Breaking Taboos: Jesus, Sex, and Faith [Featuring Mo Isom]

winter break after freshman year my my dad put a gun to his heart and pulled the trigger and suicide just crashed into our story it just catapulted me again excellent at faking fine on the surface but I'm going back to college you know a couple weeks after seeing his body on a morg table and I continue to fake fine but I'm depressed anxious anxiety attacks sitting outside the Student Union I am wrestling with spirit of suicide myself just resentful angry hurt fill in the blank would go on the soccer field and sort of be able to forget about my problems for a little bit so people kept applauding oh you're doing so well you're healing I was not there are powerful voices making an enormous effort to sexualize our children at very young ages we have pornography in our schools and we're reluctant to remove it so the question on the table is why should we be talking about sex and in the church because if we don't help establish a Biblical perspective a judeo-christian perspective and help our parents understand the appropriateness of that we're abandoning our children to people who have motives that I think at best are nefarious at worst they're evil it's time for us to find our voice to care enough about our kids to pay attention to what's happening and be able to articulate a way to help them maintain the Purity that's appropriate for children so that they can grow up and have healthy lives folks that's the church's assignment far beyond preaching sermons and convening classes well I'm excited about today's podcast I think it'll help on that topic we are Watchmen on the walls and if we see evil and we don't use our voice it says it's on us our exercise of our faith in America is at risk what are you going to do about it we are called to be advocates for Jesus of Nazareth in Nashville this April join us for the culture and Christian shity conference Brandon Tatum Eric nxis Kurt Cameron Ali B Stucky and more go to lead withth faith. Church to register my guest today is Mo isum and there's so much I want to talk about we're going to have trouble fitting this into my timeline but I will cooperate um you are in full-time Ministry yes traveling the country with a fifth wheel yes I want to hear more about that but we'll get to that um you're new to the church too I mean this is the first time we've had a chance to sit down and talk so we're going to both learn a little bit together man we've been full-time on the road now for two years in itinerate Ministry for 12 13 years but fully in as a a family team for two and the Lord has done so much to teach us about the corporate body you know the the big SE church because it is we're sort of here then we're there wherever he goes uh we follow wherever he calls us or sends us we seek to be obedient to that and um it's been it's been very unique very different seeing the church even region to region you know in the North in the South up the east coast and the unique needs in different places the unique strengths it's it has expanded the the perspective so do you Minister mostly in churches um yes mostly within the body whether that's churches or conferences um Gatherings but we've also um after the release of my second book it really opened the floodgates for universities as well so we've gone into a lot of different University spaces and then the joy of being fully mobile is all that margin in the middle so you know we may go formal event to event but there are you know days in the middle there where it's just organic you know Divine appointments Lord who who would you have a share with and who would you have a serve and so that's been um really special as well yeah it sounds like a god journey to me it's been a god Journey especially with four kids eight and under it's been a I need the holy we might there's probably some other ways to describe that so you homeschool we do yep yep got a right now a second grader and a first grader and then uh uh two boys underneath that that aren't quite school age yet so everybody's learning though yes they are let's step back just a little bit you were a big time College athlete was played soccer at LSU yes yep I was a goalkeeper at LSU from oh I went in in 2008 and uh finished up in 2012 but I mean you weren't just there filling a spot you set records for wins and did am time yeah athletically College was was really special yeah set some records and um freshman All-American SEC this and that it was it was a lot of fun coolest thing though second game ever is a freshman scored a 90 yard goal off of a free kick that made like sports center top plays all of this and I'm brand new I'm just green on the college scene and I'm like this I could get used to this is how it's going to keep going yeah yeah yeah I wish and you did all that before nil I'm sorry yeah they it was it had existed the pro league and then folded during my time of like you know late high school college it kind of had birthed again and was struggling when I was finishing up and so it wasn't the route that I opted to go but um now I mean it's really neat to watch players I played with or against now just winning like World Cups and playing professionally it's it's special to watch well if you just