So what's going on, everybody?

Hey, everybody.

It is another day.

Another day.

Another day to come together and talk to you guys.

Well, talk to each other, but then ultimately to you guys.

Yeah.

And the way that works is we talk to you, and you talk bad.

Yes.

So we do want to say we appreciate you guys for all that you're.

You're doing to spread the word.

We are definitely growing, and that's all thanks to you all and God, because God's awesome.

I'm Derek.

And I'm Matt.

And we are going to talk about influences today.

Influences and idols.

Influences versus idols.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So buckle up and welcome to the truth response.

Sounds all right.

I'll pray.

All right.

Thank you, Lord, for another day, for allowing us just to talk about you, to learn how to move within this world as a follower of you and how to recognize where you're at work and just trying to show up where you're working, Lord, and keeping an eye out for it.

Thank you for renewing our minds so that we can know your will, God.

And I just pray that that continues.

Father, just guide the discussion wherever it may go.

And I pray that it just glorifies you, and it's in your precious and holy name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

All right, so we're talking about influences.

Influences versus idols.

More talking about influences than idols.

But, yeah, so on Facebook.

Yeah, I recently rejoined Facebook, but I need to get back off of Facebook.

It's a time sink.

What does infants influence you?

Yeah, right.

Reels.

So lately this is going somewhere lately, there's an.

She's a voice actress, but she's an influencer, I guess, because it's on social media.

I mean, I guess anybody is popular on social media as an influencer.

So she's been talking about millennials, you know, pasts and what kinds of things shaped us and what influenced us in some of our thought processes and stuff.

And she uses, like, movies and TV shows, right.

To, like, label you or whatever.

And it's been popping up, like, every third video is another one of our videos.

So I thought it was interesting because I feel like as young people, all generations, not just ours, but we are shaped and molded by the things around us and how we interact with those things.

Now, I am not someone who believes that your environment is to blame for how you act.

I don't agree with that.

I don't like it because I think that too often now, I'm not denying that it is a part of it.

Right.

But I think that too often we Lay too heavily into that and blame our surroundings and don't take credit for our part in whatever our behaviors are.

But I do.

I do recognize that the music we listen to, the movies or TV shows that we watch, have a lot to do with how we develop.

And I just thought it was interesting that it has come up recently a lot.

And I'm like, oh, dude, I used to love that movie.

And she'd say something, I'd be like, oh, that describes me.

I did kind of take that on as some part of me.

Well, it's interesting because, well, my daughter Sage, she.

At an early age, she had these movies.

I want to say they were American Girl Doll movies.

I'm not sure, but they were different.

There was American Girl Doll movies.

I want to say something like that.

I could be so far off, but they were basically, it was about this.

Every movie was about little girls in different scenarios, and they were different time periods with different, you know, elaborate time period costumes and such.

What was interesting is that every time she watched a new one, she would kind of become that person from that time frame and everything.

Like the whole thing, she'd suddenly start to put it all on.

And I think that doesn't go away.

I think I've seen all my kids start to take on things that they observe.

I start to.

It's almost like they're sponges.

I mean, we know kids are sponges when it comes to, like, learning things and such.

And they learn from their parents, but, like, they'll see something and then they start to try it on.

Is this for me?

I've been having a conversation with my middle school boys about this very thing.

And in fact, recently in teaching the high schoolers in a lesson, the idea of what the world's trying to influence us one way or another came up.

Now, when we talked about it, we compared it to when Joshua says, figure out basically who today you're going to serve.

But as for me and my house, I'm going to serve the Lord.

And he goes over and he kind of breaks it down.

I broke it down into four categories.

You can serve old gods that were the gods before Israel was formed and before Abraham.

You can go into the gods from Egypt, which we call the baggage gods, the things of our past that we're bringing with us.

Or you can do the new gods, the new hot gods, the gods of today, which are things that are trying to influence you in your current environment, like they were.

Or of course, the obvious choice, serve God.

Interesting.

Like that is on the third option when it talks about the gods of the day, it's like we live in an environment and it hasn't changed much because they were being influenced.

They moved to this area, the Amorites were, and they were being influenced by that culture and the things that were newer then.

We are surrounded by.

We are saturated with.

We are being bombarded, if you will, with ideals.

We're told how to dress, how to think, how to speak, how to be, who to hang out with, everything.

If you're willing to listen to the world, it is going to tell you how to do it.

All right?

And it's interesting because it masks it with be yourself.

Oh, yeah, right.

Like, be yourself.

And this is how you do it.

Yeah, like it's got that hidden.

Like, this is how you do it.

Yeah, but it mask that.

That the advertisement is not, you know, be this way.

It is the advertisement is to be yourself.

Yeah, right.

Oh, yeah.

You got to be you.

But, you know, this is how you look when you're being you.

This is how you sound when you're being you.

Be you as long as it looks.

Like us and we're being influenced.

In fact, they're not even hiding the fact that we're being influenced because we're actually calling the people that influence us influencers.

That's what the Internet, as you brought it up, it's kind of funny because that's quite literally what we call them.

What are you?

And people will identify as that.

Well, I'm an influencer, really.

It's wild to think about that.

The idea that we're trying to influence other people to do other things, and you can bring in words like agenda and all that stuff into play, and all of it is true to a lot of people.

Well, everybody does have an agenda.

Right, Exactly.

That's true.

But the thing is that we're going to be influenced.

And so really it's about who do we allow ourselves to be what do we allow ourselves to be influenced by what and who and the things that we decide to be influenced by it.

