Transcript of 8 Ways Christians Open the Door to the DEMONIC (ft. Jonathan Pokluda) | Live Free with Josh Howerton

Give the enemy an inch and he will become your ruler.

An open door is how a demon gets in. A stronghold is how a demon stays in.

Satan is a legalist. He's just looking for a legal right to mess with you. Demons are legalists. They're looking for a legal right. They say, oh, now I got you. Now I have the right to mess with you. Now I have the right to your children.

Well, hey, Live Free Nation. Before we jump into the episode, this podcast is recorded right here at Lake Pointe Church in Dallas, Texas. But the Live Free Nation is spread all over the country and all around the world. So if you've been watching and thinking, man, I wish I could be part of something like this. We want to invite you to take a simple next step, and that is join us for church online. Every weekend we stream our services live on YouTube, Facebook, and our church online platform. And it's more than just watching a service. There are live hosts in the chat, prayer teams ready to stand with you, and people all around the world worshiping together in real time. And so whether you're exploring the faith, coming back to church, or just looking for a place to start, Church Online is a great way to jump in and experience what God is doing here at Lake Pointe. We would love to see you in the chat this weekend, and now enjoy the podcast. Well, hey, welcome back to another episode of the Live Free Podcast. Today I'm excited because I am here with the tallest theologian in Texas.

That's not true.

The Shaquille O'Neal of young adult ministry and the bishop over at Baylor, Jonathan Percluta, Pastor Jonathan Percluta.

Only here am I called the Bishop of Baylor. So I love it. I hope that makes it back to Baylor.

Amen. Thanks for being here.

Thank you for having me, man.

Hey, thanks for sitting down with me and having a good conversation.

Carlos is, uh, who would've thought? We go way back, man.

Honestly, who would've thought?

It's true. I mean, I, I like, I can remember the first time I wrote a book, uh, Welcome to Adulting.

Yeah.

And you put together like a list of people who are like influencing, you know, like this was, this is, and I didn't know what I was doing. That's just what they said to do. And it was like, Carlos, man, my guy.

Yeah.

I don't think I got that one though.

You did.

I think I got outdated.

I promise you got one.

Okay. But you might be—

I, I'm trying to remember. I'm almost positive. I'd be shocked if that's not true.

Hey, well, uh, we're gonna talk about a little bit more about how I, uh, met you at some point and, uh, at the porch back in the day. But today we're gonna have a good conversation, man. Uh, man, this, uh, this week, first of all, thank you for your sermon. Yeah, it was amazing.

Thanks for letting me do it.

Already hearing people talking about it on spiritual warfare.

Yeah.

Um, today we're gonna go even deeper on that conversation. So we're gonna go, uh, spiritual warfare, demonic influences. We're gonna asking, hey, where's the line between a demonic attack and a mental health issue like anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts? We're gonna be unmasking some demonic schemes or strategies that Satan is employing in our culture today.

Okay.

We got some questions that people submitted on Ouija boards, spells. We're gonna do that. And then from there, we're gonna jump from— we're gonna go from demons to divine hope. We're gonna be asking, hey, what are 5 signs of revival that we might be seeing right now?

Okay.

And then you're the— you're probably the You're probably the person that I know the most that it's like, you're a master at evangelizing. And so I want to pick your brain on that. I got some questions.

I mean, I don't know if that's true, but if I'm going to be known for something, I hope it's sharing the gospel. That's a real gift. So thank you for saying that.

Did you say you do it every day?

Try to every day. I said it the other day. So I say that, I say, hey, I ask somebody this every single day. And I was traveling with a guy for, I guess, 7 days. And he goes, you didn't, you didn't. And the sun was setting, you know? And he goes, you didn't today. 'Cause I was with you all day. He goes, you didn't today. And I was like, bro, I did it in the sermon.

You preached the sermon.

Yeah, I shared the gospel in the sermon, did an altar call. And he was like, oh, that counts? I was like, well, yeah, it counts if I have to, you know? So.

I love how he's keeping you accountable.

Yeah.

Hey, before we jump in, a couple of things, 'cause we like to do this every single week. We have a giveaway. So if you're on YouTube or Spotify, comment hat. We'd love to hook you up. Also, if you wanna, if you do not win, on a regular basis, but you do wanna have kind of like the one—

They got a new hat though.

We got a new hat. That's right.

How fresh is that?

You can get it at livefree.shop or text the word HAT to 20411. Also, we're trying to help you with your discipleship. So get the Lake Point app. If you do, you'll get the daily Bible reading plan, the weekly sermon, and an early release of the Live Free podcast, in this case on Spiritual Warfare with JP. So to do that, text the word APP to 20411 or go to Apple or Google Play Store.

Yeah.

Hey, before we start, can I share a little something with you?

Please.

So this thing right here, broke the internet this week. I don't know if you saw this. So this photo over here is a screenshot of what somebody shared on X, and they said, uh, this is up for people that are not watching. It's a photo of Jesus in the middle, and basically he's surrounded by a bunch of different pagan gods. And the tweet says, um, hey Grok, remove the fake gods from this picture.

Yeah.

And so if you keep going, the next photo, this is what Grok said, is basically just Jesus and there's nobody else, which is amazing. And Grok says, Done. Keep going. And then somebody asked, like, first of all, the internet went crazy. And then somebody asked, hey, Grok, why did you leave Jesus? And Grok said, because the request was to remove the fake gods. Jesus did not qualify. 30 million views. And so, and then he continued to explain. Grok said, Jesus is not a fake god. He is a historical figure with strong contemporary attestation, claimed divinity through resurrection accounts that launched the world's largest religion and stands apart. From the purely mythological figures in that image. And then the person responds, hey, if they remain silent, the very stones will cry out. This is Luke 19:40. He says, I see where we're going, Grok. You're essentially made of stones. And Grok says, silicon from sand qualifies. If the people stay quiet, these circuits will still testify. Luke 19:40 holds. Bro, isn't that crazy?

Bro, it like makes me emotional, man. Honestly.

Why does it make you emotional?

It's all true, bro. It's all true. It's just like, you know, I, I was raised in the church and I was not a believer. I was, I was exposed to lots of church. I went to college and I partied my mind off. Like, I just, I pursued the world. Vegas, clubs, drugs, cocaine, ecstasy, weed, lots of alcohol. And I somehow made it out of college alive. And I thought, I thought, I gotta figure out this God thing. And I want to know who God is. And I really was certain he was not Christian because it was just, it was this logical thing I couldn't get past. I thought, if I was born in India, I'd be Hindu. If I was born in China, I'd be Buddhist. If I was born in Israel, I'd be Jewish. If I was born in Iran, I'd be Muslim. And so I just start studying. I bought a book on world religions, and I wasn't a great student, but I just started studying the Hindu faith, the Buddhist faith, the Jewish faith, Islamic faith, Mormons, Jehovah's Witness, Church of Christian Science, Scientology. And I kept tripping at that search, trying to find God.

I kept tripping over Jesus. And I just thought, you know, in the Quran, in Islam, he's Isa, the prophet. Hindus are fine to worship him as a god. Buddhists are cool with Jesus. You know, the Mormons, Jehovah's Witness, I mean, they all have Jesus in the story, in the narratives, uh, Christian Science as well. He's the Wayshower. And so I was just like, man, what is it about this guy who was born in Bethlehem, a really small town that everybody knows? Like, if you've ever heard of Bethlehem, it's a very tiny town. And then Nazareth, he lived in Nazareth as a carpenter. There's a city beside Nazareth, much bigger than Nazareth, that you've never heard of.

Mm-hmm.

And if you're not from the Middle East, you've never heard of it because Jesus didn't live there, but you've heard of Nazareth. He lived there as a carpenter. And I'm like, how many carpenters do you know that reset time 2,026 years ago?

Mm-hmm.

I'm like, how did this guy become the single most polarizing character in the history of history? And so all of my searching, trying to find God apart from Christianity, led me back to Christ. And I thought, man, this guy, how did he become so famous? And then I read in the Bible that it's because he died and he showed back up 3 days later. And Paul says, Over 500 people saw him. Go ask them. They're still alive.

Mm-hmm.

So what Paul is writing is within a lifespan of when Jesus raised from the dead and the people saw him. He's like, go ask, ask them. And so, and it's not— then I'd see the writings of Josephus Flavius, who's not even a Christian. He's a Jewish historian. And he writes about Jesus and Pliny the Younger and Tacitus. And there's these other historical writings that support the narrative of Jesus. There's not a credible atheist today alive that would deny the existence of Jesus. We have archaeological evidence of this person, Jesus. And so when I look at that and I'm just like, man, AI, which is so unbelievably dangerous and can be insanely demonic. And yet even, even the demons believe.

Yeah.

Is what I would say. We were talking about spiritual warfare. Even the demons believe in Jesus.

That's right.

And, uh, and so yeah, it just, it made me, I had an emotional response to that.

Man, let me say this too, 'cause you mentioned that. Uh, one, Grok is right.

Yeah.

What Grok said is right. Um, and what I think a lot of people don't realize is the difference between Jesus and every other religion. Most religions at its core are all about how you can seek God. Christianity at its core— and by the way, this is good news if you're listening— Christianity at its core is about how God seeks you.

Yes.

Jesus literally said, I came to seek and to save the lost. And if you think about it again, you compared these other world religions, um, virtually every major major religious figure in history points beyond himself to a path, a system, or a belief system. Yeah. Um, but Jesus points to himself.

Yeah.

Think about it. If you, uh, go back to the Buddha, he basically said, I am a teacher, and he points to enlightenment.

Yeah.

Muhammad said, I am a prophet, and he points to Allah.

Yeah.

Moses said, I am a messenger, and he points to Yahweh. Jesus said, I am God before Abraham.

I am.

And he points to himself.

Yeah.

And so here's the point. There is none like Jesus. And if the people remain quiet, even Grok will cry it out.

Facts. He's the way, the truth, and life. No one gets to the Father except through him. And if you go to the Temple of the Tooth in Sri Lanka, you're going to find bones of Buddha. You know, we have, we have Muhammad's tomb, you know, we have these, these burial places of Joseph Smith and others. And yet I have walked in the tomb where Jesus was said to lie, and there's no bones there. He is not here. He is risen.

That's right.

And if you, if you had a single finger bone of Jesus, if we found a toe of Jesus Christ, it would be the single most valuable object on the planet Earth. There would be nothing. It would be absolutely priceless. All the gold in Fort Knox would not be more valuable than that toe bone of Jesus Christ. And yet it cannot be found.

