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Do I Have a Counterfeit Faith? · B1 Podcast

• 0:01
  Mark: Welcome back to the B1 podcast.
• 0:03
  Mark: My name is Mark.
• 0:04
  Mark: And I'm Blake.
• 0:04
  Mark: It's great to have you here wherever you're at in the world.
• 0:07
  Mark: Thanks for joining us, please.
• 0:08
  Mark: Come on.
• 0:09
  Mark: Thank you.
• 0:10
  Mark: And before we get started today, if you're enjoying this content, we would love for you to like, subscribe, leave a review, but only if it's a good positive review.
• 0:18
  Mark: Just kidding.
• 0:18
  Mark: You can leave the bad ones too.
• 0:20
  Mark: I'm on whatever platform you are consuming this content.
• 0:24
  Mark: We would much appreciate that.
• 0:26
  Blake: I walked in today and I was like so excited because our team bought these, like these B1 podcast little things that go on the microphone.
• 0:34
  Blake: I mean, does that not say we are bona fide?
• 0:36
  Blake: It's amazing.
• 0:38
  Mark: We have arrived.
• 0:38
  Mark: Joe Rogan in here.
• 0:40
  Mark: Yeah, doing it.
• 0:40
  Mark: We're pretty much Joe Rogan.
• 0:43
  Blake: I I couldn't believe our team's been talking about how well this podcast is doing.
• 0:48
  Blake: Yeah.
• 0:48
  Blake: And so for all of you that are making that happen, it blows me away.
• 0:51
  Blake: It's like, yeah.
• 0:52
  Blake: What did you say, Chris?
• 0:53
  Blake: Like the top 20% of all podcasts in the world?
• 0:56
  Blake: Something like that?
• 0:57
  Blake: Yeah.
• 0:57
  Blake: So come Mark.
• 0:59
  Mark: Is it because of how good looking you are?
• 1:01
  Mark: I think so.
• 1:02
  Mark: There are also five billion podcasts in the world that we've got to be able to do.
• 1:05
  Mark: Yeah, there are a lot of podcasts, yeah.
• 1:07
  Mark: But but still we're doing some good.
• 1:10
  Mark: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:10
  Mark: It's great.
• 1:11
  Mark: Uh is uh just is there anything crazy that happened to you over the week?
• 1:15
  Mark: Over the week.
• 1:15
  Mark: Last week since we met last time.
• 1:18
  Blake: I have a house full of grandchildren.
• 1:20
  Blake: Okay.
• 1:20
  Blake: And so I have grandbabies everywhere, and they wake me up in the morning, and my house is a disaster, right?
• 1:26
  Blake: And they I'm Bam Bam is their favorite toy.
• 1:29
  Blake: Yeah.
• 1:29
  Blake: And so they swing on me last night.
• 1:31
  Blake: I was chasing them for hours all around the house.
• 1:33
  Blake: And um I'm a little concerned because I have a massage chair at my house, and they have taken free reign of this massage chair, and they push all the buttons, and this thing is like jacked all the way up and they're jumping on the legs.
• 1:45
  Blake: I'm like, this, it's definitely gonna break.
• 1:46
  Blake: And it's kind of an expensive, you know, and they're like in my weight room breaking the I mean my house is like a war zone right now, but I'm still having a I love being a bamboo.
• 1:57
  Mark: I wanna tell us about you woke up yesterday, what time, what was your wake-up call yesterday?
• 2:02
  Blake: Yeah, I mean, I hadn't slept very well, you know, because it was like, I don't know, my mind was going, and sometimes I wake up from like one to three and I'll just like pray and whatever, anyways.
• 2:11
  Blake: I I wasn't I hadn't had much sleep.
• 2:14
  Blake: I hadn't had my coffee, and I mean, not just kind of woke me up, full like jump in the air, pounce on me in my bed, right?
• 2:22
  Blake: And it was like 7 a.m.
• 2:24
  Blake: So, anyways, I just hadn't slept well, so I was kind of in a grumpy mood yesterday.
• 2:29
  Blake: What a blessing.
• 2:30
  Blake: Yeah, that's good, that's awesome.
• 2:32
  Blake: Yeah, so um this last week we talked about counterfeit spirituality, counterfeit savior, counterfeit religion.
• 2:41
  Blake: And we were talking about this, you know, is God your one true king?
• 2:45
  Blake: And I think what God cares about more than anything in the world is whether or not your heart is fully for him, right?
• 2:52
  Blake: And in today's world, I think it's important to go, are you the real deal?
• 2:57
  Blake: And I think everyb everybody and everywhere is asking that.
• 3:00
  Blake: What's real?
• 3:01
  Blake: What's real, right?
• 3:02
  Blake: Yeah.
• 3:02
  Blake: Is truth real?
• 3:04
  Blake: Right?
• 3:04
  Blake: Is that is the news you hear real?
• 3:07
  Blake: What's your source?
• 3:08
  Blake: Is the food we eat real?
• 3:09
  Blake: Is yeah, is that meat real where is that?
• 3:12
  Blake: Is that like a real From a printer.
• 3:14
  Blake: Yeah, is it that's right.
• 3:16
  Blake: Right.
• 3:16
  Blake: Uh or you know, the air we breathe.
• 3:19
  Blake: You know, is the clouds that we look at real, right?
• 3:21
  Blake: Is that is uh is that like something that's that's weird.
• 3:24
  Blake: Right.
• 3:24
  Blake: I know it's conspiratorial, but I also know that there's there's truth to like, you know, cloud seeding and all that.
• 3:32
  Blake: So it's like, is the water source we have good and what's in it and is it good for us?
• 3:38
  Blake: And that's why I put a whole house filter in my house to like my entire house of what when I take a shower, when I drink from, what we wash everything with.
• 3:46
  Blake: So I've just gotten real serious about like what what is real and what can we trust, who can we trust?
• 3:52
  Blake: And in talking about the one true king, it comes down to that very idea.
• 3:58
  Blake: Who is the one true king and who is sovereign?
• 4:01
  Blake: And so this last week part of what I talked about is if if it's not preaching the real Jesus and it's not the real gospel, then it's no gospel at all.
• 4:09
  Blake: Right?
• 4:10
  Blake: And it's it's fake.
• 4:11
  Blake: And so uh we went into some stuff about about that.
• 4:15
  Blake: We talked about all kinds of things in our lives that's counterfeit, which for you, which what's some things that's been counterfeit?
• 4:20
  Mark: Yeah, oh um uh you know I think about taking a trip up to New York one time and I bought uh some folklys, I would say fake oakley's uh this was twenty years ago um for like ten bucks.
• 4:35
  Mark: And they looked real and I didn't really realize until they broke.
• 4:38
  Mark: Um but I but um that's one thought.
• 4:42
  Blake: But I wasn't necessarily So you were walking around going, man, I paid ten bucks for it.
• 4:46
  Blake: Right.
• 4:46
  Mark: Well even after I found out they were fake, if I paid $300 for them, like I'd be a little ticked off, you know.
• 4:52
  Mark: But uh since it was just ten bucks, I wasn't it wasn't that bad.
• 4:55
  Mark: But you told the story this weekend about it.
• 4:58
  Blake: Yeah, I actually realized it beforehand.
