strange.
Hello, my friends.
This is Andy and Henry
coming to you live from Yorba Linda,
California for the Living
Fearless Devotional.
it's a production of
resurrect ministry.com
where we're harnessing the
power of the internet to
share the gospel around the
world we have all kinds of
content content for you to
check out and hopefully
find something of interest
that will deepen your your
walk with christ and
inspire you in new ways it
is uh music worship music pastors
Actually, dear friends,
can you tell us if you hear us?
Because it's kind of,
there's no sound on our end.
So I'm just curious.
It's weird to start.
Anyways, jump us a line.
Let us know what you think.
I'm sorry.
I often branch off the
reservation in this
introduction just to keep
you on your toes so it's not boring.
uh yeah so drop us a line
that is a comment we love
to hear from you we got a
really cool comment the
other day fascinating story
um about people that andy
knew and that one of our
guests have in common so we
love to hear those stories
so drop us a line um
whatever whatever it may be
that you want to talk to us
about and if you care to
partner with us click the
donate now button that's
always a blessing uh we
have to buy new mics and new equipment so
that would help it's not
going to be cheap and thank
you for letting us know
that you could hear us just
fine yeah for some reason
our sound on our end didn't
go on like it normally does
um but we're glad that you
can hear us and glad you're
here with us so make sure
and comment and let us know
just as uh somebody who did
it kelly said that she is from florida
Just like that.
Let us know where you're watching from,
what you have going on.
Kate says we sound good all
the way to Australia.
And Carrie says blessings all.
Nice to see you.
So do that.
Comment,
especially those of you that are
new so that we can get to know you.
We have our regulars that
come on like Lisa and Kelly
and Kate and Carrie.
But we want to hear from all
of you that have not been on before.
That would be fantastic.
Carrie is watching from
Southern California.
And then what we want you to
do is then check out our
sponsors down there in the description.
Just go down there, click on the links,
explore, and see what LifeWise has.
It's a great Christian company.
They say Jesus is their CEO,
and they have great
supplements that help you with sleep.
Does it take a salary?
No.
No, he doesn't.
I was thinking of something
pithy to say and I could
not come up with it fast enough.
It just wasn't generating.
But go there.
Check it out.
Try the products.
And if you don't like them,
you send them back.
And again,
I keep saying I have to check this out.
But as far as I know,
they have not had a product return yet.
And the company's been around for now.
I think we're going on our second year.
And then check out streamer.
That's the platform we use
here to broadcast to you.
If you have a hobby or
something that you want to
send out to people,
or maybe your own devotional,
maybe just read the Bible.
You know, in the morning you wake up,
just read it to your
millions of followers all the way.
And you can have people in
Australia watching you just
like we do in Africa, Syria.
Like, do we have anybody in Syria that,
you know,
I don't think Syria has the
internet right now.
I think I just made that up.
They're getting bombed right
now by Israel.
Yeah.
Why did you laugh at that?
I don't know.
The world is upside down.
Because just before we came on,
I've been watching some
news about Israel sending a
retaliatory attack into Iran, into Syria,
and into Iraq.
Apparently in Iran,
they went after the nuclear facilities.
As they often do when you retire.
Which is,
I think that's a really good move.
So a lot of interesting
things happening right now.
We're living in the times of Ezekiel.
The prophecies of Ezekiel.
Yes.
Or maybe Ezekiel will come back,
but we're not sure.
But the last thing I wanted
to share with you is where
I'll be reading from Jeremiah 32,
17 through 20.
Jeremiah 32, 17 through 20.
A little bit later on.
Let's see what comments came in.
Oh, we got Iris has come on.
David Bostic.
Nice.
I love to see the guys coming in.
And thank you, Dave, for your email again.
It was a tragic story you related to us,
but it was really
interesting to hear about
somebody that Andy knows from his past.
So thank you for sending us an email.
Yes, I'm letting me know.
I did not know that.
And hello, Corrine.
Hey, Corrine.
Corrine is awesome.
I just visited with Corrine
not too long ago.
All right, my friends,
we're going to be reading from A.W.
Tozer for The Christian Leader.
And it's April 18th.
Much Every Way is the title.
Much Every Way.
Jeremiah 32,
17 is the reference for AW here.
And he says, Amen.
When Tennyson wrote,
more things are wrought by
prayer than this world dreams of,
he probably uttered a truth
of vaster significance than
he even understood.
While it is not always
possible to trace an act of
God to its prayer cause,
it is yet safe to say that
prayer is back of
everything that God does
for the sons of men here upon the earth.
One would gather as much
from a simple reading of the scriptures.
What profit is there in prayer?
Much every way.
Whatever God can do, faith can do.
And whatever faith can do, prayer can do,
when it is offered in faith.
An invitation to prayer is, therefore,
an invitation to omnipotence.
For prayer engages the
omnipotent God and brings
him into our human affairs.
Nothing is impossible to the
man who prays in faith,
just as nothing is impossible with God.
This generation has yet to
prove all that prayer can
do for believing men and women.
Lord,
this is a truth with implications too
vast for our finite comprehension.
Thank you that you use the
prayers of believers to
engage your omnipotence.
Amen.
What does it mean to be omnipotent?
Everywhere present.
So present every year, present everywhere.
And that's an interesting concept.
Sorry, Carrie's watching.
So I must be very particular
about my definitions.
Omnipotence also like
omnipotent forever strength to potent.
So omnipotence.
So strong in every way as
opposed to omnipresent.
I'm glad you clarified.
Yes.
Because the other day I went
to In-N-Out Burger and I
got onions on my burger, both kinds,
raw and cooked.
And I immediately drove home
and came into the home.
Running up to the bedroom.
And gave you a big kiss.
And you said I was omnipotent.
Did I use the word omnipotent?
No, you go, boy, you took my breath away.
That was horrific.
Schnugs is what you said.
And you did one of these things.
You went,
And I go, what?
No, honestly,
that was a visceral response.
