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The Forging Table

THE FORGING TABLE | Genesis 12 (Ep. 724)

March 2, 2025 56m 27s Full transcript available
THE FORGING TABLE | Genesis 12 (Ep. 724)
0:00 / 56m 27s
In this episode of The Forging Table, we dive into Genesis 12, exploring the call of Abram and the profound promises God made to him. We discuss Abram's lack of faith when faced with danger in Egypt and how God still intervened despite Abram's shortcomings.
Transcript
650 segments
0:00 [Music]
0:20 This is Undaunted Life a Man's Podcast. I'm your host Kyle Thompson. Let's get into it.
0:26 Welcome back to the forwarding table. The mission of Undaunted Life is
0:29 equipping men to push back darkness with content that forges spiritual mental and physical resilience.
0:33 At the forging table you'll see a group of regular guys forging spiritual resilience.
0:36 All right. Cut that out on the edit. Landon, it's because I had to hit the button.
0:44 Yeah. I just tracked him. You know what, leave it in. You know what, Landon, leave it in. I'm going
0:49 to leave it in for our editor. That's Zach's fault. That's why we messed it up. But I'm going to
0:52 take it from the top. Should I take it from the top or should I go from the middle, Zach?
0:56 Okay. You mess it up. So yeah, I guess you just tell me what to do.
0:59 I don't care. Okay. We're just going to go from the middle.
1:01 At the forging table, you'll see a group of regular guys forging spiritual resilience by
1:04 digging into God's Word. And we're welcoming all of you to come along on that journey with us.
1:07 That's Zach. That's Adam. That's Jake. Guys, today, the last three weeks we've done two chapters
1:13 of Genesis 3 chapters of Genesis and then two chapters of Genesis. But we're back down to one.
1:17 Okay. We're going back to our old ways, but I will tell everyone in the audience that throughout
1:21 Genesis, there are going to be times where we're going to be covering multiple chapters.
1:24 So just keep in mind, you know, if you don't listen through the end of the episode, you won't know
1:27 next week exactly how much ground that we're going to be covering. So do keep that in mind.
1:31 But guys, we're going to get into the call of Abram. So right from the beginning here,
1:36 we will take a volunteer to read the first nine verses of Genesis 12. Whoever would like to hit
1:41 it. Ready, set go. Dibs, there's no hard names here. Now the Lord said to Abram,
1:45 go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.
1:50 And I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great
1:54 so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you,
2:00 I will curse and end you. All the families of the earth shall be blessed.
2:04 So Abram went as the Lord had told him and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he
2:11 departed from Huron and Abram took Sarai, his wife and Lot, his brother, son and all their
2:17 possessions that they had and gathered and the people that they had acquired in Huron and they
2:22 set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the
2:27 land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Mora. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
2:35 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said to your offspring, I will give this land.
2:40 So he built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. From there, he moved to the
2:46 hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and I on the east
2:53 and there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord and Abram
2:58 journeyed on still going toward the world or toward the Negeb. So going toward the Negeb.
3:06 This is one of the biggest promises in the entire Bible that a great nation is going to be
3:11 established through this single person. And there's nothing here that tells us exactly why this person
3:17 or what qualifications they had to be the number one overall draft pick. There's nothing really
3:22 like that that we see with Abram. But the ESV study Bible, which again guys, I get asked a lot
3:28 like what version of the Bible do you study? But then it's like what Bible should I buy?
3:31 I personally am a fan of English standard version. I think at this table right now we have ESV,
3:36 ESV, ESV, and NIV. And so like if you're an NIV person or NASB person or all that, you're still
3:41 good. Just like something like the message that is not a translation, that's an interpretation of the
3:45 Bible. So you have to be incredibly careful with something like that. But the ESV study Bible for
3:49 my money, like, you know, sent for sent is the best Bible on planet earth because you get the ESV
3:56 version, but you're also getting the notes. And the note from verse two is great nation,
4:01 which is the word used in or the phrase used in verse two, stands in stark opposition to
4:06 Sarah's barrenness, right? Because we're about to read. Yeah, exactly. As soon as I read that,
4:11 I was like, yeah. And so when I take notes from other places, I'll bring them over here to my
4:15 notes. So it's easier to recall them on the forging table. But you have to think about that.
4:19 And then I want to kind of open it up for discussion. Dale Brisbane was on the show last year. So he's
4:26 kind of a rodeo personality guy. And he and I talked about this off air. But then we talked about it
4:30 on air. His mom, he's, I think he says took a vacation for a couple of years. Like she basically
4:36 abandoned their family for a couple of years. But his father stayed unbelievably faithful that
4:41 it would work out in the end. Like, and he said, I just saw my father through this entire situation.
4:46 I just could not believe the faith that he showed that mom was going to come back.
4:50 And here's the thing is we already know the end of the story. His mom was gone for two years and
4:54 then she came back. But while they were going through it, his dad didn't know that. He didn't
4:59 know it was going to be two years. And so when I was at, because again, where we record these
5:04 well in advance, I was doing an event with Church 1122 every year, they do something called encounter.
5:08 It's a hunting experience where Jake, you asked last week about, you know, how can you get close
5:12 to God? And here we are. All these guys were at this plantation and we're all doing, you know,
5:17 when we're white tail hunting that guys, this may be the first time they've ever been in the
5:20 woods. But you know, we send them out there, not with entertainment, we send them out there with
5:24 the devotional. And so they're reading through the devotional material. They've got stuff that
5:26 they can write down, they've got prayer and all that. And so it's kind of the first time that they're
5:31 close to God. I was out there at this camp and there's one guy that, you know, brought some weights
5:35 and all that. So we got to work out in and he's a real strong guy. His name's Hunter Hanks. And,
5:39 you know, so we're deadlifted and we're doing all that kind of stuff. But then it's like, all right,
5:42 well, you're, you're, you're kind of a beefy deadlifter guy and, you know, I can deadlift a
5:45 little bit, but not as much as you. But then it's like, I'm going to wait till the end and then I'm
5:48 going to bring you into my world, which is spreads, you know, just explosive cardio. Like, you know,
5:52 I'll tell you we have one more, but actually it's 10 more and I'm just going to go until you die. And
5:56 like, that's just kind of the things that I like to do for fun. But I asked him a question, this is
6:00 all going to correlate and come together, I promise. I asked him a question at the end because my
6:04 sprint workout is the warm up is 640 r dashes with basically no rest in between 420 r dashes,
6:12 410 r dashes. And then the the workout is 10 100 r dashes with only 30 seconds rest in between.
6:18 So it's literally 100, you take 30 seconds rescue back, starting life, and then another 100 and you
6:22 do that 10 times. But the last one with the last rep, I look at Hunter, and we're, I mean, we're
6:28 on a country road. And so we're just, you know, we're guesstimating how far that tree is away and
6:32 all that kind of stuff. I say Hunter, are you willing to sprint until I tell you to stop?
