Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast - Are We Seeing Signs of Revival? [Featuring John Amanchukwu, Rob McCoy, Gary Hamrick & George Grant]

Episode Date: September 26, 2025

Do you have the courage to step into culture and proclaim the truth in the public square? The moral decay of our nation is no longer hidden. From the breakdown of biblical authority in the Church to the cultural push toward division and confusion, we are witnessing a coordinated effort to silence truth and erase history. Joining Pastor Allen are Pastor John Amanchukwu Sr., Pastor Rob McCoy, Pastor Gary Hamrick, and Dr. George Grant—leaders who confront the consequences of spiritual compromise and the urgent need to prepare God’s people for what’s ahead. This conversation tackles the spiritual cost of passive leadership, the deception of DEI, and the confusion surrounding the Church’s role in politics.—It’s up to us to bring God’s truth back into our culture. It may feel like an impossible assignment, but there’s much we can do. Join Pastor Allen Jackson as he discusses today’s issues from a biblical perspective. Find thought-provoking insight from Pastor Allen and his guests, equipping you to lead with your faith in your home, your school, your community, and wherever God takes you. Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3JsyO6ysUVGOIV70xAjtcm?si=6805fe488cf64a6d Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/culture-christianity-the-allen-jackson-podcast/id1729435597

Welcome to culture and Christianity. You know our goal, I'm sure you know by now, is to take our faith outside the walls of the church. We want the church to impact culture, then not for the church to be shaped by our culture. To do that, we've all got to use our voice. We just are overcoming, living through the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk, a Christian martyr in America in 2025.

That's still a hard sentence to say. But, you know, his memorial service was remarkable. I was able to watch a significant portion of the that so much of it was like a worship service honoring God, the message of truth being told on the largest imaginable stage, it seemed a great honor to Charlie, but greater than that, an honor to the kingdom of God and our Lord and King.

A lot of people are saying, you know, it's the seeds of revival, the beginning of a revival. I pray that's true, but revival isn't gonna be tracked by big public worship services or great crowds even. Revival ultimately is about the transformation of human lives and it's most evident in the transformation of of human behavior.

And I think a part of the question is how do we recognize it when we see it? Well, we just hosted a conference here on our campus in Murphreysboro regarding culture and Christianity. And one of the segments, we spent a half, we spent a whole afternoon with a group of pastor friends of mine talking about culture and Christianity. And then we did a panel discussion.

That's what I wanna share with you because we were talking about revival, what that looks like, what it'll feel like. Historically, it's not what we would expect. The pastors are friends of mine, Rob McCoy, Dr. George Grant, John Amund Chuku, Gary Hamrick, some remarkable leaders of the church in our nation. I believe the panel discussion will open our imagination

to what we're looking for God to be doing in this immediate season. God is moving in the earth, but it's gonna take understanding hearts and our ability to see in some new ways to be able to participate. Enjoy the discussion. I think it's safe to say that in the season

that we've been in ministry, we have seen a significant change in the church. how it's presented, how it's understood. Does that feel like, I mean, I think most of us would say that. So the question, I don't want to bemoan that. The question on the table is, what does it look like for it to be different? And we've got a few minutes, and I want to use some of the ideas you shared, but that's really, I want to go away from here with an imagination of what we're looking for.

You know, when COVID, when we first heard about COVID, and we were gathering outside, I remember saying to the church, we need to know what we're looking for. We're looking for breakthroughs, that the death rate is. and what they say it's going to be, that there's interventions, that there's treatments, that what is it we're looking for

when we're asking God? And what is it we're looking for is the church? Stop sitting in churches that deny the truth, that don't honor the scripture, that don't honor the uniqueness of Jesus and praying for him to change.

That's as foolish as going to a bad restaurant and praying they get a new chef. It really is. So what I want us to take these next few minutes is to come away with some imagination of what it is we're looking for.

Has God been? begins to move, how we know, oh, that's God. George, you talked about the conspiracy of the robes, judges, colleges, ministers. So what's it look like if we see God begin to move in those arenas to make that different? How do we know? Because it's got to change. We've got a university in this community. It has to change. Yeah. One of the things that Charlie did so well was he called out the powers and the principalities. But he didn't call them out to just tear them down. He called them out to say, okay, all of you who now see that the emperor has no clothes, you go forth and you take their place, stand in their stead. In a sense, what we've got to do is we've got to call the church

to its place in the culture and say, let's aspire to do what Jesus called. us to do, to be what Jesus has called us to be in every single arena. And let's take back the robs. Not because we want the pomp and ceremony, but because we are charged with the task to disciple the nations. We've been gathering in small groups, discipling one another in a holy huddle, but it's time for us to go to the nations. And disciples. the nations and teach them everything that Jesus has taught us, knowing that he is with us to the end of the age. What does it look like?

