Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - December 02, 2019


Ep 192 | Most Misused: Matthew 7_1


Episode Stats

Length

27 minutes

Words per Minute

184.62257

Word Count

5,137

Sentence Count

293

Hate Speech Sentences

6


Summary

In this episode, we pick back up on our series "Most Misused" where we discuss popular verses that are misinterpreted, misinterpreted and misapplied by people in the church and those outside of the church. One of the most commonly misused verses is "Judge not that you be not judged" (Matthew 7.1). This verse is typically used to excuse sin, to absolve Christians of the responsibility of discernment, and to celebrate people's life choices no matter what they are. What does this say about us as Christians? What does it say about God? And what does it mean about sin?


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and
00:00:05.040 a good restful weekend. Today we are going to pick back up on a series that we started a few
00:00:09.320 weeks ago called Most Misused, where we go through popular verses that are decontextualized,
00:00:16.720 misinterpreted, misapplied, both by people who are in the church and people who are not
00:00:21.980 Christians at all and yet might cite particular verses in order to make a point in some kind of
00:00:27.760 debate or conversation. One of those verses that is most commonly misused is Matthew 7.1,
00:00:35.100 judge not that you be not judged. A couple weeks ago we did Psalm 37.4, delight yourself in the Lord
00:00:41.420 and he will give you the desires of your heart. We will do others in the future like Jeremiah 29.11,
00:00:46.640 Philippians 4.13, as well as some others that have been suggested to me. But we are going to focus on
00:00:51.720 this verse, Matthew 7.1, and what I'm going to say, it might surprise you no matter where on the
00:00:57.520 theological spectrum you land. I might not land on this exactly where you've heard evangelicals land
00:01:03.580 on this in the past or maybe so. Maybe you've heard exactly everything of what I'm going to say
00:01:08.500 today. But I do have critiques for how both liberal and conservative Christians interpret
00:01:15.000 this verse. And when I say liberal and conservative, I don't necessarily mean political. I'm talking
00:01:19.440 theological. So on the liberal end of the theological spectrum, this verse is typically used to excuse
00:01:27.020 sin, to absolve Christians of the responsibility of discernment. It is used as a justification to
00:01:33.120 ignore what God calls sin, to be able to throw our hands up and say, live and let live, you do you,
00:01:39.180 do whatever makes you happy, because who am I to judge? So we're going to talk about how that is a
00:01:45.320 misinterpretation as well as on the other side of that. Okay, from pet stain removers to the Bible.
00:01:52.160 It's not always a natural transition, guys. I understand that. But I do, I do try my best. I'm
00:01:57.360 not even going to try to link it logically to what we're talking about. We're just going to have to
00:02:01.300 transition right out and talk about this verse, Matthew 7.1. Like I said, it's typically used to
00:02:08.120 promote moral relativism. It is used to promote this idea that Jesus didn't really care about our sin,
00:02:14.540 or, and he doesn't care about our sin or how we live our lives. Jesus is who I call in this
00:02:20.480 perspective, hipster Jesus. So he is your buddy. He's your pal. He's your confidant. He's your
00:02:24.920 cheerleader. He's the guy who sips his craft beer while stroking your hair and telling you how pretty
00:02:29.560 and awesome you are. If this is your view of Jesus, Matthew 7.1 will sound like a command to pretend that
00:02:37.560 sin doesn't exist and to celebrate people's life choices, no matter what they are. This is a very
00:02:43.080 convenient interpretation, of course, of this verse in this day and age because the last thing you want
00:02:48.460 to be today is a bigot. And the fastest track to bigotry, modern culture tells us, is by claiming
00:02:55.120 to believe in truth, claiming to believe in an absolute morality that comes from God, claiming
00:03:00.720 the existence of actual standards according to God's word. As we talked about in the last episode,
00:03:05.660 agnosticism today is glorified as virtue and adherence to absolute truth is scoffed at. It is
00:03:12.640 denigrated as being wrong, ironically enough. Matthew 7.1 is the rallying cry of agnostics
00:03:20.760 and of nominal Christians when interpreted to mean that sin is non-existent. So that is one side of the
00:03:28.020 misinterpretation of this verse. And then you have theological conservatives, and obviously I fall in
00:03:33.460 this camp. But there are many in our camp who pretend honestly like this verse doesn't exist,
00:03:38.240 that liberals just made it up, and that Jesus didn't really say this, or we write it off as not
00:03:43.580 important. And that is also a huge mistake that doesn't honor God. So how should we approach this
00:03:49.400 verse? There are two points that I am going to make in regards to this passage. One, Christians should
