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sometimes God presents opportunities to us. They're clearly God opportunities. God initiated, church of states line up. There's something that presents that is most unlikely and most improbable. But in order to accept the opportunity, it will require significant investment of energy. We call that work. And I meet people all the time and say, well, you know, if God had done that, it wouldn't have been difficult. And he would have provided everything. What's a wonderful thought? It's just not biblical.
I mean, sometimes God will do that, but the demand that God does do that all the time would make him your benevolent uncle. Our ministry is to spread God's truth across our nation and around our world. And Alan Jackson Ministries intends to do this in every possible way, including broadcasts like these. If you'd like to listen to the full sermon, you can find it right now on alanjaxon.com on our podcast and on our app.
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Taking time to notice the good things and giving thanks for them is a consistent way to find hope and peace. That's why Pastor Allen recommends keeping a good news list, taking the time to write down the good things happening in the world and your life. Our new 52-week Good News notebook gives you a place to record your good news, prayers you saw God answer, and your current prayer requests. This simple practice will help you see how God is constantly at work all around you.
Request your good news notebook when you donate $20 or more today at allenjaxson.com or by calling 855-5772255. That's 855-572255. We're so glad you're here to listen. Today's message from Pastor Allen is called Breakthrough Immovable Barriers. We're walking through a series on breakthroughs.
The real goal is to try to understand the components that are present when God brings breakthroughs. Because I'm very certain that in all of our lives, there are places where we need God's help. Circumstances are places or relationships or decisions where the only acceptable outcome will involve the supernatural engagement of God. It's not a matter of effort or thinking or knowledge or context, we need God's help.
It's a breakthrough. And so it's worth studying and considering biblical patterns so that we might know how to align ourselves. I don't believe God is against us. I believe He's for us. And frequently, I believe we have to change in order for the purposes of God to emerge in our lives. So we're on a bit of a learning curve in this season. We're gonna look at some immovable barriers tonight and how we can move them.
I know that's paradox. If they're removable, they can't be moved. But God can. But I want to start with our little paradigm. I've been inviting you towards, and I'm going to do it a bit more consistently because I think it's necessary, this whole notion that we began back in COVID, which seems like at least a lifetime ago now, of watch, listen, think, and act. Sometimes it's good news, but when you see the truth presented or the wisdom expressed, it puts in stark contrast the foolishness that's been present.
And this week, President-elect Trump said, I hope you heard, that if the hostages that were taken by Hamas were not released prior to his inauguration on January 20th, I quote, there will be hell to pay.
I think that is a very appropriate statement. I had a couple of interviews yesterday with friends in Israel. And I can tell you the tone in Israel changed with that statement. But it's not broadly accepted. There are people that say, you know, it's insightful rhetoric. It's ratcheting up the tension. I'll give you my opinion. It's at least an informed one. I've lived in the Middle East and I've been in and out of Israel since I was a boy and that's been
It's been at least a decade. When the first American hostage was taken, I looked to the President of the United States to say they'll be released tomorrow or we will come for you. Forget the Israeli's response. There'll be no negotiation. There'll be no humanitarian aid.
You turn loose our hostages. And that's been absent for well over a year. And the suffering is beyond imagination. So I thought it was an appropriate statement in a season when it's necessary. We will have to see what God will do with that.
Another expression that I think surprises me, but I keep bumping into it and I'll take just a moment with it. There's been a conversation in our community for some time now about appropriate and inappropriate books in our children's libraries. And I'm continually asked about that. And the answer that is often given to me or the reason that people say they remain silent is they don't want to support the banning of books.
And I appreciate that perspective. I think it is misplaced. There is a handful. There's two or three dozen books in the libraries that are beyond reprehensible. I mean, they're vile. They're indefensible to put them in the presence of small children.
And I don't understand the conversation to be about banning of books at all. I understand the conversation to be around age-appropriate learning. Those books are inappropriate for children of that age, certainly beyond parental involvement and supervision. There's nothing to do with the banning of books. It's age-appropriate learning. We understand this. We don't sell cigarettes in elementary schools.