It looks like calling on our young men and women and saying, you're next. We want to prepare you. We want to fill your minds with the facts, with the reality. We want you to read the right books. We want you to begin to memorize scripture so that it's hidden in your heart. and then you go forth to war. Gary, I'm sure your congregation is populated with deep stake actors and elected people and God bless you.

What does it look like if we see God moving in that arena? What are we watching for? Well, thank it's fantastic. You know what we're looking for, I think, is just a good old-fashioned. great awakening the jesus revolution of the 70s we are due for another great awakening another great revival and if the lord is choosing to use charlie's murder to accomplish that then praise god i mean he uses all different things to accomplish his divine purposes even when we can't understand it in the moment but you know politically the deep state washington dc

on a positive note, there are some strong brothers and sisters on Capitol Hill. I'm part of a personal prayer team for Speaker Johnson, and there are things happening in our nation's capital that I can just tell you are wonderful testimonies of God's amazing grace and the move of His Holy Spirit. And we need to be praying for elected leaders. What did Paul say to Timothy? He said, pray for those in authority, for kings and all those in authority,

that we might live peaceful and quiet lives and all godliness and holiness. So pray for all our elected leaders, whether we like them or not, whether we voted for them or not. We have a mandate, a charge to pray for elected leaders so we can see the Spirit of God move in Washington, D.C., and in the hearts of our elected leaders.

My lifetime has been filled with language about racial reconciliation. Appropriately so, there's a lot of work to do. But it seems to me in recent times, we were more divided than we've ever been along racial lines. So if we're going to look for God to move in that arena, I'm sure you've got some clarity on that.

What are we looking for? What are we going to say? Oh, that's God. Because we've been told a lot of things are God that don't have anything to do with God. Well, I really think that understanding that we're all one race is the first thing. one race. Now there are many different ethnicities that come out of this one race, but we are one race and we're also one blood. And we don't need $2 and $3 and $5 woke terms to help us bring about unity. What we need is simple basic scriptures.

your neighbor as yourself. And it's just the, it's the simplicity of the gospel that brings about true racial reconciliation, knowing that we're all in need of a savior, knowing that racism is not a skin tone or a color, but it's sin. It's sin. And that sin can put you in a position where you are estranged, from God and so if you harbor the sin of racism then you need to repent for that. A big hand clap goes there.

And I say that racism is not a skin tone or color because we have this viewpoint that only whites can be racist. Blacks can be racist. Hispanics can be racist. Asians can be racist, Indianans can be racist, Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, others. It's a choice. It's a choice to love or a choice to hate. And so we can try to trivialize how we address this,

but we must make sure that we don't propagate the very thing that God abhors. God is not a race. respecter of persons. We're all equally in need of a savior. We're equal at the foot of the cross. And so we should unite with one another because it's godly to do so and it represents true Christian beauty and holiness. Now there are people who profit from the division. We call these people race baiters and race hustlers. These are the Al Sharpton's and the Jesse Jackson's

and the Joe Bidens and the Nick Fuentes. I can go on and on. These people make money off of creating anarchy and rebellion and hatred. And it's a tool of Marxism. That's what it is. In order for Marxism to thrive, there has to be the oppressive versus the oppressed dynamic, the rich versus the poor, blacks versus white, straight people versus gays,

the vaxed versus the unvaxed, so on and so forth. And so we have to tear down the idol of racism by embracing that we are one race, that we are one blood, and that we all are in need of a holy savior. I think I'd add one more category to that, not just the race baiters and hustlers. It's infiltrated academia. So now that it's intellectually chic to embrace things like DEI and CRT, and they make you feel like you are antiquated and intellectually you lack sophistication if you don't embrace those things.

Does that feel right? I mean, I bump into that a lot, you know, that somehow you're just from another generation, and you're behind the times. And we have to have the courage to say, no, that's an old lie. That's true. I mean, when you look at statistics from Black Enterprise, blacks only make up 4% of overall DEI hires in the first place.

According to McKenzie and Thompson, 76.1% of DEI officers are white liberals. So the more you wipe the blackness off of DEI, it gets whiter and whiter. More so, it's the white liberal ideology that has always positioned itself to be the puppet master. The party that wanted to hold on to slavery, the Democrats. the party that drafted Jim Crow laws by and large Democrats the party that weaponized true fascism in bigotry through the KKK Democrats

the party that resisted the civil rights the Democrats and so it's imperative that we understand the history of these things so that we will not fail forward in the future. But the only way that we can bring a plum line to best mend the brokenness of America is that we need sons of Issaqar. Men who understand the times. Understand the times.

