The Eric Metaxas Show - Allen Jackson

Episode Date: March 21, 2025

Pastor Allen Jackson of Allen Jackson Ministries joins the program to discuss his new book "Angels, Demons, and You"

Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of the Eric Mataxis show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals. Learn how you can protect your wealth with noble gold investments. That's noble gold investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Mataxis show. Did you ever see the movie The Blob starring Steve McQueen? The blood-curdling threat of the blob. Well, way back when Eric had a small part in that film, but they had a count. is seen because the blob was supposed to eat them, but he kept spitting him out. Oh, the whole thing was just a disaster. Anyway, here's the guy who's not always that easy to digest.

Eric the Texas! Hey there, folks, welcome to the program. Are you excited? You should be excited. I don't know why you should be. I just know that you should be. Chris Heims, are you excited? I'm thrilled, man.

I'm stoked, as they say in California. Are you stoked, bro? What would Doug Giles? say. I don't know. I don't know. Whatever you would say, we would never think of it. Only Doug Giles would think of it. Look, seriously, folks. He would use the word brosophis. That's all I got to say. There's a number of things that I want to relate now excitedly, okay, because I'm excited. Number one, a number of you have stepped up to give to food for the poor, but not everyone has.

Here's the thing. We need everybody to do it. Everybody, unfortunately, includes you, folks. I don't make up the rules, okay? These are the rules. You need to go to metaxis talk.com today. You'll see the banner, feed their future at metaxis talk.com today. If you prefer to call, I can give you a phone number. In fact, I will give you the phone number, but it's very important. So I want to give you some details on that in just a minute.

I also want to mention excitedly that the cruise, the Greek cruise, June 6th to 16th, which is mind-blowing. It is not sold out. But if you're interested at this late date, you need to call, right? So if you go to the website, erkmataxis.com slash cruise, erkmataxis.com slash cruise. You'll see if you click through, it says sold out. It's not sold out.

There's a phone number there. You need to call the phone number because for some reason now you got a call. So to inquire, you can go to ericmetaxus.com slash cruise. and see the phone number and call it, or I'll just give you the phone number right now. What do you say? Here you go. Ready?

844-808-2058, 844-808-2058. 844-808-2058. I would call it sooner rather than later. 844-808-2058. There is an add-on that we're doing, that you can actually just do the add-on and skip the cruise if you don't want to go on the cruise the end of time. But we're doing it in Athens, three days in Athens,

before the cruise. So before June 6th. So I think it's the fourth, fifth and sixth, the third, fourth, and fifth. We're doing Socrates and City in Athens. Speaking of Socrates and City, we're doing a Socrates and City in New York in May. We're doing a Socrates and City in Lexington, Kentucky, in April.

All kinds of stuff. got to go to Socratesandcity.com for all that information. But the cruise, if you're interested, I would call 8448082058. It is definitely not sold out, but you have to call 844808-2058. I also want to mention excitedly our friend Mike Lindell. If you know Mike Lindell, he's a and we've had him on the program many times. But I want to encourage you or remind you that if you buy anything from my store.com or my pillow.com, use the code Eric. This radio show needs your help and your support. So please tell your friends, if you buy towels or sheets or mattress toppers or my crosses or slippers or all the stuff that he sells,

my store.com or my pillow.com, use the code Eric. And speaking of my store.com, there are some amazing prices on my books there. So if you go to my store.com, my miracles book, the Donald drains the swamp book, the Donald builds the wall book, the Donald and the fake news book, the birthday ABC. Oh my gosh. The birthday ABC. Have you seen that one? I should talk about it more. It is so gorgeous. And actually, we are scheduled to have Mike Lindell back on the show in the coming weeks. We're excited to get them back on.

We're talking to his booker. Do you think John Smirik is scary? Yeah. I once interviewed Mike Lindell in front of like 800 people in a ballroom. It was like wrestling two greased grizzly bears. That sounds impossible. Like it couldn't be done. That's correct.

That's exactly correct. You know, we refer to John Zimirac as the Crackin. Mike Lundell is kind of like the Papa Crackin. Yeah, he's like a pair of greased grizzly bears. Good luck, wrestling them. Anyway, but if you're interested in supporting the hero patriot, Mike Lendell, go to my store.com, my pillow.com. Please use the code.

