Pastor Allen Jackson's mission is to help people become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
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Allen Jackson Ministries | Allen Jackson - When God Chooses You | December 28, 2024
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- ♪♪♪
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- Allen jackson: now, i began a new series in a previous
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- Session, i wanna continue it, the general theme
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- Is breakthroughs.
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- I'm of the opinion that in the november election, god showed
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- Us mercy.
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- It didn't fix our problems, but across the nation, i saw
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- Multiplied millions of people raise their hand and say we need
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- A new direction.
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- I don't imagine that the people that we're sending to office can
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- Do that.
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- I don't believe they can do that unless there is a heart change
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- In the people of this nation.
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- I don't think they will succeed.
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- I think no matter how zealous or talented or determined or
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- Focused, i think without an ongoing heart change in the
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- People in this nation, we will revert back to our old habits.
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- That--that's not just an opinion, it's informed by a bit
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- Of experience.
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- The current administration was elected previously, and it only
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- Took six weeks after they left office for what they had put in
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- Place to be undone, and what they will go do is not
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- Sustainable unless there's a corresponding or even greater
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- Heart change by the people in our nation.
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- So that means we have an assignment in this season to be
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- Instigators of change, just as certainly as we would like them
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- To be.
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- If the election was disappointing to you, i would
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- Encourage you.
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- We still need an opportunity for a nation that will choose
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- Godliness and righteousness and holiness.
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- And whether you view the election as a victory or a great
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- Defeat, as christ followers, we should share that objective and
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- Find a way forward in that.
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- So it brought me to this idea of a breakthrough.
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- I have a friend in another state that i have been--i interact
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- With from time to time, and we've been processing this
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- Need--notion because there was a need for some
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- Significant breakthroughs.
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- So i've been living with it for a while, and i wanna take a few
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- Sessions and then pull some characters that we know from
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- Scripture and highlight the breakthrough that their life
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- Represents to see if there's some lessons that you and i can
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- Learn from those places where we need a breakthrough in our
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- Lives, an intervention from god.
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- That's the target, okay?
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- I brought you a scripture, it's luke chapter 1 and verse 30.
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- This is the angels visiting mary, you know the story.
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- "the angel said to her, 'don't be afraid, mary, you have found
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- Favor with god.
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- And you'll be with child and give birth to a son and you're
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- To give him the name jesus.
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- And have a nice day.'"
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- Now, we read that from the distance of history and we
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- Think, oh, isn't that sweet.
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- If you were the recipient of the message, sweet is probably not
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- The word you would have used as the descriptor.
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- It's a breakthrough point.
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- It's an intervention.
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- It's initiated by god, it wasn't initiated by mary.
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- She didn't raise her head and say, i have an idea, an angel
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- Arrived with a message.
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- So when i talk about breakthroughs, i wanna talk
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- About something in that pattern.
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- I don't imagine it's something that we've initiated.
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- We're not the causative agent in this.
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- We didn't light the fuse.
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- It's god's intervention.
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- Now, our responses make all the difference, and i believe
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- There's a great deal we can learn that will either catalyze
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- Those responses or we will forfeit the opportunities,
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- Because they typically require a response from us.
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- Mary had to say at the end of that announcement, i'm in, may
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- It be to me as you have said, was her answer, and you and i
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- Will have to be aware enough to do that.
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- So, breakthroughs can wear many labels.
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- It can be a point of deliverance, a revelation, an
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- Insight, perhaps it's understanding that you've
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- Needed, a redirection of a behavior or a trajectory of
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- Your life.
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- It's when god's purposes and plans are initiated on our
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- Behalf, maybe it's when something's brought to
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- Completion that we couldn't seem to get finished.
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- Are you really ready for a breakthrough or do you just want
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- Your way?
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- Well, keep smiling.
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- I wanna use the shepherds and the christmas story as a bit of
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- An example, i think they help us understand this.
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- The shepherds are chosen by god.
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- I don't believe they're ever gonna be the same after that
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- Night in those fields outside bethlehem.
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- Nevertheless, the shepherds: "there were shepherds living out
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- On the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks
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- At night.
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- And an angel of the lord appeared to them, and the glory
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- Of the lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
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- And the angel said to them, 'do not be afraid.
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- I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all
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- The people.
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- Today in the town of david a savior has been born to you; he
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- Is christ the lord.
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- And this will be a sign to you: you'll find a baby wrapped in
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- Cloths and lying in a manger.'"
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- We've all learned that passage from charlie brown's christmas.