Wow, man.

Because it does not exist.

It's a great start of the pod. Hey, JP, the first time I heard you speak, it was 10+ years ago. And I remember somebody invited to— somebody invited me to go to the porch service. I just moved from Michigan to Dallas. You showed up there, you get on stage. And I remember you started your message with a confession of sin.

Wow.

And you said— I was there, bro. I don't know if that was like a normal thing you did.

I mean, I've done it before, but there was a time at The Porch that I did it and I reference it back because it's, it's like a, it's a story I tell because yeah.

My first time, you literally show up and the pastor's there, he's going to preach. And, you know, I had a friend who said, hey, he's a really good preacher. You're like, hey, you literally, this is you. You're like, hey, Porch, I want to start by confessing sin. And, you know, and then you shared what you shared.

Yeah.

And then after you said, would you forgive me?

Yeah.

And everybody's quiet in the room.

Yeah.

I was like, oh man, what church is this? And then you said, no, no, I'm serious.

Yeah.

I'm really asking you, would you forgive me?

That's crazy. You were there.

And it is. And then people said, hey, we forgive you. And so, bro, since then I've seen you, you know, I got the opportunity to meet you at some point before you moved to Waco.

Yeah.

Which I hear is a great city.

Yeah, it's great.

Okay, great.

We love it.

We gotta visit at some point. And, uh, and people know you today because you are one, you're a great communicator. You're probably one of the best communicators right now, I believe, in my opinion. Uh, you're a great storyteller. Uh, you're very raw and you're passionate about what you're sharing in your own way. Um, preaching is, uh, sharing truth through personality. You have a very unique personality. You have a very unique story that God has used.

Unique. Yeah. Yes.

I do. I do. It's just true, man. And today people see somebody that's very passionate about evangelism and bold in your preaching. So here's what I want to ask you. How did you go from like, were you always passionate or were you always like bold in whatever it is you believed? It seems like you were seeking.

So that time that I was talking about a second ago, my first response to the gospel, when I really like, when I really understood the gospel was anger. 'Cause I was like, how did, 'cause I'd been in church my whole life. And I'm like, how did I miss this? I had carried a golden cross down the aisle in front of the priest as an altar boy. I never knew that cross that I'm carrying was a payment for my sins. And this is why I'm always— I'm like, like in America, I mean, a lot of times when I'm sharing the gospel here in America, I'm sharing the gospel with people who claim to be Christian, who've been in church their whole life. And I'm asking them, hey, how certain are you if you died right now, how certain are you that you would go to heaven? And they're often like 7, 8, you know, 6, 5. I'm like, how many of your sins did Jesus die for? And so that I mean, I was in corporate America and I just thought, if this is true, what else am I going to do but tell the whole world that this is true?

Like, I've got to give my life to that. And so I think that's where some of that passion comes from.

Some people see you today and, you know, obviously God uses you mightily. What about your life today is different than perhaps like a normal person or perhaps a quote-unquote nominal Christian?

Well, a nominal Christian, I hope a lot. I mean, I often say, Like if you want to understand, if you really want to know if you are a Christian or not, a follower of Christ or not, it's like look at your prayer life. And I would say studying spiritual warfare for 3 years radically changed my prayer life.

Um-hmm.

Because I just started praying differently when I understood, oh, I am truly in a spiritual war. This is not just New Testament stuff. This is, you know, 21st century stuff. I am in a spiritual war. I need to pray different. And then just evangelize, I mean, trying to share the gospel every day with somebody, at least one person. But if I just compare my life to when I was a pagan, I mean, the way I treat women is different. The way I talk is different. The way I dress is different. The way I, you know, what I do for a living. I mean, it changed my language. Everything changed.

Yeah.

And so, and, you know, the scripture said, I really think even amongst pastors, and I don't think like I'm better than anybody else, I feel like Paul, the chief of sinners. There's, there is times I still have to confess before a sermon, hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I did something last night that I would ask you not to do. And, and to be clear, to remove any mystery, what I mean by that is like, hey, I slowed down on a reel, you know, and on, on Instagram I was looking and, and something caught my eye and I looked lustfully at an image and I wanna confess that, um, because I, I don't wanna hide it. You know, what you hide will take you out.

That's what you said, obviously.

Yeah.

10+ years ago.

That's right. That's what I remember. That's right. And, uh, and I'll tell you another part of that story is then I, uh, a similar And so a seminary had asked me to come and speak on how to reach the next generation. And I told that story because the punchline is that night, it didn't have anything to do with the sermon. I prayed and then I preached a sermon that had nothing to do with that. And then that night was the longest line and the security had to shut us down because at 11:00 PM we were still there meeting with people and nobody wanted to talk about the sermon. They were like, hey, I'm struggling too. Hey, how do I get free? How do I find freedom? I'm struggling. Me too. Me too.

That's right.

And so I was like, had those conversations. And so I said that at a seminary who asked me how to reach the next generation. somebody that's gonna be real with them. And the feedback I got afterwards, 'cause they filled out comment cards, was like, hey, how dare you use the word pornography in a mixed-gendered audience? And you have to present to be holy. I remember one said, you have to present to be holy. And I was reading these comment cards and I just started weeping, like weeping hysterically, 'cause I was like, they'll never reach them.

Who said this?

It was people who were preparing to be pastors and they were at this seminary and they wanted me to talk about, train them on how to reach the next generation. And they were saying, hey, you need to present to be holy. I was like, you're never going to reach the next generation.

Who taught you to be that raw?

I just, I never learned to play the church game. You know, it's like, I mean, I, we went to a church and it was, there was a season where it was like, hey, tuck in your shirt and let's go in here and act like we have it all together. But then when I got saved, all I was really, I mean, I didn't have seminary. I didn't have Greek and Hebrew. All I really had was like, hey, I know those guys. I was just one of them. You know, I know what they're, I know what they're struggling with. I know what they're thinking about. I know how they're wrestling. I know what their questions for God, 'cause I had all their questions. And so that was like honesty and authenticity was all I had to offer.

Yeah. That's great, bro. Well, there's, there's clearly God's using that. God has used you for that. Obviously there's wisdom in what a preacher shares from stage, but the fact that you did share that, I can see people connecting obviously to it, especially now, 'cause it seems to me like we don't talk enough about lust and just the ubiquity of social media and all the toxic content out there. Yeah, bro, let's go, let's go spiritual warfare right now. Yeah, you just preached on the armor of God, uh, discipleship, uh, really practical. Basically, if you haven't heard it, you can go back, well, you can find it on our YouTube channel. Your whole point is Christianity is not a playground, it's a battleground. And, uh, what I want to do is I want to go deeper into some of the things that you shared. So, uh, you said you've been studying spiritual warfare for the last 2 to 3 years or something like that?

I studied it intently for 3 years. What prompted Uh, just somebody said— what prompted it is somebody was late for church and they said, my car wouldn't start, uh, my battery was dead, spiritual warfare. And I thought, how in the world does a demon drain a battery of a car? Like, can they even do that?

Sure.

And then it just— I had these questions like, what can demons do and what can they not do? And I kind of grew up in, you know, if, if Satan wants to mess with you, he has to, he has to ask for permission. And then I was like, well, man, how cruel is God that he is letting Satan, you know, give people cancer? And I just was like, I had all these questions. I'm like, I know God is good, but why does he let Satan do terrible things if he's asking him for permission every time? And I just had all these questions. So I went on the research project and read, you know, I just started looking at everything the Bible says because I didn't want to be corrupted by commentaries. I didn't want to hear somebody else's opinion at first. I just wanted to see everything the Scripture said. And there was all of these things in the Bible that were normative that I didn't see as normative or learn were normative. And then I started to read, you know, people much smarter than me and try to make sense of it all.

Okay. Um, 2 Corinthians 2:11 says, so that Satan will not outsmart us, we need to be familiar with his evil schemes.

Yeah.

So, uh, scripture literally tells us, hey, like he's gonna— Satan's gonna play you if you're not familiar with how he operates. So here's what I wanna do. I wanna ask you, uh—

Which is great because I think some people say, like, if I learn about this, is something bad gonna happen to me? And I was like, the Bible tells us to learn about this so that something bad won't happen to us, you know, so that we won't fall into the evil schemes of the enemy.

And you're in the middle of a spiritual war. So it's actually like worse if you're not aware of what's going on around you. It's actually ignorant.

You're losing.

That's right. So, so let me, let me bring your sermon. The whole point of the podcast here, we say, hey, this is not Think Free. This is Live Free. So what you shared in the sermon, we're gonna bring it to an application format here. So on the ground, what are, what do you think are some of the of the strategies that Satan right now is using that most people perhaps are not even realizing? If you had to force rank top 3, what would you say?

Yeah, he's a liar. And so he just, you know, feeds us lies. And he, you know, Jesus prayed for unity, Satan divides. And so he's trying, I mean, I really like, you can look back on 2020 and I think there was a, and this is somewhat conjecture, you know, this is my, at an opinion level. But what I think happened in the demonic realm was like he gathered all the demons and said, hey, I just want you to divide them. I want you to divide them politically. I want you to divide them socioeconomically. I want you to divide them, you know, by their, by the color of their skin. I want you to divide them on vaccines or no vaccines, masks or no masks. And you look back on that season and it worked. I mean, I think that's what happened is we were just like the most divided we had ever been in my lifetime. I won't say in history, but I'll say in my lifetime. And And then I would just say, I do. I mean, there's, there's like the conspiracy theorists that are like, oh, there's these Hollywood upper elites and they're doing crazy stuff.

It's like, well, here's the deal. He certainly has a plan through media, you know, through movies, television shows, music. It's like our grandmother was right. And she's like, hey, garbage in, garbage out. It's like, that's how God made us.

Yeah.

Like our brain, Our mind and our heart, our social quotient and our mental state, it's like a sponge and it's absorbing things. And if we feed it poison, it's like we become poisoned. Our thinking becomes poisoned. And so that's why he says, I mean, the Bible tells us whatever's true, whatever's noble, whatever's right, whatever's pure, whatever's lovely, whatever's admirable, if anything's excellent or praiseworthy, think about these things. Philippians 4:8, set your mind on the things above. Romans 12:1-2, do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. mind. Battles, wars are fought over real estate. The spiritual war is fought over the real estate of the mind. Satan is after our thinking. And so you can see, like, when we start to confuse things like gender, as an example, right? He wants us to be confused on what is male and female. Like, this is like biological basics, foundation of creation. And you just see the lies of the enemy being infiltrated in culture. And then what he does is he tries to divide us over such things, over what's true. And so, yeah, that's what I would say is like, hey, anything that you— Proverbs 4 talks about like what you see, what you hear, where you go, you know, the Proverbs also talk about who you hang out with.

