Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast - The Reason Churches Are Struggling

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

Are you longing to see God move in fresh ways? In this episode, Pastor Allen unpacks the real reasons behind the challenges facing the modern church—and reveals how God is actively shaking and reshaping His people for the season ahead. Drawing powerful parallels to the Book of Acts, you’ll discover these struggles aren’t random—they’re part of a divine narrative that’s still unfolding. God is doing a new thing in our time, inviting us to step into His purposes with fresh faith and courage. Find out how you can be a part of what God is doing in the world today.More Information:Bible Reading Plan: https://allenjackson.com/bible-reading/—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. This has become one of the highlights for me. We get to sit and have a bit of a conversation about what's happening in our world and the response of God's people. So thank you for spending a few minutes with me. I want to start. I have been saying for months to the local church and beyond that God is moving in the earth. And I've said it enough times that now people are coming back to me, both within the

congregation and from across the country and beyond, you know, saying, well, tell us about it. What's God doing? We have a hard time seeing that. And so I thought I'd kick off today, but I want to take that phrase and see if I can frame that for you. I do believe God is moving in the earth in some unprecedented ways, ways that will shape a future that is unlike our immediate past. And I don't think there's any question in my heart about that. So I'm going to tell you about it, at least on what I see, and not imagining that. I'm a prophet. I work for a non-profit, so that should frame this to some extent. How I understand, I'm going to give you two passages of scripture. One is pretty familiar,

I suspect, if you listen to content very much. It's Hebrews chapter 12, and God's actually, I mean, the author of Hebrews is actually quoting from one of the Old Testament prophets from Habakkuk, but he said that at that time God's voice shook the earth, but now he's promised once more, I'll shake that on the earth, but the heavens, the words once more indicate, removing of what can be shaken, that is created things so that what cannot be shaken may remain. And he goes on in the next phrase to say, since we're receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. So God's shaking the earth. When I say God is moving, I really think fundamentally, I mean, God is shaking the earth. And he's doing that to make evident his eternal kingdom and to make equally evident all those transient things,

which are unstable and can be toppled. So it's not. always that it's a happy report. Sometimes it's unsettling, but it doesn't mean that God is removed from it. I'll add one more verse. I hope you do the daily Bible reading with us. If you don't, you're really forfeiting something. It isn't that you have to read it along our schedule. That, I don't think, is the essential portion. But if you aren't systematically reading your Bible from beginning to end on an annual basis, you are forfeiting a key component of spiritual health and well-being. It's just an essential part of your spiritual nutrition. So it takes 10 or 15 minutes a day. You can read through the Bible in a year.

You're welcome to join us from the websites or the apps. We'll even read it to you. But there's a lot of other ways. I saw the U-Version people. They went over a billion downloads in recent days. I mean, that's amazing. So there's a lot of options out there. But our Bible reading right now is from the book of Ezekiel, one of the Hebrew prophets. Ezekiel's message was not an easy message. He was telling the people of Israel that God's judgment is coming. And there's precious little they can do. I just want to read you a portion. It's Ezekiel 6, verse 1. If you're reading with us, we just, this was a portion the last day or two. The word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel.

Prophesy against them and say, oh, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the sovereign Lord. This is what the sovereign Lord says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys. I'm about to bring a sword against you and I'll destroy your high places. Your altars will be demolished, and your incense altars will be smashed, and I will slay your people in front of your idols. Ezekiel is describing a message from God that God will be moving in the midst of the people, but he's not bringing them blessings. So I want to go back to that now. When I say God's moving in the earth, I think God is doing some extraordinarily good things, but I also think God is exposing the darkness. And you and I have to be prepared for that because I think what we want in our hearts,

what I hear people saying to me in response to that is they want to hear miracle stories. And I can share those. They come on a very regular basis. But I think there's a broader context in which we need to understand what's happening. And I'll share some of the miracle stories. I had a family at the altar just within the last few days. They'd driven more than 15 hours to church across multiple states. They had stumbled across the ministry on YouTube.

and they belonged to another faith and were deeply involved in that faith and they made the trek to World Outreach into Murphersboro and waited until I was finished with all the people that were at the altar and they said to me, we need to transition. We have listened to what you were saying and we are convinced that there's a God

and that Jesus is his son and we need help. I've been doing this for a long, long time And that's not a typical response from people. It's a remarkable response. I give you another. There's a group of pastors in Israel that recently reached out to me and said, we know we have to change the trajectory of our ministry.

