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1:18
This is Undaunted Life, a Man's Podcast.
1:21
I'm your host Kyle Thompson.
1:23
Let's get into it.
1:25
Welcome back to the Forging Table.
1:26
The mission of Undaunted Life is equipping men to push back darkness with content that
1:29
forges spiritual, mental, and physical resilience.
1:32
At the Forging Table, you'll see a group of regular guys foraging spiritual resilience
1:35
by digging into God's Word, and we're welcoming all of you to come along on that journey with
1:39
us.
1:40
That's Derek.
1:41
That's Eric.
1:42
That's Robert.
1:43
Guys, we're digging into Matthew 25 today.
1:44
Now, before we really get into this, I didn't preempt you all before we started recording.
1:46
But I want you all, as I tell my example, to think about a time that you were woefully
1:51
underprepared, not just underprepared, but woefully underprepared.
1:56
Now, you can do it where it ended up being great in the end, and it's a happy ending,
2:01
or it just didn't go well at all.
2:03
So mine as I went on a hunt, this would have been the end of 2022, and I'm hunting on the
2:10
private land of this guy, and he's a fan of the show, and so he brings me out there, and
2:13
we're going to be hunting red stag.
2:15
And so the thing was, is I did not grow up hunting, and so I default a lot to other people.
2:22
Like when I'm on a hunting trip, because I'm usually hunting with people that have been
2:25
hunting for like 30 plus years.
2:27
And so I typically just kind of let them wipe my butt for me, because it's like, "Well,
2:31
I don't need to have everything.
2:32
I don't need to know everything," because these guys know everything.
2:34
Well, we show up out there, and I basically show up with my rifle and my clothes, and
2:40
because I figured they would have everything else, and the main guy, he forgot his range
2:44
finder.
2:45
Now, if you're on open land, right, and there's a bunch of canyons and a bunch of uneven terrain,
2:50
and all that kind of stuff, you kind of need to know how far your shot is.
2:54
And so we find these red stag, we're on this hill, and there's like canyons in between
2:58
us, and then there's two stag on the other side of this hill.
3:02
Now with the canyon in between us, that kind of messes with your death perception a little
3:05
bit.
3:06
And so I get set up on the tripod, and I'm ready to shoot, and I ask for a range, and the
3:11
guy who was with the landowner goes, "100 yards," and I was like, "Cool, you know, I'm dialed
3:15
in.
3:16
I shoot."
3:17
Nothing.
3:18
The animals don't drop, they don't run, like dirt doesn't fly, nothing.
3:22
And I'm like, "Are they in shock?
3:24
Did I kill them so good that they're not moving?"
3:28
And so I ran the bolt, and as opposed to doing what I knew I should have done in hindsight,
3:33
which was realized that I probably shot way too low, it's farther than I thought it is,
3:37
I took the exact same shot again, exact same outcome.
3:40
No movement from the animals, and then they kind of looked to their right, and they see
3:44
us, and they're just like, "Weirdos," and they just kind of like walk off.
3:48
And like, "I'm sick to my stomach," because I'm like, "That's the only shot I'm going
3:50
to give.
3:51
This is terrible."
3:52
The guy who made the call, you know, he was sick to his stomach.
3:55
Now eventually I did get a stag, you know, it worked out well, but that was just one of
3:58
those things where it wasn't the landowner's fault.
4:02
The guy who invited me on the hunt, it wasn't his fault that there wasn't a range finder,
4:05
it was my hunt.
4:06
And I knew it was my hunt, and I could have bought a range finder, I could have borrowed
4:09
a range finder, but I showed up unprepared.
4:12
Like I had my rifle in my gear, and I thought that was enough, or I didn't have all my gear,
4:16
I had my rifle in my clothes, and I thought that was enough, but I was woefully underprepared.
4:20
But thank goodness, the Lord provided, got to eat that red stag, and have his head up
4:24
in our living room, and all that kind of worked out.
4:26
So I took my time with my story, so that you guys could think about that time when you
4:30
were woefully underprepared.
4:32
And so if y'all don't all have stories, we don't all have to go into story time, but
4:36
light it up.
4:37
Let's go.
4:38
I think every once a month, I still have the dream that I've got some test that I'm
4:45
going to take that I have never heard of anything on the test.
4:49
It's just like, what the heck am I doing?
4:52
What is this class I'm in?
4:53
So you're only not prepared in your dreams, but for the rest of the time, you're okay.
4:58
We lived in North Carolina for four years.
5:00
My dad coached at Appalachian State, and that is how you say at Appalachian State.
5:07
And we lived up on a portion of the mountain where, and it was just wilderness.
5:12
It was awesome.
5:13
Like I, and my parents are so good, they just let me go do whatever, and I would go blaze
5:17
my own trail literally.
5:19
I'd find all sorts of things, old cemeteries from the 1800s and whatnot, that were just
5:23
literally in the middle of nowhere.
5:25
But I do remember one specific time being out walking around, and I had just on a whim,
5:32
decided I'm just going to go exploring.
5:34
And usually I had a few things on me, like a pocket knife or, you know, brush guard or
5:39
something.
5:40
And this time I just went and I got out in the middle of the middle of nowhere, nobody
5:44
around, nobody could hear me if I needed something and I came up on some wild dogs in it.
5:52
And I did not know that they were there until the main one came out right smack dab in front
5:59
of me with its jowls, you know, I mean, its teeth were bare.
6:04
It's dripping.
6:05
You know, I was like, I am about to die.
6:08
And I, and I reached for my pockets and I was like, I didn't literally brought nothing
6:13
and there's nothing to grab.
6:15
I'm just at the mercy of this dog.
6:17
And thankfully, we just kind of looked at each other and I was scared.
6:20
I probably was all, I was white, I'm sure as a sheet and it, yeah, I think it felt sorry
6:26
for me.
6:27
And let you go, let me go and walk back into the grass.
6:30
I, I backed up for about 150 feet before I turned around and I went right back to the
6:35
house.
6:36
He got a neat and just here recently, he's like, no, I'm gonna let this one pass.
6:39
We'll see you next time, but that's it.
6:42
All right.
6:43
Yeah.
6:44
Sure.
6:45
Yeah, I'll go.
6:46
Mine's going to do with flying, obviously, I guess doing an upgrade ride going to a higher
6:53
level, I guess, and flying with a former top gun instructor like Maverick type deal.
7:00
So, pretty good friend or pretty good guy, get along great, kind of a good relationship.
7:05
So I'm kind of maybe lackadaisical about it.
7:08
And it's a night ride, I haven't flown nights in a while, flying on NVGs and nothing went
7:15
right.
7:16
Get there, I'm doing these different approaches we're supposed to be doing pretty like high
7:22
angle stuff.
7:23
And he's like, what are you doing?
7:24
He's like, you're going to kill us.
7:27
I was like, yeah, I haven't done this in a while, obviously.
7:30
He's like here, fix the, it's an FMS is what we call it.
7:36
And it's like, it's going to give you guidance on how to get in here.
7:38
And when's the last time you did that for all this night stuff, man, it's been a while.
7:42
He's like, all right, we're going to leave.
