And good morning.

Welcome to Real Life with Jason and Gene, because Pastor Mike's not here, so we're going to change the name for today.

I didn't change it on the slide, though, but good morning.

Thank you for joining us.

Gene, how are you today, sir?

I'm doing well.

I got my morning chores done, so I could sit down and relax and jawbone with you a little bit.

Awesome, man.

Appreciate it.

So good to see you.

We have finally made it to our last episode.

We're in episode eight of season four, and the topic today is all about perseverance, which we were talking just before the podcast on how relevant that is, especially, you know, especially now.

So if last episode, episode seven, we looked at what it means to be set apart, living in a world but not belonging to it.

It's not an escapist mentality, but understanding that, you know, our true home, our real citizenship, while we're all, we're both Americans, is in the kingdom of God, it's in heaven.

That's where our final destination is.

And so to keep that in mind, at least as a perspective as we're going through the things in this world, and that leads us right into that word, perseverance.

What does that word mean to you?

Perseverance.

Perseverance.

It can be.

Talk about the doctrine of perseverance, which, if you're genuinely born again, you will persevere to the end, but it's interchangeable with.

And so I think what we're talking about today really is endurance.

You've become a Christian now you're in the world, but not of the world.

Even in America, the world is a hostile place.

I heard President Trump, I don't remember, at the memorial or somewhere else, he said, the most heavily persecuted group of people, religious people in the world right now are Christians around the world.

And so, you know, the idea is that is the devil going to be able to cause you to step back and say, I, I, you know, I can't take this anymore.

I, I can't watch my family suffer.

And in one sense, it reminds me of the, the teaching of the Book of Hebrews.

It was like, hey, you guys have been called out of this legalism.

Don't go back into it.

You know, and they were doing it because their goods were being taken from them that couldn't get a job.

You know, they were destitute.

And it was a real, real trial.

But the Lord said, yeah, hang in there, Persevere and, and, you know, have endurance in the race that is set before you.

I Like, just the other day, I was sharing with a guy, one of the brothers, and one of my favorite verses, I always forget, and then it seems like it's brand new again.

But God is talking to Jeremiah and he's.

Jeremiah's a little bit reluctant.

And God says in a paraphrased way, he says, hey, if you have run with footmen and you're weary now, wait until you have to run against horses.

And I think, man, Lord, you just nailed it, you know, and so forth.

So, you know, we go to the Lord and say, lord, yeah, I can't take it, or I'm too tired or this isn't working out.

You go as well.

Okay, if you're tired now, just having a foot race, you know, anyone else would have.

My plan for you is to prepare you to run against a chariot, as it were.

And let's see how we do then.

So you and I, endurance.

What we're talking about is, is we're running, you know, with the horses and.

Oh, maybe we're running with the horsemen.

That's my next book.

That's.

That's podcast.

Anyway, so that's.

That.

Yeah, that's so true.

And, you know, I think just thinking about, like, our culture, and probably now more than ever, we live in a culture that prizes instant results, right?

Like this.

I mean, we think that's how social media is whole structured.

We think of it just in a psychological perspective, is that instant hit, that instant result, the instant gratification or the instant emotion.

And so perseverance or endurance is definitely the better word.

There really kind of feels like a foreign concept because everything around us, like I was saying, screams fast, easy, convenient.

But following Jesus, I mean, our salvation before the Lord obviously is instant.

But we also think of the process of sanctification, the long, really obedience in the same direction.

I love the way that that's worded.

But Paul compares it.

I'm thinking of second Timothy four, seven.

And I think you were just alluding to this, compares it to a race.

He says, I have fought the good fight.

I finished the race, and I've remained faithful.

And I love how he used analogy of a race.

Now, I'm not a runner, course I've been in the military, so I've had to run, but I never done it for.

I'd never.

I've never run for fun, let's just say.

But I like that idea because it.

It's not something you just do easy.

It's.

It's.

It's.

It takes work, it takes time, it takes Endurance, like you said that that's probably the better word I think, of a marathon runner.

Nobody gets a medal just for showing up.

When we think about a marathon, you know, a marathon, but really the, the goal, the prize is crossing that, that line.

So beyond, yeah, beyond the marathon guys, there are also the long distance runners where they just all day and that, you know.