And so I think anything that can infect our heart, that's what he's working through.

I wanna click on one of the things you said on, 'cause first of all, you didn't ask me to do this, but you wrote a book called Your Story Has a Villain. And you kind of unpack several strategies that the enemy uses. And they all start with a D.

Right.

And I love, I appreciate it, by the way. So right now you're saying, so first of all, you know, highly recommend it, go get it. The idea of the way Satan operates being through lies. So I wanna click on that 'cause I wanna make sure people understand what we're talking about here. So can I show you, this is probably one of the most helpful illustrations when it comes to talking about the lies or the deception that Satan plays with Christians. So that video is a video of a, I don't know if you've ever done this where like you draw a circle around an ant.

Yeah.

And then what you see is basically like the ant is like, man, I'm trapped. And it's trying to escape and it's stuck and it's paralyzed and it can't really go anywhere. Um, but what you don't, uh, know, or in this case what's happening, is basically the ant thinks it can't go until it kind of overcomes it, and then it happens again, and then it's trapped. Um, I believe that right there is a great picture of how the enemy operates with Christians often, uh, because his main strategy is to use lies, is deception.

Yeah.

Um, we think that, that we believe something that is not true, and then we feel stuck. You can stop playing that. Um, and based on what you said, that's, that's what That's what Satan is, the father of lies.

Yeah, the D is deception. And he's— and the demons, because, okay, so Satan, we talk about Satan, like Satan has never probably been anywhere near me. He's not omnipresent. And so I do think the spiritual realm works different than the natural realm. But Satan can't be in lots of places at one time. So what I believe from Revelation 12 is that one-third of the angelic realm fell with him, and those angels are here as demons. Satan has an army that he leads. And so you might, you know, if you go, Satan, is Satan attacking me? And it would be like talking about the ruler, like Vladimir Putin is attacking Ukraine. So you, but he's not, like he's not charging Ukraine with a gun or a missile launcher. Like he's in a bunker somewhere, maybe commanding orders.

That's right.

And so that's how Satan is attacking me. He's leading an attack against Christians. He's leading attack against what is good, right, true, and noble and holy and godly. But we have demons around us. And those demons try to deceive us. They just tell us things that aren't true. They're bullies. I mean, that, that just like the person drawing that around the ant is—

Right on.

They're just bullies and they want, they operate in fear. And so like when people are afraid of this stuff, it's like, they want you to be afraid. They try to appear bigger than what they are. They, they try to appear more powerful than what they are, but they're, but we don't believe in dualism. Dualism is like good versus evil. And these are 2 opposing, equal and opposing forces. It's like God who is sovereign over all of creation. And then Satan, who's like a cockroach that just is just messing with people, you know?

And you mentioned this in your sermon and you're really good at this. Like the way you combat lies is with what is true.

That's right.

Jesus said, I am the truth. And the armor of God, the sword of the Spirit, or the sword is the word of God. And so, and actually I got this from your boy Forrest Frank. He shared a post about this. So these are the emergency numbers that every Christian needs to have saved and ready to use any moment. So check this out here in just a second. I'll also share with you what's God's phone number. I love this so much.

Yeah.

Are you looking for peace and rest? Matthew 11:28, Jesus said, come to me, all you who are weary and carry heavy loads. I will give you rest. If you're feeling sad or depressed, John 14:1, don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God and trust also in me. If you're feeling weak, Psalm 18:1-2, I love you, Lord. You are my strength. You are the rock, my salvation, and my fortress. If you're feeling lonely, Psalm 23:1, the Lord is my shepherd. I have everything that I need. Have you sinned? Psalm 51:10, create in me, O Lord, a clean heart and renew a loyal spirit within me. Are you afraid? Psalm 27:1, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Why should I be afraid? If you're— are you anxious? Philippians 4:6-7, what does it say?

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition present your requests to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. And with thanksgiving is in there.

Do you need direction? Psalm 73:24, you, Lord, guide me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny. And finally, this is God's personal phone number. You ready?

Yeah.

Jeremiah 33:3.

Let's go.

Ask, and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things yet to come. Here's the point: in Christ, the line is never busy, the number never changes, and God always hears when his children call. Come on, that's good news.

Let's go for it.

That's good news, man. Uh, praise God. Okay, so let me, let me shoot some rapid-fire questions on all things demonic stuff. By the way, JP, I don't know, did you, do you feel— is it when you prep for this stuff, do you ever feel like a heaviness?

Sometimes. And I just like pray. I'm like, Lord, would you bind any demonic forces coming against me by the blood of Jesus, in the name of Jesus? Create this holy ground as, as I prayed beforehand. Just help us to facilitate this conversation and protect us. I mean, prayer is an amazing weapon. That's why Ephesians 6, he ends in, in you know, and pray and all of these things, pray at all times. I will, like, sometimes I'll feel like foggy-brained, like kind of like you're in a, like you're in a fever dream. And I think that's like what I perceive to be a demonic attack.

Yeah. I get that often. Like anytime I either preach or address something demonic related, it's like a heaviness.

Yeah.

Anyways, here's some questions people submitted. So Pastor Jonathan Pakluta, if Satan was defeated at the cross, What exactly is he still doing today?

Yeah, he's— Satan has profoundly excellent theology. His theology is better than ours. I mean, he's read the back of the book. He knows his destiny is the lake of fire. And so he's running a scorched earth strategy. And so scorched earth strategy, if you're not aware, is like, hey, if you're losing the battle and you're in a territory, you just burn everything down, destroy the buildings, destroy the houses, you know, kill the women and children, like just just burn it all to the ground. And so Satan is running a scorched earth strategy where he's just trying to— I mean, like, people say, you know, why did God create evil? God didn't create evil. God created an angel good. He created him to be good. There was free will in heaven, and that angel said, hey, I don't want to worship you as God. I want to be God. And so God sent him here to the earth, a planet And said, "We'll see what kind of God you could be." God could have obliterated him. He could have said, "Man, you're destroyed. You're done. You came against me. No way." But I believe so that angels see that hey, God is ultimately good, and one rebelled so that angels won't rebel in heaven later.

So there will be no rebellion later in heaven. That that we have all the revelation we need. God said, "Okay, let's see what kind of what kind of God you can be." And so here he is, and he's trying to lead people astray constantly. And so every day we wake up, it's like I'm either going. to go the way of the 2 Corinthians 4:4 god of this world? You ask a bunch of Christians, who's the god of this world? And they're like, Jesus, Jehovah, Yahweh. Well, 2 Corinthians 4:4 says Satan is the god of this world. So he's the lowercase g god of this world. Are you going to worship him? Are you going to worship the Creator of the heavens and the earth, Yahweh, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the one true God?

Mm-hmm.

And when we go and we go the way of Yahweh, the one true God, we find life. When we go the way of Satan, we find death. This experiment has played out in front of us over and over and over. Go to anywhere where people say, "Hey, we want free. We want the freedom to rebel. We want we want government given drugs." You know, I mean, like this experiment has not worked. I mean, cities have changed. Like you don't those places that were once thriving and beautiful and and safe and had your favorite coffee and your favorite ice creams. Store. Now you don't want to go there because someone was handed a crack pipe on taxpayers' resources, and, and it's not safe, and you can get, you know, killed on the side of the road. And there's people hunched over like zombies because they're doing drugs out in the open. It's like that— we had that experiment right in front of us. So God did not create evil. God created created good and gave the option for evil, because for God to be God, we have to have the option. And where there is God, there's goodness.

Where there is no God, or where we push God out of places, there's violence, there's evil, there's profane things. I'm like, this experiment is played out right in front of us all the time.

Yeah.

Just open our eyes and use logic. God is amazing. I mean, you can, you know, Jesus said we're salt and light. Where Christian values are lived out, society has thrived. That's right. There was the chief bureau for— oh man, what was it? It was in Beijing. They studied the success of the West. And they said, at first we thought it was your economy. And then we thought it was your military. And we've actually found out it's your religion. And where missionaries have gone over here, opium Opium has declined, opium usage has decreased, and the people had more money. They were wealthier. And it's not the prosperity gospel. It just turns out, hey, you use less opium, you have more money, you know? And they were saying, hey, this is actually what has caused the success of America. It's your Christian values. You move away from those Christian values, you're going to see decline.

Right.

in Amsterdam, there was what was called the Golden Era. It was known for these beautiful cathedrals, like beautiful church buildings where people would go to worship God. Now Amsterdam is known for secularism and sex trade, and a lot of those cathedrals are now skate parks and museums. You know, it's just like—

So somebody's saying, yeah, JP, but that's— so that's the devil working.

But I thought at the cross Jesus defeated Satan, so why is he still doing We're in this, we're in this middle ground, you know, theologians call already-not-yet, where Satan, like, like the power of sin and the penalty of sin is paid for by Christ.

Yeah.

And so I know that like my future is secure, but ultimately I'm still here. Like Jesus hasn't come back and set the new heavens, the new earth in place. And so Satan is running this scorcher strategy, trying to make hell crowded.

Yeah.

Like he don't wanna be alone in hell. And so he is trying to fill hell up by dragging people there with him. And that's why Christians have to march forward. When you— when I say you're in a spiritual battle, you have to be a good soldier. It's like no, no good soldier is caught up in civilian affairs. He aims to please his master, his commander-in-chief. And so we're like, all right, Lord, what, what work do you have for me to do here? When God saved you, he didn't take you home. He saved you and left you here to do the good works which he's prepared in advance for you to do, Ephesians 2:10. And so you and I are living the Christian life, helping hoping, trying to make, uh, partner with the Holy Spirit to make heaven crowded.

Yeah. So Colossians 2:15 says, in this way he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. I believe it was Charles Spurgeon that said, uh, in a sermon, you have to contend with a defeated foe.

Yeah.

Um, he said, though he may fight with desperation, he is hopeless of ultimate victory. And I think that's important to know because again, we're, we're talking about fighting spiritual warfare and the devil's attacking you, we're not trying to beat him. Like Jesus already did that at the cross.

And you can't, he's stronger than you.

That's right.

And you can't. So that's right. So, and here's a quick illustration on it, I think. So, you know, I'm not from Texas originally, but we did find when I moved, I remember I didn't know, I didn't know black widow spiders were dangerous. And so I saw one in my house and I was like, oh, little guy, you know, my wife I was like, what are you doing? Like, don't touch that. And, uh, you know, now I know better.

