Speaker 1: What's up everybody? Welcome to the podcast. Thanks for being here.
Speaker 1: I answer your questions if you email them to me.
Speaker 1: Granger Excuse Me podcast at grangersmith dot com. Podcast at
Speaker 1: grangersmith dot com. Email me anything could be about any
Speaker 1: subject and we'll walk through it together. I've got the
Speaker 1: first one pulled up right here, and I'll see who's
Speaker 1: this from. Comes from Anonymous, going straight to the anonymous
Speaker 1: from the very beginning, it says, I started watching your
Speaker 1: podcast and I absolutely love them. I'm a Christian and
Speaker 1: love the Lord, and married and have a few children.
Speaker 1: I'm a stay at home mom raising our children, and
Speaker 1: my husband has a job to provide. He is a
Speaker 1: really hard worker, and we just don't see much of him.
Speaker 1: He's always so busy, with no weekend or regular days
Speaker 1: off work. Sometimes he has one weekend off in two months.
Speaker 1: It's just so hard to raise our children without having
Speaker 1: him around very much. What would you suggest, she goes on,
Speaker 1: We have argued about it too much already, and I'm
Speaker 1: just so tired of it. I didn't get married to
Speaker 1: live life alone. She says. I like the fact that
Speaker 1: I could be with the children and raise them instead
Speaker 1: of bringing them to daycare or having other people raise
Speaker 1: and influence them. While I have a job to help provide,
Speaker 1: but I also think they need their dad around to
Speaker 1: guide them in life and to teach them things. I
Speaker 1: can't imagine our lives ten years ago going on like
Speaker 1: it is right now, the children will be adults and
Speaker 1: not have a father figure to look up to other
Speaker 1: than knowing that he makes money. He is not a
Speaker 1: church goer, and neither does he have a relationship with Christ.
Speaker 1: I got saved after we got married, and although we
Speaker 1: both grew up going to church, it was more about
Speaker 1: practicing religion than gathering with believers to worship our Savior.
Speaker 1: After we got married, we stopped being regular church goers
Speaker 1: until I got saved and found a Christian based church.
Speaker 1: She says, I have invited him to come with us,
Speaker 1: and he's gone a few times here and there when
Speaker 1: the children had a Christmas show, but he says he
Speaker 1: doesn't want to go otherwise, nor does he want to
Speaker 1: talk about God. He says if something changes, he will
Speaker 1: let me know. Then here's a question, how can I
Speaker 1: support him or stand by him the right way? I
Speaker 1: don't know how much impact I will have on our
Speaker 1: children being the only one teaching them about God and
Speaker 1: taking them to church and raising them basically alone. It's
Speaker 1: just so hard. I don't know what to do. She says.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you, Anonymous. It's a good way to
Speaker 1: start the podcast. And first of all, I want to say,
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. It's unfortunate that I do see these
Speaker 1: kind of questions quite a bit. You've listened to the podcast,
Speaker 1: you probably know this is just something we deal with
Speaker 1: these days, and so let's dive into it, focusing on
Speaker 1: your main question. Keep in mind, your main question is
Speaker 1: how could I support him right away or the right way?
Speaker 1: You say, And I understand you're frustrated. I understand that
Speaker 1: you are born again. You say you're you're your believer,
Speaker 1: but there there's a couple issues here. It feels like
Speaker 1: you're pretty angry at the situation and you're taking it
Speaker 1: out on him. And I have to tell you that
Speaker 1: although it's unfortunate that we see this a lot, it
Speaker 1: is it is common, and it's always been common that
Speaker 1: a man goes away. In fact, I've been I've been
Speaker 1: an example of this myself for many years, going on
Speaker 1: tour and often leaving on a Wednesday and coming back
Speaker 1: on a Sunday afternoon and then kind of catching up
Speaker 1: with stuff around the house on Monday and Tuesday, and
Speaker 1: then heading out on another Wednesday. I did that a lot,
Speaker 1: a lot of times, especially during the summertimes as a
Speaker 1: touring musician. And then I'm not alone in that. I mean,
Speaker 1: so many people have gone with careers that have taken
Speaker 1: them away, so many men. And since you know from millennia,
Speaker 1: I remember that movie Old Yeller. Do you remember that movie?
Speaker 1: But such a good movie. You got to see it
Speaker 1: if you haven't, about the yellow dog that the stray
Speaker 1: dog that then becomes the best friend of the family. Well,
Speaker 1: the very beginning of that movie, the dad is leaving.
Speaker 1: In fact, I don't remember where he was going. He
Speaker 1: was going with the other men and they were going
Speaker 1: out to do some trading. And he was gone for months.
Speaker 1: And that's back before phones, and you're just gone, and
Speaker 1: it's like, hey, I'll see you when the season changes, son,
Speaker 1: you know, I'll come riding back over the horizon. I'm
Speaker 1: a horse. And those very common men would go away
Speaker 1: to hunt or to trade, or to do work on
Speaker 1: a cattle drive, or to do work on a railroad,
Speaker 1: or to go off and do trade ships. Before that,
Speaker 1: you know, the big trading ships would go out and
Speaker 1: they would leave their wives and their kids for months
Speaker 1: and come back after the ship had sold everything in
Speaker 1: the West Indies. They would come back to England. Very
Speaker 1: very very common, and in fact, you even see this
Speaker 1: in the Bible. You see it in the New Testament.
