What God Really Wants | Micah 6:1-8

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. Well, hey, everybody, my name is Chris and

behind me eating already is Jeff, and we are the

Bible Guys. Yeah, you just want to show appreciation, show

it love.

All over the country people come up to me and go, oh, hey,

I know you like hunting. Hey have one of these

venison sticks. Yeah. I'm like, have you ever been to

a country smokehouse?

Yeah? And that's the standard.

Uh, it is that they set the bar that high.

So well, hey, listen for our listeners online because we're

going to be posting this online. In fact, this is

the first live event that we've ever done that is

actually going to be posted online as an episode. So

it's gonna be a little bit longer today. So if

you've tuned in today for the Bible Guys normally are,

you know it's about twenty five minutes. It's going to

be longer than that, So hopefully you'll hang in there

with us.

For people because they can barely make it the twin.

I know, I know, but I want the people on

Spreaker and you know, Apple music, and all those guys

that are just listening, I want them to realize that

there's a crowd in front of us. So let them

hear you.

Everybody cheer there.

That's kind of fun.

See, that's how it's supposed to be. Right there.

That's right there. And by the way, we'vet because we

record in the studio, we have never been able to

actually do a podcast in front of people like this.

We've had events, but no, we've done a Bible Guys live,

but we've never done it correct recording. Yeah, that's right,

big time, big time now we are big time. Yes,

So we're going to get a bus and just hit

the road.

This is not true. None of that is true. Okay,

So we're gonna do several things. We have several things

to accomplish, right, okay, okay, So here's the first one.

The first one is we have we want to do

a little audience participation because I got so well, we

both got so excited that we actually can interact with people.

So we're gonna do a segment that Desiree put together, uh,

that we normally do for a podcast. And by the way,

let let's pause and say this, how many of you actually,

oh well, sorry about that. How many of you actually,

because you know some of you may be guests, are

coming with spouses or whatever. But raise your hand if

you actually listen to the Bible, guys, raise your hand. Okay,

that's almost everybody in the room. Wow, there's probably what

jeff about eighty million, eighty people in the room.

Okay, there're hundreds of thousands, yes, which which means about cady.

Ninety people.

Yeah.

So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna do would

you rather only? We're gonna do it crowd interaction. So

here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna literally call out

somebody in the audience to participate. So raise your hand.

If you feel like answering a simple question, raise your

hand real quick, raise your hant real quick. Okay, right there, Casey,

go ahead and stand right up. Stand up. You gotta

stand up for everybody.

Okay.

Okay, So here's what's gonna happen. Here's what's gonna happen.

I'm gonna give everybody instruction. We're all gonna participate. I'm

gonna ask Casey questions. She's gonna pick one or the

other and then We're gonna ask the audience whether they agree,

so you're gonna have to either do thumbs up or

thumbs down. And when you do thumbs up, you screamed yay,

and you know, very delightfully. And then if you say nay,

you gotta go nay. So you gotta go yay or nay. Okay,

let's practice that, ready, Yeah, Yeah, everybody.

Say yay, yay.

Everydy say nay, say yay, nay.

Okay, this is one of your favorite segments. That's all

I want to.

Oh yeah, yeah, of course love I do because it's fun.

So here here it is, case you tell them is yeah?

Would you rather?

Would you rather case attention? I was getting brownie.

I know you were. We all know you were.

All right.

Here we go, casey. Would you rather have a photograph,

photographic memory or perfect pitch? You gotta choose one. Gotta

make you quick, perfect pitch. How many agree? Yeay or nay?

I don't.

I disagree.

I'd rather have a photo photographic memory. Okay, it sounds

like most of the room disagree with you. You get

no prize, iward you no point whatsoever, no points, but

you would have gotten no points anyway. Okay, all right,

So all you gotta do is pick one who wants

to go next? Oh, Liz, my wife, Honey, hey baby,

go ahead and stand up, honey, in front of everybody.

Here we go, all right. Would you rather would you

rather run in to and no, you know I'm gonna

change it. I'm gonna change it. Would you rather team

up with Spider Man or iron Man? Which one? Lizzie

iron Man? Can you tell me why? I just out

of curiosity? You love it loves okay, she loves she

loves iron Man. Okay, everybody your nag.

At the same time, it also happens to have a

go toe.

Oh really, I'm a Spider Man guy. I'm sort of

hurting a little bit. Oh okay, okay, that's a Liz love. Okay.

I want to do one more?

Yes, I want to do one more. Want me do one? Yeah,

I'll do one. Okay, somebody, somebody will do it. Give

me an answer, right there. You you canna do it?