So I think all Christians need to run a marathon.

Some are running, you know, it's like, hey, it's just run, run, run, run, run, and, and just keep going.

Yeah, and then that's just keep going.

That's why I love the verse.

It says, don't worry about tomorrow.

Today's got enough worry for itself or sufficient is the worries for today.

And the point is just one foot in front of the other, and it's not the process of putting one foot in front of the other that earns our salvation, because some people will go that way.

The salvation is that's done by God.

And the walking forward is just a privilege we get to do in our hope in Christ and in our faith in him.

So that takes me to, you know, we think of endurance then, and especially in light of this Charlie Kirk thing, because we see, you know, on the screen, we got to see in real time the cost of following Jesus, truly, you know, you know, people will say it's ideological, which it is in some regards.

I'll say, well, because it was his views on this or that.

But I think what it boils down to is he took a.

He had a biblical worldview and it was his faith in Christ, it was the Bible that formed his political opinion.

So really that's what the issue was, is it was the name of Jesus, really.

And so is that what we can expect, do you think, as Christians?

Yeah.

Yes, absolutely.

You know, in the world you will have tribulation.

We Christians are being persecuted all over the world.

You know, I think sometimes we forget that we're a.

Actually a small part of the body of Christ.

When you think about how many built, maybe a billion Christians, you know, in China, you know, in the underground church, and if you started to add it up and stuff.

So, yeah, I think we're, you know, I'm surprised.

I think I mentioned this on an earlier broadcast, but as a pastor, I get surprised that more people aren't suffering.

And I don't mean that in a terrible way.

But you don't see, I mean, I mentioned Hebrews a minute ago.

You don't see too many people losing their jobs because of Christ, you know, because they Took a stand for Christ or this kind of thing.

And.

And, you know, I hate to criticize the church, and so, I mean, there are a lot of really solid people, but there.

There are a bunch of people who, like, hey, you know, this.

You know, I'll do.

I'll take care of my kids at home, but public school isn't really hurting them, you know, as long as I can counter it with what.

What I have to say.

And so, yeah, I just.

Yeah, we are being persecuted, and we will be more and more.

Yeah.

And especially even in this country, we understand that it depends on the state that you're in, because persecution looks a little bit different.

Some comes more from a government standpoint and ruling body where, you know, others, you know, maybe come from other places.

But the point remains.

And still, when we think of persecution in the world stage, we still have it really good here.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

You know, it's.

I like, Paul made a comment, or whoever wrote Hebrews, you know, he made the comment, you have not yet resisted unto blood.

You know, I mean, can you imagine pouring your heart out about a problem you have at work, you know, because they.

Somebody, let's say, gets promoted over you or ahead of you.

And Paul the apostle listening to that and just say, hey, Gene, have you shed any blood there yet at your office?

No.

He goes, well, then shut up and just walk with the Lord.

You know what?

You know why this guy got promoted ahead of you?

So that the rest of the office could see what a Christian does when these terrible things happen to them, you know?

And so.

So, yeah, it's happening on a smaller scale.

I.

My biggest fear is that we don't talk about suffering enough and that even minor sufferings just seem to really blow people out.

I remember some of the Calvary people.

Remember Pastor Romaine, who's.

Pastor Chuck Smith's assistant for years and years after the first church service.

Yeah.

First church I heard after I got saved going to church for the first time.

He was teaching.

He was a guest teacher.

And he said this, and I never forgot it.

He said, where does a Christian get off losing their joy over a dead battery in their car?

And I thought, oh, the Holy Spirit is able to give me joy in my trials.

I mean, yeah, I mean, so.

And I always liked that.

And I never wanted to be around him because I didn't want him to poke his finger in my face, you know, and say stuff like that.

But.

So then the question is, where is our hope?

Because if we're called to endure, you don't endure things that you love, enjoy, and things that you endure, things that are difficult, things that will challenge you, things that are tough.

And so if we're called to endure, what do we need to have hope in?

What are we looking forward to?

And that's where I think of 1st Thessalonians 4, 16, 18, Titus 2:13.

And really our focus has to be not on even with the Charlie Kirk thing.

My, my hope isn't in Charlie Kirk.

My joy isn't in Charlie Kirk.

