Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast - What Iran and Venezuela May Be Signaling About the End Times

Episode Date: January 16, 2026

Culture and Christianity, Allen Jackson, Allen Jackson Ministries, Christian podcast, Faith and culture, Biblical worldview, Christian commentary, Christian leadership, 100th episode, 100 episodes podcast, Christian podcast 2026, Faith in uncertain times, God is moving, Gospel of the Kingdom, Venezuela crisis, Maduro removed, Communism exposed, Communism and Christianity, China global influence, Gordon Chang China, Cuba communism, Iran protests, Iran regime change, Middle East politics, Boko Haram Nigeria, Christian persecution, Religious freedom worldwide, Persecuted Christians, Religious liberty, Freedom and faith, Christian persecution today, Standing for truth 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

Well, welcome to culture and Christianity. It's a big day for us. This is our 100th episode. It's our first episode of 2026, but it just happens to be our 100th episode. So I hope you're a frequent flyer. We had the team. We were just talking about the journey a little bit and what we learned. This really got initiated by the folks I work with. You know, we were talking about the ministry and the various aspects of the ministry and the different ways we communicate. And it's a pretty diverse list of things that we do beyond just. sermons in church. And there was a group of people that were pretty insistent that a podcast was an important component of the ministry. And I was probably a little bit skeptical. And so 100 episodes in, I confess, they were right. I like the format. I like the opportunity to be able to talk about things a little more casually without all the same kind of focused preparation that sometimes goes into the other things that I am asked to do. And I feel like I've made a whole new set of friends. I've enjoyed the interviews, the people we've gotten to talk to, the diversity of that. You know, not everybody that you'd want to bring into the middle of a worship service

for a sit-down conversation. But this podcast has helped us do that. So I hope it's been a benefit to you. I hope it has strengthened your faith. I hope it's opened your heart to the Lord a new way. I hope it's brought some clarity in the midst of a candidly, often very confusing world. And I hope sometimes it's made you laugh because I'm a smart. And that's not a bad thing if we laugh a little bit once in a while. I've enjoyed all the guests. I mean, it's too long a list to start through or I'll leave somebody out and I'll get in trouble. But it's been a great run.

We're not finished yet. I hope you will stay with us and share it with some friends. This is really all about an audience. To be completely candid, the biggest surprise to me is that you listen. Because I create content in a lot of other places and other ways. And I think nobody wants another way to listen to me. but there's a uniqueness to the podcast that I've learned about. So thank you.

You've helped me expand on my own world. And so we're going to push into 2026. Have mercy. This year did not start casually. You know, I think the international part is the part that's captured my heart. I have friends around the world. And from the Middle East to Central America and South America to Africa to to the Ukraine and to see what's happening in the globe, it's startling. And most of it's really good.

You know, probably one of the most recent episodes is Venezuela. That's still unfolding. But U.S. Delta Force showed up in Venezuela and took Maduro from his impregnable palace without any loss of U.S. life. And it's changed the discussion globally. You know, I had a conversation just last week. did an episode of AJ Now with Chang, Gordon Chang, forgive me, who is, I mean, you see him on Fox and NewsMack. I mean, he's kind of the go-to expert on China. And he's been pretty, when I've talked to him, I've talked to him several times, and he's been pretty dark about Chinese influence and their power and how they were encroaching on America and our future. But I talked to him last Thursday, and after the Venezuela episode, he felt like it was almost a complete reset.

for China in the world, that they'd been exposed, that they'd invested billions and billions of dollars in Venezuela and trying to make that really the bulwark of their initiative into this hemisphere. And when we went in and removed Maduro, we made China, we revealed China to be more about words than actual actions. And it's going to change Cuba, and it's going to change the Caribbean, and it's going to change South America. It's a remarkable. You know, on the Saturday it was all unfolding and we were hearing the news. I was just quiet. Saturday's the day I do my preparation for my weekends and the messages I'm responsible for

through the week. I do three sermons a week. And so I was working on that and I was just quietly saying to the Lord, you know, what's the, I know there's going to be people looking at me. What's the response on this? Because it's more than just a military exercise or a flex on U.S. power in our hemisphere and what are you really doing? And I had service that night. And when I got done with my sermon, a couple, I'll stop at the stay at the altar and talk to people after church. And a

couple came up to me, who I knew. They're from the church. They're Venezuelan. And they said, Pastor, would you speak to a friend of ours? And I thought they had somebody that visited church with them. I said, sure. And she kind of reached behind herself. And she held up her phone. And there was a FaceTime live. And there was a pastor from Venezuela. And she said, he asked if he could talk to you. And there were tears streaming down his face. And he said, will you tell the people in America, thank you for what you've done for us? You have given us a new future.

