Allen Jackson - Determining Our Identity (Part 1)

March 18, 2026 | 27:29

Pastor Allen Jackson's mission is to help people become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.

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Allen Jackson Ministries | Allen Jackson - Determining Our Identity (Part 1) | March 18, 2026
  • ...
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  • Allen jackson: you know, around the world,
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  • People are searching for truth, and together we're doing our
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  • Together, we can stand firm in our faith and make god's truth
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  • Let's keep gathering his people and building his church until
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  • ♪♪♪
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  • ♪♪♪
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  • Allen jackson: now, the topic for this session is "determining
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  • Our identity."
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  • You know, there--in a season like this, there's so much focus
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  • Given to the segments of our society, it really
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  • Becomes wearisome.
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  • Hear--you hear how this subset of our society will make
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  • Decisions and how this group makes decisions and what this
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  • Group thinks.
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  • You know, i think it brings some confusion to us on how we even
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  • Understand ourselves, and that was a really--the genesis for
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  • This in my mind as i was praying for the church, not just our
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  • Congregation but the broader church, to understand that the
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  • Allegiance of our life is to the lordship of jesus.
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  • That, that supersedes all the other identifiers in our lives,
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  • That his authority in our lives, he sets the principles and
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  • The priorities.
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  • He establishes the boundaries, that's what it means to be a
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  • Christ follower.
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  • And the more i prayed around that and thought about that,
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  • That's really where this lesson emerged.
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  • So that's my target.
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  • And we're gonna try to answer three questions: what determines
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  • If you're jewish, what determines if you're an
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  • American, and what determines if you're a christ follower.
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  • We'll do that in some abbreviated way.
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  • At least the jewish question was not one i'd ever really
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  • Considered, to be candid, until my brother and i were at
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  • Hebrew university.
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  • And we had a class with one of the most brilliant professors
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  • That i ever had the privilege of learning under.
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  • And he did multiple sessions on this topic, on how the jewish
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  • People understood what it was that identified them.
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  • I guess hebrew university was a good place to introduce
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  • That topic.
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  • And he said that it actually--the truth was that
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  • Throughout history, the criteria had varied.
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  • It wasn't simple, it wasn't straightforward, it wasn't a
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  • Single indicator.
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  • There had been three primary things throughout history that
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  • Had been used to identify the people who were jewish and who
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  • Was not.
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  • It was descent, your genealogy; the second was
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  • Location, where you lived; and a third was the faith, the
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  • Religion that you practiced.
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  • And he went to some great lengths to try to help us
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  • Understand that the emphasis varied at different times
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  • Through history.
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  • But i thought i would start with exodus 19.
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  • This is god post-deliverance from hundreds of years of
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  • Egyptian slavery that, if you'll remember, the extended family of
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  • Abraham went into egypt, not as a nation, just as an expanded
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  • Family, joseph and his brothers.
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  • And then in 400 years in egypt, they multiplied to the point
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  • That the egyptians were frightened of them, they
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  • Enslaved them, and then god raises up moses to deliver them.
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  • But they've never been a sovereign nation, they've never
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  • Occupied a piece of territory.
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  • They had no history of civil authority, of
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  • Internal government structures.
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  • They'd not had kings.
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  • There's not even a great record of how they practiced
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  • Their faith.
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  • They were in the land of egypt, i suspect they knew a great deal
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  • About egyptian holidays and egyptian gods and egyptian forms
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  • Of worship.
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  • They're referred to as a mixed multitude of people that god
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  • Delivered out of hundreds of years of egyptian slavery and
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  • Said, "i will make you into a nation."
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  • That's the point of the books of moses, all those books you love
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  • To read, leviticus and numbers and deuteronomy, all those rules
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  • And regulations and boundaries.
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  • He's taking this mixed multitude of people and fashioning them
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  • Into a group of people that have a central focus that binds them
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  • Together, an authority over their lives: i'm the god who
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  • Feeds you every day.
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  • I'm the god who brings water to you in the midst of the desert.
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  • I'm the god who delivered you from the most power--social,
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  • Economic, military force on the planet.
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  • I'm the god who parted the red sea.
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  • I will protect you.
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  • I'll lead you with a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire.
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  • I'll give you ten commandments.
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  • I'll show you how to worship me.
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  • This is what a sacrifice looks like, this is what you're
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  • To bring.
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  • He is fashioning a people.
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  • And in exodus 19, verse 5, he said: "if you obey me fully and
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  • Keep my covenant, then out of all the nations you'll be my
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  • Treasured possession."
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  • In order to be god's treasured possession, they had to meet the
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  • Requirements, they had to fully obey him and keep his covenant.
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  • They couldn't be mildly interested.
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  • They couldn't say, "well, we like your holiday structure, we
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  • Like your hr plan, so we'll do some of it."
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  • "'although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a
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  • Kingdom of priests and a holy nation.'
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  • These are the words you're to speak to the israelites."
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  • Again, god is fashioning a people, a nation.
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  • He's establishing a culture.
