The Eric Metaxas Show - Priscilla Shirer & Aspen Kennedy

Episode Date: August 21, 2024

Priscilla Shirer & Aspen Kennedy star in the new Kendrick Brothers film "The Forge". More at: https://www.theforgemovie.com/

Noble gold investments is the official gold sponsor of the Eric Mataxis show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals. Learn how you can protect your wealth with noble gold investments. That's noble gold investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Mataxis show. They say it's a thin line between love and hate, but we're working every day to thicken that line, or at least to make it a double or triple line. And now here's your line jumping host, Eric Mattaxie. Wow, it's Monday. Hey, Chris, it's already Monday. Hey, happy Monday. Don't you hate that?

I do. I'm bitter. But it's beautiful out. It's a beautiful Monday. It's like. I know, and we're inside. Don't you hate that? I want to be more negative.

That's my vow. Yeah. This week. I want to be more negative. Yeah. That's a good. Even more negative. No, no, listen, we got such exciting stuff that I could joke.

We have, first of all, in our one, today. This is crazy and to me very exciting. Rick Renner is my guest coming up in hour one. And he talks about the actual discovery of Noah's Ark. Not like I sort of heard about, because I've heard about this for years. And when I talk about my book, Is Atheism Dead and the archaeology,

I often say, you know, I write in Is Atheism Dead about the discovery of Sodom and Gomorrah, and it is undeniable. It's so clear if you've read my book, you know, that's very exciting. But I often say, unlike when people talk about the discovery, Noah's Ark, it's not so clear. Rick Renner has the receipts. We're going to talk to him. This is insane. Like, you can't, I mean, the idea of discovering Noah's Ark, I never thought that we could actually see that. So he's going to talk about that in a couple of minutes and other stuff. He's got a new book out. Very excited. I want to actually talk to him more.

We're going to talk to him for hour one today, but I'm going to have him on in the weeks ahead to talk more about this. In hour two, we're going to go to London to talk to our TBN correspondent in London. Hello. Hello. Hello, Governor. That's all we have to say. Hello, Governor.

About Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video, this is actually a little crazy and exciting, too, that Tolkien, this profound Christian, J.R.R. Tolkien, who led C.S. Lewis to faith in Jesus. A lot of people don't know that. Tolkien, you know, wrote one of the masterworks of the 20th century, the Lord of the Rings. There's a TV series out. I didn't know about this. In fact, the second season is premiering soon. And in hour two, we're going to talk to Belinda Lane, who's in London for the premiere of the second season of the, it's called the Rings of Power. Yes. And then after that, we're going to talk to Priscilla Shire about, there's no Tolkien connection with her name Shire. It's pronounced Shire, but it's spelled like Shire. She's not a hobbit.

She's not a dwarf or an elf. No. But we're going to talk to her about a film coming out. The Forge. All right. So that's our, that's our two. So we got a lot of exciting stuff coming up. But the Noah's Ark thing, that just freaks me out.

Yeah, there's, he references drone photography. So I went and looked it up afterwards, kind of like, well, I'll see about this supposed discovery, and it's very compelling. Well, it's good to be skeptical because, you know, a lot of times people say stuff, and it just ain't so. And that's not, you know, if you're a person of faith, you should care about what's true. You don't have to gill the lily, and we're all guilty of that a little bit, but I think that it's nice to know when you can really know. So, okay. So a couple things. First of all, yesterday, I, most people know that my pastor.

It was Sunday. Yes, yesterday was Sunday. That's right. Today's Monday. Okay, so yesterday I went to church in the subway. What? Yes. Because church is, we're the church.

It's not about a building. In case he didn't know, folks, we are the church. If you are a person who believes in Jesus, you're the church. It's not you do church on Sunday or you go to church, but it's like you're the church. But in the subway. David Englehart, the pastor of King's Church in New York City. I put this on Instagram. You can see photos.

You can check it out. David Englehart, who's my pastor, my friend, he periodically says to the people of King's Church, New York City. King's Church, New York City. He says, hey, we're taking church out of the building. And they do church in the subway. So it was the 42nd Street subway. This is right in the middle of Times Square. And we did church.

