March 11, 2025 • 56 mins
Do you have End Time or Rapture Phobia? In his episode, Sean and Jon discuss the "Fear of Missing Out" - We discover the truth behind the fear, coming misconceptions about the rapture and how to overcome your fears!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
But has God made you feel unworthy, or was it people
that claimed to follow Him thatmade you feel unworthy or guilty
?
Did God make you feel unworthyor was it because you felt
unworthy in your own mind?
Are you beating yourself up Now?
I've got to be honest with you.
You're probably being too hardon yourself.
You're listening to theEveryday Christian Podcast,
(00:25):
where we apply scripturalprinciples to everyday Christian
lives.
I'm John Rich.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
And I'm Sean Sloggett , and today we will be talking
about FOMO, fomo, fear ofmissing out on the rapture.
To be a little more specific,the rapture is something that
every Sorry guys, I'm rubbing onsomething here.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
It's annoying me that every.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Sorry guys, I'm rubbing on something here.
It's annoying me.
The rapture is something thatevery Christian has heard or
talked about at least once intheir lifetime.
To me, it seems like it'sseldom talked about until
somebody finally breaks the iceon the conversation.
And then when they do it finallybreaks loose and you have to
talk about it.
Wednesday night Bible studyhave multiple three-part sermons
by multiple ministers.
(01:08):
Every podcast gets on it.
So I guess, in essence, here weare breaking the ice, so the
discussion can be started onthis.
You know, when we talk aboutthe rapture, we're of course
referring to Christ returning toearth and gathering up the
Christians that have followedafter him.
(01:29):
While the word rapture is notfound in the Bible, it was
originated in around the 1830sby a man named John Nelson Darby
.
The idea and concept behind itis biblical.
Again, there are differences intiming pre-trib, mid-trib,
post-trib but the idea stayssimilar.
(01:52):
I'm not going to be discussingmuch on pre-, mid or post-trib.
I don't know if Jonathan is ornot.
The only thing I will say aboutthis is just be ready.
People talk about it quite abit.
(02:12):
My philosophy on it has alwaysbeen I'm just going to be ready.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Trid, whenever he comes, I want to be ready for it
, yeah and I think that, whetheryou're someone who believes in
the rapture or not, I mean eventhat I know there are
individuals that are my friendsthat believe certain or
different things about therapture.
I'm not really, and I know,Brother Sean, we study for these
(02:40):
messages and we sort of cometogether and try to have at
least a baseline of what we'retalking about.
Me personally, I'm not reallygoing to talk about the rapture
itself, at least not dive into alot of the details behind it,
because I think you could talkfor days on end about that
subject, Till the sun goes downnext week.
We could talk about thatsubject, but I don't really want
(03:02):
to get the sun is going downlater and I am excited about it,
yeah exactly.
We could speak on that for along time, and I understand that
having a fear of the rapturehighly depends on whether you
believe in it or not.
So, for the sake of thisepisode, we are going to be on
that side, that side thatbelieves in the rapture.
Again, sean and I, we believein it.
(03:24):
If you don't, that's fine.
But none of those other thingsreally matter to me, and I know
that some of you are going tohate hearing me say that I don't
particularly care if you'repre-, mid or post-tribulation.
That's not what the point is ofthis lesson in particular, and
it's also not who our targetaudience is with this lesson or
(03:45):
this message.
We have people that listen tous, that want theology, and we
try to provide that for them.
They want certain doctrine.
We try to provide that for them.
They want to dive in to deepdiscussions that most of your
average everyday Christian isnot going to understand.
This episode's probably not foryou.
It's more for those who arestruggling with the fear of
(04:09):
missing out, brother Sean.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yes, sir, I'll read some scriptures here 1
Thessalonians, 4, 16 and 17.
For the Lord himself shalldescend from heaven with a shout
, with the voice of thearchangel and with the trump of
God, and the dead in Christshall rise first.
Then we which are alive andremain shall be caught up
together with them in the cloudsto meet the Lord in the air,
(04:33):
and so shall we ever be with theLord.
These scriptures is where weget our concept or idea of the
rapture, or from behind, wherethe rapture is based.
So, as was mentioned before,rapture not being in the
Scripture but the concept isthere.
(04:54):
From a child I have had thisfear of the rapture.
Of course it was something thatwas talked about, preached on
At some point in me growing up,where that fear did start to
happen.
And I had two main fears that Ihad, if I can put it that way,
which kind of splintered offinto everything else the fear of
not growing up.
(05:14):
I wanted to grow up.
I wanted to make money, Iwanted to get married, have kids
, go on vacations, all thesethings.
And when it's late at night,it's dark in your room and
you're laying there as a child,wondering if these things are
ever going to happen or, if youknow, is the Lord going to come
back now?
(05:34):
You know.
The other fear I had was ifChrist came back right now, am I
ready?
Yeah, if Christ came back rightnow.
am I ready?
If I am ready, will he besatisfied with the child or the
kid that I am?
Have I done enough for hiskingdom?
Even as a child I have had allthese fears and thoughts.
(05:56):
Even sometimes to this day,those things seem to come to my
mind.
When those fears do come to me,I think on all the good that I
can.
You know, as a child I wonderedwill I ever get my driver's
license?
I specifically remember thatwas one.
I don't know why.
I just wanted to get to 16 andget my driver's license Right.
But now I am 32 and I have mydriver's license.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yeah, now you wish you were Google back in time and
be a kid again license.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, now you wish you were Google back in time and
be a kid again.
I don't know about that.
But you know, I wanted to getmarried and I'm married to a
beautiful, wonderful woman.
I wanted kids.
I now have four kids.
I tell people I have four andJay has five, but that's right.
Uh, you know, I think of thelittle bit that I have done to
try, and you know, when thosefears come, I try to think of
(06:48):
the little bit that I have doneto try and help God's kingdom.
I also remind myself of Matthew634, which says Take, therefore
, no thought for the morrow, forthe morrow shall take thought
for the things of itself,sufficient unto the days, the
evil thereof, and I want tointroduce this episode to you,
and I want to introduce it byasking questions.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I want you to think about these questions.
I want you to really not dwellon them necessarily, but just
give it some thought, give it aday.
And that question is are youafraid of the rapture?
Do you fear that God will takepeople away and that you will be
left behind?
Left?
Have you ever walked?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
yeah, those that was one of those things that freaked
me out, those movies slappedthough those books are pretty
good.
They may have, but as a child,when you're trying to listen to
something, to go to sleep andthe left behind series comes on
yeah okay, I'd put an odysseytape in, because I'm about to
cry myself to sleep.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
And most of the time they weren't.
We talked about not doingdoctrine, but they probably
weren't as biblically accurateas well, but we'll move on from
there.
If you like the Left Behindseries.
I apologize, but do you havethat fear of being left behind?
Have you ever walked in thehouse?
I actually wrote this downbecause I know we all sort of
have had this feeling.
You walked into the house, youhollered for your wife or kids,
(08:07):
or your husband and kids, andwhen they don't call back, you
have a fear, grip your heart.
You're like they should be here.
Where are they at?
And it could be several otherfears.
You know, maybe they're justoutside or you know, maybe
something even more sinisterhappened to them.
But even as a young person wetalk about a young person where
it's like I can't find myparents.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
I can't find my brothers Waking up from a nap as
a child and nobody's in thehouse yeah.
My little brother.
I think it was my littlebrother.
I know I'm interrupting, but hefell asleep in church one time
and, for whatever reason, weforgot him and we lived like 45
minutes away.
Yeah, so we're halfway homebefore one of his kids is like,
(08:53):
hey, where's Ducky?
And it's like, oh snap, wedon't have him.
Can you imagine waking up as achild in a church?
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
It's pitch black and nobody's there.
Yeah, you thought the rapturehappened.
I'm sure he thought well, Imissed it yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
And I think we've all faced those things as believers
, as people who have been underthose teachings, those
preachings as Sean mentionedearlier.
Every once in a blue moonyou've got a series about it and
we've all faced those things.
I've had people tell me severalindividuals in fact, that have
(09:30):
told me friends, family, thathave told me, you know, there's
been moments like that thatthey've had and that overcoming
feeling of anxiety with thethought that maybe you have
missed the rapture, that maybethere was a hidden sin in your
heart that you don't know about.
And there are a number ofreasons why individuals fear
missing the rapture.
I think Sean touched upon those, but a few key reasons as well
are fear that I won't makeheaven, or fear that you won't
(09:52):
make it through the greattribulation.
And something that has alwaysbeen amazing to me is when we
quote scripture like 2 Timothy 1and 7, which you are familiar
with.
It says For God hath not givenus the spirit of fear, but of
power and of love and of a soundmind.
And when we read that, we readit as believing that whatever
(10:18):
fear grips us, it is from thedevil or it's from ourselves.
But we often overlook that thefear is not given to us from God
.
I know we touch on that, but wevery seldom focus on that
portion of it.
We want to focus on everythingthe devil brings against us, but
we forget that the Bible saysthat the fear is not of God and
we believe that if we fearsomething evil it is not from
(10:39):
God.
But I write this, I wrote thisdown and I submit it to you that
if we fear something that issupposed to be good, that fear
is not from God either,especially if it is something
that gathers us together withChrist.
Do we fear that we have donesomething wrong that will cause
us to miss the rapture?
Is there something that we havenot even thought of and
(11:01):
therefore cannot confess?
Anytime I've had those feelings.
I've had that thought process.
It always brought me confusion.
Why?
Because I'm striving to doright, I'm following God's
commandments of loving myneighbor, I follow God's law but
, most importantly, because I'msaved, because His mercy has
(11:21):
restored and because His mercyand grace will keep me.
When we have a fear that wewill miss the rapture, it takes
away from the goodness and graceof God, brother Sean.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Absolutely.
You know, when you think ofthose things, have I missed out
on it?
And you know there are severalthings that come to mind when
you think of that.
Have I done this?
Have I done that?
Is there some secret sin thateven I don't know about, which
is?
You know, some of those fearsare I can't think of the word
(11:57):
right now maybe healthy fears,if I can put it that way.
But I will say, you know, ifyou're wondering, do I have some
unconfessed sin that's going tocause me to miss out on the
rapture?
Probably not.
(12:19):
You know, if you're doingeverything that you can to
follow the Word, be asscriptural, be as biblical as
you can, loving your neighbor,being a witness, the list goes
on.
But if you're doing all thosethings and you have this torment
, that maybe there's somethingthat I missed.
That's the devil talking to you.
(12:44):
That's him trying to see if hecan drum something up to get you
to pull away from it.
Yeah, you know, even if it'smaybe a fear or a sin that has
happened and it comes to yourmind that you know, whatever the
sin might be, but that comeslike, hey, the devil or yourself
(13:07):
, you start bothering yourself.
Well, you did this, you didthis, you did that.
Well, you have one of twooptions Either point back to
where you did, get it prayedthrough, or if you feel that and
fear and conviction runstogether.
(13:28):
But it's two different things.
So, if you feel the fear andthen there's a little conviction
with it, go pray about it, justpray it through and get it over
with.