Eric. And if you are interested in helping our friends at Food for the Poor, actually, you're not helping our friends at Food for the Poor. you're helping hungry children. Literally, you're feeding hungry children. You go to metaxis talk.com and click on the banner. This is mandatory. Actually, I want to play a clip.

James, I don't know if we have that clip. But let me just say this, right? Just to break it down in case you haven't heard this before. This is urgent. Okay. In El Salvador, skyrocketing food prices has. made challenges for people living in vulnerable conditions even worse, right? So creating more poverty, more food insecurity, to use a term, chronic malnutrition, imagine. That should not

be a problem in the world today, malnutrition. Chronic malnutrition affects 10% of all kids under five years old in El Salvador. Ten percent have chronic malnutrition. So basically, that's where food for the poor comes in. That's where you come in. You're literally saving lives, changing lives. But I want to play a clip, one of Food for the Poor's ministry partners on the ground. Her name is Carla. She is in El Salvador where we are focusing right now. Let me play that clip. Here's Carla. Because El Salvador ranked as one of the top 10 most vulnerable countries worldwide. So the well-being of the most vulnerable population is always threatened. On a yearly basis, we understand this is going to be a recurring problem in El Salvador.

So having your support give us a lot of confidence that we can face struggles and support the vulnerable population without delays. Okay, folks, so would you please jump in with us today? This is exciting. You should be excited that you, out of your treasure, can bless kids who are literally hungry and malnourished. That should not happen. And we have it in our power to do something about it. I will throw this out there again. I've said it before. Everybody can give something. There are rare people who can give $15,000. If you can do that, or if you want to do that,

you want to gather with some friends, maybe three couples want to throw in five each. I will have dinner with you, spend an evening with you. I'm traveling like, crazy. I was looking at my schedule. So we can do it in New York if you want to come to New York. I'll be in Lexington, Kentucky. I'll be in Winachi, Washington State. I'll be in Rome, Georgia. I'll be in Grand Rapids. I'll be in Ocean City, New Jersey. I'm going to, I just, I go all over the country. That doesn't stop. We can find a time together and spend the evening together. If anybody can give $15,000 to this work, to this campaign with food for the poor. Once the campaign is over, this offer is over. So I cannot, you know, a month from now,

you know, somebody says, oh, I want to give this. It has to be done like now. Otherwise, that the offer does not stand. I'm simply busy. And I've had the privilege to sit in on a couple of the dinners and honestly they have been some of the more memorable, you know, dinners we've had. And I think you sort of like make a new friend that you can't believe you didn't have. You know, it's like how did I not know this person was out there? So it's really a wonderful time. Well, it's just a way that I get to thank people and it gives me joy. It's something that I can do.

It's not easy, but I will figure it out. But you have to go to metaxis talk.com. and Metaxistock.com, click on the banner. Or you can call them. I mean, if you want to give a gigantic gift, whatever, it's probably better to call them. The number is 844-863-4-6-7-3. But every gift, every single person listening,

can give something. And I wish you would do that, folks. Please do it. 844-863-4-863-4863-4673. 844-8-6-73. 844-8663-4-6-7-3. This is urgent, folks. Thank you.

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Join me, Eric Metaxus, in saving lives with food for the poor. When you click the Feed Their Future banner at metaxus talk.com, your gift of $100 will provide a child in El Salvador with daily school nutrition for a year. Call 844-863-4673. Make your most generous contribution. Please, the nutrition of these kids get in. school is often their only meal of the day. Food for the poor school nutrition program

effectively addresses malnutrition and increases children's school attendance. Your donation will also support local farmers who produce the nutritional supplements. You are needed to improve children's nutrition in El Salvador. Your gift will allow them to focus on learning rather than worrying about their next meal. Today you have the power to feed a child or an entire classroom for a year. Please click the blue banner at metaxus talk.com or call 844-863-4673 with a gift of $100 to feed their future. Ladies and gentlemen, I think I've already told you that there is one church in America that has invited me twice as much as any other church in America.

So would I go out there on a limb and say, I spit on all those other churches? No, I wouldn't say that. That wouldn't be nice. But I might think it. I might. But I wouldn't tell you if I did. But seriously, I love World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro, not just because they've invited me a zillion times to speak over the years, but because they're pastor.

