Speaker 1: To think that a sickness from a personal perspective, it's
Speaker 1: all about me, is a problem. If you want to
Speaker 1: catch me speaking, I have some engagements coming up, and
Speaker 1: that is starting February second at hoax Bluff, Alabama. I'm
Speaker 1: going to be in Starkville, Mississippi, on March the eighth, Florence,
Speaker 1: Alabama on March the ninth, Colorado Springs, Colorado on March
Speaker 1: the twenty third, Carthage, Texas on April first, Orange County,
Speaker 1: California on April twenty ninth, Bismarkin, North Dakota, May third,
Speaker 1: and Franklin, Tennessee on May ninth. And then there'll be
Speaker 1: some more to get added to that. Lord Willing, So
Speaker 1: I wanted to welcome everybody to the podcast that hasn't
Speaker 1: been here, hasn't listened to it yet. What I do
Speaker 1: is I answer your questions and you email me podcast
Speaker 1: at grangersmith dot com and I just walk through it.
Speaker 1: I don't have any notes in front of me. In fact,
Speaker 1: I haven't even seen these questions yet. So it's a
Speaker 1: little bit scary because I could just fall into anything.
Speaker 1: I have no idea what I'm getting into. But I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna answer it as if we're just friends and
Speaker 1: we're walking through life together again. The email is podcast
Speaker 1: at grangersmith dot com. The first question comes from Tommy.
Speaker 1: It says, Hey, Granger, how did friends and family react
Speaker 1: to your decision to start preaching? Did you have to
Speaker 1: cut ties with anyone? If so, do you have any
Speaker 1: advice to others on how to deal with that separation?
Speaker 1: I enjoy listening to your podcast, Thanks Tommy, Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: thank thank you for emailing Tommy. Then thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to other episodes as well. And you know, the reaction,
Speaker 1: as you could probably imagine, was all over the map.
Speaker 1: There were people that said, man, are so encouraged, you know,
Speaker 1: this is amazing. Then we have the other people that said,
Speaker 1: I'm so sad you're not going to be playing music anymore.
Speaker 1: What will we do? I lived for your music. We
Speaker 1: had people that said, don't care, never liked you anyway,
Speaker 1: And then we had another group that was pretty interesting
Speaker 1: to me, the group that said, hey, Granger, if you
Speaker 1: ever need to talk, you ever need someone to just
Speaker 1: talk with, I just want to let you know I'm here.
Speaker 1: And I thought to myself, Oh, those are the people
Speaker 1: that think I've gone crazy, so so those are the
Speaker 1: different kinds of groups and a lot of different reactions.
Speaker 1: But it's all expected, right, you expect all these different
Speaker 1: kinds of reactions. The next part of your question said,
Speaker 1: did you have to cut ties with anyone? No, I
Speaker 1: definitely didn't cut ties with anyone. But there are people
Speaker 1: that I don't don't hear from anymore that maybe I
Speaker 1: used to hear from a lot, and I actually have
Speaker 1: a list. Maybe to help you answer your question, you said,
Speaker 1: give any advice on how to deal with that separation.
Speaker 1: I have a list on my phone. I have an iPhone,
Speaker 1: and I have on my notes. I just have a
Speaker 1: long running list and it just keeps growing of people
Speaker 1: that I need to reach out to. And I'm a
Speaker 1: big voice texture. I like the voice text, which shouldn't
Speaker 1: be as surprised as I sit here in this chair
Speaker 1: and talking to your microphone. But I have a running list,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of people that I'll just reach
Speaker 1: out and just be like, hey man, this is a
Speaker 1: voice text. I'll just say hey, thinking about you. No
Speaker 1: need to reply, but just thinking about you, man, and
Speaker 1: hope you get to connect soon. Right now, that's an
Speaker 1: open invitation. That message is open invitation to anyone that
Speaker 1: wants to come back, and you actually, yeah, man, I've
Speaker 1: been wanting to grab lunch or coffee or when's the
Speaker 1: next time you're through this town. And then for some
Speaker 1: of those, they don't reply at all, you know. And
Speaker 1: so it's interesting because as I've gone from country music
Speaker 1: into the guy that gives advice on a podcast and
Speaker 1: has a radio show and travels around and preaches, I
Speaker 1: don't ever want it to come across as man, I
Speaker 1: haven't heard from Granger in a while. I wonder if
Speaker 1: that means that I'm just too far gone for him
Speaker 1: or I'm just not I'm not good enough for Granger.
Speaker 1: I don't ever want that to be to be a
Speaker 1: conversation that has had. So that's why that's what motivated
Speaker 1: me to start this list, Like, man, I better get
Speaker 1: this list going, and I do it. And I usually
Speaker 1: spend time every morning going down that list and hitting
Speaker 1: somebody up and I don't always hear back. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just it's interesting. I appreciate you, Tommy. And let's
Speaker 1: go to the next question from Clayton says, Hey Granger,
Speaker 1: my name is Clayton. I'm twenty one years old. Question
Speaker 1: on the Apocrypha and its reliability and why it is
Speaker 1: excluded from the Bible. I was wondering if you knew
Speaker 1: or had any books that would help with this sort
Speaker 1: of topic. I want to be better understanding about how
Speaker 1: we got the Bible and why things were excluded or included,
Speaker 1: and I'm just now getting into apologetics and I absolutely
Speaker 1: love it. Please recommend any books on or videos as well.
