1. TBN
  2. Programs
  3. Allen Jackson Ministries
  4. Episodes
  5. Allen Jackson - Breaking Our Addiction To Easy (Part 1)
Allen Jackson Ministries

Allen Jackson - Breaking Our Addiction To Easy (Part 1)

July 11, 2025 | 28:35

Allen Jackson - Breaking Our Addiction To Easy (Part 1)
Pastor Allen Jackson's mission is to help people become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
#Addiction #Complacency #Comfort #Distraction #Distractions #Focus #SeekGod #Jesus #Faith #TrustGod #Obedience

Closed captions

Show Timecode
Allen Jackson Ministries | Allen Jackson - Breaking Our Addiction To Easy (Part 1) | July 11, 2025
  • Allen jackson: and i know you know, but we're living in
  • 00:00:06.456 --> 00:00:08.158
  • A chaotic world, things are changing globally.
  • 00:00:08.158 --> 00:00:10.727
  • There's wars, there's threats of war, a lot of stuff happening.
  • 00:00:10.727 --> 00:00:15.198
  • But i wanna make a suggestion, don't focus on the negative,
  • 00:00:15.198 --> 00:00:18.068
  • Don't get caught up in the uncertainty.
  • 00:00:18.068 --> 00:00:20.703
  • That'll bring fear and anxiety and worry.
  • 00:00:20.703 --> 00:00:23.673
  • It's not helpful.
  • 00:00:23.673 --> 00:00:25.008
  • Let's determine to focus our attention on the lord.
  • 00:00:25.008 --> 00:00:28.044
  • We've created a tool that i believe will make a difference.
  • 00:00:28.044 --> 00:00:30.313
  • It's called, "awaken us."
  • 00:00:30.313 --> 00:00:31.948
  • It's a 30 day plan.
  • 00:00:31.948 --> 00:00:33.716
  • Each day is directed at a different topic
  • 00:00:33.716 --> 00:00:36.119
  • That's a part of our current world.
  • 00:00:36.119 --> 00:00:38.254
  • It gives us a verse of scripture, a little devotional
  • 00:00:38.254 --> 00:00:40.256
  • Around that topic.
  • 00:00:40.256 --> 00:00:41.591
  • And then a prayer for that specific thing.
  • 00:00:41.591 --> 00:00:43.960
  • The idea is we're gonna give the holy spirit an invitation
  • 00:00:43.960 --> 00:00:47.163
  • To awaken us to a new place of faith.
  • 00:00:47.163 --> 00:00:50.600
  • You know, we need an awakening in the midst
  • 00:00:50.600 --> 00:00:52.635
  • Of the people of god.
  • 00:00:52.635 --> 00:00:53.970
  • And we wanna say, "well, i am awake."
  • 00:00:53.970 --> 00:00:55.338
  • Well, i get that, but, you know, i was awakened yesterday.
  • 00:00:55.338 --> 00:00:58.508
  • But this morning i was awakened again, and my prayer is
  • 00:00:58.508 --> 00:01:00.844
  • Tomorrow i'll be awakened yet again.
  • 00:01:00.844 --> 00:01:03.413
  • We need a daily awakening by the spirit of god
  • 00:01:03.413 --> 00:01:06.349
  • To find his best for us in this season.
  • 00:01:06.349 --> 00:01:08.985
  • And i believe this book will help you.
  • 00:01:08.985 --> 00:01:14.390
  • Allen jackson: we're working through a little series
  • 00:01:18.428 --> 00:01:20.130
  • Under the general theme of "let's do difficult."
  • 00:01:20.130 --> 00:01:24.200
  • Thank you for that enthusiastic response.
  • 00:01:24.200 --> 00:01:27.971
  • I know how much you like it.
  • 00:01:27.971 --> 00:01:29.305
  • Several of you stopped and asked when we're gonna do a series on,
  • 00:01:29.305 --> 00:01:31.341
  • "let's do easy."
  • 00:01:31.341 --> 00:01:33.576
  • We've done lots of those.
  • 00:01:33.576 --> 00:01:35.445
  • In this particular session, the topic is "breaking our addiction
  • 00:01:35.445 --> 00:01:39.682
  • To easy" and quite candidly, i think we're addicted to it.
  • 00:01:39.682 --> 00:01:44.120
  • I think we'll choose it every time.
  • 00:01:44.120 --> 00:01:47.490
  • And i think the things that accompany that is our conviction
  • 00:01:47.490 --> 00:01:50.693
  • That our lives should be filled with comfort and convenience.
  • 00:01:50.693 --> 00:01:53.163
  • Now, i'm not opposed to either of those.
  • 00:01:53.163 --> 00:01:55.565
  • I prefer convenient and comfortable when they're
  • 00:01:55.565 --> 00:01:58.034
  • Available to me, but i refuse to make my decisions about my
  • 00:01:58.034 --> 00:02:01.738
  • Destiny, and my future, and my character, and what i will
  • 00:02:01.738 --> 00:02:06.576
  • Invest myself in based upon comfort and convenience.
  • 00:02:06.576 --> 00:02:09.712
  • I simply will not.
  • 00:02:09.712 --> 00:02:11.748
  • Now again, i'm not opposed to them, but i don't want them to
  • 00:02:11.748 --> 00:02:15.919
  • Be the idols at which i worship.
  • 00:02:15.919 --> 00:02:18.955
  • The reason i think this is such an important topic, and i don't
  • 00:02:18.955 --> 00:02:22.225
  • Want to unpack details today.
  • 00:02:22.225 --> 00:02:23.560
  • I'm not afraid of them.
  • 00:02:23.560 --> 00:02:24.928
  • We'll do it another time, but i believe 2024 has all the
  • 00:02:24.928 --> 00:02:29.332
  • Hallmarks of being a year when there could be some
  • 00:02:29.332 --> 00:02:32.202
  • Significant disruptions.
  • 00:02:32.202 --> 00:02:35.104
  • Many of the same circumstances which described the beginning of
  • 00:02:35.104 --> 00:02:38.942
  • 2020 are in evidence now.
  • 00:02:38.942 --> 00:02:43.580
  • And the powers which brought so much disruption to 2020 are
  • 00:02:43.580 --> 00:02:47.217
  • Stronger today than they were then.
  • 00:02:47.217 --> 00:02:50.954
  • I pray i'm wrong.
  • 00:02:50.954 --> 00:02:52.755
  • I will gleefully and happily report to you that i was wrong
  • 00:02:52.755 --> 00:02:57.227
  • If that proves to be the case.
  • 00:02:57.227 --> 00:02:59.762
  • But most importantly, i want to be prepared, and the people that
  • 00:02:59.762 --> 00:03:03.733
  • I'm serving and doing life with, i want to do my best to help
  • 00:03:03.733 --> 00:03:07.103
  • Them be prepared.