What are we looking to get from that?

I want to take a sociology approach to this and not say what.

Right.

We can start with what, but ultimately it's always a who.

Because if it's an Xbox game or video games, there's a who behind.

Right.

There's a who behind the what.

And I'm not saying Satan necessarily.

Okay.

That's not where I'm going with it.

But there's always a track back, right, to the who is behind the influencing of people.

And so the what is merely the tool that they use in order to influence.

So I do.

I truly think that that's the case.

And I'm not saying a lot of times it's not the devil trying to scoop things up.

I'm not saying that either.

But I'm not ultimately saying, like every.

Every video game is Satan trying to corrupt you or anything like that.

Yeah.

But still, we don't even sometimes realize that we are accepting influence.

Because it's very sly.

It's very sly.

I mean, think about it.

I'm going to give a quick warning.

If you have small kids in the car or anywhere that you're listening to this and you want to keep the magic of certain seasons from going away, you may want to pause.

Yeah.

Give that moment.

Also, just for the record, I do make sure that everyone, like all YouTube, knows that this is not necessarily for children.

Not that they can't listen to it, but I would definitely listen to it first.

They might be in the background.

That being said, so you remember it was, what, a little over 100 years ago?

No more than a little more than 100 years ago.

What is it?

How long it was that Coca Cola.

Basically was about a hundred.

It was a little more.

A little more than a hundred years ago.

The beginning of the 19th.

Yeah, Coca Cola.

Right.

Coca Cola was, you know, found out that they were mainly selling soda in the summer, some a little bit in the fall, a little bit in the spring, but mostly in the summer months.

Especially now down here in Florida, it feels like summer all the time.

So their sales were probably more so bad.

But up north, where I originally lived, yeah, that made sense because it gets cold and they're like, I don't want the sugar and all that.

I want something that makes me feel better inside.

And so they were trying to figure out a way to get people to buy more soda, more Coca Cola in the winter.

And so what they came up with, I kid you not, was to take three different people, put them together into one story, and they made Santa Claus.

That's right.

And back then, although Christmas was observed, but it wasn't observed anywhere like it is today.

It was observed.

And you'd go to church and you'd recognize the birth of the Lord.

But Easter was the holiday because the resurrection is way more like, boom.

This is the thing for the Christian life.

And I still agree with that.

But they came up with this Santa Claus guy.

They combined Kris Kringle and St. Nicholas and St. Somebody.

Santa Coloma, whatever it is.

Anyway, they put them all together.

Kris Kringle was one of them.

They put them all together into one person that suddenly is wearing Coca Cola colors and drinks Coca Cola, and boom.

Changed the entire culture.

They changed the entire culture in a way to influence people to drink more Coca Cola.

Right.

Do you realize, like.

And we don't even see it, like, now.

Yeah, it makes sense.

We see Coke.

Santa Claus with a Coke in his hand.

We're like, yeah, of course Santa Claus likes it.

We've gotten kind of accustomed to it.

But the whole purpose, even to the point of, like, when you think of a polar bear during.

During.

Oh, yeah, polar bears.

That's Coca Cola.

You think of Coca Cola.

Yeah, Right.

Like, and what's crazy is that that influenced culture in such a way that even, like, you can make fun of this all you want, but then every other religion wants to.

Like, suddenly there's more emphasis on Hanukkah.

Suddenly there's more emphasis on Kwanzaa.

And so everybody felt like they needed to step up, because now Christmas is this great big thing, and it hurts our checkbooks and our credit scores every year.

But, yeah, but that's what influencing can do.

That was actually a purposeful, strategic influence on the American people to try to.

Or in the world, really, to try to sell more Coca Cola in the winter.

Isn't that amazing?

And so that's an example of something on a grand scale.

But sometimes it's just the little things we don't even realize we see.

And suddenly something is promoted as more better quality.

Something is promoted as, you know, more in style.

Whatever it is, something is the new idea.

You know, we talked.

Look at.

Look at Apple, right?

Like, Apple, whenever we were younger, right?

I don't know about the atmosphere around Apple now because I've removed myself so far away from Apple that, you know, But Apple, whenever we were younger, we're talking, like, when Siri just came out and the iPhone just came out and all those.

Like, that was like, you were almost, like, not better than, but close to it.

Like, if you had an Apple product, you know, it was like they had this, like, way about them that it was the better product and that it was for people who were, you know, wiser, more intelligent, you know, that.

That look that cooler than whatever.

Yeah, exactly.

And so, like, the whole, like, generation of people that bought into that, I feel like have some of that in them, you know, and those of us who absolutely despise it, we lack some of the qualities of, like, you know, thinking highly of ourselves, you know, Like, I don't know, but that's one in.

That's one instance.

Right.

Like there's, I mean it's just all kinds of stuff.

I mean, Apple did change the game.

They changed the phone game forever.

Sure.

And not to say they didn't change the computer.

Oh, well, they did.

They did.

I mean they changed what graphic design standards had to be.

Right.

Everything.

There was so much.

Well, computers, yes.

Graphics, yes.

All that video editing, all that stuff.

I mean I used to be a graphic Designer back in 2004, 2005 and that's all we used.

That was the industry standard.

And it's still kind of today.

Honestly, I think that it is the standard today still because of history, not because of necessary quality anymore.

I think that qualities in both have risen to the point of the programs are pretty much the same.

The ones that you're going to use the top people, you can get it on both styles, you can get it on any computer and the graphics are just as good on one as the other.

They're comparable now.

