July 20, 2023 • 27 mins
Prepare yourself as we journey through the shadows of ancient history, treading the unsettling paths of Caesarea Philippi and its worshiped deity, Pan. If possible, wait to listen to this one until the young ones aren’t around, as we dissect the twisted rituals of this region. However, this episode is not merely a look into the past but a profound exploration of transformation and hope found in Jesus!
As we are ushered to the gates of Hades, we see a symbolic representation of Jesus' triumph over the grotesque. We also draw inspiration from Jesus' affirmation that His church, erected on a rock, would stand unscathed against the gates of hell and we examine their relevance in our lives today.
Finally, we turn to the profound words of Christ in Matthew 16:24-28; a testament to the fleeting nature of life and the significance of eternity.
As I explore the essence of Jesus's teachings in this episode, I encourage everyone to share the gospel as we journey towards eternity.
-------
If you are still interested in aiding the Family Legacy organization I talked about in my podcast, it's never too late! If you sponsor a child, I would love to send you a free, signed copy of my book.
Sponsor a Child: https://give.familylegacy.com/sponsorachild/legacy-academy
Volunteer: https://familylegacy.com/getinvolved/go-to-zambia/camp-life/
To receive your free book after sponsorship, or to receive more information about Family Legacy, please email me at: info@andyhoward.com
Follow on Instagram & Facebook: @AndyBHoward
Buy the book on Amazon: www.amazon.com/When-Words-Dont-Come-Easy/dp/1955362084
Listen to the first chapter: soundcloud.com/andy-howard-788712319
Learn more at AndyHoward.com!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yo, yo yo.
What's up everybody.
I am so excited to be back foranother edition of the Windward
Don't Come Easy podcast today.
You guys, I have to throw a bigdisclaimer out right now and I
will again after theintroduction here in a minute.
But if you have any kiddos inthe car with you, like if you're
driving on the I don't knowwhen you're listening I know
(00:22):
right now it's summertime butsay you're driving your kids
around to the pool, or maybe youfound this podcast when school
was back in session and you'redriving your kids to school this
is one of those I want you toskip until you're away from your
kiddos.
Just some heavy, heavy topicswe're talking on today and a lot
of stuff that one day they willbe ready for, but not at this
(00:44):
moment.
So I would strongly advise you,if there's any kids around,
please, please, skip onto thenext podcast.
But I'm so excited.
Today is going to be a powerfulday.
God just opened my eyes to hisscripture the way I had never
heard it before.
Especially after going toIsrael a few weeks ago and
(01:04):
seeing it firsthand, I felt likeI could not skip this passage.
So powerful how God himself andtook the disciples to the very
place where the gates of hell,the gates of Hades, were, and he
said that right there, thatright there will not prevail.
I will build my church on thisrock.
(01:27):
Wow, I'm gonna dive into allthat and more right after this.
(01:48):
What's up everybody?
Welcome back to the when WordsDon't Come Easy podcast.
I am Andy Howard.
It is so good to connect withyou.
If it's your first time,welcome.
In fact, if it's your firsttime, you picked a doozy, a
doozy to join.
I hope it won't be your last.
But I am going to say this upfront throw a little disclaimer
(02:11):
up front, and this is normallynot always the case, but I try
to always do what God has in myheart.
And for this particular episode, if you have any littles with
you in fact, it's not just awarning I'd stop this episode
now.
As much as I love new listeners, listen when you can, when
(02:32):
there's no kiddos around.
This is a heavy topic today and, yes, just would not advise you
listening around running thekids, and so, with that said, we
are going to move on.
This is a podcast about hope andI generally will always, always
(02:53):
have a guest on with me.
That as someone who has atestimony or something to to
just bring hope to people.
Today's particular podcast is Iwanted to go back to my trip to
Israel and just give my ownthoughts about it.
I had some guests on a coupleof weeks ago.
You may have heard from Annieand Trevor Sorry, annie and
(03:14):
Trevor and also Matt andStephanie Just some dear friends
of mine that were able to go onthe trip with us and they
shared some of their thoughts.
Today I had something burning onmy heart and I wanted to touch
about it, and it was actuallyman.
It was from kind of a darkscene, a dark place where we
visited, and in fact, there wasa lot of people in our group,
(03:39):
and rightfully so.
I'm cool with it.
They didn't even want to takepictures of this particular area
, and I am kind of the opposite,and that's what makes us all
beautiful.
Right, god created us alldifferent.
He created us unique in our ownway to respond differently.
That's why he's such a creativeartist.
(04:01):
He's a beautiful artist, and Imean this as respectful as I can
, and I respect every singleperson man, I do, but I've
always been drawn to stuff likethat.
I don't know why I've beendrawn to, to the train wreck.
It's like I can't look away andit's it's really my compassion,
it's my passion for people.
(04:22):
It's not that.
It's not that I want.
I hope this comes across right.
I hope this makes sense to you.
I really do.
The last thing I want to do isconfuse anybody.
It's not that I wish any illwill towards anyone or I want
any bad things happen, butgenerally, like when something
awful happens, like I want toknow more, I want to know why, I
(04:47):
want to see it myself, I wantto put my hands on it, I want to
be there like museums, like wegot to go to the Holocaust
Museum there in Israel.
It's gosh, it's so moving.
It is so moving.
It just touches my heart, itbreaks my heart and I want to
(05:07):
learn more, I want to know moreabout it.
The same with the memorial inNew York for 9-11 breaks my
heart and I moved many timesthroughout the Holocaust Museum,
throughout the 9-11 memorial, Imoved to tears and I just want
to know more.
(05:28):
So one of the stops for us wasthat a Caesarea Philippi.
