The BIBLICAL Formula for Unlocking GOD’S WILL For Your Life | Live Free with Josh Howerton

The only way to get real lasting peace is to know the Prince of Peace himself. We obsess over the what, and then we forget about the who has called you. What God wants to do is not dependent upon who you are, but on who God is and what he wants to do. Well, hey, Live Free Nation. Before we jump into the episode, this podcast is recorded right here at Lake Point Church in Dallas, Texas, but the Live Free Nation is spread all over the country and all around the world. So if you've been watching and thinking, man, I wish I could be part of something like this, we want to invite you to take a simple next step, and that is join us for Church Online. Every weekend we stream our services live on YouTube, Facebook, and our Church Online platform, and it's more than just watching a service. There are live hosts in the chat, prayer teams ready to stand with you, and people all around the world worshiping together in real time. And so whether you're exploring the faith, coming back to church, or just looking for a place to start, Church Online is a great way to jump in and experience what God is doing here at Lake Point. We would love to see you in the chat this weekend, and now enjoy the podcast. Well, hey, welcome back to another episode of the Live Free Podcast. Wait, here's something. Pulling the mic and tap. We are so back. We are back. For America 250, baby. Come on, man. My name is Carlos Erazmuel. I'm here with Pastor Josh Howerton and Pastor Paul Cunningham. Let's kick this pig. Let's kick this pig. We're America maxing right after the 250th birthday of the United States.

I got my shirt on. I got grandpa's hat on, International Harvester, very American. And then do we even have a shot of the, do we have the wide shot? We got the flag up here. We're all in. Come on, man. And the boys are back. Yes, we are. Hey, we're going to have a great episode today. Uh, we are going to be talking about what is the secret meaning behind the name of God, Yahweh. We got chat G Paul C ready, locked and loaded. Uh, Pastor Josh, you will be explaining a little bit more about these, uh, heated controversy on X on Christians and immigration and faith. Man, I'm a total stranger to that. This is all new territory. We are going to be asking, Hey, how can I discern the will of God for my life? And we're going to be talking about this trend of high profile intellectuals and scientists exploring faith. And. And we're going to talk about how Paul was in a pride parade in Santa Fe. Last week. Okay. Hey, I heard you were in a pride parade in Santa Fe last week. Okay. How did this get to you? I only told like three or four people, man. All the activists were so excited to have Chad G Paul C of live free fame in their pride parade in Santa Fe. So Paul, explain yourself.

I can feel myself getting red as we speak. I am turning a deeper shade than I usually am. Yeah. So I was in town. I'm going to segue in a few minutes. I was in town for high school camp and, uh, we were downtown and we're in a parking lot and we got trapped by pride parade, big, big, big pride celebration. So we get trapped and we go and we ask, like, we go and ask the manager, like, Hey, how long is this going to take? Cause I was supposed to be getting to camp, bless our staff and get to hang out with some students and ask them, answer some questions. And so we're just, they're like, hey, it's gonna be another hour. And so I'm like, okay, I got it. We got to get out of her. So I thought we should go right. Cause there was a road right there and immediately go. My wife, amazing woman that she has told me to turn left. And wait, I just want to clarify this. So right was away from the pride stuff, but a leftward direction. A right was, I was going to wait for a break. I love how you're framing this. I was going to wait for a break in the parade, turn right and go out of there. So I listened to my wife and we turned left and then we are stopped by officials because we're never turned left. And we never turned left. Actually, there might be some hidden meaning behind this mistake. So we go left and they're like, stop us. Cause maybe they thought we were like random or something. So like, Hey, turn around. So we have to turn around.

And then for the next about a hundred feet, we have to be in the pride parade. And so immediately my family's like, take off your Lake Point hat. They have their Lake Point gear in the, this is what I was relayed to me. It's the mission field. Paul, why are you trying to get away from the mission field? I took it off and like kept my head down. And then the second we got to that street where I talked about it, I got, I took a right and high-toed it out of there. Paul, this is why we have Lake Point merch so that you can represent in the places that need it the most. Listen, I get it. My sweet daughter, my sweet 11 year old, she was wearing like her kingdom shirt. She's like, dad, do I need to take it off? And I was like, no, you need to be proud about that. You do not hide that. You do not be ashamed. And so, but yeah, so we'll find out who got that news to you. There's only a few people I toed. If the world is proud to get out of the closet, Christians can be proud to, by the grace of God, represent the kingdom of God. Can I say, can I do a shout out? This is very, very not, this is very unpride parade-ish. Okay. So dude, this is legit. So again, we're, we're America maxing for the 250th anniversary. So dude, we got a shot on this. I want to make sure we see this. What's the best angle on this guy? Right here. Middle one? No, no, no, no, right here, right here. Okay, there you go, that works. Okay, you can barely see it. Here's what this is. I just got handed this today. So this was sent in, if you can see it, it has Live Free engraved on the shell casing.

Here's what this is. This guy's name, retired colonel from the US Air Force, Ryan Zombie Freeman, sent this guy in. Dude, this is hardcore right here. So he sends this in, Live Free listener. This 20 millimeter shell was fired from his F-16 in support of US Navy SEALs and US Air Force combat controllers in North and Central Afghanistan in active combat. Live Free listener got Live Free on the shell casing. Shout out Ryan Zombie Freeman, retired colonel in the US Air Force. Boom. Wow. Boom. Live Free brother. That's amazing. That's awesome right there. Hey, you mentioned high school camp. Man, we got a lot to celebrate from camp. Yeah, and let's get to it, man. I just got to shout this out. We'd be nuts not to. So last week, me and Paul and my family was, my oldest daughter Eliana was at high school camp. So we're there, I think it's third night of camp. Clayton King preaching the gospel. That guy's anointed. So I want to show this video. So he just preaches like a straight up gospel message, conviction, repentance. And then he calls for people to respond. What you're seeing right here is the moment, third night of camp, where 170 students stand up in front of everybody to bend their knee to the Lordship of Jesus in front of all their friends. This wasn't like a bow your heads, close your eyes and do it in secret. This is them standing up in front of their friends. All those people streaming backwards are students responding in faith and giving their lives to Christ. Wow. On the same night. Wow. It was unbelievable. So I think across all the camps, how many students across all the camps went to camp, Tim? What do you think? No, no, no. That was just high school camp. It was 1,300. It pushed 2,600. So 2,600 kids from Lake Point were at all our camps. And I mean, dude, there ain't nothing like camp. It was amazing, man. We had so many salvations. My daughter actually got called to ministry in high school. It was a special moment. It was a special moment getting to talk to her. I'm just saying, God does a lot of work in a little time at camp, and we got to experience that in our family side. Speaking of special things, this week we are excited because we are starting a brand new sermon series. Pastor Josh, what is it? We do this once a year. It's called Add to Movies. And I always like to do this every single time, because online anger reform people hate Add to Movies. You're preaching movies, right? That's what you're doing? Yeah, we're just preaching movies. That's all we're doing. We're exegeting movies. No, what it is, is using movies to illustrate biblical truth. So it's kind of the same concept as what Jesus did, is Jesus would take popular modern day stories, and then there are some of Jesus' parables that Bible scholars will say, man, that was actually a popular story in Jesus' day, and then either he tweaked the end,

or he used it to illustrate biblical truth. It's kind of the same thing. I use sermon illustrations in every sermon. So what it does is it's using movies to illustrate biblical truth. So you're preaching the Bible and illustrating it with movies. So it starts this week. We will see an insane number of people saved. It is not online. And so if you were ever going to visit a Lake Point campus, this is a great time to come hang out. Let me do this, and then I want to actually just get into Exodus 3 and start deep diving this thing. Can I tell you the story of why I started wanting to do this? Here's why I started wanting to do this. So you know the story of C.S. Lewis' conversion? A lot of people don't know this. C.S. Lewis, Duda wrote Chronicles of Narnia and all the things. C.S. Lewis was converted largely by J.R. Tolkien, who wrote Lord of the Rings. I'm a super Lord of the Rings nerd, J.R. Tolkien. Yeah, that's great. Did you make fun of me? No. He's not as much. That's a different conversation. Go ahead. We've got a lot to cover today. So here's the story. So C.S. Lewis was a professor at Oxford, is famously a staunch atheist. Famously a staunch atheist. He becomes friends with these two guys. J.R. Tolkien, obviously writes Lord of the Rings, and a guy named Hugo Dyson. C.S. Lewis writes, after his conversion, he tells a story. There's this one night where these three guys, they just sit in a room, and they're smoking cigars and drinking brandy. And they just start talking about life, philosophy, literature, and religion. And J.R. Tolkien, and from what I understand, Hugo Dyson, they have already bent their knee to Jesus. J.R. Tolkien was notoriously a very committed Catholic Christian. So they just start talking, and dude, my eyes start sweating every time. So J.R. Tolkien begins explaining to C.S. Lewis. He was a professor that studied, in particular, they called them fairy stories, fairy tales, medieval fairy tales. So Tolkien starts explaining to C.S. Lewis. He's like, hey man, do you know why you love all these stories? stories. And do you know why in every one of these stories, there's these little themes that it