  • 00:03:07.103 --> 00:03:09.038
  • And my best counsel this morning from a biblical perspective
  • 00:03:09.038 --> 00:03:12.809
  • Would submit to you the idea that we should learn to
  • 00:03:12.809 --> 00:03:15.545
  • Do difficult.
  • 00:03:15.545 --> 00:03:18.181
  • The reason we're able to do difficult things is not because
  • 00:03:18.181 --> 00:03:21.150
  • We're smarter, or more determined, or we persevere with
  • 00:03:21.150 --> 00:03:23.920
  • Greater intensity.
  • 00:03:23.920 --> 00:03:25.521
  • But it's because almighty god is our helper.
  • 00:03:25.521 --> 00:03:28.725
  • We are not alone, we're not left to our own strength, our own
  • 00:03:28.725 --> 00:03:32.962
  • Resources, our own wisdom, and whatever else you may want to
  • 00:03:32.962 --> 00:03:36.299
  • Add to that.
  • 00:03:36.299 --> 00:03:37.634
  • We may have some of all of those things.
  • 00:03:37.634 --> 00:03:39.102
  • But i live with the anticipation of outcomes in my life, and
  • 00:03:39.102 --> 00:03:42.639
  • Through my life that exceed the sum of the parts that
  • 00:03:42.639 --> 00:03:45.441
  • Represent allen.
  • 00:03:45.441 --> 00:03:47.610
  • I mean, at the end of the day, i'm a lump of clay.
  • 00:03:47.610 --> 00:03:50.580
  • I mean, i've got enough electricity running through me
  • 00:03:50.580 --> 00:03:52.515
  • And all the other components that let it function for
  • 00:03:52.515 --> 00:03:54.584
  • A while.
  • 00:03:54.584 --> 00:03:56.252
  • But if something good comes out of my journey under the sun, it
  • 00:03:56.252 --> 00:03:59.022
  • Reflects the involvement of almighty god, the creator of
  • 00:03:59.022 --> 00:04:01.758
  • Heaven and earth, far more than it reflects anything i
  • 00:04:01.758 --> 00:04:03.926
  • Have done.
  • 00:04:03.926 --> 00:04:05.928
  • So, here's the suggestion, i'm inviting you to decide that we
  • 00:04:05.928 --> 00:04:09.832
  • Did all the easy yesterday.
  • 00:04:09.832 --> 00:04:15.204
  • It was a good day.
  • 00:04:15.204 --> 00:04:18.141
  • Let's break our addiction to easy.
  • 00:04:18.141 --> 00:04:20.943
  • In fact, i'm gonna ask you to consider doing something
  • 00:04:20.943 --> 00:04:23.046
  • Difficult every day.
  • 00:04:23.046 --> 00:04:25.214
  • Start to exercise the muscle.
  • 00:04:25.214 --> 00:04:28.318
  • Start to say i won't avoid it.
  • 00:04:28.318 --> 00:04:29.952
  • I won't not think about it.
  • 00:04:29.952 --> 00:04:32.055
  • I'll do difficult, do the right thing.
  • 00:04:32.055 --> 00:04:35.925
  • I assure you there's a whole crowd of people doing
  • 00:04:35.925 --> 00:04:38.594
  • Easy things.
  • 00:04:38.594 --> 00:04:41.030
  • I brought you a couple of quotes.
  • 00:04:41.030 --> 00:04:42.365
  • I've enjoyed pulling these quotes.
  • 00:04:42.365 --> 00:04:43.733
  • They're not usually places i bring to sermons but
  • 00:04:43.733 --> 00:04:47.036
  • They're worthwhile.
  • 00:04:47.036 --> 00:04:48.471
  • "start where you are, use what you have and do what you can."
  • 00:04:48.471 --> 00:04:52.909
  • That was arthur ashe, a man who had a great deal to overcome and
  • 00:04:52.909 --> 00:04:56.846
  • He did.
  • 00:04:56.846 --> 00:04:59.449
  • The one from churchill is appropriate.
  • 00:04:59.449 --> 00:05:01.451
  • "success is not final.
  • 00:05:01.451 --> 00:05:02.852
  • Failure is not fatal.
  • 00:05:02.852 --> 00:05:04.587
  • It's the courage to continue that counts."
  • 00:05:04.587 --> 00:05:07.890
  • We talk about doing the difficult.
  • 00:05:07.890 --> 00:05:09.292
  • It doesn't mean it's always gonna work, or you'll always
  • 00:05:09.292 --> 00:05:11.928
  • Have the right idea at the right time, it just means you're
  • 00:05:11.928 --> 00:05:15.298
  • Determined to stay the course.
  • 00:05:15.298 --> 00:05:18.134
  • You see, we have had, we have such a deep commitment to easy,
  • 00:05:18.134 --> 00:05:21.404
  • That we have raised several generations now from the
  • 00:05:21.404 --> 00:05:24.073
  • Parental and grand parental suites, that we have no
  • 00:05:24.073 --> 00:05:26.843
  • Intention of them doing difficult.
  • 00:05:26.843 --> 00:05:30.580
  • We've informed them that if you're not invited to a birthday
  • 00:05:30.580 --> 00:05:33.483
  • Party when you're a child, you've been bullied.
  • 00:05:33.483 --> 00:05:37.186
  • Hello.
  • 00:05:37.186 --> 00:05:39.989
  • We just had some friends here from israel.
  • 00:05:39.989 --> 00:05:43.059
  • Tens of thousands of israeli children have been displaced
  • 00:05:43.059 --> 00:05:45.728
  • From their homes, and they're living in temporary shelters,
  • 00:05:45.728 --> 00:05:47.830
  • And they've been there for months.
  • 00:05:47.830 --> 00:05:49.198
  • So they've missed birthdays, and athletic seasons in school, and
  • 00:05:49.198 --> 00:05:52.802
  • All the school activity, all those normal things that we
  • 00:05:52.802 --> 00:05:55.538
  • Think are so essential to the formation of our self image,
  • 00:05:55.538 --> 00:05:59.475
  • They've been stripped away from them.
  • 00:05:59.475 --> 00:06:02.612
  • And the children in gaza, they didn't vote for hamas.
  • 00:06:02.612 --> 00:06:05.948
  • Their parents may have, or someone else may have, but
  • 00:06:05.948 --> 00:06:08.518
  • They're caught under the brutal, horrific murderous regime that
  • 00:06:08.518 --> 00:06:15.024
  • Would terrorize the world given the opportunity.
