How Has God Been Faithful? Celebrating 500 Episodes

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

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. Well, hello everybody, and welcome to the five

hundredth episode.

Let's prefects, let's put effects on the post.

Editor post editing, Let's do a crowd cheer song, Hong Kong,

Hong Kong. So yes, today is the five hundredth episode.

That is pretty incredible.

Yes, And uh, I don't know that I ever want

to do five hundred any things with you.

Well, thank you for that. Thank you.

Well, actually, actually what I meant to say was I

don't know that we ever anticipated getting the five hundred episodes.

Oh that's what I meant. Yeah, words words matter, don't they?

Words?

Words, words matter. What we mean is we we just

started off like it's supposed to be like a what

a eight week devotion what was.

Back during COVID Yeah yeah, And it.

Was actually post COVID sort of like second COVID wave

where we were going to do small groups when people

were still fearful of meeting and homes. So we actually

did a podcast segment that was only supposed to last

what like a.

Month, yeah something, And we called it HC Daily.

So on our Bible Guys website bibleguys dot com, if

you go back, you'll have access to HC.

One hundred and something episodes of HD Daily.

Yeah, because people liked it and we continued it on

and then after, you know, after a couple one hundred

episodes or one hundred something episodes, we decided to rebrand it.

Yes, so, and then that's been five hundred episodes ago.

Yeah, five hundred episodes ago of Yeah.

So the Bible Guy, So, how many episodes per year?

So it's what it's twenty per month.

Twenty per month, right, twenty something, yeah, twenty one, twenty.

One per month and then times that, so that's two

hundred something episodes.

So this is over two and a half years.

Yeah, it was September. I think the first episode of

The Bible Guys was September nineteenth, twenty twenty two.

Wow.

Yeah, okay, wow, that's what it was. Yeah. So a gun,

isn't it neat?

That's pretty nifty.

So I was doing a little bit of math.

Yeah, this is our segment, by the way. Yeah, our

segment is reflecting on five hundred episodes.

I was I was doing a little bit of math,

excuse me. And we've had three hundred and forty five thousand,

eight hundred and thirteen streams right times that people have

listened to us, which is kind of cool. Yeah, right,

we've had what was the other one that I looked up?

Seventy five thousand hours of listening? Wow, And so so

our listeners, our listeners said no, no, no, no, no,

not of recording, so we only record, you know, twenty

two minutes, twenty five minutes. But because of the three

hundred and forty something thousand streams, our listeners have spent

seventy five thousand hours listening to the Bible.

Guys, oh, I guess not any.

Individual listener, but collectively all the listeners have listened seventy

five thousand hours. Gotcha, right? Isn't that kind of neat?

Yeah, it's very neat.

And then here's another one. You ever wonder how many

unique listeners?

Yes, I love all the time.

Yeah, let me let me see if it might not

do the math, No, listen, it's too big, it won't

do the math. But on a monthly basis, just on YouTube,

it's it's a couple thousand listeners. And then the same

thing on on you know, all of the podcasting platforms

Spotify and all those. It's a couple thousand a month

unique listeners, so you're looking force four thousand, five thousand

unique listeners a month is what you have there. That's

kind of fun, but I did this. This is kind

of neat. So obviously the US is our top listening country.

But what do you think is our number two? Oh goodness,

give me, give me like the top five besides the

US Africa. Well, there's lots of countries in Africa.

Oh yeah, okay, so Kenya, Kenya.

Is on there. Yeah, Kenya is on the top twenty

five list. Yeah, Tanzania is Tanzania on here? It would

seem like it because we've got a lot of friends

in Tanzania. Your friends don't listen to us? What the

heck I'm gonna have to complain. Yeah. No, our number

one I can't even begin to guess. Our number one

African country is Zambia.

Have you been to Zambia?

No, but I have friends in Zambia. Yeah, holy cow. Yeah.

So our number one country outside of the US is

the UK. Oh that's nice and very substantial, by the way.

And then Canada thanks for Canada, your our neighbors, for

crying out loud, right, and the UK beat you. But

then here's one Slovakia.

You're yelling at Canada, the Canada the nicest people on

the planet.

No, they're not nice enough, that's all I'm saying. Slovakia

is number four. Slovakia. Yeah, have you been I've never

been to Slovakia?

No? Wow?

And then New Zealand. Which have you been in New Zealand?

No?

But I really would love to go, like a lot.

