Television is filled with dysfunction, and the world is drowning in it. Negativity has saturated people of all ages, fed by competition to the bottom on social media. What if someone new came along with a fresh operating principle? A person who has travelled the world, seen the worst of it but deals strictly with how to move forward. An honest and inspiring leader who has lived the full Christian life as a pastor and uses his wisdom to inspire others. Meet Allen Jackson.
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Allen Jackson Ministries | Allen Jackson - Advent: Hope | December 26, 2025
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- Allen jackson: we began allan jackson ministries to strengthen
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- The church.
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- Thank you for your partnership.
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- Together we made an impact in this nation but we're not done.
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- In fact, in many ways, i believe we're just beginning.
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- The status quo is not adequate any longer.
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- We can't sit in our churches and have our polite bible studies
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- And sing our favorite choruses while we watch darkness
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- Increasing in the world around us.
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- We have to have the courage to tell the truth to our culture, a
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- Biblical worldview to engage current events in a way to make
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- What we believe a part of the fabric of our schools, our
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- Homes, our communities, our nation, and beyond.
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- We have invitations now from war-torn countries in israel and
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- Ukraine to strengthen the churches there.
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- I want to ask you to make an investment with us in allen
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- Jackson ministries to make 2026 the most fruitful year we've
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- Ever had together.
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- God is moving in the earth.
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- We want to keep pace.
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- We want to take new steps to make a new impact.
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- Your help makes that possible.
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- ♪♪♪
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- Allen: god is moving in the earth.
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- In this first weekend of advent, i wanna pick that idea up.
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- I've been saying that for a while wherever i go, that
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- There's evidence that god is moving in the earth and i get
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- The same response.
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- If i talk to people or they send it to me digitally, it comes to
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- Me, well, pastor, tell me what you see.
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- And implied in that question is, we're not sure we see.
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- What would cause you to say god is moving in the earth?
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- And so i wanna unpack that with you a little bit.
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- I think this first weekend in advent is usually connected to
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- Hope, and that seems appropriate to me.
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- Hope is connected to the future.
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- Faith is about now.
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- Faith is about the present.
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- You know, when i say i hope so, you're projecting something, an
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- Imagination of a better future.
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- If we talk about faith, we say, i believe it's so, and that's in
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- The immediate.
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- So there is a place for hope in our lives.
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- In fact, there's a significant place that god is moving and
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- That implies something better ahead of us.
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- And i wanna spend some time with you in the scripture because
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- When god is moving in the earth, i think we're confused by that.
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- And we want to shape it in terms of what god has done in
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- The past.
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- That god's gonna take us back to some holier time, or a simpler
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- Time, or a quieter time, and that isn't the normal pattern
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- That i find in scripture.
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- When god encountered moses at the burning bush and said, i
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- Want you to go back to egypt, he didn't say, i'm sending you back
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- To the palace to hang out like you used to.
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- I'm not sending you back to go kill another
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- Egyptian slavemaster.
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- Well, you're going back to the palace, all right, but this time
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- You're gonna go tell pharaoh it's a whole new day.
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- You're gonna lead the slaves out of here.
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- And moses said, no, i don't think so.
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- I'm good.
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- I like sheep.
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- I'm a goat herder now.
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- And time after time through scripture, when god moves, it's
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- Not a step into what has been in the past.
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- And i think we struggle with that in contemporary christendom
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- We imagine that we need to go back to a time when christianity
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- Was a common theme on primetime television and there are only
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- Three broadcast networks, and you had to walk over to the
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- Television to change the channel.
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- Well, god's moving in the earth but i don't think we're going
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- Back to that.
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- And so i wanna take a few minutes.
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- I really think with the help of the spirit of god we can have a
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- Good time with this.
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- When god moves, there are some things that i believe are
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- Characteristic, and i didn't list them in your outlines but
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- I'll give them to you quickly.
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- There are outcomes which can't be achieved apart from god.
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- When i say god's moving, that's what i'm talking about.
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- There's things happening in the earth that can only be explained
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- As the supernatural engagement and involvement of god.
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- We hear it week after week, life after life, when god moves,
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- There's a discontinuity, there's a break, the future becomes
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- Different from the past.
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- It's not just a seamless unfolding.
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- You go wow, i didn't see that coming.
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- We tend to think in terms of technological breakthroughs that
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- Advance us and advanced communication, or advanced
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- Travel, or advance how we interact.
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- And those things happen, i'm not saying they don't but when god
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- Moves there's a completely different kind of discontinuity.
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- You ready for that?
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- When god moves, it's often uncomfortable.
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- We're all wanting him to restore a kinder, gentler place or a
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- Memory that we hold or some season of our life when we got
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- To know the lord or that our faith was more dynamic.
