Hot Takes & Holy Things
Hot Takes & Holy Things is where bold opinions meet honest faith conversations. Each episode dives into real questions, everyday struggles, and the topics students are actually talking about—through the lens of Jesus and Scripture. It’s thoughtful, a little unfiltered, and always centered on what matters most - the Gospel.
Hot Takes & Holy Things
Maybe You Should Question Your Salvation w/ Jimmy Muir
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Episode 04: Maybe You Should Question Your Salvation w/ Jimmy Muir
Have you ever wondered if you should question your salvation? Today on Hot Takes and Holy Things, we welcome one of our dear pastors, Jimmy Muir, to discuss whether or not you should question your salvation. Tuning in, you’ll hear all about the differences between healthy questions versus harmful doubt and why we think you should question your salvation in a healthy manner. We delve into why fear and anxiety surrounding faith need to be substituted with the word of God (truth), before discussing where you can learn about this issue in the Bible. Pastor Jimmy goes on to share why he believes wrestling with these issues of salvation actually brings you closer to God and reminds you what your salvation is actually dependent on. Finally, our guest leaves listeners with some words of wisdom about the importance of facing your difficult questions. Thanks for listening!
Key Points From This Episode:
- Our highs since the last time we recorded.
- Introducing today’s amazing guest, Jimmy Muir.
- Today’s Word of the Day: ‘Jestermaxer’.
- Our Student Shoutout: Students who went canvassing.
- Providing spiritual clarity about whether you should question your salvation.
- Helpful questions versus harmful doubt and the differences in the fruit each produces.
- The importance of substituting fear and anxiety with truth.
- Where students can go to answer some of their questions about salvation.
- What your salvation is dependent on: God’s love and grace.
- Why you shouldn’t ignore the questions that come up on this topic.
- Today’s challenge: Put the phone away!
Quotes:
“If you’re a student [who] wrestles with this [question of salvation], it’s not an abnormal thing to question and wonder.” — @JimmyMuir [0:16:13]
“I think the fact that you’re concerned about [salvation] and this is on your radar is a very, very, very good sign that the Holy Spirit is at work in your heart and in your mind.” — @JimmyMuir [0:16:58]
“You are worth saving because you are made in the image of God, He loves you, and He wants to save you. And that’s what your salvation is dependent on, not on your ability to live up to it.” — @JimmyMuir [0:17:59]
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Family Church Students on Instagram
Welcome to Hot Takes and Holy Things. This is the podcast for the students of Family Church in South Florida. We're tackling the real questions students are asking and bringing you hot takes backed by God's Word. This is Hot Takes and Holy Things.
SPEAKER_04Hey, what's going on, Family Church students? Welcome back to episode four of the Hot Takes and Holy Things podcast. You guys already know the drill. I'm here with the best co-hosts that any guy could ask for anywhere. You know him, you love him, Uncle Jarvis and Cole. And so here's the deal, gentlemen. In just a minute, I'm going to let you guys introduce yourself. We're going to do something a little different. Ooh. This week we're going to go around and we're going to share one high from the last time that we recorded. So maybe something big's happened in your life, or maybe you just had a really good day and you want to tell the people about it. And so that's how we're going to start off. I'll go first. So this week, my high was that on Friday, you know, Cassie's at work. The boys are at school. I love spending time with them. Don't get me wrong. But I said, you know what? I'm going to do something that I really love. Something else I love. You know what I needed a me day. So I went and I played golf for eight hours. Oh my. And the blisters on my fingers are unreal. But I played, but I played golf or I went to the range for eight hours. And honestly, even though I've got blisters, man, whatever. It was still a good day.
SPEAKER_02Hey, Jake, I love that for you, man. I don't know if I could be out there for eight hours, but that's great that you could do that. Friday, you're a great golfer, man. I appreciate that. Hey guys, so my high for the week. Some of you might know this, but Jake and I actually registered for the Walt Disney World Marathon coming in January 2027. We're super excited for it. Don't know how we got in, but we did it. But I've actually been off of running for the past two weeks now because one advance. So I couldn't run during advance. But then when we got back from advance, I was actually super sick. So it kind of took me out for a little bit. So after we registered, I decided it was time to kickstart a new training plan. So this past, what was it? Friday. This past Friday, I started my new training plan, and it felt good to be back out on the road again.
SPEAKER_00Come on now. That's awesome. I love that. Hey, Jarvis here. My high for the week was obviously you guys know my wife Hannah's pregnant. Ready to have a baby here in just a little bit under two months. That's crazy. That's wild. What's crazy right now is the baby, like Jalen inside of her, just is kicking like crazy. And so it's cool to see like her stomach just like moving. It looks like there's an alien inside of her.
