Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 512 | Responding to Steven Furtick’s Problematic Post

Episode Date: October 26, 2021

​Today we're discussing the incorrect theology behind a recent Facebook post made by Pastor Steven Furtick. He asserted that Jesus doesn't change a person, but rather reveals who they always were. Although we try to give Steven the benefit of the doubt here, there are professing Christians out there who preach a Gospel that is more focused on self-love rather than God. Fortunately, there is plenty of biblical evidence to debunk this idea. --- Timecodes: (0:00) Intro (1:20) Why Allie takes issue with Steven Furtick's teaching (11:12) What is expository preaching? (23:37) Responding to Furtick's problematic FB post (37:07) Allie listens to some voicemails of "errand fatigue" from millennials --- Today's Sponsors: Annie's Kit Clubs is launching their latest subscription, Genius Box — an immersive introduction to real-life science that's as entertaining as it is educational. It's perfect for all curious kids. Go to AnniesKitClubs.com/ALLIE & save 50% on your first box! Bambee can change HR from your biggest liability to your biggest strength. Month-to-month, no hidden fees, cancel anytime. Go to Bambee.com/ALLIE to schedule your free HR audit! Good Ranchers product is 100% American — you get ethically-raised, sustainably-sourced meat, & you're also supporting American farmers! Go to GoodRanchers.com/ALLIE to place a one-time order OR subscribe today & save 20% off each box of mouth-watering meats. Use code 'ALLIE' at checkout to get an additional $20 off & free express shipping! --- Past Episodes Mentioned: Ep 105: Plans to Prosper? https://apple.co/3CkPmuF Ep 257: Leaving the Prosperity Gospel Behind and the Deconversion of Christians | Guest: Costi Hinn https://apple.co/3vQosID --- 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, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort.

We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Tuesday. I hope everyone is having a wonderful day and a wonderful week. All right.

Today we are talking about Stephen Ferdick. So there were a ton of news stories that I wanted to get to today. And yet I saw this. post on Facebook that I will specify in a little bit. And I was like, oh, I think I need to respond to that. And there were even other stories under the umbrella of Christian news that I wanted to get to today. And I'm not even going to be able to get to that because as I was preparing for this, I realized, okay, this is going to take me the entire time. All right. I want to respond to the offending Facebook post that he put out and that some people were talking about on Twitter. But first, I want to set us up. I want to give us some context, not just about who Stephen Ferdick is, but also why, even before I read what the post is, why I take issue with this. And really, Stephen Ferdick in general.

So Ferdick is a very popular author and pastor in Charlotte, North Carolina. He leads a church called Elevation Church. Their worship team produces music that is sung in churches across the country. If you go to a contemporary non-denominational or Baptist Church, you have probably sung an elevation worship song. They're very, they're very catchy. They're kind of like Hill Song songs. Ferdick is very dynamic. If you have seen a video of him, like he's very watchable. It's hard to not watch the whole clip. And that's like social media gold. And so often his videos go viral or semi-viral on social media and it's easy to see why. He is very charismatic. And I mean that like in the not in the biblical sense of the word like speaking in tongues. I mean that he is an excellent

communicator. It's again very easy to see why he is so beloved by so many thousands of people. When I first started taking Christianity seriously, I was in high school, like junior, senior, senior in high school. And I was reading and consuming everything I could, really without much thought to whether or not it was sound doctrine that I was taking in. I just didn't really have that kind of discernment. And I was eager. Like, I was just very eager to learn more about Christian theology.

I was raised in a Christian home. I went to church every Sunday. I went to a Christian school, kindergarten through 12th grade. I'm very thankful for both of those things and both of my parents, but in particular my mom is a very diligent studier of scripture. And so the reason I didn't really, I don't know, make my faith my own until the end of high school, was it because of a lack of good parenting on my parents' part? It was, I don't know, it just became kind of routine for me as it can when you are raised in a church in particular, maybe kind of like a formal Baptist church.

