← All episodes

Ask a Pastor with JOBY MARTIN | May 2025 (Ep. 750)

May 1, 2025 41m 12s Full transcript available
Ask a Pastor with JOBY MARTIN | May 2025 (Ep. 750)
0:00 / 41m 12s
In this episode, Kyle Thompson and Joby Martin tackle tough questions about faith, culture, and the church's role in today's society. They discuss the differences between biblical revelation and other religious claims, the importance of adhering to scripture, and the challenges facing modern churches in a rapidly changing world.
Transcript
496 segments
0:00 [Music]
0:20 This is Undaunted Life of Man's Podcast.
0:24 I'm your host Kyle Thompson. Let's get into it.
0:27 Joby Martin, welcome back to the show. I love the hat, man.
0:30 Are y'all selling those? You should have a merch store.
0:33 Uh, yeah. You can get them. We have like a little, yeah,
0:37 we got like a little bookstore with a few resources.
0:39 I think these are in here.
0:41 I don't know, man. I've got people sending me hats now
0:43 for all the things like deepening this and.
0:47 And even off air before this, you were accosting me
0:50 because the original trucker hat that we made,
0:53 where we only made like 50 of them, I sent you one,
0:56 and you didn't even have the decency to keep track of it.
0:58 Where is it, Joby? Where did you put it?
1:00 I don't know, but I love it. I love the green one.
1:02 I've got two or three green ones.
1:05 I've got the blue one with the little stripe,
1:07 the little whatever band, and I got a black one like that.
1:10 But I also like that black one. I don't know where it went.
1:12 I got to find it, but I need you to find your own sentence to me.
1:16 Yeah, we'll figure it out. We'll figure it out.
1:17 But let's go ahead and get into our questions for today.
1:19 So as per usual, first one is for me.
1:21 And guys, if you want your question to be entered
1:22 into the question bank, you've got to be a monthly donor.
1:25 You got to be one of my internal guys here,
1:27 like one of my forging tablers, or you got to be me.
1:29 So first question is from me.
1:31 I was chewing on this the other day because a lot of times,
1:33 I think in kind of like apologetics-type argumentation,
1:35 like, okay, if someone were to say this to me,
1:37 what would I say back to him type of a situation?
1:39 And so what is the fundamental difference between Moses
1:45 and the stone tablets that he brought down off him outside nigh,
1:48 and Joseph Smith and the golden tablets, right?
1:52 That no one's ever seen except for Joseph Smith.
1:54 But if you just look at it, you know, in the most basic form,
1:59 individual guys went away from humanity,
2:01 and supposedly had an encounter with God,
2:04 and then came down with all these rules.
2:07 And you couldn't challenge rules, why?
2:09 Because that special guy talked to God.
2:11 Do we know they talked God?
2:12 We don't know for sure, because we weren't there.
2:14 We couldn't put it in a, you know, in a beaker
2:16 and heat it up with a Bunsen burner
2:17 and like figure it out scientifically.
2:19 But fundamentally, what is the difference between those two things?
2:22 And you can't just say because the Bible is true.
2:24 Moses actually talked to God, would be the fundamental difference.
2:29 Okay?
2:30 So now the way you know that is because everything that Moses said and did,
2:34 then also aligned with everything else that God said and did,
2:39 pre and then post.
2:40 And, you know, Moses does have a couple things going for him,
2:45 like he, God used him to send 10 plagues through Egypt
2:51 and God parted the Red Sea and he walked across on dry ground.
2:56 And so he's got, you know, his resume for trustworthiness.
3:02 You, when you receive the 10 commandments from Moses,
3:05 it's coming from the guy that you also followed through the Red Sea on dry ground.
3:10 That's a little bit different than Joseph Smith finding himself in a cave
3:13 and then coming out with the revelation that he can marry a bunch of women.
3:17 One of them seems to be quite self-serving
3:19 and one seems to be quite God-serving.
3:21 Well, Joby, I've been reliably informed that because Mormons are polite,
3:26 there's probably something to Joseph Smith and the Golden Tablets.
3:30 Have I been misinformed?
3:31 Well, they better be polite because it's a workspace religion
3:35 and bad people go to hell.
3:37 So you better be really nice and good.
3:38 Yeah.
3:40 Normally tell people that, you know, they throw out things like, hey,
3:43 you know, Mormons are real nice and some of the worst people.
3:45 I know we're Christians and all that.
3:46 And it's like, I forget who said it first,
3:48 but, you know, I'm giving a derivative of it.
3:50 But if you go into a guitar center and hear someone playing sweet child of mine poorly,
3:54 you don't blame slash for that, right?
3:56 You don't blame someone who plays Beethoven poorly on Beethoven.
4:00 So you go back to the source material, the source text,
4:03 and then you say, is this person acting out in a way that is, you know,
4:06 continual or in line with what we're seeing here?
4:09 We don't exactly see that.
4:11 So I wasn't planning on asking about this because again,
4:14 this is coming out, you know, beginning in May, those types of things.