You have to understand that every two to four years, more division is going to prop up because an election is coming. expect more division to take place as we approach the next election expected in 2028 they're going to try to divide us this is why they're even trying to use the campaign of using charlie kirk as the proverbial racist that's not true it's a lie it's a fallacy but they have to find someone to be the poster child of the very thing that they are that they are and that's another tool of Marxism

One of the things that progressives desperately want us to do is to forget. And when they say that we're behind, that we're not keeping up with the times, that we're just, you know, just moss-covered stones, what they're doing is they're saying, look, the art, the music, the literature, the ideas that built this civilization, let's put it all behind us now. Let's forget about all of the legacy, good and bad, and let's start anew. Let's imagine what can be unencumbered by what has been. That is it. And so every time somebody says that we're antiquated, that we're behind the times that we're not keeping up,

we need to remember, oh, you mean we're backward like Sir Isaac Newton and Leonardo da Vinci and Michael Angelo and Sir Christopher Wren and Peyton Randolph and Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams. We need to not think about that. Amen. I think the line is whoever writes the history controls the future. And you want to always be careful of people that are trying to rewrite your history or to diminish it or to mock it. You know, we're a nation with the Christian heritage. and when they say that it's inappropriate to bring that heritage

into our public schools or our universities or corporate boardrooms, I am deeply offended. Imagine saying that to the indigenous peoples of America, that your heritage of faith is illegitimate. We all understand that would get shouted down in the public square, and yet we have silently withdrawn from the public arena because some knucklehead said to us, your faith's not welcome.

No more. Rob, I want to publicly thank you for being here. This is not an easy week, and you had every imaginable reason to politely have withdrawn. And I will confess, and I think these guys would back me up on this. The invitations for events like this come months ahead. Like I have invitations on my desk now for like next summer. and they bring them to me and I'll say to the people oh yes I'll do that or put it down you know is there anything on the calendar no yeah I'll go and then you get within about two weeks of the event and you've

built you said yes to things for a year and life is unfolding around you and then I'm red in the face going who put that on my calendar I'm sure you all don't do that but it's happened to me a time or two and I want to thank you for making the effort and the sacrifice to be here And I know there's not a simple answer to this, but if we're looking for when God begins to move, what are we watching for? It's not Charlie on campus now. We had a completely different imagination two weeks ago.

And you're closer to this. You've got family involved. It's personal to you. And I know the answer will change as we walk forward. But from today, what are you looking for? Well, first of all, I feel like a mule at the Kentucky. Turkey Derby. I'm not going to win, but I'm in mighty fine company.

Seriously, I feel like one of you, I'm listening to them. I'm like, well, oh, I have to speak. Moving forward, I think what Charlie's inspired and what he's done, I think this rests on the pulpits of America. Charlie saw a turning point moving, but he knew, as Alexis de Toccoville said, that America is great because America's good. And when it ceases to be good, it'll cease to be great. and he looked for America's greatness and his seaports in our cities of commerce, but it wasn't until he saw the pulpits aflame with righteousness, and he saw what made America good. And as I said in my presentation earlier,

we've embraced the modern-day Gnosticism. And the pastors need to step into the public square. They have to step into the ecclesia and contend for the welfare of their neighbor. And a lot of them are hesitant. they, I'll give you an example. Pastor Gary and I are Calvary Chapel pastors. And Pastor Chuck started Calvary Chapel in 1967. And in 1967, in California, we had the fourth largest GDP.

Reagan was governor. We had just completed the California aqueduct, which was a marvelous in civil engineering, bringing the water from the Sierra's to the San Joaquin Valley, which produces more cotton than the entire South combined. It is the wealthiest with natural. resources of any state in the unions. Beautiful. You can be surfing in the morning. I've done this, snowskking in the afternoon, and dirt bike riding in the desert at sunset in one day.

It is a beautiful state. And as Congressman McClintock said, what can cause people to leave the beauty of California for the deserts of Nevada and the flatlands of Texas? And he said one thing, bad government. So Chuck comes in in 1967. And in 67, we had the Mealim Massacre. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot on a balcony in Memphis, Tennessee. Bobby Kennedy was shot by Sirhan, Sirhan, in L.A. All these young people had checked out of the churches. All their heroes were dead that had promised them hope. They checked out of the churches that weren't addressing the issues

and tuned in to Eastern religion and experimental drug use. And they ended up awash in California on the shores of California burned out. And Chuck and Kay looked out at a sea of burned out humanity and began to minister these hippies. And he avoided politics because they were so burned out that he just taught the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book, kept the main thing, the plain thing, and the plain thing, the main thing.

And we experienced 10,000 percent gross since 1967. There's over 1,800 Calvary Chapples around the world, one of the largest mission movements in modern history. And yet, how did it affect California? Because he avoided politics. How did it affect California? We don't have the fourth largest GDP. We now have the fifth, maybe six.