• 5:00
  Blake: I was in Cambodia and this trying to buy some Bose speakers, and this guy wouldn't, you know.
• 5:04
  Blake: If I took it out of the box, he wanted me to buy it, and I was like, I I I'm not taking it out of the box, I'm not gonna buy this without listening to it.
• 5:10
  Blake: So then I listened to it, and it sounded like a really bad, horrible speaker.
• 5:13
  Blake: And I'm like, this is not a Bose, bro.
• 5:14
  Blake: And so I'm like, I'm not buying it.
• 5:16
  Blake: I start to walk out, and as I'm walking out, he's chasing me.
• 5:18
  Blake: He's like, No good for you, no good for you.
• 5:20
  Blake: And so that's something we say in our house all the time.
• 5:23
  Blake: It's like, no good for you.
• 5:24
  Blake: Yeah.
• 5:25
  Blake: So you've heard me say it a thousand times around here.
• 5:27
  Blake: So anyways, I I think it's so true though that we can be taken advantage of in all kinds of ways today, with things that you go, I but I saw it on Facebook.
• 5:38
  Blake: I saw it, you know, on YouTube.
• 5:40
  Blake: I I I saw it, and and so there's this statement we've said our whole life.
• 5:45
  Blake: I saw it with my own eyes.
• 5:47
  Blake: What happens, Mark, when seeing it doesn't mean you should believe it?
• 5:54
  Mark: Right.
• 5:54
  Mark: I mean, well, especially with AI, I know we've been able to do that.
• 5:56
  Mark: Come on, let's go there.
• 5:57
  Mark: Like we've um and I I use it all the time, you know, but I get sent reels on Instagram or Facebook, and it's like of a dog driving a tractor, and I'm like it I don't know, is I I question everything.
• 6:10
  Blake: Or babies, babies that are like jumping on trampolines and stuff like that.
• 6:13
  Blake: Yeah, or dancing, or you know, saying saying profound wit wise statements, little babies.
• 6:19
  Mark: It looks so real though.
• 6:20
  Blake: I'm like, that's insane.
• 6:22
  Blake: Yeah.
• 6:22
  Blake: You know, it's hard to tell now.
• 6:23
  Blake: But you know, it's it's a real issue.
• 6:27
  Blake: So like when politicians are extorted and made to look like they're with a woman and it's their voice, it's their face, right?
• 6:36
  Blake: Uh and it looks so real.
• 6:38
  Blake: It's like how you know, as a pastor, I'm on a public platform.
• 6:42
  Blake: I'm often like, what what happens when somebody takes my face, my voice, and uses it from my stage?
• 6:48
  Blake: Yeah.
• 6:48
  Blake: Right?
• 6:49
  Blake: And and it looks exactly like it came from my church, and they just make it AI and make me say something that's charged politically or something that, you know, is you know, uh uh something that's gonna make an outrageous statement and people are gonna be mad and angry and leave the church.
• 7:04
  Blake: And it's like, but I didn't say it.
• 7:06
  Blake: That's not real.
• 7:07
  Blake: Yeah.
• 7:07
  Blake: And and is have you ever thought about the fact that it's called a real R-E-E-L?
• 7:12
  Mark: Yeah.
• 7:12
  Blake: It's like it's a real, but it's real, but it's not real.
• 7:14
  Blake: You know?
• 7:15
  Blake: And so uh and so it's kind of like, man, uh all of these things that you look at today in today's world, you have to pay attention.
• 7:22
  Blake: Like you have to, and that's my that's my whole thing.
• 7:25
  Blake: Ever since 2020, like the with vaccines and you know, whether or not the pan the pandemic was real, like you know, what when you start quite like the narrative we've been told isn't real.
• 7:38
  Blake: Yeah, I think a lot of people's eyes have been like, God give me eyes to see and ears to hear, eyes to see, ears to hear.
• 7:44
  Mark: I mean, I started waking up to something, and I don't know I'm not saying I know all the answers, but I'm just what I my main thing I say all the time is I just have questions.
• 7:53
  Mark: Like that doesn't add up.
• 7:55
  Mark: You know, that doesn't make sense.
• 7:56
  Mark: Like you're telling me it happened this way, or this is what's happening right now, but that that doesn't make sense.
• 8:02
  Blake: Yeah, like you look at the pictures of the moon landing and you're like, I don't know.
• 8:05
  Blake: It looks like it's that that looks like aluminum foil, right?
• 8:08
  Blake: You know this we have questions.
• 8:12
  Blake: Yeah.
• 8:12
  Blake: And so I I think a lot of people have come to the conclusion of like, I think it you know it's wise in a in a world where Satan is the prince of the power of the air.
• 8:23
  Blake: Yeah, right.
• 8:23
  Blake: And so over the airwaves are where we're being duped over a television, right?
• 8:29
  Blake: We're being told things all the time that it, you know, a vision that's demonic vision.
• 8:34
  Blake: Yeah.
• 8:34
  Blake: And if we'll wake up to it and pay attention, then you go, oh man, I I didn't realize like how demonic uh uh watch an aerial mermaid and that that all these you know uh actual spells.
• 8:51
  Blake: Spells, there's chance, there's all you know, this was in a kid's movie.
• 8:55
  Blake: In a kid's movie, and you start looking at all the things of Disney, like, okay, yeah, so maybe the enemy really does have control of this world and has control over the powers at be and is giving us a counterfeit truth uh everywhere, right?
• 9:09
  Blake: And so uh if ever before, it's like you know, be alert, be sober-minded, be on guard, because the devil there's a roaring lion who wants to steal, kill, and destroy and devour.
• 9:20
  Blake: And so it's okay, okay, where is that, Lord?
• 9:22
  Blake: Show me, let me be hyper-aware.
• 9:24
  Blake: And so when you think about things in the Bible, biblical times when something is a counterfeit.
• 9:30
  Blake: Um, I I think of like uh Pharaoh, right, and his magicians.
• 9:35
  Blake: They could do stuff.
• 9:37
  Blake: Yeah, they had supernatural power.
• 9:40
  Blake: Right.
• 9:40
  Blake: Like they were they I mean, he threw down a snake made a s you know, snake out of a stick.
• 9:45
  Blake: Have you ever seen that, Mark?
• 9:47
  Mark: Yeah, never that.
• 9:48
  Blake: Never seen that, right?
• 9:48
  Blake: Well, m Moses does that supernaturally by the power of God.
• 9:52
  Blake: The magicians pulled that off.
• 9:54
  Blake: Right.
• 9:54
  Blake: Yeah.
• 9:54
  Mark: They did the same thing.
• 9:55
  Mark: Yeah.
• 9:56
  Mark: Right?
• 9:56
  Mark: And I don't fully understand that except for when I kind of frame it up of you know, you battle not with flesh and blood, but but with the principalities and powers of uh this dark world.
• 10:07
  Mark: That's right.
• 10:08
  Mark: There there is, I feel like growing up in church, we didn't really talk about weird stuff.
• 10:14
  Mark: If we didn't couldn't explain it, we didn't really talk about it, you know.
• 10:17
  Mark: But the I would have loved to get a little bit of a deep dive of like how did the how did they pull that off?
• 10:24
  Mark: The same trick or miracle that Moses did, how did they do it?
• 10:28
  Mark: Right.
• 10:28
  Mark: You know?
