Transcript of This Election Was a Warning. Most Christians Are Missing It | Live Free with Josh Howerton

It took a generation of Christian statesmen to found the country; it will take a generation of Christian statesmen to preserve it.

If you've been posting about politics, I would encourage you: do not post another thing about politics until you've shared the gospel with somebody.

GK Chesterton looked at all of human history and he said, "At least 5 times in human history, it has seemed that Christianity has gone to the dogs, and every single time it was the dog that died."

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 Lakepoint. 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 LIFERY podcast. My name is Carlos Arauzo, and today I have the honor and the pleasure to be here today with Pastor Josh Howerton and Pastor Paul Cunningham, and—

We got some pigs to kick.

We got some pigs to kick.

Here's how I feel. Here's how I feel. This is how I'm feeling. We're going to talk election results.

Whoa!

What is this?

What is this? Bro. We have a celebration.

What is this?

We have a celebration today.

What is this?

So for people that are not on YouTube or Spotify, our team just interrupted the show to bring a cake that says, "Let's kick this pig," and it is a delicious cake that Pastor Josh is about to eat.

What the heck? Is this just a random—like, it's—

Well, we had to bring— you missed our anniversary last week.

What?

Yeah, we had a significant anniversary, and you missed it.

No way, you and Carlos don't have an anniversary, brother.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Hey, hey, this is not a Methodist podcast.

That is not what we're talking about. That is not at all what he is talking about. What he meant to say—

Please, Carlos, rescue us right now.

What he meant to say is, last week we surpassed the episode 100.

Did we really?

Of the LIFERY podcast, so—

100 last week.

Wow. So here we go, man. We've kicked—

We ate a fork?

We ate a fork.

I wondered. That's amazing.

We've kicked a lot of pigs.

Dude, I got to say, we need to put up, like, a picture of this on YouTube. I just want to say, Paul, they did you dirty on this one.

I am so shocked. I am so shocked that they did me dirty.

You, on this cake, it looks like you ate 12 of these cakes.

That was— they took a picture of me from, like, 6 months ago, I guess. Ugh.

Oh my gosh. Carlos looks like a boy band member.

Yeah.

Still to this day.

All right, we got pigs to kick. Hey, thank y'all.

Hey, man.

Well, that's the team, actually, so shout out to the team.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm not joking, dude.

That was a fork.

Bro.

Ah, dude.

Look at that.

Boom.

And shout out to the LIFERY NATION.

Well, hey, here's— so wait, tell them what we're going to talk about.

Today we're going to have a great episode. We are going to—

Bro, it's full.

It is full. That's right. We're going to talk about the reflections after the November 3rd midterm elections here in the United States.

And I want to tell you where we're going. Hey, man, we got hope.

That's right.

We got hope, brother.

That's right, man.

So we're going to break it down.

Yep.

Let me tell them how we're going to approach it, and then you can finish talking about what we did.

Sure, sure, sure.

So everybody and your mom, you can go to a bajillion other podcasts or news stations, and you're going to be able to get breakdowns of what demographics voted what, and what did the exit polls say. We want to kind of do, like, the Book of Revelation, not in, like, an apocalypse is coming, but, like, we want to do, like, Book of Revelation where it's like, okay, our camera angle is going into the spiritual realm.

That's right.

And what does the Bible say is, like, happening in the spiritual realm, and then we'll kind of apply some things. And that's going to get fun and a little spicy.

It's going to be fun.

All right, so we'll do that.

In addition to that, we're going to go Mark chapter 8, and we're going to be asking, hey, what does it look like for Christians today to follow Jesus and give up your life in obedience to the gospel? So it's going to be great.

And usually we would do the dive into the sermon first. I think this time we're going to reverse the order and hit the election first, because—

Because.

אני כן רואה ששלחו לך קוד. אמנם היום אני לא רואה, אבל אני כן רואה שזה התחיל לפני כמה ימים.

It feels appropriate.

And so that we can end on a high note, diving into God's Word.

Bro, that cake's good.

Is it good?

Yeah, good.

Good.

I do want to say, I missed y'all last week.

We missed you.

But I also want to, like, give a heartfelt why. So as you guys know, we had a tragic death in our church, and my eyes were making sweat talking about it, of one of the legit, like, one of the greatest women in our entire church, a lady named Rebecca Hunt, who tragically passed away in her 40s, and she started— I just want to honor her, and then this is why I wasn't on that last episode y'all did. I was doing that funeral. But man, she was the type of woman who had a season, a little prodigal season, and came back to the Lord, became a capital D disciple.

Wow.

Bro, it's legit. And she was just the best, dude. And great Christian family. And, dude, this is a little story, and then we can at least get into the podcast. My daughter saved up her own money one year and bought Mrs. Hunt a sermon note journal to use for Lakepoint sermons, and she actually used it. And her daughter texted us a picture that the last sermon she ever took notes on was a call to die.

Wow.

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.

Amen.

And so that, A, that's why I wasn't here. I was preaching at a funeral. B, you know, I think I've got passages in the Bible that make me think that the great cloud of witnesses in heaven can actually see, and if so, I just want to know she's being honored.

That's right. Well done. Good and faithful servant.

That's right.

You were doing something infinitely more important.

Oh, man. Thank you.

So, yeah, glad you did.

We missed you, but you were where you needed to be.

That's right, man.

Well, as Pastor Josh keeps eating cake over here, we're going to have a great episode today. But before, man, as you chew on your cake, I want to ask you, I like your hat, and I like your—

Oh, boy.

And I like your hoodie.

Carlos, you ready?

Right now, before.

Oh, dang.

I just want to celebrate one more thing. We got a lot of celebration, obviously.

We got gum, man. We got a lot of.

Hey, we just finished Encounter.

We did.

Advanced Commitment Night, and, bro, it was a great night.

Dude, it was.

You did a great job, by the way, bringing the Word.

Yes, you did.

Man, we come together as a church, and we like this, by the way, a lot. Worship, prayer, and we brought our two-year commitment to.

It was awesome.

Yeah, we're in a season of generosity and faith in our church, and so it was amazing.

Dude, it was awesome. Let me shout out to a LIFERY listener that's in a correctional facility. So, bro, this is amazing. We got this, and me and Carlos both read this. So, yeah, obviously we're on the Pando app, 1.2 million, and people in correctional facilities access the thing. By the way, we've already had 1.6 million downloads in correctional facilities, and, bro, over 700 people, over 700 salvations.

That's crazy, man.

It's nuts.

In, like, a couple months.

It's stupid.

Yeah.

It's stupid. I'll just tease something. I think we want to figure out if we can do a live pod recording from a correctional facility.

That'd be amazing, man.

We're working on it. We're literally working on it.

Yeah, that's right.

So anyway, let me do this, and let's get to talking Bible, election results, all the things.

Yeah.

So we get this. I'm going to read some from this real quick. So open this letter, and it's like a four-page letter from a guy named Chris Pierce. Shout out, LIFERY NATION, Chris Pierce.

He's literally listening right now.

Literally. I want to read a short part of this letter, bro.

Yeah.

Now I'm summarizing four pages. Hello, Pastor Josh and Lakepoint Church and LIFERY NATION. My name is Chris Pierce, and I'm currently serving my sentence at Red Rock Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona. Shout out. I am writing to say thank you for all you are, thank you for all you do and how it is changing me. Thank you for your honesty. Thank you for humbly standing on God's truth. Thank you for keeping Jesus Christ at the center of it all and for teaching us about the hardest issues in Christianity in the world.

My God.

Bro, this is stupid, dude. This is stupid good.

Come on.

"Telling the other men about the hope of Jesus Christ, and God has put a vision in my heart to do ministry. You guys are a huge inspiration to me. I'm praying for you today. Please pray for us while we are in here. Love you, brothers. God bless. Into the breach, Chris Pierce."

Come on, bro.

And then, dude, this is nuts. He included a $60 check just because he's like, "I want to help." And, dude, that guy, like, has no idea what he just did. Like, so, hey, well done, brother. We're with you.

Get your credit, man.

We're with you.

That's amazing.

Bro, it's awesome.

Hey, we're, man, 2026 is almost over.

That's right.