I just despise the smell and
taste of raw onions.
It literally makes me convulse.
So I actually had no control
over that response whatsoever.
Yeah, I've never seen such a thing.
Like a face I've never seen before.
It's like somebody,
like the smelling salts,
like if somebody would have
put that in your nose,
like you can't control
whatever your response
would be from that.
That's something, something like that.
It took you a while to recover.
I had a proper definition.
I had the definition off the
top of my head.
Unlimited power, able to do anything.
Hedy just loves it when I
ask her a question and
don't warn her ahead of time.
I just know that there's
people watching and I
wouldn't know that it would
be proper just to say.
And so people out there,
omnipotent means all power,
unlimited powers.
Yes.
That was better for me to ask the question,
but I should have warned you.
Yeah.
I just have some words that I just,
you know, I just know what they mean,
but that's really great at
articulating them.
So thank you, Kelly.
oh my gosh he says onions
smell great except on
someone else I love cooking
onions I love that smell in
the kitchen yeah you're not
a fan all right so you were
going to say before I
rudely asked you a question
that got us all off yeah
because I had some very
deep thoughts about prayer sorry go ahead
Well, I've just been experienced.
I've been kind of basking in
the experience of prayer.
Just...
And I'm marveling over how
this actually works, right?
Because God,
there's a certain amount of
predestination involved and
there's a certain amount of
God's foreknowledge involved.
And yet we are told
repeatedly as Toshers often
prescribing to us, pray,
pray it changes things,
pray it moves mountains, right?
If you believe things happen,
nothing's impossible for God.
And yet you're like,
but God already knows the outcome.
Why do I need to pray about it?
I don't know.
This is just like weird
tension that exists,
but I've experienced the power of prayer.
And so I wonder, I'm like,
when you know in your soul
you've experienced the power of prayer,
how do you articulate that?
Do you articulate it as I
changed God's mind?
Heavens, no, you didn't change God's mind.
So what did you experience there?
Because I tell people,
I know from the depths of my soul,
from every part of my being,
that it was not only my prayers,
but the men and women who
interceded for my daughter,
for our daughter Zara,
that brought her to saving faith.
So that I can articulate,
but I don't know how that happens.
Like,
does that mean God was not going to
save her?
And it changed?
Or does that mean it was always going to,
but he wanted us to pray for it?
Folks, this just bewilders me.
That's a really good question.
You know,
it's just been on my heart ever
since that happened.
And people commenting on the post,
I made a post about the power of prayer.
Like,
it doesn't matter if your kid hates
your guts.
It doesn't matter who you're praying for,
hates your guts,
hates everything you represent.
They cannot stop your prayers.
And they can't stop what
God's going to do with your prayers.
I've seen that.
I've witnessed that.
I've experienced that.
Well,
we have learned that our prayer for
others is what God wants.
He wants us to pray for others,
not necessarily pray for ourselves.
Right.
Or pray.
We can pray for ourselves, too.
But he really does want us
to engage with other people,
spread the gospel,
and pray for people around
us and strangers and all
that kind of stuff.
So
In one way,
I look at it is that prayer for
us and then seeing the
results of that prayer is
as much for us as it is for
the other person.
Yes.
That's my feeling.
To strengthen our... But what changed?
Did God say,
I can speed this up for you
because so many people are
crying over this?
Or was it always going to
happen at that speed?
Was it always going to
happen in that moment?
I have a thought on that,
but I want to say hi to Mohamed Aiden.
Hi, Adan.
Adan.
Hi, Mohamed.
From Kenya.
We have somebody from Kenya now.
Not only do we have the
Carys and the Kellys and the Kates,
but we have somebody from Kenya.
Very nice to meet you, Mohamed.
Do you know what Kenya is?
Africa.
Is that what you mean?
Yeah.
Who doesn't know that Kenya is in Africa?
I'm just making sure.
If you've seen any Tarzan.
You asked me if I ate falafel.
If you've seen any Tarzan movies,
you know where Kenya is.
is it tarzan from kenya I
don't know I know he's from
africa all right so but
it's great to see you
muhammad's glad you're here
tell us a little about
yourself are you um a born
again christian you still
muslim well the fact that
he says god bless you yeah
well I don't know god yeah
they believe in god he's
just saying that so that we
can understand we want to
know more things uh
kareem thinks that man your
questions are as insane as
mine they are endless it's
so true it is really true
uh it's the k's from kenya
yeah she put an at there
yeah right really helped us
out who has the most people
praying for them wins yeah
wouldn't that be funny no
and it's like it's
So what I had the lesson,
and then I want you to tell
me what you think of it.
The lesson that God has put on my heart,
super strong.
I'm even going to talk about
it in the book is that,
so God tells us to pray for one another,
confess your sins to one
another so that you may be healed,
confess your sins to the
Lord so that he may cleanse
you of all unrighteousness.
That the humility it took
for me to go to people and be like,
My daughter is broken.
I broke her.
I don't know what to do.
You have to pray for us.
This is a mess.
It was not easy.
It's not easy,
especially in this community
where everyone's peachy
keen and everything's fine.
Admitting that you're not
fine and things are not
fine was difficult.
And it was that.
It's like...
A friend of mine,
we have this prayer that we say like,
Lord,
break my heart for what breaks yours.
And I feel like that's what
shifted things for people
is that they felt my broken
heart and prayed for me
because my heart was broken
and went to the Lord
because they knew how much it meant.
And so there was something about
There's something about the
humility and repentance
that that took that I think
that had some consequence.
I can't describe it.
I don't want to attribute
something to God that doesn't exist.
It's something that I can't
really explain.
I'm hoping over time God
will reveal it to me,
maybe whether it's through
a sermon or reading the
Bible that I will get this
sense of how that process works,
the power of prayer.
But everybody talks just like Tozer.
that prayer moves mountains.
The Lord talks about the power of prayer,
but how that's still a, quite a mystery.
