The Every Day Christian Podcast
The Every Day Christian Podcast (also known as The Everyday Christian Podcast) is a bi-weekly show that helps apply scriptural principles to every day Christian lives!
The Every Day Christian Podcast
97 | Church, State & Charlie Kirk
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In this open conversation, Sean and Jonathan reflect on the recent death of Charlie Kirk and what it means for the future of faith, culture, and politics. We wrestle with hard questions about free speech, the church’s response to political issues, and the rise of violence in our communities. This episode is less about answers and more about honest dialogue — asking what the church must do now and where we go from here.
Faith, Fear, and Motives
SPEAKER_00There's always going to be the crowd that says, if I see XYZ, I'll believe. And there's always going to be the crowd that says, because of fear I have over this, that, or the other, I'm going to believe. But there has to be, and you have to make it up in your heart, if you're listening to this, that I'm not going to God because I have seen XYZ or because I'm afraid of this or that or the other. I'm going to God because I believe in God even if I don't, even if I don't see his hand move over here.
SPEAKER_02I'm sorry, guys, we haven't done this in a whole year.
SPEAKER_00I love it. You guys are getting a firsthand look at what we go through when we pre-record because it's always either like he'll start us off and I'll mess it up, or vice versa. And it's so much fun that way. So yeah.
Take Two: New Setup, We’re Back
SPEAKER_02Here we go. Take two.
SPEAKER_00Take two. You're listening to the Everyday Christian podcast.
SPEAKER_02Well, we apply scriptural principles to everyday Christian lives. I'm Sean Slugett.
SPEAKER_00And I'm John Rich. And today we've got a couple of things that we're obviously going to talk about. Um, you'll have to bear with us. Please, please bear with us. I feel like I say this a lot. We're working on getting a new studio. We're actually in the center of our youth building right now. Um, things don't look the greatest that they could look, but we're working with what we have. I've also got a switcher on our cameras. No idea how the quality will be. Just uh just bear with us if you're watching or listening on Facebook or YouTube, um, and we will obviously post that audio and hopefully video quality a little bit better later on.
SPEAKER_02A lot of a lot of new things have yeah are happening right now. Yeah. Um we have missed, I think we're like three or four months now worth of stuff that we've missed. Um I don't know if Jonathan will apologize for it, but I will apologize that we've missed.
SPEAKER_01I'm not apologizing for nothing, bud. I'm kidding.
SPEAKER_02But uh we do apologize for that. There's been there's been a lot going on in everybody's life. Yeah. Uh recently, just like everybody else's. Uh but things have been going on. Obviously, we're trying new studios. Yeah. Um the furniture store has shut down. I'm sure a lot of people know that. Just just a whole bunch of moving things going on. Um brother, brother. I'm not calling you brother. That's all right. Jonathan over here, this guy, this guy to my left. Yeah. Um, my brother, my good brother, uh had a lot going on with the youth group. So there's there's definitely been a lot going on. Uh, but but we're back.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. That's it's kind of crazy um to think about, to be honest with you, that we are officially back. Um, I'm kind of messing around here. I'm trying to make sure that everything is going smooth on this live. It very well may not be. And so if it's not, bear with me. So far, things seem to be things seem to be okay. So we'll see how it goes.
Life Changes and Why We Paused
SPEAKER_00Um, there's a lot of things that obviously have taken place over, you know, the last couple of months. Tons of things have um have happened. A lot of things have taken place over the last two weeks. Um, if you've lived under a rock or something, you probably have no idea what we're talking about. But you know, obviously, we we're gonna mention something about Charlie Kirk on this episode. We've shared some things about him so far, I think on my personal page, and then some on the podcast platform there. Um, never gonna be hateful about it, but obviously there's going to be people that have opposing views about it. There's going to be people that disagree with some things that we say, there's people that disagree with things that he said. We understand all those things. But I feel it necessary to maybe talk a little bit about things that have been going on in society, things that have been going on in the world. Um, which by the way, if if you're here right now listening to this, you were not taken up in the rapture that was supposed to happen today.
SPEAKER_01We've still got a few hours left.
SPEAKER_00We've still got a couple hours. At least in our time zone, we still have a couple of hours left. So who knows how how that'll go down.
SPEAKER_02But it's almost seven, so we've got yeah five hours before.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we've got at least five.
