The Prodigal Son Revisited

[00:00:08] Speaker A: Hey, everybody, it's Rick and Rob. Welcome back to the Nomad Pastor podcast. [00:00:11] Speaker B: How you been? [00:00:12] Speaker A: I've been good. It's been, like a month. [00:00:15] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe over maybe over a month. [00:00:19] Speaker A: So for those listening, we're sorry. It's been extremely life happens around this time of year and what. Always got a bunch of stuff going on, and then the things that we don't anticipate happen around work. [00:00:32] Speaker B: October is always a busy month for both of us, though. [00:00:34] Speaker A: Yeah, it is. [00:00:35] Speaker B: Club Stuff. The last three years with club Stuff, october has been by far the busiest month that we have. [00:00:48] Speaker A: Yeah. And I feel like in October, there were a lot of funerals. [00:00:52] Speaker B: There were. [00:00:55] Speaker A: Some of them old age, some of them wrecks, but still. Whatever. But it just seemed like there was a ton, and, I mean, we just had two this last weekend. [00:01:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:06] Speaker A: I think you were at Bulldogs, right? [00:01:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I was at Bulldogs. [00:01:09] Speaker A: I did, unfortunately, did not get to go to either. But there was also one for a kid, Keegan. His mother owned CP between the lakes. All right. So tons of stuff going on, right? [00:01:23] Speaker B: Lots, lots. [00:01:24] Speaker A: Tons of funerals. His mom owns CP Between the Lakes, the restaurant, the pub. [00:01:32] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:01:32] Speaker A: Right. And we have our BFC chapter meetings there. He's 22 years old. He was prospecting for an MC, and he went down and seven months after his dad. [00:01:47] Speaker B: Wow. [00:01:48] Speaker A: So we'll keep Stephanie in our prayers. [00:01:51] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:01:51] Speaker A: It'll be hard for her, I'm sure. [00:01:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Wow. There's so many things, especially in our I'll call it world, that are so unexpected. You go in and you're talking to somebody one week, and then the next week they're gone. [00:02:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:02:14] Speaker B: And it just reminds you of how short life actually is, especially for a 22 year old. [00:02:22] Speaker A: Right. Honestly, that's a perfect segue into what we want to talk about. [00:02:29] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:02:30] Speaker A: We did a podcast on The Prodigal Son, like, seven or eight months ago. [00:02:33] Speaker B: It's been a long time ago. [00:02:34] Speaker A: Yeah, it's been a long time. Right? [00:02:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:36] Speaker A: And just kind of with stuff going on in the media and things going on in the world today, I thought it would be good for us to maybe revisit that. [00:02:46] Speaker B: I agree. [00:02:47] Speaker A: Right. And we don't have to read the scripture. People can go look it up. Like I said, we've done it before. But the basics of it is that people are going to walk away. [00:02:59] Speaker B: Right. [00:03:00] Speaker A: People are going to think that there's a better path and there's not a better path. And when you realize they're not a better path right. [00:03:12] Speaker B: That's when the light bulb comes on. [00:03:14] Speaker A: And then you're going to go home. [00:03:15] Speaker B: Right. [00:03:16] Speaker A: And your dad's going to be waiting for you exactly. With open arms, Joyously. He's going to throw you a party. [00:03:22] Speaker B: Throw a party. [00:03:23] Speaker A: And that's what happened in the parable of the Prodigal Son. [00:03:27] Speaker B: Right. [00:03:27] Speaker A: He's like, Give me all my money. [00:03:29] Speaker B: Let me go out right. [00:03:31] Speaker A: Then he goes and he blows all of his money, and he realizes that that's not the life that he wants. And he goes home. And the dad's waiting. [00:03:41] Speaker B: Right. He's waiting on him. He's looking for him every day. Right. [00:03:46] Speaker A: Sitting on the front porch, just looking when's he going to come back. [00:03:49] Speaker B: Yes. And there are so many facets in that story that you look at, and you can draw parallels to things of our own personal nature, even today. [00:04:04] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:04:05] Speaker B: Because it says he went off and spent the money in Fortuitous Living. [00:04:10] Speaker A: That's right. [00:04:11] Speaker B: So he went away. He went somewhere where he wasn't known. I'm sorry, folks. My stomach has decided today to imitate the mating sounds of a humpback whale. [00:04:26] Speaker A: And the MIC's picking it up. [00:04:27] Speaker B: And that's bad. I had gumbo for