8 Ways Christians Open the Door to the DEMONIC (ft. Jonathan Pokluda) | Live Free with Josh Howerton

Give the enemy an inch and he will become your ruler. An open door is how a demon gets in. A stronghold is how a demon stays in. Satan is a legalist. He's just looking for a legal right to mess with you. Demons are legalists. They're looking for a legal right. They say, "Oh, now I got you. Now I have the right to mess with you. Now I have the right to your children." Well, hey, a living free nation. Before we jump into the episode, this podcast is recorded right here at Lake Point Church in Dallas, Texas. But the living 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. Today, I'm excited because I am here with the tallest theologian in Texas. - That's not true. - The Shaquille O'Neill of Young Adult Ministry and the Bishop over at Baylor. - Come on. - Jonathan Procluda, Pastor Jonathan Procluda. - Only here am I called the Bishop of Baylor. So I love it. I hope that makes it back to Baylor. - Hey, man. Thanks for being here. - Thank you for having me, man. - Hey, thanks for sitting down with me and having a good conversation. - So this is, who would have thought, we go way back, man. - Honestly, who would have thought this through? - I mean, I can remember the first time I wrote a book, Welcome to Adolting, and you put together like a list of people who are like influencing. You know, like this is, and I didn't know what it was doing. That's just what they said to do. And it was like Carlos, man. - Yeah. I don't think I got that one though. - You did? - I think I got outdated. - I promise you got what-- - Okay, you might be, I'm trying to remember. - I'm almost positive. I'd be shocked if that's not true. - Hey, well, we're gonna talk about a little bit more about how I met you at some point and at the porch back in the day. But today we're gonna have a good conversation, man. Man, this week, first of all, thank you for your sermon. It was amazing. - Thanks for letting me do it. - Over to hearing people talking about it on spiritual warfare. - Yeah. - Today we're gonna go even deeper on that conversation. So we're gonna go, spiritual warfare, demonic influences, we're gonna be asking, hey, where's the line between a demonic attack and mental health issue like anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts? We're gonna be unmasking some demonic schemes or strategies that Satan is employing our culture today. We got some questions that people submitted on Regi Boards Spells. We're gonna do that. And then from there, we're gonna jump, we're gonna go from demons to a divine hope. We're gonna be asking, hey, what are five signs of revival that we might be seeing right now? - Okay. - And you're probably the expert, you're probably the person that I know the most that it's like you're a master at evangelizing. And so I wanna pick your brain on that. I got some questions. - Well, I'll take it, I mean, I don't know if that's true, but if I'm gonna be known for something, I hope it's shared in the gospel, that's a real gift. So thank you for saying that. - Did you say you do it every day? - Try to every day. I said it the other day, so I say that. I say, hey, I asked somebody this every single day and I was traveling with a guy for, I guess, seven days. And he goes, you didn't, you didn't, and the sun was setting, you know? And he goes, you didn't today? Because I was with you all day, 'cause you didn't today. And I was like, bro, I did it in the sermon. - You preached in the gospel in the sermon, did a alter call. And he was like, oh, that counts? I was like, well, yeah, that counts. If I have to, you know, so. - I love he's keeping you accountable. - Yeah. - Hey, before we jump in, a couple of things, 'cause we like to do this every single week, we have a giveaway. So if you're on YouTube or Spotify, come and hat, we'd love to hook you up. Also, if you want to, if you do not win on a regular basis, but you do want to have kind of like the one. - They got a new hat, though. - We're gonna do hat, that's right. - How fresh is that? - You can get it at lifre.shop, or text-to-word hat-to-2-0-0-4-1-1. Also, we're trying to help you with your discipleship. So get the Lake Point app. If you do, you'll get the daily Bible reading plan, the weekly sermon and an early release of the lifre podcast, in this case, on Spiritual Warfare with JP. So to do that, text-to-word app-to-2-0-0-4-1, or go to Apple or Google Play Store. Hey, before we start, can I share a little something with you? - Please. - So this thing right here broke the internet this week. I don't know if you saw this. So this photo over here is a screenshot of what somebody shared on X, and they said, this is up for people that are not watching. It's a photo of Jesus in the middle, and basically, he's surrounded by a bunch of different pagan gods, and the tweet says, hey, Grock, remove the fake gods from this picture. And so if you keep going, the next photo, this is what Grock said, is basically just Jesus, and there's nobody else, which is amazing. And Grock says, done. Keep going. And then somebody, first of all, the internet went crazy. And then somebody asked, hey, Grock, why did you leave Jesus and Grock said, because the request was to remove the fake gods, Jesus did not qualify, 13 million views. And so, and then he continued to explain. Grock said, Jesus is not a fake god. He is a historical figure with strong contemporary attestation, claim divinity through resurrection accounts that launch the world's largest religion, and stands apart from the purely mythological figures in that image. And then the person responds, hey, if they remain silent, the very stones will cry out, this is Luke 1940. He says, I see where we're going. Grock, you're essentially made of stones. And Grock says, silicon from sand qualifies. If the people stay quiet, these circuits will still testify. Luke 1940 holds. Bro. Isn't that crazy? Bro, it makes me emotional, man, honestly. Why does he make you emotional? It's all true, bro. It's all true. It's just like, I was raised in the church, and I was not a believer. I was exposed to lots of church. I went to college, and I partied my mind off. I pursued the world. Vegas, clubs, drugs, cocaine, ecstasy. Weed, lots of alcohol. And somehow made it out of college alive. And I thought, I got to figure out this got thing. And I want to know who God is. And I really was certain he was not Christian. Because it was this logical thing I couldn't get past. I thought, if I was born in India, I'd be Hindu. If I was born in China, I'd be Buddhist. If I was born in Israel, I'd be Jewish. If I was born in Iran, I'd be Muslim. So I just started studying, I bought a book on world religions. And I wasn't a great student, but I just started studying the Hindu faith, the Buddhist faith, the Jewish faith, Islamic faith, Mormons, Jehovah's Witness, Church of Christian Science, Scientology. And I kept tripping at that search, trying to find God. I kept tripping over Jesus. And I just thought, you know, in the Quran, in Islam, he's Issa, the prophet, Hindus are fine to worship him as a God. Buddhist are cool with Jesus. You know, the Mormons, Jehovah's Witness. I mean, they all have Jesus in the story, in the narratives, Christian science as well. He's the way-shower. And so I was just like, man, what is it about this guy who's born in Bethlehem, a really small town that everybody knows? Like, if you've ever heard of Bethlehem, it's a very tiny town. And then Nazareth, he lived in Nazareth as a carpenter. There's a city beside Nazareth, much bigger than Nazareth, that you've never heard of. And if you're not from the Middle East, you've never heard of it because Jesus didn't live there. But you've heard of Nazareth. He lived there as a carpenter. And I'm like, how many carpenter do you know that reset time, two thousand and twenty-six years ago? I'm like, how did this guy become the single most polarizing character in the history of history? And so all of my searching, trying to find God, apart from Christianity, led me back to Christ. And I thought, man, this guy, how did he become so famous? And then I read in the Bible that it's because he died and he showed back up three days later. And Paul says, over 500 people saw him go, ask them, they're still alive. So what Paul is writing is within a lifespan of when Jesus raised from the dead and the people saw him. He's like, go ask them. And so, and it's not, then I'd see the writings of Josephus Flavius, who's not even a Christian. He's a Jewish historian. And he writes about Jesus and Pliny, the Younger, and Tastas, and there's these other historical writings that support the narrative of Jesus. There's not a credible atheist today alive that would deny the existence of Jesus. We have archeological evidence of this person, Jesus. And so, when I look at that, and I'm just like, man, AI, which is so unbelievably dangerous, and can be insanely demonic. And yet, even the demons believe, is what I would say. We were going to talk about spiritual warfare, even the demons believe in Jesus. And so, yeah, it just made me a, I had an emotional response to that. - Man, let me do that. - Let me say this too, because you mentioned that. One, Groc is right. - Yeah. - What Groc said is right. And what I think a lot of people don't realize is the difference between Jesus and every other religion, most religions at its core are all about how you can seek God. Christianity at its core. And by the way, this is a good news. If you're listening, Christianity at its core is about how God seeks you. - Yes. - Jesus literally said, I came to seek and to save the lost. And if you think about it, again, you compared these other world religions. Virtually every major religious figure in history points beyond himself to a path, a system, or a belief system. - Yeah. Jesus points to himself, think about it. If you go back to the Buddha, he basically said, "I am a teacher and he points to enlightenment." Muhammad said, "I am a prophet and he points to Allah." Moses said, "I am a messenger and he points to Yahweh." Jesus said, "I am God before Abraham, I am." And he points to himself. And so here's the point, there is non-leg Jesus. And if the people remain quiet, even Grok will cry it out. He's the way the truth and life and all the gifts of the Father accept through him. And if you go to the temple of the tooth in Sri Lanka, you're going to find bones of Buddha. We have Muhammad's tomb. We have these burial places of Joseph Smith and others. And yet I have walked in the tomb where Jesus was said to lie. And there's no bones there. He is not here, he is risen. And if you had a single finger bone of Jesus, if we found a toe of Jesus Christ, it would be the single most valuable object on the planet earth. There would be nothing, it would be absolutely priceless. The all the golden Fort Knox would not be more valuable than that toe bone of Jesus Christ. And yet it cannot be found. - Wow, man. - 'Cause it does not exist. - It's a great start of the pod. - Hey, JP, the first time I heard you speak, it was 10 plus years ago. And I remember somebody invited me to go to the porch service. I just moved from Michigan to Dallas. You showed up there, you get on stage. And I remember you started your message with a confession of sin. - Well, you did. - And you said, I was there, bro. I don't know if that was like a normal thing you did. - No, I mean, I've done it before, but there was a time at the porch that I did it. And I referenced it back, 'cause it's like a story I tell. Because my first time, you literally saw it, and the whole pastor was there, he's gonna preach. And you know, I had a friend who said, hey, he's a really good preacher. You're like, hey, you literally, this is you, you're like, hey, porch, I wanna start by confessing sin. And you know, and then you shared what you shared. And then after you said, would you forgive me? - Yeah. - And everybody's quiet in the room. - Yeah, that's like, oh man. - What did that, what church is this? And then you said, no, no, I'm serious. I'm really asking you, would you forgive me? - Yeah, that's crazy, we're there. And it is, and then people said, hey, we forgive you. And so, bro, since then, I've seen you, you know, I got the opportunity to meet you at some point before you move to Wake Up, which I hear is a great city. - Yeah, it's great city. - Okay, great. We gotta visit at some point. And people know you today because you are, one, you're a great communicator. You're probably one of the best communicators right now. I believe, in my opinion, you're a great storyteller, you're very raw, and you're passionate about what you're sharing in your own way. Preaching is sharing truth through personality. You have the very unique personality. You have a very unique story that God has used. - Unique, yeah. - Yes, I do, I do, it's just true, man. - Thank you. - And today people see somebody that's very passionate about evangelism and bolding your preaching. So here's what I wanna ask you, how did you go from like, were you always passionate or were you always like bold in whatever it is you believed? It seems like you were seeking. This was that time that I was talking about a second ago. My first response to the gospel, when I really understood the gospel was anger. 