Ep 1280 ｜ The 'Matthew 18' Myth & 'Relatable' Wrapped
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 9 minutes
Words per Minute
174.03583
Summary
What does Matthew 18 really say about biblical reconciliation and public rebuke? Is that passage being misused? We will take a look at it today, we will also be looking at a recap of everything that has happened in 2025, and we will talk specifically about what we as Christians need to be looking for.
Transcript
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What does Matthew 18 really say about biblical reconciliation and public rebuke?
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We will also be looking at a recap, the highlights of everything that has happened in 2025.
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It has been a huge year, and we will talk specifically about what God is up to, what
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You're going to enjoy this episode brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.
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Go to GoodRanchers.com, use code Allie at checkout.
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Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far.
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Well, it is almost Christmas, and you know what I forgot to tell you at the beginning
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of the episode on Monday, because I had my dad there as a co-host, so it kind of threw
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me off, that God's eternal plan of redemption is going off without a hitch.
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That truth is the truest truth that's out there, and it is the truth that does not make
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headlines, but it is the truth that is reverberating underneath the other truth.
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And underneath the lies, and underneath the chaos, and underneath the noise, that is what
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So if you're searching for something beyond what the media tells you, if you are exhausted
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by what goes viral on social media and trying to keep up with everything that's going on,
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if you are always looking for the real truth underneath what is being told to you, that is
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That underneath everything that the world is telling you important, that that is the most
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That God's eternal plan of redemption is humming along perfectly, in rhythm, keeping perfect
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time with exactly what his will is at every given moment.
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Nothing has ever made him think, how am I going to figure this out, or fix this, or clean
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We'll get into that today, and some really low points, really, really low points for all
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We talked about future election cycles on Monday, and how we should think about all of
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Obviously, that is very important to start thinking about, planning for the future.
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But the truth is, we don't know what the next second holds.
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We certainly don't know what the next year holds.
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But what we can hold fast to, what we can ground our feet in, is that Jesus Christ wins, that
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he is king, that he rules over all of it, that every single day of our lives were planned
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God's eternal plan of redemption is always going off without a hitch.
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You are placed right now on this tiny speck of eternity, on this small plot of the universe
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by a God who does nothing accidentally, nothing flippantly.
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And Christmas is really the embodiment of that.
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The word made flesh who dwelt among us, Emmanuel, God with us, who shows that God's eternal plan
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of redemption, yes, it is always going off without a hitch, but it doesn't always show
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Certainly, when the Jewish people were looking for a Messiah, they were expecting a soldier,
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a warrior, a king, someone who looked strong like royalty.
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To defy the odds, actually, not only that, but to stack the odds against himself just so
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To turn on its head the wisdom of the wise and to flip the worldly economy and the worldly
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thinking about what's important and what's powerful and what salvation should look like
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on its head just so he can show us over and over again, it's me.
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It's my strength, it's my glory, it's my salvation, it's not you.
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Everything about Christianity is so distinct and so different and so backwards from how the
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world defines strength, how the world defines fulfillment and satisfaction and success and
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how to be saved and how to be like God, every other religion and the world itself.
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Atheism will give you a structure for how to be a good person and how to earn it and how
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to make sure that you've made yourself good enough for the higher power, whatever it may
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be, so that they'll accept you, so that they'll like you, so that you can get up to the level
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that you want to get to, whether it's ascending to some different internal plane via transcendental
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meditation or whether it's a list of rules that you have to follow.
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Not only in that, the gospel says that you can't save yourself, that you're actually dead
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They can't clean themselves of the stench of the decay of their flesh, and we had to
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be made alive by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
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We had to be given a free gift of salvation that we could not earn, so we can't boast in
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Not only is Christianity indistinct in that it says you are completely helpless to save
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yourself or even help yourself, so God had to come down and save you, but he didn't come
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down and save you like a warrior or like a prince or a king or anything that we might
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No, you are so helpless that God came down to save you in the form of first an embryo,
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then an unborn child, and then a baby, and not a baby in a castle, not a baby born to
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what we think of as a royal family, but a baby born in a stable among manure and hay
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And through that gift of Jesus Christ in an unexpected place, in an unexpected way, we
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Like the simpleness, the simplicity, and the meagerness, if you will, of Jesus' birth.
