Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast - Tragedy Didn't Define Our Family—God Did [Featuring George Jackson]

Episode Date: June 19, 2026

What if your family’s greatest hardships could become part of God’s redemption story? In this special Father’s Day episode of Culture & Christianity, Pastor Allen Jackson sits down with his father, Dr. George Jackson, to reflect on the generations of faith, loss, sacrifice, and perseverance that shaped their family. No family story is perfect, but God’s faithfulness is greater than our brokenness. This conversation offers encouragement to honor those who have influenced your life and to trust that God can bring redemption through every generation.

Rejection is not a one-time life experience. You've had to face rejection all along the journey. We come into this world with so much opportunity for failure until we come to know Jesus. Then we have to see how to take the truths that we've learned with the scripture to begin to prepare ourselves to live from that point on. But now you've got a tool so that rejection doesn't shape your response to the world. You can lead a life of an overcome or a triumphant life in Christ Jesus. You have the power available to you to deal with it because in the blood of Jesus and you can come against it.

Well, welcome to culture and Christianity. This is our Father's Day edition. This is the weekend right in front of us is Father's Day. So I brought my dad back by popular demand. or demand, he gets more views than I do. So we'll get to that in a minute. Yes, my feelings are hurt. So it's okay.

But a couple of things I think on the topic are important. One is the great revelation that Jesus brought us. You know, we have had prophets before Jesus was the greatest of the Hebrew prophets, but there were many remarkable Hebrew prophets. There were miracle workers. There were great teachers. The one unique revelation that Jesus brought, But in the scripture, it says, in these last days, God has spoken to us through his son.

And the one revelation that a son can give that no one else can give is a revelation of the father. So Jesus helps us understand the fatherhood of God. And I think that's an appropriate beginning for a Father's Day conversation is that fatherhood was God's idea. I understand that will cause some consternation to some versions of feminist theology. but I do believe it's biblical and important and significant. God created us with some roles in our family systems, and they're not greater or lesser. It doesn't diminish one or the other.

But the fatherhood of God is one of the primary revelations that Jesus brought us. And until you know God as your father, I think you forfeit a great deal that he would bring to you. So I'll plant that as a seed on this Father's Day. We have a biblical assignment to honor our fathers and our mothers, not just when they do what we want. not just when we approve of their choices. None of us have perfect parents.

That's good because none of us are perfect children, and that wouldn't be good if one side of that equation were different. But the responsibility to honor your parents comes with a promise that it'll go well with you. And so on this Father's Day, whatever that looks like for you, I would encourage you to find a way to honor your parents. If your parents are deceased, you can still show them honor in the way you speak of them, the way you talk about them, the way you acknowledge the contribution they may do your life. That may require a little spiritual homework.

You may need to forgive or whatever that looks like, but I would encourage you to cooperate. And I'll give you a resource. It's a little late probably to make it happen for Father's Day, but there's a wonderful book called Husbands and Fathers by Derek Prince. And it will give you kind of a biblical roadmap for men, especially, on their role as husbands and fathers. and I believe if we can fulfill those roles, the rest of what God created is for will find its place. So with that bit of an introduction,

welcome back, Dr. Jackson. Thank you. You know, we have, when I was younger, I worked, you had a veterinary practice at home, and I worked in the barn. So I got to know a lot of people that knew you as Dr. Jackson, and they didn't know I was your son. Yeah.

And that would be one of my favorite experiences. I took care of the barns for a while, which I cleaned the stalls and took care of the horses and people that brought their expensive horses to see the vet or sometimes stay at the vet clinic. I would often be the first interface when they came to pick them up. And I usually had all the things that go with being in a barn on my clothes and no identifying marks. And so they'd be complaining about how much it cost or what they didn't like about Dr. Jackson or. And then he'd come out of the clinic and I'd have their horse loaded on the trailer. and he would say, let me introduce you to my son. And I'd watch their faces turn red,

and they couldn't get in their truck fast enough to get away, I guess. So we have had a variety of roles through the years, which has been a good thing. Definitely. I mean, it's developed our whole family. It's developed our lifestyle, and it's affected our community. I have two brothers.

We all got pulled into the vet practice, so nobody escaped that. You got more of the horse in. The two younger ones got when I'd gotten exhausted and started doing small family pets. You didn't start dogs and cats until I left home. Yeah. I was on the horse side of that. But it was good. It was a good way to grow up.