'Cause I was like, 'cause I'd been in church my whole life. And I'm like, how did I miss this? I had carried a golden cross down the aisle in front of the priest as an altar boy. I never knew that cross that I'm carrying was a payment for my sins. And this is why I'm always, I'm like, in America, I mean, a lot of times when I'm sharing the gospel here in America, I'm sharing the gospel with people who claim to be Christian, who've been in church their whole life. And I'm asking them, hey, how certain are you if you died right now, how certain are you that you would go to heaven? And they're often like seven, eight, you know, six, five. And I'm like, how many of your sins did Jesus die for? And so that, I mean, I was in corporate America and I just thought, if this is true, what else am I gonna do but tell the whole world that this is true? Like, I've gotta give my life to that. And so I think that's where some of that passion comes from. Some people see you today and, you know, obviously got used to you might really, what about your life today is different than perhaps like a normal person or perhaps a, quote unquote, a nominal Christian. Well, a nominal Christian, I hope a lot. I mean, I, I mean, I always, I often say, like if you wanna understand, if you really wanna know if you're a Christian or not, a follower of Christ or not, it's like, look at your prayer life. And I would say, studying spiritual warfare for three years radically changed my prayer life because I just started praying differently. When I understood, oh, I'm in a, I'm truly in a spiritual war. This is not just new testament stuff. This is, you know, 21st century stuff. I'm in a spiritual war. I need to pray different. And then just of angel, I mean, trying to share the gospel every day with somebody, at least one person. But, but if I just compare my life to when I was a pagan, I mean, the way I treat women is different. The way I talk is different. The way I dress is different. The way I, you know, what I do for a living, I mean, change my language, everything changed. - Yeah. - And so, and, you know, the scripture said, I really think even in, even amongst pastors, and I don't think like I'm better than anybody else, I feel like Paul, the chief of sinner. There's, there is times I still have to confess before sermon. Hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I did something last night that I would ask you not to do. And to be clear to remove any mystery, what I mean by that is like, hey, I slowed down on a reel, you know, on Instagram, I was looking and something caught my eye and I looked lustfully at an image and I wanna confess that because I don't wanna hide it, you know, what you hide will take you out. - That's what you said, obviously. - Yeah, that's right, that's what I remember. And I'll tell you another part of that story is then a seminary had asked me to come and speak on how to reach the next generation. And I told that story because the punchline is, that night, they didn't have anything to do with the sermon. I prayed and then I preached a sermon that had nothing to do with that. And then that night was the longest line. And the security had to shut us down because at 11 p.m., we were still there meeting with people and everybody wanted to talk about the sermon. They were like, hey, I'm struggling too. Hey, how do I get free? How do I get free? I'm struggling to me too. - That's right. - And so I was like, had those conversations. And so I said that at a seminary who asked me how to reach the next generation, I said they want somebody that's gonna be real with them. And the feedback I got afterwards as they filled out comment cards was like, hey, how dare you? Use the word pornography in a mixed-gendered audience and you have to present to be holy. I remember one said, you have to present to be holy. And I was reading these comment cards and I just started weeping, like weeping hysterically 'cause I was like, they'll never reach them. - Who said this? - It was people who were preparing to be pastors and they were at the seminary and they wanted me to talk about train them on how to reach the next generation. And they were saying, hey, you need to present to be holy. I was like, you're never gonna reach the next generation. - Who taught you to be that raw? - I just, I never learned to play the church game. You know, it's like, I mean, I, we went to a church and it was, there was a season where it was like, hey, tuck in your shirt and let's go in here and act like we have it all together. But then when I got saved, all I was really, I mean, I didn't have seminary. I didn't have Greek and Hebrew. All I really had was like, hey, I know those guys. I was just one of them. You know, I know what they're struggling with. I know what they're thinking about. I know how they're wrestling. I know what their questions forgot 'cause I had all their questions. And so that was like honesty and authenticity was all I had to offer. - Yeah, that's great. Well, there's clearly got to using that. Got to use you for that. Obviously, there's wisdom in what a preacher shares from stage, but the fact that you did share that I can see people connecting obviously to it, especially now. 'Cause it seems to me like we don't talk enough about lust and just the ubiquity of social media and all the toxic content out there. Bro, let's go, let's go to spiritual warfare right now. You just preach it on the armor of God. Discipleship, really practical. Basically, if you haven't heard it, you can go back, you can find that on our YouTube channel. Your whole point is Christianity is not a playground, it's a battleground. And what I want to do is I want to go deeper into some of the things that you shared. So you said you'd been studying spiritual warfare for the last two to three years, so something like that? - I studied it for intently for three years. - What prompted that? Just somebody said what prompted it is somebody was late for church and they said my car wouldn't start. My battery was dead, spiritual warfare. And I thought, how in the world does a demon drain a battery of a car? Like, can they even do that? - Sure. - And then it just, I had these questions like, what can demons do and what can they not do? And I kind of grew up in, you know, if Satan wants to mess with you, he has to ask for permission. And then I was like, well, man, how cruel is God that He is letting Satan give people cancer? And I just was like, I had all these questions. I'm like, I know God is good, but why does he let Satan do terrible things if he's asked him for permission every time? And I just had all these questions. So I went on the research project and read, you know, I just started looking at everything the Bible says, because I didn't want to be corrupted by commentaries. I didn't want to hear somebody else's opinion at first. I just wanted to see everything the scripture said. And there was all of these things in the Bible that were normative, that I didn't see as normative or learn were normative. And then I started to read, you know, people much smarter than me and try to make sense of it all. - Okay, so Corinthians 2.11 says, so that Satan will not outsmart us. We need to be familiar with his evil schemes. - Yeah. - So scripture literally tells us, hey, like, he's going to, Satan's going to play you if you're not familiar with how he operates. - Yeah. - So here's what I want to do. - It's great because-- - It's great. Because I think some people say, like, if I learn about this, it's something bad going to happen to me. Sure. And it's like the Bible tells us to learn about this, so there's something bad won't happen to us, you know, so that we won't fall into the evil schemes of the enemy. And you're in the middle of the spiritual war, so it's actually like worse if you're not aware of what's going on around you. That's true. It's actually ignorant. You're losing. That's right. So, let me bring your sermon. The whole point of the podcast here, we say, hey, this is not think-free. This is live-free. Right. So, what you shared in the sermon, we're going to bring it to an application format here. So on the ground, what do you think are some of the strategies that Satan right now is using that most people perhaps are not even realizing? If you had to force rank, top three, what would you say? He's a liar. Okay. So, he just feeds his lies and he, you know, Jesus prayed for unity, Satan divides. And so, he's trying, I'm like, I really, like, you can look back on 2020. And I think there was a, and this is somewhat conjecture, you know. This is my, at an opinion level. But what I think happened in the demonic realm was, like, he gathered all the demons and said, hey, I just want you to divide them. I want you to divide them politically. I want you to divide them socioeconomically. I want you to divide them, you know, by their color, their skin. I want you to divide them on vaccines or no vaccines, masks or no masks. And you look back on that season and it worked. I mean, I think that's what happened is we're just, like, the most divided we had ever been in my lifetime. I won't say in history, but I'll say in my lifetime. And then I would just say, I do. I mean, there's, there's like the conspiracy theorists that are like, oh, there's these Hollywood upper elites and they're doing crazy stuff. It's like, well, here's the deal. He certainly has a plan through media, you know, through movies, television shows, music. It's like our grandmother was right and she's like, hey, garbage in, garbage out. It's, it's like, that's how God made us, like our brain, our mind and our heart, our social quotient and our mental state. It's like a sponge and it's absorbing things. And if we feed it poison, it's like we become poisoned or thinking becomes poisoned. And so that's why he says, I mean, the Bible tells us whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praise worthy, think about these things, Philippians for a set your mind on the things above Romans 12, one and two, do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Battles, wars are fought over real estate. The spiritual war is fought over the real estate of the mind, Satan is after our thinking. And so you can see like when, when we start to confuse things like gender as an example, right? He's, he wants us to be confused on what is male and female. Like this is like biological basics, foundation of creation. And, and you just see the lies of the enemy being infiltrated in culture. And then we, and then what he does is he tries to divide us over such things over what's true. And so, yeah, I would, that's why I would say is like, hey, anything that you, Proverbs 4 talks about like what you see, what you hear, where you go, you know, the Proverbs will start, who you hang out with. And so I think anything that can infect our heart, that's what he's working through. I want to click on one of the things you said on, because first of all, you didn't ask me to do this, but you wrote a book called Your Story Has a Villain. And you kind of unpack several