Live Wolf Street Studios in Downtown Des Moines. You are live from the past. Yeah. Thank you. You're listening to Life From The Path on desmoineamplified.com. Thanks for being with us tonight. Yep. I'm gonna have him turn that off. There was a nice breeze in here with that famous. It makes a lot of noise. It's a noisy breeze. Yeah. It sure is. Anyway, like I said, life on the path on mowingamplify.com. I'm anticipating a wonderful, a great show tonight. We're gonna be talking about we're gonna try to answer the age old question, why bad things happen to good people or to

people. I'll put it that way. We're also gonna be talking about the distinction between being a servant and being a slave and that that they're really kind of checking on a biblical distinction. We're talk I've been talking a lot about service lately and I think sometimes we mistake service for weakness and and maybe in exchange for slavery. So I I wanna talk a little bit about that and whether there's a distinction or not biblically. So we're gonna touch on that. Also,

Jeff Arendell's in the studio with us. You may recognize him. He was has been in here before and he was he was so glorious that we invited him back. He has acquired more pairs of pants than he had previously. Is that true? Well, I just did a I did an inventory and I've got 10 pairs that are about one to two sizes smaller than where I am now and that's not in case I lose weight because I'm trying to, but you know, in case I get cancer. This is not the case I get cancer, yeah, I gotta have, you know. You must always be prepared for such things. I know. It's like keeping a a pair a pair of extra eyeballs around in case you go blind. I think you're I think, well, whatever I'll be doing. I like your planning, you're like Wow. Also, so a a Mormon, a Jew and an atheist walking to a bible college.

Why? Mormon, a Jew and an atheist. Walking to a bible college. Okay. I'm You're gonna have to hang out to find out at the end of that. That's coming up probably in the second hour. This is not a fill your own answer in. Right? Like, don't have to come up with something. No. No. I I'll give you the answer. Oh, good. K. Mormon Jew Atheist Bible College. Think on it. What kind of college? What kind of Bible college? I thought they were gonna say, this isn't the right IHOP. I didn't see anything else on that this week, by the way. No further response. So last week, we were talking about there was a The International House of Prayer has been filed suit against by the International House of Pancakes. And our overall decision was that the pancakes beat the House of Prayer simply by virtue of having the name earlier.

But as yet, the writing of the article that we looked at last week, the International House of Prayer had not responded to the lawsuit. No public comment. They're praying on it. Yeah. You know, the thing is, like, if you're if you are verbally assaulted in the media, I would respond. Like, if I had a good response, I would it seems to me like a good response takes no longer than five seconds to come up with. And five seconds is still a long time. What do you mean? Okay. Mike Foose, lawyer of International House of Prayer, you have just had soup filed against you by the International House of Pancakes. What is your response? It's none of your business. It's what we call we call our business. We'll keep our name. If if you were if you were strong enough in your in your in your corporate dealings, you shouldn't have to worry about us. Mean, are are we are we really that big of a bug on your radar? We just have the one. Jeff, you're for that? Is it echo response?

You know, that might work. I mean, maybe in court of opinion. I'm sorry, Jeff. What would not work about it? Probably the legality. Yeah. The copyright of the name. Is it And was it copy written or is it a registered trademark and is it the same thing? Yeah. So the IHOP itself, they they registered trademark on the shorthand of International House of Pancakes. They they further said that the International House of Pancakes intentionally used the shorthand name IHOP to draw attention to themselves. Yeah. But does that matter in the legal dealings? You know what I'm saying? Like whether they intentionally did it or not? Like if they didn't intentionally do it, is it okay to stay? Or What if they start serving pancakes

at the International House of Prayer? See now, I think that's where they're trouble. But they are most certainly not gonna Unleavened cakes at the International House of Prayer is gonna be a problem. That would be bad, especially if they start charging money and business starts going away from the pancake That's right. IHOP. Yeah. Well, maybe they could start praying at the international. Here's the thing. Because I think it would almost benefit it has to benefit the pancakes more than it benefits the prayer, right? Because no one says, dang, I thought this was the house of prayer. No walks into the IHOP pancake joint and goes, well, I don't see any crucifixes. This isn't This ain't the place. Must be one of those modern churches. I'm thinking probably most people don't even know what IHOP is in the context of prayer. No. Unless you're like really into the prayer thing. No. The average Joe Even the average person who attends a church or an average believer is like Now, to be fair, when they started it, I could I could see calling,

like let's say the the words, the acronym worked out okay and we called our youth group IHOP. You know, I don't know exactly what would come up with. But you know, so like in a group of say a 120, a 130, 200 people, you know, you can refer to your youth group as IHOP and then ten years later, it's turned to be a massive youth group and now the IHOP pancake place is showing up going, hey, you know. So like, it's kitschy and fun when you did it when you were small. Yeah. And then it got so big that now it's out of their control. That's actually happened at our church because we had a thing called, it was like our vacation bible school Called Harbys? No. We served roast beef and I knew. No. It was called Fun Fest. And I think I don't know there's a Fun Fest for or no it was called Kids Fest and there's a Kids Fest that's over at the state fair and so I think we might have even had it first but we didn't register it because it's a 120 people Right. And then we found out it was registered and we had to change it to fun fest and we still had fun. Fun fest, see that involved, then now everyone will show up. Now you're gonna get all walks of society. There's gonna be fun there, I'm in. So wait a minute, I I think that the church then should file suit against everybody named Jesus in the phone book. Jesus. That's not You can't use that name. Yeah. We want money from everybody. Yeah. But the church doesn't own Jesus, it's the other way around. Can You mixed stuff up. I always forget it. You seem like a great fundraiser. I'm gonna have to change my sermon for next week. I see your name's Jesus. $20. It it is kinda awkward. Every once in a while you run into a fellow you know with Jesus is the name and Is is this Jesus? Liar. I know Jesus. I would agree. I do I think it's it's Jesus.

Not I guess I'm using the Greek. It'd be It's Jesus in Greek and and No, it's not. Seriously? There's no Jesus in Greek society? That's how you would pronounce it. No, it isn't. Hold on. Dude, I took two years of Greek. How'd you do? I did quite well. Oh, dang. I thought you took it twice because the first year didn't go so much. I I You you don't use it a whole lot except like if you're doing sermon stuff and for some reason, I I sent a package to my daughter Danielle in in college, okay, today. And I I call up, have it on my my hard drive. I just print off a thing and tape it on the box, you know. For some reason, it all came up in Greek letters today. I go, what? You know, somewhere along the lines since the last time I I sent it, our computer crashed and everything and and it went we did the Carbonite thing and it all came back on. Was really great. It had no problems at all. But this one little tiny word press document with, you know, 15 words on it came up in Greek letters

and I couldn't just change the font because it all went to circles or squares or something. Oh right. Somebody's playing a practical joke. Know like this is really But luckily I know Greek. You know, so because I was like I don't know her address because because Why would I? She she was you know moved, she was gonna come back to you. Daniel you are a man of many times. And I'm like, you're not you're not much to meets the eye but I tell you what. Your knowledge goes far beyond what you portray. I know Greek. Unbelievable. Could you read it? Yeah. And it was the address, it was the actual It was the actual address, yeah yeah. Wow. I mean, I I can't I can like I could open up I have a Greek, you know, New Testament. I can open up and read it, but I can't translate it and read it. You know, I'm not that advanced, I can sit there and say, oh, you know. Okay. Well, maybe you can settle for what it'd be has been a timeless question. How how do you say the word that's g y r 0? Euro? Is Euro? Like the like the like the money? Like the European currency? That's a See now that Now the

difference here is I learned Koine Greek which is a dead language, okay? Okay. And and you're talking classical Greek. They don't they don't serve I don't There must be weirdos in the Koine District. Maybe that's why they all died. They all died because they said it wrong and they They couldn't eat starved. Were eating the wire rose and they said, man, there's bad stuff out here. They don't have any of those, sorry. Man. The problem with that one is like I think I have it and maybe I hear two people in front of me, they say euro or something, I say, okay, euro and I'm good, go. And then I see somebody maybe later on who I respect, who I think is pretty smart and they say completely different, I think, oh. I'll have a gyrus? I've been above us about it, yeah. Gyrus. I'll have the gyrus gyrus. Holiest deets you can find. Oh, he was gonna be my answer for b movie b bible character trivia. Man. B bible character? Yeah. I think we're gonna start doing a trivia where I'm gonna explain like a story of a b bible character that you probably shouldn't know and then we're gonna see who can come up with the answer. You mean like like in a b movie or something? Yeah. Yeah. He's he's a he's a very supporting cast member. Like he maybe has one mention like Bar Jesus in Acts. You know what mean? He comes up one time and then goes away. They're like Or like Jehoshaphat. Yeah yeah yeah. Very much. Jeff Rowe. Yeah. Very very unknown fellow. Who's Bar Jesus? He was in the book of Acts. He was what was he? He was some kind of magic man. He did some kind of magic and and I wish I can remember the whole Sorcerer thing. Yeah. Yeah. And but it was the funny it was funny because his name was spelled b a r hyphen

Jesus. Like you can just add to Jesus, you know, of course, mean it was common back then. Maybe it was Jesus, bar Jesus or something. Had bar Jesus. We had a taco stain. Wait, how does Dan say it? Bar Jesus. Jesus. I love it. There's nothing funny about that. No. No, it's completely perfect. That's a dead language. Give it up. What was it? I learned all the dead stuff. Quine? How you say it? What kind of like Greek was it? Oh, koinae. Koinae. Koinae Greek, yes. Does that mean dead Greek in Greek? I don't remember. It's been so many years since I studied it, I'm like, every once in while I a flashback and I go, oh yeah, that's Yeah, koinae. K o I n e. It was like the common peasant dude language as opposed to the rich wealthy The street street Greek. Yeah. Street Greek. Okay. That's what I know. Okay. Yeah. I'm a street language. I believe in. Alright. I'm listening live from the path of demorning at fledge.com. Like I said, coming up, we'll be talking about why good bad things happen to people.

And also, the the end of the setup, Mormon Atheist and Jew walking to a biblecollege..dot. So hang on for that one. Also, Jeff Arendell will be performing for us. He's got got some tunes lined up, we'll be listening to him in here in just a minute. So let's let's talk about a little bit about one of the things I can't explain why this has been been on me this the last two or three weeks. But everywhere I look, we keep getting I keep getting things about service, about about servantry, about serving God's people, about, you know, maybe what I should be doing or people in general should be doing with their lives to serve others

through Christ's example. And then one of the things that I thought of, of course, because my initial reaction to just about everything God sends my way is, nah, but what about, you know, God? Did you think about this right here? Couple of things that I might try to throw in the way of it. And for the servant thing, weakness is what is what jumped out at me. When you think and this this is a worldly context, is when you think service, when you think I think sometimes weakness or you know, being trampled on or like that kind of thing is the kind of what pops into my mind maybe when I think of that. And I I know that's not right. Like that's not You don't treat server Yeah. Your your servers at restaurants very well, do you? Actually, I mean You look down at them. That I'm what you're

an excellent tipper and I've I frankly I will forgive just about anything. In fact, Dan, you were with us when we went to that truck stop that one time, remember? That service was terrible. Was hours of Worst meal ever. It was pretty bad. I I had it had no impact on me. I could care less. Yeah. I'm like, well, whatever. Have you ever invited one to join you, sit down and you know We take a load off? Actually, at that same truck stop, we used to go to we used do it with a night crew that was there, Just have them come down and sit with us and and eat for a while when we'd be in there like one or two in the morning doing something. Okay. Then they So I mean, I guess that's my question. Biblically speaking, you know, is there a difference between being a servant and being a slave? And in effect, does God call us to be weak? I don't know if I I don't know. I guess I don't know if it's biblically speaking or not, but it seems to me the difference between a servant and a slave is a guy who chooses. You know, you choose to be a servant. You know, you're put as a slave. Yeah. You're placing yourself under the the leadership headship of of another. Right. You're basically saying,

okay, you run a show, I'll I'll be the legs. Know, you tell me where you wanna rock and I'll I'll head that direction. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's what it really boils down to. It's a personal choice of devotion. Yeah. Now, I I think I think maybe the the servant thing tends to get a bad rap because if you're a servant for anything in this world, you got a good chance of getting burned. You know what I'm saying? Like, nobody nobody likes the the company man, you know, the Yeah. The blue collar. The guy that wears the company shirt on the weekends into his company shorts and has a company golf bag, you know? Like, because they because people look at you and go, this man is a servant of this company, You know, like he's given away, you know, everything about himself to this to this organization and and his boss or whatever, you know. And But the thing is, like, the boss in the organization can can lead you astray. Know, you could could end up you know, doing things that aren't you know, something that you would have done originally. But but God on the other hand, if you're serving to the Lord, you know, you've at least put your trust in the right hands. Right.

