Live Free with Josh Howerton - How To Study the Bible (and ACTUALLY Grow Spiritually) | Live Free with Josh Howerton

Episode Date: September 14, 2026

How do you actually study the Bible—and how do you know whether a spiritual experience is really from God? In this episode of LIVE FREE, Pastors Josh Howerton, Carlos Erazo, and Paul Cunningham unpack 2 Timothy 2 and get practical about becoming people who know God’s Word and live it out. Carlos and Paul also share powerful reflections from their trip to Israel, including what Gethsemane and Galilee taught them about Jesus, His sacrifice, and the ministry happening right in front of us. Then the conversation gets practical: How do you avoid pointless Christian arguments without compromising truth? How much power do your words really have? What are the best ways to study Scripture? And when someone claims to have seen heaven or experienced a supernatural vision, how should Christians respond? In this episode: Why Jesus remains faithful even when we fail How to know which theological disagreements are worth fighting over Why your words can bring life or death into your relationships Four practical methods for studying the Bible How to use SOAP and inductive Bible study Why biblical knowledge requires time and intentionality How to test visions and near-death experiences against Scripture Why God’s Word—not personal experience—remains our authority 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

Bible study methods are like diets. What's the best diet? The one you'll do. What's the best way to study the Bible? The one you'll do. The foundation of our theology is not anecdotes or experiences is the Word of God. We have desires that nothing in this world can satisfy. It's because we were made for a different world. Well, hey, Liffrey Nation. Before we jump into the episode, this podcast is recorded right here at Lake Point Church in Dallas, Texas.

But the Liff 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. Let's kick this fake. Well, hey, welcome back to another episode of the Live Free podcast. My name is Carlos Rasser. And today I'm excited because I'm here with Pastor Paul Cunningham and Pastor Josh Howardson. Wait. Oh, this is the first episode, all three of us have had it in a while. It's good to be back. Why is it like it was like a week? But it feels like it was like a month. Yes. I agree for many reasons. But I will not tell you why. Okay. It was the week that felt like a month.

Were you going to play something? No, I'm going to wait until you say the thing before I play the thing. Oh, okay. Why is this special? What special thing happened, Carlos? Bro, we have a special, special announcement. I am excited and honored to announce that Chat G. Paul C. aka the Epistle Missal, Pastor Paul Cunningham, went to Israel.

Yay! Yes, I made it to Israel. Sorry. Oh, man. Oh, man. That's the music that greeted me at the airport. I'm sure in some way I broke some rule by doing that, but it was funny. I mean, Paul is wearing a shirt?

A Nike shirt? What is this? Yes, yes. This may or may not have been waiting on me as a gift from my parents for what I made it. Show the shirt. Yes. Yes, I made it to Israel. Bro.

I've been asked that a million times even while we were there. Man, did you guys make it? Yes. I made it to Israel. Did you get your $7,000 from Benjamin Netanyahu? Still waiting on that money. Haven't seen a nickel yet. So, Ben, if you're listening or watching to this, you could please just get in contact with you.

I'd give my address. That'd be great. We're going to talk about it in just a second here. But we're coming to you from Lakewood Church in Dallas, Texas. And today we're going to have a spicy episode. It's a lot here, man. A lot. Because we're going to go, 2 Timothy chapter 2.

We're going to talk about consecration. What did I make it to the sermon? We're going to be asking how to read the Bible. We get a lot of people reaching out saying, hey, I just bought my brand new Bible. How to study. Essentially want to go like, is it, you're doing three or four ways? Four, too. We're going to go four ways to study the Bible.

Like top three most asked question we get. That's right. How do you guys get the stuff you get? I'm not getting that when I read it. How do you study the Bible? Hacks, tips, easy ways to study and read the Bible, all the things. We're going to be reacting to a viral video that resurfaced recently as well of this kid in a hospital. Because Mel Gibson retweeted it.

I think it's a fake Mel Gibson account, by the way. I think so. I got got. Because I saw the name too, but I'm like, oh, it's probably not no gift. But the video is legit. But the video is a real video. And it is a kid in the hospital seeing a vision of heaven. And so we're going to be asking, hey, how should a Christian think through people saying that they see visions of heaven,

whether it's a near-death experience or something along those lines? Yeah, dude, well, I'll just tease it. I want to zoom out and ask because Christians give this all the time. There'll be a book that goes, it's like a bestseller for a year, 90 minutes in heaven. Yeah. It's like, hey, man, how should we think about it? that. And we have some warnings, and then we'll probably say a few things you might not expect. We'll go there here in a second. It's going to be great. Hey, great job this weekend.

Hey, man, thank you. It's good to be back to have you back. Good to be back in the saddle. Come on. A couple things we want to celebrate? More than a couple. So first of all, just kicked off rooted. I want to shout this out. I just got this over 3,700 people in this rooted session. That's dumb. It's dumb. So 3,700 people at Lake Point that are walking through the 10-week discipleship experience. It's going to be awesome. I met a Navy SEAL. Bro, so legit. Yeah. I wouldn't preach last weekend, obviously. But I still like, I'm a Christian, so I like going to church with my family. So I was sitting there in the, we were in the 4 o'clock. And this dude, his name's Eric,

he was like, hey man, I was on SEAL Team 4. I was like, please don't kill me. And dude is amazing. I mean, he just, honestly, he started listening our stuff online, I think got connected via Live Free, stumbles in a lake point. You know, failing forward in grace, figuring it out. And he's like, hey, my I'm going through Rooted. Oh, hey, man, you made it through Buds. You're probably going to make it through Rooted. That's right.

But, dude, anyway, 3,700 people going through the discipleship thing. It was amazing. Wow. Well, we actually hear quite a bit of people saying that they found the podcast online, and then they came to Lake Point, and then they're joining a group, joining Rootet, and now, like, the whole family's here. They're getting baptized. Hang, I'm going to cheat.

I'll actually, Trinney, I'll text you to you later. We can edit it in post. So literally, I got this message 30 seconds before we started recording. So this is like an actual thing. So first of all, Live Free Nation, legit. We're actually moving people into churches and discipleship.

So this is somebody at our North Dallas campus. She said, my husband, well, I'll admit the names in case I'm not allowed. Our new to Lake Point, North Dallas. We did Rooted last semester. This is our first time

stepping out in leadership for fall rooted. She said there was a few common threads in our 24-person Rootter group. Number one, this is going to bless you. Everyone got connected to Lake Point via the Live Free podcast. Wow. Bro, that's amazing.

That's what she said. Yes. Number two, all were seeking biblical community, making friends of faith to walk through life together. And three, and she was just talking about their past. And she just starts going on, you know, brand new believers, recommitted their lives to Christ, a bunch of people getting baptized for the first time, all because start right here at Live Free Nation. That's right. That's awesome. That's awesome, man. We, people will be asking, obviously, because rooted is for the people that attend Lake Point here in person. And so for those that are not attending in person, Lake Point, because maybe they happen to live in a different state, man, we want to encourage you

go find a Bible believe in church and get plugged in. That's right. Discipleship happens in relationship. So that's amazing. If you're anywhere near one of our Strategic Launch Network churches, that's where you need to go. Actually, text Map to 201, and we love to help you find a church. Yeah, so you text Map 2041. The 100 churches Lake Point has planted, like all those locations will get sent to you.

We're constantly pushing people in those churches. Those are good dudes. Good. And out of the thousands of people that are joining Rooted, a lot, perhaps actually thousands of people more, we'll be taking a step of faith through baptists in. Yeah, Baptist weekends coming up in two weekends. So that's like biggest party of the year. We'll baptize hundreds.

I mean, like, I'm not going to say how many. I'm going to guess. I'm going to conservatively guess 500 people in that we'll baptize that weekend. So you ain't ever seen anything like it. If you were ever going to make a Lake Point service in person, come hang out for a big old party. Yeah. I think we're allowed to share this.

But last year, by the grace of God, we baptized, over 3,000 people, but this year, I think we're, I don't really like to say. You can, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, man, I think we're gonna surpass that number, like literally like by next baptism weekend. In two weeks, we'll pass that. It's wild.

It's dumb. All glory to God. Yeah, glory to God. Way into it's good. Well, if somebody's listening right now and they attend Lake Point and you feel like, man, I haven't baptized, I have not been baptized yet. We would love to help you, so text the word life to 20411.

If somebody's in the area as well, come visit, we gotta get for you as well. Every single week, we do a free giveaway. because that's literally the definition of a giveaway. It's meant to be free. So go to YouTube and Spotify and comment hat. Oh, I forgot. When you were here last, Pastor Josh,

we tried to name that guy over there, and we had some people. You want to hear the top three contenders? Yeah, sure. And then let's get into, we'll start talking about the Bible here in a second. You guys have to talk about your Israel trip real quick. We'll have some great stories.

Yeah, what do we get for the name for the skull? Number one, somebody said, go get it. Yeah, yeah. Somebody said that the bear skull should be named Baronabus Because it looks so supportive sitting there next to Paul That's a stretch I mean, that's creative That's number one, number two, bear witness

You know, like if you care And then number three That feels like a coffee shop, like a Christian coffee shop named Hebrews It's like, that's a little... I mean, it's an option And then number three Did you get that, he Bruce? No, I got it, yeah, thanks

but I appreciate They just now got it They didn't get it And then number three Somebody said that we should name the vis-bear skull Baldi in memory of the kids Who Parish in Second Kings

Chapter 2 That's great That's not bad That's not bad That's a little-known Bible stories Yeah PG-17 Bible stories That one

That was a good one Okay real quick Let's start talking about the Bible Israel highlights What did y'all see It was your first time Good man So I'm excited to share this one

this is going to blow your mind. I can't wait. So this right here is a photo right now that Train is about to pull up. It is the photo of the Garden of Getsemone. And this is literally the garden. That's literally the place where Jesus prays the night. He is arrested. And Getsemone is located in this place called Mount of Olives,

which is literally a mountain full of olive trees. Now, the word Getsemonee comes from the Hebrew and Aramaic Getshemenin, which literally means oil press or the olive crushing place. And so obviously people know this, but oil is what you get when you put pressure on olives. And so the next photo right here is what people used to use in biblical times to literally grab a piece of stone, that circle stone on top, put a bunch of olives over there, and then put pressure on them. And that's how you make oil. So when you read scripture and you see that Jesus of the Garden of Gatsimony, he's not at this random garden. He's actually at a place that is associated with olives being crushed and pressed to produce oil.

Now, in the Bible, Pastor Josh, you know this, and Chad Giposi probably knows this as well. There are four different purposes for olive oil. This is really interesting. So good. So first purpose for olive oil, it was used to anoint kings, priests, and prophets. You see this in the Old Testament. King David was anointed with oil, and then he became king. The sons of Aaron were anointed and then became priest.

