Transcription

Connor:
You’re listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways.

Chris:
Good morning. Good morning. We talk the whole night through. Good morning. Good morning to you and you and you and you.

Jeff:
It takes almost no nudge.

Chris:
Yes, it does. Yeah. And by the way, last time I sang that, I couldn’t come up with the words. I went back and watched it. Nothing could be grander than being Louisiana. Nothing could be grander than being Louisiana.

Jeff:
That’s what they say. One of our listeners posted that on YouTube.

Chris:
Did they really? That’s great. Well, hey, if indeed you’re listening in the morning, we want to say good morning. If it’s at night, then well, good morning anyway.

Jeff:
Tomorrow’s going to be a good morning. That’s right. Well, today is Friday. Friday. And as is one of our customs, it’s not the only Friday custom, but one of our customs is it’s time for the best segment of the week. I don’t know about that. And that is what made Chris mad this week.

Chris:
Yes.

Jeff:
And I haven’t. Hey, you’ve had all these days to find something you’re mad about.

Chris:
Yes. Well, it happened yesterday. And, uh, yes, this morning. Yes. Uh, well, not this morning yet. It will happen today. Probably it will happen today. And the thing that, uh, I have decided, and by the way, I’m not even sure if anybody will even notice this, but I’ve decided that if an, uh, if an ad comes up in the middle of a video that I’m watching, I refuse to watch the end of the video, no matter how compelling it is.

Jeff:
Don’t tell people that cause I think ads pop up in the middle of our videos.

Chris:
Oh, well, there’s a big difference.

Jeff:
You should finish ours, but Chris isn’t gonna finish yours.

Chris:
Yeah, well Well, I think ours are usually at the beginning and the end. Think about this. So our YouTube ad, it’s a 25 minutes deal. And then our ads are what? 90 seconds at the most, right? Okay. So didn’t you say that you, you were watching a minute?

Jeff:
Yeah. So yesterday this happened yesterday. Um, I watched a one minute and six second video, 66 seconds, but I had a, uh, unskippable 90 second commercial at the beginning of it for Candy Crush. Right. Right. Mind numbingly.

Chris:
Right. Right. And so, and so, so here’s, so here’s my deal. Uh, my deal is, is I, uh, uh, I’m scrolling through, you know, I’m just like wasting time, you know, sort of those brain dead sort of like videos. So they’re pretty quick. Anyway, the videos are probably like a minute and a half on, you know, whatever it is like Facebook videos or Instagram reels or tech talk videos, whatever it is, it’s those kinds of things. Sure. And, and I’ll stop and I’ll see something that I’m like, Oh, this is great. You know, I’m like waiting for it. I’m waiting for it. And it’s like building up to it. And then they purposefully, put the ad so that you’ll wait and see the conclusion of the video. And I’m telling you right now, it does not matter how compelling I want to know what happens in that video. You stand on principle. I will stand on principle and I will swipe. Swipe. I’m just like, I’m like, well, it looks like I’ll never know. That’s right. I just release it. I release it to the curiosity gods. Small g. Just leave it. Right. Yes. Because I’m just like, I’m like, I’m done. I’m like, I’m not, I refuse to do it.

Jeff:
So Zarba is a man of principle. Yes. On this one instance right here.

Chris:
As opposed to morality of life.

Jeff:
Very open to a lot of things, but he’s going to draw the line. Well, you know what I’m thinking?

Chris:
I’m thinking to myself, I’m just like, this is outrageous, right? Outrageous. Outrageous. And it made me mad because I’m thinking to myself, like, we shouldn’t have to, uh, you know, like there are certain things, like I get it. Like you either pay for Amazon prime and you pay the monthly fee and then there’s no commercials. Or if you want the free version, then you’re gonna get commercials. It’s like, I get that part of it, right? But then there’s this, there’s the other side of things where it’s like, now even the weather channel. Did you know this? The weather channel. I click on it. I look at the weather. Oh, that’s great. And then I click on the radar and before the radar, if you want to see the radar, you got to see the commercial. That’s right.

