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 - God At Work Through Family (Part 1) | June 3, 2025
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- Allen jackson: yeah, i believe it's more important that we lead
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- With our faith now than at any time i can remember in
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- Recent history.
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- It's not always easy to do if you're at work, or sometimes in
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- A family setting, or with children, you don't know how to
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- Get a conversation started.
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- Well, we've created a tool that we believe can be really
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- Helpful, they're conversation cards.
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- They're designed for a variety of settings, children, family, a
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- Small group setting, but the idea is it's a way to initiate a
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- Faith-based conversation.
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- You can share 'em with other people and do it together, you
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- Can simply look through them and use it as an imagination starter
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- For yourself when you're thinking about a coworker, or a
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- Neighbor, or a family member, or you're gonna have some time with
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- Children or grandchildren, or maybe something happening in
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- The neighborhood.
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- We want to lead with our faith, you don't have to preach a
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- Sermon, or quote a bible verse, or present a small group study,
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- We simply want to engage a conversation so that faith
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- Becomes a part of who we are, no matter where we go.
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- I think these conversation cards will be a real blessing to you
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- And a very useful tool as we lead with our faith.
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- Allen: it's mother's day weekend.
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- The title for this session is "god at work through our
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- Families," and just a bit of a disclaimer on the front end,
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- This is my first mother's day since my mom stepped out of
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- Time, so it's--it feels like a special day to me.
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- And i'm sure somewhere through the course of this, i'll share
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- Some of my mom's stories.
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- I, just for the disclaimer piece, i understand she was
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- Not perfect.
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- I knew her better than you did.
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- I knew her b.c.
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- And no, i won't tell you,
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- But i will tell you that jesus changed my parents's lives,
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- And through that my brother's and mine, and i'm most
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- Grateful for that.
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- And whatever your perspective-- you know, i find it a bit
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- Intriguing that holidays are often difficult times for people
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- To come to church.
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- If it's the 4th of july, or memorial day, and you lost
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- Someone serving in the military, sometimes those are
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- Difficult days.
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- If it's mother's day, and there's some aspect of your
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- Circumstance that--you know, none of us have perfect stories
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- And perfect families, we don't.
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- Norman rockwell painted fantasies.
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- All of our families put the "fun" in dysfunctional.
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- Come on, i didn't call your name.
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- I mean, i'm not above it, but it's early in the message, so
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- Give me a little time to build into that but.
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- But you know, i meet people that say, you know, "i just, i don't
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- Do church on mother's day."
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- And then they have a reason.
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- There was pain in their family, or they lost a mother early, or
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- There's some circumstance, and i really think it's our
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- Adversaries's attempt to rob us.
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- There is something, there's a voice in your life that god used
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- To nurture and encourage, or you had a mother that prayed for
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- You, or a grandmother who prayed for you, or you have children,
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- Or maybe they're prodigals, or-- and it's too painful to think
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- About that, but you're gonna put them in the lord's hands.
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- There's just not a perfect scenario.
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- I think we gather to thank god for his imagination of family.
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- God put that whole notion of a husband and a wife together
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- And children.
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- It--it's a god ordained institution.
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- Now the brokenness of our world, and the intrusion of sin has
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- Made it less than ideal, but there is still something
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- Incredibly sustaining in that notion that god has given to us.
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- And as we walk through this little outline together, i wanna
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- Encourage you to find a place where you can celebrate what god
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- Has done.
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- We can acknowledge the imperfections and the
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- Brokennesses, we have broken places, we have enough of them
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- Internally, every one of us, and to many, unfortunately we
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- Have contributed.
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- But god is faithful, and so the title i chose is "god at work
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- Through family," as messy as that is, and it can be kind of
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- Messy, because we all think, "well, our families should be
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- Better than that, or they could do better than that."
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- And maybe, but the reality is, we still live in a fallen world.
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- So i wanna start with the simplest to me.
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- We're gonna build this kind of from the foundation up, an
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- Awareness of god's intent.
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- Most people i know that would go to church will say, "if i knew
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- What god wanted me to do, i would do it."
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- You know, i mean, if you were not willing to take that first
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- Step, you probably wouldn't even come to church.
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- But then we follow it, "but i'm really not sure what he wants me
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- To do."
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- And i have arrived at a conclusion, i don't think god's
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- Playing hide and seek.
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- You know, i always smile to titles that those of us that are
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- Professional christians choose the hidden keys to--i'm like,
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- "who hid the keys?
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- Just bring me the person that hid the keys.
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- I'm gonna deal with them."
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- I don't find that consistent with the character of god, so
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- I'm gonna start with a really simple declaration.
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- It's one of the most important assignments of your life, it has
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- The ability to bring the blessings of almighty god to
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- You, or his judgment into your life.
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- So this was really not like in the optional category, there's a
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- Consequence whichever way you choose.
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- Matthew 15, jesus is speaking, so it carries some authority.