He's not from Texas, I can tell by the way.

Exactly. That was me. That was me, bro. And then my, uh, my son now is 4 and literally this week, uh, you know, I found a black widow in my garage and I'm like, oh, like, you know, it's the time of the year. I gotta call those guys. So they come, they spray. Um, basically once they sprayed, I get a call, hey, we did it. In my mind, I'm like, it's it's over. Yeah, you know, like, I, I won. No more black widows in my, my house. He sprayed, sprayed all over the house. Um, I'm not stressing about those things anymore. Yeah, like, I am confident after that that the battle has been won against those black widows, and, uh, their defeat and their death is guaranteed. Yeah, it's over. But, but, um, you got to give it a minute. Yeah, because, uh, so I got to teach my son, hey, like, you can spray it, but technically for like a little while they can still bite you, they can still attack you.

That'll preach.

And so, uh, you know, you got to be mindful of that. And so I want to be not afraid, but I wanted to be aware.

Yeah.

And so, uh, I think the same thing happens with the cross.

That's good.

You, you look at, uh, what the Bible says. The Bible says Jesus defeated Satan at the cross. Um, game over. Satan lost.

Yeah.

You and I are not fighting because we're trying to beat the enemy. The enemy has been beaten at the cross. And for a little while, yeah, uh, he's trying to do a little something here, but our hope is found in Christ. And the fact that he already won gives us confidence and victory.

We walk in victory. When I signed a contract to write that book, Your Story Has a Villain, I mean, terrible things happened to me. Ultimately, I ended up in the hospital for 16 days. Okay.

And, uh, after you signed the contract?

Yeah, yeah. And, you know, I mean, just interesting dumb things.

Wait, so how quick after though? Or like, how soon after?

Oh man, I, I was sued. I got sued within 14 days of signing it. So within 2 weeks. And it was like that— people are like, sued for what? It was like the craziest, most frivolous lawsuit. It was thrown thrown out, but I was sued within 14 days. And then, um, and then I was— and then I ended up ultimately in the hospital a year ago today. I mean, I was like getting out today a year ago. How crazy is that? And, uh—

That is crazy. I have a similar story, but go ahead.

And so people are like, gosh, you know, are you afraid? I've never been— like, the big takeaway, I've never been less afraid. Like, all of my confidence in that we have everything we need to be victorious only increased and everything. It's Romans 8:28, for God works all things together for the good of those who love him, who've been called according to his purpose. But the Old Testament version of Romans 8:28 is Genesis 50:20, what the enemy's meant for evil, God uses for our good.

Yes.

So like, it's like judo. With judo, you use your enemy's force against them. And like, so Satan does something and there's always a way that God can use the evil that Satan does for good. And you just have to find that way. And then it'll be multiplied. The good will be multiplied over the bad.

So here's 1 Peter 5:8, your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion. So to recap what you just said, the same New Testament that tells us that he's defeated tells us, hey, stay alert.

That's right.

Here's another one.

Resist him standing firm in the faith.

Stand firm. Pastor Jonathan Bakluta, in the armor of God, why is the back not protected?

Yeah, 'cause we're charging forward. But the other thing is like they say with the, the Roman shield was actually to protect your neighbor. Like you would stand stand by and they would, what they would do is they would take it. It's like a 5-foot door and you would, you would, um, you would actually guard your neighbor. And, uh, and so that they're like, I've heard people taught about like the importance of community and doing, doing life together.

Yes.

But yeah, man, we're, we're charging forward. The enemy's, the enemy's in front of us. Go after him.

They call us to stand firm, move forward.

That's right.

Here's another one. Um, what, what does giving the devil a foothold mean? And what are some examples?

So when you sin, you let them in. And this is—

I mean, say that one more time.

When you sin, you let them in. And so, um, you know, we talked about lust at the beginning. So like pornography is Satan's iconography. Um, it's not innocent. When you give yourself to that, it's demonic worship. I mean, truly. And people are like, man, you sound like a conspiracy theorist. Like, no, this is— this is— you are giving the devil a foothold. And when you And if you do that over and over and over, you have now given him a stronghold in your life to take you somewhere.

Hmm.

And again, your brain, if you think about your mind and your heart like a sponge, that sponge is either pure, so it's pure and holy and lovely, or it's corrupt and it's, and it's broken and your, your thoughts are perverted. And what I, what the hope I would give somebody is you can purify your mind. Like you can resist the devil to the point of like, all of a sudden my thinking is now clear. And the thing that I thought I would give myself to over and over and over for the rest of my life, I'm actually pure from. This happens with alcoholics. Like, they— I mean, I, I was ministering to somebody who would wake up in the middle of the night because they couldn't make it through the night without alcohol.

Hmm.

So they would wake— they would keep, you know, uh, a Truly or a White Claw by their bed and wake up in the middle of the night just to get through the night so they didn't go through withdrawals. They go through rehab and now they're actually like pure, they're clear thinking, you know, their children got their father back, their wife, his wife got his, his, uh, her husband back. And it's like, that is possible. But like, we give ourselves over to these demonic strongholds through sin, through the things that we do that God asks us not to do. I, I like our language, man. Like people think I'm, I'm like, I am not a legalist. Like I love life. I enjoy life. Like I am, you know, if the Bible doesn't say it's sin, I'm, I'm willing to do it or try it or see it or, you know, go there. But, uh, But like, good disclaimer, he says, do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up so that it may benefit those who listen. Like, cussing was cursing till the 1840s, and we dropped the R because of a— Huh, I didn't know that.

Yeah, because of a— what is it called? Like an accent.

Okay.

And so the R fell off. So like—

It's the same word?

Yeah, yeah.

Interesting.

Cursing. Like, they say, oh, don't curse.

Sure.

You know, don't cuss.

Yes.

It's just cussing is just an American word. way of saying cursing. And, and that it's true. Like you, you can curse things. I mean, Jesus cursed the fig tree. Like cursing is a real practice. Words are powerful. How did God create? He spoke things into existence. He gave our words power. This is why the scripture says, don't let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up so it may benefit those who listen. We don't understand how powerful our words are.

Yeah.

You, as a parent, you'll learn like you are, you are either raising your kids up in truth, speaking life to them, Or you're beating them down and defeating them. That's why, like, you coaches, you dads, I'm not trying to make you weak. I mean, you can be clear, and clarity and courage are great things, but be careful not to destroy your kids with your words, man. You will tear them down.

Yeah.

In Spanish, uh, to bless is to bendecir, which means to say good. Basically, that's literally what it means. And then to curse is to maldecir, which means to speak ill. Yeah. So anytime you're speaking ill, so you're saying swearing is a sin?

Yeah.

Okay. All swear words?

Well, I mean, words, words are letters and syllables put together with sounds. I get that. It's the heart behind it. He says, Jesus says, out of your mouth, the heart speaks. But I, you know, I would be cautious if somebody is like, yeah, I'm using this word, not in that way. Just, just here's what I would say. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth.

That's a Bible verse.

But only what is helpful for building others up so that it may benefit those who listen. That's pretty clear. Do not let any, but only. That's the Bible.

Seems like it includes swearing and other words that perhaps are not necessarily bad words, but they're unwholesome and they're not helpful.

That's right. And, and if you like, I'm going to go back to this. If you do that repeatedly in your home, it's like you're, You're everything, like nothing's neutral, you know? And the demons are watching us, they're around. And so you're just giving them permission to mess with your lives. I mean, it's all true. That's why I try to tell people, it's all true. It's all true.

So. So that's a command, which means if we disobey as Christians and followers of Jesus who want to become more like him, that's called a sin.

That's right. And when you sin, you let them in.

If you sin, you let them in. A sin is what eventually gives the enemy a foothold.

A foothold, which can then become a stronghold.

That's right. I've heard it said before too, an open door is how a demon gets in.

A stronghold So like some people are gonna watch this right now and they're going, oh, but I, I can't— I can't stop cussing. Okay, okay, that's a stronghold.

That's a stronghold. Why, JP?

Because it's— you're— you say it's like an addiction. That's right, right. So you, when you sinned, you let them in and you gave them a foothold. That foothold became a stronghold. And whenever you're like, I can't stop, it's— you're stuck. Yeah, you know, all the more reason you need to stop.

Okay, so we're gonna help that guy. So he's for the guy that's like, man, I can't stop swearing right now. Okay. I, it's just like my family. Like, this is what I've done my whole life. Um, uh, I'm gonna let you answer that and I'll just add color to what you're saying. What do I do now?

Yeah. So you, you invite in accountability. So you acknowledge it. You say, hey, this thing that I'm doing is sin. I want to repent. Repenting is simply turning from sin. So you let, when you sin, you let them in. I'm turning now from the thing where I let them in and I'm turning to God. And I'm saying, hey, I want to grow my relationship with Christ. I want to invite in accountability.

James 5:16.

says, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. So there's a healing that happens only with communal prayer and confession. And so every day, or every day, every week I meet with other guys and we do, um, we answer 3 things. My friend John came up with these. Um, how did you feed your soul?

Hmm.

How did you feed others? How did you feed your flesh? Input, output, confession. How did you feed your soul? This is, um, what I'm listening to and what I'm reading that stirs and grows my affections for Jesus. The scriptures, Christian books, those kinds of things. How did you feed others? This is evangelism and discipleship. Who did I get to share the gospel with this week? What conversations have I had that Jesus was the center of? And then how did I feed my flesh? This is confession.

Mm-hmm.

Hey, I bought this thing I didn't need. Hey, I lost my, I lost my temper with my kids. I was short with my wife. I, I, um, I, I, I slowed down on a reel. You know, I looked at something I shouldn't have looked at. Um, and then the next person will pray for me. So they pray over me and then they go. And so we practice that every single week. It's just in a James 5:16 kind of way. So if you say, hey, I can't stop doing anything, vaping, you know, um, cussing, spending, you know, going into debt, whatever it is, say, I need to invite in accountability. And then, and then you're there, tell them what to ask you. 'Cause sometimes people get frustrated with accountability. They're like, well, they don't know what to ask. Like, well, you're the expert on your sin.

Mm-hmm.

Tell them what they need to ask you. you, confess it and have them pray regularly. And then James 5— I'm— James 5— Matthew 5 talks about removing access. He says, if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. For it's better to enter the kingdom of heaven without an eye or a hand than for your whole body to be dragged away to hell.

Yeah.