I look at it is, is like us.
We call God, our father.
He's our, our, you know,
kind of like our parent or
heavenly parent.
And that kind of like our
kids that we have a,
a special love for them
that we don't have for anybody else.
And we will,
at least good parents and godly parents,
Christian parents, believers,
will take care of our kids.
We will protect them.
We will feed them.
We will clothe them.
We will keep a roof over their house.
All of that.
But like God, if they just continue to,
as they grow and become
more and more hateful and not...
understand that they are
part of a family and that
they need to honor that
fact and honor us and
respect us and love us back
then like god we can lift
our hand of protection and
say okay you're on your own
I've done everything I can
as as a godly parent um
that I can to save you from
yourself and and my job
here is to protect you um
and then as far as answering of prayers
You know, it's kind of that same thing.
When their birthdays come around,
we have plans usually that
they're going to get something.
But some of it is just based
on their behavior and how much they,
you know, give us.
Again, I'll just go with respect and love.
And that gift is always there,
but determining what that
gift will be can be based
on what would be prayer,
their reverence for us.
and participation in the
family in a positive way
and keeping the rules and
all that kind of stuff.
So I think we're gonna
always take care of them.
So this is your analogy to?
Prayer.
Same thing.
God's looking at us and going,
are you gonna be,
are you gonna give me the
honor that I deserve?
And also he's a jealous God
that you love me and that I
know that you're gonna need
you know, healing in two years,
three days and 15 hours.
And I plan on doing that.
But I need you to pray.
I need you to show me love
and need you to show your respect for me.
And I'm going to heal it,
but it would be really
helpful if you prayed.
And then... So did it change his mind?
Did it speed it up?
No, it just, he followed through.
I think he was always going to do it,
but he just followed through again.
Why would he need us to pray?
Because that's how we get to that point.
If we, if we didn't show reverence,
if we didn't pray,
if we didn't show him love, you know,
maybe only takes away part of it.
You know?
I mean, I think that there is always,
it is as beyond he's omnipotent.
Yes.
See, we're not.
And so our kids could go off
and they can do some really
stupid things when we're
not around and we may not know it.
But he's omnipotent,
and we have to recognize that,
that even when nobody's watching,
we have to be good.
We have to honor him with
our proper morals and following through.
I keep thinking of the verse
where the Lord says to the disciples,
ye of little faith,
if you had the faith the
size of a mustard seed,
you would say to this mountain, move,
and it would go into the sea.
And I think to myself that
If you think of that verse,
the mountain doesn't go
into the sea on its own.
It goes because you command it to.
And God honors.
He empowers his servants.
You know what I mean?
Those are within his will
and obedient to his will.
And so I just,
there's something in me that
knows that something shifted and
and I can't describe what it
was that shifted because I
don't want to be blasphemous.
Um, but there's,
there's just something that
shifted that wasn't necessary.
I feel like because he had
showed me a vision of,
of her future, before the chaos started,
I knew we were getting there.
I knew one day we would get there.
But the speed at which it occurred,
to me feels like it shifted
sooner than it would have
otherwise shifted.
Yeah.
And I think he may he's able
to make those
determinations based on your
faithfulness.
Yeah.
Because I think he can
decide not to follow
through with a prayer.
You mean change his mind?
Change his mind.
I don't believe that God
changes his mind to the negative.
Then why would he lift his hand off us?
Because he always intended to.
Oh, see,
now you're getting into the how
far is space.
Yeah.
But I don't know.
We're freaking out, Corinne,
because we're just adding
more questions to the questions.
No,
I like the fact that she agrees with me.
That's Carrie.
I mean, Carrie.
Oh, Carrie.
Yeah.
Corinne's like, yeah, I don't get it.
Prayer is interesting.
I'm so known,
so full of questions that
leads to five more questions.
Yeah.
Okay.
It's like we are the
watchman and look out for our kids,
but we can't make decisions
for them as they grow into adulthood.
Yes.
Absolutely.
That's the difference between us and God.
At some point we go, okay, you know,
we're really lifting our
hand of protection.
You are on your own because
now you should be able to
do this on your own.
But God is always with us.
That never stops.
We're always as children.
And so the flip side of this
is Corrine's question.
I often wonder, no, not often,
I wonder every night why a
healing prayer goes
unanswered for four years,
then I guilt trip.
Exactly.
Why do some prayers get
answered and others don't?
This goes back to why is
there evil in the world?
So we all know that, you know,
When we think a prayer is
not answered is a negative thing,
we don't know ultimately
what is the reason that
that prayer is not being
answered and what are the
second and third, the secondary,
tertiary consequences of
that prayer getting
answered and not answered.
We can't see that far ahead.
And I think that's the
difficult part of faith is
realizing that whatever happens, I mean,
I was trying to explain this to Zara.
She was disappointed.
She liked this boy, didn't like her back.
And I was like,
when you give your life to Christ,
you have to take with it that surrender.
That everything he does is for a reason.
And he has plans to prosper
you and not to harm you.
Plans for hope, you know,
for a future and a hope.
And sometimes you just have
to say that to yourself
over and over again until
it gets deep inside your
spirit that I know God
wants the best for me.
I can't see it.
I don't understand it.
uh based on this decision or
this consequence but um
ultimately I know he's
doing what him is best for
me I think about the pastor
at your blend of friends
you didn't really get a
chance to meet him but I've
talked about him and many
people that are watching
you know your beloved
friends there's a pastor
there who had brain cancer
right and um repeatedly
yeah well that's the thing
like so the first time it
was a miracle that he survived the first
tumor it was in a spot on
his brain that even people
did not believe the
operation they there was
maybe one person they said
on the planet who could do
this operation because it
was so difficult and
sensitive where the tumor
was that that even if they
were able to save his life
that he would probably be
paralyzed or you know some
math he would almost be
like he had a stroke type
of thing and yet uh and
then he couldn't afford it the money came
He was able to have the surgery.