SPEAKER_04Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's awesome. So it's cool seeing like the little life in there and just how excited he is. And man, we're really excited. You know what else I'm excited for? Introduce this special guest we have. Come on. Come on.
SPEAKER_02Hey, we got transition, baby.
SPEAKER_00All right. Hey, let me introduce this guest because this guest is a very dear friend to all of us.
SPEAKER_02Very.
SPEAKER_00This guest is a level 46 elite recruiter in college football. He is the head coach of the Miami Hurricanes. He has an overall record of 61 and 15. He has five winning seasons. He has three conference championships and four top five recruiting classes. He also had 43 players make it into the NFL. What a dog.
SPEAKER_02We just don't miss with our guests. We don't miss.
SPEAKER_00We got some dogs. We don't miss. And then obviously on the side, you know, whenever he's not a head coach, he's also one of our dear pastors at Family Church Sherbrooke. All right, so ladies and gentlemen, let's give it up for Pastor Jimmy Mir. Yeah. Can we give him three? Let's give him three.
SPEAKER_04Let's give him one, two, three.
SPEAKER_00Ah, that was the worst one.
SPEAKER_04I thought we're gonna count us in. That's on us. Pastor Jimmy, don't let that excuse how you think the rest of the episode's gonna go.
SPEAKER_01Man, that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said about me, Jarvis. I appreciate that. Really glad to be here with you guys. Jarvis Cole, Hannah's dad. I mean, it's gonna go back. Throw back the episode. That's a listener of the OG. That's the OG. That story's worth the whole episode right there. So thrilled to be here with you guys. This is my high. This is the highlight for me for 2026, is to sit in this room with you five gentlemen.
SPEAKER_02Let's go. What an honor. Well, Pastor Jimmy, we're excited to have you here. One of the things that we're excited to have you here for is our next segment. It's the word of the day segment. And guys, I'll be honest, I am excited to be here. I love the word of the day, dude. So before we get into it, give you guys a quick scoreboard check. So we've got one word of the day so far. Right now, Jarvis is in the lead with one point. I mean, so technicality. Technicality. It's a default, but you know, win's a win for Jarvis. So we'll see how the rest of the season goes. Who picks up some wins here? But today's word, I'm gonna present you guys this word. Okay and you guys know how this works. You're gonna guess what it is. Whoever gets the closest to it takes a win on the scoreboard. Today's word is Jester Maxer. Yikes! I will use it in a sentence for you guys. I need it. So honestly, Jarvis, at one point in your life, and maybe still today, some people would have considered yourself, maybe you would have even considered yourself a jester maximum.
SPEAKER_04I know the definition.
SPEAKER_02I love this confidence.
SPEAKER_04I know the definition.
SPEAKER_00A jester maximum.
SPEAKER_04I know that I said this for City Boy, and then I didn't get it. I know the definition. That's all you needed to tell me. I think it's someone that like feeds off being like the class clown. Like I think it's someone that like a court jester, right? Like back in like medieval times, is the guy that made everyone laugh.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_04And one of the things I think that everyone loves about Uncle Jarvis, I think we'd all agree, is like Jarvis can make anyone laugh. There is sometimes I'm having like my worst day, but Jarvis can make me laugh. I think that someone that is gesture maxing. Did I say that right? Yeah, it's a verb. I think that he is someone that is doing everything he can to get people to laugh. He's a class clown. And maybe even sometimes, not that you do this, maybe can do it a little too much sometimes.
SPEAKER_01Never. Okay. That's on me. But not you. Not you. Not you. Yeah, I mean, the correlation to class clown is right there. I'm with you. I think that's what it's gotta be. Okay.
SPEAKER_00I don't standing out. So when I think of a gesture maxer, I think of someone who has nice gestures. So what I think here, I think someone Oh, the things we'll do to just be different.
SPEAKER_01He's gesture maxing. He's gesture maxing right now.
SPEAKER_00I think they have nice gestures. I think when they greet somebody, they say hello. And just say, yo, what up. Like I think they have very nice, proper manners. They're polite. They're polite to the max. Okay. So they have max gestures and they're gesturing to the max. Okay.
SPEAKER_04I will say that if that is correct, I quit.