7:44
We're going to go somewhere else.
7:45
And I want you to try it.
7:46
I want you to build me an approach from this height to this little airfield.
7:49
All right.
7:50
Let's do it.
7:51
So I built it in there.
7:52
Yeah.
7:53
All right.
7:54
Fly the approach.
7:55
I couldn't even get close.
7:56
But I ended up being like 5000 feet too high and he's like, we're going to do this.
8:00
We're going to do this right again.
8:01
And we're going to talk through it.
8:03
And it was awesome.
8:04
I mean, it was not awesome that I was not prepared, it was awesome the way he took me
8:11
back.
8:12
He sat me down.
8:13
He's like, look, dude, I know you know how to fly the plane.
8:15
I know you know how to do all this stuff.
8:17
You just haven't done it in a recent amount of time.
8:20
You're not current.
8:21
Let's go learn how to do it again so you don't kill yourself or anybody you fly with later.
8:25
That's it.
8:26
Yeah.
8:27
I guess that makes sense.
8:28
Maybe I should prepare better next time.
8:29
That's awesome.
8:30
And you're here.
8:31
Again, I still don't understand how planes work, but I'm glad that yours worked and got
8:34
you back down on the ground.
8:36
That's insane.
8:37
All right.
8:38
Bring up the blues.
8:39
So mine was 14, 15 years old, I'd ridden motorcycles just a little bit, but with a buddy
8:42
of mine in Southeast Oklahoma.
8:46
And they had two motorcycles.
8:48
One he was pretty experienced, but he of course wants to, you know, use his motorcycle and
8:51
then there's the old clunker.
8:53
And he's like, well, once you go ahead and ride that one, we're going to go on some
8:55
trails.
8:56
I was like, okay.
8:57
And he goes, oh, yeah, there's no brakes on it.
9:00
So the only way you can slow down, I don't know a lot about motorcycles, but you got a
9:05
gear down.
9:06
And I was like, Oh, yeah.
9:07
That's no problem.
9:08
I had no experience.
9:09
All right.
9:10
whatsoever.
9:11
I had such a modicum of experience that had gone into it.
9:14
It was just.
9:15
So anyways, we're taking off most of its all acceleration.
9:18
I don't even have to use the brakes, you know, and never once a while I'm like, okay, I kind
9:21
of get the hang of it.
9:22
You know, we opened it up a few times.
9:24
I geared down just to kind of slow down.
9:25
I'm like, all right, this feels good.
9:27
So we're going through this narrow field of trees and it is thick on either side.
9:32
And we're climbing up this hill.
9:34
And then as soon as it gets to the top of the hill, the trail darts off to the right.
9:39
Well, I see him right as I'm cresting over, darting off to the right.
9:43
And I go straight into the trees.
9:46
No helmet, couldn't gear down, flying at probably 30 35 by this time.
9:53
And absolutely just ram it right in between a tree, bent the fork on it so bad.
9:59
And by the grace of God, I did not just bust my head open, like slamming a watermelon on
10:05
concrete.
10:06
There was one small clearing of trees right off to the left, and I don't even remember
10:10
how it happened.
10:11
I somehow got pushed that direction and ended in where that clearing of trees was.
10:15
So that was kind of the best I had probably.
10:17
Wow, that's I have the lamest story out of all these.
10:22
There was no near death experience, just like failure.
10:25
So okay, great, I'll get better with my stories, but that's probably how I should have worked
10:29
out.
10:30
I tee it up and you guys all spike it.
10:31
But the reason why that kind of came to mind when I was thinking through this is because
10:34
we're still even in Matthew 25, we're in all of this discourse.
10:38
And you know, we're going to wrap up all of that discourse here in Matthew 25.
10:42
And you know, ultimately, they're one of the biggest things that you can look at when you're
10:46
looking at this discourse is that we need to be prepared, that we need, we don't know
10:51
when the Lord is coming back and we need to make sure we have our affairs in order.
10:55
And you know, there are things that we can do that are foolish along the way.
10:58
There's things that we can do where we put the focus on other people when we shouldn't.
11:01
But I just want to go ahead and set that as the stage before we dig into Matthew 25.
11:06
So in Matthew 25, we're going to start out with verses one through 13th.
11:09
So Derek, if you could hit that for us, let's go.
11:14
Then the kingdom of heaven will be like 10 virgins who took their lamps and went to meet
11:18
the bridegroom.
11:19
Five of them were foolish and five were wise for when the foolish took their lamps, they
11:25
took no oil with them, but the wise took flask of oil with their lamps.
11:29
As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept, but at midnight, there was
11:34
a cry.
11:35
Here is the bridegroom come out to meet him.
11:38
Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps and the foolish said to the wise, give
11:44
us some of your oil for our lamps are going out.
11:47
But the wise answered saying, since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather
11:53
to the dealers and buy for yourselves.
11:55
And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came and those who were ready were went in
12:01
with him to the marriage feast and the door was shut afterward, the feast and the door.
12:07
Oops, sorry.
12:08
Afterward, the other virgins came also saying, the Lord, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
12:14
But he answered, really, I say to you, I do not know you.
12:17
Perhaps therefore, for when, for you know, neither the day nor the hour.
12:23
So verse 13, it's like, okay, the bridegroom, when the bridegroom shows up, it'll be too
12:27
late to get ready, right?
12:29
And so the bridegroom here is obviously Jesus as we talk through these first 13 verses.
12:34
But the Reformation study Bible had a really interesting note on this first section one
12:39
through 13, and it was short lived zeal is inadequate preparation.
12:45
And the first time I read it through by myself, I was like, I wasn't really even thinking
12:49
that way contextually, but it's like, when you think about short lived zeal, as soon
12:53
as I read that note, I thought false Creek.
12:56
So if you're not from Oklahoma, false Creek is like the main kids, it's like the world's
13:01
largest, isn't it?
13:02
Is it church camp?
13:03
Yeah, enormous use church camp, like they've got, you know, I went there once back on like
13:07
10th grade or something like that, but it's just absolutely enormous.
13:09
I think it's big on like Baptist circles or whatever.
13:12
But anyway, so when you're there, it's worship several times a day and you're with all your
13:16
friends and the food's good and you're playing games and, you know, it's dramatic and the
13:21
music and the worship is really, you know, dramatic and it drives a lot of emotion and
13:27
kids are getting saved.
13:28
And there's all these rededications and it's just like this thing.
13:31
And then you get back on the bus on Sunday and you go to wherever home is and then you
13:35
just kind of get back into your normal routine.
13:37
But there's so much short lived zeal, but that does not prepare you, right?
13:42
That doesn't, the zeal doesn't convert you, the excitement, the tears, like, no, it's
13:46
not that that no those things matter, but it's like that's not the thing that gets the job
13:51
done as it were.
13:52
So that was just an interesting reframing for me in those first 13 verses.
13:56
Yeah.
13:57
I thought it was interesting.
13:58
I don't know that I knew this, but what I understand about that, the symbolism in the
14:04
passage is that in that time there would be a betrothal and then there would be this time
14:10
period where they were, in essence, I guess, what we would call engaged, but there wasn't
14:17
a whole lot happening.
