WAR in IRAN: What Most American Christians DON'T Know! (ft David Nasser) | Live Free with Josh Howerton

- Religion broke our lives, broke the back of everything we held certain, and God works all things for the good of his purpose. - That's right. - Progressivism will hollow out your religion and wear it like a skin suit. - The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. In other words, it's for our benefit. - A lot of people miss this, but in the Bible, Adam and Eve's first full day of existence was rest, not work. Well, hey, Live Free Nation, thanks for watching today. Hey, here's what you need to know. This podcast is being recorded right here at Lake Point Church in Dallas, Texas, but what God is doing here is not just for Dallas. We believe it is for you. No matter where you are, Lake Point Church Online is a real community, real people, real prayer, real discipleship, and so if you've been listening to the Live Free Podcast and thinking, "Man, I wish I could be a part of something like that," well, you can. Every weekend, we stream live on YouTube, Facebook, and our church online platform, and it's not just a broadcast. We've got live hosts in the chat. We've got prayer teams ready to stand with you and clear. We've got the next steps to help you grow from groups to serving and beyond. You don't have to just consume content. You can belong. Wherever you are, if you are traveling, deployed, or out of state, or just checking things out, this is our invitation to you. Join us live this weekend. We have services Saturday and Sunday. Jump in the chat. Let us know where you're watching from. The link is in the description of this video. We would love to see you at church online. - Ah, rapido. - Rapido. - Well, hey, welcome back to another episode of the Live Free Podcast. My name is Carlos Arauzo, and I'm here with Pastor Josh Howerton and Pastor Paul Cunningham, bullying me for being- - Hey, whoa. - I'm kidding, I'm kidding. - That was a miscontrol of what just happened. - We're doing a rapido episode over here. Did I say that right? - Yeah, rapido, rapido. - Oh, I put the emphasis on the wrong syllable. - That's correct. - Okay, good. - That's right, yeah, yeah, yeah. - I was just telling Carlos, you gotta start making fun of American accent and American culture more often, I guess. - Yeah, maybe, we'll see. - Man, there's nothing like a little light racism to, you know, sort of do. That's a joke. - You're saying I should do reverse racist episodes? - Absolutely, absolutely. Okay, here's what we're gonna talk about, 'cause for real. So here's what's gonna happen in this episode. The back half of this episode is one of the more fascinating conversations we have literally ever had. So David Nassar, who is an Iranian Christian, he's hopping on in just a few minutes, and let me just say, we actually filmed that first. That is one of the more fascinating things we have ever recorded for this podcast. So here's what's gonna happen in the next few minutes. In this podcast, we're gonna talk what's going on in Iran. We're gonna talk about Jesus appearing to Muslims in dreams in mass in the Middle East. We're gonna talk about the Iranian war, is or is not being potentially a part of end times events. We're gonna, up top here, we're gonna hit James Tallarico stuff real fast, and then we're gonna talk Sabbath, and we're gonna do it rapido. - Muy bien, rapido. - Oh, rapido, rapido. - Whatever he said. - It's literally the same thing. It's just, you know, a different syllable. Pass this on the wrong syllable. - He's like, same thing. You're just saying it wrong. Is what he just told us. - I mean, that's fair. - He's like, whatever you said, bro. It's literally the same word. It's okay. - Is there anything else you need to say before we start talking? - Man, I'm sure there's some things. - Like, subscribe, comment. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - If you wanna win a hat. - Comment hats for the giveaway. Well, we'd love to give away hats. And then-- - Actually, comment, vote against James Tallarico. But comment that in the comments. - Go ahead and do what he said. And then also, to find Daily Bible reading plan, plus the weekly sermon, plus an early release of the weekly Live Free podcast, plus the discipleship guide, download the Lake Point Church app, text app to 20411, or go to Apple or Google Play Star. - Yeah, let me highlight this. And then I wanna talk about two things, James Tallarico, real quick. So yeah, if people haven't figured this out, so how do they download the app? They text the word app to the number 20411. If you guys haven't figured this out, there are groups, actually it's all over the country now, that essentially what the app does is it's like, the sermon's right there in the app, and then right below, the sermon is the corresponding Live Free podcast that deeper dives the sermon. And then right there on the same page or in the same app, we've got an aligned Bible reading plan, one chapter per day. So here's what you can do if people are kinda figuring this out. You can grab that app, watch the sermon, deeper dive the podcast, there's your Bible reading plan, and then there's the discipleship guide. So you can get a bunch of dudes together at Starbucks before work, and like, "Hey man, let's get into the word throughout the week. "Let's get it and apply it." So do it, download the app, text app 20411. - By the way, Paul, you said you were gonna go to Israel last episode. - Oh, that's right. - Did you, I heard you missed your flight. - Yeah, yeah. In fact, I've had a lot of people reach out in the past week, like, "Do you be okay?" - People ask me as well, "Hey, Chadji, Paul, see you. "Where is he?" - I probably should've actually put something out on social or something. Yeah, we ended up canceling like Friday night at 11:45 PM, canceled the flight, wake up six hours later, and we were dropping bombs. And so we had canceled-- - They didn't wanna get tomahawked this morning. - Yeah, didn't wanna get caught up in all that, and it's nothing else. We didn't wanna fly all the way over there, and then if it started to happen when we were there, in addition for safety of having to figure out a way out of the country once all the airports were shut down. So hey, at some point, we will make it all the way over there. - Hey, before we dive in, can I talk about what you would've seen in Israel? - Please do. - All right, this is, bro, this is gonna blow your mind. - Makes me a little sad and a little happy. - This is gonna rearrange your soul. You'll never be the same after you see it. So this came out, this was pretty recent, okay? I'm gonna show you an article that just came out from stuff that they discovered in Israel recently that Paul will not get to see this week. - Excuse me while I cry over here. - I think I know where you're going. This is really cool. - Okay, all right, check this out. All right, so this is gonna blow your mind. All right, so in Matthew 27:51, there is a little detail most people miss. I'm gonna read it to you. It's right after Jesus cries, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani," on the cross, and he gives up his spirit and he dies, okay? Then Matthew 27 says this, and people miss this little detail. It says, "The moment the curtain of the temple "was torn in two from top to bottom," people remember that, and then they forget this. And then it says, "The earth shook and the rock split." Well, that's very interesting. It's just this little comment about the rock splitting and an earthquake happening. I wonder what in the world. Very interesting, very interesting. So it was actually, I think it's the Daily Mail, a secular British publication. Here's what they found. Some geologists over in Israel recently, and here's what they discovered. I'm gonna read this. Some geologists examined the sediment layers, that's rock formations, near the Dead Sea. That's relatively close to Golgotha, about 25 miles from where many scholars believe the crucifixion took place. Their analysis revealed signs of at least two significant earthquakes affecting the region. Huh, that's interesting. I wonder when those earthquakes might have happened. Further in the article, disturbances in the sediment pointed to a major quake around 31 B.C. Go ahead and throw that first picture up. So this is a little seismological picture of the sediment, the rock formations there. Disturbances in the sediment, what you're seeing right there, pointed to a major quake around 31 B.C. and a smaller seismic event sometime between 26 and 36 A.D. Now wait just a second. When did the crucifixion happen? And when does Matthew 27 record an earthquake and rock splitting happening? Let me read a little farther. Disturbances in the sediment, again, pointed to a quake around 31 B.C., 26 to 36 A.D., which is right around the window, actually in the middle of the window, when Jesus Christ was crucified sometime around 33 A.D., which led to this title of the article for the Daily Mail, Scientists Confirm Biblical Earthquakes That Shook the Earth During Jesus' Crucifixion, and I would just like to say this. They discovered that while looking at the geology of the region, ladies and gentlemen, even the rocks cry out, boom, boom, boom. The Bible really happened, y'all. Real Jesus died on a real cross, and if you give him your life, he can really change it forever. - Amen, amen. - What am I gonna talk about next? Oh, Tallarico, let's do this and then let's hit Sabbath. So we had, somebody explain what happened real quick while I get my notes. Tallarico, what happened with Tallarico this week? - Chad, you possibly, what happened? - We had a Senate primary vote that happened on Tuesday between, you had different Republicans running different Democrats, and so you had two people. One was, her name was Crockett. She's in the House of Representatives, and then you have Tallarico as representative from Texas, and ran off in the Senate, and at first, in the last couple of weeks, it looked like Crockett was ahead, but then he came out and actually won pretty handily. - Yeah, he did. - Pretty handily, and so big thing of his is basically he tries to kind of come up with a ploy of being a moderate. He'll, throughout Bible verses, say he's a Christian. - Claims to be a minister. - Claims to be a minister and a pastor, and so handily won the vote to win, not to be the senator, but to be now in the Senate race that will happen and culminate in November. - That's right, and some people are like, "Oh, dude, with the groundswell of support for this guy, "he could flip Texas blue," that kind of thing. Now, I wanna show you-- - To correct, just to be sure, he is not an ordained pastor. He is a Presbyterian seminarian studying in the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary to become a minister, according to-- - A.I. - But he preaches at his quote-unquote church. I'm gonna get to that in a second, which is, I'll get to that in a second, okay? So it's a dude claiming to be a Christian minister that's running for office here. Now, when I do what I'm getting ready to do, this dude's bad news. I'll just say this guy is legit, real bad news. But when I do this, some people are gonna be like, "Hey, Josh, you're getting political. "Let me just say a few things real quick "and talk about this." We're gonna talk theological. We're not gonna talk primarily political. There's a few reasons I wanna do this just really fast. First of all, did you guys know this? Evangelical Christians are either one of or the least active voters in america yes so in recent elections i read this this week heads up for every christian listening this is bad 32 of evangelicals vote in elections only 32 you know who's most active who liberal progressives is it yeah that's right liberal progressives who claim to be christians are the most active because there's a whole thing about we do a whole podcast on that because when you know when you lose a religion in society politics becomes a religion so that's what that happens okay so first of all you have that number two i just want to point this out people are like you shouldn't talk about this it's getting political well i just want to point this out do you know who's not staying out of politics satan's not like all throughout the bible what satan does is he targets thrones and dominions like he's overtly political so i just want to point out if christians quote unquote stay out of politics all we're doing is ceding all that ground to satan and then handing our children and our grandchildren a cultural inheritance that's shaped by godlessness instead of the people of god so i just want so here's why we're doing this and by the way you know who else doesn't stay out of politics who in the bible god doesn't stay out of politics in the bible like literally all throughout your bible god gets involved in every aspect of politics literally almost in every book of the bible so there it is okay so i'm just gonna rifle through because i'm watching this dude i you know it's like it's families like mine that are getting like hoodwinked by this dude it's like white maybe a little more educated families that are like what he sounds because he uses bible and christian and theological language yes and so people just see him on tv and be like oh good finally a christian pastor running for office it's an intentional ploy he's trying to act like a moderate hey i love jesus too but i just happen to vote on a different side it's very intentional okay very intentional so let's rip that we've done two episodes on this guy so i'm not going to belabor this but i just want to keep ripping the mask off so like so you know who this dude is so i'm about to we're going to waterboard you again so i'm going to waterboard you with james talarico stuff so people understand who this guy is because here's where this guy is in the biblical category this guy is a false prophet and a false teacher that just so happens to also be in politics and i i'm very confident in that interpretation of vince so we're going to rifle through these real quick trinity we're going to rapid fire these so number one this is his quote-unquote church saint andrews presbyterian church you got the lgbt uh flag by the way draped visual blasphemy number two we're just going to do some screenshots these are like actual statements from this dude james talarico our trans community needs abortions too i don't even know what that means okay i don't i got questions that i don't want answers to actually let's go to the next one we got the next one for me prophetic voices like jesus have helped me reckon with my own whiteness this is so weird dude my own masculinity my own certainty it's a never-ending process it's a painful process next one let's keep going james talarico uh here we go modern science obviously recognize he said this before congress modern science obviously recognizes there are many more than two biological sexes in fact there are six obviously yes obviously i mean okay i got questions i don't want answers let's keep going uh this next one this is a uh this guy uh he this is him giving a sermon so he's preaching at his saint andrews presbyterian quote-unquote church synagogue of satan it's uh it's a speech uh first sermon about why god supports abortion we did a whole episode on this you guys can go watch it it'll be in the discipleship guide but before he starts he gave a disclaimer about how he knows that trans people need abortions too so please don't take his use of the word woman as exhaustive okay uh again i got questions i do not want answers um this next one this is a letter that he wrote uh i think he submitted this i can't remember where he submitted it but basically he was advocating he is he was advocating he wanted abortion clinics installed in every federal courthouse and every national park yeah so that they would be the reason basically he's like a very radical abortion dude and he wanted to put uh government funded abortion outside of the reach of state legislation so this is what he was trying to do so you got this let's keep going next quote james talarico trans children are god's children made in god's own image there's nothing wrong with them nothing at all they are perfect they are full they are sacred let's keep going this is the quote-unquote moderate christian minister i just want to point this out uh james talarico again tweets grief can be a fertile soil for creativity and action those of us in this moment have a great mission to do something that has never been done in human history create a true democracy multi-racial multi-gender multicultural and then notice this language he uses may we in our grief forge this new covenant covenant so notice what he's doing is he's using overtly theological language to sort of cloak his extreme progressivism this is a whole podcast episode we'll actually do this later progressivism will hollow out your religion and wear it like a skin suit that's what this dude does all right let's keep going next one there's a lot of these uh james talarico if one cis girl loses a game so it's basically this was about getting uh dudes out of women's sports then the bill is worth it i guess i'm just i'm gonna by the way read a cuss word here in a second so you know if one trans child dies to protect someone else's d trophy then the bill is grotesque go to the next one we're gonna rifle through these he literally was asked by ezra klein for the in a new york times interview um what he believed about other religions and he says other religions of love point to the same truth as christianity so he's a universalist you know it's just like run of the mill universalist go to the next one uh is this is where he's he does a whole quote-unquote sermon to the four people that are present uh that jesus was a radical feminist go to the next one uh uh yeah uh texas democrat uh candidate james talarico