Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston Proper, you are Live from the Path. And welcome to Live from the Path. Ah, disaster. That Bob Ross thing is on the thing and I don't know how to get rid of it. That's a real bummer. Where's our union man? I don't know. I don't know what I've done. You are listening to Live from the Path on livefromthepath.org. It is noticeable that Ben is not here. I'm expecting disaster but hoping for better. That's a good attitude to have. That's about where I'm at. You're not disappointed if it goes down the tank? Yeah, so things could go super. Man, that Bob Ross thing, I don't know what to do about it. Dan, say something. Is it on the other computer? No, no, no. Full shot. I don't know how to get rid of that guy. He's everywhere. I don't know how to get rid of that guy. Can you just turn him all the way down on the mixer? No, no. There's a picture of Bob Ross behind. You can't see it. It's not up and running. Oh, it was the music thing. Yeah, yeah. I mean, the picture.

So, like I said, so anyway, you are listening to Live from the Path. We got some stuff. We got some stuff to talk about now. I'm going to attempt to shovel the conversation off slightly to get rid of Bob Ross if I can. But big things coming up. In studio, we got Pants Talkbox Woodstone. He's going to cover the dear life from the past for us tonight. I can't wait. It's going to be fairly solid. We have – there's some good – ooh, I tell you. Man, that Bob Ross thingies. I'm telling you, I can't get rid of him. We have a couple heavy things that I want to talk about. Now, we're going to talk about biblical repentance, whiz bang. I think that's a big one. It may not take very long. Like, there's some biblical references, which Dan is without his Bible software. I'm naked. So, we might have a rough time with it. But, you know, I think there's a lot of things that people give up on when it comes to repentance. They're like, well, I talked about Jesus. I feel better about it now. And then it's over and done. So, and I don't think that's it. And I don't think that's the full scope.

So, we're going to talk about that. Pants has got some deer life from the path rigged up for us. So, people are going to get some advice from us whether they want to or not. Whether it's good or not. Whether it's good or not. Pants is – he's brought it straight from the horse's mouth. It is always good. Yeah, it's going to be pretty solid. There's some musical acts. Got some concerts coming up here locally that we're going to talk about. So, that's going to be fairly solid. Ben, just so you know, every time that you do that, it whiz-bangs the computer in an odd fashion. Just so you know. Ben is in – he's out of town this week. And he is in Colorado, I believe, is where he's tooting about. And due to my lack of technical knowledge, he – hey, you got rid of the Bob Ross thing. Did he do that on remote? He remotes in from wherever he's at and fixes things. From a mountaintop. He does. He's a man of dedication. In fact, I'm pretty sure he's hiding behind a gas station, you know, typing Wi-Fi off the local library.

That is awesome. And getting in and fixing things. So, that's pretty sweet. So, thanks. Ben will be sorely – after you watch the show, Ben will be sorely missed and you realize why he usually captains this boat. So, also tonight, I believe Troy Spankenhauser is supposed to be in here. So, we'll see if he makes it. I'm pretty solid that he's going to make here. He's going to come in after work and we'll try to maybe store up the dear life in the past for Troy. So, I think that's going to be pretty sweet. Pants, you got anything going on this week? Anything happen? Nothing too exciting for me. Yeah, sweet, Pants. Dan? I have a Bible now. I just downloaded it. Okay. I love modern technology. I have no idea how to use this app yet, but I do have a Bible. You know – The minister has a Bible. All right.

Yes. That's the way to start it off. I'm so used to digital now. You know, I don't know where I can find my actual paper Bible. What? Oh, Dan. There's something Old Testament about flipping through the pages. There's more stones, I think. I don't know. Stone tablets. I really like – I like flipping the – okay. So, I'm going to tell you what. So, I was in the Old Testament this week, and I read – I was out of town Monday – last Monday I was out of town, so I missed the show last Monday. But I was out of town Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. And so, I read the book of Job. And what I decided I was going to do is I was going to read – I was going to read a good amount of it, and then I was going to stop when God's response showed up and then read that separately. And it didn't come to mind that there's about 30 chapters in Job. The first 27 are Job and his three doofus friends. The last three, the part that I was looking for, is God's response, you know? So, I love those chapters, by the way. God's response is awesome. The three doofuses in Job, after a while, I'm like, come on, fellas.

Will you just shut up? I mean, every time they come back in – so, if you don't know the story of Job, basically it starts out that God's up in heaven doing his business, whatever, telling angels what to do. They're having a meeting. And here comes Satan, just kind of strolling in with his hands in his pockets, you know, hanging around. And God's like, you know, what are you doing here? And Satan says, I just came back from the earth from walking all over it, you know, kind of giving him the business. And God's like, well, you know why you're here? Why don't you look at this man, Job, that I have? What do you think of Job? He is blameless among all. He's fantastic. So, Satan starts twisting his beard, and he's like, you know what? He's only like that because you've blessed him, obviously, you know? I mean, who wouldn't be happy with the way that you've provided for him? So, God's like, what are you getting at? You know, what are you – are you trying to say something? What are you trying to say? Satan's like, well, let me have at him. Let me do some stuff. And God's like, all right, but don't kill him. You know, don't kill him.

And so, anyway, this goes through a couple rounds. You know, he kills his – Satan, you know, kills his family, takes his crops. I mean – Ten children. I mean – In one day. His whole family. And it's kind of funny. It plays out like an odd sitcom, like almost a funny sitcom without the death and destruction. So, you know, Job – you know, some guy comes hauling up to Job, and he's like, you know, I just came back, and I was supposed to be watching the oxen or whatever, and all the oxen died in some kind of freak lightning storm or something, you know? And Job's like, oh, man, all the animals? He's like, yeah. And then it's like two seconds later. Here come another dude come chucking up, and he goes, ah, you know, Job, I was just over there with your kids, and the house fell on them, and all your children are dead. And it goes – you know, Job's like, okay, all the animals are gone. You know – So this keeps playing out, right? So Job is still not sinning. He's still not sinning. After his livestock have all been killed, his children are done, his wife's kind of nagging at him, you know? And Job's like – she's like, Job, just go and kill yourself. You know, and bring this – get this a pox off of our houses, you know? And Job's like, the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. I'm still a servant, you know?

And you're still like, all right, Job. You know, he's a solid example, you know? You've got to look up to him. I mean – And so this goes on, right? And then all of a sudden Satan's like, well, you know, but I haven't attacked him personally, you know? And I haven't given him, you know? And God's like, ah, okay, you know, just don't kill the man, you know? So Satan gives him boils and sickness, and his skin is flaking off. And, I mean, just think of every level of nasty you've ever seen. And this is Job. You know, he's just – he's lying, writhing in pain. His ears falling off. I mean, oh, God, he's nasty. And Job's still – he's doing okay. He's not quite as – he still is not quite sinning like an outright rebellion against God, but he's more – he wants God to tell him why. Yeah. And it's – and the next 27 chapters is of Job saying how he's not really interested in living much longer. He wished he hadn't been born. He wished God would just tell him, tell him why he's doing this because he totally believes God is doing it. He doesn't know why God is doing it. And his three numb-necked buddies show up and start to give him a bunch of godly – parentheses, godly advice, you know? Yeah. You've done this because you're a sinner. You know, you've done some kind of secret.

You deserve this for some reason. Yeah, you've done something, you know? And Job's like, no, no, I haven't. And they're like, you arrogant jerk, Job. You've done something. Let it go, you know? So here's 27 chapters of this, and it's not as – it's not the abridged version like I've handed to you. It's long, lengthy speeches, you know? And you really get how they feel, you know? And I tell you what, the first 27 chapters of Job and his buddies, it's a good read. It's not a great read. It turns into a great read when God shows up. And God starts saying things like, oh, Mr. Human Man, you've been around so long. Can you tell me where I keep the snow? Can you tell me how long the deer goes into mating? Because I know these things. You obviously know these things. Mr. Human, I know everything, you know? And it's like – and it's funny because I came back from being out of town. I told my wife, you know, I said, I read the book of Job, and boy, the last three chapters where God really has Adam, that's my favorite. She goes, I'm just – I'm taking it back on how much that God speaks to you. Like there's portions of God that really stayed out to me, and it's the God that's like, oh, Mr. Prideful Human Man. You know, when God takes on a sarcastic tone, I'm like, yes, because there's a lot of people that use sarcasm and use it poorly that are not good at it. God is great at it. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Yeah. Who told the waters where to stop? And I'm like, I never even thought about that. I just thought that the land took care of it. And I suppose God would have to say, okay, that's all the farther you're going to go, you know? And so I don't know. If you haven't read the book of Job in a while, it's solid. I've downplayed the first 27 chapters, but you almost need them to get to – To fully appreciate. Yeah, to fully appreciate when God shows up and says, all right, you smarty pants. First of all, Job. You know, and I was still on Job's side most of the time. I'm like, he's doing pretty good. He's doing all right. And God's like, look, you don't question me. How could you put all your faith in me to do all these things? You sacrifice to me. You praise my name. We talk every day. And then you start questioning me like I've done something wrong. I have perfect justice. I have perfect timing. I am who I am. And, you know, that is so important to know, to get that, to get that concept down. Because I can't think of anything in our lives, in my life, in a way.

I can't speak for everyone else. That even compares to what Job went through. I mean, and nothing compares to it. You know, I can't imagine – I don't even – I've never even had ten children, let alone had them all die in one day. I've never had – I've never been the most successful businessman in the region, at least, world probably, and have it all be gone in one day. You know, I lost my paper out when I got sick and tired and finally, you know, stopped it. And that was like spending change. And I remember, you know, we lost a couple babies along the way, miscarriages. And even if that is, as hurtful as that was, I sat there and Job went through my mind. I'm like, I can't even question God. I grieved. I'm like, God, man, I really don't like this. You know, but it was like – all I could hear was those last three chapters, chapters of Job going through my mind. Well, who are you? You know, who are you to say, what do I mean? You know, so I just sat there and said, you're God. No, I'm not. And I'm just going to take it. And I don't like it. And I think it's a very healthy attitude to get that down. You know, and the chat makes a solid question, right? It said, wasn't Satan right then? Didn't Job start to demand justification from God when Satan was permitted to take his blessings? Well, he did and he didn't, right? Like, I think – well, here's the thing.

I think Job fell short in his totality, but I don't think he – I don't know. I got the impression that he didn't fall short like Satan expected him to. I think he got a little whiny. Yeah, he didn't get outright rebellious. Yeah. And he didn't say, screw you, God. You know, how dare you? He basically said that, you know, God, you're king and you're perfect and everything. What have I done to deserve this? He was more – I don't even want to classify it as sin or not, but he was – I mean, he was more – he was in the wrong because he was asking questions of God, which the second question would have to be, that doesn't seem right to me. Like, the response would have to be, when you ask a question like, why would you do that? No matter what God says, you know – and actually, there's a – I think it's in chapter 28 or 29 that – my favorite part is when God talks to Job, he goes, stand up and take this like a man. I will speak and you will respond. Exactly. You know, and then God – and God goes through his first speech and he goes, okay, go ahead. And Job was speechless. He did everything to say because God Almighty showed up and told him what was going to happen. Now, keep this in the context. You've got a man who's lost his family. His children have died. His wife told him, let's just go ahead and curse God and die. You know, you die too. That would be great. That would make me happy. He's lost his business.

His health has failed to the point he's laying in a dung heap, scraping boils, seepage with a broken piece of pottery. He's at the bottom of the pit. We don't know how long this is all lasting now because, you know, okay, guys are wimps. I mean, let's be honest. I can have a 24-hour flu in about hour three. I'm thinking, man, if I just died, that would be okay. I don't know if I want to make it through. Actually, that's the truth. You know, and I think he's gone through all that, and I don't know. I don't know if I would have held out as long as he did and just said, well, you know, the Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord, you know. I don't understand what you're saying. Dan's context is the very case that Satan made. What are you trying to say? Chat. Who are you? That's Ben. Yeah. No one writes that many sentences in the chat. The friends made the case that who can be declared right in front of God. Well, no, but I mean, no, that's not the case that the friends were making. The friends were saying that Job's destruction was caused because of a sin of his. That's the case the three of them were making, and they were just step by step more arrogant than the one before them when they were giving the piety speech. That's exactly how that happened. I mean, it's the truth.

They were – that's the thing. Those guys, when they were talking, they were 50-50, right? They were right when they said, who can be declared right in front of God? No one is perfect because they thought Job was sitting on a piety seat and saying, I've done nothing wrong here. I don't deserve this. And actually, that kind of foreshadows some New Testament stuff where it's like – where it completely turns around and says, you deserve whatever you get. Whatever you don't get is what God has saved you from. But I think that's – the case that the friends were making where they said, Job, you've done – sin equals God taking away blessings, and that has never been the case. Right. Now, I mean, sometimes at a macro scale, that's the case. Like when the entire nation of Israel would turn their back on God, God would say, okay, I'm out. If I'm not your God at all, then I'm sorry. You know, I need to teach you. I'm your father. I need to teach you. You can't just do this, you know. So, I mean, there are cases in the Bible where God will, you know, remove his blessings or remove his protection to teach you that you need him. You know, but like in the grand scheme of things, that's still – that's all good for you. You know what I'm saying? That's all for your benefit so you can be able to learn. That seems to be a common thought that people have too. Like Job's friends are like, well, obviously you sinned. God's mad at you. He's getting back at you. In the New Testament, you have the Pharisees saying to Jesus, hey, look at this guy.

