Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast - Breaking Taboos: Jesus, Sex, and Faith: [Featuring Mo Isom]

Episode Date: April 20, 2024

Mo Isom tackles a topic many churches avoid: sex. “Jesus is unconcerned and with what we would culturally call ‘taboo.’ He came to set the captives free,” Isom told Pastor Allen in this podcast, where she shares about her ministry and how it began. She was a college soccer star who was struggling with her faith, when she found herself in late-night car accident. As she hung upside down in her Jeep, she had an encounter with God that changed the trajectory of her life. The Holy Spirit began to minister to the broken places in her life, and Isom now invests her time sharing what she has learned, encouraging teenagers and young adults toward purity and making choices that honor God. A New York Times Bestselling Author of three books, Isom offers a powerful testimony of God’s ability to change a person’s heart—and the course of their lives—in a single moment.More about Mo Isom:Mo’s Linktree: https://linktr.ee/moisomMo’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moisom/?hl=en5th Wheel Missions Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/5thwheelmissions/?hl=en--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=6805fe488cf64a6dListen on Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/culture-christianity-the-allen-jackson-podcast/id1729435597

Winter break after freshman year, my dad put a gun to his heart and pulled the trigger and suicide just crashed into our story. It just catapulted me, again, excellent at faking fine on the surface, but I'm going back to college, you know, a couple weeks after seeing his body on a morgue table. And I continue to fake fine, but I'm depressed, anxious, anxiety attacks sitting outside the student union. And I am wrestling with a spirit of suicide myself, just resentful, angry, hurt, fill in the blank. We'd go on the soccer field and sort of be able to forget about my problems for a little bit.

So people kept applauding, oh, you're doing so well, you're healing. I was not. There are powerful voices making an enormous effort to sexualize our children at very young ages. We have pornography in our schools and we're reluctant to remove it. So the question on the table is,

why should we be talking about sex and purification? in the church. Because if we don't help establish a biblical perspective, a Judeo-Christian perspective, and help our parents understand the appropriateness of that, we're abandoning our children to people who have motives that I think at best are nefarious. At worst, they're evil. It's time for us to find our voice, to care enough about our kids, to pay attention to what's happening, and be able to articulate a way to help them maintain the purity that's appropriate for children so that they can grow up and have healthy lives. Folks, that's the church's assignment, far beyond preaching sermons and convening classes. Well, I'm excited about today's podcast. I think it'll help on that

topic. We are watching on the walls, and if we see evil and we don't use our voice, it says it's on us. Our exercise of our faith in America is at risk. What are you going to do about it? We are called to be advocates for Jesus of Nazareth. In Nashville this April. Join us from the Culture and Christianity Conference. Brandon Tatum, Eric Metaxis, Kirk Cameron, Allie B. Stucky, and more. Go to lead with faith.church to register. My guest today is Mo Isam. And there's so much I want to talk about.

We're going to have trouble fitting this into my timeline, but I will cooperate. You are in full-time ministry. Yes. Traveling the country with a fifth wheel. Yes. I want to hear more about that, but we'll get to that. you're new to the church too. I mean, this is the first time we've had a chance to sit down and talk.

So we're going to both learn a little bit together. And we've been full time on the road now for two years. In itinerant ministry for 12, 13 years, but fully in as a family team for two. And the Lord has done so much to teach us about the corporate body, you know, the Big C church. Because it is, we're sort of here, then we're there, wherever he goes, we follow, wherever he calls us or sends us, we seek to be obedient to that. And it's been, it's been very unique, very different seeing the church even region to region, you know, in the north, in the south, up the east coast and the unique needs in different places, the unique strengths. It's,

it has expanded the perspective. So do you minister mostly in churches? Yes, mostly within the body. whether that's churches or conferences, various gatherings. But we've also, after the release of my second book, it really opened the floodgates for universities as well. So we've gone into a lot of different university spaces. And then the joy of being fully mobile is all that margin in the middle. So, you know, we may go formal event to event,

but there are, you know, days in the middle there where it's just organic, you know, divine appointments, Lord, who would you have us share with and who would you have a serve? and so that's been really special as well. Sounds like a God journey to me. It's been a God journey, especially with four kids, eight and under. It's been a, I need the Holy Spirit. There's probably some other ways to describe that. So you homeschool?

