Speaker 1: The questions are going to get intense or hashtag topics
Speaker 1: if I'm brave enough. I still don't know if I'm
Speaker 1: brave enough to click on a couple of these topics.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the podcast, guys. One of my best buddies.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite guests is back. Your favorite guests too,
Speaker 1: Bernie Calcote, Welcome back to the podcast Glad to be back.
Speaker 1: This is episode one of three. On this podcast, we
Speaker 1: answer questions as if we're sitting around a campfire. You
Speaker 1: have a question, and then me and Bernie walk it through.
Speaker 1: We have no notes on this table, we don't have
Speaker 1: anything here to look at, and we're going to walk
Speaker 1: through it as if we're hearing it real time. I
Speaker 1: have read some of these questions. Burn I was going
Speaker 1: to tell you we've been talking for like thirty minutes
Speaker 1: about our own stuff, which is just what we do.
Speaker 1: But I was going to tell you if we hadn't
Speaker 1: done that, I was going to tell you that these
Speaker 1: questions today are pretty intense. It's gonna be a pretty
Speaker 1: intense episode. Awesome. And I was gonna I was going
Speaker 1: to break or rule and do something I've never done before.
Speaker 1: And I was going to show you some of these
Speaker 1: questions before we even started the podcast. Okay, but you
Speaker 1: didn't do I didn't do that. So we're sticking with
Speaker 1: the rule there is no preparation beforehand, so you're with
Speaker 1: that kind of introduction to you ready for this? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I'm not ready, but you know, Okay, all right,
Speaker 1: let me let me dive in. Well, I think we're
Speaker 1: gonna hit some things that we we might we might
Speaker 1: go deeper on episode one of three than we typically do.
Speaker 1: So buckle up your seat belts if you're commuting to
Speaker 1: work right now, if you're over the road, truck or
Speaker 1: whatever you're doing. However, you listen to this podcast on
Speaker 1: the Monday morning. Thank you for that. There's no there's
Speaker 1: no total easy way into this, but I'm gonna start
Speaker 1: with me. Let me just say real quick for me,
Speaker 1: Angria is like, before we answer any of these questions,
Speaker 1: just know that we do it with the most humility possible.
Speaker 1: We understand that we are just two broken people trying
Speaker 1: to trying our best to abide in God's love and
Speaker 1: accept what we did not earn. And some of these
Speaker 1: views and these answers really represent our experience and our
Speaker 1: understanding of life and of God's word at this moment
Speaker 1: in time, because there has definitely been even recently where
Speaker 1: I have dug deeper into God's word and realized, Wow,
Speaker 1: I thought it meant this, and it means that, and
Speaker 1: that would some in some way change and answer that
Speaker 1: I may give to a podcast listener. So this, this
Speaker 1: is like this moment in time that this is kind
Speaker 1: of where we feel like God has brought us in
Speaker 1: what He's taught us through his word and through our experience,
Speaker 1: and so please we pray that you receive it with
Speaker 1: that same attitude. I think that was a really eloquent
Speaker 1: way of saying sometimes we're wrong. Yes, sometimes we're wrong,
Speaker 1: and it would never be our intention of what this
Speaker 1: podcast is answering your questions to a specific email, Grangersmith
Speaker 1: podcast at gmail dot com. If you have anything, email
Speaker 1: that podcast and I read through them. Now the intensity
Speaker 1: of your questions has raised over the last few years.
Speaker 1: It started out how do you play guitar? And I
Speaker 1: think it's really gotten to a point where people are
Speaker 1: we're seeing the broken state of the world right now,
Speaker 1: and people have people are dealing with some serious issues,
Speaker 1: they're struggling, and they're fine they're trying to find answers
Speaker 1: however they can, and and I feel the way of that.
Speaker 1: I feel the responsibility of that, although I know that
Speaker 1: I'm not the final answer. We're just burning and are
Speaker 1: going to walk through how how we would answer it
Speaker 1: or how we would deal with it if it was
Speaker 1: in our life. So I think Burne's saying the right
Speaker 1: He's saying all the right things that we're not. We're
Speaker 1: not always right, but we will we come with the
Speaker 1: most humble heart. The crazy thing about this is how
Speaker 1: this podcast has become one of the top podcasts and
Speaker 1: all of music genres. And it's just blow my mind
Speaker 1: that with the intensity of the questions that have come in,
Speaker 1: it has raised the popularity of this podcast. So I
Speaker 1: also feel the way of that, and I feel the
Speaker 1: way to the listeners and we love you guys seriously, Yeah,
Speaker 1: y'all are awesome. I mean, the the amount of engagement
Speaker 1: that they have and the amount of questions and like
Speaker 1: how specific they are, and the eagerness to listen, and
Speaker 1: the you know, the comments back of how much they
Speaker 1: enjoy it. You tell me the stories about at the
Speaker 1: meet and greets, how they reference the podcast asked that's awesome, man.
Speaker 1: Well let's start with this one. It says I would
Speaker 1: like to stay anonymous. That's how it starts. Well, one
Speaker 1: warning when you when you say this, they anonymous. We
Speaker 1: can't guarantee that Grandeur will not say your name. Just disclaimer.
Speaker 1: Just put that out there. I'm gonna work so hard
Speaker 1: on it has But it says, first of all, I
Speaker 1: love the podcast, keep doing great things. And then it
Speaker 1: says I'm in my second trimester of pregnancy. My sister
Speaker 1: and her husband have been trying to get pregnant for
Speaker 1: over a year now, and they've been very angry at
Speaker 1: me and my fiance ever since we told them the
Speaker 1: news that we were pregnant. I've tried to be sensitive
Speaker 1: and sympathetic about their infertility, and they've made it very
Speaker 1: clear that it was important to them that they had
Speaker 1: the first grand beary bey baby in the family parentheses,
Speaker 1: which I don't understand why it's so important. Each grand
Speaker 1: baby will be loved just as much as the first,
Speaker 1: and that's why they are so upset. They've also said
Speaker 1: some pretty nasty things about me and my fiance and
Speaker 1: have made it clear that they will not support us.
Speaker 1: I've been nothing but kind and apologetic to them, and
Speaker 1: I find their words hurtful. How do I go about
Speaker 1: saving this relationship with my sister while being sensitive about
Speaker 1: their infertility? Or do I push their toxic behavior away
Speaker 1: and do its best for my baby and my fiance.
Speaker 1: I told my twin sister, who was married, that had
Speaker 1: they been the first ones to get pregnant first, they
Speaker 1: wouldn't be as angry because they didn't have a baby
Speaker 1: outside of marriage. Like me, I feel that the problem
Speaker 1: isn't that my fiance and I got pregnant outside of marriage,
Speaker 1: but something deeper that they won't say. Sorry for the
Speaker 1: long email, Thanks for in advance. I don't have a
Speaker 1: reference to where they were they where Anonymous lives. But
Speaker 1: we have a twin sister married, trying to get pregnant,
Speaker 1: struggling with infertility, and then the other twin is now pregnant.