00:03:56.760 be very careful about pronouncing judgment on other people. And number two, Christians can and should
00:04:04.400 call sin, sin. I am going to be real. The second one is a lot easier for me than the first. It's a lot
00:04:14.100 easier for me to call sin, sin than it is to be hesitant or slow to pronounce judgment on the person
00:04:20.660 who is committing that sin. And I think that's true for a lot of us because we are prideful, we lack
00:04:27.220 self-awareness, and it's much easier to look at someone else's sin than to look at our sin. But per
00:04:32.460 usual, as I am preparing for these episodes and digging into God's word for answers, I am always
00:04:37.780 convicted. I am always challenged. I am always humbled to change my mindset and my actions. So let's look at
00:04:44.800 this verse and its context. This verse is part of Jesus's Sermon on the Mount. If you've been in church
00:04:50.320 for any amount of time, you've probably heard of Jesus's Sermon on the Mount. It's Matthew 5 through
00:04:54.600 7. He is preaching to the crowds what is historically seen as the central tenets of Christianity and
00:05:01.300 Christian discipleship. The sermon includes the Beatitudes, the Lord's Prayer, the admonition
00:05:06.660 against worry and fear and hypocrisy, the emphasis on internal purity rather than only external obedience.
00:05:13.980 It is in the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus presents what is considered the revolutionary
00:05:18.220 nature or the revolutionary economy of God's kingdom, where the lowly are uplifted, the persecuted
00:05:25.380 are blessed, the humble are elevated, riches are regarded as nothing, and eternal glory far outweighs
00:05:32.500 earthly rewards. He is telling people how to live in light of God's authority and eternity. In Matthew 7,
00:05:41.420 the commentary in my ESV study Bible says that Jesus is moving from personal temptations to
00:05:47.500 interpersonal temptation, so how we should relate to one another. At the end of Matthew 6, Jesus had
00:05:53.940 just urged his listeners not to worry, not to be anxious, not to concern themselves with tomorrow,
00:06:00.600 but rather to seek God and his righteousness, knowing and trusting that all of the things that
00:06:05.400 we need will be added to us. Then he moves into the realm of interpersonal relationships in what is,
00:06:12.020 in our Bibles, Matthew 7. And the first command he gives in this section is that we should not
00:06:18.160 judge one another. So this passage says,
00:06:20.900 Judge not that you not be judged, or that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce,
00:06:26.340 you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck
00:06:31.640 that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say
00:06:36.680 to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye, when there is a log in your own eye?
00:06:40.520 You hypocrite. First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the
00:06:45.940 speck out of your brother's eye. The Greek word for judge here is krino, so K-R-E, no. And in this
00:06:54.120 context, it means to express an opinion about a person or a thing, usually an unfavorable one,
00:07:00.640 in an absolute sense. The word krino is used in the same way in John 8, 16, when talking about
00:07:06.520 his own judgment. So Jesus says, you judge according to the flesh. I judge no one, yet even
00:07:12.280 if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I am the Father who sent me.
00:07:18.100 As an aside, there Jesus is talking about his earthly ministry. He didn't come into the world to judge
00:07:23.620 or to condemn the world, but to save the world, as John 3, 17 says. Though ultimately in the final
00:07:29.960 judgment, he will judge the living and the dead, as Matthew 5, 22 tells us. The word judge in the
00:07:35.840 Greek in John 8, 16 is the same kind of judge used in Matthew 7, 1, which tells us that the judgment
00:07:42.440 we are prohibited from doing in Matthew 7, 1 is the kind that is final, absolute, and ultimately
00:07:49.120 and totally unfavorable. A kind of judgment that declares someone guilty before God. Jesus is clear.
00:07:56.660 The standards we are holding others to are the standards that God will hold us to. He goes on to
00:08:02.960 say, stop concerning yourself with other people's sin when you have sin in your own life. Stop
00:08:08.200 pointing out the mistakes someone is making when you're making the same and worse mistakes yourself.
00:08:14.700 If you want to talk about someone else's sin, first acknowledge and repent of your own. Then you
00:08:20.100 will be able to help your brother and sister turn from their own sin. What Jesus is pointing out here
00:08:26.560 is that God cannot stand, he will not stand hypocrisy. We see that throughout the Sermon on the Mount,
00:08:34.140 specifically, Jesus is weary of people ignoring their own depravity and puffing themselves up with
00:08:40.860 righteousness by pointing out the depravity in others. And how guilty are we of doing that? How
