Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 439 | How Do We Avoid Being Lukewarm? | Q&A

Episode Date: June 16, 2021

On our Q&A show today, we'll be talking about how not to be a "lukewarm" Christian, the best possible way that 2021 could end, and, on a more lighthearted note, favorite kinds of cookies. --- Today's Sponsor: Good Ranchers delivers 100% American steak or chicken directly to your door! It's individually wrapped, vacuum sealed and ready to grill. Go to GoodRanchers.com/ALLIE & save $20 off, plus get free express shipping! --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Thanks for being here. Another pre-recorded maternity episode where I will be answering some of the questions that you guys sent me on Instagram. Okay, this is a question that I love. And I get these kinds of questions a lot. And they just, they make me really happy. And they remind me that, like, God's work and we've said this many times on the podcast doesn't make headlines. It doesn't reach Pew Research and Gallup. surveys, but it's still happening. And this question is, I don't want to be a lukewarm Christian anymore. How do I begin this journey and stick with it? And guys, I get those questions all the time. Or I get questions or messages saying, hey, you know, I used to hate what you had to say about religion and Christianity, or I found you through an influencer that was negatively talking about you or your podcast and I wanted to hate on you too. And then I ended up changing my mom. or I read your book and I changed my mind about this or just messages from new believers or from

skeptics that are sincerely searching. Like I get those messages all the time. And if I just a random person with a small, relatively small sphere of influence compared to, you know, big name influencers and commentators and theologians, if I am getting those questions, I have to think that other Christians are as well. And that God is always going to continue working. He's always going to continue pursuing. He's always going to continue to seek and save the lost. As he says that he came to do, he's always going to keep looking for the lost coin and rescuing the lost sheep and running towards the prodigal son. And you'll hear from the Washington Post in the New York Times that Christianity is waning, that it's dying out, that it's antiquated, that Christians are the cause.

of all of our major societal problems and our biggest inhibition to success and progress as a country. You'll keep seeing how it is less safe, less popular, less lucrative, less trendy to be any form of a Christian. You'll see people latching on to something that vaguely looks like Christianity but is really more secular social justice activism. You'll see teachers denouncing their faith and walking away in the name of faith deconstruction. You'll see all of these things happening. And yet, God is still moving. God is still working. God is still changing hearts.

He is always and will always be in the business of changing hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. And he doesn't need the media to cover it. He doesn't need to trend on social media. He doesn't need the approval of, of edgy YouTubers who think that they have, that they have the end-all be-all questions that take down traditional Orthodox Christianity. He doesn't need any of that. The fact of the matter is is that God is still calling people to himself as he has throughout

history and he will continue to do so until he comes back and rules in perfect peace forever and ever. And evil and disbelief has no more power and no more influence over the universe. So this person, I don't want to be a lukewarm Christian anymore. How do I begin this journey and stick with it? Well, first of all, it is. God who works in you both to will and to work for his good purpose. That's what Philippians one tells us that we're to work out our salvation with fear and trembling,

but it is God who does the work and that he is faithful to complete the work that he began in you. And so if you by grace through faith, believe in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you feel this quickening, this desire inside you to read his word and to seek him and to pray. and to talk about him, which it seems like from this message that you sent me like you do, like you just want to know more. That is the Holy Spirit working inside you. And my encouragement to you is to follow it, to obey, to get you a study Bible, to start praying every day.

It doesn't have to be these long, sophisticated, complex prayers. You don't have to pretend to know all the right things to say or say all the right things, say all the right things to come before the Lord with humility and to ask him for wisdom, which in the book of James He promises to give you. If you are finding yourself that kind of curiosity and that kind of desire to follow the Lord, then simply obey it. Simply put one foot in front of the other. Now, there is going to be all kinds of distractions for you now.

There's going to be all kinds of influences that are trying to pull you in a million different directions. Read screw tape letters by C.S. Lewis and you will see, I think, a very creative representation of how Satan seeks to steal souls for himself, seeks to subvert people's faith, seeks to tempt people and divert their eyes away from God and away from his gospel. you are going to find now every excuse, every obstacle, every reason not to read your Bible, not to pray, not to go to church on Sunday, not to share your faith, because Satan would love for you to remain lukewarm. He would love for you to remain in complacency. He would love for your life to be characterized by apathy. He would love to convince you that you have enough faith, enough belief to escape hell, but that you don't actually have to live out your faith in any way. He wants to keep you ineffective, and he wants to keep you in the corner where you're hiding

your faith, you're hiding your beliefs, and you're never actually pursuing the Lord through the power of the Holy Spirit. He would love to keep you right there. Now, Satan can't take away someone's salvation who is already saved. He just doesn't have that power. God is sovereign over that. Romans 8 makes clear that there is nothing that can separate believers from the love of Christ, assuming that you are someone who is saved. But he does want to inhibit your sanctification in that.

