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Allen Jackson Ministries

Allen Jackson - Great Darkness, The Light, and The Truth (Part 1)

September 11, 2025 | 28:35

Allen Jackson - Great Darkness, The Light, and The Truth (Part 1)
Pastor Allen Jackson's mission is to help people become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
#Truth #LightoftheWorld #Repentance #Change #Culture #Lies #Deception #Distractions #PresenceofGod #Revelation

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Allen Jackson Ministries | Allen Jackson - Great Darkness, The Light, and The Truth (Part 1) | September 11, 2025
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  • ♪♪♪
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  • Allen jackson: i'm of the opinion that professional
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  • Christians like myself, we tend to make christianity
  • 00:00:09.191 --> 00:00:11.393
  • Too difficult.
  • 00:00:11.527 --> 00:00:12.761
  • We use big words and big concepts.
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  • You know, we'll talk about hermeneutics and homiletics and
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  • Exegetical specificity and reading the koine greek and the
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  • Masoretic hebrew.
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  • And i've studied a lot, and i understand the words,
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  • And i could probably even come up with some definitions.
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  • But in reality, i don't think our faith is that complicated.
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  • Well, i've written a new book that's really at the heart.
  • 00:00:31.480 --> 00:00:34.183
  • It's a concept that changed my life,
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  • And it's changed my relationship with the lord.
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  • It's my friend jesus.
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  • See, i think you and i know how to be a friend.
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  • We know what we want from a friend.
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  • We know what our friends imagine is appropriate from us.
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  • Well, i wanna be jesus's friend.
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  • I wanna do things that make him smile.
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  • I don't wanna be involved with things that make him angry.
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  • When he sees me, i want it to be a pleasant interaction.
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  • I wanna be jesus's friend. it'll change your faith.
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  • I believe this book will help open a whole new door in your
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  • Relationship with the lord.
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  • It'll be a blessing to you.
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  • Allen: i suspect most of you know my mom went to heaven
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  • This week, which is a tremendous victory for her.
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  • And the thing that helps, i think, all of us process that
  • 00:01:13.655 --> 00:01:17.092
  • Loss is we understand that the gain that's come to her is far
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  • Greater than the loss that we experience.
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  • So, with that bargain in mind, we'll go forward.
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  • But i--for full disclosure, i think it was impossible for me
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  • To put together the talks for this weekend and this week
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  • Without having some influence from all of those events and the
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  • Contribution that she'd made in my life, and my family's life,
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  • And so many of our lives, maybe not directly, but certainly
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  • Indirectly, written into the narrative, so.
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  • The title is, "great darkness, the light, and the truth."
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  • I suspect you know by now that we seem to have stepped
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  • Into one of those seasons where confusion is growing and
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  • The deception seems to be escalating, and
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  • It's disorienting.
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  • And i suspect, i hope i'm wrong, but i suspect that will
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  • Intensify over these next few weeks, and even months, perhaps,
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  • And we will need the help of the lord.
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  • And when you do that--you know, when the terrain is unfamiliar
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  • And when you're in a place where you don't know the pathway, the
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  • Light to illuminate the path becomes far more critical.
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  • If you're walking through your house and nobody's rearranged
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  • The furniture, you can typically do it in pitch darkness.
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  • If you're walking through someone's else--someone else's
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  • Home and you do it in pitch darkness, you will have injuries
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  • And a non-church vocabulary, unless you guard your heart
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  • Very carefully.
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  • And we're walking through one of those seasons where the darkness
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  • Seems to be intense and it makes our dependency upon the light
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  • Even more important.
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  • So, that's the target.
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  • Isaiah chapter 9, we'll start there.
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  • Isaiah, as is his habit, with such beautiful, poetic language.
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  • "the people walking in darkness have seen a great light; and on
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  • Those living in the land of the shadow of death the light
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  • Has dawned."
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  • Isaiah prophetically looking forward to the messiah, and then
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  • Jesus quotes isaiah in matthew chapter 4.
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  • He says, "the people living
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  • In darkness have seen a great light; and on those living
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  • In the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.
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  • And from that time on jesus began to preach, 'repent, for
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  • The kingdom of heaven is near.'"
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  • Jesus gave us a bit of commentary.
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  • He did more than fulfill the prophecy of isaiah.
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  • He gave us a little window on how you walk in the light.
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  • You do that by a willingness to repent and when you recognize
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  • God's timing is imminent.
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  • And there are many things that god gives us windows into.
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  • He gave us a great deal of prophetic information about the
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  • Arrival of messiah.
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  • He gave--is giving us a great deal of information about the
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  • End of the age, but whatever it may be, whether it's a life
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  • Season or a life stage or a kingdom event, when we've been
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  • Given that insight, the appropriate response on our
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  • Part, to maintain our position in the light, is to hold very
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  • Carefully and closely to us an attitude of repentance.
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  • Because repentance indicates a willingness to change, to change
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  • Our thought and our behavior.