SPEAKER_02Five hours called them false prophets.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and and listen, we're we're not here to like jab fun at you, maybe a little bit. We are. Um, but a lot of things have taken place. A lot of what I've heard people say, Sean, is um is a shift. Like that's a word I keep hearing a lot, which is really interesting because I've felt that same thing shift. Uh, I think Pastor preached to us a couple weeks ago, I think the Sunday after his murder, and the word that he used was shift. I th I was talking to a friend of mine um a week afterwards, and they said, I feel a shift. And it's like things have changed in us spiritually. And I know, you know, there's there's people of all different walks of life that listen to this podcast. There's people from all different walks of life that agree with things that we've said, that disagree strongly with things that we said. I don't really care about any of that anymore. Obviously, I have my own philosophies, my own life, my own biblical views. Obviously, I'm trying, Sean's trying to draw out the scripture so that we can teach individuals on this podcast how to live a Christian life every single day. And with that comes a lot of scrutinization. With that comes a lot of individuals that hate us. I mean, I I can tell you of times where we've had episodes, we've had people on the episodes that have threatened, that have that have literally attempted to hurt somebody because of episodes that we've released. We understand all that. We also understand that like we're we're kind of a small-scale podcast, like we're not big by any means. We get X amount of viewers and X amount of downloads every week. But um, in the grand scheme of things, I look at us and I'm like, you know, we're not really big, but there are individuals that have been helped by this podcast. And over the last six months, I've dealt with a lot of deep depression and deep things that um I've struggled with in my own mental walk. I know some of you are going to turn it off now because I said something about mental, um, but there there have been a lot of mental struggles in my own life, Sean, that you know, I've just um I've dealt with and and and uh different things I've done to overcome those
Processing Charlie Kirk’s Murder
SPEAKER_00things. Um and obviously there's a lot of that, a lot of that is reasoning behind why we haven't really done an episode over the last five or six months, amongst different things, you know, obviously. Um, but I just can't in good conscience hold back anymore. It's like I can't in good conscience, because I've thought about it, you know, the last five months, I've thought, well, well, maybe we should quit it, maybe we should stop. Um and honestly, that that moment, I think a lot of people have felt this way, but at that moment that I saw the video, and I don't recommend anybody to go see the video, but the moment that I saw the video, it was like all of a sudden, at the moment I was I was furious, I was angry, I was emotional, I was sad, which we'll talk about that here in a moment because I've I've got some more to add to that. But I was really upset, and in an instant it was like God healed me. And I don't know why. I don't, I'm not saying that like this this thing had to happen for God to heal me. Maybe it was my own, you know, blocks and obstacles, but it was like at that moment I felt a release in my mind, and I thought to myself, I need to do more. I need to do more. I'm tired of sitting sitting around doing nothing. I'm tired of sitting around doing the status quo or reaching a ceiling and then going back down. And so at the moment, that Wednesday that he was shot, I'm just sharing some of my testimony, and and Sean obviously interrupt me if I go too long or I say too much. But at the moment that he was shot, listen to the man for like 13 years, like since like 2015 or 2012 or something like that, 2013. Um, he gets shot. Immediately you see the video, you're like, he's he's gone. Like there's there's there's probably no way that that he survived this, you know. And all through that day, my question to God was, God, what do I do? God, what do I do? And little like sprinkled in throughout, um sprinkled in throughout the last five months, I've been asking God that question. And he's been revealing little things to me here and there, and I'm thankful for that. It's like, you know, even in my own hurt and depression and my own like mental battles, it's like God's been like sprinkling little things in. And so I've asked him that, and he's revealed some things to me that I'll hopefully share soon. Um, but I asked those those questions for the last six months. What do I do, God? What do I do? How do I do this? What do I do here? How do I fix this? The moment it shot all through that Wednesday, God, what do I do? What do I do? All day Thursday, all I could think about was that this person who stood for conservative biblical values, which by the way, conservatism have, I'm not saying everybody in conservative conservatism is right, but I am saying that if you have biblical values, most of those values are going to align with conservative values. So here's a man who stands up for what's right. And almost every video I've seen of this dude for I don't know how many years, somewhere mixed in, there's something about Jesus.
SPEAKER_02I believe that the full the last question that he answered fully, yeah, uh, was he was actually talking about Jesus Christ. Yeah. So it was the second to last question he ever received. So he was witnessing just just mere seconds before. So I mean, yeah, absolutely. He's always Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Up until his point of death, he was doing that. And so all that things rushing in through my head, and I'm thinking, God, what do I do? Lord, what do I do?
A Personal Breaking Point: “Do Anything”
SPEAKER_00I'm just asking that question over and over and over again, all throughout the day. I just don't know why I'm asking it. I'm just like, God, what do I do? And some of you may have been asking that question, by the way. I think, you know, I've I've heard of others say that, you know, Lord, what how can we step in? And you know, it's pretty crazy to see the amount of support that has come to Turning Point USA and how many people have tried to open chapters and stuff and and they've engaged in that, and I'm thankful for that. But I think that that same thought process has gone through people's mind of Lord, what do I do? What more can I do? You know what I mean? And so I'm asking him that all day Wednesday, all day Thursday. Friday rolls around. I'm asking him that all day Friday. And then I think his wife speaks Friday night. It was either Friday or Saturday, and she's up there talking and like a little bit of like personal for me. I like to listen to things while I take a shower, you know. So I'm in the shower listening to this lady give a pretty incredible speech. And of course, I'm in there like freaking out, like, God, what do I do? Like it's it's amazing how God's working on my heart during this moment. And I'm listening to this really incredible speech, and I'm crying because I I feel sorry for her, and I'm crying because I feel sorry for his family. And at the same time, it's like there's a call to action, there's something in me that's just stirring. And finally, I'm I'm in the sh'in the shower. My wife, I don't remember where she went, like Dollar General or something. So I'm alone. Thank God. Because I just grab my hair and I say, God, what do I do? And it was as if lightning bolt struck my head. I've never quite felt this. The only time I've ever really experienced this is when I first was saved. And even then it was kind of stronger. I don't know why, by the way. Um, but it was like a lightning bolt just touched my head and it went all the way down to my toes. And I hear a voice in my mind, in my heart, whatever you want to call it, and it just yells back at me. I yell, I yell at God, and God yells back at me this. Do anything. Do anything. So I'm like, I'm I'm sitting there like shocked, you know. And all of a sudden I feel that again, head to my toe, and it says, do anything. It's better than doing nothing. Of course, I'm bawling again, and I'm not trying to make, you know, I could talk about Charlie Kirk all day, I could talk about his death all day. I'm not trying to make it about me. I know a lot of people are doing that. Um, your Candace Owens of the world. Don't get me started on that. Don't even start here.
