Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast - Spiritual Tremors, Lawless Leaders, & Signs of the End Times

Episode Date: November 14, 2025

Political unrest, moral confusion, and spiritual deception are increasing, leading many to ask if we are approaching the end of the age. In this episode, Pastor Allen Jackson examines the “birth pains” Jesus described and what they reveal about the times we are living in. He explores how spiritual deception, false ideologies, and ungodly leadership are shaping the times we live in—and what that means for the people of God. Through Scripture, this conversation challenges believers to recognize the moment we are in and to stand firm in faith rather than live in fear.—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

Welcome to Culture and Christianity's Pastor Allen. I appreciate you participating in these podcasts. They give me an opportunity to have a little bit of a less structured conversation about what's unfolding around us from a biblical worldview. And there is a lot unfolding. We're just back from Israel's first time I think I have talked with you in this format since I got back from Israel. it's really still startling to me to see the anti-Semitism, those battles raging across

conservative ideological spectrum and thought leaders. I don't need to get into the names. I'm sure you're familiar with them, but I'm not trying to pick a new fight with anybody, but there's some really, really bad theology out there. The Book of Romans makes it really clear. we have an obligation to the Jewish people and not to fight all their wars but to be advocates for them in the face of the kind of hatred we see and everybody should understand

the hatred for the Jewish people is coming for you it's the same spirit so if you see the Jewish people being marginalized and accused of everything from Jeffrey Epstein to controlling the global media narrative to whatever it may be that same hatred's coming

for you as if you're a Christ follower, and it will be just as illogical and irrational. If I're going to give a topic to this session, I think it would be fierce time, but we don't have to be afraid. And so I'm going to take a minute and tell you why I think the times are fierce, and then we can talk a bit about why I think we don't have to be afraid. You can do, or maybe a better way to title it is fierce times and courageous choices, because I believe we can demonstrate tremendous courage by choosing not to react out of fear. You can do the right thing while you're overcoming fear, and too many Christ followers, in my opinion, are capitulating to fear.

If I do that, I'll lose business. If I do that, my children will lose an opportunity. If I tell the truth, there'll be repercussions. And we're making fear-based decisions, and we're not living with the courageous faith. And if we don't change, we're going to forfeit our future. future. But let's start with the fierce times. Shouldn't be surprised. It's biblical. Second Timothy 3. Paul said, take note of this in the last days. The times will be exceedingly fierce. Most of the modern translations say something about terrible times or difficult times.

But the Greek language there, it says the times will be exceedingly fierce. The words only used one other place in the New Testament. And it describes the demonized man that lived amongst in the cemetery that came to meet Jesus. And there it does say that he was exceedingly fierce. And I think that's probably the better translation of the language. So if the times are going to be fierce, what do we do with that? We've been given a notice. We've been given advance warning.

Do we panic? Do we go by land in Montana? I wouldn't. It's on the fault line. But what do we do with that? Well, let me add to that one other passage of scripture. In Matthew 24, Jesus is speaking. it's a prophetic discourse from Jesus.

Of all the Hebrew prophets, Jesus is the greatest. Greater than Isaiah, greater than Jeremiah, whomever. And in Matthew 24, it's his longest prophetic message. He gives some prophetic words, some statements, some glimpses. But this is a long, cohesive dissertation. Matthew 24, Luke 21, parallel accounts of the same message. And at the beginning of that, in Matthew 24, in verse 8, Jesus uses this phrase, he said, all of these things are the beginning of birth pains. He's just listed about a dozen

signs that are going to characterize the end of the age. And he said, they're the beginning of birth pains. That's a very meaningful image to me. My dad was a veterinarian, and as you've heard me say many times, I've seen lots of things be born, calves, foals, baby horses, puppies, kittens, some odd other things. I don't identify as a birthing person. So I haven't given birth, but I've watched it a lot of times. And once those birth processes start, there's some things that are consistent across all the species. So I think they would be consistent with Jesus' message that once the birth pains begin, they're going to continue to increase in frequency and in intensity until there is a birth, until there's a delivery.

So when Jesus said there's a beginning of birth pains, I believe it's a realistic expectation that those tremors, those contractions are going to increase in intensity and frequency until the arrival of the kingdom of God. So whatever your theology allows you to imagine about the end of the age, and I believe we are approaching the end of the age, then I think there's going to be these birth pains continue, and they're going to increase in frequency, meaning they're going to happen more often, identifiable contractions, and they're going to be more. more and more intense. I've also used the imagery of an earthquake.

