(0:00)What is the "Soft Life"?
PF has your life been soft these days? Has my life been soft these days? Relatively. Yeah, it's been soft. I mean softer than a lot of people's have been. In what? In what capacity? It's soft. Soft is soft now. No, soft is not soft for everybody. Everybody's capacity. Everybody's like example of soft is different. I have a roof over my head. Doesn't leak. Okay. I have a bed. Nice. Hot shower. Yeah. I can eat three square meals if I want. I don't. But I can. Yeah. Life is good. Okay. All right. I guess I mean my soft place is being on a yacht unfiltered. Hello, welcome to another episode of PF Unfiltered. My name is Kenneth and my name is Esther Griffin. My name is Po, aka PF unfiltered. Anyways, what's up guys? Thank you guys for all the comments, likes, um all your sharing. We appreciate you guys. We're almost at 20,000 subscribers. This is my excited face. PF, why come you don't get excited that much? I've never been an excitable person. Really? Is that so? Yeah. I'm just, you know, I'm just chill. Oh, okay. Seriously. Okay, sir. Uh, anyways, Kenneth, what are we here to talk about today? Soft lights. How soft? Very soft. Soft. That's Bar Avenue Bakery B bread. Soft. Softer. Okay, speaking of that, this episode is sponsored by Barrow Avenue Bakery. D. They have the best bread in the world. Dun dun. I've told you guys about them multiple times. We no longer buy bread from the grocery stores. We buy our bread specifically from Bear Avenue Bakery. So, if you are local to Dallas, if you're in the area, please feel free to go to bear avenuebakery.com. if I got that right. Barra avenue.com. baravvenue.com. It'll be in the show notes, guys. Um, it's already saved in my history, so I don't even have to really go to too much to get there. Um, but shop bar.com and get your bread. It's your bread. Your soft bread. Soft bread. Just bread. Just breads. Anyways, what about soft life though, Kenneth? Soft life is good. How good? She cuz you're living you're living a soft life, huh? Ah, by the grace of God. Or is it? It's not soft.
(2:30)Is your life actually soft?
It's semi soft. What about for UPF? Has your life been soft these days? Has my life been soft these days? Relatively. Yeah, it's been soft. I mean, softer than a lot of people's have been. In what? In what capacity? It's soft. Soft is soft now. No, soft. It's not soft for everybody. Everybody's capacity. Everybody's like example of soft is different. I have a roof over my head. M. Doesn't leak. Okay. I have a bed. M. Nice. Mhm. Hot shower. Yeah, I can eat three square meals if I want. I don't, but I can. Yeah, life is good. Okay. All right. I guess I mean my soft life is being on a yacht. That's not soft life. That's soft. Being on a yacht that I didn't pay for, all the food that I can get really that I didn't work for. So how would you compare that to the life of So what would you say about people who don't have food? Their life is hard. Had your life where you have food. In fact, you throw away food and you don't have soft life. Everybody's everybody's capacity is different though. Everybody must take what must take dished. Okay. So you've been dished a life is a yet part of the life by by by soon by by God's grace. That's what I want to say. By God's grace. Oh my gosh. That's what I was saying. Oh my gosh. That's what I was but that's what I pray. I pray that my life will be that soft.