You know, I think there's a risk involved in a a servant and a servant's heart Mhmm. Is that you can easily be taken advantage of and and people will be glad to take advantage of you even in the context of a church setting you know. Mhmm. And not even mean to. They may not intentionally do it but they'll just You're good at that. You always do that. Exactly. You'll love to do this. A good good friend of ours, Sean Engeldinger, who passed away about a year ago, he was an example that he was this incredible servant. Anything. He would do anything. He's a guy

intelligent, highly skilled. Know, he'd work in the nursery if if you needed it. He'd he'd sweep the floors. He'd load the trailers. He did anything. And what became easy for people to do is in a meeting where we're all saying, okay, who's gonna do this? Everybody would be quiet because they knew Sean would say, well, I will. And eventually, it just piled on and on and on and pretty soon they'd say, dude, you gotta get rid of half these jobs and find someone who'll do it because, well, he's a servant. He's gone now. Who's stepped up? Everybody. Everybody had to. Yes. It took everybody. It did it did. You know, he he I mean, I've never known anybody like him. But it's it it We allowed him to to hinder the work of Christ by by everyone being lazy because he was such a great servant. Now now is that a characteristic of a great servant though? Like if a servant sees that he's being taken advantage of and says, whatever, you know. Like like, you know, like in the meeting, you know, it's it's quiet and he's sitting there going, you know, he's not an idiot, know, Sean was a fairly intelligent guy and he's and he's going, I I I know what's going on here. And then anyway, he goes, okay, you know, I guess I'll do it. God wants his son, we're gonna do it. Yeah. So he's gonna do it. You guys want, I will. And and and yeah, we had many discussions of you you've gotta scale back. He never complained, he never whined about it, he never you know, great servant. Taking advantage of them. Yeah. And And that just comes with a job, I guess, right? Half my job is to try to protect him from other people because he'd do it all. Yeah. Hopefully though people saw his reaction and his servant heart and surely saw that, saw Christ in that. Well Oh yeah. Oh well, I I think they did, you know, but I think it

you wouldn't wanna compare it to like someone else's walk with Christ or anything, but you know, when you know you're allowing someone to be taken advantage of here, you know, maybe you're not quite in the right place, you know what I'm saying? I mean, because you can, you can easily take advantage of people like that and sometimes you wouldn't even know that you're doing it, know, you just figured, well, he's a guy that likes to do a lot of stuff, know, at least we're not leaving him bored, know. Because you see a guy that continues to raise his hand and go, hey, I want this, I want this. Want something done, give it to a busy person. That's exactly right. Want something done, you give it to a busy guy, know. He's the guy for the job, he's the best man for the job. And then when we get to heaven, his crowns are gonna be this tall. Exactly. And ours will be this tall. And the thing is, see, he did it, didn't do it for the church. He didn't do it for notoriety. He didn't do it just because no one else did it. He purely did it because for Jesus, it was a servant. He was Christ's servant. He did it. I mean, he loved holding babies because he thought, wow, I can love Jesus by doing this. And, you know, our church has grown dramatically from that as people kinda started going, you don't appreciate it till it's gone. And a lot of people, the light bulb came on after that and were like, woah. And like, I think everyone's service

increased after that and and still has really. Mean it's been a Did you get to do his funeral by by chance? Yeah. Oh his funeral Awesome. It was epic. It was what was it? Had it been three hours? It might have been. Was about a thousand people there. It was three hours long and it felt like a half an hour. Like it was the best funeral. There was five different dudes that stood up and said, he was my best friend. Yeah. Couldn't get people to stop saying his best friend. Like that's what he felt like to the people around him. Yeah. He worked at a Just before it happened, he worked at a Took a job at like a Sears call center or something, you know? And he was only there like six months. And when he died at the funeral, they had to shut the call center down cause everyone refused to go to work, they wanted to go to the funeral. He'd only been there six months, know, people would just start new jobs hiding corners,

you know, and you know what, as soon as he started that job, our out kick of that of that sermon increased like 232300%. Like he wanted like way more CDs just because he started a new job and met a bunch of people he didn't know. So now he needed a bunch more CDs and a bunch more business cards because he found new people. He was he was an amazing guy. The world was his mission. Yeah. He he was amazing. And that's really That's how this radio program started was a guy at the funeral was was impacted

invited me to go and be part of a show and kinda kinda talk about it. And then he invited me back a few weeks later and and Mike was laying around with nothing to do at the moment and so I invited him to come with and then it kinda fed know, grew into to this and and so you know, his ripple effect was Yeah. A What was his name again? Sean Engeldinger. Sean Engeldinger. Tiny tunes, he was a DJ for twenty some years. He started the kids fest here in town. Yeah. Sure they made him change the name. Yeah. I thought we saw him in court. He owned three franchises of Baskin Robbins and he Try to just start the I hip. You know what, that's what they should do, International House of International Prayer. Bam, that song's I hip. Why wouldn't you just say house of international prayer? That's hoeip. That's just that's just hip.

House? People people drop of all the time. Yeah, that's true. Let's let's go to the hip. Oh yeah. Praying from the hip. It's it's kind of all kinds of cool connotations. But it sounds like you're not really planning anything, it's just That's how your prayers should go, right? Exactly. Can't pray unceasingly while plotting for half the Pharisee? Yeah. In point three of my outline, Jesus is Jesus says, plot unceasingly for half the day on what you're gonna pray about and then pray for the rest. But he he gave a pattern, know, I mean, you know. You know, but I think that's but predominantly, he I think he gave that pattern as just the example for people of the types of things to pray about. Exactly. Yeah. That's a plan. I mean, you could mean, people That's a plot. To pray Well, I don't know if it's a plot. I'm gonna make sure I get my praise part in here. Our father, our Initiate prayer. Complete prayer. Sign name. Actually, you know what I noticed this week? I I It was I realized that I stink at that part. Like I have a hard time putting into words

like talking to God and things like like you're so amazing or Because like it's To me, it's a given. It's God we're talking to. Mhmm. Know? He's like, can't tell him anything he doesn't already know. Yeah. Hey, you're great. Yeah whatever I've I've that too. There's a billion other people in the world, get on with what you want. Yeah. I have such a low vocabulary, I'm like I can't really improve what David did or you know You're really big, you made some really cool stuff and I like stars. The it it University. It makes you feel like a six year old. I know. Yeah. Well, that's I mean, we'll put it in the context of what you're asking for, know. Example prayer on the way in. Lord, I appreciate everything you've done from where your awesomeness is unceasing. Okay. So me and Ben and Dan are gonna be on a radio show tonight with Jeff. Don't let us say anything dumb, okay? Oh. Oh, I prayed that one too. Sign me up. Let us let us glorify you and not stand in the way. By the way, you were awesome like I said earlier. This is stupid Mike, see you.

He's like, let those words be yours. He's like, alright, Dan, give him the Jesus. Tell him you know Greek. Yeah. Tell him you know Greek. Tell him you know street Greek. Quainey. It'll blow their minds. They'll be so impressed. He's like, you know, I invented street Greek. You know, and classical Greek. They weren't speaking right, so I sent someone down there. Fix it. Here's what I'm gonna do. I turned his hat backwards and they called it different Greek. So actually, know, I think that's that's what I've been coming to when I've been praying this week is is is the major difference between being a servant and being a slave is precisely

your willingness to do it. Mhmm. And and sometimes that puts you in positions where, you know, you feel like people are walking on you. And maybe and maybe they are, but it doesn't have anything to do with you. There's I I remember I had a conversation with somebody one time. It was about giving money to homeless people and and drunks or whatever. And I I just I had I'll hand it If I have it, like I don't I rarely carry cash so if you five at a time when when I have it, you're more than welcome to it because otherwise, I don't know. You got any cash? Yeah. I don't have it. Nope. Exactly. Do not. Exactly. Mister 10 pairs of pants. Well, I'm like from 1980 and '85 and '90. It comes around every twenty years. Are these are these guest jeans still hip? Hip. Hip. Like, I would give it to anybody. And I remember, you know, I've We had a couple people say, you know, okay, now hold on a minute. You would not give it to anybody. I would. Would you give it to some kinda Let's say it was a it was a Tommy Hilfiger head to toe teenager

come rolling up to you and said, got out of his his his 2009 Chevy pickup truck and said, hey, man, by the way, can I have $10? Yeah. If if I had well, I I probably would have 10. I don't It's not like I have anything over 5. Okay. Well well So Yeah. I better call my wife. Yeah. Give it to What would you prefer he say? Can I have all your money? That sounds like a robbery. Well, he says, I I need $5. I'm like, yeah, okay. I'll give you $5. He doesn't need $5. How do I know that? He squints all his money What you even ask him? Why do you need $5? No. No. Because I don't because the the more I ask him, the more I I don't care really. Like what what I don't start judging him. I don't I don't care. Here's here's what I started doing is I the the way I started to think about it was, I'm buying a name to pray for. That's that's what I'm doing. You If you say what's you know, can I have your name? And I'll give you $5. I'll trade him $5 for his name and then I got some How many times have you put this into practice? 13. No, you haven't. It's probably eight. It's probably an unknown number. No. It's no. I bet I bet You're throwing a dart at a board here. It's what's it's it's in single digits, but it's definitely above five or six because I Yeah. Because I remember talking about it with somebody and I'd done it like quite a few times. I see I I I think I I disagree like I couldn't give money to the to the to the punk, to the kid. Why? I'd give money to the homeless guy. Like it's easier for me to give money to the homeless The kid might be in debt. He Do you see all the stuff he's got in this big truck he owns? Well, now see, we just talked about this last week. How far do you go to enable somebody? Yeah. But it's just $5. What are you gonna do? Of enablement? Yeah. What are you gonna do? What if it's the last Right. He's continuing his his vagabond lifestyle What if he needed five bones? What if he needed 5 more dollars to get his next meth pipe? You don't know. Well, then it's all the better that I got his name to pray for. I don't know. Wow.

Singing. What if he needed Oh man. I shouldn't have said meth pipe. I should have came in Dang it. I should have said What if he's used What if needed 5 more bucks to rent a limo for him and all his buddies to drink Dewar Scotch all night? Better? No. Same spot. The I same don't spot as the meth pipe. Here's the thing, I may be totally wrong in this like, I'm just saying what I would do. I'm not saying it's the right thing to do. Yeah, you're totally right. I'm just saying I had I would have I would say, get away from me. It's tough to make a judgment call on the spot. Right. I would give the homeless guy almost hands down 5. That's why I just default to give it to him. Yeah. Like what am I gonna do? Please petition me for my $5? Okay. What amount am Tell me your worries. I have this form for you to fill out. What if the guy says, look, I really need the money. Can you run to an ATM? Are you just doing it out of laziness, convenience?

