Which Jesus Are You Worshiping?

The question hits hard: are we worshiping Jesus—or a safer version that never crosses our will? Starting in Matthew 2, we follow Herod’s careful language as he calls Jesus “the child” instead of “the king,” a small pivot with massive spiritual consequences. That habit is alive and well today when people talk about “the universe” or “the divine” and avoid naming Jesus, because names make demands. We step into that tension and make the case for clear allegiance: Jesus is the Word through whom all things were made, not a vague force to fit our plans.

From there, we go after counterfeit light. False teachers rarely deny Jesus outright; they cloak self-centered messages in verses and smiles. We walk through warnings from Jesus, Peter, John, Jude, and Paul on wolves in wool and show how to test what we hear against the whole counsel of Scripture. Along the way, we dismantle trendy claims like “speak it into existence” by returning to creation truth—only God creates from nothing—and we highlight how your media diet shapes your theology. With thousands of Christian podcasts, channels, and pages—some operated by troll farms—discernment is not optional.

We turn from critique to practice: deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow Jesus into real places with real people. If light never moves toward darkness, darkness never gets lit. We share simple, workable steps to deepen formation—swap an hour of passive entertainment for an hour of Scripture and conversation, pursue gospel fluency like Paul in Athens, and let iron sharpen iron in honest community. By trading surface inspiration for steady obedience, we become people who can name Jesus clearly, spot counterfeits quickly, and love sacrificially.

Want to grow this week? Grab the five-day devotional, test one resource you already trust, and share one solid, Scripture-rooted resource with a friend. If this helped you think and act more clearly, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs courage to name Jesus today.

Chapters

• 0:00 The Big Question: Which Jesus?
• 0:52 Herod, The Magi, And A Vague “Child”
• 5:22 From Names To Name: Yahweh And Jesus
• 10:12 Spiritualism Vs Discipleship
• 15:45 Jealous Of Moses? You Have The Spirit
• 21:05 Creation, “Speak It,” And The Word
• 26:10 Too Many Denominations, One Truth
• 31:05 Wolves In Wool: Testing Teachers
• 36:20 Media Diet And Deep Discipleship
• 41:30 Three Challenges For The Week
• 47:30 Prayer And Closing

Transcript

Josh: 0:00

So I'm going to start with our big question for this week, and that is this Are you worshiping Jesus or are you worshiping a version of Jesus? And we're going to get into this really deep in today's text. And I know most of us are probably sitting here going, um, I woke up early and gave up the first good day of weather in weeks. What do you mean, am I worshiping Jesus? Of course I am. But I promise you, as the next 30 to, I don't know, let's go with a hundred minutes, depending on how long we can go. It's possible to look the part and sound the part and be an enemy of Christ all at the same time. All right, so I'm gonna pray and then we're gonna jump into that. Father, I thank you so much for your word, and I ask and I pray, Father, that as I go through it this morning, that it is your word. That is not my thought, not my opinion, but that God, it is your word that moves powerfully among your people to change us from the inside out to look more like your son. Father, we ask and we pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, so starting in Matthew 2, verse 7, it says, Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, Go and search diligently for the child. And when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come worship him. So we have Herod, right? And we've been discussing Herod now for three weeks. Herod is this king, he is a false king of the Jews, he is only half Jewish, he married a Jewish woman to kind of legitimize that's not a real word, to make his kingship better, right? He can't get the Jews to follow after him no matter what he does. And and then the wise men showed up and went, hey, where is this new king that that was born? And and he goes to the religious leaders and he's like, hey, why are these people telling me there's a new king born? What is this all about? They told him, oh yeah, remember last week this is what we looked at. Yeah, there's this king that's promised to be born in Micah and Bethlehem. So now Herod is like, okay, now that I have all the information I need, he goes back to the Magi and he's like, all right, here's where he's gonna be born. He's gonna be in Bethlehem. When did the star come up, by the way? Now that seems like a throwaway detail, right? Like, why would Herod care when the star came? And the reason for that is we unfortunately misunderstand because we live in an age of instant information. Like if something were to happen, let's say there was like an earthquake off the coast in Japan right now, you would know about it within the next like 30 seconds to a minute, because our phones would immediately give us that breaking news, tsunami alerts would go up, text messages would go out, all of that kind of stuff. However, in the first century, that's not how it worked. In fact, the Magi, when they actually get there, which is where we're going next week, when they actually get to Bethlehem, Jesus isn't a baby anymore. Like, he was probably two to three years old. Like, this is a long process. This isn't something like you just got instant information, and Herod is already trying to think like through what's about to happen. So he needs to know how old this child is, and and we're gonna get into that in a couple of weeks, and I don't want to give too much away, because he doesn't have like good intentions with this child, right? So he he goes to the Magi and he's like, Hey, here's where this child is going to be born, but I want to really focus on that. Why doesn't Herod go, hey, here's where the king is going to be born? Like, why does he say the child and not the king? Yeah, he he's not gonna acknowledge there's a king. And he's going to make this very impersonal. Because if I can make it impersonal, then I don't feel as much and I can separate myself from that. And we do this a lot. Like if you really stop and think about it. When I'm talking like to spouses, for instance, like in in in like counseling or even informal, when a spouse wants to say something bad about their spouse, do they use their name? No. They go, my husband or my wife.