Speaker 1: Any recommendations are greatly appreciated. Hey, Clayton, appreciate the question. Man,
Speaker 1: I love this for anyone that's wondering. Apologetics is the
Speaker 1: It is the way that we well. I don't want
Speaker 1: to say this wrong way, because what it really means
Speaker 1: is defending the faith, but it doesn't mean it in
Speaker 1: like a military or aggressive type way. It's giving people
Speaker 1: the reason for the hope that is within us. Right,
Speaker 1: So be ready with a defense, which is in Greek apologia,
Speaker 1: So that's where that word apologetics comes from. So be
Speaker 1: ready with a defense for anyone that asked you about
Speaker 1: the hope that's in you. That's the gist of where
Speaker 1: that idea comes from. And then that defense, which comes
Speaker 1: with patience and love and salt and light, it comes
Speaker 1: from it could defend any any piece of our faith,
Speaker 1: including his question, which is I had questions about the Apocrypha,
Speaker 1: which is the extra books that are in the Catholic Bible.
Speaker 1: I think that's the best, the easiest way for me
Speaker 1: to say it. These books were added in the sixteenth century,
Speaker 1: so it's not an ancient thing. It's not really old.
Speaker 1: It didn't start that way, and then Protestants took books
Speaker 1: out of the Bible. In fact, the Apocryphy was added
Speaker 1: as a response to the Protestant Reformation. So the Protestant said, hey,
Speaker 1: we're going to go back to the Bible because we
Speaker 1: think that things are things aren't being taught from the
Speaker 1: Bible itself, from Scripture itself, and so they broke That
Speaker 1: was essentially a big reason why they broke They broke off,
Speaker 1: and then Catholic leadership came back and said, well, in
Speaker 1: response to you leaving saying you're just going to go
Speaker 1: to scripture alone, because we want to we we believe
Speaker 1: in the authority of the Church that is equal to
Speaker 1: the authority of Scripture. So if you're going to go
Speaker 1: do that, we're gonna go ahead and just tell you
Speaker 1: that we're going to add some more books to this,
Speaker 1: I'm making it sound worse. I'm making it I'm not
Speaker 1: telling the full spectrum of the story because I'm trying
Speaker 1: to make it quick. Here's the thing about the apocrypha.
Speaker 1: You said, is it reliable? Yeah, the apocrypha is actually
Speaker 1: not false. It's not like false doctrine or bad truth
Speaker 1: or fake history. It's not that at all. In fact,
Speaker 1: the apocrypha, I would say, is reliable, Yes, that's your question.
Speaker 1: And it is historical and a lot of it fills
Speaker 1: in the gaps between that, that four hundred year gap
Speaker 1: between Malachi and the New Testament. Matthew. So you have
Speaker 1: stories of books ancient text that fill in that gap
Speaker 1: that are historically reliable, but they are not considered scripture,
Speaker 1: which means they're not considered divinely inspired. They are not
Speaker 1: considered the word of God, which makes it different. That's
Speaker 1: the difference between being reliable is a historical document where
Speaker 1: you can go, yeah, yeah, we could, we could see this,
Speaker 1: we could, we could trace this back, and then saying
Speaker 1: not only is it reliable historical document, but it's also
Speaker 1: the word of God. There's a big difference, and that's
Speaker 1: the cutoff there, because scripture is an errant meaning it
Speaker 1: is it is the truth. The apocryphy is stories, real stories,
Speaker 1: but not in ERRt okay, does that make any sense?
Speaker 1: I'm trying to use the best, my best choice of words.
Speaker 1: That makes make this a very difficult conversation easier to
Speaker 1: digest the the canon itself, which is a cold We
Speaker 1: can do an entire podcast on this is when you say, well,
Speaker 1: if that's reliable and the Bible is reliable, where did
Speaker 1: the canon come from? Why were why were those books
Speaker 1: excluded in the first place. Well, the best and easiest
Speaker 1: way to just explain that is that we look back
Speaker 1: not because of the Council of Nicea, where it's like
Speaker 1: a bunch of men got together and decided, of all
Speaker 1: the books in the world, let's choose these and this
Speaker 1: will be the canon. That's a false representation of the
Speaker 1: Council of Nicia. Instead, it was a group of men
Speaker 1: that got together and said, we know what the books
Speaker 1: are because they've been passed down through the church through
Speaker 1: We know these books, and so we need to fence
Speaker 1: this off and put it in stone, put it in
Speaker 1: writing that these are the books, in order to defend
Speaker 1: it against heresy that's coming in saying this is what
Speaker 1: about this book? What about this book? What about this book?
