The Gospel Twins Podcast
A podcast that brings the freedom and truth of God's Kingdom to the masses.
The Gospel Twins Podcast
You Can Love People And Still Say No
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A day off should feel like oxygen, so why does it come with a social invoice? We start with Memorial Day weekend and the unspoken pressure to book every hour with cookouts, visits, and “family time,” even when your body is begging for quiet. We talk honestly about the tension this creates in marriage and relationships, especially when one person wants to go and the other wants to stay home. For us, the real issue isn’t fun or community, it’s the expectation that love must be proven through presence and public image.
From there, we get practical about work-life balance, early start times, and how fatigue can wreck your health and your mood. When your schedule is unstable, rest becomes a strategy, not a vibe. That’s where boundaries come in. We break down the difference between loving people and giving them access, how guilt tries to bully your “no,” and why protecting your peace is part of maturity, not selfishness. We also share what it looks like to define family by faithful friendship, not just blood ties.
Then the conversation turns toward faith and church culture, including altar calls, Hebrews 10, and the anxiety-driven loop of sin consciousness. We challenge traditions that keep people feeling “forgiven again” every week, and we point back to the finished work of Jesus and the freedom that should come with it. If any of this hits home, subscribe, share this with a friend who needs permission to rest, and leave a review. Where do you feel the most pressure to perform: family, work, or church?
Holiday Weekend Catch Up
SPEAKER_00Hey, hey, hey. What up, dude?
SPEAKER_03What up, man? What up?
SPEAKER_00What's happening, man? What you up to?
SPEAKER_03Uh holiday weekend. Love having Mondays off, man. So I get to stay up on Monday, on Sunday night and have to worry about it. I don't know what I'm gonna do anything. I don't think I'm gonna mess around on the grill or nothing like that. Been invited a few places, but I'm gonna stay at home.
SPEAKER_00I feel you, dog. I feel you. You know, man. Let's talk about that for a minute, man. Let's talk about that. So, okay, coming into the Memorial Day, you know, holiday,
Why Time Off Gets Overbooked
SPEAKER_00bro. We're gonna celebrate that in whatever fashion you do that. Why, why, bro, does when the memorial day, it's why do we feel like the need to fill our calendar or or set events up on those days when when we're working mostly during the week? Thank you. We get along, we had a blessing to get along weekend. And for the most part, people, now don't get me wrong, man. I get it. People, you got a lot of people that are socialites and everything, man, and they want to you know take that opportunity to, you know, gather, do some things and all that, and that's great. Why ain't it cool, man, for people that just like that? Y'all do that. And for the people that just want to take that moment to chill, to decompress from a week, or just celebrate it, just however they choose to do. So, why does it have to be an automatic weird? We especially in us with the marital dynamic, you know. Well, and I can't just relegate it to that because people who are you know together, couples, period. Yeah, why do we feel the need to have to have the other person have to go be down with this with them, man? Because I'm gonna do this. So we're going to do this, you know.
SPEAKER_02Aesthetics, aesthetics, that's all it can be is aesthetics.
SPEAKER_00Do we have the presentation, the presentation we here as a unit, you know, a couple. Yeah, why? Why does it gotta be that, bro? Why, why, why does the aesthetics matter so much?
SPEAKER_03I don't know, man.
SPEAKER_00Because you go and be into this, and y'all kind of mingle separate anyway. You know, it's it's not like it's not like it's a gala or a ball where y'all coming together, y'all gonna do it. It's it's a gathering, man. It's a thing that you know, a lot of times it's family or whatever, man. Or why is it not cool for one person to go and the other to stay home? You know, like go do go have fun.
SPEAKER_03Cause usually in these gatherings, you go, you know, you're with your significant other, so you walk around with that person and they gotta say hi to this person, that person. Then eventually you go your own way. Yeah, because I know I know my wife's gonna she it's it's her family, so she's gonna go visit and talk to more family. For sure. I'm gonna sit my butt down somewhere, yeah. Absolutely, and I'm sitting there, and then my situation, man. And see, this was why I I had I get an out on a lot of things because of my diet and my lifestyle.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_03Uh what y'all got to eat? No, we got salad, okay, okay. All right, uh, what you got to drink? We got Fago. Oh, okay, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_00Right. I can really see how yours is kind of broke down to a really a really niche experience.
SPEAKER_03So I'm just sitting there and you know, and what eventually it happens. I'm looking at my phone, bro. Right, right. Looking up there and looking at my phone, hey, how you doing? Look at my phone somehow, hey, how you doing? Yeah, go up there and you know, talk, you know, chat, chat it up with somebody, but then I'll come back into my seat. It's not a fun experience, man.
SPEAKER_00Right, right.
SPEAKER_03So, yeah, man.
SPEAKER_00It's a it's almost it's a it's a toleration, man, that I'm tolerating. And it's not, and it has nothing to do with not liking people. It doesn't have anything to do with not being around. It's just really like this is not a this is not a set for me or a scene for me that I can really enjoy this time off that that we've been granted, you know, like everybody else. Y'all gathering together because you enjoy that coming together and that thing. And the person that that doesn't really gel into that, we get deemed social, we get deemed like, you know, we think we, you know, I don't know, better, you're holier when you got a kingdom, you know, identity, man. You know, like I don't really flow that way, you know, I move different with this. And the conversation, you know, is is not often gonna be in the area, you know, of where and here's the thing, the funny thing about that too. When you're a kingdom person, you really, man, it's hard to find any scene for you to really move in in a comfortable way, man. It doesn't matter with the Christians, with the believers, or the non-believers. In fact, when you're a kingdom person, you probably can move better among non-believers than you can with believers.
SPEAKER_03Oh, absolutely, man. What at work? At work, do you know how many times I ain't gonna say how many times, but it's been a different uh couple of occasions where uh person said, You're not like that, uh, that Krishna over there, man. I mean, I feel like they're coming down at me the whole time I'm with them. And you, you know, you don't come at me like that. No man, be you, you know what I'm saying? Like be you, and you know, if you ask me something or my opinion, something I give it to you, and I'll tell you, you know. Uh only thing I could do is just show you through my conduct, and that's what I'm trying to do. And that's what I do. I'm not sitting there speaking and then doing something differently.
SPEAKER_00Contrary. Oh,
Couples Pressure And Performing Unity
SPEAKER_00right, right. That's that's bro. I just don't, you know, it I I really believe, man, that we have definitely moved into an age, man, where um being authentic is really even you starting to see influencers lose a lot of their influence with all of that posting those polished pics, and you know, I'm just chilling at the beach, manifesting, enjoying my best life. But yeah, in this picture, you are. But as soon as you go outside of this this frame, you beefing with somebody behind the scenes, you're as you said, your significant other. You sitting there cussing your kids out, you know, and all of this stuff. I mean, it's it's not the authenticity that people are trying, trying to, because people trying to come into a real identity, man, of what of who they are, what this is all about, what this this endless loop of just getting up, going to work, putting, punching the clock, and coming out and just going home to do it all over again, you know, bro, that that is playing out in in the minds of people big time, and all that facade that comes with it, man. It's just I think we as a a as a species is just starting to mature beyond that, man. It's just it's just it's changing. It's changing.
When Work Steals Your Day Off
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I just like you were saying, like people who work all the time or you know have a lot of you know, like work all the time like I do. Yeah, uh on my Monday. I'm thinking this, I'm having a day off. And day off, bro. And and as uh as the day goes on and a couple of hours go by, my day is already on two, thinking about Tuesday. Uh, because I have my day started at three o'clock.
SPEAKER_00Because you're preparing for it.
SPEAKER_03My my day started at three o'clock in the morning. So it's not I don't have too much time for myself on this. So I'm not trying, I don't want to go anywhere because uh I go there, and like I was telling my wife, um, I'm still dealing. I'm I don't have uh the discipline, man, to have fun and then and the just have fun the day before work because I I attend this like I mean I'm calling off tomorrow. Right, right, right. And so to avoid all that, can you keep your fun, keep your all that? I'm home, I'm at home preparing for the work week. It's a sad existence, but that's my reality. Man, tell me that just that that weighs on you when you got to get up at three o'clock in the morning. I don't care about that.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I could imagine, bro. I'm not even sure it sucks.
