Allen Jackson - A Mission Without Borders - Part 2
Allen Jackson: 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. We talked about this earlier and you said you think it could be resolved in pretty short order if the will was to do it.
Chad Robichaux: I think instantaneous. You know, President Trump's boasted about being able to end this thing in 24 hours. In fact, what President Trump said was as president-elect he would end the Ukrainian war before he even stepped into Oval Office, and I believe him. In fact, to validate that I believe him is I actually wrote that in this book, and the authors know this book before he even said it on a debate stage. And one way you could tell if he's just all air and talking is how the world responds to him. The Ukrainian government does not want that because they're making a lot of money. The Ukrainian leadership is making a lot of money.
People in Washington, D.C. don't want to hear that. The the neocon warmongers in Washington, D.C. that are part of the military industrial complex do not want to hear that because every javelin missile that's fired at a Russian tank and blows up a Russian tank is billions of dollars in their pocket. They don't want to hear that. But President Trump said it, and the one person you should watch and listen to not that I respect him, not that I like him is Putin 'cause President Trump said that he wants to end the Ukrainian war. "I don't know what policies he's suggesting, but I want to hear it because we're willing to go to the table and listen". Putin is willing to go to the table and listen to a peace talk from President Trump while he's a candidate. That says a lot because he would not get that response from Biden, who would never even talk about peace in the first place.
Allen Jackson: We've got just a few minutes left. I want to change topics just a little bit. There was an attempt on Mr. Trump's life, and it's a kind of a murky thing for those of us that don't live in that world. As just a good old Tennessee guy it's hard for me to understand how that happened, but you have some expertise in evaluating a site and protecting people. Can you help us understand what we watched? 'Cause I don't think we're getting real great explanations.
Chad Robichaux: Yeah. So from my experience in special operations I was brought over to the US state department for a period of time to bring that expertise over, and my job, I was the senior surveillance detection program officer for the international surveillance detection program, and what that would be was making sure that the ambassadors and the RSOs, the regional security officers, and their routes to and from their homes and residences, the CIA annex, all that stuff, my job was to make sure that we did all the right security vulnerability assessments, the surveillance vulnerability assessments, which would be what the Secret Service would do before be a president of the United States or someone they're protecting would have done.
Allen Jackson: You've done like four of those assessments or six or...
Chad Robichaux: I have no idea how many I've done, but it's been, it's a lot more than that...
Allen Jackson: So like hundreds?
Chad Robichaux: ...in a lot more dangerous places than Pennsylvania, I'm going to say that. So the point is that that these things are, actually, they sound complicated. Those are big words. They're actually super common sense. I mean, you stand, okay, the principal is going to be here. The president of the United States is going to be here, or the former president of the United States and the leading candidate for 2024 election is going to be standing here, right? Where's your threats around here? Okay, there's a building 136 yards away, which by the way is not a very far shot for anybody with a rifle. I mean, I could teach a 10-year-old how to make that shot. Not a very far shot. And it's the one and the only buildings out here.
Allen Jackson: We're not doing that with 10-year-olds. I don't want to start any rumors.
Chad Robichaux: I grew up in Louisiana so I was hunting by the time I was 6. I think Tennessee too, right? Okay. Okay. Get a pitched roof, a sloped roof, which is not dangerous by the way just for the record unless, it's not very dangerous. I mean, I don't know if this lady has Christmas lights on her house or she doesn't let her husband put the Christmas lights up. But sloped roof's not that bad. In fact, it's better for a sniper to be on a sloped proof 'cause it's pitched and you can have cover and concealment. So this is a clear threat.
So as you're doing a security vulnerability assessment you said, "There's the vulnerable point, has a clear shot to where the president's going to be. We need to; A, secure this building but put personnel on top; B, have overwatch over it to make sure we see a threat and be able to react to it; or C, have a counter sniper team". In that scenario, with only a limited number of those points you would have personnel in that. This is not my opinion, by the way. This is expertise from years of doing this kind of stuff. And so the fact that you would say the Secret Service, who's supposed to be the premier organization in the world, would miss that is insane.
