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Allen Jackson Ministries

Allen Jackson - Understanding and Revelations (Part 2)

May 26, 2025 | S25:E149

Allen Jackson - Understanding and Revelations (Part 2)
Pastor Allen Jackson's mission is to help people become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
#Faith #Provision #Revelation #ServantofGod #Religion #Culture #Encouragement #WordofGod #inActive #AllenJacksonMinistries #AllenJackson #Worship #Authority #Temple #Luke11:2

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Allen Jackson Ministries | Allen Jackson - Understanding and Revelations (Part 2) | May 26, 2025
  • ...
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  • Allen jackson: god is moving in the earth in the most remarkable
  • 00:00:05.764 --> 00:00:08.267
  • Ways, it truly is extraordinary what we see god doing.
  • 00:00:08.367 --> 00:00:09.301
  • We have people coming to our campus in middle tennessee from
  • 00:00:11.837 --> 00:00:14.440
  • All over the nation, from nations of the world, we're
  • 00:00:14.440 --> 00:00:17.076
  • Seeing more people baptized, more people engaging
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  • In ministry.
  • 00:00:19.645 --> 00:00:20.979
  • It's truly a remarkable time to see god raising up voices
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  • Of truth.
  • 00:00:23.582 --> 00:00:24.950
  • The one thing we hear consistently that is valued from
  • 00:00:24.950 --> 00:00:27.486
  • The ministry is our willingness to speak the truth into the
  • 00:00:27.486 --> 00:00:31.123
  • Current set of circumstances, and people often ask, "is there
  • 00:00:31.123 --> 00:00:34.359
  • Anything we can do to help?"
  • 00:00:34.359 --> 00:00:35.727
  • And in reality, there is, i wanna invite you to consider
  • 00:00:35.727 --> 00:00:38.130
  • Becoming a monthly ministry partner.
  • 00:00:38.130 --> 00:00:40.799
  • For your gift of $25 a month, you enable us to imagine a
  • 00:00:40.799 --> 00:00:45.437
  • Future that expands the platforms of the ministry.
  • 00:00:45.437 --> 00:00:48.373
  • That's our baseline for how we plan and what we look
  • 00:00:48.373 --> 00:00:50.476
  • Forward to.
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  • If you haven't yet taken that step, please prayerfully
  • 00:00:51.844 --> 00:00:54.279
  • Consider doing so.
  • 00:00:54.279 --> 00:00:55.647
  • We'll share some extra content with you and some unique
  • 00:00:55.647 --> 00:00:57.716
  • Opportunities with you, and together we'll take a message of
  • 00:00:57.716 --> 00:01:01.220
  • Truth to this generation.
  • 00:01:01.220 --> 00:01:02.855
  • God is moving, and we wanna move with him.
  • 00:01:02.855 --> 00:01:08.961
  • Allen: well, i'd remind you one of my biblical heroes, and i
  • 00:01:13.132 --> 00:01:15.234
  • Hope he's one of yours, is daniel.
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  • Daniel led, in many respects, a tragic life.
  • 00:01:18.303 --> 00:01:21.840
  • He spends his whole adult life as a slave in a foreign country.
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  • Jerusalem is destroyed, he's never going back.
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  • The temple is destroyed, they can't worship the lord the way
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  • They've worshiped the lord for hundreds and hundreds of years,
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  • No daily sacrifices, no annual pilgrimage feasts to jerusalem.
  • 00:01:36.989 --> 00:01:41.426
  • Everything about daniel's life is upended.
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  • The dreams that his parents and grandparents would have had for
  • 00:01:44.363 --> 00:01:46.932
  • Their children and their grandchildren are not available
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  • To daniel.
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  • Daniel has to learn foreign languages in the midst of a
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  • Foreign culture, and then he's recruited because of his
  • 00:01:54.673 --> 00:01:56.508
  • Abilities to serve in the court of an ancient near eastern
  • 00:01:56.508 --> 00:02:00.479
  • Monarch, which means in order to do that, daniel had to
  • 00:02:00.479 --> 00:02:04.683
  • Be tutored.
  • 00:02:04.683 --> 00:02:07.753
  • He's a eunuch, so there's physical suffering that goes
  • 00:02:07.753 --> 00:02:12.457
  • Along with the emotional trauma that suffered--daniel suffered.
  • 00:02:12.457 --> 00:02:17.763
  • And yet in the opening chapter of the book of daniel, daniel
  • 00:02:17.763 --> 00:02:20.966
  • Makes a very impassioned presentation, he doesn't want to
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  • Eat non-kosher food.
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  • He's so concerned with honoring the lord in spite of the ways
  • 00:02:27.940 --> 00:02:31.610
  • That evil has touched his life, of his dreams being put through
  • 00:02:31.610 --> 00:02:35.447
  • The shredder, of there no possibility of recapturing them.
  • 00:02:35.447 --> 00:02:41.220
  • Everything he's dreamt of, everything he's hoped for.
  • 00:02:41.220 --> 00:02:44.089
  • You see, we have such a fragile faith, if god doesn't do what we
  • 00:02:44.089 --> 00:02:47.092
  • Want in the way we want, on the timeline we want in fulfilling
  • 00:02:47.092 --> 00:02:49.962
  • Our dreams, we start threatening him, "i'm not serving you."
  • 00:02:49.962 --> 00:02:54.533
  • "there for a while, i thought there was a god, but he
  • 00:02:54.533 --> 00:02:56.335
  • Disappointed me."
  • 00:02:56.335 --> 00:02:59.438
  • Everything about daniel's life is a disappointment and yet he
  • 00:02:59.438 --> 00:03:04.810
  • Decides to serve the lord, even to the extent of what goes on
  • 00:03:04.810 --> 00:03:07.112
  • His fork.
  • 00:03:07.112 --> 00:03:09.314
  • By the end of the book of daniel, there are archangels
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  • Bringing messages to him, saying, "you are highly esteemed
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  • In heaven."
