has leukemia, and they told her if this doesn’t help her, they can’t help her anymore. This is it. And once she quits any level of chemotherapy, she will probably be in eternity in 90 to 120 days. She’s had her own 9/11 wake up call. You will have that same call one day. I will have that same call one day. We may be like the people in the tower who were not notified, and then we may be like even my mother who has been notified.
There’s so many crisis in America, how can you talk about it singularly when you need to talk about it plurally. Therefore the crisis in and of itself was not a strong enough word, it needs to be crises! There’s so many crises in the country. We are in an unprecedented economic crisis ever since the days of the Great Depression. We are in a horrific, disappointing political crisis in our nation. We are in a massive social crisis in our nation where relationships have all dissipated. We’re in a terrible spiritual crisis! Without question, we are in one of the worst moral crisis ever in the history of America, if not the worst! And the crisis, and the list of crises would go on and on and on. They’re, they’re forever it seems like.
Yet, I really believe that the greatest of all crises that we face can be summarized in one of those crises, and that is the crisis of what I would call a relational crisis. A relational crisis. Can I give you some insight about what I mean today? Do you realize today that our vertical relationship with God will determine the condition of our horizontal relationships with other people? Do you realize that? In other words whatever’s happening between you and God will impact all of your relationship network here on this earth. They do not exist apart. They all exist together. That’s what Jesus is talking about in the passage today.
Jesus is telling us how to get along with each other. He is even telling us how to get along with each other when people don’t like us. And that’s what this passage is all about. Our response should be determined by not what people do to us, but our response should be determined by what is right. And what has to be right above all has to be our personal relationship with God. The Scripture we read a few moments ago is extremely insightful to this issue. In fact the Scripture points out really clearly to us what Jesus did not say, what Jesus said, and then it even tells us why Jesus said what He said. That’s what I want us to break apart today. I want us to begin with:
1. What Jesus did NOT say? What Jesus is NOT saying? In verse 38 through 42 the Scripture is really clear about what Jesus is not saying. You remember that Jesus said these words you have heard that it was said, and then He goes and He says, but I say to you. Verse 38 He says you have heard that it was said. Verse 39 but I say to you. In other words that is a contrast. Remember I told you a week ago there are six of those mentioned in these verses of Scripture from verse 21 to 48, all in the same chapter. One of those we mentioned last week, today we’re going to mention two of them.
Very misinterpreted is the following statement: “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” You know what? Even secular people know that phrase. Many of us have tried to justify our actions many times by even quoting that statement and will say you know the Bible says…an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. But you better understand the context and the understanding of the Bible. Never was that phrase used as a means for you to have the ability for personal retaliation. Never does Jesus tell us to retaliate to people. Somebody hits me; I’ve got to hit them back. Somebody does something bad to me; I’ve got to do something back. No, it’s not that. It is a call for justice. It is a call for the appropriate punishment to be given for the offense that occurred.
In fact, Jesus is always trying to protect people, even those that, that do not do right, and, and, and the call there is not only simply for that justice, but to make sure that the punishment served and given does not go beyond the offense that was committed. So what was Jesus not saying? What is Jesus not saying in this passage?
(1) Jesus is not forbidding civil defense in civil law. He is not forbidding us. He is not saying you cannot defend relating to civil issues that happened in civil law. In other words Jesus said there’s a process that I’ve given, and you better fit into that process. Let me give you an illustration. Someone goes out here and commits a criminal offense, whatever the offense would be, we can’t say well you know Jesus said we need to love everybody, and we need to just forget it. That’s not what Jesus teaches either! Jesus is saying, He is saying that when criminal offense occurs, whatever it is, He is telling us not to ignore it!
So Jesus is not saying just forget it and drive on. But He is telling us to remember that He is not forbidding civil defense in civil law. He is also:
(2) Jesus is not forbidding war due to military aggression.
Some would say well never is war right. No, the Bible teaches that war is just. There are times that war is right, not all times, but at times war is right. And you know what? At times war is imperative. If it’s right, it’s imperative. 9/11, could you imagine where we would be as a nation, and where we would be as a world if 9/11 would have been ignored by this nation? These people who have come and entered into our own nation, in one of our main 48 states of the 50 here on this side before you get to Hawaii, or you get to Alaska. And right here in the heart of America, in the most powerful city of the world where all usually occurs? And they brought down life after life after life.
