Soft Serve Pastors, Bullies & the Envy Behind Social Media (Ed Young and Derek Donley)

Soft serve pastors fear man more than they fear God, basically. If you're watching this and your pastors are not speaking out on basic issues, you need to go to a church where pastors do. If you have a problem with a mega church, you have a problem with the X2 church. You have a problem with the early church. The crazy thing about bullying in today's world, I think the enemy is using bullies to try to get us to so concentrate on the bully that we miss doing what God wants us to do. We are assaulted, ambushed by woke-ism. And so much of it goes back to what we're talking about. N.V. George Bernard Shaw ripped off Christ when he said, don't wrestle with pigs because when you do, you'll both get muddy. And the pig likes it. There are a lot of great podcasters, but there's a lot of pig casters out there just slinging mud, take a wide berth around the pig sty. I heard something really good about speaking recently, where when you prepare a message and I've overcooked too many messages, you don't want to memorize your message. You want to be able to talk your message through in the allotted timeframe. Let's say it's 25 minutes. Any message, in my opinion, over 30 minutes starts to go off the reservation. So this guy was talking about how you should be able to give your message in, let's say, 25 minutes, then give it in 10 minutes, then give it in five minutes, and then give it in one minute. And I was talking to Lisa about that last night. I intuitively do that. I didn't even know it because what I'll do is I'll study. And let's say I'm talking to you, Derek. I might say, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Or maybe I meet someone at the gym and they're asking me about Fellowship Church or what I do for a living and what are you speaking on? I'll give them the message in one minute. So constantly throughout the week, I'm doing that without going through this system of doing it. But I like this system. That's a brilliant insight that I've never heard anyone actually articulate. So if you are speaking, I would encourage you to think about those things. Take the allotted time and do your message. Then do it in half the time. Then do it in a couple of minutes. And then you're ready. You have the core. You're ready to deliver it. It's probably difficult for a lot of people to do. It's difficult. The most difficult thing that I do, every job has its most difficult strain. The most difficult thing I do, no question about it, Derek, is speaking. No doubt about it. The other stuff is challenging but not like speaking. No. Do you ever feel like, man, I'm ready for this message? You talk about you're always ready. No, I never really feel. I've never felt completely and totally ready. No, no. And I watch myself speak after every message, and I absolutely loathe it. I hate it. It is the most painful thing I do to watch myself. I'm like, yeah.

And it does, though, help me to some extent. But I would encourage speakers to watch yourself. It helps you. Because if you watch yourself, you can see visuals or visual cues you do too much. Maybe you pace too much. That's one of my weaknesses. Or maybe you always do this. And a great way to do it is to watch it in high speed. You can see your tendencies. Some people are locked behind the lectern, which is fine if that's your style. Other people are just walking around all the time. One of the things you try not to do but tend to do is you look down. One of my biggest weaknesses, and part of it, because pastors are great. Speakers are great at making excuses. Part of it is the way our worship center is designed. It's a big room, and the stage is up high. I want to have eye contact with the people. So I find myself looking down, and I miss looking up. And that is a horrible thing to do, and I do it all of the time. The stage is kind of high, though. It is high, but to answer your question, I've never been ready for a message. I've never said, okay. I'm ready. Let's do it. There's always something to tweak, always something to add. I always feel like I haven't prepared enough. And that's where, again, when you speak, you have to ask the Holy Spirit to take it. I mean, it is about Him anyway, and He's doing it, but I'm saying you have to allow Him to speak to you and through you. And maybe God allows that, so we know it's the Holy Spirit and not ourselves. But it is, Derek. I mean, speaking is a very painful process. It sounds like it's not as painful. The most painful part of speaking is the preparation. I think it's probably your job is one of the most unique ones because pretty much in everything you do, you're chasing infinity. You are. There's