The guy successfully
performed the surgery and
he went on and was on stage, you know,
I don't know how many months later,
maybe six months later and
given a message.
Yes.
Without a slur.
Right.
So that prayer is answered.
And I think that that prayer
was so powerful because of his,
but not just because of his faith,
but what he was able to do
with that healing
it was a powerful message of
god's uh abilities that is
that sounds bad to say but
that he was he was able to
do that but then it comes
back now I think this test
and how god was using uh
him I don't know why his
name is escaping me right
now somebody will put it up
there it's just I've
emailed him a few times and
just talked to him about it
but um because I wanted to
know I said how on the
second time you got the
tumor how do you keep your faith
because at the time I wasn't
as born again as I am now.
And I go, how do you do that?
I mean, how do you,
cause he has a young children.
He has a. Yeah.
Four times.
And he goes, it's just,
I think this is what God is
using me for is to show people that this,
when your faith that you have faith,
no matter what.
And this is what his plan is.
He's,
he's using me to give the message of
how God,
how strong somebody's faith
can be and should be
regardless of what they're going through.
Well,
and also you've got to accept when
you don't get healing for yourself,
when it's terminal like that,
the consequences,
you go meet Jesus face to face.
Like if you really are a believer,
that's not a consequence.
You know, that's, that's not,
that's not a negative.
You think, Oh no,
well my family won't have this or that.
You have no idea what's
going to happen to your family.
Right.
You know,
you can't say they'll be
devastated without me.
Okay, yeah, they may mourn,
but you can't say their
life's ruined just because
you leave the earth.
That's so arrogant.
Even if he were to pass because of it,
people would say, wow,
can you believe this faith?
Yeah.
Can you believe that?
What he went through the first time,
just the difficulties and
pain and that they had to
cut open his skull and do
all these things.
And then how great was God
to give him another four or
five years with his family.
And then he gets the tumor
again and then has another surgery.
And I saw him not too long ago.
He was running a triathlon.
And you just see, like,
so many people are affected
by his story and his little
documentary that he put together.
Yes.
And so, yeah.
And Kerry points to
Nineveh's destruction
delayed because they repented and prayed.
Amen.
And I heard this wonderful example also,
if you remember, Abraham and Lot,
where Lot was living in Sodom,
and Abraham prayed for him to be saved.
And the angels,
the Lord sent angels to save Lot.
And look at what his lot do.
He sacrifices daughters to
protect the angels.
I mean, like, even in his...
somewhat disgusting posture
the angel still went and
was like okay stop now
you're getting crazy giving
the daughters back we're
leaving now you know um and
is that because lot was so
great probably not it was
because of abraham so the
interpretation is that was
abraham you know abraham's
on his knees lord save lot
You know what I mean?
And then the story of Peter
when he was in prison,
specifically that it says
in the narration in the
Bible that the church was
praying and the chains fell off.
So why did the Holy Spirit
inspire that that verse to
be written in there?
Like, why are we told that?
Because it's the power of prayer.
Um, and, and what is that power of prayer?
You know,
I think the exact dimensions of
it remain a mystery,
but there's obviously power in it.
Kelly says, so true, Carrie.
Oh, Corrine asks, well,
I wonder if it's punishment.
Why else would I not receive help?
Someone else suffering more, on and on.
I must say my prayers have an attitude.
You know,
and the thing about someone else
suffering more, no.
God doesn't have a limited capacity.
So it's never because God
just doesn't have time to
hear you because Nancy down
the street's really troubled.
Yeah.
God has time to answer and
to listen to everybody.
But punishment,
we've talked about that before.
Sometimes our actions have consequences.
The choices we have made in
our lives have consequences.
So the simplest example is
we've lived a wild and
crazy life and we become
believers and we get cancer.
Well,
is it cancer from the 20 years that I
smoked?
Maybe, but God heal me,
heal me of the cancer.
Well, I mean, I, I feel like,
and this is my case.
I smoked for 20 years that
God would go back and be like, excuse me,
but you're 20 years of
smoking as consequences.
You know?
So it could be something like that.
Like,
was it something related to our
lifestyle?
It's not a sin.
It's not a punishment,
but there is a natural
course of things that
happens as a result of our
actions of our iniquities.
And, um,
Sometimes what happens to us
is not because God's doing it to us.
It's just a consequence of a
chain of events in our lives.
Okay.
Scripture.
Yes.
Hold on one more thing from Kate.
Sometimes life is cruel,
but when we have faith,
we are focused on him.
Yes, I want healing.
However,
it makes no difference if I don't get it.
I don't get healing.
Amen.
That is powerful right there.
Great.
Scripture.
We are Jeremiah 32.
Really cool.
I got to tell you, folks,
every time we go to read
scripture for this,
I learn the most amazing things.
And I think to myself,
this Bible is amazing.
And I was like, I should spend more.
Literally every day that we do this, I say,
I need to spend more time reading.
Every time I read it,
it's just like so deep and so rich.
Like this particular passage, Jeremiah 32,
they're about to go into captivity,
right?
And so Jeremiah is the
weeping prophet professing,
you're going to go to battle,
telling Zedekiah,
they're going to battle
against the Chaldeans and
they're going to lose.
And Nebuchadnezzar is going
to take them captive and
they're going to go into captivity.
So Jeremiah is thrown into prison.
because obviously the king
doesn't want to hear this.
And in prison, I'm sorry,
that just makes me giggle
because it's like a wild story.
His cousin tells, the Lord says that,
you know,
you're going to get this offer
to buy land and you're going to take it.
And so his cousin comes and says to him,
I want you to buy this land.
You're the rightful heir to it.
And well, Jeremiah's thinking to himself,
what good is that going to do me?
They're about to go into captivity.
Why should I buy land?
And he does it because he
knows he's supposed to.
And this passage of
scripture is his prayer to
just try to make sense of it.