  • 00:06:15.024 --> 00:06:21.063
  • I think those children would have a hard time understanding
  • 00:06:21.063 --> 00:06:23.166
  • Our definitions.
  • 00:06:23.166 --> 00:06:25.902
  • I communicated this week with a good pastor, friend of ours.
  • 00:06:25.902 --> 00:06:28.571
  • He's been here to the church from belarus that works with
  • 00:06:28.571 --> 00:06:30.807
  • Pastors throughout ukraine.
  • 00:06:30.807 --> 00:06:32.508
  • There's a whole generation of ukrainians that have
  • 00:06:32.508 --> 00:06:34.444
  • Been destroyed.
  • 00:06:34.444 --> 00:06:35.778
  • They're gone.
  • 00:06:35.778 --> 00:06:37.313
  • They have spilled their blood.
  • 00:06:37.313 --> 00:06:40.383
  • The routines they knew just a few short years ago that it
  • 00:06:40.383 --> 00:06:42.819
  • Defined their families are gone from them, and they're not
  • 00:06:42.819 --> 00:06:46.355
  • Coming back.
  • 00:06:46.355 --> 00:06:48.524
  • Now, i'm not suggesting that we have to live in a war torn place
  • 00:06:48.524 --> 00:06:51.627
  • In order to find a heart or a will to honor god.
  • 00:06:51.627 --> 00:06:55.965
  • But i am suggesting that we have chosen easy and made a god out
  • 00:06:55.965 --> 00:06:59.936
  • Of it that has caused us to walk away from responsibilities that
  • 00:06:59.936 --> 00:07:05.541
  • Are very much an important part of maintaining our freedom
  • 00:07:05.541 --> 00:07:08.177
  • And liberty.
  • 00:07:08.177 --> 00:07:10.680
  • So let's decide to change.
  • 00:07:10.680 --> 00:07:12.815
  • Let's stop looking through the windows of the church and
  • 00:07:12.815 --> 00:07:14.750
  • Identifying the culprit, and let's just quietly begin to bend
  • 00:07:14.750 --> 00:07:19.455
  • Our knee before the lord, and say we will become a people
  • 00:07:19.455 --> 00:07:23.159
  • Through whom you could do remarkable things.
  • 00:07:23.159 --> 00:07:26.496
  • We'll change our hearts and our attitudes.
  • 00:07:26.496 --> 00:07:30.099
  • Christianity in recent decades and i mean, decades, it's been
  • 00:07:30.099 --> 00:07:33.569
  • More than a year or two, it exceeds any administration or
  • 00:07:33.569 --> 00:07:38.207
  • Even any group that would currently be in power.
  • 00:07:38.207 --> 00:07:42.011
  • It's been happening for a while, but christianity in our nation
  • 00:07:42.011 --> 00:07:46.415
  • Has largely been co-opted by easy believism.
  • 00:07:46.415 --> 00:07:50.119
  • It's a rather self indulgent approach to faith that is for
  • 00:07:50.119 --> 00:07:54.357
  • The most part, just completely eliminated the presence of a
  • 00:07:54.357 --> 00:07:57.326
  • Sovereign god who issues commandments.
  • 00:07:57.326 --> 00:08:02.532
  • Now we have, kind of a benevolent higher power who
  • 00:08:02.532 --> 00:08:08.304
  • Grants wishes and indulges our dalliance with evil.
  • 00:08:08.304 --> 00:08:15.278
  • In the contemporary church world, to far too great of an
  • 00:08:15.278 --> 00:08:18.481
  • Extent, the premise of judgment is so yesterday.
  • 00:08:18.481 --> 00:08:26.188
  • We are after all now more enlightened, we're a little bit
  • 00:08:26.188 --> 00:08:28.424
  • More advanced, we're a little more sophisticated, and everyone
  • 00:08:28.424 --> 00:08:31.594
  • Has a right to do what they feel is right.
  • 00:08:31.594 --> 00:08:35.064
  • Now, we should understand we're not the first generation to
  • 00:08:35.064 --> 00:08:38.534
  • Wander into the weeds on this.
  • 00:08:38.534 --> 00:08:40.903
  • It has happened repeatedly, and i think it's unfortunate right
  • 00:08:40.903 --> 00:08:44.907
  • Now that there's a bit of escapism in contemporary
  • 00:08:44.907 --> 00:08:47.810
  • American christianity.
  • 00:08:47.810 --> 00:08:49.312
  • Rather than address our own moral laxity and our own
  • 00:08:49.312 --> 00:08:55.551
  • Lukewarm condition, our own ambivalence, we'd rather
  • 00:08:55.551 --> 00:09:00.022
  • Hurriedly say it has to be the end of the age.
  • 00:09:00.022 --> 00:09:03.793
  • Now, i'm all for the return of jesus.
  • 00:09:03.793 --> 00:09:05.628
  • This afternoon is great.
  • 00:09:05.628 --> 00:09:08.364
  • Before my sermon is done is better, but i don't want to hand
  • 00:09:08.364 --> 00:09:13.769
  • You that as a crutch to avoid the hard work of leading lives
  • 00:09:13.769 --> 00:09:17.707
  • That honor the lord.
  • 00:09:17.707 --> 00:09:19.942
  • Whenever he returns the best possible circumstance for every
  • 00:09:19.942 --> 00:09:23.846
  • One of us is to be fully engaged in doing his business.
  • 00:09:23.846 --> 00:09:33.456
  • The distraction or the diminishment of the church was
  • 00:09:33.456 --> 00:09:36.325
  • An essential first step into this abyss where we find
  • 00:09:36.325 --> 00:09:39.462
  • Ourselves and it is an abyss.
  • 00:09:39.462 --> 00:09:42.031
  • There are expressions of darkness around us that are
  • 00:09:42.031 --> 00:09:44.700
  • Impossible to believe.
  • 00:09:44.700 --> 00:09:46.102
  • It is difficult to get your brain to accept the facts that
  • 00:09:46.102 --> 00:09:49.438
  • Are being presented to you.
  • 00:09:49.438 --> 00:09:51.841
  • Presenting pornographic material to our elementary children in
  • 00:09:51.841 --> 00:09:55.344
  • School libraries and defending it, it's difficult to get your
  • 00:09:55.344 --> 00:09:58.381
  • Brain to acknowledge it.
  • 00:09:58.381 --> 00:10:00.349
  • We are several decades into these pursuits.
  • 00:10:00.349 --> 00:10:04.320
  • And surprisingly, the outcome has not been more freedom,
  • 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:10.993
  • Because that after all has been the promise.
  • 00:10:10.993 --> 00:10:14.096
  • And just a bit of careful observation reveals, we are
  • 00:10:14.096 --> 00:10:16.899
  • Sliding further and further under the authoritarian
  • 00:10:16.899 --> 00:10:19.502
  • Domination of a few.
