The American Soul
The American Soul
First Things First: The Order of Love in Modern Life
What does your schedule reveal about your priorities? In this thought-provoking episode, we dive deep into the concept of "Ordo Amoris" – the proper order of love – and how rearranging our priorities according to God's design can transform our relationships and restore meaning to our lives.
Drawing from a compelling article in The Epoch Times titled "First Things First," we explore how modern culture has flipped natural priorities upside down. When career advancement, self-fulfillment, and digital distraction take precedence over faith, marriage, and family, the consequences ripple through every aspect of society – from declining birth rates to fractured families.
The truth is uncomfortable but necessary: actions reveal priorities. No matter what we claim to value, how we spend our time tells the real story. Many of us treat our spouses, children, and even God as convenient companions rather than cherished relationships deserving our best time and attention.
Scripture reminds us that the Day of the Lord comes "like a thief in the night." This urgency should reshape how we approach each day. Are you loving your spouse today as if you might not wake up beside them tomorrow? Are you investing in your faith as if eternity depends on it? Because it does.
The path forward requires courage to reorder our lives: God first, then spouse, then children, family, community, and country. When we align our priorities with this divine pattern, we don't just improve our own lives – we contribute to healing our nation and drawing closer to God's design for humanity.
Join me in examining what truly deserves your time, attention, and love. Your daily choices are shaping not just your present reality but your eternal destiny.
The American Soul Podcast
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Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope, back with another episode of the American Soul Podcast. Hope y'all are doing well, wherever y'all are and whatever part of the day you're in. I sure do appreciate y'all joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and attention, a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. Hopefully it'll give us all some extra tools for our toolbox, as we used to say in the Marine Corps, and hopefully it will help each of us draw even just a little bit closer to God and Jesus Christ and our nation, therefore, a little bit closer to God and Jesus Christ. Right, because if each of us do it individually, then that means the nation as a whole draws just a little bit closer to Jesus Christ and God than it would have if we didn't. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast and tell others about it, thank you so much. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you so much. Need those prayers very much, desire them and I'm grateful for them. And for those of y'all who are new to the podcast today, thank you for stopping by. Hope you enjoy it, hope it gives you something to look forward to with somebody and hope you come back, father.
Speaker 1:Thank you for this day. Thank you for you, father, and your Son, jesus Christ, and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love and your mercy, your grace and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love and your mercy, your grace and your forgiveness. Thank you for the people that listen to the podcast. They come back time after time. Please be with them and their families, guide them, bless them, surround them with your angels, protect them from evil of any kind Me and mine as well, father. Thank you for our families. Thank you for the children, for those who you've blessed with children. Thank you for the marriages of those who are married. Strengthen our marriages across the nation. Father, please Help us to follow the roles and responsibilities that you so clearly laid out for us as a husband or a wife, to exemplify that relationship between Jesus Christ and the church. Simplify that relationship between Jesus Christ and the church to others around us our own children, parents, family, friends, community. Forgive us when we fall short, father. Forgive us when we insist on going our own way. Forgive us when we go back to the same old sins over and over again. Forgive our nation, father. Forgive us for supporting the evils that we have supported over the years Abortion, feminism, lgbtq lifestyles, sexual deviancy of every kind. Forgive us when we treat it with a lukewarm attitude and we go along with it as if it doesn't matter. Be with our leaders, father, both in the pulpit and in the state. Give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. And God, my words are in your name, father, please. In your son's name, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1:Have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read his word? Have you made time to pray? Is it at the top of your priority list? Is it at the bottom? Is he shoved somewhere in the middle? If you have time, what are you doing today? Or if it's early in the morning when you're listening to the podcast, what did you do yesterday? Look at your day Each day. Look at your day. What did you give your time to? Was it God? Was it your spouse? If you're married, was it your children? If you have children, right, and do you have your priorities?
