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1:18
This is Undaunted Life of 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.
1:33
At the Forging Table, you'll see a group of regular guys foraging spiritual resilience
1:36
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 Eric.
1:41
That's Matt.
1:42
That's Zach.
1:43
I went the opposite way this time, so I didn't end up here because every time I end up to
1:45
my right, I always say the person's last name, it's super, super weird.
1:48
Now, again, like I said last time, I could not have been more pleased with the discussion
1:51
of Matthew 7, there's so much stuff in really all the gospels, but like when you get to
1:56
a chapter like Matthew 7, it's like the golden rules here and you know, judge not and know
2:02
what we need to talk about judgment.
2:03
Oh gosh, we need to talk about the fact that technically no one's going to heaven if we
2:06
just little read parts of Matthew 7 literally and stuff like that.
2:09
And so we're going to get into Matthew 8 today.
2:12
So let's just start out Zach Reid versus one through four as we get into this.
2:16
When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him and behold, a leper came
2:21
to him and knelt before him saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.
2:26
And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him saying, I will be clean.
2:32
And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
2:34
And Jesus said to him, see that you say nothing to anyone, but go show yourself to the priest
2:39
and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a proof to them.
2:45
So Matthew 8 starts out with three straight stories of cleansing of healing.
2:50
So this is the first one, the cleansing of the leper.
2:54
And the thing that's important for us to talk about here is lepers would, if you touched
2:59
a leper, you were immediately made ritualistically unclean at that exact moment.
3:05
And so Jesus touching the leper just in and of itself is a big deal.
3:08
Like it's an absolutely big deal, but it wasn't just that he touched him.
3:12
It was that he touched him and then he didn't become unclean, he made the leper well.
3:17
And in this society, again, we just miss this because it's 2000 years later and we don't
3:21
really deal with that.
3:22
And leprosy is just kind of a weird thing that we only know about because we read the
3:25
Bible.
3:26
But it's so hard to encapsulate how just strange it was that Jesus would just touch this guy.
3:34
But people had to have been aghast as he was stretching out his hand to touch this man.
3:39
We don't see this in the scripture.
3:40
So I am reading into it a little bit here.
3:42
There had to have been people that were like, no, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait, wait, like
3:44
almost like don't don't touch that.
3:46
That's hot.
3:47
Like don't touch that.
3:48
Like you'll be ritually unclean in Jesus as we go back to the ending of Matthew seven.
3:53
He's the one in authority and he's showing it here, you know, so let's talk a little bit
3:57
about the leper.
3:58
So so Jesus actually walked on this earth.
4:01
There's more evidence of that than anything else as we came out of COVID and everything.
4:05
This kind of struck me as I was reading this for three years.
4:08
He had thousands, if not more people following him that he was healing and touching and breathing
4:14
their air and with them.
4:15
And not once do we read about him being sick or him being ill or him having an issue, which
4:19
is just kind of an objective, I think, you know, data point to keep in mind that's kind
4:23
of compelling.
4:24
And like you said, yeah, in his day, if he would have touched somebody regardless of
4:30
the personal ramifications, you would be classified as unclean and couldn't go to the, you know,
4:35
well, this, to me, this speaks directly towards his authority because this guy had to disobey
4:43
the worldly authority, which in my research, I'm sure this is something you found as well
4:50
as lepers were outside of society.
4:54
They weren't allowed into society.
4:56
So this guy had to disobey that command to be separated to approach Jesus because he didn't
5:03
approach him when he was by himself.
5:05
So he disobeyed a worldly command to seek the authority that was Jesus to be healed.
5:12
And to me, I just kind of looked at that as like kind of we're in this place where Christians
5:17
are called to not do that, not like, Hey, don't, don't say anything outside of what,
5:22
what the government tells you to do.
5:24
And here we find an example, this guy was like, yeah, that guy's the king, like I'm
5:28
going to go get healed by him.
5:29
Yeah, and at the same, I mean, I'm just imagining him coming through towards the crowds and
5:33
people are looking and they're partying at the Red Sea.
5:35
They're like, get out of this guy's way, you know, so he's approaching Jesus.
5:40
But at the same time, he's not demanding.
5:42
I just really appreciate the fact that he says Lord, and by the way, that I think that's
5:46
the first time that anybody calls Jesus Lord and in the gospels, he says, Lord, if you
5:53
are willing, you can make me clean, you know, so it wasn't, it didn't come like presupposing,
5:58
you know, he just came humbly saying, you know, I believe that you can do this if you want
6:02
to.
6:03
One also at the end there, I've always had some issues with Jesus telling the guy, Hey, don't
6:08
tell anybody.
6:09
Don't tell anybody this because like he had to know, like he had to have known now this
6:14
leper had to go talk to the local authorities so that he could rejoin society because as
6:20
a leper, as you point out, Matt, they're outside of society.
6:22
They can't come back in unless they get permission to.
6:25
So he had to go tell someone, but he didn't have to just spread it like wildfire.
6:30
So that's always, excuse me, I've heard people say that Jesus knew this was going to happen.
6:35
It was all part of the plan.
6:37
But then you see in other places, it's like, no, he really didn't want people to hear about
6:42
this because it was going to throw his ministry for a loop from the very beginning.
6:45
It was going to crowd out what he was there to do.
6:47
He wasn't there, you know, for the miracles and the signs he was there to spread the word
6:53
that the kingdom of God was near, right?
6:55
So I don't know what do you guys think about that because it's like I've always struggled
6:58
with that.
6:59
I look at this as an order of operations that get that Jesus is commanding him to commanding
7:04
him to.
7:05
He doesn't say don't ever say anything to anyone about this, but he says, do not say, say
7:11
nothing to anyone, but go show yourself, go tell somebody about it, but who you're supposed
7:17
to tell about it.
7:18
First is the proper order, go to the priest, go to the tabernacle, go to the temple.
7:27
That is where you're giving praise, that is where you're giving honor.
7:30
So it's the right order of operations.
7:33
You should, because if I just met every, like the 20, first 20 people that I met after
7:37
I was healed by Jesus as a former leper, that's keeping me from what Jesus is telling me to
7:42
do.
7:43
If that's 10 minutes a piece, that's a lot of time that I'm wasting when Jesus has told
7:47
me to go make an offering.
7:49
So I am wasting time and I'm being distracted from what Jesus has called me to do.
7:53
Yeah.
7:54
And just think about how many times, I mean, lepers were considered dead men walking, you
8:00
know, how many times were dead men walking, healed, it did not happen very often.
8:05
And Jesus knew that there was a special ceremony that priests would do when a leper was healed.
8:13
And so he knew that that was going to have a testimony in itself when that ceremony occurred.
8:17
So, yeah, I agree with you.