6:36 Are you willing to sprint without knowing the distance? And he laughed immediately realized I
6:44 was serious and goes, yes, I'm willing to do that. I said, okay, well, I will run beside you at your
6:48 pace, and you will stop when I say, and he was like, bet, let's go. In a lot of ways,
6:54 that's what God has given the scenario to Abram, right? To Dale Brisbane's dad, it was, okay,
7:01 we're going to sprint here, you know, basically where you have to be patient and know that I am
7:05 God, but you don't know how long it's going to go because it's one thing to say, hey, are you
7:08 willing to sprint 300 yards? Because it ended up being about a 300 yard sprint with the last 40
7:12 being on a hill, right? He didn't know that. But in his head, he's like, I just agreed to sprint.
7:19 I don't know if we're going to go 50 meters or a mile, right? But he had already agreed that I'm
7:23 going to sprint. And so that's the thing that was just overwhelming to me when I was rereading the
7:27 story of Abram and the call of Abram is God's basically saying, dude, I got you. I just need
7:32 you to put your yes down, right? Give me your yes, and I will take care of the rest. And if
7:37 if anyone knows the story of Abram, that's not exactly how it worked out. But that's where I
7:41 wanted to start this discussion, because as much as I got checked him, whenever I put him through
7:46 that brutal workout, and it's brutal, even worse, because mentally you don't know how far you have
7:50 to go. But this is life in a nutshell. And that's just at least how I experience and how I live it.
7:55 I feel like God has asked me in a lot of ways, hey, I need you to put your yes down. And then
7:58 we'll deal with the details later. And that is a scary proposition. So just wanted to throw that
8:02 out there to kick off the discussion. Yeah, I think probably all of us here can point to a
8:08 situation where I think maybe God has asked us to just sprint, if you will, and not know really,
8:15 when we're going to stop, what the destination is. I know for me, and I think I may have shared
8:22 this story on the show before, but I remember- We get new listeners every week, so feel free.
8:28 Good. So for me, whenever I was about eight years into my public accounting career,
8:36 I had worked crazy. I mean, I was working 3,000 hours a year. And I was in the eighth year, and I
8:46 was trying to move up and working at a huge firm. And I remember going- I'd lost my mom that year,
8:56 and I was just devastated. Then go through a busy- Maybe the roughest busy season I'd ever been
9:03 through. And I start just going like I'm quitting. I'm done. I think they finally broke me. I've
9:09 worked more hours than ever. Miserable. I'm going to go see what else is out there. I get an offer
9:16 from another decent-sized firm. To come over there, they were going to give me more money,
9:22 had a path to partner, and I just was like, "Oh, great. Awesome. Get this offer. Take it to my
9:30 partner at the firm." And I was like, "So I have another offer." And he goes, "Oh." He's like,
9:36 "Well, it was a Friday when I went talk to him." I said, he goes, "Can you let me have the weekend
9:43 to see if there's anything we can do to keep you?" I said, "I owe you that. I owe you that."
9:48 So he goes home that weekend, and I come home from my wife. I was like, "Well, I showed
9:54 the offer to Mike, and here's what they're doing." And she's like, "Jake, you're making a lot of big
10:00 decisions here. You prayed about it." I said, "No." And she goes, "Don't you think you ought to?" I
10:05 said, "Yeah." So I walked into our room. I tend to pray alone, as I've said to Kyle before. The
10:12 scariest thing she can say to Jake Winkler is, "Jake, will you please pray for us?"
10:15 Make sure he does that every time I get the chance, for sure.
10:20 But I tend to pray alone, and so I went and prayed, and I just felt like God was really just
10:26 reiterating. You stay. And I was like, "Stay?" I mean, okay. So I came out of the room, and Stacy's
10:34 like, "Okay." And I was like, I looked at her and I go, "I have to stay." And I messaged the... Now,
10:43 the natural inclination there would have been like, "Well, he's gonna go try and get me more money,
10:47 maybe get a promotion, whatever." And I just go... I went and got my phone, and I texted him
10:53 immediately. I said, "Hey, just want to let you know. I've prayed about it. I'm staying." And you
10:59 don't have to give me any more money or anything, nor promotion. Like, if you were waiting on a
11:02 response, don't worry about it. I'm staying. And I just was like, "This sucks. Like, I don't want
11:10 to be here." And then... But I was like, "Okay, well, maybe God has a purpose for me here." And
11:16 I don't... I will... I am not lying when I say the next two years were rougher than the previous three.
11:21 Work more hours, more stress, more politics, more drama, just not fun. And then COVID hit, and then
11:30 I ended up getting, you know, passed over. And then I was... got passed over for a promotion again.
11:39 And I was just like, "I'm stuck. I'm stuck. I don't know what I'm gonna do."
11:44 And so during COVID, I just started reaching out to random people, not for job hunting. I was
11:49 just like, "I'm stuck. I'm not going anywhere." And I was just talking to random people that I was
11:54 just catching up. And I actually called one of my previous mentors who was a partner at the firm
12:00 before me. He had retired and then was working remotely from Costa Rica because he had the greatest
12:04 life ever. So I call him and just like, "So, how's it going?" He goes, "Well, it's going pretty good."
12:10 He goes, "How's things going at RSM?" I said, "Oh, man, it sucks." I'm miserable. He goes,
12:16 "Well, would you be interested in hearing about another opportunity?" And it's where I'm at now.
12:20 But even then, whenever I was just like, "Oh, I'm gonna take it. I'm gone." Stacy goes,
12:27 "Did you pray about it?" And I just felt very clearly like when I prayed that time,
12:33 God was saying like, "This is why I told you to stay." And as I've said on here before,
12:39 I don't know why he has me here. I don't know if I'm going to be greatly humbled
12:44 or if I'm going to have a great success. I don't know. But either way, it's what God wanted.
12:52 And so I have to be thankful for it. Well, and I think because I would love to hear
12:56 from Adam and Zach certainly. But to even tee you up, Adam, because I'd like you to talk about this,
13:03 but you can ultimately talk about whatever you want. Because just so everyone knows out there,
13:06 I didn't preempt anybody with where I wanted to go with this discussion. I just thought it'd be
13:10 interesting for us to kind of work this out. And I think you've probably talked about this on the
13:14 show before. I think it may have been at a former foraging table. But I mean, we have listeners that
13:18 have never heard a single episode. This is the first one they ever listened to. So it's okay for
13:21 us to repeat stories from time to time because they're helpful. But obviously, you are working
13:26 at your father's firm. You're also a CPA like Jake. And you had your life mega planned out.
13:32 And all of those plans had to do with your dad being alive. And all of a sudden, very suddenly,
13:39 your dad was no longer alive. And again, just as a side note, that's like when guys are like,
13:44 Kyle, what's your five to 10 year plan for on Don? And I just giggle. I'm like, bro, I'm doing
13:49 things with undaunted that I didn't even think were existed six months ago. And like, I think
13:54 God looks at our long term plans and is like, that is so cute. That is so unbelievably sweet.