And so again, the spiritual warfare, Jesus is talking about it. So, you know, um, you may need to get rid of your phone. You may need to get rid of Instagram. You may need to get Covenant Eyes on your phone. I mean, you, you can do things to make it difficult for you so that you remove access to the sin that you continue to fall into.

Yeah. Uh, Ephesians chapter 4, verse 26, that's where the verse comes from on the, uh, don't give the devil a foothold.

And so, um, 29 is the do not let any unwholesome talk.

Oh, interesting.

Yeah.

Okay. So there you go. There's a, there's a demonic connection with your unwholesome talk and giving the devil a foothold. Um, and interestingly enough, uh, this is also for people wondering, man, what of other ways, you know, you can give the devil— the word foothold in the original language just means like you're giving them an opportunity, you're giving them a space in your life. Um, you don't want to give the enemy some space or a little bit of space in your life. Um, this verse, all throughout the Bible, you see that, uh, scripture ties in specific sins with demonic activity.

Yeah.

It's really interesting. So right before this verse is talking about unresolved anger, um, unforgiveness, Unforgiveness, habitual unrepentant sin. Again, this is giving an opportunity for the devil to get in somehow in your life. Falling into sexual temptations, 1 Corinthians 7:5. Pride, believing lies. When you, in your mind, you accept something that the devil whispers in your mind and you believe it, that's giving the enemy room in your life. Isolation would be another one. Here's another one, occult practices and deliberately engaging with forbidden spiritual practices.

Yeah.

So here comes the next question. Pastor Jonathan Pagluta, but what about Ouija boards? We're Halloween, or Halloween's coming up soon. You know, it's in a movie or it's just a game, or, you know, my buddies got together and we thought it would be fun to try out tarot cards or whatever, horoscopes even. Are those spiritually dangerous?

Give the enemy an inch and he will become your ruler. I've read that on a coffee cup, but here's what I would say. Yeah, man. 1 Thessalonians 5 says, flee from even the appearance of evil. And like, if it's evil, man, don't, don't touch it, kick it, smell it, you know, taste it, sniff it. Like, you, you run from it. And, you know, it's interesting because like there's a guy right now that was a— he's left the occult. He was a Satan worshiper. And he just talks about how much they love how What does that even mean, Satan worshiper? Like, he— like, you know, this is the thing that I don't think we understand.

For the normal person asking.

We forget, you know, it's like, man, demons are powerful. Satan is powerful. Like, I remember being in Haiti, and like, they— at the time when I went, they said, uh, Haiti's 80% Christian and 100% demonic. I mean, 100%, uh, satanic.

And the—

Interesting.

The president had dedicated the island to Satan. And you're like, why would he do that? Well, because he's powerful. And so Satan They said the Haitians believed in God, they just believe he's slow. So they would take a kid, after taking them to the doctor, they'd take them to a witch doctor so that the witch doctor could place a curse and be healed. Like, I'd seen this stuff happen. So people worship Satan because he gives them power. Manifesting can work. Crystals can be effective. Ouija boards can work. I mean, they can show you the name of some dead person.

Mm-hmm.

Saul consulted the Witch of Endor and talked to Samuel or some demon pretending to be Samuel. I mean, you can talk to some demon.

Talk to somebody.

I mean, you can, people will do weird stuff in grief. And so they miss their father or their mother or their loved ones so badly. They'll go to this medium to talk to them. And you're talking to a demon pretending to be your loved one. You gotta be careful because Satan is a legalist. He's just looking for a legal right to mess with you. Demons are legalists. They're looking for a legal right. They say, oh, And now I got you. Now I have the right to mess with you. Now I have the right to your children. Right now I have the— you've given me an in. And so with that Ouija board, crystals, manifesting, tarot cards, um, uh, what was that? Horoscopes.

Mm-hmm.

Like none of that stuff is spiritually neutral. Like none of it.

The enemy will use any of that for permission to mess So recently, not recently, maybe a couple of years ago, I have my wife, I have my wife's permission to share this story. We went to El Salvador because we try to go at least once a year.

Yeah.

And there was this, it was a beach resort that we went to and, you know, at night there's like this little show and, you know, when you go to Latin America and, you know, go to all these countries, they, some of these countries have like some sort of folkloric background. There's like a spirituality behind some of these things. some of these stuff. Yeah, uh, some of this stuff. And, and in the show, we're there and all of a sudden, like, you know, it's kind of like a— there's a choreography there and there's elements of spirituality in the show. And both my wife and I are like, ah, like, this is—

Yeah, something.

This is like going from like just having fun or entertaining to like, this feels very spiritual. Yeah, like very spiritual.

Yeah.

And, you know, we both had a conviction to kind of leave at some point, but we kind of stayed for a little bit just to see if it's gonna like calm down or whatever. Uh, and we stayed for a little bit more, but both of us felt the conviction and And then we just kind of, we just kind of, after a while we said, hey, this is too much, we're leaving.

Yeah.

But we felt the conviction that, hey, we should have left sooner. That was not something that we needed to be at or whatever. That night, that night my wife had a very vivid dream of being stabbed.

Sure.

And she woke up with like just feeling stuff. That same night I had another, I had a dream of a sniper. sniper shooting at me. We both woke up and, you know, we're like, oh yeah, man, I had this weird dream. You like— me too. Uh, and so, you know, at the time, again, this is, this is literally what the verse is saying. Hey, uh, be careful. Do not give the enemy a little space when you expose yourself to, you know, things that the Holy Spirit is giving you a conviction in your heart. Hey, that's not for you. Yeah, that's not for you.

Yeah, dreams are often a warning. Snakes, you dream about snakes. And it's just like, you know, our DMs are gonna fill because I'm sure, you know, everybody's gonna say, oh man, I need help because I have, you know, that happened.

Here's my dream.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So just, just, you just pray. You just, you go, first of all, you make sure you, you have a right relationship with God through his Son Jesus Christ. Have you believed upon the death and the resurrection of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins? And you say, you know, if you haven't, start there. I mean, find a church, find a pastor, call a Christian, the strongest Christian you know, and say, hey, I want to surrender my life to Christ, like start there. Okay. But if you're a Christian and you have a— you're a follower of Christ and you're, you know, there's some demonic influence in your life, you're having nightmares, you know, intrusive thoughts of self-harm, you know, you say, okay, Lord, I want you to help me confess anything that's hidden. Make sure there's nothing hidden. Confess any, you know, any willful disobedience, any sin. You confess that, bring others around you, have others pray with you and just say, you know, I denounce I denounce the work of Satan. I denounce the work of Satan in my life. I don't want anything to do with these evil practices or these things or this witchcraft.

And Lord, would you undo that in the name of Jesus, by the blood of Jesus? Help me to walk in righteousness. You can go in Ephesians 6 and just walk down that, you know, that, that I want to, I want to walk in the truth. I want to cover my heart in the righteous living that God calls me to. I want, I want to know and understand and share the gospel of peace. I want to go where it's called to. And you just walk down that list.

Right. And that's what we did. We, uh, you know, we confessed, we repented, uh, prayed. Uh, 1 John 5:18 says God's Son holds God's children securely, and the devil, uh, the evil one cannot touch them.

Yeah.

And so in Christ, you're good. Um, also we got Bible verses for, you know, people asking about sorcery, all this stuff. Uh, Deuteronomy 18:10 explicitly forbids divination, sorcery, interpreting omens, witchcraft, casting spells. Leviticus 19:31, do not defile yourself by turning to mediums or the those who consult the spirits of the dead. Isaiah 8:19. Shouldn't people ask God for guidance? Should the living seek guidance from the dead? Um, in the book of Acts, uh, chapter 19, after coming to Christ, people who practice magic, at some point they come and they bring their like, hey, here's— we got our magic books, let's burn these. That's not who we are. And so again, you can repent, you can, you can change direction and then run to Christ. Um, by the way, we have a lot of people joining, uh, the Live Free Podcast, um, from like literally all over the place.

Yeah.

So we encourage people to, hey, find that community, whatever that is. If this is actually a good opportunity. So if somebody's listening from any other state, if you're like, I don't know if I have a good church or text the word MAP to 20411. And we'd love to help you find a church that Lake Pointe has planted in your local area. Did you say AI is demonic?

It can be. I mean, it can be demonic. Explain to me how. I mean, they'll use anything. I mean, they, you know, porn is demonic.

By the way, that's gonna be the reel. Did you say AI is demonic?

I can't wait. It can be. I mean, it certainly can be demonic. They are looking to use anything to influence us. So are movies demonic? Well, some are. I mean, they can be. Is music demonic? Well, some is.

Sure.

I mean, in Ezekiel, it says the Hebrew is— it goes through these stones, and it's often translated settings and places. But that word toph, the Hebrew word toph, is always translated everywhere else as like tambourines. And then the next word can be translated pipes or flutes. And so I really believe that Satan had like musical instruments built into him. He was a musical being.

Yeah.

Made to— we know he was a guardian cherub. And so he's guarding the throne room and he has the ability to make music. And so I think music is a tool. This is why worship music can be so powerful. It can kind of center us, and we can have this like really emotional experience during worshiping God through music. And likewise, music can be demonic. It can be something that corrupts our heart. I can— I mean, it just brainwashes us. And so it's not neutral when you're listening to something that's, that's challenging you to objectify women or to, you know, just take what's yours and, and to feed pride in your heart.

Hmm.

I mean, it's, it's demonic. I mean, the enemy's behind that. And so AI can be a tool for demons as well.

Yeah. And I'm sure right now somebody's listening to me like, oh, these guys, like, yeah, they're over-spiritualizing everything. Like, you know, for somebody that's wondering right now, it's like, oh man, I just don't want to be over-spiritual. What I would say is, do you want to be under-spiritual? Like, what do you, what do you want to be? Like, if, uh, like, if you're a Christian, you believe that God became a man, took on flesh flesh, died on a cross and was resurrected 3 days after. And today he reigns. Like, what are you talking about? You don't want to be over-spiritual. That's as spiritual as it gets.

The other thing they'll think is like, hey, but Satan can't mess with me because I'm a Christian. Like, I'm a child of God, so I'm protected. I'm like, who, who do you think Satan wants to mess with? Like, that's, that's who he's after, you know? And so it's like, that's why Jesus says, in this world you will have trouble. And what Satan asked Jesus, if he could sift Peter, like, wheat.

Yeah, yeah.

I think there's something to the faith thing that, you know, I said in the message is you— the shield of faith which extinguishes the fiery darts. He says in 1 Peter 5, resist him standing firm in the faith. And then Jesus says to Peter in Luke 22, uh, I will pray for you that your faith won't fail. So like, our faith is our protection from the enemy. The stronger your faith, the more protected you are.

