TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Rick Wiles Enters Race for House of Representatives

Episode Date: April 24, 2024

 I promised I would have a big announcement on Wednesday. Here it is: I am a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. Yesterday I filed a certificate of candidacy at the Florida Department of the Secretary of State in Tallahassee. I entered the Republican Party race in Florida’s House District 21. The current congressman is Mr. Brian Mast. The primary is August 20, my birthday. For today’s TruNews, I’m going to chat with Doc Burkhart about why I am running for Congress. Our campaign today published a campaign website.  It is very basic.  I just wanted to get something online as fast as possible.  The address is https://www.rickwiles2024.comRick Wiles, Doc Burkhart. Airdate 04/24/2024Join the leading community for Conservative Christians! https://www.FaithandValues.comYou can partner with us by visiting https://www.TruNews.com/donate, calling 1-800-576-2116, or by mail at PO Box 399 Vero Beach, FL 32961.Now is the time to protect your assets with physical gold & silver. Contact Genesis Gold Today! https://www.TruNewsGold.comGet high-quality emergency preparedness food today from American Reserves!https://www.AmericanReserves.comIt’s the Final Day! The day Jesus Christ bursts into our dimension of time, space, and matter. Now available in eBook and audio formats! Order Final Day from Amazon today!https://www.amazon.com/Final-Day-Characteristics-Second-Coming/dp/0578260816/Apple users, you can download the audio version on Apple Books! https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/final-day-10-characteristics-of-the-second-coming/id1687129858Purchase the 4-part DVD set or start streaming Sacrificing Liberty today.https://www.sacrificingliberty.com/watchThe Fauci Elf is a hilarious gift guaranteed to make your friends laugh! Order yours today!https://tru.news/faucielf

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Because strength comes from smart preparation. American Reserves, your ally in emergency readiness. Visit our website and become prepared today. I promised I would have a big announcement on Wednesday. Well, here it is. I am a candidate for the United States House of Representatives. Yesterday, I filed a certificate of candidacy at the Florida Department of the Secretary of State in Tallahassee, Florida. I entered the Republican Party race for Florida's House District 21. The current congressman is Mr. Brian Mast. The primary is August 20, which just happens to be my birthday. So for the first part of today's True News, I'm going to chat with Doc Burkhart about why I'm running for Congress. Now, our volunteer campaign quickly published today a basic website. It's very basic.

I just wanted to get something online as fast as possible. So the campaign web address is rickwiles2024.com. And we will be making changes and improvements to this website in the days and weeks ahead. But it is RickWiles2024.com, and you can visit that website and follow the campaign. Now, before Doc and I begin talking about this campaign, I want to tell everybody that there's not going to be any changes here. Doc, I'm going to do morning manna every morning. And God willing, I'm going to do true news every day. Okay.

The only difference is most likely I will do both programs from my home. And here's the reason why. Our studio offices are in Vero Beach, Florida. Vero Beach is not in my congressional district. The county line, we're in Indian River County here, and the congressional district starts in St. Lucie County, which the county line is only a few miles from here. However, my home is it's a drive time of 30 minutes. I live in St. Lucie County. So every day, Susan and I drive 30 minutes to Vero Beach and we drive back 30 minutes, 60 minutes of driving every day and with a very short campaign of May, June, July, and three weeks of August.

Yes. I really, I don't think I can drive up here every day and still be campaigning from the district. So, Doc, I'll probably be doing Morning Manor and True News from my house. I could even be doing True News from a remote location where I'm at at the moment. But the point I want to make to you is I'm still going to be here. I have my responsibilities, and Morning Manor and True News are two of my responsibilities. I have to go to work every day like you do. And I'll be at work. Don't worry about that. I'll be there. The rest of the day, in the afternoon and evening,

I will be campaigning. And my district goes, District 21 in Florida is part of the Treasure Coast. And so it's St. Lucie County, Port St. Lucie, and then Martin County, which includes Palm City and Stewart, Florida. And then the upper, I don't know, upper third of Palm Beach County. And so that would include Jupiter. And it goes down to the tip. It doesn't include Riviera Beach, but I think it stops right there at the Riviera Beach city line. And then a lot of rural space to the west towards Okeechobee.

And that's the district. So geographically, it's very compact. I don't have to travel a lot. And that'll make it easy. So here I am. I am a candidate for the House of Representatives, Florida District 21. And my opponent is Congressman Brian Mass.

I didn't see this coming. Honestly, Doc, you know that. I don't come in here every day saying, I'm going to run for Congress someday. This was something that I believe the Lord of Brian Mass wearing an Israeli military uniform in Congress. Would you say that was the one thing that sparked all of this in you? That was the beginning. That was the beginning because I didn't know anything about Brian Mass other than he was a Republican and a wounded Afghanistan war veteran. He's lost his

legs in Afghanistan. That's the only thing I knew about him. And in the last election, 2022, I voted for him. I didn't know anything about his views. He's a wounded veteran Republican. Okay, I'll vote for him. Then when I saw the photograph, I saw a headline appear that said Florida Congressman wears IDF uniform to Congress. I was sitting on my back patio. It was on a Saturday afternoon. And the first thing I said to myself was, what idiot did that? Yes. Well, it was your idiot.

It was our idiot. I couldn't believe it. I opened up the article and I said, that's my congressman. Is this for real? He's wearing an Israeli uniform? And when I first saw the headline, I thought it was something like a parody account or the Babylon Bee or something like that. It can't be real. It can't be real.

A congressman wearing a foreign army uniform in Congress. But it was real. And then as I did research, I discovered that he has traveled to Israel to participate in IDF activities. Yes. So he's— With the Israeli military, mind you. He's true blue. All right? The Zionist blue.

He's true blue. I don't think he's red, white, and blue. He's blue. And he is all for Zionism and Israeli army. And then after that, so that got me steaming. At that point, no, Doc, I hadn't thought about running against him. I just thought, well, I'll never vote for this guy. That's it for me. But then who do you vote for? I know, but I was thinking, somebody will run against him.

At that point, I was not thinking about running. Then, as the war in Gaza worsened, and I'm watching night after night after night, I'd go home, and I'd look at videos on Twitter,

and I was just horrified. I couldn't believe that I'm living through genocide. Like, okay, it's one thing to watch historical videos. Right. And you think, what a horrible time. That must have been horrible for the people. I can't imagine how the world allowed something like that to happen. But then you're watching it in real time and you're saying, no, this is happening right now.

Yes. So then Brian Mast started speaking out in favor of the genocide. He didn't use the word genocide, of course not, but he fully endorsed the destruction of residential homes. He said that there were a lot more buildings that needed to come down. Well, he knew those are residential no such thing as innocent Palestinian children, which was a direct quote of the propaganda coming out of Israel, that there are no innocent Palestinian children. Doc, at that point, I think that's when the spark clicked in me. I think that's when I said, that guy needs to be removed from Congress. And as I prayed about it, and I'm praying,

I said, Lord, remove Brian Mass. He's unfit to be in the United States Congress. Bring somebody to run against him. And I still wasn't thinking of myself. And then slowly that idea began to percolate in my soul. Become the candidate. Rick, this is the way to defend the children. This is the way to defend the children of Gaza. Confront Brian Mass and defeat this man for re-election. There are other issues I have with Brian Mass.

He's also for gun control. This guy's a Republican. He wants a federal ban on semi-automatic rifles and shotguns. A Republican. In a Republican district. This is a very conservative, not completely rural district, but it's a conservative district. Right. And he wants a federal ban on semi-automatic rifles and shotguns. That puts him on the same level as Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, Charles Schumer. Yes. Adam Schiff. As a Republican. As a Republican.

So that's issue number two. And then number three, this only means something to me and others locally. It doesn't mean, not going to mean anything to you. I live in the city of Fort Pierce. I'm not in the city limits. I live outside of the city. But when you ask, where do you live, I'm going to say Fort Pierce. Fort Pierce is a wonderful, I call it old Florida town.