  • 00:04:16.972 --> 00:04:19.574
  • Since self-righteousness is a unique problem, an epidemic
  • 00:04:19.574 --> 00:04:23.879
  • Amongst religious people, we imagine ourselves to be so right
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  • We need not change.
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  • Repentance becomes a very important tool in times when
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  • Change is afoot.
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  • And when you see the darkness increasing, understand, for that
  • 00:04:36.658 --> 00:04:39.961
  • To have happened, the light had to be diminished.
  • 00:04:39.961 --> 00:04:44.533
  • And the thing that would cause our light to have been
  • 00:04:44.533 --> 00:04:47.035
  • Diminished is ungodliness, indifference, ambivalence.
  • 00:04:47.035 --> 00:04:51.773
  • And so, in this season i believe god begins with his people,
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  • Saying, "repent."
  • 00:04:55.043 --> 00:04:56.378
  • Jesus came to the lost sheep of the house of israel.
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  • He didn't come to the gentile nations.
  • 00:04:59.081 --> 00:05:01.683
  • And i believe, as we approach the end of the age, the spirit
  • 00:05:01.683 --> 00:05:04.052
  • Of god will move amongst the people of god, for those who
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  • Will respond to him.
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  • I wanna be one of them.
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  • One of the phrases that jesus used very frequently, and i just
  • 00:05:12.094 --> 00:05:16.064
  • Gave you a very small sample, had to do with the truth because
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  • It's the truth that brings the light.
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  • When you hide the truth, diminish the truth, manipulate
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  • The truth, you intensify the darkness.
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  • When you choose the truth, when you celebrate the truth, when
  • 00:05:27.909 --> 00:05:31.446
  • You determine to be a person of the truth, you can't shade the
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  • Truth, you can't tell part of the truth, you can't withhold
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  • The truth that you know.
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  • When you do, you're a deceiver.
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  • It's important.
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  • And there's these phrases that jesus used, these--when he was
  • 00:05:45.861 --> 00:05:49.464
  • Ready to make some serious statement, he would say, "i tell
  • 00:05:49.464 --> 00:05:52.067
  • You the truth," and it's kind of code for, "what i'm about to
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  • Tell you is so bizarre that i'm gonna have to say, 'this is
  • 00:05:54.636 --> 00:05:56.671
  • Really true,' because if i didn't tell you it was true,
  • 00:05:56.671 --> 00:05:59.975
  • You'd think i was making it up."
  • 00:05:59.975 --> 00:06:02.611
  • And i gave you just a couple of samples.
  • 00:06:02.611 --> 00:06:04.479
  • It's a fun bible study.
  • 00:06:04.479 --> 00:06:05.814
  • You can run the references for yourself.
  • 00:06:05.814 --> 00:06:07.182
  • The first is luke 21 and jesus said, "i tell you the truth,
  • 00:06:07.182 --> 00:06:10.318
  • This poor widow is put in more than all the others.
  • 00:06:10.318 --> 00:06:13.488
  • All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but
  • 00:06:13.488 --> 00:06:15.657
  • She out of her poverty put in all she had to live on."
  • 00:06:15.657 --> 00:06:19.027
  • They were making their offerings at the temple.
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  • They're watching it in public.
  • 00:06:21.630 --> 00:06:25.000
  • That's another discussion for another day, but they weren't
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  • Giving in secret.
  • 00:06:27.436 --> 00:06:29.471
  • Jesus said, "we give in secret and we help those that are less
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  • Fortunate than ourselves so that their dignity can
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  • Remain intact."
  • 00:06:34.309 --> 00:06:36.945
  • But on the majority of the occasions when he encouraged
  • 00:06:36.945 --> 00:06:39.414
  • People to give, they gave publicly.
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  • I'm not suggesting a tote board.
  • 00:06:44.319 --> 00:06:48.457
  • Yet.
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  • But on this day, they're watching the people make their
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  • Gifts and the gifts are being given, and he calls the
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  • Disciples over and he said, "i tell you the truth, that widow
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  • Who contributed a couple of small copper coins has out
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  • Given everybody."
  • 00:07:02.804 --> 00:07:05.607
  • Well, that wasn't what happened, if you just tallied up the value
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  • Of what had been given.
  • 00:07:12.147 --> 00:07:13.515
  • But jesus is giving them another lesson.
  • 00:07:13.515 --> 00:07:15.617
  • He's turning a light on, the darkness is being dispelled.
  • 00:07:15.617 --> 00:07:18.453
  • He said, "there's a value beyond the ledgers of this present age.
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  • There's a worth to things that you can't put into an
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  • Adding machine.
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  • There's a value that exceeds the value that the secular culture
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  • Attaches to things."
  • 00:07:33.835 --> 00:07:35.170
  • He said, "i'm telling you the truth, that woman made
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  • A great sacrifice."
  • 00:07:37.539 --> 00:07:41.042
  • You see, a part of learning to walk in the light means our
  • 00:07:41.042 --> 00:07:43.612
  • Lives, our thoughts, and our behaviors will transition
  • 00:07:43.612 --> 00:07:47.315
  • Further and further away from those who walk only in the
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  • Knowledge and the light in the information of
  • 00:07:50.552 --> 00:07:52.721
  • A secular culture.