(3:56)The lie of a struggle-free life
Okay. So what when you guys talk about soft life, what is that? What what does that mean? A life devoid of hardship and struggle and suffering. That's clearly not a biblical life. Who said the Bible says in this world you will have struggles. You will have challenges. You will have tribulations. So if you are living a life where there are no struggles. There's something wrong with the life you're living. He said take he'd have overcome. Eh overcome what? The struggle. That's not what he said. You see, you see this my problem with y'all, right? You take scripture and you quote it out of context, right? You take one line, I use it to justify the the consumerism and materialism and flagrant extravagant um conspicuous consumption that we now call it summarize soft life. Yeah. No man, that's not scriptural. I agree with you if I'm being honest. Obviously, I know that it's not scriptural, but in the moment, there's no but. There's no but. We can't be adding but after scripture. Why? It has to be full stop. This is what the word of God says and how we live our life. I agree. But this here, you just did it again. I'm trying to segment segment into a different perspective. That's what I want to do. Gotcha. So, it's not a butt. However, there you go. It's still not appropriate, but I'll let I'll let it slide. That was a great one. Thank you. It wasn't actually. My vocabulary is better than two days. Shots fired. T money. I am sorry. For those that are just tuning in, we have um someone that made a comment about today's vocabulary. So, how limited it was. In fact, the person said his bank of words was poor. It's bad if you are poor, but when your bank is poor, so bad, man. Oh my gosh. Oh, certainly. No. Okay, so here's what I'm saying, right? When I think of soft life,
(5:57)When life hits unexpectedly
it's not that I don't think that life is going to be hard. I guess it just when life hits me hard, it's so unexpected that it's like, oh, this is too much. Why is it unexpected, though? Okay, an example, right? I have I have children. Yeah. Okay. My kids are bound to get sick based on just regular regular scientific data, right? they get sick, right? So, I know that at some point in time, I'm going to have to stay up with them at night and do all the things and you know, all the things that you do to make sure that you um help your kid get better. But then when that sickness now turns to something else, right? And then they now say, "Oh, your kid has, you know, God forbid, but yeah, you know, something else, right?" Um, you're like, "This is too much, right?" So now, not only is it just it becomes tribulations, it becomes this is too much and I want a getaway. I want an escape, right? Um and so that's I think because the sufferings are too weighty, I think that's where kind of like this soft life
(7:00)The "Soft Life" in dating
comes. Also in addition to that, I think when it comes to women and dating, you know, I think that's where the kind of phrase kind of came from is like I want a soft life. I don't want a a life where I'm working and doing the the womanly things, right? And so, you know, when you hear someone else to struggle for you. Yeah. Essentially. Yeah. Pretty much. You also want us to bear the burden of life for you. Yeah. Because when you come home, because that person came to this life to suffer. Wait. Wait. Because when you come home, when you come home, we are going to make sure that you have food on the table. We're going to make sure that when you come home, it's soft at home. But we also don't want to, we're doing hard outside and we're doing hard inside. It's amazing, right? that generations of women fought, right? Fought for the right to that's their business. Go out. Wow. That's our business. They'll be so proud of this generation of women because guess what? Some of us are now calling our jobs saying we don't want to do again. They should leave us. We want to be at home and we want to take care of our kids. I think every every generation does the best that they can. But obviously to the point of soft life, that's where, you know, right? I I I think I think for me the challenge is right. The