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

Episode Date: October 5, 2026

Spiritual warfare is real—but should Christians be afraid of it? In this episode of LIVE FREE, Pastor Carlos sits down with Pastor Jonathan (JP) Pokluda for a practical conversation about how the enemy works, how Christians can recognize deception, and why Jesus’ victory gives believers confidence rather than fear. Then the conversation shifts from spiritual warfare to revival and evangelism. JP shares what he has witnessed among thousands of young people responding to the gospel and gives a simple, practical approach anyone can use to start conversations about Jesus. In this episode: How Satan uses deception and lies What it means to give the enemy a foothold How confession, accountability, and Scripture help us fight temptation Why occult practices should be taken seriously How Christians can stand firm without living in fear Signs of renewed spiritual hunger and revival A simple method for starting gospel conversations How to share Jesus even when evangelism feels intimidating Stand firm. Think biblically. Live free.  💬 This week’s giveaway: Comment HAT 🧢 Want a Live Free hat of your own? Visit LiveFree.shop 📲 Looking to grow deeper in your faith? Check out the Lakepointe App to access our Discipleship Guide, daily Bible reading plan, and more. Text APP to 20411 to download

Give the enemy an inch, and he will become your ruler. An open door is how a demon gets in. A stronghold is how a demon stays in. Satan is a legalist. He's just looking for a legal right to mess with you. Demons are legalists. They're looking for a legal right. They say, oh, now I got you.

Now I have the right to mess with you. Now I have the right to your children. Well, hey, Lifree Nation. Before we jump into the episode, this podcast is recorded right here at Lake Point Church in Dallas, Texas. But the Liv Free Nation is spread all over the country and all around the world. So if you've been watching and thinking, man, I wish I could be part of something like this, we want to invite you to take a simple next step, and that is join us for church online. Every weekend we stream our services live on YouTube, Facebook, and our church online platform,

and it's more than just watching a service. There are a live host in the chat, prayer team's ready to stand with you, and people all around the world worshiping together in real time. And so whether you're exploring the faith, coming back to church, or just looking for a place to start, church online is a great way to jump in, and experience what God is doing here at Lake Point. We would love to see you in the chat this weekend. And now, enjoy the podcast.

Well, hey, welcome back to another episode of the Live Free podcast. Today, I'm excited because I am here with the tallest theologian in Texas. That's not true. The Shaquille O'Neill of Young Adult Ministry and the bishop over at Baylor, Jonathan Procuda, Pastor Jonathan Perkuda.

Only here am I called the Bishop of Baylor, so I love it. I hope that makes it back to Baylor. Amen. Thanks for being here. Thank you for having me, man. Hey, thanks for sitting down with me and having a good conversation. Who would have thought?

We go way back, man. Honestly, who would have thought is true? I mean, I can remember the first time I wrote a book, Welcome to Adulting. And you put together like a list of people who are like influencing. You know, like this was, this is. And I didn't know what I was doing. That's just what they said to do. And it was like, Carlos, man.

My God. Yeah. I don't think I got that one though. You did. I think I got outdated. I promise you got well. Okay. But you might be.

I'm trying to remember. I'm almost positive. I'd be shocked if that's not true. Hey, well, we're going to talk about a little bit more about how I met you at some point and at the porch back in the day. But today we're going to have a good conversation, man. Man, this week, first of all, thank you for your sermon. It was amazing.

Thanks for letting me do it. Already hearing people talking about it on spiritual warfare. Today we're going to go even deeper on that conversation. So we're going to go spiritual warfare, demonic influences. We're going to be asking, hey, where's the line between a demonic attack and mental health issue like anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts. We're going to be unmasking some demonic schemes or strategies that Satan is employed in our culture today. We got some questions that people submitted on Ouija boards, spells.

We're going to do that. And then from there, we're going to go from demons to divine hope. We're going to be asking, hey, what are five signs of revival that we might be seen right now? Okay. And then you're the, you're probably the expert. You're probably the person that I know the most that it's like, you're a master at evangelizing. And so I want to pick your brain on that. I got some questions.

I'll take it. I mean, I don't know if that's true, but if I'm going to be known for something, I hope it's sharing the gospel, that's a real gift. So thank you for saying that. Did you say you do it every day? Try to every day. I said it the other day. So I say that, I say, hey, I asked somebody this every single day. And I was traveling with a guy for, I guess, seven days.

and he goes, you didn't, you didn't, and the sun was setting, you know. And he goes, you didn't today. Because I was with you all day. He said, you didn't today. And I was like, bro, I did it in the sermon. You preached the sermon. Yeah, that's right. In the sermon, did an altar call.

And he was like, oh, that counts. I was like, well, yeah, it counts if I have to, you know, so. I love he's keeping you accountable. Yeah. Hey, before we jump in, a couple things, because we like to do this every single week. We have a giveaway. So if you're on YouTube or Spotify, comment hat, we love to, you up. Also, if you do not win on a regular basis, but you do want to have kind of like the one.

They got a new hat, though. We've got a new hat. That's right. How fresh is that? You can get it at live free.shop or text the word hat to 20411. Also, we're trying to help you with your discipleship. So get the Lake Point app. If you do, you'll get the daily Bible reading plan, the weekly sermon and an early release of the live free podcast, in this case on spiritual warfare with JP. So to do that, text the word app to 20411 or go to Apple or Google Play Store. Hey, before we start, can I share a little something with you? Please. So this thing right here broke the internet this week.

I don't know if you saw this. So this photo over here is a screenshot of what somebody shared on X. And they said, this is up for people that are not watching. It's a photo of Jesus in the middle. And basically, he's surrounded by a bunch of different pagan gods. And the tweet says, hey, Grock, remove the fake gods from this picture. And so if you keep going, the next photo, this is what Grock said. It's basically just Jesus.

And there's nobody else. which is amazing. And Grock says, done. Keep going. And then somebody asked, like, first of all, the internet went crazy.

And then somebody asked, hey, Grog, why did you leave Jesus? And Grock said, because the request was to remove the fake gods. Jesus did not qualify. 13 million views.

And so, and then he continued to explain. Grog said, Jesus is not a fake God. He is a historical figure with strong contemporary attestation claimed divinity through resurrection accounts

that launched the world's largest religion. and stands apart from the purely mythological figures in that image. And then the person responds, hey, if they remain silent, the very stones will cry out. This is Luke 1940. He says, I see where we're going. Grog, you're essentially made of stones.

And Grogh says, Silicon from San qualifies. If the people stay quiet, these circuits will still testify. Luke 1940 holds. Bro, isn't that crazy? Right. It makes me emotional, man. Honestly. What does it make you emotional?

It's all true, bro. It's all true. It's just like, you know, I was raised in the church and I was not a believer. I was exposed to lots of church. I went to college and I partied my mind off. Like I just, I pursued the world. Vegas, clubs, drugs, cocaine, ecstasy, weed, lots of alcohol. And it somehow made it out of college alive. And I thought, I thought, I got to figure out this God thing. And I want to know who God is. And I really was certain he was not Christian. Because it was this logical thing I couldn't get past. I thought, if I was born in India, I'd be Hindu. If I was born in China, I'd be Buddhist.

If I was born in Israel, I'd be Jewish. If I was born in Iran, I'd be Muslim. And so I just start studying. I bought a book on world religions. and I wasn't a great student, but I just started studying the Hindu faith, the Buddhist faith, the Jewish faith, Islamic faith, Mormons, Jehovah's Witness, Church of Christian Science, Scientology. And I kept tripping, at that search, trying to find God, I kept tripping over Jesus. And I just thought, you know, in the Quran, in Islam, he's Issa, the prophet, Hindus are fine to worship him as a God, Buddhists are cool with Jesus. You know, the Mormons, Joseph's Witness, they all have Jesus in the story in the narratives,

Christian science as well, he's the way shower. And so I was just like, man, what is it about this guy who's born in Bethlehem, a really small town that everybody knows? Like, if you've ever heard of Bethlehem, it's a very tiny town. And then Nazareth, he lived in Nazareth as a carpenter. There's a city beside Nazareth, much bigger than Nazareth, that you've never heard of. And if you're not from the Middle East, you've never heard of it. it because Jesus didn't live there, but you've heard of Nazareth. He lived there as a carpenter.

And I'm like, how many carpenters do you know that reset time, 2026 years ago? I'm like, how did this guy become the single most polarizing character in the history of history? And so all of my searching, trying to find God, apart from Christianity, led me back to Christ. And I thought, man, this guy, how did he become so famous? And then I read in the Bible that it's because he died and he showed back up three days later. And Paul says, over 500 people saw him, go ask them. They're still alive. So what Paul is writing is within a lifespan of when Jesus raised from the dead and the people saw him. He's like, go ask, ask them. And so, and it's not, then I'd see the writings of Josephus Flavius, who's not even a Christian. He's a Jewish historian. And he writes about

Jesus and Pliny the Younger and Tacitus. And there's these other historical writings that support the narrative of Jesus. There's not a credible atheist today alive that would deny the existence of Jesus. We have archaeological evidence of this person, Jesus. And so when I look at that, and I'm just like, man, AI, which is so unbelievably dangerous and can be insanely demonic. And yet even the demons believe is what I would say. We're going to talk about spiritual warfare. Even the demons believe in Jesus. And so, yeah, it just made me, I had an emotional response to that, walking through that. Let me say this, too, because you mentioned that. One, Grock is right.

Yeah. What Grock said is right. And what I think a lot of people don't realize is the difference between Jesus and every other religion. Most religions at its core are all about how you can seek God. Christianity at its core. And by the way, this is good news. If you're listening, Christianity at its core is about how God seeks you. Yes. Jesus literally said, I came to seek and to save the loss. And if you think about it, again, you compared these other world religions.

