Episode 21: Are You Prepared? Reflecting on Salvation and Eternity

Send us a text

Ever grappled with the mystery of scripture interpretation and its potential misuse? Well, we did, and the insights were eye-opening. We shared a stirring story about a friend who experienced manipulation through scripture misinterpretation, which also led us into a deep conversation about women in leadership roles within the church. We also explored how Satan tempts us in the same ways he tempted Jesus, reminding us that He has already overcome these trials - a comforting aspect that connects us deeper to our faith. 

Have you ever considered the significance of the Apostles Creed? It was quite a revelation for us as we reflected on the essential truths of Christianity, with a focus on unity in Christ, rather than division. We also navigated through the harsh realities of our own imperfections, the judgmental tendencies within the church, and how our ego can hinder our spiritual growth. We found solace in the lessons offered by Jesus in Matthew 4 on overcoming physical temptations and building spiritual strength. 

Ending on a powerful note, we challenged ourselves with the question "are you saved?" and its potential to impress upon people the importance of preparation for eternity. Our conversation ventured deeper into Jesus’ healing ministry and its transformative impact, emphasizing how miracles can instigate belief. Are we ready to reflect this in our lives? The journey may be challenging, but it's certainly worth it. Let's continue to navigate this faith journey together, one revelation at a time.

Email: [e-mail]
Twitter: @FindingFaithPod

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
It's time to wake up and pray up here on the Fighting
Faith and Losingston podcast.
Thank you so much for joiningus again as we discover more
about life situations and aboutthe Bible.
Hey, just to make sure, if youare tuning in for the first time
, welcome to the show, welcometo the program, welcome to the
podcast.
I am Wes Easley, one of yourhosts at Lofenit over on Twitter
, and I have with me theproducer, the executive producer

(00:28):
of the show.
How does that feel, pierre, tobe an executive producer of the
Fighting Faith and Losing Sleeppodcast?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
I think it's just like a fancy title for more work
, but it's nice.
It's been a fun journey doingthis with both of you.
I just kind of did some of theediting.
I toss out some topics and Imean you guys give me ideas and
we hope the listeners you knowgive us ideas.
But it's good to be back in thesaddle been off for a bit for
some health issues and travelthings, but we're locked and

(00:58):
loaded right.
We're ready to roll.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
We are locked and loaded.
That is Peewee31, over onTwitter, and his wife is with us
, the star of the show.
Michelle, go back, go forward.
How are you, michelle?

Speaker 3 (01:10):
I'm doing well, wes, how are you?

Speaker 1 (01:12):
I am fine, you're not going to you, didn't like I'm?
I'm trying to give you a hardtime a little bit, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
I'm being respectful Wes of your bear's losing streak
.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Now listen.
I called you the star of theshow.
I'm trying to knock it.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
I'm not trying to knock it, I swiped, I feel it
because, like you know, we wereat Lambo on Thursday and that
was not the most fun game for me, so I don't like to rub things
in.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Well, we are not a football podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
We are a podcast, I know.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Wes.
Well, no, I was telling thelisteners we're not a football
podcast.
We are a podcast that talksabout life issues and we deal
with them because we all havedifferent angles, like Michelle
Michelle's got her angle and howshe grew up, pierre's got his
angle and how he grew up, I havemy angle and how I grew up, and
so we just kind of combine eachother.
We're all three friends andwe've talked this stuff out and

(02:05):
we're working through lifetogether and with you and we are
so appreciative of you.
And Pierre, since you're theexecutive producer, can you tell
everybody how to get in touchwith us if they happen to have
any questions, because I wantone of those question episodes.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, so you can reach us on Twitter slash X,
whatever it's called these daysat Finding Faith Pod.
You can also email us atfindingfafelosingsleep at
gmailcom.
You can leave us reviews,preferably five stars, but I
mean, if you want to do four,three, whatever you want to do,

(02:41):
you can leave us comments andreviews as well.
But just feel free to reach out.
You know we're looking forwardto interacting with any and all
of you.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Oh, it's been so much fun interacting with the
different listeners so farthroughout our journey here
together and we look forward tointeracting with so many more as
we keep going on.
And guys, michelle, maybe youcan help because you're the
sensible one of the three of us,I think.
Well, maybe that's Pierre somaybe you have, oh all right,
maybe I'm going towards you tokind of add a little fuel to my

(03:08):
flame or something.
I don't know what I'm doinghere.
But last time we concluded withGenesis I say concluded the
episode, concluded with GenesisBack at the Garden and Satan and
tempting Eve and Adam and allthat stuff that was going on
there, and then we really hey,we don't plan this stuff out too
much, right, we got a kind of aplan, but we allow God to use

(03:30):
wiggle room in creating thesepodcasts a little bit, right.
So we did say, okay, let's gofrom Genesis to Matthew, let's
kind of go bounce back and forth.
Boom, right, here we are withSatan showing up in the picture
again.
I'm trying to figure out whatthis means because really for
the last couple of weeks, asI've been praying over this and
thinking over the podcast andstuff, I'm like man, we're
talking a lot about Satan here.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
Well, it's funny that you said that actually, because
I was just like going back overthis verse again and the thing
that actually stuck out to methis time was Satan, and that
the reason that it stuck out isbecause, if you look, satan is
also quoting scripture.

(04:14):
So it kind of is like that, andwe've had this conversation, I
think, before, but it was likethat aha moment of Satan knows
scripture too.
So I think sometimes in lifeyou have those things, and it
came up for my best friend thisweekend.
We went to a women's conferenceat church and she had been
struggling with someone in herchurch basically saying that

(04:39):
like giving scripture as to whya woman couldn't be a lead
pastor in a church.
So she was going over that andshe said it just really bothered
me and the person was givingher scripture why that couldn't
happen.
And the lady at the conferencewas a lead pastor and said oh no

(04:59):
, no, I will send you scripturewhy that can happen.
And so I think oftentimes inour lives we will have people
who know scripture just so theycan rebut what we have to say
when we stand up for what theBible says.
And you see that very, veryclearly right here in Matthew 4.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
Now, I've been having conversations too, and that is
one of those topics the women asan executive pastor or lead
pastor, or whatever you want tosay and that is one of those
that it is All right.
So it's a sensitive topic.
It could be, it is yeah.
And if you go back in the pastpodcast and you go oh, they were

(05:43):
talking about that.
Yes, we were, we were talkingabout that.
And then you know what?
We came back for some more.
Okay, because we do have tolearn to agree, to disagree, and
I know we've said this time ortwo before, but in society today
, that is a lost art.
You're either for me or you'reagainst me.
You can't be both.

(06:04):
You can't be for me and with meand against me.
You can't do that.
I mean, that's what it seemslike, right, but I think that we
have to have patience indealing with these things.
And I had a conversation withsomebody and we were talking I
don't even know, we were talkingabout Calvinistic thoughts and
the old tulip idea.
And did God save you or did yousave yourself?
How much did you have to dowith it?

(06:24):
How much did God have to dowith it?
And we were going back andforth a little bit and it was
essentially.
He came down to it.
He said well, yeah, but if apreacher is preaching this, he
has to preach the truth.
Of course, he doesn't need tobe preaching, is what he said,
right?
And I was sitting there going.
So we can't nobody coulddisagree about stuff.
And as we were walking our waythrough it, I was kind of
pointing down at the line andsaying you know, some people

(06:46):
really feel this way about Goddoing the saving and some people
really feel like you know God,god did the saving, but it was
their decision and I can heararguments on both sides of it.
He said so which one's right?
I said, you know, I don't know,but I know that God brought me
through my journey to the pointthat he did, to where I could

(07:07):
make that decision to accept himinto my life and so forth.
And I said now, who did thesaving?
Because I should have been deada bunch of times before I ever
came to know my know God andaccept Jesus Christ as my savior
.
I should have been dead a longtime before that, but something

(07:27):
kept bringing me to a safe spot,to where I finally got to that
point and I could make thatdecision.
So who did the saving?
Did I do it?
Did he do it?
Because I know some of thosethings were out of my control.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
I think that, like what I noticed when you were,
what I thought of when you werespeaking, was, like so often, we
challenge these things back andforth with one another and,
like you said, we can't findthat common ground to just agree
to disagree.
And I think we I know we'vetalked about this before in that

(08:04):
I almost feel like the Bible iswritten in such a way that it's
we each have our owninterpretation with how it fits
our lives, and maybe it wasintentional that it was that way
, and you're never going to geteveryone to agree on probably

(08:25):
anything.
But I think what is unique isthat that's where faith comes in
, right?