14:00 I got something different for you because it makes no sense from a logical point of view
14:05 or from a business point of view, like any mentor of yours in the business space, any secular
14:10 mentor would have been like, you have to do this, Jake, you're here and run yourself into the ground.
14:14 But for Adam, I would like for you to talk about that because you were very young in your career.
14:18 You didn't have the sway that you certainly do now. And all of a sudden you walk into the office,
14:23 your dad had just passed away and you got a bunch of people looking at you like,
14:27 is this the kid that's going to keep us all to where we can live indoors and eat food?
14:30 So take it from there. Yeah, man, I was 30 years old at the time. It was almost 10 years ago,
14:36 30 years old, a firm of 10 people. And I'm one of the youngest guys in the door,
14:41 almost everybody at the time working at the firm is older than me. My dad was 60 years old,
14:46 unexpected and just passed away one day gone. And we had just hired my best friend who was going to
14:52 come because we had so much work. We didn't know what to do with that. We brought in my best friend,
14:56 who worked with me at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He took a job at KPMG and was an internal audit.
15:02 So he had just made a giant switch from North Carolina to come to Oklahoma to do small business
15:07 accounting. So he was way out on a limb. And the goal was to make him partner eventually,
15:14 three to five years down the road. And I had just gotten into the partnership myself at 30 years old.
15:20 I'd started at PricewaterhouseCoopers when I was 24. So I was six years in. And I was not ready
15:26 to run a firm. And I remember walking in after burying dad and having to talk to the staff and
15:31 be basically tell him, stay with me. I don't know where we're going, but we're going to do the
15:35 best that we can. And then I remember meeting with every single client and we lost a substantial
15:41 number of clients because I wasn't dad. And who's this 30 year old kid who I've never met?
15:47 I'm not going to trust them with my finances or trust them to prepare my tax return. So
15:51 I mean, it was a difficult time for sure. Not ready to be 30 years old running a firm. And
15:56 something that I created in that moment that I don't know if I've mentioned on the show before,
16:00 but I've mentioned a lot of people's I have had this list on my phone. And it's I call it the
16:04 things I've survived list. And this is all related to work. And I've got 13 things on here. And so
16:10 these are things that I would list as when they were happening. I thought he was over. You know,
16:15 doors are closing. Clients are gone. Life is over business. So if I'm going to be looking for a new
16:20 job, so this is something I would encourage everybody to do because it's easy to forget
16:26 all of these things that we've survived and just live in the now and be like,
16:31 I don't know how many to get through this. I don't know how many to get through this. I go
16:34 look at this list. And I look at it. Oh, well, that was way worse. This was worse. I thought
16:38 this was for sure going to be the end. And like, if I can get past my dad passing away and being
16:44 30 years old and not knowing how to run a firm, not know how to do any of those kinds of things,
16:49 nothing else can be as difficult as that was, you know. So that's what I'd say about that.
16:54 I mean, what that what that is. The flood recedes, right?
16:57 Right. And what that list is, Adam, is that is a that is a narrative of resilience. And because
17:02 so there's another concept that I give to guys, because you know, every now and then I come up
17:05 with something and someone's like, Oh my gosh, that's the thing that this is something that is
17:08 landed with a lot of guys. It's the concept of I've seen me do that before. And so I always describe
17:14 it in the context of of physicality, because that's easiest for most of us to understand,
17:18 because we either do that or we don't. There's not really a whole lot of them in between.
17:21 But let's say you go to the gym. So if you work out, like most people out of global gym or something
17:26 like that, so you go to the gym and you just don't feel well that day, right? So maybe you didn't
17:29 get a lot of sleep tonight before had a bad day at work. You know, you're coming home to a wife
17:32 that's not really satisfied with you, like y'all are fighting or something like that. You get to
17:36 the gym, you kind of like, you know, go through the motions for about 15 minutes and you just go,
17:40 you know, let's screw it. I'm out of here. And then you just leave, right? Well, you've seen
17:43 you do that before, where you go to the gym, you know what you're there to do, and you cut it off
17:49 a quarter of the way in a fifth of the way and something like that. You've seen you do that before.
17:53 But given the same circumstances, you go to the gym and you finish your workout,
17:59 you've seen you do that before before, like, like you've seen you do that, right? With these sprints.
18:04 So that sprint workout that I described earlier that I did with Hunter at Hunt Camp,
18:09 that's the same workout I do here. And I also do the same thing to myself at the end where I run
18:14 a much longer final sprint. And a lot of times I'll do that workout after lifting. So after squatting
18:18 or after deadlift. And so I'm already dead. And yet here I am, you know, sprinting, which, you know,
18:23 no one likes to run, no one likes, and worse, no one likes to run fast. And so, but if I've ever
18:29 quit on that, I've seen me do that before. And so if you've seen you do something over and over and
18:34 over, it's easier for you to continue doing that thing. But if the thing you've seen you do over and
18:38 over and over is not finish or quit or to wuss out, then it's going to be easier for you to continue
18:45 that behavior. However, if you've been resilient and if you've overcome, you've seen you do that
18:51 before. And so you go to that list and what, you know, Joby has encouraged guys to do is a
18:55 gratitude list. Like you have a list on your phone. You have at least one thing that you are grateful
19:00 for for every year that you're alive. And it can be everything from as big to your salvation,
19:05 your marriage, your children individually by name. Or there's things on my list like,
19:09 I love opening day baseball. I like UFC nights that I like being able to hunt at Adam's land.
19:16 You're land. I like, you know, being able to do backports cigar and whiskey nights. Like,
19:20 and so it's an entire breath of things. But it's like, look, I have 38 minimum things that I am
19:26 grateful for. But man, what a tremendous thing to have in the notes section of your phone as well,
19:30 to like, Hey, here's the crap that I got through, right? Here's the stuff that I've seen me do that
19:34 before and to do that before thing was I got through it. So yeah, I love that, Adam.
19:38 Yeah, I have a tendency. I'm glad that you mentioned earlier that your wife encouraged you to go
19:42 pray because that is that is a weakness of mine. And I hope, Jake, you feel the same way that I do
19:46 putt possibly in that. I feel like I have to come up with the answers. And I'm not trying this,
19:53 this sounds awkwardly self edifying or self, you know, self gratifying that I can figure this out.