Speaker 1: Where do we go with the spurns? Where do we
Speaker 1: start with this? Anonymous here does she have a specific
Speaker 1: question that you could read again? That question is twofold.
Speaker 1: How do I go about saving this relationship with my
Speaker 1: sister while being sensitive about their infertility? Or do I
Speaker 1: push their toxic behavior away and do its best for
Speaker 1: my baby and my fiance. M hm, Anonymous, This one
Speaker 1: hits pretty close to home, Grangeuron, I just spent about
Speaker 1: an hour talking about something very similar. Yeah, when do
Speaker 1: you when do you continue to expose yourself to potential
Speaker 1: you know, manipulation or toxic relationship? When do you know,
Speaker 1: preserve and when do you sacker vice for the sake
Speaker 1: of reconciliation. It's a great question. Yeah, infertility is is
Speaker 1: no joke, and it it hurts, It hurts, It hurts families.
Speaker 1: There is a there's a certain level when infertility, whether
Speaker 1: they admit it or not, makes the woman feel lesser
Speaker 1: of a woman. There is a there is a innate
Speaker 1: desire and a woman to to to pro create and
Speaker 1: to be useful her make her body useful in the
Speaker 1: in the way that it's it's created to be used.
Speaker 1: And when it doesn't work that way, then that I
Speaker 1: think they feel, Like I said, whether they admitted or not,
Speaker 1: there is a there's an idea that that an evil
Speaker 1: idea that creeps into their head that they are lesser
Speaker 1: of a woman. I first want to say, Anonymous, I
Speaker 1: do Burnie and I both agree that it's very, very
Speaker 1: important that you do get married that that. I don't
Speaker 1: think that's the issue with this question. I don't think
Speaker 1: that's the issue with your twin sister. I think you
Speaker 1: would know that. I think that would be very clear.
Speaker 1: She would say you should be married. So, although I
Speaker 1: don't think that's part of your problem, on the outside
Speaker 1: of your question, I do think it's very important that
Speaker 1: you hustle this marriage along, that you don't did the wedding,
Speaker 1: and that you don't sit on this engagement for a
Speaker 1: long time and make some big, extravagant, expensive many multiple
Speaker 1: guests make a big deal out of it. I think
Speaker 1: that will also hurt the relationship with their sister. But
Speaker 1: for many other reasons, I think you rush this process along.
Speaker 1: I personally believe, and I've said it before on here,
Speaker 1: that I think in this culture we kind of idolize
Speaker 1: the wedding ceremony more than it should be, when what
Speaker 1: it represents is far greater than how you present it
Speaker 1: in one day, and the dress and the flowers and
Speaker 1: the band and the guests and the food and the
Speaker 1: venue and the preacher and everything. We just kind of
Speaker 1: idolize that, and I think it has become blown way
Speaker 1: out of proportion. I think it's important. It's important to
Speaker 1: celebrate that. Yeah, it's important. But the wedding day industry
Speaker 1: blowing up the way that it has versus the statistics
Speaker 1: of divorce and marriage is kind of not in line
Speaker 1: with where it needs to be. Like we need to
Speaker 1: focus on like our marriages and not just the wedding.
Speaker 1: I think that's what you're getting at. Yeah, absolutely, so
Speaker 1: I would lean in hard to your fiance and wrap
Speaker 1: this up pretty quick. Go to the justice of the peace,
Speaker 1: get your license, have a small if it's if it's
Speaker 1: about if you're prolonging because of a venue that's booked
Speaker 1: till October of twenty twenty three or whatever, just make
Speaker 1: that a fun reception, plan a big tenure anniversary party,
Speaker 1: and put a lot of eggs in that basket. But
Speaker 1: don't prolong this. I would say, get this done pretty quick.
Speaker 1: But I don't think that's the underlying issue of why
Speaker 1: her sister's matt. I think this is an infertility thing.
Speaker 1: So I think anonymous, I think you lean into your
Speaker 1: sister with nothing but grace and humbleness and kindness, which
Speaker 1: you say that you're doing. I would say, lean harder,
Speaker 1: lean into that harder, now I'm listening to your answer
Speaker 1: because like I'm processing it and something that's happened in
Speaker 1: my own life, Like, how do we so I'm with you, anonymous,
Speaker 1: how do we lean in harder? What does that look like?
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe it means meeting her where she is
Speaker 1: and truly trying to empathize and show her that your
Speaker 1: heart is broken with her broken heart if she really
Speaker 1: is broken with this inability to have a baby, and
Speaker 1: like she's struggling with this, like going to her and
Speaker 1: be like cis like I am just devastated with you,
Speaker 1: Like I really I hate that this is how this
Speaker 1: is going. I do wish it was different. I wish
Speaker 1: it could be like this and talk about it and
Speaker 1: you know, maybe talk to her about like, you know,
Speaker 1: if there's anything else going on that is keeping her
Speaker 1: from accepting what reality is. Yeah, I think that that
Speaker 1: can be sometimes very destructive in every kind of relationship,
Speaker 1: whether it's your marriage, with your kids, with your friends,
Speaker 1: is when we are unable to control something and then
Speaker 1: we respond in a way that is not accepting of
Speaker 1: the reality that God has put in front of us.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of thinking now that maybe I misinterpreted one
Speaker 1: part of this, she said in this last paragraph, they
Speaker 1: also told my twin sister, who is married, that they
Speaker 1: should have been the ones to get pregnant. So so
Speaker 1: that's not the twin. So there's it's another sister. It's
Speaker 1: another sister. And then you have the older sister. Maybe
Speaker 1: that's probably the older sister, which is the hierarchy of
Speaker 1: they should have had the baby first. Okay, okay, that
Speaker 1: makes sense. I'm pulling this together. You could use your
Speaker 1: twin sister as an asset to this problem. I think
Speaker 1: this this might be a three sister conversation. And and
Speaker 1: I think the one the one thing you don't do
Speaker 1: is push her away. That was your one of your questions.
Speaker 1: Do I push push their toxic behavior away? You could,
Speaker 1: you could push their toxic behavior away, but you don't
Speaker 1: push her away because she's your sister. And I just
Speaker 1: think you just overwhelm her with grace and you take
Speaker 1: the hit, you take the blows. Yeah. I feel like
Speaker 1: you said this on the last podcast with Parker or
Speaker 1: maybe the one before where everything that you all this
Speaker 1: toxic behavior or whatever she's saying to you, if you
Speaker 1: just come back to her immediately with humility, No, I
Speaker 1: know You're absolutely right. It's like she can't keep going like, yes,
Speaker 1: that's where that you know, like approaching it with humility
Speaker 1: even though anonymous. We know that's not an easy thing
Speaker 1: to do. It's not gonna be easy for her to do.
Speaker 1: And maybe just like take like you're saying, just take
Speaker 1: the blow and like and also understanding that this is family,
Speaker 1: this is a sister, this is a lifetime and maybe
Speaker 1: this is something that's going to take four or five years.
