Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast - What It Means to Be a “Dangerous” Christian This Easter

Episode Date: April 3, 2026

This Holy Week, the question isn’t just what you believe—it’s where you stand. As we reflect on Easter, we’re reminded that faith was never meant to stay inside church walls or remain a private conviction. In this episode, Pastor Allen Jackson challenges us to choose belief over skepticism, step out of neutrality, and live our faith boldly in the world around us. God is moving—will you join Him?

Welcome to Culture and Christianity. This is Holy Week. The week that precedes Easter Sunday has been a special time in the Christian calendar for as long as we've had a Christian calendar. And it continues to emerge and morph, but a week of tremendous significance for people who are Christ followers throughout the earth. So I'm honored to get to have a conversation with you on this. I guess this will post on Good Friday. I've always thought the I understand the language around it, but calling Good Friday the day that Jesus is crucified. I guess it all depends on perspective. So I think I'll start with that.

You know, when I didn't, my spiritual formation didn't take place in a church. So I didn't attach great significance to church. And most of my memories of church as a young person, a child, and then a young person, were not helpful. And so Easter to me was maybe about new clothes, not so much for myself. but maybe chocolate or candy and, you know, kind of those traditional, secular approaches. And even after I began serving in the church, we didn't exhibit a lot of energy around, we didn't work hard around Easter. And as I became to understand the significance of church and the role we play in community

and that I do believe that the Christian church is intended to shape culture, then Easter became about more than just a friendly reminder of a portion of our, theology that we think is significant. And Easter becomes a cultural cornerstone when those of us who are Christ followers celebrate the redemptive work of Jesus, his death, burial, and resurrection. And we do it with enough enthusiasm and enough energy and enough effort that it is taken note of by people who don't engage. And then that opens the door for dialogue and questions and interaction and why does it matter so much. And all of those things then feed the cycle of an expanding role of Christianity or a belief in Jesus as the Messiah, you know, through a culture. And I think

the church has struggled with this. And so I'm grateful the community of faith that I serve in now for a long time. Easter is a big deal to us. For years, we rented the local arena for the university here, their sports arena. And we would transform that place into a worship venue, which sounds easier than it was because we needed all the spaces there for children and their children's activities, and we would take the men's football locker room, and we would rent steam cleaners and go in there and clean that place because it needed it before we could put babies in it, and we turned racquetball courts into places for toddlers, which we learned was a bad idea because the sound echoed around those solid walls, and it would drive you nuts if you

were in there with 40 toddlers. But, I mean, it was a challenge to make Easter available to the community because we wouldn't fit on our campus. We were doing five services in multiple rooms, and once a year we would get together in a venue where we could mostly get together at one time. It would take more than one service. But it was all about the celebration of Jesus resurrection, and it became a community cornerstone. And until this day, now we're outdoors for Easter. We're outdoors and indoors and around all the doors. But it is a time to celebrate Jesus resurrection.

And I would invite you, too, that our congregation has given away more than 14,000 coffee mugs with invitations in them to their friends and coworkers and neighbors and whomever. And that's something of a tradition for us because we want to engage. There are hundreds and hundreds of people who will volunteer to serve this week. And again, I'm not suggesting that we're better or worse. I've been a part of this since our church was very small. And it hasn't always been about large numbers or overwhelming things. But it became about the effort that we wanted to celebrate Easter, not with just new clothes.

some personal reflection, but with an outward interest. You know, I have lived in Israel and studied there, and the Jewish holidays have a big role in their culture for both the religious and the secular. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is a day of fasting. And if you're in Jerusalem on Yom Kippur, there's no food in your hotel. You'll have to go find an establishment that isn't Jewish. because whether you're secular or religious, there is a sense that that holiday is a special day for the people across the nation. And I have hopes that we will see the significance of Easter grow again in our culture.

Wouldn't that be wonderful that it's not programmed against, but it's recognized as a day of such significance and holiness? So this holy week, whatever your schedule may be, it may be spring break. It is for the schools in the community where I live. But I want to invite you to make space for Jesus in a unique way this week. If you're not planning to be a part of a public worship service on the weekend, change your plans. Join a group of believers. If that's not available to you, invite a few friends in and acknowledge Jesus. Celebrate his goodness to you.