It's on the coast, has a beautiful marina, a very nice downtown, and it's a farmer, rancher town. It has that, I think of when I lived in texas i think of stevenville texas in fort pierce if you're not fishing you're farming there you go fishing and farming those are the two big things in fort pierce anyhow brian mass a few months ago called fort pierce a god-awful, dilapidated city. And Fort Pierce has a Republican mayor. And he demanded that the Republican mayor resign. Yes. Because he said, this is a dilapidated city,

and you're not fit to lead it. This guy is really, he's very arrogant. And so that was the, that was, I guess, the final push. Like, okay, I'm going to teach you some good manners. I'm going to get out there and campaign and I'm going to, I'm going to,

I'm going to teach you some good manners and you're going to regret shooting off your mouth about no innocent Palestinian children, wanting federal ban on semi-automatics, trash talking my hometown. All right, I'm going to give you a race. I'm going to make it work for this race, for this nomination. And so that's what I did. I filed the certificate of candidacy.

It arrived in Tallahassee yesterday. And Florida has a different – I've never been a candidate in Florida, so I don't know how this – I had to research how this works. So you file at the Secretary of State, and you have two options. You can either submit petitions signed by voters. And how many signatures would you have had? I don't know what they, it was in the thousands. All right. So each race is different, depending on the number of voters in the district, but a lot, Doc, a lot. And you can't, you know, obviously they're going to go through the petitions with a magnifying glass and they have to certify that every signature is a real voter. And if you've missed, if there's too many of them that are disqualified, your petition could be kicked out.

That's right. So you only have a window of one week. It started Monday. Today's Wednesday. The qualification period in Florida for all state and local races started on Monday, and it will end on Friday. And your documents have to be certified, ratified by the Secretary of State by Friday at 5 noon. And if not, you're not on the ballot. Right. Now, you chose not to go the petition route. Yeah. So the other option is to pay a fee. So I paid the fee and now we're waiting for the Secretary of State to certify that I am a

legitimate candidate for the House of Representatives, and that will be online. We're waiting. I checked just a couple hours ago, and my name was still listed as active, meaning that they're still going through all the documents that have come in statewide because it's every county, every county, you know, county commissioner, city council, sheriff, for every county in the state is all happening this week in Tallahassee. So, you know, I understand that they're covered with a lot of documents that have to be certified. But I don't have any concern.

We double-checked, triple-checked, quadruple-checked every document. And we filed the documents on time. And God willing, by the end of today or early tomorrow, I will be certified as an official candidate who will be – my name will appear on the ballot in the state of Florida in House District 21 on August 20. Again, this is my birthday. Guess what I want for my birthday? I want to win the Republican nomination for the House of Representatives. So – Now, Rick, your only issues aren't going to be, hey, I just don like Brian Mast and and the fact that he wears an IDF uniform. That's not gonna be you know

No, we're gonna talk about you know, I mean, I mean doc I mean you and I have been I've been here 25 years I can talk about a lot of issues right and there's there are a lot of things but are there some key issues that are on your heart and on your mind that you feel as Rick Wiles being in Washington, D.C. could make a difference in? Are there some key ones? Yeah, what I did over the weekend, I wrote this and we posted it today on the campaign website. Again, it's rickwiles2024.com. It's titled, 11 Things That me off about Washington. I thought that's, that's, it'd be easier for me to get off my chest what I don't like about Washington. Right. Then to

write a bunch of stuff about every issue under the sun. So number one, a deliberate invasion of illegal immigrants in the United States. And, and so I've said this before. I've been here 25 years. Next month is our 25th anniversary. Doc, I can go back to the beginning of this news program in 1999, and we were talking about illegal immigrants. Nothing has changed. Not a thing has changed, except there's more immigrants, a lot more immigrants, illegal immigrants. And there have been a number of presidents I've gone to through Bill Clinton and Bush and, you know, Obama and and Trump and now Biden. And Donald Trump is the only one who attempted to interrupt the program. Right.

The program is let them in. Right. It's deliberate. It's not a crisis. It's a policy. And it appears to be a policy that's endorsed by both Democrats and Republicans. It is. There's a bigger agenda out there.

And there are people, obviously with power and money, who have decreed that there will not be borders on the United States of America. They've eliminated the borders. And I want to reiterate that. Conservatives are trying to close the border. And what I'm telling you is we lost that battle. The globalists erased the border. There's no border to close. You have to draw the border again.

They're fighting you and me from our attempts to reestablish a border. And now the border in the north of Canada, it's as open as the south. You've got the Chinese coming across the north border now. It is not a crisis. It's a deliberate policy. And yet I heard just earlier this week It is not a crisis. It's a deliberate policy. And yet I heard just earlier this week a member of Congress say defending the Ukrainian border is defending our border.

Right. Where do you get that? Where does that mindset come from? Somebody wrote the line for him or her. They did. That's where. They were given a propaganda line. So it's so surreal now that we have thousands, not tens, not hundreds, thousands of young Chinese men of fighting age walking across our border. And they're just being allowed to circulate through the country.

Now, I discovered, I don't have my phone with me, left it in my office, I could show you. I didn't know that our government gives, I knew that they gave them phones. Yes, well, they give them more than that. But they also give them an app. The customs office gives them an app. Yes. So what is that? So the illegal immigrants immediately are given a phone with an app and told, go about your way. This is how you're going to, you know, we're going to get you money through this app we're going to give you instructions what does that phone and app mean it means the

u.s government knows the whereabouts of every illegal immigrant in this country that's right everyone they're lying when they say they don't know where they've gone because their phones ping. They could go pick them up. So the FBI knows where every Chinese illegal is at in this country. Yes. Homeland Security knows the whereabouts of every illegal Chinese man that came across the border. And that app also allows them to access funds. It allows them the opportunity to travel.

I mean, you and I, we travel a lot. We go to access funds. It allows them the opportunity to travel. I mean, you and I, we travel a lot. We go to the airport. We have to show IDs and all this other stuff. Is that what they're using to get on planes? Oh, yes. That's what they're using to get on planes. They don't have to show an ID. All I'm telling you, folks,

is if God allows me to win this election, I am going to spoil the party in Washington. Well, I will be on the floor of the house talking to them like I talk to you right now. Yes. I'm not going to be quiet. I'm not going to guard my lips. I'm not going to wait 10 years to earn my right to speak.

I'm going to speak when I get there, and I'm going to tell the truth. And it's going to change the atmosphere in the house because they're not used to anybody daring to tell the truth. Right. Because they want to intimidate you. We're going to call you names. You keep doing that. We'll call you names. You keep doing that. We'll call you names. We'll call me names.

I'm not afraid of being called a name. You've got 25 years of experience. I've been called names my whole life. Who cares you call me a name? So, gosh, when we were children, we sang about sticks and stones can break. I mean, who cares? Who cares you call me names. All they're doing is adult level, you know, sticks and stones can break my bones.

They're doing it at an adult level. It doesn't hurt me. I don't care. You're not going to intimidate me by calling me names and saying ugly things about me in the news media. So what? Do it. I'm going to say the truth, and that's going to hurt you more than the names you're calling me. That's what they're afraid of.

Well, the border is a big issue for you, of course, but another issue I know that's always on your mind because we talk about it every day on True News is war and rumors of wars. Yes. And so, you know, we're financing endless war. The House passed a bill on Saturday. The Senate voted for it today. It's on its way to the White House to finance war in Ukraine, war in Gaza, future war in Taiwan. It's war and war and war. And yet there was no money to secure our border.

Right. They deliberately made sure there was no money for the border. I was surprised, Doc, today to learn that Florida's two U.S. Senators, Rubio and Scott, voted against the bill today. Yes, I saw that. Their names on the list. I was surprised and impressed. That's encouraging to me, that Senator Rubio and Senator Scott defied Mitch McConnell and the war lobby? I think because they know their constituents here in Florida.

They're hearing it, aren't they? Yes. They're hearing the rumblings on the ground. See, that's encouraging to me in this race. That's right. That's very encouraging to me. That means, hey, Brian Mass, if you're watching today, you're on the wrong side. The people of Florida are done with these wars, and you're showing up as a warmonger. So we have this endless, perpetual funding of war, and yet the United States government doesn't have any money to finance it.