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- He said, "god said, 'honor your father and mother' and 'anyone
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- Who curses his father or mother must be put to death.'"
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- Wow, again, you need preachers to mess this one up.
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- Jesus is quoting from the ten commandments, but he adds
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- The punishment.
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- I mean, we know in that list of ten that moses brought down the
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- Mountain, we were told to honor our fathers and mothers, but
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- Jesus adds in the opposite side of the refusal to do that.
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- So i have an announcement today, honor your mom, it's
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- Mother's day.
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- If she's already stepped out of time, honor her anyway.
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- If she won't acknowledge it when you honor her, honor her anyway.
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- If she was mean, forgive her.
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- Honor your father and mother.
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- You see this notion of cooperating with god, i think
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- We've complicated it.
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- We talk about greek, and hebrew, and 1st century culture, and
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- 10th century bc culture, and i'm okay with all those discussions,
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- But at the end of the day, it's living out the simple truth that
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- You and i know.
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- We're gonna honor our fathers and mothers today with
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- God's help.
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- In john 19, jesus gives us a little window into a behavior,
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- Not because it's a simple time in his life or it's convenient,
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- It wasn't like a good time for him, because in john 19, we find
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- Jesus, having been tortured almost to death.
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- He's been stripped naked and nailed to a roman cross, he's
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- Being mocked in public by his enemies.
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- It's the most humiliating of circumstances that i believe
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- Are imaginable.
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- His body's been wracked by pain, i mean, there's just nothing
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- Good about this scenario and in the midst of it, listen, it's
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- John, you've got it in your notes, "near the cross of jesus
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- Stood his mother, and his mother's sister, mary the wife
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- Of clopas, and mary magdalene.
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- And when jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he
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- Loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, 'dear woman, here
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- Is your son.'
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- And to the disciple, 'here is your mother.'
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- And from that time on his disciple took her into
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- His home."
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- John is standing near mary, close enough to the cross that
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- They could hear jesus.
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- And when he, when he sees them, through the pain through all the
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- Stuff, he takes time to give an expression of care for mary.
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- We don't know what happened to joseph, by this point in the
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- Record, he seems to have stepped out.
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- There's no report of sickness or illness, he's just no longer
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- Present, so john is entrusting mary, i mean jesus is entrusting
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- Mary to the disciple that he was the closest to, to john.
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- The church tradition says that john cared for mary, it's an
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- Expression of honoring your mother.
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- Not because the circumstances are perfect, or you felt like
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- It, or there weren't other things, jesus could have been
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- Angry about many things or focused on many things, and he
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- Chose to honor his mother.
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- I just--a couple of reminders, god chose your mother for you.
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- For some of you that brings joy, for some it brings something
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- Else, but the reality is if you dishonor your mother, you
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- Dishonor god, he made the choice.
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- We're having a great deal of-- you see, when you reject god in
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- A culture, when you reject objective truth that there is
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- Right and wrong, good and evil, when everything becomes
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- Subjective, and it's about, "my truth," and "your truth,"
- 00:08:51.680 --> 00:08:53.715
- "everywhere truth, truth," then we lose the boundaries, and the
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- Bumpers for our lives, and chaos begins to percolate, and it'll
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- Continue to grow until the church has the courage to come
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- Back and say, "there actually is objective truth."
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- The sovereignty of god is at the heart of this.
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- God makes us male and female.
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- God gives children to parents, god knows the children before
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- We do.
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- I know we share a little dna with them, but god says, "he
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- Knows them when they're being knit together in their
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- Mother's womb."
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- There's abundant places in scripture where god knows the
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- Life assignment of a child before conception.
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- It's true with samson, it's true with john the baptist, it's true
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- With jesus.
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- Gabriel says to mary, "you'll conceive, and you'll give birth
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- To a son, and his name is jesus.
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- He's gonna save his people from their sins."
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- I mean, the whole scenario was there, and that's repeated in
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- Multiple places.
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- So the what we're talking about in family and children is about
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- The sovereignty of god.
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- It isn't confusing stuff.
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- And when we dishonor our parents, we dishonor god because
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- He made those choices.
- 00:10:07.088 --> 00:10:09.924
- Some of us come from very difficult families, broken
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- Families, families where evil has existed.
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- I'm not suggesting that you call it good nor that you re-engage
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- For further abuse.
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- I'm simply saying that being filled with anger and resentment
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- And hatred will limit the god opportunities of your life.
- 00:10:24.873 --> 00:10:30.512
- And the fact that evil touched your life and made a season very
- 00:10:30.512 --> 00:10:33.581
- Difficult is not sufficient reason to give it the power to
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- Impact your future.
- 00:10:36.484 --> 00:10:38.253
- The point of the cross is we can be free from the consequences of
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- Sins, our own and those of others.
