Allen Jackson - Looting Interrupted (Part 1)

December 28, 2024 | S25:E101

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 - Looting Interrupted (Part 1) | December 28, 2024
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  • ♪♪♪
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  • Allen jackson: we're talking about breakthroughs, trying to
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  • Understand the nature of breakthroughs, so that we can
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  • Participate in them more fully, gain the benefit of god's
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  • Interventions in our lives.
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  • When i say "breakthrough," what i mean is god's intervention,
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  • When there's an outcome presented to us that is beyond
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  • Something we could have achieved on our own.
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  • But the--there's a great deal the bible has to tell us about
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  • Those interventions, about those breakthroughs, and completely
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  • Candid, it isn't what we have been taught.
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  • Far too frequently i've spent my adult life in the church, i've
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  • Listened to lots and lots of messages, and i'm grateful for
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  • That, but there's much we can learn from scripture.
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  • In this particular session, we're gonna talk about
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  • Looting, interrupted.
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  • I believe that's a breakthrough.
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  • I believe it requires an intervention of god, once
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  • Looting begins, for it to be interrupted.
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  • If we use this little paradigm of when god intervenes, i'll
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  • Remind you of some of the more significant breakthroughs you
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  • Know from your bible.
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  • Moses at the burning bush was a breakthrough, particularly if
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  • You were a slave in egypt.
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  • God was recruiting help for you.
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  • He was recruiting a leader.
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  • If you were moses, i don't know if it's a breakthrough or not.
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  • Pretty heavy lift, big dog assignment, late in his life.
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  • He had a lot of momentum in a more comfortable way and god
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  • Interrupted him, but i'm confident it was a breakthrough
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  • For him as well.
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  • Changed his eternity.
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  • Paul on the road to damascus was a breakthrough.
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  • Angry, violent man hating people who follow jesus, and jesus
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  • Stepped into his life.
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  • Mary, a teenage girl in a little insignificant village tucked
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  • Away in the hills of galilee.
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  • She had a visit from gabriel and said, "god has an assignment for
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  • You," and it completely reoriented mary's entire life.
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  • She lost friends; a breakthrough.
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  • You see, i think we've had a wrong imagination
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  • Of breakthroughs.
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  • We've imagined that breakthroughs were when we have
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  • A problem or a need or a bad diagnosis or we're behind on our
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  • Payments and we want to get out of this tough place and we want
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  • A breakthrough.
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  • We want to be healthy and we want our bills to be paid.
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  • There's nothing wrong with that.
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  • I believe god responds to those prayers.
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  • But what our imagination has been is we get out of the
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  • Difficult place so we can go back to doing what we've
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  • Been before.
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  • And i honestly don't think that has very much to do with the
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  • Biblical presentation of these breakthroughs.
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  • None of the individuals i just mentioned to you returned
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  • To normal.
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  • I think it was a breakthrough for simon peter one day when
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  • An itinerant rabbi passed him on the shores of galilee and he
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  • Said, "follow me, and i'll make you a fisher of men."
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  • But peter never earned his living fishing for very long
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  • After that.
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  • His whole world got reoriented.
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  • So what i wanna--i'm asking you to consider with me is, what
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  • Would it look like if we had breakthroughs?
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  • If god intervened in our lives, are we willing to be a part of
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  • That story?
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  • It gets personal really quickly.
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  • Are you willing to change your calendar and your schedule and
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  • Your work flow and how you interact and your social
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  • Schedule and your plans for the future?
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  • Or do you just want god to bless you so you can go on your own
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  • Jolly, old way?
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  • Breakthroughs, deliverance, revelation, insight,
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  • Understanding, redirection, when god's purposes and plans
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  • Are initiated.
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  • Not these kind of fanciful stories where we click our heels
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  • Together and everything's just perfect, but we don't really
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  • Have to change anything.
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  • I mean, occasionally god does that.
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  • I find that god does that in two circumstances: in scripture
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  • Predominantly for very new--when you're very new, when your faith
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  • Is childlike and your maturity is small, and i find that god
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  • Does those kind of remarkable interventions when the
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  • Circumstances are so dire that it requires a dramatic
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  • Intervention of god.
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  • You need a talking donkey or you're gonna lose your life.
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  • And god in his mercy gives you a talking donkey.
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  • May i suggest you don't want to build a life plan where the
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  • Choice is the donkey speaks or you die?
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  • So that kind of idealistic breakthrough really isn't
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  • The target.
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  • We want the revelation, the insight, the understanding, the
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  • Invitation to grow, to change, to become, to emerge, to lead in
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  • A new way, to respond to god.
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  • Are you with me?
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  • Breakthroughs, breakthroughs.
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  • Well, in this session i want to talk specifically about this
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  • Idea of looting being interrupted.
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  • And it's a biblical principle.
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  • I'm gonna try to show it to you, i'm gonna take a moment with it.
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  • So i'm gonna need you to think with me for a minute.