You know, when there's an earthquake, there's usually four shocks, little minor earthquakes prior to the biggest earthquake. And after the earthquake, there's aftershocks. And I think that's a similar imagery to those birth pain ideas. So I've been describing them as tremors, contractions, whichever language you're most comfortable with. I think 2020 we had a contraction. We had a tremor with the Wuhan virus that came to us.

You know, there was so much unknown about it, a tremendous disruption of our lives that is still disruptive to our lives. Just this year, government employees were called back to the office to go to work. 2020 changed health care as we know it. 2020 changed the church, as we have known it in America, in my lifetime. A third of the church didn't come back. I mean, our congregation has grown, but we're something of an anomaly across the United States. About a third of the church didn't return.

And we can talk about live stream and alternative things, but the reality is it was a tremendous disruption. So 2020 was a tremor. I think October the 7th that Hamas attack in Israel was another contraction. I wasn't prepared for that. I understand terrorism and terrorist attacks. I've been in and out of the Middle East for 40 years. What I wasn't prepared for, to me, one of the characteristics of these tremors is there's an event, but it's the unanticipated consequences. The shaking that God initiates reveals to us something that we didn't see previously.

I didn't understand how fragile our institutions were in 2020. I thought the CDC was trustworthy. I thought the FBI was trustworthy. I thought pulpits were more trustworthy. The shaking prove those things to be false. They weren't. October the 7th, I wasn't surprised by a Hamas attack on Israel. That's part of Hamas's charter. What I didn't anticipate, what I wasn't prepared for, was the cauldron of anti-Semitism that began bubbling on the most celebrated college campuses in America, Columbia, Brown, Harvard. And now it's spilled way over beyond that. And it's being expressed across the conservative spectrum in many ways. I didn't anticipate that coming, and it hasn't diminished. It isn't apologetic.

It's not going away. It's become a part of the landscape in the same way that so many of those things became a part of the landscape in 2020. And I think these tremors and contractions are going to continue. I think they're going to come more frequently. I think they're going to be intense. I think it's a part of the world we live in. Not frightening to me.

Kind of exciting. Things that I didn't see are being made visible. I'd rather know the circumstances. You can't, and if you go to the doctor and you get a good diagnosis, then you can make a plan to get healthier. Without the diagnosis, you're just being ravaged by a disease process. And I think God in his mercy is shaking the earth, and he's making things visible so that the people of God

can make the necessary course adjustments and the responses. We can take our place. It's not nearly as frightening to me as it is. I'm aware that we're in an intense season, and God's inviting us to new response. It's kind of exciting, actually. You know, you don't have to look far to see that our economy is in real turmoil. Our nation is $37 trillion in debt.

Inflation rates made it hard to buy and sell a house, even a car. We're all feeling it. When you go to the grocery store and you spend an extra dollar or two in every item, that gets personal in a hurry. Well, the most important thing we can do during uncertain times is to invest ourselves in knowing God better. Read his word, pray. That's the only place we're really going to find stability we need. for the disruption that I'm pretty certain is ahead of us. Beyond that, it's just plain wise

to make the best decisions possible in our daily lives, with our investments. When you think of all the options out there, gold is an investment that has stood the test of time. That's why I work with preserved gold. They've treated me with honesty, integrity, kindness, every step of the way. They're offering a free wealth protection kit,

and all you need to do is text Allen, that's A-L-L-E-N to 50-505. As a bonus, you'll get up to $15,000 in free gold and silver with a qualified purchase. Go ahead and text them today. Well, I'm of the opinion, and the unintended consequences are not as clear to me yet. But at this point, it seems to me that the elections last week were another contraction. There's a lot of ways we can unpack that, I suppose, but the beginning of birth pains is simply. New York City is the largest city in America.

They had a historic turnout for the election. They had more people participate in the election than they'd had to participate in more than 40 years. And the choice of the people, not surprisingly, I think we all knew it was coming. All the polling suggested it was coming, but the citizens of New York chose someone who is a very open Muslim, socialist, communist, depending on how you want to parse his public speech. So the largest city in America, about a tenth of our national economy is represented in what comes through New York City, is now under the leadership, the requested leadership, the selected leadership, the intentional leadership of someone who identifies proudly as a Muslim and a socialist. Well, if there are two ideologies, two political ideologies prevalent in our world that are committed to the diminishment, if not the destruction of America, America. They would be Islam and socialism. Not a surprise. Stated goals. Pretty apparent. I mean, you could probably find some arguments on the other side. But, I mean, we just bombed Iran, a leader of about a half of the Muslim world. And Iran for multiple decades has said as soon as they were able to formulate nuclear capabilities, they intended to use them to destroy America.