He wants to tempt you away from reading your Bible and actually pursuing the Lord and being effective. But through the power of the Holy Spirit and your obedience, that God allows you to have, you can absolutely resist those temptations. And I think a great way to do that, not just reading your Bible, not just praying. Those are very important things, but to surround yourself with fellow believers. It's very easy when we're isolated to start being ruled by our doubts, to start being ruled by our emotions, to start allowing our doubts and our questions to get the best of us rather than seeking the truth that answers them.

And if you surround yourself with believers who are more mature than you, who are passionate about their faith, who are more mature than you spiritually, I mean, maybe emotionally too, who are farther along in their walk than you, who can hold you accountable in reading your Bible and in cultivating your faith, then God allows that to be used as a protection for you, allows you to draw upon the strength and the faith of other people to continue to endure and to persevere when those obstacles are set in your path, when you are tempted, when you want to slide back into complacency and being lukewarm. And so if you have not found a biblical gospel-centered church near you, I encourage you to do that. Founders.org slash church search has a pretty good

tool on their site. Masters seminary also has a tool on their site. I can't personally vouch for every church that's recommended on those sites. And I'm not sure that those organizations can either, but that will point you into the right direction. And I would also pray about that too. I would say, if you join a church, be very wary of the churches that are simply feel good churches that don't talk about sin, they don't talk about sanctification, that don't talk about salvation, that kind of stay away from talking about heaven or hell or iffy on cultural issues or who seem to be preaching a different gospel to people of one skin color and one message to people of another skin color based on the perception of marginalization or oppression points.

Definitely steer clear of those kinds of churches. to you're clear of the kinds of churches that make politics also their idol. So there are different sides to that coin. Go to a church that is preaching the Word of God, that is preaching the gospel, that is preaching the hard stuff. Get as involved as you can. Be surrounded by women, godly women who can help you and can point you back to God's Word. There are also resources online. Join Women's Book Club with Ali Stucky. Like there's a lot of like-minded women on our Facebook page too. There's the Christchurch Bible reading challenge, which is also a Facebook group that a lot of people

are a part of that read the Bible in a year together and share a lot of prayer requests and questions and things like that on that page. So even online, there are ways to connect to people that can maybe even connect you to a local community in your area. So those are the pieces of advice that I would give to you in regards. regards to that. Let's see. Next question.

Favorite political commentator besides yourself, L.O.L. So I would not consider myself my favorite political commentator. So I listen to honestly, I'll be honest. Like I haven't been listening to political podcast quite as much recently. Because I probably feel like a lot of you do.

after the election, like I had a little bit of election burnout. And then after the events of the beginning of January with the riot and all of that, I also had a little bit of election burnout or, you know, post-election burnout, I guess. And so I kind of unplugged from the news. Like I haven't, we, honestly, we don't watch cable news. We weren't watching a whole lot of cable news before the election, but we would at least like catch Tucker's opening monologue most nights. And I would try to listen to a lot different political podcast to try to just make sure that I was keeping up with all the different stories and everything that was happening. But then after January 6th and all of that, it just was, I just kind of unplugged a little bit. Obviously, I stay plugged in so I can tell you guys.

But I think from what I can tell, you guys have like kind of felt the same way. And we're just tired of politics. And it wasn't just the election that did it. It was everything that happened last year, including COVID, including the riots, and some of the peaceful. protests that were going on in the million different competing narratives and the hypocrisy that we saw from so many different sides in so many different ways, the false narratives being pushed by so many different outlets for so many different stories. I think a lot of people are just tired. And even those of you who are not happy that Joe Biden won the election, I would include myself in that category. Like, there's part of you that just wants to not pay attention. And you don't,

you kind of want to stick your head in the Santa Breast. pretend like politics don't matter anymore. And part of my job is to remind you why they do matter and to tell you what's going on and to remind you that politics matter because policies matter because people matter. And politics affect policies which affect people, especially the most vulnerable people. And so they matter. They will always matter. And I do think we have an obligation as a Christian, even though our hope is in heaven to care about what's happening in the temporal and the here and the now and to do whatever we can to advance the welfare and the freedom of not just our family, not just our children, but also our community and our society at large.