  • 00:10:19.502 --> 00:10:23.072
  • The message that we hear promises us freedom.
  • 00:10:23.072 --> 00:10:27.843
  • And it's a message that cascades over us.
  • 00:10:27.843 --> 00:10:31.414
  • I mean, it is celebrated in the streets.
  • 00:10:31.414 --> 00:10:33.315
  • We have the freedom to do things we didn't have before.
  • 00:10:33.315 --> 00:10:36.152
  • We have the freedom to deny our biological sex.
  • 00:10:36.152 --> 00:10:38.754
  • We have the freedom to kneel when the national anthem
  • 00:10:38.754 --> 00:10:40.923
  • Is played.
  • 00:10:40.923 --> 00:10:42.258
  • We have the freedom to identify as a female on that particular
  • 00:10:42.258 --> 00:10:46.395
  • Day and walk into the women's locker room.
  • 00:10:46.395 --> 00:10:49.265
  • We've been promised some freedom.
  • 00:10:49.265 --> 00:10:53.869
  • You know the promises, freedom from debt.
  • 00:10:53.869 --> 00:10:58.641
  • We'll just forgive your loans.
  • 00:10:58.641 --> 00:11:01.010
  • Freedom from the worries of sickness and disease because
  • 00:11:01.010 --> 00:11:03.813
  • Everybody deserves free health care.
  • 00:11:03.813 --> 00:11:05.781
  • Freedom from competition because everybody should have an
  • 00:11:05.781 --> 00:11:08.350
  • Equitable outcome.
  • 00:11:08.350 --> 00:11:13.155
  • The shocking part is in spite of all the promises of greater
  • 00:11:13.155 --> 00:11:16.158
  • Freedom, we have less liberty and choice.
  • 00:11:16.158 --> 00:11:20.496
  • We have relegated god, and i mean this to god's people.
  • 00:11:20.496 --> 00:11:23.265
  • Those of us who gather in churches too frequently, we have
  • 00:11:23.265 --> 00:11:26.535
  • Relegated god to a secondary place, or maybe even forgotten
  • 00:11:26.535 --> 00:11:31.240
  • Them all together.
  • 00:11:31.240 --> 00:11:33.175
  • After all, we don't really have to gather together anymore.
  • 00:11:33.175 --> 00:11:36.278
  • It's an old fashioned idea.
  • 00:11:36.278 --> 00:11:39.515
  • So i want to reintroduce to you an idea that has shaped the
  • 00:11:39.515 --> 00:11:42.017
  • People of god from the beginning of the story.
  • 00:11:42.017 --> 00:11:45.988
  • We're going to learn to do difficult because life is more
  • 00:11:45.988 --> 00:11:49.992
  • Difficult than we would like.
  • 00:11:49.992 --> 00:11:51.360
  • Challenges come, problems emerge, families aren't perfect,
  • 00:11:51.360 --> 00:11:56.332
  • Evil exists, that's the journey we're on.
  • 00:11:56.332 --> 00:12:01.036
  • And if we're willing to do difficult, we can extend a hand
  • 00:12:01.036 --> 00:12:03.305
  • To one another and say, i'll walk with you for a season when
  • 00:12:03.305 --> 00:12:05.741
  • Your strength is small.
  • 00:12:05.741 --> 00:12:07.843
  • And you'll be able to return the favor in another time when using
  • 00:12:07.843 --> 00:12:10.880
  • Somebody in your sphere of influence is wobbling a bit, and
  • 00:12:10.880 --> 00:12:14.250
  • You can come alongside them and say,
  • 00:12:14.250 --> 00:12:16.619
  • May i walk with you for a bit?
  • 00:12:16.619 --> 00:12:18.721
  • We don't have to have the solution or an immediate answer.
  • 00:12:18.721 --> 00:12:21.123
  • We can't always take away the pain, or the brokenness in our
  • 00:12:21.123 --> 00:12:23.959
  • Hearts, or the grief we feel, but we can walk together.
  • 00:12:23.959 --> 00:12:29.298
  • It's a biblical notion.
  • 00:12:29.298 --> 00:12:31.801
  • I know that seems bizarre.
  • 00:12:31.801 --> 00:12:34.937
  • I wanna start maybe with the most obvious verse, somebody's
  • 00:12:34.937 --> 00:12:37.573
  • Already mentioned it to me, and i thought we might as well
  • 00:12:37.573 --> 00:12:39.241
  • Get it on the table early.
  • 00:12:39.241 --> 00:12:41.043
  • It's jesus, matthew 11.
  • 00:12:41.043 --> 00:12:43.345
  • Somebody quoted it to me.
  • 00:12:43.345 --> 00:12:45.414
  • Actually, i knew it was there, but thank you.
  • 00:12:45.414 --> 00:12:49.218
  • Jesus said, "come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and
  • 00:12:49.218 --> 00:12:52.021
  • I'll give you rest.
  • 00:12:52.021 --> 00:12:53.355
  • And take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for i am gentle
  • 00:12:53.355 --> 00:12:56.058
  • And humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
  • 00:12:56.058 --> 00:12:59.195
  • For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
  • 00:12:59.195 --> 00:13:07.803
  • Most of us know that verse, i preached that verse.
  • 00:13:07.803 --> 00:13:10.172
  • I have taught it, i've built it in the series.
  • 00:13:10.172 --> 00:13:12.775
  • It's important, it's true.
  • 00:13:12.775 --> 00:13:14.176
  • I believe it.
  • 00:13:14.176 --> 00:13:15.544
  • Jesus is extending an invitation.
  • 00:13:15.544 --> 00:13:18.147
  • But i think to understand it better, we need a little bit
  • 00:13:18.147 --> 00:13:21.917
  • Of context.
  • 00:13:21.917 --> 00:13:23.819
  • How would jesus audience have understood that message?
  • 00:13:23.819 --> 00:13:27.590
  • How would matthew have understood that message when he
  • 00:13:27.590 --> 00:13:29.792
  • Put it down as a part of jesus's message to us who would read it
  • 00:13:29.792 --> 00:13:33.028
  • Generations later?
  • 00:13:33.028 --> 00:13:34.396
  • By the time matthew recorded it, he knew jesus had been tortured
  • 00:13:34.396 --> 00:13:37.533
  • To death on a roman cross.
  • 00:13:37.533 --> 00:13:40.703
  • He'd been betrayed by friends.
  • 00:13:40.703 --> 00:13:42.972
  • He'd been abandoned by all who were close to him.
  • 00:13:42.972 --> 00:13:46.942
  • And ultimately, he suffocated to death alone.