Speaker 1: You see the disciples going out and occasionally you have
Speaker 1: to ask, like with Peter for instance, you have to go,
Speaker 1: where was your wife during this? And so there's nothing
Speaker 1: I have to say, there's nothing inherently wrong with a
Speaker 1: man going out and working. I'm also not encouraging that
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four. In fact, I'm someone who kind
Speaker 1: of rebounded and came back from that to make sure
Speaker 1: that not just that I was spending more time with
Speaker 1: my kids and my wife, but actually more so to
Speaker 1: make sure that I was serving my church correctly and
Speaker 1: responsibly and faithfully, and being with my kids at our
Speaker 1: local church every single Sunday or as many as as
Speaker 1: that I could around my work schedule. So it's interesting
Speaker 1: to think of this. First of all, is that the
Speaker 1: man your husband is not absolutely wrong, He's not in
Speaker 1: sin for doing this. I know there's a lot of
Speaker 1: other issues we need to unpack, but I think we
Speaker 1: could probably start there that you're not alone, and women
Speaker 1: have done it for a long time and they've been okay.
Speaker 1: So you know, the Bible talks about this, and maybe
Speaker 1: we should start there first. Let me look it up.
Speaker 1: First Peter three, I believe, is where we're going to go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so first Peter three. The whole chapter starts with this.
Speaker 1: It says Peter's talking. It says, likewise, wives, be subject
Speaker 1: to your own husbands, so that if some do not
Speaker 1: obey the word, they may be one without a word
Speaker 1: by the conduct of their wives when they see you're
Speaker 1: respectful and pure conduct. And he goes on about the
Speaker 1: clothing you wear, and then down to verse five, for
Speaker 1: this is how the holy women who hoped in God
Speaker 1: used to adorn themselves. By no verse past that. Look,
Speaker 1: it continues on. So I would encourage you to go
Speaker 1: to first Peter three and start at the beginning. Go
Speaker 1: down and keep on reading down. It's that's pretty crazy
Speaker 1: to think that Peter saying, be subject to your husband,
Speaker 1: serve him, love him, and he maybe won over by
Speaker 1: your conduct, your respectful, pure conduct. According to the ESV translation,
Speaker 1: and so your question, your last question was how could
Speaker 1: I support him or stand by him the right way?
Speaker 1: It starts with let's obey first Peter three and just
Speaker 1: serve him and love him, be there for him so
Speaker 1: much so that he goes she is amazing, because I
Speaker 1: got to tell you right now, and this is always
Speaker 1: all These podcasts are always tough love. And I want
Speaker 1: to respect you, and I want to love you as sister,
Speaker 1: and I want to respect your email and your situation.
Speaker 1: So don't don't ever think that I'm coming across at
Speaker 1: this table in front of this microphone and it's kind
Speaker 1: of judgmental or telling you what you need to be doing. Instead,
Speaker 1: I honestly wouldn't say it. I wouldn't even have a podcast.
Speaker 1: I don't care that much to have a podcast to
Speaker 1: just to be right about something. I only say it
Speaker 1: so that maybe you could hear this from the Bible
Speaker 1: and go oh okay, and you could have peace or
Speaker 1: rest from that. So right now, what you're doing is
Speaker 1: you're making Christianity look horrible. Your husband is thinking, man,
Speaker 1: my wife is nagging me about this church thing, and
Speaker 1: she's lost her mind. She's crazy. Why would I want
Speaker 1: any part of whatever it is that she's learning and
Speaker 1: whatever she's doing at that church, and it's coming home
Speaker 1: angry at me. Please, she could have it. I don't
Speaker 1: want any of it. That's kind of what's happening right now.
Speaker 1: Let's see there's another one here, First Corinthians seven, I believe. Yeah,
Speaker 1: let me look this up another verse. Now this is
Speaker 1: Paul now instead of Peter. Paul says First Corinthians seven thirteen.
Speaker 1: If anyone has a husband who is an unbeliever, that's you,
Speaker 1: and he consents to live with her, she should not
Speaker 1: divorce him, it says, for the unbelieving husband is made
Speaker 1: holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is
Speaker 1: made holy because of her husband, so it works both ways.
Speaker 1: Otherwise this is interesting. Otherwise your children would be unclean
Speaker 1: as it is, but they are holy. But if the
Speaker 1: unbelieving partner separates, let it be so in some In
Speaker 1: such cases, the brother or sister is not enslaved. God
Speaker 1: has called you to peace. For how do you know, wife,
Speaker 1: whether you will save your husband? So you the Lord
Speaker 1: may save your husband through you, if you stay with
Speaker 1: them and love him and serve him instead of nagging
Speaker 1: him and criticizing him and saying, you know what, I
Speaker 1: don't know if I could do this anymore. This is
Speaker 1: not my dream life. What did you say I? This
Speaker 1: is not what I want to do. This is not
Speaker 1: what I wanted to be. This is it's so far
Speaker 1: and once again tough love here, it's just all about you.
Speaker 1: It's just really all about you, and it's hard not
Speaker 1: to blame you. But instead I'm saying, let your love
Speaker 1: for Christ. If you do love Christ like you say,
Speaker 1: if you love him, then love your husband as you
Speaker 1: were commanded to do it. Don't Jesus doesn't say love
Speaker 1: your husband, or serve your husband if he is serving
Speaker 1: you equally back, or if he's loving you back. The
Speaker 1: obedient thing to do in faith is to love your
Speaker 1: husband and serve him. And as difficult as that may be,
Speaker 1: that is your answer. That's my answer, because that's what
Speaker 1: the Bible says, and so we do that. And if
Speaker 1: he decides to leave you, if he decide, if he
Speaker 1: says I can't do this anymore, I need a divorce,
Speaker 1: then then you've moved to the next level. But now
Speaker 1: this is not on you, right this is that would
Speaker 1: put it on him. So right now, you love him
Speaker 1: with the intention of saving him, with the intention of
Speaker 1: making him holy. That's what That's what the Bible says.
