Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1280 ｜ The 'Matthew 18' Myth & 'Relatable' Wrapped

00:00:00.800 What does Matthew 18 really say about biblical reconciliation and public rebuke?

00:00:06.880 Is that passage being misused?

00:00:09.320 We will take a look at it today.

00:00:11.220 We will also be looking at a recap, the highlights of everything that has happened in 2025.

00:00:17.920 It has been a huge year, and we will talk specifically about what God is up to, what

00:00:23.840 we as Christians need to be looking for.

00:00:25.660 You're going to enjoy this episode brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.

00:00:28.380 Go to GoodRanchers.com, use code Allie at checkout. 0.82

00:00:30.960 That's GoodRanchers.com, code Allie.

00:00:42.020 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable.

00:00:43.560 Happy Wednesday.

00:00:44.520 Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far.

00:00:47.540 Well, it is almost Christmas, and you know what I forgot to tell you at the beginning

00:00:51.800 of the episode on Monday, because I had my dad there as a co-host, so it kind of threw

00:00:55.940 me off, that God's eternal plan of redemption is going off without a hitch.

00:00:59.760 Breaking news, newsflash, stop the presses.

00:01:03.620 That truth is the truest truth that's out there, and it is the truth that does not make

00:01:08.640 headlines, but it is the truth that is reverberating underneath the other truth.

00:01:13.080 And underneath the lies, and underneath the chaos, and underneath the noise, that is what

00:01:19.180 is always truly going on.

00:01:21.120 So if you're searching for something beyond what the media tells you, if you are exhausted

00:01:27.540 by what goes viral on social media and trying to keep up with everything that's going on,

00:01:33.800 if you are always looking for the real truth underneath what is being told to you, that is

00:01:39.740 it.

00:01:40.720 Open up your Bible, and you will see it.

00:01:43.180 That underneath everything that the world is telling you important, that that is the most

00:01:48.480 important.

00:01:49.680 That God's eternal plan of redemption is humming along perfectly, in rhythm, keeping perfect

00:01:58.060 time with exactly what his will is at every given moment.

00:02:05.160 That nothing is ever throwing him off.

00:02:08.180 Nothing has ever taken him aback.

00:02:09.840 Nothing has ever surprised God.

00:02:13.140 Nothing has ever made him think, how am I going to figure this out, or fix this, or clean

00:02:20.240 up this mess.

00:02:22.300 2025 brought a lot of surprises.

00:02:25.480 I would not want to repeat it.

00:02:27.400 There were some really high points.

00:02:28.840 We'll get into that today, and some really low points, really, really low points for all

00:02:35.280 of our lives, for our country.

00:02:36.940 I cannot predict what 2026 will bring.

00:02:41.960 We talked about future election cycles on Monday, and how we should think about all of

00:02:47.060 that.

00:02:47.500 Obviously, that is very important to start thinking about, planning for the future.

00:02:52.520 But the truth is, we don't know what the next second holds.

00:02:55.620 We certainly don't know what the next year holds.

00:02:57.900 But what we can hold fast to, what we can ground our feet in, is that Jesus Christ wins, that

00:03:08.080 he is king, that he rules over all of it, that every single day of our lives were planned

00:03:13.820 for us before any of them came to be.

00:03:15.820 That's what Psalm 139 tells us.

00:03:19.520 God's eternal plan of redemption is always going off without a hitch.

00:03:24.420 And I'm thankful for that.

00:03:26.500 Nothing happens accidentally or arbitrarily.

00:03:29.040 You are placed right now on this tiny speck of eternity, on this small plot of the universe

00:03:34.960 by a God who does nothing accidentally, nothing flippantly.

00:03:40.860 And Christmas is really the embodiment of that.

00:03:46.100 The word made flesh who dwelt among us, Emmanuel, God with us, who shows that God's eternal plan

00:03:53.860 of redemption, yes, it is always going off without a hitch, but it doesn't always show

00:03:59.200 up exactly how we think it's going to.

00:04:02.400 Certainly, when the Jewish people were looking for a Messiah, they were expecting a soldier, 1.00

00:04:08.560 a warrior, a king, someone who looked strong like royalty.

00:04:12.480 But isn't that just like God?

00:04:15.280 To defy the odds, actually, not only that, but to stack the odds against himself just so

00:04:21.320 he can tear them down.

00:04:23.180 To turn on its head the wisdom of the wise and to flip the worldly economy and the worldly

00:04:29.140 thinking about what's important and what's powerful and what salvation should look like

00:04:33.100 on its head just so he can show us over and over again, it's me.

00:04:37.220 It's my strength, it's my glory, it's my salvation, it's not you.

00:04:44.760 Everything about Christianity is so distinct and so different and so backwards from how the 1.00

00:04:50.780 world defines strength, how the world defines fulfillment and satisfaction and success and

00:05:00.180 how to be saved and how to be like God, every other religion and the world itself.

00:05:07.420 Atheism will give you a structure for how to be a good person and how to earn it and how

00:05:14.440 to make sure that you've made yourself good enough for the higher power, whatever it may

00:05:19.180 be, so that they'll accept you, so that they'll like you, so that you can get up to the level

00:05:23.460 that you want to get to, whether it's ascending to some different internal plane via transcendental

00:05:30.520 meditation or whether it's a list of rules that you have to follow.

00:05:34.740 Christianity is distinct.

00:05:37.240 Not only in that, the gospel says that you can't save yourself, that you're actually dead

00:05:43.820 in your sin.

00:05:44.500 That's what Ephesians 2 says.

00:05:45.760 A dead person can't save themselves.

00:05:47.300 They can't fix themselves up.

00:05:48.340 They can't clean themselves of the stench of the decay of their flesh, and we had to

00:05:54.920 be made alive by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

00:05:58.300 We had to be given a free gift of salvation that we could not earn, so we can't boast in

00:06:02.380 it.

00:06:02.520 That's all Ephesians 2, 1 through 10.

00:06:05.300 Not only is Christianity indistinct in that it says you are completely helpless to save 1.00

00:06:10.240 yourself or even help yourself, so God had to come down and save you, but he didn't come

00:06:15.100 down and save you like a warrior or like a prince or a king or anything that we might

00:06:19.780 have expected.

00:06:20.740 No, you are so helpless that God came down to save you in the form of first an embryo,

00:06:28.080 then an unborn child, and then a baby, and not a baby in a castle, not a baby born to

00:06:35.240 what we think of as a royal family, but a baby born in a stable among manure and hay

00:06:41.420 to lowly Jewish parents. 0.62

00:06:46.000 How incredible is God?

00:06:47.540 And through that gift of Jesus Christ in an unexpected place, in an unexpected way, we

00:06:56.700 get the free gift of salvation.

00:06:59.200 Like the simpleness, the simplicity, and the meagerness, if you will, of Jesus' birth.

00:07:09.340 Like we look at that and that is a symbol of our salvation or the God-man who came to save

00:07:16.300 us.

00:07:16.740 That should show us how much, like even more helpless we are spiritually.

00:07:22.980 How incredible it is.

00:07:24.360 How much do we learn about God, that God is so powerful that he doesn't need to save us

00:07:30.120 in the way the world describes salvation or strength or power or bravery.

00:07:35.320 Now, one day Jesus is coming back in a very different way.

00:07:39.360 His first advent, he came as a baby, which I think there's so much to learn from that

00:07:44.520 about the heart of God, how he does things, but also just his care for children inside

00:07:51.200 the womb that Jesus came as a newborn.

00:07:54.740 It was heralded by the unborn kicks of John the Baptist against the protestations of his 0.50

00:07:59.940 disciples said, let the little children come to me for such as these belong the kingdom. 0.97

00:08:04.280 of heaven against the backdrop of a society, of a culture who denigrated children on the 1.00

00:08:12.200 level of animals and barbarians, sold them into sex trafficking, laid them on hills called

00:08:16.220 exposure hills where they were left there to die by the elements or torn apart by wild

00:08:21.380 animals.

00:08:21.860 That was the backdrop against this Jesus, this God-man, this king came as a baby.

00:08:28.460 That's amazing.

00:08:29.460 That's amazing.