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  • And when we talk about understanding who the jewish
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  • People are, we need to be aware enough to understand that
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  • The points of emphasis have varied at different times
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  • Through history.
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  • There was a time that as god's covenant people living in the
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  • Land which god had promised them as an inheritance, their
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  • Location was a significant characteristic of the
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  • Jewish people.
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  • They're that people that were delivered from egypt that occupy
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  • The land god promised them.
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  • That was the expression of the covenant they had with him.
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  • The period of the judges, they didn't even have a monarchy,
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  • There were no kings.
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  • When there was an external threat that threatened the
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  • Well-being of the tribes, god would raise up the leaders they
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  • Needed, gideon or samson or deborah.
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  • The whole period of the monarchy, you read that tension.
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  • We've just finished those books: godly kings, ungodly kings, the
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  • Suffering that would come because of their wandering
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  • Into ungodliness.
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  • There are other times in jewish history, that location was not
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  • Nearly as vital a component.
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  • After the babylonians conquered jerusalem in 70, living in
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  • Israel wasn't so important because the majority of their
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  • Leaders didn't live in israel.
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  • So location wasn't particularly relevant any longer.
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  • After the roman destruction of jerusalem in 70 ad, location
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  • Wasn't the primary factor in establishing a jewish identity.
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  • For more than 2,000 years, there was no jewish state.
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  • In our current setting, the answer is more heavily weighted
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  • Towards descent, your genealogy, your dna.
  • 00:07:34.103 --> 00:07:39.408
  • It's a matter of dna more than location or even
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  • Religious practice.
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  • In fact, today, you can live anywhere in the world and
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  • Be jewish.
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  • Maybe not safely, but you can live among the nations.
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  • You can be jewish and practice any religion you want.
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  • We should be aware enough to recognize the distinction
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  • Between being jewish by birth and practicing judaism as
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  • A faith.
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  • You can be jewish and practice islam.
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  • It's generally understood today that to be jewish is a matter of
  • 00:08:13.409 --> 00:08:16.345
  • Biology more than location or faith.
  • 00:08:16.345 --> 00:08:19.515
  • But again, it's noteworthy, it's significant, it needs to be a
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  • Part of your awareness that the criteria have shifted through
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  • The centuries, depending upon a multitude of factors.
  • 00:08:25.888 --> 00:08:29.959
  • How did god determine who his people were, because they
  • 00:08:29.959 --> 00:08:34.230
  • Offered sacrifices at the temple in jerusalem?
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  • That was okay until there was no longer a temple in jerusalem
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  • Where you could offer a sacrifice.
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  • It's a question you need to understand before it becomes too
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  • Personal for you.
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  • In 1 peter chapter 2, peter is quoting really the idea of
  • 00:08:53.983 --> 00:08:58.220
  • Exodus 19.
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  • And i didn't put it in your notes, but the letter of 1
  • 00:09:00.389 --> 00:09:02.692
  • Peter was written to both jews and gentiles.
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  • He labels them strangers and--or aliens in this world,
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  • That because of their allegiance to jesus, he said that makes you
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  • An alien in this world.
  • 00:09:16.739 --> 00:09:19.909
  • Now again, peter is an observant jewish man writing to jews
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  • And gentiles.
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  • It's in your notes, 1 peter 2:9.
  • 00:09:25.481 --> 00:09:27.183
  • He says: "you're a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a
  • 00:09:27.183 --> 00:09:29.585
  • Holy nation, a people belonging to god," sounds a lot like what
  • 00:09:29.585 --> 00:09:35.291
  • We just read, "that you may declare the praises of him who
  • 00:09:35.291 --> 00:09:39.061
  • Called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
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  • Once you were not a people, but now you're the people of god;
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  • Once you had not received mercy, but
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  • Now you have received mercy."
  • 00:09:49.005 --> 00:09:50.339
  • Again, very similar language to deuteronomy 7.
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  • God preparing a people for himself is the
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  • Fundamental story of this book.
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  • And it isn't left to us to decide how much we will be
  • 00:10:03.052 --> 00:10:06.822
  • Obedient to god or how much of his truth we embrace.
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  • If we intend the benefits of the covenant, we have to yield fully
  • 00:10:09.992 --> 00:10:14.030
  • To his covenant, to his lordship.
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  • It was that way in the exodus, and it's that way in the
  • 00:10:17.233 --> 00:10:20.369
  • 21st century.
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  • I wanna answer a second question, and it may seem
  • 00:10:24.306 --> 00:10:26.208
  • Unrelated, but i don't believe it is.
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  • I think it is on point, it's certainly on theme.
  • 00:10:27.910 --> 00:10:31.013
  • What determines if you're an american?
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  • If i borrow the criteria we used a moment ago, is it the location
  • 00:10:34.050 --> 00:10:37.019
  • Where you live?
  • 00:10:37.019 --> 00:10:38.821
  • Is it the faith you practice?
  • 00:10:38.821 --> 00:10:41.524
  • Is it your genealogy?
