("Best-of" Edition from 7/16) Dr. Del Tackett, 20-year U.S. Air Force Veteran, biblical worldview teacher, Founder of Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, and Tour Guide for “The Truth Project,” steps into “The Corner” for the first time.

Transcribed with OpenAI Whisper (base.en). Timestamps are approximate. Lightly cleaned for readability; quotations from on-air callers may include filler words. Use the audio player above for the authoritative recording.

1. 0:01Darkness is not an affirmative force.
2. 0:03It simply reoccupies the space vacated by the light.
3. 0:07This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
4. 0:11It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite.
5. 0:16Delivery people out of the bondage of mainstream media.
6. 0:19And the philosophies of this world.
7. 0:21God has called you and me to be His ambassador.
8. 0:24Even in this dark moment.
9. 0:27Let's not miss our moment.
10. 0:29And now, the Hamilton Corner.
11. 0:33Well, praise God, this is a culture-proof 2026 live edition
12. 0:38of the Hamilton Corner.
13. 0:43I'm delighted that I have Dr. Del Tackett on the program
14. 0:47for today.
15. 0:48He's a man I told him just a few minutes ago.
16. 0:49He's been at my house for years, been at our local church
17. 0:52for years.
18. 0:53But just in case you don't know, Dr. Tackett
19. 0:54is a 20-year veteran of our United States Air Force.
20. 1:00Yes, praise God.
21. 1:02He is the founder of Soli de O'Gloria Ministries,
22. 1:07and he's also the tour guide for,
23. 1:10which you soon become aware of, you not know about it yet,
24. 1:13the engagement project, which is a follow-up
25. 1:15on the Truth Project, please join me in welcoming Dr. Del
26. 1:18Tackett to the Hamilton Corner.
27. 1:26It is my honor to have you, my brother.
28. 1:27I am so excited.
29. 1:28My pleasure, my pleasure, he was good to be here.
30. 1:31Yes.
31. 1:32Well, I want to begin by reading from John 17,
32. 1:34While the record is as Jesus is high, free sleep, prayer,
33. 1:38starting in verse 14 in John 17, it says,
34. 1:40I have given them your word,
35. 1:42and the world has hated them,
36. 1:43because they are not of the world,
37. 1:44even as I am not of the world.
38. 1:46I do not ask you to take them out of the world,
39. 1:49but to keep them from the evil one.
40. 1:52They are not of the world,
41. 1:53even as I am not of the world,
42. 1:55sanctify them in the truth,
43. 1:57your word is truth.
44. 1:59Dr. Tacken, and the panel,
45. 2:00we both were on a few moments ago,
46. 2:01you mentioned that the Lord has kept us here. Yes, I sometimes wonder why I've
47. 2:08asked him that several times, but he has kept us here. And what do you envision
48. 2:14based on your own communion with the Lord and study of scripture? Why he might have
49. 2:17done that? Why he's keeping us here? Well, you know, one of the things about God and
50. 2:23the character of God, the nature of God, which we always have to go back to. We
51. 2:27always start there. I call it God's
52. 2:30modus operandi. When God creates and
53. 2:35he equips and his modus operandi is
54. 2:39that his creatures are going to glorify
55. 2:43him. That through the work of the creatures
56. 2:49that he makes, the fruitfulness of those
57. 2:51creatures, Psalm 19, the heavens declare
58. 2:54the glory of God. The Son glorifies God, the S-U-N, the Son glorifies God by being fruitful.
59. 3:04And so he wants his creatures to be fruitful, and that fruit brings him glory. So it's in the nature
60. 3:14and character of God for him to use his creatures for his purposes. That's like I've often thought
61. 3:23How long would Pharaoh had of last if God himself had come down and grabbed by the hair of his
62. 3:29chinny chin chin? Instead he used Moses and the staff and all of those plagues and so forth.
63. 3:37He used Moses and so this is God's modus operandi. We're still here because he wants to use us.
64. 3:46Amen. One of the things that I got this from your website, I'm going to read your director
65. 3:49from your website because you describe yourself as a tour guide.
66. 3:53I want to say that for a moment.
67. 3:55But you said that I'm a tour guy, but our tour is a nod of Glacier Bay or the Amazon
68. 3:59River.
69. 4:00Although you'd love to do that.
70. 4:02Your tours are tours that take us to the most restless place possible to gaze upon the face
71. 4:08of God and to understand how his nature and character undergird all of reality.
72. 4:16Absolutely true.
73. 4:17I'm glad I wrote those words.
74. 4:19You did, and they resonate so deeply with me.
75. 4:22Why do you describe your function
76. 4:24as a tour guide in that fashion?
77. 4:25And the secondary that I'll ask you,
78. 4:26and why do you call them tours?
79. 4:29Well, for one thing, I want to make sure people understand
80. 4:32that it's not about me.
81. 4:33It is not about me.
82. 4:35If you have a great time on the tour,
83. 4:38you don't talk about the tour guide.
84. 4:40You talk about what you saw.
85. 4:42And my job, the role God has given me,
86. 4:44is to point people to him.
87. 4:46I want them to look and gaze upon the most glorious thing.
88. 4:51Even the word glorious isn't enough.
89. 4:53To gaze upon the face of God, to understand who He is.
90. 4:57Because all truth emanates from His nature and character.
91. 5:01We have to go back there constantly.
92. 5:04So my role is to simply be the tour guide that says,
93. 5:09look at this.