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- "and suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with
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- The angel, praising god and saying, 'glory to god in the
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- Highest, on earth, peace to men on whom his favor rests.'
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- And when the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the
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- Shepherds said to one another, 'let's go to bethlehem and see
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- This thing that has happened, which the lord has told
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- Us about.'
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- So they hurried off and found mary and joseph, and the baby,
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- Who was lying in the manger.
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- When they'd seen him, they spread the word concerning what
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- Had been told about this child, and all who heard it were amazed
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- At what the shepherd said to them.
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- But mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in
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- Her heart.
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- The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising god for
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- All the things they'd heard and seen, which were just as they
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- Had been told."
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- That's a very familiar passage, it's not news to any of us, but
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- I would--i wanna submit to you, it's a part--it is a
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- Breakthrough, it's a part of a much larger breakthrough.
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- And that's one thing i can tell you, that frequently when god
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- Brings a breakthrough into your life, he'll do it in the lives
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- Of other people that collectively, his purposes can
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- Take a very significant step forward.
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- But i brought you a proclamation because i wanna be certain that
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- As we walk through this study together, that we give to god
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- These repeated invitations for his breakthroughs in our lives.
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- There are those that we're aware of, that we know we need, or we
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- Think we need and that we're asking for.
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- And i don't believe that's wrong, i think in most cases
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- It's appropriate, but i'm even more convinced that god has
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- Breakthroughs for us that we don't even know we need, we lack
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- The wisdom or the experience to truly ask for.
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- If you've had enough birthdays that you've gathered a bit of
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- Life experience and you have the marks to show for it, sometimes
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- When you interact with younger people and you hear the things
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- That they're dreaming about and chasing, you're grateful for the
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- Enthusiasm they have, but you also recognize that experience
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- Is going to temper a lot of those dreams, not diminish them,
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- Not make them less enthusiastic.
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- So i brought you a passage.
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- It's actually taken from ephesians 1, but i put the
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- Reference to the end of the passage because i didn't want
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- You to be confused by that, i think it's a wonderful
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- Proclamation over our lives together.
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- I'm gonna give you a little clue, right at the end of that,
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- In the last--in verse 6, the last phrase when it says, "he
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- Has freely given us in the one he loves," he's given
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- Us something.
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- That word is used someplace else in the new testament.
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- That's the same word that's used by the angel, when gabriel spoke
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- To mary and said, "greetings, you who are highly favored."
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- That last statement that we're gonna read together is god
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- Saying you're highly favored.
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- It says he's freely given us, some translation says he's
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- Highly favored you.
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- Same word.
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- Did you know that you live in god's favor?
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- Well, i don't feel like it, i smell like sheep.
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- I don't get invited.
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- I'm on the outside.
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- Well, from god's perspective, you are highly favored.
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- Well, could he tell everybody else?
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- You know, the only validation the shepherds had was their own
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- Testimony, some highly excited fellows showed up in
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- That stable.
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- Don't you believe it?
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- Wide-eyed when they got there, and they found what they'd been
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- Told about, do you think there was a little enthusiasm?
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- But they didn't have a video loop to show of the
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- Angelic announcement.
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- It wasn't being corroborated by the mayor of bethlehem, it was
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- Self-affirming, yeah, we saw that, we know we saw that.
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- And i can tell you one thing that's essential for these
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- Breakthroughs is you and i will have to be willing to
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- Believe god.
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- He won't do something to us unless we respond to him by
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- Saying we will follow you, we believe you.
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- The shepherds could have stayed in that shepherd's field and
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- Go, wow, that was some light show!
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- I don't know what was happening.
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- We can't keep drinking.
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- You know, we've known we were right on the edge and we need to
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- Change our behavior because we're losing perspective.
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- Did anybody else see and hear anything?
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- But they didn't stay there, they went to find the stable, and
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- They went to find the king.
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- I brought you a proclamation.
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- You don't have to stand for it, but let's read it together.
- 00:09:23.245 --> 00:09:27.783
- "praise be to the god and father of our lord jesus christ, who's
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- Blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual
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- Blessing in christ.
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- For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be
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- Holy and blameless in his sight.
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- In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through
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- Jesus christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- to the
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- Praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in
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- The one he loves."
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- Did you hear it?
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- It's an invitation almost as unique as the one given to
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- The shepherds.
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- He's blessed us, and you can put your own--you can make it
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- Singular, he's blessed me, or he's blessed you, in the
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- Heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in christ.
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- For he chose you or me, he chose us in him before the
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- Creation of the world, and he chose you to be holy
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- And blameless.