Speaker 1: Are you Are you willing to kind of like take
Speaker 1: the small little steps, hey, you know, in the next month,
Speaker 1: I hope to just like have coffee with her and
Speaker 1: listen and ask some questions and then maybe by the
Speaker 1: end of the year we can get to the point
Speaker 1: where it's not the main focus. And yeah, totally. I
Speaker 1: think the last thing I might say here is that
Speaker 1: I probably wouldn't glorify this baby to your sister very often.
Speaker 1: Like I wouldn't be texting her pictures of the sonogram
Speaker 1: and saying, you know, third, try master, here we come.
Speaker 1: You know, so excited about October fifth, you know, or whatever.
Speaker 1: You might lay off that kind of stuff. You might
Speaker 1: might just downplay this a little bit more. Maybe maybe
Speaker 1: you're on Instagram posting tons of pictures of the new
Speaker 1: nursery that you just made and the new crib you
Speaker 1: just bought, and maybe maybe for your sister's sake, you
Speaker 1: pumped the brakes on that a little bit out of
Speaker 1: respect for her pain. This baby is going to be
Speaker 1: a huge blessing to you, and you're you're very very
Speaker 1: very soon to be husband. We hope this is going
Speaker 1: to be a huge blessing. And so that you don't
Speaker 1: need to glorified anymore externally to convince anyone else of that. No,
Speaker 1: I completely agree. You also do have to understand that
Speaker 1: you cannot change anyone's heart. So all you can do,
Speaker 1: all you can control is the way that you respond.
Speaker 1: You can control the amount of grace and patience and
Speaker 1: humility that you come with. If your sister is still
Speaker 1: harboring and it may not be against you, it may
Speaker 1: have nothing to do with you, it may just be
Speaker 1: probably a lot of jealousy, a lot of insecurity, and
Speaker 1: so just continue to you know that, that would just
Speaker 1: be My advice is like, continue to pursue with humility,
Speaker 1: and when you're not with her, just continue to intercede
Speaker 1: and pray for her. Heart, that God would restore what's
Speaker 1: broken and what she feels like is lost and missing,
Speaker 1: that God would be what fills that, and then hopefully
Speaker 1: that relationship can start to kind of bond again around that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think this is going to get the situation is
Speaker 1: going to get worse before it gets better. Prepared for that,
Speaker 1: you're only in the second trimester. I will also say
Speaker 1: that one year of infertility is not that long in
Speaker 1: terms of people dealing with infertility, right, Yeah, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for this email, and we wish the best
Speaker 1: for you. Yeah, keep us posted too. I'd love for
Speaker 1: you to email back in because a lot of times
Speaker 1: we hear these questions and we give advice and kind
Speaker 1: of send you off and hope for the best. But
Speaker 1: we really do would love to hear like how things
Speaker 1: progress and what we could learn maybe from you know,
Speaker 1: like if we gave terrible advice. It's like, hey, y'all
Speaker 1: should never tell anybody that. Absolutely, it'd be great. Next question,
Speaker 1: says Granger. First, let me say thank you for your
Speaker 1: music and yegee Nation, and thank you for allowing God
Speaker 1: to work in your life. It's inspiring and helps me
Speaker 1: each day to be a better husband and a man,
Speaker 1: Thank you, buddy. Recently, my wife and I started the
Speaker 1: process to adopt a nineteen year old young man. We
Speaker 1: have known him for years and when we worked at
Speaker 1: the children's home as his house parents, we stayed in
Speaker 1: touch with him and he has had a very special
Speaker 1: place in our hearts. But he's always lacked that sense
Speaker 1: of family. His dad isn't really in his life, and
Speaker 1: neither is his mom. But in a recent phone call,
Speaker 1: I had a conversation with him that started and we
Speaker 1: started talking about family, and by the time it was over,
Speaker 1: we invited him to be a part of our family,
Speaker 1: and then he revealed to us in tears, that that
Speaker 1: is what he has always wanted. It's we have an
Speaker 1: amazing lawyer who has helped us and that's been such
Speaker 1: a blessing, and we could be that family that he
Speaker 1: has never had. We said that we're the only one.
Speaker 1: He said that we're the only ones that love him,
Speaker 1: care about him, or even call him. And this morning
Speaker 1: he texted me to say, hi, dad, how are you.
Speaker 1: My heart melted and yes, I've always loved him like
Speaker 1: a son. We have no other kids of our own,
Speaker 1: and because my wife has struggled with infertility and the
Speaker 1: chances of pregnancy is low, so this is different for us,
Speaker 1: even as former parents foster parents. He has a good
Speaker 1: heart and just a good old country boy, but he
Speaker 1: does need a good to get his ged or diploma,
Speaker 1: and he is in a relationship with a girl who
Speaker 1: is not good for him. I need advice on how
Speaker 1: to encourage this young man to do the right thing.
Speaker 1: I want to be the best man he can, not
Speaker 1: only for himself, but for the Lord as well. We
Speaker 1: look forward to sharing life with this young man. The
Speaker 1: lights just flickered for some reason. Why I was reading this.
Speaker 1: This comes from Brian. I'm not sure where Brian's from.
Speaker 1: Thank you for the email, and thank you for your
Speaker 1: heavy heart, you and your wife. And this is a
Speaker 1: great follow up to the infertility question, you know, following
Speaker 1: it up with an adoption, a really really unique adoption
Speaker 1: situation of a nineteen year old. But go ahead, Burns. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was just gonna say it sounds like the question
Speaker 1: is not should we move forward with adopting him, or
Speaker 1: should we move forward with or or how do we
Speaker 1: make him a part of our family? It sounds like
Speaker 1: they've had that conviction, They've moved forward with it. Everybody's
Speaker 1: in agreeance. It's more like, how do we transition to
Speaker 1: being parent leader figures for him? And now as we're
Speaker 1: taking on a new role in this in this boy's life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this young man's life at nineteen. That is tough. That
Speaker 1: is tough. I personally have never come across this kind
Speaker 1: of situation. I know that you have an adopted child,
Speaker 1: but you adopted her as a baby, as an infant, right,
Speaker 1: she was foster care for the first year of her life. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: so she came at seven weeks to us, but okay,
Speaker 1: a little different than nineteen for sure. My first thought
Speaker 1: is is WHOA. I don't think I would immediately start
Speaker 1: implementing a father figure in his relationship with a girl
Speaker 1: and getting his g and ged or diploma. Did you
Speaker 1: think that? It's like we came right out of adoption
Speaker 1: and tears and melted hearts and we're right into, hey,
Speaker 1: we need them to break up with his girlfriend. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's there's a few things that jumped out that I
Speaker 1: feel like both sides maybe jumping the gun a little bit,
Speaker 1: and and I could be wrong here, we're hearing this
Speaker 1: first time and you're not, you know, around the campfire,
Speaker 1: So I can't ask you a bunch of questions. But
Speaker 1: for the boy, and I don't know how long they
Speaker 1: said that they were in, you know, some kind of
Speaker 1: foster care situation maybe with him before, but for him
Speaker 1: to like start texting this guy good morning, dad and
Speaker 1: calling him dad, like I don't know how soon it is,
Speaker 1: but it feels like this they had this conversation and
Speaker 1: then it was like, I'm gonna just start doing this.