For those who don't know, I'mgoing to try to educate you, I
guess, for lack of better words,this was an area where they
worshipped the God of Pan.
(05:49):
If I'm saying that, right, Iguess it's just pan, like D A N,
but it's P A N pan.
He was this.
How do I, how do I describe him?
He was this being, this halfhuman, half goat, like being
that they created, that theyworshipped, that they believe,
(06:10):
and this is I'm trying to be asrespectful as possible, but this
is what they believed in andthere's no better way to this
call of pan, there's no betterway to describe this other than
he was.
They were very, they were verymessed up people, right, they
believed in this God and please,that's why I didn't want kids
(06:36):
around but when they believedthat they would have this very
area, right, it would be verycommon for them to have goats
and they would have these veryperverse sexual acts, with
orgies, with all these humans,with human to human, human to
(06:56):
goat.
There's no other way todescribe this.
It was very sick, it was veryperverse, but they believed so
much that this God was whatwould?
Their hope was in all.
Their hope was in him, right,and this, and what's so
heartbreaking about it isthere's a no-win situation.
(07:18):
And so they would even come andthey would, and the way it was
set up.
This was the very this placehappened.
It was about 18 miles north ofCapernaum Capernaum I always get
that word wrong, so pleaseforgive me that town where Jesus
was from, and it's the verybeginning of the Jordan River.
(07:38):
And there was this rock, whereI saw the rock, this stone, this
big stone, round circle areawhere they would bring their
babies and they would offer themas sacrifices to this God who's
not even, not even a real God,and I don't know why these.
It always amazes me how peoplecan get so blinded by something
(08:01):
they believe that it's not evenreal, but they offer these
sacrifices.
And the myth, the legend, wasthat if this God, if the God of
Pan, if he accepted theirsacrifice, then when the rivers
would flow, they would be clear,but if the rivers were turned
red, then he did not accepttheir sacrifice, and so they
(08:24):
would keep, keep sacrificing,keep sacrificing, seeking,
seeking his approval, I guess.
And it was set up where there.
It was a no-win situationbecause the stream flowed
downhill from there.
It was on top of this mountain,the Jordan River began and it
would flow downhill from there,and every time they would
sacrifice their baby on thisstone, the waters would come and
(08:49):
the blood would turn red.
Just horrible, absolutelyterrible.
No win, no win situation.
They were set up for failure,and so why am I even telling you
about this?
You're probably already confused, and I hope you, I hope you
stick around to the end, becausethis is, this is a very sick,
(09:09):
perverse people here.
These are the very people thatGod wanted.
And we look at our world today.
Right, we have.
We have a very sick, perverseworld that we're living in.
I think I wanted to say, beforereading up on this, that our
world is about as sick andperverse as ever before.
But after reading about some ofthe things these people did
(09:31):
here at Caesarea Philippi and Imay not be saying that right
either, bear with me, bear withme, gosh after reading about
some of the things these guysdid, maybe we're not as sick as
I thought we were, but no, I dothink we're living in some of
the most perverse times of justlook around, look around.
(09:51):
Yet these are the people thatChrist came to die for, these
are the people Christ loved, andI'm going to give you some
facts on that.
So if you would turn to Matthewin your Bible, or just trust me
, I'm going to read straightfrom the Bible, from the ESV
version.
So yes, matthew 16.
(10:12):
And now that you know a littlebit about what was going on in
this area, I hope this portionof Scripture is brought to light
differently for you, becauseI've read this many times before
as well.
Never knew, never knew, I guess,the full effect of it until
after our recent trip to Israeland seeing this for myself.
(10:34):
We literally saw this placeright here where they would
sacrifice their babies, where somany perverse actions were
happening right there on these.
What would have been at thetime would have been a platform
there, but now there's justremnants remain.
We literally saw the gates ofhell the gates of Hades as they
(10:58):
were described right there onthe outer parts of this mountain
.
Hades was this very dark areainside the mountain and that
term was called the gates ofHades.
In my head I always thoughtthis was just a metaphor for
hell itself.
But here it is.
Jesus literally takes hisdisciples.
(11:18):
They march march, that'sprobably the wrong word, march.
They take the trip 18 milesnorth of where they were staying
, estimated at 18 miles, so whenit took a full day of travel.
So obviously Jesus never didanything by accident, right,
never does.
(11:38):
He didn't do this by accident.
He wanted them, he wanted themto see it.
They knew what it was right.
Everybody had heard of this area.
Nobody went there, right?
This is like that part of townthat you know is like off limits
.
It's like the perverse area.
Bad things happen there.
You don't want to get caughtthere.
(11:59):
You don't want to be there.
This is it.
So I just want to give you theimage before you read this.
This is the most perverse area.
It's the most icky.
Unbelievable acts are happeninghere.
I haven't even went to detail.
You can go find out.
If you want more, you can gofind it.
It's available for you.
I mean statues that are just.
(12:21):
I can't describe these statues.
Unbelievable sickness is whatI'm trying to tell you.
So anyways, matthew 16, 13.
Now Jesus.
Now, when Jesus came into thedistrict of Caesarea, philippi,
he asked his disciples who doyou say the Son of man is?
They said some say John theBaptist, others say Elijah,
(12:43):
others Jeremiah or one of theprophets.
He said to them but who do yousay that I am?
Verse 16, simon Peter repliedyou are the Christ, the Son of
the living God In Jesus answeredand blessed are you, simon, for
flesh and blood has notrevealed this to you, but my
Father, who is in heaven, and Itell you you are Peter comma,
(13:06):
and on this rock I will build mychurch, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it.
I want to pause there, but Iwant to finish this so we can
get to finish his part.