unknown: 4:52

Or he.

Josh: 4:52

Or he or she, like they, it's very impersonal. Think about like when your kid was acting the fool, right? And you're talking to like your spouse about it. Like when I'm talking to Debbie about JT, I go, your son. Right? Not mine, because my son does the good stuff. But her son, man, he's crazy. And I go, and that's what Herod's doing right here. He's he's trying to make it very impersonable by going the child. Because again, like I said, his motives aren't going to be like good. He he's not looking to go worship the child. So what he does is he goes, that child was born in Bethlehem, and you go over there. Now, what he's doing, we actually see a lot of this in current times in what we call spiritualism. Like we see this, like if you scroll through your social media or you talk to people in your life, most people nowadays are actually very spiritual. And they say things like this, the universe or the divine. Like I've I've had like three people this week have have said something similar to this, where they're like, oh, if you put it out into the universe, the universe will give it back to you. And I go, that is the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life. What do you mean the universe is gonna give it back to me? What is the universe going to produce? The universe has never produced anything. But yet we hear this, right? The universe or the divine. You guys have heard me say this a lot. When we use the term God, now we know in our context when we are gathered together, when we say God, what we are referring to. However, we have to be very careful with that word because the word God, for example, is a catch-all term. It is referring to Allah. Think about it like this. If you were talking to a Muslim person, for instance, the word God is not offensive to them. Allah is actually just Arabic for God. And they would argue that we're talking about the same person, that we are talking about the God of, and they would even go a step farther, Abraham. Okay? Now, what I want us to understand is when we use terms like that, that is a very generalized term. That is why, like, God has a personal name. That's why when Moses is talking with the burning bush and he goes, Who should I say is sending me? He could have gone to Pharaoh and went, hey, God is sending me. Pharaoh would have understood what God is, because especially in a what they call polytheistic society where there's multiple gods, he would have understood, okay, this was just one of those gods that sent. However, that isn't what God responds with. He goes, Yahweh, I am that I am, is the one sending you. At that point, he makes it from this ethereal abstract thing into a very personal thing. Here is my name. That is why one of the Ten Commandments is never use my name in vain. Because that mattered. See, when Herod is doing this, what he is doing is he's admitting there is something out there, but it's not Jesus. Think about it. We do the same things. Like there are a whole branch of Christians nowadays that will not refer to Jesus, but they will say things like, He, Him, His will, He guides. Well, why do we do that? Because again, if I can separate that, well then I can admit that there's something greater than me. Everybody believes that there's something greater than me out there. Atheists believe that there's something greater out there. But if I say Jesus, uh oh. When I say Jesus, that means I have to admit that there's a person greater than me. Which means I can't just like make it this ethereal abstract thing, and that means I have to actually follow him too. Which means I have to take his words seriously. I can't just feel churchy and say churchy things. I actually have to take this seriously. And this is what leads us to discipleship. This is what leads us to doing the things that we're supposed to be doing. I'm gonna give you guys a heads up. You ready? Next Sunday, I'm gonna start with there are three things I left you with last week. And I'm gonna ask the same question again. Because again, we can sit here and talk about things, and we can sit here and go, hey, you know what? There's this being that lives far, far away, but this ain't Star Wars. God isn't this far off. Jesus isn't this far off being who kind of is just an eternal grandfather in the sky, just like waiting for you. He lives where in our hearts. We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. I want us to understand, like, and it's funny because my mom's not here, so I can talk about her. Um me and my mom have had conversations. I remember ever since I was little, where we're jealous of like Moses, right? Because Moses had the burning bush. Moses had Yahweh look directly at him and go, here's what you're gonna go do. And so a lot of times me and my mom, like, we had talked and we were like, if God would just tell me, like if he would just show up in a bush outside and be like, hey Josh, look, here's what I need you to go do. I have no problem going and doing it. And I'm jealous of that. Or if you think of like Elijah, right? Like, could you imagine standing in front of 450 people and being so sure of what God has told you to do that you go, hey, not only are we gonna put that bull on the altar, but we're gonna flood the altar because I know what's about to happen. And I go, I'd get jealous of that. Like if I could rain down fire from the sky, one, I would feel bad for anyone who has kids that come to the school, right? Two, like, there's no bigger flex than that, right? Like with the kids not listening, you're like, oh yeah? Not hit the kid, but like get it close enough where they know, like it's about yeah. You know, but but anyway. Again, Stephen, you wouldn't make the list. But again, we sit here and we go, man, I'm jealous of that. But here's what I want us to understand, church. If you were to meet Moses or you were to meet Elijah, you know who they would be jealous