Speaker 1: I feel like there may be some kind of like
Speaker 1: longing for that in the boy that I would I
Speaker 1: don't know if I would necessarily tell him not to
Speaker 1: do that, but that this is the same people that
Speaker 1: he's known for a long time, and I feel like
Speaker 1: there should just be like a natural progression of like
Speaker 1: as it was, we're just continuing to go deeper together.
Speaker 1: And then the same thing with the parents, Like it's
Speaker 1: it feels like they're both they were kind of at
Speaker 1: a certain level together of relationship and care for each other,
Speaker 1: and then they just kind of had this conversation. It
Speaker 1: was like, well, let's just go jump into the deep
Speaker 1: end now instead of like, well, no, just keep waiting
Speaker 1: out into the water together. Yeah, yeah, don't just like,
Speaker 1: take the list, just one step at a time. Just
Speaker 1: keep waiting out in the water. Okay, okay. So here's
Speaker 1: what I hear. What I hear you saying wading out
Speaker 1: into the water. I think this is what this might mean.
Speaker 1: You say, he's a good country boy. I think that
Speaker 1: means you say, hey, he doesn't have to say have
Speaker 1: his name here, but hey, son, I booked us a
Speaker 1: trip in October to Montana, and we're going to go out,
Speaker 1: me and you. We're gonna go trout fishing in this lake.
Speaker 1: We're gonna spend seven days, me and you, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna go out. We're gonna camp, We're gonna fish, we're
Speaker 1: gonna hike, we're gonna take in this incredible the incredible
Speaker 1: mountains of Montana or wherever. And during that trip, you
Speaker 1: start instilling. First of all, you're there for him forever.
Speaker 1: Now you will start encouraging. You said, how do I
Speaker 1: need to encourage him? How to do the right thing?
Speaker 1: You show him? And and in this camping trip, when
Speaker 1: you're out there in the mountains and you hear this
Speaker 1: beautiful stream rolling by, and you say, tell me about
Speaker 1: your girlfriend, what's she like? Like, I said, how do
Speaker 1: you feel about her, and how does she make you
Speaker 1: feel good about yourself? And just walk through it. And
Speaker 1: then as he brings up the red flags, you make
Speaker 1: him answer those red red flags for himself. So instead
Speaker 1: of just becoming right in with this iron fist, he's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: she's great, Well she does you know, she does get
Speaker 1: on me a lot about my bad this habit, and
Speaker 1: then you just go, well, how does that? How does
Speaker 1: that make you feel? No, man, I think you just
Speaker 1: nailed it. This is the answer to his question. Because
Speaker 1: whether it's in you know, parenting, marriage, business, wherever you are,
Speaker 1: I feel like the best leaders know how to ask
Speaker 1: these profound, impact amazing questions. Yeah, that just draw the
Speaker 1: truth out of people instead of you trying to force
Speaker 1: it into him. Yeah, so you're absolutely right. Take him
Speaker 1: on this trip. Me and Grangel will go to if
Speaker 1: y'all love to fish up there, but and just go
Speaker 1: ask him a bunch of questions in a way that's
Speaker 1: like I genuinely want to know these things, because I
Speaker 1: guarantee you this kid is nineteen now, so he's not
Speaker 1: a kid, he's an adult. And knowing kids that have
Speaker 1: been through a lot in their life, whether it's foster
Speaker 1: care or otherwise. He's resilient. He's stronger than you think,
Speaker 1: and he doesn't need you to tell him what to do.
Speaker 1: He just needs you to help guide him and process
Speaker 1: with him. There's a good chance you come back from
Speaker 1: this camping trip and the first thing he does is
Speaker 1: break up with his girlfriend and start pursuing a ged Yeah,
Speaker 1: without you even saying it. Yep, it's a great question. Brother.
Speaker 1: Let's take a break and we'll be right back. Podcast
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Speaker 1: get your free your supply of Vitamin D and five
Speaker 1: free travel packs today. All right, Bernie, Round two, I'm
Speaker 1: going to turn up the heat on you. Okay, the
Speaker 1: questions are going to get intense or hashtag topics if
Speaker 1: I'm brave enough. I still don't know if I'm brave
Speaker 1: enough to click on a couple of these topics. Okay,
Speaker 1: let me start with Let me start with an easy
Speaker 1: This is super easy. We can make this quick. The
Speaker 1: subject is, Bernie, what is Bernie's educational background. Has he
Speaker 1: studied religion, theology or psychology. Well, I am a college dropout,
Speaker 1: and I'm only a college dropout because I went to
Speaker 1: one community college class and I left before it actually started.
Speaker 1: So am I technically a college dropout? Or I mean
Speaker 1: I registered, but I never went to the one class
Speaker 1: and then I never went back ever again. So it's
Speaker 1: just naturally smart, that's the answer to her question. My
Speaker 1: education is on the streets. Okay, yeah, okay, So no, no,
Speaker 1: I have not studied formally studied theology. I have not
Speaker 1: formally studied psychology, but on my own I have studied
Speaker 1: both of those things. I think far more intensely than
Speaker 1: I would have if I would have gone when I
Speaker 1: was nineteen. Yeah, I totally get that. So I've heard
Speaker 1: it couple people every once in a while. If you're
Speaker 1: watching on YouTube, I've seen some kind of comment that says,
Speaker 1: why is Granger looking at his phone while the other
Speaker 1: person's talking, Because I'm not just sitting here scrolling through Twitter.
Speaker 1: I'm literally I'm looking at either the my phone's on
Speaker 1: airplane mode. I'm either looking at the question or seeing
Speaker 1: how to tie in another question to what he's saying, Okay,
Speaker 1: calmed down, guys. This title is this is a tough one.
Speaker 1: It's called My Decimation of Faith. It says, Hey, Granger,
Speaker 1: my name is Thomas. I'm twenty years old. I'm a
Speaker 1: college student twenty one in December. From ages thirteen to eighteen,
Speaker 1: I was extremely strong in the church I attended. I
Speaker 1: believed youth groups, retreats, anything else you can imagine, I
Speaker 1: did it. At age eighteen, my faith was shaken when
Speaker 1: I started asking questions that the consensus that I received
Speaker 1: from every conversation was to just have faith. And everyone
Speaker 1: knows it's pretty difficult to have faith in someone you've
Speaker 1: never met. What really has twisted me away from Christianity
Speaker 1: is this. When you get to heaven, God either tells
Speaker 1: you well done, my good and faithful servant, or he
Speaker 1: turns you away. You're let into heaven by developing a
Speaker 1: relationship with him. But if the only way to get
Speaker 1: into heaven is to have a relationship with Christ, this
Speaker 1: accounts for roughly thirty one percent of the world's population.