Yeah, I use some of the same software I used back then that was just Apple.

I mean, realistically, you didn't try to use it off of a Mac back then.

But now I use a lot of those programs on window based computers.

What's interesting is Windows did the same thing for Apple in a way and that was the gamers.

Right.

They influenced Apple to the point of stepping up what they allowed and what they worked with because they had to adapt.

And I think that, I think something that's important to note is that sometimes something being used to influence another, it spurs on healthy growth, healthy competition, healthy things, things to move forward.

Well, you hit an interesting thing.

So I think there's a lot of brands and stuff and that are trying to influence people, the masses.

But I also know, I mean we recently in our recent history have found we have an example of when the masses influenced the companies.

Yeah.

For instance, a great example of this is when Sonic the Hedgehog the movie was made.

Originally, when they decided to make the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, they had a different design for Sonic.

It did not look like Sonic.

And when it got leaked or when they started putting out kind of preview.

People lost their minds.

They lost their minds and basically said, no, if you continue to make this, we're not seeing it, it's gonna bomb.

We hate you.

And it was to an extent that they took it serious.

Oh yeah.

They went back to the, they went back to the drawing board and they remade it to look like the Sonic from the video Games.

And then they've made three movies.

Yeah.

And I've heard they've all been good.

I haven't seen them.

I think I've seen at least two of them.

But, yeah, I mean, they've made three.

Movies, I think, and a series, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So there's all.

Because they listen to the people.

And then most recently, this is the one that makes me chuckle a lot.

And this is more current events.

But Cracker Barrel, that was really funny because Cracker Barrel decides that it's going to go ahead and revamp itself.

It comes out with this new.

Well, I called it vanilla graphic of what their logo's gonna look like.

They're gonna redo the stores.

And the American people were like, yeah.

No.

Was that all legit?

Did they actually do that?

Oh, it was completely legit.

Really?

Yeah.

I thought it was a joke.

Cause it got so much hate and was so, like, teased on all of the different places that I just figured it was a big.

A big joke.

That's the thing.

It was serious.

They came out.

The CEO, I think she got fired.

The CEO at the time came out and were like, yeah, we're really proud of this.

And she showed the new logo, and they took the old dude in the Cracker Barrel off the sign, which was like, what are you doing?

There's no real reason for that at all.

And they were taking something that was like a beloved American tradition.

There's Cracker Barrel in every state.

And they were going to blend it down and make it more corporate and, well, tasteless, to be honest with you.

And the American people were like, no.

Their stock started sky dropping out of the sky.

They were getting a lot of messages of, well, we'll call it hate.

We'll summarize it.

In the hate mail.

They were getting a lot of hate mail about don't do this, how can you betray us kind of thing.

It was bad.

People were like, yeah, I can never eat a Cracker Barrel again.

I can't imagine it was designed to be nostalgic.

Oh, yeah.

For a time that our grandparents and older had and lived in.

And I can understand trying to make an appeal for people, more modern times.

But the whole thing is built around nostalgia.

Like the checkerboard.

Every single time you go in, there's a checkerboard, at least one set up ready to play just in the middle of the restaurant and chairs to sit around.

They like the peg game.

Right.

The peg game is on every other table, which is annoying.

It should be on every table.

Right.

So, like, you gotta steal it from another table in order to play the peg game that you're gonna lose.

Sometimes you're missing a couple pegs.

No, I get you.

And the funny thing is that.

Yeah, you're so right.

My grandmother, my great grandmother, my great grandmother had probably five of those peg games in her house that she had stolen from Cracker Barrel.

Right.

So like, for real, I grew up playing that game at my great grandmother's house.

And so that nostalgia of that is even.

You see, that's the thing.

And I guess they were threatening to change a lot of things.

I don't know what all was gonna be taken away, but I know they were gonna change enough.

The American people's voice got real loud.

And then Cracker Barrel backed down.

They were like, no, okay, we're going back to our old logo.

Did they change it?

Did they actually get it changed?

Or was that like a.

They promoted that they were gonna change the logo to this new thing that's very.

Just the name Cracker Barrel.

Very bland.

Sure, sure.

I like to call it vanilla.

Very vanilla.

And they're like, okay, fine, we're gonna go back to our old thing.

I'm sorry.

And they immediately started back.

So they hadn't actually converted?

No, they hadn't gone too far yet.

Oh, that's, that's good because that would have cost even more money.

Well, it cost them a lot just because, I mean, they, they lost a lot of money on that deal.

That was a hard fault lesson for them to, you know, and it didn't take long.

It really didn't.

But so like I said, you can be influenced by companies.

Companies, we can influence companies.

And, and quite honestly, I mean, that's really what makes a free market work, is those two things.

But now even in a not free market, Right.

Like even in a communist country, like propaganda, right.

Like anywhere you go, there's propaganda.

Church, there's propaganda.

And in the United States there's propaganda.

In China there's propaganda.

Right.

We, we like to label it as information, but really it's, it can be both.

Right.

Two things can be true at once.

Right.

Like I'll steal that line from Ben Shapiro and say, like it's the information that we're putting out there saying this is truth and trying to get everyone to believe us.

Right?

Yeah.

Now oftentimes it's used in a negative connotation.

Yeah.

But really it's just trying to get people to believe what you're believing.

Right.

So influencing.

Well, I mean, this propagandal style propagandal.

Propaganda okay, so anyway, yeah.

So then it becomes, okay, so what are we allowing.

Okay, what is it?

The things in our lives that we are allowing to influence us.