Before we get into election results and we start deep diving Mark 8, which thing do we want to do? Do you want me to give you guys my pop quiz, or do you want me to see what we've been reading lately? Which, you guys choose your own adventure.

I like the option here.

Yeah, choose your own adventure.

It's a little more exciting.

Which one do you want?

He said.

I want to hear the quick reading first.

Oh, okay. Oh, okay.

So, Carlos, you've been reading something good.

Man, I like to read the Bible.

Ooh.

Wow.

I know, we basically.

Good choice.

Thank you.

I enjoy it, actually. Bro, I'm excited for this one. So this is, I don't, I will be surprised if you know this. I'm really excited for this. So I've read the Bible my whole life. I literally just discovered this recently. It's crazy. This is a hidden detail in the life of John the Baptist, and I'm about to explain how he fulfilled a prophecy given 400 years before his life. So we all know John the Baptist, obviously. He is a little bit of a weird guy. And Matthew chapter 3, verse 4 gives us a very interesting description of who he was. And in particular, it specifies what he wore.

No way, dude. What?

2 Kings 1:8, the messengers of King Ahaziah describe an encounter with a mysterious prophet. And this is what the Bible says. He wore a garment of hair with a belt of leather around his waist, and the king said, "Oh, it is Elijah the Tishbite." John is wearing the same thing as Elijah, and Matthew's point in telling us what John wore is that John the Baptist is the new Elijah. John is preparing the way for the coming of the Messiah. And so here's the math.

What?

Elijah crosses the Jordan River before he went up to heaven. Where is John the Baptist when he meets Jesus?

Jordan River?

Jordan River. He is at the Jordan River, and that's where Jesus' public ministry begins. Elijah's ministry was followed by a greater ministry with Elisha because he received a double portion of his spirit. John's ministry prepared the way for Jesus, who was obviously somebody who had a much infinitely greater ministry. And so here's the point. John wore Elijah's clothes, carried Elijah's message, and came in Elijah's spirit and power. Why? Because he was pointing to the Messiah that was prophesied hundreds of years ago, and his name is Jesus.

Listen, this podcast is over. We're done here.

That was so legit.

Bro.

Are you kidding me?

So, dude, I literally.

I have never, ever in my whole life seen that. I've been studying the Bible for 30 years.

I'm literally just reading it recently. I'm like, what is going on here? So anyways.

Okay.

Now, quick transition, and then for listeners, we really are going to start.

We really are.

Okay. Now, I actually have a tie-in to what you just said.

Okay.

These guys do not know this is happening. This is the episode of surprises. So I have a quiz for you.

Oh, no.

I have a quiz for you. I came across on TikTok this week, this is going to tell you something about my TikTok algorithm. The precious moments, you remember the, Carlos, do you know what a precious moment figurine is?

A girl toy?

Oh, my.

No, I'm not.

I have no idea what that is.

Do you know what a precious moment is?

I know what a precious moment is.

You had to have an American grandma.

It doesn't sound very, it doesn't sound very masculine, whatever it is.

No, it was for like a white American grandma.

Okay.

They all had precious moments figurines. They were little figurines.

Okay.

And what they were, don't look at us.

I was going to look at it.

Don't look at us. I'm going to show you an example. What they would do is they would be like some sweet moment from the Bible. You know, Jesus holding a lamb.

Is it a devotional?

Jesus holding, no, it's a figurine, Carlos. It's made out of glass.

Okay.

So it's like, oh, Jesus holding a lamb, you know, a child resting his head on the, you know, knee of the Lord. Okay, these are some precious moments.

I wonder if.

AI-generated, have you seen this?

I wonder if there's a real thing.

These are some AI-generated precious moments from the Old Testament. We're going to pause each of them and see if you can identify the, by the way, if you're on YouTube, see if you can identify it. And here's what we're going to do. Whichever one of you gets it right first wins the point. Okay?

Oh.

So, no, stop. Stop, stop, stop.

I just wonder. I wonder if you're going where I think you're going.

No, stop. All right. So play it.

Wait, so you have to guess what Bible story?

Yeah, you have to guess what Bible story.

10th and 11th Testament.

I'm pausing through.

Judges, judges.

He got it first. He got it first.

What was it?

Naboth, where the woman basically drives the state through his head while he's sleeping.

Jael?

Yeah.

So these are very un, these are very not precious moments.

Hey, hey, it's Jael.

Jael?

Paul.

That's a joke.

Maybe point, Carlos. All right, keep going. Keep going.

That's hilarious.

Bro, these are hilarious.

That's hilarious.

It's going to get dark.

It's so dark.

I'm going to warn you, this gets dark.

Is this Forrest Gump in the Old Testament?

Oh, Elijah.

Carlos got him. Elijah.

Like Shaw, not.

Shaw.

Like Shaw.

Where they said, "Go on up, you baldhead."

That's right.

He crawls down two she-bears, it says.

That maul how many children?

I have an affection for that story in the Bible. That's all I'll say for those who are watching the video.

Oh, boy.

That maul how many children, do you remember?

It's like 35.

It's like a good amount. I forget the exact number.

So yeah, so that's the moment before a bear eats all the children. Okay, go to the next one.

Oh, boy.

I love the Forrest Gump music.

It's funny. It's funny.

David, it's all.

No, no.

Oh, dude.

What's the problem with the dagger swallows in his fat?

The fat guy. By the way, that's what the Bible says. This is not me being derogatory. That's literally what the Bible says.

Everything that says his fat is swallows.

Yeah, do you remember the name of the king?

Ehud?

No. Ehud is the guy that kills the king.

That's right. That's right. Oh, I forget the name.

Eglon. Okay, go to the next one.

Wait, what book of the Bible is it?

Judges.

That's in Judges.

I think Judges.

Yeah, a lot of the stories are in Judges.

Okay, bro, if you get this, this is hilarious. Bro, this is hilarious. Look at the guys. This is a little inappropriate, but it's in the Bible. Look at where the guys in pain are holding.

Wait, it's David?

Yeah.

It's David after cutting the, I don't know what the term is, but the part of the body that.

I would love for you to specify.

Bro, this is the moment for.

Wait, wait, wait.

And he's about to get his.

204 skins.

4 skins, that's right. That's right.

To be in a bag.

That's right. And then he's about to get married because that's what we'll ask of him.

So I was confused because at first it looks like they're holding their stomach. I see now what you're referring to.

No, they're holding lower than their stomach. By the way, don't send me an email. This is in the Bible. Okay, now, bro, this last one, just heads up, bro. This last one, capital D dark, but this is in the Bible. See if you can figure what is this. It's freaking like

whatever.

It's coming.

It's coming. It's coming. Bro, this is dark right here.

Oh, Solomon, where they talk about the baby?

No, it's darker than that.

Oh, oh.

Yeah, they say.

This is, it's not humor actually. I mean, it's like, it's real dark.

That is King Solomon though, right?

I don't think so. This is the two mothers during Samaria's siege where one of them eats the baby.

Yeah.

So little dark.

Little dark.

Little dark.

And she's pointing.

Okay, now we finished the, look at what it says here. I don't even want to say what is going on. All right. We're officially done. Good job.

Where's that in the Bible?

Good job, boys.

Where's that in the Bible?

I don't have the reference in front of me, but it's in there, I promise.

Okay, okay.

It's in there. You can do a reel on it next week.

Great. Great. Yeah.

We're going to, just real quick, and then we're going to finally dive into the election is we're kind of doing like an Oreo, like a sandwich method here. We've started with a lot of humor. We're going to end on an uplifting note. And in the middle, it might get a little dark. We'll try to bring as much light as we possibly can.

We're going to be great.

We're hope warriors today. Hope warriors.

2 Kings.

2 Kings.

6.

Okay, interesting.

All right. Okay, so we're flipping it. Usually what we do is we go, we call it air war, ground war. Ground war, for people who are listening, just to understand how we think, ground war is applying the scriptures to people and families, quote unquote, down there. Like the people in front of us in the pews. Air war is applying the scriptures to the culture up there.

Yeah.

