Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast - Get Ready: The King Is Coming! [Featuring John Rich]

Episode Date: August 16, 2024

“My hair was standing up on my arms while I was listening to this song. It felt like I didn't even write it,” John Rich told Pastor Allen in this podcast. Rich is a country singer who felt inspired by the Holy Spirit to write his new song, “Revelation.” It contains a warning for believers to wake up, humble themselves, and repent before Christ returns. He describes what it was like to receive this message for the world, and how he felt led to proclaim it to as many people as possible. The Church has been silent in the face of evil for far too long. It’s time for us to take a stand and be overcomers in a culture of chaos, not overlookers. Share your thoughts on this topic and watch this podcast with your friends!More Sources:"Revelation" by John Rich: https://youtu.be/Yk6YPFCUaqA?si=0s63EF0cWNbbhihZ __ 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

Kind of look out to wind of the house, I go, what do you want me to do with this? And the answer that came back to me was take it all the way to the mat, take it as far as you possibly can. And what I took by that message was, with every bit of skill and know how you've got, make the audio as good as you can, make a video that is as compelling as you can. And when you get that done, tell as big of an audience as you can possibly with no fear, go, go, go, go, go. That's what it felt like. Welcome to Culture and Christianity. I'm delighted to introduce my guest today. John Rich, you know him from country music. I know him as a friend and a man of faith and I enjoy his music. John, welcome. Thanks, sir. Good to be here. I will jump right in. You got the number one song on the charts these days, Revelation song. You sent me a bit of that back before he was all finished and bundled up, and I knew it was amazing. But I saw you do an interview with Tucker. and you were preaching better than I do. You were going through Matthew 24

like you were a Greek scholar. So tell us a little about the song, but more than that, the message that you've got because I think this is a time and place that it needs to be told. Well, the song revelation, I describe it as it was thrust upon me. I've written over 2,000 songs in my life.

And so I've gotten pretty good at writing songs. and generally you'll sit down and you'll have an idea and you'll think about it and you'll figure out how to make this into a hit song or hopefully, that's not what this was at all. I was not intending on writing this song. All of a sudden out of nowhere at my house in Nashville, it hit me like a wave. I mean like a hammer.

Like what is going on? Like that kind of a feeling, like a physical reaction to this. And I had this melody and I had these words just downloaded is what it felt like, it's in your head, and it just was rolling. Oh, revelation, I can feel it coming like a dark train running. Oh, get ready, because the king is coming. The king is coming back again, over and over and over. So after about five or six minutes of that going on, grabbed a notebook and a pencil, pulled a guitar off the wall, went to a different room in the house and sat down, and in about an hour, that thing was written. And I sat there and I said, okay, turned on my voice notes on my

iPhone there and I sang it into the phone. And then I walked around the house for the next two hours listening to it. And a hair standing up on my arms while I'm listening to this song. It wasn't my voice making the hair standing up on my arms. It was what it was saying. It felt like I didn't even write it. And at that point, kind of look out to the window of the house, I go, what do you want me to do with this? And the answer that came back to me was take it all the way to the mat, take it as far as you possibly can. And what I took by that message was, with every bit of skill and know how you've got,

make the audio as good as you can, make a video that is as compelling as you can. And when you get that done, tell as big of an audience as you can possibly, with no fear, go, go, go, go, go. That's what it felt like. So it was written in November of 23. The video was shot in February of this year,

and the song didn't get released until July the 12th. Now the whole basis of why and when to release it, I didn't really have one other than I just knew. I had this feeling that if Tucker Carlson, who was arguably the biggest guy that any of us listened to, biggest audience, if Tucker Carlson would have me on his show to talk about what this song is about, that's probably the biggest lick you could possibly hit. So I sent it to Tucker, who I didn't know very well. Met him once or twice, but I had his phone number. And I sent him the audio.

And I said, hey, Tucker, check out this song I wrote about the Book of Revelation. And he hits back and he goes, what did I just listen to? Like, what is this? And I said, when I get the video done, I'll send you that. And if you'd consider having me on your show, I'd love to come talk about this subject. He said, let me know. I said, okay, I think I got him. Send him the video a few months later when it was done.

He said, can we do July the 14th? July the 14th, and this is like March. That was awesome. I'm like, man, that's a long time to wait. That's a long time to wait. And my guts, I knew that was going to be the pivotal moment. So, okay, then that's when it is. So I told everybody just hang tight.