Jeff:
And it’s like, and it’s like, you don’t, you just click off then you’re not going to see how close is the tornado because you’re not going to watch that video. I am not watching that. I’m going to put my family at risk.

Chris:
I’m not going to watch that video. No, but it did make me mad. And I thought to myself, unskippable ads are out of control, people. So whoever’s in charge of unskippable ads, I’m mad. And I think the nation is too. Nay, the world.

Jeff:
Nay, the world. That’s right. So I believe ours. So, you know, we’re not in charge of whether or not YouTube puts ads on stuff. If you get clicks. You’re talking about the Bible Guys. On Bible Guys, yeah. But I think ours right now are relegated at the beginning and the end. We’ve, we’ve asked them not to do in the middle. You can kind of click on that thing. And, uh, but we, we don’t have a lot of control over those. So if a video pops up, a commercial pops up in the middle of ours, you wouldn’t be mad about a video in the middle of one of our videos.

Chris:
Well, maybe, maybe.

Jeff:
You’d watch the whole thing and you’d keep going.

Chris:
Well, only because the juice has to be worth the squeeze. Right? So you got to just be like, well, I’m going to endure it because I want to watch the Bible guys. And by the way, there are things like that where I’m on my Apple TV or whatever, I search for a movie and it says, yeah, you can watch it on this network. And it’s one of these weird networks like Tubi or Tuvo, whatever that’s called, whatever that is. And it’s like, okay, you’re going to watch, you’re going to see six ads throughout the movie. It’s a very, very rare thing that I say yes to that. Really? But if it’s something that we just specifically say as a family, we want to watch this movie, you pay $9 for it. No, no, no, no, no, no, but we will endure them, but it’s just painful. It’s just painful.

Jeff:
Right? Remember when you were a kid, do you remember being the remote control for your family? Yes. Right. So commercials come on and my dad would be like, Hey, flip the channel real quick. See what’s on channel seven. And then we’d have to change the antenna. Move on the roof.

Chris:
Wow. Those were the days.

Jeff:
So we were stuck with commercials back then. Yes. But I think there’s more commercials now than there used to be. I do agree. So this is the thing you’re mad about. Yes. You’re mad for all of humanity.

Chris:
For the world, Jeff. For the world.

Jeff:
Yes. Over unnecessary video commercials in the middle of short videos.

Chris:
It’s like bank fees and credit card interest rates and home interest rates. You can’t do anything about it. But if the world gets mad, Jeff, we can maybe do something together.

Jeff:
We can do something. So of all the things we need to change in the world, let’s start on this one.

Chris:
Let’s put it on the list. Let’s ban videos. I didn’t say start with it, but it needs to be on the list. Well, good.

Jeff:
All right. Thank you. Thank you for being irate on behalf of the rest of us. You’re welcome. I’m not sure that I had thought about being mad about it. I’ve been frustrated a few times, but I think you’re elevating my frustration to anger.

Chris:
Well, I think you’re agreeing with me. I’m going to start protesting. I’m tapping into something that needs to be there. Okay. Right. Okay. The whole world needs to rise up. Rise up. Against unskippable ads.

Jeff:
I wonder if we could start like a political party against ads.

Chris:
If that is worth your time, if that is worth your life, you want to give your life to that, that’s great.

Jeff:
So, hey, we’re getting into one of my favorite parts, and I’ve already referenced this a couple times I think this week in Deuteronomy, as we get to the end of the book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter 28. This is kind of the last big hurrah for Moses. And this happens where he kind of hits this blessing-curse thing a couple of times. This one is really amazing, because what he has There’s two hills with a valley in between, and half, you know, there’s 12 tribes of Israel. Half the tribes are on Mount Ebal, and half the tribes are on Mount Gerizim. And they’re chanting these things back and forth, the curses and the blessings, and the curses and the blessings. It’s kind of a big illustration, people calling these things out. So we’re only going to, because Chris doesn’t believe in the cursings, we’re just going to read the blessings here in Deuteronomy chapter

Chris:
And by the way, side note, if you have a life application study Bible, there is a cool little photo of Mount Ebel and Mount Gerizim here that actually shows you where it was, which is extremely cool.