had the name image likeness stuff you could have funded your future with that oh my goodness listen I just I was in college at the wrong time could have been a millionaire but I went to college and we still use chalkboards so you know I don't want to hear it well in spite of I mean you had an amazing run on on an academic level but life wasn't always perfect I know that's a part of your story right yes I think I'd like to know a little bit more about that yeah yeah so um man College was College especially was such a unique time because on the surface there were so many things that seemed to be excelling right were you know we're winning championships and starting as a freshman and playing at the top level but be behind the scenes was a very different story um even in youth I mean even before College I was just I could have won Academy Awards for how good I was at faking fine and you know performing I guess for uh the eyes of man but I mean behind the scenes even from a young age wrestled with identity issues with perfectionism with um control issues that became eating disorder um really strongholds I mean struggles for years it's the real deal I mean that's it's the real deal that's not an imagined problem no no it's it is a spiritual physical mental it is a holistic wrestling match and kept all of those things under wrap you know it's also something that's very much done in secrecy um but really was struggled through a lot of that uh went off to college a semester early I graduated high school semeer early again the world is just applauding you know all those looking on how incredible and um was grappling with what it meant to have my own faith early in college cuz I mean my faith by inheritance was fine at home you know church every Sunday was great but now I'm off in the bayou of chaos and on my own and figuring out you know what it really meant to walk with the Lord and come out of some of these disordered patterns and started doing well athletically scored that goal freshman year had this amazing breakout freshman year and then uh winter break after freshman year my my dad put a gun to his heart and pulled the trigger and suicide just crashed into our story it just catapulted me again excellent at faking fine on the surface but I'm going back to college you know a couple weeks after seeing his body on a morg table and I continue to fake fine but I'm depressed anxious anxiety attacks sitting outside the Student Union I am wrestling with a spirit of suicide myself just mentally the battlefield is just in my mind um resentful angry hurt fill in the blank would go on the soccer field and sort of be able to forget about my problems for a little bit so people kept applauding oh you're doing so well you're healing I was not I was not I was physically given myself away I was really just looking I I say it often for any ssiz piece to fill that God sized hole in my heart felt abandoned orphaned um well i' in my life when I've had big disappointments whether I say it out loud because I'm not sure it's appropriate I tend to be mad at God or at least blame him why do let that happen to me yes which which I can typically process into license that I deserve to be a little ungodly cuz you haven't treated me well right and that's a toxic combination yes when I read some of your stuff I thought oh I drank out of that well too yeah and it's only God's mercy that gets us through but amen I think for people you know we have an enemy that always wants to give us permission to join him and whether it's we've been mistreated or life's not fair or God's not fair or the Govern somebody's not fair right so being ungodly will make it better yeah which it never does yeah that victim posture that like that I carried of um a a woe is me and God if you're so good how could you let such a disaster happen and things being disrupted from the way I thought they were going to go and and being walking in a victimhood in that even if I acted tough even if I acted strong even if I acted like I had it all together really that posture it it it's a deep well but it it runs dry it doesn't satisfy I sought all sorts of things that may maybe would fill me or make me feel whole or make me feel healed or numb the pain or yeah that's where I mean a lot of the relational stuff a lot of sexual Brokenness there was a desire to just disconnect from the depth of feeling um but God's too merciful he's just he's so merciful and it was about a year later I was headed home from LSU back to Georgia for another holiday break and really at witsend angry resentful sick of Faking fine exhausted suicidal ideations at times myself um man my my phone dinging from the person that I had text to you know connect with when I got back to where I was going you name it woman caught red-handed right to be stoned there was no denying the depths of what I was wrapped up in and I was headed down the interstate and and zoned out lost control of my vehicle flipped it several times landed upside down in this Ravine at 1:30 in the morning completely alone and very physically broken and it was in in that place right by the Georgia Alabama state line that the spirit of the Living God just just entered in and completely overwhelmed me and it's almost hard to put