SPEAKER_03I have man, I work with a guy, man, my boy TO. Yeah, he uh he works and he works the full day. And I've been uh I've been blessed to have it get the opportunity to go home early. Yeah, but uh the if you stay, you can you know I work eight hours, I get paid for eight, but then those people that stay at work they they work 10 hours. And to always complains that he worked the full 10 hours, he gets home, he crashes out. Yeah, he crashes out, he wakes up about 10 o'clock at night and he's up all the way, you know, until we start back to work at 5 o'clock in the morning. Yeah and he just looks disheveled, he looks tired, like he about to fall. And you know, his work, his partner, like, man, I caught him off that sleeping. Like, yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, because there's a rhythm, man, to how the body operates. We can we can alter it, but it's not always the best, the healthy thing to do, you know, especially if you're not wired that way. Some people are just night people, and they can they can it's better for them to work them them kind of hours because that's how they are, they can sleep during the day and doing all and and not and be sound sleep, you know, during the day. Bro, I am not wired that way, man. I not that when the sun, bro, when the dawn, when it's dawn, I'm up fully awake. I'm like even this morning when you called, man, you up up out the bed. I was like, dude, I didn't been up and out the house, you know. You know what I mean? So it's it's just that, man. And you know, when people when you when you violate that rhythm, man, it shows. It shows in your attitude, it shows in your health, yeah, it everywhere. It just shows up everywhere. And to say to somebody like I caught him sleeping over there, bro, you didn't catch him sleeping. He he fell asleep, you know what I mean? And you just saw him sleeping, bro. It ain't like you, I'm about to steal me some winks, bro. No, I fell asleep. I didn't even know I fell asleep, you know.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, yeah, because he was, you know, because we were talking about that. I was talking about about that with him. I told him, I said, I lost a good friend, man. Uh fell asleep. He's working midnights, fell asleep on the way home, got into a car accident. He was like, Man, he was like, uh, he said, that's when you gotta pull over. I said, like what you know, we had a conversation earlier in the conversation. He was we were talking about when you fall asleep and you don't realize you fall asleep.
SPEAKER_00You don't even know you fell asleep.
SPEAKER_03And I was like, bro, I was like, you could say that, but you once you fall asleep, you don't know you asleep.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03When you wake up, it can be too late. So, like uh, I said, T yo, get you some rest, man. What you can do is like try to do your best to stay up, you know. Because he knows he likes to get him like a little nightcap, whatever. I said, Well, hold that nightcap off, man. Don't do it when you get home. I get you trying to wind down. I said, but push it maybe to about seven o'clock, and then have your nightcap.
SPEAKER_00And then your nightcap uh will assist and you actually stay asleep all the week.
SPEAKER_03Yes. You know, instead of you saying, I've been up since 11 or midnight, and I'm like, nah, bro. Right. And I'm doing that. I'm I I'll go to bed on purpose around eight o'clock, and I'm still waking up about midnight, like, oh dang. So yeah, because right now they keep fluctuating uh our hours. Some days we start at 6:30, sometimes we start at 6, sometimes we start at 5. It's like, man, we need something, we need some stability over here. And um right now I'm in the process of getting out that department. I I can't, I can't live that way. So yeah, that holiday thing, man, and all the traditions with it, and uh it's almost like you have to do something.
SPEAKER_00You know what I mean? Yeah, like you said, that tradition of that, man, is you know, we got Memorial Day off. You you gotta do it. You know what I mean? You gotta spend that time, and you know, and then we hide it under the guise of family. When do we have an opportunity to get together? Guess what? You can go and see your family on a regular weekend. Go and see them, you know, at when you have a moment during the week or whatever. It doesn't have to come up to this built-up climactic moment that we're gonna all gather on, you know, and and of course, man, don't get me wrong. I'm not anti-gathering of people and parties and all of that. My whole point is if you do that, do it, and that's fine. But don't get mad at the other person, particularly your significant other, if they don't desire to do it and be like, you know what, it's your day off just like it's mine. You how do you wish to spend your day off? Man, I just love to just chill and just kick it and just relax. Because I gotta go back to work tomorrow. So I want to enjoy this not having to work today in the way that I choose to do it. Okay, have that. I'm gonna go and do this because this is what's going on. Hey, bless that. Go have fun at that. And we and it we didn't separate, it's just you went to do what you chose to do, and I did what I chose to do.
SPEAKER_03Another thing, too, and that dynamic with my relationship with my wife, both our parents are convalescing, right? And so one of the things I said to my wife, because she was saying I was like, I don't want to go out there. And she was like, Well, uh, why would they, you know, I had to question her, why would they have something? They usually don't have it on Memorial Day. Why haven't why they haven't something? She said, Well, you know, what they giving giving their health, if they want to have something, let them have it, and I'm gonna go visit. And I was like, Okay, well, like who so who chooses to see who what parents? I said, because mine is like in the constant state, like my mom is in and out of the hospital all the time.
SPEAKER_01Sure.
SPEAKER_03Uh I saw your parents because I'm not and I'm not comparing illnesses and like that. I said, but your parents are well enough to drive around.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_03Neither my parents are. So I said, well, if I go anywhere on Memorial Day, it's going to visit one of them. Uh my dad or my mom.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And so that would be my choice if I was to leave the house. But other than that, if I don't leave the house, I'm at home chilling. Yeah. Um, getting ready for the work week. I'm just a I'm just a person like to prepare. I don't like to be caught off guard.
SPEAKER_00And you know and that and that is you, that is uniquely you. And uh, yeah, man, we we have to get to the point where we understand each other. One of my wife's favorite scriptures is Peter when he's you know dealing with people according to knowledge. Of course, that's Peter talking about the husband with the wife, but that is a mutual thing. And it's getting to know each other, man, and and allowing the person to be them, truly them, appreciating them for that. And of course, man, there are times when we just sacrifice for each other, man, and submit to each other and do things that okay, let's go do that. Let's, you know, I don't particularly um, and and the problem is, man, we have an issue that the other person don't want to do it, you know. I mean, I I want you to want to do it, you know. Why are you upset? I'm going, but you don't want to go. Okay, that's this is the the the sacrificial aspect of the love, you know. So there is love is not built on sacrifice, it shouldn't be anyway. It should be built on understanding, wisdom, you know, appreciation. You know, it's a genuine thing that love should be built upon, but yes, there's sacrifice in love. And I'm be like, yeah, this is a sacrifice for me. I don't want to go do this, but I am doing this for you. Oh, well, then if that's the case, then you know, like, why is it what? Why is that a problem, bro?
SPEAKER_03Your sacrifice should come with the smile. Hey, I'm gonna start doing that. I'm gonna paint me a smile on paint paint on as well, bro.
SPEAKER_00And that's just weird. I know that's just weird, bro. That's weird, that's just weird.
SPEAKER_03But yeah, my wife loves the word sacrifice, and there is a place for that.
SPEAKER_00It is absolutely, but your life ain't supposed to be built on that, bro. Yeah, no, the word says obedience is better than sacrifice. You know, the sprite used to have a thing, obey your thirst, right? Yeah, bro. I obey who I am, you know what I mean. So me putting myself in an environment that I know is not conducive to me being comfortable, and that's people like bro. God is huge on comfort, and I don't know where this can't this this mentality ever flooded into our understanding that God just wants you to do things and He don't care how you feel. That is that's crap. That is crap, you know what I mean.
SPEAKER_03You gotta you got a scripture for that. I mean, I know him, you know. I mean, no, I'm just saying for the people, you know.
SPEAKER_00Oh, you oh you being legit. Okay, no, yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely, man. Look, man, the he's called the God of all comfort. That's in scripture. And I mean, if man, if they were I could go through him and and actually say first Corinthians, this, this, this. Yeah, yeah, right, right. It ain't necessarily the word is the word, bro. He's called the God of all comfort. Jesus is was called the comforter. He said he told his disciples, When I go, I'm not leaving you comfortless. I'm gonna send back another comforter just like me. You know, I mean, is the Bible says so many things when it comes to our comfort, man? You know, let your yes be yes and your no be no is a comfort scripture. I mean, like you shouldn't have to be putting on facades for stuff. We're we're so used to that, man. Somebody's like, Man, you gonna come to the thing tomorrow? No, and then it just gets awkward, you know what I mean? Yeah, they're waiting for you to explain why you're not coming, you know. Is it that you got something else to do? Or, you know, it's like uh no, I'm that that's not my scene, man. Or you know, I just that's I didn't factor that into my day tomorrow. So I'm not, you know, I'm not gonna be there.
