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Nov 6, 2026 · 49 minutes

Jesus said the student, when fully trained, will be like his or her teacher.

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What shapes a nation’s direction? In this episode, Abraham Hamilton, III and Maria Hamilton reflect on the midterm elections and make the case that cultural change begins deeper than the ballot box.

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Transcript

7,739 words, in two-minute parts. Made by machine, so a few words may be off.

0:0048:48

  1. 0:00

    Darkness is not an affirmative force. It simply reoccupies the space vacated by the light. This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio. It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite. Delivery people out of the bondage of mainstream media. And the philosophies of this world. God has called you and me to be his ambassador. Even in this dark moment. Let's not miss our moment. And now, the Hamilton Corner. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Hamilton Corner here on American Family Radio. I'm your host, Abraham Hamilton, III, joined by producers, Stroyd Nair, often imitated, never duplicated the real, Jay Mack. And we are ready to rock and roll with today's edition of the program. At this very moment, many of you are making your transition. If not most of you, from your part time jobs where you generate an income to your full time jobs where you cultivate an outcome. And as you do so, I want to remind you to do so with intentionality, understanding the primacy that God places on family and welcoming that primacy to govern, to guard and to guide your engagement in your homes. Because the simple truth is even today in the wake of this week's midterm elections, that what goes on in your house is far more important than what goes on in the White House. And you know, if anybody's been listening, if you've been listening to the show for quite some time, you know, I've been making this case for a while that when you think about the advancement of the Marxists and the Islamists around the country politically, how did we come to the place where we have an electorate that would prefer that? And with all of this going to be lots of talking here is going to have their prognostications, they're going to say turn out or not turn out and all these other things.

  2. 2:02

    But there is one institution, one system that is churning out voters that are conducive to the Marxist and Islamist message. And it is a one system that still as I'm speaking to you, 93% of the American populace is funneled through 93% of what system am I talking about? Y'all know what it is. It's the government indoctrination system. Might I remind you just this year, this year, in the state of Texas, they had to pass new policies concerning the teaching of 9-11 in the state of Texas because the textbooks in Texas simply described 9-11 as a terrorist attack, but they didn't talk about any of the motivation behind the actual terrorists in Texas. How did Texas just, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You see, we can tiptoe around the periphery if we want, but if we continue to allow regressives to lead in discipling generation after generation after generation of Americans, we can't continue to be surprised when they vote that way. You cannot. And the commitment to discipleship is not driven by our desire to see certain political outcomes change, the commitment to discipleship should be out of the overflow of our love for our Lord. And that love manifests itself in our obedience to what he has commanded us to do. And having the appropriate understanding of what discipleship is, all of Christ, for all of life.

  3. 4:04

    Christ is Lord over fiscal policy. Christ is Lord over border policy. Christ is Lord over the sanctity of human life. Christ is Lord over marriage, and he determines what it is and what it is not. Christ is Lord over human sexuality. Christ is Lord over regulations and taxation. He's Lord over at all, but we have not governed ourselves in a manner that has communicated that Lordship. So because darkness is not an affirmative force, but it reoccupies the space that is vacated by the light. If we refuse to obey God's command and make disciples, the Spirit of the Age will readily and eagerly step into that void. So I'm saying what I'm saying because the motivation should not be one that drives us horizontally first, it should drive us vertically. To the word of God we go, Colossians chapter one and this text will bear it out and nothing that is transpired this week has nullified what I'm about to read to you. Nothing, nothing, nothing. has nullified what I'm about to read to you. Colossians chapter 1 verse 13, for he rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption through the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, God, the first, the protakas of all creation, for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible.

  4. 6:08

    Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through Him, for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together. That is God's word. There is not a centella that has transpired this week that has changed this. Because that is true, my encouragement and my challenge even to the The body of Christ is to seek to discern what God is endeavoring to show us. Seek to discern what God is endeavoring to show us. Is God attempting to get our attention in any particular way? Oh Abraham, there you go again. You're conflating the scripture with politics. Am I? Am I? Is God not sovereign over the nations? God's sovereignty stop at the borders of the United States of America? Is there something that human beings engage in that is beyond the scope of the King of Glor's jurisdiction? We serve a Lord. We serve the Lord who equips his body to be his hands and feet, regardless of the surrounding contexts. I explained earlier this week the command to pray for all men offering all manner of prayer for all manner of people, including kings in those in authority.