19:58 But that is my weakness. I feel like when I'm presented with a problem, or, you know, I need to
20:04 find the solution, I'm going to figure it out. I rely on myself way more than I should. Well,
20:10 not turn this into a mini therapy session for the CPS. I would say honestly, I think it's a lot
20:15 to do with what we do for a living. I mean, the amount of times people just turn to you for answers,
20:22 whether it be tax planning for you or, you know, we've got a problem and we don't know what happened
20:29 for me. I do the, I work on the other side. So financial planning, I mean, I tell people all the
20:37 time, I'm a, when I tell them I'm a CPA, they were, you know, they immediately jump to, oh,
20:42 why have a tax question? It's like, I don't know anything about taxes. I know nothing. And
20:47 the amount of anxiety that gives me, because it's like, I know you're looking at me and I should
20:51 have answers for this, but I don't have answers for this. So I think there is something to just,
20:57 what we do is kind of a profession where people just kind of turn to you looking for answers on
21:03 something that they clearly do not understand. And they, frankly, that's why they pay us is they
21:10 don't want to understand it. They want you, I always say the CPA profession is, it's not a,
21:18 it's, you don't have to be good at math to be a CPA. It's make a sick arithmetic. It's a translation
21:22 profession. It's basically taking, I take this information that's very complex to understand,
21:28 and then I break it down into something that's very, very bite-sized chunks. It's very easy to
21:33 understand. So I think it's just more in the profession. And yeah, it's, for me, it's like,
21:39 I'm looking for answers. Where's the last place I turn? God, unfortunately.
21:44 So when I come to you for an auditing question, and you give me great answers,
21:49 or anybody that does, that's a conversation that we have. And you have a pretty good understanding
21:56 because there's a code and all sorts of things that you can measure your answer against. When you
22:00 go to God, by yourself, and you pray, and you come out with a conviction that's strong enough
22:07 that you send somebody a text message in that situation, I'd like to know a little bit more
22:12 about that. And I'll just frame it with just this simple statement. I'm not confident
22:18 that I understand how the mechanism of following God works. And what I mean by that is I've spent
22:24 time in the past praying, asking, looking, and things always work out, can work out differently.
22:32 And then I've gone into, well, let me make sure I'm asking all the right folks,
22:36 consulting lots of Scripture and so forth. And let's see if we can amass all of that from Godly
22:43 people in my life. So I'm just interested because it does seem to me from the outside looking in
22:48 that you took what you perceive God told you and went down a path that seems to
22:53 has enabled you to bless other people in multiple ways. So far, so good.
22:59 Yeah. So what is that? Is that just some sort of a settling inside for you? How would you describe it?
23:06 I actually think, I think it's reflect that I'd have to look at, you'd have to have the perspective
23:12 of the two years that I followed. So we're the two year gap between when you stayed when I stayed.
23:19 Yeah, it's hard. The two year gap that I stayed in worked more hours, but I will also tell you,
23:23 I got the worst evaluation of my entire career, mainly because I had a during that time frame
23:33 whenever I worked so much and I just lost mom, my attitude was crap. And I think most of you
23:38 know me well enough that I'm overall pretty positive and upbeat and jovial and you know,
23:44 and I generally take that into the office. But I was not at that point and my head just I just
23:52 wasn't right. And I would say they could have done a probably a better job of helping me along with
23:58 that. But at the same time, fully accountability on my end, who has control of my attitude, I do,
24:03 who has control of whether I'm happy or not, I do. And so I got a horrible evaluation that summer
24:09 affected my bonus, affected my compensation, affected a lot of things. And so I remember they
24:16 specifically around like, okay, you know, technical skills are good, you brought in work,
24:20 you've done all these right things, but your attitude sucked. And so we're grating you down
24:26 to this. And I was just like, you're never going to complain about my attitude again. And I had
24:30 this a little bit of a, I'm going to prove it to you. I'm going to have a, I'm going to be just
24:34 completely fake up here. And then it was that day I learned that literally you could literally
24:42 faking it until you make it is a thing. I just, and you do that before fake and I fake a good
24:47 attitude. Yeah, I fake a good attitude. And suddenly I just have a good attitude about things.
24:53 To the point now where I just say, I love fake people. They're always nice. So
24:57 the Canadians are the fakest people in the world. You're fake, but you're nice. It's fine.
25:03 So, I mean, what I would say to me, there was a pruning and it was like, you think you do,
25:10 you think you can do this, you think you've earned this, you think you know exactly how to do this,
25:15 you don't, because there's things that God needed me to do. And you know what? It's still,
25:22 it's not like I'm perfect. I'm not, it's not, I still fall back into it, like my attitude,
25:26 you know, sometimes I get a bad attitude. But I think one of the things that I learned in that
25:31 moment was, if you're going to be in a leadership role and that includes in your own home, if you
25:38 are a leader and you are showing anxiety and you are showing anger and you are showing
25:44 uncertainty to the people that you are leading, compound that, because they're feeling it even
25:51 more. So, if you can't feel and be steady to the people that you're leading, it's going to be a
26:00 problem. And I think that's the thing that I learned and I'm still learning it. That being said,
26:05 you can't just bottle all that stuff up either, which is why you need a foxhole group. I got to
26:11 be able to talk about that stuff. I feel this sucks. I'm miserable, but I'm fighting through it.
26:17 One, you also, in addition to that recently, and it's not my sort of share, so I'm not going to
26:21 share it, but there's a member of the 4G table alumni who has lost his job and he was very upset,
26:30 right? And he talked to me on the phone and he was in tears at one point and it was around the
26:35 fact he's like, I can't look, I can't look my kids in the eye right now, because, you know,
26:39 you just feel so low, you feel so worthless, you feel like, you know, maybe it'd be better if you
26:44 weren't here anymore. And I talked to him on the phone and I heard him and I'm, you know, shot,
26:48 this will be a shock to you guys. Not a super empathetic guy. I don't have a whole lot of
26:51 compassion and all that. I'm a little bit more of a driver in those types of things. But in that
26:54 moment, I did what I could to acknowledge the pain he was feeling. And I could acknowledge it
27:00 because I've had the rug pulled out from underneath me before and lost a job. And I was put on the
27:06 unemployment line at the same time as like 500 people from Chesapeake. That was part of their
27:11 layoff. I was like, Oh, great. There's a new race. I have to run. And there's 500 people in the
27:16 starting line. This is fan freaking tastic. But I remember telling him, I'm like, you get today.
27:21 He's like, what do you mean? I'm like, you get today to be sad, to be angry, to go get a baseball
27:28 bat and do what John Elders did, which is go to the backyard and beat up a trash can with your
27:32 baseball bat. You get today, but tomorrow you get to work. Like tomorrow you get to work because
27:37 it's like, and I just, I told him I was like, because he was starting to catastrophize, like, you
27:42 know, we might lose the house. And what are we going to do? And how are we going to pay for this?
27:44 How are we going to pay for that? And I was like, do you honestly believe that me and the rest of
27:48 your foxhole boys are going to let your kids starve? Do you honestly fricking believe that?