Right. We have to borrow the money from foreign lenders so that we can give away the money to foreign armies. It doesn't make any sense. Now, I'm going to say that on the floor of the House. You people are idiots. Do you understand what you're doing? Every 100 days, you're spending a trillion dollars. You've got to go borrow the trillion

dollars, and now you're going to give it away. Where are the adults in the House of Representatives? Is everybody wearing a brain diaper? I mean, it's really, they ought to have brain diapers. I'm just that image right there.

I'm going to have so much fun in Washington. I got two years to be the skunk at the party. And believe me, I can say a lot in two years. The day that the House passed the bill that support Israel and Taiwan and Ukraine, there were members on the House floor waving Ukrainian flags. Obviously, you wouldn't be waving a Ukrainian flag, would you, Rick? Of course not. That's blasphemous. It's treasonous to wave a foreign nation's flag on the floor of the house of representatives while you're voting to give them money you're taking from the taxpayers to finance that

country's wars that's that's so surreal it's hard for me to believe that ever happened my blood ran cold when i saw that i said that i angry. I was upset. How could that happen? But there are no voices in the House of Representatives. There's no voices in Congress. But I'm encouraged that you could be that voice that stands out, Rick. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if Brian Mass was strutting around on the House floor while they were waving the flags and he was singing Hava Nagila. I mean, he was happy. They voted for tens of billions of dollars to go to Israel to kill children. Come on.

Now, I know they're going to say, well, we didn't vote to kill children. What do you think Israel is going to do with it? What do you think Israel did with the money you already gave them? Right. All the weapons, the missiles, the bombs. What do you think they did with it? They killed children. Tens of thousands of children died

because of the support of Brian Mass and other radical congressmen and women who want that war to continue. And so if God allows me to be a congressman, I will be a voice for peace, and I will defend the children. Financing Ukraine's pension. Now, there's something that makes me mad. That ticks me off, Doc.

Explain what you mean by that. A lot of people don't know this. That the U.S. government is financing the Ukrainian government, their Social Security, their pensions, their government employee checks. Ukraine has become a ward of the state, of our state.

Right. If we stop sending the money, Ukraine shuts down in one day. We're talking the salaries of government employees. We're talking about their pension funds. We are paying the salaries of ambulance drivers.

A fire truck, you know, firemen. Yes. We have become the financer of every city and county government in Ukraine. We're paying their pensions. They're getting their Social Security checks from the American people. And most Americans know nothing about this. They have no idea. But I'm going to make sure people in Florida know about it.

Because Brian Mass was a big supporter of all this money going to Ukraine. Now, I have to say, he did vote no on the last bill on Ukraine, but he previously was a cheerleader for war in Ukraine. In fact, he wanted a no-fly zone over Ukraine just a few months ago. Right. So, but the people need to be told that they are working to pay their taxes

so that their tax money goes to pay Ukrainian pension checks. Yes. Meanwhile, we have veterans that can't make ends meet here. We get veterans living in the woods as homeless people. And we're taking care of government

workers in Ukraine. Yes, you've got it, Rick. Well, I don't got it. I don't got it. I don't like it, and I'm not going to accept it. In D.C., they're a higher priority than our own American veterans. That's what it comes down to. Ukrainians and Israelis have higher priorities in Washington than American citizens. How many of you would like me to be in Congress?

You know, just for two years. I would have fun for two years. I could say a lot in two years. I mentioned the $1 trillion every 100 days. No need to say anything else about it. And just to say that number out there, $1 trillion every 100 days, Rick, it doesn't even impact us anymore, does it? $1 trillion doesn't mean anything to us anymore. It's bizarre, but we don't have it.

We have to borrow it. Yes. And, you know, they'll have a big debate about, you know, a possible shutdown of the government. You wouldn't have this issue if you balanced the budget. Yes. By the way, balancing the budget, that's something that I would campaign on as an issue. I'm an old-fashioned Reagan Republican.

I became a Republican in 1980 with Ronald Reagan. I don't know, I was probably 27 years old. Ronald Reagan convinced, you know, he didn't personally, but the Reagan mystique in 1980. I was a Democrat until Ronald Reagan ran for president, and I switched parties. And I had people in my family who were upset with me. I said, no, I'm voting Reagan. And Reagan's campaign, Reagan's political platform his whole life was small government, low taxes, balanced budget. And for years, Ronald Reagan tried to get a constitutional amendment passed that required a balanced budget.

They wouldn't pass it. Why? Because they didn't want to balance the budget. Right. It's just that simple. We're a debt nation. That's what we've been for all these years. I don't understand how we're required to personally balance our own budgets, but our government isn't.

Right. And that has always baffled me from the days of Reagan, as you mentioned, because they're not motivated to balance. But just like they're not motivated to do anything about the border. The border crisis works for both Democrats and Republicans. A balanced budget amendment, the Democrats can say that it does one thing bad, and the Republicans can say it does one thing good, and they'll get traction out of it for years, and nothing gets done. That's the biggest frustration, I think, of the American people, that they look at Washington and nothing gets done unless it's for somebody else. You got it. And that somebody else is who has the biggest checkbook. Yes.

So you said that Congress isn't required to balance the budget. That's true. YNOs aren't required to balance the budget. That's true. Winos aren't required to be sober. But you don't give the key to the liquor cabinet to a wino. Because he's going to drink everything in the cabinet. So you can't give the key to the treasury to a bunch of fiscal winos in washington right you have to lock up the liquor cabinet because if they get in it they'll be drunk because that's what they are they're irresponsible people they're mental midgets. I wouldn't trust the 435

members of the House of Representatives to manage my lunch money, let alone manage my grandchildren's future. But that's exactly what we're letting them do. Mismanage our grandchildren's future. Because there's a

generation, whether it's us or the next generation of children or grandchildren, somebody's going to pay a horrible price to pay off all this debt. And everybody just keeps kicking the can down the road. Like, well, it's not going to be us. Well, somebody's going to pay it. And my fear, Doc, is that children and grandchildren in this country someday could become slaves to China because this country collapses and China forecloses on America. And they take over the country without firing a shot. Right. They just move in because we're

broke. We're financially devastated. That's my concern. You know, a lot of Americans are concerned about taxation and everything, but there's a hidden taxation that takes place every month that a lot of people don't really think about, and that's inflation. Inflation is a hidden tax on every single American. And do you have any thoughts on where you stand as far as addressing this inflation crisis? In my opinion, it's a crisis. If Donald Trump was president right now and we were having the inflation rates we are now, the media would be pulling their hair out. But one seems to care about biden's inflation crisis so what is my position on inflation i'm against it doc now seriously um i said two years ago that we had entered a new 15-year

inflationary cycle. And what I was referring to is that in the mid-70s, I was married in 1974. I can't believe that June 1st, Susan and I will be celebrating

our 50th wedding anniversary. Do I look that old? Be careful, Don. Well. Seriously. Like old people are married 50 years. It's a medal of honor, Rick. It is.

So we got married June 1st, 1974. Gerald Ford was in the White House. Whip inflation now. Remember those buttons? Win. Yeah. Mrs. Ford, Betty Ford, she was passing out win buttons.

W-I-N. Whip inflation now. Because inflation was really bad. And Mr. Ford's economic advisor was Alan Greenspan. Alan Greenspan. Yeah, he hadn't made it to the Fed yet. He was working his way up. And I remember that rascal saying that unemployment would be a good thing for the economy.

I'll never have forgotten that statement. I don't know, 74, 75, somewhere in that time. He said, unemployment would be a good thing for the economy. It's just so radical, these guys. Sure, put millions of people out of work. But that'll bring inflation down. That'll bring down inflation, okay? So they tried it.