Well, there was this one sin,but I'm not sure if I got it.
Let's fix it right now.
Let's go pray it through andget ourselves back on the right
track.
So, you know, that's definitelysomething that I try to look at
(13:53):
is, as Brother Jonathan said,is it?
What is the fear?
What is it that's causing it,and is this something that I can
control?
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Real quick side note.
We are live, by the way.
We're live on Facebook, youtube, we're live on Twitch, I
believe, and we did get amessage from somebody we were
talking about the Left Behindseries and they said it's from
that Justin Jones guy.
It says I'm not sure if I'vemet you before, but it says
(14:28):
greetings, gentlemen listeningwhile making crips for some of
my friends.
And then it says biblicallyaccurate left behind movies over
biblically accurate angels,which is it's pretty funny.
All right, anyway, we'll moveon from there, but I like that.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I think that I saw a deal today about angels said if
you say, your wife looks like aSide note your wife looks like
an angel when.
I come to see her.
She better have six wings, theface of a lion and like it just.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yeah.
So when we talk about angels,we're talking about, you know,
precious moments, angels, maybe,I don't know Like we're not
talking about biblicallyaccurate angels, but I think you
know, as I mentioned before,when we fear we'll miss the
rapture, it takes away from thegoodness and grace of God.
And I've heard folks preachthis and compare the Ark of Noah
to the rapture of the church.
(15:10):
And I'm not against that kindof preaching, nor am I
discounting or disproving thosecomparisons.
But what preachers often do isthey say that Noah, for 120
years he preached to people toget on the boat, get on the ark,
and then no one listened.
This is I'm not saying For 120years he preached to people to
get on the boat, get on the ark,and then no one listened.
This is I'm not saying.
I said this.
I'm saying this is what manypreachers say.
And because they didn't listen,they missed getting on the ark
(15:32):
and the rain came and they endedup perishing.
And then they compare and sayit's the same way with Christ
coming back for the church, thatthere is coming a day when
Christ will return and if you'renot ready, then you'll not make
it, or that the door of the arkwill close.
Now, if Noah did preach tothose individuals, then he was
preaching to individuals whowere lost and did not believe.
(15:52):
So why are you, as a Christian,worried about something that is
focused on the life of anunbeliever?
I know in part why Sean and Iare working together to build
this and I know in part why andthere are deep psychological
reasons for it there are deepfears for it that we're going to
talk about, but there are a fewreasons why we fear missing the
(16:14):
rapture.
The number one reason I canthink of is because we have been
preached to and programmed tobelieve that if I make one
mistake or slip up, that Godwill leave me behind, even if I
don't know what that mistake orslip up, that God will leave me
behind even if I don't know whatthat mistake or slip up was.
There are churches that teachthat the rapture could happen at
any second, which is fine, butit leads to constant fear rather
(16:35):
than joyful expectation, theway that message is being
preached, and this makesbelievers feel like they must be
in a perfect spiritual stateevery moment or they risk being
left behind.
We're going to say left behinda lot, but to be in a perfect
state at every moment I don'tbelieve it's possible.
I don't believe that you'regoing to be perfect every minute
(16:55):
of every day.
You can believe that that'sfine, that's your belief.
This is my belief.
There are people that willpreach and teach that a life of
perfection is possible and thatyou'll be damned forever if you
don't adhere to it.
They'll preach scripture orpreach from scripture, like out
of Matthew 24, 40 through 41.
I'm getting a little bit intothe weeds here, but I'm trying
(17:16):
to draw something out which Iencourage every listener to read
into the context of thatscripture Matthew 24, 40 through
41.
It says that two men areworking in a field and they say
that those two people are oneswho claim to be Christian and
one of those people are leftbehind and one of those are
taken away, and that that is therapture of the church.
(17:38):
Again, not getting into therapture discussion or debate,
but there's more.
There's a lot of evidence thatthis scripture is actually
referring to the second comingof Christ and not the rapture,
and it's stating that the personthat remains is like Noah and
the person that's taken away islike those who are taken by the
flood.
If you read the context of thatscripture again.
Not arguing that, not goingback and forth, just please read
(17:59):
it for yourself.
I understand that Bibles, thatbelievers need correction.
I understand that people needguidance.
I understand that they need theBible, they need teachers.
I need a preacher, I need ateacher.
But I also understand that fearis not a tactic that we should
give to believers to cause themto obey the rules that we have
(18:21):
put in the Bible.
I get and I agree with whatBrother Sean's saying and I know
what he's trying, what he'smentioning.
He was like I'm trying tofigure out the word and I get it
.
We have a sort of healthy fear.
When the Holy Ghost I'm goingto talk about the Holy Ghost,
conviction, when God convictsour hearts, there is a sort of
(18:42):
what we call fear and that'sgood.
Those are great things.
By the way, we treat convictionas if it's a terrible thing.
It's not.
It's a good thing.
It means I have work to do andGod's grace is enough, because
if it wasn't for God's grace,you would have never had that
conviction or what we're callingthat healthy fear.
(19:03):
But if all that I'm preached toand preached about is doom and
gloom, hell or nothing, you know, heaven or hell, all these
things.
I'm not saying don't everpreach on that.
I'm not saying Jesus didn'ttalk about hell more times than
he talked about heaven.
I get all those arguments.
But I'm saying is, if all thatwe're spoken to and preached at
(19:24):
and taught is fear, fear, fear,fear, the more you hear it, the
more you're going to believe it.
There are psychologists, thereare tests that say that it takes
multiple exposures, oftenanywhere from 70 to 20 times,
for a new idea to becomeingrained in our minds.
If we're constantly hearingfear and we're not hearing love,
(19:46):
we're not hearing mercy, we'renot hearing grace, we're not
hearing peace, if all that we'rehearing every Sunday is fear
this, fear this, do this, dothis or else this, then we are
going to have and cultivate amind that is full of fear.
If something is repeatedconsistently, it will eventually
become a core belief, whetherit's true or not.
(20:08):
There are fear-based teachingsor experiences that reprogram
our brains, that create anxietyaround certain topics.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
If you study.
You know he mentioned thepsychologist going and doing
different studies, and there's awhole bunch of this all
throughout, I mean throughouttime.
One very one huge example Iguess I should say is you know,
when Hitler first came on thescene, he made comments like he
(20:40):
was going to take over the worldwithout ever firing a bullet.
And you look at stuff like that.
How in the world could you evendo that?
And the more you hear it, themore you believe it.
It's propaganda and there isgood propaganda and there is bad
propaganda, absolutely.
You know, hitler commissionedsome people to start making
(21:03):
comic books and different things, cartoons or whatever the case
was.
But all of these that he did hejust threw a little socialism,
a little communism allthroughout, and the superhero
was always the socialist or thecommunist superhero Right.
(21:23):
And after a couple generations,you know, these young kids that
were growing up are readingthese comic books because we
like comic books and that's whatyoung boys do.
So over time their mindsetactually shifted to it, to where
, when they were adults, whenthat idea was presented, they've
been reading about it for thelast 10, 15 years and it was
(21:47):
very easy for him just to comethrough and start taking over.
Yeah, peanut Butter and Jesuskind of adopted.
You know, I'm sure a lot of youguys have probably heard some
about Peanut Butter and Jesus.
But they have kind of adoptedsome of that tactic where they
do comics and stuff, they makethe sack lunches and pass them
(22:08):
out.
But that's not all they do.
They always try to make surethat there's a coloring page or
something in there that talksabout Jesus, because if you can
get Jesus in front of these kidsat four years old, eight years
old, 12 years old, whatever,they may not recognize it all
the time, but they startconnecting the dots.
(22:30):
Well, hey, those people used toalways bring me food every
Saturday and we've had children,or I've heard stories of
children saying man, this is theonly meal I've had this week.
Can I have another bag?
Absolutely, you can, okay.
I'm sorry this is the only I'vehad this week.
Right, can I have another bag?
Absolutely, you can.
Okay, I'm sorry, this is theonly.
(22:51):
It's a peanut butter and jellysandwich with a bag of chips or
some little snack.
So they start connecting thedots when they get older.
Like, hey, there was one groupthat always took care of me,
right, they brought me a sacklunch and there was something in
there about Jesus.
They brought me a sack lunchand there was something in there
about Jesus.
And you know, it helps connectthe dots over time.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
So the more you hear it, the more you believe it is
absolutely.
Well, I think about Romans 10,17.
I wrote this down Romans 10,17,.
With what you're saying it says.
So then, faith cometh byhearing and hearing by the Word
of God.
But just as faith grows byhearing God's Word, fear also
grows when we hear repeatedlynegative messages or a twist of
(23:30):
the Word of God.
Now I've got to tell you,listen, if you're a minister and
you're a preacher, I'vepreached and I've taught and
I've tried to do my best withwhat I feel God has given me
according to His Word.
But if all that I preach is thedevil, this, the devil, that
the devil, this, the devil thatyou're going to miss the rapture
(23:53):
, you're going to go to hell.
You're going to miss therapture, you're going to go to
hell.
It puts a sense of fear in.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
You're not doing enough, You're not meeting it.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Yeah, it belittles people, it twists the gospel in
such a way that it appears to bethe truth because it's coming
from the Bible.
I've got to tell you you cantake Scripture in the Bible and
you can misuse it when you arepreaching, even though it's true
, and you can use it in anegative way.
Or you can take Scripture andthe Bible and read it out of
(24:25):
context and provide it to youraudience and make it whatever
you want it to be, and both ofthose things are wrong.
If you're taking Scripture,you're reading the Bible and
you're trying to apply it tosomeone's life and you're doing
it incorrectly, or you're doingit with one subject in mind.
You're not giving the wholegospel experience, you're not
(24:48):
speaking about everything thatthe Bible's saying.
So I would say be careful withthat.
Be careful when you arepreaching about the rapture.
Be careful when you'repreaching about hell.
Be careful when you'repreaching about all of these,
what I would deem as somewhatdiscouraging things, because
people, when they hear it, theybelieve it.
And then the other thing is thatfear is stronger when tied to
(25:10):
emotion.
We're talking about how we havebeen programmed to fear, and a
lot of that fear is tied toemotion.
Emotionally charged messagescreate stronger fears.
Listen, I'm going to get a lotof people upset at me and I'm
not saying necessarily this isright or necessarily this is
(25:31):
wrong, but when I hear a messagethat is preached and all of the
lights go out in the sanctuaryand then the trumpet blows by
someone up on the platform as atactic to get people to come to
the altar, listen, you need tobe careful, that's all I have to
say.
(25:52):
You need to be careful becauseyou are trying to charge people
and trying to reach peoplethrough fear by plugging and
messing with their emotions.
If a teaching is tied to fear,shame or trauma, it's going to
stick faster.
Fear is more powerful when itis paired with a personal
experience or with punishment.
I think about when a childhears God will punish you for
(26:15):
every mistake, or they hearsomething along those lines
repeatedly.
They're going to developspiritual anxiety.
If a sermon frequentlyemphasizes that you're not
perfect, that if you're notperfect you'll miss the rapture,
then fear is going to set inbecause it is charging us
emotionally.