we bombed Iran's nuclear reactors a few weeks ago, and now the largest city in America has a Muslim mayor. There should be something a little unsettling about that to all of us. And I think the most unsettling part is the most of us don't care. I think, well, I mean, I can still go to New York to see a play on Broadway, or I can go at Christmas time because I like to see the Christmas decorations, or I want to go shop. It's certainly a center of much of fashion. So it still suits my social calendar, and it won't bother me if I'm just in and out for a few days.

Well, I believe that's beyond naive. If the largest city in America is under the influence of Islam and socialism, it's going to have repercussions for all of us. How many of us believe the cultural trends of New York affect our lives? All of us should. They may not affect them in the first 30 days of the changes or the trends being revealed in New York, but they trickle down. And the ideas and the values that are going to be expressed and given a place in New York City are coming to all of us. And so I think there's a willful

ignorance on the part of the people of God. Just as people as Christians, as Christ followers, as church folk, it should make us a little uncomfortable that the largest city in America says we don't want to be led by someone who has a biblical worldview. We want to be led by someone who worships a false God. As Christians, that has to be of a fundamental concern to us. We should be questioned then about our fidelity to the first two commandments. This isn't about Mamdani to me. This isn't about an individual.

It's about the values that he represents and the choices we've made. He may be a sterling fellow, but his life choices and his values are such that we are not only entitled to an opinion, I think it's incumbent upon us to have an opinion. And the indifference of the people of God is going to bring the judgment of God. We have to change. I have said many times, I'm sure you've heard me say it if you listen to the podcast, the great challenges we face are not because of the depravity of the wicked. It's not because ungodly people have plunged into new depths of wickedness and immorality. The problems we face are because of the ambivalence, the indifference of the faithful. We're getting pretty much

what we want. We can still schedule a cruise for our kids at the holidays, or our kids can still get in the schools they want, or go to the colleges they want, or they're still participating in rush and they're getting into the fraternities or the sororities that we wanted them to. Or whatever, whatever our point of distraction is, we're distracted enough that we think these blatant expressions of wickedness, ungodliness, of an intentional rupture of the fundamental directions that God has given us are inconsequential. And I don't think anything could be further from the truth. I believe they are of such consequence that we're very close to finding ourselves in a circumstance, much like the book of Jeremiah describes. When God says judgment is

coming for you, you're going to lose all of the best things of your life that have described them and defined them, and there's absolutely nothing you can do. I believe in grace and mercy. If you look grace and mercy up, you'll probably find my picture. I have needed them. But I'm concerned for us. I can give you a little broader reason for that. It isn't just New York City. The mayor of Chicago, the governor of Illinois, which is a matched set, are doing everything in their power to ensure that Chicago remains a sanctuary city, meaning people who have come to our nation illegally. Many of them who have been violent criminals have been migrated to Chicago. They're being protected by the mayor of the city and the governor of the state.

they're doing everything in their power to keep federal law enforcement from removing those people. They started with the people who are the most violent criminals, and they've done everything in their power to protect them. Meanwhile, Chicago has murders by the dozen. It is not a safe place for the citizens of Chicago, but you don't hear that anxiety being expressed by the mayor of the city or the governor of the state. They're far more interested in opposing what I is trying to do to remove the most violent criminals. It's difficult to imagine, and our response, this isn't new, this has been happening for weeks and months, it's in the news, you don't hear it from the pulpits, you don't hear churches

saying anything, because we say we don't want to be political. This isn't politics. This is about yielding to authority. We are a nation who we have lived, we have flourished under the authority of law, and those laws have been suspended, intentionally suspended and broken and violated by millions and tens of millions of people with the aid and support of the most powerful leaders in our nation. It's continuing in our cities. I describe Chicago.

Los Angeles is no different. The mayor of Los Angeles is doing everything in their power to maintain their sanctuary city status with the full support of the governor of California, Gavin Newsom. doing everything in their power in the governor's language to Trump proof the state in a blatant open resistance to the president of the United States and federal law. So you've got New York, Chicago, Los Angeles. You can roll Portland into that. You can roll Seattle into that.