Alan Jackson's become a friend. And, you know, it's an interesting thing. You get invited to churches, but sometimes you just, you feel kind of a connection. Like it's, you know, it's special. And that has everything to do with my guest right now. Pastor Alan Jackson. Pastor Alan Jackson, I wanted to embarrass you. I hope I've embarrassed you. Welcome to the show. You did a pretty good job. It's good to say you again. Well, it's always fun to talk to you. We see each other here and there, but you really, your church, I was thinking about it. The last time I was down there, you all have had me down there.

I mean, every year since, I don't know, practically since the Bonhofer book came out and you have an amazing congregation. and but you know we all know that these things don't just happen that you are a particular kind of leader and you you've written many books but the new one Alan you'd know because you know me this interests me particularly the title folks of Pastor Allen Jackson's brand new book it's brand new it's angels demons and you now Alan well okay so it's angels demons and you now Alan well okay so it's angels, demons, and you. The subtitle is unseen spiritual influences in our lives. So, Alan, what led you to write this book right now? Well, I think there were two primary motivators. I think the problems we're facing are not fundamentally political problems or

economic problems. I think they're spiritual problems. And it's unsettling to me that the voices telling the most truth right now are political leaders. I'm very grateful for that, but I think our spiritual leaders need to have a voice. So I want to start with that. And then I realized that most of us are comfortable having a discussion about angels or demons. It's when you interject you into the discussion that everybody loses their courage. It's like talking about diet and exercise. We can do that, but if you talk about diet and exercise and me, now that's an uncomfortable conversation. And so I wanted to do what I could to add some momentum to the courageous leadership we're seeing so that the people of faith would stand up and recognize their spiritual forces that are

driving all of these things that we're seeing on battlefields. And, you know, DEI is not an ideology that started in the hearts of men. I think it started in the pit of hell. And we need to understand the spiritual forces in place so we can take our place. Well, it is interesting because I have, I've been embarrassed over the years to see my own timidity in saying things or in living things out. And I think part of it has to do with a lack of faith on the part of the faithful. In other words, I think there are many people that say I'm a Christian as though it's a black or white thing. It is not. There are many people that, I guess, maybe they believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus.

They say, but they don't live it. So you kind of wondered, do you really believe it? How much do you believe it? Do you really believe God created the universe? Do you really believe that every atom in your body and the universe was created by God and that he is making the electrons go around the nuclei right now? Do you believe that? Do you live like the Lord is in the midst of everything and he is with us and he loves us?

And I think that many of us, there's a timidity or there's a lack of faith. We kind of say, well, theoretically, I believe in that. but do I? And so when we talk about all the world's problems, we talk about the political stuff, we do forget what you're saying, that at the heart of it, ladies and gentlemen, is a spiritual battle. There is no doubt. There is, there ought to be no doubt in anyone's mind that at the heart of everything, there is a spiritual battle. And that what got Donald Trump elected was ultimately a spiritual thing, that we know that there is an outworking in the physical, is an outworking in history, in the political, but at the heart of it is the spiritual stuff.

So I love talking about this. I have to ask you, Ellen, what was your journey in terms of this kind of stuff? Did you grow up knowing that angels and demons were real? Did you see deliverance? Did you see that kind of stuff? or is this something that you've kind of come into over time? No, it was really a part of my entry into Christianity. My mom was diagnosed with cancer and told she had six months to live.

And we were church. We went to church every week, but the pastor, when he came to visit her in the hospital, didn't believe in heaven or hell. Now, wait a second. Hold on there, partner. What kind of a church was this, quote, unquote, what kind of a quote-unquote church was this? No, it was a large Methodist church.

The pastor of this large Methodist church didn't believe in heaven or hell. Correct. You've just described much of the American quote-unquote church today. I mean, the mainline church is lost. We have no idea what they believe. But it's just interesting to me that you, who now are, you know, one of the leading pastors in the country, that you grew up in a Methodist church. It calls itself a church, but you're telling me the pastor didn't believe in heaven or hell. I mean, that's amazing.

I think the awkward truth is the problem we have in the church today is not new. This has been incubating for a long time. I mean, you and I have spent a good bit of time in academia, and we've been training church leaders for decades in institutions that don't believe in the authority of Scripture. They don't believe in the fundamentals of the redemptive work of Jesus. And now those people are significant voices in the church across our nation. We've got some heavy lifting due to change that.