And part of that is staying in the know. So I do pay attention for the sake of my job, for the sake of you guys, for the sake of trying to fulfill that responsibility that I think that we have. But at the same time, I don't, I really don't stay saturated in the news. I really right now don't listen to political podcasts that much. I've listened to, I'm pregnant as I'm recording this, as you're listening to this, I'm probably no longer pregnant, but I have been listening to a lot of birth and pregnancy podcasts. And, you know, a lot of them are, I don't agree with everything that's said. A lot of them are very woo-woo. A lot of them are very new age.

A lot of them are very progressive and they use terms like pregnant person or gestate or things like that. can't stand that, but it's hard to find, you know, exactly the right podcast. But honestly, I don't listen to a whole lot of political podcast. If I really want to listen to like a particular subject that, like, say, I'm not covering on this podcast, so I haven't researched, but I just want to hear someone's take. I do listen to Albert Mueller, the briefing. I do. I'll listen to, I'll listen to like if Ben Shapiro is talking about a subject that I'm curious to hear his take on. I'll listen to that. I do still, you know, scroll through Twitter and just kind of see what people are saying. There's a lot of commentators

on Twitter that I really, that I really like a lot that I don't probably agree with on everything and I don't go to for everything, but for different things, I like to hear their take on. I like to hear what James Lindsay and Christopher Rufo say about critical race theory and what's happening in policy and education. I like hearing what Corey DeAngelis has to say about education. I like to hear what Jesse Kelly has to say about, um, about, you know, the, the factlessness of the Republican Party and what he thinks about, uh, the future of our country and the future of the parties. I like to hear what Matt Walsh and Michael Knowles have to say about culture. I like to hear, um, let's see. I haven't listed like any women, but I do. There's some like

female commentators that I like. I mean, I like to hear what I like to hear what Daryl and Virgil have to say about what's going on inside the church. I also follow a lot of people that you guys like probably don't know. I love following people like when I can tell they're just kind of starting out in their endeavor of gaining influence and gaining an audience and then watching them grow. I love that. And I love having those people on my podcast. Like when I first had Daryl and Virgil on. I mean, this podcast was a lot smaller, but also they were too. Like people were just starting to find out about just thinking podcast. And now it's blown up. It's hugely popular. It deserves to be so. And Samuel Say is the same way. A lot of people,

he's gained a lot of influence. Monique Dusson has also gained a ton of influence. Elisa Childers already had a lot of influence, but her influence has really grown through her YouTube channel. These are people that aren't necessarily speaking at mainstream conferences, whether they be political or evangelical or Christian, but they are voices that I find exceptionally influential and important and that I like to follow. So there's a lot of voices. There's a lot of voices out there that are very important to me and that helped me out of insight to my theology and my politics, Nancy Piercy, her book.

and her work have helped me so much. Nathan and Gabriel Finosio, I think that's how you pronounce their last names, or their last name, have also been very interesting for me to follow on social media as people who I think I differ with, uh, theologically on some things. I think they also give a lot of great insight. So there's a lot of good follows out there. Like there's just a lot of smart people, a lot of really not smart people too. That's really depressing. But a lot of really smart people that have a lot of insight that, you know, don't have necessarily millions of followers, but are bringing a lot of intellect to the table. And there's a lot of bad things about social media. But one good thing is that, that we have access to a lot of bad stuff, but good

stuff and good information as well. Let's see. Oh, someone asked this is an interesting question. Ideal turn of events for the rest of 2021. Ideal. turn of events for the rest. Ideal. See, when I think ideal, I think even like out of the realm of possibility, like ideal like, um, like that Joe Biden, that we no longer have like a Democratic president and a Democratic Senate and a Democratic House. Like that's, that's one ideal for me, but that's not going to happen obviously in 2021. That the Democratic Party and that left in general stops being totalitarian mongrels. That would be ideal. People waking up to the corruption in our public school system and our teachers unions who don't care one bit about the welfare

of your children, that would be ideal. Planned parenthood completely going under. That would be ideal. churches preaching the true gospel and not the gospel of social justice moralism and people waking up to the divisiveness and the insidiousness of intersectionality and critical race theory, that would also be ideal. Having a media that tells the truth not agrees with me, not as conservative, not as liberal, but just tells the truth, having people actually care about our country and caring about the history of our country and realizing that even though our country is very imperfect and has been very imperfect, sometimes in more times than others, or like more pervasively and

sometimes than others, but that our ideals and ideas upon which we were founded are very good and, in fact, are exceptional caring about the safety. the protection, the privacy of our citizens caring about the values on which the country was founded, letting go of moral and cultural relativism. Those things would be ideal. Our education system and academia actually helping kids and young people critically think through issues rather than only indoctrinating them with one side of the ideological spectrum's dogma. that would be ideal.

