Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast - How Hope Was Found in a War Zone [Featuring David Eubank]

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

In this episode, the Director of the Free Burma Rangers, David Eubank, shares his experiences on the frontlines of humanitarian work in a place wrought with death and despair. David emphasizes the importance of praying with faith, acknowledging that “we can’t do much without God.” Burma has experienced over 70 years of civil war, and Eubank reflects on the challenges of working in conflict zones and how his team seeks to bring hope and healing to those who suffer. "Our job is not to fight the Burma Army or ISIS in the Middle East. Our job is to give help, hope, and love. We're not pacifists. You can fight, and some of us have. But the main thing is to share the gospel of Jesus." We each play a critical role in the pursuit of freedom, and our choices carry great consequences. True transformation begins, not with changes in policies, but with a change of heart. This episode will inspire and empower you to intentionally pray with faith and serve the people in your own community. The prayers of God's people can and are changing the destinies of nations!More Information:Free Burma Ranger: https://www.freeburmarangers.org/__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

If that was my little girl hiding under my dead wife, and I was in another country, and I knew about it, and you were there, I'd say, Reverend Jackson, please help my daughter, please. And you'll say, yeah, Dave, but I will die. Please try. Not please die, please try. So I prayed and thought, okay, if I die saving this little girl, or trying to save this little girl, my wife and kids will be sad forever, but there's no shame. This is for love. This is for love. And I said earlier, you know what, I learned the first day in seminary, you can live well with sorrow. You can't live well with shame. I love your dad.

Me too. And I'm sorry about your mom leaving us for now. I'm happy for her. Yeah. I'm just a little sad for the rest of us. Oh, yeah. But he's doing pretty well, I think. We have coffee together every morning, so.

Have you ever heard of Sadu Sundar Singh? Nope. Got to look up. Okay. Follower of Jesus, follower of the way in India. Sadu means holy man. So he's sing, meets he's Sikh, hates Christians. Not all seek, he hates Christians.

He meets Jesus, meets Jesus like Paul does. This is back in the 30s. It becomes probably the most effective evangelist ever in India at that time. Wow. It was a contemporary of C.S. Lewis. But he wrote many books. They're all awesome. But he wrote a little pamphlet in this called Visions of Heaven

by Sadu Sundar Singh. Well, Sadu Sondar Singh, another contemporary is Amy Carmichael. And, yeah. And I really respect Sondar Singh. But still, who talks about heaven? You know, so I just said a prayer of Jesus. Am I supposed to read this? As much as I respect him, like, you know, protect me from anything that's not real.

So I opened up this thing, and he has the same disclaimer. I just was told to write this. You don't have to believe it. You know, I read it. And one of the parts of his vision of heaven is a little girl. and her mom. And the mom has no other kids. Husband's dead.

One kid survives. He's in heaven looking at earth. The little girl dies. The mom is shattered. The girl comes to heaven is met by Jesus and all the other family members. Instantly happy like your mom. Looks differently back.

Can see it. Doesn't bother her. It doesn't bother her. He said time goes by. so fast when you're in heaven. Very soon the mother is in heaven. The first person she meets is her daughter with Jesus. And the daughter grabs her by the hand said, Mommy, you shouldn't have cried so much. I have so many things to show you here. Wow. Okay, long story. I read some other things. She's interesting. In his vision, there's hell. And some people even choose to go there.

Very interesting. Anyways, so I finished the whole thing, this tiny book lab, put it down. I go to bed. I'll wake up at midnight. Wake my wife up. Honey. there's something going on, something going on. I have to let it out, but I don't want to scare you. I start singing hymns. I don't ever have done that before or since. I'm singing hymns, glory to God. Then I thought, oh, something about at least the essence of that book is true.

Maybe not, who knows, right? But I don't know why you even brought that up. I guess it's about your mother. So that when we get to heaven, we don't know, but our tears will be gone. And we're like, oh, thank you, Lord. That is awesome. Well, this is culture and Christianity, and I started my conversation with my friend today before I welcomed you in. So I'm delighted to be able to introduce you to David Eubank.