SPEAKER_02I didn't say that.
SPEAKER_00I know, I know what you're about to say over here, but even I know there's individuals that are trying to take this experience and make that about themselves. And in a weird way, in a really strange way, I think it's given people self-reflection because it's given people the ability to look at a man who stood up for what was right, killed for what was right, and say, Am I really doing enough? And God's just saying, do anything. Why, why, why have we become so comfortable with if I go to church and I get inside of a building, that's when I can do something for God. And you can, by the way, you can do something for God in your church building. Why is Christ not a part of my conversation in everyday life? Why do I go to a gas station and fill up with gas and see someone who's struggling and not go up to that individual and say, it's because a couple things. Number one, it's because of my own laziness. And number two, it's because of the inconvenience that it causes me. We we we as Christians become so, we we as Christians become so I'm so sorry, I got interrupted because brother your your dad, he says, I'm so proud of you, Jonathan. Always have been, always will be, and I'm pretty proud of the other guy that's there too. I thought he was saying something bad about you. That's so funny. But we get so caught up in our own time schedule. We get so caught up in front, you know, with me, like 6 a.m. I wake up and I pray and I read my Bible. I eat breakfast, 7 a.m. I clock into work, 4 p.m. I clock out of work, 4 to 5 p.m. I play with the kids, 5 to 7 p.m. I've got, you know, Wednesday nights, it's usually I've got youth or whatever, 5 to 8 p.m. I've got youth. You know, Tuesday nights, it's apparently podcast night. You know, it's always something. It's like it's like we are scheduling time to be away from our purpose, and that purpose is to share the gospel. There you think about, I know I'm I need you to step in here, man. I need you to back me up here. When you think about when you think about purpose, when you think about purpose, we we so many times we try to schedule things to where it it negates that purpose in our life or it takes away from those moments. And it's like if you would just take five minutes to bring somebody water and say a prayer for them, or to preach Jesus or tell them about Christ, like what is that gonna do to your schedule?
From Paralysis to Small Acts of Courage
SPEAKER_00It's it may mess up your schedule by five minutes, right? But um, but I would much rather have five minutes messed up for God than I would five minutes of doing nothing or getting to a place where it's like I got here on time, and it turns out I didn't even it didn't even matter. You ever done that before? You're like, I've gotta get there early. My wife's like, you drive me nuts. I'm like, I gotta get there at least 15 minutes early. And I get there 15 minutes early, and they don't even start for 30 more minutes. I think that I know in myself, and I'm I'm preaching, you know, to the to the choir here, but I know in myself there's more I could do. There's differences I can make. There's some hard lines that just can't be crossed anymore. There's some messages that I'll probably need to preach to our youth group that are biblical, but they're hurtful and hard. Because sometimes the truth hurts and sometimes the truth is hard. But I can't in good conscience do nothing, Sean. I can't conscience good conscience do nothing.
SPEAKER_02We can't anymore. I believe it was I don't even remember what I would I think it was Monday, the Monday after you had that your little that Friday or Saturday that that happened, I called you, and we were just sitting there talking. And um I was I was at work actually cleaning some some buildings out. And and we both just broke down in tears.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And started crying over the phone about just, you know, what else can we do? What else? And and I've you know, like you when that happened, I was man, is there is there anything I can do? Is there anything that I can anything anything extra? I guess was kind of my question. Yeah. And you know, I I think of of Charlie Kirk and the likes you know, they had, I believe they had at the time of when all that went down, I believe they had about 3200 chapters going on. Yeah. And I was like, man, I'll never I'll never mount to that. I'll never have anything of that capacity. Or is it possible maybe? Yeah, I don't know. But while I was questioning those kind of things, you know, what my Sunday school class came to mind.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I was like, am I doing am I doing enough for my class? Am I studying enough? Am I praying enough for those kids? Yeah. Um, obviously the podcast came up. You know, we've we've taken time off, and and I was like, man, I I was gonna get pretty bold with it and say, even if Jonathan wasn't, I was gonna try to figure out a way to do it, but thank God he decided he wanted to do it again, too.
SPEAKER_00Finally stepped up.
SPEAKER_02Um but I mean that that drive is there, that shift that you were talking about is it's definitely there. You see it all around. There are there are those out there that are hurt by different things, and I understand that. You know, we're not trying to negate all of that. Uh, but it it's it's definitely time to stand up, take a stand for a lot of these things. Uh, and we've seen it happen. Yeah. We're seeing it happen. I've talked to to multiple different people, and I'm, you know, like like you have different ones about those different about different things that they want to do and be a part of uh TPUSA. Yeah. They wanted uh I think it was about a year and a half ago or so, they asked Charlie Kirk where he wanted to get to, and he said, I want to get to 20,000 chapters.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02That was his goal. It was one of these days he said, I want to get to 20,000 chapters. Yeah. You know, he was at 3,200. And to him, you know, to hear that.