Is it mean, your rule is just Yeah. It's not like I like to give to people. You're like, I like to give to people if I happen to have loose cash on it. That's a solid point. I I may not go to my ATM and clean it out for somebody. Maybe you should always have with you like $5 IHOP gift certificates. Actually, very thing I was thinking They might go pray. This week was I I should keep $10 and ones in my wallet at all time. Just you know how some people keep $50 a $100 in their wallet as a prosperity thing to know that like you're never broke? Have you ever heard that? Mhmm. No. I've never heard of I've never had it but I've heard of it. I kept it for that. I don't know. I did it at the longest for two and a half months. But but it was kind of the same thing. It's like I if if my goal was to keep $10 in ones or so in my wallet, we could the biggest thing would be not me not using it at soda machine. But specifically, so that if someone walks up and says, hey, can I borrow a buck or hey, can I have a dollar or hey, you know, I need some money for whatever, I have it and I can give it to him? That's a much better line of thought for me is to have money in my wallet to give away as opposed to money in my wallet to keep and remind me that I have money. That's not why I keep money in my wallet. I keep it there so I can spend it on stuff. That's why I don't keep money in my wallet for very reason. But the big thing The money that I spend as a come and go is keeping that guy in a job and his name tag is already displayed. I get a soda, he gets a prayer and the corporation stays in business. Everybody's

happy. That's like saying that like all these singles I have are keeping the big girls open. I keep the ladies working at the strip joint because I have money to give them. Well, if you'd spend money somewhere else instead of giving it away to a well-to-do teenager, maybe they could work a legitimate job. No. I don't know about that. What if that well-to-do teenager was actually an angel? It's Jesus. If Jesus came up and said, can I have $5? You know what Jesus has. He's got the world in his hands it says. You have to ask him, is your name Jesus or Jesus? Hey, so why I got you here? He'd yes. I'd say can we talk about a couple things? So

Jesus says, Mike, can I have $5? You say, well what do you need it for? I mean, I'm I'm a little tight. I'd have to give the Lord $5. Well Wait a Do I know he's the Lord or is he just Isn't that what he said when you do for the least of these, you do You walk right into it. But he hates the least of he hates the least of those. He says he is. He's a well-to-do. He claims to be the least? He says when you do it for them, do it for him. Yeah. You're such a sucker, you walk right into it. You know well enough to walk into a Hook. Least of these line. I'm saying I'm saying fancy truck man is not least of these. He may very well be, don't know that's not borrowed money. Or stolen. Now I'm now I'm feeding a corrupt Here's what I'm saying. Someone on the chat says, Mike would give anyone money and then follow him to see where he lives. I might do that. That you know what? That statement is way more accurate. I would give him the money and then find out. I'd follow him. But see whether you got hosed. See Yes. See see where you're spending your time?

Give him $3, take his name and pray for him. What if I give him a $100? If you have a 100 to give him, do it. I don't have $3 to give him. We'll give them whatever you got. So I I I can't get on board with your rationale that it's like a it's like a it's like a you're walking casino. If you happen to have cash on you, you'll give it to them. They're taking a gamble by asking I'm sorry that money is so important to you, Listen to this, I tell you what, when you come down off your high horse, I'll bring you a ladder and you can come down and we'll talk about this. So so so the the virtuous man, the man that attempts to help others and give money freely is some kind of staunch offender You've done this you've done this eight times with less than $5 a pop. I said I started And all of a sudden, you're Mona Lisa. You're the greatest give or no to man.

It's You're trying to get me to just say, I'm I'm I'm not gonna claim to be somebody that I'm not. Now, whether it's whether it's the right thing to do, I don't know. Wait a So so so you find out there's something you could probably improve on your life and your response is to dig your heels in the sand and say, I'm just not this guy. I am not gonna am not gonna start keeping $5 on me to accept the Ben Ben Foose line of charity or if some random guy comes up to me, if I happen to have bucks on me, I'll give it to him. But I won't happen to have bucks. I will always have bucks on me. That's Starting when? Now? Yeah. Need to go do it. Okay. Starting right now. I don't there's no way So I've given away your past errors. Why are you coming out for mine? Because you're refusing to move. I'm telling you the guy that I used to be or how I would react to a guy in that situation. Didn't say that you were planning on changing. I don't have to explain my every move to you. I didn't didn't see the last time you wrote a bible or claimed some type of salvation. I'll explain to you what I want. The least of these is biblical. I don't I don't know that you have to intentionally keep money with you for that. However, if you follow the principles of like the Old Testament where they didn't harvest all their crops specifically for the person who needed it. They never asked why they needed it. I guess that's actually a pretty good principle to always have something with you

for those who are in need. Providing your family's provided for already and your Would you like to supersize your ego massage? Dan's helping out here. Where does giving come in then? That sounds like an old testament grand. Where does giving? Where does tithing come in? Mean provide I mean tithing first Mhmm. Provide for your family and then have $10 in your wallet for Sure. I mean, you look at the old testament, you know, the tithe was just even in the old testament, a beginning point. Right. Because there was tithing and then there was also keeping some of the harvest unharvested for other people. They were periodic, know, every so many years they took another offering Offering. For other things and yeah, it's

We are called to live in a generosity, in a culture of generosity toward people. Really kind of looking for I I don't. I mean, I don't mean, I have a handful of times given to people that if I see someone, I'll kind of avoid them. I mean, because I'm thinking, dude, I need the money as much as you do. Yeah. Go ahead. Get them, Ben. You didn't seem to have any problem dragging me to the wall. Attack pastor Daniel about his ways. Wait, is there a however? No, I'm just a I'm poor. You're a slug. I'm a slug. I spent my money at the movie theater last week and therefore I don't have money to give. To keep them in business. Actually, Dan, I think that's appropriate. Sometimes you just need to get away, know? Oh, you gotta be kidding. Mike on the other hand. It's not like I've never given to anybody in my life. I'm not trying to say don't help people. And I'm not And I'm just saying I'm not a parade float who throws cash out the side of my float. No. And I and what I'm I'm not saying that it's that you like you need to spend your time finding ways to throw money at people, but what I'm saying is is is that I feel like I need to realign my my perspective because I I kinda do that same thing. I might see somebody and I'm like, yeah, don't wanna do I I just don't wanna deal with it really so I kinda I will go around them. When really,

I I think my I think my time and energy and money probably would be better served with those opportunities. Like one of the things that that I've that I've been really praying over the last few weeks is to not miss opportunities that I've been provided. Mhmm. Because that If it's one that God has given, you you Yeah. How would I know? Like like if I I mean, Sand's waiting for God to grab me in the throat and throw me in the river because there's another guy drowning and he wants me to take a grab of him. Right? I have to keep my my mind open. Frankly, everything is a potential opportunity. Sure. And so, know, and I agree that you can't plan for all but I I just I just feel like it just realigns my perspective a little bit where I don't have to think the two things that are reinforced, if a homeless guy or somebody comes up me and says, hey, man, can I can I have a couple bucks? I give two things enforced if I have no money in my pocket. One, I get reminded that I'm poor, don't have any money, And two, that I can't do anything to help that guy out. Both of those which I don't think are necessarily worldly perspective. If I can keep $5 in once, which isn't gonna break me, alright, and I only always have money in my pocket to give to somebody, that takes their setting if And you don't know. If they're gonna take that money and and they're gonna buy them something, some type of stimulant, know, a drug alcohol, whatever. That's not helping them, that's hurting them. If you can give them an IHOP coupon or you can take them for a meal, that that's way better to their benefit. Yeah. Here's the thing.

Let's say the same guy comes rocking up to you, I think that like currently, my current frame of mind is I'm doing two things. One, I'm either I'm either buying him to go away. Like, I see him coming and I think, okay, I'll just give him $5 and he'll leave me. Or two, I'm keeping him from robbing me because he's gonna take my money away. He might just jump me in and and I'm saving myself a beating, you know. So here's the thing. Of giving him money, why don't you look at it as an opportunity to talk to him about Jesus? Why you Well, you know, it seems like you're almost philandering to his money was when you say, you know, look, can I talk to you for a minute? Sure. Well, don't see you gearing up to do that. How do you know? You made you made more mention of the money giving. I know, that's true. I'm I'm working up to it. It's one of my like, one of the things that I that I really struggle with is is outright witnessing. It makes me uncomfortable. And there there are people who make a living going from church to church getting help,

you know, and the church is not serving them by doing that. Mhmm. You know, because they're they're they're completely just shysters, know, making their way cross country or whatever. Well, that isn't that how Paul lived though? Didn't he go from place to place hoping people would support him? He was teaching. And he was a tent maker. Yeah. I mean, he pulled his own way. And he, you know, there was there was an exchange of value. Here's Jesus, here's how to do Jesus and oh by the way, because I'm telling you how to do Jesus, I don't have time to work at Burger King, you know, so maybe you can help me out. You know, that's what I do, that's my living is through that. Mean you make tents? No. Bummer. Tent maker. $7 for a part of his car.

Okay. Yeah. See, that's Well, here's the thing is I I don't tolerate belligerent people who who Like like the Chad example, where he wanted where he wanted certain dollar amount. Like, could give him $5 and he needed 7 and he was upset that he couldn't get 7. Like, that was the Chad example. Like, that's obviously

Here's I I I I don't know. Like, you see, used to it just seems to be a huge broad distinction. Like, you're willing to make concessions here, you're making concessions here. You know what if the guy really does need $20? What if he needs $20 to to to get, you know, his family's buried in Chicago or something and he needs to get back to him and $20 is the amount that he's missing. So you're willing to offer him the $5 in your pocket and that's all and he and and the 20 is what could have helped him, you know, but you cut the line off because that's your convenient way of saying, I don't have to do anymore. Right. I mean, it goes back You look at the the scripture we looked at last Sunday, if someone forced Oh, okay. Blah blah blah. Give to one who asks turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. I mean, he he doesn't give a lot of qualifications there. Well, does And it does say borrow, not take. As if he's going to return investment. True. Well, bang. Scripture. Well, that particular verse.

Well, but but doesn't it doesn't it also say what credit is to you to to give someone an expected repayment? Yes. That's not I think that's not in the same spot. Yeah. Yeah. Mean, there's a Yeah. Victory. I'm just I'm I'm just saying I'm just saying, you just take this this high road with the $5 in your pocket and I think What you do what you do in this situation? Okay, so the guy says, hey, can you give me $5? And you do and same time next day, you're walking on your way to lunch and he says,

hey, can you give me $5? Do you give him $5 again? Same guy? You give him a Dave Ramsey Financial peace. D e d. To learn how to manage your $5 better. We've done those at church for that very reason for people to to that are chronically needing needing help. It's like well, maybe maybe the issue is you haven't been educated. Yeah. You just don't know how to manage your money. I mean, you know, I'm not a pro at it. I I know how, I just choose not to oftentimes, you know, which is my fault, so I don't go around asking for money. I figure I just need to, you know, make another tent. You've been listening to, live from the path on desmoynamplified.com. Thanks so much for being with us here tonight. You can catch us, during the week, by the way, at, livefromthepath.org where you can watch archive shows, sign up for the newsletter, check out the YouTube channel, stuff like that.

Jeff Yes. We we've been talking a little bit about being a servant versus being a slave and also where we're called to service. But we're also in the studio with Jeff Arendale. Jeff has is in a I'm trying to think of the best way to describe this. You're with now with the Century Music Group. Right. Maybe you tell us just a little bit about what that is. That's a what's the best way to put that? It's like an artist development company. Back in the day, record companies would look for talent and sign the talent and then develop the talent. Well apparently that got expensive.

And the way it was explained to me that record companies stopped doing that or stopped doing that as much and so these little companies in the music business, a lot of times producers, sprung up to fill that need and develop talent and you know, I guess eventually sell talent to you know record companies or you know you know entertainment avenues or whatever so and that's what this company that's what this company does so. Cool. Yeah. Are you the so they considered you the talent? Well, that's a bonus. I know. It surprised me too.