Wow. And we worshipped. And it was so powerful to worship God in a public place like this. It was so beautiful. So I posted a few pictures on Instagram. But it was just, I don't know. It was like... For anyone who hasn't been here in a while or maybe ever,

42nd Street, Times Square, that's right in the middle of everything. Yeah. There's a lot of activity there. So to have a church down there, It's very bold. It was absolutely, it was just so cool. So I guess my message is if you come to New York, you want to visit King's Church. It will not be in the subway when you come.

They rarely do it in the subway. Yesterday was in the subway. But King's Church, New York City, I just. It's a very dynamic. I've been a couple of times, very impressed. It's a very dynamic group of people there. And it's a very special place. Well, I mean, listen, anybody who has the guts to do church on the subway, that's the kind of church I want to, I want to

go to. And actually, I should say this also. You know, I believe I'll be talking about this more in the weeks ahead, but that with this election coming up, you now see the battle lines drawn clearly. This is not, you know, Michael Dukakis running or Walter Mondale. We have full-blown communism, anti-American socialists. Like, it's so clear. And the bloodthirstiness, of the pro-abortion gang that has taken over the Democratic Party, if that doesn't draw things clearly for you, you don't want to see. It is so clear.

And so churches, people of faith, need to fast and pray for this election. What is at stake is simply beyond belief? This is no longer, you know, it's not 1985 anymore, folks. So this is really, really important. I'm going to be talking about in the weeks ahead. And we're doing a tour, by the way, around the letter film to help sort of encourage people to register to vote. The letter to the American Church film. Yeah.

So there's a church tour happening now in conjunction with My Faith Fotes. If you go to Letter to the Americanchurch.com, you can find out more information about words. Letter to the American Church.com. So the tour, it will list like where? There'll be special screenings of it. Around the country. Yeah, with voter registration and voter guides at our friend John Graves. is going to be providing to different folks in all 50 states.

Okay. So letter to the Americanchurch.com. Folks, let me just say, you know, where we are as a nation right now, everybody needs, it's all hands on deck. So please, if you have not read letter to the American church, please read it, please get it to your pastor, please understand what is at stake in this election. It couldn't be more dramatic.

And it's interesting because there are people who, don't like Trump. I mean, you could make a good case that Trump's a pretty toxic person. But then you have Kamala, who seems like a fun wine mom, but she has terrible ideas, you know, and Trump has good sound policy ideas for a way to get this country off the mess it's in. I mean, and so, you know what I mean? This is existential. I'm going to be blunt, folks. They're going to, they're going to shut down your church and they're going to imprison pastors in this country. If Kamala Harris is elected, God forbid, that is going to happen. Now, that, That sounds crazy? I'll be talking about this in the weeks ahead. Boy, do I wish it were crazy.

Boy, do I wish I were exaggerating. They are coming after people of real faith. If you've got fake faith, you're fine. But if you have real faith, they're coming after you, they're coming after your pastor. It's astonishing that this is happening in America. You need to know about it. You need to do everything you can. You need to fast and pray for the country. What we're going into is very, very serious. Before we go to our first guest, Rick Renner, talking about Noah's Ark. I want to remind you, we're doing a, well, actually, we're in the home stretch of our summer campaign for food for the poor. And thanks to many of you, we're raising money for kids who are facing starvation.

This is the last week for that, too, by the way. This is real. This is real. And so if you haven't yet, we need you to help us. So we need you to go to metaxistalkystalk.com. There's a banner. You'll see it. Whatever you can do, this is something we do. We just do it once a year. So a gift of $50.

This is astonishing. $50 feeds a kid two nutritious meals a day for an entire year. $50. That's how far food for the poor can stretch your dollar. So you have to go to metastastok.com. It also provides access to clean drinking water. We've talked about that. It's very important.

So you can also text Eric to 5155.5. It'll pop right up on your phone. Text Eric to 51555. It's important. Please go to Metaxistalk.com. Do what you can. Americans are tired and frustrated by a stalling economy, inflation, endless wars, and the relentless assault on our values.

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silver American flag bar if you open a qualified account. Go to noblegoldinvestments.com now, noblegoldinvestments.com. Hey there, folks. There's a big, important film coming out. I guess it's this weekend, August 23rd. It's called The Forge. And, you know, on this program, we always think, wouldn't it be great to get the stars of the film?