SPEAKER_00Hey, it's so hard to do it.
SPEAKER_02You know, I'm sh I'm sure for him that was that was a huge goal. That was something that was just seemed so far out of reach for him. And and you know, in his mind, 3,200, you know, that's to go from that, you need to go, you know, a six or seven multiplier to get to that twenty thousand. You know, what is there any way I'll ever get to twenty thousand? And he never got to see that. But over the last two weeks, there have been over 70,000 requests, if I remember right, yeah for new chapters.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It's pretty crazy. I love this. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And so, you know, for me to sit here and like, what can I do? Is there anything extra? What else can I do? Right. And then to have that conversation with Jonathan of do anything. Right. You know, that to me that was okay, well, when are we gonna start
Measuring Impact vs. Obedience
SPEAKER_02the podcast back up? Because it's it's time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02When tonight I'm gonna start praying for Sunday school for my class so I can be prepared for them Sunday. Not wait till the weekend gets here to try to be prepared for it.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02You know, because I want them to learn, I want them to understand, I want to be biblical.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You know, I want effort, yeah. This effort, and not that I don't put in effort, but you can always be better. Yeah, you can always do better. And when I say you, I'm talking about me. Right. I can always be better.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I agree. You could always be better, but yeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, I was the one that wants to start the podcast up.
SPEAKER_00So that's so true. Amen. He got me here. You know what I'm saying? I love it because uh you probably saw me go across the screen. It's because these cameras, man, they they will not stay, they it's like they won't stay on, and I've got this cool switcher and I'm I'm getting used to it. Like I'm gonna I'm gonna be able to get it down pat to where it's just working just exponentiously. Is that even a word? I don't know. Uh, but I agree, you know, it's like there's more, obviously, more things that we could do and continue to do um to kind of push push the limit a little bit. Like I think that we we really just get comfortable and it's like just push the limit. And my wife and I, we're just having a discussion here, by the way. I know you I know some of you guys are like, you know, what what is this? Like, what what is this podcast? This is it. Um, yeah, that this is this is pretty much it. Like, we're just talking about any and all things from you know a worldview or whatever, a political view. There's probably gonna be a little bit more politics mixed in um to this podcast. Bear with me. Wait, what did you do just now? Day everyday Christian mugs, still have those around. We have a warehouse full of them that if you want yeah, I made a bunch of them and nobody bought them. So $20 to support um all proceeds go to Sean. He's I'm kidding, he looked at me sometimes. Anyway, to the podcast. To the podcast. There are a lot of things that are going on, obviously, right now. Um more my wife and I were talking, and and and you've probably seen this too, but it's it's crazy how you start seeing it play out in real time, where that mentality of that mentality of good being evil and e be evil being called good, it's just wild to me. Like it, and you saw we've seen it a lot, obviously. And I know what you're thinking, like, well, this is not a left and a right thing. This is a Jesus thing versus evil thing, and I a hundred percent agree with you. But like I mentioned at the beginning of this show, if you have biblical values, most of those are gonna line up with a conservative political stance. They're not gonna they're not gonna line up with a left-leaning stance, they're not gonna line up with a left-leaning ideology, they're just not. Um, and to say that they are to me is a uh a gross misrepresentation of of what the Bible, what the word of God says. So I want you to think about that um for a moment as I say the next thing. There are a lot of people on the other side of the aisle that are so wicked and vile and evil, which by the way, I know. Well, there's people on both sides of the aisle. Again, yes, I know that I agree with that. There's people on the right side that are very wicked and evil and vile and all that too. When this dude was shot, it the the news cycle is crazy how much it's changing. This guy shot, which take away religion, take away uh political beliefs for a second. A man was shot because of words. You like how I switched the camera to you? A man anytime Sean does something embarrassing, like he's gonna pop a pimple or something, we're gonna switch it to him. A man was shot for words. And that should astonish some of you. That should, that should
Community, Unity, and Doing the Work
SPEAKER_00I wouldn't say scare some of you, but that should wake some of you up. A man was shot for words. And the other, the left-leaning side of the aisle laughed and didn't care and said, good, he was speaking hate. And I wouldn't have pulled the bullet, but I'm glad for the person that did. How crazy and how messed up pulled the bullet, pulled the trigger. Sean you got I this is why I switch over to Sean because he he's he he makes the phases and he corrects me. I've heard people say that though. I I didn't pull the trigger, but I'm glad that somebody did. Shame. But not just shame, evil and wicked. And in the same like 48-hour period within a week's time, those same people freaked out because ABC canceled Jimmy Kimmel's show. And they said, Well, they're taking away our freedom of speech. And I literally had people say, if you compare the two, really, Jimmy Kimmel's show being canceled was worse than Charlie Kirk being murdered. I I I cannot stand it. It aggravates me. You guys are gonna see aggravated John Rich in this podcast. I'm so mad about that because it's wrong to say that someone who had, I think between the age rate, you'll have to fact check me on this, but like people within my age range, I think it was like 20 to 35, a night had 250,000 