strategies that the enemy uses and they all start with a D. Right. And I love, but I appreciate it, by the way. So right now you're saying, so first of all, you know, highly recommend it. We'll get it, the idea of the way Satan operates being through lies. So I want to click on that, because I want to make sure people understand what we're talking about here. So can I show you, this is probably one of the most helpful illustrations when it comes to talking about the lies or the deception that Satan plays with Christians. So that video is a video of a, I don't know if you've ever done this where like you draw a circle around an ant. And then what you see is basically like the ant is like, man, I'm trapped. It's trying to escape and it's stuck and it's paralyzed and you can't really go anywhere. But would you don't know, or in this case what's happening is basically the ant thinks it can't go until it kind of overcomes it. And then it happens again and then it's trapped. I believe that right there is a great picture of how the enemy operates with Christians often because his main strategy is to use lies as deception. We think that we believe something that is not true and that we feel stuck, you can stop playing that. And based on what you said, that's what the, that's what Satan is, the father of lies. Yeah, the D is deception and he's in the demons because, okay, so Satan, we talk about Satan. Like Satan has never probably been anywhere near me. He's not omnipresent. And so I do think the spiritual realm works different than the natural realm. But Satan can't be in lots of places at one time. So what I believe from Revelation 12 is that one third of the angelic realm fell with them and those angels are here as demons. Satan has an army that he leads. And so you might, you know, if you go, Satan is Satan, attack me and it would be like a talking about the ruler, like Vladimir Putin is attacking Ukraine. So he's not, like he's not charging Ukraine with a gun or a missile launcher, like he's in a bunker somewhere, maybe commanding orders. And so that's how Satan is attacking me. He's leading an attack against Christians. He's leading attack against what is good, right, true and noble and holy and, and godly. But we have demons around us and those demons try to deceive us. They just tell us things that aren't true. They're bullies. I mean, that, that, that, just like the person drawing that around the ant is, they're just, they're just bullies and they want, they operate in fear. And so, like when people are afraid of this stuff, it's like they want you to be afraid. They try to appear bigger than what they are. They, they try to appear more powerful than what they are, but they, but we don't believe in dualism. Dualism is like good versus evil and these are two opposing, equal and opposing forces. It's like God who is sovereign over all of creation and then Satan, who's like a cockroach that just is just messing with people, you know. And you mentioned this in your sermon and you're really good at this. Like the way you combat lies is with what is true. That's right. Jesus said, I am the truth and in the armor of God, the sword of the spirit or the sword is the word of God. And so, and actually, I got this from your boy, for his friend, he shared a post about this. So these are the emergency numbers that every Christian needs to have saved and ready to use any moment. So, I took this out here in just a second, I'll also share with you what's God's phone number. I love this so much. You looking for peace and rest, Matthew 11, 28, Jesus that come to me, all you who are weary and carry heavy loads, I will give you rest. If you're feeling sad or depressed, John 14, 1, don't let your heart to be troubled. Trust in God and trust also in me. If you're feeling weak, Psalm 18, 1 and 2, I love you, Lord, you are my strength. You are the rock, my salvation and my fortress. If you're feeling lonely, Psalm 23, 1, the Lord is my shepherd. I have everything that I need. Have you sinned? Psalm 51, 10, creating me, O Lord, a clean heart and renew a loyal spirit within me. Are you afraid? Psalm 27, 1, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Why should I be afraid? If you're, are you anxious, Philippians 4, verse 6 to 7, what does it say? Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, but prayer and petition, present, request a God and the peace of God, which transcends all our standing with God, your hearts, minds of Christ, Jesus, and with thanksgiving is in there. Do you need directions? Psalm 73, 24, you, Lord, guide me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny. And finally, this is God's personal phone number. Are you ready? Jeremiah 33, 3. Let's go. Ask. And I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things yet to come. Here's the point. In Christ, the line is never busy. The number never changes. And God always hears when His children call. No more. That's good news. Let's go forward. That's good news, man. Praise God. Okay, so let me shoot some rapid-fire questions on all things, demonic stuff. By the way, do you feel when you prep for this stuff, do you ever feel like a heaviness? Sometimes. And I just pray. I'm like, Lord, would you bind these demonic forces coming against me by the blood of Jesus in the name of Jesus? Create this holy ground as I prayed beforehand, just help us to facilitate this conversation and protect us. I mean, prayer is an amazing weapon. That's why Ephesians 60 ends and pray and all of these things pray at all times. I will like sometimes I'll feel like foggy, brained, like you're in a fever dream. And I think that's like what I perceive to be a demonic attack. Yeah. I did that often. Anytime I preach or address something demonic related, it's like a heaviness. Yeah. Anyways, here are some questions people submit it. So Pastor Jonathan Bakluda, if Satan was defeated at the cross, what exactly is he still doing today? Yeah. Satan has profoundly excellent theology. His theology is better than ours. I mean, he's read the back of the book. He knows his destiny is the lake of fire. And so he's running a scorched earth strategy. And so scorched earth strategy, if you're not aware, it's like, hey, if you're losing the battle and you're in a territory, just burn everything down, destroy the buildings, destroy the houses, kill the women and children, just burn it all to the ground. And so Satan is running a scorched earth strategy where he's just trying to, I mean, people say, you know, why did God create evil? God didn't create evil. God created an angel, good. He created him to be good. There was free will in heaven and that angel said, "Hey, I don't want to worship you as God. I want to be God." And so God sent him here to the earth, the planet, and said, "We'll see what kind of God you could be." God could have obliterated him. He could have said, "Man, you're destroyed. You're done. You came against me no way." But I believe so that angel see that, "Hey, God is ultimately good and one rebelled so that angels won't rebel in heaven later." So there will be no rebellion later in heaven that we have all the revelation we need. God said, "Okay, let's see what kind of God you can be." And so here he is, and he's trying to lead people to stray constantly. And so every day we wake up, it's like I'm either going to go the way of the 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 4, God of this world. You ask a bunch of Christians, who's the God of this world? They're like Jesus, Jehovah, Yahweh. Well, 2 Corinthians 4 verse 4 says, Satan is the God of this world. So he's the lowercase G, God of this world. Are you going to worship him? Are you going to worship the Creator, the heavens, the earth, Yahweh, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the one true God? And when we go and we go the way of Yahweh, the one true God, we find life. When we go the way of Satan, we find death. This experiment has played out in front of us over and over and over. Go to anywhere where people say, "Hey, we want the freedom to rebel. We want government-given drugs." You know? I mean, like this experiment has not worked. I mean, cities have changed. Like, those places that were once thriving and beautiful and safe and had your favorite coffee in your favorite ice cream store. Now you don't want to go there because someone was handed a crack pipe on taxpayer's resources. And it's not safe. And you can get, you know, killed on the side of the road. And there's people hunched over like zombies because they're doing drugs out in the open. It's like that. We have that experiment right in front of us. So God did not create evil. God created good and gave the option for evil because for God to be God, we have to have the option. And where there is God, there's goodness, where there is no God or where we push God out of places. There's violence. There's evil. There's profane things. I'm like, this experiment has played out right in front of us all the time. Just open our eyes and use logic. God is amazing. I mean, you can, you know, Jesus said we're salt and light where Christian values are lived out. Society has thrived. That's right. There was the chief bureau for, oh man, what was it? It was in Beijing. They studied the success of the West. And they said, at first we thought it was your economy. And then we thought it was your military. And we've actually found out it's your religion. And where, where missionaries have gone over here, opium has declined. Opium uses has decreased. And the people had more money. They were wealthier. And it's not the prosperity gospel. It just turns out how you use less opium. You have more money, you know. And, and they were saying, hey, this is actually what has caused the success of America. It's, it's your, your Christian values. You move away from those Christian values. You're going to see decline. Right. Where, you know, in, in Amsterdam, there was what was called the golden era. It was known for these beautiful cathedrals, like beautiful church buildings where people would go to worship. God. Now, Amsterdam is known for secularism and sex trade. And a lot of those cathedrals are now skate parks and museums, you know, is just like somebody saying, yeah, JP, but that's, so that's the devil working. But I thought at the cross, Jesus defeated Satan. So, why is he still doing stuff? We're in this, we're in this middle ground, you know, that theologians call already not yet. We're, we're Satan, like, like the power of sin. And, and the penalty of sin is paid for by Christ. And so I know that like my future is secure. But ultimately, I'm still here, like Jesus hasn't come back and set the new heaven, the new earth in place. And so Satan is running this torture strategy trying to make hell crowded. Like he don't want to be alone in hell. And so he's trying to fill hell up by dragging people there with him. And that's why Christians have to march forward. When you, when I say you're in a spiritual battle, you have to be a good soldier. It's like no, no good soldier is caught up in civilian affairs. He aims to please his masters, commander in chief. And so we're like, all right, Lord, what, what work do you have for me to do here? When God saved you, he didn't take you home. He saved you and left you here to do the good works, which he's prepared in advance for you to do Ephesians 210. And so you and I are living the Christian life, helping trying to make a partner with the Holy Spirit to make heaven crowded. Yeah. So Colossians 215 says, in this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He's shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. I believe it was Charles Spurgeon that said, in a sermon, you have to contend with a defeated foe. Yeah. He said, though he may fight with the desperation, he is hopeless of ultimate victory. And I think that's important to know, because again, we're talking about fighting spiritual warfare and the devil attacking you. We're not trying to beat him. Like Jesus already did that at the cross. Yeah, and you can't. He's strong. That's right. And you can't. So that's right. So and here's a quick illustration on it. I think so, you know, I'm not from Texas