The Fed tried it in the past two years by raising interest rates. Right. That's what they were trying to do. So what I experienced in mid-'70s, late-'70s, early-'80s, it really went up to about 1990, was multiple waves of inflation. Right. I think there were three big waves of inflation. Interest rates on mortgages went up to 13.4%. Yes. No one could buy a house. I mean, if you did buy a house,

I mean, imagine paying a 13% interest rate on a loan. Well, I couldn't at that time. I couldn't buy a house. I was a young man in my 20s. By 79, I had my second child. I couldn't afford a house at 13%. And a lot of people in my generation during those years, we struggled. We suffered because of inflation. Well, Gerald Ford was blamed. Then Jimmy Carter was blamed. Then Ronald Reagan was blamed for the inflation. The Democrats blame Reaganomics. Reaganomics, which fired up the economy.

It got the economy going. But the Reagan supporters blamed Jimmy Carter. Right. And part of the reason Mr. Reagan got in was that people were sort of fed up with the economy during Jimmy Carter. But Jimmy Carter got in because people were fed up with the economy during Jimmy Carter. But Jimmy Carter got in because people were fed up with the economy under Gerald Ford. All three of them

got blamed for Lyndon Johnson. Lyndon B. Johnson heated up the economy with his war in Vietnam and the war on poverty. Massive government spending. Years later, economy with his war in Vietnam and the war on poverty. Yes.

Massive government spending. Years later, it came back to bite us. Inflation. So what started in 2022 with the inflationary hike is the wave, the blowback that has been building since the Federal Reserve had quantitative easing. Yes. They pumped gazillions of funny money dollars into the market. Right. And they had all the repo funds that they were playing around with over the past four or five years,

even prior to Donald Trump. So really, I mean, if we would let market forces just kind of go where they are now, we'd probably be at 13 percent. The thing is, it's being manipulated right now. Yes. But then you had the COVID relief funds. Right. You had all the money that was pumped in to get the economy restarted from the real estate crisis of 2008, 2011. This is all coming back now. And add in Afghanistan and Iraq.

All the wars. Yes. So that's when you look at the increased prices, you just think about mental midgets in Washington spending money foolishly like there's no tomorrow. I kind of imagine them being like the Oompa Loompas from, you know, Willy Wonka's story. Oompa Loompa, what do we do? We spend all your money. That's what we do. We'd be better off if we had Oompa Loompas in Washington.

That's right. It'd be more fun if I was sitting there with a we had Oompa Loompas in Washington. That's right. It'd be more fun if I was sitting there with a bunch of Oompa Loompas. But I'm going to have to sit there with mental midgets. There has to be an adult there. I want to go to Washington

to be the adult. I think that's the thing that the American people want, too. They look at Washington, D.C., and they don't see anyone who's in charge. who's the corrector, who's the one that calls out these people and their activities. There's nobody. I mean, there's some minor voices that pop up, but those voices get stamped down just

as fast as they rise up. And one thing that concerns me, Rick, is we see politicians get elected to Congress with big promises and big agendas and very patriotic, wrapping themselves in the flag and everything like that. And then they get to Washington

and suddenly it's like there's something in the water up there out of the Potomac that changes them, that changes them into some other swamp creature up there. How would you respond to all these swamp creatures that have gone to Washington and have been transformed by the waters of the Potomac? I don't know how to respond to them. What you have to do is just be yourself and not be intimidated and not be pulled into the system. Because the pressure is to be pulled into the system. If we go to my number nine things of 11 things that tick me off about Washington, and it's on my website, rickwiles2024.com, number nine is Jeffrey Epstein, the FBI, and Israeli spies. How's this connected to what you're saying about the swamp?

Right here it is. That politicians are being blackmailed. They're being blackmailed. They're being entrapped in sex honeypots, video recorded, and blackmailed. And it's our

wonderful allies who are doing it. Jeffrey Epstein operated the biggest pedophile network in the world for decades. Not a couple years, Doc. Decades. And even operated while he was serving in jail time in South Florida. Yes.

That just blows your mind. Yes. He was released to go home to his mansion every night. Yes. That just blows your mind. Yes, he was released to go home to his mansion every night. Yes. And the only reason he didn't go to federal prison is because Alan Dershowitz intervened and worked out this little sweetheart deal where he could go over to the county jail during the daytime and pretend he was a prisoner and then go home at night and rape more children. That's exactly what he was doing. And facilitating others to do the same. And everybody in Washington knew about it.

Everybody. Everybody knew what Jeffrey Epstein was doing. Went on for years. Why were they afraid? What force? what power could intimidate people in Washington to be quiet about pedophilia? If they're involved. That, but the fear of being killed. The fear of being killed.

That if you speak up, if you investigate, you might wake up dead. And that has frightened good people to just be quiet, just lay low, be quiet. People who weren't even involved. They weren't involved, but they were afraid. Wasn't it Liz Cheney who said we were afraid? I think it was Liz Cheney who made that remark. We knew about it but we were afraid. Or was it Meghan McCain? I think it was Meghan Meghan McCain. Senator McCain's daughter said it. We were afraid. We knew about it but we were afraid. Afraid of what? Is the daughter of a US We were afraid. We knew about it, but we were afraid. Afraid of what?

The daughter of a U.S. senator. Yes. What are you afraid of? What could scare the daughter of a U.S. senator? Things that she heard her dad talk about privately. Things that go on in Washington. So somebody has to confront the corruption and call it out and have no fear of death. You can't be afraid of being called names and you can't be afraid of being killed. Yes. Fear God.

That's it. Fear God. And fear no man. I have no desire for a political career at my age. What am I going to do with a political career? I mean, seriously. A 30-year political career, I'd be 100 years old. I have no desire for a political career.

If I'm there one term, two terms, three terms, I don't know. I didn't even plan on this. I just feel like I've been directed to take these steps so I don't have any long-range political career planned out. Do what is right. To say what is right. Yes. And let that be my record. Let that be my legacy. Yes. And not, if you do what's right, you don't have to worry about whether you're reelected or anything. Just do what's right.

If enough people believe you're doing what's right, they'll reelect you. Yes. So that's the philosophy I'm going to have. Another issue that is a point of frustration for many Americans, Rick, is they look at Washington, they look at Congress, they look at the FBI,

and they just see the corruption, the obvious corruption. I mean, one example, you were talking about Jeffrey Epstein. You know, they raided both his Manhattan home and his home in the Caribbean. Supposedly, they found hundreds and thousands of pictures and DVDs and everything. Where are they? Where are they?

Where's the massive investigation of the pedophile network? It's not. And now the current corruption that's going on is this law affair that's taking place, top of the news outrageous acts of injustice in my lifetime. A lot of Donald Trump's legal woes, he helped contribute to them. Yes. But his enemies, and basically we're talking about the, whatever you want to call this thing, the deep state, the ruling class. They hate this man. And why do they hate him?

Because he doesn't take their orders. I'll never forget Newt Gingrich's comment in 2016 on Fox News during the primaries. They said he was asked, I think it was Bill O'Reilly asked him, so why does the Republican leadership hate Donald Trump so much? He said he didn't go through the initiation. And I was like, what did you just say? Like there's a secret society? And Mr. Trump refused to participate in it?

So what they're doing to Donald Trump is despicable. Some of the courtroom sketches I've seen of him, Doc, are so pathetic, so sad. They're breaking that man. And, you know, right now today, and I can ask Eddie, or not Eddie, but Lee, let me find it on our page here. Lee, it's the element about the Secret Service. Oh, yeah, it's number eight. Oh, yes. ABC News.

Look at this, folks. This is ABC News yesterday. Secret Service prepares for if Trump is jailed. The Secret Service agents will be in the jail with him. Think about that. Because their federal duty is to protect the President of the United States. They can't allow the President of the United States to be in a county or state or federal jail with prisoners who are murderers, rapists, slashers. And now there are members of Congress that are talking about removing Donald Trump's secret service detail from him.

I don't think he has secret service detail right now. I think every ex-president does. As an ex-president, yes. Okay, maybe that's what it is. So this is what ABC reported yesterday. The U.S. Secret Service held meetings and started planning for what to do if former President Donald Trump were held in contempt in his criminal hush money trial, and Judge Juan Merchan opted to send him to a short-term confinement. Officials familiar with the situation told ABC News. Judge Merchan on Tuesday reserved a decision on the matter after a contentious hearing.