Elijah anoints Elisha to become a prophet. So king, priest, and prophet number one. Number two, olive oil was also used for cleansing. It was used to build soap. And so this is why Jesus says in Matthew chapter 6 that when you fast, it says wash your face with oil. Like it literally was used to cleanse you. Number three, olive oil was used to treat wounds and bring healing. This is really interesting in the gospel of Luke.

Luke is a physician. And he tells us the parable of the Good Samaritan. And he says that the Good Samaritan grabs the man that was wounded. And he uses oil on him to help with the healing. Also, I didn't know this. But in James chapter 5, the famous passage that says that if somebody is sick among you, bring them to the elders and anoint the person that is sick with oil. Oil is a representation of God's blessing over your life,

but at the time it was also used with medicinal purposes. And so, again, bring healing. And number four, olive oil was also used to fuel lamps. So this isn't just biblically true. This is also archaeologically true. This is a photo of the lamps that were used in that time. You actually have one right here, which is amazing. So cool.

You would put a bunch of oil in that little space and then a wick and then like you light it up and that would be what people used to bring lights. Now, if you think about everything I just said, four purposes. Here it comes. In Gatsimony, the place of the oil press. Jesus is being pressed

as he fulfills the role of the ultimate anointed king, priest and prophet. In Gatsimony, Jesus is being impressed because he is getting ready to go to a cross to cleanse us from our sins. In Gatsimony, Jesus is being impressed because he is the one who came to heal our wound, and the one who came to hear our wounds

is getting ready to be wounded himself. And in Gatsimony, Jesus is being pressed because he is the light of the world, and the Bible says that those that are in him have no darkness in them. That's amazing, but there's more. When we learned this on our trip, when you press ripe olives,

the first liquid that comes out is actually not pure oil. It is a dark, purple, reddish color liquid. And some people think it actually looks like blood. Luke 2244, or Jesus is praying and he is in agony, he's saying Lord Jesus or Lord God Father, if there is another way.

And the Bible says that as he is praying, he is in agony, his sweat becomes like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And so here's the point. Salvation costs you nothing, but to Jesus it cost him everything. When you put pressure on the olives, what comes out is oil,

when Jesus was pressured at the garden and at the cross, what came out was his blood and is in that blood that you and I today, by his grace, we find salvation. Oh, boom. Bro. That's what I learned. There's levels to this.

There's levels to this. Bro, that's the first time I saw that, did you've all told you that? He did. He did. He was the greatest guy in history. Shout out of you all. That's a tour guide.

I was over there like weeping like a baby. He's like going through this thing. I knew where he was going. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like he started in and if you know your Bible just enough, you start going like, Oh, it gets better and better and better.

Anyways. So good. Well, man, I got a fall of that. What do you got? Yeah, man, Paul. Let's see what you got. Make sure you put it in the mic.

This is a... Oh, man. Well, first off, man, the whole thing was just incredible. Yeah. It's hard even put into words. I still feel like I am meditating on it and still trying to take it all in. Wait, wait, wait, hold on. Let me ask you this.

Have you been to Israel? I have been to Israel. Okay. That joke is dead. It's dead. It makes me sad. A little bit. A little bit.

It's a little bit. It was closing of a book, and he's kind of a little sad when you finish that book. You know, there's other jokes. I'm sure there's nothing. I'm not in my expense. So I haven't been over in the footsteps of Paul. So I still haven't been over that area. You still got that on me.

But anyways, no, it was special. Brought a lot back with me. I left a lot of me there, too. You know, may or may not have gotten a severe case of bacterial food poisoning. We will not go into detail. We will not go into detail at all. Paul made some deposits. Yes, I did.

But by the grace of God, seriously, by the grace of God, I didn't have to miss a single site. And, man, few things stick out. More blessed to give than receive. That is exactly right. Listen,

the way I like to think of it is I just found a full proof plan for not gaining any weight when I'm traveling. Amen. Full proof. Yeah. Anyways, yeah, a few things that stuck out.

One that really hit me hard was Caiapus's house. Yes. Because a lot of the places, you're like, oh, this is approximately where Jesus was or hey, maybe it was buried 10 feet beneath this. But there, I mean,

they've excavated it. You're good to go down into the dungeon where he was held. And so if you paste that thing, you're like, Jesus was here. So I just knelt down and put my hand down. And then when I stood up, they had a Bible there and was open to Psalm 88, which is actually one of my favorite chapters in the whole Bible, which is kind of morbid because it's the darkest chapter in the whole Bible, but the Psalm ends, darkness is my closest friend. You've taken my loved ones and companions from me. The darkness is my closest friend. And so just thinking of just Jesus being there in the darkness. But to your point, Carlos, he's in the darkness for us. He entered into the darkness to save us. So something about Caiaphas's house hit me. Obviously the garden tomb was incredible. incredible. We had an incredible guy that Cesar Shadows. He's a little free listener, by the way. I know. Right. I see Zah. And everything. But walking out of the tomb and it just hit you like, this is what Jesus did. He walked out of the tomb. But one of the things, and it was kind of random that hit me was when you're in Galilee, everything is so close to each other. When you're reading the Bible, it doesn't hit you. It doesn't hit you. It doesn't hit you. But it's like to kind of connect the dust. It would be like Jesus' his hometown for a while was Copernium. And that's where you see the story of him raising a little girl who died, the woman who touched the hymn of his garment. But then nearby at the feeding of the five thousand. The Sermon on the Mount.

When you read the sermon on the Mount, I'd always imagine, oh, yeah, he walked away, is out. Dude literally walked up the hill. That's right. You know, and then down the hill is where he restores Peter in the shore. So it's all right there. So all these stories of healings and ministry happened within a few square miles of each other. It's literally like 75% of this happened in this area of Dallas.

It's like kind of like that. Like in the galley area, literally if you went for a nice little 5K or 10K in the morning, you would go almost the extent of his galley in ministry. One side is insane. The thing I've been reflecting on and really kind of crystallized today is I was thinking about how Jesus in the book of John says,

man, you would even greater works in these than I've been doing. Obviously, he doesn't mean in the scope of the miracle. I think what he's talking about there, is you're going to do them in places I've never been before. But if it's true that Jesus did

most of his life-changing ministry within a few square miles of each other, I think the thing that hit me is that means for us today, these greater works, these amazing things God has for us to do, they're probably within a few square miles of where we live. That's great, Paul.

We don't have to go to some far, grand off place. I'm so thankful I went to Israel. But the things that God wants to do through me are probably right around me. That's good. And that starts whether it's a few square feet away from me and my kids, my wife's life, or my neighbors. And so that's just the thing that's been resonating with me is Jesus was really into local ministry and impacting the people around him. And if we could raise up an army of men and women who are following Jesus the same, the whole world would be different because of it. So there's much more, but those are a few initial things that suck out to me.

Can you play that sound one more time? I just need to do it. We heard music Just people don't know We heard music like that We're not doing You're going to coach appropriation Or anything like that

So, oh gosh I don't know what that means. Yeah I don't know what that means either All right That's only here in America bro like outside I don't know

Anything about that Okay Yeah In America I meant North America But anyways Different conversation Pester Josh I have a question for you

I will allow it What did you make to do this sermon? A lot Okay So this is great So first of all We're I think

five weeks in Five to five the good fight five fight through second timothy i'm or i'll just tell you i am i'm loving this so much i'm just telling you dude it is about 10 times more fun for me as preacher and we're just preaching through a book so this has been amazing um so i'm actually gonna cheat i'm gonna do one thing from last week's passage and then go into this um so mike bro shout out my bro he preached uh the first part of second to me too dude there is one of my favorite verses and i was so mad that he got that passage.

One of my favorite verses in the whole New Testament is in it. So let me set this up real quick because this is why I had to, I needed to go back, okay? So first of all, I'm getting in a quote is an old-day guy named Charles Spurgeon. This is Charles Spurge. You know who Charles Spurgeon in? Total Stud. They call him the Prince

of Preachers. Preachians Metropolitan Tabernacle in London for many years. Guy was pastoring a church of like 10,000 people before there were microphones in the 1800s. It's like total stud. Bro, I'm reading to Charles Spurgeon biography right now, became a senior pastor for the first time at 17, started pastoring Metropolitan Tabernacle

when he was 19. He's pastoring like one of the most prominent churches in London when he's 19 years old, had preached 600 sermons about the time he was 20. He's a freak. He was a total like a freak of nature. Freak of nature. Whole life, you know, cigar in one hand, glass and brandy

and the other, he's just kind of that kind of guy. You know, he's a dude. Okay, so I'm going to, it's one of my favorite Charles Spurson quotes. This is why I had to like, let me go back. So let me set it up. So what I'm going to say is not going to make sense unless you know what Jesus name means. So we call Jesus Jesus in English. That's not what Jesus was actually called. The English name Jesus is just transliteration of the Greek word E Jesus. Okay, that's where we get Jesus. But we all three know this. Jesus, he grew up speaking Aramaic. So in Aramaic, they didn't call me Jesus. They called him

Yeshua, which by the way is where we also get the name Joshua. Great name, strong name, virile name, masculine name. That's where they get that name. But the name Yeshua comes from the Hebrew word, yasha, which means to rescue or to save. So all this is going to come together here in a second. So Jesus' name literally means one who rescues or one who saves. Now, bookmark that in your head. So then Here's my favorite verse probably in all of Second Timothy. It says this, Second Timothy 212, remember Jesus Christ. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

Now, you're like, what does it mean he cannot deny himself? Nobody ever said it better than Charles Spurgeon. Okay, so Charles Pergin quote. Spurgeon said this, my master never denied himself. if you go to him you will find him at home and on the lookout for you he will be more glad to receive you than you will be to be received for he waits to be gracious to you he is watching for you i tell you again that he cannot reject you that would be to alter his whole character and unchrist himself to spurn a coming sinner would and here it is un-Jesus him and make him to be

somebody else and not himself any longer for he cannot deny himself and then spurson just ends saying go and try him go and try him go and try him and the reason i stinking love that so much is you know when you're the guy you're the girl who you send that sinned that sinned you promise you'd never sin again for the thousandth time and you did it again uh or if you got a lot of doubts and you're like man i just feel really faithless uh you read he cannot deny himself and you're Remember, his name literally means the one who rescues or saves. And then you remember, he cannot un-Jesus himself. So go and try him.