lunch. But what I'm saying is, when we put sin on our calendar, we want to do it away from prying eyes. We want to do it away from accountability, which is why he left. Exactly. So we end up isolating ourselves because we think the embarrassment of somebody knowing. [00:04:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:58] Speaker B: Right. When you purposely put sin on your calendar and there's going to be times when things where you slip in things I get that. I understand that. But when you purposely and intentionally sin and put it into a planned schedule, nine times out of ten, we go out of our way to be away from everybody so that we can't allow ourselves to be held accountable. [00:05:30] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:05:32] Speaker B: That's just one of the things of that story that always it's a certain parallel into our lives. [00:05:41] Speaker A: Yeah. I think when you think about everything, like I said, it's been, like, five or six weeks since we've sat down and talked with each other. [00:05:50] Speaker B: Right. [00:05:51] Speaker A: And a lot has happened in the world since then. [00:05:52] Speaker B: A bunch. [00:05:53] Speaker A: Right. We got all this stuff going on in Israel. In Israel and Hamas, and that's spilling over into the United States. [00:06:02] Speaker B: It is. [00:06:03] Speaker A: Right, yeah. Where people are upset and the genocide that's going on against the Palestinians. And while I believe that the people who are in Gaza, in Palestine, we need to pray for them and we need to love them. [00:06:23] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:06:23] Speaker A: Right. [00:06:24] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:06:25] Speaker A: The problem I don't even know how we got here, but I'll just start talking right. Is what I don't think people recognize is that this terrorist organization, Hamas, has held a society under oppression for decades. [00:06:46] Speaker B: Right. [00:06:48] Speaker A: They have kidnapped the Palestinian people. Not all of those people believe in what Hamas believes. [00:06:56] Speaker B: Exactly. Right. [00:06:57] Speaker A: That's, I think, where the struggle is. Right. [00:07:03] Speaker B: But it gets stereotyped. [00:07:05] Speaker A: It does get stereotyped. [00:07:06] Speaker B: Right. [00:07:07] Speaker A: Yeah, it does. [00:07:08] Speaker B: And that's a shame. [00:07:09] Speaker A: And so that spills over to the US. Right. And I see some of those people on TV, and I'm like, just come away from the world. Just come home. And I think one of the reasons I want to have this conversation, like I was telling you before we started recording was the whole Kat Von D thing. So she's recently been baptized. [00:07:36] Speaker B: Yeah. Converted to Christianity. [00:07:38] Speaker A: Converted to Christianity. And she was very open about that. She posted it on her Instagram. And you know what's crazy is Pastor Z, the founder of Bikers for Christ, the International P, he has a Bikers for Christ patch tattooed on his back. [00:07:55] Speaker B: Right. Didn't you tell me? She did. [00:07:56] Speaker A: She did it. [00:07:57] Speaker B: Wow. [00:07:58] Speaker A: There's a picture of him and her together. He was on, like, la inc. Right. Doing the tattoo. There's a video of it. Oh, cool. So that's pretty cool. [00:08:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:08] Speaker A: So she just recently came back to Christ, and for those who don't know, she did an interview. It's about 40 minutes long. You can go to YouTube and look at it. It's with Allie Beth Stuckey, and she just answers every question. That's awesome. Right? Yeah. [00:08:32] Speaker B: Pulling your punches. [00:08:33] Speaker A: It's polar opposites. Right. That was super. And Kevundi is not right. But some of the things I read in the media were know, which converts to Christianity. Right. [00:08:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:55] Speaker A: And she's like, Lakha's never a right. Right. She was born of missionary. Argentina. [00:09:04] Speaker B: Yeah, that's what I was thinking. [00:09:05] Speaker A: They weren't from Argentina. [00:09:06] Speaker B: Right. [00:09:07] Speaker A: But they were in Argentina on mission. [00:09:10] Speaker B: When she was when she was and. [00:09:14] Speaker A: You know, grew up in the church. And there's several things about the prodigal son that relate to her. [00:09:24] Speaker B: Right, absolutely. [00:09:25] Speaker A: That she knew the right path. [00:09:27] Speaker B: She did. [00:09:27] Speaker A: Right. [00:09:28] Speaker B: She did. [00:09:28] Speaker A: But she was intrigued with the world. [00:09:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:36] Speaker A: She told this story, and I'm clearly going to paraphrase, because she was on Miami, Inc. Before she was on La. [00:09:43] Speaker B: Yes. [00:09:44] Speaker A: And she said now, she's been sober for, I think she said 17 years. [00:09:48] Speaker B: A long time. [00:09:49] Speaker A: It's been a long time. [00:09:50] Speaker B: Right. [00:09:51] Speaker A: But she said when she was doing Miami Inc. She was just drinking a lot, doing stuff she shouldn't be doing. And when she signed the contract for Miami Inc. She never even had an attorney look at it. She was just kind of drunk, strung, know? And what she didn't realize that she had signed away the rights to her name, her music, her art, her likeness, just signed it all away, really. And she never really wanted to do this show. She's not a public person. [00:10:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:23] Speaker A: And the only reason she did La Inc. Was to get the rights to her stuff. [00:10:28] Speaker B: Huh. [00:10:29] Speaker A: She was like they had talked, like, if you do this, we will give you the rights to your music and the rights to your name and the rights to everything back if you sign this other huh. [00:10:40] Speaker B: So she so that's the reason she. [00:10:42] Speaker A: Did that's the reason she did La Inc. But here's an example of somebody who was born in the faith, right? Raised and raised in the faith, right. And strayed to see what the world's about. [00:10:57] Speaker B: Right. [00:10:57] Speaker A: And came back just like the prodigal son. [00:11:00] Speaker B: Right. [00:11:02] Speaker A: And god was there waiting for that day. [00:11:06] Speaker B: Right. [00:11:06] Speaker A: But the backlash that she has received since then is crazy and uncalled for and uncalled for. [00:11:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:15] Speaker A: And in that interview, she talks about her husband, how he is still kind of walking through his faith, but she's like, you're going to church. [00:11:26] Speaker B: Good for her. [00:11:27] Speaker A: We're doing this together, right? Yeah. [00:11:29] Speaker B: This is something we got to do. [00:11:30] Speaker A: When they moved to Indiana I don't know where at in Indiana. I'm sure I could find out, but. [00:11:34] Speaker B: It wouldn't be hard. [00:11:35] Speaker A: Yeah, but they moved to Indiana and she was like, we're going to start going to a church every week. We're going to pray about it. We're going to figure out which one is the best one for us. And she was I didn't she joined the choir. She goes to a Baptist church. She's like, I didn't want to go to somewhere where it was a rock concert. [00:11:51] Speaker B: Good. [00:11:51] Speaker A: She's like, I wanted to be there to be filled with the spirit. And all those people that you saw at my baptism were there to support me, whether they believed it or not. And she says, I got more support from some of my atheist friends than I did from some Christians. [00:12:10] Speaker B: That's so sad. Yeah. Because we label so many things and try to judge what we think is right or what we think is real. And we measure that up against our own thoughts and perceptions instead of biblical thoughts and perceptions and what's scriptural and people who make the effort, people who take the strides to either come back or convert or to Christ. Whatever, especially in a public eye. Get more rocks thrown, they get more slurs against and end up in more judicial, not three branches of government. I'm talking about Christian judicial judgment of whether or not their intentions and their heart is real. [00:13:26] Speaker A: That's right. [00:13:27] Speaker B: And it's a shame, because Kat von D is no different than Rick or than right. You know, so what, she's been on a couple of TV or several TV shows. She's walked the red carpet. Big deal. Big deal. Yeah. [00:13:44] Speaker A: She likes to wear black. Who care? Right? [00:13:47] Speaker B: Hello. [00:13:48] Speaker A: I I know know. My whole wardrobe is every T shirt is black. [00:13:51] Speaker B: Mine, too. [00:13:52] Speaker A: But here's one thing. So she says in this interview, she says that her husband was reading some of the comments, and she's like, Say what you want to say. Yeah, but her husband's still on that path. And she says, it's not like she went to church one time and then was like, I want to get baptized. [00:14:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I heard it was, like, several. [00:14:16] Speaker A: It was just, like, over a year, right? [00:14:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:18] Speaker A: That they've been walking this out before. She was like, you know what? I want to make this profession of faith public. Right. So it's not like I'm a new Christian. She's been a Christian, right. She just decided to make this public. [00:14:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:32] Speaker A: Right. But her husband has been reading the comments and some of them are pretty negative. And he's like, if this is