1. TBN
  2. Programs
  3. Allen Jackson Ministries
  4. Episodes
  5. Allen Jackson - The Challenge of Belief (Part 1)
Allen Jackson Ministries

Allen Jackson - The Challenge of Belief (Part 1)

May 10, 2025 | 27:29

Allen Jackson - The Challenge of Belief (Part 1)
Pastor Allen Jackson's mission is to help people become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
#Salvation #Faith #TrustGod #Challenges #Christianity #Religion #Jesus #Choices #Belief #AllenJackson #HeavenlyFather #Unbelief

Closed captions

Show Timecode
Allen Jackson Ministries | Allen Jackson - The Challenge of Belief (Part 1) | May 10, 2025
  • ...
  • 00:00:00.633 --> 00:00:00.325
  • Allen jackson: it's good to be with you again.
  • 00:00:05.564 --> 00:00:07.099
  • You know, we're walking through a season of some pretty
  • 00:00:07.099 --> 00:00:09.635
  • Unprecedented turmoil.
  • 00:00:09.635 --> 00:00:11.737
  • There are cars burning and car dealerships burning, and there
  • 00:00:11.737 --> 00:00:15.541
  • Are judges.
  • 00:00:15.541 --> 00:00:16.875
  • There's just a lot of stuff.
  • 00:00:16.875 --> 00:00:18.944
  • Well, i'm really excited about our offer this month.
  • 00:00:18.944 --> 00:00:20.746
  • In fact, we chose it because i think it will bring you a
  • 00:00:20.746 --> 00:00:23.382
  • Pathway of stability in the midst of all the turmoil.
  • 00:00:23.382 --> 00:00:26.985
  • It's written by a good friend of mine, rob morgan, "the lord is
  • 00:00:26.985 --> 00:00:29.488
  • My shepherd."
  • 00:00:29.488 --> 00:00:30.923
  • And it seems to me we need to know the tranquility that comes
  • 00:00:30.923 --> 00:00:34.159
  • From a shepherd who is marking a path for us and then standing
  • 00:00:34.159 --> 00:00:37.596
  • Watch over us when we know there's predators about.
  • 00:00:37.596 --> 00:00:41.633
  • We're living in a predatory season.
  • 00:00:41.633 --> 00:00:43.535
  • We need to know the lord is a shepherd, and i believe this
  • 00:00:43.535 --> 00:00:47.005
  • Offer can make a real difference in your life.
  • 00:00:47.005 --> 00:00:48.807
  • In fact, it's important enough that we'll make it available for
  • 00:00:48.807 --> 00:00:51.543
  • A gift of any amount.
  • 00:00:51.543 --> 00:00:53.378
  • I think it's far more important that you have it in your hand
  • 00:00:53.378 --> 00:00:55.848
  • Than the cost attached to it.
  • 00:00:55.848 --> 00:00:57.549
  • God is moving in the earth, and we wanna move with him.
  • 00:00:57.549 --> 00:01:00.018
  • Our shepherd will lead us through.
  • 00:01:00.018 --> 00:01:02.054
  • You'll enjoy the book.
  • 00:01:02.054 --> 00:01:08.894
  • ♪♪♪
  • 00:01:12.231 --> 00:01:28.046
  • Allen: the topic for the message is "the challenge of belief."
  • 00:01:32.251 --> 00:01:37.089
  • You know, we live in an age where they tell us we're in a
  • 00:01:37.089 --> 00:01:39.057
  • Post-christian culture, that it's no longer chic to be a
  • 00:01:39.057 --> 00:01:43.028
  • Christ follower, that we've moved beyond the time when
  • 00:01:43.028 --> 00:01:46.665
  • Christian values influenced our world.
  • 00:01:46.665 --> 00:01:50.202
  • I think those making those pronouncements are a little too
  • 00:01:50.202 --> 00:01:52.404
  • Anxious to push god from the stage of human history.
  • 00:01:52.404 --> 00:01:56.909
  • I think they discount the authority of the kingdom of god.
  • 00:01:56.909 --> 00:02:01.180
  • They overlook the reality of the one that we call lord.
  • 00:02:01.180 --> 00:02:04.850
  • But i want to take a few minutes and invite you to a posture of
  • 00:02:04.850 --> 00:02:08.887
  • Belief beyond any that you've ever had before.
  • 00:02:08.887 --> 00:02:12.457
  • I want to invite you beyond just a belief that's personal, just
  • 00:02:12.457 --> 00:02:16.361
  • About your own individual destiny but into a belief that
  • 00:02:16.361 --> 00:02:19.665
  • Would change the direction of a family or a community or a whole
  • 00:02:19.665 --> 00:02:23.535
  • Family system.
  • 00:02:23.535 --> 00:02:25.604
  • God is in the life-transformation business,
  • 00:02:25.604 --> 00:02:28.507
  • And i'm going to walk with you if you'll just follow me.
  • 00:02:28.507 --> 00:02:30.242
  • We're going to go to matthew's gospel and walk with jesus as
  • 00:02:30.242 --> 00:02:33.245
  • He's preparing his disciples for his suffering.
  • 00:02:33.245 --> 00:02:36.882
  • He's going to begin to tell them weeks and weeks ahead of time,
  • 00:02:36.882 --> 00:02:39.484
  • Before they ever get to jerusalem, he's going to tell
  • 00:02:39.484 --> 00:02:41.186
  • Them what's coming.
  • 00:02:41.186 --> 00:02:42.554
  • In fact, in your notes i put multiple sections from the
  • 00:02:42.554 --> 00:02:44.723
  • Gospel of matthew.
  • 00:02:44.723 --> 00:02:46.058
  • There's four there where jesus is delivering the same message.
  • 00:02:46.058 --> 00:02:49.728
  • I'm not going to belabor the point, but i didn't want us to
  • 00:02:49.728 --> 00:02:51.997
  • Miss the frequency with which jesus--and the intentionality
  • 00:02:51.997 --> 00:02:55.400
  • With which he said to his disciples what was going to
  • 00:02:55.400 --> 00:02:58.136
  • Happen when he made this last trip to jerusalem.
  • 00:02:58.136 --> 00:03:01.440
  • They've been to jerusalem with him many times, and they
  • 00:03:01.440 --> 00:03:04.843
  • Experienced some tension.
  • 00:03:04.843 --> 00:03:06.211
  • They've had to go somewhat covertly.
  • 00:03:06.211 --> 00:03:07.879
  • They would slip in late if it was a season where there was a
  • 00:03:07.879 --> 00:03:10.215
  • Big crowd and they would--they had to be careful.
  • 00:03:10.215 --> 00:03:12.884
  • But this last time when they're going to jerusalem, they're
  • 00:03:12.884 --> 00:03:16.154
  • Going with pomp and circumstance.
  • 00:03:16.154 --> 00:03:17.756
  • They're going with a triumphal entry.
