Thank you for joining Alan Jackson Ministries. Imagine if you'd lose your driver's license if you broke one rule. One mile an hour over the limit rolled through one's stop sign. Accelerated through one traffic line. How many of you know we would all walk to church? Right? There wouldn't be a driver amongst us. And God's standard is righteousness.
and unrighteousness cannot exist in His presence. It's not about God being mean-spirited or judgmental. It's His nature. I can't breathe underwater. It's not water being mean-spirited. It's the nature of the environment.
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We need action steps, practical things we can do each day to align our lives with God's plans. That's why Pastor Allen created his new 90-day devotional called, Set Apart for His Purposes. Each day offers a scripture, a short teaching, a prayer, a journaling prompt, and plenty of space to write your response. It's our gift to you when you donate $50 or more today to the ministry. Even better, when you give today, your donation will be matched, doubling its impact so we can reach more people with God's truth.
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We're so glad you're here to listen. Today's program will complete the message we began yesterday. Here's Pastor Allen with part two of Determining Identity. When my time is slipping past, I want to come to the last question. It's the most important. What determines if you're a Christian? Is it location where you sit? Is it descent because your parents and your grandparents were? What determines that? Well, the first part of this I suspect will be pretty familiar to you.
They're often the most quoted verses in the Bible and the most practiced points of discipleship. We have a reasonably high participation rate at this entry-level point. I'll warn you, our participation rate plummets beyond this initial session, because we fabricated all sorts of elaborate theological schemes that say, if we get the first part right, nothing else matters.
And we sound a great deal like the first century scribes and Pharisees when you should not tell us we have faults or flaws that we're not obedient because we're the children of Abraham, to which Jesus said, well, just for the record, God can make children of Abraham out of rocks. He started with a little dust and got you.
And we find ourselves in the 21st century tempted to say, we are bulletproof, we're golden. There doesn't really matter what we do or how we do it. We can kind of sort of say, I'm sorry. But the pathway begins in John three. Jesus said, I tell you the truth. You know by now, right? Big news coming. I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he's born again.
So it isn't about your genealogical descent. It's not like you were born into the right family and you're not excluded because you were born into the wrong family. So it doesn't nothing to do with the tracks in which side of them you were born on. It has to do with the spiritual birth. Same chapter, verse five, I tell you the truth. No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he's born of water in the spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to the spirit. Jesus is talking to a leader of the Jewish community.
He didn't tell him his dissent was sufficient. He didn't tell him that the religious practices he held were sufficient. He said, you have to be born into the kingdom of God. If it was true for Nicodemus, I would humbly submit it's true for me and it is true for you. The keys to the kingdom are not the purview of any particular denomination or any religious sect. It's not about Protestant or Catholic.
It's not about a style of worship or a translation of the Bible. All of those things may have some place in the discussion, but they are not primary. Your participation in the kingdom of God begins with a birth. In the same way your participation in time begins with a physical birth, your participation in the kingdom of God begins with a spiritual birth.
Romans 10 amplifies it a bit. If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it's with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it's with your mouth that you confess and are saved. So that spiritual birth is triggered, initiated by a physical choice. We believe in our heart and confess with our mouth.
That's how we enter the kingdom of God. That initiates the greatest miracle that will ever touch your life. A deliverance from the kingdom of darkness and being welcomed into the eternal kingdom of Almighty God. It's not dependent upon a college degree or an IQ point or a balance in your bank accounts or your success or lack thereof in the marketplace or your physical abilities. Everyone is welcome.
That's remarkable. I've studied in too many theological settings where they have this deteriorating theology that tries to reinvent God in our image. It's incredibly destructive and tragically it's infected the church now for decades. It's not surprising that the church is increasingly apostate. We've been educating our leaders to ignore the word of God. We're gonna have to find our voices church
Like I think we ought to just say that prayer together. Whether you call it a conversion prayer, a profession of faith, a prayer of salvation, the new birth, there's a handful of labels that are used frequently. They're all synonymous. They signify what Jesus was describing, your willing participation, the acknowledgement, the fundamentals are simple. You need to know so you can help someone else. The acknowledgement that we're a sinner apart from God, we cannot save ourselves.
You don't need a birth if you can save yourself. If you can deliver yourself into the kingdom of God, you don't need a supernatural deliverance. Understand though that the standard is absolute perfection, complete righteousness. If you transcend on one point, you forfeit everything. Imagine if you would lose your driver's license if you broke one rule. One mile an hour over the limit, rolled through one's, stop sign.
Accelerated through one traffic line. How many of you know we would all walk the church? Right? There wouldn't be a driver amongst us. And God's standard is righteousness. And unrighteousness cannot exist in His presence. It's not about God being mean-spirited or judgmental. It's His nature. I can't breathe underwater. It's not water being mean-spirited.
It's the nature of the environment. The alternative to that is to accept righteousness as a gift and say, I'm a sinner, I need a savior. Forgive me of my sin. If you won't acknowledge you're a sinner and you're need for a savior, you remain outside the kingdom of God.