They give you a t shirt with the word talent on Like a membership card? Am officially talented. Do you see this card? Well you know and I ask myself that all the time. Really? Me? Are you serious? But Well that's pretty awesome. Like I mean they don't just take anybody off the street right? I can't walk in and say hey, know breed me into something great? No. You know and I It's it's clearly, it just goes to show I don't know. Breeding me into something. A little too late for that. It was a metaphorical I hope so. Breed. It amazes me too. If they attempt to breed me, I'm leaving. Okay, I've lost my train of thought. Yeah, no, it's my job.

You know, with the company that I was working for, you know, Ben who was here with me with Certainty a couple months ago actually sent one of our CDs to him and and the guy that ran the company heard that and apparently heard something. Yeah. And you know, I'm just grateful. It's something I've, you know, I've not begged God for, but I've let God know the desire of my heart that, you know, God, if there's any way that you can use me to amplify you, to draw people to you through music, that would be a blessing not only to me, but I hope it would be a blessing to you and a blessing to others. Right. So I see this as an answer to prayer in that way. Well, that's cool. So how do they help this like coaching Exactly. Opening doors and things like that, mean Yeah. It's well, probably the first thing is just like a presence, a web presence

including, you know, calendar and blog and videos and hey, I'm Jeff Arendale and here's what I'm about and, you know, come and see me and that kind of stuff and so so there's that. There's also coaching or opportunities to possibly come and record somewhere, Nashville, maybe, hopefully someday.

Yeah. And and then there's certainly, they have contacts in that industry. It's kind of interesting too, when I was first approached, I you know, I kinda looked at the website and and there were country artists and jazz artists primarily, and so I'm thinking, a Christian artist, really? You know, and he was kind of excited about it, about the fact that they don't have a Christian artist and he's aware of the Christian music industry. Oh, yeah. And so, know, I think it just gives him another way to go or direction to go with an artist, so. Yeah, and obviously a good opportunity, you know, to

introduce some some Christian music around that may have, obviously if you're filling a void within their organization as well, that's that's pretty that's pretty neat. Yeah. Really. Well, since you're here, would you mind playing a song for us? Sure. I would love to. Okay. Want me to it now? Yeah yeah. Go ahead and settle up. Alright. Alright. Can you hear it? Oh yeah. Very good. Alright. So this song is called Not Here For Me. Maybe just tell us a quick little bit about it. Yeah. This this song is

kind of a lot of my songs come out of teaching or or certainly reading or studying on my own, but certainly from the bible. But just the fact that we all go through different periods in our life or trials in our life where it's not all, you know, fun and games for Christians. You know, I think God puts us through all kinds of different circumstances to build us and to, you know, I can think just make us stronger in our faith and to turn to him and to see how faithful we are. And so this song is actually from the perspective of somebody who is at a low time where they're wondering if God's even around, if God even cares about him still,

and and this particular person says, yes. And even though it's hard, even though I can barely lift my arms, I'm here, I'm still praising you. So this is called not here for me, I'm here for you. So Okay. Cool. Oh, I better get the capo on. Alright. Today I'm not here for me. Even though I'm broken, hurting, pained. It's all about your kingdom come. It's all about your holy name.

Some people they think I'm strong, but I can only barely stand. I'm standing here but not for long and only by the strength of your hand with open hands, lifted

arms and down on bended knee. I don't have much, but it's all yours. I'm not here for me. I'm yours. Not here for

me. I'm grateful that I know your son. I know that he died for me. Because of him, the war's been won. And I have a hope to be free. Despite this awful state I'm in, I know there's something I must do. I'm letting go of all that's been.

I give it up to worship you with open arms, lifted hands, and down on bended knee. I don't have much,

but it's all yours. And I'm not here for me. I'm yours. And down on bended knee. I don't have much, but it's all yours. And I'm not here for me, I'm yours.

Not here for Thank you. I like that. Very nice, Jeff. Awesome. If you're gonna right at the low end of your register, it's got a it's got a very calming effect on me. I agree. I'm just gonna throw that out there. Jeff calms me down. He's like the Robitussen. Yeah. I wasn't sure if I wanted to start with an upbeat number, but you know, I just like message of that. Know, just somebody that's totally broken, can barely stand, but they're just totally leaning on God and still worshiping him. So Mhmm. Yeah. I like it. And you know, that's there's something to be there's something about that where

when you're looking to God when it's the when it seems like it's the hardest. When you're Mhmm. Everything about the world makes it seem makes you seem farther and farther away from God and to be still, you know, look in that direction and know that that's where your your salvation, your peace is. That's a sometimes it's a real struggle. It is. It's a perspective that, you know, a God say who created the world can can have, but from a, you know, this is what we know. So it's just, it's a hard perspective to maintain sometimes. You know, I think it's ingrained in us too that we're supposed to be self reliant, or you know, growing up, you're folks, you know, you need to get a job, or you need to, you know, and so you get to the point where I can take care of this, I don't wanna bother God, you know, to help, and so he's not always the first place that you turn in any kind of situation, whether it's great or, you know, it's the lowest of lows, so Right. Well, sometimes I think that situation's kind of, that's an odd situation to be in. Like, was talking with Ben about this today, in fact, about the about God's will. Like,

you know, you can't You know, let's say, you know, I want this job. There's a job that I want. And I say, Lord, I pray for this job, you know. Well, if it's not God's will that I have that job, he's not gonna I'm not gonna get it, you know. And so, it seems like unless you know God's will ahead of time, it's hard to ask for specific things Mhmm. You know, because you don't know. You know, don't know, you don't I mean, if you truly believe that that you're putting your faith in God, then you honestly don't know what's best for you. You know? Like the Lord knows what's best for you, you know? And so I think it I think it becomes very easy to get yourself in a trap where I just say, you know, Lord, your will be done and that's it. You know? But I mean, he does say, you know, ask and you will receive, you know. So if you don't ever ask anything, you can't receive anything, but you don't really I don't really wanna ask for things because I don't know what his will is ahead of time because I don't wanna ask for things and then not get them and then go, okay, I guess that the right way to go, know, I'll just continue to ask for things that aren't God's will, you know. And so, I don't know, it seems like kind of a vicious circle, you know. Like I've been there before, you know, where I've prayed for things and they don't happen, I'm like, okay, well obviously that wasn't what the Lord wanted me to do. And then I'm like, why don't, you know, I don't know what God's will is, so I'm just gonna stop praying for things and I'll just say, Lord, your will be done, I don't know what to ask for anymore, know, you just shove me around, tell me where to go. That's kinda one of the hardest things too is to know what God's will is for your life and it comes reading,

with you know, just quiet time, listen for that still small voice. I've got a friend too who's kind of going through the same thing where, you know, massive layoffs at his company, and it's been such a blessing to me to watch him from the standpoint of just totally trusting God to give him the job that he wants him to have, and trusting in the sovereignty of him. He's even had several opportunities offered that he's turned down because he felt in his heart that it wasn't right, that it wasn't the right position for him so, and that's a wonderful witness to me. Mhmm. I wish people would say that about when I turned down a job. I think I was supposed to just say, Mike, that's kinda stupid. I haven't turned out any jobs yet. Oh. So Just wish you were offered a job. I'm waiting. You know, I think though in and this this is this is a tough one for me because I've often prayed for God's specific will in a certain situation. And I wonder how many times God really doesn't care. I mean, not that he doesn't care a lot, like not like I don't care about you, but like I don't care if you do a or b. I mean, really, just just represent me wherever you go. Yeah. Are you saying that you think there's a,

you know, there's a line where the Lord is maybe not concerned with what you choose as long as it's, you know, glorifying him? Like like like maybe Lord says, I don't care if you have your worship service at ten or if you have it at 10:13. I don't care. Think sometimes we over spiritualize things. Like when when God wants something done, he sends someone. Okay? Like I don't know that Paul sat around in in the church of Antioch going, well, God, do I do I go here or do I go there? You know, God just said, okay, Paul, you're going there. And and he and he went. And sometimes, we will so over spiritualize things, know, okay, God, what do you want me to do? Should I should I do this? Should I do that? Should I have white bread or wheat? I'm not sure. Usually bigger things than that, but you know, what I'm saying is do I move to Texas or do I stay here? Well God's like, I don't care. Just just I think that's Wherever. I think that's probably a solid point because I mean, you know, and it's probably something that that I think people may get bogged down with like how much, you know, they say, you know, give yourself over to God. How far does that reach? You know, how far what does that mean to me like specifically? Where where does this stop for me, you know? Like do I do I Where does it stop? Sorry. Well well, you know saying like like Where will this end? Well well, mean, let's say you're looking for a new house, do you just, you know, you close your eyes and go, okay, Lord, lead me and then, you know, start hitting things or you you know, I mean, the Lord's given you the capacity to think Exactly. You know, and to reason and and you know, it's not like you won't, you know, you'll love God less if you live on the South Side instead of the North Side, you know, and so I I I think that's that's probably a really good distinction to make because I I know I've been bogged down that before like, am I am I giving enough to the Lord or am I giving too much where I'm just not doing anything? I'm just a lazy sluggard going, you know, Lord drive this cart for me. Well, yeah, want him to drive the cart but you know, like Mhmm. You know, the cart, you know, 10 miles ahead and I'll I'll follow him where he's going, you know, if I stop at the gas station, it's cool and I'll just catch up. Yeah. That's probably a bad metaphor. But I I guess I guess that that's what I'm getting at, like just because I mean, when you turn your life over to Christ, you know, and and follow him, you're you're following in in his example and his principles of of love and and understanding his grace and forgiveness and you are not, you know, you are not a slave, you're a servant. Right. And a servant can still goes, you know, still still does things as a human, you know, and still and still makes decisions

and and is not, you know, at a whim to every beaten down command. You know what I'm And if I sense you really saying I want you to do x y z, then then I'm in. You know, whatever it is. Yeah. I'm not gonna sit here and argue and complain and whine. Yeah, but I'd really rather not. I'd rather do something You just do it because you have a servant's servant's heart. Well, I I think I think when you start to when you start to, you know, get into that mindset of of of being a slave like, you know, I think you start to manufacture things. You start to invent the Lord's will places, you know, that they're not there, that the Lord spoke to me and said I should do this. You know, know, when when you say, when you can't make any decision on your own, then you say every decision is from the Lord. Mhmm. So now you're saying that, you know, the Lord wanted you to do every single thing that you did during that day and it's almost guaranteed that's not the case. Well, it's paralyzing. To sit the Yeah. You're sitting around like, I don't know. How can you get anything done? Right. Yeah. Yeah. Right. The Lord, he doesn't care if you drive a Ford Bronco or a Dodge Neon. Yeah. And if you think about the the great commandment too or the great commission, he he just he doesn't say wait and listen for me to tell you where I'm, he just says go, and and then doors open or close, you know, as you go. Just you're just following the command to go, so So actually if you were looking at the Greek, you would know that's a participle and it means as you go. In other words, as you go through your daily activity. It's

not necessarily actually misused a lot. It's not like go, it's it's as you go. As you're getting gas, as you're at the grocery store, as you're at work, as you're walking down the street and you see a homeless person who needs $5, you're either gonna give it to them like Ben or you're gonna go the other way like Mike. It it just as Or like you with a card. Sorry, Mike. It it's the same at the same point though. Like is that, you know, he's not saying wait for me to shove you around. Go about your business. Exactly. You know, here's here's my my favorite vision of a of a guy of a guy on the on the out in the world for Christ is he's tooting along like this. He's bopping and he's he's looking and he's just looking he's just looking around for doors to open and he sees one and he's like, alright, I'm heading over, you know. Somebody walks because the command is make disciples. Yeah. In in Matthew 28, that's the imperative. Aren't I impressive tonight? Just loving up the softball. Lord, please help me to be humble. I really think that I'm great. Let me tell you how good I am. That's an awesome. The imperative is make disciples. There are three participles that tell you how to do the command as you go in his baptizing and teaching Mhmm. That are connected with that verse, grammatically speaking. And so exactly as you're toting down the road, and as you go, you see an open door,