Speaker 1:We're going to talk about an article for a minute. I had really intended to talk about some Churchill quotes that I think are very important, but, as so often happens, god seems to put something else in my path. At least, I felt like that when I stumbled across this article. And if you're married, though, do you act like it. I felt like that when I stumbled across this article. And if you're married, though, do you act like it. Does your spouse know it? Are they going to go to bed? And I did they go to bed last night, knowing that they were your second priority above everything else, throughout the day, not just when it's convenient.
Speaker 1:Have a friend of mine, and then I'm going to move on to this article, and I want to tell you all this convenient. I have a friend of mine, and then I'm going to move on to this article, and I want to tell you all this. I have a friend of mine I've had for years and years, and they're an adult now and grown, and we have some pretty frank conversations, and they're parents both toward them and toward each other. Sadly, they have for years been interested in each other right as husband and wife, and interested in this friend of mine as their child only when it was convenient, and that's not always true. There are times, I'm absolutely certain, there are times when it wasn't convenient, but there's almost always some angle, and that's gotten more and more apparent to this friend of mine over the years. And, as I said, they're grown now and so they're able to deal with it a little bit better than a young child would be.
Speaker 1:But, folks, if we are only interested you know, you hear people, you hear pastors talk about this so often If you're only interested in God when you're trying to treat him like a genie in a bottle, right, what you can get out of him, that relationship is not going to be very strong. And the same is absolutely true for our children or our parents If we're, you know, you're looking at it from that way and, and even more so, for our marriage. If you treat your spouse as somebody that you're only interested in doing stuff with right when it's convenient for you, when there's something you can get out of it, when you have some angle to work, it's going to be a really brittle, weak relationship. My wife and I have talked about this for years. You know there's each of us have certain needs and they're not the same always. But and I've heard a marriage counseling couple that I can think of right now that they talk about this often your spouse's needs ought to be the same in importance as you view your own right. You ought to make your spouse's needs equally at least equally, if not more important than your own needs, right? But if all you're worried about is your own needs, man, that's going to be a really brittle relationship, right, like my wife and I.
Speaker 1:Again, what I was trying to say is we've talked about this often. You know there's certain things that I that I need from her, but I I enjoy doing just about everything with her. There's, there's a young lady at a coffee shop that we go by frequently and she's super excited she's going skydiving. That is not on my list of needs, that is, that is not even on my top 10, probably not even top 50 things I want to do. Skydiving that is not on my list of needs. That is not even on my top 10, probably not even top 50 things I want to do. Skydiving Not there. And if my wife wanted to do it, I would have to have some serious conversations with her about whether that was really important, whether that was the smartest thing as far as leaving our children possibly parentless, et cetera, and I'd probably have to go talk to my lawyer and make sure that my will was in good shape. That's just not on my list of things.
Speaker 1:But other than that, you know, if my wife wants to do something, I want to do it and I found that the more I do that, folks, the more excited I am about that. The more often I do that, the more excited I am about it. And I found that the more I do that folks, the more excited I am about that. The more often I do that, the more excited I am about it, whatever it is. If she wants to go for a walk, that sounds great. If she wants to go into town to go grocery shopping, that sounds great. If she wants to go work out, if she just wants to sit and watch these crazy ducks that we have gotten and just sit and watch them, that's great. And it makes me feel important to her just the fact that she wants me around, even though it's not my need, right? You understand what I'm saying. Like, even when she just asked me to go do something, even if it's not something that I really need from her, it makes me feel important that she wants me around and it strengthens that relationship. No, it's not what I need from her, but, god, folks, it's just every day. Top priority behind only God and Jesus Christ ought to be your spouse.
Speaker 1:And so this article we're going to talk about for the next few minutes is out of the Epic Times phenomenal newspaper. I recommend it often for those of y'all that are around the podcast you know this if you're new. I talk about the Epic Times newspaper quite frequently. It's the best newspaper I've come across in years. It's published once a week and you can get an online version too if you want to. But I really like the paper copy something about just holding a newspaper in my hand and flipping through the pages. They have news and opinions. They have like a health body section and a life and tradition section. At the end They've got some comics. They've got a kid's section with crosswords and Sudoku Sudoku, however you say it, I don't even know and word searches and all other sorts of stuff. It's great newspaper, very family oriented, very traditional values, conservative. If you get a chance, highly recommend it.