94. 5:11I like that.
95. 5:12because I want people to focus on,
96. 5:17it's just like if you take a tour down the Grand Canyon,
97. 5:19I just came back from the Grand Canyon, by the way.
98. 5:22If you take a tour down the Grand Canyon,
99. 5:24yes, you'll hear some good things from the guide,
100. 5:26but you are in awe at everything you're looking at.
101. 5:30I like that picture.
102. 5:33That would then answer my second question
103. 5:35why you describe what you do in your teaching
104. 5:38and your offerings as tours.
105. 5:40I call them tours for that reason.
106. 5:42I want people again to recognize that what we're here,
107. 5:45we're not here for you to simply get more pages
108. 5:49in your Truth Notebook.
109. 5:50Those are good.
110. 5:52I want people to be transformed.
111. 5:55And that's what happens.
112. 5:56You come into the presence of a living God?
113. 5:59Men, things happen like Nebuchadnezzaried,
114. 6:03Nebuchadnezzaried standing on the roof of his palace.
115. 6:05Isn't this the great Babylon I have built
116. 6:08by my power and strength and plan just like that?
117. 6:11He came into the presence of the living God.
118. 6:14And he was out in the pasture eating grass like a cow.
119. 6:18So when we come into the presence of God,
120. 6:23I want to see people changed, transformed,
121. 6:26not just learn something.
122. 6:28That's important, I want them changed.
123. 6:30It's great, it's God, that's powerful.
124. 6:33Now again, reading and preparing for this,
125. 6:35I've learned that over 20 million people have been able
126. 6:38to glean from and learn from what the Lord has brought
127. 6:41through the Truth Project.
128. 6:44I count myself as one of those 20 million.
129. 6:46Wow.
130. 6:47And then my wife and I are Hamiltonians,
131. 6:49it's another seven, you know.
132. 6:51So we're in that number for those who may not be
133. 6:54familiar with it, what is the Truth Project?
134. 6:56Well, the Truth Project is a video series.
135. 6:59It's meant for people to gather in a small group in the home
136. 7:04and thank you for inviting me into your home.
137. 7:06I appreciate it very much.
138. 7:07Don't mention it.
139. 7:08to gather together in a home and for us then to lay before them a comprehensive, systematic,
140. 7:19biblical worldview. So that's what the Truth Project does. It goes through every area of
141. 7:25life. It's different than the classic worldview teaching that goes through a worldview and
142. 7:32the historical perspective of creation, fall redemption, restoration sometimes. The
143. 7:40truth project looks at all 360 degrees of life and so we talk about philosophy.
144. 7:46Has God spoken in the area of philosophy? Yes he has. And this is what he has said.
145. 7:51So the we we walk we don't we don't really walk in those historical epics but we
146. 8:00walk in a world around us of all kinds of things that we need to know what God has spoken
147. 8:09about.
148. 8:10And so that's why did the Truth Project and how we did it, how we laid it out.
149. 8:15That's what it is.
150. 8:16Now you mentioned as a tour guide, your object is to take us to the most breathless place
151. 8:23possible to gaze upon the face of God.
152. 8:25themes that much of our modern culture is, and I would again argue, demonically inspired
153. 8:32to try to obscure that reality. Is that something you've found to be a present impediment or
154. 8:40and not just or and an increasingly potent impediment to the effort to convey truth through a biblical
155. 8:48worldview? Yeah, I think you're writing using the term demonic because I really think that's
156. 8:54what we're seeing. And there is a demonic worldview that is sweeping through our country today, but
157. 9:00Satan hates the glory of God. He hates people who bring glory to God. And so he wants to cover up
158. 9:13the image of God, and that is why he hates human beings because we're made in the image of God.
159. 9:21He delights in us destroying the babies in the womb.
160. 9:26He delights in covering up, for example,
161. 9:28we're here at the Creation Museum.
162. 9:31He delights in covering up the judgment
163. 9:34that God brought in the flood,
164. 9:37and to make people believe other things about what we see.
165. 9:41I just said it was in the Grand Canyon.
166. 9:43And what a great testimony to the judgment of God,
167. 9:47but God takes those things and makes them beautiful.
168. 9:52If he made the cross was one of the most ugliest things
169. 9:55in the world, he made that beautiful.
170. 9:56But so Satan wants to cover that up.
171. 10:00He and man creates these worldviews and truth claims
172. 10:06to try and obscure God.
173. 10:09We're doing the same thing in human sexuality today.
174. 10:12We're trying to obscure the beauty of what God made.
175. 10:17and turn it into something I can make.
176. 10:20So yes, I don't think it's new.
177. 10:23I think we have been trying to do that from the fall.
178. 10:28But we live in a world of technology
179. 10:30that can use high def and 4K and everything else
180. 10:35to do it in grander form.
181. 10:39Yeah, a few moments ago, we were talking on the panel
182. 10:42and one of the questions toward the end
183. 10:44was what should be a hill to die on for the believer.
184. 10:48And you brought to the fore,
185. 10:50and it's the last few minutes in this segment,
186. 10:51but let's just go here now since you already used the topic.
187. 10:54You brought to the fore that the issue
188. 10:57that has become the most prominent issue
189. 10:59to where there's a contest between the truth of God's word
190. 11:02and the lie of the world surrounding God's word
191. 11:06is human sexuality.
192. 11:08Whether or not the Lord's word will be preeminent
193. 11:10in that area.
