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SA Ep105 - I'll Believe It When I See It... · Seeking Approval Podcast

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Seeking Approval Podcast.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just faster from Helix Methodist Church.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, life moves fast.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: And faith is not meant to be rushed.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: I want to take some time and slow down with you and have some honest conversations from the Word of God about daily life.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: So join me here today on Seeking Approval.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: There's scams, deep fakes, deception all across the world, and seeing is no longer believing.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: And used to, you could make a phone call, hear a voice of someone, and know that you were talking to the person that you intended to talk to.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: But that doesn't quite work anymore.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Today we've have things that are happening that have never happened before because today you can see things and you can even hear things.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not actually what you saw.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: We all know right now, with uh I guess the um AI pictures, uh that's that's become pretty commonplace.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Videos used to you could tell an AI video when you saw it, it was completely fake looking.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now AI videos are unbelievably uh real looking.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it's getting to where now you can't see the difference anymore.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: But now it's going even further.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now there's fake well, not just now, but it's been there for a while, but it's becoming more popular and harder to figure.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: There's the fake social media accounts, there's the fake investment firms, there's the fake romantic relationship, there's now fake phone calls and they're using voices of people that you know.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: You may get a phone call from me hearing my voice, calling you.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And those things have become incredibly difficult to navigate through.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And especially in our elder population, they are but they have become the ones who are under the deepest attack.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll we'll look at more of that in in just a little bit.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: But how do we handle this?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Do we just get angry?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Do we do we cut the world off?
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: No, we can't do that.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: We have to live in this world.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: At some point, we've got to, as as as we say, or as I've said here many times, sometimes not sometimes, but we have got to break our holy huddle.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we we've all kind of huddled up together to protect ourselves.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: We've got to break out of that and and go be part of the world.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's like the boat that's in the water.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: The boat is in the water, but the water's not in the boat.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: We are in the world, but the world should not be in us.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe instead of saying, you know, I'll believe it when I see it, or I'll believe it when I hear it, maybe we should say something, I'll believe it once I verify it.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And we can verify things according to Scripture.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 14, 15 says, the simple believeth every word, but the prudent man looketh well to his going.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: So we should always search things out, like the Bereans did in the New Testament.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: But being a Christian doesn't mean that we need to believe everybody and just give blindly.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: We confuse compassion with gullibility.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: We want to think well of people, and we should.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: We should try to see the good in everybody, and it's a good thing to do, but how do we do that biblically?
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to look at a person standing on the street corner and automatically think you're a liar, and automatically think you're a liar.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now, homelessness is a problem, and and I'm going somewhere with this when homelessness is a problem, but what is also a problem are the fakes in homelessness.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this goes far beyond just AI.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: This goes to the actual people you see standing at a red light.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: HUD last year counted in one single night in January of 2025, in one single night, counted 745,000, 652 homeless people that night.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: That included about 266,000 people who were just unsheltered, living in a tent or or some uh movable home like that.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Those are real people with real needs.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: There is a real issue out there.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I know the first question that we then ask is, well, how'd they get there?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: They got there because they're they're spending all their money on drugs or alcohol and other.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot who are there for that reason, but that's still a problem.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Drugs is still a problem, alcohol is still a problem, homelessness is still a problem.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: There are some people who are just they they got caught in a bad situation.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: They, you know, they don't have a uh what we would call a career type job.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have a job where they report to the office, they've got the 401k and you know, the vision dental and and medical insurance included with their their job.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: They they they they had a job where they were, you know, they were working the grocery aisle, they were uh working with their hands, digging the ditch, the the company fell through, they they couldn't find another job.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Their skill set that they have is not one that where their jobs are readily available.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And the them and their family, you know, they they were living paycheck to paycheck or or behind.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: They their their rent came due, they couldn't pay it for a couple months, and next thing you know, they're they're out on the street.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Those things happen.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: So not everybody who out there is in that because they have put themselves there.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: But it is a large portion of them.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what makes it hard.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: When do we begin to see the difference?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And how should we look at this from a Christian's point of view?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: You pull up to the red light, you see someone holding a sign, homeless veteran, hungry veteran, anything helps.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: What do you do?
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Do you roll down your window and give them the dollars?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Do you do you do you run back to the store and buy them food?
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Do you ignore them?
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Do you do you roll the window up?
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Do you act like you don't see them?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Do you start asking questions?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: What if they really are hungry?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: What if they really need food?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: What if they're just part of this other scam that's going on out there?
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: What if they're just wanting to buy drugs?
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: You don't know.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: How do you how do you navigate this as a Christian?