Of listening from New Zealand. And then there's Zambia, as

I mentioned, Then Japan, Australia, India, Singapore, Kenya, Philippines, Mexico,

South Africa, the US Virgin Islands. I've got friends there,

I've been there, Spain, Taiwan, Germany, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Dominican Republic, Israel, Sweden, Italy, Switzerland,

and then three hundred and eighty three other places. But

that's the three eighties. There aren't three hundred and eighty

three countries, right, So it's just gonna be little territories

in towns and cities and stuff like that. But yeah,

isn't it crazy? So here's another funny one. There's all

these things that measure. You know, if you're on charts,

you ever hear like somebody, you know, Taylor Swift releases

a song, it's number one on the Billboard charts. Whatever. Okay,

well they have podcast charts like that too, so only

for the podcast side, not the YouTube side. We've charted

in Hungry We charted in Uganda. Wow, we charted most recently.

What was the place that was? I just saw? Let

me let me look it up. We charted in Zambia.

We charted in Singapore, and then I just got one

this week. Let me see what the thing was this

week that came up.

And just in case you're wondering why he has all

these facts is because he's tied to all this, he

has it on his phone. Whenever I have to get facts,

I don't. I'm too dumb to have it on my phone,

so I have to either email desiree or you know,

figure it out other ways.

So this one shows that we charted in Taiwan this week.

This week we're number one twenty three in Christianity. Wow

in Taiwan. Isn't that funny?

It's it's actually pretty humbling and incredible and you know

what it makes me. It makes me want to do

better and try harder and prepare more. Yeah, it really does,

because I appreciate those who are listening, but that actually

feels like more responsibility, and therefore we should do everything

we can to make it a better experience. Yeah, because

if people are listening and you know, Japan, you know,

good gosh man, thank you.

Right and for us, you know, it's incredibly humbling because

ninety percent of the places on that list we haven't

been to right, right, which means friends are sharing with friends,

are sharing with friends, they're posting their liking their It

shows up on your feed, whether you know, if you're

on Facebook or on you know, Instagram or something. You go, hey,

I really liked this episode, and you share a link,

or hey I like this s thumbs up or you

leave a comment, and it winds up through all those

weird algorithms that all these companies use. It puts you

and your opinions on your friends pages, and then somebody

makes it with them to a military base in Germany,

and then they share it with their friends and that's

it just goes around the world that way, and you

and I haven't done anything to do to push it

the way it just happens. And so that means that

you are sharing with your friends and family. And so yeah,

if you ever wonder, you know, when we say like

it or thumbs up or share it, if it matters.

This thing spread all over the world from us deciding

to do a six week daily devotional. Yeah right, and yeah,

so it's it's incredibly humbling, and you are the ones

that are driving it, not us. We're just putting out content,

but the listeners are the ones that are driving this

sing around world. So keep it up, man, Thank you,

thank you so much. Thank you.

Yeah, that's great and and and you know, some of

its content, some of it's h you know, goofy segments.

Yeah, yeah, that's probably what it is. What's making us

famous is what made Chris mad this week. People keep

coming back over and over and over again.

Nobody cares.

Yeah, So, do you have a favorite moment?

A favorite moment?

Honestly, it's the clip that we played at church one time.

We asked Desiree to piece together a little promo, remember that,

to promote the babble guys, and uh, and she put

together a little clip and it was when uh, Uh,

it's when I laughed at that request because it was

a callback member. It was would you rather uh barbecue

with the rock or if would you rather get ice cream?

Exact up r yea and and it struck me so funny.

That I just laughed. And it was one of those

air laughs.

Where I was like, guess, and I'm telling you it

was just the hardest that I've laughed on the show.

And that to me stands out because nothing has hit

me harder than that I've laughed.

It was such a surprise.

It was so funny to me because it's just a

running joke that that just caught me.

Caught me in the right way.

So I think some of my favorite things are I

love it when you when you sing good morning to us.

Oh yeah, yeah, I think it's so funny. I laugh

every time. I don't know why it is so funny. Yeah,

there's a lot of those things. We have a good time.

And then, quite honestly, I feel like we've had some

really interesting conversations about the Bible. Right for certain, we

don't rehearse it, we don't pre write what we're going

to say. We're just a couple guys looking at what's

on the page, and talking from the fact that we've

been students of the Bible for thirty forty years, right,

And I think from this perspective, anybody who decides that

they're going to become a student of the Bible. If

you know our listeners, you're reading the Bible, listening to

the Bible five days a week, you're becoming a student,

and you know, being able to look at the page

and asking what does this passage say about God? What

does it say about people? What's it say to me?