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- Whoa, whoa, well, i'm not either of those, but in christ, i
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- Can be.
- 00:10:37.119 --> 00:10:39.622
- In his love he predestined us.
- 00:10:39.622 --> 00:10:43.893
- He looked across the span of time and said, i choose you to
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- Be adopted as his sons through jesus christ.
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- We had no way into the kingdom other than through jesus.
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- He said, i'm the door.
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- No man comes to the father except by me, and god
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- Predestined you to walk through that door.
- 00:11:00.743 --> 00:11:06.048
- Allen: 2024 has almost slipped past us.
- 00:11:09.919 --> 00:11:13.189
- Thank you for your partnership this year.
- 00:11:13.189 --> 00:11:15.291
- It's been the most remarkable season we've ever known
- 00:11:15.291 --> 00:11:17.693
- Together, and i thank you for your faithful investment of
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- Time, energy, and prayers in our ministry.
- 00:11:21.063 --> 00:11:23.566
- Change is taking place in the earth.
- 00:11:23.566 --> 00:11:25.868
- We're seeing in our own nation, god responded to us with
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- Tremendous mercy and grace.
- 00:11:28.738 --> 00:11:31.307
- We have leaders that are headed to washington dc to enact
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- Changes, to restore a set of values that have brought
- 00:11:34.343 --> 00:11:36.812
- Strength to our nation.
- 00:11:36.812 --> 00:11:38.280
- It's a time of great optimism and hope and anticipation, and i
- 00:11:38.280 --> 00:11:42.251
- Believe that's true in the church as well.
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- Folks, we can't stand on the sidelines and expect somebody
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- Else to be the change.
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- We need the presence of god to emerge in our schools, on our
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- College campuses, back in our churches, and so i think it's a
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- Critical time that we bring the message of the truth of
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- Jesus christ.
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- It's a hopeful message.
- 00:11:59.902 --> 00:12:01.270
- It's a message of wholeness and healing and deliverance and
- 00:12:01.270 --> 00:12:03.839
- Freedom, that we desperately need in our cities, in our
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- Communities, wherever god's people gather.
- 00:12:07.343 --> 00:12:09.912
- Join us, let's be a part of what god is doing in the earth, and
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- We will celebrate his faithfulness to the people of
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- Our generation.
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- Thank you for being a part.
- 00:12:17.720 --> 00:12:20.990
- Female announcer: god has uniquely blessed us, the best is
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- Yet to come.
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- God has heard our prayers, god has delivered us
- 00:12:26.162 --> 00:12:30.166
- From oppression.
- 00:12:30.166 --> 00:12:32.535
- We live in a season of shaking, but together we stand united in
- 00:12:32.535 --> 00:12:38.974
- Heart and purpose to accomplish the will of god in
- 00:12:38.974 --> 00:12:42.278
- Our generation.
- 00:12:42.278 --> 00:12:44.780
- We will not stop.
- 00:12:44.780 --> 00:12:48.851
- Allen: i wanna ask you to make a sacrificial investment in
- 00:12:48.851 --> 00:12:51.620
- Our ministry.
- 00:12:51.620 --> 00:12:52.988
- We have a generous partner who'll match every gift between
- 00:12:52.988 --> 00:12:55.057
- Now and the end of the year.
- 00:12:55.057 --> 00:12:56.425
- We're making plans for the year ahead with a boldness and a
- 00:12:56.425 --> 00:12:59.395
- Courage unlike anything we've done in the past.
- 00:12:59.395 --> 00:13:02.398
- We wanna make as clear a statement for the gospel of
- 00:13:02.398 --> 00:13:05.000
- Jesus christ.
- 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:06.368
- We wanna strengthen the church.
- 00:13:06.368 --> 00:13:08.003
- We want to tell the truth in a way that people can rally
- 00:13:08.003 --> 00:13:11.006
- Around it.
- 00:13:11.006 --> 00:13:12.374
- God is moving in the earth and we intend to participate
- 00:13:12.374 --> 00:13:15.010
- With him.
- 00:13:15.010 --> 00:13:16.345
- I hope you'll join us as we look forward to the new year.
- 00:13:16.345 --> 00:13:19.315
- Thank you in advance for your generous investments in what god
- 00:13:19.315 --> 00:13:22.551
- Is doing.
- 00:13:22.551 --> 00:13:23.886
- God bless you.
- 00:13:23.886 --> 00:13:25.254
- Announcer: as we step into this new season, let's be faithful to
- 00:13:25.254 --> 00:13:28.190
- Seek god.
