Latest / Beliefs, Ballots, And BullDawgs / Monday July 6, 2026
Transcript
- Greg: Hey, good morning, everyone, and welcome back to Beliefs, Ballots, and Bulldogs. I'm glad you're here. Hope everyone had a wonderfully festive and patriotic 4th of July. It's now July 6th. It's a Monday. It's time to start back over. The ⁓ the theme for the day is leave room for wonder. And it's you know, I spent the the time off kind of kind of thinking through some things, and you know, we've we've become a culture that just believes we have to have an opinion on everything. Every headline, every controversy, every court decision, every sporting event, every political speech, and within minutes everybody's expected to have a hot take on it. If you don't immediately jump in, then people assume you're not paying attention or you're uninformed. But I'm starting to wonder if maybe we've confused being informed with being wise. I wonder if maybe we've become so obsessed with having answers that we've forgotten sometimes you're supposed to just live life in wonder. Today we're look at a passage from Isaiah that I think reminds us of something that that every believer and and frankly every human being needs to hear. We're gonna read from the book of Isaiah, chapter fifty five, verses eight and nine. The scripture tells us for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts. Yeah. My ways are higher than your ways. That checks out. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, is what Isaiah is quoting here. God's not insulting our intelligence, he's simply reminding us of our perspective. When most people hear these verses, they they think it's simply about God's immense and unbounding knowledge. But I think reality tells us that this is really less about God's knowledge and more about God's perspective. You know, God is He sees the beginning and the end at the same exact time. He sees consequences we can't see. He sees hearts we can't see. He sees tomorrow while we're still worried about today. That's why faith requires humility. Not because faith means shutting off your brain, but because faith recognizes there are things that only God can see. And we never will. We've we've become as a society, I think, very uncomfortable with the unknown, uncomfortable with with mystery. If if we can't explain something and explain it rather quickly, we tend to reject it. If if we don't understand God's timing, sometimes we're led to question his goodness. If prayers aren't answered the way we expect them to be answered, then we assume God's not listening or paying attention to it. Maybe the problem isn't that God has stopped working. Maybe the problem is that we've stopped trusting that his perspective is greater than ours and allowing him to do it according to his will. If you turn on the TV, if you scroll social media, if you listen to political commentary, everybody is 100% certain. Everybody knows exactly what's wrong, and everyone seems to have immediate answers. Yet nothing ever gets fixed. Very few people these days seem willing to say, I don't know, let me get back to you. But scripture teaches us that humility isn't always weakness. Humility can in fact be wisdom. We should absolutely think critically. We should absolutely do our best to stay informed. We should certainly care about what's happening in our communities and in our country. But we should also remember that no news cycle, no election, no political movement, and no cultural. Trend changes the truth. God still sees what we cannot. And because of that, Christians should be the last people to panic. Not because we ignore reality, but because we trust the one who can see beyond us. This this really hits home in our in our families too. You know, how many times had have we been going through a difficult season and asked ourselves or wondered, hey, why is this happening? Yet years later we come to realize that God was doing something we just couldn't see at the time. Maybe he was building patience. Maybe he was strengthening our marriage through a trial. Maybe he was teaching dependence on him. Maybe he was preparing us for something that we weren't ready to receive yet. Sometimes the greatest blessings can only be recognized in the rearview mirror. Think about your own life. You know, we can you remember something that you once prayed for or prayed desperately against? And then later it turned out that God gave you an answer you weren't expecting, but it may have been one of the greatest blessings of your life. A closed door, a job you didn't get, a relationship that didn't work out, some sort of disappointment that possibly redirected your life. At the time, it felt like a loss, but looking back, you can see God's fingerprints all over it. That's really the reason why Isaiah's words matter here. God wasn't absent and never will be. We simply sometimes can't see what he's doing. So maybe today God isn't asking you to figure everything out. Maybe he's asking you to trust him. Maybe he's asking you to stop demanding complete explanations before you're willing to obey. Maybe he's inviting you to rediscover