Speaker 1: The other sixty nine percent never makes it, and that's
Speaker 1: the only logical explanation that they would just have to
Speaker 1: go to hell without a relationship with Christ, I find
Speaker 1: it extremely hard to believe that an almighty God who
Speaker 1: loves the entire world sends the other sixty nine percent
Speaker 1: of all the population to help. This, amongst other similar reasons,
Speaker 1: is why I believe that this has driven me from
Speaker 1: the church and I don't even consider myself religious at
Speaker 1: all anymore. The kicker is that I'm going through a
Speaker 1: really tough time and I remember being able to pray
Speaker 1: and feel some sort of relief, which I have a
Speaker 1: desire to have back. So who do I too when
Speaker 1: there isn't anyone there? Thanks Thomas. PS. I'm a huge
Speaker 1: fan of you in your role model for everyone in
Speaker 1: the advice you provide with or without religion involved. I
Speaker 1: told you I was turning out the heat on you
Speaker 1: turns Thomas, don't see where you're from. Brother, Thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you. That's a man. That is a great question,
Speaker 1: and I think there's a lot of people on all
Speaker 1: sides of the fences that go, yeah, that's a great question. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I think it's awesome that you're writing in the question.
Speaker 1: First of all, there's something so I'm gonna keep this
Speaker 1: really civil. Granger will probably jump in a little deeper
Speaker 1: and then I'm gonna I can come in as well,
Speaker 1: but I might just answer it and I'll go. Actually,
Speaker 1: I actually tattooed this on my body that I believe
Speaker 1: this so much. There's the word seek. I really believe Eve.
Speaker 1: The reason I put this on my body is one
Speaker 1: because I don't if I ever get to a place
Speaker 1: where I feel like I have found everything, I need
Speaker 1: to be reminded that in this life I need to
Speaker 1: continue and continue to seek more and more of Jesus,
Speaker 1: more and more of Truth, more and more of Him.
Speaker 1: Never get to a place where I'm oh, I got it.
Speaker 1: And the other part of that is to get to
Speaker 1: a place where I tell people this is what you need,
Speaker 1: because I think that's going to probably for you. What
Speaker 1: was his name, Thomas, Thomas. I think that may go
Speaker 1: in one ear and out the other. But brother, I
Speaker 1: would just beg you to continue to seek, and I
Speaker 1: have complete faith that you are going to find what
Speaker 1: you are looking for. Yeah, seeking you will find. Knocking,
Speaker 1: the door will be opened. You say here, you kind
Speaker 1: of answered a little bit yourself when you say I
Speaker 1: remember being able to pray and feeling some sort of relief,
Speaker 1: and I have a desire, a desire. It's an interesting
Speaker 1: word to say to have that back. But who do
Speaker 1: I pray to when there isn't anyone there? The answer
Speaker 1: to that is, you don't. You don't pray to anyone
Speaker 1: that's not there. Why would you pray? Why would you
Speaker 1: do that? That's a that's a ridiculous idea. You're not ridiculous,
Speaker 1: that's a but that's a ridiculous idea. That is as
Speaker 1: a Bible would say, that's a foolish idea. Yeah, or
Speaker 1: you'd just be praying to yourself because you're living in
Speaker 1: a self centered, self controlled world. That really is we're
Speaker 1: just floating here. Yeah, we're we are a cosmic startust
Speaker 1: that happened by accident. If you believe in that worldview,
Speaker 1: the atheistic worldview is that we we really are an accident.
Speaker 1: I heard it put this way, like, in the atheistic worldview,
Speaker 1: we're we're a total cosmic accident. So in that case,
Speaker 1: nothing else matters. You're offering Thomas doesn't matter. Your your
Speaker 1: desire to get to have relief doesn't matter. It's like
Speaker 1: looking at as you look at a sunset on the
Speaker 1: beach and you go, this is an incredible sunset. That's
Speaker 1: the image of God, saying, that's the image of God
Speaker 1: within you thinking that, But an atheist wouldn't think that
Speaker 1: that's that'd be the equivalent of you open up the
Speaker 1: fridge and you spill milk on the ground, and milk
Speaker 1: goes boom, hits the ground and it just spills on
Speaker 1: your kitchen floor. You don't look at the spilled milk
Speaker 1: and go, that's so beautiful, look at the shapes and colors. No,
Speaker 1: you don't. You just go, that's a mess. Yeah, incident.
Speaker 1: And that's what a sunset is in that kind of worldview.
Speaker 1: It's an It's just a mess. It's there's no order,
Speaker 1: it's just a random, just explosion. And so, Thomas, you
Speaker 1: don't I have a reason to empathize with your suffering.
Speaker 1: I have a reason to cry with you when you're
Speaker 1: in pain. I have a reason to celebrate during when
Speaker 1: you have a great achievement. That's the Christian worldview is
Speaker 1: we have a basis for that. I reject the idea
Speaker 1: that just have faith. Hey, Thomas, I'm with you on that.
Speaker 1: You say, the best consistency you could consensus you can
Speaker 1: get is just have faith. Dude, I agree I think
Speaker 1: that's terrible. If you're driving in a car blindfolded and
Speaker 1: you have four ball tires and you're going down a
Speaker 1: windy mountain road, I don't say, hey, Thomas, just have
Speaker 1: faith man, that car is going to get there. You're
Speaker 1: gonna go. That's ridiculous. You need a basis of your faith. Now,
Speaker 1: in the Christian worldview, our basis is the Bible. Our
Speaker 1: basis is God's word. That there is a million reasons,
Speaker 1: and that's a different conversation of why we could believe
Speaker 1: that the Bible comes from God, and why the Bible
Speaker 1: is true, and why the way that it was written
Speaker 1: and over the course of how many years and by
Speaker 1: how many people, and the reason that it's still alive
Speaker 1: and well today. There's many reasons why we believe that
Speaker 1: the Bible is true. And so we base our faith
Speaker 1: on those words, the word of God, not on a
Speaker 1: blindfold on a mountain road. So that the thought within
Speaker 1: you that says something's wrong, I don't feel right. I
Speaker 1: need to correct this through some kind of prayer. That
Speaker 1: is the image of God inside you. That is what
Speaker 1: Bernie's saying about. Seek that seek that thought. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: really go ahead, No, no no, go ahead. I was just
Speaker 1: gonna say, I'm realizing now that you said this guy's twenty.
Speaker 1: Was that right, Thomas said? Twenty years old? Thomas is
Speaker 1: twenty Thomas, I I can relate to this more than
Speaker 1: you probably know. Whenever I was twenty, I remember being
Speaker 1: in Nashville, was a room with Kevy keV and I
Speaker 1: remember talking with Melody one time, and I just kind
Speaker 1: of had this these things in the Bible that I
Speaker 1: was just like, I just can't get my head around that.
Speaker 1: Twenty This age that he is is a very formative
Speaker 1: time in our belief system, in everything, and I just
Speaker 1: remember growing up the way I did, and the kind
Speaker 1: of some events that had happened in my life brought
Speaker 1: me to a place whenever I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, that I was reading the Bible, I
Speaker 1: was just like, well, why is this true? I don't
Speaker 1: know if this is true? Why? You know, You're just
Speaker 1: kind of in that place of questioning why is any
Speaker 1: other religion true? Which is great, Like I think that
Speaker 1: we can be told like you don't need a question anything.