Come on, someoney, al right, he's gonna to do it.

She'll do it, She'll do it. There, go ahead, set up,

here we go. Would you rather run into an alien

or Bigfoot? Okay? Okay, your day, everybody Bigfoot.

I think I would rather run into Bigfoot Bigfoot because

an alien you don't know what's going.

On, Bigfoot will tear your arms off you.

Yeah, not if you run faster than him. I don't know.

That's crazy.

Did you guys ever hear of Jeff's theory that Bigfoot

must exist in a constant state of blurriness?

Yeah, all all the pictures of Bigfoot are blurry, and

it's because Bigfoot's blurry, right, He's just blurry?

All right? Well, hey, that was a fun opener.

That was a great one.

And now what we're gonna do is we're gonna sort

of do sort of two openers. Right. Isn't that crazy?

Yeah? Well it makes it makes the we're giving them

extra money.

It is a podcast of firsts.

Podcast the first Big Time, Big Time, Big Time Big Fan.

What happened was Tom and Kyle and others have questions

that were sent in from the people of in the city,

and people have questions. So this is almost like a

stump the pastor right, yes, okay, so are we.

Going to can we start start at the bottom and

go up?

Yeah, let's do that.

I think the top one is crazy.

It's crazy good. Okay, let's let's start at the bottom.

I'll read, I'll read the bottom.

Okay.

This is from Austin Blount.

Austin congratul license.

Okay. And so Austin says, where did Jesus go for

the three days that he was dead before rising from

the dead? So he was in the tomb from Friday

to Sunday? Yeah, So did where did he go?

Jeff, I don't know.

Well, that is the answer to most as well. I

mean that's the reason why it's a stump the pastor question, right.

Yeah, So I think you're asking it because the Apostles

Creed said he went into Hell, right, So that's not

in the Bible per se, but it is in the

Apostles Creed. And the idea was that Jesus would go

there and then take the captives and set them free.

And that's based on first Peter talks about that, Yeah,

talks about the idea that Jesus went to I think

I have the verse. Let me let me see if

I pulled it up just so that we didn't do

this specifically.

Where is it, Yeah, where he says, yeah, we actually

uh set the cap.

Yeah, So the Apostles Creed says he descended into hell,

and on the third day he rose again. In First

Peter chapter three, it says he was put to death

in the body, but made alive in the spirit, and

after being made alive, he went and made proclamation to

the imprisoned spirits. Some translations say that he went and

proclaimed his victory to the imprison spirits. So the question

would be who are the who are they? And where

was that?

Where was it right?

So in the Apostles Creed they assumed that was in hell.

Some people think that those imprison spirits are the fallen angels,

and that he, Jesus, just went and said I won, right,

So that's part of it. Other people think that maybe

it was the people that were in Remember when Jesus

tells the story of the rich Man, he dies and

Lazarus dies, and there's the Abraham's bosom. It was this

place paradise where the believers in God were kept. And

then Jesus had said, while he was still alive, I'm

going to go prepare a place for you, right, and

then you're going to go be with me. And so

some theologians believe that Jesus went and took the people

out of Abraham's bosom or out of Paradise and took

them to that, you know, in my father's house or

many mansions places.

And let's not forget that Jesus also said to Mary,

don't touch me, because I have not yet ascended to

my father.

Right, So he didn't go to heaven, So he didn't

go to heaven.

So we know that is true, right, And we know

that he was dead, so he died because you know,

he breathed his last at three o'clock in the afternoon,

so we definitely know that he wasn't in heaven. So yeah,

the ultimate answer is we don't know, but that will

be a great question based on these theories when we

get to heaven.

I think he probably took the people from Paradise to

you know that in my father's house many mansions Ephesians.

Paul talks about it that Jesus took captivity captive, and

that seems to be in the time that he was

in the grave. That seems to be it. So there's

a misunderstanding. To finalize that, there's a misunderstanding with the

Apostles Creed where it says Jesus descended into hell. We're

thinking of hell like Dante's Inferno kind of hell, right,

that's what we're thinking. But the word hell is that shield,

which just means the place of the dead. Right, So

he descended into the place of the dead, and then

three days later he ascended, and so that that's the

Apostles Creed version. But because it has the word hell

in it, we kind of think of like flaming fire

kind of thing. But I don't believe that's what it was.

Yeah. Yeah, oh, I just figured out you were answering

him because he's right here.

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Everybody else in the room

knew that too. Yeah, that's Austin Blount. Hey, Chris, that's Austin.