doesn't matter what culture the story came from or what year it was written in, all the stories that move you the deepest, they have the same themes. And C.S. Lewis, well, why? And he starts explaining Book of Ecclesiastes, because God has written eternity into the hearts of man. And he starts explaining, like, hey, man, do you know why you love these stories about how, you know, it's always, it's kill the dragon, get the girl, or it's a brave prince from a far off country, you know, comes and awakens the princess from the sleep of death, or it's, man, somebody dies in order to set the cactus free. And he just starts explaining, well, because there's a story underneath every story. And all the stories that move you the deepest, they resonate with the story underneath all the stories, and it's the story of the gospel. And he starts explaining, bro, he's like, hey, man, the whole story of the gospel is Jesus is the warrior from a far off country who comes and he slays the dragon to get the girl, his bride, the church. And Jesus is the brave prince from a distant land that comes and awakens the princess from the sleep of death with his kiss. And Jesus is the warrior that dies and trades his life to set the captives free. So what he, Ben's explaining to C.S. Lewis is like, Jesus is the true myth. Now, you fast forward, C.S. Lewis later, he doesn't become a Christian that night, but it leaves an impression on him. Later in 1931, from what I understand, he writes a letter to a friend named Arthur Greaves, and he's explaining why he became a Christian, so he says, he says, now the story of Christ is simply, and he starts telling him what Tolkien explained to him, a true myth, a myth working on us in the same way as the others, but with this one tremendous difference, it really happened. Now, here's what he says, on September 28th, 1931, just nine days after my conversation with Tolkien on Christ being the true myth, he says this, Lewis took the final step in embracing the divinity of Christ while riding in his older brother's motorcycle sidecar on the way to the newly opened Whipsnod Park in Bedfordshire. Go ahead and toss that picture up here. That road right there is literally the road that C.S. Lewis is on the side of his brother's motorcycle when what I'm getting ready to read happens to him. So, he's thinking about all this. Christ is the true myth, the story underneath every story. He's riding on a motorcycle on that daggum road right there, and this is what he says in this letter, I know very well when, but not how, the final step was taken. I was driven to Whipsnod one sunny morning. When we set out, I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo, I did. Yet, I had not exactly spent the journey in thought,

and right there, C.S. Lewis became a Christian. Why? Because somebody showed him that there's a story underneath every story, and every story whispers his name. That is part of the reason we do at The Movies. So, dunk on me all you want. I'm all in. It's going to be awesome. Starting this week, come hang out. Come on, man. Actually, I took my three-year-old son to the movie theater for the first time recently. Toy Story 5. That's what it was. What did you think? Okay. So, let me, super quick, let me give you a quick movie review of Toy Story 5. Oh, goodness. Heads up. Some minor spoilers, so if you haven't seen it, you know, do what you need to do. First of all, man, people ask me how was it. Generally, it's a good movie. It is. It's a good movie. Characters are funny. Story is entertaining. There's a lot of things that are true in a movie. That's what you want to do every time you watch a movie, what's true and what's not true. Again, dangerous on technology, bravery, friendship, all the themes. Having said that, there's at least two things that I'm like, I'm not a fan of those things. So, for context, Toy Story 5 makes Jessie the main protagonist of the movie, which is great. The movie's about her. But oftentimes, what you'll see in some of these Pixar and Disney movies is that the female hero will be elevated, oftentimes at the expense of the male characters. And so, what will happen is that the female hero, you'll see she's brave and she takes initiative and she exercises her leadership, which again, all good things. But then they'll also make the male characters intentionally more passive, less competent, and more dumb by comparison. Fact. And so, what you'll see in this movie, again, the movie, the joke is on Woody. He's like a little bit older. He's got like a big belly. He's balding. He's arguing over Buzz, over who's in charge after Jessie's gone. And then Buzz, on the other hand, he used to be this strong, decisive space ranger. And now he's portrayed as like this weak, super insecure, and- He's constantly trying to get Jessie's approval. And then at the end of the movie, Buzz tries to propose again to Jessie, and Jessie takes over, she takes control, kisses Buzz first, and then Buzz's leg kind of goes up, kind of like this classic movie cliche where the woman is kissing the man

and she's swept off her feet. And then during the wedding of Buzz and Jessie, Jessie takes the role of a husband. She's wearing a bow tie while waiting at the altar, and then Buzz is wearing this kilt for whatever reason. He's walking down the aisle the way the bride traditionally does, kind of reversing the roles a little bit. And so here's what I'd say. As Christians, we don't consume entertainment passively, we consume it with discernment. And so because every story is shaping a worldview, and we want it to be the word of God, not the world that shapes ours. And so two things on that. One, this idea that a woman can only be strong and empowered only by making the man more weak, more diminished, and more ridiculed is not true. I wanna teach my son that that's not who he's called to be. He's not called to be perfect, but he is called to be strong, and he is called to take responsibility, overcome insecurities, and be a leader. So two, regarding the whole Jessie and Buzz kind of swapping gender roles also in the movie, in the relationship, people might just say, well, that's just a, it's a joke, you know, you're supposed to have fun with it, it's playful, maybe. But I also wanna teach my son that the Bible says

that God made men and women, husbands and wives, to be equal in value and dignity, but different in function and roles. And those are not interchangeable because we are designed differently, and those are not there to oppress you, they are there to bless you, to bless you in your relationships and in your marriage. And so what happens is when you deviate from that design and from those roles, and you think that your way is better, at the end of the day, disorder and chaos happens. And so, again, does that mean that Toy Story 5 is terrible and it's evil and you should never watch it? Not necessarily, no, you can enjoy it with your family, that's fine. First Thessalonians 5.21 says test everything, keep what is good, reject what is not. But I would say this, if you're a Christian, do not settle for just passively consuming entertainment because if you, parent, do not disciple your children, Disney and Pixar will. That's right, bro. That's my review. That's fantastic. Carlos, good job, dad. Yeah, thank you. Seriously, good job, dad. Because it's like, what you're doing, it's like even from a young age,

you're teaching your kids to walk in, I call, hey man, let's have our lie detectors on. Because people don't realize, stuff like that, movies are sermons, and they're sermons, and you gotta figure out, is this a Christ-less sermon or a Christ-ful sermon? That's fantastic. Good job, dad. Hey, to participate in this week's giveaway, comment HATS on YouTube or Spotify. Also, don't forget to subscribe and all the things. Pastor Josh, I have a question for you. I will allow it. What did I make it to the sermon? By the way, welcome back. Hey, man, it's good to be back. En fuego, man. En fuego. En fuego. Hey, man, you feel right at home. All right, that's all, man. That's just the song, man. That's it, that's it. Carlos' favorite sermon title. Because of that, exactly that, that's right. All right, dude. So, honestly, a lot didn't make it into the sermon. So, let me just take a deep breath. Let's shoot you real, so here's the deal. All the Bible is equally true.

Not all the Bible is equally important. If the Bible was a mountain range, Exodus 3 would be like Everest. So, honestly, what's tough about a sermon like this, is like, I'm not joking, in the middle of the week, I was like, oh, this one passage could be four sermons. You could do a whole, I mean, I could do a whole, you could do a whole sermon on name of God, take off your feet, take off the sandals, feet, place where you're standing is holy ground. I'm gonna talk about this in a second. There's a pretty significant theological thing that happens at this passage. It's called a Christophany that is very significant. We'll get to this here in a second. There's a whole bunch of stuff. So, let me just do this real quick. So, first of all, let me back up. So, obviously, what we're doing right here to close the series, this is about reigniting a calling, you know, en fuego fire, all this stuff. That's what happens here. So, this is Exodus. Go ahead and toss it up here. This is a little fun fact. I took this picture when we were in Greece last time. What's really interesting is the name Exodus, it literally just is a, well, it's both Greek and Latin. It's a transliteration of, it's the Greek word exodus that just means to come out of.

So, literally, if you go to Greece right now, I took that picture while we were over there. That's the second letter right there, it's called a, it's xi, is that how you pronounce it, xi? Xi, xi. Yeah, so, that's Exodus. That's what you're saying. That's still the, that's all their exit signs. So, the book of Exodus is about the exit or the going out, obviously, of the people. Now, what you got right here in Exodus three is this is the calling of Moses. At this point, I'm gonna give this here in a second. A lot of people don't realize this. Moses is 80 at this point. You don't get to that later in the passage. That becomes significant in a second. I will show you this because this is really cool. For centuries, Bible critics would point to the Exodus story, and this is fascinating, for literally centuries, they would be like, this never happened. It's just a, it's a, you know, it's a national sort of, you know, Semitic myth that for national pride, and they, somebody, made this up, and actually, kind of the narrative was, the Israelites literally were never in Egypt. That literally for a long time was the thing. Bro, this is so fascinating, okay?

So then a few years ago, they dig this up, go ahead and point this, go ahead and toss that first thing up. So what they do is they go to this place, and a few years ago, they find a burial place in Egypt of Egyptian nobles, and they find, what you're seeing right here is on the wall of a noble, I'm gonna try to get this right, the guy's name was Reckmeyer. The noble's name was Reckmeyer, R-E-K-H-M-I-R-E. And this guy, this is on the side of his burial place, he was the second in charge for two pharaohs, a guy named Thutmose III, that by dating and just sort of context clues, almost everybody thinks that's the pharaoh who wanted Moses dead. So when there's a whole story about, kill all the Egyptian boys, and Moses gets thrown in the Nile, he's the dude that issues the command, slaughter the boys, that's what they think. And then Reckmeyer was also the second in command for a guy named Amenhotep II, that almost everybody thinks is, he's never named in the Book of Exodus, but people think, dude, that's the guy that was the pharaoh, okay? So this guy, Reckmeyer, this is the side of his burial tomb, and he's the one, the second in command of both these guys. Now, bro, what you're seeing right here, this is crazy. So for centuries, they're saying, oh, they were, this is all a myth, they were never in Egypt. Right in the middle there, look at these people