I can be encouraged by the things the Lord did through him.

And he could be a good example, for sure.

I mean, we look at people like, and I'm not necessarily equating them, but we look at Paul in the Bible and we're encouraged by him because we see him as Saul and then we see the redemption of God and how he turns him into Paul.

We think of King David, we think of all these, you know, men in the Bible and women.

But God's still doing that through people today.

And so I think in part we get to see that through Charlie.

But again, it's not about him and the endurance that you're talking about.

I'm not holding my hope in, in that person, but I'm holding it in Christ.

And I think understanding that there is an end goal, there is an end game, there is a retirement plan, if you will, for you and for me as Christians.

And that's in Jesus's return knowing especially you Talked about post 1948 and we live in such a unique time in history and it's so true because we could actually look forward to something that, that nobody else saw.

Yes, there's a group of people that actually got to see Jesus here, but there's also going to be a group of people that get to be caught up with them.

And that's exciting, right?

That's really exciting.

Knowing that should help us, especially in these times that are going to get darker, endure so.

Well, it is our blessed hope.

Yeah, it just is to be with the Lord.

People are trying to tweak that and say that, oh, you just want to escape problems and trouble.

Well, who doesn't?

I mean, you know, I mean, nobody.

And, and the Lord doesn't say, hey, if you don't have enough trouble, go out and find some, you know, because you haven't reached your quota today.

You were quoting to me off air, you know, or maybe you just did it now we have enough trouble for today, you know, and stuff.

So don't, don't go and find it.

The coming of the Lord is our blessed hope.

I remember Dave Hunt wrote a book, whatever Happened to Heaven?

And it was about how the church doesn't really look forward to going to heaven at this point.

Church in America anyway, because it's very comfortable.

And so that's why, that's why I think your view of the end times.

We call it eschatology.

I think that's so important.

You know, I mean, though I believe that the Bible has some evidence for different ways looking, you know, at the, at the end times.

You know, I'm not ready to.

I know what I believe and what we teach at Calvary Chapel, but we haven't given a death blow to every other doctrine.

And so I understand that.

But the only doctrine of the end times that makes sense in terms of having a blessed hope of the, of the anytime return of Jesus is, you know, how we read the Bible with, you know, as a literal, grammatical, historical document.

Unless it tells you, hey, this is going to be a metaphor, here's a vision, you know, and stuff.

And, and what it tells us is that Jesus came to offer the kingdom actually, you know, in the new covenant, he was going to establish the new covenant with Israel.

And they said, yeah, we don't think so.

You know, we're not, we're not going to do that.

And so he said to his disciples, okay, I'm going to go back to heaven and while I'm gone, you guys are going to do a little thing here called the church.

And don't bother looking in the Old Testament for it because it's not there.

It's a mystery, it's a brand new thing.

But basically what it is, you guys are going to start having the blessings of the new covenant that I would have given Israel.

And the first thing you're going to get is the permanent indwelling of God, the Holy Spirit.

And so, man, you're off to the races now.

It's like, hey, you're prepared, you're ready to go, and then you're hopeful that the Lord could come any minute.

And that's exciting.

I mean, it's just super exciting.

I know for me, I know my personality.

If I were sure the rapture was mid trib, I wouldn't know the day or the hour.

But if it's, you know, somewhere three and a half years into it, I don't think I'd be very excited about the Lord for three years until living.

How I want to live till I see that peace treaty.

Right?

Yeah, there'd be a, be a lull you know, and stuff.

And so I like the Thessalon.

Mike just talked Thessalonians, or still is, But I like the people who are quitting their jobs and hanging around and mooching off the other Christians.

And Paul basically says, hey, quit doing that.

And the idea was, hey, I paused.

If the Lord can come back any minute, I believe that, why go to work?

You know, I'm just going to go sit up on a mountaintop and wait until they got hungry enough to come back down, I guess.

But, yeah, and we see this.

There's people still trying to set dates.

I mean, it's happened for so long, and it still happened.

And the Rapture is supposed to happen on the 23rd, two days ago.

And it's like, stop, guys.

God made it so clear we can't do that.

Yeah.

So.

My wife woke me up midnight on the 23rd and said, hey, we missed it.

You know, we have to wait now until next year for this.

