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


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.