• 10:29
  Mark: And I don't know.
• 10:30
  Mark: But I mean I I'm I'm reading through uh or I was reading through Chronicles last week and came to a passage where God permits a lying spirit to deceive the wicked King Ahab of Israel so that he could go to a into a battle.
• 10:46
  Mark: But God permitted a lying spirit, and so a a spirit approached a human and lied to him and made him coerced him to do some things, you know.
• 10:55
  Mark: And so I believe scripture, you know, if it happened, you know, in 2 Chronicles, why wouldn't it happen today, you know?
• 11:02
  Blake: Yeah, and I think a lot of people aren't they they don't pay attention to the fact that there are demonic spirits that have still on planet Earth that are still deceiving, right?
• 11:12
  Blake: And they still have one job and that's to lie and deceive, right?
• 11:15
  Blake: But they'll say things that are even holy.
• 11:18
  Blake: Yeah.
• 11:18
  Blake: It's like when you preached on Acts 16, there's that girl that's going around and she's she's you know what she's yelling?
• 11:24
  Blake: Yeah, she's demon-possessed, she has powers, she's a fortune teller, right, and she's walking around going, These men, Paul and Silas, come in the name of the Lord most God, most high God, right?
• 11:34
  Blake: And and they're telling you the way to be saved.
• 11:38
  Blake: Yeah.
• 11:38
  Mark: A demon is saying that.
• 11:39
  Mark: Right.
• 11:40
  Mark: Announcing like Paul and Silas are preaching the gospel, and this demon-possessed girl is announcing why they're it she's their advertisement, you know?
• 11:48
  Blake: So my point is uh even a counterfeit spirit and a liar uh can say truth about the scriptures about Jesus with with a evil intent.
• 12:02
  Blake: Yeah.
• 12:02
  Blake: Yeah.
• 12:02
  Blake: Right?
• 12:03
  Blake: Um tr trying to discount these men, like this is what they're doing, even though she's telling the truth.
• 12:08
  Blake: Yeah.
• 12:08
  Blake: But it she's trying to say, hey, uh, I'm on the marketing team to destroy your reputation, and and she's telling the truth about them.
• 12:15
  Blake: So that's what's wild, is in today's world, when you say the truth, right, and you get up and speak the truth, even that isn't convincing enough to go, I uh I'm not gonna follow that, I'm not gonna subscribe to that, right?
• 12:29
  Blake: And so people blindly just you know continue to eat what we eat and drink what we drink.
• 12:34
  Blake: We hear all the things about what alcohol does to us, right?
• 12:36
  Blake: And we who cares, right?
• 12:38
  Blake: We laugh about the sh what sugar does.
• 12:40
  Mark: Right.
• 12:40
  Mark: But I mean, even alcohol, I mean I think you said it before.
• 12:43
  Mark: What what's the the sign on the outside of the store say?
• 12:46
  Mark: Wine and spirits.
• 12:47
  Mark: Spirits.
• 12:47
  Blake: Yeah, yeah, spirits.
• 12:48
  Blake: That's there is a demonic, you know, possession oppression that's uh comes along with alcohol.
• 12:55
  Blake: Right.
• 12:56
  Blake: And so I I think there's so many things is like in our world, Lord, what's real, what's real?
• 13:01
  Blake: God show me what's real.
• 13:02
  Blake: I want to re eat real food, I want to get um great exercise, I want to take care of the temple you've given me, I want to consume the word of God, the truth of of God, so that the more that we study what's real, the more that we can identify what's fake.
• 13:16
  Blake: And I think you were saying something about money.
• 13:18
  Blake: I thought that was fascinating.
• 13:20
  Blake: Oh yeah.
• 13:21
  Mark: The I've uh learned in school um is like economy class or something, when uh people in the Federal Reserve uh are learning how to identify counterfeit, they don't study counterfeit, they study the authentic dollar bills and dollar bills.
• 13:36
  Mark: Come on.
• 13:36
  Mark: I think that spiritually right, the more they're uh uh uh uh familiar with the the authentic that allows to be.
• 13:45
  Blake: So they're studying the real $1 bill, the real five dollar bill, so that when they see the fake, that it's so obvious to them because they know the real so well.
• 13:52
  Blake: Yeah.
• 13:53
  Blake: And I think, come on, if that's not the best uh explanation of like why we should be devouring the Word of God, so that when we're in the world and the devil tries to devour us, that doesn't sound right.
• 14:03
  Mark: Like no.
• 14:03
  Mark: Right.
• 14:04
  Mark: Well, I mean, I think that's probably you know what I think about is like this is the authentic this is the authenticity.
• 14:10
  Mark: And if s when something comes into our lives and it doesn't really sound right, you know, then I I think we don't know unless we're studying, like you're saying, studying the authentic word of God.
• 14:23
  Blake: I think of Moses up on the mountain, he comes down and he sees Aaron and he's like, I don't know what happened, man.
• 14:29
  Blake: I just we were talking and all of a sudden they decided to make a calf.
• 14:32
  Blake: Right.
• 14:32
  Blake: You know, it's like that it's like one of the most hilarious excuses he has in the Bible.
• 14:37
  Blake: But he he creates a counterfeit God to worship.
• 14:42
  Blake: Right.
• 14:42
  Blake: A golden calf.
• 14:43
  Blake: Have you ever thought about the term that's we we say holy cow?
• 14:47
  Blake: Have you ever thought of that?
• 14:49
  Mark: Yeah, I know.
• 14:49
  Mark: I think about it, like I say it because it's better than all the people.
• 14:52
  Mark: No, it's not.
• 14:54
  Blake: I know I guess it's holy cow to say holy holy holy uh you're a liar, devil.
• 15:00
  Blake: Yeah, right.
• 15:00
  Blake: And I can't believe you would create a false cow to worship.
• 15:04
  Blake: Yeah.
• 15:04
  Blake: And so I think I think um the the idea of finding things where the Lord wants us to be so true to what we know.
• 15:12
  Blake: And it reminds me of 2 Timothy chapter 3.
• 15:15
  Blake: This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible.
• 15:18
  Blake: Um it says, mark this, there will be terrible times in the last days, which I believe we're in the last days.
• 15:26
  Blake: I believe God is raising up a generation of people that know his authentic voice, right?
• 15:32
  Blake: Yeah.
• 15:33
  Blake: And I think he's calling people to himself.
• 15:35
  Blake: That's why there is uh a lot of people that are turning away from the truth.
• 15:41
  Blake: Yeah, the apostasy.
• 15:42
  Blake: The apostasy is happening, but at the same time, there's a a a whole new tribe and revival that's happening of people that are serious warriors for the kingdom of God.
• 15:51
  Mark: So I think about even just apostasy.
• 15:53
  Mark: I saw last night on Facebook a f a dear friend, I used to work with her husband in a church, and she she is no longer she she's Jesus is not her messiah.
• 16:02
  Mark: She professes somebody else's messiah.
• 16:04
  Mark: But then you were sharing, I think last week, one of the fastest growing churches in the world right now is in Iran, right?
• 16:12
  Mark: I mean, and so it's like people that grew up with it their whole lives are turning away.
• 16:17
  Mark: People that grew up in a false religion that you taught about this Sunday are turning to, you know.
• 16:23
  Blake: Yeah.