viewers. And you're gonna tell me that he was fired because of freedom of speech. You can argue that with me all day, but he probably should have been fired 10 years ago. But for someone to tell me that an individual deserved to be shot because of they really can only come up with three or four things that they disagree with, and they they they spew those all over and reiterate those, I'm not saying I agree with everything Charlie Kirk said. I've I've I've agreed with a lot less things that Joe Biden or Kamala Harris have said, but not one time have I ever thought to myself, I wish somebody would pull the trigger and kill them. But then to think that this happening is a good thing, and some of you are gonna disagree with that, I simply don't care. But for for you to think that Jimmy Kimmel's show being cancelled, which it's supposed to be back on tonight, is worse than Charlie Kirk's murder. We are seeing in real time evil being called good and good being called evil. And I don't know about you, but it's it's time to take a stand. It's time to stand against those things. I am tired, Brother Sean. I told you I was you like buckle up. I am tired of the church world saying we don't need to be involved in politics. I'm tired of that mentality. I'm tired of the mentality that says we don't need to preach politics from behind the pulpit. Now get listen to me. I am not saying get up behind the pulpit and tell your congregation to vote for Donald Trump. And if you don't, you're not, you know, you're not just not only not a red blooded American, but you're not a red blooded Christian. I'm not saying any of those things. What I am saying is to believe or to pretend. That issues such as abortion that we believe God gives life and God is, you know, wants us to be pro-life, for us to say that, and then to also say I don't want to have anything to do with politics is an oxymoron. Because those things go hand in hand. To say I want to, I want there to be legislation that protects the sanctity of marriage, and then to say, I don't want to be involved in politics, I'm sorry, I have a problem with that. You know, Sean, again, I talked to you about this before. You may completely disagree with me, and that's totally fine. I just have a problem with that though. To sit up here and tell me that you believe that God created one man and one woman, two genders, and then not to vote against statewide legislation to get rid of that mentality and that ideology. Well, evil's getting bad. Evil's getting bad, but that doesn't mean we do nothing. Evil's getting worse. Evil's getting worse. That doesn't mean we do nothing. I I can't. You cannot tell me that the church cannot be involved in politics anymore. Again, going back to it, I'm not saying tell everyone and their mother who to vote for. I'm not saying any of those things. What I am saying is you've got to get engaged in your community. You've got to get engaged in um protesting, you've got to get engaged in standing outside abortion clinics with um sonograms to help women make the right choice. I think too many times, and obviously, you guys know our background, Pentecostal holiness background. And we want to say, we've mentioned this so many times, Sean, on this podcast, but you know what? We haven't been here for five months, so maybe you guys are forgotten. But we
Faith Not Sight: Even If He Doesn’t
SPEAKER_00want to speak out against Catholicism and say the things that they believe are just detrimental to the faith or all these, you know, random things. Their doctrines are way off. And I don't agree with most of Catholicism, by the way. There's some things I do agree with, but for me to say speak out against this, but I also don't like abortion. When they're the reasons why, one of the main reasons why rather Roe versus Wade was overturned, Brother Sean. Sorry, I'm talking too much. You got to talk for me.
SPEAKER_02No, you're fine. I think um I think at one point, and I'd I think four of the Supreme Court justices when that was overturned, four or four or five almost. I don't remember now. Yeah they were they were practicing Catholics. Yeah. You know, they were the ones that got in. And I I don't remember the exact numbers on it either. But but the Catholic Church almost single-handedly, if you go look at the statistics and the funding and all that stuff, right? Uh was the reason that it was overturned. I mean, they were dumping money into it uh into pro-life organizations uh for years, and they have been for a long time. And you know, I like we've talked about this some me and you and others. It's you know, do do I agree with the Catholics? Yeah, like you said, not not on very much, but I can get on board with that for sure. Yeah, you know, there there's definitely a lot of things that that other denominations churches believe that I don't believe, and that you know we may see some of it we'll see eye to eye, some of it we won't. But I I have I have always tried to be a more open-minded towards that kind of things. I don't I don't care.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Are you following the Bible the best you can?
SPEAKER_01Right. Right.
SPEAKER_02Good. Yeah. Are you trying to get to heaven? Good. Good. Are you taking people with you? Yeah. Great. Right. I'll sit down, I'll debate, we can talk about differing points of view. Yeah. But more and more I'm yeah, I'm getting to the point now where I don't not that I was again, not that I wasn't before, but we're trying. Yeah. You're trying. Let's get together, let's do something. Yeah. Perfect example. Peanut butter and Jesus. Yeah. Uh it's a mini, there's several ministries all around. Here in Creek County, they do one. Uh I went and helped a couple weeks ago. And if I'm not well, I don't if I'm not mistaken, I think there was a Pentecostal holiness. I know there was some Pentecostal holiness people there. But there was also some oneness, UPC there. And you know, like, well, I mean, we can't have anything to do with the UPC because they're they don't believe in the Trinity and you know all these things. I get it. There's a lot of false doctrine. Right. I don't care. There's false doctrine there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Uh oh man, you're gonna we're gonna lose all our UPC followers. Sorry. That was the one that that was the that was the one.
