Episode #2 Hard Truths Nobody Wants to Hear

You're kind of doing like a uh a disservice to that person by trying to present something that you don't fully believe in yourself.

Welcome to episode two.

Yeah.

I'm happy to be here.

Let's uh let's let's pray in and then we'll get into it.

God, thank you so much for um for just allowing us to be here and allowing us to uh just have this platform to talk about you.

And this platform has nothing to do with us but everything to do with you, and we just give you all the glory and that we we just pray, Lord, that you would just give us peace and that you would just uh speak to us and um and just allow us to to to feed your people and and Lord would you just use us to to reach that one more that we've that we've been praying for.

And we pray all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So what's up, dude?

Not a whole lot.

Um it was a late night last night.

I was up talking with my sister, she's been going going through some stuff recently.

So um up late talking to her, and uh it was not easy waking up for the 7 a.m.

Bible study this morning, but yeah, it was a it was a pleasure to be here.

And um Yeah, for sure.

Really enjoyed it.

How about you, man?

Oh man, just a long week of work, and um yeah, uh I had a tough time waking up this morning too.

But uh, you know, it was it was a good time this morning, good good Bible, good Bible study, good word.

Um, you know, and it's always good to see everybody, you know.

Yeah, it's that one one time a week you get to see everybody.

So yeah, there's something about having to wake up on a Saturday morning that's just not very fun.

But yeah, uh it every time I get here, um, it's uh it's always worth it every time.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, man.

So today we're gonna be talking about um faith.

Uh what does that look like?

Um what does that look like in in practice uh on the outside and on the inside?

And uh we're also gonna talk about what faith isn't, because uh I think that's a very confusing uh question in in today's culture, um, because we have really twisted the um the idea of what of what faith is and how you can live your own truth and and everybody's true truth is is is theirs and and we just take it for what it is, but we're here to say that there's one truth and that there's Jesus.

So we're gonna be addressing that.

And um we also want to talk about uh lukewarm Christianity, which is something that's been plaguing uh especially America, uh the American church and um I'm sure many other parts of the world as well.

And that's just something that that we need to address.

And I think a reason why it's at such a rise right now is because the church is failing from the pulpit.

The church is failing to disciple their people, and and we're just we're not saying repent.

And we we just we're preaching this this prosperity uh sort of just gospel that you really can't preach on on every corner of the earth.

So we're gonna be addressing that.

Um I think the biggest problem with that is too is just uh the church is just staying quiet.

Yeah.

Um because I think a lot of them are preaching from the the standpoint of like, well, if we say this or we do this or we preach about this or we preach about that, then what kind of backlash are we gonna get, you know, and then are we are we not gonna get the same giving numbers, the same attendance numbers, or whatever?

There's a lot of churches out there that that are concerned with all of those things, you know.

And instead of just um, you know, just preaching it like it is, you know, like you said, you know, preaching from the truth, regardless of whose feelings it hurts and in what way it hurts their feelings, you know, um, realizing that giving them that hard truth may not lead them to the repentance right away.

But if you stay on that path, eventually, you know, it's going to work in their heart, you know, and and they're going to repent and they're going to have a transformation in life.

But when we keep, you know, uh patty caking it and and sugarcoating it and making it look like this, you know, um this like false narrative, you know, or or like uh, like you said, prosperity gospel, you know, um you're leading people astray because you're not you're not giving them the truth and only the truth.

You know, you're just kind of giving them what they want to hear, you know, based upon you know viewings and attendance.

Yeah, that's right.

And um Revelation 21, I believe, um, says that there are no cowards in the kingdom of God.

And that's that's the big issue right now.

We have cowards in the pulpit.

And these we have pastors who are afraid to to preach the truth of God's word.

And that's a very big danger uh to to the to the nation of America right now.

I mean, we need the truth more than ever.

And uh especially in a time like this, people need to be told the truth.

Yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

So we need to be uh definitely need to be more bold in what we believe in.

But um so uh can you kind of give us the the overview of of of what lukewarm Christianity is and kind of what what's that what what that's been looking like in in today's culture?

Yeah.

I mean of course everybody has their own definition, I think, of what you know what things may be, but for me, the way that I see lukewarm Christianity or lukewarm faith is basically like you're doing like half, like you're you're going to church, you're mentioning scripture, but you're not following it in your own life.

Like you're not um holding yourself accountable um and truly following Jesus.

You know, it it's one thing to show up at church and shake everybody's hand and smile and act like you got everything all together and then go home and be the not necessarily the exact opposite, but just kind of like you're not in your word, you're um you're not praying, you don't have a relationship with with Jesus, you know what I mean?

Like to me, I think that's like the the cream of the crop of what lukewarm Christianity is.

You know, it's like you know about Jesus, but you haven't submitted your life to him.

Like you know that he existed, you know that he was, you know, he is the way and the truth because you've been told that and you've heard it a thousand times, but you know, are you actually giving your life to him?

Are you actually following him?

Are you living for him?

Are you uh seeking him over a fleshly person?

You know, like are you going to uh a friend about every problem you have, or are you going to Jesus for every problem you have?

You know, like I think that that's where it gets a little, you know, murky with today's society is you know, you know, c uh Catholicism.

You know, they they think that, you know, not that it's you know a bad thing, you know, I'm not I can't, you know, bash, you know, Catholicism, but you know, they think that you should have to come to somebody to repent your to repent, and then they take your repentance to the Lord.