bending over, you'll see right in the middle of that little part there, you're gonna see this guy that's bent over, and he's got a brick wall in front of him and underneath him. You look right underneath it, and there's these people bending over on these hay little heaps. What you're seeing right here is, these are Semitic, or at least non-Egyptian slaves, making straw bricks. So they discover this, the guy that is second in command, and the history during his time, and he's during Exodus, it is literally depicting non-Egyptian, probably Semitic slaves making straw brick, it's right there, right there. Now, you go a second, I'll also say this, the mural, when they dated it, in his tomb, the dates that they give are 1479 to 1425 BC. That is right in the middle is the estimated early date of the Exodus, so 1446. So anyway, dude, I always just wanna say the same thing over and over again, this stuff really happened. Now, here's another one that's really funny, I ran across this this week. To this day, if you go to the British Museum, they have one spot that's an Egyptian display thing that is from this period, and they have, and they don't even comment on it, from what I understand, about it being tied to the biblical narrative. They're just like, here's a brick that was made by slaves in this era, show a picture of that brick, and if you look real close, right in the middle

of the dadgum brick is straw. Now, if you are a Bible reader that has read Exodus 3, 4, 5, the whole story is about them, they're slaves, they're making bricks with straw. Whenever Moses asked for them to be set free, Pharaoh's like, you gotta make bricks without straw, and all of this stuff is confirming exactly what you got in the middle of your Bible. So I wanna say the same thing over and over again. The Bible really happened. This is not a myth, it's not a story, it's an event. The Bible really happened, the real Jesus died on a real cross with a real you, and if you give him your life, he can really change you forever. So we got that, now, can I deep dive some stuff in the past? I told you it was lying. So a couple things, and then I'm gonna turn it over to Paul, and he's gonna talk about Yahweh and all the stuff under the name of God that's insane, it's absolutely insane. So what you got right here, I'm just gonna read it. Exodus 2 ends like this. It says, during those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery, and they cried out for help. This is really important, listen real close. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God, and God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham,

with Isaac, and with Jacob, and God saw the people of Israel, and God knew. Number one, I just wanna point this out, you are the answer to somebody else's prayer. I just wanna say that, we're gonna talk in a second about fulfilling your calling. Whatever call God puts on your life, hey man, it's not just about you. You are the answer to somebody else's prayer. Their cries go to heaven, and their prayers move heaven, heaven moves Moses, Moses moves for deliverance. So that's it. Number two, it's really interesting what they do here, is it just emphasizes all these, the things God does. So it's God heard, God saw, God remembered, God knew. And dude, there's this whole thing about how most people think about God, is this very impersonal force. And it's really just like, when stuff happens, it's kinda like, well man, what are you gonna do? It is what it is. But with God, it's not an impersonal force. He's a personal God. He sees, he hears, he remembers, he knows, and he answers. So with God, it's not, it is what it is. With God, he reveals himself. I am who I am. So it's like, hey, it's personal, it's personal. Now you get into this passage, Moses is 80. A lot of people don't realize this.

Moses spends first 40 years of his life in Pharaoh's court. That's gonna be important here in a second. The second 40 years of his life, he's doing shepherd stuff for, the guy has two names, by the way. In Exodus, I think two, he's called Reul, and then Exodus four or five, he's called Jethro. It's kind of like Kanye and Yeezy. It's kind of like one guy, two names. Very different character, hopefully, but two different names. But I do just want to point this out, man. I wish I'd had time in the sermon to talk about the number of people in the Bible who the greatest thing they do for the kingdom of God is in their old age. I really wish I'd had time. I just want to list this. I had to cut this last second. So Moses here is 80 when he begins the most significant calling of his life. Abraham is 75 years old when God calls him and he moves. Anna is 84 years old when she's interceding and fasting in prayer, and she's the one that recognizes the Messiah. Daniel is 82 years old when he gets tossed in the lion's den. John is in his 90s when he writes the book of Revelation, sees Jesus' eyes flame of fire and all the things. David is 70 years old when he sets out to build the temple.

Jehoiada, who's a total, the guy's a, I can't say that word. He's amazing. He's hardcore. Jehoiada was 100 years old, by the way, when he leads a national coup, overthrows the wicked queen, installs Joash, and leads the entire nation in national revival. The dude's 100. By the way, that guy's story's awesome. He's the only priest that ends up buried among the kings because God said what you did was as significant as what any of them did, and he did it when he was 100 years old. Caleb's 85 years old when he conquers Hebron. He drives out all the Anakim giants. Here's all I just want to say on this. I wish I had time to say this. Psalm 139 says that every single one of our days before we're born is written in God's book, and he knows the full span of them, every single day. So, Chedji Palsy, there's two days in your life that have been set in stone. Your birthday, and you know exactly when that day is, but there's another day that's just as in stone as your birthday. You got no idea when it is. It's when you breathe your last breath, and you go and you hug Jesus.

Those two days set in stone, and what that passage says is every single day God determines for you, there's a purpose for that day. So, I don't care. Listen, you may be listening, and J.C. Ryle has this old quote where he says, what Satan says to you when you're young is it's too soon to serve God, and then what Satan says to you when you're old is, oh, it's too late to serve God, and what I want to say is like, man, if you're somebody who like, man, your age might start with a six, seven, eight, nine, I'll even venture, we've got some listeners whose age starts with a one and a zero, maybe, and you may be going like, hey, dude, my time probably passed by, and I probably already had my chance to do whatever was the great thing. Man, I just want to say to you, listen to me, soup cans in Advil have expiration dates, but in the kingdom of God, people don't, and if you've still got a pulse, God's still got a purpose for your life. God's 80 years old when he begins the most significant thing in his life, so this happens here. Now, I've got to talk about two other things, and I want you to talk about the whole Yahweh thing.

This is gonna blow your mind, okay? One, it is very significant to me, so you read the passage, you know, and Moses, he walks up on the burning bush thing, the bush, and it burns, but it's not consumed. This is really heavy on me coming back from camp, and by the way, what I'm getting ready to say in the next 45 seconds is not hating on camp. I'm a camp guy through and through. I love camp. It is very significant that throughout the Bible, arguably, the most frequent way God reveals himself is as fire. Like, you stop and think, it's like, you, there it is. In Fuego, that's right. In Fuego. That's like, usually, so you got, again, we're just Bible nerding out for a second. Like, just let me do it. You got, during the Abrahamic Covenant, I think it's Genesis 13 or Genesis 15. Actually, I think it started in Genesis 13 and it's repeated in Genesis 15. God puts Abram to sleep, and then it says he appears as a smoking fire pot, and he passes through the pieces. That's one of the coolest passages of the Bible. I haven't got time to do it. When he's leading the children of Israel

through the wilderness, wilderness, it's a pillar of cloud by day but a pillar of fire by night. When God gives the law on Sinai, it says that he descends and that our God is as a consuming fire. You fast forward. When Solomon dedicates the temple, it says fire comes down from heaven, the glory of God filled the temple, and it says I think smoke was so thick with the glory that the people could not stand in the temple. But again, it's fire and it's smoke. Fast forward to Daniel 7. Again, we're Bible nerding. Keep Bible nerding with me. Daniel 7. He sees a vision of the Ancient of Days, who is, by the way, a pre-incarnate Jesus, which by the way, I'm about to blow your mind. Jesus is in this passage in Exodus 3. This is freaking awesome. He sees the Ancient of Days, and the Ancient of Days is sitting on a throne of fire. Now let's go New Testament. Acts chapter 2, when the Holy Spirit descends on the apostles and they're preaching, it says divided tongues as of fire. Revelation chapter 1, the apostle John sees the incarnate Jesus and loses his mind. He falls on the ground. He's like, I'm going to die. And what he sees when he sees Jesus, who is God, he's like, man, it was crazy. I see Jesus, and he's got hair, and it's white as snow, and he's got legs like burnished bronze, and he's got this robe on. It's white as snow. By the way, he's coming to pick a fight with judgment. This is an old preacher joke. If a guy comes to a fight dressed in white, you know you're going to lose because he knows I'm not getting blood on me. If he intentionally comes dressed in white, you know you're going to lose. So Jesus got his white robe on, but John looks in his eyes, and he freaks out because he's like, his eyes, man, his eyes, they were like flames of fire. Now, I just want to point this out. Here's why. The younger you are, the more you need to understand what I'm about to say. People always think that the sign of the presence of God is emotion. They're like, man, I was there, and I was singing this song, and I started crying, and it was the presence of God. I'll shoot you really straight, dude. I traveled and preached a billion youth camps before becoming an actual church pastor. Listen, man, third night of camp, you're sleep deprived, you drank 47 energy drinks, and you're all coked up on sugar, and you're with all your best friends, and you just burned your secular CDs and whatever it is. Honestly, man, the third night of camp, I could get you to rededicate your life to a leprechaun. It's like there's just so much emotion. Here's my point, man, is the sign of the presence of God is not emotion. So here's the question. Why does God throughout the Bible reveal himself as fire? Well, think back to your

chemistry class. Whenever something catches on fire, it literally restructures the chemical composition of the thing. Before something was on fire, it was one thing. Then it catches on fire, and literally when it's finished being on fire, it's another thing. Here's the big idea. The sign of an encounter with God is not emotion. Listen, it's rearranged priorities. I'm going to say that one more time. The sign that you had an encounter with the living God is not emotion. You're going to have emotion, but you can have emotion without God. The sign of an encounter with the living God is not just emotion. It's rearranged priorities. It's, oh man, now I care about stuff I didn't care about before, and I hate some things that I used to love. Dang, what happened to me? Well, before that encounter, I was this thing, and then I encountered some fire, and now that I'm done, I'm this thing. I'm not the man I used to be, and I don't got to do the things I used to do, because in Christ, I'm a new creation. You see what I'm doing there? So, this is why God reveals himself to Moses as fire. Now, he tells him to do something here that is, again, you start getting to the deep end of the pool here, and then I'm going to do the deep end of the pool, and then I'm going to turn it to Paul, and he's going to go one layer deeper. So, it's really interesting. I'm going to read this passage because this kind of thing, if you're just a normal Bible reader, you just skim right past a dude, and you have no idea. You just read something stinking mind-blowing. So, this is what it says, verse 1, chapter 3. Now, Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness, and he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. Listen real close, listen real close, and what's that next word? Paul, are you looking at it? Are you looking at it? Okay, you're fine, you're fine. It says, and THE. That's so important. It says, and THE angel of the Lord, and Lord is in all caps. By the way, sometimes Lord is in all caps in your Bible, and sometimes it's not. He's going to explain that in Second, there's something stinking mind-blowing about that, you're gonna hear that in a second. It says, and the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. Okay, what you are seeing right here, virtually every Bible scholar, by the way, I'm getting ready to give six reasons for this, I got them from Old Driscoll,