what Christianity is, I'm not really sure I want to be part of it. And there's two ways to look at that. [00:14:46] Speaker B: Right. [00:14:47] Speaker A: One is probably what both of our initial reactions is. [00:14:52] Speaker B: Sad. [00:14:53] Speaker A: Sad. Yeah. Why are Christians we're supposed to love everybody, right? Why are we condemning somebody for doing what is the most amazing thing there could be for their life? Yeah, but the other part of it is we're all broken, right? [00:15:11] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:11] Speaker A: That we're all trying to walk out our sanctification. [00:15:15] Speaker B: Yes. [00:15:16] Speaker A: Right. And those people who made those comments, they're broken too. Is it right that they did it? [00:15:25] Speaker B: No, but think about this too, Rick. The people that are making those kind of comments, let me back up and ask this a different way. The people that are making those comments, are they surface Christians? We have no way to answer that. [00:15:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I was going to say I don't know. [00:15:45] Speaker B: But here's the thing for people who would be biblically grounded, sound Christian, people who want to further their walk with Christ would celebrate this. [00:16:01] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:16:02] Speaker B: And would be more, in my mind, would be more inclined to be encouraging, supportive, accountable and hold accountable. [00:16:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:16] Speaker B: But in my mind, the people who make those kind of snide comments that call themselves Christian, how many of them are in their word every day? [00:16:31] Speaker A: I don't know. [00:16:32] Speaker B: I don't either what I'm saying. [00:16:33] Speaker A: But I see what you're saying. I see where you're going and I'm. [00:16:35] Speaker B: Not trying to throw rocks at people. [00:16:36] Speaker A: Yeah, okay. [00:16:37] Speaker B: And I'm not trying to judge somebody, but I'm saying you see the intentions of people and read their yeah, yeah. [00:16:47] Speaker A: I get what you're saying, I totally do, because just know we are friends on Facebook with lots of people. Lots, right. People all the time will send us friend requests. And I try to look and see, like, how do I know them? Who are they? Right? And so I'm not going to say their name. There's a guy on Facebook who's a pastor and he's always posting controversial stuff and he posted something and I just replied and I'm like, I want to understand your theology in this. And I think it was him, but somebody else posted under the name of a church and they were like, well, you're not this, you're not that, you're this, and just put me on blast, right. Because I had posted scripture, right? I didn't answer like he asked some question, I just posted a couple verses, right? This is what I read. And he's like, well, that's not the King James. [00:17:47] Speaker B: Oh, here we go. [00:17:48] Speaker A: So you're reading the wrong Bible because. [00:17:50] Speaker B: You'Re not reading the King James. [00:17:52] Speaker A: And then they went know to personally attack me. And I replied and I said, it's crazy that I asked about your theology and you asked for a verse I gave you a verse, and it didn't read what you wanted it to read. They were talking about how men, like, men should never wear earrings because it's know, a woman thing. Right. And so I posted about know, I think it's Joshua, maybe right after Moses in the CSB, it talks about Joshua collecting being given the gold earrings. [00:18:31] Speaker B: Yes. [00:18:31] Speaker A: Right. It's like, well, that's not what it says in the King James, so it's wrong. I'm like, okay, well, you can do your translation, and the translation from Hebrew to Greek says this and blah, blah, blah. And he's like, well, the King James is the only true Bible. It's the closest thing. And I was like, well, technically, the NASB is right. I mean, if you want to be technical, the NASB is the closest. So it's that whole kind of like it made me think about what Kev von D is going through, where people are like, what are you? And so then I'm just like, look, you went from questioning my theology to personally attacking me. And this is the problem with Christianity. Yeah, not Christianity. This is the problem with Western Christianity, right. Is that when it doesn't come out the way you want, I'm going to start personally attacking somebody. Because he's like, you're not a real biker. You're not this seriously, now, all those posts have been deleted. I think maybe they recognized because there were several people that were like, well, we know Rick, and you don't know what you're talking about. [00:19:37] Speaker B: Oh, my. [00:19:38] Speaker A: And so now they've all been deleted. But it's the same thing, right? Like keyboard