SPEAKER_03What about the dynamic between love and sacrifice, or love and and uh access now?
SPEAKER_00What do you mean? Like from what perspective?
SPEAKER_03Uh the perspective that my wife be throwing, like, like, you don't sack, you gotta sacrifice.
SPEAKER_02I know you don't want to go, and and they want to see us together and and come.
SPEAKER_00I'm like, well, I'd be like, come over here, come over here, let's take this selfie, yeah, yeah. And you can show it to them. I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_03I'm just let's just sacrifice, and you know, like my wife, my wife gets on me because she said I'm not family oriented. And my family was once big. Uh since my wife and I got together, a lot of a lot of my family members has passed on. So uh, I think like I said, I told you earlier, like in the first couple of years of our marriage, we went to like five funerals. And she was like, Man, I've never seen, I've never been to so many funerals. So many funerals, yeah. And uh, and so yeah, that that hurt the dynamic of my family, you know. And um, and then like most of the people in charge, um, the matriarch in my family, I think it was passed on to my mom and her health is a in a certain way. It was, and then I I took on I took on that for a little bit. Um I was having people here and all that. But as time went on, man, and I it just I just man, to deal with people and just say, well, you know, it was a good day, you know, people had these certain behaviors, and so like, oh you know, I'm a Sacrifice to hang with them. I'm gonna show them love. But uh they might go off. But if they go off, if they don't go off, then it's a good day. If they do go off, I'll find a way to navigate through
Love Without Giving Full Access
SPEAKER_03it, maybe show them some love. Right. I'm choosing not to do that, you know, and I'm not I'm choosing to keep my peace in that situation. I'm choosing to keep my peace. Absolutely, and I'm choosing, and I'm choosing to get them love, but I'm not choosing to get those people access to my peace and my in my life.
SPEAKER_00So bro, man, bro, that there's so many dynamics to that, man. But one one of the things that is a crucial point that I'm starting, you know, and and I'm I don't when I say I'm starting to realize, I don't mean I'm just getting it, but I'm starting to realize that it's becoming more and more crucial for the development and strengthening of my own character, man, is that I love everybody, bro, but I don't have to like everybody. And and we're not mature enough really, and as a as a as a species of people to say when it's something that we don't like. Yeah, we can say things we don't like. Oh, I don't like, I don't like that kind of food, I don't like that kind of this, but we don't say uh we we have a problem to say I don't like that kind of person. Uh bro, your family, I can love your family. I'm be like, but I don't particularly like your family. And and the reason why I don't like them is because they have no restraint when it comes to uh this, you know, when or when it comes to this, they don't think about other people's feelings, you know. You I don't care personally, I'm just real, that's just who I am. I'm just gonna be me. You don't have a right to just you know just trash over people, man, and they their ideals and what they believe and what they you know think. If you want to get into a dialogue about that and we want to have a mature dialogue, then that means we can be disagreeable and everything is cool. That person, I like that kind of person that can have that conversation and we're good to go. I don't like the kind of person that when we have a disagreement, it's a either it's a us against you type thing. Yeah, it's it's not a versus, bro. We ain't it ain't a battle, you know what I mean? I'm just my own type of person. Why don't you never you know do this or do that or say this or say that? I'd be like, because I choose not to. I do that to protect my own peace, I do that for my own mental health, and and I'm good with that. And I'm not gonna intentionally put myself in a hostile environment that that's gonna cause me, you know, uh triggers, if you will, or traumas, man, that I gotta go and get therapy over years later because I had to just walk on all these eggshells and and to and take all this abuse mentally at the at the sacrifice of me loving you and and your family and the cognitive dissonance that I love you, but I don't like them. You know what I mean? And and that's okay, bro. You don't I'm okay with people not liking me, fam. I get it. If I if I I understand that, it's okay.
SPEAKER_03But I don't go ahead, man. No, no, go ahead. I was just saying, I just don't understand people that know a person's behavior and constantly go around them just because they're fanry. I'm you know what I'm not that don't mean anything, man. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not a glutton for punishments.
SPEAKER_00No, and you don't get access to me like that. That's that's the huge part about it. Like you're saying, the difference between love and access is me being able to put a boundary between the difference. My love transcends all boundaries, but because I love you, it doesn't mean you get access to me like that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and this is vice versa, it's access to you. Yeah, people got we bring the subject up often because we i mean this boundaries is very important, and then people and when when you set up boundaries, people tend to want to guilt you into bringing them down. So no, we're gonna we definitely want to keep talking about this because this is important, because your peace is important, your peace is important, your your sanity is important, you can you can be kingdom and love people and still have your boundaries, you still could do God's work with your boundaries, bruh.
SPEAKER_00You you you can't do God's work without boundaries, yeah. Right, but that's impossible to do that. The Lord don't want to send you in a situation, it's just like people say, uh, you know, they scared to give in to God's mission because they feel like if God's gonna send me over to Ghana or something like that. Look, if you have no desire to go to Ghana, God ain't sending you there. Right, you can feel mission pressure because you had a church that's big on missions, they going to Ghana or whatever, and like, oh man, I gotta go over. I feel like the the Lord is is calling me to Ghana. No, your church is guiltying you to go to Ghana. And then when you go over there, you think God wants to send you in a situation where you don't have an authentic love and desire to be there and serve those people? Something happened, you like, I shouldn't have been over here anyway. Bruh, every blessing, everything it was just it just it was dissolved right then. You know, the Lord said, You going over to Ghana to impress them people, that was your reward. Yep, that was it. You know, you got the impression. Oh man, this brother's going. Well, I hope that's what you wanted. I hope that's the blessing you was hoping to get out of it because that's what you got. That that was it, paid in full. I'm not living like that, bro. No, I'm not doing it, man. And this and the Lord's like, and I don't require you to do that, man. It's when you read the scriptures, bro, show one person, just one person in the scripture that did not have an affinity to do already what God sent them to do. Peter, we didn't turn all of us into fishers of men. I don't even like fishing, bro. Right, I am not a fisher of men.
SPEAKER_03Hey, hey, you know, like we you know, we read about Jesus, we know he had his boundaries, we know he you know he had his peoples, his three peoples. What if one of those peoples was was was Judas? Peter James and Judas was his homies, man. You know what I'm saying? Like, right, you know, Jesus knew what he was gonna do, but he was around, he wasn't around him all the time.
SPEAKER_00No, what was the record in the Bible? No, no, bro. And Jesus knew that it specifically shows, and Jesus was dealing on a whole nother plane and dealing with a whole nother situation, and that's that's another thing that we gotta stop tripping to. Jesus is our example, but he is not supposed to be the person that was striving to behave in every. I'm not saying from a character standpoint, I'm saying the things he did. Jesus allowed certain access to him for a specific reason for us to see that no matter what, man, you know, if you're gonna do this, Jesus knew that Judas was, he said, I knew one of y'all was a devil, bro, from day one. But he never treated Judas any different than anybody else. He gave Judas the same delegation of authority, he gave because his whole point, man, is he was trying to change the heart of Judas with the unconditional love of God. Judas had an opportunity, bro, and he didn't take it. He went the other way, and you saw what ended for him. Jesus wasn't giving him access, you know, to try and change a situation within the ministry. He was trying to change that dude, man. And he had it, he had an opportunity to change, bro. And we see many times, and he even did feel guilty about what he did to Christ, but he never changed. Right, that's why he killed himself. He couldn't live with the guilt, bro. That's still a selfish move.
SPEAKER_03And there's people in our lives that never change, they don't, and they don't change, and uh they don't, no matter what God does, and you gotta figure it out what you're gonna do if you're gonna put bondage between you and that person, or you're just gonna allow them affect your peace and influence you to go down the ruin. I choose not to do that.