  • 00:13:46.942 --> 00:13:51.881
  • So matthew understood jesus words about an easy yoke and a
  • 00:13:51.881 --> 00:13:54.917
  • Light burden in some very personal ways that don't just
  • 00:13:54.917 --> 00:13:59.521
  • Leap off the page if you're just looking for the easy button.
  • 00:13:59.521 --> 00:14:04.360
  • It seems to me that jesus is suggesting, he's not just
  • 00:14:04.360 --> 00:14:06.762
  • Suggesting, he says it, that we have to take his yoke upon us,
  • 00:14:06.762 --> 00:14:10.332
  • That obedience lightens the load.
  • 00:14:10.332 --> 00:14:14.370
  • And if you're looking for a first component in flourishing
  • 00:14:14.370 --> 00:14:17.172
  • When you're given a difficult assignment, i would submit to
  • 00:14:17.172 --> 00:14:19.842
  • You that you make an unyielding commitment to the obedience to
  • 00:14:19.842 --> 00:14:22.878
  • The truth that you know.
  • 00:14:22.878 --> 00:14:24.246
  • Just do what you know.
  • 00:14:24.246 --> 00:14:26.248
  • We don't know at all.
  • 00:14:26.248 --> 00:14:27.583
  • We're still learning.
  • 00:14:27.583 --> 00:14:28.951
  • I hope we're still growing.
  • 00:14:28.951 --> 00:14:30.286
  • I hope we're gaining greater clarity on the character of
  • 00:14:30.286 --> 00:14:31.687
  • God and the nature of god, and what it means to honor god,
  • 00:14:31.687 --> 00:14:34.823
  • But live obedient to what you know.
  • 00:14:34.823 --> 00:14:37.259
  • Forgive the people you know you need to forgive.
  • 00:14:37.259 --> 00:14:40.429
  • Be kind to those you know to be kind to.
  • 00:14:40.429 --> 00:14:43.432
  • Maintain the moral boundaries that you know, are right or
  • 00:14:43.432 --> 00:14:45.601
  • Wrong, no matter what phd says, they don't count anymore.
  • 00:14:45.601 --> 00:14:51.974
  • Allen: hey we have a tool that i think will help you
  • 00:14:56.011 --> 00:14:57.713
  • Overcome some of the chaos in the world
  • 00:14:57.713 --> 00:14:59.448
  • And stay focused on the good things that god is doing.
  • 00:14:59.448 --> 00:15:02.885
  • It's called, "awaken us."
  • 00:15:02.885 --> 00:15:04.320
  • It's a 30 day plan.
  • 00:15:04.320 --> 00:15:06.221
  • Each day's got a scripture, a little devotional,
  • 00:15:06.221 --> 00:15:08.857
  • A prayer that goes with a specific topic
  • 00:15:08.857 --> 00:15:11.360
  • To awaken us to god's promise and provision in this season.
  • 00:15:11.360 --> 00:15:16.398
  • God's moving in the earth, i wanna move with him.
  • 00:15:16.398 --> 00:15:18.867
  • And i believe this tool will help you be prepared
  • 00:15:18.867 --> 00:15:21.503
  • To capitalize on god's invitations in your life.
  • 00:15:21.503 --> 00:15:25.341
  • Female announcer: "awaken us" delivers 30 days
  • 00:15:25.407 --> 00:15:27.276
  • Of prayer, scripture and insight from pastor allen
  • 00:15:27.276 --> 00:15:30.312
  • On relevant topics.
  • 00:15:30.312 --> 00:15:31.981
  • Each day is designed to sharpen your focus
  • 00:15:31.981 --> 00:15:34.249
  • As you ask god to show you his heart
  • 00:15:34.249 --> 00:15:36.418
  • And his truth in a new way.
  • 00:15:36.418 --> 00:15:38.687
  • With the holy spirit's help, this book will awaken you
  • 00:15:38.687 --> 00:15:41.557
  • To the impact your life has on the world
  • 00:15:41.557 --> 00:15:43.792
  • And those around you.
  • 00:15:43.792 --> 00:15:45.361
  • Start your journey today by requesting "awaken us,"
  • 00:15:45.361 --> 00:15:47.997
  • When you donate any amount at allenjackson.com
  • 00:15:47.997 --> 00:15:51.166
  • Or by calling ...
  • 00:15:51.166 --> 00:15:55.204
  • Allen: you know, i have discovered that doing
  • 00:15:56.338 --> 00:15:58.207
  • What you're told, lightens the load of the assignment.
  • 00:15:58.207 --> 00:16:03.579
  • I'll tell you what, i learned that in a very unusual way and i
  • 00:16:03.579 --> 00:16:05.814
  • Was far further along in life before i got it.
  • 00:16:05.814 --> 00:16:10.152
  • Some years ago, i went to the doctor for a routine checkup and
  • 00:16:10.152 --> 00:16:12.955
  • He said there was way too much of me.
  • 00:16:12.955 --> 00:16:17.393
  • I considered another doctor that was more appreciative of my
  • 00:16:17.393 --> 00:16:22.064
  • Diminished height.
  • 00:16:22.064 --> 00:16:25.968
  • But instead i went to the gym and decided i would pay somebody
  • 00:16:25.968 --> 00:16:31.306
  • To help me work out.
  • 00:16:31.306 --> 00:16:34.243
  • And they gave me this perky little 20 something person.
  • 00:16:34.243 --> 00:16:39.081
  • And the first day i went into the gym, he said to me, we have
  • 00:16:39.081 --> 00:16:42.017
  • To do an evaluation.
  • 00:16:42.017 --> 00:16:43.352
  • And i thought, well, that's reasonable enough.
  • 00:16:43.352 --> 00:16:45.087
  • What i didn't understand that he was going to put me in the
  • 00:16:45.087 --> 00:16:46.855
  • Middle of the gym with everybody watching, and put me through a
  • 00:16:46.855 --> 00:16:51.193
  • Series of exercises until i failed.
  • 00:16:51.193 --> 00:16:54.630
  • So i got to fail in a very public way, at a very
  • 00:16:54.630 --> 00:16:58.700
  • Embarrassingly low threshold.
  • 00:16:58.700 --> 00:17:04.206
  • You're afraid to laugh because i may send you.
  • 00:17:04.206 --> 00:17:09.111
  • But something happened over the course of that.
  • 00:17:09.111 --> 00:17:11.847
  • I found, because i've been active my whole life.
  • 00:17:11.847 --> 00:17:15.484
  • I mean, you don't need the biography, but i
  • 00:17:15.484 --> 00:17:20.089
  • Discovered something.
  • 00:17:20.089 --> 00:17:21.423
  • If i go to the gym, and i made the appointment number one.