Virtually every major religious figure in history points beyond himself to a path, a system or a belief system. But Jesus points to himself. Think about it. If you go back to the Buddha, he basically said, I am a teacher and he points to enlightenment. Muhammad said, I am a prophet and he points to Allah. Moses said, I am a messenger and he points to Yahweh. Jesus said, I am God before Abraham, I am. And he points to himself. And so here's the point. There is non-like Jesus.

And if the people remain quiet, even Grock will cry it out. Fax, he's the way the truth in life. No one gets to the father except through him. And if you go to the temple of the tooth in Sri Lanka, you're going to find bones of Buddha. You know, we have Muhammad's tomb. You know, we have these burial places of Joseph Smith and others. And yet I have walked in the tomb where Jesus was said to lie, and there's no bones there.

He is not here. He has risen. And if you had a single fingerbone of Jesus, if we found a toe of Jesus Christ, it would be the single most valuable object on the planet earth. There would be nothing. It would be absolutely priceless. All the golden Fort Knox would not be more valuable than that toe bone of Jesus Christ. And yet it cannot be found because it does not exist. It's a great start of the pod.

Hey, JP, the first time I heard you speak, it was 10 plus years ago. And I remember somebody invited to, somebody invited me to go to the porch service. I just moved from Michigan to Dallas. you showed up there, you get on stage, and I remember you started your message with a confession of sin. Wow. And you said, I was there, bro. I don't know if that was like a normal thing you did. No, I mean, I've done it before, but there was a time at the porch that I did it.

And I referenced it back because it's like a, it's a story I tell because, yeah. My first time, you literally show up and the whole pastor's there, he's going to preach. And, you know, I had a friend who said, hey, he's a really good preacher. you're like, hey, you literally, this is you, you're like, hey, Porch, I want to start by confessing sin. And then you know, and then you shared what you shared. And then after you said, would you forgive me? Yeah. And everybody's quiet in the room.

Yeah. And I was like, oh, man. What church is this? And then you said, no, no, I'm serious. I'm really asking you, would you forgive me? That's crazy. We're there. And it is.

And then people said, hey, we forgive you. And so, bro, since then I've seen you, you know, I got the opportunity to meet you at some point before you move to Waco, which I hear is a great city. Yeah, it's great. We love it. We got to visit at some point. And people know you today because you are, one, you're a great communicator. You're probably one of the best communicators right now, I believe, in my opinion. You're a great storyteller. You're very raw and you're passionate about what you're sharing in your own way. Preaching is sharing truth through personality. You have a very unique personality. You have a very unique story that God has used.

unique yeah yes i do yeah i do it's just it's true man um and uh today people see somebody that's very passionate about evangelism and bold in your preaching so here's what i want to ask you um how did you go from like were you always passionate or were you always like bold in whatever it is you believed it seems like you were seeking so that time i that i was talking about a second ago my first response to the gospel when i really like when i really understood the gospel was anger because i was like how did because i'd been in church my whole life and i'm like how did did I miss this? I had carried a golden cross down the aisle in front of the priest as an altar boy. I never knew that cross that I'm carrying was a payment for my sins. And this is why I'm always,

I'm like, in America, I mean, a lot of times when I'm sharing the gospel here in America, I'm sharing the gospel with people who claim to be Christian who've been in church their whole life. And I'm asking them, hey, how certain are you, if you died right now, how certain are you that you would go to heaven? And they're often like seven, eight, you know, six, five. I'm like, how many of your sins did Jesus die for? And so that, I mean, I was in corporate America and I just thought, if this is true, what else am I going to do but tell the whole world that this is true? Like, I've got to give my life to that.

And so I think that's where some of that passion comes from. Some people see you today and, you know, obviously God uses you mightily. What about your life today is different than perhaps like a normal person or perhaps a, quote, unquote, a nominal Christian? Well, a nominal Christian, I hope a lot. I mean, I mean, I always, I often say, like, if you want to understand, if you really want to know if you're a Christian or not, a follower of Christ or not, it's like, look at your prayer life. And I would say studying spiritual warfare for three years radically changed my prayer life. Because I just started praying differently when I understood, oh, I'm in a, I'm truly in a spiritual war. This is not just New Testament stuff. This is, you know, 21st century stuff. I'm in a spiritual war. I need to pray different. And then just, I'm in a spiritual war. I'm in a spiritual war. I need to pray different. And then just, evangelite, I mean, trying to share the gospel every day with somebody, at least one person. But if I just compare my life to when I was a pagan, I mean, the way I treat women is different. The way I talk is different. The way I talk is different. The way I, you know, what I do for a living. I mean, my language, everything changed.

And so, and, you know, the scripture said, I really think even in, even amongst pastors, and I don't think like I'm better than anybody else. I feel like Paul, the chief of sinner. There is times I still have to confess before a sermon. Hey, I'm going to, I did something last night that I would ask you not to do. And to be clear, to remove any mystery, what I mean by that is like, hey, I slowed down on a reel. You know, on Instagram, I was looking and something caught my eye, and I looked lustfully at an image. And I want to confess that because I don't want to hide it.

you know, what you hide will take you out. That's what you said. Obviously, 10-plus years ago. That's what it was. I remember. And I'll tell you another part of that story is then a seminary had asked me to come and speak on how to reach the next generation. And I told that story because the punchline is that night, they didn't have anything to do with the sermon. I prayed and then I preached a sermon that had nothing to do with that.

And then that night was the longest line. And the security had to shut us down because at 11 p.m., we were still there meeting with people. And nobody wanted to talk about the sermon. They were like, hey, I'm struggling too. Hey, how do I get free? How do I find free? I'm struggling. Me too, me too.

That's right. And so I was like, had those conversations. And so I said that at a seminary who asked me how to reach the next generation. I said they want somebody that's going to be real with them. And the feedback I got afterwards because they filled out comment cards was like, hey, how dare you use the word pornography in a mixed gendered audience? And you have to present to be holy. I remember one said, you have to present to be holy. And I was reading these comment cards.

And I just started weeping, like weeping hysterically. because I was like they'll never reach them. Who said this? It was people who were preparing to be pastors, and they were at this seminary, and they wanted me to talk about, train them on how to reach the next generation, and they were saying,

hey, you need to present to be holy. I was like, you're never going to reach the next generation. Who taught you to be that raw? I just, I never learned to play the church game. You know, it's like, I mean, we went to a church, and it was, there was a season where it was like, hey, tuck in your shirt, and let's go in here and act like we have it all together.

But then when I got saved, all I was really, I mean, I didn't have seminary, I didn't have Greek and Hebrew. All I really had was like, hey, I know those guys. I was just one of them. You know, I know what they're struggling with. I know what they're thinking about. I know how they're wrestling. I know where their questions for God because I had all their questions. And so that was like honesty and authenticity was all I had to offer. Yeah, that's great. Well, well, there's clearly got to using that. God has used you for that. Obviously, there's wisdom in what a preacher shares from stage. but the fact that you did share that I can see people connecting obviously to it, especially now,

because it seems to me like we don't talk enough about lust and just the ubiquity of social media and all the toxic content out there. Bro, let's go spiritual warfare right now. You just preached on the armor of God, discipleship, really practical. Basically, if you haven't heard it, you can go back. You can find it on our YouTube channel. Your whole point is Christianity is not a playground. It's a battleground.

And what I want to do is I want to go deeper into some of the things that you share, So you said you've been studying spiritual warfare for the last two to three years or something like that? I studied it for intently for three years. What prompted that? Just somebody said, what prompted it is somebody was late for church and they said my car wouldn't start. My battery was dead, spiritual warfare.

And I thought, how in the world does a demon drain a battery of a car? Like, can they even do that? Sure. And then I had these questions like, what can demons do and what can they not do? and I kind of grew up in, you know, if Satan wants to mess with you, he has to ask for permission. And then I was like, well, man, how cruel is God that he is letting Satan, you know, give people cancer? And I just was like, I had all these questions. I'm like, I know God is good, but why does he let Satan do terrible things if he's asking him for permission every time?

And I just had all these questions. So I went on the research project and read, you know, I just started looking at. looking at everything the Bible says, because I didn't want to be corrupted by commentaries. I don't want to hear somebody else's opinion at first. I just wanted to see everything the scripture said. And there was all of these things in the Bible that were normative that I didn't see as normative or learn were normative.

And then I started to read, you know, people much smarter than me and try to make sense of it all. Okay. Second Corinthians 2.11 says, So that Satan will not outsmart us, we need to be familiar with his evil schemes. Yeah. So scripture literally tells us,

hey, like, he's going to, Satan's going to play you if you're not familiar with how he operates. So here's what I want to do. I want to ask you. Which is great because I think some people say, like, if I learn about this, is something bad going to happen to me? Sure. And it's like, the Bible tells us to learn about this so that something bad won't happen to us, you know, so that we won't fall into the evil schemes of the enemy. And you're in the middle of a spiritual war. So it's actually like worse if you're not aware of what's going out around you. It's actually ignorant.

You're losing. That's right. So let me bring your sermon. The whole point in the podcast here, we, say, hey, this is not think-free, this is live-free. So what you shared in the sermon, we're going to bring it to an application format here. So on the ground,

what do you think are some of the strategies that Satan right now is using that most people perhaps are not even realizing. If you had to force rank, top three, what would you say? He's a liar. And so he just, he just, you know, feeds us lies. And he, you know, Jesus

prayed for unity. Satan divides. And so he's trying, I'm like, I really, like, you can look back on 2020. And I think there was a, and this is somewhat conjecture, you know, this is my, at an opinion level. But what I think happened in the demonic realm was like, he gathered all the demons and said, hey, I just want you to divide them. I want you to divide them politically. I want you to divide them socioeconomically. I want you divide them, you know, by the color of their skin. I want you divide them on vaccines or no vaccines, masks or no vass.

And you look back on that season, and it worked. I mean, I think that's what happened is we were just like the most divided we had ever been in my lifetime. I won't say in history, but I'll say in my lifetime. And then I would just say, I do. I mean, there's like the conspiracy theorists that are like, oh, there's these Hollywood upper elites and they're doing crazy stuff. It's like, well, here's the deal. He certainly has a plan through media, you know, through. movies, television shows, music.