And it's like, you know, we treat our friends that way sometimes, you know.

Um, I think sometimes like we find that one friend that might be like solid in their scripture or solid in their relationship with God, and we take it to them and we're kind of like, you know, hey, you know, I got this going on or I got that going on.

And then um, you know, we expect them to pray for us.

We expect them to like be our, you know, our foundation or our rock instead of going, hey, I've got this problem, Jesus, this is what's going on.

You already know, you know, so give me the wisdom, give me the courage, give me the strength, all the things.

Um, so I think that's where it gets a little lost in churches nowadays, is they're they're not telling people that.

They're not telling people, like, hey, you know, in order to be a Christian, you know, following you need to follow Jesus.

You know what I mean?

Like, you need to be taking everything to him.

You know, you need to be submitted to him in every way with all things.

Um, and so like that's where you can kind of fall into that lukewarm category where, you know, again, you're just going to church, you're going through the motions, you're making the friends, you you look like you got it all together.

But on the outside, you know, when you're at home or when you're at work, you're not preaching the gospel to people, you're not pouring into people, you're not praying over people.

Um, you're not going to Jesus first with things for for seeking wisdom and and all those things.

You're you're you're taking that to the wrong people, the wrong uh uh avenues, you know?

Yeah, man, that's good stuff.

Um and I think uh a big a big reason why lukewarm Christianity is even a thing is because people have a fundamental misunderstanding of the cross.

They have no idea what it means for for me to to carry uh my cross and for me to follow after him like he's been uh like like he has commanded me through scripture.

Yeah.

And um one thing that um I'll say that we're not arguing for.

We're not arguing for a works-based salvation because it's extremely clear throughout scripture, uh, like Ephesians 2 uh tells us that we are saved uh by grace through faith alone, not of works lest any man should boast.

Um so we are saved strictly by faith.

And in in James as well, it talks about uh faith, faith without works is dead.

And uh that's not saying uh you need both to get into heaven, but that's saying, like, hey, works are uh are a byproduct of the overflow of your faith.

Right.

So uh reason we see the lukewarm Christianity, people who claim the name of Jesus slap it on their forehead and then put it on their hoodie and then they go on living their life however they want to, that's because their their faith is just not it's not all there.

Yeah.

And I'd argue that they haven't seen the real Jesus.

Yeah.

Because uh, like in I when in in Isaiah chapter six, when um when Isaiah has this encounter with the with the preincarnate Jesus, the very first thing he said, he said, Woe is me and woe is my nation, because I'm a wicked man and we are a wicked people.

Yeah.

He's seen Jesus for who he is.

And he's he's recognized his holiness and he realizes okay, like there's a bar and I've missed it.

There's a bar and my nation has missed it.

And that's still true today.

So the issue is is when we have pastors who are failing to preach this truth, people start to develop this idea of Jesus in their head that's completely contrary to the the picture of Jesus that we see in the gospels and all throughout scripture.

Yeah.

So an issue of that is is like I said in the pulpit, like we need to do a better job as a church to to arm our people to go out there and make more disciples.

Because that's really the job of a church.

Yeah.

The church is uh is not is not entirely like the the sole responsibility uh of ministry is not on the church.

A part of the job of the church is to train their congregation to go out there and do the work of ministry.

The Great Commission.

Yeah, that's the Great Commission.

But um, yeah, that's kind of my thoughts on that.

Um so uh why why do you think um or how do you think uh how do you think uh being lukewarm kind of affects your your witness and and how you witness to other people?

Well, I think I think when you have a lukewarm faith, it's almost impossible to witness properly because it's like you said, um if you don't truly know Jesus and what he did for you, then how can you properly witness to somebody?

Right?

Like if you're not fully submitted and not fully understanding of what that meant, you know, then you can't properly witness to somebody.

You can't properly, you know, uh present the gospel to people.

Um I think it's very easy in those instances to lead people astray, um, to maybe speak on something that maybe you don't fully understand yourself, which is probably the worst thing that you can do.

Um but also at the same time, um, you know, if you if you don't truly know Jesus, then you're kind of doing like a uh a disservice to that person by trying to present something that you don't fully believe in yourself.

You know, like I think it it's it's you you're you're playing with something that's very valuable.

You know, you're you're playing with that person's uh faith and their salvation, you know, because uh you're not giving them the truth because you haven't even submitted to the truth yourself.

Um and you don't have a true understanding of what Jesus did for you and um and what that meant.

Yeah, man.

Um I mean, me personally, like I'm not gonna want to listen to somebody who's who's preaching to me a message that tells me to repent, and then their life just shows a complete opposite of what repentance is.

Yeah.

Like I I mean, I think I uh there there was a study on this recently, and um I believe I could be wrong, but I know it was high up there.

Um like it was one of it was either the number one or close to the number one reason why people leave the church is because of people being hypocrites and people living that that lukewarm lifestyle.

And man, people just need to know that hey, you're missing out on so much.

When Jesus promises, like, hey, I will give you a like a life of abundance.

It's it you can't reach that if you're living that lukewarm lifestyle.

And you might think that living your loof your your lukewarm lifestyle is is freedom, and oh, I'm just having fun and I'm just taking advantage of of my of my youth, and I'm just I'm being a kid.

Man, you're missing out on some of the some of the greatest parts of life.

Yeah.

And the reason we're here telling you, hey, like you're doing a disservice to yourself, not to mention other people if you don't repent.

