Can a Christian Be DEMON POSSESSED!? (NOT What You’d Expect) ft Jonathan Pokluda | Live Free

A lot of times, when you feel like God's breaking you, he's actually building you. Demons are smarter than the best technology that we have. They've studied you, your family line, for centuries. They understand all of your inclinations. They watched your patterns. Jonah shows what happens when a man rejects God's mission. Paul shows what happens when a man fully embraces God's mission. And today, you and I get to choose which one of those we will be. Well, hey, Live Free Nation, before we jump into the episode, this podcast is recorded right here at Lake Point Church in Dallas, Texas. But the Live Free Nation is spread all over the country and all around the world. So if you've been watching and thinking, man, I wish I could be part of something like this, we want to invite you to take a simple next step, and that is join us for Church Online. Every weekend, we stream our services live on YouTube, Facebook, and our Church Online platform. And it's more than just watching a service. There are live hosts in the chat, prayer teams ready to stand with you, and people all around the world worshiping together in prayer. 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. My name is Carlos Arazo, and I am here today with Pastor Josh Howerton. And today we have a special guest. This is the tallest theologian in Texas. The evangelist of, if you were to die today on a scale from 1 to 10, how certain are you that you would go to heaven? Fact. And the Shaquille O'Neal of young adult ministry. Whoa. Jonathan Pecluda. Wow. Did you like it? I really prefer Wimby, like this, you know? That would work as well. Listen, I don't know if you were in that part of the service. I thought my intro was a little better. My intro was a little, and mine rhymed. I did my best. Mine rhymed? Oh, you already saw. What was it that rhymed? It was such a great sermon that everything else was a blur. A blur. What rhymed? I missed it. You'll see. Okay. Well, we'll tell you. I was at a dinner last night with Jonathan Isaac, who-- The ball player? Yeah. He plays in the NBA, but loves Jesus. And he-- I love that guy. He's a foot taller than me. And we've done, like, a Zoom before. And I walked in, and he's like, I didn't know you were so tall. And I was like, dude, I didn't know you were so tall. He's, like, staring down at your head. Yeah. Man, I-- can I share my favorite JP memory? Because JP and I, we actually-- Wait, let's tell them what we're going to talk about. OK, sure. Because this is a biggie. So first of all, this guy, if people don't know, there's a reason he said Shaquille O'Neal Young Adult Ministry. This guy is stirring, like-- dude, God's using you in, like, generationally historic ways on college campuses. I want you to tell people what you're seeing and why you think that's happening. We're going to talk Acts 27, how God uses and redeems pain in our lives. And then we're going to-- because there's two books I strongly-- like, I don't strongly recommend all books. No. There's two books that guy's written I strongly recommend. You may have written more, but these are the two that I really recommend. Outdated. Every single time-- I want you to know this, man. I'm going to talk about this a little more in a second. Your ministry has impacted my life and my church. Likewise. And I'm really grateful for you. Likewise, my friend. So anytime somebody walks up to me in the lobby, and they're like, hey, I'm a single girl. Would you pray for me? I want to find a guy with a husband. Or, hey, we're dating. Literally every time, they're scared. They're all over the church. I'm like, hey, this is the book you need. Outdated by Jonathan Pilgruda. It's the go-to book. I will use it with my daughters. So that's one. So we're going to rapid fire some questions on-- we'll rapid fire dating questions. And then hard emotional gear shift. We just finished-- you just finished the run on your book, Your Story's Got a Villain, on Satan, Demon, and Spiritual Warfare. And it's like, a lot of people who write those books, they're honestly kind of weird and not super theologically grounded. And that one is. So we're going to rapid fire those questions, too. So let me just make sure I get this straight. We're going to talk about revival, Acts 27, dating, and spiritual warfare. So it all fits under a theme. That's going to be amazing. It fits under a clue now. Detours, demons, dating. There you go. Whoa! There you go. Dude, that's why. That's the anointing on-- people, you know, it's like, the anointing on this podcast. See? This is what the kids do. Unbelievable. That's the man right there. Wait, wait. Before we go-- That's why he's a day one. That is why he's a day one. Before-- what were you getting ready to do? Oh, I was just going to say, I don't know if, JP, you remember, but 10 years ago, something like that, the first text that I got from you, it was-- I guarantee you, it was more than 10 years ago. It was a photo of me that you sent me that my wife took of me with the hair. And you said, I'm showing this to my barber. Nice. Do you remember that? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. OK, anyway, so that was the first-- Did you have that haircut? That's that. No, it was close, though. Now he surpassed me. It was very close. I'm pretty proud of that one. It was like a burst fade, wasn't it? It was like just a fade like that, anyways. But now you surpassed me, and I think your hair is better. Well, you've always had that, like, I don't know. He's got good hair, man. I don't know what you call that. And good skin. I was like, you've gone backwards, man. I'm telling you. He asked me. Did you know what he asked me? I bet I've known you for 20 years. Or no, no, maybe 15. How long did you say? Like 10, probably like 10. I bet I've known you for 15, because I've been in Waco for seven years. OK. So then we had more than a three-year overlap here, I think. Maybe. OK. Carlos has got good hair. I'm going to start calling you the pompadour from El Salvador. I don't know what that is. All right, let's keep going. OK, I don't want to just, like, pass around-- We're really going to start talking about the Bible here in, like, 60 seconds. But, like, I feel like, you know, I'm in right now the church building that much of America wishes they attended. I mean, you guys just baptized hundreds. 741 people. 741. 741 people. Glory to God. Like, what in the world is happening here? Yeah. You feel it. I mean, we're going to talk about spiritual warfare at the end, but you feel it when you pull onto the campus. I'm like, OK, God. Oh, your Holy Spirit's here doing something. Let me say-- so I want to say something, and then we're going to start talking about the Bible. I'm going to make you do that little eschatology thing that you've showed me that freaked me out a little bit. You know what's cool about what you just said? Is I'll get a little emotional talking about it. One of the most common things that we hear from people, people that come, is like, man, I don't know what it was, but I just drove onto the campus and I just felt-- it felt different. Yeah. If you come to one of our prayer and worship nights, every year, we do too. You preached at one of the last ones. Literally every single time, the thing that the room-- like, we shout to heaven for is that as soon as people drive on our campuses, they would begin to sense the presence of God. And we pray for it every year. And every single year, the number one thing I hear in the lobby is, dude, I don't know what it was. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what it was. It's kind of hard not to be like, "Hey, is that like legit, a little eschatological dovetail, eschatological main study of the end times?" Yeah. Do your little thing real quick. Sure. Okay. Do your thing. So it's funny because I've read the Bible my whole life and I literally just learned this recently. So this is a Bible prophecy that some people think that it might be unfolding literally like right now. So apparently NASA and the UN and some other sources are basically saying, "Hey, the Euphrates River right now has reached the story. Historically, low water levels." And so because of a five-year drought, apparently 2025 was the driest year in Iraq since 1993. And so there's another report, I think this is the CSIS and the Ministry of Water Resources in Iraq. They're basically warning their people, "Hey, by 2040, the Euphrates River could be completely dry." Yeah. And so here's what's interesting. If you read the Bible 2,000 years ago in the book of Revelation, it talks about the Euphrates River. And John has this vision where he basically sees four angels, that they're bound in the Euphrates River and eventually they're released. And then these angels kill a third of humanity as part of God's judgment. That's Revelation 9. If you jump to Revelation 16, it says that the water of the Euphrates will dry up. Yeah. And it says that its purpose is to prepare the way for this massive army that's coming. They're called the Kings of the East. So they can easily cross towards Israel, which results in this battle the Bible calls Armageddon, where Jesus returns with power, defeats his enemies, and establishes his kingdom. Now, in other words, the Euphrates River drying up in Revelation chapter 16 basically seems to be a sign that opens the door to this final great battle before the second coming of Christ. Now, here's where it gets really interesting. There's been all these photos that have been taken of the Euphrates River, and there's a NASA photo. This is the photo that NASA took, and some people are pointing out, "Hey, it seems like the shape of the river looks like the symbol omega." Yeah. And for people that don't know, omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet, and some people are asking, "Man, could this point to Jesus being the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end? This is what it looks like." And so, you know, when people see this, people will start asking, "Hey, is that legit or not legit? Is this real?" Obviously, Christians disagree on this, and there's multiple interpretations from the book of Revelations, but here's what we do know. So one, we have to approach some of these conversations with humility and asking the Holy Spirit's guidance, but here's what we do know. That every single Christian agrees on, Christ is returning soon because He said He would. And so the question is not if He's returning, the question is when He is returning, the question is not whether He's returning. returning is whether you are ready. And so I think when we have some of these conversations, Christians need to have a posture of humility, not one of fear, but of expectation and joy. Because when you look at everything happening right now, some people freak out, but at the end of the day, we know nothing is happening right now that is catching God by surprise. That's right. Amen. And so he has a divine purpose and a plan for everything happening today. Yeah. I don't think we're going to make it to 2040. That's my- You don't? That's my hot take. Give me the 60 second sketch on my hot take. Yeah. Mine, like, and I just, I want to be careful because people will ask me on Friday Q&A, they'll be like, you know, so you're certain, they'll be like, you're certain he's coming back 2033. And I'm like, wait, what? Where's that? Where did I say, ever say anything close to I'm certain? That's my year. That's what I think. I'm not handing out Kool-Aid. 2000, 2000, 2000. I'm not like, I mean, you know, I'm not, it's like, what would you do different? You know, I think Martin Luther's famously misquoted, maybe the plant a tree. I'm just like- Hey, 2033 makes sense to me. That's 2000. So 2000 years from Adam to Abraham, 2000 years from Abraham to Jesus, 2000 years of the church, a day is like 1000 years of the Lord. So that would be six days, seven rest. Like all of that makes sense to me. 2033 would be where I think we're going to see the return of Christ. 