Obviously, it's not going to happen. But then it does. Here they are, Priscilla Scherer and Aspen Kennedy. Thank you for coming on. Thanks for having. This is, don't be intimidated. Nobody's watching. It's just, you know, it's whatever.

No, this is so wonderful when I hear about a film like this and the fact that we were able to get you to come in studio, in New York. Thank you. Now, where do we begin? So why don't I ask you, Priscilla, to share? Because normally I will just, like, talk over people. So what is the plot of the film? Why is it called The Forge, actually, was my first question.

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for asking. And thanks for having us. I appreciate it so much. So this young man right here is the lead character. He's a 19-year-old young man, and I get the privilege to play his mother in the film. And she's just sort of watching him flounder a little bit. He's at that little stage between boyhood and man.

Do 19-year-olds flounder? Does that ever happen? Yes. Because it happened to me. Yeah, totally. And I'm a mom of three boys in real life who are about that age. So I felt really endeared to watching this struggle in this young man. And then this mother's resilience to show up in a different way.

Because when you're parenting a three- and four-year-old, that is totally different. than now he's 19, but you've got to challenge him. You've got to call, you know, try to call manhood out of him. But the problem is, I'm a mother. So I'm praying that God will bring some men in this young man's life. And he does. And the relationship between an older man and this younger man, Isaiah, shifts the trajectory of his life. And it's really a beautiful thing to watch on film. Now, what is it about men speaking to men? There's something sacred there. It's designed by God, there's no way around it. Yeah.

The best mother in the world cannot be a father. Can I say that? Yeah. Right? There's something about a man speaking to a man. Now, you're actually older than 19. We're not going to say how old. But it's like, hey, when Fonzie was, you know, on happy days, he was like, I don't know, in his mid-30s or whatever.

He's playing a teenager. But you, how do you, first of all, I'm just curious about, like, how did you, come to play the role? How did it come about? Yeah, so I got the audition last year. It was around May. We filmed last summer in Albany, Georgia, and a couple of callbacks, and I had a couple of meeting with the Kendricks, and we talked about the Lord, we talked about the characters, and it was a story that really reflected, actually, my personal life. I didn't grow up with my father, so I felt really close to the character of Isaiah. Yeah, this is, you know, it's an important story. That's why I said

before. This is important because men need men. That's God's design. And so I'm glad that this story is about that. Now, how did the film come to be? Because the Kendrick brothers, they're heroes. They've made a lot of great films. But was this their idea? Does somebody bring this to them? Or how did that happen? No, this was their idea. I remember Alex telling me the seeds of this story like four years ago, just beginning to ruminate on what this could be. So the great thing about the Kendrick brothers is They're incredibly creative and imaginative in all of the movies that they have given us so far, from facing the Giants to courageous, fireproof war room, and now the forge.

And there are others, I think, sprinkled in there. They're right out of their imagination. And so the Lord just sort of builds layer upon layer in their life in that way with the storytelling and how the story is supposed to be told from what vantage point. The cast is supposed to be. So I appreciate their storytelling in the way that they just don't sugarcoat the gospel for the sake of a story. And people are going to see that in this film, too. The cinematography is excellent, but they are not in any way sacrificing the clarity of who Jesus is and the power of God in people's lives.

And you, I'm trying to think, have you, a lot of people watching, as soon as you walked into the studio here, I was like, I know you from War Room. Yeah, that was 2015? Yeah, it was like almost 10 years ago. How can that be? How can that be? That makes no sense. It doesn't make sense. No.

But that was a great film. It was just powerful. And have you acted in another film since then? Because, you know, I'm not tracking with a lot of this stuff. Yeah. Well, yes, which has been a shock to me. Unlike Asman, who's a professional actor, like, this is what he does. I just kind of accidentally stumbled into it because the Kendrix asked if I would do it, which was War Room.

And then I thought that'd be the only time in my life ever that I did a film and then did two others, Overcomer. And I can only imagine. And then now The Forge. Right. Wow. And what's your background, young man? Yeah, I went to Jackson State University. I studied mass communications at first, but I knew I wanted to do something with television.

