Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 75

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Hope everyone is having a great week so far. This is episode 75

00:00:07.060 of Relatable. 75? That's crazy. I should probably do something big for the 100th episode. If you

00:00:13.620 have any ideas of how I should celebrate that or just kind of like say thank you to you guys for

00:00:18.320 listening to my rantings for the past almost 100 episodes, then let me know. So today we're going

00:00:25.260 to talk about Hipster Jesus and I will explain exactly what that means and why it's important.

00:00:30.560 How I got the idea for this subject, even though I've been calling Hipster Jesus, Hipster Jesus for

00:00:37.620 a long time now, is one of you guys sent me this idea. And that's honestly how I get a lot of my

00:00:43.400 content for my podcast is that you guys tell me what you want to hear about or you ask me,

00:00:48.420 have I seen this? Sometimes I have, sometimes I haven't. I formulate my thoughts. I try to make

00:00:53.400 get into a kind of a bigger subject so I can talk about it for 30 minutes and actually be

00:00:56.920 analytical and informative. So today we're going to talk about this idea of Hipster Jesus, which is

00:01:02.960 this non-Jesus, but that has created, has been created from parts of our culture as well as parts

00:01:09.940 of the biblical Jesus to make this like idealized guy who's just our buddy. And the idea started with

00:01:16.660 this tweet that was sent me from Judah Smith, who leads a church in Seattle. He's kind of part of the

00:01:21.220 Hillsong posse. He's really a celebrity pastor. He was named by Vice as one of the biggest celebrity

00:01:29.040 Christian influencers out there. He tweeted this. Jesus is not your accuser. He's not your prosecutor.

00:01:36.420 He's not your judge. He's your friend and your rescuer. Get to know him for yourself and let the

00:01:41.880 goodness of God change you from the inside out. Okay, so let's go through this tweet really fast.

00:01:47.320 Not your accuser. Check. Revelation 12 20 says that Satan is your accuser. Not your prosecutor.

00:01:54.020 Check. Isaiah 19 20 says that Jesus is your defender. He is not your judge. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Okay,

00:02:03.240 we'll get back to that. He is your friend. Check. If you are a Christian, John 15 13 through 15,

00:02:11.980 he is your rescuer. Check. Uh, two or two, two Corinthians like Donald Trump, second Timothy 4 18.

00:02:20.460 Okay. So he is not our accuser. He is not our prosecutor. He is our friend as Christians. He is

00:02:27.880 our rescuer. Amen. But wait, but wait, we had an uh-oh in there. Judah said that he is not our judge.

00:02:36.280 Well, okay. What does the Bible have to say about that? That should always be the question that we

00:02:42.720 ask ourselves, no matter who we are listening to when it comes to, uh, any kind of teaching on

00:02:48.100 Christianity. When you are listening to me talk about Christianity or really anything, you should

00:02:52.580 ask yourself, what does the Bible have to say about that? Do not take my word for it. Read your Bible.

00:02:57.740 So that is my question when I read this because you can read it and it just kind of sounds good. Okay.

00:03:02.800 Yeah. He is my defender. He is not my accuser. He's not my prosecutor. Yes. He is my friend.

00:03:09.860 He loves me. I will get to know him for myself and I'll let the goodness of God change me from

00:03:14.560 the inside out. That sounds awesome. That is who Jesus is. But if we're not careful and if we don't

00:03:19.460 weigh what a pastor like this says against the word of God, then we are going to be deceived.

00:03:24.520 And I think in kind of a big way, even though he probably didn't mean it in kind of, um, some kind of

00:03:30.320 profound and theological way, he probably just said it, but he's wrong because here's what the Bible

00:03:35.840 says about Jesus being our judge. John 5 22 for the father judges, no one, but has given all judgment

00:03:42.140 to the son. Second Timothy four one, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus,

00:03:46.980 who is to judge the living and the dead. Revelation 19 20. Then I saw heaven opened and behold a white

00:03:53.160 horse. The one sitting on it is called faithful and true. That is Jesus and a righteousness. He judges

00:03:58.960 and makes war. So he actually is our judge. He is the judge. He is the only righteous judge that

00:04:07.320 exists. Uh, only one worthy of judging the deep hearts of men and women. Um, I don't want to single

00:04:13.900 out Judah Smith because he's certainly not the only one that kind of makes this kind of

00:04:18.160 characterization and assessment of Jesus. This misidentifying of Jesus is truly endemic in

00:04:23.720 our generation, in our society. Like I said, Judah Smith has become a very popular speaker

00:04:28.580 and popular pastor because he hangs out with a lot of famous people and he's a good communicator.