8:21
One thing I was just, I was reading through weirs be, and he makes some points on why Jesus
8:27
does miracles.
8:28
But at the end of it, it's pretty straightforward.
8:30
He just says, one thing is certain Jesus did not perform miracles to get a crowd.
8:34
In fact, he usually would avoid the crowd time after time Jesus instructed those whom he had
8:39
healed not to talk too much about it.
8:41
He did not want people trusting him simply on the basis of spectacular deeds, faith must
8:47
be based on his word.
8:50
And so I think, you know, to the point, I mean, if everybody's coming, he's going to
8:54
be crowded and he can't, he's not, it's not the right heart position, you know, and also
8:59
it goes back to when people are like, you know, if Turk asks them, you know, you know, if Christianity
9:04
were true, would you believe in it?
9:06
It typically devolves, not devolves in a bad way, but devolves to another question, which
9:09
is, okay, well, what do you need to see?
9:11
And people were like, well, I would need to see a miracle.
9:14
But as Ravi Zachariah's pointed out, no, we can't say his name anymore.
9:17
The man who would not be mentioned the, what is it, the Voldemort of Christian apologetics.
9:23
I just made a Harry Potter reference and I've never read the book or like seen any of the
9:27
movies.
9:28
And so that just shows how culturally relevant that is.
9:30
But anyway, when he basically said if people, if Jesus gave us a million miracles, there
9:35
would be the people asking for a million in one, there's always going to be that person
9:39
that kind of has that idea.
9:41
And so it's interesting to me as I'm reading through and reading these commentaries and
9:44
it's like, wait, the miracles aren't the point.
9:46
I'm like, no, no, they're super the point.
9:47
It's like, no, you're wrong.
9:48
They're not the point.
9:49
The point is that the kingdom of God is near and the miracles are signs pointing towards
9:53
that.
9:54
But again, we love our bread and circus and what is more circus than, you know, a sick
9:58
person being healed, a paralytic being healed or something like that.
10:01
But then we roll right into the next section versus five through 13 and we see another
10:06
healing, but this one is kind of unique to the healings that we've seen so far in Matthew.
10:10
So Matthew, if you wouldn't mind reading Matthew five through 13, let's get it.
10:15
When he had entered Capernaum, the centurion came forward to him appealing to him, Lord,
10:21
my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.
10:25
And he said to him, I will come and heal him.
10:28
Not the centurion replied, Lord, I'm not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say
10:33
the word and my servant will be healed or I too am a man under authority with soldiers
10:39
under me.
10:40
And I say to one, go and he goes and to another come and he comes and to my servant do this
10:45
and he does it.
10:46
When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, truly, I tell you
10:51
with no one in Israel have I found such faith, I tell you many will come from east and west
10:57
and recline at my table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while
11:01
the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness.
11:05
In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth into the centurion.
11:09
Jesus said, go, let it be done for you as you have believed.
11:13
And the servant was healed at that very moment.
11:16
So this is a reminder of the context that we're in.
11:18
We're in a Roman context.
11:19
And I guess I said something about you did depending upon how often you think about the
11:23
Roman Empire.
11:24
We are as men thinking about the Roman Empire.
11:28
And so it's a reminder that the centurions had sway that Rome was in charge, even though
11:33
most of this, you know, in terms of authority, we talk about Pharisees, Agneses, the Sanhedrin,
11:38
but this is a centurion who's in charge of a hundred men.
11:41
This is a guy that could get things done.
11:43
And I never noticed this until I studied this time.
11:46
But in verse eight, when he says, Lord, my servant is lying at home, you know, suffering
11:50
terribly.
11:51
And he keeps referring to him as Lord.
11:53
You can tell that the centurion is sensitive to Jewish law and customs by just referring
12:00
to him as Lord, because he would be unclean.
12:03
If you were a Jew and you went into a Gentiles home, you would be considered unclean, right?
12:08
And so the fact that, you know, he was even potentially welcoming a Jew into his home as
12:13
a Gentile, he knows that this is this is a weird thing.
12:17
And so it's almost like the centurions trying to get do him a favor like, Hey, bro, I don't
12:21
want you to be rich.
12:22
I know it's going to be a hassle if you actually come into my house.
12:25
Just, you know, solve my issue through through the Bluetooth signal, like just like we know
12:30
that you can just solve it through the ether.
12:33
And it wasn't like, Hey, I'm doing this for convenience, but it was like, this is probably
12:36
the biggest expression of faith, direct expression of faith from anyone that we've seen so far.
12:42
And you can see it in Jesus's reaction to where it's like a Gentile, a Roman, right?
12:48
A centurion, these people hated the Romans, they just kind of tolerated them at best.
12:53
And then he's like, this is more faith.
12:55
And this guy probably hadn't read, you know, he was okay with Jewish customs and law, but
12:58
you think he read the Pentateuch?
13:00
Do you think like he was big on the law of Moses or any of those types of things?
13:04
But he could see it.
13:05
And he didn't have any of these things in the way of him being able to see Jesus as divine.
13:09
And Jesus, he marveled.
13:11
Where does it say that about any disciple that Jesus calls?
13:15
It doesn't.
13:16
He's like, and I think it's a very, you can't, you shouldn't miss this because he's talking
13:22
to a Gentile.
13:23
Like you said, like he marveled at his faith.
13:26
He came for the Jews.
13:28
He came to preach the gospel to the Jews.
13:29
And here you have this guy who is outside of the chosen people of God, like showing more
13:35
faith than the people of God.
13:39
And Jesus marveled.
13:40
What?
13:41
I mean, you got to think that the centurion knew that he just had this one opportunity.
13:47
You know, and he didn't want to mess it up at the same time.
13:51
You know, as you've already said, he didn't want to put Jesus out either.
13:54
He's just like, you know, you say, I mean, I, I don't know if he read anything or not,
13:58
but I, I mean, it was thinking of Genesis one.
14:00
So it's like, and God spoke and it happened, you know, and so it's almost like he was having
14:05
that kind of faith that just, you know, all you got to do is say it.
14:08
You know, that is the power of your word.
14:11
He's got something to say on this one.
14:12
So y'all go ahead.
14:13
I'll remember my point.
14:14
Everyone got excited to jump in.
14:15
It's also curious that he like the, the humility that he comes to Jesus with.
14:19
He didn't come like my wife, my kid.
14:22
I have a servant at home who is suffering terribly.
14:26
He could have and they could have, he could have killed that servant.
14:29
Yes.
14:30
He had the authority to do so because that servant was useless to him.
14:35
And he said, I have a servant at home who is suffering terribly, not I have a servant
14:39
who's paralyzed who can't do anything for me anymore.
14:42
And that really sucks.
14:43
I really need my house in order of Jesus.
