Allen Jackson - When God Chooses You

December 28, 2024 | S24:E5207

Pastor Allen Jackson's mission is to help people become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.

Closed captions

Show Timecode
Allen Jackson Ministries | Allen Jackson - When God Chooses You | December 28, 2024
  • ...
  • 00:00:00.633 --> 00:00:01.351
  • ♪♪♪
  • 00:00:02.986 --> 00:00:03.420
  • Allen jackson: now, i began a new series in a previous
  • 00:00:07.557 --> 00:00:09.426
  • Session, i wanna continue it, the general theme
  • 00:00:09.426 --> 00:00:12.395
  • Is breakthroughs.
  • 00:00:12.395 --> 00:00:14.664
  • I'm of the opinion that in the november election, god showed
  • 00:00:14.664 --> 00:00:17.834
  • Us mercy.
  • 00:00:17.834 --> 00:00:20.036
  • It didn't fix our problems, but across the nation, i saw
  • 00:00:20.036 --> 00:00:24.174
  • Multiplied millions of people raise their hand and say we need
  • 00:00:24.174 --> 00:00:27.377
  • A new direction.
  • 00:00:27.377 --> 00:00:29.145
  • I don't imagine that the people that we're sending to office can
  • 00:00:29.145 --> 00:00:32.015
  • Do that.
  • 00:00:32.015 --> 00:00:34.384
  • I don't believe they can do that unless there is a heart change
  • 00:00:34.384 --> 00:00:37.687
  • In the people of this nation.
  • 00:00:37.687 --> 00:00:40.757
  • I don't think they will succeed.
  • 00:00:40.757 --> 00:00:42.725
  • I think no matter how zealous or talented or determined or
  • 00:00:42.725 --> 00:00:45.795
  • Focused, i think without an ongoing heart change in the
  • 00:00:45.795 --> 00:00:49.899
  • People in this nation, we will revert back to our old habits.
  • 00:00:49.899 --> 00:00:55.538
  • That--that's not just an opinion, it's informed by a bit
  • 00:00:55.538 --> 00:00:58.174
  • Of experience.
  • 00:00:58.174 --> 00:00:59.976
  • The current administration was elected previously, and it only
  • 00:00:59.976 --> 00:01:02.979
  • Took six weeks after they left office for what they had put in
  • 00:01:02.979 --> 00:01:05.648
  • Place to be undone, and what they will go do is not
  • 00:01:05.648 --> 00:01:10.787
  • Sustainable unless there's a corresponding or even greater
  • 00:01:10.787 --> 00:01:13.723
  • Heart change by the people in our nation.
  • 00:01:13.723 --> 00:01:16.726
  • So that means we have an assignment in this season to be
  • 00:01:16.726 --> 00:01:19.395
  • Instigators of change, just as certainly as we would like them
  • 00:01:19.395 --> 00:01:21.931
  • To be.
  • 00:01:21.931 --> 00:01:23.766
  • If the election was disappointing to you, i would
  • 00:01:23.766 --> 00:01:28.037
  • Encourage you.
  • 00:01:28.037 --> 00:01:29.372
  • We still need an opportunity for a nation that will choose
  • 00:01:29.372 --> 00:01:32.142
  • Godliness and righteousness and holiness.
  • 00:01:32.142 --> 00:01:35.745
  • And whether you view the election as a victory or a great
  • 00:01:35.745 --> 00:01:39.349
  • Defeat, as christ followers, we should share that objective and
  • 00:01:39.349 --> 00:01:44.087
  • Find a way forward in that.
  • 00:01:44.087 --> 00:01:45.421
  • So it brought me to this idea of a breakthrough.
  • 00:01:45.421 --> 00:01:47.323
  • I have a friend in another state that i have been--i interact
  • 00:01:47.323 --> 00:01:50.426
  • With from time to time, and we've been processing this
  • 00:01:50.426 --> 00:01:53.429
  • Need--notion because there was a need for some
  • 00:01:53.429 --> 00:01:55.765
  • Significant breakthroughs.
  • 00:01:55.765 --> 00:01:57.967
  • So i've been living with it for a while, and i wanna take a few
  • 00:01:57.967 --> 00:02:00.403
  • Sessions and then pull some characters that we know from
  • 00:02:00.403 --> 00:02:03.039
  • Scripture and highlight the breakthrough that their life
  • 00:02:03.039 --> 00:02:05.141
  • Represents to see if there's some lessons that you and i can
  • 00:02:05.141 --> 00:02:07.977
  • Learn from those places where we need a breakthrough in our
  • 00:02:07.977 --> 00:02:10.680
  • Lives, an intervention from god.