4:17 But I did recently do another podcast about Andy Stanley.
4:21 And so the thing with Andy Stanley, as I've explained before,
4:23 but we get new listeners every week used to be a huge Andy Stanley guy,
4:26 like him and Matt Chandler were going back and forth for who my favorite pastor to listen to was,
4:30 but I got so much practical advice from him and, you know, read his books
4:33 and even had his books on my book list at one point.
4:36 But it seems like the moment he decided to quote unquote,
4:39 unhitch from the Old Testament that either we got to know who the real Andy Stanley was,
4:44 you know, as the downstream consequences of that, or that was kind of the first
4:48 brick to fall out of the temple, if you will, as we made his way down.
4:53 And then we see the training that they have internally,
4:56 where they are affirming a lie for for kids that see themselves of the opposite gender.
5:02 It goes against what we see with creation and creation order and all those different things.
5:06 And what it does, Joby, which is concerning, is they people will see a story like that.
5:12 And then they will look out on the horizon and look at every large church.
5:17 And now they're wondering, wait a minute, what exactly are they teaching down there,
5:21 Church of 11, 22, what exactly are they teaching down there at?
5:24 Well, you know, Chandler, you know, rolled off his autonomous churches to be autonomous,
5:28 but just take a big ministry, maybe a multi-site ministry,
5:31 what exactly is going on behind the scenes?
5:34 And it, you know, it kind of takes our trust away from the local church,
5:38 writ large, the ecclesia model, those types of things,
5:40 because we don't know exactly what the leaders believe,
5:43 because we have to have a leaked internal video made public for anyone to kind of
5:48 have a peek behind the curtain.
5:49 So there's not a question in there, Joby, but I would just love your feedback on it.
5:51 Yeah, I listened to that episode this morning while I was getting ready to come to work.
5:57 And yeah, it is shocking, you know, that they have an LGBTQ training video.
6:03 And, you know, I don't think my instincts are typically as harsh as yours are.
6:10 So as I'm trying to steelman the argument for them,
6:13 here's what I think the fundamental problem is.
6:17 And it probably happened at the unhinged thing.
6:20 And I, like you, have been in the past, a huge Andy Stanley fan and learned from him
6:25 and his teaching style.
6:26 And for what, 20 or 30 years, he would just, it's, he taught the Bible.
6:31 I mean, some weeks were way more into it than others, but, and then it's almost like
6:38 they're, it's like he put the mission, what he would say, well, I'm not trying to put
6:44 words in his mouth.
6:44 So my interpretation of what they're doing, it's like they're trying to put the mission of God
6:49 at odds with and ahead of the word of God, which I think would be a fundamental mistake.
6:57 So yes, we should love lost people and try to reach lost people.
7:03 But when he's his unhinged stuff and then all of the now the trans stuff and even the homosexuality
7:10 stuff, it's like the, to reach those people, they see the word of God as a hindrance instead of a
7:19 help, which I think is the fundamental problem with the video that was exposed is let's just assume,
7:27 let's don't assume negative motives for that guy that was talking on the video.
7:32 So let's assume he actually does want to help people and help families that have kids that
7:38 identify as trans. Well, his fundamental problem is he thinks that teaching them the word of God
7:46 is the least helpful thing and accepting their version of truth is the most helpful.
7:52 And so they've done this switcheroo. So here at 11.2, the parts that I would agree with would be like,
8:00 yes, well, at 11.2, we are a movement for all people. So even in the first thing,
8:05 if you're a five year old saying that I'm confused in my body, you got confusing parents, period in
8:10 dot, okay, because you don't even know what sex and sexuality and gender are at five year old.
8:15 That's like saying you have a vegetarian dog. No, you don't. You've got a psycho owner is what
8:19 you've got. But anyway, but if that family shows up here, we do want them to feel loved and accepted
8:26 and all the things, okay, just like every other center that shows up here. But I think it's the
8:31 least loving thing to affirm sin and affirm something in your life that is not in alignment with what
8:38 the word of God says to be true. Andy Stanley did this sermon a long time ago at his dad's
8:44 church, Charles Stanley's church, a long time ago, like, like filled in for a weekend. This this is
8:51 before North Point started. And Andy Stanley did this whole thing about how what the Bible says
8:57 about sex and sexuality and family and that marriage was between a man and a woman and
9:01 whatever, all that stuff. Okay. And then he would use this illustration. He would say,
9:06 there's what is and there's what ought to be. And what the Bible calls us to do is to adjust
9:13 the what is to what God's word says ought to be. But what we have done in our culture is the other.