Austin I've met as Yeah.

I was at first thought you were talking to Tom

and then Liz and all that, but Austin's there as well.

Okay, he's like, what a jerk, He's ignoring everybody else,

just talking to this guy.

Yeah for real.

Okay, So we have a question number two.

You want to read it?

Yeah, it says give me clarity. This is from Alex Jones. Hi,

Alex Jones, Hey, Alex, Yeah, yeah, clarity on why John

the Baptist called out Herod Antipas for marrying his brother's

wife and the Gospels and for breaking God's law about marriage.

While Herod wasn't even a Jew. Why was John so

concerned about this issue?

Uh? Yeah, so I would say, uh, number one, he

was a prophet, and prophets preach against sin all the time.

Yeah.

And then number two, because Herod had actually made a

profession of faith. His his answer his parents.

Did, right, Yeah, I think it was his great grandfather

became the first tetrarch, you know, overseeing Israel, and so

they converted to Judaism then, and so he wouldn't have

been full blown Jewish, but had was following the Jewish religion.

And then his father is the one who built Herod's

temple and as a as a he commissioned it for

the Jewish people. And then they lived publicly, they lived

by the Jewish law. The Herods did publicly. Privately they

lived like a bunch of rascals, racals, Yeah yeah, yeah,

So so it was it was pretty sketchy the way

that they lived. And so he's also calling out the

fact that if you're claiming to be a Jew, you're

supposed to be living by the law, and that John

the Baptist had said, you're breaking the law, and he's

talking about the levitical law. You can't marry your brother's wife.

That's an incestuous, you know, relationship. And he had divorced

his own wife, and then went and goes and uh

seduces Herodotus which is Herodius I think, which was his

sister in law, and she left her.

And ultimately he lost his head because of it.

John the Baptist did yes, yes, yeah.

Yeah, which is terrible.

So he was holding him to the standard that he

was publicly claiming, but privately isn't living that way. That's

that's why John the Baptist did that.

Yeah, Okay.

And then finally, this one's so cool. Yeah, Logan, I

read it like four times.

Chillers.

Yeah.

Says this in Matthew chapter seventeen, verses one through thirteen.

Also in Luke nine twenty through thirty six, when Jesus

goes up to the mountain to speak with God, Moses

and Elijah are also there. Is it a possibility of

them being in their own times and being brought to

some sort of place without time on the mountain where

all three could be technically in their own time yet

be teleported to speak in one instant with everyone who

had been brought together by God. Question mark Also, would

this in a way have strengthened the processors Moses and

Elijah to be even more confident in what they were

building towards by leading and prophesying. So basically, what it's

saying is this, It's saying, what if during the Transfiguration,

what if God was able to pull Moses out of

his time? So, like you know, back in Exodus, Moses

just sort of blipped out of his time and went

back to his time and he experienced the Transfiguration while

he was alive on Earth in that timeframe, right, So

it's a little bit of a movie kind of a thing, which,

of course I'm all about.

I knew you'd love this. You want to go to

lunch now.

With Yeah, yeah, yeah Logan, I'd be like, what are

the thoughts do you have? And then also with Elijah.

And by the way, this sounds hilarious, but I've had

this thought before, thought this exact thought, because if it

was during then.

Hey, if something ever happens to Chris Logan, are you

looking for a job, because I'm going to need another

Bible guy.

Hey, we never said they were you know whatever. But

if bottom line is is if that were true, then

that would be super compelling. Right for Moses then to

have seen Jesus live and then you know, existed and

and talk and saw everybody and then going back and

he'd be like, man, talk about believing God is real.

Right, So let's let's just catch everybody up. Just not

assuming everybody know stands the transfiguration. Jesus goes up on

the mountain and he brings Peter, James and John with him,

and it was during a very difficult time of ministry.

And he goes up to the top of the mountain

and Moses and Elijah meet him there. The Bible says,

they minister to Jesus, they're giving this strength. When Jesus

comes back down off the mountain, he glowed, right, There

was this glow about him because of this interaction with

Moses and Elijah, and it was a very deeply spiritual

moment for Jesus. It was kind of now from that

point on, Jesus is heading to Jerusalem to die. This

is now, It's going to take a few months, but

everything is going downhill from there, he's heading towards Jerusalem,

and Peter, James and John they wanted to build like

little little temples to all three, right, huts, Yeah, little huts,

and they didn't do it. So the question that Logan

is asking is is it possible that there was like

this bubble over top of the hill where Jesus and

Moses and Elijah were outside of time? Right, that this

was asking? And then there was no time for them,

and so Moses was just walking around in his regular

time and suddenly he's standing there talking to Jesus, and

Elijah's walking around his regular time, and he's standing there

talking to Jesus during Jesus time.