He's the founder and president of the Free Burma Rangers. Yes, sir. We've had the privilege of talking on a number of occasions prior today, but maybe for some of our audience, this is a first-time introduction. And so tell us, if you will, just a little bit about the Free Burma Rangers, what you do. It's an amazing story. I'm anxious for them to get to know you a little bit. Thank you. And love meeting your dad today, too.

And with the Free Burma Rangers is a humanitarian relief group, working in conflict areas around the world where we're invited, giving help, hope, and love and getting the news out for me, in Jesus' name. And we started in Burma. That's still our main effort for the last 31 years. But we also have worked in Sudan, Iraq, Syria, Tajikistan, and now recently in Ukraine. And our main job is go and help people in Jesus' name.

At the same time, you don't have to be a Christian to join us. You'll probably get tired of all the prayers. But, you know, I did one quick story about that. We're in the Battle of Mosul. And I had a Marine join us, ex-Marine. He'd been shot four times in the Battle of Fallujah earlier. Left the Marine Corps. He was an atheist.

And he joined, and he said, Dave, I've noticed on these missions, you don't really trust me because I'm not a Christian. And I said, no, man, you don't trust me. because I talk to the invisible God on the invisible radio and make decisions based on that conversation. Do you trust me? And he goes, I trust you, Dave. I said, then I trust you.

Let's go, man. And sir, earlier on the show, I talked about the guy who shot six times next to me. I was shot. When we were in that street, fighting for our lives, this atheist ran out to help me. And I said, Justin, you don't know God. You say you don't, but you do. because God is love. Greater love is no man than this. He laid down his life for his friends.

You came out to me twice as happened. In heavy gunfire, when you don't want to be there, he risk his life to save me and help in this case, Lieutenant Hussein. So Justin does know God, by another name, called Love. He just hasn't surrendered everything to him yet. So Free Berman Rangers, you don't have to be a believer. But those of us who lead it and most of us in it have realized without Jesus, we can't do much good. And so we follow him because he saves us. and we always share that. But you don't have to believe it, but you've got to do it for love.

Well, I doubt most of our audience could find Burma on a map. Tell us where it's at. Sir, if you went straight through Tennessee, came out the other side, you'd be kind of close to Burma, I think, if not exactly in the middle of it. And so Burma sits between India and Thailand

onto the west and the east, India and Thailand, below is Malaysia and above is China. It's in Southeast Asia. And they've had a civil war now for more than 70 years? 74 years, sir. Burma is also called Myanmar.

It has two. names. Burma's the old traditional name and the dictator stuck on Myanmar, so you can call it either one. Civil War for 74 years as different dictators have continually tried to crush their own people. And it's the heaviest fighting we've seen in the last three years because the Burman majority finally joined the ethnics for freedom and that really scared the dictators in the army. And the dictators and their army supported by Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran, all the bad countries, not all of them, but some, support the dictators. that kill the people in Burma.

So we're standing with the people and providing humanitarian relief and the gospel anywhere we can. I mean, certainly God can do anything, but what's the hope for a resolution of that civil war? Well, the pro-democracy forces are actually winning. They control two-thirds of the country. Now, they don't control any major city,

and they don't control the major border crossings, but they control two-thirds of the country. So it's quite a contest. I feel like the pro-democracy groups will win. our role in that is, so that's one of the hopes. But to me, democracy doesn't work without love. Otherwise, it's two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner. And so you, and where does love come from?

When I run out of love, only Jesus gives it to me. I've had times when I've hated people. I hated ISIS and killed this kid next to me. And the only thing that could take that hate away was the power of Jesus. Wow. And I've had that happen. So our hope is sharing the gospel anywhere we can so that as we help people, and we're very political. We want democracy.