  • 00:03:17.756 --> 00:03:19.358
  • They're going with the great attention, and jesus begins to
  • 00:03:19.358 --> 00:03:22.694
  • Tell his disciples what's going to happen.
  • 00:03:22.694 --> 00:03:24.196
  • Look at matthew 16 and verse 21.
  • 00:03:24.196 --> 00:03:27.065
  • "from that time on jesus began to explain to his disciples that
  • 00:03:27.065 --> 00:03:31.303
  • He must go to jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands
  • 00:03:31.303 --> 00:03:34.740
  • Of the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the
  • 00:03:34.740 --> 00:03:37.042
  • Law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised
  • 00:03:37.042 --> 00:03:40.512
  • To life."
  • 00:03:40.512 --> 00:03:42.281
  • That's a pretty plain message.
  • 00:03:42.281 --> 00:03:44.216
  • It's not ambiguous.
  • 00:03:44.216 --> 00:03:46.151
  • There's nothing about it that is confusing.
  • 00:03:46.151 --> 00:03:48.387
  • He said, "i'm going to suffer many things when we get to
  • 00:03:48.387 --> 00:03:50.389
  • Jerusalem at the hands of the religious authorities, and
  • 00:03:50.389 --> 00:03:53.759
  • Ultimately they'll kill me and i'll be raised to life again."
  • 00:03:53.759 --> 00:03:57.996
  • It's a startling message.
  • 00:03:57.996 --> 00:03:59.331
  • This is the first time he said it that directly in
  • 00:03:59.331 --> 00:04:01.700
  • Matthew's gospel.
  • 00:04:01.700 --> 00:04:03.368
  • And peter when he hears it, he takes jesus aside and he begins
  • 00:04:03.368 --> 00:04:05.971
  • To rebuke him and he said, "never, lord.
  • 00:04:05.971 --> 00:04:08.106
  • This should never happen to you."
  • 00:04:08.106 --> 00:04:10.942
  • "and jesus turned to peter and said, 'get behind me, satan.
  • 00:04:10.942 --> 00:04:14.146
  • You're a stumbling block to me.
  • 00:04:14.146 --> 00:04:15.514
  • You don't have in mind the things of god, but the things
  • 00:04:15.514 --> 00:04:18.283
  • Of men.'"
  • 00:04:18.283 --> 00:04:19.885
  • But, you know, peter is an all-in disciple.
  • 00:04:19.885 --> 00:04:21.687
  • He's left his business.
  • 00:04:21.687 --> 00:04:23.088
  • He's reordered his life.
  • 00:04:23.088 --> 00:04:24.456
  • He's following jesus, and jesus looks at him
  • 00:04:24.456 --> 00:04:26.591
  • Three years into this.
  • 00:04:26.591 --> 00:04:28.093
  • He's not a beginner any longer.
  • 00:04:28.093 --> 00:04:29.795
  • He's walked on the water.
  • 00:04:29.795 --> 00:04:32.664
  • And jesus said to him, "you don't have in mind the things
  • 00:04:32.664 --> 00:04:35.867
  • Of god."
  • 00:04:35.867 --> 00:04:37.569
  • You know, it's possible for you and me to be way engaged in
  • 00:04:37.569 --> 00:04:41.306
  • Church life and religious life and still not have the things of
  • 00:04:41.306 --> 00:04:44.576
  • God in our mind.
  • 00:04:44.576 --> 00:04:47.012
  • But jesus is trying to tell his best friends, his closest
  • 00:04:47.012 --> 00:04:50.115
  • Associates what's coming.
  • 00:04:50.115 --> 00:04:51.650
  • Matthew 17, the very next chapter, "when they came
  • 00:04:51.650 --> 00:04:54.686
  • Together in galilee, he said to them, 'the son of man is going
  • 00:04:54.686 --> 00:04:57.689
  • To be betrayed into the hands of men.
  • 00:04:57.689 --> 00:04:59.858
  • They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised
  • 00:04:59.858 --> 00:05:02.160
  • To life.'
  • 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:03.628
  • And the disciples were filled with grief."
  • 00:05:03.628 --> 00:05:05.697
  • They heard him because they had an emotional response.
  • 00:05:05.697 --> 00:05:09.735
  • They heard his message and their response was one of grief.
  • 00:05:09.735 --> 00:05:14.740
  • So it isn't that it's gone over their head.
  • 00:05:14.740 --> 00:05:16.975
  • They're responding to him not only intellectually, they're
  • 00:05:16.975 --> 00:05:19.544
  • Responding to him emotionally.
  • 00:05:19.544 --> 00:05:21.313
  • That'll be more important in just a moment.
  • 00:05:21.313 --> 00:05:23.682
  • In matthew 20, "jesus was going up to jerusalem.
  • 00:05:23.682 --> 00:05:28.954
  • He took the twelve disciples aside and he said to them,
  • 00:05:28.954 --> 00:05:31.823
  • 'we're going up to jerusalem, and the son of man will betrayed
  • 00:05:31.823 --> 00:05:34.426
  • To the chief priests and the teachers of the law.
  • 00:05:34.426 --> 00:05:36.928
  • They'll condemn him to death and will turn him over to the
  • 00:05:36.928 --> 00:05:39.097
  • Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified.
  • 00:05:39.097 --> 00:05:42.067
  • On the third day he'll be raised to life.'"
  • 00:05:42.067 --> 00:05:45.670
  • This is the third time jesus has told them the very same message.
  • 00:05:45.670 --> 00:05:48.607
  • Is this a slow group?
  • 00:05:48.607 --> 00:05:52.611
  • Well, i mean, if you read the whole gospel, you might
  • 00:05:52.611 --> 00:05:54.479
  • Think so.
  • 00:05:54.479 --> 00:05:56.047
  • But it's unsettling--it's an unsettling message.
  • 00:05:56.047 --> 00:05:58.150
  • It's really an unimaginable message.
  • 00:05:58.150 --> 00:05:59.985
  • It's repeated again in matthew 26.
  • 00:05:59.985 --> 00:06:03.622
  • They're in jerusalem now.
  • 00:06:03.622 --> 00:06:06.324
  • It's the evening of the last supper.
  • 00:06:06.324 --> 00:06:07.826
  • "when evening came, jesus was reclining at
  • 00:06:07.826 --> 00:06:09.461
  • The table with the twelve.
  • 00:06:09.461 --> 00:06:10.796
  • And while they were eating, he said, 'i tell you the truth, one
  • 00:06:10.796 --> 00:06:12.998
  • Of you will betray me.'
  • 00:06:12.998 --> 00:06:15.100
  • And they were sad and they began to ask him, 'surely not i.'
  • 00:06:15.100 --> 00:06:20.105
  • And jesus said, 'no, it's the one who dips your bread into the
  • 00:06:20.105 --> 00:06:23.241
  • Bowl with me.'"
  • 00:06:23.241 --> 00:06:24.810
  • This is just matthew's gospel.
