You Asked For This!

0:00Speaker 1:What's up.

0:01Speaker 2:I'm Granger, I mean man, I'm Tyler, I'm Parker.

0:05Speaker 1:This is nine nine for one podcast. We laugh because we have been chatting and chatting until we do this every every time we get together. We chat and then eventually we start saying we should be recording what we're saying right now. Thank you guys for listening. We say all the good stuff, and then we press for we actually do. Man, we say the good stuff and then we tame it up. And one of these days we're gonna do enough episodes where we stop we start taming it in the podcast.

0:31Speaker 3:Everybody fits in the box.

0:33Speaker 1:Not to make anybody nervous. I hit record long before we really started, so I mean, Kayden, up to you, up to you. Part of it. Part of what we're talking about is I I just came.

0:43Speaker 3:I go from PG thirteen to G real quick. Once we pressure record.

0:48Speaker 1:There's the clip. And it's not that you're saying it's not that you're saying thirteen things. You're saying challenging things. Uh to the world. Yeah, we just speak in my mind and and I think, yeah, I part of what we're talking about is I just got off the I just got off the boat. I just got off the plane and came straight from the plane to here. And I flew from Pittsburgh this morning, but drove from Morgantown. Drove from Morgantown, it's an hour fifteen to Pittsburgh, jumped on a plane, flew direct here, came straight in to do this podcast. Well, speaking to a group of men last night. Actually it was a mixed group. I've been saying that, but there's a mixed group in West Virginia. Morgantown.

1:36Speaker 1:Last night. It was just a day in and day out. But I was thinking what I did. After I spoke, I did a Q and A, which I often do, and this one lasted almost two hours, and so I got to thinking I was probably thinking about it during the Q and A, Hey, we should maybe for the podcast tomorrow when I see the guys, we should talk about most common questions I get.

2:01Speaker 4:Are the questions of majority of the questions. Are they about what you just spoke on? Or do they go all over the place? They go all over the place. But there it's I've done it so many times now, it's almost always there's there. There are like three or four that always happen. Loss to some extent, Yeah, we could go, we could.

2:22Speaker 1:I wrote them down here. That's what I would think, finding a church, reading your Bible. That's usually what I'm talking about to them, Okay, and then they often don't go back to that.

2:32Speaker 3:For the questions girlfriend, relationship, h questions, I.

2:36Speaker 1:Assume it's like the podcast. That's why I read the questions that come in. Yeah, side note, we can get in. I'll read you. I wrote down one, two, three, four. I wrote down four that I heard yesterday specifically, and they're common. But I did. I do hear a lot of people that listen to the podcast at these type events, and I yesterday I said, besides me, because there were some kids that they listened to all these episodes, I said, besides me, was your favorite of the host in the podcast? Unanimous? Man?

3:08Speaker 1:I promise, I promise. Why Well, then I pushed him on it and they said, we just love his name. Okay, God, yeah, I get it. There's the extent of my popularity.

3:19Speaker 5:Tyler's uh Tyler's responses though.

3:23Speaker 1:People love to but but I will say I also preached in Austin at Kinney Avenue Baptist Great Church in Austin. I preached there two days ago, and the pastor's family there. He has four boys, and they were all about They were all about Parker. They're all about Fred. Could we meet Parker? Could we meet Fred? How's Fred doing? Can you bring Fred to the preaching? You know?

3:52Speaker 5:So?

3:53Speaker 2:Yeah, Fred's got quite the falling. It's crazy.

3:55Speaker 1:Yeah. Parker is the host of the YouTube channel EEE Live, the most successful gun tuber in all of the world.

4:07Speaker 2:Right, Teller, depends on how you're framing it.

4:11Speaker 1:I wouldn't say that we're talking to you, Kentucky. You've been home. What is that, right, Tyler?

4:20Speaker 2:Objectively depends on what you mean by success. You're talking about revenue. Are you talking about influence or you're talking about total subscribers? You're talking about views per video?

4:27Speaker 1:What about subscribers and growth?

4:31Speaker 2:You know we were talking yesterday.

4:32Speaker 3:Not to get off on a tangent, Kay, you can cut all this, but you know.

4:36Speaker 1:I'm telling this is what Caden's been dying because Parker.

4:39Speaker 3:Parker's just you know, he's with w ME now for booking sponsors and all that.

4:42Speaker 1:And explain who w ME is?

4:44Speaker 3:William Morris to change names all the time. I think it's the William Morris Group now used to be William Morris Endeavor Represents. Used to represent you for booking music for all your favorite country artists, all your favorite pop artists, whoever, all those are these days entertainment movies. They booked your for your movie Moonrise that you put out. The represented you for that. So they got in La LA office and national office, New York office, world somewhere overseas probably, but anyway. And so they're doing Parker's ad sponsorships within his YouTube channel, like so a digital division at w ME, all kinds of divisions. Yeah, but I was saying, you know, I've been on this kick about the box lately. Like you know, Granger Smith was in a box and Earl was out and he got he was super successful because nobody was doing that. Everybody can be a country music artist, so to speak, but nobody can do what Earl was doing.