Now we need to understand even while we need to forgive the offense, the offense could also not be ignored. But:
(3) Jesus is also not forbidding us to love people who do not love us. He is not forbidding us to love people who do not love us. You know what Jesus said? You have heard that it was said, but I was saying to you. In other words, Jesus was not saying if you hate me, I can hate you back. Or if you hurt me, I can hurt you back. Eye for an eye. Tooth for a tooth. Oh no. You see here’s a fact of life that every one needs to grasp. There will be people in your life that will not like you, and they do not like you. The teenage community, and the college community, and the young adult community is no different than the senior adult community. There are people thinking, regardless of age, that if just do this or do that, I’m going to be liked. Listen very carefully teenagers, listen adults, there are some people who are never going to like you.
But the issue is not them, the issue is your response to them, and Jesus is literally calling us to respond in the right way. And while we might get angry at those who were terrorists in our nation, and those who are still global terrorists, what we need to understand never has there been anyone to be a terrorist anymore than you and me. Because we’ve got to understand God was holy. We sinned against God. We committed a terrorist act against God. Even with our self-righteousness we attempted to literally terrorize Him. But I’m telling you today we have a committed a mighty offense, and that is why God so loved us that He asked His Son Jesus to get on the cross, and to die for the sins of the world. And Jesus died for our terrorist actions of violating the holiness of God through our sinfulness as men and women.
So today we’ve got to understand that that is what it’s all about. We don’t need to point our fingers at others. We need to understand Christ died for all of the world. And even when we were at our worst, Christ loved us, and Christ gave Himself for us. Then you have to ask yourself:
2. What Jesus IS saying? Okay if we know what He’s not saying, then what is He saying? Well the Scripture says here in verse 39 through 48 what He is saying. In fact we see it again. You have heard it said, but I say to you. It’s kind of like well you know I heard the other day…then you find out the source, and it’s really not what you heard. That’s what Jesus is saying. I mean we live our lives by that. Well I heard the other day on the radio… Be careful quoting that. I heard the other day on TV… Oh Lord, be careful. I heard the other day through a friend… Be careful. Be sure that it’s truth.
But what is Jesus saying here in this incredible passage? He is saying, first of all
(1) Surrender all your personal rights. Surrender all your personal rights. Let me illustrate. Verse 39, 40, 41 and 42 talk about surrendering all your personal rights. Someone slaps you on the cheek, which was forbidden in Jewish law, and the highest insult someone could get, and you know what Jesus said? Turn. Turn. That is a surrender of your personal right to hit them back.
Then Jesus says in verse 41, and if anyone would sue you, look at verse 40, if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, what was your tunic? The tunic in Jesus’ day was a long apparel that you wore under your clothing, especially your coat. It would be like your undergarments. Jesus is saying if someone sues you for your tunic, Jesus said; give them your coat as well. Did you know that Jewish law forbid that someone could be sued for their coat? Think about that. So Jesus said even though Jewish law could never demand if you’re guilty, and you’re suing, or you have been sued, Jesus is saying you give them your coat as well as your tunic. So what is He mentioning? Let him have. That’s what He said. Let him have. A personal volunteerism that goes on, I’m surrendering my personal rights. I could say it’s mine! But Jesus said let him have it.
Verse 41 uses the word go. Jesus said if someone compels you to go one mile, what does it do? You go with him two. Go. That’s personal rights. I don’t have time to go another mile. I don’t, I don’t walk two miles. I don’t run two miles. I don’t even go hardly one mile. I’m not about to go two with somebody, because you know what? They don’t deserve it anyway. But Jesus said no, you surrender your personal rights, and you go.
And give! People will plead for you who are begging for you. And Jesus is saying as they beg you, you give to them. So notice the surrender of your personal rights! Jesus has given us all these incredible illustrations, and He is using these words: turn, let him have, go, give. It should all remind us of what Christ said in Luke 9:23. “And He said to all if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” I’m telling you my friend the badge of discipleship is surrendering your rights to God. We could talk all day long about getting deeper. We can talk all day long about we needing to grow in our discipleship. Let me tell you something, as long as we’re claiming rights, we’re not marked as being disciples of Jesus Christ. The moment you gave your life to Christ, you died. You’re dead in your trespasses and sins, but your spirit has been awakened, and no longer do you have personal rights because of the cross of Jesus Christ.
And then Jesus said:
(2) Love all people unconditionally. Love all people unconditionally. He talks about this here in the Scripture. He says we need to show love. That is the word agape, which is unconditional love, loving people even when they don’t love me.