Here mind, which equals blown.

Yeah, which which is super cool, right, which means then

that you've got this intersection of multiple times and so

then you get multiple right, Yeah, it's like.

A flash when he was in that bubble.

Super cool. I would say this theologically, I think it's

fairly compelling for sure, right, because we know God is

outside of time, that's right. God is the author of time.

There is no time for God. A day is a

thousand years, a thousand years as a day to God,

So time is important to you and me. Time would

have important to Moses while he was alive and Elijah

while he was alive. And so the question was it

really is, do you think that Moses and Elijah had

already died and these were like resurrected bodies.

Showing up, which I always assumed, right.

Or were they alive God just transported them to the

mountain for a second and then sent them back. And

if so, how much more confident would they be about

their ministry knowing that they saw one Moses got to

be in the promised Land. He got to see the

promised one, Elijah being the prophet, right, and they summarized

the law and the prophets. That's why they did. It's

a cool idea. It's not in the Bible, but it's

not against the Bible.

Well, and it's just fun to think about. So the

ultimate answer is we don't know, Logan, thanks for asking.

Right, Yeah, that's really it. That's it, Okay. So I

typed it into AI. I asked AI, Oh really yeah,

because I was having a hard time tracking with the question.

My mind was blown like five times. Uh huh. So

it says this one, Logan, you'd be so proud it said, Logan,

that's a deep and thoughtful question, and you're tapping into

some rich theology and mystery around the transfiguration. That's it.

So even AI was what, Yeah, that's the only thing

I went on. No, So, first of all, is it

possible that Moses and Elijah were in their own times

God brought them into a timeless moment to meet with Jesus.

Short answer, Yes, it's a very plausible idea and even

quite beautiful. Then it goes on and impacts all these

so at least, and I.

Thought I thought you were saying. All I said was like.

It was very complimentary. You got the biggest brain on

the planet saying, good job. You're thinking really good logan.

Yeah. Right.

And then the other one was could this moment have

strengthened Moses and Elijah in their own missions? And it

said that's an incredible thought and very possible. And then

it went on and gave some really good stuff. I thought,

you know, speaking of and you can trust everything, and

the speaking of deep thoughts, you have some deep thoughts.

You know who else had deep thoughts? Oh, Micah? Micah? Yes,

Micah had deep thoughts?

Yes, yeah, Jack Candy and Micah.

Yeah. Yeah, So if you don't know, we're always trying

to find the worst possible transition from the silly stuff

into the now.

The reason why we're in Micah at y'all is because

in the podcast studio.

We're Bible guys. We're big fans.

Yeah, we're big fans. We are in that time frame

where it's Isaiah, it's Micah. Hezekiah's right there in that timeframe.

So we sort of said, hey, for the live Bible

guys event, we're gonna do Michael chapter six, versus one

through eight. Yes, so it's all you.

Yeah, So it says here we're just gonna read eight

verses in Michael Chapter six is listen to what the

Lord is saying. Stand up and state your case against me.

Let the mountains and hills be called the witness your complaints,

and now old mountains. Listen to the Lord's complaint. He

has a case against his people, and he will bring

charges against Israel. Oh my people, what have I done

to you? What have I done to make you tired

of me? Answer me? Before I brought you out of

Egypt and redeemed you from slavery, and I sent Moses

and Aaron and Miriam to help you. Don't remember, my people,

how King Bailak a moeb tried to have you cursed,

and how Baalam's son of be you or blessed you. Instead,

remember your journey from Acacia Grove to Gilgal, when I

the Lord did everything I could to teach you about

my faithfulness. What can we bring to the Lord? Should

we bring him burnt offerings? Should we bow before the

Most High God with offerings and yearling calves? Should we

offer him thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of

olive oil? Should we sacrifice our firstborn children to pay

for our sins? No, o, people, the Lord has told

you what is good, and this is what he requires

of you. To do what is right, to love mercy,

and to walk humbly with your God. Well, there you go,

there you go. Yep.

So there it is eight verses. And by the way, I'm.

Very free, and I'm really grateful because there weren't any

hard names to read. Yes, yes, that's super glad.