14:45
Can you take care of this for me?
14:47
My servant is suffering terribly.
14:49
Can you relieve that suffering for him?
14:51
What a humble way to come to our Lord and Savior.
14:54
And obviously Jesus recognized that.
14:56
So did you have something to say on that too, Zach?
14:59
Yeah, I'd like to do real quick.
15:01
I didn't know this, but I'll just read this.
15:03
It says twice in the gospels, twice the gospels record that Jesus was amazed or marveled.
15:09
And here, and at the faith of the Gentile officer, or at the faith of the Gentile officer, and
15:15
in Mark six, six at the unbelief of the Jews, this is an early indication that the Jews would
15:20
not believe, but the Gentiles would also in both of these miracles, our Lord healed from
15:25
a distance.
15:27
This was a reminder of the spiritual position of the Gentiles without God in the world.
15:31
That's amazing.
15:32
And so I was literally thinking, wow, yeah, I mean, that's, that's, that's heavy to just
15:37
like even try to move past that, but in terms of amazement, because of the faith of the centurion,
15:43
again, I want to be very careful when I read into something that's not actually here.
15:47
But do we think, well, what do you guys think that the centurion, like, ran home and knew
15:53
what he was, what he was going to walk into?
15:56
Did he kind of just calmly because like, look, if you walk into your home and you know everything's
16:00
there and nothing's wrong, you just kind of walk in like it's normal versus walking in
16:04
expectantly or, you know, maybe one of your kids got in trouble and you're walking in
16:08
ready, you know, for this battle or whatever, I tend to think if I were to guess that the
16:12
centurion just went on about his normal day, knowing that this was done.
16:16
And when he got home and the servant was well, he wasn't shocked by it.
16:20
He didn't his heart rate didn't tick up.
16:22
He didn't need to see the healed servant because he had faith in Jesus from like in that moment
16:28
that it was going to happen.
16:29
Does that make sense?
16:30
When I'm trying to say like, I don't think he went in and was just like, oh my gosh,
16:32
it really works.
16:33
Like, I think he was just like, yeah, yeah, I believe that Jesus is the man.
16:37
I think that that's true.
16:38
And I think because Jesus speaks to the level of faith that this man has that that was the
16:44
faith that he had, it wasn't a God, and I got to go check it out and I got to I got to make
16:48
sure that Jesus is right.
16:51
I think you're I think there's probably some some truth to that.
16:54
This is just a small thing.
16:55
I didn't know this either.
16:57
This says in Luke's account, others came to Jesus on his behalf intermediaries, but Matthew
17:02
does not mention them.
17:03
So the accounts are not contradictory.
17:05
Matthew, as is often the case simply abbreviates the story.
17:08
He actually reports what the centurion said through his messengers based on the idea that
17:14
what a person does through an agent is what the person himself does.
17:17
So I guess it's possible that he was home when this occurred and they could could figure
17:23
out if the times were the same.
17:24
But regardless, I'm sure his main reaction was relief and and marveling himself.
17:29
Yeah, absolutely.
17:31
Again, there's there's more there.
17:32
Well, actually I do want to talk about one thing before we move on.
17:34
Hell seems pretty terrible.
17:36
If you go to verse 12, in the place that there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
17:41
So when you when you actually break down the word gnashing, like that would be as if you
17:46
are grinding your tea.
17:47
So I'm an extreme mouth like night grinder, right?
17:51
My dentist literally had to go to extra schooling, like I'm not kidding.
17:54
He had to go to extra schooling because of how aggressive my night grinding was, right?
17:58
I would get these brand new night guards and six months later for my checkup, I would show
18:02
my night guard.
18:03
He's like, no, no, that's the old one.
18:04
I need to see the new one.
18:05
I'm like, bro, that's the new one.
18:06
So I'm like a shark.
18:07
I will bite down and then I will saw with the bottom level and sorry, probably has nothing
18:10
to do with my personality or how tightly I'm wound.
18:12
It's completely, completely random that I'm an extreme grinder.
18:16
Yeah, no, it's just whatever.
18:18
But like in that exact scenario, you've got, if you're gnashing your teeth, it's not just
18:26
that you're uncomfortably rubbing them together.
18:29
It's that you're grinding and biting down so hard that you are destroying them.
18:33
Like think about what you would have to do to nash your teeth and break them.
18:38
Like as, as conscious as you are conscious right now, you are awake and what you would
18:42
have to do to break all your teeth on purpose.
18:45
And then now extrapolate that out to the rest of the time.
18:47
Right.
18:48
And who is he saying it about?
18:49
He like that's a very offensive thing to say when he says, many will come from east
18:55
and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
19:01
He's not.
19:02
He's talking about people outside of Jerusalem, people outside of Israel, people outside
19:06
of the chosen people of God.
19:07
That's a very offensive thing to say.
19:10
And I'm sure.
19:11
Wait a minute.
19:12
Jesus never said anything offensive.
19:14
Jesus is super nice.
19:15
11th commandment.
19:16
Thou shalt be nice.
19:17
Yeah.
19:18
Like Jesus always followed that.
19:19
Wrong.
19:20
That's the thing.
19:21
Whenever you read through the actual gospel accounts, you see that Jesus was not just
19:23
this guy that floated everywhere, he went giving out compliments and sheep to everybody.
19:28
Like this is a guy that said very, very brutal things on a regular basis.
19:31
And there's a little bit more here as we get further into Matthew eight, he gets actually
19:35
incredibly brutal, but real quick, I do want to take a quick aside.
19:38
So if you listened last week, you got to hear the full on commercial about this, but we have
19:42
actually partnered with Crossway because we've been asked a lot about, Hey, man, I want to
19:46
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What types of things should I get?
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So we have created a forging table starter set.
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So these are five books that if you go to the crossway website, I'll give you the instructions
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So this is the set, the brand new ESV men's study Bible.
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Then we got the book of Romans scripture journal study edition.
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So that's like the study journals with the actual ESV study notes in the bottom margin
20:16
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There is a devotional from Paul David trip called new morning mercies.
20:21
There's also a book called the beauty and power of biblical exposition by Douglas O'Donnell.
20:25
This gives you a sense of the different types of writings in the Bible, categorical writings,
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20:33
to lead and shepherd their family well.
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So it's just a three step process to get that again.
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This is not a commercial.
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This is specifically for your benefit.
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Step one, go to crossway.org and create a free crossway plus account.
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Step two, put all the books that I'm going to have listed here in the show notes, but
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And then when you go to checkout, use this promo code BSP 50 to get 50% off at checkout.
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21:01
So guys, if you're wanting to start your own forging table, that right there is the best
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And so we're so thankful to crossway working with us on that so that you could get them
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at an extreme discount, but to go even further into what we're seeing here in Matthew way,
21:15
we need to keep things going with another healing.