I will give you the keys of thekingdom of heaven, and whatever
you bind on earth shall bebound in heaven.
Whatever you lose on earthshall be loosed in heaven.
Then he strictly charged thedisciples to tell no one that he
(13:27):
was the Christ.
Wow, so that's so much to it.
If we go back to verse 18, andthis is some deep thought, and I
don't know that I'm foreignenough to give you this answer,
but I just want to let you hearwhat I felt was revealed to me.
Maybe it's right, maybe I needto go do some more research and
dig into this, maybe this willcause you to do more research.
(13:49):
But verse 18, he says I wouldtell you you are Peter comma.
Then he says and on this rock Iwill build my church.
So my whole life I thoughtPeter is the one he is building
his church on because he saidyou are the Christ.
And I love that about Peter.
I relate to Peter so muchBecause so many times we see
(14:12):
where it's easy to say man,peter got it wrong.
In his ambition, in his angerhe got it wrong, but yet he was
so bold, he was willing to dowhatever.
And I love that about Peter.
I was thought it was on Peter.
It could it be that in the verybeginning he took them.
Verse 13 says he took them to aCaesarea Philippi.
He took them to that place ofperversion right in front of the
(14:35):
gates of Hades.
Could it be that he's sayingupon this rock, with the very
rock where they're offering themost perverse sacrifices of
their kids to this God who's noteven real, just so desperate,
so desperate for hope thatthey're willing to offer their
babies?
Could it be that that's thevery rock that he said on this
(14:57):
rock, I will build my church?
Now he is saying I am the Godof these people, just like I'm
the God for you, I'm the saviorfor you.
I'm the savior for the mostperverse person out there as
well, and I feel like it's acall for us as Christians man my
heart, this last three weekshas been just awakened to so
(15:20):
much more.
Am I doing enough?
Do I witness enough?
Do I minister enough about whomy God is, about my savior?
Because we went to Africa and,man, my heart was woke, awakened
for doing more, as we got tominister to kids who, a lot of
them, had never heard of Jesusfor the first time.
(15:41):
And then we got to go to theirfamilies and a lot of them had
never heard of Jesus for thefirst time.
And it was brought to myattention that there's a lot of
Americans right here who havenever heard of Jesus.
And I have the opportunity.
I have the opportunity topresent it to them.
He takes them on this fieldtrip, so to speak, because Jesus
(16:01):
was such a creativecommunicator, y'all.
He was phenomenal.
He was a phenomenal, the bestcommunicator of all time.
We were there, right.
We were there in Israel wherehe spoke to thousands on his
sermon on the Mount, his sermonabout the Beatitudes, the one of
the most important speeches ofall time.
(16:23):
And I saw how he created thisamphitheater out of the hillside
, how all those.
They say 5,000 men, but gosh,not something we can't do.
That's not even counting womenand children.
They estimate thousands, over10,000, 15,000 people.
And how did they hear?
A man with no microphone?
It was booming.
(16:45):
It was incredible how theycreate all these amphitheaters
back in the day where you couldstand and just talking a normal
voice, but the way the acousticswere surrounding it it carried
Well.
He had a built-in amphitheaterright there on the Mount where
there's a part where he's thereand you can just see it.
You can see how he's at thebottom, by the waves, by the Sea
(17:08):
of Galilee, but the mountainssurround him.
A built-in amphitheater whereeverybody would have been.
It was incredible, absolutelyincredible, and so I am moved.
I we see so many perverse peopletoday who have just absolutely
warped ways of thinking.
These are the very people thatGod is saying here in my heart
(17:30):
of hearts.
I feel he's saying Matthew 16,verse 18.
He's saying these are thepeople that I will build my
church on, cause I got news foryou.
He didn't just come to die on across.
Such a heart, heart, death.
We're just those with thelittle bitty white lies sins man
.
He died for every single one ofus, cause he loved us and he
(17:53):
wants us to know the truth andhe wants us to be set free and
he doesn't want us to judgeanybody.
Dude, I know I'm the chief ofsinners and I fall, I mess up,
but he loves me.
He tests me off and he pulls meclose to his arms and says I
love you and I died for you.
He loves every single one ofyou.
Listening to my voice right now.
(18:13):
He cares about you.
He's got hopes for you.
He declares dreams over you,plans for you in a future, for
you.
I think sometimes we put so much, so much hope into this short
little life we live in.
It's so little into ourafterlife.
What's funny is this life islike a vapor man.
(18:35):
This life is here today andgone tomorrow.
This life doesn't last.
It will be over in a blink ofan eye, but one day we will live
forever, and that's the man,that's what matters the most.
What we do on this earth means Idon't want to say means nothing
, because obviously we have tomake it count but our own
(18:56):
earthly winnings, our ownrewards here on earth.
I'm, I mean the corporateladder, whatever success we have
here on earth, and I'm all forsuccess.
You can do a lot of good thingswith money, you really can.
So I'm all for doing your verybest, but it means nothing,
nothing.
One day it will be gone and allthat will matter is what you
(19:17):
did with your life by spreadingthe gospel.
So check this out, verse 24.
And in the Greek there's a wordused that says he, uh, I don't
put this.
He began to shout this.
So remember the setting.
We're right here in the middleof the um place of perversion,
(19:37):
see Caesarea, philippi, and I'mprobably still butchering that,
please forgive me Right there.
And so, now that I've seen allthis um, it's wild picturing the
scripture.
That's why it's so important.
If you ever get an opportunityto go to Israel, man, uh, do it,
it will change your life, itwill Absolutely All the things
we've seen.
I, I can't, can't, get thoseimages out of my head now.