  5. 8:16

    That was a command that was given within the context where you had a Nero sitting on the Roman on the Roman throne. Was that an excuse and an occasion for the believer to not live the life of the believer and to be faithful and obedient? The execute his dominion? Execute his commission? No. It's with Nero as a backdrop that Christianity explodes. Peter, second Peter written within the context of overt hostile physical persecution, circumstance and dictate what should have been done. Not at all. What I believe among the other things that I do believe it's multifaceted, I do believe it's multi layered, but I believe that the primary thing that God has attempted to show us is to let us see palpable tangible consequences for a failure or refusal to commit oneself the discipleship in mass. You know, I had a privilege this week, actually, the day after the elections. Wednesday, a brother in our church works with the Fellowship of Christian Afterlea. Shout out to Ray, what's happening, Ray. And he invited me. He had been ministering to, in the local school context, it's amazing because Ray and his wife are committed Christ followers and they disciple their children at home, which includes the the cultivation of their minds, they're home educated, but Ray is committed to obeying the Lord and took a position with fellow Christian athletes, praise God, and he invited me to come with him to address a local high school football team. You know what I'm sitting there, I'm in the field house, and I'm in the locker room, I'm looking at all of these young men, all of these young men, strapping, muscular, 16, 17, 18-year-olds, and it hit me as I'm sitting there, that the truth is the majority of these children's parents, and obviously I don't know all of the children, so I don't know this to be factual, but I'll say at least half of these children's parents, if not a majority of their parents, go to church somewhere, and it hit me even further, that the children born in a Christian household by the time they've reached the ages of 17 and 18 years old, they should have been given access to eight to 10 years of being steeped, deeply in God's holy word.

  6. 11:09

    Now for how many of them is the truth, I know it's true for some of them. Well, let me say it better. It may be true for some of them, but what percentage of them would it be true for? When you stop and examine your immediate surroundings, where are your children and grandchildren being educated? What percentage of these children have been steeped in? Notice what I say, it's steeped in. I'm not talking about, you know, just they've been in children's church where they sing the songs and they have the sock puppets and you know, they have the graham crackers and apple juice. I'm talking about being steeped in Christ-like formation, where there is intentional and robust discipleship taking place to where these young people, as immatriculating between the ages of like five, six, seven, on to 10 and 12 and 13, they are developing a thoroughly processed biblical worldview as a result of intentional discipleship and formation. What percentage? What percentage? What percentage of our children in these youth groups have a systematic theology? What percentage? Oh, I hate children in systematic theology. Yes, yes. Can I tell you something? They all are developing a systematic theology but not a biblical theology and submission to Christ. Their biology classes are teaching theology. Their mathematics classes are teaching them theology. Their language classes are teaching theology. to algebra, their math classes are teaching them theology. You know, is theology there being taught? God is irrelevant to this subject. God is irrelevant to the discipline. So what is the consistent steepness taking place? God is irrelevant to all of these aspects of real life. While at the exact same time, we expect the children to do well in regurgitating the various discipline mastery that excludes the knowledge of God.

  7. 13:16

    But we don't think about it like that. we have normalized a perpetuation of Godlessness to where when it comes to relationship with Jesus and submission to his authority and his lordship and integrating their life with his word, well, they only do that at church. And the truth is church is a foreigner to their regular lives, because we spend eight hours a day, five days a week for 12 years, seven, eight months a year, normalizing the exclusion of God from our everyday intentional investment in thought and in time. And now many people are surprised that when we have a populace that's been trained and discipled that way, they've continuously been going in a direction. And now you see, oh snap. So you really are running as a socialist with the fundamental theological undergirding notion of Marxism is atheism. Well, of course they're comfortable with policies that do not include the knowledge of God because they've been trained to exclude the knowledge of God. Now I know what I'm saying is provocative. I know that, but doesn't make any less true. And I know they're exceptions to what I'm saying, but how plintiest are those exceptions? Which one is the most consistent experience in our country? We have to be honest about that. Hello, I'm Abraham Hamilton, III. Did you know that this content is listener supported? Without people like you, this podcast would not exist. That's why we need you. A generous monthly gift of any amount will help sustain American Family Radio. And specifically, this podcast. Please consider becoming a monthly financial partner today by visiting aFR.net slash GIF.