language to it his sustaining Mercy was was overwhelming to me cuzz I was upside down in a vehic I could have I should have died my my Jeep the engine was like gone it was destroyed his sustaining Mercy at the same time the kindness of God that leads us to repentance I I couldn't believe the power and the presence of this real and living King it's like his Holiness when you have encounter can't even put language to it and and why was it encountering me who the phone's still dinging with the hook you know the all of this is still right on the Forefront of my life and it was just this moment where the spirit of God just encountered me and my eyes were opened to the fullness of the Gospel Jesus didn't just die for my sins this generic he died because of my my sins and this all breaks through in the midst of a I'm hanging upside down in a jeep I don't know in the natural if it was two seconds I don't know I I came in and out of Consciousness some um but man sometimes all it takes from God is a whisper and the depth he shouted at you I think so a little bit a little painful but the depths of what he can speak in just a breath is really overwhelming I I suddenly understood this gospel I'd heard a thousand times over suddenly it became real to me suddenly my iniquity my Brokenness my sin there was a personal accountability that yanked me out of this victimhood that just opened my eyes to my need and at the same time as offensive as that may feel to some like when he really shows you the depth of your need at the same time it was his Mercy that met me there it was it was woman at the well type of sitting next to me ministering to my heart and I I yielded my life completely in that wreckage and um I wanted all of God that's that's what I said before I even knew the fullness of what I was asking for I just want all of you filled with the Holy Spirit baptized in fire right in that moment just complete one ad0 and it changed everything from that point forward Jesus does that yeah I've been on the Damascus Road in Israel many times I didn't know it ran along the Georgia Alabama line so I'm I learned something today let's not puff up in Pride any of the Bama fans here let's just they don't need any help yeah they've had a run but that's that I think that's true it's how God works in our lives we don't always have the wisdom to recognize it and we certainly don't control it but in the midst of our Brokenness somehow we get enough of a glimpse of Jesus MH that it gives us the momentum to walk towards the light cuz I that other feeling it's just despair it's like you're being pulled into the darkness and so makes perfect sense to me we don't control that yeah even as people that do ministry we don't control that now we tell the story enough and pray that somebody else hears it and somehow God does that thing that he does in their lives yeah so he gets the credit yeah so you come out of the car wreck how long does it take to get better it took me a while I had to withdraw from classes like to the completion of semester I had broken my neck a vertebrae in my neck Dam it ribs lungs liver like Jaw face I was a bit of a bit of a mess I'm still working to recover here and the Brain bruising but I uh had to withdraw till the end of semester and break then went back to school but I wasn't yet 100% to keep playing soccer had to do some recovery and physical therapy actually dealt with the brain working to heal itself from contusions developed a pretty intense stutter um just in that healing process there was a lot of interesting things that occurred and so interesting is the word we use after the fact right after it's scary as heck when it's happening in the time I'm like what is going on but um yeah God was faithful brought brought me through every bit of it and kept the journey going you used the line I I took this from you completely so I get no credit but you said your faith isn't about behavior modification but about heart transformation and I love that yeah because one we force from the outside we're going to dress this way or drink this or Walk This Way right and the other is something God initiates on the inside and that changes everything it does because we really do we get a whole new lens of filter a perspective yeah now we're still in prog I mean we're in process I wish I could announce myself complete but you recognize God did something in your heart and I heard that in you yeah yeah I had done the behavior modification deal I grew up in the church I think that's the the eye openening thing for many is you can know a lot about God and not really know God you canar hear a lot about God and not know intimacy with the spirit of the Living God and when we know a lot about things or maybe have heard do this don't do that um you know that's that's good that's beneficial to have that that directional pointing but that is what I I had known and in in the midst of that a question in the heart of manner at least in mine was okay but so like how far is too far like like what exactly we're boundary pushers or at least my personality type I was a boundary Pusher and um the real question the spirit of God Longs that we would ask is not not how far is too far how much can I get away with what counts what doesn't but God