21:18
So who hasn't read yet?
21:19
All right, Browning.
21:20
Let's hit up Matthew eight versus 14 through 17, please.
21:25
And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever.
21:31
He touched her hand in the fever left her and she rose and began to serve him.
21:35
That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons and he cast out the spirits
21:42
with a word and healed all who were sick.
21:45
This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah took our illnesses and bore
21:51
our diseases.
21:53
So I'm pretty sure this is right.
21:55
But isn't Isaiah 53?
21:56
Isn't that the one where I'm like literally looking at that?
21:59
That's the one that the Jews skip in Jewish school because it's too prophetic.
22:03
Yeah, they take that out of the book.
22:04
Yeah.
22:05
Yeah.
22:06
So whenever you're looking for, okay, how do we know that Jesus is the one that was foretold
22:10
in Scripture?
22:11
Yeah, it's it's Isaiah 53.
22:12
And so in like Jewish school for boys, like they will not teach Isaiah 53.
22:16
They will literally skip over it because it is literally pointing directly to the prophetic
22:21
things that were fulfilled in Christ.
22:24
But whenever you look at, he took our illnesses and bore our diseases.
22:28
It goes back to something I think that you maybe said, Zach on the last podcast, we have
22:32
nothing described here about Jesus ever getting sick, but he was fully man.
22:38
So you would assume again, I'm very careful about assuming things that aren't here in
22:41
the text. He had to have gotten the sniffles like did he maybe there was there some sort
22:45
of pollen in the in the in Galilee at some point that made him, you know, sneez or something
22:49
like that.
22:50
So I'm just, you're looking at me funny, man.
22:51
I'm just saying there had to have been something like he couldn't have gone his entire life
22:55
without, you know, eating a bad fish and having, you know, a GI tract issue or something
23:00
like that.
23:01
A big pollen is super high.
23:02
Yeah.
23:03
Just you got to be very careful this time of year.
23:05
He had to have had a bad all of that entire amount of olives or wasn't a bad one like you
23:09
get out of here.
23:10
Like, so, but I think that's important. I said he took our illnesses and bore our diseases.
23:16
Like this isn't talking about a cold or cancer. This is a talking about really the, the illness
23:22
and disease of eternal separation from God. Am I understanding that correctly? Cause as
23:27
I was studying, that was what I was getting.
23:29
I think I think so when we talk about imputation, there's the imputation of his righteousness
23:33
for us. But then in turn, there is the imputation of our unrighteousness to him. So he bears
23:41
our sin on the cross. Like, yeah, I think, I think you're understanding that correctly.
23:44
And I, yeah, it's a very, very interesting way to look at that.
23:49
No, I had that same thought. And that's great. One of the things that I liked about that
23:53
short section was that it was, it was a sickness with a fever. It wasn't necessarily life or
24:01
death. And I liked the fact that it does not have to be a life or death issue for us to
24:06
pray or to seek healing. And I liked also how as soon as Jesus healed her, she got up and
24:14
started to serve. And so the healing that we receive also sets us in a place where we
24:20
then can serve the kingdom. So I did appreciate that. And then I remember it was a reminder
24:25
of King Hezekiah. I remember when he was, I think he was real sick and was going to
24:29
die. And he prayed and prayed and prayed. How God said, okay, all right, I'm going to
24:35
heal you and let you live for, I think, 15 more years, something like that. And how the
24:40
error then can be that as he initially had was to not praise God and that, but instead
24:46
to bring the Babylonians in and show them all their treasure, all the treasure of the
24:50
Israel and whatnot, and how that brought in a curse upon the people as a result of that.
24:55
So there are different ways that we can respond to being healed in Peter's mother-in-law was
25:00
a good one. Absolutely. Let's go ahead and keep moving and let's do verses 18 through
25:04
22. Zach hit it. Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the
25:10
other side and a scribe came up and said to him, teacher, I will follow you wherever you
25:15
go. And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son
25:21
of man has nowhere to lay his head. Another of the disciples said to him, Lord, let me
25:27
first go and bury my father. And Jesus said to him, follow me and leave the dead to bury
25:33
their own dead. So that's a well-known verse with the dead, bury their dead. That's even
25:40
kind of culturally, like it's a colloquialism at this point where people say, you know,
25:44
let the dead bury their dead and they maybe don't know what that means. But are all of
25:49
everyone at the tables, everybody's dad still with us? Okay. So I, you know, as a son, at
25:57
least for me, I'll speak for me. The thought of losing my dad is devastating, right? Because
26:02
there's no bigger fan of me and the things that I'm doing in my life than my father,
26:07
even even my wife, even my kids, no one's a bigger fan than my dad. And so I think, you
26:12
know, about, okay, one of these days, if things go according to plan, right, in terms of how
26:18
things are supposed to work out, I will have to bury my dad. And I think about what Jordan
26:21
Peterson talks about, be the one man at your father's funeral that everybody can depend
26:25
on. I've seen men in my life lose their father, and I've watched them just be rocks for their
26:31
family and not know how they're doing that and how they're pulling that off. And so even
26:35
in our modern context, where we don't really value old people, we just stick them at homes.
26:40
And you know, we, we bite the bullet and pay for it. And then we just, you know, kind of
26:44
wait for them to die. And that that's just kind of like a thing that we do. We don't really
26:47
bring old people into our home. We don't have multi generational families. That's not really
26:51
something that we see here in the West. Even in that, even in our context, this seems brutal,
26:58
let the dead bury their dead. But in that context, there weren't old folks homes, right? There
27:04
weren't these things where it's like, okay, they're going to be on hospice. You know, we're
27:07
going to sanitize it. And we're just going to bring everybody in while grandma or grandpa
27:11
is still decent. And you know, they can say their goodbyes. There was none of that, right?
27:16
In this culture for Jesus to say, leave the dead to bury their own dead. That's what we
27:22
were talking about earlier. It doesn't get much more brutal than this. But in that moment,
27:26
he draws a line in the sand and says, you're either with me or you are not. And if you can
27:32
follow me, even up to the point where you would allow the dead to bury their dead and
27:37
to not worry about burying your father, that that's a huge deal. There's so much wrapped
27:41
up in this. But that just that hit me as being very important to mention.
27:44
I think I think too, like he's the cost of following him is great. But in that culture,
27:52
you bury your dad. You're that's when you get your inheritance. I think there's a direct
27:57
call to say, Hey, whoa, that's not the inheritance that you're actually looking for. If you're
28:01
going to follow me, the inheritance isn't that it's me, it's me. And it's greater than that.
28:06
And so give up your worldly possessions is one of the calls that he's making there too.