never, OK, I'm turning in this document, it's done. I'm turning in this report, it's done. There's always another one coming. There's always things you could have done or wish you would have done. That is unique about the ministry, and that's why I encourage people to go into the ministry. But here's the clincher. If they're called, you've got to be called. I wouldn't have picked this disposition or this line of work out just to go, hey, I want to go into the ministry. I want to be a pastor. No way. There are too many other jobs that maybe one would say are easier, that don't have the anxiety and stress. Less critics. Far less critics, yes. And that's something I would encourage people to think about if they feel called. If you're called, it's the greatest thing. I cannot do something else because I'm called to this. But you have to be called to it. And then the proverbial question is, what does it mean to be called? Well, it means that there's going to be a moment, a time, or maybe a season where you know that God has spoken to you. I've never heard God's audible voice, but I feel like during my call I came close. I didn't hear it. But I remember it. And then I had that moment of my call where it was as real as hearing a voice, but I didn't hear a voice. So I responded to the call. But when you respond, you also have to have it validated by the right people in your life, and you have to have it validated by the gifts and abilities. And you have to know what you're supposed to do. My dad pastored a large church for many years. He was very entrepreneurial as a pastor. I would say Second Baptist definitely is one of the most significant churches built in the last 100 years of Christianity, no doubt. As far as attendance, as far as programs from helping the poor to these big events, I haven't come in contact with a lot of churches like that. It was a unique thing. And what's interesting about dad, you know, dad turned 90, just turned 90 years old. And people think he's Southern Baptist. Dad is not Southern Baptist. People say, oh, your dad, big Southern Baptist. Guys, he's not Southern Baptist. Sorry. I mean, he played the game with them, and he was president of the thing. I mean, he and Charles Stanley and Adrian Rogers, those guys are Southern Baptist. What are they? Entrepreneurial. They're not Southern Baptist. I mean, what's so funny at Second Baptist? We had healing services every week, anointed people with oil. I mean, what? No, that's biblical. I'm just saying that. And dad believed, generally, in the doctrine. I think the Baptist is very close as far as doctrinally

to most of the theology, the correct theology in most in the New Testament. The main thing is, is the inerrancy of scripture, the authority, the priesthood of the believer, baptism by immersion, so forth and so on. Those are the keys. So, he wouldn't, he, dad believed in the gifts and people in Second Baptist, I mean, you had people that spoke in tongues, not in the service, but you had some, but dad's not a cessationist. He's sensational, but he's not, and that is kind of, that's a radical thing. You know, something else that dad would talk about constantly is the importance of vision. And the interesting thing about him, now that he's 90 years old, I can say these things. He didn't have this brilliant, Craig Groeschel-esque, Chris Hodges, you know, ABC 123, the brilliant systems. I mean, they had, but believe me, they, in their heyday, they had some brilliant systems, but what I'm saying is vision. He didn't have like a vision statement like so many of these great leaders have. I mean, they can just, you know, ask, you know, Stephen Furtick or Richard Wilkerson Jr., boom, boom, they can give you, and here's what I figured out about dad. He was the vision. He embodied the vision.

Wasn't written down, he never said, here's our vision. He was the vision. It's interesting. Isn't that interesting? Yeah, it really is. And when you get around him, you understand it, and even people that, you know, dad too, this is good to honor him in this way because he is 90 years old, and I have never, never, I mean, in the heyday, and let me tell you this about the church world. When you talk about the mega church, when you talk about the giant churches, they all sort of have their day in the sun, whether the hot collar, it's the coolest, you know, everything you do just explodes. And I've lived long enough now where I've seen that cycle where, you know, I can go way, way back and get into, you know, when Willow Creek was the hot collar, and when Willow Creek was hot collar, so was dad's church, Second Baptist, which is a weird name. And they probably vied, honestly, for the largest church in America. Dad's church was the largest for a while, and Bill's was, you know, back and forth, back and forth. And during that time, I mean, it was just, I call it dumb growth. It just happens. And then there've been other churches

that have been the hot church, you know. I know, it's just, not to mention names, I don't want to get into the names, but there, and you have a season, and that's great. Praise God for that. Yeah. But I always say, what happens after the wave, it's the beach. What happens when the wave and the tide goes out? What happens at low tide? So I fish a lot, and you can catch fish at high tide, low tide, or slack tide. And that is what so many of these great churches have done. But as a pastor, don't freak out if maybe you're not the hot commodity at this point. Don't, you know, it's like, if you study music, whether it's hip hop, country western, classic rock, those bands had their heyday. For sure. And as they get older, as they age, it's just a different vibe. It's not that they're, and arguably, maybe some of their music is better than ever, but they don't have the fan base, you know, the young people, even Forrest Frank will get old. It's hard to believe. It's hard to believe, yeah. No, seriously. Yeah. And he's amazing.