  • 00:10:41.524 --> 00:10:44.994
  • I think we can understand pretty quickly that none of those would
  • 00:10:44.994 --> 00:10:47.430
  • Be the primary criteria.
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  • You can be an american living someplace other than on the
  • 00:10:50.666 --> 00:10:53.869
  • Continental united states or in one of the 50 states.
  • 00:10:53.869 --> 00:10:57.373
  • You can be an american and practice any number of faiths,
  • 00:10:57.373 --> 00:11:00.910
  • It's not--there's not a faith criteria, there never has been.
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  • We wouldn't suggest it.
  • 00:11:05.848 --> 00:11:07.950
  • We have been predominantly a christian nation, that was the
  • 00:11:07.950 --> 00:11:10.653
  • Value set, the worldview, that was used with our founding
  • 00:11:10.653 --> 00:11:14.290
  • Documents and our educational systems and our legal systems.
  • 00:11:14.290 --> 00:11:17.660
  • It has caused us to be one of the most prosperous and free
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  • Nations in human history.
  • 00:11:20.663 --> 00:11:22.898
  • It's caused us to become the envy of the nations.
  • 00:11:22.898 --> 00:11:25.301
  • The reason we have millions of people pouring into our borders
  • 00:11:25.301 --> 00:11:28.537
  • Is not because we're systemically racist or
  • 00:11:28.537 --> 00:11:31.474
  • Economically unfair.
  • 00:11:31.474 --> 00:11:34.343
  • There's no place else on the planet that provides the
  • 00:11:34.343 --> 00:11:36.645
  • Opportunities we have provided, and that has
  • 00:11:36.645 --> 00:11:39.815
  • Been because of the worldview.
  • 00:11:39.815 --> 00:11:41.150
  • The church should be more aware of the value we represent to the
  • 00:11:41.150 --> 00:11:45.821
  • Cultures in which we live.
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  • Allen: hey, i have a suggestion.
  • 00:11:54.764 --> 00:11:56.098
  • Let's stop waiting for somebody else to be a better leader.
  • 00:11:56.098 --> 00:11:58.334
  • Let's determine this year to lead with faith.
  • 00:11:58.334 --> 00:12:00.903
  • I've written a book to help.
  • 00:12:00.903 --> 00:12:02.238
  • It's a practical collection of tools that you and i can use the
  • 00:12:02.238 --> 00:12:05.908
  • Influence of our lives, faith first in the marketplace, in our
  • 00:12:05.908 --> 00:12:09.678
  • Homes, with our friends.
  • 00:12:09.678 --> 00:12:11.180
  • Folks, it's time for us to stop waiting for somebody else to
  • 00:12:11.180 --> 00:12:13.716
  • Step forward.
  • 00:12:13.716 --> 00:12:15.050
  • Let's determine to lead with faith.
  • 00:12:15.050 --> 00:12:16.519
  • We can do that and i believe we can change our homes, our
  • 00:12:16.519 --> 00:12:19.722
  • Neighborhoods, our churches, maybe even our nation.
  • 00:12:19.722 --> 00:12:22.792
  • Announcer: choosing to lead with faith starts with a simple
  • 00:12:22.858 --> 00:12:25.294
  • Decision: to be intentional right where you are.
  • 00:12:25.294 --> 00:12:28.564
  • In his new book "lead with faith," pastor allen shares
  • 00:12:28.564 --> 00:12:31.734
  • Biblical insight and practical tools to help you live out your
  • 00:12:31.734 --> 00:12:35.337
  • Faith in meaningful ways every day.
  • 00:12:35.337 --> 00:12:37.807
  • This book will encourage you to stand for truth with wisdom,
  • 00:12:37.807 --> 00:12:40.976
  • Clarity, and courage without waiting for someone else to
  • 00:12:40.976 --> 00:12:44.180
  • Go first.
  • 00:12:44.180 --> 00:12:45.548
  • Request "lead with faith" with your gift of $30 or more at
  • 00:12:45.548 --> 00:12:48.884
  • Allenjackson.com or call ...
  • 00:12:48.884 --> 00:12:53.622
  • Allen: now, i would submit what fundamentally has determined our
  • 00:12:55.558 --> 00:13:01.664
  • Role in this nation is our citizenship.
  • 00:13:01.664 --> 00:13:07.069
  • It isn't the--we've come from the nations of the world, we're
  • 00:13:07.069 --> 00:13:09.271
  • A nation of immigrants.
  • 00:13:09.271 --> 00:13:12.474
  • We are the ultimate melting pot.
  • 00:13:12.474 --> 00:13:15.211
  • We don't all look the same.
  • 00:13:15.211 --> 00:13:16.679
  • We don't sound the same.
  • 00:13:16.679 --> 00:13:18.948
  • We've had very many different faiths.
  • 00:13:18.948 --> 00:13:20.583
  • We've come from very many different nations.
  • 00:13:20.583 --> 00:13:23.819
  • There's not like a food that is uniquely american.