Speaker 1: Oh God wants us to like to dig in and
Speaker 1: wrestle with him, and so what I did, and this
Speaker 1: would Thomas, this would be my advice, just practical advice.
Speaker 1: And this is what I did. And Kevy keV can
Speaker 1: attest to this. I took my Bible and I took
Speaker 1: some music. And back then, back in the day, it
Speaker 1: was like the disc play, the CD portable disc player.
Speaker 1: And I went out in the woods for hours and
Speaker 1: hours and hours, and I took my journal, my journal,
Speaker 1: some music, and the Bible, and I would just go
Speaker 1: and sit and I would just wrestle, and I would pray,
Speaker 1: and I would look and I would read, and I
Speaker 1: would write, and I would just wrestle through all of this.
Speaker 1: And I feel like what came out on the other side,
Speaker 1: I really found something different than what I thought I
Speaker 1: was looking for, but something far better. And so I think,
Speaker 1: you know, Thomas, that would be my advice. Man, go
Speaker 1: lose yourself in the woods. I actually still p that's awesome.
Speaker 1: I think that this is something we all need to do.
Speaker 1: And Jesus did it, said more often than not, he
Speaker 1: would retreat from the others to pray and be with
Speaker 1: the Father, like go lose yourself in the woods, take
Speaker 1: the word of God with you, pray, write in a journal,
Speaker 1: write all the stuff that you're thinking and then just
Speaker 1: kind of be still. So I want to dig into
Speaker 1: the thirty one and sixty nine percent. Okay, here we go.
Speaker 1: All right, I'm gonna go I'm just going to jump
Speaker 1: in headdeep because, like I said, Thomas, it's a great
Speaker 1: question and take what Bernie said and wrestle with this.
Speaker 1: But I want to ask you a few questions, which
Speaker 1: is hard on this podcast because I don't get to
Speaker 1: hear your retort. I want to ask you a few questions. One,
Speaker 1: you say you consider yourself not religious anymore, So what
Speaker 1: does it matter if sixty nine percent aren't saved? What
Speaker 1: does it matter to you? Doesn't matter if anybody's saved,
Speaker 1: nothing matters. We're a cosmic accident that in that kind
Speaker 1: of worldview. So then you go, well, well, maybe there
Speaker 1: is a god out there, but I just don't know
Speaker 1: if it's possible for us to know him. So then
Speaker 1: I would say this, if there is a god out
Speaker 1: there and a creator, and and he would say and
Speaker 1: I would ask you this, Thomas, so should he save everybody?
Speaker 1: Every single person, every single human that ever was or
Speaker 1: ever will be. Should he save them all, regardless of
Speaker 1: their lives? And then you might say, well, like maybe
Speaker 1: not like the rapist murderers. Then so then I would say, okay, well,
Speaker 1: what's the level of rape and murder? Where where's the cutoff? Like, Oh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna work the rapers and the murderers are going
Speaker 1: to go to hell. But the ones that just rape
Speaker 1: maybe will just save them. No, we shouldn't. We shouldn't
Speaker 1: save them either. Okay, well how about this, Thomas, how
Speaker 1: about just the like the the verbally abusive, we will
Speaker 1: will save them, but not the physically abusive. But my
Speaker 1: point is, where would the cutoff be to who is good?
Speaker 1: Because the Bible says none of us are. The Bible
Speaker 1: says we're all sinners, none of us are worthy of
Speaker 1: being saved. And that goes for you, Thomas, that goes
Speaker 1: from me and Bernie and everybody listening. The Bible says
Speaker 1: none of us are worthy of being in the presence
Speaker 1: of the almighty Creator because we're wretched. Have you ever lied?
Speaker 1: Have you ever told a fib in your life? Then
Speaker 1: you're a liar. Have you ever stole anything, then you're
Speaker 1: a thief? Right. None of us could rebut that and
Speaker 1: go no, actually, pretty perfect. None of us could say that.
Speaker 1: So with that kind of mentality, and you realize that
Speaker 1: there is no cutoff of being between good and bad,
Speaker 1: between heaven and hell, then what if God said this,
Speaker 1: You're all bad, You've all messed up. So I'm going
Speaker 1: to send you a savior. I'm gonna send you a
Speaker 1: savior to take on all of your pain, to take
Speaker 1: on all of your guilt and all of your sin
Speaker 1: and take all of that burden. Believe in him and
Speaker 1: you'll be saved. So you could look at it this way.
Speaker 1: God loved the world. He loved He so loved the
Speaker 1: entire world, like you said, enough to send his only
Speaker 1: begotten son, which means holy set apart son to Earth
Speaker 1: to take the replacement of that all that mess up.
Speaker 1: But he doesn't. This is key to your question. He
Speaker 1: doesn't love the world enough for you to reject his son.
Speaker 1: He loves the world enough to send his son for
Speaker 1: those to believe, but not enough for you to reject him.
Speaker 1: So when you get down on your knee and you
Speaker 1: decide that you're going to say a prayer for relief
Speaker 1: and you don't know who to pray, to follow Bernie's
Speaker 1: advice and seek and say, God, I heard this message.
Speaker 1: And what I told you guys was the gospel. There
Speaker 1: is an almighty, holy God Creator that became flesh, that
Speaker 1: came to this earth two thousand years ago to take
Speaker 1: on all that pain. He lived a perfect life and
Speaker 1: took on the burden of all your pain, Thomas, and
Speaker 1: all your mess ups and all mine and all Bernie's.
Speaker 1: He took that on himself, was killed, was crucified, and
Speaker 1: took it all on himself, and then was resurrected, proving
Speaker 1: his identity in front of hundreds of people. And this
Speaker 1: happened on this earth, the same soil where we walk.
Speaker 1: This happened. And that is the message of the gospel
Speaker 1: if you choose to believe in him. So when you pray,
Speaker 1: ask that say God, I heard the story of this
Speaker 1: guy Jesus, and I just can't I wrestle with the
Speaker 1: fact that not everyone's going to go to heaven. But then,
Speaker 1: but then I heard on the podcast and Grangeer was
Speaker 1: talking that, you know, but maybe he's right that maybe
Speaker 1: none of us deserve it. So if thirty one percent
Speaker 1: get in, like you said, I don't know where that
Speaker 1: number comes from, but if thirty one percent, how could
Speaker 1: that even be possible that you would allow thirty one
Speaker 1: percent when we're all bad. Let me know more about that.
Speaker 1: I believe this. I don't want to have blind faith.
Speaker 1: I don't want to drive on a mountain by myself
Speaker 1: with a blindfold on. That's ridiculous, that's foolish. I want
Speaker 1: to believe in you because this is what the Word says.
