Hello, this is Will Hardy with ManTalk Radio.
We are all about breaking down the walls of race and denomination. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few minutes. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. If Not For God with Mike Zwick. Today we've got a very special guest. We've got brother Tony Jackson in the house. Brother Tony Jackson is actually the gentleman who got me on the radio to begin with, and he's on a show. It's called Now Try Jesus Ministries on the light. Light the Triad.
So every Saturday morning at 8 30 and I think if you just google lightthetriad.com or light the triad, you could see that. You can check out Now Try Jesus Ministries, but we got him to come down this morning and we have some good stuff to talk about. But what I've got right now is I've got Luke chapter 18 starting in verse 9. It says, To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable. Two men went up to the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, God, I thank you that I am not like other people, robbers, evil, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week and give all and give a tenth of all that I get. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but he beat upon his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God for all those who exalt themselves will be humbled and all those who humble themselves will be exalted. And what I hear Jesus saying is the one guy, he was doing pretty well. He was giving some money.
He wasn't committing adultery. He was doing all these good things. But the other guy, he knew he had problems. He knew he had issues. And he just sat there and he said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. And Jesus said, the guy who beat on his chest and said, have mercy on me. He is the one who went away justified because he did. He was not sitting there saying, I'm a great person. I'm wonderful.
Look at me. But he said, God, I know I need your grace. And as we know, it says in Romans three twenty three that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And on this show again and again and again, we point out injustice in the world and we talk about living a holy life and living a righteous life. But I hope that we never get to that point where we look at ourselves and we go, man, I'm a I'm a pretty great person. I really I really don't have any problems because then you miss the whole point where that we all are in need of a savior. Is that right, Tony Jackson? Amen.
We agree totally. And I'm talking about what really stuck out as I was listening. And now I'm looking at it. It's saying that this man went down to his house justified rather than the other one. And in other words, what led to that was his humility. He had to humble himself. And and the Lord said, if you humble yourself, you will exalt you.
So the other guy was kind of like pumped up, puffed up all about him. But the one once you realize that you need the Lord, you will say automatically. But the Lord will open your eyes that we all need to save you. We all need his love, his grace, especially just walking by faith.
You got to have these elements and they are essential that you have this type of faith to have a relationship. So my thing is to be reminded because we don't even have to be here and it's not about us. But God's going to use us no matter what we're going through, especially when we're praying. And that's key right there. We can talk to him about anything. Matter of fact, everything, you know, don't leave nothing out because the word tell us, you know, to pray with an attitude.
Now you can't walk around all day with your mouth going because nobody can't get a word in. That's right. But if you open up to him with your spirit, the Lord is right there for us every moment, every step of the way. Thank you, brother.
That's it. Matter of fact, you know, speaking of which is Luke 17 in verse 7 through 10. It says, Well, any of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has coming in from the field, come at once and recline at the table. Will he not rather say to him, prepare supper for me and dress properly and serve me while I eat and drink?
And afterward you will eat and drink. Does he thank that servant because he did what he was commanded? He says, so you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say we are unworthy servants.
We have only done what was our duty. And when I hear that, it's kind of saying the same thing in a different way. What he's saying is, is that even if you do everything right, you're only supposed to sit there and say, God, I'm just, I'm an unworthy servant.
I just did what you asked. We're not supposed to build ourselves up and look at ourselves as if we're our own savior because with Jesus, he said, I am the way, the truth and the life. And nobody comes to the father, but by me and you know, it's interesting. And I know we've talked about this before over the years, brother Tony, but you know, sometimes it's easier for somebody who's in prison. Sometimes it's easier for somebody who's been on drugs to sit up and look up and say, I need Jesus because they know that they've got problems.
Sometimes it's harder for the successful businessman or the successful business woman or the person who's been married their whole life. Hasn't really had a whole lot of what the world calls problems and looks like they're doing pretty well to sit and say, look, I need a savior. Now, both of those people need a savior, but the one who realizes that they need the savior is the one who may be on drugs or the one who may be in prison because the person who seems to have it all together, they may not see the need. But the truth is, is that we're all in need of a savior. We're all in need of a savior.
