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Allen Jackson Ministries

Allen Jackson - Sovereignty of God and Gender (Part 1)

May 27, 2025 | S25:E150

Allen Jackson - Sovereignty of God and Gender (Part 1)
Pastor Allen Jackson's mission is to help people become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
#Faith #Purpose #Revelation #Religion #Culture #Integrity #WordofGod #inActive #AllenJacksonMinistries #AllenJackson #Diligence #Responsibility #Authority #Sovereignty #1Corinthians13:11 #Purity

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Allen Jackson Ministries | Allen Jackson - Sovereignty of God and Gender (Part 1) | May 27, 2025
  • ...
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  • Allen jackson: god is moving in the earth in the most
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  • Remarkable ways.
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  • It truly is extraordinary what we see god doing.
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  • We have people coming to our campus in middle tennessee from
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  • All over the nation, from nations of the world.
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  • We're seeing more people baptized, more people engaging
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  • In ministry.
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  • It's truly a remarkable time to see god raising up voices
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  • Of truth.
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  • The one thing we hear consistently that is valued from
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  • The ministry is our willingness to speak the truth into the
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  • Current set of circumstances and people often ask, "is there
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  • Anything we can do to help?"
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  • And in reality there is.
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  • I wanna invite you to consider becoming a monthly
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  • Ministry partner.
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  • For your gift of $25 a month, you enable us to imagine
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  • A future that expands the platforms of the ministry.
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  • That's our baseline for how we plan and what we look
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  • Forward to.
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  • If you haven't yet taken that step, please prayerfully
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  • Consider doing so.
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  • We'll share some extra content with you and some unique
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  • Opportunities with you, and together we'll take a message of
  • 00:00:58.708 --> 00:01:02.212
  • Truth to this generation.
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  • God is moving and we wanna move with him.
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  • Allen: i want to continue a series we began in an earlier
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  • Session with a general heading of "ideas, understanding &
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  • Revelations."
  • 00:01:19.762 --> 00:01:23.166
  • It's a little abstract because it's really a collection of
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  • Ideas that i want to process with you, things that have
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  • Become an important part of my own understanding and our
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  • Community's understanding, really, of faith and life and
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  • Spiritual growth.
  • 00:01:35.211 --> 00:01:37.013
  • Our faith is not a one-time experience.
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  • I don't believe it's intended to be such.
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  • It's intended to be a journey where we grow and learn and
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  • Mature just as we have to through our lives physically
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  • And emotionally.
  • 00:01:46.322 --> 00:01:47.657
  • So i've called it "ideas, understandings and revelations."
  • 00:01:47.657 --> 00:01:50.093
  • From time to time, i will say, "i've had an idea."
  • 00:01:50.093 --> 00:01:55.498
  • And for the people who work with me, that's
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  • Usually uncomfortable.
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  • For my poor wife, it's often-- requires medication, because not
  • 00:02:00.336 --> 00:02:07.810
  • All my ideas are good ones.
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  • I've just had another one.
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  • They're rather infrequent.
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  • Every few years one drifts through, you follow what i--
  • 00:02:13.383 --> 00:02:16.619
  • But understanding is a little different.
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  • It's an idea that has been framed by experience.
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  • It's no longer just a thought or a concept.
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  • There's enough experience around it that it has some guard rails
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  • To it.
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  • And from giving exercise to ideas, you gain some experience
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  • And from that, hopefully, we gain some understanding.
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  • And then from time to time god sovereignly gives
  • 00:02:36.539 --> 00:02:39.342
  • Us revelations.
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  • He gives us insight and understanding, not something
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  • That we gain by hours of study or diligence or self-discipline.
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  • It's as if somehow god pulls back a curtain and something
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  • That's been obscure or unclear comes with a clarity, maybe not
  • 00:02:50.787 --> 00:02:54.724
  • Fully understood, but with a clarity that you didn't
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  • Have previously.
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  • I've benefited from all of those.
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  • You've, i'm sure, experienced that.
  • 00:03:01.364 --> 00:03:02.699
  • You read your bible and you're reading a very familiar passage
  • 00:03:02.699 --> 00:03:05.001
  • And you happen to read it on a particular day, and it's as if
  • 00:03:05.001 --> 00:03:08.037
  • It's illuminated.
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  • God's given you a gift.
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  • The spirit of god has given you not just understanding, but he's
  • 00:03:12.508 --> 00:03:15.378
  • Given you an insight beyond research.
  • 00:03:15.378 --> 00:03:18.715
  • Well, there's some ideas--we're living, i refer frequently to
  • 00:03:18.715 --> 00:03:21.985
  • Current culture as the theater of the absurd.
  • 00:03:21.985 --> 00:03:25.355
  • And we're living in a time when observable truth is often denied
  • 00:03:25.355 --> 00:03:29.359
  • In the public square.
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  • And it's disorienting.
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  • It's like you're looking--it's like the sun's coming up in the
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  • East and there's some talking head with lots of letters at the
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  • End of their name going, "oh, actually it comes up in
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  • The south."
  • 00:03:40.570 --> 00:03:42.705
  • Yeah, and so understanding the principles of scripture and the
  • 00:03:42.705 --> 00:03:48.044
  • Word of god, we looked at that in the previous session,
  • 00:03:48.044 --> 00:03:51.114
  • Are so valuable.
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  • In this session, i want to take a few minutes and explore
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  • A couple of ideas.
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  • The first one has to do with the sovereignty of god in gender.
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  • You know, one of the fundamental principles of scripture is that
  • 00:03:58.721 --> 00:04:01.190
  • God is sovereign.
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  • It's kind of a fancy word.
  • 00:04:02.558 --> 00:04:04.861
  • The simplest definition for that means that--that i know is that
  • 00:04:04.861 --> 00:04:07.764
  • God can do what he wants when he wants, and he doesn't need
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  • Anyone's approval.
  • 00:04:10.366 --> 00:04:12.435
  • And there are aspects of our lives that reflect the
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  • Sovereignty of god.