- 00:10:41.322 --> 00:10:46.127
- Allen: leading with our faith is often not easy, you know, you're
- 00:10:50.365 --> 00:10:52.834
- In a business setting.
- 00:10:52.834 --> 00:10:54.202
- How do you start a conversation?
- 00:10:54.202 --> 00:10:55.770
- Or you're with family, and maybe it's awkward to bring
- 00:10:55.770 --> 00:10:58.206
- Faith forward?
- 00:10:58.206 --> 00:10:59.541
- Or maybe it's children, and you're not sure how to get to
- 00:10:59.541 --> 00:11:01.209
- It on their level?
- 00:11:01.209 --> 00:11:02.544
- We've got a tool that we think will help you, they're
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- Conversation cards.
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- They're designed to help you lead with your faith in those
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- Different settings.
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- Whether you share them with somebody else, or you use 'em as
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- Fuel for your own imagination, i believe with those cards and the
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- Help of the holy spirit, we can all lead with our faith
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- I'm excited about the outcome.
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- Today at allenjackson.com, or by calling...
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- Allen: you see, when we reject and rebel against our moms, we
- 00:11:52.460 --> 00:11:54.996
- Reject and rebel against god.
- 00:11:54.996 --> 00:11:57.632
- So plain language, i grew up in a barn in middle tennessee,
- 00:11:57.632 --> 00:12:00.068
- What's it mean to honor your mother?
- 00:12:00.068 --> 00:12:01.436
- We can make a lengthy list, i gave you three simple things,
- 00:12:01.436 --> 00:12:04.072
- There's just some tangible expressions of concern.
- 00:12:04.072 --> 00:12:07.342
- Not just a theory, some act of kindness.
- 00:12:07.342 --> 00:12:10.278
- I'm not opposed to cards, and hallmark, and but i do think
- 00:12:10.278 --> 00:12:14.048
- It's really inappropriate to imagine those expressions of
- 00:12:14.048 --> 00:12:17.786
- Concern to be limited to a day, or a sunday, in may.
- 00:12:17.786 --> 00:12:21.790
- Lead a life where you give tangible expressions of concern
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- For a person who's concern for you made a difference in
- 00:12:24.959 --> 00:12:27.328
- Your life.
- 00:12:27.328 --> 00:12:29.197
- It's a good habit to cultivate.
- 00:12:29.197 --> 00:12:31.499
- Secondly, practice forgiveness.
- 00:12:31.499 --> 00:12:34.002
- No perfect parents, they made mistakes.
- 00:12:34.002 --> 00:12:36.171
- Many parents have the humility to acknowledge that, some aren't
- 00:12:39.808 --> 00:12:42.243
- Able to, but your willingness to forgive isn't linked to their
- 00:12:42.243 --> 00:12:45.280
- Willingness to ask.
- 00:12:45.280 --> 00:12:47.482
- Forgiveness is a decision we make, it's not an emotion.
- 00:12:47.482 --> 00:12:50.885
- I've discovered that your emotions will follow
- 00:12:50.885 --> 00:12:52.987
- Your decisions.
- 00:12:52.987 --> 00:12:54.689
- It begins with a decision.
- 00:12:54.689 --> 00:12:56.024
- You see, when we suffer in life, when there's something that
- 00:12:56.024 --> 00:12:58.960
- Happens that's unfair or unjust, there's a wound that
- 00:12:58.960 --> 00:13:01.663
- Takes place.
- 00:13:01.663 --> 00:13:03.431
- And then with that wound, there comes a debt, and the notion is
- 00:13:03.431 --> 00:13:07.702
- That until that debt has been addressed, until it's been
- 00:13:07.702 --> 00:13:10.405
- Repaid with an apology, or restitution, or restoration, or
- 00:13:10.405 --> 00:13:14.642
- Some make good, i'm gonna hold that marker.
- 00:13:14.642 --> 00:13:17.378
- I've got a chip, but i'm gonna hold it against you.
- 00:13:17.378 --> 00:13:21.249
- And what forgiveness says is, "i'm gonna tear up my marker, no
- 00:13:21.249 --> 00:13:27.522
- Obligation, i'm gonna set you free."
- 00:13:27.522 --> 00:13:32.894
- Now the skeptic says, "well, that's not fair.
- 00:13:32.894 --> 00:13:34.696
- Somebody's getting free with no consequence."
- 00:13:34.696 --> 00:13:36.865
- That's not true at all because god is just, and you and i don't
- 00:13:36.865 --> 00:13:41.703
- Want to be the avengers, we want to trust god with his justice.
- 00:13:41.703 --> 00:13:46.274
- The part that's not obvious is that when you hold that
- 00:13:46.274 --> 00:13:49.410
- Unforgiveness, when you hold resentment and bitterness,
- 00:13:49.410 --> 00:13:52.013
- You're not holding somebody else captive, you've put yourself in
- 00:13:52.013 --> 00:13:54.849
- A cage.