Speaker 1:So this is out of the april 9th to 15th issue and this is out of their life and tradition section. It's called First Things First by Jeff Minnick, and it starts off talking about a quote from JD Vance vice president, you love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country and then, after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world. So apparently this is known as Ordo Amoris. Not even going to pretend to tell you if I said that right or not, but it makes sense, right, it's common sense. How do we order things? How should we order things? What is the priority?
Speaker 1:You ought to have a priority in your life, folks, and really honestly it ought to be God, and then your spouse, right, and then your kids, family, et cetera, then your country, and then your core. The last one's mine. Sorry, I say it so often, I threw it in there. I love the Marine Corps. That was a big part of my life and so I always throw that in there as my next, and it kind of ties in with country anyway, right. So God and Jesus Christ, your spouse and not your spouse, grouped in. There's a reason they're separate from everybody else, cause that's the only relationship like that and it's supposed to mirror Jesus Christ in the church, so that gets its own slot. God, jesus Christ, right. That's the top. Second priority, your spouse. Third priority your, your immediate family, parents, kids, right, maybe aunts and uncles if you're really close to them, cousins, country For those most of us right here that are listening to the podcast, although I know we have quite a few around the world Canada, england, france, even a couple.
Speaker 1:But America, right For us, but your country, and then whatever else after that, job ought to be after that, money ought to be else. After that, job ought to be after that, money ought to be way after that. And people that aren't in your community? They ought to be after that. Folks, it's ludicrous, this idea that we have the same exact responsibilities to people that are not part of our family as we do to those that are. In fact, you go back to the New Testament verse that very clearly says if you don't take care of the needs of your own family, you're worse than an unbeliever, and you can stretch that to your community. You have a responsibility to care for your family and your church in your community, your family and your nation, right, your brother and sister, americans or Englishmen or you know, and your nation, right, your brother and sister, americans or Englishmen, or you know, the British or whatever. Wherever you are. You have a responsibility to care for those around you, and so are we ordering.
Speaker 1:You know this article is talking about. Are we? Do we have our priorities in the right order and they go through? He talks about Groundhog Day, the movie really interesting. I've never seen the movie, or if I have, it's been so long I've forgotten. But it's a pretty interesting little commentary on that. But I'm going to read just a few more quotes from this author of this article, again Jeff Minnick. From this author of this article, again Jeff Minnick.
Speaker 1:He discovered that to find the true self, we must lose our obsession with self. To find happiness, we must follow a correct order of things and affairs, screams Jesus Christ to me. Christ told right. He told us, his disciples, his followers, even me, king of kings, lord of lords, I came to serve and not to be served. If you want to be first, you have to be last. If you want to be great, you have to serve. And yet today, what are we told so often? You have to serve. And yet today, what are we told so often? Me first. I need self-care, my body, my choice. I need time for myself, self, self, self. What do you need to feel good. There's some advertisements on Pandora. I listen to Pandora pretty frequently and use it and it's for therapy and it's a lot of these ads for therapy constantly and therapy is a huge tool.
Speaker 1:Folks Do not misunderstand me. I am not saying and my opinion on this has changed a lot since I was a younger man I'm not saying that therapy is bad. There are some people that need therapy. I've seen some. But for a lot of us we use self as a crutch. We don't really need therapy. We need a swift kick in the pants we don't really need. There's not really anything that wrong with us, except that we focus on self way too much. So a couple more he talked about in this article one of the quotes here he talked about in this article, one of the quotes here.
Speaker 1:We've told two generations of young women to delay family life and children in favor of work, a teaching that ignores the laws of nature. Consequently, more women are experiencing difficulties becoming pregnant and our society is now far below the replacement level birth rate. Even worse, our culture has sent the explicit message to both men and women that income and work satisfaction matter more than family. Feminism. Folks has done a phenomenal job propagandizing the idea that Propagandizing the idea that the chief goal of a woman's life is to be outside the home CEO, boss, babe, whatever you want to call it facing athletics, academics, career and that being a wife and a mother is secondary at best and really is a burden and a chore.