• 16:23
  Blake: You know, I I talked about if you didn't hear the sermon, I talked about I I di I didn't know this.
• 16:28
  Blake: A lot of people probably didn't know that in Galatians it talks about um 1.8, that in the last days people will be approached by an angel and will preach a new gospel, a different gospel, another Jesus, a different Jesus.
• 16:41
  Blake: And so that's talked about, and we have two of the largest in the world, which was Islam and Mormonism.
• 16:47
  Blake: And so I talked about the effects of both of those were approached by an angel.
• 16:51
  Blake: And I don't think people recognize the fact that, hey, the Bob Paul told us this was gonna happen.
• 16:56
  Blake: Right.
• 16:56
  Blake: And and sure enough it has, and the amount of people that are followers of Islam, who Muhammad and uh Islam, it is by far the fastest growing religion in the world.
• 17:07
  Blake: Over two billion people in the world are are Islam or Muslims.
• 17:12
  Blake: And so you have to pay attention, like why?
• 17:14
  Blake: Why is that happening?
• 17:16
  Blake: Um, but I also am encouraged in the with the same idea of like in the last days, um, that a lot of people are in that are Muslims are being approached by an angel in the night and being transformed by Jesus.
• 17:28
  Blake: There's they're waking up and they're they're like becoming followers of Christ, they're starting starting to follow who Jesus is, and um it's fascinating to see that.
• 17:37
  Blake: And so um here's what it says in 2 Timothy 3 there will be terrible times.
• 17:42
  Blake: People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money.
• 17:46
  Blake: You know anybody that's a lover of money, Paul?
• 17:48
  Blake: Yeah, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, and then this is it.
• 18:08
  Blake: Verse five having a form of godliness but denying its power have nothing to do with such people.
• 18:18
  Blake: And so um you know, this last week when we were talking about Mormonism, uh there was a couple stories I left out that I my encounters, I think everybody's probably had an encounter of an elder you know, coming door to door, coming door to door, the kids on mission, like 19, 20-year-old kids called an elder, which I always thought was funny.
• 18:41
  Blake: But there was this um story of me when I was in Bible college.
• 18:45
  Blake: So I'm like I'm like in deep studying the word of God, and that's all I did at the time.
• 18:50
  Blake: I had a small youth ministry, um, and it it was a part-time youth pastor in Newport, Tennessee, and probably 10 kids in my youth group that grew to like 40 was a pretty cool thing.
• 19:00
  Blake: But I rem and I was also a part-time rafting guide.
• 19:02
  Blake: And so across the street from where I lived, there were two elders that lived in a little white house right across from me.
• 19:08
  Blake: And so they didn't have any friends, they knew nobody, and these elders would change out every so so many months, every six months or so a new elder would come.
• 19:17
  Blake: The old one would stay, and then a new one would come in, then that they replace that.
• 19:21
  Blake: So that's how it works.
• 19:22
  Blake: So one person knows the area, knows where to get groceries, and they kind of have this system of like tri going through these different elders all the time.
• 19:29
  Blake: And so I took them in and I spent the entire summer with with two elders and became very close with them, and they would come over and have dinner.
• 19:38
  Blake: And I because I was in the middle of you know Bible college, I was just asking all the questions like show me, uh show me all your pamphlets, just read about it.
• 19:46
  Blake: And so I'm like, ask them.
• 19:47
  Blake: So Angel Moroni, huh?
• 19:49
  Blake: This angel came to you and talked to Joe, and I kept calling him Joe.
• 19:53
  Blake: Um, I was like, he's just a dude.
• 19:54
  Blake: Yeah.
• 19:54
  Blake: And I asked all these questions about, but don't you question Joseph's lifestyle, the way he lived, and the fact that he had so many wives and he was a polygamist, and he had a 14-year-old that he married, and he also um was a racist, you know.
• 20:10
  Blake: Not to say that a lot of religions haven't been racist in the past, but them specifically were late to the game and didn't let, you know, blacks in the temple for up to the 70s.
• 20:20
  Blake: I mean, they like they've been known as racist, and so is Brigham Young.
• 20:24
  Blake: Anyways, I just kept asking, why do I need Joe?
• 20:28
  Blake: Why do I need Joe?
• 20:29
  Blake: If I have Jesus, why do I need Joe?
• 20:31
  Blake: And so through the whole summer I kept pounding that one question.
• 20:35
  Blake: And like Jesus is my savior, uh, and he's all he's the final voice that we need.
• 20:41
  Blake: He's he's my mediator, right?
• 20:44
  Blake: He's my high priest, he the fulfillment, the one true king.
• 20:47
  Blake: I kept saying this over and over, and I was like, I I just don't think I need Joe.
• 20:51
  Blake: And one of the guys um called me like six months, a year later, and he said, Blake, I couldn't stop thinking the entire time I was on my mission.
• 21:01
  Blake: Why do I need Joe?
• 21:03
  Blake: And he actually left Mormonism and became uh Christian, you know, and follows Jesus now.
• 21:11
  Blake: And he stayed in touch with me over the years.
• 21:12
  Blake: It's it's a really cool story.
• 21:14
  Blake: And so um I love that the idea of that, and I love the idea that's happening in Islam.
• 21:19
  Blake: It's also happening in Mormonism.
• 21:21
  Blake: I think a lot of people, there's a movement of ex-Mormons, hashtag ex-Mormon.
• 21:25
  Blake: And so a lot of people are telling their stories about what happened.
• 21:28
  Blake: A lot of Muslims are coming out and saying, I've had a horrible uh experience.
• 21:32
  Blake: And in fact, do you know that at this church, the story that I told this past Sunday was a woman that has gone to our church for a year.
• 21:40
  Blake: Her daughter gave her life to Christ, can't read enough Bible, right?
• 21:44
  Blake: She gave her life to Christ, the daughter did, got baptized, and this coming Sunday, after this week's sermon, she said, I'm I'm not gonna wait.
• 21:53
  Blake: She was like trying to tell us why she shouldn't be baptized.
• 21:56
  Blake: She kept saying, I'm not good enough, I've done so many bad things, and because Because of what Muslims, you know, there's this constant uh there's a spirit of religiosity, self-righteousness, you're not good enough, you haven't done it well enough.
• 22:09
  Blake: And so there that's a real thing in Islam.
• 22:11
  Blake: And so she's just like, I I I don't feel like I'm ready to be baptized, I'm not good enough to be baptized.
• 22:16
  Blake: I'm like, come on, girl.
• 22:17
  Blake: And I started telling her why she's ready, and that you know, I told her the story in Acts 8 of the you know Ethiopian eunuch that was baptized immediately, like, we'll do it right now, girl.
• 22:25
  Blake: And so she's made the decision to do it this Sunday.
• 22:28
  Blake: Come on, isn't that amazing?
• 22:29
  Blake: That's amazing.
• 22:30
  Blake: Yeah, so I I love the idea that, you know, in the last days, lovers of money, all of this stuff, but people have a form of godliness but deny its power.
• 22:38
  Blake: And so when people get in touch with the power of God and you realize what's authentic, right?
• 22:45
  Blake: You no longer want what what you know the fake magicians and what this world, the fake power, the fake counterfeit power, you know you don't want it anymore.
• 22:57
  Mark: It's just you said that hit me different when you just read it.