We do. Yep, yep. Got a right now a second grader and a first grader. And then two boys underneath that that aren't quite school age yet. Everybody's learning, though. Yes, they are. Well, let's step back just a little bit. you were a big-time college athlete.

Was. Played soccer at LSU? Yes. Yep. I was a goalkeeper at LSU from, oh, I went in in 2008 and finished up in 2012. But, I mean, you weren't just there filling a spot. You set records for wins and you did really well. Yeah.

Athletically, college was really special. Yeah, set some records and freshman All-American, SEC, this and that. It was a lot of fun. Coolest thing, though, second game ever as a freshman scored a 90-yard goal off of a free kick that made like sports center top plays, all of this. And I'm brand new. I'm just green on the college scene. And I'm like, this I could get used to. Is this how it's going to keep going? It's going to happen every week. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I wish. And you did all that before NIL. I'm sorry. Yeah, it was, it had existed the pro league and then folded during my time of like, you know, late high school college.

It kind of had birthed again and was struggling when I was finishing up. And so it wasn't the route that I opted to go. But now, I mean, it's really neat to watch players I played with or against now just winning like World Cups and playing professionally. It's special to watch. Well, if you just had the name image likeness stuff, you could have funded your future with that. Oh, my goodness.

Listen, I was in college at the wrong time. It could have been a millionaire. there. I went to college and we still used chalkboards. Right. I don't want to hear it. Well, in spite, I mean, you had an amazing run on an academic level, but life wasn't always perfect.

I know that's a part of your story. Right. Yes. I think I'd like to know a little bit more about that. Yeah. Yeah. So, man, college was, college especially was such a unique time because on the surface, there were so many things that seemed to be excelling.

we're winning championships and starting as a freshman and playing at the top level. But behind the scenes was a very different story. Even in youth, I mean, even before college, I was just, I could have won Academy Awards for how good I was at Faking Fine and, you know, performing, I guess, for the eyes of man. But, I mean, behind the scenes, even from a young age, wrestled with identity issues, with perfectionism, with control issues. that became eating disorder, really strongholds. I mean, struggles for years. That's a real deal. I mean, that's the real deal. That's not an imagined problem.

No, no. It's, it is a spiritual, physical, mental, it is a holistic wrestling match and kept all of those things underwrap, you know, it's also something that's very much done in secrecy. but really was struggled through a lot of that. Went off to college a semester early. I graduated high school a semester early. Again, the world is just applauding. You know, all those looking on, how incredible and was grappling with what it meant to have my own faith early in college

because, I mean, my faith by inheritance was fine at home. You know, church every Sunday was great. But now I'm off in the bayou of chaos and on my own and figuring out, you know, what it really meant to walk with the Lord and come out of some of these disordered patterns and started doing well athletically, scored that goal freshman year, had this amazing breakout freshman year. And then winter break after freshman year, my dad put a gun to his heart and pulled the trigger and suicide just crashed into our story. It just catapulted me. Again, excellent at faking fine on the surface. But I'm going back to college, you know, a couple

weeks after seeing his body on a morgue table. And I continue to fake fine, but I'm depressed, anxious, anxiety attacks sitting outside the student union. I am wrestling with a spirit of suicide myself. Just mentally, the battlefield is just in my mind. Resentful, angry, hurt, fill in the blank. We'd go on the soccer field and sort of be able to forget about my problems for a little bit. So people kept applauding, you're doing so well, you're healing. You're doing so well. You're healing. I was not. I was not. I was physically given myself away. I was really just looking, I say it often, for any sin-sized peace to fill that God-sized whole in my heart. I felt abandoned, orphaned. But in my life, when I've had big disappointments, whether I say it out loud, because I'm not sure it's appropriate, I tend to be mad at God or at least blame him. Why'd you let that happen to me? Yes.

Which I can typically process into license that I deserve to be a little ungodly because you haven't treated me well. Right. And that's a toxic combination. Yes. When I read some of your stuff, I thought, oh, I drank out of that well too. Yeah. And it's only God's mercy that gets us through. Amen.

I think for people, you know, we have an enemy that always wants to give us permission to join him. And whether we've been mistreated or life's not fair or God's not fair. not fair or the government, somebody's not fair. Right, right. So being ungodly will make it better. Yeah. Which it never does. Yeah. That victim posture, that like that I carried of, um, a woe is me. And God, if you're so good, how could you let such a disaster happen? And things being disrupted from the way I thought they were going to go.