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  • [coughing]
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  • Excuse me, they don't reflect our choice, our preference.
  • 00:04:18.107 --> 00:04:21.177
  • It wasn't something we worked up to or we earned or we
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  • Qualified for.
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  • It's not about good or bad.
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  • God made a choice: our parents.
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  • God chooses them.
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  • That's what makes that commandment where you're
  • 00:04:31.521 --> 00:04:33.289
  • Supposed to honor your father and mother.
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  • God chose them, they're not all great.
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  • I'm not talking about your mama.
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  • Everybody getting a little tense, man.
  • 00:04:41.297 --> 00:04:45.268
  • You don't wanna meet pastor at the church.
  • 00:04:45.268 --> 00:04:48.905
  • Well, i mean, it's a mixed bag, but the reality is god and his
  • 00:04:48.905 --> 00:04:52.141
  • Sovereignty chose our parents.
  • 00:04:52.141 --> 00:04:54.777
  • A few years ago i went with a medical team to the amazon basin
  • 00:04:54.777 --> 00:04:58.715
  • In south america and we were really in some very remote
  • 00:04:58.715 --> 00:05:02.285
  • Places traveling by boat down rivers and i remember walking
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  • Into the jungle and i met people who have no routine access to
  • 00:05:06.122 --> 00:05:09.959
  • Things like electricity.
  • 00:05:09.959 --> 00:05:12.895
  • Many of whom will live in a very limited arena for their whole
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  • Lives, and it was so real to me that the only difference in
  • 00:05:16.699 --> 00:05:19.802
  • Their life and my life happened to be the circumstance of
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  • My birth.
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  • And i didn't choose that.
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  • I had nothing to do with that.
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  • It's the sovereignty of god.
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  • It's why a just god is ultimately our judge because it
  • 00:05:29.746 --> 00:05:33.483
  • Requires an ability beyond anything we possess to level all
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  • Of that.
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  • But god is just.
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  • There's such hope in that.
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  • When you see someone that you think has some unfair advantage,
  • 00:05:43.626 --> 00:05:45.962
  • Don't be angry at them or some system understand god is just.
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  • We've entrusted our lives to him.
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  • There's such freedom in that.
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  • It helps me offload selfish ambition that's so determined to
  • 00:05:55.972 --> 00:05:59.308
  • Get myself first and to be ahead and to demand my way or my
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  • Rights because i trust the sovereignty of god and the
  • 00:06:02.912 --> 00:06:05.782
  • Justice of god, the integrity of god, the character of god.
  • 00:06:05.782 --> 00:06:10.153
  • One of the awkward things we're watching these days is people
  • 00:06:10.153 --> 00:06:12.255
  • That have been asking for authority to lead us have been
  • 00:06:12.255 --> 00:06:15.024
  • Robbing us blind.
  • 00:06:15.024 --> 00:06:18.261
  • And that's not about one party or another, folks.
  • 00:06:18.261 --> 00:06:21.397
  • The people that have had their snouts in the trough have worn
  • 00:06:21.397 --> 00:06:24.434
  • All sorts of labels.
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  • It's uncomfortable.
  • 00:06:26.436 --> 00:06:27.804
  • Another expression of the sovereignty of god is our
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  • Gender, our biological sex.
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  • We don't choose that.
  • 00:06:33.276 --> 00:06:37.914
  • And it's one of those observable truths that at the moment has
  • 00:06:37.914 --> 00:06:40.850
  • Been muddied in the public square.
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  • People say, "well, how do you identify?"
  • 00:06:43.119 --> 00:06:44.687
  • It doesn't really matter.
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  • I mean, i could identify as an eagle, but it doesn't mean
  • 00:06:47.824 --> 00:06:50.393
  • I could jump off the roof and fly.
  • 00:06:50.393 --> 00:06:54.831
  • And i don't--i don't say that to make light of or to mock
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  • People who would have some confusion around their
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  • Biological sex.
  • 00:07:01.237 --> 00:07:02.972
  • I say it to mock a culture that says you can choose that.
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  • That's insane. [congregation applauding]
  • 00:07:07.076 --> 00:07:13.249
  • It's about the sovereignty of god and it's not about lesser
  • 00:07:13.249 --> 00:07:16.586
  • Or greater, weaker or stronger.
  • 00:07:16.586 --> 00:07:20.156
  • Because i promise you a just god, a god of righteousness and
  • 00:07:20.156 --> 00:07:24.093
  • Holiness and purity, will treat us in a way that is appropriate.
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  • Now i understand human civilizations don't do that and
  • 00:07:31.167 --> 00:07:33.636
  • Cultures don't always do that, but god does.
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  • He's the ultimate arbiter.
  • 00:07:36.772 --> 00:07:39.709
  • So i wanna walk through that.
  • 00:07:39.709 --> 00:07:41.110
  • There's so much confusion.
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  • I picked--i'm gonna, and i--we can't do the whole thing in any
  • 00:07:42.445 --> 00:07:44.647
  • Single session, but i wanna start at least with something
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  • I didn't finish in the previous session.
  • 00:07:47.283 --> 00:07:48.651
  • We were talking about men's and husbands--men, husbands,
  • 00:07:48.651 --> 00:07:50.887
  • And fathers.
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  • They're three roles that are available to the male of
  • 00:07:52.355 --> 00:07:55.024
  • The species.
  • 00:07:55.024 --> 00:07:57.260
  • You know, one of the things that's happening right now is
  • 00:07:57.260 --> 00:07:59.328
  • Language is being manipulated.
  • 00:07:59.328 --> 00:08:00.763
  • The definitions are being changed and it creates
  • 00:08:00.763 --> 00:08:03.699
  • Tremendous confusion.
  • 00:08:03.699 --> 00:08:06.435
  • And you have to pay a little bit of attention because they don't
  • 00:08:06.435 --> 00:08:08.404
  • Usually announce, you know, with like a [mimics fanfare]
  • 00:08:08.404 --> 00:08:10.740
  • "i'm gonna change the meaning of this word."
