Allen Jackson - A Mission Without Borders - Part 1
Allen Jackson: I'm gonna introduce our guest in just a moment. I wanna read a passage of Scripture to you, it really is kind of a bit of an introduction to what we're gonna talk about some. Matthew chapter 24, Luke 21 are parallel passages, it's the most lengthy prophetic discourse that Jesus ever delivered, and it was prompted by questions from his disciples. They've been on the Temple Mount, which, in the first century, was Herod's Temple and was one of the wonders of the Roman world, a magnificent architectural achievement, people came from throughout the Roman Empire to see it.
It was obviously the center of Jewish life, it was the center of Jewish religion, it was the national bank, it was the center and symbol of their political authority, it was the pride of the nation. And Jesus said it would be destroyed, not one stone would be left on another, and the disciples were just completely rattled by that. And so they asked him two questions, "When will that happen? And what will be the signs of the end of the age"? Because in their imagination, for the temple to be destroyed, it would have to be the end of all things, and Jesus answered both questions.
The temple was actually destroyed about 40 years later, in 70 AD, the Roman legions came and literally did what Jesus said, they tore it apart, stone at a time. But Matthew 24, Luke 21, is Jesus's answer to those questions, and a part of it addresses the end of the age, and I just want to read you a few verses from Matthew 24, beginning in verse 4, I didn't bring you outlines, but you have Bibles, you can check me later, or you have phones, turn off the sporting event and look up the Scripture. Matthew 24:4, "Jesus answered: 'Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, "I am the Christ," and will deceive many.'"
So one of the most consistent warning Jesus gives us in this passage isn't about immorality or authoritarianism, the most consistent warning Jesus gives us is against deception. To be deceived is to believe something is true, which, in fact, is not, and the best deceptions have a component of truth in them. I think we could agree that we live in a season when deception is escalating, so it's a pretty timely passage. Jesus says, "Watch out that no one deceives you". If you believe you can't be deceived, you already are, if it wasn't a legitimate warning, Jesus wouldn't have stated it. But then, in verse six, he said, "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, see to it that you're not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom".
The word for "nation" is "ethnos" in greek, from which we get ethnic, so it isn't so much about nation states as it is about ethnic groups. He said there will be unprecedented ethnic conflict, seems pretty accurate. "There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All of these are the beginning of birth pains". Now, I'm not gonna spend a lot of time with that, I want to hear from Chad, but I've watched a lot of things be born in my lifetime. My dad was a veterinarian, most of you know, whether it was foals or calves, or kittens, or puppies, or gerbils, I've seen some things born.
Never had that experience myself, I am not a birthing person. I am a touch of a smart alec, so you have to pray, just for full admission. But I have observed that once those birth pains begin, a couple of things are true across the board, they will continue to increase in both frequency and intensity until the birth. So the things that Jesus described, I think we should imagine, will increase in frequency and their intensity, their magnitude, whether it's deception, conflict.
But I would also remind you of the joy, and this I have just observed, in delivery, maybe not in the moment of delivery, but watch the moms in the lobby of the church when they see a new baby. They light up, I've yet to see one begin to shriek, "My God, it's painful". Never, they're all so excited, so happy, and I think when we see these things happening, the message, in fact, Jesus's counsel to us was, "Lift up your head, your redemption is getting close".
So, Chad and I are gonna talk about some things that are pretty intense, but the point is not to elicit fear or anxiety, it's not to cause you to wring your hands, it's to cause you to lift up your heads and to engage the cause of the kingdom with a determination that exceeds anything we've ever seen before, because the counsel that Jesus gave us would suggest we're moving closer to the conclusion in the beginning. So, with that background, I want you to welcome a friend of the church and a friend of mine, Chad Robichaux. Chad, come on. This man has a courage that I don't even understand, but I do know that having to sit in front of you frightens him, so be nice.
Chad Robichaux: It's true.
Allen Jackson: All right. Welcome back.
Chad Robichaux: Thanks, thanks for having me back, it's just becoming home.
Allen Jackson: It is home, or at least you're amongst friends.
Chad Robichaux: Yeah.
Allen Jackson: For those of you, perhaps, that haven't been here when Chad was here or don't know his story, let's give them just a real brief introduction. Force Recon Marine, eight tours in Afghanistan, tell us a little bit of what you did there.