Jeff:
It’s one of my favorite things about the Bible is it’s rooted in real history in real places, right? And so that’s really cool. Anyways, here you go. And Deuteronomy chapter 28 says, if you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all his commandments that I’m giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world. You will experience all these blessings if you obey the Lord your God. Your towns and your fields will be blessed. Your children and your crops will be blessed. The offspring of your herds and flocks will be blessed. Your fruit baskets and bread boards will be blessed. Wherever you go, whatever you do, you’ll be blessed. The Lord will conquer your enemies when they attack you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will scatter from you in seven. The Lord will guarantee a blessing on everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain. The Lord your God will bless you in the land He is giving you. If you obey the commands of the Lord your God and walk in His ways, the Lord will establish you as His holy people as He swore He would do. Then all the nations of the world will see that you are a people claimed by the Lord and they will stand in awe of you. The Lord will give you prosperity in the land He swore to your ancestors to give you, blessing you with many children, numerous livestock, and abundance crops. The Lord will send rain at the proper time for His rich treasury in the heavens and will bless all the work you do. You will lend to many nations, but you will never need to borrow from them. If you listen to these commands of the Lord your God that I’m giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you’ll always be on top and never at the bottom. You must not turn away from any of the commands I’ve given you today, nor follow after other gods and worship them.

Chris:
There you go. There you go. Hey, you got one in. Good job, Chris. Yeah, it was a there you go comment. That’s right.

Jeff:
That’s what we’re talking about. I’m influencing you.

Chris:
Yes. And so, I’ve always had a phrase, and I actually thought about writing books. And one of the titles of the books, you know, or at least a chapter title, I think that I’ve always coined throughout my life is that God’s commands are for, first and foremost, it’s for His glory, but always for our benefit.

Jeff:
Oh, there you go. That’s good. So I like that. You should write that book. You should write it and just put it on our website, the Bible Guys website.

Chris:
Oh, there you go. I really should. I should write a mini book or an e-book, right? Yeah. But the idea that like… I’d read some of it. I love it. I love it. See, I’m able to take it, Jeff. Just a minute ago, you go, because Chris doesn’t believe in the cursings, and you just move on, right? But if I were to say to you, I actually thought in my mind, when you were reading that, I thought to myself, I’m going to say, well, because Jeff doesn’t believe in the grace of God and move on, but you couldn’t take it. You’d say, well, wait a minute. No, no, I couldn’t let it go. Let’s roll up the sleeves. Let’s roll up the sleeves. You’re right. I’m fighting words. So, but I could take it, Jeff.

Jeff:
That’s the difference between the oldest brother and the youngest brother.

Chris:
Right, right.

Jeff:
That might be it, because you’re the youngest brother of five, right? I am, yeah. And I’m the oldest brother of four.

Chris:
Or maybe it’s just because I— I beat down my brothers.

Jeff:
You took the beat down from yours.

Chris:
Or maybe it’s because I don’t view debate as a sport as much as you do. Oh, I love debate. Although I do view debate as a sport, just not as much as perhaps you do. So I’m able to take it. And I like humor a lot.

Jeff:
I derailed you. That was funny.