Speaker 1 (08:32):
No, I agree.
What are your thoughts, Pierre?

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah, I think I think you get that throughout Like
there's so many different topicswithin the Bible that you could
argue contradict each other ina way, and you know folks again
will take sides on what thatmeaning is.
It's hard to decipher and Iknow that there's.

(09:01):
I feel there are things that wejust aren't going to know, like
we're not gonna know it all.
We are not you know.
All knowing you know only Godis.
But I also feel if you reallywant the answers and if God's
willing to give them to him, youcan pray for clarity on
situations and he will.

(09:22):
He will answer you.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
I think there's over here.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
Yeah, it may not be what you want to hear, but I
know, like I've been, I'm a bigElevational Worship fan.
They have a newer song calledTrust in God and what really
just sticks out to me in thesong is from actual Psalm 344.
And it's basically King David,you know, speaking and he states
you know I sought the Lord andhe answered me and delivered me

(09:48):
from all my fears.
And I feel like that's whatfolks really need to do with the
Bible.
So when you have those momentswhere you're questioning who
saved who, who did what?
I mean I often just pray aboutit and sooner or later, you know
I kind of get that whisper or Iget that nudge or something

(10:09):
happens that it's just too muchto be a coincidence.
That kind of answers, you know,the question for me and I know
we've even talked about theconversation on homosexuality,
et cetera.
I haven't been praying about you, it's just answers, you know
for that, and just certainepisodes and clips.
And all these things startedcoming up out of nowhere and

(10:30):
it's not like I'm one that praysout loud where you know the
Google microphones are gonnapick me up.
This is silently, you know thatno one else knows, and all of a
sudden, all these things startfalling into place.
The topic gets brought up inour life group out of nowhere,
and so when I have those momentsof you know, okay, what's the
answer here?
What do I need to know?

(10:52):
What do I need to get out ofthis?
I try to pray for it andultimately he answers me.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
Well, you've talked about that before.
I'm pretty sure Like we'll haveour podcast episode and we'll
talk about stuff and theninevitably, like either it's
come up right before the episodeor right after when we've
talked about it and all of asudden here something happens
and it's crazy, like that.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
Listen, we all know what algorithms are now and
we're pretty educated on thosethings.
There's some kind of algorithmof life that we don't even
understand yet.
And, Pierre, I'm glad ithappens to you too because,
honestly, I think I couldtelepathically make my phone
bring up a news article if Iwanted to.
You know what I mean.
Like I think I gotta stare atit and it can read my mind and
it can tell me about thesethings.

(11:41):
And so, yes, I do believe thatyou guys are right and I cannot
wait for the million dollarsthat I'm talking about right now
to jump into my bank account,which would be, I think we're
touching on a lot of thesesubjects.
But, listen, I hope you know,and I think that this is true
and, yes, correct me where I'mwrong we have to have there are
many, there shouldn't be manydividing lines, but there are

(12:04):
many dividing lines when itcomes to church, when it comes
to religion, with guns ofpeople's faith and stuff.
Many dividing lines shouldn'tbe.
But there has to be some ofthose essential truths, and I
think, like over in FirstCorinthians 110, I think about
Paul, and he kind of addressesthis and just right out of the
gate, bam, right out of the gateto the letters of the
Corinthians.
He says I exhort you, brethren,by the name of our Lord Jesus

(12:26):
Christ, that you all agree thatthere be no divisions among you,
but you be made complete in thesame mind and the same judgment
.
For I have been informedconcerning you, my brethren, by
Chloe's people that there aresome quarrels among you.
Boy, oh boy, Paul, are youwriting to this generation, or
what?
What generation are you writingto?
So this is going on in thechurch.
And he says I mean this thateach one of you are saying, hey,

(12:49):
I'm a Paul and I am of Apollos,I am of Cephas and I am of
Christ.
And then he says this reallyprofound thing has Christ been
divided?
Paul wasn't crucified for you,was he?
Or were you baptized in thename of Paul?
I thank God that I baptizednone of you except for a
Christmas, and Gaius that no manshould say that you were

(13:13):
baptized in my name.
That's kind of cool to see that,because he brings it back to
some of those basic andessential things man can get in
the way of a lot of this stuff.
It was a man's thoughts thatsaid, okay, God saved me.
And another man said no, Isaved myself, and those women

(13:33):
can be a pastor.
Nope, a woman cannot be apastor.
Those were the man things,right, those were the man things
.
But the essential things arethat Christ was crucified for
you, that you are baptized inthe name of Christ.
So there are some of thoseessential things that you can
hear of and look at throughoutthe scripture that you go okay,
there's no compromise there andPaul talked about you can eat

(13:58):
meat.
You can't eat meat.
You can't hey, if it doesn'tbother, you eat meat.
If it doesn't bother, you don'teat meat.
But Christ died for the meat.
I don't know if he said thatexact word, but you know what I
mean.
If it comes back to Christ,don't divide the Christ, Don't
divide Christ.
You can divide meat, don'tdivide Christ.
You can divide some things, butdon't divide who died for you

(14:21):
and whose name you were baptizedin.
And then I think about verse 17too, in that same little chapter
there, for Christ did not sendme to baptize but to preach the
gospel, not in cleverness ofspeech, that the cross of Christ
should not be made void.
So it goes back to that thecross of Christ, jesus, death,
burial, resurrection, some ofthose essential things that he

(14:44):
sent it into heaven.
That's an essential thing.
You kind of go back to theapostles creed to find a lot of
those essential truths that thechurch believed in from the
beginning stages and I thinkthat we have to still believe in
and stand up for today.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
We do, we do, and so I know we're again.
We're going into Matthew fourhere, but one of the things that
kind of helps me personallywith the truths is to see Jesus
kind of in our shoes.
No, we're not the Messiah, youknow, we didn't run the Lord of
healing people.
But when you look at at least,I have a title on my Matthew

(15:21):
four and my title says thatJesus is tested in the
wilderness.
And how often are we tested inour lives?
Like it's a lot, and so it'shonestly like it's sad to see.
But it's also comforting to knowwith me that you know Jesus
walked through some of thesesame trials and tribulations

(15:43):
that I did.
And as we dive into it you'llsee that, like Satan was was
tempting the Messiah with thesame things that he tempts us
with, like it didn't change, butyou know Jesus was the perfect
one that could overcome it.
Obviously we need him toovercome, but it should give us
comfort knowing that he'salready overcome the things that

(16:05):
we're facing today, right now,in this moment that you know
Satan basically tempted him within the wilderness.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
And he's not powerful enough to be able to tempt us
to a point to where we can'treturn either.
We can use the same strategiesthat Jesus used here in Matthew,
chapter four, to be able toward off some of those things.
And yes, man is imperfect.
We have a tendency to have ourego in our pride and think, make
us think that we are right orcorrect about all this
information, that we have rightand all of our ideas.

(16:35):
But just to let you know,there's not that perfect church
out there.
You know, just, I think aboutthat often, michelle and Pierre,
and the old saying is if youfind the perfect church, you may
not want to go there becauseyou might ruin it.
Right?