God's using him in great ways, but. He's going to get old one day. Josh Howerton will get old one day. Everyone does. So you have to look around and go, wow, I'm not old. And that's part of getting older and part of aging. I mean, at Fellowship Church, we had a season, probably a decade-long run, where we experienced dumb growth. Now, the greatest growth of our church was not here. People would say numerically, oh, that's, no, forget it. The best growth had to be from when we started Fellowship Church in Irving, Texas, in rented facilities those first eight years. We were in a dead community. I mean, dead as a doornail. And God just grew the church to thousands. Most churches, and this is a great principle, most booming churches are around booming communities. Let me say that again. Most booming churches are around booming communities. You study them, they go hand in hand. Now and then, you'll have these anomalies. And we were. To show you, it's a God thing. We were an anomaly because not only the whole area was dead where we were and tired. Again, but big churches are awesome. People say, man, for some reason,

you're always going to have your haters out there. The megachurch is bad. That has got to be. People hate Target, don't they? Yeah, that is sad. And it's just, they say it in total ignorance. Part of it is envy. Part of it is this socialistic mentality, quite frankly, that big is bad. In Australia, it's called the tall poppy syndrome. Poppy grows, the other poppy, cut it down. Or maybe in our vernacular, my vernacular, because I love the outdoors, it's the crab philosophy. Throw some crabs in a bucket, one tries to crawl out, the other crabs pull it down. And sadly, that's where some people are. And what I would do is I would just challenge you to get your heads out of the sands of denial and go, man, the megachurch is awesome. If you have a problem with the megachurch, you have a problem with the X2 church. If you have a problem with the megachurch, you have a problem with the early church. A lot of scholars believe some of these churches had venues 30, 40, 50,000 people. So I guess the haters would hate on that too. But I made this phrase up years ago, hate is going to hate. Did you know that? I didn't know that. Yeah, I made that up.

It's a great phrase. What does that mean? It means that left to our own devices, we are going to criticize. And we're all that way. You get grips with people together, we're going to go negative every time. It's true. Isn't that true? Yeah, yeah. Unless you have real leadership and unless you have a real target to attack. Yeah, you mentioned that word envy. That's something that you've been talking about. Envy, yes. Something that everybody deals with, whether they have a large following or no following, whether they're a stay-at-home mom, a business person, something that everybody struggles with and deals with. And that crab syndrome can infiltrate their life, where either they are ones at the top or they're trying to pull people down. Envy definitely begins where your influence ends. I want you to think about that. Envy begins where your influence ends. Or you could say envy begins where your income ends, too. That's true. So I don't struggle with envy over someone in the real estate business, although I've done a lot of real estate.

But I'm not a real estate. That's not my first calling. But I'm not going to be envious of them. I'm not going to be envious of a professional athlete, a teacher, a coach. someone in IT, a surgeon, I'm not. A pastor, that's where I'll struggle with envy. Why does he get that opportunity? Why does he get to travel there? Or the list goes on and on. What I encourage people to do is, because we all struggle with envy, there are certain people, certain accounts you should probably stay away from, although they're good, maybe they rev up those envy engines. There are certain people I cannot follow because I will go down that path. And I like to say that envy is when you're sad over someone's success and you're a fan of their failure. And if I looked at all of social media, the number one issue that's out there, yes, it's pride. Yes, it's jealousy. Yes, I know it's comparison, but I would have to say it's envy. Envy is the thing. We envy people's bank account. We envy their physiques. We envy their cars, their boats. I'm a fisherman. I envy the way some people fish.

I mean, I'm going down the line. So whenever I scroll or you scroll, if we start to really scroll, we could be kickstarting those envy engines. Vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom. And what I've found about envy too, this is interesting because I've thought about myself. When I accuse someone of something, many times my accusation is my confession. I'm seeing in them what I don't like in myself. Interesting. I think that happens a lot. A lot too, we have to understand social media, all the conversations, at least half of them are bots. They're not real people. And we have, our technology team has studied that. So I forget that too when I go online. These aren't real people. And it's interesting too that we live in a day where I can say anything, anytime about anyone. And I've been thinking about bullying with students or even adults, whatever. I can say anything, anytime about anyone using my platform, whatever it is. If I have two followers or two squillion followers. When I hurl that accusation your way, Derek, when I type in that little glass screen, you have to prove your validity, your accountability, your integrity, not me. And I've just, and I can make up anything.