  • 00:17:21.423 --> 00:17:23.225
  • If i made the appointment, i was more, far more likely to keep
  • 00:17:23.225 --> 00:17:25.360
  • The effort.
  • 00:17:25.360 --> 00:17:26.995
  • And when i showed up, i didn't have to decide what to do, he
  • 00:17:26.995 --> 00:17:28.964
  • Just told me.
  • 00:17:28.964 --> 00:17:30.599
  • You're gonna do this many reps with that much weight, and i
  • 00:17:30.599 --> 00:17:32.768
  • Think, you and god think that's possible.
  • 00:17:32.768 --> 00:17:39.374
  • But it changed the nature of my routine.
  • 00:17:39.374 --> 00:17:42.811
  • It didn't require me to go in with the self determination, and
  • 00:17:42.811 --> 00:17:46.615
  • The self control, and the commitment.
  • 00:17:46.615 --> 00:17:48.884
  • I simply said, what's the assignment?
  • 00:17:48.884 --> 00:17:50.419
  • And he handed me assignment, and i'd go do it.
  • 00:17:50.419 --> 00:17:54.690
  • And i got to an outcome far more quickly, than you left it to me,
  • 00:17:54.690 --> 00:17:58.660
  • Because today, you know, i don't feel great, and my shoulder is a
  • 00:17:58.660 --> 00:18:00.829
  • Little sore and it's humid.
  • 00:18:00.829 --> 00:18:03.866
  • And when it's humid it slows down your o2 pick up.
  • 00:18:03.866 --> 00:18:07.803
  • So i probably don't want to do any real excessive cardio today.
  • 00:18:07.803 --> 00:18:12.574
  • And i heard that it snowed in ohio.
  • 00:18:12.574 --> 00:18:16.778
  • I think i'll go get a doughnut.
  • 00:18:16.778 --> 00:18:22.451
  • Obedience to instruction changed the entire nature of
  • 00:18:22.451 --> 00:18:27.122
  • The relationship.
  • 00:18:27.122 --> 00:18:29.324
  • Same building, same equipment, but i got a completely
  • 00:18:29.324 --> 00:18:31.560
  • Different outcome.
  • 00:18:31.560 --> 00:18:33.428
  • And for far too long, we've been coming to church and we've been
  • 00:18:33.428 --> 00:18:36.231
  • Doing it as if we were the determiner of what
  • 00:18:36.231 --> 00:18:38.467
  • Obedience was.
  • 00:18:38.467 --> 00:18:40.736
  • And if you didn't like the preacher, you think, well, you
  • 00:18:40.736 --> 00:18:42.371
  • Know, i think i don't agree with him.
  • 00:18:42.371 --> 00:18:45.040
  • And then something you should know is i'm not the judge.
  • 00:18:45.040 --> 00:18:48.744
  • When you stand before god, i will not be standing there
  • 00:18:48.744 --> 00:18:52.648
  • Marking boxes.
  • 00:18:52.648 --> 00:18:55.851
  • You won't be held accountable to whether i did a good job of
  • 00:18:55.851 --> 00:18:58.053
  • Presenting or a poor job.
  • 00:18:58.053 --> 00:18:59.688
  • Whether i taught you the whole council of the word of god or
  • 00:18:59.688 --> 00:19:02.424
  • Not, i'll have to own that.
  • 00:19:02.424 --> 00:19:05.294
  • You'll be accountable for obedience to the truth that you
  • 00:19:05.294 --> 00:19:08.564
  • Know, and it will change the nature of your relationship with
  • 00:19:08.564 --> 00:19:12.634
  • The lord, if you will say to him, i'm in.
  • 00:19:12.634 --> 00:19:18.073
  • And unless you accept the jesus yoke, unless you accept that
  • 00:19:18.073 --> 00:19:21.443
  • Obedience, there is no rest.
  • 00:19:21.443 --> 00:19:25.280
  • Now, that's biblical.
  • 00:19:25.280 --> 00:19:27.516
  • In hebrews chapter 3, the book of hebrews is written to a
  • 00:19:27.516 --> 00:19:31.186
  • Jewish community that are scattered around the
  • 00:19:31.186 --> 00:19:33.288
  • Roman empire.
  • 00:19:33.288 --> 00:19:34.623
  • So the author of hebrews presupposes his audience
  • 00:19:34.623 --> 00:19:38.193
  • Understands the hebrew bible, the feasts, the rules and
  • 00:19:38.193 --> 00:19:43.865
  • Regulations of the mosaic law.
  • 00:19:43.865 --> 00:19:45.367
  • All of those things are just included in the book of hebrews.
  • 00:19:45.367 --> 00:19:49.605
  • It's a given.
  • 00:19:49.605 --> 00:19:50.939
  • So in hebrews chapter 3 says, "who were those who heard
  • 00:19:50.939 --> 00:19:53.709
  • And rebelled?"
  • 00:19:53.709 --> 00:19:55.043
  • He's talking about a particular generation of people who
  • 00:19:55.043 --> 00:19:57.512
  • Uniquely rebelled.
  • 00:19:57.512 --> 00:19:58.847
  • We are a race of rebels, but this particular generation got
  • 00:19:58.847 --> 00:20:01.783
  • Called out in scripture as being the ultimate generation
  • 00:20:01.783 --> 00:20:06.355
  • Of rebellion.
  • 00:20:06.355 --> 00:20:07.689
  • Wouldn't you love to make the book that way?
  • 00:20:07.689 --> 00:20:10.158
  • "were they not all those moses led out of egypt?"
  • 00:20:10.158 --> 00:20:14.496
  • It's the exodus generation, "and with whom was god angry for
  • 00:20:14.496 --> 00:20:19.701
  • Forty years?
  • 00:20:19.701 --> 00:20:21.036
  • Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in
  • 00:20:21.036 --> 00:20:23.305
  • The desert?
  • 00:20:23.305 --> 00:20:24.673
  • And to whom did god swear that they would never enter his rest
  • 00:20:24.673 --> 00:20:29.478
  • If not to those who disobeyed?"
  • 00:20:29.478 --> 00:20:31.346
  • There's a connection between obedience and god's rest.
  • 00:20:31.346 --> 00:20:35.584
  • So we see that they were not able to enter because of
  • 00:20:35.584 --> 00:20:39.621
  • Their unbelief.
  • 00:20:39.621 --> 00:20:42.057
  • Now, that little passage in the book of hebrews, that's a new
  • 00:20:42.057 --> 00:20:45.193
  • Testament book.
  • 00:20:45.193 --> 00:20:46.528
  • If you don't know, is a new testament commentary on the
  • 00:20:46.528 --> 00:20:51.033
  • Events of the old testament.