2034, you don't have to throw a party and laugh at me. Like, it's okay. I'm going to keep sharing the gospel. I'm going to keep doing ministry. If he tarries till, you know, if I leave, if it's 2070. If it's, you know, whatever, I don't know. I don't, I don't presume to know. I'm just saying, Hey, if we're going to look at what makes sense, this one makes sense to me. I know you've had Bevere on here. I mean, he's, he's got some thoughts that I really respect and appreciate. Uh, I think Jeremiah Johnson has, he been on. Yeah. We didn't talk eschatology, but he's got, he has thoughts on it. And so just, you know, as you talk, my friend, Jenny Allen has some, some thoughts on this, but 2033, that's where I'm- Bro, can I, I think- I think you alluded to it. We didn't plan to talk about this. Let me do this. And let's do X, for real, we're going to do X27. Uh, I'll give you, you alluded to this. One little thing that like makes me, I don't know where I'm at on some of that stuff, but one thing that makes me go like, Hey, dude, there may be something to that. You alluded to it. So obviously creational pattern, work six, rest seven, Sabbath. Then you get into the Old Testament and obviously you got Jubilee year thing. So then the pattern there is work six years, rest seventh year. Right. Then you get to the New Testament, Thessalonians. Hey, with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, thousand years, like a day. Well, man, honestly, okay. If you start going like, okay, okay. Well, you know, work six, rest one day, work six years, rest one year, a day's like a thousand years. And then you go 2000, 2000, 2000. Hey, we've been rolling 6,000 years. If you interpret, and there's different, obviously eschatological views, the millennial reign of Christ is a thousand years of, watch this, rest. Right. Then you would have exactly- Exactly marked the same pattern. 6,000 years, a thousand years of rest. It's insane. It's amazing. Okay. Let's talk X27. Lord, come quickly. We're going to do that just before. Hey, Common Hat, we do a giveaway every single episode. So if you're on YouTube or Spotify- That's my favorite hat. Come on, man. True story. Bro, that's yours. That's yours. I see it on IG stories. I rock it. I wear it all the time. I see it. This is my go-to. So we'd love to give this away. Common Hat, we'd love to give those away. Also, you can go to the store, text the word "hat" to 20411 if you want to purchase it as well. But by the way, we are literally, I think, 30,000 subscribers away from hitting 1 million. Come on, man. So that's a big deal. We'll throw a party. And then to find our daily Bible reading plan, text the word "hat" to 20411. JP, you should download that app. We want this episode to be the one that hits a million. Come on. The JP Millie. Bro, that's it. That's it. Let it be. Hey, by the way, great job this weekend. Yeah, dude. Thank you. It's such an honor to have you. It's such an honor to be here. The only thing I like about your Bible teaching is this actual Bible teaching. Honestly, I love and respect somebody. They just open the Word. Here's that verse. We read a lot. We read a lot. And reading's not my strong suit, just to be honest. But you just can't skip. It's such a rich chapter. That's right. I have a question for you. Ask me anything. Is there anything that didn't make it to the sermon? First, will you recap what happened in Acts 27? And then I do want to know, is there anything that's like this cool thing about Acts 27? Yeah, we didn't get to get what I get into, what I think is, I think it's potentially the greatest or we'll say one of the greatest leadership chapters in the Scripture. And so a lot of times when you're, if you're going to teach leadership, you'll go to Nehemiah. What's happening here is the Apostle Paul is in chains. He's a prisoner on a boat, probably about 180 feet. So don't think like boat in the Sea of Galilee. This is a grain ship, an Alexandrian grain ship. And it's probably about 50 feet wide, 180 feet long. And it has 276 people on it. So, I mean, there's a lot of people on this boat. Yeah, it's significant. And then this storm comes. Paul warns the centurion. A centurion is some, is like a, think. Like a general over a hundred soldiers. And so he's there. So you got soldiers, you got sailors, you got the boat owner, you got the pilot, and you have some prisoners. I believe Luke is with him as well, writing this down. I got a fun little fact on that. Yeah, documenting what's happening. And Paul says, "Hey guys, hey, just so you know, we shouldn't go." Well, Paul's actually a shipwreck expert because 2 Corinthians 11 tells us he's been shipwrecked three times. Mm-hmm. Which is an additional to the three. He's like, "Guys." How do you know this one's additional? Because it's written later. That's right. Yeah. And so he's saying, "Hey, you should not go." And so the centurion's there. He's like, "Hey, Mr. Prisoner, man, thank you for that, but I'm going to listen to the pilot, the captain, and the boat owner, okay? If they say we can go, you know, it's cool. You got your chains and all, but we're going to go." And so they go. Lo and behold, I mean, Paul's wise. He's smart. Like this, these are his highways. These are the highways that he's traveled on lots of times. And so now the centurion's like, "Whoa, you were right. We're leaning in." And what you see unfold in this chapter, how do you lead when you're not in charge? How do you lead people over you? You see a prisoner now taking the reins, and everybody's looking to this prisoner to say, "What do we do?" So much so that at the end, they're like, "Hey, we've got to kill the prisoners." And the centurion's like, "No, we can't kill this guy. Like he's the one that's, we should have listened to him from the get-go." You know? So it's, there's so much fascinating instruction happening here. One being just divine wisdom from the Lord. That's right. He's like, "Hey, the Lord showed up and told me last night that we're all going to make it." And so when the sailors go to cut down the lifeboat and the soldiers come and say, "Hey, you can't do that," they're going to try to escape. They're like, "Hey, if you guys escape, we're going to kill you." And they're like, "We're not getting out of here." This is the first, a lot of people don't know this. Army-Navy conflict started right here in this chapter. Oh! That's where it all happened. Look at JP. That's where it all started. Started in 59 AD. That's right. In Acts 27. In the Bible. Yeah. Dude. So a couple of little, even though I wasn't preaching this week, in my personal time of the word, I just like, whatever is going to be preached, I like studying. Yeah. So I saw there was some stuff I never knew about this past. Okay. So a couple things. So you mentioned that Luke's with him. Yeah. All right. So this is a fun little fact. You got to really be a close Acts reader, like Bible nerd times six to pick this up. There's only four sections of the book of Acts where Luke switches from third person. Paul journeyed, Timothy went, and he switches. If you pay really close attention, he says, "We." So you don't pick this up. This is Acts 27:1, first verse. It was decided that we should say, "Well, if you're paying attention, you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like if you're paying close attention, you're like, whoa, whoa, it just happened." Then second thing, you start noticing the details in Acts 27 are an order of magnitude different than most of the chapters. Yeah. So he mentioned 267. Yeah. It's not, oh, there was a couple of hundred. It doesn't say that. No, no. Some dude was like actually looking, heard a manifest call. Oh, there's like 267. Yeah. We know from one of the other verses, you mentioned it. Yeah. Alexandria and grain freighter. That's a big deal. That's like an actually specified type of ship. This is really interesting. I read this little study, and you start noticing it. There are 30, not 29 and not 31. There are 30. It's kind of a fun little fact. There are 30 like specialized nautical terms scattered throughout Acts 27, like very, very specific. One of them is really interesting. In verse 28, or no, it's verse 17. So the shipwreck starts happening. And he specifically says, they use a little phrase as a technical term. One of the things I read said it was like in Roman military, like nautical journals, they called it undergirding the ship. That's what they say in verse 17, where what they would do is they would take little ropes and they had a way of threading them under the hull of the ship. And then the dudes would like pull on all these ropes to keep the little slats from busting apart. But that was like an actual Roman military technical exercise. So you got stuff like that. The soundings. In verse 28, I know we're nerding out here. The soundings in verse 28. Determine the depth. I mean, it's crazy. Yeah. It says 20 fathoms. So that would have been 120 feet. Then 15 fathoms, 90 feet. Well, then you're like, okay, what's going on? You got the we in verse one. one you got the details go up in order of magnitude well then you start thinking like whoa so like acts is written by luke luke's a doctor doctor's kind of into details last time i checked and then there's only four times in acts it switches from third person to we yeah and just for the bible nerds i'm gonna list them because it's fun you notice it next time you read you notice and you're like your heart kind of burns so act 16 right after the macedonian call and paul's like hey i'm going over there and it switches to we okay acts 20 paul's returning from greece and the we picks up again from philippi through troas acts 21 miletus to cesarea and then to the jerusalem address arrest and then here and here's the thing is it's not random if you track what we know about where luke was and where paul was those are the exact four moments that they're paths crossed wow and luke switches into the we and here's the reason i love that if you're listening to that and you're like well that's cool but what's it mean here's what it means man the bible really happened yeah a real jesus died on a real cross for the real you and if you give him your life he can really change it forever this is not a story this stuff happened yeah that's right that's amazing probably had to become his slave like probably the only way that luke went with him is to see he and ari stark said hey we're we're his slaves we need to go we need to get on this i've never heard that before so it's like how you know because when you when you're dealing with 277 people or 276 plus paul he's he's you know you're at an economy of numbers like only so many people can go on the ship because they have food and you know for that and so it's like why would these two how would they get on and they're like oh we're his slaves we go we go wherever he goes really he goes there he we have to go with them i've never heard that for my whole life it's crazy i'll do one last little thing that is super encouraging to me so you know pop quiz trivia so they shipwreck on which island what's the name of the island malta they shipwreck on malta i'm getting i get to preach that next week by the way next week i'm so excited i think we're 46 weeks into preaching verse by verse through acts next week last week we're going out with a bang and i get to do it i'm really excited all right so they shipwreck on malta yeah and then you know if you're paul i don't know why talking about this stuff it makes me emotional it's just the confidence of god i love it uh you know you can all cry i'm all right man i get my clean exes my my in our event we said my eyes are sweating you know eyes are sweat so you know if you're paul and god already told you hey uh you don't have a choice you got to go to rome and you got to talk to caesar yeah and then in this passage the angel showed by the way some commentaries think this was paul's guardian angel that's kind of fun there's also the uh the christophany theory the lord yeah that it was jesus but the angel shows up in this passage like hey don't be afraid and he just tells paul bro you're in destruction you're indestructible on this shipwreck thing because you're going to stand in front of caesar yeah and you're going to proclaim christ to caesar yeah okay so then the shipwreck happens and i'm sure if you're paul you're like well dad come on i'm trying to get i'm trying to fulfill my calling you know yeah but he knows he's going but he knows he's gone yeah he shipwrecks on malta and you may be like well dude if you're paul you're like why you know this is so cool dude if you're a live free listener when you're done or right now i want you to google this and it's going to bless your soul so paul is here and he ends up there it's three months isn't it yeah i think he's three months on malta gets bit by a snake we'll talk about that next week and he gets to preach the gospel to him bro to this day two thousand years later malta is over 85 percent christian and the churches on the island of malta to this day trace themselves in a direct spiritual lineage back to ad 59 when paul gets shipwrecked on this