I've thought sometimes when I've talked about technology, seriously, you could take anyone in our audience and just ask them a couple of questions. And we have the ability now to bully them. It's true. And the crazy thing is, back in the day, it was the anonymous letter. Only a few people knew that. Now, I write an anonymous letter. Yeah, it's a comment that everybody sees. And I think also, too, we need to think deeply. There are great, there's some great things about social media and technology, no question about it. The information, the connectivity, the opportunity to share the gospel. There's so many wonderful things out there, but there's some dark stuff. And I've been asking people recently, just kind of doing a straw poll. I'll go, do you believe social media is mostly good or bad? Every person, and many of these aren't even Christians, have said, oh, it's mostly bad. So I need to know that and think about that when I just begin my scrolling, you know? Because even podcasters out there, I mean, there's some that are great. There's some that go by the label of Christians. I can't doubt their salvation, but I have some question marks, you know? Absolutely.

So just because someone says they're a Christian or has a Bible open doesn't mean they're a Christian. mean it's theologically correct, or it doesn't mean they're taking and pulling everything out of context, because what a lot of these podcasters will do now is they'll make these outlandish comments about whoever or whatever, and they don't care if it's true or not. All they're caring about is the clicks and the likes and the views, which equals money, money, money, money, hey! And we get, and I can even get lured into it. So what I've done, and I mentioned this recently, is I got my first anonymous letter 35 years ago, and it crushed me, and I made a vow before God I would not look at negative stuff anymore. And for the most part, I've kept that. I don't read comments, I don't, I don't even, I mean, I appreciate nice letters and things, but I don't want to go up and down, up and down. I'm already emotional enough, so I just stay away from it. And I please an audience of one, but I'd be lying to you if I said, because I hear about it from our team, I'd be lying to you if I said that negativity doesn't hurt. It hurts, it still hurts today. I think I have a better read on it today than I did 35 years ago. And one of the biggest issues, too,

that we try to help pastors with, Derek, is this very thing, because they have been, and they are getting beat up by so many people. And sometimes in a smaller community, in a smaller church, it's more difficult than a big place like this, but we help them. So we have this group called C3 Global, and also we have C3 Global Elite, where we just share just the good, the bad, the ugly, with them. And also, too, we have this camp for pastor's kids. And those two things, as you know, have been a great thing for us. Oh, yeah. You said before, you think that's a pastor's biggest fear, is what people will post online. Biggest fear pastors have is, I'm not liked, number one. Number two, biggest fear, they're gonna leave the church. Biggest fear, I'll lose followers. That's our biggest fear. And you have to get over that fear. So what happens to most pastors is we never really, we're never really decisive when we speak about the Word of God. I talk a lot about soft-serve pastors, and I've been taken out of context a lot about that. Soft-serve pastors are people that fear man more than they fear God, basically.

And it's not that they're bad people. It's just, if you wanna become a steak and potatoes pastor, all you have to do is you have to say, God, I'm willing to preach what you tell me to preach. That's it. It's not that you look for controversy every Sunday or you try to wrap the Bible in the American flag, as Adrian Rogers used to say, you just are willing when an issue comes up to talk about it. This Sunday, I'm talking about Sophie, Sophie Cunningham. Man, she pointed out the bully, didn't she, Derek? Oh, that's wild. And I think Nehemiah did that before she did, but you have to be willing to say that. I posted recently about this hellacious decision in Massachusetts where they have voted to affirm abortions up until birth. That is Bible. Thou shalt not kill. People matter to God. You have to say that. You have to talk about those things. I don't mean every Sunday, but you've got to reference them. But see, pastors, the soft server are like, man, if I say that, okay, Sophie Cunningham. A lot of pastors will be afraid to say it. You know why? The race. Oh my gosh, I have black people in my church.

So do we. It's bullying. And we need to be quick to say the other way as well, but I'll say it. And if you're afraid of that, you know what? You shouldn't be a pastor straight up. And if you're watching this and your pastors are not speaking out on basic issues, you need to go to a church where pastors do because you're at the wrong church. So it's easy to be a soft serve pastor. serve pastors is what got Nazi Germany into trouble. That's what brought Hitler to power, if you just read books like Bonhoeffer and other historical works. So we are at a point now where we have Islam, socialism, and I love AOC calls it wokeism 0.2, who knows what that is. She can't even define wokeism. So all that's merging together now. So we have a fight in our hands. And I have friends who are Muslim, but here's the difference between Islam and Christianity. The closer I get to Jesus, the more loving, forgiving, and compassionate I become. If I'm a Muslim, the closer I get to Allah and the Quran, the darker and more violent I become. So just study history. They are coming after us, and we have to stand and love everyone. But also, we have to stand and say, you know what?