He's blind. You know, what sin did he commit? You know, why is he – what did he do? Did he deserve this? You know. Right. I talk to people, you know, all the time who have some issue in their life, whatever, and they're like, well, God must be upsetting me. I wonder what I did, you know, because I got in a car wreck or, you know, something bad happened. And I'm like, it could be just you're living life and made a poor choice. Yeah. You know. Yeah. Sometimes that happens. Sometimes that happens. Or maybe you didn't make a poor choice. Sometimes things just happen. Well, and we had a – I mean, we had a show about this a long time ago about why do bad things happen to good people, you know. And I haven't seen the show in a while, but I think the crux of it was is that, first of all, there are no good people. And second of all, sometimes it's God's hand because it's a blessing for you later. And sometimes it's – we just live in a fallen world. Sin happens. You know, and the product of sin is a lot of stuff. And there's a reason – and I don't think we ever – and we'll get to this when we talk a little bit about biblical repentance. But I don't think we ever truly grasp how crappy sin is, like just how awful. There's a reason that an all-loving, all-knowing, perfect God hates it so much.

Like it's a justified hate, and we look at it like it's not a big deal, and then it could be – God's going to forgive it, which is great. His grace covers it, which is true. But it's a bad deal, and that's why God – he doesn't hate it just because he likes to set up rules and watch you fail at them. Right. He hates it because it's bad for you. It's a domino effect. It affects everybody. I mean, you might think, oh, nobody knows. Nobody knows. You know, this isn't affecting anybody but me. And it's like, no, it's affecting somebody, somewhere, somehow, you know. You know, I heard a sermon once, and I thought it was kind of cool. I get this illustration of everybody has their own sin, like this bucket of sin, and they dump it in the lake. And they're thinking, well, the rest of the lake is pretty good. I threw my bucket here. I'm going to stay away from this area because it's got a bunch of yuck in it, you know, and all the sin and mistakes I've made. So they go to a different part of the lake. Well, the whole community has been dumping their bucket in there, so you've got this whole cesspool of sin. And that's what we live in, you know. People making poor choices and rebellion against God, and that's all of us. We do it sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally, plus people who are thrilled to, you know, rebel against God. And it's all in the same cesspool that we're living in, and so it affects us. Yeah, I mean, it – I don't know. You know, that's kind of some of the things that I was thinking about with the biblical repentance thing. And maybe we'll just talk about it real quick.

And the reason I bring it up is because, you know, I've had some situations lately that I've not been directly involved in, but I've been a party to. And it's frustrating to see the way that even people that proclaim themselves to be Christians handle when they fail. You know, handle when they fail. You know, it's – I don't know. It's like – it's almost like they have a Jesus is my buddy mentality, and like they're conning God into forgiving them to clear their own conscience and then call it a day. You know, and to a certain point, you don't ever want to say that God's grace is not sufficient because biblically it always is. You know, Jesus died for all sin. What you're doing now, what you're going to do later, what you've done in the past, you know, it's done, really. In God's eyes, it's taken care of. But the thing is, like, it's only taken care of when you truly trust Jesus to run your life and you've handed it over to him. And when you hand it over to him, you know, there's an act of repentance because if you continue that same sin over and over again, that's what's called rebellion. And so, God forgive me, I'm going to do it again. God forgive me, I'm going to do it. There's a difference between struggling with the sin, like, I'm really, I'm having, humanly, I'm having a hard time, and I'm just not going to give it to you, Jesus. I'm going to handle this one. Now you're not in good terms anymore. You know, you can say the name Jesus all you want, but until you hand it over to him, you're not in a safe place. You know what I'm saying? And what I've seen lately is I've seen people create a problem through sin, and for some reason I think of it as like a garbage truck. And here comes the garbage truck with sin in it, and here's like the ten closest people to you. And you show up in the garbage truck and dump your sin, and then you're like, oh, crap, I've really done something wrong. Well, God's forgiven me. I'm going to go. So now the ten people that are closest to you are left with a huge pile of garbage, and you left with the garbage truck. You know what I'm saying?

Like you're the person that brought it, and it's a huge amount, and then you leave with the only capable means of getting it back out of there again. You know what I'm saying? And I thought about it in two realms, like the guy driving the garbage truck, and then the people that are sitting in the garbage. And I thought the big difference is that like I think the people that – you know, when you sin, you've not only sinned against God, but you've most likely affected somebody. You've affected somebody because of your sin. And the repentance part, the biblical repentance part is not only handing your sin over to Jesus and saying, look, you know what I did. I know what I did. I don't want to do this anymore. I want to be done with this thing, and I'm asking for your help. And when it comes up again, you know, help me to see that it's coming and help me to get rid of it. That's the Jesus part. That's the God I need help. I'm failing, and I don't want to. The repentance part is now I've got some people to talk to. I've got some people to say, hey, here's what I did. And even if they don't know it, you know what I'm saying, those are the hardest ones to repent from is to walk up to somebody that you've been hiding something or you've done something that you don't want them to know about because it's embarrassing or terrible or people are going to think worse of you or they're going to change your opinion of you or whatever. And you walk up to them and you say, here's what I did. I caused this problem. The Lord's working with me, and I'm working on it. But I need to tell you that I did it, and I need you to know that I'm doing my best to make sure this thing doesn't happen again, and I need you to pray for me. I see that as biblical repentance. I see that you've handed over to God. And doesn't it reference in Matthew maybe specifically about the repentance part? Well, Matthew, I want to say he's 22, talks about if someone's sinned against you, you go to that person. It's kind of a little flip side of it.

They haven't come to you yet, but you go to them and say, hey, we've got this issue. You know, you threw a rock in my window, and it's winter, and now it's really cold. You know, it's really kind of, that really bothered me, and you haven't done anything about it. And if the person's like, well, whatever, you know, they don't do anything, you go back, and you bring two witnesses with you, and you say, hey, you know, here's this situation. Here's this sin. Here's this issue we need to resolve, and are you ready to change? Are you ready to, you know, seek forgiveness, to repent? If they say yes, everybody celebrates. That's great. It's awesome, and it ends right there. If it doesn't, then you go, you know, to the elders, and you bring them in so you get leadership involved. And at some point, at some point, you just send them out, you know, because they're just obviously not following Christ in the first place. So why, you know, play the game? Yeah. So it is a way that you have, like, a third party trying to encourage you to repent. You've still got to make that choice. You've still got to be the one who repents. Yeah. Well, you know, I think a lot of where a lot of people fell short, and I've done this before, too, is when you take a serious look at your sin, like, you need to think about it. But outside of you and Jesus, you know what I'm saying? You and Jesus is the most important part. You putting your faith in Christ, not even battling the sin, because the sin, you're going to have it. Hopefully, it will decrease. You know, hopefully throughout your walk with Christ, as you mature, things are going to start to decrease. And so there's no point in gearing up and setting up for battle and be like, I'm going to battle this one sin of mine, and I'm having a hard time with it.

Instead, take all that energy that you were going to use to fight that sin and follow Jesus with it, because it will go away on its own. Jesus takes care of that kind of thing. And the more that you have your eyes on Jesus, the less you have your eyes on whatever sin was causing you the problem in the first place. So, and I think people get misguided in that fact. They think, you know, if I could just kick this one sin, I'd really been living for Jesus. You know, this is me. And skip it. Just go straight to Jesus. Just keep your eyes on Jesus. Figure it out. You know, get back into prayer. Get back into your Bible. And study even harder. I mean, just try. Don't try harder to get rid of your sin. Try harder to follow Christ, because it will shovel out on its own. But now the thing is, is that when you. That makes more sense. Well, yeah, right, because you're skipping the middle man, right? That's where Satan wants you, in the middle man. If you keep thinking, I'm going to get rid of this one sin, then the next morning, you wake up, and you're thinking about that sin. You don't think how you're getting rid of it. You don't think, you know what, Jesus will help me get rid of this. Let's see, Jesus. No, you're thinking the sin.

Yeah, it wasn't there. And that stays in your head. There was a verse that we had on church a couple weeks ago. It was about, I think it was in Philippians, and it had to do with, focus your mind on things that are right and noble and true. Right, yeah. You know what? That was a huge verse for me. I wrote it down. I thought, these are good ideas, right? Like, what am I wasting my time on? What am I wasting my time on? So instead of thinking, you know, man, I really shouldn't be throwing this rock through my neighbor's window today. And thinking about it all day long, you finally come home, you grab a rock and throw it. You're thinking about something else. Maybe I should mow my yard tonight. Maybe I should. That would be great. I don't know if the mower happens to hit a rock. You know, the thing I thought was, so it was a two-fold thing, right? Because I thought, okay, so here's some practical steps, right? Here's some practical steps. If you're doing the sinning or you've been sinning against, like, we'll do this from both ways and we'll see where we sit, right? Now, repentance, I'm going to add this in here. Go ahead. I mean, the act of repentance means to turn around.

Right. All right, so you're heading in a new direction. Right. It's not called the act of sorriness. Exactly. That's not what it's called. Godly sorrow leads to repentance, which leads to life. Worldly sorrow leads to, anyway, death. Death. Death. You know that one stuff. Let me look at it in my new Bible I just installed. It's got to be on here. Let's say you're the guy that's – you've done something. You've sinned and it's affected somebody. Let's say you're the rock-throwing guy. Okay. Right? So here's what I see, and you tell me where I'm biblically in error or consistent, okay? Here's what I see is, first of all, you need to take this to Jesus and find out why you're throwing rocks at people. I don't think you're following Jesus, right? Well, I mean you're going to fail at following Jesus, but you need to commit yourself a little bit more. If it's not something that Jesus exudes as a virtue, if it's not good and righteous and for the glory of God, you probably better shut that down. So you need to talk to God. You need to get right with Jesus about that.

After that, you need to go talk to the guy that you put the rock through his window, and then you need to buy him a new window. And you can either put it in yourself or pay somebody. I don't care. You've got some restitution going on. You need to fix what you did because the thing is like God's grace does not – it covers your sin. It does not abdicate you from your responsibilities, and it does not take the consequences away from what you did. There's people that are in prison that have changed their life over to Jesus. They're still in prison because they killed a guy. And they're on death row. And they could very well be put to death in that – you know what? But as much as I'm ecstatic that they know Jesus, but they should probably stay in that prison. I'm sorry. They knew the laws before they killed somebody. No one can claim, I had no idea that if I killed a guy and got caught, they would put me in jail. I mean, no one complete ignorance, right? You knew the law before. You rebelled against it. I'm sorry. I hope you serve your whole prison term. You broke the law. Eh, I'm glad you love Jesus. I really am, truly. Yeah, but you can reach people for Jesus while you're in there. Yeah, that's the place for you, man. I'm sorry.

You can't come out. I don't know how you stay in there. You know, but so you're the guy, you know, that has done this, has committed a sin against somebody. You need to fix that. Like, it's not good enough that you're like, oh, yeah, I'm just – I'm getting closer to Jesus and I'm really trying hard here. And that's good enough. Like, what it needs to be is I've sinned against you. What can I do to make this better? And if, you know, if the guy you've sinned against is some kind of stubborn jerk of a man and he don't want to hear it and he's not putting up with it, you did your best. Because you attempted to repent, turn around, and fix the situation that you caused. And that's the part that I don't ever see. Like, I rarely ever see someone, you know, commit a sin against another brother or someone who doesn't even know Jesus, you know, and then offer to fix it even. Like, the responsibility is the part that they shed. Like, well, God's got me. You know, you're nobody. You're nothing to worry about. You know, and God does not see his people like that. God sees the effects of sin just as much as you see the sin itself. And so it seems to me that I don't see any reason why, you know, when you've sinned against somebody that – you don't make that right. Like, there's Old Testament biblical restitution left or right. I can't think of a thing off the top of my head New Testament style. But I don't know. It seems to me fairly biblically consistent. When you're sinning against somebody, you have some things to fix. And you don't know whether you're doing it unless you sit down and think about it.

So before you go to bed at night and say, you know, God, here's the things that I've done, why don't you take a little bit of time to figure out who else that affected besides you? Like, you know, there's a lot more people than you think. You know, if your marriage is suffering because of a sin that you thought was small, you've got to tell your wife you did it. And you owe her an apology, and you need to make it right. You know what I'm saying? And people think they get away with that all the time. You know, well, I told the wife I'd be home at 7. Instead, I stopped off and had a couple drinks. Nothing wrong with drinking. Nothing wrong with having friends. I lied. She never knew about it. I got home. Whatever. You sinned. You caused a breach of trust in your marriage that even if your wife doesn't know about it, you did it. You owe her an apology. You're going to tell her that you did it, and you need to tell her you're going to make it right. And people never do that. Yeah, Scripture not only says to confess our sins to God, but it says very clearly to confess our sins to one another. And that's a perfect example, you know, especially who you sinned against. It's a pretty good person to talk to and say, hey. That's the toughest person to walk up to. But you know what? That's why it's tough, because you sinned against them.

What do you think? You were just going to get some kind of a la carte free brunch ride? You'd do whatever you want? It's ridiculous. Troy, how you doing, buddy? Good. Yourself? I'm glad you can make it. Yeah, absolutely. Sorry I'm a little bit late. I had to work until 10, but I told you I'd be here. Hey, Troy, I'm sorry. I want to confess to you that I threw a rock through your window. That was you? That's me. I knew it. Pardon me, I knew it. I knew it. It was my fault. I do it at least six or seven times, but then I keep doing it. It's getting really expensive. Sorry. Okay, so here's the flip side of it, right? What if your person is sinned against? Let's say they're not coming to, they're not showing up.