It really wasn't until I had a particular Bible teacher when I was a junior in high school that I realized that there was this rich intellectual side of Christianity that I hadn't really explored before. So I started reading mere Christianity and C.S. Lewis and all kinds of different authors. But I was also, you know, C.S. Lewis is great, even though I disagree with him on some things theologically. I was also reading like Donald Miller and the shack. And then also David Platt and Matt Chandler and Stephen Ferdick and Francis Chan and John Piper and Elizabeth Elliot and I probably had some Joel Osteen sprinkled in there. I mean, I was truly all over the

place just because I wanted to know more. And in my mind then, which is kind of crazy to think about. Now I didn't see a whole lot of fundamental differences between those people. So that just kind of tells you, and I want to make a note on this, that kind of tells you about discernment and wisdom, how it grows over time and with the grace and the power of the Holy Spirit. So before, you, and I'm just speaking general, you, I'm not speaking to anyone person out there, but before you, or I should say we, judge someone for following a certain teacher that we in, you know, our Christian discernment recognized as unbiblical, we have to remember that we don't know where people are in their faith. Like, it doesn't mean just because someone is listening to a

teacher that you don't agree with or that you're actually discerning as a false teacher, it might not mean that they're not really a believer. Maybe they need your encouragement, maybe they need you to lend them your discernment. But don't give up hope or offer up condemnation to the new yet eager believer who maybe doesn't yet have the wisdom that you do. Like I think back to myself in high school and if I didn't have people take me under their wing, if I didn't have people spur me on in my faith, I started going to a different church than my parents when I was in high school. If I didn't have people who were encouraging me and building me up and they were only, you know, lashing out at me or telling me, why are you reading the Shacker? Why are you reading Donald Miller?

You're so undiscerning. You're not really a Christian. Like, I could have, I could have, I don't know, because, you know, it's God's providence that I am a Christian. It's not any effort on my own part, but I could certainly see that hardening me or making me bitter or turning me off in some way. And so I think we have to be very patient. We have to be very gentle. We have to be very gracious, just not knowing exactly where people are or where or what their background is. That doesn't mean we shouldn't say anything. That doesn't mean we shouldn't speak the truth and love because we should. But we have to be careful not to offer up condemnation or write people off just because

they might be listening to a speaker that you now know in your mature Christian faith is not someone that we should be learning from. I consumed all kinds of different Christian and pseudo-Christian material in high school and college. And I think God that even though I've disagreed with these people on their social justice perspectives in the last few years, that Matt Chandler, Tim Keller, and Reformed Theology ended up being the direction I went. And then, of course, that led to me knowing who people like R.C. Sproll and John McArthur are and understanding the intricacies of Reformed Theology and Calvinism, not even realizing I was reformed or Calvinist before or, yeah, not even realizing that I was. I was. And I

was those things, even though I believed those things until I actually had a name for them just a few years ago. Now, that's not to say that I don't listen to people who are not in my particular reformed camp because I do, but I am thankful that I did not go the direction of Ferdick and Osteen and the Prosperity Gospel or even Donald Miller or someone like Jen Hatmaker or anyone over there. Now, why do I say that? Why do I say that in particular about Stephen Ferdick. I know there are a lot of you out there who really love him. And there are a lot of things that he says that I really agree with, that I really agree with too. I'm sure, you know, he's probably conservative, politically, ideologically, and all that. Like, I haven't seen him say anything

woke. And so that's not my contention at all. I've done an episode on the prosperity gospel. We will link that in the description. It was specifically about Joel Osteen. And, you know, some people, if you follow me on Instagram, you saw a few weeks ago that people were taken it back that I said, you know, Joel O's seen his prosperity preacher. They were very upset by that. And that might be surprising to you. Most people know that, but a lot of people don't. He's got tens of thousands of followers and thousands of congregants. So you can go listen to that episode if you haven't already. Again, we'll link it. And we don't have time to do a deep dive into Ferdick. And like always, and I get pushed back on kind of on the other side,

for not, you know, going in for the kill and calling everyone false teachers. But I want to be charitable. I want to give the benefit of the doubt and simply say what is in my capacity right now observably true. So, again, I want to be as charitable as possible. I'm not trying to, like, I just don't have the authority or even the capacity to discover everything that might make verdict a false teacher, even though I know there are a lot of you out there that are saying, what are you talking about? You know that. Well, I want to give the only

thing that I can honestly give right now. And again, that is what I see to be observably true, that Ferdick is not an expositor of the word. And that in itself for a pastor is really troublesome. And I'll explain what I mean by that in just a second. Hey, this is Steve Deast. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular.