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Like we look at that and that is a symbol of our salvation or the God-man who came to save
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That should show us how much, like even more helpless we are spiritually.
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How much do we learn about God, that God is so powerful that he doesn't need to save us
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in the way the world describes salvation or strength or power or bravery.
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Now, one day Jesus is coming back in a very different way.
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His first advent, he came as a baby, which I think there's so much to learn from that
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about the heart of God, how he does things, but also just his care for children inside
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It was heralded by the unborn kicks of John the Baptist against the protestations of his
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disciples said, let the little children come to me for such as these belong the kingdom.
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of heaven against the backdrop of a society, of a culture who denigrated children on the
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level of animals and barbarians, sold them into sex trafficking, laid them on hills called
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exposure hills where they were left there to die by the elements or torn apart by wild
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That was the backdrop against this Jesus, this God-man, this king came as a baby.
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Um, we see that and then we just also see who God is and what he cares about and how he
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But then also we remember that he will come back as a king, as that mighty warrior with
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a sword coming out of his mouth and a tattoo on his thigh and riding in on a horse.
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It's hard to picture, but one day that internal desire that we have for all things to be made
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right, for the bad guy to lose finally, and for the little guy, the weak and the actually
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truly oppressed to be lifted up for the person who takes advantage of people, for those who
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do evil, who mock God, for them to be destroyed, like that real desire that we have will be
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So often I think we look at the state of the world and we think, well, why isn't God doing
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But he promises to do something and he will do something ultimately about all the evil that
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goes on in the world and he will rule forever and ever.
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And we're reminded of that at Christmas, all of this that comes from the first advent.
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We have a different, of course, celebration at Easter when he sacrificed himself on the
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cross on our behalf and then defeated death, rose again three days later.
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But this Christmas and really every day and every holiday, we are reminded that God's victory
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You guys know if you've been listening for any amount of time.
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I read it this morning because I needed to be reminded of it.
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Like this episode is just as much for me as it is for y'all.
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Me saying everything that I just said at the beginning of every Monday episode, almost every
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Monday episode and certainly many episodes for a very long time.
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I've been doing this podcast since 2018, probably been saying that phrase that we came up with,
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which is on a mug over there, but I don't have the mug right in front of me since, gosh,
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But because I just feel kind of like down and not anything personal, just the state of the
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world, you know, and sometimes it really doesn't get to me right now.
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That right there is an entire word that we could just rest on.
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For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.
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Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.
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Now, if you're delighting yourself in the Lord, the desires of your heart will align with
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Your desire will be his glory and he is faithful to give you those things.
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Now, we used to do we just haven't done it in a while because I feel like we kind of went
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through most, if not all of the most misused verses that used to be a series that we would
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And one of the verses that we did is Psalm 37.4.
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I heard that a lot growing up that if you really want to be married and you really want
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But that's not the correct interpretation of that verse, of course, because there's going
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A lot of things that we want that we don't get.
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And one day we will have all of the desires that we truly want in Christ because we will
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be with him forever and ever if we are indeed Christians.
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In heaven, when he comes back, whichever one comes first, good will win.
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It will triumph and there will be no more sin or sadness or sickness or sorrow.
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Not that God is always going to give us everything that we want.
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I want to get into another passage that I think is very often misused.
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I see this a lot just in general, but especially over the past few days.
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Matthew 18 as a model for reconciliation between people.
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And we read things into that passage that it is not.
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So this is a passage about what believers should do when one has sinned against another.
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And so let's just read the passage and see what it actually says because people apply
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this to public rebuke in general or public debate or disagreement in general.
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So anyway, just wanted to start off the show with some encouragement.
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A Merry Christmas because that is what Christmas is all about.
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Tell that to the people in your life because that is what matters.
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And that is where our hope and our joy really comes from regardless of our circumstances.
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But before I get into the most misused passage of Matthew 18, I want to pause and tell you
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Just be able to focus on what you need to focus on in a peaceful way.
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Okay, let's talk about Matthew 18 because I see a lot that you shouldn't, you know, someone
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shouldn't say this about someone or someone shouldn't have any kind of public disagreement
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And I just want to say, according to the Bible, not according to Allie's opinion, what Matthew
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18 actually says, because this is a guide from our Lord Jesus, not from Allie's way
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Um, this is so often used as a kind of a way to say that all conflict between anyone should
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And I do believe that there is prudence in handling some matters in private, but this
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particular passage, there could be various reasons for handling something in private.