That's great. Well, we've talked a lot about demonic stuff. Uh, let's go to Divine Hope.

Yeah, man.

Let's talk about revival.

Hey, Live Free Nation, let's have fun with this and swing some elections. In all seriousness, midterm elections are obviously coming up in November. In the state of Texas, there's an estimated 16 million Christians, and the midterm elections coming up in November will be decided by a predicted— actually about 300,000 votes. So what this means is if Christians do their job as salt and light in the world, good things things really easily happen. So what we've done at Live Free Nation is we actually built a website to help mobilize Christians, uh, to do our job as salt and light in society. So you can simply text the word VOTE to the number 20411. Text the word VOTE to 20411, and we have built a website all at our own expense to help Christians remember to vote leading up into the midterms, because the number one reason that Christians don't vote, especially in midterm elections, is they just forgot. So with one text, VOTE, to 20411, you will get one text which is a link to the website where you can put in your address. We do not keep any of the information, and it will tell you where the polling location is for voting in your area, when to come, and what in your area you need to bring.

Again, we keep absolutely none of the data. And we will send you that text and then only one other reminder text right before midterms. So let's have some fun with this. Text VOTE to 20411 and we'll see what Live Free Nation can do.

It's happening.

Hey, uh, bottom line, period.

It's happening. Great, man. Hey, thanks for, thanks for coming. Um, I want to show a photo of, uh, I screenshotted your Instagram, JP. You okay with that?

Yeah.

Okay. I'll show a photo. Follow JP on Instagram. There you go. So you share this photo of you and then Forrest Frank in the bottom over there. But what I want to highlight is you said, it's hard to put the last few weeks into words.

Yeah.

Sharing 300 square feet with a 23-year-old bodybuilder living with terminal cancer, a surfer from Indiana, and one of the biggest touring artists in the world was the adventure of a lifetime. It wasn't an easy— it wasn't as easy as it looked, but it was a lot more fun. And then you said this, I watched God heal heal people. I watched more than 50,000 people begin a relationship with Christ.

Yeah, revival.

I need to process that, what you just said there. Revival isn't something I read about anymore, I saw it. Yeah, JP, what are you seeing?

Yeah, yeah, man, it's humbling even to see it right there. Um, there's so much I want to say and I'm gonna try to be fast. I was at Asbury. Sometimes I like share this too, and I have this conviction of like trying to like— I don't like— man, I'm expendable. Like, I mean, I've got a 2-year degree in art. I mean, from a school you've never heard of. I'm expendable. God does what he wants, where he wants, when he wants, through whom he wants, how he wants. He is God. I am not. I'm not worthy to tie his sandals. Like, I believe all of that. I was at Asbury when, you know, the outpouring at Asbury happened, and then I was at Passion when there's like this 20-minute stall, Agnes Day, the heavens opened up.

What year was that?

2 years ago.

Passion?

Yeah.

Yeah, and then Asbury was?

Yeah, it was the same year. It was right after Asbury.

Okay.

I was— I went to a speaking engagement at Auburn, which became— it was like Unite Auburn, and that was then the first of 20 to campuses I didn't know. I thought it was a one-and-done, but we baptized thousands and thousands of people. I saw tens of thousands give their life to Jesus. And then Forrest Frank invited me to go on tour with him, and my role on tour was to share the gospel towards the end of the night. And I would see fathers who were there with their kids, their 3 or 4 kids and their wife, and they would stand up in front of their families saying, hey, I want to surrender my life to Jesus. And in the month of July, I saw 50,000 people give their lives to Jesus.

In one month?

In one month. And so there's something happening right now. And then more like even in interpersonal evangelism, Uber drivers, security guards. I mean, you know, I was in California and people were like, oh, you know, California is so lost. I mean, everyone I talked to was so eager to give their lives to Christ. It was like, man, I dreamt last night. I woke up this morning and I was like, God, if you're real, send someone tell me, you know, and I'm like, that— those were the conversations I was happening— having.

So the harvest is plentiful, the workers are few. Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send more workers.

Come on, um, do not grow weary in doing good.

So I did a little research this week on, um, previous revivals in history, and so people are asking, and I feel like people have been asking for a little bit of time, hey, are we in a revival? Are we seeing a revival? Are we getting close to a revival? Yeah. Um, and so here's what I want to do. I want to give you 6 major characteristics of revivals in the past. And I wanna ask you, are you seeing this? Yes or no? And then if you wanna, you can say a word on these. Yeah. Here's the first one. Generally speaking, revivals start in a context of an overall zoomed-out cultural spiritual decline, not in a spiritual strength. Yes, no, agree, disagree?

Yeah, I agree. And I mean, I think we have been that, like we have been as lost as a country as I've ever seen us.

Strongly agree.

Um, and so, you know, I think you saw a generation try stuff and just come up wanting and say, all right, now I'm going to try God.

Anecdotally, like, you look out there in the world and, bro, it's getting crazier and crazier.

Yeah.

Uh, 2 verses that stand out, it's, uh, Isaiah 5:20, people are calling good things bad things explicitly more than perhaps ever in our lifetime.

Yeah. Woe to a people.

Uh, Judges 21:25, everybody's deciding for themselves what they think is right in their own eyes. So anecdotally, I think that's true. Also statistically, people who identify as Christians in the US in 2007, it was 78%. Today, 62%. That's a decline. In 2007, 54% of people went to church at least once a month. Today it's 33%. It's a decline. So statistically true, anecdotally true. This is where we are today. So that checks off. Okay, great. Second one, in revivals you see a renewed hunger for God. JP, is that true? Yes or no?

Yeah, 100%.

Today?

Yeah, absolutely. I'm— I mean, just what we just talked about. That's a lot.

That's a lot. That's right.

You're seeing a renewed—

50,000 in a month.

I mean, people are like, okay, like, there's something to this. I think it's true, and I want to go all in. And, um, yes.

Bible sales— I'm sure you know this— Bible sales have risen roughly 9.7 million copies in 2019 to 14.2 million in 2023. In 2024, from January to October, Bible sales rose another 22% in the US. Young people also buying a bunch of Bibles. 66% of US adults in a research study made a personal commitment to Jesus, saying that it's still important in their lives. That's up 12%age points from 2021.

And it's dudes, like historically it's always women that were kind of leading the charge here. Now young men are saying, hey, I wanna understand this.

Here's the next one. So number 2 checks off. Here's the next one. Generally speaking, revival precedes a small group of people persisting Constantly praying.

Yeah.

Is that true?

Yeah. Today you've heard it said, uh, you know, prayer— when people pray, revival happens. When people pray, it is revival. And like, that's what you're seeing happening now, is like people are going to prayer, like they're just praying more, you know? And both, both at an individual level praying more, and then more people are praying, bro.

feel like, you know, personally, I feel like a desire just to— I want God to use my life. I want God to use my church. I feel like a desire, a renewed urge to pray more. And I know it sounds so— such a Christian thing to say on a Christian podcast.

Yeah.

But it's a conviction. I want a conviction of the Holy Spirit that you've heard it said thousands of times, but it has to be true in your soul The more you pray, the more power you receive to do the work God has called you to do.

Yeah.

And so in the 1857 prayer revival in New York, this guy Jeremiah Lanphier, do you know about this guy?

Oh yeah.

He started basically a lunchtime prayer meeting. Only 6 people attended the first meeting, but within months, thousands were gathering for prayer across the city. And historians estimate the movement resulted in between 300,000 and 1 million new Christian conversions across the US.

1,000 to 1 million new Christian conversions with a prayer gathering that started with 6 people.

That's right.

So let's go.

There is power in prayer. Uh, here's the next one. Uh, generally speaking, revivals are marked by conviction of sin that is sudden and specific. Have you seen that today?

100%. I mean, you're seeing like these OnlyFans like become evangelists, you know what I mean? Like they were OnlyFans models and now they're like, they have Christian platforms and they're speaking in places. I'm thinking Nala the Ninja, you know, And it's just like, and there's others. I mean, there's Brittany, there's, you know, my boy Josh Broome. Like there's people that are just like, hey, we were in the industry and now we're following Jesus and mass repentance.

And by the way, it's not a confession for people that are maybe new to the faith. It's not a confession of sin of like, man, I'm so much more with guilt or it's a freedom.

Yeah.

It's a freedom, man.

Live free, man.

Live free, bro. Let's go.

Live free. Name, call it a podcast. I can't stop thinking about my mom. boy, Forest. And, uh, you know, he has a song, When Somebody Prayed, and he did— I saw him write this song live, and then he performed it live. I mean, like, moments after he finished it. It's just— the dude is so talented. But like, what people don't understand about Forest is like, he made it as a secular artist. Did you know this?

I did not.

Okay, Forest has a song—

Shout out to Forest.

Forest has a song that was streamed— it's been streamed over a billion times before he was ever free.

Which one?

Sunday's Best with Surfaces. And so— Is there a Christian theme in that song? It's not really. I don't know. He may correct me on that. I don't think so. But then he became— I mean, so he had no reason to do what he did except for that God called him to it, just like anointed him to it. But I'll say this about him too, because it's with the theme, is he's like so pure in heart that like being around him was humbling as a pastor to be kind of ministered to by this artist who's just like, hey, on that tour, no alcohol, work out every day, eat clean. You know, like, he's not even like really sarcastic, honestly. Like, you're even sarcastic, which I'm so sarcastic, you know. And I just, I, I like came back from that like a mountaintop. I was just like so clear in my thinking.

Mm-hmm.

So I'm I'm so grateful that he's discipling. I saw Pastor Josh was like, I've got a problem with Forrest.

He did have a problem with Forrest.

Hell's got a problem.

That's right. That's right. He's a problem for the kingdom of darkness. Amen. Shout out to Forrest. We appreciate him a lot and rooting for him. Hey, here's another one. In revivals, generally speaking, young people play major roles. JP, have you ever seen that today?

Dude, let's talk about it. Come on. You challenge me here. Do your homework. To the listener and viewer. But I charted like the 4— some people say there's 4 great awakenings in America's history. I charted them out on a timeline, and there was like 50 years in between when one ended and one started.

Okay.

When one ended and one started. God doesn't have to do that. It just— he seems to work in rhythms. And, you know, the, you know, sunup, sundown, day, night, spring, winter, summer, fall, those kinds of things. He just kind of works in a rhythm. And so I thought it was interesting that there was a 50-year gap in between the Great Awakenings, about roughly a 50-year gap. The, the, you know, Jonathan Edwards, Lyman Beecher, A.R. C. Sankey. The last one ended with Billy Graham Crusades in 1976. Okay. Hmm.