So we are programmed and youare programmed Like if you fear
(26:36):
this every day.
You have been programmed bysome sort of teaching, preaching
YouTube video, whatever it is,some sort of teaching.
Preaching YouTube video,whatever it is, to believe it,
because it's constantly beingsaid to you.
Some of it is not biblicallyaccurate and a lot of it, or
almost all of it, is tied toyour emotion, brother Sean.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Go ahead.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Well, we feel like we're being programmed okay.
So that program is there.
But the other side of it islike why do we fear missing the
rapture or fear going to heaven?
It's because we feel as thoughwe're unworthy or we have guilt.
And there is a third thing Iwrote on here too that's
connecting all this.
But I want to ask some morequestions, like am I saved?
(27:20):
Or, better yet, did Jesus saveyou?
Have you ever had a salvationexperience that included
repentance?
If you can answer yes, then whywould you worry?
Or why should you feel guilt?
Why do you feel guilt?
Is it because of the devil?
Is it because of people?
Is it because of the preacher?
Is it because of the teacher orthe missionary or the man of
(27:43):
God or the woman of God?
The preacher, is it because ofthe teacher or the missionary or
the man of God or the woman ofGod?
And now I want to ask you thisis it because of God?
And I'm not trying to simplifyyour guilt, I'm not trying to
say or take away everything withthe magic wand, with words.
I know there are deeper andmore complex issues that go on
in the mind that will causeguilt to be difficult to remove.
(28:03):
Don't listen.
You know me better than that ifyou've listened before.
But has God made you feelunworthy, or was it people that
claimed to follow Him that madeyou feel unworthy or guilty?
Did God make you feel unworthyor was it because you felt
unworthy in your own mind?
Are you beating yourself up?
Now?
I've got to be honest with you.
(28:24):
You're probably being too hardon yourself.
I had a friend I was talkingwith a few days ago and we
talked for like an hour and ahalf on the phone and this
friend was telling me about allof these things.
Like you know, this is how Godthinks of me.
He thinks I'm nothing.
He's embarrassed by me.
I did this.
I did that.
(28:44):
I shouldn't have done this.
People hate me.
People are talking about me.
He just kept going on and onand on, and I've like 20 or 30
minutes of him constantly sayingthose things, and I waited for
him to be done speaking and thefirst thing that I said to him
was you're being too hard onyourself.
You're being harder on yourselfthan what God is being on you.
You're putting thoughts in yourhead of what other people are
(29:08):
thinking without actuallyknowing that, and if you're
listening to this episode.
I need you to understandsomething and we have other
content that we've discussedovercoming guilt but I need you
to know stop being so hard onyourself.
I don't care what everyone elsesaid on the outside.
What does God say?
God didn't say those things.
(29:28):
God doesn't feel that way welike to think.
God feels a way that we feel,but God doesn't.
God doesn't love you that way.
God loves you more than youlove yourself.
You didn't make a mistake thatother Christians have not made
before.
You didn't do something that isunforgivable.
You didn't have a moment ofweakness that God wasn't
(29:51):
prepared for and that his gracewon't cover.
You are not a nobody, you are asomebody, and if the fear of
missing the rapture, the fear ofthe coming of Christ, the fear
of am I going to hell when I die, is based off the guilt that
God never gave you, then it'stime to let go of that guilt and
take on God's grace.
When he forgave you, he forgaveyou of all.
(30:11):
When you mess up, he doesn'tthrow you away like some
backslidden person.
He cares for you like a son andlike a daughter.
Stop being so hard on yourself.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
That's where that fear or conviction comes from.
That I mentioned just a fewminutes ago.
You know, if it's you beatingyourself up, if it's the
preacher, teacher, if it'ssomebody else, whatever the case
is, that's hard for me to argueand say that there's maybe some
conviction tied to it.
I'm not saying that otherscannot be used of God, but most
(30:55):
of the time that's a fear.
And if you feel God dealingwith you over, that's the
conviction side of it where weneed to answer to that and say,
hey, maybe there is somethinggoing on here and you're
absolutely right.
God's not just going to throwyou aside because you mess up,
he's a God that's going to giveyou a chance.
(31:17):
John 3.16,.
We've all heard it.
You know, for God so loved theworld that he gave his only
begotten son that whosoever.
And that's it for whosoever.
He didn't say for some, for theholiness church, for the church
(31:39):
of God, for the assembly, forthe Baptist, it doesn't matter,
it's for whosoever.
If you're being too hard onyourself and again, we're not
trying to simplify this weunderstand that there's
struggles that come with it.
But if you're being too hard onyourself or if you're letting
(32:00):
those other voices talk to youabout all these things.
Take a step back.
Realize it's for whosoever will.
If you feel like you need to gopray a little bit about it, do
that, go pray about it, butremember God took care of it all
.
Yeah, you're not, it's beensaid.
(32:20):
But you're not going toaccidentally sin.
Yeah, there's not.
It's not going to be like, ohwell, I just accidentally went
and killed somebody.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
I mean, if you're texting and driving.
I don't know why I laughed atthat.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
It's not good that I laughed at that.
If you're texting and drivingor doing something like that,
but you're not going to just gosteal a candy bar on purpose If
it accidentally ends up in yourcart and you forgot to scan it.
Good luck trying to convince me.
That's a sin.
(32:54):
Yeah for sure.
I mean, it was an honestmistake.
Yeah, I'll give you that youmessed up.
That was a mistake.
You didn't sin.
Yeah, you know sin is knowinglygoing and doing something Right
.
Right, and if you sin, thenGod's going to try to deal with
your conscience and convict youof it and then you can correct
(33:17):
it.
Right, If you sin and I'llthrow a hypothetical out here
because I'm sure somebody'sthinking of it or somebody will
think of it what if I sin andthe rapture happens and God
comes back?
How does your heart feel?
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Yeah, we've talked about that before.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
We have, if you sin knowingly and you don't get a
chance to go apologize or try tomake it right.
But you feel that prick in yourheart, right, because and this
is how it goes for me I don'tknow about everybody else, but
(33:58):
when I feel that prick in myheart, immediately before I can
even go talk to somebody or tryto fix it, I'm just like God,
I'm sorry, yeah, yeah, I mean0.2 seconds and I'm like, oh man
, I shouldn't have done that.
God help me.
And then I'm going to go try tofix it Right, I'm going to do
(34:21):
everything in my power to fix it.
But God is the one that youneed to be worried about your
sin with, most importantly, andsecondly with the individual, if
need be.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
So you're not going to just miss out on it because
you sinned two seconds before ithappened yeah and it's going to
be a constant effort to pullaway from God, a constant effort
to come away, pull away fromGod.
You know, if you, if you look,you really need to study what
(34:56):
blasphemy in the Holy ghostmeans Side note, by the way, and
I've got a class where I taughtabout it If you want to know
what blasphemy in the Holy ghostactually means.
But it is a constant.
When you constantly are pullingyourself away from God and
you're constantly doing thingsyou know are wrong and you're
constantly bashing God, that isa heart that is turned away from
(35:17):
God, not something that Seanwas talking about, where it's
like I didn't even realize.
You know that I, like, you'regoing to know when you lie.
You're going to know when youkind of twisted the truth a
little bit.
I've done that before.
You know.
I've done that even in my adultyears.
I'm like I didn't say thatquite right and I go back and
I'm like I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
And if you don't realize you're lying, then maybe
you need to go pray through.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Yeah, that's a whole different lesson.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
It's true, if it takes you six hours to realize
you lied to somebody.
You can meet me at the altar.
We'll pray you through.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Yeah, we'll pray you through.
But there is that programmingand there is that fear of guilt
and we're beating too hard onourselves.
And then there's also the fearof the unknown.
We're going to talk about somemisconceptions regarding the
rapture, but there is the fearof the unknown.
Regardless of whether or notthat has to do with if I missed
the rapture or not, we all fearthat.
(36:09):
There's nothing wrong withbeing uncertain.
In fact, we can use the Bibleto help us get a glimpse.
But there are still so manythoughts and truths that are not
even recorded in the Bible.
But we're not certain about it.
I don't know everything thatwill happen when I die.
I don't know everything thatcould occur when the rapture of
(36:30):
the church occurs.
And because I don't know, Idon't know everything that could
occur when the rapture of thechurch occurs, and because I
don't know, I don't have controland I fear I could miss the
rapture, because I have adeep-seated fear of the unknown.
It's that lack of control, it'sthat losing it.
So those are three commonreasons for fears the
programming, the guilt, theunknown.
(36:53):
But what about themisconceptions regarding the
rapture?
You know Brother Sean hadmentioned 1 Thessalonians, 4, 16
through 7.
I'll read that again.
It says Now, if you again westarted at the preface of this
episode if you believe in therapture, good.
(37:14):
If you don't, good, just takewhat we're saying.
But I believe that the raptureis a promise.
It's not a punishment.
We have misunderstood who God is.
We have misunderstood God.
God so loved the world.
God gives us peace.
God grants us mercy.
(37:35):
God allows us His grace, godgives us strength.
God gives us a renewed mind,god gives us power, but God does
not give us fear.
Our fear is based off of whatman told us, even if that man
told us something wrong.
But what has God told you?
We strive to be better throughthe help of God.
(37:56):
We strive to do everything thatwe can not to sin, and I know
that we should live uprightaccording to the Bible.
But that's it Upright accordingto what the Bible says in
context.
I have to add that in there, bythe way, because so many
preachers, so many ministers Iknow you guys are listening to
(38:19):
this.
You're like I'm tired ofhearing him talk about preachers
.
Listen, I am a preacher, I am ateacher.
There needs to be a standardand that standard is so many
preachers have studied for theWord of God based off of what
they feel.
So many preachers have studiedthe Word of God based off of and
(38:41):
I've done it too Guilty, andI've been guilty of that too
based off of what they've readout of context, meaning I'm
going to go into the Bible andI'm just going to put my finger
right here and I'm going to readthat and that's going to be the
message.
You have a problem if you take asingle verse without any
(39:03):
studying surrounding that verse,without any context, without
any cross-referencing, withoutany commentary, without any
knowledge about the history ofit, and preach a message based
off of simple English or simplywhat you read without diving
into it.
That fear comes fromindividuals that are studying
(39:24):
and preaching out of context.
But the rapture?
It is a promise.
If you belong to Christ, youare included in that promise.
You're not going toaccidentally miss the rapture.
That's another commonmisconception.
You will not accidentally sin,as Brother Sean said, and you're
not going to accidentally missthe rapture.
Philippians 1 and 6 says, beingconfident of this very thing,
(39:48):
that he which hath begun a workin you will perform it until the
day of Jesus Christ.
You do not have to live yourlife worrying if there is a
hidden sin that you'll miss therapture for Now.
Here's the conviction part thatI was talking about earlier.
If the power of the Holy Ghostis enough to bring conviction to
your heart for things that youknow you did wrong, then the
power of the Holy Ghost isenough to bring convictions to
(40:09):
your heart for things that youdon't know you did wrong as well
.