  • 00:02:10.680 --> 00:02:13.683
  • That's the target, okay?
  • 00:02:13.683 --> 00:02:16.085
  • I brought you a scripture, it's luke chapter 1 and verse 30.
  • 00:02:16.085 --> 00:02:19.389
  • This is the angels visiting mary, you know the story.
  • 00:02:19.389 --> 00:02:22.325
  • "the angel said to her, 'don't be afraid, mary, you have found
  • 00:02:22.325 --> 00:02:27.130
  • Favor with god.
  • 00:02:27.130 --> 00:02:28.464
  • And you'll be with child and give birth to a son and you're
  • 00:02:28.464 --> 00:02:30.567
  • To give him the name jesus.
  • 00:02:30.567 --> 00:02:32.969
  • And have a nice day.'"
  • 00:02:32.969 --> 00:02:37.507
  • Now, we read that from the distance of history and we
  • 00:02:37.507 --> 00:02:39.909
  • Think, oh, isn't that sweet.
  • 00:02:39.909 --> 00:02:42.212
  • If you were the recipient of the message, sweet is probably not
  • 00:02:42.212 --> 00:02:45.048
  • The word you would have used as the descriptor.
  • 00:02:45.048 --> 00:02:48.351
  • It's a breakthrough point.
  • 00:02:48.351 --> 00:02:49.786
  • It's an intervention.
  • 00:02:49.786 --> 00:02:51.120
  • It's initiated by god, it wasn't initiated by mary.
  • 00:02:51.120 --> 00:02:54.057
  • She didn't raise her head and say, i have an idea, an angel
  • 00:02:54.057 --> 00:02:59.195
  • Arrived with a message.
  • 00:02:59.195 --> 00:03:01.464
  • So when i talk about breakthroughs, i wanna talk
  • 00:03:01.464 --> 00:03:04.033
  • About something in that pattern.
  • 00:03:04.033 --> 00:03:05.401
  • I don't imagine it's something that we've initiated.
  • 00:03:05.401 --> 00:03:07.804
  • We're not the causative agent in this.
  • 00:03:07.804 --> 00:03:10.807
  • We didn't light the fuse.
  • 00:03:10.807 --> 00:03:13.376
  • It's god's intervention.
  • 00:03:13.376 --> 00:03:15.545
  • Now, our responses make all the difference, and i believe
  • 00:03:15.545 --> 00:03:19.482
  • There's a great deal we can learn that will either catalyze
  • 00:03:19.482 --> 00:03:22.085
  • Those responses or we will forfeit the opportunities,
  • 00:03:22.085 --> 00:03:25.788
  • Because they typically require a response from us.
  • 00:03:25.788 --> 00:03:28.124
  • Mary had to say at the end of that announcement, i'm in, may
  • 00:03:28.124 --> 00:03:31.861
  • It be to me as you have said, was her answer, and you and i
  • 00:03:31.861 --> 00:03:35.698
  • Will have to be aware enough to do that.
  • 00:03:35.698 --> 00:03:37.367
  • So, breakthroughs can wear many labels.
  • 00:03:37.367 --> 00:03:39.569
  • It can be a point of deliverance, a revelation, an
  • 00:03:39.569 --> 00:03:41.638
  • Insight, perhaps it's understanding that you've
  • 00:03:41.638 --> 00:03:44.274
  • Needed, a redirection of a behavior or a trajectory of
  • 00:03:44.274 --> 00:03:47.210
  • Your life.
  • 00:03:47.210 --> 00:03:48.945
  • It's when god's purposes and plans are initiated on our
  • 00:03:48.945 --> 00:03:51.714
  • Behalf, maybe it's when something's brought to
  • 00:03:51.714 --> 00:03:54.050
  • Completion that we couldn't seem to get finished.
  • 00:03:54.050 --> 00:03:59.656
  • Are you really ready for a breakthrough or do you just want
  • 00:03:59.656 --> 00:04:01.891
  • Your way?
  • 00:04:01.891 --> 00:04:05.194
  • Well, keep smiling.
  • 00:04:05.194 --> 00:04:08.231
  • I wanna use the shepherds and the christmas story as a bit of
  • 00:04:08.231 --> 00:04:10.700
  • An example, i think they help us understand this.
  • 00:04:10.700 --> 00:04:13.469
  • The shepherds are chosen by god.
  • 00:04:13.469 --> 00:04:16.406
  • I don't believe they're ever gonna be the same after that
  • 00:04:16.406 --> 00:04:18.341
  • Night in those fields outside bethlehem.