  8. 15:21

    That's aFR.net slash GIF. It's the time of year when people start thinking more about giving gifts. But did you know AFA relies on your gifts throughout the year to help us continue to shine the light of Jesus in a dark world? As the year winds down, please consider giving a generous gift to AFA. When you do, request the free ten-pack of our new, good tidings of great joy Christmas buttons. That's one to wear and nine to share. Visit AFA.net slash great joy to give today. AFA.net slash great joy. Shining light into the darkness. This is the Hamilton Corner, an American family radio. Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner, Abraham Hamilton, the third here joined by my lovely wife. This is becoming kind of a weekly thing. A regular thing. Regular thing. Maria Hamilton, the only, not the first, the only. Put that on your wall. So, hey, welcome back to the show. Here's the studio. So midterm elections. Lovely, lovely, lovely experience. That's really what I was thinking. I heard you come saying all the way. But it's true. I was like, I just want to sleep. This is not to you, but just like, I didn't, you know, that's depressing. So I'm trying to sleep. Anyway, so my real thoughts. What's depressing? You said that blue tsunami, they're calling you, right? Why? Why is that? Because this is how you're going to go. Some people will say, well, if you're certain Christians, a certain melanin displays are happy. Oh, they are. No, I've seen it. I've seen babe. The church is weak. What are they happy about? Right. They really think this is a good thing. That's the sad part. Okay, so when, okay. Yeah, so here's what I'm saying though. I started off like that because that's really the initial thoughts I had. And then as I think about it, I just know that darkness is continuing to grow in our nation.

  9. 17:24

    Darkness and wickedness and blindness and a complete dullness to what is true, a lack of discernment. The church is weak, and I'm not talking about weak in voting, I'm not talking about in turnout, I'm talking weak spiritually. It saddens me greatly because we are a populace of ignorant and non-disciples. And so it just saddens me greatly to see it happen. I was talking to our kids about it that morning, what was it, Wednesday morning. And I was telling them to run our Bible study like guys, Our nation will not be, quote unquote, righted in the traditional ways that we've, we, and I don't say you and I necessarily, but just how what we've invested ourselves in, like nationally, it's not gonna be righted that way. Darkness continues to grow in our own country, in our own cities, in our own area, right? In the Bible, Belt and all that. It's not gonna be righted that way. We have to make disciples. We have to be found doing the work of God. We have to be found seeking for the greatest reward that is well done, well done by good and faithful servants. That's what I'm going to live for. And when I focus on that, then I embrace and receive the peace of God because if I focus on the tsunamis and the waves and the reds and the whites, I'm putting the red and the white. I'm sorry. Lord, the reds and the blues. They're red and the white. No, they're reds and the blues. I just, I narrow my focus and I'm putting my hope in something that is not gonna give me anything that's not where we need to focus on, of course, politics is important and we vote and we fight for our freedoms. But wow, wow, right? Yeah, so it's very well said, you know, the late Andrew Breitbart, I believe, is the one who began to make this statement in recent political history before his passing. He would say that politics is downstream from culture. Yes. I have said, and this is repeated from people like thought leaders like Francis Schaeffer, that politics is nothing more than the externalization of the American populace's theology. That's right. So a nation, a nation is carried by the values of its citizenry. Like it is shaped by the values of the people. We are not going to have and you and I talk about this all the time, we're not going to have righteous candidates and we're not going to have a righteous populace that votes if we don't make disciples.