(20:01):
But we're at this place ofperversion and he begins to get
so passionate.
It talks about a loud, boomingvoice, a screaming voice.
Picture the old vein popping updown the middle of his forehead
.
As he's passionate, as Jesus is, is saying with a loud voice
and I wish I could, I'm, I'mstill recovering from my
(20:21):
sickness a few weeks ago, butjust congested.
But, but bear with me.
But he says with a loud voice.
And Jesus told his disciples ifanyone would come after me, let
him deny himself and take up hiscross and follow me.
For whoever would save his lifewill lose it.
But whoever loses his life formy sake will find it.
(20:43):
For what will it profit a manif he gains the whole world and
forfeits his soul?
For what shall a man give inreturn for his soul?
For the son of man is going tocome with his angels in the
glory of the father, and then hewill repay each person
according to what he has done.
Truly, I say to you there aresome standing here who will not
(21:06):
taste death until they see theson of man coming in his kingdom
.
Wow, I don't know.
I'm just so moved.
There's there's so much hereand this could probably go into
episode after episode of thispodcast.
I'm going to try to wrap it uphere, though.
There's so much to digest Onethat he's moved with passion.
He's moved with bonus over allthese people who many would just
(21:29):
say they're cast offs, they'retoo far gone, they're perverse,
sick people, no hope for them.
They've crossed the line.
He's still crying out to them.
I saw sharing to his disciplesman, it matters nothing, matters
nothing about what you gainhere in this life, only thing
that matters is what we do forheaven, for eternity.
(21:52):
So just keep that with you, man.
Carry that with you.
Yes, I have goals.
I'm all about goals.
If you follow this podcast longenough, you know I have my own
goals.
I have my own reason.
I'm always pursuing more.
There's always more right, butdon't lose your perspective.
Keep your perspective of whatmatters most.
And my heart is for the broken,my heart is for those who may
(22:16):
be stuck in a perverse way ofthinking.
Maybe they've fallen for a lie.
Because let me tell yousomething, man, the enemy will.
The enemy will sell youanything he can to win you, to
steal you, to kill you and todestroy you.
So I know this episode, thispodcast man's been hard.
We went back to some very sickways of thinking.
(22:39):
They just literally moved abouthalf of our group, moved them
to tears.
I think we were all in tearsbut moved some of them where
they couldn't even go over tothat side to walk that area,
didn't want to take pictures,didn't want to be there.
I'm one of the, I guess, sickoswho couldn't look away from the
train wreck because I was movedwith passion, and that's why,
(23:02):
of all the things I saw, Iwanted to share this with you,
and I'll share more.
Man, I wanted to do a podcastevery single day there, but our
schedule was just so jam packed.
We would leave early in themorning, get back late in the
night, and it was just justwasn't time, and I apologize,
but I did take a lot of notes.
(23:22):
I will be sharing a lot ofdifferent episodes of different
days.
In this particular day, though,it would be the most.
So I pray for you today.
If you don't know Christ, ifyou've never met him, and if you
don't know what it's like tosurrender your life to him,
please email me at info atAndyHowardcom.
(23:43):
Either me or someone from myteam will get back to you and we
will help you come to know him.
But I would recommend you findyou a good church, somebody who
you can grow your faith with,who you can trust and follow,
and if they're not followingJesus, that's not the one,
(24:04):
because Jesus is the only way.
So you have to find you a goodchurch, and I will help you even
with that.
I'll do my best to help youfind you a good church where you
can grow your faith in.
Thank you guys so much for beingon today and for I hope this
has been a blessing to you.
I hope it's moved you as muchas it's moved me.
(24:26):
We have a calling to not justlook past the perverse.
These are the people God willbuild his church on, and it's
not just the perverse, I'm justsaying it's on the losts in
general, people who haven'tfound Christ.
Those are the people we have togo for them.
(24:47):
I pray this encourages you.
I pray this motivates you toshare the good news, to share
the gospel.
You can't reach everybody, butyou can reach one.
God has put someone in yourheart, in your path, and as you
do that, it gets easier andeasier.
And as you reach one more youcan reach another.
(25:08):
And it gets easier the more youexercise your faith.
I thank you for your time today.
I thank you for tuning in.
I pray this has been a blessingto you.
God bless, wow.
Thank you guys.
Man, that was heavy.
That was a little heavy,heavier than what I usually do
on this particular podcast.
I pray it made sense to you.
I pray it came across the way Ireceived it, because that was a
(25:33):
lot of hard, hard things tohear in there.
But, yeah, christ's love, man,god is love for all of us, so
thankful.
So thank you for joining Again.
Last week I started this thing.
I'm trying to find a hundredsponsors, a hundred partners
with me, or at least I'm tryingto sponsor a hundred kids.
(25:55):
So I'm not going to limit you.
God may put five on your heart,he may put all hundred on your
heart.
I know Tiffany and myself wesponsored 40 of them.
But if you would like moreinformation, if you missed last
week's episode, I go back andlisten to that first because
it's going to give you a lotmore information on that.
But I will send a signed copyof my book if you're interested,
(26:18):
for everyone you sponsor.
So if you sponsor a kid, even ifyou already have the book, you
can bless somebody else with thebook.
The book is about hope.
It's about overcoming obstaclesin your life, overcoming
depression for me but there's somany other factors in it it's
about finding the beauty and thebroken, and for me that just
means finding the positive andthe negative, and there's so
(26:40):
many different chapters that Idive into that with.
But I would love to partnerwith you as you help me, help
those kids.
If you'll sponsor them, send methat.
You can get more info at infoat Andy Howardcom.
Just email me there.