But my mom, on the way to Mayo Clinic for some pretty dramatic surgery, We prayed if there was a God because she said she didn't know if there was one. He would let her know the truth before she died so she could tell her sons, I've got two brothers, to be Jewish or Baptist or Catholic, whatever. And after a four-day workup at Mayo Clinic, the doctor came in a room late at night and said, Mrs. Jackson, you had cancer. We had pictures of it. But we've looked for four days.

We can't find it. Go home and raise your babies. And we moved to Miami and went back to another Methodist church, and that pastor didn't believe in the divinity of Jesus. But a few weeks later, my mom's washing dishes. heard a voice and Methodists don't hear voices. And the voice said, you asked to know the truth before you died. And she said, I did.

And he said, I'm the way the truth in the life. And she knew it was in the Bible. She didn't know where. So she went and got a Bible and looked until she found John 14. And so our entry into Christianity came with really God's divine intervention. And we were pagans. We didn't know how to pray a prayer for healing. She didn't ask for healing.

She just asked to know the truth. And so I kind of grew up in that side of the church where we talked about miracles and the supernatural. but, you know, then when I got into academic Christianity, I had to figure out how to bring alignment to all of that with, and when I found out that the history of the church is filled with the supernatural involvement of God, there is no church story. There is no gospel. You know, the angels were necessary for Jesus' birth circumstances to emerge. Without angelic help, that whole Bethlehem story doesn't happen.

Jesus in Gassimony, when he's facing the beginning of his passion, the angels, came to minister to him to encourage him. So I think it's nonsense for you and I to think the purposes of God could be birthed in our lifetime, in our generation, without the support of the angels and the angel armies, or that we can withstand the temptations that come to us, or that we can walk through those most critical times, and we have to make the hardest decisions of our lives. We need the strength that comes from the angels. And I believe in the new birth conversion being born again, but tragically, we've been told

once we've done that, and we've been dipped in a pool. we're kind of done with spiritual things. And I think we've got to grow up in our faith because we need a more robust response in this generation. Well, there's no doubt about it. I think we're seeing the beginnings of that. I think even you're writing this book

as more evidence to me that something is happening. We are seeing people who never would talk about God, talking about God. A few days ago, somebody in the Space Station was giving thanks to Jesus. So we've got believers in the second heaven. Or, you know, it's kind of amazing to see what is happening culturally, that there is a spiritual rebirth happening. And I really do think that it has everything to do with people acknowledging the reality of God and stop getting to a point where you don't say, well, it's metaphorical.

I sort of believe it. No, no, no. There's a reality here. And the Lord created us to live in this reality, to walk in it, to have maturity and understand. to have maturity and understanding it. I still think your title is funny, Angels, Demons, and You. It's like, it sounds like a 70s self-help book.

Angels, demons, and you. And yet, it is dearly, dearly serious, deadly serious, I should say. You know, I think we're watching. We just had storms all weekend around here. I don't know what happened to New York, but I smiled because I think what we're living through right now is like a truth storm.

Yeah. You know, there's a, force and the truth that's being released and it's disruptive it's overturning things it's it's a it brings a bit of anxiety because you're not sure what's going to be uncovered or what's going to be disrupted but it's a gift from god and i pray that the storm intensifies and that the disruption increases and the things that have been buried and clothed in darkness and deception are revealed by the false of the truth that's being see that's that's exactly part of what's happening folks we'll be right back I'm talking to my friend, Pastor Alan Jackson of World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

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Come back, I'm talking to my friend, Pastor Alan Jackson. He has a new book out called Angels, Demons, and You Unseen Spiritual Influences in Our Lives. So, Alan, what are some of the things that you say in the book that we can talk about? Well, I think, first of all, open your heart to the reality that there are spiritual forces that will help you in fulfilling God's assignment for your life. You know, all of our heroes in the Bible, whether you, I mean, whichever one you want to pick up older New Testament, very clearly had spiritual support. You know, Peter, his story emerges with angelic visits and deliverances from prison and, I mean, Paul and, and I think we've imagined that we can outwork

evil or out think evil or out organize evil. And I'm all for work and organization, but I want all the spiritual support that God will make available to me. And while we have language for it, We don't really have any intent to open our lives to that. And I think it's unfortunate that we typically focus on the dark side and where the demons and the, I mean, I think we have to acknowledge that and have a plan. If you don't have a plan for dealing with the devil, I'll tell you this, he's got a plan for dealing with you. So we've got to move out of the theoretical and get a little bit more sophisticated. We learned during COVID how to practice hygiene in a way that diminished our susceptibility to a virus. we better learn how to practice spiritual hygiene so we diminish our susceptibility to unclean influences and forces

because the nature of the world we're living in right now demands us to be in spiritual health and that's really the goal of the book but not to focus on the dark side but to understand god has provided help and assistance to all of us so one thing i always want to say about the demonic is that the most effective thing our satanic enemy can do is to scare people, to lie to them into thinking, to get them into thinking like, ooh, I don't want to mess with that. That's scary. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here to tell you exactly the opposite is true. The devil is scared of you if you are aware of your authority in Jesus.