28:11
They don't don't waste your time with that because I'm sure that was part of his mindset.
28:15
I'm going to bury my dad so I can get my money. Yeah, that's true. I had never come across
28:19
this, but I'll just read this part. It says in verse 22, Jesus was not asking the man
28:24
to be disrespectful to his father, who is not yet dead, but to have the right priorities
28:30
in life. It would be better to preach the gospel and give life to the spiritually dead
28:35
than to wait for one's father to die and bury him. So if this is the case, I guess what
28:40
it's saying is this man based on the language, the specific translation of the language was
28:44
saying, as soon as my father dies at some point in the future, I'd like to come follow
28:48
you, which is slightly different. It's a different read than what you're saying because what
28:53
you're saying is absolutely correct. But I think Jesus is harsh because this person's
28:57
heart once again is not in the right position with priorities.
29:01
Yes, and that's where I was leaning to is just Jesus knows the heart of that man. And
29:07
so he's saying something that's challenging him. You know, Jesus was interested in quality
29:13
over quantity of disciples and followers. And I think so that was a challenge. I remember
29:20
when I left Oklahoma State, I wanted to find someone that could, yes, spiritual mentor
29:27
to me. And I met a guy named Dan and Dan and I talked on at least two or three different
29:32
occasions. And I said, this is what I want to do when I moved to Oklahoma City to do
29:36
my graduate work. And I remember the second time we met, he said, you know, I just didn't
29:42
thinking about this. I just don't think you have the time and you're about to start grad
29:45
school. You're going to be super busy. You're going to pour yourself into this. And I was
29:50
like, Dan, like this is what I want. I want to continue to be poured into by someone.
29:55
And I know that you have the resources to do that. And so he thought about it. And then
29:59
he gave me a Bible study that was fairly sizable. And he handed it to me, said, I tell you what,
30:05
when you finish this, call me and we'll talk. And so I went home and in two weeks, I got
30:10
it done and called him and not that he was marveling or anything like that. But I think
30:15
he was impressed enough because then he set up an appointment with me to meet a gentleman
30:20
that he had because he wanted, he didn't want just another guy that was going to get half
30:25
effort into discipleship and being mentored. And you didn't want to set a guy up for failure.
30:30
He wanted that quality or the quantity.
30:33
This is a side note, not this is just some things that I think of. So Matthew obviously
30:37
doesn't write anything in like order here, but he says one of like one of the disciples,
30:43
who was it? Was it Matthew? Like, do we know? And I always think like, was it Matthew because
30:49
Matthew's writing the book, right? He doesn't name this disciple by name. So it's like,
30:52
was it you man? Like, was it you that actually wanted to go? Was it actually you? I mean,
30:59
I don't think I don't think we know that, but it's interesting that just says another
31:03
of the disciples.
31:04
What is interesting in terms of the timeline, because at some point Matthew would have been
31:07
definitely separated from his mother and father because of his job as a tax collector, like
31:11
he would have been very likely disowned by his father because it was so reprehensible
31:16
that your son would be a tax collector. So maybe like in there, there's a whole lot that
31:21
that's there in that maybe they're they've been kind of reconciled. But that is interesting.
31:24
He names everybody else. And then he's like, ah, some disciple, some rando. But yeah,
31:30
it's an absolutely brutal thing to think about. But again, Jesus is is trying to make the
31:34
standard clear. And again, it kind of goes back to the cost, the cost of following him
31:39
is everything. Like, it's not the things that you're willing to bring when it's convenient.
31:43
It is everything. Yeah, we all have, you know, our bought everything in us wants to take
31:49
the pathway of least resistance. My dad used to say that excuses are like noses. Everybody's
31:54
got one, you know, so it's, that's not the body part I heard. That's whenever it would
31:59
have heard. Yeah, I haven't heard that one. He said noses. Did he really said that? You're
32:03
not sanitizing that for the table. Get out of here. Get out. There may have been something
32:07
else set on the football field. I don't know. Yeah. All right. Well, let's get into the
32:12
next thing here. The funny thing about this next section versus 23 through 27 is how short
32:17
it is and how crazy of a story this is to only get a handful of verses. So who who read
32:22
last? I kind of lost track. All right, Matt, let's hit it. All right. And when he got into
32:26
the boat, his disciples followed him and behold, there arose a great storm on the sea so that
32:31
the boat was being swamped by the waves, but he was asleep. And they went and woke him saying,
32:37
give us Lord, we are perishing. And he said to them, why are you afraid? Oh, you of little
32:43
faith. And he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea. And there was a great calm and the
32:48
men marveled saying, what sort of man is this that even wins and see obey him? So a couple
32:56
of points and then I'll just wind you all up and let you go. This story should make us
33:00
incredibly fearful with God, right? Because God incarnate in the form of a man can live
33:07
in. He screamed at the, the storm said, stop it. Like that's enough, right? And just, we've
33:13
all been in that situation where kids are fighting or maybe even it's like family fighting.
33:18
Everyone family's got that one guy, you know, Uncle John, when Uncle John finally says something,
33:22
everybody shuts up. And if Uncle John like claps his fingers says, Hey, that's enough.
33:26
Everyone just kind of, you know, this is like the ultimate version of that. So I want you
33:30
all to flow in that a little bit. But also the disciples still don't get it. Again, in
33:34
terms of the chronology of Matthew, the disciples, the apostles have not been called yet, the
33:40
12 have not been called yet. So he's in a boat with somebody, but we assume it's with
33:44
the 12, but they still don't get it. The apparently the centurion does the centurion gets it.
33:50
But the fact that it says here that they marveled like how much more does this guy need to
33:56
show you again? This is early in his ministry, but it's like they're following a guy saying
34:00
that they believe he is the the spoken of Christ. And yet they're just like, what? Like they're
34:06
like Hillary Clinton, when all the balloons started coming down in 2016 at the DNC convention,
34:11
what? Like they're just kind of like freaking out. So y'all flowing either one of those
34:15
like how this story should make us fear God, but also how apparently the disciples still
34:20
just haven't gotten the threat.
34:22
All authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. Matthew ends this whole, his whole
34:30
gospel with that. And I mean, Jesus is just literally, I mean, he's asleep, right? And
34:35
so when I'm reading this, you know, you're right, it is very short, but it is a very
34:40
powerful story. When I'm reading this, I go, I just go to the holiness of God. And I recently
34:45
read the holiness of God by RC Sproul. And if you want to get into a really good like
34:53
exposition of God and his holiness, like he's sleeping because he's just not concerned.