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- And when god begins to move, it's often uncomfortable.
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- It's the nature of the assignment.
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- Moses didn't feel overly comfortable when he
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- Got recruited.
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- Saul of tarsus, it wasn't a comfortable season.
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- His old friends hated him, his new friends were afraid of him.
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- When god moves, it's not always easy or simple.
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- In fact, i think when god begins to move it's often difficult to
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- Imagine god's involved at all.
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- You just recognize there's a lot of change.
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- All of a sudden the sea gets choppy.
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- Frequently in the midst of god moving there are expressions
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- Of evil.
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- Oppositions to god's objectives become really visible.
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- Jesus left baptism at the jordan river and went into the
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- Wilderness to fast and pray, and the devil showed up.
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- The devil showed up.
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- I'm reading it and i'm thinking, really?
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- The devil showed up.
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- And finally, when god moves, this is so important.
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- He works in and through people.
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- He works in the midst of people.
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- He works through people, a bunch of crackpots like us.
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- See, we're desperately praying for god to move in the earth,
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- And we hope he touches somebody other than us.
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- Right, god, where i work they need some jesus.
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- And i intend to pray quietly about it.
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- God, the neighborhood where i live, oh, they could use
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- Some jesus.
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- Hope you'll move somebody into the neighborhood to tell them.
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- Right, we just had family gatherings this week, round one.
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- Oh jesus, we need you in our family and you're thinking of
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- Somebody else that needs to change.
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- And maybe you have one person that gathers with you at the
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- Holidays that just the anticipation of it brings a
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- Little anxiety.
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- Oh, i got eight honest people at church.
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- You know what the reality is?
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- Every one of us is that person for somebody that gathered
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- This week.
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- They prayed about you on the way to the gathering.
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- God works through people.
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- I know, isn't that awkward?
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- You'd have to be god to come up with a plan like that.
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- Well, there's a tension in our lives between hope, that living
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- Vital thing that's so essential, and fear.
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- They're related to one another.
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- If your hope diminishes, your fear grows.
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- If your hope grows, your fear diminishes.
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- There's a tension between the two.
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- I can give you a couple of scriptures i think that will
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- Help as you lose hope, fear rises.
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- Luke 24, it's not the christmas season, it's where the opposite
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- Holiday but jesus has just been crucified, and the disciples are
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- Leaving jerusalem.
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- They're scattering, they're frightened, and two of them are
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- On the road to emmaus, another town, and this is
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- Their commentary.
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- "the chief priest and our rulers handed him," jesus, "over to be
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- Sentenced to death, and they crucified him.
- 00:07:57.727 --> 00:08:01.697
- But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to
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- Redeem israel."
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- Did you hear it?
- 00:08:06.636 --> 00:08:09.705
- Well, we had hope but our hope died on that cross.
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- Our hope died when we saw him struggling with his cross
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- Through the streets.
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- Oh, we had hope until we saw how they'd beaten him.
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- We had hope when we heard he walked on the water.
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- We had hope when he turned water into wine.
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- We had hope when he called lazarus out of the tomb but when
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- We saw him beaten like that.
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- Oh, we had hope.
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- We had hope.
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- I'll tell you how bad the despair was.
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- Listen to the next line.
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- It's the third day since all this took place.
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- "in addition, some of our women amazed us.
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- They went to the tomb this morning, but they didn't find
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- His body.
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- They came and told us they'd seen a vision of angels.
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- The angels told the women he was alive."
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- It hasn't broken them out of their funk.
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- Yeah, we had hope but we saw with our own eyes what they did
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- To him.
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- And now we've got a bunch of overly excited women.
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- But we don't have any hope.
- 00:09:21.344 --> 00:09:25.414
- John 20 is the same window of time.
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- It's resurrection day, resurrection evening.
- 00:09:27.116 --> 00:09:30.252
- Says, "on the evening of that first day of the week, when the
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- Disciples were together, with the doors locked for the fear of
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- The jews."
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- See their hope's been crushed and their fear's been elevated.
- 00:09:41.931 --> 00:09:45.368
- "jesus came and stood among them and said, 'peace be with you!'
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- And after he said this, he showed him his hands and
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- His side.
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- And the disciples were overjoyed when they saw the lord."
- 00:09:51.407 --> 00:09:55.444
- The bible has this amazing gift of understatement.
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- Had the doors locked because they didn't have any
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- Hope anymore.
- 00:10:08.090 --> 00:10:10.793
- Well, this is advent season.
- 00:10:10.793 --> 00:10:12.795
- The time when we pause to remember that god sent his son
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- To the earth.
- 00:10:15.631 --> 00:10:18.034
- I'll tell you over and over and over again that the problems we
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- Face are not political in their foundation.
- 00:10:20.870 --> 00:10:23.906
- They're spiritual.