Speaker 3 (16:50):
It's funny, see, this is what I'm saying West,
literally at our women'sconference, the pastor that was
speaking said you know, whenpeople say that they're going to
leave a church because it's notperfect, well, don't go over to
that church because you mightruin them with your perfectness.
So like it's just, like it'strue, we're imperfect people, so

(17:12):
I don't, you can't, expect tohave a perfect church.
It's full of imperfect people.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
I think part of it is people are too focused on
people in church.
They're not focused on the wordor the message, or Jesus or God
, they're just focused on others.
And you know that judgmentbuilds up and you know
expectations kind of settle inon what they expect you to do
and how they expect you to act.

(17:40):
And again, if we're imperfect,that's not fair to anyone.
Regardless of what path you'regoing down, of how far you are
along that path, it's reallyreally difficult to call
yourself a Christian and you'rein there judging other people
who maybe aren't as far along asyou and your journey, or maybe

(18:04):
they've taken a stumble, a stepback, and who are you to kind of
kick them when they're down?
How are you better than them?
And again, we see that in thedaily world that's taking place,
in its anxiety all over and youknow the church is supposed to
be that safe haven, come as youare, type of situation and I
think that folks within thechurch sometimes lose that

(18:27):
mentality, lose that thoughtprocess of just being accepting
of others that are strugglingwith different struggles.
We don't all have the same sins, we don't all have the same
struggles and all sins are equal.
So my sin is the same as yoursin.
So don't judge me for my stuffIf you're not gonna look in the
mirror and judge yourself foryour own stuff.
And I think that any and allchurches have members that get

(18:51):
to that point where they justbecome judgmental, pointing the
finger, put their nose up atfolks and kind of forget where
they came from as well.

Speaker 3 (18:59):
Well, and we know the testing is gonna come right.
Like.
So we have to be ready, we haveto be alert.
But like, can we really showtrue obedience if we never have
an opportunity to be tested orto disobey?
But we have to remember that,like, our convictions are only

(19:21):
strong if they hold up underpressure.
So I think what Pierre issaying is a hundred percent
spot-on.
Like we're all gonna be tested,jesus was tested, we're all
going to, and it's just a factthat it's gonna come.
You don't know when it's gonnacome, and usually it's when
you're on your mountaintop.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
So like me, because the first thing Jesus test is
with.
It's like food, yeah, I readthat first line is like Fasten
up, like oh, I know this one,you know I'm driving my Popeye's
every day, you know.
Like, oh, man, I just.
But I mean a different type oftest.
But I mean I mean you look atlike gluttony, gluttony, you

(20:02):
look at, you look at that, thattype of situation that's, it's
the same type of ordeal, oryou're just kind of Not
practicing moderation, you'reyou're overeating or you're
eating things You're notsupposed to eat, etc.
And so, right off the bat, youknow he tests Jesus with hey,
turn these stones into somebread and eat Me being me, if

(20:24):
I'm starving, I'm probably like,alright, let's do it.
So I mean that's.
That's why I just appreciateJesus and his willpower, because
I've been in those situationswhere I would, I would probably
turn it into bread and get full.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
Oh yeah, I can hear that.
I understand that.
And we we are in Matthew,chapter 4.
It's after, of course, matthew1, 2 and 3, and in those
beginning things we saw thebirth, the genealogy of Jesus.
I thought it was pretty funepisodes that we were doing back
there you could always go tothe past and listen to those if
you would like to and then thebaptism of Jesus, which was kind

(20:57):
of important because we alsolearned about his cousin, john,
a little bit, and the kind ofattitude that John had was a
Bold attitude to be able tospeak out against religious
people who were doing thingsthat weren't necessarily a
hundred percent correct, butthey were still religious people
.
I, you know, I'm not gonna saythat those people were going to
hell or anything like that youknow they're they're religious
people, but they could doreligious things better.

(21:17):
And the thing is what John wastrying to tell him and encourage
him to do things, and heencouraged him in his own way.
So as we get to this point here, we're starting to see Jesus
now Start and walk his walk alittle bit more, you know.
And then, if history tells usright I don't think it's
necessarily biblical, thatdoesn't give us a Bible age, but
we've had plenty of scholars gothrough here and try to add it

(21:39):
up Jesus around 30-ish years old, right about now, around 30
Years old, right.
So that's that's the kind ofman he's been, and and a
hard-working man, I believe, iswhat he was back then.
Of course you weren't gonna besome soy boy latte.
I don't think you're gonna godown to the local coffee shop
and get a soy latte doublecappuccino or anything like that
.
At that time he was a carpenterson, so he worked with his hands

(22:01):
and I think he was a tough guy.
I think he was a tough guy.
I think he had to be kind oftough guy in order to live back
then but also just to do hisministry that he's gonna be
doing, cuz he's always out thereon the road.
You know that's that's.
That's a hard thing to do, andwe see that Jesus was led up by
the Spirit, it says, into thewilderness to be tempted by the
devil.
Now I don't know why you'regonna go out there and be
tempted by the devil.

(22:22):
You know Just all purpose, butthat's what it kind of it looks
like it's being done that way.
The spirit kind of let him outthat way and he fasted 40 days
and 40 nights, like you said tohear, and he became a hungry now
I don't.
I don't become hungry, I becomehangry you know that's that 40
days, about four hours, man,yeah, I ain't had nothing to eat

(22:42):
or drink for hours.
I'm getting hangry.
I can't imagine what it's likethen when you're doing it 40
days and 40 nights.
It says the tempter my, myversion says the tempter came
and said to him and I I've beenwondering what kind of form was
the tempter in?
Because we just finishedreading Genesis and it was a

(23:02):
sneaky kind of a thing.
You know, it's a lizard,whatever it was, and and what.
What was the form?
Was this a mental thing?
I don't know.
I don't know that.
I know the answer, that youknow.
And we've had many other versesthat we've looked at over the
course of time here on thefinding faith and losing sleep
podcast.
We see where Satan is describedas like a roaring lion Waiting

(23:26):
around the corner waiting topounce on us, you know.
And we also see even Paulwriting about how he was the
prince of the power of the airover there in Ephesians.
So I don't know, why did that?
Did that thought cross y'all'smind?

Speaker 2 (23:40):
It did to an extent I , so I don't know why.
It could be because of theverse five that we'll get into
here, but I kind of think of theit will be Christmas Carol, if
you're familiar with that.
It's like the, the ghosts ofChristmas past like coming to
Scrooge.
So I kind of think of the thirdone, who's like the future and
it's like a grim reaper Type ofcharacter where you don't

(24:04):
necessarily see like their face.
It's just like this.
It's dark spirit with like ahood on and it's kind of like
cloak.
That's kind of what I imagine,just kind of guiding Jesus away,
trying to get him To be temptedinto some of these items.
It's kind of how I've alwayspictured it.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
Yeah, I, I've gone through all I want, maybe not
all the scenarios, but I've gonethrough many scenarios.
I'd like to think that it Justjust the, just the voice, you
know, and yeah, cuz, cuz, Ithink I think Satan can is like
the algorithms, where he canpenetrate my mind, you know, and
he can help me think thingsthat I don't necessarily need to

(24:47):
think, and I always need to beable to say no kind of a thought
.
You know, I Many things that Icould be tempted with all around
all different kinds of corners,and I have to be prepared to be
able to say no to those things.
I always wonder oh boy, man Wes, you're kind of weak, you're
just, you're thinking badthoughts or, you know, getting
tempted by something youshouldn't be tempted with.