Yeah. And I finally, I got bit by the acting bug, and I've been out of since 2017. Yeah, that's pretty long time. Yeah, not too long, right? Isn't it weird, though, when people say 2017, it's like two minutes ago, and then you goes, no. It's like seven years. That's right. That's right.

Wow. And but there are a lot of films now happening in Georgia. Isn't this interesting? Isn't this wonderful? And the best part of that is that Georgia is not in Hollywood. Exactly. You know? So like family friendly, faith friendly films, you know, it's just incredible.

Now, Priscilla, you are in ministry. Yeah. So how did, you know, some people would know, some people wouldn't know your father's, Tony Evans. He's awesome. How do you go from, you know, being in ministry to suddenly have, because, I mean, I see everything as a ministry, ultimately, whatever you're doing. doing right yeah so so you see this as part of your larger minister oh yeah it actually is the only reason why i agreed to do it in the first place when the kensur brothers called me nearly 10 years ago about war room yeah i was like no i'm not an actress and there are other

people who this is their craft i mean it's not it's not accidental when someone acts well they've studied it yeah and so i i even gave them the names of other uh black women who were actors that i thought they these people will do a good job right right and we've all seen a movie before that could have been good, but that one person thought they could act. Oh, they just... Ouch. We're not going to mention any names. Well, I was just hoping, I was like, you don't, I don't want to do that to y'all's

movies. Y'all's movies are good. Like, I don't want to water it down. And then they said, read the script and pray about it because we think when you do, you'll see this is ministry personally. It's a movie, but it's just a different way of saying what it is you'd want to say anyway, whether in writing like I usually do it or in speaking and teaching. And, of course, when I read the script for War Room,

it was straight ministry. So that's why I'm doing it is because it is part and parcel with the overarching purpose of mine. But you still could be a lousy actress and you're not. Well, thank you for saying that. No, because think about it. Like a lot of people that, what's on my heart and I believe in it, whatever. And I'm like, okay, who cares? Like if my dentist believes in what he's doing but he's a bad dentist, I'm out.

That's right. I'm out. I'm not going to ask my dentist. So what's your theology? What's your view of the atonement? No, just are you a good dentist, right? Are you a good dentist? Are you a good pilot, you know?

Yeah. So, but I mean, how did they possibly? know that, I mean, because we all know how this goes. Like, you like somebody. You think they're great and whatever. But how do you know that translates? Like, what do you think that they saw in you that they knew this would translate to acting? I think there's, there, there is an ability to see raw material there, probably in any field. You can see if someone has the raw stuff that you can help to mold. And to the Kendrick Brothers credit, they would actually rather have people on their set who have the raw material that they can patiently work with that actually love Jesus and

believe the message of the film rather than having some skilled actor who has no connection at all with what it is that they're reading and writing and doing in the movie. So I credit that to the integrity of the Kendrick brothers and their willingness to be patient and say, come on, we can work with you. And yeah, they have. So I'm really grateful for that. I'm glad it's working out. And I've got to ask you, Aspen, you, did you, did you, did you, you don't have to say yes to this, but like, did you identify with this struggle? I mean, I can say that I do. I mean, I got my own story.

But did you identify with this? Or were you, you know, were you raised in a home that, I mean, our parents could do everything right. And it doesn't matter. But, I mean, how did you, when you were this age or whatever, how did it go for you? It's not that long ago, folks. It's not that long ago. But, yeah, again, I was raised in Memphis, Tennessee, and I didn't grow up my father. and it was a thing where so many of my friends also didn't have their father,

so I thought it was a normal thing. But I didn't have the anger and the bitterness that Isaiah carries. However, back in 2018 or 19, I felt the Lord put it on my heart to reach out to my dad and forgive him. And I was like, okay, I'm not mad at him. I'm not angry. Why do you want me to reach out to someone? I feel like I barely know. However, now I know looking back, it was the Holy Spirit to say,

hey, I want you to do this because fast forward to 2023, this film came apart, and Isaiah is doing that same thing. So God truly wanted to work that out in my heart privately to be able to be this vessel for him publicly. And it's just amazing how the script, the single mother, I love basketball, video games. I'm like, God, this feels like my life. But now you're putting it on display to say, hey, I was your Heavenly Father. And I can be the same thing for anybody else who believes me. Isn't that great?