00:04:34.120 Um, but unfortunately his identification of Jesus, whether it is deliberate or is not is symbolic of

00:04:41.520 what a lot of young people in particular think about Jesus and who he is. That is simply not biblical.

00:04:47.780 Uh, we tend to see Jesus as this, um, those of us who are kind of young and who are in this cool

00:04:56.000 Christian movement, which I am not, but just young people who are, they tend to see Jesus

00:05:00.440 as the affirmer of who we are, affirmer of whoever we want to be. Um, he is the guy who checks off all

00:05:07.620 of our dreams and says, go for it girl. You should do that. You should pursue that ambition. Uh, he's the

00:05:12.900 guy who makes us feel better about ourselves when we're feeling insecure. He is who I call hipster

00:05:18.720 Jesus. So this hipster Jesus has a really awesome beard. Like he's socially liberal, maybe a little

00:05:24.880 bit fiscally conservative, but I don't know. He kind of likes the whole socialism thing too. Uh, he runs

00:05:30.140 marathons. He's like super into craft beer. He's really into using words like intentional and doing

00:05:36.520 life together. And he makes, you know, a pilgrimage to Bethel church every year. Uh, hipster Jesus is

00:05:43.180 totally nonjudgmental man. He's like, totally not judgmental. He's just going to tell you, you do.

00:05:49.560 Yeah. He laughs at all of your jokes. Uh, he is just there to support you when you need him. Like

00:05:55.780 if you want to hang out with him, that's cool. If you don't man, like that's cool too. Uh, he is pro

00:06:01.380 open borders. He's anti gun, anti, just like yucky religion stuff. Like no rules, man. He's just like

00:06:09.360 chill. He's just like, be cool to just like, you know, do what you want. Peace, love happiness. Yes.

00:06:16.720 That is hipster Jesus. He just wants you to be yourself. He just thinks that anyone who tells you

00:06:23.620 to be anyone else besides who you truly feel that you are is just a mean bigot who needs to be cut out

00:06:30.220 of your life because they are toxic. He wants you to find yourself. He wants you to follow your heart.

00:06:35.140 Uh, hipster Jesus thinks that the only thing that is wrong is saying that something is wrong. You got

00:06:40.140 me. He is super into social justice. Uh, he volunteers at the SPCA, definitely vegan, like super,

00:06:47.760 super vegan. And girl, he just thinks you are awesome. He is your biggest fan. He is your number

00:06:53.640 one cheerleader. And he just wants you to be happy. He wants to affirm all those feelings that you have.

00:06:58.420 You want to yell at God. You want to shake your fist at God. You want to tell him that he's not

00:07:03.220 good. Well, Jesus is going to be right there with you, uh, patting you on the back. This,

00:07:08.480 this is who people today, people on the left and people who are ignorant, but I repeat myself,

00:07:14.220 see Jesus as, um, and even conservatives, actually, they believe a variation of this.

00:07:19.820 Of course, I do not believe the conservatives are immune from idolatry or viewing Jesus in the wrong

00:07:25.020 way. It's just a little bit different. Um, they tend to people who are more conservative. They're

00:07:30.200 idolizing a wrong Jesus, uh, a false Jesus. Um, they believe that Jesus exists to make you rich,

00:07:37.500 to help you get that next promotion. Uh, he is here to help you pursue your dreams. That is

00:07:42.500 prosperity. Jesus, Joel Osteen, Jesus, uh, his hipster, Jesus, and prosperity. Jesus are two sides

00:07:48.920 of the same blasphemous coin. A hipster. Jesus is there to make you feel better about yourself

00:07:54.680 through constant affirmation. A prosperity. Jesus is here to make you feel better about yourself

00:07:59.560 through financial blessings, through health blessings, through the health and wealth gospel.