If you're not aware of your authority in Jesus, then you are going to be. to be scared of the devil. But if you're aware of your authority in Jesus, the devil's scared of you because Jesus is inside you. He's alive. And the devil is scared of him. And so we are made for spiritual warfare. God made you for that. And so don't be cowed into thinking, well, that's extra credit or that's scared. I just don't want anything to do with that. Because as Pastor Allen has just said, the devil wants to do with you. He just wants to neutralize you. And God wants to activate you. But, Alan, on the positive side here, when we're talking about angels, what can we do? Because over the years, we've all heard of, you know, new age stuff about, you know, spirit angels or spirit guides, whatever. So I have an innate caution against that because people can go wrong in that way. So what do you mean when you say that, you know, angels can help us? Or what can we do, I guess, is my question. Yeah, that's a really good point.

You know, the book of Hebrew says we entertain angels and we're unaware of it. I really don't have much use for sloppy Christianity that tries to impress people with hyper-spirituality. You know, if you're merging, if you're pulling onto the interstate, you don't need divine guidance. You need to look at the traffic. I'm not confused. I don't think spontaneous makes you more spiritual. The God of the Bible is a book filled with prophecy, and he can tell us hundreds of years in advance what's going to happen. So I'm not impressed when somebody said, you know, I didn't know what I was going to do until this moment.

I mean, I know God sometimes intervenes. He does in my life. But I think the behaviors that bring forth that spiritual support that we're talking about are the fundamentals of Christianity. It starts with a reverence for Jesus. Devotion. We've lost a sense of the ultimate devotion to Jesus. We've exchanged devotionals. I release a devotional every morning.

It's a little 10-minute thing. It's kind of a spiritual bump for your day. Reading a 10-minute devotional does not mean you're devoted to the Lordship of Jesus. Let's come back to those fundamentals of giving Jesus the first priority in our life, practice humility, say no to that carnal self. If you'll engage in those fundamental spiritual disciplines, God will provide support that so exceeds your intellect, your physical strength, your contact list. He will open doors. I think we've watched it with what's happening in the political realm. We have the most unlikely things happening, the most improbable people standing in power

in spite of things arrayed against them that were insurmountable. The only explanation is God. And the church who's been cowering in the shadows unwilling to tell the truth wonders why we're powerless and impotent. Because we haven't come back to the point where we're truly devoted to the Lordship of Jesus. When Paul said in Philippians 3, I count all the things that were to my credit as nothing but dung compared to the surpassing. greatness of knowing Jesus, we need a little bit more of that in the hearts of God's people. And if we will, I think we will see supernatural help that will cause the world to step back. You know, the power of the gospel is in the demonstration of the glory of God, not the demonstration of our intellect.

Well, that's what's so interesting to me is that in history, when people see God move miraculously, or anyway, you can just see it somebody's life sometimes. I mean, you know, sometimes it's, it's miraculous and you just go, wow, I got to do something about that. But other times, you just see it in somebody's life. You look at somebody's life and you go, you know, there's no really explaining his life or her life apart from God. That life seems to be evidence of God. And I think that's what people are looking for. And because I just have over the years seen so many people yapping about Jesus. I want to slap them down and say, shut up, live it, because people are looking at how you live. And it's ugly to hear people talking about Jesus or whatever. And something in their life seems phony or dishonest or

whatever. And God cares about our character. God cares about aligning our lives with him more than he does about us talking about him. We're going to be right back. I'm talking to my friend, Pastor Alan Jackson, the brand new book, Angels, Demons, and You. Welcome back. We're talking to my friend, Pastor Alan Jackson of World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Alan, I know a lot of people follow you online every Sunday they tune in to your sermons. How can people do that if they want that? Because one of the blessings to me that, that has come out of COVID is how many people started following pastors or churches that they hadn't known about before. But everybody else shut down. They said, oh, I need something on Sunday