warriors. [00:19:45] Speaker B: Wow. Yeah. Look, if anybody within the sound of my voice or outside of the sound of my voice does not think that Rick Devy is a biker police, I have ridden bar to bar with this man and guarantee I could keep up. Yeah, but that's not the point. [00:20:11] Speaker A: No, it's not. [00:20:12] Speaker B: It's not the point. [00:20:13] Speaker A: It's that when it's not the way you expect it to. [00:20:15] Speaker B: Right. You go into a personal attack. [00:20:17] Speaker A: You go into a personal attack. And so that's what they've done with Katlon D. Right? [00:20:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:21] Speaker A: Well, your hand didn't go under the water, so it wasn't a real baptism. [00:20:25] Speaker B: That was a comment, and that's sad. [00:20:28] Speaker A: Your hand didn't go under the water. See? It wasn't a real baptism. Really? [00:20:38] Speaker B: Let me clarify a couple of things. Okay, good. I believe, first of all, in water immersion for baptism. [00:20:46] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:20:47] Speaker B: Okay. [00:20:47] Speaker A: It's not a sprinkling. [00:20:48] Speaker B: I think that's what baptism is, is a water immersion. Now, does it have to be in a certain Baptistry we'll call it mode? No. Okay. [00:21:02] Speaker A: Like, if we're driving down the road and there's somebody that I know, like, I'm talking with, we're together, and this is a Christian brother of mine, but they haven't taken that public faith. That public faith. That public step of baptism to declare their faith. And we're driving down the road and. [00:21:18] Speaker B: They'Re like, there's a river, let's go. [00:21:22] Speaker A: I really want to be baptized. And I know what's in their heart. [00:21:26] Speaker B: Yeah, right. [00:21:26] Speaker A: Because I've had people say, hey, will you baptize me? And I'm like, we got to have a conversation first. [00:21:31] Speaker B: Right, right. [00:21:31] Speaker A: Like, I got to know what's in your heart. [00:21:33] Speaker B: Right. [00:21:34] Speaker A: But I know that dude, I know what's in his heart. Let's pull over right now. It doesn't got to be at a church or in a baptismal. It could be anywhere that you can be immersed in water. [00:21:46] Speaker B: Now, if something happens and let's say you're going to baptize this guy in Creek, bledsoe Creek is not really deep until I mean, there are deep pockets. [00:22:02] Speaker A: Don'T get me wrong, but certain times of the year, you can walk all the way across right. [00:22:06] Speaker B: And not get your knees wet. [00:22:08] Speaker A: Yes. [00:22:08] Speaker B: Okay. Does that mean in those areas where you would baptize if his toes didn't go completely under the water? [00:22:19] Speaker A: No. Because the intent was immersion. [00:22:22] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:22:23] Speaker A: You didn't set out to say, I'm. [00:22:24] Speaker B: Not going to do right. Right. [00:22:28] Speaker A: Just like Kevon D didn't set out to be like, my hands are not. [00:22:30] Speaker B: Going to go under the the but where people get so cranked up that hurts me is things like somebody saying, well, if it's not the King James, then it's not. I understand. There are people who will only read the King James because it's what they know to read. [00:22:55] Speaker A: That's right. [00:22:56] Speaker B: And the familiarity that they have with it. And that translation makes them more comfortable than the NASB or the ESV or the NIV or whatever. Right. So I get that. I have a close friend in our community who will only read the King. [00:23:23] Speaker A: James Version, and good for him. [00:23:24] Speaker B: I'm not down in that. [00:23:26] Speaker A: Yeah, good for him. But I don't read or speak King's English. I don't either, and I don't understand it. [00:23:33] Speaker B: Well, Jesus didn't speak King's English. [00:23:35] Speaker A: Amen. Right. [00:23:36] Speaker B: So the thing about it is my personal favorite translation is the mean. That's that's that's my favorite. [00:23:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:49] Speaker B: Okay. I'm reading the ESV right now and studying from the ESV for a couple of different reasons. I don't want to get rudded and I want new things from I want to see new light in the scripture I decided about 18 months ago, hey, let's try the ESP. [00:24:14] Speaker A: Yeah. I have an NASP and I love it. Right? [00:24:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:18] Speaker A: It's the Hebrew to Greek study Bible. Right. So in every section, you can cross reference words to know what that word was in Hebrew or in Greek. [00:24:31] Speaker B: Right. [00:24:31] Speaker A: And what that translation means so that you could try to understand how did. [00:24:36] Speaker B: They come to this, that context. [00:24:38] Speaker A: And I love