And we are so grateful for what you have done for the people of Venezuela. And I thought, well, Lord, I'm not always the sharpest knife in the drawer, but you gave me the response. And then this past Friday, I'm preparing for this weekend. And another friend of mine, very, I mean, somebody I trust sent me a piece of video, forwarded a piece of video to me, of hundreds of pastors and religious leaders being released from Venezuelan prisons as a result of Maduro being removed. And it was the celebration of the families being reunited with the family members who had suffered under this communist regime. We shouldn't be surprised. Communism throughout the last century was highly oppressive of Christians, closing churches, imprisoning pastors and faith leaders, crushing those expressions of freedom and liberty that cause people to think. And so when you see these expressions of communism in the world, don't be confused about what they're doing. They've been consistent for more than 100 years.

A hundred million people died in the last century as a result of communism and the plan. planet earth, multiple nations, different flavors, not about a particular people group or a particular location. It's an ideology that is highly authoritarian, very oppressive, very violent, and very violently opposed to Christianity. So when you see it, you may not be getting all the reports from Venezuela about the imprisonments and the way it's choking down the proclamation of the gospel and oppressing the people of faith, but you can know from decades and decades of communism in the world that that's what

they're doing. And so I'm grateful for what President Trump did and the permission he gave our military and those young men and women that put themselves in harm's way. And I believe it has opened a door for other expressions of freedom in the world. It's been a long time since our nation has used its authority for the cause of freedom and liberty. We've spent decades dismantling American strength, exporting our manufacturing. We stopped making things. And we just started importing things because we could get them cheaper. And we lost all the good that comes with actually being a manufacturing place. We took our greatest strength,

like the abundance of our energy and our ability to be energy independent. And we, we diminished that. We purposely subjugated ourselves to the nations of the world to create a more equal playing field, which in reality all that did was take American strength and diminish it. And the strength of America, please don't be confused on this. It's not political. It's not even economic. The strength of America that's enabled us to flourish through multiple wars, global wars, civil wars, has been a set of values that were derived from a biblical worldview.

It brought an integrity to us as a people. Not perfectly. We're a bunch of cracked pots. But it's been the best story of a civilization. throughout the stories of all the civilizations. And so the strength of America was the values that we held, that biblical worldview, and we spent decades diminishing those. 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. When I was working my way through the academic systems, the higher you went in academia, the further you went up the graduate degree program, the more liberal, the more woke. We didn't call it woke at the time. The more godless the education became, even in the theological seminaries, the most celebrated theological schools were far too often not godly places. Well, now all of that garbage has made its way down to our elementary schools.

And we're not teaching our students to respect our country, or that we have a heritage to be proud of, or the sacrifices that have been made for the freedoms and liberties. So to see the United States, Using our strength again on the international stage to bring freedom and liberty to people and opportunities for the gospel of Jesus Christ is refreshing. I understand it's going to cause some people to gnash their teeth, but I'm of the opinion God's moving in the earth.

There's still work to be done in Venezuela. The people will have to choose. They'll have to choose a future. They'll have to be willing to stand up for that. We cannot be the global police force. But in our own hemisphere, in our own backyard, how many hundreds of thousands of young Americans have to die from drug overdoses that flowed through Venezuela supported by China and Iran before we'll say we won't allow that to continue. So I don't think this has anything to do with

Christian nationalism. I think it has everything to do with freedom for people in our own backyard. We're going to secure the future of our children and grandchildren. Being aware of what's happening around us is important. And I think Cuba is probably in line for an opportunity of their own. You know, Cuba got frozen in a time capsule. And we abandoned them to communism and Castro and all the things that have come since that then. You know, we see the pictures now of Havana and, you know, they're driving American cars from the 1950s and it looks like a movie set. Well, it may be quaint if you go visit and you may consider it, you know, it's a photo op or something that you want to post on social media, but I don't think any of us want to go have health care done in a 1950s hospital

or try to prepare our family meals in a 1950s kitchen or have to compete in a global business environment with 1950s tools. You know, again, what's quaint for a holiday visit is not the world we want to live in. And we abandoned those people 90 miles from the shores of Florida to a brutal authoritarian and domineering godless form of government for decades. And I pray that God brings freedom to the people of Cuba. And I think we'll have to see. That's not an accomplished fact yet.