• 23:00
  Mark: No, what is it?
• 23:01
  Mark: No uh read that last one.
• 23:04
  Blake: Have nothing to do with such people.
• 23:05
  Blake: Is that what you mean?
• 23:06
  Blake: Right before that.
• 23:07
  Blake: I'm sorry.
• 23:08
  Blake: Uh having a form of godliness.
• 23:10
  Blake: Yeah, but denying its power.
• 23:13
  Mark: And so that's I'm again I'm super grateful for the way that I was raised.
• 23:17
  Mark: I was raised in a Christian home and I went to church uh several times a week.
• 23:21
  Mark: You know, when when the doors weren't open, we were there and sometimes we opened the doors.
• 23:26
  Mark: You know.
• 23:26
  Mark: But that's what I'm s that kind of explains a little bit of like if we couldn't explain it, we we didn't talk about it, you know.
• 23:37
  Mark: And so um having a form of d godliness but denying its power, that to me that sounds like not talking about the power.
• 23:46
  Mark: Do you know what I mean?
• 23:47
  Blake: Yeah.
• 23:47
  Blake: And so how does you know, like you think of the girl that was following Paul and Silas, right?
• 23:53
  Blake: Yeah.
• 23:53
  Blake: What happened to her?
• 23:54
  Mark: Yeah.
• 23:55
  Mark: Well well Paul got it wasn't out of compassion.
• 23:59
  Mark: I mean, I'm sure he had compassion on her, but Acts 16 says he got so annoyed that he turned around and said, get he cast the demon out of her and she got saved, you know, which is amazing.
• 24:10
  Mark: Um it is funny that he does a miracle as he's annoyed.
• 24:13
  Mark: Right.
• 24:13
  Mark: He's like, she annoyed me.
• 24:15
  Mark: Get get out of her.
• 24:17
  Blake: In the name of Jesus, I bind you, cast you out.
• 24:19
  Blake: And by the way, you're on my every nerve.
• 24:21
  Blake: And so but but it it happened.
• 24:24
  Blake: Yeah.
• 24:24
  Blake: And now all of a sudden, people are ticked off because she loses her counterfeit power.
• 24:29
  Mark: Well, I mean, some she was uh some the whole town, like the the people got so angry that they went to Paul and Silas, they drug them out in front of the officials and and had them arrested and and put into a deep pr they not even just arrested, they were beaten and why because they wanted the counterfeit.
• 24:46
  Mark: Trevor Burrus Right.
• 24:47
  Mark: Well, and s the something she was doing something.
• 24:49
  Mark: Like something, whether it was, you know, a hundred percent supernatural what she was doing, or somewhat uh you know imitated or s I don't know how, but like whatever was happening, people were paying good money for her to do whatever she was doing before she got saved.
• 25:05
  Blake: But she was set free by the supernatural power of God.
• 25:09
  Blake: How many people right now are listening online and you feel like there's some sort of demonic oppression over your life?
• 25:15
  Mark: Yeah.
• 25:16
  Blake: Oh man.
• 25:17
  Blake: You know what I mean?
• 25:17
  Blake: You have some sort of mental health issue.
• 25:19
  Blake: Yeah.
• 25:19
  Blake: Yeah.
• 25:20
  Blake: You're battling, you maybe you want to take your life.
• 25:22
  Mark: Yeah.
• 25:23
  Blake: Maybe there's something that's tormenting you.
• 25:24
  Blake: That's what de that's what the devil does.
• 25:26
  Blake: These these demonic forces, they torment.
• 25:29
  Blake: And so there's something happening where you feel like, you know, you you want to die.
• 25:35
  Blake: Yeah.
• 25:36
  Blake: And so uh how how is it that we can get people to go, listen, if the rest of the world around you says you're perfectly fine, stay like you are, right?
• 25:46
  Mark: Yeah.
• 25:46
  Blake: We don't want you to change.
• 25:47
  Blake: Yeah.
• 25:47
  Blake: And everybody's gonna kill people that try to change you.
• 25:50
  Blake: That's what happened with this girl.
• 25:52
  Blake: Yeah.
• 25:52
  Blake: Right?
• 25:53
  Blake: The nameless slave.
• 25:54
  Blake: Yeah.
• 25:54
  Blake: Right?
• 25:55
  Blake: And so we we see her life radically changed.
• 25:58
  Blake: She has peace, her countenance changes.
• 26:01
  Blake: She now has the love of God alive inside of her, she has a reason to live.
• 26:06
  Blake: Yeah, and all of a sudden she's like, Hey, why are you telling me, you know, that I'm well, I don't want you to kill them.
• 26:12
  Blake: They're the ones that set me free.
• 26:13
  Blake: Right?
• 26:13
  Blake: Yeah.
• 26:14
  Blake: Can you from her perspective?
• 26:15
  Blake: Yeah, she's like, No, they are sons of the most high God.
• 26:18
  Blake: They taught me how to be saved, and now I'm saved because of Jesus.
• 26:20
  Blake: Yeah.
• 26:20
  Blake: And she has the real power, the authentic power, right?
• 26:23
  Blake: So when it says uh form of godliness, she had been living in the form, the fake counterfeit, you know, power, right?
• 26:31
  Blake: She has a form of godly denying its power.
• 26:33
  Blake: She's like, I have the real power now.
• 26:34
  Blake: Yeah.
• 26:34
  Blake: Right.
• 26:35
  Blake: And she's it kind of reminds me of like um Judas.
• 26:38
  Blake: How did he how did he walk with Jesus three years, see all that he saw?
• 26:42
  Blake: Yeah.
• 26:43
  Blake: And you know, you go, What which one was a real disciple, which one was fake?
• 26:47
  Blake: Well, probably the one that denied the Savior, you know, betrayed him and then chose to kill himself.
• 26:54
  Blake: Right.
• 26:54
  Blake: Right?
• 26:55
  Blake: Which was demonic.
• 26:56
  Blake: He was being led by an evil spirit, and and was there to try and, you know, make Jesus not seem like he was the real deal.
• 27:05
  Mark: Yeah.
• 27:05
  Blake: How how hard is that to hear that from your own one of your own twelve?
• 27:09
  Blake: Like right, the very closest.
• 27:10
  Blake: So Jesus experienced this counterfeit Christian, but they weren't Christians back then, just counterfeit follower, counterfeit disciple, yeah.
• 27:18
  Blake: And right underneath his own nose.
• 27:21
  Blake: And so I've always thought this, Mark.
• 27:24
  Blake: If Jesus himself couldn't keep one of one of his own twelve from being changed by the enemy's influence, yeah, then how are we how how can we get mad when we see like your friend online?
• 27:36
  Blake: I know.
• 27:36
  Blake: Right.
• 27:37
  Blake: That's you know what I mean?
• 27:38
  Blake: Or somebody in our church that's like I'm done with it.
• 27:42
  Mark: Right?
• 27:42
  Mark: Yeah.
• 27:42
  Mark: Right.
• 27:43
  Blake: And it's always this like when when someone leaves, they a lot of times throw daggers and swords and they'll they'll you know tell you you're you're so fake, you're the hypocrite, but they're leaving and believing a false gospel and a false Jesus, false savior.
• 27:58
  Blake: And you're like, okay, I'm I'm the one that's fake.