Speaker 1:And if you do have a husband and kids, it's really more of a status symbol, not a life that you need to pour yourself into, a life that you need to pour yourself into, and that's completely anti our history, our culture and God, the Father of Jesus Christ. There's nothing that ought to come before that relationship that is supposed to mirror Jesus Christ and the church. And if you don't want that, if you don't want those roles and responsibilities, if you don't want to put somebody else before yourself each day, don't get married. Each day, don't get married. Don't get married. Have the decency to not drag somebody else into a relationship. That's nothing more than a superficial status symbol. Go, do your own thing, go watch TV and Netflix and scroll your phone and chase your career.
Speaker 1:I'm talking to the men too, here, folks, by the way, if you're out there working 14, 16 hours a day, not because you're trying to provide for your family a roof over their head and food on the table, but because you want to buy a newer car and you want to take your, your family, on this phenomenal vacation and you want more money in your bank account, you're not going to be on your deathbed and say, you know what I really wish, that I'd worked a few more hours. You're not going to be on your deathbed and say, you know what I wish? That I had really scrolled my phone a little bit longer or focused on Instagram or YouTube or X or Snapchat or Facebook, just a little bit more. It's not going to happen, folks. Not going to happen.
Speaker 1:He talks about the the. How much we focus on beauty products now, physical fitness. How much we pay attention to social media, wealth, fame, appearances, and how little we spend on character and virtue. How much we focus on money, right, and that we've forgotten the truth that beauty is only skin deep. Right, you go back to Proverbs. I'm going to paraphrase this, probably wrongly, but beauty fades, right, charm is deceitful, but a woman that fears the Lord, she is to be praised. I think it's out of Proverbs 31, I think. But the point is, folks, we've gotten so our priorities so out of order. We focus so much on the wrong things and then we can't figure out why our life, our marriage, is in shambles, why we're so anxious, why we're so afraid. We don't talk to God, we don't talk to our spouse. We put a TV, our kids in front of a screen and then we can't figure out why the most fundamental relationships, the most important things in our life, aren't going well right and it has ripple effects in our community.
Speaker 1:You look at the comment here on the birth replacement rate. There's a lot of people talking about that. Today. Most of the societies in Western civilization are dying. Why we're not having kids? Why? Because they're viewed as a burden, not a blessing. Why? Because feminism has told us that kids are a burden. The left has told us don't have kids, you can work, you can wait until later and then you can buy a kid, you can have somebody else. Have your kid and buy them. We only need two kids, one boy and one girl. Right? That's the perfect family. You don't need a whole bunch of kids. It's not what God says.
Speaker 1:Folks, again, read the Bible every day and read it to your kids. Go, be fruitful and multiply. Children are a blessing of the womb. Blessed is the man who has a quiver full of them, right Full of them, not two, not one. And some of you can't have kids. And how sad is that that there's so many people that can't have kids, for whatever reason, that desperately want them, and there's so many of us that can have kids, for whatever reason, that desperately want them. And there's so many of us that can have kids and we're like, well, no, that's enough.
Speaker 1:Consequently, many people pay far less attention to what they put into their minds and souls than the hours they spend exercising or the lotions they apply to their skin. We worry about how we look. How tan are we? How many pimples do we have? Do we have a six-pack? Are we, as my children say? Are we jacked? How much do we work out? How fast are we? How pretty do people think we are?
Speaker 1:And then we watched trash. We listened to trash. I caught myself listening to something the other night and the beat was great. It was a great song. And then the cuss words started to come in and I listened to it for a little bit longer and I thought, you know, got to the end of the song I was like man, why'd you listen to that? Why are you putting stuff into your brain housing group like that? And trust me folks, I've been around. We're just talking about this example Marine Corps, the Navy. I could probably write a dictionary on cuss words.