5:41Speaker 3:So people resonated with that. So try to try to do that in all aspects of every business that we do. So with Parker now it's like, you know, being with WME and and the popularity of his channel, open stores to do collaborations with with people. So you know, I was like that would be cool to do. Who who's coming up on that on the William Morris roster that's coming up with an album soon. It's like how many bullets? How many cane brown CDs does it take to stop a fifty cow?

6:11Speaker 5:You know?

6:11Speaker 3:And as an artist like that would be a great marketing tool. You're gonna get literally tens of millions of views on your new album that's coming out. But then we're like Parker's listening to like Caigo this morning when we're working out and so and Parker also mentioned like clabbing with like Tom Brady, like doing some football challenge, and like, what should we do a worldwide artist like a Caigo instead of like the newest country music artists like Tucker what Moore or whoever, just to appeal to a broader audience, kind of like what Dude Perfect does, mister Beast does. And anyway, I don't know where we're going with this, but just trying to think outside of I guess originally you saying biggest gun tuber in the world.

6:47Speaker 3:It's like yes, but then we obviously think what's next. Let's be bigger than just a gun tubing space, and let's bring in all these other big names and clab and what.

6:57Speaker 1:Do you add subscribers? You're over seven million right now? Right, yeah, something like that, because I think Hitcock has like eight Okay, so you're closing in on the most subscribers outside of Demo Matt, who's retired, the most subscribers of any gun tuber on all of YouTube. I mean, I don't mean to put you, I know, I don't want to put pressure on you, like like I'm throwing praise on you or something. I'm just just statistically speaking. You're pretty cool, dude, No praise intended, no praise Intenda's pretty cool, dude, pretty cool.

7:41Speaker 2:And I will say the reason for the subscriber cou is because we do YouTube shorts that go really viral, and so those guys like Hiccup, Hiccock and Demo Ranch grinded for decades to get what they got and have a much more loyal following with then YouTube shorts. And I know, Tyler you pushed back when I say that, but just saying it's not the same and what they've built is like is it was like just it's almost like the old school, grinded out way. And so thankfully we've just had a lot of success with YouTube shorts, and that's just like the cheat code for subscribers. But it's crazy, man, like it never it really never ends.

8:30Speaker 2:I don't know how far we want to go on this tangier. I'll just say real quick. I was looking at two other subscribe YouTubers today and they have like eleven million subscribers. And then there was a little bar. I saw one YouTuber and he had four million subscribers, and his main header on his homepage was a bar that showed him at four million, and then it was like an the rest of the bar was empty. It was like red, and then the rest was empty to try to get to ten. I was like, he wants to get to ten million. He's trying to get everyone to get into ten million subscribers. And then I saw another girl. She had twelve and it was at the very bottom and there's this huge empty spot because she wants to get to one hundred. And I just thought, never ends, dude, Never, It never ends. You're at four and then you get to ten, and then you're at eleven, and you're just saying, oh, you got to get to one hundred.

9:18Speaker 1:What are you doing? You got to get to.

9:19Speaker 2:And if you do, what happens when your hit one hundred, you know, yeah, everyone's got a hundred one more thing.

9:24Speaker 1:We'll get off this tangent one more thing. But you can't say, I want to call you out on what you said. Well, YouTube shorts are a cheat code. That's not a correct illustration, because that would mean anyone could do it, and you're in a vein that no one could do. Right now, you have I just looked, you have seven point seven point oh five million subscribers. That's that you're You're just in a world all by yourself that only a very very small percentage of people will ever get to. And so I just want to say, and you know that we know that the Bible says that unless the Lord builds it, the one who labors labors in vain. So your your house, if not built by the Lord, will eventually fall. And you are not the kind of guy that walks around going look at all my subscribers, look at all you know, you are the most blue collar man. I'm just checking in the work, just providing for my family. The type of YouTuber I've ever ever seen. I've known a lot of famous YouTubers of our life. I've never seen one like you. That's just like, yeah, I do it every every Tuesday at two o'clock. I go out there and we shoot something

10:36Speaker 1:new and we plant it out and then that goes and edits and you know, and I'm like you just it's such a job to you and youss versus someone that actually eats it, eats up the fame itself, and that their goal is one hundred million. Their goal is one hundred million, and they hope to do meet and greets and they hope to turn this into a million dollars. Yeah, turn it, turn it completely, turned it into just a money grab. And here you are on putting out an episode last or two weeks ago with sharing the gospel, which is wild, you know, sharing a clear gospel at the end of at the end of your shooting. It's like and knowing that you have a very big international audience, knowing you have a lot bunch of Indian viewers, right is that in India is one of the biggest ones.