  10. 20:09

    Like, why do we expect a red tsunami when we say red, you know, we can define that in many different ways? But why do we expect that when we're not even like, how? How are we going to want people that do not love darkness if we are not training them to not love darkness? Yeah. And I don't think anybody was expecting expecting a red tsunami necessarily, but I know, because I know of some of these people that a lot of people were surprised at just how overwhelmingly People across the country voted for DSA types and and extreme and you know I had one guy tell me Abe you just you're just fear mongering with Abdul I'll say yeah I just want everybody to go just do a little check for yourself and with with with with a eye you can do is real quickly Look at how many times in different ways that Abdul Alsia say it pronounced his name before he got a before the election Yeah, they compare that they compared to how he pronounced his name. Oh, yeah. Oh, listen, the real one's coming out and the reality is we are so ignorant. Like we don't know demonic doctrines. We can't discern them. We don't know when somebody gets up there and says, X, Y, and Z, we cannot tell if they are actually doctrines of demons or not. We don't. So then we see people like this and then we say, oh, it's just, you know, they're just a people group that are coming to our nation and they just, you know, they want to express their freedom of religion. like you Christians. We have no idea that these are doctrines of demons, no discernment. So this is what I wanna address. In light of the things we talk about already, I believe, and I said it on the program in the first segment here today, that based on the scripture I read from Colossians 1, it says, all things I held together by Jesus Christ. Amen. Even though you have pundits that are surprised, the Lord is not surprised about what's happening. So it is the responsibility of the believer, I would submit to you to discern what is it that God may be attempting to show us in light of this? What is happening? One of the evidences of our society being degraded is that we have far fewer countrymen whose immediate response is to appeal to heaven than we do amongst the people who say we just need to politics harder. That's right. And this is on both sides of the aisles. Yes. Yes. Could it be that what we're missing is God is attempting to show us that there's a void that has been created, a vacuum that's been created, and you're trying to fill it with that which is insufficient. What I'm saying is are we witnessing God showing us that there's something broken in America but politics didn't break it. And because politics didn't break it, politics can't fix it. That's correct. That's correct. I mean, the reality is, that we cannot politic our way into righteousness.

  11. 23:07

    That's not God's method, that's not God's way. And like you said, the church, the believers, the church is supposed to be again, the pillar and the ground of truth. We are supposed to be the ones carrying the banner of truth. He is a person. He has revealed himself to us. We are the ones that are supposed to be advancing what is right and what is good and what is true. And when we don't, not not talking about just bringing into the poles, or the ballot box, I'm not talking about that. and trying to gauge to see what the polls are saying and how many of us are gonna vote. I'm talking about on the ground, in our homes, our heart condition, are we disciples? Are we making disciples? Because like you said, we are not gonna fix this by voting red, news slash, we voted red before. We've had the white house and the congress, that doesn't fix it. Well, what do you do when voting red means that you would vote for a person like Ken Paxton, for example? Exactly. Yeah, like just, let's just get a red person in there. Like, what are we doing? These candidates, like what are we doing? And it's hard to watch. So back to your original question, Hunter, I feel, I was like, okay, we're watching a train wreck happen with without being able to stop it, but we want to stop it so people are like attempting it, but it doesn't stop it. And what it will take is to unhing it from the rail. Like literally it takes a fundamental transformation of our country. Of a new train on a new direction. Yes, that's better. That's exactly right. But we have to start first with us believers and then the church, which is comprised of families. Yeah, I mean, I think this was Sunday. I think I was talking about this. Second Corinthians 10. I think in our country, though discernment is blunted. I think by and large people recognize that something is wrong, but they don't recognize what is wrong, and they don't recognize what needs to be done to address what is wrong.