prison is violence and then listen to this quote bro it's hard to imagine a world without prisons just because it's hard to imagine doesn't mean you shouldn't and then look at it you can see the little subtitles down there he said yes prison is violence so this was like the whole defund the police we want no now i'm gonna play you two short clips of him and then i want to read a bible verse all i'm gonna do is play two short clips and read a bible verse number one here we go in the gospel of thomas which was later omitted from the bible i'm sorry so the gospel of thomas is an apocryphal it's like a heretical yes what's your little thing on the gospel thomas was written 200 years after the time of jesus it was never in the bible everybody knew it was fake uh the person who wrote it basically said i'm thomas but everyone knew it wasn't whatsoever yeah so it's a it's a forged yeah it was never in the bible to omit something meaning it had to be in there it was never actually in there right yeah uh but here's james alrico quote-unquote preaching from it uh let's keep going by church officials the gospel of thomas quotes jesus is saying when you make the male and female one in the same when the male is not male when the female is not female then you will enter the kingdom of god so he's first of all paul and i were talking about this off air first of all he's misquoted the gospel of thomas he's intentionally twisting it like when the heretic would say you misquoted me you can tell someone's off it's like it's like the third circle of heretic hell is you're like even the heretics are like bro you're really out there so you got this so you got this and he's misquoting it yeah to like essentially do queer theory and trans ideology that men are women and women are men and then last one this is a this is like mind-blowing this is testifying i think before congress go for it senate is both masculine and feminine and everything in between god is non-binary whoopsie daisy god is non-binary again he's using this to advocate for queer theory and transgender ideology so let me just say this about this guy and some people like hey man you guys are being really hard on this guy hey man like we're not supposed to take it light on people who are like actively leading people to hell so so this is a question that i'm going to ask you guys and i'm going to ask you this guy is like if the coexist bumper sticker was a person is like what this guy is so let me just remind you who in the bible is the one that distorts the word of god to try to get people to do godless things satan and just because somebody's got a verse doesn't mean they're right so if you're a christian and you're watching this you've got to develop the discernment to go hey man is this somebody that's actually teaching the word of god or is this somebody that's actually twisting the word of god to advance very very godless things what you're seeing right there is somebody that's dressing up as a Christian and they're like hey man you're not supposed to be up as a minister of christ to advanced anti-christ teachings so i will simply read a bible verse this is from second corinthians 11 for such men are false apostles deceitful workmen disguising themselves as apostles of christ and no wonder for even satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light so it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness their end will correspond to their deeds to the end of the world and to the end of the world and to the end of the world and to the end of the world yeah i love how uh he's already fired back and his team has of yo you're they're already trying to paint me as an extremist no bro we're just retweeting you like we're just reading your stuff all people are doing is going back through your twitter profile and retweeting what you've already said and posting videos of what you've already said and i think that goes back to it is like hey if you're claiming to be a moderate and to me it's almost more offensive that he tries to put jesus on top of this like hey if this is what you believe i vehemently disagree but at least if you want to stay behind like the fact that you're a Christian you're a Christian you're a Christian you're trying to slap Jesus onto this, It makes it way more offensive. And to your point, we've got to make sure that Christians who are caught in the middle don't begin just immediately following him into a really, really bad path that could lead to some bad consequences for our society. There you go. We've got two React episodes to some of the stuff he's done. Those are going to be in the Discipleship Guide. They can get that how? They can download the Lake Point app and go to, it takes the word app to 20411, and then you'll find it there. The Discipleship Guide? That's right. Okay, that's great. That's right. It's under every episode, so you check out the YouTube video on the Lake Point app, and then underneath, just scroll down, you should find it there. That's great, dude. What are we talking about next? Luke chapter 6. We've got to do this. Rapido. Hey, there you go. Hey, man, when I get it right, I want to try it right. I love it, man. What are we talking about? Oh, the passage. Wait, roll your R one more time. Your R. That's great. That's really good. You really rolled that R. Finish the word, though. Finish the word. Rapido. There you go. Did I do it right? Yeah, that's good. All right, man. I feel good. That's good. Oh, Luke chapter 6. That's right. Sabbath. Are you going to ask me the thing? Oh, Pastor Josh, I have a question for you. I will. I was waiting for you to say that. What did it make you to the sermon? Great. Dude, I had a blast preaching the sermon. So this week, we did Luke chapter 6, 6, 1 through 11. We're doing a bestie in Jesus. And it was interesting because we kind of dovetailed. Did Jesus come to God or did Constantine make it up? But then it was funny, man, because the passage we preached was primarily about Sabbath. And legalism is really interesting. So, dude, honestly, there's so much in this passage. Like, every scripture has layers. It's like there's layers to this. This one is like layer upon layer upon. Like, you could do a sermon series from Luke 6, 1 through 11. So let me do a couple things real quick that are pretty cool. And then you're going to talk about Sabbatarian views. This is actually, people don't know, there's actually a pretty significant debate among Christians about theological views around Sabbath. So I'm going to have Chad G. Palti talk about that here in a second. Let me just riff some of this stuff real quick. So, first of all, this is one of the really cool passages that we actually, like, know where it happened. And, not to brag, I've been there. You've been there? I was going to ask you. And Paul would have been there. I would have. It's the greatest thing I've ever experienced in my whole life. Everyone who's been there feels like their life has changed forever. And they wish that they had never experienced any of their life before having gone. And it's just, it's nirvana after you've been. But Paul has not been. And I've been. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I've never been either. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. We're all going to go sometime. Hey, someday we should do a live-free either Journey of Paul or Israel trip. It would be amazing. We'll do a live-free trip. It would be amazing. Sign me up. I'm in. I think it would be awesome. We'll figure it out. Okay. So this is one we actually know where it is. It's pretty cool. So, first of all, this account, what happens here, is recorded in multiple Gospels. So the geographic location is not recorded in Luke, but it is recorded in Mark. Okay? So, first of all, throw the big. The big temple, throw the big one up. So, first of all, this event happened in Capernaum, and this is going to be important here in a second. This is really cool. So if you go to Capernaum, this is a big Jewish temple slash synagogue that's in Capernaum. That's not from the time of Jesus. They constructed this really nice one on top of the one that was from the time of Jesus. And I'm getting ready to have a really cool moment here in a second, so just stick with me. All right? So this is the one that's built on top of the actual one. But if you go, I think it's on the west side. Of this thing. I've got a group picture on this thing. And you look over the wall. You see on the left, you can see that wall. If you look over that wall and down, go to that next one. They excavated this, and that actually is the original synagogue in Capernaum. So I just, like, I took that picture. Let this sink in for a second. You are staring at the ruins of the synagogue that the book of Mark specifically says Jesus Christ stood in and talked about. Just like, Paul, you're going to do this. You guys are going to go to Israel. You're going to stand in multiple synagogues and know for sure Jesus Christ, the Son of God, stood right here. And that right there, Jesus Christ stood right there and taught in that synagogue. Now, here's what's legit awesome. So one of the Gospels, let me see if we know which one. I don't got it in my notes. One of the Gospels, it talks about how you remember the story. It's the story of the paralytic dude that gets lowered through the ceiling. So one of the Gospels mentions that happened at Peter's mom's house. And it specifically mentions that they were in Capernaum and they walked out of the temple over there and then it happened. Okay. So here's what's legit. A few years ago, they start excavating real near that spot and they uncover this. Go to that little, this little thing. They uncover this. It's this little octagonal, very normal home. You know, from the first century when Jesus was alive. And as they're excavating it, they start noticing, hey, this is real weird. There's this graffiti all over this house. And you can see it. Like you're going to stand right there and you can see it. And you start looking and it says in Koine Greek, Petra, Peter. Like all over the thing. Peter, Peter, like all over the thing. And then there's some inscriptions our God pointed out that it says like something about Jesus Christ. You can see it. Well, you put all the context clues. It says that Jesus walked out of it. They walked out of the synagogue. They went over to Peter, Peter's mom's house. They lowered the paralytic guys. That is Peter's mother-in-law's house that they have uncovered. That is the spot where those roof wreckers pull the thing off the roof and lower the dude through the hole in the roof. It happened right there. And all of this. So this whole Luke thing. Where they're having this debate about the Sabbath happened all right here. Wow. All right here. So again, I just want to keep pointing this out. Parents, I want to strongly encourage you to stop talking about Bible stories and talk about Bible events. Wow. Because the Bible really happened. The real Jesus died on a real cross for the real you. And if you give him your life, he can really change it forever. So all this stuff happened right there. Now I got to shorten this because we got to do this. Rapido. Rapido. That's right. But I was going to ask you, did you like it going? Did you like going there? It's the best thing that's ever happened to me. And I feel sorry for anybody that's never been. They have not actually even lived. Oh, yeah. Wow. Especially people who got within 24 hours of hopping on a plane there. Looking forward to it. And then the last second had to cancel. Those people were the worst. Just the worst. Okay. Yeah. Keep going. Keep going. All right. Let me do it. So what happens in this passage is Jesus and his disciples, they're walking through a grain field. They start pulling grains of wheat off of stalks, rolling them in their fingers. And eating them. The Pharisees walk up. Basically, here's the theological lay of the land on these 11 verses. What's happening here is the war is about legalism, but the battlefield is the Sabbath. That's what's going on in this passage. It's why there's layers. The war is about legalism. The battlefield is about the Sabbath. So what happened is the Pharisees come up with what legalists always do is they take the rules and they add rules to the rules. And then they make sure that you obey their rules that they added to the rules. And if you won't obey their rules, they add it to the rules. Then you suck. So what they did is they took, the Pharisees took the Old Testament command, no work on the Sabbath. They added rules to the rules. They created a 39-point checklist about what it means not to work. And there's some hilarious stuff in there, by the way. These are true stories. Came across these this week. So one of their rules was you couldn't travel over a mile on the Sabbath except over water. And that's because if you're taking a leisurely time and you're a little john boat, and the current takes you over a mile, you didn't do any work. So, bro, there's literally Orthodox Jewish people who on Saturday, that's the Jewish Sabbath, they'll take a bottle of water and put it under the driver's seat in their car. Loophole. Seriously. This is a real thing. Hilarious. So it's like you imagine God's like, hey, bro, you better not. And you're like, well, I got a Dasani under here. Oh, there's water underneath. Oh, you're good. You're good now. Here's another one. This is now this did make it in the sermon, but it's too good not to tell. I've got a pastor friend. And when you go, you'll you'll see. Have you been you haven't been to Israel, have you? That's right. When you go on Saturday, I'm sorry. I haven't been either. We'll go together. So when you go on Saturday, they have Shabbat elevators. I love this story so much. So on the Shabbat elevators, because one of the rules they added to the rules, was you're not allowed to make a fire on a Sabbath. Well, then they modernize it like, well, if you push a button and you start an electrical current, that's the 21st century of starting a version of starting a fire. So you they will you we got to have a way to do the elevator, but we can't have you press a button. So on the Shabbat elevators, they stop on every floor. So I got a pastor buddy who's there on a Sabbath and he walks in and he starts noticing is all these people in the elevator. And he's like, stop on every floor. And he goes, hey, man, what's wrong with this elevator? And they go, is this is a Shabbat elevator. And he goes, well, is Shabbat Hebrew for slope? You know, like, no, no, no. And they explain the whole rule thing, you know, how we can't press a button. And he goes, well, well, they come. Do you guys got a Gentile elevator? And they're like, actually, yes. All you got to do is just cross the hall and the Gentile elevators are there. You can go over there and push a button if you want to. So he walks across the hall, gets to the Gentile elevator, presses a button. He looks behind him. All of them followed him into the Gentile elevator and they go, will you press seven for us? loophole loophole alright so this is what's going on - This is what's going on here. So a couple things about this passage that are interesting. So first of all, the whole thing's about the Sabbath, the fourth commandment. By the way, if you wanna remember fourth commandment, here's how you remember it, Ten Commandments hand motions. Four fingers, how many Sundays are there in a month? - Oh, cool. - Four. Fourth commandment, you on it? - I was just checking on my mind if every single month-- - Well, no, no, no, there's not. - There's not, man, you're right. - My brain just does it, I don't know. - Don't be pessimistic. - Okay, okay, okay. - Okay, fact checker. Let's keep going, rapido. - There you go. - Okay, so in the Old Testament, first of all, Sabbath breaking carried a death penalty. So there's actually a time in the Old Testament where a dude was picking up sticks on a Sabbath and they executed him, and by the way, we do not apologize for the Bible. The Lord is always just. So I don't understand all the circumstances, but I do understand the principle, and one of the principles is, man, when you violate God's principle, work for seven, rest for one, you're killing yourself. This is how God designed the world. In fact, bro, this is super interesting. So have you ever, this is the kind of thing nobody ever asks themselves. If you're listening, ask yourself the question, huh, why do we got a seven-day work week? That's weird, where did that come from? Well, it came from the Bible, it came from the Bible. So there have been societies, there have been three societies in human history that tried to go, it's really stupid we got a seven-day work week, why are we doing this? They tried to do it, they tried to do a 10-day work week, and the French Revolution, they tried to do, I think it was also a 10-day work week in the Soviet Revolution, and then the ancient Roman Empire started going, it's stupid to have a seven-day work week, let's change this, and they tried it. In all three of them, it completely failed. Like, society fell totally apart, why? Because when you break God's principles, you're killing yourself. When you go against the grain of the universe, you're gonna get splinters. So just pause and think about this. It's gonna kind of blow your mind. How many nations in the world, in the world today, and we know, most nations are not explicitly Christian, how many nations in the world today have anything other than a seven-day work week? - I'm gonna say none. - None. - None. None. God's word is true. I'll also say this, ah, dang, there's so much I wanna get here. I'll also say this, the seventh day, there was a study they did, go ahead and throw that Wikipedia thing up. Wikipedia, everybody knows, is a perfect source of information. Oh, I can't see that. Can you see that? I can't see that. Here, I'll just read it