Is that right? Amen. When you talk about truth, it's kind of funny if you think about it, but it's not like how funny because a lot of times we're blind to the culture that we're living in. And that what causes us to lose our focus on our real need, our dependency. And when you think you can depend on it and do it yourself, that's the sad part because you're, it's like blind spots. You can't see yourself the way that the Lord see you.
And a lot of times we deceive ourselves to think that we're okay. Nobody's okay. There is nobody there yet. And it's going to take a lifetime for most of us to get the lessons, but you got to be here to get the lessons. A lot of people have passed on.
They never were open. They, they never received the kindness, the mercy, especially the love of God. So, you know, they're kind of like stuck, locked because of this culture, this world that we're living in, the flesh, the devil, everything is trying to get your attention to keep your eyes off of the savior. And that's what we really need to be whole, to be free, to serve, to be open to the things of God, to the kingdom, especially the kingdom. That's the purpose why you're here.
But until you find that out, learn that out and search that out by looking for him, you're going to keep on missing it. And it kind of breaks the heart of God because he designed everything for his glory and you're a part of it. You may not even know it or even understand it, but if you walk by faith and trust him, God wants to draw you by his spirit and to just teach you his ways that you're not the only one that's hurting. There's a lot of hurt going on.
And I'm telling you, God has given you the key within you to trust him. That's true. And, you know, and one of the things that I realize now is that, you know, a lot of people, I believe in the past year or the past year and a half have been depressed, have had tough times. They've kind of been down this, that, the other. But, you know, what a lot of people, I don't think they realize, Tony, is that when you're down, when you're depressed, when you're out, when you feel like you maybe don't have a purpose, the best thing that you can do is to help other people.
And, and, you know, it's funny. It's like, if you want to get your mind off yourself, help other people, because you realize that there really are a lot of needs that are out there. And I know over the years, you've seen people as well.
You've been in the prison ministry. It's like, it's kind of hard to feel bad for yourself when you see somebody else who's in prison. And when they're thanking God for the opportunities that they have, then you say, well, gosh, I'm sorry, God, I'm sorry.
I, I feel bad because I shouldn't be feeling sorry for myself. There are a lot of people who have it out a lot worse than I do. And just because, you know, things may be tough or whatever, I do believe that if we get our minds off of ourselves, the best, one of the best ways to do it is by helping others. And Jesus did say, matter of fact, if you've ever looked at Matthew chapter 25, he says, would you have done for me what you have done for the least of these, my brethren, you have done it unto me.
And it's funny. It's like people have a tough time talking about it or thinking about it or saying, well, how can I do for other people when I have all of these problems? And we know that, yes, sometimes things are tough.
Sometimes we have tough times, this, that, the other, but the truth is, and I'm even going to look at it right now. It says the final judgment, Matthew 25, verse 31. It says, when the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne before him will be gathered all the nations. And he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the goats, the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.
Then the king will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed by my father and inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you as a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you?
And when did we see you sick in prison and visit you? And the king will answer them. Truly I say unto you, as you did it unto one of the least of my brothers, you did it unto me. Then he will say to those on his left, the goats, he says, depart from me. You cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Oh, so there is a hell. For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink.
I was a stranger and you did not welcome me naked and you did not clothe me sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Then they will also answer saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you? Then he will say to them, truly I say unto you that as you did not do it unto one of the least of these, you did not do it unto me.
And these will go into, go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life. And you know, it's funny in there doesn't say anything about not smoking or not drinking, not cussing, nothing like that, but what it said, and I'm not saying to do any of that stuff. That's not what I'm saying. But what I'm saying is, is he's saying, see sometimes we try to complicate things. We want things to be so sophisticated and so complicated, but we look at a passage like that in Matthew chapter 25 and it's like, we want all these bigger things that God, God, we want the big complicated things that you have for us. But I wonder if the Lord is saying to one of you listening today, well, why would I give you the bigger things if you're not doing the simple things that I've asked you to do by helping the poor? There are so many needs that are out there. There are so many ways that we can help. You can go online. I, you know, compassion international is one of them.