But the removal of Maduro in Venezuela opens a door of opportunity and freedom. You know, a previous administration here in America wanted to normalize relationships with Cuba, but we didn't want to say that they'd had awful leadership. I'll say it, they have had awful, ungodly, wicked, oppressive leadership. We better have the courage to say that. The gospel wasn't welcome. In any place that doesn't welcome, my Lord and King, to be freely discussed in the public square, I have a problem with that.

And I pray that you do as well. You know, our style of dress or what day of the week we want to worship or what style of music we prefer or what Bible translation we read, Those are not the defining characteristics of our life, but the opportunity to have a public discussion about Jesus without fear of reprisal from the government or forfeiture of our professional opportunities or our children's educations, that should concern us. It should concern us because we saw that kind of limit beginning in this nation. It has taken root and it's been pushed forward.

And I pray that God is going to give us the courage to stand up so that we can see freedom extended in our own nation, but I pray we get to see it exported around the world again. Keep praying. You know, as we're having, as we're taping this, Iran is in the midst of turmoil. It's not clear yet what the outcome is that will be, whether the Ayatollah will still has enough determination to exercise the brutality that will be required to subjugate the Iranian people for another season. And that's what it'll take. It'll take violent oppression of the population in order for the Ayatollah to maintain his place. What we have allowed in Iran or what we have encouraged, and we have both allowed it and encouraged.

It started in the 70s with President Jimmy Carter when the Shah was removed, largely through the United States engagement with all of that. There was a revolution in Iran, and the Ayatollahs have taken over. They took American hostages and held them, started a whole new genre of news programming in the United States with Ted Cople and Nightline. Most of you were too young to know about that. Ask Rabbi Google. You can learn a little American history. When President Reagan was elected, they'd been holding our hostages for over a year. And they released him during the inauguration because Reagan had said, if he got to the White House and they were still holding the hostages, the bombers would fly.

And the Iranians believed him. So they released the hostages during the inauguration. They didn't want that former actor from California to get to the White House. And we have provided support to Iran in a variety of ways. We've sent plane loads of billions of dollars in cash to Iran that have been used not to help the Iranian people, but to fund their terror proxies. Hamas, that's been in the news for the last couple of years because of the October 7th attacks at Israel, was an Iranian proxy.

They funded them. They trained them. They provided weapons for them. They provided an international cover for them. Iran supported and sponsored Hezbollah, who was the terror group on the northern border of Israel, that has really been the de facto government in Lebanon and been a powerful force in Syria. Through God's sovereign intervention, through the Israelis, through a variety of things, Hamas and Hezbollah have been tremendously weakened. That's all helped to weaken. And that's all helped to weaken the Ayatollah's position in Iran. And now the people are demonstrating in the streets. Dozens and dozens of them have been murdered.

It isn't clear yet what the outcome will be. You know, I'm of the opinion that that brutal expression of Islam over Iran has not been good for the Persian people. And I'm praying that they have a new season of freedom and liberty. I've heard multiple stories. I'm sure you may have heard many of them. of Jesus revealing himself to the Iranian people. I'm grateful for the sovereign grace of God that will intervene supernaturally in those ways.

But I think we should be praying and believing and actively engaged in ways that it will allow the conversation about Jesus of Nazareth on the streets of Iran to be normal and not require the supernatural revelation of Jesus. Why wouldn't we wish that for the Iranian people? So pray that the wicked oppressive regime of the Ayatollah homani will be broken and freedom will come to those people.

I don't want us involved in another war, but if there's a way to use American influence to facilitate that freedom, I think it's something that we should be praying about. In Nigeria, in Africa, Boko Haram, another group of Islamic terrorists have been systematically murdering the Christians in that country. It's a genocide of the simplest order. They're identifying the Christians and systematically murdering them, kidnapping the young girls and taking them away from their families and subjecting them to the most horrendous things.