  • 00:03:15.520 --> 00:03:18.757
  • Now, there is an understanding i have gained, i don't think i
  • 00:03:18.757 --> 00:03:21.159
  • Would say it's a revelation, but that when god provides for you
  • 00:03:21.159 --> 00:03:24.863
  • Dramatic insight or messaging or direction, it's because you're
  • 00:03:24.863 --> 00:03:29.968
  • Going to need it.
  • 00:03:29.968 --> 00:03:32.604
  • God won't give you dramatic direction unless you're gonna
  • 00:03:32.604 --> 00:03:35.274
  • Need dramatic direction.
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  • So if daniel's in a place where he needs an archangel to come to
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  • Him and say, "you are highly esteemed in heaven," i promise
  • 00:03:41.446 --> 00:03:47.419
  • You there's a battle raging in the heart of that man.
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  • I tell you that to say i know our lives are touched by evil.
  • 00:03:52.024 --> 00:03:56.328
  • Disappointments come to our lives, broken places, dreams get
  • 00:03:56.328 --> 00:04:00.932
  • Shattered, plans we make break up and evaporate and we have
  • 00:04:00.932 --> 00:04:08.640
  • To decide.
  • 00:04:08.640 --> 00:04:12.277
  • The context of this is men.
  • 00:04:12.277 --> 00:04:15.414
  • And daniel suffered physically, but still fulfilled the purposes
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  • Of god.
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  • The church has been reluctant to talk about gender roles from
  • 00:04:22.321 --> 00:04:25.624
  • Biblical perspectives, and the reason we've been reluctant is
  • 00:04:25.624 --> 00:04:29.761
  • We've been so divided in the buildings.
  • 00:04:29.761 --> 00:04:31.596
  • It wouldn't be hard to launch a church movement in america that
  • 00:04:34.900 --> 00:04:38.804
  • Stood united against poaching elephants, because there's very
  • 00:04:38.804 --> 00:04:43.942
  • Little temptation in america for the people of god to
  • 00:04:43.942 --> 00:04:47.045
  • Poach elephants.
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  • But if we pick up a topic like gender roles, we're afraid to
  • 00:04:49.881 --> 00:04:53.385
  • Talk about it because we haven't really yielded to the authority
  • 00:04:53.385 --> 00:04:56.855
  • Of scripture, we've been so deeply influenced by our culture
  • 00:04:56.855 --> 00:05:00.826
  • And by the aspirations that have come to us from godless sources.
  • 00:05:00.826 --> 00:05:06.865
  • This notion of godly men, godly fathers, and godly husbands.
  • 00:05:06.865 --> 00:05:11.603
  • You see, how we understand a good father has been redefined
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  • By our culture.
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  • We've allowed a secular culture to tell us what a good father
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  • Is, not the word of god.
  • 00:05:19.311 --> 00:05:22.447
  • A lot of language in scripture about it.
  • 00:05:22.447 --> 00:05:25.384
  • I sat down with a--i have a habit, i'll sit and make lists
  • 00:05:25.384 --> 00:05:29.020
  • With a legal pad, and i started on a list of the things that
  • 00:05:29.020 --> 00:05:31.223
  • Define a good father, just in contemporary culture, and i'm
  • 00:05:31.223 --> 00:05:33.558
  • Not saying they're wrong or evil, things like you're there
  • 00:05:33.558 --> 00:05:36.495
  • For all the ball games, don't miss any.
  • 00:05:36.495 --> 00:05:41.600
  • Or when your babies are born, you're present.
  • 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:43.235
  • I don't mean present in the hospital, you're in the room.
  • 00:05:43.235 --> 00:05:47.606
  • I don't really wanna say an active participant, that doesn't
  • 00:05:47.606 --> 00:05:49.741
  • Seem quite fair, but you're present.
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  • And it's not uncommon to--for the invitation to be given now
  • 00:05:52.844 --> 00:05:56.181
  • That soon after birth, you have an opportunity to have physical
  • 00:05:56.181 --> 00:05:59.985
  • Contact with that child, maybe let them lay their head on your
  • 00:05:59.985 --> 00:06:02.220
  • Chest so you have a physical connection.
  • 00:06:02.220 --> 00:06:09.761
  • We're told we need to be sensitive to the needs
  • 00:06:09.761 --> 00:06:11.797
  • Around us.
  • 00:06:11.797 --> 00:06:16.468
  • Or we're told that there's nothing more important than
  • 00:06:16.468 --> 00:06:18.170
  • My family.
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  • In my priority list, my family is number one.
  • 00:06:19.504 --> 00:06:21.173
  • My children are the first priority, so i'm not making any
  • 00:06:21.173 --> 00:06:26.411
  • Decisions that would put my children at a deficit or my
  • 00:06:26.411 --> 00:06:28.547
  • Family at a deficit, i'm there for them first and foremost.
  • 00:06:28.547 --> 00:06:34.920
  • And the list could go on, my list was quite a bit longer, i
  • 00:06:34.920 --> 00:06:37.422
  • Don't need to belabor that.
  • 00:06:37.422 --> 00:06:38.790
  • I'm not saying any of those things are necessarily wrong, in
  • 00:06:38.790 --> 00:06:41.293
  • And of themselves, i would submit to you that our
  • 00:06:41.293 --> 00:06:44.162
  • Grandfathers, most of us, would not understand that list.
  • 00:06:44.162 --> 00:06:51.102
  • It would not be clear to them, and they would reflect, for the
  • 00:06:51.102 --> 00:06:55.574
  • Most part, the attitudes of men and husbands and fathers for
  • 00:06:55.574 --> 00:07:00.512
  • Many generations.
  • 00:07:00.512 --> 00:07:03.181
  • Something's happening, there are different voices, there are
  • 00:07:03.181 --> 00:07:08.019
  • Different objectives being expressed.
  • 00:07:08.019 --> 00:07:12.190
  • Again, i'm not saying those things are wrong, but i can pull
  • 00:07:12.190 --> 00:07:17.429
  • A block or two out of the foundation.