daggum island yeah and to this day on february 10th every year the entire island shuts down and they celebrate the shipwreck of saint paul's day the day the gospel touched the shores of our island and changed it forever wow and that area is is called saint paul's bay do we have that picture it's like that's if we're that's it right there that's saint paul's bay now you can go jump on a floating trampoline to commemorate the shipwreck of saint paul but uh but you're right like this stuff is this stuff happened you know and the two two things i want to say to this one is and i heard this listen when i'm listening to sermons i'm listening to lake point one of the things i heard you say is like hey if somebody sold you a bill of goods saying hey trust in christ and then get the easy breezy life you're talking about the greatest missionary that ever lived who devoted his breath post conversion every heartbeat to advancing the gospel and he's shipwrecked he's about to get i mean at some point you're like god can i catch a break that's right you know like he's about to get bit by a poisonous viper he's about to get bit by a poisonous viper he's about to get bit by a poisonous viper yeah you know just i'm like can i catch a break i mean just go read all that happened to him and you're like whoa in danger in the city in danger in the country in danger from bandits can i catch a break and then i think you know when the shipwrecks of our life happen hindsight's 2020 like man i really wish that wouldn't have happened maybe it's an actual wreck maybe it's an automobile wreck maybe it's a you know i ran out of gas on the side of the road maybe it's a man i had the detour here because i took a wrong turn like why why why did this happen well eighty percent of those people who have now come to know christ of their lord and savior sure are thankful that's right i mean they're gonna be in heaven forever and ever and ever they they die and they wake up in the presence of god they sure are grateful for that shipwreck once upon a time bro you know for that detour they're like man i'm and now when those guys are like terrified for their life you know they're they're trying to tie their boat together that's right you know they're literally like we they they says they it says they prayed for daylight yeah could you imagine just being in the darkness that's right pray for daylight and lo and behold you know there's now a christian island that's right that's grateful for that shipwreck you know it's interesting if you think about it based on what you guys just said uh it was because of the obedience of one man in this case that there's a whole legacy uh that is changed for for future generation and if you read this story in acts 27 in many ways it's the same story of the prophet jonah but in reverse and so let me let me explain what i mean so if you think about it jonah runs from god's calling paul runs toward god's calling jonah brings danger to everybody on board paul brings protection to everybody on board yeah it is because of jonah's disobedience and disobedience and disobedience and disobedience that the ship goes through a storm it is in spite of paul's obedience that the ship goes through a storm jonah if you go back to the story he is passive while others panic paul like you said jp is intentional while others panic jonah is confronted by pagan sailors paul comforts pagan sailors jonah resists his mission to the gentiles paul in this case obviously he embraces his mission to the gentiles jonah reluctantly represents god paul boldly represents god jonah watches pagans pray in panic in this case paul is the one who prays while pagans watch in panic yeah jonah shows what happens when a man rejects god's mission paul shows what happens when a man fully embraces god's mission again the difference between jonah and paul is that one man resisted god's purposes uh the other one in this case he surrendered himself to god's purposes and today you and i get to choose which one of those we will be let's go this guy this guy think about it and and luke would know that like i think that's on his mind as he's writing the events he's documenting what they're seeing i mean you just it's hard to be on a boat and i think oh yeah oh there's that story that i i learned about that guy that was swallowed by a whale you know that's right i was told to go to nineveh so there you go man fascinating stuff man way to go carlos well that was fire uh so let me let me ask you this uh because i know this is something that you addressed a little bit in the sermon in this case here is paul and he's just to serve god he's trying to be obedient he's trying to be faithful uh so what do you do when you are pursuing jesus when you're walking we're trying to walk faithfully and then you uh basically go uh you you have an obstacle after obstacle yeah and not just that but honestly like pain yeah this is not a comfortable place for paul to be and this is not a season of comfort and honestly like a joyful man everything's going on this is pain pain pain suffering suffering suffering what do you do when you're trying to pursue jesus faithfully and then you uh end up experiencing pain and suffering yeah the way i said in the sermon is you cannot determine obedience by the outcome um everything that's so important i want you to say it one more time you cannot determine obedience by the outcome dude everything in our american school system deductive reasoning and logic is you're to look at a situation you're to determine what you perceive the outcome to be and then you're to make a logical uh strategy based on what you should do next well god surpassed his strategy like we we serve a supernatural god that when he wants to fight a giant he he finds an 18 year old with a slingshot you know when he wants to save a nation he wants to change a narcissistic king he sends three men into a furnace and then he heats it up you know nine times hotter before they go in there. So hot that when the people are throwing them in there, they incinerate, they burn up. When he wants to offer salvation to the world, he becomes a human being. He puts on flesh, he lives a perfect life. And then he dies a torturous death on the side of the road on the instrument of Roman destruction called a cross. He's in the grave for three days. And when he shows back up, we have a means of salvation. So he does things that don't make sense. And so there's like large applications to this, but I think people really benefit from the small application right out the gate. Paul says, he's in chains, he's there, he's a prisoner. He says, "Hey, I don't think we should go. I don't think you're going to want to sail." Now what Paul thought and what we would think there is, what's the point? What's the point of me telling the centurion, the boat owner, the pilot, "Hey, we shouldn't go. They're not going to listen." They didn't listen. Did he do the wrong thing? No, because him saying that later on earned their trust. Now to the person, "Hey, they're like, well, they really hurt me." "Well, you should go and tell them." "Oh, it's no point. It's not going to do anything." "Oh, really? Oh, you don't believe in a God who changed the hearts of people?" "Hey, you should share the gospel with your father." "Ah, he'll never go to church." "You should invite that coworker." "They'll never come." Wow. It sounds like you know the hearts of people better than God does, because it seems to me that we serve a God who sometimes you share the gospel for the 17,000th time and he says, "Boom, unleash the hounds of heaven. Now they're mine. I'm going to turn their hearts right here." You invite them to church. They say, "Okay, we'll go." You go and you go to them and you say, "Hey, when you did that, it offended me." And they go, "No one's ever had the courage to tell me that. I repent. I'm sorry. Will you please forgive me?" You never know what the outcome is going to be. So like, let's trust God. That's right. I mean, and then in the hardships, this is what the next generation needs to hear. Just because it's hard doesn't mean it's wrong. Dude, say it one more time. Just because it's hard, just because it's difficult doesn't mean it's the wrong thing. So often we're trying to discern the will of God through these open and shut doors. Sometimes God wants you to walk through a shut door. Sometimes He wants you to knock until somebody answers. It's midnight and you had somebody come over and they're like, "Hey, we're hungry." And you're like, "I have no bread, but let me go to my neighbor's house and knock until they answer and show up with bread." And because of your shameless audacity, the Scripture says, maybe they'll come and answer the door. So I think that we can't look at a situation and say, "Wow, that's going to be really, really, really bad." We can't look at a situation and say, "Wow, that's going to be really, really hard. Surely that's not what God wants me to do." Sometimes God, the creator of the heavens and the earth wants you to do things that are very difficult and they're going to stretch you and they're going to seem impossible. And you're going to have to pray in such a way that, "God, there's no way I will have success unless you show up and flex. Unless you show your sovereignty in this situation, I have no hope." And because the tomb is empty, we always have hope. Bro, and you start thinking, especially all the people that we're praying with in the lobby every week, and they were like right in the middle of the shipwreck. And I was texting with somebody literally right before I walked in to record this. It's the biggest shipwreck you can ever imagine. And they're like, "What do you do?" And dude, you said something right there that if either you're in it or you're going to be in it, or you're coming out of it, those are the only three choices. Yeah, that's right. And you're like, what you said right there is, man, sometimes God's going to put you through something or ask you to do something. And hey man, there's a completely unexpected outcome. You have no idea. Yeah. There's that old John Piper quote, "At every minute, God is doing 10,000 things, and you're aware of two of them." That's right. Maybe. That's right. So dude, I heard. Listen, man, what we'll say a lot of times at Lake Point is people debate, and I'm a sovereignty guy, so I got an answer to this, but people debate, man, does God allow pain or does He cause pain? And people debate that question. You can debate that. Here's what I do know. He always redeems it. That's right. And dude, what you said right there, so think about, think about applying what he just said to Acts 27. So shipwreck happens. All 267 dudes get delivered. So now all of a sudden you're like, whoa, that guy over there, there's something to that guy. Then here in a second, he's going to get bit by a dang snake. And I'm sure everybody immediately was like, oh, see, that guy must be cursed. And then he's healed. And it's actually, it is the trials that result in him having the power of the testimony. Why? Because he believed what JP just said. Yeah. He's like, man, sometimes God's going to ask me to do something real hard and he's going to turn the mess into the ministry. Dude, somebody said it like this one time, I wrote it down to walk into this because I'm like, somebody's going to need to hear this. I heard somebody say it like this. They trace that pattern through the whole Bible. And this is what they pointed out. When God wanted to make David a king, He didn't give him a crown. He gave him a Goliath. When God wanted to raise Joseph to the palace, He didn't give him a shortcut. He gave him a crown. He gave him prison. When God wanted to make Esther a queen, He didn't give her comfort. He gave her a crisis. When God wanted to make Moses a leader, He didn't give him a stage. He gave him a wilderness. A lot of times when you feel like God's breaking you, He's actually building you. And what you got to understand is that God doesn't give us what you expect in life. He gives you what you need to become everything that He needs you to be, to fulfill the calling on your life. That's a sermon. That is what is getting inaugurated in Acts 26. One of my favorite quotes is John Newton. He said, "Everything is necessary that God sends, and nothing can be necessary that He withholds." God is working all things. When you look at the life of Paul, man, you look at his courage, his boldness. Honestly, it feels sometimes like we read Paul and we're like, "Man, it's just like, I'm so not that." He's just so ahead. He's just so bold. He's so courageous. And then