church has in a in a in a way. So so there there levels to this, right? There's the girls who want soft life, so they're looking for a man that has money. Mhm. Right. That's problematic. They also want to work hard, but just not in the same capacity, just effort. They want to work hard at what? The home. Really, that's not what they call soft life. What they want, what they want at home is a retinue of maids. Is that so? Yes. They don't want to be in the kitchen cooking. They don't want to be sweating over amala. Who said that's what they that's that's what I've been told. No, I think it's part of so cooking is up because but here's the thing. Some women don't want to have to come back and cook because they've been out doing 9 to5 then they have to come back and now be doing I think we've been talking to we've been the different women cuz a lot of the women that I have heard they let me speak for me let's be clear for you. Don't worry guys I got I got you. I went to school I went to go and get engineering degree because that's that's what they said I should get. They said that's what they said. I went to go and get education because that's what they fought for. I be no problem. Got it. Now I'm working a 9 to5. The same level of work that they're asking the man to do, they're also asking me to do which I'm capable of doing. Anything that a man could do, a woman can do. I didn't say beta. We don't want to do beta again. We just want to do so we can do. Then we come home. We've now gotten married. The man is like, "Is food not going to be ready?" You two are looking at him like we went to go do the same work outside. We're all contributing to the household. It's too much. But because of traditional roles, right? We're just talking about society. Traditional roles, they now want us to make amala and duke beiri for them. So then you have to come home and be cooking and then you serve the food everybody eats. Where's your time to have to yourself? Unfortunately, right, my wife says something which I I I generally don't subscribe to, but I I think in this scenario, I want to use that expression. Choose your struggle. Choose your hard right because with any of those choices Mhm. is hard, right? That life of um just cooking, just you just at home looking after the kids. Mhm. Right. After two weeks, the same person I'm going to talk about how you're too intelligent for this, right? I have a brain. Why is it that all I'm doing is spending it cooking and cleaning and chasing the two little toddlers around? The same person who wants that life when they get that life is going to be like, you know what, I haven't had adult conversation all day, right? I need to have adult conversation. I need to get out. I need to to to maximize my potential. But in maximizing your potential, which is all well and good, but you also want to be a, you know, I miss being a stay-at-home mom. I miss my kids. I miss this. I miss that. Right? In this world, you will have trouble. You're never going to have a perfect life, right? You're never going to have a perfect world. There's nobody on this planet who has it all. Yeah. Right. It's it's why we see people who have more money than sometimes you think heaven has, right? Still struggling. Yeah. And doing mad things, right? To get something out of life. Yeah. Right. In this world, the reality of the human condition is struggle. Right. We we still struggle to the acquisition of money. But it's more than money. We saw Steve Jobs die with all the money, with all the fame, right, from a disease that was just incurable. Couldn't have been a pleasant experience for him or for the people watching him die. Yeah. Most of us didn't know. We just saw him keep losing weight, right? Right now, people in Iran, doesn't matter how much money you have, those bombs are falling. They're falling around you. Absolutely. You know what I'm saying? Absolutely. Right. So in this world you're going to have struggle and sometimes Christians think that by virtue of Christianity you are exempt from certain things even though the Bible has already said right that you are not exempt in the way that you think you are exempt
(12:05)Did the Apostles suffer?