00:08:30.460 Um, we see that and then we just also see who God is and what he cares about and how he

00:08:37.360 does things.

00:08:38.100 But then also we remember that he will come back as a king, as that mighty warrior with

00:08:45.680 a sword coming out of his mouth and a tattoo on his thigh and riding in on a horse.

00:08:50.080 Like it's hard to imagine.

00:08:51.160 It's hard to picture, but one day that internal desire that we have for all things to be made

00:08:57.680 right, for the bad guy to lose finally, and for the little guy, the weak and the actually

00:09:06.380 truly oppressed to be lifted up for the person who takes advantage of people, for those who

00:09:12.940 do evil, who mock God, for them to be destroyed, like that real desire that we have will be

00:09:20.880 satisfied.

00:09:22.620 It will be satisfied.

00:09:24.180 So often I think we look at the state of the world and we think, well, why isn't God doing

00:09:28.800 something?

00:09:29.540 But he promises to do something and he will do something ultimately about all the evil that

00:09:35.480 goes on in the world and he will rule forever and ever.

00:09:39.120 And we're reminded of that at Christmas, all of this that comes from the first advent.

00:09:46.660 We have a different, of course, celebration at Easter when he sacrificed himself on the

00:09:52.480 cross on our behalf and then defeated death, rose again three days later.

00:09:59.120 But this Christmas and really every day and every holiday, we are reminded that God's victory

00:10:05.200 is sure, even when things feel very chaotic.

00:10:08.800 You guys know if you've been listening for any amount of time.

00:10:11.620 I love Psalm 37.

00:10:13.960 I read it this morning because I needed to be reminded of it.

00:10:17.420 I'll just be honest.

00:10:19.020 Like this episode is just as much for me as it is for y'all.

00:10:23.380 Me saying everything that I just said at the beginning of every Monday episode, almost every

00:10:28.580 Monday episode and certainly many episodes for a very long time.

00:10:34.500 I've been doing this podcast since 2018, probably been saying that phrase that we came up with,

00:10:39.580 which is on a mug over there, but I don't have the mug right in front of me since, gosh,

00:10:45.200 probably five years.

00:10:46.140 It's just as much for me.

00:10:47.940 Sorry, I have a cold right now.

00:10:49.560 But because I just feel kind of like down and not anything personal, just the state of the

00:10:57.520 world, you know, and sometimes it really doesn't get to me right now.

00:11:01.640 It is state of American politics, culture.

00:11:05.400 It just is feels not great.

00:11:08.820 Feels not great.

00:11:10.020 It doesn't feel real.

00:11:12.640 Yeah, it's tough.

00:11:14.340 But I just remember Psalm 37.

00:11:17.120 Fret not yourself because of evildoers.

00:11:19.040 Be not envious of wrongdoers.

00:11:21.580 That right there is an entire word that we could just rest on.

00:11:25.480 For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.

00:11:29.380 So what are we to do?

00:11:30.780 Trust in the Lord and do good.

00:11:32.160 Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

00:11:35.320 Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

00:11:39.660 Now, if you're delighting yourself in the Lord, the desires of your heart will align with

00:11:45.040 his desires and your desire will be his will.

00:11:47.540 Your desire will be his glory and he is faithful to give you those things.

00:11:53.040 Now, we used to do we just haven't done it in a while because I feel like we kind of went

00:11:57.100 through most, if not all of the most misused verses that used to be a series that we would

00:12:02.180 do.

00:12:03.020 And one of the verses that we did is Psalm 37.4.

00:12:07.300 Delight yourself in the Lord.

00:12:07.980 He will give you the desires of your heart.

00:12:09.480 I heard that a lot growing up that if you really want to be married and you really want

00:12:12.540 to have kids, then God will do that for you.

00:12:16.480 But that's not the correct interpretation of that verse, of course, because there's going

00:12:21.820 to be a lot of disappointments in this life.

00:12:23.500 A lot of things that we want that we don't get.

00:12:27.300 That's life.

00:12:28.080 We don't.

00:12:28.420 We live in a post-fall world.

00:12:30.480 We live, you know, east of Eden.

00:12:33.320 And one day we will have all of the desires that we truly want in Christ because we will

00:12:41.720 be with him forever and ever if we are indeed Christians.

00:12:45.400 In heaven, when he comes back, whichever one comes first, good will win.

00:12:53.940 It will triumph and there will be no more sin or sadness or sickness or sorrow.

00:12:58.300 And that is our hope.

00:12:59.300 Not that God is always going to give us everything that we want.

00:13:02.660 All right.

00:13:03.160 I want to get into another passage that I think is very often misused.

00:13:08.940 And this is Matthew 18.

00:13:10.780 I've seen a lot.

00:13:11.400 I see this a lot just in general, but especially over the past few days.

00:13:14.760 Matthew 18 as a model for reconciliation between people.

00:13:20.840 I think it is very often not even read at all.

00:13:25.180 And we read things into that passage that it is not.

00:13:29.220 So this is a passage about what believers should do when one has sinned against another.

00:13:35.260 And so let's just read the passage and see what it actually says because people apply

00:13:39.540 this to public rebuke in general or public debate or disagreement in general.

00:13:44.000 And I think that's a misapplication.

00:13:45.880 And I think it's important to talk about that.

00:13:47.600 So anyway, just wanted to start off the show with some encouragement.

00:13:50.540 A Merry Christmas because that is what Christmas is all about.

00:13:54.880 Preach that to yourself.

00:13:56.160 Preach that to your kids.

00:13:57.480 Tell that to the people in your life because that is what matters.

00:14:01.800 And that is where our hope and our joy really comes from regardless of our circumstances.

00:14:05.600 But before I get into the most misused passage of Matthew 18, I want to pause and tell you

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00:15:40.880 Okay, let's talk about Matthew 18 because I see a lot that you shouldn't, you know, someone

00:15:52.520 shouldn't say this about someone or someone shouldn't have any kind of public disagreement

00:15:56.780 because of Matthew 18.

00:15:59.080 And I just want to say, according to the Bible, not according to Allie's opinion, what Matthew

00:16:04.740 18 actually says, because this is a guide from our Lord Jesus, not from Allie's way

00:16:10.660 of doing things.

00:16:11.960 And so let's take a look at what it is.

00:16:14.020 Um, this is so often used as a kind of a way to say that all conflict between anyone should

00:16:21.760 be handled in private.

00:16:23.280 And I do believe that there is prudence in handling some matters in private, but this

00:16:29.540 particular passage, there could be various reasons for handling something in private.

00:16:33.320 I think that's totally fine, but this particular passage does not mean that all correction or

00:16:38.620 all rebuttal or all debate or all rebuke must be done in private.

00:16:44.060 So this is a passage, Matthew 18, 15 through 20, and Jesus is telling people how to live.

00:16:50.980 If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

00:16:55.640 If he listens to you, you have gained a brother.

00:16:58.040 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you that every charge may be

00:17:03.100 established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

00:17:05.720 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.

00:17:08.620 And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector. 0.98

00:17:15.460 So an outsider.

00:17:17.220 Um, and then we could keep going, but that's really the, the passage.

00:17:21.120 So it's really not through 20.

00:17:22.960 It's really through 17.

00:17:24.560 That's the passage that is most relevant that I want to focus on today.

00:17:27.560 So I just want to make some observations and this is how I really like to read the Bible.

00:17:32.860 This is how I started out reading the Bible for my own when, on my own, when I was in

00:17:36.720 high school, people ask me a lot, how should I read the Bible?

00:17:40.340 How should I start?

00:17:41.420 I love answering that question.

00:17:43.100 I say, get an ESV study Bible.

00:17:45.400 That's my favorite form of Bible.

00:17:47.740 You don't have to get an ESV study Bible.

00:17:49.800 There are some other translations that are good.

00:17:51.700 If you're unfamiliar with translations, so ESV, English Standard Version, there's NASB,

00:17:59.180 there's NIV, there's KJV, and some are better than others depending upon how exact the translation

00:18:05.620 is.

00:18:06.200 So the reason I like ESV, because it is a word for word translation from the original Greek

00:18:12.040 and Hebrew.

00:18:12.640 And so it is just more exact.