  • 00:08:10.740 --> 00:08:13.509
  • But marriage is one of those words that's been redefined.
  • 00:08:13.509 --> 00:08:17.313
  • Well, marriage, that's not a political topic.
  • 00:08:17.313 --> 00:08:19.215
  • It doesn't begin with our legal system.
  • 00:08:19.215 --> 00:08:20.950
  • It's a biblical concept.
  • 00:08:20.950 --> 00:08:22.351
  • God initiated marriage.
  • 00:08:22.351 --> 00:08:23.719
  • He said, "for this reason, a man shall leave his father
  • 00:08:23.719 --> 00:08:25.354
  • And mother."
  • 00:08:25.354 --> 00:08:27.256
  • Marriage between a man and a woman was god's idea.
  • 00:08:27.256 --> 00:08:29.525
  • It's not a political idea, but the assignment then of the
  • 00:08:29.525 --> 00:08:32.728
  • People of god is to introduce those god ideas into the
  • 00:08:32.728 --> 00:08:35.331
  • Cultures in which we live, no matter what nation we come from
  • 00:08:35.331 --> 00:08:38.067
  • Or what system we find ourselves in, because in god's design,
  • 00:08:38.067 --> 00:08:41.571
  • It's the best possible way for human beings to make their
  • 00:08:41.571 --> 00:08:44.140
  • Journey through time.
  • 00:08:44.140 --> 00:08:46.309
  • It gives our children the best opportunities.
  • 00:08:46.309 --> 00:08:48.344
  • Yes, there's some data to support all of that, but without
  • 00:08:48.344 --> 00:08:50.446
  • The data, it's god's design.
  • 00:08:50.446 --> 00:08:54.417
  • And understanding our roles as men, husbands, and fathers is
  • 00:08:54.417 --> 00:09:00.122
  • Not just a message for the men because the women have to be on
  • 00:09:00.122 --> 00:09:03.025
  • Board with it.
  • 00:09:03.025 --> 00:09:04.927
  • If you hate it, if you resent it, if you oppose it, if you
  • 00:09:04.927 --> 00:09:08.097
  • Fight it, not only is it disruptive in your life and your
  • 00:09:08.097 --> 00:09:11.734
  • Relationships and your family, you find yourself in opposition
  • 00:09:11.734 --> 00:09:14.670
  • To the purposes of god.
  • 00:09:14.670 --> 00:09:17.907
  • I'm not asking you to agree with me.
  • 00:09:17.907 --> 00:09:19.609
  • I'm asking you to take time to give enough attention to the
  • 00:09:19.609 --> 00:09:21.844
  • Word of god that you understand what a sovereign god has handed
  • 00:09:21.844 --> 00:09:24.647
  • To us so that we can flourish in our journey through time and to
  • 00:09:24.647 --> 00:09:28.250
  • Acknowledge that our culture for quite some season now has been
  • 00:09:28.250 --> 00:09:33.055
  • Very aggressive in opposing these biblical worldview ideas.
  • 00:09:33.055 --> 00:09:37.727
  • And tragically, we've even been training our ministers in this
  • 00:09:37.727 --> 00:09:40.596
  • Way for several decades now.
  • 00:09:40.596 --> 00:09:43.199
  • I've had that privilege of sitting in some very celebrated
  • 00:09:43.199 --> 00:09:46.469
  • Institutions while they were training people to lead churches
  • 00:09:46.469 --> 00:09:49.538
  • In the most ungodly things.
  • 00:09:49.538 --> 00:09:52.842
  • We shouldn't be shocked at that.
  • 00:09:52.842 --> 00:09:54.343
  • It's why so many voices for truth these days are not
  • 00:09:54.343 --> 00:09:56.345
  • Emanating from churches.
  • 00:09:56.345 --> 00:09:58.514
  • Truth is being told, tragically not as frequently from the
  • 00:09:58.514 --> 00:10:01.250
  • Churches as we would like, but it's being told.
  • 00:10:01.250 --> 00:10:07.690
  • I would--i would submit to you that one of the reasons that
  • 00:10:07.690 --> 00:10:10.126
  • We've arrived at a place where gender confusion, gender
  • 00:10:10.126 --> 00:10:13.095
  • Dysphoria, or that we have men competing in women's sports and
  • 00:10:13.095 --> 00:10:18.134
  • We say absurd things like, "there's no differences between
  • 00:10:18.134 --> 00:10:20.603
  • Men and women physically," with like, straight faces and people
  • 00:10:20.603 --> 00:10:24.573
  • With phds and important positions, and i'm like, "huh?"
  • 00:10:24.573 --> 00:10:31.247
  • But if you--if you say anything, it's--there's
  • 00:10:31.247 --> 00:10:33.582
  • Punitive responses and anger and resentment and labels start to
  • 00:10:33.582 --> 00:10:36.952
  • Get attached to you.
  • 00:10:36.952 --> 00:10:38.287
  • And so we've all been--many of us have been bullied into
  • 00:10:38.287 --> 00:10:39.955
  • Silence and intimidated into acting like we don't notice that
  • 00:10:39.955 --> 00:10:42.992
  • The emperor doesn't have any clothes.
  • 00:10:42.992 --> 00:10:46.395
  • But i think the way we got here is because the church stopped
  • 00:10:46.395 --> 00:10:49.031
  • Talking about gender roles.
  • 00:10:49.031 --> 00:10:54.303
  • We were so co-opted by secular ideas and values that we came to
  • 00:10:54.303 --> 00:10:58.441
  • Church and we would sing our religious songs and we would
  • 00:10:58.441 --> 00:11:00.643
  • Recite a sinner's prayer because we'd like to go to heaven, but
  • 00:11:00.643 --> 00:11:03.479
  • We've been so indoctrinated, so co-opted by culture that we
  • 00:11:03.479 --> 00:11:07.083
  • Stopped holding out the biblical principles and now the culture
  • 00:11:07.083 --> 00:11:10.252
  • Has reached a point of absurdity and it's gonna take a bit of
  • 00:11:10.252 --> 00:11:12.655
  • A lift.