And I think this is why
Tozer used this passage of
scripture is that it's this
Somewhat exacerbation and
acknowledgement of God's
omnipotence and and
mightiness that I'm just
going to submit despite the
fact that this makes no sense.
I'm going to submit.
And these are the reasons why.
So he says.
Ah, Lord God, behold,
you have made the heavens
and the earth by your great
power and outstretched arm.
There is nothing too hard for you.
You show loving kindness to
thousands and repay the
iniquity of the fathers
into the bosom of their
children after them.
The great,
the mighty God whose name is the
Lord of hosts.
You are great in counsel and
mighty in work.
for your eyes are open to
all the ways of the sons of men,
to give everyone according
to his ways and according
to the fruit of his doings.
Aha, consequences of our actions.
You have set signs and
wonders in the land of
Egypt to this day and in
Israel among other men,
and you have made yourself
a name as it is in this day.
So interesting,
it's a passage that talks
about the generational curse,
the iniquities of the
father passed to the son,
to the bosom of the children and everyone,
your eyes are open to the
ways of men and you give
everyone according to,
His ways, meaning our ways,
and the fruit of our doing.
So the price of sin was paid
on the cross so that we
receive eternal salvation.
That does not mean we do not
suffer the consequences of
our actions here on earth.
Because people say,
and I know every time I talk about this,
or like, there's this kind of,
you try to put a pithy
saying about this on Facebook,
and everyone's like,
Jesus paid the price for my sins.
Jesus, it was paid on the cross.
Yes,
all of our sins were paid on the cross
to give us eternal security.
But that doesn't mean it
doesn't wreak havoc on us here on earth.
Right.
like smoking for 20 years be
like how dare you give me
cancer uh bro I didn't give
you cancer you gave you
cancer yes right that's
good that's a good passage
isn't it yeah really that
is amazing helps makes us
something helps me
understand and I hope that
helps you guys understand a
little bit further um
Kareem misses smoking.
I miss smoking.
You know what, Kareem?
I swear I've given up a lot
of – I shouldn't swear.
I have given up a lot of things in my day,
and smoking like old-school
cigarettes still is difficult for me.
I don't want to vape like the weirdo kids.
But, yeah, some of those things,
some of those sins stick with you.
The weirdo kids.
Yeah.
Karine says, Carrie,
I love the reason for the
deed in Jeremiah to prove
Israel own the land sin is
buried the since he buried
the copy of the deed wonder
when it will be discovered
or was it already?
Well, that is so cool to think about.
Absolutely right.
Very neat.
So do we want to mention controversy?
Oh, yeah.
Gosh, I forgot about that even already.
Oh, really?
I'm still researching the
Driscoll controversy.
Since we talk about Pastor
Mark Driscoll all the time,
maybe we should touch on it.
What do you think?
Yes, do it.
I'm in Phoenix, Arizona last weekend,
super excited to go visit
Pastor Mark Driscoll's
church and find out he's not there.
So I'm searching and to find
out like what's up with
Pastor Mark Driscoll to
find out he's embroiled in
this major controversy for
attending this conference
where there's a male
stripper doing a sword swallowing ritual.
And Driscoll just, I mean,
he's doing Jezebel and Ahab
and Elijah and the spirits.
And he wrote a book on it.
He's published tons of
materials since he's been
in this in first Kings and second Kings.
And he just, he can't,
he can't not say something.
And so it was earlier in the morning,
I guess,
or the day before that the guy
that this dancer took off
his shirt and was spinning
around on a pole at a men's
conference at a church
Christian men's conference.
So it's a door locked.
I don't know.
Do you want me to go to the front door?
I might have locked it.
Okay.
Yeah, she doesn't have a key.
I'll go unlock the door
while you finish the story.
So he gets out and the host
of the conference,
which is a longtime friend
of Pastor Driscoll, he comes and says,
you're done.
You're done.
Driscoll gets off the stage, says, John,
I received that, leaves, comes back.
and says, you know what?
I should have respected your
spiritual authority.
I didn't.
I kind of verbal processed on stage.
I shouldn't have done that.
I should have come to you first.
I'm sorry.
The best commentary I've seen about this,
first of all, I'm so bummed he did that.
Just as Carrie says,
he repented for calling them out.
That is such a disappointment.
Yes,
it is a disappointed... But he was
very careful to say his
approach was wrong.
He did not repent of calling
out the spirit.
From what I heard, he was saying,
I shouldn't have done it that way.
But the best commentary I
heard is people saying, you know...
Lindell had referred to him,
he was the host,
as the John the Baptist of their day,
prophetic voice.
Again, they had spiritual,
they had a relationship,
a strong relationship,
they had relationship equity built up.
And if John Lindell would
have just trusted what Driscoll was doing,
there was an opportunity
for huge breakthrough in that room.
Men that were suffering from
same-sex attraction,
men that had allowed the Jezebel spirit,
the seducing and manipulative spirit,
men that were suffering from pornography.
There was this opening that
Driscoll was creating.
And as many of us believe
that the Lord wanted to
call for repentance, right?
But Lindell couldn't take it
and basically shut it down.
And Driscoll just basically, you know,
ceded to that authority and
wanted to show
reconciliation rather than
fly in his face.
So that's that, folks.
Sorry, I was saying goodnight to Corinne.
I was saying goodnight.
Goodnight, Corinne.
It's getting past your bedtime.
Yes.
See you Sunday.
Home church this Sunday.
Yeah,
I've tried to look at different
things and different reports on it.
And, um,
you sent me an article that that's
from the stripper.
Yes.
We call him a stripper, but he's,
he claimed he's calls himself an athlete.
Um,
which is all fine and dandy because he
had a history of being a gay stripper.
So Ali Stuckley that I watch
on blaze says he's still a stripper.
So that's a controversial thing.
I just don't know how you
would even think that this
would be proper at a men's
conference at a church.
Like what pastor in charge
of hiring the acts or the speaker say, oh,
and you know what?
Let's get this guy.
