July 23, 2025 • 57 mins
This week’s episode is a deeply personal and reflective one. Granger, Parker, and AntMan sit down to remember the life and legacy of Pastor John MacArthur, who recently passed away. They share stories about his bold, unwavering commitment to biblical truth, how his sermons impacted their faith, and why his voice stood out in a culture full of compromise.
Granger also opens up about AntMan’s recent stroke and how it became a moment of clarity and conviction. Together, they unpack Scripture—specifically John 5—and discuss what it means to give yourself fully to God, to live a life that’s not your own, and to offer your body as a living sacrifice.
Later in the episode, the guys respond to an honest listener question from someone struggling with spiritual numbness, doubt, and disconnection from God. If you’ve ever felt distant from your faith or unsure how to return, this conversation will meet you where you are.
This is a raw, honest episode filled with hope, Scripture, and heartfelt encouragement for anyone walking through the valley.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, we're back at the table again. Thanks for
being here, everybody. Parker, thank you for being here. Ant
Man love podcast days like this we get to walk
through things without really a map or a we don't
really have an outline. We're kind of going off a
few things that I want to talk about for sure.
(00:21):
One of them is the recent news as we record
this podcast. John MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community in California,
has met glory. He's passed away in the as we
record this, it was last night we got the news.
Amber and I were on a walk and I knew
(00:42):
that he was sick. He had pneumonia and he was
People were saying things like, this is the sickness that
he's not gonna he's not gonna get well from. And
so we're kind of he's been sick for a while here,
he's been we've known for a while. We're kind of
preparing the day was coming. But then yesterday the announcement came.
(01:03):
This pneumonia that was going to be the one he
doesn't get well from, which sounds very biblical. When he
was when he came down with a sickness that he
was going to die from, we all knew that last night,
I was keeping it Dutch. It was Sean that texted me.
He said he passed, and I knew what he was
(01:25):
talking about, and I looked it up and it was
like within thirty minutes. Sean texted me, I was on
a walk with Amber and I said MacArthur's gone, and
Amber just immediately, you know, welled up and her eyes
glazed over, and on that walk just thought about the
years of his ministry and the impact on our family,
(01:46):
and I know on your family as well, Parker and
so many listening his How would you describe in Parker,
his just unashamed, steady devotion, his just kind of rock
solid faithfulness through decades and decades in ministry. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
He was the first pastor that I listened to after
I became a believer who I was just looking for
someone to just tell me how it is right. And
whenever I would leave church at the time, I would,
I would. I remember the very first sermon that I
listened to of his. It was called I pulled it
(02:36):
up right here is called becoming a Better You, says
The title on YouTube is John MacArthur Becoming a Better You.
Question Mark has six million views. And I was so
caught up in the self help movement of everything's just
about you to become the best version of yourself, and
he just like destroyed that notion and was like, that
(02:58):
is satanic to just revolve everything around you. And he
has a way of words with words that's like polarizing
in a way. Yeah, and so that naturally does get
him more attention, and that's just kind of his personality
and his teaching style. But also I think that, yeah,
it was just in a world where everyone's just trying
(03:19):
not to step on people's toes to offend them with Christianity.
MacArthur's just like, this is what the Bible says, and
I declare that this is what God says. And there's
something about that that, as Mark Dever would say, it
turns away the non believers, but to the true Christian
it gets their feet dumping. They're just like, Yeah, this
(03:39):
is the real stuff, this is the real stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Just give it.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Tell me what does the Bible stay say?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Tell me how it is? So yeah, it's home, it's
home cooking. It just you're like, oh, I feel I
feel full now from this meal, and I've been eating McDonald's.
I recognize I've been eating McDonald's and now I feel
fool I don't always feel good about it either. Like
you listen to a MacArthur sermon, you don't often I've
(04:04):
listened to hundreds. I know you probably have two hundreds
of MacArthur's sermons and not all of them. Do you
finish it and go, yeah, all right, Glory to God.
A lot of times are like, oh, man, you know,
I am convicted by this. And because of that, he
(04:26):
kind of a lot of people didn't like him. He
had a lot of enemies on this earth. I remember
one time a pastor came up to me, and this
is when I was going to the the Puritan Conference.
It's the only time I've seen MacArthur is I. I
flew out to LA and went to the Puritan Conference
(04:47):
and a guy, a pastor of a kind of a
secret church in Texas that I knew, asked me what
I was doing this week, and I was like, I'm
going to LA and he goes, MacArthur is an why
would you do that? Why would you do that? You
know the things he says, he is an idiot, and
(05:09):
that really represents a lot of people that and hope
I say some of these things for people that don't
know John MacArthur. I say this so that they're like,
I'm curious.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Yeah, I'm gonna go judge for myself.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Oh, judge for myself. But he is for decades faithfully
just preached the Bible, and I don't agree with everything.
MacArthur says. I'm assuming we at this table we don't either.
Let me tell you what Mark dever mentor of mine
in Parker's said. You probably heard this, Parker, he said.
(05:41):
John MacArthur, of course, was old and ailing. He texted
me this. We're delighted he's with the Lord, but even
though we had our disagreements, we will still miss his steadiness,
his frequent, regular faithfulness. We trust the Lord's timing. Today
we also feel the court the curse of mortality. I
(06:05):
wanted to read another a couple other quotes here. This
is actually from the Nine Marks Instagram page. They posted this.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
HB.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Charles Junior said, John MacArthur has been an unspeakable blessing
to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. As his
work ends, his impact and influence will continue for years
to come. Rest well, faithful soldier of the Cross Mark
dever On here says, I am but one of the
countless under shepherds of God's flock whom John has powerfully
(06:38):
and regularly encouraged. Kevin Deyong said John was never anything
but kind and encouraging to me, which I'm sure has
been the experience of many other younger men. I give
thanks for his Bible shaped life and his Bible saturated ministry.
Liccoan Duncan said John preached Christ and the Lord blessed
(06:58):
his ministry in bringing many laws sheep home and feeding
the guarding, feeding and guarding those fond sorry, feeding and
guarding those found sheep with God's word. Al Mohler said
John MacArthur was one of the most significant exponent of
expository preaching of his generation. His ministry and exposition radiated
(07:23):
out of God at of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California,
and both taught and encouraged fellow preachers all over the globe.
John Piper said, I stood in awe of what John
MacArthur could do in the pulpit with the passage of Scripture.
As with all powerful expositional preaching, no description can capture
what makes it powerful. I want to encourage people listening
(07:45):
to go and find him a nice cuffee chair and
a YouTube. Search for John MacArthur and don't just look
for the three minute clips. Instead, find yourself a sermon,
find John preaching through a text, and you'll find partly
how simple it is. That's what I usually recognize with John.
(08:07):
You'll find a very complicated passage and MacArthur makes it
feel just very simple and straightforward.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
And if you did it right, the chair is the
only thing comfortable.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yeah, find yourself a comfy chair, because you won't be
comfortable with the sernment. The rest of it will not
be comfortable. And then and then there's the Larry King stuff.
The Larry King stuff is a treasure for the church
Capital c Church and will be for years to come.
I was so comforted by that in the days when
(08:46):
I was saturating myself with teaching during COVID and we
were living in the RV. I can remember being in
that RV, and there's so many times, so many things
I remember that experience with my family right here on
this property. But I remember specifically listening through around Christmas
(09:07):
time to John MacArthur on Larry King Live with all
the other religious leaders sitting at the table around him.
And I was telling Aunt earlier and I would encourage
anyone to go and once again not to look for
the three minute clips, but trying to sit down and
listen to or on a drive. Maybe you're driving your
truck and you're going to work and you're like, I
(09:29):
don't know what to do on my commute today. Look
up a Larry King live that includes John MacArthur at
the table and listen to the thirty minute forty minute conversation.
And Larry King was always interested in religion, and he
was interested in bringing world religious leaders to the table
to have a round table discussion. And he would ask
(09:52):
a question, and Larry King would kind of, you know,
delegate the table and he would bring, you know, head
the a high priest of the Catholic Church. He would
bring a head, a higher rabbi of the of the
Jewish faith. He would bring a Buddhist priest. He would bring.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
A universal spiritualist, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
A universal spiritualist. He would bring a he would bring
a high islam seanman I don't know, and and it
would go around the table and you would you would
Larry King would ask difficult questions, and it would be
as every person would handle that question. They would say things.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Like that's a tough one.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
You know, we feel like or I feel like when
when this delicate matter is at hand and we're we're
wrestling through love and and be and honoring God, and
we feel like the best thing. They would always say
those that kind of language. And John would say, well,
the Bible says, Scripture tells us. God makes it very
(11:00):
clear in Scripture. And he would never say I think
or my opinion is, or what we as Christians feel like.
You would never use that language. You just say, there's
what the Bible says. And Larry would push and Larry
would ask very uncomfortable things and like we saw one earlier.
He well, that sounds like an American idea, yeah, And
(11:21):
MacArthur said, I would say that if I was French.
You know.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
It was also the video that was just a bunch
of clips. And when he would he would land a
truth bomb of something, it would be that you know
it pause and it would have those eight bit glasses
that float across you know, his eyes and land on
his eyes like you know, you know, thug next to
him or the word but just Yeah, those are fun
to watch, but like you said, go get the twenty
thirty minute one.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah, go get the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Actual having having a conversation on one topic or whatever.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Because it's important to hear what what does the Jewish
guy say? Listen to his answer, and and you'll hear
answers that those guys give. That makes you feel good.
But it's it's only an opinion, it's only a Well,
we feel like in heaven. We feel like heaven would
be a place where MacArthur never says that. Well, the
(12:12):
Bible says, heaven is this. The Bible says, the only
way to heaven is this. The Bible says this. And
and he was just unashamed, and he had no fear
of man, and it's so great to watch that. I
can't speak for women, but I could speak for young
men that people that have kind of gravitated towards like
the Jordan Peterson movement and Jordan Peterson saying things like
(12:37):
young men need to be told that there's something greater
that they could they could latch onto, and then there's
they've been called to something higher than they could possibly imagine.
It's more than they what they can even comprehend right now.