You know I'm familiar with Micah six eight. We used

to sing it as kids. But the first seven verses

as I was listening that sometimes you hear things like that,

and you're like, what are they referring to? I was

looking at the Life application study Bible. And for those

of us in the room who don't have a good

study Bible, we always promote the life application one. Get

this one, Yep, it's really good, not that one. Oh yeah,

this is a chronological. Yeah.

The chronological is hard to follow unless you're on purpose

doing it chronologically, which is what we're doing. This is

the standard uh yeah, yeah yeah, Life Appication study Bible.

But they have great notes twenty bucks online.

They have great notes. And this one says the story

of Bayluck and Baalam, which is referenced in verse number

What was that? Verse number five is found in numbers

chapter twenty two and twenty four. And a Kia Grove

was the Israelites campsite by the Jordan River just before

they entered the Promised Land in Joshua chapter two. There

the people received many of God's instructions about how to live.

Gilgal their first campsite after crossing the Jordan, and Joshua

four was where the people renewed their covenant with God

in Joshua five. These two places represent God's loving care

for his people, his willingness both to protect them and

to warn them about potential troubles. So in Micah's day,

the people had forgotten this covenant and its benefits, and

it turned away from God. So those seemingly random things

that he's mentioning, he's recalling. Don't you remember, Don't you

remember right before you cross the Jordan River. Don't you

remember right after you cross the Jordan River? Don't you

remember how God met with you, gave you instructions, how

he ministered to you, that he made a covenant with

you and in you as a people have forgotten this covenant.

You've forgotten God.

I've been there. I've been to a Kasha grove, oh

for there. Yeah. Yeah. So what's really amazing is this

is where the Israelites crossed the Jordan River. Yeah, right there.

This is where Elijah ascended back to Heaven. The plains

right above it. So you go down to the river.

It's kind of flat right there. It comes down off

these hills and there's a a little plane right here.

You're less than a mile away, two miles away. And

then that's also where Jesus was baptized. It all happened

in the same ye, same exact spots.

Basically, Well, then I've been there because I knew that.

I was on the Jordan side of the river, not

the Israel side.

So I did you do baptisms where Jesus was baptized?

Yeah?

Yah, that's what we did too.

Yeah. So we parked on the Jordan side and we

got this. It was remember when Iran was shooting rockets

into Israel. So we landed in Amman, Jordan, like three

hours after the airport reopened, and so then we got

a pass from the head of intelligence for Jordan to

go down and visit the baptism site. And we keep

getting stopped by military people the whole time, and there

were no tourists anywhere around, and so as we're driving around,

they gave us like this thing we could figure out

where all this stuff was. It was really really cool. Yeah,

well and then we almost got arrested.

Now is this one you went two years ago with

the missions?

No? No, this was like last summer, okay, okayeah, Yeah.

When I went, I was nine, So I'm sure, which

is quite a while back. I'm sure they probably told

me this is where they crossed the Jordan River. I

just probably forgot that was the same spot.

Yeah, except when you're on the Israel side, they're usually

highlighting the fact that you just rate there's Jericho. Yeah yeah,

yeah right, so yeah, but on the Jordan's side, they

don't have Jericho, so they got to tell you this

is where gotcha. Yeah.

And by the way, on verse number one, I also

I know I'm referring to these notes here, but I

also love the note where it says, stand up and

state your case against me. Let the mountains and the

hills be called to witness your complaints, and it basically

says here it is. It says God called to the

mountains to confirm the people's guilt. The mountains would serve

as excellent witnesses, for it was in the high places

that the people had built pagan altars and sacrifice to

false gods. And then it lists different places one Kings fourteen,

e Zeko, chapter twenty, Jeremiah seventeen. And so that's very

interesting as well.

Right yeah, yeah, So well he's calling in his witnesses

against the people because God goes on. He says, so

I'm going to testify against you. I got some trouble

with you, right, I've got an issue with you people,

and he goes, what do I have to do? I

led you out of slavery. I sent you Moses and

Aaron and Miriam, and they were great leaders. And I

proved my faithfulness to you. When the king of Moab

was trying to get you cursed, I talked the prophet

into blessing you instead. He's like, I just don't even

know what I need to do to make you guys

believe that I'm faithful to you. And you know, one

of his accusations through all of the minor prophets is

you're always cheating on me. God is always accusing them

of committing spiritual adultery against God, always cheating with other gods.

And God's saying, but I've always been faithful. I can

prove it over and over and over again. And so

pointing out those mountains where they were doing all their

illicit worship was one of those things like, hey, I

know you've been naughty, but I haven't been well.