194. 11:12What made you say that and why should that be
195. 11:14the hill that we're willing to put everything down on.
196. 11:17Well, I'll tell you why I said that.
197. 11:19And I watched one of your previous shows, which just
198. 11:22was this week, I guess.
199. 11:23You were talking about what is happening today,
200. 11:27where people are dividing themselves, cutting off
201. 11:32other members of their family.
202. 11:35And I have the opportunity to travel a lot.
203. 11:39We do a lot of gatherings.
204. 11:42talking about, understanding our times and the biblical path forward.
205. 11:45And it doesn't matter how big or small the crowd is.
206. 11:51I can guarantee you I'm going to have a bunch of people come up
207. 11:55and I can see in their eyes, the tears in their eyes,
208. 11:57I know what they're going to talk about.
209. 11:59They're going to talk about what has happened in their family
210. 12:02where someone says you're not, I'm not going to let you see your grandkids anymore,
211. 12:07we don't want to talk to you anymore.
212. 12:10And it's because in most cases, because they did not affirm their position on human sexuality.
213. 12:21And so that's why I guess it's fresh in my mind because I see it everywhere I go.
214. 12:28And that is the hill people are dying on today.
215. 12:32If we use it from the standpoint of saying dying, from the standpoint of the pain, use
216. 12:37and you've got a huge bulk of that in your broadcast.
217. 12:40The pain that comes to family members when someone says,
218. 12:43I don't want to talk to you ever again,
219. 12:45and you will never see your grandkids.
220. 12:47That's just cuts to the core.
221. 12:50So that's why I said that.
222. 12:52Yeah, and for those of me that know,
223. 12:53this is Monday's show, we did a program on voluntary
224. 12:57familial estrangement to where adult children
225. 13:00are completely cutting off relationship with their own parents.
226. 13:02No contact whatsoever.
227. 13:04largely the motivation for that has been
228. 13:08disagreements on sexuality.
229. 13:09And it was striking when the show ended
230. 13:11when people didn't see that we had a call bank
231. 13:14filled with people that wanted to share
232. 13:19that that is what had happened to them.
233. 13:22Now we only have about a minute left in this segment
234. 13:24but what we come on the other side of the next segment
235. 13:27I want to invite you to begin to share
236. 13:28because you do a bit of discussion about understanding
237. 13:32our times of what is the path for, you know, I happen to say very often that though I know
238. 13:39what the craziness that surrounding us, Act 17 teaches us that God is determined before
239. 13:43time the boundaries of our habitation and the times in which we would live.
240. 13:47So the fact that we're alive now with insanity going on, you got a Supreme Court justice who
241. 13:52was confirmed.
242. 13:53Though she said out loud she didn't know what a woman was because she wasn't a biologist.
243. 13:57A doctor tacking, I ain't a plumber, but I know water as well.
244. 14:01I know that pretty well.
245. 14:02And I don't think I need to be a plumber to say it's H2O.
246. 14:05No.
247. 14:06It's what it is, what it is.
248. 14:09But that's the era we're living in.
249. 14:10But then the Lord not only says that,
250. 14:11he determines before time the boundaries of our habitation
251. 14:14and the times when we would live so that men should seek God.
252. 14:17And so instead of merely lamenting and despising
253. 14:20the darkness that surrounds us, we should put the light
254. 14:23on the lampstand to lighten the darkness.
255. 14:25Amen.
256. 14:30Praise God.
257. 14:31The clock is still disrespectful in Kentucky.
258. 15:01Jesus Christ never once said, your delusion defines you.
259. 15:05Keep it up.
260. 15:06Christ, in fact, peeled the scales away from Paul's eyes.
261. 15:10Paul identified as a judge in jury,
262. 15:13theologically, to go out and kill Christians.
263. 15:15And then Jesus struck him blind on the road, introduced himself,
264. 15:19I'm Christ who you're crucifying, peeled the scales back,
265. 15:22and Paul never returned to that life of sin.
266. 15:25Here, Todd Herman on a Disciples View,
267. 15:27weekdays 12 PM Central on AFR.
268. 15:37Shiting lightning to the darkness,
269. 15:39this is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
270. 15:45Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner, Dr. Del Tackett is my guest.
271. 15:48Thank you all so much.
272. 15:51We're live at the Creation Museum for Culture Room 2026.
273. 15:54Dr. Tackett, I want to pick up right where we left off
274. 15:56at the previous segment in discussing the reality
275. 15:59of human sexuality.
276. 16:00It's the pernicious lies surrounding it,
277. 16:02But I know one of the things you blessed our nation with,
278. 16:05and I'm gonna say that try to challenge you
279. 16:07the area of humility.
280. 16:09But I have to say because it's the truth.
281. 16:11In helping the body of Christ to understand our times
282. 16:15and discern what is the path forward.
283. 16:17So when you have those opportunities
284. 16:19to do that around the country,
285. 16:20what are some of the things the Lord uses you to convey
286. 16:23to the body of us by the time that we're in there?
287. 16:25Right.
288. 16:26We were doing a number of gatherings around the country,
289. 16:31just like we did for the truth project to train small group leaders.
290. 16:34And then when we did the engagement project,
291. 16:36we were doing the same thing.
292. 16:38But we did, and we did that for, I think, four years.
293. 16:42But we were continually hearing from people
294. 16:46who were saying, what in the world is happening?
295. 16:49There was a lot of confusion.