You know, and social media is one of those things that, honestly, I will say this.

So I had to make some changes in my life because some things that were influencing me in very negative ways, like watching too much news.

For me, I start to feel terrible because a lot of news is negative.

It really is.

Whether it's the news and it's just the truth and that's really what's going on there or not.

I get so tired of it that it starts to weigh on me.

I can feel my psyche changing in a negative way.

So that's one thing I had to really cut back on how much news I was intaking as well as what sources that I was looking at, because it was just really.

It was taking.

So another thing that I had to change in my life was came to sports.

So I'll give you, for instance.

So I love.

I like football, right?

I love football, really.

But I. I went too far with football in my life where I. I'll give you, for instance, I.

So I come from the Baltimore area, so.

Baltimore Ravens fan.

A normal week for a hardcore Baltimore Ravens fan up in the area is that on Fridays you wear purple or something Ravens.

Because it's purple Friday.

And then you.

Game time's usually Sunday or Monday and you put on your gear and you go someplace or you have people over and the game is a priority.

And the problem is, is that it creates such a culture where everyone's influenced by how the team's doing, you know, and we.

There's.

I mean, it becomes like one of the most important things for people that are into it.

It's the most important thing.

So like, I would watch a game and first off, while I'm watching the game, I'm stressed out because every.

For me, for some reason, every play was important.

Everything they did, good or bad, was like life or death is what it felt like every time I was watching a game.

Whether they won or lost was a big difference on myself.

If they won, of course I felt great.

I felt like I'd go into my week if they lost.

I felt like I was going in the week more, you know, depressed and such a bad.

It was changing me in dramatic ways where, like.

And that's where it actually started to become kind of an idol in my life where when I'm allowing the outcome of a football game to influence whether I am going to be okay or not going into the next week.

You know, if I'm putting all my hopes into football and not something greater like, of course, God, then it's an idol in my life.

And I realized that, man, I don't.

Why am I doing this to myself?

Why am I allowing these things to have such an influence, such a hold on me, you know?

And so, yeah, news had to go, sports had to go.

And I realized the big ones for me, football was number one.

I gotta careful.

Hockey, I love hockey in person.

Hockey is not bad for me, but watching hockey on TV stresses me out.

Yeah.

And I also have to be careful with.

Baseball's not so bad.

I can do that.

I can get away with that.

Okay.

I have to be careful with things like.

Well, I used up.

Up north, we played a lot of lacrosse.

I get way too into lacrosse games.

I used to coach.

So, like, that definitely used.

I can't even enjoy a game because I'm analyzing it the whole time and basically just.

I just get too into it, as if I'm on the field being competitive.

It's ridiculous.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

So, yeah, I had to clean that out.

Had to just go, okay, this is too much.

And I mean, I know what.

You know what I'm talking about.

And social media is also something that I think I've had to step back from a lot.

At one point in my life, I was on a lot of it a lot, all the time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I took a. Oh, man, probably a two year, two and a half year break from Facebook.

And I mean, I obviously had the ability to post to certain pages because of the truth response and other things, but I didn't actually have Facebook proper that I ever used.

And recently I got back on because the only way that you can sell on Marketplace is to have the actual app.

And so that re ruined me.

I doom scroll.

Now it's more on.

On the reels.

And I've, like, it has.

It has hit a nail on the head too, with like, what I want to see.

There's a dude on there who.

It's all millennial stuff.

Almost all of it is millennial stuff.

Millennials talking about our.

Our.

Our history or whatever.

But there's like comedy from this one guy, you know, the one lady, the influencer I was telling you about earlier.

There's a few.

There's a few pastors that pop up, which is great.

Mark Driscoll is one of them, which is weird.

He's on a lot of my.

I have that whole, like, love, hate for Mark Driscoll, because I think a lot of his theology is sound, solid.

But I love him.

I. I have an issue with the way he presents himself sometimes is all.

So I think there's a heart issue somewhere in there.

But I'm not in his circle, so it is what it is.

I don't have.

It's easy to judge from the outside.

I'm a fan of his.

I'm not out there, like, waving a flag.

Okay, Right, right.

But I do enjoy a lot of his content and I do enjoy a lot of his thoughts on things.

He's got some fun, hot takes.

Oh, he does.

He's got.

It's entertaining.

So I get what you're saying there.

Yeah.

So I have certain people that Facebook has picked up that I enjoy watching the algorithms, including.

Yeah, the algorithms, including some D and D content, you know, Dungeons and Dragons content.

But as much as these things influence us, what about.

I think we touched on it.

I think we touched on it last week a little bit.

But what about the people that we have actually in our lives?

Yeah, so, I mean.

Well, we talked about it a little bit.

Is the kind of people that we like watch, because we talked about the kind of people that we kind of reach up to.

To influence us and help us to get to another level.

There's different preachers that I listen to, Bible teachers.

I listen to different voices.

Sometimes I listen to different.

But Driscoll's one.

I don't necessarily listen to watch his stuff to be better.

I just enjoy his perspectives.

I listen to different perspectives on scripture and stuff like that.

So.

Yeah, but those are very.

For the most part, they're all very positive influences on me where I'm trying to saturate myself in the word and different word type perspectives, different faith thoughts and ideas and all that stuff.

But I mean, there's also people we listen to because they make us laugh.

There's comedians.

There's good ones.

Nate Bargazzi is my favorite right now.

I think his timing and perspective on things is really funny.

There's a crew of people out of New Zealand that I watch.

I love their skits.