14:18
And then the way it would happen is that the bridegroom or the groom would just show up
14:24
and be like, all right, and it's time to get married.
14:29
And that's what that symbolizing here is this whole period of kind of this waiting period
14:33
and they're getting drowsy and tired or whatever.
14:36
And I think what I also, it was interesting to, sorry, a lot of symbolism here, but I was
14:41
just trying to make sense of this.
14:43
There were 10 virgins and I think in a marriage procession, there were 10 lamps and it's not
14:51
surprising that then oil is represented here as it relates to priestly anointing and that
14:59
sort of thing.
15:00
So a lot of symbolism in here, but I did not know that there was a betrothal in a time period
15:05
and then just like a surprise, let's go, let's get married kind of thing in that time period.
15:10
One thing's for sure.
15:11
It would have been a lot easier to win my bride over if I just had to show up.
15:14
You know, my goodness.
15:15
I had to work.
15:16
That's not how I worked out.
15:17
You just wink and flex.
15:18
I was like, she denied me three times, three times before I could finally hear that.
15:24
What were the reasons?
15:25
Tell me more.
15:26
Yeah.
15:27
You have to go.
15:28
This may not be the right podcast.
15:30
Well, give us, give us the 30,000 of you.
15:34
What do you fly at?
15:35
What do you know?
15:36
Is that inaccurate?
15:37
Do people get that high?
15:38
30?
15:39
30?
15:40
Okay.
15:41
I had to check with the pilot.
15:42
So give us like the 30,000.
15:43
Like what were the generalized reasons for not?
15:44
When you dated and the girl just wasn't right and you used to use the, it's not you.
15:47
It's me.
15:48
Sure.
15:49
It was kind of one of those, you know?
15:50
Just three times.
15:51
Yeah.
15:52
She was basically at a point in her life, which showed incredible spiritual maturity for her,
15:55
where she really just did not feel like God was calling her to date.
16:00
And she just felt like she was doing what she needed to do.
16:02
She was focusing on college, she was focusing on her relationship with the Lord.
16:06
And so I would wait, wouldn't get creepy or anything else.
16:10
Once I started calling her and then I got to the point that she started kind of backing
16:12
away a little bit.
16:13
I'd stop calling.
16:14
I'd go about five, six, seven months, I'd come up with another idea.
16:18
I rode in my journal the first night I met her, it's kind of corny, as I reward your servant
16:24
April is the one.
16:25
I knew hands down I was supposed to marry her.
16:26
Okay.
16:27
And the first moment I met her.
16:30
And so not wanting to be the creepy guy that wasn't in any way going to have a chance
16:34
later.
16:35
I immediately backed away and then I'd wait six or seven months and I'd come up with some
16:39
other reason.
16:40
There was one time, which was the last time with the one that worked is I was driving
16:44
by skydiving.
16:45
I was going by, I had a tournament or something like that and was driving by and there was
16:52
a skydiving place.
16:54
And she had skydiving before sort of the conversations we had had, she talked about how much she
16:57
loved it.
16:58
So I was willing to jump out of anything.
17:00
It didn't matter.
17:01
I'm falling for you.
17:02
Yeah.
17:03
That's the song I put on her ringtone after that.
17:09
No.
17:10
And so I called her up and asked her, I said, "Was this the place that you were skydiving?
17:12
I'm really thinking about going skydiving and didn't know if you'd want to go with me
17:15
again?"
17:16
And I had no desire to go skydiving and zero.
17:19
You know, why would you jump out of a perfect place?
17:21
But anyways, that in essence it opened up because I had known her family a little bit
17:25
about something that was going on with her family and led to us, you know, getting together
17:30
and going out for coffee.
17:31
And then three weeks later, I had a ring on her finger.
17:33
Wow.
17:34
It sounds like there are probably weeks later, I would have known it three days later.
17:37
I already knew that she was the one.
17:39
I just took me three weeks to buy the ring.
17:41
Sounds like there are more important details to that story that you're maybe withholding.
17:45
There's a lot.
17:46
Yes.
17:47
You think maybe we could, you know, get on the show and talk about that?
17:49
We'll be able to do that.
17:50
Okay.
17:51
Sounds good.
17:52
But the only cool story I got is when Kelsey and I had been dating like six months, she tried
17:54
to break up with me and I told her no.
17:56
That's not an option, right?
17:59
I was like, she's like, I just don't think things are working.
18:01
I was like, I disagree with your assessment.
18:03
And then we just stayed dating.
18:04
It's just like, yeah, it was, yeah.
18:08
So to this day, I'm still holding her hostage.
18:10
So if she wants out, it's just like, no, I completely disagree.
18:13
But so I, again, I really like this story again, Jesus, you don't really hear about
18:17
the parable 10 versions very often.
18:19
But I wanted to make one quick note before we moved on versus eight and nine.
18:22
And so verse eight, the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil for our lamps
18:26
are going out.
18:27
But the wise answered saying, since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather
18:32
to the dealers and buy for yourself.
18:36
In verse eight, the fools are always looking to someone else to kind of wipe their tushies
18:41
form.
18:42
Yeah.
18:43
And how often do they just go ahead and do it?
18:45
Because you know, whether it's your kids or it's your friends or it's your stupid uncle
18:49
or for your stupid brother or something like that, to where they're, they're just, they
18:53
didn't show up to the camp, you know, with all their stuff.
18:55
They didn't do it.
18:56
And just we're reinforcing that behavior by taking care of them and not letting them learn
19:00
a lesson.
19:01
And a culture of that has perpetuated a lack of resilience and mint, a lack of resilience
19:05
in society and everything else.
19:07
I mean, it just, because they know that there's always going to be something there that will
19:09
bail them out.
19:10
You know, they're never going to truly be without, they're never going to be in a ditch, starving,
19:18
you know, because of one relative or something else.
19:21
There's always a fallback plan that's there.
19:23
When it's like, we don't want anyone, we talked about this in the last few weeks.
19:26
No one ever wants to be uncomfortable.
19:28
They don't want to be out of their comfort zone.
19:29
But like, of course, your father shouldn't let you freeze to death or starve to death,
19:34
right?
19:35
That would not be being a good father.
19:36
But if you make a mistake and then you just want daddy to fix it for you, it's like, what
19:41
are you learning?
19:42
Like daddy is actually doing you a disservice by being the snow plow for your life, like
19:47
pushing all the other things out of your way.
19:49
But anything else on one through 13 before we move on to one of the most?
19:53
I'm going to add one more thing.
19:54
You had to do this with your boys yet.
19:56
My son would just randomly, as I was walking by when he was younger, he would jump off
20:01
a couch and he would jump onto my arms.
20:04
Yeah.
20:05
If I wasn't looking, he would still do it.
20:06
I'd have to catch him under the corner of my eye and I'd turn around and catch him real
20:08
fast.
20:09
I'd walk past the stairs and he would be hiding like, you know, just in a corner waiting for
20:13
me to go by where he would leap at my arms.
20:17
And if I wasn't really paying attention, he was going to fall and I told him every time
20:20
I was like, son, you can't do that.