- 00:13:54.849 --> 00:13:56.417
- It becomes a boundary in your life, a limit in your life, it
- 00:13:56.417 --> 00:13:59.821
- Walls you off, and when you forgive, you're set free.
- 00:13:59.821 --> 00:14:05.260
- You ever been mad at somebody and they didn't notice?
- 00:14:05.260 --> 00:14:09.597
- Didn't that make you mad?
- 00:14:09.597 --> 00:14:12.467
- In fact, you get so mad about that you forget why you got mad
- 00:14:12.467 --> 00:14:14.636
- To begin with.
- 00:14:14.636 --> 00:14:17.205
- Well, i mean, it's simple if it's a small thing, but i meet
- 00:14:17.205 --> 00:14:20.141
- People who spent years of their life angry, embittered, filled
- 00:14:20.141 --> 00:14:23.711
- With resentment and hatred.
- 00:14:23.711 --> 00:14:26.915
- Forgive, it's a decision.
- 00:14:26.915 --> 00:14:29.517
- "lord, father, i wanna cancel that marker."
- 00:14:29.517 --> 00:14:32.453
- There's, the motivation for that is pretty strong.
- 00:14:32.453 --> 00:14:35.590
- Jesus said that we won't be forgiven unless we forgive, so
- 00:14:35.590 --> 00:14:39.127
- Forgiveness really is not optional.
- 00:14:39.127 --> 00:14:41.863
- Again, i'm not saying you have to validate inappropriate
- 00:14:41.863 --> 00:14:44.232
- Behavior, nor get back in line for further mistreatment.
- 00:14:44.232 --> 00:14:47.268
- I am saying you have to cancel the marker.
- 00:14:47.268 --> 00:14:50.571
- The benefit in that, the bonus in that, is you and i are set
- 00:14:50.571 --> 00:14:53.741
- Free and we're forgiven, and it puts an entirely new future
- 00:14:53.741 --> 00:14:58.446
- Before us.
- 00:14:58.446 --> 00:15:00.348
- Sometimes we have to forgive people that have already stepped
- 00:15:00.348 --> 00:15:02.283
- Out of time.
- 00:15:02.283 --> 00:15:04.619
- Sometimes we have to forgive organizations or institutions or
- 00:15:04.619 --> 00:15:08.256
- Systems of people.
- 00:15:08.256 --> 00:15:10.291
- You just can't afford the burden of resentment, and hatred,
- 00:15:10.291 --> 00:15:13.428
- And unforgiveness.
- 00:15:13.428 --> 00:15:14.929
- And then the third way you can honor your mom is just
- 00:15:14.929 --> 00:15:16.664
- With respect.
- 00:15:16.664 --> 00:15:18.399
- Practice expressions of honor.
- 00:15:18.399 --> 00:15:21.402
- They put you first when your strength was small.
- 00:15:21.402 --> 00:15:24.939
- And one of the ways that we can show respect to them is to lend
- 00:15:24.939 --> 00:15:27.742
- Our strength to them when it's inappropriate.
- 00:15:27.742 --> 00:15:31.446
- One of the challenges we have with this increasing adolescence
- 00:15:31.446 --> 00:15:34.849
- In our culture we've pushed it into later places in lives with
- 00:15:34.849 --> 00:15:38.720
- The expectations that the strength of parents should
- 00:15:38.720 --> 00:15:41.189
- Continue to support, and provide, and protect the lives
- 00:15:41.189 --> 00:15:44.025
- Of children.
- 00:15:44.025 --> 00:15:45.426
- And it's a misunderstanding of family, and it's a very
- 00:15:45.426 --> 00:15:48.262
- Destructive pattern.
- 00:15:48.262 --> 00:15:50.531
- Use your strength to help those who helped you when your
- 00:15:50.531 --> 00:15:53.434
- Strength was small, even when it's inconvenient.
- 00:15:53.434 --> 00:15:58.740
- It'll change your life, it'll bring the blessing of god.
- 00:15:58.740 --> 00:16:00.975
- Jesus said, "if we would honor our fathers and mothers, it
- 00:16:00.975 --> 00:16:04.012
- Would go well with us."
- 00:16:04.012 --> 00:16:06.214
- I want almighty god looking at my life and say, "how can we
- 00:16:06.214 --> 00:16:08.583
- Make it well for him?"
- 00:16:08.583 --> 00:16:11.152
- I don't want them looking at me going, "how can i limit
- 00:16:11.152 --> 00:16:13.454
- That character?"
- 00:16:13.454 --> 00:16:15.757
- It's not a complicated path, it's available to all of us, and
- 00:16:15.757 --> 00:16:20.395
- It's not about becoming, or achieving, or having.
- 00:16:20.395 --> 00:16:23.765
- It can be a word, it can be an expression, it can be
- 00:16:23.765 --> 00:16:27.035
- Many things.