This is the difference. That's why I just did a series called I'm Not That Religious, where I talked about these issues. So again, if you're watching this and you're not going to a church that's talking about these things, you're going to the wrong church. It's easy to talk about, here's what soft service pastors do. They go soft. They talk about worship. Worship is important. We're made to worship. I've done series and talks. We're here to glorify God. Great. But they just talk worship, worship, worship, worship. Or they talk about human trafficking, human trafficking. Who's not against human trafficking? That's not some bold move. Right. You know? Or water wells in Africa, who's going to be against that? So soft serve people, politically correct pastors, go to those issues. Those of us who are meat and potatoes pastors, which is just serving the food in a creative and compelling way, in an uncompromising way, we've got to talk about worship. And we've got to worship. We have to talk about human trafficking, because it's an issue, yeah.

We have to talk about the others. But if you're talking about that, awesome. But you've also got to talk about the tough stuff. You've got to talk about the hard yards. And again, you're not looking for a fight. We never should be looking for a fight. But you have to be willing, when the issues come up, to talk them through. What's crazy is that things that are controversial shouldn't even be controversial. Talk about Sylvie Cunningham. That's right. She spoke out saying, this should be a women's sport. Yes. You shouldn't allow men to play in it. I like WNBA. You know, I declared myself for the 2027 WNBA draft. Congratulations. I'm identifying as a woman, a 7 foot 2 woman. That's amazing. Former D1 basketball player? Yeah, former D1 basketball player, yeah. Former benchwarmer. I would say bullying crosses all sectors of society, from grade school to people like me who are old school, from the boardroom to the operating room, literally, and the locker room. You're going to face bullies. You will. And the scary thing is so many of our students

or young people are facing bullies, especially during this whole back to school thing that we're facing. And my heart, our hearts go out to them because I've experienced that. I mean, pretty much everyone has. And I am going to address the bully, the bullied, and those who are innocent bystanders of seeing someone bullied. But the crazy thing about bullying in today's world, Derek, is if you're a student because of social media, you can't get away from it. Back when I was bullied and there was no social media, the respite, the safe space and place was my home with my friends. When I walked onto the various campuses of the wild schools I attended, that's when bully was on like Donkey Kong. But I could leave it. So you'd get into it, and you'd leave. Leave it. Save space. Not now. Yeah. What was your first bully experience? There's a guy named Truesdale. I was the new kid at school, and we had recess, we called it, lunch break or whatever. I was walking outside, and I just was watching a couple of guys

that were playing this game, and Truesdale looked at me, he's a big old kid, and I'd never heard cuss words, you know, he just cussed me out, and said, you better get out of here. So I was like, wow. So I kind of backed off, and I remember like it was yesterday. Isn't this crazy? I was so scared. I walked by myself on the edge of the school property of that playground until the bell rang, and I could go inside. I was scared of him the whole year, and I'd evaded him the whole year until the last day of school. I was like, I made it. The bell rang, and I remember looking down that long hall, kids are celebrating, school's over, whatever, and I see my mom's blue Impala waiting for me in the coral pool line, and I'm walking toward the car. Who do I see? Truesdale. Comes up, bumps me, knocks my books down. I pick my books up, and I thought, am I gonna allow this bully to bully me? So I just tackled him and beat the fool out of him, yes, and we were taken to the principal's office, and of course I told the principal what had happened,

and that was a defining moment for me. I know that sounds trite. You're very young, which I was, but. So your dad's a pastor at this time. Your dad obviously finds out about this. How did he respond? He said, son, let's go to the basement, put on the boxing gloves. You need to know how to fight. So dad teaches me just basic stuff, and I used that on Truesdale and took him out, and I'm not advocating that everyone starts punching everyone, but sometimes you have to stand up, even physically, in a certain situation, but in most situations, in most situations, you don't, but bullying is real, and the scary thing about it is, in today's culture, on one hand, you have the most connected generation, yet we're the most disconnected. Our students and young people are connected through technology, yet there's more depression, loneliness, and suicide than ever before. Bullying can make you feel like, it can make you feel like you're completely and totally alone and isolated. It's only happening to me. So if you are bullied, I would just say, to stand up to the bully, also to take a wide berth around the situation, definitely tell your parents