9:19 We have adjusted what ought to be to do what is. And I thought, wow, that was brilliant. I was
9:23 probably 30 years ago or something. And it seems like that's what they're doing now. And I think
9:29 they think they're doing that to help people and whatever their mission statement is, like,
9:33 lead people to Jesus. But the moment you think that the word of God hinders you from people coming
9:41 to Christ, I don't like something's loose in there. You're you're so far off. Now, I'm not as far I
9:49 wouldn't question the salvation and that kind of stuff. I just think they've gotten so focused
9:54 for being a church for unchurch people that they've forgotten to be a church for the Lord
9:59 first and foremost. And to be a church for the Lord first and foremost, you have to be under the
10:05 authority of the word of God first and foremost. And I also think this is just me playing pop
10:11 psychologist. I think he may have some scars from some maybe ultra conservative, even fundamentalist
10:19 in the bad kind of way church experiences where they said certain people weren't welcome at their
10:24 church, not based just based on like whatever skin color or the way they dressed or something
10:29 like that. And but now his pain on them has swung way over here where they are apparently affirming
10:37 not just sin, but Romans says this is even worse than just regular sin. This is right.
10:42 This is out of line with God's creative order kind of sin. And I don't know, man, it's just
10:49 what a mistake. What a mistake. Well, they've put themselves in the position of
10:54 whether they explicitly do it or implicitly do it saying, Hey, we're nicer than God is. We're
10:59 more moral than God is. Hey, God, you have your ideas on this. But hey, we went to some church
11:05 growth conferences. And we kind of started this whole, you know, big multi site church ministry
11:10 thing like their derivatives of Bill Hybels and you know, hey, we we got this God, don't you worry.
11:16 We're going to use our version of leading people to salvation because we just don't believe the
11:21 Holy Spirit's going to do it. And so we just need to kind of sweeten it up a little bit. And like
11:26 for me, that that sermon back like a year or two ago, you said, Kyle, go find this sermon. You can't
11:32 find it. And it reminds me that again, I know you're a big fan and a lot of people on the show
11:37 are big fans of Craig Rochelle. I'm telling people to be very, very careful because I know for a fact
11:43 that he had Bobby Gruenwald, the guy who created the U version Bible app and that team scrub the
11:49 internet of all of his old mentions of LGBTQ stuff saying that it was sinful and that we shouldn't
11:55 operate in that way from the internet, almost like they men in black took it out from the
12:00 men, memory banks of the world because there are ways to kind of scrub the internet because
12:04 no one's keeping a copy of a 30 year old sermon because they think Andy Stanley's going to go full
12:09 heretic, you know, three decades from now. So it just just doesn't exist. It just fart in the wind
12:13 disappears. And so that's part of the problem is I don't think you can find that audio. I don't
12:18 think the church itself that he gave it at at Charles Stanley's church even has something like that.
12:24 But for me with with guys and we'll move off at any Stanley because we got some really good
12:27 questions for today is what else do you need to see? Because I get it. I was one of the people
12:32 defending him whenever he said the unhitched the Old Testament thing because I think I got his point
12:36 and I was coming at it from a pragmatic point of view and I'm like, Oh, no, okay. Yeah, you know,
12:40 the quote doesn't look good. But if you listen to the whole sermon, you see, it actually does this.
12:44 The problem is his actions, right? So it's like when someone says, I love my spouse,
12:50 but they beat them. They belittle them. They just trash them all the time. It's like,
12:55 weird, your words are not really connecting with your actions. Or it's one of those people that
13:00 says something out loud. They're trying to tell you what they believe and you're like,
13:04 nah, not surely not. You don't believe that. But no, all their actions are undergirding
13:08 that exact thing that they said, which sounded crazy. It's like we should have taken you out
13:12 your word from the beginning. So I'll give you the last word on this before you move on.
13:15 Um, so I definitely appreciate the heart of trying to lead gay and trans people to Jesus.
13:21 Amen. That's the true heart. So some people, though, can be so right and judgmental,
13:26 and they're right about everything they say technically and theologically,
13:30 but we've been like, when's the last time you led a gay or transgender person to Christ? Okay.
13:35 So at 1122, um, if you want to know what you think, just listen to our sermons. I mean,
13:39 or look on our website. We have, we have, you know, we just say what we believe. And what we believe
13:45 is that the truth of the word of God with the power of the Holy Spirit is going to convict people
13:49 of sin and they must repent. And meanwhile, we want to love them to that place, but to call sin,
13:56 okay, is not loving at all. And we have lots of folks that struggle in all kinds of sexual
14:02 ways around here have gotten saved and walked out of those lifestyles, including people that would
14:09 have said they were transgender. And we did not lower the bar. Like there are some people around
14:14 here and they're not even good at it. I'm like, dude, you just look like a dude in a dress, man,
14:17 at least be good at it. But no, you can't go to the women's room and know you can't be a greeter
14:22 and know, because we're not trying to create confusion around here and know you can't work in
14:26 our kids or student ministry, but you're welcome to come here. And my word for you is repent and
14:32 come to Christ. And he should be Lord of your entire life, including the clothes that you wear
14:37 and how you identify, you identify first and foremost as a blood ball saint of God.