So ground war, air war. Usually what we do is we start with ground war and with air war. This week, for reasons that'll become obvious in a second, we're going to start with air war and talk election results, and then end ground war, deep dive Mark 8, because it's awesome. And we'll do it that way. Now, Carlos is going to give a general overview of what happened while we're reacting to it. And why it's a pretty significant moment in some ways in American history.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, this last November 3, we had midterm elections, and the following day, Pastor Josh, Wednesday morning, something incredible happened. The sun came up, the earth kept spinning, and Jesus is still on the throne. So let me start there.

That's great, dude.

We'll go there.

That's great, dude.

So these elections have been described as a blue tsunami, also known as a political bloodbath, because the pendulum swung hard the other side. So Democrats have taken control of both the House and the Senate. Let me give you some overview. James Salarico in Texas became the first Democratic Texas senator since 1988.

We just got to do this, bro. We got to take our L, man. We got to take our L. We did our best.

We did our best.

We did our best.

That's right. In addition, Adam Hamilton became the first Democratic Kansas senator since 1932. Democrats flipped governors in Texas, Georgia, Ohio, Iowa, and Nevada.

Texas is the one that people were like, what just happened?

Yeah. Speaking of Texas, Gina in Ojosa defeated Greg Abbott, and that was the first Democratic win there in decades. She became the first Latina governor of the state.

It's happened before. Do you remember?

Oh, really?

Does it say when?

When the last statewide.

I don't know.

Okay, that's good. That's good. For the first time since the Republican Party's founding in the 1850s, the six states in New England, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut will have zero Republican senators.

Yeah, there's other reasons for that.

Amongst other reasons. And so generally speaking, you know, again, we were not going to go deep into this, but people are talking about how in some ways this reflection is a sharp rebuke of the Republican agenda in this season. There's division in the Republican Party, the cost of living, high prices, Iran war, president feels out of touch, tariffs and overall direction of the country. There's a lot of gloomy talk out there. So I'm going to pass it on to you. That's the very general overview.

Did you have something you were going to say and then I'll start that one?

I was going to say, we'll hit this in a little bit. There have been tsunamis before, both sides and both ways. But what did make this one unique, it wasn't just how many seats flipped, it was that many of them were unexpected because they were in very traditionally conservative states like Texas and Kansas, and even it was looking like in Mississippi and other places like that was part of it. It wasn't just how many flipped, it was where they flipped that made this one seemingly really significant.

All right, I'll just start, I'll start going. Okay, so first of all, let me just set this up. If somebody's listening, if you're a brand new listener, because hey man, this podcast is kind of doing real good right now.

Oh, grace me.

And so there's like tons of new people every week. And you're like, huh, well, they're kind of just making it sound like blue bad or red good. Let me just say the thing that I always say, here's our caveat, is right now, it's just, it's a basic reality that right now, in modern America, 2026, when you're talking policies, the publicly stated proposed policies of the parties, that if you take Christian ethics and a biblical understanding of the role of the government, it is simply going to code conservative in 2026.

That's right, man.

And my kids love me and love the Lord. And life is good, you know? But what we always say is, hey man, every Christian in America, you got to determine, am I, is my conservative above my Christian or is my Christian above my conservative? So which one comes first in the priority in your life? You know, is being a good conservative more important to you than being a good Christian? Or is being a good Christian more important to you than being a quote unquote good conservative? And you know what we always say, we always say the same thing. The moment that quote unquote being a good conservative means being a bad Christian, I'm out.

That's right.

So that's the little setup. Anything you want to say before I dive in?

Go.

All right. So let me just, let me just say a few, like I've got like five quick things I want to riff on. Okay, number one, the sovereignty of God in all things is a great comfort. Okay? There's the little phrase, it's an old Puritan phrase. I don't know, I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds tomorrow. Okay? So hey man, listen, hey bro, we good? We good? Me and Janna, we texted this to each other, and I was praying this this week.

Good verse.

Come on.

Come on.

Come on. That's great news. Number two, let me just be very honest. What happened? And some people don't like that we're a little straightforward about this. It was sad and very grievous. I'll just be honest. It was sad and very grievous. I'll just point out a few things. What you just saw is whether it was the reason that they voted this way or not. What just happened is the United States of America en masse intentionally chose max boosting infant murder.

Yeah.

Let me just pause and let that sink in. Like viable children, like can legally be murdered in the state of Virginia now up until the moment they breach the birth canal. Legislated sexual perversion. We're going to get into this in a second. What our nation just did in some ways is while they had been freaking out about quote unquote Christian nationalism, they said yes to Islamic nationalism. I think what you just had is either eight or 11, I can't remember which one, more Islamic leaders were elected into office.

Yeah, we got it.

So Democratic Socialists of America, who, oh by the way, in their publicly stated like policy aims, there's things like overthrowing the Constitution of the United States, enshrining something in between socialism and communism into official economic policy, a Marxist revolution, like essentially a takeover of the United States. How many is it?

Oh, I'm grocking.

You got it? Just thinking?

A while here.

So a decent number of new quote unquote DSA, Democratic Socialists of America candidates were elected. Is this still thinking?

My grocking takes a long time, bro. I don't know.

There must have been a lot of them.

There's like a whole bunch of, around eight in the US.

Okay, eight. So eight more. Okay.

Yeah.

So hey dude, what happened was legitimately, like, there's not another word for what happened in the policies that were chosen than national sin. A significant amount of national sin was chosen in that moment. Now, dude, this is going to take me a second. So like if you guys got anything to say, if you want to riff on anything here, the thing that I posted that people objected to is I was like, hey, what you just, what you're seeing happen is you're seeing Romans 1 happen right now.

No, I think even just to highlight a few things you said and explain in case it's still not sitting well with people. When you say that those two people are apostate. To apostate literally means is to rebel against or to depart from. And to be an apostate means you're departing from historic Christian teaching that has stood for 2000 years. So for example, on these two guys, I don't want to take too long on this, but Salarico, and I forget always, Hamilton.

Adam Hamilton.

Yeah, Adam Hamilton in Kansas. Is saying things, for example, affirming transgender, affirming same-sex marriage.

By the way, as a biblical, like positive godly good.

Yes, that actually God wants you to do this. If you read the Bible, they believe that God would lead you to do this. Well, and even there's so many interviews that are out there specifically with Salarico where he would say that actually the Bible affirms the idea of you being able to abort.

Correct.

And the reason we would call them apostate is literally until about the last 50 years, every Christian from every major branch of Christianity, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant would all say that they're wrong. And in any other era in history would call them heretics.

Yeah, heretics.

So we are simply saying what everybody for the last 2000 years until recently would have said. So while that sounds harsh, it's just reality. That's just the one thing I wanted to double click on.

It's the objectively correct term.

Yes.

That's what you're saying. Trina, can you pull the Congress image? So this is something that people, the other one. This is something that people.

We got to come back to that.

So this is something that people were highlighting as well.

Bro, this is so funny. Do your thing here.

This is an image here. So for people that are not on YouTube or Spotify, it says these clergy and one seminarian are headed to Congress. So six Democrats were elected that were clergy or in Salarico's case, a seminarian. And so that would be, so James Salarico in Texas, he's a Presbyterian seminarian. Adam, Reverend Adam Hamilton in Kansas, Methodist minister. There's more Reverend.

You see, is Adam Hamilton staying the pastor of his church while he serves in the Senate?

I don't know how that'll work. I've wondered the exact same thing.

It's a great question.

Because that happened with Warnock in Georgia, right?

Yeah, he does that.

Yeah, keep going.

Yeah, so I mean, these are, I mean, ordained ministers, ordained Presbyterian minister and former chaplain.

We're putting ministers in heavy quotes.

Yeah, all of these.

All of these. And so the irony here that I think a lot of people miss is, again, when somebody quotes the Bible today in favor of biblical values, the label usually used for those people would be, oh, that's scary Christian nationalism. That's, hey, don't impose your religion. Like don't mix your religion with politics. You keep those two separate. But when somebody quotes the Bible contradicting biblical values and favoring progressive values, people will say, oh, finally, that's a good Christian man right there.

I've been waiting for a Christian like this.

That's right.

And what people don't realize is what that's called, that's called progressive Christian nationalism.

That's correct.