right God can intervene and um and show mercy on some things right but that intervention is not a given and that intervention is for his own purpose I think also people think that that is a given because they said if you knock the door shall be open when they were stoning Steven knocking and the door to be opened seeking and finding was not talking about money it was talking about him or hardship that's right they was talking about him about finding him God watched them stone Steven didn't interfere being stoned to death is not a pleasant way of dying God watched them cut off John the Baptist's head Yeah. Not pleasant. Didn't intervene. All the apostles, all not one of the apostles of Christ had an a soft life, right? Where did we get that example from? Right. Where is the template for a soft life? Psalms 91. Psalm 91. Psalm 91. It was Paul exempt from Psalm 91. Pause. No. Psalm 91. No, no, no, no, no. Psalm 91 talks about God put it was a prayer. You're right. It was David praying. He wasn't a he who has he wasn't he wasn't how I put it. He wasn't describing he was he was praying. What's Psalm 91? Like she 10,000 by my side. Right. And and look at David's life. Was that soft. Yeah. Right. David was anointed king. Yeah. And became literally from being a a a dismissed despised shepherd to being a dismissed despised fugitive. Mhm. But with the anointing. Yeah. The anointing didn't absolve him from having to live in caves and deal with vagabonds. Nothing soft about that. Yeah. Right. Eating food from the field like a a poa, like a wretch. Nothing soft about that. I want to ask, sorry, I want to go back
(14:02)Psalm 91: Promise or Prayer?
a bit. What about Psalms 91 indicated indicated to you that it may have been soft? So I think it's more of the So we use it like you said PF prayer, right? M. So it seems like you can pray away the hardness. That's what it always felt like. You can you can so so this is what I believe. I believe that you can pray in particular situations about particular things. Right. And God will decide. Right. Whether those things will pass or they will not pass. Gotcha. Some things he will take away. Some things he will give you the strength Mhm. to go through. Mhm. Right. Some things he will you you will it will shape you. The Bible says, "Count it all joy." Joy. Yeah. Right. Because this trial that you're going through is working for you a far greater weight of glory. Bible says that hardship, right, works to your own good in the sense that it creates perseverance, right? That the man of God that we may be perfect lacking nothing unto good works, right? So, so all of these things, all of the scriptures are there, right? that say over and over, particularly under the new covenant. Yeah. Over and over and over that this hard. Yeah. I mean, they say like pressure makes diamonds, right? Right. But why do we keep thinking, right, that you're going to wake up and you're just a diamond, right? They say we woke up like this. Okay, good luck with that. and and and and and I I I I am I I struggle because you see God is not going to bend his word or change who he is to meet the current trend. Mhm. So people are going to be frustrated and as long as the church right Mhm. in order to feel it's a catch 22. You fill your doors by promising people what you cannot deliver. Right. What it then does is that you lose credibility when you don't deliver it because also I think to the opposite end of that when you think about unbelievers that are looking at Christians and like but you said if we come or maybe like new believers if we come to Jesus our life will be better right so I think to your point I think that's also an issue it it is you we lose credibility and and this is also my problem right when people one of the things that people say is that well suffering does not glorify God, right? Yeah. You know that God is not glorified in my suffering. He's not He was glorified when Jesus died on the cross. You can't suffer more than that. Wow. You can't suffer more than that. Was he not glorified in Was he not God glorified in Steven's death? Wow. Was he not glorified in Paul's struggles, right? So, we take the Bible and we turn it upside down, right? That's good. What the B what God does, right, is that he gives us strength for the things that are not going to change, right? He gives us wisdom for the things that are not going to change. Yeah. Right. Some things will change. Yeah. Some situations you will pray and God will move them. Mhm. Right. But some situations will not move. Yeah. Abraham waited 25 years. 25 years. And in 25 years, God did not say one negative thing about Abraham. And we don't I don't think in in our generation, we don't have the stamina to wait 25 years. The reason why we don't have the stamina is because we have not been taught. But so the people that So you're saying the people that are teaching, they're not doing what they're supposed to do. Yes. They're not and we who are so intelligent, we're building agents and AI, we can't read our Bible. Which we get problem. Yeah. So it's not just the teachers, right? It's also the followers. Yeah. Right. The days when uh the followers could blame the teachers are gone with the advent of scripture, right? Of Bibles. Everybody has a Bible in their hands. Right. So you have no excuse, right? There is nobody in the new covenant in the new testament that lived soft life as we define soft life. So where did we get it from? In the old testament there is nobody that live soft life except Solomon. So but even his life wasn't soft in the end. Soft it was soft and it turned him into a into a into a jaded cynical person. Yeah. Excess y I don't even know how to describe solo right. Everyone else went through struggles, but we think, right, we're going to be exempt from those struggles. When the Bible says, "Count it all joy." When you experience struggles, Jesus Christ told his disciples, he said, "Get in the boat and I'll meet you on the other side." Mhm. It doesn't get more you don't get more obedient than that. They got in the boat and what did they meet? Halfway through the storm and Uncle Jesus was sleeping. Sorry, that's another story. But there was another story where he was in the boat with them. They were in a storm. Guy was sleeping. Right. So, so I look at these things. They've been a storm both places. That's why Jesus walked on water. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, so for me, right, I I struggle with that theology because it got me to a point where I almost walked away from the faith, right? Where I was just like this thing is fake, man. Right. But then when I realized that it is not about material comfort, it's deeper than that. Right? Let me tell you what wins people to Christ is not your circumstances. How you handle your circumstance. Right? You can be rich and nobody will come to Christ because of you. They can see your wealth and your conspicuous consumption and nobody will be moved to follow God because of you. Mhm. Right. What they will want is what you have, not the God that you serve. Yeah. Right. So they come to your God on the premise of well he's going to give me all the gold and shiny objects that you have. They're not interested in him. Yeah. He's become a means to an end. Right. It's just another method. Yeah. Right. You can be that poor and the way you handle your poverty draws people to Christ. Yeah. Right. Look at the um the the way people were giving their lives in the old in the New Testament after uh Pentecost. Mhm. Right. The the growth of the church, we always forget that the church was growing exponentially, right? At a rate that we have not seen even today anywhere, even in Africa. Yeah. By the thousands. And these were this was in the middle of the worst poverties, right? The worst diseases, right? This
(20:30)Does suffering glorify God?