  • 00:07:17.429 --> 00:07:19.030
  • The notion that nothing in my life should stand between me and
  • 00:07:19.030 --> 00:07:22.634
  • My family, that they're my first and foremost, if that were true,
  • 00:07:22.634 --> 00:07:26.905
  • You know that--have you ever seen the image or the memorial
  • 00:07:26.905 --> 00:07:31.142
  • In washington of those young men on iwo jima raising the
  • 00:07:31.142 --> 00:07:33.778
  • American flag?
  • 00:07:33.778 --> 00:07:37.415
  • That wouldn't exist if those men said that, because hundreds and
  • 00:07:37.415 --> 00:07:43.822
  • Thousands of men died to make that possible.
  • 00:07:43.822 --> 00:07:48.793
  • We have a battlefield here in murfreesboro where tens of
  • 00:07:48.793 --> 00:07:50.996
  • Thousands of people died in a very short period of time trying
  • 00:07:50.996 --> 00:07:55.367
  • To change the direction of our nation for the better.
  • 00:07:55.367 --> 00:08:00.272
  • I'm not suggesting your family isn't important, i'm not
  • 00:08:00.272 --> 00:08:02.574
  • Suggesting they shouldn't have a priority in your life, i'm
  • 00:08:02.574 --> 00:08:05.377
  • Telling you we have hidden behind our children
  • 00:08:05.377 --> 00:08:07.646
  • Like cowards.
  • 00:08:07.646 --> 00:08:12.984
  • I believe we should protect them.
  • 00:08:12.984 --> 00:08:16.321
  • I believe we should be their advocates.
  • 00:08:16.321 --> 00:08:18.523
  • I believe we have some responsibilities, which i'll
  • 00:08:18.523 --> 00:08:20.492
  • Touch on in a moment, it may be briefly, but i'll touch on them,
  • 00:08:20.492 --> 00:08:23.361
  • But i don't believe we have the luxury of hiding behind them to
  • 00:08:23.361 --> 00:08:26.231
  • Excuse our own adolescent behavior.
  • 00:08:26.231 --> 00:08:29.434
  • And that idea is far too prevalent in our culture.
  • 00:08:29.434 --> 00:08:35.540
  • We have been fed a self-centered approach to life, it's taken
  • 00:08:35.540 --> 00:08:39.077
  • Root and grown with the enthusiasm of kudzu in
  • 00:08:39.077 --> 00:08:42.380
  • The south.
  • 00:08:42.380 --> 00:08:45.183
  • Our selfish attitudes are expressed too frequently in
  • 00:08:45.183 --> 00:08:47.752
  • Cowardice, we won't speak the truth.
  • 00:08:47.752 --> 00:08:51.756
  • I mean, we've had a struggle in our own community removing books
  • 00:08:51.756 --> 00:08:54.292
  • That are filled candidly with just smut from our school's
  • 00:08:54.292 --> 00:08:56.661
  • Libraries, and we've talked about procedures and the fear of
  • 00:08:56.661 --> 00:09:02.067
  • Lawsuits and all this stuff.
  • 00:09:02.067 --> 00:09:05.370
  • Or what you want the preachers to do or the pastors to do.
  • 00:09:05.370 --> 00:09:08.573
  • I'm thinking the men should say, "no, you're not gonna take our
  • 00:09:08.573 --> 00:09:10.575
  • First and second and third graders and sexualize them in
  • 00:09:10.575 --> 00:09:12.911
  • Our public schools, not in our community."
  • 00:09:12.911 --> 00:09:14.980
  • [congregation applauding]
  • 00:09:14.980 --> 00:09:20.785
  • I don't want you to be angry, and i certainly don't want you
  • 00:09:20.785 --> 00:09:23.021
  • To be belligerent and definitely not violent, i want you to
  • 00:09:23.021 --> 00:09:25.657
  • Be present.
  • 00:09:25.657 --> 00:09:27.592
  • And the people that ask for permission to provide leadership
  • 00:09:27.592 --> 00:09:30.095
  • In our community should know that the men in the community
  • 00:09:30.095 --> 00:09:32.364
  • Won't tolerate that, it's beyond the pale.
  • 00:09:32.364 --> 00:09:36.835
  • It's not about banning books, it's about
  • 00:09:36.835 --> 00:09:40.238
  • Age-appropriate learning.
  • 00:09:40.238 --> 00:09:41.573
  • This isn't rocket science.
  • 00:09:41.573 --> 00:09:44.542
  • Everybody that thinks second and third graders should be
  • 00:09:44.542 --> 00:09:46.444
  • Sexualized about trans issues, raise your hand, we'd like to
  • 00:09:46.444 --> 00:09:50.515
  • Know who you are, make our community a better place to
  • 00:09:50.515 --> 00:09:54.352
  • Understand these things.
  • 00:09:54.352 --> 00:09:57.722
  • But our silence is because we don't want anything, any stigma
  • 00:09:57.722 --> 00:10:00.792
  • To come back, because it might impact my family or--yeah, not
  • 00:10:00.792 --> 00:10:07.098
  • Nearly as much as the impact on our families if we're quiet.
  • 00:10:07.098 --> 00:10:11.503
  • Men, husbands, and fathers under god are all expressions of
  • 00:10:11.503 --> 00:10:15.340
  • Our faith.
  • 00:10:15.340 --> 00:10:17.175
  • The role of father is one of the great revelations of scripture,
  • 00:10:17.175 --> 00:10:22.981
  • That god reveals himself to us as our father.
  • 00:10:22.981 --> 00:10:27.252
  • When jesus's disciples asked him to teach them to pray, you know
  • 00:10:27.252 --> 00:10:32.624
  • The prayer, some of you come from segments of the church
  • 00:10:32.624 --> 00:10:34.559
  • Where you call it the our father.
  • 00:10:34.559 --> 00:10:36.628
  • So you know it, it's luke 11:2, jesus said, "pray this way,
  • 00:10:36.628 --> 00:10:39.698
  • 'father, hallowed be your name."'
  • 00:10:39.698 --> 00:10:45.236
  • Jesus introduced god to us as a father, it's a very
  • 00:10:45.236 --> 00:10:51.810
  • Significant revelation.