Yeah.

We're telling you that because like, hey, we we love you and we want you to know what it what it actually means to to know him at a deep and intimate level, to know, to know uh how holy he is and to know how good he is to you, even through the times that I mean I've lived that lukewarm lifestyle too.

I mean, even well, like when I first came to Jesus, I uh granted I uh I was still figuring things out and I had I was teaching myself uh as I went, but I thought it was uh just just okay for me to keep living the way that that I used to.

And um man, how how wrong was I?

Yeah.

Like the things that I was doing just were not fulfilling me at all.

And I mean lukewarm faith is is is dangerous, man.

Like if you're living a lukewarm lifestyle, you're playing with you're gambling, you know, like if if you're living that way, like we're not guaranteed five minutes from now.

We're not guaranteed tomorrow.

We're not guaranteed next week, we're not guaranteed next year.

And a lot of people have that that mentality, and I and I've heard this so many times where people are like, oh well, you know, I'm young.

When I when I'm in my 50s, I'll I'll you know, I'll do that.

I'll I'll give my life to Christ.

And it's like, dude, you don't even know if you're gonna have a heart attack and die right now.

Like you, you could, you could fall over dead, you know.

Um and it's just like uh uh in the sermon from this week with uh at at Cross Point, you know, like James was talking about in the book of Acts, how um how literally two people that were like that said that they were going to give so they they were selling their land and they were going to give their money from the proceedings of that land to the ministry, right?

Well, so there's actually four four people.

The two the two people did, the other people said that they did, but they kept some of the money, right?

Well, when Peter confronted them about that, it was, you know, he was basically like, Well, hey, well, you said you were gonna give all your money to the ministry, but you didn't, you kept some for yourself.

And then instead of repenting for that, you know, it was excuses.

Well, God struck them dead.

And then a few hours later, you know, his wife comes in, Peter confronts her, and she's, you know, act she doesn't know that anything had happened, right?

So she does the same thing, you know, defends her husband, defends what they did, boom, struck dead, right?

You know, the same thing can happen in our lives, you know, at any moment, you know, like he has that ultimate authority and that power.

You know, we could walk out the door and and trip and fall, hit our heads and and not you know not come back to, you know, it's it's um you know, we have to be careful with that, you know.

It's like it's like Jesus says, man, like if you're going to do it, do it.

If you're not going to, don't.

Do not be half in and half out.

You know, like if you're going to follow me, follow me.

But if you're not, don't.

You know, and because you don't want to be half in and half out because the enemy owns the fence.

Yeah, that's right.

You know, and eventually you're gonna fall over.

You can't sit on the fence forever.

So, in my opinion, why not fall over to to Jesus' side?

It's so much better.

You know, just go on ahead and take the leap and do it.

You know, because like I said, if you fall, knock your head and you don't come back to and and you're dead.

What happened to that goal of being 50 and and giving your life to Christ?

It's gone.

It's gone, you know, and then then what do you have?

Nothing.

You're you know, you're gonna be faced with your creator, and he's going to ask you what you did with the one life that you know that he gave you, and you're not gonna have an answer.

You're gonna be like, Well, I thought I did okay, and he's gonna go, depart from me, for I did not know you, and you're gonna be cast into the fires of hell, man, and there's nothing you can do about it.

You know, so it's very important that you know, if you're going to in any way, shape, or form, you know, claim Jesus' name, like man, you better be ready to reap what you sow on that if you're not going to just go all in and and follow him to the fullest, you know, to the capital T.

Yeah, that's right.

I mean, could you imagine uh if you went home uh today and just told your wife, hey babe, uh I'm I'm gonna be changing some things.

I'm only gonna be loving you halfway.

Yeah.

How do you think she'd act?

How do you think she'd react to that?

Not very good.

No, that's the same applies.

That any married man that would go home and say it to their wife, there it would not be uh a good response.

Yeah.

Um and what I'm trying to say is half halfway love don't work.

It really doesn't, because the love isn't mutual, right?

Because Christ has has given us everything, like every all the love that we could ever need.

I mean, I can't even fully understand it.

And uh it's a love that surpasses my understanding.

But if you don't give anything back, you're not gonna get anything out of it.

And I mean, if if you if that's really how like you had you you treated your wife, which I know you don't, um it would be better off for you not to get married in the first place.

And the the same thing can be said for for your faith in in Christ.

Yeah.

You know, like I said, you know, the enemy owns the fence.

Yeah.

You know, you cannot be half in, half out, you know.

It's kind of like the saying, you know, you got one foot in or one foot out of the grave and one foot on the banana peel, you know, which way are you gonna fall?

You know?

Um but it's just it's just it's important, you know, that uh that you just take faith very seriously.

You know, you you can't you can't claim it and not follow it.

You know what I mean?

Like and then the other side of it, you know, like just diving in into faith, the faith side.

Um like you're a lot of people give you the the the statement or the phrase like, well, how do you follow something that you did not see or that you did not witness?

And uh it was actually kind of funny, you know.

Shout out to uh Bryce Crawford because he actually I was watching one of his videos and he said it, he said it great.

Um, he was like, you know, well, how do you know World War II happened?

And the guy looks at him and he's like, Well, because I learned it in school.

He's like, I saw pictures, I saw a video, and he was like, It's the same concept.

Were you there?

Did you physically see it?

No, it was documented, it was recorded, it was reported.

That's how we know today that it happened.

It's the same thing.