Chad Robichaux: I was part of a joint special operations command task force, which is the premier, where the premier special operations units in the world are, I would say, in the United States, but I'd say in the world. And I got to serve as a what's called an AFO there, Advanced Force Operator, essentially working more of an undercover-type role in Afghanistan, with Aziz, who you guys met, the church has met Aziz. And Aziz and I worked together in a two-man team, so me, being a singleton American operator, attached to a local national, really doing all the clandestine logistics to put our assaulters on targets, to capture or kill bad guys. And did that for eight deployments to Afghanistan, probably over a hundred of those types of missions, and then came home from that, fell on my face, struggling like many of our warriors in the military.
After 20 years of war, I have come home and struggled, and dealt with real battle FPTSD, and anxiety and depression, almost took my life in 2010. And amazing people came around me, helped me to have a restoration of my faith, I had a radical encounter with Jesus, and that led me to start the Mighty Oaks Foundation and pay it forward. And since, that's been 15 years now, we've been able to serve, at Mighty Oaks, over half a million warriors through different programs. And I know now you guys have a outpost here, there's several members of this community and congregation have come to Mighty Oaks since we started our relationship together. And it's just a blessing to go around the country and around the world, and share that with others, and partner with churches, and help bring hope and healing, and the purpose that God created us all to live. And so, that's what I do.
Allen Jackson: That's all you do, just help a half a million vets. Well, the rest of that story, and again, some of this is familiar to us, but when we withdrew from Afghanistan, rather shamefully, the State Department said, "You know, we just left a handful of people there," but one of the ones we left was Aziz, who had worked with Chad. And so, you got some of your buddies and went back to get him, and you discovered there were a lot of people there with some blue passports. How many people did you help?
Chad Robichaux: Well, there were Americans left there, they were our allies left there, of 20 years. There were innocent women and little girls that would be sexually enslaved, 20 million of them, in fact, by the Taliban. And you know, there was a lot left, $80 billion in equipment, the most strategic place in the globe, there was a lot of things that were left there. And but God had just really prompted my heart to go get my friend, Aziz, and his wife and six kids, and so that was what initially God had burned my heart to do. We did rescue them through a miraculous orchestration of God. I'm not smart enough, by the way, or capable of pulling it off. I say that every time I get a chance, because I'm really not, but God just performed a miracle and I got to be part of it. And we didn't only rescue Aziz's wife and six kids, but we ultimately got out 17,000 people from Afghanistan, yeah.
Allen Jackson: That expression of weakness on our part made the world a more vulnerable place, because our strength was no longer on display. And one of those expressions was on October the 7th, when Iranian-backed Hamas came over the Israeli border, but now Israel and the Middle East is boiling again. I wanna talk, we're gonna step forward, now, about 3, 3 and a half years. I'm a little concerned with what's happening in Israel, and now Hezbollah in the north is onboard, and now Turkey is rattling their sabers. You're certainly more of an expert on that part of the world than I am. Some suggestion that this could escalate into a much broader conflict, do you have any opinions around that?
Chad Robichaux: Well, it certainly can, I mean, it's, you know, a boiling pot of all these countries, some with nuclear capabilities, you know, got Iran with nuclear capabilities because of the United States, and because of, you know, President Obama and President Biden giving, you know, just the complete green light to have a nuclear program, and in funding that program and backing Iran with US taxpayer dollars. And so you have these countries that have not only capability of, you know, these conflicts, but at a nuclear level, which should scare anyone. I'm not saying that to scare people, we should be scared of that, and especially when you have weak leadership in this administration, that is not only showing strength to prevent wars but actually instigating them.
And you know, what's happening with Israel right now is because of the US's lack of ability to show strength and a lack of our diplomatic involvement in that area of the world. And you know, when you've seen President Trump in the White House, you've seen such a deconfliction of these countries, you've seen peace deals that many people that were never possible in that region of the world. And that was immediately unraveled the second President Trump stepped out of office. And I'm not saying that as a campaign for President Trump, that's who I'm voting for, but I'm not saying it's a campaign for President Trump, but I'm saying that to say that the President United States plays a massive role in peace in the rest of the world.
And I remember, you know, in 2004, I was in Afghanistan when President Bush ran against John Kerry, and I sat in Aziz's living room, I was invited over for the US presidential election. And there was food everywhere and it was wall-to-wall people in the house, and it was like a Super Bowl party, and I never even seen anything like that in the United States. And when President Bush won, the whole room, they started not only cheering, but dancing, and I couldn't grasp how people in Afghanistan care more about the US election than us.