You know, you've been sinned against. They threw the rock. Here I am standing looking at the rock in my house. And I am mad. Someone threw a rock. There's a rock in my house. This should not be here. This should not be here. Now, here's what's my thought on this. If you go back to my garbage truck example, someone has sinned and dumped a bunch of garbage on your lap. You can either agree to live joyfully in the garbage around you, or you can get swallowed up in it. And I've seen this way more, too. I've seen people that I've known that profess to know Jesus. They're like, I live, I love, I'm everything for Christ. And they are the most depressing people I've ever met. And I just don't see the joy in Christ through their life. And so, now here's the question, right? Like, is that possible? Is it possible to live a depressed life if you know Jesus is your Savior? Now, there's a loaded question. Is it? Is it possible to live a depressed life? It is possible. I think it, I just, my mind is going through all these spiritual examples. Of people in the Bible who showed signs of depression.

Well, now, was it Jeremiah? Was he the weeping prophet? Yeah. Wasn't he made to, like, live crappily because God wanted to show an example? Often it was after great success. You know, Jonah, you know, the whole city repents. Everybody's great. He goes up on a mountain and starts whining. God, look at me. I just wish I would die. And I was like, really? You know, hundreds of thousands of people just came to know God. And you're like, oh. He don't like the Ninevites. God, just take me. He don't like them. I know. He didn't want to go. Who was it? Elijah or Elisha with the prophets of Baal. You know, when they had the whole water and the fire came down, that whole thing. It wasn't too long after that he did the same thing. He crawled up in a cave and he's like, oh, just take my life. You know, seriously, dude? I mean, so you see it over and over again.

He was a warmonger. Part of it. He was. He wanted trouble. He don't like the Ninevites at all. Part of it is, I think, the emotional response to seeing God do something big. And I don't know if we just, I don't know. I can't. I don't. There's smarter people than me to figure that out. But I've never figured it out. I've noticed that in my own life, when there's great success in something, often later that night, I'm just moping around like, man, the whole world is awful. I can't believe it. You know, I'm like, seriously? We've had like 25 baptisms this morning. And you're like, what is the deal? Why am I so upset? Why am I even here? So I don't know. That's not like an ongoing depression. I think because the healthy thing is God always shows up and fixes the things that he do. You know, wake up. Look around you.

You know, I'm here. Everything's good. Yeah. Well, the reason I asked the question, right, is because like, I wonder if people can't see the joy in Christ in you, is he there? Do you have him? You know what I'm saying? You also got to look at the, then what about diagnosed depression, which is different than like what we're talking about. Right. And I see that as an effects of a situation. I see that as an effects of a sinful world, right? Yeah. That's part of that cesspool, the garbage. Right. The sin, the garbage, the cesspool, the bucket, you know, whatever. Like, diagnosed mental disorders or chemical imbalances. Like, these are not things God set up. He knew that they were going to happen as a result of sin. You don't shout Jesus three times and clap and everything's better. Yeah. That's not, that's not the way it works. You know, but, but like, like people that, that, uh, like, man, they just have just a somber disposition. They're always seem to be upset.

The world's coming at them. I can't find my right place, but you know, I'm like, they need a slap. Holy cow. Seriously. You know, is that, you know, I mean, is that, uh, is that not Satan trying to get at us? I mean, could that, uh, yeah, I was going to say, I mean, why, why else would you see, uh, 25 baptisms in a morning or 150,000 people coming to Christ? And then all of a sudden you start thinking, oh man, but there's, there's so much that didn't happen. Right. Where was the 26th guy? Where's the 26th guy? Where's this guy? Yeah, that's, that's, I, I can't imagine it's anything besides Satan trying to just get us down. Like if we're going to feel that way after some huge happens, why would we even try to do the small stuff? Yeah, that's actually a good point from the chat. It says, Peter says that we should be, don't look at the chat. I will handle the chat, but it's so much fun. You should have brought your computer. You should have brought it. I don't have a screen. Deceiver. Peter says we should be able to articulate the reason for our hope.

How can we do that if we don't have any or don't act like we do? Right? Like, that's a tough question. I remember reading that and thinking, crap. Like I've apologetic stuff. I've been put in that situation before that says, you know, can you, can you explain the reason for your hope? And I'm like, I don't know. Like I have a relationship with Jesus. Just believe me. You know, it's great. I read a pamphlet. Can you, can you think of a time where someone says, so how did you, you know, like, why do you, why do you believe in God? I'm like, oh crap. I mean, like, here's the thing. You're trying to balance between whatever. Like you want to sell the guy because he's interested in Jesus. You're like, because he does great things. And he's a fantastic loving God. And he thinks you're awesome. I love his beard. But you want to tell the truth. Like, I don't have a whiz bang story. You know, like I wasn't living on the streets.

You know, I, I grew up in church. I, I, I got rid of God for about five, six years when I was, when I was a young man. And I consider it the worst five, six years of my life. And then he found me and brought me back in. And I, you know, that's it. That is all. That's definitely one of the things that, you know, recalling back to years ago when I was in a youth group, I didn't really have that big, you know, I was into drugs. I was in prison. I murdered some guy. I mean, I didn't have that big. You did all in a youth group? Huh? Oh, you did not have that. I just, I, I did not have that. What I'm saying is that topic came up when I was in youth group because I thought. They said, Troy, why don't you murder people? It'd be a great story. If you'll let me say it here, what had happened was they had, I was sharing my testimony and I thought my testimony was crap because I never came from, you know, this horrible upbringing. I never came from, I was in prison. I never came from, I was into drugs. I came from, well, when I was around 10, my dad started going to church and so did I. And I love Jesus and I love God and I accept God as my Lord and Savior. That was my testimony.

I didn't have, well, I was, I was into, to gang fights and I was doing heroin and all this different stuff. And then God saved me from the bottom. That made for really interesting gang fights. I didn't really know what was going on. I thought we were in a Pac-Man game. What are you guys doing? I didn't really know what's happening. But you know, in the same thing, I mean, is that not a testament as well? Now, is you living your life for Christ at all times, not ever having to go to rock bottom to love Christ? Is that not a testimony of itself too? Yeah, I think it is. You know what? God has saved me from a crappy marriage because I follow godly principles. I'm not perfect or anything, but I'm just saying that's a huge testimony. God has saved me from destroying my liver. Right. I may have destroyed it with, I don't know, Diet Coke and Doritos or something, but not with alcohol. You know, I've done funerals of people who died literally of alcoholism that they just, their whole body shut down, you know? Right. You know, God has saved me from a ton of stuff that I never, I don't, yeah, I don't have that story of why I did it.

I have the story I didn't, you know? Yeah, exactly. And that doesn't make me really cool. It just says, I just heard the news earlier. Well, yeah, I mean, that's a wow factor in and of itself. I mean, you don't have to have, I came from. This hole that I was in, the Lord lifted me out of it. I came from, you know, I was able to completely avert myself from that hole. I never went into it. You know, I was listening to a sermon today and it was talking about, how do you know that the Bible is true? Like, how do you know the Bible is from God and not from people? And the guy's main point was, he goes, because no one would write the Bible with the rules in it like they are. Because, yeah. Because there's, because there's, there's, there's, you can read through the whole Bible and there's probably five points in the whole Bible that I don't like. I just don't like it. I don't want to be holding those kind of, you know what I'm saying? And I love Jesus, but whatever. I don't want to act like that. That seems like it. Can we just skip that one? That seems like it really sucks. You know that fun stuff?

Don't do that. Right. And so, here's the thing. It's like, and it made perfect sense to me because I thought, you know, people always ask me why. I had a conversation with a cat here last week. They asked me why, why, why I choose to follow God anyway. I'm like, I think you're asking me because you think it sounds like restrictive. You know, it sounds like all your freedom's being taken away. You don't get to do what you want. You're not in charge of anything. You got to, you know, bow to the will of some crazy God. And, and I said, it's because you're looking at God, you're looking at God just a hair differently than you need to. You're looking at him more like a boss than you are your dad. man, because both give you orders, but for two different reasons. Like your boss tells you to do something because he wants something from you. He wants you to do something so it produces for, for this or, you know, to make him money to, or whatever. You know, there's a million reasons why your boss says you do something. If you have a, a loving father, a loving father asks you to do things for your own protection, you know what I'm saying? So things will work out for you. And people, people kick and fight and rebel and they pick parts of the Bible they hate and they say like, that sounds terrible.

I hate it. But like, it seems like it should be a simple black and white ladder diagram, right? Like if you believe in God at all, if you believe that there's a God out there that created the world, you have to believe that he knows a better way to live than you. And so it seems to me that you should go, I believe in God. God's obviously smarter than me. What should I do, God? Tell me how to live because I'm an idiot. I didn't, I, you want to see the earth I created? I don't have one. You know what I'm saying? You want to see the animals I made up or, or where I decided to stop the seas or where I store the snow when it's not snowing? I don't have any of these things. God. So why don't you just tell me how to be? And I'll say, sounds good, dad. Thank you. I need, I need assistance. You know what I'm saying? So stop, stop rebelling against God and just do what he says. He's doing it for your own good. You know, people look at it and they're like, oh, but I really just want to be able to do these heroin gang fights and not just heroin gang fights. No one lets me do these things anymore.

Why God? Why have you restricted me such a dull life of joy? Did I ever say gang fights on heroin? I don't think I ever said it. Well, you don't want to do a gang fight sober. They're pretty brutal. I would go, I would go, I'd do the heroin. You want to forget about it. I mean, as long as you're gang fighting, you just as well do the drugs. Seriously. You have been listening to Live from the Path on livefromthepath.org. Ah, we're missing Ben. Hi, Ben. This actually would be a perfect discussion for Ben to be here. It's fairly theological and heavy in nature, and Ben tends to bring home a solid point here on occasion. Ben gets into gang fights? No, not very often. He has wicked genes. That was creepy. Way creepy. Thanks, Pants. I was just wondering. So anyway, thanks for listening tonight. I don't know.

I don't even know where we're at. Hey, we're doing all right. We've got plenty of stuff to go still. We've still got some Dear Live from the Path that we're going to hit here in just a minute. We also have some – there's a show coming up. Man, I wish I would have looked up the details. But I know Piercing the Darkness and Double J are both playing this Friday, and I believe it's Glad Tidings Church. Does that ring a bell? Glad Tidings Assembly of God? Maybe. Maybe. It's coming up. One on Fort Des Moines, right across from Damascus. Damascus. So it's coming up on Friday. So check that business out. It should be a great show. I'm pretty sure Double J is coming in. He's got on the throter, isn't he? I'm pretty sure Double J is coming in on Friday. Maybe not on Netflix Monday, Monday after. He's going to be here in December. So Double J is going to come in. We'll talk to him about it.

Does he rap Christmas songs? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know about that. I think we should make him rap a Christmas song. It's on Army Post and Southeast 5th. I'd say 4th or 5th. Thanks, Beaker Street. Solid. Man, we got some solid backup on the chat. Try feeling for Ben tonight. Thank you, chat. We love you, chat. So that's looking pretty good. Anyway, if you get a chance, go out and check out that show. It should be a pretty solid show. Pearson in the Darkness was at the Spirit Midwest Music Festival. And they did a fantastic job. Double J has been on the program before. I'd like to say a perennial favorite, but he has yet to return. So we'll just say a one-time favorite. And maybe when he comes back, we'll reshake his hand and elevate. When did you say it is? Friday? It's this Friday. This Friday?

Yeah, this Friday. Dan might go. That's going to be kind of fun. He might go. Dan might go. Something to think about. Do they let old people in? Oh, yeah, definitely. I'm in a new class now of just old people. Not only do I look old, I'm starting to walk like a crickety old man. Kind of bent over a little bit. Like a back hunch? You got a back, yeah. Quasimodo. What's going on? Everything hurts. You've been listening to life in the past. I'm really depressed. Could you help me? You need Jesus. I'm pretty sure you don't know Jesus. Why are you so upset? You're so mad. You should be happy. For heaven's sakes, it shouldn't be this hard.

Which, by the way, back at that, a fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life, of God in your life, is joy. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. So, no, to answer your question, you can't be prolonged, depressed, and be a Christ follower unless it's truly a mental disease. Like it's a chemical imbalance. Yes, not a state of being, you would, because the Holy Spirit is stronger and it lives through you, and the more you let go and let him in, you can't walk around being a little crabby pants all the time because it just doesn't work. Yeah, I see. That was kind of my main point. I never got there for you. Sorry. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks for that softball. I was going to bring it home for you, and I just thought I'd walk. Thanks Pastor Dan for stepping in. The one other thing that I want to mention, just before we get off that repentance topic, and then we're going to do some Dear Life in the Path pants, is the main point to remember is that if they know Jesus, you should not feel bad about calling them to repentance. If they know Jesus, you talk to them about it. You're your brother's keeper. Iron sharp, it's iron. Get them.