There is so much documentation and so much proof and so much evidence, you know, like we're talking about thousands upon thousands upon thousands of documents and testimonies and and just proof that not only what happened happened, but that Jesus was real.

And and he wasn't just some random dude, you know, walking around and you know, talking a bunch of nonsense and and healing people, you know, and and then was just not who he said he was, you know.

There was thousands of people that witnessed everything that he did and everything that he said, and even more so, there was people that witnessed his death, and there was people that witnessed the grave being empty and witnessed him coming back to life, and then there's also multiple people that witnessed him ascend back into heaven.

Yeah, you know, like there is so much overwhelming evidence that that it's true.

That like, how could it either you're gonna live your life and you're saying I don't know if it's true, but I'm going to believe it and I'm going to follow it, and I'm gonna have faith that it's true because when I die, I could be faced with my creator and I would want to spend eternity with him, or I can live this life saying, Well, I don't know that it's true, so I'm not gonna follow it because that's just a waste of time, and then you get there and you face with your creator, and then he's like, Well, I didn't know you, bud, you know, and then you get cast off into the fire, you know, and it's like, what would you rather bank your life on?

Yeah, right?

You know, would you rather bank your life on what the world's telling you, or would you rather bank your life on what scripture tells you?

Yeah.

I mean, really the the the Christian and the and the atheist uh per se um have two like two different snare uh two different outcomes here.

Yeah.

It's either I've wasted my life, and uh for the atheist, it's like okay, now I'm gonna spend an eternity separated from God because I chose to spend my spend my life separate.

And um, and like he had said, like it it just it's not logical to not put your put your faith in in in in what the Bible says.

It really isn't, just because the evidence, like he said, is absolutely overwhelming.

And um just the the wisdom that you get from it as well is um it it it makes the uh makes the wisdom of the world look like uh look like dirty rags.

Um and also I would say the heart tra the heart transformation, the stories, the testimonies of of people who were who are blind, but now they see.

And I I love to go back to uh uh the story in the gospels when when Jesus heals uh when he heals the blind man, and then uh religious leaders approached him after he had healed them and and were kind of just asking, like, like okay, like like how is it that you're able to see?

And he was like, I don't know.

Like, I just don't know.

But all I know is that is that I met a dude named Jesus, I was blind, and now I see.

How do you explain that?

What else in the world can do that to a man?

I mean, there's nothing else in the world that can impact a person like the way Jesus impacts the lives of sinners.

Nothing.

Not the bars, not not the porn, not not the drugs, not the money.

That stuff don't work.

If it worked, then why do you keep going back to it?

That stuff is failing you.

Yeah.

But Jesus will not fail you.

So so many people have their their faith in these things that pass away, like your money, your house.

Like that stuff, all you're doing is you're just borrowing that thing.

You don't own it.

Yeah.

You you just have it for a time, and it's then it's gonna go to somebody else.

Yeah.

I mean, that's uh the the same with so many of these things of this world, but but Jesus doesn't go away.

Because guess what?

Jesus is alive.

Yeah.

And he's sitting at the right hand of the Father right now, and he is he is literally mediating, he he he is the bridge between ourselves and the Father.

He's pleading our case.

Yeah, he's pleading our case.

Yeah.

He is he's like our lawyer, right?

He's up there in heaven.

He's like, oh no, he's mine.

Yep.

He's he's in the book of life, he's mine.

My blood covered that.

Yeah, it's like it's like it's like being on trial.

You know, um, you're asked to stand up and the the verdict's about to be read on what you're guilty of, you know, and you know, the father's the judge, and Christ is standing there right next to us as our attorney and says, Hey, no, I paid for that.

I'm going to bear the consequences for his actions, and you get to walk free.

You know, you get to walk out of there like nothing ever happened, and he gets to go serve the sentence for you.

You know, that that's what the cross was.

Yeah.

I mean, that's absolutely right.

Um, and uh, I think uh a big part of faith as well is is just taking God as word.

And I think uh what you see a lot now is is especially in in my generation, and for reference, if you don't, if you don't know me, I'm 21 years old.

Um I've seen a lot of people who are trying to like deconstruct their faith.

And I have one really big issue with that is people are trying to apply these worldly concepts of what logic is to scripture.

But the thing is the the world does not define logic, but rather scripture does.

Yeah.

So I'm I mean, even in in in passages that I don't understand, like I'm just I'm I gotta be like, okay, God, I I take you at your word here.

And even for the passages that I mean I used to not understand, like I've seeked out wise counsel who have helped walk me through this.

Like, like, okay, this is what this is what this scripture act actually means.

This is what this verse actually means.

Yeah.

And that's a very proactive thing that you have to do if you have questions or doubts with scripture.

I mean, you have to take God at His Word first, and then also make an effort to to seek out people who can help you and walk you through this.

Yeah.

Because I mean, a big part of faith is community.

I think the biggest thing is too, is not only just having the community, but having that relationship with with Jesus to where like you can go to him and just say, Hey, look, I have not a clue what this passage is trying to tell me or what this verse is trying to tell me.

You know, I need you to help break this down for me.

I need you to help show me what this is.

What are you trying to tell me here?

What are you trying to help me understand?

And being patient with that.

Um, I think a lot of people kind of get mixed up in like the the, well, I did pray about it and nothing happened, right?

Or I did pray about it and I still didn't understand it.

And it's like, well, are you paying attention to the things around you?