  • 00:11:12.655 --> 00:11:14.290
  • It's gonna take some courage.
  • 00:11:14.290 --> 00:11:18.594
  • Allen: so many of you send us messages, letters, emails, notes
  • 00:11:22.798 --> 00:11:26.102
  • In a variety of formats saying thank you for the ministry, for
  • 00:11:26.102 --> 00:11:29.138
  • Willingness to speak the truth into culture in this rather
  • 00:11:29.138 --> 00:11:32.708
  • Tumultuous season.
  • 00:11:32.708 --> 00:11:34.510
  • Well, i hear your feedback and it's very valuable.
  • 00:11:34.510 --> 00:11:36.879
  • The question i'm so often asked is, "i feel like we should
  • 00:11:36.879 --> 00:11:39.482
  • Do more.
  • 00:11:39.482 --> 00:11:40.850
  • What can we do?
  • 00:11:40.850 --> 00:11:42.184
  • How do we do something?"
  • 00:11:42.184 --> 00:11:43.552
  • Clearly, god is moving in the earth.
  • 00:11:43.552 --> 00:11:44.887
  • He's raising up voices of truth.
  • 00:11:44.887 --> 00:11:46.255
  • We're certainly not unique or alone in that, but there is
  • 00:11:46.255 --> 00:11:48.057
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  • Allen: my dad was a veterinarian.
  • 00:13:00.729 --> 00:13:02.064
  • Most of you know that, or many of you do, and for years he had
  • 00:13:02.064 --> 00:13:04.166
  • A little bulletin board in his clinic, and when you came in,
  • 00:13:04.166 --> 00:13:06.168
  • When the clients would come in, the bulletin board was there for
  • 00:13:06.168 --> 00:13:08.170
  • A lot of reasons, but there was a cartoon on it for years.
  • 00:13:08.170 --> 00:13:11.707
  • And it was a dog in the backseat of the car and the owners were
  • 00:13:11.707 --> 00:13:14.143
  • Taking it someplace and one of the--one of the other dogs
  • 00:13:14.143 --> 00:13:16.512
  • Wasn't getting to travel.
  • 00:13:16.512 --> 00:13:18.447
  • So the dog in the car has his head out of the window and he's
  • 00:13:18.447 --> 00:13:20.749
  • Taunting the dog that's still in the lawn and he said, "ha ha.
  • 00:13:20.749 --> 00:13:24.820
  • They're taking me to the veterinarian and i'm gonna
  • 00:13:24.820 --> 00:13:26.856
  • Get tutored."
  • 00:13:26.856 --> 00:13:28.257
  • [congregation laughing]
  • 00:13:28.257 --> 00:13:36.832
  • I was involved in a lot of that through the years with dogs
  • 00:13:36.832 --> 00:13:39.835
  • And cats and horses.
  • 00:13:39.835 --> 00:13:42.872
  • Well, if you'll allow me, one of the challenges we have in the
  • 00:13:42.872 --> 00:13:46.308
  • Contemporary church is too many of the men have been tutored.
  • 00:13:46.308 --> 00:13:52.081
  • [congregation applauding]
  • 00:13:52.081 --> 00:13:57.653
  • I can start with the science.
  • 00:13:57.653 --> 00:13:59.555
  • You neuter an animal typically for one of two reasons.
  • 00:13:59.555 --> 00:14:03.926
  • You want to inhibit reproduction or you want to
  • 00:14:03.926 --> 00:14:07.496
  • Reduce aggression.
  • 00:14:07.496 --> 00:14:10.165
  • And a lot of times it's really the second that's
  • 00:14:10.165 --> 00:14:11.867
  • More important.
  • 00:14:11.867 --> 00:14:14.670
  • Well, i would submit to you just a casual observation of the
  • 00:14:14.670 --> 00:14:17.439
  • Church today would suggest that what we laughed at is really
  • 00:14:17.439 --> 00:14:21.510
  • Supported by the evidence.
  • 00:14:21.510 --> 00:14:24.046
  • The--our ability spiritually to reproduce, the church
  • 00:14:24.046 --> 00:14:28.284
  • Participation is at the lowest levels in history as the
  • 00:14:28.284 --> 00:14:30.753
  • Percentage of our cultures.
  • 00:14:30.753 --> 00:14:33.289
  • My lifetime corresponds with one of the most precipitous declines
  • 00:14:33.289 --> 00:14:36.292
  • Of christian influence in any culture in the history of the
  • 00:14:36.292 --> 00:14:39.395
  • Christian church.
  • 00:14:39.395 --> 00:14:41.997
  • Our values: they took prayer out of schools and we--it wasn't
  • 00:14:41.997 --> 00:14:45.434
  • A big deal because we'd already taken it out of our homes.
  • 00:14:45.434 --> 00:14:47.169
  • They said, "we don't wanna post the ten commandments anymore
  • 00:14:47.169 --> 00:14:49.271
  • In our schools," and we didn't say much.
  • 00:14:49.271 --> 00:14:50.606
  • We put in metal detectors.
  • 00:14:50.606 --> 00:14:52.741
  • They told us not to bring our faith to work, that it wasn't
  • 00:14:52.741 --> 00:14:54.910
  • Welcome in a corporate setting, and so we took off our christian
  • 00:14:54.910 --> 00:14:58.047
  • Images and removed our bibles from our desks and we said yes.
  • 00:14:58.047 --> 00:15:02.251
  • I mean, i could give you example after example after example.
  • 00:15:02.251 --> 00:15:06.055
  • For all of our talk and our boasting and our preening and
  • 00:15:06.055 --> 00:15:08.791
  • Our posturing about how we care for children, they're less safe
  • 00:15:08.791 --> 00:15:12.094
  • Today than at any time in my lifetime.
  • 00:15:12.094 --> 00:15:16.231
  • That's the truth.
  • 00:15:16.231 --> 00:15:18.734
  • And that's not the politician's fault.
  • 00:15:18.734 --> 00:15:20.436
  • That's not the culture's fault.