00:18:16.180 NIV is a thought for thought translation from the original Greek and Hebrew, which means

00:18:21.920 it's less exact, but it's easier to read.

00:18:24.860 I think that different versions can be okay for different people in different stages of

00:18:30.260 life.

00:18:30.980 I think NIV is great for a lot of people, including great for kids.

00:18:36.120 I'm not saying that it's only good for kids.

00:18:37.900 But for me, it's a little less exact, and all the study Bibles are a little different.

00:18:43.600 The commentary in any study Bible is not inerrant.

00:18:46.540 It's not infallible.

00:18:47.780 They are the thoughts of people, but they are doing the very best they can with biblical

00:18:52.200 scholarship and history and cultural context to bring meaning to the text so you can understand

00:18:58.660 why is Jesus saying this?

00:19:00.020 What is going on here?

00:19:01.320 To whom is he speaking?

00:19:04.380 Things like that.

00:19:05.120 So that's just a little aside.

00:19:06.520 If you're new to the Bible, I encourage you to get an ESV study Bible.

00:19:09.880 You can get it on Amazon.

00:19:11.560 I've been able to partner with multiple ministries this year, and because of their generosity,

00:19:17.280 we have given away, I think, close to 5,000 Bibles just this fall.

00:19:21.600 And just the eagerness with which this audience, a lot of you new audience members, have snatched

00:19:28.160 up those free Bibles, because I really try to encourage only people who can't afford a 0.96

00:19:32.500 Bible or who don't have a Bible to get them, has just been incredible.

00:19:35.620 And that alone has been extremely encouraging to me.

00:19:38.860 Start in the book of John.

00:19:40.560 That's where I say to start.

00:19:41.940 You don't have to understand everything, but just read it and read a little bit every day.

00:19:47.880 If you really want to slow down and try to understand it, this is what I do.

00:19:51.580 I will start with a verse, and then I will just do some observations of the words used,

00:19:58.100 for example, and say, okay, what does this mean?

00:20:01.520 Can I put this in synonymous terms?

00:20:04.040 Can I say this in a different way that helps me better understand?

00:20:06.900 Can I think of an analogy that helps me understand what this is?

00:20:10.220 Again, that's not an infallible interpretation of the Bible.

00:20:13.360 That's just helping my particular brain understand.

00:20:16.300 So that's kind of what I'm going to do here, is just do some basic observation of what this

00:20:21.180 passage actually does say versus what it doesn't say.

00:20:25.200 Okay, so number one observation that I see in here, between two or more fellow believers,

00:20:31.720 so quote, your brother.

00:20:33.760 If your brother sins against you, Jesus said.

00:20:36.640 So this is between believers.

00:20:39.140 This is not between any person.

00:20:41.020 It's not about any two people or any three people.

00:20:43.240 When a non-Christian has sinned against you, private confrontation may still be the best 1.00

00:20:50.620 way to go, but that is not what this passage is talking about.

00:20:54.580 This passage is talking about believers within the church.

00:20:58.240 Okay, so that's first observation.

00:21:00.100 Number two, second observation is this is about interpersonal sin.

00:21:04.500 I get this from the quote against you.

00:21:07.160 So if your brother sins against you.

00:21:09.140 So this is not about someone just hurting your feelings,

00:21:12.200 but an actual sin, and we define sin as missing the mark that God has put in front of us in

00:21:18.920 His Word.

00:21:19.440 So the standards that He has set for right and wrong in His Word.

00:21:23.240 And this is not about sin in general.

00:21:26.420 This is not about someone sinning and you having the biblical obligation then to go to them privately.

00:21:33.540 Again, that may be prudent, but that is not what this passage is about.

00:21:37.120 This is sin against you specifically.

00:21:39.680 This is not about someone preaching false doctrine.

00:21:43.960 This is about a fellow believer sinning against you.

00:21:47.980 They slighted you.

00:21:49.000 They treated you unfairly.

00:21:50.620 They were unkind to you according to the Bible standards of good conduct.

00:21:56.400 That is what this says.

00:21:58.500 And in that case, you go to this person directly.

00:22:01.020 Third observation that I see, it should be private at first.

00:22:05.120 So just between you by yourselves, no witnesses should be present.

00:22:08.900 So preserving the reputations and privacy.

00:22:11.480 This can curtail any gossip or slander or innuendo or exaggeration.

00:22:17.300 You're not bringing anyone else into it.

00:22:19.000 You go to them in private first.

00:22:21.240 This is all such a good reminder for all of us.

00:22:23.500 I think all of us at some point have wiggled on these steps that Jesus is saying to take.

00:22:30.940 Fourth observation, after that, if that doesn't work, if you go to this person privately without

00:22:35.840 talking to anyone else or bringing anyone else along, number four, you take two to three

00:22:40.380 witnesses.

00:22:41.420 Two to three, this is specific.

00:22:43.000 It harkens back to the Old Testament when in the court of law, this is not talking about

00:22:47.000 a court of law, but in the court of law, it was required to have two or three eyewitnesses

00:22:51.780 to convict.

00:22:52.600 That is where we get so much inspiration of our due process here in the United States

00:22:57.680 today that the accused also has rights, not just the accuser.

00:23:03.200 So in this case, in this interpersonal dispute between believers, you take two to three witnesses

00:23:09.060 that also having two to three witnesses, it helps with fairness and orderliness.

00:23:15.660 One person could just be convinced by the aggrieved party and be biased.

00:23:19.400 But more than two or three people, like four or five people, that can just be chaotic and

00:23:24.440 a mess.

00:23:25.440 Okay, number five, fifth observation, you have to bring evidence.

00:23:29.280 So there must be proof of this charge that you have against this person that they send.

00:23:33.760 It indicates that we're not talking about just hurt feelings, but a sin that can be objectively

00:23:38.700 proven.

00:23:40.060 Number six, sixth observation, if that doesn't work, you take it to the church.

00:23:44.360 You bring more believers into the conflict to use their reasonableness and authority to try 0.98

00:23:49.320 to persuade that person into repentance.

00:23:52.340 That's what the hope is.

00:23:53.700 The hope is repentance.

00:23:55.220 The hope isn't just let bygones be bygones.

00:23:57.840 The hope is repentance and the hope is restoration.

00:24:01.220 That is where true peace comes from.

00:24:03.460 True peace we see in this passage doesn't come through compromise, does not come through

00:24:08.000 pretending that sin is not sin or a lie is not a lie.

00:24:11.200 But a dispute between two believers can only be resolved when the sinner in that party repents 0.95

00:24:18.740 of their sin and submits to the reasonableness of fellow believers. 0.83

00:24:22.960 And then the seventh observation, the last observation I see in this passage is that if

00:24:28.220 this person refuses all of these things, private confrontation, confrontation with witnesses,

00:24:34.080 confrontation with the church, then you have to cast that person out.

00:24:37.460 This is church discipline.

00:24:39.120 So that person can no longer be, at least for the time being, a part of that local body

00:24:46.740 of Christ, that church.

00:24:47.920 And so the argument actually could be made that this passage is not even just talking about

00:24:51.900 two believers in general, but two members of the same church body, since this process

00:24:56.680 would be hard to do and enforce between two people from two different churches.

00:25:01.700 And so that is what this is about.

00:25:04.440 It's not about just any two people disagreeing about something, or it is not prohibiting public

00:25:13.480 rebuke or publicly correcting a lie or a public confrontation, because sometimes those things

00:25:19.420 are necessary.

00:25:20.500 Sometimes those things are necessary among Christians, actually, and they are very often necessary 1.00

00:25:26.580 outside of the church.

00:25:29.940 So first, we can look at Galatians 2 as evidence for this, Galatians 2, 11 through 14.

00:25:40.100 So this is Paul publicly opposing Peter.

00:25:43.380 But when Cephas, that's Peter, came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.

00:25:49.080 For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles. 1.00

00:25:52.760 But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. 0.89

00:25:56.680 He goes on, talks about his fear and hypocrisy.

00:26:00.300 So not only did he confront him to his face, and maybe other people were around there, but

00:26:04.360 also, he is talking about that now.