Are you paying attention to the things that you're seeing and you're witnessing?

Because a lot of times it's not like it's not like this thing where like you pray to him and then you just hear this like this voice, you know, come from the ceiling of like, you know, hey, this is exactly what I was meaning.

You know, sometimes he uses um things around us, he uses people, he uses uh um just normal average things that you wouldn't even think about to answer our prayers or to answer our questions.

You know, so sometimes it's just important to just be silent and just be patient and just really kind of sit back and just pay attention to the things that are going on around you because you'd be surprised at how many times your prayer that you claim he's not answered is been answered, you just missed it.

Yeah.

And that's uh goes back to I mean, we're we're we're just we're so distracted and busy in today's world.

I mean, with this with the social media and then and I mean people working full-time jobs and I mean I which I get it.

Um, but the thing I don't understand is when people say, Oh, I just don't have time for Jesus.

Yeah, okay.

What's your screen time?

How much time do you spend scrolling on your phone per day?

Yeah, how much time do you spend behind the wheel per day?

Yeah, that's not an excuse.

You can have it in your ears, yeah, or you can just as simply just talk to God, yeah, have a conversation.

You know, like the other one that I get that I've heard too is uh, oh well, you know, my kids had a tournament this weekend, or you know, or my family had a gathering this weekend or whatever, right?

And it's like, okay, but so for the tournament, the kids not playing from seven in the morning until six p.m.

100% of the time, right?

So you had time between games.

So could you not have a conversation then?

Could you not go get in your word then?

Can you not throw an AirPod in and maybe hear, you know, listen to a podcast or listen to something that's going to be feeding you?

Yeah.

Um, you know, were you talking with your kids about Jesus during that time?

Were you uh, you know, giving him praise for the result of the game?

You know, were you thanking him for the beauty of the game?

Yeah.

You know, for what you just witnessed in your in your kids' tournament, you know, and then on the flip side, same thing could be said for the family gathering.

You know, uh, did you not take a bathroom break?

You know, uh, did you not have to take a second to get up and go to the refrigerator to get a drink?

You know, there's all kinds of like it when you when you that's why I say when you just kind of like be patient and just kind of step back and and think about things, like there is so many opportunities that we have throughout the day that present themselves to us as a time to talk to God.

Yeah, you know, and I think we miss that a lot.

Um, and like I said, it it ends up being an excuse.

Oh, well, I was busy, or oh, I had this or I had that.

Well, it's like, dude, like you're you're functioning 12 hours out of the day at least, right?

You're not busy or working all 12 hours, like you're taking a bathroom break, you're getting a drink, you're you know, uh going outside for a second and you know, answering that phone call, or you know, you're texting somebody, you know, you're driving.

Like there's you know, the excuses are not valid.

You know, there is so many, you know, and and it's something that I that I have to work on on a daily basis.

You know, it's it's something that you know we all do, we're all guilty of it, you know, but it's just humbling yourself and and going, hey, no, that's not an excuse.

I had a thousand chances today to talk to God, you know, and then taking that and and taking that humble humbleness and using it and and uh that you know it's God's guidance at the end of the day of just the fact that you can be humbled in that way, the fact that you can think about it like that means that God's working in your heart.

So you have to listen to that.

Yeah.

And um that kind of leads me into like the next part of what I think is very important about genuine faith is we need to be uh spirit-filled believers.

Yeah.

We need to be filled and guided by by the Holy Spirit on a regular basis.

And scripture actually tells us as well that we can that we can quench the Spirit of God.

And we can actually like distance ourselves from from the Spirit of God by just having a hard heart and refusing to uh to get in your word, uh, to be a a man or woman that's devoted to prayer, uh just saying, ah man, maybe I'll go to church next week instead.

And uh what I'm trying to say is like we need to be constantly feeding that.

Just like the the way we feed our bodies with physical food, we need to be feeding it with spiritual food as well.

I mean, this is something we need.

Yeah, it's good because we need we need the guidance of scripture.

We need uh we need the guidance of God through prayer.

Yeah, that's something we need.

And without it, I mean, man, I can think of so many times when I've kind of went like a couple days a week or or however long without um without like serious, like like I'm gonna actually like have some serious intimate time with God in prayer, or some serious, intimate time with God and in uh in my word.

And it would and it was just like I substituted it with, okay, God, thank you for this food and and bless it to my bodies, amen.

And it was kind of those little short type uh just kind of routine prayers, and it just it was it wasn't really something intimate at that time.

Yeah.

And bro, every time that I would go through one of those little cycles, every time, like something would just blow up.

Because I'm not being led by the spirit, I'm being led by my feelings.

Yep.

And my feelings lie to me, my emotions lie to me.

Yeah, not all the time.

I'm not saying emotions are a bad thing because God gave us emotions, but I'm just saying be careful.

Yeah, filter that through through the word of God.

Yeah, take every thought obedient, uh take every thought and make it obedient to Christ.

Yeah.

Second Corinthians 10 5.

Make every thought captive.

Yeah, take every thought captive.

Like, so we need this.

Even if you think you don't need it, just just just just try.

Get in it for real.

And and then and then you'll see what I'm talking about.

Like when you go through this little dry period where you're not in it, you're like, oh crap.

Like I need to really take this seriously.

Yeah.

And um yeah, man, I think just that that intimacy is just so overlooked.

Yeah.

We need to have that intimacy.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

I mean, I've noticed that, you know, multiple times in my life too, you know, where like where I go like outside of my normal like routine, so to speak, you know, like for example, so I work on cars for a living.