SPEAKER_02Honestly, a great definition. I really like it. Unfortunately, I was about to say I felt good. Jake, I will say you got like pretty spot on with you, you, yeah, yeah, yeah. A jester maxer is basically the class clown.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, 100%. Gotta be. I'm telling you right now, when you said this is like Jarvis was the illustration, I was like, done. I know the answer. Yeah, that's fair. All right, Jake's one. I got one. One to one. And Pastor Jimmy, if we can actually get back on your schedule for you to come back on the pod and know you're a busy guy, you have a chance to settle the score as well.
SPEAKER_01I would like to do that one day. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04All right, guys. Well, I love that this podcast is not only for students, it's by students. So shout out to Hudson for the word. But also we want this podcast to just be all about shouting out students and the way that God is using them in some really powerful ways. And so we're going to jump into our student shout out. And so you guys know the drill. These students are students who are engaged in our Sunday mornings. They're engaged on our midweeks and our Wednesday nights. These are the students that you guys are calling when you need someone to serve last minute on Sunday morning. You guys know what I mean? And so I want to give a big student shout-out to students that are not only being the church in here, they're also being the church out there. Even the guest guide. I want to give a shout out to some students who went canvassing this past Sunday. No advance needed. They took their own advance opportunity. And so I want to give a huge shout out to Julianne Backrams, Kaylee Rao, Cohen Muir, the one and the only. The one and only. Chase Williams, and then Paxton Johnson. Gentlemen, let's give them three. Way better than the first one. Way better than the first one. But guys, we're so proud of you and love the way that God's using you guys. Gentlemen, what do you guys think about that?
SPEAKER_00I think it's fantastic. I think advance one is a hard trip to do, even if you're going to big three. But the fact that they're doing advance outside of advance and they're canvassing, which is a very difficult thing to do. And something that takes a lot of courage, I think it's really impressive.
SPEAKER_02I love it. I love seeing this leadership taking ownership. I'm proud of you guys.
SPEAKER_01Hey, I know they were in the neighborhoods right around Sherbrooke, and I think they visited like 175 homes. Wow. It's just incredible. So I'm so proud of them and so thankful for what they're doing. An example to all of us. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_02We got to get those stats on the advanced 2026. I know we got it. All right, students. Well, hey, you know, this is the Hot Takes and Holy Things podcast. We wouldn't be who we are without a hot take. And today, we have got a hot take for you. And let me tell you, it is a hot one. I know it is. Today's hot take is maybe you should question your salvation. Ooh. Say it again, Cole. Getting warm and here. Say it again for the first time. We got some people in the back that can't hear us. Maybe you should question your salvation.
SPEAKER_04I like the way that you're saying it. Maybe. Maybe, maybe you should question your salvation. Now, Cole, that sounds a little dangerous, right? That sounds like maybe we're trying to throw some spiritual confusion into the mix on some of these students. And so what exactly do we mean by maybe you should question your salvation?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I would say that we're actually not trying to throw in any spiritual confusion at all. We don't want our students to be confused. If anything, we're trying to provide some spiritual clarity because what we want our students to understand is that sometimes we shouldn't feel so secure in our salvation, but we should question our salvation because there's healthy questioning and then there's harmful doubt. And I think a lot of times what Christians will say today is you shouldn't question your salvation because they're talking more about that harmful doubt. But I think what we need to address here is the healthy questioning side of things where you should question your salvation and if you're growing in your salvation, what that looks like.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so let me give you some examples of what some healthy questioning looks like. Maybe that's asking the question, is my faith growing? Or am I trusting Jesus or am I just going through the motions? Or is my life being shaped by the gospel?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think the questions you're asking there, Jarvis, are are great, right? When you have that doubt that creeps in, you have to diagnose where that doubt is coming from. Like what is the source of the doubt? Are you doubting your ability to make yourself presentable for your salvation? Or are you doubting that Jesus is going to do what he said he's going to do? Right. That's really harmful when we doubt that Jesus is good for what he says. So I think asking the questions is great. And then find the answers to those questions, right? Seek the answers to those questions.
SPEAKER_04I wonder if a part of it too about why we're kind of having kind of kind of some of these unhealthy battles and asking maybe some unhealthy questions is is it comparative Christianity? Is it performative Christianity? Like, am I trying to do things to like earn my own salvation? And so not only do you deal with things like healthy questions and the right things to ask, I think sometimes a lot of these questions can come from harmful doubt and not necessarily trying to reassure ourselves, but almost maybe talking ourselves out of some of the things that we once believed and felt like we believed so wholeheartedly. And so I think a lot of times maybe harmful doubt can sound like, oh well, I messed up again. And someone who is saved, someone who loves Jesus, shouldn't be messing up this much. Or maybe, well, I don't really feel close to God right now. And so maybe God actually just left me. For some reason, maybe I wasn't good enough for God. Maybe for some reason I just wasn't keeping my end of this deal that I made with God, but for whatever reason, I just don't feel him there anymore. Or finally, the one that I think we hear a lot in student ministry real Christians wouldn't struggle like this.