It's like our grandmother was right, and she's like, hey, garbage in, garbage out. It's like, that's how God made us. Like our brain, our mind and our heart, our social quotient, and our mental state, it's like a sponge, and it's absorbing things. And if we feed it poison, it's like we become poisoned. Our thinking becomes poisoned. And so that's why he says, I mean, the Bible tells us, whatever's true, whatever's noble, whatever's right, whatever's pure, whatever's lovely, what is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy. Think about these things, Philippians 4-8.

Set your mind on the things above. Romans 12, 1 and 2, do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Battles, wars are fought over real estate. The spiritual war is fought over the real estate of the mind. Satan is after our thinking. And so you can see, like, when we start to confuse things like gender, as an example, right? He wants us to be confused on what is male and female. This is like biological basics foundation of creation.

And you just see the lies of the enemy being infiltrated in culture. And then what he does is he tries to divide us over such things, over what's true. And so, yeah, that's what I would say is like, hey, anything that you, Proverbs 4 talks about, like, what you see, what you hear, where you go. you know, the Proverge's also who you hang out with. And so I think anything that can infect our heart, that's what he's working through. I want to click on one of the things you said on, because first of all, you didn't ask me to do this, but you wrote a book called Your Story Has a Villain.

And you kind of unpack several strategies that the enemy uses, and they all start with a D. And I love, I appreciate it, by the way. So right now you're saying, so first of all, you know, highly recommend it, go get it. the idea of the way Satan operates being through lies. So I want to click on that because I want to make sure people understand what we're talking about here. So can I show you this is probably one of the most helpful illustrations when it comes to talking about the lies or the deception that Satan plays with Christian. So that video is a video of a, I don't know if you've ever done this where like you draw a circle around an ant. And then what you see is basically like the ant is like, man, I'm trapped.

and it's trying to escape and it's stuck and it's paralyzed and it can't really go anywhere but what you don't know or in this case what's happening is basically the ant thinks it can't go until it kind of overcomes it and then it happens again and then it's trapped

I believe that right there is a great picture of how the anime operates with Christians often because his main strategy is to use lies his deception we think that we believe something that is not true and then we feel stuck, you can stop playing that. And based on what you said,

that's what Satan is, the father of life. Yeah, the D is deception. And the demons, because, okay, so Satan, we talk about Satan. Like, Satan has never probably been anywhere near me. He's not omnipresent. And so I do think the spiritual realm works different than the natural realm, but Satan can't be in lots of places at one time.

So what I believe from Revelation 12 is that one third of the angelic realm fell with him. And those angels are here as demons. Satan has an army that he leads. And so you might, you know, if you go, Satan, is Satan attack me? And it would be like a talking about the ruler, like Vladimir Putin is attacking Ukraine. So, but he's not. Like he's not charging Ukraine with a gun or missile launcher. Like he's in a bunker somewhere.

be commanding orders. And so that's how Satan is attacking. He's leading an attack against Christians. He's leading attack against what is good, right, true, and noble and holy and godly. But we have demons around us, and those demons try to deceive us. They just tell us things that aren't true. They're bullies. I mean, just like the person drawing that around the ant is they're just bullies, and they operate in fear. And so, like, when people are afraid of this stuff, it's like they want you to be afraid. They try to appear bigger than what they are. They try to appear more powerful than what they are. But we don't believe in dualism. Dualism is like good versus evil and these are two opposing, equal and opposing forces. It's like God who is sovereign over all of creation. And then Satan,

who's like a cockroach that just is just messing with people, you know. And you mentioned this in your sermon, and you're really good at this, that the way you combat lies is with what is true. That's right. Jesus said, I am the truth. And in the armor of God, the sword of the spirit, or the sword is the word of God. And actually, I got this from your boy, Forrest Frank. He shared a post about this. So these are the emergency numbers

that every Christian needs to have saved and ready to use any moment. So check this out here in just a second. I'll also share with you what's God's phone number. I love this so much. Are you looking for peace and rest? Matthew 1128, Jesus said, come to me, all you who are we?

and carry heavy loads, I will give you rest. If you're feeling sad or depressed, John 141, don't let your heart to be troubled. Trust in God and trust also in me. If you're feeling weak, Psalm 18, 1 and 2, I love you, Lord, you are my strength. You are the rock, my salvation, and my fortress. If you're feeling lonely, Psalm 231,

the Lord is my shepherd. I have everything that I need. Have you sinned? Psalm 5110, created me, oh Lord, a clean heart and renew a loyal spirit within me. Are you afraid? Psalm 271, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Why should I be afraid? Are you anxious?

Philippians 4, verse 6 to 7. What does it say? Do not be anxious about anything but in everything but prayer and petition, present your request of God and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding. Guard your hearts, minds of Christ Jesus. And with Thanksgiving is in there. Do you need direction? Psalm 73, 24, you, Lord, guide me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny.

And finally, this is God's personal phone number. You ready? Yeah. Jeremiah 33.3. Let's go. Ask, and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things yet to come. Here's the point. In Christ, the line is never busy.

The number never changes. And God always hears when his children call. Come on. That's good news. Let's go forth. That's good news, man. Praise God. Okay, so let me shoot some rapid fire questions on all things, demonic stuff.

By the way, GP, I don't know, did you feel, when you prep for this stuff, do you ever feel like a heaviness? Sometimes, and I just like pray. I'm like, Lord, would you bind the demonic forces coming against me by the blood of Jesus in the name of Jesus? Create this holy ground as I prayed beforehand, just help us to facilitate this conversation and protect us. I mean, prayer is an amazing weapon. That's why Ephesians 6th, he ends and pray and all of these things pray at all times. I will, like sometimes I'll feel like foggy-brained, like kind of like you're in a fever dream. And I think that's like what I perceive to be a demonic attack.

Yeah. I did that often. Like any time I either preach or address something demonic related, it's like a heaviness. Yeah. Anyways, here are some questions people submit it. So Pastor Jonathan Piccutta, if Satan was defeated at the cross, what exactly is he still doing today? Yeah. Satan has profoundly excellent theology.

his theology is better than ours i mean he's he's read the back of the book he knows his destiny is the lake of fire and so he's running a scorched earth strategy and so scorched earth strategy if you're not aware is like hey if you're losing the battle and you're in a you're in a territory you just burn everything down destroy the buildings destroy the houses you know kill the women and children like just just burn it all to the ground and so satan is running a scorster strategy where he's just trying to i mean Like people say, you know, why did God create evil? God didn't create evil. God created an angel good.

He created him to be good. There was free will in heaven. And that angel said, hey, I don't want to worship you as God. I want to be God. And so God sent him here to the earth, a planet, and said, we'll see what kind of God you could be. God could have obliterated him. Could have said, man, you're destroyed. You're done.

You came against me, no way. But I believe so that angels see that, hey, God is ultimately good and one rebelled so that angels won't rebel in heaven later. So there will be no rebellion later in heaven that we have all the revelation we need. God said, okay, let's see what kind of God you can be. And so here he is, and he's trying to lead people astray constantly. And so every day we wake up, it's like, I'm either going to go the way of the 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 4, God of this world. You ask a bunch of Christians, who's the God of this world? And they're like, Jesus, Jehovah, Yahweh.

Well, 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4 says Satan is the God of this world. So he's the lowercase G, God of this world. Are you going to worship him? Are you going to worship the creator of the heavens of the earth? Yahweh, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the one true God. And when we go and we go the way of Yahweh, the one true God, we find life. When we go the way of Satan, we find death. This experiment has played out in front of us over and over and over.

Go to anywhere where people say, hey, we want free. We want the freedom to rebel. We want government-given drugs, you know? I mean, like, this experiment has not worked. I mean, cities have changed. Like, you don't, those places that were once thriving and beautiful and safe and had your favorite coffee and your favorite ice cream store, now you don't want to go there because someone was handed a crack pipe on.

taxpayers' resources, and it's not safe. And you can get, you know, killed on the side of the road. And there's people hunched over like zombies because they're doing drugs out in the open. It's like that, we have that experiment right in front of us. So God did not create evil. God created good and gave the option for evil, because for God to be God, we have to have the option. and where there is God, there's goodness, where there is no God, or where we push God out of places, there's violence, there's evil, there's profane things. I'm like, this experiment is played out right in front of us all the time.

Just open our eyes and use logic. God is amazing. I mean, you can, you know, Jesus said we're salt and light. Where Christian values are lived out, society has thrived. That's right. There was the chief bureau for, and what was it, it was in Beijing. They studied the success of the West. And they said at first we thought it was your economy, and then we thought it was your military.

And we've actually found out it's your religion. And where missionaries have gone over here, opium has declined, opium uses has decreased, and the people had more money. They were wealthier. And it's not the prosperity gospel. It just turns out, hey, you use less opium. You have more money, you know? And they were saying, hey, this is actually what has caused the success of America.

It's your Christian values. Do you move away from those Christian values? You're going to see decline. Right. Where, you know, in Amsterdam, there was what was called the Golden Era. it was known for these beautiful cathedrals, like beautiful church buildings, where people would go to worship, God.

Now, Amsterdam is known for secularism and sex trade, and a lot of those cathedrals are now skate parks and museums, you know, it's just like... So somebody's saying, yeah, JP, but that's so that's the devil working, but I thought at the cross, Jesus defeated Satan. So why is he still doing stuff? We're in this middle ground, you know, theologians call already not yet. where Satan, like the power of sin and the penalty of sin is paid for by Christ.