11:27Speaker 2:India and the Philippines biggest.

11:29Speaker 1:So interesting, so you're you're sharing the gospel internationally and very intentionally. I think I think if you knew you couldn't share the gospel, you'd probably quit the channel. If you knew that there wasn't a gospel, if Christ wouldn't glorified in it, you just quit the channel. But it's pretty cool. It's it's really cool to see.

11:55Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks man. Well it's all God, because uh I would I just love the money and love the fame, and I want to be God and I want people to worship me. So anything that's not that is just the Holy Spirit and has nothing attributed to me. I listened to a great Chris Pratt interview interviewed by Ben Sass some random collab yesterday, and Chris Pratt was talking about his faith and he said he said, life in that world is just trying to milk what you can out of it and stay far away, milk a little bit and just try not to fall in and get burned and a lot of it. I was like, that's kind of how I feel. That's kind of how I feel right now. That's the importance of the local church and having guys around me that I know will call me out.

12:39Speaker 1:So glad you said that. Let's let's hit that real quick. The importance of a local church that can call you out on things. They can encourage you and rebuke you. And that's where you're in a place where I promise you, if you put on an episode that was somehow compromising morally in any way, you'd have about four guys meet you on Sunday and be like, Hey, we need to talk about this episode that came out last week. Brother, Let's talk about this. And that's the accountability that we not should have, not suggested, have, must have in a local church. And not only you, but I was thinking about this the other day too. It's not only a church member. You're actually a deacon, so that you know.

13:24Speaker 1:But it's but it's not It has nothing to do with the position that you're in in the church, because that includes pastors. I know we have a lot of pastors that listen to this. I talked to them a lot of times. If I travel, there's a lot of pastors that listen. So I want to say this too. If you're a pastor and you don't have accountability in your own church, brother, you're putting yourself in danger, and not only yourself but your flock. And that is a very scary place to be in. And you might be doing things biblically right now, and everything might be good.

14:02Speaker 1:But if there is no other brother in your church, not not outside your but if there's no other brother in your church that can approach you and say this is this is not looking good, then you are in a lot of trouble. And that it would be the same thing with Parker. Parker was growing a massive channel like you are. Without anyone that could say, hey, this is this is going too far, this actually might be hurting your heart, then you're in a very scary place.

14:30Speaker 1:Fame is a very scary thing, and that could happen in the pastorate. You could become you could become a numb to the popularity that you're gaining in the pulpit. Very scary, much more scary than YouTube. Which is why we believe in the Bible that we see pastoring as in a plurality. It's always, if not at the very beginning, it's always moving toward a plurality, meaning a pastor's plural. So a church begins typically with one or two, but the result is always moving in the direction of multiple pastors that have that have equal authority over each other, not not one head boss pastor and everyone else under him.

15:24Speaker 1:You could have a guy that's leading. You have to you have to have a guy that leads, but that leadership does not make you above the other pastors in authority. There's always making sense. This makes sense, and so I do. I do feel that sometimes as I'm talking to brothers that are pastoring churches, and I worry as as you see a church of a thousand people and there's one guy and then he has like three executive guys, but he's like the main decision maker and he does what he wants. And he might be doing things right and biblically for now, but eventually the human heart becomes deceptive and we start falling into that. So anyway, how about we talk about common questions that come to me during a Q and a Yeah, what is it?

16:16Speaker 5:What would you say is the most So you've been doing how long have you been going and speaking churches or events like this?

16:24Speaker 1:So you did it before seven years? I think, let's see, you did it before the touring stopped. Yeah, I think seven years. And that's also right around the time I started doing that on the podcast as well. Yeah, so I would say that, and it's evolved over the years, but I love to do the Q and A. I love to go somewhere and speak when I can, and then do a Q and A after I always ask. In fact, there's only been a couple of times. One in particular, I think was in Upstate New York, when the church said I talked to we talked to leadership, and they said, no, I'm not gonna let you do that because we don't trust what people are going to say to you, which is a sign of an unhealthy church.

17:07Speaker 1:That was an unhealthy church.

17:08Speaker 5:Sure, So if they were afraid people were going to ask stuff to you about what they were experiencing at the church, is.

17:14Speaker 1:What something along those lines. I think they were worried that somebody might ask some questions that I wouldn't be able to answer and it could get it could get political, or it could get you know, controversial. Almost every other time they say, yeah, we'd love for you to do Q and A, and that usually brings up really encouraging things. So I'll do my talk thirty or forty minutes, and then the Q and A will bring up some really encouraging questions that weren't in the talk at all, and it usually makes everyone think. For all the people that don't raise their hand, and we passed the mic to they're probably thinking I was thinking that same question. I didn't ask it. I would say a I'm gonna name a few here. This has happened last night.