Stop fearing did I do somethingwrong?
When you have God on your side.
If there is something wrong,god will tell you.
I promise you God will bring itto you.
But stop wondering.
Well, maybe I missed the markhere today, maybe I didn't do
(40:32):
enough here today, because God'sgrace makes up the difference.
The truth is that God finisheswhat he starts.
If he saved you I love this ifhe saved you, he will keep you.
If he saved you, he'll keep you, brother Sean.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Knowing I can't control it.
Only our Heavenly Father knowswhen it will happen.
You know the day, the hour, theminute, even the very second.
I honestly love hearingsometimes, all the conspiracy
theories on the rapture and thecoming of the Lord.
The 1999 Y2K debacle.
(41:09):
I was eight years old, so youcan bet your money I forgot
about that, that I was freakingout as a child.
Absolutely, because I'm aneight-year-old kid and all the
computers are going to crash andeverybody's going to go crazy
and the world's going to comeand do an end.
I'm not going to get to livelife.
I barely made it eight yearsand well, here comes Jesus.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
So this is over for me.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Well, I made it through Y2K, believe it or not,
a whole 25 years, a whole 25years through.
Well, 12 years after that,though, the Mayan calendar ended
.
The Mayans, they, set theircalendar up.
It's like every 52 years orsomething weird like that that
they did and they couldn't findany more going after 2012.
(41:56):
So it was in December, I thinkit was like December 21st, 24th,
11th.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Christmas time.
It was around Christmas.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
It was right before Christmas, but it was around
that time the Mayans' calendarran out and they've been on
earth for as long as everybodyelse has.
We just didn't know theyexisted over here.
And so, if they said it ran out, then their gods told them
something Well, guess what?
It's March of 2025, so we madeit through that one too.
(42:27):
And then, if that wasn't enough, there's always the prophets
and the TV preachers andeverybody coming out every few
years throwing out there.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
Covid was a big time too.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
A lot of people thought it was the end of the
world, and every couple of yearsthere's an asteroid heading to
Earth.
It's half the size of Earth andwhen it hits we're going to
blow up.
So I listen in on them I do,I'll be honest but I scoff at
them, and it may or may not beright to do this.
(43:01):
But when they start talkinglike that, they're like December
21st 2012, the world's comingto an end.
I'm like, well, it might beDecember 20th or December 22nd,
but I guarantee it was not goingto be the 21st 2012,.
The world's coming to an end.
I'm like, well, it might beDecember 20th or December 22nd,
but I guarantee it was going tobe the 21st, because the Bible
says nobody knows.
And if everybody on earth issaying it's, then well, guess
(43:22):
what?
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Somebody's just going to get it.
There's going to be someno-name dude that's just like,
yeah, God's coming August 28th,and then he just so happens to
come.
It has nothing to do with thisprediction.
I'm going to be the guy thatblows it off.
I'll be honest.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
He'll be like ain't happening, yeah, and then I may
have to ask God for forgivenesswhen I get over there.
But yeah, I'm totally that guyit's like you know since I've
grown up.
Whenever that happens or theasteroids come in, or you know
I'm just like, well, might bethe day before, might be the day
after, but I guarantee it ain'tthat day yeah.
(44:00):
But I can't control it Right.
One thing I do know is that Iwill continue to look into
Christ.
Yeah, right, I will keep myeyes focused on Him and do
everything I can in my power totake everybody with me, because
that is one of the commandmentsof Christ.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
You can't.
I know it's hard.
I mean it's it's hard not tolive in fear.
It's easy to.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
Yes, we're not saying that we're not gonna fear and
not have these these things comeup as well, because I still
have that fear sometimes.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
Yeah well, it's like there's those constant things
that are going on.
I mean the.
The president of the unitedstates is like.
You know, if this side getselected, I don't know what the
world is like.
You know what?
The world's just gonna keepspinning.
We may be richer, we may bepoorer, but God is still God.
God is still on his throne andwe can rest assured knowing that
.
(44:56):
And I think that leads us to youknow, we've talked about why we
fear or the reasons for thefear of missing out, but I want
to talk about what are somethings that you can do to help
you overcome that fear.
And again, I'm not trying towave a magic wand.
I need you to understand thatI'm not that guy.
If you need additional helpwe've said it last time, we've
(45:17):
said it almost every episode Ifyou need additional help with
whatever it is, counseling,whatever, reach out to us.
We have resources.
But there are some other tipsand practical things that you
can do to help you overcome thefear.
One of those is examine yourrelationship with God Instead of
living in fear.
Strengthen your relationshipwith Jesus.
(45:40):
Do I have him?
Have I placed my faith in him?
If the answer is yes, don'tfear because he has everything
in control.
That is the biggest part offaith versus fear.
It is letting go of my controland giving it to God.
I have a hard time with thatbecause I don't like anybody
(46:01):
controlling.
I hate it when people drive mycar and I have to ride in the
passenger seat.
I hate it when I get on anairplane because I'm not the one
in the pilot seat flying theplane and thank God I'm not
careful, okay, you know what?
Thank God I'm not, but also, youknow, I'm probably not going to
fly for a couple of years, atleast until we get over whatever
it is that's going on.
But I have just in, likeoutward things, there's the the
(46:27):
sense of needing to controlthings because I feel that if I
get it all just right, it'sgoing to go perfectly.
There are things that I face,that you face, that Sean faces,
that are just not in our control, Even if we wanted to do
something about it.
We couldn't, but God can and hewill about it.
(46:51):
We couldn't, but God can and hewill.
And taking away fear isreplacing it with faith.
Stop feeding fear withmisinformation.
If you're constantly consumingfear-based teachings, take a
(47:11):
step back.
Speaker 2 (47:11):
Instead of watching YouTube prophecy doom videos,
spendend time in God's word,spend time in his promises and
especially nowadays.
Speaker 1 (47:15):
Yeah, because everything Facebook and all that
.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
Everything is based off algorithms and if you don't
know that, then surprise.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
So if you watch one, fear-based video then guess what
?
Next time Facebook Reels popsup, there's going to be another
one in there, until that's allyou consume.
That's how our world works.
Now, everything is based offalgorithms.
If you it's going to show endup doing something stupid,
(47:44):
because I'm talking aboutfear-based tactics.
Now your wife shops at Sheen orShe-In, or however you say that
, and then this new cute dresscomes out again.
Well, surprise, she visitstheir site.
So guess what?
Speaker 1 (48:00):
The algorithm is going to pick it up and say she
likes this, let's keep sendingher this stuff.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
Well, so when you're feeding, fear you have to.
It's going to take time, it'sgoing to take a cycle.
You've got to work your waythrough it absolutely.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
And I would say too.
I mean, I think, a lot of timesthere are things that our phone
picks up If we even speak.
I'm sure that that's the case.
Again, I don't know, most ofthe time I find ads, because I
searched it on Google.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (48:28):
But I want to say this as well, since we're here I
mean, we might as well, ifwe're going to go on a rabbit
trail, we might as well go allthe way in.
If you're getting yourinformation from Facebook, you
have a problem.
If you're getting yourinformation from YouTube videos,
you probably have a problem.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
Unless it's Dr.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
Charles Stanley, then you're okay.
Then you're fine.
Yeah, if you are taking asingle post by an individual you
know nothing about and takingit as God's word or the
God-honest truth, you have aproblem.
Don't even think about doing it.
I've seen people that Iconsider to be very intelligent.
(49:12):
I mean, I consider them to belike some of the smartest people
I know that will sharesomething from some individual
that is an expert, in whateverfield it is.
I have a problem with that.
I'm not saying they're wrong.
I'm not saying that things thatthey're saying are
(49:35):
misinformation.
Maybe everything they're sayingis true, but what are the facts
and how do you come up with thefacts?
Well, when it comes to theBible, we know how to do that.
We can mention that.
But when it comes to life, ifyou are taking your and
gathering your truths and yourfacts from one source that you
read somewhere, you've got aproblem.
(49:57):
You need to get sources fromthe left side of the aisle, the
right side of the aisle and themiddle of the aisle, and if
you're going to really get thetruth of what is out there or
get an understanding of what thetruth actually is and the same
thing for the Bible.
If you're taking a scripturehere or you're taking a
scripture there and you're notgetting the whole truth, you are
(50:19):
going to have fear.
But if you study it out, if youreplace the fear with the facts
of the Bible, if you replacethe fear with the facts of the
Bible, if you replace fear withthe peace of God, you are going
(50:44):
to have a better and morefulfilling life.
I know I'm telling you everytime we do these lives, it's
like man, I can't edit anything,so I have to be careful what I
say.
But I need you older Facebookfogies to understand this Fogies
wasn't the right word, probablyyou older Facebook individuals
to understand this.
Listen, I feel like I'm an oldfogey, so so I'm a part of your
(51:05):
culture now, um, since turning34, since turning 34.
But if you are takinginformation off of Facebook and
you're running with it as theGod's honest truth, stop doing
that.
Don't get your news articlesfrom Facebook or from unreliable
sources.
It's like hey, you know, Iheard back in this guy back in
(51:27):
1956, he predicted that all ofthese things would happen in
2025, and the rapture occurs inJuly 23rd.
And you're sharing that stuff.
You are the problem.
Stop Replace those things.
Search it out for yourself.
We've got to get out of thisrabbit hole.
Brother Sean, you've got tohelp me here.
Speaker 2 (51:47):
Replace fear with facts, replace fear with the
peace of God.
Speaker 1 (51:51):
There you go, the more you focus on God's love,
the less room fear has to grow.
Spend time in prayer, worship,fellowship and with others who
encourage you.
The Bible says in John 14, 27,.
Peace I leave with you, mypeace I give unto you.
Let not your heart be troubled,or neither let it be afraid.
(52:11):
If you're wanting to overcomefear of the rapture, cultivate a
stronger relationship with god.
Focus on his love.
Focus on what he says, focus onwhat he is doing.
Don't worry about what everyoneelse says.
(52:33):
Don't worry about what everyoneelse tells you, the external
forces that are saying thingsinto your ear.
Don't even worry about whatyou're saying to yourself.
Worry about what God says.
He loves you, he cares for you.
He cares for you so much.
He loves you.
He cares for you.
He cares for you so much hesent his son to die for you, and
(52:57):
if he saved you, then his graceis enough to keep you Little
Shine.
You got anything else?
Speaker 2 (53:04):
No, sir.
Thank you all for listening in.
Speaker 1 (53:06):
Yes, thank you all for listening.
We want to really get sincerely, from the bottom of our hearts,
appreciate all the comments,the questions, the messages, the
likes, the shares.
All those mean everything to us.
If you have a question aboutthis episode, you need further
information, you have a comment,please comment.
But if you've got somethingfurther, you need further
counseling, further help, pleasemessage us.
(53:26):
We would be happy to hear fromyou and help you.
You can find us on the socialmedia platform of your choice by
searching the or, I'm sorry,searching at podcast for him I
messed it up last time atpodcast the number for him, or
searching us by the everydayChristian podcast.
Remember that every day, or twoseparate words, the everyday
Christian podcast on the podcastapp of your choice.