And so I know that my future is secure. But ultimately, I'm still here. Like Jesus hasn't come back and set the new heaven, the new earth in place. And so Satan is running this scorcher strategy trying to make hell crowded. Like, he doesn't want to be alone in hell. And so he's trying to fill hell up by dragging people there with them. And that's why Christians have to march forward. when you when I say you're in a spiritual battle you to be a good soldier it's like no no good soldier is caught up in civilian affairs

he aims to please his master's commander in chief and so we're like all right lord what what work do you have for me to do here when god saved you he didn't take you home he saved you and left you here to do the good works which he's prepared in advance for you to do ephesians 210 and so you and i are living the christian life helping trying to make uh partner with the holy spirit to make heaven crowded yeah so colosians 2 15 7 in this way he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. I believe it was Charles Spurgeon that said in a sermon, you have to contend with a defeated foe.

Yeah. He said, though he may fight with desperation, he is hopeless of ultimate victory. And I think that's important to know because, again, when we're talking about fighting spiritual warfare and the devil is attacking you, we're not trying to beat him. Like Jesus already did that at the cross.

Yeah, and you can't. And he's strong. That's right. And you can't. So that's right. So here's a quick illustration on it. I think so, you know, I'm not from Texas originally, but we did find when I moved, I remember, I didn't know, I didn't know black widow spiders were dangerous. And so I saw one in my house and I was like, oh, little guy, you know, and my wife's like, what are you doing?

Like, don't touch that. And, you know, now I know better. He's not from Texas. I can tell by the way. Exactly. That was me. That was me, bro. And then my son now is four.

And literally this week, you know, I found a black widow in my garage. And I'm like, oh, you know, it's the time of the year. I got a call of those guys. So they come, they spray. Basically, once they spray it, I get a call, hey, we did it. In my mind, I'm like, it's over. You know, like, I won. No more black widows in my house.

He sprayed all over the house. I'm not stressing about those things anymore. Yeah. Like, I am confident after that, that the battle has been won against those black widows. And their defeat and their death is guaranteed. Yeah. It's over. but you've got to give it a minute

because so I got to teach my son hey like you can spray it but technically for like a little while they can still bite you they can still attack you that'll preach and so you know you gotta be mindful of that and so I want him to be not afraid but I want him to be aware

and so I think the same thing happens with the cross you look at what the Bible says the Bible says Jesus defeated Satan at the cross game over Satan lost you and I are not fighting because we're trying to beat the enemy. The enemy has been beaten at the cross. And for a little while, he's trying to do a little something here, but our hope is found

in Christ. And the fact that he already won gives us confidence in victory. We walk in victory. When I signed a contract to write that book, your story as a villain, I mean, terrible things happened to me. Ultimately, I ended up in the hospital for 16 days. Okay. And after you signed the contract?

Yeah, yeah. And, you know, I mean, just dumb things. Wait, so how quick after, or like, how soon after? Oh, man. I was sued. I got sued within 14 days of signing it. So within two weeks, and it was like,

people were like, was sued for what? It was like the craziest, most frivolous lawsuit was thrown out. But I was sued within 14 days. And then I was, and then I ended up ultimately in the hospital a year ago today. I mean,

I was like getting out today a year ago. How crazy is that? It's crazy. I have a similar story, but go ahead. And so people are like, gosh, you know, Are you afraid? I've never been, like the big takeaway, I've never been less afraid.

Like, all of my confidence in that we have everything we need to be victorious only increased. And everything, it's Romans 828 for God works all things together for the good of those who love him who've been called according to his purpose. But the Old Testament version of Romans 828 is Genesis 50, 20, what the enemies meant for evil God uses for our good. Yes. So, like, it's like, with judo, you use your enemies of force against them. And so Satan does something, and there's always a way that God can use the evil that Satan does for good. And you just have to find that way. And then it will be multiplied.

The good will be multiplied over the bag. Here's 1st Peter 5A, your adversary of the devil prowls around like a roaring lion. So to recap what you just said, the same New Testament that tells us that he's defeated tells us, hey, stay alert. That's right. Here's another one. Resist him standing firm in the faith. Stand firm. Pastor Jonathan Becluta, in the armor of God, why is the back not protected?

Yeah, because we're charging forward. But the other thing is, like, they say with the Roman shield was actually to protect your neighbor. Like, you would stand by, and what they would do is they would take it. It's like a five-foot door, and you would actually guard your neighbor. And so that, like, I've heard people talk about, like, the importance of community and doing life. together. Yes. But yeah, man, we're we're charging forward. The enemies the enemies in front of us go after him. They call us to stand firm. Move forward. That's right. Here's another one. What does giving the devil a foothold mean and what are some examples? So when you sin, you let them in. And this is, I mean,

it's super simple. When you sin, you let them in. And so, you know, we talked about lust at the beginning. So like pornography is Satan's iconography. It's not innocent. when you give yourself to that, it's demonic worship. I mean, truly, and people are like, man, you sound like a conspiracy theory. I'm like, no, this is, this is,

you are giving the devil a foothold. And when you do that over and over and over, you have now given him a stronghold in your life to take you somewhere. And again, your brain, if you think about your mind and your heart, like a sponge, that sponge is either pure,

it's pure and holy and lovely, or it's corrupt and it's broken and your thoughts are perverted. And what the hope I would give somebody is you can purify your mind. Like you can resist the devil to the point of like all of a sudden my thinking is now clear. And the thing that I thought I would give myself to over and over and over for the rest of my life, I'm actually pure from. This happens with alcoholics. Like they, I mean, I was ministering to somebody who would wake up in the middle of the night

because they couldn't make it through the night without alcoholics. alcohol. So they would wake, they would keep, you know, a truly or a white claw by their bed, wake up in the middle of night just to get through the night so they didn't go through withdrawals. They go through rehab and now they're actually like pure, they're clear thinking, you know, their children got their father back, their wife, his wife got his, her husband back. And it's like, that is possible. But like we give ourselves over to these demonic strongholds through sin, through the things that we do that God asks us not to do. Like our language, man.

Like, people think I'm, I am not a legalist. Like, I love life. I enjoy life. Like, I am, you know, if the Bible doesn't say it sin, I'm willing to do it or try it or see it or, you know, go there. But, but like, good disclaimer. He says, do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth,

but only what is helpful for building others up so that it may benefit those who listen. like cussing was cursing till the 1840s and we dropped the R because of a a uh huh I didn't know that yeah because of a what is it called like an accent okay and so the r fell off so like it's the same word yeah yeah interesting cursing like they say oh don't curse sure you know don't cuss yes it's just cussing is just an American way of saying cursing and and that it's true like you you can curse things I mean Jesus curse the fig tree like cursing Like cursing is a real practice.

Words are powerful. How did God create? He spoke things into existence. He gave our words power. This is why the scripture says, don't let any unholesome talk about it, but only what is helpful for building others up and may benefit those who listen.

We don't understand how powerful our words are. As a parent, you'll learn. Like you are either raising your kids up in truth, speaking life to them, or you're beating them down and defeating them. That's why, like, you coaches, you dads, I'm not trying to make you weak. I mean, you can be clear and clarity and courage are great things,

but be careful not to destroy your kids with your words, man. You will tear them down. Yeah, in Spanish, to bless is to bend-de-seer, which means to say good. Basically, that's literally what it means. And then to curse is to mal-de-circir, which means to speak ill. Yeah. So anytime you're speaking ill. So you're saying swearing is a sin?

Yeah. Okay. All swear words? I mean, words are letters and syllables put together with sounds. I get that. It's the heart behind it. He says, Jesus says, out of your mouth, the heart speaks. Yeah.

But I, you know, I would be cautious if somebody's like, yeah, I'm using this word, not in that way. Just, just, here's what I would say. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth. That's a Bible verse. But only what is helpful for building others up so that it may benefit those who listen. That's pretty clear. Do not let any, but only. That's the Bible.

It seems like it includes swearing and other words that perhaps are not necessarily bad words, but they're unwholesome and they're not helpful. That's right. And I'm going to go back to this. If you do that repeatedly in your home, it's like you're everything, like nothing's neutral, you know, and the demons are watching us. They're around. And so you're just giving them permission to mess with your lives.

I mean, it's all true. That's what I try to tell you. It's all true. It's all true. So that's a command. which means if we disobey as Christians and followers of Jesus who want to become more like him, that's called a sin. That's right.

And a sin, you let them in. If you sin, you let them in. A sin is what eventually gives the enemy a foothold. A foothold, which can then become a stronghold. That's right. I've heard it said before to an open door is how a demon gets in. A stronghold is how a demon stays in. So like some people are going to watch this right now and they're going, oh, but I can't

I can't stop cussing. Okay. That's a stronghold. Why, J.P? because it's like an addiction. Right. So when you send, you let them in, and you gave them a foothold,

that foothold became a stronghold. And whenever you're like, I can't stop, it's, you're stuck. Yeah. You know, all the more reason you need to stop. Okay, so we're going to help that guy right now.

So he's for the guy that's like, man, I can't stop swearing right. Okay. This is like my family. Like, this is what I've done my whole life. I'm going to let you answer that and I'll just add color to what you're saying. What do I do now?

Yeah. So you invite in accountability. So you acknowledge it. You say, hey, this thing that I'm doing is sin. I want to repent. Repenting is simply turning from sin. So when you sin, you let them in, I'm turning now from the thing where I let them in, and I'm turning to God. And I'm saying, hey, I want to grow my relationship with Christ. I want to invite an accountability. James 516 says, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. So there's a healing that happens only with communal prayer and confession. And so every day, or every week, I meet with other. guys and we do we answer three things my friend john came up with these um how did you feed your soul how did you feed others how did you feed your flesh input output confession how did you feed your soul this is um what i'm listening to and what i'm reading that stirs and grows my affections for jesus the scriptures christian books those kinds of things how did you feed others this is evangelism and discipleship who did i get to share the gospel with this week what conversations have i had

that jesus was the center of and then how did i feel you my flesh, this is confession. Hey, I bought this thing I didn't need. Hey, I lost my, I lost my temper with my kids. I was short with my wife. I, I, I, I slowed down on a reel. You know, I looked at something I shouldn't have looked at. And then the next person will pray for me. So they pray over me, and then they go. And so we practice that every single week. It's just in a James 516 kind of way. So if you could say, hey, I can't stop doing anything. Vaping, you know, cussing. And spending, you know, going into debt, whatever it is. You say, I need to invite an accountability

and then tell them what to ask you. Sometimes people get frustrated with accountability. They're like, well, they don't know what to ask. Like, well, you're the expert on your sin. Tell them what they need to ask you. Confess it and have them pray regularly. And then James 5, I'm James 5, Matthew 5, talks about removing access.