We need a different kind of outcome. Will you work with us in the upcoming year? Again, I've been coming and going to Israel for 40 years, and that's not a typical response. Within the last few days, we got an invitation to pray for a family. that went on vacation on the Gulf Coast, and the father, without any previous symptoms, was diagnosed with a brain tumor that threatened his life, and within 72 hours, the tumor had been identified, diagnosed, removed, and he was up walking and talking with his family. Now, I'm

grateful for doctors and all that they can do, but that's an extraordinary outcome. I mean, I can go on and on and on, on a daily and weekly basis, we engage with these expressions of God's power in the lives of people, in healings, in a change of heart, in a hunger and a thirsting for the gospel that fall outside the boundaries of just normal church life and engaging in ministry, and they don't require any embellishment or hyperbole. They're just remarkable in the simplest possible face values. So God is moving in the earth, but that's not really what I mean. I've come to expect those things to happen. I expect God to honor his word when it is taught. And when I think people live in community and try to walk with integrity and uprightness, that we should anticipate the

supernatural in the midst of that. And I think there is a winsomeness to the gospel that when it's presented and it's lived out in a community of people that attracts other people to, to want to know about that. There's something on a completely different level in a different plane that I think is happening uniquely in this season that has not happened in this way in the previous years that I have served the Lord. And I think that passage in Hebrews really articulates it that there's a shaking taking place in the earth. And it's revealing the stability, the uniqueness of the things of the kingdom of God. And the fragility, the the temporary nature of the things that are apart from that.

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, during uncertain times, is to invest ourselves in knowing God better. Read his word, pray. That's

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Go ahead and text them today. Maybe the best way to shape it, and I think when, again, I keep coming back to this phrase, God's moving in the earth, I think we're all waiting to go back to another time and place. It depends on your age and your generation. But, you know, we tend to imagine that the previous seasons were simpler, that they weren't as complex, that evil was not as brazen. And maybe there's some truth to that, but I don't find God's pattern is very often that he takes us back to another season.

When he called Moses to deliver the Hebrew slaves from Pharaoh in Egypt, he didn't say, I'm going to raise up a pharaoh that is more favorably disposed to you like he was in Joseph's Day. He said, we're leaving here. And I think we're in one of those transitions, and I don't believe we're going back to the era when Billy Graham so amazingly preached the stadiums filled with people, and we watched it on primetime television in black and white, and thousands of people would stream to the altar, and that would stay in one city for days and days and weeks, and then move to another. city, as much as I would love to see that, and we hear hints of that. We hear of revival on college campuses where there are hundreds of students being baptized and making proclamations of

faith, and I think that's wonderful. I'm probably not willing to call that revival. If you have a college campus with 30,000 students on it, I would expect there to be several hundred students baptized, you know, on a regular basis in those places. That would be the healthy expression of the church. Now, we may not have been having healthy expressions of the church, and so we can call that revival, but I'm looking for something broader than that that that goes deeper than that. You know, I think in our communities, our cities where there are hundreds of thousands or, you know, large groups of people, there should be a vibrancy, a vitality to the Church of Jesus Christ.

that we haven't seen, and we have grown accustomed to an inert church, an inactive church. So God moving in the earth, I think the best model in my heart, and the Spirit of God has really brought a life to it to me recently is the Book of Acts. In Acts chapter 1, Jesus has just completed a 40-day seminar with the disciples. It's post-resurrection. Between his resurrection and his ascension, there's a 40-day one. window of time, where we're told that he talked to them about the kingdom of God. And then in Acts Chapter 1, it's the ascension. It's the chapter where he returns to heaven. And his last words to them is, you'll be empowered. Don't leave Jerusalem until you're baptized in the Holy