Speaker 1: I think it's a great question, and I hope, I
Speaker 1: hope that you are also working through this with your
Speaker 1: local church and with the sisters in your church. I
Speaker 1: hope that the elders of this church. I hope it's
Speaker 1: an elder led church, and I hope that the elders
Speaker 1: of this church know about this and are praying with
Speaker 1: you about this about your husband, so that you're not
Speaker 1: alone in all of this, and you don't ever have
Speaker 1: to feel like you're alone in it. Okay, next question
Speaker 1: comes from Cam says, Hey, mister Smith, and I am
Speaker 1: putting on my glasses because I could see a love matter. Hey,
Speaker 1: mister Smith, I have a co worker who is a
Speaker 1: very vocal atheist. I do not work in the same
Speaker 1: office complex, but when he's in my office, he's wanting
Speaker 1: to debate people on religion and politics. He often refers
Speaker 1: to Christianity as a fairy tale and as the christ myth.
Speaker 1: He's heard the Gospel over and over and even stated
Speaker 1: that if even if God was real, I would acknowledge
Speaker 1: that but not live my life any different or obey
Speaker 1: his teachings as a follower of Christ, is it wrong
Speaker 1: of me to take the stance of not entertaining his
Speaker 1: remarks slash telling him what I believe when his heart
Speaker 1: is completely turned off to the Lord and wants to
Speaker 1: live his life separate from God. I'm curious to hear
Speaker 1: your thoughts on this as it continues to happen. God
Speaker 1: bless Cam. All right, Cam, thanks for the question. Yeah,
Speaker 1: everyone has everyone's at the atheist at the office, right
Speaker 1: if you if you have an office, you've probably got
Speaker 1: an atheist there at the office or in your friend group.
Speaker 1: And so it's always a good it's always a good
Speaker 1: question to think through. And it's really at first we
Speaker 1: should start by saying it's not totally different than the
Speaker 1: last email we just had. And insomuch as the first
Speaker 1: response to this guy is to love him, and that's
Speaker 1: what we're called to do his Christians, is just to
Speaker 1: love him and to be kind and serve him, to
Speaker 1: be patient with him. Uh, it's it's it's also for
Speaker 1: us to to be able to declare boldly the whole
Speaker 1: counsel of God to him. Now, that doesn't mean telling
Speaker 1: the gospel to somebody first let's start with that, right
Speaker 1: you said, uh, reiter, did you say that? You said
Speaker 1: you he's heard the gospel over and over. Let's make
Speaker 1: sure that he's hearing the full gospel. And let's make
Speaker 1: sure that he's not just hearing you know, Jesus loves you.
Speaker 1: You know, Jesus loves you right, you know, Jesus loves you. Right.
Speaker 1: That's not telling the gospel over and over. The gospel
Speaker 1: would need to he would need to understand what Paul
Speaker 1: calls the whole counsel of God. God created, and it
Speaker 1: was good man rebelled out of sin. Adam was the
Speaker 1: first man who fell, and we have inherited that original
Speaker 1: sin in us. All of us have sinned and fallen short,
Speaker 1: separated ourselves from God. Because we've separated ourselves, and because
Speaker 1: we've rejected him and his law and his mercy, we
Speaker 1: are deserving of punishment of that. And the Bible says
Speaker 1: that the wages of sin is death, so we literally
Speaker 1: deserve death from breaking the law. This is the same
Speaker 1: in a normal human law, and it's the same in
Speaker 1: God's law. A criminal must be punished to the degree
Speaker 1: that he that he committed the crime. And when you
Speaker 1: commit a crime against God himself. It requires a life.
Speaker 1: So we're on death row. And while we're on death row, God,
Speaker 1: knowing our situation, comes in in the person of Jesus,
Speaker 1: literally into the cell and says to the judge, take
Speaker 1: my life, not his, save his life, Take mine. And
Speaker 1: because Christ is lived the perfect life, fulfilling the law perfectly,
Speaker 1: his giving his life, the blood of the Son of
Speaker 1: God is worthy of all sin. It is the ultimate sacrifice.
Speaker 1: And our response to that Jesus does this, does this
Speaker 1: on the cross three days later, resurrects and defeats death,
Speaker 1: proving the sacrifice worthy. And our response is repent, turn
Speaker 1: from our ways and turned to Him, turned by faith
Speaker 1: to God, changing our mind. Really, you could say that
Speaker 1: for repent, changing our mind about sin, and turning to God.
Speaker 1: And so that's the full counsel of God. It's more
Speaker 1: than Jesus loves you. It is Jesus loves you. Because
Speaker 1: Jesus loves you enough to go to the cross for
Speaker 1: your sin. But without understanding that, we have to respond
Speaker 1: to that, and without understanding what he did and why
Speaker 1: he did it to reconcile us or to bring us
Speaker 1: back to God, to fill in that separation. You have
Speaker 1: to understand the full council. And so just a little
Speaker 1: bit of it. If I just told you that we're
Speaker 1: all sinners going to hell, that's not the gospel either.