She says, if your eye calls you, gouged out, if your hand calls you, send, cut it off, or it's better to end the kingdom of heaven without an eye or hand than for your whole body to be dragged away to hell. And so again, the spiritual warfare, Jesus is talking about it. So, you know, you may need to get rid of your phone. You may need to get rid of Instagram.

You may need to get covenant eyes on your phone. I mean, you can do things to make it difficult for you so that you remove access to the sin that you continue to fall into. Deficience chapter 4 verse 26, that's where the verse comes from on the don't give the devil a footh. And so... And in 29 is the do not let any unwholesome talk. Oh, interesting. Yeah.

Okay. so there you go. There's a demonic connection with your unwholesome talk and giving the devil a foothold. And interestingly enough, this is also for people wondering, man,

what are other ways you can give the devil? The word foothold in the original language is just means like you're giving them an opportunity. You're giving them a space in your life. You don't want to give the enemy some space or a little bit of space in your life. This verse, all throughout the Bible, you see that scripture ties in

specific sins with demonic activities. It's really interesting. So right before this verse, it's talking about unresolved anger. Unforgiveness, habitual, unrepentanted sin. Again, this is giving an opportunity for the devil to get in somehow in your life, falling into sexual temptations, 1st Corinthians 75, pride. Believing lies, when you, in your mind, you accept something that the devil whispers in your mind and you believe it, that's giving the enemy room in your life.

Isolation would be another one. Here's another one, occult practices and deliberately engaging, with forbidden spiritual practices. So here comes the next question. Pastor Jonathan Pagluta, but what about Ouija boards? We're Halloween or Halloween's coming up soon. You know, it's in a movie or it's just a game

or, you know, my buddies got together and we thought it would be fun to try out tarot cards or whatever. Horoscopes even are those spiritually dangerous? Give the enemy an inch and he will become your ruler. I've read that on a coffee cup. But here's what I would say, yeah, man, And verse Thessalonians 5 says flee from even the appearance of evil. And like if it's evil, man, don't don't touch it, kick it, smell it, you know, taste it, sniff it.

Like you run from it. And, you know, it's interesting because like there's a guy right now that was a, he's left the occult. He was a Satan worshipper. And he just talks about how much they love Halloween. What does that even mean? Satan a worshipper. Like he, like, you know, this is the thing that I don't think we understand. For the normal person asking.

We forget, you know, it's like, man, demons are powerful. Satan is powerful. Like, I remember being in Haiti and like they, at the time when I went, they said, Haiti's 80% Christian and 100% demonic. I mean, 100% a satanic. And the, interesting. The president had dedicated the island to Satan. And you're like, why would he do that?

well because he's powerful. And so Satan, they said the Haitians believed in God. They just believe he's slow. So they would take, you know, a kid, you know, after taking him to the doctor, they'd take him to a witch doctor so that the witch doctor could, you know, place a curse and be healed. Like I'd seen this stuff happened. So people worship Satan because he gives them power.

Manifesting can work. Crystals can be effective. Ouija boards can work. I mean, you know, they can show you. name of some dead person. Saul consulted the witch of Indoor and talked to Samuel or some demon pretending to be Samuel. I mean, you can talk to some demon. Like to somebody. I mean, you can, people will do weird stuff in grief. And so they miss their father or their mother or their loved ones so badly. They'll go to this medium to talk to them. And you're talking to a demon pretending

to be your loved one. You've got to be careful because Satan is a legalist. He's just looking for a legal right to mess with you. Demons are legalists. They're looking for a legal right. They say, oh, now I got you. Now I have the right to mess with you. Now I have the right to your children. Right. Now I have the, you've given me an end. And so with that Ouija board, crystals, manifesting, tarot cards, what was the horoscopes? Like none of that stuff is spiritually neutral. Like none of it. The enemy will use any of that to for permission to mess with you. So recently, not recently.

I mean, a couple years ago, I have my wife's permission to share this story. We went to El Salvador because we tried to go at least once a year. And there was this, it was a beach resort that we went to. And at night there's like this little show. And, you know, when you go to Latin America and, you know, go to all these countries,

some of these countries have like some sort of folkloric background. There's like a spirituality behind some of these stuff. some of the stuff. And in the show, we're there, and all of a sudden, like, you know, it's kind of like there's a choreography there and there's elements of spirituality in the show. And both my wife and are like, ah, like, this is, this is like going from like just having fun or entertaining to like, this feels very spiritual, like very spiritual. And, you know, we both had a conviction to kind of leave at some point, but we kind of

sit for a little bit just to see if it's going to like calm down or whatever. And we stayed for a little bit more, but both of us felt the connection. And then we just kind of we just kind of after a while we said hey this is too much we're leaving But we felt the conviction that hey we should have left sooner that was not something that we needed to be Or whatever that night That night my wife had a very vivid dream of being stabbed And she woke up with like just feeling stuff that same night I had another I had a dream of a sniper shooting at me we both woke up and you know we're like oh man had this weird dream you like me too uh and so you know

at the time again this is this is literally what the verse is saying hey uh be careful do not give the enemy a little space when you expose yourself to you know things that the holy spirit is giving you a conviction in your heart hey that's not for you yeah that's not for you yeah dreams are often a warning snakes you dream about snakes and it's just like you know our dms are going to I'm sure. Everybody's say, oh man, I need help because that happens to me. Here's my dream.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you just pray. You just, you go, first of all, you make sure you have a right relationship with God through his son, Jesus Christ. Have you believed upon the death and the resurrection of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins?

And you say, you know, if you haven't, start there. I mean, find a church, find a pastor, call a Christian, the strongest Christian you know and say, hey, I want to surrender my life to Christ. Like, start there, okay? But if you're a Christian, and you're a follower of Christ and you're, you know, there's some demonic influence

in your life, you have nightmares, you know, intrusive thoughts of self-harm, you know, you say, okay, Lord, I, I want you to help me, you confess anything that's hidden, makes it there's nothing hidden, confess any, you know, any willful

disobedience, any sin, you confess that, bring others around you, have others pray with you, and just say, you know, I denounce the work of Satan. I denounce the work of Satan in my life. I don't want anything to do with these evil practices or these things or this witchcraft. And Lord, would you undo that in the name of Jesus by the blood of Jesus? Help me to walk in righteousness. You can go in Ephesians 6 and just walk down that, you know, that I want to walk in the truth. I want to cover my heart and in the righteous living that God calls me to. I want,

I want to know and understand and share the gospel of peace. I want to go where it's called to and just walk down that list. Right. And that's what we did. We, you know, we confessed, we repent it, prayed. First John 518 says God's son holds God's children securely. And the devil, the evil one cannot touch them. Yeah. And so in Christ, you're good. Also, we got Bible verses for, you know, people asking about sorcery, all the stuff. Deuteronomy 1810 explicitly forbids divination, sorcery, interpreting omens, witchcraft, casting spells, Leviticus 1931, do not defile yourself by turning to mediums or those who consult the spirits of the dead. Isaiah 819, shouldn't people ask God for God? should the living seek guidance from the dead. In the book of Acts chapter 19, after coming to Christ, people who practice magic at some point they come and they bring their like, hey, here's, we got our magic books, let's burn these,

that's not who we are. So again, you can repent, you can change direction and then run to Christ. By the way, we have a lot of people joining the live free podcast from literally all over the place. And so we encourage people to, hey, find that community, whatever that is, this is actually a good opportunity. So if somebody's listening from any other

state if you're like, I don't know if I have a good church or text the word map to 20411, and we'd love to help you find a church that Lake Point has planted in your local area. Did you say AI is demonic? It can be. I mean, it can be demonic, for sure. I mean, they'll use anything. I mean, they, you know, porn is demonic. By the way, that's going to be the real.

Did you say AI is a demonic? Yeah, that's a big port. Yeah, I can't wait. It can be. I mean, it certainly can be demonic. They are looking. to use anything to influence us. So are movies demonic?

Well, some are. I mean, they can be. Is music demonic? Well, some is. Sure. I mean, in Ezekiel, it says the Hebrew is, it goes through these stones, and it's often translated settings and placements. But that word tof, the Hebrew word tof, is always translated everywhere else as like tambourines.

And then the next word can be translated. translated pipes or flutes. And so I really believe that Satan had like musical instruments built into him. He was a musical being made to, we know he was a guardian cherub. And so he's guarding the throne room, and he has the ability to make music.

And so I think music is a tool. This is why worship music can be so powerful. It can kind of center us, and we can have this like really emotional experience during worshiping God through music. And likewise, music can be demonic. it can be demonic. It can be something that corrupts our heart.

I mean, it just brainwashes us. And so it's not neutral. When you're listening to something that's challenging you to objectify women or to, you know, just take what's yours and to feed pride in your heart. I mean, it's demonic. I mean, the enemy's behind that. And so AI can be a tool for demons as well.

Yeah, and I'm sure right now somebody's listening to me like, oh, these guys, like, over-spiritualizing everything. You know, for somebody that's wondering right now, It's like, oh man, I just don't want to be over-spiritual. What I would say is, do you want to be under-spiritual? Like, what do you want to be? Like, if you're a Christian, you believe that God became a man, took on flesh, died on a cross, and was resurrected three days after. And today he reigns.