and you go through it for the purpose of making a disciple. So you're not giving a person $5 to get a meal, although that might be part of it, it might be an opening a door. Yep. The goal is to get them to heaven. Yeah. You can get heaven for $5, turns out. Or at least a good path on the way. If that can open a door, I'll I'll I'll give $5 every day to everybody, I mean, know. Well, that's that's true, that's true. But if it's just giving $5, you're really doing no value other than giving someone a meal, and that's that's value, but I mean, don't get me wrong, but I'm saying the point is they have an eternal soul that's gonna last much longer than a than a hungry stomach or a situation that they're in Yeah. That any of us are in. So Ben, let me you know, when you when you give the $5 Mhmm. Do you you ask for their name Mhmm. Or you attend to ask for their name Yep. And did you tell them what you're so I can pray for you? Yeah. Not really. Okay. Nope. Was taking prayer. Did you get your social social security number for For tax purposes. It's it's under 600. I don't have to You don't have to report it for him. Yeah. Obviously, you don't keep enough enough cash on you or you don't meet enough people. If you're not if you're not losing more than 600 a year, of course now if you did admit to losing more than 600 a year, I'm pretty sure your wife would say, okay, this given's gonna be toned down slightly. Yeah. No. No. No. Don't take this the wrong way. Like, I I really don't get that many opportunities, but that's the whole point is, like, I think there there I think there are probably more. I think there are probably opportunities that I'm missing simply for the fact that I'm not prepared for the opportunity. Yeah. And if it's That's probably true financially and spiritually, I would say. Because you can't afford to give everybody Yeah. Right. I mean, there are a lot of needs out there. Well, we just just like we talked about last week, you know, like how far how far do you stick your neck out, know, like I you know, I mean, how far before it, you know, you're like You're called to help the ones

in that circle as you go. Yeah. You know, I I'm I can't be responsible for every single person under the bridge out there. Right. Yeah. I can try, I can do something, I can be involved in the ministry or something, but that's not my personal job. I'm personally responsible for the people God puts in my path. Feel bad for the traveling salesman. Dug dug dug. Here you go. I'm responsible for Philadelphia and bummer. Oh, I don't wanna go to New Jersey. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Actually, I do know. I'm with it. I like it. Alright. You're in. Heavy distinctions. You know you know what's really wild? You're you're singing that song and and for whatever reason, I don't even know why I did this, I flipped over to Facebook, guess just to see what was sometimes there's stuff on the program that that pops up. And and we were talking about Sean Engeldinger and and Sean Engeldinger posted on Facebook. Okay? I mean, they they kept this account alive, sometimes the kids jump on there and do something. It's been it's been months since Sean pops up. Okay. So here we are talking about it and you're singing that song. I mean, it took my breath away. So if I looked weird for a minute, I was just like, oh, this is this is weird. And and it says, my dad's one year coming up

October 22. We miss you, dad. Hope you're having fun in heaven. Love you bunches. Miss you. Like crazy. Please everyone take a second and remember Sean. And it's like, well, don't know said some more, but it was just like, that's kinda cool. And then in the midst of the song, it's like, you know, God's still good. Yeah. Yes. You know, I mean, Sean's good, we're good. So there's, yeah, they're looking forward to seeing him again in heaven and Absolutely. Yeah. There's hope. Yeah, he dominated, like we happened to have our 20 prayer room just shortly after he passed and Do you have an eighty four seven prayer room? I assume 247 Yeah. Give or take. No yeah. I'm not the leading guy, I'm not the fancy man on this show. If there's any obvious point I mean a lot of things go over my head. I'm the

spit and polish dude, okay? Abin does the least. I like about you though. The yin and the yang. You and my mom, that's We about like to call Mike the bunion of the show. He's very very no one really wants him there but you just kinda accept him for who he is. Okay. But your point. So anyway, the 247 Prayer Room, know, and and he dominated that prayer room. There there are we we lined the walls with paper and there's like a like graffiti walls and prayers to God and praise and scriptures and different things like just to give context. Yeah yeah. His name is everywhere. Yeah yeah, and there's a wall, like almost an entire wall was him and people were just devastated, you know, when he had passed. And we just we just wrapped up our last prayer room here on Saturday

and it was really interesting to see how He was still making it, you what mean? There were still spots for Sean on the prayer wall, but they were praises. They had changed from, Lord, I can't, you know, I can't deal with this hole in my heart that's gone, you know, help me fill it, you know, to, you know, just a little bit of time has passed and they had changed over to, you know, just random praises for who he was, what he'd done through Sean, you know, for what the Lord had done and the things that Sean had brought, you know, to people's lives specifically, you know, through his faith in Christ, know. And it was it was a it was a The prayer rooms go, you know, they have different feels to them, know, like of course after Sean had passed, was very heavy, you know, very hurting, know, and this one wasn't this one wasn't quite like that and it was it was a it was a really cool experience and I know I had some really good times in there this week and I know Ben did, especially the song when they say It was kinda funny because the name of the song was What was the name of the song? It Not for me? Not here for me. Not here for me. Mhmm. Ben just got done on some kind of crazy rant on Psalm 56 last week saying, the Lord is for Ben, the Lord is for me.

Because David had David had mentioned it, you know, it was kinda funny. That was the exact opposite. Oops. But I still love it. Yeah. But anyway, it was it was it was you know, was just tying up so so our our 247 Prayer Room just kinda ended up and it was kinda it was kinda interesting to see Yeah. You know, where people were at with with Sean and then you know, just where the you know, the the feeling of the church was because like last last time we had our our prayer room, you know, when Sean had passed, was that the last one? No, there's one in between there. One in between? Because he passed away in October and we had it in like February. Yeah. So you know, it was a couple three months had gone by. So, but I mean, it was, know, like the whole It's It was pretty raw. Yeah, the whole prayer room was just a healing, you know, I need healing, I need healing, you know. And you know, without a major, you know, conflict, you know, this time around, it was just really interesting to see what happens, know, when you give, you know, an hour for someone to be with God and God only inside a room that's set up with prayers and scripture and you know, how you can, you know, see where the rest of your church is at. It was really interesting to see, you know, what came out of that form, what kind of relationship they bonded with God about or what God spoke to them about or anything. So you set aside a week to do that? Two weeks. Two weeks. Two weeks. Twenty four seven And you had like one person or five person per hour or Yeah. It's generally generally, you can Anybody can sign up and the the slots are an hour apiece. So sometimes it'd be a single person,

sometimes it'd be like a small group or a group of people or a family would sign up and take that hour or two hours or whatever and you could sign up for multiple hours, know, sometimes too. Think Dan had like a four hour session at one point, three or four hours like a marathon. Yeah. We make sure We have prayer captains every day to make sure that that if there's hours not taken, that person will will either fill them or or take them so that it never stops. And you know, there was the it's different every time. It used to be the middle of the night was hard. Now that like fills up pretty good, but some of the daytime hours are hard. People are working or Mhmm. Or we have we've had like 20 babies born in the last twenty months or so, so a lot of moms are at home with little ones. It's not as easy just to get out, you know, like before, like last time even. Well, then and then you have, do they write the prayer or they just write fonts that come out of the quiet time or All the above. Yeah. Scripture, Yeah. There's All lyrics. You know, like the basic setup is like there's one big room, you know, that has paper all the way around it, know, and then they, you know, and you know, the people who organize it kinda put up a little theme like, you know, here's a here's a little praise area and here's the stuff I need healing from, know, here's the people I'm after. Like we had a map up this time of the metro area and you just kinda took a sticker if there's someone that you you're praying for or you wanted to, you know, for the Lord to go after him for some salvation or whatever, you just took a sticker and you know, kinda put it approximately where they lived. You have to put their name on it if you don't want to or whatever, know, Lord knows who you're talking about. Yeah. So it's just a big map, know, it's it's just kinda to Wow. To physically kinda represent things that that that maybe you've had in prayer. Got some pictures on Facebook which Can you can you show us stuff on here that if you look on my on the pathway, I got like four or five pictures on there. Yeah, see if can find it. I know you had no prep time to Yeah. Come Ben. Everybody's waiting. Yeah, we have that and then we have musical instruments kinda set up, know. In fact, people that play instruments tend to not use them. Yeah. People that don't play instruments tend to use them a lot. Yeah. You know, like like, you know, the you know, people you know, just because you I mean, we we have a We we put a computer in this time so you could pick a song, pick your worship songs because I like to turn the worship music way loud and pray over it, you know, at the same time. I'm not a quiet guy and so it was, I don't know, like it was it was a very different experience for me this time than it was last time. Yeah. It's it's pretty neat that there's there's enough variety in there. You can go like this room with just curtains and a cross and you can just sit there and do nothing and listen or pray quietly or you can You can turn the tunes up and run around, I do that. So so is there just one person at a time then or there are there If you choose to. You can choose to have one, you can choose to have 10, you can bring, you know, you can bring your family and extended family in there if you want to. You know, it's We just fill the hour time slots. Like, if you put your name in there, you're responsible

for being in there for that hour. Just so we can make sure that it's continued prayer, you know, that that that it keeps on going. And I actually really miss it when it's going. I really enjoy it when it's here and I really miss it when it's over and I think, why don't I do this every day? Yeah. But yeah, it's it's think that's the beauty of it. We'll call it like a season of prayer. We're going into a season of prayer. We had a forty day fast, so people were fasting and praying and then the prayer room was going on. Then it gets done and we celebrate. We say, wow, look what God did. Isn't that awesome? And we, you know, run off. Then we do it about twice a year. It's been our pattern. Yeah. Yeah. You listen to Life From The Path on demoniamplified.com. Again, you can find us during the week on, livefromthepath.org. We've been talking about,

for a little while, we're talking about the difference between being a servant and being a slave. And, to kinda bring it back around, generally, I think the answer is, there's not much of a difference except for, being the being the servant as you're willing, you're willing to do it. You're choosing to do it. And there's no there's no weakness in being a servant because that's what Jesus has asked us to do and he gave us the example of doing. And I I think it'd hard pressed to find an example of someone who can legitimately call Jesus Christ a weak man. So, know, with we are strong within our service, because we're fulfilling what God has asked us to do, and if there is a strength available, it is in that. Also, just talking a little bit about, a new program that

I think is a good idea, and that's keeping 10 bones, five bones in your pocket. I'd go with singles, so hopefully you can get them to stretch, and just being ready to hand them out to folk. Dan, can you see the chat there? Yeah. Did you see someone supported Mike equals bunion? Yeah. I saw that. I I ignored it. Takes all kinds, right? I mean Exactly. And more than $5 worth it. I'm gonna give out 0.25. Wait, there's a Burger King That's coupon out there right. You know what, what your charity is is you getting what your charity is you giving out the bowel pack coupons that you received in the mail that week. Maybe your heart's out. It's up here if you buy a sandwich but someone else give you that, I'll give you the free one. Turns out here, would you like a free carpet cleaning? Yeah. From ServiceMaster? What do you say about 15% off on World of Windows? Have you been to Woolworths? Oh, that's that's evil. $10 off Milk Bone. You know, and you think about it, there's a lot more people out there right now that are in this situation

that never expected themselves to be just with the way the economy is, people losing homes. Mhmm. You know, it's not necessarily just the irresponsible person, it's people who've just been caught up in a bad situation and it's a tough time out there. I mean Yeah. And how do you help them? I I don't know what to do. If you wait for the government to do it, they're not gonna do it well. You know, they're gonna throw money, they're not gonna It's like It just doesn't do it. They they enable. They enable. Exactly. You know, I mean, do. I mean, frankly, I I mean I mean, to be to be brutally honest, there's there's there's a lot of jobs that I probably would not take because I can make more money sitting on unemployment, you know. And you think, well, know, time with my kids, free money, this is a poor train of thought by the way, trying to avoid this if you're unemployed. But free money, you know, I mean, I've put into it obviously, you know, throughout my working career, but you know, I get paid, I get to spend some quality time with my family that I wouldn't normally ever have had or I can go to work and make less money and see family less. You you find the guy that goes, you know, put me to work, I don't wanna hang out, you know. You're setting people up for failure. You're setting mean and that's exactly what happens. I mean, they will they provide you with almost enough that you don't have to go work if you don't want to, you know. And I mean, obviously you need to strive to go, you know, to get a job, know, but they do do that, they do that. I mean, it's very enabling to not do much, you know, if didn't want to. I don't do that.