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  • Godliness is intended to change your life more than a location
  • 00:07:54.923 --> 00:07:58.093
  • Where you sit for a few minutes on the weekend.
  • 00:07:58.093 --> 00:08:01.997
  • We've lived too far in the world, far too concerned that
  • 00:08:01.997 --> 00:08:06.067
  • They would be offended by the truth of almighty god, and we've
  • 00:08:06.067 --> 00:08:11.273
  • Lived too far away from the righteousness, the holiness, and
  • 00:08:11.273 --> 00:08:13.942
  • The purity of an almighty god.
  • 00:08:13.942 --> 00:08:19.247
  • In john chapter 8, jesus again, he said, "'i tell you the truth,
  • 00:08:19.247 --> 00:08:22.450
  • Before abraham was born, i am!'
  • 00:08:22.450 --> 00:08:26.121
  • And at this, they picked up stones to stone him, but jesus
  • 00:08:26.121 --> 00:08:29.758
  • Hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds."
  • 00:08:29.758 --> 00:08:33.562
  • Again, jesus makes a statement that is beyond, it
  • 00:08:33.562 --> 00:08:36.898
  • Seems, reason.
  • 00:08:36.898 --> 00:08:38.233
  • It doesn't fit into their neat equations.
  • 00:08:38.233 --> 00:08:40.035
  • He said, "before abraham was, i am!"
  • 00:08:40.035 --> 00:08:42.437
  • Now, they're--the language isn't lost on them.
  • 00:08:42.437 --> 00:08:44.973
  • They know the scriptures better than we do.
  • 00:08:44.973 --> 00:08:50.145
  • And honest--clearly, jesus was not--in his earth suit had not
  • 00:08:50.145 --> 00:08:54.115
  • Been here longer than abraham.
  • 00:08:54.115 --> 00:08:56.718
  • Abraham's been dead for hundreds and hundreds of years.
  • 00:08:56.718 --> 00:09:00.755
  • But he was asserting a place in the unfolding purposes of god
  • 00:09:00.755 --> 00:09:06.061
  • And he was using language that pushed it right up in the face
  • 00:09:06.061 --> 00:09:09.397
  • Of his adversaries, his opponents, those who were
  • 00:09:09.397 --> 00:09:11.600
  • Refusing to acknowledge him as lord.
  • 00:09:11.600 --> 00:09:13.702
  • For those who say jesus was all about a group hug, they don't
  • 00:09:13.702 --> 00:09:18.206
  • Know their bibles.
  • 00:09:18.206 --> 00:09:22.243
  • In fact, it made the audience so angry, they wanted to kill him.
  • 00:09:22.243 --> 00:09:26.815
  • The truth is not always applauded.
  • 00:09:26.815 --> 00:09:29.718
  • The truth is not always celebrated.
  • 00:09:29.718 --> 00:09:31.252
  • The truth is not always comfortable.
  • 00:09:31.252 --> 00:09:33.855
  • The truth is not always an invitation to a vacation.
  • 00:09:33.855 --> 00:09:37.826
  • Sometimes, the truth means realignment.
  • 00:09:37.826 --> 00:09:40.362
  • It was jesus's message.
  • 00:09:40.362 --> 00:09:41.696
  • He said, "if you wanna walk in the light, repent."
  • 00:09:41.696 --> 00:09:44.466
  • If you wanna stay in the dark, keep saying, "we know it all.
  • 00:09:44.466 --> 00:09:47.902
  • We're the covenant people of god, we keep the right holidays,
  • 00:09:47.902 --> 00:09:50.505
  • We eat the right foods.
  • 00:09:50.505 --> 00:09:52.107
  • We're better than all the non-jewish people.
  • 00:09:52.107 --> 00:09:54.242
  • We're better than all the gentiles."
  • 00:09:54.242 --> 00:09:56.811
  • He said, "if you wanna continue to stumble in the darkness, just
  • 00:09:56.811 --> 00:09:59.314
  • Keep on that way.
  • 00:09:59.314 --> 00:10:01.783
  • Or you can repent and participate in my kingdom."
  • 00:10:01.783 --> 00:10:07.322
  • It's the overriding message in my heart for the
  • 00:10:07.322 --> 00:10:09.424
  • Contemporary church.
  • 00:10:09.424 --> 00:10:11.860
  • If we will repent, if we will choose the truth, if we will
  • 00:10:11.860 --> 00:10:16.031
  • Allow the spirit of god to bring a new alignment to us, we can
  • 00:10:16.031 --> 00:10:19.634
  • Have an entirely different future.
  • 00:10:19.634 --> 00:10:22.003
  • Our children and our grandchildren can know the
  • 00:10:22.003 --> 00:10:23.838
  • Blessings of god in a way that we wouldn't know how to imagine
  • 00:10:23.838 --> 00:10:26.574
  • And that we are powerless to orchestrate.