But if we will acknowledge our need of a Savior and be willing to admit that we are sinners and we will ask for forgiveness, we can be forgiven. But that bargain has a condition. To be forgiven, we have to acknowledge Jesus as Lord, which means now He establishes the priorities. If you're the priority setter of your life, Jesus is not your Lord.
But I sit in church, I'm happy that you do. But it doesn't make you a Christ follower. But I keep some of the rules, good for you. It doesn't make you a Christ follower. Jesus is Lord. And that means now we are in process for His Lordship to fully occupy our lives as we grow up in Him.
And then in order to receive that forgiveness, we have to forgive those who've sinned against us. It's not optional. If you'll do that, you can be a part of the eternal kingdom of God. Wow. Wow. There's an entirely new authority in your life, a new future. I think we got to say that little prayer together. Why don't you just repeat it after me? Just close your eyes for a minute, forget who's around you.
You know, it's a problem when you've been in church a while and maybe Jesus really hadn't been Lord. You hate to say that in public. You know, it's like not knowing English. I've studied English since I started school. And if I go back, they still work on my English. I learned more about English when I learned foreign languages. I didn't know there was such a thing as a plu-perfect verb tense till I got to Greek.
And if you've been in church, sometimes you're embarrassed to say, you know, I really haven't served Jesus as Lord. I go to church occasionally. I'm a pretty good person. I kind of sort of keep the morals that go with the Christian faith, but I've never really made Jesus Lord. Why don't we do that tonight? You can do that if you're watching me from someplace else. You don't have to be on campus for this one. Just repeat this prayer with me. Almighty God.
I'm a sinner, and I need a Savior. I believe Jesus is your Son, that He died on a cross for my sin, and that you raised Him to life again, that I might be justified, declared non-guilty, just as if I'd never sinned. Jesus be Lord of my life, forgive me of all my sin,
And I forgive all those who've sinned against me. I want to live for your glory, with all that I am, all that I have, all that I'll ever be. In Jesus' name, amen. Hallelujah. Pretty amazing stuff. For all of you unaware people that say you've never seen a miracle, yes you have.
If you're a Christ follower, you are a walking miracle because apart from Jesus, you were destined for an eternity apart from God. And because of Jesus, we are participants in the eternal kingdom. Come on now.
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 his new devotional, set apart for his purposes.
I wanna take just a moment to say thank you in a year of political turmoil and confusion and wars and rumors of wars because of your partnership, your generosity, your prayers, your encouragement. We have done more for the gospel than any year in our ministry so far. We started a whole new genre of programming. Alan Jackson now does a daily review of headlines from a biblical worldview. We started a new podcast, Culture and Christianity, to help stabilize God's people in the midst of all the confusion.
all of that because of your faithfulness, your generosity, your prayers. Thank you so much. As we come to the end of this year, I want to ask you to prayerfully consider making a sacrificial investment in what's next. We want to take those programs, share them in new places with more people,
We want to continue to be creative in how we share the good news of Jesus Christ. A generous partner makes it possible every gift you give will be matched. It doubles your gift between now and the end of the year. Let me thank you in advance for what we've been doing and what God's going to do with our lives and our partnership together in 2025. Thank you and God bless you.
The evidence is clear. God is moving, and He has an assignment for you. It's time to draw close to Him, so He can show you why He placed you in your community at this exact time. Pastor Allen's brand-new 90-day devotional offers next steps forward. It's called, set apart for His purposes, and each day includes Scripture, a helpful teaching, a prayer, a journaling prompt, and space to write your responses.
As you go through the devotional, you'll find that journaling daily is a powerful practice. It will help you recognize your spiritual growth and God's responses to you. We'll also send a set of custom page markers so you can flag the prayers, devotionals, and journal entries you want to revisit in the weeks and months ahead. This distinctive hardbound book makes an excellent gift, or keep it for yourself, so you can start the New Year with intentionality.
Set apart for his purposes as our gift to you when you donate $50 or more. Plus, when you give today, your donation will be matched, doubling its impact. Request your copy today at alanjaxon.com or by calling 855-5772255. That's 855-572255. Now, let's get back to Pastor Allen to wrap up part 2 of his message, Determining our Identity.
Here's the challenge we face. Most many, many people are willing to take that step. Many people. It seems so wonderful. But we've had very little conversation and very little instruction on what's next. And there's some very well formed, very elaborate, very well presented theological systems that says everything after that is secondary.
Only maybe you need to get baptized, probably not a bad idea to get baptized. But everything else gets treated pretty sloppily, pretty casually, because we're told that our God is a forgiving God filled with grace and mercy. And you can do almost anything you want to do. And then if you'll hesitate momentarily and kind of sort of perhaps a little bit, say, I probably shouldn't have done that, that you're good to go again.
You get to go right back to go and get $200. You get a fresh start. And it's created a sloppy Dietrich Bonhoeffer called it Men Without Chests. It's not really a biblical presentation. I don't want you to live in fear of your salvation. I'm not trying to dangle you by a thread over the pits of hell. There's Jonathan Edwards so famously did.