Well, I purposely did it. We, as a family, made that tearful rock. ride for your mother from Florida to beautiful Tennessee. But it was a purposeful thing. I, from experiences I'd had in growing up, I knew for me it was important for you to be in a less metropolitan area so that you didn't have the distractions of a beach. That was awful.

No bailed hay to buck up on a wagon. and so I moved us up here where you could get some real education. And we got some real education all right. So I thought for Father's Day, we would talk a little bit about your dad and your grandfather because I know they obviously had important roles in your life, but your mother died when you were two weeks old. So that majored father and your grandfather, exponentially more important in your life?

I was actually today when I was spending some time in three crosses, thinking about what you might come at down here. This is like playing jeopardy in public. That's what I thought about was first how, like you say, we aren't perfect. To start out with, my dad, he grew up in the beginning, without a father. His father died, and he was seven.

And then he was at 12 years old, was taken as a foster child. And he had to learn to, he milked cows every day from 12 until he was a junior in high school. Three in the morning, three in the afternoon. And all of those were things that. And that was, when you milked a cow, it was hand. That was by hand. That was mechanically by hand. And so he didn't really know how or what the role of a father was that he had to just kind of wing it.

And it was my grandfather that they took me and raised me a little past two that young in the life and then on with every vacation. I would travel 150 miles, spend it with them two months out of the summer, gave me more of a perspective of a relationship that a boy should have with his father to interact, appreciate one another. And so he even took the place for my own biological father, in that after he'd married my mother, he had no real occupation, and my grandfather took the place of a normal father, sent him to school to give him a profession.

So I had some different roles that played out before me with those circumstances. Yeah, we took a road trip a few months ago and went back to the little town where your grandparents lived, my great-grandparents. And it was still pretty much intact. Yeah. It hadn't transformed too much just south of Kansas City. Well, population had grown because they're close to Kansas City, but the economic part was not doing too well. Main Street hadn't changed a lot.

No. And I know we did a podcast earlier where some of this, we caught up in that, but I want to go back a minute because I think it helps. The narrative will help us. and people can benefit from it. As you said, your grandfather helped your dad get some education. So he had a profession. Your mom was a school teacher. Right.

Which in the 1930s, that was kind of a breakthrough role. Right. I mean, for her to have gotten a teaching degree. And I remember I've seen a picture where, I mean, they had a dirt, an airstrip. And an airplane had come to that little town where, and they lived. I mean, Cleveland, Missouri, what was the population of Cleveland when you were a kid? Oh, golly, 200 to 250.

Big, big, big town. Yeah. So to have an airplane land at some grass strip and your mom going for a ride in the airplane in the 30s, I'm thinking that was kind of a breakthrough. Yeah, and there are actually what you're talking about, before I forget it, the importance that men play in communities like that little community, because I mentioned to you how my dad was a foster child from 12 through the junior year. Well, you don't know his personality, but he'd had all that higher education he wanted.

And so he quit school after his junior year and worked at a job where he traveled around with show cattle. But there was a man, a lawyer in that little community who had known the family's history. the turmoil that they'd gone through with the loss of a father and a widow with six kids. And he went to him and he said, Kenneth, you need to go back to school. You'll need that diploma sometime. And that's where one man can change a kid's life. And my dad went back to school, but he told me one day, he said, George, I don't know if I got anything. because he said where I got up at three in the morning and milked,

he said I slept through most of the classes, but I got a diploma. And that's what allowed him to go get further education for an occupation, because that one man pushing him to go on and do what he must do. And a poor student with really bad circumstances. Oh, yeah. But he ended up being a success in life. Oh, yeah.

He was a business success. I mean, by the time I know. knew him. Yeah. And so I don't want to bury the lead in this because I'll come back to it before we're done, but there's multiple generations here where there was enough brokenness that if you stood apart and looked at it, you'd think there wasn't much future. But the reality is all along that way, through multiple generations, God has provided what was needed that brought good things. I mean, I'm sitting three generations into it. Right. And that's a consistent theme in this story that we're going to tell them a bit of.

And I think everybody needs to hear that. You don't have to have the perfect circumstance. There can be tragedy and loss and difficulty, and it doesn't feel like there's enough voices supporting you. But really all you need is God to provide a voice. And I have found in my life sometimes if there isn't another voice, God will use his voice. And so that was true for your dad.