SPEAKER_00That kind of doubt doesn't lead to growth, it leads to insecurity. And it makes students constantly re pray salvation prayers instead of actually walking with Jesus. And so the tension that we're feeling is healthy questioning strengthens faith, but harmful doubt or harmful doubt slowly erodes it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think the scenario that students deal with is something that students for a long time have dealt with. Young Christians and people maturing in their faith deal with. I dealt with when I was in high school and going into college. You wrestle with that. Listen, I'm a Christian. I consider myself to be a Christian. I think I'm a Christian. I'm trying to be a Christian. I want to be a Christian, but there's this doubt that creeps in. And even when you know you've cried out to Jesus to save you from your sin and you and you really want to be saved and hope you're saved, but there comes those times where maybe you act in such a way that you feel like maybe you're not saved, or you lack the right kind of motivation that you think a saved person should have, or you feel like, like you said, Jake, you're not as close to God as you want to be. And so you got that kind of tension, you're kind of torn on the inside. You really even though you really, really, really want to be a Christian and you want to be saved and you want to follow after God, the fact that you fall short, it seeps in and it makes you question Man, am I even really a Christian? Like, would a Christian feel this way? So do you question your salvation? Should you question your salvation at that point?
SPEAKER_02And I think here's what we want you guys to understand. I think that we've been kind of talking about this, talking around it, but here's kind of the heart of the issue is that one produces maturity while the other produces fear. And so when we have healthy questioning about our faith, we know that we're gonna grow in our faith. But when we have this harmful doubt of I messed up, so I I can't be saved. There's no way that God could forgive me of this. Well, that just continues to produce this fear within us that actually prevents us from ever growing in our faith. And so if you're a student that's listening to this, I hope that you kind of took some notes of those healthy questions that Jarvis kind of gave us and was talking about and wrote them down so that you can remind yourself of the questions that you should be asking to discern if you're growing spiritually.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and I know that we're not at the remarks section yet at the end, where we're gonna give people some application, but but Jarvis, I I thought those questions were so good that if you're a student that you're constantly dealing with some of this fear or anxiety about where you stand with your faith right now, I think that you need to be substituting those things with truth. And so I think that you need to take those questions and write them down on sticky notes, put them on your mirror in the morning or put them somewhere where you're gonna be often, right? Don't put them in the car because you need to be focused on driving, right? But like I think you should put them places where you're gonna instead substitute the wrong things. But I think even better than maybe asking the right questions, it's where's our truth coming from? If it's coming from social media, if it's coming from maybe some bad friendships in our life, that's not the right place. The real truth comes from the word of God. And so you guys know hot takes, but also holy things. And this can't be just a podcast that's filled with our opinions and our hot takes. It's gotta be a podcast that's built on God's word. And so I'm actually super grateful that the person who teaches the Bible at my campus to me and to my family every single week is here in the room with us because Pastor Jimmy, I mean, the three of us view you really as someone who's not only so skillful at teaching the word of God, but someone who actually lives those things out. And so, where do we see these things in God's word? And where would you tell our students to go to find some of the answers to these questions?
SPEAKER_01Sure. To answer that question, I think first of all, I just want to say that if you're a student that wrestles with this, it's not an abnormal thing to question and wonder. And I think when you look at scripture, what you find is you're not the first one to do this. I think when you look at the apostle Paul in Romans chapter seven, he goes on talking about we're talking about the apostle Paul here, one of the greatest Christians who's ever lived. And he talks about all these things he wants to do and he knows he should do, but he has this battle going on within him, and he just doesn't feel like he's doing what he's supposed to do. And he asks the question, who will save me from this body of death, right? Oh, wretched man am I? And the answer is, but thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so if Paul wrestled with it, what chance do you and I have to not wrestle with it, to think that we're beyond that? And so it's a great question that you're they're asking. I think the fact that you're concerned about it, and this is on your radar, is a very, very, very good sign that the Holy Spirit is at work in your heart and in your mind and driving you towards wanting to answer those questions.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, Pastor Jimmy, I wonder what you would think about maybe this idea that I think sometimes students feel like when they have these questions bubbling up, maybe they're further away from God than ever. But I would actually say that maybe they're closer to God than they've ever been. What do you what do you think about something like that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think when we have those doubts, we can use those as an opportunity to fuel our faith, right? That's where I mean, faith is trusting in something beyond beyond yourself. And so when we have those doubts, we find the source of those doubts. Because here's what happens the doubt becomes our ability to live up to or to measure up to being worthy of being saved by God, right? Like I'm living in a way that I don't know that I'm worth God saving. And I want to tell you that you are worth saving. Yeah, and you're not worth saving because of anything that you have done. You've not made yourself presentable to be saved in any sort of way. You are worth saving because you are made in the image of God. He loves you, and he wants to save you. And that's what your salvation is dependent on, not on your ability to live up to it.