There's along the major cities, the most celebrated cities, San Francisco, some of the most beautiful cities in America, ignoring federal law, harboring violent criminals, doing their best to diminish, to make vulnerable federal law enforcement, celebrating every sort of ungodliness and immorality. I read just today about a medical school in the Northwest that had put a curriculum in place to help train the physicians that were being educated to better deal with people dealing with gender dysphoria, not just promote it, not just to participate in it, not just to provide. hormone therapy or surgical mutilation, but to actually engage it, bringing a bit more of a biblical

worldview to it, and there was such an outcry from the activist groups, the pro-LGBQ2-plus, whatever they've added today, there was such an outcry that the medical school was forced to remove it from their curriculum. So the people that are advocating for ungodliness and immorality and the mutilation of our children and perversion are far more vocal, they're far more engaged, they're far more committed than those of us who file into our churches typically. I've spent my life, my professional life, serving the local church. So I know there are exceptions, there are notable exceptions.

I'm grateful for that. There are God-honoring churches across our country, but there are far too many that are too willing to be caught up in the temptation to say, don't engage what's happening in our world. We just talk about scripture. Well, the point of reading scripture is to take those biblical truths and give expression to them in the midst of the 21st century culture in which we live. If we aren't doing that, we're historians. And I don't believe Jesus died on a cross so we could be theological historians. I believe the whole point of being salt and light is to make a difference in the communities where we live. You'll say,

well, I don't have any influence in New York. I don't vote in New York. I don't vote in New York. I don't vote in Chicago. I don't vote in L.A. No, but you do where you live. How are you doing with removing the smut from the libraries where you live? Are you advocating for biblical morality with the people who teach in your schools, the administrators in your schools? Are you using your voice or holidays are coming up? Are you going to use it around your holiday table to talk to your family and the people you love about leading moral, godly lives? Are we going to continue to wink at fornication and encourage our kids when they go off to college to sow their wild oats and to live like the devil and say,

but I took him to Sunday school, so it'll be okay. That's a terrifying position to me. We've got to unpack this in a little bit more detail. The reason I believe our major cities are in trouble is the immune system that the local church represents hasn't truly been leaning into a biblical worldview. Let me go back to what Paul said in 2 Timothy 3. There's going to be exceedingly fierce times in the last days.

You know what he followed that statement with? he didn't talk about government corruption he didn't talk about global conflicts jesus talked about those things in matthew 24 but paul didn't talk about those in second timothy three paul listed 18 aspects of human character that would deteriorate he said the exceedingly fierce times would come from the collapse of human character and by that i mean we would step away from biblically informed ideas we would walk away from obedience to scripture And maybe the most unsettling thing in that passage is his last sentence. It's in verse five.

Describe, after he's listed these 18 moral characters that will deteriorate, he says that this group of people will have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof. A form of godliness. It means they're going to go to church. It means they will like ecclesiastical architecture. They'll listen to worship music. They will do devotionals and have Bible studies and participate in small.

groups, they'll have a form of godliness, but to deny its power in Paul's thought, in Paul's theology, and I won't take the time here to unfold it with you completely, but the power of God for Paul is inseparable from the cross of Christ. He wrote to the Corinthians, and he said, I decided when I was with he did know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified. He goes on to say that the idea of a Messiah who is crucified is foolishness to those who are perished, but to those who are being saved, it's the power of God. So Paul says the times are going to be exceedingly fierce because the people who have a pretense of faith,

they have the facade of faith, will have a form of godliness, but deny the necessity of the cross. What's the point of the cross? I'm a sinner and I need a savior. The cross is a place where we come to repent, to change our behavior, to bring alignment of our thoughts and our actions with the truth of God's word to live in obedience.

And Paul said, the times are going to get exceedingly fierce because people will have a form of godliness, but they won't see a need to repent. They won't come to change how they think and how they behave. It's a big tent gospel. We see a lot of that these days, that God is all about love, he's all about grace, he's all about mercy. I believe in those things. with all of my heart, he's equally about justice and truth and obedience and judgment. Jesus is coming back to the earth as a conquering king and the judge of all humanity.

You need to think about that a moment. We're anticipating the return of the Lord. That is our ultimate point of hope. And he's coming back as a conquering king and the judge of all humanity. and he's going to judge us on more than a baptism certificate. He's going to look at the fruit of our lives. And so I just want to be certain that as we walk through these birth pains, I think the times are going to get more intense.