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  • I know history probably isn't your favorite subject, but it's
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  • Biblical history, so it's not like--i'm not just gonna talk
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  • About martha washington.
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  • We're actually gonna look at scripture.
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  • But the looting, or the plundering, of the people of god
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  • Throughout scripture is presented to us as a form
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  • Of god's judgment.
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  • God's judgment is discipline so that when we see it happening in
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  • The pages of scripture, we understand god is disciplining
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  • His people.
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  • It's a very frequent occurrence.
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  • It's not something from just one or two unique points in the
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  • History of the hebrew people.
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  • Israel or judah is often a vassal state subjugated to
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  • Another nation, typically, again, as an expression of
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  • God's judgment.
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  • It isn't primarily about political might or
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  • Military ability.
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  • A secular assessment might explain it in those ways because
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  • They deny the supernatural engagement of god in the
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  • Unfolding story of history, but i don't.
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  • I believe god is very much engaged in the unfolding
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  • Narrative of history.
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  • In the beginning, god created the heavens and the earth, and
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  • At the end of the book, he's coming back to rule and reign
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  • Over a new heaven and a new earth, and the lion will lay
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  • Down with the lamb.
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  • He's not separate from history.
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  • There are many accounts of god delivering his people in the
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  • Face of overwhelming odds.
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  • Defeat is typically an expression of discipline.
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  • It's not about the size of the enemy or their
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  • Technical prowess.
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  • It's about the condition of the hearts of the people of god.
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  • In the book of judges, there's a whole book of these leaders.
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  • Before there was a monarchy in israel, god would raise up
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  • Leaders, gideon, samson, deborah, jephthah, the whole
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  • List of them in the book of judges, from these people who
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  • Would oppress them: the midianites, the philistines.
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  • During the monarchy, after there's a king, nations
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  • Oppressed them: egypt, babylon, assyria.
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  • You're familiar with some of the names, perhaps.
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  • In the new testament, it's not just an old testament concept,
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  • In the new testament, the hard cry of jesus's disciples is:
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  • "will you throw the romans out?"
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  • Because israel is once again a vassal state, this time of rome.
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  • It's important.
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  • In the book of judges chapter 6, just to give you a couple of
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  • Samples, says, "whenever the israelites planted their crops,
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  • The midianites, the amalekites, and the other eastern peoples
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  • Invaded the country.
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  • They camped on the land, ruined the crops all the way to gaza,
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  • And didn't spare a living thing for israel, neither sheep nor
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  • Cattle nor donkeys.
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  • They came up with their livestock and their tents like
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  • Swarms of locusts.
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  • It's impossible to count the men and their camels; they invaded
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  • The land to ravage it."
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  • Israel is being looted.
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  • They're taking the livestock, they're taking the harvest,
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  • They're plundering the country and leaving the
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  • People destitute.
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  • And god raises up gideon in this case.
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  • It continues in their history when there's a monarchy in place
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  • In 1 kings 14: "in the fifth year of king rehoboam," it's
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  • Very early in the in the life of judah as an independent nation,
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  • "the king of egypt attacked jerusalem.
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  • And he carried off the treasures of the temple of the lord and
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  • The treasures of the royal palace.
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  • He took everything, including all the gold shields solomon
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  • Had made.
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  • So king rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and
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  • Assigned these to the commanders of the guard on duty at the
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  • Entrance to the royal palace."
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  • The temple was the national bank, it was the
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  • National treasury.
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  • So the ostentatious wealth of the temple was plundered, was
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  • Looted, by the egyptian king.
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  • He took the gold that solomon accumulated and took it back to
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  • Egypt, and the king of israel says, "we'll just make
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  • Brass shields."
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  • The people are being looted.
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  • In 2 kings 23, "jehoiakim," this is near the end of the nation of
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  • Judah, "paid pharaoh the silver and gold he demanded.
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  • In order to do so, he taxed the land and exacted the silver and
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  • Gold from the people of the land according to their assessments."
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  • They're being looted.
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  • Perhaps the most notable example of this is the exile.
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  • When i use that word, i hope you know what i'm talking about.
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  • In 721 bc, the northern kingdom of israel was conquered by
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  • Assyria, and the ten tribes of israel were dispersed throughout
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  • The assyrian empire.
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  • The southern kingdom of israel, called judah, with the capital
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  • In jerusalem, survived for about another 150 years.
  • 00:09:47.369 --> 00:09:52.073
  • Finally, in 587 the babylonians destroyed the city of jerusalem
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  • And they took much of the population back to babylon.
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  • Biblical scholars or people who study it call that period the
  • 00:10:00.148 --> 00:10:03.685
  • Exile because the people that were promised the land of israel
  • 00:10:03.685 --> 00:10:07.288
  • Weren't living in the land, they were exiled.
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  • It was god's judgment upon them.
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  • It had nothing to do with the babylonian army.
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  • It had everything to do with god's judgment.
  • 00:10:15.263 --> 00:10:19.434
  • What we are not quite as familiar with was the exile was
  • 00:10:19.434 --> 00:10:23.204
  • Not a singular event.