Chris:
Yes, it was funny. So what the whole point is, is that early on, when I was like 18, I think I wrote a message or a sermon or whatever, and I talked about, for His glory, for our benefit. And I thought to myself, that is really key for people who view God’s commandments as punishment or restrictive, right? You know, in the 70s, they would have said cosmic killjoy, right? Like, he’s the cosmic killjoy. He’s the God, he’s the one who gives you all the rules so that you won’t have any fun. And that’s the idea. But, you know, we’ve been talking about this, especially in the book of Deuteronomy, how, you know, God gives us commandments. And even though we don’t necessarily understand it, it’s actually for our benefit. And the thing that I think I’ve mentioned here before, so I won’t expand on it, but it’s like the rules of football, right? So can you imagine if somebody said, man, what do you love about football? Oh, I just love the 15 yard penalty of, you know, personal foul. I just love it. Right. It’s just like, Man, I just, I live for that. It’s my favorite thing. It’s my favorite thing. And it’s like, no, no, no, no. It’s like you avoid all those things so that you can enjoy the brilliance of football. Of the game. Right? Of the game. That’s right. And so then when everybody does the rules, nobody goes out of bounds and everybody is able to not to, you know, hit each other in the face, mask and all this kind of stuff. Magic happens on the field. Magic happens. And then, and all of a sudden, football becomes football. And, you know, and it’s like, you know, it’s, it’s that phrase they say… Or like when LeBron James takes nine steps to the basket without getting caught on… Oh my goodness, Trey, if Trey’s listening, he’s going to write in, well, Michael Jordan, I remember one time… Michael Jordan leapt from the free throw line. That’s right.

Jeff:
He didn’t have to take nine steps to the basket.

Chris:
That’s correct. That’s correct. That is exactly correct.

Jeff:
But when you obey the rules, when you follow the rules, the game is not the rules. The rules are so the game can be played well.

Chris:
Right. That’s right. That is right. That’s right. But the whole point is, is that if you want to watch football, it’s, remember the Titans, what did he say? Let the boys play, ref! Let them play!” Right? And it’s like, that’s what you got to do. You got to like, Hey, let them play. But then the ref’s like, Hey, as long as they obey the rules, they can play. Right? Right. But, but, but, you know, but then then that illustration can carry further on, on, on the pharaocytical rules. Right? But the point is, is that that’s really what this chapter reminds me of, right? Because it’s saying like, hey, here are the rules that God is going to lay out. And if you will experience verse number two, you’ll experience all the blessings if you obey the Lord, your God. And the key of that isn’t obey. The key is you’ll experience the blessings. So every time that God gives us a rule in our lives, or you feel like the key to the blessings is the if,

Jeff:
You unlock the blessings with the if.

Chris:
Oh yeah, there’s no doubt. Yeah, because we talked about that before.

Jeff:
But the point, the point isn’t the obey, the point is the blessings God’s offering.

Chris:
Well, I think the point is the relationship with your Heavenly Father. Yes. I think the point is that to know God, right? To know God, to love God, to depend on God, because God’s ultimate endgame— I want to bless you.

Jeff:
Here’s how you get them.

Chris:
Yeah, God’s ultimate end game, even today, the application from Deuteronomy to today is that, you know, God’s end game is our relationship with him. So, God calls us, gives us commandments, he invites us or he commands us. Both invitations and commandments are given ultimately for his glory, for the furthering of his kingdom, so that God may get the glory in all things. And I think primarily that chief among those in our lives is that we might experience God in a way that we would not if we weren’t so close to Him, obeying Him, experiencing Him, getting to know Him. So ultimately, our relationship with Him. And then from that, the overflow of that is also you know, our benefit. We’re going to experience the blessings from that. We’re going to experience good things. We’re going to experience God’s favor. We’re going to have the stories. We’re going to be a part of God’s story. We’re going to be able to say, man, I was a part of that. God used me. I get to see miracles. And I think that, so anyway, all that to say it’s for His glory first, but always for our benefit. Always. The word is always. It’s not most of the time, it’s always.