Spirit. You'll be empowered to be witnesses for me. If I'm just doing an analysis, if I was looking at employing one of the apostles, and I had their resume, and they'd been recruited by Jesus, spent three years with him and they were they had front row seats for all the miracles and the water walking and raising the dead and feeding a multitude with the boy's meal i'm thinking they're pretty much fully engaged they were there in gisemite when he was arrested they were they were all hidden together on resurrection day when jesus stepped into the room with the exception of thomas and and he said i'm alive i mean they've had a full exposure to the work and ministry of jesus and yet in Acts chapter one he says you know you're not ready but when the holy spirit comes on you

you'll be empowered to be my witnesses well i believe what god is doing is preparing a church or revealing a church that's empowered to be witness for him in the earth we're the 21st century edition of the book of acts there's no conclusion to the book of acts because that narrative isn't done yet. We are the current edition. So I think the book of Acts is very informative. Acts Chapter 1, Jesus goes back to heaven. Acts chapter 2 is the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is poured out. I think the unique part of Acts 2, beyond that outpouring of the spirit, is what happened as a result of that. Peter stands up and explains. He explains Jesus in his ministry and his life, and he says to them, you killed the Messiah. Now, this is in the city of Jerusalem where a large multitude

had screamed to crucify him just a few days earlier. And Peter says, you killed the Messiah. And it says that people weren't angry at Peter, but they were cut to the heart and said, what shall we do? And thousands of them were baptized into the faith in Jerusalem that day. Now, the apostles have no experience with that kind of behavior. It's completely new. There wasn't anything in their experience with Jesus that prepared them for that kind of an outcome.

But that's just the beginning. In Acts chapter 3, they're on the way to the temple at the hour of prayer, which would have been more typical of their behavior. They would have done that when Jesus was present with them. But they encounter the lame man at the temple gate. I doubt it's the first time they've met him. I suspect they've walked past him many times with Jesus present. But on that day, they stopped and said, you know, we don't have silver and gold, but in Jesus' name, you rise and walk. And the Lord healed him.

And he goes on to the temple mount leaping and praising God. The whole city is stirred. It's the first time in Jesus' absence that Peter and John and the apostles come into conflict with the Sanhedron, with the power brokers in Jerusalem. They don't like the message. They start to begin to try to quiet them down in what they're saying. But the whole unfolding of the Book of Acts is this narrative of a shaking taking place. There's a shift taking place.

There's a movement away from the traditions that have been there. And people's, you know, by the time we get to Acts 7 and Stephen's going to be a martyr in Jerusalem, they're still, they're haunting Christ followers and murdering them in the streets of Jerusalem. But Peter's shadow falling on people is bringing healing. They're bringing people from all the surrounding towns and villages, and they're ministering to them, and they're being delivered from unclean spirits, and their sicknesses and diseases are being healed. God is shaking the earth. And so there's these expressions of the power of God, but there's also this. tension and resistance against it, both of them happening together. And my best understanding of what we're living in right now,

what I feel like I'm being prepared for and what I'm trying to walk forward in is seeing these expressions of the power of God that are unprecedented and unequal. We're not just going to church any longer because good people go to church. We're not selecting churches because we like the style of worship or the pastor's preaching is engaging or it's humorous or it's biblically sound or, you know, we like the way he teaches because he does it verse by verse. You know, all of those things are fine, but we're in a different time. There has to be an outcome attached to our faith or we're going to be swept aside. But with the outcomes, there is a newness, a freshness. And I don't mean new understanding or new insight. It's not like,

you know, revealed to me some hidden mystery. There are expressions of the power of God. that are exceeding what we're accustomed to. Stephen is martyred. The apostles begin to be arrested. They're threatened. They say, you can't speak in that name any longer. You know, we've had threats in contemporary since COVID. There's been an ebb and a flow to it, but, you know, churches were told they were

non-essential, and you had to close. I hope you're not naive enough to think that was all about health reasons. I mean, the liquor stores weren't told. They had to close. Home Depot didn't have to close. There were a lot of places that didn't have to close. There are spiritual forces at work if we have eyes to see. God is moving in the earth.

And with the changes that emerged from that, it really does feel like the Book of Acts. God recruited, Jesus came back and recruited Saul of Tarsus, one of the greatest opponents of Christianity. And he becomes one of the most, by the end of the, the book of Acts. The most powerful voice is an advocate for Jesus in the non-Jewish world. It's bizarre. Saul of Tarsus was a rabbi, a Pharisee, a Pharisee, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, but God used him to be a voice to the non-Jews. And we see God raising up voices around us and platforms. The gospel's being preached in ways we never imagined, through podcast and through the internet and through live stream. We have more people receiving ministry from the local congregation