SPEAKER_02We can talk about it later.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Uh, you know, again, there's things we don't disagree with, but they decided hey, there are some hurting people in Creek County that need some help. Yeah. And I'm sure if you'd asked that gentleman, he probably would have said that we had a lot of things wrong because obviously he doesn't believe the way that we did. He'd have told you there was a lot of things that we had messed up.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, guess what? We sat side by side. We got to talk to some people, we got to witness to some people, we got to give some kids some food that probably hadn't eaten that week. Yeah. Some of them I would almost would guarantee you that because when I walked up to them and I asked them how much they needed, they were like, is there any way we can have seven sandwiches? Yeah. Just me thinking here, there's seven days in the week.
SPEAKER_01You're right.
SPEAKER_02That happened three or four different times. Could have been a coincidence, and there was seven people in the household? Sure. But I've heard stories of those ones that said this is the only meal we get. Yeah. I've heard those stories. What is it gonna take?
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02And and I I hate that it happened to Charlie Kirk. I do. Yeah. I I I've listened to him for probably not as long as you have, but I've listened to him for a long time.
Housekeeping, Thanks, and What’s Next
SPEAKER_02But people are finally starting to realize and to see it. Yeah. And there's uh, I mean, there's there's videos out there. I saw one been a while back, and I'm actually started watching a lot of a lot of the videos. This one lady said that she hadn't been to church in years because of certain things that were going on. Yeah. Uh some church hurt. And that's a very real problem.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02Very serious, very real problem.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02And she had struggles in her life, some of it she'd kind of mentioned. Uh and you could just by look from looking at her and watching some of her videos, she looked like somebody that was liberal. Yeah. I don't know that for sure. I'm just from looking at her and watching her videos, she she seemed to look that way. But she, you can tell she was a thinker. And she started breaking stuff down and really diagnosing and analyzing. And then she went to church on a Sunday, and that Sunday afternoon she made a video. And she's like, Well, I guess this is take 50 something. She said, because I can't get through this without crying.
SPEAKER_01Crying, yeah.
SPEAKER_02And right. And she said, I walked into church this morning for the first time in how many ever years? And she said, I was greeted. Yeah. And I'm gonna be honest, this hit me right between the eyes. Oh, yeah. She said, I was greeted with open arms. Yeah. Which and then she said physically, I was greeted with open arms. She said, I know the church. I know enough about them. They're always will welcome you with open arms. You hear churches say stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02She said, There were people that I hadn't seen in a long time, people that knew me. She said, I walked into that door and they ran to the back and opened their arms and hugged me and told me they were thankful that I was back at church. She said, I was literally, and she's just crying her eyes out when she's saying this. She said, I was literally accepted back into the church with open arms. I'm watching that on a Sunday afternoon, and I'm like, dear God, yeah. Do they feel that way about me?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I'm not much of a hugger, but if I see somebody walk in the church, am I gonna stay in my pew? Right. Again, you're talking about taking five minutes out of your out of your day. Song service is going on. Is it do I have to be so prim and proper that I can't disrupt service to get out of my pew, walk towards the back? Hey brother. Yeah, my name's Sean. It's good to have you this evening. What's your name? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02It's not that hard. Will a few people look at me and be like, dude, what's Sean doing? Probably.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I don't care. Right. Like I've watched this lady, and just in this last couple weeks, like you can see again that shift, that change. Yeah. And it's it's challenged me a lot. And just I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, like you said, it just like it. Yes, it's changed. And I think a lot of people have felt the same way. You know, it's it's it's like, you know, what we talked about, like what can we do more of? And and then it's also like a self-evaluation, like what can I do better? And I think that that is, you know, there's we could talk all day about like what I need to do as a part of the church and what the church needs to be as a whole, you know, and what where they need to go from here kind of mentality. But you know, really, I think that just the self-evaluation of a church, you know, think about things that's going on in your church. Like, are you being are you making a difference in your community?
SPEAKER_02And I I keep you know what I mean. Yeah, I keep talking about the church, and I and I guess it's because it's kind of where I'm comfortable and and I have to work on myself. Sure. You know, I've got my Sunday school class that I teach, but I I don't want it to be about just my church. Yeah, I want it to be about the peanut butter and Jesus.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02I want it to be about the Macy's cradle.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I want it to be about these things that are outside. Because there are those that will come back to church, just like that young lady. There are those that will feel the need to be drawn back to church. But what about the ones that don't?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02What about the ones that are still hurting?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. For sure.
SPEAKER_02The ones that that maybe maybe did feel a little bit of something about this.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But things were so bad that they don't feel like they can go back. Why can't I be the one at the gas station like you talked about?
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02Why can't I be that guy? And when we're playing cornhole, you like hey, this guy's I talked to a guy last night, told him we were evangelists, traveled around and preached, and he had some questions about it. How hard is that? We're standing side by side for 10 minutes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And man, it it that self-reflection is yeah, it's been huge this last couple weeks. And I've I've had to challenge myself. What I was saying was I've I've had to challenge myself that I've got to I've got to get outside of the church built the full walls.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's great, but I've got to get outside of it more.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, again, it just kind of goes back to like what we're talking, what we've been talking about is like, you know, when like how do I how do I incorporate Christ and and everything? And it's a it is a conscious effort. Like I know, you know, some people it's secondhand nature, and some people it's not. And and and the reason why it's not is because you know, something that's secondhand nature is because practice makes perfect. You we have to make it up in our mind that like every day, you know, when I get out, when I go to work, when I'm trying to um help out at church, whatever it is, when I'm going to the store, what can I do to incorporate Christ in my language, in my actions? What can I do to incorporate Christ? Something that you you had mentioned, and I I do want to mention this too, because I've thought a lot about this too. I think it he was just on here and maybe he's still listening to me now that's fine. But I think it was your dad that preached about you got to give me the title, man. Is it like Hillary Clinton something in Y2K?