- 00:16:27.035 --> 00:16:28.636
- We've lost it, we're adrift on this point, folks.
- 00:16:28.636 --> 00:16:32.540
- We are adrift, you see, the pathway to a better place for us
- 00:16:32.540 --> 00:16:37.345
- Isn't about a different economy, or a different set of
- 00:16:37.345 --> 00:16:39.714
- Politicians, or a different global circumstance, it's about
- 00:16:39.714 --> 00:16:42.917
- The people of faith realigning themselves with the simple
- 00:16:42.917 --> 00:16:45.319
- Principles of god.
- 00:16:45.319 --> 00:16:48.189
- And i'm gonna suggest to you next that in our families, god
- 00:16:48.189 --> 00:16:50.425
- Is at work for us.
- 00:16:50.425 --> 00:16:52.427
- The fancy word for that is restoration.
- 00:16:52.427 --> 00:16:55.663
- The awkward part of restoration is it typically emerges from
- 00:16:55.663 --> 00:16:58.433
- Some pretty desperate places.
- 00:16:58.433 --> 00:17:00.768
- I don't like to be desperate, i don't enjoy it, i don't ever
- 00:17:00.768 --> 00:17:04.005
- Want to volunteer for it, but in luke chapter 7, we're gonna
- 00:17:04.005 --> 00:17:07.408
- Watch jesus step into a circumstance that's
- 00:17:07.408 --> 00:17:09.744
- Beyond desperate.
- 00:17:09.744 --> 00:17:11.579
- He's traveling with the disciples there in galilee, the
- 00:17:11.579 --> 00:17:14.048
- Northern part of israel, near the jezreel valley.
- 00:17:14.048 --> 00:17:17.418
- There's the end of the day, they're approaching a village,
- 00:17:17.418 --> 00:17:20.855
- They need to get there before the gates are closed for
- 00:17:20.855 --> 00:17:24.025
- Protection for the evening, and as they approached the town
- 00:17:24.025 --> 00:17:26.327
- Gate, there was a dead person was being carried out.
- 00:17:26.327 --> 00:17:30.164
- They don't do--the jewish community didn't do burials
- 00:17:30.164 --> 00:17:32.567
- Within the city, there were religious rules around that, but
- 00:17:32.567 --> 00:17:36.003
- It was really for health and safety reasons.
- 00:17:36.003 --> 00:17:39.974
- So there's a funeral procession, the dead person's carried out,
- 00:17:39.974 --> 00:17:43.344
- And luke tells us he's the only son of his mother, that she's
- 00:17:43.344 --> 00:17:46.747
- A widow.
- 00:17:46.747 --> 00:17:48.082
- She's about to be plunged into a very desperate place,
- 00:17:48.082 --> 00:17:49.450
- No husband, she's a widow, her only son, she's gonna be at the
- 00:17:49.450 --> 00:17:52.787
- Lowest rung of the social economic spectrum.
- 00:17:52.787 --> 00:17:57.792
- We don't know her name, we don't know any of the details, except
- 00:17:57.792 --> 00:18:01.562
- There's a large crowd from the town that was with her, and when
- 00:18:01.562 --> 00:18:03.831
- Jesus saw her, his heart went out to her.
- 00:18:03.831 --> 00:18:07.235
- Nobody asked jesus to intervene, nobody recruited him, they
- 00:18:07.235 --> 00:18:11.105
- Haven't brought him here.
- 00:18:11.105 --> 00:18:12.540
- It's the end of the day, they're looking for a bit of food, and a
- 00:18:12.540 --> 00:18:14.775
- Place to rest before they continue their travels.
- 00:18:14.775 --> 00:18:18.880
- And "jesus's heart goes out to her and he says, 'don't cry.'
- 00:18:18.880 --> 00:18:21.716
- Then he went up and he touched the coffin, and those carrying
- 00:18:21.716 --> 00:18:23.985
- It stood still.
- 00:18:23.985 --> 00:18:25.353
- And he said, 'young man, i say to you, get up.'
- 00:18:25.353 --> 00:18:27.622
- The dead man sat up and began to talk, and jesus gave him back to
- 00:18:27.622 --> 00:18:30.825
- His mother."
- 00:18:30.825 --> 00:18:34.695
- The bible is this tremendous gift of understatement.
- 00:18:34.695 --> 00:18:39.233
- You know you read that little scenario and, and you don't read
- 00:18:39.233 --> 00:18:41.702
- About the party.
- 00:18:41.702 --> 00:18:43.070
- How many of you think that little village is gonna be
- 00:18:43.070 --> 00:18:44.739
- Different that evening?
- 00:18:44.739 --> 00:18:47.475
- Right, young man was carried out through the gate as a part of a
- 00:18:47.475 --> 00:18:51.479
- Funeral procession, and he's gonna walk back in.
- 00:18:51.479 --> 00:18:55.016
- Do you think he just went home, and played some video games?