00:08:04.320 Well, there are three problems with hipster. Jesus and prosperity. Jesus today. We're focusing

00:08:09.080 on hipster. Jesus, but there's three problems with them. Number one, they don't exist. So they're

00:08:15.820 nowhere to be found in the Bible, nowhere to be found in history. They're figments of our

00:08:20.100 imagination. And the second problem is because, because hipster Jesus does not exist. He can't

00:08:25.680 save you. Oh, yikes. Uh, number three is that because hipster Jesus is not real and cannot save

00:08:32.960 you following him will lead to death and destruction to hell. So that's not good. Uh, so number one,

00:08:39.780 hipster Jesus isn't real. Actually, this is basically all we're going to cover because

00:08:45.340 number two and number three really fall under number one. So hipster Jesus is not real. He

00:08:50.020 cannot save you. And thus he will lead you into the pit of hell. Um, this live and let

00:08:55.660 live. Love is love. Jesus do whatever you want. Jesus, I exist to make you happy. Jesus, um,

00:09:01.320 doesn't care about sin. Jesus is not real. Here's the Jesus of the Bible. Revelation describes him

00:09:08.800 as riding through the clouds on a white horse with a tattoo on his thigh and a sword coming out

00:09:12.960 of his mouth. Like what, what does that not terrify you? Like, is that the guy that you want to like

00:09:18.160 sit down and have a beer with? No, like that's the kind of King that you want to worship. Um,

00:09:22.920 he is the defeater of sin and death. He is the annihilator of Satan. He is our rescuer. He is

00:09:28.440 our strong defense. He is our warrior. He is our King, our leader. He is holier than we could ever

00:09:33.180 imagine. And yes, for Christians, the amazing thing is because God is merciful and gracious,

00:09:38.320 not because we are like fun people to hang out with. He is our friends. He is our great high

00:09:43.440 priest. And Hebrews four says that he's a great high priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses.

00:09:47.700 Uh, Hebrews four, 14 through 16 says, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize

00:09:54.440 with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet is without sin.

00:10:00.400 Let us then with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace

00:10:06.180 in time of need. That is the Jesus that saves you, who willingly sacrificed himself on your behalf

00:10:13.100 that you might be reconciled to God. Jesus is not your boyfriend. Okay. Jesus is not your gal pal.

00:10:21.740 He is not your mascot. He is not your political prop. He is a judge. He is someone to be feared.

00:10:29.700 He will strike terror into the hearts of men and women when he returns. And one day every knee will bow

00:10:34.860 in every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. He is a force to be reckoned with. Uh, the government

00:10:40.720 will sit upon his shoulders and his kingdom will have no end. Does that sound like the guy that you

00:10:47.920 just want to like braid hair with? No, that sounds like the leader you want to follow. That sounds like

00:10:54.900 the King that you want to give your life to. That sounds like the kind of God that you want to submit

00:11:00.700 and surrender everything to. That doesn't sound like a gal pal. That doesn't sound like hipster live,

00:11:06.560 let live Jesus. We have this crazy idea that God of the old Testament, that he cared about sin,

00:11:13.840 but Jesus came so that God doesn't care about sin anymore. No, Jesus came because God cares about sin.

00:11:20.280 Like, do you understand how much God has to care about sin to willingly sacrifice his only son,

00:11:26.640 to die a brutal, gruesome death on a cross to pay for it? Like, do you realize how seriously God takes

00:11:34.720 sin in order that he has to shed the blood of Jesus in order to pay for it? That's really, really serious.

00:11:42.700 This crazy idea that we have Jesus is, uh, the eradication of the carrying about sin from God is

00:11:49.960 crazy. Like you do realize that Jesus has been with God since the beginning, that he is God. They are

00:11:55.640 three in one. We won't get into the doctrine of the Trinity right now, but people try to separate

00:12:00.140 Jesus from God and say, okay, God might've been this cruel God in the old Testament. He might've

00:12:05.240 been a God of wrath, but Jesus, he's just the soft guy that says, you know, I don't really care what you

00:12:09.980 think. You can believe whatever you want to know. He is one with the father. He is the personification

00:12:16.080 of God. He is fully man, fully God. Like I said, a force to be reckoned with. He is not this guy who

00:12:23.920 just acquiesced God in the sense that God no longer cares about sin. He satisfied God's wrath

00:12:29.740 through the shedding of his blood. But that doesn't mean that God doesn't care about sin anymore.

00:12:35.580 It means because he is gracious, because he is merciful, because he is faithful. Um,

00:12:40.420 he satisfied his wrath on his son and we who believe in him don't have to perish, but we will have eternal

00:12:48.540 life. That is the gift that we have been given, not because we deserve it, but because, um,

00:12:52.480 God is incredibly gracious. So this idea that Jesus is just this cool dude that doesn't care

00:13:00.760 about anything. And it's just here to affirm you is not biblical. He actually said to die to yourself,

00:13:06.060 everything you think you are, every sinful inclination that you have in your heart. He

00:13:10.360 says, crucify it. He said, it's done. He said, the old is past. The new has come. The old you is dead.