Speaker 1: Seek and you will find knock and the door will
Speaker 1: be open. And if you have to tattoo it on
Speaker 1: your wrist like Burnie Good, I think that's great. So
Speaker 1: before Thomas, before you go out into the woods, listen
Speaker 1: back to everything Granger just said. Maybe write it down
Speaker 1: so that you can leave your phone at home and uh,
Speaker 1: but you can listen to those words, take the Word
Speaker 1: with you and go seek. Man. That's the power of
Speaker 1: what we're saying here. Is not in us convincing you.
Speaker 1: It's not in us convincing anyone listening to this podcast
Speaker 1: on how eloquent my words are, how accurate I speak them,
Speaker 1: or how how influenced Dike can be to you. I
Speaker 1: cannot convince you intellectually, or psychologically or physiologically, whatever any
Speaker 1: other ologies. I cannot convince you. But the power of
Speaker 1: that message the power of the gospel. Can I'll leave
Speaker 1: you with that. Yep? All right, all right, we're waiting
Speaker 1: out in the water. We're in the water. Man. I struggle, guys,
Speaker 1: because some of these questions are let me go to
Speaker 1: this one. This is a good transition. It's called how
Speaker 1: do you know if you're saved? Let's go there. It
Speaker 1: might be a good transition of what we just We
Speaker 1: might be able to piggyback on that last message, but
Speaker 1: it says, Hey, Granger, my name is A J. Komer.
Speaker 1: I'm from Fort Worth, Texas. Shout out to tech. First off,
Speaker 1: I love what you're doing for all these people you
Speaker 1: have pulled. You have pulled me and probably many others
Speaker 1: closer to God simply through this podcast. I pray that
Speaker 1: you're right, Aj. I have one question when it comes
Speaker 1: to all of this, how do you know that you're saved?
Speaker 1: I know this is a very vague question to ask,
Speaker 1: but what I mean is this, how do you know
Speaker 1: that Jesus has forgiven you of all your sins and
Speaker 1: will allow you to join Him in many others in heaven.
Speaker 1: That's a great piggyback from what we just said. Yeah, so, uh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take I'm gonna take this one go. How
Speaker 1: do you know that? Can you read the question one
Speaker 1: more time? Because I want to make sure I'm answering
Speaker 1: it specifically. So it sounds like aj has listened to
Speaker 1: this podcast and he's curious. He's in the seeking mode.
Speaker 1: He's ready to tattoo seek on his on his wrist.
Speaker 1: He says, I have one question, how do you know
Speaker 1: that you're saved? How do you know that Jesus has
Speaker 1: forgave That's what he said, you of all your sins
Speaker 1: and will allow you to join him and many others
Speaker 1: in heaven. Okay, I'm just going to pray that I
Speaker 1: communicate this correctly because I have been studying this in
Speaker 1: the Book of Luke, and I'm not the smartest. Some
Speaker 1: of you may think differently, but I'm not the smartest,
Speaker 1: and retaining this and reciting it is really tough. But
Speaker 1: there's a couple of things that I go back to
Speaker 1: a couple of stories that Jesus talked about, the story
Speaker 1: the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, and
Speaker 1: the parable of the children come the children entering the
Speaker 1: Kingdom of God. So if we go back to how
Speaker 1: so question is, how do we know that we are forgiven? Okay,
Speaker 1: so let's look at this is this is Jesus right,
Speaker 1: He was there in the beginning, created all of this.
Speaker 1: This is all, you know, moving towards the glory of him.
Speaker 1: He knows the beginning and the end. Okay, he's speaking
Speaker 1: this and he says, this is parable about this Pharisee,
Speaker 1: who in that culture was very revered and respected, and
Speaker 1: he kind of went up to the temple for this
Speaker 1: time of sacrifice and was really praying to himself, but
Speaker 1: he acknowledged God, and he was saying, I've done all
Speaker 1: of these things. I've kept your commandments. I give to
Speaker 1: the poor. And then he says, I haven't done this,
Speaker 1: and I haven't done that, like the adulterers and prostitutes,
Speaker 1: and definitely like that tech, not like that tax collector.
Speaker 1: So he is separating himself and trying to work and
Speaker 1: show that, Hey, this is how I am worthy of
Speaker 1: atonement and this repentance that you're talking about, this this
Speaker 1: salvation that you're talking about. This is the way that
Speaker 1: he Jesus says this, This was what the Pharisee did.
Speaker 1: But then a tax collector, which in that culture was
Speaker 1: like the lowest of loads of the earth, the scum
Speaker 1: of the earth. They had turned on their own people,
Speaker 1: and then we're taxing them and taking advantage of them.
Speaker 1: They were just outcasts that from far off, the tax
Speaker 1: collector saw what was happening, and he said, have mercy
Speaker 1: on me. This sinner not a sinner. He's saying, the
Speaker 1: sinner like I'm the worst. I recognize I am the worst.
Speaker 1: And not only that I have nothing, I haven't done anything.
Speaker 1: I've actually done everything against what this is saying for
Speaker 1: my salvation. But then Jesus says, this is the one
Speaker 1: that went down just afy, and the other did not
Speaker 1: go down justified. He didn't go down saved the Pharisee
Speaker 1: although he was doing all this stuff. But the tax
Speaker 1: collector who had done nothing but wrong and then come
Speaker 1: and just pleaded for mercy. And in the original text,
Speaker 1: this is like saying, hey, let this like, you be
Speaker 1: the propitiation for me, You be the sacrifice so that
Speaker 1: I can be here, so that I can be saved.
Speaker 1: He recognized this right. So what that tells us is
Speaker 1: that this kind of like anything that we can do
Speaker 1: to earn this salvation and to feel like we are saved,
Speaker 1: there's nothing. But then the very next passage in Luke,
Speaker 1: he talks about the children coming to him, and the
Speaker 1: disciples actually rebuked and said, and you know, the parents
Speaker 1: were bringing even these infants Jesus and the disciples were
Speaker 1: like no, no, And Jesus said, let them come to
Speaker 1: me now in the text, now present, and don't ever
Speaker 1: hinder them from coming to me. Moving forward, he's teaching
Speaker 1: him saying, hey, because unless you receive the gospel, receive
Speaker 1: the kingdom as a child, you will not enter it.
Speaker 1: So then it makes me think like, okay, what does
Speaker 1: a child have to offer? Can they take care of themselves?
Speaker 1: Can they provide for themselves? No? They are fully reliant
Speaker 1: on their parents. So how do you know that you
Speaker 1: are saved? How do you know that you will accompany
Speaker 1: that Jesus has saved you, and that you will accompany
Speaker 1: many others. I have to believe one, that you have
Speaker 1: put your faith in Jesus, and that you have given
Speaker 1: him every square inch of your life, and that you
Speaker 1: go to him each morning and throughout the day saying, Jesus,
Speaker 1: have mercy, Please have mercy on me the sinner. I
Speaker 1: rely on you for everything, and I think that what
Speaker 1: the Gospel or what the Word continues to tell us
Speaker 1: in different places is there is a piece that surpasses
Speaker 1: understanding that will cover your heart in your mind. Yep.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's helpful. And maybe that's just
Speaker 1: something that I've personally been kind of digging into with,
Speaker 1: you know, a group of guys and has just opened
Speaker 1: my eyes. I was more in the camp of, well,
Speaker 1: I got to do these things, and I have to
Speaker 1: show people that I'm doing these things because then maybe
Speaker 1: I'll feel better about my own salvation. And the Word
Speaker 1: just kind of said, dude, you got it all wrong, man.