(53:51):
And we want to thank you againfor listening and God bless, God
bless, thank you, thank you.
But has God made you feel unworthy, or was it people
that claimed to follow Him thatmade you feel unworthy or guilty
?
Did God make you feel unworthyor was it because you felt
unworthy in your own mind?
Are you beating yourself up Now?
I've got to be honest with you.
You're probably being too hardon yourself.
You're listening to theEveryday Christian Podcast,
(00:25):
where we apply scripturalprinciples to everyday Christian
lives.
I'm John Rich.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
And I'm Sean Sloggett , and today we will be talking
about FOMO, fomo, fear ofmissing out on the rapture.
To be a little more specific,the rapture is something that
every Sorry guys, I'm rubbing onsomething here.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
It's annoying me that every.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Sorry guys, I'm rubbing on something here.
It's annoying me.
The rapture is something thatevery Christian has heard or
talked about at least once intheir lifetime.
To me, it seems like it'sseldom talked about until
somebody finally breaks the iceon the conversation.
And then when they do it finallybreaks loose and you have to
talk about it.
Wednesday night Bible studyhave multiple three-part sermons
by multiple ministers.
(01:08):
Every podcast gets on it.
So I guess, in essence, here weare breaking the ice, so the
discussion can be started onthis.
You know, when we talk aboutthe rapture, we're of course
referring to Christ returning toearth and gathering up the
Christians that have followedafter him.
(01:29):
While the word rapture is notfound in the Bible, it was
originated in around the 1830sby a man named John Nelson Darby
.
The idea and concept behind itis biblical.
Again, there are differences intiming pre-trib, mid-trib,
post-trib but the idea stayssimilar.
(01:52):
I'm not going to be discussingmuch on pre-, mid or post-trib.
I don't know if Jonathan is ornot.
The only thing I will say aboutthis is just be ready.
People talk about it quite abit.
(02:12):
My philosophy on it has alwaysbeen I'm just going to be ready.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Trid, whenever he comes, I want to be ready for it
, yeah and I think that, whetheryou're someone who believes in
the rapture or not, I mean eventhat I know there are
individuals that are my friendsthat believe certain or
different things about therapture.
I'm not really, and I know,Brother Sean, we study for these
(02:40):
messages and we sort of cometogether and try to have at
least a baseline of what we'retalking about.
Me personally, I'm not reallygoing to talk about the rapture
itself, at least not dive into alot of the details behind it,
because I think you could talkfor days on end about that
subject, Till the sun goes downnext week.
We could talk about thatsubject, but I don't really want
(03:02):
to get the sun is going downlater and I am excited about it,
yeah exactly.
We could speak on that for along time, and I understand that
having a fear of the rapturehighly depends on whether you
believe in it or not.
So, for the sake of thisepisode, we are going to be on
that side, that side thatbelieves in the rapture.
Again, sean and I, we believein it.
(03:24):
If you don't, that's fine.
But none of those other thingsreally matter to me, and I know
that some of you are going tohate hearing me say that I don't
particularly care if you'repre-, mid or post-tribulation.
That's not what the point is ofthis lesson in particular, and
it's also not who our targetaudience is with this lesson or
(03:45):
this message.
We have people that listen tous, that want theology, and we
try to provide that for them.
They want certain doctrine.
We try to provide that for them.
They want to dive in to deepdiscussions that most of your
average everyday Christian isnot going to understand.
This episode's probably not foryou.
It's more for those who arestruggling with the fear of
(04:09):
missing out, brother Sean.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yes, sir, I'll read some scriptures here 1
Thessalonians, 4, 16 and 17.
For the Lord himself shalldescend from heaven with a shout
, with the voice of thearchangel and with the trump of
God, and the dead in Christshall rise first.
Then we which are alive andremain shall be caught up
together with them in the cloudsto meet the Lord in the air,
(04:33):
and so shall we ever be with theLord.
These scriptures is where weget our concept or idea of the
rapture, or from behind, wherethe rapture is based.
So, as was mentioned before,rapture not being in the
Scripture but the concept isthere.
(04:54):
From a child I have had thisfear of the rapture.
Of course it was something thatwas talked about, preached on
At some point in me growing up,where that fear did start to
happen.
And I had two main fears that Ihad, if I can put it that way,
which kind of splintered offinto everything else the fear of
not growing up.
(05:14):
I wanted to grow up.
I wanted to make money, Iwanted to get married, have kids
, go on vacations, all thesethings.
And when it's late at night,it's dark in your room and
you're laying there as a child,wondering if these things are
ever going to happen or, if youknow, is the Lord going to come
back now?
(05:34):
You know.
The other fear I had was ifChrist came back right now, am I
ready?
Yeah, if Christ came back rightnow.
am I ready?
If I am ready, will he besatisfied with the child or the
kid that I am?
Have I done enough for hiskingdom?
Even as a child I have had allthese fears and thoughts.
(05:56):
Even sometimes to this day,those things seem to come to my
mind.
When those fears do come to me,I think on all the good that I
can.
You know, as a child I wonderedwill I ever get my driver's
license?
I specifically remember thatwas one.
I don't know why.
I just wanted to get to 16 andget my driver's license Right.
But now I am 32 and I have mydriver's license.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yeah, now you wish you were Google back in time and
be a kid again license.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, now you wish you were Google back in time and
be a kid again.
I don't know about that.
But you know, I wanted to getmarried and I'm married to a
beautiful, wonderful woman.
I wanted kids.
I now have four kids.
I tell people I have four andJay has five, but that's right.
Uh, you know, I think of thelittle bit that I have done to
try, and you know, when thosefears come, I try to think of
(06:48):
the little bit that I have doneto try and help God's kingdom.
I also remind myself of Matthew634, which says Take, therefore
, no thought for the morrow, forthe morrow shall take thought
for the things of itself,sufficient unto the days, the
evil thereof, and I want tointroduce this episode to you,
and I want to introduce it byasking questions.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I want you to think about these questions.
I want you to really not dwellon them necessarily, but just
give it some thought, give it aday.
And that question is are youafraid of the rapture?
Do you fear that God will takepeople away and that you will be
left behind?
Left?
Have you ever walked?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
yeah, those that was one of those things that freaked
me out, those movies slappedthough those books are pretty
good.
They may have, but as a child,when you're trying to listen to
something, to go to sleep andthe left behind series comes on
yeah okay, I'd put an odysseytape in, because I'm about to
cry myself to sleep.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
And most of the time they weren't.
We talked about not doingdoctrine, but they probably
weren't as biblically accurateas well, but we'll move on from
there.
If you like the Left Behindseries.
I apologize, but do you havethat fear of being left behind?
Have you ever walked in thehouse?
I actually wrote this downbecause I know we all sort of
have had this feeling.
You walked into the house, youhollered for your wife or kids,
(08:07):
or your husband and kids, andwhen they don't call back, you
have a fear, grip your heart.
You're like they should be here.
Where are they at?
And it could be several otherfears.
You know, maybe they're justoutside or you know, maybe
something even more sinisterhappened to them.
But even as a young person wetalk about a young person where
it's like I can't find myparents.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
I can't find my brothers Waking up from a nap as
a child and nobody's in thehouse yeah.
My little brother.
I think it was my littlebrother.
I know I'm interrupting, but hefell asleep in church one time
and, for whatever reason, weforgot him and we lived like 45
minutes away.
Yeah, so we're halfway homebefore one of his kids is like,
(08:53):
hey, where's Ducky?
And it's like, oh snap, wedon't have him.
Can you imagine waking up as achild in a church?
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
It's pitch black and nobody's there.
Yeah, you thought the rapturehappened.
I'm sure he thought well, Imissed it yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
And I think we've all faced those things as believers
, as people who have been underthose teachings, those
preachings as Sean mentionedearlier.
Every once in a blue moonyou've got a series about it and
we've all faced those things.
I've had people tell me severalindividuals in fact, that have
(09:30):
told me friends, family, thathave told me, you know, there's
been moments like that thatthey've had and that overcoming
feeling of anxiety with thethought that maybe you have
missed the rapture, that maybethere was a hidden sin in your
heart that you don't know about.
And there are a number ofreasons why individuals fear
missing the rapture.
I think Sean touched upon those, but a few key reasons as well
are fear that I won't makeheaven, or fear that you won't
(09:52):
make it through the greattribulation.
And something that has alwaysbeen amazing to me is when we
quote scripture like 2 Timothy 1and 7, which you are familiar
with.
It says For God hath not givenus the spirit of fear, but of
power and of love and of a soundmind.
And when we read that, we readit as believing that whatever
(10:18):
fear grips us, it is from thedevil or it's from ourselves.
But we often overlook that thefear is not given to us from God
.
I know we touch on that, but wevery seldom focus on that
portion of it.
We want to focus on everythingthe devil brings against us, but
we forget that the Bible saysthat the fear is not of God and
we believe that if we fearsomething evil it is not from
(10:39):
God.
But I write this, I wrote thisdown and I submit it to you that
if we fear something that issupposed to be good, that fear
is not from God either,especially if it is something
that gathers us together withChrist.
Do we fear that we have donesomething wrong that will cause
us to miss the rapture?
Is there something that we havenot even thought of and
(11:01):
therefore cannot confess?
Anytime I've had those feelings.
I've had that thought process.
It always brought me confusion.
Why?
Because I'm striving to doright, I'm following God's
commandments of loving myneighbor, I follow God's law but
, most importantly, because I'msaved, because His mercy has
(11:21):
restored and because His mercyand grace will keep me.
When we have a fear that wewill miss the rapture, it takes
away from the goodness and graceof God, brother Sean.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Absolutely.
You know, when you think ofthose things, have I missed out
on it?
And you know there are severalthings that come to mind when
you think of that.
Have I done this?
Have I done that?
Is there some secret sin thateven I don't know about, which
is?
You know, some of those fearsare I can't think of the word
(11:57):
right now maybe healthy fears,if I can put it that way.
But I will say, you know, ifyou're wondering, do I have some
unconfessed sin that's going tocause me to miss out on the
rapture?
Probably not.
(12:19):
You know, if you're doingeverything that you can to
follow the Word, be asscriptural, be as biblical as
you can, loving your neighbor,being a witness, the list goes
on.
But if you're doing all thosethings and you have this torment
, that maybe there's somethingthat I missed.
That's the devil talking to you.
(12:44):
That's him trying to see if hecan drum something up to get you
to pull away from it.
Yeah, you know, even if it'smaybe a fear or a sin that has
happened and it comes to yourmind that you know, whatever the
sin might be, but that comeslike, hey, the devil or yourself
(13:07):
, you start bothering yourself.
Well, you did this, you didthis, you did that.
Well, you have one of twooptions Either point back to
where you did, get it prayedthrough, or if you feel that and
fear and conviction runstogether.
(13:28):
But it's two different things.
So, if you feel the fear andthen there's a little conviction
with it, go pray about it, justpray it through and get it over
with.
Well, there was this one sin,but I'm not sure if I got it.
Let's fix it right now.
Let's go pray it through andget ourselves back on the right
track.