Speaker 1:There's some times that they just seem unavoidable in our lives, although I'm reminded of my grandmother's comment when you cuss it's because you're not intelligent enough to think of a better word. She always said it showed a lack of intelligence. God, what trash we watch on TV, we listen to, we read and we think it's not going to affect our soul, our mind, our heart. It's not going to affect our soul, our mind, our heart. Great quote in here, especially, I think, for the men, but also for the women. Providing for the material comforts of our family is good, but we can twist that good into a vice when we get so caught up in work that we neglect our spouses and children. Amen to that. I can't tell you how many men over the years I've seen that would work 12, 14 hour days. Not because they needed to. They were making a quarter million plus a year. We're pretty close to it. They didn't need to stay up there for that long. Or pretty close to it. They didn't need to stay up there for that long, but they did, and where did that leave their spouse and their kids?
Speaker 1:This author talks a lot about common sense in here. I agree. Common sense, logic, whatever you want to call it, we don't teach it anymore. Right, and you can see it in the results. We call men women and women men.
Speaker 1:That's illogical, that defies common sense. We think that we can, we can't. We know we can't, or at least we should know we can, as individuals, run up a credit card, max it out, not pay it off, and everything's going to be fine. No, the repo men are going to come and take everything you bought off that credit card and anything else they can take from you until you've paid off your debt. And yet as a nation we think we just have this credit card. That's magical and we can just print as much money as we want, even if we don't have the gold and the silver and the whatever else to back it up, and everything's going to be just fine.
Speaker 1:That's not logical, it defies common sense. We know that we have to put work in in order to become a good athlete. We know we have to put work in and eat healthy, and yet we think we can take in whatever we want visually, whatever trash we want, and it won't affect our body. We think we can ignore our spouse, ignore that relationship, and we'll still have a great marriage. We think we can ignore God and Jesus Christ and we'll still have a strong faith. None of those things are logical. They defy common sense.
Speaker 1:Common sense this is a quote again from this article. Common sense tells us that teenagers looking at screens for more than seven hours a day which is the national average, by the way is unhealthy. And yet we put our kids in front of screens constantly. All you have to do is go out in public and see it, folks. A defies common sense. A defies logic. Common sense tells us that if we wish to raise children who know and practice the virtues, we need to help build their character through stories and poems as well. And this is why I underline this as by our own words and deeds, it's our efforts, our actions that tells us, folks. I talk about this on the podcast so often because we still aren't getting it as a nation.
Speaker 1:All you have to do is look at the state of our families, look at the state of our marriages. You can tell your spouse. You love them all day long until you're blue in the face. But if you don't show them each day, you don't. You can tell people you're a great Christian all day long, but if you don't follow the commands of Jesus Christ each day, you don't.
Speaker 1:That's not to say that you're not going to fail. Folks See, we have this idea that we have to be perfect. We're not going to be perfect. We're never going to be perfect. You're going to mess up, probably each day. The problem is, we've decided that it's not messing up. We've decided that if we don't love our spouse on a particular day, we don't have any reason to go and apologize to them and ask for forgiveness and strive to do twice as good the next day. We just go on with it and they'll figure it out on their own. We don't feel like we have a responsibility to turn to God and ask for forgiveness, and if we do, it's just kind of half-hearted, like look, I know I'm supposed to do this, but everybody knows I'm really a pretty good person, right? Maybe just maybe you read through the New Testament. It says what's one of our goals? To live a quiet life, to walk humbly before God. Maybe if we spent a little more time leading a quiet life and walking humbly before God, focused on our priority list God each day, and then our spouse, and then everything else after that children, family, country, core. Maybe we wouldn't mess up as often.
Speaker 1:The decisions we make every day, guided by our priorities and common sense, determine who we are and what we will become. Jeff Minick, m-i-n-i-c-k. Folks. Great article in the Epoch Times. First Things First. Every day, every decision we make draws us a little closer to God and Jesus Christ or a little closer to the devil and hell. Every decision, folks, that's pretty daunting to me.