And, and being, walking in a victimhood in that, even if I acted tough, even if I acted strong, even if I acted like I had it all together. Really, that posture, it's a deep well, but it runs dry. It doesn't satisfy. I sought all sorts of things that maybe would fill me or make me feel whole or make me feel healed or numb the pain. Yeah, that's where, I mean, a lot of the relational stuff, a lot of sexual brokenness, there was a desire to just disconnect from the depth of feeling. But God's too merciful. He's just, he's so merciful. And it was about a year later, I was headed home from

LSU back to Georgia for another holiday break. And really at Wits End, angry, resentful, sick of faking fine, exhausted, suicidal ideations at times myself. Man, my phone dinging from the person that I had text to, you know, connect with when I got back to where I was going. You name it, woman caught red-handed, right, to be stoned. There was no denying the depths of what I was wrapped up in. And I was headed down the interstate and zoned out, lost control of my vehicle, flipped it several times, landed upside down in this ravine at 1.30 in the morning, completely alone and very physically broken. And it was in that place right by the Georgia-Alabama state line that the spirit of the living God just entered in and completely overwhelmed me. And it's almost hard

to put language to it. His sustaining mercy was overwhelming to me because I was upside down in a vehicle. I should have died. My Jeep, the engine was like gone. It was destroyed. His sustaining mercy at the same time, the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. I couldn't believe the power and the presence of this real and living king. It's like His holiness when you have encounter. Can't even put language to it. And why was it encountering me who the phone still be? dinging with the hook, you know, that all of this is still right on the forefront of my life.

And it was just this moment where the spirit of God just encountered me. And my eyes were opened to the fullness of the gospel. Jesus didn't just die for my sins, this generic. He died because of my sins. And this all breaks through in the midst of a... I'm hanging upside down in a Jeep. I don't know in the natural if it was two seconds. I don't know. I came in and out of consciousness some. But, man, sometimes all it takes from God is a whisper.

And the depth of what he... I think so a little bit. A little painful. But the depths of what he can speak in just a breath is really overwhelming. I suddenly understood this gospel I'd heard a thousand times over. Suddenly it became real to me. Suddenly my inequity, my brokenness, my sin. a personal accountability that yanked me out of this victimhood that just opened my eyes to my need. And at the same time, as offensive as that may feel to some, like when he really shows you the depth of your need, at the same time, it was his mercy that met me there. It was woman at the well type of sitting next to me ministering to my heart. And I yielded my life completely in that wreckage. I wanted all of God.

That's what I said before I even knew the fullness of what I was asking for. I just want all of you, filled with the Holy Spirit, baptized in fire, right in that moment, just complete 180. And it changed everything from that point forward. Jesus does that. I've been on the Damascus Road in Israel many times. I didn't know it ran along the Georgia-Alabama line. So I learned something today.

Let's not puff up in pride any of the Bama fans here. They don't need any help. They've had to run. But I think that's true. It's how God works in our lives. We don't always have the wisdom to recognize it, and we certainly don't control it. But in the midst of our brokenness, somehow we get enough of a glimpse of Jesus that it gives us the momentum to walk towards the light.

Because that other feeling is just despair. It's like you're being pulled into the darkness. And so makes perfect sense to me. We don't control that. Yeah. Even as people that do ministry, we don't control that now. We tell the story enough and pray that somebody else hears it. And somehow God does that thing that he does in their lives.

So he gets the credit. Yeah. So you come out of the car wreck. How long does it take to get better? It took me while. I had to withdraw from classes like to the completion of semester. I had broken my neck, a vertebrae in my neck, damaged ribs, lungs, liver, like jaw, face. I was a bit of a mess.

I'm still working to recover here in the brain bruising. But I had to withdraw until the end of semester and break. Then went back to school, but I wasn't yet 100% to keep playing soccer. I had to do some recovery and physical therapy. I actually dealt with the brain working to heal itself from contusions. Developed a pretty intense stutter. Just in the healing process, there was a lot of interesting things that occurred. Interesting is the word we use after the fact.