Go and try him. Go and try them. I love that verse. So stinking much that I had to go back, retrace the steps, and hit it. So you got that. That's from 2.12. Now, this passage we did this week, honestly, man, there was a ton here. It's a lot, honestly, man, it's a lot.

just about like Paul going to his little disciple Timothy and going, hey man, here are the marks of a disciple that's actually growing. That's really all this is. So I'll just, I'm going to hit a few things. You know, it's interesting to me. He begins this passage and this is an underrated thing. Preachers probably notice this more than other people. He begins this passage and he says, keep reminding them of these things. Man, I'll just like for, you've been a disciple for a minute. you probably need to hear this. About 95% of the time, you don't need to learn something new,

you just need to remember something old. Yes. Is that thing we'll say over and over. Forgetfulness is the greatest enemy of faith because when you forget what God did, you stop believing what it'll do. So it's like, man, most of the time I've found when something's off or there's like something going on

under the hood, I really just need to go find the thing. That's hilarious. My assistant's setting up my new phone, and I'm getting like a billion alerts like right now. Don't allow. Don't allow. Okay. There's the code that I'm supposed to send her. That's probably not going to have one now. Somebody text Janet. Somebody text Janet. You got it? Jason. That's great.

So that that's one. Just go find the old thing that your heart needs to remember and like, you know, just do it. Now, I'm going to show you a gross picture here in a second. So just roll with me. He says this in this passage, and man, I'll be honest, especially in social media age, this is like this is one of the most disobeyed verses there is now. He just says this. He says, avoid godless chatter. That's what he says. Avoid godless chatter. I think, and what's really interesting, if you look at the Hebrew for godless chatter, it's Twitter. So what it is. And the Greek is Facebook. It's probably a Kai and X as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the Latin is Instagram. And then the Aramaic is blogs. What about Yudish? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Okay. And dude, what's interesting is he says, yeah, TikTok. That's what it is. He says, avoid godless chatter. And then what he said, this is really interesting,

because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. So, dude, this is really interesting because he gets into this and what he says is, hey man, he says, avoid foolish controversies, quit talking about quarrels about words. What he's literally talking about is he's talking about people who get real contentious

in churches and they start debating little things and dividing their life groups, that kind of stuff and all this stuff. And what he's saying is, bro, there's a way to argue about the things of God that actually makes you less godly. You can be arguing about things of God all you want.

But there's a way to do it that makes you less godly. And then, bro, this is where I'm going to show you a gross picture. He says, avoid those people because, quote, their talk will spread like gangrene. Okay, now I'm going to show you something nasty. Say it like, that right there. Show that. Look at that. No, don't look away, Paul.

Look at that with your face. Okay. Both eyes. Look at that. Okay. Bro, gangrene. So that's what that is. Now, I'm going to keep it up

because it's making you uncomfortable. I'm keeping it up there on purpose, okay? So when somebody gets that disease, now you can take it down. It's real gross. When somebody gets that disease, here's the point. His point is, you can't cure it.

The only thing you can do is cut it off. That's the only thing you can do. Now, here's what's really interesting. I didn't have as much time to go into this. So 2 Timothy and Titus, they're like Siamese books because both of them is where Paul's writing to two of his spiritual

sons. He says the same thing to Titus, but with different language, about godless chatter, people who are dividing church, that kind of thing. Titus 3, this is what he says. This has got a bit of an edge to it. It's kind of thing like, wait, can we obey that verse? That sounds, I don't know what I think about that. He says, warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time, and then after that have nothing to do with him. So what he's literally saying in this passage is saying, hey man, want to ruin a church, just let people get in there who like just, they sew division and they're arguing about stuff all the time, this godless chatter. And what we're supposed to do is essentially you got when you see that, when you see, by the way, speaking this over the people

Lake Point, we are not these people. We don't do this stuff. But when you see people who do that stuff, he's going, hey man, you got two choices when you see that. You rebuke them or you remove them. That's, and, bruce, it's another one of those things where he calls out two, dudes by name. Like he literally says, I think it's Hymenace and Philetus is their names. He just calls them out by name and he's like, it's these guys. These guys are not doing, are those the names? I think that's the names. He tells these guys, yeah, Hymenace and Philetus verse 17. He just calls them out by name. He's like, don't do that. So I will say, by God's grace, we have not had to do this hardly ever at Lake Point. But what you're seeing here is the very uncomfortable, very

unpopular thing that goes very internet viral that there are moments where churches just have to go hey bro you can't do that in our church and if you're can keep doing that we got to kick out that's what he's doing here i will just say this you know i'll just um this right here the admonition to avoid godless chatter you know in internet age there's a lot of people they'll see stuff you know it's just the nature of us being very online it's like now people are always saying stuff about church that's like a new whole industry. You know, look at the, you know, I won't even say. Say something.

Click this link to my monetized website so I can slander churches. But there's a lot of times people are like, hey man, I get this. Why don't you respond? Well, because that just said just to avoid godless chatter. Yeah. Just avoid it. Yeah. So it was interesting.

Like, I've meditated on these verses a lot. You know, you notice Jesus did this. people would a lot of times walk up to Jesus and be like, Jesus, hey, tell us, you know, hey, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? And they're like trying to, essentially, they got a gotcha question. And then Jesus, bro, as I'm meditating on this passage,

I realize how wise Jesus is. Jesus is applying the Proverbs, and he's applying this, avoid Godless chatter. And there's sometimes where he refuses to answer questions or he'll answer a question with a question. He go, oh, you want to ask me a question? Very interesting, very interesting. Let me ask you a question.

And then he essentially goes, you know, hey, the baptism of John, was it from heaven or for man? And he puts them in a, you know, a darn-d-view, darn-d-view. But the point is, man, Timothy's going, hey, man, make sure as a church and make sure as pastors that you don't get drawn into godless chatter. Hey, man, don't wrestle with a pig. All that happens, you get dirty and the pig likes it, you know.

So you got this. Now, there's a couple other things I really, you guys got anything on that? We got here? Yeah, if I'm honest, like I, this is a verse I take very seriously. Obviously, like you said, Pastor Josh, like part of our jobs is kind of like,

you know, it's just very online, very involved. So I actually, I wrestle with this verse a lot because, man, there's obviously wisdom in trying to figure out where's the line between what is a foolish, ignorant controversy and what is something that as Christians were called to speak into. But the verse is not saying

that you never speak into the things that you need to be speaking into. Literally, like a verse after it says, hey, you have a responsibility as the Lord's servant to, one, not to be quarrelsome, but be kind to everybody, but then to correct your opponents with gentleness. And so there is a sense in which there's a time

for you to say, you know what, like that's just not worth it. And that's a good warning for a bunch of, for Christians, really, for us, man, there are things we're just not going to touch. And there's also a time to, like you said, to correct your opponents with gentleness because that's literally a verse.

That's good. That's right. Yeah. Actually, I'll give it, can I give it delineation. So this is, let me make an application we made before on the pod. But let's go a layer deeper. Yes. So this doesn't mean, it's not saying, it says avoid foolish controversies, it does not say avoid all controversies. In fact, those two guys that he mentions, Hymenas and Philetus, he calls them out by name and he addresses the controversy they're creating,

specifically because these guys were, I'm going to explain this here in a second, they were teaching false doctrine saying that the resurrection had already happened. So I don't have time to go into this. It was a very, it was like a very Greek heresy that was like, hey man, everything physical is bad, everything spiritual good. The only resurrection that happened actually already happened when you gave your life to Christ. It was a spiritual resurrection. Already happened to you. You know, no physical resurrection was coming. So you'll notice Paul consistently chooses which things he confronts and which things he doesn't based on this thing we call it a lot of times we'll talk about theological triage okay so here's the analogy that gets used there are first tier issues

two tier issues third tier issues okay so first tier issues are issues of core doctrine like you must believe these things in order to be a Christian okay so this is salvation by grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone this is the resurrection of Christ second coming of Christ you know a bunch of stuff that goes in here. We don't debate those, we defend those. That's right. Yeah, I'm going to do the 3Ds here in a second. Okay, got it.

So second to your issues are issues where we would say, hey, it's actually more important to be together than to be right, but it may be uncomfortable. So for instance, motive baptism. Like honestly, man, if you are committed what somebody might call a Pado Baptist, you're about sprinkling babies, and then you come to Lake Point,

and we're like, well, we only dunk people who have actually made professions of faith. Visible representation of invisible reality. is it we're all on team Jesus together and let's move forward as team Jesus in a unified way but bro it may be uncomfortable at Lake Point when you want me to baptize your baby and do a little you know and I'm not going to do it maybe uncomfortable yeah okay third tier issues are issues where it's more important to be together than to be right and it shouldn't be uncomfortable at all okay so this is things like hey man in my opinion things like eschatological views

Hey, what order are the events of the second coming going to happen in? Okay. Is it the millennium and then the thing, or does the millennium come before the thing? Preacher rapture, pre-chreacher, rapture, hey, ma'am, we can, like, have fun discussions. Yeah. We don't need to divide over that age of the earth. Stuff like that. Like, I'm as conservative as you get on that stuff.

But I'm not going to divide my discipleship group over that. Calvinism, Armenian, is that kind of stuff. Second-tier, third-tier issues. The way I like to put it is, first-tier issues. If we disagree, we have a different faith. Second tier issues, if we disagree, we should probably go to a different church. Third tier issues, if we disagree, we just have different opinions. Bro, that's fantastic.

Say that one more time. That's fantastic. First tier issues, if we disagree, we have a different faith. Second tier issues, if we disagree, we should probably just go to a different church. Third tier issues, if we disagree, man, we just have different opinions. That's great. So he said it a little better than me. So here's what I would say, so what I'll typically do is when somebody's trying to figure out,

hey man what should I so by the way notice there's a bunch of stuff that like that is not in any of those they're like fifth tier issues you know you know growing up what colors the carpet in the church or you know how they play drama you know that kind of stuff like hey man I didn't even register on the Richter scale but on those things you know kind of what I'll do is hey third tier issues oh man Janice texting me now that's a joke that's a joke by the way third tier issues it's hey man discuss second tier issues debate and then this will have an edge to it

first year issues either declare or divide that's it dude so third tier issues friendly discussion second tier issues might have a lively debate first tier issues divide and declare so this is what's what's going on here I think it's so good now let me just say a couple more things

about this that was you know that I think we're really good and then I want to talk about ways to study the Bible I love this. It started this passage. So you got this whole deal. Let me find it. The past right here.

Yeah. Verse 20. Now in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use and some for dishonorable. Now, what he's talking about here, so you got, by the way,

I was messing with my ring, and it fell a second ago. Somebody can find that thing, because all the podcast clips are going to look like I don't got a ring on, And then everyone's going to be like, oh, he and Jan are. I'm like, nope, me and Jan are real good. The godless chatter will start.

Godless chatter will start. That's the way it is. A little silicone workout ring. Wait, Trinity, get in here. Come here. Trinity, get in here. We've been waiting for an episode for the woman behind the curtain to show her face. The great reveal.