We want freedom. But I also realize without God, it's not going to end up being freedom. On the walls of this church, you have written something by Billy Graham about without democracy based on God, freedoms will evaporate. And that's true. Absolutely. So Free Burma Ragers is really focused on humanitarian aid. Yes, sir. To suffering people in many places in the world.

But your background, you are a green beret. Yes, sir. And you went to Fuller Theological Seminary. I did. That's got to be a short list of people that checked those boxes. So you have a theological background, but you also know, you work in some places that are, there's still bullets flying. Yes, sir.

And, I mean, I know you've lost a lot of people who work with you. I think for a lot of people listening that, it's hard to believe there are places as dangerous in the world as they really are. Yes, the places we work are not the only dangerous places, but they are dangerous, because the government in this case is trying to kill its own people. In fact, when I was in seminary, one of my professors said that your biggest danger in the world is not from a foreign government, historically from your own government. You look at the amount of people killed.

How many people Stalin killed? 50 million or 20 million, Mao Zittung of China, 50 million. Hitler, you know, we're, there's some exceptions to that. But the places we work is generally their own governments killing their own people. And we've lost 65 of our team and hundreds of them wounded. And so it is dangerous. Our job is not the fight, the Burma Army or ISIS in the Middle East when they were stronger. Our job is to give help, hope, and love.

We're not pacifists. You can fight. And some of us have. but the main thing is to share the gospel of Jesus and help. But in the middle of that, yeah, you're in harm's way. And I remember someone asked me, there's a scene, if you've ever seen our documentary, or we're trying to say this little girl in the streets of Mosul,

and I finally get an Iraqi tank to go in front of us, and we're running behind a tank, and we had the Americans dropping smoke. That's all on a Jesus relationship with. I'm long out of the army by now. And I remember to get this girl is probably I'm going to die. and everybody, one of us is going to die. And I remember praying about that, and I have a wife and three kids, but I thought, if that

was my little girl hiding under my dead wife, and I was in another country, and I knew about it, and you were there, I'd say, Reverend Jackson, please help my daughter, please. And you'll say, yeah, Dave, but I will die. Please try. Not please die, please try. So I prayed and thought, okay, if I die saving this little girl, or trying to save this little girl. My wife and kids will be sad forever, but there's no shame. This is for love. This is for love. And I said earlier, you know what? I learned the first day in seminary,

you can live well with sorrow. You can't live well with shame. And I keep going back to your mother because I just learned about that thing. You're going to be sad until you see her. Of course, because you love her. But what a glory and honor to be her son. You've got to have her on this world. So I'm glad I didn't die. I just thank God. I don't deserve it. And we got the little girl a lot. say we, it wasn't just me. It was our team, people praying, the Iraqi army, the American smoke. It's a big team effort. I want to take a little aside for a moment. You mentioned your kids. Yes, sir. I understand tomorrow that you and your kids are going to go jump out of perfectly good planes. Yes, sir. I was a Halo team leader in Special Forces. You jump at night

with oxygen and all your gear and all that. Mostly you fall out of the plane with all your gear. But I don't really love skydiving. But I keep current at it so that we're able to to go anywhere in the world to help people. And it is kind of fun sometimes. And so my kids, we tandem my kids when they were small to get them in, too, because we all go everywhere as a family. Tandum, so you jump together. You're connected when you jump.

Right. Okay. But when my friends did the actual tandeming, and I just jumped beside them. But then later when they became of age, 18, by American rules, we want to do that, too, Dad. So they've all got their licenses. And one's the last one in nursing school, didn't have the same. amount of time, so she's halfway through hers. And so tomorrow, I'm all hopefully, I'll get back there. Thanks for helping me get on the plane earlier. I'll get back in time to jump with her and my son,

which is neat. But it's like anything else in life that is possibly risky. I look at her, before we get on the plane, we say, Jesus is supposed to do this? We don't want to do this because of pride, do this because of joy and opportunity, because this is dangerous. And I look at her, and she and I are the two jumping chickens in my family. My son and my other daughter and my wife, they think it's the funnest thing ever. We're kind of like Dritten Ortiz. Okay. But we've climbed together, we rodeo together, we've done everything together.