Like, what are you talking about? You don't want to be over-spiritual as spiritual as it gets. The other thing they'll think is, like, hey, but Satan can't mess with me because I'm a Christian. Like, I'm a child of God. protected. I'm like, who do you think Satan wants to mess with? Like, that's who he's after, you know? And so it's like, that's why Jesus is in this world, you will have trouble. And what Satan asked Jesus, if he could sift Peter like wheat. Yeah. Yeah. I think there's something to the faith thing that, you know, I said in the message is you, the shield of faith, which extinguishes

the fiery darts. He says in 1st Peter 5, resist him standing firm in the faith. And then Jesus says to Peter in Luke 22, I will pray for you that your faith won't fail. So like, Our faith is our protection from the enemy. The stronger your faith, the more protected you are. That's great. Well, we've talked a lot about demonic stuff. Let's go to Divine Hope. Yeah, man.

Talk about revival. Hey, Live Free Nation. Let's have fun with this and swing some elections. In all seriousness, midterm elections are obviously coming up in November. In the state of Texas, there's an estimated 16 million Christians, and the midterm elections coming up in November will be decided by a predicted, actually about 300,000 votes. So what this means is if Christians do their job as salt and light in the world, good things really easily happen.

So what we've done at Live Free Nation is we actually built a website to help mobilize Christians to do our job as salt and light in society. So you can simply text the word vote to the number 20411. Text the word vote to 20411. And we have built a website all at our own expense to help Christians remember to vote leading up into the midterms because the number one. reason that Christians don't vote especially in midterm elections is they just forgot so with one text vote to 20411 you will get one text which is a link to the website where you can put in your address we do not keep any of the information and it will tell you where the polling location is for voting in your area when to come and what in your area you need to bring again

we keep absolutely none of the data and we will send you that text and then only one other reminder text right before midterms. So let's have some fun with this. Text vote to 20411, and we'll see what Live Free Nation can do. It's happening. Hey, bottom line, period. It's happening?

Great, man. Hey, thanks for coming. I want to show a photo of I screenshot of your Instagram, JP. You okay with that? Yeah. Okay, I'll show a photo. Follow JP on Instagram. There you go.

Wow. So you share this photo of you and then Forrest Frank in the bottom over there, What I want to highlight is you said it's hard to put the last few weeks into words, sharing 300 square feet with a 23-year-old bodybuilder living with terminal cancer, a surfer from Indiana, and one of the biggest touring artists in the world was the adventure of a lifetime. It wasn't as easy as it looked, but it was a lot more fun.

And then you said this, I watched God heal people. I watched more than 50,000 people begin a relationship with Christ. Revival. I need to process that, what you just said there. Revival isn't something. I read about anymore, I saw it. JP, what are you seeing? Yeah.

Yeah, man. It's humbling, even to see it right there. There's so much I want to say, and I'm going to try to be fast. I was at Asbury. Sometimes I share this too, and I have this conviction of, like, trying to, like, I don't, like, man, I'm expendable. Like, I mean, I've got a two-year degree in art. I mean from a school you've never heard of

I'm expendable God does what he wants where he wants when he wants whom he wants how he wants he is God I am not I'm not worthy to tie his sandals like I believe all of that I was at Asbury when you know the outpouring

at Asbury happened and then I was at Passion when there's like this 20 minute stall Agnes day the heavens opened up What year was that? It was two years ago Passion? Yeah. Yeah.

And then the Asbury was. Yeah, it was the same year. It was right after Asbury. Okay. I was, I went to a speaking engagement at Auburn, which became, it was like Unite Auburn. And that was then the first of 22 campuses. I didn't know.

I thought it was a one and done, but we baptized thousands and thousands of people. I saw tens of thousands give their life to Jesus. And then Forrest, Frank, invited me to go on tour with him. and my role in Torah was to share the gospel towards the end of the night and I would see fathers who were there with their kids, their three or four kids and their wife, and they would stand up in front of their families saying,

hey, I want to surrender my life to Jesus. And in the month of July, I saw 50,000 people give their life to Jesus. In one month. In one month. And so there's something happening right now. And then more like even an interpersonal evangelism, Uber drivers, security guards. I mean, you know, it was in California and people were like,

oh, you know, California is so lost. I mean, everyone I talked to was so eager to give their lives to cry. It was like, man, I dreamt last night. I woke up this morning and I was like, God, if you're real, send someone to tell me, you know. And I'm like that, those are the conversations I was having. So the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send more workers. Come on. Do not grow weary and doing good. So I did a little research this week on previous revivals in history. And so people are asking, and I feel like people have been asking for a little bit

of time, hey, are we in a revival? Are we seeing a revival? Are we getting close to our revival? And so here's what I want to do. I want to give you six major characteristics of revivals in the past. And I want to ask you, are you seeing this yes or no? And if you want to, you can say a word on these. Here's the first one. Generally speaking, revivals start in a context of an overall zoomed-out cultural spiritual decline, not in a spiritual strength. Yes, no. Agree.

Yeah, I agree. And I mean, I think we have been that. Like, we have, we have been as lost as a country as I've ever seen us. Strongly agree. And so, you know, I think you saw a generation try stuff and just come up wanting and say, all right, now I'm going to try God.

anecdotally like you look out there in the world and bro it's getting crazy and crazier two verses that stand out it's uh i say a 520 people are calling good things bad things explicitly more than perhaps ever in our lifetime yeah well too uh judges 21 25 everybody's deciding for themselves what they think is right in their own eyes um so anecdotally i think that's true also statistically uh people who identify as christians in the u.s in 2007 uh it was 78 percent today is 62 percent. That's a decline. In 2007 and 50, four percent of people went to church at least once a month. Today, it's 33. It's a decline. So statistically true, anecdotally true. This is where we are today. So that checks that checks off. Okay, great. Second one, in revivals, you see a renewed hunger for God. JPM, is that true? Yes or no?

Yeah, 100%. Today. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, just what we just talked about. That's a lot. That's a lot. That's a lot. That's right. You're seeing a renewed hunger for God. I mean, people are like, okay, like there's something to this. I think it's true. And I want to go all in. And yes. Bible sales, I'm sure you know this. Bible sales have risen roughly 9.7 million copies in 2019 to 14.2 million in 2020. In 2024, from January to October, Bible sales rose another 22% in the U.S.

Young people also buying a bunch of Bibles. 66% of U.S. adults in a research study made personal. commitment to Jesus saying that is still important in their lives, that's up 12 percentage points from 2021. As dudes, like historically, there's always women that were kind of leading the charge here. Now young men are saying, hey, I want to understand this. Here's the next one. So number two, checks off.

Here's the next one. Generally speaking, revival proceeds a small group of people persistently praying. Yeah. Is that true? Yeah. Today. You've heard us said, you know, prayer. When people pray, revival happens.

When people pray, it is revival. And, like, that's what you're seeing happening now. It's like people are going to prayer. Like, they're just praying more, you know? And both at that individual level, praying more, and then more people are praying. Well, I feel like, you know, personally, I feel like a desire just to,

I want God to use my life. I want God to use my church. I feel like a desire, a renewed urge to pray more. And I know it sounds so. So such a Christian thing to say on a Christian podcast. But it's a conviction. I want a conviction of the Holy Spirit that you've heard it said thousands of times, but it has to be true in your soul.

The more you pray, the more power you receive to do the word God has called you to do. And so in the 1857 prayer revival in New York, this guy Jeremiah Lamfeier, you know about this guy? He started basically a lunchtime prayer meeting. Only six people attended the first meeting, but within months, thousands were gathering for prayer across the city. And historians estimate the movement resulted in between 300,000 and 1 million new Christian conversions across the U.S. 300,000 to 1 million new Christian conversions with a prayer gathering that started with six people. That's right. So let's go.

There is power and prayer. Here's the next one. Generally speaking, revivals are marked by conviction of sin that is sudden and sudden. specific. Have you seen that today? 100%. I mean, you're seeing like these only fans like become evangelists. You know what I mean? Like they were only fan models and now they're like they have Christian platforms and they're speaking in places. I'm thinking Nala the Ninja, you know, and it's just like, and there's others. I mean, there's Brittany. There's, you know, my boy Josh Broome. Like there's a people that are just like, hey, we were in the industry and now we're following Jesus. And mass repentance.

And by the way, it's not a confession for people that are maybe new to the faith, it's not a confession of sin. I'm like, man, I'm so much more with guilt or it's a freedom. Yeah, it's a freedom. Live free, man. Live free, bro. Live free. Name it, call it a podcast. I can't stop thinking about my boy, Forrest.

And, you know, he has a song when somebody prayed. And I saw him write this song live. And then he performed it live. I mean, like moments after he finished it, it's just the dude is so talented. But like what people don't understand about. is like he made it as a secular artist. Did you know this? I did not.

Okay, Forrest has a song. Shout to Forrest. Forrest is a song that was streamed, it's been streamed over a billion times before he was ever forced Frank. Which one? Sunday's best. With surfaces. And so...

Is there a Christian theme in that time? It's not really. Okay. I don't know. He may correct me on there. I don't think so. But then he became, I mean, so he had no reason to do what he did, except for the God called him. except for the God called him to it and just like anointed him to it.

But I'll say this about him too because it's with the theme is he's like so pure in heart that like being around him was it was humbling as a pastor to be kind of ministered to by this artist who's just like, hey, on that tour, no alcohol, work out every day, eat clean, you know, like he's not even like really sarcastic. Honestly, like you're even sarcastic, which I'm so sarcastic. You know, and I just, I like came back from that, like a mountaintop. I was just like so clear in my thinking. So I'm so great, so grateful that he's disciplining your generation. I saw Pastor Josh was like, I've got a problem with Forrest.

He did have a problem with Forrest. Because the hell's got a problem. That's right. That's right. It's a problem for the kingdom of darkness. I mean, shout out to Forrest. We appreciate him a lot and rooting for him. Hey, here's another one in revivals.