- 00:10:23.906 --> 00:10:26.375
- The politicians and people elected to offices are not going
- 00:10:26.375 --> 00:10:29.278
- To bring permanent solutions to our problems.
- 00:10:29.278 --> 00:10:32.148
- They're simply indicators of the heart condition.
- 00:10:32.148 --> 00:10:35.484
- What we can do in a season like this is work on our
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- Heart condition.
- 00:10:37.887 --> 00:10:40.823
- Don't allow your joy or your hope to be diminished or exalted
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- Too highly because of political activity.
- 00:10:45.194 --> 00:10:48.998
- God is moving in the earth and we want to cultivate a hope and
- 00:10:48.998 --> 00:10:53.202
- A living god.
- 00:10:53.202 --> 00:10:54.537
- I wanna use the christmas narrative as our example.
- 00:10:54.537 --> 00:10:57.206
- And i'm gonna walk through it pretty quickly.
- 00:10:57.206 --> 00:10:58.841
- The fancy word for jesus coming to the earth is the incarnation.
- 00:10:58.841 --> 00:11:03.145
- That the eternal son of god decided to identify with
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- Humanity for all eternity.
- 00:11:06.916 --> 00:11:10.419
- I say to you often he got an earth suit and all the limits
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- That come with that.
- 00:11:14.657 --> 00:11:15.991
- He didn't know the limits of that.
- 00:11:15.991 --> 00:11:18.661
- Of being weary, of the impact of emotions, of all the things that
- 00:11:18.661 --> 00:11:24.567
- Came with that human experience.
- 00:11:24.567 --> 00:11:25.935
- In galatians 4 and verse 4, you have it in your notes.
- 00:11:25.935 --> 00:11:28.871
- It says, "when the time had fully come, god sent his son,
- 00:11:28.871 --> 00:11:32.141
- Born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under the law."
- 00:11:32.141 --> 00:11:36.312
- The law of moses, not roman law.
- 00:11:36.312 --> 00:11:39.415
- The law was a means of establishing your righteousness,
- 00:11:39.415 --> 00:11:42.451
- Your standing with god by doing the right thing, and jesus came
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- To redeem us from that broken system because we're not
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- That good.
- 00:11:48.657 --> 00:11:50.192
- We can't keep the rules.
- 00:11:50.192 --> 00:11:53.362
- When the time was just right, god sent his son.
- 00:11:53.362 --> 00:11:58.067
- If you look all across human history, the time when the roman
- 00:11:58.067 --> 00:12:00.903
- Empire was right there, was the first time there was an
- 00:12:00.903 --> 00:12:03.773
- Opportunity for an idea to be carried across the
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- Civilized world.
- 00:12:05.808 --> 00:12:08.544
- Roman law, roman roads, roman order made it possible to
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- Communicate an idea even if it was against the principles of
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- The empire.
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- And within a very short period of time without smartphones, the
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- Jesus story conquered the roman world.
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- It's an amazing thing.
- 00:12:27.863 --> 00:12:29.231
- God sent us on at just the right time.
- 00:12:29.231 --> 00:12:31.467
- I complain to god most frequently about his timing.
- 00:12:31.467 --> 00:12:35.037
- It's more about my ignorance than his bad timing.
- 00:12:35.037 --> 00:12:38.307
- So i wanna ask you a question about the incarnation and
- 00:12:38.307 --> 00:12:40.576
- Jesus's arrival.
- 00:12:40.576 --> 00:12:41.944
- I love this season of the year because most of us are familiar
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- With the narrative.
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- We know the story, you know the characters and the players, and
- 00:12:45.514 --> 00:12:48.484
- Maybe with varying degrees of familiarity but you know mary
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- And joseph were involved and there were some wise guys.
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- And you knew there was a little drummer boy.
- 00:12:55.491 --> 00:12:57.126
- I mean, not actually in the book but he makes it into the story
- 00:12:57.126 --> 00:12:59.228
- A lot.
- 00:12:59.228 --> 00:13:01.430
- So i have a question for you.
- 00:13:01.430 --> 00:13:02.865
- Who knew about the incarnation?
- 00:13:02.865 --> 00:13:05.935
- I think we can agree god was moving in the earth.
- 00:13:05.935 --> 00:13:08.604
- If god sends his son in an earth suit, can we say god was moving
- 00:13:08.604 --> 00:13:11.841
- In the earth?
- 00:13:11.841 --> 00:13:13.676
- I mean like big time all of heaven was excited.
- 00:13:13.676 --> 00:13:18.814
- Allen: god is moving in the earth and at allen jackson
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- 00:14:18.107 --> 00:14:23.946
- Allen: so who knew about what god was doing?
- 00:14:25.381 --> 00:14:27.449
- Well, zechariah and elizabeth knew.