it for that. Right. And I've had new King James and CSB and ESB and all of them standard holman standard is close to the ESB. ESV, right, right. I came to Christ, really, through the NLT New Living translation and that was because there was a Bible called Every Man's Bible. Right. The every man's Bible. And it's a study Bible. Right. So if you're listening, you're a man and you're trying to understand the Bible, get that Bible. Get the every man's Bible. They have it in the NIV now, too. [00:25:12] Speaker B: Yes. [00:25:12] Speaker A: Right. But it was an NLT, and the only thing I don't like about it is it doesn't have red letters, and that's why I struggle with the ESV, if you want me to be honest. Right. I really like the ESV. The English standard version. But I have not found an ESV that has red letters. [00:25:29] Speaker B: Okay. So mine does, but it's thin line. It's not a study version. [00:25:33] Speaker A: Well, that would be okay. Right. I don't need the study anymore. Well, because I have others that are. [00:25:39] Speaker B: I know what you're saying. [00:25:40] Speaker A: Right. I probably got 13 or 15 Bibles. [00:25:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:25:44] Speaker A: And I've given away probably 20. So it's not that I don't need a study Bible. I have one. I have one that I love. The one I'm using today is an NIV bible. And it's not as much a study Bible. It's a cross reference Bible. So at the end of every paragraph, there's different scripture to go cross reference against. [00:26:06] Speaker B: Right. Okay. [00:26:07] Speaker A: Right. So you'll read, like, four or know verses in a know. So if you're reading, like, Matthew something at the end of it, it may say, go, also read John or go, also read Deuteronomy. [00:26:21] Speaker B: Right. [00:26:22] Speaker A: And so it's trying to reference you around the Bible to make sure you understand. [00:26:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:27] Speaker A: Right. [00:26:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:29] Speaker A: And I don't know how we got. [00:26:30] Speaker B: Here, so let's get back to where we're at with the prodigal yeah. [00:26:34] Speaker A: The prodigal son. Everybody has path. [00:26:40] Speaker B: Yes. [00:26:41] Speaker A: Right. And what would have happened before go ahead. [00:26:45] Speaker B: Let's talk about this for a minute, because you said everybody has a path. That path, as long as it leads back to God through Jesus, is indisputable. [00:26:58] Speaker A: Amen. I agree with that. [00:27:00] Speaker B: But if you oh, I have a different path to God that doesn't include. [00:27:07] Speaker A: Well, there's only r1 path. [00:27:09] Speaker B: There is. There is only r1 path. To clarify, what Rick was saying is we all have our own walk in our own life with our own set of circumstances that may mirror something else, but it's our right. [00:27:24] Speaker A: That's right. Thank you for clarifying that. [00:27:29] Speaker B: This ain't Oprah. [00:27:30] Speaker A: That's right. And I think when I say our own path, I'm really meaning we get to make our own choice. [00:27:37] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:27:38] Speaker A: Right. [00:27:39] Speaker B: Right. [00:27:39] Speaker A: And we can choose to walk the path with Christ, or we can choose not to. [00:27:46] Speaker B: Right. [00:27:47] Speaker A: So we all have our own walk. That's what you're saying. [00:27:51] Speaker B: Right. [00:27:52] Speaker A: And we can make a choice. [00:27:53] Speaker B: Right. [00:27:54] Speaker A: But what happens when you make the choice in this parable of the prodigal son? When he's coming home and the dad runs to him? Right. What happens if the dad's like, what are you doing here? Or if before he gets to dad. [00:28:12] Speaker B: The brother comes and knocks him out. [00:28:15] Speaker A: And knocks him out. No, I mean, seriously. Because that's what's happening, I think, sometimes, right. [00:28:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:22] Speaker A: People are coming back, right. And somebody else sideswipe gets in the way, cuts their legs off. [00:28:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:30] Speaker A: They can't get back because somebody else cut their legs off. [00:28:34] Speaker B: So do you want me to give you the goat answer? [00:28:37] Speaker A: Sure. [00:28:38] Speaker B: Meism yeah. Honestly, we get to make our own choices. Somebody said the other day, one of the greatest blessings and the greatest curse that has ever been in his life was free will. It's because he chose it. Right? [00:29:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:03] Speaker B: The same goes for me. Same goes for you. [00:29:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:05] Speaker B: So I say it to say this. We get tied up. I get tied up because I want to be better than Joy