  • 00:06:24.810 --> 00:06:26.445
  • This isn't an overview of the four gospels, so there's no
  • 00:06:26.445 --> 00:06:29.414
  • Conflicting reports.
  • 00:06:29.414 --> 00:06:30.749
  • It's not multiple reports of the same scenario.
  • 00:06:30.749 --> 00:06:33.885
  • In this single gospel, multiple times jesus has most plainly
  • 00:06:33.885 --> 00:06:38.356
  • Told his disciples what awaited them on this last visit
  • 00:06:38.356 --> 00:06:41.526
  • To jerusalem.
  • 00:06:41.526 --> 00:06:44.262
  • His closest friends were clearly told, prepared, warned in
  • 00:06:44.262 --> 00:06:47.966
  • Matthew's gospel alone at least four times, and i assure you
  • 00:06:47.966 --> 00:06:51.536
  • There were multiple times beyond that.
  • 00:06:51.536 --> 00:06:53.538
  • As matthew was recording the gospel, i believe he repeats
  • 00:06:53.538 --> 00:06:56.441
  • That message because it left such an impact upon them that
  • 00:06:56.441 --> 00:07:00.011
  • Jesus told them repeatedly over and over and over again of
  • 00:07:00.011 --> 00:07:03.715
  • The--his passion that awaited them when they arrived
  • 00:07:03.715 --> 00:07:06.284
  • In jerusalem.
  • 00:07:06.284 --> 00:07:10.155
  • The startling part is the disciples don't seem to be able
  • 00:07:10.155 --> 00:07:13.825
  • To hold the idea.
  • 00:07:13.825 --> 00:07:16.561
  • If you allow me to give a bit of a diagnostic opinion from a
  • 00:07:16.561 --> 00:07:20.465
  • Couple thousand years removed, it seems to me that they are
  • 00:07:20.465 --> 00:07:22.968
  • Spiritually hearing impaired.
  • 00:07:22.968 --> 00:07:26.204
  • They hear the words, they can process the information, they
  • 00:07:26.204 --> 00:07:28.807
  • Even have emotional responses, but they're very limited in
  • 00:07:28.807 --> 00:07:32.077
  • Their ability to hear and to understand, and these are the
  • 00:07:32.077 --> 00:07:35.714
  • Best of the best.
  • 00:07:35.714 --> 00:07:37.082
  • This is peter and james and john.
  • 00:07:37.082 --> 00:07:38.483
  • He's going to entrust john with the book of revelation.
  • 00:07:38.483 --> 00:07:41.119
  • He's going to entrust peter with the leadership in the church in
  • 00:07:41.119 --> 00:07:43.622
  • Jerusalem in those early months and years after his ascension
  • 00:07:43.622 --> 00:07:47.092
  • Back to heaven.
  • 00:07:47.092 --> 00:07:49.127
  • They're his hand-chosen, selected recruits.
  • 00:07:49.127 --> 00:07:52.531
  • These aren't some disinterested--
  • 00:07:52.531 --> 00:07:54.299
  • This isn't the angry mob or the belligerent religious leaders.
  • 00:07:54.299 --> 00:07:58.036
  • These are his best friends, and they're having a great deal of
  • 00:07:58.036 --> 00:08:00.972
  • Trouble processing what he's saying to them.
  • 00:08:00.972 --> 00:08:04.242
  • So i have a question for you.
  • 00:08:04.242 --> 00:08:06.978
  • Do you think there's any possibility that you and i might
  • 00:08:06.978 --> 00:08:10.115
  • Have trouble processing the plain presentation of scripture?
  • 00:08:10.115 --> 00:08:16.922
  • It seems to me there's a high degree of probability that if
  • 00:08:16.922 --> 00:08:20.025
  • Peter, james, and john, in person with jesus, had trouble
  • 00:08:20.025 --> 00:08:24.529
  • Processing what he was saying to them about what was ahead, that
  • 00:08:24.529 --> 00:08:27.465
  • You and i should be careful because it'll be easy to
  • 00:08:27.465 --> 00:08:30.702
  • Discount what we're told in scripture.
  • 00:08:30.702 --> 00:08:33.805
  • I didn't put it in your notes, but i pulled together a very
  • 00:08:33.805 --> 00:08:36.474
  • Quick summary of some things that we've been told about this
  • 00:08:36.474 --> 00:08:39.144
  • Season, information that's given to us.
  • 00:08:39.144 --> 00:08:43.048
  • Jesus said very clearly he would return to the earth as a
  • 00:08:43.048 --> 00:08:46.785
  • Conquering king and a judge of all.
  • 00:08:46.785 --> 00:08:50.255
  • He's coming back, folks.
  • 00:08:50.255 --> 00:08:53.124
  • He is coming back.
  • 00:08:53.124 --> 00:08:54.459
  • Just as certainly as he was born in a stable in bethlehem, jesus
  • 00:08:54.459 --> 00:08:58.563
  • Of nazareth is returning to planet earth.
  • 00:08:58.563 --> 00:09:02.601
  • In fact, he said he's coming back in the same way he left.
  • 00:09:02.601 --> 00:09:05.170
  • He left from the mount of olives just beside the city
  • 00:09:05.170 --> 00:09:08.106
  • Of jerusalem.
  • 00:09:08.106 --> 00:09:09.474
  • He'll return there.
  • 00:09:09.474 --> 00:09:11.376
  • He's coming back with a different assignment.
  • 00:09:11.376 --> 00:09:13.144
  • He came the first time to seek and to save those which were
  • 00:09:13.144 --> 00:09:16.414
  • Lost as the the lamb of god in the most innocent of packages,
  • 00:09:16.414 --> 00:09:21.152
  • Born as a baby in a stable in bethlehem, overlooked by the
  • 00:09:21.152 --> 00:09:25.123
  • Powerful, ignored by the religious leaders.
  • 00:09:25.123 --> 00:09:27.826
  • The only people really that attended were the shepherds, the
  • 00:09:27.826 --> 00:09:30.095
  • Lowest social rung on the social spectrum.
  • 00:09:30.095 --> 00:09:35.300
  • But when he comes back the second time, it says the whole
  • 00:09:35.300 --> 00:09:37.636
  • World will know, that every eye will behold him, that he's
  • 00:09:37.636 --> 00:09:41.206
  • Coming with the glory of heaven and his powerful angels.
  • 00:09:41.206 --> 00:09:46.244
  • He's coming as a conquering king.
  • 00:09:46.244 --> 00:09:49.648
  • He will rule and reign on planet earth.
  • 00:09:49.648 --> 00:09:53.618
  • That's the plain counsel of scripture.
  • 00:09:53.618 --> 00:09:57.155
  • The second thing we're told is there's a reward for those who
  • 00:09:57.155 --> 00:09:59.591
  • Will serve him.