Prosecutors said at this point they are not seeking a fine. Assistant District Attorney Chris Conroy said we are not yet seeking an incarceratory penalty. Not yet. But the defendant seems to be angling for that. In other words, he's agitating us. He's pushing us. We're going to put him in jail. And that is only going to help Donald Trump. I'm sorry.

They just don't realize that. They really haven't thought that through all the way yet. So what Donald Trump has done and the corruption and the lawfare that's going on against Donald Trump is only because they would do the same thing to you and me, every American citizen. They have destroyed the rule of law in this country. That's the important thing to know. Whether you're a Democrat, Republican, Independent, Leftist, Right, it doesn't matter. They have destroyed the rule of law.

If the system now is you use the courts and the prosecutor offices and law enforcement to investigate and prosecute people for their political views. And how is that not election interference? It is election interference. It's something they do in, you know, we call them banana republics. That's the kind of stuff that's done in very backward, undeveloped nations. That's what we have now. And, Doc, if the Republicans gain power and they say, well, we're going to use lawfare against the Democrats. That's just as bad.

Yes. Just as wrong. Because we're destroying the rule of law. One of the hallmarks of our society has been that we are a nation of laws. And that everyone is to be treated equally and fairly and that nobody is is guilty until proven guilty that you're innocent until proven guilty with donald trump he's guilty yes in their minds he's guilty and they're going to prove it and they're going to lock him. He was found guilty in 2016. And they've just been working the system, corrupting it to put him in prison

because nothing else is working. They can't defeat him politically. So they're going to put him in prison. And this is one of the gravest threats to our republic that's happening right now. It breaks my heart to see Donald Trump being dragged from courthouse to courthouse. And, Doc, where are the Republican leaders? Do you see anybody defending President Trump? No.

They're not? They're not. Steve Bannon said the other day, I didn't see the program. I don't get a chance to watch other podcasts. But I did see a video clip somebody sent to me. Steve Bannon said the Republicans want him to go to jail. Oh, I saw that clip. The Republican leadership, they want Trump to go to jail.

Well, hey, there's our closing music. I didn't really plan to spend the whole program talking about our campaign, but it was a nice, relaxed talk. So now you know, I am a candidate for the House of Representatives, District 21, State of Florida against Brian Mast. But I'll be back here tomorrow doing True News. And coming up in just a moment, I'll be doing Morning Matter. You're listening to WWCR, International Shortwave Radio.

You can find True News on frequency 12.160 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern and on frequency 4.840 from 10 p.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern. Connect with us on Rumble, Facebook, X, and Getter. I'm Jake, but my friends call me Moose Jaw. I'm a blacksmith, and I like to work with my hands. I watch and trust true news. Two things are clear to me.

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Act today before a crisis suddenly appears. Be ready. Be wise. Go to AmericanReserves.com. Welcome everybody to Morning Manna. We're glad to have you here with us. If you are watching or listening on many social media platforms such as Getter and X and Rumble. We welcome you if you're listening on International Shortwave Radio, WWCR. We welcome you. We gather in real time at 8 a.m. Monday through Friday. So if you're viewing us at a different hour, know that we're actually together in real time, people from all over the world. And we meet at faithandvalues.com, faithandvalues.com. Become a member. You can join in the class and participate in the chat.

We'd like to have you with us. We're studying the gospel according to saint matthew we're in chapter 8 and today we will be looking at verses 18 through 22 dr burkhart is here and he is going to read the word of god for us and start today's lesson and are you going to pray for us first, Rick? Yes. Thank you. Thank you for reminding me. Thank you. My gracious heavenly father. Oh, father, we thank you. This is a beautiful day. This is the day that you have made and we will rejoice and be glad in it we choose to rejoice and we choose to be glad gladness and rejoicing are choices and so is uh being sad and and depressed those are choices too but we make

the choice to rejoice and we make the choice to be glad not sad so father you are the one who makes us rejoice you're the one who makes us glad and we express our love and admiration and appreciation to you dear Holy Spirit come and take charge of today's morning manna Bible study and teach all of us the precious word that is Jesus Christ in human flesh, the word of God. We love him dearly in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. And as Rick mentioned in the opening, here we are in Matthew chapter 8, and we'll be reading verses 18 through 22. So if you have your Bibles, go ahead and open up, please. You can follow along here with us. Do you have a love for the Word? That's the question today. Do you have a love for the Word? If you do, you'll desire it, you'll love to read it, and you'll allow the Word to transform you. And so let's read together together starting at verse 18. I'm reading from the King James. Now, when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave commandment to depart

unto the other side. And a certain scribe came and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. Jesus saith unto him, the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead. Praise God. That's Matthew chapter 18 through 22. So beginning today and hopefully concluding on Friday, we will finish our study of the remaining verses of Matthew chapter 8. There are three movements of Christ in verses 18 through 34, the end of the chapter. The first one is his conversation with two men. The second movement is his calming of the storm. The third movement of Christ is his deliverance of the demoniac. Our focus today is on the first movement in these verses, which is his conversation with two men.

So verse 18, now when Jesus saw great multitudes around him, most preachers and certainly every politician yearn to have great crowds around them. Yes. Because in their minds, it substantiates that their messages are being heard and received. It's their measuring stick. It's their measuring stick. The more people following, the more successful the preacher and the politician is in conveying his views. Now, in today's more likes on social media. And not only that, you can actually buy likes too. And you can buy likes, as Doc and I learned one time from a consultant. A Christian consultant.

Yes. He was telling us about a major ministry and how many millions of likes that minister had. And I said, well, how did he do it and the consultant said well he bought most of them doc and i looked at each other like did we just hear this you can buy likes well that was years ago you know now we know yeah there a lot of the stuff on social media is not real, okay? But that was an attempt

to deceive. Yes, it was. To make the audience think that that individual was more popular than they actually were. And yet we have Christ. Christ goes away from the multitudes. Yes.

So carnal men crave crowds. Carnal men crave crowds. As I said, we've got today countless corporations, individuals devoting time and resources trying to accumulate more likes on social media, more people following a company, a politician, a celebrity, an author, influencer, podcaster. I can't tell you how many times I have been asked privately in meetings, how many likes do you have, Rick? How many people are following you on social media yes decisions are made based on how many people are following you

on social media so thank you in most cases whenever a crowd size began to swell jesus disappeared into the seclusion of the countryside or mountain or even a sea he knew that people clamored for more natural carnal things yet he yearned to give them more supernatural things. The more the people desired to touch Christ, the more Christ desired to touch his father in heaven. He knew that he had to get away from the crowd to be alone with his father so that he could return to the crowd with something of value it's um it's very difficult for pastors I want to point out most pastors

are not seeking the applause of crowds most pastors are truly God fearing men who are shepherds of their flock and

sometimes you have to leave the crowd you know on a sunday morning after church and there could be hundreds depending on the church size it could be a thousand people wanting to get close to the pastor to talk to the pastor and the pastor has to step away. Why? Because in his office is a crying person who desperately needs the full attention of that man of God. And so he has to step away from the crowd to minister to one. That's the way it is in ministry. So we find Jesus in such a situation. Yesterday in verse 16, we read that when the evening was come,

they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils, and he cast out the spirits with his word, and he healed all that were sick jesus fulfilled his messianic role by healing all that were sick he cast out devils from all the possessed people who were there with his word. He didn't lay hands on them. He spoke. His word touched them. His word delivered the devils. It's interesting.

He most likely touched those who were sick with disease. But those who were possessed, he didn't touch. He spoke his word to them. But all were healed by the word right all were healed by the word nobody was turned away all were healed we don't know we don't know how long he devoted his time to the people that night. It could have been many hours into the late night. We don't know.