how close can I draw near to you and so when when I really had revelation of him encounter with him there was a a heart shift that longed to be in his presence longed to be a temple he would Delight to dwell in long to be to collabor with him like I just there is nothing sweeter I had encountered than his mercy and his love and I I recognized somehow early on that was going to cost me a lot like that I didn't need to be discipled early on to have understanding of this changes everything and the object of My Affection has shifted and so even when I tried to go back to school you know connect with the same people that I've been friends with I everything lost its saltiness nothing nothing satisfied nothing was good and the difference was it wasn't this weight of condemnation that you know drew me into despair any longer but when I would stray it was a it was a conviction and that conviction that came always what the Lord ministered was you know I have so much more for you so it when he'd catch me slipping it wasn't like shame it was like what are you doing you know I have so much more with you come away with me come away it was always this invitation Come Away With Me come be with me it changed what I could look at it changed what I wanted to listen to it changed how I spent my time and my energy it it changed who I was even willing to be around because because suddenly my spirit the spirit of God in Me it just oh I just couldn't do some things I used to do and when the object of your affection changes it it shifts the direction of your life really but all you got that change out of a lot of Brokenness and disappointment and things that most of us would scream that's unfair MH and then God doubles down with a car accident and and out of the broke I think it's important for the people listening cuz a lot of times when you're in some journey through that stuff you don't think there is a way out or God's timing we don't all get that full Revelation while we're hanging upside down and the airbags are deployed right some of us have to live through some of that stuff but that is that is the fingerprint of God in our lives which is entirely different than attending church and volunteering a little bit and being polite and hoping somebody noticed I was there so I get the social credit mhm so how do you coach what would you what do you say to the people when you travel and minister to ignite that in them MH how do you give them yeah I what's what's been very fascinating for me to realize and learn I guess is the closer I draw to the Holiness the heart of God the more of the Brokenness or the iniquity or the depravity of of what I had been through the more glaring it becomes and the reality is the word of God says we've all fallen short of the glory of God that that we've all sinned and fallen short and so whether you've had this intense you know testimony intense highs intense lows maybe more similar to what I walked through or you know my husband on the flip side who didn't came from a lineage of missionaries was brought up in a wonderful home home certainly had some challenges but professed at a young age has been faithful to walk and it's so different yet as we each draw nearer to the heart of God long hunger and thirst for righteousness God there's there's so much of you so much more to know right so much deeper always to go it it yields the same fruit in both of our Lives the elements that he wants to purify or sanctify or trans form are just as glaring to me as as Jeremiah's are to him yeah and so it's almost like if our prioritization becomes the genuine and personal pursuit of Jesus he will give revelation of himself that isn't greater for the person who went through the craziness and sorry the person who's had the calm life doesn't get as much it's equivalent to the to the passion of the pursuit is the degree of Revelation right and if all of us resolve to I'm dead I'm done in my sin I'm I'm I'm done I need to know who he is I need to know the fullness of him I must cling to the fact that there's always more to know as we continue to press towards that the in the intensity the power the intimacy the life shifting re ation stands to be to the same quantity to the to the pace which we're drawing near to his heart this fancy language to say you don't have to go through everything I went through to encounter the power of God well I would I would put it a little differently I think often times when you're walking away from God and you have enough background to know it you have that inner awareness it's almost harder for the people that have they think they've lived in the lines I grew up with the Bible study in our home and to come to that really awkward realization that the best I've done is still a filthy rag MH that I need the Redemptive power of God in my life as desperately as the person that I've been looking a skew at yeah so it sounds like a perfect match to me yeah you got strength on both sides yes yeah but you you're doing something and I we don't have a lot of time and I want to take a minute when I didn't I was not aware of your ministry until a few months ago and that some friends pointed me towards it and your courage was shouting at me over the my phone and my computer screen I