I think what we've seen in New York is going to take deeper route. There are loud voices crying for that to be implemented in broader ways in our nation. What you see in Chicago and L.A. and Portland and Seattle and San Francisco, I think we see the foreshadowing of that in Tennessee. I mean, I think Nashville has taken huge steps down that road towards progressive worldviews and morality. And Nashville was imagined to be the buckle of the Bible Belt for decades. For a long time, it was called the Athens of the South. It was the center of learning in the South.

It's home to many Christian universities who have renounced biblical world of issues. They've embraced biblical issues. that are ungodly and immoral. Their signs still say Christian universities, but they're not embracing Christian values or they're encompassing values that are non-Christian. We don't have that privilege. We can't imagine ourselves to be Christ followers

and then redefine what the boundaries are of obedience to God. You see, our silence in the face of ungodliness, I don't imagine that to be tolerance. I understand it to be capitulation. We don't have to be angry. We don't have to be violent for certain. We don't have to even be belligerent. But we have to have the courage to tell the truth.

I live in the state of Tennessee, and if you're an advocate for the University of Tennessee and their athletic programs, you don't care if it makes the people in Alabama mad. You wear your orange and white, and you lead with that. You make it a defining part of yourself. You've probably got a room in your house that has a great expression of orange and white. So I'm okay with that. But how can we imagine that as Christ followers, we are less committed to the preeminence of our Lord and Savior than we are to our culture? It's really a confusing point.

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So if those are the fierce times, my time's going to run out here, they're going to get worse. There's going to be more tremors. They're going to intensify. They're going to come more frequently. Why? Jesus said they would. That's not a bad confession. That's not a lack of faith.

It's the season we're in. It's the beginning of fall in Tennessee. If you're in the northern hemisphere, that means the leaves on the trees are turning colors and falling off. If this is the first time you visited planet Earth, you'd think the world was dying. The grass is turning brown. It's not growing anymore.

The flowers aren't growing. The leaves are falling off the tree. I mean, it looks horrific. Some of you like the cooler temperatures. But if you were just arriving, you'd think, dear God, everything's dying, but that's not really the case. It's the changing of seasons. And I believe we've entered a season change. And I believe it's going to be characterized by these increasing birth pains. And so we need to be aware of them. We need to understand. I think

there will be much further unintended consequences from the elections last week than I'm capable of seeing today. If I can pick up this conversation a month from now, I can illuminate this, I believe, with a great deal more detail than I can today. I just understand what it means to give preeminence to the spirit of Islam and the spirit of socialism or communism in a major American market, the center of finance, the center of communication, the center of so many things for our nation, the spirits that are now in authority there, because we invited them in and gave them authority. You know, for you who's, I mean, if you're going to say biblically, I'm overreacting,

when Hezekiah showed the Babylonian envoys, all the treasures of the temple, Isaiah lost his mind. He said, what have you done? Now they will come and take the treasures of our nation. And I think we have to understand. We have handed over the authority of our nation to two spirits that have said they intend us to be destroyed. Can it be walked back? I believe it might.

But it's going to depend a great deal more on the people of God and our spiritual response that it is on elections. Because those spirits have been given a place. So what do we do in the face of fierce times? Well, I think we understand what our resources are. We understand what God has given to us and what he's said to us and what our tools are. And the beginning point and the place that I think we have to begin

is to understand Jesus abiding presence. This is why your obedience matters so much. We don't earn our way into heaven, but we choose obedience, and it brings the blessings of God. After the resurrection, Jesus met with his disciples. It's in Matthew 28, and he said, all power, all authority has been given to me. He said, I've got it now. And John, when he appears to John in the book of Revelation in the first chapter, there's the most amazing statement made in Revelation 1.

Just read the first chapter of Revelation. Forget all the details in the book for the moment. read the first chapter. John said, I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard a voice behind me. Every time I read that, I think of all the things we do on the Lord's Day. We say, well, you know, I'm not under the law anymore. I don't have to keep a Sabbath. Well, John was in the spirit on the Lord's Day, and Jesus appeared to him. What if he'd have been at the lake on the Lord's day, or at the ball game on the Lord's Day, or having some quality me time on the Lord's Day, or out drinking with his buddies on the Lord's Day? I'm not saying necessarily any of those

things is the fast track to hell, but I'm asking you, do you take time in your life to be with the Lord on a regular basis? Do you turn down the noise and the clutter? John said, I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day and I heard a voice behind me. And with some beautiful language, he describes the messaging and what he heard, but he turns to see the Lord and he recognizes it's Jesus. And he said, I fell at his feet like I was a dead man. It's been decades since John has seen Jesus. He spent three years with him. He saw him crucified.