  • 00:10:51.810 --> 00:10:53.478
  • People say, "well, i have a hard time doing that because my
  • 00:10:53.478 --> 00:10:55.380
  • Earthly father was a very unpleasant, ungodly,
  • 00:10:55.380 --> 00:10:59.417
  • Evil person."
  • 00:10:59.417 --> 00:11:00.752
  • I get that, i'm not saying it's always easy, but it doesn't
  • 00:11:00.752 --> 00:11:03.154
  • Diminish or change the reality that god chose to reveal himself
  • 00:11:03.154 --> 00:11:07.192
  • To us as father.
  • 00:11:07.192 --> 00:11:10.662
  • And it's not helpful for the women to imagine that to be
  • 00:11:10.662 --> 00:11:13.031
  • A diminishment.
  • 00:11:13.031 --> 00:11:16.167
  • You have to understand how systematic, how intentional, how
  • 00:11:16.167 --> 00:11:18.636
  • Pervasive, how unrelenting this attack has been.
  • 00:11:18.636 --> 00:11:22.907
  • When i went to graduate school, in theology training--i didn't
  • 00:11:22.907 --> 00:11:25.710
  • Do any undergraduate work in theology, i had to wait for
  • 00:11:25.710 --> 00:11:27.712
  • Graduate school to do that--one of the first documents i was
  • 00:11:27.712 --> 00:11:31.082
  • Given, in a very celebrated school, was an inclusive
  • 00:11:31.082 --> 00:11:34.719
  • Language document and they said you couldn't refer to god with
  • 00:11:34.719 --> 00:11:37.088
  • A male pronoun.
  • 00:11:37.088 --> 00:11:39.758
  • And if you did it in a verbal presentation in a class, they'd
  • 00:11:39.758 --> 00:11:42.527
  • Shut you down.
  • 00:11:42.527 --> 00:11:43.895
  • If you put it in a paper, you'd be failed.
  • 00:11:43.895 --> 00:11:45.230
  • If you said it out loud, you'd be silenced.
  • 00:11:45.230 --> 00:11:48.366
  • And they followed it up with an inclusive language document,
  • 00:11:48.366 --> 00:11:50.668
  • That "we're inclusive of a very diverse set of opinions,"
  • 00:11:50.668 --> 00:11:54.672
  • Just not mine.
  • 00:11:54.672 --> 00:11:59.077
  • Allen: so many of you send us messages, letters, emails, notes
  • 00:12:03.281 --> 00:12:06.651
  • In a variety of formats, saying thank you for the ministry, for
  • 00:12:06.651 --> 00:12:09.654
  • Willing to speak the truth into culture in this rather
  • 00:12:09.654 --> 00:12:13.258
  • Tumultuous season.
  • 00:12:13.258 --> 00:12:15.026
  • Well, i hear your feedback and it's very valuable.
  • 00:12:15.026 --> 00:12:17.395
  • The question i'm so often asked is, "i feel like we should do
  • 00:12:17.395 --> 00:12:20.165
  • More, what can we do?
  • 00:12:20.165 --> 00:12:21.499
  • How do we do something?"
  • 00:12:21.499 --> 00:12:22.867
  • Clearly god is moving in the earth, he's raising up voices of
  • 00:12:22.867 --> 00:12:25.503
  • Truth, we're certainly not unique or alone in that, but
  • 00:12:25.503 --> 00:12:28.306
  • There is something you could do that would help us, join us as
  • 00:12:28.306 --> 00:12:31.576
  • A monthly ministry partner.
  • 00:12:31.576 --> 00:12:33.344
  • Our baseline for how we build our plans for next comes from
  • 00:12:33.344 --> 00:12:36.648
  • Those monthly partners.
  • 00:12:36.648 --> 00:12:38.216
  • Your gift of $25 or more enables us to imagine
  • 00:12:38.216 --> 00:12:41.886
  • A different future.
  • 00:12:41.886 --> 00:12:43.254
  • So if god has blessed you through the ministry, i would
  • 00:12:43.254 --> 00:12:45.456
  • Ask you to make that simple investment in what's next, and
  • 00:12:45.456 --> 00:12:49.394
  • Together we will join god in helping to spread the message of
  • 00:12:49.394 --> 00:12:52.697
  • A biblical worldview and its significance for our families,
  • 00:12:52.697 --> 00:12:55.667
  • Our communities, our nation, and for the body of christ
  • 00:12:55.667 --> 00:12:58.903
  • Throughout the earth.
  • 00:12:58.903 --> 00:13:00.271
  • Join us in that partnership, we'll share some unique learning
  • 00:13:00.271 --> 00:13:02.273
  • Opportunities with you, and together we'll move with what
  • 00:13:02.273 --> 00:13:05.109
  • God is doing in the earth right now.
  • 00:13:05.109 --> 00:13:07.712
  • Allen: look at john 8:42, this is interesting.
  • 00:13:11.015 --> 00:13:13.985
  • Jesus is teaching, and he's talking to religious leaders,
  • 00:13:13.985 --> 00:13:17.355
  • That's noteworthy.
  • 00:13:17.355 --> 00:13:18.957
  • He's not talking to roman pagans who have a pantheon filled with
  • 00:13:18.957 --> 00:13:21.960
  • Gods, he's talking to people steeped in the law of moses,
  • 00:13:21.960 --> 00:13:25.330
  • They spent their lives studying scripture.
  • 00:13:25.330 --> 00:13:28.032
  • "and jesus said to them, 'if god were your father, you would love
  • 00:13:28.032 --> 00:13:32.437
  • Me, for i came from god and now am here.
  • 00:13:32.437 --> 00:13:36.574
  • And i've not come on my own; but he sent me...you belong to your
  • 00:13:36.574 --> 00:13:41.179
  • Father, the devil.'"
  • 00:13:41.179 --> 00:13:47.986
  • That's the people that offer daily sacrifices, they keep
  • 00:13:47.986 --> 00:13:52.123
  • Kosher with their food, and jesus said, "you belong to your
  • 00:13:52.123 --> 00:13:57.395
  • Father, the devil."