do tend to shout you have a courageous voice in a season when cowardice has captured the church you talk about things people don't want to talk about um not because they are inappropriate it's because we've capitulated in too many ways to the culture so you were spending a lot of time and energy encouraging young people towards Purity and to help them be free from a lot of junk that will disrupt them later on MH it's a aome I mean how did God get you in that lane and why did you raise your hand yeah I don't know how some people someone said to me one time how did you go from the soccer player to like the sex lady in church and I was like I don't I didn't ask for this I don't know how it got here but it was it was really amazing to me because like I said I had grown up in the church yet I was dealing with a a lot of things behind closed doors right a lot of exposure to stuff at a very young age a lot of shame that grew into curiosity a lot of boundary pressing and I was suffering from the repercussions the consequences the Brokenness of that but I didn't ever hear the church at least that I was around talking about those things talking about sexual Brokenness talking about pornography talking about a lot of this stuff that was gripping me and I'll go even Beyond those stuff talking about you know affli ction and dreams talking about um stronghold like the real spiritual warfare we're in a battle like a battle um I I never heard the church speaking into those things and yet when I came to know Jesus personally that car accident I started recovering those things were the first things the spirit of God started to speaking speaking to me about I think often of Jesus with the woman at the well he's he's passing these taboo lines wait you're a Jew I'm a Samaritan why would you speak to me Jesus is unconcerned with what we would culturally call taboo he came to set the captives free and so all of the things that everyone seemed to get red-faced and hushed about yet I was like dying in the grip of and the the bondage the enslavement to were the first things that the spirit of God started to minister Minister convict counsel teach convict again and the freedom that came from repentance from eyes being opened from what does it say fleeing from throwing off that which so easily entangled like from even receiving his Mercy in order to to trade what we've been carrying with what he has for us we have to extend what we've been carrying right so even realizing oh Lord like everything that's happened in darkness nothing's in darkness to you you've you've seen all of it so there's no shame in my confession of this sin and and my my longing for repentance and the exchange that was so holy how he took of that and not only loosed me of the shame but like girded me up of okay now go get them go get my children go get them go tell them go testify it's that boasting in our weaknesses so we can point to the glory of cross I I just the more he set me free I felt no shame in testifying to those things because I knew that's what I needed when no one was talking about it and the enemy has this way of just generationally silencing Us in shame about certain topics and keeping so many captive and I almost wish I could have had a I still do I wish I could walk around with like a hidden camera and capture the number of people that come up to me after I'll testify and speak to the power of the one who can deliver who can set free who can heal they'll be like I didn't know we could talk talk about that I didn't know any other women dot dot dot I didn't know that we were allowed to it's it's thousands thousands tens of thousands of people that have are walking in this shame it's it's Global it's Global it just takes different shape and different cultures based it's evil and evil is universal yeah it's Universal but I there are so many who need to hear someone else go first first at times to realize oh that same spirit that raised Christ from the dead that same spirit that gave her the boldness that same spirit is the one that Christ assures me I carry and that Spirit brings all boldness and that spirit sets free and so it's like you start a chain reaction when you'll just be brave enough to testify to the one who doesn't find those things taboo but the one who can actually transform you heal you and so somehow I got in that seat I never asked for it we're there sounds like the boss had a plan but it's it's it it's so important I mean you know as well or better than I do the the weight of the voices that are speaking into the lives of the young people pushing them towards ungodly things and and worldviews that aren't biblical right and put them on a path to destruction and because the church has stumbled with this for whatever we've been convinced that our our best approach is just to say we love everybody and wink at wickedness there aren't the voices seem to me to have been inadequate to give the young people those those points of light to walk towards and I think that's why what you're doing is so important and I I believe you you'll not only help the students I I believe God will use you to open doors to unleash other voices because we have to the young people have to hear an alternative to what they're being given so