Ask them about it. Do not let sin just bubble and sit and deteriorate their relationship with Christ and deteriorate your relationship with them. And you have to be the right person. You can't just be walking out and saying, hey, he's got a Jesus shirt, and I saw him swear. No, no. And you know what? Make sure you take your religion out of it if you're going to call somebody repentance. You are bringing them closer to Jesus, not closer to you. Like, if you don't smoke and they smoke, they're still Christian. Don't make a huge deal out of it. If they have a mohawk and you don't wear a mohawk and you think Christians shouldn't have mohawks, get out of it. These are none of your business. These are not closer to Jesus issues. These are religion issues. It's none of your business. You leave those be. What if they play cards? For a living? I don't know. I don't care. I don't care. Anything about not playing cards?

I can't show that you don't love Jesus. You have to get to know somebody. Here's the thing. You better know people pretty well before you're going to call. Yeah, I was going to say, I don't think I'd ever just walk down the street and just call someone. You need to earn that permission. Yeah. You do. That needs to have some sort of back relationship to it, or it's just going to be like, okay, well, you're stupid. Bye. Right. But I think that's the main realization, right? Like, don't chicken out like you don't know anybody. You know what I'm saying? Sometimes you're the guy. Sometimes you're the guy that has to look another guy in the face and say, you're in sin. What's your deal? We need to talk about this thing. You know, but on the flip side of that, if they don't know Jesus, they need to know Jesus. That's the most important part. Shoving their sin in their face or trying to make a big hairy deal out of it or throwing

a, you know, pitching a fit. Trying to call a guy who doesn't know Jesus into repentance is, it's anticlimactic. There's no reason to do it. They don't know Jesus. You have to ask yourself honestly, and it's hard to answer this honestly, am I doing this for my own self-righteousness? I need to point out your failure, or am I doing it because I love you so much? I think you have a blind spot, and I want to make sure you're right with God. Yeah. That's why it's hard. I agree. You know, the only thing that I would say to that, though, is I think too many people are afraid of it. I think there are too many. Here's the thing. Stop to the confrontation. But Dan has a solid point in it. When you're saying that if you're not doing it for your own self-righteousness, that's step one, and that it has to be to get them closer to Jesus and not for any other reason. And here's it. Here's the deal. No matter why you're doing it, they're going to assume it's your self-righteous. Right. And do not… I've been there many times.

And I think people shy away for that exact reason. I think people shy away from looking at their Christian brother and saying, you're fallen. What can I do to help? You know, because you can offer to help, too. Repentance is not just slap, slap, slap. You're junk. Repentance is, how can I help you get over this thing? Can I pray for you? Can I be your accountability, man? Whatever. Do we need to hang out some more so you can get out of whatever you're in? You know, I mean, you can help somebody on their road to repentance. It's not just a punch in the face and, hey, man, you're a joke. It's, what can I do? What can I do to help you? And then if they continue rebelling, then you've got… Then a punch in the face might be necessary. I'm not one to say that it's not a punch in the face. But what I'm saying is that if it falls on you, and if there's a question about it, you just pray about it. Just ask God if you're the guy. He'll tell you. If you say, God, am I the guy? God will tell you, yeah, you're the guy. You're not the guy. I don't think God's going to leave you hanging on that thing.

He'll let you know what you're supposed to be doing. And if you're the guy, don't be afraid of him not being your buddy or not liking you anymore or not wanting to go to the hockey rink with you, whatever. Do what God tells you to do. And I think you've got plenty of good room to stand on there. Pants. People need advice from Troy, amazingly enough. Wow. That actually is what it says. All right, Troy, you ready? Yep. Dear Troy. The counselor is in. I met my husband, Jerome, two years ago. During our court trip, he helped me to find faith. Because of that, I wanted to be completely honest in our relationship with him, and I confess to a little less than moral experience that occurred several years before I met him. Apparently, he was able to accept it because he proposed, and we've been married for several months. Recently, however, Jerome has been saying it's bothering him, and he doesn't know how to let it go. I'm angry and hurt that something that happened long ago is now causing problems in my marriage. It has made me question why I was so honest with him. I'm afraid Jerome will never forgive me. He says he feels as though he has to compete with my past and doesn't feel he can live up to it. How do I tackle this problem? I can't change my past, and I can't take back what I told him, and I can't do anything to change my husband.

Please help. Haunted by the past. Pants, real quick, I'm going to submit that you can't hold the paper in front of the camera while you read it. Because then no one can see you. And then they can read the words of the next one ahead of time, and then they'll cheat. I'm just saying, you're going to have to look down at the paper. Yeah. You can't hold it up here, Pants. Seriously. But that one's not any good. We're running a professional reading. You'll show Pants. Repent of your paper reading ways. Way to punch him in the face. That was good. How long must I put up with this? I don't do that. Okay, so the synopsis. Michael, I'm sorry. It's all right, Pants. Take it to Jesus. I'm done with you. So the synopsis is what? A guy met a lady and brought her to faith, I assume to know Jesus. She basically spilled the beans about some, I'm assuming some nasty business that she's been involved in prior to them getting married.

He said, that's cool. I don't know what he said. Maybe he said it's all right. He proposed marriage anyway. He seemed to have gotten over it. And now he's a bit threatened by it. Seems like he's having trouble with it. Where are you guys sitting? Well, to begin with, that's awesome that she was honest with him. I mean, that's definitely one of the things. You don't want that sitting behind what your mask of truth is with your spouse. Obviously, you want to let them know exactly. That's a good thing she told him in the first place. Second off, if he was okay with it before the relationship, like fully blossomed into a marriage, proposed to her, accepted it beforehand, now he's having second thoughts about that. That's his fault. He was willing to accept it beforehand, but it's changed now. She loves him, wants to be in a relationship with him, but he feels like he has to compete with that. Obviously, he doesn't or she wouldn't have been in a relationship with him in the first place. Obviously, I do not have a lot of experience in the situation, but that's just absolutely ridiculous. It's all on him. He needs to get over it. He needs to realize that she loves him, obviously, no matter what. He doesn't have to compete with her past, and he needs to realize that he already has moved past that once by proposing and getting over it and saying it was okay, and now he's completely going back on that. Actually, this is the one time I'm not against the guy. You're not against the guy?

I'm actually not. It's odd. It's a weird position to be in. That is a weird position. Because I could totally put myself in this guy's place, right? Let's say he's a guy who knows Jesus. He led her to a faith, right? She tells him of some stuff that she's been involved in. He's like, I have to forgive this. I have to. I have to. I love this woman. I do. I have to forgive this. He wanted to, and he just didn't quite get it done. He didn't let it go. I guess I don't see him as being normally a pansy coward like I would call him. I just see him as a guy that, I mean, he needs to let it go. And actually, I believe she's the one that's making it much. He's being honest. You know what I'm saying? He didn't say, I'm leaving. I'm out of here. I don't want anything to do with this relationship anymore. He's saying, look, I'm having a hard time with this thing.

You know, I'm feeling like I'm not measuring up to whatever you had. I'm having a hard time with it. That seems like an honest marriage dialogue to me. Like, if you and your spouse are having an issue, he says, I'm having an issue. That's an honest marriage. That seems like a fairly open discussion, and I don't see anything wrong with that. Now, I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of, like, little conversations that I don't have information on. But, like, I don't know, from my point of view, I can see the guy going, I don't know, I really want to be a better man than this, but right now I'm struggling because maybe his behavior is changing, and maybe she's noticing, and maybe he wants to be honest. I mean, if he could just lie about it and say his work is tough or, you know, he's having, you know, whatever, family issues, or he could be honest and say, it's that, and I'm having a hard time with it. I need you to work with me. So, what she's doing is not doing him, giving him the same grace that he provided her. I don't know. Like, for some reason, I just don't, I'm not blaming the guy. I didn't see anything in that that said he was being honest with her as well. Because maybe it's just he needs to be just as open with her and sit down with her and say, look, this is giving me problems. Can we talk about it? And if he has difficulty doing that, maybe talking to an elder in the church they go to. I think his faith is weak, and he is a poser. If he believed in the God he said that he led her to, then it never happened. Whatever she did in the past never happened. It was before she was in Christ. And if Jesus forgave her of her sin, it's gone. That's all.

That's all. Sorry, the chat said he needs to work through this with another man. I thought something off the bat. I'm like, he's going to give up on ladies altogether now? Wow. We don't need to go that route. Wow. He is showing poor leadership as a man in the home. She has become the leader, and he is holding something that never happened over her head, and it didn't happen. Okay, so let me ask you this. Let's say the same situation occurred while they were married. He married her, and then something happened. She cheated on him or something. And he says, I forgive you. Let's keep this thing. I forgive you. But he's struggling with it. That's honest. I understand your point of him being honest. But he must be – he is driving it hard enough that she has written a letter to say, man, this is an issue in our marriage. Nah, you can't go that – you can't use the letter as part of it because there's a lot of whiny people that write a letter for just about anything. So I got a hangnail, and my husband's like, whatever, I don't care about your hangnail. And I'm like, whatever, we've been married forever, and you should care about my hangnail. I mean, he has an opportunity to lead his wife in a way of saying, man, isn't forgiveness awesome? You know, and look what God – this is complete and it's total – I mean, I get him maybe feeling creepy.

They've been married two years. I'm assuming it's a sexual issue because of the morality and stuff. So they've been married two years. I'm assuming he saved himself. Pardon me? Several months. They've been dating for two years. Married for several months. Two years, that was the dating. Okay. So I'm assuming he saved himself from marriage. She did not. And now he's struggling with it after a few months of marriage. Dude, it takes more than a few months of marriage to figure out the sexual side of marriage, of life. You know, I mean, I don't care what you see on TV. I don't care who I met for the first time. You know, I mean, that's just reality. You know, God didn't make it that way. Maybe it's not, Dan. Maybe everyone else's goes pretty smooth. In all my experiences, which is one – As far as I know, everything is – Well, I thought it was working pretty quick for me. Everything is really weird. I'm just saying, he is allowing something that spiritually never happened to affect his current –

He's showing her that God didn't really forgive her. Oh, mercy. It's really awkward. Okay. So final wrap-up on this dude. I don't know. Like, I agree that he's not being a strong leader in his family. I suppose as a Christian man, he should have done a better job. But I think the chat's right. You can't only love up on kindness when it's to your benefit. You can't only love up on forgiveness when it's to your benefit, right? Like, you're looking at the lady going, forgiveness is good. You know, that guy's done a good thing. But when it turns around, and this man's made a mistake, and he's having a hard time, you know, you can't forgive him now? What, if marriage is over? We should have married in the first place? Or what? Like, you can't forgive this guy for him having a hard time? It seems to me that that's a work through your marriage issue. Oh, yeah. It's definitely a work through the marriage issue. This will make them stronger once they – not only with each other, but in their understanding of God and the forgiveness of God. You know what?

Actually, I think I agree with the chat on this. I think the man needs an accountability partner, another dude to talk to, and then I don't know that they wouldn't benefit from some marriage counseling. I usually don't like to push for marriage counseling because I think counselors are hokey. But faith-based counselors are – faith-based. You know, whatever. As long as they're in the Bible, there's no bad counsel in the Bible. So, yeah, that's you, Dan. So, yeah, I think it's a fantastic idea. Do you do counseling, Dan? You know, usually the first thing I tell people is, I am not a counselor. I will listen, and I will tell you Bible verses, and you won't like me when you leave. They say, thank the Lord because this advice is terrible. But I'm free. We're having marital issues. Have you read Deuteronomy? Because seriously, it'll speak to you. Jesus is telling you to get over it. Have you read 2 Chronicles? Nothing talks marriage like 2 Chronicles. You have to know your Bible to understand why that's funny. 2 Chronicles is totally not marriage. It's lame. Okay. Lame.

As concerning to marriage issues, it's lame. Are those flames coming up from around here? I'm just saying. Have you read 2 Chronicles? No, I haven't, but we're soon going to. It's a rough read. I'm not. I actually thoroughly enjoyed it the first time I read it. And then our LTG got stuck in it for five weeks. And now I have a small disdain for 2 Chronicles. Okay. Pants, any more advice from Life in the Path? Do we have Secular's point of view on that? Oh, yeah, go ahead. I'm going to say Secular is actually pretty close to what we came up with. Secular is, first, stop apologizing. You are the sum total of all your experiences, and that's the woman he married. Tell your husband you will not accept anything less than marriage counseling. Now, he knows about your experience because you leveled with him. Make it clear that this isn't a contest, and he's all you want in a man. If he can't accept it, there's no basis for a marriage, and frankly, little hope for a future together. No basis for a marriage. Solid, Secular. Solid advice. Give up on that marriage as soon as you can.

Solid. Yes, sir. Abandon the ship. I love it. That's the way to stick to it. Okay, Pants, any more questions from Life in the Path? You know what? This marriage is looking shaky. Let's bail. Oh, yeah, solid. Go ahead. That's terrible. What is that? Fail and pale way of the world. Thanks, Ben. Okay, Pants, go ahead. All right. Dear Troy, our daughter, Julie, came home for the weekend so we could meet her new boyfriend, Scott. He's a delightful young man, and my daughter is clearly smitten. When I suggested Scott sleep in the guest room, Julie and my wife gave me that perplexed look as though I'm from a different planet. In the end, I was deeply disappointed that they shared a bedroom. After 30 years of marriage, this created the first disagreement between me and my wife in a long time. I'm no prude. My wife and I had our share of premarital mambo, but we always slept in separate rooms while visiting our family. What am I doing?