where I serve through live stream than we have present on campus and we have more people present on campus than we've ever had before. Again, all of those things are new expressions of God moving in the earth. And yet people come up to me and say, well, Pastor, you know, I hear you say God is moving, but I don't see anything. And I think it's because we're expecting God to do what we've seen before. We want him to take us back to another place. And I don't think that is a typical biblical pattern. And I certainly don't think it's what we're watching unfold right now. God is shaking the earth. He's moving in the earth. I want to move with him. You'll hear me say that over and over and over again because it's at the center of what I'm choosing to do with

my time and my energy and the experience that God has given to me. I'll go anywhere in the earth to be a part of what I think God is doing. I will reconfigure my calendar, my schedule. I'll take down new assignments. I don't feel like I've been released from serving the local church. I don't know I was given that assignment, and we are expanding our church. We've broken ground on about 100,000 new square feet, but it's more than that. There's about 30 acres of our campus being completely reshaped to help us serve family and children.

and this congregation and a broader community from Middle Tennessee and across our nation will be able to welcome tens of thousands of people under our campus and serve them with the tools that we need while we grow the impact of a local congregation. So not only am I not diminishing my commitment to the local church, we are reinvesting in it to the fullest extent of our ability. while at the same time, we're trying to understand how we can strengthen the church beyond that, Alan Jackson Ministries. You know, we started Allen Jackson Ministries to strengthen the church, church with a capital C, not the local church.

I'm already doing that. I already have a full-time job serving a local church as a pastor. Alan Jackson Ministries, we started to try to be a strength to the church beyond the local community. 90%, I suppose, of what we do with Alan Jackson Ministries, is a repurposing of content and things that we do for a local congregation. But technology is shifted to the place that now it's much, much easier to share those things. And there's an unevenness about the church. You know, two or three decades ago, the distinctions in the church were about preference and style.

You know, I prefer more contemporary worship or more traditional worship. Or I like a more liturgical service. Or I like a more expressive service. service. And that's okay. Personal preference in church is not wicked or evil. I think we're all entitled to that. But that's not the distinction in church that we see right now. There's a tremendous falling away. An apostasy is the technical word. Church is denying the authority of Scripture. The church is denying the uniqueness of Jesus. Churches denying biblical views of marriage. Churches denying the biblical presentations of sexual morality and immorality. Well, you can't do that.

If you take those things and you set them aside, it's not the church. And so when we talk about strengthening the church, I'm not talking about styles of worship or whether the pastor wears robes, investments, and leads a liturgical congregation, or they're Pentecostal, and it's much less structured. I'm talking about the authority of Scripture, the uniqueness of Jesus, his redemptive work. That church is becoming more and more clear because there's so much falling away from it. And Alan Jackson Ministries exist to strengthen the church. I never imagined the impact.

In fact, when we started it, I didn't even put my name on it. I wouldn't put my name on it. It's intended to help us do some publishing, to create some resources that we could use internationally. And the team working with us came and said, you know, if you're not willing to put your name on it, it isn't worth doing because people won't remember the name of an organization. They remember people.

And so with some reluctance, I said, okay, but today I can tell you, we are committed to strengthening, the church with a capital C, wherever God opens the door, we're working with a series of pastors in Israel in the Middle East, we're working with pastors in the Ukraine, where those war-torn countries where there's been such a struggle to see if we can come back and help breathe some life and vitality into that. We're committed to going to places in this nation where the church has been diminished and doing whatever we can to strengthen the body of Christ. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Lord makes the resources available for us to do some messaging and some campaigns

on a national basis. And it doesn't feel like a 10-year plan to me any longer. There's an urgency about what's happening. You know, the Book of Acts falls into about a 30-year window. I think what I'm imagining right now is going to take place far more quickly than that. I think what God is doing in the earth is going to move us towards impacts of greater significance than we've seen in our lifetime. And it's coming in the immediate future. I can, you know, I think in some other episodes I've talked with you about the components of this shake. I think COVID was an episode of shaking. I think of it like a tremors around an earthquake or birth pains and the beginning of those contractions and they're going to continue

until there's a delivery. They're going to increase in frequency and they're going to increase in intensity. And I think we're watching that. COVID was certainly a shaking that began And trust fell away. Prior to COVID, we trusted things that proved to be untrustworthy, whether it was the CDC, the Center for Disease Control, or the FBI. Both of those proved to be untrustworthy in the midst of that. The FBI was spying on American citizens. I never thought we would see that.