of? You. Because, see, the Spirit of God did not rest upon them. We don't see the Spirit of God staying upon a person until the baptism of Jesus. Like, think about it. Samson did some amazing things, but the Spirit of God rushed upon him. He did whatever God empowered him to do in that moment, and then the Spirit of God left him. You get to walk around with the Spirit of God everywhere you go. Like, think about how awesome that is. And what we see here is we would rather these fake things. Like, if you guys remember, and I know we were in Romans for a long time, but in Romans 1, Paul is sitting here, and you're not gonna see it up on screen because it kind of just hit me. But Paul sits here and says, we would rather worship creation rather than the creator. And spiritualism, what Herod is doing right now, is the same thing. I kind of want this stuff because it makes me feel a certain kind of way, but I don't want it enough where it's actually going to change who I am. And here's what I want us to understand: some scary stats here. One, when we look at spiritualism, most studies show that spiritualism is experiencing a significant modern revival with roughly 41% of US adults reporting an increased spirituality over their lifetime, often surpassing traditional religious identification. Here's what all of that means. We're okay going, there's something greater and bigger than us out here, and I want to feel like I'm a part of that. As long as you don't mess with the heart idols, I have because I don't want to get rid of those yet either. Like I'm cool with doing like little like chants and crystals and Debbie's not here, so let's be honest. Oils. Right? We're okay with those little things. As long as we don't mess with my heart idols and you don't require me to change who I am, I will follow you anywhere you want me to go. But yet Jesus doesn't call us that because if we admit Jesus is who he claimed to be, then that means I have to follow Jesus. Nowhere in Scripture does it say go and make converts. Nowhere. When we see things in Scripture, it's not, hey, come say this prayer. Give your life okay. So I the praise team got to hear this, but you guys didn't. Debbie isn't here this weekend. And when Debbie is not here, I cannot sleep, right? Because Debbie is my alarm clock. I could have my phone right next to my bed. It is not going to wake me up. So last night, here's how my sleep schedule went. I was up till 11, and at like 2.30, I woke up full of anxiety because I went, I'm late for service. And then I opened my eyes and I was like, wait, it's still pitch black out. I can go back to sleep. So then again at like 3 45, I woke up again and I was like, I'm late for service. Well, I this kept happening like once an hour because I I did not want to be late and I didn't trust JT to be awake. I mean, let's be honest. Well, finally at like 6 40, I woke up again and I was like, you know what, that's it. I'm going to just, I'm just gonna get out of bed now and I'm gonna go just get ready and go to service. So I got here like an hour and a half earlier than I would normally get here. And I was like, whatever, I have stuff I can be doing. And one of those was video editing, right? So I was video editing, then I was uploading stuff to YouTube and like kind of scheduling stuff out so I don't have to think about it this week. And and there was some replies I needed, some comments I needed to reply to. And one of them was about like the Nephilim. Now, here's the thing: raise your hand if you've heard me preach a message on the Nephilim. No one? Okay. So why are you commenting on a video? Because I use the word demon and now it's Nephilim, and I'm like, oh, we are gonna get into this. So I wrote this dissertation on who the Nephilim were and and how the demons and Nephilim were like related, but they're not the same. And you know, I didn't get a reply to that. And I'm sitting here going, what's the point of commenting if you're not going to actually engage in that conversation? Like, you just get to make these anonymous little comments and then just go off? Like that's how we do things. And I go, but see, this is what we do. We live in a society that has no problem going, hey, here's who the Nephilim are. And we love stuff like that. Like the book of Enoch is blowing up right now. Here's the thing, Enoch didn't write the book. I want you guys to understand that, because when Enoch was alive, writing wasn't a thing. But here's what we need to understand. Spiritualism isn't going to do us any good. Spiritualism and trying to get close isn't going to do us any good because nowhere does it say, hey, make a convert, make someone like say this prayer, make someone do these magical rituals, make someone use these magical oils. Here's what the Bible says. If you want to come after me, Jesus says in Luke 9, if you want to come after me, take uh let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. Now, if we're gonna follow Jesus, then that means we have to go the places Jesus went. Why was Jesus called a friend of sinners? Yeah, because he was around them. What do we do as the church? We stay as far away from him as possible. And I get it, you know, we don't want to be stained by the world. But how many times have I said this? If the light doesn't go to the darkness, the darkness can't get lit up. Jesus is called a friend of sinners because he went, I came for the sick. I didn't come for the well. Y'all don't need me like that. But if one sheep left, I'm gonna leave the 99 to go find that one. If you have people in your life who are like Herod who are sitting here going, the child, step into that conversation and go, here, let me tell you who that child is. In Acts 17, it's one of my favorite interactions that Paul has. Paul goes to Athens, and if you know anything about history, right, that the Athenians prided themselves on being like this just incredibly smart people. Like