I think they're really funny.

It's basically around tech and video games and stuff like that.

And it's just.

They're fun, so they pop up a lot.

But I'm usually just trying to stay positive.

I like a lot of positive influences.

Too much negativity once again, drags me down.

And then.

I mean, really, that's.

That's okay.

But, like, let's hit on that real quick.

Yeah.

Can something be a.

Have the feeling of positivity and be negative and be not the right thing for you to be intaking?

Oh, sure, sure.

Because there's plenty of things that, you know, bring me happiness that are not good for me.

Right.

Especially when we're talking about like outside content.

Yeah.

You know, talking.

You know, there's comedians that are not uplifting for the name of God at all that I'll snicker and laugh at.

Right.

So yeah, there's times where, you know, it's one thing to peer in and see what's being talked about, but if you're watching a lot of things like these guys that you're talking about on a regular basis, where sometimes they just, they speak really crudely, use a lot of language or maybe are talking about subject matter, that's just not something you would talk about on a normal basis.

This stuff's influencing your mind and the way you're thinking, whether you want it to or not.

Like if you use a lot of language, that language is now saturated in your mind.

If you, if they're talking about a lot of, I don't know, risque things, maybe that stuff's gonna be on your mind.

Self centered things.

Oh yeah.

I mean even just the self centered stuff like that influences you over time.

I mean, it doesn't take long for you to start in that same pattern, you know, that's why it's important to.

What is it?

Effusions for 429.

Right.

Like, don't let anything unwholesome come from your mouth.

It's not just because they're hearing it, but you're also hearing it and you're gonna soak that in.

And so the more that you're hearing that negativity, that selfishness, the more you're gonna start adapting to it.

Yeah, I don't like.

So some comedy, for instance, is like complaining comedy.

And although sometimes that's funny, listening to too much of that puts you in a complaining mindset.

Sure.

Where you're just looking at the world to try to pick it apart and find things that are.

Well, to complain about.

Yeah.

I mean there's all kind of things, it's anything that we want to saturate ourselves with.

So for instance, like my son really likes watching cop shows, shows about police officers, he or SWAT or anything like that.

He really likes watching them.

And I looked at my one son the other day, I was like, you know, I see you've been watching a lot of this.

And he said, Yeah.

I said, are you.

I mean, have you.

Are you considering, like, police work?

And he said, well, you know, sometimes I do.

And I'm thinking myself, well, is that because you're watching a lot of cop shows, or is that because you do and you're just kind of, like, wondering, you know, where does it come from?

Which I don't see that as bad, by the way.

I love police officers.

I grew up.

My dad was a fireman, and both our dads were firemen.

I grew around heroes all the time.

You know, the guys run into danger and everybody's running away.

Although in the firefighter circles, we don't want our kids to become cops.

Honestly, I.

Don't say it.

Don't say it.

I'm just saying if my kids choose to help people, that'll be good, honestly.

So.

No, but, you know that's what my last name means, right?

What?

Helper.

Really?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Look it up.

It's actually biblical.

Anyway, so you know what job is.

Also a helper, right?

What?

Fireman.

Fireman, yeah, fireman.

That's what my dad was.

Anyway, that's just for the firemen out there, maybe.

Listening.

I can think about, like, the things that I watched as a kid.

My dad and my brother and I, we would sit down and we watch a lot of, like, war movies.

It's amazing how that shapes your mind.

Oh, yeah, you start thinking about war a lot.

You start thinking about getting ready for war and what it would be to have to be ready for battle and things.

But there's another take on that, too, because, like, you.

You also have a healthy relationship with history.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, I love history.

And a lot of the people that.

That really, really enjoy war movies have a healthy love for.

For history.

Yeah.

Me, on the other hand, don't really care for war movies.

There's a couple of good ones out there that I don't mind watching, but I don't care about history at all.

And so that tracks.

I think that tracks really well.

Like, my wife loves war movies.

She's the history buff.

She loves it.

And sometimes one influences the other and the other influences the one, but it's something that you're bringing it up.

And as much as you're, like, thinking through what you're talking about, but also, like.

Like, I wonder how much of that has shaped how much you might enjoy history and knowing why things got to.

That point or, you know, I think it.

For me, I think so.

You know, I'm a very visual person, and even as I read history Books in school, I would turn what I'm reading into, like, little movies in my head and start to visualize all the things that I'm reading.

And I found it was fascinating to see.

Just think about how life was prior to this.

I mean, in fact, my job, my actual job is to look into history and bring out lessons and stories from that.

The Bible is.

In a way, there's a lot of history in it.

You know what I mean?

So I.

And I'm looking into the cultures back then, and I love doing that, and thank God I do, because I'm using it every day.

But.

But I do.

I love looking at ancient cultures and different kinds of people and their theologies and their, you know, just their morals and all these different things and trying to figure out how people operated and how they contributed more or less to how society is now.

And so, yeah, I think that kind of was ingrained in me somehow.

I don't know if it was movies that did it, though.

I think it was fascination.

And I think movies kind of maybe solidified it.

Because being able to watch it.

Because for me, actually watching something is like experiencing it myself.

Because when I'm reading something, I'm creating it in my mind.

I enjoy doing.

So I'm still a pretty avid reader today, and I enjoy doing that.

But when you can sit back and just watch it, it takes a lot of effort.

And you can just.

Instead of thinking about it, you're just enjoying it.

If I'm watching something that's kind of a history piece, even if it's got a cool story, you know, there's some truths in some of the backgrounds of how things happen and such.