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: You pull away from the red light and you feel that you have let God down because you you didn't take care of those because the Bible tells us to be good to those, to be good to all men.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: When possible, be good to all men.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: But Matthew 10, 16 also says, be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves, wise as serpents.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that evil?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: No, serpents are they are smart.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: They are they are cunning.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: They are they they understand the the world around them because in the nature of which they move and the nature in which they try to see things, and they can't hear, they don't have ears to hear.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: So they have to be very wise in where they're going, what they're doing.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: You don't see snakes making many mistakes.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Very rare do you see it.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that is that's what you know what that verse is telling us is don't be so gullible that we make mistakes.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a balance there.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: We don't need to lose the dove side of us that is that is harmless, but we don't want to become such a serpent that we become hard and cruel.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: We don't need to assume that everybody deserves exactly what happened to them, but then we also don't want to give every time we pull up.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: In Proverbs 14, 15, we go back to simple believe everywhere, but the prudent man looketh well to his going.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Christian generosity is real, but Christian prudence is also real.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: There are there are frauds out there, and that's what makes it uh very difficult.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: The FBI, uh, the the FTC, they all recommend going through charities instead of just going to the red light.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: So if it really bothers you that much, a way to kind of circumvent that for yourself is to go to the charity that helps instead of that that individual that helps.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, going to like in our local area, CARM, uh the rescue mission, they help.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there's there's other organizations and charities around uh the the Red Cross and some of those that that really do help.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: It would be better to go that direction, but even at that, now there's there's charities that have been fraudulently made that are taking money from people.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: In Los Angeles, for example, they prosecuted uh homeless nonprofit organizations for taking and misappropriating or misusing nearly eight million dollars in charitable giving.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Just in our local area of Knoxville, where we're at, there's there's what you might call organizations, where people who, whether homeless or not, their job becomes standing on the street corner, acting as if they're homeless.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: They may be homeless, they may not be homeless, but they act as if they're homeless.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: They hold the sign, they bring the money in, they take the money, they take it back to the organization, and the organization then pays them, whether through money they brought in, whether through the drugs or the alcohol or other unsavory means in which people are paid, and that's how they're paid.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: That becomes their job.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Just as you report to work, you clock in, you you work in your cubicle, or or you, you know, run the uh skid steer or drive the truck or teach the class or whatever it is that you do, they report to a certain corner, and that's where they stand all day.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: We've we've seen uh with with my own eyes, uh there's there's a certain area in in Knoxville where it's really bad.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I saw a lady one day, she was on the corner, she had uh the crutches there, and I'd went past her a couple times.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: I was going you know, in and out, getting material for a job.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so I went out two or three times that day, and she was there all day long.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: And she had the crutches, and you know, she was you know, a place where she could kind of sit down on this.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it wasn't a bench, but it was a thing that she could kind of sit down on.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, she was sitting very uncomfortably.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: She would stand and kind of prop up on the crutches.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I seen her going in and out that day.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: She was a younger lady, and you know, that that that got me.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I felt I felt bad.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Just so happens that evening as I'm going out.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: I guess it was time for her to clock out.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: And she takes the crutches out from under her arm.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: There was a it was a Mustang that that pulled up around the intersection there on the other side.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: She takes her crutches out from under arms, walks over, tosses the crutches in the back seat, gets in the Mustang, and it pulls off.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And and I know what I know how you feel whenever you wonder what I should do.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: I pulled up to another red light, a homeless man sitting there.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: He had a to-go box, one of those white styrofoam to-go boxes, on his lap.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: He was sitting on the guardrail, and on his sign, on one side of the sign, I could see it after I had turned.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it said, you know, something like hungry knee food.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: But on the side that he was holding up, that side of the sign, all it said was, need a beer for my food.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody gave him food.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: He had to sign prepared, he flipped it around, and he was asking for a beer to go with his food.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, what do you what do you do in these situations?
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: We we we got to be prudent, is one thing we've got to do.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: So this this world in which we live in now, we can't believe everything that we need to see, that we see.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: We can't believe everything that we need to hear.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: In Acts chapter 3, verse number 6, Peter tells the man who is the lame man, he says, Silver and gold have a none, but such as I have give out of thee.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Peter didn't actually give what the man expected.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: So one thing that we can always give is we can always give them Christ.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: We can always witness to them.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's gonna that's gonna help them more than than the dollars.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, the dollars will offer them immediate help, but Christ will help them more than anything.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: So there are ways then we can do this.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: We can give to the to the local charitable organizations that you have researched and and you can see what they're doing with the money and how much is going to the people who run the organization versus the people who are in need uh of the organization.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: There are some that are out there, I don't want to name names, but there are some organizations out there who have a who have a big name and what sounds like a good name, but then when you start looking into them, a large percentage of the donations go to the people who are running the organization instead of to the people who are in need in the organization.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: But we can always give them prayer, we can always offer them Christ.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: Those are some things that we can always do.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: But then you ask, you know, well, what if I what if I get fooled?