And it's just neat to, a gift from God. And I'll just say the last thing about skydiving. One time I spoke to church in California. And in the morning we surfed. And then I spoke at the church. And then I got on an airplane and jumped. And I can see the ocean. And I remember as I left the aircraft with my wife, we did a two-way hanging on each other.

I thought, God, none of this is important. none of this is essential. You gave us this world and say, do it. And so we made a surfboard, somebody did. Somebody made an airplane and now we're jumping out. None of this is crucial, but you give us these gifts. And you know, for the listeners, it may be something totally different. It may be opera or country singing or golf or anything. These are God's gifts for us to enjoy. And he's given us creativity similar to his to make things. And so it's not, they're not good or bad. It's how do you use them? And so for me, I just pray all the time. Lord, thank you for the may they not be my aim. May they just be things we get as we go through life.

Well, for the record, my aim is not to jump out of a plane. You're saying, sir. But if it's required and necessary, I'm sure you would. You can sign me up. Yes. I want to come back. The first time I ever met you, it was a Zoom interview, but the topic was about the persecuted church. And we had a long conversation.

And I think for most of our audience, they're pretty much unaware. I mean, the Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world. and you're really the point of the spear and interceding, intervening on half of a lot of those people. Talk to us just a little bit about all the places where you've been where Christians are suffering because of their faith. Right. Well, the first thing I thought of was Syria. ISIS took over a third of Syria. And the first thing they did is destroy the churches.

And there were a lot of churches in Syria. There still are some under Assad's dictatorship side. But we were in northeast Syria. and the capital of ISIS, the capital of their worldwide caliphate was in Raqa, Syria, on the Euphrates. And there was an Armenian church there. And I remember the first time I saw it was Raqa was liberated. It was wrecked, bombed and erect. And I went to it, and it was ruined.

It's just like a shell of itself. ISIS had blown it up. And then ISIS had tunneled underneath it because the superstructure was there. You kind of see it's a kind of church-like. like a cathedral look, like the flying wings and buttresses, that's all that was left. And they tunnel or anything put their headquarters there because they knew the allies, the Americans had it marked as a church. They would never bomb it.

They wrecked it first, and then they hid it underneath it. So I walk in that church with our team. We've been in Syria since 2016 back and forth. So we were there through the whole ISIS thing. And I walked in that church, and I prayed this prayer. I said, hey, let's pray. And my whole team gathered around. We prayed.

And I said, Lord, please bring it. Christians back to this church and help us rebuild it back to this city. There was no Christians left in Iraq at this point. They all left. They're mostly Armenians. And as soon as I said that prayer, I said, that's a dumb prayer. First of all, who would ever want to come back to Syria? And second, no one will build this church. And I said, God, that was just a reflexive Christian prayer with no sincerity. Forgive me. How do you want me to pray? And God spoke to me very clearly. pray that again this time with faith. Wow.

Okay. Lord, I'm sorry. Please bring the Christians back and rebuild this church. Amen. I walk out of the rubble. A guy walks up to me with an AK-47, a guy behind him. What are you doing in my church? This is your church?

Yeah, we're Armenian. There's only four of us left. And I was shot four times by ISIS. He shows me his body. I said, we're praying to rebuild the church. He goes, you're going to do it? I said, no, God's going to do it. I have no money, man.

But we're praying. I will help you. His name is William. Well, I had my tithe, like $300 or whatever, I had in my pocket. I said, well, this is Sunday. Here's the down payment on the church. We'll pray for the rest. 2017, 1819.

Three years later, that church is built. Wow. By American Christians sending money. That church is built. And Franklin Graham got involved at the very end. Dave, what do you need to finish this? Oh, I need 50 grand, sir. He goes, you got it.