35:00
And I think of that, the story of Azo, when he, he tries to catch the arc of the covenant
35:05
and God kills him right where he stands because he was so audacious that he thought the ground
35:12
or the arc hitting the ground would be worse than his unclean hand touching it. And Sproul
35:19
says something to the effect of nature is not the one in rebellion here. Nature does
35:24
what God wants it to do. The rain comes down when God wants it to come down. The river
35:28
goes where God tells it to go. Nature is not in rebellion. Man is and I just, I can't help
35:35
but think about that when he's literally see because he's just not worried about it. Nature
35:38
is going to do what I tell to do. And then he just, he says, stop and the storm stops
35:42
because he is the king of the universe.
35:47
When we, we marvel things that are powerful because it's kind of like when people, because
35:49
I think we're all mainly mountains, people were not really beach people. But when you
35:53
go and you see these fast mountain ranges, are you a beach person? No, I said fact check
35:57
true. I'm fact check true. I thought you're like, that's not true. Zach, are you beach
36:01
or mountains? Mostly mountains, but it's bad. Okay, mountain men sitting at this table,
36:07
varying levels of beard strength. But what the thing that's interesting about, we literally
36:11
got like clean shaven mustache, you know, five o'clock shadow beard. So anyway, I had to
36:17
kind of put it all out there. But you, when you see these mountain ranges and you marvel
36:21
at it, you're like, that is just simply incredible. But I remember studying this whenever I was
36:26
studying, whenever Jesus told Lazarus to come out of the tomb, the same Greek word used to
36:31
describe the voice that he used to call Lazarus back from death is the same voice or the same
36:39
word used to describe how crazy this storm was. Like, so just think about that, think
36:43
about a storm where you're in the water and you think we're about to die, that level of
36:48
storm, this isn't a light sprinkling, right? It's that same voice. And so that same marveling
36:54
that the disciples had that he was able to rebuke the wind in the rain had to have elicited
36:59
the same feeling to the people that saw him call Lazarus out of the grave, because it
37:03
was that same. I can't think of one that would like which one would freak you out more the
37:08
fact that this dude was dead. And he's not dead anymore. Or the fact that the guy turned
37:12
the light switch off on the thunderstorm. Like that's crazy.
37:14
What was the level of the thunder, the thunderstorm? These guys weren't, they weren't on. They
37:20
were initiated on the ways of the same, like they knew what they were doing. It wasn't
37:24
like some first time guy gets in the boat and the first, you know, the first thunder he
37:28
hears, he's, he's, you know, in the fetal position in the back of the boat. These guys
37:32
were stranded and they knew, they knew how to navigate and they'd seen a storm or two.
37:38
And so to elicit the fear that this storm got had, I mean, that had to just be so immense,
37:44
which speaks to just God's power even more that they were so scared. And God is like,
37:49
I got this.
37:50
Yeah. And it's not like, I don't feel like Jesus woke up and was like super annoyed
37:54
with him. He might've been annoyed, but I don't, I'm not in a sinful way, obviously,
37:58
but I do know that it seems that he was more disturbed about their own personal fear as
38:04
opposed to their faith that everything was going to be okay.
38:07
Yeah. And if you look at the, it's just hard to get your mind around. You look at the pictures
38:11
of the boat. I guess they uncovered one that they think was pretty similar from 2000 years
38:14
ago. I mean, just the fact that he was sleeping in the first place in an open exposed boat
38:20
by itself is pretty interesting. I go back to that statement that just says, be still
38:26
and know that I'm God. And so the idea for me is, you know, if you're following God,
38:32
just have faith, trust him, he's in full control. And I couldn't even imagine what it would
38:39
have been like to see this.
38:40
Yeah. Absolutely. Well, let's hit the last part of Matthew eight here. So Eric, if you
38:45
can read verses 28 through 34. And when he came to the other side, to the country of
38:52
the Gatorines, two demon possessed men met him coming out of the tomb so fierce that
38:57
no one could pass that way. And behold, they cried out, what have you to do with us? Oh,
39:03
son of God, have you come here to torn us, torment us before time? Now I heard of many
39:10
pigs was feeding at some distance from them. And the demons begged him saying, if you cast
39:16
us out, send us away into the herd of pigs. And he said to them, go. So they came out
39:24
and went into the pigs and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the seat
39:29
and drowned in the waters. The herdsmen fled and going into the city, they told everything,
39:35
especially what had happened to the demon possessed men. And behold, all the city came
39:40
out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region.
39:45
So this is a crazy story for a lot of reasons. This is one of the first times that we see
39:50
in Matthew where we're really digging into kind of demons and getting an idea of how
39:55
them demons operate and what they're thinking. And one of the first things that I wrote down
39:59
in terms of this entire section is that these demons are more afraid and reverent of the
40:04
power of God than many Christians are. Because Christians and again, churches, I think, do
40:08
a really good job of aiding in this, this thing that's not very good. But it's, we don't
40:14
get a full idea of who God is, because we just think of God as, you know, my home boy,
40:19
he's not, he's nice. And he gives me all these great things, boyfriend Jesus. And you know,
40:23
God is for me. So who can be against me? And God's just going to bless me regardless of
40:27
my decisions. And you know, this is this is all fine and dandy. And it's just like, man,
40:31
these demons, like they're on the wrong side of the leisure here. But they understand who
40:37
God is and what he can do. And the thing that that is that they give up here is in verse
40:43
29, you know, why have you to do or what have you to do with us? Oh, son of God, have you
40:48
come here to torment us before the time? Demons know that their days are numbered. Like that's
40:55
a huge deal before the time. They know that the time is coming. They know that their days
41:01
are numbered. It begs the question is like, so can demons die? Like, and I don't know
41:06
that we should necessarily get into a discussion on the ethereal here, like, hey, can can demons
41:10
can spirits die? But anyway, but we do know that the time will come where there will be
41:14
the last death. And that Satan and the third of the angels that he took with him when he
41:19
was cast out of heaven will be pitched into the lake of fire. And I just, this is a very
41:24
interesting thing. This is very screw tape letters to me to where it's just kind of like
41:28
we're getting to hear that discussion between screw tape and wormwood to a degree. But we're
41:32
getting to hear it's almost like the demons are like, Jesus, can you just do us a favor,
41:37
man? Like, we really like our job. We really like messing with all these people like, man,
41:41
just just kind of like, take it easy on us, right? Like, just cast us into the pigs. Like,
41:46
it's just, we give demons so much power in terms of culture. And then we just completely
41:51
miss out on the fact that God is all powerful. Yeah, it seems like people almost go to like
41:55
a Lord of the Rings type, you know, thought where it's good versus evil. And they're on
41:59
the other side. These are created beings by this person slash God that's walking, right?
42:06
As I read this whole paragraph, I only see two red letters. It just says go. That's the
42:11
only thing Jesus says after they do all of this talking, he's in full control. And so
42:16
when we think about being fearful of something, first of all, be fearful of God and he created
42:22
this whole situation. Yeah, and they even they had to add permission to even go torment
42:28
pigs, right? That's right. So Jesus had to grant them that that was interesting to me.