00:08:46.120 guilty am I of doing that? I mean, this is a whole of, you know, social media dialogue these days.
00:08:52.020 Now, I know what many of you are thinking. What's the distinction between calling out sin in a
00:08:56.820 righteous and necessary way and engaging in the kind of judgment that Jesus tells us not to engage
00:09:01.920 in? And we will get there in just a second. But I want to make clear that this is not a verse
00:09:07.200 conservative evangelicals can throw out in the name of being warriors for truth. And I'm talking
00:09:11.960 to myself. We need to be careful that we are not going against the word of God by judging where it is
00:09:18.420 not our place to judge when we too may be guilty of the same things or similar things or equally
00:09:23.460 bad things that we are calling out in other people. Romans 2, 1 through 5 echoes Jesus' words in Matthew
00:09:29.960 7. Now, Paul has just finished in Romans 1 talking about God's wrath on the unrighteous and what
00:09:37.180 unrighteousness looks like. Honestly, it sounds like he's talking about America in 2019. And then in
00:09:43.380 chapter 2, verses 1 through 5, he says,
00:09:46.420 Therefore, you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges, for in passing judgment on another
00:09:51.920 you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the
00:09:57.220 judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man, you who judge
00:10:03.360 those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?
00:10:08.520 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's
00:10:13.720 kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart,
00:10:18.960 you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be
00:10:23.440 revealed. Again, we see in this passage an emphasis on hypocrisy and the need for personal repentance.
00:10:30.800 In issuing judgment to others and ignoring our own transgressions, we are pretending as if our sin
00:10:36.120 won't be judged by God. We are taking his mercy for granted rather than allowing his kindness to
00:10:41.420 lead us to repentance from our sins. Just as Jesus in Matthew says, stop judging people for doing the
00:10:48.360 same things that you're doing and instead repent of your own sins, God through Paul and Romans 2 tells
00:10:53.900 us the same thing. God hates hypocrisy. God hates those who put themselves on the throne of judgment when
00:11:01.500 we ourselves are worthy of the same judgment. This is the pride and the arrogance and the self-idolatry
00:11:08.040 that Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount so consistently condemns. Psalm 51 17 says,
00:11:14.260 the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. Oh God, you will not despise.
00:11:22.280 God wants us to be humbled by our own sin, troubled by our own depravity, broken over our own
00:11:28.640 unholiness, taken to our knees by our own neediness for a savior more than we are concerned with the
00:11:34.840 missteps of others. Um, other people's souls are under God's jurisdiction and he will judge them
00:11:41.020 with all righteousness. We can trust that no sin does or will escape God's notice. We can trust that
00:11:48.720 God is a God of justice and he will judge our iniquities rightly. And for all who are in Christ,
00:11:54.720 we have an intercessor. We have a justifier, a perfect sacrifice who wiped our slate clean and who has
00:12:00.600 imputed his righteousness onto us so that we can stand before God in perfect innocence. Christians are
00:12:08.180 relieved from this responsibility of ultimately and absolutely condemning people. We instead get to focus
00:12:15.360 our energy and efforts on our own hearts, working out our own salvation with fear and trembling as
00:12:21.700 Philippians 2.12 says. So when Miley Cyrus sings in her song, only God can judge us. She's actually
00:12:28.600 right. She is correct about something. It is God's role to judge our eternal souls. Only God truly can
00:12:35.900 see the heart. Only God is perfect. And therefore only God can righteously judge others ultimately and
00:12:42.320 absolutely. But the fact that God judges us is no comfort for the unbeliever. That is terrifying.
00:12:51.000 That is not comfort. That is terrifying. That is scary. That is fear-inducing. Because why does God
00:13:00.720 judge others? Because God cares about sin. So the depiction of hipster Jesus as a live and let live
00:13:09.700 moral relativist is unbiblical. It is blasphemous and it leads people straight to hell. If Jesus did not
00:13:17.700 care about our sins, he wouldn't have endured a brutal death on the cross to pay for them. If Jesus
00:13:22.860 didn't care about our sins, he wouldn't have come to earth at all. He could have just issued some decree
00:13:27.240 that said, hey, be nice to people and do what makes you happy. But he didn't. He left his throne in
00:13:33.620 heaven, lived a life that he didn't have to live, and died a death that he didn't deserve to die because
00:13:38.280 sin matters. Because sin has an eternal effect on our soul. Because our sin condemns us justifiably