- 00:18:55.016 --> 00:18:57.451
- Me either, i think the whole village is transformed, but it's
- 00:19:01.088 --> 00:19:06.060
- A really desperate place.
- 00:19:06.060 --> 00:19:08.729
- And the good news is, the message is, that when our
- 00:19:08.729 --> 00:19:10.932
- Families are in desperate places, god is still real.
- 00:19:10.932 --> 00:19:14.702
- We can't go to church and discuss miracles in the first
- 00:19:14.702 --> 00:19:17.438
- Century without expanding and understanding that miracles take
- 00:19:17.438 --> 00:19:20.608
- Place in the 21st century.
- 00:19:20.608 --> 00:19:23.044
- It's very important.
- 00:19:23.044 --> 00:19:24.946
- We need a living faith, a vibrant faith, because our
- 00:19:24.946 --> 00:19:27.481
- Families need that.
- 00:19:27.481 --> 00:19:29.517
- See, the goal is not to pretend the people we go to church with
- 00:19:29.517 --> 00:19:31.686
- That our family's got it all together.
- 00:19:31.686 --> 00:19:34.455
- We're only together for a few minutes a week, it's really not
- 00:19:34.455 --> 00:19:36.490
- Hard to keep up that illusion, unless you watch the way we
- 00:19:36.490 --> 00:19:39.627
- Drive in the parking lot.
- 00:19:39.627 --> 00:19:41.028
- But that isn't the objective.
- 00:19:44.398 --> 00:19:47.435
- I read that story, and then i couldn't help but think of my
- 00:19:47.435 --> 00:19:50.371
- Own family system.
- 00:19:50.371 --> 00:19:51.706
- God gave my mother back to my family, he gave my father his
- 00:19:51.706 --> 00:19:56.911
- Wife back.
- 00:19:56.911 --> 00:19:58.279
- The doctor said she had 6 months to live, they only missed that
- 00:19:58.279 --> 00:20:01.148
- By 50 years or so.
- 00:20:01.148 --> 00:20:04.352
- They didn't account for, it wasn't a medical failure, my
- 00:20:04.352 --> 00:20:11.259
- Mother had a disease.
- 00:20:11.259 --> 00:20:13.894
- There were lab reports, and pictures, and lumps, and it
- 00:20:13.894 --> 00:20:16.597
- Wasn't questionable, it wasn't like a blown diagnosis.
- 00:20:16.597 --> 00:20:20.534
- The part that couldn't be explained in those quantitative
- 00:20:20.534 --> 00:20:22.937
- Measures is after a simple prayer, then they couldn't find
- 00:20:22.937 --> 00:20:27.441
- Those masses anymore.
- 00:20:27.441 --> 00:20:30.044
- There was not a great explanation.
- 00:20:30.044 --> 00:20:32.179
- Sometimes our expectations of the healthcare industries are
- 00:20:36.350 --> 00:20:39.253
- Inappropriate, folks.
- 00:20:39.253 --> 00:20:41.322
- They have to, they have to make a legal account of every
- 00:20:41.322 --> 00:20:44.492
- Interaction with the patient, and they don't have a block that
- 00:20:44.492 --> 00:20:47.028
- Says "miracle."
- 00:20:47.028 --> 00:20:49.830
- So they have to fit what they can observe and measure into the
- 00:20:49.830 --> 00:20:53.234
- Explanations that are accepted by people who don't have a
- 00:20:53.234 --> 00:20:56.203
- Living faith.
- 00:20:56.203 --> 00:20:58.039
- Don't try to make health care professionals have more faith
- 00:20:58.039 --> 00:21:00.441
- Than you do, amen.
- 00:21:00.441 --> 00:21:04.445
- But just as that that mother received her son back, our
- 00:21:04.445 --> 00:21:08.149
- Family was changed.
- 00:21:08.149 --> 00:21:09.483
- My brothers and me got our mom back.
- 00:21:09.483 --> 00:21:11.919
- So i'll take just a moment with this because our families have
- 00:21:11.919 --> 00:21:14.455
- Great needs, and we're in church on mother's day, but a little
- 00:21:14.455 --> 00:21:17.124
- Truth won't hurt us.
- 00:21:17.124 --> 00:21:19.126
- God has prodigal power, he can bring the prodigals back.
- 00:21:19.126 --> 00:21:24.565
- You know, the awkward part of this is, you can do the very
- 00:21:24.565 --> 00:21:26.767
- Best you know within a family system, and then somebody just
- 00:21:26.767 --> 00:21:30.104
- Takes a detour.
- 00:21:30.104 --> 00:21:33.140
- We know it's true because most of us have our initials on one
- 00:21:33.140 --> 00:21:35.743
- Of those detours.
- 00:21:35.743 --> 00:21:38.179
- And somebody cared enough about us to pray, or to wait, or to
- 00:21:38.179 --> 00:21:42.350
- Stand on our behalf, or to tell the truth when it
- 00:21:42.350 --> 00:21:45.152
- Was uncomfortable.