And I'm grateful that our State Department and President Trump said it had to stop, that if it didn't stop, we would provide intervention, not boots on the ground, but that we would probably eliminate Boko Haram, that terrorist group. How many expressions of violent Islam do we have to see in the world before we recognize that Islam is incapable of policing itself? They're either incapable or unwilling. So we can't just casually say Islam is peaceful until Islam helps keep the peace within Islam. Just an observation.

I think we have to pray. We've got to be a little more alert as consumers and stop believing all of the propaganda that's handed us. by the various outlets that want us to cooperate with their move towards globalism and suggest that we're all the same. You know, when they're having that conversation, they usually say that, well, Christians have been violent, and they point at the Crusades. Well, it's a tragic chapter in the history of Christianity. The Crusades, if you're not familiar with them, you can do a little work on Google and get to it. But, I mean, the Crusades were a thousand years ago. No group of people, no civilism, nobody's going to escape a thousand years.

of history and have a clear track record. I'm not excusing it. It was awful. It was beastly. It was ungodly. It was anything but Christian. But it isn't the accurate representation of Christianity in the world in the 21st century or even the 20th century. And so we've got to look at the world we're in and the values that are being espoused and what kind of freedoms are they bringing. You know, I'm delighted to tell you about one of our sponsors. To be completely honest, We've declined a number of people who wanted to sponsor our podcast or something we were doing. But ancient nutrition isn't just a sponsor. It's actually a product I use.

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Wouldn't it be wonderful if the brutal oppression of the Chinese people were stopped, if they stopped forced organ harvesting? I mean, the list goes on and on. you know, enslavement of some of the minority peoples under Chinese authority. I mean, we tolerate these things, and we celebrate their wonderful cultures, and they may have done some wonderful things historically. But the behavior of the current regimes in charge of these nations are brutal, totalitarian, ungodly. They promote wickedness.

And to acknowledge that does not mean we don't have a compassion or a love for the Chinese people, quite the opposite. I have a tremendous desire that they be set free. And God is moving in the earth. I believe we will see that. In fact, I want to take the time I've got left and point you towards a biblical perspective and bring you back home a bit because God's moving in our nation just as dramatically, just as remarkably as in Venezuela or Cuba or wherever else you put your finger on the globe. You know, in Matthew 24, Matthew 24 and Luke 21 are parallel passage. The question is put to Jesus.

There's a couple of questions put to Jesus by his disciples. They're leaving the temple mount. And the second temple, Herod's temple in Jerusalem, was one of the wonders of the ancient world. It took Herod almost 50 years to build it. People from all over the Roman Empire would come to see it in its magnificence. The platform, you know, he expanded the hilltop where Solomon's temple was built. That temple platform still exists today. I mean, it's a marvel of engineering.

Well, Jesus is walking away from the temple, and he makes the comment to his disciples that it's going to be destroyed. Not one stone would be left on another. Well, the disciples extrapolate from that. For the temple to be destroyed, it must be the end of the world. And so they ask Jesus the question, what will be the signs of the end of this age and the return of Messiah? And Jesus answers their questions, even though they didn't understand. understand necessarily the context. The temple will be destroyed in 70, 70 AD by the Romans. The Roman legions come and besieged Jerusalem, and they literally tore it apart, stone at a time.

So Jesus answers a couple of questions. He gave the disciples some signs of what would happen in 70 AD when Jerusalem was besieged and the temple was destroyed. But he also answered their question about the end of the age. And in Matthew 24 at the beginning of that chapter, he lists about a dozen signs that will be prevalent in the earth before the end of this age. And as he's coming to the conclusion of that list, he said that the increase of lawlessness will be so great that the love of most will grow cold. And the NIV translates the word lawlessness wickedness. The New American Standard translates it lawlessness. The Greek word, it's a secular Greek word that's translated there. Our New Testament was written in Coine Greek, Common Greek, Street Greek.