  • 00:09:59.591 --> 00:10:03.161
  • I'm not too clever, but if the king of all kings and the lord
  • 00:10:03.161 --> 00:10:05.764
  • Of all lords says he'll reward you if you sign up, i'm in.
  • 00:10:05.764 --> 00:10:11.169
  • Sometimes we get these, you know, mis--"well,
  • 00:10:11.169 --> 00:10:12.504
  • How--do i have to?"
  • 00:10:12.504 --> 00:10:13.838
  • No, you don't have to. it's a choice.
  • 00:10:13.838 --> 00:10:15.173
  • You've got a free will, but you can.
  • 00:10:15.173 --> 00:10:18.877
  • You've been foretold.
  • 00:10:18.877 --> 00:10:20.245
  • You've been told of the opportunity, that it will be
  • 00:10:20.245 --> 00:10:23.515
  • Rewarded and that nothing could diminish the reward.
  • 00:10:23.515 --> 00:10:26.351
  • I would submit to you that's a worthwhile investment.
  • 00:10:26.351 --> 00:10:30.689
  • Another thing jesus told us is that before he returns, that the
  • 00:10:30.689 --> 00:10:33.892
  • Earth will be very similar to the days of noah and of lot.
  • 00:10:33.892 --> 00:10:38.463
  • Now, they lived in very different time periods separated
  • 00:10:38.463 --> 00:10:41.099
  • By hundreds of years.
  • 00:10:41.099 --> 00:10:42.901
  • We meet noah in the early chapters of genesis.
  • 00:10:42.901 --> 00:10:46.171
  • Darkness, evil had proliferated in the earth to the point that
  • 00:10:46.171 --> 00:10:50.108
  • God said he had to bring judgment, but he prepared noah
  • 00:10:50.108 --> 00:10:53.111
  • And his family, and they built an ark.
  • 00:10:53.111 --> 00:10:55.513
  • I know you know the story.
  • 00:10:55.513 --> 00:10:56.848
  • You can be marginally acquainted with the bible and know the
  • 00:10:56.848 --> 00:10:59.184
  • Story of noah.
  • 00:10:59.184 --> 00:11:01.486
  • And he says just as it was in the days of noah and lot, and
  • 00:11:01.486 --> 00:11:04.089
  • Then jesus lists a half a dozen activities that were prevalent.
  • 00:11:04.089 --> 00:11:07.459
  • He said people were marrying and giving in marriage, buying and
  • 00:11:07.459 --> 00:11:10.295
  • Selling, planting and reaping.
  • 00:11:10.295 --> 00:11:12.497
  • What's most noticeable is those aren't wicked things.
  • 00:11:12.497 --> 00:11:15.867
  • He didn't point out the wickedness of noah's generation
  • 00:11:15.867 --> 00:11:18.403
  • Or of lot's generation.
  • 00:11:18.403 --> 00:11:20.305
  • He pointed out very routine human behaviors.
  • 00:11:20.305 --> 00:11:24.576
  • But the similarity between noah and lot is that both of those
  • 00:11:24.576 --> 00:11:28.613
  • Groups of people were totally unaware of the impending
  • 00:11:28.613 --> 00:11:32.183
  • Intervention of god, completely unprepared.
  • 00:11:32.183 --> 00:11:35.987
  • Noah built a boat in the middle of a field, not floating on a
  • 00:11:35.987 --> 00:11:38.556
  • Local lake.
  • 00:11:38.556 --> 00:11:40.225
  • He's a preacher of righteousness and nobody wanted to hear
  • 00:11:40.225 --> 00:11:42.494
  • His sermons.
  • 00:11:42.494 --> 00:11:44.929
  • Lot was totally unprepared for the angels that arrived to lead
  • 00:11:44.929 --> 00:11:48.333
  • Him out of the city, and one of the overriding characteristics
  • 00:11:48.333 --> 00:11:52.904
  • In the earth before the second coming of the lord will be the
  • 00:11:52.904 --> 00:11:56.541
  • Majority of the people will be unaware.
  • 00:11:56.541 --> 00:11:59.878
  • Don't be in that group. don't be in that group.
  • 00:11:59.878 --> 00:12:06.584
  • Allen: hey, the question i'm asked most often is, "how do i
  • 00:12:10.789 --> 00:12:13.024
  • Know what god wants me to do?
  • 00:12:13.024 --> 00:12:14.526
  • If i just knew what god wanted me to do, i would do it,
  • 00:12:14.526 --> 00:12:16.828
  • Whatever it is."
  • 00:12:16.828 --> 00:12:18.563
  • Well, our offer this month i think will help.
  • 00:12:18.563 --> 00:12:20.265
  • It's by a good friend of mine, rob morgan, "the lord is my
  • 00:12:20.265 --> 00:12:22.500
  • Shepherd."
  • 00:12:22.500 --> 00:12:23.835
  • He's gonna unpack the scripture that tells us how to follow the
  • 00:12:23.835 --> 00:12:26.671
  • Lord's guidance and understand his abiding presence and his
  • 00:12:26.671 --> 00:12:30.275
  • Comfort.
  • 00:12:30.275 --> 00:12:31.609
  • It'll help you chart a course and know the path that god has
  • 00:12:31.609 --> 00:12:34.712
  • For you.
  • 00:12:34.712 --> 00:12:36.047
  • Get a copy, it'll make a difference in your life.
  • 00:12:36.047 --> 00:12:38.216
  • Female announcer: life can be overwhelming, but true peace is
  • 00:12:38.216 --> 00:12:40.718
  • Possible.
  • 00:12:40.718 --> 00:12:42.120
  • Pastor robert morgan's book "the lord is my shepherd" reflects on
  • 00:12:42.120 --> 00:12:44.789
  • The specific ways psalm 23 speaks to our lives today.
  • 00:12:44.789 --> 00:12:48.126
  • It will help you find rest for your soul and discover the joy,
  • 00:12:48.126 --> 00:12:51.396
  • Inspiration, power, and peace found in psalm 23.
  • 00:12:51.396 --> 00:12:55.233
  • In today's culture it's essential to know god is leading
  • 00:12:55.233 --> 00:12:57.869
  • Us, charting our path, and watching over us.
  • 00:12:57.869 --> 00:13:01.072
  • Request your copy of "the lord is my shepherd" when you donate
  • 00:13:01.072 --> 00:13:03.575
  • Any amount at allenjackson.com or by calling ...
  • 00:13:03.575 --> 00:13:10.648
  • Announcer: we are committed to helping you grow in your faith
  • 00:13:10.715 --> 00:13:12.417
  • And have tools for your journey no matter your schedule.
  • 00:13:12.417 --> 00:13:15.320
  • Get daily encouragement and insight with pastor allen's
  • 00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:17.922
  • Daily devotion right in your inbox.
  • 00:13:17.922 --> 00:13:19.891
  • Just sign up on the website.