• 28:01
  Blake: And so, man, if ever before in our lives, it's so important for us to go, you know, who is imitating who's faking it.
• 28:11
  Blake: Because we in AI driven world, it's like it's not just it's not just like um singers, right?
• 28:18
  Blake: Because which is a real thing.
• 28:20
  Mark: Oh, yeah.
• 28:21
  Mark: I mean, I can I can just hum a song into an AI website and in one minute it will spit out a fully produced, you know, great song that would have taken weeks, maybe months, you know, to pull that off.
• 28:35
  Mark: And a lot of money.
• 28:36
  Blake: Yeah, yeah.
• 28:37
  Blake: I mean, we've done that for for fun, just to go, hey, let's if we're trying to write a worship song, how how could we get the tune?
• 28:45
  Blake: If I put these words together, can you put a tune to it?
• 28:47
  Mark: And it does it.
• 28:48
  Mark: And it gives you some inspiration to use.
• 28:50
  Mark: Yeah, right.
• 28:51
  Mark: But it's like, but that's fake.
• 28:53
  Mark: Yeah.
• 28:53
  Blake: And which one is real?
• 28:54
  Blake: And then you do a real one and yours is not as good.
• 28:57
  Blake: You know what I mean?
• 28:58
  Blake: Sometimes.
• 28:58
  Blake: And so, but but that's true in all creative licenses of AI.
• 29:03
  Blake: Uh, it's true with identity, yeah.
• 29:04
  Blake: You know, like people are still in faces and voices, yeah.
• 29:07
  Blake: But it's also true, like there's fake intimacy, people are following love in love with AI.
• 29:12
  Blake: That's a real thing.
• 29:13
  Blake: Yeah, like they because they feel like uh AI knows me better than any other human, and so they have this connection that's very real.
• 29:20
  Blake: But even in religion and Christianity, preachers are preaching sermons that are completely written by AI, and it's like, how how do I know that that's a heart, your heart has been because you you know, if we know demons can speak the truth of God, yeah, then certainly preachers, because you know, it's uh like like Satan is masquerading as an angel of light.
• 29:44
  Blake: Well, we know that Christians are also masquerading as righteousness, that's what the Bible says.
• 29:49
  Blake: And so if if that's the case, then we know that there's preachers that are preaching sermons that they're not convicted by that has not changed their heart.
• 29:57
  Blake: They're doing it from a place of like, well, you know, I I had this, you know, written up for me by AI, and just like I I'll say this because it sounds good, yeah.
• 30:06
  Blake: Right.
• 30:07
  Blake: Um and it it it's again form of godliness, but denying its power.
• 30:12
  Blake: It's not walking in the power of the spirit.
• 30:14
  Blake: Yeah.
• 30:14
  Blake: And that's the secret sauce, bro.
• 30:16
  Mark: Yeah.
• 30:17
  Mark: Well, I see it reminds me of there was an interview I I saw um of uh Tom Brady, and he was talking about uh this w after a Super Bowl win, he was talking about his wife then Giselle.
• 30:31
  Mark: Oh, right.
• 30:32
  Mark: Uh who was telling him to do some specific things and and a certain outcome would happen.
• 30:37
  Blake: Like crystals, seances like praying over him.
• 30:41
  Blake: There's some real dark stuff going on here.
• 30:43
  Mark: Right.
• 30:44
  Mark: And at the very end, he he said uh that what she said to him was, Well, it's a good thing you married a witch, but I'm a good witch.
• 30:52
  Mark: And the crowd laughed.
• 30:53
  Mark: I showed that to a friend of mine who's from Haiti, where there's there's witch doctors and like they write voodoo, and it's very real there.
• 31:02
  Mark: The same as it is here, as it is here, but it's just not as pronounced here.
• 31:06
  Mark: And it the video ended and he said, Oh man, that that's witchcraft, you know.
• 31:10
  Mark: And what's I think what's concerning to me is the response for the crowd in in America was to laugh because it's uncomfortable and it's stuff that we don't understand.
• 31:23
  Mark: The response from a guy that lived in the middle of a dark, dark place, he was able to identify it as that's an evil spirit.
• 31:32
  Mark: Yeah.
• 31:33
  Blake: It reminds me of that story in Acts 19 of the Sons of Skeva.
• 31:38
  Blake: Yeah.
• 31:38
  Blake: Do you know that story?
• 31:39
  Blake: Oh yeah, that's a crazy story.
• 31:41
  Blake: It's it's crazy because you know they're there um there there's seven sons of Skeva.
• 31:48
  Blake: And um they go up to w one person, right, to cast out this this demon.
• 31:55
  Blake: Yeah.
• 31:55
  Blake: And but they're doing it in counterfeit authority.
• 31:58
  Blake: Yeah.
• 31:58
  Blake: Right.
• 31:58
  Blake: So there's seven dudes that take on one, right?
• 32:01
  Blake: So you talk about a matchup.
• 32:03
  Mark: Yeah.
• 32:04
  Blake: And the Bible says that um the demon looks at them and says, Jesus, I know, Paul, I know, but who are you?
• 32:11
  Blake: And then beats the crap out of them.
• 32:13
  Blake: Right?
• 32:13
  Blake: So when you're questioned by a demon, like who are you?
• 32:16
  Blake: And then they they beat beat this he this guy beats the seven of them up, strips them naked, and they run off with their little hiny showing.
• 32:24
  Blake: Yeah.
• 32:25
  Blake: You know, like truly.
• 32:26
  Blake: Yeah.
• 32:26
  Blake: And so um I I think what I'm trying to say is, you know, a form of godliness denying its power.
• 32:33
  Blake: Are you walking in the authority of God?
• 32:35
  Blake: Are you walking in the power of the Spirit?
• 32:38
  Blake: And not your own power, not your own, you know, shiny, like not because you have a bunch of followers online, not because, you know, a lot of people listen to you and you're a you know, gregarious, outgoing, charismatic leader, preacher, pastor guy.
• 32:53
  Blake: Uh are you actually walking in the power of the authority of the anointing of the Holy Spirit, right?
• 32:59
  Blake: Yeah.
• 32:59
  Blake: That's the only thing that matters.
• 33:00
  Blake: In today's world, if you want to know what's real and what's not, it comes down to whether or not you're walking in the power of the Spirit.
• 33:07
  Blake: Yep.
• 33:07
  Blake: I'm fixing to preach more.
• 33:09
  Blake: Come on.
• 33:09
  Blake: But but you know, if like he's the real deal when people say that about you, it's like I'm only the real deal because I've become nothing and Christ has become everything.
• 33:20
  Blake: I'm the real deal because Christ in me is the hope of glory.
• 33:23
  Blake: I'm the real deal because the authority and the anointing of Almighty God is inside of me, and the only thing that's real inside of me is Jesus.
• 33:32
  Blake: Yeah.
• 33:32
  Blake: Right?
• 33:33
  Blake: Yeah.
• 33:33
  Blake: Because this guy, if given to my own inclinations, is going to choose sin, darkness, and depravity every single time, right?
• 33:39
  Mark: 100%.
• 33:40
  Blake: Right?
• 33:40
  Blake: Yeah.
• 33:40
  Blake: And so sinners saved by grace.
• 33:42
  Blake: Yeah.
• 33:42
  Blake: But because of his grace, I'm not walking in a form of godliness.