All right.

So fast forward 50 years. think— I'm not great at math, but I think it'd be like 2026, uh, would be about 50 years after that one ended, which would poise us well for a great awakening right now.

Mm-hmm.

At the center of every revolution in history— French Revolution, American Revolution, uh, all the great awakenings, any revival you can think of— is somebody at the center of all of them is somebody in their 20s or early 30s, every single one without exception. So right now it could be that God is looking for someone, some young person that he's saying, hey, it's not me. Like, I'm, you know what I'm saying? Like, I'm, I'm, I'm 45, right? Somebody that he is, some young person that he wants to raise up right now to lead this, this next Great Awakening.

Let's go, man. Uh, I actually found this, uh, George Whitefield was ordained at 21 and began preaching, began his preaching ministry that would make him one of the central figures of the Great Awakening.

Yeah.

Again, 21. Jonathan Edwards became a pastor in Northampton in his 20s, and he was 31 when the Northampton Revival erupted. Evan Roberts, 26-year-old, used to be a former coal miner and then became a ministry student, became one of the best leaders or most known young leaders in the Welsh Revival of 1904. Obviously, Charles Spurgeon, he preached his first sermon at 16, became a pastor at 17. At 19, he became the pastor of New Park Street Chapel in London. Billy Graham preached his first revival at 19. Young people willing to be used by a mighty God.

That's good.

Here's the last one. Generally speaking, behind every major movement of revival, you'll find a relatively new technology helping carry the movement forward.

Yeah.

Jonathan Pakluta, is that true today?

I mean, we've never seen as like what we have in front of us.

Let's go, bro.

Let's go.

And, you know, I don't know if you guys know—

Which one is it, by the way, for people that don't know yet?

What's that?

What do you— what technology are you talking about?

Well, one is, we talked about AI, right? And I think the Bible translation that's happening right now through artificial intelligence.

Yes.

So like, you know, I think it was C.S. Lewis said, however something— however something's capable for bad, equally great is it capable for good. for good, or however great is something's capability for good, equally great is capability for bad. And you said like a cow is somewhat capable of good, somewhat capable of evil, a human all the more so capable of good and evil. When you think about artificial intelligence, capable of great evil, capable of great good.

Yes.

And I mean, the translation capability, I mean, we are about to completely have the Bible translated in every single language known to man.

Yeah.

All of the, you know, the 4 corners of the world, if you will, are going to be reached with the gospel because of technology. I don't know if you know this right now, but you are listening to one of the number one, if not the number one podcast in the entire world. And I'm not talking about Christian podcasts, I'm talking about any podcast. That, you know, these conversations that you guys are having are so important and is evidence that I hope our Lord is going to return soon.

Protestant Reformation, printing press.

Yeah.

First Great Awakening, newspapers in print. Uh, George Whitefield used those a lot.

Let me say this real quick. First thing printed on that was the Bible. They said, hey, that's great, but we'll never use it for the Bible. You know, Johannes Gutenberg. That's right. And they said, we'll never use it for the Bible. The first thing printed on it was actually the Bible. And now none of us have a hand transcribed. So as you think about like, oh, I don't want to use AI, like AI is only evil. I would say, say, you know what, that's the mistake that Christians have made many, many times.

That's a good watch out. Billy Graham, radio and television. He had a radio show. Uh, today, social media, podcasting, AI. Uh, man, we're passionate about this. We pray for wisdom, for, um, so we can, that we can steward this technology well.

Yeah.

And so, uh, shout out to the Live Free Nation. Amen. Um, here, here, let's wrap with this. Uh, JP, you're probably evangelizer that I know.

Oh, come on, man. You gotta get out there more.

True, true. I wanna ask you about your method. Did you learn that from somebody or did you just kind of like, okay.

Yeah, so the 1 to 10, is that what you mean?

That, and also, yes. Yeah. So explain what, when you share the gospel with people, whether you know them or not.

The hardest part about evangelism is your transitions. Like, how do you go from talking about the buffalo wings to—

That's right.

You know, to Jesus.

It's like, oh man.

Or your sermon.

at the restaurant.

Yeah, it's like, those are hot. You know what else is hot? Hell is hot. There you go. No, it's like, do you have a faith? Like, that question right there, I think, is just a really powerful— hey, do you have a faith?

Yes.

And people would be like, what do you— a face? A what? You know, a religion? I go, a religion, a spirituality. Are you into church? But like, do you have a faith?

That's your—

like, once you ask that question, you're in it now. So all you got to do today is at some point today ask somebody, hey, do you have a faith? And just see where that goes, because that's your bridge question. Now you're talking about things of God. And then I'll go, if they go, yeah, I'm a Christian, because I'm in, you know, in the Bible Belt, I'll go between 1 and 10, 10 being certain, 1 being not so sure. If you died today, how certain are you that you would go to heaven? So Bryce Crawford just asked J.D. Vance this, you know, I mean, it's just like the Vice President of the United States. He asked Logan Paul, right? My guy's getting after it. So that came from D. James Kennedy in the '60s evangelism explosion. As far as I know, he came up with those questions. Somebody asked me that. I said a 7 because I was a good person and I tried hard. I wasn't a good person. I needed Jesus, and the 7 was evidence that I hadn't fully trusted in him. And so that's how I share the gospel. The second question is, if you stand before God and he said, why should I let you in?

What would you say? And people will say, well, because I've tried hard. So just as As you're listening, consider these 2 questions. Between 1 and 10, 10 being certain, 1 being not so sure, if you died today, how certain are you that you would go to heaven? And people say, well, a 10 is arrogant. Well, it's arrogant if you had anything to do with it.

Hmm.

But if you're boasting only in the finished works of Jesus, right? And then, and the second question is, if you stood before God and he said, why should I let you in? What would you say? And if you say, well, because I, because I, because I, you say, because you, God, sent your Son, Jesus. to die for my sins. You raised him from the dead. And I like it, and this is, you know, helpful to people. I say, it's like if I give you tickets to the game and you go to the game and they say, why should we let you in? You're gonna say, because I have tickets. And if they say, did you pay for the tickets? You're gonna say, no, they were a gift. That's right. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:8-9, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith. It's not of yourself. It's the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. Have you received the gift or not?

Yeah.

Has God given you the gift of salvation or not? Romans 10:9, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved. Not might be saved, could be saved, should be saved, would be saved. You will be saved.

So 3 questions. Do you have the faith?

Between 1 and 10, 10 being certain, 1 being not so sure. If you died today, how certain are you that you would go to heaven? And if you stood before God and he said, why should I let you in? What would you say?

Okay.

So let's, let's do this. Let's do a little role play.

Okay.

Where I'm going to be a very difficult person. I'm a lost person. And, uh, we'll see how you interact with me right now.

Okay. Okay.

Uh, what's up, man?

Hey, what's up, man?

How are you?

Good, man. How, how was your day? How long you been here?

Uh, I've been working here for 3 years.

Awesome.

And, uh, yeah.

Do you have a faith?

What'd you say?

Do you have a faith?

Do I have a face?

Faith, like a religion, spirituality, a faith.

Uh, well, I was not expecting you to say that, but, uh, I mean, I grew up Catholic and, And, you know, I believe in God.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I grew up Catholic as well. And, and, you know, not to catch you off guard with my questions, I ask people this every single day. You know, when I was Catholic, somebody told me once, they said, hey, you can't take your faith too serious. And I was like, what else am I going to take serious? You know? And so I always try to ask somebody this question. Do you have a faith? And so you say you believe in God?

Yeah.

Awesome. Can I ask you 2 questions?

Okay.

Between 1 and 10, first question, between 1 and 10, 10 being certain, 1 being I'm not so sure. If you died today, how certain are you that you would go to heaven?

Man, I think I'm gonna say 5.

5, like a coin toss. So, like, I got a second question, but you say like a 5, like, like, hey, it's a coin toss, like maybe, you know, heads or tails, not sure. And so the second question is, if, if you stood before God and he said, why should I let you in? What would you say?

I mean, I've tried to, you know, be a good person. And, uh, I feel like I'm better than other people, at least generally speaking.

Man, I ask people that every day because somebody asked me that. I was raised Catholic, Catholic school for 9 years. I said a 7, and I said because I'm a good person, I've tried hard. And I imagine, you know, growing up with some aspect of, of church, you know, you, you have a Bible, and it's like, do you think the Bible says that we We can know that we could be a 10?

I don't know, man. I feel like the Bible has some parts that, like, I don't know, I feel like it's been changed.

Yeah. What parts do you think has been changed?

I mean, I don't know. I just, I'm not sure I buy into the whole, like, you know, talking snake and, uh, just, you know, Noah's Ark, whatever.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So like, yeah. Do you buy into the whole, like, God died and showed back up 3 days later?

I mean, it says it in the book, but I mean, can you really know?

I'm not so sure.

Yeah, man.

So here's the deal. Several things you said there. One, that the Bible's changed. Islam actually teaches that the Bible was changed during the Dark Ages. The greatest archaeological discovery to date is what we know as the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls show parts of like Isaiah and some of the scriptures that predate the Dark Ages and actually show that the scripture hasn't changed. Of the 400,000 variances that we have from the Dead Sea Scrolls, they were all punctuations, capitalizations. None of the story has changed. So we know that what we— the scriptures that we have today are actually more reliable because the more manuscripts we have, the more reliable they become. So I'll break roleplay for a second and say, so if your issue was really, hey, I think the Bible has been changed, I would go that route.

Okay.

You know, if you go, hey, some of these things are not believable, I would go, well, you know, you said you believe in God. Like, a God that creates everything is pretty unbelievable. Like, if we're gonna— if we're gonna take an issue with anything, start with there being some invisible deity that created everything you see. Like, basically this giant ball that he put into orbit around a sun with other planets like Jupiter and Venus and Mars, and we're all floating through space, and somehow this particular one is so fine-tuned that if gravity was any more, it'd flatten us to the Earth. If it was any less, we'd float off into space. space. And we breathe oxygen, which happens to be this thing that plants breathe out so that we can take it in. And the whole galaxy is so fine-tuned that if the sun was any closer, we'd burn up. If it was any further, we'd freeze. And so it's like more fine-tuned than like a Swiss watch. And yet here we are. So you're like, hey, and I think there's someone that created all of that, which I agree with you. And I think if he's there, like Noah's Ark and a talking snake's not really a big problem.