- 00:13:28.190 --> 00:13:29.725
- Let's make room for him to refine our hearts so we can join
- 00:13:29.725 --> 00:13:33.162
- Him in what he's doing.
- 00:13:33.162 --> 00:13:35.164
- Pastor allen's new 90-day devotional journal called "set
- 00:13:35.164 --> 00:13:39.168
- Apart for his purposes" can help, each day brings a new
- 00:13:39.168 --> 00:13:43.172
- Scripture, teaching, prayer, and a journaling prompt.
- 00:13:43.172 --> 00:13:47.042
- We'll also send custom page markers so you can flag anything
- 00:13:47.042 --> 00:13:50.479
- You want to revisit.
- 00:13:50.479 --> 00:13:52.014
- Request your copy of "set apart for his purposes" when you
- 00:13:52.014 --> 00:13:54.717
- Donate $50 or more today at allenjackson.com
- 00:13:54.717 --> 00:13:59.622
- Or call...
- 00:13:59.622 --> 00:14:06.629
- Allen: i believe god delivered the shepherds from generations
- 00:14:10.866 --> 00:14:16.572
- Of rejection in those fields outside bethlehem that night.
- 00:14:16.572 --> 00:14:22.177
- And i can tell you this rejection is an epidemic in our
- 00:14:22.177 --> 00:14:24.813
- Culture, it's overwhelming.
- 00:14:24.813 --> 00:14:29.351
- And i believe god, if we'll cooperate with him, would bring
- 00:14:29.351 --> 00:14:32.521
- A deliverance to us that's just as dramatic and just as great
- 00:14:32.521 --> 00:14:35.424
- And just--will just as much rewrite our future is what he
- 00:14:35.424 --> 00:14:38.160
- Did for the shepherds because that same king, we're
- 00:14:38.160 --> 00:14:42.798
- Celebrating his birth right now.
- 00:14:42.798 --> 00:14:46.201
- And we may not have to go to the stable in bethlehem to see him,
- 00:14:46.201 --> 00:14:48.871
- But we can have a revelation of jesus that will deliver us from
- 00:14:48.871 --> 00:14:53.876
- That rejection.
- 00:14:53.876 --> 00:14:56.145
- The shepherds knew they were outcast, they knew they were on
- 00:14:56.145 --> 00:14:58.747
- The outside looking in.
- 00:14:58.747 --> 00:15:01.116
- They understood they were considered second class on their
- 00:15:01.116 --> 00:15:04.019
- Best days, that they probably were never going to be welcome,
- 00:15:04.019 --> 00:15:08.257
- They weren't gonna be considered equal, the people that they
- 00:15:08.257 --> 00:15:11.126
- Wanted to embrace them were not going to.
- 00:15:11.126 --> 00:15:15.030
- All of those attitudes are very, very prevalent around us.
- 00:15:15.030 --> 00:15:20.703
- On polite company, we don't talk about it, it's not helpful, but
- 00:15:20.703 --> 00:15:27.609
- It's a reality in our lives.
- 00:15:27.609 --> 00:15:29.111
- The outward expressions of that look a lot like shame and
- 00:15:29.111 --> 00:15:31.647
- Humiliation, things that we carry internally.
- 00:15:31.647 --> 00:15:36.518
- Look, so this isn't something new with us.
- 00:15:36.518 --> 00:15:38.087
- It says that jesus, in hebrews, in order to overcome the cross,
- 00:15:38.087 --> 00:15:42.391
- He had to despise the shame, he had to walk past it.
- 00:15:42.391 --> 00:15:44.927
- He had to overcome it to be condemned to death as a common
- 00:15:44.927 --> 00:15:50.199
- Crimi--common criminal by the romans, by a roman governor, to
- 00:15:50.199 --> 00:15:54.837
- Be stripped naked, beaten almost to death, forced to carry your
- 00:15:54.837 --> 00:15:58.941
- Cross through the streets of the jerusalem for which you will be
- 00:15:58.941 --> 00:16:02.678
- King and be nailed to that cross on a major thoroughfare outside
- 00:16:02.678 --> 00:16:08.751
- The gates of that city so your adversaries can mock you.
- 00:16:08.751 --> 00:16:12.821
- I think we could call that a bad day.
- 00:16:12.821 --> 00:16:17.126
- A lot of shame, but it didn't define jesus's future.
- 00:16:17.126 --> 00:16:23.732
- It's a humiliating day.