Right. I mean, God gave him a voice that helped him get through school. then he fell in love with your mom and your grandfather took an active role in helping him be a he improved his potential as a son-in-law right i mean my grandfather furnished them a home so my mother could teach so he could go to school you know this podcast is made possible because of sponsors and one of our sponsors is preserve gold and i appreciate their partnership with us and i pray it's a blessing to you know one of the things that i hear my most often right now is this, that people are doing their best plan for the future,

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And then after you were born, your mom contracted what I think we know now was Scarlet Fever, but I'm not sure they had the diagnostics to know that at the time. Well, and the physician used some bad judgment. He was incompetent. He had an alcohol problem, and he actually gave my mother pneumonia. By the way, he treated her fever with the bacterial infection. She saw a kitten in the post office. A puppy?

In a boy's arm. She loved kids. And she got down and played with the puppy. And the little boy had scarlet fever. and nobody knew it. And they didn't know it at the time. And then the doctor's treatment protocol was to put it, because he had a high temperature. He put a wet sheet on her and opened the window.

Right. And that was in... In the wintertime. In January, in central Missouri. So you lost your mom when you were a few weeks old. Yeah. And your father had a hard time coping with that. And his family was on the West Coast at that point.

So he went to be with his family. Two years. He left for two years. If I don't tell your story right, you correct me. I'm very timid. They've heard you enough. They understand. So for two years, you lived with your grandparents.

I mean, from birth through two years of age. Right. And then, as you said, a minute ago, and then you're going to be back with your grandparents every summer vacation, all the holidays where there's any way possible. Right. They were a powerful, powerful influence in your life. Yeah, because.

So let's start with your grandfather. But his life wasn't easy. My grandfather had difficulty then from the time when he was a young man, originally was a farmer, and through an accident with an old wood-burning stove where my biological grandmother was ironing clothes that heated on the stove, kerosene fell off, exploded, set her on fire, and she lived 10 days. So your grandfather, lost his first wife in a tragic accident.

Right. And then when he remarried the lady that you knew is your grandmother, she was a piano teacher. She taught piano and violin to my mother. And then in another 15 years, she taught me piano, saxophone, clarinet. Yeah, that's a frightening thought right there. Yeah. But, I mean, she had known my mother where she could love her.

And my grandfather, they raised my mother then in a very good way because he went to school and became a professional. And my grandmother continued to support him in all that he did through the years. In fact, that's where I really knew what it was to be loved. But I think with the narrative that we're kind of pulling out of this, and we didn't plan this, that adds a fourth generation where there was tragedy and heartbreak, and yet God managed to write a story through it. See, I think, I mean, you and I,

and we both, we deal with a lot of people, but there's a lie that the enemy brings that because our life has a tragedy in it or a significant heartbreak in it, and sometimes it's self-induced and sometimes it's circumstances, that we can't have a positive outcome to our lives. And we sit here today, and I mean for four generations,

we can say that's not true. And I suspect if we could excavate it further back, I don't know anybody that gets through without some significant heartbreak and heartache. So your grandfather, now you got your, his daughter died, your mom died, so he lost his first wife, and now he's lost his daughter. And for two years he has used.

and your dad comes back from California and is ready. Oregon. From Oregon. It was the West Coast. And he's ready to remarry. And so he wants to put his home back together, which means you. Let me tell you that part, I thought about it today. Uh-oh.

This is where it's important that experience with life and difficulty takes place. Because when my dad came back, and he was living with my grandparents, who I was living with. They recognized where he was, and that he was at a point he was going to find a mother for me. And so with the wisdom of experience in life, my grandparents invited a lady who had been a schoolmate of my mother's when they went to college. They were all in teacher training together, and they just happened to invite her to come over and see sweet little George

because she had known my mother and was at the funeral, and so they invited her over to see me. And that was the beginning of her becoming my stepmother. Where'd your mom go to school? What was the name of that school? It was back then it was Central Missouri Teachers Training, or something. It's central Missouri. It's still there.

And they're the mules. That's their animal that they use for the school. It's their mascot. Mascot. But it's no longer just a teacher's college. Oh, no. It's a full-blown university. University now.

I mean, Warnsburg, Missouri. I wasn't going to be partied to a podcast that called a Teachers College Mules, so I just wanted to get that clarified. Okay. But so your dad is ready to move forward with the new phase of his life. And he remarries. The lady that I knew is my grandmother eventually. But which is, and you're going to go live with them,

which is another heartache for your grandparents. Right. Because they've had you for two years. A little beyond two years. And the loss of your presence in their home, I'm sure, was disruptive to them. You start a whole new. phase of your life. And your dad's going to have two more boys.