Speaker 1: That's part of it. But just as Jesus loves you
Speaker 1: is not all of it. Neither as you're all going
Speaker 1: to hell. We need to bring it all together with
Speaker 1: what Jesus is and who are who Jesus is and
Speaker 1: what he did. Right, So let's make sure that he's
Speaker 1: hearing that, and he doesn't have to hear it over
Speaker 1: and over. He needs to hear it one time. He
Speaker 1: needs to understand what you're saying. One time. There's what
Speaker 1: Jesus did. Repent and believe the good news and you'll
Speaker 1: be saved after that. There's no need to cram it
Speaker 1: out his throat and tell him over and over and
Speaker 1: over again. At that point, you love him. You live
Speaker 1: a life that makes Christ look awesome. You live a
Speaker 1: life that makes him say, what is it about you
Speaker 1: that you have this hope about you? You have this
Speaker 1: peace about you that I can't explain. And then you say,
Speaker 1: remember I told you what Jesus did on the cross
Speaker 1: for sins to bring us to God. In every other
Speaker 1: religion you have to climb the mountain to God, which
Speaker 1: is always too tall. And in Christianity, it's the story
Speaker 1: of God coming to man to bring him to himself
Speaker 1: because man wasn't good enough to do it. You remember
Speaker 1: that story. That's why I live with so much hope.
Speaker 1: That's why I live with so much peace, because my
Speaker 1: work is done. Christ did it for me, and by faith,
Speaker 1: I believe in him. That's why I have hope. And
Speaker 1: he goes, Okay, I don't believe that stuff, but that's
Speaker 1: the life you live, and that's what you want him
Speaker 1: to know. And so it's so tempting to go down
Speaker 1: these rabbit holes of apologetics, meaning that the defense of
Speaker 1: the faith and going up against especially an atheist that
Speaker 1: is probably well versed in his own theology, which it is.
Speaker 1: It is religion. Being an atheist is a religion in itself,
Speaker 1: with its own doctrine and its own apostles and its
Speaker 1: own belief system. Because because you because there is he
Speaker 1: doesn't have the evidence to tell you about evolution. He
Speaker 1: has to have faith in it, right, So he has
Speaker 1: to An atheist has to have a lot of faith.
Speaker 1: A lot of people would say more than a Christian.
Speaker 1: To have faith in that there is no God requires
Speaker 1: a lot of belief. So because of that, it's attempting
Speaker 1: to follow these rabbit holes that he might these traps
Speaker 1: that he might give you. I will tell you of
Speaker 1: probably gone down most of these rabbit holes and traps.
Speaker 1: And Uh, there there is no way to trap a
Speaker 1: Christian and and and pin him into a corner and
Speaker 1: just say I got you. And likewise he's always gonna
Speaker 1: find he's gonna weasel his way out of what you
Speaker 1: give him. So these are just endless rabbit holes that
Speaker 1: just go forever, and they they never find an end. Uh.
Speaker 1: You could go down YouTube and watch debates and you
Speaker 1: could see this over and over. They don't. They don't
Speaker 1: have an end. So love him, tell him, make sure
Speaker 1: he knows the full gospel, love him, and live a
Speaker 1: life that makes Jesus look awesome so that he comes
Speaker 1: to you and ask for a reason for the hope
Speaker 1: that's in you. Podcast is brought to you by Shopify.
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Speaker 1: your selling today slash Granger. Okay. Next question comes from
Speaker 1: Anita says at Granger. I love your music and I'm
Speaker 1: hoping to get a worship album from you soon. I
Speaker 1: think that could change some lives. I have a question
Speaker 1: about the Mark of the Beast. I know that when
Speaker 1: I know that if we get it, we'd be giving
Speaker 1: our lives to Satan. However, people have been talking about
Speaker 1: the government using vaccines to chip us. Essentially, I understand
Speaker 1: that if we do believe that, we could just not
Speaker 1: get the vaccines, But what about the people who don't know.
Speaker 1: If they are in fact doing that and someone gets
Speaker 1: it unknowingly, would they still be giving their lives to
Speaker 1: the devil? Thanks so much, Anita. Yet, that's a good question.
Speaker 1: And this is eschatology, which there's certain things on this
Speaker 1: podcast and I don't mind, but there's certain things that
Speaker 1: we just end up kind of going back into, and
Speaker 1: that is the study of in times markt the Beast
Speaker 1: is one of them Anti Christ's rapture, all those kinds
Speaker 1: of things they come up. I have mentioned I should
Speaker 1: say it because I say it every time that I
Speaker 1: think for the most part, these types of discussions can
Speaker 1: become a distraction away from the Gospel itself, which I
Speaker 1: mentioned in the last question. The whole Council of God
Speaker 1: gets hidden in this worrying about the end times and
Speaker 1: the market, the beast and the anti Christ. And this
Speaker 1: question is a great example of that. What if people
Speaker 1: don't know and what if they unknowingly give their lives
Speaker 1: to the devil or they doomed well to that? What
Speaker 1: the Bible says very clearly because the sesschatology stuff that
Speaker 1: the mark of the beast, for instance, is very vague
Speaker 1: and not a lot is known about it. But what
Speaker 1: we do know. So whenever we read the Bible, let
Speaker 1: me say this, whenever we read the Bible, the verses
Speaker 1: that we don't know, are that we're not sure about
Speaker 1: or that are vague, should be informed by all the
Speaker 1: mountains of verses that we do know instead of the opposite.
Speaker 1: You shouldn't take all the mountain of verses that we
Speaker 1: do know and then make them cloudy and ambiguous because
Speaker 1: of one verse that we don't know. Right, So let's
Speaker 1: inform our reading with all the truth that we do know,
Speaker 1: and we do know this. Whoever believes in the Sun
Speaker 1: has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son of
Speaker 1: God shall not see life, but the wrath of God
Speaker 1: remains upon him. So, if you believe in Jesus and
Speaker 1: turn from your sins, you're saved. You're saved by faith.
Speaker 1: And by no means would we say you're saved by
Speaker 1: faith unless you accidentally take a vaccine with the chip
Speaker 1: in it that happened to be the mark of the beast,
Speaker 1: and the devil to that says, gotcha, surprise, Ah, you know,
Speaker 1: I beat the system. I got you with this secret
Speaker 1: mark of the beast that you didn't know about. That's
Speaker 1: that would be informing all the scriptures that we do
Speaker 1: know with the stuff that we don't know, right, that
Speaker 1: would be making everything else that we do know cloudy.
