Latest / Beliefs, Ballots, And BullDawgs / Friday June 26, 2026
Transcript
- Greg: Hey, good morning, friends. It's Friday, June 26th. This is the podcast, Beliefs, Ballots, and Bulldogs. And I'm your host, Greg Miller. Still on the men from a ⁓ separated and fractured shoulder, ⁓ trying to be competitive at an age in life where I should no longer try to be competitive. Lesson learned, pick up the pieces and we move on. The the theme of the day, the question we want to ask ourselves is: what is following Jesus costing you? The ⁓ the Gospel of Mark, chapter eight. Verses thirty four through thirty eight, and this is this is a passage we are all probably familiar with. Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me, for whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul? Or what can you anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes into the Father's glory with the holy angels. What is following Jesus costing you? If following Jesus isn't costing you anything, then I think we honestly have to ask ourselves are we really following him at all? Jesus made it a point, and the Bible is full of this, that he told his disciples that. That he was going to suffer and die, ⁓ even to the point where Peter rebuked him because that is that is not what they expected of the Messiah at that time. They expected him to come in and be a conquering king, not a sacrificial king. But Jesus turns to the crowd and says something that I find remarkable. He says, if anyone would come after me, and notice what he doesn't say. He doesn't begin with blessings, he doesn't begin with all the good things you're going to get, he begins with the commitment. Verse 34 says, deny yourself. And this is probably one of the least understood commandments in Christianity. Self-denial isn't meant to be some sort of self-hatred. It isn't believing you're worthless. It's choosing to place God's will above your own desires. Our culture these days says, follow your heart. We all hear it. Jesus says, follow him. And those are not always going to be the same path. Christianity, and this is very Powerful to process this in today's society with what we're taught in the world around us. Christianity doesn't begin with self-expression, it begins with self-surrender. Jesus says the phrase, take up your cross. And ⁓ Jesus wasn't talking about this kind of cross, the jewelry cross that a lot of us wear to profess our faith. It wasn't a decoration, it was an instrument of execution. When when Jesus told his disciples and when he told the crowd, take up your cross, he was saying to them, in essence, be willing to follow me, even when it's difficult. Not just when it's popular, not just when it's comfortable, because that's not that's not sacrifice. Even when it's difficult. You know, as a as a follower of Christ, any of us and all of us will or have experienced, you know, it may cost you some popularity, it may cost you some approval, it will certainly cost you some. comfort and convenience. And, you know, in this day and age, it it may cost you some opportunities. It's just a fact. The question we have to ask ourselves, and to me this is the simplest question of all, is it worth it? Are those sacrifices we're called to make, is it worth it? We go on to verse 35 and and and Jesus tells us, whoever wants to save his life, think about this. This is one of the the great paradoxes in the gospel because he's basically saying give up your life to save your life. The world tells us protect yourself, build your kingdom, take care of yourself first. Gospel of Mark, Jesus is telling us the life spent only preserving itself eventually becomes empty. Life poured into the service of God and in honor of the gospel discovers its deepest purpose. The safest life and the most secure life isn't always the fullest life. We get into verses thirty-six and thirty-seven and and it and it opens up a question for us to ponder. And it it's what good is it to gain the whole world and lose your soul? Now it it's I don't believe this is just talking about heaven. This this is talking about kind of across the board generational. This is talking about priorities. You can you can accumulate wealth while becoming spiritually bankrupt. You can build a Bold level of influence, but be completely neglecting your own character. You can win arguments, but lose your ability to witness. Success is a terrible bargain if it costs you the person God created you to be. And that is something I think we all need to wrestle with. If you have to sacrifice who God is calling you to be in order to fit in, stand out, get recognized, it's probably not where you're supposed to be. Verse 38 talks about the the courage to stand. And Jesus ends it with a challenge saying, Don't be ashamed of me. And this doesn't necessarily mean, you know, you have to stand on the street phone street corner with a megaphone or a big billboard sign professing your faith. It just means living your faith