they loved getting together and they would just have like citywide debates. They were perpetual teenagers, they just wanted to argue about everything. And so what Paul does is he shows up and he's walking around the city, and the Athenians had gods for everything, right? Like you guys are probably familiar, a lot more familiar than you think you are with Greek gods, right? So you have, and and I'm going to mess up, you have Zeus, you have Ares, you have like all of these Athena and uh a billion other ones, Hermes, right? Hades, like if you've watched Percy Jackson, and I know no one in here is a sinner and watches like demonic movies like this, but you've seen them. If you watch the MCU, you've seen it. And so they had all these statues for all these gods that you could go worship, and then they have one that's just to the unknown God, because they were so afraid that if they forgot any God, then that would be the one God that would smite them. And so what Paul does is he uses that and he goes, Hey, this unknown God you guys got down here, I'm gonna tell you who he is. And he launches into who Jesus is, using what they were already doing. That is what we call gospel fluency. And if you are having conversations with people you work with, or people you live with, or people you live around, or people at the grocery store, or people like that serve you food, you are going to see openings like this all the time. So when people are sitting here and they're going, hey, the child, you have the opportunity to go, let me tell you who the child actually is. Let me tell you who the king of the universe is. Because, see, it's so easy for us to just say the universe than to have to wrestle with the heart idols that we have. But here's what I'm telling us the Bible calls us to wrestle with the heart idols we have because we are not okay where we are. This whole ideology we have about like God made you the way you, you know, because you're perfect the way you are. That is the opposite of what the Bible says. We are dead the way we are, and we are meant to look more like Jesus, which means as I do this thing, you should look more like Jesus. Me and JT got to spend a lot of one-on-one time together this weekend, which I know he loves, right? Because he loves getting lectured by me. He loves hearing, like, JT, here's what growing up is, and here's what turning into a man is, and here's what manhood is. Like, I know he was just like hanging on every word of every conversation we've had over the past two days. But here's the thing: I go, JT, manhood is this. It's looking more like the men that you look up to. So if I don't do it and I'm one of those people that you look up to, guess what you shouldn't be doing? And trying to get him to understand that is the same thing as trying to get Christians to understand this. Here's what being a Christian is looking more like Jesus. He's not just some abstract child in a manger, he is the Lord of all creation. And if you want to follow him, guess what? There are things in your life that are gonna have to go away because Jesus didn't do those things. And that is where we find ourselves. So Herod also tells the Magi After you find the child, remember, not the Christ, after you find the child, tell me where he is. Is so I may come worship him. And I alluded to this earlier because I don't want to give away future messages because then you won't come back when it's time for me to preach on that, right? Because you'll be like, I already heard this. But there is something else I want to point out here. Number one, Jesus, Peter, Paul, John, and Jude all say the same things in different ways. And it's something that we could summer up like this: there will be people who will creep in. There will be false prophets and teachers. Now, you're probably sitting here going, okay, but Herod wasn't saying anything about being a false prophet. But listen to what he said, right? When you find the child, come tell me, because I want to go worship the child. Spoiler alert, he wants to go kill the child. He doesn't want to go worship Jesus. He's sitting here going, you go find him, you do all the hard work, come back and let me know, so I can show up and just, and then I don't have to worry about the new king. See, but that's not what he said. He said, I want to go worship. And this is what a false teacher or a false prophet is. So here's how Jesus says it. In Matthew 7.15, he says this. And I'm gonna be honest, there's a lot of verses that are gonna come out quick at you, but it's also recorded, so you can go back and look them up. In Matthew 7.15, Jesus says, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing. They look the part, they sound the part, right? They look like a sheep, they sound like a sheep, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Peter tells us this in 2 Peter 2, 1 through 2, it says, But false prophets also arose among the people. Just as there will be false prophet or false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who brought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be blasphemed. In first John 4 1, John tells us this beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. In Jude 1 4 it says this, for certain people have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. And then lastly, Paul tells us this in 2 Corinthians 11, 13 through 14, for such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ, and no wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Here's why I say all of this. Herod was doing the same thing that we see today. Here's what I need us to really get into our ears right now. Not everyone who says Jesus is talking about the same Jesus. Church, listen to me very carefully. No one is going to stand up and say the opposite of all of this. Because if I were to stand here and go, hey, there's another God besides Jesus, what would be the first thing in your mind?