  • 00:04:18.341 --> 00:04:21.944
  • Nevertheless, the shepherds: "there were shepherds living out
  • 00:04:21.944 --> 00:04:27.083
  • On the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks
  • 00:04:27.083 --> 00:04:29.385
  • At night.
  • 00:04:29.385 --> 00:04:30.753
  • And an angel of the lord appeared to them, and the glory
  • 00:04:30.753 --> 00:04:32.422
  • Of the lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
  • 00:04:32.422 --> 00:04:34.357
  • And the angel said to them, 'do not be afraid.
  • 00:04:34.357 --> 00:04:36.292
  • I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all
  • 00:04:36.292 --> 00:04:39.329
  • The people.
  • 00:04:39.329 --> 00:04:40.763
  • Today in the town of david a savior has been born to you; he
  • 00:04:40.763 --> 00:04:43.132
  • Is christ the lord.
  • 00:04:43.132 --> 00:04:44.500
  • And this will be a sign to you: you'll find a baby wrapped in
  • 00:04:44.500 --> 00:04:46.369
  • Cloths and lying in a manger.'"
  • 00:04:46.369 --> 00:04:47.737
  • We've all learned that passage from charlie brown's christmas.
  • 00:04:47.737 --> 00:04:53.309
  • "and suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with
  • 00:04:53.309 --> 00:04:55.978
  • The angel, praising god and saying, 'glory to god in the
  • 00:04:55.978 --> 00:04:58.448
  • Highest, on earth, peace to men on whom his favor rests.'
  • 00:04:58.448 --> 00:05:02.985
  • And when the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the
  • 00:05:02.985 --> 00:05:05.121
  • Shepherds said to one another, 'let's go to bethlehem and see
  • 00:05:05.121 --> 00:05:07.290
  • This thing that has happened, which the lord has told
  • 00:05:07.290 --> 00:05:09.425
  • Us about.'
  • 00:05:09.425 --> 00:05:10.960
  • So they hurried off and found mary and joseph, and the baby,
  • 00:05:10.960 --> 00:05:13.429
  • Who was lying in the manger.
  • 00:05:13.429 --> 00:05:15.331
  • When they'd seen him, they spread the word concerning what
  • 00:05:15.331 --> 00:05:17.300
  • Had been told about this child, and all who heard it were amazed
  • 00:05:17.300 --> 00:05:20.770
  • At what the shepherd said to them.
  • 00:05:20.770 --> 00:05:22.105
  • But mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in
  • 00:05:22.105 --> 00:05:24.474
  • Her heart.
  • 00:05:24.474 --> 00:05:25.908
  • The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising god for
  • 00:05:25.908 --> 00:05:28.745
  • All the things they'd heard and seen, which were just as they
  • 00:05:28.745 --> 00:05:31.013
  • Had been told."
  • 00:05:31.013 --> 00:05:32.515
  • That's a very familiar passage, it's not news to any of us, but
  • 00:05:32.515 --> 00:05:36.886
  • I would--i wanna submit to you, it's a part--it is a
  • 00:05:36.886 --> 00:05:39.055
  • Breakthrough, it's a part of a much larger breakthrough.
  • 00:05:39.055 --> 00:05:42.759
  • And that's one thing i can tell you, that frequently when god
  • 00:05:42.759 --> 00:05:44.994
  • Brings a breakthrough into your life, he'll do it in the lives
  • 00:05:44.994 --> 00:05:48.264
  • Of other people that collectively, his purposes can
  • 00:05:48.264 --> 00:05:50.600
  • Take a very significant step forward.
  • 00:05:50.600 --> 00:05:54.470
  • But i brought you a proclamation because i wanna be certain that
  • 00:05:54.470 --> 00:05:57.774
  • As we walk through this study together, that we give to god
  • 00:05:57.774 --> 00:06:02.211
  • These repeated invitations for his breakthroughs in our lives.
  • 00:06:02.211 --> 00:06:06.382
  • There are those that we're aware of, that we know we need, or we
  • 00:06:06.382 --> 00:06:09.285
  • Think we need and that we're asking for.
  • 00:06:09.285 --> 00:06:11.220
  • And i don't believe that's wrong, i think in most cases
  • 00:06:11.220 --> 00:06:13.656
  • It's appropriate, but i'm even more convinced that god has
  • 00:06:13.656 --> 00:06:17.059
  • Breakthroughs for us that we don't even know we need, we lack
  • 00:06:17.059 --> 00:06:21.330
  • The wisdom or the experience to truly ask for.