Generally speaking, young people play major roles. J.P., have you ever seen that today? Dude, let's talk about it. come on you challenge me here do do your homework okay to the listener and viewer but i i just charted like the four some people say there's four great awakenings in americans history and i charted him out on a timeline and there was like 50 years in between when one ended and one started okay when one in and one started god doesn't have to do that it just he seems to work in rhythms and you know the the you know sun-up sundown day night spring winter summer fall those

kinds of things he just kind of works in a rhythm and so I thought it was interesting that there was a 50-year gap in between the Great Awakening's about roughly a 50-year gap the you know Jonathan Edwards Lyman Beach are already sankie the last one ended with Billy Graham Crusades in 1976 okay all right so fast forward 50 years think I'm I'm not great at math I think it'd be like 2026 would be about 50 years after that one ended, which would poise us well for a great awakening right now. At the center of every revolution in history, French Revolution, American Revolution, all the great awakenings, any revival you could think of, is somebody, at the center of all of them, is somebody in their 20s or early 30s, every single one without exception? So right now it could be that God,

is looking for someone, some young person that he's saying, hey, it's not me. Like, I'm, you know what I'm saying? Like, I'm, I'm 45, right? Somebody that he is some young person that he wants to raise up right now to lead this, this next Great Awakening. Let's go, man. I actually found this, George Whitfield was ordained at 21 and began preaching, began his preaching ministry that would make him one of the central figures of the Great Awakening again, 21. Jonathan Edwards, a pastor in Northampton in his 20s and he was 31 when the Northampton revival erupted. Evan Roberts, 26-year-old, used to be a former coal miner and then became a ministry student, became one of the best leaders or most known young leaders in the Welsh revival of 1904.

Obviously Charles Spurgeon, he preached his first sermon at 16, became a pastor at 17. He became the pastor of New Park Street Chapel in London. Billy Graham preaches first revival at 19. young people willing to be used by a mighty god let's go uh here's the last one uh generally speaking behind every major movement of revival you'll find a relatively new technology helping carry the movement forward yeah jonathan preclude is that true today i mean we've never seen a technology like what we have in front of us let's go bro let's go and you know i don't know which one is it by the way for people that don't know yet what's that what technology you're

talking about well one is i we talked about AI right and and and i think the Bible translation that's happening right now through artificial intelligence. So like, you know, I think what C.S. Lewis said, however something, however something's capable for bad, equally great is capable for good, or however great is something's capability for good, equally great as capability for bad. And you said like a cow is somewhat capable of good, somewhat capable of evil, a human, all the more so capable of good and evil. What you think about artificial intelligence, capable of great evil, capable of great good. And I mean, the translation capability. I mean, we are about to completely have the Bible translated in every

single language known to man. All of the, you know, the four corners of the world, if you will, are going to be reached with the gospel because of technology. I don't know if you know this right now, but you are listening to one of the number one, if not the number one podcast in the entire world. And I'm not talking about Christian podcasts. I'm talking about any podcast. that, you know, these conversations that you guys are having are so important and is evidence that I hope our Lord is going to return soon. Protestant Reformation, printing press. Yeah. First Great Awakening, newspapers and print.

George Woodfield used those a lot. Let me say this real quick. First thing printed on that was the Bible. They said, hey, that's great, but we'll never use it for the Bible. You know, Johannes Gutenberg. That's right. And they said, we'll never use it for the Bible. the first thing printed on it was actually the Bible

and now none of us have a hand transcribed so as you think about like oh I don't want to use AI like AI is only evil I would say you know what that's the mistake that Christians have made many many times that's a good watch out Billy Graham radio and television he had a radio show today social media podcasting AI

man we're passionate about this we pray for wisdom for so we can steward this technology well and so shout out to the live for Amen. Let's wrap with this. J.P.

You're probably the best evangelizer that I know. Come home, man. You've got to get out there more. True, true. I want to ask you about your method. Did you learn that from somebody? Or did you just kind of like, okay? Yes, so the one to ten, is that what you mean?

That and also, yes. So explain what, when you share the gospel with people, Whether you know them or not. The hardest part about evangelism is your transitions. Like, how do you go from talking about the buffalo wings to, you know, to Jesus? It's like, oh, man. Or your server at the rest of you're hot. Those are hot.

You know what else is hot? Hell is hot. There you go. It's like, do you have a faith? Like that question right there, I think it's just a really powerful. Hey, do you have a faith? Yes. And people would be like, what do you, a face or what?

You know, a religion. I go a religion, a spirituality. Are you into church? But like, do you have a faith? Like, once you ask that question, you're in it now. So all you had to do today is at some point today ask somebody, hey, do you have a faith? And just see where that goes. Because that's your bridge question.

Now you're talking about things of God. And then I'll go, if they go, yeah, I'm a Christian, because I'm in the Bible Belt. I'll go between 1 and 10, 10 being certain, one being not so sure if you died today, how certain are you that you would go to heaven? So Bryce Crawford just asked J.D. Vance this. I mean, it's just like the vice president of the United States. he asked Logan Paul right I'm my my guys getting after it so that came from D James Kennedy in the the 60s evangelism explosion as far as I know he came up with those questions somebody asked me that I said a seven because I was a good person and I tried hard I wasn't a good person I needed Jesus and the

seven was evidence that I hadn't fully trusted in him and so that's how I share the gospel the second question is if you stand before God and he said why should I let you in what would you say and people say well because I because I've tried hard so just as you're listening consider these two questions between one and 10 10 being certain one being not so sure if you died today how certain are you that you would go to heaven and people say well a 10 is arrogant well it's it's arrogant if you had anything to do with it but if you're boasting only in the finished works of Jesus right and then and the second question is if you stood before God and he said why should I let you in what would you say? And if you say, well, because I, because I, because I, because you God, sent your

son, Jesus to die for my sins, you raised them from the dead. And I'd like it, and this is, you know, helpful to people. I say, it's like if I give you tickets to the game and you go to the game and they say, why should we let you in? You're going to say, because I have tickets. And if they say, did you pay for the tickets? You're going to say, no, they were a gift. That's right. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 28, 9, 4 is by grace you have been saved through faith. It's not of yourself. It's the gift of God, not by work so that no one can boast. Have you received the gift or not?

Has God given you the gift of salvation or not? Romans 10.9, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved. Not might be saved, could be saved, should be saved, will be saved? So three questions. Do you have faith? Between one and ten, ten being certain, one being not so sure. If you died the day, how certain are you that you would go to heaven? And if you stood before God and he said, why shall I let you end?

What would you say? Okay. So let's do this. Let's do a little role play. Okay. Or I'm going to be a very difficult person, lost person. And we'll see how you're going to interact with me right now. Okay. Okay. What's up, man? Hey, what's up, man? How are you?

Good, man. How was your day? How long you've been here? I've been working here for three years. Awesome. And, yeah. Do you have a faith? What you say? Do you have a faith? Do you have a faith? Faith, like a religion, spirituality? A faith?

Well, I was not expecting you to say that, but, I mean, I grew up Catholic, and, you know, I believe in God. Yeah. Yeah. I grew up Catholic as well. Oh. And, you know, not to catch you off guard with my questions. I ask people this every single day.

You know, when I was Catholic, somebody told me once, they said, hey, you can't take your faith too serious? And I was like, what else am I going to take serious, you know? And so I always try to ask somebody this question, do you have a faith? And so you say you believe in God? Yeah. Awesome. Can I ask you two questions?

Okay. Between one and ten. question between one and ten ten being certain one being not so sure if you died today how certain are you that you would go to heaven man i think i'm going to say five five like a coin toss so like i read a second question but you say like a five like hey it's a coin toss like maybe you know heads or tails not sure and so the second question uh is if if you stood before god and he said why should let you in what would you say i mean i i've tried to you know be a good person and I feel like I'm better than other people, at least generally speaking.

Man, I ask people that every day because somebody asked me that. I was raised Catholic, Catholic school for nine years. I said a seven, and I said because I'm a good person, I've tried hard. And I imagine, you know, growing up with some aspect of church, you know, you have a Bible. And it's like, do you think the Bible says that we can know, that we could be a 10? I don't know, man. I feel like the Bible has some parts that, like, I don't know. I feel like it's been changed.

Yeah. What part you think has been changed? I mean, I don't know. I'm not sure I buy into the whole, like, you know, talking snake and just, you know, Noah's Ark, whatever. Yeah, yeah. So, like, yeah. Do you buy into the whole, like, God died and showed back up three days later?

I mean, it says it in the book, but, I mean, can you really know? I'm not so sure. Yeah, man. So here's the deal. Several things you said there. One, that the Bible's changed. The Islam actually teaches that the Bible has changed during the dark. ages. The greatest archaeological discovery to date is what we know is the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Dead Sea Scrolls show parts of like Isaiah and some of the scriptures that predate the Dark Ages and actually show that the scripture hasn't changed. Of the 400,000, over 400,000 variances that we have from the Dead Sea Scrolls, they were all punctuations, capitalizations. None of the story has changed. So we know that the scriptures that we have today are actually more reliable because the more manuscripts we have, the more reliable they become. So I'll break role play for a second and say. So if your issue is really, hey, I think the Bible has been changed, I would go that route. Okay. You know, if you go, hey, some of these things are not believable. I would go, well, you know, you said you believed in God. Like a God that creates

everything is pretty unbelievable. Like if we're going to take an issue with anything, start with there being some invisible deity that created everything you see. Like basically this giant ball that he put into orbit around a sun with other planets like Jupiter and Venus and Mars and we're all floating through space and somehow this particular one is so fine-tuned

that if gravity was any more, it'd flatten us to the earth. If there's any less, we float off into space and we breathe oxygen, which happens to be this thing that plants breathe out so that we can take it in. and the whole galaxy so fine-tuned that if the sun was any closer, we'd burn up, if there's any further, we'd freeze.