- 00:16:23.732 --> 00:16:25.067
- In fact, his enemies said, if you're the son of god, you come
- 00:16:25.067 --> 00:16:28.270
- Down from there.
- 00:16:28.270 --> 00:16:31.006
- They mocked him.
- 00:16:31.006 --> 00:16:32.341
- They said, he healed others, but he can't help
- 00:16:32.341 --> 00:16:33.709
- Himself, humiliating.
- 00:16:33.709 --> 00:16:40.115
- The inward result of that, apart from the spirit of god, apart
- 00:16:40.115 --> 00:16:43.118
- From god's help, is a broken spirit.
- 00:16:43.118 --> 00:16:46.488
- It's a very biblical concept.
- 00:16:46.488 --> 00:16:48.123
- Time restrains me a bit, but proverbs 18:14 says: "a man's
- 00:16:48.123 --> 00:16:52.761
- Spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who
- 00:16:52.761 --> 00:16:55.397
- Can bear?"
- 00:16:55.397 --> 00:16:58.734
- Life tends to orchestrate circumstances, sometimes things
- 00:16:58.734 --> 00:17:01.470
- That we have no control over whatsoever, oftentimes when
- 00:17:01.470 --> 00:17:06.575
- We're too young to have the emotional or the physical
- 00:17:06.575 --> 00:17:08.877
- Maturity to even understand how to protect ourselves.
- 00:17:08.877 --> 00:17:14.383
- Maybe our parents divorce, and no matter what the causative
- 00:17:14.383 --> 00:17:18.954
- Agents of that are, no matter what the outcomes and the
- 00:17:18.954 --> 00:17:21.023
- Repercussions, if you endure that, there's a sense that
- 00:17:21.023 --> 00:17:24.326
- Somehow i'm not accepted in that home in the way i would like
- 00:17:24.326 --> 00:17:27.196
- To be.
- 00:17:27.196 --> 00:17:29.431
- Say, well, that's not the right way to read that, well, that may
- 00:17:29.431 --> 00:17:31.266
- Not be the right way to read that, but that's the reality for
- 00:17:31.266 --> 00:17:33.535
- People that walk through it.
- 00:17:33.535 --> 00:17:38.107
- Or maybe you survived a divorce, no matter how you package it, no
- 00:17:38.107 --> 00:17:44.546
- Matter how you understand that, it wasn't the original plan, it
- 00:17:44.546 --> 00:17:47.082
- Wasn't the goal, the objective, the desire, it wasn't the target
- 00:17:47.082 --> 00:17:49.885
- On the wall, i hope we can get married and live together for
- 00:17:49.885 --> 00:17:52.354
- Three years and then tear this thing asunder, and it feels a
- 00:17:52.354 --> 00:17:58.827
- Great deal like rejection.
- 00:17:58.827 --> 00:18:02.231
- Proverbs 15:13 says: "a happy heart makes the face cheerful,
- 00:18:02.231 --> 00:18:05.667
- But a heartache crushes the spirit."
- 00:18:05.667 --> 00:18:14.343
- I gave you some really simple biblical principles.
- 00:18:14.343 --> 00:18:18.780
- I'll touch them--we'll come back and look at them in more
- 00:18:18.780 --> 00:18:20.482
- Detail, but let me give them to you.
- 00:18:20.482 --> 00:18:24.419
- You see, there's a pathway out from under this to know that you
- 00:18:24.419 --> 00:18:27.856
- Are precious, accepted, and valuable in the sight of god.
- 00:18:27.856 --> 00:18:34.763
- Life brings rejection.
- 00:18:34.763 --> 00:18:36.798
- Nobody gets through without it, nobody.
- 00:18:36.798 --> 00:18:41.637
- One of the great lies the devil will tell you is that yours is
- 00:18:41.637 --> 00:18:44.206
- Worse than somebody else's.
- 00:18:44.206 --> 00:18:48.143
- Your iq was such that you weren't at the top of your
- 00:18:48.143 --> 00:18:50.946
- Class, and it doesn't take too long to figure that out.
- 00:18:50.946 --> 00:18:58.053
- Or your physical gifts and athletic abilities, maybe that
- 00:18:58.053 --> 00:19:02.591
- Wasn't your great strength and you weren't gonna be the first
- 00:19:02.591 --> 00:19:04.893
- One selected for the team.
- 00:19:04.893 --> 00:19:07.362
- Nobody wanted you to travel, except home.
- 00:19:07.362 --> 00:19:10.499
- Or maybe god gave you the ability to see the world in a
- 00:19:13.702 --> 00:19:16.305
- More creative way, but it left you on the outside more
- 00:19:16.305 --> 00:19:19.508
- Frequently than you wanted it to be.