Make a good news list. Make a list of what the Lord's doing in your life. I know there's things that are undone that you want God to do. But let's be more mindful of what God has done. Again, this whole notion of culture and Christianity is our faith has to live outside the walls of a church and outside the boundaries of a systematic theology. And this is how we take communion and you don't do it right. This is the translation of the Bible we read. And we're better than you because whatever.

Let's take our faith and live it out in the public square. If your faith doesn't survive, when you take it outside of the church building and a worship service, you don't have real faith. You've got some kind of a theoretical theological construct that can't survive daily. light. And we've got to learn to take that faith with us. If we do that, then we become dangerous Christians, not dangerous in the sense of violence, but dangerous to the kingdom of darkness. Because then God can send us as ambassadors on assignment into places where we'll be advocates for Jesus. We have a God story to tell, and we will share it, and we have a biblical worldview that we will share. And that's a dangerous Christianity because that begins to deconstruct all of the things

that Satan puts in place to destroy people. Those are the kind of Christians we want to be. So I hope this Holy Week that you'll make room for the Lord in a bit of a fresh way. We're certainly working to do that around the church. We've got outdoor stages set up, and we're having festivals on Friday night and Saturday night and Sunday morning. I'll preach outside. We'll have all the spaces in the building open. We've got multiple guest artists coming, Charity Gale.

The Catinas will be here. who else is coming. Cain will be here on Saturday and Sunday. Our own worship people are doing worship. We've got kids blitz for the elementary children. Ms. Patty Cakes coming for the smaller children. I mean, we are having a celebration. There'll be 35 or 40 food trucks on campus so that if you don't want to fight the crowds at the restaurants, you can enjoy a worship concert and some good food with friends and fellowship and ministry. I hope that pattern is repeated in countless places across our nation in ways that are appropriate for the setting whatever your community offers you where you're listening. And don't lament that somebody's not doing that.

Put some hamburgers and hot dogs on the barbecue in the backyard and invite your neighbors over and tell them how Jesus has changed your life. I mean, we've all got a God's story in a sphere of influence. Let's stop being frustrated because somebody isn't doing what we wish they would do. And let's just decide to be the difference. That's exciting to me. 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. You know, I don't know, but I hear constantly these comments when I travel, particularly in some settings, some media settings, some Christian leadership settings. They want to talk to me that the church is this sleeping giant. And when the sleeping giant awakes, that the whole nation is going to tremble at this expression of the power of God and the mercy of God.

Well, I think that's a wonderful idea, but I'm of the opinion. I don't really think there's a sleeping giant. If there's a sleeping giant, it's in such a deep sleep. I think we would call it a coma. I'm more inclined to believe that that sleeping giant doesn't really exist, but that doesn't give me any sense of panic because God is in the business of raising up shepherds to take down the giants. It seemed to threaten the well-being of his people. And we don't have to lead because of our impressive numbers,

our overwhelming constituencies. I think we're triumphant because of the power of an almighty God in our lives. And if we will spend our energy getting to know the power of God and the presence of God, I think we will see him bring the victories to our lives, and we'll see the giants that have opposed God's purposes on the earth come tumbling down. And I'm much more comfortable, I think, with that imagery and that paradigm, because it keeps us from being passive waiting for something else to happen, and it causes us to become difference maker.

we'll start picking up five smooth stones out of the brook and understanding that we have a covenant with Almighty God and these threatening voices that we hear are challenging, not us, but they're challenging the purposes of God and the earth, and that's not a position anyone should want to be in. And so it isn't dependent upon our strength or our wisdom or our ability, but it's dependent upon the one to whom we have committed ourselves. And the more we'll lean into that, I suspect you've got some giants in your life this holy week as you're walking towards Easter. And some of you are thinking, well, it's hard for me to celebrate because I can hear the threats of Goliath.

But I want you to know God is able. He's able to bring healing to our bodies and peace to our minds. He's able to restore our families. He's able to make a way and open doors of opportunity. That's the God we serve. That's the message we have that we will overcome the kingdom of darkness. We may be touched by evil, but we will overcome the kingdom of darkness. Let's believe that we have capitulated for too long.