42:32
They they call him the son of God. Like they know, like, like you're saying,
42:37
God, like they knew they knew exactly who he was. Like even the demons know who God is.
42:42
So is it weird at this point that so far in terms of the chronology of Matthew,
42:46
the only people to really truly acknowledge the deity of him as a Gentile, the Roman
42:52
Centurion and demons? I think Matthew is laying his case out for the Jews and he's calling
42:57
them say he see see even Gentiles and demons call him the son of God. Why won't you? I think that's
43:05
his call. And again, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. And he just he says,
43:13
all right, go. It's also interesting to me that he he has he cast them to swine. They're obviously
43:18
not pearls. They're not holy. Don't cast what is holy to swines. He cast them out into pigs.
43:25
And I God is a God of details. And I just think that's an interesting overlap from chapter seven
43:31
into chapter eight where he says, don't give to pigs what is holy. But then he says, all right,
43:35
yeah, yeah, go, go. Also, and that had to suck as the herder of those pigs. You just lost a whole
43:42
bunch of pigs. That's a livelihood. Like, man, that stinks. Well, I want to I would like to think
43:47
that that's the only thing that explains their reaction. And behold, all the city came out to
43:52
meet Jesus and whom they and they they begged him to leave their region. I was like, that's an
43:56
odd reaction. They just watched him cast out two demons and are like, Oh, bro, you got to get out
44:01
of here. But you know, from a business standpoint, it's like, Hey, man, a bunch of money just jumped
44:06
into the river here. Like, this is a problem for me and my family. So people that had goats and
44:12
sheep and cattle and horses and all that in that region had to have been like, all right, man,
44:15
we don't need demons. Can you cast the demons into the rocks next time? We'll throw the rocks,
44:19
we'll even lift them up and throw them into the river. So that's probably the like human-based
44:24
portion. But that's me being very generous. I think that they were just so terrified at the
44:29
power of what they saw that they were just like overloaded, like, dude, just get out, just get out
44:34
of here. I can't have this. I don't know. I think I think you can rock with that because
44:38
where was their heart? Jesus didn't Jesus. All right, cool. I'm leaving Romans one. God gave them
44:43
up. They maybe they put their faith in money and it's been taken from the night. Now my livelihood
44:50
is gone. At least this part of it is gone. Like this stinks. Could you get out of here because you've
44:54
taken some of our monetary opportunity away from us and she's like, yeah, sure. God gave them up to
45:00
their to the to the lust of their their heart. And I think that's that's certainly something
45:05
that we could take from this. Yeah, I don't know. One thing, this is this is sort of the
45:10
intangible world that we don't know. We can't see interfacing with the tangible world. And so you
45:17
recently had some shirts made talking about the armor of God. I think this underscores how
45:22
critical that is because we've talked about believing and following Jesus, but we need to be spending
45:28
the time reading the word and putting on the full armor of God because of situations like this
45:33
that are just as real as all the other things that we've read about. Well, Zach, as you're saying
45:37
that I wonder, what if these these people from the city, what if they were prepared for something
45:45
like what they saw with Jesus? And so I have to wonder in myself, like, am I faithful enough?
45:52
Have I put on the full armor of God to where if I actually got to see something that is just
45:56
undeniably a massive move of God that I wouldn't react by just, oh my gosh, I gotta gotta get out
46:03
here or the just where I could like see it and appreciate it for what it is because we've heard
46:09
of stories where that happens to people where something is so overwhelming. That's clearly a
46:13
move of God and they just kind of accept it. I think of Mike Dregitch, that was on our drag
46:17
attempts on my show MMA fighter that was shot point blank range and took off running. And the
46:22
fact that he was with one of his few friends that hunted and that because of that, he was able to
46:28
track his friend's blood and found him in a backyard and here he is. And like the fact that
46:33
three weeks later, he was at like boot camp for the Marines, he was shot in his shoulder,
46:38
right with a 45 ACP and like blew his shoulder away. And it was like a literal miracle where
46:43
the doctors are like, dude, we can't explain this. Like you should not have been able to use your
46:47
shoulder ever again. You shouldn't even be alive, much less any of that. And the my very first thing
46:53
when I heard that story was skepticism. You probably, yeah, I pressed him on the show and I was like,
46:57
yeah, but I kind of removed myself from like, some people would say that that sounds kind of
47:04
stupid. Not even some people. Yeah, some people. Maybe you're leaving out a detail. Maybe it wasn't
47:09
three weeks. Maybe it was three years and you had a good buddy, like a live in person that like
47:13
fixed all your problems. I'm pointing at Eric right here. He's got magic hands and fixes injuries.
47:17
But again, yeah, like my natural mo is to be very skeptical. When you when you asked the
47:24
quote, I leaned in, I wanted to hear what he had to say. Seriously. What do you think about what he
47:27
said? So go back, guys, if you're listening to the systems a few months ago, but my interview with
47:30
Mike Dragotch. I mean, to me, it just came across as you guys believe whatever you want. But this is
47:35
what I'm telling you. He did. He dismissed me right back. He's like, I don't care what you have to say.
47:41
No, no, you asked. I'm going to tell you the story. He kind of explained it. And it's unexplainable.
47:44
I mean, what do you say? It's just, you know, this is what he believes. Isn't that the gospel,
47:49
the personal gospel? Like you can say God saved me. I don't believe it. You can believe whatever you
47:54
want. God snatched me up. And I am I am clothed in his righteousness. Now it's a very personal
48:00
thing. It doesn't really matter what other people think. It doesn't really matter what other people
48:04
say that I am in Christ is is a very personal story to me. And whoever whoever has that.
48:10
I mean, have any of you all had any stories like that? Where you saw something that just wasn't
48:14
explained? I have one, but I didn't, I don't feel like I really experienced it. I'm trying to
48:18
remember the details even off top my head. But my dad, you know, he was born in the era and raised
48:24
in the area where you could just smoke cigarettes. And it was no big deal. And no one ever got sick.
48:27
And you know, the marble man and all that. But I think whenever I was like two and my sister was
48:32
three, he had some cancerous, like, you know, patches or whatever kind of come up on as esophagus.
48:38
And it's like, I think at this time, my dad's not even 30 yet, right? He's he's a young father.
48:44
And now he's like looking at death in the face, like, holy crap, like, and then it was a couple
48:49
weeks later, he went back for his next scan. And it was completely clear. Like, almost as if the first
48:55
scan, you could easily explain it away. Well, they just switched up the scans. You know,
49:00
you could just explain it. Oh, they had to have gotten mixed up with someone else's chart.