wonder, to stand outside on a quiet evening, look at the stars, get up in the morning and watch a sunrise, hold your child's hand, or give your child a warm embrace, to read his words slowly, and just to remember that the God who created these galaxies and these immense wonders also knows you by name. Wonder. reminds us that life isn't ultimately within our control. Life ultimately is about faithfulness to him. All right, guys, on a lighter note, we got 61 days until they tee it up between the hedges in Athens, Georgia. ⁓ no current number 61 on the roster, but we've got some good names from the past. You go back all the way to the National 80 national championship team, national 80, 1980 national championship team, you got what is and I think still one of the greatest nicknames of all time. Eddie the meat cleaver weaver. ⁓ not entirely sure if somebody these days could carry around that sort of nickname in the world we live in. That this world is way too soft for somebody to be called meat cleaver. More recent names, we got Ben Jones and David Andrews, both were anchors at center of the offensive line during their run. ⁓ and both those guys went on to some NFL success as well. So 61 days, let's get here football season. Some of us simply can't wait. Today we want to ⁓ We want to talk about something that's that I think is going to become more and more important in the coming days, and and we're already starting to see elements of that. It's it's are we losing the ability to recognize and react to the truth? We used to say all the time, Hey, I'll I'll believe it when I see it. But now we live in a world where even seeing something with your own eyes may not be enough to validate the fact that it's true. A video can be fake, a voice can be fake, a picture can be fake, a Quote can be fake, a headline can be twisted, clips are taken out of context and edited all the time. And the really dangerous part nowadays is even when something is real, now people can dismiss that by saying, well, that's probably AI. So now we're kind of getting hit from both sides. Fake things are starting to look real, and real things are starting to be labeled as fake. This is, and this is something I've harped on. This is this is a dangerous place for our nation. This is a dangerous place for our families. This is this is a dangerous place is for churches. And more importantly, it's a dangerous dangerous place for our soul. The the issue is not just technology, although that's helping exacerbate it and spread this. The issue is, and it's what we talk about on this show all the time, the issue is the truth. Scripture tells us in in the book of Ephesians, chapter four, verse 25, therefore, having put away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth. With his neighbor. And then in John 8, verse 32, Jesus says, You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Now notice what Jesus does not say. He does not say the truth will make you popular. He certainly does not say the truth will help your party win. And he does not say that the truth will always confirm what you may have already believed. He says, the truth will set you free. And that means that ultimately lies make you a slave. And we're all aware of it, even though we don't admit it. Lies make you a slave to fear, a slave to outrage, a slave to any sort of propaganda, and a slave to the algorithm. A slave to whatever confirms what you already wanted to believe. And we're all guilty of this. We're all experienced of this. And that's that's just where we are right now. We live in a culture where people don't just disagree about opinions anymore. We disagree about reality itself. It used to be that we'd see something, know it was factual and real. And then we'd all form our own opinions. And that's not the case anymore. The the other side will just immediately say, Hey, that that proves everything I've been saying. Or that's up the other side may say that that's a fake altogether. One side will see a headline and say, See, I told you they were evil. And the other side's just gonna Well, that's just misinformation. Somewhere in the middle here, the the truth is just getting buried under clicks and anger and entertainment and politics. And if we're honest, AI didn't invent lying. AI didn't invent propaganda. AI didn't invent deception. The human heart was already very good at that. We've been doing all these things for a long, long time. The internet and AI is just helping us spread it and helping it grow faster. All AI has done in this case is give deception a better microphone, a better camera, better editing software, and a faster way for news to travel around the world. Technology can fake the image, but sin loves the lie. That's the deeper problem here. And Christians, we need to be very, very careful because far too often we only get upset about misinformation that the other side is spreading. If our side shares something false, we call it a joke. If their side shares something false, we call it dangerous. And this is true of both sides. If our side uses a fake image, we say relax, it's just satire. But if