You know, I've got— I had a parrot and it talked. And so a talking snake is not really that big of a deal. But I would just say, man, as I started to read, I had a bias against Christianity. And here in evangelism, this is where you just share your story and say, I had a bias against evangelism. You've been so kind with your time and so generous. I'd love to just share my story with you briefly and say— Yes. I thought, hey, all ways lead to God, and if there's a God, he's probably not Christian. I studied the Hindu faith, the Buddhist faith, Jewish faith, Islamic faith, Mormon, Jehovah's Witness Church, Christian Science, Scientology. I kept tripping over Jesus, who reset time 2026 years ago. Every atheist you know acknowledges him by the date they put on their checks, the date on their iPhones, the date on the receipt you're about to give me, right? That's 2026 BC, before Christ. AD, it's not after death, it's medieval Latin for the year of our Lord, Anno Domini, the year of our Lord. So we live in 2026, the year of our Lord. Like, how did this guy reset time?

And then I would just move to this, to the gospel, like, hey, I believe it's— he died for our sins and raised from the dead. And then before I wrapped up the conversation, I would say, hey, let me ask you something. Would you want to be forgiven? Like, would you want to be— what if I told you today you could be clean, you could be forgiven of all of your sins?

sins.

Yeah, sure.

And then I would, I would pray with you.

Hey bro, but don't, don't push your religion on me though.

Yeah, I hear you, man. I hear you. Let me ask you a question. Should I go pour over or, um, or drip coffee or latte?

It's whatever you want.

Well, what do people, what do people typically get?

I don't know, man. People—

What would you suggest? Like, this is what you do for a living, so to be good at what you do—

I don't drink coffee. I don't drink coffee, actually.

I'm kind of assuming you're a barista or something, but I hear you. So yeah, man, what do you think we should push on? Like, if, if, if there was a car headed for me right now, if I was gonna die, like, would you care enough about me to push me out of the way? You don't even know me.

Yeah, I'd try.

You'd push me out of the way of something that was gonna kill me?

I would try, yeah.

Why would you do that?

Because I don't want you to die.

Why? You don't— I mean, you're You don't even know me. Why do you care if I die or not?

Because I'm trying to be a good person.

Yeah. So an aspect of you being good is responding to what you know is reality. And if you see something that's going to harm me, then you want to help me. And that's all I'm doing is I'm just a guy who studied religion. I try to have a deep understanding of what happens to somebody after they die. And I meet someone like you who says, hey, I believe in God, but I'm just not sure of who he is. is, that would make you agnostic. A, without or no, gnostic, knowledge. Hey, I don't think we can actually know who God is. And what I'm saying is, if there's a God who created the heavens and the earth, who created all the things that we see, as you said you believe there is, then he's certainly powerful enough to tell us who he is.

Yeah.

Because if he's not, he's a weak God. Like, if he can create all this stuff but he can't tell us, can't introduce himself to us.

Yeah.

And so what I would pray for you is that tonight at 2 AM, he's going to wake you up, and you're just going to have a hard time saying, all right, I'm— he, he kind of put a rock in my shoe that I'm tripping over, and I, I want to know who God is. If you ask him, as you consider trying to find out who God is, I want you to look at Jesus. There's not a credible atheist today that denies the existence of Jesus, right? So as you're searching for God, start with Jesus. Say, all right, and just see it to failure. Yeah, like get to a place in your research for Jesus that, hey, I don't believe he actually existed, or I don't believe that he was God. Because as C.S. Lewis said, you know, he's either a liar, someone who claimed to be God but knew he wasn't. He's a lunatic, someone who claimed to be— someone who actually thought he was God when he wasn't. Or he is who he said he is. He's Lord, someone who claimed to be God who's actually God.

That's great, JP. For people hearing you right now, maybe this is helpful. How often do you end up actually with somebody praying to receive Jesus after that conversation versus how often it's more like, oh man, thank you for sharing that, I'll think about it, and I appreciate you bringing that up?

I bet, I bet I pray probably— and I'm just, I'm kind of making this up, um, because I've never tracked it like this— but I bet I pray 1 out of 5 times. But what I would say is—

For people to give their life to Jesus?

Yeah.

Ah, that's quite a bit.

But I would say you can't save anybody, and like, our job is sharing. And I think the church actually under-celebrates sharing. Like, we celebrate saving but not sharing. You can't save anybody. Like, God saves. I've never saved a single human being. And I'm sure there are people who have prayed who weren't actually saved, and I'm sure there are people who didn't pray who actually got saved. I can't save anyone. We just sprinkle seed. Like, we just share, and God's the one that makes it grow.

And you never know when that one conversation will spark a little something after with somebody else, perhaps.

Yeah, there's the man on George Street that would just say, hey, he would just stand on George Street in Australia and he was like, hey, if you, uh, if you died today, do you know where you'd go? Have you given your life to Jesus? And he would just say that over and over and over. He never saw a single salvation. But one day a guy was leaving Australia, was flying back to the States, and he sat next to someone on a plane and he went to share the gospel with them and they were a believer. And they said, how'd you become a Christian? He said, well, there was this man on George Street that asked this question. I wasn't able to And then he got off the plane in New York City and he was on the subway and he wanted to share the gospel with somebody and they were Christian. He said, how'd you become a Christian? He said, well, once I was on vacation in Australia and this man said this and I wasn't able to shake it.

Hmm.

And that kind of sent him on a mission to try to figure out, hey, how many people actually became Christians from this man? And it was hundreds of thousands of people became Christians through his work. So he flew to Australia to meet him. meet with him. And he met with him before he passed away, and he asked him, hey, did you realize— he goes, I've never seen a single person convert.

That's amazing.

And there were hundreds of thousands of people in his backline.

That's amazing. Obedience. Last question. Somebody says, man, I want to do it. I'm just afraid. I feel like intimidated. Yeah, I'm not as knowledgeable about the Bible. And if I'm honest, I'm just like, it's weird. Like, it's a little weird, kind of outside of my comfort zone. How do I beat that fear?

Sharing the gospel.

Okay.

Is that what you mean?

No, they're saying that I'm afraid to just like talk to this guy or even my family member. I'm just afraid.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm an extrovert and, um, and I probably have the spiritual gift of evangelism. You know, I mean, I was in sales before this and so I get that, but I've got a 17-year-old daughter and she is the biggest introvert and she struggles to talk to people. You know, it's just like, doesn't come natural to her to like talk to people. And that girl, every day at lunch, goes to H-E-B and walks down the aisle of H-E-B and just goes up to strangers to share the gospel with them. Because she just believes in heaven and hell and that's it. And, and she like, it's funny cuz I said 1 in 5, you know, and you're like, that's pretty good. She has the highest hit rate of anyone I know. Like the highest success rate. Like we will be in H-E-B. This is a true story. We will be in H-E-B and I'm like, where's Finley? I can't find Finley. And I'll walk 2 aisles over and she is praying with someone in the middle of the aisle receiving Christ. And then we'll go outside and somebody was helping, or it was Her mom got a, you know, the delivery, like where you pick up your groceries.

And so I went in to get something and I'd come back out and the person's bringing the groceries to our door and she'll just share the gospel with her and she'll receive Christ right there. She'll pray with her to receive Christ right there. And I'm just like, how do you do that? And I think it's because she's not using her gregarious personality. She's not using, you know, all her worldliness, her— Her persons, her natural gifts. She just relies so much on the Holy Spirit. I think that when an introvert, like someone without the gift of evangelism, puts themselves out there like that, that you know they they need God. You know, like for me, I I can be good with my words and I can think fast and I've got a thousand ways that you're going to go dinosaurs or age of the earth and I know what to say to that. I've ran into that bunch of times. You know, you you say, "Hey, I'm Muslim." I'm like, "Oh, Isa." You I'm Hindu. I know, I know what to say. Her, she's like, God, you got to tell me what to say. Like, she's dependent on the Holy Spirit.

And so God just uses her like nothing I've ever seen. So that's the encouragement I would say to that person that's afraid. I'm like, glad, I'm glad you're afraid. God's probably going to use you.

Yeah.

You'll need him to.

God's power is made perfect in my weakness.

That's what he says. So I will boast all the more about my weakness. If dependence is the the goal, weakness is the advantage.

Amen. So may he use your extrovertness, and may he use your introvertness, and whatever personality God gave you to, to be a vessel and an instrument to bring salvation to people that are in desperate need of a Savior.

Amen.

Uh, JP, I want to honor you for your obedience, for your example, and for how faithful you are in preaching the word of God. And really, man, Inspiring thousands, if not millions.

Well, I mean, I mean, you guys are doing that. I don't want to just love fest back and forth, but Pastor Josh, Lake Point Live Free Podcast, and my dear friend who I go way back with, Carlos, I mean, you guys are doing it, man. I'm so thankful.

Appreciate you. Would you pray for us as we wrap?

Yeah, please, God, would you? First of all, just as we talk about the enemy, I know he doesn't like it, and there's just going to be People who want to misunderstand things that are said, take it out of context, or maybe I misspoke at some point, you know, maybe Carlos did. Would you just protect us? Would you protect us from the work of the enemy? If there's anything that we said that's inconsistent with your character, inconsistent with your Word, inconsistent with your Spirit, untrue, would you— Make it delete. You know, would you get rid of it? Would you? I mean, I pray that it wasn't heard, that no one would hear it, that it be forgotten. If there's anything that we said that's true of your character, your spirit, your word, who you are, I pray that you would use it to change lives, that it would get stuck in people's heart and their head, and it would change who they are and what they do. I thank you for this resource that you've created. I pray that you would use it for your renown and your glory to prepare a place that you return to.

too soon. We love you so much. I pray you bless every single listener and viewer right now, that you would just pour out grace and favor on them because they took the time to even make it this far, that they would receive this blessing through prayer, through this podcast, that you would bless their lives, their marriages, their children, uh, their, their singleness, their, their job, uh, that you would just bless them, Lord. And we just thank you. And it's in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

Amen.

Live free, brother.

Thank you, my man.

Well, hey, thanks so much for listening. Lake Pointe Church is a movement for all people to know Christ, live free, and change the world for God's glory. If you're already a member of a local church, we want you giving there. But if you'd like to make a donation to help this message go further, faster, it genuinely helps us boost getting out to more people. Um, if you'd like to make a donation, you can text the word give to the number 20411 and then just choose church online from that dropdown menu. To find out more about Lake Pointe, you can visit lakepointe.church.