Uh, matter of fact, brother Tony, I know you've done the prison ministry. Is that still going or has that been put on pause? Yeah, right now that's been put on pause because of the COVID that has slowed down a lot. But one of the, um, brothers was telling me that they're doing it by what they call zoom. And I'm telling me as far as communication, uh, like the newsletters, all that's been kind of like counsel out, but here's another key that we can overlook. The Lord has given us this key called prayer. Yes. And to me, that is the most powerful weapon that we have on the planet.
Yes. You're talking about nuclear or spreading of this and spreading of this, you know, the word, but that prayer can go through anything, time, eternity. It will carry you not only over and through, but that's the answer to a lot of the questions because to every question, our Lord and savior Jesus Christ is the answer. Instead of you asking one another, are you, uh, what if, what if this and what if that talk to God about that and stuff, that's what's that's for. And you need to lean into that a little bit more cause in these last days, we're going to need the connection. We're going to need to collect the dots, connect the dots and stay on track because it's so easy to get swayed and swiveled away.
And that's all the enemy want to do is just get your attention long enough. That's just like he did Eve. Nothing has changed and stuff.
He's still got the same MO. He can't help his self cause that's who he is. He's a liar. So don't be looking at the lies that will deceive cause that's like questioning God. You asking God and about his authority through you and you don't know that's the enemy trying to get you away from him. And every time he gets you away from here, you think about this right here. If he can get you away, he got your attention. So when you're not paying attention, we're going to give God attention. So when you're looking at him and stuff, there's always peace.
You can always rest. And I'm telling you, that's the key to being in a relationship because if you miss that, wow, there's a lot of grounds to be made up and those are missed opportunities. You have failed to trust father.
And to me, it's really like a slap in the face. You just spitting God face in it. You know better than father. No one knows best except father. So when you're on his alignment with his love, his cross, his blood, his sacrifice, God already got everything worked out. But my brother just said, Mike said, we complicate things.
This thing is so simple that a child can get it, but we got questions. Why you want to question instead of trust? There's a time to question, but it's only personal with God, not with somebody else because they don't know they got, they got to go through what they're going through. So like we all on a quest to serve. And just like my brother said, is that get your eyes off yourself because self ain't nothing but death. Anytime you're focused, you're losing out. And just think about the opportunities and the privileges you have. I was just talking to this sister just a moment ago and you know what she said? She said, I didn't sleep well last night, but I got a remedy for that.
According to the word of God, he woke you up. So, you know, we need to keep our focus. We need to keep our mind set.
Matter of fact, it's a mindset. We're going to all go through it and how it affects anybody is the way it affects them. But this is our lifestyle.
We don't get caught up. We don't get twisted thinking that it's about us in any way. It's all about him.
And I would forever to say, it's about his glory. You were put here and think for a moment with me, please take this into consideration. You had nothing to do with you coming in. You didn't even have a choice. God going to use whatever purpose that you came.
But take this part out right here. After you get here, you get a choice. You can choose life or you can choose death. Now, you might not even know what you're choosing sometimes, but I'm telling there's consequences. So the best choice you can make is to get with the one that knows everything.
And that makes the difference. So all of this self help, that's off track. Let the Lord feed and guide you by his Spirit. This is your life.
Don't waste your life trying to figure it out. There's nothing to figure out except to trust God and let him show you and bring you out of whatever you're going through. And so we just thank God that that revelation right there alone could cause you to just walk through this thing and to realize and stuff. Hey, there's not only hope, but you know that God got you. And if God got you, there is so much peace.
That's it. There's so much peace. As a matter of fact, you know, it's interesting.