  • 00:10:23.204 --> 00:10:25.674
  • It wasn't a single siege of jerusalem when the babylonians
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  • Won and the jews lost.
  • 00:10:30.245 --> 00:10:34.015
  • It was a series of events, a series of events bringing judah
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  • And the jewish people further under babylonian control.
  • 00:10:38.520 --> 00:10:42.557
  • The end result of that, over a long period of years, was the
  • 00:10:42.557 --> 00:10:46.728
  • Destruction of jerusalem and the temple.
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  • If you don't know that, you miss the expressions of god's grace.
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  • Time after time after time, god would intervene to the people
  • 00:10:55.937 --> 00:11:01.943
  • And he would say, "there is an opportunity for you to
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  • Be different."
  • 00:11:04.879 --> 00:11:10.085
  • And time after time they took a pass.
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  • Allen: 2024 has almost slipped past us.
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  • Thank you for your partnership this year.
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  • It's been the most remarkable season
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  • We've ever known together.
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  • And i thank you for your faithful investment of time,
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  • Energy, and prayers in our ministry.
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  • Change is taking place in the earth.
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  • We're seeing in our own nation, god responded to us
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  • With tremendous mercy and grace.
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  • We have leaders that are headed to washington, d.c.
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  • To enact changes, to restore a set of values
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  • That have brought strength to our nation.
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  • It's a time of great optimism and hope and anticipation,
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  • And i believe that's true in the church as well.
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  • Folks, we can't stand on the sidelines
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  • And expect somebody else to be the change.
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  • We need the presence of god to emerge in our schools,
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  • On our college campuses, back in our churches.
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  • And so i think it's a critical time that we bring the message
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  • Of the truth of jesus christ.
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  • It's a hopeful message.
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  • It's a message of wholeness and healing and deliverance
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  • And freedom that we desperately need in our cities,
  • 00:12:14.115 --> 00:12:17.519
  • In our communities, wherever god's people gather.
  • 00:12:17.519 --> 00:12:20.255
  • Join us.
  • 00:12:20.255 --> 00:12:21.589
  • Let's be a part of what god is doing in the earth,
  • 00:12:21.589 --> 00:12:23.892
  • And we will celebrate his faithfulness
  • 00:12:23.892 --> 00:12:26.027
  • To the people of our generation.
  • 00:12:26.027 --> 00:12:28.096
  • Thank you for being a part.
  • 00:12:28.096 --> 00:12:29.931
  • Female announcer: god has uniquely blessed us.
  • 00:12:31.666 --> 00:12:33.701
  • The best is yet to come.
  • 00:12:33.701 --> 00:12:36.671
  • God has heard our prayers.
  • 00:12:36.671 --> 00:12:38.973
  • God has delivered us from oppression.
  • 00:12:38.973 --> 00:12:43.077
  • We live in a season of shaking,
  • 00:12:43.077 --> 00:12:45.713
  • But together we stand, united in heart and purpose
  • 00:12:45.713 --> 00:12:50.985
  • To accomplish the will of god in our generation.
  • 00:12:50.985 --> 00:12:55.256
  • We will not stop.
  • 00:12:55.256 --> 00:12:57.492
  • Allen: i want to ask you to make
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  • A sacrificial investment in our ministry.
  • 00:13:00.795 --> 00:13:03.164
  • We have a generous partner who will match every gift
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  • Between now and the end of the year.
  • 00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:06.868
  • We're making plans for the year ahead with a boldness
  • 00:13:06.868 --> 00:13:09.671
  • And a courage unlike anything we've done in the past.
  • 00:13:09.671 --> 00:13:12.874
  • We wanna make as clear a statement for the gospel
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  • Of jesus christ.
  • 00:13:15.376 --> 00:13:16.711
  • We wanna strengthen the church.
  • 00:13:16.711 --> 00:13:18.379
  • We want to tell the truth in a way that people
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  • Can rally around it.
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  • God is moving in the earth,
  • 00:13:22.350 --> 00:13:23.985
  • And we intend to participate with him.
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  • I hope you'll join us as we look forward to the new year.
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  • Thank you in advance for your generous investments
  • 00:13:29.924 --> 00:13:32.460
  • In what god is doing.
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  • God bless you.
  • 00:13:33.795 --> 00:13:35.263
  • Announcer: as we step into this new season,
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  • Let's be faithful to seek god.
  • 00:13:37.599 --> 00:13:40.201
  • Let's make room for him to refine our hearts so we can
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  • Join him in what he's doing.
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  • Pastor allen's new 90-day devotional journal called
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  • ♪♪♪
  • 00:14:15.570 --> 00:14:19.374
  • Allen: the first stage of babylonian encroachment,
  • 00:14:21.609 --> 00:14:26.915
  • It was about 605 bc.
  • 00:14:26.915 --> 00:14:29.017
  • Nebuchadnezzar, the king of babylon, laid siege
  • 00:14:29.017 --> 00:14:31.319
  • To jerusalem.