This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this Steve Day show right here on Blaze. TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Again, the reason I'm going to mostly leave my criticism there about the absence of expository preaching is not because there isn't more to say, but because in order to fairly level deeper, more serious criticisms, I have to have all the necessary information before me with context, and I just don't, I just don't have that. So I don't think that it would be right. What do I mean when I say,

that Ferdick does not exposit the word, the Bible. Expositional preaching is when a Bible teacher exposes what the Bible says explaining the original intent and meaning of the text. So an example would be a pastor, say, doing a sermon series on Romans, going through a few verses every week, digging into what the Bible says and what the passage means. Not simply what it means to us, but what it actually means in light of the context of the chapter and the context of the book and the context of all of scripture, the context of the gospel, in the context of history that doesn't, you know, talking about all those different contexts doesn't have to take an hour. There are quick ways to do that and we'll talk about that.

But context is important. Looking at the original meaning intent of the text is important if you're looking at expository preaching. There may be various ways to apply scripture to our lives. but there is one true meaning, which means faithful Christians and Christian teachers can disagree on some passages, by the way. That's how you get multiple understandings of, for example, like the in times, but expository preachers seek to find the meaning using the context that I just listed. I'm trying as diligently, albeit fallibly to understand, interpret, teach,

and then apply the text according to that meaning. So expository teaching preaches from the text rather than into the text. So it's drawing meaning, meaning out of the text, not placing our subjective meaning into or onto the text. This is the difference between exegetical and isogetical preaching. Now, some of you know what all of these terms mean, and for some of you, this is the first time that you're learning them, which is totally fine. To exeget means to lead out of. So that prefix X means out. like exit or exile extract. Isse Jesus means to lead into the Greek prefix ICE, E-I-S, means in.

So expository preaching is exegetical. It is starting with the text, then drawing the meaning out of it, using all the context that we talked about. Isogetical preaching is putting subjective personal meanings into the text. So expository exegetical preaching seeks to view. and present scripture as the authority rather than as an assistant to whoever is preaching. The posture of the expository preacher is humility, recognizing that there is no greater wisdom or comfort or hope or inspiration to be preached than the word of God itself.

That doesn't mean that he can't add biblical commentary, but again, he is starting with the inerrancy and the authority of scripture. He's not starting with his own subjective analysis. There's a difference there. Exegetical preaching is known to, is typically known to have these four steps. So number one, observation. So what does the passage say? Number two, interpretation.

What does the passage mean? And that's, you know, where the context comes in. Number three, correlation. How does the passage relate to the rest of the Bible? Again, I would say that has to do with context and just our understanding of the general narrative of scripture and what the gospel itself says. And then number four, application, how should this passage affect my life? So is there a sin that you need to stop doing? Is there a command that you need to be following? Is there something that you need to go do according to

this text? Or is there a lie that you have believing that this particular passage is refuting with truth? Is there something that you need to change internally, externally, according to this passage? Is there an idea that you believed about God that is clearly refuted in the Bible? And if that's confusing, if it seems like it contradicts itself, I wouldn't say go into your own mind or go outside of the Bible to try to reconcile what seems like two contradictory passages, but go into scripture. One example is Ephesians 2 8 through 10. By grace, you have been saved through faith. I mean, over and over again, just in those two verses, we see that salvation is a gift, that it's not something we can earn. And then we look in the book of James and we see,

Faith Without Works is dead. How do we reconcile those two things? We go into scripture. I've actually done a whole podcast on those two things that seem to be contradicting each other and actually are reconciled in Ephesians 2-8 through 10 itself when we read that that faith that is required for salvation is given to us by grace. And it's, is worked out then in works. And actually in Ephesians 210, it says that God has prepared the good works that we have been doing beforehand. So the works that we are called to throughout scripture, but specifically in the book of James, it's an outworking of that faith. It is not salvation itself. So again, we go into scripture to reconcile what seems like a complicated

idea or two seemingly contradictory verses. We don't go, we don't just discard one in favor of the other. We try not to rely on our own biases or what we want scripture to say. We go deeper into scripture to try to understand how we can reconcile what may seem like two opposing views in scripture. That was just a quick detour. Stephen Lawson, in my opinion, is one of the greatest Expositor teachers of all time. He has a podcast called The Expositor Podcast. He has a few podcasts. And I've heard him preach in person before. He's great. Highly recommend that. So in expository preaching, the subject of the sermon is the text. This is in contrast to topical teaching and textual teaching. Topical teaching is when you say, okay, today we're going to