so I'm just gonna give the attribution here. But what you're seeing right here is nearly every Bible scholar everywhere identifies this right here. Whenever you see the phrase the angel of God in the Old Testament, almost every Bible scholar everywhere acknowledges this is a pre-incarnate appearing of Jesus. So dude, in a very, I'm gonna show it to you in the Bible here in a second. Moses is meeting Jesus 1,500 years before Jesus is born. This is Jesus, okay? Now, real quick, again, we're theology nerding out here. I'm gonna give you seven reasons that we know this is what theologians call a Christophany. Or some people call it a Theophany, or is it, no, it's Christophany. Theophany is just an appearing of God. Christophany. Theos equals God, Theophany, Christophany is appearance of Jesus. So this is a Christophany. Okay, number one, the passage, six reasons, I'm gonna rapid fire them. Number one, the angel of the Lord is identified as God himself. For the rest of the passage,

it says God spoke to him out of the flame of the fire, even though it's called the angel of the Lord. That's number one. So Jesus is God, this guy's identified as God. Number two, the New Testament specifically tells us that what the Son does is make the Father known. That's what the Son does. So John 1, 18 says this, "'No one has ever seen God, "'but the one and only Son who is himself God "'and is in closest relationship with the Father "'has made him known.'" By the way, that's why that stinking awesome, it's the Christmas carol, which one is it? It says, "'Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see.'" Which one is it? The incarnate deity. It'll come to me, it'll come to me. Which one is that? What Christmas carol is that? Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see. I feel dumb, look it up. I can't do it off the top of my head. Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see? Yeah. Hark the herald angels sing. By the way, Hark the herald angels sing is the best Christmas carol. But when that passage says it's talking about Jesus and it's the best theological line in any Christmas carol,

it says, "'Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see.'" It's saying Jesus put on this veil, this lens of flesh, and you're seeing the entire Godhead revealed in the flesh of Jesus Christ. Number three, it uses the phrase, this passage uses the phrase, the angel of the Lord, and this is repeated throughout the Old Testament. So you'll notice in the Old Testament, if you pay very close attention, sometimes it'll say an angel of the Lord, referring to like Michael or Gabriel or whoever. There's only three angels that are mentioned by name, Michael, Gabriel, and Lucifer are the only three angels. Sometimes it'll say the angel of the Lord. Sometimes it'll say an angel of the Lord. This is the angel of the Lord. You will notice this, this is your little homework. You theology nerds, go study every single passage where quote, the angel of the Lord appears. Whoever this mysterious the angel of the Lord is, he receives worship. He speaks as God in the first person. He is identified as God by those who encounter him. And this passage says that God called to him Moses out of the bush. So you got that right there. Reason number four, a lot of people miss this. This passage has a holy ground parallel with Joshua chapter five.

I did not realize this until studying this passage this week. So this is Joshua chapter five. It says nearly the exact same thing. The angel of the Lord appears to Joshua and it says, the commander of the Lord's army replied, take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so. Now here's what people miss. In the previous verse. Now, before I say this, there's an angel in the book of Revelation that John falls down on his knees and is tempted to worship. And the angel wigs out on John. He's like, bro, get up. I refuse to receive worship. I'm just an angel, okay? Well, whoever the angel of the Lord is in Joshua chapter five, it says this. And he said, no, but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come and Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, what does my Lord say to his servant? And whoever this mysterious, the angel of the Lord is, he receives the worship. Wow. Okay. Number five, the I am statements of Jesus. So as Paul's gonna talk about here in a second,

Jesus reveals God's name in this passage as I am who I am. Jesus throughout the book of John reveals himself. And he's doing this very on purpose as the I am. He goes, I am the bread of life. I'm the light of the world. I'm the door. I'm the good shepherd. I'm the resurrection of the life. I'm the way of the truth in life. I'm the true vine. The reason he's repeating, I am, I am, I am, I am. He's going, hey bro, I'm the guy from Exodus chapter three. me. That's what he's doing. Now let me do the last two because the last two are the most mind-blowing." So Jesus says this in John. This is what gets Jesus killed. This is what starts getting Jesus killed. So Jesus, he's having this big old argument with the Pharisees, the HOA presidents of his day, and he says, "'Very truly I tell you, Jesus, answer them,' for this is mind-blowing. He says, "'Before Abraham was born, I am.'" At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid, slipping away. What he literally says to them, and this is why they start stoning him, is he's literally saying to them, "'I'm the one that was in the burning bush and revealed that I was the I am.'" And all of them immediately realize this guy's saying he's God. If anybody ever tells you that Jesus never said he was God, bless their heart, they're too dumb to talk to you. This is what Jesus is doing right here. Now let me do this last one, and this is the one that I was like, I wish I had time to get into this sermon, okay? All right, so let me coil up here. All right, so Moses walks up to Jesus in Exodus 3, and Jesus, it's a little weird. You're like, why is he doing this? Jesus says, "'Moses, take off your feet for the place on which you're standing, or take off your shoes for the place on which you're standing is holy ground, and Moses' feet gotta hit the dirt.'" Okay, now there's this weird passage in Exodus 4 that when you read it, you're like, huh? Like, what the heck is that doing there? It feels so stinking weird, okay? So it's in the middle of all this, and all the cool stuff's happening with the bush,

and then, okay, let's go get all the Egyptians out of Israel. And then there's this weird, non-sequitur, verse 24. "'At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met him, Moses, and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah, Moses' wife, took a flint, cut off her son's foreskin, and touched Moses' feet with it, and said,' I know, it sounds weird, and said, "'Surely, listen, you are a bridegroom of blood to me.'" Hang on. So he let him alone, and it was then that she said, a bridegroom of blood, because of the circumcision. Now, you read that, and you're like, what the heck, man? You know, take off your shoes and feet, and we gotta put blood on the feet. That didn't make it into the Prince of Egypt movie. Didn't make it into Prince of Egypt. So you're like, what's happening here? Well, part of what's happening is you're seeing this theme of sinful things have to be redeemed by blood in order to come in contact with things that are holy. And remember, what you got right here is this is a Christophany. This is a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus. Now, fast forward nearly 1600 years, and Jesus shows up, and all of his disciples are with him for that last supper, and they're getting ready to see him go to the cross and be crucified. And Jesus has spent his entire ministry talking about how, do you know who I am? I'm the bridegroom, and you're the bride. And he sits him down at this table, and he's like, you know what I'm gonna do before I go to the cross? Hey, everybody, take off your sandals. I need to wash your feet real quick. And then Peter pipes up like an idiot, and Peter goes, yeah, actually, Jesus, I got a better idea. He's like, you washed my whole body. And this is the Josh version. Jesus is like, shut up, Peter. And Jesus essentially goes, hey, man, what I'm doing here is this is a symbol. The water is a symbol that I'm about to touch you with my blood, and unless I wash you, you have no part with me. So the bridegroom leans down, and he grabs their uncovered feet with no sandals, and as a symbol of the blood he's about to shed, he touches their feet with a symbol of his blood. And then he goes to the cross, and they all watch him shed his blood, and what I think all of them would have been thinking of is, surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me. And in that moment, Jesus Christ, the bridegroom of blood, he cleanses our sin so that you and me can stand on holy ground face to face with God. Wow. I didn't know that. Bro, before this week, maybe the Bible is amazing. Wow. Can I back up a few days, though, or even months?

You do your thing, Chedji Palsy. You do your thing, Chedji Palsy. So there's another place in the Bible where Jesus meets with Moses on a mountain. That's right. Ah! That was the first time. Do it! There's a little place called the Mount of Transfiguration, where... All of a sudden, Jesus is revealed for his divine glory and for who he really is. And it says that two people appear with him, Moses and Elijah. Then here's what's interesting. That's why I got distracted for a minute when you asked me a question, because I was looking it up to get the exact passage. There's this interesting phrase though, in the book of Luke. It says that he appears and they're in glory. And it says that he is speaking of his departure. This is Jesus speaking of his departure. You know what that word is in Greek? Exodus. Oh, no way. He is speaking of his exodus because when he appears with Moses in the Old Testament, he's speaking of the exodus of those people, which he was gonna have Moses help him with. Here, he's speaking of the exodus he's gonna accomplish, but not by having other lambs slain, but by him slaying his own life so that he can set his people free from sin.

Wow. Listen, I got a weird connection. Have you ever seen that YouTube video of Brian Scalabrini, who people used to say was the worst NBA player ever, like absolutely dominating a college basketball player? Have you seen it? All right, well, Brian Scalabrini, just let me do my thing for a second here. So Brian Scalabrini, who people used to say was the worst NBA player ever, he got tired of people saying it, and he asked a D1, a good D1 basketball player to play him one-on-one, and he beat him like 10 to one. And when he finished, he said, I'm closer to LeBron James than you are to me. Whoa. And he's right. Yeah. Okay, but then he said this. People looked at that and they said, there's levels to this. Listen, dude, if you're listening, here's what just happened. There's levels to this, bro. When you're reading your Bible, there's levels to this. You can just do the surface thing, and then you can get like, bro, go under the surface, the bridegroom of blood and like seven different connections and then freaking Chad Gene Paul, see, there's levels to this.