  • 00:15:20.436 --> 00:15:22.104
  • That's not some political party's fault.
  • 00:15:22.104 --> 00:15:24.606
  • That's not the university's fault, folks, that's the church
  • 00:15:24.606 --> 00:15:26.976
  • Has stumbled.
  • 00:15:26.976 --> 00:15:29.411
  • And the primary responsibility for that has to begin with men,
  • 00:15:29.411 --> 00:15:32.614
  • But before the women elbow their husbands, we need the women to
  • 00:15:32.614 --> 00:15:36.018
  • Help us rear, guide, and release godly men to become godly
  • 00:15:36.018 --> 00:15:41.457
  • Husbands and godly fathers. [congregation applauding]
  • 00:15:41.457 --> 00:15:48.864
  • I mean, the other side of this visit, our birth rates are
  • 00:15:48.864 --> 00:15:53.369
  • At historic lows.
  • 00:15:53.369 --> 00:15:55.838
  • Masculinity is labeled toxic in the public square, and we just
  • 00:15:55.838 --> 00:15:58.974
  • All kind of shrug our shoulders and go, "yeah, we'll try to be
  • 00:15:58.974 --> 00:16:01.343
  • More sensitive."
  • 00:16:01.343 --> 00:16:05.848
  • Gender confusion, ignoring the sovereignty of god, we put
  • 00:16:05.848 --> 00:16:08.350
  • People on the supreme court, the most important legal body in our
  • 00:16:08.350 --> 00:16:12.888
  • Nation, that are unwilling to define what a woman is.
  • 00:16:12.888 --> 00:16:17.926
  • Then we stand around going, "that makes perfect sense
  • 00:16:17.926 --> 00:16:19.628
  • To me."
  • 00:16:19.628 --> 00:16:20.996
  • No, it doesn't.
  • 00:16:20.996 --> 00:16:22.331
  • I'd rather somebody not be making significant decisions
  • 00:16:22.331 --> 00:16:24.900
  • That doesn't have the courage to identify biological sex.
  • 00:16:24.900 --> 00:16:28.270
  • [congregation applauding]
  • 00:16:28.270 --> 00:16:33.275
  • But i wouldn't point that at any single individual.
  • 00:16:33.275 --> 00:16:35.377
  • It's a much larger issue.
  • 00:16:35.377 --> 00:16:36.745
  • Those people are voted on, supported, they reflect the
  • 00:16:36.745 --> 00:16:38.947
  • Opinion of many.
  • 00:16:38.947 --> 00:16:40.682
  • I mean, you'll hear absurd things say that, you know, we
  • 00:16:40.682 --> 00:16:43.752
  • Don't want to even refer to men and women.
  • 00:16:43.752 --> 00:16:45.654
  • We want to talk about birthing people or we'll talk about
  • 00:16:45.654 --> 00:16:48.757
  • Someone who's biologically male having the ability to nurse
  • 00:16:48.757 --> 00:16:51.427
  • A child.
  • 00:16:51.427 --> 00:16:52.795
  • I mean, we are addled and confused.
  • 00:16:52.795 --> 00:16:56.598
  • We have truly turned our back on the design manual.
  • 00:16:56.598 --> 00:17:01.236
  • And the church has been very reluctant to talk about
  • 00:17:01.236 --> 00:17:03.372
  • Gender roles.
  • 00:17:03.372 --> 00:17:04.740
  • One of the shifts that's taking place is how we define, how we
  • 00:17:04.740 --> 00:17:07.209
  • Even define a good father.
  • 00:17:07.209 --> 00:17:10.646
  • You know, these aren't new ideas.
  • 00:17:10.646 --> 00:17:12.514
  • We've had men and husbands and fathers for a long, long time.
  • 00:17:12.514 --> 00:17:17.119
  • And the 21st century didn't make us so enlightened that we can
  • 00:17:17.119 --> 00:17:19.822
  • Cast off all of the previous learning from all the
  • 00:17:19.822 --> 00:17:22.224
  • Previous generations.
  • 00:17:22.224 --> 00:17:23.625
  • Even science stands on the shoulders of those who
  • 00:17:23.625 --> 00:17:26.028
  • Preceded it.
  • 00:17:26.028 --> 00:17:27.396
  • It's about observation and implementation of observable,
  • 00:17:27.396 --> 00:17:30.232
  • Measurable facts.
  • 00:17:30.232 --> 00:17:32.501
  • I'm an advocate.
  • 00:17:32.501 --> 00:17:35.204
  • But we've redefined it.
  • 00:17:35.204 --> 00:17:36.572
  • I've sat down with a legal pad and made a rather lengthy list
  • 00:17:36.572 --> 00:17:39.174
  • Of the characteristics that are current cultural discussions of
  • 00:17:39.174 --> 00:17:42.478
  • Good fathers, and i don't really disagree with very many of them.
  • 00:17:42.478 --> 00:17:45.214
  • I'm not suggesting to you that they're evil, but i'm suggesting
  • 00:17:45.214 --> 00:17:47.783
  • To you it's a significant shift in how it's defined.
  • 00:17:47.783 --> 00:17:52.187
  • I'll give you a short sample.
  • 00:17:52.187 --> 00:17:54.022
  • We're told that a good father will attend all the ball games.
  • 00:17:54.022 --> 00:17:57.759
  • Makes you a good father.
  • 00:17:57.759 --> 00:18:00.129
  • Just be there.
  • 00:18:00.129 --> 00:18:02.164
  • We're not gonna talk about your morals.
  • 00:18:02.164 --> 00:18:04.433
  • We're not gonna talk about your ethics, just put your butt in
  • 00:18:04.433 --> 00:18:07.102
  • The bleachers.
  • 00:18:07.102 --> 00:18:10.606
  • Be present when the babies are born.
  • 00:18:10.606 --> 00:18:12.574
  • Now i don't mean in the hospital or in the parking lot on your--
  • 00:18:12.574 --> 00:18:15.878
  • I mean in the room.