296. 16:51And quite frankly, a little bit of hopelessness.
297. 16:54And so we just felt like the Lord said, OK,
298. 16:58I want you to shift this thing.
299. 17:00I want you now to talk about what is happening in our culture
300. 17:04around us from a biblical worldview perspective.
301. 17:07And so that led to, I wrote articles on each one
302. 17:12of the, what I call the seven threats
303. 17:15that were converging in our culture today.
304. 17:20And that's what we talk about.
305. 17:21We go through those, but we're doing it
306. 17:23and we continually remind folks,
307. 17:25we're doing this not so that we can get a bigger stone
308. 17:29to cast at people, but we're doing this
309. 17:32so that we might have wisdom to know how we walk
310. 17:37in the times in which we find ourselves,
311. 17:39referring to the sons of Issachar and chronicles.
312. 17:44They are, you know, David's mighty man,
313. 17:46part of David's mighty man, but they were not commended
314. 17:51because they could handle the spearwell and sling stones
315. 17:54run as fast as gazelles. They were committed because they understood the
316. 17:58times in which they lived so that Israel might know what they should do. And this
317. 18:05is the wisdom that we want. And so we talk a little bit and I'm going to address
318. 18:11tomorrow that probably the number one threat that is happening in our culture
319. 18:16is this self-obsession. We have become so obsessed with ourself that we are beginning
320. 18:26to act as if we're God. And so that is one of the deep threats that we talk about. Another
321. 18:34one is the possibility that God has actually brought judgment upon our culture as we read
322. 18:39in Romans 1, the third judgment there to give us over to a depraved mind, the Greek word
323. 18:47adokimon, a mind that can no longer process logic and rationality. There are a lot of implications
324. 18:55for that. But in the midst of all of these things that are happening, these seven things,
325. 18:59and they're probably more. I mean, you and I could probably sit down and come up with
326. 19:02another five or six. But in the midst of all of that, our purpose is to say, okay, how do we walk
327. 19:11in times like this? And I think the only biblical path forward is to do what the Lord asks us to do.
328. 19:18And you know what that brings us back to the family because I am convinced that God's
329. 19:24design and his purpose for how he was going to reach the world was through the family.
330. 19:30And so it's a call back to the royal law to love our neighbor and that is a family
331. 19:39ministry that should be run as a family not as a nonprofit but as a family.
332. 19:47Can we say that one more time?
333. 19:48Not in the what?
334. 19:49No.
335. 19:50Yeah.
336. 19:51Well, I guess you could but the family was placed where it is.
337. 19:56is I loved your, that you referred to the Acts passage,
338. 20:00where God is the one who has placed us where we are.
339. 20:03And that includes where we live.
340. 20:06And so God has entrusted what I believe
341. 20:10is the primary work of the kingdom
342. 20:13to the common everyday Christian family.
343. 20:16That's how we're gonna reach the world
344. 20:17because we are in a culture now.
345. 20:20I'm convinced God has given us over to it to pray in mind.
346. 20:23It's the only way I can make sense of why people don't make sense.
347. 20:29Why you cannot talk logically to people anymore,
348. 20:34but they don't process that.
349. 20:36They don't want to process that.
350. 20:38So how are we going to reach them?
351. 20:40I think it's just what Jesus told us to do.
352. 20:44And why Paul said the entire law is summed up
353. 20:47in this one thing, love your neighbor.
354. 20:50And that's how for the first 300 years,
355. 20:54that's how the church spread throughout
356. 20:56the entire Roman Empire, neighbor to neighbor.
357. 20:59So summary, the biblical path forward rests in the family
358. 21:05and their ministry to Mrs. Smith across the street,
359. 21:09building a relationship with her, yeah.
360. 21:11And that brings me to really what I wanna talk to you
361. 21:14about next because following the truth project,
362. 21:16the next project of that same kind of moniker
363. 21:19that you're pursuing or implementing
364. 21:21is the engagement project.
365. 21:24What is the engagement project?
366. 21:26Well, the engagement project is not about marrying.
367. 21:30People say, why are you serious on getting engaged?
368. 21:33No.
369. 21:33So it's the term engagement I think
370. 21:38leads us to think about why we're still here.
371. 21:41You ask in the beginning.
372. 21:44When we start of the truth project,
373. 21:47I asked the question, why did Jesus come?
374. 21:51And that led us to that moment with Jesus before Pilate.
375. 21:56For this reason, I was born,
376. 21:59and for this I came to the world to testify to the truth.
377. 22:02And that led us to the Truth Project,
378. 22:04the beginning of the engagement project
379. 22:06who asked the question, why did Jesus leave?
380. 22:09And what did he leave for us to do?
381. 22:11In other words, why are we still here?
382. 22:15after 2,000 years were still here.
383. 22:18And that's because this epic that we're in,
384. 22:23I call engagement.
385. 22:24We are here in order for the people of God
386. 22:29to engage the world around us.
387. 22:31The question is, how do we do that?
388. 22:34For many, many years, I thought it was all about me
389. 22:38showing somebody how much I knew.
390. 22:41And in the world in which we live today,
391. 22:43we have to recover what we just said.
392. 22:46And that is the way you're going to reach a Mrs. Smith,
393. 22:50and the other people around you is through a deep relationship,
394. 22:55a trusted relationship.
395. 22:57And that goes back to the royal law.
396. 23:01So the biblical path forward is what the engagement is leading
397. 23:05us to.