So there's multiple times where, you know, like I have my morning prayer that I do when I get up, and then I have my prayer that I do when I get to work.

Um, and I've noticed that when I miss one or both because I'm in a hurry, or I'm just not thinking about it, or like I'm so tired that I'm just like, you know, blah, you know, I'm not even thinking about, you know, that, you know, my prayer time.

And then I go into work and it's like, man, everything's breaking, my parts aren't getting there, you know, whatever, and nothing's going right, right?

I and then I stop and I think, okay, so what did I miss?

Oh, you know, I missed my prayer time with the Lord this morning.

You know, and and there's enough evidence proving that when I have that time with him, when I have that prayer with him and that intimacy with him in the morning before I get to work, man, it's like everything falls in line.

Parts are getting there.

I'm getting jobs done faster, you know, more efficiently.

Uh, I'm in a happy mood.

I'm just happy to be there, you know, and I'm enjoying what I'm doing.

You know, and I've noticed that when I don't have that intimacy time, when it's man, it's the exact opposite.

You know, and it's almost like I almost get that feeling of like, you know, he's up there like thumping me in the head, like, hey dude, did you forget something this morning?

Hey, yeah, yeah, the bolt broke because you're not paying attention.

What'd you miss this morning, man?

You know, and then I go, oh, because I'm a stupid human, you know, I'm a sheep.

And I go, oh, wait, yeah, I didn't have that time this morning.

I need to stop what I'm doing, go sit down and have some peace and quiet and talk with him, you know, and man, it's like I I do that and then I get back to it, and it's like everything's fluid, like it's supposed to be.

And it's like, dang, I'm such an idiot.

You know, I like why did I why did I do that to myself?

You know, but it it's it's real, you know, the intimacy is very important.

Yeah, I mean, uh when you think about uh just that alone time with the Lord, look at look at Jesus, look at his ministry.

He spent 30 years isolated and alone in the in the presence of God, just having intimate time with him before his ministry even started.

And even um at the at the front end, he spent 40 days uh in the wilderness praying and fasting, and that's when he was uh tempted by Satan three times in Matthew chapter four, I believe.

But um I think so many people they just want to be a leader and they want to have the this this platform or they want to they want people to to listen to what they have to say, and um, which I've I've been guilty of this too in my life, and this is something like the Lord had to really uh like like break me in like a like a baseball glove on this one.

Like I wanted the the platform and I wanted the the leadership opportunities, but I didn't want to put in the time to be there.

Yeah.

So the thing is like if you want to be a leader, if you want the the whatever, you gotta put in the time for it.

And you've got to you've got to put in especially the time like like intimately with the Lord.

Like you need to have, hey man, go on that prayer walk.

Go on that little uh well whatever.

Um you need to have um time in scripture because that's where leaders are built.

Yeah.

That's how your faith is built.

Because uh if if you're only going to the to uh to like uh your your little Bible study group or your small group if you're only going to to church on Sunday and that's just the entirety of what your faith is and you've gotten it wrong.

Yeah.

You missed the point.

Yeah.

Because your faith has to be your own.

It can't be somebody else's, can't be your pastors, can't be mom and dad's I mean there's no there's no last names that get into heaven.

Yeah.

It's first names.

It's it's something that's personal.

It's gotta be your own.

Yeah.

I mean I think uh it's just really important to like really just allow yourself to be humbled um and learn in that process of being humbled and just making it a point to like you said trust in the Lord's word trust in the evidence that's been seen and had and go all in you know don't sit on the fence because Jesus didn't sit on the fence for you you know Jesus didn't sit on the fence and say oh well maybe I want to do this maybe I don't want to do this no you know um he allowed himself to be beaten battered spit on cussed at you know not and and deeper than that he had to carry a cross that was just excruciatingly heavy you know for a long distance while still being spit on cussed at pushed kicked all the things you know to a point where he was just completely unrecognizable you know like they say that you couldn't tell whether he was a male or female you know by the time that he was actually on the cross you know he took that willingly and knowing that we were all going to fall short we were all going to sin we were all going to screw up we were all going to be just prodigal children so to speak um but he did that willingly he did that with a mission to give us a direct line a direct phone line to the father you know and also to be able to interject on our behalf so why can we not trust that and know that it's legitimate and know that it's true and just get off the fence you know just just dive right in and and and follow them and you'd be surprised at how much your life would change you know um the people around you would change you know because they would see you truly following you know Jesus man like it it's it's truly a reality it's it's there's it's fact yeah and I mean that's the whole point yeah the whole point of this life is how have I known him and how have I how have I made him known yeah and when we talk about faith we mean specifically and inclusively faith in Jesus and and we we're seeing this narrative that's pushed right now in today's world that oh you can just have your your faith in in whatever and and we take everybody's truth as equal and even though my truth might be can completely separate than what my neighbor's truth is like it's it's all compar it's all completely equal and we just take it for for what it is.

But like we're here and we're putting our foot down we're saying no like your faith in in this in in Islam it isn't working.

Yeah your faith in in your little tarot cards that that doesn't work your little crystals that doesn't work yep uh your which this one's crazy to me uh your zodiac sign oh gosh gosh man that stuff don't work and I think deep down these people know that well for like just to you know back up to what you said you know like Islam it the the book that they believe in I always butcher the name of it I call it the Quran everybody says it a thousand different ways I don't know whatever it's the same thing to me but you know some people say Quran whatever I don't care it's the same book it's it's awful because it debunks itself that whole religion debunks itself like it's it's crazy you know when you look into it and you research it like Muhammad literally says in that scripture that in order to believe his word you have to go and look at the book of the Christians to in order to trust his word because that word is true.