At some point, Jesus became aware that more people were coming. Perhaps it was a moonlit night. Maybe it had been a full moon night. The crowd size was enlarging. Like I said earlier, politicians and celebrities dream about such moments. Not Jesus. He does the opposite. He withdraws. But he could see the crowds coming you know i i i've told you the story about the time i was in in africa i was in the bushland this is in kenya at night we were showing the jesus film and uh

man you just turn on the projector and start showing the movie and a crowd shows up. I don't care where you're at. So I was out somewhere past the town of Mwingi out in the bushland. And it's a dirt floor church with open, you know just basically a pole barn that's the best way to describe it it's a pole barn and and then we we set up the projector and began showing the film doc it was it was a full moon night and i kept kind of like we had last night yeah I kept looking gazing away from the church into the into the bushland at night and I could see objects moving and I didn't know what it was I thought it was I thought it was animals I'm thinking, what is coming? There's a lot of them coming. And I said to the pastor who spoke English, I said, what are all those things way out there?

I can see things moving. What is it? And he smiled. He goes, Brother Rick, those are the bush people. I said, what are they doing? doing he said they're coming to your meeting and doc if you made a 360 degree turn all around you in the bushes you know out in the in the bushland you could see humans walking at night children were walking by themselves well i'm saying a group of children three four or five children together

right adults they were coming they saw the light of the projector and they were coming and in a very short time, I had hundreds of people there to watch the movie and to listen to me preach the gospel. So that helps me envision what happened to Jesus at night. He's looking. He's already got a massive crowd, but everywhere he looks in the nighttime he sees there's more people coming this crowds getting bigger and he knew he had to leave that's just the opposite of what social media managers and consultants and political campaign directors would tell somebody no you don't want to leave now we're going to get some great video we got content we've got content

look at the crowd look at the size of this crowd but jesus said, I'm leaving. So what we don't see yet in these verses is the reason for his departure from the multitudes who were desiring to hear him, touch him, and to be touched by him. They wanted to touch him, and they wanted him to touch him. So let me say that again. They were desiring to hear him. He wanted, so let me say that again. They were desiring to hear Jesus. They were desiring to touch Jesus. They were desiring that Jesus touch them. So what was the reason? The main reason Jesus separated from a massive crowd

and left the area. There was a single man in critical condition on the other side of the sea who desperately needed a personalized house call by Dr. Jesus. Yes, Jesus deliberately separated from the multitude to give attention to the one and you need to know that in our troubles we can think we're so alone

yes and we're so far away from god and he's busy doing other things and he doesn't have time for my situation yes he does yes he does he will make time i don't know how he does it Jesus can be ministering to a multitude, and then he can be ministering to a single person simultaneously. And think about it all day long. He's ministering to single individuals simultaneously worldwide. Right.

So now when Jesus saw great multitudes around him he gave the order to depart to the other side the other side of what the Sea of Galilee also known as the Sea of Tiberias beginning in verse 5 everything we have studied in chapter 8 took place in Capernaum. And the city was situated at the northwest corner of the Sea of Galilee. So again, let's imagine the scene. It's nighttime. Obviously, they're outside the city. I'm guessing on the outskirts of the city because there's a huge crowd.

The location is somewhere on the edge of the city and the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee. Right. How do we know? Well, there's a boat there. A vast crowd of people are surrounding Jesus. He's pressed in from every side. People pleading for healing, pleading for deliver deliverance shoving their sick grandma up to him saying please heal her others carrying little babies touch my baby please and for hours Jesus is pouring out his compassion and mercy and healing people.

At the moment he knew all the sick were healed and all the possessed had been delivered. He didn't leave anybody behind. Right. At that moment when he realized he had healed everybody, he looked at one or more of the disciples and gave an instruction, get me out of here. Get me out of here. Get the boat ready.

We're sailing to the east side of the Sea of Galilee tonight. I'm sure the disciples said, Lord, look, there's more people coming. And Jesus said, if I don't leave now, we're not leaving at all. We got to go now. You know, again, from the human carnal viewpoint, that decision does not make sense. Right. human carnal viewpoint that decision does not make sense right and from even the religious viewpoint of humans it doesn't line up but wait a minute there's more people coming that means there's more sick people yes Jesus knew that. For all we know, he just went ahead and healed them. That's right.

He healed all of them. They could have been healed walking to get to Jesus to get healed. Think about it. He may have just looked at the people who were coming and said you're healed i gotta go he's jesus he can do anything he wants to do now capernaum had been jesus's base of operation and his temporary home for some time. We don't know how long. But we now see movement, a transition, a change in focus in Jesus's ministry, a change in the nature of his interactions with humanity.

This is a transition phase right now in these verses this is a transition something's changing in his ministry up until now he's operating out of capernaum but now we're going to see a change. So the Sea of Tiberias, Sea of Galilee, was a recurring backdrop for Jesus' teaching and miracles. Right. And so this movement suggests a deliberate choice of changing the setting for his ministry. He's making a purposeful redirection in his ministry. This is a decision, strategy. And in one way, you could say he's now moving his ministry closer to the Gentile population. Because the east side of the Galilee was closer to the Gentile population.

Fewer Jews, more Gentiles. There's a transition, a flow. He's sending a message. I'm going to transition. This gospel is going to reach non-Jews. As we're going to see later on in chapter eight. Yes. A couple of side notes before I move on to the next verse. Another possible reason, I would say a minor secondary reason,

for Jesus withdrawing from large crowds, not just this time, but other times, because you see a pattern of Jesus withdrawing from crowds, was his desire to not antagonize Jewish rulers and the Roman government. When the crowd gets too big, people in power get nervous. Right. One thing I've noticed on social media is that when a podcaster starts attracting

approximately a quarter million viewers per day, that's usually when he or she gets whacked, gets deplatformed. Either whacked or anointed at that point, right? Yes. Yes. They say, okay, this person's attracting a lot of views right now. We got to do something. So I think Jesus was like, okay, this crowd, we're reaching our maximum number of people right now before the Roman soldiers come out. Remember, what was the saying of the Romans? About peace, about maintaining rule pax uh what is it um romana yes pax romana the roman peace the roman peace so jesus was aware that that was their their motto

they didn't want any he didn't want any troops coming out, and he didn't want any Pharisees demanding the troops come out. It wasn't his time yet. See, it wasn't time yet to have the confrontation with the Jews. He knew it was coming, but not today. So this separating, this also reveals the humanity of Jesus, that he needed rest. He needed space, personal space for himself. He needed to get away from the crowd. He just needed to be alone, needed to turn off the noise.

He's human. He's all human. He's all God. He's a God man. And there's also, Doc, in this, I think Jesus wisely separated at strategic times to give the crowd time to withdraw and ponder what they heard and saw. I can see that too. Yes, that's a good observation. Like, okay, I've given you all that you can handle right now. It's time for you to go home and think about it.

Yes. Because the people wanted to stay longer, teach us more, more miracles, tell us more parables, more, more, more. But Jesus is like, no, you've had've had enough go home think about what i told you put into practice the principles i gave you then come back again and i'll teach you more now we get to verse 19 a scribe came and said to him, teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. The fact that a scribe approached him is notable

because scribes were associated with the educated class, with the upper level of Jewish religious authorities. A scribe is a lawyer, the Jewish lawyer. The Jewish lawyer studies the law. And so the presence of the scribes suggests that Jesus' teaching had gone beyond the common people. Right. It was now starting to seep into the upper educated class. It's possible, we don't know,

that the scribe may have been among the multitude that stood at the base of the mountain while Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount to the disciples that he called to join him on the mountain. Perhaps he was curiously following Jesus quietly through the streets of Capernaum, hearing bits and pieces

of our Lord's teaching and getting glimpses of the miracles. Whatever it was, something about Jesus was stirring in this scribe's soul. And I believe he sincerely meant it. He said, teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. He's saying, I desire, I'm willing to become a disciple. He addressed Jesus as teacher. The King James uses the word master, but I think the word teacher is more accurate.

Unless you want to view it as a master of teaching. It's okay, but he's really talking to him as a teacher. Right. So the scribe's statement is a request for acceptance into Jesus's inner circle of followers. Right. That's really what he said. Right. And think about when this is happening.

Jesus had asked, you know, we're going to go over to the other side. So I can imagine they're making arrangements for a boat. They're getting on a boat. This is kind of how I imagine the scenario playing out. They're loading up. They're packing up. They're getting on the boat.