- 00:21:45.152 --> 00:21:47.154
- The message is in luke 15, it's the prodigal son.
- 00:21:47.154 --> 00:21:49.857
- Most of you know that story, but when the son returns after
- 00:21:49.857 --> 00:21:53.627
- Having spent his inheritance in a very shameful way, and coming
- 00:21:53.627 --> 00:21:58.032
- To the complete bottom, the young jewish man finds himself
- 00:21:58.032 --> 00:22:02.002
- Feeding the pigs and eating the slop, that's about the lowest it
- 00:22:02.002 --> 00:22:05.106
- Can go for a young jewish man.
- 00:22:05.106 --> 00:22:08.175
- He decides to go home, and he says, "well, maybe i can be a
- 00:22:08.175 --> 00:22:10.678
- Servant in my dad's household.
- 00:22:10.678 --> 00:22:12.313
- I forfeited my sonship."
- 00:22:12.313 --> 00:22:15.349
- And when he gets home, this is the commentary it's luke 15:24,
- 00:22:15.349 --> 00:22:18.386
- "'this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and
- 00:22:18.386 --> 00:22:22.523
- Is found.'
- 00:22:22.523 --> 00:22:24.091
- So they began to celebrate."
- 00:22:24.091 --> 00:22:27.495
- Our god knows how to restore prodigals, and some of you have
- 00:22:27.495 --> 00:22:33.033
- Got one or two.
- 00:22:33.033 --> 00:22:35.469
- Some of you are one, be a good time to humble ourselves, and
- 00:22:35.469 --> 00:22:44.245
- Acknowledge god, and invite him into our circumstances.
- 00:22:44.245 --> 00:22:48.916
- There's a second component of this.
- 00:22:48.916 --> 00:22:50.317
- God had worked for us, but it's through us.
- 00:22:50.317 --> 00:22:53.754
- God doesn't work like outside of us.
- 00:22:53.754 --> 00:22:56.791
- I can tell you about the miracle that god gave my mom, but the
- 00:22:56.791 --> 00:22:59.460
- Reality is, she and my dad had to walk that out.
- 00:22:59.460 --> 00:23:02.863
- I mean my brother's not to a lesser extent, we just got
- 00:23:02.863 --> 00:23:04.965
- Farmed out to family members while they're pursuing doctors
- 00:23:04.965 --> 00:23:07.501
- And further diagnosis, but they had to actually go through the
- 00:23:07.501 --> 00:23:10.938
- Work up in the clinics, and they weren't even christians.
- 00:23:10.938 --> 00:23:15.876
- It blows all your theology out of the water.
- 00:23:15.876 --> 00:23:18.279
- God intervenes in the lives of people who don't even know how
- 00:23:18.279 --> 00:23:20.381
- To ask.
- 00:23:20.381 --> 00:23:22.183
- We have no status, no standing, it's called mercy and grace, we
- 00:23:22.183 --> 00:23:27.521
- Believe in that.
- 00:23:27.521 --> 00:23:29.256
- I trust the mercy and grace of god more than i do any formulas
- 00:23:29.256 --> 00:23:32.693
- That we derive thinking we know how to manipulate god with our
- 00:23:32.693 --> 00:23:35.296
- Formulas, what nonsense.
- 00:23:35.296 --> 00:23:38.199
- But god is in the prodigal business, he's working
- 00:23:38.199 --> 00:23:40.835
- Through us.
- 00:23:40.835 --> 00:23:43.904
- Look at mark chapter 10.
- 00:23:43.904 --> 00:23:46.740
- Jesus again, "at the beginning of creation, god made them male
- 00:23:46.740 --> 00:23:49.844
- And female.'
- 00:23:49.844 --> 00:23:51.979
- For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and
- 00:23:51.979 --> 00:23:54.381
- Be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh, so
- 00:23:54.381 --> 00:23:58.018
- They're no longer two but one."
- 00:23:58.018 --> 00:24:01.021
- Parenting is the ultimate train and release program.
- 00:24:01.021 --> 00:24:04.091
- There should be great hope in that for everybody involved.
- 00:24:07.161 --> 00:24:12.967
- Proverbs 22:6 says, "train up a child in the way he should go,
- 00:24:12.967 --> 00:24:16.036
- And even when he's old, he'll not depart from it."
- 00:24:16.036 --> 00:24:20.641
- I've been involved in a number of training programs throughout
- 00:24:20.641 --> 00:24:24.311
- My life.
- 00:24:24.311 --> 00:24:25.679
- There are some observations i could make: it's impossible to
- 00:24:25.679 --> 00:24:28.249
- Train without effort, discipline, and some very
- 00:24:28.249 --> 00:24:30.885
- Real expectations.