you start wondering where is his confidence coming from? And somebody said it this way, "The gospel is the most important thing in life." The gospel is the most important thing in life. The gospel is the most liberating idea possible, and it will make you courageous and bold for this reason. Ultimately, it enables you to face suffering because, one, because of the cross, you know these two things are true. God is absolutely for you. So one, you know that no matter what, God is for you. You look at the cross, if you ever doubt, God is for you. Number two, because of the resurrection, everything will be all right in the end. That's it. Man, I'll say a few things on that. One, feel free to correct my theology here. This is just, I have a really high view of God's sovereignty. Like, I'm just like, he is- You're gonna take a pair of scissors to get out of the Bible. He's omnipotent. I mean, he's all powerful. He's also all knowing. My high view of God's sovereignty, what it was doing is I, in like the back of my mind, in the back of my heart, I kind of blamed God for everything. And then when I started studying spiritual warfare, what I realized is I was blaming God for everything. And then when I started studying spiritual warfare, I was blaming God for a lot of Satan's work. When he redeemed, like they're playing chess and God's just a thousand moves ahead. You know, like God just takes the work of Satan and he's like, oh, I'll use that. I'll use that. And so there's another parallel. You talked about, you know, Jonah, but there's another parallel of another boat and another storm where Jesus is sleeping and the disciples are like, how can you sleep at a time like this? And he's like, how can I sleep at a time like this? He gets up and he's like, hush, you know, and the storm is just like, and I think here's a hot take. I think that's a demonic storm. I think that what's going to happen is Jesus and the disciples are going across the sea of Galilee to the Gersian demoniac or demoniacs. I think there's two. And the gospel is about to burst forth to the Gentiles and Satan is like, send the storm, send the storm, you know, whatever you can to prevent the boat from getting there. Because if it reaches that man who's living among the tombs and cutting himself and in chains, breaking chains, the guy that's terrorizing that community, you know, where the pigs are, the Gentile nation, if the gospel reaches that, there's no stopping. You got to stop the boat, stop the boat, send the storm. Jesus gets up, he calms the storm. Here, Acts 27 doesn't calm the storm. He calms Paul in the storm. So there's a man in the midst of the boat, as the boat's getting torn apart, it's going to wreck any moment there's, you know, this, this was like a, was known for shipwrecks. The archeologists have found anchor, anchor, shipwreck, anchor, anchor, shipwreck, anchor, anchor, shipwreck. And so, you know, here, here, Paul, he knows that everybody's panicking and there is like, Hey guys, here's what's going to happen. We're all going to make it, but we got to stay together. And you, you said, God revealed that to him. Like he's known, I mean, Acts 23, he's known that he's going to make it to Rome, but he's not going to make it to Rome. He's going to make it to Rome. He knows that, but then he comes and says, Hey, we're not going to make it unless we all stay together. So even in the midst of, of divine revelation from God is obedience. Like he still says, Hey, there's, we have a part to play in this. Like God has divinely revealed something to me, but man, we need to be faithful in the midst of that revelation. There's some things we have to do in that. So we need to, we got to, unity, unity's important. We need to stay together. And, and so I, you know, he didn't calm the storm, but he calms the man in the storm and like your point. So it the garrison demoniac the gospel bursts forth to the gentiles and here reaches the island of malta a place that they wouldn't have reached and now it's a christian dude so let me say this and then i want to i want to start rapid firing weird questions on him and i'm i want to ask you about stuff going on college campuses why you think what's happening in gen z is happening right now so this is like for anybody's listening like we really can't emphasize this enough like until you learn as a christian to walk through seasons of pain in a way that it ends up on the other side having done good things to your soul i i honestly man god bless your heart i don't know how you i don't know how you do it i don't know how you grow as a man or decide on how you do it and dude you said something there that like it would be easy for a listener to take treat as a throwaway line that's one of the most important things in my life you said i spent some of my life but you said blaming god for satan's work yeah so dude this listen this is a really big deal if i need everybody listen if you don't understand with a bible in your lap and the spirit in your heart how to interpret pain in your life that one thing will wreck it will wreck your sanctification and here's what i mean now let me just do a little like a little nerdy theology real quick but it gets real practical so in the bible you actually gave the perfect example of this all suffering is a result of sin in the bible that's right literally all of it all of it no sin no suffering but there are three different types of sin that result in suffering in the bible and what jp just said is the linchpin on not ending up blaming god for satan's work okay so a little theology theological framework some sin or some pain people experience is honestly dude it's just because of what theologians will they just call it general sin yeah hey man mankind fell yeah and a little theology term adam is the federal head of mankind the representative of mankind that when the federal head fell and rebelled against god that had implications for everything under his leadership and god had put literally creation itself under his leadership so hey man newsflash everybody's listening it sucks but you live in a fallen you do not live in a perfect world where everything works like it's supposed to we live in a fallen world where nothing works like it's supposed to which means that things like cells in kids bodies don't work like they're supposed to sometimes and you end up with little leukemia wow that's not because of a kid's individual sin that's because of general sin from adam and this is the big idea is when the source of pain in your life is general sin you need things like doctors counselors firemen first responders okay but watch out because there's a second category of sin that results in suffering and it is and this one's like it kind of takes people off but the bible is just really clear some pain people experience is because of personal sin your end your sin caused your suffering i'll tell you a weird one and i do not recommend applying this at the personal level to people when they're going through a tough time but dude like you get to first corinthians 11 and you got that one passage some people don't know what to do with where they're all getting drunk on lord's supper wine and they're not letting poor people eat right eat you know at the lord's supper and i'm gonna read it to you because it'll send a chill down your spine first corinthians 11 30 paul says those who eat and drink without discerning the body of christ what he means is bro you're taking the lord's supper and you're treating it like a cheese it like this is not a fun snack he says drink judgment on themselves and then he says verse 30 that is why many among you are weak and sick and some of you have fallen asleep bro he literally there's no other way to read that passage other than yes some of you died yeah because you were sinning in how you took the lord's supper and you fell under the judgment of god and the pain of your death was because of your personal sin yeah so that's the second one and when when that's the cause of pain in your life what you need is you need repentance yeah and you need wisdom yeah okay but dude here's the one and you alluded to this there's a third sin uh category that causes pain in people's lives and it's it's demonic sin yeah and i just say that people don't think in terms of oh wait demons bro that's literally how an angel becomes a demon they choose to sin yeah okay uh it's the i just finished shout out bible recap i just finished shout out bible just finished the book of job two days ago literally the whole point of the book of job is his friends are terrible counselors because they understood category number one and category number two but had no concept of category three yeah wow and the whole book is hey man it actually wasn't because of job's sin that he suffered it's because demons were allowed to sin yeah that he suffered wow and when that's the category that's causing the pain in your life what you need is things like prayer and deliverance and that's the whole point of the book of job two days ago literally the whole point of the book is prayer and deliverance yeah so here's a big idea and i say i know it's a long little theological thing but the big idea is hey man when you start to experience pain in your life you got to watch out how you interpret it because your tendency is going to be to think one of two things yeah some people every time they experience pain they go oh god's punishing me yeah but dude it might be not that god's punishing you it might be that satan's attacking you yeah and that that one thing maybe the little linchpin between sanctification and deliverance and like whatever is the opposite of sanctification desanctification because if you think every time you experience pain god's punishing me then you'll like have like this you'll run away from him yeah you'll blame him and run away but if every time you experience pain at least part of you goes man like dude some of this might be satan's attacking me yeah well then you're gonna run real tight up against the chest your heavenly father yeah and i think i think the like that's brilliant it's a brilliant framework and i'm wrestling like i've been i've been wrestling i've been in a season of wrestling with that um because i i completely agree on the three categories with with an asterisk of i think that third one uh stretches over the first two so general so that's good sin was because a demon you know tempted adam and eve in the garden which caused broke everything and then the second one i'm i and i don't want to overstate i just don't want to give so you guys test this and and um and you guys cut it out if you disagree so the second one is yes it's it's like i don't know that when we sin i would say it like this when we sin we let them in when we sin you you allow the enemy to have a foothold that's right and so there's this there's this there's three things constantly at work there's the world do not love the world or things of the world if anyone loves the world love the father's not in so the world is like this thing that they hold on to and they hold on to it and they hold on to it in front of you um there's there's the flesh which is your appetite for the things of the world and then there's there's demons there's an invisible realm that they they studied your your family lineage they they know you they know your inclinations they know your temptations and they're constantly baiting you with the world they're saying hey who are you going to trust god the creator the heavens the earth or your fleshly desires right now and so the demons the the third one the demonic realm i think they're also at work and they're constantly baiting you at work in in one and two one and i mean to lend credence i may use that next time i preach that by the way the like on category two personal sin there is a reason the new testament refers to satan as the tempter that's right yeah so at the very least yeah the temptation aspect has a demonic origin point that's right okay so let me ask you a question that i know people are going to be asking after hearing this right now you know somebody's going to say man how do i know if i'm going through a specific kind of pain and i'm going through a specific kind of pain and i'm going through a specific kind of pain and i'm going through a personal sin is it demonic sin is this more of a no this is more of the consequence of what i've decided to do or no this is uh some sort of like a spiritual attack uh something that's just i didn't see it come in and there must be more than i get to see right now yeah so it was people say well why does this