So you've got two half-brothers and a blended family and all the things that come with that. God looks ahead on your life. Really? Yeah, he could see I needed additional education. My stepmother was also a schoolteacher and she taught kindergarten. So I went to kindergarten three, four, five. and when I was five and a half, I started the first grade. So I got three years of kindergarten as a slow kid.

You should have been ready for first grade by then. I should have been. I went to three different towns to do those three years. Well, you can throw that. You moved a lot because your dad was a funeral director. Yeah. And again, that's back in the 40s. 1940s.

Wasn't the 1840s. No, 19. We weren't running up of the Civil War. But you moved a lot, which is a part of your story. All right. And he wasn't doing it to be mean. He was trying to earn a living. He was trying to advance the best he could with minimal support.

So you lived in half a dozen places by the time you're in the sixth grade. Yeah. I went to the first grade, half the second, went to another school for finishing the second, went to the third, then I went to camp back to Kansas City for the fourth, and then, I mean, I went to different schools

all the way through until the fifth grade, and then we settled in South Missouri. You covered South Missouri pretty well. Yeah. I mean, from Sykeston back, I mean, Oh, yeah, we were back and across, oh man, let me tell you,

back in the days of those little two-lane roads curving through those mountains, it upset your stomach a little. Just a little. From the flatlands of Sykston to go over the mountains to get back to Kansas City. And through that whole run, your grandparents maintained a really important role in your life. You'd be there for summers, and I know they bought ponies and... Well, they did.

And taught you life lessons. Right. There's my grandfather that allowed me an opportunity that made me want you to have. have what you did as far as an exposure to cleaning stalls and hauling hay. Next time I see him, we'll talk about that. Yeah. But he always had a little farm there in the little town where we had one milk cow and some chickens, guineas. And I would, when I was six, he rented me a pony. things I didn't know and understand then. It only took me, you know, 60, 70 years,

figure some of this out as a Christian, but they intuitively did some of the things they did. They were church members and went regular, but he got me a pony that I needed something that I could identify with, and at six, he just rented one. And once he saw, I liked it. I got along with it.

I had a pony the rest of my life. But basically, we just had two different ones. But I had something that I could identify with that would be faithful to me. And I could be alone and be with it. It made a difference in my life. And really introduced you to a love of horses. Right. Because then you went to vet school, eventually, veterinary school.

and had an equine practice. She only treated horses for what? Ten years. Started on the thoroughbred tracks and then came to Tennessee for the Tennessee walking horses. Your mom warned me to go to med school. She was the secretary to the dean of med school at Missouri.

And it was much easier to get in med school at that time than it was vet school because it was new enough. They only took 30 a year. But I said, no, I don't want that. I'd been around as an embalmer and funeral director. I'd had all the people that I wanted and I wanted animals. You know, I read once, the difference between a funeral director and a preacher,

is that when a funeral director straightens somebody out, they stay straight. Almost everybody I know wants to be healthy or healthier. And I think most of us would like it to happen to us by accident. But that hasn't been my experience. So what do we do in a world where they're There's so many options and diets seem to be like fashion trends. They change with every season.

How do we respond? Well, I want to tell you about something that I trust, something that has worked in my life. Ancient nutrition gives you a whole menu of supplements, sources for protein, and collagen that I have found made a difference in my life. You know, I decline most of sponsorship invitations, but this isn't something that is just an invitation to be a sponsor for something. I've actually used it in my life and it's made a difference.

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If you'll use the code fuel 26, you'll get a 26% discount sitewide on ancient nutrition. That's ancient nutrition.com. Let's make choices to be healthier. And maybe we can limit the pharmaceuticals will be dependent upon. That would be a God thing. God's moving in the earth and we can be a part of it by what we put on our fork and not just the pills we take. I want to give a bit of an application to this because that's our goal on this podcast. It isn't, you know, what's this mean to us and what is it, the application?

Your family circumstance was less than ideal. Both your biological grandmother died before you knew her, and then your mother died before you knew her. You had a stepmom. So rejection is an important part of the journey that you've had. Right. And that's not about just fathers and sons. Rejection is a part of life. Yes. And there's so many things. We live in a culture now where I think it's an epidemic. We have a lot of fatherless homes. We have a lot of divorce. We have a lot of blended families.