20:21
All right.
20:22
Daddy will be there to catch you, but I have to know that you're going to jump at me.
20:26
And there was one time, he was like, that's it.
20:28
Like I let him fall.
20:29
All right.
20:30
I know he's going to do it.
20:31
And I could see him creeping and I'm like, ah, some decent carpet.
20:34
That's not going to be too bad.
20:35
And I literally let him bite it and the look in his eye of just complete lack of trust.
20:41
You know, you have betrayed me in every way, but it did it taught him that dad's not, you
20:45
know, you've got to make it can actually got to know that dad's there before you just jump.
20:50
Yeah.
20:51
I have an irrational fear of putting my leg or be sitting on a couch and putting my legs
20:56
on like a a a coffee table or an ottoman and having my knees like, yes, just outstretched
21:02
and not knowing where my kids are.
21:05
And then coming up and jumping and just like inverting my legs.
21:10
Like you've seen an old cartoon.
21:12
Yes.
21:13
Well, the way I took care of that is like, I knew that that was coming.
21:15
So I was prepared for it.
21:17
And so I wanted to teach my sons the art of the juke.
21:20
And so I never even tried to catch him, right?
21:22
I just like immediately got out of the way because like, no, no, that problem's not coming
21:26
anywhere near me.
21:27
So that kind of worked out a slight concussion, you know, two years old, like it's, you get
21:32
a bunch of those, right?
21:33
You just kind of rack them up as long as they don't end up playing football, right?
21:35
That how it works out.
21:37
Anything else on one through 13.
21:38
All right, let's hit the parable of the talents.
21:41
So the most talented man at the table, choose to read 14 through 30, who's going to be the
21:49
one.
21:50
So you Eric, the most talented, I think you refer to you one time as the OG, oh, gee.
21:56
Oh, gee.
21:57
No, he's on the.
21:58
He's on the old crew.
21:59
Yeah.
22:00
He was here for the very, very first recording of the fortune table.
22:03
It's true.
22:04
Oh, God, it doesn't mean like best guy.
22:06
All right.
22:07
14 through 30 for it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants, servants
22:14
and entrusted them to his property to want to give five talents to another two to another
22:20
one to each, according to his ability, then he went away.
22:25
He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them.
22:29
And he had made five talents more.
22:32
So also he who had the two talents made two talents more.
22:37
And he had received the one talent, went and dug in the ground and hit his master's money.
22:43
Now after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
22:49
And he, excuse me, he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents
22:53
more saying, master, you delivered to me five talents here.
22:56
I've made five talents more.
22:58
As master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant.
23:01
You have been faithful over a little.
23:02
I will set you over much.
23:04
Enter into the joy of your master.
23:07
And he who also had the two talents came forward saying, master, you delivered me two talents
23:12
here.
23:13
I've made two talents more.
23:14
His master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant.
23:17
You've been faithful over a little.
23:19
I will set you over much.
23:21
Enter into the joy of your master.
23:24
He who had received the one talent came forward saying, master, I knew you to be a hard man,
23:28
reaping where you did not so, gathering where you scattered no seed.
23:31
So I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground.
23:36
Here you have what is yours, but his master answered him, you wicked and slothful servant.
23:42
You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scatter no seed.
23:47
Then you on event invested my money with the bankers, and my coming I would have had received
23:52
what was my own with interest.
23:54
So take the talent from him and give it to him who has 10 talents for every, for to everyone
24:00
who has been given more than he will have an abundance.
24:06
But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away and cast the worthless
24:11
servant into the outer darkness.
24:14
In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
24:17
So there's so much here, obviously it's a very famous parable of Jesus.
24:21
Just to kind of set the scene a little bit, a talent was the highest form of currency known
24:26
at this time, and so to Jesus's audience, you know, describing, you know, five talents,
24:31
two talents, one talent like that, that was a lot.
24:33
And so that was about 6,000 days wages from the research that I did.
24:37
So that we're looking at 20 years of income, right?
24:40
So I don't know what kind of a bill that would be an American currency, but that would be
24:44
like a ridiculous, ridiculous bill that basically have, but that was a talent.
24:49
But I loved the way the Moody commentary and the John MacArthur commentary talked about
24:54
this because there's a lot of things that you could key in on on the section of Scripture,
24:58
but it's like, according to his ability is where the focus really is because there are
25:03
different levels given initially, five, two and one, but there's the same expectation.
25:10
And the expectation doesn't have anything to do with returns or rewards has to do with
25:15
faithfulness.
25:17
And so the guy that was given five talents is a more talented guy when it comes to the
25:23
creation of more talents being being the currency, right?
25:27
Two, the guy that got two is less than the five and the guy that got one is less than
25:31
the two and the five.
25:33
And so people look at people that seem to be anointed.
25:36
They look at people that seem to have God's favor.
25:38
And then there's other people that just don't have favor.
25:41
Maybe they're not as good looking.
25:42
They're not as eloquent.
25:43
They're not as smart.
25:44
They're not as, you know, athletic, whatever the thing might be.
25:47
But the thing that I think is one of the main points of this particular story is it's
25:51
like, no, faithfulness is the key.
25:54
And if you are faithful with what God has given you from a talent perspective, no pun
25:58
intended is important because he's entrusting it to you to basically have you prove to him
26:05
that you can be entrusted with more.
26:07
And so I think that really set the stage for me to look at this parable in a more accurate
26:12
light.
26:13
What do you guys think?
26:14
Yeah, I mean, I wrote down specifically, fidelity is required in the same measure despite
26:17
difference in measures given.
26:19
So there's equal reward.
26:22
So there's perfect equity.
26:24
There's a lot of different takes.
26:26
I think you can go with it whenever I was reading through this.
26:29
I think one of the things, and this could be way off that really resonated with me as
26:33
I think of, if I just disciple my own kids as a Christian and I affect no one else for
26:38
the kingdom of God, is that somehow me guarding my talents?
26:42
I need to guard the investment that God has given me, the talents that God has given me.
26:47
But I also need to do and be so much more intentional also in being able to mentor others, to
26:53
pour into others, to evangelize others, to go outside my house, to go.
26:58
What Christ has called us to do is to go.
27:01
And so I don't know.
27:02
It was a different take.
27:03
It wasn't fidelity.
27:04
It wasn't necessarily like talents and, you know, your ability, it was kind of a different
27:08
way to look at it.
27:09
Well, there's, there's one thing that runs out regardless of your socioeconomic status,
27:14
your immutable characteristics, and that's time.
27:16
And so when you get to a certain point, whether it's on, you know, just a personal level or
27:20
as a business or something like that, you have to look at time, investment in a very,
27:25
very important way.
27:26
So you'll listen to these entrepreneur coaches or things like that, it's like, look, whatever
27:30
you can automate, automate, whatever you can hire out, hire out, only do the things that
27:35
you can do.
27:36
That's very common business advice.
27:38
But also it's do the thing that has the highest potential of the highest return.
27:43
And so, for instance, this is just an example for undaunted life.
27:46
And so I want to make sure I frame this properly because I want to, to say this in all humility.