happen why did this happen why did this happen and and the worst thing you can do is begin to shake your fist at god um because at a baseline level genesis 3 is the answer i mean at least it's because of genesis 3 the world you live in is broken and all kinds of bad things happen you know why am i going to walk to my car in a minute and not get hit in the head with a meteor or fall down the steps and crack my head open common grace i don't know i mean because that could certainly happen and and so sometimes we're like why do bad things happen and i kind of stay in this place of like why don't worse things like why doesn't how did i make it through yesterday like you know i don't there there's there's a demonic target on my back like how did i make it through every stoplight i drove you know every traffic light i drove through how did i make it you know somehow something's protecting me watching over me um and then i think you have to stop and just say you know it would be terrible we would be awful friends of job to say oh this happened to you because of your sin you know i stopped and audit your own life and say all right is there something that i'm inviting in do i have um habitual pornography addiction am in in my do is there a part of my life that's hidden you know is there something that i'm unwilling to confess because james 5 16 says confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed for the prayers of a righteous person or so it gives us this framework to freedom which is which is confession i bring it to the light and i have believers pray for me but if you look at your life and you're like no i mean honestly i'm walking in righteousness right now there's nothing unhidden. There's nothing that I'm afraid to be found out of. There's nothing that I'm trying to keep over here. Then you would say, okay, man, maybe this is just a spiritual attack, number three, or a problem with the brokenness of the world, number one. And, you know. Dude, I would say, honestly, man, that's where you start. I would just like, when I'm praying with people in lobbies, well, I just want to redirect your question. Like if somebody's sitting there trying to go, which category? I'm honestly like, hey, that's a great, that's fine. That's fine. Hey, man, that's actually not what the scriptures are telling you to focus your redemptive energy towards. So like the little thing that I'll say is, man, what most people do when they get into pain, let's do this. And then I'll ask him about Gen Z revival, and then we're going to rapid fire stuff. Most people, when they get into pain, they do one of three things. And this, I'm going to have a little preacher alliteration here. Most people, what they do is they wonder, worry, or whine. So they, honestly, they get into pain and they wonder, they're like, oh man, you know, which, which, which God, which, you know, which category, which God, which, you know, some people, they don't wonder, they worry. They're just like, oh man, when, when God, when, when am I going to be out? When God, when? Some people, what they do the whole time they're in pain is they whine. And I, you know, I'll just gently say this, like, hey man, God's God and you're not. And part of the book of Job is this refrain of, in all of these things, Job did not, not accuse God of wrongdoing. And listen, dude, I know this is tough, easy for me to say from this chair, no matter what you're going through, hey man, listen, you trust the Lord. You do not accuse the Lord of wrongdoing. And some people, what they do is they, they, they whine in their pain and they go, why God? Why? Okay. But man, when you read, there's this one little word, nobody likes this word, this all throughout the Bible and it's wait. And it's like, wonder, worry, whine. God's going, hey, wait, those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. And when you wait on the Lord, what you do is you're not going, which God, which, when God, when, why God, why? What you're doing is you're doing this. If you, on YouTube, you can see you're doing this. Honestly, you got your head real low. You got your knees on the floor. You might have your hands in there and you're going, what God, what? What do you need to teach me? Can you make me a better man today on the back end of this thing? Can I come out better than the beginning? And you just go, what do you want to do, Lord? Search my heart, oh God. What God, what? And I'll tell you this, man, I've never in my whole life, and sometimes I've been that guy. I've never in my whole life seen somebody who, when they walk through a season of pain or a shipwreck in their life, I've never seen someone who genuinely with a pure and humble heart went, God, what? What are you doing? How do you want to make me a better man? That is a prayer I think God answers a hundred percent of the time. And that is where you're actually going to get redemptive return on investment of your energy. That's great. Can I ask you about Gen Z revival stuff? Yeah, man. This is a hard emotional gear shift. Are you wrapping the demon conversation? Yeah. I just want to give a shout out to the book because, you know. Well, wait, wait. We'll come back to it. Okay, just kidding. Okay, nevermind. Well, hey guys, as you know, Lake Point Church is a movement for all people to know Christ, live free, and change the world for God's glory. But here's the thing. Movements, by definition, move. And so if you're not moving, then the question is, are you really being a part of the movement? In fact, somebody once said that too many, many churches are like football games, 22 people on the field in desperate need of rest, being watched by thousands of people in the stands in desperate need of exercise. Hey, listen, we refuse to be a church like that. And so if you call Lake Point Church, your home church, and if you have not yet joined a serve team, I want to invite you to take your next step right now. Text the word serve to 20411, and we'll help you find your spot where you can serve in person or online on whichever serve team you are being called to serve. Hey, thank you for being obedient to God's calling in your life. And let's keep doing this together. So I want to ask you this, JP, because there's honestly, there's like nobody else I can ask this question. You're like hand right on the nerve of it. Trinity, I want to run through that data real quick. So dude, I've screenshotted, it's both a strength and a weakness. I'm a serial screenshotter of data. It's like my whole life is screenshotting data. So I've been saving these for like two years and dude, I don't care what, I don't care what you're reading. Like literally every publication everywhere is saying, don't know what it is yet. Something's happening in Gen Z right now we haven't seen in 50, 60 years. So I'm going to, let me, I'll give you some examples. Let's do that first one. So this is, this was an article, uh, no sex, no booze. We're off to church. Gen Z have found God. It says study revealed that young adults, particularly men are going to church in record numbers. Next one is USA Today. Not just at Easter, Gen Z is returning to Christianity. Data proves it. This is daggum USA Today. Okay. Next one, go to this next one. I love this. Gen Z half as likely as their parents to identify as atheists. Let me read the little subtitle. Those in their teens and early twenties are more likely to identify as spiritual than their parents. The data in that article, if you click on it, it says people aged under 25 are the, just for dramatic emphasis, least likely group, least likely to call themselves atheists. This is by the way, not just happening in the United States. It's happening in the United States. So this is one from Great Britain. The Quiet Revival. Gen Z leads rise in church attendance. By the way, we got good friends over at Holy Trinity Brompton HTB over there. Those guys are seeing like legitimately a generational shift happen. They got full churches in rural England for the first time in 50 years in some places. We're trying to pour gasoline on that from over here across the pond. Let's go to the next one. Sales of Bibles are booming, fueled by first time new versions. Publishers document a 22% rise in Bible sales year over year. Go to this next one. I'll finish off with this one. This is Barna. New research. Belief in Jesus rises, fueled by younger adults. But then if you click on it, you go a little farther down. You're going to see this. So, you know, how old are you? 45. All right. So I'm, we're about the same age. I was three years younger than you. My whole, you probably did the same thing as me. Well, that chart shows if you trace it back to the sixties and seventies, virtually our entire lives growing up, we just kept looking at charts. We just kept looking at charts. We just kept looking at them. We just kept looking at charts and all the charts where this, this gradual decline on church tenants believe in God. The nuns. The rise of the nuns. For the first time, honestly, in my whole life, in basically a generation, you look over the far side of that data, we're seeing an uptick. And honestly, it's kind of a dramatic uptick. And then you go to that last one. And basically you could do this. It's true across virtually every generation. And then, but dude, there's this thing. It says young people, especially men are leading the shift towards Jesus. So we haven't, we didn't talk about this before. You're on college campus all the time. Uh, last time you preached at Lake Point, you look real tired because you stayed up till 2am baptizing kids on OSU's campus. And we're just hearing it, man. Like I'm seeing you post on IG. Everyone should follow him on Instagram. I look tired. Like this is how I find out. Like this is when you wanted to tell me. Man, what's wrong with that? She looked really tired. But anyway, it's like, dude, people are seeing stuff on college campuses they haven't seen in a long time. So I got no idea what you're going to say. Yeah. I'm going to ask two questions. I'm going to ask you two questions. You can take it wherever you want. What is happening? Actually, I'm going to ask three. What is happening and why it's happening? And then honestly, man, all the data, it says it's, it's young men in particular, not only, but in particular, why is it happening? Why is it men? Yeah, man. Here's, there's a God, his ways are best. And if you try any other ways, you're going to come back to his ways or you're going to die in your sin. And by the grace of God, you've had generations try many other things. And we're just saying like, oh, that didn't work. We should go back to him. We we've operated in mass confusion. Uh, we have existed in the highest, most anxious spots and pools, uh, most depressed, most suicidal. We should try something else. Let's look, uh, you know, is it, should, is it vaping THC? Should we change our gender? Should we just like try to party our minds out and our brains out? Uh, these, these guys over here, it's, it's like acts 27. Hey, this one, this guy in chains seems to know some stuff, you know? Hey, I've got this friend who's really happy. He's not anxious. He's not depressed. He didn't go out last night. He's not hung over. He's not worried if she's pregnant. Um, gosh, she seems to have something figured out. Let's go talk to him. Talk to him. Oh yeah. It's Jesus. Hey, Jesus, let's give Jesus, let's go to church with them. It's not like we don't believe this stuff because you know, we don't believe this stuff because we've been brainwashed or indoctrinated, you know, regardless of what Jennifer Aniston. And I think it was Dak Shepard. I saw it yesterday. He said, you know, Oh, you know who you do this because you're brainwashed into it. No, Jennifer, if you're watching and I hope you are, I hope somebody forwards it to you. Um, we believe it because we've pursued the evidence. Um, this man, this carpenter born in Bethlehem, a tiny little town, Jennifer, never heard of except he was born there. He lived in Nazareth as a carpenter, a lot, not a lot of carpenters who have reset time. Jennifer, when your eyes, your iPhone right now says the year 2026, 2026 years from what the birth of Christ, this man reset time. Well, I grew up, like you said, kind of being brainwashed. I'm saying in air quotes to know him. And then I went to college and I thought, you know what? I want to do what I want. So they say, drug, sex, and rock and roll, in my case, drug, sex, and hip-hop. and I did it, man. I went to, I did the benders in Vegas. You know, I partied, I slept with women I hardly knew. I did the things that I thought