We have the highest gas tax, sales tax, income tax, corporate tax. We lead the nation and debt. You combine the next four largest states' debt doesn't equal the debt of California. We're the authors of no fault divorce that Reagan signed into law, said it was a worst piece of legislation, caused divorce to run rampant across the country. And here's the kicker. We have the most vile sexual education curriculum. I mean, you can't even read a page of it.

where the transgender bathroom bills. And then here's the worst. We lead the nation in abortion. And listen, we don't just rip the baby apart in the womb of its mother and flush its parts into the sewer system of the state. We harvest the organs before we do that. We make Nazi Germany look like Girl Scouts.

And the lion's share of those 1800 churches are in California. And we preach the gospel. And we call for Christ every Sunday and there's a harvest of souls. Greg, Lori, harvest crusades. Somebody loves you crusades with Rawle Reese. We see people coming to Christ all the time, but we avoid politics.

And that's the result. Where's the power of that gospel? Children are being mutilated and harvested. And I think the pastors need to awaken that when Jesus said in Matthew 16, upon this rock, I'll build my church. He was saying this up at Cessori of Philippi, where that's the most resplendent place, it's park-like setting. And everyone that's ever conquered the region is set up

temple to their god or goddess. And he brings his disciples up from the Galilee and that this park-like setting in the cacophony of noise of Roman pagan worship with Bacchus, a god of alcohol and Aphrodite, goddess of sanctio, probably drunk and nudity. He turns to these disciples. He says, who do men say that I am? And they say, some say you're John the Baptist, I say, Jeremiah. He says, but who do you say that I'm? It's Peter says, you're the Messiah. You're the savior of the world. He says, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, flesh and blood is not revealed to me, my father in heaven. Upon this rock, I will build mine. Everyone says church. That's not the word.

Jesus didn't use a religious term. He didn't say synagogue, gay, or temple. He deliberately used a secular term that Aristotle had coined 200 years or 400 years earlier. He said Ecclesia. The Ecclesia was a place where the citizens of the Greek city-state would gather to decide the welfare of the citizens of their community. And above the door of every Ecclesia was Elytheria and Icinoma, liberty, inequality. And somehow, in the last 50 years, we have stepped out of the public square. and truncated the gospel. And if this nation and the gospel, if the gospel is the most important

thing, which it is, preaching the gospel is the most important thing. The second most important thing is protecting the government that allows the preaching of that gospel. Churches have to start doing this. Just to piggyback on that, I'm challenged by a quote from Martin Luther. And he said, if you preach the gospel in all aspects without addressing the issues of your time, you are not preaching the gospel at all. Okay, but here's the awkward reality. What you're describing is a minority position. The overwhelming majority of the churches, we've spent our lives in the church.

Avoid this like the plague. And there's all sorts of fancy language. We don't want a theocracy. So let's talk about it just a minute. to give the people some ideas to take away. Because that's going to be pushed back at that. Your church is just trying to dominate politics. You're trying to take over a community.

You want a theocracy. You can't legislate morality. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Can I go? Here's the thing. The only thing that you can legislate is morality. That's what legislation is, is. Legislation says this is right, this is wrong. The question is which morality? That's it.

All legislation is the legislating of morality. The big boogeyman right now is Christian nationalism. And the truth is that Christ called us to go and disciple all the nations. We want Christian nationalism in Uganda. We want Christian nationalism in Argentina. We want Christian nationalism in every nation on the face of the earth. John Knox's great cry if the Reformation was, Lord, give us Scotland, or we die. I stood in a mosque at the invitation of a maman in Sulemenia, Iraq.

I said, what do you want me to preach on? He said, well, tell us about your Issa, of course. Tell us about your Jesus. And I concluded my sermon with, Lord, give us Iraq, or we die. If that's what Christian nationalism is, then Lord, give it to us. Let's, let's, no, I wanted to hear from Balaam's donkey. Go ahead, Rob. I grew up at a barn.

I talked to horses. I don't know if y'all were not, but. So remember your filter. Amen. Christian nationalism. The left labels you and the church folds like a cheap suit as though you can't combine the two. I'm a Christian husband. I can love two things at the same time.

I can love God and my wife. I can love God and my country. Paul was a Christian nationalist. He invoked the laws of Rome and the rights of a Roman citizen. He knew his country better than we know our own. And if you want to talk about a theocracy, there's over 50 nations worldwide that have a majority Muslim population, and 17 of them do not allow the Bible to be publicly read.