27:52
But a lot of people get excited about starting their own show.
27:54
And so they've been listening to my show for a year or two and then they'll send me an email
27:58
of the blue and it's like, Hey, Kyle, I'm going to start a show.
28:00
I'm buying all my equipment and blah, blah, blah, I'm setting a launch date.
28:03
I want you to be episode one, like, you know, can I interview you for an hour to be on my
28:07
show?
28:08
And again, I, I don't want to sound like I'm hovering above anybody here, but I'm just,
28:12
you know, being practical.
28:13
So it's like what the request actually is is, okay, so you want me to give you an hour
28:19
of my work week so that I can spread my message to your non-existent audience.
28:25
That's what they're honestly asking.
28:27
And so if I'm thinking about the greatest reward or the greatest return on investment,
28:33
that's very, very low return because as I've talked about on the show quite a bit, I get
28:37
about five hours of uninterrupted, uninterrupted work time a day, Monday through Friday, right?
28:41
Just because, you know, kids and schedule and those types of things about five hours.
28:45
So I'm going to give up 20% of a workday to literally do nothing except for just, I may
28:51
as well have just talked into, you know, talked into my closet.
28:55
And so some people don't really understand, maybe they get a little bit offended, but
28:59
I'm like, Hey, you know, I'm not currently doing any interviews with, you know, on shows
29:03
that I've never been on before shows without already established audiences.
29:07
And typically it goes well, but that's part of protecting the talents that have been entrusted
29:11
to me is I have a finite amount of time of which I don't know how much there is left
29:16
to be able to equip as many men around the globe as possible to push back darkness and
29:21
to share the gospel with as many people in my style as possible.
29:25
And so taking that hour to formulate a plan to get my message out to hundreds of thousands
29:32
or millions more people is more advantageous overall to the mission than doing the thing
29:37
that would be convenient for the party that did the inviting.
29:41
So does that kind of make sense in terms of like protection?
29:44
Absolutely.
29:45
Yeah, I've got something, you know, in my, in my world from a medical standpoint, there
29:48
are something, there's something called normative values, which means that we can be very objective
29:53
and how we measure things as it relates to fitness, for instance.
29:57
And so if you want to measure somebody's VO2 max, which is basically a measure of fitness,
30:02
you can do that.
30:03
And then there are normative values based on their age range that would say, Hey, they're
30:07
in a average below average above average category based on the results.
30:12
A lot of people that come in to see me are sitting below average on a lot of things.
30:19
And they feel like they are that that's just kind of maybe they recognize there's a problem,
30:23
but they don't know where they can get to.
30:25
This is assuming they don't have some major issues going on health wise.
30:29
And so what what I will tell somebody is like, look, how old are you?
30:33
Okay, you're 50.
30:34
So it is, it's expected that by the age of 50, you're going to have less muscle mass than
30:39
you did at the age of 25.
30:41
It's just, that's just how physiology works.
30:44
You lose it a little bit over time after about the age of 35 or 40.
30:48
So you're not going to have as much, let's say you've gotten 90% left of what you had
30:53
when you were 20 right now, you're only using 50% of the 90%.
30:58
And so what we, what we do is I, as we build a plan to help them maximize what they can
31:03
have.
31:04
They may not be ever as strong as they were when they were 20 or 25, but we can maximize
31:08
what they have.
31:09
So when I read this, I'm thinking to myself, there are a lot of people working about a
31:12
50% capacity.
31:13
And they think maybe that's all they can do in reality.
31:17
What they've been given it as a, a capacity for so much more.
31:22
They just have to push themselves.
31:23
That's why I really appreciate, you know, the encouragement you give your audience of
31:28
doing things like redlining, you know, you got to have to push your limits and you never
31:32
know how far you can go until you've pushed your limits.
31:35
So even like on camping trips and hiking things that we do, one of the things we do with some
31:39
of those things is we'll, we'll, I'll build them specifically because they're going to
31:43
push people's limits because they're not going to know, they're going to look at that
31:46
and be like, wait, we're going up there, we're going to do that.
31:49
Yeah.
31:50
And you can do it.
31:51
And I've never had someone that finished that, that regretted it.
31:55
You know, they, they all were like, I didn't know I could do that.
31:58
And I'm so glad I did.
31:59
And then you know what, the next time I have something hard that pushes them physically,
32:02
they're going to remember, they're like, you know what, I did this one thing that one thing
32:06
at one time, I can do this this time, you know, that's what I talk about.
32:10
It's like a resilience deposit.
32:11
It's making it a deposit in the resilience bank account.
32:13
That's why I tell people and I've told people for at least once a week you need to be red
32:16
lining.
32:17
So whatever it is you're doing, if you're doing Jiu Jitsu and, you know, four rounds is
32:19
about all you're doing in your guests, you do a fifth round and you push.
32:23
And if you do that with running and biking and air dying and lifting, you do that extra
32:27
rep or that extra set or something like that again, within reason, don't be stupid and
32:30
hurt yourself.
32:31
But like you're, you're making a deposit.
32:34
So the next time something difficult comes up in your life, you have something you can
32:38
withdraw from you have a resilience, a little piggy bank where you can, you know, take
32:42
some withdrawals because it's like, I told someone today, I was like, look, pain's guaranteed
32:46
for everybody.
32:47
It's either the pain of use or the pain of non use.
32:49
And currently you're sitting in the pain in a non use category.
32:51
When it comes to your body, it's like, we get to choose our pain though, right?
32:55
You know, some of us, it's taken from us, you know, it's taken out of our hands because
32:58
accidents, ailments, sickness or something like that, but for the most part, that's not
33:02
where most people sit.
33:03
I think a lot of people too, they lose sight that every one of us deal with it.
33:06
Every one of us have to read every one of us are struggling.
33:08
Every one of us are pushing everyone's for challenging.
33:10
But what we've done is those that have done it more have just grown our capacity for doing
33:15
it.
33:16
And we've embraced the now philosophy of doing it more.
33:19
Whereas other people that never do it, they think they can never get there and they think
33:23
that the people that are there, maybe they don't suffer like they used to suffer.
33:27
And we've all had to suffer.
33:28
Well, and redlining is very personal.
33:31
And so the problem is we compare ourselves.
33:34
So if we're on the track and there's some, you know, 22 year old kid that plays a lot
33:38
of your own sports and still is pretty athletic, and he's running, you know, hundreds that
33:42
day and he's running 10, 100s without really getting too gassed.
33:46
And then you go out there and buy the second or third one, like you think you're about
33:49
to die.
33:50
So you're comparing your red line to his red line.
33:52
No, you are, you need to look at your own self and see where you are redlining.
33:56
Okay.
33:57
You can't compare yourself to everybody else.
33:59
One of the best pieces of advice I did get was from one of my mentors when he was in
34:03
his 70s and he's like, Kyle, I've been the same weight, plus or minus five pounds, basically
34:07
since my 20s, and I never compare myself to the 18 year old version of myself or the
34:12
30 year old version of myself or whoever's in their 20s and in their physical prime.
34:16
Now, I compare myself to the people that are in my peer group and kind of see where I'm
34:20
at.