Speaker 1: You see, so there's a big difference between men coming
Speaker 1: in and going, let's get all the books on the
Speaker 1: table and see which one we should pick for the canon,
Speaker 1: and a group of men that said, we know the canon,
Speaker 1: but we need to actually put it in writing that
Speaker 1: this is the canon. Let's officially do that and close
Speaker 1: it so that no more of these people could say
Speaker 1: what about this Book of Thomas? Here there's a bunch
Speaker 1: of reasons why we wouldn't include the Book of Thomas
Speaker 1: and the cannon. Great conversation and so so exciting, and
Speaker 1: so finally some straight up Indiana Jones stuff. When you
Speaker 1: really get into that kind of the scripture and narrancy,
Speaker 1: Apologetic is really really fun in a deep rabbit hole,
Speaker 1: and like I said, could take an entire podcast to
Speaker 1: go through. Where should you go? If I was going
Speaker 1: to suggest a few things quickly here? That's a great question.
Speaker 1: And there is a quick little book by Greg Gilbert
Speaker 1: called Why Trust the Bible? Very short book, easy to understand.
Speaker 1: Why Trust the Bible? You can find it on Amazon.
Speaker 1: There's a great YouTube page called Apologia Studios could also
Speaker 1: say it. Apologia. That's how it looks. Apologia Studios, great
Speaker 1: YouTube page and there's a great video on that YouTube
Speaker 1: page about the that's deconstructing the idea that Constantine decided
Speaker 1: the canon. Like there's a lot of people when I've
Speaker 1: heard this heresy many times and it came from the
Speaker 1: I believe it came from the movie Da Vinci Code
Speaker 1: that Constantine, the Emperor of Rome, got together, he became
Speaker 1: a Christian and he's the one that decided the canon.
Speaker 1: And it's completely false. It never happened. So look up
Speaker 1: on YouTube Apologia Studios Constantine. Just type in that and
Speaker 1: there's a there's there's a two part series. It's a
Speaker 1: great historical two part series. It's going to just guide
Speaker 1: you through facts and not not hearsay and not fiction.
Speaker 1: So dude, email back. This is like I said, this
Speaker 1: is there's so much in this email, but email back
Speaker 1: and I'd be happy to walk through this again with
Speaker 1: you if you haven't done it in a while. Go
Speaker 1: to eeye dot com. That's her apparel company. Me and
Speaker 1: my two brothers, Tyler and Parker, and I'd love for
Speaker 1: you to see the new stuff we have. We have
Speaker 1: the winter launch come out a few weeks ago and
Speaker 1: we're gearing up for the spring launch, so we're right
Speaker 1: in between it. I want to make sure that you're
Speaker 1: staying up to date with what we have going on
Speaker 1: with your favorite outdoor apparel company, yee Ye. We're also
Speaker 1: trying to give away a bunch of stickers right now.
Speaker 1: So if you got a cool truck, hey, message us
Speaker 1: dm us or comment on the latest post on our
Speaker 1: Instagram page ee Y Apparel and tell us you got
Speaker 1: a cool truck and we need to send you a
Speaker 1: free sticker. That's what we're gonna do. Also, if you
Speaker 1: want a message from me, if you want a video
Speaker 1: message from my phone, go to cameo dot com slash
Speaker 1: Granger Smith and you could request anything you want. You
Speaker 1: just type in, Hey Granger, it's my brother's birthday. Can
Speaker 1: can you give him a video saying yeee and I
Speaker 1: saw you at the concert a few years ago and
Speaker 1: he loves EARLD Dibbles Junior. Can you give him a
Speaker 1: shout out? Whatever you want me to say, I'll say
Speaker 1: it for you and I'll shoot you that video message again.
Speaker 1: That's at cameo dot com slash Granger Smith. Next question
Speaker 1: comes from Anonymous. Hey Granger, I'm a big fan of
Speaker 1: yours since the country music days. The podcast is amazing
Speaker 1: and it's been great to see how God is using you.
Speaker 1: I have been in a six year long relationship with
Speaker 1: a guy who ultimately knew it wasn't who I ultimately
Speaker 1: knew wasn't God's best. I think I know what that means. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: I was hurt, blindsided, ultimately heartbroken, but I let fear insecurity, etc.
Speaker 1: Keep me from moving on. After tons of back and forth,
Speaker 1: I just realized we needed to end, and most importantly
Speaker 1: for me to let go. Although it's been a difficult process,
Speaker 1: it has helped me reprioritize my relationship with God. What
Speaker 1: would you advise me to do moving forward to heal
Speaker 1: from this and gain back my confidence slash trust in God?
Speaker 1: Lots of love, Anonymous. Let me recap so I understand
Speaker 1: what you're saying here. Six year relationship that was probably bad.
Speaker 1: I'm assuming you were blindsided, you were hurt, heartbroken, but
Speaker 1: after that you couldn't move on. Then it probably broke up.
Speaker 1: You broke up, I'm assuming, and then you just kind
Speaker 1: of like it lingered and you got back together and
Speaker 1: you broke up again. That that happens, and then you
Speaker 1: realized in the end that you needed to completely cut
Speaker 1: it off cold turkey. I'm recapping for my own brain,
Speaker 1: and it's helped you now re prioritize your relationship with God.