  • 00:13:23.819 --> 00:13:28.157
  • It's our citizenship, which reflects an underlying principle
  • 00:13:28.157 --> 00:13:32.261
  • Which is very important, and the church has to be a voice
  • 00:13:32.261 --> 00:13:35.197
  • In this.
  • 00:13:35.197 --> 00:13:36.565
  • We have been a nation of laws, and it's that commitment to
  • 00:13:36.565 --> 00:13:42.071
  • Authority and laws that were derived from the law of god that
  • 00:13:42.071 --> 00:13:47.910
  • Has brought the freedom and the liberty to us.
  • 00:13:47.910 --> 00:13:51.380
  • Again, not saying we have to be exclusively christian, i don't
  • 00:13:51.380 --> 00:13:54.116
  • Believe that's true.
  • 00:13:54.116 --> 00:13:56.385
  • God gives all of us a choice and they should have the choice to
  • 00:13:56.385 --> 00:13:59.021
  • Worship however we see fit.
  • 00:13:59.021 --> 00:14:03.692
  • But the great challenge before us, i would submit to you,
  • 00:14:03.692 --> 00:14:06.862
  • Is lawlessness.
  • 00:14:06.862 --> 00:14:11.634
  • And i would point that back at the community where i've spent
  • 00:14:11.634 --> 00:14:16.071
  • Most of my adult life, i believe the lawlessness has arrived to
  • 00:14:16.071 --> 00:14:19.975
  • The degree it is currently present because the voice of
  • 00:14:19.975 --> 00:14:22.778
  • God's people has been so small.
  • 00:14:22.778 --> 00:14:26.582
  • We've imagined that civil authority would protect us and
  • 00:14:26.582 --> 00:14:30.819
  • Keep us secure, therefore, we didn't have to be vocal about
  • 00:14:30.819 --> 00:14:34.089
  • Our biblical worldview.
  • 00:14:34.089 --> 00:14:36.258
  • We didn't have to be advocates for the principles of the
  • 00:14:36.258 --> 00:14:38.661
  • Kingdom to which we belong because we thought the civil
  • 00:14:38.661 --> 00:14:41.563
  • Authority would protect us, until it won't.
  • 00:14:41.563 --> 00:14:46.101
  • And if the church will be light and salt, not that everybody
  • 00:14:46.101 --> 00:14:50.406
  • Will be christian, but the values that emerge from that
  • 00:14:50.406 --> 00:14:53.075
  • Will bring freedom and liberty to all the people in a
  • 00:14:53.075 --> 00:14:55.678
  • Greater way.
  • 00:14:55.678 --> 00:14:57.112
  • There is much evidence through history to support that thesis.
  • 00:14:57.112 --> 00:15:01.917
  • So this challenge of lawlessness, i gave you some
  • 00:15:01.917 --> 00:15:06.288
  • Verses because it is very much a biblical principle.
  • 00:15:06.288 --> 00:15:09.091
  • We are warned about this with the same kind of frequency and
  • 00:15:09.091 --> 00:15:11.961
  • Intendancy--the frequency that jesus warned his disciples about
  • 00:15:11.961 --> 00:15:17.433
  • What would happen to him, ultimately, in jerusalem.
  • 00:15:17.433 --> 00:15:20.302
  • The question is: are we paying attention?
  • 00:15:20.302 --> 00:15:23.906
  • Do we understand our role?
  • 00:15:23.906 --> 00:15:27.009
  • In 2 thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 1, it says:
  • 00:15:27.009 --> 00:15:29.545
  • "concerning the coming of our lord jesus christ."
  • 00:15:29.545 --> 00:15:32.147
  • How many of you know that jesus is coming back to the earth?
  • 00:15:32.147 --> 00:15:35.985
  • The timing of that is beyond our purview, we don't know that.
  • 00:15:35.985 --> 00:15:40.522
  • The very best we could know would be something seasonally,
  • 00:15:40.522 --> 00:15:44.026
  • But you understand how difficult seasons are to anticipate.
  • 00:15:44.026 --> 00:15:47.129
  • This is november, and you can wear shorts in tennessee.
  • 00:15:47.129 --> 00:15:51.333
  • Seasons are not precise things, they give us some awareness.
  • 00:15:51.333 --> 00:15:56.672
  • The leaves are turning colors and falling off the trees, it's
  • 00:15:56.672 --> 00:15:59.241
  • Not that the world is dying, the season is changing.
  • 00:15:59.241 --> 00:16:04.346
  • And the best, the scripture says, we can know about the
  • 00:16:04.346 --> 00:16:06.415
  • Return of the lord would be seasonally.
  • 00:16:06.415 --> 00:16:10.619
  • That is less than precise, but he is coming back as certainly
  • 00:16:10.619 --> 00:16:14.523
  • As he was born in bethlehem, and we'll be gathered to him.
  • 00:16:14.523 --> 00:16:17.659
  • "we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or
  • 00:16:17.659 --> 00:16:20.696
  • Alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come
  • 00:16:20.696 --> 00:16:24.833
  • From us, saying that the day of the lord has already come."