00:13:16.700 The new you has risen up. It's not just a rebirth. It is a new birth. You are a new creation,

00:13:22.660 not just the old creation refurbished. You are a new person. Jesus said, whoever you were before,

00:13:28.020 you're dead. Now that's dead to you. Um, CS Lewis sums this up really well. Um, it's extremely biblical

00:13:36.420 to Jesus's call for us to come and die. Uh, CS Lewis sums it up like this in mere Christianity.

00:13:42.340 Give me all of you. I don't want so much of your time, so much of your talents and money and so much

00:13:47.680 of your work. I want you. I want all of you. I have not come to torment or frustrate the natural

00:13:53.060 man or woman, but to kill it. No half measures will do. I don't want to only prune a branch here

00:13:58.940 and a branch there. Rather. I want the whole tree out handed over to me, the whole outfit,

00:14:04.000 all of your desires, all of your wants and wishes and dreams, turn them all over to me,

00:14:08.820 give yourself to me. And I will make of you a new self in my image. Give me yourself. And in

00:14:15.180 exchange, I will give you myself. My will shall become your will. My heart shall become your heart.

00:14:21.720 People often forget this when they read verses like Psalm 37, four, that says, I will give you

00:14:28.900 the desires of your heart or the Lord will give you the desires of your heart. They think, well,

00:14:33.400 great. God just wants me to be happy. That means that if I want something bad enough that God's

00:14:38.720 going to give me that. No. What happens when you surrender your life to Christ is that your desires

00:14:43.720 become his desires. His desires become your desires, much more importantly. And so your heart is

00:14:49.580 transformed by the power of Christ where you no longer are pursuing the things of the flesh.

00:14:55.080 You're no longer pursuing selfish ambition. Now, that doesn't mean that you don't have your own

00:15:02.200 personality, that you don't have your own unique dreams and unique wants. But what it does mean is

00:15:06.940 that everything that is natural about you is fully submitted to the will of Christ. That's what

00:15:12.400 happens in that great and glorious exchange. Here's the deal. Here's what people like Judah Smith,

00:15:18.960 maybe intentionally, maybe not, but other people who follow that kind of teaching that, hey,

00:15:23.820 dude, Jesus is just your friend. Like he's just, he's just here to chill with you. He's not scary.

00:15:30.680 Don't worry about him. Here's what they're trying to do, which I think is total blasphemy

00:15:34.800 and totally unnecessary is that they are trying to let Jesus off the hook. They're trying to make

00:15:42.200 him smaller. They're trying to make him more appealing. They're trying to make him more bite

00:15:46.740 size. They're trying to make him more chewable. They're trying to make him more attractive to our

00:15:51.620 current culture, a current culture who says, well, if you judge me, then you don't love me. If you tell

00:15:57.620 me that something I do is wrong, then you are maligning my entire identity. You are maligning

00:16:02.300 everything that I am. So you can't love me and also tell me something that I'm doing is wrong.

00:16:07.360 And so they're trying to mold Jesus into the sinful desires and sinful inclinations of our generation

00:16:14.460 by saying, Jesus isn't here to judge you. Jesus just wants you to be you and to do you and to do

00:16:22.960 whatever you want to. They're trying to make Jesus, um, more, more appealing to our sinful minds

00:16:30.920 rather than molding our minds to the power and the goodness of who Jesus is. And remember the problem

00:16:36.240 with making Jesus any smaller than he is the problem with trying to fit Jesus into, um, our

00:16:43.400 current culture. The problem with trying to make Jesus relevant is that that culturally relevant

00:16:50.220 hipster Jesus does not exist. And because he does not exist, he cannot save you. And because he cannot

00:16:57.480 save you, he will lead you into the pit of hell. So reject the lie that Jesus is just here to make

00:17:06.060 you happy because there's nowhere in the Bible that says that's true. If you're looking for a mascot,

00:17:11.380 I would look somewhere else. I've heard this said before. Why, why be a part of Christianity that

00:17:19.420 doesn't align with the Bible? If it doesn't align with the Bible, then you should just get a new hobby.