Jeff:
When I read these passages, because what we didn’t read, I mentioned, you know, you had Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, and they’re calling, it’s a call and response kind of a thing that’s happening here. So, what we didn’t read was the curses side, which by the way, the curses are exactly the opposite. where he says your towns and fields will be blessed, he said your towns and fields are going to be cursed. Your children and your crops will be blessed, your children and your crops will be cursed. He unloads it that way, it’s exactly the opposite. That’s what he’s calling out to them back and forth. When you get down to verse, literally verse 16, your towns and your fields will be cursed, your fruit baskets and bread boards will be cursed, your children and your crops will be cursed, your offspring and your herds and flocks will be cursed. What he’s doing is he’s going, hey, there’s a choice here. When I read these curses or when I read… I don’t see negative. I only see positive. I see a God who wants, a good God, who wants to bless his people. And I see a God that is just, who reluctantly says there are consequences if you don’t. I don’t see like an eager God for justice and for a God that’s eager for wrath. I see a God who desires, and proof of that is in the last chapter, verse 30. Is that the last chapter? It’s one of the last chapters. Yeah, because Moses dies in like 32 or something. In chapter 30, he literally says, I’m giving you the choice between life and death. This is all still the same. Remember, it’s all one big event that’s happening. We tend to read chapters like they’re different events, but this is all one really long event. We’re just not getting to the end of it, right? We’re kind of taking a piece in the middle. But he literally says, I’m giving you the choice between life and death. Oh, that you would choose life. He’s saying, I’m begging you to choose the right way. I’m begging you to choose life. And so when I read these and I see, here’s what God wants to do. God wants us to experience all of his blessings. He wants to set us high above the rest of the world. He wants our towns and our fields to be blessed. Literally, he’s saying your communities. That’s what he’s saying. I want your whole community to be blessed. I want your children to be blessed. I want your crops to be blessed. I want your herds and your flocks. These are your investments, your herds and your flocks, right? Do you remember Pastor Job in Kenya among the Pokots?

Chris:
I don’t think so.

Jeff:
He was a big leader, like a big L leader, influenced so many people. He passed away? Yeah, he had a stroke and died, but I loved him. Way out in the bush, just in almost incomprehensible living conditions, in one of the poorest places I’ve ever been in my life. Chepturu was where he was based, but he had influence over thousands all around that area, and he chose to continue to live there. Um, we went to visit his home and, uh, he’s good friends with Jay Luccarelli, who’s a mutual friend of ours. And, um, so we were pulling in and we were driving through the bush. We’d been driving for an hour and a half, hadn’t seen another human. And then he just steps out of the bush. Like somehow he knew we were there. He steps out, he gets in the truck. And so Jay was asking him, how are you doing? How are you doing? Uh, uh, Job, and he goes, Oh, God is blessing me. He said, I’m telling you on every level. He starts telling us about how God’s been blessing the churches, how God’s been bringing some freedom to the people in his churches. And so Jay shifts and he goes, How are you doing personally? Because he’d had some health issues and he’d been single for a long time, been praying for a wife. And he said, Oh, Jay, let me tell you. And he’s just celebrating as we’re pulling onto his property. He goes, I started off with four goats. He said, I have a hundred goats. God has given me a hundred goats. And for him, that makes him a rich man. He said, I started off with four cows. He said, I have a hundred cows. One cow was worth five goats, right? I have a hundred cows. He said, God has blessed me. Jay, God has blessed me beyond comprehension. And he said, I just serve the Lord and my cattle and my sheep and my goats keep producing. It’s amazing. He said, then God gave me a good wife. He said, Oh, Jay, her name’s Miriam. He said, God has given me… She’s so fat.

Chris:
Yeah. She’s so fat. I read this part of the story.

Jeff:
He’s talking about how God’s blessed him. So for a rich man, the only reason why a woman out in the bush would be fat is because she’s married to a rich man.

Chris:
Because the women do so much work.