00:26:06.900 He is using that public rebuke as a lesson for these believers. 0.84

00:26:11.160 Be like, hey, don't be like Peter in this regard.

00:26:13.740 And I think that Paul loved Peter as a brother in Christ, but public rebuke can actually be

00:26:18.760 instructive for everyone else.

00:26:20.620 Because in this case, it wasn't Peter sinning against Paul interpersonally.

00:26:25.600 It was a sin in general that had to be called out for the building up of the body of Christ.

00:26:30.620 And of course, had to be done in love because Christians are always called to do things in love.

00:26:34.700 But love doesn't always mean silence and complacence and fear and just trying to appease that person

00:26:40.960 and be nice to that person.

00:26:42.460 So there's a distinction there.

00:26:44.340 And then we've got 1 Corinthians 5, 11.

00:26:46.280 But now I am writing to you not to associate, okay?

00:26:49.900 So we're not supposed to associate and like have this private confrontation with these

00:26:53.760 kind of people.

00:26:54.380 But now I'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother,

00:26:58.360 okay?

00:26:58.680 So someone who calls themselves a Christian, if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, 0.96

00:27:04.540 is an idolater or reviler. 0.97

00:27:07.040 So saying malicious and very often untrue things about someone, a drunkard or a swindler, 0.92

00:27:13.440 not even to eat with such a one.

00:27:15.900 So we're not talking about non-believers like this, but people who call themselves Christians, 0.98

00:27:19.600 who commit idolatry, reviling, or drunkards, swindlers.

00:27:23.420 You're not supposed to associate with those people, okay?

00:27:26.280 2 Timothy 3, 1 through 7.

00:27:28.000 But understand this, that in the last days, there will come times of difficulty for people

00:27:31.820 will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their

00:27:37.220 parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, 0.98

00:27:42.100 brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit. 0.73

00:27:45.720 Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying

00:27:50.900 its power.

00:27:52.600 Avoid such people.

00:27:55.620 So some people we are just supposed to avoid.

00:27:58.360 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and

00:28:03.300 led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of truth.

00:28:10.880 And then we have Ephesians 5, 6 through 8.

00:28:12.920 Let no one deceive you with empty words.

00:28:15.140 For because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

00:28:18.920 Therefore, do not become partners with them.

00:28:20.680 For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

00:28:23.940 Walk as children of light.

00:28:25.700 For the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.

00:28:28.440 And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

00:28:32.460 So we are not always obligated to associate with people.

00:28:38.300 And we are not bound by the same instruction in Matthew 18 with unbelievers or with people

00:28:44.500 who are just generally committing sins as we are to a fellow believer within the body of

00:28:51.000 Christ who has sinned against us.

00:28:53.240 Um, and so that is why I think that, you know, when I see people correcting false teaching or

00:28:59.400 saying this person said this and that was wrong, um, I don't think it's wrong.

00:29:03.100 As long as you never go into insults and you're never reviling them, you're not lying about them,

00:29:07.960 but you're focusing on the substance of what they're saying.

00:29:11.260 Um, or maybe you disagree with their methods.

00:29:13.640 Like, I think that is good and totally fine.

00:29:15.300 I don't think that we are obligated to necessarily go to that person first.

00:29:19.440 Again, you might want to, that might be like a good route to take,

00:29:22.780 but that's not what Matthew 18 means.

00:29:25.140 Uh, so anyway, I just thought that that was an important thing for me to remember and for

00:29:29.740 us all to remember.

00:29:30.560 I think sometimes that is like used as a tool to silence people talking about things that

00:29:34.880 are wrong, um, is Matthew 18, Matthew 18, but that's not exactly what Jesus meant by that.

00:29:40.400 All right, let's shift gears just a little bit.

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00:30:50.300 Okay, I thought that we would go down a little trip or take a little trip down memory lane

00:30:56.540 and just kind of go through some of the top stories from 2025 because, I mean, the past

00:31:03.140 few months have felt like a whole year.

00:31:05.380 Have they not?

00:31:06.400 Like, I think about the tragic day on September 10th, and I will never forget that day.

00:31:12.180 We'll talk about it a little bit more in a second.

00:31:14.920 And I think probably to all of us, it's those three months.

00:31:19.380 I mean, they felt like, they felt like 10 years, honestly.

00:31:22.880 And I imagine even more so, so much more so to the people in Charlie's life.

00:31:28.980 But it's just been a lot.

00:31:30.780 It has been so much over the past few months.

00:31:32.920 Not only that, but so many other things as well.

00:31:35.080 But we forget that Donald Trump just became president this year.

00:31:39.600 Like, that is so hard to believe.

00:31:42.740 It's so hard to believe.

00:31:43.480 So let's go back to January for a second.

00:31:45.880 Let's put up Donald J. Trump getting sworn in.

00:31:49.640 So the whole family and I, we were in D.C. for the inauguration.

00:31:55.200 We went to an inaugural ball, but we did not go to the inauguration.

00:31:59.540 We got to watch it.

00:32:01.440 And it was an incredible time to be there.

00:32:05.940 It was so, so cold.

00:32:08.340 Like, it was so cold.

00:32:10.520 I don't even know how you stand it if you live in a cold place like that.

00:32:14.900 But it was very cool to be in D.C.

00:32:18.920 And it was, do you remember?

00:32:21.680 I don't know if we have this clip.

00:32:23.220 I just thought of it, so I didn't even ask my team to get it.

00:32:25.540 But do you remember Carrie Underwood singing,

00:32:29.120 Was It Great Is Thy Faithfulness?

00:32:31.520 I think it was acapella.

00:32:33.440 And because she was supposed to have a background track and it didn't play.

00:32:38.820 Okay, we'll find it and we'll play it now.

00:32:47.160 You know the words, help me out here.

00:32:48.880 For purple mountain majesties

00:32:56.740 Above the fruited plain

00:33:03.520 America, America

00:33:10.360 God shed his grace on thee

00:33:16.360 All right, so that was beautiful.

00:33:20.460 Our girl Carrie Underwood, just amazing.

00:33:23.540 And you'll remember, okay, I also didn't tell my team I was going to do this.

00:33:26.500 So I'm sorry about this.

00:33:27.860 And this is going to make, it's going to make it a little confusing, but it just makes sense to do this.

00:33:33.200 So this was one of the biggest events of, I mean, maybe, no, not the biggest event of the year.

00:33:37.980 I would say one of the biggest events of the year.

00:33:39.460 I would say Charlie Kirk's assassination was the biggest event of the year.

00:33:42.600 But obviously a very big event.

00:33:44.440 I mean, we could have a whole time like going back and thinking about like Trump's victory and how unexpected that was.

00:33:51.900 But this was also, we were tracking like what were our most popular episodes from this year.

00:33:59.600 And that one, totally unexpectedly, where we talked about Trump not putting his hand on the Bible when he gave the oath or when he was sworn in, was our, by far, the most popular episode, both on listening and on YouTube.

00:34:15.940 Here it is, stop one.

00:34:17.500 I don't think that there's any significance there because, again, it's not necessarily a rule.

00:34:23.260 And the fact that they provided their own family Bible means that they did care about that, that it was important to them, even if it was just symbolic.

00:34:31.720 I mean, they thought about that.

00:34:33.000 They brought the Bible.

00:34:33.880 If they didn't care at all, they wouldn't have provided a family Bible.

00:34:39.980 So anyway, that was a fun episode to do because you could see in the background, you can see the Washington Monument behind me.

00:34:47.420 And you'll remember that was a whole thing.

00:34:50.540 That was a whole thing where he didn't put his hand on the Bible.

00:34:52.440 Do I prefer politicians to put their hand on the Bible?

00:34:55.720 Yes, of course.

00:34:56.500 I prefer politicians to put their hand on the Bible.

00:34:58.460 We could also do an entire recap of Trump's first year of presidency, the highs and lows.

00:35:04.440 I think there have been highs and there have been lows.

00:35:07.040 The thing that has made headlines the most has surely been his immigration policies.

00:35:11.720 And I am just, I'm staunch when it comes to immigration. 0.53

00:35:16.620 And if you need to know how to think about immigration or if you want the conservative perspective and what I believe to be the biblical perspective on strong borders and even deportations

00:35:26.780 and just the real risk that is involved with mass migration and illegal immigration, then read Toxic Empathy.