SPEAKER_00Gotta do it. The kingdom God is what righteousness, peace, peace, and joy. That's that's the constitution of the kingdom, man. Righteousness, peace, and joy. And if things are violating that in your life, you're not experiencing the kingdom, bro. It's up to us to do that, man. And the thing is, somebody, if you really want to get into this dialogue of why I don't want to do this, why are you like that? Well, let me tell you why. Are you okay with me? Are you giving me permission to tell you why I feel this way? Why I don't want to go here? And be okay with that because I might say something. Look, Jesus family shows up, he's out here ministering, bro. Oh, yeah, loving it. Jesus is telling people about the kingdom. He is just showing, and this people that's down, bro. They sitting there hanging on every word Jesus saying, and Jesus that there's somebody, hey, hey, bro, your mom and them outside, man. He was like, Well, what they need to come up in here, yeah. Why they what what they look, they haunt, they bro, they calling for you out there. He's like, Man, I I can't even, I can't even rock with that right now. I'm in here. I'm who is my family, bro? Who are they? Look, look at the look at my disciples. These this this is my family. People that will do the will of God, bro.
SPEAKER_03That's
Redefining Family Through Friendship
SPEAKER_03my people. Check this out. I'm glad you said that. Um, so one of the things I did say to my wife, we were talking about the family. So a lot of my family passed on, dispersed throughout the country. Uh, so you know, we're not central to Inkster like we used to be.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I said, but my family are my friends.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_03John, Eric, Anthony Flint, D-Lund, right, Boo Jay. Those those that's my family.
SPEAKER_00That's my family, right?
SPEAKER_03That is family, and that's who I talk to uh whenever I need anything. Absolutely. Not saying that my blood relatives, I mean, I could go to them, but they're doing their own thing. And so who I'm surrounded with are those people I just named.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03And we we we feed each other, we sh we encourage each other, we sharpen uh sharpen each other, absolutely. So and so that's that's correct each other. Yes, hold each other accountable. That's my family, right?
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, absolutely, and they know you and they and they respect you and they honor you for who you are, they know what things you down with and things you not down with, and they know certain things not to come at you with and certain things to come at you with, and they'll be legit with you, and they'll tell you even when you're saying stuff, they know your position in the faith, and they ask you questions about it. Well, bro, what about this? Yeah, you know, or the well, that don't sound like you, bro. It seemed like you, you know, you would come at this a little different. Why? Because they hearing, they they're they're walking through this process with you. Salvation is something that we work out, man. This ain't this ain't religious terminology and all this thing. This is us being able to experience the the life that God wants us to experience. And when we're having issues, some things clogging that up, man. Our our friends, our family is the sounding board for that. Some people can't take your sound, bro. You you you try and talk to them about it, they either it either cringes them, you know, or they can't relate to it, or whatever, man. I bro, I got family members, first cousins that I don't hardly know them, dude. Yeah, they first cousins, man. They like that's your blood, bro. That's your blood. What does that mean? What is that? We don't talk. I haven't talked to bro. The last people, man, like you said, people that passed away, bro. The the the matriarchal order that was in place that was bringing our families together and having family reunions and going over for picnics in the summer and Christmas and Thanksgiving gatherings, they have passed, bro. They're they're no longer here. When they passed, because they were the glue that brought us all together, bro. When they the glue was gone, we ain't been together since. Why? Because they there was a person that was or people in place that was making sure we came together and we came together for for who? For them. Yeah, we weren't coming together. It wasn't that let's just be honest, we didn't enjoy each other's company. Why? Because if we did, it wouldn't take that for us to come together. I enjoy the company of my people that I rock with now. You, D, you know, Dale Benning, you, you, my boys Lindsay and you know, Ray, and all of that. And people, people come and go, they fall out, they come in, but you still know you have those particular relationships in place. That's your family. Those are the people that you draw from, you lean on, that you're sewing into and investing in. And there is an investment there, man, that that yields a return. Bro, I call up my cousin right now, it's out of the blue. They might as well be a stranger to me. Yeah, I haven't talked to them in over a decade, bro. I don't know what they're into.
SPEAKER_03Hey, wifey be like, I hear you on the phone with them.
SPEAKER_02How can you laugh with them and not like that with me? Like, man, we're talking about 50 years of friendship.
SPEAKER_00Right, right, right. Right.
SPEAKER_02We going back 50 years.
SPEAKER_03You D Line, I mean Anthony Flint, that's 50 years. I mean, right.
SPEAKER_00You're talking, you're talking about pulling on, and and sometimes, man, when you are in this, there are moments of nostalgia when you come in. I can't say remember when with you in certain levels, man, because you weren't there.
SPEAKER_05Right.
SPEAKER_00You weren't there. But guess what? There are aspects of my relationship with my wife. Wife, yeah, and then my crew is is part of, bro. Right, right. It's totally different dynamic, man. And and we are so we are so dynamic and wonderfully, fearfully made in every aspect of who we are that it takes a lot of different components, man, to to fuel that righteousness, that's pe that peace and that joy that God calls us to experience. And we gotta allow each other the space to do that. We can't start thinking like because I chose to go here, that somehow I rejected you. Yeah, yeah. I wasn't rejecting being with you because I chose to go be with them.
SPEAKER_03Man, like we talked about earlier, man. I'm 55, so it's not I'm I'm gonna wow. I'm not trying to be selfish, but I know what I like.
SPEAKER_00Look, them double nickels, bro, change things, man. Man, what?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I I'm starting to see the evolution of me really speaking my mind like all the time now. You know, yeah. I I had to put my uh team leader in place in her place uh last week. She was all over my over my shoulder because I'm not doing it the job the way she's doing it, or she a customer doing it.
SPEAKER_02And I thought her, get off, man. Leave me alone. I ain't no new hire. I know what I'm doing. Back up.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_03And I said it just like that.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, absolutely, but no, it you know what, bro? Here's the thing it's a way to do stuff, and I get it. You know, it's scripts, you know, there's things that are scripted that you have in place or rules and whatever, but when it filters through my particular person, the way I move is gonna be a little different. It's not that I'm not I'm still getting, bro. Did it go in the basket? You know, if if it's a if it's a jumper, if it's a layup, if it's a dunk, the thing is get it in the basket, bro. Right. The two points is what we want. Yes, the results. Is the results, and obviously I'm still getting the results because I've been here for 30 years.
SPEAKER_02Are you talking to me like I just hired in? I'm like, stop it.
SPEAKER_00But see, that's that goes back to that thing that we talk about. I want you to do it this way, I want you to want to do it this way. Yeah, you know what I mean.
SPEAKER_03Her nickname is Gestapo, too. I said, Oh Gestapo, man, told me to come over here. Like my boy started laughing.
SPEAKER_00But people look, bro, people get the names they get honest, bro. That when we nickname people with those metonymic, you know, descriptions, bro. People you listen to it, listen to it. It's not being birthed out of out of the clear blue, bro.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because I thought I'm like, you that's like you. I said, when you walk around, you I said you want like a cop. So what's what's up with that? She's like, Yum, you might not know. I might be a cop. I was like, you act like one. Po po Jesus.
SPEAKER_03We got we let's get a little
Altar Calls And Forgiveness Anxiety
SPEAKER_03hey man, let's get to this right now. Cause we need to we talked about this before we got on. What about the altar call, man? Uh we want to tip this this sacred call over.
SPEAKER_00Okay, let's hit that one.
SPEAKER_03Because we know, because we know right now today's Sunday in the box church, we're gonna have people bending down.
SPEAKER_01Oh man.
SPEAKER_03And I I remember, bro, I remember uh I remember I think we it was some type of uh program at the church when I was a um when I was an usher, and I can't remember, but we had we had I think it was this occasion where we had most of most of our kids there, you know, both our my my my wife's kids and my kids. So it was an occasion where most of them was there. And I remembered uh, you know, this one, you know, because everything's starting to get theatrical, you know, it's all performative in there, man. And whatever they were doing was pulling this emotion out of me. And I remember falling down on my knees at the altar.
SPEAKER_05I was trying, my god, yeah, right, right.