  • 00:06:21.330 --> 00:06:25.234
  • If you've had enough birthdays that you've gathered a bit of
  • 00:06:25.234 --> 00:06:27.837
  • Life experience and you have the marks to show for it, sometimes
  • 00:06:27.837 --> 00:06:31.240
  • When you interact with younger people and you hear the things
  • 00:06:31.240 --> 00:06:33.676
  • That they're dreaming about and chasing, you're grateful for the
  • 00:06:33.676 --> 00:06:36.045
  • Enthusiasm they have, but you also recognize that experience
  • 00:06:36.045 --> 00:06:42.718
  • Is going to temper a lot of those dreams, not diminish them,
  • 00:06:42.718 --> 00:06:46.289
  • Not make them less enthusiastic.
  • 00:06:46.289 --> 00:06:50.193
  • So i brought you a passage.
  • 00:06:50.193 --> 00:06:51.527
  • It's actually taken from ephesians 1, but i put the
  • 00:06:51.527 --> 00:06:53.429
  • Reference to the end of the passage because i didn't want
  • 00:06:53.429 --> 00:06:56.065
  • You to be confused by that, i think it's a wonderful
  • 00:06:56.065 --> 00:06:58.034
  • Proclamation over our lives together.
  • 00:06:58.034 --> 00:07:01.671
  • I'm gonna give you a little clue, right at the end of that,
  • 00:07:01.671 --> 00:07:03.573
  • In the last--in verse 6, the last phrase when it says, "he
  • 00:07:03.573 --> 00:07:07.376
  • Has freely given us in the one he loves," he's given
  • 00:07:07.376 --> 00:07:10.713
  • Us something.
  • 00:07:10.713 --> 00:07:12.648
  • That word is used someplace else in the new testament.
  • 00:07:12.648 --> 00:07:15.351
  • That's the same word that's used by the angel, when gabriel spoke
  • 00:07:15.351 --> 00:07:18.554
  • To mary and said, "greetings, you who are highly favored."
  • 00:07:18.554 --> 00:07:24.427
  • That last statement that we're gonna read together is god
  • 00:07:24.427 --> 00:07:27.630
  • Saying you're highly favored.
  • 00:07:27.630 --> 00:07:28.965
  • It says he's freely given us, some translation says he's
  • 00:07:28.965 --> 00:07:31.167
  • Highly favored you.
  • 00:07:31.167 --> 00:07:33.135
  • Same word.
  • 00:07:33.135 --> 00:07:34.971
  • Did you know that you live in god's favor?
  • 00:07:34.971 --> 00:07:37.740
  • Well, i don't feel like it, i smell like sheep.
  • 00:07:37.740 --> 00:07:43.546
  • I don't get invited.
  • 00:07:43.546 --> 00:07:46.649
  • I'm on the outside.
  • 00:07:46.649 --> 00:07:50.152
  • Well, from god's perspective, you are highly favored.
  • 00:07:50.152 --> 00:07:55.258
  • Well, could he tell everybody else?
  • 00:07:55.258 --> 00:07:59.195
  • You know, the only validation the shepherds had was their own
  • 00:07:59.195 --> 00:08:01.998
  • Testimony, some highly excited fellows showed up in
  • 00:08:01.998 --> 00:08:07.303
  • That stable.
  • 00:08:07.303 --> 00:08:09.472
  • Don't you believe it?
  • 00:08:09.472 --> 00:08:11.541
  • Wide-eyed when they got there, and they found what they'd been
  • 00:08:11.541 --> 00:08:14.777
  • Told about, do you think there was a little enthusiasm?
  • 00:08:14.777 --> 00:08:19.649
  • But they didn't have a video loop to show of the
  • 00:08:19.649 --> 00:08:22.118
  • Angelic announcement.
  • 00:08:22.118 --> 00:08:26.222
  • It wasn't being corroborated by the mayor of bethlehem, it was
  • 00:08:26.222 --> 00:08:31.727
  • Self-affirming, yeah, we saw that, we know we saw that.
  • 00:08:31.727 --> 00:08:36.098
  • And i can tell you one thing that's essential for these
  • 00:08:36.098 --> 00:08:38.467
  • Breakthroughs is you and i will have to be willing to
  • 00:08:38.467 --> 00:08:40.670
  • Believe god.
  • 00:08:40.670 --> 00:08:43.272
  • He won't do something to us unless we respond to him by
  • 00:08:43.272 --> 00:08:47.376
  • Saying we will follow you, we believe you.
  • 00:08:47.376 --> 00:08:52.748
  • The shepherds could have stayed in that shepherd's field and
  • 00:08:52.748 --> 00:08:54.984
  • Go, wow, that was some light show!