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I think that's totally fine, but this particular passage does not mean that all correction or
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all rebuttal or all debate or all rebuke must be done in private.
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So this is a passage, Matthew 18, 15 through 20, and Jesus is telling people how to live.
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If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.
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If he listens to you, you have gained a brother.
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But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you that every charge may be
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established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
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If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.
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And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector.
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Um, and then we could keep going, but that's really the, the passage.
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That's the passage that is most relevant that I want to focus on today.
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So I just want to make some observations and this is how I really like to read the Bible.
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This is how I started out reading the Bible for my own when, on my own, when I was in
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high school, people ask me a lot, how should I read the Bible?
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There are some other translations that are good.
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If you're unfamiliar with translations, so ESV, English Standard Version, there's NASB,
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there's NIV, there's KJV, and some are better than others depending upon how exact the translation
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So the reason I like ESV, because it is a word for word translation from the original Greek
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NIV is a thought for thought translation from the original Greek and Hebrew, which means
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I think that different versions can be okay for different people in different stages of
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I think NIV is great for a lot of people, including great for kids.
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But for me, it's a little less exact, and all the study Bibles are a little different.
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The commentary in any study Bible is not inerrant.
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They are the thoughts of people, but they are doing the very best they can with biblical
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scholarship and history and cultural context to bring meaning to the text so you can understand
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If you're new to the Bible, I encourage you to get an ESV study Bible.
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I've been able to partner with multiple ministries this year, and because of their generosity,
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we have given away, I think, close to 5,000 Bibles just this fall.
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And just the eagerness with which this audience, a lot of you new audience members, have snatched
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up those free Bibles, because I really try to encourage only people who can't afford a
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Bible or who don't have a Bible to get them, has just been incredible.
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And that alone has been extremely encouraging to me.
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You don't have to understand everything, but just read it and read a little bit every day.
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If you really want to slow down and try to understand it, this is what I do.
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I will start with a verse, and then I will just do some observations of the words used,
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for example, and say, okay, what does this mean?
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Can I say this in a different way that helps me better understand?
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Can I think of an analogy that helps me understand what this is?
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Again, that's not an infallible interpretation of the Bible.
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That's just helping my particular brain understand.
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So that's kind of what I'm going to do here, is just do some basic observation of what this
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passage actually does say versus what it doesn't say.
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Okay, so number one observation that I see in here, between two or more fellow believers,
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It's not about any two people or any three people.
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When a non-Christian has sinned against you, private confrontation may still be the best
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way to go, but that is not what this passage is talking about.
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This passage is talking about believers within the church.
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Number two, second observation is this is about interpersonal sin.
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So this is not about someone just hurting your feelings,
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but an actual sin, and we define sin as missing the mark that God has put in front of us in
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So the standards that He has set for right and wrong in His Word.
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This is not about someone sinning and you having the biblical obligation then to go to them privately.
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Again, that may be prudent, but that is not what this passage is about.
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This is not about someone preaching false doctrine.
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This is about a fellow believer sinning against you.
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They were unkind to you according to the Bible standards of good conduct.
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And in that case, you go to this person directly.
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Third observation that I see, it should be private at first.
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So just between you by yourselves, no witnesses should be present.
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This can curtail any gossip or slander or innuendo or exaggeration.
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This is all such a good reminder for all of us.
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I think all of us at some point have wiggled on these steps that Jesus is saying to take.
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Fourth observation, after that, if that doesn't work, if you go to this person privately without
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talking to anyone else or bringing anyone else along, number four, you take two to three
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It harkens back to the Old Testament when in the court of law, this is not talking about
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a court of law, but in the court of law, it was required to have two or three eyewitnesses
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That is where we get so much inspiration of our due process here in the United States
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today that the accused also has rights, not just the accuser.
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So in this case, in this interpersonal dispute between believers, you take two to three witnesses
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that also having two to three witnesses, it helps with fairness and orderliness.
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One person could just be convinced by the aggrieved party and be biased.
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But more than two or three people, like four or five people, that can just be chaotic and
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Okay, number five, fifth observation, you have to bring evidence.
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So there must be proof of this charge that you have against this person that they send.