Then Jesus uses another, you have said, but I say to you. Remember what Jesus said? You have heard that you need to love your neighbor, and hate your enemies. But Jesus said love your enemies, and you pray for your enemies. When Jesus was talking about your neighbor, He didn’t geographical setting in mind. We, we so minimize the words of Jesus sometime because we don’t understand what He is saying in His culture. It wasn’t about you taking care of your neighbor; it was about you meeting the needs of anyone in the world. And whoever’s need you meet, Jesus said, you have a neighbor.
Do you know what love is? Love is meeting needs. Love is not simply some emotion that you feel or that you have, but love is meeting the needs of other people. And the call here is to love people enough that you meet their needs even the needs of your enemy, or people who don’t like you. I mean this is a radical revolutionary call! This is something that you don’t see personified in the American culture, or even personified in the American church. I want to remind everybody today that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is for all people. And the Gospel of Jesus Christ is even for the Muslim people.
(3) You need to pray for those who do not love you. That’s what Jesus said. Jesus said you’ve heard, but I’m telling you what you’ve heard is wrong. You not only need to love your enemies unconditionally, but you also need to pray for them! Let me ask you today? Who causes you the greatest pain in your life? A friend? An enemy? A worker? A boss? An employee? A family member? A wife? A husband? Kids? Parents? Who causes you the greatest pain? Jesus is saying you love them, and you pray for them.
DO you love them? Do you pray for them? Jesus even calls us in Matthew 6:12, as we talked about last week, as we pray we need to forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. The people that don’t like us, we need to call their name before God, asking God everyday of our lives give us a forgiving spirit towards them. So with a forgiving spirit, we pray for people that do not like you.
Remember what we said last week? Never let anyone outside of your circle of love. It doesn’t matter what they’ve done to you, said about you, written about you, gossiped about you; you never let anyone outside of your circle of love.
And then Jesus tells us:
4. Why Jesus is saying what He is saying. Can I talk about that for a few moments with you? What Jesus was not saying? What Jesus is saying, and why Jesus is saying what He is saying? He mentions this in verse 45 through 48. Think about what Jesus was saying. Let me ask you today, why is Jesus calling us to surrender our personal rights? Why is Jesus calling us to love all people unconditionally? You know what? Jesus said we’re going to be known by one thing: our love! Our love! That’s what He said! Not conditional love, but unconditional love. I mean where is the love? The love inside the church? The love towards the community from the church? Where is the love?
And why should we pray for those who may not like us? Well Jesus tells us why we should do all of that, and I want to say one more time, those words that Jesus teaches, they are revolutionary! They are not; they are not only vacant in the American culture! They are vacant in the evangelical church! I mean most churches are always squabbling over something! That tells me one thing, their relationship with God is not right because when it’s right there, it will be right here! True about your family, your friendships, all of your relationships.
But why should we do this? Jesus said for these reasons:
(1) To be a testimony to others. A testimony to others. He said when you, when you love like that, and you pray for those who don’t like you, and when you are doing what I’ve asked you to do, relating to, to what this passage is saying, and what I’m trying to teach you here on the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus is saying when you do that, you become a testimony to others. You will be a like a son, who is like a father, who is like his father.
Over the last few months as our grandson Beck has matured, it is like looking at Nick when he was his age. I mean it is amazing how much he looks like his father. The hair. The hair color. The expression. The look. The walk. Why? He is the son of his dad! Folks listen to me today, that’s exactly, that is exactly what we’re to be like! We’re to look like Dad! We’re to look like Abba Father! We’re to look like the Father in heaven, the Lord Jesus, the Savior of the world! He called us to a revolutionary life! Not to the sameness, and that style of life. In other words we’re to be a sign of His identity.
Jesus also encouraged us to:
(2) Demonstrate God’s character. To demonstrate God’s character. Notice here He talks about justice. He says that God is just because God, He shows the Son on the just and the unjust, and He also reigns upon the just and the unjust. Justice.
Do you know one of the great attributes of God? God is just. But also God is love. Jesus talked about it. The Apostle John talked about it. Other disciples and apostles talked about it. He talked about that in verse 45, do you love only those who love you? I ask you today, do you love only the people that love you? Do you greet only those who greet you? You know what He said? He said even a, even a tax collector will only love those who love him. Those are evil people in Jesus’ day. They would always not only charge for the taxes that the government expected, but they would do it beyond that unfairly.