We're going to put this thing out in middle of July. I flew up to Maine where he's at, did the interview, and that thing went absolutely bananas. People took that song and that video and just started pushing it forward to where now I think two. weeks since that interview were up around 8 million plus views on the song and on that video. And the interview alone I did with Tucker is now 6 or 7 million views. So that was the right course of action. So there really wasn't a marketing plan around it. It wasn't something I dreamed

up like I would with all my other songs. This was very different. But you walked, in that interview, you walked through Matthew 24, which that's, Jesus is the greatest of the Hebrew prophets. And Matthew 24, Luke 21, same message, was Jesus' most lengthy prophetic discourse. Yeah. And you walked through that, like you prepared a sermon outline, better than most sermon outlines I've heard. Well, I just read it. There's nothing more powerful than just literally reading what it says with no opinion

attached, no spin attached. You know, throughout history, we know how the media gets spun. We know a war gets started, and then they spin this story to tell us why the war started or why we should be in that war or whatever. We know the media does that. That also happens with Scripture, that people take, it says what it says, but then they'll take that

and they'll sew little pieces together here and there and try to craft it into some other thing that they would prefer that, it said. And then they go forward with that. And I mean, there's all kinds of doctrines that have been built on that exact thing. I wouldn't bring a doctrine to Tucker. I was bringing the word straight to Tucker.

So I read Matthew 24, I read Second Thessalonians too, just read it top down. And when you read it in that way, it is so striking and so powerful. Tucker Carlson didn't know what to say. And he'd read it before, but he goes, I did not pick up all this when I read it. I said, well, it is a deep, these are deep things, man, that you don't necessarily pick it up the first time. The reason we went into that conversation is because prophecy and Daniel and Revelation, And other places throughout the Bible, up until recently, seem like science fiction to most people.

They could not even... That's true. No way that this is even possible. This is like sci-fi. For instance, the Mark of the Beast. The Mark of the Beast, my dad's been preaching since he was 19. Now, he's like a street preacher, prison preacher. He's that kind of preacher.

But he said, we could not understand how this is even possible. The Mark of the Beast, I mean, how is it possible you can track every human being on the face of God's earth and know how they spend their money because it says you can't buy or sell without the mark of the beast, mark of the system that's in place at that point. We just couldn't understand how that's possible. And of course, you're grinning about it now

going, well, they're tracking us right now. They know every nickel you make and every nickel you spend. So the systems are now in place with AI, with the advancements in all technology on this planet, all prophecies that have been put forward throughout the last thousands of years,

dating back to Daniel, are now very possible. So when you read those prophecies today, in the modern time, those words explode off that page because you've got a real physical touch point to exactly what it's talking about. And when I pointed that out to Tucker,

he looked like, he looked like somebody threw a bucket of ice water on it. I'm like, what? I said, is that not mind-blowing? He goes, well, yeah. He goes, you're exactly right? He said, you mean to tell me that John the Apostle,

2,000 years ago on the Isle of Patmos, wrote this stuff down. That specifically, I said, yes, that is what I'm telling you. He wrote that down specifically. And now it hadn't been possible till basically right now, and we're alive to see it. What does that tell you? He's like, I mean, it put him back in his chair. So the song, I'm glad the song did what it did.

The song was the little part. The song was the way to crowbar the door open to have the larger conversation about all these other things. Well, it's an amazing interview. If you haven't heard it, you need to go find it. Rabbi Google will help you. I want to ask a question. Michael Jordan, when he was kind of at the peak of his fame and celebrity,

made a statement. He said he wasn't going to be political because Republicans and Democrats both bought shoes. You made another choice. You're willing to take what you believe and what you think is good for our nation and to make it a part of your public persona. It takes a lot of courage. What caused you to make that decision? I'm more afraid of what he will do to me than what they will do to me.

It's as simple as that. It says in scripture, do not fear the one who can kill your body. Fear the one who can kill your body and your soul. The one who holds the keys to heaven and hell to life and death. Fear the alpha, the omega. Do not fear the creation. You fear the creator. And I do fear him.