You know what? Just get a divorce now. There's no reason to hang this thing out. This looks shaky. Go ahead, Pants. Finish it up. While we visited our families before we were married, we both, out of respect for our parents, slept in separate rooms. Julie spends a lot of time at Scott's family where they share a room. My wife's afraid if we don't provide common accommodations in our house, our daughter will be less inclined to visit. I welcome your thoughts, Abby or Troy. Abby Troy. Solid, Pants. Thank you. Thank you very much for that. What should I do? That was the most hypocritical thing I've ever heard in my entire life. Thank you. That was – me and my wife had our share of premarital mambo, but we always slept in different beds when we were in a family's house. Oh, that's okay. Just as long as you're doing it for appearances. So here's the thing. You guys wanted to beat up on poor Jerome from the last one who's trying to strengthen his marriage through honesty, and this dude – No, I agree with him for the most part. I think that's absolutely true. If you are not engaging in premarital sex or sex in general, there's no reason to be sleeping in the same bed.

They're not sleeping in the same bed at their parents' house to just be next to each other. I kicked the punk out of my house. I wouldn't even let him come in. Yeah, no. Seriously. That's absolutely ridiculous. Here's what I'm saying. What kind of dude comes up to visit your girlfriend's old man, comes down for vacation, which is pretty nice, and then says, well, I'm going to sleep in her room. And that wasn't even visiting. Well, I don't think you should do that. Well, that's what I'm going to do. You know, whatever. That wasn't visiting. That was meeting. I kicked that dude out of that house so fast. That wasn't even, you know, oh, I've known you for years. I'm going to sleep in the same bed. I've never met you before this weekend, but I'm going to go ahead and disagree with what you're saying in your home with your daughter, and I'm going to sleep in the same bed. See, here's the thing. This is where – I don't know. This might sound terrible, right? But I would immediately initiate a family meeting to re-go over what the rules are of the way that this house is run. And I would get down my, as for me and my house, we'll serve the Lord's side,

and I would put it on the table and say, here's the deal. But see, they're not – that's not part of their – that's not their household rule. Their household rule is have sex any time you want. Just don't tell anybody about it. Yeah, as long as it's for appearances, that's fine. It is a foundation of sand. The whole thing is a big crock. Who cares? I mean, have sex in the living room while we watch. We have cameras. We'll make money off of this thing. We're doing it anyway. I heard it's kind of awkward. Maybe we'll put the cameras away. What's the difference? He's a hypocrite. Either you're a believer or you're not. You're a Christ follower or you're not. None of them are Christ followers. No, this guy is just saying that it's all about respect for him, not anything to do with the Christian aspect. So here's the thing. This should be the perfect example that points you right back to the God that loves you that says, this is why I don't recommend premarital sex. This is why I don't want you doing it. This is why I don't want you engaged in it.

It's a sin that traps you, that looks shiny and great, and everyone else is doing it. There's a poll out there that shows that young Christians today are – their level for premarital sex is just about the same as secular, as people who don't know Jesus. Now, Christians covers a wide array of people. A lot of people claim to be Christians that aren't necessarily following Christ. Exactly. I'm sure there's a much smaller – Clicking that whole Christian other box. Hence, I use the term Christ follower. Right. So, I mean – Which is very different than Christian. Those numbers are a bit skewed, but I don't think they're as skewed as you're hoping. You know what I'm saying? I don't think they're as off as maybe you'd think that they were. And so, you know – The whole – me and my wife had our share of premarital mambo, but we never slept in the same bed. That just – See, we were righteous about it. No, you weren't. Yeah. At least we didn't try to do it at my old man's house. You were the – How awkward. The definition of the word hypocrite. That's too bad.

What was secular's advice, Pam? Well, secular's advice is, first off, you didn't mention how long Julie and Scott have been together. That's very important, by the way. Yeah, that matters. Or if they're living together. Also important. Can you send them a link to the sermon – was that two weeks ago? Oh, three weeks ago, when was that? The big sex sermon I get again. Yeah, about three weeks ago. I don't – you can get no clearer than that. Yeah, but apparently, according to secular, that's got some bearing on it, on how long they've been together. That's why they're secular. They're living together. But ultimately, a secular can't get past the fact that it's her parents' house. Respect the parents. Well, they've got one of the commandments down. Yeah. The state of it being a commandment. You know, I haven't seen anywhere in the Bible it says, sacrifice one commandment for others. This one is most important. You go ahead and just – as long as you respect your parents, if their rules follow with God's, we don't really give a rip. Do whatever they say. Well, even according to this, it sounds like the parents were divided. Yeah, I think his turmoil is the fact that his wife didn't go with what he said.

He didn't care about the fact that – in the end, it ended up him not caring whether or not they were sleeping in the same bed. It was the fact that his wife disagreed with him. That's what he was seeking advice for. I think both are equally. Well, frankly, I wouldn't expect a woman to submit to a guy that is not leading his family at all anyway. You know what I'm saying? Like, obviously, it was worth any weight in salt. That wouldn't even have been a conversation. He's not worried about the fact that this punk is dishonoring his daughter's body. I'd have put that kid in the doghouse. My shotgun would have been out and said, dude, you've got ten seconds. Right. One. Maybe not ten. You know what? I graduated from public school. I don't even think I'd count that high. You best be going. I didn't really hire him to education, so you need to leave. Yeah, this is – oh, man. That's one of my fears of being a father. That's what scares me. Like, there's no fear. You've got to give him a solid base, but – I don't know.

That's true. Now, I can't say for a fact because my kids are super young, right? But, like, I would hope by the age of, say, 12, my daughters would realize what kind of dude I'm going to let come in this house for any reason. Yeah. For prom, for over for dinner, to help with homework, whatever. There's a certain caliber of fella that will be allowed in my door and a certain caliber of fella that is more than welcome to stay on the porch while I sit there and listen to the conversation. You know what I'm saying? Like, there's guidelines that I'm fairly certain that my kids are going to know. You know, it won't be much of a question. And, frankly, I would hope that they would be able to gauge the fella that they're looking at by their dad. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Like, they will be able to look at this gentleman. They will look for a mic. Like, they will be able – like, and you know what? People always say that like it's a bad thing, right? They always say, like, you know, you marry your dad. You know what? If your dad's an upstanding, God-loving individual who loves your mom and has raised you right, that's the kind of guy I want my kids to marry anyway, you know? That's cool. Here's the – how do I say this without sounding weird? Just say it. And Danielle has had a very hard time because I raised the bar so stinking high for her. Not because I'm a great guy, but just of how I did my life, you know? My foundation, my beliefs, my core values that even in the Christian world, like you said, the statistics aren't all that healthy.

There's a lot of slapping that needs to go on out there and just – Mike and I need to go on a spiritual punch in the face. You need to start punching people. You said I couldn't punch people. I've attempted. That's why I started looking at you and smiling when you mentioned the spiritual punch in the face thing again. The right hand of fellowship, remember? With that John 3.16 brass knuckles. That's what we need. I'm telling you, people back away from it too quick. Jesus means business. They look at him as some kind of cuddly puppy. He created the world. He made hell. People don't realize. He made hell. The devil didn't get down there and be like, oh, what should we do with the space? You know, we'll put fire. That's it when they get here. We'll put fire here. We'll put a lake here. This is going to be beautiful hell. I love the view from my room. Satan had nothing to do with it. God made it and said, that's where you're going.

It was – That's where you live. It was subletted. God owes it. That's why I get so angry at our culture of the things like Hollywood and music and the whole industry makes all of this – well, I'm looking at the scripture of Romans 1 that was being quoted up here on the chat – of what they're saying. It sounds natural and normal and it's completely anti-God and it's destructive to people and families and human beings. It totally hurts people. Well, you know, that's the thing, Dan, is that people fight it, kick, and scream it. Even people – even proclaimed Christians will fight this. They fight these things, kicking and screaming. In church, they'll sit in church for that Sunday and go, yeah, yeah. And then they'll get home and as soon as it comes out of their mouth, they'll feel awkward like, I don't really believe that, do I? Because that seems a bit much, you know, the – I mean, it's just premarital sex, you know, whatever. It's – Or post-marital. Or post-marital. Yeah, outside of marital. Outside of marital sex. You know, they're like, seriously, it's not that big of a deal. But you know what I'm saying? It goes back to the bucket. It goes back to the cesspool bucket. Like, you think that that sin hasn't affected somebody until you realize that your current marriage is junk because you're not loving your wife. You're not supporting your wife. You're not supporting your husband.

You're not in submission to your husband. You're not living a biblical marriage. And people look at the category of biblical marriage and go, that just sounds terrible. But the truth of it is it's set up that way because God knows men. God knows women. God made people. God knows you better than know you. And your decisions thus far has led you to the life that you have before you. Now, look at that thing and go, yeah, this rocks. Look at the state of marriages today and tell me, yeah, we've made improvements on God's word over the years. That old-fashioned book, what do they know? Like the Bible, it's lame. You know, no one lives like that anymore. Look at our divorce rate. You're right. No one lives like that anymore. Look at the way that you're – you know, look at the way that most kids are raised or the way that they view – I almost guarantee 85% of the girls out there have a negative opinion of their father because he was not a father figure to them. He didn't lead their family. He didn't, you know, raise his daughters to want to marry men of a standard like that. You know what I'm saying? No one wants to marry their dad because their dad's a lazy slump. You know what I'm saying? Who had no morals to stand on anyway. You know, and I just – I would never pass that on to my kids.

I can't imagine that I would hate to see my kids marry me when I was 17. You know what I'm saying? I would like to see my kids marry somebody like me hopefully when I'm about 40, you know, when God's got a little more time to work on me. But that's about the time that they'll be starting to catch it. And that's the foundation of what you've done up until to that point. Exactly. I'm honestly – I am so passionate about this because my family was totally screwed up. Mine was too. I grew up in a cesspool. I mean, you know, when dad brings venereal diseases home, you know, you just go, something's not right about this. This doesn't – just doesn't seem right. Yeah. So – Actually, I'm fairly excited. Pathway is taking steps to get our men a little bit more involved in what we're doing. And I believe we have a men's – a Pathway men's get-together at the Pathway Church coming up on the 10th of December. And I believe it's at the Johnston Community Center, if I'm not mistaken. Crown Point? Is that right? Crown Point? I don't know. And so, look, you know, I don't know whether you're from Pathway, not from Pathway. If you're checking out the show on December 10th, we're having – show up, man. We're talking Jesus. It has nothing to do with – we're not talking about, like, our church budget or, you know, what people can wear or can't wear at our place or how we do communion.

You'll be punching people in the face. We're talking about dudes, and we're going to need a face puncher. And so far it's just pants. And so, I mean, you've got, like, eight minutes to move before Pance gets one rounded off. Here it comes. I'm pretty good at it if you run into me, but if you start running, there's no way. Yeah, you're not the face puncher. Good thing. You're the first one in line for the face puncher. I was going to say, I'm the one getting the face punch. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And I'm taking the first steps of at least admitting that. I'm definitely getting that taken care of. I need punched in the face. Okay, good. Good. Tonight. We can get started right away. That's cool. Okay, we'll talk about the face puncher later. Pance, you got any more? We're taking a short break. You got any more advice from the Dear Life on the Path? I don't want to talk about it.

That's what I'm looking for. Do you want me to read the next one? I'm going to say I told you some of them. Oh. Find which one you think is the best. Christmas party on December 11th. Is that true, Dan? Yes. Is that the Sunday? Here, I have a calendar. It is a Sunday. You and your fancy phone. I don't know. I just did something. Yeah, let's do this one real quick. Oh, for heaven's sake. December. We're not talking anymore about that. Four. Okay. Yeah, December 11th. Very nice. Who is that? Is someone in the chat asking? What?

What do you mean that's not repentance? Oh, that's true. Troy, did we hear for our repentance conversation? No, you missed it. I was at the end of it, yeah? No, you missed it. You missed the whole thing. Well, I thought repentance isn't repentance. I understand that. Oh. So what? Repentance is the 180 where you. How can we help you? At least admit the situation. How can we help you change, Troy? And then completely fill your business. We're no longer doing anything. We'll do this later. Okay, here we go. Dear Life from the Path. I am a 38-year-old mom and have been single for the last 10 years. I live alone with my 11-year-old daughter and support us without assistance. I work full-time and rely on my mom to take my daughter to school and pick her up while I'm at work. Seems pretty solid. Well, because of this, any time I try to have any kind of relationship with a dude, my mother turns against me.

She acts like I no longer exist as long as I try to have a love life. Please give me some advice on what to do. Troy. I'll take this one first. I'd get a new mom. I'd touch her in the face. That one is unreasonable. What, do you need to reread it? I want to reread some of the points. I gave you the whole synopsis. So she was 38 years old, been divorced 10 years? Or has a 10-year-old? It didn't say. It didn't say. Yeah, have been single for 10 years. Single for 10 years. Has an 11-year-old mom, her mom, the grandma, takes the kid to school and back because she's working. When the single gal, the single mom, attempts to get a relationship going with a dude, mom gives her the arm fold and says, you know, acts piety like, you don't want anything to do with me now. I'm not going to speak to you because you're trying to get a man. Is it that or is it because she's shoving the daughter off on? We don't know a lot of information. No. I'm not giving it to you. That's fine. I read the stories, Troy.