about it, and I would tell the powers that be about it as well, but the positive side is, your bully can become a pulley that'll take you to the next level. It can, because I believe, because we're talking to Christians, that it's really spiritual warfare. I think the enemy is using bullies to try to get us to so concentrate on the bully that we miss doing what God wants us to do. So if we can teach even our kids that, because our battle is not against flesh and blood, it's against spiritual forces of darkness. You have such a cool biblical story that really ties in so well in Nehemiah. Yes. With this and how he handled the bullies. You know, being a Christian, you always have a target to attack, God puts it out there for us. But as we attack the target, the target that we attack moves to our back, and you have bullying. And Nehemiah had that because Nehemiah did, he led an adventure and a group of people that seemed impossible. He rebuilt the city walls around Jerusalem while he began this project. And while he was working, he was attacked literally by bullies, Samboleth, Tobiah, and Geshem, to be specific. And these guys started out with ridicule, laughter. Then they segued into physical threats. But the cool thing about it is Nehemiah's response.

He was up on the wall. He did not come down from the wall. They tried to get him into the pig pen, into wrestling with pigs. Come on, we need to meet with you. I mean, if you just shared with us what was happening, we would understand. Are you kidding me? Don't deal with people like that. Don't deal with pigs, because they're pigs. That's what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7, verse 6. Pigs, well, here's what Jesus said. Jesus said, don't throw pearls to pigs. They will trample the truth. They don't care about the truth. They'll turn and tear you apart. So Nehemiah was dealing, literally, with Old Testament pigs. And the pigs weren't snorting. And they had mud all over them. And they said, come on, Nehemiah, you want to wrestle with us? No way. He said, no, no, no, no, no. Because he knew the situation. I mean, he knew, like, OK, what if I beat the pigs? Who cares? They're going to waste my time, energy, and effort. So I need to stay at the task. And what Nehemiah did, though, I love this in scripture.

It says that Nehemiah and his boys, they had a tool in one hand and a weapon in the other. And that is the Christian life. And I tell people all the time, if you're not feeling resistance, if you're not feeling some sort of attack or some sort of temptation, you're probably not living for the Lord. What a great thing for so many people to realize that when you get distracted and focus on the bully or whatever people are saying about you, it takes you off of the focus that God has for you. And bullies have been bullied. Hurt people hurt people. So you have to think about that. Also, you have to think about, OK, if you are bullied, your response. Nehemiah's first response was to take it to God in prayer. But after that, then, he was very practical. He surrounded himself with the right they, T-H-E-Y, those who are tenacious and tough, T-H, those who are honest, E, those who are encouraging, and Y, those who are yielded to God and to your friendship. And also, they can be negative. And the Bible talks about they being Samboleth, Tobiah, and Geshem. They, the negative they, will always try to take you into the fray. And you'll become prey, P-R-E-Y. So Nehemiah, P-R-A-Y-E-D, prey, right? And the sidewalk supervisors, they

looked at him as prey, P-R-E-Y. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does to me. So too many of us hang out with the wrong they, and too many of us are hanging out with pigs. Because Geshem, Tobiah, and Samboleth, it's a joke for all those who are over 50. You remember Sansevelt pants? They were the ugliest pants ever made. I always call them Sansevelt. So those people were bad characters. And Nehemiah ended up completing the project. City walls were huge back then because of worship, integrity, consistency in the culture and community. You said a phrase that you came up with earlier. Oh, no. You said, haters going to hate. Haters going to hate? I made that up. I just came up with this one. What? When you're doing great, people hate. People hate. Oh. But so true, though. Did I make that up? I think I might have made that up. I think you made that one up. I could have. Yeah.