00:17:24.620 This isn't doing anything for you. This is not a saving faith. If you believe in a Jesus,

00:17:29.480 that's not really there, you should do something that makes you feel better about yourself. You

00:17:34.720 should do something that just makes you happy every hour of the day. It's not Christianity.

00:17:39.460 That's not what it's there for. It is for people who will come and die through the power of the Holy

00:17:44.260 Spirit. Um, so that's, that's my entire take on the entire hipster Jesus thing. I, this is something

00:17:53.320 I've been thinking about and writing about hipster Jesus, uh, for a long time. He's not necessarily,

00:17:58.440 like I said, liberal. Um, it's certainly, it certainly is seen in the crowds of young women who

00:18:04.740 maybe aren't political, but they just want so badly someone to, um, to tell them that they're

00:18:12.780 pretty to someone to tell them that they're worthy, someone to tell them that they're good

00:18:17.560 enough. And so they mold Jesus into this ever affirming guy that will be their boyfriend when

00:18:24.380 they don't have one. And look, the beautiful thing about God is that to him, you are beautiful.

00:18:30.480 You are wonderfully made. You are because of Christ or in Christ, you are worthy without him. Not so much

00:18:37.980 in Christ. Your slate is clean in Christ. You are forgiven in Christ. You do have a new identity.

00:18:43.740 You do mean something. You do matter. Um, you are created in his image, whether you are a Christian

00:18:50.700 or not, you're created in his image. That in and of itself is amazing. But in Christ, you have a new

00:18:55.620 identity. You have a new worth. Christ has reached all of the goals, all of the standards that you

00:19:00.940 could never reach. Um, he did it on your behalf. So all of the perfection that you are trying to

00:19:06.980 strive to, Jesus already did it for you. He won all of the victories that you could never win. He is

00:19:12.540 sufficient because you are insufficient. He is strong because you are weak. And, uh, that is

00:19:18.600 the beauty and the confidence and the assurance that we get in Christ. But it doesn't mean that

00:19:23.840 you always are, uh, that you're always affirmed in everything you want, that you're given all of

00:19:29.320 your selfish and fleshly desires. Absolutely not. That's just not what Christianity is. Okay. Now we

00:19:35.140 are going to do a little Q and a, um, for a little bit, because you guys sent me a lot of, uh, questions

00:19:43.400 last week that I didn't get to. So I just want to make sure that we get to those. Um, do I think that

00:19:50.600 our RBG Ruth Bader Ginsburg is alive? I, you know, that's a good question. I haven't heard from her in a

00:19:57.840 really long time. If I heard anything about her, you know, she was in the hospital. She's like 85 or

00:20:02.340 something like that. I mean, what a fighter. And I am hoping that she makes a swift recovery.

00:20:08.360 Unfortunately, you've got a lot of people so consumed by politics that they hope that she

00:20:12.240 kills over because she's old. So president Trump can get another conservative justice in. I'm just

00:20:16.640 not for that. Like she is a woman with a family, with a life, with a legacy who has worked really

00:20:21.680 hard. And I disagree with her on a lot of things, particularly when it comes to gender. Um, but I

00:20:28.560 hope that she recovers. I mean, she's like an amazing woman who still works out every day.

00:20:33.380 And, uh, I hope that she can make a strong comeback and gosh, it craziness craziness. I hope

00:20:40.920 that, I hope that she is alive though. And I think that she is, um, why do you think our culture is

00:20:48.480 leaning away from believing in absolute truths? Gosh, there are so many theories about this and so many

00:20:53.820 things that you could look at, but certainly I don't think that it's a coincidence that as we

00:20:59.340 are disbelieving in absolute truth, we are also disbelieving in God. I mean, we're the least

00:21:03.800 religious that we've ever been. Millennials are the least, uh, religious generation that has ever

00:21:08.220 existed. And, um, this idea of post-modernism that you can't ever really know truth, that truth is

00:21:15.860 absolutely unknowable, that you're never going to be able to find it. So you should just create,

00:21:19.900 um, you should just create your own truth, my truth and your truth. You should be on the throne

00:21:24.820 of your own universe. That's part of it as well. That was alive in the post-World War I era. And it

00:21:32.020 certainly gotten more popular in the past couple of decades, particularly through academia. Um, this

00:21:37.440 idea that you can determine what's right and wrong, and there is no true arbiter of that. You are

00:21:43.740 your own arbiter. Of course, no one believes that even the statement, I believe in app, I do not

00:21:49.160 believe in absolute truth is in and of itself an absolute truth, because you're saying that people

00:21:53.320 who do believe in absolute truth is wrong, but how can you say that something is wrong if right and

00:21:58.000 wrong don't exist? And so the people who don't believe in absolute truth are very confused because

00:22:02.340 everyone believes in absolute truth. It's just a matter of where you believe truth comes from.