openly and honestly and truly, even when the culture doesn't support it or even tells you to keep it quiet. There have there have always been moments where following Christ will require and has required courage. That 100% remains true today. You know, again, society asks us every day to frame things from a standpoint of what's easiest, what's most profitable, what's the most popular. And Jesus asks us a different question. What's true? What's faithful? What's eternal? And that's why to me, this this passage is it just feels so relevant to what we're dealing with ⁓ in today's world. You know, it's Following Jesus isn't about adding him to your life. It's about putting him at the center of your life. ⁓ one of my pastors from Church of the Highlands just set it up in such a profound manner. And it hit me really hard when I heard it, and I and I've wrestled with this, you know, since I heard him utter these words. And he simply said, and and it takes a minute to process this, but if you profess to be a Christian and you say you follow Jesus, Jesus is either Lord or Of it all or not at all. And there cannot be an in-between. The the cross in this case is is a is a reminder because Jesus specifically says, take up your cross. He's not sugarcoating it. He's not trying to, you know, say, well, it may or may not be that bad. No, the cross back in the day was one of the absolute worst symbols you anyone would recognize. ⁓ and he's saying, Hey, if you're going to choose to follow me, take up your cross and let's go. You know, every day we're we're making decisions about what we're willing to sacrifice for him. But the real question is, why? What what are we willing to sacrifice it for? What are we hoping to get? Character is built when conviction costs you something. And I think that's important to remember. If if it's easy, you may not be doing it right. 71 days, folks. 71 days until Georgia football. We're going in both directions today. We've done some historical players and we've done some current future players. And today we're going to hit both because I feel obligated to, and I'll explain why. Number 71, when I was in college, was an offensive lineman named George Foster. George was, you know, I I told you the story about me and Jonas Jennings. George and I weren't as as chummy as me and Jonas were, but George and I lived in the same apartment complex for a year or so and crossed paths pretty regularly. And he was he was always a pleasant guy. Never really thought much of it until I landed here in Forsyth, Georgia. And let's just say from time to time I run into George Foster's dad, Big George. Big George loves talking. I love talking to Big George. So this was a shout out to to Big George and Little George. And little George was monster, about six four, three forty. So it's hard to call him Little George, but George Foster, number seventy one. ⁓ it was cool hanging around on campus with him, cool living in the same apartment complex with him. And Now that I get to talk to his dad on the regular, I can tell you the the foster family's legit, good people. Current player on the roster, and this is someone I think we're gonna hear his name some this year is is number 71 offensive lineman Ernest Green. ⁓ he's a red shirt senior, feels like he's been in the program forever. Like I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. It would, it would feel like he has been a bit of a bust at this point compared to his recruiting rankings and what the expectations were. Kid just hadn't been able to stay healthy, hadn't been able to stay on the field and and and really get into any sort of rhythm or repetition with getting getting meaningful snaps. But, you know, Red Circ Senior, though, this is the end of the road for Big Ernest and and he absolutely has NFL potential. And I I look for if if Ernest Green can stay healthy this year, I would look for him to be a fixture on that offensive line, a fixture in that top five rotation. And hey, I'm, you know, I'm I'm pulling for him. Obviously, I want I want him to be successful so the team is successful, but I mean guys hadn't transferred in in this day and age of college football where when any type of adversity hits, people just pick up and leave. Ernest Green came in as a as a high recruit. It hadn't panned out the way people thought, but he stuck it around, kept his head down, putting in the work. And let's hope Big Ernest has a ⁓ a fantastic red shirt senior season and goes on to get drafted and making millions of dollars in the NFL. We are ⁓ we're gonna talk a little bit about something today that if any of you who follow me probably will will have a pretty good idea which way I lean on this particular topic. But ⁓ we're gonna we're gonna talk about as it applies to the Second Amendment, but we're gonna talk about it from a biblical angle of of rights, responsibility, and the danger of living armed but angry. The ⁓ the Supreme Court right now is in