And the answer to that was always MacArthur who was
(12:57):
calling young men forward through scripture. And so I think
that's why his actual church grew and grew and grew
and ended up Grace Community was a really big church
at the end. And like you said earlier, that that
people people kind of mix up the idea that in
order to build a church, a good you know, nice
sized church with with that's an active congregation and you
(13:22):
need to make sure you come up with hot new
fun ideas or good music or big lights, or good
topics that would are good food or good coffee. Is
the opposite, you know, he just preached the next text
and scripture weekend and week out without thinking about a
hot new topic. Or that's what MacArthur did.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Yeah, I think if there was a verse to summarize
his ministry, it's the one that he would recite in
his intro to Grace to you in almost every video,
which is for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for
it is the power of God for salvation to everyone
who believes the jew first and also to the Greek
Romans one sixteen. So he would always say, since when
(14:06):
did we become so ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
and so like that's kind of the you know, that's
kind of the theme of his ministry that came across
to me. Larry King goes to each person, says, Rabbi,
what happens when you die? He goes to the atheist,
what happens when you die? John MacArthur, what happens when
you die? And he goes, Oh, you go to one
(14:26):
of two places, depending if you put your faith in
Jesus Christ or not.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
It's just like, that's what the Bible says.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Just remember hearing that, I'm just like, wow, if the
Bible is true, then that is the answer.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
But so few people would want to give that answer
on national television because they would view it as unloving, yeah,
or lacking gentleness. But there's just something like you said
about him just saying it how it is.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yeah, I could say that going back to that Mark
never text to me. John MacArthur was, of course old
and ailing. He says, we're delighted that he's with the Lord,
even though we had our disagreements. We will miss his steadiness,
(15:19):
his frequent, regular faithfulness. One of those disagreements. I know
for a fact, I don't think Mark would mind me
saying this, but one of the disagreements those two had
was during COVID.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
You know.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
MacArthur's like, we're not shutting down. Yeah, you know, never
was in DC and dealing with a much different kind
of bureaucracy than than MacArthur was dealing with in LA,
with those those nutcases out there, you know. And Devor
was like, I think we need to I think we
need to think through this a little more. MacArthur's like,
(15:52):
there's nothing to think about basically. So there that was
one that was some some of it, but but never
says us. We trust in the Lord's timing today, but
we also feel the curse of mortality, which is what
all death should remind us of. That this is this
(16:13):
is a death is a horrible thing, and death is
not the way that it was supposed to be. In fact,
I wasn't. That just made me think of something else
because I'm prepping to preach on July twenty seventh, I'm
prepping to preach John five. Well, this podcast come out
before or after that? What's the day, July twenty seventh.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Yeah, this comes out on the this is today is
the twenty.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
First, Okay, so the Monday, this coming Sunday, I hope
to preach and that's the sick man at the pool
of Bethesda that the Lord heals. And I I saw
(16:59):
this quote from jac as I was reading through commentary
on John five. He says, this what misery sin is
brought into the world, and how great is the mercy
and compassion of Christ recovery from sickness ought to impress us.
He goes on to talk about death and how death
(17:21):
is not death is not the way it was supposed
to be. We talked about this recently on a podcast here,
but a death of a saint like this MacArthur should
immediately make us think about our own death and our
own fragile mortality, which leads me to you aunt just
a week ago or so?
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Yeah, it was two weeks ago, yesterday?
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Okay, you no one knows this.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Yeah, you had a stroke.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
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Speaker 3 (19:55):
You had a stroke, I did.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
I think you called it a mini stroke, but nonetheless
it was a stroke. Stroke.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
It's two, there's two two strokes.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Tell us about that and that that experience.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Weirdest thing that I've ever I've had blood high blood pressure,
I would say, my entire life. I don't know if
that's true, I'd say at least since my twenties, and
I'm forty eight now, so it's always been something I've battled,
and the signs of the possibilities were always shared with
(20:36):
me by doctors. Hey, this can be detrimental. If you
don't have a stroke, it can still do damage to
organs in your body having high blood pressure this high.
But I had one thing that was different than most
of their patients. I had no symptoms of anything. I
didn't feel weird, I didn't feel I didn't have a
(20:58):
headache when I'd have high blood pressure. I didn't. I
wasn't flush anything like that. All the signs that most people,
Hey I've had a headache for days or what have
or you been in this situation. I have a migraine now,
none of that. One thing I did experience with something
called an ocular migraine, and I've had those for probably
the last fifteen years, and they're off and on. They're
usually brought on by stress. I looked for a connection
(21:22):
between high blood pressure and that, and no doctor could
ever give a definitive answer. No research and even chat
GBT as that's come along, nothing gives an answer that says, yes,
if you have this, it's probably because of this, or
it's likely because of this. Never found a connection. But
the Friday before all this happened, my wife Ashley, and
(21:45):
I went out, we had a rare date night, and
we came home and getting ready for bad getting ready
for bed, and I had an ocular migraine start. And
if you've never had one, it's equivalent to like looking
through a kaleidoscope with one eye in just part of
your eye, and it moves across your field of vision.
You can't see anything past it. And that happened. Well,
(22:08):
Those usually last fifteen minutes or so and then they're
gone and no no headache, no no pain, just a
visual instance. I had that on Friday, woke up on Saturday,
still had it. That's rare when all day Saturday kind
of off and on it get worse. Sometimes sometimes it would,
it would it would subside some still there on Sunday
morning when I got up, and when I got up,
(22:30):
we got ready for church and ash said, we're going
to the hospital, and we did, and my blood pressure
was sky high, like two fifty to eighty something like that,
over one seventy, which is just for those guys. They
were freaking out. They're like, this is an emergency, go
over to the hospital now, and ran through a cat scan.
(22:53):
It was clear, which means no bleeding. If there was
a stroke, there was no bleeding. Did a an MRI
and they were like, yep, right here two places, but
they were in the areas of mobility and the areas
of memory. A pause for effect, you know. I'm just
(23:14):
the other area was what that was, which, praise the Lord.
I have no side effects from that, which I believe
that when you have a bleeding stroke is usually where
you find more the severe symptoms, uh, paralysis on a side,
or speech issues or memory things like that, with no bleeding,
(23:38):
just a basically a shutdown of you know, uh, the
blood supply stopped in those two areas and they don't
know how or why now. When they came in and
started telling me what they wanted to do, I was cautious.
I was fine with most of the things on the outside.
One of the wanted to start doing stuff on the inside,
(23:59):
running a scope down with wrote things like that. I
was a little apprehensive, but they did install a heart monitor,
so I'm I am officially a cyborg. I have a
computer and planted in my in my chest on the star. Yeah, exactly.
I don't have the cool glasses though, that's the only thing.
That's what I joked about while they were doing the surgery,
because they cut a little a little. It's it's only
(24:20):
about an inch long into computer and it monitors everything
your heart does. So if you go into a rhythmia,
which is a leading cause of strokes, then it will
notice it, it'll record it, and it'll send a message
to the doctor going he was an a fhi here.
It sends a message. It sends them a message. It
(24:41):
sends the messages every day, and it connects with an
app on my phone.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Okay, so it sends through your phone through my phone, yeah,
through Bluetooth.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Yeah, and it's just the app reads it's connected to
their systems there. It continually reads my heart or reads
that computer chip in my chest, and it's always recording
what my heart's doing. If I'm working out, it'll record
high heart rate.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
So you need to have your phone in your pocket
now because of that.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Yeah. So let's say it's always with me and yeah,
and it stays connected. But they're still looking for a reason.
I looked for a reason in a different way. Clearly
there's something. My first thought was, there's something you want
to do with this God and my prayers. And he
(25:30):
brought two verses. I didn't know the verses. I had
to look them up, but I knew what they were.
The first one is what you're preaching on next week?
Speaker 1 (25:39):
No?
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Really, John five one through fifteen, and it was literally
stop sinning, so nothing worse happens? No, really, really did?
Speaker 1 (25:58):
You didn't know I was preaching that. Just walked in
and saw all the books in your.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
That's why I kind of went when I walked off,
because I asked, what yoga? What are you all this study?
And I have a picture of the desk. It's just
has books open, and I said, what are you studying today?
That says this for are you preaching soon? He's like, yeah,
preaching on John chapter five? Yep.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
So you and I have stood there that pulled a
bethesday in Israel yep, right outside of Saint Ane's cathedral.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
I didn't know that that was what was the next verse.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
The next verse was in Matthew twenty two and they're
trying to catch Jesus in a in a liar in
something that they could arrest him for. They said, should
they pay taxes to Caesar? He's like, hen me a coin,
and I read it, but you can go look it up.
He's like, whose name and title is stamped on this?
(26:58):
They said, Caesar? Cool, and give to Caesar what is Caesar's?
But he doesn't end there. Give to God what is God's?
But he doesn't explain that. And I thought as I
read that, I was like, oh, but his image is
stamped in our DNA. We were made in his likeness.
(27:19):
So what's stamped on us is God. And if you're redeemed,
that's your title. So now give to God what is God's?
What is that you?
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Otherwise your counterfeit?
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Yeah? Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
What do we do with counterfeits?
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Well you get a person using it goes to jail,
I mean.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Absolutely, so it gets destroyed about John five.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
So stop sinning and give yourself to God.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
So that that's what I got. I didn't pick that, obviously,
that's just where we are at a mass, and that
that's just what I'm up up with. But you know,
see you or well send no more that nothing worse
may happen to you. We don't know. We don't know
(28:10):
a lot about this. One thing we know about this
about this story is that the man that was healed
is not healed because of faith, like the man that
was lowered down through the roof. And this man doesn't
actually show anything. Jesus singles him out a very specific
(28:36):
place where there's a multitude. It says, of these people
that are lame and sick and paralyzed on a very
specific day. And he does a very specific thing to
a very specific man, and the man doesn't have anything
to do with anything. He says, do you want to
be healed? Es says, you want to be healed? Otherwise rendered?
(29:00):
Do you want to be made well? Which is interesting
that we'd made it. It's like created, will you be
made well? And he's asking him that. Of course Jesus
knows everything, but he asked him that question, and it
would be like it would be like someone someone once
(29:27):
what's a good example trying to go to maybe a
go to a therapist is one example. Someone going to
a secular therapy because they're having, you know, childhood trauma.
It's like we would ask them, are you trying to
be healed? It's not that it's not that we don't
know the answer to the question. It's like, you know,
(29:48):
this is not going to do it right. It would
be like if Maverick was out here and he was
trying to wash his go kart off from mud, and
he had a muddy rag and he's wiping them go
I would say, are you trying to clean that right?
I know what his answer is, but I'm saying this
is not you know, this is not the way to
clean this right. So he asked the man that do
(30:13):
you want to be healed? The sick man answered, yeah,
I have no willing. It makes an excuse. Jesus said
to him, get up, which is rise a rise. It's
the same same word he used for the little girl.
I say to you a rise, and the dead girl.
And he says same word. He says to the the
paralytic that was let down for the roof, rise, take
(30:36):
up your bed and walk. That didn't require this man.
This healing didn't require the man's faith. And then Jesus says,
and at once the man was healed, and he took
up his bed and walked. So he's healed. And then
he takes up his bed and walks. So many interesting things.