Speaker 1: So your question, I'm trying to get your question. Your
Speaker 1: question is how do you move forward to heal from
Speaker 1: this and gain back your confidence slash trust in God.
Speaker 1: So you're implying that you lost trust in God through
Speaker 1: this relationship. I think that, like, that's that's what I
Speaker 1: would question. If we were riding in the truck together
Speaker 1: and you brought this up, I would say, you're trying
Speaker 1: to gain back confidence in God because you lost it
Speaker 1: in that relationship. Or were you just so into that
Speaker 1: relationship that you moved away and you feel that distance,
Speaker 1: Because look, a relationship with God is like this. It's like,
Speaker 1: imagine God is an island, and you are the canoe
Speaker 1: and you roll around and you use your oars and
Speaker 1: you drift with a tide, and you go up and
Speaker 1: down with the storms, and you feel distant from the island.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the island seems so small. Sometimes it seems unreachable.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the island is hazy and hard to see it all,
Speaker 1: and then sometimes it's very present and you're right up
Speaker 1: against it. But in reality, the island never moves, only
Speaker 1: you do as you drift. So we could think of
Speaker 1: that as our relationship with God. God is not going anywhere.
Speaker 1: He is unchanging. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Speaker 1: He is unmovable. It is us that drift and bounce
Speaker 1: with the tide constantly. So there's your first step in
Speaker 1: regaining this confidence. He didn't go anywhere. In fact, he
Speaker 1: was always there in the same place. It was you
Speaker 1: that drifted. Okay, totally happens. I totally get it right.
Speaker 1: And then you're wondering how to move forward. One just
Speaker 1: piece of practical advice in this is stay out of
Speaker 1: relationships for a bit. It's time to take a break.
Speaker 1: The worst thing you could do, my counsel, would be
Speaker 1: the worst thing you could do, is go back into
Speaker 1: another relationship with someone else, because you have your vulnerable
Speaker 1: right now to be open to Prince Charming to come
Speaker 1: in and say the right things and he's a man
Speaker 1: of God, or whatever might happen, or you meet them
Speaker 1: at church, or your family introduces you, and that is
Speaker 1: possible to happen, but most likely that's a vulnerability because
Speaker 1: you're open. Now, You've got an open wound that has
Speaker 1: not healed right, So be very careful with that. Pump
Speaker 1: the brakes. Don't give your heart away. Do not give
Speaker 1: your heart away soon, keep it guarded. Be careful with that.
Speaker 1: And through time as you how do you rekindle a
Speaker 1: relationship with God? Or if you think of that island scenario,
Speaker 1: or he doesn't go anywhere, but you're going to try
Speaker 1: to find anchors to that island. So in your canoe,
Speaker 1: you got to get your ropes out, You got to
Speaker 1: get your anchor out, you got to get your hooks out,
Speaker 1: and you got to do everything. You get your oars
Speaker 1: and you stick them in the sand. And those come
Speaker 1: in all the kinds of ways. It comes with a
Speaker 1: spiritual discipline of prayer, of reading your Bible consistently, make
Speaker 1: it a daily habit, take notes. It comes with planting
Speaker 1: yourself with your feet in the sand right at the
Speaker 1: shore of the island, in a local church, showing up
Speaker 1: on a Sunday. I don't care if you sit in
Speaker 1: the back. I don't care if you don't know anybody there.
Speaker 1: I don't care if you show up a little bit late.
Speaker 1: But as long as you're showing up, it's kind of
Speaker 1: like trying to run a marathon. How do you run
Speaker 1: a marathon? Granger? Will you start by putting your shoes
Speaker 1: on and going outside and going some distance. It doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be it shouldn't be really a marathon the
Speaker 1: first day, but any kind of distance, you just become
Speaker 1: a creature of a habit of moving towards that goal.
Speaker 1: And the goal is the marathon. The goal is knowing God,
Speaker 1: and that's a journey we're all going to be on
Speaker 1: for a lifetime. But it's really going to start with
Speaker 1: putting your running shoes on and getting out there and
Speaker 1: hitting the pavement. And a big piece of that is
Speaker 1: showing up in church right, consistently being poured over with
Speaker 1: good leadership, joining a small grip or a Bible study,
Speaker 1: doing having lunches or coffees coffee with fellow sisters in
Speaker 1: the faith. These are things that will ground you. These
Speaker 1: are your ropes and your hooks and your oars and
Speaker 1: your heels in the sand of the island. And this
Speaker 1: is something I would encourage you to do to to
Speaker 1: keep you accountable and to keep you away from that
Speaker 1: probably selfish desire to jump into another relationship quick, to
Speaker 1: try to heal something that needs to be healed by
Speaker 1: God and consistent time with him. Next question comes from
Speaker 1: Kyle says, Hey Granger, I'm thirty two years old and
Speaker 1: recently diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. My question
Speaker 1: to you is how, in difficult times do you handle
Speaker 1: the fleshly desire of self, pity, selfishness, and pride. I
Speaker 1: know this is a broad question, but any advice that
Speaker 1: you have I would appreciate it. Oh, Kyle, I'm so sorry, buddy,
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry, And you know what I want to
Speaker 1: say right off the bat. First of all, I don't
Speaker 1: I don't know what it's like in your shoes. And
Speaker 1: because I don't know what it's like in your shoes,
Speaker 1: I don't know how to appropriately answer that question. But
Speaker 1: I will walk with you as though we're having this
Speaker 1: conversation around a campfire. And what's difficult about that, and
Speaker 1: the essence of this podcast is me answering your questions casually.