So, you know, that's definitelysomething that I try to look at
(13:53):
is, as Brother Jonathan said,is it?
What is the fear?
What is it that's causing it,and is this something that I can
control?
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Real quick side note.
We are live, by the way.
We're live on Facebook, youtube, we're live on Twitch, I
believe, and we did get amessage from somebody we were
talking about the Left Behindseries and they said it's from
that Justin Jones guy.
It says I'm not sure if I'vemet you before, but it says
(14:28):
greetings, gentlemen listeningwhile making crips for some of
my friends.
And then it says biblicallyaccurate left behind movies over
biblically accurate angels,which is it's pretty funny.
All right, anyway, we'll moveon from there, but I like that.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I think that I saw a deal today about angels said if
you say, your wife looks like aSide note your wife looks like
an angel when.
I come to see her.
She better have six wings, theface of a lion and like it just.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yeah.
So when we talk about angels,we're talking about, you know,
precious moments, angels, maybe,I don't know Like we're not
talking about biblicallyaccurate angels, but I think you
know, as I mentioned before,when we fear we'll miss the
rapture, it takes away from thegoodness and grace of God.
And I've heard folks preachthis and compare the Ark of Noah
to the rapture of the church.
(15:10):
And I'm not against that kindof preaching, nor am I
discounting or disproving thosecomparisons.
But what preachers often do isthey say that Noah, for 120
years he preached to people toget on the boat, get on the ark,
and then no one listened.
This is I'm not saying For 120years he preached to people to
get on the boat, get on the ark,and then no one listened.
This is I'm not saying.
I said this.
I'm saying this is what manypreachers say.
And because they didn't listen,they missed getting on the ark
(15:32):
and the rain came and they endedup perishing.
And then they compare and sayit's the same way with Christ
coming back for the church, thatthere is coming a day when
Christ will return and if you'renot ready, then you'll not make
it, or that the door of the arkwill close.
Now, if Noah did preach tothose individuals, then he was
preaching to individuals whowere lost and did not believe.
(15:52):
So why are you, as a Christian,worried about something that is
focused on the life of anunbeliever?
I know in part why Sean and Iare working together to build
this and I know in part why andthere are deep psychological
reasons for it there are deepfears for it that we're going to
talk about, but there are a fewreasons why we fear missing the
(16:14):
rapture.
The number one reason I canthink of is because we have been
preached to and programmed tobelieve that if I make one
mistake or slip up, that Godwill leave me behind, even if I
don't know what that mistake orslip up, that God will leave me
behind even if I don't know whatthat mistake or slip up was.
There are churches that teachthat the rapture could happen at
any second, which is fine, butit leads to constant fear rather
(16:35):
than joyful expectation, theway that message is being
preached, and this makesbelievers feel like they must be
in a perfect spiritual stateevery moment or they risk being
left behind.
We're going to say left behinda lot, but to be in a perfect
state at every moment I don'tbelieve it's possible.
I don't believe that you'regoing to be perfect every minute
(16:55):
of every day.
You can believe that that'sfine, that's your belief.
This is my belief.
There are people that willpreach and teach that a life of
perfection is possible and thatyou'll be damned forever if you
don't adhere to it.
They'll preach scripture orpreach from scripture, like out
of Matthew 24, 40 through 41.
I'm getting a little bit intothe weeds here, but I'm trying
(17:16):
to draw something out which Iencourage every listener to read
into the context of thatscripture Matthew 24, 40 through
41.
It says that two men areworking in a field and they say
that those two people are oneswho claim to be Christian and
one of those people are leftbehind and one of those are
taken away, and that that is therapture of the church.
(17:38):
Again, not getting into therapture discussion or debate,
but there's more.
There's a lot of evidence thatthis scripture is actually
referring to the second comingof Christ and not the rapture,
and it's stating that the personthat remains is like Noah and
the person that's taken away islike those who are taken by the
flood.
If you read the context of thatscripture again.
Not arguing that, not goingback and forth, just please read
(17:59):
it for yourself.
I understand that Bibles, thatbelievers need correction.
I understand that people needguidance.
I understand that they need theBible, they need teachers.
I need a preacher, I need ateacher.
But I also understand that fearis not a tactic that we should
give to believers to cause themto obey the rules that we have
(18:21):
put in the Bible.
I get and I agree with whatBrother Sean's saying and I know
what he's trying, what he'smentioning.
He was like I'm trying tofigure out the word and I get it
.
We have a sort of healthy fear.
When the Holy Ghost I'm goingto talk about the Holy Ghost,
conviction, when God convictsour hearts, there is a sort of
(18:42):
what we call fear and that'sgood.
Those are great things.
By the way, we treat convictionas if it's a terrible thing.
It's not.
It's a good thing.
It means I have work to do andGod's grace is enough, because
if it wasn't for God's grace,you would have never had that
conviction or what we're callingthat healthy fear.
(19:03):
But if all that I'm preached toand preached about is doom and
gloom, hell or nothing, you know, heaven or hell, all these
things.
I'm not saying don't everpreach on that.
I'm not saying Jesus didn'ttalk about hell more times than
he talked about heaven.
I get all those arguments.
But I'm saying is, if all thatwe're spoken to and preached at
(19:24):
and taught is fear, fear, fear,fear, the more you hear it, the
more you're going to believe it.
There are psychologists, thereare tests that say that it takes
multiple exposures, oftenanywhere from 70 to 20 times,
for a new idea to becomeingrained in our minds.
If we're constantly hearingfear and we're not hearing love,
(19:46):
we're not hearing mercy, we'renot hearing grace, we're not
hearing peace, if all that we'rehearing every Sunday is fear
this, fear this, do this, dothis or else this, then we are
going to have and cultivate amind that is full of fear.
If something is repeatedconsistently, it will eventually
become a core belief, whetherit's true or not.
(20:08):
There are fear-based teachingsor experiences that reprogram
our brains, that create anxietyaround certain topics.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
If you study.
You know he mentioned thepsychologist going and doing
different studies, and there's awhole bunch of this all
throughout, I mean throughouttime.
One very one huge example Iguess I should say is you know,
when Hitler first came on thescene, he made comments like he
(20:40):
was going to take over the worldwithout ever firing a bullet.
And you look at stuff like that.
How in the world could you evendo that?
And the more you hear it, themore you believe it.
It's propaganda and there isgood propaganda and there is bad
propaganda, absolutely.
You know, hitler commissionedsome people to start making
(21:03):
comic books and different things, cartoons or whatever the case
was.
But all of these that he did hejust threw a little socialism,
a little communism allthroughout, and the superhero
was always the socialist or thecommunist superhero Right.
(21:23):
And after a couple generations,you know, these young kids that
were growing up are readingthese comic books because we
like comic books and that's whatyoung boys do.
So over time their mindsetactually shifted to it, to where
, when they were adults, whenthat idea was presented, they've
been reading about it for thelast 10, 15 years and it was
(21:47):
very easy for him just to comethrough and start taking over.
Yeah, peanut Butter and Jesuskind of adopted.
You know, I'm sure a lot of youguys have probably heard some
about Peanut Butter and Jesus.
But they have kind of adoptedsome of that tactic where they
do comics and stuff, they makethe sack lunches and pass them
(22:08):
out.
But that's not all they do.
They always try to make surethat there's a coloring page or
something in there that talksabout Jesus, because if you can
get Jesus in front of these kidsat four years old, eight years
old, 12 years old, whatever,they may not recognize it all
the time, but they startconnecting the dots.
(22:30):
Well, hey, those people used toalways bring me food every
Saturday and we've had children,or I've heard stories of
children saying man, this is theonly meal I've had this week.
Can I have another bag?
Absolutely, you can, okay.
I'm sorry this is the only I'vehad this week.
Right, can I have another bag?
Absolutely, you can.
Okay, I'm sorry, this is theonly.
(22:51):
It's a peanut butter and jellysandwich with a bag of chips or
some little snack.
So they start connecting thedots when they get older.
Like, hey, there was one groupthat always took care of me,
right, they brought me a sacklunch and there was something in
there about Jesus.
They brought me a sack lunchand there was something in there
about Jesus.
And you know, it helps connectthe dots over time.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
So the more you hear it, the more you believe it is
absolutely.
Well, I think about Romans 10,17.
I wrote this down Romans 10,17,.
With what you're saying it says.
So then, faith cometh byhearing and hearing by the Word
of God.
But just as faith grows byhearing God's Word, fear also
grows when we hear repeatedlynegative messages or a twist of
(23:30):
the Word of God.
Now I've got to tell you,listen, if you're a minister and
you're a preacher, I'vepreached and I've taught and
I've tried to do my best withwhat I feel God has given me
according to His Word.
But if all that I preach is thedevil, this, the devil, that
the devil, this, the devil thatyou're going to miss the rapture
(23:53):
, you're going to go to hell.
You're going to miss therapture, you're going to go to
hell.
It puts a sense of fear in.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
You're not doing enough, You're not meeting it.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Yeah, it belittles people, it twists the gospel in
such a way that it appears to bethe truth because it's coming
from the Bible.
I've got to tell you you cantake Scripture in the Bible and
you can misuse it when you arepreaching, even though it's true
, and you can use it in anegative way.
Or you can take Scripture andthe Bible and read it out of
(24:25):
context and provide it to youraudience and make it whatever
you want it to be, and both ofthose things are wrong.
If you're taking Scripture,you're reading the Bible and
you're trying to apply it tosomeone's life and you're doing
it incorrectly, or you're doingit with one subject in mind.
You're not giving the wholegospel experience, you're not
(24:48):
speaking about everything thatthe Bible's saying.
So I would say be careful withthat.
Be careful when you arepreaching about the rapture.
Be careful when you'repreaching about hell.
Be careful when you'repreaching about all of these,
what I would deem as somewhatdiscouraging things, because
people, when they hear it, theybelieve it.
And then the other thing is thatfear is stronger when tied to
(25:10):
emotion.
We're talking about how we havebeen programmed to fear, and a
lot of that fear is tied toemotion.
Emotionally charged messagescreate stronger fears.
Listen, I'm going to get a lotof people upset at me and I'm
not saying necessarily this isright or necessarily this is
(25:31):
wrong, but when I hear a messagethat is preached and all of the
lights go out in the sanctuaryand then the trumpet blows by
someone up on the platform as atactic to get people to come to
the altar, listen, you need tobe careful, that's all I have to
say.
(25:52):
You need to be careful becauseyou are trying to charge people
and trying to reach peoplethrough fear by plugging and
messing with their emotions.
If a teaching is tied to fear,shame or trauma, it's going to
stick faster.
Fear is more powerful when itis paired with a personal
experience or with punishment.
I think about when a childhears God will punish you for
(26:15):
every mistake, or they hearsomething along those lines
repeatedly.
They're going to developspiritual anxiety.
If a sermon frequentlyemphasizes that you're not
perfect, that if you're notperfect you'll miss the rapture,
then fear is going to set inbecause it is charging us
emotionally.
So we are programmed and youare programmed Like if you fear
(26:36):
this every day.