So here we go. Drumroll, Trinity, you're going to come over here. And everybody in the comments is going to welcome Trinity. No, you get over here. You show your face. This is Trinity. That's awesome. That's so quick.

And by the way, she didn't have to come over here because he found it. He found it. Love eternity. Can I get a sprite or something? That'd be good. That'd be good.

Okay. So what he does here is he's talking about how, he says, Great House. So he's talking about like a big old house. Okay? By the way, if you attend Lake Point, it's a big house.

Yeah. Okay? It's a great house. And then he says there are some vessels of gold and silver for honorable use. And then he says some for dishonorable. Almost every Bible scholar says the same thing. He's literally talking about like a chamber pot.

Like he's literally, he's talking, he's talking about a first century crapper, is what he's talking about, probably. And what he's saying is, hey man, all these vessels have a purpose. Some of them get used for extremely noble, honorable, significant purposes. Some of the man, you kind of keep hitting. You don't want people to even see you use them. You know, not being crass.

It's what he's saying. That's what he's saying. Now, dude, this is so. hopeful for me. What he says is, and I'm going to just read it, he says, if anyone, if anyone cleanses themselves from what is dishonorable, then they will become a vessel fit for honorable use. Now notice the word anyone, okay? So dude, here's what I love. Okay. So what we'll say a lot of times is that that word condemnation, it's a builder's term. It literally just means unfit for use. you drive by a bunch of condemned houses.

Actually, do you have that? Oh, Trenton. You get that. You didn't want to get on. Get on camera. If you drive by a bunch of condemned houses, go ahead and talk. Can you toss that little condemned picture right there?

So you'll see it. Like a condemned home will literally have this thing on it that says what right there. It says condemned as unfit for human occupancy or use. And when you see that Bible word condemned, it literally is just a builder's term. It means unfit for use. And so, bro, I love this so much, man. what Satan is always going to do

is how somebody condemns a house is a building inspector comes by and it'll look at something that's jacked up with the house like, ah, foundations cracked, ah, there's asbestos in there. You know, we got rotted framing. And it'll go, because of that, condemned, because of that, unfit for use, unfit for use, unfit for use.

And you just got to know that's exactly what Satan's going to do in your life. Is he's going to find one thing in your life that either was or is jacked up. And he's going to point out and he's go, hey man, you know, I'm not, I'm pointing up Paul, but I don't mean Paul. He's going to point at you, listener.

He's going to porn addiction, unfit for use. Had an abortion, unfit for use. Divorced, unfit for use. The guy's got an anxiety problem, unfit for use. Do I love this so much? Because what this passage says is it says, if anyone, if anyone cleanses themselves from things that are dishonorable, then they will be useful to the master of the house for something.

that is significant, a noble use, okay? So what God does is he comes by, and he just says, hey, man, there is therefore now no condemnation. Romans 8, you are fit for use. You're going to be fit for use. And I just want to remind you, man, what you'll notice all throughout the Bible is God is not determining your usefulness based on what you were, but based on what you will be.

So you run through the whole Bible and you're going to see this thing. You got Noel was a drunk, Jacob was a thief, Joseph was a convict Moses was a murderer Samson was a bully Gideon was a coward David was an adulterer Solomon was a womanizer

Elijah had anger issues Jonah was a racist Jeremiah was depressed Mary was a pregnant teenager Peter was a hypocrite Matthew was an extortionist Thomas was a doubter Paul was a terrorist

God's not determining how he's going to use you based on what you were he's going to determine it based on what you will be if anyone cleanses themselves from what is dishonorable

They can be used by the master for honorable use So I just lean all the way in. That's amazing. Yeah, it's awesome. Now, I got a lot more. There's a bunch of stuff about words, using your words. There's so much.

Any thoughts? I mean, just to encourage you if you're out there and that hits you, my mind went to 1st John where it says, anyone who says there without sins a liar. That's right. But it says, but if we confess our sin, that's right. He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all in righteousness. So he forgives us, but then he cleanses us. So if you're listening to this, John, God, confess your sin.

to God and know that he is a God who loves and longs to forgive and then to cleanse and to restore. I was actually thinking about the restoration of Peter. And you just mentioned Peter's name. We got to go there to where he was restored. And he thinks he's all big and bold and that he actually overestimated his faith. Peter's mistake was overestimating it. Jesus knew where he was at. And so Jesus said, you know, I'm going to pray for you.

And after you restored, come back. I love it. And I just love it. And I'm like, Jesus expected less from Peter than he did from himself. I'll say that again. It sounds harsh, but he expected less from Peter than Peter did from himself. Because Jesus knew before Peter was ever even on this earth, every mistake he'd ever make, including denying him three times.

And yet Jesus still signed up for Peter. That's right. Because he knew what he was signing up for. That's right. So I'll just say this to you out there. If he failed, it could be years ago or recently, Jesus knew what he was signing up for when he signed up to die for you. That's right.

Confess your sin. Let him forgive you and cleanse you. And I'll move into what God has for you. Amen. Amen. Dude, let me just say one more thing on this passage. because at a practical discipleship level and how it affects your family,

this is probably the most important thing in the passage. There is more in here about words, what words you use, how you use your words, than, bro, literally anything else. 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 to 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 very interesting. When he says in this passage, I'm going to read it. Verse 22, he says, flee youthful passions. I was meditating on this as week. What are youthful passions? It's all the stuff that senior saints look at younger people and go, that's real dumb. For real.

I was trying to, how do I, I was going, how do I preach this? I was like, this is all the stuff that when you get older, you look back and you're like, that was dumb. You know, it's like the 70-year-old guy that looks at a guy who's chasing skirt everywhere, and he's like, bro, that's so dumb. Do you have any idea what you're doing? It's senior saints, they look at younger guys who just, they love to fight. They just want to fight all the time. Argue about everything. And they just kind of chuckle at you and you're like, that's so dumb.

That's so dumb. It's just getting worked up about stuff. You shouldn't just get worked up about. Or, and here's a big one, what you'll notice is that older, more, mature senior saints, they're very careful with their words. So when Paul says, flee youthful passions, it's like, what's the stuff that the old people think is dumb? And one of his words, and I just want to point this out, this little theology of words. So it's really interesting. So if you get, so you get the beginning of the Bible, God creates in Genesis 1, and he literally creates with words, right? Let there be

light, there was life, boom, creates words. We are created in the image of a God who creates with words. Now, I'm all out on Word of Faith, name it, claim it, blabit, grab it, I'm all out, okay. But there is something to the fact that we are created in the image of God who creates with words. That means our words have a power that we probably do not fully understand. In fact, I'll just say it. I think that's what Proverbs 1821 means when it says death and life are in the power of the tongue. A big statement. And those who love it will eat is fruits.

So here's what that verse means. Every time you speak, it says eat its fruits. Every time you speak, it's like you're planting seeds. And it's not going to happen overnight, but it will happen over time. All those things you speak are going to grow up into something, either death or life. And one way or another, someday you're going to eat exactly what you planted. By the way, that verse is literally where we get in the English. language, you're going to eat your words. Do you know that? That came from Proverbs 1821.

You're going to eat your words. That came from right that. So what I would say is, let me just apply it to like marriages and kids real quick. Death and life are in the power of your tongue. Very interesting, by the way, that when the Holy Spirit falls in Acts 2, the first thing he does is he affects their tongues. That's very interesting. Very interesting to me. Okay. So I'll just give you a little analogy we use in the Howard and House and then you're going to talk about how to study the Bible. It's going to be great. The reason in this passage talk so much about using our words. Here's the analogy we use, death and life. Chatji Paul C has heard this before on Exec Team Retreat. The little analogy we use of the Howard

House is we say we're hummingbirds and not buzzards. And this may sound real dumb to you. I'm telling you this is change your family. We say we're hummingbirds and not buzzards. Okay. So here's a difference. A hummingbird can be flying over an entire desert of dead things. It will see one living flower and it will descend on the one living thing and pass over a whole ocean of dead things. A buzzard will do the exact opposite. A buzzard can fly over a whole field that's all life. It'll see one dead carcass and descend on the one, it'll pass over all the living good things and descend on the one dead bad thing. And listen, I'm just going to tell you, if you're a dad, your tongue, there is life and death in the power of your tongue. You are either going to have a hummingbird

tongue with your wife and with your children, or you're going to have a buzzard tongue with your life, with your wife, and with your children. Either you will be the type of man, husband, and father who looks at your wife and you'll be like, hey man, there's a lot of stuff wrong, but I see a few things, right? And that's what I'm going to choose to focus my words on. And here's what you're going to notice. when you choose to direct your words towards that, the living things start to grow. Or you're the type of man who death is in the power of your tongue. And you walk in the house, and, bro, there is so much glory

in your kids, in your wife, in your family. But your tongue passes over all the good things, and it's constantly talking about the one dead thing. You got a buzzard tongue. And I'm just going to warn you right now, life and death are in the power of your tongue. And I'll say this. Heads up, Dad.

your kids are either going to live up to the blessings of your tongue or they will live down to the curses that come for your tongue. Say one more time. Your kids will either live up to the blessings that come from your tongue or they will live down to the curses that come from your tongue. There's your warning. That's why there's so much in here about how we use our words and our families and in our churches, it matters.

Now, Paul, part of this passage, this is most frequently asked question. that we get. Part of this passage it says, study to show yourself approved, a workman unto God, quote, rightly dividing the word of truth. Okay. That's a big deal. And one of the most frequently asked questions we get on this podcast is, how the heck do you guys get that stuff out of the Bible that I never see when I'm reading it? So I'll just, let's do this real quick. Let's, like, we want to equip people to be good workman unto God. Yep. So Chachupal C, you want to run us through real quick, like three or four ways to study your Bible? Yeah. When people,

ask me this question, man, how did you learn all this? Everything I always tell me, I'm like, there's nothing special about you, me, or Carlos. The difference between you and someone that you look up to who really knows the Bible is time and intentionality. That's fact. Time and intentionality. It takes time. I am this sum accumulation of about 47,000 meals that I've had in terms of just physically.

Can't remember but a handful of them, but I'm the sum total of all of them. In the same way, man, you, the three of us, or I'd say that we're the sum total of all the times we've read God's word. We may only remember a handful of those times. really stick out to us. But man, over time, the accumulation, it just adds up. The intentionality part is really important as well. So it's not just, so I'm going to flip up into a random page and see what's there. No, like an intentional plan is going to work better than a haphazard one. And so I'd say people like, you want to be doing two things, and I'll give you four study methods to these two things. You want to, number one, be exposing yourself to as much of scripture as possible over the course of a year or two.

It can be a year or two year. It could be a three-year plan, but that's where we're going to be reading more scripture it runs. Just be exposed to as much scripture as possible. Or you could download the Lake Point app. Yeah, or download the lake point. We will send you

our daily Bible reading plan. I got the plan for you. Simply by texting the word app to the number two zero four one. Wow, that was great. That's how it does it. I'm learning for you. I'm really proud of it.