was at a time when you know life expectancy was what 30, 35, 40 really or less. Yeah. Right? This was a time when people could not even afford to bury their dead. They left them in where disease was rampant where you could wake up in the morning and the Roman army had come and killed and destroyed the whole village. There was no Geneva convention. If there was war, everybody was dying. Everybody was getting raped. Yeah. But people were giving their lives to Christ. This was a time when people were being thrown to lions. People were being thrown to lions to be eaten by lions. Yeah. And they were giving their lives to Christ. And in the lion's den there, it was that how many people were rescued from the lion's den? One. Thank you. How many were thrown over the years into the lion's den? Many. So, and they were Christians. But people didn't stop giving their lives to Christ. In fact, it got so powerful that the whole Roman Empire became Christian, right? They were the oppressors. They saw the oppression and the way the people handled the oppression, they gave their lives to Christ. The Roman emperor became a Christian. Yeah. Cuz he was like, "What? what's going on with these Christians? But we think, oh, it's soft life that will draw people to Christ. Continue. Be it doesn't it doesn't work like that. God determines, right? So, we have spent years preaching this gospel of affluence, this gospel of conspicuous consumption, this designer gospel, you know, and people have come to the faith. But man, when we look at what we have produced, we're like, are are these Christians? We're we're fickle. Our faith is is weak where there's no depth to our faith. Why do you think people are not holding on to the word? Why are they not holding on to the word? Yeah, because we're not preaching the word. Okay. I think we are I think I think things are changing. I think we are preaching the word. I also think that people are not holding on to it. Why are they not holding on to it? The truth. The truth has power inherent in it. Right. If if you hear the truth, I think it's a lack of belief. No, this is the thing, right? There's power in the word of God. Inherent in the word, right? It's like if you hold a a battery. Yeah. There's power in the battery. Yeah. Right. And there's a magnetic force in the word that you cannot hold it and just drop it. Right. If you're holding it and walking away from it, holding and walking away from, we have to question what it is, right, that a you are holding and b did you really hold it in the beginning? Right. You see what I'm trying to say? Yeah. It is. The Bible says the word of God is powerful. It is sharper than a two-edged sword to the dividing and between soul and spirit between joint and marrow. If the word is not dividing and is it the word the devil quoted scripture. So the fact that somebody is quoting scripture does not mean they are preaching the word. Then what makes it the word? The word is Christ. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ. His death and his resurrection. Period. No additions, no subtractions. M any addition, any subtraction is is is is is um is at risk of polluting and diminishing the efficacy of the message. Right? And we don't realize that when we add all of these things to Jesus Christ, his death and his resurrection, right? We are in danger of diminishing of of diluting Yeah. the power of it. All the people that got saved in scripture, what was the message that they heard? What was it that changed their lives? It wasn't a a message of better life. No, it wasn't a message of happy marriage, right? Or successful career. It was Jesus died and with his death all your sins were paid for, right? I agree. I think I where I am struggling
(24:20)True transformation vs. Application
is the understanding between when a person hears the the gospel the true gospel and how they can apply it to their lives in their dayto-day. You see that's that that that right there that right there that's the problem right I don't need to apply anything right if I hear about Jesus Mhm. It transforms me. Correct. Right. And that transformation is worked out of me. Right. So I'm not trying to apply something external to me. It is from within me that the transformation takes place. So the Bible says walk out your salvation with fear and trembling. Yes. As you express that salvation. Express that. See when somebody is genuinely saved. Mhm. Mhm. Not come to the front. Let us pray for you because you'll get a car and a house. Pray genuinely my sins have been forgiven. Oh wow. Wow. Right. There is a joy and a there's an exuberance. There's a euphoria that comes from within that propels them. Right? So it's not a practical application. Right? It's a fuel. Right? The Bible says the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the same power that works within you. That's right. Right. So when we talk about so what is the practical application? We've already put the cat before the horse. So what you're saying is that the Lord is directing you as you make decisions. The Lord is working through you working through you. Yes. The Holy Spirit is guiding you. Yeah. Right. So I don't need to teach you seven steps to be saved. Yeah. Right. Or seven steps to leave out. No. As you are learning the word and how the word you know what as as you are learning the word as you are learning the the fullness of the word. Right. Right. As you are learning the the the the the technicalities of the word, right, something is going on on the inside of you, right? That transformation has happened. Exactly. And that transformation is being expressed out. Mhm. Yeah. In the way that you are living your life. What about do you think that there's a gap between the the tr that transformative process happening and the transformative