  • 00:16:24.833 --> 00:16:30.172
  • There have been religious clowns, prophetic manipulators
  • 00:16:30.172 --> 00:16:36.745
  • For as long as there have been people of faith.
  • 00:16:36.745 --> 00:16:41.784
  • It's not new.
  • 00:16:41.784 --> 00:16:43.118
  • Paul's addressing the church that he helped bring into
  • 00:16:43.118 --> 00:16:45.187
  • Existence, warning them, and it's beneficial to us two
  • 00:16:45.187 --> 00:16:50.092
  • Millennia later.
  • 00:16:50.092 --> 00:16:51.660
  • "don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not
  • 00:16:51.660 --> 00:16:54.830
  • Come until the rebellion or the apostasies," either way, the
  • 00:16:54.830 --> 00:16:59.368
  • Greek word is apostasia, "occurs and the man of lawlessness is
  • 00:16:59.368 --> 00:17:03.405
  • Revealed, the man doomed to destruction."
  • 00:17:03.405 --> 00:17:08.277
  • Paul is warning the church at thessaloniki that jesus's return
  • 00:17:08.277 --> 00:17:12.781
  • Will be preceded by the emergence of a man
  • 00:17:12.781 --> 00:17:15.084
  • Of lawlessness.
  • 00:17:15.084 --> 00:17:17.286
  • With some of the rest of the material in the new testament,
  • 00:17:17.286 --> 00:17:19.354
  • We know him to be the antichrist, this global leader,
  • 00:17:19.354 --> 00:17:22.157
  • Who will set aside those biblical principles, that
  • 00:17:22.157 --> 00:17:25.527
  • Biblical worldview, that judeo-christian worldview, and
  • 00:17:25.527 --> 00:17:29.832
  • Will be the most beastly leader that the world has ever known.
  • 00:17:29.832 --> 00:17:32.968
  • It's not a small thing to push those values aside.
  • 00:17:32.968 --> 00:17:38.740
  • I won't do the word study 'cause i don't think you've had
  • 00:17:38.740 --> 00:17:41.009
  • Enough caffeine to stay awake, but the word for lawlessness
  • 00:17:41.009 --> 00:17:45.514
  • That's used in the passages i've given you refers specifically to
  • 00:17:45.514 --> 00:17:49.418
  • The rejecting of or the breaking of god's laws, the idea that we
  • 00:17:49.418 --> 00:17:52.888
  • Live under the law of god.
  • 00:17:52.888 --> 00:17:57.392
  • Matthew 7:23, jesus is speaking: "i'll declare to them, 'i never
  • 00:17:57.392 --> 00:18:01.163
  • Knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.'"
  • 00:18:01.163 --> 00:18:06.268
  • If you reject god's boundaries, if you don't uphold those
  • 00:18:06.268 --> 00:18:10.506
  • Biblical principles, you shouldn't imagine you belong to
  • 00:18:10.506 --> 00:18:14.576
  • The kingdom of god.
  • 00:18:14.576 --> 00:18:17.212
  • This isn't a political discussion at all.
  • 00:18:17.212 --> 00:18:20.883
  • The lawlessness that is growing amongst us is growing because
  • 00:18:20.883 --> 00:18:26.755
  • We're stepping further and further away from a biblical
  • 00:18:26.755 --> 00:18:29.791
  • Worldview and how we understand family, human sexuality,
  • 00:18:29.791 --> 00:18:33.462
  • Marriage, the sanctity of human life for the very young or the
  • 00:18:33.462 --> 00:18:36.999
  • Very old.
  • 00:18:36.999 --> 00:18:39.501
  • And we were told, matthew 13 just--is the parable of the
  • 00:18:39.501 --> 00:18:43.839
  • Wheat and the tares.
  • 00:18:43.839 --> 00:18:45.174
  • Jesus is speaking: "just as the tares are gathered up and burned
  • 00:18:45.174 --> 00:18:47.743
  • With fire, so shall it be at the end of the age.
  • 00:18:47.743 --> 00:18:50.345
  • The son of man will send forth his angels, they'll gather out
  • 00:18:50.345 --> 00:18:53.315
  • Of his kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit
  • 00:18:53.315 --> 00:18:58.687
  • Lawlessness, and he'll throw them into the furnace of fire."
  • 00:18:58.687 --> 00:19:03.959
  • You cannot reject the principles of god and imagine you can
  • 00:19:03.959 --> 00:19:09.097
  • Participate in his kingdom.
  • 00:19:09.097 --> 00:19:10.699
  • Matthew 23: "woe to you, scribes and pharisees,
  • 00:19:10.699 --> 00:19:14.703
  • You're hypocrites!
  • 00:19:14.703 --> 00:19:16.071
  • You're like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear
  • 00:19:16.071 --> 00:19:19.141
  • Beautiful, but inside you're full of dead men's bones and
  • 00:19:19.141 --> 00:19:21.743
  • All uncleanness.
  • 00:19:21.743 --> 00:19:23.812
  • Outwardly you appear righteous, but inwardly you are full of
  • 00:19:23.812 --> 00:19:27.182
  • Hypocrisy and lawlessness."
