Allen Jackson - God At Work Through Family (Part 1)

June 3, 2025 | S25:E157

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
  • 00:08:34.462 --> 00:08:36.865
  • Else, but the reality is if you dishonor your mother, you
  • 00:08:36.865 --> 00:08:41.136
  • Dishonor god, he made the choice.
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  • We're having a great deal of-- you see, when you reject god in
  • 00:08:44.105 --> 00:08:46.241
  • A culture, when you reject objective truth that there is
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  • Right and wrong, good and evil, when everything becomes
  • 00:08:48.977 --> 00:08:51.680
  • 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
  • 00:08:53.715 --> 00:09:01.489
  • Bumpers for our lives, and chaos begins to percolate, and it'll
  • 00:09:01.489 --> 00:09:06.127
  • 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
  • 00:09:23.311 --> 00:09:25.847
  • 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
  • 00:09:50.739 --> 00:09:53.908
  • Multiple places.
  • 00:09:53.908 --> 00:09:56.511
  • So the what we're talking about in family and children is about
  • 00:09:56.511 --> 00:10:00.248
  • The sovereignty of god.
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  • It isn't confusing stuff.
  • 00:10:01.616 --> 00:10:04.252
  • And when we dishonor our parents, we dishonor god because
  • 00:10:04.252 --> 00:10:07.088
  • He made those choices.
  • 00:10:07.088 --> 00:10:09.924
  • Some of us come from very difficult families, broken
  • 00:10:09.924 --> 00:10:13.061
  • Families, families where evil has existed.
  • 00:10:13.061 --> 00:10:16.297
  • I'm not suggesting that you call it good nor that you re-engage
  • 00:10:16.297 --> 00:10:19.401
  • For further abuse.
  • 00:10:19.401 --> 00:10:22.103
  • I'm simply saying that being filled with anger and resentment
  • 00:10:22.103 --> 00:10:24.873
  • 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
  • 00:10:33.581 --> 00:10:36.484
  • 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
  • 00:10:38.253 --> 00:10:41.322
  • 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
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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.
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  • So plain language, i grew up in a barn in middle tennessee,
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  • What's it mean to honor your mother?
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  • We can make a lengthy list, i gave you three simple things,
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  • There's just some tangible expressions of concern.
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  • Not just a theory, some act of kindness.
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  • I'm not opposed to cards, and hallmark, and but i do think
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  • It's really inappropriate to imagine those expressions of
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  • Concern to be limited to a day, or a sunday, in may.
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  • 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
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  • Your life.
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  • It's a good habit to cultivate.
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  • Secondly, practice forgiveness.
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  • No perfect parents, they made mistakes.
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  • Many parents have the humility to acknowledge that, some aren't
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  • Able to, but your willingness to forgive isn't linked to their
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  • Willingness to ask.
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  • Forgiveness is a decision we make, it's not an emotion.
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  • I've discovered that your emotions will follow
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  • Your decisions.
  • 00:12:52.987 --> 00:12:54.689
  • It begins with a decision.
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  • 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.
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  • And then with that wound, there comes a debt, and the notion is
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  • That until that debt has been addressed, until it's been
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  • 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.
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  • I've got a chip, but i'm gonna hold it against you.
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  • And what forgiveness says is, "i'm gonna tear up my marker, no
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  • Obligation, i'm gonna set you free."
  • 00:13:27.522 --> 00:13:32.894
  • Now the skeptic says, "well, that's not fair.
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  • Somebody's getting free with no consequence."
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  • That's not true at all because god is just, and you and i don't
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  • Want to be the avengers, we want to trust god with his justice.
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  • The part that's not obvious is that when you hold that
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  • Unforgiveness, when you hold resentment and bitterness,
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  • You're not holding somebody else captive, you've put yourself in
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  • A cage.
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  • 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.
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  • You ever been mad at somebody and they didn't notice?
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  • Didn't that make you mad?
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  • In fact, you get so mad about that you forget why you got mad
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  • To begin with.
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  • Well, i mean, it's simple if it's a small thing, but i meet
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  • People who spent years of their life angry, embittered, filled
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  • With resentment and hatred.
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  • Forgive, it's a decision.