398. 23:06We spend time going through each of the epics of God's story
399. 23:11to know more about him so that we might know why he left us and why he left us.
400. 23:18I have a brief video for you guys. If you're not familiar with it on the Engaging Project,
401. 23:23draw on from the trailer from your website. If you would, Jeff, you go ahead and play it.
402. 23:29We live in very difficult times today. I believe the God has called us to engage the world around us,
403. 23:36not in the way we've been doing it, but in a new and fresh way, the way he wants.
404. 23:45Engagement is another invitation to gaze upon the face of God,
405. 23:49taking all the worldview stuff that we've gone through.
406. 23:52And now, okay, what are we going to do with this?
407. 23:56Dr. Sacket teaches in a way that is very engaging
408. 23:59and charismatic and captures your attention.
409. 24:02He has straight interviews, he has expert interviews.
410. 24:05You'll see illustrations and animations.
411. 24:07He's really a great tour guide,
412. 24:09bringing us along this journey
413. 24:11to gaze upon the face of God.
414. 24:14I really think it's important for God's people to come together
415. 24:18And so that's why we're delivering this in a small group format.
416. 24:23The small group setting is great because it's personal, it's real, it's hands-on.
417. 24:28It just stirred us, it stirred me.
418. 24:33I really found it to be beneficial, to be in a room with individuals that know me,
419. 24:38that can continue the challenge when the video turns off.
420. 24:42Great, you got it, that looks awesome.
421. 24:50Now I want to say this, I don't want to forget to do it.
422. 24:53You can find out more about the engagement project, which I wholeheartedly encourage you to get in addition to the truth project
423. 24:59by going to deltackit.com, that is D-E-L-T-A-C-K-E-T-T.com
424. 25:06and you can get all of the information for those to get it for yourselves to use and to learn from, but also as a resource to share with others.
425. 25:14But I want to drill down a bit more into the engagement project because in the video we just saw it on your trailer
426. 25:19you have a sister in the faith who has the privilege of being at a speaking at a conference with her a couple months ago in Florida
427. 25:26with Rosario Butterfield, oh my goodness
428. 25:28Yes, and I know for the engagement project you interviewed her and her husband as they were featured in the video
429. 25:34Yes, what were some of the things you glean from that conversation that helped to?
430. 25:38articulate
431. 25:39What their engagement project truly is well, I'll tell you a I spent two days with Dr. Rosaria champagne Butterfield
432. 25:47Yes.
433. 25:48Her, she is the real deal.
434. 25:51And in case people don't know, Rosaria was a professor at Syracuse University.
435. 25:58She was a militant pro-abortionist, a lesbian living with her partner.
436. 26:04She was crafting LGBTQ policy.
437. 26:06She hated men.
438. 26:08And so all of the iconic things over here today, she is a pastor's wife, homeschooling children.
439. 26:14And the question is, what happened?
440. 26:18And the only way, because she told me directly, because I quite frankly asked her, Rosaria,
441. 26:24if I had lived next door to you, and I'd approached you the way I normally approached
442. 26:28people, what would have happened?
443. 26:30And she looked me in the eye and she said, well, I wouldn't be here.
444. 26:33And that crushed me.
445. 26:35Because I realized that the world in which we live requires not only us to be wise, but
446. 26:45we need to be wise biblically.
447. 26:47Amen.
448. 26:48Rather than traditionally, traditions are good if that tradition arose in a time when it was
449. 26:57wise for that tradition to arise, but it is possible it's no longer wise.
450. 27:05The world we live in, and she point blank told me that her view of life and her view
451. 27:16of Christians and all of that was so embedded in her that my apologetic approach to her would
452. 27:26have resulted in nothing but a wall. And so the only way forward with her was to build a
453. 27:35trusted relationship and that's what Ken and Floyd did with her. And so that time with
454. 27:45with Rosaria was instrumental for me.
455. 27:50It really helped me understand and confirm it with the Lord confirmed, I guess, at that
456. 27:54point.
457. 27:55We're on the right track here.
458. 27:56Yeah.
459. 27:57And one of the things she mentioned, I've heard you talk about this before, was that
460. 28:03the gospel was presented to her through her being welcomed to their home for dinner with
461. 28:10consistency and repetition over time.
462. 28:12Yes, that's right.
463. 28:14And it was that love that Rosario then began to respond to.
464. 28:21So she followed the same pattern that there was a book entitled I Once Was Lost.
465. 28:26We refer to that book.
466. 28:28It was really a study that two ministers on campus did of 2,000 students that came to Christ.
467. 28:36And they were astounded because not one exception.
468. 28:40Every 2,000 students went through what they called five thresholds.
469. 28:44They didn't go from, they didn't start with two,
470. 28:46they didn't go from one to four,
471. 28:48they went through everyone,
472. 28:49Rosario went through every one of these.
473. 28:52No one came to Christ,
474. 28:53and the very first threshold was a trusted relationship
475. 28:57with a Christian.
476. 28:59And here is what's sad for you and me,
477. 29:04in Western Christianity, we don't do trusted relationships.
478. 29:09That has to change.
479. 29:10It has to change if we're gonna reach the world around us.
480. 29:14It has to.
481. 29:15I mean, it's one of the things as to why I say it's the distinction between churchy
482. 29:21entity and Christianity because I noticed that the modifier you put before Christianity,
483. 29:27which was Western.