18:05Speaker 2:This.

18:05Speaker 1:This isn't as popular, but it's still common. A guy asked, I know you're you've been asking us to read our Bibles? Why does God sound so harsh in the Bible? So that was his question, Why does God sound so harsh? Why does God? I wrote that down. I think I wrote it while he said it. I was up on the podium writing down for this podcast podcast in the middle of the event, just to say, that's how much I love this podcast. Why does God sound so harsh.

18:40Speaker 3:Talking about Old Testament?

18:42Speaker 1:I'm assuming so that's what That's what I was. That's what I was assuming. How would you answer that?

18:52Speaker 3:How would I personally answer that? Because he is a harsh he's a jealous God. Uh well, hang on, a explain that he doesn't want us.

19:03Speaker 1:That's a complicated topic that you just brought up, but all that you do doesn't want us worshiping any other gods but him. It unpacked jealous though, because that says something to us. Remember Oprah Winfrey was like, as soon as I found out in the Bible that God's a jealous God, I said, enough of the Bible for me.

19:23Speaker 2:What.

19:24Speaker 5:Yeah, there's a clip of what I've ever seeing that. Yeah, I mean, I say, what like it's surprising. It's not really that surprising, but just that specific phrase.

19:33Speaker 3:Everybody these days is like everybody all inclusive, love everyone. It's not what the Lord says.

19:42Speaker 1:So God's jealousy is a perfect jealousy. Our jealousy is a corrupted jealousy because our jealousy is all about ourselves and it's selfish. God's jealousy for himself. It's the same kind of action we want. It's the same action, which is why it's the same word. If I'm jealous of Amber, it's because I want I want the attention that she's giving to someone else, because I want it, I need it. It's an example I don't that doesn't happen in our marriage.

20:13Speaker 1:I'm just saying God gets jealous in the same direction I want ant man to. I want him to worship me, not other false gods. So it's the same He wants the same action love, but it's perfect because he does it not for himself, because he doesn't need it. He does it for ant Man. He's jealous of ant Man's love for the for the false idol, for the sake of ant Man, because he loves ant Man and he knows, because he created him, what's best for him.

20:46Speaker 5:And where that would lead my worship of that false idol and my love for that versa where that would lead me in life and ultimately eternally my soul.

20:59Speaker 1:That's where he gets jealous.

21:00Speaker 3:We we can't even really comprehend that. No, we can in our mind like because we can't because, like you said in the beginning, like our jealous minds are jealous whatever is completely different from God being jealous. Like we can kind of understand it. You just said it really well, but I think you can a little bit a little bit as a father. When you have kids, things flip and change and you start understanding a little bit more and nowhere near the love and the thought and the and the complexity of of our God and how he cares for us. But definitely a relatability that wasn't there before, Like you know, before kids, everything is about me, Yeah, in the verse in the Bible that says, the gifts that you give your children, how much more exactly for you when you're when.

21:47Speaker 1:Your father is a wicked sinner. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. There there's an old analogy of a painting in a in a museum and it's it's just imagine an incredibly beautiful painting. It's just amazing, breath taking painting. You've never seen a painting this incredible. And if the painting had a voice, and that the painting could talk. In this illustration, imagine people walking into the museum and they're walking past all the exhibits and this paintings in the back. They walk through all the exhibits and they get to the back and they're bored, and they're on their phones and they're looking down. And in that moment, the painting could talk, it would say, hey, look to me, don't be distracted, stop looking at the other distractions of life. Look to me.

22:38Speaker 1:The painting in that moment is not speaking. It's jealousy. In that moment, it's not narcissism. Look to me, because I need you. I want to feel wanted, I need my identity is what other people show to me. I need, I need, no, No, the painting is already perfect, The painting is already secure and good. The pain He says, I want you because I know what happens when you look at me, the pleasure, the joy that you'll feel from my beauty.

23:10Speaker 3:Look to me, or that's the Or Peter getting out of the boat. Jesus calls him out of the boat when he's walking on water and just get out of the boat. So he gets out of the boat, walks on water, and then he starts sinking because he started looking at the storm and the waves and got scared. Always I love that versee because I always just imagine, Jesus, dude, look at me, keep your eyes locked in, and it's so relevant to us, like keep your eyes on Jesus.

23:34Speaker 1:So in that moment, imagine add the word jealousy to that word and go, Jesus in that moment was perfectly jealous of Peter's distraction. Isn't want you drowning? Not? Was it for Jesus, No, he doesn't want you to drown. It was for Peter because you're going to sink. You're going to sink. Look to me, love me, keep your eyes on me, or you'll sink. Yeah, that's great, that's so. So how does all this relate to? Okay, So the kid, this was like a twelve year old kid that asked this question, why does God sound so harsh in the Bible?