  • 00:10:26.574 --> 00:10:29.544
  • Or we can pretend we know it all.
  • 00:10:29.544 --> 00:10:34.115
  • Allen: hey, i've written a new book.
  • 00:10:37.952 --> 00:10:39.421
  • It's called "my friend jesus."
  • 00:10:39.421 --> 00:10:41.222
  • You know, i'm a pastor--a lot of ritual,
  • 00:10:41.222 --> 00:10:43.291
  • Tradition, a lot of formality in the way we know god.
  • 00:10:43.291 --> 00:10:46.695
  • It's not bad.
  • 00:10:46.695 --> 00:10:48.029
  • There's some good things in that,
  • 00:10:48.029 --> 00:10:49.431
  • But when i'm in real trouble or i have something i wanna
  • 00:10:49.431 --> 00:10:51.366
  • Celebrate, i call a friend.
  • 00:10:51.366 --> 00:10:53.501
  • Well, i wanna live my life with jesus of nazareth as my friend.
  • 00:10:53.501 --> 00:10:56.905
  • It changes everything in both celebration
  • 00:10:56.905 --> 00:10:59.741
  • And when there's a problem.
  • 00:10:59.741 --> 00:11:01.076
  • Wrote the book to help.
  • 00:11:01.076 --> 00:11:02.410
  • I think it'll open your life to god in a more personal,
  • 00:11:02.410 --> 00:11:04.846
  • Transformational way than ever before.
  • 00:11:04.846 --> 00:11:07.615
  • Enjoy the book.
  • 00:11:07.615 --> 00:11:08.950
  • Female announcer: in his book,
  • 00:11:08.950 --> 00:11:10.285
  • "my friend jesus," pastor allen shares how friendship with jesus
  • 00:11:10.285 --> 00:11:12.821
  • Brings clarity, strength, and peace in every part of life.
  • 00:11:12.821 --> 00:11:16.691
  • This isn't about following a religion or religious rules.
  • 00:11:16.691 --> 00:11:20.061
  • It's about cultivating a cherished relationship that will
  • 00:11:20.061 --> 00:11:22.564
  • Help your faith become more personal,
  • 00:11:22.564 --> 00:11:24.899
  • More joyful, and more powerful each day.
  • 00:11:24.899 --> 00:11:27.769
  • Request "my friend jesus" with your donation of $25 or more
  • 00:11:27.769 --> 00:11:31.606
  • Today at allenjackson.com or by calling...
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  • Allen: there's some amazing expressions of god's grace and
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  • Engagement in our world.
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  • In all the chaos and the confusion and the ugliness and
  • 00:11:42.684 --> 00:11:45.153
  • The darkness, there's some remarkable things that the lord
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  • Is doing.
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  • We're in the midst of an election cycle.
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  • Have you noticed that?
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  • Good, i'm grateful for that.
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  • In all the anxiety that comes with that and all the ugly words
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  • And all the stuff and the accusations, in the midst of
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  • That god, i believe, intervened on our behalf.
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  • Not along political partisan lines, but he spared us the
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  • Grief of an assassination.
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  • Our nation's history is stained with enough of that kind of
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  • Hate, and wherever you fit on the political spectrum, i hope
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  • We can recognize the mercy of god in sparing us that.
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  • Beyond that, on a more local level, a judge this week,
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  • A federal judge, upheld tennessee's adult
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  • Entertainment act.
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  • You may not all know the names of the laws, but it was a law
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  • That was put through our state legislature and signed by our
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  • Governor limiting the presentation of obscene material
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  • To children.
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  • What a thought.
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  • The darkness is the idea that we should present obscene material
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  • To children.
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  • The light is that legislators and governors would say that's
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  • Not a good thing.
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  • Now, previously, a lower court had ruled to block the
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  • Enforcement of that law in much of our state, but a federal
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  • Appeals court upheld the law.
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  • That's a, "yea god."
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  • We're in the midst of a month of prayer and fasting called for by
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  • Our governor.
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  • We've agreed as a community here to fast and pray on wednesdays,
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  • At least as a beginning point.
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  • You are welcome to fast seven days a week throughout
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  • The month.
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  • It's okay.
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  • Don't let me limit your vision and your enthusiasm, but if
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  • Fasting is newer to you, at least join us for some portion
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  • Of wednesdays.
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  • We're together on wednesdays and i believe fasting and prayer
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  • Throughout scripture is one of the most powerful ways we're
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  • Asked to seek the lord.
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  • It's a way of humbling ourselves.
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  • God is moving in the most incredible ways.
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  • I mean, it just goes week after week.
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  • It comes with such frequency.
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  • There was a sniper allowed to attempt a shot
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  • At a presidential candidate.
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  • Now, they promised us full investigations, but the people
  • 00:14:04.926 --> 00:14:09.364
  • Promising that are the same ones who told us the russians
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  • Subverted the will of the american people in our
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  • Elections, that covid-19 didn't begin in a laboratory, that the
  • 00:14:13.768 --> 00:14:19.474
  • President's son had a laptop was just propaganda from some other
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  • Nation, that slopey roofs are really dangerous places.