- 00:14:27.449 --> 00:14:31.587
- Because when they were drawing social security checks, they got
- 00:14:31.587 --> 00:14:35.291
- To spend them on nursery furniture.
- 00:14:35.291 --> 00:14:39.495
- Gabriel came to see zechariah and said, "you've been praying
- 00:14:39.495 --> 00:14:43.599
- For a baby, and i'm here to tell you it's time."
- 00:14:43.599 --> 00:14:48.570
- And zechariah said, "ah, have you seen elizabeth?"
- 00:14:48.570 --> 00:14:52.741
- I've often, you know, zechariah questioned the angel.
- 00:14:56.812 --> 00:14:59.715
- And remember what gabriel said to him?
- 00:15:02.851 --> 00:15:05.454
- "you're just gonna be quiet for a while."
- 00:15:05.454 --> 00:15:08.791
- I think gabriel was really afraid if he went home and he
- 00:15:08.791 --> 00:15:10.926
- Said that to elizabeth, he wouldn't live to be a father.
- 00:15:10.926 --> 00:15:13.329
- I mean, there's other people in the christmas story that
- 00:15:17.433 --> 00:15:19.568
- Questioned gabriel.
- 00:15:19.568 --> 00:15:20.936
- When gabriel came to see mary, she said, "how could this be?
- 00:15:20.936 --> 00:15:24.239
- I haven't been involved in that behavior."
- 00:15:24.239 --> 00:15:26.408
- She didn't get struck mute.
- 00:15:26.408 --> 00:15:29.411
- I really think maybe zachariah was for his own well-being.
- 00:15:29.411 --> 00:15:33.182
- But zechariah and elizabeth knew, john the baptist's
- 00:15:33.182 --> 00:15:36.518
- Parents, ahead of jesus's conception.
- 00:15:36.518 --> 00:15:41.824
- Mary and joseph knew, they got angelic visits.
- 00:15:41.824 --> 00:15:46.228
- Not exactly at the same time.
- 00:15:46.228 --> 00:15:47.596
- There's a little tension in that.
- 00:15:47.596 --> 00:15:50.165
- A little bit of fear, a lot of hope.
- 00:15:50.165 --> 00:15:54.203
- Their families had to know something, it had to
- 00:15:54.203 --> 00:15:56.105
- Be discussed.
- 00:15:56.105 --> 00:15:58.674
- Everybody had calendars even then.
- 00:15:58.674 --> 00:16:02.177
- So there was some extended family that know about it.
- 00:16:02.177 --> 00:16:04.179
- The shepherds knew about it.
- 00:16:04.179 --> 00:16:05.614
- They got personal invitations.
- 00:16:05.614 --> 00:16:09.385
- On that night of his birth, this is the season we talk about that
- 00:16:09.385 --> 00:16:12.287
- A lot.
- 00:16:12.287 --> 00:16:13.989
- There's a whole host of people who knew.
- 00:16:13.989 --> 00:16:16.058
- In jerusalem when they took the infant jesus to be circumcised,
- 00:16:16.058 --> 00:16:19.962
- According to the custom of the law to the temple, there were a
- 00:16:19.962 --> 00:16:23.265
- Couple of outstanding characters that are pointed out to us.
- 00:16:23.265 --> 00:16:25.601
- And luke chapter 2 says, "there was a man in jerusalem called
- 00:16:25.601 --> 00:16:28.937
- Simeon, who was righteous and devout.
- 00:16:28.937 --> 00:16:31.907
- And he was waiting for the consolation of israel."
- 00:16:31.907 --> 00:16:35.511
- Can you imagine making the book and your personal bio in the
- 00:16:35.511 --> 00:16:40.649
- Book is that you were devout and righteous.
- 00:16:40.649 --> 00:16:46.789
- I mean, you know, i tried to think about what they would say
- 00:16:50.959 --> 00:16:53.495
- About me, smart aleck?
- 00:16:53.495 --> 00:16:56.065
- I mean, there's a list, don't add to it, just don't send me
- 00:16:56.065 --> 00:17:00.436
- Your thoughts.
- 00:17:00.436 --> 00:17:03.272
- But simeon, he was "righteous and devout.
- 00:17:03.272 --> 00:17:05.574
- He was waiting for the consolation of israel, and the
- 00:17:05.574 --> 00:17:08.410
- Holy spirit was upon him.
- 00:17:08.410 --> 00:17:10.479
- It had been revealed to him by the holy spirit that he wouldn't
- 00:17:10.479 --> 00:17:12.714
- Die before he'd seen the lord's messiah."
- 00:17:12.714 --> 00:17:15.084
- It's what christ means.
- 00:17:15.084 --> 00:17:18.287
- "moved by the spirit, he went into the temple courts.