That's how it does it. Wow. Wow. Let's just commemorate that just happened. That was amazing. Put the thing on the microphone. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. Oh, and then number two, number two, can of bringing this back. Ben number two. And go deep on a book or two of the Bible year or a topic of year and do both of those. Yes. And I tell people, this seems like insane.

But I'm like, if you will do that every year, if every year we expose yourself to as much scripture as possible through a Bible reading plan, and you will pick a book or two of the Bible or a theme or two of the Bible and go deep in them, in the course of two to three decades, you could have insanely, I hate to say mastered the Bible, but you'll be like there. You would have exposed yourself to the depths of scripture and you'll be a fundamentally different person because of that. So those two kind of broad-based approaches, expose yourself to a lot, but then go deep in a few. But then there's four good methods of how to do that. I don't want to walk people through them and really focus in on two of them because two of the methods is best if you get a book and I'll recommend some, but two will walk step by step.

What you got? No, I was just going to say, as you do these, so people are listening, here's what I'd say. I'm going to say two things. One, people might, they may hear four and they may go, well, hey, Paul, which one's the best one? I'm going to answer this question. Okay, when people, it's the same thing. What I say is Bible study methods are like diets. What's the best diet?

The one you'll do. Or going to Israel and getting a stomach bug. What's the best diet? The one you'll do. What's the best way to study the Bible? The one you'll do. So just pick the one that you do. Now, the other thing I'll say where our personalities might be different is you're probably on your Myers-Briggs.

I won't even ask you. Do you remember what your last letter is? You might get it wrong. I'm a P. You're a, okay, okay, me too. Yeah. Okay, do you know what you? I'm a Jay.

You're a Jay, that's what I figured. Okay. So like. Which means you guys are more like gut feeling versus like judgment? Sometimes. I think, I think that's right. Here's, well, I may get this wrong. Here's what I've been told that it means is like,

J's is like, let me get the thing that I like to do and I'll just do the same thing over and over and over. Honestly, for me, what will happen is I'll do one of these. And then honestly, I'm going to shoot you real straight. I get bored. Yeah. I'm serious. I get bored of doing the same thing every day, and then I just switch.

Yep. So it's like what I would say is which one's best one, the one you'll do. And then if one starts lagging on you, we'll just switch. Just keep yourself interested. Now, you want to tell us four ways to say the Bible?

Yeah, I've got actually a chart for you. We love charts. I love it. We've got chart. It's going to lay out the four methods. Nope, not that one. We'll do the one that it lays out all the different,

yeah, the Bible study methods right there. Four methods. Devotional, inductive, deductive, and biblical theology. Okay, I'm going to walk through just briefly,

each of these, and then we'll double-click specifically on devotional inductive and kind of walk you step-by-step-step to this methods. But each of these serves the different purposes, and really they're about different questions you're asking. So devotional, this is best for your bread and butter Bible reading. This is really asking the question of how can I respond to what God has said today by reading the Word of God today? How can I read it? So this is also great for it. Like, when I'm trying to take in a lot of scripture at the time, this is me. I'm going to sit down. This is probably more like 10 to 15 minutes, maybe up to 30. So this is best for your daily Bible reading. I said, if you can do this one three to four days a week, it's a great

thing to do. Inductive is really more where I go. Go ahead. You're going to explain how to do them. Yeah, I'm going to explain how to do them. I'm going to come back through and then actually explain how to do them. Inductive Bible study is where I'm asking the question, what does this passage communicate? This is a little bit more of in-depth Bible study. Kind of think of it this way. Whereas devotional Bible study is more like, hey, I got 10 to 15 minutes. And, maybe up to 30, in-depth Bible study or inductive Bible study is more like, man, 30 to 40, maybe even up to 60 minutes of your time. This is great for diving deep into a passage or if you're wanting to study the book of the Bible.

So we've been going through 2nd Timothy. You could do that on your own and just take a little bit of it at a time, 30 minutes, up to 60 minutes. And just being honest with you to your point, I'm probably not going to do that every day. Most people don't have time for that every day. So for me, I'm going to do as much as I can every day, more of a devotional reading that's short, asking, God, what do you have to say to me through this today? Inductive is then maybe once or twice a week. I'm going to go deep. And again, if you do that over the long haul, it really adds up. Big time. Deductive is really more of the idea of like systematic or-

Is it? Real quick. Is Inductive? That's K. Arthur's old thing, right? Yes, I've got a book right here. Is she still living? She's still living? I don't know, actually. That's a good question. Dude, Jana devoured K. Arthur inductive Bible study method. She still does it sometimes. She popularized the approach. By the way, we can go ahead and give a plug. She passed away. She's hugged Jesus. Okay. This is, yeah, how to study your Bible by K. Arthur, great resource. So we're going to give just a little bit of a brief starter course for people. But if you want to go deeper, this is a great book. 170 pages will take you deeper into it. Deductive Bible study is more the idea that, hey, there's big topics and themes in the Bible.

and we're asking, what does the whole Bible have to say about that given topic? So instead of looking at an individual passage to say, what is God trying to communicate through this specific passage is saying, hey, what does the whole Bible say about hope? Yeah. What does the whole Bible say about the Trinity or about any given topic? This is where I would say, hey, it's best if you get a guide to help you. Someone who's written a systematic theology.

So I've got here, Wayne Grudem, systematic theology is a great one. Also, John Nielsen's knowing God's truth. Every Christian dad should have a copy of cis mat theology in his house. That's your go-to when your kid asks a question that you don't know how to answer. Here's what you do. You say, I don't know, but I'm going to find any the answer, and you go write to that book. Exactly. And so even to give you an idea, like the last year, too, I really wanted to dive deep back into the Trinity.

And so what I do is I take a book like Wayne Grudem's or others. And I'll use that as a guide, but here's the key. So you're not just reading Wayne Grudem's words. You want to get into the word. There you go. Is you'll read his stuff, but then what will happen is in all the stuff he's writing, you'll see Bible references and verses. Then go look them up and read it for yourself.

That's the key. Otherwise, you're just taking his word forward. You actually want to go to the word and see what it says. All right, bro, I'm just go to the ones. So one of the things that people listen to the podcast, and be like, bro, how do you guys do that? Yeah. So like the stuff he did at the beginning about oil press,

and it was used for four different things. And then he starts connecting, I'm going to use a big theological word, Christologically, in how the four uses of oil, throughout the scriptures are fulfilled in Christ. Okay, how you get that is through deductive Bible study. So this is one thing we may talk about in a second. One of the things that frequently blows my mind is all very intentionally chase rabbit trails.

So I may talk about this in a second. Like I'm reading, I'm in numbers. And the other day, I'm in like numbers four. And it keeps insisting that the entrance to the tabernacle face east. So honestly, dude, here's what I do. I'm in my Bible study. And I'm like, you know what? I'm going to chase the rabbit trail.

That's a great question. Okay? I'm going to trace the rabbit trail. and I just start digging in, what is the theological significance of the directions east and west of the Bible? And Ronald 15th time, stinging blew my mind.

It's insane. I got, like, hands up, tears down, worship pouring out of my heart, just chasing the rabbit trail on Tuesday morning. What's the theological significance of East and Westin the Bible? That's deductive Bible study. Yes. Yeah.

Oh, I've got to be careful. You're going to make me chase around. No, don't do it. Don't do it. For example, that's where you can say, oh yeah, like the Garden of Eden and the tabernacle are modeled almost exactly the same in terms of directions they're facing, how it's constructed, cherubim, all the things.

But again, if you have a guide like Wayne Grudom, you're like, how do we learn this stuff from other people. We learn it, but then you saturate yourself in it. You go into the word, and it's amazing. You know, again, even like, here's a two practical encourages that some of this. Then I'm going to give the fourth category. And let's double click on soap and inductive and give people kind of a starter course so they can get going on their own, which is a practical thing.

I actually find for like deductive, more like topical or systematic study, if you know how to use AI, it can actually be really helpful right here. Fact. You got to double check it. You got to double check it. But fact. But this is where it's like, hey, can you get me all the relevant Bible verses on and then you give it a topic that you want to do? So even like I know for some people, they kind of have like, here's my word for the year that I feel like God has given me. A great thing you could do is then chat GPT it or whatever say, hey, what does the Bible have to say about your word and then

spend that year diving into those verses on that word? It's a great way to do a more deductive study. This is what I did on the East and West thing. I'm literally sitting there and I'm grocking. I got grok expert. And I'm like, list for me every theologically significant verse that mentions the directions east and west in the old and New Testaments. And that's literally, I just sit there.

And I'm looking up in my actual physical Bible so I'm making sure I'm not relying on the AI. And that's all of a sudden I'm like, my mind's like being shilled by glory. It's amazing. And again, begin pieces and I'll give the last study method. is for me, most days I'm trying to do a more devotional study. Trying to expose myself to the word as often as possible asking, God,

what do you have to say to me today through your word once and for all? But then maybe just a couple times a week, I'm going to go more to that deductive study and go a little bit deeper, and it adds up over the course of the year. Final category, biblical theology. This is actually a really fun one. This is asking the question of, hey, how does a particular theme develop across script?

So I'm going to say, like, when people hear about the connections you make Carlos between the Old and New Testament. Pastor Dosh, you do the amazing thing the same way. This is biblical theology. It's taking something that is a theme and it starts in the Old Testament, but then shows how it's fulfilled by Christ and the New Testament. Which is in every single page of the Bible.

It's insane, man. There are multiple layers of every single page of the Bible. Oh, it's crazy. Even to help people understand, like one reason, for example, that the book of Revelation is really difficult for people, in addition to it just having a lot of symbolism and symbolic language in it, it is Old Testament saturated.

And because people don't know the Old Testament as well, it's hard for them and then to catch these things it's alluding to all the time. But again, this is a method. It's great to have a guide. So a couple of books, God's Big Picture by Von Roberts is a great introductory one. And then also tracing God's story is a good one.

What's great about this one. My daughter and I've started going through his systematic theology together is every chapter he'll take you to the theme, but then he actually gives you reading assignments from the Bible. So again, you're not. simply reading John Nielsen's word, he is going to make you read the word. And I think you had

another recommendation, right? I do, because I'm too dumb to read Paul's books a lot of times. This is, throw that other one out there, Trinity, the book that I did. So honestly, if you're going to my opinion, if you want to do one and you're like, hey man, I'm trying to figure out the Bible, is I'm kind of new to this thing. What are they even talking about? Like how the Old Testament and New Testament relate and all, where do they get all that mind-blowing stuff? In my opinion, that's where you start. It's called Epic of Eden by Sandra Richter. That book's thinking blew my mind. The first time I read it, you'll never read your Bible the same again. Yeah. So, pick one of these resources we give in if you want to do one of these other study methods.