- 00:24:30.885 --> 00:24:33.187
- The other thing i've observed from my own experience is that
- 00:24:33.187 --> 00:24:35.689
- Trainers are not always in a friendly posture.
- 00:24:35.689 --> 00:24:40.261
- In fact, they require an effort that you wouldn't make in
- 00:24:40.261 --> 00:24:42.830
- Their absence.
- 00:24:42.830 --> 00:24:45.132
- So the nature of those relationships is not always
- 00:24:45.132 --> 00:24:47.735
- About a group hug and "thank you."
- 00:24:47.735 --> 00:24:51.038
- Sometimes it's about, "you gotta be kidding me."
- 00:24:51.038 --> 00:24:55.109
- Trainers have an imagination and expectation beyond often the one
- 00:24:55.109 --> 00:24:59.380
- You have of yourself, and parents, that's true in
- 00:24:59.380 --> 00:25:01.849
- Your assignment.
- 00:25:01.849 --> 00:25:04.118
- And children, that's true on our side of the equation.
- 00:25:04.118 --> 00:25:07.855
- You know, we tend to think of children as being little people.
- 00:25:07.855 --> 00:25:11.725
- Right across the hall somewhere around here we got lots of
- 00:25:11.725 --> 00:25:13.894
- Them today.
- 00:25:13.894 --> 00:25:15.663
- They're all over the building.
- 00:25:15.663 --> 00:25:18.666
- In fact, they're the learners.
- 00:25:18.666 --> 00:25:20.034
- What i tell all the adults that work with the children is they
- 00:25:20.034 --> 00:25:22.937
- Get to engage with the people who are willing to change while
- 00:25:22.937 --> 00:25:25.439
- I go entertain the people who have no intention of changing.
- 00:25:25.439 --> 00:25:29.376
- Statistically, it's accurate, but the reality is "children" is
- 00:25:33.581 --> 00:25:40.354
- Not a word that refers simply to small people, all of us meet
- 00:25:40.354 --> 00:25:44.224
- The definition.
- 00:25:44.224 --> 00:25:45.693
- We're someone's child, and i have discovered no matter how
- 00:25:45.693 --> 00:25:49.964
- Many birthdays you have in the eyes of your parents, you're
- 00:25:49.964 --> 00:25:52.266
- Still their child.
- 00:25:52.266 --> 00:25:53.634
- That training notion follows us through, but it's to release
- 00:25:57.504 --> 00:26:01.842
- Them for the purposes of god.
- 00:26:01.842 --> 00:26:03.978
- Allen: you know, it seems to me our nation is more polarized
- 00:26:04.044 --> 00:26:06.480
- Than any time i can remember.
- 00:26:06.480 --> 00:26:08.415
- I don't believe we're gonna bridge that gap with better
- 00:26:08.415 --> 00:26:10.718
- Politics, i believe we will change that by an extension of
- 00:26:10.718 --> 00:26:13.887
- Our faith.
- 00:26:13.887 --> 00:26:15.255
- Those of us with the biblical worldview, those of us that
- 00:26:15.255 --> 00:26:16.924
- Believe jesus of nazareth is lord, christ, and king have to
- 00:26:16.924 --> 00:26:21.195
- Understand how to take that message back into the
- 00:26:21.195 --> 00:26:23.097
- Marketplace, back into academia, back into our neighborhoods.
- 00:26:23.097 --> 00:26:27.234
- We got a tool that we think will help you lead with your faith.
- 00:26:27.234 --> 00:26:29.970
- It's really simple, they're conversation cards we've built
- 00:26:29.970 --> 00:26:32.406
- Them around some imagined audiences, whether it's a small
- 00:26:32.406 --> 00:26:35.009
- Group, christian friends, family, or even children to help
- 00:26:35.009 --> 00:26:38.946
- You engage a conversation.
- 00:26:38.946 --> 00:26:40.748
- And whether you share them with other people, or you just use
- 00:26:40.748 --> 00:26:42.816
- Them to help fuel your own imagination, we're gonna lead
- 00:26:42.816 --> 00:26:45.819
- With our faith in this season to help bring the purposes of god
- 00:26:45.819 --> 00:26:50.090
- To bear in our communities, our homes, and beyond.
- 00:26:50.090 --> 00:26:53.227
- Let's pray.
- 00:26:53.227 --> 00:26:54.561
- Father, i ask for your anointing, that these
- 00:26:54.561 --> 00:26:56.664
- Conversation cards would be more than a tool, that they would be
- 00:26:56.664 --> 00:26:58.932
- Something you anoint for your purposes in this season to
- 00:26:58.932 --> 00:27:02.236
- Transform lives.
- 00:27:02.236 --> 00:27:03.604
- In jesus's name, amen.
- 00:27:03.604 --> 00:27:06.106
- Cc by aberdeen captioning 1-800-688-6621 www.aberdeen.io
- 00:27:06.173 --> 00:27:27.394