  • 00:13:57.395 --> 00:13:59.697
  • You see, fatherhood establishes our character, and from our
  • 00:13:59.697 --> 00:14:04.369
  • Character come the characteristics of our lives,
  • 00:14:04.369 --> 00:14:07.205
  • The behaviors which emerge from your character.
  • 00:14:07.205 --> 00:14:12.277
  • And he said, "oh, you have religious language and you have
  • 00:14:12.277 --> 00:14:15.213
  • Religious jobs and you work in a religious building and you know
  • 00:14:15.213 --> 00:14:18.650
  • Religious rules, but," he said, "your behavior suggests the
  • 00:14:18.650 --> 00:14:23.421
  • Devil is your father."
  • 00:14:23.421 --> 00:14:27.358
  • It's concerning to me when i talk to you about the absence of
  • 00:14:27.358 --> 00:14:33.197
  • Influence of the american church.
  • 00:14:33.197 --> 00:14:37.535
  • There's more people--there are more people in rutherford county
  • 00:14:37.535 --> 00:14:40.371
  • Today who don't frequently participate in church than in
  • 00:14:40.371 --> 00:14:44.142
  • The history of rutherford county.
  • 00:14:44.142 --> 00:14:48.212
  • Hard stop.
  • 00:14:48.212 --> 00:14:50.248
  • So, well, the county's grown, okay.
  • 00:14:50.248 --> 00:14:52.884
  • We built more restaurants, we've added apartments.
  • 00:14:52.884 --> 00:15:00.758
  • Haven't added enough roads, but we've added a lot of cars.
  • 00:15:00.758 --> 00:15:09.767
  • Then the whole notion of fathers and mothers, it's an essential
  • 00:15:09.767 --> 00:15:12.303
  • Pairing, it's god's idea, it's biblical.
  • 00:15:12.303 --> 00:15:17.008
  • We'll talk more about mom's roles, but we need men to be
  • 00:15:17.008 --> 00:15:20.378
  • Godly, to be godly husbands and godly fathers.
  • 00:15:20.378 --> 00:15:25.450
  • I'm gonna give you the fundamentals.
  • 00:15:25.450 --> 00:15:27.051
  • You know, at the end of the day, we wanna know what to do, but
  • 00:15:27.051 --> 00:15:29.087
  • Matthew 15, jesus again, he said, "god said"--this is jesus,
  • 00:15:29.087 --> 00:15:32.790
  • "god said, 'honor your father and mother' and 'anyone who
  • 00:15:32.790 --> 00:15:34.759
  • Curses his father or mother must be put to death.'"
  • 00:15:34.759 --> 00:15:37.161
  • What do you think god's attitude is towards people that curse the
  • 00:15:37.161 --> 00:15:39.731
  • Notion of fathers and mothers?
  • 00:15:39.731 --> 00:15:46.337
  • This is so grounded in scripture, it's so fundamental,
  • 00:15:46.337 --> 00:15:49.540
  • But we don't wanna talk about it, we don't wanna hear
  • 00:15:49.540 --> 00:15:52.710
  • About it.
  • 00:15:52.710 --> 00:15:54.045
  • How is it that somebody--we stand in a public place and say
  • 00:15:54.045 --> 00:15:58.282
  • The men and the women should compete in athletic competitions
  • 00:15:58.282 --> 00:16:00.985
  • Because they're the same.
  • 00:16:00.985 --> 00:16:07.992
  • What are you thinking?
  • 00:16:07.992 --> 00:16:13.297
  • I like sports.
  • 00:16:13.297 --> 00:16:14.665
  • I don't have a lot of time, and i've had too many birthdays
  • 00:16:14.665 --> 00:16:16.401
  • To do much but watch.
  • 00:16:16.401 --> 00:16:19.504
  • We just finished the college basketball tournament, and i
  • 00:16:19.504 --> 00:16:22.807
  • Watched some of the men and some of the women, tremendously
  • 00:16:22.807 --> 00:16:26.544
  • Talented athletes, but they're very different.
  • 00:16:26.544 --> 00:16:31.516
  • I mean, you really have to not pay attention at all to go, "oh
  • 00:16:31.516 --> 00:16:33.851
  • No, they're the same."
  • 00:16:33.851 --> 00:16:36.954
  • No, they're really not!
  • 00:16:36.954 --> 00:16:40.024
  • They really aren't!
  • 00:16:40.024 --> 00:16:41.526
  • I'm not saying they're greater or lesser or better or not
  • 00:16:41.526 --> 00:16:43.928
  • Talented or not gifted.
  • 00:16:43.928 --> 00:16:47.565
  • What has happened to us, church?
  • 00:16:47.565 --> 00:16:51.235
  • Well, you want your daughter to have an opportunity to play with
  • 00:16:51.235 --> 00:16:53.404
  • The guys, so i'm gonna say she has a right, no, it's not
  • 00:16:53.404 --> 00:16:57.842
  • About rights!
  • 00:16:57.842 --> 00:17:01.512
  • I'm gonna suggest there's three roles that god has for us as men
  • 00:17:01.512 --> 00:17:06.250
  • And that we can't pass them off.
  • 00:17:06.250 --> 00:17:09.387
  • You know, one of the real challenges we have is we haven't
  • 00:17:09.387 --> 00:17:11.956
  • Done well with the transition from children to adult.
  • 00:17:11.956 --> 00:17:15.493
  • Many cultures have formal ways of recognizing that transition
  • 00:17:15.493 --> 00:17:19.697
  • From being a child to adulthood.
  • 00:17:19.697 --> 00:17:23.034
  • I lived in israel, i studied there.
  • 00:17:23.034 --> 00:17:25.103
  • In the jewish community, they do this pretty well.
  • 00:17:25.103 --> 00:17:27.038
  • They have, for the boys predominantly, from centuries
  • 00:17:27.038 --> 00:17:30.541
  • And centuries of bar mitzvah, at 13, there's a formal recognition
  • 00:17:30.541 --> 00:17:34.378
  • That the boy becomes a man.
