Rick Green [00:00:07] This is the Intersection of Faith and Culture. It's the WallBuilders Show, taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton, and we're going to take you out to the Pro Family Legislators Conference. Now, we've done a few of these over the last couple of weeks, not many, a couple of them. We're going to do more as we go into the holidays and after the first of the year. The reason for that is it's irreplaceable. I mean, this is this is priceless, priceless information. It is men of Issachar training. This, if you want to understand the times and know what to do, you need to listen to these programs where these speakers have come in to the Pro Family Legislators Conference and shared with leaders from across the nation. So, these are state reps and senators across the nation that are listening to guys like Pastor Allen Jackson, who we're going to have today and tomorrow and Wednesday. His presentation is such a men and women of Issachar moment. I mean, we're going to be talking about all of the amazing and sometimes tragic events of the last few years, these inflection points and what they mean in terms of where not only our nation is going, but the world is going. And then we're going to get down to specifics with Pastor Jackson on what you and I can do about it on a daily basis. How do we respond to these things and how do we prepare ourselves and our churches to be the leaders instead of the followers? How do we get back into that space where policy and culture is downstream from the church instead of the other way around? So, this is this is just great, great information. I do want to plant the seed. For next year's legislators conference. If you know any of your state reps or state senators, make sure that you're, as you run into them throughout the year, that that when you get the chance, just plant that seed and say, hey, if you if you haven't gone to the WallBuilders Pro Family Legislators Conference, look into going to that in November, November of next year, of course. It is it is the best legislators conference in the country. It's a respite. It's a chance for them to really get some rest and some collaboration and some iron sharpening and a chance to just chat with other legislators that are going through the same things and in their states, get ideas for legislation, be encouraged by people like Pastor Tim Brooks and Pastor Allen Jackson and of course David and Tim Barton. And it's just an amazing, amazing thing. So, make sure you're just kind of planting those seeds throughout the next year so that we can give the leaders in each state the chance to get the kind of training that you're gonna hear today and tomorrow and Wednesday. Pastor Alan Jackson at the Pro Family Legislators Conference. We're gonna take a quick break here early in the program, and then we'll join Pastor Jackson at the conference. Stay with us, you're listening to the WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:03:43] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us. All right, let's jump right in with Pastor Alan Jackson at the Pro Family Legislators Conference. 

Pastor Allen Jackson [00:03:50] Thank you for your courage and your strength and your boldness and your willingness to raise your hand and say you want to make a difference. This is amazing to me. I will leave this this conference tremendously encouraged. And I go to a lot of conferences, and my wife will tell you that's not usually the way I leave. So, you have been a blessing to me. I thank you for that. I have hope that God is moving in the earth. I truly do. I want to say a prayer and then I'm going to get started. Father, I thank you. I thank you for these men and women and their hearts and their willingness to lead your people. And Lord, we would acknowledge that we are the task is greater than we are. Our strength is not sufficient and our wisdom is inadequate. And so, we pause tonight to ask for your help. Give us your thoughts. Provide your strength. Lord, you move those things that are immovable to us. Give us understanding hearts and a willingness to work together that your purposes might emerge in this season. Jesus' name. Amen. My topic is shaping culture, and it's because I believe the church is intended to shape culture. I reject the notion that we should be shaped by culture. And as I've listened to you, I I feel very strongly that I owe you an apology.  I've been a pastor for many years, and if the church were doing its job appropriately, your job would be much, much easier. But I've also learned that I can't dictate to God how he's going to accomplish his purposes. So, if He's going to lead through your lives, I will sit in the bleachers and cheer for you. But I thank you for your courage and your willingness to enact change. And I pray that God will stir the hearts of His people in the in the pulpits and in the pews and the boards and the presbyteries and those that are providing leadership in the church, and they will join you in this journey. I'm grateful for a president that will acknowledge marriage is between a man and a woman, but I'm embarrassed that it had to come from the president and it didn't begin echoing from the pulpits across this nation. You know, my detractors will