SPEAKER_03And your feelings, and your feelings in my feelings, man. The Holy Spirit is moving up in here today, dog. Right, we're moving up in here, so I'm getting delivered, I'm getting and and like I said, performative because my kids were there, so they like, oh man, he's he's feeling and I'm a boy. It's really working.
SPEAKER_00That operation really going in, yes.
SPEAKER_03Then hey, two hours later at the service. What they talk about, man. I don't know, but it felt good, right?
SPEAKER_01I was I was I felt it though.
SPEAKER_02I thought the Holy Spirit supposed to bring stuff to your memories.
SPEAKER_03Ah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I remember the feeling I had. I remember it felt good.
SPEAKER_03All right, uh woke up, man. Matt Matt McMillan, man. New covenant believer, he teacher. You know, he has his Facebook group and all that. And so they really be going in at the sacred cows, which I appreciate. Sometimes they go too hard, but that's that's the temperature of that group.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And you know, if you want to go there, if you want to go to that, then that's what you go to. You want to see all the sacred cows get tipped over and all the enforcements, all the scriptures that back all that up. So this morning he he leaves off with uh Hebrews 10 26. If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left. So then he goes into this story. He said, The church is dimly lit. The worship team sings softly, oh come to the altar, the father's arms are open wide. One by one, people began to walk to the front near the stage to a place called the altar. What is an altar? Well, according to the Jews, it was a flat table where animal sacrifices were made to God. Why were animal sacrifices made? Well, to remind the Jews of their sins committed. When an animal was killed on the altar, let me refresh this thing. Animal, a spotless one without flaw and blood covered up, paid for for or atone for what that person sins for an entire year. So it sees Leviticus 23 27, Hebrews 9 22. And it says, unlike twisting today's gospel where some believers we only get forgiving we ask, ask for or confess to a man in a small room. The Jews got the entire year of forgiveness at the Day of Atonement. Because of religious pride, the selfish church hierarchies and taking scripture out of context, many churches teach a neurotic Christianity of I gotta ask for forgiveness daily, or I gotta confess all my sins weekly. This is silly because even the Jews knew that asking and confessing never forgave anyone. Only blood brought forgiveness, and that blood was good to go for an entire year. See Ephesians 1.7, Matthew 26, 28. Then it goes on saying, not a single verse in any New Testament epistle which states ask for forgiveness. Furthermore, there is only one that says, if we confess our sins, we will forget he will forgive us. That's 1 John John 1 9. And John was writing this verse to the Gnostic the Gnostics. Those who were were not believers, but instead thought that sin was not a real thing and that they had never sinned a day in their life. All you have to do is read the following verse to realize this. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar, and his word is not in us. That's first John 1 10. Need more proof? In the same book, John says, if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ, uh the righteous one. See John 1 John 2 1. It is funny how context of scripture clears up the devil's lies and set us free from fear. It goes on, but um that was the gist of it. Yeah, so yeah, absolutely. What are your take on that, brother?
SPEAKER_00Man, I excuse me, bro. It's it's the gospel truth, man. You know, it's uh it's good news, which is what the gospel means. It's not a religious word, it just means good news. And it doesn't just mean that it's a good message. It in the Romans times, it meant that this was something that was heralded from uh the king, the Caesar. Like if he said, if Caesar, if somebody, if if the president came on right now and said, no more taxes, that would be a decree from the governmental head telling the nation this good news, and we'd rejoice over that. So that's what gospel would meant, man. It wasn't just a good message, it was actually a governmental decree coming down to the people that was announced in the Times Square. So for us to hear that Christ has eradicated sin forever, behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, that's a good proclamation coming from the king of a government. Jesus saying sin is no longer an issue. And I took care of that and I did it openly. You saw it, I bore the sins, and I I mean, Paul said he he who became sin. That you know, he could he just took it and he had it. The wrath of God was poured. That was not that was God's wrath being poured out on sin. Jesus was the lamb, just like my brother's talking about in his post. It was he was the sacrificial, the eternal lamb that was slain. No more year-to-year stuff. So the altar is over, it's gone, it's eradicated, it's not there anymore. So when he says that if you sin, there's no more, there's no more, you know, place or altar for the sacrifice of it, because Christ did it once and for all. We listen to it and preach it like, oh man, if you Christ is the one, the only person that you can come to for the forgiveness of sin. So there ain't no other sacrifice for it. So if you sin, you you better come and get it right with Jesus. So that means every week, somehow during the week, if I committed a sin, I done fell out, I'm no longer right with Jesus, and every Sunday is my time to get it right. Or it's a people that's gotta come that never came to Christ and get it right, or whatever. It's it's always a remembrance of sin. It totally discards what Jesus did, it tramples the sacrifice of son underfoot, and it's crucifying him afresh, as the scriptures say over and over and over. There's no benefit in it, it doesn't benefit you at all. It may have it may benefit you emotionally, but there is no actual weight in the spirit for that. You know, God isn't not looking at you, okay, now that they've done that and confess that, I can now bless them. When Paul, when Pete, not Peter, but John is talking about that in 1 John 1.9, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us. Like you said, he was talking to a group of people who didn't even believe they've ever sinned. And but what he was also saying, if you actually come to the knowledge of that truth and confess your sin to him, know that he's faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you of all unrighteousness. That means it's over. The sin issue in your life is over once and for all. You don't have to keep doing it over and over. Now, what's a good practice is when you know that you've done something to violate the Lord, you say that, Lord, that I shouldn't have done that. That was that was wrong. That's for you, bro. That ain't that's not a judicial move you'd you make to get your your your uh record exonerated for the week or the day or whenever you confess it. That's keeping your character, that's as John says, keep walking in the light, because even as he is in the light. So, which is that scripture, just a couple scriptures before that, and one nine. Bro, it it's over, it's over. Christ really did the work that he said he was gonna do, he did it for everybody. And Paul even says, no longer see any man after the flesh. Just like we no longer know Christ after the flesh, know no man after the flesh. Know him what? After the spirit, his spirit has totally been restored and reconciled to God forever. Forever. This thing that we're doing, it is a mockery to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01It is, man.
SPEAKER_00It is it is horrible, man. It is it is an abhorrence of the finished work of Jesus. It is it is actually abolishing it out of the consciousness of people, which keeps us saying conscious. It's literally the sacrifice, animal sacrifice. See, and we're so far removed from it because that's not part of our society, bro. But imagine how bloody and slaughtering, smelly, screamy, messed up that is. Everybody had to bring these offerings once a year to the high priest to take into God to be forgiven. An animal, uh innocent animal that has nothing to do with any of this, has to literally be slaughtered for your sins, your transgressions. All of this screaming of these animals, man, and all bro, we ain't in they weren't injecting them with stuff to make them fall asleep, bro. They were slitting their throats.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, all that fighting and squirming, all that screaming and fighting.
SPEAKER_00You gotta bind. That's why it said bind the horns of the altar. You had to tie them up, bro. Don't know animal wanna just say, oh, okay, it's time for animal sacrifice this year, huh? They just gonna go up there and lay down. No, bruh. That's that's violent, it's vicious, it's nasty, it's bloody, it is horrible. And when people are looking at that happen, they had to see this. You they were raising these animals, bro. Yeah, they were raising these animals, and like you said, they had to be the best ones. That means the ones that you favor the most. You had to go and take that animal and know when you gave it to them, your this animal that it took you a year or whatever to raise up, that you didn't you didn't got bonded with. I don't care. You you ain't detaching in your emotions from them talking about, oh, you the animal sacrifice. So I don't, I don't care about you. You're gonna get no, bruh. This thing, this animal is licking you, and and you sitting there feeding it and all this stuff, coming and answering to the sound of your voice, all that you're gonna have to take them to give them to these people that is gonna literally kill them for your sins. That was not a cool experience, bro. And they had to do this year after year.
SPEAKER_03Hey, he uh he goes on, you know, it's he talks about Hebrews 10, 26. See if we're deliberate, keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of truth, no sacrifice, sins left. Right. Us a led with that. He said this verse was was written to the unbelieving non-Christian, you know, we talked about that, has been used for centuries to incite fear in the children of God. Absolutely, when all along it was not for us. We are we are not going back to the temple to kill animals for forgiveness never ever ever, you know, and uh the temple don't even exist, bro.