unknown: 25:31

Heresy.

Josh: 25:31

Heresy. I mean, I could probably go over to children's church right now and go, hey guys, listen, there's another God besides Jesus. And even the kids would probably be like, that doesn't sound right. That's not what false teachers and false prophets are gonna do, though. Everything we just heard sounded the same. They're gonna make it sound like they're going to worship. Listen, there are people who have giant YouTube channels who have way more followers than I would even want, who are a hundred percent false teachers. Some of you read books by them, some of you watch their videos, some of you listen to their music. Understand what you put in will come back out. So if you are putting in cheap bad theology, guess what's going to come back out of you? Cheap bad theology. I have run out of fingers to count the amount of people I've heard recently that have said something like this. You ready? Speak it into existence. Cool. Here's the problem with that. You do not have power to speak things into existence. It's called creation ex nihelio. It's a Latin phrase that simply means this created out of nothing. Do you know the only person who has spoken into the darkness and created light? What not us? You cannot give me one scriptural reference where someone spoke something into existence outside of Jesus. And why do I say Jesus? Not God. Because in Genesis it doesn't say Jesus, does it? What's it say? In the beginning, God created, right? So why would I say Jesus then? See, this is why biblical knowledge matters. Because in John it says, and nothing that was created was created apart from him. So who actually spoke? Who is the word of God? Jesus. And see, and that stuff matters. There's a reason why John starts his gospel with, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Because if you were a Jewish person hearing that, what would you here? We're not even Jewish in the room, right? If you're a Christian that hears that and you hear, in the beginning, what's the first thing you think of? The Bible? Genesis. John knew that, and so he's trying to tie his readers to that. Because he's trying to get his readers to understand, hey, Jesus is in the beginning with God, and Jesus creates everything because Jesus is God. In his first opening sentence, John is showing the deity of Christ. Why does that matter? Because if Jesus isn't who he claimed to be, then what are we doing here? And see, and the problem is, is how many denominations of just Christian are there in the world? Anyone want to take a guess? Over 50,000. Guys, I want us to write wrap our heads around this. How many Bibles are there? I'm not talking about translations, but how many Bibles? One. How do we get 50,000 different denominations off of the same information? And that's what it always goes back to. Well, I interpret it this way. Cool. Here's the problem. If I were to send a text message to you, how many interpretations of what I said are there? Depends on how many people you send it to you. There's one. See, and we go with that, right? There's a lot. Well, I can interpret it. This is how mu miscommunications. I'm not saying we don't get miscommunications, especially in text message. Especially with autocorrect now. Because sometimes I send a text and I get a response, and I'm like, what are you talking about? And then I go back and read mine and I'm like, it's happened to me three times this week with just Joe. For whatever reason, the N on my keyboard is not working on my phone right. So like I'm like ending a reply to Joe, and I mean to say man, but it just says ma. And it's like, Joe, I'm sorry, man. I I wouldn't call you ma like that. Like, yo, ma, what's up? Like, that just that isn't how it works. But so I get that. But how many actual truths are there? One. Whose truth? Mine, because I'm the one sending the message. See, when Paul sat down and wrote something, how many truths did Paul have? One. Now it's our job to go through and actually do the work and figure out what that truth is. And what happens when we have differences? You know what we should do? As Christians? Come together and go, let's discuss this. You know what we don't do? Come together and let's discuss this. Here's what we actually do: let's split the church. And then we wonder why we are not as effective as Jesus shows us to be in John 17. Make them one as we are one. Because there are 3.3 billion people who profess to be Jesus, or not Jesus, Christians in the world. That is almost half of the world. What if half of the world actually acted like Jesus? Do you think the world would look different?