Speaker 1: That's what I mean by that. And so we evangelize.
Speaker 1: We tell people about Jesus, who he did, what he
Speaker 1: did on the cross, who he is, Like we talked
Speaker 1: about with the full counsel of God, that he went
Speaker 1: to the cross, that he died for sins, that that
Speaker 1: he reconciles his people back to God. And through faith
Speaker 1: we are saved. It's not by works, and that's we
Speaker 1: could just stop right there and say everything else that's
Speaker 1: outside of that inner circle is something that we shouldn't
Speaker 1: worry about. And so what this question is really asking
Speaker 1: is can people unknowingly take the mark of the beast
Speaker 1: and fall outside of this whole thing you said about
Speaker 1: you're saved by grace through faith And the answer is no,
Speaker 1: that that's impossible. So I do think people will unknowingly
Speaker 1: get the mark of the beast. That's I think that's
Speaker 1: okay to say that. It's fine. But those who are
Speaker 1: not people that would have had a chance to be
Speaker 1: saved by faith, right, God knows his people, God draws
Speaker 1: his people, and the people that would get it hypothetically,
Speaker 1: you know, they either would have heard the gospel, they
Speaker 1: would have had their chance, or it wasn't It wasn't
Speaker 1: in the cards for them. I mean, that's a bad
Speaker 1: way to say it, but you no one, no, let
Speaker 1: me just make this a broad statement. No one will
Speaker 1: end up in hell accidentally, no one, okay, and no
Speaker 1: one will end up in Heaven accidentally. So these are
Speaker 1: let me wrap a bow around this. This is a
Speaker 1: distraction to get you anita away from the fact that
Speaker 1: you were called to tell people the good news about Jesus.
Speaker 1: So go tell them and love them and serve them,
Speaker 1: and live a life that makes Jesus look awesome. And
Speaker 1: don't worry about the mark of the Beast, because if
Speaker 1: you're focused on Jesus and you're being faithful in your evangelism,
Speaker 1: and you're telling people the whole counsel of God, then
Speaker 1: it will work itself out. The Lord will do it.
Speaker 1: Let me go to Peter here. That's the next question.
Speaker 1: By the way, if you want to email me, It's
Speaker 1: podcast at grangersmith dot com. This one says, Hey, Grangder
Speaker 1: been listening to the podcast for a while now and
Speaker 1: it's my daily listen to and from work. That's awesome.
Speaker 1: My question is in regards to the First Church and
Speaker 1: the Protestant Reformation, and you guys are working me into
Speaker 1: a sweat today, says I was raised in a Catholic
Speaker 1: home and a family of eight. No surprise there. My
Speaker 1: parents have always been very devout Catholics and have always
Speaker 1: put God at the center of our family. I started
Speaker 1: going to a Protestant church about four months ago and
Speaker 1: experienced a rebirth of my desire to live for Jesus
Speaker 1: and devote my life to him because of my new church,
Speaker 1: because of the Lord, you mean. But then he says problem.
Speaker 1: Me and my fiance have been attending this church together
Speaker 1: ever since I started going there, and when my parents
Speaker 1: found out that I was not attending Mass or practicing
Speaker 1: Catholic doctrine, they essentially shunned me in a way. I
Speaker 1: planned to have my wedding at my new church and
Speaker 1: not in the Catholic Church, and they refused to participate
Speaker 1: or be seen at a non Catholic wedding slash wedding reception.
Speaker 1: They gave me a homily on why the Catholic Church
Speaker 1: was the one all capital church jesusblished with Peter as
Speaker 1: its head, and why I was following a Christian doctrine
Speaker 1: that did not have the full faith. They also included
Speaker 1: how there are many Protestant denominations but only one Catholic
Speaker 1: Church as the first and oldest Christian church. I don't
Speaker 1: know what to do. I feel so alive for God
Speaker 1: and I want to devote my life to Him with
Speaker 1: this new church. But I faced the scrutiny and backlash
Speaker 1: of my Catholic relatives. My question is what is your
Speaker 1: take on the Catholic Church and the split that occurred
Speaker 1: with Martin Luther. I desire to live for God in
Speaker 1: obey his commandments, but I want to attend a church
Speaker 1: other than the one I was raised in. I've been
Speaker 1: told that I don't have the true full faith Jesus
Speaker 1: gave us if I attend a Protestant church. Any input
Speaker 1: or feedback would help. God bless you in Thanks. Okay,
Speaker 1: you guys are making me work. Peter, so funny. It's
Speaker 1: so funny. Your name's Peter. Okay, let's dive into this.
Speaker 1: This is another one of these questions that comes up.
Speaker 1: It seems like almost every week now that the Protestant
Speaker 1: Catholic debate. And this is something we should start here,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, this is something wars have been
Speaker 1: fought over for centuries, blood shed in war. So this
Speaker 1: is something that none of us are going to work
Speaker 1: out with a intellectual conversation, so especially quickly on a
Speaker 1: podcast or an Instagram post. So let me say too, Peter,
Speaker 1: what you're experiencing is unfortunately just very common. It's very common.