SPEAKER_00Thank you, anyway.
SPEAKER_03He said, This is why the writer said, You've heard the truth of Jesus, so you have no excuses to be making animal sacrificing any longer for your sins.
SPEAKER_00And he and he's still talking to a group of people that Christ already came and made the sacrifice, and people are still doing it.
SPEAKER_03And and he he referenced a conversation he had. He said, But Matt, I got saved at the altar. I enjoyed going to the altar and getting rid of my sins. He said, friend, you got you got saved when you believe Jesus forgave you. He said, Before you even walk to the front of the church to the altar, you believed.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, that's why you went.
SPEAKER_03It is belief that saves, it is it is hearing the gospel with faith, not moving your physical body to the front of a geographical location. He said, But I felt something unlike I've never felt before. He said, That's great. God is not against good feelings. I'm glad your body, soul, and spirit were all clicking together that day. Absolutely, you know, with the realization of God's unconditional love for you. But your walking to that altar did not save you. Not one, not one little bit. There was nothing wrong. There's nothing wrong with going to the altar, but you were saved before you took that step inside the aisle. He said, Matt, I was going to the altar and leaving my sins behind each week. So did the Jews who heard about Jesus only they did it annually? He said, My friend, you have knowledge of the truth. Your trip to the front of the church will not bring you any more forgiveness than you already have at this very point. If you want to walk in front, go ahead. But if you but know that going up to the front of a building constructed by man isn't removing any sin, get your sins removed. Your faith did that one time, Jesus did that one time. Once.
SPEAKER_00Your sin that was paid. Nothing that you can do or did can undo the finished work of Jesus Christ. Now, you yourself being unaware of it won't benefit from that. And when and when things start coming at you, you'll start thinking, well, that's just being in a fallen world. That's just, you know, it just happens, you know, that's just the way it is. No, that's you being ignorant to the knowledge of the truth. That is you not understanding there's another actual kingdom that makes provisions for all of this stuff. It is, it is, it is not the fact that you can't get sick, it's the fact that God, by his stripes, we were healed. It's not if the fact that you don't have financial resources to pay the bills, it's that you are unaware that he who was rich became poor, that we who were poor become rich. Well, that meant in all spiritual blessings, every blessing is spiritual first.
SPEAKER_03Man, people, we know that the cross, we look, you know, people love that cross, you know. But that was the last altar. That was it, that was the final altar. That's it.
SPEAKER_00That was it.
SPEAKER_03The blood was shed, so going up front, like you said, geographical area of this.
SPEAKER_00It doesn't do anything, it may make you feel better, yeah. And and he, like you said, I like that he said that. Man, God is not again against good feelings, bro. But the bottom line is it it's a reason that the Lord shows that there were a difference in the messaging, the messaging between the different apostles. Peter, James, and John were writing, they were writing to the apostles, I mean the Jewish nation. Jesus literally himself said, I've only come to the lost sheep of the household of Israel. He told Paul, I'm coming to send you to a people that were not a people. I'm sending you to the Gentiles. Paul tried to stay with the Jews and evangelize them, it didn't work. Yeah, but as soon as he went to the Gentiles, is
Stop Mixing Covenants And Messages
SPEAKER_00when his message started doing being purposed the way that God purposed it. And Paul never ever hardly, if he did reference some type of hell reference or some type of end-time eschatological thing, it was very rare. And you'd have to read the context and what he said it. He was going to a people that did not know God. He said they were alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel. They did not, they were without God in the world. The Jews had God for millenniums, dog. They had a relationship with Yahweh for thousands of years. So, yes, when he's talking to them and they rebellion and their treasonous behavior against God, they leaned heavily into the punitive message of rejecting God. You'll go to hell. The only people you ever heard Jesus say will go to hell was the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Y'all who supposed to know the word more than anybody, who should be teaching these people. You're leading them astray, and you are y'all are the worst, man. He is and he talks about them calling them the sons of Satan. Why? Because y'all are willfully leading the people astray. So of course he's comparing their damnation or separation from God the same way He would he did Lucifer's. Why, bro? You knew better and did what you did. Those angels that followed you, they knew better. So yeah, hell was created for them. It said him and his angels, his messengers. And Jesus called the Pharisees and Sadducees. Y'all are messengers of Satan. Why? Because y'all are taking the word of God and y'all are distorting it for y'all own purposes and y'all own glory and y'all know better than that. That was strictly to the Jews, bro. Paul never talked like that to the Gentiles. He was like, Y'all get to know God. You've been reconciled to him, you're new creations, old things then passed away, all things become new. He went to Mars Hill. He said, He said they had a bunch of idols and stuff up here. He said, but they had one altar for the unknown God. He said, This is the one that I'm coming to tell y'all about. I know y'all very superstitious, y'all very religious, y'all got all these altars, but you don't need all of them. You just need to know who you just need to get to know who this one God that y'all don't know. It was an inheritance thing. He he literally told King Agrippa, this is my mission. Jesus knocked me off the horse. He told me, I said, Who are you, Lord? As he was on his way to go persecute Christians, you know, people that believed. He said, Who are you, Lord? He said, I'm Jesus. I'm the one you persecute, man. He said, Don't you know how hard it is for you? You're just kicking against the pricks, bro. This ain't gonna end up good for you. But I'm showing up to send you as a special messenger for my people. Now that's all we hear at that point. But when and when he when the story unravels in Paul's life, but when he's giving the testimony to King Agrippa, he tells us everything that Jesus said. He said, It's for you to turn the people. I'm coming to deliver you from a people to deliver you to them. I'm delivering you from them to send you to them, to do a specific thing, to turn them from light to from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, to preach that they may receive forgiveness of sins. Not not be forgiven for sins, that they may receive forgiveness of children. Receive it. And then he said that they may receive an inheritance among all the saints who have their faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_03Sounds like contingency.
SPEAKER_00Inheritance. And as you were just saying, what did you say? It's it was contingent. Yeah, it's not like contingency. Yeah. Come on, man. Receiving, receiving forgiveness of sins, not being forgiven, receiving it, bro.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00This is hard. This is this this has to change. This this if you get this wrong, bro, all your messaging is wrong. And what we've done, unfortunately, or had done, is had the gentile messaging mixed with the Jewish messaging. Thank you, Constantine.
SPEAKER_03Excuse me. Forgive me. Uh uh no, I was wrong for saying that.
SPEAKER_00You was wrong for that. Look, bro, and when when the Lord resurrected everybody, he's gonna have you sitting right next to God's table.
SPEAKER_03I know, right?
SPEAKER_00He don't be like, y'all need to work y'all stuff out.
SPEAKER_03You know, you know who I'm gonna be in the middle of him and Robert Sylvester and Donald Trump.
SPEAKER_02Oh, and D Tord, you're funny.
SPEAKER_05You work it out, working out, but it's it's so real, people of God.
SPEAKER_00This we have to we have to get and change this mentality. This when the heat when you continue to work, and he and listen to the book, bro. The name of the book is called Hebrews. He was talking to a bunch of people that knew God and that should know better, they should be able to put the all of this stuff together so they could come into freedom. He said, in the Hebrews, man, he said, we should, after that sacrifice, he said, all of the natural and the earthly sacrifices, it was for sin, man, and the sin consciousness could never be purified. But in Christ, it we should have no more conscience of sin. How can you not have consciousness of sin when you have people preaching sin to you every week, bro?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you gotta confess you. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. Oh my god, I'm a sinner. I believe in I believe in the Lord came by Immaculate Conception.