  • 00:14:31.319 --> 00:14:34.022
  • After jehoiakim--i'm gonna show you some scriptures in just
  • 00:14:34.022 --> 00:14:37.025
  • A moment.
  • 00:14:37.025 --> 00:14:38.359
  • I promise this is biblical.
  • 00:14:38.359 --> 00:14:41.329
  • Because the king of israel, the king of judah, had made an
  • 00:14:41.329 --> 00:14:43.865
  • Alliance with egypt, and egypt and babylon were enemies, and
  • 00:14:43.865 --> 00:14:48.169
  • The babylonians were not going to allow israel to expand
  • 00:14:48.169 --> 00:14:52.273
  • Egypt's influence.
  • 00:14:52.273 --> 00:14:54.342
  • So the babylonian king marched to jerusalem and defeated the
  • 00:14:54.342 --> 00:15:00.148
  • City and they took some of the sons of the judean nobility
  • 00:15:00.148 --> 00:15:04.018
  • As hostages.
  • 00:15:04.018 --> 00:15:05.386
  • That's where you'd pick up daniel and his friends.
  • 00:15:05.386 --> 00:15:09.023
  • They're gonna go back to babylon.
  • 00:15:09.023 --> 00:15:10.792
  • You know, some of those stories about a lion's den?
  • 00:15:10.792 --> 00:15:13.494
  • About a fiery furnace?
  • 00:15:13.494 --> 00:15:15.496
  • Remember those?
  • 00:15:15.496 --> 00:15:17.332
  • That's a part of this exile narrative, but that's not
  • 00:15:17.332 --> 00:15:19.567
  • The whole story.
  • 00:15:19.567 --> 00:15:21.135
  • Some years later, it's about 597, the second stage of this
  • 00:15:21.135 --> 00:15:24.439
  • Babylonian incursion took place.
  • 00:15:24.439 --> 00:15:27.175
  • They conquered jerusalem more completely and exiled parts of
  • 00:15:27.175 --> 00:15:30.011
  • The population, including, this time, a different king:
  • 00:15:30.011 --> 00:15:34.182
  • King jehoiachin.
  • 00:15:34.182 --> 00:15:36.317
  • The third stage was 587, that i've mentioned already, bc.
  • 00:15:36.317 --> 00:15:40.321
  • Nebuchadnezzar, this time, attacks jerusalem and destroyed
  • 00:15:40.321 --> 00:15:42.757
  • The city, destroyed the walls of the city.
  • 00:15:42.757 --> 00:15:45.660
  • He destroyed the temple in the city.
  • 00:15:45.660 --> 00:15:48.529
  • They took the golden vessels that were there.
  • 00:15:48.529 --> 00:15:50.431
  • Some of them have been plundered years and years ago by the
  • 00:15:50.431 --> 00:15:53.301
  • Egyptians, but they took anything that was left in the
  • 00:15:53.301 --> 00:15:56.404
  • Temple that was valuable, any wealth that had been accumulated
  • 00:15:56.404 --> 00:15:59.307
  • Or remained or maintained from solomon's time.
  • 00:15:59.307 --> 00:16:04.912
  • The babylonian exile ended in 538 bc when the persian king,
  • 00:16:04.912 --> 00:16:10.852
  • Cyrus the great, came to power.
  • 00:16:10.852 --> 00:16:12.420
  • He had a different attitude and he allowed the people to
  • 00:16:12.420 --> 00:16:15.923
  • Go back.
  • 00:16:15.923 --> 00:16:17.291
  • Who fits into that narrative?
  • 00:16:17.291 --> 00:16:18.626
  • What biblical characters do you know?
  • 00:16:18.626 --> 00:16:21.029
  • Well, esther was a queen to the persian king, nehemiah was the
  • 00:16:21.029 --> 00:16:26.768
  • Cupbearer to the persian king, and he got permission to go back
  • 00:16:26.768 --> 00:16:31.272
  • And to rebuild the wall around the city, remember?
  • 00:16:31.272 --> 00:16:35.243
  • All of that is a part of this exile narrative, the judgment of
  • 00:16:35.243 --> 00:16:39.347
  • God upon his people, warning them, "your behavior is going to
  • 00:16:39.347 --> 00:16:45.019
  • Bring destruction.
  • 00:16:45.019 --> 00:16:46.821
  • I can't defend you in your ungodliness, in your immorality,
  • 00:16:46.821 --> 00:16:50.525
  • In your idolatry.
  • 00:16:50.525 --> 00:16:52.260
  • If you persist in these behaviors, you will lose your
  • 00:16:52.260 --> 00:16:55.763
  • Freedom, your liberty.
  • 00:16:55.763 --> 00:16:58.499
  • Your children will suffer."
  • 00:16:58.499 --> 00:17:00.935
  • It's the message of the prophets.
  • 00:17:00.935 --> 00:17:02.403
  • It's said over and over and over again.