originally, but we did find, when I moved, I remember, I didn't know, I didn't know black widow spiders were dangerous. And so I saw one in my house and I said, I'm a little guy, you know, my wife's like, what are you doing? Like, don't touch that. And, you know, now I know better. You know, from Texas, I can take the way. Exactly. That was me. That was me, bro. And then my son now is four. And literally this week, you know, I found a black widow in my garage. And I'm like, oh, you know, it's the time of the year. I got to call those guys. So they come, they spray. Basically, once they spray, I get a call. Hey, we did it. In my mind, I'm like, it's over. Yeah. You know, like I want no more black widows in my house. You spray it all over the house. I'm not stressing about those things anymore. Yeah. Like I am confident after that, that the battle has been won against those black widows. And the third defeat and their death is guaranteed. It's over. But you got to give it a minute. Yeah. Because so I got to teach my son, hey, like you can spray it, but technically for like a little while, they can still bite you. They can still attack you. And so you know, you got to be mindful of that. And so I want him to be not afraid, but I want him to be aware. Yeah. And so I think the same thing happens with the cross. That's good. You look at what the Bible says. The Bible says, Jesus defeated Satan at the cross. Game over, Satan lost. Yeah. You and I are not fighting because we're trying to beat the enemy. The enemy has been beaten at the cross. And for a little while, he's trying to do a little something here, but our hope is found in Christ. And the fact that he already won gives his confidence to victory. You walk in victory. When I send a contract to write that book, your story as a villain, I mean terrible things happen to me ultimately ended up in the hospital for 16 days. Okay. And after you signed the contract? Yeah. And I mean, just interesting things. Wait. So how quick after that? Or like how soon after? Oh, man, I was sued. I got sued within 14 days of signing it. So within two weeks, everything was like that. People are like, was sued for what? It was like the craziest, most frivolous lawsuit is thrown out, but I was sued within 14 days. And then, and then I was, and then I ended up, ultimately in the hospital a year ago today. I mean, I was like getting out today a year ago. How crazy is that? And crazy. I'm a similar. Sorry about going ahead. And so people are like, gosh, you know, are you afraid? I've never been like the big takeaway. I've never been less afraid. Like all of my confidence in that we have everything we need to be victorious, only increased and everything. It's Romans a 28 for God works all things together for the good of those who love him. We've been called according to his purpose. But but the Old Testament version of Romans a 28 is Genesis 50, 20. What the enemies meant for evil, God uses for our good. Yes. So like it's like judo with judo, you use your enemies of force against them. And like, so Satan does something and there's always a way that God can use the evil that Satan does for good. And you just have to find that way. And then it will be multiplied. The good will be multiplied over the bad. So here's a first Peter 5a, your adversary, the devil prowls around like a ruined lion. Yeah. So to break up what you just said, the same New Testament that tells us that he's defeated. Tells us, hey, stay alert. That's right. Here's another one. Resist him standing firm in the faith. Stand firm. Pastor Jonathan Bucluta, in the armor of God, why is the back not protected? Yeah, because we're charging forward. But the other thing is like they say with the year the Roman shield was actually to protect your neighbor, like you would stand by and they would, what they would do is they would take it, it's like a five-foot door and you would, you would, you would actually guard your neighbor. And, and so that they like, I've heard people talk about like the importance of community and doing, doing life together. Yes. But yeah, man, we're, we're charging forward. The enemies, the enemies in front of us go after them. The call is to stand firm. Stand. Move forward. That's right. Here's another one. What does giving the the devil, a foothold meme, and what are some examples. It's a when you sin. you let them in. And this is, I mean, super simple. When you send, you let them in. And so, you know, we talked about lust at the beginning. So, like pornography is Satan's iconography. It's not innocent. When you give yourself to that, it's demonic worship. I mean, truly, and people are like, man, you sound like a conspiracy theorist. Like, no, this is, this is, you are giving the devil a foothold. And when you do that over and over and over, you have now given him a stronghold in your life to take you somewhere. And again, your brain, if you think about your mind and your heart, like a sponge, that sponge is either pure, that it's pure and holy and lovely, or it's corrupt and it's broken and your thoughts are perverted. And what I, what the hope I would give somebody is you can purify your mind. Like, you can resist the devil to the point of like, all of a sudden, my thinking is now clear. And the thing that I thought I would give myself to over and over and over for the rest of my life, I'm actually pure from this happens with alcoholics. Like they, I mean, I was ministering to somebody who would wake up in the middle of the night because they couldn't make it through the night without alcohol. So, they would wake, they would keep, you know, a truly or a white claw by their bed, wake up in the middle of the night just to get through the night. So they didn't go through withdrawals. They go through rehab and now they're actually like pure, they're clear thinking, you know, their children got their father back, their wife, his wife got his, his, her husband back. And it's like, that is possible. But like we give ourselves over to these demonic strongholds through sin, through the things that we do that God asks us not to do. Like our language, man, like people think I'm, I'm like, I am not a legalist. Like I love life, I enjoy life. Like I am, you know, if the Bible doesn't say it's sin, I'm willing to do it or try it or see it or, you know, go there. But, but like, he says, do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up so that it may benefit those who listen. Like cussing was cursing till the 1840s. And we dropped the R because of a, because of it, yeah, because of a, what is it called? Like an accent. Okay. And so the R fell off. So like, it's the same word. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Okay. Say, oh, don't curse. Sure. You know, don't cuss. Yes. It's just cussing is just an American weight of saying cursing. And that it's true. Like you, you can curse things. I mean, Jesus cursed the fig tree. Like, cursing is a real practice. Words of powerful. How did God create? He spoke things into existence. He gave our words power. This is why the scripture says, don't let any unwholesome talk come out of mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up so it may benefit those who listen. We don't understand how powerful our words are. Yeah. As a parent, you'll learn, like you are, you are either raising your kids up in truth, speaking life to them or you're beating them down and defeating them. That's why, like, you coaches, you dads. I'm not trying to make you weak. I mean, you can be clear and clarity and courage or great things, but be careful not to destroy your kids with your words, man. You will tear them down. Yeah. In Spanish, to bless is to bend the seed, which means to say good. Basically, that's literally what it means. And then to curse is to mild the seed, which means to speak ill. Yeah. So anytime you're speaking ill, so you're saying swearness is in. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Also all all swear words. Well, I mean, words, words are letters and syllables put together with sounds. I get that. It's the heart behind it. He says, Jesus says out of your mouth, the heart speaks. Yeah. But I, you know, I would be cautious if somebody's like, yeah, I'm using this word not in that way. Just just, here's what I would say, do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth. It's a Bible only what is helpful for building others up so there may benefit those who listen. That's pretty clear. Do not let any, but only that's the Bible. Seems like it includes swearing and other words that perhaps are not necessarily bad words. Yeah. But they're unwholesome and they're not helpful. That's right. And, and if like, I'm going to go back to this, if you do that repeatedly in your home, it's like you're everything like nothing's neutral, you know, and the demons are watching us there round. And so you're just giving them permission to mess with your lives. I mean, it's all true. That's why I try to tell you it's all true. It's all true. So, so that's a command, which means if we disobey ask Christians and followers of Jesus want to become more like him, that's called a sin. That's right. And a sin you let them in. If you say and you let them in, a sin is what eventually gives the enemy a foothold. A foothold, which can then become a stronghold. That's right. I've heard it said before too. So like some people are going to watch this right now and they're going, but I can't, I can't stop cussing. Okay. Okay. That's a stronghold. That's a stronghold. Why JP? Because it's you say it's like an addiction. That's right. So when you send you let them in and you gave them a foothold, that foothold became a stronghold. And whenever you're like, I can't stop, it's your stuck. Yeah. You know, all the more reason you need to stop. Okay. So we're going to help that guy right now. So he's for the guy that's like, man, I can't stop swearing right now. Okay. This is like my family. Like, this is what I've done my whole life. I'm going to let you answer that and I'll just add color to what you're saying. What do I do now? Yeah. So you invite in accountability. So you know what you say? Hey, this thing that I'm doing is sin. I want to repent. Repenting is simply turning from sin. So you let you when you send you let them in, I'm turning now from the thing where I let them in and I'm turning to God. And I'm saying, hey, I want to grow my relationship with Christ. I want to invite an accountability. James 516 says, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. So there's a healing that happens only with communal prayer and confession. And so every day or every day, every week, I meet with other guys and we do, we answer three things. My friend John came up with these. How did you feed your soul? How did you feed others? How did you feed your flesh? Input, output, confession. This is what I'm listening to and what I'm reading that stirs and grows my fictions for Jesus. The scriptures, Christian books, those kinds of things. This is evangelism and discipleship. Who did I get to share the gospel with this week? What conversations have I had that Jesus was the center of? And then how did I feed my flesh? This is confession. Hey, I bought this thing I didn't need. I lost my temper with my kids. I was short with my wife. I slowed down on a reel. You know, I looked at something I shouldn't have looked at. And then the next person will pray for me. So they pray over me and then they go. And so we practice that every single week is just in James 516 kind of way. So if you could say, hey, I can't stop doing it and vaping, you know, cussing, spending, you know, going into debt, whatever it is, say, I need to invite an accountability. And then and then you're there. Tell them what to ask you. Sometimes people get frustrated with accountability. They're like, well, they don't know what to ask. Like, well, you're the expert on your sin. Tell them what they need to ask you. Confess it and have them pray regularly. And then James 5, I'm James 5, Matthew 5 talks about removing access. He says, if your eye calls you saying, gouged it out, if your hand calls you, sin cut it off, it's better to end it, came heaven without eye or hand, then for your whole body to be dragged away to hell. And so again, spiritual warfare, Jesus is talking about it. So, you know, you may need to get rid of your phone, you may need to get rid of Instagram, you may need to get covenant eyes on your phone. I mean, you can do things to make it difficult for you so that you remove access to the sin that you continue to to fall into. Yeah. The Ephesians chapter 4 verse 26, that's where the verse comes from on the, don't give the devil a foothold. And so, I think 29 is the do not let any an wholesome talk. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Okay, so there you go. There's a there's a demonic connection with your unwholesome talk and giving the devil a foothold. And interestingly enough, this is also for people wondering, man, what are other ways, you know, you can give the devil the word foothold in the original language is just means like you're giving them an opportunity. You're giving them a space in your life. You don't want to give the enemy some space or a little bit of space in your life. This verse all throughout the Bible, you see that scripture ties in specific sins with demonic activities. It's really interesting. So, right before this verse, it's talking about unresolved anger, unforgiveness, habitual unrepented sin. Again, this is giving an opportunity for the devil to get in somehow in your life, falling into sexual temptations for screens, seven, five, pride, believing lies. When you in your mind, you accept something at the devil whispers in your mind and you believe it. That's that that's giving the enemy a room in your life. Isolation would be another one. Here's another one occult practices and deliberately engaging with forbidden spiritual practices. So here comes the next question. Pastor Jonathan Pagluda, but what about Ouija boards? We're Halloween or Halloween's coming up soon. You know, it's in a movie or it's just a game or, you know, my buddies got together and we thought it would be fun to try out tarot cards or whatever. Horal scopes even are those spiritually dangerous. I've read that on a coffee cup, but here's what I would say. Yeah, man, the first Thessalonians 5 says, flee from even the appearance of evil. And like if it's evil, man, don't touch it, kick it, smell it, you know, taste it, sniff it, like you run from it. And you know, it's interesting because like, there's a guy right now that was a he's left the occult. He was a Satan word. and he just talks about how much they love Halloween. - What does that even mean? - Same as like, you know, this is the thing that I don't think we understand. - For the normal person asked me. - We forget, you know, it's like, men demons are powerful. Satan is powerful, like I remember being in Haiti and like they, at the time when I went, they said, "Hadi's 80% Christian and 100% demonic." I mean, 100% satanic. And the president had dedicated the island to Satan. And you're like, "Why would he do that?" Well, because he's powerful. And so Satan, they said, "The Haitians believed in God. They just believe he's slow." So they would take, you know, a kid, you know, after taking him as a doctor, they'd take him to a witch doctor so that the witch doctor could, you know, place a curse and be healed. Like I'd seen this stuff happen. So people worship Satan because he gives him power. Manifesting can work. Crystals can be effective. Weegee boards can work. I mean, you know, they can show you the name of some dead person, Saul consulted the witch of indoor and talked to Samuel or some demon pretending to be Samuel. I mean, you can talk to some demon. I mean, you can, people will do weird stuff in grief. And so they miss their father or their mother or their loved ones so badly they'll go to this medium to talk to them and you're talking to a demon pretending to be your loved one. You've got to be careful because Satan is a legalist. They're looking for a legal right to say, oh, now I got you. Now I have the right to your children, right? Now I have the, you've given me an in. And so with that weegee board, crystals, manifesting, tarot cards, was the horoscopes, like none of that stuff is spiritually neutral. Like none of it, the enemy will use any of that for permission to mess with you. - So recently, not recently, I mean, a couple of years ago, I have my wife's permission to share this story. We went to El Salvador because we tried to go at least once a year. And there was this, it was a beach resort that we went to and at night there's this little show. And when you go to Latin America and go to all these countries, some of these countries have some sort of full-chloric background. There's a spirituality behind some of these stuff. Some of the stuff. And in this show, we're there and all of a sudden, it's kind of like there's a choreography there and there's elements of spirituality in the show. And both my wife and I are like, ah, this is something. This is like going from just having fun or entertaining to like, this feels very spiritual. Like very spiritual. And we both had a conviction to kind of leave at some point, but we kind of stayed for a little bit, just to see if it's gonna come down or whatever. And we stayed for a little bit more, but both of us felt the conviction. And then we just kind of, after a while, we said, hey, this is too much, we're leaving. But we felt the conviction that, hey, we should have left sooner. That was not something that we needed to be or whatever. That night, that night, my wife had a very vivid dream of being stabbed. - Sure. - And she woke up with just feeling stuff. That same night, I had another dream of a sniper shooting at me. We both woke up and we're like, oh, man, this is a weird dream. You like me too. And so at the time, again, this is literally what the verse is saying. Hey, be careful. Do not give the enemy a little space when you expose yourself to things that the Holy Spirit is giving you a conviction in your heart. Hey, that's not for you. That's not for you. - Yeah, dreams are often a warning, snakes. You dream about snakes. And it's just like, you know, our DMs are gonna feel, 'cause I'm sure, oh man, I need help. 'Cause I have, you know, that happens to my dream. - Here's my dream, yeah, yeah, yeah. - So just pray, you go, first of all, you make sure you have a right relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ. Have you believed upon the death and the resurrection of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins? And you say, you know, if you haven't, start there. I mean, find a church, find a pastor, call a Christian, the strongest Christian, you know, and say, "Hey, I want to surrender my life to Christ." Like, start there, okay? But if you're a Christian and you have your follower of Christ and you're, you know, there's some demonic influence in your life, you have nightmares, you know, intrusive thoughts of self-harm. You know, you say, okay, Lord, I want you to help me. You confess anything that's hidden, makes that there's nothing hidden. Confess any, you know, any willful disobedience, any sin, you confess that, bring others around you, have others pray with you and just say, you know, I'd denounce the work of Satan. I'd denounce the work of Satan in my life. I don't want anything to do with these evil practices or these things or this witchcraft. And Lord, would you undo that in the name of Jesus by the blood of Jesus? Help me to walk in righteousness. You can go in Ephesians six and just walk down that, you know, that I want to walk in the truth. I want to cover my heart and the righteous living that God calls me to. I want to know and understand and share the gospel of peace. I want to go where it's called to and just walk down that list. - Right. And that's what we did. To confess, we repent it, prayed, 1 John 5, 18 says, "God's Son holds God's children securely in the devil. The evil one cannot touch them." And so in Christ, you're good. Also, we got Bible verses four, you know, people asking about sorcery, all the stuff. Deuteronomy 1810, explicitly forbids divination, sorcery, interpreting omens, witchcraft, casting spells, Leviticus 1931. Do not defile yourself by turning to mediums or those who consult the spirits of the dead. I say, at 8, 19, shouldn't people ask God for guidance? Should the living see guidance from the dead? In the book of Acts chapter 19, after coming to Christ, people who practice magic at some point they come and they bring their like, "Hey, here's, we got our magic books. Let's burn these, that's not who we are." And so again, you can repent, you can change direction and then run to Christ. By the way, we have a lot of people joining the Liffrey Podcast from like literally all over the place. And so we encourage people to find that community. Whatever that is, if this is actually a good opportunity. So if somebody's listening from any other state, if you're like, "I don't know, if I have a good church or text a word, map to 20411." And we'd love to help you find a church that Lake Point has planted in your local area. Did you say AI is demonic? - It can be. I mean, it can be demonic. - Explain to me, I mean, just how? - I mean, they'll use anything. I mean, they, you know, the horn is demonic. - By the way, that's gonna be the real, that's the thing. - Did you say AI is demonic? - Yeah, that's a big word, yeah, I can't wait. It can be, I mean, it certainly can be demonic. They are looking to use anything to influence us. So our movie's demonic with some are, I mean, they can be, it's music demonic with some is. - Sure. - I mean, in Ezekiel, it says, the Hebrew is, it goes through these stones and it's often translated settings and placements. But that word, "toaf." The Hebrew word "toaf" is always translated everywhere else, it's like tambourines. And then the next word can be translated pipes or flutes. And so I really believe that Satan had like musical instruments built into him. He was, he was a musical being made to, we know he was a guardian cherub. And so he's guarding the throne room and he has the ability to make music. And so I think music is a tool. This is why worship music can be so powerful. It can kind of center us and we can have this like, really emotional experience during worshiping God through music. And likewise, music can be demonic. It can be something that corrupts our heart. I mean, it just brain washes us. And so it's not neutral when you're listening to something that's challenging you to objectify women or to, you know, just take what's yours and to feed pride in your heart. I mean, it's demonic. I mean, the enemy's behind that. And so AI can be a tool for demons as well. - Yeah, and I'm sure right now somebody's listening to be like, "Oh, these guys, like this is over-spiritualizing everything." You know, for somebody that's wondering right now, it's like, "Ah, man, I just don't want to be over-spiritual." What I would say is, do you want to be under-spiritual? Like, what do you want to be like if you're a Christian, you believe that God became a man, took on flesh, died on a cross, and was resurrected three days after, and today he reigns. Like, what are you talking about? You don't want to be over-spiritual as a spiritual as it gets. - The other thing they'll think is like, "Hey, "but Satan can't mess with me 'cause I'm a Christian. "Like, I'm a child of God, so I'm protected." I'm like, who do you think Satan wants to mess with? Like, that's who he's after, you know? And so it's like, that's why Jesus in this world, you will have trouble. And what Satan asked Jesus if he could sift Peter like, "Weat." - Yeah. - I think there's something to the faith thing. You know, I said in the message is the shield of faith, which extinguishes the fiery darts. He says, "In 1 Peter 5, resist him standing firm "in the faith, and then Jesus says to Peter in Luke 22, "I will pray for you that your faith won't fail." So like, our faith is our protection from the enemy. The stronger your faith, the more protected you are. - That's great. - Well, we've talked a lot about demonic stuff. Let's go to divine hope. - Yeah, man, I'll talk about revival. - "Hey, live free nation. "Let's have fun with this and swing some