  • 00:20:51.033 --> 00:20:54.670
  • So we can read several 100 years after the fact what the current
  • 00:20:54.670 --> 00:20:59.574
  • Jewish thought was on their family, because that was family
  • 00:20:59.574 --> 00:21:05.213
  • In the desert.
  • 00:21:05.213 --> 00:21:06.581
  • It gives us insight into how they had come to understand
  • 00:21:06.581 --> 00:21:09.584
  • Their history, how they understood the story
  • 00:21:09.584 --> 00:21:12.688
  • Of scripture.
  • 00:21:12.688 --> 00:21:15.424
  • Now, with that little bit of background, i want to go back
  • 00:21:15.424 --> 00:21:17.459
  • And read the original account we have in the book of numbers.
  • 00:21:17.459 --> 00:21:20.762
  • This is the exodus generation.
  • 00:21:20.762 --> 00:21:22.264
  • They began their lives as slaves in the brick pits of egypt.
  • 00:21:22.264 --> 00:21:27.703
  • They've been that way for hundreds of years.
  • 00:21:27.703 --> 00:21:30.505
  • They cried out to god and he heard them, he came and
  • 00:21:30.505 --> 00:21:33.575
  • Recruited moses.
  • 00:21:33.575 --> 00:21:34.943
  • Moses didn't want anything to do with this.
  • 00:21:34.943 --> 00:21:36.611
  • And god said, i have heard, it's exodus 3, you can check.
  • 00:21:36.611 --> 00:21:39.181
  • It's not in your notes, but he said, i have heard the cries of
  • 00:21:39.181 --> 00:21:41.850
  • My people and i've come down to deliver them and i'm
  • 00:21:41.850 --> 00:21:44.586
  • Sending you.
  • 00:21:44.586 --> 00:21:46.788
  • So god was aware of this particular generation of people
  • 00:21:46.788 --> 00:21:50.692
  • And he sent the leadership they would need and all the displays
  • 00:21:50.692 --> 00:21:53.862
  • Of his power necessary for them to be delivered from slavery,
  • 00:21:53.862 --> 00:21:57.165
  • Generational slavery.
  • 00:21:57.165 --> 00:22:01.036
  • And the promise was, i'm gonna bring you out of egypt and bring
  • 00:22:01.036 --> 00:22:04.005
  • You into a land that flows with milk and honey.
  • 00:22:04.005 --> 00:22:07.109
  • That was the bargain.
  • 00:22:07.109 --> 00:22:08.477
  • The the interim was really just kind of thrown in.
  • 00:22:08.477 --> 00:22:12.047
  • I'm gonna bring you out of here and i'm gonna
  • 00:22:12.047 --> 00:22:13.648
  • Bring you into a land.
  • 00:22:13.648 --> 00:22:14.983
  • That was the bargain, we're coming out and we're going in.
  • 00:22:14.983 --> 00:22:17.119
  • God never delivers us without the intent to bring us
  • 00:22:17.119 --> 00:22:19.855
  • Into something.
  • 00:22:19.855 --> 00:22:22.090
  • Some of us had mistakenly thought, you know, we were
  • 00:22:22.090 --> 00:22:23.992
  • Delivered from a life of sin so we could be set free to do
  • 00:22:23.992 --> 00:22:26.962
  • Whatever we want.
  • 00:22:26.962 --> 00:22:28.296
  • That's really a mistaken understanding of the nature of
  • 00:22:28.296 --> 00:22:30.265
  • The covenant.
  • 00:22:30.265 --> 00:22:31.633
  • We were delivered from the kingdom of darkness so that we
  • 00:22:31.633 --> 00:22:33.335
  • Could be brought into the kingdom of light.
  • 00:22:33.335 --> 00:22:36.104
  • That we could live as the people of god.
  • 00:22:36.104 --> 00:22:38.573
  • If you don't want to live as the people of god in your journey
  • 00:22:38.573 --> 00:22:41.376
  • Through time, why would you want to spend eternity with him?
  • 00:22:41.376 --> 00:22:46.148
  • If you think being godly is oppressive, and diminishing, and
  • 00:22:46.148 --> 00:22:49.317
  • Is gonna take things from you, why would you trust him
  • 00:22:49.317 --> 00:22:52.521
  • With eternity?
  • 00:22:52.521 --> 00:22:55.257
  • God brought them out of slavery to bring them into the promised
  • 00:22:55.257 --> 00:22:58.527
  • Land, in the same way the scripture tells us, that he
  • 00:22:58.527 --> 00:23:00.529
  • Brought us out of the kingdom of darkness to bring us into the
  • 00:23:00.529 --> 00:23:03.198
  • Kingdom of the son he loves.
  • 00:23:03.198 --> 00:23:05.634
  • So they've made the journey, they've seen all the plagues,
  • 00:23:05.634 --> 00:23:08.203
  • The red sea is parted.
  • 00:23:08.203 --> 00:23:10.205
  • They've eaten manna that they pick up six days a week.
  • 00:23:10.205 --> 00:23:13.809
  • Their enemies have been defeated.
  • 00:23:13.809 --> 00:23:15.177
  • There's no sick people amongst them.
  • 00:23:15.177 --> 00:23:17.612
  • I mean, they are truly living a supernatural existence, and they
  • 00:23:17.612 --> 00:23:22.083
  • Get to the jordan river and they decide that they'll send spies
  • 00:23:22.083 --> 00:23:25.020
  • In, they'll do their due diligence.
  • 00:23:25.020 --> 00:23:26.788
  • They'll go search out the land before they begin the conquest.
  • 00:23:26.788 --> 00:23:30.892
  • And they choose a leader from each of the 12 tribes, and the
  • 00:23:30.892 --> 00:23:33.094
  • 12 men come back.
  • 00:23:33.094 --> 00:23:36.131
  • And two, they all say it's an amazing place.
  • 00:23:36.131 --> 00:23:40.535
  • It's a very fruitful place, it's an amazing place.
  • 00:23:40.535 --> 00:23:43.839
  • But 10 of them say it looks like a pretty tough lift.
  • 00:23:43.839 --> 00:23:48.009
  • And two of the spies said, no, we can do this.
  • 00:23:48.009 --> 00:23:50.846
  • And that's what you have in numbers, "they gave moses this
  • 00:23:50.846 --> 00:23:53.515
  • Account: 'we went into the land to which you sent us, and it
  • 00:23:53.515 --> 00:23:57.319
  • Does flow with milk and honey!
  • 00:23:57.319 --> 00:23:59.087
  • Here's its fruit.'"
  • 00:23:59.087 --> 00:24:00.856
  • They brought it back, "but the people who live there are
  • 00:24:00.856 --> 00:24:04.893
  • Powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.