  • 00:17:02.403 --> 00:17:04.806
  • This whole thing got triggered in my brain by our
  • 00:17:04.806 --> 00:17:06.674
  • Bible reading.
  • 00:17:06.674 --> 00:17:08.042
  • If you're reading with us, we're doing ezekiel, and the reading
  • 00:17:08.042 --> 00:17:11.412
  • For either today or tomorrow is ezekiel 40.
  • 00:17:11.412 --> 00:17:14.449
  • And ezekiel, it's in your notes, ezekiel gives you
  • 00:17:14.449 --> 00:17:16.484
  • A little timeline.
  • 00:17:16.484 --> 00:17:17.852
  • He says, "in the twenty-fifth year of our exile"--"we're 25
  • 00:17:17.852 --> 00:17:20.822
  • Years into this exile," he said.
  • 00:17:20.822 --> 00:17:23.624
  • But look at his next phrase.
  • 00:17:23.624 --> 00:17:25.026
  • "in the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the
  • 00:17:25.026 --> 00:17:27.361
  • Year, on the tenth of the day of--the tenth of the month, the
  • 00:17:27.361 --> 00:17:31.265
  • Fourteenth year after the fall of the city," in ezekiel's
  • 00:17:31.265 --> 00:17:35.503
  • Understanding, the exile began 25 years ago, but it's only been
  • 00:17:35.503 --> 00:17:38.773
  • 14 years since jerusalem was destroyed.
  • 00:17:38.773 --> 00:17:42.944
  • Again, it wasn't a singular event.
  • 00:17:42.944 --> 00:17:47.081
  • It was a series of events spread out over many years with god
  • 00:17:47.081 --> 00:17:50.985
  • Pleading with the people, "don't keep going this way."
  • 00:17:50.985 --> 00:17:59.627
  • The first stage, i put it in your notes, pretty
  • 00:17:59.627 --> 00:18:01.762
  • Simple chronology.
  • 00:18:01.762 --> 00:18:03.664
  • The king in judah at this point is jehoakim.
  • 00:18:03.664 --> 00:18:07.502
  • 2 kings 24, "during jehoiakim's reign, nebuchadnezzar the king
  • 00:18:07.502 --> 00:18:11.639
  • Of babylon invaded the land, the king became his vassal for
  • 00:18:11.639 --> 00:18:16.010
  • Three years.
  • 00:18:16.010 --> 00:18:17.378
  • But then he changed his mind and he rebelled
  • 00:18:17.378 --> 00:18:19.514
  • Against nebuchadnezzar."
  • 00:18:19.514 --> 00:18:20.848
  • The prophets told him not to.
  • 00:18:20.848 --> 00:18:24.085
  • They said, "don't do that."
  • 00:18:24.085 --> 00:18:27.288
  • He did it anyway.
  • 00:18:27.288 --> 00:18:29.123
  • "and the lord sent babylonian, aramean, moabite, ammonite
  • 00:18:29.123 --> 00:18:32.460
  • Raiders against him.
  • 00:18:32.460 --> 00:18:33.895
  • He sent them to destroy judah, in accordance with the word of
  • 00:18:33.895 --> 00:18:36.531
  • The lord proclaimed by his servants the prophets."
  • 00:18:36.531 --> 00:18:40.268
  • And the exile begins.
  • 00:18:40.268 --> 00:18:42.837
  • Babylonian has authority over jerusalem.
  • 00:18:42.837 --> 00:18:46.207
  • Babylon has authority over judah.
  • 00:18:46.207 --> 00:18:49.277
  • But it doesn't stop there.
  • 00:18:49.277 --> 00:18:50.611
  • The next stage comes up a few years later.
  • 00:18:50.611 --> 00:18:53.147
  • There's actually a two-stage deportation in 597 and then
  • 00:18:53.147 --> 00:18:56.851
  • In 587.
  • 00:18:56.851 --> 00:18:58.186
  • But in 2 kings 24, this time the king is jehoiachin, with a c-h.
  • 00:18:58.186 --> 00:19:04.725
  • "jehoiachin the king of judah and all of his attendants
  • 00:19:04.725 --> 00:19:09.463
  • Surrendered to nebuchadnezzar.
  • 00:19:09.463 --> 00:19:12.099
  • In the eighth year of the reign of the king of babylon, he took
  • 00:19:12.099 --> 00:19:15.570
  • Jehoiachin prisoner.
  • 00:19:15.570 --> 00:19:16.904
  • As the lord had declared, nebuchadnezzar removed all the
  • 00:19:16.904 --> 00:19:19.874
  • Treasures from the temple of the lord and from the royal palace,
  • 00:19:19.874 --> 00:19:23.177
  • And he took away all the gold articles that solomon the king
  • 00:19:23.177 --> 00:19:25.947
  • Of israel had made for the temple of the lord.