Use them as a guide, but again, I can't emphasize enough. Don't just read their words. That's right. Read the words. If you see one of those references, go look them up. Now, let's do maybe a quick walkthrough of soap in the induction study to actually just show you how to do this. So we've got the graphic for soap up there. Soap is simply, you know, it's anagram that stands for scripture, observation, application, and then prayer. So if you're not watching this, I'd highly encourage you to do it later. Maybe you can also put this in the guide as well. I've got up there even recommendations of how long you spend on each of these sections. So the idea is like, for me, I've got my Bible open. I've got a Bible reading plan that I'm coming out of. I've got

my Bible open. Usually I have a journal and a pen so I can stay focus and not get on my phone. And I get distracted by my phone. And so for me, then I'm going to just simply follow S-O-A-P. So Scripture, choose a passage. And I usually encourage people, read it slowly at least once. Read it slowly. Don't skim through it really fast. Just read it slowly and intentional at least once. And then for me, this is more of a recommendation than you have to. Write a verse that stands out to you, a verse for a phrase. And even often what I'll do, and this is important to say, actually.

But the first thing you need to do before you do anything is just stop and pray for a moment. And just recognize. You talk about your words are important. The idea of like God spoke the universe into existence. and that same God spoke this word into existence, and he wants to speak to me. That's right. And so I'll sometimes say,

God, what do you have to say to me today? So I'm going to read it slowly. Usually thinking, is there any phrase or verse that sticks out to me? Then there's observation. Here's a mistake a lot of people make. A lot of people will immediately then say, what does this mean to me? Yeah, who cares?

Nobody cares. Terrible question. It does not matter what it means to you. It matters what does it mean. That's right. Period. Once and for all. So an observation,

you're really asking yourself, hey, what does this mean? What did he mean to say once and for all? So you can ask a few questions. Like, hey, what's happening in the passage? What does the passage reveal about God or about people? And you're like also noting words that stick out as, hey, is he saying these words a month? You're simply spending five or six minutes and simply saying, hey, like, what seems to be like

the main message, the main things that are being communicated here? Don't worry about, by the way, if you get everything. This is devotional reading. You're not trying to write a thesis. You're simply trying to get a few basic things. then there's applications. This is where you ask, not does it what it mean to me, but actually what does it mean for me? So there's what does it mean?

And then you're asking, okay, based on what it means, what does that mean for me? How do I actually live differently in light of this? So you can ask some of these questions. How does this truth meet my life right now? Is there something that I need to believe or change or do? And here's what I just encourage people. Choose one specific thing. If you have multiple things, great.

But simply say, hey, if one thing changed today about what I believe or what I do or how I feel based on this passage, what would it be? And then the final thing, P is prayer. Take a moment, thank God for what you learned, and ask him for the grace to apply the thing that he showed you. Anything that you guys would weigh in on this and say and double-click on? On the observation. I mean, that's the word that we use traditionally for observation and kind of application a little bit is the word meditation. That's the word the Bible uses. And I mean, this is from Psalm 1. Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord. And on this law, he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water

that yields his fruit in its season, and its leaf does not weather. And all that he does, he prospers that word. To meditate in Hebrew is the word, Arach, which is literally the same word that the prophet Isaiah uses when he's talking about a lion growling over its prey. So in the same way that you see a lion looking at its prey and it's growling and it's kind of pondering and it's looking at it and it's about to eat it, that's how Christians are called to approach scripture. We look at scripture and we meditate.

We ponder it. We're hungry for it. And basically, that's what you just described, Paul, on observation. It's good. You think Pastor Josh from more devotional reading. Yeah, a couple of things real quick. So here's, I just want to highlight a couple things you said. First of all, man, like developing this habit will be arguably the most important thing you

ever do. Yes. Because I'll just say the same thing I say all the time, man. It starts out sounding sacrilegious, but just stick with me. Praying is not powerful. Reading the Bible is not powerful. Going to church is not powerful. Singing a song is not powerful.

You know what is powerful? Reading the Bible every day, that's powerful. Praying daily, that's powerful. Going to church every week, that'll change your life. So it's the thing over time. When it comes to observation for me, a lot of times, for some reason, for me, the number is 30. I'll sit down and I'll read like a passage and I'll just go, okay, I'm going to make 30 observations. That's good.

And it's basic stuff. I mean, like, Paul's talking to Timothy. Yes. That's an observation. This is the fourth time in this book. He said this. I'll just force myself to do 30. And I just, you know, I get, my brain does this thing.

So if I can have a pin right there and force myself to do it, like, okay, 30, it just gets it my heart marinating in it. Now, to what Carlos just said, you know, I've heard the little analogy before, you got the example from the scriptures that the word is like a sword. You got that analogy that you want to grip a sword with five fingers. So here's what I'll kind of do sometimes. There's like five ways that I want to interact with the Bible, and they kind of all flow into these different study methods. You want to read the word. Five fingers, grip the sword.

Here's the five fingers. Read the word, study the word, memorize the word, meditate on the word, pray the word. If I can get those five, I'm gripping the sword with all five fingers. Okay. And then when it comes to meditate, really meditation is like a prayerful form of what you just said. So like this is two days ago.

I just needed it. I took my little long walk, and I got my live, fun note with a bunch of lyrics of hymns. You know, I looked like a, I actually had a church member stop and be like, are you okay? They saw me because they see me. I'm like crying out to the Lord, you know, they're like, you okay, yeah, I'm worshipping. You're like, leave, leave. Get out of here. I'm busy.

Hey, man. Mind your own business. There's things you think, but you don't say. And, you know. I love you, but, yeah. Yeah, Jesus loves you. But so meditate, it's like meditating. It really goes back to,

it's a prayerful form of what Paul's talking about. It's like meditating, I'm meditating on that passage, I can't remember which number. Oh God, you are my God. It's like I'll just sit there. So really what I'm doing is making prayerful observations.

I'm just going, oh God, man, I'm just stopping. Man, you are a Lord. You are sovereign over the universe. You own the Catalan a Thousand Hills. Not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from. I'm just like naming and saying, back to him the aspects of his godness. Now I'm going to the next word. You are my God. Man, I have been adopted by my Heavenly Father. It's not just that I'm yours, is that you're mine.

You're my God. This is a covenant, you know, and then earnestly I seek. So, but these, here's why I'm, you know, what I'm driving at is these are prayerful observations about the text is what we're driving at. So good. Yeah, let's keep going on. That's so good. Yeah, let me talk, walk through the inductive. didn't take a long time because actually soap and the inductive method are really similar. Again, devotional reading, the point is usually is shorter and mainly it's, hey, I do want to know what the text means, not what it means to me, what it means. But it usually is driven towards, hey, God, what do you have to say to me today based on my reading plan? Whereas inductive study is really more where you're doing a deep dive into a passage, usually in the book of the

Bible in context, and you're going to walk through it a little bit of time because you're just trying to be a person who masters the word, it can handle the word correctly. But you'll see a similar pattern in that inductive study moves from observation to interpretation to application. So again, different letters than before of soap, but it's still a lot of the same stuff. It's observation, interpretation, and then application. So again, here's the typical, hey, read, choose one complete passage. So for example, if we read in Second Timothy, we would do the passage this week. And you're going to read that passage slowly.

For this, when I'd say two to three times. So before it's like, hey, read it once. If it's more devotional, if you're going in depth, read it two to three times, depending on the length of the passage. then what you're doing on an observation is you're marking repeated and important words. You're like, man, the Apostle Paul seems to talk about words a lot. He says the word teach a lot. Okay, that seems to be really significant. Let me circle that, highlighted or whatever it is.

Look for contrast and commands and reason. So like if Paul or whoever it is in one of the books is giving commands, okay, write that down. What is the command that he's given? You mentioned I love the observation thing. It sounds simple, but like that's important. It's like what I do, if you looked at my journal when I'm writing stuff, it's usually not as profound people would think is literally I'm just trying to catch if hey Paul commands this he says this kind of a thing and then I would say for this one write down at least five so you went 30 you did six

times more than me you're like advanced level compared to me kind of a thing but it's like right at least professional pastor over here right at least five observations then investigate this is where you're going to ask questions that are raised by whatever you have been reading so ask questions this is one of the best ways to learn so if you don't understand it begin asking questions why does Paul say this like this. Hey, why does he mention their names? You're just asking questions, and you may not even be able to answer them at first. And this is where it's helpful I find to have a good study Bible. Now, I do tell people on this, don't go there first. What's your recommendation on a study Bible? ESV study Bible is amazing. NASB study Bible is fantastic as well.

Any besides those two? ESV is the one that I typically go to. I've got a MacArthur study Bible that I like. Yep. Yep. Yep. And I tell you, don't go there first because it'll become a crutch. and said wrestle with it, but then you're like, hey, like, I don't, I still don't get it. That's where having that good study Bible is a helpful tool for you. Yeah, and I will say this, Paul, because honestly, for me, this is probably one of the ways that I've grown the most, like, over time. Just, I have a lot of questions. Yeah, you know, I just, when every single, literally, I think every single day when I read my Bible, it's question after question. Like, today I was reading this morning, the temptation of Jesus, and it says that Jesus was in the desert with Satan.

And then it says that Satan took Jesus to the top of the temple. And I'm like, wait a minute, I've been there now. So I know that the desert's over here, but the temple's like literally, did they, like, teletransport? Like, so that's a question that I have. And, like, again, I think some people get discouraged because when they read it, they're like, man, I don't understand it. What did you write down the questions that you have? Because that's how you moved from not knowing towards finding the right answer. Exactly.

If you write down the questions and then go look for the answers, this is usually the place that's going to take you the longest. Is you writing down the questions and then you're going after the answers, you get a guide to help you. Go ahead. It's usually where you get the best up. It is where you get the best stuff. That's usually where you get the best stuff. I'm so glad you said that. That's a really key thing is shallow Bible study to in-depth Bible study, this is the difference.

It's where you will ask the questions and then take the time to go look for the answers yourself. Okay, then finally, let's begin wrapping this up. Summarizing it. This is where I encourage people when you're doing more an in-depth study for the particular text or passage you've got. Try to summarize the author's main point in one to two sentences, max. That's good. Keep it simple. Keep it in your language.

You're not impressing anybody. This is for you. But summarize and say, if I could boil all this down and say, what's the main point of this and want to do sentences, man, that's good. And then respond. Then you are asking, hey, again, what should I believe? How should I change in light of this? Here's what I tell people for this or for soap. Here's the analogy I use.