  12. 25:11

    The Lord tells us in his words that the weapons of warfare are not carnal. Don't correct. Let's just pause on that for a moment. How many professing believers really actually believe that? Inactions? The new weapons of our warfare. And yet, say in action, the evidence whether or not you believe something is not your mental assent to it. It's based on what you do. That's my point in response to what you profess to believe. So how many people really believe that? The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. It's a challenging question because when we examine how we live, I think we'll find that there's not many people who really believe that, even professing church attenders. It says not only that they're not carnal, but they're divinely powerful to the destruction of stronghold. We're talking about the power of God here. That's exactly right. about seeking the one that can write the ship. We're talking about seeking the one for not only strategy but for heart transformations for, we call it revival, but revival is not just like this, this pixie dust falling on people and they're like falling out. I'm talking about a heart circumcision starting with us and pouring it over into the next generation. It takes intentionality. It takes hard work daily, not on election years. I'm talking about daily. It takes, I'm going to be intentional with my children to ensure that they understand who God is, who they are in light of the Lord, and how to stand firmly. And you know, when we talk about discipleship, and you said it before, it's not just like Christian manners, or like how to operate within Christianity. It is a surrendered life, right? And we read it in Luke 923, right? And Jesus says, He says, whoever, I'm gonna read it, whoever wants to be my disciple, must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. Are we making disciples?

  13. 27:12

    Like are we making, do we think, just like you said with going to the high school, right? And seeing these young men. Are we raising a generation of believers who are willing to die for the cause of Christ. Are we raising a generation of believers who are saying? The willingness to die is not mere the cessation of natural life. Not martyrdom only. Well, the biblical example of martyrdom, the book of Acts chapter one, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Samaria, the uttermost part to the world. The world witness there is Martis, we get at least where it martyrdom from, but the truest sense of a willingness to die for the faith is a willingness to be the living dead. Exactly. Surrendered. The Lord is literally a Lord. Exactly. And do we even understand the distinction between savior and Lord? So again, these young men, we talked earlier at home, private talks here, about young men and young people being biblically literate. But then we also need to add to the equation, are they being raised to understand the value of standing for the Lord? Like, are we, how many young people today can in the church, can quote scripture memorize whatever, but how many of them are willing to lay down their lives? That, now I'm not talking about again, not like I'm willing to die of Christ. It's because nobody else is around. Exactly, or even surrender control of their lives. Like Lord, you order, the Bible says he orders the steps of the righteous. So Lord, you order my steps. What have you had me to be born for? What do you call me to do? I wish I wanna follow you. Would you order my steps? Would you guide me? Would you give me insight? Would you direct my path? How many of us are living that and how many of us are reproducing that? Introducing that. In children and in our neighbors. We need to pause and sail out on that. Yeah. Because we, I think we're putting the cart before the horse because we want certain things to look a certain way in society, but we don't realize that the thing that you're saying you want that you want to look for, it does not come natural to fall in Adam.

  14. 29:16

    Correct. The reason why the socialist Marxist presentation is so attractive is because it resonates with fallen Adam. And so what we desire is to see a society ordered around an ethos that only flows from captivity to Christ. Like, for example, and I've talked about this at length, people often quote John Adams, you know, and him saying that our Constitution Republican form of governance is only efficacious for a religious and moral people. They grab that quote out of this out of his speech to the Massachusetts militiamen, but they exclude the context. Right. What John Adams was explaining, he said, we could have an exterior appearance of virtue, but if we are not a virtuous people, that the people in our country, in the United States of America, will eviscerate our constitution like a whale going through the Annette. This is what John Adams said. Yeah. It's an implosion. He said, but we need to have a people in order for this constitution to remain effective. We must have a people who are governed, self-governed by religion and morality. Well, what is self-governance of the spirit? Yeah. Self-control does not come on to Adam in his fallenness. And what is self-control, right? Like we got to do this to find terms. What does the Lord mean when we say self-control? What does it mean for us to be disciples? I told the kids all the time we've said, since our oldest was little, what is a disciple? A disciple is a disciplined learner of God, a disciplined follower of Jesus Christ. Discipline is central. Self-control is central to the believer, not only in conduct, but in heart condition. Self-control starts at the thought level, right? Like it's a heart level that we're talking about. When we're talking about self-control, then we see that in action. Rebellion is not acceptable for the believer. I don't care how strong a little child is. Where Belian is unacceptable for the believer. In self-controls of fruit and the spirit, we seek God and we implement the strategies that he gives us to raise a generation of disciplined followers of Christ, including ourselves.