SPEAKER_02I think Hillary Clinton is Al Gore, Y2K, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton, fear of God have in common. They all they all make people pray.
SPEAKER_00Yes. And I've thought I've thought about a lot of that, you know, not just that sermon, but I've thought about a lot about that mentality because like that's not right, but something like that. Yeah, yeah, I'll have to get on there and comment again here, um, Brother Todd. But I've thought a lot about that because you think about like 9-11 was huge. And people were driven to church out of that that fear, you know, that that fear of like um, you know, wanting to get close to God because of fear for the life, fear for the country, etc. And I felt, again, like comment below if you feel differently, or if you feel like, you know, maybe there's an an a different explanation to it, or whatever you want to call it. But I have felt like this at this moment, this thing that has happened has drawn people to Christ not out of fear, but out of faith, which is something completely different. When you're drawn to Christ because you fear what he'll do to you, um, eventually you'll probably leave Christ when he doesn't do anything to you. And I'm sure that we found, I don't know what the numbers are, by the way, the statistics. I probably could have looked those up, but I'm sure a few months after 9-11, a few years after 9-11, people slowly more and more started drifting away from the church or drifting away from God, etc. In this moment, what I've noticed is people are coming to God in faith and saying, I don't know what it is, but something is drawing me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And they're saying, I'm gonna read my Bible out of faith. I'm gonna pray out of faith. Now, don't get me wrong, going to church, praying and read your Bible are all good things, but none of those things will get you to heaven. I have heard individuals say, I've dedicated my life to Christ. I've rededicated my life to Christ. I've gotten saved. I've got, you know, I'm backslidden, I was resaved, whatever. I know those things, all four of those things, are the same thing. But I've noticed that people are beginning to come to Christ in this moment because I can't think of another thing to call it except the spirit's drawing. And I don't know why. I don't think the rapture's gonna occur within the next four hours. Maybe it will. I don't think it's gonna occur tomorrow. My brother's birthday is tomorrow. I don't have to buy him a present, so we'll see if it does happen.
SPEAKER_02You might luck out.
SPEAKER_00I might luck out, you know. Jordan, if you're watching this. But people are coming to God in faith, and that that's a whole different. You know, I was reading in the Bible. Um, I know we're I don't know how much time we've got. We're 48 minutes in. I was reading the Bible the other day, and it was it was Jesus, it was talking about Jesus, and the I think it was like John chapter three or four or something like that. And Jesus was doing all these miraculous things. It was so it was that right after John chapter two when he performed the wedding in Cana. And performed the miracle at the wedding in Cana. And he was doing all these performed the wedding.
SPEAKER_02I I didn't go back and reread that one. I missed that one.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. He married a couple, it was cool. But anyway, he performed a miracle at the wedding of Canaan. He did did the Bible says he he it didn't record everything that he did, but it did he, it said he did all these miracles. And then there was a crowd of people that wanted to follow him. And the Bible says that he drew himself away from that crowd of people because he knew what their hearts were saying, or he knew what how their hearts were, he knew how they were being. And what he was, what the scripture says when it writes, when it um, when John wrote that, he's saying these people are coming to God because they see power and they see works and they see miracles instead of coming to God in faith. And he drew himself away from that that crowd. And there's always going to be that crowd, by the way. There's always gonna be the crowd that says, if I see X, Y, Z, I'll believe. And there's always gonna be the crowd that says, because of fear I have over this, that, or the other, I'm going to believe. But there has to be, and you have to make it up in your heart, if you're listening to this, that I'm not going to God because I have seen XYZ or because I'm afraid of this or that or the other. I'm going to God because I believe in God even if I don't, even if I don't see his hand move over here. That's faith. That's coming to God regardless of everything else. That's believing in God regardless of everything else. We've said it a million times on this show. Oh, great, my camera went out. We've said it a million times on the show. We're just going to have Sean play the whole time. We've said it a million times on this show, but oh man, it worked. That's incredible. We're going to get this live thing down, I promise. Shadrag, me, shack, and abindigo. Okay. Perfect examples of that. Because they're in the middle of a trial.
SPEAKER_02Even if.
SPEAKER_00They're in the middle of King Nebuchadnezzar telling them, in the midst of all these people that are bowing. I think it's only camera one and three working, but it's fine. I told you every time, dude, popping pimples, playing with your beard, taking a drink. I'm going to put the camera on you. Which, by the way, I noticed that it it keeps uh it keeps putting a square on your face, too, with the with oh man. If you're listening on audio, you have no idea what's going on. This is the funniest thing ever. I love this thing. But in the middle of all these people that are bowing before this idol, when the music plays, King Nebuchadnezzar is like, you guys, you three have to bow, or I'm gonna throw you into the fiery furnace, and we're gonna make it hotter than we're gonna.