off of it. There it is, okay. - Oh, there we go. - So this is fascinating. They actually did a study, so the seventh-day Adventists, we don't need to get into who this, there's some weird stuff about the seventh-day Adventists, but their big deal, they care about the Sabbath. - Yes, they do. - Big deal about the Sabbath. They actually did this study, like over a long period of time, about seventh-day Adventists, so you can look right down there, that on what their study showed was that seventh-day Adventist men lived an average of 6.2% years longer than the rest of the population. So it's just like, dude, it's just showing, like, man, there's actually, it's hardwired into your biology. Work hard for six days, rest for one. So then you start going, well, how do we get where we're at in America? When we started our country, you know, our country was like, hey, there was a very small contingency of Jewish people in America around the founding. Most were Christians. So the Jewish Sabbath was obviously Saturday. The Christian Sabbath was Sunday. Paul, can you tell them real quick why Christians worship on Sunday, not Saturday? - Yeah, big thing is because that's the day Jesus rose from the grave. So literally, there's people in the early church, I think around 150, Justin Martyr specifically says, we do this on the day of the sun because Jesus rose on that day. - Interesting, I didn't know, 150? - About 150 AD. - And didn't Constantine around then, didn't he like officially kind of go, hey, Sunday's the Sabbath? - I want to say around 329, he specifically basically made Sunday to be a day of worship. He made it to be a day of rest for the impact. I think it was 329 around there, so. - If you're wrong, everything's ruined. - I know, I know. - I'm a question chat chief, I'll see you right now. - Everything's ruined. - That's okay. - But what happened, we found in our country. - If you were going to Israel, he would have known. - Yeah, if you'd been to Israel, you would know the answer. In our country, so we were found in the country, they were like, well, hey man, the Jewish Sabbath is Saturday and the Christian Sabbath is Sunday, which one are we gonna take? And like Americans, we were like, we'll take both. - I like it. - That's what we did. Seriously, that's how we got. We're actually, if I understand correctly, we're one of the few countries who have a two-day weekend. And that's how we got that, okay? - God bless America. - God bless America, come on, man, amen. One thing I do wanna say, last thing, and then Paul, I want you to talk about Sabbatarian views because a lot of people don't know there's actually fairly significant debate around, hey, is Sabbath just an old covenant thing or is it a new covenant thing? Hey, should it be on Saturday or should it be Sunday? Or does the day matter? Or there's some, there's some passages in Hebrews that are like, actually, Jesus is your Sabbath rest. What the heck does that mean? So you're gonna do your little chat G Paul seat thing here in a second. One thing I like about this passage, which is how we started getting there, is the original question was, did Jesus claim to be God or did Constantine make it up? Well, in this passage, Jesus says, he gets in here and bro, it's one of these, like if you can, which camera am I looking at? All right, so there's a bunch of stuff. Oh, I want you to talk about the Messianic secret here in a second. - Yeah. - Can you do that? - Yeah, easy. - Yeah. - So there's a bunch of stuff in, especially the Gospel of Mark. It's in all of them, but especially the Gospel of Mark. We're like, it's these moments where if you could see me on camera, Jesus will do these things. And it's almost like a, he's like winking at you. Like, it's like, I'm your huckleberry. Do you know what I mean? - A hundred percent, I do. Wait, yeah, of course, Jim's song. - There you go, okay, you can get it. - I got you, bro. - That's good, that's good. - Still waiting on Google. - A year into the podcast. - What about this, what movie is this from? How do you like them apples? - I don't know that one. - Oh, we're gonna get there. We're gonna get there. - I'm about to watch "The Sweetest Weekend." - I'm gonna watch "The Sweetest Weekend." Good one. - Yeah, yeah. - We're gonna get there. And then we're gonna be going, how you like them apples? Okay, so, wait, where was I? Oh, okay, yeah, he does, Jesus does this stuff where it's like, he'll just say something and be like, wink at you, I'm your huckleberry, towards his divinity and his identity as Messiah. Now, Paul's gonna answer this question here in a second. In a couple of the Gospels, he intentionally keeps his identity as God and as Messiah, a quote-unquote secret, and theologians refer to it as, quote, the messianic secret. You're gonna answer the question why he does that here in a second. But this passage is one of them. So he's talking to these Pharisees, and he literally says, this is, bro, this is amazing. He goes, I'm the Lord of the Sabbath. And it's like a, he just winks. And what he's saying is he's going, you know that fourth commandment that was written by the finger of God? I wrote that. - Yeah. - And if I wrote it, I get to interpret it. - Wow. - And it's this little like, just a little wink. I'm God, okay? I'll give you one of my other very favorite little, I hate when people say it was a God wink. It's just very feminine to me. But this is kind of like one of those kind of thing. The other one, you remember that passage in John 9 where Jesus spits on the ground and makes mud and sticks it on the ground? I always wondered, what the heck? It's gross, bro. He spits on the ground, makes mud, and rubs spit mud in some dude's eye. Why'd he do that? Well, if you go back to the book of Genesis, how did God create the first eyes that were ever made? - The dust of the ground. - Out of the dust of the ground. And so then that dude is blind and they're all questioning who Jesus is. I wonder if he's, is he the Messiah? Is he God? And it's like Jesus with Genesis in mind, he spits on the ground, makes some dust of the ground, some dirt, puts it on the dude's eyes. And it's like he's saying, I've done this before. I've done this before. It's like, it's his, I'm him, I'm him. So this passage is one of the clear moments where it's like, bro, he's right, he's saying he's God. Now, will you answer the question, Paul, why is it, 'cause it confuses some people, why does Jesus sometimes, when people figure it out, he's like, don't tell anybody, don't tell anybody. And sometimes he'll do stuff like this where he alludes to his divinity without outright saying it, even though he does outright say it a couple times. So Messianic secret, explain it real quick. - Well, and also like when he casts out demons, they'll begin saying who he is and he'll shut them down fast, which if it were today, you think it would be the opposite. Like he would want as much publicity as possible. As you said, you see this, especially in the book of Mark and especially in the first half of the book of Mark. Three big reasons why. One was to avoid political misunderstandings. So at that time, Jewish people expected the Messiah to be a political liberator, specifically liberating them from Rome. And Jesus, that is not his mission. That is not his mission. His mission is to do something very different, which is to die on a cross atoning for the sins of the world and then rising from the grave. Number two, he wants to control the timeline of his mission. So Jesus knows if he just comes out swinging and says, I'm the Messiah, I'm the son of God, that's gonna cause a confrontation real quick. In fact, if you look towards the end, when the actual trial begins happening, he no longer hides it. He says, you're gonna see the son of man coming on the clouds. He lets it be known because at that point it's time. - By the way, whenever Jesus calls himself the son of man, some people mistakenly think, "Oh, see, he's saying he's just a man." No, no, he's using a messianic title from Daniel chapter seven that prophesies about the coming divine Messiah. And it's another, I'm him. - And so you'll see throughout the gospels, he'll often say, my time has not yet come. And the time he's referring to is the crucifixion. And so if he plays his hand too much at first, that'll cause a confrontation and his mission on earth was not done. But the third big thing that I think is actually the biggest thing, in the book of Mark, is to reveal that you cannot understand his identity apart from the cross. can't it's really interesting in the first half of mark he's mainly doing miracles he's healing he's casting out demons and then every time someone wants to go say something he's like no no no no and that's because he doesn't want to be simply known as a wonder working messiah or as a miracle worker as only a messiah of power um but what's interesting is then in the middle of the book of mark literally at the hinge part is where peter confesses him as the messiah and jesus says you're right and then immediately after that it says this and he began to teach that the son of man that the messiah must suffer i had forgotten and die and so all of a sudden it switches and it begins talking a lot about his suffering and then what's interesting is there's only one human being in the book of mark who accurately sees and knows that he is the son of god know who it was hang on dude hang on a demon no a human being a human being who knew he was the son of god wait wait don't don't say it in the book of mark in the book of mark dude i got nothing at the very end the centurion and it's absolutely he saw how he died truly this was this man was the son of god and so the idea is you cannot understand jesus's identity and his mission apart from what he did on the cross that's the big idea so again it was to basically avoid political misunderstandings it was to avoid the basically timing of his mission moving up too soon and then finally it was the idea of hey if you're going to know me as messiah you have to know me as the suffering servant messiah who died on the cross for you okay so there's your messianic secret now what you got in this passage and i want you to talk about sabbatarian views and then let's finish giving some practical pointers on how to practice the sabbath and then we're going to go to nasser so let's let's do this as quick as we can here um so if you the thing about this passage what triggers everything is these guys are like hey man you're breaking the extra rules we made when y'all are walking out he was breaking four i came across this in study this week he was breaking four of their rules one they had a rule against reaping two they had a rule against threshing and by the way i didn't know this when i first read the passage like brother not threshing anything it says they're rolling through their fingers but they had a thing where it was like i guess it was agriculturally cultivated grass if you were walking on it then that was a violation of their understanding of a threshing i know it's stupid uh and then number three they had a rule against winnowing which would have been taking the things and the number four uh rule against preparing any food so jesus guys are breaking their four rules they added to the rules and it triggers this whole thing now i'll tell you how i'll tell you how i think about sabbath and then i want you to talk about the debate among christians on sabbatarian views so first of all i just want to point out and we preach this the sabbath is a principle that's woven into creation that actually precedes the law and so even when you get the abrogation of the law she's like hey i fulfilled the law the law is not a thing anymore it's still a principle that's woven into creation so obviously where it comes from is genesis one two and three god creates for six days rests on the seventh day and then the rest of the entire bible goes it it's really interesting the rest of the bible primarily points to the genesis creational pattern as why we practice a sabbath okay so i just want to point that out some people like ah you don't got to do it anymore because it's not in the law i'm like well yeah but it's woven into i also want to say this is it um and i'm man i'm uh the book of the bibles i'm drawing a blank it's first corinthians one person considers one day more holy than another that's first corinthians 12 through 14 isn't it one person considers one day more holy than another yeah but then you also get something like that in colossians as well yeah about favoring you know sabbath day or new moon festivals like that yeah i believe corinthians i know what you're talking about okay so so my view on that is people are like well hey man yeah i know the original sabbath was saturday christians started worshiping on the lord's day by the way we actually have confirmation of that in the new testament in revelation you have were you going to say this no no go go go you have john who receives his revelation in the cave on the isle of patmos you can go there if you go over there paul have you ever been over there oh that's right so i'm sorry i'm sorry dude every time i think we've been passing so this is basic i think every time y'all sucking me in and i'm thinking something like oh she's about to ask you a question you're going it's okay someday when the war is over when there's complete peace in the middle east you'll be able to go over there um but john in the isle of patmos says that he was uh in the spirit quote it says on the lord's day and so it's you even get this affirmation in the new testament in revelation hey john is apparently worshiping on sunday night saturday and there's a couple places where it talks about how they gathered on the first day of the week that's right on the first day of the week you can see it a few places so when people go hey does it okay so i know i need to take a day that's how god's created the universe um does it matter which day honestly don't think it does you know like for instance i work i work pretty hard on sunday and it's a monday's my sabbath and then last principle actually i'll get to principles later so that's how i would view it now paul can you give the postage stamp overview of the sab the theological debate there is in sabbatarian views for sure there's generally four main views i just think we we have a picture i put up for those who are watching i'm speaking your love language right now every time we have a graph it the episode to the next level you don't even have to go to israel that sounded weird i'm not doing that again that sounded like you were purring i don't know i could be interpreted in different ways so that's why i said complete the word from the tongues episode keep going let's keep going or the merits one either one all right talk about sabbath go ahead if you got it you got it keep going just go talk about theology four main four main views uh in terms of the sabbath let me actually give a reminder of background so you had the jewish sabbath but actually starts on friday night so their sabbath begins at sundown on friday ends at sundown on saturday christians began celebrating the lord's day more typically on sunday so you have four main views one is called the seventh day view held by a seven-day adventist which is the idea that hey you have to observe the sabbath it is still morally binding you have to do it and exactly you have to do it on saturday it's the day where you cease from work and it's a day where you worship because part of this was um jewish people would also go to the synagogues on saturday so that's the idea is hey we don't go to synagogue we go to church so you cease from work and you worship but specifically on saturday then there's the christian sabbatarian view which these people would say hey it is still binding so to your point this is a creational order we see this sabbath the idea of god resting from his work on the seventh day and these people would point out wait a second this is one of the ten commandments and no one else for any of the other commandments would say well that's no longer binding i guess i can murder anyone i want i can lie however i want i can have adultery i can covet no like this their argument would be this isn't the one exception to that can i give the devil's advocate please do obviously i'm a sabbatarian yeah but the devil's advocate is if i understand correctly every one of the ten commandments is restated in the new testament except the sabbath exactly yes that would be the devil's advocates that's why you're already seeing that's the fun thing of doing this is there's back and forth for each and even just we've done this before but for theological triage this is truly a tertiary issue yeah dude if you're dividing churches and life groups over this get a life we could yeah we can i can't say it better myself yeah um and so yes we have christian sabbatarian view the idea of hey it is still binding it's a day where we worship and we cease from work but specifically that we do that on sunday commemorating that that was the day jesus rose from the grave you then have a non-sabbatarian view and this is also called the lutheran view because basically this idea that hey the sabbath was just for israel this is not binding on christians whatsoever what luther would say is like tied into like marcionism where there's like wait is marcionism the one that's like hey the old testament is like completely yeah uh it's that that's what he's but yeah this is a little bit different this is basically luther would say hey the law that law was specifically for israel it has nothing to do with us anymore although what luther said was that was he going hey that's part of the civic the civil law and hey we're no longer a nation exactly okay exactly but he would say also he would say hey going through the ten commandments hey there's a deeper principle that we need to