would bring happiness. I pursued money, had the job, the penthouse high rise in uptown, the Jaguar S-type, different watches for every day of the week. I had the things, the trinkets, the treasures. I'm at a club 22 years ago and someone invites me to church. I go hungover. I sit in the back row. I start reading the Bible for the first time in my life. I think it's probably not the Christian God. So let me look at the Hindu faith, the Buddhist faith, the Jewish faith, Islamic faith, Mormons, Jehovah's Witness, Church of Christian Science, Scientology. And I kept coming back to this man born in Bethlehem who lived as a carpenter in Nazareth, who died on a cross and three days later showed up and not a lot of people show back up. Paul says over 500 people saw him. And I'm like, man, that's a lot of people. It's a lot of people. And that man, that reality that he died for my sins, that he paid for my sins changed everything. So all that's happening in Gen Z right now is they're just learning the truth. And what I think they're, you know, one of the wise, have you met Tanya Pruitt? We've interacted a little bit. She prayed, she prayer walked campuses. And I think that we are walking in the prayers of like faith. Faithful people who've gone before us and just pleaded with God for a generation. And, um, and he's answering and he's just, he's like, Hey man, if my people will humble themselves and, you know, return to my ways, you know, and repent from their wicked ways, then I'll heal their land. And we've gotten close many times, you know, I mean, World Trade Center, I think we got close. It's happening right now. Call it an outpouring of the spirit, call it a great awakening, call it a stirring. I'll just, I don't have a better word than revival. I'm not afraid. I mean, I don't, I don't shy away from that word. I'm not, it's not like I'm, I'm not superstitious. I'm not like, Oh, we're going to jinx. You know, if we call it that it's not going to be, I don't, I don't know, man. I just do the best, use the best language I have. I'm just telling you that they're being saved by the tens of thousands. Yeah. With my own eyes, with like, like with my own, I mean, I was like, let's just, and I'm, this isn't about me. It's nothing. No, we get it. Right place at the right time. You know, he does what he wants, what he wants, where he wants, through whom he wants. I was at Asbury, saw with my own eyes. I was, I was at Passion with a 20 minute stall on Agnes Day. Like the spirit fell and I saw with my own eyes, 27 different campuses. I've been at 22 or 23 of them, tens of thousands. And it's just like, Hey, do you want to go all in with Jesus? Did you walk in this room, not believing, not fully understanding that he died for your sins and raised from the dead? And if you came to a full understanding of that, would you just come forward? And it's just like, all right, now we're just, we're just going to have to sit here as thousands come forward from wherever they're sitting. We'll, we'll wait, man. We'll wait. And it's just happening everywhere. And it's happening in high schools. It's happening in prisons right now in prison. I'm hearing about that. I mean, it's crazy. We're about to do something. I'm just telling you in prisons, there's, there's something beautiful happening. And it's spreading. And I think it's really going to burst out of the universities and the prisons into the corporations. And you know, you guys are seeing it here. There's, there's a, there's a few churches around the country right now where I'm just seeing like hundreds and hundreds are being baptized. I'm paying attention to that. I'm like, cause the, the, the, your grace of God's just pouring out over those places. And, and so we're in the middle of it, man. Like Acts 17 says, God determines when we would live and where we would live. How amazing. Is it that a sovereign God allowed us, you and I, and whoever's listening right now to live in such a time as this, can I just speak to this? You have a responsibility. It's never been easier to share the gospel. Like I have, I've shared the gospel. I've shared the gospel almost every day of my life since trusting in Christ. True. You know, like, you know, like just as a discipline, like, Hey, before the sun sets, I want to share the gospel with somebody. And, you know, for much of that time, it's been like, ah, no, man, Hey, not interested. Hey, thanks. But no, thanks. Right now. It's just like, it's just like, Hey, tell me more about that, bro. I've been, I've been wondering, I've been waiting. I really been wanting to ask somebody. I'm talking Uber drivers and servers and security guards and just wherever you are, like, Hey man, do you have a faith? Do you have a relationship with God? Um, man, have you ever wondered if he has a plan for your life? And they're like, man, it's funny. Cause I woke up thinking about that. And it's just like the door to the gospel is just swung wide open. We are year old like she's the biggest introvert like she you know like she's brilliant people aren't her thing she's walking through the aisle of the grocery store you know i turn around she's praying with some stranger to trust christ in the fruit loop section you know in the cereal section and i'm just like we are without an excuse right now like tell somebody about jesus uh they're desperate for it dude i was i i just want to verbal highlight what you just said it's like my little you everybody's i joke about this everybody you you get your go-to evangelism move you eventually everybody kind of figures out their go-to move so my little can i pray for you it is i i get three questions deep how can i pray for you that's my go-to move so what's it i know it's blessed me so it's like what's different is in the it's for me it's i've especially noticed like the last six months yeah it's like when i'm asking that question now people just start crying yeah that was not true yeah that was not true until recently it's like a shout out by the way if there is some chance that flight attendant becky that was on the flight sitting next to me back from jacksonville i'm talking about you and what god was doing in your life yeah but it's like i'm sitting next to flight attendant becky and that's all it took literally just three questions deep hey becky can i pray for you yeah and just waterworks and what those i just if you're listening you're somebody who's listening to me and you're like i'm sitting next to you and you're like i'm sitting like that or you just happen to be becky by the providence of god what that is is that's the holy spirit of god beating down the door of your heart because he loves you and he wants you and i'm just telling you that wasn't happening to me two years ago there's just it feels like something's different now let me real quick rapid fire it why do you think and i'm not trying to lead you anywhere in fact i don't even i don't even think i got a great answer yet yeah yeah why does it keep saying especially men led by men you got any theories yeah man i think you're right i think it's like backlash from the whole like toxic masculinity like yeah there's there's just been a um satanic demonic effort to confuse us around gender around roles you know hey we're the same that's right um and really to like um try to feminize men and i think and so church like the like the for my entire life like church has been a a female game if you 70 30 yeah i mean in every every you know we i've planned events now for 20 years and so it's singles events specifically too and so you're trying to like get those numbers even as much as you can it's like hey do we close registration can we even do that that helps like those are just trying to figure that out and um and now i i just i think guys they they've they've really like we've let the charge on sin as women have led the charge on faith and um i think they just have come to the end of themselves as a as a sex if you will and they're saying man there's got to be something else it's like that um oh uh who's the quarterback the greatest of all time i just draw already yeah no yeah there you go it's the tom brady quote where he's like there's got to be more you know there's got to be more he's just got you know five super bowl rings and all you know the the supermodel wife and all the things he's just like there's got to be more i think that's what men generally speaking are doing where they're like man there's got to be more to this where because they've they've run the solomon experiment they've they've gone to vegas they've done the things they you know they they've they've given themselves to working out and to making money and then they're just like depressed and they're like there's got to be more and they're turning to christ and they're finding the full life like that's the experiment i ran like i'm like sober mind like i'm telling you i've done all the crazy things like don't don't make me list them out but i've done them all and and and i came to this place where i'm like and i thought christians were like boring i'm like those guys man those are they're losers and i came to the faith and i sat with men who talked about changing the world and i had this like back of mind thought like oh i think they actually could i think we could choose a problem right now and these men could actually extinguish it i mean i think right now we could do do away with pornography or do away with homelessness or do away with like we could choose a problem right now and these men could choose a problem put all of our brains and resources together and fix it like that's what i think's happening here and i was like that would be fun i'm like i'm gonna join forces with these guys you know it's funny i'll say this real quick but they there's these group of guys and they would have this lake house weekend and um and they invited me and i went and i thought you know are we gonna is it gonna be alcohol girls like what are we gonna do and there was no alcohol no girls we just it was and it was so much fun it was so much fun that i couldn't sleep that night like my adrenaline was so pumping and i went to the hospital and i was like i'm gonna do this i woke up the next day i called my best friend and said hey we've been missing it we've been totally missing it we've been doing it all wrong like these guys know how to have fun they know how to party and then late and then i became you know i became a christian got all plugged into the church and i was with those guys later and they go oh yeah we would do this this, this Lake retreat. And we'd always invite a lost person, you know? So they, and I was like, Oh man, that's amazing. So who was the last person when I went and they got real quiet, they got real quiet. And I was like, Oh man, got me, got me, got them. That's great. That's amazing, dude. So this triggered this thought, and then I want to rapid fire these questions. Uh, I kind of want to see, you said like, Hey, a little bit of potential reaction to man, kind of like a, almost a, um, a cultural assault on masculinity. It's actually a church history thought pop in my head, early Christians, the early church women flock to the church because culture, it was really an assault on femininity. Women are objects and literally legal possessions and that kind of thing. And they flocked. It's almost like you're seeing that, but for men in our culture where it's like dudes flocking to the church because there was a cultural assault on masculinity. It's almost like a first century church thing on the opposite side of the church. Yeah. That's fascinating. I hadn't thought about that. Okay. Let me wrap it for and close this out. So we're going to get questions by the anticipated rapid fire. JP's the expert. We got to plug in your Friday Q and a thing. Oh yeah, dude. I, so a bunch of my screenshots are your Friday Q and a, I'm like, well, dadgum, he answered that better than me. I'm saving that rarely. I'm stealing stuff from you all the time. We'll put the Instagram handle in somewhere somewhere. So here we go. Okay. So here's what we're going to do on two things that I'm like, JP is my go-to guy. We're going to rapid fire these as short as you can. Okay. No, you don't have to do a dissertation. Like how kind of, how would I answer it on a Friday Q and a, we're going to go top five most frequent questions that I get in lobbies on dating. Okay. And then we're going to go top five most frequent questions I get on like Satan, demon, spiritual warfare because of these two books. Okay. Let's go. So here we go. All right. JP, PJP or whatever. How do you do it? Okay. Question