It would be ideal if parents also were more involved in their kids' education. It would be great if we all woke up from the stupor that gender ideology has placed so many people in and just realized that biology is pretty darn basic when it comes to X, X, X, and Y, not saying that there aren't. anomalies, but the exceptions don't disprove the rule that men and women exist biologically and that gender identity is this modern idea that was actually, that was actually presented by a guy who ended up being a total pervert, Dr. John Money, in the 1960s, and that in order to protect the more vulnerable gender, which is the female gender, we actually have to be

able to define what a female is, and the best and clearest way to do that is scientifically. So to stop the gender madness, that would also be ideal. And it would be ideal if we actually had substantive discussions about policy, about what's best as far as immigration policy goes, what's best as far as welfare policy goes, what any kind of true equality under the law, looks like when it comes to actual disparities between different classes, between different races, between different kinds of people, looking at the real causes of those differences, looking at potential real solutions to close those gaps,

if they even need to be closed, us just having like a logical and just at least loosely moral framework through which we are operating and discussing difficult issues, that would be ideal. That would be ideal. My ideal is not everyone agreeing with me, not everyone thinking the same way I deal or having all the same values that I have, although of course I want everyone to believe in the gospel, it would be hateful for me not to want that. but it would be ideal if we can just live in a society that actually cares about any semblance of the truth,

whether it's moral truth or objective or scientific truth. And we were able to debate from that place. If we had a media that we could actually trust to give us all the information that we need and then we have the ability to critically think and make our own decisions, that would be ideal. Living in a post-truth society, not ideal. Not ideal. Um, so that's, that's my answer to that question. You probably weren't expecting something that long, but there you go. Okay, next question. What is your favorite cookie? Probably just going to have to go

with a mushy chocolate chip cookie. Like, I'm talking half baked. I'm not even talking about like three fourths baked, half baked chocolate chip cookie. You just can't beat that. I mean, I would love, I challenge you. to find me a better cookie than that. I like other kinds of cookies. I do. I mean, I like sugar cookies. I like snickerdoodle cookies.

I like peanut butter cookies. I even like oatmeal raisin cookies. I'm trying to think of a cookie I don't like. Eminem cookies. Eminem chocolate chip? Good. Honestly, I love cookies. I love all cookies.

But if I'm going to have to pick the best, the most superior cookie, it's going to be chocolate chip. It just is. And I don't think that there are any even like arguments to the contrary. Talk about an ideal society. Ideal society is when everyone agrees on the objective truth of the supremacy of chocolate chip cookies. Do you get a lot of hate?

How do you handle it? Sure. I do. I don't get as much as I think that people who hate me wish that I did. I heard like someone say once, I don't even know who it was about, but some like progressive influencer saying something along the lines of like, well, if you're getting a lot of cruelty, then you need to assess why that is. Well, first of all, that's very, excuse my language, but stupid logic.

So you're saying that if a particular group or a particular person is getting bullied, then it's not the bully's fault or the people who are being cruel. It's actually the person who is getting bullied and is the subject of the cruelty. You want to play that out logically? Like, that's called victim blaming. That's such an ugly attitude. Now, it may be that someone is polarizing or it may be that someone is controversial. Does that mean that they deserve any kind of,

of cruelty or any kind of harassment? I certainly don't think so. But do I get angry people in my DMs? Of course I do. Of course I do because I represent an intersection that a lot of people hate conservatism and Christianity. And so those two things make people very mad. The good thing is is that I could never be accused of being a grifter. Because a grifter is someone who, you know, says whatever they need to say to make as much money as possible to get as many followers as possible. And I could have a lot more. I could, if I chose one or the other, I think if I just chose political commentating,

I never talked about my faith. I certainly never talked about like specifically reformed theology. then I could be, I could appeal to a lot more people. But because I don't just bring like vague notions of like God family guns into my conservatism, but I actually talk about theology and a particular reformed theology, that automatically is going to cut a good portion of your audience off. Because people don't want to hear about that. They don't, they don't want to hear about both.