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  • I mean, we watch it, but it's so disconcerting, and what we watch
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  • And what we are told are so divergent, they're so different,
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  • You have trouble believing what you watch.
  • 00:14:38.526 --> 00:14:44.699
  • It makes it a disorienting time.
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  • I had the opportunity to do an interview with robert kennedy
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  • Junior a few months ago, and in order to do the interview we had
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  • To rent a space to do it and his security people had to do a
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  • Sweep of the building, and the room, and whoever was going to
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  • Be there.
  • 00:15:04.419 --> 00:15:07.088
  • Because for more than a year, while he's been campaigning in
  • 00:15:07.088 --> 00:15:10.258
  • This election cycle, he was refused secret service security.
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  • Now, never mind that his father and his uncle had been
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  • Assassinated in service of this nation.
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  • Now, that's been altered in the last few days, but for more than
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  • A year they refused security.
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  • It's so far beyond absurd and it happens with such frequency.
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  • We have a president who called his chief political rival
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  • A target and the media liked it so much they repeated it over
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  • And over and over.
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  • What we watch and what they say to us are so divergent.
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  • It's unsettling.
  • 00:15:55.036 --> 00:15:57.939
  • Are we watching and listening or are we just swept along in
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  • The tide?
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  • Elections are not our fundamental problem.
  • 00:16:05.546 --> 00:16:09.183
  • They truly are not.
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  • I understand they have consequences.
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  • I'm not arguing that.
  • 00:16:13.421 --> 00:16:14.756
  • Participate in the process.
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  • But i'm very much saying to you that the real challenge we face
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  • Is the hardening of our own hearts.
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  • That, truthfully, we just don't want to be bothered with it.
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  • We want to do what we want, when we want, the way we want, and we
  • 00:16:24.632 --> 00:16:28.469
  • Want to pursue the things that are our agenda and we don't want
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  • To be bothered with an assignment to the
  • 00:16:31.072 --> 00:16:33.441
  • Larger picture.
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  • Our lives are distracted.
  • 00:16:36.544 --> 00:16:39.414
  • And once again, the powers of darkness have stirred up a great
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  • Hatred for the people of god.
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  • I wanna encourage you, as i do frequently, to stand up for
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  • The truth.
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  • Pray for the jewish people, the nation of israel, for all the
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  • God's people, all the jesus people.
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  • Pray for your family, pray for your nation, pray for
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  • Your leaders.
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  • It's very important work.
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  • This is our hour.
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  • This is our time to walk by faith.
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  • Very soon, i suspect, we'll be called upon to walk by sight.
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  • That the spiritual forces of principalities and powers of
  • 00:17:12.480 --> 00:17:15.683
  • Evil will break into the open and you'll have to deal with
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  • Them in a very personal way.
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  • When goliath is bellowing his challenge, it's too late to
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  • Master the use of the sling.
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  • When the sanhedrin commands you to be silent and they threaten
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  • Your life if you refuse, it's not the time to begin an inquiry
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  • Of who jesus is.
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  • When the riots have begun, fueled by lies and deceit,
  • 00:17:35.837 --> 00:17:40.308
  • Claiming that those believing in jesus have destroyed the
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  • Economy, the opportunities to be advocates for jesus will
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  • Greatly diminish.
  • 00:17:46.848 --> 00:17:48.783
  • Now we have the freedom, the liberty, the tools with which it
  • 00:17:48.783 --> 00:17:53.054
  • Make so much possible.
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  • Let's determine to walk uprightly in our homes, with our
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  • Friends, in our communities, boldly advocating for the truth
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  • Of our lord turning up to light.
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  • We have been called by jesus to be salt and light.
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  • We have kind of a modern perversion of that in
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  • The church.
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  • We think we've been called to be light salt.
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  • If you salt your food and the taste isn't changed, we don't
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  • Blame the food.
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  • We understand that the salt is diminished.
  • 00:18:29.090 --> 00:18:32.493
  • May god give us the bold faith we need for this season.
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  • I want to pick up jesus's invitation again.
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  • "let us repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
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  • I wanna be a participant.
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  • I truly do.
  • 00:18:47.074 --> 00:18:49.177
  • In luke chapter 2, i'm back on your notes, there's hope.
  • 00:18:49.177 --> 00:18:52.146
  • I'm going away again, it's okay, but i'm back for a minute.
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  • They brought the infant jesus to the temple to observe the law on
  • 00:18:56.350 --> 00:19:01.889
  • His behalf and, "simeon," an old man who was waiting to see the
  • 00:19:01.889 --> 00:19:06.294
  • Messiah, "took him in his arms and praised god, saying,
  • 00:19:06.294 --> 00:19:09.730
  • 'sovereign lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your
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  • Servant in peace.
  • 00:19:11.999 --> 00:19:13.367
  • For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in
  • 00:19:13.367 --> 00:19:16.370
  • The sight of all people, a light for revelation to the gentiles
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  • And for glory to your people.