So even, like, I'll give you an example.

So two big war movies.

Okay, let's talk about one's very known.

It's called the Patriot, you know, and it's a Mel Gibson film, Heath Ledger, such like that.

And it's a very entertaining film.

And it's a story that's mostly made.

Up, let's say historical fiction.

Yes.

But it's got a lot of historical reference points.

There are truths in it that the fiction is put into.

So that stuff always fascinated me is to think about what actually happened as compared to what you're watching it.

And then you have movies that are trying to almost reenact history.

One that I watched a lot was a movie called Gettysburg.

Growing up.

Now, I grew up not far from Gettysburg, so I've been there and I visited.

It's a really long movie.

It's actually one of the best Jeff Daniels movies ever.

Never seen it.

Oh, it's so good.

But it's a whole movie about everything that led up to the Battle of Gettysburg on both sides.

It talks about both sides, their different perspectives and the things that they were thinking about and even the aftermath and how they were really linked together.

So it was almost like brothers fighting against each other.

It's so good.

It was done really, really well.

There's a newer movie out called Midway.

Midway.

I haven't seen that one yet.

Super good.

And it does the same.

Does the same thing.

And from what I understand, like, we did some research on the movie and it's about as accurate as you can get to having experienced it kind of a thing, so.

And that was.

That was a phenomenal movie and opened my eyes to a lot of the things that happened during that Pearl harbor time.

I soak stuff like that up and the historical nuggets I love so much.

There's things that they always have to take into some artistic licensing.

Even with shows like, I loved the show like Band of Brothers, that was on hbo.

Loved it.

To me, when it comes to, like, World War II style movies or shows, I think it's the top of the list.

I think it's gotta be the top of the list.

Well, and think about, okay, so we're talking about, you know, films that influence us in different ways, Right.

Think about, like when Saving Private Ryan came out.

Oh, yeah, Love that film, by the way.

The influence that it had on, like, society.

Yeah.

I mean, that's something you then thought about on a regular basis, you know.

Yeah, you start to think about, well, you know, what's funny is that movies like that tend to.

They do influence us.

They make us feel more patriotic and they make us feel more sense of appreciation for our military.

Some would take things like that and be like, well, it's all part of the agenda, maybe, but it's not such a bad thing for those that are out there.

And the reason they're out there is to defend freedom.

And the reason they're out there is to sacrifice themselves, be willing to put themselves down in order to help lift other people up.

I said, I think that's worth, you know, appreciating.

And plus, it's interesting to see, you know, how things came about and such like that.

Well, those kinds of movies, though, also, like, have a different type of influence on us.

Where Heartstrings, for instance, like movies like that or the Passion of the Christ, or that one even.

Even as much as the Chosen or whatever.

Those.

Those films have a certain impact on us and influence on us.

Where movies like the Matrix have a different kind of influence on us.

Right.

Like, they don't have that.

Like, oh, I'm kind of interested in World War II.

Or I'm kind of interested in Bible times.

You know, like, it goes from this.

Like, it doesn't even have to be, like, real.

Right.

Like Noah.

Right.

Oh, terrible film.

Right.

Horrible film.

But it does cause people to go, I'm interested.

What is.

You know what?

This is so different from the actual.

Everything I've heard.

Like, what's.

What's to go back.

Go back.

And if it inspired anyone to go back and actually see what the Bible actually says, then that's an amazing thing that that movie did.

Right.

That's not the only good thing that I think that movie could have done.

That was.

That was actually kind of what the people that did the show, the Chosen wanted to do.

They wanted to inspire people to go back and read the stories.

And I think it works.

I know that because for me, I was influenced by one of their episodes to go back and read a story again.

It was the episode from season two.

They did A Calling of Nathaniel.

And I loved that episode so much.

It brought a whole different light and depth to that.

And it's such a simple.

It's such an easy part of the Bible to almost skim over.

It's easy to not get that.

But when you read.

Watch that episode, then you go back to the Scripture, it brings a whole different perspective into that part of it.

And I love how it did it so much.

Of course, I'm a little obsessive about these things now.

Let's use that.

Right.

It's something that most of our listeners can probably identify with.

The.

The chosen.

Right, Right.

And let's talk about idols.

Yeah.

Because I would.

I would go as far to say that if when you're reading scripture, the first thing that comes to your mind is the chosen, you probably are using the chosen as an idol.

Yeah.

Right.

And.

And the reason I say that is because we don't want to.

I'm gonna teach some people some big words.

Right.

We don't want to use eisegesis.

Right.

Eisegesis is whenever you read your own thoughts and knowledge and understanding into the text of the Bible, where exegesis, which is the good thing.

Right.

You're taking what the context of the Bible says, and you're learning from it.

You're pulling the wisdom from it.

So two big words, really fun words.

You can Share that with your friends and blow their mind that you have some big Bible words.

But we want to be careful not to, not to read our thoughts, our outside knowledge into what scripture is saying because that is going to influence how we actually act upon our beliefs.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah.

It's important.

You want to know what it's saying.

What does the Bible tell us?

Not are we trying to tell the Bible?

And you're right.

I mean, I do love shows.

Like, I mean, you got your Passion of Christ, you got your chosen.

And actually one of my.

I love as a hobby is I'll try to find how God is represented in almost any media out there.

I've told you, you and I have talked about this before.

I love just seeing how he's represented or different people of the Bible and I just want to see how it is.

And I think it's not that I'm trying to necessarily learn from those.

I'm just, I love seeing how it is represented and how close it gets to what the Bible says.