I've talked to so many guys from special operations community, Secret Service agents, guys from the state department. This is not a mistake. In my opinion, this had some sort of consent or collaboration with someone within inside of the US government. Now, I'll speculate it, I won't speculate to say that that was individual or the government itself or agency, but someone inside the US government allowed to have that. He was there 2 hours and 4 minutes. We don't know how long he was there actually. He was identified 2 hours and 4 minutes by the local police. The Secret Service did not have the interview with the police and the snipers before. I mean, they were supposed to coordinate in different entities, supposed to talk with each other. They didn't talk. There was no communication between the Secret Service, the local police, and the snipers.
So when the acting director and Director Cheatle, we've been calling her Director Cheetos, I think, 'cause it's easy to remember that. When they was testifying before Congress and Senate and they said that they were not communicating and they're blaming the local police. The reason they're not communicating is the Secret Service made the decision not put communications. Any time you do anything, if you doing a local, the local police here is doing a search warrant. If there's multiple agencies involved, the state police, the local police, the sheriff's office, they're going to have communications amongst each other. If anything happens, they need to be able to communicate.
So the fact that they're blaming the lack of communication is because the Secret Service chose not to have that, and that is on them. In addition, this guy was seen shooting a laser pointer. He was seen flying a drone. He's seen on the roof with a rifle 19 minutes before he shot, I don't want to say he fired that shot. Before he shot President Trump in the face. He's seen 19 minutes before. The Secret Service if not incompetent, then they're complicit. And I believe there was some level of complacency along the way in this. That's my personal belief.
Allen Jackson: How do you pray for our nation?
Chad Robichaux: This is a hard one for me, but I do pray for our leaders. I pray to God to move their hearts because I despise some of our leadership right now, and it's very difficult for me 'cause I love this country so much. I'm one of the most patriotic people that I know and I just, I still believe in the ideals of America. I still believe that God's hands are on America. I still believe that we are the light on the hill for the world. And if America falls, the world's over. And I'm with you where I know that, I want the conclusion to come. I want the end of the story to come. I know America has to go away for that to happen, but I want to stand for America as long as we're here and I believe that we have to be praying for our leaders to have a change of heart because this is a heart issue not just for us.
It's a heart issue for those that are in office. At some point I think most people go into politics. I think most people go into politics 'cause they actually care about our country and care about doing good in their communities, whatever their beliefs are. Their beliefs may be different. But somewhere along the way they lose their heart for service and they gain a heart for themselves and they give into their selfish desires and with that follows, with selfishness comes evil, and a lot of people in public office right now have evil in their hearts and I just pray that God will move their hearts. Regardless if I agree with them politically or not, I am praying for a restoration in our country, a revival in our country.
And I believe that starts with us not in D.C., it starts with us here. We were talking about this earlier, and you kind of just alluded to this earlier. Like, we look to these, and you have to vote, guys. Like everybody has to vote. I'm not telling you who to vote for. I'm sure by now you guys probably know where I'm voting. I'm voting for President Trump. But you have to vote. Even if you're going to go vote for Kamala, whatever her name is, today if she's Indian or black. I don't know what she is 'cause she keeps changing it. Whoever you're going to vote for, please, please vote, even if it's for her. Because I lost 15 friends. Like, since 1775, every warrior that's put on that uniform and fought dies for this country, fought for our right to vote to, for so many rights; for us to be able to sit here in a pulpit and be able to talk about Jesus, like for us to be able to vote.
As Christians, you have to vote. If there's anyone to blame for where we are in our country right now, we could shake our fist at Washington, D.C., we could get mad at Washington, D.C., but the truth is... as Pastor Allen said, the problems in our country are not because of the politicians. They're not because of the corruptions in D.C. They are part of the problem, but the problem is us. We're the problem. If we want to be honest, that's truly where it falls. Because if we're supposed to be Christians, we're supposed to be the majority of this country, if we're the majority of this country, then why is it this way? It's this way because we don't vote biblically, we don't live biblically, and we don't speak truth on biblical worldviews.