talk about gossip. And you go find all the verses that have to do with gossip. And you preach on that or textual preaching or teaching, which is when you preach from the text, but the text is more of kind of like a starting point for a theme. So this could mean that a pastor says, we're talking about 2 Timothy 1.5 today, which is the verse about, you know, Timothy and his grandmother, Lois, his mother, Eunice, raising him in the faith. And they use that to discuss the importance of grandparents, even though that's secondary to the point that the text is actually making. Now, let me say with that, not all topical and textual preaching is unfaithful or bad. I mean, I'm not preaching, but we talk about topical things and we look for the verses that fit into that topic.

That in and of itself is not wrong. It is totally possible to make a completely valid and biblical point about the importance of grandmothers using 2. Timothy 1.5. It is possible to do a sermon series on the end times, for example, and to go to various parts of scripture to do that series. that is not in itself unbiblical or a mishandling of the text. One of the best and most comforting sermon series that I've listened to recently was a sermon series by John McArthur on the role of parents to protect and raise their kids in the Lord. I mean, he talked about the history of child's sacrifice, both literally and figuratively,

you know, sacrificing your child's mind to corruption in society and all of that. And he drew from a variety of passages. but he never traveled outside of what the text actually means. So topical and textual sermons can be biblical and edifying as long as, as long as, and this is whether it's expository, topical, or textual, as long as it is exegetical and not isogetical, meaning the teacher will seek to understand and convey the original meaning in context of the passage rather than extract the verse from its context and give you a meaning that, you know, they want it to have according to the topic or theme that they want to preach on that day.

So what you'll see in isagetical preaching is a lot of, this is what it means to you or this is what it means to me rather than simply, this is what it means, period. And as we've already established, biblical texts can and do have a variety of applications, but only one true meaning. And so a faithful handler of God's word will see. seek to understand what the text actually originally means and then offer up possible applications. So someone who is not rightly handling scripture, you'll notice, will constantly insert themselves

or you in the text where you do not exist. So they will make you, David, and the story of David and Goliath. They will make you, Daniel and the story of Daniel in the lion's den. They will make you the hero of the story and often depict God as your cheerleader, as your motivator as your accomplice rather than the actual hero of every single story in scripture, which is God himself. Every example of courage and faithfulness in the Bible is a testimony not to human power or potential, but to God's power and providence. So thank God. We are not the heroes of Scripture. We are not the stars at the show. How much pressure would that be? We are not

center stage. Our life is not the main narrative. Our personality traits are strengths and weaknesses, our lived experiences, our feelings, while they all may be important, they all have a place, they do not determine what the text says or how the story of eternity goes. God's great plan of redemption through Christ is the thread that runs from Genesis through revelation and has run read throughout all of history and to today. So we are not the point. Christ is the point. It is his story, his glory, his gospel that is the corner.

stone, not us. That is the perspective of a faithful Christian teacher preaching the word. And with that in view, you are going to find the faithful Christian teacher diving into all kinds of very uncomfortable yet biblical topics that don't always make you walk away feeling cozy inside. They will talk about hell. They'll talk about sin. They won't shy away from the parts of the Bible that seem to depict God as someone who makes us a little nervous. And they'll extrapolate the hope of Christ and his gospel and his glory in everything because that's what every bit of scripture is pointing to. 2. Timothy 2.15 says, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved a worker who has no need to be ashamed rightly handling the word of truth. So, this is serious

stuff, which is why I bring it up in relation to Stephen Ferdick. Without even dissecting every single Ferdick sermon, you can easily observe that Ferdick is mostly, I would say, just because I haven't listened to every single sermon, but I would say mostly from what I've seen, an isogetical preacher. that does not mean that he doesn't say good biblical things sometimes or that you can't ever have drawn encouragement from him. I've read and listened to things that he has said and have found myself nodding along, feeling inspired. I mean, he has got a skill for communicating things in a way that hits home and is memorable. God gave him that skill. That's great. But always trying to find the phraseology that sounds good or catchy.