Jeff:
They work so hard, and they barely eat. They eat once every three days. Right. And so he wanted her to come out and just kind of spin and twirl for us to show us how fat she was, because God’s blessed him. He’s got a hundred cows, a hundred goats, a hundred sheep, and a fat wife. God’s blessed him. And then he wanted to show us how his house had two rooms. So, he had a sitting and sleeping room, and he had a kitchen, and they were attached. He has two rooms in his house. He said, God has blessed me so much. And that’s what I read when I see this. So, his investments, his bank account is his sheep and his cows, right? They live today, the Polka people live today like the people who are living in the Bible, right? And so, this is what he’s saying is, we have plenty of food. He literally brought out a breadboard, had snacks for us. He poured us some tea, right? And this is what God’s saying, man, everything, in every area of your life, you should be able to celebrate. If you obey my commands, in every area of your life, you should be able to celebrate how good God is to you. You are blessed.

Chris:
Try, try that when the next time somebody comes over and says, Hey Jeff, how are you and Bonnie doing? No, no, don’t even say those words. Hey Chris, Chris, how are you guys doing? Oh, let me tell you, man. Let me tell you, I, I, uh, my bank account is stable and my wife is so fat.

Jeff:
Can you even imagine a human being? And then your life would be over.

Chris:
Your life would be over. Hey, and then say, honey.

Jeff:
Yeah, he brought her out. She was fixing the snacks for us in the other room. And he brought her out and had her twirl for us.

Chris:
I can’t even imagine.

Jeff:
And she was proud, right? She’s proud.

Chris:
Yeah. I can’t even imagine bringing Liz out and saying twirl, honey.

Jeff:
But this is the thing, right? By the way, my wife would go, oh, yeah?

Chris:
Well, you stand up, Chris. You twirl.

Jeff:
That’s exactly right. But this is what he’s saying. So he commented on the fact that God was doing good work in his villages. Lives are being changed. Everybody’s prospering. Right? Because God’s people are here and people are beginning to follow God’s ways. And the whole village, you know, your towns and your fields are being blessed. Your children, he had a son, his name was Hedsman, which is funny. And your crops will be blessed. The offspring of your herds and flocks, that’s the interest on your investment. Wherever you go, whatever you do, you’ll be blessed. The baskets, the fruit baskets and the breadboards will be blessed. And then God says, I’ll go out and conquer your enemies when they attack you. They’re going to attack from one direction and run seven directions. He says, I’m going to guarantee a blessing on everything you do. Dude, I cannot imagine hearing these words or reading these words and thinking we have a mean God. I can only hear these things going, that’s what I want. I want everything. I want the guaranteed blessing that God says if I just choose to obey him. Now, I can’t obey him perfectly, but I can tell you this, I can work harder today to obey him better than I did yesterday. And I can show him the trajectory, because God doesn’t consult your past to determine your future, but I can show him the trajectory of my life is running to him in his ways. And I want to be holier tomorrow than I was yesterday. I want to be leaning in, discovering how to better honor him and obey him today than I was six months ago or a year ago. I want the trajectory of my life to be holier because I want that promise. The Lord will guarantee a blessing on everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain, the Lord your God will bless you.” And then you read the others and he goes, but if you choose to do your own thing, if you refuse, he literally says it in the next verse that we didn’t read, if you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and do not obey all the commandments and decrees, all these other curses will come on you. And it’s the flip side of these promises that he gave, right?

Chris:
Yeah. So hey, I want that. right well that that is a good place to end i think that the uh i think that the The final word, maybe the takeaway, is to see God’s justice and to see His character and His nature and God’s intention for you is a good life, a blessed life, a life of favor, how God wants us to be in communion with Him, to have a relationship with Him, and then to live a life of blessing, fulfillment, purpose, love.

Jeff:
And He doesn’t leave it a mystery. He tells us how. He tells us how to qualify for these blessings.

Chris:
So they’re for His glory and for our benefit.

Jeff:
There it is. That’s correct.

Chris:
So, hey, thanks for tuning in, and we will see you on Monday, hopefully, on The Bible Guys.