SPEAKER_02That's good, Pastor Jimmy. And I think what you're talking about there, Jake, with you know, if you're having those questions, you might actually be closer to God than you realize. I think it kind of talks about or it goes to what Jesus is talking about when he says that he's going to leave with us his helper, when he's talking about the Holy Spirit. And so I think when we're having these questions and we're realizing that we may actually be closer to God than we realize, it's because the Holy Spirit's coming alongside of us as the helper and he's convicting us with our sins so that we're drawn closer to God.
SPEAKER_00100%. That's good. So, hey, gentlemen, if our students were in the room with us right now, what's one thing that you would want to leave them with? I would tell them, don't ignore your questions.
SPEAKER_04The longer that you try to ignore it and push them down and push them away, the more it's just gonna like fester and eat you alive inside. And before you know it, your doubt's gonna take over your faith. I actually think that God gave you people in your life to have these conversations with, to ask these questions too. And so do not run from your questions. God allows you to feel those things so that God can shape those things. So do not run from your questions.
SPEAKER_00And maybe instead of asking, Am I saved? Am I saved? Am I saved? Maybe the question you should ask is, Am I abiding? Yeah, am I staying close to Jesus? Am I staying rooted in scripture? Am I staying connected to community? Because assurance doesn't come from perfection, it actually comes from walking with Christ over time.
SPEAKER_01I would tell you, memorize Ephesians 2, 8, and 9. And maybe you've memorized it before, memorize it again, memorize it backwards and forwards and upside down in other languages if you need to, for by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
SPEAKER_02That's good. I think honestly, guys, I'm gonna say I had something else that I wanted to leave them with. But Jake, after the conversation that you kind of started, where if you're the student that's feeling like, well, maybe you're not saved because you just keep falling into these repeated sin habits, yeah. One of the best pieces of advice or things that I've learned was actually from Pastor Winter at our Lake Park campus. And he says that when we're struggling with sin, we need to one, admit the struggle. We need to identify the lie, and then we need to replace it with the truth. So, what's the struggle that you're dealing with? What's the thing that's holding you back from feeling like you're saved and your salvation is secure in Jesus? What's the sin that you're dealing with? And then identify the lie. What's the lie that Satan's telling you and replace it with the truth? Go to God's word and listen to the truth. Listen to what God is telling you about those things.
SPEAKER_04I I love that. I think replacing all these things with the foundation of God's word, God's word, God's word is the most important thing that we could tell our students. So I love that we all hit on that. But you guys know we want to end every episode with a challenge. Some way that we're some way we're challenging our students. So I mentioned it a little bit earlier, but I think that sometimes the comparison game can be the thing that fuels this the most. And so one of the primary ways that we can compare ourselves to other people is by looking online, looking at social media, being on our phone too much. And so here's my challenge for you guys one hour every day this week, or one day for 24 hours. I want you guys to be phone free, right? That's one of our family values in our student ministries that we're phone free. That hour is not gonna count. We're gonna choose a different hour if you choose the hourly challenge.
SPEAKER_00Well, hey, gentlemen, that was a great episode. Pastor Jimmy, I just want to say thank you so much for being here. Thanks for taking time out of here.
SPEAKER_01We're gonna be here, guys.
SPEAKER_00And well, hey, students, thank you so much for listening to Hot Takes and Holy Things on behalf of Cole, Jake, and myself. It's been a great episode. So, gentlemen, let's give them three.
SPEAKER_02Thanks for tuning in to Hot Takes and Holy Things. To stay up to date on new episodes, follow us on Instagram. Instagram at GoFC Students. Share this podcast with a friend and send us your questions. We'd love to talk about the stuff you care about. Catch you next time on Hot Takes and Holy Things.