  • 00:13:19.891 --> 00:13:21.559
  • Join us on one of our livestream services right from your tv
  • 00:13:21.559 --> 00:13:24.796
  • Using the allen jackson ministries app,
  • 00:13:24.796 --> 00:13:26.731
  • Listen to a powerful message through your favorite podcast
  • 00:13:26.731 --> 00:13:29.767
  • App, perfect for a commute,
  • 00:13:29.767 --> 00:13:31.436
  • And make sure to follow pastor allen
  • 00:13:31.436 --> 00:13:32.971
  • On social media to stay up to date with everything happening
  • 00:13:32.971 --> 00:13:35.840
  • Here with allen jackson ministries.
  • 00:13:35.840 --> 00:13:39.878
  • Allen: you see, the invitation to be a christ follower is an
  • 00:13:41.212 --> 00:13:43.548
  • Invitation to a minority position, to a bit of a
  • 00:13:43.548 --> 00:13:47.151
  • Different value orientation of your life, a different way to
  • 00:13:47.151 --> 00:13:50.655
  • Spend your time and your energy and your effort and
  • 00:13:50.655 --> 00:13:52.690
  • Your resources.
  • 00:13:52.690 --> 00:13:54.392
  • It's not about just going along with the crowd.
  • 00:13:54.392 --> 00:13:56.427
  • This easter is the 45th anniversary for
  • 00:13:56.427 --> 00:13:59.364
  • This congregation.
  • 00:13:59.364 --> 00:14:02.400
  • Easter 1980 was our first worship service as a community
  • 00:14:02.400 --> 00:14:06.471
  • Of faith.
  • 00:14:06.471 --> 00:14:07.805
  • There were 29 people there, and i promise you not one of those
  • 00:14:07.805 --> 00:14:11.309
  • 29 imagined you.
  • 00:14:11.309 --> 00:14:14.846
  • And god is moving in the earth in the most remarkable ways
  • 00:14:14.846 --> 00:14:17.649
  • These days, but the invitation to yield your life to the
  • 00:14:17.649 --> 00:14:22.153
  • Authority of jesus of nazareth will put you in a
  • 00:14:22.153 --> 00:14:25.256
  • Minority position.
  • 00:14:25.256 --> 00:14:27.258
  • It's worth the--jesus told us some things about that.
  • 00:14:27.258 --> 00:14:30.028
  • He said there's a broad path and a wide gate that leads to
  • 00:14:30.028 --> 00:14:32.530
  • Destruction and it'll be heavily traveled, but he said there's a
  • 00:14:32.530 --> 00:14:35.900
  • Narrow path and a narrow gate and it will not be heavily
  • 00:14:35.900 --> 00:14:40.138
  • Traveled and that leads to life.
  • 00:14:40.138 --> 00:14:43.074
  • He told us very directly, very plainly not simply to follow
  • 00:14:43.074 --> 00:14:48.212
  • Conventional wisdom.
  • 00:14:48.212 --> 00:14:49.981
  • Don't fully engage in groupthink.
  • 00:14:49.981 --> 00:14:53.384
  • Be willing to allow almighty god to direct your life on a path
  • 00:14:53.384 --> 00:14:57.789
  • That will bring some uniqueness to you.
  • 00:14:57.789 --> 00:15:00.792
  • We're going to talk more about it.
  • 00:15:00.792 --> 00:15:02.126
  • There's another thing he told us.
  • 00:15:02.126 --> 00:15:03.494
  • He said we would be hated and persecuted because of our
  • 00:15:03.494 --> 00:15:05.730
  • Affiliation with jesus.
  • 00:15:05.730 --> 00:15:08.733
  • Well, you know, i don't like that.
  • 00:15:08.733 --> 00:15:10.468
  • If i could choose, i'd rather have applause than
  • 00:15:10.468 --> 00:15:12.770
  • Rotten tomatoes.
  • 00:15:12.770 --> 00:15:15.106
  • When you--people say, you know, "i don't care what
  • 00:15:15.106 --> 00:15:16.441
  • People think," oh, stop it.
  • 00:15:16.441 --> 00:15:19.210
  • We would all rather be accepted than rejected.
  • 00:15:19.210 --> 00:15:22.613
  • But jesus said that if we identify with him, if we're
  • 00:15:22.613 --> 00:15:25.450
  • Willing to take his name and begin to walk in obedience to
  • 00:15:25.450 --> 00:15:29.787
  • Him, that there will be resistance and there'll even be
  • 00:15:29.787 --> 00:15:32.090
  • Hatred and it will be frequent and widespread.
  • 00:15:32.090 --> 00:15:34.926
  • That is the pattern of scripture.
  • 00:15:34.926 --> 00:15:38.062
  • I'm telling you up front, being a christ follower is not easy.
  • 00:15:38.062 --> 00:15:42.633
  • It's not simple.
  • 00:15:42.633 --> 00:15:44.002
  • I'm not talking about sitting in church on the weekend.
  • 00:15:44.002 --> 00:15:45.470
  • Folks, you can sit in church every week and have very little
  • 00:15:45.470 --> 00:15:48.139
  • To do with jesus of nazareth.
  • 00:15:48.139 --> 00:15:51.009
  • I got a membership at a gym.
  • 00:15:51.009 --> 00:15:52.377
  • That doesn't make me a world-class athlete.
  • 00:15:52.377 --> 00:15:55.713
  • Like, i can tell you how many hundred feet past the gym the
  • 00:15:55.713 --> 00:15:58.649
  • Donut shop is.
  • 00:15:58.649 --> 00:16:03.221
  • There'll be persecution, jesus said.
  • 00:16:03.221 --> 00:16:06.357
  • And then he told us very clearly that the best possible position
  • 00:16:06.357 --> 00:16:09.527
  • You could be in when he returns to the earth is that you would
  • 00:16:09.527 --> 00:16:12.563
  • Be doing his word.
  • 00:16:12.563 --> 00:16:14.932
  • Be obedient to the truth that you know.
  • 00:16:14.932 --> 00:16:18.169
  • You don't have to be a hebrew scholar or a greek scholar or
  • 00:16:18.169 --> 00:16:21.305
  • Have read the original whatevers.
  • 00:16:21.305 --> 00:16:23.608
  • You have to be obedient to the truth that you know.
  • 00:16:23.608 --> 00:16:26.911
  • We've had too much sloppy christianity for too long.
  • 00:16:26.911 --> 00:16:31.649
  • We've imagined that we can reinvent god in our own image
  • 00:16:31.649 --> 00:16:34.218
  • And we could look at the boundaries that god gives us in
  • 00:16:34.218 --> 00:16:38.022
  • The ten commandments and it's like a smorgasbord.
  • 00:16:38.022 --> 00:16:40.024
  • We could pick one, three, and seven.
  • 00:16:40.024 --> 00:16:43.261
  • We don't get to design our faith.
  • 00:16:43.261 --> 00:16:44.862
  • We submit ourselves to the authority of god.
  • 00:16:44.862 --> 00:16:49.400
  • Not allen's opinion, folks.