And then the scribe comes along. He says, Master, I'll follow thee wherever you go. And I think he was sincere. But Jesus saw something in him that he had to address. Yes. And that's a good point, Doc, of the setting that Jesus had already made the commandment, let's go, let's get out of here, get the boat ready. I think the disciple overheard it. He saw the disciples moving in the direction of the boat. He saw Jesus walking towards the boat he ran up to him and said I don't know where you're going

but I'll go with you I want to be with you he was asking for an invitation to join Jesus' inner circle of disciples it was like he was saying Master, Jesus of disciples it was like he was saying master jesus i i've noticed your close relationship with peter and andrew and these other men they're all very close to you i want to be like them i want to be accepted by you into your leadership team. I'm educated. I'm, I'm, I'm trained. I'm ready. And I want to travel with you and the guys. I'll go wherever you guys go.

And think about it in the natural, it would be, you know, I'm just, once again, I'm saying in the natural, it would be good to have a scribe, You know, would a scribe be more valuable than some uneducated fishermen? I'm just speaking naturally. So you actually describe probably had a pretty good resume. He was probably well qualified, well educated. He you know, he could dictate the parables, let's say, or write down the stories that Jesus told, or keep a record of the miracles that were taking place. So, it's not that there wasn't some value in the scribe at all. Like I said, he probably had a pretty good resume, and in the natural,

we would stack it up. All right, I got 12 fishermen, or mostly uneducated fishermen, and a well-educated, like a Harvard-educated scribe. Yes. And we, in the natural, we say, we got to, you know, we got to get this guy on board. We got to add him to the staff. And most likely, all the disciples were approximately the age of Jesus. They were late 20s, early to mid 30s. And you get a group of young guys together, and they're traveling everywhere. That has appealed to most men. There's, there's adventure. There's excitement. I want to go with you. I'm bored being a lawyer.

I don't want to sit in my office anymore and study. I want to get out in that boat with you. I want to travel. So I really believe he was sincere. Verse 20, Jesus said to him, the foxes have holes and the birds of the sky, excuse me, Jesus said to him, the foxes have holes and the birds of the sky have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. On the surface, Jesus's reply seemed odd. The scribe sincerely expressed his desire to become a disciple, travel with him anywhere he goes. But Jesus didn't shake his hand and say, welcome, mate. Get your duffel bag.

I'll introduce you to the team. Instead, he looked the man in the eyes and said something about foxholes and bird nest. What? and bird nest what I mean the young scribe had to been thinking what are you talking about foxholes bird nests who's talking about bird nests then Jesus said but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head i traditionally i was always taught that jesus declared his homelessness right like he was sleeping on sidewalks at night and stuff yeah poor little jesus He didn't have a house. He didn't have a home. He was homeless. He used a rock for a pillow at night. Right.

If he was lucky. I've heard sermons about Jesus. He had a rock for a pillow. Mark 2, verse 1. When he entered again into Capernaum after some days, it was heard that he was at home. Put that in your pipe. Mark 2, verse 15. He was reclining at the table in his house. Yes.

Whose house? Jesus' house. And many tax collectors and sinners sat down with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many, and they followed him. Jesus invited sinners to his house, and they reclined at his table. In other words, they leaned back. They had enjoyed the meal. They're leaning back and they're done eating. It's time to chill out, relax at the table. At his house, John chapter 1 verses 35 to 39.

Again, the next day, John was standing with two of his disciples and he looked at Jesus as he walked and he said, behold, the lamb of God, the two disciples heard him speak and they followed jesus jesus turned and said and saw them following and said to them what are you looking for they said to him rabbi which is teacher where are you staying verse 39 he said to them, come and see. They came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. We know that Jesus was living in Capernaum. Right. Again, he wasn't behind the dumpster.

No, he wasn't sleeping at the rescue mission. No, he had a house. So why did Jesus tell the scribe he didn't have a house and he had no place to lay his head? Was he trying to get pity? I mean, suddenly he, he declares his poverty and he says, I'm no better. Foxes and birds are, have more than I have. What's the message doc? What's he saying to this man that this that all this is you know this is going to be a hard life that we're that following after me is going to be and once again you said too that this

is a period of transition we're going to see jesus go outside of capernaum after this point and minister all around the sea of Galilee, and then that is going to expand too, and it's simply saying to the man, listen, things are going to be changing here. I'm not going to establish a mega church here and capitalize on the crowd. I could do that, but there's ministry to take place across the Sea of Galilee. There's a demoniac waiting to be delivered. Are you sure you are up for this? Yes.

I'm getting ready to leave my home here in Capernaum. I'm going on the road. And there's sacrifice. There's going to be hardship. And you can't be thinking all the time. I didn't know this is what I signed up for. I thought you had a house in Capernaum. I thought we were just going to stay here in Capernaum.

Jesus is saying to him, no, we're going on the road. You say you're going to follow me anywhere? Well, there's a lot of places I'm going. Life's not going to be easy. There's not going to be a lot of conveniences all the time. But, Doc, I think there's's something bigger something more important in this message jesus is saying you have to let go of the world you can have a home but the home can't have you

you can have things but the things can't have you. Your mind has to change. You have to let go of all of the things that you own, all the things that you hold dear. You have to surrender them to me and let me own them. Right. And you may never have them again. Are you willing to follow me? Do you love me that much? Are you willing to give up everything? Another clue that we might have to an explanation on this, Rick, is that in verse 20, this is the

first time where Jesus identifies himself as the son of man. Yes. At least in the gospel of Matthew, it's the very first time. And that references back to Daniel, Daniel chapter seven. And so what Jesus could be doing here too, is also saying,

listen, I'm, I'm not just, you know, the next fad. I'm not just the next hot topic out there that is drawing a crowd. I'm the son of man. Did the scribe really understand?

Did the scribe just see, you know, a popular evangelist and prophet that had appeared? Or did he really understand that this was the the son of man standing before him and that to follow after him you have to you have to follow jesus you have to understand that he is the son of man yes he's the son of god the only begotten son of god right and he's he's the last adam when he when he refers to himself as the son of man he's he's also identifying himself as the last adam he's he's the son of god who's come to earth to finish the work to make right the work that the first Adam made wrong yes he's the son of man and and he's in son of man he's identifying his friendship with humanity he's he's he's signifying his solidarity, his friendship, his connection to the human race, saying, I'm one of you. Yes, I am.

I am the son of God, but I'm also one of you. Right. And another aspect is, as the son of man, this earth was not his home. Yes. This earth was not his home. Yes. This earth was not his home. Which is consistent all the way back to Abraham. Yes. Because Abraham did not have a house.

Abraham had tents and he moved about. He refused to settle down in the land that the Lord promised him because he was looking for a city. That city is New Jerusalem. And that takes us back to the whole thing about Christian Zionism and the Jews taking control of Palestine in the last days and all that. It's all hogwash. Right.

If Abraham was here to talk, he'd say, what are you people doing? No, you've got it all wrong. Verse 21. Another of his disciples said to him, Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father. And then what was Jesus' reply? Look at his reply in the very next verse, Doc. Could you read that for me, please? Yes. Verse 22.

But Jesus said unto him, follow me and let the dead bury their dead. All right. So what does that mean? At first, let's point out first, it says another of his disciples. This man is a disciple. Right. He wasn't a disciple wannabe. He was a disciple.

Yes. You know, I've heard people say, well, this man missed his opportunity. No, he already was a disciple. Right. By the way, I've heard many sermons where the preachers or Bible teachers have said, these are two cases of people who missed their opportunity to serve the Lord. I don't think that's the case, Rick. I really don't. I'm in agreement with you, Doc. First of all, here in verse 21, we know this man is a disciple. Right. The other man sincerely expressed a desire to be a disciple.