27:53 And he's like, no, I'm like, all right, you get today. Give me an update tomorrow, right? Get those
27:59 tears out of the way of the day. And I'm like, don't give anxiety to people that can't fix your
28:04 situation. Those kids can only gain anxiety. They can't give you a single thing that I hope you
28:10 fix your situation. So you go there and you lie to them and you tell them, it's going to be okay,
28:14 and dad feels great and all that. And tomorrow you get to start fixing it, right? Again, you don't
28:18 have a foxhole. You don't have guys that can talk to you that way, right? I tell people all the time
28:22 out of my use you as an example, like, because I go to these events and all that. And I'm the
28:26 podcast, go, you got a fancy podcast, blah, blah. So people will laugh at my jokes and aren't funny.
28:29 And I'm like, oh boy, that one shouldn't have got even a giggle. And then we got these guys laughing.
28:33 I need guys that are completely unimpressed with me and have no problems interrupting me.
28:37 No one interrupts me. Y'all do. Adam does. Like, I'll be in the middle of something. And Adam,
28:42 you've literally, and I'm like, no, Adam, and you're like, no, actually, Kyle, what you're going to
28:46 do is you're going to let me finish what I was saying. Because you're wrong, right? And I'm just
28:50 like, if you, no one likes your stupid face, how about that? And then I slay your tires and I get
28:55 over it. But like, at the end of the day, again, this all does kind of come back to the same themes
28:59 that if you don't have those people in your life, if you don't have people that are willing to drop
29:03 everything they're doing to come find you, to come like, you know, give you that bit of advice that's
29:08 going to at least get you to the next hour or something like that. Bro, you're missing out, like,
29:12 and when when trouble comes knocking at your door, and you don't have that, it's too late to start
29:16 trying to find those guys. I think one of the things you said, lie to your kids, you know what?
29:20 You're not lying to your kids, right? Who's in control whether this is going to be okay or not?
29:24 It's you and the Lord. And that's it. Turn to God. And it will be okay. Right. I mean, he'll,
29:32 he'll lead you where you're supposed to go. Right. And again, guys, this really wasn't my plan for
29:36 the first part of Genesis 12. But I do think that this is valuable. Zach, you haven't had a chance
29:40 really to share. You don't have to buy any stretch of the imagination, but everyone else has kind
29:43 of shared something. But there is a story here. And I mean, I've heard Jordan, even Jordan Pearson
29:48 talking about who's, you know, a secular intellectual about like this is, this is the call to the man's
29:53 heart away from comfort. And we live in a society that is like, strive, work those 3000 hours this
29:59 year so that you can be comfortable so that you can have pay the person to mow the lawn for you,
30:05 pay the person to clean the house, pay the person to take care of your taxes to why do all those
30:10 things? Ah, so you can create a buffer between you and anxiety that people that don't have money
30:14 can't do right. And yet we live in this environment where we strive and strive and strive for comfort.
30:19 And all we're doing is choking ourselves, which is fairly uncomfortable. But whatever you would
30:24 like to share, feel free to go on before we continue on in this chapter.
30:29 I probably don't have a whole lot to share with the exception of just saying that
30:32 at least through my experience, there seems to be appealing away of what's
30:38 important and what I think I'm aiming for. And a lot of that comes back to what the Bible says
30:44 is a rich life is a good life. And I promise you I was going to bring this up so I'm going to.
30:50 Andrew Huberman and his Sean Ryan show podcast recently, I thought was phenomenal. And it's
30:57 it's because he spent a lot of time talking about himself, his circumstances, his evolution into
31:02 faith, along with Sean Ryan, who's done the same thing. And I've recently watched Eddie Penny,
31:07 who a lot of those guys in that community talk about. And one thing that he mentioned was his
31:12 difficult upbringing, which I knew about, but he went to Hawaii and met with a guy who he described
31:19 as this big tough guy for some reason. And they had a conversation and this guy for some reason
31:24 had some credibility, but he made the statement something to the effect of, hey, no matter how far
31:30 you go down the path and how fast and how quick and all that stuff in your life, you're always the
31:35 same distance from the ditch. And what I thought was interesting about that is it certainly parallels
31:42 some of my experience where I've had a lot of very fortunate opportunities in my life to meet
31:48 with a lot of people mentors, you name it, leading teams, all that kind of thing. But I've had other
31:53 experiences after all that stuff where I felt like I was right in the ditch, right? And that stuff
31:58 peels things away. And so I think the main thing I would just say is, you know, I think we don't know
32:06 what the next step is. And going and praying to God seems to be the only solution that I have,
32:11 but you know, going back to what you talked about with, you felt very convicted to make a decision.
32:16 I think that's incredible. That's that's something that I would love to be able to get to. I just
32:20 don't know what that looks like. Do you find yourself intentionally not seeking God in prayer
32:25 because you know what the answer is going to be or you feel like if you get the answer,
32:29 you're not going to want to follow it? No, no, I mean, I have certainly done things and followed
32:41 through in situations where I didn't, it didn't make sense. I didn't want to do it. It didn't make
32:46 sense for me to do it. And that's the other part of it. In hindsight, of course, you know, a lot of
32:51 those things seem to parallel and work out. And I would just say, generally speaking, for me,
32:56 hopefully it's working toward character growth. Like you're talking about the pruning. You know,
33:01 I feel like that's ultimately what God's trying to accomplish in some way, shape or form. One of
33:06 my big visions for my life is trying to become what I always call my wife could probably say this
33:10 memory is like a shade tree. So being a presence for the people around me that's grounded and able
33:17 to provide maybe not even financially, but just generally. But I almost feels like I don't want
33:24 to pray for that anymore because the pruning element of that may be so painful to get you to
33:29 the point where you could be that person that maybe I don't want to pray for that anymore, you know.
33:32 So I don't know, I just think it's interesting that one thing I know is that my my focus and what I
33:40 think is important has drastically changed over the last three, four years. When I would say the
33:44 prayer that calls you into discomfort, that kind of sucks because we're like, wait a minute, wait a
33:48 minute, right? Like, no, I pray to you, you give me stuff I want. And if you don't give me stuff I
33:53 want, you give me stuff that I didn't know I wanted, that's better than the stuff I wanted.
33:56 And there's like, crap, you wait, I'm doing what you said in the next two years, or worse than the
34:00 previous three, which is what you said. It's like, Hey, this is not how this is supposed to work.
34:04 This is supposed to work out easy, right? Because that's what we were taught in Sunday school somehow.
34:07 Yeah, you told me to be here. I figured this is where you wanted me and it would be better.
34:12 You know, it's funny. I was trying to go through podcast episodes because in the very beginning,
34:15 I was kind of new Christian, all that sort of thing. You guys were asking me questions.
34:18 And I just remember making a comment, but I couldn't find it. Something about all the
34:22 Christian people that I know seem to always be going through some sort of a catastrophe.
34:26 And so I go back and look it up. And the Bible basically says that God, you know,
34:35 the challenges and corrects his kids that he loves and maybe not so much the ones that aren't his,
34:39 which is interesting too. But that's a whole other conversation.
34:42 Man, that's what I tell when I think I've used this example for, but I had a good buddy back
34:46 in the day that lost his job. And then he was like, questioning whether or not God existed.