  • 00:24:04.893 --> 00:24:10.031
  • And we've seen the descendants of anak there," giants.
  • 00:24:10.031 --> 00:24:15.704
  • "the amalekites live in the negev, and the hittites, and
  • 00:24:15.704 --> 00:24:18.273
  • The jebusites and the amorites, they live in the hill country."
  • 00:24:18.273 --> 00:24:21.910
  • You better call orkin, "and the canaanites live near the sea and
  • 00:24:21.910 --> 00:24:27.082
  • Along the jordan."
  • 00:24:27.082 --> 00:24:29.017
  • There's people in the land, "and caleb silenced the people before
  • 00:24:29.017 --> 00:24:33.188
  • Moses and said, 'we should go up and take possession of the land,
  • 00:24:33.188 --> 00:24:35.690
  • For we can certainly do it.'
  • 00:24:35.690 --> 00:24:37.826
  • But the men who'd gone up with him said, 'we cannot attack
  • 00:24:37.826 --> 00:24:40.695
  • Those people; they're stronger than we are.'
  • 00:24:40.695 --> 00:24:43.999
  • And they spread among the israelites a bad report about
  • 00:24:43.999 --> 00:24:46.735
  • The land that they had explored.
  • 00:24:46.735 --> 00:24:48.069
  • And they said, 'the land we explored devours those living
  • 00:24:48.069 --> 00:24:50.505
  • In it.
  • 00:24:50.505 --> 00:24:51.873
  • All the people we saw are of great size.'"
  • 00:24:51.873 --> 00:24:55.944
  • Now i'm gonna submit to you that this passage would have been in
  • 00:24:55.944 --> 00:24:59.581
  • The minds of those people that jesus was addressing in matthew
  • 00:24:59.581 --> 00:25:02.617
  • When he talked about rest.
  • 00:25:02.617 --> 00:25:05.453
  • Because the ultimate example of rest in the mind of the hebrew
  • 00:25:05.453 --> 00:25:09.090
  • People at that point comes from that penultimate invitation to
  • 00:25:09.090 --> 00:25:14.162
  • Rest in their promised land.
  • 00:25:14.162 --> 00:25:16.898
  • God's commitment to them when he delivered them from slavery.
  • 00:25:16.898 --> 00:25:21.303
  • And to affirm my opinion, because it's my opinion is the
  • 00:25:21.303 --> 00:25:24.139
  • Passage from hebrews, because in hebrews, hundreds of years after
  • 00:25:24.139 --> 00:25:27.342
  • The fact in the first century, they wrote to the jewish
  • 00:25:27.342 --> 00:25:29.544
  • Community spread around the roman world, that, that was the
  • 00:25:29.544 --> 00:25:32.547
  • Most rebellious generation on record because they refused the
  • 00:25:32.547 --> 00:25:35.984
  • Rest that god offered them.
  • 00:25:35.984 --> 00:25:40.655
  • So that when jesus talked to us about easy and light, he's not
  • 00:25:40.655 --> 00:25:45.193
  • Talking to us about the absence of conflict, or the complete
  • 00:25:45.193 --> 00:25:49.230
  • Elimination of resistance, because jesus's life was filled
  • 00:25:49.230 --> 00:25:51.967
  • With that.
  • 00:25:51.967 --> 00:25:54.769
  • There's something else involved.
  • 00:25:54.769 --> 00:25:57.505
  • The one message jesus gave repeatedly and i didn't bring
  • 00:25:57.505 --> 00:25:59.841
  • You all the references.
  • 00:25:59.841 --> 00:26:01.176
  • It's beyond a single lesson, but that he was committed to do the
  • 00:26:01.176 --> 00:26:03.678
  • Will of the father, to do what god had sent him to do, that he
  • 00:26:03.678 --> 00:26:06.014
  • Was on an assignment.
  • 00:26:06.014 --> 00:26:07.349
  • I hope you and i can live with the awareness that we're on a
  • 00:26:07.349 --> 00:26:09.517
  • God assignment.
  • 00:26:09.517 --> 00:26:13.955
  • Allen: hey we have a tool that we think will help
  • 00:26:17.993 --> 00:26:20.495
  • Strengthen you in this season.
  • 00:26:20.495 --> 00:26:22.297
  • A lot of confusion and chaos in our world,
  • 00:26:22.297 --> 00:26:24.065
  • A lot of fear.
  • 00:26:24.065 --> 00:26:25.467
  • I hear from people every day battling in their minds,
  • 00:26:25.467 --> 00:26:28.403
  • In their lives with the uncertainty of our world.
  • 00:26:28.403 --> 00:26:31.706
  • Well, it's a booklet called "awaken us."
  • 00:26:31.706 --> 00:26:33.274
  • It's a 30 day plan, every day has a theme with a scripture,
  • 00:26:33.274 --> 00:26:36.411
  • A little devotional, and a prayer for that specific theme.
  • 00:26:36.411 --> 00:26:39.914
  • The idea is that every day we're gonna ask the spirit of god
  • 00:26:39.914 --> 00:26:42.684
  • To awaken us to a new aspect of god's provision in our lives.
  • 00:26:42.684 --> 00:26:47.656
  • You know, hopefully we wake up everyday to the opportunities
  • 00:26:47.656 --> 00:26:50.525
  • And the challenges of that day.
  • 00:26:50.525 --> 00:26:52.627
  • Well, this is gonna correspond to that.
  • 00:26:52.627 --> 00:26:54.029
  • We're gonna ask the spirit of god to awaken us
  • 00:26:54.029 --> 00:26:56.064
  • To what god is doing in this season.
  • 00:26:56.064 --> 00:26:58.867
  • We're not alone and we don't have to be overcome by fear.
  • 00:26:58.867 --> 00:27:02.137
  • Let's pray.
  • 00:27:02.137 --> 00:27:03.471
  • Father, i thank you that there's nothing
  • 00:27:03.471 --> 00:27:05.140
  • That confronts us that intimidates
  • 00:27:05.140 --> 00:27:07.108
  • Or threatens you.
  • 00:27:07.108 --> 00:27:08.510
  • That you have made provision for complete victory
  • 00:27:08.510 --> 00:27:10.979
  • In every aspect of our lives.
  • 00:27:10.979 --> 00:27:13.014
  • Lead us now as we turn our faces to you
  • 00:27:13.014 --> 00:27:15.750
  • To a season of peace and hope and wholeness
  • 00:27:15.750 --> 00:27:18.386
  • In jesus's name, amen.
  • 00:27:18.386 --> 00:27:20.755
  • This book, it'll be a blessing.
  • 00:27:20.755 --> 00:27:27.395