00:22:07.800 I don't see any other logical way to, um, come about truth than from a transcendent truth giver,

00:22:16.940 because if you are, if you and I are the arbiters of truth and we just have our subjective interpretations

00:22:24.340 of what truth is, then who's to say my way is any better than yours. Who's to say in a more dramatic

00:22:29.520 way that Hitler's worldview is any better than mother Teresa's. No, we're all operating under this

00:22:34.820 transcendent unseen standard of what is right and wrong. Even if we don't admit it, we all get mad when

00:22:39.600 someone hits us. We all get mad when someone hits our car and doesn't leave a note. We all get mad when

00:22:44.520 someone steals from us. Why? Why? Who told us that, um, being hurt is wrong. Who told us that being

00:22:51.460 stolen from is wrong? Why do we believe those things are wrong? Um, because we're all operating

00:22:56.500 under a transcendent moral standard. So the only logical thing to me is to say, well, if there's a

00:23:02.120 transcendent moral standard, then there is a transcendent moral standard giver. This is a C.S. Lewis,

00:23:07.460 a mere Christianity argument. If you don't believe in a moral law giver, then you don't believe in a

00:23:13.060 moral law and everyone believes in a moral law. So I think it's just ignorance. Most people don't

00:23:17.240 think about it that hard, quite honestly. Um, so someone said, oh, they sent me a message to

00:23:23.340 Christian thought trend, false religions, equal human driven fantasy rather than lies from the

00:23:27.580 enemy. So a lot of people say, okay, this is just a human driven fantasy. Um, this kind of false

00:23:33.640 religion or even like the prosperity gospel and not a lie from Satan. Uh, we know that all false

00:23:38.440 religions are from Satan. Um, it's not, no, nothing is just human driven. Ephesians two

00:23:44.620 calls Satan, the prince of the power of the air. Um, and so he's in control of all of it,

00:23:52.160 or he is in all of it. Um, how to stand firm in your beliefs while working at a liberal university?

00:23:59.580 I think it's really difficult. I always tell people to pick their battles though. And to, um,

00:24:05.860 um, and to be discerning, to be discerning about the things that you speak up about and the things

00:24:11.940 that you don't speak up about, it's not worth picking a fight every single time someone brings

00:24:16.020 up politics. Now, maybe if they're talking about abortion and you hear them spreading misinformation,

00:24:20.980 you might want to stand up and say, well, actually that's not really true. But what I've actually

00:24:24.760 found in the power of changing minds is that you ask questions. Um, why do you believe that?

00:24:30.220 How do you know that? How do you know that's true? What do you think that's going to do?

00:24:33.860 Not in an antagonizing way, but in, uh, in honestly curious way. And it gets them to think

00:24:39.720 about why they believe what they believe. Because what I found is that a lot of liberals have no

00:24:44.040 idea why they believe what they believe, not all of them, but especially a lot of young liberals.

00:24:48.980 They just simply have not thought about that. They just haven't thought about why they believe

00:24:52.940 what they believe. So the better tactic might be asking questions rather than always being on the

00:24:57.680 defensive. Um, a lot of you asked about healthcare and I'll try to do an entire episode on that

00:25:02.940 and single payer healthcare and why it's stupid. Someone said, would you ever do a meetup in Dallas?

00:25:08.460 Maybe. I don't know. I would love to meet you guys. I also, I just get nervous because there's

00:25:14.120 a lot of like scary people out there. Not the people who listen to this podcast. Cause you guys are

00:25:18.580 my true fans and awesome people, but there are some creepers out there. And so I do get worried

00:25:23.100 about that. I'd have to get security and all of that. And that just takes a lot of, um,

00:25:27.820 a lot of stuff. Um, does pineapple go on pizza? No, it doesn't. It doesn't ranch goes on pizza.