34:51 I was like, Oh, okay. So yesterday, you know, I, you know, I tend to be pretty straightforward and blunt.
34:55 I was like, Oh, so yesterday, when you had a job, God existed, but now the creator of the
34:58 universe, universe isn't a real thing. Now you're you're a highly evolved champ. Like you idiot,
35:02 like what's wrong with you? But it's just like, we get there though. But for the, for the Christian,
35:08 it's like, all right, we believe in God, we believe in the, we believe in the gospel and
35:11 propitiation, all that stuff. We just don't believe he's good anymore. Like if we were to be honest,
35:15 we'd be like, I just don't think you're good. Believe that or believe in. Right. Because if,
35:19 right, because to a degree, we believe that God's, you know, our cosmic genie that we get to,
35:23 you know, rub lamp and get whatever he says, which is why I need my things we've survived list.
35:27 Yeah. It's that's really cool.
35:30 I was reading in a commentary, he brought it up and I was just like, Oh man, this goes right into
35:34 it. So it's by nature, we are all pagans caught in the Babel syndrome. When we think we can manipulate
35:41 God by praying in Jesus's name to achieve selfish purposes, our paganism is showing.
35:46 When we claim promises as a means of making God to do what we want him to do,
35:51 our paganism is showing. When we come to think we are indispensable to God,
35:56 because of the money we donate, the talents we have, the ministry we engage in, or the worship
36:01 we offer, our paganism is showing. And needy gods can only be oppressive gods.
36:07 I think that's absolutely true. I mean, isn't that how a lot of us do pray? And so that's one thing
36:14 that I've had to switch up even this year with my prayer, with how I pray with my family,
36:18 because you should just be prayers of thankfulness because that's pretty easy because you have stuff.
36:22 So you're like, you know, thank you for my kids school. Thank you for our house. Thank you for our
36:26 food and all that because you're trying to get prayers that your kids can kind of wrap their minds
36:29 around. But I had someone I can't remember. I would I'd like to be able to get the guy credit,
36:33 but I forget. He just says, Hey, you know, describe how you, you know, pray over your kids. And so I
36:38 started talking and he goes, no, no, you didn't hear me. I said, pray over your kids. Mike, wait,
36:42 what are you talking about? He's like, now I hear you praying, like, near your kids, like,
36:47 and you already admitted that you've prayed about your kids, like when you're not with them,
36:51 but what do you pray over them? I was like, well, I guess I don't. He's like, yeah,
36:55 your kids are listening to you though. So do you have an aspirational identity that you have
36:59 for each one of your kids? And I'm like, well, yeah, he's like, well, tell me about it. Well,
37:03 I want I want them to be Christians. I want them to be resilient. I want them to be strong. I want
37:07 to be crazy. So I want to be tough, but I also want them to be tender and sensitive. In the right
37:11 moments, I want them to be meek and the true, since the word and all that. And he goes, okay,
37:15 pray that over your children out loud. And I was like, oh, oh, and so now the prayers are like,
37:22 I'll let them pray. I'll let the little kids pray, but then I will pray over them. And I'll say,
37:26 you know, Lord, I pray that you will make James and Elijah strong, courageous men of God,
37:32 but that they will also be meek and sensitive. And Lord, I just thank you for the talents that
37:35 you've put in and thank you for James is this, this and this and thank you for Eli's this, this,
37:39 and this. And it's like they're hearing it. And there was something that even just came up
37:44 yesterday of the day before. So obviously everyone that listened to the show last year,
37:47 when Roman the giant died, that was obviously a really rough time for me and all that. I think
37:51 I mentioned on the show that I had James and Eli out there with us when we were bearing him. And so,
37:57 you know, James, it was, you know, just turned four and Eli was two years old. And so James was
38:03 obviously very verbal. And so, you know, even after we, we buried the dog, the very next day,
38:06 James was like, Hey, is Roman coming back? Or like, what are we doing? And so it's just like,
38:11 I'm sitting there like still mopping up snot from all this. And I'm trying to explain to a four-year-old
38:15 that no, Roman doesn't come back. But the two-year-old at the time, he's saying one or two words at a
38:19 time, right? So he's, he's not putting together senses or asking questions that, you know, you can
38:23 even understand. But like two nights ago, because he's still two, but he's further down the road,
38:29 he can kind of put some senses together, he was asking very specific questions about Roman's burial.
38:34 I didn't like, I just had him out there. And I just assumed he wasn't picking up on any of this.
38:40 Well, he picked up on all of it. He just didn't know how to express it.
38:43 Also, a few months ago, James, our four-year-old out of nowhere, started asking a lot of questions
38:49 about death and about sickness. And daddy, would you be satisfied if I died? And I'm just like, Oh,
38:55 yeah, buddy, of course, I would be, I would be so sad if you died, blah, blah, blah. And we'll
39:01 see if I can get through describing this. But when Roman died suddenly, you know, they don't just
39:06 throw your dog in the back of your car, they, you know, put him in a biodegradable bag. If you're
39:10 going to be disposing of them yourself, right? Anyway, and so before we put Roman in the ground,
39:16 like he was in this biodegradable bag, you know, I unzip it so that we can say goodbye,
39:20 I zip it back and we put him put him in the ground. Well, my wife's like cleaning his closet one day
39:28 or like putting the toys away. And he, he points out a bag on the shelf that like had some sort of
39:35 baby thing in it. And he's like, is that the bag y'all are going to bury me in? He had seen that
39:40 bag while he was playing weeks ahead of time. And it looked just like the bag we buried Roman in
39:45 and all of a sudden, because again, that's just a bag, right? No, no, that meant something to James,
39:51 he remembered that bag. And now he sees a bag in his closet. And he's like, Oh, I wonder, I wonder
39:56 if that's my bag. And now he's thinking about, Oh, death, he's four years old. And now he's thinking
40:02 about, will I see, will there be emotions from mommy and daddy like there were emotions when Roman
40:07 had died? And so I say all that to say, your kids are picking up on things, how you're handling
40:13 tough situations, how you're handling anxiety, like how you're praying over them and for them,
40:19 even through the fire, even when you're mad at them, even when you just want to strangle the
40:24 death, you know, you just want to strangle everything out of them, because they're just driving you nuts.
40:28 And they're picking up on all that. And all that is downstream of resilience and just straight
40:33 up paying attention. Yeah. And so I don't know who needed to hear in the audience today. Again,
40:38 this was not the plan for the first 40 minutes or so of Genesis 12 discussion, but
40:43 Hey, praying over just one. Yeah, hit it. I heard this. I've been doing it for like
40:46 three years, maybe two or three years. When I'm with my kids, praying over them in some sense,
40:51 I always bring up, because I heard somebody do this, the future husband from my wife and daughter
40:58 for wife from my son and kind of set the expectations for what that looks like and that we're praying
41:03 for that person. So eventually, if I'm lucky enough to meet you, you can go back and listen to this,
41:08 but we have high expectations. We've been praying for a long time. So, so yeah, if either one of
41:12 y'all this like this is time capsule right now. So we're going to go right back to this episode.