number one. How do I know if somebody is the one? There's no one find someone. Yeah. There's no one. Oh man. No, there's no one. I mean, soulmates started in Greek mythology where they believed that every, every person was a half of an actual person that Zeus had cut us in half a Greek gods. And now there's like these two souls and they have to find each other. So it's a really hopeful message because it's kind of hopeless that you have to find this needle in the haystack. This one person that was born around the same time you were, and they're floating somewhere in the universe and you've got, you've got to find them. Really what the scripture gives us is, is you're trying to find someone among God's people, Genesis to revelation. And in fact, a lot of people know the story of Samson and Delilah and he gets his haircut. But if you look at that story, God's like, Hey, you didn't search from among my people and it's opened all kinds of problems for you. This happens throughout the scripture. So you're trying to find someone who's fully committed to the Lord. Now this has gotten complicated with us because the more options you have, the less likely you are to make a decision. You have more options than you ever have. For most of history, you would have married someone who you were born within five miles of now, you've got tender bumble hinge, you know, all of the things to say, Oh, you can choose from all of these people. Uh, as we get better at dating and we get worse at marriage, you're getting married later, less and marriages aren't lasting. Why? Because I think we're looking in the wrong ways. We've, we've overvalued physical attraction and chemistry. Uh, charm is deceitful. Beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be pray. And so I'm not saying that physical attraction doesn't have a place. I'm just saying it's not first place. So find someone who loves the Lord, their God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength and loves their neighbor as themselves. Uh, you're interviewing for a position, uh, the position of your wife or husband of the father of your children or the mother of your children. So find somebody who would do a great job at that and you will be more happily married than you would be finding someone who is super, super hot, who makes six, seven figures and they've got a six pack, you know, all of the wonderful exterior qualities. But if they wouldn't be good at the job description, you're going to be absolutely insanely miserable. Yes. And that's the mistake a lot of people make. So it's not, it's you're not trying to find the one you're trying to find someone who fears God and loves him. I'm going to say something very blunt to dovetail what he just said. If two hot people having great sex resulted in the best marriages, all the best marriages would be in Hollywood. Yeah. Porn stars. And that's where the worst marriages are. That's right. That is not what makes a great marriage. And they literally there. They literally are the university of teaching us how to date because they're, they put out the movies and most of us have learned how to date from Hollywood who has the highest divorce rate, anywhere of anywhere on the planet. I'm nervous. I'm getting that. And it's crazy. I mean, it's satanic. I mean, question number two, does the Bible say anything about how to date? Um, does the Bible say anything about how to date? So dating, this is fascinating. Dating, uh, entered the English language in 1939. It's less than a hundred years old. Um, and it entered the English language as a euphemism for prostitution. Prior to 120 years ago, no one had been on a date. There was a guy on a radio show who said, yeah, she's taken dates with other men, which he meant he's, she's sleeping with other men. She's exchanging sexual favors for an experience that was, you know, dating. That's how it, how it came to be. And so, and you, you can think about this. People, people question this and challenge us all the time. Here's one simple fact that we're kind of, oh, it started with the invention of the automobile. Part of the invention, the automobile, you didn't go on a date. You would go to someone's house. You would sit in their living room. You would sit on the porch, you know? So it's really like, you got to understand this concept, like how we find a spouse today. It's a very new concept, less than a hundred years for less than a hundred years. People have been doing this. I mean, arranged marriages prior to that, you know, courting for a season. - Jana and I were essentially an arranged marriage. - Yeah. Still the lowest divorce rates. - I'm not even joking. We were as close as you can get to an arranged marriage. Go ahead. - Yeah. I love it. And so the Bible speaks to how we are to interact with the opposite sex, to treat her like our sister. I mean, there's, if you think about the classifications of relationships, opposite sex relationships in the Bible, it's like brother and sister, it's like family. betrothed, married, prostitute. There's no other category. That's the only category of relationships in the scripture. And so we don't have a seriously dating, talking phase in the scripture. It's complicated. Situationship, friendationship, those don't exist in the scripture. And so it's like, oh, a friend, that'd be the other category, but there's no others. And so I always tell somebody you want to date efficiently and effectively. This like, man, four years of dating. I'm like, that sounds so dumb. Listen, I love you. That's the stupidest thing ever. Absolutely miserable. Okay. This one's quick. Should Christians use dating apps and online services or is it wrong or unspiritual? It depends. Profiles lie. I mean, there's some groundwork. Profiles lie. And I would encourage you not to go on a date with a stranger. And so you're like, how do I use Tinder, but, but show up and not go on a date. So we, I don't know, you didn't probably didn't know this, but we actually, I worked with a team to develop a matchmaking service. I didn't know this. That's why I asked the question. Okay. Qualified date.com shout out qualified date.com. And so what they're in people are like grifter, you know, I haven't made a dollar off of this, by the way, it's not, it's not, not highly profitable. We've spent some money, but, um, and so we, we, what we put on there is a, a spiritual reference. And so we're like, Hey, before you spend time with this person, you should call their pastor. You know, you should call the person at their church that they serve with. And so we're trying to like take away some of that guesswork, but yeah, I just say profiles lie. Don't go on a date with a stranger. Last one. How far is too far physically or sexually before marriage? Yeah. Short answer. When your body begins to prepare for sex, you've gone too far. You know? And so it's just like God biologically wired us, you know, for intimacy. Like it's a brilliant, it's his design. Sex is his invention. He is what Elon Musk is to Tesla. He is to sex. What Steve jobs is to iPhone. He is to sex. He created the parts. He put the nerve endings where he did. He made them work the way they do all to create life and to bond a husband to his wife and a wife to her husband. Like this, this is what God did. And, um, and so if you're outside of the covenant of marriage and your body begins to prepare for sex and we don't need to put up a chart to show you what I mean, he just means like you're getting aroused. Yeah, exactly. And so female, male, then you've gone too far. And so people are like, well, how far is too far? It's like it, you know, if, if somebody said, how close to the edge of this building can I get? My question would be, well, do you want to jump off? Cause if you want to jump off the building, don't get on the elevator. Don't, don't start climbing the stairs. And if we're talking about intimacy, uh, time, someone we're attracted to, let's be honest, we want to jump off. So be wise. A lot of times I'm like, man, I wouldn't, I'd be, I'd limit alone time. Yeah. I mean like be in public and stuff. If you, if you attend Lake Point, what I'm telling you, if you're dating is it's the, you should do it no matter what the responsibility of this is primarily incumbent upon the man, because it's your job to begin demonstrating that you would be morally and spiritually appropriate to lead a family. You need to pre decide, pre decide where you will be, where you won't be. What time you will hang out, what time you won't hang out. It's like me and Jana just pre decided we're not going to be alone together. Like we're just not going to do that. You know, while we're dead, we've made this pre decisions. Hey, we're going to stop hanging out at this time. because, you know, bodies start doing things more naturally in certain situations, that kind of thing, pre-decide. Yeah, but that didn't work out for you. I got married. What do you mean? I'm being sarcastic or facetious because it did, right? Yes, it did. You not only have a marriage, you have a good marriage and a fun marriage. Yes. And like, we know that. Like, we watch you guys. We watch your lives. And it's like, oh man, it seems like they love each other. Yes. And they're raising kids who love God and they have a happy marriage. And she seems really like excited that he's her husband. And I'm just like, not a lot of people have that marriage. So do what they did. If you need a verse, 1 Corinthians 6, you know, flee sexual immorality. All those sins a person commits are outside the body. Whoever sins sexually sins against their own body. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who's in you, whom you've received from God? You're not your own. You've been bought by price. Therefore, and here's the bullseye. Therefore, honor God with your body. So you just ask yourself, is this honoring to God what I'm doing with this body that he gave to me? Okay. Now we're rapid firing Satan, demon, spiritual warfare questions. I again, strongly recommend your story has a villain. Strong recommend. I hit this last week. So here's, let's see how quick you can do it. Can a Christian be possessed by a demon? Yes. Whoa. Go for it. Explain. Yeah. I just, I think you can give yourself over to a demon as a Christian. Here's what I would say. The word in there is demonized. I know you said that, uh, we, this, this oppression and possession, it's a false dichotomy that it's not anywhere in the scripture. When we, we talk about, um, like, like right now, I possess this cup. If you're, if you're listening, I'm holding a cup. I possess this cup, right? The cup is in my possession. I'm not inside the cup. I possess it. And so can something, I see, can, can someone owned by the Holy spirit be owned by a demon? No. Can they be, can they. Can they give themselves over to that, that, to that demon's possession? Yes. They can be demonized. And so we've kind of created this like false dichotomy that I, I don't really see in the scripture. How do I question number two? How do I know if something is demonic versus mental illness versus just normal life struggle, like addiction? Yeah. Well, kind of go back to those three categories you talked about earlier. So, so if someone's schizophrenic, um, I don't think schizophrenia will exist in the kingdom of God. And so it's the result of a fall, which means it's the result of demons. Um, it doesn't mean that they're being actively controlled by a demon. They, they may have a brain injury. You know, they, they may, something may be off in their mind. They may have a thinking problem that has led to, or they may have done psychedelics or, or something that has caused them to get to this place where they have ongoing issues. They may have damaged their brain. They may have brain damage. Um, demons may have played a role in any. Of those things. And so we can't, we can't know for sure because much of the spiritual realm we can't see. Uh, but demon demonic possession often looks very similar to schizophrenia. And so I don't know that we need to discern, Hey, what, what exactly is this? You know, Jesus says this kind of only comes out by prayer and fasting. So the best weapons we have are prayer and fasting, and we can do that. Whether it's schizophrenia, bipolar, demonic. Possession, you know, what we would call oppression. Uh, the, the solution is the same now. It doesn't mean you shouldn't go see a therapist. It doesn't mean you shouldn't take medication. I'm not saying that. Um, but with your therapist and with the medication, make sure you pray and fast. Yeah, I will say we have, we've had re there's two, I can think of