Speaker 1:We have a certain amount of time. We can't add to that time or take away from that time. God's given us that amount of time. Well, I suppose you could take away, so I'll scratch that, but you certainly can't add to it. There's no more. You can't add to the time. You have a set amount. How are you spending it? What are you doing? Are you running off to play golf on the weekend for four or five hours and leaving your spouse and kids at home? Are you going down the road to watch basketball games and softball and track and tennis and baseball and golf, but you're leaving your spouse and your kids in the lurch, scrolling through Facebook and Instagram and X for hours, while you put your kids in front of screens and your spouse leave them in a room by themselves. Whatever your actions are folks. Whatever you've done today, whatever you did yesterday, that's your priorities. Actions are folks. Whatever you've done today, whatever you did yesterday, that's your priorities.
Speaker 1:All right, we're going to go into. I know that took a lot longer, but it's just a great article. Folks, kent, it's a wonderful newspaper. If you get a chance, get it Again. That was an article that was First Things First by Jeff Minnick. Good article we are going to go to, if I can find it. 2 Peter, chapter 3.
Speaker 1:Purpose of this letter this is now beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles the coming day of the Lord. Know this, first of all, that in the last days, mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts and saying where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation. For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by his word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance, a new heaven and earth. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people thought you to be in holy conduct and godless, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements will melt with intense heat, but, according to his promise, we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you. Therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, jesus Christ. To him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen, eternity, amen. Verse seven. But by his word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
Speaker 1:It's one of the things I think folks over the last couple of years maybe really the last year that's really struck me. When Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies and that's hard right, especially for people that really have hurt you, there's a couple things. One is kind of, I guess, maybe tongue-in-cheek or ironic, but if you really want to get somebody back. Who's your enemy? The very best thing you can do is pray for them, because if they're really acting in an ungodly manner, the more you pray for them, the more God's attention is going to be on them. So try and get them to turn to him. But even if so, if they do turn to him and they really turn to him and are repentant, that's going to be heartbreaking for them to see the way that they've treated you. There's going to be a great amount of guilt and repentance and seeking forgiveness from you, and it won't undo the hurt that's been done to you, but it'll stop future hurt and you will have helped save a soul. Right? That's the big picture. Even your worst enemy on your worst day, whoever that is right now, do you really want them to spend eternity forever in hell with the devil and his demons? That's pretty rough, folks. I know sometimes it feels like we would like to, but that's pretty rough.
Speaker 1:Right verse eight. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved that with the lord, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The lord is not our timing, he's outside of time. My father has talked to me about this over the years and tried to I think a little bit explain it to my simple brain. But there's not going to be any time when we get to heaven. There's no clock ticking Period, there is no time. It doesn't exist. That's pretty hard for us to get our brains wrapped around, right. The other thing is you know, you think well, jesus, these prophecies, jesus came 2000 years ago. Where is he? Why isn't he here? I don't know, I have no idea. Folks, I can't tell you that. But I can tell you that that slow to us or fast to us is not slow or fast to God. If you have somebody that can look at time and see inside time wherever they want, wherever they want, right, that's a whole different ballgame. Right, that's a whole different ballgame.
Speaker 1:And then this last part here not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance Right, that's the whole point is giving us time to save souls. You want to talk about America and whether we're going to be saved, whether we're going to continue to exist as a republic that produces liberty. If we do, if God is gracious enough to give us any more time, we have to keep in the forefront of our minds. As Christians, the main purpose almost has to be for us to save more souls. It's not for us to get more money or more land or more cars or more whatever it is that we want but it's to save more souls. We talked about this recently on a different podcast. We're behind enemy lines right now, folks, and the whole point of our life is to get in, save as many as we can and get back out. That's the job, and you don't get out until God calls you out. You go in, you save as many souls as you can and then you get out.