You have to have parental consent if you're under 16 to get a tattoo. And these books are awful. But I think clarify the conversation, express your point, and then there's business that needs to be done. If the people that are serving on the school board are determined to keep those books, once the case has been made clearly and concisely and cogently, then I think they'd have other business to do.
But I think you forfeit your right to lead long-term in our community if you want that kind of vile material in our schools. But I don't think it needs to be the point that chokes every meeting from now until. But you have to be wise enough. Don't bring lists to 400 books that aren't appropriate for the library.
and bring the books that aren't your favorite, or you don't like, or have some expression of witchcraft in them. You're not trying to bring a total worldview change to the library. You're saying there are some books that are so inappropriate, they don't belong before small children. And we've got to be more mature. More than one person said to me, they said they will ban the Bible. Okay.
Tell me who you are. I want to know who that is that thinks that's a good idea because I want to remember. We're bullied, we're intimidated, we're frightened, we're reluctant. There's a lot of motivations around it, but don't get caught up in the drama and the emotion. There's a set of those books that are completely inappropriate.
Make the presentation, stand up for it, and then let's get on with the business that we need to make the decisions. Make sense? Watch and listen, pay attention. I'm tired of the distractions and the subterfuge and the fear-based decisions. Make the right decision in the moment to the best of your ability, and then we'll make the next right decision who we have to. We can do this.
We get way heated up about Washington, D.C., folks, until we can bring changes to Middle Tennessee where we live. We want somebody to change Washington, D.C., we don't have the courage to change where we live. You understand that is backwards, right? Change the entire federal bureaucracy, but I don't want to invest the time and energy to change. It's a Hebrew word, moshuca. It means you're crazy. And a God honoring Jesus' loving sort of way.
All right. Keep watching and listening and thinking and engaging. We're going to make a difference. God is moving. We're not doing everything the way it's always been done. There's change afoot, and we're going to need the wisdom of the Lord. And it's not simple. It's confusing. And there are professional confusers amongst us. Tremendous manipulation, deception, lies, rampant. And you need to know the truth. You need the Scripture. You need to have it in your heart. You need to know the voice of the Holy Spirit.
And my topic is breakthroughs, we gotta go. Thank you for listening to Alan Jackson Ministries. We'll be back to the message in just a moment. But first, Pastor Allen wants to tell you about a new resource from the ministry.
You know, the two most critical junctures of any enterprise are how we begin and how we conclude. So the beginning of a new year is a tremendous opportunity. We've prepared a tool we wanna share with you. It's a good news journal. We wanna help you set a habit this year to do something with a bit more intention than perhaps has been our pattern in the past. We wanna start our year with an attitude of appreciation and gratitude for the blessings of God in our lives.
So we've designed this journal so that you can use it as a part of your devotional. It's something you could include the children, the grandchildren. You can take it to work and create a good news journal for the people you work with. Wherever that may be, let's start our year out purposefully, intentionally, saying thank you to the Lord for His goodness to us.
I know there's challenges and we have places where we need God's help, but we're going to begin with gratitude and walk into the blessings of God in this year. I think you'll enjoy the journal. God bless.
a warm home when it's cold outside, a surgeon who knows how to fix what's wrong, a stranger who stops to help. We have so much to be thankful for. When we turn our focus away from what's wrong with the world, and instead give attention to what's good, we find a path towards hope and peace. That's why we created our 52-week Good News notebook. It gives you a place to record good news in your life and the world around you.
You can also write down prayers God answered and your current prayer requests. Over time, your Good News notebook will become a personal record of God's faithfulness to you. Request yours when you donate $20 or more today at ellinjaxon.com or by calling 855-5772255. That's 855-5772255. Now, let's get back to Pastor Allen with his message called Breakthrough Immovable Barriers.
It's the time when God intervenes in our lives, Acts 9, 3. I'm going to continue to bring you some samples, examples of this. The Scripture is filled with these breakthrough moments. This one happens to be Saul of Tarsus as he neared Damascus on his journey. Suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him and he fell to the ground and heard a voice say, Saul, why do you persecute me? This is God initiated.