We have genuflected to expressions of evil and tried to accommodate and to imagine ourselves tolerant. I don't believe God is tolerant of evil. I believe he's patient sometimes, not wanting anyone to miss the opportunity to come to the knowledge of God. But we shouldn't understand his patience as tolerance. God doesn't tolerate evil. It doesn't escape. So let you and I go forth and be a light in the darkness. Speaking of shepherds and giants, I've asked you for the last couple of weeks if you would join me in making an investment in the church in Iran and the church in Ukraine.

We have some friends that we have known for many years, ministry and church leaders in those nations that had reached out to me and said there were some unique opportunities because of the turmoil, the war in Iran right now, the underground church. And full candor, I think the military action that's taking place in Iran right now is a response to the prayers of God's people in the nation of Iran. For a decade or so, we've been hearing about the underground church and that Jesus was revealing himself to the Iranian people, the Persian people. And they were turning from Islam to faith and that there have been tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of new believers in this emerging underground church in Iran. my opinion is that it's been the prayers of this emerging church in Iran that is toppling the Ayatollah and their brutal, oppressive, wicked, evil regime. And I think if we will join them now in our prayers and stand with them, remember the book of Daniel? Daniel's fasting and praying and God dispatches an angel with a response to his prayers,

but he said he was withheld. His arrival was withheld because he was engaged. in a battle with the Prince of Persia, I believe there are spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places, principalities and powers, that have influence over nations, over people groups. And I believe that we gain victories. I believe we see social and political freedoms come when those spiritual principalities and powers are weakened or brought down through the prayers and the intercessions of God's people. And I believe what we're seeing the U.S. and the Israeli military do is a response to the prayers of people of the faith in Iran and beyond.

So let's join them in those prayers. But not just with their prayers. I ask you to make an investment. I just thought I'd give you a quick update. I'm in consistent contact with folks there. But the man that was on point is Armenian. Armenia is a bordering country, and it has a long Christian heritage. And for a long season, Armenia has proven to be something of a training ground or a place of respite for believers in that region.

And so the pastors in Iran with the current military confusion can slip out of Iran into Armenia for some training, some encouragement. And so what we were helping them do is set up a training center. And this was the message I got in the last couple of days. We recently held a major prayer gathering in Yerevan, which is in Armenia. attended by leaders and pastors connected to Iran's underground church as well as pastors from Armenia, it was both heartbreaking and inspiring to hear firsthand what Iranian believers are enduring for the sake of their faith in Christ. One brother sold his car in order to attend our gathering. The sacrifices these believers are making to remain faithful are extraordinary,

and I believe their example should deeply encourage Christians in the West. And then he goes on to say, you know, at present we're actively assisting the families that are able to make it into Armenia. They're arriving with nothing, so they're purchasing mattresses and beds and all the things they need so that they have a place to stay when they come in for the training and the coaching and the encouragement. Then they'll go back into Iran. There's a new season coming.

I'm trusting the Lord that next Easter, they'll be able to celebrate Easter on the streets of Tehran in public. Wouldn't that only God could bring that about? That's like what God did with Esther when he turned back the edict that all the Jews in Persia, which is modern day Iran, would be killed. I think we should be trusting the Lord, crying out to the Lord, that something of that magnitude would happen. While this is unfolding, I think we should be praying for the same thing in Cuba. Wouldn't it be wonderful next Easter if we could worship in Havana, in openness, without fear of reprisal from a communist socialist government

that's oppressed the church for 70 years. I think the same should be true in Venezuela. What about Gaza? Do you have the faith to believe that in Gaza next Easter, we could have worship services without fear of Hamas or Hezbollah or whomever else? In fact, if those things happen, I will make the trip. I will go be a part of those celebrations in those places and share it with you. But we've got some prayers to make between now and then for that to come to bow.

But God's moving in the earth, folks. And thank you for your generosity and your willingness to invest. We're in contact with the folks in Ukraine as well, trying to get some resources to the church there. At the beginning of the war, I was in Zoom calls with them on a weekly basis, a regular basis. It's been brutal what they have endured. But they're not forgotten, and that's really the message we want them to know, that there are believers all over the earth that are standing with them and praying with them. There's not an American church and a Ukrainian church and an Iranian church.