unknown: 31:08

Absolutely not.

Josh: 31:10

But we can't because we're too busy fighting with each other. Because heaven forbid we do hard work and come together and have hard conversations. And heaven forbid I actually challenge my heart. See, Herod is sitting here going, hey, I'm gonna go worship. But he's not. And yet we sit here today and follow people that go, hey, I'm gonna worship the child. Bless you. And I'll be honest with you, false teachers are good at what they do. They really are. I don't like to stand up here and just call out random people like that. But I'll tell you right now, Joel Osteen. I'm telling you, I've gone to school for a very long time to learn this stuff. And I had to watch two or three messages before I was like, oh, I see what he's doing here.

unknown: 32:01

Okay.

Josh: 32:02

He's very motivational, he's very positive. He says things that sound like the Bible, but here's what his message actually is. You're the star of this show. Jesus exists for you. Well, if I believe that Jesus exists for me and my happiness, what am I actually worshiping? Good job, Stephen. Myself. And then guess what's never gonna change? The desires of my heart. So I'm never gonna grow in maturity of Scripture because why would I need to grow from what I am? You just told me I am God. But unless we actually pay attention to what we're actually putting in, you're not going to hear that. Just like the Magi would have to go, hold on. Herod said he wanted to come worship. What would have happened? And granted, this is next week's message, but what would have happened if the Magi would have gone back and told Herod, here's where the child is? Spoiler alert, they don't. They go home a different way, and they don't ever see Herod again. But our Bible could have been a lot shorter. Right? Now, I'm not saying they could have chose different, but that's just because I like to throw like a grenade and then back out. See, Herod just wants to the Magi to identify the child so that he can murder the child. And this is what the devil does. Paul would say that he comes as an angel of light. Let me ask you. If Satan came to you how he actually looks, why on earth would you actually listen to anything he said? From a cop's perspective, okay? No one ever, ever, ever starts out smoking crack. Okay? And no one ever buys like meth from a meth head. Why? Well, if you were covered in sores and you had things all over your mouth and you had scrapes all over your arms, and you're like literally peeling your skin out to get the bugs out of your skin, and they were like, here, try this, would you be like, sure? You in your good common sense would look at them and be like, no, not trying that. If you like sat down and went, oh, there's rat poison and arsenic in here, and and the things in here will kill me separately, but now that you've put them all together, it's probably still not safe. See, the same thing is true with the devil, though. If sin didn't look good, guess what you would never have to battle? Sin. But we buy into the lie that this is greater than that. And hence it's a battle. If we were to actually see the devil for who the devil is, we wouldn't even have to fight him. There would be no draw to him. If you knew, hey, this is gonna lead to my death, would you do it? No, but yet we still have people that do things that are gonna lead to our deaths, especially prematurely. And I want us to think about it. When it comes to podcasts, for instance, there are over 10,000 different Christian podcasts. You think there's a lot of different opinions in that? Yeah. When it comes to YouTube, there are over a hundred thousand different Christian YouTube channels. You think they have different opinions? Yep. Now, here was the one that really blew me away. Because I was like, what about Facebook? Like, how many different Christian Facebook pages are there? Well, number one, it says that it is impossible to identify how many different Christian Facebook pages there are. I don't know how that's impossible because you would assume Facebook keeps some kind of data on that, right? But according to a 2019 internal Facebook report that was analyzed by MIT Technology Review, they found that 19 of the top 20 Christian Facebook pages were operated by troll farms in Kosovo and Macedonia. These foreign-operated Christian pages reached roughly 75 million users in the US per month. Here's what that means. You shared that picture. It is from another country by someone who isn't even Christian. And you went, but their theology is correct. You mean to tell me that the devil doesn't come as an angel of light? You mean to tell me that the devil isn't gonna do this, these little things in shooting, if you're if you're like a shooter in here. If you are a quarter inch off on your aim right here, a hundred yards down rain, you are over four feet off of your target. Because you're off by this much right here. And yet, when we make this our God and we follow after this, do you think you're gonna be a little bit off right here? Yes, and even if it's only a little bit, by the time you get 100 yards down range, you're off by feet. And yet, how many of us actually sit here and test the stuff that's coming in? There's a reason why you see text questions up on the TV every week. Test me. And I don't say that from a position of arrogance. I sit here and go, if there's something I'm saying that you're sitting here going, hey, this isn't biblical, I want to have a conversation about that. I mean that with every fiber of my being. If you're this week downloading the five-day devotional, that's gonna be up when?

unknown: 38:13

Monday.