Okay. You do do that. I don't. That that one's tough. The unemployment's tough for me though because like you you paid into the system. You know I'm saying? Because because to to go unemployment, I mean, you you were part of that. Like, that's how you have unemployment money available is, like, for being part of the system. I looked like, social security, the same thing. It's like, I don't I I'm not sure it's it's necessarily the mechanism which I wanna carry me through my retirement, but I also did pay into it and I would like to Well, that's true. It's not complete charity No. No. Was saying To that point because I mean you didn't, like, you know, But you and a thousand other people, you know, a million other people paid into it too but I mean, you did your share. You put your share in there. But Are you buying insurance for yourself or are you buying insurance for others? It's insurance. Exactly. From being a burden on everybody else too. Yeah. True. But yeah, you know, I Dan Dan's point I think is well taken is, you know, there's there's quite a few people. In fact, I would I would vote the vast majority of people that are in this in the position they are in now aren't there because of irresponsibility or aren't there because like, they're they're specific because of the circumstances of of the environment we're in. And some of that is now what you could say is that some like, all these jobs that people maybe don't have anymore

were jobs that were built upon unstable grounds to begin with and that's why they're gone now, which I think is true. Sure. But you know, that's not necessarily the fault of the person that took the job. Know, some of that is just is just based upon, you know, the wave of the world that drove you by. You know, and I say, well, oh, yeah, that looks great. I'll take a job and that sounds awesome. And three years later, that job's not there anymore and you could have worked really hard and tried to provide for your family. Now, you know, you're just in a position based upon, you know, how somebody, you know, or some buddies in a bunch of different places in the world have affected it, through no course of your own. So so I think that's hard because it's here here's the thing. The the conversation becomes pretty comes pretty easy if you look at the if you say, you know, would I give money to a guy that's openly, you know, drinking a a cold 45, heading down the road, stumbling around, giving people the finger, like that guy's a pretty obvious situation. Maybe it's Christ. You know this guy? He's the least of these. This this guy is a cartoon character or anything. He's walking around going, go 45. And

then boop. Let me just say, like, it's it's easy to take the the end of the spectrum when you forget that, like, there's a tipping point in which people are struggling and suffering way before that point and that need help way before that point. True. That's true. Jeff, there are some requests on the chat Oh. For you. There were a couple options if you would be willing to oblige. Just a second. Now, I've lost them. Where do they go?

Go 45. Yeah, Mike. Continue to make a distraction for the other day. Be a bunion. A bunion is indeed a distraction. I've never actually had a bunion. I've seen pictures on on the internet of bunions and they they don't look very nice. They look big enough if here's the thing. If if your bunion is big enough that you can take a sharpie and put a face on it, it's time for doctor. That's a big one. It's doctor time. That's a Most big certainly. Alright. So the two options, if you're willing to oblige, are either you are my god or I can feel you watching. Okay. Well actually we did I can feel you watching when we were here a couple months ago. Yeah. That's a I don't know. Is it cool to Yeah. Do a I just listened to that the other day. Can can I redo last week's sermon? Yeah. We were talking about that. That is not fair. I'm I'm I'm

Not only does Dan not get a do over when it comes to sermons, but I also have his recordings and I get to chop them up and make them say what I want. But you know, yours don't I mean, don't have to write rhymes every time either so you know. Oh, do. Oh, I do. Can't ever you can't ever use a sermon again? Like you can't use the same sermon you used like ten years ago, no one would know. You were at a different church. Yeah. You would have been tempted to do it. You can't do it with with With same vigor? Exactly. Well you can read study it, relook at it. I might use, mean the content's the same like the imperative of Matthew 28 hasn't changed. True. You know but but yeah. Well but things have changed in your life too for examples that you can give. Hey what about, I always this? I mean do pastors ever have you know a buddy? You could trade sermons or something like that. Once in a while I can have a friend, we'll send stuff back and forth, we'll kinda play around with stuff and I'll send him something I've done, he's sent me something he's done and we'll Sometimes that's more work because you gotta make it your own. Yeah. For me anyway, is. I don't know how, you know, some people I suppose can just take something and do it but You said you liked my stuff. Your little crass for my church family, mister Foost. I don't think so. Get a real job. Well, I'll do I Can Feel You Watching for them, if that's alright. Okay. This is Jeff Arendare with I Can Feel You Watching on Life From The Path. Thank you. Somebody was singing along. I like that. After taking the semester in philosophy, there ought to be a rule. You should not be able to talk about philosophy

unless you've had more than a semester of philosophy. If you haven't had any, that's fine. Talk away. But if you've had a semester, you are messed up. You'd better off just not taking it at all. And they'll come up and they'll say things to me and they fought these things out. And I'm on the campus to talk about these issues and dealing with apologetics and they wanna catch me alone and ask me these questions. And they look at me and they say, I just wanted to ask you that if you believe in a God that is omnipotent and omnibenevolent, then how

do you reconcile the issue of theodicy? To which I respond, took a semester of philosophy. Right? Well, yes. How did you know? Because if you hadn't, you'd have just said, listen. God's so powerful and so good. How come bad stuff happens? But I'm not going to answer the question until you ask it correctly. Worked on that all week. What do mean ask it correctly? You're not asking the question properly.

What do you mean ask the question properly? It's my question. You can't tell me how to ask my question. I will answer your question when you ask it properly. How do I ask it properly? Here's how you ask that question properly. You look me in my eyes and you ask me this. How on earth can a holy and righteous God know what I did and thought and said on yesterday and not kill me in my sleep last night? You ask it that way and we can talk.

But until you ask the question that way, you don't understand the issue. Until you ask the question that way, you believe the problem is out there. Until you ask the question that way, you believe that there are somehow, some individuals who in and of themselves deserve something other than the wrath of almighty God. Until you ask me the question that way, until you flip the script and ask the question this way and say, why is it that we are here today? Why has he not consumed and devoured each and every one of us? Why? Why, oh God, does your judgment and your wrath tarry? When you ask it that way, you understand the issue.

When you ask it the other way, you believe in the supremacy of man. How dare God not employ his power on behalf of almighty man? You flip the question around, you believe in the supremacy of Christ. How dare I steal his air? Because the last breath I took I borrowed it from him. And I'm never gonna give it back. When you borrow something and never give it back, you're stealing. To me, you need to take a moment and get right right now.

The problem is me. The problem is the fact that I do not acknowledge the supremacy of Christ in truth. The problem is I start with me as the measure of all things. The problem is I judge God based upon how well he carries out my agenda for the world. And I believe in the supremacy of me

in truth. And as a result, I want a God who is omnipotent but not sovereign. If I have a God who is omnipotent but not sovereign, I can wield his power. But if my God is both omnipotent and sovereign, I am at his mercy. You're listening to live from the path on demonicamplified.com.

That hole on your screen where there's nobody sitting used to be Mike Foust. I'm a bunion, rarely seen. You are a bunion. Thanks for hanging out there. I I caught that clip, I wanna say a couple weeks ago. I like it. Yeah. I do like so I mean, guess that that's the question. When we say, you know, why do why do bad things happen to good people, are we are we asking the wrong question? I I think when we're sitting here in this room, we're all believers,

we all get it, sovereignty of God, we can listen to that, jump up and down and say, yeah. Yeah. Even though we understand we have pain, we have bad things happen, it's difficult for people to to to understand. I mean, I used to be in a in a smaller town and was pretty heavily involved in the community. So so there were times the police would call me when when families were in situations. I went I went with the police to to go to grandparents whose grandson had had been killed in a car wreck a few hours earlier, you know, to break the news. They were good

people. This is a pretty tough message to hear at that moment. I I went with them. They called me early, early, early one morning when a young couple woke up and their their infant son had died in in the in the night. Mhmm. And they had no church, they had no, you know, so whatever, the police called me. And so I show up and it's and it's kinda odd. I don't know these people and they're asking that question, you know. And and somebody in their family who claimed to be a believer told them because they were living together

out of marriage and had this child of the marriage that God was punishing them and taking their son away because it was their fault, you know. And and they're going, well, we're good people, you know, we're what what you know, what's what's going on? So so it's different context when you go into someone's home and and their world's just falling apart. Yeah. You know? And how do you how do you how do you explain that? Well, God's sovereign, suck it up. Know? Yeah. The problem is he's right and it's not a problem. The truth is he's he's right. It's hard for people to understand that God is sovereign, he is he is he is he is God, but at the same time,

he will yield his sovereignty to our will. And when I say that, I don't mean like we do whatever we want, but in a way, he lets us do what we want and when we're outside of God, we will do things that are harmful, know. We'll we'll do things that aren't smart. We'll we'll we'll take guns and go into malls and shoot people. We'll we'll drink massive amounts of alcohol and get in a car and and run through a stoplight and and you know, kill an innocent family coming home from the mall. I don't know. It's it's it's Well, I mean, some of those things don't have a rhyme or reason to them, know? Right. Like the infant son, you know, dying in the middle of the night, that's not, you know, that's not a a crime didn't happen. Right. You know, and and you know, the the the child didn't do anything to deserve this. The parents, you know, the the God that I know doesn't work like that. Yeah. It wasn't God zapping them. Yeah. You know. It was we're in a fallen world ever since Adam and Eve ate the fruit. Right. We have been dying, you know. And so people get mad at God because they don't know who else to get mad at.

And part of that is maybe just educating this. You're you're mad at the wrong wrong one. The one who introduced sin in the first place, the one who introduced rebellion in the first place, that that's that's the problem. And often, we'll we'll get mad at God and and we're gonna run off and and we go on the same rampages because, well, look what God did, you know, that family imploded and later on, and and it was God's fault and Well, you know, I I guess I would have like, I would have an easier time, you know, if someone says, you know, if someone said, God, why did you why did you kill my baby? You know, that's something different to me than if they say, why did you let my baby die? Right. You know what I'm saying? Like, that that's I think that's a lot harder to swallow. Like, I don't, for a second, believe that the Lord would have killed a child for absolutely no reason, you know? But, you know, I could say I could see the family saying, you know, I mean, ask honestly asking, you know, why? Why did you let this happen? Because obviously Lord You know, the Lord could could you know, because if if if the Lord has the power that I that I believe that he has, you know, obviously he could have not died, that could, you know, it could have been prevented. So, you know, I I guess that's that's where it becomes a little shady for people and myself included, I guess, you know. It's like, you didn't

kill the child Right. But you didn't stop it from happening either, you know. So is it your will that I don't have a child? Or is it just something that happens? I mean, obviously, he knew it was gonna happen, you know. Is there something to be taken from this or is it just one of those things? Like, where's the line between is there like, is the Lord trying to teach me a lesson or is this just one something that happens, you know? And maybe that is, but, you know, just as Jeff was saying, that's a that's a relationship with God question. That's a reading God's word and that's a prayer thing. But after you get done reading God's word and after you pray on it and after you have a good relationship with Christ, maybe you can decipher that. But the people that it happened to, man, that's gotta be hard to explain. You know, that's gotta be hard to explain to them without them having a relationship with Christ where the where the where the lines are, where the Lord stops and where he doesn't or what if he does, you know. But this past week, I went to a hospital and visited someone who the day prior found out, you know, there's cancer everywhere.