And yet we watched that happen. October the 7th, the Hamas attack in Israel was another episode. That didn't surprise me. Radical Islam hates the Jewish people and their presence of the Middle East. It's an affront to them. according to the Quran, the Jews have to be driven from that land. It belongs to the Muslims, and the Jews are an intrusion in the heart of the Muslim world. So the hatred of the radicalized Muslims is not a surprise to me.

What I was completely unprepared for was the anti-Semitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, that has boldly boiled up since then. You know, it began on some of our most celebrated college campuses. Those campuses are already beginning to diminish, but it didn't stop there. Now it's being expressed on the conservative side, the right side of the ideological spectrum, an intense hatred for the Jewish people. In some really bizarre ways, they're accusing the Jewish people of everything. You know, they accused them of genocide in Gaza, and the voices doing that were being silent about the destruction of more than a million people in Ukraine or the genocide of the Christians in. Nigeria. It was bizarre what they were doing. Then they said the Jews were responsible for

Jeffrey Epstein and that it was a Jewish blackmail scheme. And they're making these bold statements without presenting any evidence or they have one person that says they have an opinion about it. It's just bizarre, but the hatred of the Jewish people. And it's being expressed under the umbrella of the church. They're not a new argument. It's not a new argument. It's the book of Romans. Romans 9, 10, and 11. If you haven't read it recently, you should. The question is ask and answered multiple times, did God reject the Jewish people? God forbid, it says. And yet we see that happening. Charlie Kirk's martyrdom, you know, a Christian martyr in the United States in 2025, a young man who wasn't a professional minister, he wasn't a professional politician,

He went on to college campuses and had a dialogue with college students about biblical worldview issues. And he was hunted, murdered, and a persistent hatred for him expressed following his assassination. You know, we have to decide what we believe. Almost everybody I know wants to feel better, have more energy. I mean, myself included, I went to a concert a few months. It's been almost a year ago now, and I sat down next to a friend Jordan Rubin was there. I made an offhand comment. I need to feel better, get a little healthier.

He showed up in my office a couple days later with a plan for me. Part of it was a diet. My diet was centered on Oreos. He had some different ideas. But a part of what he brought to me was this multi-collage and protein. It's been a part of my routine for months now, and it's made a difference. More energy, I feel better. My joints feel better.

It's real food from real food sources. It helps us feel better. I recommend it to you. It's made a difference for me. I think it'll help you. Just go to ancientnutrition.com. You can put in code Alan30. That's A-L-L-E-N-30. You'll get a 30% discount and it'll also bless our ministry. Again, that's ancientnutrition.com, Alan, A-L-L-E-N-30. You get a 30% discount on multi-college and protein. You'll feel better and you'll bless our ministry. Thanks. I often say I don't want to be political and I really don't. I'm not interested in being political,

I do intend to talk about current events. I think Donald Trump is an expression of this shaking. God has used Donald Trump as a political figure in our nation to highlight some things that had to be highlighted at the beginning of the second term with the work that he did around Doge, the criminal wasteful spending that was taking place for our federal government, funding wicked, evil, ungodly things throughout the earth that we were using our tax dollars to be a force for the most abhorrent expressions of ungodly things. And it was brought to light.

God's used him to expose, at least to some extent, the depth of the deep state, those unelected professional bureaucrats that control an overwhelming part of our federal and state governments. And they do it beyond the review of the electorate. and they often do it in ungodly ways, authoritarian ways. I mean, Russian collusion was a great example of that with the support of the media, which the fake news. I had a whole lot more confidence in the media just a few years ago. The first time I heard Donald Trump, the candidate, say fake news, I cringed.

And now scroll forward a few years, and I feel, I not only know I owe him an apology, I'm grateful that he helped us see the degree to which the media was saying, simply manipulating us with. So again, it's episode after episode of the shaking that I believe God has initiated. And he's using this whole menu of characteristics. God is moving in the earth. And if we're willing to acknowledge that and to align ourselves with him, we can begin to participate with these expressions of the gospel. And I'm just one person and I work with one team and we're in Middle Tennessee. We're certainly not at the Mecca of anything,

but all the things we're doing from this podcast to the broadcast is an attempt to take the simple truths of Scripture and say to people, align yourselves with this. You read the headlines every day, and you think, how could the choices be more clear? And yet the church has a great deal of difficulty. Having that discussion, I watched an interview just yesterday with Tom Holman, who's working to try to sort out the illegal immigration crisis in this nation.