There's not a church in Tennessee and a church in Oregon and a church in Washington State. There's the church of Jesus Christ and Jesus is the head of the church. And when one portion of the church suffers, the rest of us when we can, we'll make up a difference. And we will definitely stand together in the spirit and ask God for his mercy. It's a troubled world we live in, but God is not intimidated. And I think that's so important for us to remember. So thank you for your generosity, most of all, for your prayers. And I will keep you updated as we walk through this.

And I think some of the folks will be visiting with us. Maybe you'll get to see them. If not on the podcast, we'll interview them in a worship service and share it with you. But God is moving. I've got a few minutes left, and I want to give you an invitation. You know, most of these podcasts, I have a guest. And so it's more about listening to the guest and understanding their story and what God is doing in their life. But occasionally, they give me the microphone.

And I want to share something with you that I've been sharing with the community here because I think it's so important, particularly around Easter and not unique to that by any stretch of the imagination. You know, I have held the belief. And I don't know that anybody said it to me. but when I think about the end of the age and the outpouring of the Spirit of God and the renewal, the awakening, the revival that I think takes place before Jesus comes back, I guess I've always imagined that that was going to be something that was kind of universal, that the numbers would be so overwhelming that it would be some small minority that was left out, but that it would be like this enormous global response to God.

And I believe there will be a global response to God, but I don't think it's going to be the overwhelming majority of the people. And it seems to me that the message of Scripture is that God presents himself generation upon generation upon generation to people. And some choose him and some do not. And that captures my attention because I very much want to be in the midst of that group of people that are saying to the Lord, I'll walk with you. Not just the group that will say, I've said the sinner's prayer, or I've been baptized in a pool, or I'm not committing murder, or I'm not practicing adultery.

You know, well, good for you. You know, in James, he said, you believe there's a God. That's really good. The demons believe that, and they shudder. And sometimes I think the devil and his demonic host believe more about God than those of us that imagine ourselves to be the people of God. We're still having seminars and debates on whether we believe in spiritual conflict. I promise you the devil and the demons in hell and the demons that have been unleashed in the earth, they believe in spiritual conflict. So the idea that I want to unpack, I'm going to take from the triumphal entry.

You know, that day when Jesus descended the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem, it's fashionable in some segments of the social media these days to denigrate the Jewish people, to say they rejected Jesus, that they were guilty for killing Jesus, that the Jews of today aren't the Jews of the Bible. I mean, it's phenomenal to me, the statements that are coming out. Well, the majority of the Jewish community in the first century, embraced Jesus. Enormous crowds of people followed Jesus. And on Palm Sunday, that was very much on display. There's a couple of chapters. It's recorded in multiple gospels. But in Luke 19 and John 12,

there are lengthy presentations not only of the entry into Jerusalem, but the events surrounding that day. They had a celebratory banquet at the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. They lived in Bethany, which is a little village on the Mount of Olives. It's on the opposite side. It's on the eastern slopes of the Mount of Olives, and the city of Jerusalem is on the western slopes of the Mount of Olives. But it's a very short distance between the two. And they had a celebratory dinner for Jesus in his house the evening before he makes his triumphal entry into the city. And people are coming from Jerusalem because they've heard Jesus is arriving. And they've heard that Lazarus that was raised from the dead.

And they want to see the miracle worker and the miracle in the same place. which is fascinating to me. You know, Jesus' previous visits to Jerusalem, he has done undercover because there's such hatred towards him from the powerful 1% of the community that it wasn't safe for him always. So he was coming undercover, but this time, this last entry before his passion, he comes into Jerusalem in this very public way, descending the Mount of Olives with the large crowd of people,

celebrating his arrival. I'll read a portion. It's Luke 1937. It says when he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, if you visit Jerusalem, you can walk that path. It's the traditional path. Jesus didn't carve his initials into the stone, but it's within a few yards of wherever that would have been because the Mount of Olives. The reason we call it the Mount of Olives, it was covered with olive trees. It was an olive grove so that the priest that controlled the temple could grow the olives, get the oil that they needed for the service of the temple. So in a very creative label, it was called the Mount of Olives. But Jesus is coming down the Mount of Olives, and the whole crowd of disciples begin to joyfully praise God and a loud voice for all the miracles

they had seen. A crowd of disciples, joyfully celebrating Jesus' arrival. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, teacher, rebuke your disciples. Some of the Pharisees, there's a big crowd. There's some Pharisees that are celebrating Jesus' arrival. But some of the Pharisees, some subset of this larger group were offended by the celebratory nature with which Jesus is being received into the city. And they said to Jesus, rebuke your disciples. And Jesus said, I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out. Makes me smile.