Is there something I should avoid? Is there something I

should copy or emulate in my life? Is there some

promise God's giving? Is there some law He's mentioning, or

some better way to live? You ask just a few cute,

key questions, and anybody can look at most of the

passages we've looked at and draw something out of it.

Then with a good study Bible. That's why we're always

making a big deal about the life afpcation about good

study Bible. There's always these thought provoking little ideas. And

I think anybody can have a conversation like this right

right at your level and where you've been. It might

not be a forty year, mature conversation, but it can

be a meaningful discovery, Bible discovery kind of conversation with

your friends. And so, you know, hopefully some people are

taking this and deciding, hey, let's meet on Tuesdays and

at Starbucks and yeah, read the Bible and talk about

it with friends.

And let me encourage you out there. I've run in recently,

I've run into some people who are pretty young in

their faith. And just because you're a person who loves

knowledge and you love to acquire knowledge, and you're and

you're just you know, you're you're geeked up about the Bible.

You're really passionate about it. That does not equal It

is not congruent too wisdom right right, like like, please,

let's all and our discussions be humble and say, you know,

that's interesting. I think this is correct, but let me look,

let me look it up, and let me find out.

Because I've recently, I've just recently done this. I've had

conversations with somebody who you know, just you know, their

question maybe two years or something, and uh and and

and there's discussions in my living room, in my living room,

and somebody will speak up and before I'm able to,

you know, because you know, you don't want to be

the guy with all the answers. So you sit back

and you watch the conversation and then this then this

young person will interject and say, well, that's because of this.

And I'm thinking to myself, that is so dangerous because

what you just said is not even close to the case.

And uh and and uh, and you're passing it off

like it's gospel.

And what's what's what's worse is that person next to

you is going to shake her head and.

Believe you, you know.

And so I'm like, I'm like, well, and so I

try to gently come in and say, hey, you know

that we probably need to take a posture of that's

a good question. Uh, let me go ahead and look

into that, because what you're saying are true, Like you're

quoting verses and you're getting them right, but the application

of those verses are entirely wrong, right right.

And so you and I've had times in the podcast

where we weren't exactly in alignment on a thought.

Yeah.

Sure, but it's possible to be gentlemen, right right. It's

possiblely to me, ladies and gentlemen, even when we're disagreeing

or when we're not on the same page, and then

it's possible to be humble and go, oh, maybe maybe

I'm not right, or allow the other person to point

a thing out, and you know, just kind of back

up from choosing to fight over a thing and pretend

like we know everything. You know, the Apostle Paul said,

a little knowledge puffs up, right, just a little, right,

So as you begin to get a little bit of

Bible and you start feeling like you want to argue

about the Bible all the time just to understand, that's

because you carry a little knowledge. What I've discovered is

and you probably have to. So I've been a believer

for forty five years. Yeah, right, and you know, deeply

embedded in scripture for basically that entire time. And uh,

the longer you're in the word, the less confident you

are about understanding and knowing everything. I feel like there's

so much more I don't know yet, right, But it's

the it's when you get a little bit of knowledge,

you just start getting a little bit You Ever, when

your kids were learning how to drive, did they ever

suddenly start correcting how you drive?

Right?

Right? Your kid with the learners. Permit, Dad, you can't

make that turn right, use your blinker right.

I've got this son, I've been doing this for quite

a while.

Yeah, I've made it home safely before, so without without

your back seat advice. Right. So there is something to that.

When we get a little bit of knowledge, we start

feeling like we've got all the knowledge, and so we

just have to be careful with that. I wouldn't use

that as a warning to not engage in good Bible conversation.

I'm just saying to be humble and go, hey, I

might be wrong, and let's go find somebody who has

an answer, right, and you and you bump it up

a level to the believers that have been walking with

the Lord longer than you.

And the more mature you get, even if you absolutely

know the answer. Uh, sometimes I'll say, yeah, I'm pretty

sure this is correct. You know, let's let's look it

up together. Yeah right, And you know so that I

don't like dominate the other person, right. So it's it's

just it's just the more mature and the more you get,

the older you get. That's why that's why most old

people are pretty humble, and they'll say, you know, they'll

have a ton of wisdom and I'm not.

I'm not going to be when I get old, I'm

going to be like the cockiest guy.

Oh so you know another word has not change.

Yeah, little punks. So so the other thing too is

to always remember. And I think our listeners will pick

up on this a lot. You and I cross reference

a lot. Sure, so we'll say, oh, that reminds me

of you know, the Bible says over here and over there.