Well,
based on the very extravagant shows
that they've had for a
couple of years now,
I could see them sitting
around a table with his staff saying,
we got a monster truck.
We've got dirt bike racing.
We've got this dude that was
on America's Got Talent who
is the world's most premier
sword solider.
How about that?
And he'd be like, that sounds cool.
And he's a jujitsu master or whatever.
The person who mentioned it
failed to mention he was a
stripper and maybe didn't
even do his research.
To know that he was a stripper.
But at some point during the
setup for that day,
they're seeing this pole go
up in the middle of the stage.
And at some point go,
what are you going to do with that pole?
Well, he does calisthenics on it.
No, no, no.
The guy,
the person in charge of this
particular conference at that day.
Like, what will you be wearing?
Like,
I'm not sure that a pole on the stage of,
you know, it wasn't a church,
but it was at a conference room.
Either way,
it was being a church at the
moment because it was a men's conference,
a biblical conference,
that you wouldn't say, okay, well,
let's not do that.
We hired you for the other act,
the other dangerous act you were doing.
And then just say,
we're not going to do that.
It's not appropriate.
How would he do his calisthenics,
his whole sideways?
Well, then I think they realize, hey,
maybe we made a mistake.
It will pay you.
We'll still pay you.
But, you know,
now I see what you're setting up.
It just shouldn't happen.
Like somebody's got to stand up.
We just we just made a mistake.
But, yeah,
I don't see anything where I can go.
It's OK.
It's not OK.
Yeah.
None of it's OK for sure.
No, but they keep trying.
Well,
he was going to do this or he has this.
And his website says, well, I'm, you know,
an athlete.
The church of Laothaira, sorry,
the Lord's rebuke is you
tolerate that Jezebel spirit.
That's the problem.
We tolerate it.
Yeah, that's what happened.
Again, I hate to do this to you,
but that's how we got to
this place in our
government and in our schools.
And, you know,
all the woke nonsense is
that at first we're saying, you know,
they're going to say that.
Just let it go.
You know, let them be crazy.
It's not going to affect us.
And they keep saying, you know,
just it's OK, you know.
you know boys and girls
sports you know what you
know what's what's the harm
and then they let it go and
then it gets into college
and then it gets into
olympics and then it
becomes this thing they go
oh wait a minute I thought
you were just kidding no
you should not have allowed
it to begin with you got to
stop it at its at its
beginnings cut it out the
knees yeah crazy
Um, and so, yeah, see, that's the thing is,
is that, uh,
Kate says it was wrong showmanship.
God doesn't need it.
His word is enough.
Do they really need a big
show to draw men to a conference?
Um, and see, this is,
I wrote an article called
the paradox of the celebrity pastor.
And, um, this is the thing it's we, we, it,
you move away from, um,
So I have some hardcore
Baptist friends that I
developed early on who only
sing hymns at church.
And they basically think the
entire worship industry is corrupt.
They want nothing to do with it.
None of those instruments.
And they're like, it must be only hymns.
This is the problem.
That music is demonic.
And I was like, that's a little excessive.
And and so, you know, and so, of course,
we attend a church that
worship music is awesome.
It's a huge part of it.
Pastor Jack's church is like that.
Pastor Bob's church is like that.
And then you go.
So one step farther is
they're getting a bunch of men together.
They said it's kind of a
evangelical tool to call
men towards conferences
that have much more action.
So that's why they do the motorbikes.
That's why they do the tank.
They do all this other stuff.
boxing to call in a larger
audience that wouldn't
otherwise go to a Christian
conference and attract them
to the gospel.
I came to faith in Christ through,
it wasn't the flashy lights,
but it was the simple
gospel preached by a man
who looked kind of cool.
Like,
I don't know if I would have listened.
I don't know if I would have
binge watched 400 hours of
David Jeremiah.
You know what I mean?
At the time.
At my point in my walk,
I was fascinated by Stephen Furtick.
I was like, who is this man?
You know what I mean?
Like, this is so crazy.
He's young.
He looks hip.
And he's like, Jesus loves you.
I'm telling you, this is really.
He works out.
Yeah.
He's got biceps.
All that.
Yes.
And you're going, and he loves Jesus.
And he loves Jesus.
Like crazy.
Who's this Jesus?
Yeah, he's crazy for Jesus.
But I quickly realized after
being there a little while, like, okay,
this is just like milk.
A show.
Yeah, this is a show.
I mean,
he probably really believes in Jesus,
but he's a bit of a showman.
It was the kiddie pond.
Yes.
And I was like, okay,
I'm going to graduate from
the kiddie pond,
but I'm not going to curse
the kiddie pond.
Like I came from the kiddie pond.
It got you there.
Yeah.
I would not have binge
watched 400 hours of David Jeremiah.
I just wouldn't have.
But there's a line.
But there is a line.
And where is that line?
It's in the shape of a pole.
Because I've been to
Elevation Church half a dozen times.
Nothing inappropriate has
ever happened there.
There are fog lights.
There are young people
jumping up and down.
And I've heard him preach
nothing but Jesus.
So we've been to concerts together,
sold out Forum Auditorium, 18,000 people,
sung our hearts out,
came out renewed and just had a blast.
But, and people really get,
I know a lot of you watching me hate him,
you know?
And so I get it.
Everybody's allowed their own opinion,
but then you have that.
And I know people are
constantly attacking him.
And then you have this and you're like,
Oh my God, wait,
is there a slippery slope
between verdict and a pole dancer?
I don't know.
Well, I mean, then you can fit in there.
The, the chosen.
Yeah.
You know how I feel about that.
Look at Carrie.
I didn't know that.
A lot of the hymn tunes were
originally drinking song tunes.
I did not know that.
Irish drinking songs.
I did not know that.
Yeah.
In their time,
they were the... I didn't know that.
Of course I know nothing about that.
The Brandon... Brandon Lake.
Brandon Lake of their time.
The hymns.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
So my friend is like, you know,
so it is church.