I believe that literally, that if that group of people could have been silenced, the stones would have begun to worship God. There are some points when the heavenly host can't be silent. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the skies of the, of the people. the shepherd's fields were filled with the heavenly host. You know the story. You hear it at Christmas time. Glory to God in the highest on earth, peace to men, on whom is, you know, his favor rest. I mean, there are times when the heavens can't be silent. When Jesus gives up his on the cross and says, you know, into your hands, I commit my spirit. The temple, the curtain between the Holy of Holies and the holy place is torn into. The graves split open and people come to life again. There are times

when heaven can't be silent. And I believe this is one of those times. Jesus, entry into the city just prior to his arrest and his suffering. And the people are celebrating his arrival with great numbers of people. And Jesus said, if you shut them down, you'd be terrified by what happens next. It makes me smile. God is not thwarted by the knuckleheads. You don't have to ring your hands in fear and wonder what will happen. The purposes of God are breaking forth in the earth. They will not be thwarted. They will not be stopped. God's not in timid. God's not intimidated by people who oppose him. 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.

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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. What captures my attention in this scenario, though, is you and me. Just imagine we're in the crowd. Maybe we're not part of the inner circle.

Maybe we weren't invited to the celebratory dinner at Mary and Martha and Lazarus home. Maybe we're very much peripheral. Maybe we've heard Jesus deliver a message or two or maybe we've seen the man that was born blind in Jerusalem, and Jesus smeared the mud on his eyes. And we've seen people point him out, and we've been to the marketplace.

But we haven't had front row seats, but we hear he's coming to town. And so we go stand in the crowd this day. So here's my question. What's your reaction to that? Are you going to join with the people and giving glory to God because you think God is moving in your generation and the dead are being raised and the blind eyes are being opened, or are you going to go huddle with the skeptics?

You see, we all have to make these decisions. This is the same event, the same set of circumstances, being watched by this one large group of people, but there are very different responses. Some join in the celebration, and some begin to plot an execution. Which seat are you going to choose this Holy Week? You know, and it isn't always,

sometimes we choose to be skeptics because we're disappointed in God. we don't like, I think that's more Judas response. You know, he's impatient with the way things are unfolding. I don't want to make an excuse for him because I don't think there is an excuse for Judas. You know, he's invited to that celebratory meal that they had at the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. And when Mary anoints Jesus with a very extravagant oil, a perfume, Judas objects. Can you imagine objecting to Jesus being honored?

And he said, why wasn't this sold? It was worth a year's wages. It's an extravagant gift. I hope extravagance is a part of the way you honor the Lord. I truly hope it is. But Judas was offended, and John slips into the narrative. The only reason he's offended is Judas was the keeper of the money, and he helped him.

to the money that had been given to support Jesus and his ministry, his friends, and those traveling with him. But Jesus rebuked him. He said, Judas, you're wrong. He said, you'll always have the poor with you. Jesus understood Judas's heart. But I'm completely, I'm just captivated. Judas has a front row seat. You know, when I invited you to the crowd on the Mount of Olives, I said, maybe we weren't a part of the inner circle. Judas is very much a part of the inner circle. He's in the boat when Jesus walked on the water. He's in the crowd when they fed a multitude of 5,000 people with a boy's happy meal. And he helped picked up 12 basketfuls of leftovers. He's listened to Jesus rebuked the wind and the waves and watched them grow still. He's seen him

open, blind eyes. He's listened to him, teach. I mean, Judas has made the run from the inside. He has heard the explanation to the parables that left them baffled when they were in public. And yet he's seated at the table with Jesus. And his heart's in the wrong place. That has my attention. Because you and I, by most global standards, we're a part of the inner circle. If English is your first language or if English is a language that comes easy to you, you have more access to Bibles and Bible study material and Christian information than any group of people in history.