Saul wasn't looking for Jesus. He was looking for Jesus' followers, and he attended to put them in prison. He had no intention of serving Jesus. And Jesus stepped back into time. The last time we saw Jesus was in Acts chapter 1 at the Ascension on the Mount of Olives. We have a little window when Stephen is martyred, and he looks to heaven and he sees the Lord.
If we get to Acts chapter 9, Jesus is on the road to Damascus. Doing an intervention with one Saul of Tarsus. Just exactly what is it you think you're doing, young man. Well, I'm not sure, Lord. I think we could all agree it was a breakthrough moment in Saul's life. We say we one breakthroughs.
It's a complete career change for Saul. It means he's gonna lose his friends. He's not gonna be trusted by the community of believers because he's been one of their chief persecutors. It guarantees at least a season of isolation. I mean, there's nothing easy about it. We talk about breakthroughs and we think when breakthroughs comes, it'll all be easy.
It'll be like everything gets simple and everything that was confused will become clear and opposition will melt and that really isn't the biblical pattern typically. There are some places where that's true. I've defined breakthroughs rather broadly. They're those points of deliverance, revelation, insight, understanding, redirection. Those times when God's purposes and plans are initiated in and through us, around us,
brought to completion, revealed, advanced, welcomed, understood our ideal breakthrough. I think the one that we pray for, that we imagine that we dream about are those points where God intervenes. He responds with a complete solution. And the imagined future is delivered whole and intact.
It's like God showing up at the burning bush in Exodus 3 and saying, I've come down to deliver my people, and I'm gonna take them to the promised land, and if you'll snap your fingers, we'll all be there. That, I believe, is our preferred, the ideal breakthrough. Right? I don't want any process. I'm not really looking for any learning moments. I want out of pain and end to peace. Now,
I mean, if I have to wait till tomorrow, but life has seldom ideal. And the Bible shows us that we are frequently delivered out of something, but not brought into what God has for us immediately.
We're delivered from Egyptian slavery, but we're not immediately in the promised land. We've got some steps before we get there. We're delivered from our murderous rage against Christ followers, but we don't become an apostle that impacts the world the next morning. We're delivered out of something, but not always brought immediately into something. We're delivered from something.
but typically frequently our adversaries aren't removed. You say, I think we believe God should deliver us from the pressure, the person, whatever, and they should be totally humiliated, eradicated, eliminated, neutralized. And sometimes God delivers you from those things and they flourish. And then you have to forgive. Because you're standing over saying, God bless them with the botch and the itch in this gap.
Sometimes we need physical healing, and God heals us, but He actually uses a health care professional. Well, I didn't want to go to the doctor. I didn't want to make a copay. I didn't want to meet my deductible. I didn't want to deal with that. I wanted God to heal me, duly noted.
If you prayed and you're better, there may have been many, many points of contribution, but I believe God brought healing. He is our healer. I will gladly pay the doctor's bill, but I will very purposefully give thanks to the Lord that he restores my health. Or sometimes God brings healing to our lives, but it doesn't mean that we're removed from the arena of aging. Christians get weird.
It's like we lose our balance. And when we talk about the supernatural, and then we just shut down and go, well, I just don't believe in that. Because we don't want to deal with the messiness of doing life with people. We've got to have the courage to invite the supernatural power and presence of God into the midst of our lives.
Or sometimes God presents opportunities to us. They're clearly God opportunities. God initiated, circumstances line up. There's something that presents that is most unlikely and most improbable. But in order to accept the opportunity, it will require significant investment of energy. We call that work. And often the investment of resources, we call that spending money.
And I meet people all the time who said, well, you know, if God had done that, it wouldn't have been difficult and he would have provided everything. What's a wonderful thought? It's just not biblical. I mean, sometimes God will do that, but the demand that God does do that all the time would make him your benevolent uncle. You'd just be a spoiled kid. We've had enough of those in the media lately.