00:25:36.060 Sausage goes on pizza. Pepperonis go on pizza. There's a lot that can go on pizza. Like I'm

00:25:41.120 pretty liberal when it comes to what you can put on a pizza, but anything sweet. No, no, no, no, no,

00:25:49.980 no. Okay. So someone says many people slam per life for saying you only care until the baby is gay

00:25:55.080 slash transgender slash, et cetera. Um, I don't know if I've heard that argument. I'm sure it's

00:26:01.140 out there. Like I totally believe that that argument is out there. I have heard the argument

00:26:05.460 that, um, you only care about the baby until it's born. And then you think that it should be out on

00:26:11.260 the street. What they're trying to say is that because you don't believe in unlimited welfare,

00:26:14.820 because you don't believe in entitlements, because you don't believe in free college,

00:26:18.920 then you don't care about people. So they are conflating, um, they're conflating government

00:26:24.920 help, unlimited, unconditional government help with empathy. And that's just not true.

00:26:29.380 Uh, statistics show that red States give a lot more to charity than blue States do. Um,

00:26:34.700 it also shows that religious people give a lot more to charity than, uh, than non-religious people

00:26:40.180 do. And religious people tend to be more conservative. And so people who believe in smaller

00:26:44.480 government are not any less empathetic and even sometimes are more empathetic than people who

00:26:49.320 believe in large government, because we believe it's our responsibility to take care of the poor.

00:26:54.640 We believe it's our responsibility to take care of the least of these, not the government. And we

00:26:58.820 believe the government does a really bad job. Why not only because they're inefficient, just look at

00:27:03.440 the VA. Um, but also because they can not help someone without allowing them to be free or they

00:27:09.120 cannot help someone and allow them to be free. At the same time, you are bound some way to the

00:27:13.760 government. Um, the more we give to the government, the more the government grows, the less liberty we

00:27:19.220 have. And of course, uh, the more liberty, the better, the more entrepreneurial spirit, the better.

00:27:24.260 And so that's just a stupid argument. They're conflating empathy and compassion with, uh, government

00:27:30.100 handouts. And I haven't seen any statistics that show that that actually helps people long-term.

00:27:35.740 Um, now you only care about the baby until it's gay, transgender. That's just stupid. Again,

00:27:43.040 you're conflating, caring about someone with agreeing, agreeing with everything they do with

00:27:48.280 their life. They just have a very cheap view of love. Their view of love is giving someone

00:27:54.340 every single thing they want, and you're not allowed to disagree with them. Um, and I, that's

00:28:00.140 just absolutely wrong. Um, someone says the issues with big church pastors preaching false doctrine

00:28:07.380 and what we should do about it. So I don't know if I would say it's big church pastors. I don't think

00:28:12.520 the size of your church necessarily dictates how sound you are in your teaching. Now, a lot of times

00:28:19.040 we do see mega churches like Lakewood, um, Joel Osteen, Elevation Church, um, New Spring. We see

00:28:26.760 a lot of those churches preaching. I'm not even saying that all of those, all of those people are

00:28:31.760 necessarily false teachers. I would need to look more into some of them that I just listed to know

00:28:36.680 whether or not they are. Um, but they often teach, uh, just a not true, not biblical, not biblically

00:28:44.300 sound message. Some of them, and they are seeker friendly churches. And so they want a lot of people

00:28:51.240 to come to their churches. And so they make their, uh, they make their sermons more like motivational

00:28:57.080 talks. They make them more appealing and culturally relevant and attractive and funny and forsake the

00:29:04.780 hard truth about the gospel and the hard truths that the Bible brings. And I think what you do

00:29:11.560 about it in your own life is you just make sure that you are going to a church that preaches the

00:29:16.340 gospel. There will always be false teachers. The Bible makes that very clear. Um, they will, uh,

00:29:22.080 they will satisfy itching ears. And there were always people that listen to false teachers, but you don't

00:29:27.420 have to, you are responsible for your own life. And if you are the husband, you are responsible for

00:29:33.140 your family and what they listen to and the church that they are going to. And that's really all you

00:29:39.340 can worry about. And of course I call these people out on podcasts and try to do it in a lovingly

00:29:44.800 truthful way. Um, but now trolling them on social media, it has its purposes, but maybe it shouldn't

00:29:51.380 be the primary tool that you use to call them out. Uh, but I hope that helps you really just responsible

00:29:56.360 to, to your family and to being obedient to God in that realm. So thank you guys so much for listening.

00:30:02.640 I hope that you have a great weekend and we will be back here on Tuesday.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - February 07, 2019

Ep 75 ｜ Hipster Jesus

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