24:07Speaker 1:And I said, well, technically, first of all, you know, the Old Testament speaks more about God's love than the New Testament. Okay, And I said, where's your dad? He pointed down the road, there's his dad. I said, did your dad ever get angry with you? Yeah? I said, when's the last time your dad got harsh with you? And his dad on the spot and I was like, hey, I'm not talking about anger, I'm not talking about yelling. And just when your dad gets stern with you, he was like a few days ago on the way here, and why did he do that? Thought about it for a second because he loves me. Yeah. Now we're onto something.

24:50Speaker 1:I said. You know, a few weeks ago, we went to we went to go eat. I know, we met Amber and the kids at a restaurant after church and Maverick was riding with me. So we pull up. He unbuckles his car seat and he jumps out of the car and you know, I'm gonna go see mama. That's that's all he's thinking. So I quickly opened the door and I said, Maverick, harsh, harsh tone, and he stops. He hears my harsh tone, and he stops and he turns to me. So in that moment, I used I utilized harshness, harsh tone, and a quick, a quick way to verbalize to him, turn to me, you're in danger because I love you more than you could possibly understand right now in your fullness, I love you. And sometimes when you're going the wrong direction and you're in danger, I must speak harsh to you. And that's what God does.

25:58Speaker 1:And he was like, I understand now. The kids like I understand now. Yeah, So yes, sometimes God speaks harsh. Sometimes we need that. There was a lot of wrong direction in the Old Testament too, a lot of too a lot.

26:15Speaker 2:There's a difference between God's discipline seeming harsh and then God's judgment seeming harsh. So like what you're just talking about is God's discipline or like the correcting of his children for their good versus like a judgment would be like flooding the earth or destroying Sodom and Gomorrah or when the guy touches the ark of the Covenant and is struck dead, Like there's people who are just struck dead in the Old Testament. So it kind of depends on what they mean by the question. But I think that if you're you hear that, like okay, Noprah hears that and it's like I'm out. I think it just comes down to having a false idea of how holy, a misunderstanding of how holy God is and how serious sin is before him, because otherwise it just seems like he's being meet and he's taken things too seriously because we just think we're not perfect. But it's not sins not that big a deal. So anyway, that's my little No, it's not is holy. When you have a really serious view of exactly how serious sin is and exactly how holy and good God is, then it kind of puts all of it, all of things that are seemingly harsh

27:22Speaker 2:in a perspective.

27:24Speaker 5:God is harsh. The outcome of where you were going was much worse where he's been harsh in the in whatever old New Testiment, but Old Testament specifically where they were headed was way even worse than his His judgment or not even judgment, but even you actions.

27:43Speaker 1:No, that's good, guys. I Let's see if I could find something that was so interesting to me. And do you guys remember when this this this is not highlighted. And actually I'm on the fun in here because I just read it and we see this is just a small example, and we see this all of the time in the Bible, and I like to I like to highlight it in my in my Bible. But do you remember when when Jacob, when God visited visits Jacob, and it's the it's the we call it Jacob slatter. It's like the that's the popular idea of this is is Jacob's latter. So in Genesis twenty eight, God visits Jacob and he basically appears to him, says, I am the Lord, your God, the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac. And the land on which you lie, because he was dreaming the land on which you lie, I will give to you and your offspring. And your offspring will be like dust of the earth. And you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east, and to the north and to the south. And in you your offspring shall be all the families, all the families of the earth shall be blessed, which we know is the promise that happens through Christ. Eventually, behold, I

29:22Speaker 1:am with you, and I will keep you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. And then Jacob awoke and said, surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it, which is an interesting thing of how God comes to us when we do not know him. God visits Jacob, and so all this just beautiful story. Right. God visits and says, I'm the God of your fathers. I will give you this land, and you're gonna have offspring, and we're gonna bless all the nations of the earth.

29:54Speaker 1:But what we miss is verse seventeen is when he wakes up and he was a raid and said, how awesome is this place? Quickly goes by, but you see it all over the Bible. The encounter with the Lord brings fear, and it goes to what you're saying, I brought this up because of that. Once we start to understand his holiness and how awesome he is, that there's a new reverence that comes and a new way of thinking about his harshness because we sit under his we feel small in the presence of his greatness. And that is a really good thing to ponder. Because Jacob says, or the Bible says of Jacob, and he was afraid and said, how awesome is this place? This is none other than the House of God, and this is the gate of heaven, he says in Genesis twenty eight seventeen.

30:58Speaker 1:Such a good reminder. All right, you want another question, Yeah, So first was harshness of God? So harsh the next one? It it flows right into it. I get this almost every single time I speak, almost every single time, and it flows from this exact conversation we're having right now. What do you What do you say to someone who's been through trials in their life and they can't get past being angry with God? Now, I've heard that so many times, and I'm so used to it that I will typically just and I'll press in immediately, and I'll say, are we talking about you or some of one of your friends, one of my friends, this is last night, one of my friends. Is that friend sitting in your row right now? And then you can see everyone like gets uncomfortable. Yeah it's him, say okay, oh wow, And then I'll say brother. Once I know who I'm talking to, I'll say brother, I'm going to tell you something. And I didn't fly all the way here to Morgantown to coddle or to to make sure I'm not offending anybody.

