We’re told two topics never to mention in polite circles are religion and politics. We’ve done both from here. Mainly, because life isn’t compartmentalized. It overlaps. Religion gets into politics and politics gets into religion. And both are wrapped around current events.
Speaking about current events is a necessity for the church, since life happens in the midst of current events. We need to know how to live and move and have our existence with things going on. We need perspective.
Did you know, the fire for the Revolutionary War was kindled in the churches of America. It didn’t start with the politicians. It began in the churches. It was the message of freedom and unity that tied the colonies together. In fact, it was a struggle for many politicians to come around to Independence since they enjoyed the benefit of England’s oversite.
Today, we fear speaking of things going on because of a separation of church and state. Actually, that’s been modified into more of a separation of the church from the state instead of its intention of separation of the state from the church.
I know speaking about current events seems to cross some lines for some, because much of what happens is caused by politicians making decisions but when those decisions make our patriotic blood boil, we must speak. Some, today, want to deny the right of the church to be patriotic. In our woke society many decry Christian Nationalists as though one cannot be the other. And we’re even included in a watchlist for radical thought. But we are and will be a Patriotic church. We stand proud to believe in One Nation Under God. We fly our flags out front. We celebrate the greatness of our country and the God who shaped our beginning.
Some don’t like that. In fact, we’ve had people leave because they say our church is too political. Believe it or not, we’ve had others leave because we weren’t political enough.
So, today, we need to get some perspective on what’s going on right now in Afghanistan. The decisions being made effect the lives of the people beyond politics. So, let’s just look at it as one of the most devastating weeks for our country has been through since the war with the Taliban began, the loss of a country and the loss of 13 Marines.
When Bush declared war against Al Qaeda after 911, that took the theater of war to Afghanistan. Al Qaeda was an extremist part of the tribal Taliban, as is ISIS. The Taliban are a Muslim militant policing force that has controlled ¾ of Afghanistan since 2001. Their goal is to enforce a strict interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law.
· Under the Taliban's rule, women are effectively put under house arrest as they were not allowed to work or have an education.
· Any female above the age of eight had to wear a burqa and had to be escorted by a male relative if they wanted to leave their home.
· Women were not allowed high-heeled shoes as no man should hear a woman’s footsteps.
· A woman’s voice should not be heard by a stranger when she is speaking loudly in public.
· Photographing, filming or displaying pictures of females in newspapers, books, shops or the home was not allowed.
· Women were not allowed to appear on their balconies.
· Women who broke the rules had to suffer the humiliation of a public beating, or even stoning and in extreme cases even public executions.
· Beyond treatment of women, the laws regarding crime are beyond the harshest in any country, many being carried out by men at any time.
The Russians tried throughout the 80s to defeat the Taliban and failed. We are walking away after 20 years, leaving complete control of Afghanistan in the hands of over 100,000 Taliban troops to enforce their agenda. We beat them down but never defeated them. They were held in check but still hid in the darkness, in caves or blending into society, waiting for a show of weakness to rise up.
It’s right to pull out. But pulling out must always be with honor. Many of us have images of South Viet Nam’s fall and the desperation to escape. Wait for Tuesday.
We’ve left out honor. Honor gives dignity to those men and women who sacrificed lives, limbs and psyches to fight an ungodly enemy. Walking away questions those losses. But take away the politics, this isn’t how we withdraw from conflict. We must honor those who went, fought and sacrificed. We must extract our people, our allies, our friends.
To think we are cowering to an enemy we had already beaten back and as they now assume control over the whole country and us as well is unthinkable. Logistically, none of that was necessary. We had the ability to command our exit.
Chad Robichaux – never should have been there. He put the blame on the State Department’s failures and administration’s decisions. Got out over 12,000. Went after his interpreter and couldn’t stop. Glen Beck got out over 5000 Christians.
This is an enemy that doesn’t think or act like we do. They are tribal, not national. They obey only their chiefs, no central command, are driven by radical Muslim ideology. And now they control Afghanistan. And in the process, we have handed over to them billions of dollars in equipment and weapons to continue their reign of terror.