The Bible doesn't say anything about these people after these verses. Right. And so I have just as much right to believe that they did become disciples, that somebody else has the right to believe that they didn't, because there's nothing in the word that says what happened. So I'm going to take the positive view. I'm going to take the view that that scribe eventually understood what Jesus meant. I'm going to take the view that this man in verse 21 eventually made the right decision. So,

the disciple said, Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said, let the dead bury the dead. What kind of answer is that? It seems kind of harsh, doesn't it? Oh, it seems real harsh. I mean, a young man comes up to Jesus and said, Jesus, my dad died. I want to go with you. You're getting in the boat. I want to go with you. I want to get in the boat with you, but my dad just died. Can you just wait until I go bury my dad? And Jesus snapped at him

and said, let the dead bury the dead. Is that really what he said? Is that how he said it? Is that what it meant? You get in the boat, somebody else will bury your old dead grandpa or your old dead pops i got things to do it that's the that's the impression people give in bible studies and sermons that it was a harsh dogmatic dogmatic declaration follow me or else I don't care if he's dead. Let his old carcass rot up. Who cares? What do you think, Doc? I don't think that's the situation at all, Rick, it's a matter of, you know, Jesus didn't say, don't go bury your father. He did not say that. He did not say, don't go bury your father. He made it clear that following after him, there's a cost to discipleship and there's going to be some difficult choices that are going to lay ahead of us.

He certainly wasn't, listen, everybody, no one's going to tell you don't go bury your dad, okay? Certainly not the Savior, certainly not the Master, but he is making it very clear to this disciple there are going to be some very difficult times ahead, very difficult choices as we go beyond Capernaum now. You won't have another opportunity to bury your father. You're never going to be able to do that again. So that's my particular viewpoint on it, Rick. All right. That's been my viewpoint up until now. And that may be absolutely right. But I got a different twist on it, Doc.

I think Pops was alive and well. Oh, really? Oh, so what you're saying is that the disciple was saying, listen, I'll follow you, but I got to take care of my dad's old and everything. I got to take care of him. Yes. He's at home and all this. I see where you're going with it. He's at, he's at the son's home. He's saying, I think he's saying, Jesus, my dad's up in years.

And, uh, I don't know how, I don't know how many, I don't know how much time I've got left with my dad I I can't leave him he's old there's no I'm the only one he's got to take care of him um I'll follow you but let me stay here until I bury my father. Let me stay here until my father passes away and I bury him. Then I'll be free to follow you. I won't have any responsibilities. And you know, that actually makes sense because that would be a contrast to the scribe.

The scribe was saying, I'll go with you right now. Yes. But the disciple was saying, I'll follow you, but I need some time. I need time. This is interesting. Yeah. Now the two people here in this particular passage, this makes sense now. Yes.

There's a very stark contrast. I'll go now or I'll go later. Because if the man's father had just died, it just doesn't make sense that Jesus would say, I don't have time, we're leaving now, let somebody bury him. Let's go. But if you take the interpretation that dad was alive and well, then it makes sense because that interpretation is in alignment with other things that Jesus said. For example, Matthew 10, verses 37 to 39, he who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter

more than me isn't worthy of me. He who doesn't take his cross and follow after me isn't worthy of me. He seeks his life, will lose it. He who loses his life for my sake will find it. He's saying to this young man, I know you love your dad, but you've got to love me more than you love your dad. Somebody will bury your dad for you. He'll be okay. Somebody will take care of him. I'll see to it. I'll see to it.

I'll make sure somebody, a cousin, an uncle, somebody's going to take care of your dad. Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it. Somebody will bury him. But you've got to love me more than you love your dear old dad. And so that makes sense now because the message is the same to both of these men. It's consistent.

It's a consistent message. Who do you love more, your dad or me? Folks, this is a really good lesson today. You don't realize how good this really is. Well, I wish it was gooder because I'm out of material. Oh, man. That's it, Doc. That's it. You're good.

That was my final shot. Well, it was a good shot. That was it final shot. Well, it was a good shot. That was it right there. I ran out of time studying. I was coughing too much this morning. Well, Rick, I mean, there are a lot of people that are watching and listening today, and maybe they've never really considered the true cost of discipleship. Because really, we have a kind of a very easy or laissez-faire kind of discipleship, following of Christ in Western Christianity and especially in the U.S. It's not really that hard. Now, I don't mean it in a mean way, but it's really not that hard to follow Jesus in America, is it? No.

I mean, I know it's hard. I know it's hard to truly follow him, but the way it's sold from a lot of people. The American version is easy. Right. All you have to do is walk down the aisle, shake the preacher's hand, show up every week for the rock concert, and then wait for the lifeboat to arrive when the rapture comes. That's all you have to really do. And, you know, vote for Jesus at the ballot box. And so really, there's a very easy discipleship. There's no cost to discipleship at all.

That's right. One of the most impactful books I ever read was by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship. This is the guy they hung by piano wire, and so that hurt. Yes, and he understood the cost of discipleship. He wrote that before they hung him, but the idea is there truly is a cost to discipleship. I never really understood that in this passage before this morning, that Jesus, both to the scribe and to the disciple, is saying, there's a price in following after me. Are you prepared to leave to the scribe? Are you prepared to leave your education behind and follow me, your authority behind and follow me, your reputation, your resume behind and follow me.

And to the disciple, he's saying, listen, yes, there's a cost to following me, but I will take care of those things in your life like your father. I promise you he'll be taken care of. For me, this is a great revelation on this passage today rick yes you know and when jesus uh you know when he said uh foxes have no holes and our foxes have holes and birds have nests but the son of man doesn't have any place to lay his head but if you if you when you're active in ministry i've i've been blessed that i've been I've been able to travel to different countries, different continents. I've been in Asia, I've been in Africa, in South America, Central America, Europe, and

Doc knows this because he's been a missionary. You can't be worried about what your living conditions are going to be on any particular day. That's right. And one day you're in a beautiful hotel, comfortable room. Everything is fantastic. And the next day you're sleeping on a mat in a tent. Yes. It doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter.

You're serving the king. Right. And so this is what Jesus was saying to this man. I can't promise you you're going to have a pillow every night. You might some nights, but other nights you might be sleeping on the ground. Are you willing to pay this price? Other nights, you might be sleeping on the ground. Are you willing to pay this price?

But if you have to have comfort, then you're really not serving me. And then on the other one, the other disciple, he's saying, you have to make a decision about who you love the most. In Matthew, what is it? Matthew 19, verse 29 and 30. Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for my name's sake, we'll receive 100 times and we'll inherit eternal life. In this life.

What did he say you would leave? Houses, real estate, your brothers, your, excuse me, your brothers, your sisters, your father, your mother, your wife, even your wife and your children. Doc, I know we're only down to a minute and a half here. I guarantee a very few preachers in this country are willing to tell people you may have to leave your family members to obey Christ. Because that is contrary to the teaching that's prevalent in today's churches in America. Right. Jesus said, you decide who you love the most. If I give you an assignment and you don't do it because you have emotional connections to family members, then you don't love me more than them. He is very hard on

this issue. He comes first. And that is not accepted in the church in America today. No. It's got to be, no, you've got to wait until everybody in your church in America today. No. It's got to be. No, you've got to wait until everybody in your family is in agreement with you. Yes. All right. We're out of time. We got to go. Well, and I think this is a great passage today, Rick.

It really was. I mean, you opened my eyes to something I hadn't seen before. I really appreciate that. The Lord really spoke to you today. And so I really appreciate that. Hey, as we close here, let's pray for Rick for healing for his body. And let's just believe God to touch him. Heavenly Father, in Jesus name, I pray for Rick right now and just ask Lord that you touch him. Lord, that you take away this cough, take away the source of the cough, Lord. I pray that you wrap him with those wings of healing, Lord. I pray that together we stand upon your word that says, by your stripes we're healed.

Lord, we cry out to Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah the healer today, and ask you, Lord, to touch our brother Rick, Lord, and restore him to full health. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. Amen. Thank you, Doc. Thank you. If Lee edits out all the coughs,

we'll gain two minutes in today's video. Praise God. All right, folks. We love you. Thank you for joining us for this live edition of Morning Manna, 8 a.m. each weekday morning here on faithandvalues.com. God bless you, and we'll see you on the Thursday edition of Morning Manor. You're listening to WWCR International Shortwave Radio. You can find True News on frequency 12.160 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern and on frequency 4.840 from 10 p.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern.

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