And there's been many segments of my life where I did not fear him and I did not live correctly. and all kinds of terrible, horrible decisions I was making. And thank goodness he gave me enough slack. He slapped me around hard enough without breaking my neck but close to get me back on. And so I look at where I'm at now and go, well, what's the point of this exercise of being alive on this planet? What is the real point? Is the point for me to get as many number one songs as I can get and hang them up on my wall? Or play the biggest concerts I can possibly play?

Is that really the point? It seems so, it seems so shallow to look at it because it is shallow. That is not the point. That's not why he put us here. So I've been in the business now 31 years, started at 19, I'm 50. So 31 years, I have learned how to perform, learned how to write, learned how to take an idea and turn it into a piece of music that can go in and penetrate millions and millions of people, get them singing that song. I've learned how to do that. And it struck me not long ago that maybe the reason he lets you get so sharp doing that

was that right now in 2024, as all these things are now emerging in our world, you get to step out there and I'm going to send you songs and you're going to do them and you know how to work the media and you know how to get to all these people, go out there and get them, right? Doesn't that seem to be? Sounds right. It seems to be awful clear to me now that that's what all this was leading up to. I don't know what happens past year. if I don't do anything else, we did that. We got to drop that one because I'm going to have to answer for a lot,

just like everybody will. But I hope on this particular task, he goes, but good job on that one. Because I mean, I have. I have taken that bat and I mean as hard as I can swing it. I have swung it and will continue to. And you know, something that's happened, I never suspected. Dr. Jordan Peterson, who a lot of people, if you're listening to a podcast, you probably know who that is,

considered to be one of the most highly intellectual human beings alive on the planet today. I mean, trying to follow his conversation is, it's almost impossible, because he speaks like a psychiatrist. That's what he is, but like with multiple PhDs. Jordan Peterson calls up my camp. He says, I saw the Tucker Carlson interview. I want to talk to John about that subject. I went, no kidding. And then Russell Brand, the British guy, calls up. I want to talk to John about that. I said, well, let's see. That'd be Tucker, Russell, Dr. Peterson,

and only one more left I can think of with platforms that big, and that's Joe Rogan. Brother Pray to that that happens, because if I get to sit with Joe Rogan for two hours on this subject, to me, these are the licks that have to be made right now. These are the licks. You're making licks, I'm making licks. But all Christians, all the real ones,

better start making their licks too. It doesn't have to be Tucker Carlson. It could be in your own household, in your own little neighborhood, your group of friends. If you know what the truth is and you don't talk it and you don't step up and tell them about it, you're in big trouble. We're guilty. But when Joe Rogan calls, I'll carry your guitar, okay? I'll go along with that one. Absolutely.

But you know, you were talking about the gifts and talents and what you've learned to do and then how God's put invitations in front of you. God knows the beginning and the ending. He's the author and the completer of our story. and as I'm listening to you tell that, it makes perfect sense to me that he gave you those gifts and talents, but he's watched you walk through those, and you've grown into using them for him.

You didn't start out doing that boldly. No. But as you did that, and he could trust you, he keeps giving you more. And I think that's the truth with all of us. I think we all take those halting steps, and we feel inadequate. We feel like our story is too broken.

We've made too many mistakes, and we kind of want to stay in the shadow, But when we have the courage in all of our brokenness to step out and go, there is a right and wrong, and I'm going to acknowledge that, not because I'm always right, but because I believe there's a God. And he knows he can trust us, then he gives us bigger invitations. So I thank you for your courage. It's not our perfection. It's our willingness to acknowledge there's a God and he should be served.

Yeah, I mean, there's no such thing as a good person. There was one. We killed him. He put too much pressure on us. Yeah, we killed him, not for something that he did, but for his freedom of speech, he died, just for what he was saying. Now, there is no such thing as a good person because it says all our righteousness is as filthy rags in the side of God, meaning, well, I take care of people and I feed the homeless and I do this and I do that. Yeah, but I don't get it done. You know, too many Christians,

they like the Savior part. They don't want the Lord part. You can't have him if you don't have both sides of it. You know, people say, well, I believe in Jesus. Well, so does the devil. The devil. The devil, knows all about him. He's been fighting him for millennia. He probably knows him better than any of us know him. You think he's going to heaven? No. But he believes in him. A 100% he believes, but belief and faith are two completely different things. Like, I can believe this chair can hold me up, walk around it, look at it, go, yep, that's a nice studio. I'm sure nobody's falling out of that chair. I can touch that chair, check it out. But until I sit down in this chair and have faith that the chair will not fall out from under me and rest my entire body weight on the chair,

I don't fully believe it, do I? That's just lip service. Yeah, I believe the chair will, but I don't have faith that it will. And a lot of Christians, if they are actual Christians, approach God that way. I think there's a lot of people that think they're going to go to heaven when they die because they believe in Jesus. But they've never given it over to them. You know the terminology where it says we're supposed to be as bond servants to him. Go look that up. I know you have, but that basically means, if you really, you really belong to him, it means you belong to him like a piece of property belongs to him.