484. 29:28Now, I'm not one of these people who will bash, you know, Christianity everywhere else
485. 29:34is so fantastic and in America is so horrible, but I do want to encourage believers in our
486. 29:39nation to be sharpened and discernment to recognize that there are temptations in
487. 29:44traps, if you will, that ensnare believers in our nation that aren't
488. 29:48necessarily the same in other nations. And one of those things that I believe is
489. 29:51that our material abundance has set up a foundation or should I say created an
490. 29:56environment to make that observation more readily attainable, which is that we
491. 30:03We don't often have trusted, tethered relationships.
492. 30:09You know, one of the things,
493. 30:10and I see the disrespectful clock,
494. 30:11we only got a minute and a half left.
495. 30:12Jeff, it's your fault.
496. 30:16It's just fault on the road too, it's still his fault.
497. 30:18But one of the things that I often encourage on,
498. 30:21through my program is that we are to live locally.
499. 30:24Don't allow the headlines of the nation
500. 30:27to move us away from being Christians right where we live.
501. 30:30You know, often challenge our listeners.
502. 30:32have you knocked on your neighbor's door this week?
503. 30:35Do you know your neighbor's?
504. 30:36And submit too often that answer is no.
505. 30:39And the question then becomes how is that possible
506. 30:41if we are born again?
507. 30:44When we are born again, we move away from merely giving offerings
508. 30:47to becoming the offerings.
509. 30:50And if all that we are is his, then our lives should reflect
510. 30:53that reality.
511. 30:54So being able to make the observation that in Christianity,
512. 30:58in Western civilization in general,
513. 31:00in the United States of America in particular,
514. 31:02that trusted, developed, sustained relationships over time
515. 31:06are sometimes have often fallen by the wayside,
516. 31:10is not only a sociological tragedy,
517. 31:13but it is an enemy to the Great Commission being fulfilled.
518. 31:17Amen.
519. 31:18So I wanna pick up with that,
520. 31:19we got about 30 seconds when we come back
521. 31:21for the last segment, because expounding on
522. 31:23the engagement project, it really is just that a call
523. 31:27to obey with Jesus command that that's all we back.
524. 31:292000 years ago to go there for you go there for you know often talk about
525. 31:35Jesus always intended for the gospel to go into the entirety of the world yet the
526. 31:39Encarnumusized ministry was limited to Israel. Why was that?
527. 31:42Doesn't Matthew 28 coming go ye therefore in all the world to make disciples will pick up right there when we get back
528. 31:48for this next segment the last segment
529. 31:55When you look at the fundamental
530. 32:34priorities that this administration has, rebuilding the American family through the
531. 32:40various priorities, ensuring religious freedom is alive and well and flourishing in America.
532. 32:46Having a Department of Justice that is actually focused on enforcing the laws of the land,
533. 32:51I have a hard time disagreeing with any of them.
534. 32:53Join Walker Wildman and Rick Green at the core, 1PM Central weekdays on AFR or on the
535. 33:00AFR app.
536. 33:01A Hamilton Quarter podcast and one-minute commentaries are available at AFR.net.
537. 33:13Back to the Hamilton Quarter on American Family Radio.
538. 33:17All right, and welcome back.
539. 33:20We're in the third and final segment for today's program.
540. 33:24Dr. Tackett, Dell Tackett is my guest.
541. 33:26We're talking about the engagement project.
542. 33:28You can go to his website, DellTackett.com.
543. 33:30We'll make sure it's in the show notes so that you can get all the resources that are
544. 33:34available.
545. 33:35Now, Dr. Tackett, what we're talking about now,
546. 33:37we'll seem radical to many people when we say that, well,
547. 33:42what you said, that for many Christians in Western civilization,
548. 33:46trust the relationships in and of themselves
549. 33:48are difficult to ascertain.
550. 33:50From your standpoint, how have we gotten to that point
551. 33:53to whether it's such a challenge when we have the text that
552. 33:55says, go ye therefore and make disciples?
553. 33:58Well, I don't know that there's a simple answer to that.
554. 34:02I think a lot of it is just the natural progression of what happens when we slowly, over time,
555. 34:09walk away from the scripture and its call upon us.
556. 34:14And we live in a world, as you just said, we live in a world of so much abundance that
557. 34:21we become addicted to my pleasure, my comfort, my peace, all of those things.
558. 34:27It's back to me.
559. 34:29And so therefore, it's just like water.
560. 34:32Water will seek the easiest path down our fallen nature.
561. 34:37We seek the easiest path.
562. 34:40And in Christianity, not the body of Christ, the true body of Christ, but in Christianity,
563. 34:45and I'd say, Western Christianity, a lot if it's gone, the easiest path is to simply show
564. 34:52up on Sunday, sit for an hour or two, and then go home.
565. 34:59to think that the kingdom work is done by the professionals. And my job is just simply to consume
566. 35:10and to put money in the coffer. And so over time, we find ourselves in this situation we're in today
567. 35:19where the church is the body of Christ, the church is anemic. We are not the light, we're not the salt
568. 35:26that God meant for us to be, we are certainly not what the first 300 years was,
569. 35:32that spread throughout the whole Roman Empire and it did it,
570. 35:39neighbor to neighbor. And so a lot of those things have come together and I'm
571. 35:45not sure that it's that important to try to find all the causes of what's
572. 35:49important is know where we are today and where we need to be. And certainly we ought
573. 35:54to recognize that where we are today isn't on track. And we have a whole culture around
574. 36:02us that is lost, weeping, moaning, groaning all around us. And yet we are not taking the
575. 36:13first step in order to make that change. And that has to happen.