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  • "lord, father, i wanna cancel that marker."
  • 00:14:29.517 --> 00:14:32.453
  • There's, the motivation for that is pretty strong.
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  • 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.
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  • Again, i'm not saying you have to validate inappropriate
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  • Behavior, nor get back in line for further mistreatment.
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  • I am saying you have to cancel the marker.
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  • The benefit in that, the bonus in that, is you and i are set
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  • Free and we're forgiven, and it puts an entirely new future
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  • Before us.
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  • Sometimes we have to forgive people that have already stepped
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  • Out of time.
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  • Sometimes we have to forgive organizations or institutions or
  • 00:15:04.619 --> 00:15:08.256
  • Systems of people.
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  • You just can't afford the burden of resentment, and hatred,
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  • And unforgiveness.
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  • And then the third way you can honor your mom is just
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  • With respect.
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  • Practice expressions of honor.
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  • They put you first when your strength was small.
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  • And one of the ways that we can show respect to them is to lend
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  • Our strength to them when it's inappropriate.
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  • One of the challenges we have with this increasing adolescence
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  • In our culture we've pushed it into later places in lives with
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  • The expectations that the strength of parents should
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  • Continue to support, and provide, and protect the lives
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  • Of children.
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  • And it's a misunderstanding of family, and it's a very
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  • Destructive pattern.
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  • Use your strength to help those who helped you when your
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  • Strength was small, even when it's inconvenient.
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  • It'll change your life, it'll bring the blessing of god.
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  • Jesus said, "if we would honor our fathers and mothers, it
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  • Would go well with us."
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  • I want almighty god looking at my life and say, "how can we
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  • Make it well for him?"
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  • I don't want them looking at me going, "how can i limit
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  • That character?"
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  • 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.
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  • It can be a word, it can be an expression, it can be
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  • Many things.
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  • We've lost it, we're adrift on this point, folks.
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  • We are adrift, you see, the pathway to a better place for us
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  • 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
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  • Principles of god.
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  • And i'm gonna suggest to you next that in our families, god
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  • Is at work for us.
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  • 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
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  • Some pretty desperate places.
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  • I don't like to be desperate, i don't enjoy it, i don't ever
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  • Want to volunteer for it, but in luke chapter 7, we're gonna
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  • Watch jesus step into a circumstance that's
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  • Beyond desperate.
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  • He's traveling with the disciples there in galilee, the
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  • Northern part of israel, near the jezreel valley.
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  • There's the end of the day, they're approaching a village,
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  • They need to get there before the gates are closed for
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  • Protection for the evening, and as they approached the town
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  • Gate, there was a dead person was being carried out.
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  • They don't do--the jewish community didn't do burials
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  • Within the city, there were religious rules around that, but
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  • It was really for health and safety reasons.
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  • So there's a funeral procession, the dead person's carried out,
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  • And luke tells us he's the only son of his mother, that she's
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  • A widow.
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  • She's about to be plunged into a very desperate place,
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  • No husband, she's a widow, her only son, she's gonna be at the
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  • Lowest rung of the social economic spectrum.
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  • 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.
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  • Nobody asked jesus to intervene, nobody recruited him, they
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  • Haven't brought him here.
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  • It's the end of the day, they're looking for a bit of food, and a
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  • Place to rest before they continue their travels.
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  • 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
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  • It stood still.
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  • And he said, 'young man, i say to you, get up.'
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  • The dead man sat up and began to talk, and jesus gave him back to
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  • His mother."
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  • The bible is this tremendous gift of understatement.
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  • You know you read that little scenario and, and you don't read
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  • About the party.
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  • How many of you think that little village is gonna be
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  • Different that evening?
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  • Right, young man was carried out through the gate as a part of a
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  • Funeral procession, and he's gonna walk back in.
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  • Do you think he just went home, and played some video games?
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  • Me either, i think the whole village is transformed, but it's
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  • A really desperate place.
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  • 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.
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  • We can't go to church and discuss miracles in the first
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  • Century without expanding and understanding that miracles take
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  • Place in the 21st century.
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  • It's very important.
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  • 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.
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  • 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
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  • Wife back.
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  • 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
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  • 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
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  • 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