It's a crisis. We've had tens of millions of people pour into this country illegally, ignoring the legal process for immigration, many of whom have been violent or were convicted criminals or were sent here on purpose to be disruptive, hundreds of thousands of children that came into this country alone that have been trafficked, and there was just hardly anything said about it and when the churches commented we tend to comment on in terms of compassion folks it's not compassionate to be silent while hundreds of thousands of children are being trafficked in the last administration the best numbers i've seen are about 400,000 children

came into this unaccompanied minors came into our country and the consensus seems to be that the majority of them have been trafficked in the most heinous of ways the current administration has been working on that and they're celebrating that they have identified 30,000 of those children. That's less than a 10th. We can't talk about illegal immigration in terms of compassion. That's not compassion. Again, God's shaking the earth, but it's like he's waking us up to what's happening. If he doesn't wake us up, we will get an Ezekiel response. We will get the judgment of God. So it is God's compassion. passion, trying to shaken us, to awaken us so we can say, no, the family does matter, that marriage

is between a man and a woman, that biological sex is not confusing, that sexual moral and immorality is not just a personal choice, that sexual morality should not be just subjective. If you're a people of faith, if you're people of a Judeo-Christian faith, of a biblical worldview, God has defined those things for us, and we have to be willing to identify. identify those boundaries. And it isn't being judgey or critical or judgmental. We're inviting people towards lifestyle choices that will bring the blessing of God. You know, I know it's the holiday season and we're we are all busy celebrating Jesus' arrival. And I think that's very good. We still have the freedom to do that and the liberty to do that. I have lived in places in the

world where we didn't have that freedom. And I'm most grateful. I love the Christmas season. I love the whole thing. I like the lights and our favorite recipes and the Christmas movies. And, you know, I'm not confused. I don't think Christmas is about a fat guy in red suits or reindeer that fly. But I'm not offended by those things. If Christmas is secular in your house, it's because you've allowed it to be.

Don't blame the media or a pastor who says he has a Christmas tree. You know, a tree with lights on it doesn't make your home secular. The absence of Christ in your home and your discussions and in your conversations and in your actions is what makes our homes secular. We still have this freedom to celebrate Jesus' arrival. But the reason we needed Jesus' arrival is we have a problem. We can't save ourselves. We needed a Savior. We needed a Redeemer.

And Jesus came to do that. But the point of the redemptive work of Jesus, isn't just so that we can recite a prayer and be baptized. It's so that we might lead our lives as Christ followers. And the book of Acts is our invitation to that. And I am so excited that we are living in a season where once again, God is moving in this dramatic way in the earth. So let's take this Christmas season and use your voice, use your sphere of influence.

We just printed a new book on Lead with Faith at Christmas. It's 25 Advent devotionals and some Christmas recipes and some Christmas activities. It's an easy book to share with a friend or a neighbor or a coworker to engage with a faith conversation. You know, whatever that looks like, you can take a poinsetta to a neighbor and say, God bless you, Merry Christmas. You can share with them a box of chocolates. You can bake some cookies. Let's give voice to our advocacy for Jesus in the midst of this Christmas season. support the people that you know that are doing that in your communities or wherever they may be.

We've got to step out of the shadows and our timidity and our sense of reluctance. You know, I don't know what the future holds. I mean, yes, I can tell you in some broad strokes that the gospel will be preached in the whole world and the end will come and the Lord will return. But the finer grain of that in the immediate future, I don't pretend to know. But I do know that we still have the freedom and the liberty to be advocates for the gospel. And that the power of God and the presence of God is amongst us in ways I haven't experienced in my journey to this point. So don't be intimidated by the threats or the reluctance or even the expressions of darkness.

Join us. Use your voice to become a strength for the church. I know you're busy. I know your lives are busy. I know your lives are crowded. I had a full-time day job, and yet I said, yes, let's go with Alan Jackson Ministries. Put some new things on my calendar. I will find a way to do that.

It's too important in this season not to engage with that. And I would say the same thing to you. Make greater sacrifices than you've ever made of your time, your treasure, your talent. Let's go. Let's use our voice with clarity and consistency. We can do it with love, but we can do it. with a determination as well. Jesus wasn't soft.