The church is infested with cowardness. It's true. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. It's the solution. As soon as I met Pastor Allen and he invited me to come here, since then I've been going around the country speaking to other churches and I've been on a lot of podcasts. I'm on a lot of media, and every chance I get a chance to mention Pastor Allen's name I do because when I speak about the church, us being a problem, the problem starts with leadership in the church and there's so many communities around the country and I've called them out.
In fact, I just called it out on social media and I got some emails from the pastors that needed to hear it. When you have pastors in this country that won't stand on a pulpit on Sunday morning and talk about the attempted assassination, first one in 40 years, on a president of the United States, whether it was President Biden or President Trump; if a pastor can't get up and talk about that, if a pastor didn't have the courage to stand up on a pulpit on a Sunday morning and talk about the sexual indoctrination of children, the sexual mutilation of children, they should go do something else. And Pastor Allen does that.
Allen Jackson: We can cheer, but the real question in my heart is, are we going to have the kind of courage that he shows us? You know, the Marines have explained to me you're never an ex-Marine. You're always a Marine.
Chad Robichaux: It's just a fact, science.
Allen Jackson: It's just a science. I didn't grow up in the military so that's been an education for me. I'll tell you a fun story off topic, but General Boykin was here. First time he came and I didn't know him too well at the time, and we got on the elevator to come up here to do service and the security detail that got on with us was a Marine and General Boykin's army.
Chad Robichaux: I remind him every time I see him, by the way.
Allen Jackson: I didn't understand that that was what that was, and they started after one another on the elevator and I couldn't get off. Fortunately, it was a short ride. But after his active duty service and he's been home to his family and faced the brokenness in his life and the redemptive power of God, when the need presented in Afghanistan he called his buddies, who were no longer active service 'cause active service personnel couldn't go back, and they went back and changed the future of thousands and thousands of lives. Now, I tell you that because we can't say we're born again and baptized and Spirit-filled and we read our Bibles and applaud and acknowledge there's a need and then say we don't have the courage to go do what's necessary to change it. We are the group that has to change, not the pagans. If you ask someone around the world, and I think Chad would back this up, if you ask someone that isn't a US citizen, they would tell you, it's very clear to them. They would describe us as a Christian nation. We're not a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation. They understand that.
Chad Robichaux: They call it the American religion. They call Christianity the American religion all over the world. They think we're a Christian nation. We're supposed to be a Christian nation.
Allen Jackson: We are, and we are in this fine mess we're in, Oli, because of the weakness of the church. So, please, this isn't about politicians and parties. I look forward to the day where we have elections and we get to choose amongst a group of candidates who all share a biblical worldview and have difference of opinion on how they're going to implement it. That'll be a wonderful day, but it will reflect a different response from the church. So we're going to close our service. Chad, they can hear more about you from a podcast.
Chad Robichaux: Yes.
Allen Jackson: Where do they find that?
Chad Robichaux: Oh, I thought you mean your podcast 'cause I was just on your podcast...
Allen Jackson: No, your podcast. They know where to find my podcast.
Chad Robichaux: Well, we were just on. We just recorded it, and I'll be on there. But my podcast is called "The Resilient Show" in fact, Pastor Allen's going to be my guest tomorrow. But "The Resilient Show," we've had some great guests. Terry Crews, who I loved, my episode with Terry Crews. Sean Ryan from here. Kayleigh McEnany is about to be on. Eric Metaxas. Great guests. And we release an episode every week. So you go to "The Resilient Show". Subscribe on YouTube and follow it there.
Allen Jackson: So wherever you get podcasts, you look for "The Resilient Show" and Chad will keep you updated on what's happening in the world. And then your new book, "A Mission Without Borders". It's not going to release until August...
Chad Robichaux: August 13th.
Allen Jackson: But you can preorder it, and they're going to put a screen up with a QR code on it. The reason that makes a difference is the preorders count for him in "The New York Times" lists and it will bring momentum to the book. So if you're either a reader or a collector of books, preorder a book. Chad's coming back in November. We might even talk him into signing some books when he comes back.
Chad Robichaux: I'm in.
Allen Jackson: So he reached out to me and said, "Veterans Day, I have it open. Are you interested"?