  • 00:19:25.947 --> 00:19:28.616
  • He carried into exile all jerusalem: all the officers and
  • 00:19:28.616 --> 00:19:32.153
  • The fighting men, and the craftsmen and the artisans,"
  • 00:19:32.153 --> 00:19:35.523
  • He took the smartest people, the most talented people, he took
  • 00:19:35.523 --> 00:19:38.292
  • Their wealth.
  • 00:19:38.292 --> 00:19:39.660
  • What's he doing?
  • 00:19:39.660 --> 00:19:40.995
  • He is looting the nation.
  • 00:19:40.995 --> 00:19:44.432
  • It's not the first time.
  • 00:19:44.432 --> 00:19:46.701
  • It's being done systematically, incrementally.
  • 00:19:46.701 --> 00:19:50.371
  • It's a little bit like harvesting a crop.
  • 00:19:50.371 --> 00:19:52.306
  • You know, if you go through and you take the choice things and
  • 00:19:52.306 --> 00:19:55.710
  • The most obvious things, we have an expression for it, we call it
  • 00:19:55.710 --> 00:19:58.246
  • The low-hanging fruit.
  • 00:19:58.246 --> 00:20:01.082
  • And these invading forces that begin to insert themselves, they
  • 00:20:01.082 --> 00:20:04.819
  • Take the low-hanging fruit, the obvious wealth, the most
  • 00:20:04.819 --> 00:20:08.589
  • Visible things.
  • 00:20:08.589 --> 00:20:10.558
  • And then as they begin to insert themselves more fully, they loot
  • 00:20:10.558 --> 00:20:13.995
  • More completely, until finally they said, "we're gonna take
  • 00:20:13.995 --> 00:20:18.266
  • Your smart people and your talented people, and we're gonna
  • 00:20:18.266 --> 00:20:21.235
  • Destroy your ability to reproduce, to maintain
  • 00:20:21.235 --> 00:20:25.840
  • Your equilibrium."
  • 00:20:25.840 --> 00:20:27.308
  • That's the final stage of this looting in 2 kings 25.
  • 00:20:27.308 --> 00:20:31.512
  • "on the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of
  • 00:20:31.512 --> 00:20:34.715
  • Nebuchadnezzar, the commander of the imperial guard, an official
  • 00:20:34.715 --> 00:20:39.787
  • Of the king of babylon, came to jerusalem.
  • 00:20:39.787 --> 00:20:41.656
  • And he set fire to the temple of the lord."
  • 00:20:41.656 --> 00:20:44.692
  • They're gonna burn the bank.
  • 00:20:44.692 --> 00:20:47.261
  • "we've taken everything these people have, we can burn the
  • 00:20:47.261 --> 00:20:49.630
  • Bank now."
  • 00:20:49.630 --> 00:20:52.133
  • "the royal palaces and all the houses of jerusalem.
  • 00:20:52.133 --> 00:20:55.503
  • Every important building he burned down."
  • 00:20:55.503 --> 00:20:57.405
  • They've plundered everything they want.
  • 00:20:57.405 --> 00:21:01.042
  • You see, jesus said it in john chapter 10 and verse 10.
  • 00:21:01.042 --> 00:21:04.378
  • If you'll ever come to the conclusion that spiritual forces
  • 00:21:04.378 --> 00:21:07.481
  • Are more real than any other force, the bible and history
  • 00:21:07.481 --> 00:21:11.018
  • Will make much more sense.
  • 00:21:11.018 --> 00:21:13.120
  • Jesus said, "i've come that you might have life, and have it
  • 00:21:13.120 --> 00:21:15.289
  • Abundantly, but the thief comes to steal, to kill, and destroy."
  • 00:21:15.289 --> 00:21:19.427
  • When god withdraws his protection, the end result is
  • 00:21:19.427 --> 00:21:23.864
  • Complete destruction.
  • 00:21:23.864 --> 00:21:25.566
  • It may not arrive immediately, it may look like looting and
  • 00:21:25.566 --> 00:21:30.237
  • Plundering, it may look like a slow deterioration, like
  • 00:21:30.237 --> 00:21:34.375
  • Momentum is being lost, but what has happened is god has stepped
  • 00:21:34.375 --> 00:21:38.879
  • Back, or the people have walked out from under the protection of
  • 00:21:38.879 --> 00:21:41.515
  • God and refused his invitations to repent or to change or to
  • 00:21:41.515 --> 00:21:44.985
  • Bring realignment or to engage in obedience again, and they
  • 00:21:44.985 --> 00:21:48.689
  • Continue in their stubbornness.
  • 00:21:48.689 --> 00:21:50.024
  • And all the wealth has been plundered, everything's been
  • 00:21:50.024 --> 00:21:52.460
  • Looted, so the only thing it's good for now is to be destroyed.
  • 00:21:52.460 --> 00:21:55.563
  • That's a demonic expression.
  • 00:21:55.563 --> 00:21:57.264
  • It's the judgment of god.
  • 00:21:57.264 --> 00:22:00.868
  • "every important building he burned down.