14:42 And that's the message for everybody. And but we don't change that for one particular group of
14:47 people. Hey guys, real quick. So there you are. You're about to make some delicious meat,
14:53 and you open up your cabinet and you freeze, you freeze because you look and you see you have like
14:59 three or four dozen different seasonings. But this seasoning is just for your wild game. And
15:04 this seasonings really good on pork, but not really good on chicken. And you just kind of
15:08 lose your mind and eventually just reach up there and grab a random one. So here's the thing, guys,
15:12 I want you to stop getting jammed up by having too many options in the seasoning department.
15:16 It's time for you to have a go to seasoning for everything. And that's why I want to
15:21 reintroduce you to my friends over at G's seasoning. So this is a reintroduction because
15:26 back in the day, I think this was over the winter. I told you guys about G seasoning. I was at my
15:30 buddy, Dale Brisbane's house. We're about to shoot a podcast and all that. But he had made me some
15:34 stakes and I took one bite of this steak. And I was like, bro, what in the world was this seasoned
15:39 with? He gave me a bottle of G seasoning. He told me a little bit about the story about it being
15:43 a small family owned operation in Texas and how they used to back in the 80s, just hand out bags
15:48 of the seasoning out of the back of a store and things like that. But that they had started bottling
15:52 it and started selling it. And then I told you guys wouldn't it be so cool if for the Christmas
15:57 season, if you guys bought some G seasoning and you know what you guys did? Y'all went out and bought
16:01 it into those of you that have bought it. It has been an amazing thing for you. All of you have
16:05 loved it. So I'm glad to reintroduce them to you. So G seasoning is an all purpose seasoning that
16:10 is great on beef, pork, wild game, chicken, fish, eggs, veggies, and guys, if you want a big boy hack,
16:16 throw some Gs on some popcorn. You can thank me later. So guys, stop getting a bunch of different
16:20 seasonings for all of your different meat dishes. Support a small town American family business by
16:25 going to Gsseasoning.com. That is Gsseasoning.com. Throw some Gs on that. Okay, again, that is Gsseasoning.com.
16:35 That's Golf Sierra Seasoning.com order today. All right, very good. Let's move on to the
16:42 forging table that Joby loved, which is apparently the nickname that he's given himself. And that's
16:46 Ryan Horn, who has given himself several nicknames over his time on this planet. So that tells you a
16:51 little bit about that guy. But here's a good question from the Horn. What are your thoughts
16:55 on churches that join interfaith or interfaith alliances? Doesn't this seem counterproductive to
17:02 the Great Commission? So specifically, it's not an interfaith thing. Like, hey, we're all
17:08 joining together against violence against children, but an interfaith alliance.
17:12 Yeah, I mean, if it was for a, well, one, if it was a strategic infiltration to lead lost people
17:22 to Jesus, go for it. If you're going to share the gospel with whatever the people that don't
17:27 have faith in Jesus, go for it. And if it is to accomplish something that would make God happy,
17:34 like we partner with people in Jacksonville that don't necessarily believe in Jesus,
17:40 but we all partner to save babies from being murdered in their mother's womb. But we disagree
17:45 over the God with the gospel is we do that. But I would not be a fan of these interfaith alliances
17:53 just for that sake. Now, I have spoken at some interfaith prayer breakfasts.
17:59 And I just share the gospel with a salvation invitation.
18:04 I literally, I mean, I'm looking at the rabbis and the, I don't know what you call all the people,
18:09 you know, and I shared John 14, six Jesus, the way the truth in life, no one comes to father,
18:15 except through him. That's what my prayer is. That's my message. I also alert the people that
18:19 invite me to be a part of it. That's what I'm going to do. Right. And I'm going to share the gospel
18:23 with lost people. And there's a bunch of professional lost people around me that run other religions.
18:28 And so, so if it's for that purpose, but if it's for the purpose of just looking, John 17,
18:34 when Jesus prays for unity, he does not pray for unity with the world. He prays for unity
18:41 within the body of Christ. So we are not supposed to be unified with the lost world. We're supposed
18:45 to be unified within the body of Christ. So if those other faiths aren't in the body of Christ,
18:50 then your job is evangelism, not fellowship. Yeah, I don't want to use the pastor's name,
18:55 because I don't think I have the exact, um, the exact details correct, but I believe it's correct,
18:59 but I'll leave his name out just in case I needlessly slander, but he was invited to come to Congress
19:04 to do a prayer, like in the halls of Congress. And apparently his approved because you have to
19:10 write out your prayer. So you see, you have your approved prayer. And then he kind of went off
19:15 script a little bit once he got into the chamber. And so if you tell someone, this is what I'm
19:19 going to say, and then you say something else because the spirit led you, it's like, okay,
19:22 that's, that's a little bit dishonest. Like I don't know that you should necessarily do that.