00:35:34.160 My book, Toxic Empathy, came out last year.

00:35:36.880 And I really, I just do, I encourage you to get it.

00:35:40.220 I'm not even trying to sell the book.

00:35:41.580 If I had more books to just send you, I would.

00:35:44.000 But you should get the book.

00:35:45.100 Get it for yourself.

00:35:45.800 Get it for someone in your life.

00:35:46.940 And even if you just read the immigration chapter, it would be absolutely worth your while because there's a lot of manipulation, empathy, extortion when it comes to the immigration issue.

00:35:59.380 And Trump is right on immigration and he should be even stronger on it.

00:36:02.280 So that happened in, at the beginning of, at the beginning of the year.

00:36:12.160 So, and then the second thing that happened and then we got the first American Pope.

00:36:18.500 I mean, my timeline in my head is like completely off.

00:36:24.020 That happened over, over the summer when Pope Francis's replacement became Pope Leo and we had a lot of people kind of freak out a little bit on us because we had Michael Knowles on the show and I didn't have a debate with Michael Knowles on the show.

00:36:43.620 And people were like, wow, what does Allie even think about Catholicism anymore?

00:36:48.100 Because I've just been so reticent about that.

00:36:50.420 I've been so private.

00:36:51.940 No one knows.

00:36:52.900 Is she a Protestant?

00:36:54.640 No, it's so hard to find out.

00:36:56.640 Maybe you can go back and look at my episode celebrating Martin Luther to find out.

00:37:02.760 But yeah, that's caused some controversy because I have Catholics on and I'm not always there to debate Catholics.

00:37:08.060 I have friends that are Catholic that I appreciate so much and I've also done a lot of debates about Catholicism versus Protestantism.

00:37:14.400 But the point in covering that is that it's a really important moment.

00:37:18.160 It's a really important historical moment, not just in the Catholic Church, but really in the West in general.

00:37:24.500 And it does seem to me like, unfortunately, Pope Leo has some progressive views on some things that I would call unbiblical views on some things that I don't love, that I don't appreciate.

00:37:39.680 I mean, of course, Catholic versus Protestant, but I'm talking about things like immigration and Islam and things like that.

00:37:47.860 And, you know, what else is new?

00:37:49.780 Protesting the Pope.

00:37:50.880 It's kind of what we do.

00:37:52.100 It's in the name.

00:37:53.160 But that was a very significant moment.

00:37:55.880 And then coming over to the Protestant side, we lost some of the most important figures in Protestantism.

00:38:04.060 We lost John MacArthur.

00:38:06.540 John MacArthur, one of my favorite Bible teachers.

00:38:09.740 I don't know if we have the clip right now, but there's a clip that we'll play when we have it of Charlie and I talking on his show about—

00:38:20.160 He asked me who the best Bible teacher is, and he was like, I think I know what you're going to say.

00:38:25.440 And then I—and I said John MacArthur, of course, and then we talked about why that is.

00:38:30.560 But we put together this montage after Charlie died of the conversation that I had, and then showing John MacArthur and Charlie sharing the gospel.

00:38:39.480 Here that is.

00:38:40.540 Who is the greatest Bible teacher alive today?

00:38:43.080 I was going to say John MacArthur.

00:38:45.100 He's the man.

00:38:45.900 What made him so—and it's important, right?

00:38:47.840 Because we should articulate, like, why is he a legend?

00:38:50.340 Yeah.

00:38:51.100 And how do we get more of this next generation to be in that mold?

00:38:55.700 Unafraid.

00:38:56.140 That's the thing I think of.

00:38:57.340 Unafraid.

00:38:58.860 I don't know if you know this, but everyone does.

00:39:00.580 It's important to remind yourself of that, that you face God, the judge, and he's going to list everything you did wrong in your life.

00:39:06.780 For those of you that have not given your life to Christ, I could tell you it is the most freeing, liberating thing that a human being can possibly do.

00:39:15.380 The most important thing that you can do.

00:39:17.000 There's no middle ground.

00:39:18.600 You either embrace Jesus as Savior or Lord, or you don't.

00:39:22.220 One promises heaven, the other promises hell.

00:39:25.260 No middle ground.

00:39:26.140 So, John MacArthur, an amazing expositor.

00:39:31.000 He passed away in July at the age of 86.

00:39:34.280 We had had him on the show a couple times.

00:39:37.200 His books, The Gospel According to Jesus, Gospel According to Matthew, etc.

00:39:41.880 So good.

00:39:42.880 He was the pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California since 1969.

00:39:48.700 That is such a long, faithful ministry.

00:39:52.360 So incredible.

00:39:53.580 And then we also lost our friend Votie Bauckham, whom we've had on the show several times.

00:39:58.200 That was completely unexpected.

00:39:59.660 It was known that John MacArthur, being 86, was going to die.

00:40:03.840 Votie Bauckham, while he had had some health and heart issues, that was unexpected because he was just 56.

00:40:10.760 And he passed away just a couple of weeks after Charlie.

00:40:14.220 September 25th, he leaves behind a wife and I believe eight children, grandchildren as well.

00:40:20.020 He had just moved over to the States from Africa.

00:40:23.000 And I'll play you this clip about his death.

00:40:27.860 You are going to hear a rumor one day that Votie Bauckham is no more. 1.00

00:40:33.440 Don't you believe it?

00:40:35.320 Don't you believe it?

00:40:37.200 Don't you believe it?

00:40:38.780 Because though I die, I will rise with Christ.

00:40:42.720 It will not be the end of me because Christ is raised.

00:40:48.420 And I, too, will be raised with Christ.

00:40:52.320 That is why he is called the firstborn from the dead.

00:40:56.300 Folks, you don't talk about a firstborn unless there's others who are born after him.

00:41:01.080 Don't you pity me?

00:41:03.060 You pity the one who wants to hold on to Jesus without holding on to the resurrection.

00:41:08.100 You pity the one who has absolutely no hope because they have no resurrected Christ.

00:41:14.200 And then we also lost, um, we lost Phil Robertson and, uh, Phil Robertson.

00:41:22.340 So we're kind of going out of order here, but he died on Sunday, May 25th.

00:41:27.420 Love Phil Robertson.

00:41:29.340 Uh, he, he was on the show several times.

00:41:31.680 I was on their show several times.

00:41:34.400 Um, he's so funny.

00:41:36.140 He was so funny.

00:41:37.180 I was like very pregnant the first time I met him and he did not say anything, which

00:41:41.760 was like very strange.

00:41:43.860 Most people, especially like older men comment when women are pregnant.

00:41:47.340 But he told me a story later saying that he made that mistake one time where he went up

00:41:51.600 to a family member and said, like, I didn't know you were expecting and she wasn't expecting.

00:41:56.200 So she, he never made that mistake again, but he was so serious about the Bible and I appreciated

00:42:01.980 that, uh, so much.

00:42:03.480 And here he is describing sharing the gospel with Trump, saw 11.

00:42:07.700 I said, there's a cross after that, Trump.

00:42:11.660 I said, there's a cross.

00:42:13.120 Jesus died on the cross.

00:42:14.520 I see, I said, for the sins of the world.

00:42:16.900 I said, you do have sins, don't you?

00:42:19.820 What did he say?

00:42:20.640 And he said, a lot of them.

00:42:22.460 I said, me too.

00:42:23.820 So I told him, I said, I have a lot too.

00:42:25.500 I said, they put him in a tomb.

00:42:27.960 I said, Trump, whatever happens.

00:42:30.120 I said, we're the same age.

00:42:33.120 We are identical age.

00:42:34.300 I said, we don't have that long.

00:42:36.160 We're in our seventies.

00:42:37.400 I said, Trump, we're going to die and you're going to go six feet under and so am I, right?

00:42:44.340 He said, no doubt about it.

00:42:46.780 I said, he was resurrected from the dead.

00:42:51.820 I said, you can live beyond the grave.

00:42:54.420 I said, it's the greatest thing that ever happened for the human race.

00:42:59.020 He was so great.

00:43:00.780 James Dobson also passed away.