He saw him post-resurrection. Jesus gave to John the assignment to take care of Mary from the cross. And everything we know from Christian tradition says that John fulfilled that assignment. But now he's an old man in the book of Revelation. All of his peer group have been martyred. They're all gone. John's in exile on the Isle of Patinus, working in a copper mine, doing brutal labor. and on a Sabbath he has a vision of Jesus he sees Jesus and he falls at his feet as a dead man

and Jesus puts his hand on him and said I'm the living one I was alive and I was dead and I'm alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and hell I have the keys Satan doesn't have the keys Islam doesn't have the keys socialism doesn't have the keys our Lord and King has the keys. So in Matthew 28, when Jesus sees the disciples post-resurrection, and he said, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. I have the keys. I got all the passcodes. At my name, every knee is going to bow and heaven, earth under the earth. Every created thing will yield to me. I have the keys, he said. Now you go into all the world and teach them to obey all the things I've commanded you. And I will be with you to the very end of the age.

Jesus makes this promise that he won't leave us or forsake us. But his abiding presence is connected to our willingness to be willing to make disciples, to tell them the truth that we know. It's why a silent church is not acceptable. It's why a church afraid of a cultural conversation is not acceptable. It's why a church that's hiding from engaging our culture is not acceptable. It's a false church. It's an incomplete gospel. We're ignoring the instructions of our Lord.

It isn't about politicians and political parties and elections, but it is about values and the spiritual authority we're inviting into our lives or over our lives. All authority has been given to me. So what do we do in the face of the fierce times? We start by reminding ourselves, one another whenever possible. The Lord is with us. The Lord is with us. I just came back from Israel. When I go to Israel, I have some dear friends there that always accompany me. If I bring a group, I bring more than one of them. They know the language better than I do. They know what's

happening in the current culture better than I do. And if my friends are with me, I have a peace that I don't have when I'm by myself, because they understand the details in a way, in a subtle way that I don't. Well, Jesus never leaves us or forsakes us. You know, follow the disciples through the Gospels. As long as they could get to Jesus, they were golden. They're about to drown on the boat and they wake him up and said, Lord, don't you care that we're about to drown? And he says to the wind, don't be quiet. Or Jesus says, feed this group of 5,000 people. And they come back, so we've only got one boy's meal. And he said, that's abundance. That's enough. And they feed the multitude. They develop a confidence in Jesus that no matter what

circumstance they face. Jesus is not threatened by that. You and I want to cultivate that. We've gone to church too long as a Bible study. He says, I don't go to church. I study my Bible when I don't go to church. I go to church to be in the presence of a community of people who have a belief in Almighty God. And they'll lift their voices in worship to him. They'll encourage one another. They'll affirm one another so that I know I'm not alone. I'm not isolated because the devil comes to me and he says, you're crazy. You're over-invested. You're over-committed. You're you're not paying attention. Oh, I am paying attention.

And I believe Jesus of Nazareth is Lord Christ and King, and I will serve him. And I'll go anywhere in the world to stand in the midst of a group of people who believe that. And I will move away from a group who denies the uniqueness of Jesus, who's not willing to engage in the truth. So how do we face fierce times?

We start by the abiding presence of Jesus. What do we do to add to that? We recognize the person of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus was preparing his disciples for his exit. They didn't like that. It caused tremendous anxiety to them. And he said, it's better for you if I go away, because if I go away, I'm going to send you a helper, a comforter, a counselor. We could get into the language of it, but it's beyond the scope. But he said, I'm not leaving you as orphans. I will send you a helper. He'll tell you, he'll remind you of everything I've taught you.

He'll tell you things you can't bear to hear yet. He said, there's much more I need to tell you, but you can't hear it right now. You're too overwhelmed. Well, you and I, we can't bear everything we need to know for the next five years, but I trust the Holy Spirit to help us know what we need to know this week. I don't have to be terrified because New York chose a Muslim. The Spirit of Christ in us is greater than the Spirit of Islam, but I need wisdom on how to navigate that because it's going to have implications for our lives. But we have the help of the Spirit of God.

The Scripture says that the same spirit that brought Jesus out of the tomb is alive in you and me. So let me make a suggestion. Stop quibbling, stop looking for ways to diminish the role of the Holy Spirit in your life and begin to say to him, you are welcome in my life. I want to learn to recognize your voice to understand your promptings. I want to recognize your directions. I want to cooperate with you. Some of you are arguing with the Holy Spirit.