That's what it's called. And so, and people will be like, oh, that's finally something I can support. The Bible also, we have verses for that. Second Timothy 4:3 says, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. And so what you need to understand is there is one way to read the Bible and say, man, I will trust what it says and I will submit under its authority. And then there's another way to use the Bible and ask, man, how can I make what it says align to what I already believe?

Yeah.

Be careful.

And as a teachable moment, then you get to the next point, which is like, you're going to hear this increasingly, not just about those who are just elected, but even potentially future people. Like, but he or she went to seminary. I just want to, seminary number one is places where usually people go to be trained to be a pastor, but your average Christian may not understand, there are some seminaries in the world that teach things like Jesus didn't really rise from the grave. That was just a metaphor. That actually Jesus was not God. So just know that just because they didn't, just because they went to seminary does not mean that they believe what the Bible teaches and what Christians have historically believed.

Correct. So when it says, this is just, I just want to point this out and I want to keep going here. When, was it Second Timothy 4, the itching ears?

Yeah.

Yeah, okay. Because I just preached it. When it says that, like when it says itching ears, what it's doing is, is somebody who has like a sinful desire or belief, and they got this thing in them, they feel real uncomfortable, like when you got an itch, and they go around like, I got an itching ear. I'm looking, who, where's a Bible teacher who will tell me that what I want to do and believe is okay? And that's what, that's what that is.

That's right.

So what we want to point out, we'll come back to you, is like the same people who spent like two years decrying Christian nationalism, they said no to Christian nationalism, quote unquote Christian nationalism, said yes to Islamic nationalism and progressive Christian nationalism.

Yeah.

So, I just, you need to have your eyes out for that.

That's right, man.

So can I walk Romans 1?

Please.

So, again, just to summarize, like, again, one more time, again, we're not, everything on one side is good and everything on the other side is bad. We're talking about moral asymmetry of the ideologies and policies of the parties. I will just simply point out that a lot of people would say the three most deadly forces in all of human history are Islam, communism, and abortion, and the modern Democrat Party supports all three. Like I'll just, just pause and let that sink in. So like, bro, you can leave all the comments and shoot me all the emails you want.

That's right.

His invisible qualities have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, quote, so that men are without excuse. In other words, God has revealed enough about His reality and His existence through the world and through, theologians typically call this through natural law. This is what it's talking about. That there are some things that, bro, you got no excuse. You will stand before God and give an account for the revelation that was very obvious in creation.

People say that you have to learn religion, but actually atheism needs to be taught.

Fact.

Because it's just, look at history. You know, for you to be an atheist, you have to learn how to be an atheist.

Correct. Correct. Okay, now, I'm sure that will receive response. We don't care. Let's keep going. Here we go. Now, so what it said is, now this is really interesting. Again, I'm giving you the you are here arrow on the mall map in Romans 1. Okay, so it said, what a culture does, listen real close, that is under what theologians call the passive wrath of God, is they begin to, quote, suppress the truth by their wickedness or unrighteousness. Okay, suppress the truth. Now, in 50 AD, when Romans 1 was written, suppressing the truth looks like they impale you on a stake or they throw you to lions.

Oh yeah.

Like, just heads up. Like, the day will come, I'm going to make a firm prediction. The day will come when you will have to go try to find a Live Free podcast. I'm going to make that prediction. Okay, now, what is that? That's Romans 1 truth suppression. Now, what is Romans 1 saying? We're giving you the you are here sign on the mall map. It's saying whenever an ideology becomes idolatry, the people start to suppress the truth. Whenever they pre-decide, I don't care what natural law, what that means is what is clearly understood about God and nature.

Yeah.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools. Okay, now watch verse 23. And they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Now again, you are here on the map. Now if you're, by the way, when you're listening to this, what you should be noticing is we're treating Romans 1 like a to-do list. All right, so here's what it says. So they exchanged glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal human beings, birds, animals, reptiles.

Yes.

So the passive wrath of God is when God looks, so worship is this. Worship is when we look at God and go, thy will be done. By the way, individuals, families, churches, and nations. It's when we look at God and go, thy will be done. The passive wrath of God is when God looks at people who have decided, I hate you, I hate everything that you call good. I'm going to call what you call good evil and what you call evil good. God looks at them and he goes, you know what?

Oh, I think you said it so well. I mean, I think it's basically the idea of, you know, some people get really mad at God and he times he seems to discipline people, but actually the worst thing he could do is just let you have whatever you want and just leave you to yourself.

That's right, dude.

That's the absolute worst thing he could do. But that's what we're about to say. I don't want to step on too much because I think you're going in some directions. I'll stop there and maybe add some stuff.

Okay, so here's what it says. Again, we're giving you the you are here sign on the, you know, the mall map in the policies, you know, that we're chosen here. By the way, we're going to end with a lot of hope.

We got to go down first.

It's like the.

Coming back up in a bit.

It's like the, but we're going to get there. It's going to be awesome. So he says, here's what it's going to look like in a culture. Okay, you're under the wrath of God. How are you going to know? A whole bunch of people in your culture are going to start choosing sexually degraded things and they'll degrade their bodies with one another. So degrading of their bodies. So like, I'm going to say something that honestly is gross, but like you have to, like there's sometimes we actually do sins a disservice by sanitizing what they are. So I'm just give you a heads up.

Second time.

So here's the second time. Here's the you are here. So level two of God's passive wrath is when whatever I'm about to read next is celebrated in a culture. That's how you know you're at level two of the passive wrath of God. God gave them over to, quote, shameful lusts. Okay, even their women exchange natural relations for unnatural ones. So what you just saw is level one, like, hey, when dudes start doing same sex stuff, that's bad.

Read it for people that are not watching.

Yeah, so it was posted by the Congressional Equity Caucus. I don't know what that is. But yeah, the American, so it's just, it's a big, it's a big, you know, image that says gayest Congress in American history with a big red dot.

And this for them, they're celebrating this.

They're celebrating.

It's not a slam. They're celebrating this.

Yeah, this is not like the Babylon B going like, that's so gay.

Yeah.

It's like, this is just like actually celebrating like gayest Congress in history and let's get to work. So what are we doing? We're not only doing such things, we're giving approval to those who practice them.

And can I specify the reason that's also being celebrated is because Congress, this particular Congress is on track to have at least 17 openly LGBTQ members, including Chris Pappas, who was the first openly gay man elected to the Senate.

Oh.

Amongst others. Keep going.

All right. Not awesome. So celebrate, not only do them give approval to those who practice them. Bro, stuff like, I'll be honest, dude, Forrest Frank posted about this too. Stuff like this started like immediately popping up and going viral. Like, look, bro, look at this. You got to do that video.

Abortion is so bad, baby.

Bro, like, that sends a chill down your spine. This, again, this is a, like this was just on, what's that, I don't do it. What's the team you Twitter over on Instagram? What's that called? What's that? What is it?

Threads?

Threads.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

All right, so like, I'm not on Threads, but it's like, like this, like put up that next graphic. Like, bro, this was like, look how many likes this stuff is getting. Like right after the election. I'm just going to read these. It's a little dark. Like all caps. I'm getting pregnant tonight so I can abort it at the gender-affirming DEI gay marriage clinic in my third trimester. Almost over 9,000 likes. Next one, abortions on me tomorrow. A bunch of hashtags celebration, 14,000 likes. Who wants to get celebratory abortions tomorrow?

And you have to remember that the apostle Paul, when he's writing the book of Romans, it's a group composed of Gentiles and Jews. And most would say that Romans 1 is where Paul is focusing mainly on the sins of the Gentiles, which have been the sins of the surrounding culture at the time.

Yeah, correct.

So he is willing, and now in chapter two, he's going to call out the sins of particularly the religious Jews of the time. But here he is calling out the sins that are being done and celebrated. So if that's what the apostle Paul did, we can and should do the same thing too.

Yeah, you'll hear some people like, ah man, why do you guys, like why do you act, here's a little thing people say. And there's a way that it can be true, and then there's a way where it's actually a way to explain away a lot of the Bible. They'll say things like, oh, why do you guys expect non-Christians to act like Christians? No, no, no. No, no, no. All we're doing is saying everyone will stand before God in judgment, and God's judgments are true.