The next the next verses, Now that day was the Sabbath.
(30:58):
Jesus would have known you can't carry your not that
you can't. He would have known that the Jews, the leaders,
would have thought that you can't carry this. Jesus could
have easily said, get up, leave your mat there and walk.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Yeah, you didn't have to pick up and roll up
the mat and take it with you.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Yeah, he said, yeah, take your mat, knowing this is
a show. He's heading for a showdown. But to your
point up here, he says, He says, later when he
finds him in the temple, sin no more so that
nothing worse may happen to you.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Well, love that whole. The end between that, though, too,
is that he just disappears. Jesus just disappears, and the
Pharisees going to be like, what are you doing? You
can't do He goes the guy who healed me told
me to do it.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
The word in Greek is the same word for dodge. Yeah,
Jesus dodged the crowd.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Yeah. And then he shows but he goes out to
find the man again in the temple.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Sees him in the temple, which would be the first
time this man could go in the temple. A defiled
man can't go in the temple right, So he's going there,
you would think to praise the Lord, for hey, I
could walk. I can go in the temple now, not
only to praise God, but I can now. I wasn't
able to for thirty eight years. I can go in
(32:14):
there now. And he goes in there, and Jesus finds him, says, hey,
you're healed. Good, don't do it, don't sin anymore, or
something worse may happen to you. That's different than go
your faith has healed you. Sure, that's different. He tells
other people you're forgiven, like the woman that was that
(32:39):
was crying and her weeping and her tears were falling
on Jesus' feet, and he says, your sins are forgiven.
Your faith has healed you. He doesn't say that to
this man. He's physically healed, but not he's not saved
spiritually healed yet. So it's very This is just a
(33:00):
very interesting story. And it's very interesting that you were
thinking that through this stroke.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Yeah, through the whole thing, and I whether you know, yes,
things that I need to deal with, but also the
message of it of the two things, and I don't
think there are two things were put together by accident.
It was stop sinning and give yourself to God. What
is already stamped in you. You give to Caesar what
(33:27):
is Caesar's? Give to God what is God's?
Speaker 1 (33:30):
And and you're healed from the stroke. So that, yeah,
there's that. Yeah, it's like you're healed.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
I don't have any side of that. I had had
one day, I said in one day, I had one
instance that had lasted a couple of days, that my
left arm felt really light. If you were worked out
and then try to go in and grab a bottle
of water sitting on a cabinet and you go past it,
or you grab it and run through it, you know,
(33:57):
you may knock it off. That's what it felt like
to me. Is that left. And then after those couple
of days, it was everything's normal, I'm lifting it again.
So yesterday was the first day for that getting back
and working out. Whatever.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
What do you got cooked over here?
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Well, what you said about giving yourself to God just
reminded me of what I've been thinking about. I've been
on Romans twelve. I've just been reading it over and
over and over again in the last week and a
half and I read this morning for from him it
is the end of eleven beginning of twelve. For from him,
and through him and to him are all things. To
Him be glory forever.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and
acceptable to God, which is.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Your spiritual worship.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed
by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you
may discern what is the will of God, what is
good and acceptable and perfect. And it's like each verse
of twelve you could just think about all day. But
the idea of because of who God is and because
of what He's done through his son, therefore present your
(35:04):
body as a living sacrifice.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
It's got you.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Like the Bible says, we are not our own. He
owns us, He owns you, he owns me. He's completely
and totally in control. He saved us, He's adopted us
as children. He said, We're going to be with him
in paradise, And so what do we do there for
but live as a present our bodies as a living sacrifice,
giving him everything's his.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
That's great, you know. I with this talk, all this
talk about MacArthur, it's hard not to also talk about
Urc Sproll, who we lost in twenty seventeen. Another just
titan of the faith and friend of MacArthur. And if
people don't know Sproll, then oh there's there's a lot
(35:51):
of a lot of harvesting you could do with that man.
Just dig dig dig dig Urc Sproll. Anyway, I was
watching him the other day. He's another probably taught five
for me of guys I just have enjoyed listened to
over the years. He just such, he has taught me
so well. And he's not even you know, he died
(36:13):
in twenty seventeen. He still teaches me. But I saw
him the other day on YouTube in his later years,
and I don't remember. I wish I could find the reference,
but I don't remember what I was looking at. But
he was preaching, and he had oxygen machine on him
with the tubes up his nose, and he had the mic.
(36:34):
He's at the pulpit. He had the mic coming around
so you could hear hear them the Darth Vader, you know,
and he was just preaching fire wow, and he was like,
and our Lord says in commands that that, you know,
just just scripture and fire and just preaching and just
and beautiful exposition. And you just reminded that his body's
(36:57):
a living sacrifice, like you said in Romans twelve, you're
reminded that of the falling world we live in and
send the corruption of our own bodies. But while he's here,
he's using this body to the very end. And RC did, man,
he used every bit that the Lord gave him to
the very end. Up at that pulpit, could barely stand
(37:18):
with oxygen shooting up his nose and his mouth preaching fire.
I was like, I told Dan, I said, that's what
I want to do. I mean, I got tears to
my eyes when I was in my eyes when I
was watching that. I just thought, that's what I want
to do. Lord, use me to the very end. Until
I have no oxygen left, I have to pump it
in with the with the tank. That's what I want
to do. And you could just see the light in
(37:39):
his eyes. His eyes were lit up as he was
preaching the gospel. His oxygen was a shooting in his nostrils.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Yeah, just the way those pastors are built. That's what
they always say, Like, if you can do anything else
and be content, do it. But those preachers, man, they
just they, like Spurgeon said, if you can literally do
nothing else without thinking about expounding and talking about the
Word of God, then like you were called to be
(38:11):
a preacher. And so for Aunt or me or people listening,
and you're like, well, I don't want to preach. What
does that mean for me? Well, we'll each have our
own gifts. Yeah, So just because you're not saying that
you want to spend every breath that you have preaching,
that's totally okay. I think that, like, each person has
their own gifts. And so for Aunt, that means for
him to present his body as a living sacrifice tomorrow morning,
(38:34):
to say, this day's yours God, my body's yours, my
money's yours. Everything that could look differently than it does
for Granger or you know, depending on what your profession is,
what would it look like for each of us and
each person listening tomorrow morning, whether you're an investment banker
or whether you're you're washing dishes at the local restaurant,
(38:56):
what would it mean for you.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
To, to, uh.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart
as unto the Lord.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
All right, I'm trying to find a video of this
and i'll show you later. But uh, there's a few
of them with let's see mischief. That's actually him and macarthur' talking. Well.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
You can hear.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
That Jesus was fully God and fully man. If you
mean by that that that one person was absolutely.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
Totally yep, God, keep it going today if you go
to the end. He has a funny uh, a funny
back and forth with MacArthur. I remember he says. MacArthur
says Jesus was fully God and fully man and r
c being.
Speaker 4 (39:54):
Or all kinds of mischief, god fully man, with all
the reasonableness of man.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
So there's MacArthur truly God and truly man.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
Because it can be confused. And when you say that
Jesus was fully God and fully man, if you mean
by that that that one person was absolutely totally God
and that's all, then you'd be denying as in humanity.
Or if you say it was fully man, then there's
no room for his deity. That's why we like to
say vera homo vera is truly God, truly man.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
That's what I meant that's what I mean oxygen? Why John,
Johnny Mack.
Speaker 4 (40:40):
Do you always make me to define what you meant?
Speaker 3 (40:48):
Both don't argue too much with the guy with the
oxygen and they're both in heaven.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
Now that It's funny because John MacArthur was like the
like the elder to so many, but he was he
was the under shepherd to a guy like r.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
C Oh.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
Yeah, it was above him.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
So it was funny to see them interact because you
don't usually see John MacArthur talk to like that.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
Yeah, and John Piper does that, does that too. He
would put MacArthur in his place, and Sproll of course
would always put in his place. But it was it
was a beautiful thing watching it, and I got to
see some of those panels. Not an RC, but but
I saw Piper put MacArthur in his place, like John,
I think that's just wrong. I do think that's unhelpful
(41:34):
to say something like that, and and MacArthur goes, yeah,
maybe maybe you're right, but no one would say that. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
Seeing Piper and MacArthur interact like that was really cool
because they both love Christ and they both agree on
the main things. And then they show they model disagreements
on other things well and taking criticism.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
Well, m do we have time to have some questions? Sure,
some heavy topics today, heavy topics today on the but
maybe we have some wider questions. We'll see, No, somehow,
I don't think we wouldn't know. Okay, if you want
to email us email podcast at grangersmith dot com. Happy
to answer your questions. And that also reminds me that
we're going to take this podcast live. Yes, give me
(42:19):
announcing some dates coming up.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
We were hoping to announce at least a date or two,
or maybe kind of give some ideas of cities on
this episode. It's just a little too premature to say
anything right this second, but know that we are working
and we're almost there to be able to announce them. Okay,
so looking forward to that in the coming weeks.
Speaker 4 (42:38):
Great.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
Well, the first question comes and it says from anonymous.
It says, hey, Grangeur, if you share this, please keep
me anonymous. I'm in my mid twenties. I grew up
in church, but over the past year and a half
my relationship with Christ has really changed. Honestly, I barely
feel a desire to connect with God anymore. I used
to be open about my faith, but now I'm not
sure anyone would even know I'm a Christian. I recently
(43:01):
heard vote Backham's sermon about the Older Brother, and I
saw myself in that story, quick to judge others, but
blind and my own issues. Sometimes I even wonder why
I don't have what others do, even though I have
done all the right things. Quote. I know I need Jesus,
but part of me wants to keep him at a distance.
(43:22):
My heart feels hard, and I'm not sure how to
change that. Sometimes I worry I'm too far gone, or
that I've committed the unforgivable sin just by not wanting
to talk to God. Is it possible for someone like
me to be saved even when my heart feels this way?
Thanks for listening. Yeah, it's a good question, and fortunate
(43:43):
for Anonymous, unfortunate for us all. It's actually very very common.
It's a very very common thing. And I've heard this
so many times in person with someone that I'm fairly sure,
even though it's impossible, No, but I'm fairly sure that Anonymous,
(44:04):
you don't have any kind of daily reading at all. Now,
even if you were reading your Bible daily with some
kind of devotional reading. And I'm not talking about through
your church, or through your small group, or through your
I'm just talking about you and the Lord and a plan.
(44:25):
Like Parker said, his plan right now is reading Romans
twelve over and over and over. We all we would
all have our specific plans, but that's that's your time.