(25:07):
And when I see something likethis, where Jesus is being
tempted as well, it helpsencourage me that, yes, jesus
was a hundred percent God, buthe was also a hundred percent
man, so he was tempted with someof the same things that I was,
which here it was a physicalthing and I think that you can
put all physical desires intothis Category and somebody who
might be recovering fromwhatever it is, whatever kind of

(25:29):
addiction it is they may have,and trust me, I know what that
means because I'm a recoveringaddict and I don't think you
ever are a non addict or yourdon't ever stop being an addict.
I I'm always aware of thosethings and I never want to go
into those doors to Accept thatopportunity that I can, that's
so readily available to me forwhether it be alcohol, drugs,

(25:51):
pornography, whatever it is.
I know I'm an addict.
Listen, I can, I can drink, Ican eat a bag of candy corn if
you set it down in front of me,and I'm not gonna stop until
it's all gone.
I know that right, so I'm notgonna do that.
I'm not gonna open up a case ofbeer.
I'm not gonna do all thosethings because I know that I
won't stop until it's all gone.
And those are physicaltemptations, and Jesus is

(26:12):
tempted with that same kind ofphysical thing right here With
this, and it doesn't matter ifit's been 40 days or 49.
Those physical Temptations arestill gonna come at you all the
time and it's for us to be ableto be aware of, to be able to
say no to.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
It isn't.
I mean so Jesus answers, youknow, if it is written, man
shall not live on bread alone,but on every word that comes
from the mouth of God.
So I Mean it's think about usin our situation.
So let's you just talk aboutbeing angry, you know, after,
after four hours, and like howoften do we Do we have those

(26:48):
situations where maybe we'rewe're hungry and thirsty and we
we just kind of cave in like soI know, at church, like we do
our own 21 days of prayer whereyou're required to like fast,
and you know some of those timescan be can be difficult, like
day in, day out.
But honestly I do, I do prettygood within that window of the

(27:10):
21 days of prayer because I'mconstantly like focused, I guess
, and and when you're focused Ithink it's easier to kind of
overcome some of the Weaknessesor things you don't think that
you can overcome.
And so I would say that herethat Jesus was, was focused.
So even after 40 days and 40nights, you know he's saying

(27:30):
that man shall not live on breadalone.
Like what are we doing in likeeight hours?
Are we?
Are we able to say, you know,man should not live on bread
alone if we're hungry, you know,after eight hours, in our minds
probably no, but if we reallyfocused on it, I mean, I'm sure
we could go longer than we would.
It could even imagine withoutfood, basically starving the

(27:52):
flesh, which is often what youneed to do the feet, the spirit.
These are things that we couldalso accomplish if we put our
mind to it.

Speaker 3 (27:59):
Well, I can attest to that, because when I had to
have surgery, there were manythings that I couldn't eat or
drink, but when I had a blockagein my intestine, I could not
Put.
There was nothing, not a dripof water or anything, by mouth
for three plus days, and I wasso thirsty and Really frustrated

(28:20):
, and it wasn't like I couldjust get up and walk around and
take my mind off of it.
All I could do was just lay inthis hospital bed.
So, yeah, it's, it'sfrustrating, but the thing that
Sticks in my head is that we cando more than we think.
So prayer was really powerfulin that moment.
And what kind of struck me as Iwas reading through this part

(28:43):
is that doubt can creep in andthe devil really tried to get
Jesus to doubt his father's love, protection, provision, all of
those things and what's, I wantto ask you.
So Jesus was obviously able toresist all of those temptations
because he knew scripture, butwhat's the difference between

(29:07):
what he knew, between him andthe devil as far as scripture
goes?

Speaker 1 (29:12):
I think Jesus knew how to apply it for good.

Speaker 3 (29:15):
Yeah, he obeyed it.
So, like it's one thing to knowscripture and that was kind of
my whole point in this it's onething for us to know it and to
read it, but the key is that wehave to obey it.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
No, you're absolutely right, and you know, by the way
, jesus fasted 40 days and 40nights.
There's different kinds offasting.
You know, like I sometimesthink fasting is being
completely without anything likeno food.
I don't know, maybe this iswhat it was, maybe he was
without food, maybe it waswithout water for 40 days and 40
nights.
But there's also those timeswhen you give up things for a
period of time, like you weretalking about Pierre, or even

(29:52):
Lent, or something like that,and I think I've done that Well,
I know I've done that before inthe past just to get my mind
concentrating and focusing onwhat I need to be focusing on.
So whenever I was a youngChristian, I was like, oh, he
didn't eat 40 days, 49 days,there ain't no way, no way, he
didn't do no.
And then, when it became moreeducated so I want to make sure
I throw that out there to peoplewho might be just trying to

(30:13):
figure it out for the first timeand be like what he didn't eat
40 days and 40 nights?
Now listen, this is.
This is I got into the Bibleright here.
This is where I started reading.
You know, matthew, chapter one.
I made it through that firstchapter and everything, and
we're getting into the areawhere I started going.
Huh, he didn't eat for 40 daysand 40 nights.
So I'm going to I'm going toprobably be approaching it
sometimes from that angle,because I do think that that's

(30:34):
important to have people walkyou through the scriptures a
little bit and hope to have abetter understanding of it.
Okay, does that?
Does that make sense?
Is that okay to do?
Yeah for sure.
Okay, all right.
So there's different kinds offasting where maybe you just
give up certain things to beable to keep your mind focused
on God and, like you said,pierre, it's that time whenever,
okay, I'm going to give upcandy corn, I ain't going to eat

(30:55):
candy corn this Halloween.
Every time I get tempted withcandy corn, I'm like, all right,
lord, you got to help me withthis.
By the way, can you?
I'm sorry for all the thingsI've ever did wrong for you.
You know, it just kind ofbrings you back to that point of
prayer with God and dependencyon God for strength and also for
all the other things in life.
That goes along with gettingover that temptation of candy
corn.

(31:15):
It's terrible.

Speaker 2 (31:16):
Terrible, terrible.
It's awesome.
We, getting rid of somethingthat you're you're putting
before God is is kind of howwe've been taught it ourselves
and through our churches.
You know, it's not just foodand water.
Sometimes it's social media,for example.
If, if your phone is adistraction and it's stopping

(31:36):
you from getting into your Bible, it's stopping you from praying
and in those type of things,and you can fast from something
like that as well, because it'ssomething that you're placing in
front of the Lord and the goalis to put the Lord first again
in your life.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
And I think it shows you, and and it shows you that
you could do something like thatright, and that you can
prioritize God in a lot ofdifferent instances.
But it also shows you that Godcan help give you the strength
to overcome whatever it is thatyou want to put behind you too.
So I think that that's it.
So, yes, pierre, is writtenthat you should not eat.
Then devil said it is writtenman shall not live on bread

(32:15):
alone.
But every word that proceedsout of the mouth of God oh,
that's what God said, I'm sorry,that's what Jesus said.
It's written in red.
Well, that's your reading, redright there.
So that's what Jesus said.
Jesus gave him scripture tokind of get him back a little
bit right.

Speaker 3 (32:28):
It didn't.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
It didn't stop the devil.
The devil took him into a holycity and had him stand on the
pinnacle of the temple and saidto him if you are the son of God
, throw yourself down, for it iswritten he will give his angels
charge concerning over you andon their hands they will bear
you up lest you strike your footagainst the stone.
I like that, you know.
At first, at first, satan thetempter did not use scripture,

(32:52):
right, he used his physicalbeing.
And then Jesus used scripture.
And so then it was like, oh, thedevil said, ok, all right, I'm
going to play your game.
You know like, let's, let's go,let's go, I know scripture too.
And so he started playing thatgame and and he gave him
scripture from the Old Testamentabout himself, about.
You know what was written aboutJesus a long time ago, which is

(33:15):
one of those prophetic thingsthat came true.
Oh, another reason why you canknow Jesus is the son of God and
that you know prophesies cametrue about him and stuff like
that.
Jesus, the devil knew it too.
You know, that's kind of cool.
And then to see that thedevil's playing his own game
here.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
Well, I mean, you got to think of where the devil
came from, Like when you look atLucifer you know we talked
about this he was he was likethe right hand man of God in
heaven before he was casted down.
So it's not like he's oblivious, you know, to the, to the
scripture and to the ways.
But this temptation is justkind of.