their side uses a fake image, this is destroying democracy. We're all guilty of this. If a lie helps our argument, sometimes we're tempted to look the other way. But the Bible doesn't give us that option. You shall not bear false witness does not come with a political exception. It does not say do not bear false witness unless the meme is funny. It does not say do not bear false witness unless the other side deserves it. And it does not say do not bear false witness unless it helps your candidate. A lie is still a lie, even if it attacks someone you don't like. And this is where Christians have to be different. This is where we're called to be different. We should not be the people who share first and verify later. We should not be the people who say, well, even if it's not technically true, it represents a bigger truth. No, that's not what we're called to do. That's not that's that's how people justify dishonesty. If it's not true, don't share it as the truth. If it's edited, say it's edited. If it's satire, label it as satire. If you don't know whether something is real and true, stop acting like you do. Because when Christians spread falsehood, we don't just damage the politics. We damage our witness and our ability to help convert others. How are we going to tell the world that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life if we're careless with the truth online? How are we going to preach the truth on Sunday and then spread lies on Monday because it makes our political enemies look bad? This can't be who we are, and it's not who we're called to be. Let me be clear. I absolutely believe the media bias is real and I believe it is detrimental to our nation. I believe institutions have completely lost our trust and in many cases I believe they have earned that distrust. I believe powerful people and I believe people all over the world are manipulating information. I believe politicians are lying to us. I believe major news outlets are framing stories to protect their side and punish the other. I believe all this is true. The answer to dishonest institutions, though, is not to become dishonest ourselves. The answer to propaganda is not to counter propaganda. The answer to lies is and always will be the truth. The truth still matters. It matters in elections, it matters in schools, it matters in churches, it matters in families, and it matters in your marriages. Matters in your business, but more than all that, the truth matters in your soul. Because once truth becomes optional, Trust becomes impossible. And once trust becomes impossible, everything else starts to fall apart. You cannot have a healthy marriage where the truth doesn't matter. You cannot have a healthy church where the truth doesn't matter. You cannot have a healthy nation where the truth doesn't matter. And you cannot have a healthy soul where the truth doesn't matter. So here's the challenge today. Before you repost it, ask, is it true? Before you laugh at it, ask. Is it fair? Before you weaponize it, ask, would I be okay if someone did this to me? And before you call it a fake, ask yourself, do I know that it's fake or do I just not like what it says? Before you call yourself a truth teller, ask yourself, do I love truth when it corrects me or only when it helps me win? That's the real test. Any anybody can love the truth when the truth is convenient. Anybody can love the truth when it embarrasses the other side. Anybody can love the truth when it supports their very personal argument. But as followers of Christ, we are called to love the truth because God is truth. So today, don't let the algorithm disciple you. Don't let outrage train you. Don't let politics decide your honesty. Don't let fake images, fake videos, or fake stories, or fake initiatives turn you into a fake person. Be a person of truth, not convenient truth, not partisan truth, but Not truth when it helps your side, truth because God is truth. The world is about to get a whole lot louder, faker, faster, and far more manipulative. But as people of God and as children of Christ, we should not be easily manipulated. We should be slow to speak, slow to share, slow to outrage, and quick to see what's actually true. Because a lie may help you win in the moment, but the truth is what sets you free. Before we leave here today, I want I want to challenge you with three questions. Where have I been demanding answers instead of offering trust? Where have I confused certainty with wisdom? And when was the last time I simply stood in awe of our awesome and mighty God? Maybe today isn't about finding another argument to win. Maybe today is about recovering a heart that still marvels at the greatness of our God. When we lose our sense of wonder, We often start to shrink God down to the size of our own understanding. Don't do that. Leave room for mystery. Leave room for awe. Leave room for a God whose ways are higher than ours. And remember this you don't have to understand everything to trust the one who does. As always, guys, remember, get in your Bible, say your prayers, love one another, and tell the truth. God bless.