The Bible is its own best common ter. So while

I love life, application study Bible. And you know, I'm

telling everybody all the time, or get a good study Bible.

And then there's all these cross references, you know in

the margins that'll say, hey, this verse has a thing

over here. That consistent cross referencing helps too, because what

you don't want to do is develop a strong opinion

about averse. Right, Right, it's the consistent message of the

whole Bible. And that's the power of scripture. Right. It's

forty authors spread over fifteen hundred years, writing this cohesive book,

and that tells us how to know God and how

to live. And so the Bible is always going to

be consistent with itself, and rarely will God ever give

if ever, I don't know that I can think of

a doctrine a major thing worth dividing over. Really, you're

literally crossing the lines of heresy if you believe opposite.

I can't think of anything in the Bible that's built

around one passage or one verse. Yeah, right, If you

want to fight about one verse, that's probably an immature

way to look at it. Right. So if you have

a few guidelines on how to have a conversation, I

think people can have really meaningful, fulfilling and disciple building

relationships with your friends in a way like this, just

like this, right, And so I think that the studio

with two microphones, Yeah that's right. Well, you don't need

a studio. You can be sitting in a Starbucks or whatever. So,

I mean, we only have a couple of minutes. I

don't even think we're going to get into the reading

totally today. But about the Bible, what is the biggest

verse or thought that you have with regard to Okay,

this is why God's word matters so much to me?

Oh wow, this is why God's word matters so much

to me as a Bible guy, as a Bible. Guy, Well,

I mean my first thought went for, you know, my

life verse, but that isn't necessarily about the Bible. It's

about my love for God, right, my faithfulness, my dedication

One Corinthians fifteen fifty eight is my life first, by

the way, So yeah, I remember I was that in

the King James version. Be states that unmovable, unmovable.

Always abounding in the work of the Lord.

That's right.

You know it too, for as much as you know

that you're working the Lord of Son, ever be in

vain and so that that's my drive. But when it

comes to the Bible, I would just say that it's

because God says that number one, his word will never

return to him void. Yeah right, So it's never it's

never going to be.

It's never wasted, it's never empty.

Yeah.

But it's probably the verse in One Timothy where it

says that it is profitable for Timothy twond Timothy, it's

profitable for what is it teaching correcting, rebuking, and training

in righteousness, so that the man of God may be

thoroughly equipped.

Right, So go ahead read it.

Yeah, So it says all scripture is God breathed, God

breathed is useful for teaching, for rebuking. Yeah, three sixteen.

All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting,

and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God

may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. It is, right,

that's second Timothy three sixteen and seventeen.

Yeah, that's great.

So that idea all scripture is God breathed, that these

aren't just words about God. Right. I don't believe that

this book contains the word of God. I believe that

this book is the word of words of God, right.

Right.

There's a difference between it this. But there's a lot

of theologians that would say, oh, I think, you know,

this book contains God's worst. There's a lot of factual issues,

there's a lot of you know, doctrinal issues. It's imperfect whatever.

I don't believe that. I believe that this this book

is the word of God to humanity.

Right.

So, and that's what the Bible claims. By the way,

all scripture is God breathed. It comes literally from the

breath of God, the mouth of God, and it's useful

to teach us. Right. So, there's lots of learning we

can learn, we can be taught how to live rebuking

and correcting those are rebuking is is very strong correction,

and then correcting, obviously is a redirecting of our life.

Right those two things, and then training in righteousness, teaching

us how to live the right way. Righteousness is just

doing things God's way right, so that the servant of God.

And when you ask who's the servant of God, everybody

who's a follower of God, he's our king. Right, So

if you call God king, you're his servant. And God

gave you these words to teach you, to train you,

to rebuke you and correct you so that you and

I will be thoroughly equipped for every good work. And

so a lot of times, you know, you and I

come into ministry and others do to our listeners, you

come into a ministry moment when you don't feel equipped.

I was just in a really, really bad situation for

a couple, and I sat there in the emergency room

thinking I don't have any words I don't know to say,

And then when one of the people asked a question,

the immediate answer was a Bible verse. Isn't that amazing?

So I'm sitting there going, I don't know what to say.

I should say something, I feel like I should How

do I help these I don't have any way to

help people? And I felt completely lost. I didn't feel

like I had what it took to help them. And

then when they asked a question, God's Holy Spirit immediately

brought one of his own verses from scripture, and the

only thing I had to say was that, and he

equipped me thoroughly for that moment. And it was because

you're spending time in the word of God, right. I

love the fact that you picked that verse because that

was the exact same verse I was.