say frequently that I'm too political. I really don't have that agenda. But I very much have an agenda to be engaged with culture and to express a biblical worldview about the culture in which we find ourselves. I refuse to be limited to doing Bible studies about first century culture and being an expert in the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Essenes and ignoring what's happening in our own culture. Marriage and the definition of that is not a political issue, it's a biblical issue. Recognizing that God created us male and female is not a political issue, it's a biblical issue. Understanding the nature of family and what comprises a family and the roles of authority within the family are not political issues, those are biblical issues. Now, tragically, the church has retreated from those, but there is some stirring. I have some hope. You know, I'm embarrassed of what's happened on my watch. For the past several decades, our faith has retreated from the public square. If we were in academia or a corporate boardroom, and someone expressed a biblical or a Judeo-Christian worldview, and one person raised their hand and said, I'm offended, then there would be pressure exerted, and we'd say, well, you know, your faith isn't appropriate in the corporate boardroom or in the academia or the public square. And the church quietly said, oh, excuse us. And so, we've peeled prayer out of schools and the Ten Commandments, all the things you know. Until now we find ourselves, so there's very much a worldview that dominates corporate boardrooms, and a worldview that dominates higher education in this nation. And it's not a biblical worldview. And if you raise your hand or I raise my hand and I say that's offensive, they remove us. Now we're going to have to take back what we surrendered. My colleagues say, we know Jesus was all about love. Jesus had some things to say about love, but he also made a whip. And he called people a bunch of snakes. And almost everywhere he went, he seemed there was some resistance. They tried to kill him in his hometown because he read from the book of Isaiah on the Sabbath in the synagogue, but then he had the audacity to relate it to the current day. And he said, today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing, and it made him so angry they wanted to kill him. We have to tell the truth. In the church, I look forward to the day when we have opportunities to choose between multiple candidates in an election, all who share a biblical worldview. This shouldn't be about Republicans and Democrats. We have a heritage of a nation of Christianity. We've never been uniquely Christian, but we are a nation with a Christian heritage. It shaped our laws, our legal systems. You know that better than I do. That's hopeful to me. It's easier to restore something that we have been than to try to imagine some new creation. We wouldn't deny the Native American people the right to worship as their as the heritage of their people suggest to them. In fact, we would consider that abhorrent. How dare they tell us we can't bring the Christian faith into the public square, into the corridors of our hospitals or our courtrooms or wherever else we go. It's our heritage. And we should not relent and we cannot be silent. Shaping culture. We're going to do that. And I pray the church catches up with you. I want to start with a passage of scripture. I think understanding the time and the season is critical. You know, if you only have one tool, and then it's a hammer, everything looks like a nail. We've got to be more nuanced. We have to be more subtle. We have to have more wisdom. Sometimes Christians amaze me at, you know, we our church mobilized and we rented the largest arena in Nashville. We're a suburb of Nashville, Bridgestone Arena. I don't know what the equivalent would be in Dallas, where the Mavericks play. We rented it. It took; we did it in 90 days. We mobilized, we moved thousands of people, we filled the arena. And I got home the next weekend and somebody came up and said, you know, Pastor, it was worth it if one person got saved. And we always say that there's a note of piety when we say that. You know, Pastor, it would have all been worth it. And I said, no, it wouldn't. I could have gone to the mall with the evangelism explosion questions. And I'm pretty sure in 30 minutes I could have found somebody that would have accepted the Lord. And we could have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars and weeks of effort. That was a seed we were planting for much more than the transformation of one life. And what you're working together for is more than just to win an election or to simply get one policy put in place. We're working together to see the course, the trajectory of this nation transformed by the power of God. 

Rick Green [00:11:08] Quick break, got to interrupt everybody. Hold with me, folks. We got Allen Jackson for the next two days, but we got to take a break right now. We'll be right back. You're listening to the WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:12:24] Welcome back to the WallBuilders show. Thanks for staying with us. Let's get back in there with Pastor Allen Jackson out of the Pro Family Legislators Conference. 