You have been programmed bysome sort of teaching, preaching
YouTube video, whatever it is,some sort of teaching.
Preaching YouTube video,whatever it is, to believe it,
because it's constantly beingsaid to you.
Some of it is not biblicallyaccurate and a lot of it, or
almost all of it, is tied toyour emotion, brother Sean.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Go ahead.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Well, we feel like we're being programmed okay.
So that program is there.
But the other side of it islike why do we fear missing the
rapture or fear going to heaven?
It's because we feel as thoughwe're unworthy or we have guilt.
And there is a third thing Iwrote on here too that's
connecting all this.
But I want to ask some morequestions, like am I saved?
(27:20):
Or, better yet, did Jesus saveyou?
Have you ever had a salvationexperience that included
repentance?
If you can answer yes, then whywould you worry?
Or why should you feel guilt?
Why do you feel guilt?
Is it because of the devil?
Is it because of people?
Is it because of the preacher?
Is it because of the teacher orthe missionary or the man of
(27:43):
God or the woman of God?
The preacher, is it because ofthe teacher or the missionary or
the man of God or the woman ofGod?
And now I want to ask you thisis it because of God?
And I'm not trying to simplifyyour guilt, I'm not trying to
say or take away everything withthe magic wand, with words.
I know there are deeper andmore complex issues that go on
in the mind that will causeguilt to be difficult to remove.
(28:03):
Don't listen.
You know me better than that ifyou've listened before.
But has God made you feelunworthy, or was it people that
claimed to follow Him that madeyou feel unworthy or guilty?
Did God make you feel unworthyor was it because you felt
unworthy in your own mind?
Are you beating yourself up?
Now?
I've got to be honest with you.
(28:24):
You're probably being too hardon yourself.
I had a friend I was talkingwith a few days ago and we
talked for like an hour and ahalf on the phone and this
friend was telling me about allof these things.
Like you know, this is how Godthinks of me.
He thinks I'm nothing.
He's embarrassed by me.
I did this.
I did that.
(28:44):
I shouldn't have done this.
People hate me.
People are talking about me.
He just kept going on and onand on, and I've like 20 or 30
minutes of him constantly sayingthose things, and I waited for
him to be done speaking and thefirst thing that I said to him
was you're being too hard onyourself.
You're being harder on yourselfthan what God is being on you.
You're putting thoughts in yourhead of what other people are
(29:08):
thinking without actuallyknowing that, and if you're
listening to this episode.
I need you to understandsomething and we have other
content that we've discussedovercoming guilt but I need you
to know stop being so hard onyourself.
I don't care what everyone elsesaid on the outside.
What does God say?
God didn't say those things.
(29:28):
God doesn't feel that way welike to think.
God feels a way that we feel,but God doesn't.
God doesn't love you that way.
God loves you more than youlove yourself.
You didn't make a mistake thatother Christians have not made
before.
You didn't do something that isunforgivable.
You didn't have a moment ofweakness that God wasn't
(29:51):
prepared for and that his gracewon't cover.
You are not a nobody, you are asomebody, and if the fear of
missing the rapture, the fear ofthe coming of Christ, the fear
of am I going to hell when I die, is based off the guilt that
God never gave you, then it'stime to let go of that guilt and
take on God's grace.
When he forgave you, he forgaveyou of all.
(30:11):
When you mess up, he doesn'tthrow you away like some
backslidden person.
He cares for you like a son andlike a daughter.
Stop being so hard on yourself.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
That's where that fear or conviction comes from.
That I mentioned just a fewminutes ago.
You know, if it's you beatingyourself up, if it's the
preacher, teacher, if it'ssomebody else, whatever the case
is, that's hard for me to argueand say that there's maybe some
conviction tied to it.
I'm not saying that otherscannot be used of God, but most
(30:55):
of the time that's a fear.
And if you feel God dealingwith you over, that's the
conviction side of it where weneed to answer to that and say,
hey, maybe there is somethinggoing on here and you're
absolutely right.
God's not just going to throwyou aside because you mess up,
he's a God that's going to giveyou a chance.
(31:17):
John 3.16,.
We've all heard it.
You know, for God so loved theworld that he gave his only
begotten son that whosoever.
And that's it for whosoever.
He didn't say for some, for theholiness church, for the church
(31:39):
of God, for the assembly, forthe Baptist, it doesn't matter,
it's for whosoever.
If you're being too hard onyourself and again, we're not
trying to simplify this weunderstand that there's
struggles that come with it.
But if you're being too hard onyourself or if you're letting
(32:00):
those other voices talk to youabout all these things.
Take a step back.
Realize it's for whosoever will.
If you feel like you need to gopray a little bit about it, do
that, go pray about it, butremember God took care of it all
.
Yeah, you're not, it's beensaid.
(32:20):
But you're not going toaccidentally sin.
Yeah, there's not.
It's not going to be like, ohwell, I just accidentally went
and killed somebody.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
I mean, if you're texting and driving.
I don't know why I laughed atthat.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
It's not good that I laughed at that.
If you're texting and drivingor doing something like that,
but you're not going to just gosteal a candy bar on purpose If
it accidentally ends up in yourcart and you forgot to scan it.
Good luck trying to convince me.
That's a sin.
(32:54):
Yeah for sure.
I mean, it was an honestmistake.
Yeah, I'll give you that youmessed up.
That was a mistake.
You didn't sin.
Yeah, you know sin is knowinglygoing and doing something Right
.
Right, and if you sin, thenGod's going to try to deal with
your conscience and convict youof it and then you can correct
(33:17):
it.
Right, If you sin and I'llthrow a hypothetical out here
because I'm sure somebody'sthinking of it or somebody will
think of it what if I sin andthe rapture happens and God
comes back?
How does your heart feel?
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Yeah, we've talked about that before.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
We have, if you sin knowingly and you don't get a
chance to go apologize or try tomake it right.
But you feel that prick in yourheart, right, because and this
is how it goes for me I don'tknow about everybody else, but
(33:58):
when I feel that prick in myheart, immediately before I can
even go talk to somebody or tryto fix it, I'm just like God,
I'm sorry, yeah, yeah, I mean0.2 seconds and I'm like, oh man
, I shouldn't have done that.
God help me.
And then I'm going to go try tofix it Right, I'm going to do
(34:21):
everything in my power to fix it.
But God is the one that youneed to be worried about your
sin with, most importantly, andsecondly with the individual, if
need be.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
So you're not going to just miss out on it because
you sinned two seconds before ithappened yeah and it's going to
be a constant effort to pullaway from God, a constant effort
to come away, pull away fromGod.
You know, if you, if you look,you really need to study what
(34:56):
blasphemy in the Holy ghostmeans Side note, by the way, and
I've got a class where I taughtabout it If you want to know
what blasphemy in the Holy ghostactually means.
But it is a constant.
When you constantly are pullingyourself away from God and
you're constantly doing thingsyou know are wrong and you're
constantly bashing God, that isa heart that is turned away from
(35:17):
God, not something that Seanwas talking about, where it's
like I didn't even realize.
You know that I, like, you'regoing to know when you lie.
You're going to know when youkind of twisted the truth a
little bit.
I've done that before.
You know.
I've done that even in my adultyears.
I'm like I didn't say thatquite right and I go back and
I'm like I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
And if you don't realize you're lying, then maybe
you need to go pray through.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Yeah, that's a whole different lesson.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
It's true, if it takes you six hours to realize
you lied to somebody.
You can meet me at the altar.
We'll pray you through.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Yeah, we'll pray you through.
But there is that programmingand there is that fear of guilt
and we're beating too hard onourselves.
And then there's also the fearof the unknown.
We're going to talk about somemisconceptions regarding the
rapture, but there is the fearof the unknown.
Regardless of whether or notthat has to do with if I missed
the rapture or not, we all fearthat.
(36:09):
There's nothing wrong withbeing uncertain.
In fact, we can use the Bibleto help us get a glimpse.
But there are still so manythoughts and truths that are not
even recorded in the Bible.
But we're not certain about it.
I don't know everything thatwill happen when I die.
I don't know everything thatcould occur when the rapture of
(36:30):
the church occurs.
And because I don't know, Idon't know everything that could
occur when the rapture of thechurch occurs, and because I
don't know, I don't have controland I fear I could miss the
rapture, because I have adeep-seated fear of the unknown.
It's that lack of control, it'sthat losing it.
So those are three commonreasons for fears the
programming, the guilt, theunknown.
(36:53):
But what about themisconceptions regarding the
rapture?
You know Brother Sean hadmentioned 1 Thessalonians, 4, 16
through 7.
I'll read that again.
It says Now, if you again westarted at the preface of this
episode if you believe in therapture, good.
(37:14):
If you don't, good, just takewhat we're saying.
But I believe that the raptureis a promise.
It's not a punishment.
We have misunderstood who God is.
We have misunderstood God.
God so loved the world.
God gives us peace.
God grants us mercy.
(37:35):
God allows us His grace, godgives us strength.
God gives us a renewed mind,god gives us power, but God does
not give us fear.
Our fear is based off of whatman told us, even if that man
told us something wrong.
But what has God told you?
We strive to be better throughthe help of God.
(37:56):
We strive to do everything thatwe can not to sin, and I know
that we should live uprightaccording to the Bible.
But that's it Upright accordingto what the Bible says in
context.
I have to add that in there, bythe way, because so many
preachers, so many ministers Iknow you guys are listening to
(38:19):
this.
You're like I'm tired ofhearing him talk about preachers
.
Listen, I am a preacher, I am ateacher.
There needs to be a standardand that standard is so many
preachers have studied for theWord of God based off of what
they feel.
So many preachers have studiedthe Word of God based off of and
(38:41):
I've done it too Guilty, andI've been guilty of that too
based off of what they've readout of context, meaning I'm
going to go into the Bible andI'm just going to put my finger
right here and I'm going to readthat and that's going to be the
message.
You have a problem if you take asingle verse without any
(39:03):
studying surrounding that verse,without any context, without
any cross-referencing, withoutany commentary, without any
knowledge about the history ofit, and preach a message based
off of simple English or simplywhat you read without diving
into it.
That fear comes fromindividuals that are studying
(39:24):
and preaching out of context.
But the rapture?
It is a promise.
If you belong to Christ, youare included in that promise.
You're not going toaccidentally miss the rapture.
That's another commonmisconception.
You will not accidentally sin,as Brother Sean said, and you're
not going to accidentally missthe rapture.
Philippians 1 and 6 says, beingconfident of this very thing,
(39:48):
that he which hath begun a workin you will perform it until the
day of Jesus Christ.
You do not have to live yourlife worrying if there is a
hidden sin that you'll miss therapture for Now.
Here's the conviction part thatI was talking about earlier.
If the power of the Holy Ghostis enough to bring conviction to
your heart for things that youknow you did wrong, then the
power of the Holy Ghost isenough to bring convictions to
(40:09):
your heart for things that youdon't know you did wrong as well
.
Stop fearing did I do somethingwrong?
When you have God on your side.
If there is something wrong,god will tell you.
I promise you God will bring itto you.