You interpret them. I'm not giving it to you. I just said that's fine. It's not, though. Fine. This is going to sound completely me copping out because it is. I have no idea. Like, I really don't know anything personally based on the experience. I don't know anything religiously based on the experience. That's very helpful, Troy. Would you rather me give some random advice that I don't really believe that I don't understand? I'd say you'd be well advised to keep quiet. I mean. You asked me the question, though, so I'm giving you the answer of I really don't know. Yeah, but you gave a response that took like three minutes. You could have just said, I don't know. Because I would have gotten complete and total flack from you. I don't know. I give flack for everything. That's a good point. Good point. Good point. I like your logic. I feel like her mother. I don't know.

You know, once again, this goes back to the state of families these days. I don't know. I don't know what to say about this. Here's the thing. Like, in this situation, like, when people do this to me, like, if I think that I'm doing the right thing, and then another party gives me the stiff arm, I tend to overwork myself to try to prove that your attitude is not going to change me. Like, I would, I don't know, get up at 5 a.m., drop the kid off to school myself, you know, work three jobs to make sure I can pick up home, and like, whatever. You know, you're not going to blackmail me into this. But there's a lot of pride in that. You know what I'm saying? There's a lot of pride issues in me doing this. I'm doing this because I don't need you. You know what I'm saying? You're not going to tell me what to do. But then on the other hand, you know, you're going to live your whole life being stuck in your mom's minivan, you know, because, you know, you had some bad stuff go down. I don't know. I don't know what the right answer to that is. I think that number one priority in this mother's life would be her daughter. Okay. So she needs to keep that perspective. Well, number one would be God. Two would be her daughter. That's her family. It'd be really nice if she had a relationship, blah, blah, blah, you know, how that works out. I don't know how you'd do that.

It's been 10 years. She's got to be kind of lonely. I mean, after 10 years, I'd be, you know, I'd be looking around, you know. Right. You'd want something. I mean, and this is not just a, just a, just a Hollywood, whatever, dirty romance. Like, some people need people to talk to. You know, adult conversation is not a bad deal. I mean, and my wife obviously knows more about this than I do. But you spend all day with children. I don't care how old they are. Well, even up to 10, 11, you know. Your conversation is different than having a deep, meaningful conversation with another adult. Yeah. But, you know, what we don't know, and you can't really tell right in between the lines, is does she go overboard and have to be with him every single night? So all of a sudden, grandma has, like, become mom? Right. It depends on how you do it. Is that what she's concerned about? It depends. I guess it depends on how you do it. They need some ground rules. Say, hey, you can have two nights a week. I'll watch little Susie, who's 11.

Yeah. So she's old enough that she's, you know, could probably do homework and stuff. But still needs to be, have some supervision. Agreed. But if they can come up with a compromise, I would say, you know, she needs to be free to pursue a relationship as long as she doesn't destroy her real family that currently exists with her and her daughter along the way. Sometimes people make really poor choices, and they'll go up to some, you know, low-rent guy because, well, I'm just lonely. I'll take whatever I can find. True. And then the daughter suffers. You can't do that. That's not even a biblical, I don't think, that's just my opinion, I guess. So I don't have a verse I can throw at you, but. So did pretty much every one of us give one of those, I don't really know answers? Yeah. Yeah, kind of. She needs more information. We need more information. I just thought I'd ask. Okay. So here's secular's advice. This is classic. She says, I'll try.

It is time to become less emotionally dependent on your mother. Kind of what I said. At age 38, you do not need her blessing to date, and you should make that fact clear to her. If she punishes you for expecting to be treated like the adult you are, then arrange other transportation for your daughter. That's all. Give mom the old what for. As long as you allow her to run your life, you will not have a life of your own. Take that. Stodgy mother. Okay, we got one more. Ready? Dear life from the path. Don't you read this slower? You want to perk up for this thing, Troy? Here it is. The Down and Dirty. My fiancee, Vanessa, and I have been engaged for almost one year. Engaged for one year. Engaged year. We're to be married in three months. When I popped the question, I took her to one of her favorite spots in the Smoky Mountains. When I proposed, she was overcome with emotion, but not the kind I would have thought. She said yes, but she wasn't at all happy about being surprised.

She does not like surprises. At that time, I was sure she had an inkling about my intentions. We had discussed becoming engaged several times, and now as the wedding draws near, she wants me to re-propose. It makes me feel like my first wasn't good enough, and it is really upsetting me. I only intend to do it once in my life. What would you recommend? I don't know. Find out what she wants. It's not going to hurt if he re-proposes. He did it. Well, yeah, but if you think about it, I mean, that probably crushed the guy when she said, can you do it again and try and make it better this time? Smoky Mountains. I don't know. Yeah, exactly. Doing a proposal in the Smoky Mountains. It doesn't sound like… Most likely not really across the street from their house. Okay, so here's what it sounds like. It sounds like this guy might be a little neurotic. She don't like surprises. You know, she might be… Some people are that way to a fault, and some people are just kind of that way. You know what I'm saying? They're just kind of wired that way.

So it depends on how far she is that way, right? If she's just kind of wired that way… You know, if you love the woman, do it again. Whatever. That's going to hurt. If you want her to marry you, do it again. Whatever. What, it's going to hurt your pride? To who? Her? It's her. You know what I'm saying? I think the chat has a great… Run, Forrest, run. It's only going to get worse. That's what you think? I see you wash the dishes, but I really wanted you to dry them and put them away, too, and sweep the floor. How dare you surprise me? She'll never be satisfied. Clean off the counters. Can you clean in the microwave, too, please? Man, I know. Get back to me as well. Covered.

If the guy says, they know each other pretty good, they're getting married, and then he says, she doesn't like surprises, and he surprised her, then… That seems to be his fault, I think. Yeah. He should know that. See, I don't know. Like, is that type of character flaw enough for you to not marry somebody? Well, obviously, it's enough for him to write a letter. On his end. Like, let's say you're dating a lady, and she hates surprises. She hates them. Now, whether she hates them because she likes to be in control of everything, or maybe she just don't like surprises. I don't know. But, like, you know that about her. You love her anyway, and then you surprise her with something. She gets upset. You seem to be the idiot. It might tell you they don't know each other well enough yet. But… See, okay, I can go back. I am unqualified to talk about romantic proposals, all right? So, hopefully Cheryl's not on the chat and listening. Hope she's asleep like she should be. If she's not one of the five people on, I think we got pretty good odds.

Oh, buddy. Because I knew her well enough to go, okay, surprises are nice, but not like, you know, here's the ring you're going to wear for the rest of your entire life. It's kind of a surprise. I knew she'd want to have input in that. So, like, we… You know, our proposal was like, so I suppose we'll get married. And she's like, no, I suppose so. And we kind of looked at rings. And did you like that one? Yeah. Shall we order that one? Okay. And, I mean, that was kind of it. And then when we got the rings, I made her carry them, but she couldn't look at them yet. And we were at the… That was just kind of me and mean. Dan, you were so romantic. I'm very romantic. And then I did. You know, it seems like I had no living room or something. I said, oh, will you marry me? And it was just kind of as goofy as you can imagine me being a dork. No. But it seems to have worked so far.

It seems to have worked so far. And, you know, we had, like, the diamonds in her ring and my ring come from her parents' diamond, you know, rings and all that stuff. I don't know if that part of the story is super necessary. No, that's what made it. It's their special. Okay. Where does it stop? Yeah, I was probably wearing blue jeans that day. I think I had a… I'm pretty sure I took a shower. I think I had a red flannel on. If I remember right, I used Tide back in the day, and so I probably had a Tide- I probably smelled like the mountains. It was July 4th. You're catching the whole picture here. 1985. You're getting the vivid imagery of the background. It was everything you'd want it to be. Where does it stop to where it's him not needing to worry about it because that's the love of his life? Why should he care about if he has to do it a second time? Where does it stop where it's his situation to deal with, where she, on the other hand, it's the love of your life. It's someone you want to spend the rest of your life with. Why does it matter that much to you for him to redo it when you've already said yes, plans have already been made, and you're already close to tying the knot entirely in the eyes of God, in the eyes of man. Where is it where it's not just, you know, dude, just do it again.

Seriously, it's not that big of a deal to, hey, why is it such a big of a deal that your husband has to, or your soon-to-be husband has to do this a second time? Here's where I think I'd agree with you there. I think they have a differentiating set of values. Like I proposed to my wife at a rental house that was an absolute pigsty at the time. I didn't even clean the place up. I think it was a dirty floor that I knelt down. I think it was wrapped well. But here's the thing. For the deer leg. The proposal. Top of the river floor. From the dog. The proposal was not done. It was not done anything fancy. But it's the marriage that means something to her. The proposal didn't. Because if the proposal was any type of gauge on her future life, she'd have ran. Terrible decision on her part. Terrible. Is this what I have to look forward to? You drugged her, didn't you? Seriously. I asked her old man. I went and asked her dad permission before I proposed marriage.

He goes, where are you going to do it? I said, up at the rental house. He goes, you have my permission. I didn't even do that. You didn't even ask permission? Dan. You know what I thought? I thought about it. I thought, what am I going to see if he says, no, I'm going to do it anyway. I'm a jerk. I'm a jerk. I'm a jerk. Seriously, I'm wearing my tied shirt. This is completely symbolic. I really didn't care what you said yesterday. Look, I can give or take what you say. Literally, on his deathbed. Okay? This was like eight years ago. I said, Dwayne, I never asked you permission to marry your daughter. I can't remember how I said it, but I said it. And he said, he just looked at me with a big grin and said, you idiot. He said, he didn't say you would, but his eyes said it. He was going to say, well, it's kind of too late now. He said, what were you wearing that day, Dan?

It was blue June. Was it in a rental house? It was a Yamaha shirt. Was it in the Smoky Mountains? I'm a loser. Honestly, that's part of the one regret I have in my entire life. Other than, but yeah. Apart from that haircut? No, I love the haircut. I love the haircut, too. Okay, so seriously. First thing, let's hit this straight up one more time. Like, take the theory of climate. Let's say you're this guy. I did a proposal. She hated it. You know, just acted terribly. And then said, I want to have you redo it. You know what? I'm in a situation like this here this Thanksgiving. A family member of mine showed up and had proposed marriage to his girlfriend. And then he came up to me and said, I'm going to propose in front of everybody. I said, okay. He goes, I already did it in front of all of our friends, but I thought I'd redo it in front of the family. So they know that we're getting married.

We're going to just keep redoing this. I said, you know, you could just tell them that you already did it. I said, that's a thought. Show the video. And he goes, no, no. She likes it. I said, okay. Not my house. Do what you want, you know? And he did. I was luckily outside at the time, but he did it again. Do you guys, well, did you do the, never mind. Did you do like the sappy movie thing, you know? I did the 1D action. Yeah. You're the only person who can. No, no. I didn't try to pull off some kind of. I had some big dialogue. I got down on 1D and I said, I opened the box and I said, here's the deal. This comes with me. That's perfect. That is you. Here's the deal. I used your credit card to buy this.

And she goes, I kind of figured. We were in love. I mean, we were in love. I can honestly see Mike getting down on 1D and being like, eh? Yeah. What do you think? Look at. Hello, Jared. Hello. Look, the box is talking to you. Love me. Love me. It's a good thing we don't believe in divorce. Thank you, Jesus. Want a turkey? Or a deer leg? I got a deer leg for you. You have been listening to Live from the Path on livefromthepath.org. If you're just joining the show, big mistake. Big mistake. It is late at night. You have wasted your life. Wasted it. This is a classic. Repent.

You could be either punching. Turn away. You should be punching people for Jesus at this hour. I don't know what you're doing wasting your time. But you've missed biblical repentance. Basically, we summed up getting Jesus' forgiveness is great. Which is, you know, God's grace covers a lot of ground. But repentance is you turning around and getting away from that sin. And you actually doing something about it with the people that you've affected with your sin. And so I think our recommendation to you, don't be cowarding out in your house. Don't take the love of Jesus and waste it. Yeah. If you've done something, man up to it. Or lady up to it. Whichever you are. If you're a lady, you can lady up to it. But hit that thing hard. You know, call somebody and say, look, I did you wrong. I want to fix it. Here's what I did. Let's do this. You know, Jesus forgives me. And I'm going to use that forgiveness as a start-off point to start making things right. Because the thing is, God gave you an essence of, you know, that little voice in your head that tells you whether things are right or wrong. If you've accepted Jesus in your heart, that's Jesus.

That's the Holy Spirit saying, hey. The moral compass. Get a fixin'. So that was Biblical Repentance. We just wrapped up Dear Life from the Path. I don't know. This last one we talked about was the marriage proposal gone awry. I think they need to talk about what's – so the guy needs to explain to the fiancé, his wife, or his soon-to-be wife, of why he's insecure about having to do it the second time. And then the wife has to explain to the husband, soon-to-be husband, I should say, of why she wants him to do it the second time. They need to talk about it. Troy, have you ever met my wife? Yeah. Her name's Dara. Dara. I think she's, yeah. Dara Foost. Uh-huh. Dara is her name. She lives with me. And Dara. We're in love. Don't worry about it, Troy. Do you have a plan of how you're going to propose? Ooh. Potentially.