powerfully from every place they look yeah and you do that that and you do it from a Biblical worldview with courage and consistency and honesty which is remarkably refreshing you have some books I've got a few books your titles are better than mine sex Jesus and the conversations the church forgot how do we get that book that oh how do you get it hop on Amazon Mo ism.com has got links to it but it's anywhere books would be sold okay yeah and then wck my life I'm sure is about the transformation story and yeah yeah that was book one that's the that's the bulk meet of the testimony and the transformation sex and Jesus came next which really kind of Zooms in on the sexual elements of that Brokenness Jesus Redemption healing transformation and then book three fully known Dives even deeper about um this parallel between God's good design for intimacy with him for you know relationship and the relational progression with one another and how it prophesies his gospel and so it's um yeah it's if anyone wants to read them read them in order you'll go deeper and deeper and deeper yeah very good and so how are the churches responding I'm sure it's a mixed bag I live in church world yeah it's a mixed bag um many I was actually I was so encouraged especially when the second book came out we started speaking more into the area of sex is the Christian universities I think they felt maybe uh they saw it day in day out the challenges the struggles and so they were the first to just jump two feet in um and then thank God yeah yeah it was really amazing too many churches I think there comes a place of challenge that gets to a degree that is like we can't skirt this topic anymore so many have been very open welcome it in but then at the same time there's many that are still um shut down to it uh they they are afraid many are afraid if you talk about it it'll put it on the young people's mind and I'm like the average age of exposure to pornography right now is 9 years old so I'm not sure the church speaking about it is what's going to cause your child to suddenly learn about this stuff it's actually the responsibility of the body it's God's creation there's a purpose to it maybe deeper than we even realize and um it's our responsibility to be laying the foundation building blocks right but it's a mixed bag some are some are two feet jumping in some are driving me out of town but um it's worth it well they did that to most of our heroes in the book too so God's not approved yes there's some real Freedom once you arrive at that place and you realize he created us yeah it was all his idea before we figured any of it out yeah my guest today was Mo isome if you're not familiar with her check her out online get her books uh she is a courageous voice in the midst of a world that really is trying to diminish a Biblical worldview and I thank thank you for what you're doing for life on the road yes thank you until next time thank you you know I think the great challenge in the midst of the cultural stresses we see is what can we do uh we're not powerless we're Children of the king and we have the authority of Heaven behind us and I think first of all we acknowledge that our patterns of behavior haven't been great because what's happening around us we can't simply point fingers at other people we're going to have to adopt some new patterns and some new choices so I think to begin with let's stop winking at morality let's stop treating it as the normal behavior of teenagers or college students that we imagine the the people we love going off to college are going to S their sew their Wild Oats and choose some ungodly things but they'll come back to Faith later in life let's not prepare our kids for that because I don't think we have any guarantees along those lines let's begin to lead Our Lives as parents as grandparents as young people wherever you are in that system in every season of our life we choose to honor the Lord to the best of our ability let's not willingly purposefully choose ungodliness and imagine that there's no consequence clearly there is and I think the the the first step in significant transformation is the people of Faith choosing A New Path if we'll do that I trust almighty God to write us a new future if we don't do that I trust almighty God to bring his judgment we're the ones that will determine those outcomes not a threat it's a promise the blessings of God are in front of us let's choose to honor him every day and we can enjoy the best that the Kingdom of Heaven has for us hey thanks for joining me today before you go please like the podcast and leave a comment so more people can hear about this topic too if you haven't yet be sure to subscribe to Allan Jackson Ministries YouTube channel and follow the culture and Christianity podcast on Spotify Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast together let's learn how to lead with our faith and change our culture I'll see you next time

Channel: Allen Jackson Ministries

Views: 14,930

Keywords: Pastor Allen Jackson, allen jackson ministries, world outreach church, alan jackson, sermons, Finding Jesus, pastor allen jackson sermons, pastors

Id: mJyDHIX0sC8

Length: 35min 22sec (2122 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 20 2024