00:43:04.300 He passed away August 21st, 2025 at the age of 89.

00:43:09.320 And I mean, this is like just a generation of faithful, evangelical, Protestant pastors and

00:43:18.340 leaders that we lost.

00:43:20.020 And their legacy lives on and God ordained all of their days, knew exactly when they were

00:43:26.140 going to pass.

00:43:27.100 But it's still sad for all of us, but especially their families.

00:43:30.520 Um, and it's okay for us to be sad, even though they've moved on to a much better place and

00:43:35.860 they're in heaven with their savior.

00:43:37.120 It's okay for us to be sad.

00:43:38.180 Even Jesus wept when Lazarus died.

00:43:40.220 And not only did Jesus know he was moving on to a better place, but Jesus knew he was about

00:43:44.760 to raise him from the dead moments later.

00:43:46.320 And he still wept with compassion and sadness and probably just the reality of the sadness

00:43:51.680 of the existence of death because of sin.

00:43:54.780 Um, so lost so many people.

00:43:57.640 And then of course we lost our friend, Charlie Kirk.

00:43:59.600 And we'll get into that in just a second, but let me pause and tell you about our next

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00:45:08.100 Okay, I'm going to try not to like get down into the nitty gritty about this, about Charlie

00:45:17.300 Kirk passing, because I've talked so much about it so many times.

00:45:24.960 But I mean, like I said earlier, I will just never forget that day.

00:45:30.120 And if you want to go back and watch my tribute to Charlie or watch some of the episodes that

00:45:37.000 we did about revival or his memorial, then I really encourage you to like, I just think

00:45:42.820 that there's a lot of encouragement in those first episodes and in those first moments when

00:45:47.800 it was so dark and so sad and so scary and so bleak.

00:45:54.100 But at the same time, like we all felt this rumbling of hope and of revival.

00:46:01.800 And I still feel that.

00:46:04.180 And I still know that it's happening.

00:46:07.420 Not only, yes, God's eternal plan of redemption, but you know, God has been really kind to show

00:46:12.840 me twice in the past few days that he is up to something.

00:46:17.620 He's always up to something, but this turning to him, this renewed interest in him that we

00:46:22.920 all saw at Charlie's memorial, that we all saw on college campuses, like it's still, it

00:46:29.700 is happening.

00:46:30.880 It seems like the love of many has grown cold really fast.

00:46:34.400 Like we so quickly went from this unified moment at the memorial to conspiracies, to

00:46:41.740 accusations, to slander, to gossip, to division, to, I think, unjustified suspension and anger

00:46:52.200 and bitterness and rivalry and deceit and so much.

00:46:57.380 And it just felt like, hang on, like, what is the future going to hold?

00:47:01.200 And I don't know.

00:47:02.540 Like, I can't, I can't tell you.

00:47:04.420 I'm not like a, I don't know what the political future is going to hold.

00:47:07.780 I don't know the future of the right.

00:47:09.160 I don't know the future of activist organizations.

00:47:11.740 I don't know the future of other like influencers and their campaigns.

00:47:15.740 I don't know what that future holds, but as I was very demoralized and discouraged over

00:47:20.840 the past few days, God gave me two conversations.

00:47:24.700 Like he just orchestrated these incredible conversations that encouraged me.

00:47:28.840 And the first one, I talked to someone who used to work on this show.

00:47:33.620 And, uh, when he worked on this show a few years ago, he was, uh, he was an atheist and

00:47:41.300 he didn't believe in God.

00:47:42.420 And we just, I won't get into the details of the conversation, but he recently shared

00:47:46.040 that he's been reading his Bible and going to church and that his, uh, faith has just

00:47:50.840 been restored to him in Christ.

00:47:52.640 And I just thought about like how God works and how God uses each of us in small ways

00:48:00.040 to accomplish his purpose, to seek and save the lost.

00:48:02.780 Like he's going to stop at nothing to go seek that lost sheep.

00:48:07.380 And he's going to use so many in his flock to do that.

00:48:11.500 And you're going to be so encouraged by Friday's episode with John Cooper of Skillet and like

00:48:15.580 his testimony of how God used his life in that way.

00:48:18.540 And how God used his ministry in that way, that when it seems like God is up to one thing,

00:48:22.860 he's doing 10 million things.

00:48:25.160 And like, when we get to the other side of eternity, we are going to see this incredible,

00:48:30.200 complex, interwoven tapestry of all of these little unseen and unsung moments in the lives

00:48:35.760 of believers that culminated in someone's salvation and angels rejoicing because of that.

00:48:41.760 And I saw that happening so much in the wake of Charlie's death.

00:48:46.120 And then it just seemed like everything got dark and confusing, but then the light peeks

00:48:50.580 through in these conversations when I talk to someone and I'm like, God got you.

00:48:55.380 And he used all of these things, things that I didn't see, things that I didn't know, but

00:48:59.980 maybe God allowed me to play a small part in that to bring you to himself.

00:49:04.120 Praise God.

00:49:05.240 Praise God.

00:49:06.180 And then I had another conversation this morning with someone whose family member had walked

00:49:12.580 away from the church, was completely callous towards Christianity, was not interested

00:49:16.860 in it at all.

00:49:18.280 And then over the past few months, I don't know if it's directly because of what happened

00:49:21.340 to Charlie or what he's seen on social media, but almost randomly, it seems, has done a total

00:49:26.360 about face, wants to read the Bible, has bought all of these apologetics books, went to a solid

00:49:32.640 church in the area over the weekend.

00:49:35.120 And the person who I was talking to, this family member was like, I am shocked.

00:49:42.260 I would have never thought this was going to happen.

00:49:44.380 And it just was a sweet reminder that God is doing what he's always done.

00:49:48.780 He is bringing beauty out of ashes.

00:49:50.520 Like he is a God of redemption.

00:49:54.140 And what Satan means for evil, God means for good.

00:49:56.720 And I don't just mean Charlie's assassination, but some of the ugliness that has happened after

00:50:01.260 God is even working through and despite all of that to bring glory to himself, because

00:50:07.800 that's what he does.

00:50:09.160 He will stop at nothing to bring glory to himself.

00:50:11.120 So I want to recalibrate and refocus my eyes on, okay, I want to be a part of that story.

00:50:17.100 The stories underneath the story, the stories of people turning back to faith.

00:50:21.260 So whatever I can do to point people towards scripture, to give you a Bible, to point people

00:50:26.080 towards a solid church, to point you towards a solid pastor in your area, to encourage you

00:50:31.240 to pray and to plug into a body of believers that will hold you accountable, to get to

00:50:35.680 know the living God who made you and loves you, whatever small part I can play in making

00:50:41.060 heaven crowded, as Charlie used to say, like, I want to do that.

00:50:45.520 And I've gotten this question so many times and I always rebuff this question because I

00:50:50.080 don't like this question.

00:50:52.020 I understand why it's being asked, but I don't like it by journalists.

00:50:54.920 They'll say, do you see yourself as like stepping into a place like Charlie did?

00:50:59.600 And I'm not the only person that's been asked.

00:51:01.080 A ton of people in the conservative movement have been asked that.

00:51:04.060 And I'm like, I have such a small piece of this pie over here that focuses on Christianity,

00:51:12.880 that focuses on Christian women.

00:51:15.420 And yes, politics is a part of that.

00:51:17.060 Politics matter because policy matters because people matter.

00:51:19.420 But I'm focusing on that.

00:51:21.600 Like, I want to give those women by the grace of God as much courage, as much clarity as I

00:51:26.300 possibly can, like the activism, the coalition building, the like campus touring, all of that

00:51:32.080 is so important.

00:51:33.000 And that is for someone out there that God has ordained for that.

00:51:37.500 And truly, Charlie was an anomaly.

00:51:40.100 He did the role of like 40 different people.

00:51:43.020 And it'll probably take like 40 of us to even try to make up for some of the things that

00:51:46.960 he was doing.

00:51:47.900 But I like I don't know what the future is there.

00:51:50.680 I have to bring my eyes down to the micro.

00:51:54.760 What's going on with the people in my life?

00:51:57.020 Like what are what's going on with the people right in front of me?

00:51:59.680 And that's what I want to encourage you to.