can come at a cost. It can come at the cost of truth, especially when your M.O. is to insert you into the text where you simply do not belong. So Ferdic sometimes infuses meaning into the text that is not there, which leads him to sometimes draw conclusions and make statements that sound good, and maybe even sound godly, but are not biblical. So let me read you about the post that got quite a few people upset. And I think understandably, he posted this on Facebook a day before yesterday. He said following Jesus doesn't change you into something else. It reveals who you've been all along. What would it be like to see the you that God sees? Dot, dot, dot, dot. So I'm going to give you my thoughts on that in just one second. Okay, so we just read the post. Let me try to give you,

let me try to give Stephen the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps he means to say that Jesus changes you into who you were meant to be, who he desires you to be all along. That's really charitable of me. And I believe that this quote, someone messaged me and said this, is it's a part of a sermon. And I'm sure the video is somewhere. So I won't say that Stephen Ferdake actually believes what he said here. I will say that it was an error. I will give him the bit of a sermon. the doubt and just say that he mistakenly or someone on his team mistakenly typed this out. They didn't think through it. It sounded good. He mentored it differently and did it. Okay. That's my charitable interpretation of what happened here, even as I believe him to be an

isogetical preacher who, if he decided to handle the word by preaching exegetically, I think that, I mean, it would be amazing. He's already got the skill set there. Unfortunately, he chooses, I think, to be more of a motivational speaker than a handler. of the word of God. Now, this post, he did delete it after some people questioned it. It started circulating on Twitter. People were sending it to me on Instagram. So that's good that he deleted it, but only after 21,000 people liked it, which tells me that even if Fredick sees the error in what he said, and I hope that he does, although I've yet to see an explicit correction, many people don't see the error in what he says, which is why this is worth dissecting public.

and correcting with scripture. So let's look at this again. Following Jesus doesn't change you into something else. It reveals who you've been all along. What would it be like to see the you that God sees? This is very easy, very easy to refute using scripture. Romans 6' 5. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin, for one who has died has been set free from sin. 2 Corinthians 517. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away.

Behold, the new has come. You were dead, Ephesians 2.1 says, but God made us alive together with Christ, as verse 4 says. Ephesians 417 through 24. Now this I say in testifying the Lord. that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart.

They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ. Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 58 through 9 for at one time you were darkness not just in darkness you were

darkness but now you are light in the Lord walk as children of light for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. So we're not just improved versions of ourselves. We're not just the best versions of ourselves. We're not who we always were. We are new. We are new creations. We are new creatures.

We are not who we were. Yes, we are in the same physical body. We have the same physical bloodline, a lot of the same personality traits. But we are spiritually new people. We have a new father, a new spiritual family, a new place of belonging, a new purpose, a new hope, a new destination, a new identity altogether. That is so important because God is not a self-help genie trying to draw out the best, most lovable parts of you so that you can feel good about yourself and become successful.

That's not who God is. God is asking you, sinner, to come and die. To take up your cross, to crucify yourself, and follow him. If you are in Christ, you are fundamentally changed from who you once were. That doesn't mean you don't wrestle with your flesh, your old identity, your selfishness, your sinfulness. It doesn't mean you won't be tempted and even give in to temptation. It means that. If you are a Christian, who you once were was a child of the devil and who you are now is a child of God. Why? Not because of who you are or anything you've done, but because God and his abundant grace,

according to his will and his will alone, rescued you. Because he sent his only son, a sinless savior, to die a gruesome death on the cross on your behalf so that your sin could be paid for forever so that you, a sinner, could be reconciled to a perfect and holy God. You didn't have righteousness before Christ. Christ gave you his righteousness when he saved you. 2 Corinthians 521. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. We became the righteousness of God through Christ. We were unrighteous before. We are different people with different destinations, a different destination, a different purpose, a different identity. Now we are because of Christ new. Now, I think that Stephen Ferdick knows this.

But what he needs to publicly and clearly own up to to eradicate any confusion among the people who follow him, the millions of people who follow him, is that what he said is not true. It is anti-biblical. It is anti-Gospel. It is a very significant untruth. Because it gets not just some peripheral theological issue wrong. But again, the gospel itself,

the gospel is that Jesus makes you not better, not the more authentic version of you, but new. Jesus makes us new. He gives us a new heart, a new hope. And if you're a believer in Christ, you have by grace through faith believe that Jesus died to reconcile you to God and was raised again on the third day trusting in Jesus as the Lord and Master of your life and you're thinking but I don't feel new I don't have the emotions associated with having a new identity I still struggle