SPEAKER_00Why are we even still talking about that, bro? Oh no, bro. That happened 2,000 years ago, man. Look, bruh, a generation. Look, I always go back, I always go back to the story because God shows everything in the word, man, uh, from either exactly a mirrored image of it or a principle that we can extract from it. Because no matter what, none of the Bible was written to us, but all of it was written for us. So, and we shouldn't necessarily still have the physical copies of the book. We should at this point. Be living it just naturally because it's been taught through throughout the history since this happened. And we should be asking questions like when it comes, because everybody should still be living at this point. You know, it should technically this should be over. And you know, I don't I don't care what people, you know, they want to put in this arbitration that you know, because Jesus said no man knows the hour of the time, not even the angels of the sun, but the father's put in his own power. Okay. That didn't mean that there's a cosmic date on the calendar that God said in 2000. Why we we think that it can we can we can very much see because everything is so lined up for scripture, we can very well see the end of all things in Jesus' return in our generation. Let me tell you, every generation could have seen the return of Christ in their generation, everyone, everyone. Everyone could have seen it. Paul thought they were gonna see. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I mean, just listen to the language, how they speaking. Absolutely, they were speaking.
SPEAKER_00See, they didn't know there was gonna be 2,000 years. Things weren't even in order for it to happen then. But now that we got the technology and AI, and oh my god, that's a whole bro. We have got to do a thing on AI only because AI is not the market of beast, people. It ain't even leading to it. People said the same things with pen and paper, they said the same things with visas and mastercards, they said the same thing with Cash App and all this stuff. Well, yeah, it was all leading to look, let me tell you. God don't need to have all a thousand things leading up to a climactic moment. You just don't need to have that. If you believe that, then you underestimate the power, as Jesus told the Pharisees, you err with the reading of the scriptures and understanding the power of God.
unknownYeah, man.
SPEAKER_03We got it. Man, I I can't wait to see the day um where we have these new covenant kingdom learning centers erected, erected all over the country or all of the world so people get better understanding. Because we gotta get up under from uh underneath this hybrid teaching of this Christianity crap. Come on, it's holding us back, and we and and and a lot of people love it, and they're not gonna they're not gonna uh relinquish it easily, bro.
SPEAKER_00It's it's it's morphe is what he said the matrix, man. There's few people that's out, and the ones most of the people are still in, and they're gonna fight for it, bro. They're gonna fight to stay in it. Why? Because you you're you're married to the traditions that were passed down. And the thing is, bro, my mom and them taught me this, and and a lot of times, or somebody I love, or my pastor who you just hold in this, bro. You if you don't
Celebrity Church And Lording Over People
SPEAKER_00look around and see that God had dismantled during COVID, not that God had anything to do with COVID, but during COVID, God always takes advantages of situations, man, that He can bring things in to bring to resurrect a new life out of something when it just went bad. And it's because of something we did. So know that. Just go through the scriptures and always look and see it's us doing it, and God raises up something greater out of it to give us an opportunity to turn and go a different direction. God destroyed all of that hierarchy crap during COVID, bro. All of this celebrity and the preachers prophesying and cursing COVID and blowing it out of existence and nothing happened. I mean, the church is being closed down, bro. They left McDonald's and them open saying they were essential places, but they shut the churches down. It was letting you know society as a whole don't respect what's going on in the churches. Well, that's just see, end times people people fall in the way. See the church losing respect. No, man, it ain't the church that Christianity is just another relationship religion, bro. And that was never God's will.
SPEAKER_03And the reason and it happens in a lot of stuff it goes through because it's never God's will.
SPEAKER_00Never. That's why you gotta keep reviving it, bro.
SPEAKER_03And that's why it's vulnerable, and that's why it takes to hit every constantly does. Because it's not God's will.
SPEAKER_00The kingdom is it keeps dying off and being revived in general, bruh.
SPEAKER_03Come man, just the kingdom is, man. The kingdom is the kingdom is, bro.
SPEAKER_00When the Lord dismantled all that stuff and and all of that start losing this track, I mean, you see, people like they say, man, this society, Christianity is losing the people by the droves, bro. The box church is losing it, not people leaving Jesus, they're leaving this version, dude. But look at what's happening. There's a resurgence of the sin conscious preacher coming back again. And one of the I love this brother, man, but the my brother is preaching sin and it's circulating all over the the YouTube, the Instagrams, and all this. This dude, he's fastly becoming the biggest preacher voice in this in this generation. And people say, Oh, and he's bringing the church back to revival again. We're acknowledging that it's dying and it needs to be revived again, but it's being revived on the back of sin consciousness, wringing out your sin and and and confessing and getting right because all of the stage is set for them not just Christ's return, but the antichrist to come forth. There is no stage for the antichrist, people of God, there would have to be a temple in existence for it to be the way that the Bible said that it would happen. There would have there's no temple, physical temple. There were, like you said, there would have to be altars, there would have to be animal sacrifice. That is not in existence anymore, nor will it ever be. Come on, bro. Nobody would never do that. No, you like you just said, people ain't doing it now, bro. Because they don't want to. I'm not giving that preacher my money, bro. You ain't gonna give you a local pastor, you absolutely ain't gonna give no dude, you know, coming to scream allegiance and worship to him.
SPEAKER_03Listen, I'm laughing because how silly it is.
SPEAKER_00It's silly, it is it is, and the thing is, bro, we laughing. Well, I don't know how much you was in. I was in drained with I was that was part of who I was, bro.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I I was raised in that, so I can speak to it with authority, yeah, as a person that was deeply in it, affected by it, and had to be delivered out of it. So I experienced what it was, and I experienced the truth, and I can speak into it, I can speak into the hierarchy and the pastor's conferences and having the pastor's uh appreciation day and everybody donate and give a thousand dollars to the pastor. I've heard to get into the blessing line, and he that can sold 500 and he can do this, and I hear the Lord jangling keys, I hear keys in the spirit for your new house and your new look. Let me tell you something. God ain't gotta prophesy a house to you. You can go buy one, they sell them. He ain't gotta prophesy a car to you. Go buy one, they sell them. Well, I don't have no money, that's a different issue. My credit ain't good. That's a different issue.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, these pastors, man. I you know, I went to a church where a pastor has security, man. Like, why you need security, man? Like, why you got you got two people on each side of you, and then somebody carrying your water, man. Carry your own water, man.
SPEAKER_00Like, okay, you need security and armor bearers in the hood, man. You had the apostles, bro, traveling around in the Roman Empire with no security. They going two by two. These dudes was out there by themselves and proclaiming the gospel in the streets, bro. You are going from your air-conditioned house into your your air-conditioned car, going into an air-conditioned church, and you need security from what to walk down the aisle, bro. To go down the aisle and go to preach to a bunch of people that came in the building to hear what you have to say. Yeah, not hostile to you, bro. Who is the security for? It's the government ain't against you because you got a 501c3.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it looks so silly. And uh, and also, too, and what also a person who has a church and they build a church and they become the founding pastor of that church, it is almost like what Jesus said about the rich man and the rich ruler, young ruler. It's all right, it's hard for a it's what's it hard as it's difficult for a rich man to go through a high uh needle.
SPEAKER_00Right, easier for a camel to go through a camel, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I have a needle in a rich man to enter into the kingdom.
SPEAKER_03Y'all know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00You know, absolutely.
SPEAKER_03Uh same way with a person who starts a church, it's hard, it's difficult for them to say, for them not to say, This is my church, my church, my church. Right. I hear it all the time.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03And and I I've I've I've listened to some sermons where a pastor might correct himself, our church, but the majority of the time, my church, my church, my church. And with that feeling of ownership comes other stuff. And that other stuff is gonna, they're gonna say certain stuff to keep you coming back.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03It's it's a terrible cycle.