- 00:17:18.287 --> 00:17:20.089
- And when the parents brought the child jesus to do for him what
- 00:17:20.089 --> 00:17:22.891
- The custom of the law required, simeon took him in his arms, and
- 00:17:22.891 --> 00:17:25.594
- He praised god.
- 00:17:25.594 --> 00:17:27.429
- 'sovereign lord, you have promised, now you dismiss your
- 00:17:27.429 --> 00:17:30.232
- Servant in peace.
- 00:17:30.232 --> 00:17:31.567
- My eyes have seen your salvation.'"
- 00:17:31.567 --> 00:17:34.036
- Jesus would not have been the only baby there that day.
- 00:17:34.036 --> 00:17:37.106
- In fact, it was last saturday.
- 00:17:37.106 --> 00:17:38.474
- We did a baby dedication here.
- 00:17:38.474 --> 00:17:39.808
- I forget what do we have, 18, 19 babies?
- 00:17:39.808 --> 00:17:42.511
- They would have been coming in groups for this.
- 00:17:42.511 --> 00:17:46.715
- And simeon walked over to mary and joseph and took jesus in his
- 00:17:46.715 --> 00:17:50.419
- Arms and said, you have kept your promise to me.
- 00:17:50.419 --> 00:17:55.324
- You've prepared this in the sight of all people, a light for
- 00:17:55.324 --> 00:17:58.560
- Revelation to the gentiles and for glory to your people israel.
- 00:17:58.560 --> 00:18:02.231
- Did all the people see it?
- 00:18:02.231 --> 00:18:05.667
- No.
- 00:18:05.667 --> 00:18:08.804
- But you know simeon got some side eyes that day?
- 00:18:08.804 --> 00:18:13.442
- I think mary and joseph thought, "what in the world?"
- 00:18:13.442 --> 00:18:19.047
- I mean, they know a bit of the story.
- 00:18:19.047 --> 00:18:21.517
- Do you suppose zechariah and elizabeth were there?
- 00:18:21.517 --> 00:18:25.854
- Seems probable to me.
- 00:18:25.854 --> 00:18:29.324
- They live just outside of jerusalem.
- 00:18:29.324 --> 00:18:33.328
- That same day, luke chapter 2 says, "there was also a
- 00:18:33.328 --> 00:18:37.499
- Prophetess, anna," the daughter of somebody, of the tribe
- 00:18:37.499 --> 00:18:41.303
- Of something.
- 00:18:41.303 --> 00:18:43.539
- "and she was very old."
- 00:18:43.539 --> 00:18:47.476
- Well, i mean it's in the book, i didn't make it up.
- 00:18:47.476 --> 00:18:50.245
- And maybe you'd like to make the book it says you're just
- 00:18:50.245 --> 00:18:51.847
- Very old.
- 00:18:51.847 --> 00:18:54.883
- "she'd lived with her husband seven years after her marriage
- 00:18:54.883 --> 00:18:57.119
- And then she was a widow until she was eighty-four.
- 00:18:57.119 --> 00:19:01.490
- She never left the temple but she worshiped night and day,
- 00:19:01.490 --> 00:19:04.259
- Fasting and praying."
- 00:19:04.259 --> 00:19:06.495
- See, your significance in the kingdom of god is not connected
- 00:19:06.495 --> 00:19:08.864
- To your birthdays, folks.
- 00:19:08.864 --> 00:19:11.066
- It's far more about the condition of your heart.
- 00:19:11.066 --> 00:19:14.469
- Your spiritual heart.
- 00:19:14.469 --> 00:19:16.772
- "coming up to them," mary and joseph, "at that very moment,
- 00:19:16.772 --> 00:19:19.241
- She gave thanks to god and spoke about the child to all who were
- 00:19:19.241 --> 00:19:22.244
- Looking forward to the redemption of jerusalem."
- 00:19:22.244 --> 00:19:27.015
- There were people in the temple that saw jesus and understood
- 00:19:27.015 --> 00:19:29.551
- He's an infant.
- 00:19:29.551 --> 00:19:31.486
- I've been to the hospital to see lots of babies when they
- 00:19:31.486 --> 00:19:33.488
- Were born.
- 00:19:33.488 --> 00:19:34.823
- It's hard to look through the window and see all
- 00:19:34.823 --> 00:19:36.191
- The potential.
- 00:19:36.191 --> 00:19:37.526
- They're kind of red and wrinkly.
- 00:19:37.526 --> 00:19:38.894
- And i mean the grandparents know, that is the smartest child
- 00:19:38.894 --> 00:19:44.499
- That's ever been in this nursery.
- 00:19:44.499 --> 00:19:47.469
- I've looked at so many pictures.