He met.

Yeah, they met the 23rd of 2026.

Yeah.

But so if endurance is about.

Is about holding on and our hope, obviously is.

Is anchored in the return of Jesus, then just taking a couple minutes to talk about, then what do we do in the meantime?

How do we persevere?

How do we endure?

And we can't do that apart, obviously, from the Lord.

And I love the idea of endurance.

That word is not a passive word.

It's an active thing that we have to do.

It's not just sitting on the couch hoping things work out.

It's active.

It's daily, and it's intentional.

And so when I think about Scripture, it gives us some clear practices.

And I wanted to just touch on a couple of those today, too, as we close this episode and this season on.

Well, what do we do then right now, and especially what do we do in light of the Charlie Kirk thing?

What are.

You know, we talked about this, you know, before we started airing, is that, you know, there was.

Might have been a gap in that area, you know, from the memorials.

Okay, well, what do we encourage you to leave from this place and go do?

And so I'm reminded of Hebrews 12:1 and 2.

It says, Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up, and let us run with endurance, that race that got us set before us.

And so how do we do that then?

Obviously, putting our hope and trust in Jesus, Right?

We repent.

We turn to God.

We accept him as our Savior, and not just our Savior as our Lord too.

Meaning that he gets to make the decisions, that he gets to call the shots.

And so I think of practical things.

So one, staying in the Word, you've got to have a lifestyle of.

And you have to see the importance of being in God's Word.

It's really the.

The anchor in the middle of confusion.

We think of Acts 2:42.

There's things there.

I mean, that's kind of like the.

If you think of like the Calvary chapel method, that's everything we do.

We try and revolve it around these.

These ideas of what it says in Acts 2:42.

I even take the same approach in our youth group.

You know, it says they devoted themselves, the apostles teaching or studying the Bible, fellowship, being together, breaking bread and prayer.

Breaking bread also being communion and prayer.

And we try and do that with, you know, every time we meet, we pray, we try and break bread together.

We can't always obviously do that.

We do communion regularly.

You know, we're always.

It's always about God's Word, studying the Bible, praying for each other, being in fellowship.

And so those are important, you know, things.

And I even think about Matthew 4.

We think about how did Jesus.

Did he.

When we think about temptation, did Jesus even give us an example on how we're supposed to handle temptation?

And we see that in the wilderness.

He just quoted Scripture and he was God, obviously.

But how we resist temptation is it.

It's with God's Word.

It's through scriptures, through His Word.

So.

Yeah, I think sometimes, you know, you look back on when you got sick, let's say a classic adult salvation, right?

You're at a.

You're at a crusade, Franklin Graham, Greg, Laurie, whoever.

And there's an altar call which sadly, Christians have to argue about, you know, whether it's biblical or not.

And, and that's just crazy.

But you answer the altar call and then typically they tell you what to take, the steps to take now that you are born again, now that you do have the permanent indwelling of the Spirit.

And because it's knowledge you don't have.

And so they need to kind of guide you and direct you.

And so you mentioned all of them right now, it's very simple.

When you get saved, they want you to pray.

Of course you want to pray.

I mean, it's not like something you have to force yourself to do, but you pray and you read the Word and now it's.

You're able to understand it, you know, not it, you know, perfectly because it's the word of God.

But Wow.

I read that and I didn't have any meaning for me until now that the Holy Spirit's in me to teach me.

And then you're going to want to hang around other Christians and so you find a good Bible teaching church and you can't help but share with people.

Hey, this just happened to me.

I was at the Charlie Kirk Memorial and Marco Rubio was talking about an exchange between Jesus and, and, you know, in his righteousness and me and my sin.

And, you know, I, you know, I just called out on him to save me or, you know, I don't even know what that means, but, you know, that kind of a thing.

I, I think, in fact, I'm going to teach on it this Sunday.

So, you know, pastors are, they always think that every, you know, no matter what you ask, they answer by, you know, hey, this is what I'm doing.

But anyway, I think this does tie in.

I think one of the missing, one of the missing elements in all of this is a dependence and a reliance upon God, the Holy Spirit within.

I mean, it's almost to the point where sometimes we just forget that.

And like, for example, and I know, okay, so marriage, right?

Jesus says to the husband, love your wife as Christ loves the church.