maybe you're thinking with a depression or anxiety or the desire to sin maybe you still feel like your old self but you do believe and you want to follow Christ maybe that you let me comfort you let me reassure you by saying that nowhere in the gospel are we asked how we feel about trusting christ nowhere are our feelings the signifier of whether or not we are saved nowhere do we see that in scripture we still live in the physical flesh which means we are going to struggle with all of the burdens of this life and all of the burdens that our own sin places on us but the christian life is determined not by or it's distinct by, it's defined by, not perfection or by constant happiness, but by a grace-driven determination

to obey Christ and His Word as humbly and as joyfully as we can. Christians are called to both love and joy, but I don't think either of those things are mutually exclusive with sadness and temptation to sin. Love can be emotional, and that's great, but ultimately it is a choice to put the God-defined interests of others before yourself. And joy is a commitment to thanking God for every. heavenly and earthly blessing that we've been given rejoicing in God's sovereignty and goodness, even when we're sad. It is the hope of heaven, not simply the fleeting pleasure of earth.

Philippians 1-6 says, and I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ. God did this for you. You don't get to attribute your goodness or your potential or God finding you. because of your personality traits or strengths, particularly lovable, you don't get to attribute your salvation to any of those things. And thank goodness because those things are so they're so unreliable. They're so fleeting. They change. They're so conditional. Rather, our salvation rests on God's grace, thankfully. And by his grace, he has made us new. He's made us new creations, not just improved versions of ourselves, not who we always were, but somehow manifesting,

you know, a new truth that we have discovered. That's new age stuff. That's not the gospel. And that's not going to free you. That's not going to free you. Thankfully, the gospel is better. The gospel is better than this Facebook post by Stephen Ferdick. I hope, I have hope that he comes out and he publicly corrects us.

I think that a lot of people who follow him would really benefit from that. But I at least wanted to try to as humbly as I can correct the record for my listeners and viewers. All right. I do want to play a few voicemails from you guys. I meant to say this at the top of the episode. But I want to play a few voicemails from you guys. I asked for voicemails telling me your millennial woes. And what I mean by millennial woes, I did, you know, all these Instagram stories on this last week or the week.

before. I don't remember about not wanting to do these tiny tasks and getting what feels like paralysis surrounding like taking clothes back to Goodwill or listening to voicemails. I mean, it's very first world problems I realize, but I think it has something to do with, you know, technology over-stimulation. I think some of it is generational. But a lot of you messaged me saying that you feel the same thing. You have like errand paralysis or like trivial task, tiny task paralysis. and I feel you on that. So I just wanted to hear some of your stories of that. So I'm going to play a few voicemails that you guys sent me.

All right. We're going to go ahead and play the first voicemail. Hi, Allie. This is Elizabeth. I'm calling from California. Love Your podcast. So I have been putting off changing my last name on my driver's license for almost two and half years now.

My poor husband looks at my license all the time and really wants me changed my last name. And I changed it on my social, but haven't gone into the DMV to change it because who likes the DMV? So, yeah, hopefully I'll get that changed soon. Thanks again for your podcast. Man, I understand that is a hassle. That's a hassle. Also, fun fact, kind of unrelated. I never change. When my friends get married, I never change their last name in my phone. It's not like, oh, I don't like their spouses or I can't accept the fact that they're married. Obviously has nothing to do with that. I just don't do it.

And I still always think of them by their maiden names. Even if they've been married for, you know, six years, they are still, most of them are still their maiden names in my phone. And I really have to jog my memory sometimes like what is their married name? Maybe that's a millennial task. I just don't feel like doing it. I don't know. Okay. Next voicemail.

Hi, Allie. My name is Kayla and I am from Tampa Floyd. Florida. This is like the realist. And it's hard to pick one thing, but probably the most embarrassing thing is that I have a really hard time sending out. Thank you, Cart. And not that I won't write them. So I will literally collect the addresses, and I will write them all. Like, I've done this, and then I won't send them out. Oh, my gosh. This is like a thing, right? Please. please, I'm praying that this is a thing, and it's not just me.

But I literally, I don't know if it was for my wedding or something else, but I, like, got the addresses of everybody that had gone, and I wrote every single card, and I put them all in the envelopes, and I addressed them, and then I never sent them out. Because, like, going to the post office or putting them in the mailbox, even, like, I don't even know. I was living at, like, a boarding school, so, like, the situation was different. for mailing.