- 00:19:19.508 --> 00:19:21.877
- The reasons are as diverse as we are people, the outcome is we
- 00:19:21.877 --> 00:19:25.881
- Feel that rejection.
- 00:19:25.881 --> 00:19:27.649
- Here's the challenge: because evil exists, and evil by
- 00:19:27.649 --> 00:19:31.620
- Definition isn't fair, when you're exposed to those kind of
- 00:19:31.620 --> 00:19:35.390
- Wounds, evil will take advantage of it.
- 00:19:35.390 --> 00:19:37.793
- And you can have not just your own personal wound, not only the
- 00:19:40.829 --> 00:19:43.665
- Suffering that comes from that and the trauma that comes from
- 00:19:43.665 --> 00:19:46.134
- It, you can get an unhealthy spirit that will take advantage
- 00:19:46.134 --> 00:19:50.672
- Of that and torment you with the rejection.
- 00:19:50.672 --> 00:19:55.143
- So if you would like to be free, there's some things we'll have
- 00:19:55.143 --> 00:19:59.081
- To do.
- 00:19:59.081 --> 00:20:00.415
- We have to forgive, you'll have to forgive.
- 00:20:00.415 --> 00:20:04.953
- You may have to forgive your parents.
- 00:20:04.953 --> 00:20:07.656
- They may be gone, but you can still forgive them.
- 00:20:07.656 --> 00:20:09.858
- You can hate people that are dead.
- 00:20:09.858 --> 00:20:11.193
- Did you know that?
- 00:20:11.193 --> 00:20:13.095
- We have to forgive.
- 00:20:13.095 --> 00:20:14.463
- We're not saying that what happened was right or justified
- 00:20:14.463 --> 00:20:16.465
- Or excusable or they did their best.
- 00:20:16.465 --> 00:20:19.534
- Oftentimes, people don't do their best and we suffer because
- 00:20:19.534 --> 00:20:21.837
- Of that.
- 00:20:21.837 --> 00:20:23.205
- Forgiveness is not a validation of their behavior, forgiveness
- 00:20:23.205 --> 00:20:25.707
- Is canceling the debt.
- 00:20:25.707 --> 00:20:27.042
- You don't owe me anything, i set you free because i wanna
- 00:20:27.042 --> 00:20:29.945
- Be free.
- 00:20:29.945 --> 00:20:32.247
- Forgiveness begins--it is as a decision of your will.
- 00:20:32.247 --> 00:20:36.218
- And if you're conscious of a wound like that--and you may
- 00:20:36.218 --> 00:20:38.920
- Think this is silly, this is silly.
- 00:20:38.920 --> 00:20:43.225
- It's not silly, it's real.
- 00:20:43.225 --> 00:20:44.593
- I've sat with hundreds and hundreds of people.
- 00:20:44.593 --> 00:20:47.629
- Maybe your parents were in a difficult circumstance and they
- 00:20:47.629 --> 00:20:50.065
- Gave you up for adoption, and you had wonderful parents, gave
- 00:20:50.065 --> 00:20:53.735
- You every expression of love and kindness and support and
- 00:20:53.735 --> 00:20:56.038
- Affirmation, there's still a rejection that comes.
- 00:20:56.038 --> 00:21:02.010
- Just as an expression of faith say, i forgive, i forgive.
- 00:21:02.010 --> 00:21:09.251
- Mark 11 says: "when you stand praying, if you hold anything
- 00:21:09.251 --> 00:21:12.888
- Against anyone, forgive him."
- 00:21:12.888 --> 00:21:14.256
- You can do it while you're standing there, you don't have
- 00:21:14.256 --> 00:21:15.791
- To have a six-week seminar, you don't have to fast and pray for
- 00:21:15.791 --> 00:21:17.659
- Three months.
- 00:21:17.659 --> 00:21:18.994
- It's a decision, your emotions will catch up.
- 00:21:18.994 --> 00:21:21.196
- Secondly, you gotta lay down the baggage of rejection: the
- 00:21:21.196 --> 00:21:23.465
- Bitterness, the hatred, the anger, the resentment, the
- 00:21:23.465 --> 00:21:25.467
- Rebellion, all the things that come with that.
- 00:21:25.467 --> 00:21:28.870
- You know, it's illogical, it doesn't make sense.