Forbidden. Some of those are over 95% Muslim. In America, we have the freedom of our freedom of our people. religion. It's not a theocracy. They used that term because they took the first 16 words of the Bill of Rights of the First Amendment. And for over 200 years, it was clearly understood that it was the freedom of religion. But then they called it the separation clause. And they used an obscure document, the letter that Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Convention, where he said an invisible wall of separation, which in context when you read the letter is a complete opposite of

what the ruling was by the Supreme Court. And now it became not freedom of religion, but freedom from religion which ushered in secular progressivism. Islam, and this is what Charlie was taking on just before God brought him home, Islam is a political structure disguised as a religion. And secular progressivism is a religion disguised as a political movement. It's called the Red Green Revolution. They come in and they destroy the morality of a Christian nation through secular progressivism, and then Islam comes in and consumes it. And when you see gays for Palestine, they are useful idiots. That's what we're up against. And unless we understand that this nation of the people, by the people and for the people, the freedom of religion, not from, it's not a

Theocracy, but as Christians, we are to contend. And Sharia law is antithetical to our Declaration of Independence because it demands adherence. We allow the freedom of religion. They demand or else you die. And this is what we're fighting for. And unless we wake up and the congregations are educated, every nation, like London stand now, and France is now 9% Muslim. It's about to roll.

This is an invasion like we've never seen. And unless we wake up, once you see in your children's future, just look at your kids and say, you know what, I don't do politics. I don't care about your generation. Just look at them. And hand them nothing, even though you received everything. We can't do that.

And for all of you, Churchill said, the man was cursed to have been born in an interesting times. That's not true for us. We've been appointed for such a time and says, everything in our DNA, God has assigned each of us to stand in this moment and hold back the gates of hell and push them back in Jesus' name. Amen. I've written a new book.

It's called My Friend Jesus. I'm a pastor, a lot of ritual, tradition, a lot of formality in the way we know God. It's not bad. There's some good things in that. But when I'm in real trouble or I have something I want to celebrate, I call a friend. Well, I want to live my life with Jesus of Nazareth. my friend, it changes everything in both celebration and when there's a problem. I wrote the book to help, I think it'll open your life to God in a more personal, transformational way than ever before.

Enjoy the book. In his book, My Friend Jesus, Pastor Allen shares how friendship with Jesus brings clarity, strength, and peace in every part of life. This isn't about following a religion or religious rules. It's about cultivating a cherished relationship that will help your faith become more personal, more joyful, and more powerful each day. Request my friend Jesus with your donation of $25 or more today at allanjaxon.com. John, you've gone and talked to school boards in 22 states. You're so judgy. And I'm pretty sure you're a Christian nationalist too.

And to be honest, I'm embarrassed. No, no, I mean this. I'm embarrassed that the godly men in those communities haven't been dominating those school boards long before John got there. They should know you're going to stand up for your children. What has happened to us? But tell us what you've learned, what's your takeaway? As it relates to going to the school board meetings and addressing the issues,

the hot button issues that are being pushed upon our children that many parents unearth during the pandemic, you know, learning about Jody having to mommies and Sarah having two mommies and Tom having two daddies and all of the woke CRT stuff, racial consciousness stuff. There are three takeaways that I have as I've traveled the country. Number one, perverts are perverting the hearts and the minds of our children. We have to call these individuals what they are. It is perverted to take pornographic content.

and set it at the fingertips of children. In addition, it's not only perverted, some people call it indoctrination, some people call it grooming, but I call it mental rape because it assaults the soul, it stains the brain, and it robs children of their innocence.

They are forcibly shoving sex down their throat, making them the customers for Planned Parenthood and keep in mind Planned Parenthood provides the majority of sex ed curriculum in the public school system in America. And so they are working hand and fist. Perverts are perverting the hearts in the minds of our children.

Number two, parents are unaware. They shouldn't be unaware. Train up a child in the way he should go and when he's old, he will not depart. and so parents should be dialed in on what their child is being taught. You can't send your child off to Babylon, and I'd expect them to come back as a Babylonian, rejecting your biblical worldview.

You can't do it. And then lastly, pastors have failed to do their job. Pastors, pastors. Pastors. See, weak Pulpets Create weak Christians How is it that

You know, I go into different cities And states And I try to work with pastors And not all pastors, but Some Too many, you're right, pastor And when they get to the school board meeting, Many of them won't even read

the book verbatim because they're too squeamish to read what a four-year-old might have to read in a library. Pastors.

And so I assemble them, tell them to join me and, hey, I give you the books what you should read and you get there and they summarize or they won't even open the book and read the book

to shove it down their throats. See, The only way for us to fight gender theory and queer theory is that we have to expose how hideous it is. People have to see it. A great deal of my success has been just opening the book and reading what the book says. You know, I have a book right here. You know, I travel the country with books. I'll tell you a story.