  • 00:16:49.400 --> 00:16:50.768
  • I'm not the judge, and there should be some great relief
  • 00:16:50.768 --> 00:16:53.738
  • In that.
  • 00:16:53.738 --> 00:16:55.540
  • That we've been asked to submit ourselves to the authority of
  • 00:16:55.540 --> 00:16:58.142
  • Jesus, and when he returns, we want to be busy about
  • 00:16:58.142 --> 00:17:01.179
  • His business.
  • 00:17:01.179 --> 00:17:03.481
  • Now, i want to look at jesus's friends when they finally got to
  • 00:17:03.481 --> 00:17:06.551
  • That period in jerusalem when jesus is arrested and betrayed
  • 00:17:06.551 --> 00:17:09.587
  • And crucified.
  • 00:17:09.587 --> 00:17:11.622
  • He's told them plainly.
  • 00:17:11.622 --> 00:17:12.990
  • We've read it together.
  • 00:17:12.990 --> 00:17:14.425
  • He couldn't have been more clear.
  • 00:17:14.425 --> 00:17:15.827
  • I don't believe they heard him because they've responded with
  • 00:17:15.827 --> 00:17:18.563
  • Some significant emotion.
  • 00:17:18.563 --> 00:17:20.331
  • John chapter 20 records for us resurrection day.
  • 00:17:20.331 --> 00:17:25.002
  • Jesus has been arrested.
  • 00:17:25.002 --> 00:17:26.370
  • He's been beaten.
  • 00:17:26.370 --> 00:17:27.705
  • He's been tortured completely to death, so disfigured he's barely
  • 00:17:27.705 --> 00:17:31.509
  • Recognizable, and now on resurrection day.
  • 00:17:31.509 --> 00:17:35.246
  • It says, "early on the first day of the week," it's john 20 and
  • 00:17:35.246 --> 00:17:37.949
  • Verse 1, "while it was still dark, mary magdalene went to the
  • 00:17:37.949 --> 00:17:41.919
  • Tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.
  • 00:17:41.919 --> 00:17:44.922
  • So she came running to simon peter and the other disciples,
  • 00:17:44.922 --> 00:17:47.725
  • The one jesus loved, and she said, 'they have taken the lord
  • 00:17:47.725 --> 00:17:51.129
  • Out of the tomb, and we don't know where they've put him.'
  • 00:17:51.129 --> 00:17:55.733
  • So peter and the other disciples started for the tomb.
  • 00:17:55.733 --> 00:17:57.935
  • They were both running."
  • 00:17:57.935 --> 00:17:59.270
  • Peter--john outran peter and reached the ta--tomb first, and
  • 00:17:59.270 --> 00:18:03.608
  • He bent in--bent over and went in and looked.
  • 00:18:03.608 --> 00:18:06.711
  • Did you hear it?
  • 00:18:06.711 --> 00:18:08.980
  • Mary went to the tomb early on resurrection day and she said,
  • 00:18:08.980 --> 00:18:12.517
  • "they--somebody has taken the body.
  • 00:18:12.517 --> 00:18:16.687
  • Where's he at?"
  • 00:18:16.687 --> 00:18:18.789
  • Well, if you're reading the gospels for the first time and
  • 00:18:18.789 --> 00:18:21.559
  • You can read at a 3rd grade level, you're reading along
  • 00:18:21.559 --> 00:18:23.794
  • Going, "he's alive."
  • 00:18:23.794 --> 00:18:27.431
  • But mary can't process it, and she goes back and tells the rest
  • 00:18:27.431 --> 00:18:32.470
  • Of the disciples and peter and john don't believe her.
  • 00:18:32.470 --> 00:18:35.239
  • They--it doesn't spark a memory in them.
  • 00:18:35.239 --> 00:18:36.874
  • It doesn't trigger something, and they go running to the tomb
  • 00:18:36.874 --> 00:18:40.912
  • For their own inspection.
  • 00:18:40.912 --> 00:18:43.080
  • And they bend over and they go inside and jesus isn't there,
  • 00:18:43.080 --> 00:18:45.683
  • And there's this question that's percolating through the text.
  • 00:18:45.683 --> 00:18:48.419
  • It's recorded in all the gospels.
  • 00:18:48.419 --> 00:18:50.221
  • "what have they done with him? where have they hidden him?
  • 00:18:50.221 --> 00:18:51.923
  • Tell us where you've put him."
  • 00:18:51.923 --> 00:18:54.425
  • And, again, if you're reading this with just marginal
  • 00:18:54.425 --> 00:18:56.694
  • Comprehension, you're going, "what--weren't you listening?"
  • 00:18:56.694 --> 00:19:04.702
  • Same chapter, it's john 20, "the disciples went back to their
  • 00:19:04.702 --> 00:19:09.440
  • Homes, but mary stood outside the tomb crying.
  • 00:19:09.440 --> 00:19:12.810
  • And as she wept, she bent over to look in the tomb and she saw
  • 00:19:12.810 --> 00:19:16.214
  • Two angels in white, seated where jesus's body had been, one
  • 00:19:16.214 --> 00:19:19.817
  • At the head and the other at the foot.
  • 00:19:19.817 --> 00:19:22.220
  • And they asked her, 'woman, why are you crying?'
  • 00:19:22.220 --> 00:19:24.922
  • 'they've taken my lord away,' she said, 'and i don't know
  • 00:19:24.922 --> 00:19:27.592
  • Where they've put him.'"
  • 00:19:27.592 --> 00:19:33.364
  • What--maybe jesus recruited from the slow group.
  • 00:19:33.364 --> 00:19:35.733
  • I don't know.
  • 00:19:35.733 --> 00:19:38.569
  • "and at this, she turned around and she saw jesus standing
  • 00:19:38.569 --> 00:19:41.172
  • There, but she didn't realize that it was jesus.
  • 00:19:41.172 --> 00:19:44.942
  • 'woman, why are you crying?
  • 00:19:44.942 --> 00:19:46.477
  • Who are you looking for?'"
  • 00:19:46.477 --> 00:19:48.613
  • She thought he was the gardener.
  • 00:19:48.613 --> 00:19:51.015
  • "'sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've put
  • 00:19:51.015 --> 00:19:53.818
  • Him, and i will get him.'
  • 00:19:53.818 --> 00:19:56.354
  • And jesus said to her, 'mary--'" something's happening here.
  • 00:19:56.354 --> 00:20:05.096
  • The disciples aren't stupid.
  • 00:20:05.096 --> 00:20:07.832
  • They're not marginally interested in jesus.
  • 00:20:07.832 --> 00:20:10.134
  • They've reoriented their lives completely to follow him, and
  • 00:20:10.134 --> 00:20:14.605
  • He's told them in the plainest of terms precisely what they
  • 00:20:14.605 --> 00:20:19.176
  • Have been witnesses to, and yet in the midst of all of that,
  • 00:20:19.176 --> 00:20:24.282
  • They are unable to process what they're experiencing.