Jesus had a blended family. So I think if your family circumstance is less than ideal, it doesn't mean you are second-class citizen in the kingdom of God or that God's purpose is. can't fill your life, but I think we have to have the help of God. Right. And so maybe we take a minute and walk through that idea of rejection and how people overcome that. You know, if you've been through a divorce, if you've been through an adoptive process, your parents cared enough, somebody cared enough about you to give you birth because in our culture, children are disposable.

Right. But it still opens your heart and your life to a spirit of rejection. or maybe your family circumstances are like yours, something you had nothing to do with. You become kind of a piece of a larger mosaic, and you feel the rejection in that. Normally, with my experience personally and in helping people for 50 years,

rejection, you never cause it. You get all of the emotion and the hurt from it. Other circumstances produce it, and the real issue that people don't realize when they're experiencing it, it doesn't matter if they don't pick you for the first string on the ball team. That's an experience of rejection of some magnitude. But mostly in our homes, what it is that we don't realize is what my grandmother was able to give me was love.

that can be taken care of, but it's hard for to use humans. That's where our lives as a family changed when we came to know the truth about Jesus, like you said. And that's the place you can finally get a love that will stay and meet the needs. Well, that's the heart of our faith. Right. We tend to think of it in terms of eternity. Yeah. But the reality of the love of God, when you finally accept that and you are accepted,

God accepts us through Jesus. He made provision for all of our brokenness and all of our failures and all of our ungodliness because we all have that. It gives you value. The place you have in the body of Christ with the people you know that are believers, it puts value to you. Well, God value. us. Right. He valued us enough that he asked his son to come accept an unthinkable role to offer

himself as a sacrifice. And God didn't do that to make a theological point or to establish a religion. He did it because he thought as an individual, you or me or whomever might be listening to this, was valuable enough to make that investment in them. Right. That's why it's irrational to think that God wants something from, you know, that I was afraid to trust God for so long because I thought he needed, you know, he was going to make my life difficult. I make my life difficult. God's made my life better. And he values you. And if you can, if once that realization, once you're given that revelation, because I think it takes the spirit of God for that revelation to break through. It changes our total existence. Yeah, we, we don't.

realize that we come into this world with so much opportunity for failure. We're equipped for failure until we come to know Jesus. Then we have to see how to take the truths that we've learned on a personal level with the scripture to begin to prepare ourselves to live from that point on. and I don't think we've understood that we're so equipped for failure from the beginning that we need to apply truths that you get that will change you so you can change your future what you experience, what you do for others, what life produces through you. And that's where our family was the change came when,

We as a family found out about putting Jesus in the center of it and not on a one day a week basis. It became Christians and not church people. Right. There's a difference. It's not your words where we're equipped for failure, but we're born into a broken world. Right.

And you've got zero chance of overcoming the world apart from the help of God. Takes the power of God to change. No matter how smart or gifted or talented or how amazing your circumstances. And even to parents that have smaller children. Or maybe because of your life choices, your kids have had to deal with some rejection. And even if they haven't,

none of us are good enough to fill that space in one another's lives. We need God. That's why the Christian faith makes such a difference. We can be accepted by God. And when we know God loves us, then we're capable of loving ourselves and loving one another. And apart from God, we can do that. And it takes knowing him on a significantly personal level so that we can incorporate all aspects of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, to have the power to be willing.

It takes Jesus to get us to the place we are willing to consider there could be change, but it takes yielding to the Holy Spirit to bring. the change. And that's what's so needed in our culture right now is people to be willing to accept, I can be changed, but I have to be willing. Well, I have watched you show kindness to dozens and dozens of people because you recognized they were having to live through rejection for a whole variety of reasons. Oh, yeah. And typically your approach is you're pay attention to them? I mean, that's a bit of a simplification, but you'll listen to them. I've heard you say, you know, I want to be their friend.

Yeah. Which isn't normal. Most of us are really busy, and we've got an agenda, and people are like pawns on a chessboard. We need to move them around in order for us to accomplish what we want, which is a pretty typical human response. So ministry, but from your perspective, and you're not a beginner at this point.

It was less about theological nuance. But you've got this really weird idea that people matter. People used to, I'll confess here, that would annoy my brothers and I to no end because he would welcome them into our home or to our kitchen table, and we weren't thrilled about it. This wouldn't know when we had a church or any...