The Gentiles, are you going to love like they would love? Those were the unbelievers. And He was saying no you should be set apart. And what sets you apart is that you love like Jesus loves, and you love all people! Oh my friend let me ask you today, is love a badge of your discipleship? Is justice a badge of your discipleship? And may I add, God hasn’t called you to give justice. God is the only One who will ultimately bring justice.
And then He said, we do it to:
(3) Fulfill God’s will. This is not a call to sinless perfection. Verse 48 talks about that; be perfect. He doesn’t mean perfect like sinless perfection, but the word there is a word that indicates and, and means maturity and completeness. In other words, the will of God. So what Jesus is saying is when we surrender our rights, and we love all people unconditionally, and we’re even to the point spiritually where we can pray for those who don’t like us, do you know what Jesus said? You are fulfilling God’s will! That becomes the sign of your identity with Me! What a, what a powerful passage! I mean is anybody convicted? Anybody sense that the Spirit of God could be talking to you today?
Time Magazine calls this book the best non-fiction book of the year. It is Laura Hillenbrand’s newest work called Unbroken. It is the compelling story of former Olympian, and World War II hero by the name of Lewis Zamperini. He was on a plane in 1943 with other soldiers, and his plane was shot down while they were over the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Everyone died but Zamperini, and two of those fellow soldiers. The three of them, until one of them died, they floated on a rubber raft on the middle of the Pacific Ocean for 47 days! They drifted some 2000 miles.
Finally the Japanese captured them, and by the time they had captured them, one of the three had died. Zamperini, and one of the other soldiers was taken and placed in a Prisoner of War camp. Zamperini, and the other man, were starved, tortured, and were forced into slave labor. When they found out the fame, the Olympic fame of Zamperini, he became the target of a specific Japanese corporal who was committed to one thing: destroying Zamperini’s spirit.
Following his imprisonment and his rescue from the Japanese camp, Zamperini dealt with major posttraumatic stress, and become an alcoholic. In 1949, just days before his wife was planning on serving him with divorce papers because of all that he was not able to deal with, she was invited to attend a Billy Graham tent crusade just outside the city of Los Angeles. And the year was 1949. In that evening, and on that evening, Zamperini’s wife met the powerful figure, and the powerful truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and her life changed instanteously. Her attitude changed immediately. And she wanted to see her husband experience what she had experienced on that evening.
She pleaded and begged with her husband all week long to join her at the crusade nightly. He refused, and finally she wore him down. And after a week of that, he finally attended. The night that Zamperini attended that Billy Graham tent crusade outside the city of Los Angeles, he met someone that dramatically changed his life, Jesus Christ Himself. He understood forgiveness, and hope, that he had never understood in his life. While before he had met Christ he was terrorized nightly with nightmare after nightmare after nightmare of all that he went through in that Prisoner of War camp, and all he went through in that 47 day journey out there in the ocean, but ever since that night in 1949 when Christ changed his life, even at age 94 today, and he’s still alive, he’s not had one nightmare. He was delivered by the power of Jesus Christ.
Recently Billy Graham had excerpts of the book read to him. Finally Zamperini and Graham were able to meet one another, and they were able to share a few minutes with one another, Zamperini told Billy Graham about how many people he has been able to help through unforgiveness ever since his book, or the book was published. He recounted one man who had come to him who had been fired from his job. And he said he was bitter towards the man who had fired him. He told Zamperini, he said, you know what? I figured something out. That if you can forgive a Japanese corporal who tried to destroy your will, and who abused you in that camp, surely I can forgive the man who simply fired me.
May I remind you of something today? Your vertical relationship with Jesus Christ determines the condition of every other relationship in your life. They are never separated, so stop separating them. To the wholesomeness of your time and your relationship with Him, will be the wholesomeness of your relationships here on this earth. You see we have become convinced with a lie from the devil. And the lie is following: the heart of the problem is with everyone else. It’s with someone else. It’s because of something else. But never forget this, the heart of the problem is never about others, but the problem is your heart.
The heart of the problem is never with others, but it is the problem of your heart. I ask you today, how is your heart? Would you let the true number one cardiologist of the universe, King Jesus Christ, do open heart surgery on you today? And to find out the condition of your heart? Would each of you at least do what Paul challenged the church at Corinth to do? He was writing to a church that had believers and unbelievers in it, and he said, “Examine yourself to make sure you are in the faith…” We need to examine ourselves today to make sure we’re in the faith! We might of meant well, but is He in our life? Has He impacted us? Has He changed our heart? Changed our ways? Changed our attitude? Changed us? I plead with you today; let the cardiologist look deep in your heart.
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