  • 00:20:24.282 --> 00:20:28.486
  • His words of preparation have been lost in the emotions and
  • 00:20:28.486 --> 00:20:31.889
  • The challenges of the moment.
  • 00:20:31.889 --> 00:20:33.691
  • The activity is so unsettling, it's addled them to the point
  • 00:20:33.691 --> 00:20:38.929
  • That they can't process the facts.
  • 00:20:38.929 --> 00:20:41.732
  • They can't bring alignment to what jesus, their best friend,
  • 00:20:41.732 --> 00:20:44.135
  • Has told them and the experiences that they're walking
  • 00:20:44.135 --> 00:20:47.338
  • Through in real time.
  • 00:20:47.338 --> 00:20:50.241
  • If i can borrow a contemporary phrase, i think it's the
  • 00:20:50.241 --> 00:20:52.643
  • Spiritual equivalent of shock and awe.
  • 00:20:52.643 --> 00:20:56.013
  • It's left jesus's friends bewildered and inactive.
  • 00:20:56.013 --> 00:21:02.820
  • I'm going to give you some action points in a moment, but i
  • 00:21:02.820 --> 00:21:05.489
  • Think the parallel has some very real parallels for us.
  • 00:21:05.489 --> 00:21:09.460
  • We're living in a season when the church is struggling.
  • 00:21:09.460 --> 00:21:13.297
  • Church with a capital c, not a single congregation.
  • 00:21:13.297 --> 00:21:16.367
  • There's amazing churches and remarkable churches, but--i did
  • 00:21:16.367 --> 00:21:20.037
  • An interview recently with one of the leading statisticians on
  • 00:21:20.037 --> 00:21:24.241
  • Evangelicalism in north america, and the statistics are very,
  • 00:21:24.241 --> 00:21:28.612
  • Very unsettling: the diminishment of biblical
  • 00:21:28.612 --> 00:21:30.848
  • Worldview, the engagement in formal gatherings like this.
  • 00:21:30.848 --> 00:21:35.353
  • I mean, the church is struggling.
  • 00:21:35.353 --> 00:21:37.455
  • We're a bit addled.
  • 00:21:37.455 --> 00:21:39.657
  • It feels pretty biblical to me.
  • 00:21:39.657 --> 00:21:42.893
  • I think current events have left us in stunned silence.
  • 00:21:42.893 --> 00:21:46.397
  • The things that are being said in public, the things that we
  • 00:21:46.397 --> 00:21:48.733
  • Are watching, they're hard to process.
  • 00:21:48.733 --> 00:21:52.336
  • And we step into our churches and we read our passages from
  • 00:21:52.336 --> 00:21:54.905
  • The scriptures and we look through the windows of our
  • 00:21:54.905 --> 00:21:57.141
  • Churches and what's happening out there is so dramatically
  • 00:21:57.141 --> 00:22:00.244
  • Different than what we're reading and what we've imagined,
  • 00:22:00.244 --> 00:22:02.613
  • It's hard to assimilate it.
  • 00:22:02.613 --> 00:22:06.417
  • I could pick almost any aspect of our culture and we could talk
  • 00:22:06.417 --> 00:22:10.888
  • About it.
  • 00:22:10.888 --> 00:22:12.223
  • We're being overwhelmed currently with illegal activity
  • 00:22:12.223 --> 00:22:15.760
  • And we've been a nation founded upon the rule of law.
  • 00:22:15.760 --> 00:22:20.164
  • I mean, from our inception until today, the laws haven't always
  • 00:22:20.164 --> 00:22:22.900
  • Been godly.
  • 00:22:22.900 --> 00:22:24.268
  • There have been some seasons that were very ungodly, but
  • 00:22:24.268 --> 00:22:26.036
  • Those principles have bound us together, and in recent
  • 00:22:26.036 --> 00:22:29.206
  • Years--and i don't mean the last 2 or 3 or 4, but in a broader
  • 00:22:29.206 --> 00:22:32.977
  • Period, they've been put in a shredder, things that were
  • 00:22:32.977 --> 00:22:37.615
  • Foundational to our well-being, simple things like the
  • 00:22:37.615 --> 00:22:40.384
  • Boundaries of a nation.
  • 00:22:40.384 --> 00:22:41.986
  • I've had the privilege of traveling a good bit.
  • 00:22:41.986 --> 00:22:43.854
  • I've got a little blue passport.
  • 00:22:43.854 --> 00:22:46.457
  • It's necessary for me to enter other countries, and it's
  • 00:22:46.457 --> 00:22:49.393
  • Necessary for me to re-enter this country.
  • 00:22:49.393 --> 00:22:52.797
  • I've been in times and places with people who lost
  • 00:22:52.797 --> 00:22:54.899
  • Their passports.
  • 00:22:54.899 --> 00:22:56.267
  • It's a problem.
  • 00:22:56.267 --> 00:22:58.669
  • I've had to go stand in line at consulates to help people get
  • 00:22:58.669 --> 00:23:02.373
  • Papers to come into the country.
  • 00:23:02.373 --> 00:23:04.708
  • I've had to find alternative forms.
  • 00:23:04.708 --> 00:23:06.410
  • It's not a simple thing.
  • 00:23:06.410 --> 00:23:09.447
  • And in recent years--and it's more than a single
  • 00:23:09.447 --> 00:23:11.849
  • Administration who--whichever side of the political
  • 00:23:11.849 --> 00:23:14.051
  • You--spectrum you stand on, just take a deep breath for a moment.
  • 00:23:14.051 --> 00:23:16.787
  • This isn't politics, this is the reality of the world we live in.
  • 00:23:16.787 --> 00:23:20.324
  • We took our borders down.
  • 00:23:20.324 --> 00:23:24.962
  • We will lose our freedoms and liberties without that.
  • 00:23:24.962 --> 00:23:29.467
  • That's not an expression of hatred any more than locking the
  • 00:23:29.467 --> 00:23:33.437
  • Doors on your home or not leaving the car--keys in your
  • 00:23:33.437 --> 00:23:36.006
  • Car is an expression of hatred, and most unsettling, it was
  • 00:23:36.006 --> 00:23:41.779
  • Facilitated by the people with authority over us, and they were
  • 00:23:41.779 --> 00:23:46.116
  • Telling us it was our imagination.
  • 00:23:46.116 --> 00:23:50.688
  • We're a nation of immigrants.
  • 00:23:50.688 --> 00:23:52.590
  • We've been built upon policies of immigration from the nations
  • 00:23:52.590 --> 00:23:55.559
  • Of the world.
  • 00:23:55.559 --> 00:23:58.095
  • And it will inform and define our future, but we can do it in
  • 00:23:58.095 --> 00:24:01.432
  • An orderly process and a legal process.
  • 00:24:01.432 --> 00:24:05.603
  • Counseling millions of people to do something illegally as a
  • 00:24:05.603 --> 00:24:09.406
  • Means of joining us is a very bad precedent to establish.