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It indicates that we're not talking about just hurt feelings, but a sin that can be objectively
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Number six, sixth observation, if that doesn't work, you take it to the church.
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You bring more believers into the conflict to use their reasonableness and authority to try
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The hope is repentance and the hope is restoration.
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True peace we see in this passage doesn't come through compromise, does not come through
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pretending that sin is not sin or a lie is not a lie.
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But a dispute between two believers can only be resolved when the sinner in that party repents
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of their sin and submits to the reasonableness of fellow believers.
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And then the seventh observation, the last observation I see in this passage is that if
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this person refuses all of these things, private confrontation, confrontation with witnesses,
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confrontation with the church, then you have to cast that person out.
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So that person can no longer be, at least for the time being, a part of that local body
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And so the argument actually could be made that this passage is not even just talking about
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two believers in general, but two members of the same church body, since this process
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would be hard to do and enforce between two people from two different churches.
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It's not about just any two people disagreeing about something, or it is not prohibiting public
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rebuke or publicly correcting a lie or a public confrontation, because sometimes those things
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Sometimes those things are necessary among Christians, actually, and they are very often necessary
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So first, we can look at Galatians 2 as evidence for this, Galatians 2, 11 through 14.
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But when Cephas, that's Peter, came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.
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For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles.
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But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.
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He goes on, talks about his fear and hypocrisy.
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So not only did he confront him to his face, and maybe other people were around there, but
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He is using that public rebuke as a lesson for these believers.
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Be like, hey, don't be like Peter in this regard.
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And I think that Paul loved Peter as a brother in Christ, but public rebuke can actually be
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Because in this case, it wasn't Peter sinning against Paul interpersonally.
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It was a sin in general that had to be called out for the building up of the body of Christ.
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And of course, had to be done in love because Christians are always called to do things in love.
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But love doesn't always mean silence and complacence and fear and just trying to appease that person
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But now I am writing to you not to associate, okay?
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So we're not supposed to associate and like have this private confrontation with these
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But now I'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother,
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So someone who calls themselves a Christian, if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed,
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So saying malicious and very often untrue things about someone, a drunkard or a swindler,
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So we're not talking about non-believers like this, but people who call themselves Christians,
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who commit idolatry, reviling, or drunkards, swindlers.
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You're not supposed to associate with those people, okay?
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But understand this, that in the last days, there will come times of difficulty for people
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will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their
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parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control,
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brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit.
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Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying
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For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and
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led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of truth.
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For because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
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For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
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For the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.
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And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.
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So we are not always obligated to associate with people.
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And we are not bound by the same instruction in Matthew 18 with unbelievers or with people
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who are just generally committing sins as we are to a fellow believer within the body of
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Um, and so that is why I think that, you know, when I see people correcting false teaching or
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saying this person said this and that was wrong, um, I don't think it's wrong.
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As long as you never go into insults and you're never reviling them, you're not lying about them,
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but you're focusing on the substance of what they're saying.
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I don't think that we are obligated to necessarily go to that person first.
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Again, you might want to, that might be like a good route to take,
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Uh, so anyway, I just thought that that was an important thing for me to remember and for
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I think sometimes that is like used as a tool to silence people talking about things that
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are wrong, um, is Matthew 18, Matthew 18, but that's not exactly what Jesus meant by that.
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All right, let's shift gears just a little bit.
00:29:42.200
Let me tell you about our next sponsor first, and that is Good Ranchers.
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You guys know we've been relying on them for all American meat and the Stucky home for about
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We always have a freezer full of better than organic chicken, craft beef, all different
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I mean, I think that we're probably making like a sheet of chicken breast every day because
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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
00:31:06.400
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.
00:31:32.920
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.
00:31:49.640
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.
00:32:10.520
I don't even know how you stand it if you live in a cold place like that.
00:32:23.220
I just thought of it, so I didn't even ask my team to get it.
00:32:33.440
And because she was supposed to have a background track and it didn't play.
00:33:23.540
And you'll remember, okay, I also didn't tell my team I was going to do 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.
00:33:44.440
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.
00:34:17.500
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.
00:34:33.880
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.
00:34:50.540
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?
00:34:56.500
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.
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.
00:35:36.880
And I really, I just do, I encourage you to get it.
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?