- 00:19:47.469 --> 00:19:48.804
- Can you see?
- 00:19:48.804 --> 00:19:50.472
- It's a baby.
- 00:19:50.472 --> 00:19:52.874
- They see something altogether different.
- 00:19:52.874 --> 00:19:56.945
- But they saw, they understood.
- 00:19:56.945 --> 00:19:59.648
- A living hope.
- 00:19:59.648 --> 00:20:02.818
- God was moving, folks.
- 00:20:02.818 --> 00:20:05.621
- There's some other characters in this drama, you know them, wise
- 00:20:05.621 --> 00:20:08.056
- Men from the east.
- 00:20:08.056 --> 00:20:09.424
- Matthew tells their story.
- 00:20:09.424 --> 00:20:11.526
- It's matthew 2 and verse 1.
- 00:20:11.526 --> 00:20:13.128
- It says, "after jesus was born in bethlehem
- 00:20:13.128 --> 00:20:15.330
- During the time of king herod, magi from the east
- 00:20:15.330 --> 00:20:17.933
- Came, and they said, 'where's the one who's been born king of
- 00:20:17.933 --> 00:20:19.935
- The jews?
- 00:20:19.935 --> 00:20:21.436
- We saw his star in the east and we've come to worship him.'
- 00:20:21.436 --> 00:20:26.174
- When king herod heard this, he was disturbed, and all jerusalem
- 00:20:26.174 --> 00:20:30.178
- With him.
- 00:20:30.178 --> 00:20:31.747
- So he called together all the people's chief priests and the
- 00:20:31.747 --> 00:20:34.016
- Teachers of the law, and he asked them where the messiah was
- 00:20:34.016 --> 00:20:36.118
- To be born.
- 00:20:36.118 --> 00:20:37.452
- 'in bethlehem,' they replied, 'for this is what the prophet
- 00:20:37.452 --> 00:20:39.254
- Has written.'"
- 00:20:39.254 --> 00:20:41.123
- And he quotes from the prophets, "you, bethlehem, and the land of
- 00:20:41.123 --> 00:20:43.659
- Judah, are not least among the rulers."
- 00:20:43.659 --> 00:20:46.495
- Herod calls the magi and finds out the exact time the star had
- 00:20:46.495 --> 00:20:49.698
- Appeared and said, you go find the baby and then come tell me
- 00:20:49.698 --> 00:20:51.767
- Where he's at.
- 00:20:51.767 --> 00:20:54.436
- The magi knew.
- 00:20:54.436 --> 00:20:56.738
- They made a very difficult journey, timely,
- 00:20:56.738 --> 00:20:59.441
- Disruptive, intrusive.
- 00:20:59.441 --> 00:21:02.177
- Can you imagine them explaining to their friends,
- 00:21:02.177 --> 00:21:03.578
- "we're going on this long journey."
- 00:21:03.578 --> 00:21:04.980
- "to do what?"
- 00:21:04.980 --> 00:21:06.315
- "well, there's a new king born."
- 00:21:06.315 --> 00:21:07.649
- "how do you know?"
- 00:21:07.649 --> 00:21:09.051
- "well, we saw a star."
- 00:21:09.051 --> 00:21:11.453
- "what's wrong with you?"
- 00:21:11.453 --> 00:21:15.557
- They knew.
- 00:21:15.557 --> 00:21:17.893
- Herod knows because the magi told him.
- 00:21:17.893 --> 00:21:22.531
- And he knows that it's a part of their faith journey because he
- 00:21:22.531 --> 00:21:25.901
- Calls the priests and the teachers of the law together and
- 00:21:25.901 --> 00:21:29.971
- Said, where did the hebrew prophets tell us the messiah
- 00:21:29.971 --> 00:21:33.075
- Would be born?
- 00:21:33.075 --> 00:21:36.278
- Herod knows.
- 00:21:36.278 --> 00:21:38.847
- It's matthew 2.
- 00:21:38.847 --> 00:21:40.182
- When herod realized he'd been outwitted by
- 00:21:40.182 --> 00:21:41.883
- The magi, because after they found jesus, they didn't go back
- 00:21:41.883 --> 00:21:45.187
- To herod, did they?
- 00:21:45.187 --> 00:21:47.789
- No, god warned them not to.
- 00:21:47.789 --> 00:21:50.692
- He was furious and he gave orders to kill all the boys in
- 00:21:50.692 --> 00:21:53.929
- Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two-years-old and under in
- 00:21:53.929 --> 00:21:58.500
- Accordance with the time he'd learned from the magi.
- 00:21:58.500 --> 00:22:01.803
- God is moving in the earth.
- 00:22:01.803 --> 00:22:04.673
- And herod's murdering the baby boys.