Bag of donuts. I want more likes on Facebook. I want more hearts on Instagram. I want more retweets. I want more people to see my. [00:29:29] Speaker A: I mean, look, even, you know, we do this podcast and sometimes we go a couple weeks, and the worldly side of me says, well, you should be recording a podcast even if Batman can't make it. [00:29:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:29:41] Speaker A: Right. The worldly side says the worldly side. [00:29:43] Speaker B: Of me says I should go get that other set of equipment and record even when Rick can't. [00:29:47] Speaker A: That's right. That's right. So the worldly side of me tells me, right? [00:29:50] Speaker B: Right. [00:29:50] Speaker A: And there have been times that I have, right? [00:29:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:29:53] Speaker A: But this time I was like, no, right. God has us doing this together for a reason, and I got to get out of that world of I got to release one every Wednesday. [00:30:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:06] Speaker A: Right. It's going to happen when God wants it to happen. [00:30:08] Speaker B: That's the thing. [00:30:09] Speaker A: Right? [00:30:10] Speaker B: That's the thing. [00:30:10] Speaker A: And I feel the same way about the prodigal son. He's going to come back when God wants him to come back, right. Now, maybe I'm saying that wrong. [00:30:19] Speaker B: Well, right. But God always wants us to come back every day. Hear that, folks? God wants us to come back every single day. God knows what the end result is. [00:30:32] Speaker A: That's right. [00:30:33] Speaker B: When it's going to happen instead of God? When God's ready. [00:30:36] Speaker A: That's right. [00:30:36] Speaker B: Because God's always ready every second of the day. So to clarify what we're saying, this is what we're saying, and I 100% agree. We get motivated at times. Like this morning when we were talking on our Bible study call, and you're like, hey, I can be ready about 01:00. I was like, that's cool. [00:30:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:59] Speaker B: I was excited. [00:30:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:00] Speaker B: Because we haven't done it for a while. [00:31:02] Speaker A: Right. [00:31:03] Speaker B: But had it not been able to happen today, I'd have been a little bit bummed. [00:31:08] Speaker A: Me, too. [00:31:09] Speaker B: But I also know that what we do together is because of God's direction and planting that seed in both of our lives. [00:31:21] Speaker A: That's right. [00:31:22] Speaker B: So when you apply that to a prodigal son thing, or a prodigal. It doesn't have to be a son. It'd be a daughter. Whatever the prodigal return, when the prodigal returns, it's because that seed has been planted somewhere, and nine times out of ten, it's going to be from the Holy Spirit or the Holy Spirit working through somebody else. Because you have that conviction in your mind already, and there's already a presence of knowing what right and wrong is and what it should be in your life and the way that you should walk it out. The motivation to come back to that could come from a lot of different areas in a lot of different ways. But the motivation to come back and I get back to that free will is the greatest blessing and the greatest curse in our lives is because we may be motivated to go back. And then something happened. Like a brother. [00:32:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:23] Speaker B: Like the prodigal son's brother coming and sideswiping him or wrecking him or and then we'll say, boy, Satan's really working overtime on this one. Is he really? Are we giving him too much credit in that? [00:32:38] Speaker A: I think sometimes people do. [00:32:40] Speaker B: I think a lot of times. [00:32:41] Speaker A: I think sometimes people give the adversary. [00:32:43] Speaker B: Too much credit because he can't be at your house and my house at the same time. He doesn't have the omnipotence. [00:32:50] Speaker A: Yeah. He's not omnipresent. [00:32:52] Speaker B: He's not omnipresent. [00:32:53] Speaker A: But I do believe I think we give him too much credit for choices that we make. [00:33:02] Speaker B: 100% agree. [00:33:04] Speaker A: Right. I said something this morning that's really hard for me to say or admit to. Right. [00:33:11] Speaker B: Right. We don't have to go back to it. [00:33:12] Speaker A: I know. And I didn't plan on it. Yeah. I admitted it privately with my brothers. [00:33:17] Speaker B: Right. [00:33:18] Speaker A: That's why we have a group together. Right. But it would be very easy for me to say, what's the adversary it's the devil. [00:33:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:27] Speaker A: It's because of the devil. [00:33:28] Speaker B: Yeah. But it's not I choose to do that. [00:33:32] Speaker A: I choose