elections." In all seriousness, midterm elections are obviously coming up in November. In the state of Texas, there's an estimated 16 million Christians, and the midterm elections coming up in November will be decided by a predicted, actually, about 300,000 votes. So what this means is if Christians do their job as salt and light in the world, good things really easily happen. So what we've done at Live Free Nation is we actually built a website to help mobilize Christians to do our job as salt and light in society. So you can simply text the word "vote" to the number 2041. Text the word "vote" to 2041. And we have built a website all at our own expense to help Christians remember to vote leading up into the midterms because the number one reason that Christians don't vote especially in midterm elections is they just forgot. So with one text "vote" to 2041, you will get one text, which is a link to the website where you can put in your address. We do not keep any of the information and it will tell you where the polling location is for voting in your area when to come and what in your area you need to bring. Again, we keep absolutely none of the data and we will send you that text and then only one other reminder text right before midterms. So let's have some fun with this. Text "vote" to 2041. And we'll see what Live Free Nation can do. >> It's happening. >> Hey, I'm on period. >> It's happening? >> Great man, hey, thanks for coming up. >> Yeah. >> I want to show a photo of a screen shot of your Instagram GP. >> Yeah. >> Okay, I'll show a photo. Follow JP on Instagram. >> There you go. >> So you share this photo of you and then Forest Frank in the bottom over there. But what I want to highlight is you said it's hard to put the last few weeks into words sharing 300 square feet with a 23 year old bodybuilder living with terminal cancer, a surfer from Indiana and one of the biggest terrain artists in the world was the adventure of a lifetime. It wasn't an easy, it wasn't as easy as it looked, but it was a lot more fun. And then you said this, I watched God heal people. I watched more than 50,000 people begin a relationship with Christ. >> Yeah. >> Revival, I need to process that with what you just said there. Revival isn't something I read about anymore. I saw it. >> Yeah. >> JP, what are you seeing? >> Yeah. >> Yeah, man. It's humbling, you even to see it right there. There's so much I want to say and I'm going to try to be fast. I was at Asbury and sometimes I like to share this too and I have this conviction of like trying to like, I don't like, man, I'm expendable. I mean, I've got a two year degree in art, I mean, from a school you've never heard of, I'm expendable. God does what He wants, where He wants, when He wants, through whom He wants, how He wants. He is God, I am not worthy to tie His sandals like I believe all of that. I was at Asbury when, you know, the outpouring at Asbury happened and then I was at passion when there's like this 20-minute stall Agnes Day, the heavens opened up. >> What year was that? >> Two years ago. >> Passion. >> Yeah. >> And then the Asbury was the same year. >> Same year. >> It was right after Asbury. >> Okay. >> I went to a speaking engagement at Auburn, which became, it was like Unite Auburn, and that was then the first of 22 campuses, I didn't know, I thought it was a one and done, but we baptized thousands and thousands of people, I saw tens of thousands, together life to Jesus, and then Forest, Frank invited me to go on tour with him, and my role on tour was to share the gospel at the, towards the end of the night, and I would see fathers who were there with their kids, their three or four kids and their wife, and they would stand up in front of their family, saying, "Hey, I want to surrender my life to Jesus." And in the month of July, I saw 50,000 people give their life to Jesus, and, in one month. And so there's something happening right now, and then more, even an interpersonal evangelism, Uber drivers, security guards, I mean, I was in California and people were like, "Oh, California, it's so lost." I mean, everyone I talked to was so eager to give their life to cry. It was like, "Man, I dreamt last night. I woke up this morning and I was like, God, if you're real, send someone to tell me, you know." And I went like, "Those are the conversations I was happening having." So. The harvest is plentiful. The harvest for a few. Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send more workers. Do not grow weary in doing good. So I did a little research this week on previous revivals in history, and so people are asking, and I feel like people have been asking for a little bit of time, "Hey, are we in a revival? Are we seeing a revival? Are we getting close to a revival?" Yeah. And here's what I want to do. I want to give you six major characteristics of revivals in the past, and I want to ask you, are you seeing this? Yes or no? And if you want, you can say a word on these. Here's the first one. Generally speaking, revivals start in a context of an overall zoomed out cultural spiritual decline, not in a spiritual strength. Yes, no. Great disagree. Yeah, agree. Yeah. And I think we have been that, like we have been as lost as a country as I've ever seen us. And so, you know, I think you saw a generation try stuff and just come up wanting and say, "All right, now I'm going to try God." anecdotally, like you look out there in the world and it's getting crazy and crazy. Two verses that stand out. It's, I say, a 520, people are calling good things bad things explicitly, more than perhaps ever. In our lifetime. Yeah, whoa, too. Judges 21, 25, everybody's deciding for themselves what they think is right in their own eyes. So, anecdotally, I think that's true. Also, statistically, people who identify as Christians in the US in 2007, it was 78% today 62%. That's a decline. In 2007 to 54% of people went to church at least once a month. Today it's 33. It's a decline. So, it's statistically true, anecdotally true. This is where we are today. Yeah. That checks off. Okay, great. Second one. In revivals, you see a renewed hunger for God. JP, is that true? Yes or no? 100%. Today. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, just what we just-- That's a lot. That's a lot. That's right. You're seeing a renewed hunger for God. 50,000 in a month. I mean, people are like, okay, like, there's something to this. I think it's true. And I want to go all in and, yes. Bible sales. I'm sure you know this. Bible sales have risen roughly 9.7 million copies in 2019 to 14.2 million in 2023. In 2024, from January to October, Bible sales rose another 22% in the US. Young people, also buying a bunch of Bibles, 66% of US adults in research study, made a personal commitment to Jesus, saying that it's still important in their lives that's up 12 percentage points from 2021. As dudes, historically, there's always women that were truly in the charge here. Now, young men are saying, hey, I want to understand this. Here's the next one. So, number two, checks off. Here's the next one. Indian revival precedes a small group of people persistently praying. Yeah. Is that true? Yeah. Today. You've heard it said, you know, prayer, when people pray, revival happens, when people pray, it is revival. And like, that's what you're seeing happening now is like, people are going to prayer. Like, they're just praying more, you know? And both of that individual level praying more and then more people are praying. Well, I feel like, you know, personally, I feel like a desire, just to, I want to, I want to use my life. I want to use my church. I feel like a desire, a renewed urge to pray more. Yeah. And I know it sounds so. Yeah. Such a Christian thing to say on a Christian podcast, but it's a conviction. I want a conviction of the Holy Spirit that you've heard it said thousands of times, but it has to be true in your soul. The more you pray, the more power you receive to do the work God has called you to do. And so, in the 1857 prayer revival in New York, this guy Jeremiah Lamphier, you know about this guy? He started basically a lunchtime prayer meeting. Only six people attended the first meeting. But within months, thousands were gathering for prayer across the city and historians estimate the movement resulted in between 300,000 and 1 million new Christian conversions across the U.S. 300,000 to 1 million new Christian conversions with a prayer gathering that started with six people. That's right. So let's go. There is power and prayer. Here's the next one. Generally speaking, revivals are marked by conviction of sin that is sudden and specific. Have you seen that today? 100%. I mean, you're seeing like these only fans become evangelists, you know what I mean? Like they were only fan models and now they're like, they have Christian platforms and they're speaking in places. I'm thinking, Nala, the ninja, you know, and it's just like, and there's others. I mean, there's a Brittany, there's, you know, my boy, Josh Brum, like there's a people that are just like, hey, we were in the industry and now we're following Jesus and mass repentance. And by the way, it's not a confed, well, for people that are maybe new to the faith. It's not a confession of sin of like, man, I'm so much more with the guilt or it's a, it's a freedom. Yeah, freedom. Live free, man. Live free, bro. Let's call it a podcast. I can't stop thinking about my boy, Forest, and, you know, he has a song when somebody prayed and he, I saw him write this song live and then he performed it live. I mean, like moments after he finished it, it's just the dude is so talented. But like, what people don't understand about Forest is like he made it as a secular artist. Did you know this? I did not. Okay. Forest as a song. Forest as a song that was streamed, it's been streamed over a billion times before he was ever Forest Frank Sunday's best with surfaces. Okay. So it's not really, I don't know, he made it correct me on there, I don't think so. But then he became, I mean so he had no reason to do what he did except for the God called him to it and just like anointed him to it. But I'll say this about him too because it's with the theme, is he's like so pure and heart that like being around him was, it was humbling as a pastor to be kind of minister to by this artist who's just like, hey, on that towards no alcohol, work out every day, eat clean, you know, like he's not even like really sarcastic, honestly, like you're even sarcastic, I'm so sarcastic, you know, and I just, I like came back from that like a mountaintop, I was just like so clear in my thinking, so I'm so grateful he's disciplinary generation. That's right, that's right, that's right, that's right, it's a problem for the Kingdom of Darkness, it's an image out of the forest, we appreciate him a lot and rooting for him. Hey, here's another one in Revivals, generally speaking, young people play major roles, JP, have you ever seen that today? Dude, let's talk about it. Come on. You challenge me here, do your homework to the listener and viewer, but I just charted like the four, some people say there's four great awakenings in American's history, chart amount on a timeline and there was like 50 years in between when one ended and one started, when one ended when started, God didn't have to do that, it just, he seems to work in rhythms and you know, the, you know, sun up, sundown, day night, spring, winter, summer, fall, those kinds of things, he just kind of works in rhythm. And so I thought it was interesting that there was a 50 year gap in between the great awakenings about roughly a 50 year gap, the, the, you know, Jonathan Edwards, Lyman Beecher, I already think he, the last one ended with Billy Graham Crusades in 1976, okay. All right. So fast forward, 50 years, think, I'm not great at math, but I think be like 2026 would be about 50 years after that one ended, which would poison us well for a great awakening right now at the center of every revolution in history, French Revolution, American Revolution, all the great awakenings in your, in your revival, you think of is somebody at the center of all of them is somebody in their 20s or early 30s, every single one