Yes.

Anything else on this?

I want to ask you a follow-up question, but I want to let you finish.

I'm done.

Okay.

I'm done on this. I got a couple other things we're going to hit, and then we're going to get happy. It's going to be great.

Okay, keep going, keep going. I'll ask that.

All right, that's great. All right, now, so that was by far the longest point I'm going to make.

That's a pretty good point, man.

We just did a little Bible study.

It wasn't that long.

Okay, all right. Oh, good. All right. Okay, let me give point number three. Thing Christians need to keep in mind. Hey guys, there is no political solution to a spiritual problem.

Amen.

Like, the other thing Romans 1 points out, hey brother, we got a spiritual problem at hand. You can't, politics cannot fix what politics did not break, and mankind was broken long before any political solution. This is why the church that preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ, we're the hope of the world, baby. We got like, this is our train. This is our thing. Let me just, I want to point something out and just zoom out theologically for a second. Okay?

Make disciples of all nations.

Nations, in order to have the fruit. Okay, so can I just like, a lot of people forget this, dude. And this is like, I've started to think I'm the only one who thinks this is interesting, but it's fun for me, so I'll talk about it. And Tim Barton, we can nerd out on it. So dude, like, our nation was literally born out of a Christian revival. The United States of America literally was born out of a Christian revival. So think about this. First great awakening, and bro, I was listening to a bunch of stories about the first great awakening today in my car.

Wow.

Bro, it'd be like driving through Rockwall or Dallas. And everywhere you go with your windows down in your truck, you're just hearing, I call God. And like, you just can't go anywhere without seeing families worship in Jesus. Windows open, just flooding Dallas. Bro, they literally got to the point where they didn't need a police force in Northampton because so many people were like, why do I need, what laws you got? I'm obeying Jesus.

They would talk about how this, and Spurgeon talked about the same thing even when he was seeing things done in the UK later. He talked about the sign or revival is not how many people were there on Sunday. It was by the changed lives that were Monday through Saturday.

Correct.

And the things that were different outside of the walls of the church. So that's a huge thing that we need to double click on and make sure we highlight. Yeah.

80% of the population in the colonies, 80% of them were estimated to have personally heard George Whitfield preach.

That's crazy.

No mics.

Back in the day.

No YouTube. No Instagram reel. By the way, George Whitfield would have crushed Instagram reels.

A beast. He's a beast.

Would have crushed Instagram reels. 80% of them, 10% of the nation, 10% of the entire population is estimated to have been converted and become active church members. Now if you're like, ah, 10%. Bro, that would be the equivalent of in the next 12 months in America, 35 million people. Bro, it makes your eyes sweat. 35 million people, not just getting saved, becoming active members of their churches.

That's right.

That fruit of this, what this nation became, the most blessed by God nation maybe in human history, that came from a specific root. Okay? So here's my point, and this is like the warning. Charlie Kirk pointed this out. You have never in all of human history, and you will never see a nation move farther away from Christianity and get better. That has never happened. Okay? Ancient Turkey used to be the center of gravity for the church, Revelation 2 and 3.

No, no, you're doing great. Actually, I just want to make a Bible connection from Romans.

Please.

And then I just want to give an encouragement, and I would even say, I don't want to say an admonition, but I would say an encouragement to everybody listening out there. Number one, in Romans 1, we talked about how false worship led to degraded behavior. And then, but what you could then get in Romans 3 is the solution to that, which is the gospel. It says, for all have sinned, including all the people who've committed the sins that we just read in Romans 1. And then in Romans 2 is focusing a lot on people who are very religious, but yet still did not worship God as he wanted to be worshiped. And so the solution gets to Romans 3, where Jesus Christ, it says, is the propitiation.

That's right.

Make the focus Jesus. And so let me just give encouragement to everyone that's listening or watching this. And it's not bad, by the way, if you've been posting about politics. I want to go ahead and say that right now. But I would encourage you, do not post another thing about politics until you've shared the gospel with somebody. That's just a simple encouragement I'd give to you. And then for us, by the way, if you've been listening to us long enough, if this is your first time, let me say it for you. But if you listened to us long enough, you already know this. We're not in either or group. We're not in either or team. We're like, hey, we can both engage in politics and share the gospel. But I will say, I sometimes see a trend amongst Christians, especially on social media, where they will post a ton about politics, but not a ton about the gospel.

Yeah, that's right.

And I don't want to judge people's hearts and lives. I don't know what they're doing behind the scenes, but I will just give you an encouragement. If you've been posting a lot about politics, before you post another thing, go share the gospel with another living, breathing human.

That's great. There is no political solution to a spiritual problem. And there ain't one. Let me just, this may get long enough that we're like, I would just take a break and come back to it. But dude, this is, bro, this will blow your mind. So it's like root fruit thing. At the national level, people never think about it. Trinity, will you toss up that John Piper? It's an old John Piper article. You remember this, Paul?

Mm-hmm.

Okay, so the title of the article, Missions, Rescuing from Hell and Renewing the World. Let's put the link to this in the caption.

Yeah.

Is that what it's called, caption?

Description of the video or the subscript guide.

All right, I don't know what that is. So we're going to, and you should read it. It's really fascinating. But bro, this is so, this is amazing. Now, put up the quote, Trinity. So what he does, so check this out. So just to illustrate what we're talking about, like what happens to nations when they're full of people who love Jesus, worship Jesus, that kind of thing. Real good things. Like real good things. So what this dude did, I'm just going to read it. This is from this article. In 2012, sociologist Robert Woodbury, who by the way, I do not think was a Christian sociologist, okay, published the astonishing fruit of a decade of research into the effect of missionaries on the health of nations.

Wow.

Bro, this is mind blowing. So this dude just zooms out for a whole decade and tries to figure out what's the greatest common denominator between thriving nations. What's the one thing? Bro, here's his conclusion. This was a discovery that he says, landed on him like a quote, atomic bomb. To be more specific, so what kind of missionaries? We love our Catholic friends. We love our Orthodox for all the things. What kind of missionaries? To be more specific, Woodbury's research supported this sweeping claim.

Yep.

Boom. Boom. Connected to the root, you get the fruit.

It's good. Makes sense, man. Yeah, I mean, people don't know. The reason today, justice, rights, equality, morality, education, these are all back to the Christian roots.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's good. All comes, all, yeah, all same thing.

That's great.

Man, I don't know, man. I'm talking for a long time.

Are you good, bro? Are you good, bro? This is awesome.

You want me to speed it up? What do you think?

No, no, no. We got it.

All right.

You do your thing.

All right.

If you want, you can take another bite of the cake and then.

Yeah, I've eaten a good amount of cake.

I can tell, yeah. You're almost, I'm not going to see Paul anymore at this point. You're on the cake.

Let me do one last, like, it's not a bad news, it's a warning. And then it's like, hey man, let's, this is our thing. We got some, there's hope here.

That's good news.

So let me just kind of gently say this. People need to face the reality that part of the culture war, it's honestly, it's just incarnational spiritual warfare. Part of the culture war is just incarnational spiritual warfare. So throughout the Bible, what you have, and I'm going to show you something that may send a little chill down your spine. Throughout the Bible, what you have is demonic principalities and powers. Go through the Old Testament. They target, quote, the high places. Constantly, the high places.

My name is Abdul Rahman Muhammad the Sayyid.

Listen to the language. Listen to the language real quick.

And I am so proud and honored to stand here as your senator elect from the great state of Michigan.

Now, listen to this language here in a second.

Up until right about now, you might have noticed I always say inshallah or God willing.

Pause. So, okay, he said it. So inshallah, that's if Allah wills. That's what he kind of Americanized it. It's if Allah wills. That's what it means. Now, watch where he switches it to. Go.

Whenever the outcome of this race was mentioned. But today, tonight, we can turn that inshallah into a alhamdulillah.

Okay, now pause. Here's what that means. It means praise be to Allah. So bro, guy gets in a political office, the first thing he says, praise be to Allah. Why? Because principalities and powers, they target high places and thrones. I'll just say, man, he can say it all he wants. And Christians have a responsibility to oppose it. And bro, I love that guy and want him to bend his knee to Jesus Christ. Okay, but all thrones and dominions belong to him. They belong to him. So what you're seeing is in some ways play out is incarnational spiritual warfare.