I'm asking you to consider what the Scripture says to us, 1 Peter chapter 1. This is Peter the fisherman. He said, you've been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable. It's not about your physical descent. It's about your spiritual descent. Through the living and enduring Word of God, for all men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass-withers and the flowers fail.
But the word of the Lord stands forever, and this is the word that was preached to you. Therefore, therefore is a summary word. What I was taught as a young man, when you read your Bible and when you find a therefore, you better find out what it's there for. It's a pretty good principle. Therefore, because of what he's just said, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.
like newborn babies crave pure spiritual milk so that by it you may grow up in your salvation. Now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. The language is just as clear as the John passages.
He said, because you've been born of imperishable seed, not the decision of a human being, because you have something now that reaches beyond time that's more enduring than your physical body or the plants that grow around us. He said, now we've got to make the decision to grow up spiritually. We have to rid ourselves, he says. It's not something God will do to us.
Ridge yourself of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander. Crave pure spiritual milk so that you can grow up in your salvation. My concern is this has not been a prevalent message. I don't want to diminish the invitation to the new birth, conversion, salvation, but I would like to amplify the rest of the assignment to grow up as Christ followers.
It's a various, not some shuttle hidden theme. I'm editing, just bear with me for a moment.
I'll go to that last section you have, the questions there. What are we doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? You see what I find? And the more broadly I listen, the more I'm aware is that we have an imagination as to how Christians should behave. Even non-Christians know how they think Christians should behave. Have you ever bumped into that? Well, I know. I thought you were a Christian.
Said to you by someone who clearly doesn't intend to be. We have this imagination, but we often do not intend to abide by the principles. We say we hold them, but we lack the intent to honor them. And I think the idea that's given rise to that is we've said, well, I've been born again. And I can't earn my way to heaven.
So why should I try so hard? Because at the end of the day, it isn't about trying. It's about training. We've had that discussion quite a bit. If the outcomes matter, trying is not enough, folks. If you've never flown a plane, I don't want you to fly the plane I'm on, even if you're gonna try really, really hard. When outcomes matter, trying is not the issue.
The Bible tells us we have to submit ourselves to the authority of God. Look at Matthew 7, Jesus is speaking, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, we'll enter the kingdom of heaven. But only he who does the will of my Father who's in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?
Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers." I don't know about you. He has my attention. You can cast out demons and do miracles and recognize the Lord. And he'll say, no, no, you're not welcome.
The criteria that he holds out to us is the one who does the will of my father. So here's a suggestion, just an idea. I'm not bringing you the full, the assignment. I'm giving you the concept to begin on a very regular basis to say, Lord, I would like to do your will today.
I'm going to work today. I have a family today. I'm going to make choices about what I look at on my screens. I'm going to make choices about how I interact with people. I'd like to do your will today. Will you do it perfectly? Probably not. But if you don't intend to do it, tell me again the evidence that you're a Christ follower.
Jesus said, the one who does my Father's will. And this is not some rogue verse that I've ripped out of context. It is a theme. We have a role to play. I wanna pray for you. May I do that? Will you stand with me? Thank you for investing the time to pray over these next two days. I know it's a sacrifice.
You've got a family still at home. It takes the whole family making a sacrifice. Thank you for doing that. God responds to His people. He dies. He dies. Why don't you join hands with somebody new? Tell them your name, you know the drill. They won't talk to you, don't bother. And if you stood by them several times and they've never talked to you, move. I mean, not right now,
Father, thank you for your word, for its truth and authority and power in our lives. I thank you that you called us to this very unique point in history, that you called us out of darkness and through the blood of Jesus, we've been forgiven, sanctified, justified, delivered, that we might declare the praises of our God in our generation. And I ask you now for a new boldness, for a new courage,
Forgive us for when we've been timid or distracted or ambivalent. The Lord, we offer ourselves tonight as living sacrifices. We want to conduct ourselves in a way that's pleasing to you, that you deem trustworthy, that whatever assignments you would have fulfilled that you would consider us trustworthy with those assignments. We praise you for it tonight.
I thank you for the privilege and honor we have of naming Jesus his Lord of our lives. That we can affirm that and declare that in public. We praise you for it, Lord. May that freedom grow. May that liberty increase. May your church grow. May our voice be strengthened. May your people be awakened. Reveal yourself to the children and the young people with a clarity beyond anything we've ever seen. May they know there's a God in heaven and that Jesus is his son.
We thank you for it. We praise you for it. For it's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. Hallelujah. God bless you.
Find practical steps you can take to seek the Lord in Pastor Allen's new 90-day devotional and prayer journal called Set Apart for His Purposes. Each day you'll find a scripture, a short teaching, a prayer, a journaling prompt, and a place to write your response. Request your copy when you donate $50 or more today at alanjaxon.com.
or by calling 855-5772255. That's 855-5772255. And don't forget, your donation today will be matched, doubling your investment in the ministry. 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.