You go through TSA and you have some of these books in your bag and they check your bag. I'm like, all right, I'm an alpha male. I'm straight. I'm going to a school board meeting, right? I try to tell them quickly because they see all of the many books that I have, Pastor Gary. But this book is entitled, Worm Loves Worm. All right. And it says, but which one of you is the bride?

Ask the bees. how can we be brides bees if we don't know who the bride is? And then it says, I can be the bride says worm. I can too says worm. And so what this is pushing upon children is same-sex marriage. This is made available for kids ages four and up. So both worms can be the bride. Then it says, but one of you has got

to be the groom or how can I be best beetle asks beetle I can be the groom says worm I can too says worm we can be both amazing says spider really ask beetle and the bees weight says cricket that isn't how it's always been done now keep in mind in this book the cricket is the preacher. Cricket the crooked preacher. All right. Then it says, then we'll just change how it's done, says Worm. Yes, says Worm. Storytime with Pastor John, right? And so they were married because Worm loves Worm. How can we allow Barack Obama. to be more vocal in what he deemed marriage to be than what the Bible has explicitly called it to be.

How? How can we do that? Barack Hussein Obama will go down in history as one of the most divisive presidents ever. He divided us on the issues of race, divided us on the issues of sex, decorated the White House and rainbow colors. There used to be a time where people said, hey, what I do in my bedroom is my business, and that's none of your business. And that's true. What you do in your bedroom is your business?

Now, I don't advise you to do certain things. We don't talk about it enough, but homosexual sex takes nearly 20 to 25 years off of a male's life span. So the most loving thing that we can do is tell a child about God's design for sex, the truth of it. But we went from doing what you want to do in your bedroom and that's your business to then having the White House decorated in rainbow colors and having this content in the public school system. there our daughters have to go to school and use locker rooms and bathrooms with guys who might wake up in the morning and say that they want to be a man or a woman changing their sex as a social construct. That's where we are. And you'll be hard pressed to find pastors like these. Give these men a big hand clap. Give them a big hand clap. Really? Like seriously.

salute and celebrate real leadership, proud masculinity, men who are not afraid to be protectors. Protectors. Can I get someone to shout protectors? Protector's. Protectors. Protector. That's the role. That's the role. of the man. That's right. For the pastors. For the pastors out there who have a misunderstanding

of this idea of separation of church and state and you think you can't do this because there's a separation of church and state. First of all, you don't know your history. But let me just reverse it. Let's just look at it this way. The state's now invaded the church. What are you going to do, pastor?

It's redefined marriage. What are you going to do, pastor? It's redefined sexuality. What are you going to do, Pastor? They're taking over your kids. What are you going to do, pastor? I mean, I'll take your position, and when it says pray for kings and those in authority with quiet and peaceful lives and all godliness and reverence, can I ask you the names of your school board members and your council members that you pray for by name, according to that pastoral epistle, and the issues they're dealing with that allow your community to live quiet and

peaceable lives and all godliness and reverence? You can hear a pin drop when you ask that. Gary, you said something that I think is at the heart of this conversation. You said there's two restraints to evil, the Holy Spirit and the church. And it's easy to tag some of these big cultural issues that we get applause for. But as a pastor to me, it's much thinner ice. This really starts at our kitchen tables. And to invite the Spirit of God into our homes and our families, One of my annoyances is we give children's coaches for five years old and seven years old and ten years old. They watch too many professional sports and they're going to turn six-year-olds into something. We give them more authority in our home than the youth ministers in our churches.

So you have some experience in pastoring. What does it look like in practical terms for the church and our family? to cooperate with the spirit of God to see evil restraint. I'm tired of losing 3,000 children a day. I'm tired of universities becoming indoctrination centers.

I'm tired of worms being in the libraries of our small children. So you introduced that idea, I thought so eloquently. Talk about that just a moment. So, you know, that old saying, the family that prays together stays together. I think it's important that around the kitchen table,

we get back to influencing our children with the gospel at home instead of expecting everybody else to do it. It starts with, if there's a dad in the home, it starts with dad as the spiritual leader. But to my wife's credit, you know, speaking as a pastor, so I'm just going to let you in on a little bit of information. Sometimes when I come home after having, you know, ministered to a bunch of people like,

I'm kind of done. You know what I'm saying to you? Well, you may not know what I'm saying to you. You know what I'm saying to you guys? Okay. And my wife, bless her heart, when our kids were growing up, my son, my adult son, Austin is here. He's on staff with me now.

And we have three kids. And she would take the initiative at dinner time to open up the Bible, and we're going to memorize a verse at dinner time. And, you know, as your kids are at a certain age, you can only do so much. Their attention span is limited. But my point is, do all you can to live out your faith in the home so that it's palpable,

so that by the influence of your lives, that you are consistently at home the way you are in public and vice versa, that your children will be influenced for the glory of God, for that next generation. We have to be living out our faith at home. That's where it starts. and if our kids are not seeing it, then they're going to learn whatever the greatest influence is in their lives. They're going to learn from whatever that greatest influence is, whether it's their phones, whether it's some coach, some teachers, their peers.