Not on that specific thing. Not on that specific thing.

You make me do everything.

We're letting you cook.

All right, yeah, yeah.

This is like MJ Game 6 in Tall Jazz. You know what I'm talking about.

Flu game.

Yeah, no, no, that was the this. So we're just letting you, do your thing, man.

I had that basketball card. Now, let's do two fast things here. Four, I think obviously, I think conservative political leaders, they got some lessons to learn.

Yep.

So you got, hey bro, you got some lessons to learn.

Yep.

So let me just, it would be really foolish. Like dude, we're pastors, but we're also leaders. Like we have to lead an organization and that kind of thing. Leadership 101. This is like cookies bottom shelf. Leadership 101. The first thing you do, face the brutal facts, maintain unwavering faith. Face the brutal facts, maintain unwavering faith. So man, I think that what they need to do is you got to pause and kind of, hey man, let's read the room and figure out what the heck just happened and why it happened.

Oh yeah. I've got a lot of them in this area. Well, and even I think in your original, when I saw you post this on X, it was basically like the instinct of some people are like, oh, voters are dumb or the people who didn't vote are dumb. And that's what a bad leader does.

Yeah, yeah.

A bad leader immediately blames everybody else. A good leader starts with them and is looking at themselves in the mirror and says, okay, like what happened? What do we need to shift and change? And this is me saying this. So I just want to clarify, this is not Pastor Josh or Carlos saying this, but do I wish more Christians would vote? Yes. And I wish more Christians would vote in the primaries so that we get candidates worth voting for.

Yeah, that's smart. That's good, Paul.

Not in all the races, but in a lot of these races, they were not lost on November 3rd. They were lost six months ago in primaries. And I'll just be real with y'all over the line. And again, this is me saying this. For the last eight to ten years, I've seen increasingly more pathetic candidates put before us to vote for us conservatives. And part of that, by the way, is on us. Like we often will say, oh, we get the leaders we deserve, and we also get the leaders we vote for, including in primaries. So I will say this just to my fellow Christians, like we need people to start showing up not just in November, but in primaries to make sure we're getting candidates worth voting for.

There you go.

That's the only thing, that's just a personal thing. I think that's part of the practical solution is saying, hey, man, let's get back to some of these things we may have drifted away from. And because I just have a firm belief, like actually, can I do one more thing on this real fast?

Let's do it.

What's interesting is one thing that people might be tempted to think is, oh, people must now love the Democratic Party.

Yeah, actually the data is not there.

It's not that. I've got graphs. So this is their favorability and unfavorability rankings of how your average person sees the Democratic Party. So six months ago, they had a 38% favorable rating. Yesterday, November 5th, it was 41%. So only 41% of the nation actually see them. So this is not, oh, we love Democrats and their policies. This is, hey, we want a change. And I just have a belief that if we had a wave of new, truly conservative candidates who could give a vision of something worth building and not just worth tearing down, we can recapture people's hearts and move in some new directions.

One.

Okay, we're going to do that and we're going to move on and we're going to land the plane.

Yeah, that's great, man. Yeah. Yeah, let me just say, agree. And I will say, man, what is a little tough is, you know, I'll just gently kind of like for pastors and churches, I do think pastors and churches have generally spent like the last 20 to 30 years, like painting politics, in particular conservative politics, as like, ooh, gross, icky. Well, hey dude, or just not being clear with people. Just honestly, just not being clear with people about moral asymmetry and that kind of thing.

I'm going to forward you guys some message of the next thing, but some of my favorite emails and messages I've gotten in the last two or three weeks is people who said, man, listen to the READ Podcast and it inspired me to run for office.

Come on, man.

It's like, we need more of that. We're going to see more of that. I will ask Pastor Josh on that note, because you do, you just said it is important for us, one as Christians and to us, more importantly as pastors, to continue to lean more into some of these conversations because the Bible does. I was having a conversation with a friend a while back and, you know, he brought up the idea, especially for younger Christians, like young Gen Z. Some data seems to suggest that younger people are moving away from the church because the perception is that the church or Christians in America, some of them, evangelical Christians, they lean too closely to the Republican Party, or it's like there's like people associate, oh, well, evangelical Christian, that means there's some sort of association with the Republican Party.

Bro, I actually, I'm so glad you're right. So first of all, I say a lot. I say a lot of things because people throw this at you constantly. So first of all, some people will sometimes, they'll point at us and it's like, be like, that's you guys. Like whenever somebody says that, I'm like, they don't listen. That's the person that does it. They may see clips or they may see characters, they don't listen. So I'll just point that out. Number one, I'll just gently point out, that's not what the data actually shows. So if you go back, it was a few years ago, the Great D Churching book.

Yeah, we're not pushing, we're not promoting candidates.

No, no, no.

So again, I think that's what people assume. It was like, oh, you're talking about the other party, therefore you must be promoting or you must be, you know.

We are clear, I am, I'll say I. I am clear about moral asymmetry.

That's right.

I am very clear about that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But this is not like, you know, like a red church or like, that's what people assume.

I'm not wearing like a, I don't got a GOP shirt.

That's just live free, not something else.

That's it. All right, so number two, I will just gently again, we already did the thing of, hey, in 2026, Christian ethics and theology of the role of the government, it just is, it's going to translate conservative. That's just a fact. But we keep our allegiance the right way.

That's right.

Christian over the conservative, not conservative over the Christian. And number three, I'll just, here's the last thing I'll say, and this may be a little spicy. Particularly with men, particularly with dudes, men generally don't start to really care about the future till they got kids. I'm just going to say that, like, I'm just going to tell you, man, when you got kids, it activates something in a man and all of a sudden he starts caring a whole lot about the future of society. So I will just gently say this. This is why sometimes there will be, and I'll just want to gently say this, younger Christians, they'll be like, ooh, I get the ick.

Say it one more time because that's really good.

Churches should not reverse engineer their evangelism strategies from the immaturities of the people they're trying to reach and disciple. It's like, hey bro, hey, like this is a dumb thing to say. Young people don't like this, so you shouldn't do that. Well, hey man, like we got verses from the book of Proverbs. Like, hey man, the younger you are, there's some foolishness that you got to get out of yourself. Let's grow up a little bit and let's teach people to be a man or a woman of God. So there you go.

I testify from experience.

That's it. I think that's all of us.

That's great. Well, you know, I think people are also getting, our hope is that when people tune into the Live Free Podcast, man, you get joy, you get hope. We are not people of fear.

Happy warriors.

That's right.

The happy warriors.

We are not people of fear. We are people of hope. In Luke 21, Jesus is speaking to his disciples and he's talking about destruction and persecution and wars and earthquakes and global chaos. And he says this, when, not if, when these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads because your redemption is drawing near. We have ultimate hope, ultimate confidence. We know how the story ends.

Let's go.

We can walk in faith and confidence, encouraged, not despair. We speak up, we get involved, we vote, we labor so that righteous leaders can sit on earthly thrones. But we also rest and we trust that no matter what, we know that there is one that sits on a heavenly throne and that's Jesus.

Bro, let me just, so we're going to say this and then we're going to take a break because I got to use the bathroom. And then we're going to come back and finish the episode. So listen, dude, this is our thing. So I just want to, here it is. It's okay for somebody to have been sad for a couple days. That's great, man. I totally get it. Yeah, okay, me too. That's great. One, let's just put things in perspective. Put up that graph about the primary losses throughout American history. It's like, bro, if you're ranking worse, I mean, like, hey, this does have significant consequences, all the things. It does matter.

Amen.

Sadden is okay. Despair is a sin. We got Bible verses. Therefore, we do not lose heart. Can I just say something? We've been flipping nations for 2,000 years. That's our thing. Like, hey dude, there was a time when there was no such thing as a country that was full of a bunch of Christians. And now I got 2.6 billion brothers and sisters all over this planet. If you're like freaking out because of this one little thing, did you read your Bible? And have you ever heard about church history?

Bro, listen, dude.