32:17Speaker 1:I only flew here because I want to tell you the truth. Because I want to see I want to see you worship God for who he is. That's why I came here. That's my purpose is not to caudle or make everyone like me. It's because I've done that in my life. My past life. All I did was make people want to like me and make people want to laugh and smile. That's all I used to do. I don't not in that business anymore. I only came here away from my family to tell you the truth.

32:52Speaker 1:And I'll tell you the truth. Anyone that is struggling with being angry with God is not knowing who God is every time, because if you knew who he is, as He's revealed himself in Scripture, then you not be angry with him. Being angry with him is always a product of a misunderstanding, and it's always a product of you lessening him to a smaller God that he is not, And then that always they always stood on that for a second, like whoa, this dude just lost his kid, man?

33:35Speaker 1:And which is actually the case? They lost a child six years ago and they're angry with God, And I'm so sorry for your loss. I truly am so sorry for your loss. I hate that for you. And to question God to say how long? O Lord? Why? God? Those are biblical questions? What would you have me to do? Now? Lord? Those are biblical questions? How long will you will I be in this kind of pain? Will I have this torment in my soul? Will I will I be so dejected?

34:08Speaker 1:How long? God? Those are biblical questions. But to say I'm angry with you God is to think of him as lesser than he is every time, and so to truly, to truly see him for who he is is the ailment for all sickness, are all misunderstanding?

34:31Speaker 3:So how do you see who he is? To answer the question, or it's like, Okay, I get it, I don't know who he is? So how to I find out who he is? And I know that's a loaded question, But is there something specific like if you had five minutes with that guy to answered the question like where do you go?

34:46Speaker 1:The nineteenth century famous preacher that we all know, Charles Spurgeon, he once opened a sermon like this. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy which could ever engage the attention of a child of God is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God, whom he calls his Father. Would you lose your sorrow, would you drown your cares? Then go plunge yourself, and the Godhead's deepest sea, be lost in its immensity, and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which could so comfort the soul, so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief. So speak peace to the winds of trial as a devout earnest continued investigation upon the great subject of the Godhead. Most people don't think of God as Charles Spurgeon did, but he is right.

35:54Speaker 1:The cure to every ailment is an intense investigation, meditation on the person and nature, as revealed in our Bible of who our creator is.

36:09Speaker 3:Okay, So the answer is not the quick fix, like everybody wants the quick pill, what medication. It's you're saying, a lifelong learning through the Bible, through the local church, through reading books by Charles Spurgeon, et cetera.

36:27Speaker 1:Ultimately, ultimately yes, but but at the very beginning, not necessarily. I think if someone was really struggling with anger with God, what really is happening is they're not a Christian or and and people might hear that, go, well, Granger, who are you to judge? You know, people say that kind of stuff, but we know we know people by their fruits. And someone that truly a Christian is someone that finds great joy and knowing more and more and more and more of God. And the evidence of not knowing him is being angry with him, is thinking smaller of him.

37:10Speaker 1:And that's usually evidence of you're either not a Christian or you're a very immature, milk drinking Christian. I say that in no way of shaming anyone. I say that because I was that guy. I lived that life for many many years, and I wish I had heard a podcast where someone said, hey, man, either you're not a Christian or you're very, very extremely weak and immature and in a dangerous place. I wish someone had told me that in like.

37:44Speaker 2:Late twenty nineteen, before you were saved in your state after losing riv, were you angry with God?

37:54Speaker 1:I don't ever remember a moment of being angry with God after we lost Dad. I think I might have been more more of that, but I think I think I remember after losing Dad, I just felt like, why are you so silent? That's what I remember thinking of God, Like can you like not just send an eagle or something. I remember being standing out in the field that that that was overgrown. You know that Dad always mode. There was the food plot actually that now you mo Tyler, But that food plot was overgrown because we lost Dad in March and it was like May. It was just full of grass. And I was like standing out there like this, this field is overgrown because Dad's not here.

38:45Speaker 1:Why is he gone? Where are you?

38:47Speaker 3:God?

38:47Speaker 1:What are you doing? God? Can't you just is there any comfort you can give me? Is there anything like a cloud can roll by anything? And there was nothing, And I was so I don't think really but just confused why he was so silent. I know now I wasn't. I actually was not a Christian.

39:06Speaker 3:Then, he wasn't silent. And the fact that that field was overgrown and he was growing it because of his son and because of his soil, because of his reign.