He asked the question, he says, and what a great question,

Oh people, What have I done to you? What have

I done to make you tired of me? Then he says,

answer me, Well, they can't come up with an answer, right,

So God has you know, He's basically asking them, and

he's like, hey, if I've been unfaithful one time, if

I have if I've been unfair, if I've been unjust,

if I've been unloving, you know, without justification. We know

that God has judgment. We know that God recalls us

to righteousness. We know that God sets laws and motion.

We know that God demands glory for himself. Right, all

those things are in place. But what he's really saying

is he's saying, name me one thing that's been out

of place, that has gone against my character, you know,

name me an offense. And of course they're without answer.

It's really amazing because he's talking about his faithfulness. You

can see him kind of pleading with them. It's on

a relational level. God's clearly coming and going, I wanted

a relationship with you. You keep rejecting it, and they

pivot from relationship to religion in verse six. Their response

was not oh God, we've broken your heart and we

want things to be right between us. That wasn't it.

Their thing was, Okay, what sacrifices do you want now?

Right?

Right? That's what they pivot to. Can we bring some

burn off rings.

Or thousand rams.

Yeah, we'll bring a thousand rams. You want us to

sacrifice our firstborn? Right, So they're just looking for some

kind of a religious solution to what God was saying

was a relational problem, right right, Well, because you want

to jump through the hoops, check the boxes.

Yeah, anybody's really saying is he's saying, Hey, I don't

want the rams. I don't want the sacrifices. I don't

want ten thousand rivers of olive oil or sacrifice of

your burn you know, firstborn children. He says no. The

answer clearly is no. O people, the Lord has told

you what is good. And then, of course this is

the famous verse that I grew up singing.

Do you remember the song only vaguely? Yeah, so it's

not singing in almost NonStop.

Well, because we chose this, and so all day I've

been singing, and I learned it in the King James version. Right,

And it goes, and you're supposed to echo. Do you

want to echo?

I don't know if I will or not.

All right, so it goes.

I'm taken a stand against singing.

Okay, all right, well it goes. He goes, he has

shown thee. He has shown thee. Oh man, oh man,

what is good and what the Lord requires of the

And then it does it again, and then the ending says,

but to do justly, But to do justly, and to

love mercy, and to love mercy, and to walk home

blee with God.

And by the way, very snappy tune.

It is not a good tune at all.

Very snappy tune. That's really just not a good dude.

It's not a catch tune at all.

You imposed that on these people. I tried you saw me,

try not to saw me.

It's really not a great tune.

It really is very very snappy.

I don't know why we sang it that way. I mean,

come up with a better tune. AI could have written

something way better. Yeah, but it's a little treat. Yeah.

But but but obviously, when you put words to music,

it helps you remember the lyrics and in this case,

Bible verse to music.

You use the different side of your brain. Yes, so

a lot of times when youre trying to memorize things,

you're trying to memorize it logically, and it's in and

if that's not the side of your brain, you're always

exercising it may be very difficult, but with music, you're

used on the other side of your brain.

And so that's that's how I remember all the books

of the Bible. I told you remember that really? Yeah,

when when I when I started at Bible College, doctor

Sewell said, Okay, your Homer for tomorrow has come in

and quote all sixty six books in the Bible in order.

And and everybody you know I growing up in church,

their whole lives like easy, we already know it. But

here I am. I'm only a Christian a couple of years.

And I'm a rascal, as you said before, rascal. And

so I'm like, how am I going to do this?

And so I chose for some reason one little, two little,

three little Indians. I don't know why. Big Yeah, I

got I got Genesis xless, Viticus, numbers drawing me, Joshua, Judges,

Ruth first, second, Samuel first second, Kings, first and second, Chronicles,

Ezra Esther, Joe, Psalms, Proverbs, Eccles, Yes, he's miss Alomon, Isaiah, Jeremy, Lamentations,

Ezekiel Dan who was a Joel. And I just kept

on going all the way down, and I go all

the way through and that's how I learned it. And

I'm like, dude, and so now I'm here. It is

thirty something years later, I could still sing that and

and and so literally, when you said help me find Michah,

I'm like, yeah, I know it is.

But when when we were when we were getting ready,

they had us do a sound check, and then I

was Chris was talking to somebody and I was like, hey,

what what are we doing today? He goes Michael six eight.

I was like, all right, can you help me find Micah? Right,

and he's like, ooh, sure, I can find it, Like

I couldn't find Michael.