buy so what luther said is hey the day of observance is gone so they had to observe on a saturday that's not binding on us nor do we have to observe it on sunday what's binding is he said hey the purpose of that commitment was the hearing of god's word the hearing of god's word is what makes the day holy but luther would say hey that doesn't have to be on a saturday or a sunday that can be any day the key thing is that you're frequently hearing the word of god so these people say you do not have to observe the sabbath it's not binding the big thing is hear god's word regularly there's a fourth view that's kind of close to that but it's what some would call a fulfillment view and that's the idea of hey the command was fulfilled in christ he is your sabbath rest meaning he did everything you could not do he kept the law perfectly he died the death that you deserved to die he rose from the graves that you could have life and so the key to obeying this commandment is actually to rest in him and the work he's already done for you you don't have to do any work this is more of the fulfillment view first popularized by hebrews four yep based on hebrews four but all christians right yeah but i think what they would say is that you no longer have you no longer have to observe a specific day what this view would say is hey there are those some deeper principles around being christians are called to rest like practically rest and we're called to gather and worship so these people would say hey christ fulfilled this ultimately we're called to rest in him but there are some basic principles like rest and worship and hey practically speaking let's just do that on sunday so they would say you don't have to do it on sunday for example like calvin held this view he said hey the biggest thing of this is actually resting in christ but we're still called to rest and we're still still called to gather hey sunday's probably the best day but calvin would say hey don't become word of use if times legalistic about it having to be that day let me just translate this you know for you know if you're like me well um and you're like what do you mean what does it mean to rest in christ what are you even talking about bro what this means is hebrews 4 would be your homework to read yes and essentially what's going on is hey man we are not saved by works we are saved by grace and when you internalize that reality at the deepest parts of your soul there's something that relaxes inside of you and you cease from moral striving yes you know that means a lot of people miss this but in the bible adam and eve's first full day of existence was rest not work and so god created man on the sixth day and then sabbath happened on the seventh day and so this is why some people would say that the sabbath in genesis is the first image of the gospel in the bible and so it just mirrors basically like adam and eve don't have to do anything to receive the grace of god and the garden uh they received that first and then after they received it then they get to work in the same way christians today we don't have to do anything it's only by the grace of god that we receive his love his acceptance his salvation and because we have received that now we get to work amen and like with that let me say something that people who are more in the fulfillment view take and then i want to say something that everyone shares a comment i like whenever we do this i like to say hey here's what we all share in common i think this will lead us into some of the practical tips around how to observe it uh the fulfillment view some people have put it like this is that you are saved by works just not yours that's right you're saved by what christ has done and so the key is is to believe in that have faith that and rest in what christ has done not what you have to do but one thing to highlight that all these views share in common is that they would all say hey we need to have time set apart during the week whether it's on a specific day or not we had to have time set apart where we have been designed by god to cease from our work and to rest and where we have been designed to gather into worship so all the views would say hey whether it's required this is a biblical thing for us to cease from work and to rest and for gather and worship with god's people the debate is just on some of those details let me get so basically what you're saying is like my the view that i described would be essentially the fulfillment view you're something like oh sorry i cut you off no that's it you sound kind of like me i'm a hybrid between sapatarian and fulfillment that to me is kind of like a hey ultimately i don't it doesn't have to be a specific day that's right but i am still called to rest and to worship with god's people set aside a day a week and practically speaking it seems like we need to have a specific day or even in our case set a day saturday and sunday where that happens work so you're it sounds like you're like me we're kind of a hybrid between those two all right let me give some practical stuff and then i'm gonna ask each of you to fill in the gaps here on practical um first of all what i've found is that practice i mean we go pretty hard you know we're we're building something we're building something we're building something we're you know we're building something the lord's doing something great we go pretty hard what i figured out is when you learn and you have to learn by the way when you learn to sabbath deeply it just it it changes it your whole week's different i'm just telling you man legitimately the whole week's different when you sabbath like down to the toes of your soul so let me just say a few things that i've learned as a guy i like to i you know honestly i like to work i like what i do i you know it's like i have to make myself stop because i like it i like i like working i like we're designed to work yeah there you go for that there you go man um first let me give a couple practical things number one i'm just gonna point this out the fourth commandment begins six days you shall work so you can't bypass the six days you shall work and skip to the one day you shall rest so like you're not going to be able to do the rest day if you didn't do the six work days like you got to work hard to get it done i'll just gently say this i read that john mark cumberbatch ruthless elimination of hurry a few years ago great book loved it was legitimately really good uh but a lot of people read that book they don't need to read that book and and there's like it's like your 20 year old guy that's like never actually done anything and is really worried about his mental health when he's taking like four days off per week and playing 80 hours of video games and he's like i'm trying to ruthlessly eliminate hurry i'm like bro you you're ruthlessly eliminating work is what you're doing so you gotta you gotta work in order to be able to rest let's just obviously start there two i'll just point this out what i've found for me and janna as we've really tried to we take this serious i mean like janna meal i'll get to that in a second what i've found is that um i i we think of it body soul spirit so tripartite tripartite theological view of who we are obviously body that's part of you you can touch soul mind will and emotions spirit that's the part of me that relates to god honestly if you do a good sabbath you kind of got to think in all three different ways and that's why i'm so excited for you to be part of this and to be part of it because i'm so excited for you to be part of it because i'm so excited for you to be part of it That's what Jesus did. Amen. In Jesus' name. So one, find stuff that you can rest your body. Number two, soul, mind, will, and emotions. It's like just honestly, dude, just ask yourself the question, what is it that replenishes me? I literally wrote a list. Here's the stuff that I figured out replenishes me. Fishing. I like driving my kids to school. I don't know what it is. I like being in the car with my kids. I take them to school on Monday, and I pick them up on Monday. And it's like it just fills my cup. Devices off. I'll just say like I have learned my soul will not rest if my devices are on. I like being around a fire pit. I hope I'm allowed to say this. Yeah, I'm allowed to say this. It's my podcast. But I've never been drunk in my life. I like a good bourbon. On Monday, if I can sit around a fire pit with one glass, there's a specific bourbon I like. It's just, dude, it's just something about, it's relaxing to me. And then I got this from Darren Patrick, God rest his soul, a preacher that was a good friend of mine that I listened to a long time ago. He told me to practice slowing on a Sabbath. And I intentionally walk and drive slower on Sabbaths, and it just does something to me. It does. And then last thing I'd say, so body, soul, and then last thing I'd say is spirit. So I would just say this. Some people, they just like take a day off. I'm like, oh, well, that was a Sabbath. Well, no, no, no. It says, set it apart as holy unto the Lord. That's right. So I'm, again, I don't want to sound crass here, but there's one theologian I read. He called, when people just take a day off and they don't worship or don't connect with God and their spirit, he called it a bastard Sabbath. He said, oh, you did a Sabbath without the Father. And man, honestly, it's like, no, no, you're not, you're not getting what your soul needs. That's right. If you don't do some things to like deeply get in the Word of God, get in prayer. So I'll just tell you what I do, and I want you guys to fill in the cracks here if you got any thoughts, is I got two preachers. I listen to Joby Martin and John Tyson. Every preacher needs a preacher. I listen to one of them in the morning with my Bible on my lap. I listen to the other one while I'm working out. It's relaxing for me to work out, so I work out on Monday. And I do that. I get my personal Bible reading in, and I take a prayer walk. But I got to have something that it's like, hey, man, I'm like connecting with my Father, because the purpose of the Sabbath is to connect with my Father. That's why Christians worship. We worship on our Sabbath. Amen. So that's what I do. You guys got any just super practical stuff, what you got? Sure. I think one helpful, I think for people that maybe are wired more like, you know, like me or you, Josh, like, you know, it's not a, sometimes we, it's easy to just keep going. And, you know, it's not so easy to necessarily stop. I think. This has helped me in the past. When we practice Sabbath, we mimic God in order to remind ourselves that we are not God. And so we mimic God in the sense of, you know, God rested. So if God rests, if the creator of the universe rested, who are you not to rest? And then when we do so, we remind ourselves we are not God. And that just tells you, hey, like the world keeps going without you. That's okay. You can take one day out of your whole week to take a break, I think. And so for me, the way I see Sabbath is. My quote unquote, my opposite day. So whatever I do the rest of the week, uh, I, I do the opposite on Sabbath. And so like my job, you know, people will know is literally social media, news, nonstop podcasting, all the things on my Sabbath. I literally take a full day where I do not intentionally do not go on social media. So I don't do YouTube. I don't do Facebook. I don't do Instagram. I don't check notifications. And, uh, that is, uh, and I have to literally stop myself because I have such an inertia towards it. Uh, and then after a full day, my soul legitimately. Feels refreshed, which is exactly what people try to do when they hit refresh, refresh, refresh. And their soul is never refreshed. I'm quoting pastor Josh, uh, vintage 2022. By the way, I got that from Steven Furtick. So you're quoting me. Quoting Steven Furtick. Uh, and so on my Sabbath, what were you going to say? Sorry, inside joke or stories. Okay. And so anyways, uh, on my Sabbath, I intentionally disconnect from technology. As much as I can, so that I can intentionally connect with my father. That's John chapter 15, by the way, and then, uh, and then, you know, You know, similar to you, again, start my morning. I want to make that day as fun as possible. I want to disciple my family to understand that the Sabbath means fun, joy, and the presence and the word of God. And so we want to do fun things. We do, again, opposite day. We try to eat healthy, generally speaking. Sabbath, I do sugary breakfast, pancakes, ice cream later, all the things. Basically, it's my, you know, basically when you go on a plane and you hit airplane mode, Sabbath is God's original airplane mode. Oh, I like that. That's good, man. That's good. Just briefly, to remind people, it says that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. What I often point out with this topic is that, hey, what benefits you and you may not benefit me. We're all wired a little bit differently. So usually the way I like to approach this is to kind of frame it around questions. And it's similar to even some of the topics that you were hitting. So I just wrote down three questions. For one, what renews my body? So for some people, it's going to be more slowing down and taking naps. But for others, that might actually be more active. So when we were in Washington. My wife, after teaching kids for a whole week at elementary school, she needed a nap. She needed to get away from people. But you know what I needed? I needed to get in the mountains alone and just hike and be in nature. And I would hike 10 miles or I'd go hunting in the mountains. And that's what restored me. So number one, what renews my body? Number two, what restores my soul? And increasingly would be spirit as well. So when I say that, I mean like my mental, my emotional, and my spiritual state. Hey, what renews that for you? So for some people, that's painting. For some people, that's journaling. For some people, that's being out in nature. But whatever that is for you, like find it and then do it. And then finally, who or what receives my worship? Something is going to receive my worship on my Sabbath day. Because something is going to receive my time and my energy. And I'm saying this is worthy of my worship. And while all those other things are amazing, at the end of the day, I don't want my God to take a backseat to my garden. Oh, that's good. Or to my lawn or to anything else. I want God to receive my worship. So I need to make sure and carve out space where, again, I'm gathering with the people of God and worshiping God in spirit and in truth. And so with that, a specific thing in terms of church attendance, it's not just about that, because it can also be personal Bible study and prayer and things like that. I've just learned Sunday morning worship attendance is a Saturday evening decision. There you go. Saturday morning worship is a Saturday. I mean, Sunday morning worship is a Saturday evening decision. Or if it's Saturday night. Shout out Dean and Sarah. That's right. Is he the original? Yeah, he is. Is he the original? Or if it's Saturday evening where you come, which by the way, we need more people to come to that. That would be a Saturday morning decision. The point is, is like, hey, at the end of the day, you're going to fill your time up with something. Make sure on the front end of your weekend to intentionally carve that out and set that aside. So if I was going to give people an assignment, it would be just to sit down and answer those questions for you of what would benefit you, what would renew your body, what would restore your soul, and then what is going to receive your worship on a weekend. That's amazing, y'all. Last but not least, let me say one more thing, and then we're going to get ready for one of the most interesting conversations I've literally ever had in my life with David Nassar about everything that's going on in Iran. It's interesting that the fourth commandment, it doesn't just talk about you. It's like, hey, you, your kids, your male servants, your female servants, all the people around you. So specifically, I mentioned the community. Actually, you guys have been to some of these. One of the things me and Jana do is we call them, at our house, we call them Sabbath meals. But we'll invite a bunch of Christian friends over, and you guys have been and hung out, and we order in food, so we don't got to do any work. And it's a bunch of people we like that also love Jesus. They come over, all their kids come over. The house is a total. It's a joyous chaos. And then you guys have been. We hang out. We sit on rocking chairs on the porch. We talk about life and ministry and sports and whatever. And then we all eat, and then we do this thing at the end. I encourage you to do this maybe with your life group, a bunch of dudes you like, whoever it is. And then at the end, whenever dessert comes, we always do the same thing. We get dessert. And then not just us, but with all the kids sitting around, we'll go around, and everybody tells, like, hey, dude, what's the Jesus story you got, man? What's the life? Who did you hear about? God did something in their life or your life. And here's the hack on this. A, we're reminding ourselves about the goodness of the Father. The parenting hack is all of our kids are growing up watching their dads and then their dad's friends talk about Jesus. And I'm just telling you, like, that's a cheat code. It's a cheat code of all cheat codes when you're trying to raise kids that love Jesus, because what that does is if any of our kids someday, they want to walk away. They don't just got to walk away from the faith. They don't just got to walk away from Paul and Elias, or you can bleep that out if you want to. They don't just got to walk away from Carlos. They got to walk away from you and all the adults that they thought were the coolest