I mean, we have front row seats. If you live in America, you can choose between churches, lots of good churches, churches where the truth is told, where there's communities of faith, and you can join them or participate in them and engage with them without fear of reprisal from the government. Those are front row seat issues, and yet if our life circumstances are disappointing to us, you know, whether it's our family circumstance or our children or the lack thereof, or the trajectory of our business career, or maybe it's a family of origin that's broken or evil. I mean, maybe there's been a tragedy in your life. You know, I'm a pastor, and I have these conversations with people all the time. And sometimes those events become so defining that they're more real to us than the power of God. And I'm not suggesting that the broken heart isn't real or the pain isn't real or the disappointment isn't real.

What I'm inviting you to to understand is that God has a future. In Hebrews 12, it says Jesus is the author and the completer of our story. And he'll write a story for you. And some of you are angry because he hasn't paid attention to the story you wrote. You had a plan. You had a timeline. You had a schedule. You had an agenda.

You had dreams and aspirations. And your reality looks different. And if we don't guard our hearts, we're angry and sullen and withdrawn. and we stop saying yes to the Lord. And this Holy Week, as we approach Easter weekend and the majesty of the resurrection and the demonstration of the power of God on our behalf, let's say to the Lord, I want to follow you. You're moving in the earth and I want to go with you.

If I'm in the crowd on the Mount of Olives, when Jesus is coming into the city, I want to be spending myself giving glory to God for his goodness and his mercy. If I'm invited to the banquet with Mary and Martha and Lazarus, I want to contribute to whatever's being used to honor Jesus. I don't want to sit in that seat of the skeptics. I don't want to be one of those people who has a stubborn heart of unbelief. Belief or unbelief are choices. They're not like your height or your eye color or the giftings that you're given. belief is a choice that we make. We choose to believe or we choose not to believe. And I want to give

you that invitation in a very intentional way as a part of this specific podcast. Easter 2026, let's take a significant step forward in saying to the Lord, I will believe. I do not want a deadened heart in John's Gospel. He quotes Isaiah. And he talks, he talks, and he talks, he talks about the people who refused to believe in their hearts were deadened. I believe you can refuse God's invitation so long that your heart not only becomes callous, it becomes deadened to those invitations. I don't want to be that. I'm willing to be a little simple, a little naive. I'm willing to, I don't want to stay in the middle of the road. I don't want to be neutral. I'm not looking for the least vulnerable position. I want to push all my chips into the middle of the table and say,

Lord, I'll follow you. My life hasn't unfolded like I imagined it would when I was 12 or 14 or 16 or 20. But I have to say God has been more than faithful. And I believe he'll be more than faithful to you. You know, I often hear people say that we have a real leadership deficit in our nation or in our communities or even in our churches. And I know there's some truth to that, but I would like to refine it a bit. I see people that are great leaders in lots of places.

You're great leaders in your business environment, in your corporate settings, in classrooms, your great leaders in your community or in mobilizing your family. The place where I see this astounding leadership deficit is in our willingness to lead with our faith. We have confidence in the business setting or confidence in coaching an athletic team or coaching a group of students, but we don't have much confidence to bring our faith view to bear in the places where we have influence. If we don't lead with our faith, our other expressions of leadership are secondary. Well, I've written a new book on guess what? How to lead with faith.

And the goal is to help give you the courage and the boldness to lead with your biblical worldview on the matters that will impact our culture and help make our future better. Read the book. Open your heart. God's raising up a whole new generations of leaders. And I want to be a part of that. And I believe you do too. So if you've been hurt or you've been wounded or you've been angry at God or you're disappointed in people, we're going to bundle all that up. I'm going to end this with the prayer. I don't do that very often on the podcast.