No, no, no. Any religious functions. This was not about professional function and liability. I'm not qualified to do what we did. Trust me, we felt the same way that you wanted. But we watched you care about people. And you would treat them with respect and dignity and listen to them. It was really how God began to use you to bring healing in the lives of people.

That's where the church came from. The church grew out of that. And the church still gives expression to that. but I mean, I'm watching you do it today with young people and older people. And your definition of what's young and old's gotten a little messed up. Yeah, but you recognize a good player in a sport when you've played that sport. And when you've lived life and it's giving you some understanding, that's a sweet way to say what life throws at you a lot of times,

that you can spot them before they know it themselves. I mean, I think about a person I was with here a few weeks ago and they were out just cleaning up around their office, and by spending a little time with them, they opened up to what was going on in their life, and I was able to encourage them spiritually in the direction they needed to go. So if somebody's listening, and they feel like their life dream has been side-tracked or train wrecked or subverted, if you were going to give them in a minute or two some invitation towards a better place,

what does that look like? You're going to start with it. I'm sure you're going to start with Jesus, but. Well, I think the first. first thing is you've got to be willing to be honest and recognize where you are and not try and say, I'll fix it and I'll go on, be willing to let someone come into your life and bring some truth and help for you. Just like if you were hungry, you need somebody to bring you some food.

Yeah, but we're going to do that right now because they can't always. have an appointment with you or me. Okay. So we're going to give them some food. If they've survived a divorce or they lost a parent or their parents divorced and they probably feel like somehow they contributed to that because that's kind of what the devil does to us. Right. Well, the first place that we learned that you have to begin and that was like when a man told us his testimony how

he was at a crisis with his family and how he personally accepted Jesus. Was willing to transform his life. He was willing to make whatever change was necessary

friends conduct and to let Jesus become a truth that he applied in his life according to the scripture. acknowledge I need you. Acknowledge who I've been,

but I want to change and turn away from it 100%. But I need you to help me. And that's the beginning point. And with that, then if you have someone that has some experience, it will increase the moment. momentum of the experience, but they can help you the first thing that they did with us is show us a Bible. Right. Well, they have somebody with some experience, so we're going to add some momentum.

Okay. We've got about five minutes. Oh, okay. That's what we're here for. Well, last time you made me do two more. Yes. I'm going to reject you this time. Okay, good.

No, but it does begin with an acknowledgement of Jesus. The specific words around that aren't as critical to me. as the acknowledgement that you believe Jesus is God's son, and you ask him to be Lord of your life. I mean, it gets down to being that simple. Right. I need a Savior, and I believe Jesus is your son, and I want you to be Lord of my life.

That's the first step for all of us. That's more important than being Baptist or Methodist or Lutheran or Pentecostal or world outreach. And that's a decision that you don't need a pastor or priest or professional Christian for. You can make that decision in your car. you can make that decision in your home. You can make that decision where it's a personal choice between you and God.

And I think it's helpful to say it out loud. Yeah, you can do it wherever you are that the person is willing to agree with the truth that you're giving them. I mean, I prayed with people in noisy restaurants. I prayed with them before you got up to preach and they hadn't started the worship yet. I mean, where you are, God's put you there, the timing's right. Do what you know to do. So it's as simple as God, I need a Savior, and I believe Jesus is your son. Forgive me of my sins.

I choose Jesus as Lord. Right. And I forgive those that have hurt me and wrong with me and brought me to this place. I choose. I don't understand it, but I choose to do it. And if they're listening to a podcast on Father's Day, the topic of which has been, for a large part, rejection. and they're conscious that they have had to endure rejection.

And if you've made that step to acknowledge Jesus is Lord of your life, then I think if they were going to sit at the table with us, we would say to them we need to acknowledge we've been rejected, whether we deserved it or didn't deserve it, whether we contributed to it or we didn't. But sometimes if they've been through a divorce, they may have contributed to it. Or there can be circumstances where there's enough scoundrel in some of us

that we've been apart. or it may be something where you're a complete victim, but I would, just as we suggested that they say out loud, then I would say, God, I recognize I've been rejected. I feel hurt. And there's some symptoms that come with that. You feel like you're on the outside. Well, I gave the name to a teaching I did on it,

why I feel this way, because you don't realize and understand why at times you get gloomy, depressed, discouraged. It's the reaction to where you feel like a failure. And with those, what I've found through the years, they need to recognize it. And when they recognize it, the feelings have opened the door for a spiritual aspect. And they need to say, or you lead them and say,

we let that spirit go that has caused you to feel this way that has affected your life. Let it go in Jesus' name. How about I renounce the spirit of rejection? Right. And by the blood of Jesus, I'm set free. It has no place in me and no power over me. That's right. Through the blood of Jesus.