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  • Israel.'"
  • 00:19:23.010 --> 00:19:25.079
  • Simeon said, "you've done it in front of all people," but he,
  • 00:19:25.079 --> 00:19:28.950
  • And there was only a couple of them, a handful of them, at the
  • 00:19:28.950 --> 00:19:31.118
  • Temple that day that understood.
  • 00:19:31.118 --> 00:19:33.688
  • It wasn't a majority position.
  • 00:19:33.688 --> 00:19:36.324
  • He said that jesus would be a light of revelation for the
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  • Non-jews and for the covenant people of israel.
  • 00:19:38.926 --> 00:19:44.966
  • Now, i'd like to take the balance of the time and turn
  • 00:19:44.966 --> 00:19:47.001
  • This, in some respects, a bit more personal.
  • 00:19:47.001 --> 00:19:50.338
  • Most of you know the story.
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  • Almost, gee, almost 60 years ago, the doctors told my mom she
  • 00:19:51.672 --> 00:19:58.045
  • Had six months to live.
  • 00:19:58.045 --> 00:19:59.914
  • We were churched, we just weren't christians, and she
  • 00:19:59.914 --> 00:20:03.317
  • Prayed a prayer that she would know the truth before she died.
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  • She didn't imagine god would heal her.
  • 00:20:07.388 --> 00:20:08.723
  • She didn't know god that healed.
  • 00:20:08.723 --> 00:20:10.992
  • She simply asked to know the truth.
  • 00:20:10.992 --> 00:20:14.128
  • And some days after that, the lord spoke to her.
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  • We were methodist.
  • 00:20:17.031 --> 00:20:19.166
  • That was not normal.
  • 00:20:19.166 --> 00:20:23.771
  • Well, i'm not being disparaging.
  • 00:20:23.771 --> 00:20:25.172
  • I'm telling you, the people we hung out with, god didn't talk
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  • To them.
  • 00:20:27.908 --> 00:20:32.747
  • And he said, i gave you the verse, it was john 14:6.
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  • Said, "you asked to know the truth before you died."
  • 00:20:36.217 --> 00:20:38.519
  • And she said, "i did."
  • 00:20:38.519 --> 00:20:40.154
  • And he said, "i'm the way, the truth, and the life.
  • 00:20:40.154 --> 00:20:44.058
  • No one comes to the father except through me."
  • 00:20:44.058 --> 00:20:45.993
  • She didn't know that was in john 14.
  • 00:20:45.993 --> 00:20:47.561
  • She had to find the bible and look till she could find it.
  • 00:20:47.561 --> 00:20:51.165
  • But it put her on a pathway that changed my life and has impacted
  • 00:20:51.165 --> 00:20:54.568
  • Many other people beyond just my family.
  • 00:20:54.568 --> 00:20:57.705
  • I'm grateful for that.
  • 00:20:57.705 --> 00:20:59.073
  • That's what truth does.
  • 00:20:59.073 --> 00:21:00.808
  • Jesus told the truth.
  • 00:21:00.808 --> 00:21:02.143
  • Truth brings freedom.
  • 00:21:02.143 --> 00:21:04.178
  • The light helps dispel the darkness.
  • 00:21:04.178 --> 00:21:07.481
  • Now, there's a lot of messaging coming at you that says, if you
  • 00:21:07.481 --> 00:21:09.817
  • Choose god's truth or you choose this notion of god's light,
  • 00:21:09.817 --> 00:21:12.687
  • You're inappropriate, you're arrogant, you're presumptive,
  • 00:21:12.687 --> 00:21:17.992
  • You're antiquated, all sorts of unflattering labels will be
  • 00:21:17.992 --> 00:21:23.097
  • Attached to you.
  • 00:21:23.097 --> 00:21:25.299
  • You can be sexist or racist or homophobic or xenophobic, and
  • 00:21:25.299 --> 00:21:30.104
  • The words just get longer.
  • 00:21:30.104 --> 00:21:33.541
  • You have to start looking them up.
  • 00:21:33.541 --> 00:21:35.509
  • Then, you just feel bad about yourself because you don't even
  • 00:21:35.509 --> 00:21:37.745
  • Know whether you should say thank you or be angry.
  • 00:21:37.745 --> 00:21:41.949
  • I think it's worth noting that objective truth exists, and this
  • 00:21:41.949 --> 00:21:46.554
  • Needs to be established in your heart.
  • 00:21:46.554 --> 00:21:48.255
  • When i say objective truth, it means there is truth that is
  • 00:21:48.255 --> 00:21:51.192
  • Universal, that it transcends nations, languages,
  • 00:21:51.192 --> 00:21:53.994
  • Race, gender.
  • 00:21:53.994 --> 00:21:57.565
  • There is objective truth.
  • 00:21:57.565 --> 00:21:59.133
  • It's universal, it's knowable, it's not hidden from us, it's
  • 00:21:59.133 --> 00:22:03.137
  • Not beyond us.