00:13:45.920 to hell. God loved us so much that he offered in Christ a permanent, sufficient sacrifice for our
00:13:53.740 sin so that we could be saved from hell, so that we could be reconciled to him and worship him in spirit
00:13:59.720 and his truth for his glory and our good. If sin doesn't exist, then neither does grace, neither does
00:14:05.920 redemption. Neither does salvation. Sin made us spiritually dead, and Christ has made us spiritually
00:14:13.600 alive. Both Romans 2 and Matthew 7 say that there will be judgment one day. So we can't even read
00:14:21.040 these verses that tell us not to judge other people in absolution without also reading that God will
00:14:27.620 judge us. We can't read these verses without also reading the call to repent from our sins. Romans 6,
00:14:33.460 12 through 13 says this, Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions.
00:14:40.500 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God
00:14:45.740 as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for
00:14:50.160 righteousness. If we are to not let sin reign in our moral body, if we are to live holy lives,
00:14:55.740 we have to be able to discern what sin is. How do we discern what sin is? By reading God's word. If
00:15:03.600 you'd like a solid list of some of the things that God finds detestable, all you have to do is read
00:15:08.640 Romans 1. 2 Timothy 3.16 says this, a lot of you know this verse, all scripture is breathed out by God
00:15:14.400 and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.
00:15:18.760 We use the word of God to tell us what sin is and what righteousness is. We have to be able to
00:15:25.140 distinguish between good and bad to live the lives that God has called us to live. 1 John 2.1-6 says
00:15:34.020 this, My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does
00:15:40.620 sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our
00:15:45.760 sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this, we know that we
00:15:51.200 have come to know him if we keep his commandments. Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his
00:15:56.940 commandments is a liar. And the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him, truly the
00:16:02.880 love of God is perfected. By this, we may know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to
00:16:09.680 walk in the same way in which he walked. In Matthew 12, Jesus says to the scribes and to
00:16:15.700 the Pharisees, either make the tree good and its fruit good or make the tree bad and its fruit bad
00:16:20.900 for the tree is known by its fruit. So we have a very good indication of who follows Jesus by how
00:16:27.920 they live their life. That doesn't mean that we have the power to condemn people to hell. This
00:16:32.620 doesn't mean that we write people off as hopeless. This doesn't mean that we see ourselves certainly as
00:16:38.100 any better than anyone else. This does mean that we are able to say what sin is and to show people a
00:16:43.600 better way in Christ. But for those who bear the name of Christian and continue knowingly and
00:16:50.160 unrepentantly in sin, we do. We are called to draw a line in the sand. 1 Corinthians 5, 9 through 12
00:16:57.000 says this, I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people, not at all
00:17:02.660 meaning the sexually immoral of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters, since then you would
00:17:07.760 have to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name
00:17:13.600 other. If he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler,
00:17:20.480 not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside
00:17:27.880 the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among you.
00:17:35.320 Those within the church who bear the name of Christ, whose fruit isn't indicative of a tree rooted in
00:17:40.840 Christ, we are to acknowledge their sin and we're not to excuse it in the name of inclusivity.
00:17:46.340 That is not an excuse for hypocrisy. We are still called to assess our own sin before and even more
00:17:51.660 than we assess the sins of others. Remember, Jesus said we need to remove the log from our own eye
00:17:57.100 before we can help our brother or sister remove the speck from theirs. But this is also a call away
00:18:03.260 from apathy and moral relativism. The only way to strike this balance is through utter and total
00:18:09.840 and continual humility and awareness of our station before God and our allegiance to live a life that
00:18:16.460 pleases him, not to earn our salvation, but because of salvation. So the point is this. Christians are
00:18:23.200 supposed to care about sin and there is a place for righteous anger. We can look at the evil that happens
00:18:29.640 in the world and we can say that's wrong. That breaks God's heart. That is sinful. Satan is a
00:18:37.500 part of that. Whatever it is, whether it's abortion or terrorism or sex slavery, of course, we can call
00:18:43.260 those people what they are, evil. And we can read Psalm 37 and we can know that God is going to be
00:18:49.060 rid of them, that we are going to look around one day. The faithful are going to look around and they're