And it's something that was a real lesson to me, to say that American politics and who's in the oval office in the United States of America, in Washington, D.C., affects people around the world a lot more than affects us. They were so scared that if President Bush was removed from office and John Kerry stepped in that the US would withdraw troops, like eventually they did, and the Taliban would come back in and take control of their lives. American politics don't just matter here, they matter around the world, and that's what we're seeing in Israel right now.
Allen Jackson: You mentioned to me earlier that the US is giving federal dollars to the Taliban.
Chad Robichaux: Yes, I don't know, I couldn't tell you exactly the number, but I do know that the number is between $50-80 million a week is going to the Taliban, and that money is going as humanitarian aid, but the Taliban is using it for training and building a terrorist training. And you know, I could spend a lot of time talking about this, but there's a man named Ahmad Massoud, who is our ally, he's the leader of the Northern Alliance, he's the son of the leader of Northern Alliance, his father, Ahmad Massoud, who warned us about 9/11, which fell on deaf ears, which led to the Twin Towers falling and us being thrust into 20 years of war, and Bin Laden assassinated him before 9/11, knowing he would be our ally, two days before.
And his son now is in charge of all of our former allies, they're fighting for their freedoms and they're fighting against the Taliban, and our White House has chosen to align with the Taliban and not our allies, Ahmad Massoud. The State Department has blacklisted him from coming to the United States, and he's wanting to warn us of another incoming terrorist attack.
So, right now, myself and Sean Ryan, Sean Ryan is from this community here, are doing a petition, we have about 300,000 signatures right now, to lift the blacklist, so Ahmad Massoud could come and sit before Congress and tell us about this threat that's being put together, by the way, with our taxpayer dollars, your taxpayer dollars, $50-80 million a week to the Taliban, so they could attack us. And even if Ahmad Massoud is lying, it doesn't matter, we should at least hear what he has to say if he's warning of a terrorist attack at a 9/11 level.
Allen Jackson: You know, I think paying attention to what's happening in the world is more relevant than we have given credence to, I think we've imagined that we can hide behind our oceans and remain secure. And in the church, we wanna suggest that, it isn't relevant, we just need to study the Greek language and understand the culture of the first century. One of the things I took away from this past weekend, as I sat and listened to other presenters and considered the little role I had, was something that you've heard me say many, many times, that politics are not going to fix us, that we have to have a heart change. And yet, I watch us every night, I think we have to participate in the election, one of the great failures of the Christian community is we don't participate.
Folks, vote, vote in your local elections. When you say, "Well, I don't know what's going on," let me help you, stop saying that, and saying, "I'm so ignorant and so disinterested that I haven't made any attempt to even understand a local election". Invest the energy and the time to know what's happening, what's being involved, and participate in the process. But my takeaway is this, because people get agitated if they think that I'm suggesting that something is against the candidate that they support, it was so clear to me that in the last eight years, we've had a Republican president and a Democratic president, and that made somebody happy, there was a group that celebrated one side of that event and there was a group that celebrated the other side.
If you celebrated Mr. Trump's time in office and you're looking forward to another one, I would remind you that he's already been president once, and he didn't fix us. I'm not telling you that I don't think his policies would be good for us, economically, I think the border should be closed, I think we need to defend our allies around the world, there's many good things I think he's done, but I think we have to be sober enough to acknowledge that politics didn't fix us. And if you despised Mr. Trump, and you celebrated Mr. Biden when he became President, I would point out to you that the world is less safe, we are $35 trillion in debt, we are struggling through double-digit inflation, we are celebrating some of the greatest expressions of ungodliness that have ever touched our nation.
So, then, no matter which side of the aisle you stood on, the political expression of a solution has not resolved the greatest problems we face, and that whomever you prefer to be elected, if they're elected, and we don't have a change of heart, whatever good you might perceive of them doing, we can't sustain it, we need a heart change. And it's difficult, when I think of the men and women that have gone on our behalf and spilled their blood, and done incredibly difficult things to bring freedom and liberty to people around the world, and then we abandoned them, and their children, and their little girls, to the most heinous behavior, and then fund the people who are doing it, that is a spiritual failure.
Now, we need God's help, church. We can't hide in our church buildings and do studies on the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes, and not try to process what it means to be salt and light in the midst of the world in which we live. They tortured our Lord to death because he challenged the status quo, and it wasn't just a theological challenge. And his closest friends, the majority of them, gave their lives because, in city after city around the Roman Empire, they challenged the status quo.