I didn't know if I was going to share this, but I think I will. I had a dream and maybe it was in the last month. I don't know exactly what it was, but it was just one of those dreams where you just you wake up and you go, what?
Huh? I mean, but in the dream I was dreaming and all of a sudden I was at the gym and there were there were two guys over here. There were two African-American males. And then there was another guy, a white male who was over there and they were both working out. Everybody they were one was on their side. The other was on their side.
Nobody was really doing anything at all. They were just kind of doing their thing. All of a sudden the white guy came over to the two black guys and he made I don't know what he said, but I'm assuming he he passed a racist remark. That's what I'm assuming.
Okay. And so all of a sudden I remember it was like they got in the corner. They went over in the corner and in the corner they were about to fight. But when they were about to fight and I realized I didn't realize at the time, but they are realized this instead of fighting, they almost like started to come together and just talk. It was like it was it was in the white guy. He turned into a demon. And so it was like the white guy, he wanted the two African-American males to come over to him because he wanted them to get angry. He wanted to rile them up and he wanted them to fight. And then all of a sudden it was like he had them exactly where he wanted them. And then in the other corner of the room, there was somebody from the LGBT community and all of a sudden they were saying gay pride, gay pride, gay pride. And I woke up and I was like, what the heck is that all about?
And so what I did was I, I was just about to go to sleep. And then all of a sudden the Bible verse Romans 3, 17, Romans 3, 17 came to my mind and it says, and I was like, what is that? So I got up and I looked it up and it says that in the way of peace, they do not know. And so the devil, he doesn't care how he's going to use you.
He doesn't care who we use. I mean, you know, you could be a white person who's racist. He, you know, that's what he wants. You can be a black person who's racist.
You can be Asian, whoever it is. If you hate other people because of their race, that's against the ways of God. That's not godly at all. You know, he could use somebody from the LGBT community. If you're going against the way that God, you know, the marriage between a man and a woman, and you say, Hey, there's this other way that we want to, it doesn't matter what he wants to use, but see, the devil is not a devil of peace.
He's a devil of, it says in John 10, 10, it says, the thief comes, but to steal, kill and destroy. But Jesus said, I have come so that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. And so I felt like maybe that dream was just a word for me to tell somebody today. I know sometimes you get upset. You see all this stuff on social media. You realize that a lot of that stuff is just there to rile you up. And a lot of that stuff is used by the devil to make people angry at each other and to not realize that we should be angry at the devil. Who's call it causing the strife. Matter of fact, but Jesus said something else. He said in Matthew chapter five, verse nine, he says, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be the sons of God. They call Jesus.
They called him the Prince of peace. And so while everybody's angry, everybody's trying to fight each other. Everybody's want to get angry about politics, want to get angry about this, want to get angry about that.
And my question to you is right now is where's the peace? And so I'm not saying that we avoid any issues that could be controversial. I'm not saying we don't stand up for biblical principles. But what I am saying is if we go back to what we were saying at the beginning of the show, and we realize that we're just as bad as anybody else, we're just as in need of a Savior as the people who we think are the worst ones that are out there.
Then we realize that we can pass on that grace, that love, that peace to other people. And then it's funny because when you love other people who seem unlovable, Jesus said so himself. He says, remember he said, he said, anybody can be nice to who's nice to them. He said, but blessed are you. He says, when you love people who are unlovable, you love your enemies.
People, you know, the other teachers of the world, they don't really teach people that. But Jesus see that the way that he teaches us is to love our enemies because we realize that at one point we were all enemies of God. We were all enemies of God in that nobody, everybody goes their own way.
Everybody's gone their own way. Everybody has sinned and come short of the glory of God. And so that when we turn around and give grace and when we love those who seem unlovable, go ahead, that God can give God looks at us and says, yes, you're doing exactly what I've showed you to do. Because even Stephen, when Stephen was when Stephen was about to be stoned or when he was being stoned, the people who were killing them, who were killing Stephen, the first martyr in the New Testament, he said, God, he says, forgive them for they know not what they do. When Jesus was on the cross, people were killing the Roman soldiers. They were killing Jesus. They were crucifying him.