Speaker 1:Verse 10, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its works will be burned up. The first part of this is really why I read it again but the day of the Lord will come like a thief. Folks, you have no idea. Wherever you are today, whatever you're doing you're driving up and down the road, you're sitting on the porch listening early in the morning you have no idea what the rest of your day is going to hold or how long your day is going to last if you're going to make it to the end of it. There's certain careers and certain times in those careers where you're very aware of that fact that when you walk out the door you may not come back. Military, law enforcement, firefighters those pop into my head pretty quick.
Speaker 1:But for a lot of us we have so much comfort and so much ease in America today and I'm guilty of this, folks, just like anybody else you get to planning your life out. Well, this is what I'm going to do at this day, this is what I'm going to do next year, this is what I'm going to do next year and this is what I'm going to do in a couple months, and this is what I'm going to do next week. And there's nothing wrong with planning. The problem comes in often that we treat our faith, our relationship with God and our marriage, our relationship with our spouse and our relationship with our children or parents. But these relationships, we treat them as if we have all the time in the world, as if we control the time and go. Well, I'm going to work on that next week. I'm going to work on that next month. I'm going to make my career here first, and then I'm going to work on that relationship. They'll still be here, they'll still love me, they'll still care, and that's just fatteningly false for so many reasons.
Speaker 1:A you don't know if you're going to make it to tonight. You have no idea if God's going to call your soul home today or not. B even if you do, you have no idea, for example, if you're ignoring your spouse constantly, if they're going to stay around, and you can just keep going on down that list, folks, not to mention the fact you see movies or books where they talk about one of the characters. It's almost a character type. You have this person that has all these skills, all these talents, and they just don't use them. It's just a waste. I can think of a few movies off the top of my head and that was part of the storyline. Right, you have all this talent and you don't use it.
Speaker 1:We don't develop our relationship with God and Jesus Christ. We don't spend time reading our Bible each day. We don't pray each day. How many of the talents that God gave us are we letting go to waste and how many people that needed those talents have we let down? All because we're not thinking about the day of the Lord coming like a thief in the night. We're actually really arrogantly. We're thinking God's not going to come until I'm ready for him to come, and some of y'all are saying come, lord Jesus, right now I'm ready and great. Good on you. But do we act like that, do we live like that? Are you going to read your Bible today with the intent of developing yourself so that you can help whoever it is that you come across today, because God is going to speak something in particular into your life that they need? Are you going to love your spouse today like you might not wake up next to them tomorrow? You might not wake up next to them tomorrow, not just as an afterthought, but that's going to be your main purpose of your day, second only to God and Jesus Christ. Are you going to spend time with your kids today as if you might not see them? And some of y'all are going.
Speaker 1:Well, I've got to work. Hope I can't just take off like I would if I knew I was going to die tomorrow. I'm not asking you to, I'm not telling you to you, shouldn't? You need to go to work, whether that's been working outside the home or whether your wife and mother inside the home, your wife and mother inside the home. But when you get done with work, do you come home still worried about work? Are you still anxious about work? Are you still focused on work? And do you come home, do you actually spend the time that you get? Do you wake up in the morning worrying about what you want to do or what your spouse needs you to do, what your kids need, and I think a lot of this folks. I know I'm taking some time here, but it's just. Our priorities are just so off track. We go out and we chase. You know? I just read Proverbs I can't remember 21, chapter 21, 22, somewhere in there, and it tells us specifically don't chase riches. How many of us are chasing the wealth of this world and passing up the wealth that we could be storing up for all eternity, passing up our relationships with our children, our spouses?