people in the whole world when they were growing up. And Uncle Josh, who was my prayer partner when I turned 13, and we turned into text prayer partner friends. And I'm just telling you, it's a cheat code to end all cheat codes on Christian parenting. So strongly encourage something like that. That's good, man. We have David Nassar coming up in just a minute. Stay tuned. All right, Live Free Nation, listen up. This is one of our favorite weekends of the year. March 21st and 22nd is Free T-Shirt Weekend at Lake Point Church. And, yes, we're talking free T-shirts for the whole family, all campuses, youth and adult size. All you got to do is just show up. And here's why this matters. This isn't about free merch. It's about mission. You put that shirt on, and you're representing what God is doing through Lake Point Church. You're showing people you're not ashamed of your faith. And when somebody asks, "How do you feel?" They ask you about it. That's your moment. That's your open door to say, "Hey, you should come with me to Easter." It's one of the easiest ways to represent Jesus and invite someone to church without it being awkward. This, by the way, is an in-person only event. And shirts are first come, first serve. So don't roll in late. Get there early and grab yours while supplies last. March 21st and 22nd, Free T-Shirt Weekend. Let's wear the mission. Let's invite courageously. We will see you there. David Nassar, welcome to Live Free. Man, it's so good to be here. This is awesome. So, hey, can I tell you a story real quick? Yeah. Okay. So the first time I ever hung out with you, there's no way you're gonna remember this. Because I was in college, my freshman year in college. Yeah. You preached a disciple now. Come on. At Two Rivers Baptist Church. Yeah. Was that your home church? Bro, that was not my home church. Okay. I was a leader at that disciple now. Okay. Like a small group leader. Dude, yes. Yeah. I still use this as a sermon. I use you as a sermon illustration. Oh, no. Is this good or bad? It's good. It's good. It's good. Dude, you preach. I had literally never heard a pastor. You preached a John 3:16 sermon at the end of the sermon. This was on Sunday morning. Yeah. You did an altar. It was one of the best altar calls I've ever heard. There was a deacon in his 90s from Two Rivers Baptist Church sitting in the pew in front of me that stood up in a three-piece suit when you did that altar call and walked down, and I watched you embrace that man and pray with him to receive Christ. That's amazing. Dude, I have never forgotten it the rest of my life. I actually remember it. Do you really? Yeah. Because it's so unusual to see someone who is a senior citizen, like you see a lot of seniors in high school, but to see a senior citizen say, "Man, I know a lot." I remember that elderly man literally saying, "I know more Bible than you. I just don't know him." And just for someone at that age to be still tender to God's calling, that's heroic. Yeah. You were there. I was there. Come on. I was there. I was there. I could barely. Any facial hair. No. Pubescent. I gotta say. Yeah. Hey, before we move on, first of all, I gotta say, man, well done, bro. Good and faithful servant. What God's doing. I just cheer you on. Thank you. And everyone on your team. Carlos, everyone. What God's doing right now is special. And the way you're stewarding it, I think with humility and grace, but yet with a focus on this is why we do it, this is what we're gonna stay on, I'm just grateful for you. And when I was at Liberty University as campus pastor, I brought you in to do convocation, and it was a highlight for our students. And you came at a moment where we couldn't all gather, so everyone's sitting in dorms watching you. There was like 25 people in that enormous. Distance, with masks. Yes. But everyone's watching in dorms, and that's a real uphill battle, like for a communicator, but it just yielded such great fruit, 'cause God just has an anointing on your life, man. No, thank you. And so I love you, buddy. I'm in your corner, and I'm just grateful for you. So, yeah. That's really mutual. Yeah. Let's talk Iran. Yeah. Okay, so dude, I'm super interested in this, and I'm gonna shoot you really straight. I told you this before we started recording, I'm the dumb American kid. So with all this stuff going on in Iran, there's all these assumptions that I had about what is and isn't going on over there that I'm realizing like, "Oh, dude, I don't got a clue what's going on over there." So really quick, let's start here. Give a little bit of your background. Yeah. Of your background and story that obviously will dovetail into why you are here to talk about Iran. Yeah. So obviously, I'm Persian, I'm Iranian, and I'm an American citizen by paperwork, but I was born in Iran, and in 1979, when the Ayatollah Khomeini and his religious zealots took over the nation of Iran, when the Iranian Revolution happened, my dad was high-ranked in the military in Iran. And so I remember those days. And for me, from my seat in the stance, Josh, it was something is happening. Our world is turning upside down. But I was just a nine-year-old kid playing with my Legos, and I lived in an army base with some of the other high-ranking folks in our base. And I remember about a week and a half, two weeks into the revolution, literally going to school. I went to a military school in our army base. And we got to school, and they called us out behind the school for an assembly. Like, we didn't have a gym to meet in. We get out in this field, and a soldier was standing in front of the whole school, took out a piece of paper. the name of three students, mind me in the first one, and ask us to make our way to the front. And I made my way to the front. And I remember he took a gun out of a holster, put it in my head, and with his hands shaking, he just kind of started to quote the Quran. And he said that he's been sent to make an example of us. Bro, I've never heard this before. Yeah, man. And so I'm confused. As a nine-year-old kid, you're like, what's going on? But I remember thinking, this guy looks scared. So now as an adult, I'm really like, he looks scared enough to actually mean it. And at that moment, the government had been overthrown. The Atul Khomeini had taken over. The king had been dethroned. And in that moment, everybody who was anybody was no longer a nobody. And all these other people were rising up, and they were using terror. They were using fear. That's the greatest weapon of a terrorist, to instill fear in the life of people so they won't rise up against you. And they had decided because of who my father was, they were going to make an example out of me, right? And so the school principal got between me and the gun and said, please come back another day. And I didn't understand that. And I remember I never made it to class. They took me in a car back home. And my dad got home immediately. I guess somebody had told him what had happened. And that's the first time, Josh, where I remember my dad, who was like a bit of an alpha. You know what I mean? Like this guy was a giant, military man, tough. That's the first time I saw him. He's just weeping. And he said, I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you. And he sat me on his lap. And that's when he told me the government has been overthrown and you're not going back to school. They're making an example out of us, but we're going to get out of here. And I just remember, yeah, this is right in the middle of all that. And so for the next couple of days, I saw my parents kind of hub up in the corner and they're kind of conspiring on how they can get out as fast as they can and take our family out of out of this harm's way. And then, man, I remember before we could implement the escape plan, soldiers coming to my home and dragging my dad out of our home. And when I say dragging, my mom had her hands around the leg of one of the soldiers. And as they're dragging my dad out of the house, she's just screaming, just let him die quickly. Just let him die quickly. And I just remember as a little kid, like you're trying to process this. You're like, what's happening? And they took my dad out of the home and my mom was in the front. And my sister and I, we ran up to the front and we sat there in the front with my mom. And she said, let's pray. That's my first memory. Of prayer. And she. This is going to dovetail. We'll talk about it in a second. When she's saying, let's pray, is this an Islamic family? Yeah, we're Shiite Muslim. Thank you. Yeah. But we're a very westernized version of it. My mom's not wearing a chador. We're kind of, oh, it's called like Easter Christians. We're culturally Muslims. But so my mom says, let's pray. And I remember, Josh, all she kept saying over and over again in the prayer was the same thing. She's crying and she just kept saying, let him die quickly. Let him die quickly. So she says, amen. And my sister says, why are we saying that? And she said, look, they're taking your dad to this park. It's the same park where they took his friend yesterday and they tied him to a tree that took a pair of pliers and tortured him. And we need to pray that your dad's not tortured. He's just killed quick. So when you're nine and you're praying that, the last thing you're thinking is God loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life. So I remember being a nine-year-old kid and thinking, I don't know what we've done to make God so mad. But apparently he's mad. And he's gunning after me and my family. I know most nine-year-olds don't think stuff like this. I know most nine-year-olds don't wake up and think, I hate God. But I was nine when I decided I hated God. You know, most nine-year-olds think stuff like, I don't know, should I eat this crayon or whatever? But I was nine and I was like, he started it, you know? And that afternoon, my dad wasn't killed. He came home. He said they'd give me a few more weeks. And so we planned our escape. And our escape plan was to leverage my mom's heart issues that she'd been having as a way out. So we went to these doctors. We cut a deal with them. And the deal was that they would help us escape from Iran. And in exchange, we'd give them our home, our cars, our clothes, and everything that we owned. And so lock and load, about a week later, my mom acted like her heart was bothering her. It was all staged. Ambulance came and got her. They took her in this back room in a hospital. They came out and said, she needs bypass surgery. We don't have the technology for what she needs. And she needs to go immediately to Switzerland. And the family needs to go for support. And so, all this was fake. We got two-way airline tickets. Like, we were going and coming back. And the house sitter, but we weren't coming back. We were running for our lives. And I remember holding my dad's hand in the airport, man, and his hand's just shaking. And he's saying, if they find out we're escaping, they're going to kill us right here on the spot. But when you're nine and you think God is harming you, that's the view you've got as a kid. Like, we got to get, I thought we're getting away from God. But I look back now and I can see God wasn't hurting us. He was holding us. I love Isaiah 41:9 and 10, where it says, "I took you from the ends of the earth, from as far this corner as I called you. And I said, 'Do not fear, I am with you. I will help you and I will hold you in my righteous right hand.'" And so, so often, we think we're getting his wrathful left, but we're really getting his righteous right. And so, man, we get on a plane, we go up in the air, we land. And instead of the hospital, we say, "Hey, all this was fake." And we go to the American consulate and we apply for political asylum. In Switzerland. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's a fancy way of saying we want to become refugees. We want to find refuge in America. But at that time, bro, nobody was allowing people from my neck of the woods into your neck of the woods, because I was from the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm from Iran. People are turning the TV on. There's a revolution going on. They're burning the American flag, calling America the great Satan. Who's the president now in '79? Do you know? In '79, the king, King Pahlavi, had been overthrown and the Ayatollah had been brought out of exile in. And all of a sudden, it had gone from a monarchy to a. Dictatorship. Yeah. And so, all of a sudden, it's a theocracy and they're taking over. It's just the very beginnings of that moment, right? And in the middle of all of that, they've held 55 Americans hostage in the American embassy in Iran. And the importance of that in my narrative is that when the American hostages got taken, bro, all of a sudden, this wasn't something that people watched on TV that was happening across an ocean. All of a sudden, it was like, this is our people. This is it. Yeah. And so, every day on the news, back when people watched the news and there was no internet, Dan Rather, Walter. I mean, people are. Cronkite. Every day. Day 54, the American hostage situation. Day 62 of the American. Dude, wasn't that. I thought I read something. Wasn't that part of the reason that it tanked Jimmy Carter's reelection bid or something like that? Man, bro. You don't know? I mean, I had President Carter. President Carter is a guest at Liberty. He did our baccalaureate. Yeah, that's awesome. It's surreal to sit across from him in my office and just go, "President Carter, we've got about 12 minutes until nothing happens. Can you give me your view of what happened?" Oh, that's amazing. And I cannot share on a podcast what he said, but he. Again, you ask 20 people what happened, and they're gonna give you 20 different views of what they think happened. All right. I interrupted you. You keep going. For him, he was coming up on an election intent, and it's like, "Do we wanna give him a win?" So he thought some patriots weren't very patriotic. Anyway, so all that to say, it was complicated. But for me as a kid, we're in Europe trying to just get here, and we are from the wrong place at the wrong time, right? And so for nine months, we tried legally, we tried illegally. We moved from Switzerland to Munich, Germany, because we were told that's where people are most sympathetic to a cause like ours. And then, man, my mom got us together one day, nine months into just being in exile, like being in Europe waiting, and she showed us a picture of a white man, kind of a handsome duck dynasty looking fella. She was like, "Do you guys know who this is?" Shout out Phil Robertson. Yeah. And she was like, "Well, we've kind of exhausted all our evidence." She was like, "This is Jesus, and he's American, and we need to ask him to let us into his country." Are you serious? Yeah. Some of your listeners are probably not laughing. They're like, "Why is that funny?" Because they literally think Jesus is a white Republican who's going to be on Hannity tonight. They don't realize he was actually more originally from my neck of the woods. He's more camel dynasty than duck dynasty. So anyway, so we don't know that. And God's bigger than geography and theology. We close our eyes, and we're like, "Jesus led us into your country." And man, a week after we mentioned the name of Jesus, he opened the doors for us we couldn't open for ourselves. And so, man, we're coming to America all of a sudden. Yeah. And I'm thinking, I hate religion, but hey, Jesus, thanks for letting us in your country. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. And you know what we do? This is going to make more sense to you guys, because you're right here in Rockwall, Texas. We don't move to Erangelus like the rest of them. We don't move to New York. We move to Killeen, Texas, bro. Did you really? I didn't notice. Because my dad had taken flight training at Fort Hood. So can you imagine? That's amazing. During the Iran hostage situation, while Iran is the enemy, we move to patriotic Texas, to the largest army base in the world, military town, from Iran. I mean, I am a wedgie waiting to happen. I come in, wrong haircut. I'm like, "Hello, I am David." And they're like, "You are so going to get beat up today after school." And I'm getting every nickname. I'm getting called bean dip, and I'm not even Mexican. I'm like, "You're not even accurate in your racism." And we honestly have escaped from one place that's dangerous to a whole other place of dangerous. Yeah. And sometimes I like I like to paint it this way. We exchange one kind of terrorism for another. Oh, wow. And the other one was the emotional, right? And the weapon of mass destruction on emotional terrorism is not like the mean things people call you. It's when you're not even worthy of being bullied. I remember being in America and thinking, if this is refugee, this doesn't feel safe. This doesn't feel refuge. I remember seeing 15 birthday party invitations go out when there were 16 kids in the classroom. And I knew I wasn't going to the skating rink to eat a square cake. And so for years and years, that was me. I was the outcasted kid. Until today, my freshman year in high school is about to start. And by this time, we'd moved to Alabama. And my dad heard me crying in my bedroom. And he came in and said, what's wrong? And I told him, I said, Dad, it's gone well for you. Because by this time, he'd learned how to hustle and do good for himself in America. But I said, look, I'm the outcasted kid. I'm not even getting bullied by the bully. I'm getting bullied by the kid who's getting bullied by the bully and the food chain. And my dad felt sorry for me. And that's the day before my freshman year in high school, Josh, where my dad tried to fix it. But actually, he meant well, but he broke it even more. He took me to the mall, got me new clothes, new haircut, new shoes, everything, just to try to help me assimilate. And those are the years where I went to high school. And I look different. I call it geek to chic. And so Abdul to Julio. I walked in. And man, those are the years of my life where it was a bonfire of vanities. You know, it says in scripture, do not conform to the patterns of this world and be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Tell that to a kid who's really lonely. He's like, I'm already not conforming. I will do whatever to conform, even if it's fabricated friendships, because I just don't want to be alone. And my high school years became those years. I learned how to dump the right girl before she could dump me. I learned how to be cold to people, to be perceived as cool to people. It's so true where it says in scripture, what good is it to be cold to people? It's so true where it says in scripture, what good is it for a man to gain the whole world, but to forfeit his soul. And I sold out. So I graduated from high school, popular, but completely emotionally bankrupt. Nobody would have seen me as a Muslim. I was just this kid who partied a lot. And they knew I was like Shiite Muslim by heritage. And one night after high school, I was smoking weed with a buddy of mine. And while we were smoking weed, he invited me to church. I wish he was there, but that's the South. Yep. There you go. Yep. And I told him there's no way. I was going to go. And he said, why? And I turned down the music while we're finishing the joint. And I said, I hate, I hate God. I'm Muslim by heritage, but I saw religion gone wrong in Iran. And I want to have nothing to do with them. And he kept telling me that he told me the five prettiest girls from my high school are going to be there. So I felt kind of motivated. So on a Saturday night, I, this is my favorite part of my story. All right. On a Saturday night, I, um, I go into house. I know my dad's going to say no, but I'm trying to get my buddy off my back. I'm kind of stoned. I walked down the hallway and I'm, I knock on my parents' bedroom door and I said, mom and dad, it's midnight. I'm home. I'm safe. I know you're going to say no, just say no loud enough. So you'll, so my friend will leave me alone because he's standing at the door, like listening to see if I'm going to actually ask if I can go with him tomorrow to church. And instead of saying no, I thought my dad's going to give a quick no. My dad yells from his bed. What is the name of it? He's asking the name of the church. And what I didn't know was that I'm standing there on that Saturday night, but two weeks prior to that Saturday night, Josh, there were these people from this church, Shades Mountain Baptist Church down the street from my home that had come to my dad's restaurant to eat. A guy named Aubrey Edwards had brought a few people to eat. While they were eating at my dad's restaurant, they'd seen how my dad was shorthanded on waitstaff. And instead of complaining about the bad service, they rolled up their sleeves and waited on tables at my dad's restaurant. Then they went back the next day and did it again. Let's go. They went back the next day and did it again. And then at the end of. Like, you know, lunch rush, Aubrey Edwards invited my dad to choir practice. And because kindness is a superpower. Come on, man. My dad went to choir practice. By the way, we're not the kind of family where we download a dinner. Like, none of this. We don't know any of this. And at the end of choir practice, Aubrey put a piece of paper out into the choir and people signed up to work for free. No way. For bus boys and waiters at my dad's restaurant. Come on, man. So God and his sovereignty had used that to tenderize my dad's heart. Fast forward two weeks later, I'm asking if I can go to church. Instead of saying no, he goes, what is the name of it? And then my buddy yells out the name Shades. And it's the same one as the people. I mean, that'll make you Calvinist, bro. It just so happens. Yeah. And so my dad goes, I know those people. You can go there. And so my story is about a church who was a bunch of believers who were believable. A bunch of Christians who were Christ-like. A couple months ago, man, I was in Orlando at a church. And between the second and the third service, I was telling my story. This lady came up. She's a grandma. I could tell because the grandkids were saying, grandma, grandma. Gigi, they were calling her. And she walked up, kind of teary-eyed. And she said, hey, when I was at college, I remember being at choir practice one night. And I signed up. I was a waitress at your dad's restaurant for a couple of weeks. And we're standing there. And I was like, it's your fault I'm here. You know? And so the hero. The hero of my story is not me. That's amazing. The hero of my story is not a pastor who had a polished-up message or a worship leader who just kind of like knew how to like wow, you know, with his vocal ability. The hero of my story is, honestly, is a worship leader who led worship with a mop in his hand at my dad's restaurant. Not with a mic. Come on, man. And so I got to go to church. I went to church. I mean, and they saw the 1040 window coming to them, dude. And for eight Monday nights, they came to my house and shared the gospel with me. They had this thing called visitation. I remember. And then one day. One night I got saved. And the night I got saved, my parents were not happy. And the night I got baptized, my parents disowned me and kicked me out of the house. And five months after I moved in with these guys that all lived in a one-bedroom apartment with me, my sister became a Christian. And then five months after that, my mother became a Christian. And then five months after that, my brother Benjamin, who's fearfully and wonderfully made Down syndrome, became a Christian. And then two and a half years later, my dad got saved. Wow. And so I'm telling you all that. And I know you want to kind of talk maybe Iran and what's going on right now. But from my journey, religion broke our lives, broke the back of everything we held certain. And God works all things for the good of his purpose. That's right, man. And we came to America looking for the American dream, but we actually found something so much bigger. Like, I'm a patriot, as you can tell. This country has been very good to me. Like, you got to go through me if you're going to bash this nation. It's the best thing going. I really believe that. But America. America makes a great God, but a horrible. I mean, America makes a great nation, but a horrible God. And as much as I love this country, what I love the most isn't what it's afforded me in the land of opportunity, but the freedom by which I came to Christ here. That's right. And my family found redemption here. And so that journey for me is real this week because as much as we are a bit of the American dream, we always held the second dream, bro. Yeah. Yeah. The second dream was that we would see our people, that we left behind, our family, our friends, be able to be afforded the liberty that we were given. Yeah. And then this week. Yeah. All of a sudden, it feels like they might be liberated. Okay. This is the week where he might tip. Which would be decades worth of answer prayers. 47 years ago. That's amazing. That's amazing. That's amazing. Yes. Long time coming. Well, what's interesting is like, honestly, it's like your story is like a microcosm of what's happening with the nation. So it's like you got this intersection of geopolitics and cultural issues and the sovereignty of God and the advance of the gospel. And so I want to talk about that because there's more going on than just the geopolitics. There's some very spiritual. There's a very, very, we're going to talk about this here in a second. Things I don't think most American Christians understand. So first of all, can you help us understand some stuff that goes into what we're seeing with the Iranian church and some things like this? So let me show you some things real quick that I'm the dumb American kid. There's some stuff this week that as I was watching it, I was like, bro, that makes no sense to me. So let me show you some stuff that made no sense to me. All right. So we obviously strike Iran and how do you pronounce the guy's name? I don't want to put the leader. Khamenei. So Khamenei was the one who came in when we were there. And then when he died, Khamenei came in. Khamenei. So it's him. And it was like 30 of the top leaders, if I understand it correctly, they all got hit. Okay. So then that's what, that's what I read. Okay. So then you see this and this is obviously, you can go and play this. This is video in Iran. That's right. Yeah. They're just going nuts, like celebrating. Just jubilation. Yeah, they're celebrating. Okay. So first of all, I'm seeing this. I'm like, bro, that makes no sense to me at all. So there's just jubilant celebration. Why they're celebrating. Yeah. And I'm going to get to this. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, so, so, okay, I see this. Then I start seeing stuff like this. Show that picture. It's like this, you know, thank you, Trump, the Iranian people, Iranian people, all this stuff, all this stuff. And dude, I'm like, that makes no sense to me because dumb American, I'm going, well, wait, didn't we just attack your country? You see what I'm saying? So like, I'm, you know, try to back up to idiots like me and help, help us understand. Well, actually, and then show the last one. So it was a picture of contrast. So you have the Iranian people celebrating. No, no, do the one on the right. The one on the right is the one I want. So then this is New York's, no, one of the, yeah. So then you have Americans protesting. Yeah. Hands off Iran. Hands off Iran. So this is a protest in New York City. So help me. I haven't seen that. Yeah. So people in Iran are saying thank you. They're cheering. And the people in America are like, ah, bad. Yeah. Get hands off Iran. So help me understand, like, dumb American kid. Yeah. Okay, it seems like America just attacked your country. Why are the Iranian people celebrating us, quote, unquote, attacking the country? Help us understand. Yeah. Well, there are 90 million Iranians. And so ask 90 million of them. You're going to get very different answers. However, the overwhelming sentiment for those of us outside this place all over the world looking and saying this is an answer to prayer, this is what we've been wanting for our people, all the way from the actual people inside who are at the most been oppressed for all of these years. The overwhelming sentiment is gratitude towards America and towards the people that we're so grateful for, and the true, you know, allegiance, I mean, true allies who would step in to help us. It's almost like you got to understand the Iranian spirit. The Iranian people were going to do this on their own. Okay. It was going to give. 40,000, if not more, Iranians were killed in the last few months pushing up against these people, right, wanting these tyrants gone. And so all that's happening. But it's almost like this is a simplification of it. But it's almost. It's almost. It's almost like you're tasked to cut a two-acre lot and you got your rusty mower. And then your next-door neighbor says, hey, I got a rotten mower. You're like, come on, help me. Like the Iranian people are saying, look, they've got guns. We don't have guns. They've got tanks. We don't have tanks. They shut down our Internet. We can't communicate. And so when friendly allies come and help you, what happens is this is the Iranian people's good fight. At the end of the day. At the end of the day to fight. But it's good to get help. And so the gratitude shown by people in Iran and by people all around the world who know what's happening is thank you that you're grabbing the rope with us and pulling in the right direction. I would say I haven't had a lot of thought of it. I just saw this for the first time. I would say to the people in America that are yelling, aren't you glad that you've been afforded the freedom to say whatever you want? Wow. Because the people in Iran, it took this. 40,000. 40,000 of them got killed for that. When they do that, that's exactly right. And so I'm glad that you have the luxury to, I don't know, that looked like Soros money to me. But let's say it's not. I don't care. Like whatever it is, aren't you glad that you have that freedom to express your opinion and not have somebody over your shoulder imprisoning you, beating you, torturing you, murdering you because you have an opinion that doesn't go well with what they think? So what you're helping me understand, correct me if I'm saying this wrong. Yeah. It's like if. If somebody took out the top 30 leaders in America, like we would feel like, bro, you just attacked us. That's right. And because there's like a, hey, man. So like, no, no. Like, well, in general, people would not be cheering. Yeah. If somebody. But what you're saying is, hey, man, there is a massive radical disconnect between the general populace of Iran and the dictatorial leadership of Iran. That's what you're saying. If four bad guys came into your home and held your family hostage. Okay. And somebody with a. Sniper gun took out two of the bad guys. I'm not like, hey, why did you shoot someone in my house? I'd be like, thank you so much. Okay. Now, so that's the sentiment. Yeah. Now, that said, you got to, you got to understand the Iranian people. And again, I'm speaking collectively for over. Yes, of course. They have the heart of a lion. They can take that lion off the flag, but they ain't taking it off the spirit of the, especially the women in Iran. They are a ruthless. They are lionesses. Bro, I've seen some videos. Bro. There ain't no joke over there. So they were going to do this. And you got to understand. So this was. This was going to happen, but now it's happening faster. Now it's like, that's why you're hearing. Thank you, President Trump. You know, and I think in years to come, it'll be. We'll see. We'll see. I could be wrong. What do I know? I'm just some short dude living in out in Tennessee. But I think in years to come, we'll look at this moment in the Iranian history. And I think you'll see this as a moment where there will be, there will be statute. I think in years to come, this will be a great moment of, of alliance between. There'll be so much. Gratitude shown because the three feelings I had that day when I'm seeing all this go down is I'm terrified for my family. I want swift justice minimized. So what I want the least amount. I've got a cousin who has got MS in Iran. She has no electricity. She's, she's already not healthy. You know, so how do we get her out of this tyrant grip? Right. So I'm terrified for them. I'm exhilaratingly saying, this is what we've been praying for. And I also feel gratitude for the people that are coming to help us. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah. Okay. So like, let me just, if you don't got anything to say to this, that's fine. But I think there's factions in American politics that are like, Hey man, they're, they're looking at our administration and going like, Hey man, and by the way, this is not, you know, this, this conversation is not a commercial for the administration. Yeah. I'm just trying to verbalize something. So like, I think there's a lot of people who are like, ah, man, this administration needs to stay out of any conflict in Iran. What's this got to, what's this have to do with us at all? You guys are fighting, you know, this is kind of the language. We're fighting Israel's wars for them. What do you say to that? Yeah, I think, first of all, I get it, man. Like I've got a 401k plan. I'd like to see it do well. And I know we're all bracing on. So that matters. Yeah, sure. I think Halliburton stock is going to do really well. If we go to war, I think the banking side, cause I get, I get all the stuff that people say and I don't pretend to know all of it and I don't think anyone is. Pure in their incredible motives in all of this. There's machismo and this and, but look, man, I think many people have the luxury of saying, why are we, they're saying that's unnecessary intervention when they're not aware that if you ask the people in Iran, they would say, we feel like this was a very necessary intervention. And I would even take it further. And say, not just necessary intervention as it relates to the people in Iran, getting a chance for liberation, but necessary intervention for my kids and my grandbabies in Tennessee, your family here in Texas, because what people don't sometimes forget is for 47 years, Iran has been waging war against America. Yes. Right. That's death to America. All this. Yeah. They've shown their policy stated policy. Yeah. We always say when somebody keeps. Y'all in death to America, are you going to start believing that? And so for 47 years, whether it was the hostages, whether it was September 11th and the way they funded right, the Taliban, whether it was Hezbollah, whether it was the bombing in Beirut, where over 200 innocent Americans were murdered and they funded that whether it's. And so for 47 years, Iran has been waging war against this nation. Yeah. There you go. And so a safer Iran is not just the safer Iran is a safer. Bro. Tennessee. That's interesting. It's a safe. And so at what point are we going to look at this and say, this isn't us waging war, this is us actually stopping the inevitable. And so when, when a nation who's been told, look, you're saying you're just enriching uranium for power so that people get their lights on. Nobody believes that. And then, and then, and then literally, literally United States offers, let's get out our calculator and see how much energy that is supposed to produce. Yeah. We will in perpetuity. This is what America offered. We will in perpetuity give you that power. It's like we called their bluff. Yeah. We called it. And then they were like, no, thank you. Yeah. At what point. Yeah. Do people get their head out of the sand? Yeah. Pun intended. Yeah. And go, come on, man. Like, and then, so, so I don't understand why somebody would say, why are we going over there and fighting a fight that's not our own? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're a good fight to fight. Yeah. You guys figure this out. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. And so we're going to prime the pump and hopefully you'll go fight the good fight. Yeah. So I think my prayer is that this doesn't turn into something more. Yeah. I'm also not so naive as to think that people won't benefit if it turns into a war. Sure. Yeah. I'm also not so naive to think that we got midterms coming on. That's right. And maybe some people don't want this to be a win for Trump. And also I'm not so naive as to think that all the people that are into this are doing it for the purest thing of liberating the people. Yeah. It's complicated. Yeah. It's complicated. Yeah. But in the midst of all this complication. Yeah. All this chatter and people's opinions who don't know. Yeah. You think because your text feed and what's going on, you know, because, you know. Yeah. America's just turned into team Candace versus team Erica. Yeah. Team this. Yeah. Like you don't know. I don't know. Yeah. We don't know. But here's what, in the middle of all this, it's fine to have that dialogue and to see Seek understanding. I'm not telling you not to. Christians need to. walk into that and understand. As long as we understand these things, we don't know for sure what we do know, that we know, that we know, that we know, that we know, above the sun, the Solomons, under the sun, above the sun. What we do know is that right now, what has been stubbed behind the wall in Iran, what has been primed already is the single fastest growing church in the world. I want to get to this. The secret church in Iran, who could literally see this moment be where if a theocracy becomes a democracy, they no longer have to be the secret church. They can rise up and they can, this could be their finest hour. That's right. That's right. So that's what I do know. Okay. I want to get to that because that's what a lot, honestly, I didn't know this. I didn't know this until very recently that there's like a massive spiritual awakening happening in Iran. So, so let me, let me, let's go into some of this real quick. So like, again, I'm backing up the dumb, dumb American kid real quick. So like I started seeing stuff like this, go and put that picture up. This made no sense to me. I'm the dumb American kid. I always thought, Oh, I would hear Iran. And I was just saying, Oh, there's all Muslims over there. And then if you're just listening, you're not a YouTube. It's like, I started seeing these signs are apparently like becoming a thing. Yeah. So if you, if you can't see it, it says, I am not Muslim. I am Persian. I hate Islam. Okay. So, so help me understand. I just always thought, Oh dude, they're all Muslims over there. Talk, talk real quick before we talk about the growth of the American or growth of the, um, the underground church there. Talk, talk real quick about, yeah, the, the religious and spiritual dynamics over there. Well, let me just kind of ask it this way. Like how, how was religion working out for you? Like that's what people found out. Like, so the revolution happens 47 years ago. And imagine the majority of the overwhelming majority of that nation weren't even alive when that revolution happened. Right. So to them, all they've known are sanctions and oppression. And, uh, you know, they've got all the same problems we got. And so, except, you know, highly oppressed nation, right. And poverty and, and heroin addiction. And if you struggle with same-sex attraction, you can't even talk to someone about it or whatever, you know, like their attitude is like, we had seven gay people, we killed them. We have no more problem. You know, like that's, you know what I mean? Like, so that's, that's the level by which a human being who's going, I don't even know who to talk to you, what's going on. So Iran has been so under oppression for so long. So I would say most young people in Iran are not devout Muslims. They're actually just the distaste that they have for that regime. And they're kind of secular. Okay. See, I didn't know that. I didn't know that. You can't speak for everybody again, each their own, but I would say a lot of them are that. So I can tell you what political leadership was aggressively Islamic, correct? Yes. And officially as of this minute, they still are. Okay. Still there. Like we haven't officially, Lord willing, we'll be able to see a democracy, but, but yes, they are like, again, like in America, we have a separation of church and state. That's not a thing. That's not there. The church is not church. You know, the church is the governance. So it's like, it's not, Islam is not just a religion. It's an ideology and it's actually governance. That's exactly right. As a matter of fact, Islam is about 1400 years old. It started with one, it started in one nation, Saudi Arabia. Today it is 47 nations. Let me just throw this in for free. And they want more nations. Of course. You don't think the wars that are coming, you don't think every mosque, every like, they have a strategy. By the way, I don't blame someone for having a strategy. We as Christians have a strategy to advance. The difference between us is we are incarnational. They are like, we take over. We make it the law. Imposition versus invitation. And so the people of Iran in this moment, Josh, I think have a real distaste. And I'm speaking again broadly. Again, people are going to probably email that. That's not how I feel. Sure. But overwhelmingly, they have a real distaste for religion. Matter of fact, think about this sentence. Some of the most troubled places in the world are some of the most religious. So the people in Iran, in one of the most religious regions in the entire world, are. They're so done with religion, but they're so open to redemption. All right. Let's talk about that. To actual salvation. So here's some other stuff that blew my mind. So go to that next video, Trinity. So let's play this. You tell people what we're seeing real quick. I do badly, but yeah. They're singing Waymaker. So these are Iranian Christians. That's what they're singing? Yeah. So this is right after the strikes. So this is an Iranian Christian church. By the way, I just like wept. I legit, like when I saw this, I like wept at my desk. So then this is a Gospel Coalition article from a few years ago. So I'm catching people who are listening up to the story of Iran's church in two sentences. And then I won't read this whole article, obviously, but like here's one. Mark Howard's great. Yeah. So this is. Oh, Mark Howard's great. I haven't met Mark. So this is a picture of an Iranian Christian baptism service. And this is a picture of an Iranian Christian baptism service. Underground church there. And then here's, I'm going to read one quote from this article. More Iranians have become Christians in the last 20 years. Dude, I get emotional reading this. Yes, this is true. Than in the previous 13 centuries combined. Come on, bro. Oh my gosh. Okay. So let me ask this question. So again, a lot of American Christians think, oh, everybody is Muslim in Iran. But there's a lot of videos like that of Iranian Christians. What do you tell, you tell us, give us a postage stamp version. What's going on with the Iranian or the Christian church? What's going on with the Christian church in Iran? Man, the church in Iran. Again, it's, we know it to be our friends at Open Door, Voice of the Martyrs, people who are in the trenches, empowering the church, advocating for the church, convoy of great organizations that no one knows for sure because it's an underground church. Like you guys have a database and an app for your, you can tell like somebody's telling you this many people came on a Sunday. These are underground. There's no, on purpose, there's no networking. There's no paper. There's no Excel sheet. We believe that conservatively, conservatively, 5 million. Out of how many was total population? 90 million. Bro, that's a lot. Bro. That's a good percent. We believe the actual number might be up to 9 to 10 million. Believers are right now, and most of them young converts, most of them thriving. And what God is doing there is the ultimate, the ultimate Operation Fury Force or whatever. What he's been doing is not like we're doing the air war. He has been in the ground war and he had got no reason to come back. And so God has already got his church. And so God has already got his church primed there. So think about this. What if, what if, and while I got you, I'll just put you on record here. What if Lake Point, one of the greatest churches in the world, right now, I'd like to sign you on the title line. He's a deal maker. What if in three years, what if in five months, what if whatever that moment is, what if your church said, hey, listen, we have brothers and sisters, the church in Iran, needs to have the global church. We are going to partner with a city in Iran and we're going to equip them to do the work of ministry. And so what if the church in Iran in the next few weeks, because think about, do you remember, do you realize the trauma of the bombings and the torture and the hurt? Every one of these women, courageous women, and what's, but they've been the tip of the spear. So do you realize, so what if the church in Iran became the number one counseling arm to help people through? What if the Celebrate Recovery became a biblical way to do addiction? What if we help people with marriages? What if people were cutting up their credit card, getting their first one ever, and then cutting it up with Ramsey over there? So what if we equip them? And what if the most dangerous country in the world right now, the number one equipper, funder of terrorism in the world, stayed the most dangerous country in the world? But he became the most dangerous country in the world, as in we're advancing the gospel in the world. Injected into my veins. So I think God can do it. Can I tell you something? Because when you showed me that Waymaker video, Saturday, I get up, I see the news and I'm like their one Iranian friend a lot of my buddies have. Hey, that's why I called you. Exactly. I wish you could do a lot better than me, but I'm the one guy. So like my phone's blowing up and people haven't heard from me ever. Hey, man, what's going on, bro? We got you. Come on, dude. Do all your friends sound like me? Yeah, a lot of my friends are like, my friends aren't saying like, go Trump, or they're like, roll tide. I'm like, come on. You know, one of my friends is like, Auburn lost. You know, Iran won. It's a good weekend. I'm like, let's go. Anyway, so. My phone's blowing up. I'm side stage at a conference. It's a local one in, you know, in Spring Hill. So I got college students, high school students, and my phone's just going. And I'm, you know how you preach. Like, you got your microphone, you got your Bible, but your phone keeps going crazy. Yeah, dude, I had it two weeks ago. Yeah, and it's my fault. Like, why would I not have it? So I take my phone, I put it to the corner. I'm behind the LED walls and I'm hearing it. And I thought, in my mind, I thought, I've got to quit thinking about Iran for a second. And I got session. Session two. I got to get up there and preach this text. Session two. And so I thought, I'm going to close my eyes. and stop thinking about Iran. Bro, I closed my eyes and I feel like God gave me a picture. God gave me a vision. And as soon as I closed my eyes, I saw a soccer stadium full of high school and college kids singing. Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands. Thinking about no dominion, no power. And these people know about dominion and power because they had a monarchy that didn't do right. They had a theocracy that didn't do right. And they don't even really need a democracy. They need revival. That's right. That's right. And I thought, if you told me two months ago that that is a vision of what could happen, I'd be like, that's not a vision. That's a fantasy. There's no way in Iran in a soccer stadium, Christians are going to sing that song and not go to immediately. But it's. I'm sitting here and I'm like. And now it's possible. Dude. It's going to be possible. Dude. Can you imagine? I'm just like, I'm dreaming with you. I mean, the holy roar of the. If you're listening to me right now and you don't believe this, you do not know my God. That's right. If you told me when I was 18 years old and I got kicked out of the house for becoming a Christian, one day your dad would be a Christian, I'd be like, you don't know my dad. But God was bigger than my wildest dreams. If you told me, you know what I'm saying? If you told me one time that one day this youth pastor doing a small thing, a small group in Two Rivers Baptist Church would one day be one of God's great generals in his faith right now, I'd be like, that guy? Josh Howard? Look what. All of us are just like, look what God can do. That's right. Hit some pretty good licks with some cricket sticks. That's right. If you told me that one day. And by the way, my vision was not that I would be the one speaking side stage. I think I'll just move some monitors around. I think the kid who's probably going to speak at that soccer stadium, ain't me, I'm an old dude. It's going to be some young, audacious, pastor, the Josh Howerton of Iran. Abdul Howerton. He's going to get up there and he's going to do what I can't do. Amazing. And he's going to be a brand new believer and he's going to say, I got delivered out of. And so I really believe that. Now, that said, I don't know. I don't know if that's a vision or a dream. I can tell you. I want it to be a vision. I've been singing that all weekend. But that's the one thing we do know as the people of God. That God is up. That's why I took so much time to tell my story in the beginning. That what you saw as a horrible event, because it was a horrible event. What you saw as like, there was a revolution. A lot of people's lives were at stake and all these things happened and the bloody streets and all that. In the midst of all of that, if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't be in Rockwall sitting here with you today. You know, championing the gospel, man. That's right. And so what the enemy means for evil, God uses for his glory and our good. And so I believe that right now, I don't know how it's all going to play, but I believe that God has his people and something bigger is going on. So instead of focusing and putting all my energy and all the things I'm not sure about, you know, Tucker tells me one thing and Hannity tells me another. And this one, instead of. Sure, whatever you want. That's all that. Focus on what you do know. That's right. Let that be the biggest thing that's going on in your life. Wake up today as a believer and go, sounds to me like God's up to something massive. And how do I join that? Yes. Listen, I just want to connect the dots for a listener. If you think it is merely a coincidence that the country in that part of the world that is seeing the greatest uprising of the gospel in that part of the world or the whole world just so happens to be the country that is also potentially being liberated, you have not read your Bible. Exactly. You have simply not read your Bible. So like, listen, there's geopolitical things going on even more than that. There is advance of the gospel, kingdom of God, sovereignty of God, things going on. So let me ask. Can I talk about this? Please. So like people go, well, the Persian Gulf is why Iran matters even more than, you know, some of these other countries and stuff because that is like, that is, they can stop the flow of oil. That's fine. I just want when Christians to hear that and go, nothing will stop the flow of the power of the Holy Spirit coming out of Iran and doing mission work. You know what I'm saying? Like, again, like, what government can't do, God can. What the enemy means for evil, God can flip. The test God turns. So I've just seen God do the impossible over and over and over again. And so I just, it's fine to be down here, but you got to stick your head up here and go, what's God doing and how do I join it? Get up. Come on, man. So let me ask you this. And, you know, I don't know how you're going to, you can go whatever you want to with this. Oh, no, I don't know what you're going to ask me. No, so like, so like, like Muslims converted, so like, yeah, all right. One of our international mission partners with Lake Point is a dude in Ghana. His dad was an imam in Ghana. Like it's 90% Islamic country. And you hear these stories. This literally happened to this guy that is our mission partner, where he's like, he's a faithful Muslim and he has a dream. And there's all these stories about the man in white. And dude, I get emotional talking about it. This is like Acts 2, literally Acts 2. Young men will see visions. Old men will dream dreams. That's right. And, you know, obviously the book of Daniel. Yeah. I mean. Yeah. Exactly. Young men. Oh, all right. So then like, literally there's these stories. A lot of people listen, don't know this. There's these stories all over the world, just like our international mission partner in Ghana, who like a faithful Muslim goes to sleep and they have a dream. These stories of the man in white, the man in white appeared to me. I get emotional talking about it. Cause you know, it's like this book of revelation. Yeah. It's like literally book of revelation. The man in white appeared to our international mission partner in Ghana and tells him that he is Jesus Christ, that he is. He is the way, the truth