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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.
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- 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
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- Exile because the people that were promised the land of israel
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- 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.
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- What we are not quite as familiar with was the exile was
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- Not a singular event.
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- 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
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- Destruction of jerusalem and the temple.
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- If you don't know that, you miss the expressions of god's grace.
- 00:10:50.665 --> 00:10:55.937
- Time after time after time, god would intervene to the people
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- 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.
- 00:11:27.502 --> 00:11:29.137
- And i thank you for your faithful investment of time,
- 00:11:29.137 --> 00:11:32.040
- Energy, and prayers in our ministry.
- 00:11:32.040 --> 00:11:34.008
- Change is taking place in the earth.
- 00:11:34.008 --> 00:11:36.544
- 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.
- 00:11:46.988 --> 00:11:48.556
- It's a time of great optimism and hope and anticipation,
- 00:11:48.556 --> 00:11:52.260
- And i believe that's true in the church as well.
- 00:11:52.260 --> 00:11:54.729
- Folks, we can't stand on the sidelines
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- And expect somebody else to be the change.
- 00:11:56.765 --> 00:11:59.234
- 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,
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- In our communities, wherever god's people gather.
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- Join us.
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- Let's be a part of what god is doing in the earth,
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- And we will celebrate his faithfulness
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- To the people of our generation.
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- Thank you for being a part.
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- Female announcer: god has uniquely blessed us.
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- The best is yet to come.
- 00:12:33.701 --> 00:12:36.671
- God has heard our prayers.
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- God has delivered us from oppression.
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- We live in a season of shaking,
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- But together we stand, united in heart and purpose
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- To accomplish the will of god in our generation.
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- We will not stop.
- 00:12:55.256 --> 00:12:57.492
- Allen: i want to ask you to make
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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