(33:51):
It's really interesting becauseI I think about like the
suicide rate in the world thesedays, and oftentimes you just
think about the, the earthlypieces of it.
So you know most people it's.
It's over a significant other,whether it be a companion, it's
over things like finances orloss.
You know stuff along thoselines.

(34:13):
But honestly I hadn't reallythought much about suicide being
a devil's temptation.
I don't know what goes throughthe minds in those situations.
I know that the mind can be apowerful thing, but if you think
about the, the rate, and youknow how it's up so much these

(34:34):
days with things like phones anddistractions etc.
That's a really powerfultemptation, whether you're a
Christian or not.
Just roaming through this, thisworld, I feel like death itself
and kind of.
You know the, the wholeattempting or committing suicide

(34:57):
is a powerful temptation thatyou know you're not good enough,
you're not pretty enough, youcan't do this, you can't do that
, and you've seen so many livestaken and to think about that as
being a temptation for thedevil to maybe win and prevent
you from ultimately fightingthat saving grace from God that

(35:20):
you're, you might be on the pathon or that might be in your
future, he can all of a suddenstop that from even taking place
.
So you know you're walking yourdark path.
You know in life and before youcan even get to you know God's
grace, you know Satan's tryingto jump in saying, yeah, it's
over for you, it's, it's done.
You should just end it now.

(35:40):
There's no hope for you.
That's a pretty deep temptation.
I think it's one that wehonestly see society kind of
failing with at times here, justgiven the high rate that we
have.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
And Jesus, you know you're absolutely right here and
that you know we were talkingabout church earlier and stuff.
And listen, we don't think thatyou have to go to church to be
saved.
I'm not going to say that ithelps, but I don't think you
have to go to church to be saved.
And I say it helps because thenyou surround yourself with
other people who have a likemind of trying to do things that
are right and trying to tryingto stay away from things that
are wrong, trying to find waysto do good things in the

(36:14):
community to build people up.
But also, when it comes tosomething like you're talking
about there with suicide, ithelps out in that too, because I
think you're surrounded bypeople who love you and you can
find a community, you can findpurpose, you can find worth it.
Maybe that you can't findnecessarily all by yourself.
I would say, if somebody wasfeeling that way too don't
forget about sunshine, don'tforget about exercise, don't

(36:35):
forget about vitamins, don'tforget about eating right.
There's so many things to beable to help with that, and you
can't necessarily find that onyour own.
So it's always good to goaround other people who can
start steering you in adirection to help you find those
things that can give youpurpose and this life and stuff.
So I think it's important to beable to find community like

(36:57):
that, and that's what a churchis it's a group, it's a
community of believers together.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
It is.
But you would also see why thedevil would try to prevent you
from getting there.
Oh yeah, he would try to stopyou from going to church or
finding a church, or stop youfrom getting a Bible, or having
that conversation with yourChristian friend where something
comes up and you can't maybemeet for coffee, etc.

(37:23):
There's just so many ways thathe wants to prevent you from
doing that.
But then again, here with Jesushimself, he's basically trying
to get him to commit suicidebefore you know his calling on
the cross, Like he's trying toprevent that from happening and

(37:44):
kind of ultimately win overJesus himself.

Speaker 1 (37:50):
And to test his Godship too, right, I mean,
that's he's trying to do thattoo by saying look, it ain't
gonna hurt you if you really got.
Are you really God, you know?
I think that there's that kindof little doubt in there too.
Go ahead, michelle.

Speaker 3 (38:01):
Oh, I was going to say when Pierre was talking.
It triggered something I readlike the glorify app most
mornings and I had saved one andI was trying to find it.
But I won't read the wholething, but it just says like the
same miracle worker whomultiplied the fish and the
loaves was now walking on waternear them and they thought he
was the, was a ghost.
Jesus response to the discipleswho missed him and who cried

(38:24):
out in fear is remarkable.
The scripture says immediatelyhe spoke to them and said don't
be afraid the word used heremeans don't resist me and he
climbed into the boat with them.
He's saying the same thing toyou and me.
He's not running for a message,he's climbing into, be right
there with us and he comes withhis.
With his presence comes peace.
So basically what he's sayingis like when, in the midst of

(38:48):
whatever, hurts and heartbreaksare disrupting our peace, then
we pray that we'll see himcoming and we no longer have to
cry out in fear.
We can call out in faith, calmand trusting, anxious for
nothing, because we know, weknow he sees us, we know he's
for us, we know he's in controland the Lord's near and we're
safe.
And part of that was I didn'tread all of it, but part of it

(39:09):
was saying that when you'retempted or when you're down and
in despair, thank him.
And it sounds crazy to say like,okay I'm, I don't see what you
have for my life anymore and Idon't want to live anymore, but
thank you God.
Like how do you?
How do you do that in thosemoments?

(39:29):
But basically what it's sayingis to flip your mindset and if
you turn your mind from a placeof despair to thankfulness, that
eventually it leads you back tothat path of being thankful and
you basically have to trickyour mind into okay, wait, I'm
thankful now, because you can'thave that positive and negative
at the same time.
So I thought that was.

(39:51):
It really stuck out to me thatyou know, in the midst of our
storms and the midst of ourtrials, to thank him and to
praise him and to say thank youfor this, because when I'm in
this fire, it's only going tomake me stronger to come out the
other side.
So diamond has to go throughthat pressure and to become the
diamond we have to do the samething.

Speaker 1 (40:11):
So anyway, yeah, so the first time Jesus was tempted
with the, with the turn of therocks into bread and everything,
I kind of look at him as havinga slide grin on his face
whenever he says it is writtenman should not live on bread
alone, but by every word thatproceeds out of the mouth of God
, you know, like, like huh, takethat Satan.
You know just kind of live alittle slide grins on his face.

(40:31):
I don't know, that's the way Ipicture it.
But this time, whenever Satanuses scripture to be able to
tempt him, this time into hisfirst God ship, and then the
suicide thing, I look at Jesus,his point of finger.
Now you know what I mean.
Like.
On the other hand, it is writtenyou shall not put the Lord,
your God, to the test.
You know, I kind of look at itlike he's disciplining Satan a

(40:53):
little bit here in this, in thiscase, and that that's a good
scripture right there Don't putthe Lord, your God, to the test.
You can't do that anyway,because God is perfect, but you
shouldn't even try, right?
I think it goes back to for uswe can glean out this a little
bit is is blaming God for things?
Like God, you did this to me.
No, no, no, look, no, don't,don't, you know, put God to the

(41:16):
test and stuff things like that.
And I don't know.
What do you guys think aboutputting God to the test?
Do you think that this is likewhat we talked about before, I
think in one of the pastepisodes, where we saw different
people praying for certainthings and they would say, if
you give this us this, we'll,we'll do this part.
What do you guys think thatthis is part of that?
Test stuff.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
I don't know.
It's tough because I my mindultimately goes to to
non-believers and have a eventhroughout scripture.
They often want to seesomething.
So if your God's real, then dothis.
Or if your God's this, then hecan do this.
And they're basically testingyou out, testing him out, and I

(42:01):
think that's the case here.
What's the devil?
He's saying he will command hisangels concerning you.
They will lift you up.
So if this is your God, ifyou're the Son of God, then I
mean, what do you have to lose?
This is getting ready to happen.
Go ahead and do it.
And Jesus, who probably couldhave I mean he is Jesus, he

(42:23):
probably would have survived.
But he goes back and he quotesscripture on top of scripture.
It is also written.
So take this, it is alsowritten Eureka, do not put the
Lord, your God, to the test.
And so I think it's one ofthose situations that, even if
we as Christians are maybe onthe defense with some others

(42:47):
that are non-believers,regardless of what they're kind
of doing with pressing ourbuttons, don't put God to the
test amongst those battles.
Kind of keep that in mind whenthey're tempting you themselves.
It may not be the devil, it maybe other humans tempting you.
You still shouldn't put God tothe test in some of the

(43:08):
situations that you're facing,but Jesus didn't, in a really
difficult situation himself.