  15. 31:27

    And so when to the point of change. Or starting with ourselves. And to the point that you're raising now, we talk about it being the fruit of the spirit. The fruit of the spirit, and you know I describe it, this is evidence of the Holy Spirit's evidence. It's evidence that the spirit of God Well, when does that come from? That only comes by regeneration. So what I'm saying, that there are people clamoring for the trappings of constitutional, a constitutional republican form of government, that ordered liberty, but what you don't realize what you're clamoring for is a government that is consistent with the populace that has comprised of people who've been born again. To say it even more simply that we will not have the type of country that many people want to have that if we don't have the gospel being preached and lived as disciples being made and the gospel being lived. And so I'm saying this because there's a disconnect in diagnosing the what and the why. It's the time of year when people start thinking more about giving gifts, but did you know AFA relies on your gifts throughout the year to help us continue to shine the light of Jesus in a dark world? As the year winds down, please consider giving a generous gift to AFA. When you do, request the free 10-pack of our new Good Tidings of Great Joy Christmas buttons. That's one to wear and nine to share. Visit afa.net slash greatjoy to give today. Afa.net slash greatjoy. The Hamilton Quarter Podcast and One-Bitted Common Terrets are available at aFR.net. Back to the Hamilton Quarter on American Family Radio. Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner, Abraham Hamilton, III here. joined by my lovely bride, Maria Hamilton, the only. Get it right and keep it right. And we're having a conversation and look, you're not gonna get this from the Punjatry class.

  16. 33:29

    You're not gonna hear, you know, Ben Shapiro is not gonna say, hell, it's a thing we really need in America is for people to be born again in the name of Jesus Christ. And he don't believe in Jesus as a Messiah, you know? And I wanna make sure I'm clear about this. I am not saying that the gospel needs to be preached so that the nation becomes something. That is in the right direction. That we prefer. No. What I am saying is that the gospel needs to be preached. People transformed by the power of God. And for His glory. For His glory and the construction and expansion of His kingdom. And as God does that, He fits the members in His body as He wills, which will inevitably result in people seeking to live for God's glory. You know, which is the publicizing of his holiness in various iterations. Some will be entrepreneurs, some will be inventors, some will be homemakers, some will be pastors, some will take the servant leadership responsibilities, but the entirety of the society will be impacted by the presence of the believer. You know, that's been God's way since the beginning of time. He says it all the way back in Genesis. This has been his way the entirety from the beginning of time. And we as fallen human beings have wanted to subvert or we want the results now because God's results are good. And we all know even atheist want the result. Even atheist want the result. Well, the boy said he's I'm a Christian culturally. I don't believe the bit about Christ in his resurrection. I don't believe in it. Yeah. But I much prefer, you know, church bells in Christmas hymns and Christmas Carols to show you a law. Uh huh. Uh huh. We want the results. We want a humanistic method to arrive at a spiritual godly result. And that's not going to happen. Never. Never. Never going to happen. That's the devil, right? Like the devil says, I want to be God my way though. That's what we're doing. Did he surely say?

  17. 35:30

    Come on. You won't die, die. Move, move. So you know, in our church, we went through a through a discipleship program. I highly recommend reading old, dead, faithful Christians. You know, and there's a brother who wrote a discipleship working a long time ago and we adjusted it to fit our local church family, but he provides a description of Christian discipleship. That reflects on what you said, what we teach our children, I should say, it's consistent with that. But he describes a Christian disciple this way. He said a Christian disciple is a personal, A Christian disciple was one with a personal lifelong, obedient relationship with Jesus Christ, in which he, Jesus, transforms the disciples character into Christ-likeness, changes disciples, changes the disciples values into kingdom values and involves the disciple in Jesus' mission in the home, the church, and the world. I'm gonna say it again. A Christian disciple was one who develops a personal lifelong obedient relationship with Jesus Christ, in which Christ transforms the disciples character into Christ's likeness, changes the disciples values into kingdom values and involves the disciple in his mission in the home, the church, in the world. The foundation for all of this, before you get to the work is a personal lifelong obedient relationship with Jesus Christ. How consistently are we offering this? As I said earlier, these, by the time the young folks, young men became seniors, they should have been provided eight to ten years at a minimum of being steeped, saturated in the truth of God's Word. What does God's Word say about this? What does God's Word say about this? That these shouldn't be new concepts? I know, and we have experience there, right? You and I, and you grew up in church, praise the Lord, and you knew Jesus at a young age.