Yeah and it's like what yeah so even Muhammad believes in God's word so it debunks the whole Muslim religion right off the rip.

Yeah man we need to do uh a whole podcast on that that's gotta be at least a whole podcast where we just yeah talk about Islam.

That's opening up a whole can of worms there.

But yeah I just had to throw that out there because you see that's an incredible point.

Um and and hey man like and I this I'm saying this for the both of us here but if you're if you're listening to this and maybe you're participating in in Islam you're participating in uh the the crystals or the the witchcraft or you name it we're we're the reason we're not or the reason we're telling you this is because we love you.

Yeah we just want you to know Jesus we don't uh we don't condemn you for um uh for for being apart from him we're just calling you into repentance and we're calling you to to know Jesus because uh we know that that Jesus is the only truth and he the truth is going to set you free and the things that you're doing right now are not yeah they're just not working yeah yeah I mean it's the way that the world has been spinning and and living and you know all the things it it's just it's it's never worked it's never it's never been right you know it it's it's just it's like Pastor James says you know shout out to him um the live more it's it it's it's he always says it man it you know like all of these things that you're living for like your truck your house uh your guns all these things man like it's not like when you die they're hooking up a U-Haul to the hearse and you're taking it to the grave with you man like your truck is gonna go to some other Yahoo that's gonna lift it put wheels on it make it look ugly your guns are gonna get shot and they're more than likely going to kill more deer or more turkey or whatever it is in you with those guns.

Um I mean your house is going to get bought by somebody else and they're gonna do whatever they want to it and you know none of it is yours it's all vanity.

Yeah you know the the only thing that you get to take into heaven with you is your faith and those along the way that you shared that faith with that you shared the gospel with that gave their life to Christ those relationships that's it that's that's all you have to take you know into heaven that that's going to go with you that can go with you know everything else is not important.

Yeah yeah man that's good um uh kind of wrap things up uh for for the people who are living the lukewarm lifestyle right now um what do you think are some are some active ways for them to to get out of that lie and to to truly start following Jesus with their whole heart instead of half of it um just looking at themselves in the mirror looking at their lives in the mirror and thinking about the things that they are putting all this energy and time into and taking that energy and time and putting that into the scripture into the Bible putting it into their relationship and their intimacy with God the time that they're spending with their girlfriend they could be spending in the word and with God like you you should not be spending more time with your girlfriend than you are with God in his word.

You know the times that you're spending on video games you know or watching Netflix or whatever else you could be spending on your intimacy time with God and you're in the word with God.

And I would say that my biggest my biggest thing is just that you know um really just looking at yourself in the mirror and going okay you know I can't be sitting on the fence here.

I don't sit on the fence with anything else you know I don't sit on the fence with that phone that I want to buy I don't sit on the fence with that car that I want to buy I don't sit on the fence with that job or whatever you know I I I go get it and I enjoy it and I do all the things well you know how about try doing that with your faith how about try doing that with your time with God and in his word and you know I think having a genuine humbleness to just go to God you know he he wants you broken man like he he welcomes that you know um going to him humble and just saying hey God I don't have this figured out I don't know how to do this I I can't do it I it's impossible like it's a weight that I can't bear it's a weight that I can't carry and he will take that he will take that weight he will take that worry he will take that stress he will take all of the feelings that you're feeling with that you're feeling in that moment and he will bear it and he will take that from you but it it has to come from a good place.

You know you can't just come to him whenever you're having a hard time and a hard time only it comes from that intimacy and that time that you spent with him.

And so I think that for the lukewarm Christian it's just I think you really need to look at yourself in the mirror and you need to think about the things that you're allowing to run your mind and run your life and decide on whether you're gonna allow those things to be an idol over your life anymore or not or if you're just gonna get off the fence man and just run to Jesus run to his feet run to the cross and just have a genuine trust and faith in him and what he brings to the table for you the things that he did for you um and just let that grow and you'll be surprised at how much better your life will get yeah yeah that's yeah that's really good man um I would say uh a lot of people need to set their pride aside yeah that too um I think one of the the three most dangerous words are I've got this yeah you don't got this we we do not have this at all I mean Jonah didn't have it when whenever uh whenever I got saved four years ago and when when I had the truly realized that I'm not the most important thing in the universe and like I had to humble myself down to rock bottom and let him take the reins like that destroyed me.

Yeah when he started pointing things out in me that that were wrong that that broke me man because I wasn't in control anymore.

So I think we need to um uh definitely definitely um just set our pride aside and also um I brought this up in group earlier but um I think this is very important as well um I think we really see the the into the the intimacy that that we should have um with with Christ played out in in the person of of of Mary in in the gospels and no not not Jesus's mother but talking about uh Mary uh Martha's sister and and Lazarus's sister as well so we see her pop up three different times in the gospels and what is super interesting is that all three times she pops up she is at Jesus's feet uh the first time is when um is when Jesus and his disciples came preaching and teaching at their house and um Mary was at her feet or excuse me Mary was at his feet just listening and and consuming the word that he was speaking to her.

So there she is just at his feet receiving that's where we lack.