Listen, like our country was formed out of a revival and an outpouring of God's Spirit that swept the entire nation and changed everything. And listen, dude, he did it once. He's going to do it again. Listen, dude, he's going to do it again. And all it takes, listen, first great awakening, two anointed apostolic leaders. You got John, actually three, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, George Whitfield. Okay. Bro, it takes like three anointed apostolic leaders full of the Spirit of God, steel in their spines, fire in their eyes, sword out of their mouth.

Amen.

I'm going to sleep real good tonight. We're going to be fine. Now, let's take a break and we'll come back.

Hey, we're back, baby.

In the meantime, that cake is like halfway there at this point.

Yeah, I ate Paul's torso. And great.

Hey, man. Well.

Hey, we're going to speed run this.

That's right. Pastor Mike, shout out to Pastor Mike, bro.

Dude, crush.

He's been doing a good job this weekend.

I love Mike.

Bro, we live in a, we live in such an individualistic culture. Obviously, we're used to thinking, generally speaking, everybody thinks all about me. How does this make me feel? How does that affect me? The gospel is the opposite. It's not all about you. That's literally why Jesus said, deny yourself if you want to be a follower of Jesus. And so I love that this week in Pastor Mike emphasized this idea that when you give your life to Jesus, it just takes one small action and that one decision, that one time, it creates ripple effects in your life, in other people's life. It's one decision to say yes to Jesus touches one life, which touches another life.

Dude, honestly, it's one of the best sermons I've ever heard. Best and most encouraging sermons I've ever heard. It was, you got to go listen to it.

So here's what I want to do. I want to read the verse real quick and then we're just going to, we're going to do a little mini Bible study.

Hey, I will allow it.

Thank you.

You forgot to ask the question.

I forgot to, I did.

No, we haven't got to do yet.

Okay, okay, okay.

All right, read the thing and then we're going to speed run this thing because there's some awesome gold here.

Mark chapter eight, verse 34.

Can I set it up?

I'll allow it.

Oh! He uno-reversed according to me. Okay, so here you go. So this is Mark eight, right?

Yes.

Yeah, Mark eight. Okay, I thought you said something else. So first of all, we'll do a little Bible nerd stuff. We always want to get people into the word.

I'll allow it.

So first of all, Mark, just for Bible, you know, we got a ton of people, this is their first time reading the Bible. Mark, four different gospels, each of the gospels written to a different audience.

That's right.

Just like when you do evangelism, share in Christ, you do it different for different dudes or whoever you're talking to. So here's, and this is going to make sense here in a second. Each one of the four gospels is, theologians call it contextualized to a different audience. So this is kind of fun just to know, little fun fact to know and tell. Matthew was primarily written, and you might want to take a guess?

The Jewish audience.

To a Jewish audience.

Yep, right.

Huge emphasis on fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. If you read Matthew, you'll notice the genealogy intentionally traces back to Abraham and David because all the Jews were like, that's their team. Luke, primarily contextualized to a?

Greek Gentiles.

Okay, now I thought you pointed at him because you're like, well, here's a Gentile.

People like this guy.

I'm like, oh my gosh, dude. I was deferring, dude.

He's from a different country.

We all got to bring race into this.

I'm from a Gentile audience.

We're all Gentiles.

He's saying we're all Gentiles. He's like, where are you from? He's probably for him, the gospel is for him.

All right, so Luke, Gentile audience. It's addressed to Theophilus, a Roman Gentile guy. That's why he primarily appeals not to Old Testament prophecy fulfillment. He appeals to eyewitnesses because Roman Gentiles, they don't know. They're like, they don't even know about that stuff. And that's why he does the genealogy, goes back to Adam. So he's pointing, hey, this gospel is for all of humanity, Gentiles too. John, primarily contextualized to, anybody?

Roman Gentiles.

Well, they usually say Greek.

True.

Usually is what they say Greek.

Sure.

Now you could, I see what you're saying.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You could do that. Like for instance, and I can't wait to preach this. I'm preaching it right after Christmas at the movies. John 1, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God. And the Greek word, the translated word is?

Lagos.

Lagos, which was a huge word in Greek philosophy for like the underpinning idea of all of philosophy. So he's going, well, that's Jesus. In him, all things hold together is what he's doing. Mark, this is where we are. Primarily contextualized what a lot of people say to a Roman audience is what they'll do. Very action oriented. And you're going to notice, even in Mark 8, you'll see this a couple of times. He takes time to like explain Jewish customs. Okay, now I will just say, good example, when you got a one more, you got to figure out how, where are the gospel little tie-ins to this guy's life?

That's good.

And it's going to be different for every person.

That's good. No, no, no. Go ahead. Go ahead. Keep going.

You look like it.

No, no, I thought you said Mark, and that's why I said Roman Gentiles, but I think you're talking about John and that was my.

Oh, did I say Mark and?

Maybe I missed that. I don't know. Keep going.

Sorry, John was for the Roman.

That's right.

And then Mark was for the Roman Gentiles.

That's right.

Which is connecting it, that's the first part of Live Free Today to the very people that Paul was writing to.

Yes.

In the book of Romans.

Boom.

Those same exact kind of people writing the gospel for them.

Boom.

And what you're about to see is where we ended talking about election stuff. Hey dude, we don't despair. We've been flipping countries for 2,000 years.

Come on.

That's what you're about to see. It's like, this is awesome. Okay, so let me just set it up. We'll do a little Indiana Jones thing real quick. Okay, so go ahead and toss that first one. So this is Cesare of Philippi. Now here's why this is important. It's way out in the middle of nowhere. Like for real, I'm going to talk about this next week, so you have to have the suspense until next week. For what happens here, this is the I Will Build My Church passage. This is the Peter Confesses Jesus the Christ passage. And Jesus takes them all the way out in the middle to like Quinlan, Texas. Like in the middle of nowhere. Like, why are we here?

I knew you were going there and I was like.

I love trying to gotcha.

I know. I knew you were going there.

I love it.

He's just pretending. Go ahead. Sorry.

The Transfiguration.

It's the Transfiguration.

Yeah, yeah, Transfiguration. He was just pretending. Yeah, Transfiguration. So Transfiguration of Jesus probably happened at the top of Mount Hermon. Okay, it happened six days after, by the way, the events of Mark chapter eight.

Interesting.

Okay, the events of Mark chapter eight happened, look down there at the bottom. That's Cesare of Philippi. It's the sacred cave. I'm going to explain what that means later. These pictures are ones that I actually took when I visited. So check this out. We've showed these before, but I want you to see them. So that's what it looks like when you're walking up to it. When Jesus does the, on this rock, I will build my church. When you're seeing that, you're like, well, I kind of see why I said that.

Correct.

You get a little closer. Look at this next one. Nope. Yep, that's it. That's the, so when people are talking about the rock, that's probably the rock. And I'll get there next week. And then go to the next one. What's interesting when you're here is you'll see a bunch of these little things. They're all over. And because they had, there's three of them like in a little diagonal. There were little spots where they would have idols to different gods and goddesses, like little demonic false gods. So they were right there. And next week, I will reveal why Jesus picked this exact spot to come and do this.

Which one?

This guy. We just learned before the pod, he hasn't even seen, what's the movie he hasn't seen?

Anchorman.

I didn't see Anchorman.

You don't know when people say, I am Spartacus, you don't know what they're talking about. Is that 300?

By the way, I just got to get this out there. I'm talking about the Spartacus that was made in the early 90s or the late 80s.

Oh, dude, that's definitely not.

Because I think there was like a shady one made on Netflix or something like that.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know the shady one or the 90s one.

You don't know Anchorman. You don't know that.

I know of it. I just never saw it because, you know, I'm not a fan of elf either.

Unique New York.

I mean, he's just throwing out all of these.

He doesn't like elf.

Man, he's just throwing them out.

You know, I think elf's overrated.

I agree with you. It's fine.

All right, let's keep going. We said we were going to speed run this.

Let's try it.

So 70 years before Jesus comes along, the Spartacus uprising happens. They crucified 6,000 people along the Roman highways. Four years before, now this is actually important to this passage. Four years before Jesus is born, likely, there was a Jewish revolt against Roman authorities. They put down the revolt and they publicly crucified over 2,000 Jewish dudes along all the roads, oh by the way, in the region that Jesus lived.