So I think what Chad is bringing to us is a perspective to help us live out our faith in this world in a more effective way. You've been into Ukraine, I know, many times. You have a new book, I wanna tell the people about it and how they can get on it, "A Mission Without Borders". But what's happening in Ukraine, what are you seeing, what's happening to the people? It's confusing to us, we just see little soundbytes in the news.
Chad Robichaux: Well, it's very confusing, I would definitely admit, from the very beginning, it's been very confusing. I think people, especially the Conservative and Christian communities, have kind of jumped back on both sides of their opinion on this, because the media has not only been confusing, but they've been intentionally deceptive. No surprise that the mainstream media would do that. That's one of the reasons that prompted me to write the book, was to give my perspective on the work we've done in Ukraine. To answer your question, what's happening there, a million people have died so far. I mean, the numbers are skewed because they don't want to report accurately, I would say a million, a million would be a conservative number of people that were killed.
Allen Jackson: A million people have died in Ukraine, and we have not heard great loud cries for a humanitarian ceasefire. By comparison, very small numbers in Gaza, and the world's lost their mind in order to have a humanitarian ceasefire there.
Chad Robichaux: Absolutely. And look, when we say a million people have died, we're not just talking about Ukrainian and Russian soldiers, I have personally, I've been there 10 times, my son Hunter's been there 13, we've been there continuously since about a week before the invasion, so we've seen it from beginning, till present day, and what I've seen is on the frontlines. When I say I go to Ukraine, I'm not just going to Lviv, or Kiev, the capital, I'm going about two hours past the Russian lines, places like Kharkiv, and places like Izyum and Bakhmut. These places are, by the way, not third-world countries, this is a first-world country, and this is being attacked by a world superpower with ballistic missiles the size of telephone poles, that they're flying into apartment buildings where only women and children live.
They're firing these missiles and driving tanks through, and obliterating, elderly communities. I was in a place called Bucha, which is the elderly community, level to rubble. You see pizza parlors like we have here, ice cream shops, schools, hospitals, leveled to just rubble. I went to Izyum when it was liberated for a day, and then we got caught in the middle of it being liberated by the Russians. But I mean, I witnessed a mass grave of about 1,400 people, with women and children only in it, hands bound behind their back and executed.
One of the things that I think a lot of people don't understand is the propensity for how this thing could spin into something worse, because a lot of people were saying like, "We could end up with World War III". For me, my perspective in being 30 years around the military, I would actually categorize this personally as a World War III, by-proxy World War III. Warfare is not the same way it was in World War II. There's 30 countries in Ukraine right now, the United States, Iran, Russia, China, North Korea, Ukraine itself, all these, the biggest countries in the world, the world superpowers are all there right now, by-proxy participating in fighting one another.
That's technically a World War III, and there is no talks of peace from this administration, from President Zelenskyy. There's no talks of peace, the talks are only of funding, and I've gotten a lot of pushback, I talked to you about this earlier, from people in the church, like saying, "What are you going to Ukraine for, like Zelenskyy is corrupt, and I don't agree with giving hundreds of billions of dollars". I don't agree with giving hundreds of billion dollars, I think it's going into a corrupt system, I do think personally that Zelenskyy is corrupt, but you should not be surprised by that, right?
If you're surprised that a politician is corrupt, you should just read a history book. We have corrupt politicians in Washington, D.C., right now, I can name the list, right? But if we, as the church and as Christians, let our compassion be be stifled because of corrupt politicians, because of our politics, then we should probably change our politics. If we lose our humanity for people and don't wanna get involved because of what's going on in our Southern border, and we say, "Hey, we have our own problems here, we shouldn't help". I don't think we should be the police of the world, I don't believe that, I don't like going to war, I hate war, I've lost friends, I've went to war eight times, my sons went to war.
World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, my family's served over almost 90 years now. I hate war, but we are the light on the hill, we are the strongest nation on earth, and when our neighbors are hurting and we have the ability to help, we should help, and I don't mean go fight in the Ukrainian war, I mean go help these women and children, and that's why I went to Ukraine. It wasn't for President Biden, it wasn't for Zelenskyy, it was to help these women and children. If God gave me the ability to do that and he's burdened my heart to go do it, then then I'm gonna go do it, and that's what we've done.