00:52:01.640 I'm not going to say you got to get off social media.

00:52:04.160 Don't listen to a podcast.

00:52:05.860 Don't watch the news.

00:52:07.220 I'm not saying that.

00:52:08.760 I'm just saying sometimes we have to recalibrate and refocus and put our eyes right here.

00:52:14.600 Who is in front of you that needs the gospel?

00:52:16.880 What story is God writing in your kids lives at home, in your neighborhood, in your marriage?

00:52:24.100 Don't neglect those things for the things that are going on out in the world.

00:52:27.700 Those things are important, but they're not more important than what's going on in your

00:52:30.780 home and your life and your friends and your church.

00:52:34.480 In fact, I think sometimes the big things can be a distraction from the little things

00:52:38.720 because the little things is where a lot of our like our repentance needs to happen

00:52:43.800 and healing needs to happen and sanctification needs to happen.

00:52:46.260 Those things are hard and they hurt.

00:52:49.340 And so I just want us to be careful.

00:52:51.440 I just want us to maybe just refocus a little bit going into the new year.

00:52:56.780 And honestly, a lot of what I've seen about like Charlie's new book and Sabbath has really

00:53:01.780 convicted me about that and the need to weakly and consistently have the self-control.

00:53:07.080 Self-control is a very important trait to me.

00:53:09.960 Like it's important to God, but it's just like one that I really always like aspire to

00:53:14.200 have and I have not had the self-control to have a weekly 24-hour Sabbath.

00:53:19.940 And that is something I say to my shame.

00:53:22.340 And it's probably the cause of sometimes me realizing, oh, wait, all of this stuff is

00:53:27.100 happening, but this person right here needs to hear the gospel.

00:53:31.880 And so I was just thinking about that and want to make sure that we focus on that.

00:53:37.580 And I think that is a way of carrying on his legacy.

00:53:41.900 God is sometimes calling us to big public things, to have a platform and a microphone.

00:53:45.920 I think that's really important that we steward that well if we're called to that.

00:53:49.160 But he might also be calling us to big things that are unseen and unsung.

00:53:56.160 Charlie's memorial really was a special moment.

00:53:58.260 And I just want to highlight like one, one moment that I thought was really, really good

00:54:03.860 there.

00:54:04.240 I loved Marco Rubio's speech.

00:54:06.080 I love J.D. Vance's speech, but this was probably my favorite, SOT 15.

00:54:11.660 Now, I want you to know that Charlie right now is in heaven, not because he was a great

00:54:19.160 husband and father, not because he saved millions of kids out of darkness on college campuses,

00:54:25.840 not because he changed minds and chased votes to save the country, not because he sacrificed

00:54:35.860 himself for his savior.

00:54:39.360 Charlie Kirk is in heaven because his savior sacrificed himself for Charlie Kirk.

00:54:47.020 Okay, I'm holding back tears, holding back tears right now because that moment was really

00:54:53.400 amazing and the whole memorial was really amazing.

00:54:56.960 I will literally never forget and I will hold on to this moment for the rest of my life.

00:55:03.060 I just remember the worship team like playing and they played this spontaneous worship set

00:55:09.720 where no one was singing and it was just and it was totally spontaneous in the moment.

00:55:14.900 They didn't like they didn't mean for this to happen, but they were just playing music.

00:55:17.840 And I remember looking all around and everyone was raising their Charlie Kirk signs completely

00:55:23.460 unorchestrated, here I am, send me, which is a passage out of Isaiah and one that Charlie

00:55:28.900 talked about a lot.

00:55:30.300 And it was so incredibly spirit filled and powerful.

00:55:34.820 And I remind myself of all of that in the midst of the in the midst of the craziness.

00:55:41.880 So God is up to something.

00:55:44.020 We get to be part of it.

00:55:45.100 You get to be a part of it if you want to know about Jesus and who he really is, not

00:55:49.700 a hippie, not a cheerleader, not a mascot, um, also not a genie, but the God of the universe

00:55:56.380 who died to save you.

00:55:58.180 If you want to know what Christmas and Easter are really about, um, then now's the time go

00:56:04.040 to church this Sunday.

00:56:06.040 Um, go to a church that preaches the Bible completely unapologetically.

00:56:09.740 Go to a church that's baptizing people, go to a church that's alive because of the Holy

00:56:15.560 Spirit, because of the word of God, read your Bible, pray.

00:56:19.820 Now is the time.

00:56:20.880 We don't know what 2026 holds, uh, but we know the God who holds it.

00:56:25.920 And that is where our hope and security come from.

00:56:28.660 All right.

00:56:29.160 We've got a few more things to talk about in just a second.

00:56:31.440 Let me pause.

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00:57:46.040 And then of course we would be remiss not to talk about some like big moments for the

00:57:56.880 relatable crew for related girls and related bros this year.

00:58:02.820 I kind of forgot what you were called related bros.

00:58:05.440 I'm so sorry about that for a second.

00:58:07.200 And, and I really, I like, this is a important update that I landed on related girls.

00:58:12.140 I was like, wait, why are we saying related gals?

00:58:14.160 And then it was going to be related bells, which does make sense because it's relatable

00:58:18.700 related bells, but I don't know.

00:58:21.960 I could just never get on board with it.

00:58:24.180 I don't know.

00:58:25.440 It's, I, I don't, I don't know.

00:58:27.300 There's something about it that I just couldn't get on board with it.

00:58:29.540 And I'm like, why not related girl?

00:58:31.300 Um, and you can tell me what you think.

00:58:34.000 You can vote below if you like relate a girl and relate a bro.

00:58:37.400 I just kind of think that sounds best, but it's kind of been a big year for us.

00:58:41.760 Um, share the arrows are, we'll put up some pictures of that.

00:58:45.000 This was our second annual, uh, Christian women's conference.

00:58:48.780 And, uh, you heard me talk about it a lot throughout the year.

00:58:52.740 Oh, there's a picture.

00:58:53.940 I didn't even know we had it.

00:58:55.440 Yeah.

00:58:55.880 We'll just stay.

00:58:56.480 Can we just stay on the, the picture of the, of everyone for just a second.

00:59:01.300 The first picture that was up, like that is just all Christ.

00:59:06.740 That is all the grace of God right there.

00:59:09.720 Um, we did share the arrows last year and that was our first ever Christian conference.

00:59:14.040 We expected 1500 women. 1.00

00:59:15.660 We had 4,000 Christian women show up from all across the country. 0.71

00:59:19.020 It was amazing.

00:59:20.000 It was at a church called Prestonwood Baptist church.

00:59:21.960 Very thankful to them to allowing, for allowing us to be their first venue.

00:59:26.060 That was so great.

00:59:27.360 Um, but then, you know, we were like, okay, let's shoot for 5,000.

00:59:31.260 And I was embarrassed to say that out loud for the second year, because people know it's

00:59:36.260 really hard to get people places in person.

00:59:38.620 There are people who have much bigger platforms than me, um, who, you know, they do their own

00:59:45.280 events and like, it's a really good event if you get 2000 people there.

00:59:49.740 And so, you know, and we're also not having men and women, we're only having women.

00:59:53.560 And so I knew that it could be a little tough.

00:59:57.400 Uh, I didn't want to say 5,000, but then, um, you know, I didn't know how Charlie's assassination

01:00:03.520 would affect everything if people would be too scared to come, but the opposite happened

01:00:07.200 because everyone was like, oh, I want to be with like-minded people right now.

01:00:11.640 We can keep playing.

01:00:12.520 We can keep showing the pictures.

01:00:13.980 Um, I want to be with like-minded people right now and I want to be under sound teaching.

01:00:20.040 And that's what we got.

01:00:20.860 That's Elisa Childers.

01:00:22.240 We had Ginger Duggar Volo, just incredible worship.

01:00:26.260 Um, the chief related bro really like heads that up and he helps plan that.

01:00:31.720 And that was just such an amazing, encouraging day.

01:00:36.620 I had a stomach bug for two days the day before that was spiritual warfare, but God through

01:00:44.120 the power of his Holy Spirit and Zofran really helped me out there.

01:00:49.580 Um, Jessica Bates, our Share the Arrows award winner, she was amazing.