19:26 But I've been in situations for Joby where someone was like, yeah, hey, this isn't exactly a faith
19:30 field, you know, environment and all that. So like, if you kind of tone down to this or that,
19:35 and I tell people right from the beginning, I'm like, now is your opportunity to disinvite me,
19:39 because once I'm in the room, it's too late. Um, and so it's like, I'm going to say what I'm
19:44 going to say. And then there's also the thing, when people are mad after, like after a speech that
19:49 I've given or after a podcast interview, I'm like, did you know who you invited? Like, did you,
19:55 did you just forget? Did you think I was going to be completely different from the hundreds of,
20:00 if not thousands of hours of content that I put out there on the airwaves? Because that sounds
20:05 like a you problem. It's like, I'm unapologetic in my approach. And I don't try to be needlessly
20:10 divisive or offensive. But I am trying to be incendiary. And if you're going to be incendiary,
20:14 that means you kind of light people, you light people up here and there. And so that's kind of
20:18 one of those things. If you are invited to something like that, and you're told to dampen down the
20:21 gospel, that's a pretty good indication that you should push back. And if they continue pushing back,
20:26 but you probably shouldn't do it. All right, go ahead. Yeah. I mean, I am, I am, you do need to be
20:32 aware of who your audience is. You know, when, when Paul preaches in tomorrow's hill, then he had a
20:38 different kind of tone. He's always pointing to Jesus. But yeah, and then that the area area,
20:42 I guess he had a much different approach. Right. So I'm, I mean, you know, I do try to pay attention
20:46 to where I am, depending on the audience I'm talking to. But I'm, but when people invite me,
20:50 especially to a prayer thing, I will let them know I pray in the name of Jesus. So if you're not
20:55 good with that, I'm not your guy. All right. Very good. Let's go to Ben, who's one of our monthly
21:00 donors. Thank you, Ben. Good question. A longer question. So here we go. At the end of the episode,
21:04 I can't remember which one he's talking about. You guys were talking about Jobe inviting the
21:07 stripper to church and how she received ridicule after showing up like it was a date with a john.
21:12 Well, I don't support behaving rudely to new believers or non believers who do things like that.
21:17 You and others I listened to repeatedly and correctly talk about modesty in church. Now,
21:22 some of the girls, especially in low church evangelical situations show up to church and clothes that
21:28 will most likely most definitely cause brothers to stumble in the one building where you think
21:34 that they'd be free of that temptation. On the other hand, one would think that most of the early
21:39 church did not have quote unquote dress clothes. And thus we're not able to dress in their quote
21:44 unquote Sunday best, although that clothing was probably modest. While come as you are as valid,
21:49 where do you draw the line when it comes to immodest or inappropriate address by either men
21:54 or women? Great distinction there. Should there be some minimum standards in terms of how believers
21:58 are to appear in dress? And is that a good thing? Now, Joe, before you answer that, I love that he
22:04 talked about men and women because there are men who are in really good shape. I've talked about
22:08 this before. I don't want to be a stumbling block for a lady, even though I'm fully aware that women
22:13 are not sexually aroused in the same way visually, that men are. But for these women that come to
22:20 church in these plunging neckline shirts and with their butt cheeks hanging out of their shorts and
22:26 things like that. And I agree, you would think you could go to church and be out of the minefield
22:32 that is most of the world. And I mean, you live on a beach city. And so the temptation has to be
22:36 extreme to not bounce your eyes. But where do we draw the lines about modesty in church?
22:42 The key distinction is the girl that I took to church was not a believer.
22:46 That's key. So I don't know how we can handle it. We don't hold non-believers to standards of the
22:54 scripture. So that's the key. So the question said for believers, of course, there should be
23:00 older women training up younger women, see Titus too, in your church. And hopefully they've got it.
23:06 You've got the kind of discipleship environments and the kind of the right kind of environments.
23:10 Now it is sociologically driven, because what's appropriate in Kenya and what's appropriate in
23:14 Oklahoma may not be the same thing. One of my favorite stories about this dude is a Southern
23:19 Baptist church planted in the church in Kenya, Africa. And they go show up, all the women are
23:23 topless. So they give them all t-shirts. Have you heard this? They come back like a year later
23:27 and they cut boob holes out of it so they could feed their kids, you know what I mean? So it is,
23:32 you know, modesty is kind of a constructed thing about what's modest because what's okay, like
23:36 on stage of the church and on the beach are not the same things. All that being said is
23:40 I would hope your first thought would be for the sake of the or the person, not for the sake of
23:47 you. So if you see somebody immodestly dressed at church, you should pray for that person
23:52 that she would know that she is so valuable that she would learn to treat herself as a valuable
23:57 and not be offended by it, but have compassion for the person. You are right. These days, I probably
24:04 have as much, there's probably more dudes trying to express their freedom by wearing
24:09 inappropriate clothing like cuss words on shirts and stuff. But what are you doing? If you're a
24:14 believer, you're not going to do that here. And so the key distinction though is between believers
24:19 and unbelievers. That's the key distinction. And I have a 15 year old daughter. So we constantly
24:24 have this conversation. But I try to root it just in first grade, the in six, do you not know that
24:32 that you were bought at a price? Therefore, honor God with your body. Like you're so valuable. And
24:37 you don't want to treat something that is sacred and valuable as common. And sometimes the way
24:42 people dress will do that. When I think the ultimate point. So guys, if you haven't listened to the
24:46 sermon, yeah, you should be listening to Joby sermons, but it's a sermon from early April called
24:50 standout Christians, Titus week two, standout Christians, Titus week two, early April 2025.