I love comparing the two.

And I also, it helps me as a minister to not only youth, but even adults to know what's out there.

So I know what I need to counter.

Well, let's remove the minister part of that too and just say, like, as Christians, it allows us to relate God to people.

Yeah.

In a way that like Paul did.

Right.

And what was it?

Athens.

Right.

So I think it was Athens.

Right.

When he talked about the unknown God.

Right.

Yeah.

That whole bit.

Now we told people to go read that last week.

Yeah.

Acts 17.

Yeah.

So I remember this.

When it comes to that, we can also, we can do the same thing with movies like the Matrix.

Yeah.

We're like, hey, you know, it's funny where Neo is the chosen one who was supposed to bring about, you know, that reconciliation with all these people and Machine World and all that stuff.

Like we have one of those in real life and that's Jesus.

You know, like we can take, we can take those things and use them to shift and inform people.

Ultimately.

I mean, one of the things that we.

It would be amiss if we didn't get to this, but I mean, ultimately what we want to be influenced by the most is God is Jesus.

Absolutely.

You know, he is our example.

If we're going to be influenced by anything in this world, it should be Him.

And obviously one of the best ways to do that.

Well, you have to be in relationship.

That's a part of it.

But like read the Bible.

His word is how he communicates with us the number one way.

He communicates with us.

And so if you're saturating yourself with that, if you're being influenced by God's word, if you're being influenced by Jesus, and that's the most positive thing, that's the best thing that we can do.

What's amazing is that what people will trade that for, and that's what an idol.

We have some strong idols in the world right now, and people don't see them as idols, but that's what they are like, all right, controversial, what I'm about to say, but Taylor Swift.

Sure.

Okay.

Taylor Swift, for a lot of people, is an idol.

They buy all her posters or her albums and they go.

And they willing to spend stupid money to go see her sing some songs.

Look, I'm not saying she's a terrible singer or anything like that, but that's it.

I've seen some of the ticket prices.

They're outrageous.

And yet these are same kind of people that have a hard time opening up their wallets for Jesus.

And I'm not saying just tithing or anything.

Like, just anytime they see a need, if God were to call them to open up their wallets for him, they'd be real hesitant.

But if Taylor Swift has something else, then they get real quick to it.

And that's just one example.

And scripture backs that up, though.

Scripture talks about where your treasure is there your heart is also.

And so.

And that's.

You're right.

It's not just money that we're talking about, but when you're willing to sacrifice.

Yeah.

To go.

To go.

To see.

To these other idols.

These other idols.

Yes.

Even.

Even to the extent of, like, we joke about not joking, but we say idol.

They're idols.

But I mean, even we have shows called, like, American Idol.

Oh, yeah, right.

That's all about becoming an idol.

An idol.

Something that.

Something that people are focused upon and hold up and look to.

Right.

I remember when that.

When that show came out.

When that show came out.

I remember.

It's a dumb show.

Oh, I.

It's a dumb show.

I remember thinking about the name, and I'm like, that's just a terrible name.

Like, who thought that was a great idea?

I mean, I get where they're going with it, but it.

57 seasons later, it's still a dumb idea.

Are they still.

They're not still doing it.

Yes, they are.

Are.

They are.

American Idol is still going.

I remember, like, a couple people that were on the show.

The first one, I Think Kelly Clarkson, I think she's still, you know, she's still going.

She's still got a lot of stuff going on for her.

Daltry was on it.

Philip Phillips.

And I think that's where I stop.

So who else do people use as idols?

Well, I mean.

Well, you got musicians, you've got actors.

I mean, let's.

Politicians.

Be specific.

Let's be specific.

Let's throw some names out there so that people can, like, be thinking.

I mean.

Cause when you generalize, it's easy to not identify.

Right.

Okay, so if we're going politician, let's talk.

Donald Trump.

Let's talk.

We'll talk about the.

They made idols out of him and Kamala Harris in the last election.

Sure.

You know, if you're talking about actors, you have some people.

Nicholas Cage.

Right.

Nick.

Number one actor of all time.

No, number one.

You got.

I love Nicholas.

Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro.

Anne Hathaway.

Ryan Reynolds.

These people are highly influential.

Hugh Jackman.

Hugh Jackman, yeah.

Great.

Yeah.

And so, I mean, you put these faces, names.

You got singers you have.

And it's every genre that's out there.

You have, you know, you have Green Day.

Billy from Green Day, he's pretty influential, but.

And he's on one side, then on the other side of rock music, you have, like, Aaron Lewis, stuff like that, as well as big bands.

You have, like.

Metallica is very influential.

Ozzy Osbourne, he just passed away.

The late Ozzy Osbourne.

But a lot of people were influenced by him.

And his life.

His life and his body of work changed people.

He changed the game for the music industry.

The Beatles were idols.

Let's hit a little closer to home.

Brandon Lake, Maverick City, Elevation, Hillsong.

Right.

You're trying to.

No, no.

Those are idols for some people.

Well, I.

They become the standard.

Right.

I hate to think that they're the standard.

I enjoy their music.

I'm not saying listening to them makes them an idol.

I don't think that listening to Metallica makes them an idol in your life.

No, no, no, no.

So I'm saying people, when we're talking it, becoming an idol, right.

You're holding it above God.

Yeah, well, I mean, you can do that with even any of these influencers.

You got the guys like Ben Shapiro out there, unfortunately.

And actually, at this point, it'll be old news.

Charlie Kirk, who was just shot and killed, he has passed away.