I'm not opposed to it, but I pray a lot of times in a lot of places. But I'm going to invite you to say, Lord, we're going to choose you. We're going to be a part of that celebratory group. We understand there will be other voices in the crowd. We'll be people who say it's inappropriate. There will be people who say, no, it's not legitimate. It's not authentic. It's okay.

they can make their choices. But as for me, I intend to celebrate the goodness of God. I intend to raise my hand and say, I want to be a part of that overcoming community that displays the power of God as we approach the end of this age. Looks, the deception will grow, the turmoil is going to grow, the intensity of the resistance will grow. But in the midst of all of that, the power of God is going to be expressed in such a remarkable way that there will be a harvest unlike any we've ever seen. There will be people that see Christ in you. We baptized a man Saturday night.

For the festivals, we put up the pools outside and all the stuff. And Saturday night, it was cold. And the pools were heated, and we had heated towels. I love that. It makes me smile. But the man told this story. We do a class with all the people who are going to be baptized. And the man told this story.

He said, I've been to these festivals before. They were free, and I like music, and I like the food trucks. I would come and he said, I would enjoy the music, but I would look at these people and I was, he said, I would watch the baptismal pools. And he said, I made a promise. He said, I'll never be one of those people. I will never do that. And he said, he was back this year and the Lord had changed his heart, had changed his life,

had given him a whole new life orientation. And he came for baptism. And when he got it, when he climbed into the pool to be baptized, there were tears running down his face. And he said, I'm. so grateful I've become one of those people. And I'm telling you, the God we serve has the ability to change our hearts. And if yours has been bruised or broken or damaged, if you'll invite God in, he will write a new story for you.

He's doing it for me. He'll do it for you. He's no respecter of persons. It's Easter season, folks. He sent his son. He allowed him to be tortured to death in public. And he raised him to life again, that you and I could be redeemed, that we would. that we could have a new future.

If God can topple the mullahs in Iran and bring freedom to the church in Venezuela and bring freedom to the Israelis from the hatred that has rained down upon them from the skies for decades, God can redeem and renew and refresh our lives. Now that's good news. And I intend to be a part of that celebratory crowd

this Easter weekend. And I hope you'll join us whether you're in Middle Tennessee, if you're not here, you find a group of people and you celebrate. Jesus is alive. We'll change culture with that. And I want to pray for you. If you know what it is, if you know what the hurt is and the wound is, I'm going to ask you if you're willing to forgive. Forgive whomever may have contributed to the wound.

Some of you need to forgive God. You're mad at him because he hasn't done what you wanted. I suspect some of us need to ask for forgiveness because we've contributed to wounds and pain in the lives of others. We may have justified it, but we've caused the wounds and the pain. And then we're going to invite God to bring His resurrection power into our lives and write us a new chapter, a new story. You ready for that? Let's pray. Father, I thank you.

I thank you for your word. I thank you that you that you call people. I thank you that Jesus loved us enough that he came and put on an earth suit and walked amongst us. And that you called him. Lord, that you let him to Gassimini and then until Gagatha. and that you stood by and brought him out of that tomb. We thank you that our Lord is alive, that Jesus is the head of the church. And, Lord, we come today to invite you into our lives.

Nothing's hidden from you. You know the details and the circumstances. You know the disappointments that we've had, the broken places we've had, the times that we have lost our voice and denied you. Lord, we ask you to forgive us, just as we forgive those who have heard us. Lord, we set them free, we cancel the debt, we tear up the markers. We're not owed anything. We entrust them to your care.

And I thank you now for your power in our lives, your power to heal and renew and restore, to write a new chapter, to write a new ending, to lead us forward, to make provision for whatever the need may be. I thank you that this Easter we can gather to lift our voices in praise and thanksgiving to you and that we will see the goodness of God in the land of the living. I thank you for it. But I pray for our brothers and sisters in Iran. and our brothers and sisters in Ukraine

and our brothers and sisters in Venezuela for our brothers and sisters in Israel, Lord, may you strengthen your church, bring new freedom and liberty. May the name of Jesus be exalted from Gaza to Tennessee and everywhere in between. We thank you for it. For it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Thank you for spending a few minutes with me. God's moving in the earth. It's not dependent on our circumstances. It's dependent upon the character of God and his faithfulness, and those things, they'll never change. We're going to take our faith outside the walls of the church. We're going to impact our culture.

I'm glad you've joined me in the journey. I'll talk to you soon. 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 Podcasts, 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.