Speaker 1 (43:15):
Yeah, and it's cool that he has verse on top of
verse two, and how consoling isthat for us at times, and for
other people too.
It's a good reason for us to beable to memorize scripture and
to memorize verses and to bemore able to flip pages in the
Bible, even though yourexecutive producer on a certain
finding faith and losing sleeppodcast will say that it's too
loud to do that and it soundslike no.

(43:36):
But it's good for us to havethose things in our.
You talked about the Biblebeing locked and loaded earlier
I think it was before show andeven after we started recording
and they are our weapons.
The Bible is our weapon.
It's our sword.
We should be able to yield that.
Wield that, not yield that.
We should be able to wield thateffectively for God.

(43:56):
And it's so encouraging as wellto use those things.
Now Jesus is using it asself-defense, but you could also
use it for healing.
You can use verses for healing.
You can use verses for allsorts of things whenever it
comes to Bible.
All right.
So then the devil took him up ona high mountain, showed him all
the kingdoms of the world andtheir glory, and he said to him
all these things I've given toyou, if you fall down and

(44:16):
worship me, worship me.
That seems like the last thing.
That would be a temptation toJesus, right, but it was.
It was, you know, it's whatwe're told that he's went up to
the wilderness to be tempted bySatan.
So here's a little temptationfor you, jesus.
And Jesus said to him be gone,satan, for his written.
You shall worship Lord, yourGod, and serve him.

(44:37):
Only Then the devil left himand, behold, angels came and
began to minister to him.
Now that trips me out too, justthinking about angels
ministering to him.
But you know, it is what it is.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
Well, I don't, so I don't read that.
I know it says if you bow downand worship me, but to me
personally this is more atemptation of power versus a
temptation of just bowing down.
He's basically trying to tellhim that you basically have

(45:08):
everything, like the powers overthis kingdom, over the world is
yours, which ultimately it isanyways.
But that was kind of what hewas tempting with.
And again, these are thingsthat we get tempted with in our
own lives.
How often are we tempted withpower and money?
That that's gonna be the answerto everything.

(45:29):
You know we've had food, we'vehad, ultimately, suicide.
Now we've had power.
You know I'll give youeverything you ever could want,
everything you could ask for asa temptation, and even amongst
that, you know Jesus is like getaway from me Get out of here.
And then he goes back toscripture.
You know, worship the Lord,your God, and serve him.

(45:51):
Only.
So, again, three times it'staken place.
Each time he goes back toscripture.
And we kind of opened the showearlier talking about how we as
a society really struggle toagree to disagree type of
situations Even.
You know, I think Michelle eventalked about the fact that some
people will bring up the Biblethemselves to kind of throw it

(46:14):
against you and have certainversions of memorized.
So how cool would it be if wecould have our own verses
memorized to say, hey, it isalso written at this.
And that was be our retort, youknow, to certain situations.
You know, someone throwssomething at us and it's a
version, and oftentimes we'relike, oh, I don't know how to
get around this, what do I say?
And kind of maybe just backdown.

(46:36):
But if we, you know, did getinto the word and start to
memorize this, we could say, oh,it is also written.
You know that this is the caseand I feel like that's just a
better response.
If you can, you know, fight theBible with the Bible.

Speaker 1 (46:52):
Yeah, yeah, totally.
I go back to how do we ever gettempted with this part?
How you know, I can understandgetting tempted with food or
with something that we shouldn't, do you know?
I get that.
I can get tempted with, youknow, the suicide thing, or even
, you know, wondering whether ornot I'm saved or if God's real,
or anything like that.

(47:12):
I can get number two too.
But what about the third one?
How do we get tempted with that?
It's, I think it's very easy.
You know, whether we want tocompromise our values or not, or
Christian standards, we can allsteal and get ahead of the game
a little bit if we wanted to.
I don't know if you can, but Ican.
We can do those things.
That would be a little bitshady.

(47:34):
I also, I think about Hollywoodpeople too.
I think about Hollywood peoplewho maybe go to Hollywood with
some values or some morals andthen all of a sudden they get
this big lead in a play or alead in a movie or a film and
they have to appear nude or theyhave to have a scene where
they're making, you know,whatever with whoopie.
I guess is what does makingwhoopie with somebody else?
Does that compromise?

(47:55):
Is that one of those thingswhere you'll be famous, you'll
have a good role, you'll open upmore opportunities for you if
you appear topless, or somethinglike that.
How does that compromise thosethings in Hollywood?
And I try to approach that thesame way in my life.
You know, what am I doing thatwould compromise my values today
?
That I don't need to do, youknow.

(48:16):
So I think that we can kind ofrelate to all three of those.

Speaker 3 (48:20):
But I think that typically West.
What do they do?
What do they do those roles?
Why do they wanna be famous?
What do they do that for?

Speaker 1 (48:27):
Money, yup, and I feel like money is.

Speaker 3 (48:34):
You always hear money is the root of all evil, and so
I think like I don't.
I'm not saying money is a badthing in and of itself, but the
love of money and we've had thisconversation before, but I
think that's ultimately kind ofwhat Satan is saying like here
I'll give you everything andpower.

(48:57):
Usually money comes with powerand being comfortable, and so I
think we associate beingcomfortable with having things
and having power, and Jesus issaying it's probably exactly the
opposite Like I doubt Jesus wasvery comfortable for most of

(49:20):
his life here on earth and I'mpretty certain he didn't really
have any money, but he had joy.
And I think oftentimes I cantell you that when in my life,
when I had the most money, I wasthe most miserable.
So it's hard, because I thinkwe all strive to be comfortable,

(49:43):
but I almost feel like and thisis a hard one, but I almost
feel like Jesus wants us to beuncomfortable, to see where our
true character is.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
No, I would agree with that.
It's not the comfortable.
That often is leading thecharge into a battle, and that's
what we're doing as Christiansis leading a charge into battle.
So, after the temptation andeverything, it just came
minister to him.
He got all fed back up and hegot all good and everything.
He started his ministry, hispublic ministry, and you know

(50:14):
what he started doing?
He started saying the samething that John the Baptist did
and that says that they saidstarted saying to everybody
repent, for the kingdom ofheaven is at hand.
And, michelle, I think the lasttime that we talked about this
which seems forever ago now,because we've gone from the Old
Testament to the New Testamentback and forth a little bit just
that, you know, we might needto say that a little bit more,
be a little bit more strong ifwe see somebody hurting

(50:36):
themselves or something likethat, because it is one of those
urgent things.
And, as this time period hasgone on and I've gone, why in
the world does Satan keeppopping up in our battle studies
, you know, or our finding faithand losing sleep podcast?
Why does he keep popping upthere?
But I also remember that Jesustalked more about hell than he
talked about heaven, and I thinkthat that's probably one of
those things that we might wantto learn a little bit more too,

(50:59):
because nowadays in theChristian world, I wonder if we
don't try to coerce people toheaven.
You know what I mean and Italked about, I joked about the
soy boy, latte things orwhatever but everybody gets so
offended nowadays, it feels like, and so we need to, we need to
politely and gently and I'm notsaying we don't need to politely
and gently, but I'm just sayingwe need to put a little bit of

(51:20):
sugar on every word we say andeverything like that to try and
coerce people into heaven,instead of telling people, hey,
repent, the kingdom of heaven'sat hand.
If you died tonight, where wouldyou end up spending eternity?
If you died tonight and youopened up your eyes again, where
would you be?
Heaven or hell.
And I often, you know, I thinkthat that's kind of a repent,

(51:42):
for the kingdom of heaven is athand, and it's a pretty good
question just to be able to askpeople, you know, hey, are you
saved?
Just to hear the response.
And if they, you know whatwould people say?
Oh, yeah, I'm saved.
And then you ask why?
Why do you think you're saved?
And then listen for thatresponse?
Because if it's not surroundedwith well, let me tell you why.
It's because Jesus died for me.