part happening and the picking up the word and then letting letting it go or listening and then not listening. Transformation comes from the power of God. Right? It's by the power of God. Right? The Bible says as we behold him we are transformed. Right? So this is what happens. We behold Christ. Mhm. And there's a power that is released from that exchange. Right. Right. That affects transformation. Right. Right. God does not release that power. I just got it. God does not release that power when you behold Moses. Yeah. What you get when you behold Moses is an education, right? On the Mosaic law. Mhm. What you behold when you behold what you get when you behold um Einstein is an education in mathematics. You do not get the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. Right? So if we're preaching a gospel that does not put Jesus in front of people, God is not going to validate that gospel. You know when you go to a restaurant, right, and when you're packing your car, they said, "Oh, what restaurant are you going to?" And you say you're going to uh um um tunes. Mhm. Right. They have to validate your ticket to say you ate there and your parking is free. Right. But you decide you're not going to go to Matias's. Mhm. Right. And then you now bring Matias. Right. And they're like, "No, they're like, "Sorry, you got to pay. We're only validating two days." That's the thing. The power of God only validates his word. The Bible says signs and wonders are a witness. Mhm. Mhm. Witness to Christ. So Jesus Christ did miracles. Why? To validate his ministry. The apostles did miracles to validate his ministry. When we want to do miracles to validate who or what. You just say so that transforming power, right, is not available for anything but the message of Christ. So if people are hearing Judaism there's no transforming power in it. What you have let me tell you what you get. You will get whatever the willpower of the individual can conjure. So if you have a bunch of strong people in the room strong willed people you will think it was powerful but it was just their willpower that has enabled them to walk in the principles you have laid out for them. If you bring in people who don't have that same level of willpower you will get a different result. But with the word of God is a consistent result irrespective of the level of our power because it is the power of God that is affecting the change not my ability. Yeah. You know what I'm trying to say? And that is why we have a church that does not look like the church. Right. That is why you have countries where millions of people are Christians and there is no impact. Yeah. Because they might as well just be Jews. M m they might as well it's just another religion. Mhm. It is not Christianity, Christ centered. It's not. It is religion. And God is not validating any religion. No matter what you call it, the power of God is not going to validate it. And that's why we're not seeing the power of God. That's why we're not seeing transformation because what people are hearing, right? It sounds really good. It's morally good. It is, you know, is is is nice. Is inspiring. It's uplifting. It's not Christ. And I think that's what makes all the difference, right? That's why people can be like, "Oh, they want a soft life." But if you're following Christ, there's no such thing as a soft life. Soft life. Jesus Christ said, "Carry your cross and follow me." Jesus Christ said, he even said, "Deny yourself." Oh, he says, "The beds of the air, the house to rest, but the son of man does not have a place to put his head." Guys, now what are we doing? What are we doing? And we want multiple houses. God, in my father's house, there are many mansions. Go to your father's house, you will see mansions there. I I I think I think I think I think No, he did say he's going to prepare a place for us though. We want that place. Okay. He said, but he didn't say the place was here. He's going to prepare a place for us. Yes. You know, when we think about Christianity, right, we always very conveniently omit certain cornerstones, milestones of that faith. Mhm. When Jesus Christ was in the garden of Gethsemane, right, and he he he said to the Lord, "This thing you are asking me to do is hard." You know, let it pass. Mhm. Nevertheless, not my will but your will be done. Yeah. Paul said that I may know him. This one thing I desire that I may know him, the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering of his suffering. Yeah. In this world, I keep saying it, right? In this world, they're going to be challenges. And for me personally, every time I have a challenge, it does a couple of things. Mhm. It makes me uncomfortable because that's what challenges do. Yeah. They they make you uncomfortable. They make you, you know, they shake you. Yeah. Right. But then I remember that this is normal. Mhm. It does not cause an existential crisis in my life anymore. Even a marriage, even a relationship, it does not cause an existential crisis. Yeah. The way we operate is like every quarrel is grounds for divorce, because every quarrel is unusual. Every quarrel is an aberration, right? Every situation is like, "Wow." Mhm. You lose your job. Oh. Somebody falls. Whoa. They were stoning Steven. He said, "I I see heaven." Mhm. You didn't see chariots of fire. You just saw the Lord. Hands out stretched. Oh yeah. Come. I have another thought. I'm having thoughts tonight. And the thought is, what about when you're not necessarily doing the work of the Lord, right? Cuz an excuse can be like, "Well, Steven was preaching the gospel, right? He was telling the Pharisees off. Are you not supposed to be preaching the gospel? Didn't he say, "Go you into all the world and preach the gospel and make disciples." Yes, he said it. That's Matthew 28:19.