Yeah. Yeah, that's great. No, I know you can't talk about your kids publicly. But as a mother, you see this stuff. I mean, any parent, I'm a parent, you see this in your kids. and that line of how do I speak into their lives without being overbearing? Totally. Because we all know you can go wrong in either direction, right?

Any parent knows. You can go wrong in the direction of doing nothing, saying nothing, not being there, or you can have all the answers and be so overbearing that you drive the kid away from. Totally. So that's the hard thing. Yeah. And that's where real parenthood comes in. to my mind is knowing that, you know, as Christian, I would say it's discernment.

Because if you know who you are in the Lord, then you're less likely to take it on in your own strength and to try to fix it because only God can fix it. All right. We'll be right back. We're talking about a brand new movie, The Forge. Don't go away. Hey, this is Eric Mettaxas. For years, I've told you about Nutrametics, a professional supplement brand trusted by doctors since 1993. Nutrametics offers a variety of health bundles, whether you want to support your immune system, improve your sleep, promote joint comfort or detoxification support, Neutrametics has a health bundle right for you.

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Don't delay order today. Use promo code Metaxus at checkout. Again, 800-9783057. Use promo code Metaxus to get huge discounts. Welcome back. I'm talking to the stars of The Forge. Brand new film. I hope you'll see it.

August 23rd in theaters. Priscilla Shire and Aspen Kennedy. Okay. I got to ask. You don't have to have an answer, but Aspen, do you have a favorite scene in the movie? I mean, both of you are in every part of the movie. Any scenes that kind of stick out or that were difficult? One of my favorite scenes is, well, two of them, is a forgiveness scene when Isaiah

decided to forgive his father as well as the prayer of blessing scenes. So it's a group of men, the forge. They pray over Isaiah and speak that affirmation. So I feel like that's so powerful to witness. Okay, so you just said it. The forge is, say what that is, where the title comes from. So the forge is a group of men who disciple one another, and they pour back into the younger generation.

So it's just basically they follow Jesus to be able to have their overflow to lead young men in the right direction as well. So it's very powerful. And it's symbolic of, you know, a sword, as you'll see the sword throughout the film, because a sword is very much sort of like the mascot of the film, and you understand why later. but a forage is sharpened and it's made into what it is purpose to do because it is forged in fire.

And so when you see the significance of that and why the group is called that, then it kind of all comes together and you're like, I think I need to buy a sword and put it up on my wall to remind me what God's doing. It's so funny because a sword, it becomes a metaphor for this process that we all go through. I mean, we've all heard sermons on this, right? The puref, God's purifying fire. Yeah, forges us. Yeah, totally.

It's fire. We go through the fire. Nobody wants to go through the fire, but when you go through the fire, God can purify you and strengthen you and on and on and on. And so, okay, so that's what the forge, and that's what a forge is, but that's what this is. But it's really about discipleship. Yeah.

Yeah. So talk about that. Talk about the theme in this film because this is, I mean, you don't know me, but this is one of my things when people say, we just preach the gospel, we just preach the gospel. We just preach the gospel. Well, who do you think you are? You're holier than Jesus. Jesus didn't just preach the gospel.

Like, you preach the gospel. gospel, but we need discipleship, which is different from preaching the gospel. Because let's say you accept the gospel, great. You just crossed the starting line. That's not the finish line. That's the starting line. Now we need discipleship. So discipleship seems to be like in some ways the main theme of the film. Yeah, absolutely. And Isaiah learns on that journey that it's about relationship. You know, with his father not being present, it was hard for him to identify of how God sees him to be. So like just having that mentor who follows the Lord to affirm him to say, hey, this is. is God. This is who he say you are. And when you're walking Christ, so it's really important.

And what does discipleship look like to you? Well, it's spiritual growth. It's Christ-likeness. It's becoming more like him. It is not a destination. The journey itself is the destination of every day putting our trust in Christ, every day making sure our spirits are more sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Discipleship is surrender. It's Luke chapter 9. Jesus said, if anyone will be my disciple, he or she's going to take up their cross, deny themselves, follow me. That sounds like sacrifice and surrender. So the salvation part is free, thank God, but discipleship costs.