  • 00:17:34.378 --> 00:17:37.515
  • Current culture being what it is, and predominantly driven by
  • 00:17:37.515 --> 00:17:40.451
  • American culture, the parents wanted their girls to have an
  • 00:17:40.451 --> 00:17:43.788
  • Equal opportunity, so now they have a bat mitzvah.
  • 00:17:43.788 --> 00:17:46.624
  • I'm not saying it's evil, but a formal recognition, but that
  • 00:17:46.624 --> 00:17:49.527
  • Isn't just a part of a judeo-christian worldview.
  • 00:17:49.527 --> 00:17:51.996
  • I was in africa some years ago, the masai tribe, for many, many
  • 00:17:51.996 --> 00:17:56.067
  • Years, they had a very formal part of the transition.
  • 00:17:56.067 --> 00:18:00.071
  • When a boy was ready to become a man, the assignment was to give
  • 00:18:00.071 --> 00:18:02.940
  • Him a spear and he had to go out and kill a lion.
  • 00:18:02.940 --> 00:18:07.879
  • The current attitudes towards conservation have changed the
  • 00:18:07.879 --> 00:18:10.181
  • Practice, but for generation upon generation upon generation,
  • 00:18:10.181 --> 00:18:13.751
  • It described the masai tribe.
  • 00:18:13.751 --> 00:18:17.522
  • Most cultures, no matter how sophisticated or how agrarian,
  • 00:18:17.522 --> 00:18:21.159
  • Had formal recognition of transition from childhood
  • 00:18:21.159 --> 00:18:23.861
  • To adulthood.
  • 00:18:23.861 --> 00:18:26.030
  • Contemporary american life has done a great--made a tremendous
  • 00:18:26.030 --> 00:18:29.867
  • Amount of effort to blur that.
  • 00:18:29.867 --> 00:18:31.602
  • In fact, we've introduced a third category, we call
  • 00:18:31.602 --> 00:18:34.805
  • It adolescence.
  • 00:18:34.805 --> 00:18:39.577
  • That's not really been a historically defined category.
  • 00:18:39.577 --> 00:18:43.014
  • We've given some definition to it, it's that season in your
  • 00:18:43.014 --> 00:18:45.016
  • Life where you have the physical strength of an adult, but you
  • 00:18:45.016 --> 00:18:47.952
  • Don't have to carry the responsibility.
  • 00:18:47.952 --> 00:18:51.589
  • We give expression to it, it's a time of self-fulfillment, a time
  • 00:18:51.589 --> 00:18:54.158
  • Of self-exploration.
  • 00:18:54.158 --> 00:18:55.826
  • You get to sow a few wild oats, enjoy yourself.
  • 00:18:55.826 --> 00:18:59.197
  • Soon enough, you have to be an adult.
  • 00:18:59.197 --> 00:19:02.667
  • So we'll tolerate from you childish behaviors and childish
  • 00:19:02.667 --> 00:19:05.836
  • Decision-making, even though you have all the physical and mental
  • 00:19:05.836 --> 00:19:09.240
  • Capabilities emerging of an adult.
  • 00:19:09.240 --> 00:19:13.945
  • The expansion of that adolescent category and the encouragement
  • 00:19:13.945 --> 00:19:16.581
  • Of adolescent behavior has resulted now we have 30- and 40-
  • 00:19:16.581 --> 00:19:20.017
  • And 50-year-old adolescents.
  • 00:19:20.017 --> 00:19:24.288
  • It's why we're struggling so much with what it means to be
  • 00:19:24.288 --> 00:19:26.490
  • A man, because it's been encouraged by our
  • 00:19:26.490 --> 00:19:32.430
  • Family systems.
  • 00:19:32.430 --> 00:19:34.398
  • Well, we don't want our--the people behind us to have to make
  • 00:19:34.398 --> 00:19:37.034
  • The sacrifices that we had to make.
  • 00:19:37.034 --> 00:19:39.737
  • We don't want them to have to endure what we had to endure, so
  • 00:19:39.737 --> 00:19:42.240
  • We'll deconstruct all of those things, and we will let them
  • 00:19:42.240 --> 00:19:45.509
  • Have the protection that comes with being a child when they're
  • 00:19:45.509 --> 00:19:48.980
  • Far beyond childhood.
  • 00:19:48.980 --> 00:19:51.649
  • I put a verse of scripture, and you know this isn't just an
  • 00:19:51.649 --> 00:19:53.584
  • Opinion, it's 1 corinthians 13.
  • 00:19:53.584 --> 00:19:55.553
  • Paul's writing, he said, "when i was a child, i talked like a
  • 00:19:55.553 --> 00:19:57.722
  • Child, and i thought like a child, and i reasoned like
  • 00:19:57.722 --> 00:20:00.458
  • A child.
  • 00:20:00.458 --> 00:20:01.826
  • When i became a man, i put childish ways behind me."
  • 00:20:01.826 --> 00:20:07.164
  • There's no other way to explain the apostle paul.
  • 00:20:07.164 --> 00:20:10.701
  • Read that passage in corinthians where he said, "five times i
  • 00:20:10.701 --> 00:20:13.437
  • Took forty lashes minus one."
  • 00:20:13.437 --> 00:20:14.972
  • The reason he gives it that way is 40 lashes was believed to
  • 00:20:14.972 --> 00:20:17.575
  • Kill a man, and he said, "five times, they beat me within one
  • 00:20:17.575 --> 00:20:20.845
  • Stroke of the whip of being dead."
  • 00:20:20.845 --> 00:20:24.849
  • I mean, it's a lengthy list of the things he's endured and yet
  • 00:20:24.849 --> 00:20:28.286
  • He persevered.
  • 00:20:28.286 --> 00:20:30.688
  • And he says this in 2 timothy to the young man, he said, "i'm
  • 00:20:30.688 --> 00:20:33.357
  • Not ashamed."
  • 00:20:33.357 --> 00:20:34.692
  • "i don't want you to be ashamed of me.
  • 00:20:34.692 --> 00:20:36.060
  • I'm not ashamed of the gospel because i know the one i have
  • 00:20:36.060 --> 00:20:40.264
  • Trusted is faithful."