• 33:46
  Blake: Yeah.
• 33:47
  Blake: I I'm walking in a as a righteous, godly, powerful, anointed, uh, in an I'm not just a warrior, but I'm raising up an army of warriors.
• 33:57
  Blake: And I I'm here for it.
• 33:59
  Blake: So yeah, I'm I'm not going to deny its power.
• 34:02
  Blake: I only want his power.
• 34:03
  Blake: Because with me, apart from Christ, I can do what?
• 34:06
  Mark: Nothing.
• 34:06
  Blake: Nothing, it says in John 5, 5 15.
• 34:09
  Blake: And so, man, I feel convicted that I think a lot of people are wanting to know in a world where everything's counterfeit.
• 34:16
  Mark: Yeah.
• 34:16
  Blake: How can we even go into a church?
• 34:18
  Blake: How do I know if it's a real can I trust this church?
• 34:21
  Blake: Yeah.
• 34:21
  Blake: Is it a counterfeit Christian?
• 34:22
  Blake: Are they really going to teach me the Bible?
• 34:24
  Blake: Right?
• 34:25
  Blake: Are they just using the same some language, you know, and it's but it's fake and it's not real?
• 34:29
  Blake: Right.
• 34:30
  Blake: So I love what Augustine said.
• 34:32
  Blake: St.
• 34:32
  Blake: Augustine said, if you believe what you like in the gospel and reject what you don't like, it's not the gospel you believe.
• 34:40
  Blake: You believe yourself.
• 34:41
  Blake: Right.
• 34:42
  Blake: And I I went there this week about ways that we make up our own truth and our own gospel and we believe our own press, right?
• 34:51
  Blake: Yeah.
• 34:51
  Blake: And um I I'm gonna say something about my dad that's kind of it's um it's not good.
• 34:58
  Blake: But he was doing something at the end of his life.
• 35:01
  Blake: He had dementia and started to really believe his own press so much so that he was writing a book, he was writing this thing, and he would write down um all these words uh about kind of it was more like a journal.
• 35:15
  Blake: But then he decided to start writing in red letters as if it was the very words of God saying, you know, just like Jesus was the red letters, and so I I would read the red letters, and it was it it was a truth that you know could be preached, but it was like, Dad, you know, you're you're making yourself to seem like you're a savior, and your voice, you know.
• 35:37
  Blake: So I think the the point is, way too often in Christianity, we want to take the leaders and make them like our savior.
• 35:47
  Blake: We elevate people to become a savior.
• 35:50
  Blake: That's always been human nature.
• 35:51
  Blake: We want a king.
• 35:52
  Blake: There it is.
• 35:54
  Blake: Yeah, and so uh I just want everybody that's listening, where in your life are you making yourself king?
• 36:01
  Blake: Where are you making your voice matter more than the voice of God?
• 36:07
  Blake: Because in John 10, what's it say about Jesus being our shepherd?
• 36:11
  Mark: Yeah, he's a good shepherd.
• 36:12
  Mark: And my my she I know my sheep and my sheep know me.
• 36:16
  Mark: I just wrote a song about that.
• 36:17
  Blake: Did you?
• 36:18
  Blake: Hey, yeah.
• 36:19
  Blake: And so in today's world, it's very important that, you know, like you said, the more we study the authentic, the more the more and and we know what's real, the more you're able to discern in the spirit and test in the spirit a real voice that's following after God.
• 36:36
  Mark: Yeah.
• 36:36
  Blake: Because if it's someone's listening to the Holy Spirit and guided by the Holy Spirit, you go, I connect with that.
• 36:41
  Blake: I know what that is.
• 36:42
  Blake: Well, it's because we have the same spirit of God alive inside of us, right?
• 36:44
  Blake: Yeah, yeah.
• 36:45
  Blake: Like I I have you ever ran into somebody who I just love you, dude.
• 36:48
  Blake: Yeah.
• 36:48
  Blake: And you don't know why?
• 36:49
  Mark: Yeah, yeah.
• 36:49
  Mark: You there's like a kindred spirit, you know, that's what it is.
• 36:53
  Blake: And it's the Holy Spirit that makes it kindred, right?
• 36:56
  Blake: And so, um, yeah, I I feel real convicted in today's world that you're drawn to uh what's inside of you.
• 37:05
  Blake: And so you know how uh people say I can tell what kind of person you are by the friends that you have.
• 37:12
  Blake: Well, I really think that that comes down to whether or not your friends are spirit-led, right?
• 37:17
  Blake: And if your friends aren't spirit-led, they might be spirit-led, but it might be a unclean spirit, a dirty spirit that's leading, and you know, that kind of friendship also they attract each other.
• 37:30
  Blake: And so, you know, you you you see people that are in groups of, you know, people that all kind of like the man, there's kind of dark over there.
• 37:35
  Blake: It's kind of a hard well it's probably because there's some sort of unclean spirit that's attached themselves to that friend group.
• 37:42
  Blake: And so I I'm real serious about the intimacy that I have in my life because at the end of the day, intimacy with God and with his people, I think is what the only thing that helps you grow is how am I growing in my intimacy with God.
• 38:01
  Blake: It's probably directly connected to how intimate my friends are with God.
• 38:07
  Mark: Yeah.
• 38:08
  Blake: And the more that I'm around people that are filled with the Spirit of God, it makes me want to it's just like it's just like a fire, you know, it grows.
• 38:15
  Blake: And the more I want to be around that kind of like I I can't stand fake anymore.
• 38:20
  Blake: Mark, I I ain't got time for that.
• 38:22
  Blake: Yeah, right.
• 38:23
  Blake: I I don't want to be around like hip hypocritical counterfeit Christians that aren't the real deal.
• 38:30
  Blake: And I don't have time I don't have time to get in arguments like a I think a lot of Christians focus on the wrong things and they're not about like lighting a fire under people to understand who Jesus is.
• 38:43
  Blake: And if you spend time just focusing on who Christ is and his life, then people are drawn to that because they want what's real.
• 38:50
  Blake: Our world, come on, is our world hungry for real right now?
• 38:54
  Blake: Like more than ever.
• 38:56
  Mark: Yeah.
• 38:56
  Blake: Because it's like I I don't know what to believe, I don't know who to believe.
• 38:59
  Blake: Yeah.
• 38:59
  Blake: And so if you'll just stand on the word of God and preach the Bible, it will grow.
• 39:04
  Blake: It will because it's God's and it's his he grows things.
• 39:08
  Blake: He's into growing things.
• 39:09
  Blake: Here in Georgia, everything grows, right?
• 39:11
  Blake: Like weeds come out of every crack and every concrete, right?
• 39:15
  Mark: Yeah.
• 39:15
  Blake: And it's because God wants to grow things if it has the right soil.
• 39:19
  Blake: And so um I I feel convicted today to go, what what in your life um needs to be removed?
• 39:27
  Blake: What what weeds are growing that are fake counterfeits?
• 39:30
  Blake: What needs to be destroyed in your life?
• 39:32
  Blake: What where do you feel like there's places I've got to change, right?
• 39:36
  Blake: Um, there was a guy that came to church on Sunday, and I never said anything about uh any kind of nicotine, but at the end of the sermon, he goes, Honey, I feel convicted that I I can no longer smoke or have this nicotine addiction anymore.