Right. It's scary as heck what it's happening. At the time, I'm like, what is going on? But, yeah, God was faithful, brought me through every bit of it and kept the journey going. You used the line. I took this from you completely, so I get no credit. But you said your faith isn't about behavior modification, but about heart transformation. And I love that. Yeah. Because one, we force from the outside, we're going to dress this way or drink this or walk this way. Right. And the other is something God initiates on the inside. And that changes everything. It does. Because we really do. We get a whole new lens, a filter, a perspective.

Yeah. No, we're still in progress. I mean, we're in process. I wish I could announce myself complete. But you recognize God did something in your heart. And I heard that in you. Yeah, yeah. I had done the behavior modification.

I grew up in the church. I think that's the eye-opening thing for many is you can know a lot about God and not really know God. You can hear a lot about God and not know intimacy with the spirit of the living God. And when we know a lot about things or maybe have heard do this, don't do that, you know, that's good. That's beneficial to have that directional pointing. But that is what I had known.

And in the midst of that, the question in the heart of manner, at least in mine was, okay. But so like how far is too far? Like what exactly were boundary pushers or at least my personality? type. I was a boundary pusher. And the real question, the spirit of God longs that we would ask is not how far is too far. How much can I get away with? What counts? What doesn't? But God, how close can I draw near to you? And so when I really had revelation of him encounter with him, there was a heart shift that longed to be in his presence, longed to be a temple he would delight to dwell in, longed to be to co-labor with him.

Like, I just, there was nothing sweeter I had encountered than his mercy and his love. And I recognized somehow early on that was going to cost me a lot. Like that, I didn't need to be disciples early on to have understanding. of this changes everything. And the object of my affection has shifted. And so even when I tried to go back to school, you know, connect with the same people that I've been friends with, everything lost its saltiness. Nothing satisfied. Nothing was good. And the difference was it wasn't this weight of condemnation that, you know, drew me into despair any longer. But when I would stray, it was a, it was a conviction. And that conviction that came always what the Lord ministered was, you know, I had.

have so much more for you. So when he'd catch me slipping, it wasn't like, shame. It was like, what are you doing? You know I have so much more with you. Come away with me. Come away. It was always this invitation. Come away with me. Come away with me. Come be with me. It changed what I could look at. It changed what I wanted to listen to. It changed how I spent my time and my energy. it changed who I was even willing to be around because suddenly my spirit, the spirit of God in me, it just, oh, I just couldn't do some things I used to do. And when the object of your affection changes,

it shifts the direction of your life, really. But you got that change out of a lot of brokenness and disappointment and things that most of us would scream, that's unfair. and then God doubles down with a car accident. And out of the broke, I think it's important for the people listening because a lot of times when you're in some journey through that stuff, you don't think there is a way out. Or God's timing.

We don't all get that full revelation while we're hanging upside down and the airbags are deployed. Some of us have to live through some of that stuff. But that is the fingerprint of God in our lives, which is entirely different than attending church and volunteering a little bit and being polite and hoping somebody noticed I was there so I get the social credit.

So how do you coach, what do you say to the people when you travel and minister to ignite that in them? How do you give them? Yeah, what's been very fascinating for me to realize and learn, I guess, is the closer I draw to the holiness, the heart of God, the more of the brokenness or the iniquity or the depravity of what I had been through, the more glaring it becomes. And the reality is the word of God says we've all fallen short of the glory of God, that we've all sinned and fallen short. And so whether you have had this intense, you know,

testimony, intense highs, intense lows, maybe more similar to what I walked through or, you know, my husband on the flip side who didn't, came from a lineage of missionaries, was brought up in a wonderful home, certainly had some challenges, but professed at a young age, has been faithful to walk, and it's so different. Yet as we each draw nearer to the heart of God, long hunger and thirst for righteousness, God, there's so much of you, so much more to know, right? So much deeper, always to go. It yields the same fruit in both of our lives. The elements that he wants to purify or sanctify or transform are just as glaring to me as Jeremiah's are to him. And so it's almost like if our prioritization becomes the genuine and personal pursuit of Jesus,

he will give revelation of himself that, isn't it? greater for the person who went through the craziness and sorry, the person who's had the calm life doesn't get as much. It's equivalent to the passion of the pursuit is the degree of revelation, right? And if all of us resolve to, I'm dead, I'm done in my sin, I'm done, I'm done, I need to know who he is. I need to know the fullness of him. I must cling to the fact that there's always more to know. As we continue to press towards that, the intensity, the power, the intimacy, the life-shifting revelation stands to be to the same quantity, to the pace which we're drawing near to his heart.