You're arguing about points of obedience that you know are wrong. And the question is, well, can I get away with this and still go to heaven? that's a really messed up question in the midst of increasing stress increasing ferocity you want to fully align yourself with the purposes of God to the best of your ability and if you're carrying on an argument with God

intentionally being disobedient cheating around the edges and you're counting on the latitude of God to get you through you are setting yourself up for destruction the devil doesn't want to hurt your feelings. He doesn't want to cause you to have a blue day. His objective is your absolute destruction. And if you willingly open the door for him through purposeful disobedience, you are opening your life up to absolute devastation. It may not happen in the moment,

but you have invited something in that holds the potential to bring incredible destruction to your life. Please don't do that. Please simply say to the Lord, I'm sorry. I've known better than I was doing. Forgive me. And I'll go find people that will encourage me to do the right thing. And I'm going to stop spending my discretionary time with people who've given license to me because I don't want to give that any greater place in my life. Have you ever said that Christmas is too secular and you're tired of it? Well, we've got a solution or at least something that can help. We've written a book. It's called How to Lead a with your faith at Christmas, it's 25 days of devotionals that you can read, you can share

them with family, your friends, coworkers. Then there's some ideas, even recipes, activities. It's a fun, it's like a, it's a starter kit for bringing your faith to bear this Christmas season. Don't stand on the sidelines and complain. Let's lead with our faith this Christmas season. Let's honor the Lord and see the blessings that he brings to all of our lives. Christmas comes quickly and it's easy to let this season slip by without focusing on what matters most. Pastor Allen's new book, Lead with Faith at Christmas, is a 25-day Advent Devotional that will help you bring Jesus more fully into the season. Inside, you'll find scriptures, devotionals, prayers, recipes, and practical things you can do to make the holidays

more meaningful. It also makes a fantastic gift. It's time to stop repeating the same stale traditions and get ready to put your faith into action in new ways this Christmas. Request your when you donate $30 or more today at allan jackson.com we have a helper begin to say to the holy spirit you are welcome in my life i'll give you a couple more the church the scripture says not to forsake the assembling together of ourselves it's been very prominent since 2020 to say i don't have to go to church to be a christian that's a fascinating statement to me that's like saying i'm a baseball player but i don't have be on a team. Well, if you're going to play baseball, you have to be on a team. There's no

independent baseball players who play baseball because in order to play in a game, you have to identify with a team. And you can, it's true, you can come to salvation independently. You can say the sinner's prayer. You can experience conversion. You don't need to belong to a congregation or a denomination in order to do that. But to grow up in the Lord, it's equally clear you have to be in community. The New Testament word that's typically translated church is Ecclesia. It means the gathering. So this isn't an independent sport. Living in community is a mess. Because people are, we're all over the spectrum. We're at all different points of obedience and yielding and our personalities are different. It's a very refining thing to be in the midst of a group of people.

You know, most of us can't even agree on which television program to watch. We have to have two television sets at home because we can't come to an agreement or four or six because we can't come to an agreement over what we want to watch. So it's no surprising to me that when we come to our faith, we want to say, well, it's a personal decision. Well, it begins as a personal decision about Jesus, but Jesus' instruction was we have to go live in community. So in exceedingly fierce times, when there's greater and greater pressure, we're going to need to that comes from the one another's. It's a great Bible study. Ask Rabbi Google to find you all the one another statements in the New Testament. It'll give you a totally different imagination

of how to live your faith. I don't know I've got to put a bow around this. I'm running out of minutes. I'm of the opinion that God is shaking the earth. I don't believe it's being inspired by demons or the devil. I don't think it's principally about the end of the age. I think we're approaching the end of the age. I would invite you away from a theology. that said it doesn't matter to me because I believe the rapture is going to eliminate all of my problems. I'm going to get airlifted out of here, and I won't have to see any of the stress. I think that's an incomplete understanding. I'm not fighting for the privilege of being involved in the tribulation.

I don't want to tribulate. I don't want any unnecessary stress in my life. I want out of here on the first load up. But there's enough diversity of Scripture. that I think the best possible scenarios is to be prepared for whatever stresses come. My heroes in the Bible, whether it's Abraham or Moses or David or Daniel or Paul or Peter or James or John, all of them faced very significant stresses. And I think to cultivate a theology that says, I'm going to get raptured out of here, I don't have to face any problems,

is really a profound lack of awareness of the larger story of Scripture. And so whatever the reality may be about our proximity to the last day, I believe there's enough intensity between where we are and when our last day comes that you and I need to know how to flourish in the midst of these times. And so, again, the awareness, cultivate the awareness of the abiding presence of the Lord. spend time every day thanking God for every expression of his presence you can see in your life. If you have an abundance of food today, you take time to thank God for it.