He's going Greek words on Transfiguration Mountain Exodus. Listen, there's levels to this. There's levels to this, man. There's levels to this. All right, now, Paul. Yeah. Let's do this, and then I wanna talk about high-profile intellectuals starting to turn to God. There's two crazy clips that we're gonna play real quick. So God reveals his name in this passage, and this becomes arguably the most significant thing in the rest of, in some ways, the entire Bible in one sense. And it has major tie-ins to even how people read their Bible. There's things that people have seen that they don't know that they're seeing that are related to the revelation of God's name. So do your thing. Do my thing. We'll get to the differences that people see in their English New Testaments here in just a bit. I wanna walk you through first the Hebrew. We're gonna get fancy and go into some of the Hebrew together. I think actually we've got what's often referred to as the Tetragrammaton, the idea of God appears here and reveals his name. So oftentimes there are titles used for God in the Old Testament, like Elohim or Adonai. That is what God is.

He is God. Adonai means master or Lord. Yahweh is who he is. It's his name. It's his personal description. And it is by far the most used in the Old Testament, over 6,000 times, almost maybe even 7,000 times that this is used, more than I believe Elohim and Adonai combined. Now, what you often see when you see this in Old Testament manuscripts is right here, if you're seeing this, if you're watching YouTube or seeing the video on Spotify, you're only seeing what are called Hebrew consonants. So this has no vowels. Vowels are often represented by people think they look like dots or little marks or stuff like that. Well, I'm just gonna point out. So first of all, so Hebrew is the only C I ever got. It's the only C I ever got. I got a C and it was Dr. Dubas. Man, shout out Dr. Dubas. He crushed me. So two things about Hebrew, no vowels and it runs right to left, not left to right. Exactly. And so even when I say in a second, I'm gonna read the Hebrew right to left, but the English is left to right.

Isn't it wrong? Because at the bottom it goes Y-H-W-H. That's what I was gonna say. So the Hebrew is right to left, but then the English is left to right. So the reason they call it the tetragrammaton is because tetra means four, which is a Greek word meaning four grammatons is letters. So it's four letters. So in Hebrew is Yod, He, Vav would be the modern pronunciation, although in Old Testament it would be Wa and He. So Ya or Yod, He, Wa, He. And so you only appear the consonants. In fact, I think I've got some stuff from what's called the Dead Sea Scrolls. These were found in the 1900s. And I don't know, right? Dates somewhere between 300 and 100 BCE. So very old. And what you would see if you really kind of look closely is again, there's no vowels in this. The letters that are highlighted are actually Yahweh in a very ancient Hebrew script. Yeah, I've never seen that. So when people were writing it, even when they would get, not all the Dead Sea Scrolls, but some of them, when they would get to his name, they would try to preserve as close to the original as they could, because this was a sacred name

that they wanted to preserve as much as possible. Then if you fast forward, we have what's called the Leningrad Codex. Over time, you have this group of people. I know, it's great reading on a Wednesday night. That's what he reads before going to bed every night. It is. And by the way, I'm building up to like, why do we, why do we pronounce it Yahweh? How do we notice that? We're getting there. Just follow me for a little minute. We'll build this a step at a time. This is from the year 1013. It's the oldest complete Hebrew manuscript we had. There's this group of people called the Masoretes. And what they did is, is that the pronunciation of the words were maintained by tradition, by an oral tradition. They actually went through and to help people pronounce and help people read it would go through and they put all the vowels in. So if you ever heard something called the Masoretic text, this is the Hebrew with the vowels in. I'm actually going to have this. And that originated when? Uh, the Hebrew, the, this one is from 1013, it's within a few hundred years. So yeah. So if you're ever, you know, I know this is like super nerdy stuff, but if you're ever seeing Hebrew writing and it has dots, little dots underneath it, those dots are the vowels that they tried to put in like, you know, 2000 years after the language was actually spoken. Exactly.

And so actually I think we've got a second picture that's going to zoom in because this right here is actually showing Yahweh or Y-H-W-H with those vowels in there. So here is how we came to the belief and most scholars would hold to this, that this is pronounced Yahweh. Cause again, we don't have the original vowels and it was a sacred name. So even scribes would not often say this name at all. They, when they write it, they would wash themselves afterwards or they would use a fresh pen. And this is really connected to the idea of in the 10 commandments says, do not take the Lord's name in vain. We often think of that as don't say G-D or say O-M-G or anything like that. For them, it was the idea of don't take God's name lightly. So to preserve that commandment, they said we shouldn't even pronounce it. So here's where we get this from. Like they literally wouldn't even say it. They wouldn't say it. And I'll get to in a minute what they would say in its place or what they would write in its place because it's really important to know. So how do we know it's pronounced Yahweh? So early Greek writers would often give us hints of, hey, here's how they would say it. So early Christian writers would really help us understand that the E that we pronounce would be the pronunciation at the end. In Hebrew grammar, the word Yahweh, it originates from the word Hayah, which simply means to be. So even when... Yeah. So I think... I was joking. Can we put it up? This is probably a little too much.

But if we go to Exodus 3.14-15, no, the other one, Exodus 3.14-15. So this is where, and God said to Moses, it says, I am that I am. And then you see Yahweh beneath it. So you can see they're very close to each other. So the word Yahweh literally just comes from the verb I am. And so that's a little bit of how we would know that first part is pronounced Yah. Also think about some of the names or words in scriptures, Hallelu-Yah, praise Yahweh. Or Isaiah, Jeremiah, Yah. Their last part of their name would have been Yah for God. So this is a little bit of how we basically piece together of how we know it's Yahweh. Yahweh. Okay. So then where do you get things? Like, for example, over time, you have things like Jehovah. Yeah, this is important. This is really important. A lot of people have no idea what the word Jehovah is. Yeah. And it's actually really interesting because when the Mazarites put in the vows, they still wanted to preserve and to protect the sacred name Yahweh and keep it sacred. So they put in other vows specifically from the word Adonai, which means Lord. So they took the vows from Adonai, put it to Y-H-W-H, and basically you got Yah-Yo-Wah. Or if you then put that into Germanic language, Y became J and W became V. So you get Jehovah. And so Jehovah is a little bit of a made up word that basically happened where you take the vows that the Mazarites put into the name Yahweh, you change the language a little bit and you get Jehovah. But that's not the original pronunciation of the word. So technically, the word Jehovah is not in your Bible. It's not in the Bible. Because all it is is the consonants of Yahweh with the vowels from another word that they

just sort of made up because they had such a reverence for the name of God, they didn't even want to say it. So like, let's say this word that's kind of like it, but that is not it because we want to treat God's name as holy. And by the way, Jewish people often still do this today, where instead of saying Yahweh, they'll say Adonai or they'll say Hashem. That's where the vowels come from, right? Exactly. Adonai. That's where the vowels, that's where those vowels come from and everything like that. Okay. So some things that'll help you as you're reading your Bible and translate, like the translation to help you understand a few deep cuts here. Number one, a cool little thing that connects to Jesus is that when they translated the Hebrew Testament into Greek, whenever they got to Yahweh, they would translate it as Kyrios. What? Kyrios. What? Or Lord. In the Latin Vulgate? No, in the Greek. In the Greek. In the Greek. They would translate it as Kyrios. Kyrios is the Greek word for Lord. Exactly. They would translate it. So they didn't translate the name. No, they didn't.

So when you see, because this is going somewhere, even why it's in our English translations the way it is. Actually, I'll go ahead and jump there. So like, if you're reading, if I'm reading in Exodus three, and any place where I get to Yahweh's name, for example, it says the Lord, the God of your fathers, that Lord, if you look closely, is in all capital letters. And this really comes from the idea of, hey, when they put it into Greek, they made it kurios, which means Lord. And so today to mark out where we see it's in all caps, that means Yahweh is simply, when we read Lord, that's what it means. If you see Lord in the lower case in the Old Testament, that's the word Adonai. So if you're reading your Old Testament and you see Lord in all caps, that literally just means that in the Hebrew, it's saying Yahweh. If it's in lower caps, it simply means Adonai, which is basically just a term of Lord or master. Where was I going with that? Oh, well, here's what's interesting about that. In the Old Testament, when they translate it into Greek, they use the word kurios, which means Lord. Besides Messiah, any guesses of what one of Jesus' main titles is used to describe him in the New Testament? Lord, but specifically, kurios. Not a coincidence that they take the name that in Greek was over and over again used to designate Yahweh.