Speaker 1: So kind of what you're saying, Bernie, you're kind of
Speaker 1: answering it in the way that he asked it, because
Speaker 1: he asked, how do you know? And that's why you
Speaker 1: answered it that way, how do you know that you're saved?
Speaker 1: Because he didn't say how are you saved? How do
Speaker 1: you know? And so that's I love that. I love
Speaker 1: that and I want to dig into how are you?
Speaker 1: You answered how do you know? I'm gonna answer how
Speaker 1: are you? Because the Bible is very clear about how
Speaker 1: are you saved? You're saved by grace, meaning sheer love
Speaker 1: of God, unmerited faith, unmerited favor. Great, you're saved by
Speaker 1: unmerited favor through faith. Believe. Believing is the only requirement.
Speaker 1: Believing in that message and the message I said in
Speaker 1: the last question. And you're saved by unmerited favor. That's it.
Speaker 1: And you could find this over and over. This is
Speaker 1: what's set, guys. This is what separates Christianity from every
Speaker 1: other religion. And I'll take the heat, I'll take the fire.
Speaker 1: I'll jump in head first right now and just say
Speaker 1: this is what separates it from Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, LDS,
Speaker 1: Jehovah's witness, scientology, every other one is faith plus works.
Speaker 1: Typically works, something that you do, something you act on.
Speaker 1: But Christians don't believe. That's very very clear in the
Speaker 1: scriptures over and over and all that every time it's said.
Speaker 1: It harmonizes beautifully with all the scriptures. But it's very
Speaker 1: clear you're saved by faith, by grace, through faith, not
Speaker 1: by works. Lest no man should boast you are not
Speaker 1: saved by anything that you do. You are a sinner,
Speaker 1: aj and I'm a sinner, and everybody else that's emailed
Speaker 1: and everyone that's listening. We do not deserve it. We
Speaker 1: deserve punishment for who we are, and that punishment is
Speaker 1: paid in full. It's see. And have you ever heard
Speaker 1: the analogy of the judge. It's like the analogy of this.
Speaker 1: This kid gets arrested and he goes to face the judge,
Speaker 1: and the judge is his father, and he stands. He
Speaker 1: sits there on the stand, and the judge, who is
Speaker 1: a well established judge, looks at his own son, at
Speaker 1: the crime that he's done. The judge has to hit
Speaker 1: him with punishment. The judge can't say, well, you're my son,
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna let you free. Someone has to pay
Speaker 1: for this. So the judge does, well, your penalty is
Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars, and the the kid goes, well, that's great, judge. Father.
Speaker 1: Obviously the kid does not have fifty thousand dollars. So
Speaker 1: then the judge sentences him to the fifty thousand dollars fine.
Speaker 1: He steps away from the podium, take off his garment,
Speaker 1: He goes around the bench and he puts his arm
Speaker 1: around the kid and he goes, I'm gonna pay this
Speaker 1: for you. This is your penalty, but I'm gonna pay
Speaker 1: it for you. And that's that is the story of
Speaker 1: the Gospel. Your faith is the only requirement. There is
Speaker 1: no works. That now, no works is a reflection of
Speaker 1: the faith. How do you know you have a living faith?
Speaker 1: How do you know you're saved because you're you're gonna
Speaker 1: work the way? How you live your life after the faith,
Speaker 1: after you're saved, after all that grace at how you
Speaker 1: live your life after that is a reflection. And that's
Speaker 1: why we see in James two he says that that
Speaker 1: faith without works is dead. The fruits of the spirit
Speaker 1: are fruth. You're you're gonna know, you're gonna you're gonna
Speaker 1: be overwhelmed by a conscience that goes I probably shouldn't
Speaker 1: speak talk like that. I probably should clean up my
Speaker 1: filthy mouth. I probably shouldn't say that, I should probably
Speaker 1: shouldn't look at that girl in that way. You know,
Speaker 1: the list goes on and on. I probably shouldn't take
Speaker 1: this five dollars from this guy because he accidentally left
Speaker 1: on the counter. I should probably go run him down
Speaker 1: and give him his five bucks back. That's the overwhelming
Speaker 1: conviction that you'll have after faith. But Christianity, guys is
Speaker 1: saved by grace through faith alone, not by works. It's
Speaker 1: not anything after that, and that's what separates us from
Speaker 1: LDS and Islam and Judaism and Buddhism and hindu I'm
Speaker 1: going to say it. I said this twice. I said
Speaker 1: the list twice, so there's absolutely no confusion on where
Speaker 1: my conviction is. And then anyone that listening, if anyone's
Speaker 1: any confused at all on the Christ that I follow,
Speaker 1: I follow the one of the scriptures solely, scripture Scripture US,
Speaker 1: I think is the Latin by the scriptures only, and
Speaker 1: we believe that the God's word has maintained. The flowers
Speaker 1: will fade, but the word of God will never die,
Speaker 1: and we believe that we believe that it's it's the
Speaker 1: word of God. I kind of feel like I kind
Speaker 1: of like we're hitting these two questions hard. And I
Speaker 1: apologize to anyone that's like, I don't know, but but
Speaker 1: this really important stuff. Don't apologize. Man. Those guys that
Speaker 1: are out there that are listening to it that feel
Speaker 1: that way, hopefully they respect you enough to to at
Speaker 1: least recognize. He's standing up for what he believes, and
Speaker 1: he's doing it in a way that not many other
Speaker 1: people with your kind of platform would do. There's definitely some,
Speaker 1: but they can believe different things and still have respect
Speaker 1: for you, so I wouldn't apologize. Man. Thank you man.
Speaker 1: And I think we started this podcast by saying, I'm
Speaker 1: going to answer these questions with you the best way
Speaker 1: that I know how. And here's the question subject, how
Speaker 1: do you know if you're saved? That's where I'm going
Speaker 1: to go. Yeah, I'm going to tell you aj exactly
Speaker 1: what I believe, and I'm going to give you the
Speaker 1: best evidence that I can with that belief so that
Speaker 1: we're not on the mountain driving blindly Burn's run of time. Dude.
Speaker 1: All right, man, this is fun. Yeah, appreciate you so much.
Speaker 1: Love you guys. We'll see you soon. Yege, thank you
Speaker 1: thanks for joining me on the Grangersmith Podcast. I appreciate
Speaker 1: all of you guys. You could help me out by
Speaker 1: rating this podcast on iTunes. If you're on YouTube, subscribe
Speaker 1: to this channel, hit that little like button and notification
Speaker 1: spell so that you never miss anytime I upload a video.
Speaker 1: If you have a question for me that you would
Speaker 1: like me to answer, email Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: Ye