I mean, everywhere. They're like, you have you have ten percent chance. If we have radical treatment, you have a ten percent chance. Or, you know, you have a few weeks. What do you wanna do? Well, this person chose well, we'll go for the ten percent, you know. The whole family was, you know, all of a sudden everybody's asking, well, she's a good person. Yeah. You know? And when

Cheryl and I together went and and visited her, by that time she'd been able to process a little bit, by the time we kinda, you know, heard the news and we were able to get there. And she was kind of at peace, also understanding this this might not go well. Right. But that's that's life. I mean, none of us are gonna make it out of here unless Christ returns. Mhmm. But it's hard when it's when it's my grandma or my mom or me. Right. You know? But this and it took them a little maybe that twenty four hour period to kind of process. Well, you know what? That's just

what happens. Well, I I think that's that's the thing is those questions always come at a time where trying to understand that perspective is extremely difficult. Yeah. Right? Like people don't tend to ask, why me, God, when you're, you know, stuck behind a guy at a train. You know what I'm saying? Oh lord, how did I get here? Know, it's it's when you're dying. It's when there are consequences on the line and now it's it's pretty tough to swallow sometimes, know, the the the hard fact that that this life is is not a permanent one. And sometimes believers make it worse, know. The the the lady who says, well, God's punishing you for for living this sin or the the believer who says, that's not cancer, you have a demon in you. Yeah. No. Actually, it's sickness. Right. It's it's because of you go backwards, Satan entered the world, sin. I heard it explained this way and it's really cool image if you can think about it. We all have one big pool of water we're drinking out of and and you you take your cup of water and it's clean and drinking and this is really great. You You mess up your life, whatever it is, you do stuff and your little portion of water, suddenly it's just really gross because you've made this mistake and that mistake crossed the line. Well, don't want to dump your dirty water in your water, so you go around to the other side and dump it in over there, okay, because then you're good. You come back to your area, but the problem is everybody's doing that. Yeah. Because none of us are good. That's the thing. There are no good people. Yeah. We're

in a sinful nature, and we all cross the line, and we all rebel against holy God. And so the whole pool is this big cesspool that we're drinking out of. So sometimes, people do bad things to good people. Sometimes, it's just bad things just happen because we're in this poison. Yeah. Until until Christ comes back and fixes everything, it's it's just what it is. Well, I think there's there's probably something to grasp about the character of God there too. You know, like, he could step in and do some things here, you know. I mean, he could do it, obviously, whatever he wants, you know. And and I I think it maybe does speak a little a little on on his actual character of like, you know, I gave you guys free will, you know, like I'm not gonna make you do anything, And you and and so, you know, it's the good with the bad on that one, you know. I mean, it's you know, I'm not gonna make you, you know, believe that my son died for you, but if you do, you know, good things are gonna happen for you. You know, this this is a good thing for you in this life or the next. These are good things, You you know, I I wonder if I wonder if maybe the I think the phrases like God's plan or God's will, sometimes we use

to, you know, maybe comfort ourselves, maybe make our world seem like it has a little bit more direction then maybe it actually does. To I mean, because I I think a lot of times if if things go poorly, we wanna believe that it's God doing it because then we feel like, well, this is happening for a reason and I'm I'm being led even if I don't realize that I'm being led. And I I don't know that God's what we think of as God's will or God's plan isn't way more generic than, you know, do what I asked you to do and whatever way comes across you. Like I I set this thing rolling and I said it could happen how it's how it's gonna happen and, you know, it's not like he steps in and says, take that baby in the night. You know, and that's that's a popular one, know, well, you know, God wanted you to come home. Well, he wants everybody to come home. I'm I'm not sure his timetable is all that specific. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I mean I need Edward Martin now. Someone go get him. Exactly. Like I mean granted, he loves you and and he wants you in heaven but you know, I just

have to have him tonight. In a spectrum of eternity, is is three weeks or six months that much different than ninety nine years? It's No. Yeah. When's a drop? Well, but I think that that that may that may lean over to a question then, like, how effective is my prayer? You know, I I mean, I'm I'm asking you know? Yeah. You know, so so, you know, maybe it's maybe if if if it's a little loose, you know, on on on on the interpretation but, know, they say, you know, I wanna be this and I think I can be this for God, you know? Yep. Lord, can you open doors for me? Mhmm. And then doors open. Lord opening doors? Lord not opening doors? Yes? Sure. Yes. I I mean Right? Yeah. I I mean, when you read Revelation, is it four ish, the the temple heaven throne room scene and you got the prayers of the saints coming up as smoke, and there's flashes of lightning and peals of thunder. You know, things are happening through our prayers. I mean, there there is Mhmm. Change taking place.

So, yeah, it's it's kind of a double thing. On one hand, is he micromanaging every detail of our life? Well, you know, I don't know. I don't know if he really cares. On the other hand, when we ask him to intervene, does he? Will he? Absolutely. You know? And sometimes, he does want you to do a specific thing. But I think what we do is we'll read a scripture and say, well, you know, Philip was called to the eunuch. Therefore, every single day, God's gonna call me to do it's like, he didn't even do that for Philip. That that's one story Yeah. Out of Philip's life. You know, did every day that happened? Probably not. Right. You know, and actually, I for some reason that came across my mind today, you know, like like, you know, sometimes it's it's pretty easy to get beaten down on your own I I man, we talked about this with Rick a little bit too, you know, about your daily walk, know, like, you know, you know, I've wasted this, Lord. I've wasted this another day, another day, you know. And so you read your bible and you're like, man, these are these great men of God, you know. These are these are stories and this is not every single day of their life, know, like, some days you have to wash the dishes and mow the yard and go to the store and come home and you know, whatever, watch half hour of news. You know, not every day is gonna be you're leading people across an open river. Not every day is Moses day, you know, and so I I think sometimes it's pretty easy to get beaten down because when you look at your biblical examples, you go, you know, I realize that I'm already saved by your grace here, Lord, but I'm not even coming close to measuring up here. Like, am just, you know, I yesterday, I played volleyball most of the day. That didn't really further your kingdom much, did it, you know? The it's been explained to me though, it it it doesn't matter whether you I mean, the debt has been paid by the blood of Christ. Uh-huh. And God just sees you as his child because of that. I mean, you're accepted. And there's I mean, yeah, he wants you to to be Christ like or strive to be Christ like. He knows nobody's gonna measure up to that, but the debt's been paid, so I mean, you don't have to be Moses. Well, I think that's I guess I think that's true to a point, but I mean, I guess maybe it just depends on what your your relationship,

know, where your relationship's at, but I mean, you know, faith without works is dead, you know, if you're not doing anything Right. You know, you're not doing anything, you know, and I, you know, I I realize, I think you have to keep it in perspective, you know, like you know that no matter what you can do, no matter what you're doing, you can't measure up, but you know that every day you can look up and say, I'm available Yeah. To you today. Yeah. What do you want me to do, you know? Yeah. Let me ask this question. You were talking, you know, people rationalizing, you know, God, why did this happen? One of the things that I find myself doing when something bad happens is rationalizing it, you know, well this is God sovereign, he's got a reason for it. And then in my finite mind, two months later it's like, oh that's why he did that. And it may not be why he did that. I mean is it wrong to do that? I mean to mean I still feel like I feel like I learned from it Sure. I grew from it. Maybe I'm able to help somebody else through a similar situation something like that and maybe that's why it happened I don't know but Yeah. I do that, I do that. Sure. I I well, I mean maybe that's the only way that our finite minds can do it. Mhmm. You know what mean? I don't know that we can actually catch the entire grasp, mean, Lord's

got a giant chessboard you know and moving pieces around and you know, I get to see my piece, your piece, your piece and your piece in the next two hours you know and that's just about all the information I got. Right. You know, so you're just kinda taking stabs at things, doing anything to make it so you can reconcile maybe what happened and go, okay, I'm back to bopping, you know, whatever. Well, I think that that kind of leads to the importance of a of a, you know, a consistent and dedicated prayer life because I mean, it could be it could be of God. It could just be, you know, constant, you know, random circumstances that cause some of that and if you can learn a lesson from something, it could be because god put it in motion or you're just looking for opportunity to learn and and because you're seeking ways to, you know, that those those thoughts can come back in your mind, like, you know what, I I can learn from that whether he fired up for a reason or not. Know, sometimes just being in a prayerful mind and and really looking out for opportunity, you start to learn lessons from places where you wouldn't have learned before because you weren't looking for them. You know, that may not have anything to do with God actually intervening. It's just you're looking for ways to improve and looking for opportunities that God may be giving you or that might be available to do what God wants and and you're just learning from it. Because I I think I've, you know, I definitely noticed that when I'm when I'm on my prayer game, I mean, I've, you know, I feel like I'm I'm I'm really talking to God pretty often, I see more of him. I see more of opportunity. I see

more chances to improve things. I find my time is a little bit freer to do some of the things that I know I I want and should be doing. So I think I think a connected prayer life for me helps make sure that I keep a proper perspective of what is what is of God and and what is not, or maybe more generically, what I can learn or take in as far as opportunity from God simply for listening to him. So you've been listening to Live From The Path on desmoinesamplified.com. You can catch us during the week at livefromthepath.org or, if you wanna get ahold of us via email, you can do that. There's an email link on the front page. There's also links to archive shows. I'll be posting the performances from Jeff tonight. You can get to those from that site as well, as well as on our YouTube channel and sign up for the newsletter and the podcast if you're interested. I just caught back. I caught all my podcasts up this week. I hadn't I hadn't been doing it the last couple three weeks. I've been letting them kinda cash in the bank, and then I I put them all on the on the old player this week and listened to them. I would, you know, last last three, four weeks were pretty solid. The Manly Man show was pretty good. I agree. How's the Jesus meter?

You know, Jesus meter has been topping out pretty solid. I think we're at a we're at a nine. It's out of a 100, Ben. Yeah. And I said, that's not good, is it? Yeah. You can't I'm sorry. That you assumed that you were that close to Jesus? Well, I'd assumed that the Jesus meter was what did you cost what did you cost us 20 points last week because I mentioned a colostomy bag and now I should've I should've that should've been a higher penalty. What what have we done this week that's gotten us 91 points off? I thought we were pretty solid. Yeah. I don't think you're in charge of I thought was a scale of one to 10. No. It's out of a 100. Okay. I'll give you 92 then. Otherwise, 20 points for a cost me back where they put us in the streets. Yeah. Because we were in the seventies last week, weren't we? Yeah. Oh, yeah. We were pretty proud of ourselves for that. Okay. No. I'll give us 92. Bungeon. Jeff's keeping the place in line. Bungeon. Homeless people. No, those were pretty solid. Nobody bailed on the chat or at least vocally like I'm out of here. Textually showed up and said, I've been watching for a couple minutes, this is stupid. That's happened before. It was quite the stand. I'm sure many thought it.