  • 00:22:03.137 --> 00:22:04.472
  • It has been made plain.
  • 00:22:04.472 --> 00:22:07.007
  • The scripture says that it's been made clear to us
  • 00:22:07.007 --> 00:22:09.910
  • In god's creation.
  • 00:22:09.910 --> 00:22:11.712
  • So, you don't have to speak the original languages in which the
  • 00:22:11.712 --> 00:22:13.948
  • Bible was written.
  • 00:22:13.948 --> 00:22:15.316
  • You don't have to be a great sage who spent your life in
  • 00:22:15.316 --> 00:22:17.952
  • A--hidden away in a cave.
  • 00:22:17.952 --> 00:22:20.855
  • That god has revealed to us in his creation, and that that
  • 00:22:20.855 --> 00:22:25.426
  • Objective truth transcends governments.
  • 00:22:25.426 --> 00:22:29.864
  • Some of those ideas are captured in our founding documents.
  • 00:22:29.864 --> 00:22:32.633
  • I'm not saying they're transcendent, but when they make
  • 00:22:32.633 --> 00:22:34.568
  • Statements like, that we are endowed by our creator
  • 00:22:34.568 --> 00:22:38.005
  • With certain rights.
  • 00:22:38.005 --> 00:22:40.174
  • That's not about the united states of america.
  • 00:22:40.174 --> 00:22:42.143
  • That would be true for any person in any government.
  • 00:22:42.143 --> 00:22:45.212
  • We just have had the blessing of having some, at least, hint of
  • 00:22:45.212 --> 00:22:49.316
  • A biblical world view in the documents that have shaped the
  • 00:22:49.316 --> 00:22:52.153
  • Nation where we have lived.
  • 00:22:52.153 --> 00:22:54.822
  • Now, alongside objective truth is subjective truth,
  • 00:22:54.822 --> 00:23:00.394
  • And subjective truth is personal.
  • 00:23:00.394 --> 00:23:02.963
  • That's about my experience or yours.
  • 00:23:02.963 --> 00:23:05.666
  • That's about my perspective.
  • 00:23:05.666 --> 00:23:07.902
  • That's about the elements and the influences that have shaped
  • 00:23:07.902 --> 00:23:10.171
  • Me and how i understand the world in which i live.
  • 00:23:10.171 --> 00:23:14.175
  • Subjective truth is circumstantial.
  • 00:23:14.175 --> 00:23:16.977
  • It's ever-changing.
  • 00:23:16.977 --> 00:23:20.848
  • Now, the discussion that takes place in the public arena these
  • 00:23:20.848 --> 00:23:23.684
  • Days seldom makes the distinction.
  • 00:23:23.684 --> 00:23:25.719
  • In fact, if you would dare to suggest you believe in objective
  • 00:23:25.719 --> 00:23:28.956
  • Truth, you'll frequently be mocked, particularly in
  • 00:23:28.956 --> 00:23:31.992
  • Institutions of learning.
  • 00:23:31.992 --> 00:23:34.795
  • What at one time said it was institutions of higher learning
  • 00:23:34.795 --> 00:23:37.698
  • At elite levels, but that's no longer true.
  • 00:23:37.698 --> 00:23:39.767
  • Now, they push that drivel down into the schools where our
  • 00:23:39.767 --> 00:23:42.937
  • Children are.
  • 00:23:42.937 --> 00:23:46.607
  • There's something we should all understand, that the personal
  • 00:23:46.607 --> 00:23:50.177
  • Choice to reject objective truth does not change reality.
  • 00:23:50.177 --> 00:23:56.350
  • It's a very important point.
  • 00:23:56.350 --> 00:23:58.319
  • If you say, "i don't believe in god," or, "i don't believe in
  • 00:23:58.319 --> 00:24:02.122
  • The devil," it doesn't nullify either one.
  • 00:24:02.122 --> 00:24:08.295
  • It's like saying, "i don't believe eating chocolate will
  • 00:24:08.295 --> 00:24:10.698
  • Cause me to gain weight."
  • 00:24:10.698 --> 00:24:16.237
  • I'm a living example that that is not true.
  • 00:24:16.237 --> 00:24:21.141
  • "well, maybe if you chase it with ice cream," won't help.
  • 00:24:21.141 --> 00:24:25.613
  • "well, maybe if i gargle with doctor pepper," won't do
  • 00:24:25.613 --> 00:24:28.082
  • It either.
  • 00:24:28.082 --> 00:24:29.617
  • Tried all the above.
  • 00:24:29.617 --> 00:24:33.153
  • Their existence is unchanged by your decision.
  • 00:24:33.153 --> 00:24:36.957
  • When you encounter objective truth, the best possible choice
  • 00:24:36.957 --> 00:24:42.263
  • Is to submit to it, to submit to it.
  • 00:24:42.263 --> 00:24:48.202
  • Now, what we all understand and we know intuitively is there's
  • 00:24:48.202 --> 00:24:51.605
  • A personal struggle with that.