This fancy language to say you don't have to go through everything I went through to encounter the power of God. Well, I would put it a little differently. I think oftentimes when you're walking away from God and you have enough background to know it, you have that inner awareness. It's almost harder for the people that they think they've lived in the lines. I grew up with the Bible study in our home. And to come to that really awkward realization that the best I've done is still a filthy rag, that I need the redemptive power of God in my life as desperately as the person that I've been looking askew at.

Yeah. So it sounds like a perfect match to me. Yeah. You've got strength on both sides. Yes. But you're doing something, and we don't have a lot of time. and I want to take a minute. I was not aware of your ministry until a few months ago, and some friends pointed me towards it.

And your courage was shouting at me over my phone and my computer screen. I do tend to shout. You have a courageous voice in a season when cowardice has captured the church. You talk about things people don't want to talk about, not because they are inappropriate. It's because we've capitulated in too many ways to the culture. So you were spending a lot of time in interesting. energy encouraging young people towards purity and to help them be free from a lot of junk that

will disrupt them later on. It's awesome. I mean, how did God get you in that lane? And why did you raise your hand? Yeah, I don't know how. Some people, someone said to me one time, how did you go from the soccer player to like the sex lady in church? And I was like, I don't, I didn't ask for this. I don't know how it got here. But it was, it was really amazing. amazing to me, because like I said, I had grown up in the church, yet I was dealing with a lot of things behind closed doors, right? A lot of exposure to stuff at a very young age, a lot of shame that grew into curiosity, a lot of boundary pressing. And I was suffering from the repercussions, the consequences, the brokenness of that. But I didn't ever hear the church, at least

that I was around talking about those things, talking about sexual brokenness, talking about pornography, talking about a lot of this stuff that was gripping me. And I'll go even beyond those stuff, talking about, you know, affliction and dreams, talking about stronghold, like the real spiritual warfare, we're in a battle, like a battle. I never heard the church speaking into those things. And yet, when I came to know Jesus personally, that car accident, I started recovering, those things were the first things the Spirit of God started to speaking to me about. I think often of Jesus with the woman at the well, he's passing these taboo lines. Wait, you're a Jew, I'm a Samaritan. Why would you speak to me? Jesus is unconcerned with what we

would culturally call taboo. He came to set the captives free. And so all of the things that everyone seemed to get red-faced and hushed about. Yet I was like dying in the grip of, and the bond is the enslavement to, were the first things that the Spirit of God started to minister, minister, convict, counsel, teach, convict again. And the freedom that came from repentance, from eyes being opened, from, what does it say, fleeing, from throwing off that, which so easily entangled, like from even receiving his mercy in order to trade what we've been carrying with what he has for us. We have to extend what we've been carrying, right? So even realizing, oh, Lord, like everything that's happened in darkness, nothing's in darkness to you. You've seen

all of it. So there's no shame in my confession of this sin and my longing for repentance. and the exchange that was so holy, how he took of that and not only loosed me of the shame, but like girded me up of, okay, now go get them, go get my children, go get them, go tell them, go testify. It's that boasting in our weaknesses so we can point to the glory of cross. I just, the more he set me free, I felt no shame in testifying to those things because I knew that's what I needed when no one was talking about it. And the enemy has this way of just generationally silencing us in shame about certain topics and keeping so many captive. And I almost wish I could have had a, I still do. I wish I could walk around with like a hidden camera and capture the number of people that come up to me after I'll testify and speak to the power of the one who can deliver, who can set free, who can heal. They'll be like, I didn't know we could talk about that. I didn't know any other women.

I didn't know that we were allowed to. it's thousands, thousands, tens of thousands of people that are walking in this shame. It's global. It's global. It just takes different shape in different cultures based on. It's evil. And evil is universal. Yeah, it's universal. But there are so many who need to hear someone else go first at times to realize that same spirit that raised Christ from the dead. that same spirit that gave her the boldness, that same spirit is the one that Christ assures me I carry. And that spirit brings all boldness. And that spirit sets free. And so it's like you start a chain reaction when you'll just be brave enough to testify to the one who doesn't find those things taboo, but the one who can actually transform you, heal you. And so somehow I got in that seat.