And so Samaritan's first finished it off. But there were many other believers, my friends, the Thalings, and so many others, you know, that pitched in. And so here you are in Raq, a city is a beautiful church. Wow. And a few people going back to it now, like 20 or something, Armenian Christians. So that's one thing I saw, and it just makes me happy. I thought, well, we could be part of that. And in...

The Lord honored your prayer. Yeah. That's awesome. Unbelievable. Absolutely. And we don't build churches. Right. Right. You know, you said something that I think is worth just a moment that in Syria they destroyed the churches.

But one of the hallmarks of authoritarian governments, dictators typically, socialist, communist, is either they have to silence or completely obliterate the churches. And I don't think most of us who are Christians imagine understand the role we play in freedom. It's the gospel that brings freedom to human lives. You know, we've been coached into this almost cowardly Christianity where we argue whether we're Methodist or Baptist. or Episcopalian. And the gospel of Jesus Christ transforms lives and brings freedom to people. There's no other force like it on planet Earth. And if the church is silenced or the church willingly silences ourselves, there's tremendous suffering that comes to humanity. And we need

the church to find the courage to be advocates for Jesus again. You're always such a good reminder of that. Thanks, sir. You go places that are difficult to do what we're unwilling to do in our local communities and schools. So I pray people listening can gain some courage from your boldness. Thanks, sir. So you mentioned Syria

in the Middle East. Where else are the free Burma Rangers these days? Burma's our primary effort. Yep. And churches are definitely a target there. Not in the cities where the dictator's control.

They've got control of that. But anywhere outside they realize the church is a visible symbol of the invisible threat of people's faith. And if there is a God, of him too.

And they don't like that. So almost any church outside is bombed and destroyed by the dictators. And so we see that in Burma. In Iraq, the neighborhood on the west side of the Tigers River in Mosul, one of the last place is liberated, is called Howie Kinesa. It means Knessa's church in Arabic. It's the place of the churches. Every one of them destroyed.

Historically Christian place. Jonah's tomb was there. That was wrecked by ISIS. But still, the church is coming back. And in Ukraine, we have a small rotation, a little ministry of presence in Ukraine. Chaplains and medics going together. We've done four of these trips. I did the first one for our organization with my family and medics from Burma.

Pretty funny. They're funny. They're like hobbits, you know. Went second breakfast. They're in third breakfast. But they're super brave. Every church I saw outside of Kiev was hit purposely. Russian weapon system is very accurate.

every single church anywhere near the front line was hit. Boom. And sometimes you'd see a Russian Orthodox church untouched. And every other one, Ukrainian church, smoked. So this is what we see. And in our country of America, I thank God for you, sir, and the American church. Because people ask me, what's the greatest thing about America? Well, I love the nature because I like to climb and surf and ski and jump.

It's really unique. The political system is pretty good. You've got democracy, you can vote. But you know what makes America special? Is people following Jesus. It's the American church. And there's all different kinds. That's what makes America really different.

That's what makes it home. And so I'm grateful. I want to say one word, hopefully, of encouragement. Before I was in Special Forces, I was in the Ranger Battalion. And the second Ranger Battalion had a 50th anniversary last week. And as I came into the United States, I stopped there. and here's a formation in full uniform of all the Rangers. They're all young guys, right?

And helicopters and all this and band. The chaplain walks out. I wonder what he's going to say. Is it going to be a watered down prayer? No. The prayer is the whole gospel of Jesus. God's sending his son on this earth to die for our sins. He says the whole thing in this prayer.

And then he says, Holy Spirit, come, wash over all of us. I thought it was in a church service. And he says, displace any other spirits. and you could feel it. And then three times the name of Jesus and his story was lifted up. And then we sang Amazing Grace. This is on an Army Post. So it's not over.

And I asked the chaplain, how do you do that? Why wouldn't I do it? This is why I'm here. And so even the military sometimes is under a ton of pressure to conform to immorality. But there's still many wonderful Jesus followers in our military. And I thank God for that. we've all got to use as our voices and support them. Well, you mentioned prayer.