Speaker 1: But what's difficult in this kind of scenario is that
Speaker 1: I would listen to you way more than I talk
Speaker 1: and Unfortunately, in this kind of setting, it's just me
Speaker 1: in a microphone. So my first thought that comes to
Speaker 1: my mind is if you're asking the question, how do
Speaker 1: you handle the fleshly desire of self pity, selfishness, and
Speaker 1: pride being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. First
Speaker 1: I just hear I say, brother. The fact that you
Speaker 1: even label it as a fleshley desire, the fact that
Speaker 1: you even bring it up as an enemy that you
Speaker 1: need to eradicate, gives me so much hope and encouragement
Speaker 1: that you're on a really good path because I think
Speaker 1: recognizing that that that could be an enemy, self pity, selfishness, pride.
Speaker 1: The fact that you could recognize that that's an enemy,
Speaker 1: I think is a huge mountain that most people don't
Speaker 1: get to. We see so many people that just just
Speaker 1: wallow in their self pity, they wallow in their selfishness.
Speaker 1: This is why it's difficult for me to answer this
Speaker 1: question with you, because I haven't been in your shoes.
Speaker 1: But so please forgive me when I speak of selfishness
Speaker 1: on your behalf, because I don't know you and I
Speaker 1: don't want to unfairly label you as someone that's selfish,
Speaker 1: But I'm just going by what you told me. And
Speaker 1: to think that it's all to think that a sickness, okay,
Speaker 1: stepping out on a limb, to think that a sickness
Speaker 1: from a personal perspective, it's all about me, is a problem, right,
Speaker 1: And to say anything, say I get this, I get
Speaker 1: a stomach bug. And my tendency, my human tendency, is
Speaker 1: to think, oh poor me, my day is ruined. I
Speaker 1: have lost all this time of the last I've lost
Speaker 1: the last two days because I've got the stum bug.
Speaker 1: Oh poor me. Right, And that's a very light example
Speaker 1: of how we could turn everything inward on ourselves and
Speaker 1: be so selfish and just think it's all about me.
Speaker 1: I look, I see this when couples are fighting and
Speaker 1: they're on the brink of divorce, and so many times
Speaker 1: when these couples are at each other, they're at each
Speaker 1: other's throat and they're fighting through something. I just think
Speaker 1: in my mind and I try to tell him in
Speaker 1: the nicest way I can. I try to tell him,
Speaker 1: both of you are just making everything all about you.
Speaker 1: I have been dealing with this relationship for so long,
Speaker 1: and I have put up with his crap for so long.
Speaker 1: And his narcissism. And he doesn't do this or I
Speaker 1: ask him to do he doesn't recognize this and this
Speaker 1: and this, and then the guys over here going. She
Speaker 1: just nags and nags and nags. She doesn't understand my
Speaker 1: sensitivity towards her nagging. And she doesn't even know that
Speaker 1: I'm actually going through this and work, and I come
Speaker 1: on from work and she nags me at this and
Speaker 1: she has no sensitivity towards us. And I'm going, both
Speaker 1: of y'all are just being selfish. Look. Look another example.
Speaker 1: I tell my kids Lincoln in London, when they start
Speaker 1: fighting and they do this, he said this, she said this,
Speaker 1: he said, And I go, who's gonna quit first? Quit? What?
Speaker 1: Quit the selfishness? Who's gonna stop first? Who's gonna break
Speaker 1: the selfishness? And go? You know, what's not all about me?
Speaker 1: It's not all about me. How many times do we
Speaker 1: need to hear that in our own lives? How many
Speaker 1: times do we need to tell ourselves that it's not
Speaker 1: all about me? Oh? Man? Can you imagine a world
Speaker 1: if everyone looked at themselves and said that? So my
Speaker 1: point with this, Kyle, is that the fact that you
Speaker 1: even recognize it as the enemy is so huge. In
Speaker 1: order to fight self pity and selfishness, we serve and
Speaker 1: we give, because you can't with a full heart of
Speaker 1: gratitude serve someone else and simultaneously have self pity for ourselves.
Speaker 1: You can't wholeheartedly give and pour out to someone else
Speaker 1: with gratitude and be full of selfishness and pride simultaneously.
Speaker 1: Those things cannot coexist. And so you go, well, cool,
Speaker 1: that's nice for a postcard stranger. But I've got cancer.