Yeah, And I'm gonna sing my little song. That's how

I guess I'm gonna find it. But all of that

to say, when you put the Bible verses to music, uh,

it's it's it's exactly why we believe worship music is powerful. Right. So,

so most of the worship music, if not almost exclusively,

all of it that we sing here at Heritage Church

is based on either directly a Bible verse verse directly

out of there, or it'll come from a biblical principle, right,

It'll it'll be something that is true about God. And

so When we sing, we remind ourselves of what is true, right,

and so and so sometimes we walk into a church

and we start with worship, you know, singing worship. It's

all worship, but singing worship. And uh. And sometimes we're

not in the mood. We're not in the mood to hear.

You know, we're crabby. We just got in a fight

in the parking lot with our family whatever it is.

Right, Wow, what are you doing on Sunday mornings?

Not not me, but I'm talking about Joe Smail.

Yeah, Liz is here. She's sitting right there. Yeah, which

is awesome. I wish Liz came to every ing Yeah,

because you step in it a lot and just imagining

what is Yeah, I hear about it later, but nice way,

in only the nicest way. Yes, you hear, but.

Of course she's always super nice. Okay, yeah, so uh,

anyway back to my thought that I had, which is

which is when you walk into a church and you

start to sing worship, what it does is it tunes

your brain into what is true. And sometimes we have

to sing it and I hate say it this way,

but sing it until we believe it right, over and

over again. We're just saying the words out loud, and

finally we just let go of our bitterness or anger

or our doubt, or maybe we shift our mindset or

we stop worrying. We you know, our mind just sort

of focuses on what is true, and especially if we

choose a song that is relevant to the subject of

the day. Yeah, right, And so all of that to

say this. So I said all that to say it's

amazing how we can listen to different podcasts, we can

listen to different worship music, and there are so many

resources available to all of us that can help us

along the way, both in our Christian walk on a

daily basis, but then also you know, just to help

us get through sometimes the hardest of struggles.

Yeah, yeah, I didn't realize we were going this direction

tonight with the thing. So if you don't know what

the Bible, guys, we start with the premise that we're

just two guys who like to talk about the Bible

in past practical ways, and we show up and we

believe that you can just understand the words on the

page by asking a few key questions. Right, what's to

say about God? What's to say about people? Is there

Commando bay, Is there a Sindo void? Is there a

promise to claim? And what should I do about it? Right?

What should I do? As the rest? Well, you ask

those six questions, you can read almost any passages in

the Bible and get something from it. And right, So

we normally don't we don't put together a script like tonight.

Obviously we obviously we didn't put together a script.

Right.

You gotta like, why am I here? But we just

like to talk about what comes to us in the moment,

as if we were sitting here talking, drinking a cup

of coffee, just talk about the Bible. And so it's

really interesting that you brought that up and that you

moved into this worship side of this for a minute.

Tune well, and because the people were like they wanted

to check a religious box. How do we get you

to leave us alone? What religious things should we do?

Are you going to make us, you know, give a

thousand rams? Or how about if we sacrifice the kid?

Will you leave us alone? Quick? Complain in God? Right?

And God's talking to them on a relational level, and

they're trying to argue on a religious level. And so

that's a big part of what you were talking about

bringing up the music side, because the art reflects the heart, right,

and so God's trying to get not just the mental side,

but He's also trying to get the heart side. And

tonight Judy asked me to sign her Bible. She asked

you to sign your her Bible. Two I did.

Yeah, we both signed it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you took up a big chunk by

the way. Yeah, well, it's a lot.

It's relevant to you know, like the importance of the

signature and this one.

Oh so so you just wanted to give her a

big chunkin Yeah, well, you know.

Yeah, so there were other signatures on there that were

less important, that were smaller.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, so so my small one, I wrote,

I sign my name, and then I just wrote underneath

it Psalm forty one through three, And those are like

my favorite, some of my favorite verses, probably the verses

that have directed my life more than any other. And

it says I waited patiently for the Lord to help me,

and he turned to me and heard my cry. He

lifted me out of the pit of despair and out

of the mud and the mire, and he set my

feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along,

and He's given me a new song to sing of him,

a praise to our God. And many will see what

he's done and be amazed, and they'll put their trust

in the Lord. And so big part of that, that's

my story. God pulled me out of the muck and

the mire and he set my feet on solid rock.

That's great. But then he put a new song, right,

he changed the song. The song's not what the world sings,

the songs, you know, songs that point me to him.

But the Bible says that God that the world sees

the song coming from our life right right, And then

it says many will see it and we'll fear, and

we'll put their trust in the Lord. And so the

song in our heart really does reflect what's going on

in our heart, who we are. And it's amazing to me.