without exception. So right now it could be that God is looking for someone, some young person that he's saying, hey, it's not me. Like I'm, you know what I'm saying? Like I'm, I'm, I'm 45, right, he, somebody that he is, some young person that he wants to raise up right now to lead this, this next great awakening. That's cool, man. Uh, I actually found this, uh, George Wilfield was already not 21 and began preaching, I mean, he began his preaching ministry, uh, that would make him one of the central figures of the great awakening again, 21 Jonathan Edwards became a pastor in Northampton in his 20s and he was 31 when the Northampton revival erupted, Evan Roberts, 26-year-old, used to be a former coal miner and then, uh, became a ministry student, uh, became one of the best, uh, leaders or most known young leaders in the Welsh revival of 1904, obviously Charles Bergen. He preached his first sermon at 16, became a pastor at 17, uh, 19, he became the pastor of New Park Street Chapel in London, uh, Billy Graham preached his first revival at 19, young people, willing to be used by a mighty god, uh, here's the last one, uh, generally speaking behind every major movement of revival, you'll find a relatively new technology helping carry the movement forward. Yeah. Jonathan Pagluda, is that true today? I mean, we've never seen this technology like what we have in front of us, you know, let's go. And, you know, I don't know if you guys know which one is it, by the way, for people that don't know yet. What's that? Well, one is, we talked about AI, right? And, and I think the Bible translation that's happening right now through artificial intelligence. Yes. So, like, you know, I think with CS Lewis said, however, something, how are something capable for bad equally greatest is capable for good or however great is something's capability for good equally greatest capability for bad. And he said, like a cow is somewhat capable of good, somewhat capable of evil, a human all the more so, capable of good and evil. And we think about artificial intelligence capable of great evil, capable of great good. Yes. And, I mean, the translation capability, I mean, we are about to completely have the Bible translated in every single language known to man, the all of the, you know, the four corners of the world, if you will, are going to be reached with the gospel because of technology. I don't know if you know this right now, but you are listening to one of the number one, if not the number one podcast in the entire world. And I'm not talking about Christian podcast, I'm talking about any podcast that, you know, these conversations that you guys are having are so important and is evidence that I hope our Lord is going to return soon. Protestant information printing press. Yeah. First great awakening, newspapers and print. George Workfield used those a lot. Let me say this real quick. First thing printed on that was the Bible, they said, hey, that's great, but we'll never use it for the Bible, you know, Joe Honest Gutenberg. That's right. And they said, we'll never use it for the Bible. The first thing printed on it was actually the Bible and now none of us have a hand transcribed. So as you think about like, oh, I don't want to use AI, like AI is only evil, I would say, you know what? That's the mistake that Christians have made many, many times. That's a good watch out. Billy Graham, radio and television, he had a radio show today, social media podcasting, AI. Man, we're passionate about this. We pray for wisdom so that we can, that we can steward this technology well. Yeah. And so shout it to the Liberationation. Let's wrap with this, JP, you're probably the best evangelizer that I know. It's not a cool moment. You've got to get out there more. True. True. I want to, I want to ask you about your, your, your, your method. Did you learn that from somebody or did you just kind of like, okay, yes, the one to ten, is that what you mean? That and also, yes. Yes. So explain what, what, when you share the gospel with people, you know, you know what I'm talking about? The hardest part of that evangelism is, is your transition. Like how do you go from talking about the Buffalo wings to, that's right. You know, to Jesus. It's like, oh man. Or your server at the rest of your life, like those are hot. You know what else is hot? Hell is hot. No. It's like, do you have a faith? Like that question right there? I think it's just a really powerful, I hate you have a faith. Yes. But we're like, what a faith, so what, you know, religion, I go, a religion, a spirituality. Are you into church? But like, do you have a faith? That's your, like once you ask that question, you're in it now. So did all you had to do today, is at some point today, ask somebody, hey, do you have a faith? And just see where that goes, because that's your bridge question. Now you're talking about things of God. And then I'll go, if they go, yeah, I'm a Christian, because I'm in, you know, in the Bible belt. I'll go between one and ten, ten being certain, one being not so sure. If you died today, how certain are you that you would go to heaven? So Bryce Crawford just asked JD Vance this, you know, I mean, it's just like the vice president of the United States. He asked Logan Paul, right, my guy is getting after it. So that came from D. James Kennedy in the 60s evangelism explosion. As far as I know, he came up with those questions. Somebody asked me that. I said a seven, because I was a good person and I tried hard. I wasn't a good person, I needed Jesus. And the seven was evidence that I hadn't fully trusted in him. And so that's how I share the gospel. The second question is if you stand before God and he said, why should I let you in? What would you say? And people say, well, because I, because I've tried hard. So just as you're listening, consider these two questions. Between one and ten, ten being certain, one being not so sure, if you died today, how certain are you that you would go to heaven? And people say, well, a ten is arrogant. Well, it's arrogant if you had anything to do with it. But if you're boasting only in the finished works of Jesus, right? And then, and the second question is if you stood before God and he said, why should I let you in? What would you say? And if you say, well, because I, because I, because I, you say, because you God sent your son Jesus to die for my sins you raised him from the dead. And I'd like it. And this is, you know, helpful to people. I say, it's like if I give you tickets to the game and you go to the game and they say, why should we let you in? You're going to say, because I have tickets. And if they say, did you pay for the tickets, you can say, no, they were a gift. That's right. For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Ephesians to eight, nine, four days by grace you have been saved through faith. It's not of yourself. It's the gift of God, not by work so that no one can boast. Have you received the gift or not has God given you the gift of salvation or not? Romans 10, nine, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved. It might be saved, could be saved, should be saved, would be saved, you will be saved. Three questions. Do you have a faith between one and ten, ten being certain, one being not so sure. And if you stood before God and you said, why shall I let you in? What would you say? Okay. So let's do this. Let's do a little role play. Okay. Or I'm going to be a very difficult person, a boss person, and we'll see how you interact with me right now. Okay. Okay. What's up, man? Hey, what's up, man? How are you? How long have you been here? I've been working here for three years. Awesome. And yeah. Do you have a faith? Which is it? Do you have a faith? Do you have a faith? Faith. Like a religion, spirituality. A faith? Well, I was not expecting you to say that, but I mean, I grew up Catholic. And you know, I'm really happy to be here. believe in God? Yeah. A group Catholic as well. And you know, not to catch up with my questions, I asked this people this every single day. You know, someone when I was a Catholic, somebody told me once they said, "Hey, you can't take your faith too serious." And I was like, "What else am I going to take serious?" You know? And so I always try to ask somebody this question, "Do you have a faith?" And so you say, "You believe in God?" Yeah. Awesome. Can I ask you two questions? Okay. Between one and 10, first question, between one and 10, 10 being certain, one being not so sure, if you died today, how certain are you that you would go to heaven? Man, I think I'm going to say five because-- It's fine, like a coin toss. So like I read a second question, but you say like a five. Like, "Hey, it's a coin toss." Like maybe, you know, heads or tails, not sure. And so the second question is, if you stood before God, and he said, "Why should I let you in? What would you say?" I mean, I've tried to, you know, be a good person, and I feel like I'm better than other people, at least generally speaking. Man, I ask people that every day because somebody asked me that. I was raised Catholic, Catholic School for nine years. I said a seven, and I said because I'm a good person, I've tried hard. And I imagine, you know, growing up with some aspect of church, you know, you have a Bible. And it's like, "Do you think the Bible says that we can know, that we can be a 10?" I don't know, man. I feel like the Bible has some parts that, like, I don't know, I feel like it's been changed. Yeah. What part do you think's been changed? I mean, I don't know. I just, I'm not sure I buy into the whole, like, you know, talking snake, and just, you know, Noah's Ark, whatever. Yeah, yeah. So like, yeah. Do you buy into the whole, like God died and shut back up three days later? I mean, it says sit in the book, but, I mean, can you really know? I'm not so sure. Yeah, man. So here's the deal. Several things you said there. One, that the Bible's changed. Islam actually teaches that the Bible's changed there in the dark ages. The greatest archaeological discovery to date is what we know is the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls show parts of, like Isaiah and some of the scriptures that predate the dark ages and actually show that the scripture hasn't changed. Of the 400, over 400,000 variances that we have from the Dead Sea Scrolls, they were all punctuations, capitalizations, none of the stories changed. So we know that what we, the scriptures that we have today are actually more reliable because the more manuscripts we have, the more reliable they become. So I'll break roleplay for a second say. So if your issue was really, hey, I think the Bible has been changed, I would go that route. Okay. You know, if you go, if you go, hey, and then some of these things are not believable, I would go, you know, you said you believed in God. Like a God that creates everything is pretty unbelievable. Like if we're going to, if we're going to take an issue with anything, start with there being some invisible deity that created everything you see. Like basically this giant ball that he put into orbit around his son with other planets like Jupiter and Venus and Mars, and we're all floating through space and somehow this particular one is so fine tuned that if gravity was anymore, it flattened us to the earth. If there's any less, we float off into space and any, and we breathe oxygen, which happens to be this thing that plants breathe out so that we can take it in and the whole galaxy is so fine tuned that if the sun was any closer, we'd burn up. If there's any further, we'd freeze. And so it's like more fine tuned than like a Swiss watch. And yet here we are. So you're like, hey, and I think there's someone that created all of that, which I agree with you. And I think if, if he's there, like Noah's Ark and a talking snake's not really a big problem, you know, I've got, I had a parrot and it talked. And so a talking snake's not really that big of a deal. But I would just say, man, as I, as I started to read, I was, I had a bias against Christianity and here in evangelism, this is where you just share your story. I'm going to say, I had a bias against evangelism. You've been