So Parker's being nourished right now by Romans twelve. I
would I would imagine you are not in any kind
of routine like that. And because I've heard this so
(44:46):
many times, I would imagine if I asked you, you would say, yeah,
that's the thing, Like that's a problem. Right now, I'm
not really reading anything and I want to and I
need to. I know I should, but I've just been
busy with work and the kids have sports right now,
and my boss is it's just a season right now,
and I've gotten away from reading. I actually don't read
anything that's typically what I hear. However, regardless of your reading,
(45:13):
we need to know as Christians that we go through
these seasons of I actually did a word of exhortation
at Amaeus about being numb. We go through seasons of
numbness where sometimes we feel like we don't care, we
feel far from God, we feel like he's not listening,
so we might as well not pray, Or when we pray,
(45:34):
we feel like we don't have anything to say, or
we feel like we're disconnected from the word. We read
it and it just feels stagnant and unmoving to us
and more of a chure. These are seasons we go through,
and like anything in life, the seasons come in waves.
(45:55):
I think there's such a connection in waves with almost
all of our life. Our hearing comes in audio waves,
we see in waves. Our emotions really flow in waves,
and grief comes in waves. Love, affection for our wives
comes in waves. Excitement for a God's word comes in waves,
(46:17):
and we could recognize we're on the crest and then
we feel like everything's great, but it never stays there.
It goes back into a trough, and then the trough
feels horrible, but it never stays there, and it goes
and it moves back up, and most of our life
is kind of spent in between traveling. But we see
this in the Psalms, which is really important to see
(46:38):
the Psalmist walking through these feelings. And although these are feelings,
this is we are the canoe outside the island. God
is unmovable. He stays the same. He's always there, He's
always he always is who he is. And we're the
ones that kind of flow at the tie, moves in
(47:01):
and out, our feelings change. So we should all know
that as Christians we are that just happens. We are
the tide. God is the island. We move in and out.
He stays the same. But during those seasons of moving out,
we have to continue to ground ourselves by a good
(47:24):
routine of prayer and meditation and reading and fellowship in
a local church. We have to do that even though
sometimes we might feel like we're just showing up and
mindlessly to church. We might feel like we're just reading
a blank page. We might feel like we're praying to nobody.
(47:45):
We might feel like we're fellowshipping and not contributing. They're
doing They're doing all the contributing. But that's that's that's
what we do. We're faithful in the little things, and
faithfulness in the little things ends up paying off and
we end up back on the crest. And we see
this play it out in the songs. So I don't know,
(48:07):
I'm talking a lot and I should let you guys talk,
but but I feel like probably Anonymous is in a
season where he's not reading at all. That's typically what
I would find. And that leads to that is the
danger of being numb, because then you could actually not
be back on the crest. You could actually continue out
to see and the tide takes you further from the
island and you could you could end up in a
(48:29):
very very dangerous spot of drifting.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
Yeah, I thought the same thing you just said. I
read them two different ways. I read them for context
of where we're going in this in this podcast when
I'm sorting through these, but then just listening to you
read it back to me as like somebody you know,
reading the email again for the first time, that that's
happening to you. You're not refilling that tank at all.
It's being it's going out, but it's never coming back in.
(48:56):
And that's a daily I mean, you don't just drive
your car and never go get gas. You have to
go get gas or you're just going to be stranded
on the side of the road feeling empty and doing nothing.
And so yeah, I mean it says and that's why
I think, you know, you know, knock and I'll answer,
ask and I'll get You know, is to not knock once,
(49:18):
but to knock almost to annoy, because you will answer
the door to somebody who continues knocking, continue, go back
down and continue asking. And then another thing too, I
think I've felt this too, is that you you feel
you feel like God has pulled away. And I kind
of saw it some as like like a mother and
a kid for so long, how many times as a
(49:39):
parent do we hold maybe David is that you're walking
with your hands, his hands around your fingers, But is
he going to learn to walk? Not like that. It's
only when you do that and you let go, and
then you see if they can walk, and then they
learn to walk. Always there to catch, always there to
(50:00):
still in your presence. But you know, I feel like
God pours into us and trains us and then goes, okay,
let's go. And then it's not a it's not a
distance as in I'm done with you, it's a let's
let's see if you can build up that going through
Going through trials builds builds, faith, builds, per persistence. You
(50:24):
know in your life that it makes you stronger as
you go through those and I kind of see when
you feel God pull away, it's seeing him letting you
kind of take over what he's been teaching and pouring
into you for a while and then comes back, you know,
and not that he leaves you, but he it's kind
of like that mother or a parent kid relationship. I
(50:44):
see that a lot of in that way. I don't
know if that made sense in my mind totally. That's
where I kind of see it with with anonymous here, Oh.
Speaker 2 (50:54):
Lot's been said. I don't know if I have anything
to add. The boring thing that no one wants to
hear is read your Bible, you said, right, you know.
And this episode was started with MacArthur. And one of
the things that he always said that I always remember
when people come to him in seasons of dryness or depression,
is he does this three point method where he says,
(51:15):
he said ten minutes. I usually tell people, if you're
not reading at all, just even five read for five minutes,
think about it, or meditate on it for five minutes,
and then pray about it for five minutes, and then
you could slowly increase that to ten or twenty minutes.
But really just reading the word, thinking about what you
read and then praying, God help me. And like ant
(51:35):
Man said, knocking the door will be open. That's not
like up for debate. Draw near to God and he
will draw near to you. And so you ask, I
feel distant from God. How do we draw near to
God practically well through his word? Have to read his word?
How are we supposed to know who he is or
what we're supposed to do or get help from him
if we're not reading, if we're not asking him for help.
(51:55):
And just like a good gift, good good father gives
gifts to his children. So God says, ask and will
be given. Jesus says, ask anything in my name according
to the Father's will, and it will be given to you.
So yeah, don't go by your feelings, go according to
his word. If you draw near to him, he will
draw near to you.
Speaker 1 (52:14):
In the beginning was the Word, and the word was
with God, and the word was God. He was in
the beginning with God. All things were made through him,
and without him was not anything made. That was made
In him was life, and the life was the light
of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness has not overcome it. And then verse fourteen and
(52:35):
the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we
have seen his glory. Glory is of the only Son,
from the Father, full of grace and truth. This is
what part's talking about it. How do you get close
to God? He read his word? Why? Because the word
is God. The word was God, and the word continues
(52:55):
to be God, and the word became flesh. That's how.
Speaker 3 (53:01):
Yeah, and you brought up something too. It's like life
gets busy. It's weird how life never gets too busy
for TikTok or too busy for that show that you
have DDR like it just and I'm I'm only pointing
fingers at myself. I do this all the times. Like man,
I missed it today, I didn't do my whatever reason
I didn't do it this morning. But I do remember
(53:23):
that TikTok I sent my wife. It's like what I
had time for that, but I didn't have time to
read the word. You have time such a priorities.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
I've got a story about this. I'm not going to
share it on this podcast, but it's that one from
the from the back half of that mission Tripleneon and
I took Okay, I gotta tell you that story on
another podcast, but it relates to this. Another thing you said, Parker,
that that MacArthur advocated for was the five five five. Well,
(53:51):
the praying. I think it's very important to talk about
what he meant by praying, because it's not it's not
read the passage, meditate on the passage and then pray
about something. It's pray the passage. Yeah, pray from the passage.
So you know, like, what's an example. You could do
the whole Bible like this. But what I just said
was the beginning of the Gospel of John. So in
(54:14):
the beginning was the Word, the words with God. The
Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him. Without him, was not
anything made that was made. And him was life. And
the life was the light of men, the light that
shines in the darkness. And the darkness ever has not
overcome it. Lord, you are the light. You are the Word.
Darkness has not overcome you. Lord. Keep me out of
(54:35):
the darkness. Lord, keep me in that light. Lord, you
are the Word. Keep me in your word. Help me
to know you by knowing your word. Help me to
know that you made all things, and all things were
made through you, and without you, nothing was made. Lord.
Let me let that truth resonate in my heart. Help
me to know Lord, that you are Life's That's that's
(55:00):
praying a passage. So everything I just said in that
prayer was a perfect prayer. It was a perfect prayer.
People say, I don't know how to pray. I don't
know what to pray. I don't have the words if
you pray that, Yep, you just prayed a perfect prayer.
Not because I'm perfect, but because the word is. And
I could pray that God's words back to him and
that will. That's how you rejuvenated numbness. That's how you
(55:24):
recultivate this, all these things where I wonder, I don't
don't I don't. I feel like I'm drifting and I'm
not sure if I'm even saved. I grew up, and
over the past year my relationship has changed. I feel
a desired. I barely feel a desire. You don't know
how you know how to do? You want to know
how to cultivate that. You want to regrow that desire.
(55:45):
Pray like that. Read the passage, Meditate the passage, Pray
the passage again again, repeat daily. You will cultivate that
that soil back, that desire will come back.
Speaker 2 (55:58):
Good resource on that is a book called Praying Bible.
You just described the book basically with what you just said,
but that helped me a lot. It's called Praying the Bible.
It's just a simple way to pray through scripture, honestly
and authentically with sincerity.
Speaker 1 (56:11):
Talking about Don Whitney. Yeah yeah, yeah, great, great stuff. Cool.
Speaker 3 (56:17):
I guess it.
Speaker 1 (56:18):
Next episode I'll reveal something more of that story. In fact,
please do. Maybe I'll bring Lennon on there. Oh yeah
and talk about that.
Speaker 3 (56:25):
Okay, you should go forget. Uh there is a new
YouTube channel, so maybe you're watching this on that channel.
If you're not, go check it out because we put
an other store we're going to we have some stuff there.
Now we'll have more stuff that we'll be able to
do on that channel. Grainger Smith podcast.
Speaker 1 (56:40):
On YouTube and the Instagram.
Speaker 3 (56:42):
Yeah, Grainger Smith Pod.
Speaker 1 (56:43):
Grainger Smith Pod. Have you posted any of the clips
that you've texted me? No, I haven't heard them.
Speaker 3 (56:49):
Yeah. Yeah, we'll have a budget.
Speaker 1 (56:50):
We you know.
Speaker 3 (56:51):
Good feedback on on Dylan Chase's Spoken Word though.
Speaker 1 (56:56):
Did you listen to that one? It's great Dylan Chase podcast.
Speaker 2 (56:58):
Not yet, it's good.
Speaker 3 (57:00):
Yeah, the dude wraps in Japanese. Thank this is so fascinating.
Yeah yeah yeah, all right, see you guys.
Speaker 1 (57:09):
Ye ye, thank you so much for hanging out with
me on this episode of the Grangersmith Podcast. I appreciate
you being here. If you're listening right now, go ahead
and rate today's podcast. It helps more folks find the show.