34:21
I'm 22 years old and I'm in phenomenal shape and when compared to the other people that
34:25
are in my cohort and as you age, like that should get easier and easier if you're used
34:31
to getting after it because I don't know what it's like for y'all growing up when we were
34:34
growing up.
34:35
If you turn 40, you were essentially dead, right?
34:38
Like you're 40 years old, like just get the nursing home thing.
34:41
When does your ARP card come in the mail?
34:44
Like, you know, you're, you're basically finished.
34:46
And now you have people that are coming into their physical prime when they're 40.
34:49
And now some of them have some, you know, assistance.
34:51
Yeah, they get, they get some assistance.
34:53
They've got some random stuff they bought from Swole Rhino dot com and then they inject
34:56
that and then they kind of get after it.
34:58
But there are ways to keep yourself healthy and good on your joints and good on your back
35:03
and spine and neck like as you age, but most people don't even come close to that.
35:07
So other stuff on the parable of talents.
35:10
One thing that I wanted to bring up is men innately in general cannot stand excuse makers.
35:19
Unless you are an excuse maker yourself and then you're fine with it, right?
35:22
But for the most part, men are allergic to people that make excuses and that's exactly
35:26
who this third man is.
35:27
So in this parable, the third man is obviously a non believer, but he's making excuses.
35:31
He's blaming the master.
35:33
He's framing the master in an unfair way.
35:35
But the reality is he is rowdy is he is just lazy.
35:39
He's cowardly.
35:40
Um, and at no point during this parable does he seem to be looking after anyone's interest
35:45
other than himself?
35:46
Because in this particular parable, he should have again, no pun intended should have been
35:50
focused on the interest of the master.
35:52
What does the master want?
35:54
What does the master's wants and desires and needs require of me?
35:58
How do I build a plan to do what's required of me for the benefit of the master?
36:03
Never came into the third guy's consideration because he was focused on him the entire time.
36:07
It's good.
36:09
Other thoughts.
36:10
We're sure we're your thought towards men because I can't stand men that complain.
36:14
I really, really have a hard time with it.
36:16
Unless I have established a trust with that man and he has proven a track record of not
36:22
being a complainer and then he has a moment that he's going through something difficult
36:27
and he bears to me the struggle that he's in in hopes of wanting to find encouragement
36:34
in those moments, whereas some people they have adopted as a philosophy and they constantly
36:39
want sympathy about everything that they do.
36:42
What is your philosophy and I don't know towards encouraging men that are complainers
36:46
and that are worse yet, that are complainers to their wives?
36:50
Yeah.
36:51
I think that sometimes can be one of the most detrimental things that you can do in a marriage.
36:56
If I found myself complaining, if I have a group of men that I'm going, guys, this is
37:00
what I'm dealing with.
37:01
I need some help.
37:02
I need you to give me some counsel on where I should go, not that I shouldn't talk to
37:05
my wife about the things that I'm going through, but this attitude of complaining consistently
37:10
I think has been, I hear all too often of a habit that men get into with their wives.
37:16
So I will say for me, I have a default mechanism of complaining because I'm very pessimistic.
37:22
And so nothing's ever good enough or right enough or convenient enough or like, that's
37:28
just kind of who I've been.
37:30
And so I have caught myself just complaining and I will do that to my wife.
37:36
And so I've had to really change the structure of the way I'm looking in the way I'm framing
37:41
these things.
37:42
But even just this morning, our pastor, we were going through Colossians and we were
37:44
in Colossians 1 and Colossians 1 beginning in verse 3, it says, "We always thank God,
37:50
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your
37:54
faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God's people."
37:58
And so really this letter to the Church of Colossae is starting with thankfulness.
38:05
And now he's going to be dropping some bombs here just very quickly, but he's starting
38:11
with positive, over negative.
38:14
He's starting with thankfulness as opposed to complaints.
38:18
And so for me, that is a sword that I continually have to sharpen because it's easy for me to
38:23
complain and complain about these smallest things.
38:26
But when you talk to a woman like Yeonmi Park, who was like 85 pounds as an adult and had
38:34
to escape from North Korea to China and then walk through the Mongolian desert in the middle
38:40
of winter during like a blizzard and like a, you know, crappy shoes and a thin coat just
38:45
to have the chance to get to South Korea to potentially have the chance one day to get
38:48
to America and all that.
38:49
And it's just like, I got really mad the other day because my wife, I turned off and
38:53
I had to reset it on my phone.
38:56
And I was just like, this is just as unrighteous.
38:59
There's an injustice happening right here of epic proportions.
39:01
And it's like, that's where I was in that moment.
39:04
And so for me, I super duper have to fight that.
39:06
So what about you guys?
39:07
Yeah.
39:08
I mean, I think on the other side too, like I'm pretty positive individual.
39:12
So a glass is typically halfway full.
39:14
There are things though that I probably need to talk through.
39:19
And so it's easy for me to bottle up negative feelings when they have some reality and they're
39:27
based in reality.
39:28
There's something to it.
39:29
It's not just me being a, you know, whatever, a complainer.
39:32
So I think on the other end of that, there are times when I need to be able to express
39:37
things, even if it's, you know, my wife or friend or whatever.
39:41
So I think it goes both ways, but you're right.
39:45
I feel the same way that you do about this constant complaining because I don't see the
39:52
value in it, honestly.
39:54
And to your point, Kyle, today, what Mark was saying was very true.
40:00
If we have an attitude of gratitude, as cliche as that may sound, it at least reframes things
40:07
for us.
40:08
We come at it from, we can come at it from a different angle when we realize how much
40:12
we have everybody stares at Derek, don't you can't just say I agree kind of off the thread
40:21
we were going on there, but this master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant.
40:29
And then later on, or right before that, there you go, verse 21, yep, enter, or enter the
40:40
joy, your master and then later on, it's complete opposite, right?
40:45
So, yeah, it just gives you the two, it's all pointed to the instill as we've gone through
40:51
this chapter, pointed to the end, and there's the two options persevere, get to the end
40:59
and have them say, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master.
41:04
That's just stuck out to me the whole time I was going through this this week.
41:08
Yeah, I will say one other thing about just being faithful in the small things, and there's
41:13
a lot of small things that it could be easy to not be faithful, and I remember somebody
41:18
one time they gave us an example of like going to the store and the whatever it was, it's
41:24
like $5 or something to make the cashier gave them the wrong change back.
41:28
And the gentleman that had bought the item walked away with more money than he should
41:33
have and instead of returning it, he just walked off, he's like, ask on a big deal, said you're
41:37
willing to sell your integrity for 75 cents, seriously, like it'd be faithful in the small
41:42
things, go give him money back.
41:43
And the same thing, like if you're going to talk to me about someone else, not that you
41:51
have, not pointing fingers, but if you're going to talk to me about someone else, you
41:53
know, bad, talk bad about them behind their back, then why am I to think you're not going
41:58
to go do that, you know, to someone else about me later on, you know?
42:02
So there's a lot of, when we look at people's fruit, so we can see where, and including
42:07
our own, just where are there some areas that we could be more faithful, we paying our taxes,
42:10
as we're showing up on time, we're paying our bills timely, we're reading our Bible, you
42:14
know, what are the small, small things?