- 00:21:28.870 --> 00:21:30.739
- If you have a parent and they die when a child is young or
- 00:21:30.739 --> 00:21:34.776
- Before you've--you're prepared to say goodbye to them, it feels
- 00:21:34.776 --> 00:21:37.145
- Like rejection.
- 00:21:37.145 --> 00:21:38.513
- You go, that's not logical, i didn't say it was logical, i'm
- 00:21:38.513 --> 00:21:40.982
- Telling you, it reads that way and we often respond
- 00:21:40.982 --> 00:21:47.255
- With rebellion.
- 00:21:47.255 --> 00:21:51.760
- We may be mad at god, why did he do that?
- 00:21:51.760 --> 00:21:53.662
- Why didn't he do something else?
- 00:21:53.662 --> 00:21:55.797
- You have to be willing to lay down that baggage.
- 00:21:55.797 --> 00:21:58.700
- Some of us are defined by our anger.
- 00:21:58.700 --> 00:22:01.837
- You're defined by your rebellion.
- 00:22:01.837 --> 00:22:04.373
- I won't give in, i will not give--you'll have to, if you
- 00:22:04.373 --> 00:22:10.812
- Want to be free.
- 00:22:10.812 --> 00:22:15.217
- Some of us said, i'll never be hurt again, i will not
- 00:22:15.217 --> 00:22:17.452
- Allow it.
- 00:22:17.452 --> 00:22:18.787
- Folks, we live in a broken world.
- 00:22:18.787 --> 00:22:25.360
- The third is to understand you're accepted in christ.
- 00:22:25.360 --> 00:22:28.964
- Now, this is an act of faith.
- 00:22:28.964 --> 00:22:30.899
- The shepherds had to believe what they'd seen was real,
- 00:22:30.899 --> 00:22:33.802
- They'd never seen a--they'd never had an angel show up and
- 00:22:33.802 --> 00:22:37.272
- Talk to them before.
- 00:22:37.272 --> 00:22:39.908
- Ephesians 1 says: "to the praise of the glory of his
- 00:22:39.908 --> 00:22:42.277
- Grace, he's made us accepted in the beloved."
- 00:22:42.277 --> 00:22:46.047
- So here's the deal, we read it in that earlier passage
- 00:22:46.047 --> 00:22:48.483
- In ephesians.
- 00:22:48.483 --> 00:22:49.818
- If god chose me, i'll get over it if you don't.
- 00:22:49.818 --> 00:22:57.259
- If god said i'm fearfully and wonderfully made and you call me
- 00:22:57.259 --> 00:23:00.061
- Ugly, you have a problem.
- 00:23:00.061 --> 00:23:08.770
- I choose to believe that, it's his affirmation i want.
- 00:23:08.770 --> 00:23:14.843
- Everybody ain't gonna like us.
- 00:23:14.843 --> 00:23:17.813
- If god says i'm highly favored, y'all are missing out, i choose
- 00:23:17.813 --> 00:23:23.585
- To believe that.
- 00:23:23.585 --> 00:23:25.921
- Number four, you have to accept yourself.
- 00:23:25.921 --> 00:23:29.157
- Ephesians 2 says you're god's workmanship, created in christ
- 00:23:29.157 --> 00:23:33.395
- Jesus to do good things.
- 00:23:33.395 --> 00:23:35.831
- God made me.
- 00:23:35.831 --> 00:23:37.866
- Now, i thought he should have made me 6'4" with a lot of lean
- 00:23:37.866 --> 00:23:40.702
- Muscle mass, he made me slightly shorter and a little fluffier.
- 00:23:40.702 --> 00:23:50.345
- And the last one there is you find your place in the body of
- 00:23:50.345 --> 00:23:52.581
- Christ, and i don't mean the place you want.
- 00:23:52.581 --> 00:23:57.786
- Folks, we get messed up on this.
- 00:23:57.786 --> 00:23:59.154
- We take our gifts test and we think, well, you know, i'm
- 00:23:59.154 --> 00:24:00.755
- Qualified, stop.
- 00:24:00.755 --> 00:24:03.758
- I wanna be included in the people of god, i will not stand
- 00:24:03.758 --> 00:24:08.396
- Outside of them.
- 00:24:08.396 --> 00:24:10.765
- As uncomfortable and as messy as it is, i'm gonna make the
- 00:24:10.765 --> 00:24:14.169
- Journey with them, i want to be counted with them.
- 00:24:14.169 --> 00:24:20.408
- For good or for ill, i intend to be identified as a part of the
- 00:24:20.408 --> 00:24:24.779
- People of god.