Okay.

At least here in the west, our idea is that, okay, I need to get a book on how to love my wife as Christ loved the church.

I need to figure out what that, you know, how that starts and is it.

And they distill.

And I don't want to blow anybody's mind, but it distills down to a date night.

So if I have a date night once a week, then I am loving my wife the way Christ loves the church.

And so, and I think that does come from the fact that we, some people only go to church once a week.

But the idea, what I've been trying to tell.

Okay, so you now have the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit when God tells you to love your wife the way he loves the church.

You can do that right now.

Right now you're gonna fall and you're gonna fail, but you get up and, and this is where the endurance comes.

It's like, okay, you know, I didn't do that perfectly.

John says in his epistle, you don't, you won't sin, you don't need to sin, but you're gonna sin.

And when you sin, you need to seek God's forgiveness.

And it's like, well, which is it?

Well, it's both.

I mean, because you're still in the flesh, your body, you're going to sin, you're not going to do things perfectly, but you can do them, you know, and so.

And everything is like that.

Women submitting to their husbands, life in the church, you at work, you know, I'm having trouble with my boss.

Congratulations.

That's what you should be doing.

Because of what Peter says.

He says, you know, now you have an opportunity to minister to that guy.

So I think that's where this boldness comes in.

And you and I were talking about how at the Kirk thing, what I saw and what everybody saw, but what I focused in on was each of the Christian speakers were bold.

And that is a function of the Holy Spirit.

They were bold in a holy, unreserved way.

And that's a function of the Holy Spirit.

And so, yeah, you know, I was excited about that.

And I just.

I just think people.

It's another one of those moments where I remember 9, 11.

Let's go back there.

The churches did fill up after 9 11.

I mean, I remember we were still at the YMCA, I think, back then, and we had tons of people show up for about two weeks or three weeks.

And then after that it got back to our regular congregation.

And I think a lot of people are going to church.

You know, it didn't happen to us this weekend, but, you know, I think it will this weekend.

But, you know, more people are going to go to church, are going to check out your church, you know, because they want to be a.

They don't even know why, but they want to be a part of this thing that's going on, and it's bigger than Charlie Kirk.

It's a spirit thing.

People in the arena said, I felt, you know, this is a Christian thing, but I felt the presence of God.

I felt the moving of the spirit and all that.

But will it survive?

I mean, you know, hopefully I know the ministry, their ministry will survive because they're going to establish a bunch of new chapters and they're doing a good work.

But is this really revival?

I hope it is, but is it?

Or is it just, hey, you know, I'm agitated and I. I want to.

I want to do this right now, but who knows?

And so.

And that's an individual thing.

Nobody can answer that.

But.

But you and I, you know, are we being stirred up and then are we going to settle down again, or are we going to go for it?

And then.

And that's again where this teaching on the coming of Christ is.

Because, hey, now that you are going in this Direction.

Let me tell you about what's going to happen.

The Lord is coming anytime to take you home.

You don't have to die.

I always have to remember at funerals and grave sites to say, you know, people say, well, we're all going to die.

Death and taxes.

There's a large group of people that will never die.

Right.

And it is the church alive when Jesus comes back.

I said, and that could be you, you know, but.

And that is a place of hope.

Yeah.

And you need to be ready, you know, for that.

And so you don't really have time to backslide or, you know, hey, I checked it out and it wasn't for me, you know, and stuff.

Hey, go, go to church and, you know, and see what the Lord will show you.

Yeah.

And so if you're listening to this, and this is kind of how I want to close, maybe you've seen the Charlie Kirk thing and I've heard a lot of people say, you know, I'm not really religious, but something's not right here.

This, he didn't, you know, this guy didn't do anything wrong.

Like this was wrong.

And I just want you to know that if that's you, maybe you're listening to this podcast and you don't know who Jesus is.

God loves you and he's calling you in relationship.

He died for you and he is coming back.

And so what do you do?

Well, you just put your hope and your trust in Jesus that He did die for you, that we're all sinners.

Me, Gene, Mike, we're all sinners.

We all fall short of God's glorious standard.

But the free gift of God is eternal life through his Son, Jesus Christ.

And he's calling you into.

And he loves you enough that he would send you this podcast if that's the tool he uses to draw you near to Him.