42:16
And this is what I feel like the passage is at least talking about it on one level is
42:19
just, can God entrust us with something basic?
42:23
And if we're faithful, then maybe he'll entrust us a little bit more.
42:27
You know, I want to be a guy that is relied upon not because God needs me, but because
42:34
he wants to bless me and I've been faithful to be a blessing to his kingdom.
42:39
Absolutely.
42:40
So let's let's wrap up Matthew 25, we're going to go versus 31 through 46.
42:45
So whoever would like to hit that, take us to the end of Matthew 25.
42:49
When the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on
42:55
his glorious throne before him will be gathered all the nations and he will separate people
42:59
one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the
43:03
sheep on his right and the goats on his left, then the king will say to those on his right,
43:09
come you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
43:14
of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me food.
43:17
I was thirsty and you gave me drink.
43:19
I was a stranger and you welcomed me.
43:21
I was naked and you clothed me.
43:23
I was sick and you visited me and I was in prison and you came to me.
43:27
Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed
43:32
you or thirsty and give you a drink?
43:35
And when did we see you as stranger and welcome you or naked and clothed you?
43:40
And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?
43:43
And the king will answer them truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least
43:47
of these my brothers, you did it to me.
43:49
Then he will say to those on his left, depart from me you cursed into the eternal fire prepared
43:54
for the devil and his angels, for I was hungry and you gave me no food.
43:58
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink.
44:00
I was a stranger and you did not welcome me naked and you did not clothed me sick and
44:04
in prison and you did not visit me.
44:06
Then they also will answer saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a strange
44:11
or a naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?
44:14
Then he will answer them saying, truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of
44:19
the least of these, you did not do it to me.
44:23
And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
44:28
So one thing I wanted to point out here from the very beginning is verse 41, where it talks
44:34
about, you know, cursing them and them being put into the eternal fire and then verse 46,
44:40
the eternal punishment.
44:43
That's a hard verse.
44:44
Those are two hard verses for people that are, you know, in the camp of a loving God
44:48
wouldn't send anyone to hell because that's kind of a common modern heresy, which is like,
44:54
Oh, yeah, hell is not really a real place.
44:55
And a God of love will eventually it's universalism and they will eventually, no one will actually
45:00
suffer like that because a good God can't do that, which is just really a fundamental
45:04
misunderstanding of God's love and also God's glory and his righteousness and his perfection
45:09
as well.
45:10
So I didn't know if that that stood out to you guys, but it certainly did to me just because
45:14
I feel like I've just been surrounded by people that just hell's not real.
45:18
It's just figment, our imagination, like, you know, it can possibly be real because God
45:21
is love kind of a thing.
45:23
Yeah, yeah, I was trying to put this in I really was wrecking my brain.
45:27
It's like, Okay, where is this in the timeline?
45:29
And it seemed like this is when Jesus comes back, not in the air to gather his church,
45:33
but to come and judge.
45:36
And I was reminded of, I think when we did Matthew 13, the wheat and the tears and how,
45:41
you know, there's the, whatever the tears, whatever those are, weeds or whatever, they're
45:46
growing up amongst the fruit or what's going to be ultimately cut down on the wheat, cut
45:52
down.
45:53
And he said, No, just let it grow.
45:54
Just let it grow.
45:55
And then we'll separate it out.
45:56
So I see, I see that kind of in a different way, maybe settle a bit different, but same
46:02
seemingly motive here to, to let it all grow together and then to separate it at the end.
46:08
It seems very black and white, you're either in or you're out, you know, there's, there's
46:12
no gray area here.
46:14
And I just put a note here, it says faith has, faith has hands and feet.
46:19
And so it'd be very obvious to be the ones that will have been redeemed or saved in their
46:27
heart.
46:28
Have the Holy Spirit will be the ones that also will be performing acts of service for
46:32
those around them.
46:33
And the ones that are not are going to be like, wait, what, when, when, when, when were we
46:38
supposed to be doing that?
46:39
I'm sorry.
46:40
Yeah.
46:41
Yeah.
46:42
Last year or last week, whenever we were talking about false prophets, false teachings, you know,
46:48
and how easy it is, right?
46:49
I mean, as a culture, I think that, you know, we desire to believe, I believe in, in, in
46:55
kind of this monotheistic, we want, we want something that's neat and it has its package
47:00
of that, that God is on the throne, but we want it to fit within the cultural parameters
47:07
that we find accepting across the board.
47:10
And so to have something that does so clearly have judgment that there is one door, like
47:15
you had said earlier, and that's it, there's one choice or the other, there's only two,
47:19
there isn't a middle road that you can take.
47:21
And so I think off of that, that's all the false teachers and the prophets.
47:24
It's so easy that are out there that are embracing this universalism that, you know, God is on
47:28
this mountaintop and I can take whichever path I want to be able to get there and along
47:32
each one of these paths, we're going to be able to embrace homosexuality.
47:36
We're going to be able to embrace the killing of the innocent.
47:38
We're going to be able to embrace all this ideology that is so counter to the way in which,
47:44
you know, God has laid out one true path to him.
47:47
When I think it all, go ahead, go ahead there.
47:49
I was going to say it just kind of reminded me of, I'm blanking on the name, but if I
47:54
was a devil, I think you put out maybe Paul Harvey, Paul Harvey, hell's not real.
48:01
You don't worry about that.
48:02
You're just going to die.
48:03
I'm going to be a big deal kind of to go along with that.
48:06
That's what seems to be a popular thing now, like, yeah, even if it's real, hell's not
48:11
real.
48:12
You'll be.
48:13
I mean, did God really say it's an important thing that people would have as a distinction
48:17
there?
48:18
Eric, you look like you had a.
48:19
Yeah.
48:20
Yeah, I just was reminded of a text I got that I was having this guy do this some work
48:23
for me, but he had a wall back just in on a whim, like, as we were talking, he's like,
48:29
yeah, I don't even, you know, I'm just struggling with some religious stuff and thinking through
48:33
things.
48:34
I don't even know if hell's real, blah, blah, blah.
48:35
And he just kept going and I was like, wait, I was like, you know, so I hit him up.
48:39
I had been a little while.
48:40
I was like, oh, yeah, can you do this thing for me and how much you're going to charge
48:43
it?
48:44
And by the way, what about this thing?
48:45
It's hell thing that you think you don't believe in.
48:47
So he sent me this text back.
48:49
He said this, I'll keep his name anonymous.
48:54
When I was doing some research, I wondered why the Protestant church decided to begin
48:57
including the word hell in the Bible when it went in the first conscripts of transcripts.
49:04
It was not present.
49:06
It was placed there to scare the mass hysteria.
49:10
I don't think there is a loving God and a just God that would just let a soul or whatever
49:13
become or go to suffer for eternity.
49:17
It's too intangible.
49:18
But I think and he goes on anyways.
49:19
And I was just like, wait, what?
49:21
You know, and so I remembered like Greg Cuckel's tactics, yeah, just like, all right.
49:29
So I responded, I was like, can you point me to some evidence?