01:00:54.480 Um, if we have a clip of us all worshiping together, we'll play that.

01:00:57.840 All throne, and dominions, all power, and the nations, your name, stand above an old age of pride.

01:01:13.220 Holy, oh, creation, rise.

01:01:20.280 Holy, you are lifted high.

01:01:26.780 Holy, holy forever.

01:01:31.820 Um, and then we had probably the biggest, craziest moment.

01:01:40.680 And I attribute, um, you know, Charlie's wisdom to a lot of this.

01:01:44.860 And that was Jubilee.

01:01:46.040 And we'll put up the thumbnail of Jubilee.

01:01:48.040 And Jubilee was one conservative Christian versus 20 liberal Christians.

01:01:53.040 And this clip, I had no idea that this clip would catch so much that people would be so

01:01:59.580 interested in this clip.

01:02:00.760 But here's the clip that went totally gangbusters viral on Instagram.

01:02:07.560 In particular, I hear on TikTok too, although your girl, grandma is not on TikTok.

01:02:13.700 I'm on millennial TikTok, which is called Instagram.

01:02:17.100 But here is our exchange.

01:02:19.380 Jesus doesn't say that anger is the only thing that leads to murder.

01:02:22.160 As we saw in the case of David, it was lust that led to the murder of Bathsheba's husband.

01:02:27.720 So murder can still be murder, even if the intent does not start with anger.

01:02:32.060 And that is what I believe we see with abortion.

01:02:34.320 What about Matthew 26, 24, when Jesus says that it would be better if Judas had never been born?

01:02:39.260 Why do Christian conservatives believe that each conception deserves to be birthed when 0.53

01:02:43.040 Jesus says otherwise?

01:02:44.200 Well, Jesus doesn't say that Judas should have been murdered or that he should have been aborted.

01:02:47.920 It said that he should have never been born, which we can deduce probably means never

01:02:51.200 been conceived.

01:02:51.920 And he is speaking figuratively there that it would have been better for him to not be

01:02:55.860 born than endure the judgment that he's going to endure because of what he did.

01:02:59.440 That is not condoning killing the innocent people that Jesus defends.

01:03:06.220 You know, I was so thankful to be able to have that opportunity.

01:03:10.160 I really encourage you, if you have not watched the entirety of that two-hour debate, then

01:03:15.760 go do that. 0.52

01:03:16.600 Go watch that two-hour debate, me, 20 liberals, four claims.

01:03:23.300 It was really fun.

01:03:24.780 The Holy Spirit really did meet me there.

01:03:26.560 So thankful.

01:03:27.760 And that was the last long exchange that I had with Charlie.

01:03:31.920 It was about Jubilee in August.

01:03:34.140 I had been on his show that day.

01:03:36.200 We were talking about toxic empathy.

01:03:37.980 Actually, no, we were talking about Taylor Swift and his viral comments that she needed

01:03:42.220 to submit to her husband. 0.69

01:03:43.800 And he was getting so much flack for that.

01:03:45.380 So he had me on to talk about it and to talk about how that's true and to talk about toxic

01:03:51.020 empathy and things like that.

01:03:52.580 And then I texted him and Andrew Colvett later.

01:03:54.840 And I said, I'm going to be on Jubilee.

01:03:56.600 And he was so excited for me.

01:03:58.460 And I've shown some of those really encouraging texts that he sent, but probably 20 texts in

01:04:03.360 a row from Charlie about that, just being like, this is what you have to do.

01:04:07.580 This is where you need to go.

01:04:08.680 This is how you navigate this.

01:04:10.020 Send me your four prompts.

01:04:11.400 We can get a call together to work through this stuff.

01:04:14.240 He's like, I love this.

01:04:15.640 He said, I'm praying for this moment for you.

01:04:18.360 Try not to get choked up again.

01:04:19.680 Um, but yeah, he was so generous with his time with so many people, not, I mean, just

01:04:29.020 like hundreds of us, honestly, I don't even know how he had the time, hundreds of people.

01:04:32.680 He just like would encourage in that way.

01:04:35.080 And we never had that call, but I did carry that advice with me definitely through Jubilee.

01:04:43.060 And, uh, God has used that again, not me, but God has used that Jubilee debate and like

01:04:51.100 the opportunity to share the gospel there in some really incredible ways that people

01:04:55.220 have messaged me about and commented about.

01:04:57.340 And again, God just uses us, um, in whatever we do to bring himself glory.

01:05:02.840 And I'm just so thankful for that.

01:05:05.520 Um, all right.

01:05:06.500 Those are some big moments.

01:05:08.960 Uh, and who knows again, what 2026 holds.

01:05:12.020 We've got America fast this weekend, and that will be very, very interesting in light of

01:05:18.380 all of the recent events, uh, but pray for that.

01:05:21.320 Pray for safety.

01:05:22.260 Pray for me to glorify God, to bring the truth of the gospel and to glorify God as much as

01:05:27.880 I can while I'm there.

01:05:29.180 And just one more thing to say, I'll leave you with our last sponsor for the day.

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01:06:07.780 Okay, last thing I just want to say is keep slugging.

01:06:19.780 If you know, you know.

01:06:22.020 Keep slugging.

01:06:23.740 And things might seem hard or they might seem slow or maybe they seem too fast-paced.

01:06:29.140 Um, but don't grow weary in doing good and stay on track and stay in the lane and the

01:06:36.900 calling to which God has called you and he will bring your path to completion.

01:06:43.000 And, um, also if you have any feedback for us, if you have any guest ideas, if you have

01:06:49.560 topic ideas, if you have things that you want us to cover theologically, news-wise, topics,

01:06:54.780 people that you want me to talk to, feel free to leave a comment, send a message.

01:06:59.860 We, uh, try to take that into consideration.

01:07:02.260 However, I would encourage you if you're like, oh, I wonder if she's ever talked about this

01:07:06.880 or talked to this person, then just type it into YouTube or wherever you listen or watch

01:07:11.700 and just say, you know, Allie Stuckey, uh, John MacArthur or whatever.

01:07:17.080 And then those episodes will come up.

01:07:19.640 Um, so it is likely that I've already talked to the person that you think I should talk

01:07:23.060 to, but tell me who you think I should have on, why you think so, and any other feedback

01:07:28.680 that you have for our team.

01:07:29.900 I just want to say I'm so thankful for you.

01:07:32.260 Um, this would not be here without you.

01:07:34.360 I love you guys.

01:07:35.660 You share the arrows with me.

01:07:37.340 You pray for me and I have the best audience in the world.

01:07:40.740 We punch so far above our weight in every way and showing up at conferences and like

01:07:46.120 being engaged and supporting our sponsors and sending encouragement to people who need

01:07:50.760 encouragement and prayer.

01:07:52.840 Like we are a, not a, not a small audience, but we are even more engaged, uh, than we are

01:08:02.100 like high in quantity.

01:08:03.800 Like we are, this is just the most high quality, smartest, best, and kindest audience out there.

01:08:10.380 And, you know, I'm just, it's, it's just really special.

01:08:15.140 It's just special because there's a lot of people that have a lot of people that follow

01:08:18.700 them, but I think that I have the best people in the world in this audience and what an incredible

01:08:23.800 blessing and privilege it is for me.

01:08:25.840 And I just pray that I steward that faithfully and well.

01:08:28.140 So thank you for helping me do that and Merry Christmas.

01:08:31.640 Make sure that you tune in on Friday to John Cooper.

01:08:34.540 The episode with him is so, so good.

01:08:36.640 Y'all, it is so good.

01:08:37.980 You are going to love it.

01:08:39.280 And, uh, we don't have episodes until the near, until the week of the fifth, until the

01:08:46.380 week of January 5th, we might have one bonus episode come out.

01:08:49.240 Cause we do have an extra one that we filmed.

01:08:51.460 That's really good that I want y'all to listen to before or after Christmas, but regularly

01:08:55.880 scheduled episodes, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, we'll be back the week of January 5th.

01:09:01.740 So I'll see you guys then.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - December 17, 2025

Ep 1280 ｜ The 'Matthew 18' Myth & 'Relatable' Wrapped

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