I never asked for it, but we're there. Sounds like the boss had a plan. But it's so important. I mean, you know as well or better than I do, the weight of the voices that are speaking into the lives of the young people, pushing them towards ungodly things and world views that aren't biblical and put them on a path to destruction. And because the church has stumbled with this for whatever,

we've been convinced that our best approach is just to say we love everybody and wink at wickedness. there aren't and the voices seem to me to have been inadequate to give the young people those points of light to walk towards and I think that's why what you're doing is so important and I believe you'll not only help the students I believe God will use you to open doors to unleash other voices because we have to the young people have to hear an alternative to what they're being given so powerfully from every place they look yeah and you do that, and you do it from a biblical worldview with courage and consistency and honesty, which is

remarkably refreshing. You have some books. I've got a few books. Your titles are better than mine. Sex, Jesus, and the conversations the church forgot? How do we get that book? That, oh, how do you get it? And where do we find it? Hop on Amazon, moeisum.com has got links to it, but it's anywhere books would be sold. Okay. Yeah. And then wreck my life, I'm sure, is about the transformation story. Yeah, yeah. That was book one. That's the, that's the, that's the, bulk meat of the testimony and the transformation. Sex and Jesus came next, which really kind of zooms in on the sexual elements of that.

Brokenness, Jesus, redemption, healing, transformation. And then book three fully known, dives even deeper about this parallel between God's good design for intimacy with him, for, you know, relationship and the relational progression with one another and how it prophesize his gospel. And so it's, yeah, it's, if anyone wants to read him, read them in order. You'll go deeper and deeper and deeper. Yeah.

Very good. And so how are the churches responding? I'm sure it's a mixed bag. I live in church world. Yeah, it's a mixed bag. Many, I was actually, I was so encouraged, especially when the second book came out, we started speaking more into the area of sex, it's the Christian universities. I think they felt maybe they saw it day in, day out, the challenges, the struggles. And so they were the the first to just jump two feet in. And then... Thank God. Yeah, yeah, it was really amazing, too. Many churches, I think there comes a place of challenge that gets to a degree that is like,

we can't skirt this topic anymore. So many have been very open, welcome it in. But then at the same time, there's many that are still shut down to it. They are afraid, many are afraid if you talk about it, it'll put it on the young. people's mind. And I'm like, the average age of exposure to pornography right now is nine years old. So I'm not sure the church speaking about it is what's going to cause your child to suddenly learn about this stuff. It's actually the responsibility of the body. It's God's creation. There's a purpose to it, maybe deeper than we even realize. And it's our responsibility to be

laying the foundation, building blocks, right? But it's a mixed bag. Some are, Some are two feet jumping in. Some are driving me out of town. But it's worth it. Well, they did that to most of our heroes in the book, too. God's not a prude. Yes. There's some real freedom once you arrive at that place

and you realize he created us. Yeah. It was all his idea before we figured any of it out. Yeah. My guest today was Mo Isam. If you're not familiar with her, check her out online, get her books. She is a courageous voice in the midst of a world

that really is trying to diminish a bit of, biblical worldview, and I thank you for what you're doing for life on the road. Yes. Until next time. Thank you. You know, I think the great challenge in the midst of the cultural stresses we see is, what can we do? We're not powerless.

We're children of the king, and we have the authority of heaven behind us. And I think, first of all, we acknowledge that our patterns of behavior haven't been great. Because what's happening around us, we can't simply point fingers at other people. We're going to have to adopt some new patterns and some new choices. So I think to begin with, let's stop winking at immorality. Let's stop treating it as the normal behavior of teenagers or college students that we imagine the people we love going off to college are going to sow their wild oats and choose some ungodly things,

but they'll come back to faith later in life. Let's not prepare our kids for that. Because I don't think we have any guarantees along those lines. Let's begin to lead our lives as parents, as grandparents, as young people, wherever you are in that system, And in every season of our life, we choose to honor to the Lord to the best of our ability. Let's not willingly, purposefully choose ungodliness and imagine that there's no consequence. Clearly there is.

And I think the first step in significant transformation is the people of faith choosing a new path. If we'll do that, I trust Almighty God to write us a new future. If we don't do that, I trust Almighty God to bring his judgment. We're the ones that will determine those outcomes. Not a threat, it's a promise. The blessings of God are in front of us. Let's choose to honor him every day, and we can enjoy the best that the kingdom of heaven has for us.

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.