And then when they're getting to the New Testament, anytime they wanna call Jesus Lord, they use the word kurios. Same exact one. Who did that translation? Oh, that was, I mean, you get to the early church. I mean, the early church. Okay, so early church. Sorry, I mixed up a little thing. So like the gospel writers and the apostle Paul and all them. Oh yeah, they use the word kurios. Sorry, I got a little mixed up. I thought we were about to go into a Septuagint and some of that stuff. So like the New Testament biblical authors, you're saying they did this. They did that. Yeah, yeah. Sorry, again, I got a little mixed up. Interesting, I don't think I've ever heard that before. Oh yeah, this is one of the fun parts. So this is, when you mentioned earlier about, oh, like Jesus never referred to as God, we talked about this before, but literally like, if Jesus did only things God could do, he knew only things God could know, and he said the things only God could say, well, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. Same thing as the early writers

knew exactly what they were doing. And they used the titles that were only used of Yahweh in the Old Testament. So again, sorry, I got a little mixed up there. I thought we were about to go into Septuagint mode. So yeah, so Jesus, one of his biggest titles is Kurios, which is the word they would have used for Yahweh in the Old Testament. Yeah, so that's just kind of a little bit of a deep dive. Anything you want me to double click on? I know I went through a lot in a little time. Do you want to talk just real quick about, well, I don't know if you want to do this. Like, so the question I think a lot of people have is, okay, why did God reveal himself as I am that I am? You want to talk, there's a few different directions you go. You want to go Asaity? You could talk Asaity. Let me do one and then you add on. Let me do one and then you add on. And then I'm going to do one that's like a little speculative. I'm going to do the breath thing. I'll do one that's a little speculative and we can do it. So number one, it's really interesting. If you look at all the names in the Old Testament when other people give their names. So here's the question we're answering. Why does God reveal himself as I am who I am? Okay, well here's,

in all the other names in the Old Testament, you'll notice their names are always given in reference to something else. That's right. Okay, so I'm Joshua, son of Nun. I'm Moses, the son of, you know, whoever, you know, that sort of thing. Or they'll be in reference to a geography. Oh, this was this person who was from here. So all their names. Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus of Nazareth. And that's a bad one because he is God. That's right, that's right. So they're all giving names. And oh, the way that you know who I am is in reference to something else. One of the things that God is doing is going, hey man, I am not in reference to anything else. Everything else is in reference to me. Exactly. Well, and even think of the context because he says, hey, when I go back and tell them who's God, which God is this, what am I to tell them? He's going back into Egypt, which is a polytheistic place, which is a bunch of gods, but usually it tied to something specifically raw, the God of the sun. And then even many people would say that each of the plagues is an attack on a specific God of Egypt.

100%. It's basically God systematically saying, I own this joint. I'm the one in control. He's dunking on everybody. He's dunking on everybody. He could have wiped him out in one plague. He did tend to systematically show that he was God and the false gods of Egypt were not. And so all of these gods would have been attached to a specific thing. He's basically saying like, no, I just am. I am the God of all. And you mentioned this word of Sadie. It's a fancy word, but let me break it down as simply as I can. God doesn't depend on anything else besides himself to be himself. Yeah, that's right. And because that he needs nothing, he gets a source of being from nothing. He just is. And because of that, by the way, he can be the source of joy and everything else that we need in life, because he doesn't depend upon us. He just is who he is. He's the foundation of all reality. I could go into more, we're leaving a lot out, but I want to be careful not to take people too far into the deep end.

There's two fun little things on this. And then let's talk, I want to do this, Stephen Bartlett and it's Andrew Huberman. Yeah, and we're going to, I want to ask also, we'll do it quick. Yeah, that's right, that's right. Let's do this real quick. So one, here's an interesting way that God's name is used. So it's, you know, Moses in this passage, he's got all the insecurities and he's like, man, I can't talk. And God's like, you know, basically what God does, Moses is like, I can't talk. and God essentially is like, well, I can. That's kind of his, basically the I am is whatever you're not, I am. He's got a fill in the gaps. So what's really interesting is throughout the rest of the entire Bible, like all those little names that you'll sing in little hymns or whatever, and they're like Jehovah-Jireh, Jehovah-Neesi, Jehovah-Rapha, Jehovah, and honestly, I'm like, when everybody says that, I'm like, that's real weird. It just, I'm like, that's weird. I feel the same way, okay. I'm like, that felt Jamaican to me. I don't know why, it does not, but it feels weird to me. But here's all those names, for real,

this is really interesting. So obviously what we just learned is Jehovah, that's just another way to say Yahweh. Yeah, that's right. So what he's saying is I am. I am. So this is really interesting. Throughout Israel's history, whenever there's something they realize they're not, that they need, God will reveal his name as the thing that's gonna fill in their gap. Okay, so for instance, Jehovah-Jireh essentially means Yahweh, our provider. I am your provider, okay. So they're like, hey, we don't have enough. Well, he goes, I'm Jehovah-Jireh. You don't have enough? I do. Jehovah-Neesi, the Lord, our banner. It's a war terminology. Hey, we're not powerful enough. Well, I'm Jehovah-Neesi, I am. Hey, Jehovah-Rapha, the Lord, our healer. We can't heal ourself. I'm Jehovah-Rapha, I can. And all throughout the Bible, what he's doing is he's going, whatever you're not, I am. And he's essentially going, I'm the gap filler. Whatever you need, I got that. That's one.

Now, this goes back to, I think, some Jewish rabbis that it sounds a little speculative, but I know people have been talking about it for centuries. People have pointed out before, this is a little weird, man, it's a little mysterious, that the way that you pronounce Yahweh, that some of the ways that people would vocalize it, particularly in ancient cultures, it sounds like inhaling and exhaling. So like, just real close, it's like, Yahweh, you know? Yahweh. And that part of what God might be signaling is from the very beginning in Genesis, is that he knelt down and he breathed the breath of life into them. If that is true, then I want you to think about it. Every single person who is ever born, the first word they ever speak, Yahweh. And then the very last thing that they say when they breathe their last, Yahweh, the breath of life. There may be something to that. Oh, I think there is. Well, and it's, and one quick thing, because it's just, to me, it's always been encouraging when I've been discouraged in my call. Can I actually, can I throw up the Exodus 3, 7 through 10? It's really interesting, because you talk about how we get discouraged, and even Moses was. What's interesting, if you actually go

to the calling of Moses, I highlighted in yellow all the places where it talks about God or his actions, and the two little small places where he says, now to Moses, you go, that you may bring my people, my sons, out of Egypt. And so he puts the emphasis not on Moses and who he is and what he has to do, but on who God is and what he is going to do. And even a little interesting fact, the next chapter, Moses is like, but I have the stutter. And it's interesting, God, in our most free English translations, it says, I will teach you what to speak. In the Hebrew, it literally says, I will be with your mouth. And so it uses God's name. It says, I am with your mouth. Because again, the emphasis, and each time you find your discouragement, your calling, or the difference you can make, just remind yourself that what God wants to do is not dependent upon who you and you are, but on who God and who God is and what he wants to do. We've done a lot of theology, and if somebody's asking right now, man, what is this? There's a lot of Hebrew, and I don't know what this has to do with me. People need to understand, too, that this whole story, it is literally your life

and how Jesus saves you. There's so many levels to this, Pastor Josh. Literally, the whole story of Moses, it just screams the gospel. Jesus is everywhere, like we said. If you think about it real quick before we ask the following question, the people of Israel were in bondage to Egypt under the rule of Pharaoh. Egypt represents the slavery of sin, and Pharaoh is Satan before Christ. That's literally our story. We are all slaves to sin under the rule of Satan. In Exodus 3, God says, I have seen and heard my people, so I have come down from heaven to rescue them. Jesus literally says in John chapter six, I have come down from heaven to seek and save the lost. The final plague of the firstborn, the death of the firstborn, that there's a curse and a death that the people are passing over the people that are covered in the blood of the lamb, and then they were set free. Jesus, the Bible says, is the firstborn of all creation. He takes that curse and that death upon himself, and those that are covered in his blood are now in him. We are set free because of that. The people of Israel, so that's salvation. The people of Israel were set free, and then immediately they went through the waters

of the Red Sea, leaving their old life behind and coming out a new life and a new identity. That's called baptism. After you and I are saved, we go through the waters of baptism, we leave our old life behind, and we have a new identity in Christ. The people of Israel were spent 40 years in the wilderness, 40 in the Bible. Bible is the number of testing and preparation. That's called sanctification in the life of a Christian. And finally, interestingly enough, Moses, who gave us the law, led God's people to the edge of the promised land, but he did not go in. Instead, he points to another leader named Joshua, so that God's people could actually finally enter the promised land. Joshua in Hebrew is the same name as Jesus, Yeshua, which literally means Yahweh is salvation. So here we see Moses literally pointing us towards Yeshua for us to be able to enter the promised land. Our promised land ultimately is not a place, it is a person, his name is Jesus, Jesus who said, I promise you, I will be with you, and I will never leave you, and I will never forsake you. I will always be with you forever. So again, this is literally your story where Israel failed, Jesus succeeded, with the law exposed, Christ fulfilled, and whom sin enslaved, Jesus sets free.

The whole story is about Jesus saving sinners like you and me. There's levels to this. There's levels to this. Hey, my question real quick as we're gonna move on here is, so great, that was Moses, what about me? How do I figure out God's will for my life? Well, hey, before we get back to the episode, I wanna tell you about something coming up at Lake Point that we're really excited about this summer. We're hosting At The Movies, a four-week sermon series where we'll use movie clips and stories to illustrate powerful biblical truths. It's one of the most fun and creative experiences we do all year here at Lake Point, and it's designed for the entire family. And so every weekend at our physical locations, we'll feature unique movie-themed experiences, fun characters in the lobby for both kids and adults, incredible worship and practical teaching from the word of God, and of course, popcorn and drinks for everyone. So whether you are here, and maybe you're a long-time churchgoer, someone who's been away from church for a while, or maybe you're looking for an easy way to invite a friend, neighbor, or coworker to church, this right here is the perfect series for you. At The Movies is an in-person only event and begins July 11 and 12

and continues through August 1 and 2. And so if you're in the Dallas area, we'd love for you to join us at one of our campuses. You can find service times, locations, and more information by texting the word ATM to 20411. Now, let's get back to the conversation. Yeah. Crazy Nuggets. That's honestly what I think this passage is practically most helpful for, is what the Bible says is that God created us in advance. He created good works in advance for us to accomplish. That's what the New Testament says. So somehow in some way, every single person God ever created, there are good works that He preordained and designed for you to accomplish with your life. Honestly, man, that's what I think this passage does, is the best way to do it, I did a little Venn diagram, and this is the best way to think about it, is this, if you look at this passage, it's like a Venn diagram of what is at the intersection of ability, affinity, and opportunity. Say that one more time. Yeah. Ability, affinity, opportunity. All right, so let me explain. Ability is, if you ask the question, watch what happens with Moses here. How's Moses figure out what he's supposed to do? Okay, ability. What am I good at?