That's right. I am free of the spirit of rejection. Take a big breath and let that go like you're letting all of that hurt go at the same time. Jesus is my Lord. Amen. I'm a member of the family of God. I belong to the greatest family in the universe. God loves me.

He has accepted me. I am not a failure. That's right. I have not been rejected. I'm accepted in the beloved, if I can borrow a biblical phrase. And then my country self say, then it really doesn't matter to me who didn't like me. God does.

And that starts to build something. back into me that I need to know. I've got a little thing in my office that said Jesus loves everybody, but I'm his favorite. Deal with it. Okay. But if that's been a part of your life for a long time, which in most of us

our lives, it has been before we get to the place where we're ready for some real freedom, you say that prayer, and I think you'll experience freedom. I think there'll be a change in how you feel. feel. There'll be a heaviness that lifts. Right. But it's entirely possible that some of those emotions will revisit because our emotions

are fickle. And when that feeling comes back, that sense of being alone or that sense of being on the outside or left out, then I think you have to come back and say, no, God has accepted me. I'm not rejected. Because to think that you're going to pray that prayer one time and your life is going to change and a light switch comes on and there's never going to be another shadow. The people around you are the ones that precipitate it.

You have to be enough free in your spirit to know to stand against it by the blood of Jesus. And it's a beginning. It's not an end point when we get here. We're just beginning on a whole new path that God has for you. This year, we celebrate 250 years of God's faithfulness to our our nation. From backyard picnics in ball games to laughter shared with family and friends, we've been given so many blessings to enjoy together. And in a world that feels increasingly divided, these moments remind us of what matters most. Faith, freedom, family, and community.

Alan Jackson Ministries wants to help you carry that message with you wherever you may go. This outdoor blanket and canvas tote bag are simple reminders of God's goodness and a way to spark meaningful conversations about faith and the hope we have in him. Request your limited edition tote bag and outdoor blanket today with your gift of $100 or more at allan jackson.com or call 800 8805102. But see, I think of rejection in a very similar way that I think of forgiveness. Right. When I meet somebody that isn't a Christian or hasn't lived a Christian life, they may have been

churched. One of the first skill sets they have to develop is forgiveness. You have to forgive other people so that you can be forgiven. But that's not a one-time event because as you continue to walk through the days of your life, you're going to need to forgive other people. And you're going to need to be forgiven by God. And I think the same is true with rejection. Rejection is not a one-time life experience. You weren't just rejected when your mother died and you were left in that place. You've had to face rejection all the rest of your life. All along the journey. And so what we're trying to introduce to the people is a tool. Right. So that you're not going to lead a life free of rejection. We're not offering them some mystical prayer that if you repeat this after me,

if you back up this podcast and you listen to that prayer again, it's not going to vaporize rejection forever in your life. But now you've got a tool so that rejection doesn't shape your response to the world. You can lead the life of an overcomer, a triumphant life in Christ Jesus. You have the power available to you to deal with it, and it will no longer control you like it once did, because what Jesus did, you have that confession, the blood of Jesus, and you can come against it. Which to me is the amazing part of the gospel. The good news of Jesus is even though we live in this fallen, broken world, and we're going to continue to see expressions of ungodliness and sin, and some of them will encroach on our

own life and our own experience. Now we have a set of tools that aren't fueled by our intellect or our affiliation with the right denomination or our affiliation with the right ministry. They're fueled by the grace of God through the revelation of Jesus that we've had, and we can overcome every one of those expressions of evil. So that forgiveness and understanding you're accepted by God and that rejection doesn't define your future. So you didn't get accepted to the school you wanted or you didn't get the job that you wanted or you, whatever, that God will write a story for you. He's the author and the completer of our story. And he'll keep writing the end of that story until he gets to the one that he wants us to have. But it all begins with we have to be convinced that we're, convinced that we're

we can make choices and we can make right choices or wrong choices. What got us in the ditch in the first place. But we can see there is a place that make right choices, accepting Jesus, being free of the things that hold us bound. There is a spiritual world and Jesus has brought victory for us. We can have victory, but we must make right choices. So you can't choose to stay a victim? No. You may have been victimized.