Chad Robichaux: Yeah. And I don't know if I'm allowed. I didn't get chastised from you, but I actually had someone wait in line after my book signing this last time. All the way at the end, someone want to wrestle me and we did that in the lobby. Did you see this?
Allen Jackson: They send me a video of some person that is rationally challenged that wanted to wrestle Chad. We're not going to open that up for more opportunities though, are we? Thank you. But I want to close with an invitation to you because I think it's wrong. If I wanted to give religious lectures or simply inform people about current events, I would live in the university. I've given my life to the church because I believe it's the most powerful institution for the transformation of human lives, and the force that makes that possible for men like Chad or myself to be redeemed and restored is the blood of Jesus.
And we're going to close with Communion, and what I want to ask you to do, when you came in tonight, you should have received the elements. If you're at home, you can go grab them. Get a saltine cracker and a glass of water. What I want to ask you to do is take a moment and invite the Holy Spirit to give you awareness of where you and I need to make the changes so that the name of Jesus can be exalted in the places where we have influence again. Does that make sense? It's really easy to get heated up about the politicians you don't like or the governments you don't like or whatever, but in reality the only people we have ultimate influence over is ourselves.
And the awkward reality in our form of government is the people that fill the halls of Congress are a reflection of the heart and character of those of us that live on main street. And if we want better character in Washington, D.C., we have to become people of better character and families of better character. So it seems appropriate to me to turn this back to ourselves as we prepare to close, and here's the prayer I would suggest: "Lord, if there's any place in me that I have withheld from you; if there's any place where I have been more frightened than courageous, I've been more selfish than I should be, help me to see it". 'Cause to be a true servant, we're not all called to go be servants on the battlefield.
Some of us are, and I thank God for those men and women. But we're all called to serve the king. "And if there's any place where there's something in me that impedes my ability to serve you, help me to see it and I will lay it down". So do you know the assignment? It's an invitation to the Holy Spirit in your life, not pointing the finger at anybody else. Folks, we need God's help. It's the only way to protect the children. It's the only way to see our families restored. It's the only way to have our lives restored. Politicians aren't going to do that for us. There's a power at work on our behalf that is greater than nuclear power or financial power or political power.
That's good news 'cause we need that power. Jesus himself put communion in place. It didn't start with a pastor or a church or a denomination. He celebrated a meal with his disciples just before he was betrayed and arrested and ultimately tortured to death. And to be completely candid with you; because we've attached so little value to that and we have trivialized it so much, it can be mocked without seeming consequence. If we want to change that; it's not by being angry at the people who don't appreciate it, it's by attaching such value to it in our hearts that the Lord will see that it's defended. The only way they took the Ten Commandments out of our schools is we'd taken them out of our homes long before. The only way we lost prayer in our schools is we'd lost prayer in our families long before.
What we are watching is a commentary on the vibrancy of our own faith. And so we come to the Communion table tonight to say to the Lord we're sorry, not to be angry at another but to say to the Lord we're sorry that we have treated something that you made such a tremendous sacrifice for in a very casual way. Does that make sense? At the end of that meal, Jesus took bread and he broke it and he said, "This bread is my body broken for you. As often as you eat it, do this in remembrance of me". Let's receive together. And then he took a cup and he said, "This cup is a new covenant, literally a new contract sealed with my own blood. As often as you drink it, you proclaim my death until you see me again". Let's receive together. Can we pray? Do you want to stand for that?
Father, I thank you. I thank you for the reminder tonight of a courage in our world to face evil, and I thank you for the reminder that our Lord came to win a victory on a cross that good might triumph over evil. And we invite you tonight in any of those places where we have been indifferent or distracted or too busy or afraid. Lord, help us to see. We want to change, we want to live in a way that honors you so that our children and our grandchildren have the opportunity to serve you and worship you without fear of reprisal. May we not take our great abundance and freedom and just use it for selfish means. May we not imagine someone else should have courage that we don't have. Holy Spirit, help us to acknowledge Jesus as Lord in our hearts, in our homes, in our communities, and wherever you give us the opportunity. We praise you for it tonight for our helper and for the power of the blood of Jesus to restore and to redeem and to deliver. For it's in his name we pray, amen.