Or, once you do sponsor a kid,if you'll send that to info at
(27:01):
Andy Howardcom, I will get yourinformation and send you a
signed copy of the book just asa token of appreciation for what
you're doing.
So thank you so much Again.
If you haven't got the book yetand you want more info there,
you can do that at AndyHowardcom.
Amazon it's available on Audibleas well as Kindle, and I truly,
(27:23):
truly thank you guys for beinga part of this.
If this podcast has been ablessing today, please share it
with somebody.
And also my big ask for the daywill you leave a review?
If this podcast is blessing you, please leave a five star
review.
That will help more listenersfind this podcast, and I
appreciate you so much.
(27:43):
God bless everybody.
Thanks so much for tuning in.
If this episode helped you inany way, it would mean the world
to me If you would leave areview and share it with
somebody else.
Thanks so much.
I'll catch you next time.
Yo, yo yo.
What's up everybody.
I am so excited to be back foranother edition of the Windward
Don't Come Easy podcast today.
You guys, I have to throw a bigdisclaimer out right now and I
will again after theintroduction here in a minute.
But if you have any kiddos inthe car with you, like if you're
driving on the I don't knowwhen you're listening I know
(00:22):
right now it's summertime butsay you're driving your kids
around to the pool, or maybe youfound this podcast when school
was back in session and you'redriving your kids to school this
is one of those I want you toskip until you're away from your
kiddos.
Just some heavy, heavy topicswe're talking on today and a lot
of stuff that one day they willbe ready for, but not at this
(00:44):
moment.
So I would strongly advise you,if there's any kids around,
please, please, skip onto thenext podcast.
But I'm so excited.
Today is going to be a powerfulday.
God just opened my eyes to hisscripture the way I had never
heard it before.
Especially after going toIsrael a few weeks ago and
(01:04):
seeing it firsthand, I felt likeI could not skip this passage.
So powerful how God himself andtook the disciples to the very
place where the gates of hell,the gates of Hades, were, and he
said that right there, thatright there will not prevail.
I will build my church on thisrock.
(01:27):
Wow, I'm gonna dive into allthat and more right after this.
(01:48):
What's up everybody?
Welcome back to the when WordsDon't Come Easy podcast.
I am Andy Howard.
It is so good to connect withyou.
If it's your first time,welcome.
In fact, if it's your firsttime, you picked a doozy, a
doozy to join.
I hope it won't be your last.
But I am going to say this upfront throw a little disclaimer
(02:11):
up front, and this is normallynot always the case, but I try
to always do what God has in myheart.
And for this particular episode, if you have any littles with
you in fact, it's not just awarning I'd stop this episode
now.
As much as I love new listeners, listen when you can, when
(02:32):
there's no kiddos around.
This is a heavy topic today and, yes, just would not advise you
listening around running thekids, and so, with that said, we
are going to move on.
This is a podcast about hope andI generally will always, always
(02:53):
have a guest on with me.
That as someone who has atestimony or something to to
just bring hope to people.
Today's particular podcast is Iwanted to go back to my trip to
Israel and just give my ownthoughts about it.
I had some guests on a coupleof weeks ago.
You may have heard from Annieand Trevor Sorry, annie and
(03:14):
Trevor and also Matt andStephanie Just some dear friends
of mine that were able to go onthe trip with us and they
shared some of their thoughts.
Today I had something burning onmy heart and I wanted to touch
about it, and it was actuallyman.
It was from kind of a darkscene, a dark place where we
visited, and in fact, there wasa lot of people in our group,
(03:39):
and rightfully so.
I'm cool with it.
They didn't even want to takepictures of this particular area
, and I am kind of the opposite,and that's what makes us all
beautiful.
Right, god created us alldifferent.
He created us unique in our ownway to respond differently.
That's why he's such a creativeartist.
(04:01):
He's a beautiful artist, and Imean this as respectful as I can
, and I respect every singleperson man, I do, but I've
always been drawn to stuff likethat.
I don't know why I've beendrawn to, to the train wreck.
It's like I can't look away andit's it's really my compassion,
it's my passion for people.
(04:22):
It's not that.
It's not that I want.
I hope this comes across right.
I hope this makes sense to you.
I really do.
The last thing I want to do isconfuse anybody.
It's not that I wish any illwill towards anyone or I want
any bad things happen, butgenerally, like when something
awful happens, like I want toknow more, I want to know why, I
(04:47):
want to see it myself, I wantto put my hands on it, I want to
be there like museums, like wegot to go to the Holocaust
Museum there in Israel.
It's gosh, it's so moving.
It is so moving.
It just touches my heart, itbreaks my heart and I want to
(05:07):
learn more, I want to know moreabout it.
The same with the memorial inNew York for 9-11 breaks my
heart and I moved many timesthroughout the Holocaust Museum,
throughout the 9-11 memorial, Imoved to tears and I just want
to know more.
(05:28):
So one of the stops for us wasthat a Caesarea Philippi.
For those who don't know, I'mgoing to try to educate you, I
guess, for lack of better words,this was an area where they
worshipped the God of Pan.
(05:49):
If I'm saying that, right, Iguess it's just pan, like D A N,
but it's P A N pan.
He was this.
How do I, how do I describe him?
He was this being, this halfhuman, half goat, like being
that they created, that theyworshipped, that they believe,
(06:10):
and this is I'm trying to be asrespectful as possible, but this
is what they believed in andthere's no better way to this
call of pan, there's no betterway to describe this other than
he was.
They were very, they were verymessed up people, right, they
believed in this God and please,that's why I didn't want kids
(06:36):
around but when they believedthat they would have this very
area, right, it would be verycommon for them to have goats
and they would have these veryperverse sexual acts, with
orgies, with all these humans,with human to human, human to
(06:56):
goat.