And if you're tuning in on the iHeartRadio app, you
could actually set this podcast as one of your presets,
which is cool that way. I'm just one tap away.
If you're watching on YouTube, don't forget to hit like
(57:30):
and subscribe so you don't miss any new episodes. And
if you got a question you want answered right here
on the show, just email me podcast at grangersmith dot com.
I'd love to hear from you. Thanks again for being here.
We'll see you next time. Yee
All right, we're back at the table again. Thanks for
being here, everybody. Parker, thank you for being here. Ant
Man love podcast days like this we get to walk
through things without really a map or a we don't
really have an outline. We're kind of going off a
few things that I want to talk about for sure.
(00:21):
One of them is the recent news as we record
this podcast. John MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community in California,
has met glory. He's passed away in the as we
record this, it was last night we got the news.
Amber and I were on a walk and I knew
(00:42):
that he was sick. He had pneumonia and he was
People were saying things like, this is the sickness that
he's not gonna he's not gonna get well from. And
so we're kind of he's been sick for a while here,
he's been we've known for a while. We're kind of
preparing the day was coming. But then yesterday the announcement came.
(01:03):
This pneumonia that was going to be the one he
doesn't get well from, which sounds very biblical. When he
was when he came down with a sickness that he
was going to die from, we all knew that last night,
I was keeping it Dutch. It was Sean that texted me.
He said he passed, and I knew what he was
(01:25):
talking about, and I looked it up and it was
like within thirty minutes. Sean texted me, I was on
a walk with Amber and I said MacArthur's gone, and
Amber just immediately, you know, welled up and her eyes
glazed over, and on that walk just thought about the
years of his ministry and the impact on our family,
(01:46):
and I know on your family as well, Parker and
so many listening his How would you describe in Parker,
his just unashamed, steady devotion, his just kind of rock
solid faithfulness through decades and decades in ministry. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
He was the first pastor that I listened to after
I became a believer who I was just looking for
someone to just tell me how it is right. And
whenever I would leave church at the time, I would,
I would. I remember the very first sermon that I
listened to of his. It was called I pulled it
(02:36):
up right here is called becoming a Better You, says
The title on YouTube is John MacArthur Becoming a Better You.
Question Mark has six million views. And I was so
caught up in the self help movement of everything's just
about you to become the best version of yourself, and
he just like destroyed that notion and was like, that
(02:58):
is satanic to just revolve everything around you. And he
has a way of words with words that's like polarizing
in a way. Yeah, and so that naturally does get
him more attention, and that's just kind of his personality
and his teaching style. But also I think that, yeah,
it was just in a world where everyone's just trying
(03:19):
not to step on people's toes to offend them with Christianity.
MacArthur's just like, this is what the Bible says, and
I declare that this is what God says. And there's
something about that that, as Mark Dever would say, it
turns away the non believers, but to the true Christian
it gets their feet dumping. They're just like, Yeah, this
(03:39):
is the real stuff, this is the real stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Just give it.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Tell me what does the Bible stay say?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Tell me how it is? So yeah, it's home, it's
home cooking. It just you're like, oh, I feel I
feel full now from this meal, and I've been eating McDonald's.
I recognize I've been eating McDonald's and now I feel
fool I don't always feel good about it either. Like
you listen to a MacArthur sermon, you don't often I've
(04:04):
listened to hundreds. I know you probably have two hundreds
of MacArthur's sermons and not all of them. Do you
finish it and go, yeah, all right, Glory to God.
A lot of times are like, oh, man, you know,
I am convicted by this. And because of that, he
(04:26):
kind of a lot of people didn't like him. He
had a lot of enemies on this earth. I remember
one time a pastor came up to me, and this
is when I was going to the the Puritan Conference.
It's the only time I've seen MacArthur is I. I
flew out to LA and went to the Puritan Conference
(04:47):
and a guy, a pastor of a kind of a
secret church in Texas that I knew, asked me what
I was doing this week, and I was like, I'm
going to LA and he goes, MacArthur is an why
would you do that? Why would you do that? You
know the things he says, he is an idiot, and
(05:09):
that really represents a lot of people that and hope
I say some of these things for people that don't
know John MacArthur. I say this so that they're like,
I'm curious.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Yeah, I'm gonna go judge for myself.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Oh, judge for myself. But he is for decades faithfully
just preached the Bible, and I don't agree with everything.
MacArthur says. I'm assuming we at this table we don't either.
Let me tell you what Mark dever mentor of mine
in Parker's said. You probably heard this, Parker, he said.
(05:41):
John MacArthur, of course, was old and ailing. He texted
me this. We're delighted he's with the Lord, but even
though we had our disagreements, we will still miss his steadiness,
his frequent, regular faithfulness. We trust the Lord's timing. Today
we also feel the court the curse of mortality. I
(06:05):
wanted to read another a couple other quotes here. This
is actually from the Nine Marks Instagram page. They posted this.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
HB.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Charles Junior said, John MacArthur has been an unspeakable blessing
to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. As his
work ends, his impact and influence will continue for years
to come. Rest well, faithful soldier of the Cross Mark
dever On here says, I am but one of the
countless under shepherds of God's flock whom John has powerfully
(06:38):
and regularly encouraged. Kevin Deyong said John was never anything
but kind and encouraging to me, which I'm sure has
been the experience of many other younger men. I give
thanks for his Bible shaped life and his Bible saturated ministry.
Liccoan Duncan said John preached Christ and the Lord blessed
(06:58):
his ministry in bringing many laws sheep home and feeding
the guarding, feeding and guarding those fond sorry, feeding and
guarding those found sheep with God's word. Al Mohler said
John MacArthur was one of the most significant exponent of
expository preaching of his generation. His ministry and exposition radiated
(07:23):
out of God at of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California,
and both taught and encouraged fellow preachers all over the globe.
John Piper said, I stood in awe of what John
MacArthur could do in the pulpit with the passage of Scripture.
As with all powerful expositional preaching, no description can capture
what makes it powerful. I want to encourage people listening
(07:45):
to go and find him a nice cuffee chair and
a YouTube. Search for John MacArthur and don't just look
for the three minute clips. Instead, find yourself a sermon,
find John preaching through a text, and you'll find partly
how simple it is. That's what I usually recognize with John.
(08:07):
You'll find a very complicated passage and MacArthur makes it
feel just very simple and straightforward.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
And if you did it right, the chair is the
only thing comfortable.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yeah, find yourself a comfy chair, because you won't be
comfortable with the sernment. The rest of it will not
be comfortable. And then and then there's the Larry King stuff.
The Larry King stuff is a treasure for the church
Capital c Church and will be for years to come.
I was so comforted by that in the days when
(08:46):
I was saturating myself with teaching during COVID and we
were living in the RV. I can remember being in
that RV, and there's so many times, so many things
I remember that experience with my family right here on
this property. But I remember specifically listening through around Christmas
(09:07):
time to John MacArthur on Larry King Live with all
the other religious leaders sitting at the table around him.
And I was telling Aunt earlier and I would encourage
anyone to go and once again not to look for
the three minute clips, but trying to sit down and
listen to or on a drive. Maybe you're driving your
truck and you're going to work and you're like, I
(09:29):
don't know what to do on my commute today. Look
up a Larry King live that includes John MacArthur at
the table and listen to the thirty minute forty minute conversation.
And Larry King was always interested in religion, and he
was interested in bringing world religious leaders to the table
to have a round table discussion. And he would ask
(09:52):
a question, and Larry King would kind of, you know,
delegate the table and he would bring, you know, head
the a high priest of the Catholic Church. He would
bring a head, a higher rabbi of the of the
Jewish faith. He would bring a Buddhist priest. He would bring.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
A universal spiritualist, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
A universal spiritualist. He would bring a he would bring
a high islam seanman I don't know, and and it
would go around the table and you would you would
Larry King would ask difficult questions, and it would be
as every person would handle that question. They would say things.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Like that's a tough one.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
You know, we feel like or I feel like when
when this delicate matter is at hand and we're we're
wrestling through love and and be and honoring God, and
we feel like the best thing. They would always say
those that kind of language. And John would say, well,
the Bible says, Scripture tells us. God makes it very
(11:00):
clear in Scripture. And he would never say I think
or my opinion is, or what we as Christians feel like.
You would never use that language. You just say, there's
what the Bible says. And Larry would push and Larry
would ask very uncomfortable things and like we saw one earlier.
He well, that sounds like an American idea, yeah, And
(11:21):
MacArthur said, I would say that if I was French.
You know.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
It was also the video that was just a bunch
of clips. And when he would he would land a
truth bomb of something, it would be that you know
it pause and it would have those eight bit glasses
that float across you know, his eyes and land on
his eyes like you know, you know, thug next to
him or the word but just Yeah, those are fun
to watch, but like you said, go get the twenty
thirty minute one.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah, go get the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Actual having having a conversation on one topic or whatever.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Because it's important to hear what what does the Jewish
guy say? Listen to his answer, and and you'll hear
answers that those guys give. That makes you feel good.
But it's it's only an opinion, it's only a Well,
we feel like in heaven. We feel like heaven would
be a place where MacArthur never says that. Well, the
(12:12):
Bible says, heaven is this. The Bible says, the only
way to heaven is this. The Bible says this. And
and he was just unashamed, and he had no fear
of man, and it's so great to watch that. I
can't speak for women, but I could speak for young
men that people that have kind of gravitated towards like
the Jordan Peterson movement and Jordan Peterson saying things like
(12:37):
young men need to be told that there's something greater
that they could they could latch onto, and then there's
they've been called to something higher than they could possibly imagine.
It's more than they what they can even comprehend right now.