session and and you know we're expecting rulings to to be coming out and One of them came out is another major gun rights decision. And, you know, depending on where you sit politically, you you may see this as a victory for liberty or as a threat to public safety. But today I don't want to argue the the the right and wrong of the amendment or of the right to bear arms. Today we want to ask a different question. And I want to frame it from the standpoint of are we raising citizens who can handle these rights with appropriate responsibility? You know, the any Second Amendment conversation usually gets boiled down or reduced down to one side says guns saves lives and the other side's guns are always the problem. The Christian conversation really should be something different, in my opinion. And it's while we're having these arguments about whether guns are good or guns are bad or whether we should be able to have them or we shouldn't be able to have them, I think what we should really be asking is what kind of people are we becoming while we're arguing about these rights? ⁓ my f one of my favorite books, the book of Proverbs, chapter sixteen, verse thirty two says, Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than who takes a city. The scripture's not asking you, do you have the power? The scripture's asking you, do you have self control? And that's crucial because if we're going to allow people to have the power, we need to have trust in them to have some self control. Break down our three points of the day, and this is what we always do on these topics. You know, first point: the right to defend yourself is real, no doubt. ⁓ A biblical worldview does not require passivity in the face of evil. Protecting your family is not unchristian. Protecting yourself is not unchristian. Wanting lawful self-defense is in no way immoral. But point number two, fear. cannot become our operating system. If if we're walking around armed and loaded and every stranger looks like a threat and every disagreement feels like a battle and every public place feels like a war zone, well, something's gone wrong in our soul. Now I will admit I carry not as regularly as I would like, but I from time to time I just get a feeling and and I'll tuck one in when I'm, you know, going to a store, going out in public. And it is a different feeling of safety, but I'm in no way looking for anything. Three, rights require virtue. Freedom only works when people help self control. A nation full of angry, impulsive, and isolated people cannot be safe merely by making laws. If you look at some of the worst statistical gun violence and gun crime stats in our nation, they are in fact in the places with the absolute most and highest forms of gun control. Look at Chicago, Illinois. Point made. They shoot each other every weekend and nobody's even allowed to have a gun in the city. Hmm. It's almost like criminals don't worry about the laws. ⁓ weird topic. I believe law-abiding citizens have every right to protect themselves. But I also believe a society cannot survive if everybody's armed, angry, addicted, fatherless, isolated, and in most cases spiritually empty. The answer isn't more or better laws. The answer is better people. The the gun debate is simply downstream from what we're experiencing, which is an absolute character crisis. We have Broken homes, collapsing trust, lonely young men all over the place, untreated anger issues, a spiritual vacuum, and a culture that absolutely glorifies violence. And then we act shocked when rights without restraint become dangerous. So in in summarizing on my topic, on this, my thoughts on this topic, yes, defend liberty, yes, protect your family, yes, be serious about defending and fighting against evil in this world. But do not confuse being armed or having the right to be armed with being strong. The Bible says the man who re rules his spirit is mightier than the man who takes a city. America doesn't need citizens. Rights, we need citizens with restraint. As we get ready to close it out for the day and for the week, we we ask ourselves, we get back to the gospel of Mark, and we ask ourselves, what am I chasing and what is it costing me? And then the ultimate question for me and the one that I wrestle with would the people closest to me know that I'm following Jesus just by the way I live? I sure hope so. As always, guys, I hope y'all have a blessed weekend. If you're still hanging on and listening to this, like, share, subscribe, do something to help me spread this word. I've had a few people comment, a few people have have let me know that that they're paying attention and and it's helpful. So sorry y'all are stuck with me now. I'm gonna keep going on that. If if if I'm helping even one person or if even one person finds this in any way beneficial, I'll continue to get up and do it every day. As always, guys, get in your Bibles, say your prayers, love one another, and tell the truth. God bless.