49:32
I'd love to like look that up and then kind of how did you come to that conclusion, you
49:36
know?
49:37
So that's an ongoing thing, but it's just really interesting to me.
49:40
I'm like, so I responded to him and I said, well, let me pose this question.
49:43
I'm sure you've asked the same questions like, you know, do you believe that that Hitler
49:49
should be punished like softly or respectfully in whatever place you think he goes, you know,
49:56
after he or after he died and he didn't have an answer for that?
50:01
Well, because if you answer, it just takes away his entire case, right, like it's cutting
50:06
off the or it's selling off the brain and she's sitting on right, right.
50:10
Anyways, it's crazy.
50:11
I, you know, and I have my own issue with hell and I don't mean that that I don't believe
50:15
it.
50:16
I believe it absolutely exists.
50:18
But I do have is a very hard concept to just, oh man, you know, just be like, Ali, man,
50:24
what about the what about that person in that country that had these parents and you know,
50:28
they ever heard the gospel, you know, and never thought about God or Jesus or whatever.
50:32
And I know Jesus and I know God can do whatever he wants to do and can provide revelatory
50:38
information and to stimulate thought that then leads to further questioning, blah, blah.
50:43
But it isn't just an interesting concept just to think of and I know that God can do whatever
50:49
he wants.
50:50
But anyways, that's my, that's always been my beef is like, what about that?
50:54
What about that person?
50:55
That's perhaps the most convenient thing about the Calvinist theology, which is just
50:58
like, they're elected or they're not like a wire, why all the consternation, why all
51:02
the bellyache and why all the tears, it's just like, hey, they were selected before time,
51:07
like you chose to have kids and one of them was and one of them wasn't like, it's not
51:12
sad.
51:13
It's just is what it is kind of thing.
51:14
You can do about it.
51:15
Yeah.
51:16
You're 144 or whatever.
51:17
Yeah.
51:18
It doesn't matter because it's, you know, you could raise them in a Christian home and
51:20
send them to Christian school and all that, but if they're not elect, they're not elect.
51:23
And so we can kind of go there with that, but part of this entire discussion as well as
51:28
with fruit, because when you get into verses 35 and 36, it's kind of describing, you know,
51:34
what, what they did, you know, for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was there seeing you
51:37
gave me drinks, so on and so forth.
51:39
But there are some people that would point to this to be like, Oh, okay, the good deeds
51:43
are the prerequisite for salvation.
51:47
But it's literally the opposite where it's like the good deeds are a result of the salvation.
51:53
And this is when you get into the discussion of fruit and anytime I've, you know, discussed
51:56
John MacArthur, like, and I think Matt Grassmeyer said this before on the show where it's just
52:00
basically like, no one is less sure of their salvation than right after listening to John
52:05
MacArthur talk about assurance of salvation, like nobody is more or less sure in that moment.
52:10
But it's like, because he constantly has a discussion about fruit, but when you hear him
52:14
describe what fruit should be, it's like, does fruit that sweet exist?
52:18
Like, has anyone ever had fruit that sweet? And so it gets people focusing on the fruit
52:24
itself and not focusing on why there is fruit to begin with. Because again, it's not the
52:28
fruit on the front end of the equation that gets you to salvation. It's on the back end.
52:32
You know, what's the standard that the fruit comes from is the tree of Jesus in his example.
52:37
And so, you know, I think that's what MacArthur did is he was pointing out if we were truly
52:42
Christ like in all things and in all ways, that's the fruit that we would bear that we
52:46
would be without sin and that we would, you know, be an act and do as he did whenever
52:51
he was here. And so no one will ever measure up to that perfection. But every day, we should
52:58
be waking up to do our best to be that. Every day, we should be moving the needle will be
53:01
closer to it.
53:02
Yeah. And we're going through the book called the Holy Spirit by Sinclair Ferguson right
53:08
now. So it's really interesting walking through that. I mean, we're, we're, we're learning
53:13
about how the Holy Spirit has been. I mean, when you talk about the fruit of the spirit,
53:18
we're talking about the Holy Spirit and the fruit that it is produced by the Holy Spirit.
53:22
And how the Holy Spirit was existed in the Old Testament and showed examples of that.
53:26
But then even in the conception of Mary and hovering over her, you know, and how there
53:33
was a very real and active and powerful movement of the Holy Spirit in that conception. And
53:39
then into his early years where you see him amazing teachers with his, with his teaching.
53:46
And then there's the period where we don't know much about him, but we can assume based
53:51
on what we know before and after that the Holy Spirit was guiding him. And that one interesting
53:56
point on that that I had never thought about is like, we can't assume that, I mean, we
54:01
get it that Jesus is perfect, but he was preparing himself as a young boy and then into his teenage
54:08
years and young adult by adulthood by reading the scriptures and learning the application.
54:15
And, and, and then we see it all kind of culminate when he comes to the start of his ministry.
54:20
It wasn't as if he was infused with the, the word and the Holy Spirit at the time per se,
54:27
but the Holy Spirit was guiding him that whole, whole time. And then whenever he's baptized,
54:32
of course, here comes the, the bird down and the sending and, you know, this is my son who
54:38
I'm well, well pleased. And then immediately the Holy Spirit sends him out into the wilderness.
54:42
It says it drove him into the wilderness. I mean, this was an action on Jesus to be tested.
54:49
And then comes back and it's really, really cool that he was able to thwart the attacks
54:54
of the devil. And then we see the results of this later on when he's like casting demons
54:58
into pigs and they're like, wait, are you, are you already here to torment us before
55:03
the time? You know, it's like a sneak attack because he had already done his work against
55:07
the devil earlier. Anyways, all to be said, then we can when we get later on into like
55:14
relations, we see Paul talking about walking in the spirit, it makes sense that we have
55:19
the prototype of the one who was conceived through the Holy Spirit, guided by the Holy
55:24
Spirit, led into temptation and overcame via the Holy Spirit and there was guided through
55:29
his ministry by the Holy Spirit. There was such intimacy there that we should be seeking
55:34
that same thing. The problem is, is that we see Jesus as the son of God and we go, well,
55:41
I was a son once. I was a daughter once. It makes sense. We see the Father God and we go,
55:47
I'm a father, I'm a mother. I, I understand that. And then we go Holy Spirit and we're
55:52
like, wait, what? Oil and fire and water and wind and what is this? And we don't fully
55:58
grasp it that there's a mysteriousness about that and there's a wind, you know, it blows
56:02
around like it, you know, in directions, we can't, we don't understand just like God's
56:06
ways are above ours. And yet that is what was given to us. And Jesus says, the Holy Spirit
56:11
is a better like I'm leaving so that I can send something better. And yet we don't tap
56:16
into that on a freak on a frequent enough basis or know how to you. And so we don't see the
56:21
same fruit coming that we saw, you know, in Jesus.
56:26
Absolutely. Anything else as we wrap up Matthew 25. Great. I guess what we are going to leave
56:32
it there. We'll come back here next Sunday where we are going to dig into Matthew 26.
56:36
Make sure that you are read all the way up through there for next week. But before we
56:39
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