Pastor Allen Jackson [00:12:31] We intend to shape culture. Not hold polite Bible studies and review biblical history. I promised you a verse, Hebrews chapter 12. And the author of Hebrews is actually quoting from one of the Hebrew prophets. He said, at that time, God's voice shook the earth. But now he's promised once more, I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. And the words once more indicate the removing of what can be shaken, that is created things, so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we're receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. He didn't say that God, God gives group hugs. He said He's a consuming fire. I want to draw your attention to the last phrase, and then I'll unpack it a bit. Let us be thankful and worship God with reverence and awe. God is shaking the earth. And the counsel we're given is to be thankful for that. Not frightened by it, not terrified by it, not reluctant because of it. We should be thankful for it. God is shaking the earth. He said He's going to do two things. He's going to shake the heavens and the earth so that everything which is susceptible to be shaken will be revealed as temporary, so that His eternal kingdom will be made evident for all who choose to see. And He's directing us to be thankful. It's His kingdom that is being revealed. Well, I would submit to you that God is very much in the business in these days of shaking the earth. I'm going to give you some examples for my own opinion, but I want to invite you not to be frightened. I don't know what the future will be. I think the future will be determined a great deal by the choices of the people of God. God responds to people in the earth. But I'm quite confident God is the one shaking the earth. It's not the demons of hell. It's not Satan. Sometimes when we describe this great battle in the earth, this great spiritual conflict that describes and defines our lives in so many ways, we talk about it as if the outcome is close. As if it's difficult to know who the victor's going to be. That's not true. Jesus won a complete, total, irreversible victory over Satan and his entire kingdom on the cross through his death, burial, and resurrection. Now the fullness of that has not been on display yet, and we're left to live that out. But the outcome is not in question. So, we have the privilege of knowing the end at the beginning, and then we can choose with whom we will align ourselves. So, the temptation should be small if you're biblically informed. It's real. Temptation is very real. It's very appealing to our carnal, earthly Adamic self. But if we understand the larger picture, if you're familiar with scripture, the temptation should be small because we know who wins and who loses. I could make snarky comments about the cowboys or something at this point, but I won't. That's because the Titans are in the city where I'm at, and there's really no question about who wins and loses when they play. So, I want to add one more verse. Matthew 24 is Jesus' most lengthy prophetic discourse. He's the greatest of all the Hebrew prophets, greater than Isaiah, greater than Jeremiah. And Matthew 24 and its parallel passage in Luke 21 are the two most lengthy prophetic discourses that our Lord presented. And He lists a number, the question put to Him is what will be the signs of the end of the age and your return. And He gives a number of criteria that we may look at in a moment. But then He said, all of these things will be the beginning of birth pains. It's a very interesting phrase. I've never given birth. I don't identify as a birthing person. So, I will acknowledge some lack of personal experience here. But I would tell you that my father is a veterinarian. And so, I've been invited to assist on dozens and dozens and dozens of births. Calves and foals and puppies and kittens and the occasional gerbil and a few other critters sprinkled in there. And usually, they don't call the veterinarian until you're at the crisis point, particularly if it's a farmer. They usually wait till just about sundown, you know, they've waited all day long to see if the cow was going to calf. The sun's going down. I can't tell you how many times I've helped pull a calf with the headlights of the truck being the only illumination. It's not a blessing. But there's some characteristics that go with that. By the time the arrival takes place, the animal giving birth, or the end of the one giving birth, is exhausted. It's not a simple thing. Or at least the point they called us; it was never a simple thing. And once those birth pains begin, two things are a certainty. They're going to continue to increase in frequency, and they're going to continue to increase in intensity until there's a delivery. So, to me, the image between those two passages of God shaking the earth or the beginning of birth pains is a pretty good description of what we're walking through. Now, some of us, because of our eschatology, will immediately move to, well, it's not our problem, then we're going to get airlifted out of here. I don't want to argue for the privilege of tribulating. So, it's not, I won't out of here on the first load up. But more importantly, I want to be prepared to complete the assignment for which God created me. And in order to do that, I don't want to use an escape hatch as my planning program. I want to prepare as if I'm going to run all the way through the tape or play all the way through the buzzer or whatever analogy works best for you. So, if God is shaking the earth, I mean you can use whichever biblical season you prefer, the plagues in Egypt, the conquest of the promised land, the advance of the gospel from Jerusalem through the Roman world. Those were seasons when there were birth pains and God was shaking and changing the order. He's changing the order. Now I'm not wise enough or sensitive enough, whichever, to recognize those things in advance. I haven't been Daniel to this point where God gives me advance warning of many things. But I have been capable in hindsight of recognizing God has initiated things. I think the world shifted. My world shifted in 2020. We heard about a virus coming from Wuhan. And at first, I didn't pay much attention. We'd heard about bird flu, and how many times had we heard about possible pandemics that ended up to be kind of like some fireworks that fizzled. So, when I heard about a virus from Wuhan, I thought, oh bother. But in very short order, they closed our world there. And it was the first real episode of shaking or the first birth pain, if you prefer that. I think of it either as birth pains or tremors around some significant quaking in the earth. Foreshocks, aftershocks. COVID was a game changer. I I live in the church world. It changed the church world in our nation. It did. About a third of the people who were worshiping prior to 2020 have never gone back to church. The congregation I serve has grown, but it's a different group of people there today. The ones that are there today are far more committed than the ones that were there prior. But there there's a different kind of hunger. 