  • 00:19:27.182 --> 00:19:31.320
  • He's talking to the religious leaders, the biblical scholars,
  • 00:19:31.320 --> 00:19:34.890
  • The conveners of religious services, the interpreters
  • 00:19:34.890 --> 00:19:38.227
  • Of scripture.
  • 00:19:38.227 --> 00:19:40.262
  • And he said, on the outside, you look mah-velous, but, he said,
  • 00:19:40.262 --> 00:19:45.267
  • On the inside, you're full of corruption, you
  • 00:19:45.267 --> 00:19:48.537
  • Practice lawlessness.
  • 00:19:48.537 --> 00:19:50.739
  • You hand burdens to other people that you yourself will not make
  • 00:19:50.739 --> 00:19:54.076
  • Any attempt to carry.
  • 00:19:54.076 --> 00:19:59.047
  • Matthew 24.
  • 00:19:59.047 --> 00:20:01.984
  • "many false prophets will arise and mislead many.
  • 00:20:01.984 --> 00:20:04.620
  • Because lawlessness is increased, most people
  • 00:20:04.620 --> 00:20:08.357
  • Will--the--most people's love will grow cold."
  • 00:20:08.357 --> 00:20:12.060
  • In the greek language, there are multiple words for love.
  • 00:20:12.060 --> 00:20:14.229
  • In english, we don't have that, we just have love.
  • 00:20:14.229 --> 00:20:17.833
  • You can love your dog and love your kids.
  • 00:20:17.833 --> 00:20:21.403
  • There's a little bit of a language break there.
  • 00:20:21.403 --> 00:20:23.005
  • You understand?
  • 00:20:23.005 --> 00:20:24.973
  • If your dog makes a mess in the house, you can put
  • 00:20:24.973 --> 00:20:26.675
  • Him outside.
  • 00:20:26.675 --> 00:20:29.911
  • If your kids make a mess in the house, don't do that.
  • 00:20:29.911 --> 00:20:36.618
  • But in the greek language, there are multiple words for love.
  • 00:20:36.618 --> 00:20:39.221
  • There's a love for physical love.
  • 00:20:39.221 --> 00:20:42.224
  • There's a love for the love of god, which is the word that's
  • 00:20:42.224 --> 00:20:45.127
  • Used here.
  • 00:20:45.127 --> 00:20:47.362
  • That most people--people's love, it'll be the love in the hearts
  • 00:20:47.362 --> 00:20:50.732
  • Of god's people will grow cold.
  • 00:20:50.732 --> 00:20:52.401
  • Why?
  • 00:20:52.401 --> 00:20:53.735
  • Because of the great increase in lawlessness.
  • 00:20:53.735 --> 00:20:59.374
  • "but the one who endures to the end will be saved.
  • 00:20:59.374 --> 00:21:01.476
  • And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached to the whole
  • 00:21:01.476 --> 00:21:03.512
  • World as a testimony to all nations, and then the end
  • 00:21:03.512 --> 00:21:06.381
  • Will come."
  • 00:21:06.381 --> 00:21:07.716
  • There's this contrast.
  • 00:21:07.716 --> 00:21:09.051
  • We've seen that in the gospels of late, where at the time where
  • 00:21:09.051 --> 00:21:11.053
  • Lawlessness is ratcheting up and the love of many in god's
  • 00:21:11.053 --> 00:21:14.256
  • Community is growing cold, the gospel of the kingdom is
  • 00:21:14.256 --> 00:21:17.492
  • Preached in an unprecedented way.
  • 00:21:17.492 --> 00:21:20.162
  • We have a choice to make, we have to decide where we will
  • 00:21:20.162 --> 00:21:22.931
  • Stand, who we will become, what we're gonna use our voice for.
  • 00:21:22.931 --> 00:21:29.604
  • We don't want to be encumbered.
  • 00:21:29.604 --> 00:21:31.039
  • We don't wanna be encumbered with attending church.
  • 00:21:31.039 --> 00:21:34.409
  • We don't wanna be encumbered with serving and that we don't
  • 00:21:34.409 --> 00:21:36.945
  • Want to be encumbered.
  • 00:21:36.945 --> 00:21:38.313
  • No one can tell us, we say.
  • 00:21:38.313 --> 00:21:40.515
  • God can, he is sovereign.
  • 00:21:40.515 --> 00:21:44.219
  • We have today an open border, the refusal to enforce the
  • 00:21:44.219 --> 00:21:47.022
  • Boundaries of our nation.
  • 00:21:47.022 --> 00:21:49.624
  • It's handed to us under the guise of compassion, asylum, or
  • 00:21:49.624 --> 00:21:52.728
  • Sanctuary status.
  • 00:21:52.728 --> 00:21:56.064
  • Hundreds of thousands of children being trafficked into
  • 00:21:56.064 --> 00:21:58.934
  • The sex trades, don't tell me that's about asylum, it's evil,
  • 00:21:58.934 --> 00:22:05.006
  • And our silence, we will have to give an account for.