49:04
But let's assume that the people at this facility kind of knew what they were doing.
49:09
And they had no explanation for it. Like, look, this is this is bad. We're looking at
49:14
esophageal cancer. We need to start thinking about treatment very next scan, nothing.
49:17
And it's like, that was enough for my dad to quit cold turkey smoking at that exact moment,
49:23
because it was this is not a religious man. He's still not a religious man. And it's just kind of
49:26
like, I think someone's trying to tell me something here. And so like, I've I've rolled my last,
49:31
you know, free dice, I pushed in my last few chips that were on the house. Like, that's enough.
49:35
I'm pulling out. But aside from that, I have personally not experienced a story where
49:39
there is not a logical explanation, a medical scientific or otherwise explanation for this other
49:46
than God was like, Nope, not yet. I was just trying to get your attention. I don't have anything
49:50
medically to put there. I know a lot of people who do. But very early on in Caitlin and I's marriage,
49:57
we didn't make a lot of money like many young married people. We were broke. I mean, there were
50:02
some months where was like 12 cents in the bank account after all bills were paid. And we made a
50:07
very conscious decision to donate to a ministry. And during a few months, I mean, we were I mean,
50:16
we were very seriously considering, man, this is a few hundred bucks. That would go a long way.
50:21
We just pulled out. And to Caitlin's credit, ministering to me as a husband,
50:27
no, I think this is something we need to do. And we decided to be faithful. Okay, God provides.
50:32
Let's just go with it. And there are a couple months where there shouldn't have been money in
50:40
the bank account to pay for bills. And there just was. And I can't explain it to this day
50:46
outside of God provides. And that was a standing stone moment for us. Caitlin writes all these
50:53
things down. She's very good at that. Like understand that our prayer was, man, what do we do? And very
50:58
clearly, it was, well, keep doing that. And God will provide. And I have no idea how that happened.
51:07
But it did. And I don't care what a banker looks at me and tells me and I never asked. But if they,
51:12
well, we can explain this is I don't care. I know what I saw and I know what should have happened.
51:17
And I know it did. So what about you guys, anything ever come up for? And I don't mean a story that
51:21
you heard from somebody, but like your story that you heard or felt, don't be forced to make
51:25
something or make it up to make sure it's awesome. Yeah, I guess you can make it up. No, no, nobody,
51:31
my wife will be like, wait, wait, wait a minute. We did. She's not allowed to listen. I don't have
51:35
anything. Yeah, I do. I'll share one. So when I got into college, I was working in the oil field.
51:45
And I was driving trucks, I was delivering drill bits. And I was driving all over Oklahoma and
51:51
Texas at the time I was stationed in Pampa, Texas, which is beautiful. If you ever have a chance,
51:55
go to Pampa, Texas. And towards the end of that summer, I was coming back to go back to college,
52:01
and it was my last week. And they asked me to exchange pickups with somebody who was based
52:06
there locally, and bring the other one back to Oklahoma City. And I was ready to get back,
52:11
spend a little bit of time with friends and all that before everything, you know, the school year
52:14
started and all that. So I was on my way back on I 40. And I was about 30 miles west of
52:22
Oklahoma City. And I remember thinking how anxious I was to get back at the time. And
52:28
it was probably speeding a little bit, not much. I want to be careful about what I say here, but
52:32
I statute of limitations. I think you're okay. This is a weird thing that haven't really talked
52:38
about a lot. But I literally had a thought, I remember in my mind about surely God would never
52:46
do that, or you know, like the thought of something happening as a result of me being in a hurry to
52:52
get back almost like a putting God to the test feeling. Within a few seconds, my rear tire
52:58
exploded on the driver side. And this was an F 250. And I was going 70 something miles an hour.
53:07
Very quickly, I was, I was my truck started bouncing and I was going backwards, like 60
53:12
something miles an hour on the highway. And then eventually I started to skid over toward the side
53:17
of the road. And it's pretty flat over there, but there's a little bit of a dip. And I remember my
53:23
truck started to turn. And I just closed my eyes and I kind of cocooned around the steering wheel.
53:30
And just remember waiting for pain. And the truck flipped like nine times. And then I remember
53:39
opening my eyes and it kind of rolled over one more time and I was upside down. And clearly in shock,
53:46
you know, everything was destroyed. As I as I remember it, I looked over and literally the
53:54
truck formed a void around my body. The roof was touching the seat of the passenger seat.
54:00
And then everything behind me was destroyed completely. And I crawled out of the windshield.
54:05
And very quickly, some people started to arrive on the scene and they didn't know if I had made
54:11
it because I guess a dirt cloud exploded around the vehicle. So it was hard to see what would
54:15
what had happened. But I was walking around. Meanwhile, it was completely totaled. And I remember a
54:21
police officer came and he had me sit down and he said, you're in shock. And then eventually they
54:26
strapped me the ambulance came and they strapped me to the board. You know, they strap your head
54:31
down and your hands and everything. And that's when I started to panic get me out of this. I don't
54:35
want to be tied down. And it was super aggressive. And eventually they unstrapped my hand long enough
54:41
that I could sign a waiver that they would let me go. And that's what they did. So they left. I
54:47
sat down probably against company policy at the time. And that sheriff drove me into town into
54:53
a gas station. And a friend of mine came and picked me up. And as I think about it, there's no
54:59
explanation for why I walked out of that with no scratch, no physical harm whatsoever. The vehicle
55:05
was literally completely totaled. And there was a physical space just around the cavity of my body.
55:12
And then I walked out. And as I think about it now, actually told the story to my son last night,
55:17
he's like, that's not true. I'm like, well, you can go out. Yeah, it is. You know, there's evidence.
55:22
It seems like maybe, you know, God, at the same time, maybe it was saying, don't put me to the test,
55:27
maybe put me through an experience that I'll never forget. That's unexplainable. But preserved me
55:33
for the future. So it's obviously something that I've never forgotten about. I can't explain. It
55:38
doesn't make any sense. And you know, maybe it was just perfectly natural. But I don't think so.
55:43
It was over a decade later before you came to faith in Christ. Yeah, at that point, right.
55:48
Wow. Well, I don't want to ruin that story with any of my commentary. So I'm just going to close
55:53
the episode out guys. So I'm not going to let either one of y'all say anything either. All right,
55:56
we're going to cut it there. Zach, I really appreciate you sharing that with us. But we're
55:59
going to have to leave it there. Our discussion of Matthew eight, but come back here next Sunday,
56:03
where we're going to get into a discussion of Matthew nine. So make sure you read through Matthew
56:07
nine before we come back here next week. But before we let you go, we are going to do a quick
56:10
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The links are in the description. I'm your host Kyle Thompson. Remember keep pushing back darkness,
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