so kind with your time. And so generous. I'd love to just share my story with you briefly and say, I, I thought, hey, always lead to God. And if there's a God, he's probably not Christian. I studied the Hindu faith, the Buddhist faith, Jewish faith, Islamic faith, Mormon shows witness church Christian science, Scientology. I kept tripping over Jesus who reset time, 2000 and 26 years ago. Every atheist you know, acknowledges him by the date they put on their checks, the date on their iPhones, the date on the receipt you're about to give me, right? That's 2026 BC before Christ AD. It's not after death. It's medieval Latin for the year of our Lord and a demeaning, the year of our Lord. So we live in 2026, the year of our Lord. Like, how did this guy reset time? And then I would just move to this, to the gospel. Like, hey, I believe it's he died for our sins and raised from the dead. And then before I wrapped with the conversation, I would say, Hey, let me ask you something. Would you want to be forgiven? Like, would you want to be, what if I told you today you could be clean? You could be forgiven of all of your sins? Sure. And then I would, I would pray with you. Hey, bro, but don't, don't push your religion on me though. Yeah, I hear you, man. I hear you. Let me ask you a question. Should I go pour over or, um, or drip coffee or latte? What should I, is whatever you want? Well, what do people, what do people typically get? I don't know, man. People, what would you suggest? Like, this is what you do for a living. So to be good at what you do, drink coffee actually. I don't drink coffee actually. I kind of assume you're a priest or something, but I hear you. So yeah, man, um, what do you think we should push on? Like, if, if there was a car headed for me right now, if I was going to die, like, would you care enough about me to push me out of the way? You don't even know me. Yeah, I tried. You'd push me out of the way if something that was going to try. Yeah. Why would you do that? So I don't want you to die. Why? You don't, I mean, you don't even know me. Why do you care? Why do you care if I die or not? I'm trying to be a good person. Yeah. So an aspect of, of you being good is responding to what you know as reality. And if you see something that's going to harm me, then you want to help me. That's all I'm doing, is I'm just a guy who studied religion. I try to have a deep understanding of what happens to somebody after they die. And I meet someone like you who says, Hey, I believe in God, but I'm just not sure of who he is. That would make you agnostic. A without or no, no, stick knowledge. Hey, I don't think we can actually know who God is. And what I'm saying is if there's a God who created the heavens of the earth, who created all the things that we see, as you said, you believe there is, then he's certainly powerful enough to tell us who he is. Yeah. Because if he's not, he's a weak God. Like, if he can create all this stuff, but he can't tell us, he can't introduce himself to us. Yeah. And so what I would pray for you is that tonight at 2 a.m., he's going to wake you up. And you're just going to have a hard time saying, all right, he kind of put a rock in my shoe that I'm tripping over. If you ask him, as you consider trying to find out who God is, I want you to look at Jesus. There's not a credible atheist today that denies the existence of Jesus, right? So as you're searching for God, start with Jesus, say, all right, and just see it to failure. Yeah. Like, get to a place in your research for Jesus that had, don't believe he actually existed, or I don't believe that he was God. Because the C.S. Lewis said, you know, he's either a liar, someone who claimed to be God, but knew he wasn't. He's a lunatic, someone who claimed to be, someone who actually thought he was God when he wasn't, or he is who he said he is. He's Lord, someone who claimed to be God, who's actually God. That's great. For people here in you right now, maybe this is helpful, how often do you end up actually with somebody praying to receive Jesus after that conversation versus how often it's more like, oh man, thank you for sharing that. I'll think about it, and I appreciate you bringing that up. I bet. I bet I pray, probably, and I'm just, I'm kind of making this up because I've never tracked it like this, but I bet I'd pray one out of five times. But what I would say is-- For people to give their life to Jesus? Yeah. Quite a bit. But I would say you can't save anybody. And like, our job is just sharing. And I think the church actually undersellibrates sharing. Like we celebrate saving, but not sharing. You can't save anybody. Like God, like God saves. I've never saved a single human being. And I'm sure the people who have prayed who weren't actually saved. And I'm sure there are people who didn't pray who actually got saved. I can't save anyone. We just sprinkle seed. Like we just share. That's right. And God's the one that makes it grow. And you never know when that one conversation will spark a little something after, with somebody else, perhaps. Yeah, check it. There's the man on George Street that would just say, he would just stand on George Street in Australia. And he's like, hey, if you, if you died today, do you know where you'd go? Have you given your life to Jesus? And he would just say that over and over and over. He never saw a single salvation. But one day a guy was leaving Australia's flying back to the States. And he sat next to someone on a plane. And he went to share the gospel with them. And they were a believer. And they said, how'd you become a Christian? He said, well, there was this man on George Street that asked this question. I went able to shake it. And then he got off the plane in New York City. And he was on the subway. And he went to share the gospel with somebody. And they were Christian. He said, how'd you become a Christian? He said, well, once I was on vacation in Australia. And this man said this. And I wasn't able to shake it. And that kind of sent him on a mission to try to figure out, hey, how many people actually became Christians from this man. And it was hundreds of thousands of people became Christians through his work. So he flew to Australia to meet with them. And he met with him before he passed away. And he asked him, hey, did you realize he goes, I've never seen a single person convert? That's amazing. And there were hundreds of thousands of people in his back line. That's amazing. Obedience. Last question. Somebody says, man, I want to do it. I'm just afraid. I feel like intimidated. Yeah, I'm not, I'm not as knowledgeable about the Bible. And if I'm honest, I'm just like, it's weird. Like it's a little weird up kind of outside of my comfort zone. How do I beat that fear? Sharing the gospel. Okay. Is that what you mean? I'm afraid to just like talk to this guy or even my family member, I'm just afraid. Yeah, yeah, I'm an extrovert and I probably have the spiritual gift of evangelism. I mean, I was in sales before this and so I get that, but I've got a 17-year-old daughter. And she is the biggest introvert. And she struggles to talk to people and it's just like, doesn't come natural to her to like talk to people. That girl, every day at lunch goes to HB and walks down the aisle of HB and it just goes up to strangers to share the gospel with them. Because she just believes in heaven and hell. And that's it. And she, like just funny, because I said one in five, you know, and you're like, that's pretty good. She has the highest hit rate of anyone I know, like the highest success rate. Like we will be in HB. This is a true story. We will be in HB and I'm like, where's Finley? I can't find Finley. And I'll walk two aisles over and she is praying with someone in the middle of the aisle receiving Christ. And then we'll go outside and somebody was helping or it was her mom got a, you know, the delivery, like where you pick up your groceries. And so I went in to get something and I come back out and the person is bringing the groceries to our door. And she'll just share the gospel with her and she'll receive Christ right there. She'll pray with her to receive Christ right there. And I'm just like, how do you do that? And I think it's because, because she's not using her gregarious personalities, she's not using, you know, her worldliness, her persons, her natural gifts, she just relies so much on the Holy Spirit. I think that when an introvert, like someone without the gift of evangelism, puts themselves out there like that, that, you know, they need God. You know, like for me, I can be good with my words and I can think fast and I've got a thousand object ways that you're going to go dinosaurs or age of the earth. And I know what to say to that. I've ran into that a bunch of times. You know, you say, hey, I'm Muslim. I'm like, oh, Issa, you say I'm Hindu. I know what to say. Her, she's like, God, you got to tell me what to say. Like she's dependent on the Holy Spirit. And so God just uses her like I, like nothing I've ever seen. So that's the current, that's the encouragement I would say to that person. That's afraid. I'm like, glad. I'm glad you're afraid. God's probably going to use you. You'll need him to. God's power is made perfect in my weakness. That's what that's what he says. So I will boast all the more about my weakness. If dependence is the goal, weakness is the advantage. Amen. So may he use your extravertness and may he use your introvertness and whatever personality God gave you to, to be a vessel in an instrument to bring salvation to people that are in desperate need of a Savior. To be, I want to honor you for your obedience, for your example and for how faithful you are in preaching the Word of God. And really, man, inspiring thousands, if not millions. Well, I mean, I mean, you guys are doing that. I don't want to just love fest back and forth, but Pastor Josh, Lake Point, live free podcast and my dear friend who I go way back with Carlos. I mean, you guys are doing it, man. I'm so thankful. Appreciate you. Would you pray for us as we wrap, please God, would you? First of all, just as we talk about the enemy, I know he doesn't like it. And there's just going to be people who want to misunderstand things that are said. Take it out of context, or maybe I'm a spoke at some point, you know, maybe Carlos did. Would you just protect us? Would you protect us from the work of the enemy? If there's anything that we said that's inconsistent with your character, inconsistent with your word, inconsistent with your spirit untrue, would you make it delete? You know, would you get rid of it? Would you? I mean, I pray that it wasn't heard that no one would hear it, that'd be forgotten. If there's anything that we said that's true of your character, your spirit, your word, who you are, I pray that you would use it to change lives, that it would get stuck in people's heart and their head, and it would change who they are and what they do. I thank you for this resource that you've created. I pray that you would use it for your renown and your glory to prepare a place that you return to soon. We love you so much. I pray you bless every single listener and viewer right now. You would just pour out grace and favor on them because they took the time to even make it this far, that they would receive this blessing through prayer, through this podcast, that you would bless their lives, their marriages, their children, their singleness, their job. You would just bless them, Lord, and we just thank you. It's in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen. We're a free brother. Thank you, my man. Well, hey, thanks so much for listening. Lake Point Church is a movement for all people to know Christ, live free, and change the world for God's glory. If you're already a member of a local church, we want you giving there, but if you'd like to make a donation to help this message go further faster, it genuinely helps us boost getting out to more people. If you'd like to make a donation, you can text the word give to the number 2-0-4-1, and then just choose church online from that drop-down menu. To find out more about Lake Point, you can visit lakepoint.church.