SPEAKER_00It's it it's a horrible, it's a terrible cycle. It's a resurgence of the sacrificial system, you know, that was done away with in Christ. It's it's just done in a different way, but it it is it is horrible. It is uh it is it is just abhorrence this this being poured out on the people, and this is literally the people when Christ says in Revelation, which was not written to us, it was written to a specific seven specific churches during that day. Yes, he said that he hated the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, man. Most people don't even know what that doctrine is because it's not outlined in the scripture. You have to go outside of the biblical source and go to an extra-biblical source to get it, which a lot of people won't. They is like, oh, if it ain't in the Bible, okay. Well, let's just stick within the Bible. Look at the Greek translation of what Nicolaitans mean. It means to lord over the laity, the celebrity preacher in America, and that don't mean you got to be on TV, that's just anybody holding the preacher higher than the rest of the people. You are uh you that is a you have been indoctrinated into the into the Nicolaitan doctrine to where you hold this man in higher esteem than anybody. Jesus says, Do not be like that. He's he said, there are people that's does that do double honor. Give it to them, but double honor comes from a person who is doubly humble. Bro, Jesus would send his disciples away to go get rest and stuff while he still ministered to the people. Yeah, Jesus said, Don't let no man come in and take the high seat, let him come in, take the low seat, and let him be called higher.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And these pastors won't even come, bro, to your place. Bro, I know pastors, and I'm when I say I know them, I knew the life. I was close into a lot of the life of these people that where these pastors became celebrities, bro. They wouldn't come. You had to pay them a certain stipend. I ain't coming for no less than this. When you when they come in town, I gotta stay in a five five-star hotel, four-star at the minimum. If it's booked, I do a four-star. But it and and then you gotta have pay for my transportation. Then I don't do nothing but ride first class and all of this stuff, bro. Jesus was show up, people came to him. Jesus, can you come and do the Jesus? I'm going, and he walked to their crib. These pastors, bro. They you had me a limo at the airport, bro. I know this for a fact. I'm not talking about what I think, I'm I'm testifying what I know.
SPEAKER_03Hey, can I say a situation real quick before we get out of here? Um, my wife, she came to a home, she's she came from a humble church, you know. A lot of the practices that the church that I brought her into, she was like, I don't like this. Why they why are they worshiping him like that? And uh we both was part of the kitchen kitchen ministry. And and that my my pastor at the time was dealing with health issues, and so he had a lot of guest speakers. Oh bro, by me, by us being in part of the kitchen ministry, we serve so many pastors in so many different ways, and and just it just came across as worship, absolutely, and how how how everything had to be a certain way, and oh man, and like like we're being audited or something. It was crazy. Like, oh you gotta do this, and you know, I'm like carry my briefcase, man.
SPEAKER_00You even got in your briefcase, yeah.
SPEAKER_03It should just be a Bible writer, pen and pad, and maybe an iPad. Uh what the heck, man? Like, but it was man, it was we would go uh above and beyond when we had these guest people, and even like where special, you know, uh meals were made, special meals in the evening, uh, he would he would research he would receive special food separate separate from the congregation. Yep.
SPEAKER_00So and I was lording over the laity, bro.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and I was I was new to that, but my wife caught it at the time, and she was just like she was questioning every bit of it. But when you were talking about the Nicoladian, Nicolalian, well, how you pronounce
Extra Biblical Books And Final Takeaways
SPEAKER_03that?
SPEAKER_00Nicolaitans.
SPEAKER_03Nicolaitans. Um we know that the Ethiopian Ethiopian Bible is the Bible that has that contains the most books of the original text. Yeah, so what uh information about the Nicolaitans are are they in those other books that was extracting?
SPEAKER_00Could be. Could be. I haven't re I haven't read the Ethiopian Bible actually.
SPEAKER_03Because I what I do know about the Ethiopian Bible, they learned the Bible and and they knew that the Bible was under persecution, so they took the Bible and they went into the mountains and wrote it out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Every book.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03And so and that's how they read and so when they saw the revised version, they saw the revised version, like, what the heck? What about what about you know, because I think their book has 82 books, and the book that we read is 66. So yeah, I was just one, I was just curious about that.
SPEAKER_00It it could be, man. I mean, they got the book of Enoch in there, which the Bible mentions, so we know it. Um Jasher, those books, um, the you know, the the wars of the Lord, you know, that Moses speaks about. So it's a lot of books that were uh not part of the canon, so to speak, man. But uh, and and here's the thing, people of God, it would go read those scriptures, go read them, and so you can get some deeper context. Enoch, the book of Enoch will open up a lot of understanding about what happened with the the you know, the giants and all of that, and demons and all of that, because demons are not fallen angels, you know. People, a lot of people think demons are fallen angels, they're not. Um, and it talks about all of that. But here's the thing, and I see that being circulated a lot on TikTok, and I may get one just just to read it just for informational purposes, yeah. But but I there's nothing else I need to be convinced of when it comes to the king. I don't need to read the missing 20 books, you know, to understand. All it's gonna do is confirm or feed my knowledge further. But it is having the Holy Spirit, there you go. That's it. That's the the thing. He is the one that you he's the spirit of truth. See, I don't care how much truth you get in your life, if you don't have the spirit of truth, you ain't gonna be able to understand it fully, not to apply it anyway. Yeah, and but when you have the Holy Spirit, you will be doing things just by innateness that it just comes naturally to you to do it because you have the spirit of truth in you. You're the temple of the Holy Spirit. When when he says there was gonna be new heavens, new earth, you would have to understand Jews understood they looked at the temple was the place that heaven and earth met. There's not gonna be a new temple, the new temple. Paul didn't even talk about it. Paul just circumvented all that Jewish language and just told people, Don't you know you the temple of the Holy Spirit? So the temple that they was prophesying that Paul that John is prophesying to the Jews in Revelation, Paul is telling the Gentiles, you are that temple.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, man, we should leave it there, man.
SPEAKER_00Bro, or we'd go on forever. So yeah, at some point we gotta just cut it off.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so because I know one of the things we're gonna always gonna just keep the information going. If we if we flowing, we're gonna flow him. But I know we were trying to be intentional or having shorter podcasts, but what we spoke today was was from the heart, from the truth, yeah, and it was needed, it was needed, especially the altar call piece. It definitely for sure, definitely.
SPEAKER_00We we normally don't dialogue as much about the coming up, the stuff like the Memorial Day and all of that. We usually get into that and out by 10 minutes. We actually laid into that for like almost 40 minutes, bro. Because boundaries is important. I mean, it's very important, it's these are life lessons, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Because I'm I'm going through it now with white.
SPEAKER_00It's present, right?
SPEAKER_03It's real time, it's real time. But I do appreciate she's starting to come around to my my side of things because uh I I ain't gonna lie, I did allow to get I did I did allow her to guilt me in some of it. So I checked with her. It's like, so what's going on Monday? She said, I'd probably not go. She said, I probably won't even go, even though I said I wasn't gonna go, or why do I need to go? That's what I asked. But she said uh uh my parents talking about doing it later around four o'clock, and you know, she she gotta think about work the next day too.
SPEAKER_00So sure, absolutely.
SPEAKER_03I think she's like, uh, I think I'm about to stay home. Yeah, we'll see. But I am Sam.
SPEAKER_00Know that. Yeah, no. She said by the time this airs, by the time this airs, people of God, we we'll do it, we'll do a check-in because it'll be them past and go. So we'll see if this go really didn't go.
SPEAKER_02She's like, What what uh well what should I tell them?
SPEAKER_05The truth, like many come up with anything, you know.
SPEAKER_03It's there was times where this and that. No, I tell them the truth. I just I'm gonna stay home. Yes, and I gotta work tomorrow. Yeah, yes.
SPEAKER_00That's what's up, man. We love you, people make the door today.
SPEAKER_04But you come on to it is so much better than you on the day and all right. We all here together, so let's make it work. Try to hit me for my colors, that just don't work. You can judge my skin, can't judge my work. Same sky, same ground, same sweat in the ground. I seen tears on the toughest track. I seen hope in the rough display. We fall down, still run this race. Cause grace hit hard when we give it not chase. Yeah, hurt people hurt, hurt, but heal people heal. So I'm choosing my heart over how hate feel. From the block to the birth, same earth we stand. Open up both arms as the greater plan. Love peace and better days. That's the way, that's the way.
unknownAll the way, all the way, all the way, all the way. Love peace and better days. We gon' do it when we pray.
SPEAKER_04If you wanna be done right, then you gotta do it right. Every day, every day, every day, every day. When it's dark and you feel that way, say I am more than it's heartbreak. When they doubt you stand up straight. Tell them, watch how I create from the earth, from the pain. Plant a seed in the rain, from the mud to the flame, new life in your name. There's a way, there's a way.
unknownIf you wanna be in love right, then you gotta love right.
SPEAKER_04All the way, all the way, all the way, take away, love peace and better days. You gonna live in not just say if you wanna be done right, then you gotta do right.
SPEAKER_05Every day, every day, every day, every day, be better.
unknownIf you wanna be love, you better love my love.