Not to draw you near to me or Gene, but to Him.

And so if you are a Christian and you're wondering, okay, well, maybe I just recommitted myself.

I want to be bold for God.

What do I do?

Well, first and foremost, pray.

Seek God through prayer.

Be in his word.

You've got to open the Bible and read it.

Like Pastor Gene said, get into a Bible believing church.

Not a church that just makes you feel good, but a church that actually studies God's word in its entirety.

And then that leads you into being in fellowship is important.

Who you surround yourself with matters.

I tell my youth this all the time that, you know, show me your two or three or four Closest friends.

And I'll show you probably where you're going to end up in the next five years, because who you surround yourself with matter.

So you need to be in fellowship, because not only is there encouragement in that, but there's also accountability in that.

And there's going to be times in your life when you're not doing so well, when you're struggling, and if you're around a group of people that love you, that know you, they're going to realize when you're not there, they're going to reach out.

And so there's an accountability to that.

And lastly, look up, keep your eyes up, because Jesus is coming back.

He is our assurance, he's our hope.

He's faithful.

He never.

He never doesn't follow through with the things he says he's going to do.

So what a beautiful thing in this world that's so chaotic that we can't really trust even what we see, even if it's in video proof, AI can just make stuff up.

So we can't even trust our eyes anymore, but we can trust God.

And so, Gene, I'll turn it over to you and let us wrap us up of our last episode in season four.

Yeah, it's interesting.

I never really thought too much of it.

Everybody is an Internet influencer now, right?

Or a YouTube influencer.

And it's fun because I think before that phenomena, if you told people they were easily influenced, they would say, oh, no, I'm not.

I have my own mind.

I know what I'm doing.

I can listen to all of this.

And now they say, here, this guy is doing this.

He influences you.

He does influence you.

You call him an influencer.

And so be careful with the influences that are out there.

Because, you know, the other part of this is that you're now a target.

One of the things you become when you become a Christian is a soldier, you know, in the Lord's army.

You wear the whole armor of God so that you can take your stand for the gospel.

And the devil says, well, I'm coming for you.

I didn't have to.

I didn't have to worry about you before because you were not saved.

You're going to hell.

Now I have to worry about you.

So you get into a spiritual warfare.

But, you know, I think a lot of Christians feel like the Christian life is monotonous.

And so that's why you have all these experiments going on in church all the time, you know, And, I mean, you can have whatever kind of liturgy you want as long as it glorifies God.

But there, you know, if you think about it, there's a lot of experimental churches, you know, sensitive, this, that or the other thing.

And we just need to.

People think, well, I get bored.

I've already heard first Peter thought really, well then let me ask you a few questions about it.

And that's a Charlie Kurt kind of a thing too, you know.

Yeah, it's like some people say, oh yeah, I know, I know that you keep, you keep saying the same thing over and over again.

I said, well repeat it and I put it in context that, well, you know, can't really do that and stuff.

So people are looking for a kind of excitement and like you, I thought you were just going to get raptured just then because you're so excited about, I mean, what could be more exciting than I don't have to die, I'm going to see Jesus Christ in five minutes, you know, that kind of thing.

And if he doesn't come in five minutes, I've served him for five more minutes and you know, I'm going to have a greater crown or whatever you want to call it.

I mean the Christian life can be exciting and what happened?

The world just beats us up and another good reason to be in the church.

And then it's a passage in the New Testament where Paul, imagine this just from the podium, he says, hey, I beseech Euodias and Syntyche get along.

Wow, that's, you know, can you imagine being, you know, if I was there at your church in Bakersfield?

Oh, Mike says, oh, I want to point out Pastor Gene's here today.

Gene, you need to quit.

Blank, blank, whatever it is, you know, and stuff.

And so the idea is that the church, you know, it should be your safe space, it should be where people minister to you.

But instead people, you know, people are people.

Church would be great if it wasn't for people.

But the exorcism is, hey, you, you can forgive, you can do all of the one another's.

It's not that you have to learn how to do it, it's that you, you have to just like I believe for salvation, I believe for my sanctification in the sense that the, yeah, the Holy Spirit is in me.

Not to just give me a push, right.

But to give me the enablement to obey God, you know, and then I grow in that and stuff.