00:18:53.860 going to see that the evildoer is no more. That's the day that we are looking forward to.
00:18:58.260 But again, that does not justify arrogance. That doesn't justify pride. That doesn't justify us
00:19:05.480 absolutely and totally condemning people simply because that's not our place. And so it's very
00:19:11.280 difficult, especially in this whole political media world, social media, where cancel culture is rampant
00:19:16.640 really on both sides of the aisle, where it's so easy to point fingers. And again, talking to myself
00:19:20.880 here, it's so easy to pretend like we're perfect and to point out the things in other people that we don't
00:19:26.980 think are true in our own lives. But really, it's typically because we're not looking hard enough.
00:19:31.940 Now, I still will stand by the fact that it's okay to point out false teaching. In fact, I think it's
00:19:36.920 incumbent upon Christians to point out false teaching, to point out lies and to say, okay, here's
00:19:41.640 a lie, but this is true. This does not mean, as I've talked about on this podcast before, disagreeing
00:19:46.480 with someone or calling out something that isn't true or simply saying what you believe is not a
00:19:50.820 personal attack on the author, on the speaker, on the tweeter, whoever is calling it out. That does
00:19:59.800 not mean that we are condemning their souls to hell. That doesn't mean that we're saying that we
00:20:03.460 don't have any sin or, you know, anything in our lives that we need to repent from. But it is saying,
00:20:08.680 hey, here's this popular thing that this person said. Here's this lie that's being perpetuated.
00:20:13.000 And here's the truth of the word of God. I don't think that counts as being judgmental. But of course,
00:20:17.100 I do believe that we should be constantly taking stock of our hearts. It's so easy to put up one
00:20:21.740 persona online or even in church or in public or among your friends or among your family. And
00:20:29.560 that gives us some kind of sense of self-righteousness and a sense of being better than other
00:20:34.820 people without ever taking stock of what's going on in our hearts. But we can't hide from God.
00:20:41.520 And thankfully, because of the faithfulness and the persistence of the Holy Spirit,
00:20:44.940 whose goal is to make us more like Christ in glorification to God,
00:20:49.660 he doesn't let us just sit in our sin if we are pursuing Christ. And now that doesn't mean that
00:20:56.160 we won't sin. That doesn't mean that we won't stumble and fall. There are things that you might
00:21:00.960 think today that in a year from now, you might look back on and say, wow, I was wrong for that.
00:21:06.320 I was sinful for that. There are many things like that in my life that I can look over even the past
00:21:11.180 year that God has sanctified me through. But that sanctification process does bring us to our knees
00:21:18.720 and help us remember that any good that we do, any truth that we know isn't of us. It's not our
00:21:24.020 personalities. It's not our natural inclinations. It is Christ. It is God's kindness that led us to
00:21:29.680 repentance, not our natural goodness and not our morality. And so understanding that,
00:21:36.200 we are really, we are really silenced when it comes to condemning the souls of other people,
00:21:43.540 even when we call out their sin. It just helps us to remember that if God was able to forgive us of
00:21:49.860 all of the depravity that we are guilty of, even the things that we don't know about ourselves,
00:21:55.320 or even the things that we've never shown the world, then we have the capacity to forgive and to
00:22:00.920 give grace to other people. I don't think that means that we don't fight for justice and we don't
00:22:06.400 fight for the evildoer to be punished. Actually, Romans 13 talks about the role of the government
00:22:11.820 being the, being the punisher of those who commit crimes of those who do evil. But again,
00:22:20.920 I think that that is righteous judgment and that's necessary to, for the good of mankind. I don't
00:22:27.140 think that that means we're being hypocritical or judging people in absolution and ultimately
00:22:32.140 and eternally, which is what Matthew 7, 1, uh, warns us against. Okay. That's all the commentary
00:22:39.980 that I have on that. There were a few suggestions that I got from other people who said, I think
00:22:45.680 there's one verse, I don't even know what the reference is for it. Uh, what is it? The God was
00:22:51.800 within her. She could not fail or something like that. I have seen that thrown around a lot.
00:22:56.860 And honestly, I'm going to have to look at that because I've kind of just written it off as
00:23:00.740 something that people are obviously probably decontextualizing, but I'll want to make sure
00:23:05.400 that obviously I know the context of it and I know the proper application interpretation of it.
00:23:10.440 Um, if you have any suggestions in addition to Philippians 4, 13, Jeremiah 29, 11, those are