There's no other way todescribe this.
It was very sick, it was veryperverse, but they believed so
much that this God was whatwould?
Their hope was in all.
Their hope was in him, right,and this, and what's so
heartbreaking about it isthere's a no-win situation.
(07:18):
And so they would even come andthey would, and the way it was
set up.
This was the very this placehappened.
It was about 18 miles north ofCapernaum Capernaum I always get
that word wrong, so pleaseforgive me that town where Jesus
was from, and it's the verybeginning of the Jordan River.
(07:38):
And there was this rock, whereI saw the rock, this stone, this
big stone, round circle areawhere they would bring their
babies and they would offer themas sacrifices to this God who's
not even, not even a real God,and I don't know why these.
It always amazes me how peoplecan get so blinded by something
(08:01):
they believe that it's not evenreal, but they offer these
sacrifices.
And the myth, the legend, wasthat if this God, if the God of
Pan, if he accepted theirsacrifice, then when the rivers
would flow, they would be clear,but if the rivers were turned
red, then he did not accepttheir sacrifice, and so they
(08:24):
would keep, keep sacrificing,keep sacrificing, seeking,
seeking his approval, I guess.
And it was set up where there.
It was a no-win situationbecause the stream flowed
downhill from there.
It was on top of this mountain,the Jordan River began and it
would flow downhill from there,and every time they would
sacrifice their baby on thisstone, the waters would come and
(08:49):
the blood would turn red.
Just horrible, absolutelyterrible.
No win, no win situation.
They were set up for failure,and so why am I even telling you
about this?
You're probably already confused, and I hope you, I hope you
stick around to the end, becausethis is, this is a very sick,
(09:09):
perverse people here.
These are the very people thatGod wanted.
And we look at our world today.
Right, we have.
We have a very sick, perverseworld that we're living in.
I think I wanted to say, beforereading up on this, that our
world is about as sick andperverse as ever before.
But after reading about some ofthe things these people did
(09:31):
here at Caesarea Philippi and Imay not be saying that right
either, bear with me, bear withme, gosh after reading about
some of the things these guysdid, maybe we're not as sick as
I thought we were, but no, I dothink we're living in some of
the most perverse times of justlook around, look around.
(09:51):
Yet these are the people thatChrist came to die for, these
are the people Christ loved, andI'm going to give you some
facts on that.
So if you would turn to Matthewin your Bible, or just trust me
, I'm going to read straightfrom the Bible, from the ESV
version.
So yes, matthew 16.
(10:12):
And now that you know a littlebit about what was going on in
this area, I hope this portionof Scripture is brought to light
differently for you, becauseI've read this many times before
as well.
Never knew, never knew, I guess,the full effect of it until
after our recent trip to Israeland seeing this for myself.
(10:34):
We literally saw this placeright here where they would
sacrifice their babies, where somany perverse actions were
happening right there on these.
What would have been at thetime would have been a platform
there, but now there's justremnants remain.
We literally saw the gates ofhell the gates of Hades as they
(10:58):
were described right there onthe outer parts of this mountain
.
Hades was this very dark areainside the mountain and that
term was called the gates ofHades.
In my head I always thoughtthis was just a metaphor for
hell itself.
But here it is.
Jesus literally takes hisdisciples.
(11:18):
They march march, that'sprobably the wrong word, march.
They take the trip 18 milesnorth of where they were staying
, estimated at 18 miles, so whenit took a full day of travel.
So obviously Jesus never didanything by accident, right,
never does.
(11:38):
He didn't do this by accident.
He wanted them, he wanted themto see it.
They knew what it was right.
Everybody had heard of this area.
Nobody went there, right?
This is like that part of townthat you know is like off limits
.
It's like the perverse area.
Bad things happen there.
You don't want to get caughtthere.
(11:59):
You don't want to be there.
This is it.
So I just want to give you theimage before you read this.
This is the most perverse area.
It's the most icky.
Unbelievable acts are happeninghere.
I haven't even went to detail.
You can go find out.
If you want more, you can gofind it.
It's available for you.
I mean statues that are just.
(12:21):
I can't describe these statues.
Unbelievable sickness is whatI'm trying to tell you.
So anyways, matthew 16, 13.
Now Jesus.
Now, when Jesus came into thedistrict of Caesarea, philippi,
he asked his disciples who doyou say the Son of man is?
They said some say John theBaptist, others say Elijah,
(12:43):
others Jeremiah or one of theprophets.
He said to them but who do yousay that I am?
Verse 16, simon Peter repliedyou are the Christ, the Son of
the living God In Jesus answeredand blessed are you, simon, for
flesh and blood has notrevealed this to you, but my
Father, who is in heaven, and Itell you you are Peter comma,
(13:06):
and on this rock I will build mychurch, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it.
I want to pause there, but Iwant to finish this so we can
get to finish his part.
I will give you the keys of thekingdom of heaven, and whatever
you bind on earth shall bebound in heaven.
Whatever you lose on earthshall be loosed in heaven.
Then he strictly charged thedisciples to tell no one that he
(13:27):
was the Christ.
Wow, so that's so much to it.
If we go back to verse 18, andthis is some deep thought, and I
don't know that I'm foreignenough to give you this answer,
but I just want to let you hearwhat I felt was revealed to me.
Maybe it's right, maybe I needto go do some more research and
dig into this, maybe this willcause you to do more research.
(13:49):
But verse 18, he says I wouldtell you you are Peter comma.
Then he says and on this rock Iwill build my church.
So my whole life I thoughtPeter is the one he is building
his church on because he saidyou are the Christ.
And I love that about Peter.