True. Not denying that. Not even your fault. You're just the way life fell out for you. But you can't choose to, you can't accept that and allow that to shape you. You have to choose the Lord and the power of God to write you a new future. Right. It's important.

We can't sit with them all. So we're working on a little, we've got a little freedom session going here. So no matter what your circumstance is, no matter how unfair, in Jesus, you can be free. Exactly. It's a whole new path you've got to choose. I mean, if you look and see where you've been coming from and it hasn't been working, seek the Lord. You will see a new path. You say, well, I don't know what to do. God will put somebody in your life. I watched it happen this week with our camp we had for the kids.

The Lord put people in kids pass and adults pass to help them to see how to move on and change that pattern that they'd been having. But if somebody's listening and we're going to give them a starter kit, when you say seek the Lord, I'd get out my Bible and start to read the gospel of John. Right. All right. And if when you finish John, if you've still got energy left, You can go pick up Matthew.

Yeah. It doesn't even hurt to read, well, they may not be far enough long to read Romans yet. Let's read John. Read John. We'll read through the Gospels before. Okay. But you start with your Bible, and you start talking to the Lord. Tell the Lord how you feel.

You don't have to have fancy language. You can tell him you feel alone or isolated or broken. And life brings that to you. Mom went to heaven two years ago. seems a little unfair after 68 years of marriage. Yeah. I mean, you had somebody telling you what you needed to do most of the time for 68 years. And you were left untethered.

That's right. And that's been an adjustment. Very much so. And so it wasn't because of ungodliness or rebellion. It's a normal part of your journey through time. But it introduces a different kind of hurt. And you've still got to trust the Lord that you have a future. and something to do every day and a reason to do it.

And we all have to do that all along the way. And there's a tape that plays in, there's a message that plays inside of us because we have an enemy that tells us that we don't have any value anymore or we don't have a future anymore. And he doesn't just tell you that when you're 89, he tells you that when you're 8,

he tells you that when you're 9, and he'll try that again when you're 89. Is that fair? That's right. That was one thing Derek Prince always told me, me, which is what you're saying. He said, it takes guts to get old because you've got things pushing against you that are like you're talking about.

You can't do it anymore. It's not available to you. You don't know how to do it, but God will help you. Okay. Well, it's Father's Day weekend. So I'm sure there's somebody listening to us that either is a father or has a father. If they're listening to us and they don't meet either one of those criteria, we have other prayers to pray. But how about if you pray for them?

Okay. I know you have talked to more than a few people. Well, this prayer may not last long because I've been listening to my preacher for the last several weeks, and he keeps talking about a one-sentence prayer, so we'll see where it goes. I'm not too worried. Will you pray for us on this Father's Day? Lord, let us have hearts that are open to you. may we see that you have made provision for us

when it looks like nothing was working may you continue to lead us and guide us Lord as we say my hope is in Jesus and that's where we must begin may each person that's listening be sure they know Jesus not in a religious way but in a personal way

just like it changed our family when each one individually said Jesus come into my life I choose you as my Lord and Savior and that word Lord's important don't look for just a Savior you're looking for a Lord so may they see to have a Lord in their life that will bring the Holy Spirit into their life to lead them to guide them to help them do what they can't do alone, but you've made provision for us. You have a plan, and may we be willing to follow, Lord, and not to lead, but to follow you. Give them the health they need where there are those that are needing health. Give them people strong in their spirit to come alongside them, to bring courage and faith to do what you've called us to do in the day in which we live.

In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Well, the question we always try to answer to a degree is what can we do? And what we can do is acknowledge Jesus is Lord, understand that God's accepted us, that we're not rejected. And then we can determine where we have the influence to be godly, his husbands, his fathers, his wives, as mothers. If we'll do that and if we'll honor our fathers and mothers, particularly when we've got a Father's Day weekend coming up, I believe we open our lives to the blessings of God.

Thank you for being a godly father. Well, I did what I knew to do. I don't know how good it was. Well, it's been enough to this point, so we'll trust God for another day. Yeah. Well, we've got enough material. We'll come back next year. I'll hold you to it.

Thank you and God bless. 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 and subscribe to Alan Jackson Ministries YouTube channel and follow the Culture and Christianity podcast. You can do that on Spotify, Apple Podcast, wherever you get your podcast. Together, let's learn how to lead with our faith. We can change our culture.

I'll see you next time. time.