But it's so true. You said, when you're doing great, people hate. When you're doing the things of God, that target that you're focused on moves your back. So yeah, you have a target to attack. God gives you a target to attack. And as you attack the target, it moves to your back. And I love the target. I want you to think about this target. This is a leadership lesson. In the bullseye, you got the, T-H-E-E, or he, God. Then you got me, the next circle. Then you got we. Then you got they. Then you got them. So as a leader, you need to constantly think about those concentric circles of influence and leadership. How about the we? How about the they? How about the them? How about the them? How about the they? How about the we? And you're constantly thinking about that. Obviously, Nehemiah did so because he delegated and motivated all of these Jews to do something amazing. And it's sick that we are dealing with anti-Muslims. by Semitism in our nation today, but if you read the book of Nehemiah,

the same groups, they had him surrounded. Samboleth, Tobiah, and Geshem were throwing hate, throwing mud, and ripping the Jews. As believers, Jesus wasn't as Jewish. It's, our roots are Jewish. The disciples, I mean, were Jewish, Jewish, Jewish. So, we should stand by Israel, and stand by the Jews. So, I think it's just absolutely horrible. This, this woke wave, Marxism, and Socialism, and Islam, it's all combined together. Oh, there is some serious hate. And if you think about, too, Marxism put a big old sticker on his ugly bucket head. Karl Marx was ugly, man. And Karl Marx was the biggest hypocrite out there. He never had a job. He was totally immoral, hung out in ancient coffee shops, theorizing and writing, because, you know, he was jealous of the people that were successful. Yep. So, it's just envy. It's all it is. And so much of social media, as I've been saying, the number one issue in social media, I'm talking to podcasters, maybe Pidcasters, some podcasters, I'm talking to people that post. It is, it is, it is a industry of envy. You said something.

Yeah, I mean, dude, tell me, I, I, I. You're spot on, it's. I, I struggle with it. Everyone does on there. And, and so when we're envious, I can say anything, anytime about anyone. Doesn't matter if it's true. Doesn't matter. You've got to prove to me. So, one of the foundations of our culture, Derek, is innocent until proven guilty. Social media is the opposite. You're guilty until you prove yourself. And even when you stand, no, you're still guilty. You're one accusation away from having to prove your innocence. That's good, man, that's good. And, and we, we live in a sick society when that is the case. And that's why, again, we have so many issues and problems. And it's not the technology in and of itself is bad. Technology is neutral, but it's just a big honking mirror of mankind. You said about envy how it's like, that sin is unique than other sins. It is. The first book I ever wrote was called Fatal Distractions. I'm going to write a better one on that. But anyway, I like the book. It's a study on sin, specifically the seven deadly sins.

Envy is the only sin that starts out ugly and ends ugly. It starts out U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi, ugly, and it ends U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi, ugly, envy. The other sins start out with promise, like pride. I feel good when I brag. Lust, ooh, man, you feel good. But pride takes you to a dark place. Lust takes you to a dark place. But it starts off in a good place. I mean, in our sinfulness. Envy starts off in a bad place and it ends in a bad place. It really is. And our culture is eaten up with envy, eaten up. And yes, pride is the forerunner of all sin, no doubt about it. Pride's weird because I never see it in myself, but I see it in you. Envy, though, the Bible says in the book of Proverbs, can literally rot our bones. Wow. That's socialism, that's Marxism. What's the world coming to when we have a full-on Muslim who's the mayor of the largest city in America? That's unreal. It's really unbelievable. You cannot make it up, no. And the thing that's scary, too, about our culture is we're seeing this wave of socialism, Marxism, and it's a storm that I've been watching for decades. I call it El Woco.

And this storm and the storm surge has infiltrated everything from the WNBA to the NFL, from the NFL to corporations, from corporations to entertainment. Everywhere we turn and look, We are assaulted, ambushed by woke-ism. And so much of it goes back to what we're talking about. Envy. I just thought about that. Envy. Envy. I don't like it that you're blessed. I don't like it that you are more successful than me. I deserve that blessing. I deserve that success. Oh, Derek, here's another good one. Oh my goodness, I'm glad. Thank you, Lord. Here's something that when I hear it, I don't like to use the word stupid because it's too strong. Sometimes it's necessary. When people say the church is a socialist entity, that is on so many levels of dumb. I can't even, let me just explain it to you as simple as I can. And hopefully the people who believe this are watching because I've got to make it simple. Because that's when we understand something. The Bible from cover to cover