  • 00:22:00.868 --> 00:22:03.537
  • The whole babylonian army, under the command of the guard, broke
  • 00:22:03.537 --> 00:22:06.374
  • Down the walls around jerusalem."
  • 00:22:06.374 --> 00:22:09.210
  • If i could take you to the city today, we could stand on
  • 00:22:09.210 --> 00:22:12.913
  • The--you could see the destruction.
  • 00:22:12.913 --> 00:22:17.785
  • "the commander of the guard carried into exile the people
  • 00:22:17.785 --> 00:22:20.154
  • Who remained in the city, along with the rest of the populace
  • 00:22:20.154 --> 00:22:23.791
  • And those who had gone over to the king of babylon.
  • 00:22:23.791 --> 00:22:26.494
  • But the commander left behind some of the poorest people to
  • 00:22:26.494 --> 00:22:30.231
  • Work the vineyards and the fields.
  • 00:22:30.231 --> 00:22:31.599
  • And the babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the movable
  • 00:22:31.599 --> 00:22:34.101
  • Stands, the bronze sea that were at the temple of the lord," it's
  • 00:22:34.101 --> 00:22:37.538
  • Where they prepared the things for sacrifice.
  • 00:22:37.538 --> 00:22:39.940
  • They were made out of bronze, so they cut up all the bronze and
  • 00:22:39.940 --> 00:22:42.143
  • Carried it back to babylon.
  • 00:22:42.143 --> 00:22:44.612
  • Again, this is not a one-time event, the exile.
  • 00:22:44.612 --> 00:22:48.582
  • There are many breakthroughs in this process.
  • 00:22:48.582 --> 00:22:51.852
  • There are multiple times and places where god intervenes,
  • 00:22:51.852 --> 00:22:54.555
  • Where he sends a prophetic message.
  • 00:22:54.555 --> 00:22:56.624
  • He sends a person to say, "don't go this way," to provide
  • 00:22:56.624 --> 00:22:59.794
  • Direction, to give the people alternatives.
  • 00:22:59.794 --> 00:23:03.664
  • And repeatedly, not once or twice or a handful of times,
  • 00:23:03.664 --> 00:23:07.902
  • Dozens and dozens and dozens of times, when god intervenes and
  • 00:23:07.902 --> 00:23:12.072
  • He gives the people a choice of a fork in the road, they rebel.
  • 00:23:12.072 --> 00:23:18.913
  • You see, breakthroughs require change on the part of those
  • 00:23:18.913 --> 00:23:21.182
  • Who benefit.
  • 00:23:21.182 --> 00:23:22.783
  • If we take the breakthroughs, if we take god, his interventions,
  • 00:23:22.783 --> 00:23:25.820
  • And we continue on our own way, we give momentum to destruction.
  • 00:23:25.820 --> 00:23:31.425
  • The inhabitants of the land did not anticipate god's judgment.
  • 00:23:31.425 --> 00:23:35.529
  • They only understood god to be a god who would bless them because
  • 00:23:35.529 --> 00:23:39.967
  • He delivered them from egypt and it's a part of their narrative,
  • 00:23:39.967 --> 00:23:43.270
  • Because he fed them manna in the wilderness, it's in a part of
  • 00:23:43.270 --> 00:23:45.573
  • Their national story, because he turned back assyrian armies and
  • 00:23:45.573 --> 00:23:49.910
  • He turned back moabite armies and he defeated goliath
  • 00:23:49.910 --> 00:23:52.913
  • And--they have this rich history of the interventions of god, and
  • 00:23:52.913 --> 00:23:56.784
  • So they can scarcely imagine that their enemies can
  • 00:23:56.784 --> 00:23:59.153
  • Conquer them.
  • 00:23:59.153 --> 00:24:03.824
  • Their conscience have been--come so calloused, that the message
  • 00:24:03.824 --> 00:24:08.429
  • Of grace and mercy is so prevalent, that they can't
  • 00:24:08.429 --> 00:24:11.465
  • Imagine a just god.
  • 00:24:11.465 --> 00:24:14.902
  • There's breakthroughs in babylon with daniel and his friends,
  • 00:24:14.902 --> 00:24:17.671
  • In persia with esther, but god doesn't bring them freedom
  • 00:24:17.671 --> 00:24:20.975
  • From their slavery or from their difficulty.
  • 00:24:20.975 --> 00:24:23.611
  • In fact, there are--70 years will pass before the people can
  • 00:24:23.611 --> 00:24:27.548
  • Return to jerusalem.
  • 00:24:27.548 --> 00:24:29.650
  • Think of all the children born into slavery.
  • 00:24:29.650 --> 00:24:32.686
  • Think of all the children born that never worshiped in the
  • 00:24:32.686 --> 00:24:34.755
  • Temple, they never had a passover meal on
  • 00:24:34.755 --> 00:24:37.324
  • The mount of olives.