Are you guys asking me what my plan is to propose to my son? I'm telling you, it's got to be better than me and Dan. So I'm pretty sure like three weeks ago, maybe like a month ago, I told you guys I don't know if I ever plan on getting married. You did. I was wondering if you remembered that. I remembered it. Yeah. So do I. Yeah, but you just said earlier in the show, this is what you're afraid of when you become a dad. If I ever become a father. So either we need to Jesus punch you in the face for having kids out of wedlock or you plan on getting married. Or adoption, by the way. Just saying. I actually talked to someone about that today, too. Did you? Yeah. I don't see if I ever don't get in a relationship, I want to have kids. So if I'm a single father and adopt, I don't see a problem with that. I think there's someone for you. I agree. Let's say her name is Billie Jean and you're going to propose to her. You've been dating for 18 months and she does not have a child and has no name. This sounds vaguely familiar. And you're at the amusement park. Dan, you're mixing two things up.

You're mixing up two things. I'm just trying to get him to propose. It's not one and the same. I don't. In all honesty, hopefully it will be if I am ever in the situation. Are you a romantic guy? Let's just get to the brass tacks, Troy. I bet you are. Dude, you guys. I've never really been in a relationship. No, no. Just in general. You're a thinker. A romantic guy. Yeah, I'm romantic. Sure. Are you? I look in the mirror and I'm like. Are you whimsical? Do you love romantic comedies? Do you cry at them? No. I do. You've got mail? Come on, man.

They were at the park. It was always him. She always knew that. She always knew that. I've never seen that movie. Why? It's got a cute dog. That's not enough to make me watch a full feature film. I don't know. What's your dream? I don't have a dream. It probably has a better dream if you have that person in mind. Yeah. Will you be on a white horse? No. On a beach? That'd be cool. A volcano? Shirt. Shirt a-blazing? Running down the beach? Yes. Pillaging. No. Hopefully that if I'm ever in the situation where I am in love with.

White water wrapping? I'm in love with a woman and I've decided that. I'll turn you off, Dan. That I want to spend the rest of my life with this woman in the eyes of God, in the eyes of man and the laws of everything. And if that situation would ever come, hopefully it's to the point that I would base my proposal off of my relationship with that person. If I know that it's something that they love. If they love going to the beach and horseback riding on the beach, we're going to go for a horseback ride on the beach. I don't think that. I don't see you with them. I'm going to jump off the horse and then there's going to be a bottle and be like, oh my gosh, look, someone's notes in that bottle. And then they're going to run over and it's going to open it up and be like, dig. And they're going to start digging in two feet or six inches down, there's going to be a box. What kind of redneck lady are you going to marry here on? Well, I've said to be a redneck lady. Well, the horse and the empty bottle of booze that you got. I never said it was a bottle of booze. It could have been a bottle of root beer. Yeah, they don't sell root beer on the beach, Troy. You know that. You have to bring your own root beer.

So you'd have to be drinking it in the car and then stuff the note in it. The point is the whole message in a bottle. No, I have no idea how I… Yeah, all ladies like to dig in the sand. You're right, Troy. Good thing you do. I just got my nails done for this occasion. Fine, okay, yeah. I'm just going to be completely cliche. I am going to go ahead and go into the Smoky Mountains. We are going to hike up there. And then we're going to be walking on the trail. And there's going to be a ring box and a note from me that was put there beforehand by myself or someone that I paid to do it. I was going to say a hobo will steal that box. The Smoky Mountains are full of bandits. The Appalachian Trail is hundreds of miles long. I don't even know where that is. I don't even know what you're saying. Is that the Tennessee, Kentucky-ish? It's most of the eastern part of the United States. Mike doesn't know geography. Dolly World? I don't know. That's not the amusement park I was talking about.

The Appalachian Mountains. I'm not really that interested. You've been listening to Live from the Path on livefromthepath.org. Check out our YouTube channel. We are full of previous clips, fantastic things that Troy has said in the past. Did you just say history, by the way? What? It's geography, not history. I didn't say that. I didn't say it either way. I wasn't listening. So I can't even answer. I didn't even say that word. You're arguing with me on something I didn't even say. Thank you for joining us on the last show that Troy will be available to be on the show. I'm sorry to see that he's not going to be able to come in anymore. You asked me to be here. Check out the YouTube channel. There is tons of stuff on there. High-quality material, low-quality material. There's all kinds of just material on there to watch. The Caps for Sale is still getting fantastic views. When are we going to do a Christmas story? It's really dumb, man. It's kind of late now.

No, it's really not. It's not a Christmas story, not a Christmas story. It's not really entertaining. Oh, look. Someone's taking pictures of me. It's not a good video. We got some fantastic stuff coming up in December. I believe Double J is coming in at the very least. I know Ben has all this other information. He usually does the interludes and has all the info. I don't have any of them. I will tell you that I've personally contacted a couple major label bands here recently. I look angry. And they have yet to get back to me, which is not much of a shock. I'm pretty sure they will not be getting back to me, but I have contacted them in an attempt to get them on the show. Let's start calling some of the people that are going to be here from Winter Jam. Well, we're going to be with – If they're going to be in town. Who's in like March whatever? Newsboys. Newsboys. That's a pretty big name. Actually – oh, yeah. Kevin Lindgren is going to be on the show.

And I have personally contacted Need to Breathe and John Mark McMillan, both ignoring me. Shocking. Why? I don't know. I don't know. That's outlandish. I tried to get Justin Bieber on the show last week. They should make prints. I talked to him. Huh? I talked to him. When? On its website called Chat Roulette. I talked to him. Oh, Justin Bieber was not on Chat Roulette. I talked to him. No, you didn't. Yeah, I did. I even asked him. I said, hey, are you Justin Bieber? He said, yeah. Of course he said, yeah. There's a girl that looks like Justin Bieber works at the Casey's in Carlisle. Right, right. I've seen him.

But the hair has changed. I know about that because there's a toy company that I think is almost about to sue him. Don't you find any part of this story embarrassing? No. Not at all? Not a bit. That you were on the Chat Roulette talking to Justin Bieber? Not a bit. Not a bit at all. I gave him my address and said, hey, you come to Des Moines. He's not going to stay here. I'm not afraid of Justin Bieber coming to my house or a Justin Bieber look-alike because I could probably eat a Justin Bieber look-alike. I'm gigantic and he's like five foot seven. Did you tell him that? That you eat people? Because I think that would keep him from your house. Hey, Justin, it's the craziest thing. Do you want to come dig in the sand? I have an omelet the size of you for breakfast. I totally eat people, Justin Bieber. You should come to my place. I totally eat people. So Ben says he's a god man. Says Justin Bieber loves the Lord.

And so I was going to have him on the show. I also have a couple. Oh, apparently there's funky things on the Chat Roulette, Troy. Actually, most of that stuff has been gotten rid of. Oh, it's gone. They don't put up with that business anymore. Yeah. Okay, good. That's good to hear. Troy, didn't you say about a year ago, don't ever go there? Don't ever go there. That's where I've heard about this. Yeah, you tell me about it. I told you guys about it. You tried to lead me astray. A year and a half ago about it. But my friends and I were actually sitting in a basement bored. My friends and I were eating people. And we thought, let's get on Chat Roulette. We were sitting around a campfire enjoying delicious meat. I mean, it's just awesome. No. My friends and I were very bored hanging out and decided to go into that website. And it's not bad like that anymore. I can find out.

Apparently, you need to repent of Chat Roulette. I'll get the repenter ready. Smack him in the face. Why is it that every conversation I have with you guys ends up with Troy, repent, or we're going to punch you in the face? That's what we talked about before you got here. We thought we were… But it's not even just today. Well, yeah, you need to repent of everything you've done. I can't be with you every day. I save it all up for Monday. Hey, Mr. Mike. Yes, sir. How about you do it, too? I've done. Me and Dan have a group. Right, right. Every time you say that. I call Dan every day. Do you have these marks on the wall? Those look like marks on the wall. I say, Dan, I've fallen short. He goes, meet me in the radio station. And then bad things happen. Yeah, so how many times have that happened? It's a lot.

Well, one, two, three, four, five, six. However many marks on the wall. You've been listening live from the past. Anybody else got anything? Because I have one big more conversation we were going to talk about. What was that? That's my transition. I don't do transitions. Ben does. Transitions are weird. So we were going to segue. Huh? Good segue. That was smooth. Look, I can't count on you roller coasters to keep this thing rolling. Seriously. If you ever need a segue, just say, hey, segways are weird. So the next question we're going to talk about. Go ahead, Troy. Get us into the next thing. Well, I don't have the next thing. I was giving you the suggestion. I like sunset walks on the beach. Fiverr propose. I'm going to be in the smoking now.

Go ahead, Mike. Smoke it. Back to you, Mike. You have made a mistake. So we have anything else to talk about? Thanks, Pants. I appreciate that. So one other thing. We were going to talk about – well, we've got two things. Here's the two topics. Let's decide which one we're going to have at. It's getting late in the night. So we're going to talk about either people fighting with God and what you do for them or the Corinthians tithe verse. If you have the Corinthians tithe verse, we'll do that one. If you don't, then we'll do the fight with God. You don't want to talk about pepper spraying people at Walmart? Do people do that? Oh, that lady that got – didn't some lady get arrested? I just got TV back. I'm just now hip to TV. Oh. Get rid of it. There's no point. I don't barely watch it. I did see it –

Netflix. Netflix? No. I used to be on Netflix, and I turned from them. How come? Yeah, we might as well do it. Because they jacked the prices up. Did they really? Yeah. Well, you just do – pick out the one you want. I just do the online thing. Yeah, well, they split them up. See, they used to have both where they used to have the – where they send you the CDs, and you can watch TV episodes free online. Then they split them up, and it was like twice the price for both, and it was a real joke. I left it out of principle. From what I've seen on commercials, though, Blockbuster has not changed theirs at all. No, they haven't. But the other thing you have to remember is that Netflix streaming really is hard on your internet usage if you pay by the megabyte, if you're saying – and so out in the country when you have very few options for internet, you pay by the megabyte that you use. And so streaming movies will eat up pretty much your whole month's supply. Yeah, I was going to say that can't be. In one movie. So you'd be done.

So, Dan, are you on that tithing verse? Yeah, I'm trying to remember. What's the verse? He was in Corinthians 12-ish, maybe? First Corinthians 12? Maybe. How about giving under compulsion? Yeah. You know what? You know, I had a conversation with somebody this week that really hit home is from Hebrews. I'm rereading Hebrews. I've made – I'm going back to it. The wife's been reading Hebrews, and then we've been talking about Hebrews, and I decided that I didn't understand enough out of Hebrews the first time, even after our church did a lengthy dissertation on it. I'm going back through it. Well, yeah. I did a study with my dad on Hebrews, and I just reread it a couple weeks ago, and I was just like, wow. There's a lot. I knew a lot. There's a lot. You guys said 1 Corinthians 12? Yeah, there's a lot. That's a guess.

I'm trying to remember. I used to remember all this stuff, and my brain's gone. And went and grabbed me a Bible. Probably since I went digital. This is the American standard. So this is interesting. See? Now, there's other people that split from Netflix due to their – due to their ridiculous. That's exactly what they did. They sent an email out that said, hey, we're introducing this thing. Like, we're splitting Netflix up until – so it's online, and then it's a DVD delivery, and it's going to be a great deal and a huge benefit. And then they jacked prices up, and I don't know. It was a total screwball, and they made it sound like it wasn't. So – oh, good job. Yeah, see? Computer Doc straightened that out. I didn't hear that. Computer Doc. Yeah. So anyway, I was talking with somebody about – it was Hebrews – I think it's 411 maybe? But it talks about the word of God is sharper than any double-edged sword. And I basically asked myself if I treated that – if my life treats that as being true. You know what I'm saying? Like, do I treat – do I try to force God on people when his word is a double-edged sword

and it will take care of it, right? So, like, if you invite people to church and, you know, let's say they go for six months and nothing seems to be happening, and you're like, yeah, seriously, you know, what are you doing with yourself? Things aren't really working out. You know, you're not making any steps towards Christ. Do I truly treat that God's word is sharper than anything that I could do? Like, the fact that they're even there listening to the sermon, you know, that they're even taking God's word in, you know, is that in God's perfect timing? He's got some things going. He's working on some stuff, and it's better not to force it if you don't have to. Yeah, it's chapter 4, verse 11. Yeah. Or verse 12, excuse me. Yeah, Hebrews 4, 11. 4, 12. 4, 12. 4, 12. This is, For the word of God is living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. You know what amazed me about that verse is when Hebrews was written, I didn't know they had knowledge of marrow. Of marrow?

Yeah, of bone marrow. There's some things in the Bible. Yeah, I kind of agree with you. I actually, like I just said, we were actually reading this a couple weeks ago. That, believe it or not, point actually jumped out to me as well. I agree with you entirely because I love reading Hebrews, and I love trying to figure out. I'm one of the people that when I try and read into it, I actually try and figure out. Okay. I get what you're saying, Chad. I'm trying to say that. I guess what I'm saying is it lends validity to the Bible. That is an awesome point. Seriously, that's not what I'm saying. You're taking me out of context. I'm not surprised that God realizes that there's marrow in the body. How did God know this? What I'm saying is that obviously I think it lends credibility for the crude medical techniques that I assume happened back in the day, that marrow was, I don't know, in existence and in play. I didn't think anyone gave two rips about marrow. Wait a minute. What are quirks? Yeah, people would freak out if they saw microbiology in the Bible.