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well the in Proverbs it tells us in chapter 19, he that hath pity on the poor lendeth unto the Lord.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: So getting fooled is a is probably a bad way to look at it.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: You you you hand the money out the window, and you know, what you're doing, you're giving in in the in the name or in the essence of the Lord.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: You're trying to help.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what if they take that money and they go buy drugs, they go by alcohol?
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: That that's like me buying their drugs or alcohol.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's not what it's like.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: What you are doing is trying to help someone with the heart and and the the the charitable giving that you are giving to someone who in all rights seemed poor or in need.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: So you once you do that, you can't worry about what they're gonna do with it.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's that's not your concern.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Once you have made the decision that I'm gonna help this person, you can no longer worry about that.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Let me give you a different scenario because I had this told to me one time.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: I had this, I have I was told one time that because I drive a Ford, that I I am supporting the uh uh the uh gays, lesbians, the LGBTQ, uh whatever community, that I'm supporting the Nazi community because I buy Ford vehicles.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: I buy Ford vehicles because that's what I've always driven, and I know how to to you know use the the instrument panels on the inside and all the things that come with it.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I know a gentleman who works on all Fords, whether they're old or new.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I've got I know somebody who works on them.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: I drive them because that's the ones I've always driven.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, not because I want to give to those communities.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: But they said because you do that, you know you're giving to them.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's that's not what I'm doing.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not wanting to support that because all car companies are doing uh unsavory things with their money.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Grocery stores are the same way.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: If you shop at Kroger's, you're giving your money to the LGBTQ community because they they heavily support that.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it says it on their website.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: That one you can actually go research out.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: So then what do you do?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let me let me offer you this way.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say that somebody has, it's not an organization, not something you can research.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say that you uh find a car, you're you're buying a new vehicle for yourself, or your you know, your kid just turned 16, and they there's somebody that's got one for sale on the side of the road, you know,$5,000 for this car, you know, low mileage, whatever.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: So you you pull up and you're like, man, here, here's$5,000.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'll take this car.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's exactly what we're looking for.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: You drive off, you're happy, you got your car, they got their money, but they turn around, they take that money and they blow it on drugs, alcohol, or some type of riotous living.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: They use that money for, you know, uh ill-conceived uh uh uh gains of of other uh means.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: So then do you now take the responsibility of lending to their uh sinful life because you bought the car that they were trying to sell because you didn't go in and ask the people, now what are you going to do with the money whenever I buy this car from you?
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like at what point, you know, you see what I'm saying?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: At what point does the does the responsibility fall from off of you?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's where Proverbs 19, 17 comes in.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: He that had pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: You were they had a they had something they didn't need that they were selling, you needed that vehicle, or you pulled up to the red light, and it really burdened on your heart that I want to help these people out and you give the money.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Once you're doing this in good faith, and you're you're giving to the Lord, as they're saying, you're giving unto the Lord, once you're doing that in good faith, that burden falls from you.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: So there's getting fooled, that that's not really a concern in my book.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Galatians 6.10 says, and as we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are trying to do good, if you are trying to honor God's word, in in the verses that we're told to be good to those, to help the poor, to help the needy, to give to the homeless, and to help the orphans, and to help the widows, and and next thing you know, your money is going to you know some counterfeit organization.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the first thing you do is you stop giving the money to that.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then the next thing you have to do is to know that you gave it faithfully.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: And that it's not that you got fooled, it's that you had a heart that you wanted to help.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: And what people do, what these scammers will do, whether it's the phone call.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: I was working on a lady's house one time and she got a she got a phone call.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: It was her and her son, her her husband had just recently passed away with a heart attack, and that's why I was there, you know, redoing a lot of the house and you know, trying to make it uh, you know, where it, you know, he was a young man too.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: He was in his 50s whenever he passed away with a heart attack.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so she wanted to kind of redo things to where you know sh she just didn't see the same thing that they used to see.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: So we were painting rooms and redoing outside and all this stuff.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so one day uh her son, who was at the time he was, you know, 13, 14 years old, he comes out of the house and he's just like he's just crying uncontrollably.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: And she shortly follows thereafter, and you know, she's just in a panic, she don't know what she's you know gonna do.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: And she's she's got the phone and she's like, I don't know what I'm gonna do, I don't want to do it.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well what what's happening?
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'd known the lady for a while, so she trusted me.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: I just wasn't a stranger.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: She trusted me and and uh I said, well what what's going on?
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: She said they're on the phone, they said I missed my uh my my uh jury duty, and that if if I don't you know pay this money that the police are coming, and I mean they had all they had all of her information, and I mean it sounded, you know, if you didn't know, it sounded really good.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: And this was before AI stuff.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: This was quite a few years ago, this is probably 15, 20 years ago.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Do you care if I talk to him on the phone?