00:36:56.640
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.
00:37:55.880
And then coming over to the Protestant side, we lost some of the most important figures in Protestantism.
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.
00:38:47.840
Because we should articulate, like, why is he a legend?
00:38:51.100
And how do we get more of this next generation to be in that mold?
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.
00:39:18.600
You either embrace Jesus as Savior or Lord, or you don't.
00:39:37.200
His books, The Gospel According to Jesus, Gospel According to Matthew, etc.
00:39:42.880
He was the pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California since 1969.
00:39:53.580
And then we also lost our friend Votie Bauckham, whom we've had on the show several times.
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.
00:40:27.860
You are going to hear a rumor one day that Votie Bauckham is no more.
00:40:42.720
It will not be the end of me because Christ is raised.
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.
00:41:03.060
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.
00:41:37.180
I was like very pregnant the first time I met him and he did not say anything, which
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
00:42:03.480
And here he is describing sharing the gospel with Trump, saw 11.
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?
00:42:54.420
I said, it's the greatest thing that ever happened for the human race.
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
00:43:20.020
And their legacy lives on and God ordained all of their days, knew exactly when they were
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
00:43:40.220
And not only did Jesus know he was moving on to a better place, but Jesus knew he was about
00:43:46.320
And he still wept with compassion and sadness and probably just the reality of the sadness
00:43:57.640
And then of course we lost our friend, Charlie Kirk.
00:43:59.600
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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.
00:46:07.420
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
00:46:30.880
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?
00:47:04.420
I'm not like a, I don't know what the political future is going to hold.
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
00:47:42.420
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
00:47:52.640
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,
00:48:25.160
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.
00:49:06.180
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
00:49:18.280
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
00:49:35.120
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.
00:49:54.140
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
00:50:09.160
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
00:50:52.020
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?
00:51:01.080
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,
00:51:17.060
Politics matter because policy matters because people matter.
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
00:51:33.000
And that is for someone out there that God has ordained for that.
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
00:51:47.900
But I like I don't know what the future is there.
00:51:57.020
Like what are what's going on with the people right in front of me?
00:52:01.640
I'm not going to say you got to get off social media.
00:52:08.760
I'm just saying sometimes we have to recalibrate and refocus and put our eyes right here.
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.
00:52:51.440
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.
00:53:09.960
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.
00:53:22.340
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
00:54:06.080
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
00:54:39.360
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
00:55:30.300
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.
00:55:45.100
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
00:55:58.180
If you want to know what Christmas and Easter are really about, um, then now's the time go
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.
00:56:20.880
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.
00:56:29.160
We've got a few more things to talk about in just a second.
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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.
00:58:07.200
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
00:58:27.300
There's something about it that I just couldn't get on board with it.
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.
00:58:56.480
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.
00:59:09.720
Um, we did share the arrows last year and that was our first ever Christian conference.
00:59:15.660
We had 4,000 Christian women show up from all across the country.
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.
00:59:27.360
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
00:59:38.620
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.
00:59:57.400
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.
01:00:13.980
Um, I want to be with like-minded people right now and I want to be under sound teaching.
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.
01:01:31.820
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.
01:01:48.040
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
01:02:00.760
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.
01:02:19.380
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
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
01:02:51.920
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
01:03:16.600
Go watch that two-hour debate, me, 20 liberals, four claims.
01:03:27.760
And that was the last long exchange that I had with Charlie.
01:03:37.980
Actually, no, we were talking about Taylor Swift and his viral comments that she needed
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
01:03:52.580
And then I texted him and Andrew Colvett later.
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.
01:04:11.400
We can get a call together to work through this stuff.
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.
01:04:35.080
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
01:04:57.340
And again, God just uses us, um, in whatever we do to bring himself glory.
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.
01:05:22.260
Pray for me to glorify God, to bring the truth of the gospel and to glorify God as much as
01:05:29.180
And just one more thing to say, I'll leave you with our last sponsor for the day.
01:05:35.620
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01:06:07.780
Okay, last thing I just want to say is 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.
01:07:02.260
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.
01:07:19.640
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
01:07:37.340
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
01:07:52.840
Like we are a, not a, not a small audience, but we are even more engaged, uh, than we are
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
01:08:25.840
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.
01:08:39.280
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.
01:08:51.460
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.