Remember when we were growing up and we had to write five paragraph essays? The idea that they were doing is, hey, they're trying to teach us, how do I introduce something I want to say? How do I write some things to support it? and then how do I conclude the argument? Since you learned how to write a five-paragraph essay, have you ever written one again? No. No.

But what stayed with you, over time, the more they forced you to do it, it became second-hand to where now you still got the same concepts, but now you just do it without thinking about the five-paragraph essay. Same thing for these methods, whether it's soap or then more inductive thing of observation, interpretation, application. When you begin to do this,

it may have to be a little bit more rigid, and you may even write out those words beside them and then fill them in your paper, you will begin to do this naturally. It'll just become part of who you are and what you do. That's part of again. It takes time. If you need some more help, again, a great book, especially for the inductive study, is either How to Study Your Bible by K. Arthur, but there's also a great one called a noble word by Peter Crowell. And what I love that he does is throughout the book is about 160 pages. He takes you through the same passage in Genesis. And he says, okay, this chapter's on observation. Here's how to do it. Oh, bro, that's fascinating.

Yeah. All right. Here's an interpretation. He does a case study. He does a case study. And it's the same passage. So then it's like, here's interpretation. He teaches you some tools. And it's like, all right, now go do it. And so that's a really good one that I'd recommend as well. All right. Anything on those things that you think I'll left out or be good to give some tips on. I mean, just as you, to add what you just said, Paul, you know, obviously, as you keep studying it, learning more things matters. It is important. It is necessary. I think we have a responsibility. We have a faith that seeks understanding. That's a good thing. But I think also having the right posture of your heart is also essential.

Yes. Because when you look at scripture, the Bible says that Satan and demons actually know their Bible quite a bit. Today, you will find atheists that have a lot of degrees more than probably the three of us combined that actually, are not in Team Jesus. And so when you do read it, I would just say three things. You read it and you study it with a heart that is reverent.

The Bible says in Isaiah 66 that this is the one to whom I will look. So God is saying, I'm going to pay attention to this person. He who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. And so when you open up, when you study,

when you do all the books, when you read all the things, make sure that you have a heart that is literally trembling. This is like God Almighty speaking to me right now. read it with expectation. Ultimately, Paul, you said,

this is God speaking to you. He's going to not just speak to you in a generic way, but this is your heavenly father giving you a word that you need for today. It is your daily bread. And then the last thing I would say, read it humbly. 2 Timothy chapter 3, all scripture

is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training and righteousness so that the servant of God, that's you and me, may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. We don't go to scripture and study it so it affirms what I wanted to say. We go to it so that it corrects us and so that we can be grown.

We don't go just to be informed. We go to be transformed. We don't want you to think free. The whole point is for you to actually live free. So that's it, man. So good. Man, last thing I'll say, and then we're going to talk about this kid

having a vision of Jesus. What should people think about 90 minutes in heaven books? Which you should do an inductive Bible study on it. There you go. And figure out what you think. Because actually, so here's what we'll point out. Really all we do every episode is we're basically doing this. Yes.

You're listening to three dudes that like the Bible and like Jesus a whole lot. Just doing a Bible say. That's all we're doing. It's hilarious. I don't think people will figure that out. I'll just give an example. So I'll give an example how like, okay, man, how does it work? And then how does it pull worship out of your heart?

We're like, that, that daygum, that changed me this morning. So, dude, the other day, I'll just give the example of the East West thing. So I'm in numbers. not the reputation for the most riveting book in the Bible, but it's numbers. And, you know, there's all these complex instructions about how to set up the tent. You know, it's like basically the first few chapters are like a, what's that, like an IKEA instruction manual. Which we all love. Which all of us love.

But I kept notes. So here's an example that if you're listening to this, you're like, okay, bro, I want to get into the word. How do I need to think? This is an example. So I'm reading the IKEA instructions that got inspired. And they keep doing this thing where he keeps going, hey, the entrance to the tabernacle's got to be to the east. And it over and over says toward the sunrise.

Now, here's a heads up. When you're reading your Bible, if you see something that doesn't make sense, usually spiritual. I'm just going to tell you this. Like 99% of the time, if you read something, you're like, ah! If it doesn't make sense, usually spiritual. So I did exactly what Paul just talked about.

I go into inductive study. Induct or deductive? Which one's the one where you take the theme across the whole Bible? Yeah, that's a deductive. It's more of a deductive and biblical theology, a little bit of both. Deductive study. So I pull out handy-dandy grok expert, and I did the thing, give me every, I just, this is literally the question I asked it.

Give me every passage in the Bible that carries theological significance around the directions east and west. So then it just, now it gives me the passages. Now, I'm not relying on. on AI to give me the meaning, it's just pointing me the passage. So then I go to the passages, okay, bro. So I'm like worshiping my heart out, reading IKEA instructions on Tuesday, because, okay, here's what you get.

Like, first of all, apparently this is a huge theme in the Bible. Literally I learned, I was today years old before I figured this out. Okay, so dude, basically throughout the entire Bible, it's the direction of the presence of God moves east to west. okay the entire and then it culminates in a way that's going to dagone blow your mind so you got in genesis eden's in the east and then when they get kicked out of eden the presence of god departs out of eden and they put the little flaming sword that little angel yeah the cherubim right there and the exit to eden that it was gardening or the entrance is on the east side so the glory departed out the east

so towards the east okay in genesis bro this is nuts in genesis and as they're rebelling against God for like the first 15 chapters, if you trace where they move as they rebel, they're moving east, east, east. So remember, the presence of God moves east to west. They're moving west to east. They're moving west, okay, so they're moving east.

And then the hinge point of Genesis, God calls Abraham. He's like, I'm a reverse this little trend. Guess who's the one dude who starts reversing the flow? Abraham. He calls Abraham out. out of the east, and Abraham is now moving west is where God calls. Okay, now you go a layer deeper. Then you start reading IKEA instructions. Okay, I read my IKEA instructions in

Leviticus and Numbers. And the tabernacle always has to face the east. And then it specifically says toward the sunrise. Now remember, here's the theme. All this is going to crescendo here in a second. It's going to blow your mind, going to make you want to study your Bible. So now remember, the whole flow of the tabernacle is east to west always so the entrance is on the east and the holy of holies in the ark of the covenant where the glory of god dwells in highest density it's on the farthest west side okay so you're flowing east to west then bro new testament well first of all you get these prophecies how someday there's going to come a son of righteousness with healing in his wings where's a where's a sunrise guys in east okay then you get in the new

Testament, the Magi, when they're coming, they follow a star out of the east and they come west. And who's there? Jesus. Then, dude, you get into the New Testament. I'm learning all this. I'm today years old learning this on Tuesday. I can't wait to preach it someday. Then when the New Testament talks about the return of Christ, I'm going to read the verse.

For as lightning comes from the east and shines in the west. so will be the coming of the son of man. And then when Christ returns, we know the book of Zechariah tells us he will almost certainly, his feet are going to touch down on the top of the Mount of olives, olives, which is east of Jerusalem. And bro, listen, what the Bible is showing us is every single day, every sunrise is a sermon. Every sunrise is a sermon My glory is going to return It's going to return from the east And it's going to go to the west

You will see it with your eyes Now bro all that Is me sitting outside of my stupid little rocking chair Just chasing a little rabbit trail I wonder why the IKEA instructions said east And all of a sudden I'm finished and just glory. I'm just like glory streaming down my face.

Why? Because the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing and dividing asunder. There it is. I see, dude. Let's get in there. Study your name Bible.

You're going to love it. All right. We got a video now. All right, let's do this. Let's finish this up real quick. But wait, but before, play that music one more time. Sure. Oh, bro, I think I...

Oh, you did? No, no, no. Wait, that's actually perfect for the whole East thing. They are east of us. There you go. Okay. We have a video. Let me see.

So let me give you a little bit of content. Do you want to introduce the video? Yeah, here's why I want to do this. We're going to do this real quick. Here's why I want to do this. About every three years, a new book comes out. This like 90 Minutes in Heaven. I don't know if that's actually the name of a book, by the way.

So I'm not slamming. It is. Okay. Well, I don't even know that book. I'm not slamming. anybody's specific book, I'm just talking about stuff. Or you'll hear a thing, you know, some new book will come out and,

and dude, honestly, it always bothers me a little bit because I feel like people read those books and they're more excited about what that book says about heaven than what this book says about it. And there's like this little Christian hysteria. And then, honestly, dude, we may have somebody on the pod sometime soon. People have these, they're called NDE's near-death experiences,

where they supposedly have visions of heaven. And then this week there was a video that went like stupid mega viral of this kid. Do you have any background on this video? We're about to see. Yeah, a young boy coming out of anesthesia after surgery from a skateboarding injury. And the video is basically him coming out of it. And he starts to say a bunch of different things about Jesus. He starts to talk about his father, whom apparently had passed multiple years before from cancer.

Yeah. saying that he was seeing him and he's saying it's beautiful, it's pretty we're about to see it. Yeah, you're going to see it in a second. Okay, so what I want, here's what I want to do just real quick, because I just want to use, we want to view the world through the word.

So when you see this stuff, how should you, as a Christian, think about it? When you see the book on the bookshelf, what should you think about it? Let me, before we go to the video, let me just begin with why I'm really, really, really cautious about books like 75 minutes. I went to hell for 75 minutes.

Let me tell you about it. Okay, or heaven or whatever. I'm really cautious for a couple reasons, but then I'm going to show you this video, and we may go a direction unexpected. First of all, let me just point this out. The Apostle Paul was, we actually have a biblical example of this.

In the book of 2nd Corinthians, the Apostle Paul was, quote, caught up to the third heaven. By the way, in your Bible, when you see third heaven, how the Bible does it is the first heaven or where you can see some clouds. The second heaven is like what we would call outer space, and the third heaven is like heaven heaven, like where Jesus is that.

Okay. So this has actually happened before, biblically, and we know it. But what's interesting is I'm just going to read it. It specifically says, Paul says this, that he was, quote, caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things. Watch, things that no one is permitted to tell.

So it's interesting to me when this happened to Paul, he's like, man, actually I can't talk about it. He didn't sit down and write the 112 minutes in heaven book. that's interesting to me. Number two, none of the people Jesus raised from the dead, Lazarus, Jowr's daughter, et cetera.

None of them go on their 97 minutes in heaven speaking to her. The gospel of Lazarus? Nobody did that. Nobody did that. I'm just pointing that out. We got nothing from them on. Here's what I saw.

Let me tell you all about it. And then, dude, I'll tell you, here's another reason I'm really cautious about this and I'm not saying all this stuff's fake. I'm just telling you why I'm really cautious about it. Colossians 218. very underrated unknown verse. It specifically warns against people who will try to, quote,

disqualify you or manipulate you, and it says that they, quote, go into great detail about visions they have seen. So I just, you know, there's a pattern that you start seeing here, okay? Now, that said, the question we want to ask is this video, I saw a whole bunch of people out of know posting it. But what do you do with a video like this? So we just set it up. Yep.