Yep. What do other people say that I'm good at? A better way is, what do other people say that I'm good at? Because a lot of people think they're good at something, they're not good at something. It's like, heads up, just by the way, that's why you need people's eyes on your life, because your whole life is the first two episodes of American Idol every season, where you think you're awesome, and nobody ever loved you enough to tell that you weren't awesome at that thing. And it's like the people who, they think they got the spiritual gift of singing, but nobody ever seems to have the spiritual gift of listening to them. It's like, okay, man. So you need to ask, what do other people say that I'm good at? Well, look at Moses' life. It is not a coincidence he spent 40 years in Pharaoh's court learning how to, at the executive level, how to lead a nation. So think about the skills that got downloaded into Moses in those 40 years. Well, God put him in a position so that he'd be able to someday lead two to three million Israelites out of. You see what I'm doing there? Okay, so ability.

What am I good at? Like, what skills do I have? Okay. Affinity is, ask this question. It's a little counterintuitive. Not just like, what's my heart sort of vibrate to? Ask this question. What can you not stand? And here's like, when you see this in Moses' life, in, I think it's Exodus 1, the first time we ever see Moses as an adult, he commits, he kills a guy. He murders a guy. Why? Because he saw an Egyptian taskmaster beating a Hebrew slave, and he just could not stand to see the injustice of the slavery. He's like, I can't, literally, I can't, I can't say, make me kill somebody. Well, ask your, don't start killing people, but ask the question, like, what is it that when you see it, you're like, bro, I literally cannot even watch. Like, I'll be honest. It kills you. It kills me. It kills me. I'll be honest, dude. All the best student ministry volunteers,

or all the best kids ministry volunteers, you know who they are? They're people who, when they see kids who don't got spiritual fathers and mothers, it's just like something just wants to snap inside of them. They're like, they gotta have this. Or they're people who like. I didn't have that, and I know what happened, and it just grates on me. And hey, man, if you walk past a kids' ministry room and the thought of those kids growing up without a spiritual dad or a spiritual mom, like you literally just, I just can't stand it, that's probably part of your calling. Like for me, man, honestly, when I hear a bad sermon, it's like, I can't do it. Like literally, I'll just turn it off. You go on Facebook and you criticize them on X. No, I do not, no, I do not. I just try, literally, I cannot listen to a bad, it does something so emotionally eviscerating in me, I'll just turn it off. Can I ask you this? Pastor Josh, because I'm sure people are curious, was that always the case? Is that what your thing was when you were younger? Very, very, very early. Very, very- You always had a thing for preaching. Very, very, very early.

Like, and we don't need to get into this, but like, I don't know, this sounds weird. It's just what God did in my life. I'm a third generation pastor, and for some reason, dude, when I was, I think I was like 13, I had a really gifted communicator that was my childhood pastor. My parents would get the little tapes. Carlos, a tape was this thing. No, I know that. My parents would get the sermon tapes. The round things, right? That's what the tape was? Stop, stop, dude. They were a buck a piece. They were a buck a piece. My parents would get the sermon tapes, and from the time I was 13 to the time I graduated from high school, every night, I fell asleep listening to one of those tapes. That's how I fell asleep every single night. You had a tape recorder with you? No, I had a tape player. Oh, a tape player, yeah, yeah, yeah. Stop, man, stop, man. We wouldn't have had time for this, and literally every night, I had like 30 of those tapes of his best of sermons, and from the time I was 13 to the time I was 18,

that's how I fell asleep, and it's just, I don't know, man. It's just, I can't listen to bad. So, the second question is affinity. What is it like I'm drawn to? What drives me nuts? And the last one is opportunity, and the question you asked there is, what's the open door or what's the greatest need? So, notice this. Bro, this is fascinating. Because of Moses being raised in Pharaoh's court, two things, he's probably, he might be, out of two to three million Hebrews, the only one that's bilingual. Number two, he almost certainly was, out of three million Hebrews, the only one who had access to the palace of Pharaoh. He was the only guy who had that opportunity. So, you need to start asking yourself the question, what's the, the Apostle Paul says in the New Testament, for a wide door of effective service has been open to me. You need to ask the question, what's the thing that's the door that's open to me? Or you might ask it like this. Walk through your church and ask the question, where's the greatest need? Because that was the other thing. Where's the greatest need? And I'll just tell you right now, it's kids ministry.

I don't care what church you're in. I don't care what church you're in. It's like, you need somebody to be spiritual mamas and spiritual daddies to all those kids. That's always where it's at. So, those are the three. And then once you sit down, and like literal, I'd encourage you to do it. Sit down, draw a little Venn diagram, three concentric little circles, the overlap. Okay, affinity, ability, opportunity. And whatever is the one spot in your life where all three intersect, boom, there's your calling. There it is. That's so good. Ability, affinity, opportunity. That's really good. Paul. No, I was just gonna give some advice, probably more of our younger people. Cause you may be not even, you may not even know yet what your abilities and affinities are. So, I would actually, nothing else, lean into those opportunities. Cause you asked Pastor Josh earlier, like, did he know from an early age? Well, he probably didn't know until he actually started preaching and was listening to preaching. That's a fact.

And so, the same thing, I'd say, if you're on the younger end, if you're, you know, man, middle school, high school, college, young adult, try some different things. See what it seems like God has his hand on, and both you have a knack for, you have an ability for, and an affinity for, and then lean into that. So, that was gonna be more for some of our younger people, is that you actually might need to just try to get some opportunities to help learn what those other two are. Just get reps and figure out which pitches you can hit. That's right. You just gotta do it. You gotta get a whole bunch of reps, doing a whole bunch of different things, and that's the thing I'll say, because, you know, we obsess over the what, and then we forget about the who has called you, right? I think before you're called to an assignment, you are called to a person. Mark, even, when you look at the Gospels, Mark chapter three, verse 13, 14, it says, I'm just gonna read it, and Jesus went up the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him, and he appointed 12, whom he also named apostles, so that they might be with him, and he might send them out to preach.

So, the being with him comes before sending them out to preach. What happens often is we obsess over the what God has called us to do, and we oftentimes disregard the who God has called us to be with, and so, ultimately, again, if you're young, trying to figure out and run towards Jesus, make sure you obsess over, how do we get to know Jesus more? How do we pray more? How do you fall in love with him more? And ultimately, you will get more clarity about the what. Before we shift gears to have a conversation on the air war, Pastor Josh, we cannot continue right now before taking a moment this week This is your birthday. You jerk, you jerk, stop me. Forty-one hours. I know, I know. We're just going to take a second to, first of all, man, happy birthday. Happy birthday. And before your birthday, we created a song for you that I'm going to play. It's a very short song. You gotta be kidding me. It's just specialized for you. Here it is. I'm going to make sure we get it right. So happy birthday, Pastor Josh. What?

Wait, hold on, hold on. Hold on. I'm glad it didn't play. Why is my phone not working? This is the Lord. This is the Lord. Hold on, hold on. Are you connected to a Bluetooth on something? I hope not. God did not give you the opportunity. Okay. Hold on. Oh, my gosh. This is classic. Happy birthday, Pastor Josh. What is wrong with you? The lyrics are intentional. Pastor Josh walks on stage with a grin so big, first words out, let's kick this pig. If you've got your Bibles, open them up, because we got Bible verses for that, then somebody shouts, bro, literally. After the sermon, don't forget to check out Live Free. He'll say, one second in the presence of God can change everything. That's your line, bro. Come on, guys. We're a kite caught in a hurricane of grace. Why? Why? Happy birthday, Pastor Josh. Now let's kick this pig. He's been listening, he's been watching 80s music videos.

Thank you for that spiritually enriching 50 seconds. 80s baby, but 90s baby. Amen. Honestly, we mess around here a lot. Happy birthday. You are a great pastor, great friend, husband, father. We honor you for that. Yes. Thank you, man. And now, let's get going. All right, let's finish talking about this. I want to finish about this. So, first of all, Katrina, will you toss that graph up? I think what you're starting to see, bro, I keep saying this over and over again. If you're looking at things in our culture right now, the tide is turning. I want to let that sit. The tide is... Something is happening that I have not seen in my lifetime that is now 43 years. There's something I have not seen. Now, this is Gallup. So, what you're seeing right here, Americans who say religion is, quote, very important in their own lives. Now, some trends that are not awesome. You see some things that are not awesome. A lot of those lines are down and to the right. Now, look at that green line. There is something that is happening right now among men, especially young men. And you're seeing a massive jump. It went from in like two to three years, 28% to 42%, according to Gallup. I just want to say that again.

28% to 42% are jumping from religion not super important to religion super important. And in America, the vast majority of the vast, vast majority is Christians. Something is happening. There's a sea change happening underneath the surface with men, in particular young men. Now, this is a whole different podcast. And don't get mad at me on the internet before I get a chance to explain everything. Usually what happens, the way that God has designed the world, is things will happen in a man or men before they happen in the rest of society. That's just how God's made the world. You can call that whatever you want, toxic whatever. That's just how God made the world. So I'm hopeful about that. Now, what's interesting to me, I'm getting ready to show this to you. You're starting to see stats start to trickle up into like pop culture and above the surface, where now you're starting to see the stats become stories. So while I was, I watched these while I was working out on vacation with Jana, Best Vacation I've Ever Taken. And there were two dudes that are very high profile podcasters that both said something really interesting. So this first clip, I'm going to show them back to back real fast and then we're going to shut this thing down. First one is a guy named Andrew Huberman. Am I pronouncing that right? Huberman. Jana listens to him. I never listen to him because he's a health guy, right? He is a neuroscientist. Yeah, all right. That's not my thing. But I do listen to the next guy.