Like, I was living with my parents who teach at a boarding school. I need to clarify. So anyway, it just was like one thing too many, and they never got sent. And I'm, like, still mortified to this day. Oh, my gosh. Okay. I'm so glad that you said that because that's, like, one of my deepest, darkest secrets that I have, like, a drawer full of thank you notes.

I can't wait for my husband to listen to this. So he knows that it's not just me. That I have, like, a drawer full of thank you notes from a room. variety of things, probably baby showers, probably wedding showers, probably from my wedding. And I, too, addressed them, put, listen to this, put stamps on them. And they never went out. Thank you. Thank you. My dear sister, a new best friend for admitting this because I've done the same thing. It's terrible. Why are we like this? I'm not letting us off the hook because I do think that it can speak to like a character issue too.

I'm just letting you know I'm right there with you. All right. I think we have time for one more, even though I want to play like a thousand of these because these are so great. One or two more. We'll see. Okay, next one. Hi, my name is Morgan.

And I heard on your podcast about this millennial errant phobia. And I have a funny little phobia to share. It's actually not mine. with my husband, he has this thing where he is incapable of putting his disposable contact into the garbage tent. Where they end up is typically stuck to his nightstand. I have found them on the toilet seat. Stuck on my kids sometimes on accidents. Oh, my gosh.

I find them on my seat. They just tend to migrate. All right. Okay, that might be a different thing. So at one point, this is before I did any of this. I did this thing on Snapchat. Back when I had Snapchat. I haven't had Snapchat a very long time.

So we're talking like 2015. Yeah, it must have been like right when I got married. And I would like take pictures of things that like my husband would do. Like, for example, put the like toilet. paper roll on top of like the empty toilet paper thing and just say like things husbands do and that was like a little hashtag that I did for a while that might just be a thing's husbands do husbands do husbands do things like that why does their side of the bathroom look so drastically different than your side of the bathroom for no reason it's like I see you why does it look like that

like there's a bathroom monster that lives on the husband's side of the bathroom my husband is a like he's an organized person he's a very clean person and yeah Like, you know, I grew up with brothers. It's the same thing. Why do you guys bathrooms always just end up being so messy? I don't understand it. So that might just be like a things husband do type thing. Could also be millennial, trivial task paralysis.

Who knows? All right, let's do one more. Hi, Ellie Beth. This is Susan from Virginia. And I just wanted to tell you about something that I've been procrastinating on. And it's a little embarrassing and kind of pathetic. But so about three years ago, I think in 2018, I got my haircut and I saved it to donate it and put it in a zip block bag and stuck it in my bin of mail. Thank you.

And it didn't get mailed. And then two years later, I got my haircut again to donate and put that hair with the other hair. And it sat there for probably about three months. And then we were getting ready to move. So we were moving, but I was like, I'm finally going to send this hair to the organization to donate it for someone to be able to use it. So I put it in package, took it to the post office. I mailed it. But I mailed it at one of the self-served centers, and I guess I must hit the wrong package type or whatever, but I didn't give it enough postage.

So it came back. And so that was a little over a year ago, and it's still sitting in my van waiting for me to. to take it back to the post office and I don't know why, but the post office is one of those things that I just put off the car. So I've had hair from some for about three years, some for about a year ago that I've been waiting to mail in to be turned into a wig for someone who needs it. So I think tomorrow I'm finally going to go mail that. Yes, have this admission be the motivator that you need. Again, no judgment from me because I would probably do something like that. I've never actually donated hair because I've been highlighting my hair since like eighth grade. But,

uh, wow, like that, I'm glad that it's your hair. I feel like if some, if your car got searched or something, someone would be freaked out by that. Like, it's almost like a silence of the lambs type situation. If you've seen that, you know what I'm talking about. Like, it's a little creepy. It's a little creepy, but it is your hair. And so it's not actually creepy, but it would seem creepy if someone was like, why do you have all of these stray ponytails in your back seat? Guys, millennials, we got to get better. And I'm talking to myself as well.

Thank you guys so much for sending your voicemails. All right. We'll be back here tomorrow with who knows what, something good, probably something newsy or political since we haven't really gotten to that. We didn't get to that today. So I'll see you guys back here tomorrow. Hey, this is Steve Deast. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country

aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos.

If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this Steve Day Show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us.