24:57 And on that, you kind of go through, okay, older men, older women, younger men, younger women. Here's
25:02 what you're supposed to do. Okay. And the biggest thing is for older women to go up to the younger
25:08 women. And if they're dressing like hoochie mamas, say, Hey, sister, that's not how we dress. There
25:13 was a great example of that at whenever I was going to life church at the time. One of the one
25:18 of the staff pastors wives, one of the gals, because you know, yeah, at all these churches,
25:22 there's like 17 people that have microphones. So only half of them are turned on. They're not
25:26 singing a 17 part harmony. Where are all these people? Why are they on the stage? Get them off the stage.
25:29 But there was a gal up there, whose mic wasn't turned on. And she was very attractive. And she
25:34 was wearing a mini skirt on a platform on stage. And guess what? If you were on the front row,
25:40 you got an additional show than the one that you thought you were signing up for. And after service,
25:45 she wasn't accosted by one of the pastors. She wasn't, which by the way, worship leader,
25:51 pay attention to what you're allowing to be on the stage. Someone's got someone's got to have
25:54 some responsibility here. But one of the church members, one of the church staff pastors wives
26:00 took this young gal aside and very lovingly said, you're very beautiful. The Lord gave you
26:06 this beautiful body and you know, to worship the Lord with and to do all these different things.
26:12 The problem is you were just on stage for 20 minutes and people can understand what you're
26:16 working with a little bit more than what you maybe have thought. Yes, the skirt is cute. No, you can't
26:21 wear that here, sister, and you probably shouldn't wear it anywhere. I think I thought if there's a
26:25 guy on Josh Howard's and staff, I forget the pastor's name, but he was at a women's conference, which
26:30 we need more men speaking at women's conferences. Can I get a name in? But he basically said, look,
26:34 if if you post a picture on Instagram that you would not text directly to your pastor,
26:39 you probably shouldn't post that picture because there are no, there are no caveats in the scripture
26:44 for, you know, have modesty unless you're near a boat or unless you're, you know, on the beach.
26:49 And again, think about it that way. Church 11, 22ers, people, your random churches, ladies,
26:54 if you would not send that picture directly to your pastor's phone, you should not be posting it.
26:59 And you should maybe think twice about what you're wearing when that picture was taken
27:03 even to begin with. So that's all good stuff there. So very, very good point on older ladies
27:08 helping the younger ladies out. So next question is from me. So I like to ask you questions about
27:13 heaven because there's no way to know and I just want to like put you to an answer so that we can
27:16 figure it out later. Will we have free will and heaven? Like, will we be, you know, ourselves up
27:23 there getting to choose pick and choose what we want to do? Like what are going to be the options
27:28 or are we just going to be operating precisely how God wants us like a good Calvinist automaton?
27:33 You know what I mean? What are we going to be doing up there?
27:36 Yeah, a good Calvinist wouldn't say you're whatever automaton at all. They would say but we do have
27:41 agency over the things that we do. And again, just a reminder, heaven is really like a waiting room
27:46 for what will be eternal, which will be new heaven and a new earth. And so it seems to be in the book
27:53 of Revelation that there will still be things like work and community. And yes, we will be us
27:58 and we will be recognizable. If we weren't recognizable, then how would you know every
28:02 tribe tongue and nation is there, right? Because we're not all like some mono being or whatever.
28:07 So I think it'll be whatever it'll be probably more similar to what we experience right now than
28:13 we think of in the kind of angelic pictures or whatever that there will be work and play
28:20 and community. It will just all be without the effects of sin and all of that focused on the
28:25 glory of God. But yes, we will have agency to do things that continue to bring God glory there.
28:32 But somehow it will be without the corruption of sin. And we'll have the same agency like
28:37 when we were playing with our dogs who will be up there with us in heaven, right? So they're just
28:41 going to they're going to be there with us and we will know them as we do them here. Right? This is
28:44 what I hear you saying. You hope so. No, I mean, but it's correct. Right. I'm spot on is what you're
28:49 saying. He said I'm spot on you. He shook his head. Yes. To those just listening to this. All right.
28:53 We got a question now from the largest of all forging table or status Jake Winkler.
28:58 Why would God tell Moses to build him a room like the Holy of Holies where they can encounter God
29:03 when he is omnipresent? Yeah, because there's a there's a difference between the manifest presence
29:09 of God and the omnipresence of God. And there there's also progressive revelation of who God is
29:16 through the scriptures, right? So part of what eventually we're going to understand is that God
29:22 is father, son and Holy spirit. But what we're primarily thinking of in particularly in the
29:29 Old Testament, we're thinking about God the father. And so he has even though he doesn't have a form
29:35 or a body. See John chapter four, he is going to reside in a place and sit on a throne like a king
29:42 slash dad. And this is the beginning that God is a God of relationships because we were we were
29:49 created out of his image and God in and of himself is a perfect relationship with himself. God the
29:53 father son and Holy spirit. And so also God is set apart. And and a part of the Holy of Holies is
30:01 just the set apart of set apart places because it is designated for God. So something has to be done
30:07 about sin before you are to enter into the presence of God. And so that's also a big part of like
30:14 the setup so that the people of God can understand that sacrifice has to be made to do something about
30:21 this sin problem so that we can be in this relationship with God that that we desire and that he desires
30:28 for us. All right, very good. Let's go to the next question here. This is from Gus who's a
30:32 monthly donor Gus. Thank you so much for hopping on board to help us equipment to push back darkness.