  • 00:22:05.006 --> 00:22:09.745
  • The lawlessness has flourished to the point that i think we're
  • 00:22:09.745 --> 00:22:12.280
  • Almost numb to it.
  • 00:22:12.280 --> 00:22:14.583
  • It's a callus that we have developed, we don't feel it.
  • 00:22:14.583 --> 00:22:17.319
  • We hardly recognize it.
  • 00:22:17.319 --> 00:22:19.054
  • It's inconvenient, we prefer not to notice.
  • 00:22:19.054 --> 00:22:22.491
  • It isn't about politics, folks, it's about the heart of our
  • 00:22:22.491 --> 00:22:24.793
  • People and the silence of the church.
  • 00:22:24.793 --> 00:22:28.930
  • Our current president, we have witnessed significant
  • 00:22:28.930 --> 00:22:33.001
  • Cognitive decline.
  • 00:22:33.001 --> 00:22:36.505
  • There's no joy in that.
  • 00:22:36.505 --> 00:22:37.873
  • If you've ever had someone you care about suffer that kind of
  • 00:22:37.873 --> 00:22:39.975
  • Decline, it's horribly painful, but it's also painfully obvious.
  • 00:22:39.975 --> 00:22:46.014
  • It progressed to the point that he was removed from the ballot,
  • 00:22:46.014 --> 00:22:49.851
  • Even though he was elected by the people to run again
  • 00:22:49.851 --> 00:22:52.454
  • For office.
  • 00:22:52.454 --> 00:22:54.623
  • Those are just facts on record.
  • 00:22:54.623 --> 00:22:57.392
  • Now, we don't know who is making the decisions on his behalf
  • 00:22:57.392 --> 00:23:01.062
  • While he's been in office.
  • 00:23:01.062 --> 00:23:03.231
  • Those individuals have never been identified, they never
  • 00:23:03.231 --> 00:23:05.400
  • Raised their hands.
  • 00:23:05.400 --> 00:23:06.768
  • They never said we're the group that are the proxies helping.
  • 00:23:06.768 --> 00:23:12.941
  • We don't know who was responding on behalf of his office.
  • 00:23:12.941 --> 00:23:16.111
  • We don't know who determined the affairs of our nation.
  • 00:23:16.111 --> 00:23:18.613
  • Those things are not clear.
  • 00:23:18.613 --> 00:23:20.415
  • All that was clear was that there was enough decline that it
  • 00:23:20.415 --> 00:23:23.585
  • Wasn't appropriate to continue in spite of the votes of
  • 00:23:23.585 --> 00:23:26.488
  • Millions of people.
  • 00:23:26.488 --> 00:23:29.191
  • That is the picture of lawlessness in a nation of laws.
  • 00:23:29.191 --> 00:23:33.862
  • We're not bound together by our ethnicity, by our language.
  • 00:23:33.862 --> 00:23:37.532
  • We're not bound together because we
  • 00:23:37.532 --> 00:23:38.867
  • Look the same or we sound the same.
  • 00:23:38.867 --> 00:23:40.202
  • We've come from the nations of the world.
  • 00:23:40.202 --> 00:23:41.937
  • What has bound us together was our commitment to the rule of
  • 00:23:41.937 --> 00:23:45.340
  • Law, and it's being set aside in the most egregious ways, in the
  • 00:23:45.340 --> 00:23:50.111
  • Most profound ways.
  • 00:23:50.111 --> 00:23:54.082
  • Now we have a candidate for the presidency that hasn't received
  • 00:23:54.082 --> 00:23:56.518
  • A vote.
  • 00:23:56.518 --> 00:23:58.253
  • We don't know who the selection committee was.
  • 00:23:58.253 --> 00:24:00.021
  • We don't know who determined that our current president would
  • 00:24:00.021 --> 00:24:03.758
  • Not serve a second term.
  • 00:24:03.758 --> 00:24:05.126
  • There's been no medical report.
  • 00:24:05.126 --> 00:24:06.461
  • There's been no mental evaluation, just set aside by
  • 00:24:06.461 --> 00:24:09.531
  • Someone somewhere.
  • 00:24:09.531 --> 00:24:12.033
  • There's a complete lack of clarity on obligations which can
  • 00:24:12.033 --> 00:24:15.971
  • Be attached to the candidacy.
  • 00:24:15.971 --> 00:24:18.540
  • We don't know who the sponsors are.
  • 00:24:18.540 --> 00:24:25.580
  • So why should we be called-- surprised now that there are
  • 00:24:25.580 --> 00:24:28.350
  • Broad calls for people who aren't citizens to have the
  • 00:24:28.350 --> 00:24:31.419
  • Privilege to vote?
  • 00:24:31.419 --> 00:24:36.324
  • That is the talking point.
  • 00:24:36.324 --> 00:24:38.527
  • We recognize that the idea represents the dismissal of the
  • 00:24:38.527 --> 00:24:41.630
  • Rights and privileges of current citizens.