Speaker 1: And on a side note, as you're reading through the Gospels,
Speaker 1: you'll notice, and you'll feel more than me and my
Speaker 1: Protestant upbringing. You will notice more the the times when
Speaker 1: Jesus talks about you must leave mother and father, and
Speaker 1: all the the the different ways that Jesus is saying
Speaker 1: that he is your family. Uh, and even even himself,
Speaker 1: even his own even in his own mother when they said,
Speaker 1: you know, Jesus, your mom's out there, and he's like,
Speaker 1: this is my mom, you know. So that's going to
Speaker 1: affect you more. It just like it affects Muslims when
Speaker 1: they when they convert to Christianity and their family shuns them,
Speaker 1: and on and on all the different religions. You see this,
Speaker 1: and so I'm sorry, and and you're not alone. There
Speaker 1: are a lot of there's a lot of different circles
Speaker 1: that you could jump in with people that would say, brother,
Speaker 1: come in here, let's talk about it. We've been doing
Speaker 1: this for seventeen years and this is what we've learned
Speaker 1: from this situation. Okay, So I don't it's probably not
Speaker 1: helpful again to go down the road of the Reformation.
Speaker 1: Maybe just we could just touch on a few things.
Speaker 1: You know. The Martin Luther's ninety five thesis came in
Speaker 1: the thesis came in fifteen seventeen, so that was probably
Speaker 1: the flagship of the Reformation, but it was also happening
Speaker 1: all across Europe at the time. It's happening in France
Speaker 1: and England and Scotland, of course, Germany and Switzerland. So
Speaker 1: it's interesting to study the Reformation thinking of it in
Speaker 1: terms of this was a revival, This was a total upheaval.
Speaker 1: God was moving in a radical way through Europe through
Speaker 1: a revival, and revivals are that's another subject we should
Speaker 1: talk about. When everyone says there's a revival going on
Speaker 1: at whatever university, it's important to remember that God causes revivals.
Speaker 1: If man, if man is planning it, then that's that's
Speaker 1: not a revival, that's just a that's a Christian event
Speaker 1: stirred up with sometimes a lot of emotionalism. But clearly,
Speaker 1: in the sixteenth century God caused a revival through through
Speaker 1: Europe and it went like wildfire. And Martin Luther was
Speaker 1: no doubt at the center of this, but there were
Speaker 1: there were a lot of others that that we could
Speaker 1: we go back and we read their writings and we
Speaker 1: see what was happening, and it's important to remember that
Speaker 1: they were all Catholics. And it's important to remember that
Speaker 1: Martin Luther wasn't trying to split the Catholic Church. That
Speaker 1: was never his intention. He instead, he wanted to be
Speaker 1: faithful to the Church. And he discovered something in his
Speaker 1: own reading of the Bible, which no one was doing
Speaker 1: at the time. No one was doing first of all,
Speaker 1: because it was in Latin, and so none of the
Speaker 1: German people, if we're speaking of just about Luther, nobody
Speaker 1: in Germany was reading the Bible. They couldn't read Latin,
Speaker 1: and so they were going to Mass and they couldn't
Speaker 1: understand anything that was being said. And the Catholic Church
Speaker 1: was holding the keys to scripture itself. And Martin Luther,
Speaker 1: as he was studying through it was just blown away
Speaker 1: by what he was reading and he started to see
Speaker 1: that that wasn't being what was taught. And this was
Speaker 1: before the idea that really the Reformation started of sola
Speaker 1: scriptura meaning scripture is the authority that we need to
Speaker 1: go by, passed down from the apostles to us. And
Speaker 1: so this was a new idea. This was a new
Speaker 1: thing because before then it was scripture and the Church
Speaker 1: created authority. But the reality is and even Catholics could
Speaker 1: agree to this. The authority was corrupt, it was rotten
Speaker 1: to the core. And at this time these indulgences. If
Speaker 1: you read about what the indulgence is, the Catholic Church
Speaker 1: was charging people to basically free their dead relatives out
Speaker 1: of purgatory. And they were walking around charging people money
Speaker 1: so that you could pay, and usually it was going
Speaker 1: to some kind of church rebuild or a new church
Speaker 1: cathedral being built, and they were charging you, and they said,
Speaker 1: the more money you give, the more dead relatives are
Speaker 1: going to pop out of purgatory and into heaven. So
Speaker 1: go ahead and save them the thousands of years that
Speaker 1: they're stuck in purgatory by ching, ching, ching, you know,
Speaker 1: throwing some coins in the jar here. And that was
Speaker 1: just a drop in the bucket of the problems and
Speaker 1: the corruption that going on through the church. It's also
Speaker 1: interesting to think about go back a thousand years before that,
Speaker 1: and it was in the fifth century when Pope Leo.
Speaker 1: Pope Leo was the first one that decided that he
Speaker 1: was going to read Matthew sixteen and interpret that as
Speaker 1: Peter was the first pope and that the church was
Speaker 1: given to Peter and all authority was given to Peter,
Speaker 1: and that kind of understanding of scripture started with Leo
Speaker 1: because he needed power. You could read about this is
Speaker 1: all you know, this is none of this is private stuff.