And that's that line that you were talking about. There are a whole lot of people that have accepted Jesus. You're going to heaven. Praise the Lord, that free gift. But then deciding to be a disciple and knowing that's going to cost you because it's going to require self-denial and surrender of some intangibles like ambitions that you have, goals maybe that the Lord is trying to redirect and you've got to surrender that to him. That's the part that costs and the question this film will make believers wonder is,

am I willing to do whatever it is that I need to do to make sure he's first in my life? See, that's what's so interesting. And again, in my last book, The American Church, I write about this. It's this theme that there's bad theology out there, which is actually called heresy, which in case we don't have time to go into it. So let me just explain it's from the pit of hell. It's Satan's church, right? Where we say things like, what's all about faith?

Implying that I don't have to do anything or there's no follow-up. It's like, I accepted Jesus. Now I can just like float in the pool and I'm going to become more and more like him. No, no, I have to participate and cooperate. And sometimes that involves human beings discipling me or pouring into me or whatever. But there's so many people that they, they kind of act like, no, no, no, no, it's just, it's faith. I mean, the scripture says it's faith, but then it says faith without works is dead.

In other words, if you're not walking in that, if you're not living that faith out, I think the Lord will say, you know, I never knew you. Like, we can all talk, but we have to live it out, and there has to be fruit. And a lot of people don't talk about that because they kind of, I think it takes them in a direction that might be uncomfortable, so they just kind of keep it like, well, once you're saved, the Holy Spirit, take care of the rest, it's like, well, Yeah, but we have to participate. Yeah, we have to participate.

And there's a verse in 2nd Peter chapter 1 where Peter says, make every effort. So add to your faith. Make every effort to add. Oh, that works righteousness. Oh, no. Yeah, no. And it has nothing to do with salvation. Right.

This is now your spiritual growth, walking with Christ, becoming more formed into his image and the way you think and the perspective you have, your actions, behaviors, reactions to other people. That part right there is. progressive sanctification. Progressive, that sounds good. It's so interesting to me because this is, I mean, this is really, it's the outworking of our faith, and it's so important. And what I talk about a lot is the idea that courage is not extra credit Christianity.

That's courage. If you do not have courage, you can't live this stuff out. I mean, to deny yourself, to like really give it to the Lord, to really trust the Lord, you really have to believe that the Lord's got it. If you don't really believe that, you're just not going to let go. You're not going to do it. So courage, to my mind, is at the heart of our faith. It's like if I really believe, I will have the courage it takes to allow myself to be changed,

to allow myself to surrender to the Lord. Very, very important. I just say this all the time that you actually can trust the Lord. You actually can trust them with your job. with your life with every day you actually can and he wants you to but he won't force you to we'll be right back we're talking about the forge with priscilla shire and aspen kennedy opening this weekend august 23rd limousines and bright spotlights we were brothers through it all welcome back the film is the forge

we've been talking about it with the stars of the film aspen kennedy and priscilla shire I guess the theme, again, we were talking about as discipleship. There's a lot there. This is one of my big things that I just talk about all the time. Now, Priscilla, you're also an author. You have a new book out called I Surrender All. Now, this is not your first book. It's not.

I have a couple. Yeah. You've got a couple others. But this is the new one. It is. All right. So let's talk about that. What's that?

Man, it is exactly what the title implies. Remember that old hymn back in the days when we had hymnals? Yeah, yeah. And we sang from that red hardcover book. Right before they invented smoke machines. That's right. Yeah, right before that, they had these things called hymnals. No smoke, but like there was text like on the page.

Very old school. That's right. Books bound, book, oh man. And one of those, we're dating ourselves. Yeah. Oh, no. Aspen, have you seen a hymnal before? Oh, okay, good.

We're not that old there. You know what a pew is? Like you sit in it. It's not like a folding chair and there's no like drink hole. older, very old school. Although I'm appreciating the single chairs with the cup holders. It's blessed in my life in church. But anyway, one of the hymns was I surrender all,

and it was just the most simple releasing of Lord, my whole life is yours. So for someone who sees the forge and they're compelled, the Holy Spirit serves them in their heart to want to graduate from just being a believer to actually surrendering all, which means you put yourself into position to receive everything God has for you. in terms of the abundant life living underneath his favor and his blessing and his grace. But what does that look like?