  • 00:18:15.878 --> 00:18:18.347
  • We talk about it as if we had the baby.
  • 00:18:18.347 --> 00:18:21.583
  • Now i've helped deliver a lot of things.
  • 00:18:21.583 --> 00:18:24.319
  • Puppies and kittens and calves and foals.
  • 00:18:24.319 --> 00:18:27.856
  • That's pretty a single--i mean, you may have been in the room,
  • 00:18:27.856 --> 00:18:34.196
  • But somebody else did the work.
  • 00:18:34.196 --> 00:18:37.266
  • But we've expanded it because-- we even extended them in
  • 00:18:37.266 --> 00:18:46.375
  • The invitation.
  • 00:18:46.375 --> 00:18:47.709
  • It's common practice to give them an opportunity to connect
  • 00:18:47.709 --> 00:18:49.478
  • With that new arrival.
  • 00:18:49.478 --> 00:18:50.812
  • Maybe they want to slip off their shirt and lay the baby on
  • 00:18:50.812 --> 00:18:53.415
  • Their chest to have that physical contact.
  • 00:18:53.415 --> 00:18:55.150
  • Again, i'm not saying it's evil, but we're redefining things.
  • 00:18:55.150 --> 00:18:59.755
  • We tell the men they have to be more sensitive to needs
  • 00:18:59.755 --> 00:19:01.757
  • Around them.
  • 00:19:01.757 --> 00:19:03.892
  • It's very common even in church circles to say, "there's nothing
  • 00:19:03.892 --> 00:19:06.495
  • More important than my family.
  • 00:19:06.495 --> 00:19:07.863
  • I see the whole world through the filter of my family.
  • 00:19:07.863 --> 00:19:10.065
  • Every question i answer, every decision i make, begins with the
  • 00:19:10.065 --> 00:19:13.035
  • Filter of my wife and my children."
  • 00:19:13.035 --> 00:19:16.138
  • Really?
  • 00:19:16.138 --> 00:19:18.774
  • Well, i would submit to you that if we could resurrect our
  • 00:19:18.774 --> 00:19:23.078
  • Grandparents, if you're old enough that they've already
  • 00:19:23.078 --> 00:19:25.147
  • Passed, they wouldn't understand your list.
  • 00:19:25.147 --> 00:19:30.319
  • It would confuse them.
  • 00:19:30.319 --> 00:19:33.222
  • And i'm not prepared to say they didn't know anything.
  • 00:19:33.222 --> 00:19:37.025
  • Now i'm not telling you the list is evil.
  • 00:19:37.025 --> 00:19:38.694
  • I'm telling you there's a very intentional shift to weaken our
  • 00:19:38.694 --> 00:19:43.599
  • Homes, to diminish men, to diminish our children.
  • 00:19:43.599 --> 00:19:49.304
  • They are relabeling things that should be our objectives.
  • 00:19:49.304 --> 00:19:54.042
  • I'll give you some examples in a minute.
  • 00:19:54.042 --> 00:19:57.012
  • But fundamentally, what drives that is a self-centered approach
  • 00:19:57.012 --> 00:19:59.915
  • To life.
  • 00:19:59.915 --> 00:20:01.483
  • And it's taken root, and it's growing with the enthusiasm of
  • 00:20:01.483 --> 00:20:05.354
  • Kudzu in the south.
  • 00:20:05.354 --> 00:20:07.923
  • It's giving us permission to be selfish to do the things that we
  • 00:20:07.923 --> 00:20:10.826
  • Enjoy and then we'll hide behind our children.
  • 00:20:10.826 --> 00:20:12.561
  • I don't call that being good men.
  • 00:20:12.561 --> 00:20:13.962
  • I call it cowardice.
  • 00:20:13.962 --> 00:20:16.365
  • Our selfish attitudes are expressed in what we want.
  • 00:20:16.365 --> 00:20:21.336
  • I would submit to you that men, husband, and father--man,
  • 00:20:21.336 --> 00:20:25.107
  • Husband, and father are all primary expressions of
  • 00:20:25.107 --> 00:20:27.876
  • Your faith.
  • 00:20:27.876 --> 00:20:29.211
  • They're more important to me than your systematic theology.
  • 00:20:29.211 --> 00:20:32.814
  • How you function as a man, do you do it in a godly way, in
  • 00:20:32.814 --> 00:20:36.084
  • A god-honoring way?
  • 00:20:36.084 --> 00:20:38.520
  • Are you under the authority of a sovereign god?
  • 00:20:38.520 --> 00:20:41.123
  • Do the people who know you and care about you and make the
  • 00:20:41.123 --> 00:20:43.325
  • Journey with you, do they understand that?
  • 00:20:43.325 --> 00:20:45.027
  • As a husband, do you treat your wife and your family under the
  • 00:20:45.027 --> 00:20:49.131
  • Principles from scripture?
  • 00:20:49.131 --> 00:20:51.533
  • Or are they defined by our culture?
  • 00:20:51.533 --> 00:20:53.101
  • As parents?
  • 00:20:53.101 --> 00:20:55.103
  • It's very important.
  • 00:20:55.103 --> 00:20:56.905
  • We walked through some of these notions of the role of father in
  • 00:20:56.905 --> 00:20:59.141
  • A previous session.
  • 00:20:59.141 --> 00:21:00.475
  • I don't wanna belabor them again.
  • 00:21:00.475 --> 00:21:01.843
  • I'll run out of time again.
  • 00:21:01.843 --> 00:21:03.979
  • But i mean, one of the fundamental principles of
  • 00:21:03.979 --> 00:21:05.714
  • Scripture that we shouldn't miss is that one of the revelations
  • 00:21:05.714 --> 00:21:08.684
  • That's given to us, it doesn't come from study or learning, is
  • 00:21:08.684 --> 00:21:11.853
  • God revealed as father.
  • 00:21:11.853 --> 00:21:13.288
  • It's a very fundamental part of jesus's incarnation.
  • 00:21:13.288 --> 00:21:16.558
  • His assignment, he came to make known to us god as father.