576. 36:19has to happen. What has to happen in order to get that to happen? Well, you know, if I
577. 36:26had a magic wand, you know, the magic wand would say that overnight, all of the believers, the
578. 36:36true believers, let's just talk about America. Some people have said they're 80 million evangelical
579. 36:42Christians in America. I don't know. That's true. No, let's just say that true. Overnight,
580. 36:47If they as a family made a commitment to what Jesus told us to do, remember he summarized
581. 36:53the whole thing.
582. 36:54He said, okay, let me give you the bottom line to the whole thing.
583. 36:57Love God and love your neighbor.
584. 37:00When he said love your neighbor, he meant love your neighbor.
585. 37:04That's what the church did for 300 years.
586. 37:07But if overnight, those 80 million evangelical Christians made a commitment to the Lord and
587. 37:14and their family praying together, Johnny, Susie,
588. 37:17we are gonna begin to do the work of the kingdom right here.
589. 37:21We're gonna begin to pray for Mrs. Smith across the street
590. 37:24and pray for John and Julian,
591. 37:26all of the people who live around us.
592. 37:29We're gonna ask God to give us an opportunity
593. 37:31to be a priest in this neighborhood.
594. 37:33That's 80 million, if you just think of three people,
595. 37:37that's 80 million,
596. 37:38beginning the process of engaging 240 million,
597. 37:41That's our entire population.
598. 37:44Overnight.
599. 37:45Now that doesn't mean that Mrs. Smith comes to Christ overnight,
600. 37:48but it means that we're doing our priestly duty
601. 37:52as the Lord called us to do.
602. 37:54That would be, to me, the miracle of miracles,
603. 37:59but that's what has to happen.
604. 38:02I'm sure you've encountered this with what you said,
605. 38:04the perception that we allow the so-called professionals
606. 38:08to do the kingdom work,
607. 38:09which would, in my view,
608. 38:11belive what the scripture says,
609. 38:12because if he's in four,
610. 38:14the church exists to equip the saints
611. 38:16for the work of the ministry.
612. 38:18So the expectation ecclesiaologically should be
613. 38:21for the saints to be engaged.
614. 38:24But we've kind of been lulled to a sense of sleep
615. 38:27to where we've reduced Christianity
616. 38:29to a spectator sport,
617. 38:31to where we watch others
618. 38:34do the work of the ministry.
619. 38:36It seems like we've kind of been seduced
620. 38:38into an autopsy-turvy view over the scripture teaches.
621. 38:42You know, one of the things that has gripped me
622. 38:45from Colossians 4, we often talk about our speech being
623. 38:48seasoned with salt, but the text actually says,
624. 38:51let your speech always be with grace.
625. 38:55As with season, the season with salt is a simile
626. 39:00for the grace that it should be laden with
627. 39:02and to consider this part gripped me
628. 39:05so that you will know how to respond,
629. 39:07you should respond to each person. It seems the scripture is prescribing not a
630. 39:16Costco one-size-fits-all approach to no pun intended, engaging but having a
631. 39:24personal conviction that has a presumed or anticipated individualized
632. 39:29investment. That each person has an expectation of engaging in doing the
633. 39:35work of the ministry and this is basic Bible from the first century. Am I
634. 39:40misunderstanding this text? No, you are so right on. That's the
635. 39:45Colossians 4, 5, and 6 passage that you're talking about and that passage has
636. 39:50crushed me because of the way I was raised. When I engaged
637. 39:58people, engaged people, it was primarily for the purpose of me showing them how
638. 40:03much I knew. I wasn't listening to them. I wasn't responding to them. If they were talking,
639. 40:10I was crafting my next point. But that passage, you're exactly right. What it means is that
640. 40:17every individual that God brings into your life, and I think specifically he has placed
641. 40:24us across the street from our neighbor and next door to our neighbor. I believe that providentially.
642. 40:29they are for that reason. Those people are different. Approaching Rosaria Butterfield
643. 40:36will be different than Mrs. Smith. How will I know that? A trusted relationship. I get
644. 40:44to know them, they get to know me, we're kind to them, we love them, we build a
645. 40:51relationship with them until I begin to learn Mrs. Smith's problem is she hates
646. 40:56God because her husband died of cancer and they prayed that God would heal him, he died a horrible
647. 41:02death and now she hates God. That was not Rosario's problem but it is her problem. How would I know
648. 41:09that? Through a relationship with her and that's what Colossians is calling us to.
649. 41:16With this disposition to where we've allowed the experts to do the Kingdom work and the members of
650. 41:23the Lord's bride have not been expected nor let alone encouraged to engage and
651. 41:29execute in the Great Commission. I'm sure you've encountered this. What would you
652. 41:31say to the person who would say, well, Dr. Tacken, you have a D plus an R in
653. 41:34front of your name, but I'm just, I am just a regular guy. I don't know how to do
654. 41:39the things that you do. What would you say to that person? Well, if I
655. 41:44hopefully had a trusted relationship with them, I would say that's nonsense
656. 41:49Because God, do you think about this?
657. 41:52What happened to Pentecost?
658. 41:55What happened to Pentecost?
659. 41:57You know, God came down and He dwelt all the preachers.
660. 42:01No!