SPEAKER_02Where'd you go to school at?
SPEAKER_00Huh? Three. You three, you four. Because you know what? There was a foot. There was come on, man.
SPEAKER_02He said, You thought you were fixing to go ahead and he was prophesying. Oh my god. King Nebuchadnezzar didn't even know it, but he was prophesying.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you didn't even know it, but my homeschool math. My homeschool math uh abilities here are showing. You three are going to have to bow there. Else I'll throw you into the fire. And and they say, well, you know what? Here's what they say. If God shows himself, then we'll believe. If God proves himself and stops the fire from even turning on, then we'll believe. They don't say that. They say we're not going to bow. And even if God doesn't deliver us, we're still not going to bow. That's faith. And when it comes to the God and when it comes to the things of God, we always want to say, God, if you do this, I'll believe. God, if you go down to um the middle of Mississippi and save my great-grandma's cat, I'll believe. But that's not faith. Faith is believing even when God hasn't moved. Faith is believing even when God says no. Faith is believing even when God shuts a door, because he has all things in his hand, all things are working out for his good, and I'm gonna believe in him regardless of whether or not rather he answers a prayer that I have or answers a need, I believe, because that's what faith is, Brother Sean. That's what faith is. Look at me. Is that the end of our episode?
SPEAKER_02I have I'm struggling with this.
SPEAKER_00I know the whole setup.
SPEAKER_02There's cameras, and I'm trying to look at the camera.
SPEAKER_00That's your camera.
SPEAKER_02He won't even put it on me now.
SPEAKER_00That's your camera. Now I won't put it on you.
SPEAKER_02Well, it's black over here, so we we've got the but this there's a screen right beside us, so I'm looking at the screen, and then I realize like I've got to get my camera, and then Jonathan's over here.
SPEAKER_00You get you guys and girls are getting the the full everyday. You guys are getting the real me effect.
SPEAKER_02I am not the I am not the just the proper I'm I'm the goofball. I am the the weird funny one. Um but yes, I mean scripture, I mean scripture bears out you know what you said. Now now faith is the substance of things hoped for. Right. The evidence of things not seen.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You know, even if we don't see it, even if that that it's still we still believe.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Me and a couple guys were talking last night about atheists and evolution, things like that. And and this comment's been made before. It wasn't that I said anything new, but I said, I said, you know, as an atheist, you've got a lot more faith than I do as a Christian. Yeah, you're not quick enough.
SPEAKER_00I am so slow, I swear.
SPEAKER_02Uh because you know, my faith as a Christian, every once in a while I get to see something happen that helps prove it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Atheism is all based on bang, it happened. Right. Yeah. Well, can you prove it? I would have a bunch of theories. Yeah. No, can you prove it? Exactly. Uh uh. Nope. I mean, you've had faith for the last 250 million years. You got way more faith than I do, bro.
SPEAKER_01Right, right.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, I I'm done, so I think we are at the awesome.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, this is again very impromptu. Like, we I think I told Sean like lat like that Monday or whenever that we talked. Yeah. So just a little over a week ago, I was like, let's go. We got to do this again. It's gonna look different. You know, you guys have to bear with us. I swear. I feel like I say that every time, but it's like don't swear. Yeah, I'm not gonna swear. There's always something going on, always something changing.
SPEAKER_02Y'all have got that on record.
SPEAKER_00You guys have that on record. I'll have to cancel this live video.
SPEAKER_02We very thankful Jonathan, the Everyday Christian Podcast.
SPEAKER_00Don't do it. Very thankful for everyone who's listened to this episode. Really appreciate everyone who's stuck with us. I've had people that have reached out, said, Hey, when are y'all guys gonna release a new episode? You know, what's that looking like? I've had people give us testimony about episodes we've done, um, little things that I think God has used to draw us back to it. And we're still figuring things out. Um, probably gonna switch up some sayings, switch up our um the way we do it, switch up where we post it, switch up logos. We're gonna do a lot of changes. We're probably gonna do a little bit of changes on how we actually do the podcast. You know, notice how we've got three camera angles, and um, we're not sitting like we're in some sort of a news conference room or something. This isn't even gonna be our studio, so whatever. But uh very, very thankful for everyone who's tuned in. You know where to find us. I think it's on Apple Podcasts as well as well as Google Podcasts. But if you search at podcast for him or podcast the number for him, you're gonna find us on the podcast platform of your choice. Um, obviously, you can search us on here at Facebook or Instagram, the Everyday Christian Podcast, every and day or what, Sean? Two separate words.
SPEAKER_02Um he's got numbers and everything. Every and day are two separate words, podcast number for him.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. At least I didn't say podcast for him. At least I didn't hold up a five this time. The everyday Christian podcast for him. Oh my goodness. But yeah. Love to, I know we're it this is where it's gonna be kind of awkward, I'll be honest with you. There's a couple reasons why, and you guys are gonna probably laugh. I think we only have one viewer right now. It was up to like 10, but thank God it's down to one. It's gonna get really awkward because I gotta figure out how to press the end button on my computer that's right over there without getting up and making it awkward for everybody else.
SPEAKER_02Too late. This is us signing off as we grab the camera out.
SPEAKER_00This is us signing off.