and the life. Dude leaves his faith, leaves his family, gives his life to Jesus, gains a new family in the people of God. And now he's church planter in Ghana, you know, under threat of persecution and death. Amazing. So talk like, what's the deal? What's the deal with the man in white stuff? Muslims coming to Christ. Talk about that real quick. Man, God's. It's not that God's not, God's thinking if my church won't do it, I'll do it. God's like, we're doing this together. You get, you have the privilege of partnering. Partnering with me. And people are, Jesus is appearing to people all over the Middle East and he's tenderizing the heart of people. But, and Jesus doesn't need people, but he's letting his peace, give thing to people, the opportunity to then like, in one sense, close the deal. I have a friend, his name, he sells, he sells metal. I say he sells metal. He's very well, he's very wealthy. So he flies first class to Ghana. First class all over the Middle East and does what he does for a living. But he was going to retire, but then he realized, oh man, they're paying me all this money to go evangelize on their dime. So he just decided to get really intentional and just start sharing the gospel. Well, he's been working with this one guy in Dubai, his family. Every time he gets there, he goes and stays at a bougie hotel and they have a fat steak and they get to know each other. Well, he's been praying like, God, give me an inroad to this guy. Give me an inroad to this guy. So he goes over there, he gets to the hotel and the guy calls him and says, hey, I can't come to you, but why don't you come to our home? So all these years they've known each other, he's never been invited in. So he's like, oh. So he's like, I'm driving in now. So I'll meet you there. So he gets in a car, they take him to the house. He beats the guy to his own house and he knocks on, he doesn't know this, he knocks on the door. Maid comes up. He says, I'm the guest. They're like, of course. They bring him in the living room. He's sitting in this beautiful home of this Muslim family, devout Muslim family. And the husband hasn't come home yet. The wife comes down to greet him, be hospitable. And as soon as she sees him, she just kind of like freaks for a second, turns around and runs out. So he's like, did I offend her? I don't know the rule. Like, was I not supposed to make eye contact? I know I'm not supposed to shake hands, but like, what did I do? And so he's just nervous. Like, what did I do? The husband comes home and he's like, where's my wife? Welcome. And he's like, I think I might've accidentally offended her because she came, but she turned around and husband goes upstairs. They're gone for about 10 minutes. He comes down and he says, hey, I want my wife to tell you what she just told me. And the wife said, I've been having dreams of the man in a white row who's been coming to me. And he told me that someone from America with a beard is going to come to your house and he's going to talk to you about me. And when he does, I need you to listen. And then you came to my house. And so the guy's like, apparently we need to listen. I don't care what kind of sermon illustration you got. I don't care what kind of LED wall you got. God don't need, what he can do to soften the hearts of his people. And God doesn't even need my friend to share the, to be, he just let him have the gift. That's right. Single greatest thing that's ever happened to MJ was not like I sold a ton of metal, was like I went there and what I thought I couldn't do, God was like, you can't do, but we. Come on, man. And so God is doing that everywhere, but people are like getting together and they're going, I had a dream and I had a dream and I had a dream and I had a dream. And they're like, what was your dream? And then they're all like, well, apparently something bigger is going. So again, either all of this is real or it's like three songs and a TED talk. - Yeah, yeah. that's what church is, or God is actually real. He's actually on the move. He's actually changing the lives of people all over the world. And I think where there is desperation for him, where there is a lack of all the things we've been afforded here, the signs and wonders are on full tilt. They're on all caps. And I think God is doing those things right now in the Middle East to continue to draw the attention for something bigger. That's right. And this is what's so weird about that. I don't think it's just about the Middle East. It's not lost on me as I'm telling you this, that God actually sent me from the 1040 window to come and be an evangelist to America. I'm the missionary sent here. Wow. Like my crowd is not the Iranian crowd. My crowd is not the Middle Eastern crowd. Like I speak to soccer moms. Dumb Kentucky kids. Yeah. I tell cynical jokes. Read the Bible and tell, you know, it's like my crowd is like, you know, the college students in America, you know, like, but so it's not lost on me that God is going to, I think out of the Middle East, possibly through this, send missionaries throughout the world that will tell these stories of what, look what God did that will, that will stir the affections of people that are like, is God real? And they'll be like, I can't contend with that story. That's right. What are you going to do with that? So I think God all over the world. All over the world is doing that. And you've got a guy in your church. That's not a story. That's a person, you know, I know my friend who's saying he did for me what I couldn't have not done. That's right. The acceleration of that relationship where Jesus is like, he's going to come to your house. And when he does, you need to listen to what he has to say about you. That's right. That's right. If that's not softball teed up. Ain't nothing. Yeah. Nothing. And at that moment, all he's got to do is hold two things at once. The blood of the lamb, the word of his testimony. Come on, Revelation. David Nassar, thank you. Will you pray not just for us, but for the people of Iran? Yeah. Yeah. Would you do that, please? Lord, you know them by name. I don't know most of them by name. You're so amazing. You know the name of every single person that you died for. Thank you that God, you so love them that you gave your one and only son, that if they believe in you, they will not perish, but have eternal life. Thank you, Jesus, that you. My heart beats fast for him, but your heart continues to beat fast for him. I'm prone to wonder. Weeks like this, I'm just kind of thinking a lot about Iran, but you've never stopped thinking a lot about Iran. And so we pray in your accordance. What we want, you want more. And we pray, God, that you would save Iranians. Thank you, Lord, that Islam is evil, but Muslims, Muslims are your priority. And we pray, God, that you would give them a prize. That's right. Thank you, Lord, that you so love them, that you gave yourself for him, Jesus. Thank you. And so we pray that Muslims who are held hostage by this religion would be set free. They'd find you. They'd find relationships with you that would mark them forever and that they would be sent out, God, to do the stuff that Josh and I could never do. So we pray for revival for Iran, Lord. Would you do it, God? Thank you, Lord, that. That right now you're working. And we pray, God, for their protection, their provision. Lord, thank you for how this is also going to be about an opportunity to evangelize Iranians and people from Pakistan and people from Kurdish families that have moved here. This is going to be an opportunity, God, a talking point for people to, in a neighborhood in Texas, in Tennessee, talk to people from the Middle East. And so I pray people in America would come to know you that have come here because of what you're doing. Lord, we love you. We need you. Thank you, God. Without you, we have no hope. But with you, we come with this confidence. I pray that as you send your sheep among wolves, your secret church, Lord, that you would let them be able to be wise as a serpent, gentle as a dove. They'd carry themselves well. Thank you, Lord. Amen. Amen. Thank you, David. I love you, buddy. Thanks for letting me be on. Love you. So, all right. So here's a tinfoil hat question. Off air, we started talking about this, like, let's splice this in. All right. So a lot of people, particularly people who are like, and this is a theology nerd thing, just go with me here real quick, particularly from the eschatological conviction that is kind of like the George Ladd historic pre-mill, that kind of thing. Inaugurate eschatology. So a lot of people go, hey, man, if I'm reading Ezekiel 38 and 39 right, then the Gog Magog thing and all that stuff. And then it mentions Persia. And obviously, as we've just covered, Persia equals modern day Iran. That's right. So let me just ask you, and I don't know how you're going to answer this. You can take whatever direction you want, or you can say, I got no idea. Did he show my cards? Is he post-mill? Is he pre-trib? Wherever you want to go. I don't care. I don't care. So let me ask this question, because I think a lot of Christians are legit asking this question. Is war in Iran, do any of these events in your mind signal a potential eschatological event or chain of events? How do you think about it? Oh, by the way, by the way, for listeners, when I say eschatological, that's a big, fancy theological word for end times. End times. Yeah. Man, short answer is nobody knows, but the one who knows. And he's told us, when you think you know, then who do you think you are? However, that doesn't mean that we take our, like, I stood at Mount Majito. You stood there before, I'm sure. I stood there and I literally got my, it's the only time I've ever gotten my compass out of my. Oh, there's a compass on my phone. I wanted to see where's Iran. And I was like, this is not a supposed site. There will be the battle here. And when Jesus comes back, he ain't going to be humble Jesus born in a manger. It's going to be on a white horse. Tattoo on his thigh, sword out of his mouth. Yeah. This is like lock and load. And this is where it's going to, you know, this is God's promise. This is not a, this is going to happen. And I was like, where's Iran coming? Because in my mind, it's always been Iran is going to, scripture tells us where Iran, will play a role in being a coalition against Israel. However, I also feel like I was sidestaged the other day and I had a vision that God might let this be. So here's the short answer. I don't know, but I do know one thing. I don't know. But in the meanwhile, I want to win as many. I don't, I don't know what Iran is going to do as a government. I want Iranians. Come on, man. I'm not sure what side America will be on. I want Americans. And I'll tell you this. I don't know, I don't know the final score. I just know we freaking win. Yes. Right. I don't know whether we're going to win by 20 or whether we're going to win by four. I don't know. So I don't know the final score, but I read the end of my Bible. Every nation, every tongue, every tribe, there'll be Persians there. I can tell you one, Queen Esther, a Persian queen, she'll be there. So like, I know that in the end, we're going to win and Iranians will be on the winning side. And so it won't be about their nationality that will determine. By the way, it's the same for our friends in Israel. That's right. It won't be about their nationality. Same for our friends in America listening to me. That's right. There is no salvation. This is the greatest country in the world, but it's not going to find you salvation. Your ultimate citizenship is the eternal citizenship in the kingdom of God. So I'm saying to you, care about it, read about it, come up. I have my leanings, slightly more reformed. You can do the math. I mail a lot of reformed guys that I mail. I don't want to get emailed. Oh, you don't want to do it. I don't want to get mailed by young people with fuzz on their antlers who just want to beat up them. No, thank you. Anyway, whatever you say. Man, here's what I do know. I don't know how exactly, but I know Iran will play a part in it because scripture says it and that's good enough for me. Are you talking about Ezekiel 38, 39? Yes. I don't know what all that means. I just know at the end we win. And I don't even know when that is. And scripture tells me I don't exactly, but I have an urgency as you can sense it. I feel wired up, bro. As you can tell, we're normally more chill, bro. I'm like leaning in because my heart's beating fast right now. So in this urgency, I don't want to waste a day. I want to see as many Iranians at the feet of Jesus as possible. That's right. Not the nation. So rather than nation counting, I like the one citizenship that matters. Like not everybody listening to me, and this is not against them. I love America. Not everybody listening to me. Everybody listening to me, one day you'll no longer be an American. Of course. Yes. But one day you'll either be a kingdom citizen, or you'll be. So that is the ultimate allegiance that we have. Matter of fact, the most beautiful thing you can do for this nation is to not worship it, to put it in its proper place and say, it is the greatest country. Because sometimes people. I was talking to a guy, this nation, he was a Navy SEAL. This nation let him down, he feels. And I don't know his complete story, but I kind of spoke into his life and said, bro, maybe the reason you feel this way and you have a hard time trusting this nation, you feel bitter about it, is because you made too much of it and didn't have it in this proper place. Because I'm just telling you, it's an amazing nation. Whatever you idolize, you'll eventually demonize. That's right. Yeah, that's right. It's high honor, high shame. Yeah, yeah. Should have never. And so I think in Iran, there are Iranians who need to be at the right side in Israel. So I'm not telling you like, I don't care about the answer. You should care about the answer, but not at the expense of how many Iranians can get there. That's right. India can get there. To dovetail what Dave is mentioning is in Ezekiel 38 and 39, I think it's fair to say most Bible scholars view that as a second coming. It's like a prophetic foreshortening thing, dual fulfillment kind of thing, and that it specifically does mention Persia. That's right. In Ezekiel 38, it's clear as day. It's right there. There it is. So there will be something out of the nation of Iran towards Israel that will culminate in return of Christ. That's how a lot of people interpret that passage. But at the end of the day, how many national championships has Kentucky won? Seven. Do you know the score of all those games? No, I sure don't know. Who cares? It's seven. I'm a Bama fan. We are by far the greatest team in college football ever. How many national football championships has Kentucky won? Zero. That's easy. Anyway, so. You jerk. You're never allowed back on. So I don't remember one of the scores. What I remember is how many skills we put on the wall. I was wrong, bro. It's eight. We've won eight. You probably picked one of them. We got the Anthony Davis. Asterisk, yeah. So what matters is like, you know what I'm saying? We get caught up. Because here's the thing, man. Life is full of, as Christians, we're a war already won. Yeah. Even though we'll lose some battles. That's right. That's right. And so we get caught up in the score. And I'm not telling people not to care and not to lean and not to have urgency. But your urgency can't be, this feels like modern times. And your urgency has to be, I just, the Lord told me to evangelize. It's evangelism. That's right. That's the energy. It's the great commission. That's it. That's right. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises. Some say, some count slowness. But he is patient, not wishing that any should perish. Are we going to Iran, you and me? Huh? We're going to Iran? Bro, you call. You call me. I'm serious. Will you go? You call me. I would love to. I would, if I can figure it out, I would legit love to go. Saturday, I'm at that conference, bro. Yeah. By the way, you're one of the ones who texted me Saturday morning. Hey, buddy. What's up? What's up? So Saturday, my phone's blowing up. You're my token Iranian friend. Yeah. You're my favorite already. I'm like, thank you. I'm the only. You're my guy. Yeah. So we've been talking for 11 months to do a movie. And I can't get these people to stick the landing because I don't have, like, I don't have the time. I don't have the time. I don't have, I can, I don't have a big, so I'm a nobody. That's not true. So like, they're like, ah, we're thinking about doing this movie. Of course, on Saturday, they're waking up seeing this. And then all of a sudden they're like, let's do a movie. Because God, they're smart enough to go like, this is. A movie about your life. Yes. Yeah. It's awesome. Let's do a movie. Same people who did, I can only imagine. That's right. Yes. So I, I have a book called Jumping Through Fires where I share my testimony. And so they're like, let's tell the story in a redemptive way to gospel. So Scott Brickle, who is the man. The manager for Mercy Me is like doing the contract for this thing. So he, he, he and I are sitting, are sitting Saturday night. He and I are sitting in the parking lot of this church. Cause I'm done with the morning conferences. And, and, and he said, wouldn't it be amazing if you and some of your friends and me and Bart and all of us, wouldn't it be amazing if we had two movie premieres? He said, we had one up here in Nashville when the movie comes out. And then we went to Iran and we had a movie premiere in Iran and full circle for me. You go back and share the gospel with your story. So I was wondering if you want to come with me. Do it Lord. I'll come. If I can come, I'm, I'm, I'm in. Let's get a plane and. I'm in. Okay. That's it. Great.