morning. And they discovered folks like you or my friend Jack Hibbs. And there's spiritual health that has come into the church as a result of that. So how can people find you online? That's my first question. Well, probably the simplest way is just, excuse me, Alan Jackson.jaxon.com. It's A-L-L-L-E-N. Jackson.com. And if they want to get the book, they can go there, Alanjackson.com slash warfare, and it'll give them a link to order the book. Okay, Alan, A-L-L-E-N, Alan Jackson.com. All right, good. And so tell us more about the book. The title, folks, is Angels, Demons, and You. Well, you brought it up a few moments ago when you talked about fear. And I think that there's two forces that we're all having to grapple with right now. It's fear and deception. And when I,

I talk to people a lot that have problems with fear. Maybe they've got a diagnosis they're frightened of. You know, I mentioned my mom's healing. I mean, God supernationally intervened when she was a pagan, but a few years later, all those lumps and masses came back. And it frightened her so badly she wouldn't even go to the doctor. And a more mature Christian friend came to visit and said, oh, nonsense, I'm going to the doctor with you. And it turned out to be benign, and it was something easily resolved.

But fear paralyzes you. And what I've invited people to imagine is that fear is a person without a body. And I don't think that's weird at all. But, you know, fear will occupy your life. If I went home tonight and there was somebody sitting on my front porch and said, I've decided I live here. I'd say the heck you have. And I would move them off my porch. And if they were bigger than me, I'd get an equalizer.

But when you recognize that fear has invaded your heart or your thoughts or your life, you've got to deal with it like a person without a body. You don't belong here. In Jesus' name, you have to. to go. And what's remarkable is it will leave. Now, it may revisit and you'll have to address it again. You know, the grass doesn't stay cut and the cows don't stay milked and the bed doesn't stay made and you don't just make a spiritual adjustment once and maintain the freedom forever. You have to give attention to it. And deception is the same way. See, I think we've misunderstood. You mentioned it earlier. We're not in a power struggle with the devil. It's a truth encounter.

And once we know the truth, he's defeated. But we've been so frightened of the conversation that we just wanted to deny it exists. It's like denying gravity. You know, you can say, I don't believe in gravity, but it won't spare you the consequences of gravity. And there's too many Christians that have said, well, I just don't believe in those things, as if that's going to insulate them from the reality. And I want to invite people, it's not, we're not trying to protect our comfortable little bubble. We want to use our lives to make the maximum impact for the kingdom of God.

And to do that, we're going to have to engage in the spiritual reality. of our world. That doesn't make you weird. I don't want you to be strange. Don't cancel your insurance. You know, you want to use your intellect and your wisdom and your common sense, but you also want to believe that there is a spiritual realm, and it's impacting your life today, whether you're impacting it or not. Well, to me, that's more and more, I just say this is living in reality. This is not, there's no spiritual reality. There's just reality. And the spiritual part of reality is just a part of reality. You know, it's like talking about the atmosphere.

It's just part of the world we live in. It's not separate. And I think a lot of Christians buy into this lie, this secular lie, that, well, my faith stuff, well, that's separate. It is absolutely not separate. It is part of reality. And I think part of the revival that we're going to be seeing, Alan, is people understanding that there is no dividing line between the secular and the sacred. everything is sacred. God is in charge of every atom in the universe, and we need to live that way. We need to stop pretending that I have this spiritual side over here for Sunday morning or whatever it is.

Everything we do is touched by God is spiritual, and we need to live that way. And I think, you know, I spoke at your church on my book, is atheism dead, talking about how science points to God. We sometimes think, well, that's separate. It is absolutely not separate. God created the universe. All of science is going to point to the miracle of God. All of everything is going to point to the miracle of God. And many believers have bought into that lie that, no, my spirituality is separate. And so what I see happening in this revival is holistic. It's to say there are angels and demons everywhere. God is everywhere. This is reality. And God wants me to be. mature believer to live in that reality and to stop living kind of in the shadows in my little religious corner. And I think that there's hunger in the world, that they're non-believers, hungry to see that, and that the scariest thing to the devil is a mature church. And I think the church is really maturing right now. That's been my view over the last number of years that

Christians have been waking up. Oh, I agree with you. But I think it's not happening necessarily within the institutional part of the church that we're so familiar with. See God raising up voices, people with courage to speak the truth and embrace a biblical worldview and talk about it. In a way, I've never seen it in my lifetime. It's an amazing season to get to be a part of what God's doing. But I still think it's probably a minority position, and I suspect it's going to stay that way.