Gonna, yeah, yeah, yeah, Well you know, I mean, I

think there are dozens of verses where actually the Scripture

talks about itself and it says that this is not

made from man, that these words come from God, that

God used the authors. And even though that the authors

were human and they were inspired by God, God also

used their personality. God used their experiences. God used all

of those things to come through. But at the same time,

this is inspired by the Holy Spirit, which is God

breathed right. And then also, you know, if you think

about this, let me just say one more other thing here,

and that, as you'd mentioned already that it was forty

different authors over fifteen hundred years.

Did you also.

And I'm saying did you, but I'm asking the listeners,

did you also contemplate that how is it that these

people have never met each other? They all come from

different backgrounds, different cultures, different languages. The authors were made

up of like doctors, fishermen, lawyers, statements, kings, right, you know,

all these different types of people, tent makers, and you

piece it all together and somehow, over fifteen hundred years,

they all have a comprehensive, cohesive one storyline.

That's right.

How is that possible?

That's right?

Right, So it's harder to believe that God's word, you know,

it isn't inspired. It's harder to believe that than it

would be to believe that it is inspired.

Yeah, you think of, think of. This isn't an exact correlation.

There is a significant difference in the nine Star Wars

movies that are in the in the line right now,

there's whole bunch of secondary Star Wars movies. There's a

significant difference just on the writers, in the directors and producers.

You can tell the difference. Yes that hey, This isn't

exactly it's not tight. There's some looseness in the stories

in those original nine because George Lucas wasn't running every

single one of those like he did the first couple, right,

and and there's wiggle room. And that's just in a

movie that only lasts. You know, if you watch all

nine of those movies together, it's only going to be

like eighteen hours or twenty hours. Let's talk about a

book spread over fifteen hundred years and forty different authors,

literally forty different directors writing this thing out, and it's

so tight, right, it's really incredible and applicable to our

lives today. So on every level, I just want to

commend our listeners for taking time on a daily basis,

whether it's with us or on your own or with others,

spending time in the Word of God. And I have

a friend who talks about, you know, the worst time

to dig a well is when you're thirsty, right, And

the Bible talks about how the Word of God is

like fresh water for us and it's water for our soul.

Worst time to dig a well is when you're thirsty.

The best time is when you realize, hey, we need

a well. That's the best time. Just start digging. Now

you're going to tap into the water. A generous person

allows others to tap into that same water. But I

think a wise person builds a dam and fills in

a reservoir so that then at that point, anytime, at

any moment, everybody can turn on a faucet and there's

water available. So as you mature, as you get older,

you know you eventually are going to become the patriarch

or the matriarch of your family. You're going and man,

you need to have spent a long time filling that

well because your family's going to need you to be

the one that can rattle the gates of heaven when

somebody needs to be prayed for. Your family's going to

need you to be able to speak up and share

God's word when there's a major crisis, or there's a

problem where you you know your grandchild is ready to

go off to college and need some Godly wisdom, or

there somebody's trying to figure out how to navigate a marriage. Right,

you have to have a deep well, a deep, deep reservoir.

And so when you spend twenty five minutes a day

in God's word. You're just you might feel like I

don't even know how that mattered to me today. That's okay.

Just keep feeling the well, keep filling that reservoir, and

there's going to be a moment when somebody in your

life or you need to turn on the faucet and

it's just going to be there. That's what the Holy

Spirit does is he calls back the thing he's already

poured into you. And so if he hasn't poured it

into you yet, he can't call it back, right, So

you just need to keep taking in God's word. I

think it's a big part of the wisdom that the

Bible talks about. If anybody lacks wisdom, let him ask God.

Right.

Well, let's end the episode by saying thank you, thank you,

thank you for listening, thank you for tuning in.

We very much appreciate you.

If you live in another country besides this country, just

know this we recognize you. Yes, we know you're there,

and we will try our very best not to be mediocre.

That's right. And hey, on a personal love, man, I've

loved doing this with you. We bust each other's tops

all the time. We're like brothers and harassing each other

and stuff. But I really have enjoyed I appreciate it.

I've enjoyed this. I'm glad that you let me be

one of the be your sidekicking about it.

I've also mildly enjoyed it, Miles, I very much enjoyed

it as well.

Thank you.

All Right, hey, that's our time, and hopefully we'll see

you next time on The Five Guys.