30:37 Very interesting question. What are your views on Masonic lodges or Freemasons?
30:42 Can you be a Christian and be a Freemason? Now I have to go all the way back to like my sophomore
30:47 year of college where I had to give a persuasive presentation. And I decided this is probably this
30:52 is like pre undaunted right? So I was even aggressive and stepping in it back back then. But I basically
30:57 said that Freemasons were satanic, right? And I just kind of went back to the origins of Freemasonry.
31:03 And there was a Freemason in the room who actually really liked the presentation because he's like,
31:06 yeah, all this is fact check true. But he was a nonbeliever. He's like, I just don't believe in,
31:10 you know, Satan and demons and angels. And I just don't believe in all that. And so but I have heard
31:14 a lot of concerns about about that group because of especially how they started. But then Joby,
31:20 they're flat out our Masonic lodges and Freemasons and groups like that that all those guys are doing
31:26 are stuff for their community. They're they're cleaning up neighborhoods or taking care of
31:30 widows and orphans. They're just doing good stuff. And they're not drinking goats blood and doing
31:35 these these random things like, you know, the movie skulls or whatever. So what are your thoughts on
31:40 Freemasonry and Masonic lodges all that? I think I'm right kind of with the second half of what you
31:45 just said. So in and of itself, yeah, it's bad. I would stay away from it. It's if you look at the
31:50 roots of it. Yeah, man, you're pledging your allegiance to somebody not named Jesus. My dad's in these
31:55 things. But I mean, well, he was 50 years ago, you know, I think there's a bunch of really good dudes
32:01 just in their community. It's basically the grown person version of a fraternity. And they got into
32:07 some stuff and they're not probably not taking all the ritual thing or the type the names of the
32:12 leaders very seriously. All of that. Okay, so I'm not bashing anybody that's in that group. And you're
32:19 like, what are you talking about? We just raised money. You know, like the Shriners for the kids.
32:23 Okay, neat. If you so yes, you could be a Freemason that's in the group and then be a believer because
32:30 you just didn't know what you didn't know. But I would highly encourage believers to do a deep dive
32:36 on what that is. And I would take I would take you back to when the original, like in the early
32:42 church, when people got baptized, they were asked two questions. Who is Jesus to you? Is he your
32:47 Lord and Savior? Yes. And the other question is, do you renounce your flesh, this world, and any sort
32:52 of connection to demonic or darkness that you have ever had in your life? And so that's what
32:59 repentance is. It's not just turning to Christ. It's turning away from this world. So I would not
33:05 want to align myself with anything that invites any demonic or darkness thing into me. And so again,
33:13 I think the Freemasons are a bunch of great guys. And most of them don't even know or took very
33:18 seriously any of that kind of stuff that they were involved in. And then there's probably some,
33:23 like Satan worshipers in there too. They love it and take it very, very seriously. You know,
33:26 there's probably a big spectrum. But I think it's right. I think in its roots, not good.
33:32 When you do go ahead a bunch of kind of guys are unknowingly in something that they don't
33:38 know about the roots of it. But that's not an excuse to do nothing. I mean, I, you know, I would,
33:43 I would distance myself. Yeah, I think as well, if you're going to be doing the research,
33:48 don't do what like some doofus is will do. Is that the plural of doofus? Doofy. Don't be like
33:54 some of those doofy that, you know, we'll go to some sort of like, I did Dan Brown. I think he
33:59 wrote a book where there's Freemasons or whatever. It was the one that came out after the Da Vinci
34:02 Code. And so like people will go to the Da Vinci Code and they're like, Oh my gosh, and they kind
34:06 of build their theology off of something that's got some truth and some not in there. And it's like,
34:10 okay, guys, don't read, you know, Jack Carr's new novel and say, okay, this is exactly how Vietnam
34:15 went. Okay, so like, can we all agree? Like, if you're going to do research, go to kind of some of the
34:19 natural source material. But last question of the day is from me, and I got to be honest with you,
34:23 I've been excited about this one for like a month. Like after, because I again, I'll find stuff or
34:28 I'll hear stuff on other shows and I'll kind of change it around because it's kind of tradition
34:32 now that the last question has to be for me, it has to be kind of ridiculous or just a really
34:36 interesting thought experiment. So are you ready? Are you ready, John? I'm never ready for your
34:40 questions, but go ahead. Let's go. Don't worry. We don't have to club baby Hitler on this one.