Speaker 1: It's all public history. But Leo wanted power and he
Speaker 1: decided to read Matthew sixteen and go, oh, this is
Speaker 1: Peter is the first pope, and so that means the
Speaker 1: secession of pope's comes all the way to me. So
Speaker 1: that means I'm the leader of the world right now,
Speaker 1: you know, essentially. And so it was Leo that started
Speaker 1: this whole idea that the Catholic churches the first church,
Speaker 1: and it was Jesus' church. You know, this argument that
Speaker 1: your parents are giving you, which is very very common
Speaker 1: argument and all Catholics say it, but that started with
Speaker 1: Leo in the fifth century. That's interesting, right, And throughout
Speaker 1: throughout the Catholic Church in those five hundred years before Leo,
Speaker 1: from the Apostles to Leo, and then from the thousand
Speaker 1: years from Leo to Martin Luther, throughout the Catholic Church,
Speaker 1: there were faithful people in there. And there's still faithful
Speaker 1: people in the Catholic Church today, and they're still corrupt
Speaker 1: people in the Protestant Church today. So just because you're
Speaker 1: in one building doesn't mean anything for your salvation. You
Speaker 1: go to the Catholic Church, that doesn't mean you're going
Speaker 1: to be saved. You go to a Protestant church, that
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you're going to be saved. We already went
Speaker 1: through on this podcast like three times what it means
Speaker 1: to be saved. Your pitn't believe in Jesus, you know
Speaker 1: Theesians two eighty nine. For by grace, you've been saved
Speaker 1: through faith. This is not your own doing. It is
Speaker 1: the gift of God, not a result the works. So
Speaker 1: that no man may boast right that we're saved by
Speaker 1: grace and so not by not by the denomination. We're
Speaker 1: going in now that the argument about all the denominations
Speaker 1: from the Protestants. The Catholic Church loved this, and they
Speaker 1: were able to attack militarily attack the Protestants as soon
Speaker 1: as there was a break, as soon as they saw
Speaker 1: a split in unity, and that split happened with the
Speaker 1: Lord's Supper. Martin Luther believed that that Jesus was in
Speaker 1: the bread that was his body, and his blood was
Speaker 1: the wine in the sacraments and then there was a
Speaker 1: split when when Zwingli and another group of of reformers
Speaker 1: believed that it was it was a a metaphor basically
Speaker 1: it was it was an example, and so is that
Speaker 1: is that? That was the first major split in the Reformation.
Speaker 1: And the Catholics were like, oh, this is great, there's
Speaker 1: a division. Let's attack them. They literally came in with
Speaker 1: military and attack them. So this is like here I
Speaker 1: go again, you know, get rolling down these little, these
Speaker 1: little Reformation rabbit holes. But I think let's just look
Speaker 1: at it practically. Martin Luther says, hey, let's read the Bible,
Speaker 1: and so he translates it to German, and a lot
Speaker 1: of the Reformers were really significant in the first translations
Speaker 1: in the different languages, going from not from Latin sometimes,
Speaker 1: but they were going to the Greek. They'd go back
Speaker 1: to the Greek and translate it into it's into the
Speaker 1: language of the people, to make the Bible the Book
Speaker 1: of the people, which is exactly why it was written
Speaker 1: in Greek. The New Testament was written in Greek instead
Speaker 1: of Hebrew, why so that it could be the book
Speaker 1: of the people because Greek was the common language. So
Speaker 1: it was always the Lord always intended the Bible to
Speaker 1: be read by the people in their native tongue. So
Speaker 1: that's why it was in Greek. And that's why Martin
Speaker 1: Luther and these other guys decided it needed to be
Speaker 1: in German, it needed to be in French, it needed
Speaker 1: to be to be in English, and on and on
Speaker 1: and on, and translation work still happens to this day
Speaker 1: as people go back to the Greek and back to
Speaker 1: the Hebrew and translate. So let's think about it practically.
Speaker 1: If you're in a church, do you want to sit
Speaker 1: there and hear the scripture, the transforming Scripture as it's
Speaker 1: read to you, with illustrations and applications for your life,
Speaker 1: so that you could hear the Word of God and
Speaker 1: learn how you could apply that to your own life.
Speaker 1: Do you want that? Or do you want to sit
Speaker 1: in a service where you can't understand anything that's going on,
Speaker 1: because it's a tradition to do that, like practically, which
Speaker 1: one makes sense if you're an alien coming to this
Speaker 1: planet and I just explain that to you practically, which
Speaker 1: one makes sense. None of this is an argument that
Speaker 1: you should use with your parents. Instead, let's go back
Speaker 1: to the wife with the unbelieving husband, and say, in
Speaker 1: the same way you love your parents, you tell them
Speaker 1: the full Council of God. You tell them the Gospel.
Speaker 1: They may be saved or they may not be saved,
Speaker 1: but has nothing to do with the Catholic Church and
Speaker 1: has nothing to do with your Protestant church. You could
Speaker 1: definitely be saved in the Catholic trich. I know people
Speaker 1: that are. But is what is more practical for you
Speaker 1: and your wife and your family to learn and grow
Speaker 1: in the knowledge of God. And we grow in the
Speaker 1: knowledge of God by hearing Him through his word. And
Speaker 1: so which one do you get to hear his word
Speaker 1: and grow and learn who He is? So tell your
Speaker 1: parents the Gospel and love them and live a life
Speaker 1: that makes Christ look awesome. Just like the question earlier, Man,
Speaker 1: I go down these rabbit holes, don't I. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't think I'm gonna talk about the Reformation today.
Speaker 1: I don't think I'm going to talk about Protestant and Catholics.
Speaker 1: And then here I go ten minutes later. It's fine.
Speaker 1: I love these questions, Joel, last one here, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna try to get to this. It's from Jason, says Granger.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure you need to answer this on your podcast,
Speaker 1: but I didn't know how else to get to question
Speaker 1: to you for your thoughts. You were sponsored in the
Speaker 1: past by a local dealership that gave you, that gave
Speaker 1: you new trucks to drive. You made the decision to stop,
Speaker 1: or they dropped the contract. Either way, you're now driving
Speaker 1: an older twenty five hundred GMC, which is awesome. You
Speaker 1: could have opted for a newer vehicle, and I probably
Speaker 1: know your answer, but I'm curious. I am going through
Speaker 1: this dilemma right now. I'm in Kansas, and i am
Speaker 1: blessed with a great wife and family. I joined a
Speaker 1: company thirteen years ago, and I'm fortunate to earn income
Speaker 1: higher than I ever thought would be possible. I say
Speaker 1: that only to share my thoughts. What was once a
Speaker 1: time of buying new vehicles. We just bought our new
Speaker 1: home three years ago on sixty acres, and I have
Speaker 1: pushed to opt for an older truck to not show
Speaker 1: that I'm driven by money. I'm sure none of this
Speaker 1: makes sense, but hopefully you could see where I'm going.