- 00:22:08.510 --> 00:22:13.014
- I think it would have been very difficult if you'd been a new
- 00:22:13.014 --> 00:22:15.150
- Mother in bethlehem to have imagined in that season that god
- 00:22:15.150 --> 00:22:22.157
- Was moving in the earth.
- 00:22:22.157 --> 00:22:26.328
- I mean, you may have heard the stories about the shepherds.
- 00:22:26.328 --> 00:22:28.463
- They were kind of overly excited, babbling on and
- 00:22:28.463 --> 00:22:32.768
- Somebody said something about some visitors to town and some
- 00:22:32.768 --> 00:22:37.239
- Rather elaborate gifts but it didn't feel like a movement of
- 00:22:37.239 --> 00:22:41.843
- God to me.
- 00:22:41.843 --> 00:22:45.046
- God is moving in the earth.
- 00:22:45.046 --> 00:22:52.320
- Are we going to be robust enough?
- 00:22:52.320 --> 00:22:54.322
- Are we going to be resilient enough to imagine that in the
- 00:22:54.322 --> 00:22:58.226
- Midst of expressions of evil, there will be remarkable
- 00:22:58.226 --> 00:23:00.896
- Expressions of the power and the purposes of god?
- 00:23:00.896 --> 00:23:05.834
- Or would we rather go back and tell some stories about how we
- 00:23:05.834 --> 00:23:08.570
- Heard god moved in the past because in those narratives,
- 00:23:08.570 --> 00:23:12.407
- We kind of glossed over the challenges and the expressions
- 00:23:12.407 --> 00:23:14.876
- Of evil, and we've just kind of distilled out of that the
- 00:23:14.876 --> 00:23:18.713
- Triumphant part that we want to focus on.
- 00:23:18.713 --> 00:23:23.652
- God was moving in the earth.
- 00:23:23.652 --> 00:23:27.122
- The priests, they knew that god was moving.
- 00:23:27.122 --> 00:23:30.759
- They heard the reports from the magi.
- 00:23:30.759 --> 00:23:34.963
- It's a close-knit enough community.
- 00:23:34.963 --> 00:23:37.299
- They're all experts in the scripture.
- 00:23:37.299 --> 00:23:39.067
- They know the prophets and what they said about the arrival
- 00:23:39.067 --> 00:23:41.303
- Of messiah.
- 00:23:41.303 --> 00:23:44.239
- Jesus, i'll step forward a little bit if you'll allow me.
- 00:23:44.239 --> 00:23:48.643
- But in luke 19 it's nearing the end of his life, it says, "every
- 00:23:48.643 --> 00:23:52.814
- Day he was," jesus was, "teaching at the temple.
- 00:23:52.814 --> 00:23:54.683
- But the chief priests, and the teachers of the law and the
- 00:23:54.683 --> 00:23:56.585
- Leaders among the people were trying to kill him."
- 00:23:56.585 --> 00:24:02.257
- Now there's something you should know about that.
- 00:24:06.228 --> 00:24:07.796
- It isn't immediately apparent from the scripture but the chief
- 00:24:07.796 --> 00:24:10.866
- Priest and the teachers of the law would have been the most
- 00:24:10.866 --> 00:24:12.934
- Powerful, influential people in the city apart from the
- 00:24:12.934 --> 00:24:16.538
- Roman occupiers.
- 00:24:16.538 --> 00:24:18.874
- They would have had the fanciest houses in the
- 00:24:18.874 --> 00:24:20.675
- Nicest neighborhoods.
- 00:24:20.675 --> 00:24:23.311
- They would have been the people that received the most honor in
- 00:24:23.311 --> 00:24:25.380
- The public square.
- 00:24:25.380 --> 00:24:28.350
- People of great influence, you would have wanted
- 00:24:28.350 --> 00:24:29.918
- Their approval.
- 00:24:29.918 --> 00:24:32.053
- You know that if you've read your bible.
- 00:24:32.053 --> 00:24:34.389
- Remember the man that was born blind and jesus put mud on his
- 00:24:34.389 --> 00:24:36.958
- Face and sent him to wash and he came home and he could see.
- 00:24:36.958 --> 00:24:42.297
- And it caused quite a stir in jerusalem, and the man said, who
- 00:24:42.297 --> 00:24:45.400
- Healed you?
- 00:24:45.400 --> 00:24:46.735
- And he said, well, i don't know, i didn't see him.
- 00:24:46.735 --> 00:24:51.306
- That's true, it's in there, it's john 9.
- 00:24:51.306 --> 00:24:53.408
- You can check me.
- 00:24:53.408 --> 00:24:55.043
- And it made them mad at him and said, well, that's a
- 00:24:55.043 --> 00:24:56.811
- Stupid answer.
- 00:24:56.811 --> 00:24:58.179
- And he said, well, it may be stupid but i see you.