(33:00)Problems we cause vs. Real life
But if you say so, Abby 17 to 19. So this thought, it seems like it just stopped. No, no, the thought is still there. Um, so that they deserve that, right? So yeah, to that point, right? What about the ones that were thrown to the lion's den? Then to the lion's den, especially that didn't deserve it. who nobody deserves it or sorry I remember what I wanted to say that they put themselves there. They're the ones that even cause the problem by preaching the gospel. No, that maybe they're doing something and they're not necessarily preaching the gospel cuz let's say I go to work, right? And maybe I made a wrong decision and you are taking ownership that you've made the wrong decision and now you're experiencing Jeff turmoil, right? Or let's say like um because then the mercy is there, right? But let's say you you made a I guess so so I'm thinking of many things now like the Holy Spirit keeps putting a blockage there like there are problems there are problems that we cause there are problems that we cause and can be avoided but there are problems that you can't avoid. Mhm. You can be the best most hardworking person in your office. Yeah. And I'm talking about the problems that you can't avoid. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. You can be the best most hardworking person and then one day they just decide that you know what they need to increase the money they're giving to the shareholders. So you need to fire some employees and they you and the policy is first come last to go last to go first to last to come first to go. Yeah. Last in first out. Yeah. You're out. What about the ones that you've caused? So the ones that you can avoid then you avoid them in future. But people are not okay cuz I think for the ones that you can avoid but then you made the wrong decision then there's this this condemnation this like feeling like well I put myself here type of thing. Well, that's that's well that's on you. That one is between you and yourself, right? There there choices we make that cause us problems, but I'm not talking about those choices, right? I'm talking about things that happen that you had no hand in, right? And then this desire for soft life. Mhm. Right. This um need for comfort and ease. And it's I don't think there's a human being that wants a struggle life. Mhm. I don't think anybody wakes up and says, "This year, God, I want to be in your in your what's that army again. I don't want I want to be your strongest soldier." Even we're saying the opposite now. I I don't think there's anybody who wakes up and says, "I want this year to be tough." Every year is a year of harvest. Yes. Every year is a year of harvest. Harvest, a year of No, I don't think there's anybody that says that, right? But the reality is this. Yeah. In this world, have troubles. You're going to have challenges and count it all joy because you know that your struggles are not wasted. They are working something in you that will benefit you at a time when all of humanity will stand before God. Right? All of humanity will stand before God. Right? So when you stand there with your faith then all those years of struggle count for something. Right? Right now God has done us a favor by telling us ahead Mhm. that don't don't don't don't sweat it. Don't fret. These struggles that you're struggling is doing something. The people who are on the outside don't know that their struggles could do something. In fact, there's no their struggles are just they're just suffering. They're just suffering. But if they were in Christ, God redeems struggle. Yeah. He takes struggle and makes it make sense. He does. That's what he does. He takes struggle and he turns he turns draws into gold, sir. That's what he does, right? So, I don't know about this soft life thing that you guys are talking about, right? You want to live on a yacht. That's all
(36:45)The "Paul" reality check
well and good, but just remember what happened to um um what's his name? John. No, Uncle Paul. Oh, yeah. He was on a boat and the boat sank. Shipwreck and while they were cooling by the fire, snake tried to bite him. That is insane. Back to back. Bas I don't understand when Christian like ah pastor there's something wrong go bas and I'm like go and talk to Paul. What do you think Paul would say? Oh god. So what do you think if Paul was the one that you were talking to? Yeah. He says you know I have experienced many shipwrecks. I have been beaten many times. I have suffered hunger many times. I have fasted many times. It's just not fasting alone. Mhm. Hunger. No food. No food. No mana from the sky. No food. So he hungered. So he said I have learned to abase and to abound. This this conversation is not by accident. My friend is going through a really tough time and for the last two years it's been bas like things that's just like man you did nothing to deserve this. It just life kind of just happened. Well, that's what the church tells her now. They tell her it's because you're not praying enough or you didn't tithe enough and those when I say just happened it just these are things that are just happening. But to your point, today we're having a conversation and she was really down. Like today was a really tough day for her and I was just thinking like today you're good. Today you're fine. Let tomorrow tomorrow has enough problems of its own. Um but now after our conversation I want to go back and have the conversation with her just say like no seriously count it all joy. Yeah. Like the Lord is doing something with this. Like something will come out of this. And now that I'm thinking what I did tell her was that this season two will pass. It it will. This season cannot last forever. It cannot rain forever. The rain must come to an