00:23:16.260 typically the ones that are cited without any context. If you've got any other suggestions for
00:23:22.260 me, please let me know. Additionally, if you have suggestions for Wednesday for what you would like
00:23:27.700 to hear me talk about, um, then send that my way. I read a lot of Instagram messages. I can't always
00:23:34.340 get to every single one of them because there are typically a lot, but I try to read them. And if
00:23:41.180 there's a good suggestion, for example, this most misused, uh, series that we're doing was actually
00:23:46.620 a suggestion that I got, uh, via Instagram message. And I thought that was a really good idea.
00:23:52.920 I don't always cover everything that suggested to me either because I don't yet have enough knowledge
00:23:58.640 to be able to give you a good analysis of it, or just because it's not timely, or I'm afraid it's
00:24:06.400 not going to apply to enough people. I do have to kind of think about where everyone is in the
00:24:11.020 country where everyone is in their stage of life and try my best to speak to, um, all of you ladies
00:24:18.300 out there who are listening. Um, it is almost Christmas, which is crazy. Thanksgiving came
00:24:25.220 really late this year, which means we are like thrust into the Christmas season. I already told
00:24:28.700 you guys I decorated earlier than I usually do. I think it's something about having a kid that just
00:24:33.280 makes you excited, even though she has no idea, she has no idea what's going on, but I want to make
00:24:37.780 sure that this Christmas season that I partner with you guys to do something to, um, give back
00:24:43.500 in a way that matters. My heart typically goes to my heart and my money and all of that typically
00:24:49.440 goes to pro-life centers. But there was something that I did a couple of years ago. I kind of forgot
00:24:55.080 about this. Actually, this is my dad. I'm sorry about this, but I once received, so you guys would send
00:25:03.020 me suggestions for nonprofit organizations, charities for people to give to, for people to
00:25:10.380 know more about, to volunteer with. Now we talk about them on the podcast. So I do want to bring
00:25:16.000 that back up. Like if you guys are interested in sending me any charities, nonprofit organizations,
00:25:22.320 pregnancy centers, any group that's doing really good work that you would like our followers to know
00:25:28.760 about. What we can do is I can pick one, uh, every week from now until Christmas, then I can talk about
00:25:34.240 that. And then we can put the link to it in the description. And if people want to donate, if they
00:25:38.400 want to get involved, if they want to post about it, they can, um, I'm going to make sure that we have,
00:25:44.600 uh, that we have a really good system for that. So all of us can be as involved as we want to this
00:25:50.700 Christmas season. I have a giving manger, uh, the people at the giving major manger sent us the book
00:25:57.580 in the giving manger, which is a really cool thing where you do acts of kindness until Christmas and
00:26:02.680 you put the hay in the little manger where Jesus lay. And it's really fun. So that could be something
00:26:07.820 that you and your family do as well. A lot of you guys ask me different ways that you can engage your
00:26:13.180 family in Christianity and, um, help your community. And I certainly am not the sole resource to look
00:26:20.380 to for that. We try our best and I try to direct to as much as I can, but there are, um, a lot of,
00:26:27.200 a lot of good suggestions online for what you can do to help other people during this time.
00:26:32.080 So this Friday, I will be talking to Andrew Clavin of the daily wire. I bet a lot of you out there,
00:26:38.820 listen to him, follow him. He is one of just the wisest, most clever, funniest people. I can't believe
00:26:46.080 I haven't had him on the podcast yet. I tried to spread out the daily wire. People have had
00:26:52.120 Michael Knowles, I've had Ben Shapiro, I've had Matt Walsh, and now I'm going to have Andrew
00:26:57.540 Clavin. I'm really excited about the conversation because I just, I always learn something from him.
00:27:03.460 He is one of those people that is, has a wealth of knowledge and just a treasure trove of, of wisdom.
00:27:10.300 And I always appreciate his insight and his perspective. It's unique. It's not something
00:27:14.480 that you hear anywhere else. So I'm excited if you got suggestions for what you would like us to
00:27:19.080 talk about or questions that you would want me to specifically ask him, uh, please send those my
00:27:24.020 way. I'm excited for you guys to hear it. And that's all that we have for today. Thank you guys
00:27:30.080 so much for listening. If you love the podcast, uh, please leave a five-star review. I read your
00:27:35.860 reviews typically, and I love to hear them. If there's something that you would like me to do
00:27:41.200 differently, better, whatever, feel free to message me, email me. Appreciate you guys so much. Thank you
00:27:47.360 for listening and I will be back here on Wednesday.