They were making fun of him. He says, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And so if we start to love our enemies, then I think we're really getting closer to the kingdom of God.
What do you think, Tony? I was just thinking about that peace thing. A lot of us don't have no peace cause we haven't forgiven and we're holding things grudges. And, and I'm talking, I was talking to my wife, like in our little study last night, we were saying the Lord ain't never say forget.
Now that's a choice. And he had to work with you by his spirit for you to forget. But that's a part of life because think about it to me personally and stuff. I take it like this. If I done done somebody else wrong and God has forgiven me, I have no right to hold anything against anybody no matter what they done. That's a subtle issue. I don't have to struggle with that.
I'm not perfect in it as far as my knowledge of me holding things. I might not like what they did, but according to the word of God and his love, he has saved me from that. I don't have to return to that. Think about that, dwell on that. And that's why you don't have no peace because you won't let it go and it will block you and the enemy can use anybody.
He can use me. So we gotta be discerning to the degree that we don't have to fall into that trap. If you stick with God and his program, his plan, his purpose, you won't get crossed up and stuff like that. But anytime the enemy can isolate you and get you by yourself with your thoughts, man, you are already cooked for the goose. You can put a fork in it.
It's already done. You won't come undone until you learn to forgive. And the Lord said, if I forgave you, you have no right. In other words, to me, you're playing God.
Everybody want to be God. You make your own choice to do what you want to do when you want to do it. But if you're submissive, like the first thing we talked about was the two that went up, he humbled himself. So if you stay humble and stuff, you ain't got no problem forgiving nobody. Because if you think about it, like my brother Mike said on the cross, he forgave and Stephen said, lay not discharged against them. Don't hold nothing against nobody and stuff. And that's a trick, a trap. That's what we call the methods of the enemy to use people, use you and stuff for you to be. And we are so vindictive.
We are so quick to judge and to assume the wrong thing about anything. And you don't even know the whole story. You ain't even got a clue of what you're thinking about.
Let's long if you put your mouth against it. So that's up to God. He said, vengeance is mine.
I will repay. We need to wait on the Lord and see what he going to do, how he going to respond. Your response is to just walk in love.
And it's not hard to love nobody. But if you got your eyes on yourself, we're going to get you crisscrossed again. Yeah, you need to get your eyes on the cross.
And I'm talking like, let me inject this right here. A lot of you don't even know what you got according to the cross and stuff. It's just not you saved from fire, eternal flames. God has given you so much to do the warfare. And you think about the doctrine of love, the doctrine of redemption, the doctrine of just being who he say you are. You adopted, you accepted. And here you are trying to figure it out. You can't do that.
You can't do it. And just finishing up here, we had our friend, Brother Pastor Marty from First Christian Church of Boone. He told us something. He was praying and Revelation 22 seven came to him.
He didn't know what it says, but it says, Behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. And when I hear you talking about that, Brother Tony, it reminds me and myself and our lives and all of us who are listening that really all the stuff that we think is so important right now, or the stuff that, oh gosh, it just has to be done. We have to be angry about this, angry about that.
It's all going to be done pretty quickly. Jesus is coming back soon. Might as well forgive people and love people for where they are. And Brother Tony Jackson, we are so grateful and thankful to have you on here today.
And Tony is spelled T-O-N-E-Y. God bless you, if not for God. life insurance plans, competitive annuity rate and additional member benefits. You can even lower your income tax bill and boost your retirement income by opening a new P-R-C-U-A life annuity. or transferring your existing account. earn up to 3.75 APY with a 1 year guarantee and $500 minimum deposit. or call your local P-R-C-U-A or call your local PRCUARepresentative at 336-776-7456. P-R-C-U-A Life, protecting life through all its stages.