- 00:24:58.179 --> 00:25:00.282
- So they called the man's parents and they said, is this your son?
- 00:25:03.685 --> 00:25:06.488
- And they said, yeah, it's our boy and they said, well, what
- 00:25:06.488 --> 00:25:08.723
- Happened to him?
- 00:25:08.723 --> 00:25:10.725
- And they said, we don't really know.
- 00:25:10.725 --> 00:25:12.427
- They said he was blind, he was born that way, and apparently he
- 00:25:12.427 --> 00:25:15.330
- Can see.
- 00:25:15.330 --> 00:25:16.698
- But they weren't happy, they weren't ecstatic, they weren't
- 00:25:16.698 --> 00:25:19.067
- Hugging their son.
- 00:25:19.067 --> 00:25:20.435
- In fact, they were really trying to distance themselves from him.
- 00:25:20.435 --> 00:25:23.471
- And the commentary in john 9 is it says, "they were afraid of
- 00:25:23.471 --> 00:25:26.875
- The chief priest that they would be rejected if they supported
- 00:25:26.875 --> 00:25:30.912
- What their son was saying."
- 00:25:30.912 --> 00:25:34.316
- So this was a very real pressure.
- 00:25:34.316 --> 00:25:35.884
- The priest understood but they have access to the palace and
- 00:25:35.884 --> 00:25:40.689
- Herod calls upon them and there's all sorts of privileges
- 00:25:40.689 --> 00:25:43.491
- That come from that and, you know, if they join with these
- 00:25:43.491 --> 00:25:47.963
- Strangers from the east or they buy into what the shepherds are
- 00:25:47.963 --> 00:25:51.366
- Peddling, no.
- 00:25:51.366 --> 00:25:56.037
- And it's persisted by luke 19.
- 00:25:56.037 --> 00:25:57.872
- This is 33 years later and jesus is a miracle worker, a healer.
- 00:25:57.872 --> 00:26:02.611
- ♪♪♪
- 00:26:02.677 --> 00:26:10.185
- Allen: allen jackson ministries was created to strengthen
- 00:26:10.185 --> 00:26:12.787
- The church.
- 00:26:12.787 --> 00:26:14.155
- Your partnership has made this possible.
- 00:26:14.155 --> 00:26:15.890
- Thank you for your faithfulness and your generosity.
- 00:26:15.890 --> 00:26:18.526
- But the need, it's as significant as it's ever been.
- 00:26:18.526 --> 00:26:21.529
- Not simply in this nation.
- 00:26:21.529 --> 00:26:22.864
- Now we have invitations internationally to war-torn
- 00:26:22.864 --> 00:26:25.166
- Countries, and israel, and to ukraine to come help strengthen
- 00:26:25.166 --> 00:26:28.470
- The church there.
- 00:26:28.470 --> 00:26:29.838
- And with god's help and your help, we intend to respond.
- 00:26:29.838 --> 00:26:32.574
- Folks, it's a critical time.
- 00:26:32.574 --> 00:26:33.908
- It's not just business as usual.
- 00:26:33.908 --> 00:26:36.077
- We can't gather at our churches and sing our hymns and ignore
- 00:26:36.077 --> 00:26:38.813
- What's happening in our world.
- 00:26:38.813 --> 00:26:40.448
- We have to take the biblical truth, the biblical worldview,
- 00:26:40.448 --> 00:26:43.218
- And share it with our culture clearly with determination,
- 00:26:43.218 --> 00:26:46.788
- With courage.
- 00:26:46.788 --> 00:26:48.189
- We're creating tools to help you do that in your church, in your
- 00:26:48.189 --> 00:26:51.092
- Home, in your community.
- 00:26:51.092 --> 00:26:52.861
- Together we're gonna make an impact in this new year like
- 00:26:52.861 --> 00:26:55.497
- We've never made before.
- 00:26:55.497 --> 00:26:57.165
- Will you make an investment in what we're doing?
- 00:26:57.165 --> 00:26:59.734
- Together we're gonna join god in seeing the name of jesus
- 00:26:59.734 --> 00:27:02.671
- Elevated in the earth.
- 00:27:02.671 --> 00:27:04.272
- Will you pray?
- 00:27:04.272 --> 00:27:05.640
- Father, i ask for your anointing.
- 00:27:05.640 --> 00:27:07.108
- Give us the freedom to give and to serve like never before.
- 00:27:07.108 --> 00:27:10.645
- In jesus's name.
- 00:27:10.645 --> 00:27:12.013
- Amen.
- 00:27:12.013 --> 00:27:13.348
- God bless you and thank you.
- 00:27:13.348 --> 00:27:14.749
- ♪♪♪
- 00:27:15.350 --> 00:27:27.362