A lot of the people who listen to this are people who pray. Tell us how we can pray for you. Me personally, to be a true follower of Jesus, not sin, and when I do confess it quickly. Ask for forgiveness and give forgiveness. Be an obedient follower of Jesus so I can be an ambassador for Jesus. That's personal and for my family to do the same. And then for our organization to be part of God's kingdom in his way.

Not to be proud, not to be jealous, not to seek after things, but to serve him wherever we can around the world. And then for the resources to do that to help people. It's fun to help. You all help a lot of people. Isn't it fun to help people? It is. When someone says, I need this, you go, yes, here it is.

So we want to be able to do that as well. So I think, and then protection, because I'm a chicken, and access. Some places we go, they don't want you there. So we need access. So whoever prays, that's my list. Thank you. I have a hard time thinking of you as a chicken because I'm concerned what category that puts me in. So if somebody wants to support you, support the Free Burma Rangers and Dave Eubank, how do they do that?

Well, I think first pray, because maybe God wants to do something else. But if it support us, we would thank you. We have a website, Freebremorangers.org, and there's ways to donate through that website. We have a 501.3C that also is on the website. It's called Free the Oppressed. Free Bram Rangers operates under that title, Free the Oppressed. It's a 513C based in Colorado. That's how we pay Caesar and make sure our ducks are in a row.

That's important. Yeah. Well, a big part of this podcast is always what we can do piece. You know, it's not theoretical Christianity or just, we're not a civic club. Right. I'm not opposed to those. But so help us imagine a little bit. You have a window into the world and the suffering church in a way that most of us don't.

It's not theoretical for you. You actually have the, you're like the Apostle Paul. You have the marks on your body. if you were going to talk to the American Church about what we need to be doing that brings hope and strength to the body of Christ around the world, what would you coach the American church to do these days?

Obedience at all cost to what Jesus has you do, personally and corporately. Abedience to Jesus at all cost. Everybody just get down on your knees and pray together. Lord, what do he wants to do? Starting right here and going out, and he will show you what to do,

whether it's in our... communities and our country or other places in the world. And we're a family. Those who follow Jesus are a family. And we're connected all over the world. And so I think it starts in our personal relationship with Jesus and each other and then the world. And then I have to talk on teamwork to the Corps of Cadets on Monday. And I was thinking one thing our organization does together is confess our sins, forgive each other. And if you can't forgive, you can't be part of the organization. That's it. And nothing we can do will break each other.

We'll never break. You can betray me. As long as you say you're sorry and you mean it, I'll forgive you, and we will stick together. We'll make the stupidest mistakes ever. Who did that? How did you ever do that? You broke everything. If we stick together, nothing can break us from the outside.

We'll only break from the inside. I think that's true of the church too. Your pastor lets you down. Okay, call it out. Confess your sins. Ask God what to do. Stick together. because none of us are perfect.

And the devil can't break that. That's God in the center of it. And then God will help you go out as far as he wants you to, anywhere in the world, to help your fellow family members around the world. That's really good coaching, Dave. You redefine what it means to be a missionary. You're taking the love of Jesus to the difficult places in the world to people who have been overlooked and forgotten.

and you do it in the face of some tremendous persecution. Thank you for representing our Lord so well. Thank you. Can I say one more thing? Please. You can cut it out. It just came to me, and I hope it's of God. When Afghanistan fell, we went to go help.

The whole thing collapsed fast. You mean when the U.S. withdrew? Okay. Now, you can debate should the U.S. withdrawal or not. And it's a real legitimate debate. But the way we left was inept and cowardice. And we were involved trying to get Americans on the base, and over 800 that we know of did not, were not allowed in. I had a family from Emerilla, Texas, blue passports, Ronnie Jackson's advocating for.