Did he really?

He passed away.

I just got messaged as that's what I was looking at.

So this was the day he got shot is when we're recording this, by the way.

And it just happened.

And so I just got news that he's passed away.

Way.

Charlie Kirk, big influencer.

I actually really liked him.

I thought he's had a lot of great things to say about a lot of things, but unfortunately, he has just passed away, and I'm actually really sad about that.

I'm dealing with that.

I'm grieving with that.

Hopefully.

We're hoping to actually have an episode kind of related to topics like that here soon.

We wanted to have it today, but it didn't work out.

Yeah.

So these people, they influence people, and sometimes they get raised up on a platform.

And in this case, he was raised up to the point where people saw him as someone to not only love, but in this case, someone that somebody wanted to hate to the point of complete violence.

And his life was taken from him today.

And I am actually, as I'm speaking, I can feel myself mourning because that's just terrible.

And I mean, just for a moment to speak on him, like, he used his great platform to push biblical.

Oh, yeah.

Even though he was a major, you know, political guy.

Right.

He often recited scripture to back his beliefs.

And so that.

That's.

This is a tough pill to swallow because he's younger than me.

31.

Yeah, he was 31.

31.

And that.

That's wild.

And so for a moment analyzing that, like, what has become idols that has led to that.

Right.

I said I want to take a sociological approach to some degree.

Yeah.

The idols that we have allowed us to.

Have allowed to influence us to get to a point where we think it's okay to end the life of someone who we disagree with.

It is elevating self first off, above others.

Right.

Because my views, my thoughts, my.

My wants and desires are better, greater, and worth more than yours in that.

In that view.

And honestly, all that does is causes chaos.

Idolatry is.

Is a chaos bringer because it does not unify.

Something I wanted to say earlier about influencers and people that are in your life that influence you is you can have two types of people, and that's it.

There's two types of voices.

One type of person is someone who is edifying.

I would call them maybe the glad category.

They edify.

They bring up.

They bring joy.

Right.

Not an emphasis on happiness, but happiness can be associated with.

And then the other category is the mad category, and that's the mutually assured destruction category.

Because the more that pours into you and the more that you watch it the more that they're going to make that content and both parties are turned to destruction whenever that becomes the idol.

So I just want to say for those out there who are so heavily influenced by anything, Anything in your life that it makes you think that your views and thoughts and ways are better than.

Than other people's thoughts and ways, I would say check yourself, because like the angel that met Joshua on the road, our stance needs to be, I'm not for you or against you.

I'm for the Lord.

And so his ways are not our ways, and his thoughts are not our thoughts.

They're so much more above our thoughts and ways.

So we need to make sure that that becomes our focus of worship.

So.

Yeah, that's wild.

I think we should head to wrapping up.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I want to say real quick, you know, if, you know, for those.

I want to, you know, by the time this episode comes out, it's going to be, you know, many days later, but, you know, I want to just say, you know, obviously, let us be in prayer for Charlie Kirk's family and those people that have loved him and the people that have supported him.

You even looked up to him to a degree, hopefully in a healthy manner, of course, as we have been speaking.

But this is a hard time at this point.

This is kind of almost the definition of a martyr.

He goes out and he stands up for what he believes in.

In this case, a lot of biblical truth that did come from his mouth, and he was willing to say it unapologetically.

And now somebody has silenced that voice.

It's a tragedy.

And so I hope that.

I hope that we can find healing, and I hope the people that are called to be voices in this world are not scared back from doing that now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Heavy stuff.

That's solid.

Yeah.

Yep.

So what are you being influenced by?

I want to know.

I want you to tell us.

What are influences in your life?

I'm not going to ask you to name your idols, but if you want to name things that you are realizing are your idols or something that was an idol or something that was an idol, go ahead and mention that.

But what are some things or people that are influencing you?

Is it something that, you know, others should be influenced by?

Is.

Is your standard for you the same as your standard would be for others?

Where, you know, like, for me, and similar to, like, I allow myself to be influenced by things that I would never let my daughter be influenced by.

And so is that right?

Should I be doing that?

Should.

Should, you know, are you Allowing yourself to be influenced by things that you would never want someone else to be influenced by and vice versa.

Are you being influenced by something that you think others should be influenced by?

We want to know.

Let us know.

In fact, that's actually what we're trying to be.

We are almost influencers.

Yeah, we're almost there.

But that is the, you know, we are the truth response.

And this is, you know, we want to talk about God's truth and what, how we should be thinking about things versus, you know, and the realities of what they are.

And so hopefully that's what we were able to do today to a degree.

And maybe that influenced you a little bit, hopefully in a positive way.

Keep reading your scripture and draw close to Jesus once again.

He's the number one idol.

He is God.

So if anyone deserves our attention and our energy and to be influenced by, it's him.

And so keep drawing close to him.

Allow him to guide your life, your thoughts, your paths, all of it.

And hopefully that'll help you also steer clear of some of these other things.

Not everything is bad, but sometimes too much of something can be.

Yep.

Everything in moderation.

Yep.

So thank you.

Like, subscribe, share, comment, comment.

Invite your neighbor.

Invite your neighbor for sure.

Shameless Plug.

I've got a song out.

It's on Spotify.

It's happening lots of places.

So it is called Light has Come and the band name is Breath and Bone.

Taken from dry bones coming flesh, you know.

But so Breath and Bone, song name Light has Come.

Check it out.

Let me know what you think.

Yeah, and God bless.

Hey, thanks for joining us.

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