Either you've got Christians that are, will say, will come to my podcast and say, oh, I like what you have to say about the Bible, but I hate your politics or I hate when you talk about conservatism or whatever. And then you'll have people on the other side who say, oh, I, you know, I really like to hear your politics, but please, like, leave your faith out of it or leave the religion stuff out of it. I would say there are fewer people like that than the first category. The first category, though. people tend to be the ones that actually have no problem with like more left-wing Christians talking about their politics. They just have a problem when conservatives talk about their politics or they don't see like social justice, secular social justice as political. So they're okay when leftist political commentators talk about it, but they're not okay when conservative Christian political commentators talk about their perspective. They'll call that divisive. But they don't think that, for example, like Christians posting a black square or agreeing with everything that Black Lives Matter says is divisive. And so typically that's what's underneath that category of people who maybe

they like what I have to say theologically, they don't like what I have to say politically. And that's fine. If I wanted the largest audience possible, I would either never talk politics or I never talk religion. But instead, I've chosen to talk about these two very polarizing subjects, which I do, again, not because I want to be polarizing, because it would probably benefit me a lot more to not be. Like, I just pick one polarizing thing that at least more people, like, are, agree with me on. But the reason I talk about them is because, like, I genuinely believe this stuff. the reason why I talk about reformed theology, the reason why I talk about theology, the reason why I talk about the Bible, the reason why I talk about conservative politics is because

all of these things are genuine aspects of my worldview. And thankfully, like, through choosing to talk about these things, I have found a very sizable audience who is also thinking through these issues in the same way or who wants to think through these issues in the same way. my goal has never been to be the most controversial figure, to be a lightning rod, to cause controversy, to go viral, to have the biggest podcast in the world. And I'm just thankful that by the grace of God, this is a good sized, like a very good sized audience. And I have been able to gain the platform that I have. But I've done that not by asking myself, what can I do to gain more followers or to gain more influence? but simply like how do I rightly handle these issues in a way that is sincere in a way that I hope

and try to align with the Word of God. That doesn't mean that I always do that perfectly, but I can tell you that I certainly am not saying anything on here that I simply am saying because I hope it gets a lot of clicks or because I hope it goes viral or something like that. That's just not that's not the game that we're playing. Again, if I were doing that, then I would pick, I'd pick a lane. but I don't want to pick a lane because I like talking about the things we talk about. And thankfully, there are a lot of you who like talking about the things that we talk about.

So do I get a lot of hate? I mean, yeah, I get people that really, you know, don't like what I have to say. And also there's tone police people out there too, who it's funny. But it always has to, it always corresponds with confirmation bias. The people who have tone issues are the people who, don't agree with the content. The people who say, wow, she's so gentle or gracious or like soft spoken or whatever, or always the people who actually agree with the content. And so it's interesting how that works. But thankfully, like the Lord gives me a lot of encouragement through you guys, too.

As I've said, like, I get a ton of messages from you, such encouraging messages, people whose minds have changed. Not, and I don't take credit for that, but I am thankful to be used in. in any way as a vessel or for my guests on the show to be used in any way as a vessel, that has drawn people to Christ and has changed people's minds. And so, sure, I get pushed back. Everyone in this sphere does. Everyone on social media does in some way. But I also get a whole lot of encouragement. Are there cruel people on the internet who say and do cruel things? Yeah, there are. And the funny thing is, like, they fancy themselves as the tolerant ones. People who, you know, spend all of their time on forums or are making posts or making videos

or like making content based on, based on what they don't like about something else, something someone else said or like trying to out people as, you know, as bad people. They fancy themselves, like the good ones. They fancy themselves, the compassionate ones. really like they're the bullies. Like I can't imagine that kind of existence that is constantly scouring the internet for,

for like call out material and for material that you can use to then make other people angry and get them on your team. And then you fancy yourself like the tolerant, the loving, the acceptance, the accepting the compassionate one. Man, that's such like an unoriginal

and tiring, sounding existence. And so I just don't worry myself too much with those kinds of people. I don't want to be like that. I wouldn't want to be friends with people like that. And so I also always consider the source of the criticism and what the criticism says. Now, they're also very fair people that fairly push back and fairly have like opposing views to what I say. And I always appreciate those people.

Those are different than trolls. I don't call everyone who disagrees with me a troll or a, a hater or an attacker. I really loathe when people say someone who disagrees with them attacked them or harmed them in some way. That's so fragile. I certainly never want to be that. But of course, they're haters, but there's so much more encouragement and there's so much more goodness too. All right. Last question. Favorite holiday? Fourth of July. It's not because I like it more than what Easter Christmas represent. I just like the whole day of it. I like the summer. I love America. I love the Fourth of July and everything that is included in it. It's always been my favorite,

my favorite day of celebration. All right. That's all I got for today. We will be back here soon.