  • 00:24:37.324 --> 00:24:39.059
  • Think of the young men and women that spent their entire lives in
  • 00:24:39.059 --> 00:24:42.730
  • Foreign lands, speaking a foreign language, thinking
  • 00:24:42.730 --> 00:24:46.100
  • About jerusalem.
  • 00:24:46.100 --> 00:24:47.468
  • Nehemiah was so grieved when he heard about the condition of
  • 00:24:47.468 --> 00:24:49.970
  • Jerusalem that he left the service of the king and made
  • 00:24:49.970 --> 00:24:52.706
  • A very dangerous journey back to jerusalem.
  • 00:24:52.706 --> 00:24:56.410
  • Folks, it is not a simple thing to ignore the lord.
  • 00:24:56.410 --> 00:25:01.048
  • When you see the looting begin, we should understand god is
  • 00:25:01.048 --> 00:25:06.253
  • Sending an invitation.
  • 00:25:06.253 --> 00:25:10.824
  • There were tremendous generational losses because
  • 00:25:10.824 --> 00:25:14.061
  • Of failures to respond.
  • 00:25:14.061 --> 00:25:16.730
  • Breakthroughs involve the faithfulness of god around both
  • 00:25:16.730 --> 00:25:20.100
  • His discipline and his purposes.
  • 00:25:20.100 --> 00:25:22.836
  • We have to care about the purposes of god, or we're
  • 00:25:22.836 --> 00:25:25.906
  • Self-absorbed, and god loves us too much simply to give us
  • 00:25:25.906 --> 00:25:29.143
  • That permission.
  • 00:25:29.143 --> 00:25:32.680
  • And if you'll allow me, i would like to take that biblical
  • 00:25:32.680 --> 00:25:36.050
  • Perspective and see if we can understand the world we're
  • 00:25:36.050 --> 00:25:39.186
  • Living in.
  • 00:25:39.186 --> 00:25:40.888
  • Because what i want to submit to you is that right now our nation
  • 00:25:40.888 --> 00:25:44.325
  • Is being looted.
  • 00:25:44.325 --> 00:25:47.428
  • And i don't understand it to be a political issue.
  • 00:25:47.428 --> 00:25:50.631
  • I think christians hide from the discussion because they--and
  • 00:25:50.631 --> 00:25:54.001
  • They use the word "politics," but i truthfully don't think it
  • 00:25:54.001 --> 00:25:56.570
  • Has anything to do with politics.
  • 00:25:56.570 --> 00:25:59.540
  • I think solutions may give an expression in those political
  • 00:25:59.540 --> 00:26:02.176
  • Realms, but i think we're being looted.
  • 00:26:02.176 --> 00:26:04.845
  • I think our wealth, our strength, our opportunities,
  • 00:26:04.845 --> 00:26:07.648
  • Our futures, our children's futures are being diminished on
  • 00:26:07.648 --> 00:26:11.518
  • A daily basis because of the hardness of our hearts.
  • 00:26:11.518 --> 00:26:14.555
  • Allen: you know, idolatry is not primarily about statues carved
  • 00:26:14.555 --> 00:26:18.125
  • Out of wood or metal, something we would bow down before.
  • 00:26:18.125 --> 00:26:21.128
  • Fundamentally, idolatry is about priorities.
  • 00:26:21.128 --> 00:26:24.064
  • Anything we put in priority above our allegiance to jesus,
  • 00:26:24.064 --> 00:26:27.768
  • Any passion we put in front of that, any commitment above that
  • 00:26:27.768 --> 00:26:31.505
  • Is an idol.
  • 00:26:31.505 --> 00:26:32.906
  • We need the help of the holy spirit to help us
  • 00:26:32.906 --> 00:26:35.442
  • Recognize those places that we have given way to something
  • 00:26:35.442 --> 00:26:38.912
  • In a wrong priority.
  • 00:26:38.912 --> 00:26:40.280
  • Do you have the courage to pray that prayer with me?
  • 00:26:40.280 --> 00:26:42.316
  • Let's pray.
  • 00:26:42.316 --> 00:26:43.651
  • Father, i pray that if there's any place in our lives we have
  • 00:26:43.651 --> 00:26:46.553
  • Misaligned our priorities, that we've given our hearts to things
  • 00:26:46.553 --> 00:26:49.690
  • That are displeasing to you or destructive to us, that you
  • 00:26:49.690 --> 00:26:53.027
  • Would help us to see.
  • 00:26:53.027 --> 00:26:54.528
  • We want to give you first place in our hearts, in our emotions,
  • 00:26:54.528 --> 00:26:57.464
  • In our ambition, in our future.
  • 00:26:57.464 --> 00:27:00.000
  • I thank you for your great love for us.
  • 00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:02.269
  • Help us to learn to love you more completely.
  • 00:27:02.269 --> 00:27:04.638
  • I thank you for your faithfulness.
  • 00:27:04.638 --> 00:27:06.306
  • In jesus's name, amen.
  • 00:27:06.306 --> 00:27:08.642
  • God bless you.
  • 00:27:08.642 --> 00:27:27.161