  • 00:21:16.558 --> 00:21:21.496
  • When jesus taught the disciples to pray, they said, "teach us to
  • 00:21:21.496 --> 00:21:24.132
  • Pray," and he said, "okay, pray this way: 'our father, who's
  • 00:21:24.132 --> 00:21:27.669
  • In heaven.'"
  • 00:21:27.669 --> 00:21:30.505
  • God as father is a very powerful image.
  • 00:21:30.505 --> 00:21:32.341
  • I understand it makes some people very unhappy and they
  • 00:21:32.341 --> 00:21:39.748
  • Begin to scream about patriarchal systems
  • 00:21:39.748 --> 00:21:41.683
  • Of authority.
  • 00:21:41.683 --> 00:21:46.154
  • The revelation god has given to us is of god or father.
  • 00:21:46.154 --> 00:21:48.890
  • I understand for some people that's difficult because we've
  • 00:21:48.890 --> 00:21:50.759
  • Had very inadequate human fathers.
  • 00:21:50.759 --> 00:21:54.696
  • But just as if when our human parents are inadequate, i
  • 00:21:54.696 --> 00:21:57.799
  • Believe god is capable of restoring and redeeming what
  • 00:21:57.799 --> 00:22:00.936
  • Human beings failed to make available to us.
  • 00:22:00.936 --> 00:22:04.106
  • I also believe god is capable by his spirit of helping us when
  • 00:22:04.106 --> 00:22:09.077
  • Our earthly fathers have been less than adequate, giving us
  • 00:22:09.077 --> 00:22:13.915
  • A revelation of himself.
  • 00:22:13.915 --> 00:22:16.752
  • God as father is a very significant--this notion of
  • 00:22:16.752 --> 00:22:20.589
  • Fatherhood spiritually is very, very significant.
  • 00:22:20.589 --> 00:22:24.326
  • When jesus was talking to the religious leaders in jerusalem,
  • 00:22:24.326 --> 00:22:27.496
  • He said to them, "if you knew me--if god were your father,
  • 00:22:27.496 --> 00:22:31.032
  • You would love me," he said.
  • 00:22:31.032 --> 00:22:33.235
  • But he said, "you--your father is the devil."
  • 00:22:33.235 --> 00:22:36.805
  • Now, he's talking to religious leaders, jewish religious
  • 00:22:36.805 --> 00:22:39.174
  • Leaders, people with a covenant, they go to temple, they offer
  • 00:22:39.174 --> 00:22:41.610
  • Sacrifices, they keep kosher with their meals, they're
  • 00:22:41.610 --> 00:22:45.580
  • Engaged in all the rules, they know the scripture.
  • 00:22:45.580 --> 00:22:48.216
  • But he says to them, "the spiritual heritage of your life
  • 00:22:48.216 --> 00:22:52.654
  • Is from the devil.
  • 00:22:52.654 --> 00:22:53.989
  • It's demonic."
  • 00:22:53.989 --> 00:22:55.791
  • You see, fatherhood suggests to us something that's
  • 00:22:55.791 --> 00:22:59.361
  • Very important.
  • 00:22:59.361 --> 00:23:00.729
  • Fundamentally, it's about authority.
  • 00:23:00.729 --> 00:23:02.097
  • What's the authority over your life?
  • 00:23:02.097 --> 00:23:04.299
  • But from fatherhood is established character and from
  • 00:23:04.299 --> 00:23:07.536
  • Character come the characteristics of our behavior.
  • 00:23:07.536 --> 00:23:12.574
  • So if the devil is your father, the authority over your life is
  • 00:23:12.574 --> 00:23:15.544
  • Demonic and your character is corrupted and the
  • 00:23:15.544 --> 00:23:17.879
  • Characteristics of your behavior are not good.
  • 00:23:17.879 --> 00:23:21.583
  • Fatherhood matters.
  • 00:23:21.583 --> 00:23:23.785
  • It's why it has to be important to all of us.
  • 00:23:23.785 --> 00:23:26.254
  • Parenting, marriage, is not a competitive sport.
  • 00:23:26.254 --> 00:23:30.959
  • We help one another.
  • 00:23:30.959 --> 00:23:32.294
  • It's not about lesser or greater, stronger or weaker,
  • 00:23:32.294 --> 00:23:35.263
  • Smarter or lesser.
  • 00:23:35.263 --> 00:23:38.300
  • It's to all of our advantage.
  • 00:23:38.300 --> 00:23:39.634
  • There's something devilish and evil and demonic that would
  • 00:23:39.634 --> 00:23:42.771
  • Divide us as if we're competing, because of our biological gender
  • 00:23:42.771 --> 00:23:48.844
  • Or the color of our skin or the accent with which we speak.
  • 00:23:48.844 --> 00:23:53.114
  • Those are expressions of the sovereignty of god, and those
  • 00:23:53.114 --> 00:23:55.750
  • Aren't intended to divide us but to unify us.
  • 00:23:55.750 --> 00:23:59.054
  • We need one another.
  • 00:23:59.054 --> 00:24:04.493
  • We have to help our children to become adults.
  • 00:24:04.493 --> 00:24:07.362
  • That was--that's been understood by cultures across
  • 00:24:07.362 --> 00:24:09.498
  • The span of time.
  • 00:24:09.498 --> 00:24:10.866
  • In many cultures, there's formal ceremonies, formal rites of
  • 00:24:10.866 --> 00:24:14.035
  • Passage, to help children become adults.
  • 00:24:14.035 --> 00:24:16.204
  • In judaism, it's for the boys at 13 they have a bar mitzvah.
  • 00:24:16.204 --> 00:24:19.474
  • They're recognized as moving from boys to men.
  • 00:24:19.474 --> 00:24:23.645
  • Thanks largely to the more liberal american jewish
  • 00:24:23.645 --> 00:24:26.515
  • Community, now the women do it with a bat mitzvah.
  • 00:24:26.515 --> 00:24:28.416
  • It's not evil.