We have to be presenting the greatest influence to have the greatest impact on our families if we expect to see this next generation really living out their faith. So it does begin in the home. So a lot of you know my son Mikey is chief of staff for Charlie and now is serving Erica. He's 23. And when COVID came to California and Governor Newcellini said that the church was non-essential, he said strip clubs were essential, cannabis distributors, liquor stores, abortion clinics were essential. But the church, the bride of Christ was not essential.

And Charlie made the worst prediction in radio history when he said the church in California is not going to take that laying down. And it folded, again, like a cheap suit. Jack Hib stood myself, Tim Thompson, a number of other guys, but the lion's share of the church is folded. John MacArthur stood, lion. Yeah, he was Patton. And when I was preparing to violate the restraining order by the government, because we had kept the church open, I called my attorney and I said, you know, I know you can't counsel me to violate the law or he'd lose his license,

but I said, can you tell me what I'll lose if I keep the door open? and disobey the restraining order. And it was a legal pad and a half, a page and a half of consequences. I'd lose a church, lose my house. My son would lose his NOTC scholarship. I mean, it was severe consequences. And I said, I'll call you back. And I called my wife and I said, honey, I'm planning on violating the restraining order tomorrow,

but I don't want to do it without you. And I read everything on that list. And my kids were present at the time, Mikey too, and my wife, I'll never forget what she said, invoking Richard Wormbrand, he said, you know, his wife said to him, I'd rather be a widow than be married to a coward. And I looked at her, I'm like,

you're hot, you know, I just, they're amazing. And I had told stories, and I did that children's book out there. It was a story I would tell my kids, raising them, teaching them what you learn today. And then I had to meet with a staff, and I told them. But before that, I met with my kids,

kids. I said, kids, you know, this is what I'm planning doing, it's going to affect you. And they said, Dad, we couldn't be more proud of you. Mikey, too. You know, and I sat down with the elders. We have 15 elders, and I knew it needed to be unanimous decision. And I said,

fellas, I'm planning on violating restraining order tomorrow. It needs to be unanimous. And you have the same fiduciary responsibility. You could lose everything I'm going to lose. And in case you don't vote unanimously in front of you is my letter of resignation because I can't live with myself and 14 of the 15 voted yes the the 15th guy abstain because he was an attorney and he

we needed him and he couldn't vote to break the law and and I watched as I stood and I told Mikey and my kids I said they dad what if we lose and I looked at him and I said you understand ours is the obedience gods is the outcome and I said we already have won because we're standing kids one man and God constitutes a majority it whatever God wants to do with our life, and if he wants to take everything, we must stand. And you have no idea how profound that is. Your kids are watching. Things are caught, not taught. And I have the fruit of these children, you know, it's generational sanctification. Children born in times of adversity are the leaders in the free world to come.

Set an example for them. You know, pastors think, that peace is the absence of conflict. Then they're peacemakers by nature, but peace isn't the absence of conflict. Peace is the presence of Christ in the midst of the conflict. He said, I don't come to bring peace, but a sword, the sword of truth. Make a stand. And don't coward because you're afraid of your buildings,

budgets, or baptisms. You lose everything, but count it all joy. This is what we're called to. This is a movie set. It's going away. only what's done for Christ will last. We'll stand before him, and whatever it is you're holding on to, let it go.

Fight. You have a generation looking at you, wanting you to set an example. This isn't a loveboat, and I'm not Captain Steubing. This is a battleship. And the last part is, if you go to, it used to be, I don't know if it is now,

but the Queen Mary, it's in repose in Long Beach Harbor, they have it set as a luxury liner when it was the most luxurious liner in the world on one side of the ship. And on the other side of the ship, they have it set up as it was for a troop transport ship in World War II. A steer bunks all the way to the ceiling.

This is palatial tables and silverware. What can cause something so beautiful to turn into something so austere? One thing, war. We're at war. You don't get to take it with you. And God's made you a steward of their lives and of the things he's in

trust it to you for one purpose, preserving liberty and freedom for people to reach and obtain Christ for his glory that many would come to know the Lord. Understand that, and we'll all do really well. Amen. All right, we wanna wrap this session up. You know, we do this in a church on purpose, because our goal is not primarily informational.

It's transformational. And we didn't come to, to fill your heads with good ideas or to motivate you highly, we came to do some serious business with the Lord. There's enough people here to change the course of a nation. So we're going to close this session with communion. We're going to close every session with an application of truth. But there's some ushers.