Speaker 1: How could I possibly serve others? I'm not even capable
Speaker 1: of serving myself right now? Right, Kyle, you know that's
Speaker 1: not right, because I've been to those cancer wards and hospitals,
Speaker 1: and I've seen how valuable, how valuable empathy is in
Speaker 1: those cancer wards. Someone that understands when we lost River
Speaker 1: my son and we went back to visit people in
Speaker 1: the nick you people that were had just lost a
Speaker 1: child or had a child that was battling for their life.
Speaker 1: When we go there, when we speak to those people
Speaker 1: even today, they will listen to us more than they
Speaker 1: listen to someone that hasn't been through it. That's our
Speaker 1: human nature. That's the power of empathy, right, And so you,
Speaker 1: with this rare form of cancer being diagnosed, can serve
Speaker 1: others with a similar diagnosis, and it will be more
Speaker 1: powerful and more meaningful to everyone else, way more than
Speaker 1: the people that have never been through it like you.
Speaker 1: And when you do that, when you serve others, when
Speaker 1: you say what could I do for you? How could
Speaker 1: I help you? How could I be there for you?
Speaker 1: Just even just just a talk. Can I come over
Speaker 1: tonight and we'll just talk? By you doing that, You're
Speaker 1: not capable of being selfish. You're not capable of drowning
Speaker 1: and self pity. You're not capable of being puffed up
Speaker 1: with pride. Brother, I don't know what you're going through,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to pretend like I am. But
Speaker 1: from the outside looking in, this is your roadmap to
Speaker 1: overcoming these what you call fleshly desires. If you want
Speaker 1: to get a hold of me some way, maybe get
Speaker 1: a video message from me. You could do that at
Speaker 1: cameo dot com slash granger Smith. I will see your message.
Speaker 1: You send me a message and say what you want
Speaker 1: me to say in a video, and I'll make a
Speaker 1: quick video on my phone and say exactly that. Happy Birthday,
Speaker 1: Happy anniversary, word of encouragement, word of prayer, something, anything
Speaker 1: that you want me to send to someone else or yourself.
Speaker 1: You could do that with a video message from me
Speaker 1: from cameo dot com slash Granger Smith. Next question comes
Speaker 1: from Anonymous here and it says, Hey Granger. First, I'd
Speaker 1: like to say that your sermons have strengthened my relationship
Speaker 1: with Christ and brought me closer to him. Thank you
Speaker 1: for your ministry. My question is for what reasons should
Speaker 1: you leave a local church. I have been prayerfully considering
Speaker 1: leaving my current church for deeper scripture teaching, among other things.
Speaker 1: I have attended this church for a long time and
Speaker 1: have close friendships within the congregation. Thus I feel very
Speaker 1: torn about leaving. Ultimately, I want to do whatever God
Speaker 1: is asking me to do. Any advice that you have,
Speaker 1: even tough love, would be appreciated. God blessed Anonymous. The
Speaker 1: first thing I would say in response to this question
Speaker 1: is I would be careful with saying I want to
Speaker 1: do whatever God is asking me to do, because when
Speaker 1: you say that, you're implying that God spoke to you
Speaker 1: and told you to leave this church, and that's not
Speaker 1: That's not what happened. Okay, so let's let's be careful
Speaker 1: with the language. I'm trying to do what God is
Speaker 1: asking me to do. Look, look, I get it, I
Speaker 1: get what you're saying, but I just want to be
Speaker 1: crystal clear as we're talking to everyone else here. Instead,
Speaker 1: let's change it to something like I want to be
Speaker 1: faithful to God's word or I want to be obedient
Speaker 1: to my savior. Right, So let's say things like that
Speaker 1: instead of I want to do what he's asking me
Speaker 1: to do. Right. Secondly, you said what reasons should you
Speaker 1: leave a local church? And then the next sentence you
Speaker 1: gave really good reasons. You said, I have been perfectly
Speaker 1: considering leaving, and here's your reason for deeper scripture teaching,
Speaker 1: among other things. And I go, oh, amen, that's a
Speaker 1: good reason. Maybe you emailed because you just needed me
Speaker 1: to hear that and cheer you on a little bit.
Speaker 1: You need my approval. Maybe because you literally asked a
Speaker 1: question and then gave a really good answer to your
Speaker 1: own question. Maybe it just takes me to just tell
Speaker 1: you that you did that. So leaving your church for
Speaker 1: because you crave deeper scripture teaching is valid. It wouldn't
Speaker 1: be valid to say the pastor's not feeding me, you know,
Speaker 1: or like I just I feel like I'm not growing.