Speaker 1:Verse 12, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements melt with intense heat. Are we looking for the day of God? Are we looking for the coming of Jesus Christ? Are we asking God to hasten that? Verse 16, as also in all his letters, speaking in them some of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the unstable and untaught distort as they do also the rest of scriptures to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, to be on guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, jesus Christ. To him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
Speaker 1:So I really the last verse 18, I read just because I like the way it closes to him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. There is no end, folks. That's the thing. Our soul is going to live forever. It's either going to live forever in heaven with God or it's going to live forever in eternity with hell, with the devil in hell. Think about that, some. If you haven't, I need to think about, focus on that, so that I'm far more worried about focusing on God and Jesus Christ and spending eternity there with them and what's going on here, right, but I just like the way that was phrased. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Not to the end, but to the day of eternity, because then then there is no end. And and if you know jesus christ right, jesus christ is my lord and savior. He's the son of god. I believe in him as the son of god. I believe that jesus christ was raised from the dead by god, that he died for my sins. I, I'm going to heaven and someday I'm going to get to spend eternity there with God in heaven. Do I have doubts, folks? Absolutely A hundred percent. Just as a side note, that's one of the things that's plagued me as a Christian, as an adult, off and on my whole life, and that was again why Psalm 73 is so encouraging. But I'm getting off track.
Speaker 1:16 and 17. Don't be carried away by the error of unprincipled men. It's so, so important, folks, to read our Bible, to read God's Word, so that we don't get carried away. And sadly, it's not even just from the outside of the church where we get carried away. Sadly, there's so many inside the church that teach things that just don't mesh with Scripture.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I see constantly on X that just really disturbs me and breaks my heart is this idea, pushed by certain denominations, that their denomination is the only way to God and to Jesus Christ and to eternal salvation. That's just not true. It's nowhere in Scripture. You're not going to find any denomination mentioned in Scripture where God says oh, by the way, you have to be a member of this denomination in order to get to heaven. Jesus Christ wasn't enough. You also have to be a member of this denomination. That's just. You can search Scripture all you want, folks, you're not going to find it. You're never going to find Methodism.
Speaker 1:Being a Baptist, search Christ, anglican, roman Catholic, greek, orthodox. Nowhere in Scripture Old and New Testament are you going to find that as a requirement for salvation and eternal life. And it's so sad because it takes away from Jesus Christ. It's like they're saying well, jesus Christ isn't enough. The Son of God offering his life for me, that's not enough. I've got to have a little something more. God offering his life for me, that's not enough, I've got to have a little something more. Same way, people who think that they have to have good works, that that's a path to get into heaven. Jesus Christ wasn't enough, so I've got to do a little bit more over here on my own to help carry the load.
Speaker 1:Works represent our faith. But works don't get us into heaven. Folks, it's not a hard concept. Works are the result of our faith, wanting to follow God and Jesus Christ, but works don't get us into heaven. Anyway, let me read one thing real quick.
Speaker 1:There was a quote I wanted to close with. This is a couple of quotes by General Robert E Lee from Civil War and both sides. Folks, whatever you think about General Lee, when you read about him, you'll see that people talked about him as a man of honor on both sides, constantly, with integrity. My trust is in the mercy and wisdom of a kind Providence who ordereth all things for our good. I tremble for my country when I hear of confidence expressed in me. I know too well my weakness. That our only hope is in God, that our only hope is in God. Folks, if anybody's telling you that we can have hope in anything other than God, as a country, as a nation, they're wrong, dead wrong. No, equivocation, no, but that's it.
Speaker 1:Trump's not going to do it. Elon Musk isn't going to do it. Biden's not going to do it. Aoc's not going to do it. Pick whatever politician you want, they're not going to do it. Elon Musk isn't going to do it. Biden's not going to do it. Aoc is not going to do it. Pick whatever politician you want they're not going to do it. Democratic Party is not going to do it. Republican Party is not going to do it. Libertarian Party, green Party they're not going to do it. Pick whatever policy you want, whatever institution Department of Education, department of Government Efficiency, department of Justice, department of Defense none of those are going to do it.
Speaker 1:The only thing that's going to save our nation, that has any hope of saving our nation, is God. General Lee picked the wrong side to fight for, but he's absolutely right in those two quotes there is no hope without God and Jesus Christ at the center of our nation. God bless y'all. God bless you all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages, if you're married. God bless America. God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world. Listen, we'll talk to you all again real soon. Folks Looking forward to it.