  • 00:24:41.630 --> 00:24:45.166
  • If non-citizens are given the rights and privileges of those
  • 00:24:45.166 --> 00:24:48.904
  • Who have been formally, legally processed as citizens, either by
  • 00:24:48.904 --> 00:24:52.674
  • Birth or choice and acceptance, everyone forfeits their rights
  • 00:24:52.674 --> 00:24:56.845
  • And privileges.
  • 00:24:56.845 --> 00:24:58.179
  • We have become lawless.
  • 00:24:58.179 --> 00:25:01.082
  • Now, we've been warned about it, but it doesn't mean that we have
  • 00:25:01.082 --> 00:25:04.686
  • To submit to it.
  • 00:25:04.686 --> 00:25:06.354
  • We're to be light and salt in the midst of the darkness, to
  • 00:25:06.354 --> 00:25:10.225
  • Use our voices to stand up for the children.
  • 00:25:10.225 --> 00:25:14.863
  • Marriage isn't left to the state to define, god did that, and we
  • 00:25:14.863 --> 00:25:18.833
  • As the people of god have to use our voices.
  • 00:25:18.833 --> 00:25:22.003
  • The lives of the children are not the property of the state,
  • 00:25:22.003 --> 00:25:25.373
  • They're not the property of a school board.
  • 00:25:25.373 --> 00:25:28.343
  • We have to use our voices.
  • 00:25:28.343 --> 00:25:32.047
  • Allen: jesus was a living revelation of almighty god.
  • 00:25:32.047 --> 00:25:35.216
  • That's my prayer for us today, that we would have more than a
  • 00:25:35.216 --> 00:25:37.953
  • Religious experience or some experience of reciting a prayer.
  • 00:25:37.953 --> 00:25:42.123
  • We need a revelation of jesus, it'll change our lives.
  • 00:25:42.123 --> 00:25:45.427
  • Let's pray, father, i thank you that you love us so much that
  • 00:25:45.427 --> 00:25:48.396
  • You sent your son, that you sent him in a package that we could
  • 00:25:48.396 --> 00:25:52.133
  • Relate to, that we could understand and that he could
  • 00:25:52.133 --> 00:25:54.035
  • Understand us.
  • 00:25:54.035 --> 00:25:55.403
  • I ask you now by your spirit to give us a living revelation of
  • 00:25:55.403 --> 00:25:59.140
  • Jesus of nazareth, not a historical figure or a religious
  • 00:25:59.140 --> 00:26:02.510
  • Leader, but the living person of jesus.
  • 00:26:02.510 --> 00:26:05.180
  • I thank you for it.
  • 00:26:05.180 --> 00:26:06.548
  • It's in his name we ask, amen.
  • 00:26:06.548 --> 00:26:09.184
  • ♪♪♪
  • 00:26:09.184 --> 00:26:14.122
  • Allen: i suspect we've all heard the line that leadership is
  • 00:26:15.423 --> 00:26:18.093
  • About influence.
  • 00:26:18.093 --> 00:26:19.427
  • Well, i have a question for you. what do you lead with?
  • 00:26:19.427 --> 00:26:21.696
  • What is the basis of your influence?
  • 00:26:21.696 --> 00:26:23.431
  • Is it your appearance, your education, your professional
  • 00:26:23.431 --> 00:26:26.501
  • Expertise, your professional accomplishments, your athletic
  • 00:26:26.501 --> 00:26:29.304
  • Ability, your family?
  • 00:26:29.304 --> 00:26:31.006
  • What is the point of influence that you use most frequently?
  • 00:26:31.006 --> 00:26:35.343
  • Well, i've written a book.
  • 00:26:35.343 --> 00:26:36.711
  • The title is gonna give away where i'm headed.
  • 00:26:36.711 --> 00:26:38.513
  • It's "lead with faith."
  • 00:26:38.513 --> 00:26:39.948
  • I think it's time that all of us begin to use our faith as an
  • 00:26:39.948 --> 00:26:43.718
  • Influence in the world where we find ourselves.
  • 00:26:43.718 --> 00:26:46.287
  • We're reluctant to do that.
  • 00:26:46.287 --> 00:26:47.622
  • We typically have more confidence in our education or
  • 00:26:47.622 --> 00:26:50.725
  • Our family system or our life experience, we feel a little
  • 00:26:50.725 --> 00:26:53.695
  • Uncertain to lead with faith.
  • 00:26:53.695 --> 00:26:55.296
  • The point of this book is to give you the tools to take your
  • 00:26:55.296 --> 00:26:59.134
  • Faith out of a church setting and bring it into
  • 00:26:59.134 --> 00:27:02.003
  • The marketplace.
  • 00:27:02.003 --> 00:27:03.405
  • If we will lead with faith, i believe god will help us make an
  • 00:27:03.405 --> 00:27:06.708
  • Impact in this generation.
  • 00:27:06.708 --> 00:27:08.376
  • Go to allenjackson.com and get your copy today.
  • 00:27:08.376 --> 00:27:12.213
  • ♪♪♪
  • 00:27:13.715 --> 00:27:29.631