Rick Green [00:20:30] Alright folks, one more break today. Stay with us. You're listening to the WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:21:41] Welcome back to the Wall Builders Show. We're gonna have a few more minutes today with Pastor Jackson. Then we'll also have him tomorrow and Wednesday for the conclusion of this presentation. But for now, here's Pastor Jackson. 

Pastor Allen Jackson [00:21:52] 2020 led to a cratering of trust. I think by people who were paying attention. Prior to COVID, prior to 2020, I trusted the CDC. I mean, my father was a veterinarian. My academic career started in the basic sciences. I have a tremendous respect for following the science. That didn't happen in 2020. Science doesn't change at state lines. Science isn't determined by governors. Science is a process of observation and responses based on measurable observations. That did not describe our actions in 2020. They told us in 2020 that the church was non-essential. And we said thank you and went home. Folks, if we use the history of the church as an indicator, had that been a pandemic of the magnitude they told us it would be, we should have been the ones serving the sick. We couldn't have sheltered in place and maintained our dignity as Christ followers. We should have put serving towels over our arms and gone and ministered to those with great needs. It was a shaking. And I thought when it was done, well, that was uncomfortable, but we survived that. And in the midst of that, I saw victories. God did some things that I didn't even know we needed. I didn't know we needed the band-aid ripped off. I didn't know the degree to which the false church had prospered amongst us. I didn't know the degree to which false prophets had proliferated in our midst. When I say prophets, I want to invite you beyond a broader definition than just the biblical prophets, as I understand them. There are offices that set up in Scripture, the priest that represents the people to God, the king with the administrative role. The prophets are the ones who have the assignment of speaking God's truth to the people. The prophets were the truth-tellers. They were unpopular. That's why they got sawn in half and thrown in pits and often mistreated. So, in our current culture, I don't think of prophets is just religious characters. I think prophets are the people who have the life assignments to tell the truth to the general public. And in 2020, if we found out the people that were supposed to tell us the truth frequently didn't. And that included the churches. It was unsettling. It was uncomfortable, but it's a really important thing to know if you're traveling. The victory that came out of that, I believe, was the beginning of an awakening, a heightened commitment of the people who gather in the churches, of a hunger for the things of God. We saw the flex of an authoritarian state on a global level. We don't need to wonder what their playbook is. We have seen it. We use any tool we can, any deception at our disposal. We don't care if it puts your health or your families at risk. We intend to be in control. If you missed that, you better go back and read, look at the notes that you made. But that wasn't the last birth pain. I think we had another birth pain on October the 7th when the terrorists boiled out of Gaza into the southern part of Israel and committed some of the most heinous acts that are imaginable. I went to DC to the embassy and I watched some of the video footage, and it was unthinkable. Putting babies in microwaves, abusing women in front of their husbands and their children, and then murdering the husbands while the women had to watch. And after that first wave came of the terrorists that had been trained and clearly identified with Hamas, if you kept watching 30 or 40 minutes later, the citizens of Gaza began to come. 

Rick Green [00:25:42] All right, everybody, out of time for today, we're gonna be right back with Pastor Jackson tomorrow and Wednesday. And the easiest way to share this. Now, if you if you're just listening today, if you kind of joined us halfway through the program and you're wondering what's going on, this is Pastor Allen Jackson speaking at the Pro Family Legislators Conference. That's the one we do once a year with state reps and senators from across the country. And it's our chance to share it with you and with your friends and family. Make sure you're sharing it with them. And the easiest way to do that is to go to wallbuilders.show, our radio site, and just grab the links and send them out to your friends and family. You can text them; you can post them on your social media. We in fact we encourage you to do that. We want this in in the hands of as many people as possible. And as you've already picked up on today with the first part of Pastor Jackson's presentation, this is heavy stuff, but it's also practical. These are these are gonna practice are gonna be practical steps that you can do in your own life and that you can share with others to revive our communities and restore our nation. So, make sure you're listening in the next two days, but also make sure you're sharing with your friends and family. All right, thanks for listening today. You've been listening to the WallBuilders Show.