• 39:49
  Blake: And that's only be because we were talking about the real Jesus.
• 39:52
  Blake: You know, we were talking about the one true king.
• 39:54
  Blake: Yeah, right.
• 39:55
  Blake: So when when you're drawn to what's real, you no longer want to counterfeit anything, right?
• 40:00
  Blake: I think about that with food today.
• 40:01
  Blake: Yeah.
• 40:01
  Blake: Like I walk through the store, like, is that real?
• 40:03
  Blake: I'll even pray.
• 40:04
  Blake: Lord, is that is that real?
• 40:05
  Blake: Should I eat that?
• 40:05
  Blake: Show me.
• 40:06
  Blake: You know what I mean?
• 40:06
  Blake: Show me.
• 40:07
  Blake: Um I I'll I'll I'll ask the Lord before I eat things, before I consume things, what what podcasts I listen to, what music I listen to, right?
• 40:15
  Blake: All of that's changed in me.
• 40:16
  Blake: I I don't when I'm working out, I used to listen to, you know, I'm a kid of the 80s and 90s.
• 40:21
  Blake: I I used to listen to, you know, bad stuff.
• 40:23
  Blake: Yeah.
• 40:23
  Blake: And now while I'm working out, like, I just want to listen to uplifting.
• 40:27
  Blake: I I mostly listen to Forrest Frank.
• 40:29
  Blake: I'm about to have a good day.
• 40:32
  Blake: You know, I'm like just getting listening to good uplifting, wholesome music.
• 40:36
  Blake: I want my mind to be growing strong.
• 40:39
  Blake: I want my heart to be growing strong.
• 40:40
  Blake: Because I mean, I don't want no form.
• 40:42
  Blake: Yeah.
• 40:43
  Blake: I don't want a form of godliness.
• 40:44
  Blake: Lord, show me where the form of godliness is, what's fake in me.
• 40:47
  Mark: Right?
• 40:48
  Blake: Do you feel convicted by that?
• 40:49
  Mark: Yeah.
• 40:49
  Mark: Well, I mean, even all of what you just said remind again, I I we talked about this a couple episodes ago, but that all reminds me of Proverbs 3, 5, and 6.
• 40:58
  Mark: Everything that you said reminds me of acknowledge me in all your ways.
• 41:02
  Mark: Yeah.
• 41:02
  Mark: You know, and so in what you just listed was all of your ways, you know, everything that I eat, everything that I listen to, everything that I watch, every, you know, everything that I read, I'm I want to acknowledge you in all your ways, and he will make my path straight.
• 41:16
  Mark: You know, I think that's powerful.
• 41:18
  Blake: I'm proud of this.
• 41:18
  Blake: This is dumb, but if you were to look at, you know how um AI on Instagram or Facebook, it it promotes like it'll show you content that you would want to watch.
• 41:30
  Blake: You know what I mean?
• 41:30
  Blake: In your the algorithms know what you want to see.
• 41:34
  Blake: And most of what is in my algorithm is is worship songs, it's preachers and guys that are working out.
• 41:42
  Mark: So you're better than me, because mine are people blowing up stuff with big guns.
• 41:50
  Blake: I love watching people like me, you know, when they're a bluehorn or something, or jump out behind the dead, you know, chair or something.
• 41:59
  Blake: Yeah, I love that stuff.
• 42:00
  Mark: One popped up in meat.
• 42:02
  Mark: Like I like to smoke meat.
• 42:03
  Mark: And so I had this one guy butchering, it was like it looked like the Flintstones.
• 42:08
  Mark: Like whatever he was cutting, it was like the biggest drumstick I've ever seen in my life, you know.
• 42:13
  Mark: But um anyway, so you're you're better than me on that.
• 42:16
  Mark: Well, well, I don't know about that.
• 42:19
  Blake: But here's here's something I wanted to say to anybody listening.
• 42:22
  Blake: If everything was stripped away in your life, right, the platform, church attendance, vocabulary, title, reputation, you know, your money, all the things that you've built in this world, and and the only thing that remained, would it be boiled down to the only thing I really have is Jesus?
• 42:37
  Blake: Right?
• 42:38
  Blake: Because at the end of our lives, the only thing that we really have is him, right?
• 42:42
  Blake: Yeah.
• 42:42
  Mark: It reminds me of I'd rather have Jesus than anything.
• 42:46
  Mark: Come on, sing it, bro.
• 42:47
  Mark: Yeah.
• 42:48
  Mark: It's true.
• 42:48
  Mark: Silver or gold, yeah.
• 42:50
  Mark: Uh such a sweet hymn.
• 42:52
  Blake: Yeah.
• 42:52
  Blake: Well, it it's true though.
• 42:54
  Blake: You know, he is the pearl of great price.
• 42:56
  Blake: And when you when you have Jesus, then the more you get to know Jesus, the more the rest of the world just fades away.
• 43:04
  Blake: It's like I I don't want what this world has to offer.
• 43:08
  Blake: I only want him.
• 43:10
  Blake: Yeah.
• 43:10
  Blake: And so today, for wherever you're at in the world, I I think that um it's important to just ask ask God, Lord, what in my life is counterfeit?
• 43:21
  Mark: Yeah.
• 43:21
  Blake: What is not real?
• 43:23
  Blake: And would you help me remove it?
• 43:24
  Mark: Yeah.
• 43:25
  Blake: Right?
• 43:25
  Blake: And then not just remove it, like if you're gonna quit nicotine, replace it.
• 43:29
  Mark: Yeah.
• 43:30
  Blake: What would you have me replace it with?
• 43:31
  Blake: How can I get healthier in every area of my life, my finances, in my relationships, with my spouse, with my kids?
• 43:38
  Blake: I want to be more healthy, God.
• 43:40
  Blake: And so, Lord, Lord, show us what is real and help us chase after only that, right?
• 43:46
  Blake: That that's gonna please him.
• 43:48
  Blake: Because, you know, Isaiah 29, this verse haunts me.
• 43:52
  Blake: Um, you draw near to me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me.
• 43:55
  Mark: Yeah.
• 43:56
  Blake: And and it says in Isaiah 1 that God, if if it's like a form of godliness, meaning their new moon festivals and Sabbath feasts, all these things that were they were doing as ritualistic, but they were hollow, they weren't real.
• 44:08
  Blake: And it says that God turned his face from it.
• 44:10
  Blake: Uh my soul cannot bear your prayers, even when they're praying, because it's like, you don't mean that, bro.
• 44:16
  Blake: You're you're a hypocrite, you're fake.
• 44:18
  Blake: So draw near to me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me.
• 44:22
  Blake: At the end of the day, what God wants is a real heart, a devoted heart, yeah, a disciple that's I'm gonna be serious about being your follower.
• 44:32
  Blake: I'm gonna give everything I've got because this world has nothing for me.
• 44:36
  Mark: Yeah.
• 44:36
  Blake: And I I only want you.
• 44:38
  Mark: Yeah.
• 44:39
  Blake: And so, no matter where you're listening from today, we're just super glad that you joined us.
• 44:44
  Blake: We love you.
• 44:45
  Blake: And my prayer is that you'll chase after God, the real, authentic King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
• 44:51
  Blake: So thanks for joining us, everybody.
• 44:53
  Blake: Great to have you.