Interesting.

Why is he mentioning the cross? Well, bro, that moment in 4 BC, that would have been like every Jew in his area is 9/11.

Yeah.

Like trauma of all of them remembering, I'll walk past my granddad choking to death on his own blood next to the highway, crucified. So traumatic event in the collective Jewish mind. With that in mind, Jesus says this, Carlos, can you read it?

Verse 34, and calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?

Yes. Now here's what, the big thing that Mike landed on, which was masterful, was saying, man, if you want to find life, give it away. And if you spend your whole life just trying to keep your life and everything that's good for you, you're going to lose it.

Yeah.

Okay. And dude, he did this thing, bro, this masterful thing about one of the reasons that Jesus says, hey man, when you give your life away, you actually gain. And Mike showed this that when you live like that and you just walk around tiny little things that you didn't think were important at all, they can set in motion chains of events and ripples that change the course of all of human history.

Yeah.

So dude, this is going to blow your mind. It took me probably 18 hours of research to do what I'm about to do. Let me show you how one tiny little event can change the course of all of human history. So we just read Mark chapter eight. In Mark eight, just stick with me. In about 60 seconds, you're going to be like, what is he doing? Wait for the payoff. The payoff is great. Okay, so in Mark chapter eight, Jesus stands up right around this and he says, I will build my church.

Wow.

In 2004, we started our first ever campus, the Town East campus. In 2006, the Firewheel campus was added. In 2010, the Forney campus was born. In 2012, the first meeting ever of Lake Point and Espanol takes place. Later that year, Lake Point Church online was started. The artist formerly known as the I Campus. And then in 2018, God called me to Lake Point Church. And last year, in 2025, we started the Live Free podcast.

Wow.

Ladies and gentlemen, the ripples go all the way back to Mark chapter eight. And they never stop going. And you never know what little thing that you will do will change the course of human history. Why? Because if you are willing to lay down your life, you will find it. But if you keep it to yourself, you will lose it.

Amen.

Bro, the ripples, the ripples, bro.

That's amazing.

Dude, it's awesome.

That's amazing.

It's awesome. It's just when I'm sitting there listening to Mike talk about, hey man, little things, ripple, ripple, ripple, ripple, ripple. And it's like, we literally got the ripples that go from this page of the Bible to these three dudes sitting at this table right now.

That's right. Any thoughts? ChatGPT?

I'm going to hold mine, but are you going to tell the Mordecai story?

Oh, I got to.

Well, because what I love that you just did is that you showed the grand scope and sweep of Christian history.

Yes.

And how this huge thing can start with one. But in the middle of that, you've got a lot of people deciding, to your point, to make ripples on their own. And so you almost got like, if we just double click at one point in history, we got a guy named Mordecai Han.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm not going to step on it. I'm not going to go, I'm not going to go, but I'm just saying like, I think it'd be helpful to show just mainly to show like how to the people we're talking to.

Correct.

Even if you think that what you do is insignificant.

Correct.

Even if you're never going to be on a podcast reaching tons of people, you can still have an insane, insane ripple effect, not just in your lifetime, but in the generations after you. I think you got to tell the story here in a minute.

A lot of the people who have had the greatest impact on human history that will have the biggest crowns to throw at the feet of Jesus, they didn't even know they did something significant while they were on earth.

That's right.

So like, here's an example. So this is really interesting. When you read the gospels, watch next time you read them, the number of times a significant event in Jesus' ministry was an unexpected interruption.

Yeah.

Bro, this is so fascinating. So I'm going to list them. I'm going to list them. Okay, so you're talking, okay, this is Mark eight applied. The paralytic lowered through the roof interruption. Woman with the issue of blood, unexpected interruption. Sinful woman that anoints Jesus with the whole thing of Nard, unexpected interruption. The Syro-Phoenician woman who has the demon-possessed daughter that he cast the thing out of, unexpected interruption. Blind Bartimaeus, can't wait to preach that next year, unexpected interruption. Feeding of the 5,000, unexpected interruption.

I've heard of them.

All right, all right. A tent revival. I feel old because we were on Bryce Proffer this week. I've never felt older in my whole life. Guy's doing a tent revival. That's where they just pitch a tent and he starts hurling gospel bombs and preaching a revival. Okay, the man's name was, I'm going to show a picture of him, Mordecai Ham. Okay, now that dude right there, never, to my knowledge, published a book, never had a radio program, never got invited to the White House.

That's a great story.

Ripples, ripples.

I mean, that's a great way to land today's episode.

No, it's not.

It's not?

No, it's not. Let me land it.

Okay, go ahead.

Because I got to encourage.

That was pretty good, but if you got more.

You got something?

I've got a little nugget, yeah.

You give the nugget and I'm going to land it.

Two great things. Well, I think a lot of the stuff that you're talking about actually just begins with a decision that's anchored in this text in a couple of places. When Jesus says that if anyone wants to come after me, he must take up his cross, we got to remember that now we see that as an instrument of salvation. But at the time, that was an instrument of condemnation and death.

Torture.

It was really like, take up your electric chair.

Yes.

Or take up your lethal injection. So it was this idea of like, hey, you have to die. Well, what's at the root of what Jesus is talking about? Really at the root here is basically said, you've got to die to what you want and you have to be willing to do whatever I want.

Yes.

That if you want to find life and if you want to find what is truly waiting for you on the other side is you got to decide, it's not my will, but yours be done.

That's it.

But what's interesting is here at actually the very first part of this little section, we see basically Jesus hinting at, he's like, hey, and I'm going to go first. I'm going to show you what this means. It says here that he, Jesus, began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed. Well, it's interesting that on the night that he was betrayed before all those things happened to him, Jesus had a moment in the garden.

That's right, dude. That's right. That's right.

Where he had some things I'm sure he wanted him. One of them was not to have to go and die on a brutal cross.

That's right.

We got to remember that the cross was not only humiliating, it was literally excruciating. Excruciating is a word that literally they created to describe the pain of being killed on a cross.

Two Latin words.

Yeah, and it's cruciatus.

From the cross.

From the cross. X from cruciatus, the cross. And so, but yet in that moment, Jesus said, not my will, but yours be done. And it was that moment that then led to the beginning of all those ripples. So I'll just say so much of what Pastor Mike and so much of what we're saying here really begins before these ripples go out. It begins with the decision is this idea of man, God has placed you here on planet Earth.

That's right.

And I love we've been talking even in this podcast about man, there's some tough times that we're in and it seems like things are getting darker. But I loved in one of my favorite books and movies, Lord of the Rings, where Gandalf says, all you have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given to you.

That's a great quote.

It's an amazing quote. All you have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given to you. And what I love is that here, what I'd say is the same choice is given to us. And it begins with us saying, not my will, but yours be done. God, I don't want to use the short little time that I have here on planet Earth to do whatever I want.

That's right.

I want to do whatever you want. And if you will decide that is a big decision now, but then every day you get up saying, God, what do you want me to do today? What do you want me to do as I go into this meeting? What do you want me to do as I'm about to walk into the house with my family when I get back home from work? That will set some ripples in motion. So I just want to connect those dots for us.

That's great, man.

Yeah.

That's a good one.

Let me finish like this, man. Because there's a lot of people, you listen to a sermon like Mike's or you listen to a podcast like this, and then you start to look at the stuff that you could do to lay your life down, to bless somebody, to advance the kingdom of God. And you start going like, hey, dude, will it really make a difference? Or is it really worth it? Let me share with you some words that were found on the wall of a Christian orphanage in Calcutta, India. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.

Amen.

Amen. Carlos, we pray out.

I'd love to.

Come on.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your word. God, thank you because we live in a culture that is starving for truth, and we find that truth in scripture alone. So Lord, I pray right now for every single listener right now tuning in to the Live Free podcast. Thank you for Live Free Nation. Thank you for the 100th episode. Lord, we pray that you may continue to use them. Father, without you, this is nothing. We can give it our best, but ultimately it is you working, Lord. We pray that you may continue to use it. Father, that every listener right now, it may not just be information, but an invitation for them to experience transformation by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Amen.

Live Free Brother.

Live Free.