And the word that's translated there really kind of puts both of those words together. It's kind of a rejection of God's laws. So what Jesus was saying, as I understand it, is that as we approach the end of the age, there's going to be a widespread rejection of godly boundaries, lawlessness. And because of that, the love of most will grow cold. But then he says something that's highly optimistic. It's a promise. He said, this gospel of the kingdom will be preached to all the nations and then the end will come. So what is the penultimate sign of the end of the age? Not darkness, not wickedness, not earthquakes, not famines, not ethnic conflict. The ultimate sign of the end of this age, the proclamation of the gospel, the gospel of the kingdom to all the nations

of the world, which means that the culmination of human history, the church, the people of God from every nation, race, language, and tribe will be facing forward with the most unique expression of the gospel of the kingdom in the history of the church. So, yeah, there's some intimidating things in that list, but the ultimate sign is very much good news. So when we're watching all this happen, don't panic, recognize we're approaching the end of the age. My opinion, you could disagree with me. We can both go to heaven, but my opinion is that lawlessness is exploding.

In our nation, there are expressions of lawlessness that would have been unthinkable three or four decades ago. It's become so frequent, so commonplace that I think we're almost numb to it. It's as if we've been anesthetized. It's kind of the frog and the kettle syndrome. You know, now we have sanctuary cities. We've had sanctuary cities now, I suppose, I didn't look up the dates, but for a couple of decades. major American cities that refuse to enforce federal laws that they don't like. They'll take some laws and reject others.

But they demand federal funding. That's absurd. You can't refuse to obey the law and then say, well, the government should support me anyway. Suppose we had the privilege of living like that as citizens. I don't like speed limits, so I'm just not going to obey them. But I want my insurance company to still pay my insurance if I have an accident. Or suppose I say, you know, I don't really like paying income taxes, but I want all the benefits that come with citizenship. I want all the perks.

Well, we understand fundamentally that that's an absurd assertion. And yet we have watched that and tolerated that and elected leaders that perpetuate that until we've accepted it is so normal that now we have sanctuary states. We have states and the mayors of major American cities refusing. to enforce or observe federal laws while they demand federal protection and federal dollars. Folks, we will all lose our liberty and freedom if we do that. Those are the circumstances that let us do a civil war. We wanted all the rights and the privileges, but we didn't intend to obey the laws that we had agreed upon. And that has reached a point of such absurdity of late.

It's moved out, you know, in recent years, it's been followed. focused on illegal immigration. And when we would no longer just capitulate to the notion that it was an expression of compassion, they just started lying to us blatantly. I mean, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Mayarchus would look at the camera. How many times and say, the border is secure? Our border is secure. I've been there.

I've inspected it. Our border is secure. I mean, he's on tape multiple times with that nonsense. Well, it was secure. If you can redefine secure, if you can redefine secure, if, secure means hundreds of thousands of people a month were pouring across our border without processing any immigration requirements, then I suppose it was a secure border. But if you mean we were obeying our immigration laws, the border was not secure to the tune of more than 20 million people

that have come into our nation. And they're amongst us now. But in Minnesota in recent weeks, we have found out there was unprecedented fraud taking place. Billions. Billions. of dollars, billions with a B of dollars being fraudulently taken from the American people. Fraud is a fancy word for stealing. They were stealing, they are stealing billions of dollars. And for the most part, there's not much outrage. I would expect the governors and the mayors of the state where billions of dollars are being stolen from taxpayers, both from the local community and from the federal community,

to be outraged at that, no matter what political party you're from. But that's not the response we've seen. And what we're coming to understand is what happened in Minnesota is just the tip of the iceberg, that the fraud is taking place. Now they're saying, I mean, it's been a part of the news discussion across all the different platforms that hundreds of millions of dollars, as much as five or six hundred billion dollars a year, are being fraudulently taken in the United States, five or $600 billion a year stolen from our government in this nation.

That's not sustainable, folks. Now, here's what's awkward. If you're going to, let's just say it's only $300 billion. That means there's hundreds of thousands of people benefiting taking stolen funds directly or indirectly. This is a widespread problem. So if we're going to see the fraud stop, the lawlessness stop, we'll have to have the courage to say, that's not a good thing, even if I've been benefiting from it.