  18. 37:32

    There was a lot more discipleship, which is a place for you and your later teens and 20s. For me, it was later in my 20s, but the Lord had to undo and redo for us, where if we start them young, like if we immerse them and who God is, because God made them. And he should be their Lord. He's their Savior. He's their Lord. So if we train them to know him, if we teach them that they are known by him, if we raise them to understand where their days are immersed in the reality of who he is and who they are in him, how they should reason, how they should think aligning our thoughts with his, knowing that he is the fountain of all truth, that there is nothing that comes from him that is a lie, that the chief liar is Satan and we reject him in our personal lives when we're starting from when they're fighting over a toy, progressing over when they're teens and they're dealing with the world and the sin in the world, we will be able to raise a generation of believers according to God's ways and according to his plan. Now, that doesn't mean that the method solves all the problems. It means that we exalt the king who has the power to solve all the problems, if you will, right? Like he's the one that gives life and life eternal. And I think the church is weak in this area. I think that we're just, we're sitting in the pews. And just watching this thing happen right in front of us and not making disciples. You know, one of the things that I know, Brother Avery and that disciples of curriculum honed in on was the reality of staying connected to the vine. Right? Like John describes it. And I'm gonna read it just because I don't wanna say it wrong, but he says, I am the true one. This Jesus is John 15. What verse? That's not the first one. That's John 15, no one. Yes, I am the true vine in my father's divine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.

  19. 39:32

    And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes so that it may bear more fruit, so that it may be. How many young people do we expect to bear more fruit as they progress through life? How many of us are really expecting them to be rebellious, expecting them to not know from that, expecting them to embrace and desire brain rot on YouTube. Like how many of us? In conflating that with adolescence. Yes, because they're young, they'll learn, no, no, no, because discipleship doesn't happen through osmosis, through just years on earth. We know old fools, we're gray hairs, yes, like, but the Bible already says it. Pruning produces more fruit. And then it says, you, let me see, You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you, verse four, abide in me. Do young people know what it means to abide in him? And I and you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. So why are we expecting a populace to produce fruit? Like you said earlier, when we're not even abiding in the vine. We are not connected to the source. I keep telling my kids, you know, 21st century America, we have chargers in every outlet for all these devices, right? Okay, I tell them. Can your iPad be charged if it's not plugged into the source? No, that's how we are with Christ, right? We have to be connected to the source. I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abide in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. For apart from me, he can do nothing. So here's the thing, we really can do nothing because even the atheists will do nothing without Christ. Christ gives them the ability to exist. Christ gives them the ability to breathe. Christ gives them the ability to function in this earth. Without Christ is eternal damnation. So without Christ, you can do nothing. For the believer with Christ, we understand what that means, even beyond the existing and the breathing and the functioning on earth. We're talking about abundance. We're talking about exalting his name. So for the believer, we can do nothing without him because we would be doing stuff that's temporal, that withers away upon death.

  20. 41:38

    But what he's calling us to is to invest our lives the next 40 years, the next 50 years and be an intentional about exalting his name and making disciples of those around us. The church has got to wake up. One of the first iterations of this personal lifelong obedient relationship with Jesus Christ, the brother Willis pointed out, was transforming our character into Christ-likeness. One of the things, it's kind of like the experience I had, I remember the first time I had a real organic orange juice. not the chemical created thing from concentrate. Or water down, yes. And what happens is because I had, that well just for so long, my palate had not been adjusted to accommodate the authentic. So my initial presentation of the authentic was to reject it. Why? Because it was unfamiliar to me. And it was not until I had repeated exposure to what was authentic combined with a mind renewal as to how the authentic will affect the cells in my body versus the inauthentic. The palette adjusted with the mind renewal and the repetition and exposure to the source for my renewal. I hear intentionality there. Absolutely. Time, investment. And what I'm saying is the transformation of character into Christ's likeness, it becomes our character and we begin to demand that. And those who would endeavor to serve us in a servant leadership about. correct. And our capacity to discern Christ-like character is sharpened as we are transformed into Christ-likeness. But when Christ is not a part of the consideration or the calculation, those conversations fall to the background. Yeah. Yeah. I was thinking just now about these servant leaders, right? And we think about like Mike Johnson, who we know personally and we love dearly. And we can, there are some that were like, man, yes, like we like them and And we see, we see like-mindedness, we see a commitment beyond just a party or beyond just American dream comforts.