  • 00:24:09.406 --> 00:24:15.479
  • Another thing that's not normal that we've been watching for
  • 00:24:15.479 --> 00:24:18.082
  • Some years now is this censorship, the diminishment of
  • 00:24:18.082 --> 00:24:20.851
  • Free speech.
  • 00:24:20.851 --> 00:24:22.953
  • You'll be deplatformed.
  • 00:24:22.953 --> 00:24:24.388
  • You'll be shut down.
  • 00:24:24.388 --> 00:24:27.358
  • If somebody disagrees with you, they can say, "well, what you
  • 00:24:27.358 --> 00:24:29.660
  • Said was hateful and you don't have a right to say that."
  • 00:24:29.660 --> 00:24:32.730
  • That is not has--what has brought strength to us as
  • 00:24:32.730 --> 00:24:35.332
  • A people.
  • 00:24:35.332 --> 00:24:37.868
  • It's confusing.
  • 00:24:37.868 --> 00:24:39.503
  • It's disorienting.
  • 00:24:39.503 --> 00:24:44.441
  • Recently, they've been uncovering hundreds of billions
  • 00:24:44.441 --> 00:24:48.178
  • Of dollars, our tax dollars that have been stolen, fraudulently
  • 00:24:48.178 --> 00:24:52.483
  • Directed, wasted while those in authority have been
  • 00:24:52.483 --> 00:24:56.353
  • Demanding more.
  • 00:24:56.353 --> 00:24:58.289
  • That's unsettling.
  • 00:24:58.289 --> 00:24:59.657
  • You think, "oh, that can't be true."
  • 00:24:59.657 --> 00:25:02.026
  • They wouldn't be paying social security benefits to hundreds of
  • 00:25:02.026 --> 00:25:05.362
  • People that are more than 120 years old.
  • 00:25:05.362 --> 00:25:08.899
  • They wouldn't be paying unemployment benefits to people
  • 00:25:08.899 --> 00:25:11.235
  • Not born yet.
  • 00:25:11.235 --> 00:25:12.570
  • Nobody would do that.
  • 00:25:12.570 --> 00:25:14.238
  • It's disorienting.
  • 00:25:14.238 --> 00:25:15.573
  • You think, "well, somebody's making that up."
  • 00:25:15.573 --> 00:25:17.975
  • And then there's data.
  • 00:25:17.975 --> 00:25:20.377
  • Then we get mad at the messenger.
  • 00:25:20.377 --> 00:25:21.779
  • "why would you tell us that?
  • 00:25:21.779 --> 00:25:24.181
  • It's uncomfortable."
  • 00:25:24.181 --> 00:25:26.216
  • Our justice system has been weaponized.
  • 00:25:26.216 --> 00:25:29.587
  • We've had bad seasons of justice in this nation when it
  • 00:25:29.587 --> 00:25:32.256
  • Was perverted.
  • 00:25:32.256 --> 00:25:33.624
  • We've worked very diligently to overcome that.
  • 00:25:33.624 --> 00:25:36.760
  • We've watched something happening in recent years that's
  • 00:25:36.760 --> 00:25:38.996
  • Very uncomfortable.
  • 00:25:38.996 --> 00:25:41.031
  • It's not left to those arena.
  • 00:25:41.031 --> 00:25:42.366
  • Our churches, our denominations, our christian schools and
  • 00:25:42.366 --> 00:25:44.735
  • Universities have stepped away from biblical authority.
  • 00:25:44.735 --> 00:25:48.872
  • They are boldly, brazenly, frequently, determinedly
  • 00:25:48.872 --> 00:25:53.143
  • Advocating for false gospels inserting things like dei
  • 00:25:53.143 --> 00:25:56.981
  • And crt.
  • 00:25:56.981 --> 00:25:59.883
  • It's disorienting.
  • 00:25:59.883 --> 00:26:01.251
  • You think, "well, they've being--that's the tradition i
  • 00:26:01.251 --> 00:26:03.120
  • Grew up in.
  • 00:26:03.120 --> 00:26:04.955
  • I've got a heritage there."
  • 00:26:04.955 --> 00:26:09.727
  • Just about any arena we pick up.
  • 00:26:09.727 --> 00:26:13.697
  • Allen: you know, i really dislike the idea
  • 00:26:13.697 --> 00:26:15.065
  • Of a religious lecture.
  • 00:26:15.065 --> 00:26:16.600
  • I believe the point of ministry or opening the word of god
  • 00:26:16.600 --> 00:26:19.336
  • Is to be transformed by it.
  • 00:26:19.336 --> 00:26:21.038
  • So before we go, i want to give you two invitations.
  • 00:26:21.038 --> 00:26:23.073
  • One's a prayer i'm going to pray with you,
  • 00:26:23.073 --> 00:26:24.408
  • But the other is our offer this month.
  • 00:26:24.408 --> 00:26:26.176
  • The book is "the lord is my shepherd"
  • 00:26:26.176 --> 00:26:28.045
  • By my friend rob morgan.
  • 00:26:28.045 --> 00:26:29.546
  • It's an important word in this season to understand god's
  • 00:26:29.546 --> 00:26:33.617
  • Direction, his abiding presence, his protection.
  • 00:26:33.617 --> 00:26:36.720
  • We all need that.
  • 00:26:36.720 --> 00:26:38.188
  • It'll be a blessing in your life.
  • 00:26:38.188 --> 00:26:39.523
  • It's something i think you'll want to share with some friends.
  • 00:26:39.523 --> 00:26:41.825
  • But i want to pray with you before we go,
  • 00:26:41.825 --> 00:26:43.293
  • That we'll know we're not alone.
  • 00:26:43.293 --> 00:26:45.095
  • Heavenly father, i thank you for the resources you give us,
  • 00:26:45.095 --> 00:26:47.798
  • For the voices that you provide in our lives,
  • 00:26:47.798 --> 00:26:50.267
  • That in a world of turmoil and confusion and,
  • 00:26:50.267 --> 00:26:52.603
  • Honestly, great fear, that your calm,
  • 00:26:52.603 --> 00:26:55.139
  • Assuring voice guides us, and i thank you for it today.
  • 00:26:55.139 --> 00:26:58.776
  • Thank you for your faithfulness.
  • 00:26:58.776 --> 00:27:00.244
  • In jesus's name, amen.
  • 00:27:00.244 --> 00:27:02.913
  • Get a copy of "the lord is my shepherd," and you take your
  • 00:27:02.913 --> 00:27:05.916
  • Prayers into your family.
  • 00:27:05.916 --> 00:27:07.284
  • We're a light in this dark world.
  • 00:27:07.284 --> 00:27:09.219
  • God is moving, and we want to move with him.
  • 00:27:09.219 --> 00:27:11.622
  • ♪♪♪
  • 00:27:11.622 --> 00:27:29.406