And we're going to have to be willing to be identified with that group of people who have acknowledged Jesus as Lord and King. And you're completely right. I couldn't agree with you more fully. We've got to integrate it across our entire lives. You know, it's just crazy as thinking you can go to the gym and work out for an hour and then eat whatever you want and drink whatever you want and you'll be healthy. That's just nuts.

I mean, I'm an advocate for going to the gym, but every time I pick up my fork, I make a health decision. And the same thing is true with my spiritual life. It's not where I sit on Sunday morning for a few minutes. It's who I am when I go to work and how I behave when I go home and what I do with my discretionary time. And we've got to integrate our faith into the part of our life. and the great lies that Jesus and faith will diminish your purpose or your joy. The exact opposite is true. The more you yield to Jesus, the more full your life becomes.

If only people would believe that because it's true. Folks, this is true. This is not Christian truth. It's truth. It applies to everyone. This is for you. God made you for this. It's not extra credit.

He made you for this. Apart from living in this reality, you're missing it. This is what you were born for, and it's beautiful. We're out of time. Pastor Alan Jackson, thank you. The book is Angels, Demons, and you, folks, grab a copy. Check out Alan Jackson at Alanjackson. At allanjaxon.com.

Alan, we love you. Grateful for you. Thanks for coming on. Keep up the good work. You're making a difference, my friend. Folks, welcome back. We're talking about St. Patrick in a few minutes, but I want to trouble you again to join us in the Food for the Poor campaign.

For some reason, I don't know how these things work. We have over the weeks talking about this only persuaded 44 of you to join us. And I know that more than 44 people listen to the program. So I need your help. We need your help in raising money. these are the poorest of the poor in the in in central America and these are it's literally kids suffering from malnutrition so it's you know our command in scripture to help the least of these it's very clear and simple this is one of those cases which is real simple some things are not

simple and people argue about it but this i think everybody can agree um that it's incumbent on us to feed the poorest of the poor who can't feed themselves where children are suffering from malnutrition. So in order to do that, you can do a couple of things. We have a phone number and we have a website. So our website is metaxis talk.com. And you'll see the banner. It says feed their future.

MetaxistalkisTalk.com feed their future. There's a phone number 844-8663-4673, 844-8486. 863-4673. We're trying to persuade everybody to give $100, which feeds a kid for a year, literally feeds a child for a year. 844-863-4673, 844-8663-4-6-7-3. The website is metastalk.com.

Metaxistalk.com. If you want to go there, you'll see the banner, and you can follow the links. or you can text my name, my last name, Metaxus, to 5155-5-5. Text Metaxus to 5-1-55-text metaxus to 5-1-55-5-5-5-5. And a few other things before we go to the break. But I want to say that the crews, a couple, a friend, friends of ours who were in Austin, Texas, contacted me yesterday, or was it said, I don't know,

it was this weekend and said, we want to go on the cruise and we just went to the link and it says it's sold out. It is not sold out. So I'm not sure what's going on. Inspiration, who runs this. You can contact them directly. But if you go to the website, Ericmataxis.com slash cruise, ericmetaxis.com slash cruise. If you click on it, there's a phone number. number you can call if it says sold out. It ain't sold out. And I'm not sure. The best thing there is to call the number. It's 844-808-2058, 844-808-2058. That's the number to call, and they'll take care of you. That's the best way. You ever to me again, 844-808-2058. 844-. Okay. So if you want to, if you want to contact the folks who are running this, this cruise, that we're going to be doing in June to the Greek Islands,

you can dial directly 844808-2058, or just go to Ericmataxis.com slash cruise, and you'll see it there. But we really want to get the word out because before they really do shut it down and get sold out, I want everybody who wants to go to go. And it just gets more exciting the more I find out. I was just the other day with my daughter

looking at the excursions that you do. I mean, oh, my gosh, this is, anyway, We'll be talking more about that. And I want to encourage you, again, folks, food for the poor. We really need your help seriously. So please go to metaxis talk.com. You'll see the banner. MetaxistalksTalk.com.

Please do it today, folks.