  • 00:20:40.264 --> 00:20:43.601
  • We gotta grow up. we gotta grow up.
  • 00:20:43.601 --> 00:20:48.973
  • And yes, the men need to make that decision, but it will make
  • 00:20:48.973 --> 00:20:51.475
  • A tremendous difference if the moms and the grandmoms and the
  • 00:20:51.475 --> 00:20:55.012
  • Wives are willing to encourage that behavior in their husbands
  • 00:20:55.012 --> 00:20:59.517
  • And children and grandchildren.
  • 00:20:59.517 --> 00:21:03.187
  • The three roles that i don't believe are optional for us as
  • 00:21:03.187 --> 00:21:05.423
  • Men are the priest, protector, and provider.
  • 00:21:05.423 --> 00:21:08.893
  • My time's gone.
  • 00:21:08.893 --> 00:21:16.801
  • Next service is 8:30, we're pretty good, much golden.
  • 00:21:16.801 --> 00:21:24.108
  • I'll pick those up with our next service because whether you're
  • 00:21:24.108 --> 00:21:27.912
  • Here or not, you can watch.
  • 00:21:27.912 --> 00:21:30.548
  • But i don't understand those to be optional roles.
  • 00:21:30.548 --> 00:21:33.918
  • Priest isn't about an assignment or a title or a place in an org
  • 00:21:33.918 --> 00:21:38.255
  • Chart, priests are representatives.
  • 00:21:38.255 --> 00:21:40.925
  • The priestly assignment in scripture is to represent people
  • 00:21:40.925 --> 00:21:43.394
  • To god, it's the whole notion of the implementation of
  • 00:21:43.394 --> 00:21:46.630
  • The priesthood.
  • 00:21:46.630 --> 00:21:48.699
  • I'm not saying women don't have a role, stop the competition,
  • 00:21:48.699 --> 00:21:54.672
  • But i believe as men, we have a responsibility to be spiritual
  • 00:21:54.672 --> 00:21:57.274
  • Leaders in our homes, in our businesses, in our
  • 00:21:57.274 --> 00:22:00.378
  • Neighborhoods, in our communities, on the ball fields.
  • 00:22:00.378 --> 00:22:06.484
  • Simple stuff, don't make this rocket science.
  • 00:22:06.484 --> 00:22:08.352
  • "well, you know, i don't read greek and i don't read hebrew
  • 00:22:08.352 --> 00:22:10.654
  • And i don't know my bib"--i'm not talking about that, let your
  • 00:22:10.654 --> 00:22:14.625
  • Family see you read your bible, let them know it matters to you
  • 00:22:14.625 --> 00:22:18.996
  • As much as whatever your favorite sports thing is.
  • 00:22:18.996 --> 00:22:23.434
  • Let them hear you pray.
  • 00:22:23.434 --> 00:22:24.802
  • If they've never heard you pray, don't go home tonight
  • 00:22:24.802 --> 00:22:26.137
  • And say, "pastor told me to pray."
  • 00:22:26.137 --> 00:22:33.310
  • Let me give you kind of a starter set.
  • 00:22:33.310 --> 00:22:35.780
  • When you come home at the end of the day and you pull in the
  • 00:22:35.780 --> 00:22:37.782
  • Driveway, and it's been a difficult day and your nerves
  • 00:22:37.782 --> 00:22:39.917
  • Are kind of frayed and you're tired physically and emotionally
  • 00:22:39.917 --> 00:22:43.320
  • And you think, "but i gotta walk in the house and the kids are
  • 00:22:43.320 --> 00:22:45.222
  • Gonna be jacked and"--before you go in the house say, "god, i
  • 00:22:45.222 --> 00:22:49.293
  • Thank you for my family, they're a gift in my life," then walk in
  • 00:22:49.293 --> 00:22:57.401
  • The house.
  • 00:22:57.401 --> 00:22:59.837
  • Do that for a week and on week 2, before you leave in the
  • 00:22:59.837 --> 00:23:02.440
  • Morning, just walk up to your wife, put your hand on her
  • 00:23:02.440 --> 00:23:05.109
  • Shoulder, take her hand, whatever, and say, "god, thank
  • 00:23:05.109 --> 00:23:08.112
  • You for my wife, amen."
  • 00:23:08.112 --> 00:23:10.548
  • Just hush while you're ahead, don't pray a lot, just shut down
  • 00:23:10.548 --> 00:23:12.883
  • Right there, all right?
  • 00:23:12.883 --> 00:23:15.820
  • Don't try to get eloquent, you'll mess it up.
  • 00:23:15.820 --> 00:23:18.722
  • I'm just telling you, it's like a 'let's pray' moment, don't
  • 00:23:18.722 --> 00:23:21.425
  • Stand there and watch her to see if she gets teary, you know.
  • 00:23:21.425 --> 00:23:25.429
  • You're not working for some objective, "god, thank you for
  • 00:23:25.429 --> 00:23:29.266
  • My wife, in jesus's name, amen."
  • 00:23:29.266 --> 00:23:32.503
  • Try that for a week, now you're getting a little bit of a muscle
  • 00:23:32.503 --> 00:23:37.074
  • Going around your prayer time, you--maybe you get your kids,
  • 00:23:37.074 --> 00:23:40.511
  • "god, i thank you for my kids, in jesus's name, amen."
  • 00:23:40.511 --> 00:23:46.517
  • Start to bring your faith home.
  • 00:23:46.517 --> 00:23:49.353
  • If you love the titans, your kids know it.
  • 00:23:49.353 --> 00:23:50.855
  • If you love ut, they know it.
  • 00:23:50.855 --> 00:23:52.223
  • If you don't, they know that.
  • 00:23:52.223 --> 00:23:54.925
  • Let them know you care about god.
  • 00:23:54.925 --> 00:23:58.162
  • What has happened to us? what has happened to us?
  • 00:23:58.162 --> 00:24:05.302
  • See, i know it's the hardest place in the world because
  • 00:24:05.302 --> 00:24:07.505
  • You're gonna pray for your family and they just saw you
  • 00:24:07.505 --> 00:24:09.473
  • Kick the dog.