Well, it's better than outright refusing to even come on the program. By the way, if you're if you're watching now and you're watching on the front page of desmoineamplified.com, there's a little button under that screen that says, watch and participate. If you click that, you can see the chat that's also going along with the show. Yeah. So you know, feel free to jump in or if you just wanna watch. Sometimes we'll be referencing some of the stuff that's going on the chat. Those guys got some good stuff going on. So, you know, if you're just watching, you're under no obligation to insert yourself into the conversation but you can at least see what's going on if you click that watch and participate button and you can see the chat. Definitely. Jeff, would you would you be so kind as to favor us with another tune? Yeah. I I would like to I mean, do you guys ever read the you know, you do refer to the bible, know occasionally. You've seen one of these. What is that? Yeah. Usually you read it off that machine over there, but you know what? I was telling you that songs come from teaching, and certainly from passages, and the song I'd like to do now is when we do a church, which is really a blessing to me. It's one of the things I ask God if by chance,

not by chance, if by His will, it would be a blessing to me and to our church, that he would give me songs that people would sing and that they would praise him through. And this next one is one we do in church. We've done it often in the past. It's called Race, and it talks about I I remember learning about Paul talking about he was equating life with a race, and you should strive to win the prize at the end. And it also talks about here in well, hopefully I can find it. Well, I'm in the wrong place, that's why, because I gotta get to Hebrews. But he talks about in Hebrews the fact that, you know, we are to run the race and and we are and and we're not just doing this in a vacuum. It there's actually a cloud of witnesses

that are we are in the presence of. And, of course, I've gotta find here. So That's actually, I think that's a that's a solid perspective to come from too because if you think that if you're the guy that's that's running the race for god and people are are looking at you as the example and you're the sluggard, you're the guy that's kinda dabbling around, taking it real easy, not doing anything, I mean, that's the example you're giving. Yeah. Life for God is this, this lackadaisical, you know Look at this. Well, is from Hebrews 12. Let me read this if you guys don't mind. Okay. Hebrews 12, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance, the race marked down before us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the on the throne of God. And, this song is called Race based on that. Since we are surrounded

by a great cloud of witnesses, we will throw off everything that hinders. Since always laid in tangles, let us run with perseverance. The race marked down we follow with our eyes fixed on him. And the cloud of witnesses watches and cheers us on.

We will fight the third fight. We will be strong, we will run. With birds and bear runs, we will run. Set before him. He ended the cross for us, scorning all his shame. And then we know sat down

at the right hand of the father? Can we really fathom that he took all of our rain? And the cloud of witnesses watches and running with our eyes upon Jesus. Oh,

and we will run That one's catchy. It is catchy. I like it. Thanks. You know, I wrote that one when I was in a place. I was in the shower. Giving a homeless guy $10 and I thought he was actually coming after me to get the rest of my money. Thought I will run. I will run to follow him to see where he's going. Boy that one's stinky, he's coming after you and you're trying to loop behind him. I'll follow you for Jesus and he's trying to steal your money and you're trying to run behind him. If I were homeless, I would have a high command of evasive maneuvers. That

was Jeff Arendale. He's performing here live on live from the path on desmoineapply.com. Like I said, you'll be able to catch, clips of those performances probably within the next day or two on live from thepath.org. You could also visit jeffaarendale.com, and, he he looks pretty good now. Now it's it's it's 11:00 at night. He's a little rough around the edge today but he's got some pretty snazzy looking photographs. Who took your pictures to? I've got a there's a guy that goes to church that goes to my church, he's just gifted that way and and he likes to do it and he's the right price too so Yeah. Well he should come out and take pictures of us because we need help. Yeah. You know what, I bet he would. We need the Jeff Arendelle treatment. What we need. Know Can't airbrush off In fact, on better you better double Jeff Arendelle treatment. His name by the way is Chris Klop and I just, know, guys gifted him that way so. Does he do it for a living? No, he actually works at the airport and real passion is taking photo, he has access to things that other people don't have there at the airport so he takes air shows and stuff like that and so but he's been able to take you know, work with this too so he's Oh that's cool. Gifted yeah. Does it. He looks I mean he's a slick looking page Jeff Scott. So jeff aarondale dot com, you can go check it out. He also has a blog out there that you can you can follow with his with his thoughts. You keep up with that often Jeff? About once a month or so.

Yeah, so often. That'd a no. Yeah. Every day actually. I'm thinking about it. Yeah, I have a blog as well that haven't it's been over a year. I read Ben's blog. Yeah. He's good. The Life on the Path blog? Yeah. How often do you blog? Once a week. I'll do like a show recap. Okay. Yeah. So it's not really a blog like you think like he has posted this thing like six or seven different I was just wiping my nose, it just had an itch. Do I have something? No, it's me. Is it a cat hair? It's an itch. Because I don't own cats and if there's a cat hair on me That'd be awkward. I am gonna be freaked out. It's a bunion. Can you have onions on your nose? Got a nose bunion. Boy. Oh, those are painful. Okay. Times three for this Chris fella. Tell him to come in a couple hours ahead of time. Where did he go? With an airbrush. Who took that makeup lady that we saw? Someone's got a card for a roaming makeup artist. When travel? She'll make us up and then take our picture. I I need a little room. I need a spray tan. Yeah. I don't need anything. I'm not shaving.

Actually I wouldn't. I was gonna shave It's you. I was gonna shave my mustache because it it gets starts to irritate me, but then I got a cold sore and I had to keep my mustache to keep the cold sore hidden. I think the beard thing helps your homeless ministry. It does. He's like us. He's one of us. Yeah. He likes to be warm This in the winter is not this is not funny, but it's funny. You know what the biggest joke on the homeless man ever? The lack of a can opener. Well, they always give it away. Well, they always collected cans. I can't open this thing. Nobody ever gives out a can opener. That's what they should say. Every five cans, you gotta give a can opener. Or at least get the pull tops or something. Yeah. Everybody's just got these cans of bees they can't do anything with. They fight with them. Hey, so what was the answer to the joke? Oh, sorry. Okay. So no. The same question. So the the the premise of the joke, if you missed it, was a Mormon atheist, and a and a Jewish guy walk into a bible college. Yeah. Yeah. And the answer is all

statistically know more about the bible than your average Christian. That's not funny. I know. That's why it's not. I said Good one. I said it's not a joke. Way to way to end the show with a bang. They have openings I think down at the comedies, John. I'm glad it's almost over so I don't have to show you how little I know. It was it was shoot. We're not gonna have time. I was gonna have you and Jeff take the quiz to see how well you you did. Give me the first two. Okay. Hold on. Here we go. Let's get this let's get this fired up. Get rid of Jeff. Alright. I'll count Nick Demus of bible quiz. Okay. Here we go. It's pretty embarrassing that atheists know more than the average believer. Well, and so they they biblically speaking, they don't outperform the Jews and the Mormons,

but they are better at other world religions, like overall religious knowledge. But they are on par or slightly higher than your average evangelical Christian. Alright. Question one. Which Bible figure is most closely associated with leading the exodus from Egypt? Moses. Mhmm. Okay. I'm not gonna read you the four because I think you're confident. I think we can get through these. Here we go. What was mother Theresa's religion? Catholic Catholic Catholic. Yeah. Okay. Good. Which of the following is not one of the 10 commandments? Here we go. Uh-oh. Do not commit adultery. That's it. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. That one's not an adamant. No, we're rocking this. I know. Four for four. You guys been atheists. Whatever. You could be atheists. When does the Jewish Sabbath begin? Saturday. Yeah. Then you can't answer. Oh. Because the the chat will cheat. They'll give you the the help. Oh. Why not? Just these two fellows. Is Ramadan a, the Hindu festival of lights, b, the Jewish day of atonement,

c, the Islamic holy month. Boom. C. Islamic holy month? Yes. K. Which of the following best describes the Catholic teaching about the bread and wine used for communion? A, the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Christ, or b, the bread and wine are symbols of the body and blood of Christ? I think Catholics are are a. Yeah. Become transubstantiation. In which religion are Vishnu and Shiva central figures? Islam, Hinduism or Taoism? Oh, I'm going Hindu, Jeff. I'm going Taoism. Come on. Daniel, the splits here. I wasn't listening. Caught up on transdisciplinary. Which religion are Vishnu and Shiva central figures. Islam, Hinduism, Taoism. Islam. Vishnu is Hindu. So now we're three for three the

answer is Hinduism. Well, I'm it doesn't say Come on. But that's not in the bible, it doesn't matter. It doesn't say that here but I I know that's the case. Alright. Here we go. Which I'm giving you that one because y'all two of you at least were wrong. I'm the bunion. What's wrong with you guys? Here we go. Which bible figure is most closely associated with remaining obedient to God despite suffering? Job. Job. Oh, Job. Everybody loves Job. Yep. What were the other two of Elijah, Moses, Abraham. Yeah. Job went. Okay. Boo. It was Joseph Smith's religion. He's Mormon. I wrote John on the Facebook posting. What a doofus. And you know how I was led astray? I was thinking John Smith, that's not right. So I hit Google, and sure enough, I type in John Smith, and one of the suggestions is John Smith Mormon. So some other doofus is looking under the wrong name. Anyway, alright. What did we say, Mormon? Yeah. Good. Hold on. Six more. According to rulings by the US Supreme Court, is public is a public teacher permitted to lead a class in prayer or not? Yes or no? Not. Not permitted to lead a class in prayer. Right? Correct. I'm going with yeah. No. Yeah. Not. Not. Okay. According to rulings by the US Supreme Court, is a public school teacher permitted to read from the bible as an example of literature or not? Yes.

Approved. Yes? Yes. Yes. Everybody says yes. What religion do most people in Pakistan consider themselves? Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim or Christian? Muslim. Muslim. Pakistani. I don't have high hopes for that one, fellas. What was the name of the person whose writings and actions inspired Protestant Reformation? Martin Luther, Thomas Aquinas, or John Wesley? Martin Luther. It's gotta be John Wesley. Luther. Luther. Seriously? Yep. Onion. Which which of these religions aims at Nirvana, the state of being free from Buddhist. Buddhism? It's a rock band, isn't it? Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism. Buddhism. Buddhism. Buddhism. K. Mhmm. We're rocking fellas, which I think. Which one of these preachers participated in the period of religious activity known as the first great awakening? Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney or Billy Graham? Pretty sure that's Edwards or it's Finney. I'm go I'm going with that. It's Edwards. Going with Jonathan Edwards. Okay. Okay. Here we go. That was fifteen fifteen. See how we did. Oh. You answered 14 out of 15 questions correctly. What did we lose? We scored better than 97% of the public and scored worse than 1% of the public. That's still good. Compare your score question by question. No. Can we just know which one we missed?

It doesn't It's gotta be one of the world religions or the finny. Your score and correct parents. Here we go. We lost Oh, when does the Jewish Sabbath begin? Friday. Yeah. It's Friday night sundown. Okay. We chose Saturday. I was within twenty four hours. Yeah. Is there a There's no leeway. I I didn't answer by default because I thought Arendelle was gonna So Jonathan Jonathan Edwards was the most missed question? I I think you were here. I wouldn't have got that right. Second one was this is Wait a minute. Now is it is the stuff that they're saying, knowledge about the See, that's not I don't care about the I don't care about history. Edwards or whatever. That's not that isn't a religious knowledge. Yeah. So a teacher can read the bible in class as example of literature. Yep. Yep. Exactly. Wonder how often that happens. I don't know. I bet more than you think. We always hear the bad examples and everything's those stupid schools and it's like, Yeah. Actually and that's what they Here I'll I know there are Christians Where'd it go? Yeah. Yeah. That was the second most missed question. Only 23% answered that correctly and said, yes, that that that's allowed to read the bible's literature. I'd assume there'd be way bigger stinks set up if that was not allowed. Yeah. Yeah. I think you'd hear about that. It's a historical book. Let's see. Oh and the marketing on this one, the most correctly answered question, what was Mother Teresa's religion? Seriously? Yep. Over

the Exodus question? Really? Yeah. Well, it's lot of press these days. What were the options for Mother Teresa? Catholicism? What else are they? Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity. Oh. So Alright, fellas. That would never? I don't know what that I don't if that's a response. You have been listening to Live From The Path on theboy at amplified dot com. Jeff, thanks so much for coming in. It was my pleasure. We'll we'll see you around. Yeah. I hope so. The best of luck. You can again, can keep up with Jeff at jeff aarondale dot com on his once once monthly blog.

Hey, there's more coming. And it's Fremont. He's got some posts out there. I looked at him. He also he also looks good on the front of this website. Checked him last month, and I figured, well, there's no reason for me to go back again for a while. And, again, you can reach us on liveinthepath.org. We're here Monday nights from ten to midnight. And, again, on the website, you can catch our you can sign up for the podcast. You can check out YouTube channel. Sign up for the newsletter, the aforementioned newsletter. It's fantastic. And we will see you next week. Thanks so much for joining us.