I relate to Peter so muchBecause so many times we see
(14:12):
where it's easy to say man,peter got it wrong.
In his ambition, in his angerhe got it wrong, but yet he was
so bold, he was willing to dowhatever.
And I love that about Peter.
I was thought it was on Peter.
It could it be that in the verybeginning he took them.
Verse 13 says he took them to aCaesarea Philippi.
He took them to that place ofperversion right in front of the
(14:35):
gates of Hades.
Could it be that he's sayingupon this rock, with the very
rock where they're offering themost perverse sacrifices of
their kids to this God who's noteven real, just so desperate,
so desperate for hope thatthey're willing to offer their
babies?
Could it be that that's thevery rock that he said on this
(14:57):
rock, I will build my church?
Now he is saying I am the Godof these people, just like I'm
the God for you, I'm the saviorfor you.
I'm the savior for the mostperverse person out there as
well, and I feel like it's acall for us as Christians man my
heart, this last three weekshas been just awakened to so
(15:20):
much more.
Am I doing enough?
Do I witness enough?
Do I minister enough about whomy God is, about my savior?
Because we went to Africa and,man, my heart was woke, awakened
for doing more, as we got tominister to kids who, a lot of
them, had never heard of Jesusfor the first time.
(15:41):
And then we got to go to theirfamilies and a lot of them had
never heard of Jesus for thefirst time.
And it was brought to myattention that there's a lot of
Americans right here who havenever heard of Jesus.
And I have the opportunity.
I have the opportunity topresent it to them.
He takes them on this fieldtrip, so to speak, because Jesus
(16:01):
was such a creativecommunicator, y'all.
He was phenomenal.
He was a phenomenal, the bestcommunicator of all time.
We were there, right.
We were there in Israel wherehe spoke to thousands on his
sermon on the Mount, his sermonabout the Beatitudes, the one of
the most important speeches ofall time.
(16:23):
And I saw how he created thisamphitheater out of the hillside
, how all those.
They say 5,000 men, but gosh,not something we can't do.
That's not even counting womenand children.
They estimate thousands, over10,000, 15,000 people.
And how did they hear?
A man with no microphone?
It was booming.
(16:45):
It was incredible how theycreate all these amphitheaters
back in the day where you couldstand and just talking a normal
voice, but the way the acousticswere surrounding it it carried
Well.
He had a built-in amphitheaterright there on the Mount where
there's a part where he's thereand you can just see it.
You can see how he's at thebottom, by the waves, by the Sea
(17:08):
of Galilee, but the mountainssurround him.
A built-in amphitheater whereeverybody would have been.
It was incredible, absolutelyincredible, and so I am moved.
I we see so many perverse peopletoday who have just absolutely
warped ways of thinking.
These are the very people thatGod is saying here in my heart
(17:30):
of hearts.
I feel he's saying Matthew 16,verse 18.
He's saying these are thepeople that I will build my
church on, cause I got news foryou.
He didn't just come to die on across.
Such a heart, heart, death.
We're just those with thelittle bitty white lies sins man
.
He died for every single one ofus, cause he loved us and he
(17:53):
wants us to know the truth andhe wants us to be set free and
he doesn't want us to judgeanybody.
Dude, I know I'm the chief ofsinners and I fall, I mess up,
but he loves me.
He tests me off and he pulls meclose to his arms and says I
love you and I died for you.
He loves every single one ofyou.
Listening to my voice right now.
(18:13):
He cares about you.
He's got hopes for you.
He declares dreams over you,plans for you in a future, for
you.
I think sometimes we put so much, so much hope into this short
little life we live in.
It's so little into ourafterlife.
What's funny is this life islike a vapor man.
(18:35):
This life is here today andgone tomorrow.
This life doesn't last.
It will be over in a blink ofan eye, but one day we will live
forever, and that's the man,that's what matters the most.
What we do on this earth means Idon't want to say means nothing
, because obviously we have tomake it count but our own
(18:56):
earthly winnings, our ownrewards here on earth.
I'm, I mean the corporateladder, whatever success we have
here on earth, and I'm all forsuccess.
You can do a lot of good thingswith money, you really can.
So I'm all for doing your verybest, but it means nothing,
nothing.
One day it will be gone and allthat will matter is what you
(19:17):
did with your life by spreadingthe gospel.
So check this out, verse 24.
And in the Greek there's a wordused that says he, uh, I don't
put this.
He began to shout this.
So remember the setting.
We're right here in the middleof the um place of perversion,
(19:37):
see Caesarea, philippi, and I'mprobably still butchering that,
please forgive me Right there.
And so, now that I've seen allthis um, it's wild picturing the
scripture.
That's why it's so important.
If you ever get an opportunityto go to Israel, man, uh, do it,
it will change your life, itwill Absolutely All the things
we've seen.
I, I can't, can't, get thoseimages out of my head now.
(20:01):
But we're at this place ofperversion and he begins to get
so passionate.
It talks about a loud, boomingvoice, a screaming voice.
Picture the old vein popping updown the middle of his forehead
.
As he's passionate, as Jesus is, is saying with a loud voice
and I wish I could, I'm, I'mstill recovering from my
(20:21):
sickness a few weeks ago, butjust congested.
But, but bear with me.
But he says with a loud voice.
And Jesus told his disciples ifanyone would come after me, let
him deny himself and take up hiscross and follow me.
For whoever would save his lifewill lose it.
But whoever loses his life formy sake will find it.
(20:43):
For what will it profit a manif he gains the whole world and
forfeits his soul?
For what shall a man give inreturn for his soul?
For the son of man is going tocome with his angels in the
glory of the father, and then hewill repay each person
according to what he has done.