And the answer to that was always MacArthur who was
(12:57):
calling young men forward through scripture. And so I think
that's why his actual church grew and grew and grew
and ended up Grace Community was a really big church
at the end. And like you said earlier, that that
people people kind of mix up the idea that in
order to build a church, a good you know, nice
sized church with with that's an active congregation and you
(13:22):
need to make sure you come up with hot new
fun ideas or good music or big lights, or good
topics that would are good food or good coffee. Is
the opposite, you know, he just preached the next text
and scripture weekend and week out without thinking about a
hot new topic. Or that's what MacArthur did.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Yeah, I think if there was a verse to summarize
his ministry, it's the one that he would recite in
his intro to Grace to you in almost every video,
which is for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for
it is the power of God for salvation to everyone
who believes the jew first and also to the Greek
Romans one sixteen. So he would always say, since when
(14:06):
did we become so ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
and so like that's kind of the you know, that's
kind of the theme of his ministry that came across
to me. Larry King goes to each person, says, Rabbi,
what happens when you die? He goes to the atheist,
what happens when you die? John MacArthur, what happens when
you die? And he goes, Oh, you go to one
(14:26):
of two places, depending if you put your faith in
Jesus Christ or not.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
It's just like, that's what the Bible says.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Just remember hearing that, I'm just like, wow, if the
Bible is true, then that is the answer.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
But so few people would want to give that answer
on national television because they would view it as unloving, yeah,
or lacking gentleness. But there's just something like you said
about him just saying it how it is.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yeah, I could say that going back to that Mark
never text to me. John MacArthur was, of course old
and ailing. He says, we're delighted that he's with the Lord,
even though we had our disagreements. We will miss his steadiness,
(15:19):
his frequent, regular faithfulness. One of those disagreements. I know
for a fact, I don't think Mark would mind me
saying this, but one of the disagreements those two had
was during COVID.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
You know.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
MacArthur's like, we're not shutting down. Yeah, you know, never
was in DC and dealing with a much different kind
of bureaucracy than than MacArthur was dealing with in LA,
with those those nutcases out there, you know. And Devor
was like, I think we need to I think we
need to think through this a little more. MacArthur's like,
(15:52):
there's nothing to think about basically. So there that was
one that was some some of it, but but never
says us. We trust in the Lord's timing today, but
we also feel the curse of mortality, which is what
all death should remind us of. That this is this
(16:13):
is a death is a horrible thing, and death is
not the way that it was supposed to be. In fact,
I wasn't. That just made me think of something else
because I'm prepping to preach on July twenty seventh, I'm
prepping to preach John five. Well, this podcast come out
before or after that? What's the day, July twenty seventh.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Yeah, this comes out on the this is today is
the twenty.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
First, Okay, so the Monday, this coming Sunday, I hope
to preach and that's the sick man at the pool
of Bethesda that the Lord heals. And I I saw
(16:59):
this quote from jac as I was reading through commentary
on John five. He says, this what misery sin is
brought into the world, and how great is the mercy
and compassion of Christ recovery from sickness ought to impress us.
He goes on to talk about death and how death
(17:21):
is not death is not the way it was supposed
to be. We talked about this recently on a podcast here,
but a death of a saint like this MacArthur should
immediately make us think about our own death and our
own fragile mortality, which leads me to you aunt just
a week ago or so?
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Yeah, it was two weeks ago, yesterday?
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Okay, you no one knows this.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Yeah, you had a stroke.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
When I started this podcast back in twenty seventeen, it
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Speaker 3 (19:55):
You had a stroke, I did.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
I think you called it a mini stroke, but nonetheless
it was a stroke. Stroke.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
It's two, there's two two strokes.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Tell us about that and that that experience.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Weirdest thing that I've ever I've had blood high blood pressure,
I would say, my entire life. I don't know if
that's true, I'd say at least since my twenties, and
I'm forty eight now, so it's always been something I've battled,
and the signs of the possibilities were always shared with
(20:36):
me by doctors. Hey, this can be detrimental. If you
don't have a stroke, it can still do damage to
organs in your body having high blood pressure this high.
But I had one thing that was different than most
of their patients. I had no symptoms of anything. I
didn't feel weird, I didn't feel I didn't have a
(20:58):
headache when I'd have high blood pressure. I didn't. I
wasn't flush anything like that. All the signs that most people,
Hey I've had a headache for days or what have
or you been in this situation. I have a migraine now,
none of that. One thing I did experience with something
called an ocular migraine, and I've had those for probably
the last fifteen years, and they're off and on. They're
usually brought on by stress. I looked for a connection
(21:22):
between high blood pressure and that, and no doctor could
ever give a definitive answer. No research and even chat
GBT as that's come along, nothing gives an answer that says, yes,
if you have this, it's probably because of this, or
it's likely because of this. Never found a connection. But
the Friday before all this happened, my wife Ashley, and
(21:45):
I went out, we had a rare date night, and
we came home and getting ready for bad getting ready
for bed, and I had an ocular migraine start. And
if you've never had one, it's equivalent to like looking
through a kaleidoscope with one eye in just part of
your eye, and it moves across your field of vision.
You can't see anything past it. And that happened. Well,
(22:08):
Those usually last fifteen minutes or so and then they're
gone and no no headache, no no pain, just a
visual instance. I had that on Friday, woke up on Saturday,
still had it. That's rare when all day Saturday kind
of off and on it get worse. Sometimes sometimes it would,
it would it would subside some still there on Sunday
morning when I got up, and when I got up,
(22:30):
we got ready for church and ash said, we're going
to the hospital, and we did, and my blood pressure
was sky high, like two fifty to eighty something like that,
over one seventy, which is just for those guys. They
were freaking out. They're like, this is an emergency, go
over to the hospital now, and ran through a cat scan.
(22:53):
It was clear, which means no bleeding. If there was
a stroke, there was no bleeding. Did a an MRI
and they were like, yep, right here two places, but
they were in the areas of mobility and the areas
of memory. A pause for effect, you know. I'm just
(23:14):
the other area was what that was, which, praise the Lord.
I have no side effects from that, which I believe
that when you have a bleeding stroke is usually where
you find more the severe symptoms, uh, paralysis on a side,
or speech issues or memory things like that, with no bleeding,
(23:38):
just a basically a shutdown of you know, uh, the
blood supply stopped in those two areas and they don't
know how or why now. When they came in and
started telling me what they wanted to do, I was cautious.
I was fine with most of the things on the outside.
One of the wanted to start doing stuff on the inside,
(23:59):
running a scope down with wrote things like that. I
was a little apprehensive, but they did install a heart monitor,
so I'm I am officially a cyborg. I have a
computer and planted in my in my chest on the star. Yeah, exactly.
I don't have the cool glasses though, that's the only thing.
That's what I joked about while they were doing the surgery,
because they cut a little a little. It's it's only
(24:20):
about an inch long into computer and it monitors everything
your heart does. So if you go into a rhythmia,
which is a leading cause of strokes, then it will
notice it, it'll record it, and it'll send a message
to the doctor going he was an a fhi here.
It sends a message. It sends them a message. It
(24:41):
sends the messages every day, and it connects with an
app on my phone.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Okay, so it sends through your phone through my phone, yeah,
through Bluetooth.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Yeah, and it's just the app reads it's connected to
their systems there. It continually reads my heart or reads
that computer chip in my chest, and it's always recording
what my heart's doing. If I'm working out, it'll record
high heart rate.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
So you need to have your phone in your pocket
now because of that.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Yeah. So let's say it's always with me and yeah,
and it stays connected. But they're still looking for a reason.
I looked for a reason in a different way. Clearly
there's something. My first thought was, there's something you want
to do with this God and my prayers. And he
(25:30):
brought two verses. I didn't know the verses. I had
to look them up, but I knew what they were.
The first one is what you're preaching on next week?
Speaker 1 (25:39):
No?
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Really, John five one through fifteen, and it was literally
stop sinning, so nothing worse happens? No, really, really did?
Speaker 1 (25:58):
You didn't know I was preaching that. Just walked in
and saw all the books in your.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
That's why I kind of went when I walked off,
because I asked, what yoga? What are you all this study?
And I have a picture of the desk. It's just
has books open, and I said, what are you studying today?
That says this for are you preaching soon? He's like, yeah,
preaching on John chapter five? Yep.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
So you and I have stood there that pulled a
bethesday in Israel yep, right outside of Saint Ane's cathedral.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
I didn't know that that was what was the next verse.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
The next verse was in Matthew twenty two and they're
trying to catch Jesus in a in a liar in
something that they could arrest him for. They said, should
they pay taxes to Caesar? He's like, hen me a coin,
and I read it, but you can go look it up.
He's like, whose name and title is stamped on this?
(26:58):
They said, Caesar? Cool, and give to Caesar what is Caesar's?
But he doesn't end there. Give to God what is God's?
But he doesn't explain that. And I thought as I
read that, I was like, oh, but his image is
stamped in our DNA. We were made in his likeness.
(27:19):
So what's stamped on us is God. And if you're redeemed,
that's your title. So now give to God what is God's?
What is that you?
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Otherwise your counterfeit?
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Yeah? Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
What do we do with counterfeits?
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Well you get a person using it goes to jail,
I mean.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Absolutely, so it gets destroyed about John five.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
So stop sinning and give yourself to God.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
So that that's what I got. I didn't pick that, obviously,
that's just where we are at a mass, and that
that's just what I'm up up with. But you know,
see you or well send no more that nothing worse
may happen to you. We don't know. We don't know
(28:10):
a lot about this. One thing we know about this
about this story is that the man that was healed
is not healed because of faith, like the man that
was lowered down through the roof. And this man doesn't
actually show anything. Jesus singles him out a very specific
(28:36):
place where there's a multitude. It says, of these people
that are lame and sick and paralyzed on a very
specific day. And he does a very specific thing to
a very specific man, and the man doesn't have anything
to do with anything. He says, do you want to
be healed? Es says, you want to be healed? Otherwise rendered?
(29:00):
Do you want to be made well? Which is interesting
that we'd made it. It's like created, will you be
made well? And he's asking him that. Of course Jesus
knows everything, but he asked him that question, and it
would be like it would be like someone someone once
(29:27):
what's a good example trying to go to maybe a
go to a therapist is one example. Someone going to
a secular therapy because they're having, you know, childhood trauma.
It's like we would ask them, are you trying to
be healed? It's not that it's not that we don't
know the answer to the question. It's like, you know,
(29:48):
this is not going to do it right. It would
be like if Maverick was out here and he was
trying to wash his go kart off from mud, and
he had a muddy rag and he's wiping them go
I would say, are you trying to clean that right?
I know what his answer is, but I'm saying this
is not you know, this is not the way to
clean this right. So he asked the man that do
(30:13):
you want to be healed? The sick man answered, yeah,
I have no willing. It makes an excuse. Jesus said
to him, get up, which is rise a rise. It's
the same same word he used for the little girl.
I say to you a rise, and the dead girl.
And he says same word. He says to the the
paralytic that was let down for the roof, rise, take
(30:36):
up your bed and walk. That didn't require this man.
This healing didn't require the man's faith. And then Jesus says,
and at once the man was healed, and he took
up his bed and walked. So he's healed. And then
he takes up his bed and walks. So many interesting things.
The next the next verses, Now that day was the Sabbath.