This book just helps to walk them through that, put flesh on discipleship, not only the personal surrender, but then what discipleship looks like as depicted in the film, where one life impacts another life. So you're now walking with somebody else to encourage them to be able to know what it is like to fully surrender. In the regular rhythms every day everyday living, like if we know the truth of scripture, but you don't know how to apply that to being a father, apply that to being an entrepreneur, apply that to being a wife with young kids, and you're trying to figure out how do I walk in a manner worthy of the call?

Somebody older and wiser that's a little bit down the road has to say, let me give you some wisdom, let me help you make the next decision as you're building this business or this ministry. So that's what discipleship, the two sides of coin of discipleship are personal surrender, but also pouring my life into somebody else's. Well, that's, I mean, this is another thing. It's a big message for me that I talk about a lot, because people sometimes act as though I can be a Christian in a vacuum. And you really can't.

You need those who have gone before, those who have wisdom, to say, well, now, wait a minute. Because especially if you're young, usually, you know, the younger you are, the more hot-headed and psyched you. You see people that are like, psych for Jesus. And you're like, simmer down now. Simmer down. Because, like, it's not over the next 10 minutes here. We got to, we got to, you know, plan for the long haul. And you see people in their zeal make emotional decisions or whatever.

It just lacks wisdom. And so that's why the church was supposed to have older generations speaking into us. Obviously that gets to the theme of the film. And in a lot of churches, sometimes we have seen in the latter decades this desire to, like, you know, segment. Put people in these segments, right. This is the youth group. but you really need it all. Yeah.

You need it all. So you need actual parenting. So surrendering, I don't know, what does that look like, Aspen to you in your life? You know, you're an actor. What does it look like to you when people talk about surrendering? Yeah, just for me, it truly demonstrates the power of understanding that God is who he say he is. Like he has sovereignty. He has all authority.

And when he shares that with us, we have a responsibility to say, why wouldn't I trust you as my Heavenly Father with my life or my finances or my relationships to know that you ultimately know what's best for me? And like you said, just to lean into that and know that you can trust him and he wants what's best for you and you can't miss out when you choose to trust God. And yeah, you need to know he's actually there before you will do that. And I think there are a lot of people that they don't know that. And I want to say to them, God wants you to know that.

Like he wants, he's not going to force you, but he wants you to know he really is there. He really knows what's in your mind, what you're feeling. fears are, whatever, like, that's real. And I think so if you have God just as some, you know, philosophical construct, theological construct, rules, whatever. No, no, no, no, no. He's your heavenly father. He knows you. And he knows what you're worried about.

And he wants us to give it to him. I mean, he wants us to give it to him. But he doesn't force us. That's the thing. That's it. And a lot of people think that they're holier than, they think they're holier if they don't. There's like, I don't want to bother God with that. It's like, well, God wants you.

to bother him with that, right? Yeah, yeah. You know, I was just thinking about, as you said, that Luke chapter 9, where Jesus does say, if anybody wants to follow me, this is what discipleship looks like. Right before that is when he looked at the disciples and said, who do the multitude say that I am? And then he says, okay, but who do you say that I am? So this whole clarification of his identity preceded the call to discipleship. Basically what you just said. If you have some theoretical view or diminished view of, of the deity of God, of course you're not going to surrender yourself. You're going to be a fan, but you're not going to be a follower.

You're going to be a fan, but not a follower. No, if you think he's anything less than God, then he will not be worthy of your full surrender. So you're right. If you've got to get clarity on his identity before you'll decide to give everything for the name of Jesus Christ. Well, that's to me what's so interesting is because there are a lot of people. I mean, this is why when somebody says, well, you know, what do I do as a critical? You've got to have a personal relationship. Now, to those of us who've heard this a billion times, it sounds like a cliche, but it's the key.

It's the key. It's not about agreeing with these talking points or these rules. Because you could agree with all of that, but if you do not have that personal relationship, whatever that means, because it's going to be a little different for every person. Just like every kid, you know, every parent, you deal with the kids differently based on where they are. You're the same parent. But the Lord wants us to have that personal relationship. If you don't have that, you're on shaking. ground, basically.