I want to look at a breakthrough. The biblical, when I didn't take this one from the Christmas story, we'll do several of those characters, but I thought it was helpful not to limit it to the holidays. I want to look at Joshua's life. Joshua begins his life. When we find Joshua initially in Scripture, he's a slave in Egypt. He knows the sting of the whip from the Egyptian taskmasters. He knows the humiliation of being a slave. Joshua's there when Moses
comes in out of the desert and says, you need to get ready. We're leaving. He sees all the plagues visited on Egypt. He crosses the Red Sea. He sees the Egyptians drowned. He's at Mara in Exodus 15 when the bitter water is turned to sweet. Joshua is Moses, aid to camp. He becomes his assistant. So he spends decades with Moses following Moses' leadership.
He sees Moses when he's been spent so much time in the presence of God that he has to put a veil over his face because there's a glow. He knows Moses when he goes up the mountain and comes back with 10 commandments. I mean, he's had a front row seat for one of the most remarkable leaders in all of the presentation of Scripture. But Moses is unable to take the Exodus generation into the promised land.
And so at the end of Moses' life, Joshua is the next man up. It's one of the more difficult job descriptions in the Bible. I want you to do what Moses couldn't do. Oh, sure. Then I want to look at a bit of that. Deuteronomy 31 and 23, the Lord gave this command to Joshua, the son of none.
You know, there's two people in the Bible that were born without a father. Jesus, you know, it's Christmas time. You know the other one? It's Joshua, he's the son of none.
I didn't go to comedy school, I went to seminary, okay, so. Joshua, the son of none, be strong and courageous, for I'll bring the Israelites into the land, I promise them on oath, and I myself will be with you." It's an interesting passage in all seriousness. The way it's stated, God says, I myself will do it. It's an emphatic way of making a point.
Someone says, you know, did you lock the door at the house? I did, are you sure? Yeah. Are you positive? I did it myself. I didn't delegate it. It wasn't done digitally. I did it myself. And the message that God gives to Joshua is, I myself will be with you.
Now as wonderful as that is, I would submit to you, it's not the answer, I would have preferred had I been Joshua. I would have preferred God to say, I will do it myself. Remember the line, we've looked at it with Moses quite a bit in Exodus three, where God said, I've heard the cries of my people, I've seen their suffering, and I've come down to deliver them?
And up until that point, Moses is like, yes. And then God pivots and he says, go, now I'm sending you. And that's when the debate breaks out. That's when the debate breaks out for all of us. And when God is commissioning Joshua in this passage, it said, the Lord gave Joshua this command to be strong and courageous. You will bring the Israelites into the land, I promise them. And I myself will be with you.
Wow, I mean, it's good news. Kinda. I mean, God is emphatically asserting Joshua, you're not going alone. I will be with you. But he's also saying to Joshua, you bring these people in.
I think it's a very poignant moment for us. Many of us have been praying for change and moral behaviors and trends and attitudes and education and what's being taught to our children and how we're being led and how marriage is defined and human sexuality and all these things. And we want somebody somewhere to do something. And I believe God is still in the business of saying, I'm sending you. Oh no, wait a minute. I'll be with you.
but I need you to do something." Are you willing? I think it's a component of breakthroughs. Joshua chapter 1, Joshua's getting his instructions again, be strong and courageous because you will lead these people to inherit the land. I swore to their forefathers to give them, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you. Don't turn from it to the writer to the left that you may be successful wherever you go.
Don't let this book of the law depart from your mouth, meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you'll be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous? If you're counting, that's the third time in this passage. That message is given to Joshua over a half a dozen times. Be strong and courageous. You know enough about biblical interpretation. Have God says, do you be strong and courageous? How do you feel?
weak and adequate and frightened. If you were filled with confidence, God wouldn't say be strong and courageous. If you're filled with an overwhelming sense of inadequacy and you're frightened, God would say, you're going to need to be strong and courageous. Don't be terrified. Don't be discouraged.
Our new 52-week Good News notebook gives you a place to record the good things God is doing in your life and the world around you. Write down prayers you saw God answer in your current prayer requests. When you keep these lists consistently, you'll create a personal record of God's faithfulness.
Request your good news notebook when you donate $20 or more today at alanjaxon.com or by calling 855-5772255. That's 855-5772255. That's all for today on Alan Jackson Ministries. Thanks for listening. Tune in next time for another encouraging message. This program is sponsored by Alan Jackson Ministries.