You're a piece of property, meaning your will doesn't matter, your aspirations don't matter, what you want means nothing. Now, if that lines up with what he wants, hey, right on, that'll be a lot of fun. But most of the time, that's not going to be the case. And people don't want to give that up.

Yeah, but that's half the story. The reality is everybody belongs to someone. You either belong to the devil or you're going to belong to Jesus. And if you belong to the devil, the outcome's crystal clear. He'll lead you to destruction. He'll destroy you ultimately completely.

Or you can submit to Jesus and you get a better future. And one of the devil's greatest tools of dragging people to hell is to cause them to have delusion about their situation, cause them to think that they're in the right spot when they're not.

Or think that I'm doing the right thing, I'm a good person. I go to church every Sunday on and on and on. So I'm good. I'm going to go to heaven when I die. And he just keeps him in that lukewarm spot. And he knows he's got them. And they never fully wake up and go,

holy cow, I've never actually gone completely the other way. Like it's like when I said on Tucker, repentance is like if you're driving down the highway, you look out your window there and you see Jesus Christ standing on the side of the road with his thumb up. Like, hey, can I get a ride? And you go, wow, check it out. Jesus needs a ride. So you pull over and go, come on, hop in, Jesus.

And he walks around to your. your side, knocks on the wind and says, move over, and he takes the steering wheel and turns a you and takes off in the other direction. That's what you have to be willing to do. That scares people. People don't want to give up control over their life. Nobody wants to do that, including me, including you. It's against human nature to want to give up control. Yeah, but if you give it up to God, it's okay. I want to change direction. One quick question as he wrapped this up. You won celebrity apprentice. So you knew Mr. Trump before he went to the White House.

You think it'd be good if he went back? I think it'd be all right. I think I'd be all right with that. I can't think of anybody else that could go and even begin to try to turn this situation around. Known him a long time, one thing about him, I refer to him as a blue-collar billionaire. He should take that. I should text him that and say, start calling yourself that, because that's really what he is. His mind works like a working man, like a working woman, like a blue-collar, get-your-hand-dirty kind of person.

I've seen his empathy for the working people in person. I've seen him with an elevator attendant one time, and the guy standing there at attention, you know, oh, wow, Donald Trump just walked on the elevator. And he goes, you're doing a great job. Do people treat you well? Do my people treat you well? Yes, sir, Mr. Trump.

You enjoy working here, yes, sir, Mr. Trump. Well, you're doing a great job. Stick a $100 bill in his front pocket. Pat him on the back and walk off the elevator. And that guy's like, wow. Nobody sees that except me. and I know there's probably thousands of those instances that people don't see, but that's really the heart of who the guy is.

And we need somebody like that in our country, not only with that heart, but somebody that is tough enough to take what they're throwing at him, which now is everything, including live rounds of ammunition. I mean, you talk about tough. This dude turns right around and books a bunch of more rallies. He goes, you know what, let's book a bigger one. Who does that?

I mean, that's some Teddy Roosevelt kind of stuff. truth. He's showing us leadership in a way we haven't seen it for a long time. Well, you know, being a leader is not a title. Being a leader is action. All kind of people have titles. They go, oh, he's the president of the company. He's a leader. That doesn't make him a leader. What makes him a leader is taking action. We just had a guy, well, I guess he's still in the White House now. You call that a leader? No. Whoever's behind him, I guess, are the leaders and wish I knew who they were. but Trump is a man of action

and Christians are supposed to be people of action we're supposed to be leaders can't be a leader if he ain't going to lead I can't follow you if you're behind me you step up in front so I have somebody to follow that's what a leader does if nobody's following you're just taking a walk that's it John Rich

thank you for your courage your boldness your faith keep making good music we'll do it culture and Christianity they're important they got to go together or we'll lose our freedom 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.