  21. 43:47

    Like, these are brothers in Christ that are serving in those positions. But are they the majority, even within the party that we claim to, you know, to- He would answer that say, though. Thank you. Because he's in it and he knows. And so again, back to our point about how do we get here? What do we do? In reality, those are going to be the few exceptions of like, that's what we have rhinos. That's why we have a party full of people who are just like, you know, I'm just going to, they're not grounded. They're not grounded and they're not committed to something greater than themselves. A lot of them are there for power on both sides of the aisle. So, we can get frustrated all day long and we can start figuring out, oh, how do we get, maybe we got to start now, we know two years, we got to, you know, presidential elections and all these things, we can do that if we want. And we're gonna spend ourselves doing that and it's gonna be blue and then red and then red and then blue and then blue and all this. But the question is whether the trajectory of the nation. It's going in the, exactly. Regardless of the party in office, the nation's trajectory has been going in the same direction. It's just going at different paces. That's right. With one party goes faster and the other party goes slower, but the direction seems to be the exact same direction. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. Now don't miss get you what I'm saying. I'm not saying the parties are identical. They're not. There are differences between them. I'm talking about the national trajectory. And we are saying go and vote and show up. Yes. We do that all the time. And we teach our children how important it is, right? But if our hope is in that, and if our hope has been in that, then and we're seeing the trajectory, again, not of both parties, but also as the nation as a whole, darkness and darkness and darkness, then we can't get frustrated. Now we have to go, let's go back to the dry board. What are we doing? Going back to the word of God is what we need to do as a church. Be disciples and make disciples, right? Be those that love Christ with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength.

  22. 45:48

    Teach those to love God with all of our heart, heart, mind, soul, and strength. Every day, and we will see a change, not for changes sake, but we will see a change because God is faithful. Yeah, I mean. He heals lands. He does. He judges them too. He restores a people group. He prospers a nation. This is all what he does, not what a red party does, but he does. And so if we do. That would have blew party does. Good, not at all. When we come together as a church and we do our father's work, he will take care of the rest. And to the point, I mean, in every will that goes on, a personal lifelong obedient relationship with Jesus Christ in which the disciples' character is transformed to the Christ likeness. And the disciples' values are changed into kingdom values. A simple way to describe that is that the disciple begins to value what the king values. That's a disciple. Versus what the fallen Adam valued. How many of us think five-year-olds can do that? How many of us think that 10-year-olds can love what God loved and hate what God hates? In our home, and I'm not talking about perfection, In our home, my job, your job is to train our children to love what God loves and hate what God hates, to distinguish good from evil according to God's way, to submit to Him and follow Him, to allow the Holy Spirit to examine their perversion, their sin, their fallenness and cleanse them, remove them, sanctify them. Five-year-olds can start learning that. 10-year-olds can have a grasp of that. 15-year-olds should be walking in it. Like, that is real, not because we're living it. That is real because that's God's way. We take him as what do we trust him. But too long we've been going through this cycle and nothing is changing, it's actually worsening. We gotta get back to what is right.

  23. 47:48

    I'm encouraged because God has the capacity. You know, our family's history book has shown us things in it like Simon Amorra. It could be, that's a wrap. Man, right. But where we are now, you have the so-called, not so-called, the description of a blue tsunami, but at the exact same time, you have ballot measures like those in Iowa to restrict the ability to raise income taxes. You have others where they're keeping trans boys out of girls sports. My point in saying these, saying these things is that God is giving us the space and the opportunity to turn. Yes, if we will. But the question is, will we rightly discern the moment that we're in? What would discern what God is trying to show us? And then will we obey what he requires of us? The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.

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