34:44 All right. So you are 51 years old, correct? Correct. Okay. Have you ever experienced a dream
34:50 that it was so visceral and real in the moment that when you woke up and you were back in your
34:55 normal world, you were a little bit surprised, like you were that far into the dream. Have you
34:58 experienced that before? For sure. Okay. I'm definitely I'm leading you down the primrose path here. Let's
35:03 go. Okay. If you woke up tomorrow, Joby Martin, and you discovered that the last 30 years of your life
35:12 was all a dream. All of this felt real, but it wasn't real and you wake up and you're 21 years old.
35:20 Here's the question. What would be the first thing that you would do? But before you answer,
35:25 as you think about it, again, guys, to set the scene, Joby is 21. There's no church of 11 22.
35:32 There's no living in Jacksonville. There's no married to Gretchen. There's no JP. You're eldest.
35:37 There's no rake and compress your lovely youngest. There is none of that. I don't even know if you've
35:41 graduated from your first college yet. You haven't even gone off to your woke seminary yet, right?
35:46 You were 21 years old. Okay. You haven't even started really bodybuilding yet. You haven't
35:50 even gotten on all the steroids. What is the first thing that you're going to do?
35:55 Oh my gosh. Let's see. I think I was in the long the long answer would well, I guess the short answer
36:06 would be I would try to exit whatever sin that I could avoid. I would try to do everything I have
36:12 done because I would like to end up exactly where I am right now. One of my favorite pastors to listen
36:18 to who's a friend of yours now to Jim Bergen. One of the things that he'll close sermons with
36:23 sometimes is and he had a very rough backstory, very abused as a child kind of thing and his wife
36:32 struggles with bipolar in a significant way. And one of the things that he will say is if I had to
36:39 walk through everything I've had to walk through. My wife struggling with bipolar disorder, me being
36:46 abused as a child, if I had to walk through all of that to get to where I am today to be married to
36:52 that woman, have those kids and be able to pastor this church, I would welcome all the pain to get
36:57 to where I am right now. So what I would try to do is retrace my steps of my dream and do everything.
37:04 I mean, knowing what I know now, I would hate to graduate again from the seminary I graduated
37:09 from. But if I didn't graduate from that seminary, I wouldn't have got hired at the church in
37:12 Vinton, Virginia. And I wouldn't have met Gretchen and and dude, she's a she's a dream man. She's an
37:17 absolute dream. And then I would have my kids. So it is crazy. This is very, very much like Genesis
37:24 50 where Joseph went through hell. I mean, domestic violence, human traffic, false imprisonment.
37:31 And yet when he's standing in front of his brothers, even after his dad dies, he says,
37:35 I'm on on in the place of God, what you intended for evil God intended for good. So even my evil
37:39 decisions like, or dumb decisions, uninformed decisions led me here. So I would try to, because
37:45 that was I felt called a ministry when I was 19. So I was on that track that landed me here. And I
37:52 would try to replay steps to end up right back here, pastor in the church, married Gretchen,
37:57 father and my kids. Very good. Man, that's a fun one to think about. So for a lot of you guys,
38:02 again, we're wind the clocks back, you know, it's going to be different years for everybody. But for
38:06 me, that would be, you know, what, 17 years, go back 17 years and I'm 21 years old, getting ready
38:12 to graduate from college like what, what exactly would you do differently? And you know, that's
38:16 just kind of an interesting thought experiment. But you know how it goes, man, that's the last
38:19 question of the day. Anything else you want to get off your chest? Oh man, appreciate you.
38:23 All right, talk soon. Peace. Thank you for listening to this podcast. Wherever you're listening to
38:28 this, please subscribe, rate and leave us a positive five star review. If you want to come speak live
38:32 at your event or on your podcast, you shoot me an email to info@undonton.life. That's i-n-f-o
38:38 @undonton.life. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook and check out our website for
38:42 everything else, including how to donate to keep more content like this coming your way.
38:45 Just go to www.undonton.life. And as always, we want to thank the band Holy Name for allowing
38:50 us to use their music for our content. The music on this podcast is our song Perpetua,
38:54 which is off their self-titled debut album on Face Down Records. The links are in the description.
38:58 I'm your host, Kyle Thompson. Remember, keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual,
39:05 mental and physical resilience. Keep seeking the lion of Judah.
39:35 [end]
Key quotes
2
Kyle Thompson
You can't just say because the Bible is true. Moses actually talked to God, would be the fundamental difference.
Joby Martin
It's the least loving thing to affirm sin and affirm something in your life that is not in alignment with what the word of God says to be true.
Free Resource
31-Day Resilience Reset
If this episode hit, the next 31 days will be the reset. Free PDF, instant download.
START FREE →
Brotherhood
Apply to Dominion
Six pillars. Application only. The men's program Kyle built around the show.
APPLY NOW →
Dig Deeper
Ask the Archive
"Which episodes cover this topic?" Get answers grounded in all 940+ episodes.
START A CHAT →