(52:03):
If it's because, well, you know, I made a pact with God.
You know that kind of if it'snot the right answers, then all
of a sudden you have anopportunity to be able to direct
and guide somebody.
But let me tell you something.
Asking that question, are yousaved?
Let me ask you a question areyou saved?
You know what that does.
That tells somebody you careand you're not afraid.

(52:25):
And we need people who care andaren't afraid.
We need a lot of people whocare and aren't afraid.
We always talk about change.
We always talk about how wewish society was better.
We boy, it wasn't like thiswhen we were growing up.
Well, we need to be bold inorder to get it back to where it
was if we wanted to bedifferent.
That was just a thought thatwent through my mind about that

(52:47):
message.

Speaker 2 (52:48):
It was true, because I mean you got a lot of funerals
, for example, like everyone'sin a better place now and I'm
like apparently hell's justempty because every funeral I go
to they're in a better place.
And that's not what the Biblesays.
It's not, that's not the maththat adds up.

(53:11):
And some of these people I knowtheir lives and if they're in
heaven and I have nothing toworry about, I'm good to go.
But that's not how it works.
And so I mean even I know it'sthis consoling type of thing and
we're probably getting to thatwhenever we get into the Matthew
five a little bit and thebeauties.
But it's not like hell is empty, like everyone doesn't.

(53:36):
The default is hell.
It is hell, it is not heaven.
The default is hell.
And we got to realize that.
And obviously this was yearsago.
Where you see the repent, the,basically the kingdom of heaven
is near.
What is near Like?

(53:59):
I know we watched it chosen andlike one of the scenes is like
okay, so what's soon is whatthey ask Jesus, and Jesus is
like soon.
What's soon Like what does thatmean?
What does near mean to usversus what it means to God?
Like what is time itself?
Look how long it took overalmost 400 years for Jesus's

(54:24):
birth to appear after the OldTestament.
We don't know what time is, andso that's why it says to be
ready at all times.
Be on guard, because no oneknows when that day's gonna come
but the Father.
Why would you not wanna beprepared?
And I can say I'm not alwaysprepared.

(54:46):
There's times and situationswhere I am not at my best, where
if Jesus showed up, I'm likeuh-oh, I might be in trouble
here.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
You better not come during the cults game, right.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
Yeah, yeah, pretty much, but no, but seriously like
.
But when it that's what we'retold, when he's saying it's near
, this is Jesus roaming theearth, but without his actual
physical being here.
We still have the spirit andthe advocate, but we have no
idea when that day's gonna come.
So why will we live our livesreckless, not knowing not just

(55:23):
when Jesus is returning, butwhen our own day's gonna end,
like we have no day promise, asmuch as we like to make plans,
and we're gonna do this tomorrowlike none of it's promise?
Things can be taken away and aninstant, people can be taken
away and an instant.
I've lived it myself.
So why not be ready at alltimes for that situation, for

(55:49):
your judgment day?

Speaker 1 (55:51):
And knowing that, why not help other people be ready
for that same thing too?
Yeah, I'm telling you guys,that is fun to do.
All right, maybe I'm a gluttonfor punishment, but to ask
people those kind of questions,put your faith out there to live
boldly, it is fun to do.
And it's not fun because you'relike, ha ha ha, look how strong

(56:12):
I am.
Oh, it's fun because peoplestart thinking about it.
And then people come to youwith questions.
You open up a big door ofopportunity for people to be
able to approach you with stuff.
Because, man, regardless ofwhat we think, saying something
like that everybody knows it'sbold.

(56:34):
Everybody knows it takes alittle guts to do, because they
would never do it.
You know what I mean.
It takes a little bit of gutsto ask somebody hey, let me ask
you this are you saved?
It takes some guts to do that,and people know that because it
does take some fortitude.
And look, I'm your huckleberry.
I often say I'm dumb enough notto understand the severity of

(56:57):
the situation.
It's what it is sometimes.
And so you just open out of themouth of babes, right?
It kind of goes like that.
So Jesus was starting hisministry.
He was going around saying thatand I don't know how many
people heard him do it orwhatever.
But he walked by the sea ofGalilee.
He saw two brothers, simon, whowas called Peter, and Andrew,

(57:17):
this brother casting his nend ofthe sea, and they were
fishermen.
And he said to them follow meand I will make you fishers of
men.
They immediately, it says, theyimmediately left their nets and
followed him.
I think it was an opportunityfor him.
I think Jesus had a reputation,probably you know at this point
.
You know, and whenever somebodyoffered you an opportunity to

(57:37):
be able to walk with them, andthey were somebody who was wise
and somebody who was going to,you know, take care of you and
everything.
And that's what these guys did.
They took care of.
Obviously they had a littlefishing business and everything
like that on the side.
Maybe it was parents fishfishing business and they had a
little bit invested in it.
But I love how they justimmediately followed him when

(57:57):
the time is right and Jesusmakes that calling in somebody's
life.
I know it takes some time but,man, sometimes it just takes a
moment for somebody to say youknow, I'm following you, and I
don't know when that moment is.
I think about my journey and Iknow I shared it with you guys
before and I often wonder when Idecided to move here, where I

(58:23):
am now in Alabama, from up north, I often wonder if that wasn't
me just hearing that calling.
You know, all the things linedup right and everything seemed
to be right.
But I knew where I wanted to goand I wanted to go live with my
aunt and uncle, who were theonly people I knew that seemed
to have their act together, youknow, and I knew there were

(58:45):
church going people and I wantedto find out more about that.
I honestly did.
I would never admit it and Idon't know that I necessarily
thought about it that hard, butI knew I wanted whatever it was
they had, because I had neverseen that before, I had never
seen that joy before, I hadnever seen that kind of love in
a family before, even thoughthey weren't a perfect family,

(59:08):
even though they argued witheach other sometimes, you know,
even.
But there was love there and Inever had experience that before
and so I wanted a part of thatand I wanted to find out about
that.
And I wonder if that wasn't mehearing the, you know, having
the hey follow me.
Yes, sir, yes sir, and you knowit called me while I was sitting
in my cutlass, hopeless andbarely surviving.

(59:30):
It felt like you know somethinglike that.
But but it was a calling and Iam left my stuff and I came down
here.
It wasn't immediate, but it waswhenever I had that inkling,
you know.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
I mean it happens.
I mean we I talk about megetting baptized kind of being
something my mom told me tobasically do before she, before
she passed.
That was something she made mepromise to do and he has started
to go down that journey.
So I started to kind of lookinto it and that's, honestly

(01:00:02):
where my spiritual growthstarted to take place, like I
had been in church off and on,but it's like, all right, she's
passed, this is the the onething I promised her I would do.
So it's let's figure it out.
And you know I we start to lookin the movie and you know, we
came here and our daughter wentto a local church like for a

(01:00:23):
summer with her cousin, likeprior, and you know, let's give
this place a shot and try it out.
And you know, again, we fastforward and we're like like
group leaders and all thesethings there now.
But it all started with okay,let's, let's see how I can
finish this promise and I wascommitted to following through
with it.
And you know, here we are yearslater and I feel like I've I've

(01:00:48):
been changed.

Speaker 1 (01:00:50):
And he went on from there.
He saw a couple other brothers,james, the son of Zebedee, and
John, his brother, in a boatwith Zebedee, their father,
mending their nets, and hecalled them and immediately they
left their boat and theirfather and followed him.
And Jesus went about in all ofGalilee teaching in their
synagogues and proclaiming thegospel of the kingdom of healing
, and healing Every kinds ofdisease and every kind of
sickness among the people.