- 00:24:24.779 --> 00:24:26.915
- It's important to me, so i will present, i will show up
- 00:24:26.915 --> 00:24:29.417
- At church.
- 00:24:29.417 --> 00:24:30.785
- I didn't like church.
- 00:24:30.785 --> 00:24:32.120
- My spiritual formation didn't take place in church.
- 00:24:32.120 --> 00:24:34.422
- My spiritual breakthroughs, the initial ones as a young person,
- 00:24:34.422 --> 00:24:36.958
- Didn't happen in church.
- 00:24:36.958 --> 00:24:38.326
- In fact, the churches i was affiliated with resisted it,
- 00:24:38.326 --> 00:24:41.830
- Discouraged it.
- 00:24:41.830 --> 00:24:43.198
- I'm not saying they all do that, but that was my experiences.
- 00:24:43.198 --> 00:24:45.567
- And when i imagined the--when i understood the lord was inviting
- 00:24:45.567 --> 00:24:48.637
- Me to serve in the church, i thought, you gotta be kidding
- 00:24:48.637 --> 00:24:50.639
- Me, they didn't want me and i feel the same way.
- 00:24:50.639 --> 00:24:56.711
- But when i understood jesus to say he was building the church
- 00:24:56.711 --> 00:25:01.016
- And hell wouldn't stop it, the greatest privilege of my life.
- 00:25:01.016 --> 00:25:04.586
- I'll mow the grass, clean the bathroom, you show me how
- 00:25:04.586 --> 00:25:08.223
- To help.
- 00:25:08.223 --> 00:25:11.092
- I don't intend to stand still, be inert, celebrate past
- 00:25:11.092 --> 00:25:15.764
- Victories, i intend to be caught serving my king.
- 00:25:15.764 --> 00:25:24.472
- Doesn't eliminate you from the realm of rejection, it
- 00:25:28.577 --> 00:25:33.315
- Eliminates the power of rejection to define your future.
- 00:25:33.315 --> 00:25:38.587
- You'll face rejection.
- 00:25:38.587 --> 00:25:39.921
- There'll be people who won't like you, they won't agree with
- 00:25:39.921 --> 00:25:41.723
- What you say, they won't like what you think; whatever, the
- 00:25:41.723 --> 00:25:46.528
- List is long.
- 00:25:46.528 --> 00:25:48.363
- The pain is not removed or the opportunity, but there is a
- 00:25:48.363 --> 00:25:52.500
- Pathway to overcome rejection, you don't have to spend your
- 00:25:52.500 --> 00:25:55.704
- Life on the outside.
- 00:25:55.704 --> 00:25:58.173
- You are incredibly valuable to god.
- 00:25:58.173 --> 00:26:02.444
- You have a savior.
- 00:26:02.444 --> 00:26:05.914
- You are highly favored.
- 00:26:05.914 --> 00:26:08.817
- You have been included in the court of the king, you have
- 00:26:08.817 --> 00:26:14.923
- Been invited.
- 00:26:14.923 --> 00:26:21.363
- I brought you one more prayer.
- 00:26:25.033 --> 00:26:26.368
- We can stand with this, and we'll work on this some more in
- 00:26:26.368 --> 00:26:28.103
- Another setting.
- 00:26:28.103 --> 00:26:30.872
- Breakthrough day for shepherds.
- 00:26:33.208 --> 00:26:37.412
- It's the last prayer in your outlines, let's read
- 00:26:41.449 --> 00:26:43.084
- It together.
- 00:26:43.084 --> 00:26:44.419
- God, i thank you that you love me.
- 00:26:44.419 --> 00:26:46.955
- That you gave jesus, your son, to die on my behalf.
- 00:26:46.955 --> 00:26:51.426
- That he bore my sins, that he took my rejection, that he took
- 00:26:51.426 --> 00:26:56.431
- My penalty.
- 00:26:56.431 --> 00:26:57.866
- Because i come to you through him, i am not unwanted.
- 00:26:57.866 --> 00:27:02.470
- I am not excluded.
- 00:27:02.470 --> 00:27:04.372
- I belong to the family of god.
- 00:27:04.372 --> 00:27:07.042
- I belong to the best family in the universe.
- 00:27:07.042 --> 00:27:10.011
- Heaven is my home.
- 00:27:10.011 --> 00:27:11.946
- Thank you!
- 00:27:11.946 --> 00:27:13.448
- Amen, lord bless you.
- 00:27:13.448 --> 00:27:16.885
- ♪♪♪
- 00:27:19.054 --> 00:27:19.054