preaches personal responsibility. You can look at passages, and then you can look at just the parables that Jesus taught. Personal responsibility. And then some will point to examples of some of the early churches where people gave their resources and everybody shared them. Here's the thing they miss. It was those people's decision to give everything or their goods to the church and share them. They weren't commanded or demanded like socialism or communism. It's that simple, Derek. So that's great. If you feel led or I feel led to do that. I mean, I saw my father several times donate most of his net worth to the church. That was his choice. No one made him. So to say the church is socialistic, Jesus teaches personal responsibility, accountability. The Bible talks about work ethic. It talks about commitment. It's easy to be Karl Marx and to be funded by a wealthy friend to sit around in museums, sipping espresso, being immoral on your wife and coming up with these satanic ideas

and strategy based on envy. Who couldn't do that? And he's supposed to be a genius. Okay, he's a smart guy. There's a lot of educated idiots. It's true. It's easy for people to sit behind a phone or a mic or a computer and critique. Oh, you know, Derek, that's the interesting thing to me. You know, Jesus said in Matthew chapter seven, verse six, he said, don't throw pearls to pigs because the pigs will trample the pearls, pearls being the truth, the truth of God. They'll trample them. They'll turn and tear you to pieces. So, and he was referring to hypocrites because hypocrites are hypocritical. He was saying, take a wide berth around pig pens. And George Bernard Shaw ripped off Christ when he said, well, he made this phrase popular, don't wrestle with pigs because when you do, you'll both get muddy and the pig likes it. So there are a lot of great podcasters, but there's a lot of pig casters out there just slinging mud. No facts, no truth, no reality. So those who are followers of Christ, we shouldn't even engage or listen. Take a wide berth around the pigsty.

They can say anything about anybody, anytime. And they get the clicks and the likes and the views. See, it's about that cash money, but they are not gonna really say that. Anyway, that's the game out there. So just because someone has a microphone or a cool studio and a nice modern painting behind them doesn't mean that they know anything. So there are some, again, great podcasters. There's some great stuff out there. There's some great men and women of God. who are, who understand what it means to walk with the Lord, but there's a lot of immature baby Christians who have one of these, and just because they might quote a verse or two or comment on this person or that person, and the people they comment on, they're always taken out of context. For sure. It's not real, you know, it's not true. And those who are mature in Christ, you understand that. Because see, babies and toddlers, you have to watch them. They'll put anything in their mouths, won't they? Oh yeah. Okay, same is true with a baby Christian. There are a lot of podcasters who are baby Christians, and the people they have as guests, I just laugh. So someone who is mature spiritually, you understand that you're dealing with life.

You've been there. You don't overreact. You know if you put that in your mouth, that could poison you, or if you touch that, that could electrocute you. And those who are mature physically are unselfish. I mean, you're a father, I'm a father, and a grandfather. I understand it's not about me. You understand it. But when you're a kid, you think it's all about you. It's not. It's true. So we see that in play even on social media. So it's okay when you're scrolling to say, that's a pig, that's a pig, that's a pig cast, or no, no, that's a great podcast, or that's a great post. We need to label people. That's what Jesus was saying. He was not saying that pigs don't matter to God. Pigs matter to God. We need to pray for them, but just don't engage them. So if you look like a pig, smell like a pig, act like a pig, stay away from the pig. It's not worth it. Don't get in the pig pen? No. Unfollow, block, mute? Yeah, block, mute, unfollow.

Don't even, yeah. I don't read anything and look at any post as negative. I just don't. Because if you do, you feel down, and then you start looking at positive posts. I feel up, down, up, down, up, up, up, down, down, down, up, up. No, it's not worth it. I heard before, comparison is a game that you can't win. No, you can't. It's unfair to compare, Derek. It's unfair to compare. We're making a mockery of God's creative genius when we compare. So that's why I even wrote a hip hop song, UBU. You can check that out on YouTube, on my YouTube page. UBU, it's one of my favorites. And that was kind of, that whole song came out of this vibe. UBU, because if you aren't you, who's going to be you? If you aren't you, there's going to be a hole in history, a gap in God's creative order. I love that. So be yourself. Yeah. God made you unique. Like Snoop Dogg said, I just want to be the best version of Snoop Dogg. I can possibly be. Yeah, this has been Derek Daly's podcast. And thank you so much for being here.

Hey, Derek, it's been a pleasure. I know that you had so many guests, so many, so many people from, I mean, you're going to read Joe Rogan. You just talked to Elan, what, last month. So man, just to give me some time, I appreciate it. Zuckerberg next week. Zuck, yeah. He's, man, he's starting to look like a regular guy now. I'll see ya. See ya.