  • 00:24:51.605 --> 00:24:53.774
  • I don't want to yield.
  • 00:24:53.774 --> 00:24:55.109
  • From the time i was this tall, i was very adept at "me do it."
  • 00:24:55.109 --> 00:25:00.948
  • "no," is one of the first words we master.
  • 00:25:00.948 --> 00:25:04.385
  • I'm not sure if we have to be taught that one.
  • 00:25:04.385 --> 00:25:06.487
  • It seems to be intuitive within us.
  • 00:25:06.487 --> 00:25:09.823
  • Our will is formed very early.
  • 00:25:09.823 --> 00:25:12.192
  • When we're hungry, we cry, and we'll keep crying until you
  • 00:25:12.192 --> 00:25:15.763
  • Satisfy my hunger.
  • 00:25:15.763 --> 00:25:17.097
  • When we need change, we'll cry louder until somebody gives me
  • 00:25:17.097 --> 00:25:21.502
  • The attention to make me more comfortable.
  • 00:25:21.502 --> 00:25:24.672
  • And without the help of the spirit of god, we take that
  • 00:25:24.672 --> 00:25:26.941
  • Pattern into adulthood.
  • 00:25:26.941 --> 00:25:29.877
  • Crying when we're uncomfortable, until circumstances change to
  • 00:25:29.877 --> 00:25:33.013
  • Make us happier.
  • 00:25:33.013 --> 00:25:35.382
  • And then god in his mercy begins to reveal himself to us and we
  • 00:25:35.382 --> 00:25:38.886
  • Have a choice to make.
  • 00:25:38.886 --> 00:25:40.254
  • Will we submit to the objective truth that there's a god and his
  • 00:25:40.254 --> 00:25:45.059
  • Invitation to us to repent and to walk in the light?
  • 00:25:45.059 --> 00:25:48.162
  • Allen: i wanna pray with you before we go.
  • 00:25:49.163 --> 00:25:51.298
  • Heavenly father, i thank you for every person that i've had this
  • 00:25:51.298 --> 00:25:53.968
  • Time with today and i pray that in the name of jesus you would
  • 00:25:53.968 --> 00:25:57.738
  • Give us the will to persevere, the determination to overcome,
  • 00:25:57.738 --> 00:26:01.809
  • That we may be reminded that greater is the spirit within us
  • 00:26:01.809 --> 00:26:04.678
  • Than any challenge we face in this world.
  • 00:26:04.678 --> 00:26:06.780
  • In jesus's name, amen.
  • 00:26:06.780 --> 00:26:09.116
  • ♪♪♪
  • 00:26:09.116 --> 00:26:15.255
  • Allen: thank you for spending a few minutes with us today.
  • 00:26:15.255 --> 00:26:17.358
  • You know, our goal in doing this is to add momentum
  • 00:26:17.358 --> 00:26:20.027
  • To your spiritual life.
  • 00:26:20.027 --> 00:26:21.895
  • To help open the kingdom of god to you in a more practical way
  • 00:26:21.895 --> 00:26:24.832
  • That you could engage in a relationship with the lord.
  • 00:26:24.832 --> 00:26:26.934
  • Not be a more faithful church sitter or a bible reader
  • 00:26:26.934 --> 00:26:30.571
  • But a person who actually knows the living god.
  • 00:26:30.571 --> 00:26:33.240
  • I've a written a new book, it's called "my friend jesus,"
  • 00:26:33.240 --> 00:26:36.010
  • To be candid, it's the culmination of years
  • 00:26:36.010 --> 00:26:38.879
  • Of my own spiritual journey.
  • 00:26:38.879 --> 00:26:40.914
  • I wanted to peel away all the formality of language
  • 00:26:40.914 --> 00:26:43.817
  • And routine and ritual.
  • 00:26:43.817 --> 00:26:46.186
  • I really wanted to focus on what it means to be a friend
  • 00:26:46.186 --> 00:26:48.756
  • Of the lord.
  • 00:26:48.756 --> 00:26:50.290
  • And that book is intended to give you a pathway
  • 00:26:50.290 --> 00:26:52.359
  • To imagine your faith in a way that enables it
  • 00:26:52.359 --> 00:26:54.962
  • To be more personal, more transformational.
  • 00:26:54.962 --> 00:26:57.431
  • When i need help i call my friends.
  • 00:26:57.431 --> 00:26:59.199
  • When i need real help i call my friend jesus.
  • 00:26:59.199 --> 00:27:02.169
  • He changes everything.
  • 00:27:02.169 --> 00:27:03.504
  • He's done it many times in my life.
  • 00:27:03.504 --> 00:27:05.472
  • He'll do it in your life.
  • 00:27:05.472 --> 00:27:07.107
  • Read the book, open your heart,
  • 00:27:07.107 --> 00:27:08.842
  • There'll be a whole new power available
  • 00:27:08.842 --> 00:27:11.311
  • To help shape your future.
  • 00:27:11.311 --> 00:27:13.347
  • ♪♪♪
  • 00:27:14.882 --> 00:27:27.394