And so it's more fine-tuned than like a Swiss watch. And yet here we are. So you're like, hey, and I think there's someone that created all of that, which I agree with you. And I think if he's there, like Noah's Ark, and a talking snake's not really a big problem. You know, I've got, I had a parrot and it talked. And so a talking snake's not really that big of a deal.

But I would just say, man, as I started to read, I had a bias against Christianity. And here in evangelism, this is where you just share your story. I'm saying, I had a bias against evangelism. You've been so kind with your time and so generous. I'd love to just share my story with you briefly and say, I thought, hey, always lead to God. And if there's a God, he's probably not Christian.

I studied the Hindu faith, the Buddhist faith, Jewish faith, Islamic faith, Mormon, Joseph's Witness, Church Christian Scientology. I kept tripping over Jesus who reset time, 2,026 years ago. Every atheist you know acknowledges him by the date they put on their checks, the date on their iPhones, the date on the receipt

you're about to give me, right? That's 2026, BC, before Christ, A.D., it's not after death, it's medieval Latin for the year of our Lord, Anno Domini, the year of our Lord. So we live in 226 the year of our Lord.

Like, how did this guy reset time? And then I would just move to this, to the gospel. Like, hey, I believe it's, he died for our sin. and raised from the dead. And then before I wrapped with the conversation, I would say, hey, let me ask you something. Would you want to be forgiven? Like, would you want to be,

what if I told you today, you could be clean, you could be forgiven of all of your sins? Sure. And then I would pray with you. Hey, bro, but don't push your religion on me, though. Yeah, I hear you, man. I hear you. Let me ask you a question.

Should I go pour over or drip coffee or latte? What should I order? Is whatever you want? Well, what do people typically get? I don't know, man. People... What would you suggest? Like, this is what you do for a living.

So to be good at what you do, you should make suggestions. I don't drink coffee, actually. I kind of assume you're a grease or something. But I hear you. So, yeah, man. What do you think we should push on... Like, if there was a car headed for me right now, if I was going to die, like, would you care enough about me to push me out of the way?

You don't even know me. Yeah, that's right. You'd push me out of the way of something that was going to kill me. I would try, yeah. Why would you do that? Because I don't want you to die. Why? You don't even know me.

Why do you care if I die or not? Because I'm trying to be a good person. Yeah. So an aspect of you being good is responding to what you know is reality. And if you see something that's going to harm me, then you want to help me. And that's all I'm doing is I'm just a guy who studied religion. I try to have a deep understanding of what happens to somebody after they die. And I meet someone like you who says, hey, I believe in God, but I'm just a guy.

not sure of who he is, that would make you agnostic, a, without, or no, gnostic knowledge. Hey, I don't think we can actually know who God is. And what I'm saying is, if there's a God who created the heavens and the earth, who created all the things that we see, as you said, you believe there is, then he's certainly powerful enough to tell us who he is. Because if he's not, he's a weak God. Like, if he can create all this stuff, but he can't introduce himself to us.

And so what I would pray for you is that tonight at 2 a.m., he's going to wake you up. And you just have a hard time saying, all right, he kind of put a rock in my shoe that I'm tripping over, and I want to know who God is. If you ask him, as you consider trying to find out who God is, I want you to look at Jesus. There's not a credible atheist today

that denies the existence of Jesus, right? So as you're searching for God, start with Jesus, say, all right, and just see it to failure. Like, get to a place in your research for Jesus that, hey, I don't believe he actually existed, or I don't believe that he was God, And because the C.S. Lewis said, you know, he's either a liar, someone who claimed to be God, but knew he wasn't. He's a lunatic. Someone who claimed to be, someone who actually thought he was God when he wasn't. Or he is who he is who he said he is. He's Lord. Someone who claimed to be God who's actually God. That's great.

JP, for people hearing you right now, maybe this is helpful, how often do you end up actually with somebody praying to receive Jesus after that conversation versus how often it's more like, oh, man, thank you for sharing that. I'll think about it, and I appreciate you bringing that up. I bet I pray probably, and I'm just, I'm kind of making this up, because I've never tracked it like this, but I bet I pray one out of five times. But what I would say is... For people to give their life to Jesus?

Yeah. That's quite a bit. But I would say, you can't. can't save anybody. And like our job is just sharing. And I think the church actually under-celebrates sharing. Like we celebrate saving, but not sharing. You can't save anybody. Like God, like God saves. I've never saved a single human being. And I'm sure there are people who have prayed who weren't actually saved. And I'm sure there are people who didn't pray who actually got saved. I can't save anyone. We just sprinkle seeds. Like, we just share. And God's the one that makes it

And you never know when that one conversation will spark a little something after with somebody else, perhaps. Yeah, there's the man on George Street that would just say, he would just stand on George Street in Australia, and he was like, hey, if you died today, do you know where you'd go? Have you given your life to Jesus? And he would just say that over and over and over. He never saw a single salvation.

But one day, a guy was leaving Australia, was flying back to the States, and he sat next to someone on a plane, and he went to share the gospel with them, and they were a believer, and they said, how did you become a Christian? He said, well, there was this man on George's a man, George Street that asked this question, I wasn't able to shake it. And then he got off the plane in New York City, and he was on the subway, and he went to share the gospel with somebody. And they were

Christian. He said, how'd you become a Christian? He said, well, once I was on vacation in Australia, and this man said this, and I wasn't able to shake it. And that kind of sent him on a mission to try to figure out, hey, how many people actually became Christians from this man? And it was hundreds of thousands of people became Christians through his work. So he flew to Australia to meet with them. And he met with him before he passed away and he asked him, hey, did you realize he goes, I've never seen a single person convert. That's amazing. And there were hundreds of thousands of people in his back line. That's amazing. Obedience.

Last question. Somebody says, man, I want to do it. I'm just afraid. I feel like intimidated. I'm not as knowledgeable about the Bible. And if I'm honest, I'm just like, it's weird. It's a little weird out of my comfort zone. How do I beat that fear? Sharing the gospel. Okay. Is that what you mean? Yes. Yes.

They're saying, I'm afraid to share the guy. I'm afraid to just talk to this guy or even my family member. I'm just afraid. Yeah. Yeah. I'm an extrovert. And I probably have the spiritual gift of evangelism. Probably.

I mean, I was in sales before this. And so I get that. But I've got a 17-year-old daughter. And she is the biggest introvert. And she struggles to talk to people. you know, it's just like doesn't come natural to her to like talk to people. And that girl, every day at lunch goes to HB and walks down the aisle of HB. And it just goes up to strangers to share the gospel with them.

Because she just believes in heaven and hell. And that's it. And she, like it's funny because I said one in five, you know, and you're like, that's pretty good. She has the highest hit rate of anyone I know, like the highest success rate. Like we will be in ATB. This is a true story. We will be in HV. And I'm like, where's Finley?

I can't find Finley. And I'll walk two aisles over. And she is praying with someone in the middle of the aisle receiving Christ. And then we'll go outside. And somebody was helping or her mom got a, you know, the delivery, like where you pick up your groceries. And so I went in to get something. And I'd come back out. and the person's bringing the groceries to our door.

And she'll just share the gospel with her. And she'll receive Christ right there. She'll pray with her to receive Christ right there. And I'm just like, how do you do that? And I think it's because she's not using her gregarious personality. She's not using, you know, her worldliness, her persons, her natural gifts. She just relies so much on the Holy Spirit. I think that when an introvert, like someone without the gift of evangelism, puts themselves out there like that, that, you know, they need God.

You know, like for me, I can be good with my words and I can think fast, and I've got a thousand ways that you're going to go dinosaurs or age of the earth. And I know what to say to that. I've ran into that bunch of times. You know, you say, hey, I'm Muslim. I'm like, oh, Issa, you say I'm Hindu. I know what to say. her she's like god you got to tell me what to say like she's dependent on the holy spirit and so god just uses her like nothing i've ever seen so that's the that's the encouragement i would say to that person

that's afraid i'm like glad i'm glad you're afraid god's probably going to use you yeah you'll need him to god's power is made perfect in my weakness that's what that's what he says so i will boast all the more about my weakness if dependence is the goal weakness is the advantage amen So may he use your extrovertness and may he use your introvertness and whatever personality God gave you to be a vessel in an instrument to bring salvation to people that are in desperate in need of a savior. Amen. JP, I want to honor you for your obedience, for your example, and for how faithful you are in preaching the Word of God. And really, man, inspiring thousands, if not millions. Well, I mean, you guys are doing that.

I don't want to just love fest back and forth, but Pastor Josh, Lake Point, Live Free Podcast, and my dear friend, who I go way back with, Carlos, I mean, you guys are doing it, man. I'm so thankful. Appreciate you. Would you pray for us with you wrap? Please, God, would you, first of all,

just as we talk about the enemy, I know he doesn't like it, and there's just going to be people who want to misunderstand things that are said, take it out of context, or maybe I misspoke. at some point, you know, maybe Carlos did. Would you just protect us? Would you protect us from the work of the enemy?

If there's anything that we said that's inconsistent with your character, inconsistent with your word, inconsistent with your spirit, untrue, would you make it delete? You know, would you get rid of it? Would you, I mean, I pray that it wasn't heard, that no one would hear it, that it'd be forgotten. If there's anything that we said that's true of your character, your spirit, your word, who you are, I pray that you would use it to change lives, that it would get stuck in people's heart and their head, and it would change who they are and what they do. I thank you for this resource that you've created.

I pray that you would use it for your renowned and your glory to prepare a place that you return to soon. We love you so much. I pray you bless every single listener and viewer right now that you would just pour out grace and favor on them because they took the time to even make it this far, that they would receive this blessing through prayer through this podcast, that you would bless their lives, their marriages, their children, their singleness, their job, that you would just bless them, Lord. And we just thank you.

And it's in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen. Live free, brother. Thank you, my man. Well, hey, thanks so much for listening. Lake Point Church is a movement for all people to know Christ, live free, and change a world for God's glory.

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