Speaker 1: That's not the pastor's responsibility to make you grow or
Speaker 1: to feed you necessarily kind of. But he would do
Speaker 1: that through deeper scripture teaching. So that's the answer. If
Speaker 1: that's the way he should feed you, that's the way
Speaker 1: you should grow with that. So there's a difference between
Speaker 1: I don't feel like I'm growing and the pastor's not
Speaker 1: teaching deep scripture. Okay, he's not teaching the full Bible,
Speaker 1: he's not expositionally walking through different books, which is really
Speaker 1: the recommended way to answer all of these questions instead
Speaker 1: of topical series throughout the year. Here's what I think
Speaker 1: you need from me. I think you're looking to just
Speaker 1: get validated in this decision, and I think what you
Speaker 1: need to hear is that you need to not sneak
Speaker 1: out the exit quietly. You need to schedule lunches or
Speaker 1: dinner with the leadership that brought you into the church
Speaker 1: or that has counseled you through your time there. You
Speaker 1: said you've been there a long time, and in that
Speaker 1: dinner or lunch or coffee, just be very honest and
Speaker 1: completely transparent and just go look, I love you guys,
Speaker 1: I love the people, and I'm so torn. This is
Speaker 1: so difficult for me. But I'm seeking deeper scripture teaching
Speaker 1: and I'm going to go somewhere else. I don't know
Speaker 1: exactly where yet, but I'm going to start my search.
Speaker 1: But I just want to tell you that it hurts me.
Speaker 1: It's not easy to do this, and I wanted you
Speaker 1: to hear it from me instead of you just stop
Speaker 1: seeing me show up and you wonder what happened to me.
Speaker 1: I wanted to tell you that. Now, that does a
Speaker 1: couple of things. One, it's just that's just a nice, generous,
Speaker 1: respectable thing to do. It's it's it's the it's the
Speaker 1: way to have integrity and leave a church. But the
Speaker 1: second thing it does is it also sounds a little
Speaker 1: bit of an alarm that says we're losing people because
Speaker 1: we're not teaching deep scripture. Right. That's important too, and
Speaker 1: so you need to be honest with that. The the
Speaker 1: third thing that I would say that this is going
Speaker 1: to do, it's it's going to make this church. If
Speaker 1: they just saw you disappear, they would continue on the
Speaker 1: same path. It's going to make them rethink in leadership
Speaker 1: the way that they are presenting sermons on a Sunday morning.
Speaker 1: Next question comes from Jason. It says, Hey, Graynard, there's
Speaker 1: this girl who I have liked for about over a year,
Speaker 1: and she is my boss's daughter. We make eye contact
Speaker 1: whenever I see her, and she either smiles or quickly
Speaker 1: looks away. However, she has been with her current current
Speaker 1: boyfriend for about nine months and they've been doing long
Speaker 1: distance and he won't be living here for a year.
Speaker 1: I've been to my boss's house multiple times to help remodel,
Speaker 1: and I've talked to the girl there. She's really sweet.
Speaker 1: We're both twenty. What do you recommend I do? Let
Speaker 1: me get let me hang on, say, let me get
Speaker 1: a grip on this. Jason, there's a girl you like her.
Speaker 1: She's your boss's daughter. Got it. You guys make eye contact,
Speaker 1: which is interesting, and she smiles and say you're getting
Speaker 1: these like this body language reading from her that she's
Speaker 1: into you, right, recapping for my own mind. And she's
Speaker 1: been with her current boyfriend for almost a year and
Speaker 1: long distance. But the thing I'm missing, Jason, the thing
Speaker 1: I'm missing is that you don't you don't say how
Speaker 1: she's doing with him. That would be the first thing
Speaker 1: I'd ask, as well, is she happy with this guy?
Speaker 1: Because what if I was kind of expecting you to say,
Speaker 1: she's she's got a wondering eye because he treats her
Speaker 1: horrible and he never takes her to dinner, or or
Speaker 1: she's very unhappy, or he's got all these different girlfriends
Speaker 1: in different towns, and I thought that that's where this
Speaker 1: was going. But you didn't say anything about that. All
Speaker 1: you said is you've been to her house multiple times
Speaker 1: and talk to her there, and she's really sweet. This
Speaker 1: is something man, that you have to be really careful
Speaker 1: with because you come in, you come in at this
Speaker 1: at this juncture, when she is twenty years old and
Speaker 1: she's dating this guy for nine months, you're you're in
Speaker 1: the position where you can get in a lot of trouble. Basically,
Speaker 1: that's what I'm saying. For instance, you go to her
Speaker 1: and say, look, I like you, just want to be honest.
Speaker 1: I like you. If you're into me, let me know.
Speaker 1: Then she's like, oh my goodness, no I don't. I've
Speaker 1: got a serious boyfriend. And then she goes back and
Speaker 1: if if that's true, then she's gonna tell the serious
Speaker 1: boyfriend and he's gonna be like, wait what, your dad
Speaker 1: has hired this guy and now he's hitting on you
Speaker 1: while I'm out of town, and it it creates a
Speaker 1: really tough situation, So you gotta be really careful. I
Speaker 1: would say the best thing to do. And there is
Speaker 1: no right or wrong to this, for sure, But if
Speaker 1: I was talking to you in the cap of a truck,
Speaker 1: I would say, do not bring it up that you
Speaker 1: like her. It's a dangerous thing to do. Instead, And
Speaker 1: even though you probably want me to say that in
Speaker 1: this podcast, and that's what your impulse probably wants me
Speaker 1: to say, but I would just be super sweet to her,
Speaker 1: try not to be too flirty. You're not going to
Speaker 1: go on any dates or anything, and watch her. Look
Speaker 1: this happened with me and Amber when I first met her.