end. Um what does the Bible say? Weeping endures for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Yeah. See, the problem is this. The night also comes after that morning. Hey, God. I I I I have come to roller coaster. It's it's life. No, because people say my my life is a roller co I don't want to be on a roller coaster anymore. I just want smooth sailing. Yeah. Yeah. Then get off. You have to get off the lifeboat. Ah, no way. That thing is narrow. But I want to be on it. The path is narrow. Like this your friend who's going through all of this struggles. Imagine if she had been prepared and told that man it's going to be rough. Yeah. It's going to be rough. That's the nature of life. It's going to be a roller coaster. Yeah. Everybody who gets on a roller coaster Mhm. right who has a brain Mhm. sees roller coaster knows what they're getting on. Mhm. Yeah. You don't you don't you don't deep and you're like we know we gladly get on. What do you mean? We're looking forward to it to the thrill. That that is the thing. If you know what life is about, then these things when they happen, right, they don't become more than they are, right? And that is why we have all of these things in the Bible. But we conveniently don't talk about it. M we keep acting as if there's not going to be dips. There's not going to be bumps. Yeah. I know men of God who have been through things that will make your eyes pop. Right. But they've come out of it. Mhm. And then they get into another one and then they come out of it. Yeah. And each time when they speak, you can see the the the the progress of their faith. You can see the increase the growth of it. Yeah. Right. Paul is if if somebody could point one person in the New Testament out to me who had a soft life, I'll be quiet. One, I would I would actually be like, "Okay, do you know what? Maybe these other people, they are the problem." Yeah. 99.9% are the problem. This one is not an outlier. There no outliers when it comes to suffering. Yeah. Everybody in scripture has suffered. Suffered. So why are we on this soft life gospel? Yeah, it's it's it's a fool's errand. It is better we prepare people, right, and say, "Hey, it's going to be tough, but you're going to be fine." You know, the Bible says, "Though you pass through the waters, they will not drown you." Yeah. Though you pass through the fire, it will not burn you. Mhm. Right. You know what that means? You will pass through the waters. You will pass through the fire. Yeah. And you pass through the fire. But imagine, imagine if you're passing through water and you don't know and you think this water is going to drown you. But imagine if you knew. M. It's like literally between getting into a swimming pool and falling overboard on a cruise ship. Yeah. You get a swimming pool, you're like, "Yeah, let me just I'm I'm out. I'm done here. Okay, I'm going to climb out." Yeah. You fall on a cruise ship at the mister. No, they come to Now they are coming to get you. Sh. Do they know you are there? If that's if they know you fall off those things, those things are like towns, cities. Who's going to know you fell off it? If nobody saw you, that's it, man. You're gone. You and the fishes are doing sushi.
(41:50)Finding real peace in the struggle
Wow. The fishes will use you for sushi. I I do I do I do want to say this though. I think and my friends me and my my friends are believers. We we used to clown about this a lot like doing life in general is already hard, but then doing it without Christ is a whole another ball game. Yeah. But we're not really allowing people to reap the benefits of Christ, right? Because the comfort that Christ gives us, the strength that Christ gives us, the peace, the peace that he gives us, we are deprived of it because we keep thinking that where we are is an aberration. So we're not looking for comfort. We're not looking for peace. We're looking for escape. Yeah. And sometimes there's no escape. There's no escape. Sometimes there's no escape. Sometimes there's no escape. All right. H I think we're gonna end it there. We appreciate you guys for joining us. Um, Kenneth, anything from you? Yeah, all I just heard is the church, and I don't want to I don't want to put it that way, but it sounds like there's a level of lack of preparation coming from the institution that maybe takes, you know, deserves a level of intentionality. Yeah. And also from the people to look into the word, right? Know that trials and tribulations will come, right? And be ready. Yeah. I I I agree. I I I wish somebody can can show me one character in the New Testament that had a soft life. Just one. I I I I haven't seen them. I I mean, I've missed it. So, I'm I'm really hoping comments, guys. Comments that you're a sign. Yeah. Don't send me Solomon, but seriously, maybe I missed it cuz you know, sometimes you miss verses of scripture. Maybe I just missed this person's story. Yeah. And it's interesting that I'm sitting out here saying this. But for the vast majority of my Christian life, I believed this doctrine of soft life. And when I didn't get it, I was like, what am I doing wrong? Yeah. What what am I not doing enough of? Mhm. And when I realized I had done everything, that's when I was like, this thing is a scam. Yeah. It's not a scam. The soft life promise is the scam. Is a scam. That's good. Thank you all for listening. Like, follow, comment, subscribe, guys. We're trying to get to 20K subscribers. We're at 20 subscribe. Um 30K subscriber 50K subscriber. No, but you know we got to hit this. We already hit 20K now. No, we're almost there though. We're almost there. Oh, you've been summarizing up. Yeah, we're almost there. Yeah, you held it up. Yeah. Anyways, we'll see you guys next time. See you on the next one. Unfiltered.