39:16Speaker 1:You know, it's his.

39:17Speaker 3:It's the Lord's field, not dad's. Dad was just a temporary steward of that land.

39:21Speaker 1:I wasn't a Christian then, yeah. And God is not silent. We have his living, breathing, inspired word, you know.

39:32Speaker 5:I I have.

39:32Speaker 1:I have the words of God right now.

39:35Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. But like, can I see an eagle or something?

39:38Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel that it's like a red cardinal.

39:40Speaker 2:There's kind of seriously like that that's not enough, you know to most people.

39:44Speaker 1:Yeah yeah. Could I see like a red cardinal come to the windowsill and like peck on the glass, then I would then I would know there's a God.

39:51Speaker 2:That's Can I play a sixty seven second John Piper short? Yes, just because it was kind of related. I heard it this morning.

40:00Speaker 6:I don't care how rich you are, you can't run from it.

40:05Speaker 1:You're going to suffer. Are you willing to stay with him through all your suffering? You're going to.

40:09Speaker 6:Suffer folks period.

40:12Speaker 1:The question is will you do it with him? Will all your suffering.

40:16Speaker 6:Be sanctified by the conscious confidence? This for me is disciplined from my father to knock all the props of self reliance out from under.

40:31Speaker 1:My life, so that I lean wholly on him.

40:35Speaker 6:If we fallen people were not brought into trial after trial after trial, I would fall ever more deeply in love with the eases and comforts and prosperity and delights physically of my life, and forget God. That's why he knows us.

40:59Speaker 1:He's a father.

40:59Speaker 6:He disciplines all of his children. He knows a therapy that you need in order to make it to the inheritance. And the therapy is different for everybody. John Piper's suffering regimen is different from yours. I don't like mine, but I do not get angry at my God. I have a doctor who must break my leg to save me or amputate it because it's got cancer.

41:33Speaker 1:And I love my surgeon.

41:35Speaker 6:I love him because he loves me far more than I love myself.

41:40Speaker 1:I'm glad we got a special guests after John say to give us a little piece of this. I have a doctor who will break my leg to save my life? Who will amputate it because it has cancer? I think that is a great way of looking at this. Ultimately, God took my son so that I would see what it meant for him to give his son. M hmm. Yeah. Being angry with God is a sign a check engine light that that you should have checked out because it's an it's not good. It's a sign of of of a weak faith or a non existent faith. And especially in the case of last Night, for six or seven years, it's a big problem. As as Spurgeon said, a and a long meditation on God's word as we're reading through the Bible, not just picking verses that we want to see what does it What does it say about suffering?

42:54Speaker 1:What does it say about marriage? What does it say about you know? Instead working through I mean, just work through the Genesis narrative. Really work through Genesis and Exodus, and that alone you will walk away from the end of Genesis by chapter fifty and go, oh, this God is in control, This God knows. This God is all powerful, This God is all loving, this God is all planning. There is nothing escaping this God. Just from fifty chapters of Genesis, you could recognize quickly. I lost my dad and it wasn't lost on God. God wasn't playing ketchup to an accident that happened on this earth. Oh he knew every day that was formed for me and every day that was formed for my dad. Oh he knew.

43:46Speaker 1:So I don't get angry that somehow he missed it or somehow he planned it in some way to hurt me. If it happened, it happened for the collective good, for his glory. Yeah.

44:00Speaker 2:Either Romans eight twenty eight is true or it's not.

44:02Speaker 1:Yeah, what's Romans eight twenty eight?

44:05Speaker 2:For God works all things for the good of those who love him or called according to his purpose. So He's going to work every good or seemingly terrible thing in your life ultimately for your good.

44:17Speaker 1:I like the quote. I think it was J. I.

44:19Speaker 2:Packer who said, there's literally nothing that God's going to withhold from you that's not for your spiritual eternal good. And ultimately, I think that becoming angry with God is just a matter of unbelief that he's actually holding out on you, which is like the original sin in the garden.

44:36Speaker 5:The important part to think of that scripture is the is you just said, it is the good and the bad. Of course we can see the good. If we can see the good, we're like we can understand the good of how he would use that to work or good. It's the challenge is the bad and that's the all things.

44:56Speaker 1:Yeah.

44:56Speaker 2:I like what Granger said of like it's easy you just kind of go to the Bible for particular answers for certain questions and just stay there. But I want her to describe that like Biblical theology is like walking through a garden and taking a rose from each of God's attributes and different examples in scripture of his sovereignty and his love and his holiness and what he thinks about sin and salvation and in times and like all of these aspects, and you have this huge bouquet of God and then you can see Him in his fullness there and then that's how you react to life afterwards.