Speaker 1: I really really really liked her, and just like you,
Speaker 1: she was really sweet and she had a boyfriend. And
Speaker 1: I didn't come to her as some homewrecker and say, look,
Speaker 1: not that that's the right term with a boyfriend. But
Speaker 1: I didn't come to her and say, hey, I like you,
Speaker 1: will you break up with this guy? You know? Let's
Speaker 1: date instead. I was just as sweet as I could be.
Speaker 1: I tried to be beckful for the situation, and Amber
Speaker 1: reached out to me and she said, look, I just
Speaker 1: I was wondering if the way you feel, if the
Speaker 1: way you feel about me is the same I feel
Speaker 1: about you, because I think there's more to us than friends.
Speaker 1: That's what she said. And then guess what I did.
Speaker 1: I pumped the brakes again. I still didn't say, yes,
Speaker 1: I like you, I said, and I promise she could
Speaker 1: tell you. She could back this up. I said, regardless
Speaker 1: of how I feel, if you have this kind of
Speaker 1: wondering eye, you don't need to be dating this guy.
Speaker 1: So break up with him and then we'll talk. That
Speaker 1: was my way of saying, look, I don't want I
Speaker 1: don't want any part of being the bad guy here
Speaker 1: in this situation because it wasn't my place. I didn't
Speaker 1: have any claim on Amber at all. I didn't have
Speaker 1: any right to move into that relationship and break it
Speaker 1: up right. So I said, look, you'll show me something
Speaker 1: huge if you break up with this guy. And she did.
Speaker 1: She was like, okay, she broke up with a guy.
Speaker 1: And she called me and said, I broke up with him,
Speaker 1: and then guess what I did. Then I said okay,
Speaker 1: and I let about a month go by, and then
Speaker 1: we lived in two different towns. And then after about
Speaker 1: a month, I said, hey, I'm playing this little acoustic
Speaker 1: gig and walks a hatch. He's kind of close to you.
Speaker 1: Do you want to go grab some coffee after my gig?
Speaker 1: And she said yes. Then after my gig, which she
Speaker 1: didn't go to, I didn't even tell her where it was,
Speaker 1: went to the gig and I said, I'm finished. There's
Speaker 1: a Starbucks ten miles from me, and it looks like
Speaker 1: it's close to you, and she said great. We went there.
Speaker 1: We got two coffees, probably nine thirty at night, and
Speaker 1: we drank the coffee. We talked, and we stayed there
Speaker 1: and talked until they started putting the chairs up are
Speaker 1: the stools up onto the tables, and they said we're closing.
Speaker 1: So I said, okay, we got to go, and I
Speaker 1: got in my truck, she got in her car, she
Speaker 1: went home. I went home, and we talked on the
Speaker 1: phone on the way home, so we couldn't we couldn't
Speaker 1: talk enough. It's Starbucks. We talked all the way home
Speaker 1: and from then on we were messaging and talking back
Speaker 1: and forth and we became best friends. So look, that's
Speaker 1: not necessarily the right roadmap for you. But I'm partly
Speaker 1: telling you that I don't think going in and telling her, hey,
Speaker 1: I really like you, like you want to break up
Speaker 1: with this guy's long distance anyway, I don't really think
Speaker 1: that's the right way, or at least I could say that,
Speaker 1: that wouldn't be what I would do. I wouldn't. I
Speaker 1: would instead be courteous, be respectful, be sweet, be a
Speaker 1: man of integrity, work hard for her dad, trust with
Speaker 1: her dad, don't let the sun go down on you
Speaker 1: and her in the same room, be respectful in that
Speaker 1: aspect as well. Treat her like a lady. And then
Speaker 1: I believe this will pan out in your favor if
Speaker 1: it's the right thing, and if it's not, then she
Speaker 1: might actually really like the other guy, and good for
Speaker 1: him and good for her, And if you truly cared
Speaker 1: about her, then that's what you would want anyway. Okay,
Speaker 1: So I think that's my answer, and that's a long
Speaker 1: way of just saying i'd be careful with this. You look.
Speaker 1: An alternative to me saying that is you go in
Speaker 1: you go, hey, I really like you. I know you're
Speaker 1: dating this guy, but you want to come with me,
Speaker 1: and she goes, yeah, I do. In the back of
Speaker 1: your mind from then on, you might be thinking, if
Speaker 1: a better guy comes along, he could easily come in
Speaker 1: and just have the same conversation with her, and she
Speaker 1: just moves on to the better guy. And that's just
Speaker 1: what she does. She just upgrades constantly. Who's to say
Speaker 1: that she wouldn't do that if she did it with you?
Speaker 1: Just my thought. Love you guys, Thanks for being here.
Speaker 1: We will see you next Monday. Thanks for joining me
Speaker 1: on the Grangersmith podcast. I appreciate all of you guys.
Speaker 1: You could help me out by rating this podcast on iTunes.
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