Josh: 38:14

Monday. Good job. It's gonna be up tomorrow. It'll actually be up today, but I don't tell you all that. Because then what happens is you run out of days because there's only five days, right? If you're you're sitting there and you're reading it this week and you're like, hold up, this isn't right. Reach out to me. I would venture out to say, not you students, but especially you adults in here, most of you have my phone number. I would have no problem if you were like texting me on Tuesday and you're like, hey, in your devotional, you say this. I want to talk about that. Because that's what discipleship actually is. That's what we should be doing. Because I don't want to be a Herod sitting up here going, hey, I want to come worship too, and leading you astray. I go, I want to be leading us into a deeper relationship with Jesus. Because I'm telling you, the deeper we go, the better we are together. It's when we're afraid of that, and we just want to stay up here on the surface. I know all of you in here are massive fishermen. That 40-inch snook that you guys see on um the or not on the announcements, on the warm-up reel every Sunday morning. Okay, one, JT was nice enough to let me know that it would rank in the top 10 biggest snook ever caught in America. Okay. Number two, do you know where it feeds at? Anyone? You want to know what I caught it on? It's called a topwater plug. And a topwater plug, if you had to guess, stays where, Eric, you're not allowed to answer. Steven? On the top of the water. It's a surface plug. It just swims back and forth. It does this, and it creates a little wave behind it so that the predators can see there's something up there and it's dying and it's weak. This is where most of us live. We're a mile wide, but an inch deep. And I'm sitting here going, we need to be a mile deep and a mile wide. Because that's what the Bible calls us to. We aren't called to just have these little quotes. We aren't called for a short or a real or a 60-second little clip to describe all the things that make up an eternal God. What we're called to are dinners together. What we're called to are deep conversations with each other. What we're called to is to challenge each other, to grow each other. What does Proverbs say? As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. That's what we're called to be doing. How many of us do that? I'll tell you, Eric is a great example of it. I had to mute our men's group chat because I'm like, Eric, dude, I don't even have enough time in my day to go through everything you're sending out right now. But I go, but that's what we're supposed to be doing. And here's why I don't have enough time. You guys ready? I am watching Parks and Wreck again for the eighth time. And the only reason I'm watching Parks and Wreck is because I just finished watching The Office again. And I needed something else. But what if instead of taking three hours a day, and I don't watch TV for three hours, but what if instead of taking an hour every day that I'm watching TV and go, hey, I'm gonna study for an hour? That's seven hours a week. Anyone in here? You think you read through the Bible in a year if you actually spent seven hours a day or seven hours a week reading? I think you could. You know how much more you could learn if you took that seven hours that you're watching? And let's be honest, an hour a day of TV is probably conservative for most of us. But if we were to take seven hours a week and devote it to discipleship, how much deeper could we go? And what, do we think we're gonna run out of things to learn about Jesus? Like, really? Because we have debates within the church that have been going on for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Anybody in here you're like familiar of the Council of Nicaea back in 325? We all know how that ended, right? With a firm foundation of understanding the Trinity. So that was 325, we're in 2026, so what, 17-ish hundred years later? Do you think we got an answer? But what if we took seven hours a week and we went, hey, we're gonna study this? Would we be like caught up by false