But stop wondering.
Well, maybe I missed the markhere today, maybe I didn't do
(40:32):
enough here today, because God'sgrace makes up the difference.
The truth is that God finisheswhat he starts.
If he saved you I love this ifhe saved you, he will keep you.
If he saved you, he'll keep you, brother Sean.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Knowing I can't control it.
Only our Heavenly Father knowswhen it will happen.
You know the day, the hour, theminute, even the very second.
I honestly love hearingsometimes, all the conspiracy
theories on the rapture and thecoming of the Lord.
The 1999 Y2K debacle.
(41:09):
I was eight years old, so youcan bet your money I forgot
about that, that I was freakingout as a child.
Absolutely, because I'm aneight-year-old kid and all the
computers are going to crash andeverybody's going to go crazy
and the world's going to comeand do an end.
I'm not going to get to livelife.
I barely made it eight yearsand well, here comes Jesus.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
So this is over for me.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Well, I made it through Y2K, believe it or not,
a whole 25 years, a whole 25years through.
Well, 12 years after that,though, the Mayan calendar ended
.
The Mayans, they, set theircalendar up.
It's like every 52 years orsomething weird like that that
they did and they couldn't findany more going after 2012.
(41:56):
So it was in December, I thinkit was like December 21st, 24th,
11th.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Christmas time.
It was around Christmas.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
It was right before Christmas, but it was around
that time the Mayans' calendarran out and they've been on
earth for as long as everybodyelse has.
We just didn't know theyexisted over here.
And so, if they said it ran out, then their gods told them
something Well, guess what?
It's March of 2025, so we madeit through that one too.
(42:27):
And then, if that wasn't enough, there's always the prophets
and the TV preachers andeverybody coming out every few
years throwing out there.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
Covid was a big time too.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
A lot of people thought it was the end of the
world, and every couple of yearsthere's an asteroid heading to
Earth.
It's half the size of Earth andwhen it hits we're going to
blow up.
So I listen in on them I do,I'll be honest but I scoff at
them, and it may or may not beright to do this.
(43:01):
But when they start talkinglike that, they're like December
21st 2012, the world's comingto an end.
I'm like, well, it might beDecember 20th or December 22nd,
but I guarantee it was not goingto be the 21st 2012,.
The world's coming to an end.
I'm like, well, it might beDecember 20th or December 22nd,
but I guarantee it was going tobe the 21st, because the Bible
says nobody knows.
And if everybody on earth issaying it's, then well, guess
(43:22):
what?
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Somebody's just going to get it.
There's going to be someno-name dude that's just like,
yeah, God's coming August 28th,and then he just so happens to
come.
It has nothing to do with thisprediction.
I'm going to be the guy thatblows it off.
I'll be honest.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
He'll be like ain't happening, yeah, and then I may
have to ask God for forgivenesswhen I get over there.
But yeah, I'm totally that guyit's like you know since I've
grown up.
Whenever that happens or theasteroids come in, or you know
I'm just like, well, might bethe day before, might be the day
after, but I guarantee it ain'tthat day yeah.
(44:00):
But I can't control it Right.
One thing I do know is that Iwill continue to look into
Christ.
Yeah, right, I will keep myeyes focused on Him and do
everything I can in my power totake everybody with me, because
that is one of the commandmentsof Christ.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
You can't.
I know it's hard.
I mean it's it's hard not tolive in fear.
It's easy to.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
Yes, we're not saying that we're not gonna fear and
not have these these things comeup as well, because I still
have that fear sometimes.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
Yeah well, it's like there's those constant things
that are going on.
I mean the.
The president of the unitedstates is like.
You know, if this side getselected, I don't know what the
world is like.
You know what?
The world's just gonna keepspinning.
We may be richer, we may bepoorer, but God is still God.
God is still on his throne andwe can rest assured knowing that
.
(44:56):
And I think that leads us to youknow, we've talked about why we
fear or the reasons for thefear of missing out, but I want
to talk about what are somethings that you can do to help
you overcome that fear.
And again, I'm not trying towave a magic wand.
I need you to understand thatI'm not that guy.
If you need additional helpwe've said it last time, we've
(45:17):
said it almost every episode Ifyou need additional help with
whatever it is, counseling,whatever, reach out to us.
We have resources.
But there are some other tipsand practical things that you
can do to help you overcome thefear.
One of those is examine yourrelationship with God Instead of
living in fear.
Strengthen your relationshipwith Jesus.
(45:40):
Do I have him?
Have I placed my faith in him?
If the answer is yes, don'tfear because he has everything
in control.
That is the biggest part offaith versus fear.
It is letting go of my controland giving it to God.
I have a hard time with thatbecause I don't like anybody
(46:01):
controlling.
I hate it when people drive mycar and I have to ride in the
passenger seat.
I hate it when I get on anairplane because I'm not the one
in the pilot seat flying theplane and thank God I'm not
careful, okay, you know what?
Thank God I'm not, but also, youknow, I'm probably not going to
fly for a couple of years, atleast until we get over whatever
it is that's going on.
But I have just in, likeoutward things, there's the the
(46:27):
sense of needing to controlthings because I feel that if I
get it all just right, it'sgoing to go perfectly.
There are things that I face,that you face, that Sean faces,
that are just not in our control, Even if we wanted to do
something about it.
We couldn't, but God can and hewill about it.
(46:51):
We couldn't, but God can and hewill.
And taking away fear isreplacing it with faith.
Stop feeding fear withmisinformation.
If you're constantly consumingfear-based teachings, take a
(47:11):
step back.
Speaker 2 (47:11):
Instead of watching YouTube prophecy doom videos,
spendend time in God's word,spend time in his promises and
especially nowadays.
Speaker 1 (47:15):
Yeah, because everything Facebook and all that
.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
Everything is based off algorithms and if you don't
know that, then surprise.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
So if you watch one, fear-based video then guess what
?
Next time Facebook Reels popsup, there's going to be another
one in there, until that's allyou consume.
That's how our world works.
Now, everything is based offalgorithms.
If you it's going to show endup doing something stupid,
(47:44):
because I'm talking aboutfear-based tactics.
Now your wife shops at Sheen orShe-In, or however you say that
, and then this new cute dresscomes out again.
Well, surprise, she visitstheir site.
So guess what?
Speaker 1 (48:00):
The algorithm is going to pick it up and say she
likes this, let's keep sendingher this stuff.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
Well, so when you're feeding, fear you have to.
It's going to take time, it'sgoing to take a cycle.
You've got to work your waythrough it absolutely.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
And I would say too.
I mean, I think, a lot of timesthere are things that our phone
picks up If we even speak.
I'm sure that that's the case.
Again, I don't know, most ofthe time I find ads, because I
searched it on Google.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (48:28):
But I want to say this as well, since we're here I
mean, we might as well, ifwe're going to go on a rabbit
trail, we might as well go allthe way in.
If you're getting yourinformation from Facebook, you
have a problem.
If you're getting yourinformation from YouTube videos,
you probably have a problem.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
Unless it's Dr.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
Charles Stanley, then you're okay.
Then you're fine.
Yeah, if you are taking asingle post by an individual you
know nothing about and takingit as God's word or the
God-honest truth, you have aproblem.
Don't even think about doing it.
I've seen people that Iconsider to be very intelligent.
(49:12):
I mean, I consider them to belike some of the smartest people
I know that will sharesomething from some individual
that is an expert, in whateverfield it is.
I have a problem with that.
I'm not saying they're wrong.
I'm not saying that things thatthey're saying are
(49:35):
misinformation.
Maybe everything they're sayingis true, but what are the facts
and how do you come up with thefacts?
Well, when it comes to theBible, we know how to do that.
We can mention that.
But when it comes to life, ifyou are taking your and
gathering your truths and yourfacts from one source that you
read somewhere, you've got aproblem.
(49:57):
You need to get sources fromthe left side of the aisle, the
right side of the aisle and themiddle of the aisle, and if
you're going to really get thetruth of what is out there or
get an understanding of what thetruth actually is and the same
thing for the Bible.
If you're taking a scripturehere or you're taking a
scripture there and you're notgetting the whole truth, you are
(50:19):
going to have fear.
But if you study it out, if youreplace the fear with the facts
of the Bible, if you replacethe fear with the facts of the
Bible, if you replace fear withthe peace of God, you are going
(50:44):
to have a better and morefulfilling life.
I know I'm telling you everytime we do these lives, it's
like man, I can't edit anything,so I have to be careful what I
say.
But I need you older Facebookfogies to understand this Fogies
wasn't the right word, probablyyou older Facebook individuals
to understand this.
Listen, I feel like I'm an oldfogey, so so I'm a part of your
(51:05):
culture now, um, since turning34, since turning 34.
But if you are takinginformation off of Facebook and
you're running with it as theGod's honest truth, stop doing
that.
Don't get your news articlesfrom Facebook or from unreliable
sources.
It's like hey, you know, Iheard back in this guy back in
(51:27):
1956, he predicted that all ofthese things would happen in
2025, and the rapture occurs inJuly 23rd.
And you're sharing that stuff.
You are the problem.
Stop Replace those things.
Search it out for yourself.
We've got to get out of thisrabbit hole.
Brother Sean, you've got tohelp me here.
Speaker 2 (51:47):
Replace fear with facts, replace fear with the
peace of God.
Speaker 1 (51:51):
There you go, the more you focus on God's love,
the less room fear has to grow.
Spend time in prayer, worship,fellowship and with others who
encourage you.
The Bible says in John 14, 27,.
Peace I leave with you, mypeace I give unto you.
Let not your heart be troubled,or neither let it be afraid.
(52:11):
If you're wanting to overcomefear of the rapture, cultivate a
stronger relationship with god.
Focus on his love.
Focus on what he says, focus onwhat he is doing.
Don't worry about what everyoneelse says.
(52:33):
Don't worry about what everyoneelse tells you, the external
forces that are saying thingsinto your ear.
Don't even worry about whatyou're saying to yourself.
Worry about what God says.
He loves you, he cares for you.
He cares for you so much.
He loves you.
He cares for you.
He cares for you so much hesent his son to die for you, and
(52:57):
if he saved you, then his graceis enough to keep you Little
Shine.
You got anything else?
Speaker 2 (53:04):
No, sir.
Thank you all for listening in.
Speaker 1 (53:06):
Yes, thank you all for listening.
We want to really get sincerely, from the bottom of our hearts,
appreciate all the comments,the questions, the messages, the
likes, the shares.
All those mean everything to us.
If you have a question aboutthis episode, you need further
information, you have a comment,please comment.
But if you've got somethingfurther, you need further
counseling, further help, pleasemessage us.
(53:26):
We would be happy to hear fromyou and help you.
You can find us on the socialmedia platform of your choice by
searching the or, I'm sorry,searching at podcast for him I
messed it up last time atpodcast the number for him, or
searching us by the everydayChristian podcast.
Remember that every day, or twoseparate words, the everyday
Christian podcast on the podcastapp of your choice.
(53:51):
And we want to thank you againfor listening and God bless, God
bless, thank you, thank you.
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