The gospel's not squishy. The church that he will come back for will not be a compliant church that's negotiated a treaty with evil. It'll be a triumphant church, overcoming evil with good. That's the kind of initiative that I want to be a part of. God is moving in the earth. And at Alan Jackson Ministries, we're doing everything we can to start. strengthen the church in our nation and wherever God opens the door. We don't intend to maintain the status quo or to gather in our churches for polite Bible studies. We're going to engage our culture

with biblical truth and give you the tools to do so. We want our children and grandchildren to inherit a church that's vibrant and vital. And to do that, we've got to make an investment. Will you give generously to what we're doing at Allen Jackson Ministries? Your partnership will make 2026 the most fruitful year we've ever known. Thank you. Alan Jackson Ministries, we're committed to strengthening the church and sharing the truth of God's word. When you support this ministry with a gift of $75 or more, we'll send you the Lead with Faith, ESV journaling Bible. Your generosity will help us equip more people with the biblical truth and encouragement they need for the year ahead. Give today at allanjaxon.com.

It's a remarkable season. I don't know that I've ever had a greater sense of hope or anticipation in the earth. But I also recognize that I've never seen more brazen expressions of evil. Shame has almost totally evaporated. It's okay. God's not intimidated. The Holy Spirit within us is not reluctant. And if you're seeing expressions of darkness around you, even in your family system,

I promise you that God will help us overcome. I sing that little song that we all learned as kids. Jesus loves me, this I know, because the Bible tells me so. You know, I mean, I find myself singing that little chorus when I'm in my car by myself or I'm out on the tractor doing something because the simplicity of that chorus is the essence of where I'm living. You know, I'm weak, but he's strong, and that's true. But it doesn't diminish my zeal, and it shouldn't diminish yours.

Now, I want to pray for you today. You know, this season of the year, more than any season of the year, brings struggles to the surface. It's the end of the year, and we think about what's happened and who we've lost. Maybe dreams that didn't come about the way we hoped they would, or it's just not always an easy time of the year. But I want you to know that God loves you, that he is moving, and that there is something good ahead of us.

and the shaking in the earth shouldn't frighten us. It should fill us with a sense of anticipation. What I don't find in the book of Acts is fear or reluctance or hesitancy. You know, Peter has a vision and God says, you've got to change what you think of is clean and unclean.

And Peter finds himself in Cessaria, a pagan city in the home of a Roman centurion and the events of the day of Pentecost are duplicated in a Gentile in the home of a Roman soldier. Peter can't believe it. In fact, when he goes back to Jerusalem, he gets in trouble for it. But it's God doing it, and we're watching that.

God's using tools and venues, and this Christmas season, I want you to know that you matter to God and that if you'll just use your voice in whatever way he gives you, it can be an expression of kindness to a neighbor, to a coworker, to a family member. Write a note. Just use your voice and the freedom that God has given us. and let's see what God will do.

I told you I wanted to pray. I really do. Father, I thank you. I thank you for the freedom and privilege we have of celebrating Christmas. I thank you for every person that will take the time to listen to this. I ask for a new anointing from you. Lord, may we have a vision of you that is more real than the darkness around us. May there be a joy within us that triumphs over any disappointment.

May we have a hope that is greater than any loss, or any discouragement? Lord, for those who need healing, I pray you'll bring life. For those who need an opportunity to open, I pray you'll do so. Lord, may each of us be willing to use the tools and the resources, our voice, to be advocates for you. I thank you that you're moving in the earth and that you're awakening us as never before.

May we see a harvest that exceeds any we've ever known. I thank you for it, in Jesus' name. Amen. In the midst of this Christmas season, I want to thank you for taking the time to share these podcasts with us, for your prayers for us, for walking with us. I can tell you I'm more committed to strengthening the church, the local congregate. I don't mean building buildings primarily, or strengthening denominations, but strengthening the people of God in the local community across the nation and throughout the earth than we've ever been before. I believe 2026 will be the most fruitful year we've ever known. And I believe that can be true in your life, in your home.

Do the simple things you know. Read your Bible. Gather your family around the kitchen table once a week. It's a good wellness check. You know, start to pray for one another. Take your faith with you to work. Lead with your faith. Do the difficult things that you've been avoiding.

Come on, let's go do them. And then let's see how God will respond. God's moving in the earth. And we want to move with him. God bless you. 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.