  • 00:24:09.473 --> 00:24:12.610
  • Don't look at them, close your eyes, go, "god, thank you for
  • 00:24:12.610 --> 00:24:14.645
  • These people.
  • 00:24:14.645 --> 00:24:17.047
  • Maybe they have big hearts and short memories,
  • 00:24:17.047 --> 00:24:18.883
  • In jesus's name."
  • 00:24:18.883 --> 00:24:23.587
  • We are living in a period where the truth has been pushed so far
  • 00:24:23.587 --> 00:24:28.192
  • Back in the corner that the absurd is front and center and
  • 00:24:28.192 --> 00:24:32.396
  • Celebrated, and we're gonna have to have the courage to come back
  • 00:24:32.396 --> 00:24:37.935
  • And say, "i'm gonna stand with the biblical perspective."
  • 00:24:37.935 --> 00:24:42.039
  • [congregation applauding]
  • 00:24:42.039 --> 00:24:49.213
  • I'll pick this up next.
  • 00:24:49.213 --> 00:24:50.548
  • I wanna close with a blessing.
  • 00:24:50.548 --> 00:24:52.516
  • I'm so grateful for the church, you're the--christ in you is the
  • 00:24:52.516 --> 00:24:57.588
  • Hope of the world, folks, bunch of crackpots that we are.
  • 00:24:57.588 --> 00:25:02.860
  • Why don't you stand with me?
  • 00:25:02.860 --> 00:25:04.995
  • Telling you god is moving.
  • 00:25:04.995 --> 00:25:09.400
  • This may be the most pronounced blessing through scripture and
  • 00:25:09.400 --> 00:25:13.671
  • History, it's certainly worth one knowing.
  • 00:25:13.671 --> 00:25:17.107
  • I gave you the references in your notes, but i--i'd like
  • 00:25:17.107 --> 00:25:19.944
  • Simply to say this over you if you'll allow me.
  • 00:25:19.944 --> 00:25:22.580
  • It's a blessing you can take to your family.
  • 00:25:22.580 --> 00:25:24.248
  • It's a blessing you can say for your neighborhood.
  • 00:25:24.248 --> 00:25:27.685
  • You don't have to announce it.
  • 00:25:27.685 --> 00:25:29.320
  • Don't go jump up on the top of your car and blow a trumpet and
  • 00:25:29.320 --> 00:25:31.689
  • Go, "i'm about to pronounce a blessing over this neighborhood
  • 00:25:31.689 --> 00:25:35.125
  • Because i've decided to be a godly man."
  • 00:25:35.125 --> 00:25:40.097
  • If i were you, i would not invite that, i'd take a quiet
  • 00:25:40.097 --> 00:25:45.135
  • Walk around that neighborhood and pray for my neighbors.
  • 00:25:45.135 --> 00:25:49.840
  • "what are you doing?"
  • 00:25:49.840 --> 00:25:51.208
  • "just exercising a little bit.
  • 00:25:51.208 --> 00:25:52.576
  • I tried hiring somebody to do it for me and that didn't work,
  • 00:25:52.576 --> 00:25:54.945
  • So now i'm walking."
  • 00:25:54.945 --> 00:26:00.250
  • "the lord bless you and keep you; the lord make his face
  • 00:26:00.250 --> 00:26:04.822
  • Shine upon you and be gracious to you; the lord turn his face
  • 00:26:04.822 --> 00:26:09.059
  • Toward you and give you peace," amen, god bless you.
  • 00:26:09.059 --> 00:26:16.000
  • Allen: you know, our team that helps create this content that
  • 00:26:17.267 --> 00:26:19.603
  • We share with you, consistently pray that it enables you to find
  • 00:26:19.603 --> 00:26:23.707
  • A more steadfast way to navigate the confusing world we're
  • 00:26:23.707 --> 00:26:27.745
  • Living in.
  • 00:26:27.745 --> 00:26:29.113
  • And you often respond, we hear so many messages back from you,
  • 00:26:29.113 --> 00:26:31.782
  • Thanking us for content, but also asking what you can do,
  • 00:26:31.782 --> 00:26:34.551
  • Is there a way you can pray?
  • 00:26:34.551 --> 00:26:35.886
  • Is there a way you can stand with us?
  • 00:26:35.886 --> 00:26:37.321
  • Well, honestly, there is, i wanna invite you to prayerfully
  • 00:26:37.321 --> 00:26:40.090
  • Consider becoming a monthly ministry partner.
  • 00:26:40.090 --> 00:26:42.493
  • For a gift of $25 or more, you help us make a plan for the
  • 00:26:42.493 --> 00:26:45.963
  • Future that will include more people.
  • 00:26:45.963 --> 00:26:47.831
  • We build those plans based on you joining us as monthly
  • 00:26:47.831 --> 00:26:51.268
  • Ministry partners.
  • 00:26:51.268 --> 00:26:52.703
  • God's moving in the earth, he's changing my life, i pray he's
  • 00:26:52.703 --> 00:26:55.506
  • Impacting yours, and we wanna continue to extend this message
  • 00:26:55.506 --> 00:26:58.809
  • To our generation with a clarity and a consistency that creates
  • 00:26:58.809 --> 00:27:02.446
  • Opportunities for individuals and families.
  • 00:27:02.446 --> 00:27:04.348
  • In fact, i wanna pray with you and for you.
  • 00:27:04.348 --> 00:27:06.350
  • God, i thank you that you've let us stand together to learn
  • 00:27:06.350 --> 00:27:08.952
  • Together, and i pray that you'll multiply this to impact even
  • 00:27:08.952 --> 00:27:12.456
  • More lives for your glory and your purposes, in jesus's
  • 00:27:12.456 --> 00:27:15.726
  • Name, amen.
  • 00:27:15.726 --> 00:27:17.061
  • Thanks for your partnership.
  • 00:27:17.061 --> 00:27:18.762
  • ♪♪♪
  • 00:27:18.762 --> 00:27:27.805