(30:58):
Jesus would have known you can't carry your not that
you can't. He would have known that the Jews, the leaders,
would have thought that you can't carry this. Jesus could
have easily said, get up, leave your mat there and walk.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Yeah, you didn't have to pick up and roll up
the mat and take it with you.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Yeah, he said, yeah, take your mat, knowing this is
a show. He's heading for a showdown. But to your
point up here, he says, He says, later when he
finds him in the temple, sin no more so that
nothing worse may happen to you.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Well, love that whole. The end between that, though, too,
is that he just disappears. Jesus just disappears, and the
Pharisees going to be like, what are you doing? You
can't do He goes the guy who healed me told
me to do it.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
The word in Greek is the same word for dodge. Yeah,
Jesus dodged the crowd.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Yeah. And then he shows but he goes out to
find the man again in the temple.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Sees him in the temple, which would be the first
time this man could go in the temple. A defiled
man can't go in the temple right, So he's going there,
you would think to praise the Lord, for hey, I
could walk. I can go in the temple now, not
only to praise God, but I can now. I wasn't
able to for thirty eight years. I can go in
(32:14):
there now. And he goes in there, and Jesus finds him, says, hey,
you're healed. Good, don't do it, don't sin anymore, or
something worse may happen to you. That's different than go
your faith has healed you. Sure, that's different. He tells
other people you're forgiven, like the woman that was that
(32:39):
was crying and her weeping and her tears were falling
on Jesus' feet, and he says, your sins are forgiven.
Your faith has healed you. He doesn't say that to
this man. He's physically healed, but not he's not saved
spiritually healed yet. So it's very This is just a
(33:00):
very interesting story. And it's very interesting that you were
thinking that through this stroke.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Yeah, through the whole thing, and I whether you know, yes,
things that I need to deal with, but also the
message of it of the two things, and I don't
think there are two things were put together by accident.
It was stop sinning and give yourself to God. What
is already stamped in you. You give to Caesar what
(33:27):
is Caesar's? Give to God what is God's?
Speaker 1 (33:30):
And and you're healed from the stroke. So that, yeah,
there's that. Yeah, it's like you're healed.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
I don't have any side of that. I had had
one day, I said in one day, I had one
instance that had lasted a couple of days, that my
left arm felt really light. If you were worked out
and then try to go in and grab a bottle
of water sitting on a cabinet and you go past it,
or you grab it and run through it, you know,
(33:57):
you may knock it off. That's what it felt like
to me. Is that left. And then after those couple
of days, it was everything's normal, I'm lifting it again.
So yesterday was the first day for that getting back
and working out. Whatever.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
What do you got cooked over here?
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Well, what you said about giving yourself to God just
reminded me of what I've been thinking about. I've been
on Romans twelve. I've just been reading it over and
over and over again in the last week and a
half and I read this morning for from him it
is the end of eleven beginning of twelve. For from him,
and through him and to him are all things. To
Him be glory forever.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and
acceptable to God, which is.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Your spiritual worship.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed
by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you
may discern what is the will of God, what is
good and acceptable and perfect. And it's like each verse
of twelve you could just think about all day. But
the idea of because of who God is and because
of what He's done through his son, therefore present your
(35:04):
body as a living sacrifice.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
It's got you.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Like the Bible says, we are not our own. He
owns us, He owns you, he owns me. He's completely
and totally in control. He saved us, He's adopted us
as children. He said, We're going to be with him
in paradise, And so what do we do there for
but live as a present our bodies as a living sacrifice,
giving him everything's his.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
That's great, you know. I with this talk, all this
talk about MacArthur, it's hard not to also talk about
Urc Sproll, who we lost in twenty seventeen. Another just
titan of the faith and friend of MacArthur. And if
people don't know Sproll, then oh there's there's a lot
(35:51):
of a lot of harvesting you could do with that man.
Just dig dig dig dig Urc Sproll. Anyway, I was
watching him the other day. He's another probably taught five
for me of guys I just have enjoyed listened to
over the years. He just such, he has taught me
so well. And he's not even you know, he died
(36:13):
in twenty seventeen. He still teaches me. But I saw
him the other day on YouTube in his later years,
and I don't remember. I wish I could find the reference,
but I don't remember what I was looking at. But
he was preaching, and he had oxygen machine on him
with the tubes up his nose, and he had the mic.
(36:34):
He's at the pulpit. He had the mic coming around
so you could hear hear them the Darth Vader, you know,
and he was just preaching fire wow, and he was like,
and our Lord says in commands that that, you know,
just just scripture and fire and just preaching and just
and beautiful exposition. And you just reminded that his body's
(36:57):
a living sacrifice, like you said in Romans twelve, you're
reminded that of the falling world we live in and
send the corruption of our own bodies. But while he's here,
he's using this body to the very end. And RC did, man,
he used every bit that the Lord gave him to
the very end. Up at that pulpit, could barely stand
(37:18):
with oxygen shooting up his nose and his mouth preaching fire.
I was like, I told Dan, I said, that's what
I want to do. I mean, I got tears to
my eyes when I was in my eyes when I
was watching that. I just thought, that's what I want
to do. Lord, use me to the very end. Until
I have no oxygen left, I have to pump it
in with the with the tank. That's what I want
to do. And you could just see the light in
(37:39):
his eyes. His eyes were lit up as he was
preaching the gospel. His oxygen was a shooting in his nostrils.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Yeah, just the way those pastors are built. That's what
they always say, Like, if you can do anything else
and be content, do it. But those preachers, man, they
just they, like Spurgeon said, if you can literally do
nothing else without thinking about expounding and talking about the
Word of God, then like you were called to be
(38:11):
a preacher. And so for Aunt or me or people listening,
and you're like, well, I don't want to preach. What
does that mean for me? Well, we'll each have our
own gifts. Yeah, So just because you're not saying that
you want to spend every breath that you have preaching,
that's totally okay. I think that, like, each person has
their own gifts. And so for Aunt, that means for
him to present his body as a living sacrifice tomorrow morning,
(38:34):
to say, this day's yours God, my body's yours, my
money's yours. Everything that could look differently than it does
for Granger or you know, depending on what your profession is,
what would it look like for each of us and
each person listening tomorrow morning, whether you're an investment banker
or whether you're you're washing dishes at the local restaurant,
(38:56):
what would it mean for you.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
To, to, uh.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart
as unto the Lord.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
All right, I'm trying to find a video of this
and i'll show you later. But uh, there's a few
of them with let's see mischief. That's actually him and macarthur' talking. Well.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
You can hear.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
That Jesus was fully God and fully man. If you
mean by that that that one person was absolutely.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
Totally yep, God, keep it going today if you go
to the end. He has a funny uh, a funny
back and forth with MacArthur. I remember he says. MacArthur
says Jesus was fully God and fully man and r
c being.
Speaker 4 (39:54):
Or all kinds of mischief, god fully man, with all
the reasonableness of man.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
So there's MacArthur truly God and truly man.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
Because it can be confused. And when you say that
Jesus was fully God and fully man, if you mean
by that that that one person was absolutely totally God
and that's all, then you'd be denying as in humanity.
Or if you say it was fully man, then there's
no room for his deity. That's why we like to
say vera homo vera is truly God, truly man.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
That's what I meant that's what I mean oxygen? Why John,
Johnny Mack.
Speaker 4 (40:40):
Do you always make me to define what you meant?
Speaker 3 (40:48):
Both don't argue too much with the guy with the
oxygen and they're both in heaven.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
Now that It's funny because John MacArthur was like the
like the elder to so many, but he was he
was the under shepherd to a guy like r.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
C Oh.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
Yeah, it was above him.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
So it was funny to see them interact because you
don't usually see John MacArthur talk to like that.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
Yeah, and John Piper does that, does that too. He
would put MacArthur in his place, and Sproll of course
would always put in his place. But it was it
was a beautiful thing watching it, and I got to
see some of those panels. Not an RC, but but
I saw Piper put MacArthur in his place, like John,
I think that's just wrong. I do think that's unhelpful
(41:34):
to say something like that, and and MacArthur goes, yeah,
maybe maybe you're right, but no one would say that. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
Seeing Piper and MacArthur interact like that was really cool
because they both love Christ and they both agree on
the main things. And then they show they model disagreements
on other things well and taking criticism.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
Well, m do we have time to have some questions? Sure,
some heavy topics today, heavy topics today on the but
maybe we have some wider questions. We'll see, No, somehow,
I don't think we wouldn't know. Okay, if you want
to email us email podcast at grangersmith dot com. Happy
to answer your questions. And that also reminds me that
we're going to take this podcast live. Yes, give me
(42:19):
announcing some dates coming up.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
We were hoping to announce at least a date or two,
or maybe kind of give some ideas of cities on
this episode. It's just a little too premature to say
anything right this second, but know that we are working
and we're almost there to be able to announce them. Okay,
so looking forward to that in the coming weeks.
Speaker 4 (42:38):
Great.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
Well, the first question comes and it says from anonymous.
It says, hey, Grangeur, if you share this, please keep
me anonymous. I'm in my mid twenties. I grew up
in church, but over the past year and a half
my relationship with Christ has really changed. Honestly, I barely
feel a desire to connect with God anymore. I used
to be open about my faith, but now I'm not
sure anyone would even know I'm a Christian. I recently
(43:01):
heard vote Backham's sermon about the Older Brother, and I
saw myself in that story, quick to judge others, but
blind and my own issues. Sometimes I even wonder why
I don't have what others do, even though I have
done all the right things. Quote. I know I need Jesus,
but part of me wants to keep him at a distance.
(43:22):
My heart feels hard, and I'm not sure how to
change that. Sometimes I worry I'm too far gone, or
that I've committed the unforgivable sin just by not wanting
to talk to God. Is it possible for someone like
me to be saved even when my heart feels this way?
Thanks for listening. Yeah, it's a good question, and fortunate
(43:43):
for Anonymous, unfortunate for us all. It's actually very very common.
It's a very very common thing. And I've heard this
so many times in person with someone that I'm fairly sure,
even though it's impossible, No, but I'm fairly sure that Anonymous,
(44:04):
you don't have any kind of daily reading at all. Now,
even if you were reading your Bible daily with some
kind of devotional reading. And I'm not talking about through
your church, or through your small group, or through your
I'm just talking about you and the Lord and a plan.
(44:25):
Like Parker said, his plan right now is reading Romans
twelve over and over and over. We all we would
all have our specific plans, but that's that's your time.
So Parker's being nourished right now by Romans twelve. I
would I would imagine you are not in any kind
of routine like that. And because I've heard this so
(44:46):
many times, I would imagine if I asked you, you would say, yeah,
that's the thing, Like that's a problem. Right now, I'm
not really reading anything and I want to and I
need to. I know I should, but I've just been
busy with work and the kids have sports right now,
and my boss is it's just a season right now,
and I've gotten away from reading. I actually don't read
anything that's typically what I hear. However, regardless of your reading,
(45:13):
we need to know as Christians that we go through
these seasons of I actually did a word of exhortation
at Amaeus about being numb. We go through seasons of
numbness where sometimes we feel like we don't care, we
feel far from God, we feel like he's not listening,
so we might as well not pray, Or when we pray,
(45:34):
we feel like we don't have anything to say, or
we feel like we're disconnected from the word. We read
it and it just feels stagnant and unmoving to us
and more of a chure. These are seasons we go through,
and like anything in life, the seasons come in waves.