It's like a very conservative Baptist.
All the women wear long
skirts and they kind of
look like the Amish.
Yeah.
You know, and you're like,
is that really necessary?
Why don't you try it for a few weeks?
No, I'd rather you did.
What would I do with all my workout pants?
Oh, your yoga pants.
My yoga pants.
Oh, let's see what else we had.
Just before we sign off,
we had an interesting
school board meeting on
Tuesday that I was at.
where one of the union hacks
is what I like to call her.
She got essentially arrested
or kicked out of the school
board meeting.
So they believe that we are
all our Christian
nationalists who've taken
over the school board,
which there's nothing in
the curriculum that we are
putting in there that's
Bible leading or anything like that.
We're not turning this into
a Christian curriculum.
We are still a public school.
Would we like to?
Yes, but we're not.
I mean, that's the whole thing.
We know our limits.
They would like to turn it
into an indoctrination camp for LGBTQ.
And they're trying, right?
We actually have to
indoctrinate the kids now.
Yeah, it's like the same thing.
They can want all they want,
but they should know that, well,
there's a lot of people
that aren't for that.
And so they should not be trying to do it.
We realize that we can't
turn it into a Christian school.
that it's a public school.
So what do we do instead?
We educate the kids.
How about that?
We settle on education.
You know what's fascinating?
I don't know.
We have noticed this,
particularly with our children,
but I think it's a
phenomenon across the
country where the left went too far.
I mean,
they shoved this stuff down the
kid's throat to the point
where the kids have bounced
the absolute other direction.
So we hear our kids make fun
of racial slurs, of handicapped people.
Haven't you seen that
pendulum swing dramatically
the other way?
You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa,
what is that language?
And they're just like,
it's their mode of protest,
where they're sick of the,
I have to be politically correct,
and they actually want to
be absolutely not politically correct.
Right.
Yeah.
And it's right.
It is absolutely backfired,
which is somewhat
comforting that they didn't
buy into the left's communist narrative.
But the alarming thing is, yeah,
let's bring it back.
Yeah.
Let's just let's just go back.
It used to be you just didn't care.
And that's what I talk about all the time.
I said, we just don't care.
And you want us to care.
The kids or other parents?
The lefties want us to care
that there's black people,
that there's brown people, that there's,
you know, gay people.
And we go, we just don't care.
You can be black and Mexican
and LGBTQ and sit in our
classes as long as we're learning.
Like,
why do I care what you do when you're
not around the school?
They want to make it so that
you have to care.
No, I don't have to care.
That's your life.
And the kids don't want to have to care.
No, the kids don't.
Let's go back to not.
Let's don't care.
Let's just like hanging
around each other and
having fun and joking
around and enjoying life.
But they just don't want that.
So that was an interesting meeting.
Where else were we?
We were gone a long time.
I was gone in Phoenix.
Phoenix.
And that's when you found
out that Driscoll wasn't there.
Yes.
And all the shenanigans were going on.
All the shenanigans.
How was your trip in Phoenix?
Was there any opportunity
for you to share Jesus with anybody?
Or were they drinking too heavily?
Nobody wanted what I was selling.
I tried.
I'm going to church.
Who wants to go to church?
Do they have tequila there?
Is that what the question is?
Nobody was interested.
Those moms like to drink, huh?
Yeah.
It's party time.
Cheer party time.
Yeah.
So I was a deer in the woods.
It's just an interesting thing is that,
you know, these –
and it's mostly moms right
I'm not I get every time I
say something about women I
get yelled at about being
misogynistic but it's
mostly women that are going
yes the moms the dads are
at work right that's just
yeah it is okay so I'm not
saying anything bad no but
and so now with that with
that understanding it's
almost like the moms they
go oh we're going to go on
vacation dad's not around
dad's not around yeah the
kids and the kids are you
know competing we really don't care
They show up.
They show up for the competition.
They show up.
Loaded.
And it smells like a bar
inside of the conference or
the competition.
It's coming out the pores.
But they're having fun.
Yeah, I guess.
how much of that and again I
know we have people that
that watch that you know
that enjoy some a few
drinks here and there and
that's perfectly fine uh
for you if that's what you
want to do um but uh when
you and I we we've we've
drank our share of uh of
cocktails yeah and uh and
not remembered a few nights
yep or even days um but so
how does that but what what
is it like now
Is there that urge to, you know what,
I want to be kind of.
No,
it grieves me because the kids are
grieved.
The kids are running away
from their parents.
They're like, leave me alone.
You smell, you're drunk,
you're passed out.
A couple of moms were passed
out outside their hotel rooms.
And the kids had to like
call around to the other moms to be like,
can you take my mom off the floor?
Like, it's really embarrassing.
And it just, that grieves my heart,
you know?
And it's just,
I just hate the kids seeing it.
I hate the kids.
I grew up around that.
And I just,
I think it had horrible
consequences on me.
And so I just worry about
all the children that that affects.
And one of the moms looked at me,
one of the partying moms
looked at me at nine
o'clock in the morning and
she was drinking a beer.
And she's like,
you look like you're on vacation.
And I said,
I am because I had a little
fanny pack and I was in my
exercise clothes and I had
my bathing suit underneath.
And I was like, I am.
I'm going to the pool and
I've had breakfast already.
And I walked around.
I've got 10,000 steps in and
she's just trashed, you know.
And I looked at her and I was like,
I'm like, well, you're on vacation too,
aren't you?
But to her, it wasn't because she,
I knew she was feeling sick.
She was doing like hair of
the dog drinking at nine in
the morning to get rid of
what she had felt like from
the night before, you know,
and thinking that she's
going to do this all over again.
And I was like, this was, I was like,
I wish you could see the
bondage you're in over this, you know?
But yeah.
There's just so much you can
do and definitely don't
want to be the preachy lady
that everybody runs from.
Yeah,
that's that place where the Bible
even talks about where God
even says that you don't want to.