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: She said, No, she handed me the phone.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so I started talking to him, and uh I could tell the person had a little bit of an accent that they were trying to disguise.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: So that was my first thing.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like, okay, well, maybe that's not automatic, but it's okay.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this doesn't sound like somebody calling you from what they said the Severe County Courthouse and Judge Rader's office, and just so happened I I I know who Judge Rader is.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: His wife was one of my teachers when I was in school.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's a well-known family in the county, and we've actually worked on their house before.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, hmm, okay.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Judge Rader doesn't do he doesn't have uh jury cases.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, first off, you didn't miss jury duty with Judge Rader.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: So then it was a couple things that kind of gave it away just by knowing some things in the area.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so as I'm talking on the phone, then I start I start talking back to them about, you know, well, we're gonna get the money.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what I'll do for you.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna send it through, you know, my uncle who works for the Severe County uh police or Severeville Police Department.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: And oh no, no, no, you can't, you we we're not gonna do that.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: You you need to say you need to wire this money to us directly right now.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: And no, I'll make sure that my uncle, because my uncle at the time he did work for the Severeville Police Department.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, then they started backtracking.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: And all this, all it was was just a scam.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: So what I what I'm leading into is that scammers, they're not gonna attack your intelligence, they're going to attack your emotions.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: They called this lady whose husband had just passed away.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: And they knew that.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that was part of their, that was part of their their selling point was that, you know, well, we know your husband has passed away and things were, you know, were you were, you know, kind of upside down, but you missed this and you have to pay us, you know, X amount of dollars, or we're gonna send the police down.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they they knew these things about her.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: They were playing upon her emotions.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where they will, they will use this a lot of times with the elderly, the elder population, but it could be single mothers, it could be stay-at-home moms who are home you know, by theirself and they want to catch you in that moment.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: They don't they're not gonna be in it for the long play.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna catch you in that moment.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: They'll use fear, they'll use urgency, they'll use love, loneliness, greed, compassion, they'll use any one of those things to to pressure you.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: And if you ever start feeling that pressure, you you that should be a that should be a question right off the bat.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: So when in those situations, the best thing you can do is again go back to what the Bible says is to not make hasty decisions.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: When when you feel those uh you know that sense of emergency, slow down for a second.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Ask the questions.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 18 7 says, He that is first in his own cause seems just, but his neighbor cometh and then you search him out.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, what what that what that proverb is what that proverb is saying is that you know, when somebody calls, like in this situation, and they say, Okay, you've missed the jury the the the court date, the jury duty, you must pay.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden that's my situation, and I've got to fix it, I've got to hurry, I don't know what's gonna happen.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna come and take my son, I'm gonna be in jail and all that.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: But if the neighbor calls you and says, Hey, uh, they're saying that I missed my jury duty and I don't know what to do, then you slow down, you're like, Well, that don't sound right.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: But when it's your situation, it's worse.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then it they want you they want you to make those quick, hasty decisions.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: When the Bible says slow down.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: So what we as Christians, I'm I'm way past my 20 minutes, as Christians in this world of the deep fakes, scams, AI, uh, AI voice, AI pictures, AI videos, we have to become more cautious.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: We have to make sure that we are keeping ourselves in good company.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: He that walk with wise men shall be wise.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: Two are better than one.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: That becomes difficult if you are a you know a single mom or or a widow or whatever.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Those things do become difficult, but we can still keep a wise counsel around us.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: Have someone to call first.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: If somebody calls wanting money from you, call let me call so-and-so first.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know that but we do have to be cautious.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: We we do have to take extra precaution around the deception and the deep fakes that are out there in the world today.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: And and it it is it is difficult, I understand, because there are some of us who have a a great compassion to want to help people.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: And we also are are stuck in this world of social media.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: We're stuck in this world where we're moving faster phone calls and you know, doing everything on the internet now.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: But what I would say that in the world we live in today, seeing is no longer believing, hearing is no longer believing.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: And as a Christian, how do we live in a world where there is so much fake around us?
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right here, go back to the pillar and the ground of truth.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, preacher, they don't help me whenever they call and say I've missed my jury duty.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: No, but it tells us to slow down, don't make hasty decisions, ask questions, research.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us that.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: It just said search the thing out.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: Search it out.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: And if you if you go back to what the Bible says in the time that we live, we can live in a world, our boat can be in the water of AI and all the other technology that's out there, and we can still navigate through it.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's more difficult, but we can still navigate through it and and not feel like we are neglecting, but also not feel like we're constantly getting fooled.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you can make it through this day relying on God's word.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us today on Seeking Approval.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, our faith oftentimes grows in quiet places.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: I hope today's conversation gave you something worth carrying throughout the rest of this day.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: And join me, Dr.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Chris Smelser, again next time as we continue thinking, learning, and walking together until this grace and peace to you from seeking approval and healing the past truth.