two times at Lake Point where it's been like, oh, that was like an overt demonic manifestation and honestly, part of me wants to say like, Hey dude, you'll know. Yeah. Like what the times where it's been like, that's what that. Was it was overt and there wasn't really another way to look at it. Yeah. It's kind of what I would say. There's been, uh, you know, again, JP, you know, this grew up in Latin American context, obviously, uh, it seems to me, uh, that here in the U S you see that kind of stuff less for some reason, we have John Tyson mentioned to you, he said something along the lines of like, uh, secular culture, the West is Nazareth. Maybe the West is Nazareth and basically like, uh, you know, all that stuff kind of stops happening for whatever reason. Here in the U S I was thinking as we were kind of prepping for this conversation, you know, some of the experiences I've had when I've seen like what you said, Josh, like over, um, demonic manifestation when somebody, and this is for whatever reason, I grew up in a Pentecostal church. So you kind of see this all the time. I guess, um, you've seen like people like fall to the ground and like literally like the movies I got, you know, it's just kind of, I don't know. Uttering blasphemy. Like we've seen that uttering blasphemy, uh, screaming screams that are like, not just like they're yelling, but there's just something else coming. And even like, uh, but one, one thing that I was, as I was thinking about this, um, I've seen people like have foam, uh, after a prayer and they have some sort of manifestation. I was wondering like, I mean, that's really weird. And as I'm like, kind of going back to scripture, I, for whatever reason, I never knew this was actually in the Bible, like foam coming out of somebody's mouth. I was like, wait, I've seen this more than, you know, and so, uh, it's one of those times where like, you just read it in scripture and I was like, well, actually I've seen this before and I always wondered why. And you know, there's a, there's a whole thing there. We don't need to go there. We don't need to go into this. But it was, uh, it was just interesting that, you know, again, uh, there's a spiritual side to it. And obviously there's physical manifestations as well. Yeah. So I've been to Haiti six times. I've been to Africa, uh, to, to three different countries in Africa, multiple times. Uh, I've been to the Amazon jungle three times. Okay. And often on these trips, you'll hear of these stories of a, you know, 12 year old girl picking a man above her head and throwing her or somebody speaking in other ways. I had never seen it. Never in, in my trips. But here I'm secondhand. I just had never seen it firsthand. I'm in a country club in America, in Aspen, uh, in, in one of the nicest country clubs on the planet. And I go to share the gospel with a guy who just got off the course there, he's got his polo tucked into his, his khaki pants and his, you know, his Titleist visor on. And I go to, uh, as I'm talking to him, I go to pray for him and a demon manifested in the country in one of the nicest country clubs in America. And, uh, yeah. And it just, yeah, it's, it's wild. I think you're seeing it more and more now. Like there's something, they're starting to show their hand, I think it's, it's, it coincides with what that thing that I'm calling revival outpouring, whatever. Agree. Yeah. Okay. We're rapid firing. If you suspect somebody is possessed by a demon, what should you do? You pray. Yeah. You pray. Uh, you know, he's the accuser, he's the tempter, he's the liar, he, his native language is lies. So you speak the truth, the scriptures, Hey, what do I go to is true. You don't need to be afraid. You do need to be aware. Uh, first John four, four says greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. Um, you know, if, if you're not surrendered to Christ, you know, then you need to be afraid. You need to, you need to repent and, and trust fully in the finished works of Jesus on the cross. But if you're a spirit filled follower of Jesus, you need to walk into there with the authority and, and the pure purity of heart and, and to pray over that person. So you lay hands on them. If they're of their right mind, you, you ask them, you can ask them questions. Hey, is there something, is there anything happening in your life? Is there anything that you've done to give yourself over? Is there a Ouija board? Is there a practice? Is there a book or a movie you're watching? Is there something, is there habitual sin that you haven't confessed? Is there something going on that, that may a foothold may have turned into a stronghold? Um, you can look back on their life. Like may, it may not have been them. It may have been something else. And so, um, you know, use the sins of a demon, as you were talking about earlier. And you just pray and you just, Lord, we, we want to release this person from any stronghold, any demonic assignment, any agreement that demons are legalists. Um, they're looking for legal ways into someone's life. Their, their legalism is, is the, one of the first sins you see in the scripture. Um, you know, he, he said, don't eat, don't even touch. They're adding to the words of God. Right. Didn't say don't touch, just said, don't eat from the fruit of that tree. So one of the first sins we see. In Genesis is legalism. Demons are always looking for a legal right to a person. Wow. And, um, and so that can be, uh, you know, an agreement, you coming into an agreement with them. And so as you pray, we, we cancel that in the name of Jesus, by the blood of Jesus. And you, you see people delivered, you see them set free. Uh, can demons read my mind and hear my private thoughts? Not in the sense that you're asking, but they don't need to. Tik Tok can read your mind. Uh, you know, the, the algorithms, the algorithms of Instagram can read your mind. You know, Amazon can read your mind. All of a sudden you want a rug and they're starting to feed you, you know, rugs on sale. So your demons are smarter than the best technology that we have. And so can they see your thoughts in the literal sense? No, but they've, they're, they're brilliant being smarter than our most brilliant people. That's right. And they've, they've studied you, your, your family line for centuries. So they know that they, they know that your, um, temptation is pornography, but they know the kind of pornography and, and they, you know, they, they understand all of your inclinations. And so they, they watched your patterns. So in that sense, they can read your mind, but it's, but as you pray to God, it's not like they're hearing your prayers and, and, um, and so like they, they can't, but they don't have to. That's brilliant. Last one. Bonus question. All right. are aliens, potentially demonic in origin. yes yes that's where you're at yeah i'm gonna go go on record and say um i believe you're going to see more and more about aliens second files released recently and um i think aliens most of them i mean some of them may be you know enemies earthly enemies unexplained but some of them uh much of them are are demonic manifestations spiritual beings uh and so people people will say what can demons do a lot i mean he's called you know a trivia question would be who's the god of this world and we'd be like jesus god jehovah no the god of this world the scripture second corinthians chapter 4 verse 4 says the god of this world is satan that's right the prince of the air is satan so he has we we read joe when we say well he has to ask god to some degree that's true but he has a lot of of autonomy here on earth just to wreck shop we're in a i people don't like the word experiment where i i don't have a better word we're in a spiritual test how about that a spiritual test where there was a an angel created being by god created good he rebelled against god he was sent to this earth to see what kind of god he could be he said i don't want to worship you as god i want to be god said okay let's see what kind of god you you can be god creates humans in the imago day and we sit in this test of are we going to worship the god of this world by going the ways of our flesh are we going to worship the god of the universe by going his way which will always lead to our good you know and so as satan satan has knows revelation he has good theology he understands he ends in the lake of fire he he saw what happened to the cross he saw jesus defeat death he's running a scorched earth strategy he's just destruction destruction destruction division division division i think in 2020 there was a demonic assignment on the earth of division use this this disease to bring about as much division as possible divide them divide mother and daughter and father and son and neighbor and just divide divide divide divide and so what did jesus pray for us unity um so what's what's our weapons evangelism can i say one more thing on this okay there's something to faith more than you think so what is faith faith is belief and trust in god um in ephesians 6 the spiritual warfare chapter you know you you have um the belt of truth the breastplate of righteousness the feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel and you have the the shield of faith which extinguishes the fiery darts of the enemy so we have a shield of faith so our faith is a shield of protection but that's interesting in ephesians 6 well in first peter 5 he says your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour resist him standing firm in the faith the way you resist him standing firm in the faith your faith is your protection it's your shield it extinguishes the fiery darts of the enemy those two scriptures alone would be really interesting luke 22 jesus comes up to peter and says hey satan has asked me to sift you like wheat twitch if i'm peter i'm like just say no like just make like a make like an oh make like an 80s drug campaign and just just say no you know i don't understand but he doesn't he says so i will pray for you that your faith will not fail so there's something about our you want to overcome the devil grow your trust and your knowledge of god and your trust in him and your ability to obey him because the the sheep that is most protected is the one closest to the shepherd that's right as i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will not fear because you are with me your rod and your staff prior to that in psalm 23 it's you know the lord is my shepherd i shall not want he makes me lie down but the pronouns change it says for now in the in the valley of the shadow of death you god you are with me he starts talking goes from talking about god to talking to god i'm going to in the valley i'm going to draw close to the shepherd the shepherd is our protection that's right our faith our faith is our protection amen pastor john mccludah would you pray for us please man it'd be such an honor thank you god the creator of the heavens and the earth we are so humbled to be your servants not worthy to to tie your sandals and yet you allow us an inheritance with you and father thank you for the grace and the favor that you have shown this local expression of the body of christ thank you for your love for your bride thank you for your love for this pastor and thank you for your protection on his life thank you for carlos and just a kindred spirit and just a long time partner in ministry and father i pray that the very best the absolute best is right in front of them uh the the best days are in front of them and i pray that just just your grace you would have an extra favor on every person listening right now just as they tune in as they they want their hearts and affections stirred for you through this resource that you would bless them in their day wherever they're at i pray that you would embolden them that that there's somebody in front of them you want them to share your truth with and that you would embolden them and give them the words holy spirit to say to turn hearts towards you for your glory alone and i just i thank you for the conversations that we've been able to have if there's anything that i said that's inconsistent with your character or or inconsistent with your word i i pray that it'd be forgotten before they go to the next thing but if there's anything that we share today that is true of who you are your character your theology the the truths of the scripture i pray that it would stir in the hearts of people and bring about change that you would conform us to the image and the character of your son it's in jesus name we pray amen amen amen live free brother you you