There's the specific word
that uses grieve somebody
or is a grieve your children.
I want to grieve your children,
but you don't want to
grieve somebody with your
overzealousness.
I forget where that passage actually says,
but it's like you don't
want to be a lunatic.
Definitely don't want to be a lunatic.
You don't want to chase
people off with your lunacy.
But you want to be inviting.
You want people to come to
Jesus because of the light
that it gives you.
Absolutely.
And not be somebody that
you're pushing people away
with your religiosity.
Absolutely.
It's 55 minutes.
You think we could?
No,
I have like five more things I want to
talk about.
Okay.
Now,
what we know we didn't do is ask for
prayer requests.
So I think that that's,
we just ended prayer.
Okay.
Oh, so we're not gonna ask for the prayer.
Well,
now we got to wait for 10 minutes
because the things don't come through.
But you did say
Fanny pack,
not a term that goes down well
in Australia.
That's a prison phrase.
Oh, is it?
That's what we call a little fanny,
the packs that we put on
our waist as we walk around.
It's a prison term here too?
No, in Australia,
I know what she's talking about.
How do you know that?
It's used differently.
How do you know that?
I think I was told at some point.
Somebody told me.
Yeah.
Excuse me.
Sorry about that.
Anybody have any prayer requests?
Anybody want to pray for me
that I know what Fanny Pack
in Australian means?
Oh, my gosh.
We have a show here every
night called Lefties Losing It.
Oh, yeah.
Is that a real show?
A show or on YouTube?
That'd be great.
Tell her later.
Yes.
I think she knows what it is now.
I'm just thinking of one more thing.
What else was going on?
We had our... We already
told people that Zara got baptized.
Yes, we did.
Oh, here's a good thing that's happening.
May 5th,
there is... I've been telling you
folks that
at Brookhaven where my
children go to elementary school.
And again,
people will accuse us of being
Christian nationalists,
that kind of stuff.
But outside Brookhaven is a
trailer that they park and it's called,
uh, chapel on wheels.
All right.
Uh, and at lunchtime,
the kids who are Christian, uh,
and maybe even Catholic, I'm not sure,
but I think it's mostly Christian.
It's actually, um, some people from Cal,
uh, Calvary chapel,
East Anaheim or Brennan.
And so, um, my sons both go to, um,
Chapel on Wheels.
I'm having trouble because I
call it Church at the Curb.
And it drives the kids crazy
because I couldn't remember
that it was Chapel on Wheels.
But anyway,
and so they're having baptisms
on May 5th.
And they're going to be at
somebody's house.
And one of the pastors at
Calvary Chapel East Adeline,
it doesn't say who,
is going to be doing the
baptism for the children
that go to Chapel on Wheels.
How sweet.
Unfortunately, that's not my weekend.
Oh.
But I know both boys want to go.
They want to get baptized?
They want to get baptized.
Yes, and they want to go.
They were so happy because
they've been talking about it.
Hey, we're going to get baptized.
I don't know what it is.
And I kept asking, when is it?
They go, I don't know.
And then finally, we got a flyer,
which was on my desk over there.
And so, yeah, May 5th,
somebody's house here in Yorba Linda.
The kids are going to go
over there on May 5th,
which I think is a Saturday.
Well, we can still go, no?
We can still go, but I emailed Beth,
I mean, my ex-wife, and said,
the boys have been looking
forward to this opportunity.
I got the letter.
It's May 5th.
It's at 3.30.
And I just want to see if
you can't take them,
I will come and pick them
up and take them.
So we don't know whether
she's... I don't know.
She may say, well,
they've already been baptized.
They don't need to be baptized again.
That's what I'm imagining.
How young were they when
they first baptized?
Again, I don't know.
I'm just telling you.
But they want it.
It's just getting sprinkled.
But they want it.
That's the thing.
That's what I'm saying.
That's their personal
confession as opposed to
their dedication as a child.
Yeah.
As a baby.
And they love chaplain girls.
When I'm driving Bo to school,
he always goes, oh,
today's Chapel on Wheels.
Like he goes, he's so excited to go.
He loves it.
Nice.
And the lady that runs the
children's ministry over at
East Anaheim is the one who
runs the Chapel on Wheels.
Oh, so he knows.
Yeah.
He sees her at church all the time.
He goes, dad, that's Chapel on Wheels.
Okay.
So let's pray.
Church of the curve.
Oh, dear, dear Lord.
Thank you for your grace on our lives.
Thank you.
For the faith in our hearts,
and we ask that you share
that faith with our loved ones,
that you give them saving faith, Lord,
that they will bend the
knee and confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord,
that they will turn in
repentance and accept your
free gift of salvation that
they don't deserve or do not earn,
just as we have, Lord.
We like to lift up our audience members,
Lord,
that are suffering from illnesses
and conditions that they need healing.
Corrine, as she has said earlier,
I know she's not on this devotional,
but Lord,
we ask that you hear her prayer
and answer her.
Let her know that you hear her.
Let her know that you are
with her and that your
intention is always,
always for the best of your
servants and that you love her.
We ask for healing prayers
for Carrie as she goes into
her surgery and for Eddie,
continued recovery for him,
that he'll be restored to wholeness.
And for our dear sister, Kate Lord,
she has, as she describes,
a hole in her heart that's
from the loss of her brother, Lord.
So comfort her and give her
peace in this time of need.
She is, you know,
it's always difficult when
we lose loved ones, Lord.
So it is your loving arms
and your upholding her with
your right hand that'll
bring her comfort in this difficult time.
We love you, Lord.
We're grateful for all that
you do in and through us.
It's in the mighty name of
Jesus that we ask all things.
Amen.
Sorry to hear that, Kate.
Yes.
Let's hope that he is with Jesus,
that he found him.
Yes.
Amen.
And is with him right now.
Nothing's impossible for God.
Yes.
That'd be awesome.
All right, my friends.
We love you.
We love you guys.
God bless.
Bye.