If you have clothing, if your children have school, if they have medicine, if you have shelter, you better thank God for that today. Most of our friends in the world don't enjoy that set of things. Every day you take time to thank God. That's a way of focusing your attention that you know he's walking with you through the day. Then every day you begin to give you. an invitation to the Spirit of God. Do the daily Bible reading with us. That's a way of raising your hand and saying, I want to turn my attention to you. I want to give place to you in my life.

We do a daily devotional five days a week to help you focus just one thought on the Lord. Do the daily devotional. Share it with somebody else. Begin to do everything in your power to be identified with Jesus. Talk to your friends about the daily Bible reading. How many friends could you recruit to do the daily Bible reading with you in the new year? We've got a new little devotional coming out for Christmas, a lead with your faith at Christmas. It's 25 devotionals through the Advent season. How many people can you enlist to do that Advent devotional with you? We give the content away most of the time.

I'm not trying to sell you something. I'm trying to help you to reorient your life to become a more intentional advocate for Jesus. Why? Because that's a way of it being, you're living a statement that I'm making my journey through time in the presence of Jesus. intentionally to be identified with him. It's the most stable way I know to face the future. You know, we get bombarded with messaging about gold and silver, about planning for retirement, about how to eat healthy, how to eat clean.

And all of those things are fine. I give some attention to some of them myself. But at the end of the day, they are all in a very distant second to leading my life very purposefully, very intentionally, in a very systematic way to identify with Jesus in those decisions I can make on a daily basis with what I think about, how I spend my time, who I invite into my life, what I will consider for entertainment, how I'll evaluate my free time. Because then I know no matter what comes, you know, God says to Jeremiah, the Babylonians are going to destroy the city of Jerusalem and the blood will run in the streets.

and it's going to be awful, but I'm going to take care of you. Well, before we get out of the book of Revelation, there's some horrific things coming to the earth. But God said he would take us through. But it's too late to figure out his phone number when you start to see those horrible things emerge. Start to live every day with a very purposeful, intentional, watchful care of the Lord.

Stop ignoring what's happening. Mom Domini being elected in New York has enormous implications. implications for you. Chicago's protecting of illegal, murderous thugs with the help of their Governor Pritzker has enormous implications for you. L.A., San Francisco, rejecting federal law and embracing Newsom's determination to promote ungodliness has tremendous implications for those of us who live in Tennessee. We're not separate from this.

but all of those things pale in comparison to what it means to align yourself with Jesus it isn't just going to church it isn't just a morality play there are spiritual forces principalities and power at work in the earth far more powerful than nuclear weapons or economic forces

and nuclear weapons and economic forces are powerful but they're not as powerful as the spiritual forces that are being unleashed. You take a step closer to the Lord. It's an exciting time. And I'll close with this. The part that is the most remarkable to me is that when God looked across the span of human history,

he didn't select you and I to be a part of the first century when Jesus walked the hills of Galilee. How fun would that have been to have sat on the hillside on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee and listened to the sermon on the Mount. How cool would it have been to been in the room on Resurrection Day when Jesus stepped

into the room with the disciples. How much fun would it have been to the Elah Valley when David walked and picked up five smooth stones from a brook and said to Goliath, you know, I'm going to take your head today. God didn't choose us for that. He chose us for the beginning of the 21st century in the culmination of the ages when there's this cataclysmic struggle taking place on the earth, when the Jewish people are being regathered to the land that he promised them. And he's purifying his church, a bride without spot or wrinkle. I don't know what he saw in you or me that caused him to choose us for this season, but he did. And he'll enable us to be as triumphant as he did David or Paul or Peter or any of other of our heroes from the scripture. You don't

have to be afraid. Begin to treat fear like a person without a body. You say, you go in Jesus' name. You're not welcome here. You're not welcome in my thoughts. You're not welcome in my home, you're not going to write my future. My future is being written by the Spirit of the living God and the authority of Jesus of Nazareth. You go from here. We will wrestle with fear. We'll grapple with fear, but we're still going to live with a courageous faith in the midst of this season that's going to become increasingly intense because the one we call Lord is triumphant. He holds the keys. You don't have to be afraid. But it's time to choose the Lord with your whole heart.

We'll do an update soon. 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 Ministry's 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.