So, so that's why, I mean I exaggerate sometimes.

Say, hey, quit going to seminars on marriage and just treat your wife like Christ of the church.

Well, what does that mean?

Read the Bible.

And how did God treat you?

With grace, with mercy?

When's the last time God yelled at you or talked to you or talked down to you or disrespected you or said you were stupid or made an angry face?

I mean, can you imagine the faces Jesus could make if he wants to?

You know, especially because he knows.

But, yeah, when you look into his face, it's what.

It's his wonderful face and it always is and stuff.

And so I'm not saying you shouldn't go and do those kinds of things.

They can strengthen people.

But go knowing that you don't need to really learn anything.

You just need to have a revival in your marriage and say, hey, I'm going to do what I ought to be doing and what I can do because I have the permanent indwelling of God, the Holy Spirit.

And that's.

That's my.

That's my message as I finish the race.

Awesome.

And so the message throughout all of episode or season four is, I think, pretty clear.

We talked about the signs pointing the last day.

We talked about how to understand prophecy, discern deception.

We talked about global unity and division amongst nations.

Then we brought that down closer and talked about the cost of following Jesus and how it impacts our families, our friendships, even the division in our churches.

So God, really, the point is God hasn't left us in the dark.

He's told us what to expect.

We know what's coming, and it's going to be more persecution until he comes back.

And it's a call to stay faithful, to stay anchored in his word, to stay hopeful.

We talked about that blessed hope.

But here's the final challenge for this season.

And here's a question for you that are listening and for me, are we living for today or for eternity?

And what are we going to do when things get difficult in the last days?

Really, they're not just about surviving, but they're about living with purpose, with allegiance to Christ, with hope in Christ.

So as we close season four, my prayers that you won't just listen to these conversations that I've had that Gene's had, that Pastor Mike's had, but live them out.

Seek God in His word through prayer, and you are called to be set apart for Him.

A light set on a hill.

So a special thank you to Pastor Gene.

Thank you so much, man, for being here with us, for joining us this season.

It's been so fun just having a conversation with you.

And I really enjoy just our conversations even before we Record, so.

You are certainly a blessing, man.

And it's been an honor to, to walk through these, these eight episodes with you.

Well, I'm glad you guys invited me.

I, I, I love this kind of stuff.

And so, you know, anytime, anytime I need to step in, I'm ready to go, so.

But I might, I might need more of a salary.

No, I'm just kidding.

Yeah, I'll send you some new mic, a new microphone and.

Yeah, yeah, a golden mic.

Golden mic.

Those cheap trophies they give people.

I mean, a little, you know, the Little League trophies and stuff, they're the.

Cheapest things in the world, you know, Participation trophy.

Participation microphone.

Yeah, yeah.

Give me an old shoe.

You'd have an old sure mic that you don't, that doesn't work anymore.

And I'll walk around with it.

Yeah, I still got sure mic.

I love that thing.

Thing.

So our prayer is that you've been strengthened in your faith.

And if you, if you didn't have a relationship with the Lord, that's really more than anything, our prayer is that you would come to know Jesus because he knows you and, and he died for you and your family.

Let me say this.

If you're, if you're listening in this in the Valley, I mean, if you're in Bakersfield, go to Calvary Chapel, Bakersfield this Sunday, you know, and their address.

Is 6501 Rock Court 6, Southwest Bakersfield.

And if you're in Hanford, go to.

Calvert Shop, 1900 North Dali.

Yeah, 1900 North Dali, just north of Rangeville at the corner of Dowdy and Loretta.

8:15 and 10:15.

I will be talking this Sunday about.

Well, we have a prophecy update.

I'll be talking about some crazy stuff that's going on in the world.

And, and then we'll be talking about the, actually the baptism of the Holy Spirit and, and how we are used by God, by his Spirit.

So it's Amen.

Yep.

Thank you so much, Gene.

And we look forward to talking to you guys all in season five.

Stay tuned through our social media at Calvary Chapel Bakersfield or CC Bakersfield.

And we'll, we'll be announcing soon what our next topic is for season five.

Until then, keep your eyes and your heart rooted in Christ and keep looking up.

Amen.

Thank you for joining us for this episode of Real Life.

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