41:16 Before we wrap up Genesis 12, just want to remind you guys that we do have affiliations with
41:21 Logos Bible software and with Crossway Logos is the best Bible software on planet earth.
41:27 But guys, don't use it at full price. Use it as at a discount. If you go to the show notes,
41:31 there is a link there where you can try out the Logos Bible Bible software at a tremendous discount.
41:35 We've got that there for you. And then also Crossway is a great publishing partner. We've had
41:38 a lot of their authors that we've interviewed on the show, but they put together a forging table
41:42 starter set. And so it's got a Bible, a journal, a few other books in a devotional and you can get
41:47 that set of five books at 50% off, but you just have to follow the instructions. It's very, very
41:51 easy to do. Follow the instructions that are in the show notes. And guys, so like if you're on
41:54 Spotify or Apple, like click on this particular episode and below there you'll see a little link
41:59 that says episode notes and links. And then there will be a link that you can just click on and go
42:04 right to the show notes. But let's get to the second half and wrap up Genesis 12. So I believe
42:09 Jake, you read. So Adam, you are up from the NIV starting in verse 10 and finish up Genesis 12.
42:14 So that's through verse 20. Genesis 12, verses 10. Now there was famine in the land and Abram went
42:20 down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. As he was about to enter
42:25 Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, I know, I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians
42:32 see you, they will say, this is his wife. They will kill me, but we'll let you live. Say you are my
42:38 sister so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.
42:44 When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman. And when Pharaoh's
42:49 officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh and she was taken into his palace. He treated Abram
42:55 well for her sake and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female
43:00 servants and camels. But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household
43:05 because of Abram's wife, Sarai. So Pharaoh summoned Abram. What have you done to me? He said,
43:12 why didn't you tell me she was your wife? Why did you say she is my sister so that I took her to
43:18 be my wife? Now then here is your wife. Take her and go. Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his
43:24 men and they sent him on his way with his wife and everything he had. So obviously if you've read
43:31 through Genesis, this is one of those stories that sticks out because you know, Sarai was made
43:36 Pharaoh's wife. So essentially Abram poured out his wife to save himself, didn't exactly ask her
43:42 opinion on the arrangement. But that is what he did. And you can kind of see from the story here
43:48 because you know, there are a lot of layers here, but we'll be fairly brief in our commentary to
43:52 wrap up Genesis 12. He didn't think God would protect him. And isn't it so funny when you read
43:59 to the bottom, who bailed him out in the end? God. But the reason he did, and I think this goes Adam
44:05 to what you said earlier, which I would echo. I have the same issue. You know, Joby tells people
44:11 pray guests go. I just get to the guest go part, right? To where it's like, God, you gave me a
44:15 mind to reckon. You gave me wisdom. You gave me discernment. And so I'm just going to go, right?
44:20 I'm just going to make a call and I'm going to go. Well, so Abram did that. He made, he made the
44:24 call because he's like, all right, well, God's going to make a nation through me, but I got help
44:28 him. You know, I got help God out. God didn't foresee this happening, right? And so I'm going to offer up
44:33 my wife, basically to be one of Pharaoh's concubines temporarily so that I can like save my neck.
44:39 And, you know, we can't know because we don't live in a parial universe what would have happened
44:44 if Abram had not done this, but we can assume because of God's call to Abram that it would
44:48 have worked out just fine. But this is a fairly significant bump in the road.
44:52 Not to mention that he accumulated wealth and servants and donkeys and cattle and everything else
44:57 along the way in consideration of that, which is pretty interesting that you're willing to give
45:01 up your wife and order to accumulate those things. But then you do also mention at the end and it's
45:07 kind of surprising. You get to the end and you would think Pharaoh should be pretty [inaudible] at this
45:11 point. And you would not think that Pharaoh would just let him go. You would be like, all right,
45:16 you just, he should have died. There's no reason for him to be let go other than that. That's what
45:22 God's plan was. Anybody else find it interesting that it's the first Pharaoh to let the Jewish people
45:28 go? Yeah. And Charleston, Heston didn't even have to ask. I know. I know. It's kind of full circle.
45:37 I don't know. I was just kind of free circle. It is. Yeah, I think I would just add to that that
45:42 we don't mean to your point. We don't know what kind of
45:45 what sort I'm looking for. What Pharaoh experienced as a result of God. If it was that bad, then maybe
45:55 he doesn't want to hurt him. The reason Israelites will let go is because it was so terrible eventually
46:01 and that maybe he was already at that point. Because it doesn't spend any time talking about it,
46:04 really. Right. Yeah. There's really not a whole lot of description as to Pharaoh here. He's
46:09 basically just a footnote in the story. But God does afflict them with great plagues.
46:15 Flicks Pharaoh with great plagues. I mean, it's interesting that you have a little miniature
46:21 picture of Exodus before Exodus actually happens. So because every one of those Jewish people can
46:28 trace their lineage back to the man who was like, go first. What's the statement? I've kind of
46:35 forgot it, but it's like history doesn't repeat itself, but it echoes. It's kind of something like
46:39 that. So when people say history repeats itself, it's like, well, not really because it's a new time
46:42 in a new people group, but it's certainly echoes. Yeah. And so when you look back at something,
46:46 because that's what I was trying to describe to people on another forging table. I was like, man,
46:50 you know, last year with the election, everyone's like, this is going to be both sides. This is the
46:54 last election this country's ever going to have. And I was like, there have been worst times,
46:58 let's just say, in the history of humanity, like, you know, when people are like, we're closer to
47:02 arm again, then we've ever been things are crazier than they've ever been. I'm like, did you live
47:06 during the early 20th century crazier than it's ever been trench warfare in Europe twice, right?
47:13 The, you know, the eradication of seven million Jews, like Hitler got pretty darn close to
47:18 eradicating a race of people. Yeah. Like awkwardly close. And so it's like, no, no, like it may seem
47:26 bad right now, but like, if you look at this in a hundred year history chunk and not a hundred
47:31 hour history chunk, is this even something that registers? Right. Because the answer is no, move
47:36 on. Nuclear fallout drills in the 70s and the 80s. Oh my gosh. We're afraid the Russians are
47:40 going to drop nukes on our heads and getting under your desk at school would have saved you, right?