teachers who are sitting here going, hey, when you find them, tell me so I can come worship the child? So as we we look to wrap up and we move into this week, the information you're putting in your brain matters. Herod looked the part. Herod told the Magi, here's where you can find the child. And when you find the child, tell me where he is so I too can come worship. Herod looked the part. He sounded the part, but yet is an enemy of Jesus. So are you listening to Herod's claim to worship the child or are we going straight to Jesus? Because you guys know he left a book for us, right? And everything you could want to know about. God, He already told us. So which one are we using? Are you challenging yourself? Or are we just going on the false information? Here's the thing: the three challenges this week. Number one, download your five-day devotional and use it. Go through it, challenge it, scrutinize it. I will, you, I promise you, you will not hurt my feelings if you come to me on Tuesday and go, hey, I was reading Monday's devotional yesterday, and I have some questions about it, and I have some things I want to talk to you about. That is the purpose of it. I may just include some wrong information in there just to see if you actually read it. So next week when I go, hey, like who read it? And you're like, oh, I did, and I'm like, really? And I didn't even get a phone call. You didn't show up when you were picking up your kid and go, hey, we need to talk about this. I may not. You don't know. Number two, find one resource. A resource you are already using and challenge it. Because if it can't handle scrutiny, is it a resource worth using? Okay? There's a lot of resources out there. A lot. But actually challenge it. Does it stand up against Scripture? Or does it fall short? And number three, share a resource with someone this week. Now, should you challenge your resource before you share it? Yes, you should. Don't share crap stuff with other people. Like if it doesn't stand up to scripture, don't go, hey, you, you want to read this? Because now you're just spreading false information. And I want you to understand, Jesus takes that seriously, right? Does anybody know what would happen? And I know I'm we're about to close, girls. I promise. Ladies, women, I'm sorry. I'm used to talking to my daughters. How are you living, girl? That's an inside joke with JT from this weekend. Do you know what the penalty for being a false teacher was in Deuteronomy? Anybody? Death. I say we bring that back. We have less false teachers in the world. People are a little more serious about doing some prep work. We're probably not going to, but you should go into it with the same fervor. You are a royal priesthood, and God calls each and every one of us, not just me, to teach. But James would tell us not many of us should be teachers because you will be held to a higher standard. Understand, you will be held to that standard. But those are our three things to do this week. So, Father, I ask and I pray that if there is anyone in here, God, that has heart work they need, that Father, you just press into them with the power of your spirit. Father, I ask and I pray that as we move through this week, we do so, understanding that you are an inexhaustible well that Father, we will never get to the bottom of. And I ask and I pray that you give us a desire and a burning flame to push deeper into that. That Father, you take away the distractions of our lives, whether it's TV, whether it's surfing, the internet, whether it's whatever it is, and God, you replace those distractions with you. Because at the end of the day, that is all that matters. Father, I ask that you draw us near. Your word tells us that if we draw near to you, you will draw near to us. And I just pray, Father, that you do. So, Father, I ask and I pray if there is anyone in here who needs anything, that Father, you fill it. If they need any extra help, I ask and I pray that they reach out to a brother, a sister, myself, anyone, so that we can dive deeper into who you are. Father, we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.