Speaker 1: Was there something inside of you that changed that said
Speaker 1: driving an older truck is exactly where you wanted to
Speaker 1: be and that you didn't need a newer truck to
Speaker 1: prove anything. Thank you and appreciate your videos that you
Speaker 1: put on YouTube. Blessings Jason. Yeah, Jason, thanks for the
Speaker 1: message man, And yeah, that's true about me. I was
Speaker 1: for many years working with a dealership that was giving
Speaker 1: me trucks. Sometimes every five thousand miles that would give
Speaker 1: me a brand new truck, and that was a demo
Speaker 1: so that I could help them sell it. Essentially, I
Speaker 1: would post it on my social media as I got
Speaker 1: it and had new tires on it or something, and
Speaker 1: I would post about it and say how awesome it looked,
Speaker 1: and then and then taged the dealership and that was
Speaker 1: worth it to them. And then right before five thousand
Speaker 1: miles they would come to my house and trade out
Speaker 1: a new truck and grab the five thousand mile truck,
Speaker 1: and that way they could put it on the lot
Speaker 1: and still sell it as quote unquote new if it's
Speaker 1: under five thousand miles. That's what they were doing, and
Speaker 1: it was great for me because I was getting a
Speaker 1: free truck and they were always really nice to drive,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, I really enjoyed that. But then whenever
Speaker 1: I left my record label and then left music. It
Speaker 1: was no longer in the best interests of the dealership.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know. I mean, I don't I
Speaker 1: don't really blame them. It's just business. It's not like
Speaker 1: I was trying to maintain a specific friendship. So it
Speaker 1: was it was just business, and they probably made a
Speaker 1: pretty good business decision to drop me. And but what
Speaker 1: happened was they they called and said or Tyler and
Speaker 1: I went in for the meeting, and we knew that
Speaker 1: this was going to be a meeting where they were
Speaker 1: going to say we're going to end our partnership, and
Speaker 1: so we went in and sure enough, they politely said
Speaker 1: that they're ending the partnership. And as it ended, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I started to think, what am I going to drive?
Speaker 1: You know, like not that it's that big a deal,
Speaker 1: but maybe I'm going to uber home. And they said, no,
Speaker 1: it's okay. You could take your truck and take the
Speaker 1: same truck, drive it home and do what you need
Speaker 1: to do. But what they wanted they wanted me to
Speaker 1: buy it. And so I was like, okay, well, how
Speaker 1: much do you want to sell it for? And it
Speaker 1: was like eighty thousand dollars. So I said, I rode
Speaker 1: up the vat. I was like, I'm not I can't
Speaker 1: pay eighty thousand dollars for a truck or whatever that
Speaker 1: monthly payment is, you know, sixteen hundred bucks or whatever
Speaker 1: that is. And they said okay, and I said, I'd
Speaker 1: rather drive a used One's that's the more responsible thing
Speaker 1: to do. So they said, okay, totally understand. So let's
Speaker 1: go get your a used one. So I went to
Speaker 1: their used lot and the oldest thing they had at
Speaker 1: the time was a twenty nineteen and it was like
Speaker 1: fifty thousand bucks. And so that, you know, fifty thousand bucks,
Speaker 1: I don't know what is that's like nine hundred dollars
Speaker 1: a month or a thousand bucks a month. And I
Speaker 1: was just like, I just had a weird pe and
Speaker 1: I was like, that's just I doesn't feel responsible, and Jason,
Speaker 1: it wasn't. It wasn't necessarily that I was trying to
Speaker 1: make a statement to the world, like you said, to
Speaker 1: prove that a new truck doesn't prove anything. I wasn't really, honestly,
Speaker 1: I wasn't trying to prove anything or disprove anything. I
Speaker 1: just thought it was not responsible to pay a thousand
Speaker 1: bucks a month for a truck. Then I didn't need
Speaker 1: that nice of a truck. So I told them this.
Speaker 1: They said, okay, how long till you find a truck
Speaker 1: because I said, I want something older than twenty nineteen
Speaker 1: and they're like, we don't have anything older. And I said,
Speaker 1: I'm going to go look if that's okay on Facebook
Speaker 1: Marketplace and they said, yeah, we'll keep that truck for
Speaker 1: a few more days and let us know when you
Speaker 1: get a new one. So then I found my truck
Speaker 1: I have. Now it's a oh four. I found it
Speaker 1: on Facebook Marketplace and then I saw the price of
Speaker 1: it oh four Chevy, and I was like, oh, much better.
Speaker 1: So I went and bought that one. It was in Conro, Texas,
Speaker 1: a couple hours from me. Bought it, turned in the
Speaker 1: truck to the dealership and we were good. I honestly,
Speaker 1: I wasn't trying to prove anything. I wasn't trying to
Speaker 1: make a statement. In my heart, I just felt I
Speaker 1: felt like I needed to do the responsible thing for
Speaker 1: my family. And if I don't need all the bells
Speaker 1: and whistles of a twenty twenty truck and four with
Speaker 1: a Cassette deck is just fine with me. I think
Speaker 1: that's I don't think there's anymore really to it. Love
Speaker 1: you guys, That's all I got. We'll see you next Monday.
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
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Speaker 1: spell so that you never miss anytime I upload a video.
Speaker 1: YII