And, well, the film is the forge. Now, if people want to see it, and I hope you do by now, how do they see it? How do they, is their website they can go to? Sure, theforgemovie.com is where you can find all the information you need, even pre-buying tickets if you want to, but it'll tell you the theaters that it's out, and it will be at a theater near you. I mean, that's the great thing about the legacy at this point of the Kendrick brothers, is that the production companies want their movies widely released.

So there's going to be a theater near you. And, man, opening weekend really does matter in terms of whether production companies will continue to put dollars towards faith-based, clear gospel films in the future. So we are asking people to join us in a theater one of those three days over that opening weekend. Okay, folks, did you hear that? Yeah, you heard it. You heard it. This weekend, hey, listen, if you want this kind of stuff, you've got to support it. So please support it.

The Forge, August 23rd, check it out. Aspen, Priscilla. Thank you. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you for having us. We've got a lot of exciting guests today this week. A lot of great, great, great stuff.

And I guess I want to make it clear that none of this would be possible without our partners or sponsors. We have one of them, of course, is our friends at Americans for Prosperity. They are officially America's largest grassroots organization. They're out there every day. hoping to reignite the American dream. Folks, I think you know I'm all on board with that. So their priorities, we're talking about Americans for Prosperity, are to secure the border, check, to end inflation, check,

to make energy more affordable, check. What could be more basic than this, folks? This is what America is all about. That is the American dream. So their idea is to bring like-minded conservatives together, turn them into a grassroots army to defeat the left. left's horrifying big government agenda. This is really important.

So this is why, I mean, we all know that the media, celebrities, universities, on and on, they're kind of stacked against us. So we're not reporting the facts. I mean, everything's gotten so expensive. And if you believe the economic data from the current administration, they make it sound like there's no, like the economy's great. They make it like, shut up. Your eyes are deceiving you.

I would run on the platform of make burritos affordable again. You know, just that, just that one ticket item. Make burritos affordable again. You know, they're so, I wanted to. That's a winning, that's a winning slogan. It used to be cheap, and now it's like. No, no, look, look, it's horrible. So please go to Americans for prosperity.

Actually, you can also find them at secure border, secure America.com. That's secure border, secure America.com. Also want to mention our friends at the Herzog Foundation. They exist to catalyze and accelerate the development of quality. Christ-centered K-12 education. their vision is for families and culture to flourish through quality Christian education. How else could that happen, folks? And they want to make the ecosystems of Christian education more accessible and sustainable for families across the nation.

That translates into they want to help you do the right thing by your kids. If you need help and most of us do in trying to homeschool our kids or get our kids plugged in to like a real Christian school, not a fake Christian school, that, you know, they're going along with the most of us. much of the culture, but then they've got some little chapel that they do. No, we're talking about quality Christ-centered education. Check out Herzog Foundation.com. These are our friends, folks. We want you to check it out.

Herzogfoundation.com. Please, please do that. And I mentioned this earlier. We're doing a fundraiser with food for the poor. We only do this once a year, and we're in the home stretch. We're way behind, I don't know, because we're going to, through a crazy time in the country. So it's important that this week you step up to the plate. We have a phone number. Some of you prefer to call. Or you can text Eric to 51555.

Text Eric to 51555. If you do it on your phone right now, text Eric to 51555. The link will pop up. Or you can go to metaxis talk.com. You'll see the banner give life. This is basic, folks. It's very basic. For very little money, tax deductible, you're feeding starving children in our hemisphere. This is a big thing. So Food for the Poor is a Christian Relief Organization. We believe in what they do. They share the love of Jesus.

And they're able to multiply it, too. That's the really crazy thing. It's like for $50 you can feed a kid for a year, which is... A year. I mean, yeah, you say, how's this possible? Well, we don't have time to tell you, but trust me, I've looked into it. And they get a lot of donations and what. whatever, but then they need our money to actually get the food to these kids.

Let me say this before we go. The phone number is 844-8663-hope, 844-863 hope, 844-8663 hope. And if there's anybody out there who can give $15,000 tax deductible, it would be my joy to thank you in person by spending the evening with you, have dinner with you, with your family, with whatever group you want to put together. That's one of the things that I can do is give up an evening of my increasingly insanely valuable. time, but it's a joy to do that and to meet people who are willing to put, you know, their money where their faith is. So you can go to metaxis talk.com and you can see the banner. We hope

you'll do that. God bless you.