  • 00:08:54.984 --> 00:08:58.487
  • I don't know what was happening.
  • 00:08:58.487 --> 00:09:00.056
  • We can't keep drinking.
  • 00:09:00.056 --> 00:09:04.193
  • You know, we've known we were right on the edge and we need to
  • 00:09:04.193 --> 00:09:06.829
  • Change our behavior because we're losing perspective.
  • 00:09:06.829 --> 00:09:09.198
  • Did anybody else see and hear anything?
  • 00:09:09.198 --> 00:09:13.536
  • But they didn't stay there, they went to find the stable, and
  • 00:09:13.536 --> 00:09:18.908
  • They went to find the king.
  • 00:09:18.908 --> 00:09:21.877
  • I brought you a proclamation.
  • 00:09:21.877 --> 00:09:23.245
  • 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
  • 00:09:27.783 --> 00:09:32.388
  • Blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual
  • 00:09:32.388 --> 00:09:35.791
  • Blessing in christ.
  • 00:09:35.791 --> 00:09:37.493
  • For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be
  • 00:09:37.493 --> 00:09:42.031
  • Holy and blameless in his sight.
  • 00:09:42.031 --> 00:09:44.967
  • In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through
  • 00:09:44.967 --> 00:09:49.505
  • Jesus christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- to the
  • 00:09:49.505 --> 00:09:54.143
  • Praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in
  • 00:09:54.143 --> 00:09:59.315
  • The one he loves."
  • 00:09:59.315 --> 00:10:01.150
  • Did you hear it?
  • 00:10:01.150 --> 00:10:03.219
  • It's an invitation almost as unique as the one given to
  • 00:10:03.219 --> 00:10:05.921
  • The shepherds.
  • 00:10:05.921 --> 00:10:07.356
  • He's blessed us, and you can put your own--you can make it
  • 00:10:07.356 --> 00:10:10.993
  • Singular, he's blessed me, or he's blessed you, in the
  • 00:10:10.993 --> 00:10:15.097
  • Heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in christ.
  • 00:10:15.097 --> 00:10:18.100
  • For he chose you or me, he chose us in him before the
  • 00:10:18.100 --> 00:10:25.174
  • Creation of the world, and he chose you to be holy
  • 00:10:25.174 --> 00:10:29.245
  • And blameless.
  • 00:10:29.245 --> 00:10:31.580
  • Whoa, whoa, well, i'm not either of those, but in christ, i
  • 00:10:31.580 --> 00:10:37.119
  • 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
  • 00:10:43.893 --> 00:10:50.733
  • Be adopted as his sons through jesus christ.
  • 00:10:50.733 --> 00:10:53.569
  • We had no way into the kingdom other than through jesus.
  • 00:10:53.569 --> 00:10:56.739
  • He said, i'm the door.
  • 00:10:56.739 --> 00:10:58.107
  • No man comes to the father except by me, and god
  • 00:10:58.107 --> 00:11:00.743
  • 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
  • 00:11:17.693 --> 00:11:21.063
  • 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
  • 00:11:25.868 --> 00:11:28.738
  • Tremendous mercy and grace.
  • 00:11:28.738 --> 00:11:31.307
  • We have leaders that are headed to washington dc to enact
  • 00:11:31.307 --> 00:11:34.343
  • 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.
  • 00:11:42.251 --> 00:11:44.286
  • Folks, we can't stand on the sidelines and expect somebody
  • 00:11:44.286 --> 00:11:47.089
  • Else to be the change.
  • 00:11:47.089 --> 00:11:48.824
  • We need the presence of god to emerge in our schools, on our
  • 00:11:48.824 --> 00:11:51.927
  • College campuses, back in our churches, and so i think it's a
  • 00:11:51.927 --> 00:11:56.098
  • Critical time that we bring the message of the truth of
  • 00:11:56.098 --> 00:11:58.567
  • Jesus christ.
  • 00:11:58.567 --> 00:11:59.902
  • 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
  • 00:12:03.839 --> 00:12:07.343
  • 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
  • 00:12:09.912 --> 00:12:13.582
  • We will celebrate his faithfulness to the people of
  • 00:12:13.582 --> 00:12:16.352
  • Our generation.
  • 00:12:16.352 --> 00:12:17.720
  • Thank you for being a part.
  • 00:12:17.720 --> 00:12:20.990
  • Female announcer: god has uniquely blessed us, the best is
  • 00:12:20.990 --> 00:12:24.260
  • Yet to come.
  • 00:12:24.260 --> 00:12:26.162
  • 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