45:36Speaker 1:Ironically, one of the questions last night was about Romans eight twenty eight. A guy raised his hand and said, if God's working all things for good, as it says in Romans eight twenty eight, how come we can't see that good? And what good could possibly come out of some of the things that I've seen in my life. And I said, well, first, I said, let's stop right there, and that's that's that's Bible picking. And we don't want to just hit here and pick the verses that we like and just and try to isolate them from the rest.

46:08Speaker 1:I said, hey, let's start reading. Let's read some more Romans eight. So I think I sat there in front of all those people and I started in verse twelve, and it's just Romans eight. It's all of it's beautiful. I started in Romans twelve or eight twelve, and are read all the way down past twenty eight. But part of it is Paul says, for I consider that the sufferings at this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. And for the Creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it. And hope that the creation itself would be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in pains of childbirth until now, and not only so. I'm just like, we have to take what you're saying in Romans eight twenty eight in the context of what Paul was saying.

47:07Speaker 1:I said, I wonder if sometimes, if Paul, if he could possibly know, did you know that there's people that took one of your letters and took one line from it and just lived their life just from one line, which it's the word of God. So it's not a wrong thing to do. But I think Paul would be like, but that's my whole argument came before and after that, you know. So it's not a sin to take a verse and hang it in your kitchen. That's a great thing to do. But to build your entire theology over without the context of to be able to ask a question like the guy said, where's the good in this?

47:40Speaker 1:Paul explains this. You know, you can't just take Romans eight twenty eight and go this is such a mystery to me. No, it's in the letter that Paul wrote. That's a very long letter. You should read it. It's really good. The visual when he ask you ask a question like that is zooming in on a painting.

48:03Speaker 5:Is that we're using paintings and museums running on this podcast is zooming in so close to you just see pixels or you know, some brushstrokes and stuff.

48:12Speaker 1:You're like, what good is in this? Yeah? I don't know.

48:15Speaker 5:It just looks like a block doesn't matter, and you zoom out and it's the Mona Lisa. Yeah, you know, Well you got to look at the whole thing to understand the beauty of it all, not just the good, not just the zoomed in portion.

48:29Speaker 2:Of and then leaving room for the mystery and that you're not some things you're not going to know on this side of eternity, that we're finite beings trying to understand an infinite God. And it reminds me of Spurgeon who goes up to the orphanage and he and he goes up to the boy who's gonna die in a few weeks he has he's really sick, and Spurgeon's laying with him at his bedside. He says, nurse, HOWI is and he goes, not good.

48:50Speaker 1:He hasn't.

48:51Speaker 2:He tossed and turned and coughed all night, and he said and he said, he went up to the boy and he said, do you trust in Jesus? And the boy said, and he said, I know, it seems unfair that you're lying here in this bed and all the other boys are outside and they get to play, and you can hear him out the window. But soon you will see Jesus face to face and you will ask him why, and he will tell you, and you will be so glad. So there's this sense that, like, I know, it doesn't seem fair, But you'll see him soon and you'll ask him and he'll give you the answer and you'll be so glad.

49:26Speaker 1:Meditate on this for a second. Romans eight sixteen. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow ers with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. Which of us in this room would deserve such a thing? Yeah, Yeah, to be heirs of the king.

49:56Speaker 3:It's hard to read that and be like get excited. It's like, you know, not me, I don't deserve that.

50:04Speaker 1:Yeah. So for now we've grown in these in this the sin that we live in the word the fallen world. Are even our bodies that are every day aging and breaking or getting worse in the in the world we see and the wars and the the craziness we see, and even in our own government. Yeah, it's going to happen. Hold fast, this, this suffering has to happen. Each of us in this room. One day we're going to get a phone call. Somebody we dearly love is dead, or they have cancer, or they have heart disease. Everyone, everyone in this room. It's either that call is coming to us or it will be us. It's coming for us.

50:49Speaker 1:We must pass through this, this suffering, this cup. We must take the cup. Remember, remember the sons of Thunder. The mother says, I just wondering, you know, goes to Jesus, I'm wondering if my sons could sit next to you, you and your throne in heaven. And he says, are they ready to drink this cup? Are you guys ready to drink the cup? They're like, yeah, we think so, and he goes, because you will, all of us will drink this cup. And this is not to earn our co airship that's already ours in Christ, but provided we suffer with them in order that we may also be glorified with him. It's coming. It's coming for all of us.

51:34Speaker 1:Death is coming for all of us. It's chasing us down as we speak, all of us. And we can either be fearful of that and let the fear drive us, or we could say this is this is how I go home, and if we're still here, that means there's work to be done today. No wasted time, no wasted suffering, no wasted days, no anger with God. One day everything will be revealed to us, Like Parker sub that's the hope we have. What's my time hour, I've got more questions?

52:10Speaker 1:How about we do this another podcast, some more good questions, and you guys comment below if you think that this is If this is helpful because I have a list, a longer list, and we can get through more of these questions, that spurs different conversations with us. Awesome, See you guys next week.