661. 42:02He came down and dwelt in His people.
662. 42:05So I don't care if you're a plumber or a maid
663. 42:11or you're a truck driver or you're a farmer.
664. 42:14I don't care.
665. 42:15If you are a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ,
666. 42:20God dwells within you.
667. 42:22And we live in a country where you have the word,
668. 42:25you don't have to hide the word of God,
669. 42:27it's there, you have the word of God,
670. 42:30you have the spirit of God,
671. 42:31you have everything you need to begin to love Mrs. Smith
672. 42:37and to engage Mrs. Smith to the point where,
673. 42:40and praying that God, remember the scripture says,
674. 42:43God is the one who grants repentance.
675. 42:45Not me. God is the one who grants repentance, so we are going to go before the throne of God.
676. 42:50It is possible no one has ever put Mrs. Smith's name before the throne of God, or ever would.
677. 42:58And yet we live right here, Johnny Susie, we live right across the street from Mrs. Smith,
678. 43:04so that we can bring the name of Mrs. Smith before the throne of God and ask God to begin to do
679. 43:10Now, I will tell you, I do not understand why God has entrusted to us the right to ask Him
680. 43:18for His hand to move.
681. 43:20I don't understand that, but I know that's what He's told us to do.
682. 43:25And so we are going to ask God to begin to work in her heart and her life, her mind, her
683. 43:31soul, so that she is going to begin to respond just like Rizaria said.
684. 43:37Zarya, in this trusted relationship, I then begin to ask the questions my world you couldn't
685. 43:43answer. She wouldn't have gotten to there without this. So that's what needs to happen.
686. 43:49Now you said something else, a new example with us, Johnny and Susie praying for Mrs. Smith
687. 43:55across the street, clearly depicting a nuclear family. Yes, yes. And many instances, in addition
688. 44:02the kind of defaulting to expecting the experts to do the kingdom work.
689. 44:06Well, you know what I'm about to say.
690. 44:08I have a friend of mine who was a youth pastor who was really grieved because there was a
691. 44:14church member who came to this youth pastor and said, you're not doing a good job because
692. 44:19you're losing our children.
693. 44:23The parents said that to the youth pastor.
694. 44:26That's the old thing.
695. 44:27That's right.
696. 44:28That's what we're talking about.
697. 44:30To which I immediately was part of my friend.
698. 44:32How is that possible?
699. 44:33Because who does the Bible command is responsible for our children?
700. 44:38The point that I'm driving towards in many instances, even before you get to a family investing
701. 44:44and praying from his Smith across the street, there needs to be a ramping up to understand
702. 44:49that the nuclear family is the first outpost for the gospel to be proclaimed into exercise
703. 44:55into where the little Johnny and Suzees are not just family members, but they're arrows
704. 45:00entrusted as on 127 explains for cultivation,
705. 45:04catechizing, and discipleship.
706. 45:05Absolutely.
707. 45:07Absolutely.
708. 45:07You know, I think you, I don't know if you said this,
709. 45:10I served 20 years in the Air Force.
710. 45:12I did.
711. 45:13And so I have a lot of military examples in a way of thinking.
712. 45:18But when you bring a unit together and give them
713. 45:23a common mission, that unit will become so close knit.
714. 45:30They are lifelong friends.
715. 45:32Here's the problem we have today.
716. 45:34The family, we haven't cast a vision for the family.
717. 45:40I mean, yes, okay, there's some good books
718. 45:43at how you treat bed wedding, you know,
719. 45:46or those kinds of, but we have never cast a vision
720. 45:49for the family, it says, why are you a family?
721. 45:51And why are you here?
722. 45:53And what are you here for?
723. 45:56That when that family begins to minister together
724. 46:00to pray together for a purpose,
725. 46:03I think it will be a great help to the families.
726. 46:07And I'm gonna say one other thing,
727. 46:09which is not very popular, but I'm gonna say it okay.
728. 46:11He said it, not me, he said it.
729. 46:13That's right, it'll be on me.
730. 46:15On my show.
731. 46:16I absolutely agree with you.
732. 46:19The family is at the heart of God's desire
733. 46:23to change the world.
734. 46:24It is.
735. 46:25Amen.
736. 46:26We have lost that.
737. 46:28We have to recover that.
738. 46:30And guess what?
739. 46:31I have been listening for years and years and years.
740. 46:35I have yet to have a pastor address us as families.
741. 46:40Never.
742. 46:41We address the congregation as individuals.
743. 46:46We never address the congregation in their family units or as a family unit or charge
744. 46:52them as a family unit or speak to them from God's word about their responsibility. We don't.
745. 46:59And so that has to change. We have to begin to help families know what God has entrusted to them
746. 47:08to do. And that has to come from places like this. It has to come from the pulpit.
747. 47:14But the family has to begin to recognize who they are
748. 47:21and what God has called them to do.
749. 47:23Amen.
750. 47:24Time is urgent.
751. 47:25Time is urgent.
752. 47:26And time is for us to think you can see that,
753. 47:28God just says as well as I can.
754. 47:30In disrespect to the last, I guess 10 seconds,
755. 47:32what is one thing you would say that gives you hope
756. 47:35in light of what we're facing currently?
757. 47:37Because God has left a remnant here.
758. 47:39Amen.
759. 47:40You know by now, we should look like France.
760. 47:42The
761. 48:42The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American
762. 48:47Family Association or American Family Radio.