You see, we can't continue to steal and imagine that we can live in the blessings of God. It just doesn't work. And we have been so deeply impacted by the lawlessness. And it really should not be a part of it. an issue. This isn't about the political party that you endorse. I think we can all agree that stealing is not good. That you can't flourish in a culture. You can't flourish in a home. You can't flourish in a relationship where someone is constantly, consistently, unapologetically stealing. I mean, stealing, don't steal is in the list of 10. This isn't like a new idea. And yet

the lawlessness around us is just stunning. And it wasn't very long ago, the previous administration said that one of the constant talking points is we needed to pay our fair share. And we were lectured pretty frequently how we should willingly be happy to pay more taxes. It's just the cost of freedom. And in order to ensure that we were doing that, they passed the legislation and gave permissions to hire tens of thousands of new IRS agents because they were necessary to ensure that we were paying our fair share. Well, you know, paying your fair share when hundreds of billions of dollars are being stolen and they're not managing the resources they have is an absurd proposition. Let's become good stewards with the resources that we've been given. Let's ensure that

they're not being fraudulently lost by people who are gaming the system. Let's not give billions of dollars internationally to bizarre things like Sesame Street in Iraq or condoms in Gaza, let's be sure that those dollars are being spent in a reasonable way. Not that I agree with every expenditure, every expenditure fits within my worldview, but that they're at least being accountable for the dollars that they have. If we'll return to that kind of approach, but it's going to require us to wake up. And I think the challenge we face is those of us who are people of faith have just tried not to notice. You know, around the world, people are searching for truth.

And together we're doing our very best to help them find it. When you become a ministry partner with Alan Jackson Ministries, you're joining a growing community of believers who are committed to strengthening the church and sharing God's word through every available channel. television radio, podcast, books, Bible studies, digital resources, conferences. Your monthly partnership helps us to quit believers, to reach new audiences, and to take the hope of Jesus to people who may never have heard the gospel otherwise. Together, we can stand firm at our faith and make God's truth known, right here at home and around

the earth, wherever God opens the door. Let's keep gathering his people and building his church until the day our king returns. You can find more about becoming a ministry partner at Alan Jackson.com slash partner. I remember when I was a kid. I grew up on a farm. So oftentimes, you know, I'd bed night. I'd have to go out and check the barn or go check on a horse or go see of something. So you're going out in the dark at night.

And when I was a younger, you know, if you're afraid of the dark, you hurry, you whistle, you talk to yourself. You do anything to distract you from whatever you might imagine is frightening in what you can't see. And I think we've been living that way for far too long in the Christian community. We've just been whistling or trying not to notice, desperately trying not to notice. Because if we acknowledge that the border isn't secure or the fraud's taking place, we can't continue with our polite little narratives. We'll have to actually engage the culture. Well, it's time to engage.

It's not a new idea. I've said it before, but I'm going to keep saying it because I think it is not just true. I think it's essential to our future. This really gets built from the ground up. This starts at our kitchen table. We have to bring God's truth back to the kitchen table. Not angry, not belligerent, not condemning. We've got to have the courage in our homes at our kitchen tables to honor God.

Not easy, not always comfortable. It gets more awkward as we all grow and mature and go through the different seasons of life. I may not always even agree, but we've got to acknowledge God's standards in our desire to honor them. If we'll do it there and then we'll let that expand into our circle of friends, you know, how many times are we going to sit at the ball games and watch our kids or our grandkids and talk about the weather or where we're shopping or what the latest recipe that we're interested in is or what our favorite sports team is doing someplace else and ignore what's happening in our world. Bring your voice, learn to lead with your faith in that sphere of influence,

not because we're perfect, not because our lives are filled with such glowing expressions of righteousness. They're not. If I hit my thumb with a hammer, I may not say, praise the Lord. You cut me off in traffic and I'm waving at you. It may not be a wave. I may not be saying Jesus is number one. Not proud of it, but folks, we live in a real world. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't lead with our faith in all of those places that we have influence.