Who is in jeopardy? Any American or ally left behind. Any Afghans who helped us in the war. Any Christians. Any Muslim not wanting to live under Sharia law. Already, away from the cameras, there are reports that Taliban are going house to house to find any of those and mark them for death. In other places, in other parts of Afghanistan, the loss of life has already begun.
The airlift is showing down and turning now toward getting troops out. Many will be left behind. And when Tuesday comes, literally all hell will break out. This war, this devastation isn’t over.
These are desperate times. But, desperate times is actually a theme in Scripture. You read of any prophet and he went through desperate times. Any King, any army. Does God handle desperate times?
Job 6:26 Do you intend to reprove my words, when the words of one in despair belong to the wind?
Ps 42:5 Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence. 6 O my God, my soul is in despair within me; Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan And the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. 7 Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls; All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me. 8 The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime; And His song will be with me in the night, A prayer to the God of my life. 9 I will say to God my rock, "Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?" 10 As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" 11 Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.
Ps 43:3 O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your dwelling places. 4 Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And upon the lyre I shall praise You, O God, my God. 5 Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.
Words that show some stage of hopelessness:
Disturbed – shaken by what’s going on
Despair – losing the will to go on
Desperate – at the end of hope
When you go to the source, you’ll find the cause is usually that someone has placed their hope in something that can’t provide it.
What do desperate people do?
· Some trust in people
Ps 118:8 It is better to take refuge in the LORD Than to trust in man.
· Some trust in those in charge
Ps 118:9 It is better to take refuge in the LORD Than to trust in princes.
· Some trust in strength and ability of others
Isa 31:1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help And rely on horses, And trust in chariots because they are many And in horsemen because they are very strong, But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD!
· We trust in the Lord
Jer 17:7 Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD. 8 For he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit.
· What lifts despair?
Light – We think of light as only what shines. But light can also be a reduction in weight to make something easier to carry or to lift. The source of both – God.
Truth – remembering what He has already taught us
It is replacement. We replace our despair with what is truer than what we face. We allow God to lift our burden and lighten our load.
We may face extreme circumstances. It’s natural to be disturbed. We may feel desperate by what’s going on and see no answer. Threats are real. But what is realer?
What remains true no matter what? The eternal word of God. That’s why people went to Jesus. He was the Word of God. In the Gospels they went to Jesus when nothing else could help them.
Mark 5:25 A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, 26 and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse—27 after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. For she thought, "If I just touch His garments, I will get well." 29 Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. 30 Immediately, Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, "Who touched My garments?" 31 And His disciples said to Him, "You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, 'Who touched Me?'" 32 And He looked around to see the woman who had done this. 33 But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34 And He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction."
Mark 9:17 And one of the crowd answered Him, "Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute; 18 and whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth and stiffens out. I told Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it." 19 And He answered them and said, "O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!" 20 They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. 21 And He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood. 22 It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!" 23 And Jesus said to him, " 'If You can?' All things are possible to him who believes." 24 Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, "I do believe; help my unbelief." 25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again." 26 After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, "He is dead!" 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up. 28 When He came into the house, His disciples began questioning Him privately, "Why could we not drive it out?" 29 And He said to them, "This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer."
The war with the Taliban hasn’t ended. This will only embolden them along with restrengthening ISIS and even rekindling the old Al Qaeda network.
We’re going to see the rise in atrocity in Afghanistan and nothing will be done about it. We’re going to see the Chinese on the move to consume Taiwan. We’re going to see Russia return to her old ways. We’re going to see Iran go after Israel. We’ll hear of wars and rumors of wars. And, in all likelihood, we’ll soon hear the trumpet of God. All the while, America sits and watches, her generals more concerned about wokeness and critical race theory than protecting liberty. We have shown the world a weakness and they will take advantage.
Does that change the message? No.
Rom 8:35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
TAKEAWAYS:
- If there ever was a time we need Jesus, it’s now.
- When what we see disturbs us and causes us despair, we need to change what we’re looking at.
- It is important to have the right help in view.
- When we trust that those in power, and the implements of their power, will bring us peace in our hearts, we will always be disappointed.
- Jesus has given us hope; now’s a great time to use it.
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