Kid, I think the kid's name is Kayson. Kaysen. Kaysen. And he's having this what seems to be a vision into heaven. And he says some things that you're like, well, that's kind of interesting. Okay. What do we think about this? Let's check this out.

Hi, Jesus. By the way, just wait. I'm going to warn you right now. This is going to wreck your heart. This is going to wreck your heart. because the kid's father had died, like Carlos mentioned, not too long ago. Okay, so go back. Here we go.

You're so beautiful. Now watch the specific things he says. I'm going to come back to this. Jesus, son, you're coming back. We need you. I need you. I miss you. Jesus.

I said. Do you see me skateboarding? Oh, my God. Mom loves your dad. She tells you all the time. Dad, you're so beautiful. I can't wait to see you. Watch closely some of the things he says.

Can you give me a hug? I'll treat Mom better. I'm talking to you. dad. I wish I was with you, Dad. I can hardly do that as a dad. There's so many flowers and butterflies. Watchway says about what he's seeing and this is where I want to. The waterflies, a lot of butterflies.

I don't have any verses for that, but I'm coming back to him. Oh, God, so pretty. Okay, did you see that? Okay, then. God is so pretty. Bookmark that. He has fire eyes. Bookmark that.

I know he'll save everyone. Mark that. Can you see now? Can you see? I see heaven. Heaven is so pretty. I miss you, Dad. Don't go away.

I can't. Is this normal? Okay. I love you, Jesus. I love you, God. It's so pretty. Did you see my mom? She's so pretty.

She works so hard to provide for us, and I love her so much. I literally do hardly watch that thing. I want to be better for her. I'm sorry, Jesus. Are you awake now? Jesus loves you. I want us. I want to spread of the gospel board.

Oh. Okay, bro. All right. Now, first of all, if that doesn't make your eyes sweat, you need to check your salvation and check your pulse. I'm just going to tell you, if you're like a younger guy and you're like, why are these guys so wrecked by that? I'm just going to tell you it rearranges the furniture of a man's soul when he has children.

Yes, it does. So that right there, that's going to hit different when you got a kid or two. It's really hard for me even to slip into like, Bible analyze mode, but let me do my job here. First of all, I already gave some warnings about why I'm like cautious about this kind of thing. Let me give some other warnings before I say swing the other way. Let me just give a heads up, especially for like a military guys, that kind of thing. I'm not a medical professional I don't claim to be. I'm just saying something I've noticed. I've noticed some guys that they'll get into like psychedelics.

And then they'll say that they have visions or encounters with Jesus. And I'll just tell you, I've seen that go real, real, real, real dark. I'll also give a warning. The devil can do visions too. Galatians 1-8, that even if we are an angel from heaven appear to you and preach another gospel, let them be a curse. So the devil can do visions too. So my caveat is, we do not believe every spirit, every word, every vision.

We are committed to test the spirits, test the words, test the visions. Might be God, might be Satan, might be anesthesia wearing off. But let me say this. I refuse to rule out the possibility of something like that being absolutely legitimate for two reasons. One, we already know the Apostle Paul in 2nd Corinthians was caught up into the third heaven. In other words, watch. Paul's Heavenly Father loved him so much that he said, come here, buddy. Can I show you some things?

and I can totally see it in the father's heart to see a boy like that who lost his dad and if you know the background he also lost his grandfather and for him to go hey come here buddy that's not outside the father's heart

according to 2nd Corinthians do to also say this it's hard for me not to watch that video and think about the verse in Acts 2 your young men shall see visions maybe what you're looking at is a young man

man that saw visions Also, let me just point out a few things. It is very interesting to me some things that kid said. He sees, let's grant the premise. We're not saying this, but let's grant the premise that that was legitimately an expression of the Heavenly Father's heart to love that kid. And he really did see some sort of realistic spiritual vision. One, he says, Dad, you're so beautiful. Well, here's what we know.

I don't know what our glorified bodies are going to look like. I know they're going to look glorious. That's interesting. Okay. He also says, it's so fascinating to me, bro, that little kid, I don't even know how much of his Bible he's ever even read. And he sees God and you see his eyes change and he goes, God, you're so pretty. He says it twice, you're so pretty. Book of Revelation. After this, I looked and behold, a door standing open heaven. And behold, a throne stood in heaven and one seated on the throne, God. And he who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and Cornelian and around. the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald sounds real pretty to me and then dude did you see that spot where he sees jesus and he says he has fire eyes he has fire eyes that's a verse revelation 19 yep then i saw heaven open and behold a white horse and the

one sitting on it was called faithful and true and in righteousness he judges and makes war his eyes are like a flame of fire and on his head are many died diademes. I'm just telling you, bro, some things you got Bible verses for now. Here's how I would do this, and you guys can disagree with me, disagree, and I heard my feelings. If I was a pastor visiting the hospital with that kid, and I walked in and that kid said, hey, pastor, I just saw this. Was that real? Here's what I'd say. I think what I'd say is I put my hand on his shoulder, and I want to hug him and hold him. And I'd say something like, hey, buddy, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. But here's what I do know.

Every word of the word of God is true. And you said some things that are true. Jesus does have fire in his eyes. The glory of God is more beautiful than you're ever going to be able to imagine. Heaven and hell are real. And when you understand that, you do want to spread the gospel more. And then I'd want to say, and hey, buddy, you will see your dad again in heaven. And you will get a hug him.

And you're getting to get a hug Jesus too. and here's the best part buddy it's going to be even better than what you saw wow because no i has seen nor ear heard nor mind conceived what god has prepared for those who love him so when i'm looking at that stuff i'm very skeptical of 37 minutes in heaven book let me go on my tour and that's just not what the apostle paul did that's not one of i cannot rule out the possibility that something like that absolutely might be a legitimate expression of your young men shall see visions. Agree, disagree, additional comments. No, I mean, a few things.

I mean, even just to sum it up, it's like a lot of what you said, number one, we should affirm the longing that are people when they see something like that. We should affirm the longing. People want hope and they long for eternity because God has put eternity in the hearts of people, Scripture says. the way C.S. Lewis said is that if we have desires that nothing in this world can satisfy, it's because we were made for a different world. So we should affirm the longing. Number two, I think we should affirm the phenomenon in this sense that some near-death experiences are credible. Some are.

And now they're filtered through fallen human interpretation, which is why I love what you said of the idea of no eye has seen nor ears, heard what God is prepared. What's amazing is that Paul wrote that in 1 Corinthians And in 2nd Corinthians he talks about this vision he had So Paul had to have this vision And yet he basically is saying It's even better than what I saw. It's better.

So I think we could say, hey, we can affirm that there's a phenomenon that it seems like some of these The things that people say are scriptural. But here's a key third point. We do not want to affirm these experiences as authoritative. Very important. That's pretty much, I think, what you're saying is saying, Hey, man, we should affirm the long end.

We should affirm the phenomenon on because some of these, including this one, might be credible. We should not affirm them as authoritative. They either confirm what Scripture says or they're false, period. Because there are some near-death experiences, by the way, of people from other religions. Yes, right. They believe they're in heaven. And we would say that is not what Scripture says.

So that, I think, is the key thing is we can say, hey, God in His graciousness may give some people a sneak peek of what's ahead of them. That's even better than the sneak peek. That's good point. But we would also say, hey, these are not authoritative. We always have to take what these people experience and line them up against Scripture. And where it lines up, we say, man, I'm so amazed. I'm glad you had that experience.

And what's actually you're going to experience is even better. And if they don't line up, we take scripture side. It's not theirs. The foundation of our theology is not anecdotes or experiences is the Word of God. That's right, man. And so if it's in the Word of God, we agree. We embrace it. And then we test everything in light of that.

That's exactly right. Can I close our episode in a unique way? Please. So as of the recording of this episode, we are actually recording this right around the one-year anniversary of the assassination Charlotte Kirk. I only texted with Charlie one time. I was showing it to you right before this. I was trying to get him on live free. And people probably do not realize the significance that Charlie Kirk had even on this podcast,

or they might because the title of this podcast may sound a little familiar. Even the title of Live Free I got from two places. I got it from 1 Peter 216 live as people who are free not using your freedom as a cover up for evil but is living as servants of God I got it from there and I got it from seeing it on a t-shirt Charlie Kirk had live free if you go back literally exactly a year the week Charlie Kirk died we had Sabrina on and we did a episode responding to a bunch of lies about Charlie and debunk you know kind of walking through those old clips. Let me just say people,

that guy's going to be the next Charlie Kirk because that guy's going to, there's never going to be another Charlie Kirk. That guy was unique. That was unique man. That episode changed their trajectory, even of this podcast. It was really a lot of watching what he did where he started taking the word and bringing it into every area of the world that really made me kind of go like, man, we need to go there in parts of the pot.

And that episode is how tens of thousands of people found us in the first place. And so standing on the fact of his very unique influence on this podcast and the effect that he's had on so many people's lives, I thought it'd be fitting to close the episode this week with a tribute to Charlie Kirk, who is hugging Jesus today. This is Charlie Kirk from Turning Point USA. Charlie Kirk back with us.

We're starting chapters nationwide. One of the things that I think is so important to remember is that we worship a loving God who allows us to be here on this planet to do his will here on Earth. But look, I don't blame people for saying that I'm a political guy. That is my day job. And so I'm focused on the second most important thing. I have to say this without getting emotional, but I'm very proud of my husband.

So then, of course, everyone says, what's the first thing? Okay, well, the first thing is winning souls for Jesus Christ. important thing. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. But then Charlie, what's the second thing? To make sure you can do the first thing. It's good. It's my day job. Politically, we believe the Constitution should be ultimate authority, but out of the Constitution are all biblical truths. I've had some pretty amazing experiences. I've been very, very blessed, and the greatest joy I've ever had is coming home to my little daughter running up to my leg. There's nothing that even comes close to it, not flying on Air Force One,

not meeting with presidents. They just called it for Pennsylvania, Charlie. It has been called. Remember where you were when this happened. That pales in comparison to your little girl coming up and squeezing your leg. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Boom. Your existence is not a mistake.

What is God's plan when I go on a college campus? I just believe I will only tell truth. I will not compromise. And I'll love on the loss. In the words of my husband buckle up. That's a lot of people, Utah. I'll tell you what. In Seoul, South Korea crowds gathered to wave American flags and shout. If everything completely goes away, how would you want to be remembered?

I want to be remembered for courage for my faith. That would be the most important thing. Most important thing is my faith in my life. Whether it be Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Samuel, Isaiah Ananias, that here I am is when legendary things happen in the Bible.