I tell you what, you want a serious history lesson is look back at Job and look about how God talks about all the things that he knows and all the things he designed. It's stuff that I would not figure anybody would give two rips about back when Job was written. Isn't Job reported to be the oldest, the first book written? Right? Like it was not chronologically not the first story to happen. Well, Moses wrote Genesis. Wait a minute. Genesis? The first five books. I'm fairly certain. I don't remember. That old-timers thing has really affected me these days. Job was definitely not before Adam and Eve. I think they're saying Job's the oldest. Yeah. That sounds familiar. Yeah. Yeah. I would just talk about that. It's funny. The whole chronological order of the Bible is not how it was written. Why wouldn't Genesis have been written before Job?

Just wondering. I know that's probably not even important in a salvation stance, and I know it isn't. But it does happen, like not chronologically in order of humanity, but like when it was written down. You know what I'm saying? Like when someone actually wrote the story down. That's it. I wasn't going to add any more. Because Job lived long before Moses, and Moses wrote the first five books. Oh, I didn't know. Chronologically, Job was before Moses, and Moses wrote Genesis. And so, like. Oh, I didn't know that it was before Moses. Yeah. So it was Adam and Eve, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, Job, blah, blah, blah, blah, Moses. And so, since Moses recounted the stories from, he did the first five books, right? So it was Genesis, Leviticus, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy. So he covered all those, and even though Job is farther along in the Old Testament in the way that it is organized, it is chronologically prior to Moses. Okay. And actually, and you could not tell that either way. I think they've just done it through historical, you know, fact-finding. Because frankly, like, the characters in Job are just Job. Job and God and Satan and his three buddies who have no, they have no reference throughout

the Bible to reference who they are or their existence amongst others. And so I think that's why Job stands alone. So anyway, you have been listening to Live from the Path on livefromthepath.org. Thanks for being with us tonight. You know, I'm pleasantly surprised, you know, on how the show has gone. There's not been a lot of fancy camera action, I'll be honest with you. The chat on my end has probably been pretty low. I'm sure Ben has more to say there. I miss him. I'm excited for him to come back. I don't relish sitting in the daddy chair. It's not for me. I'm the side comment man. I sit and be quiet until it's time for me to pipe up and say something saucy. And then I do it. That's not true at all. And then I sink back in my chair. Yeah, I'm the color. I'm the color commentator. You ever watch the Olympics? There's always Bob Costas and then that weird guy that you don't know. We're like the weird guys. Yeah. We're all the weird guys. And then there's Ben.

Yeah, and then Ben's Bob Costas. I finally found Corinthians 16 is what it was. Let's hit that real quick. Well, I can't. I don't know. Yeah, anyway, it doesn't matter. Now, concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you, excuse me, so you also are to do on the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up as he may prosper so that there will be no collecting when I come. And when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable, I should go and they will accompany me. The NIV has the don't not to give under compulsion. Or am I mixing this up? This doesn't have the NIV, so I was trying to compare. Are you using ESV? Yeah. Okay. Let me give you the main point here. Because a lot of people use the verse that you don't want to have people give under compulsion. And I think a lot of people use it to, I don't know, I would call it Nancy out of telling people what they're biblically should be doing. You know what I'm saying? Like, compulsion to me is very much like we always talk about the shows, is that God

doesn't say that you will be happy. Like, it doesn't give you any guarantee of happiness, right? So, compulsion or guilt are things inflicted upon you by your own self. Like, if you say, Mike, how dare you kick that puppy? I don't feel guilty because I didn't kick the puppy. So, I could care less what you have to say. You know what I'm saying? If the sermon for the day is on tithing, and I'm tithing appropriately, and me and God have worked that out on whatever, the number, the appropriateness, how much we should be given, whatever. You could talk about tithing all day long. I don't care. I don't care. If I'm tithing appropriately, like, there's no guilt for me to feel. And so, I think a lot of people tend to back away from the money topic because they don't want to, they don't want to either, A, some people side on not wanting people to give under compulsion, which I think is, their heart's in the right place, right? They don't want to break a biblical standard. But I think sometimes that goes too far. Well, it's like, look, here's the truth of it. You should be giving money to Jesus. That's the truth of it. And then some people almost take it too far where they put money up on a pedestal exactly where God does not want it to be because they're so afraid to talk about it because they don't want to offend people or get up in their business about their money.

I mean, everything should be on the table for Jesus if you're following Christ. The money should not be a sticky situation. Like, I would fully expect anybody in my LTG, like my accountability partners, to walk up to me and say, what'd you do with your money this week? If they didn't ask me about that, they're not doing their job. Why should money be any different, whether I'm, money should be no different of a sin than, you know, if I told a lie or, you know, I was doing something else that I shouldn't or I was being dishonest at work or whatever, you know, like, there should be no difference. And so, I think people shy away from having the money talk way too much. Like, way too much. Like, they're like, we don't want to talk about it because we don't want people to feel like they have to give under compulsion. Like, you only feel that way if you're guilty of not doing it. You know what I'm saying? You only feel that way if you're not giving God, you know, his tithe. And, you know, there's a lot of biblical interpretation, whether it's, you know, the Old Testament, 10%, 10% or, you know, if you, you know, pray about it and ask God a figure, you know, about where you're thinking and see if that's okay, you know, or whether it's, you know, if 10% is going to put you in the straights, I'm not really sure that God wants all your 10% right now if your car broke down. You know what I'm saying? I don't know where I stand on that. Frankly, I think it's an offering from you to God. And so I think it's between you and God, whether it's the straight 10, you know, that you feel comfortable with or something more, something less.

I don't know. You know, I think that's, there might be a little interpretation there, but I think the main point is, is that no one gives under compulsion unless you're like tricking them out of it. You know what I'm saying? Like if you're doing some kind of weird sideshow or, you know, a carnival or something that you're tricking them out of their money, that's the only time I see compulsion because otherwise it's my money. And if I feel guilty because I didn't give money to Jesus, I probably should because I wasn't giving money to Jesus. You know what I'm saying? Like it just seems like such an odd thing because once you start not talking about it and tone it down so you don't hurt people's feelings about it, you're giving money way more authority than you're giving God. Yeah. And that seems like a real chicken thing to do. I don't know. I don't know. It bothers me because I've listened to a couple things this week where, in fact, there was something on the CNN belief blog this week where it said, you know, that they're very cautious on talking about money because of the bad economic times. I'm like, what a better time to talk about money. Whatever. If you're not giving to Jesus, you're not doing it. That's when some of the greatest giving in the New Testament happened was during a famine

and during a time it was very difficult financially. And Paul's like, I am so impressed. You guys are giving more than other people. Yeah. Well, this is one of the only topics. I mean, just from the reading that we've done in the past couple months that I remember is this is one of the only places that I could find that I had heard about that I could see that God calls us to test him. God deliberately puts in there to test him on us tithing and then him blessing us beyond our belief. Where was that at? That was Malachi 3. Yeah. It's one of the things that God literally calls out and says, give the 10%, give the tithe, test me, test me and see what I'll do for you. Give that money and see. See if I won't open the floodgates. Yeah, exactly. See if I won't open the floodgates. And that kind of made me think, wow, that's kind of weird because it says, don't test God and that stuff. And he's deliberately saying, test me. It's like God's sitting there like, come on, try me. Try me. Do it.

Try me. That was in the midst of difficult financial times too. There was crops for damage. I mean, things were, it was, it was been a great time to say, oh, not right now. Give the first 10th of your harvest. Yep. And for us that don't have a harvest of your paycheck. Wait a minute. I don't have a harvest. Does that mean I don't have to tie? So I've been saving my grass. So are you going to rock it up? Yeah, yeah. I have a garden. I don't know. I guess I, I guess I don't understand why it's such a touchy issue. You know, here's the thing. It's like, if you don't push, if you don't, you don't push the issue and get past it. Like I see, I see, I see churches having very hard times with this issue. You know what I'm saying? Like they're, you know, if they do talk about it, people get an uproar and they're like, they're trying to get my money. What are, what's this? It's very easy to construe that way. It's extremely easy for the person that comes to church.

Maybe it's the third time there. Maybe they've gone there for 10 years and the church starts saying, well, it does that, the whole preaching, the give the 10% to God. A lot of people can misconstrue that. Well, it's not really going to God. It's, it's being decided by you where it goes. It's being decided by the church where it goes. And a lot of people, it's lack of faith. Well, now here's the thing is like, I don't expect new believers. I don't expect new believers or visitors to your church to give it all. Frankly, you know what I'm saying? Like the church should be more than supported by the members within itself. If they're giving faithfully to God, it's, it's, it's more than enough. God, obviously God can run the whole thing on 20 bucks if he wants to. He'll make money fly out of the sky if he needs it. He'll multiply it. Most of the time he doesn't, but you know, he'll do what he wants. He could. I mean, he wants to, he totally could, but he's on the throne. Yeah. Is he on the throne or isn't he? You know, you don't need money from the visitors or the guy that's only been coming from a month. Yeah. You don't say you don't need that money, but like there should, there should never be an issue where, where, where, where people who know Jesus. He needs your money.

And are, and are offended by money. Like it just, it shouldn't be a deal. It's a sensitive issue because that is the last stand of, of my Godhead. Yeah. You know, I am in control of my money. Who, how dare you tell me what to do with my money? It scares a lot of people. That's what you're. You can tell me what to do with everything else. I'll ignore it. Because you haven't, if you don't have enough faith in God for God to take what he's given you, then you're going to be scared about what you have. Yeah. But where's the disconnect, right? Because it doesn't seem to happen. Like the, the, the national numbers on tithing are abysmal. Like they're abysmal. There's like 3% of the church going population that supports the church. Like, I mean, 3% that give their tithe appropriately. And that's, that's nationwide. That's pretty much the standard. That's absolutely abysmal. So tell me this. Do you think that they're not, they're not hitting it hard enough? Like they're saying, look, we're not going to allow this type of G, like, like putting God, putting money as your God here. Who is it that, if I, I mean, not to call out a name here, but Driscoll talks about in one of his, uh, of his sermons about tithing, he says, we're not taking communion this week as a church.

That was pretty rough. He says, we're not taking communion as a church because we're not giving as a church. And I'm afraid for your lives. He's literally saying, just like in the new Testament, there's a part where there is a family or there's a Corinthians. Yeah. A wife and a husband that go up to. Oh no, that's it. Yeah. They go up to, it was Peter. Yeah. Go up to Peter and say, here's what we'll be giving you. And they were holding money back. They were holding money from God. God struck them down. Yeah. He struck them down and killed them where they were standing for not giving what was God's. And when they lied about it, I think it was, it was the lie that was the issue. And he struck them down. And Driscoll was saying, you know, we're not taking communion as a church because I'm afraid for it. Obviously it was more figurative than I think at least it was more figurative. I'm pretty sure the issue was, is that, is that, is that, you know, you need to be repented and rightful, uh, before Jesus, before you accept his blood and his body for communion. And, uh, you know, if you're going to walk in here as money as your God, then, you know, I wouldn't be taking the blood of Christ. You know what I'm saying? It's, uh, I, you know, like, I think you could definitely take this too far, you know, obviously, cause it, it, it, it can slide into compulsion. But I think, I think that, I think that most people have set the, the bar way too far up here to not be offensive.

You know what I'm saying? They're like that. I don't want to hurt people's feelings. I don't want to tell people to do with their money. Yeah, you do. You're the church. That's your job. Your job is whatever leader, man, whatever the Bible says what to do with your money. Your job is to say what the Bible says, you know, tell them if they feel, if they feel upset or get mad or whatever, that's the Holy Spirit going, Hey friend, you're the guy. It's, it's you talking to you right there. And I think one of the things that's crazy about the time is the fact that what I had read and what I had started thinking about and talking to my LTG partner about was it's not us giving the 10% to God. It's God keeping the 10% and giving us the 90. If he gives you the 90, maybe he only wants you to keep 85. He thinks you're too outrageous. Well, yeah, doing as a generality of what they're saying, they're saying the 10%, but I mean, we'll go off that as a generality as a 10%. God's saying, okay, I'll keep the 10. Here's my blessing to you. Here's my gift to you. Here's your 90%. And it's, we have the mentality of, Oh God, you know, this is me. Here's my 10. Not thank you, God for the 90. You keep what's yours. And, and, and thank you for giving me part of it. You know, it's all his in the end.

It's, it's his control that goes, governs over your money. As much as you think that it's yours, it's God's money. Well, Chris was pretty clear. He owns it all anyway. Right. And he's letting you have the 90. Temporary stewards for a few decades that were hanging out here on earth. And then when we're gone, it goes somewhere else anyway. And fluid system. Yeah. You have been listening to Live from the Path. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. I don't know. It's been an okay show. I hope you'll come back next week. We got fantastic things planned along with Ben running back at the helm. Pants, thanks for coming in tonight. Mike. Yeah. I'm happy to be here. I'm glad you came in, Pants. It was an excellent Live from the Path. Ben might not come back. I'm pretty sure he will. Here's hoping.

Troy, thanks for coming in. Appreciate you stopping by, buddy. Thanks for having me. Dan, thanks for showing up late. Appreciate what you did there. Are we starting now? No, we're done. Thanks for coming in. We're fading out. Thank you very much for joining us on Live from the Path. Please check out our YouTube channel because there's stuff on it. Check us out. Like us on the Facebook. I don't know why I say that. You can or don't. I don't care. I don't care. I don't handle the Facebook. Or add me on Facebook. No, don't make friends with Troy. It's a huge mistake. Like, you'll just basically be another one to get in the back of the line of the repent train. Repent. What Troy does during the week. Thank you for joining us on Live from the Path.

Have a fantastic week.