Some many people say they want to honor the Lord,

they want to make God first, and yet getting their

pickup truck, and you're gonna hear what they're really honoring,

right and whether and so we wonder why there's this

tension all the time, and it's because we're feeding our

hearts and our minds with something apart from God. And

then we're claiming we want to follow God and have

all the blessings, and so there's always this tension there,

and I think that that land's kind of in this

place where they're like, Hey, what are the religious rituals.

Let me do a Sunday morning. I'll go to Sunday morning.

Do you want me to write a check, I'll write check.

Do you want me to serve on the usher team,

I'll serve on the user team. Right, That's kind of

what I feel like he's and God's like, no, that's

not what I'm trying to get out out of you. Instead,

he says, the Lord's told you what is good and

what he requires, not what he desires, what he requires

of you to do what's right, to love mercy, and

to walk humbly with your God. That's pretty powerful.

That's really powerful. Hey, just to piggyback off of you

said you put your life.

He does this in his ministry all the time, just

piggybacks off of me.

Yeah, that's what it is. I am so grateful to

follow in the wake of your greatness. I'm just lucky

to be there. I'm treading water in the wake of

your greatness. That's great, that's wonderful. So I also put

my life verse. I also put my life verse in

Judy's Bible, which is First Corinthians fifteen fifty eight. And

I'm reading it because I know it. But but this

is the n I'll see. I know it the King James.

But it says, so my dear brothers and sisters, be

strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for

you know that nothing you do for the Lord is

ever useless. And and and by the way, this has

nothing to do with anything. This is a bonus material. Again,

But Judy had listened to the Bible, guys and faithfully.

And we had mentioned. I had mentioned that I named

my cars. Remember that.

Yeah, so cars or.

Her family, Well, it interchanges. So it's John Doe, but

my son's my son's name is his. His truck's name

is Roscoe. Uh, Liz's Liz's uh Ford Bronco is Caroline,

uh uh, Torries is Izzy. She has a Ford focus.

And then I think that's it, right, So oh, then

we have one in the in the car and in

the driveway. Fernando. Yeah, yeah, the red one. Okay. So anyway,

so Tom just bought Judy a car, and it is

a jeep and it is a is a is a

cool looking thing. And I had to decide whether it

was male or female. I decided it was male. It's

black on black, it's got a sun roof. I thought,

it's got to be a slick name that like is

like black, and it's like, it's a really cool name.

But it can't be like too slick, and it's got

to be sort of be compact. And so I decided

that her car is named Nick.

Nick.

It's a good name. Now that could that could be

short for Nicodemus, It could be short for Nicholas Cage,

whatever you want to call it. But but Nick Nick.

Is you call it if you want full name. If

I want full name, full name, what would you call Nick?

I kind of like Nicholas Cage. Man, I kind of

like it.

Yeah, No it doesn't.

I just I just think it's cool. You know, Nicholas Cage.

He's pretty cool, Nick Cage. But Nick Nick is your buddy.

Nick is your pal, right, Nick wears sunglasses, right, and

he's a guy you could depend on. And that's what

it is.

So again, like you said, that was nothing about.

Nothing nothing about nothing, but it is our time.

But it was important. So if you're asking, so what

am I supposed to do with my life?

Right?

A lot of people go, oh, I'm not a preacher,

I'm not a singer, you know so, and God's going listen,

this isn't complex. It's not like it's rocket science. Right.

Your daughter just got engaged to a rocket scientist. She did, yes,

full on honest goodness, rockets.

Yeah, his degree, he's literally a rocket scientist.

Wow, you can have like smart grandbabies. Yes, finally, finally

I have yeah. Yeah. Anyways, God says it's not rocket science.

He just goes, listen, do what's right. That's not complex.

I told you what's right. Do the right thing, love mercy. Right,

And a lot of times people who focus their life

living for the right thing tend to be really harsh

towards people who don't do the right thing. Yes, right,

And so He's like, hey, you do the right thing,

but you can also love mercy.

Stop typing.

You don't have to punish everybody all the time. Love

mercy and then walk humbling with your God. And this humility.

The Bible says that God opposes the proud, but He

gives grace in his favor to the humble, And so

this is all God is asking. It's not rocket science.

We can do those. All of the people listening can

do those three things. And all three of those are

a choice. That's right, All three of them are a choice.

Well, hey, that sounds like a great place to end.

That's certainly our time. We thank you for sticking with us,

and hopefully we will see you tomorrow on the Bible.

Guys. Wow,