(01:01:10):
And news about him went intoSyria and they brought to him
all who are ill, taken withvarious diseases and pains,
demonic epileptics, paralytics,and he healed them and a great
multitude followed him fromGalilee to the capitalists, to
Jerusalem and Judea and frombeyond the Jordan.
That's just chapter four.
You know, a big part of thefollowing is starting to follow

(01:01:33):
him and he's getting a lot ofpeople that are following.
His name is getting barelyreally recognized at this time
and it's and it's cool to beable to see that happen.
And you see how he was teachingin their synagogues he
proclaimed the gospel, king ofthe kingdom, and healing every
kind of disease and every kindof sickness among the people.
You know that all kinds ofdiseases were being healed by
him.

(01:01:53):
Now it's important to see this,because I think, as we carry on
in our journey here, as we talkabout life issues and about the
Bible and how everything relatesto one another and how the
Bible is not an old book andit's archaic and it's ancient,
but it's actually applicableeven to today, you know, we can.
I want to point out who wasdoing the healing, and right now

(01:02:15):
, it's Jesus doing the healing.
Right, it's God doing thehealing through Jesus, and
that's all we see, and it's kindof cool to be able to just okay
, let's get other preconceivedideas out of our head, and I try
to do the same.
I've done this experimentbefore, so that's why I'd love
to be able to do it witheverybody else here but you just
get preconceived ideas out ofyour brain and you say, okay,

(01:02:38):
what is the Bible showing ushere?
And this is what we see so far,and that's all we see.
Okay, and it's every kind ofdisease, and there's not one
that he can't, which is kind ofcool to right.
I mean everything.
Go ahead, make the list.
He's got it all covered.
I don't know how he does.
Could you imagine, though?
Could you imagine you were?
You're a paralytic, you'rehealed.

(01:03:00):
You know, if you were justdeathly ill and you're healed,
and why did you think that thehealing was able to be done like
that there, and why was Jesusable to heal at that time?

Speaker 2 (01:03:14):
I mean, I would think it's just a sign, a show that
he's who he's proclaiming to be.
So I mean, he's he's went 30years.
He finally just starts to tominister and he's building up,
like to me at this point, likefolks aren't aware that he's a
son of God.

(01:03:34):
You've seen John the Baptisttalk about it, you've seen.
You know, the devil obviouslymakes some statements, but
others aren't aware of who thisguy is.
So I feel like it's kind ofjust planting the seeds, god,
just kind of using Jesus, usinghis son to be this main

(01:03:58):
attraction to start to getwitnesses on who he is.
And you know, oftentimes ittakes those type of situations,
be it healings, be it miracles,for people to start to believe
in certain things.
I can even say in our own lives.
You know, sometimes you knowyou're praying for a miracle and

(01:04:18):
it takes that prayer beinganswered for you to be like,
okay, maybe this guy things real.
That's what happens with a lotof people, and so for me, that's
what I'm, that's what I'mseeing.
So he's called us, firstdisciples and now he's just
Roman.
You know, he's teaching and allof a sudden he's healing and
all.
If you see someone, even tothis day.
If you see someone like healingfolks of diseases, folks that

(01:04:43):
are paralyzed, you're going tobe interested in like what's?
What's going on here?
What's happening?
It's going to cause a followingand I feel like this was kind
of God's plan to really get theboat rolling, for Jesus to kind
of step out and start to revealwho he is to the world.

Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
I agree, I try to picture myself being able to
heal.
You know what I mean.
I just I try to picture what Iwould be like if I could
actually heal people orsomething, because you hear
about those people that arefaith healers and everything and
they could do the healing.
I would be like that scene inBruce Almighty he's walking down
the street and being able tochange things.

(01:05:25):
I mean, that's all I've beendoing, that, I think going to
the hospital.
Why wouldn't you go to thehospital?
Why would you make sick peoplecome to you?
I'd be going everywhere healingeverybody all the time.
If I could do that and maybe itdoesn't work that way, I don't
necessarily know, but I just Ijust wonder what I would be like
if I could do something likethat.
And you got to have thathumbleness, I think and Jesus

(01:05:47):
probably had that.
His whole mission was to preach, repent, for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand and he wasgoing around and preaching the
gospel and he was trying to getpeople to turn back their lives
to God to some way, shape andform that would be appealing and
appreciative from God.
You know he was trying to makedisciples is what he was trying
to do and we can bring our ownlittle miracles in people's

(01:06:10):
lives.
We can do the own healing bybeing there for them in the ways
that we can be able to be therefor them whenever they need us,
and it's a great opportunity tobe able to serve God in this
world, because it definitelyneeds him Right, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:06:25):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:06:27):
That wrapped up five, anything else, any last closing
thoughts from either one of you.

Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
No, I heard you say that you know why people have to
come to Jesus and I don't.
I don't think that'snecessarily the case, because
when you read that first linewhere he heals the sick in 23.
It doesn't say that people wentto golly, it says Jesus went
through golly, so he was roaming, he was, he was walking around,

(01:06:53):
I don't feel like that'snecessarily, at least in this
moment.
That wasn't people coming tohim, that was him going out and
basically getting his ministrystarted and showing what he was
capable of, which, of course,we're all thankful for.
I think we've seen the healingin our own lives, throughout
Indiana, throughout Alabama,throughout, you know, wherever

(01:07:16):
listeners are sitting like he'sstill going through and healing
in our lives.
We're not walking with himphysically, but I think we're
walking with him spiritually andwe have stories, we have
testimonies that show that he'sstill in the business of healing
.

Speaker 1 (01:07:34):
Amen, all right, very good, listen.
Pierre said all thoseinformation, all the information
before, about how you can getin touch with the show so you
can listen to the first part ofthat podcast, to be able to
listen to that and to be able todo those things.
But, as this podcast ends, ifyou could, though, you know, go
ahead and hit that like button,hit that subscribe button, or
whatever If you feel so.
Led to do it helps with thealgorithm and helps get the show

(01:07:56):
out there.
It's not for our sake.
We hope to be able to helpother people.
That's the only reason why wedon't take a penny in doing this
show up here.
We don't have, we don't havecommercials or anything, do we?

Speaker 2 (01:08:05):
We don't.
We've been offered to monetize,but I have not no, we don't
want to monetize.

Speaker 1 (01:08:11):
I don't know if it'll go that way someday or whatever
, I don't know but but we alljust are doing this to be able
to help other people not losesleep and find their faith,
that's all.
And some of those things that Ibrought up tonight were making
me lose my sleep, like how didhow did Satan appear to him?
What kind of form did he have?
Right, and then how did theangels minister him?
Who was the angels?

(01:08:32):
Where did the angels come from?
You know things like that.
So I have those kind ofquestions and it's good to think
about those things.
It doesn't mean you're crazy,it means that you're thinking.
You know it just means you'rethinking.
And if you could surroundyourself with people who can
give you good thoughts and ideas, and how that is, and how those
people are going to get to knowyou and how those those
thoughts came to be, and someanswers to those questions and

(01:08:54):
really find out what's important.
Because I was getting, you know, I got in the weeds on those
things.
Where did Satan come from?
Who's hating, where did theangels come from?
I was getting in the weeds onthose things.
I was like, wait a minute,that's not what the point of
chapter four is.
The point of chapter four is torepent, for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand.
If I were, if I were to, youknow, put in a little little
little headline over there ofwhat chapter four is, that's

(01:09:17):
what the, that's what the wholepurpose of that one is for.
And I said, don't lose yourfocus on that, wes, because
that's what the most importantthing is.

Speaker 3 (01:09:24):
Thank you.
That's important, wes, because,like we can tend, I'm a
detailed person so I can getbogged down in the details and I
think it's really important,like you said, for that
overarching understanding, justthe basics.

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
Thank you, pierre, thank you Michelle, thank you,
wes.
I'm talking to myself.
Now it's time to go.
Thank you, though, forlisteners, very much for
listening to this podcast andspending a little bit of time
with us.
We appreciate you so much and,as always, you pray for us.
We'll pray for you.