Yeah the second time is when is when her brother Lazarus died and and um Mary uh went up to Jesus and um and just weeped at his feet just cried at his feet and guess what's so interesting about that story we see the shortest verse in the entire Bible Jesus wept he joined her in her suffering even though Jesus was going to go heal him moments after and raise Lazarus from the dead he already knew his plan.

Yeah I mean that was the plan from the get go but we it just it that that just really shows us that Jesus joins us in our suffering but anyways uh the third is when um is when Mary pours the fragrant oil on his feet she's at his feet just anointing just anointing him when a whole year's worth of salary yeah it was like an entire year's worth of salary and um man jesus compliments her faith and and pretty much says like hey use her as an example she's at my feet and she's like like pouring everything onto me she's she's at my feet listening to what I'm to what I'm telling her through through the through uh through prayer through through the word um and she's at she's at his feet just weeping suffering being honest pouring out your heart that's where so many people lack now people aren't honest with God people say these uh really puffed up kind of uh vocabulary uh beautiful prayers uh to to God that aren't genuine at all yeah we need to be more honest and genuine and open and and talk to him like a friend I mean he he he is God he is lord of all things but guess what he loves you and he wants an intimate conversation with you yeah the God of the universe left heaven to come and have a meal with you he wants an intimate conversation he doesn't want the puffed up bull crap yeah because he knows your heart before you even enter into into prayer with him yeah and then at the third uh the third time man like she is just giving him everything she has that's the opposite of lukewarm yeah she's not giving him half she's giving him everything because he is worthy yeah well because he know or she knew that he was going to provide yeah regardless you know I mean it's there's been multiple times in my life um even within the last year um I won't go too far into it because we don't have you know a whole lot of time but you know there was just a a time this past summer where you know um man I had the job man I had I had the money to the point where I could just swipe and it was there and I wasn't being a good steward of that at that point in time.

Um and the Lord took it man he took that job and humbled me hard you know he put me in a place where I had a job but I was making about half the money and I had to really rely on him in that time.

And that was a very humbling period for me where I had to realize that like I was not in control.

I was not stewarding my money and my time properly and I had to really remember what it was like to have to rely on him and trust him.

And man when I did that like I'm talking about you know struggling to pay bills pray to him and rely on him know he's gonna provide man there was three times that checks showed up in my mail that I didn't even know were coming you know from like overpayment on homeowners insurance that I didn't even know happened you know it helped me pay the mortgage you know just the things that I didn't even ask for that I didn't know were coming came because I was humble and just came to him with genuine um desire for his time and just took the time to understand his word and just just poured everything I had into him and he poured everything he had into me and he provided you know so much so that when that season was over he brought me back to the original job.

You know like I it and it it was it was it's I'm at a different point in my life now where like I value things that I wasn't valuing in looking at first you know when I initially had the job you know so that just goes to show that if you trust him you're honest with him and you're humble he will provide yeah you know it's like he says you know do do the birds not have food to eat you know I mean you think that he values the bird more than you you know birds always have some type of feed you know whether it's a worm whether it's an ant whether it's you know a a seed from something the bird's always gonna eat well I tell you this much he values you a lot more than that bird yeah and he will provide he will provide food he will provide you know uh happiness love joy and all the things but you have to accept him first yeah yeah that's good bro um you gotta be dependent yeah I mean that's that's the the childlike faith uh childlike doesn't necessarily refer to innocence like the innocence of a child but rather it's referring to like how much do you depend on your father in heaven and if if all your dependence is not on him if you if you've got half your dependence on on yourself and half on him don't work you need to be dependent on him well it's like an infant baby right yeah it's completely 1000% dependent on its mother and father to provide food to provide a bed to provide safety transportation whatever um you know the baby can't do anything all it's gonna do is selfishly cry and and desire things nonstop all day long we need to be that way with Jesus with the father we we need to desire him the same way an infant desires its parents because without the parents the baby can't survive without Jesus and without the father we cannot survive we cannot enter into eternity yeah yeah that's right um well I think that's a good place to put a pen in it yeah um I enjoyed that and uh of course I feel like well we left a lot unsaid uh we could have we could have stayed here and talked for yeah for hours I'm sure but um yeah there will be more episodes and we'll we will we'll definitely get in and fill in some some gaps that we missed but that's just kind of the overview of um of the topic for today but yeah I thoroughly enjoyed that yeah yeah it was a good time yeah will you pray for us oh man gonna pray out again Lord we just come to you and we thank you for this time we thank you for just uh pouring from your overflow into Jonah and I um to be able to um just spread your word spread your gospel spread your love and just talk about your faith talk about your love talk about all of the things that you have for us before we were even born you knew us in the womb Lord and you knew all of the sins that we were going to commit throughout our life and yet you still chose us and yet you still love us and you still forgive and for that we just thank you um we just thank you for just the constant grace the constant blessings that you continue to provide um in all the listeners' lives and we just ask that um you know even if it's just that one Lord that one that heard something that we said today we just ask that you use that mustard seed and you water it and you grow it and you have an encounter with that one person and we just pray that they come to you and we just pray that the people that are on the fence Lord the ones that claim they know you but don't we just ask that um that they just jump off the fence onto the right side we just ask that uh they come to you and just put everything that they have at your feet and just love and trust you and just believe your word believe that it is good and believe that you can and will save them and that you can and will bring them into eternity with the Father it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen well thank you guys for watching we'll see y'all next time

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