They're coming down your aisleways. They're just going to ask you to pass a basket. This is the handy-dandy, newfangled, portable communion. So it's an all-in-one thing. if we gave you those beautiful brushed aluminum trays, you would have baptized one another with grape juice. This is simpler. Take a bag.

But as you're doing that, you can do two things at once. I believe, Rob said you couldn't, but I think you could chew gum and walk at the same time. So just, I want to invite you towards a moment of repentance. We can't gather here and say, oh, you know, the people outside of this building are so wrong. This happened on our watch. do you understand

this happened on our watch we have presided over the most precipitous decline of Christian influence in the history of the Christian church I refuse for that to be my legacy repentance carries two meanings the Hebrew word means to change direction physically

the Greek word means to change how you think so I want to suggest that we begin with a change of thought we have accepted things we shouldn't accept. We've been silent at times we should have used our voice. We have accepted priorities that were dictated by a secular culture and not the word of God. We've sought to please employers, children, grandchildren more than we've sought to please God.

Maybe it's best summed up, you know, in 2 Timothy 3, the first five verses, Paul said, in the last days, the times will be exceedingly fierce. and then he lists 18 aspects of human character that will deteriorate. Not politics, human character. But he begins the list by saying people will be lovers of themselves. And I've spent my adult life in the church, folks.

We tend to lead with ourselves. My seat, my parking place, my preference for worship, the time that's best for me. I mean, it's a, we should worship the Lord if we had to stand. We should gather for worship if we have to be outside in inclement weather.

We should worship the Lord if the only person to lead the worship music is me. I know. And I want to invite you towards just a moment of somber repentance before the Lord. Let's be the change. Charlie's gone, but we're here. I don't know why.

I didn't negotiate that deal. I just know that's our reality. So I want to invite you to the communion table, not with somebody else in mind. In God's providence, he put us together. We can start with the bread. You peel back that little cellophane layer. You can get the Jesus put communion in place. We borrowed it from the Jews.

He just had the Passover meal with the disciples. He gave us a version that got picked up in the non-Jewish world. At the end of that meal, he took the bread from the Messiah's place and said, this bread is my body, broken for you. As often as you eat this, do this in remembrance of me. It's received together. And he took a cup, Messiah's cup, reserved for Messiah. And he said, this cup is a new covenant, literally a new contract.

This one's sealed with my own blood. And as often as you drink this cup, you proclaim my death until you see me again. I used to tell our church that if there was sin in your life, you couldn't get the cup open. Until one Sunday, I couldn't get the cup open. And the cameraman made it a full screen issue. He no longer worships here. I know laughing in the middle of communion.

I'm not diminishing it, folks. We take ourselves too seriously. The fear of God, the respect for God, the reverence of God is a very real thing and it needs to grow in our hearts. The rest of us? We're a bunch of cracked pots. And as we receive the cup, let's do it with the humility to say to the Lord, we need your mercy.

We need your forgiveness. We need your cleansing. Because only your power can secure the future for our children and grandchildren. Let's receive together. Rob, will you pray for us? You know that your righteousness has been put on our account, has been imputed to us. We didn't, we didn't earn anything.

We're righteous not because of what we've done, but because of what you've done. It's your blood shed upon that cross. We take the bread first because a body had to be broken before the blood could pour out. The holy blood of God, fully man, yet without sin. And one drop, but Lord, you bled out. And it's sufficient for all the world's sins, but only efficient for those who call upon the name of the Lord. And so today, Lord, we do this in remembrance of you. the Pesach

that you have set the captives free. We've been set free from the law of sin and death by the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. We've been cleansed of all unrighteousness. Past, president, future. You've cast as far as the east is from the west to be remembered no more. We walk in the newness of life,

forgetting what is behind, striving for what is ahead. And as you delivered the Hebrews out of slavery, you led them into the promised land. You have called us to take the land. And so Lord, may we inspire the next generation that they would have the freedom to pursue the living God. And Lord, I pray that there would not be any hindrance

for truth to be proclaimed. For a lie can never survive in the presence of truth, but the truth is never afraid of a lie. And so, Lord, we are not afraid. We're more than conquers in Christ Jesus. You haven't given us a spirit of fear, but a power, love, and a sound mind. And as we take this communion thanking you for setting us free, we are now yours as your servants to serve you until we are home with you whenever you decide we're yours.

And we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Gentlemen, thank you for making a trek to Tennessee. God willing, we'll do this again. Hey, thanks for joining me today. Before you go, please like the podcast and leave a comment. so more people can hear about this topic too. If you haven't yet, be sure to subscribe to Alan Jackson Ministries' YouTube channel

and follow the Culture and Christianity Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Together, let's learn how to lead with our faith and change our culture. I'll see you next time.