47:45 I can't remember. I read this, but there was something, something along the lines of that
47:48 human me, human beings actually require a certain amount of problems in their life,
47:54 like resistance tension. Yes. And so if it's not there, we'll create it. It's not there. We'll
47:59 create it. So, you know, we're talking about last elections ever. And it's like, well, why are we
48:03 talking about that? Well, because probably because we live in the most peaceful time we ever lived,
48:08 probably because we have, you know, more resources than we've ever had, probably because nobody's,
48:14 nobody in this country is really starving unless it's almost self-imposed. You can absolutely go out
48:21 and get any sort of help that you need. So there's just like, it's almost the supply and demand for
48:28 problems is maybe a little bit off. So we seek them out and create them whole cloth. Just, you know,
48:34 it's the idea of creating chaos to manage it. I don't know if that makes sense. But anyways,
48:41 it's just kind of interesting what we have to what we decide to put into our minds. And I think this
48:46 does go back to Abram going into Egypt and not relying on God here. And it's Abram walks in. He's
48:53 as he's going in, he's going, yeah, they're going to kill me when they find out I'm your
48:57 husband, because they're going to want you. And it's like, well, I'm going to create this problem
49:01 out of my own head. Right. Despite what God has told me, despite the covenant that's been made,
49:05 yeah, I don't believe you. And let me just create this problem.
49:10 It's an over engineering problem to agree. And that's like, you know, when I talk to people that
49:13 are like prepare prep preppers, and I'm not like anti prepping and having like water sources and
49:18 protection for your family and stuff like that. But then when you have these guys that are like
49:21 digging trenches under their houses and putting barbed wire up around and different things like
49:25 that, it's like, okay, guys, this is what I said on my Glover's podcast where, because you know,
49:29 he has a large prepper community and he really, really helps those guys out. And again, I'm not
49:32 anti that stuff. But it's like, all right, well, you got the $100,000 Raptor. You know, you've got
49:35 your go bag. You've got your, you know, hidden place up in the mountains that no one knows about
49:39 except for for you and everybody else. And you got your bunker and you got all that stuff.
49:42 Well, eventually there's going to be another chimp that outlives you. And all you've done is
49:46 make it easier for him to have supplies. Right. And so it's like, you've done all this time
49:50 and effort, you put all this into preparing for this life and none for the next one. And so it's
49:55 like, you know, you whatever point you meet your end, you're going to meet your maker. So why don't
50:01 you spend some time preparing for that meeting, right as a time as opposed to like preparing for if,
50:06 you know, there's a bomb that's dropped and all of a sudden we can't make cell phone calls.
50:10 Right. Yeah. I talk. My wife, she's not a prepper, but she definitely has a mindset of, well,
50:17 I need to have some things just in case. There's actually a empty 50 gallon barrel in our carport
50:24 right now that's hidden away that, you know, we're supposed to fill with water. And I'm just going,
50:30 I'm not doing that. Because I just kind of figure like, okay, look, anything where to happen,
50:35 believe it or not, Oklahoma City is like very high on any sort of target list. So we're probably
50:39 going to get wiped out there anyway. But at the same time, at the same time, it's like, look,
50:45 if there's truly Armageddon that's coming, ideally we're not here. Right. So what am I worried about?
50:51 We got zips app somewhere else. Yeah. I hope so. I hope it works like that. But
50:57 yeah, I mean, the idea of prepping, it seems odd to me that a Christian would be a prepper.
51:06 It just, to me, it's two things that they're a little incongruous. And I mean,
51:11 you know, no judgment. If that's something that you've decided to do, I don't think it's, again,
51:17 prepping is not salvific, I guess I would say. But at the same time, you know, where's your faith?
51:22 You're putting your faith in yourself in those times. And I think that there is an element that,
51:28 yeah, maybe you ought to put your faith somewhere else. Maybe put your faith in God.
51:32 Yeah. And don't hear what Jake's not saying. He's not saying that if you've got that 50 gallon
51:36 barrel that's full of water, that's not how you don't have faith. Right. It's not saying that
51:39 you don't have faith. But again, it's like, how much time and effort are you putting into that
51:43 versus, you know, the salvation of your children or the rest of the people that are in your group.
51:47 And there's reasonable responses. I mean, we live in Oklahoma, right? So I think the first 72
51:52 are on you and all that kind of thing are just very smart at a minimum. Because if you go through
51:57 a catastrophe, I mean, there are issues. I've got a friend who went through a tornado several years
52:03 ago and he was giving a safety speech before a big meeting. And one of his recommendations is
52:07 that he mounted a gun safe inside of his tornado shelter because when he got wiped out and came out,
52:13 he said, but then 15 minutes looters were coming through his house. What was the left of his house?
52:18 You know, so there are realities. I don't know that prepping for the zombie apocalypse is
52:23 necessarily the right thing, but prepping for what could, you know, happen, whether it's, you know,
52:28 natural or not, you know, go for it. Yeah. Which I guess if you're a non-believer,
52:33 and you are prepping for the zombie apocalypse, that means you're not going to get zipsapped
52:37 somewhere else when there is that fall. And so you do whatever it takes to survive for as long
52:41 as possible. Because the next slide is going to be really hot. It's not going to be very fun for
52:45 you. Wonder if this. I'm sorry. I'm going to go down this is zombie apocalypse trail real quick.
52:50 I wonder if the rapture literally just the shells of our bodies now soulless are the zombies.
52:57 You know what guys, we're going to leave that rocking issue.
53:03 No, I don't want to I don't want to see any more legs that I just want to bother everyone listening
53:11 and watching this right now. That is the end of our discussion of Genesis 12. But guys,
53:14 come back here. That's right. Come back here next week where we're going to dig into Genesis 13
53:21 and 14. So we're back up to do in a couple of chapters. So Genesis 13 and 14 for next week,
53:26 but before I let you go, we are going to do a quick resilience boost out on Daunton live
53:28 permissions equipping men to push back darkness with content that for just spiritual mental and
53:32 physical resilience. Don't forget about the crossway starter set and the Logos Bible software.
53:35 And we have a donation link there in the show notes as well. Guys, undaunted.live/donate.
53:40 We can't do anything like guys, when I look back on the last few years of my dawn of life,
53:44 if we didn't have donors, we'd if we didn't have guys like you given five bucks a month,
53:47 25 bucks a month to what we were doing, we would not have been able to do the forging table because
53:51 we wouldn't have had the money to put all this stuff together and to take the risks that we're
53:54 doing. But guys, because we have, we have become the number one podcast in the world for Christian
53:59 men. And that's because of you guys and what we've been able to do. So if you want more guys around
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54:12 Wherever you're listening to this, please subscribe, rate and leave us a positive five-star review.
54:16 If you want to come speak live at your event or on your podcast, shoot me an email to info
54:20 at undonton.live. That's i-n-f-o at undonton.live. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook
54:26 and check out our website for everything else, including how to donate to keep more content like
54:29 this coming your way. Just go to www.undonton.live. And as always, we want to thank the band Holy Name
54:34 for allowing us to use their music for our content. The music on this podcast is our song Perpetua,
54:39 which is off their self-titled debut album on Face Down Records. The links are in the description.
54:44 I'm your host, Kyle Thompson. Remember, keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual,
54:50 mental and physical resilience. Keep seeking the lion of Judah.
55:20 [end]
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