But he's apparently like pretty big. He's got a big podcast, yes. Okay. So explain real quick who this guy is before I do this. Yeah. So the first clip, if we're going to watch the Andrew Huberman. Oh, it's Huberman? Huberman, Huberman. Huberman, Huberman. How is it, Jason? Huberman? Huberman. Huberman, there you go. Thank you, Jason. Neuroscientist and professor of neurobiology at Stanford School of Medicine. So he's got his own podcast. The clip we're about to watch right now, he's in a different podcast. It's called Modern Wisdom. Yeah. Hosted by Chris Williamson. And this is a podcast basically on self-improvement, philosophy, and psychology. Okay. Now what you're getting ready to see here is while I was on vacation, he essentially, if I understand correctly, had his coming out as a person of faith and moving towards Christianity. All right. Now check this out. I want to explain a couple of things here, but check this out. And Trini, I'm going to have you stop it at a certain point. And, you know,

Oh, it's my, you know, I love teaching science. I love learning and teaching science. I hope that's obvious to people. But it's my one wish for people that at some point in their life, they at least explore the possibility and get morning sunlight. But the- He's known for that. He opened to faith and get morning sunlight. I just hit 50 recently. And I will say, if I look back on my life, sure, I wish I had done certain things differently. I mean, who doesn't, right? This notion of like no regrets. Like, yeah, I wish I had made certain decisions, not others. But by and large, I'm very, very happy with the decisions I made, by and large. And I was happy to discover resistance training and running and neuroscience and, you know, cuttlefish and ferrets. I had a pet ferret. And I don't recommend, bulldogs. And I have an amazing relationship to family and friends. And I'm very blessed in my personal life. And my romantic life is feeling awesome these days. And it's just like, it's overwhelmingly positive despite a lot of strain and hardship. But the one thing that I wish that I had done earlier was to stop resisting the voice in my head that said,

you know, I think there's a God and I'm going to pray. I kept pushing that away. It was like incompatible with my notion of what it meant to be a scientist. It was just incompatible with things. I just kept pushing down and yet at the same time wishing. Okay, first of all, now I'm going to show you. But first of all, he spent his whole life doing this thing. He's like, hey man, it feels like faith is incompatible with science and being a scientist. Now, first of all, you're seeing a bunch of this. I and Hersey Ali, there's a bunch of different scientists and intellectuals you're seeing the same trend in. I just want to point this out. So you're not old enough for this, Carlos, but I'm going to be 43 for a second here. When I was growing up, that was like the dominant narrative. It's hey man, like science and faith, completely incompatible. One of the things that's driving what you're seeing right now is the exact opposite is starting to, like it's leading in different conclusions. So if you go back, Wall Street Journal published this article, I think it was Eric Metaxas a few years ago. The title of the article was just science increasingly makes the case for God. When I was growing up, there was like a much more limited level of awareness and people felt like it led in one way. Now it's the opposite for a few reasons. One, you're seeing guys like this.

You got issues like fine tuning of the universe. That's the whole deal of astrophysicists now. It's just the, hey, the force of gravity, strong and weak nuclear forces, electromagnetic force. People understand if any of those little physics things were an infinitesimal fraction different, a universe couldn't exist. Interesting little side note, somebody asked Christopher Hitchens before he died, what's the thing that's the strongest argument that you don't know what to do with? And he said, hey, fine tuning of the universe keeps me up at night. Wow. It keeps me up at night. You got complexity of life. It's just like, hey, dude, 60 years ago, people thought cells were just sort of amorphous blobs. Well, it's like, bro, now they know, there's like a complex human city inside of every one of your cells, protein delivery mechanisms. There's a human language written into the double helix inside of every DNA strand in your body that's more complex than a computer programming language. So guys like this, they're starting to get their heads around this stuff. Here's, boil it all down. Here's why I think some intellectuals are starting to kind of go like,

hey man, as opposed to atheism agnosticism, I've got a problem to deal with. Guys like that are starting to realize, man, an atheist has to believe in at least six miracles. They got to believe in something from nothing, order from chaos, life from non-life, personal from the non-personal, reason from non-reason, and morality from matter. For guys like this, it's becoming really difficult to believe that everything and everyone came from nothing and no one. Okay, so you're seeing this now, but watch what he says happened to him when he starts moving towards Jesus. Check this out, watch what he says. And recently on my 50th birthday, I had to give an uncomfortable toast because believe it or not, I'm somewhat introverted, especially in large groups. I'm happy to talk science and talk like this with you, but, and I said it then and I'll say it again now, I'm 50 and for the first time in my life, in my entire life, I've experienced sustained times of real deep peace. Like just peace, just the like, everything's okay. Everything is as it should be, not just some little mantra that you say when you're on the big surcoast. Plus, okay. Now dude, now note that where I'm coming back to it.

He says, first time in my life, I'm experiencing real sustained peace. So I'll just toss this out. St. Augustine said this in his confessions. He said, you have made us for yourself, oh Lord. And our heart is restless until it rests in you. And what you got right there is you got a scientist who's like been all up here. I got to understand, I got to understand, I got to understand it. He's got peace. He's saying right there, or he's literally saying, I can't quite explain it. I got this peace that surpasses understanding. That sounds a little familiar. By the way, in order to get the peace that surpasses understanding, you have to give up your right to understand. And you got this guy that's going, hey man, if God's the size of the Pacific Ocean and my mind's the size of a Coke can, there's probably gonna be some things that don't fit. But man, when I get up in there, there's some peace I've never had before. Now, all right, so I see that clip. The next day I'm working out in the little workout gym and I run across this. Now, this is my favorite one of the two. What you're getting ready to see is a guy named John Lennox.

So he's, in this clip you're getting ready to see, he's like the 80 year old white dude. John Lennox is the professor of mathematics at Oxford, who by the way, fun fact, before C.S. Lewis died, he gave a series of lectures about his Christian faith at Oxford. John Lennox is just old enough to have attended those lectures. Okay, so John Lennox, professor of mathematics at Oxford, is a Christian man. He's on Stephen Bartlett's podcast I know you love. Explain who Stephen Bartlett is real quick. Yeah, Diary of a CEO, one of the most popular podcasts for interview format. And Stephen's just a great interviewer, my favorite. That's killer. Other than the Live Free podcast, that's my podcast. All right, and his pod's huge. Like it's absolutely enormous, okay, Diary of a CEO. Now this one, I'm not gonna interrupt it even once. I'm just gonna let this clip play to let the force of it fall on you. All right, so he does, I'll listen to the whole thing. He does like a two hour interview with John Lennox about faith. Bartlett's not a Christian, Lennox is a Christian. At the very end of the interview, this happens. In a world with so many challenges, what can we do to restore hope and trigger engagement? Give people a real basis for hope that transcends this world.

And the only place I know where to find that is in Christ and in Christianity. John, thank you. One of the most compelling arguments for God that you've presented and your way of seeing the world and being is not actually necessarily anything you've written in your books or not necessarily anything you've said. It is actually you. And you have a certain peace and contentment that I rarely see in people that I interview, but I often see, and I've almost always seen in the Christians that I've interviewed. And this is a interesting phenomenon for me. I interviewed Wesley Hough recently. Do you know Wesley Hough? Yes, yes. He was the same as you. Canadian. Wesley's a bright cookie. Yeah, he was very much, he gave me the same feeling as you, just like, feels like a really happy person. Very sort of content, rounded, well- There are many of us. But it seems to be a trend that, you know, a lot of the Christian apologists that I've interviewed have that anchoring that so many of us are looking for. There's a real sense of that.

You know, I sit in front of many people and of course they often ask me questions I don't even understand, but in life, that piece is very important to me. And also, what we started with, when I look at you, I see someone who's of infinite value made in the image of God. And so what I say to you, or think about you, is hugely important to me. And I wish you well. Thank you. Now listen, what you just saw is the reality that there are five gospels, there's not four. There's Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and you. And if you watch the interview, dude, it is fascinating. You got this guy, towering intellect, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Oxford University. You watch the interview, multiple times in the interview Bartlett asks him a question and he literally says, I don't know, literally. I don't know, that's tough, I don't know. Listen, he didn't have all the answers. He had something far better, a piece that surpasses understanding. And what everybody needs to understand when they watch stuff like that is that the only way to get real lasting peace is to know the Prince of Peace himself. And that is what those guys are responding to. And so what we gotta do is watch stuff like that.

And honestly, we just have to go, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good, and I'm gonna say spirit, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. That's what. you're seeing. Amen, amen. Pastor Josh, would you pray for us? I'd be honored. Father, would you please make every single person sitting at this table, in this room, and listening to this podcast that type of man or that type of woman? Jesus Christ, I pray that you would be the Prince of Peace and the Presence of Peace to everybody that knows you and draws near. And Father, I pray that you would send us out like light in the darkness, like your word says, as sheep among wolves, but that everywhere we go, we would simply be people who know you and love you and enjoy you. And we just let people see that we know you and we love you and enjoy you. And our life just naturally says, come play. Father, I pray for anybody that's listening to this, that they don't know you yet, that they would bend their knee to Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, and know that peace that we want them to know. And I pray those things in the name of Jesus Christ himself, risen from the dead. Amen. Amen. Amen. Be free, brother. Be free.