  • 00:24:28.416 --> 00:24:29.751
  • I mean, it's just, it's an expanded--but it's not limited
  • 00:24:29.751 --> 00:24:31.286
  • To judeo-christian groups.
  • 00:24:31.286 --> 00:24:34.823
  • We were in kenya some years ago for a pastors' conference, and
  • 00:24:34.823 --> 00:24:37.659
  • We visited a bit with some of the maasai.
  • 00:24:37.659 --> 00:24:39.528
  • It's a tribe.
  • 00:24:39.528 --> 00:24:41.630
  • And for many, many years, generation upon generation, the
  • 00:24:41.630 --> 00:24:44.766
  • Maasai boys, when it was time for them to become men, the
  • 00:24:44.766 --> 00:24:47.035
  • Assignment was to take their spear and kill a lion.
  • 00:24:47.035 --> 00:24:51.706
  • Our sensitivities about game and--have changed some of those
  • 00:24:51.706 --> 00:24:55.577
  • Behaviors, but they--most cultures recognize that.
  • 00:24:55.577 --> 00:25:01.383
  • We've lost that in our culture.
  • 00:25:01.383 --> 00:25:02.717
  • We added a third lane.
  • 00:25:02.717 --> 00:25:04.920
  • We no longer just have children and adults; now we
  • 00:25:04.920 --> 00:25:08.757
  • Have adolescents.
  • 00:25:08.757 --> 00:25:12.694
  • That's the season in your life when your hormones kick in and
  • 00:25:12.694 --> 00:25:15.063
  • Your body grows and you have the physical strength of adult, but
  • 00:25:15.063 --> 00:25:17.832
  • We don't ask for any of the accountability or responsibility
  • 00:25:17.832 --> 00:25:20.669
  • That goes with an adult.
  • 00:25:20.669 --> 00:25:23.405
  • And what has made it such a damaging concept is we've
  • 00:25:23.405 --> 00:25:26.308
  • Extended it.
  • 00:25:26.308 --> 00:25:27.676
  • There's no longer a number around it, because parents have
  • 00:25:27.676 --> 00:25:30.278
  • Gotten involved and we don't want our children to have to
  • 00:25:30.278 --> 00:25:32.013
  • Endure the hardship or the struggles or get the marks that
  • 00:25:32.013 --> 00:25:34.482
  • Some of us may have gotten as we were making our way through, so
  • 00:25:34.482 --> 00:25:37.385
  • We kind of hover about and protect.
  • 00:25:37.385 --> 00:25:40.855
  • And so now we have people in their 20s and 30s and 40s that
  • 00:25:40.855 --> 00:25:43.625
  • Still behave like adolescents.
  • 00:25:43.625 --> 00:25:52.267
  • The bible talks about it.
  • 00:25:52.267 --> 00:25:53.635
  • It's 1 corinthians 13:11.
  • 00:25:53.635 --> 00:25:54.970
  • It's not in your notes, but it is in the book.
  • 00:25:54.970 --> 00:25:56.671
  • Says: "when i was a child, i talked like a child, and
  • 00:25:56.671 --> 00:25:58.406
  • I thought like a child, and i reasoned like a child.
  • 00:25:58.406 --> 00:26:01.242
  • But when i became a man, i put childish ways behind me."
  • 00:26:01.242 --> 00:26:04.946
  • If you'll allow me, i would suggest to you it's time to put
  • 00:26:04.946 --> 00:26:09.451
  • Childish ways behind us. [congregation applauding]
  • 00:26:09.451 --> 00:26:14.222
  • Allen: you know, our team that helps create this content that
  • 00:26:15.690 --> 00:26:18.026
  • We share with you, consistently pray that it enables you to find
  • 00:26:18.026 --> 00:26:22.130
  • A more steadfast way to navigate the confusing world we're
  • 00:26:22.130 --> 00:26:26.167
  • Living in.
  • 00:26:26.167 --> 00:26:27.535
  • And you often respond, we hear so many messages back from you
  • 00:26:27.535 --> 00:26:30.205
  • Thanking us for content but also asking what you can do.
  • 00:26:30.205 --> 00:26:32.874
  • Is there a way you can pray?
  • 00:26:32.874 --> 00:26:34.242
  • Is there a way you can stand with us?
  • 00:26:34.242 --> 00:26:35.777
  • Well, honestly, there is.
  • 00:26:35.777 --> 00:26:37.112
  • I wanna invite you to prayerfully consider becoming
  • 00:26:37.112 --> 00:26:39.247
  • A monthly ministry partner.
  • 00:26:39.247 --> 00:26:40.915
  • For a gift of $25 or more, you help us make a plan for the
  • 00:26:40.915 --> 00:26:44.386
  • Future that will include more people.
  • 00:26:44.386 --> 00:26:46.254
  • We build those plans based on you joining us as monthly
  • 00:26:46.254 --> 00:26:49.691
  • Ministry partners.
  • 00:26:49.691 --> 00:26:51.126
  • God's moving in the earth.
  • 00:26:51.126 --> 00:26:52.460
  • He's changing my life.
  • 00:26:52.460 --> 00:26:53.828
  • I pray he's impacting yours, and we wanna continue to extend this
  • 00:26:53.828 --> 00:26:56.698
  • Message to our generation with a clarity and a consistency that
  • 00:26:56.698 --> 00:27:00.602
  • Creates opportunities for individuals and families.
  • 00:27:00.602 --> 00:27:02.804
  • In fact, i wanna pray with you and for you.
  • 00:27:02.804 --> 00:27:04.773
  • God, i thank you that you've let us stand together to learn
  • 00:27:04.773 --> 00:27:07.375
  • Together, and i pray that you'll multiply this to impact even
  • 00:27:07.375 --> 00:27:10.912
  • More lives for your glory and your purposes, in jesus's
  • 00:27:10.912 --> 00:27:14.149
  • Name, amen.
  • 00:27:14.149 --> 00:27:15.483
  • Thanks for your partnership.
  • 00:27:15.483 --> 00:27:17.519
  • ♪♪♪
  • 00:27:17.519 --> 00:27:27.562