How dare they tell us that our faith is a real world? welcome in the public square. How dare they tell us that our faith isn't welcome in a corporate setting or an academic setting? Every other worldview is welcome there. Every other expression or attitude or opinion about sexual morality or immorality is welcome there. I'm bringing my God perspective, my biblical perspective into all those places. And I hope you are too. Everybody won't like it. Spoiler alert. You'll probably be left off an invitation list or two. I have been. in. It's okay. We have to decide which audience it is that we're trying to please. At the end of the day, I want the Lord pleased with me. At the end of the day, I want his blessing. At the end of the day,

when God thinks about Alan, I want him to smile, not make a fist. And again, that's through all of the things that I'm not. I have not, you know, I still have to wrestle with my old nature. You know what I mean by that? The New Testament uses several phrases, old nature, earthly nature, carnal nature, Adamic nature, it's the part of Alan and the part of you that is hardwired towards ungodliness. We don't have to be coached on how to lie. We don't have to be taught to be selfish. We don't have to be taught. Those things come naturally to us. We're hardwired that way. Well, the biblical prescription for that is to put to death that old man, to say no to ungodliness. Well, in the church, we've wanted to pretend that if I've said the sinner's prayer, if I've walked the aisle of

church and made a profession of faith in Jesus, that I'm golden, that I got my ticket to heaven and everything's going to be good and the sky's bluer and the grass is greener and my struggles are over. Well, I believe in conversion and the new birth and salvation. But my old nature, my carnal nature, I have to say no to that and you have to say no to yours, which means in the midst of this broken world with all the garbage that we see and all the expressions of evil, people who are not submitted to the Lordship of Jesus, we have to hold up the truth of Jesus, but we do it from this broken vessel that we are. The fact that when I say,

you know, the stealing is wrong, it doesn't mean that I'm not tempted with greed. It means I have to choose not to capitulate to those temptations. And I think where we have been cowering in the shadows is we're aware of the inconsistency in our hearts, so we don't want to be. We don't to use our voices for what we believe to be right and wrong. Well, I don't believe it's condemning or judgy to say to others, no, I don't think stealing is a good idea. We're all tempted. We all would like benefits that we didn't work for, that we don't deserve, or we don't earn. And if it's a gift, I suppose it's a good thing. But if I'm stealing it from somebody else, it's not a good thing. We've got to have the courage to lead with our faith. So I want to commission you this year.

fresh calendar, fresh set of opportunities at our kitchen table in our sphere of influence with our friends, and then wherever else God opens a door for us. I've said to you before and I'll say it again, I think what happens in the White House is a small thing compared to what happens in your house or my house. You see, we want leaders, church leaders, pastors, political leaders. We want all these other people and to have a strong voice for a biblical worldview, and we want to cower in the shadows in order to maintain the equilibrium in the systems where we are. If we'll have the courage to choose the Lord in those simple places, I believe we'll see God continue to move in the earth in the most remarkable ways, and maybe, just maybe, you and I will get to be a part of this amazing

initiative at the end of the age where the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world. It doesn't mean we're all going to deliver a sermon. It means we're all going to be advocates for Jesus of Nazareth. We're going to do it in our homes, in our neighborhoods, at the ball fields, in the factories where we work, and the job sites where we go and the places where we vacation. We're going to go be advocates for Jesus. Folks, God's moving in the earth. He's bringing freedom to people in Venezuela that have labored beneath cruel authoritarian government for a long time.

I believe we'll see freedom come to Cuba and freedom come to Iran. It's an amazing season in the earth. I believe the name of Jesus will be lifted up across China in ways that it hasn't happened in decades. The spirit of God is moving in the earth. Now, evil is agitated, but don't focus on the darkness. Turn your attention to the Lord. Start at your kitchen table. It's the hardest place in the world to be a Christian.

Because the people you live with know the part of you that are least Christian. It's the awkward truth. but if you will start there, it has to start with some humility. See, the people that know us the best, they don't believe all the pretense. You know me on the other side of a lens, but the people have to work with me day in and day out, pray for them. But that's the hardest place in the world to go live your faith out. But if you can do it there, you can do it anywhere.

God is moving. I want to be a part of that. New Year, God gives us the strength and the opportunity. we'll do another 100 podcast, and we will celebrate the faithfulness of our God and celebrate his victories for the gospel of the kingdom and the freedom that will come to our lives, to our families, to our nation, and to nations of the world where the name of Jesus will be welcome. Now, that's a good reason to celebrate a new year, a fresh calendar, and a fresh set of opportunities. Keep saying yes to the Lord. God's moving in the earth. I want to move with him,

and I believe you do too. 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.