Truly, I say to you there aresome standing here who will not
(21:06):
taste death until they see theson of man coming in his kingdom
.
Wow, I don't know.
I'm just so moved.
There's there's so much hereand this could probably go into
episode after episode of thispodcast.
I'm going to try to wrap it uphere, though.
There's so much to digest Onethat he's moved with passion.
He's moved with bonus over allthese people who many would just
(21:29):
say they're cast offs, they'retoo far gone, they're perverse,
sick people, no hope for them.
They've crossed the line.
He's still crying out to them.
I saw sharing to his disciplesman, it matters nothing, matters
nothing about what you gainhere in this life, only thing
that matters is what we do forheaven, for eternity.
(21:52):
So just keep that with you, man.
Carry that with you.
Yes, I have goals.
I'm all about goals.
If you follow this podcast longenough, you know I have my own
goals.
I have my own reason.
I'm always pursuing more.
There's always more right, butdon't lose your perspective.
Keep your perspective of whatmatters most.
And my heart is for the broken,my heart is for those who may
(22:16):
be stuck in a perverse way ofthinking.
Maybe they've fallen for a lie.
Because let me tell yousomething, man, the enemy will.
The enemy will sell youanything he can to win you, to
steal you, to kill you and todestroy you.
So I know this episode, thispodcast man's been hard.
We went back to some very sickways of thinking.
(22:39):
They just literally moved abouthalf of our group, moved them
to tears.
I think we were all in tearsbut moved some of them where
they couldn't even go over tothat side to walk that area,
didn't want to take pictures,didn't want to be there.
I'm one of the, I guess, sickoswho couldn't look away from the
train wreck because I was movedwith passion, and that's why,
(23:02):
of all the things I saw, Iwanted to share this with you,
and I'll share more.
Man, I wanted to do a podcastevery single day there, but our
schedule was just so jam packed.
We would leave early in themorning, get back late in the
night, and it was just justwasn't time, and I apologize,
but I did take a lot of notes.
(23:22):
I will be sharing a lot ofdifferent episodes of different
days.
In this particular day, though,it would be the most.
So I pray for you today.
If you don't know Christ, ifyou've never met him, and if you
don't know what it's like tosurrender your life to him,
please email me at info atAndyHowardcom.
(23:43):
Either me or someone from myteam will get back to you and we
will help you come to know him.
But I would recommend you findyou a good church, somebody who
you can grow your faith with,who you can trust and follow,
and if they're not followingJesus, that's not the one,
(24:04):
because Jesus is the only way.
So you have to find you a goodchurch, and I will help you even
with that.
I'll do my best to help youfind you a good church where you
can grow your faith in.
Thank you guys so much for beingon today and for I hope this
has been a blessing to you.
I hope it's moved you as muchas it's moved me.
(24:26):
We have a calling to not justlook past the perverse.
These are the people God willbuild his church on, and it's
not just the perverse, I'm justsaying it's on the losts in
general, people who haven'tfound Christ.
Those are the people we have togo for them.
(24:47):
I pray this encourages you.
I pray this motivates you toshare the good news, to share
the gospel.
You can't reach everybody, butyou can reach one.
God has put someone in yourheart, in your path, and as you
do that, it gets easier andeasier.
And as you reach one more youcan reach another.
(25:08):
And it gets easier the more youexercise your faith.
I thank you for your time today.
I thank you for tuning in.
I pray this has been a blessingto you.
God bless, wow.
Thank you guys.
Man, that was heavy.
That was a little heavy,heavier than what I usually do
on this particular podcast.
I pray it made sense to you.
I pray it came across the way Ireceived it, because that was a
(25:33):
lot of hard, hard things tohear in there.
But, yeah, christ's love, man,god is love for all of us, so
thankful.
So thank you for joining Again.
Last week I started this thing.
I'm trying to find a hundredsponsors, a hundred partners
with me, or at least I'm tryingto sponsor a hundred kids.
(25:55):
So I'm not going to limit you.
God may put five on your heart,he may put all hundred on your
heart.
I know Tiffany and myself wesponsored 40 of them.
But if you would like moreinformation, if you missed last
week's episode, I go back andlisten to that first because
it's going to give you a lotmore information on that.
But I will send a signed copyof my book if you're interested,
(26:18):
for everyone you sponsor.
So if you sponsor a kid, even ifyou already have the book, you
can bless somebody else with thebook.
The book is about hope.
It's about overcoming obstaclesin your life, overcoming
depression for me but there's somany other factors in it it's
about finding the beauty and thebroken, and for me that just
means finding the positive andthe negative, and there's so
(26:40):
many different chapters that Idive into that with.
But I would love to partnerwith you as you help me, help
those kids.
If you'll sponsor them, send methat.
You can get more info at infoat Andy Howardcom.
Just email me there.
Or, once you do sponsor a kid,if you'll send that to info at
(27:01):
Andy Howardcom, I will get yourinformation and send you a
signed copy of the book just asa token of appreciation for what
you're doing.
So thank you so much Again.
If you haven't got the book yetand you want more info there,
you can do that at AndyHowardcom.
Amazon it's available on Audibleas well as Kindle, and I truly,
(27:23):
truly thank you guys for beinga part of this.
If this podcast has been ablessing today, please share it
with somebody.
And also my big ask for the daywill you leave a review?
If this podcast is blessing you, please leave a five star
review.
That will help more listenersfind this podcast, and I
appreciate you so much.
(27:43):
God bless everybody.
Thanks so much for tuning in.
If this episode helped you inany way, it would mean the world
to me If you would leave areview and share it with
somebody else.
Thanks so much.
I'll catch you next time.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.