(45:55):
I think there's such a connection in waves with almost
all of our life. Our hearing comes in audio waves,
we see in waves. Our emotions really flow in waves,
and grief comes in waves. Love, affection for our wives
comes in waves. Excitement for a God's word comes in waves,
(46:17):
and we could recognize we're on the crest and then
we feel like everything's great, but it never stays there.
It goes back into a trough, and then the trough
feels horrible, but it never stays there, and it goes
and it moves back up, and most of our life
is kind of spent in between traveling. But we see
this in the Psalms, which is really important to see
(46:38):
the Psalmist walking through these feelings. And although these are feelings,
this is we are the canoe outside the island. God
is unmovable. He stays the same. He's always there, He's
always he always is who he is. And we're the
ones that kind of flow at the tie, moves in
(47:01):
and out, our feelings change. So we should all know
that as Christians we are that just happens. We are
the tide. God is the island. We move in and out.
He stays the same. But during those seasons of moving out,
we have to continue to ground ourselves by a good
(47:24):
routine of prayer and meditation and reading and fellowship in
a local church. We have to do that even though
sometimes we might feel like we're just showing up and
mindlessly to church. We might feel like we're just reading
a blank page. We might feel like we're praying to nobody.
(47:45):
We might feel like we're fellowshipping and not contributing. They're
doing They're doing all the contributing. But that's that's that's
what we do. We're faithful in the little things, and
faithfulness in the little things ends up paying off and
we end up back on the crest. And we see
this play it out in the songs. So I don't know,
(48:07):
I'm talking a lot and I should let you guys talk,
but but I feel like probably Anonymous is in a
season where he's not reading at all. That's typically what
I would find. And that leads to that is the
danger of being numb, because then you could actually not
be back on the crest. You could actually continue out
to see and the tide takes you further from the
island and you could you could end up in a
(48:29):
very very dangerous spot of drifting.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
Yeah, I thought the same thing you just said. I
read them two different ways. I read them for context
of where we're going in this in this podcast when
I'm sorting through these, but then just listening to you
read it back to me as like somebody you know,
reading the email again for the first time, that that's
happening to you. You're not refilling that tank at all.
It's being it's going out, but it's never coming back in.
(48:56):
And that's a daily I mean, you don't just drive
your car and never go get gas. You have to
go get gas or you're just going to be stranded
on the side of the road feeling empty and doing nothing.
And so yeah, I mean it says and that's why
I think, you know, you know, knock and I'll answer,
ask and I'll get You know, is to not knock once,
(49:18):
but to knock almost to annoy, because you will answer
the door to somebody who continues knocking, continue, go back
down and continue asking. And then another thing too, I
think I've felt this too, is that you you feel
you feel like God has pulled away. And I kind
of saw it some as like like a mother and
a kid for so long, how many times as a
(49:39):
parent do we hold maybe David is that you're walking
with your hands, his hands around your fingers, But is
he going to learn to walk? Not like that. It's
only when you do that and you let go, and
then you see if they can walk, and then they
learn to walk. Always there to catch, always there to
(50:00):
still in your presence. But you know, I feel like
God pours into us and trains us and then goes, okay,
let's go. And then it's not a it's not a
distance as in I'm done with you, it's a let's
let's see if you can build up that going through
Going through trials builds builds, faith, builds, per persistence. You
(50:24):
know in your life that it makes you stronger as
you go through those and I kind of see when
you feel God pull away, it's seeing him letting you
kind of take over what he's been teaching and pouring
into you for a while and then comes back, you know,
and not that he leaves you, but he it's kind
of like that mother or a parent kid relationship. I
(50:44):
see that a lot of in that way. I don't
know if that made sense in my mind totally. That's
where I kind of see it with with anonymous here, Oh.
Speaker 2 (50:54):
Lot's been said. I don't know if I have anything
to add. The boring thing that no one wants to
hear is read your Bible, you said, right, you know.
And this episode was started with MacArthur. And one of
the things that he always said that I always remember
when people come to him in seasons of dryness or depression,
is he does this three point method where he says,
(51:15):
he said ten minutes. I usually tell people, if you're
not reading at all, just even five read for five minutes,
think about it, or meditate on it for five minutes,
and then pray about it for five minutes, and then
you could slowly increase that to ten or twenty minutes.
But really just reading the word, thinking about what you
read and then praying, God help me. And like ant
(51:35):
Man said, knocking the door will be open. That's not
like up for debate. Draw near to God and he
will draw near to you. And so you ask, I
feel distant from God. How do we draw near to
God practically well through his word? Have to read his word?
How are we supposed to know who he is or
what we're supposed to do or get help from him
if we're not reading, if we're not asking him for help.
(51:55):
And just like a good gift, good good father gives
gifts to his children. So God says, ask and will
be given. Jesus says, ask anything in my name according
to the Father's will, and it will be given to you.
So yeah, don't go by your feelings, go according to
his word. If you draw near to him, he will
draw near to you.
Speaker 1 (52:14):
In the beginning was the Word, and the word was
with God, and the word was God. He was in
the beginning with God. All things were made through him,
and without him was not anything made. That was made
In him was life, and the life was the light
of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness has not overcome it. And then verse fourteen and
(52:35):
the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we
have seen his glory. Glory is of the only Son,
from the Father, full of grace and truth. This is
what part's talking about it. How do you get close
to God? He read his word? Why? Because the word
is God. The word was God, and the word continues
(52:55):
to be God, and the word became flesh. That's how.
Speaker 3 (53:01):
Yeah, and you brought up something too. It's like life
gets busy. It's weird how life never gets too busy
for TikTok or too busy for that show that you
have DDR like it just and I'm I'm only pointing
fingers at myself. I do this all the times. Like man,
I missed it today, I didn't do my whatever reason
I didn't do it this morning. But I do remember
(53:23):
that TikTok I sent my wife. It's like what I
had time for that, but I didn't have time to
read the word. You have time such a priorities.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
I've got a story about this. I'm not going to
share it on this podcast, but it's that one from
the from the back half of that mission Tripleneon and
I took Okay, I gotta tell you that story on
another podcast, but it relates to this. Another thing you said, Parker,
that that MacArthur advocated for was the five five five. Well,
(53:51):
the praying. I think it's very important to talk about
what he meant by praying, because it's not it's not
read the passage, meditate on the passage and then pray
about something. It's pray the passage. Yeah, pray from the passage.
So you know, like, what's an example. You could do
the whole Bible like this. But what I just said
was the beginning of the Gospel of John. So in
(54:14):
the beginning was the Word, the words with God. The
Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him. Without him, was not
anything made that was made. And him was life. And
the life was the light of men, the light that
shines in the darkness. And the darkness ever has not
overcome it. Lord, you are the light. You are the Word.
Darkness has not overcome you. Lord. Keep me out of
(54:35):
the darkness. Lord, keep me in that light. Lord, you
are the Word. Keep me in your word. Help me
to know you by knowing your word. Help me to
know that you made all things, and all things were
made through you, and without you, nothing was made. Lord.
Let me let that truth resonate in my heart. Help
me to know Lord, that you are Life's That's that's
(55:00):
praying a passage. So everything I just said in that
prayer was a perfect prayer. It was a perfect prayer.
People say, I don't know how to pray. I don't
know what to pray. I don't have the words if
you pray that, Yep, you just prayed a perfect prayer.
Not because I'm perfect, but because the word is. And
I could pray that God's words back to him and
that will. That's how you rejuvenated numbness. That's how you
(55:24):
recultivate this, all these things where I wonder, I don't
don't I don't. I feel like I'm drifting and I'm
not sure if I'm even saved. I grew up, and
over the past year my relationship has changed. I feel
a desired. I barely feel a desire. You don't know
how you know how to do? You want to know
how to cultivate that. You want to regrow that desire.
(55:45):
Pray like that. Read the passage, Meditate the passage, Pray
the passage again again, repeat daily. You will cultivate that
that soil back, that desire will come back.
Speaker 2 (55:58):
Good resource on that is a book called Praying Bible.
You just described the book basically with what you just said,
but that helped me a lot. It's called Praying the Bible.
It's just a simple way to pray through scripture, honestly
and authentically with sincerity.
Speaker 1 (56:11):
Talking about Don Whitney. Yeah yeah, yeah, great, great stuff. Cool.
Speaker 3 (56:17):
I guess it.
Speaker 1 (56:18):
Next episode I'll reveal something more of that story. In fact,
please do. Maybe I'll bring Lennon on there. Oh yeah
and talk about that.
Speaker 3 (56:25):
Okay, you should go forget. Uh there is a new
YouTube channel, so maybe you're watching this on that channel.
If you're not, go check it out because we put
an other store we're going to we have some stuff there.
Now we'll have more stuff that we'll be able to
do on that channel. Grainger Smith podcast.
Speaker 1 (56:40):
On YouTube and the Instagram.
Speaker 3 (56:42):
Yeah, Grainger Smith Pod.
Speaker 1 (56:43):
Grainger Smith Pod. Have you posted any of the clips
that you've texted me? No, I haven't heard them.
Speaker 3 (56:49):
Yeah. Yeah, we'll have a budget.
Speaker 1 (56:50):
We you know.
Speaker 3 (56:51):
Good feedback on on Dylan Chase's Spoken Word though.
Speaker 1 (56:56):
Did you listen to that one? It's great Dylan Chase podcast.
Speaker 2 (56:58):
Not yet, it's good.
Speaker 3 (57:00):
Yeah, the dude wraps in Japanese. Thank this is so fascinating.
Yeah yeah yeah, all right, see you guys.
Speaker 1 (57:09):
Ye ye, thank you so much for hanging out with
me on this episode of the Grangersmith Podcast. I appreciate
you being here. If you're listening right now, go ahead
and rate today's podcast. It helps more folks find the show.
And if you're tuning in on the iHeartRadio app, you
could actually set this podcast as one of your presets,
which is cool that way. I'm just one tap away.
If you're watching on YouTube, don't forget to hit like
(57:30):
and subscribe so you don't miss any new episodes. And
if you got a question you want answered right here
on the show, just email me podcast at grangersmith dot com.
I'd love to hear from you. Thanks again for being here.
We'll see you next time. Yee
Host
Granger Smith
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.