I'm like, what are you doing? They weren't allowed in 36 hours before takeoff. Inept and cowardly and shameful. Okay. We went to help. And then we go, we can't help, Brady there. We go to Chikistan. We're coming into the, to the Penshear Valley to set up humanitarian corridor.

That falls apart. So I ended meeting with Amrullah Saleh. So the president, Ghani, he leaves. He runs away with a bunch of money. Enrula Saleh stuck. He has his own story. I don't think I have time to tell you about how God talks to him. He's the Muslim.

But this is the main thing. Well, I'll say it real quick. Amrua Salé is going to kill himself. The Taliban are coming in. He's lost his whole country. He's going to die. And he says, God, I've served you my whole life. And you let this whole country fall apart.

Just how should I die? And he said, I saw writing in the air. You have not served me your whole life. You served yourself. And you've depended on yourself. You never depended on me. Wow. Give up everything.

He said, I had a bag of a few hundred thousand dollars, my go bag. I gave this local herder. I gave him my pistol and my two iPhones. And then God's peace came over me. I went to sleep. I woke up the sound of tanks coming right down the panchure. Venture Valley, very narrow. It's Taliban tanks coming in.

I was terrified before. I was no longer afraid. to open the window. They're looking for me, the president of Afghanistan, head of security before, responsible for many Taliban deaths. They hate me. I was not afraid.

God's presence was over me. I opened up and smiled at them. They did not recognize me. Long story short, he was rescued. Right after that, I met him. And he said, Dave, tell this to the American people. The way you left was cowardly, inept, and pitiful. You should recognize that and say you're sorry.

Do you think we thought you're Superman? No. Are you fallible? Yes. Just say it. Just say it. And get up and lead. Because there's no one like your country. You know why Afghanistan fell? It's not America's fault. You gave your sons, your daughters, your money, your treasure. You tried so hard. It's not your fault. The fall of Afghanistan is the fault of the Afghan people, us. We were too selfish, too wicked. The only blame yourself with that one tactic. critical error. We caused it. So get up. Say you're sorry for that. We should be responsible of what we did. You'll be forgiven. You're just human. We never thought you weren't anything different. And get up and lead. Because if you don't, Russia or China will take your place. And they aren't embarrassed when they do bad things. They do them on purpose. When Americans do bad things, you did it kind of by accident. You don't want to do that. You have a different heart. So please, he said, when you see the Americans say, thank you for trying to save my country. We forgive you for how you left. Just say you're sorry. Just be normal. But keep leading because America is used by God.

This is a Muslim. A Muslim leader. I'm Rul-Salle. And now he's in exile. So that may not, may or not be part of your program, but I just felt I wanted to share that. I think it's part of our program because we've had too many leaders that say they've never been proud of our nation, where they're ashamed of our nation. And the American people have to come back to understanding God has blessed us. He has shed his grace on this nation. And we do have a role to play in the world. Not because we're perfect. We have to repent, acknowledge our weaknesses, our sins. But if we will do that, God will help us bring light and hope to another generation. Yes, sir. That's culture and Christianity, and that's not about a sermon in a church.

That's about real people living that out in the difficult places of the world, and we want to be a part of that. Dave Eubank, thank you. Thanks, sir. May God bless the free Burma Rangers. Thank you, sir. You know, I've heard it said that Jesus wasn't involved in culture, that he was a theologian. Well, I'm quite certain the devil wants us to believe that. We have to take our faith outside the walls of the church and live it out in the world in which we find ourselves. I've written a new book, Jesus, his followers, and politics. It helps us take our biblical worldview into the culture and be difference makers. Folks, we can't hide in the churches and preach sermons. We've got to make an impact in this world with the good news of Jesus Christ. This book will

give you a template, a roadmap for doing just that. I believe it'll be a blessing to you. So many things that our culture calls political are actually biblical. Let's focus on following God and he will provide all we need to take his truth to the people around us. Request your copy of Pastor Allen's new book, Jesus, his followers, and politics. When you donate $25 or more today, just go to Alanjaxon.com or call 800-8805102. 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.