to not surrender. [00:33:34] Speaker B: That right. [00:33:36] Speaker A: That's what it boils down to. Not that I choose to do it. I choose to not surrender. [00:33:42] Speaker B: It surrender. Right. And why do you choose that? Because of the perceived short term enjoyment that's right. Instead of and what does that boil down to? [00:33:59] Speaker A: Yeah. It's not good. [00:34:03] Speaker B: It's a goat answer. [00:34:04] Speaker A: I know, but you also have to think about that surrender. Like, that started today. [00:34:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:12] Speaker A: For me. Right. [00:34:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:15] Speaker A: And Linda, I do give my wife credit for a lot of stuff, but I don't feel like I give her enough credit. [00:34:22] Speaker B: I don't feel like you do either. [00:34:25] Speaker A: But she's been saying for a while, like, you've got to surrender this. You can't do this by yourself. As she has these conversations with me, she's saying you a lot. It's true, though. [00:34:42] Speaker B: But it is. [00:34:43] Speaker A: Right. Because I think I can. I think I'm strong enough. I got this covered. [00:34:50] Speaker B: Right. [00:34:50] Speaker A: Clearly, I haven't. What did you say this morning? The first three things were the first. [00:34:55] Speaker B: Three I can't, God can. I got to let him. [00:34:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:58] Speaker B: That's the first three steps in recovery. [00:34:59] Speaker A: Yeah, but you got to let Him. [00:35:04] Speaker B: That's the thing. [00:35:05] Speaker A: Right? [00:35:05] Speaker B: That's the thing. Because too many times we take the reins of our own life and we try to put it back in our own path. [00:35:12] Speaker A: That's right. And I think this parable of the prodigal son is the prodigal who's not at home, right. Who is away from the father, away from God, has finally said, I can't. [00:35:27] Speaker B: But he goes on to say, God can. [00:35:30] Speaker A: That's right. [00:35:31] Speaker B: I'm going to let him. [00:35:32] Speaker A: Going to let him? So I'm going to go home. [00:35:34] Speaker B: And that's what he does. [00:35:35] Speaker A: Yeah. I can't. God can. I'm going to let him. It's such an easy thing to say. [00:35:49] Speaker B: I had a pastor one time that said, easy to say, easy to preach, hard to live. [00:35:54] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, you've heard me say it a lot, right? Hardest easy decision I've ever made. [00:35:58] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:36:01] Speaker A: I've used that line. [00:36:05] Speaker B: I plagiarized you. [00:36:07] Speaker A: But it's true. [00:36:08] Speaker B: It is. [00:36:08] Speaker A: And I'm sure I probably heard somebody else say it. [00:36:10] Speaker B: I just don't remember well. [00:36:11] Speaker A: But it's one thing to be in the world doing what you want to do, and sometimes I feel like, even for me, right, that I'm doing all this ministry stuff or I'm doing this or I'm doing that, and I still hear that word I and it's not intentional. [00:36:41] Speaker B: Not intentional on the surface. Yeah. [00:36:45] Speaker A: But what about it? Do I feel like see, there I said I again, hey, what about it? Is at the core of why I say, I don't know, man. It's probably another podcast, to be honest with you. [00:37:05] Speaker B: Probably something we need to plan, because that gets into a very deep conversation about surrender. [00:37:14] Speaker A: It does. [00:37:15] Speaker B: I mean, it really does, because you can't surrender. [00:37:17] Speaker A: You can't surrender some part of your life. [00:37:20] Speaker B: What part can you not surrender? [00:37:22] Speaker A: No, I'm saying you can't only surrender. [00:37:25] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, right. Yeah. [00:37:27] Speaker A: You can't only say, I'm going to surrender this, but I'm not going to surrender. [00:37:30] Speaker B: Right. I'm not going to let this go. [00:37:31] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm going to keep a hold of that. [00:37:33] Speaker B: Yeah. Because you end up with idolatry at that point, and you end up idolizing yourself when you can't surrender or when you don't surrender. [00:37:43] Speaker A: When you don't. [00:37:43] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. With the prodigal coming back and realizing he can't do it right, he tried his way. [00:37:56] Speaker A: He failed miserably. [00:37:57] Speaker B: Failed miserably. And now he is so hungry that he wants to eat the pods that the farmers are feeding the pigs. [00:38:04] Speaker A: That's right. He's like, this is what I deserve. [00:38:08] Speaker B: Right? And then he realizes, but wait a minute, there's a better life ahead for me, but I got to humble myself and do it the right way. I can't. God can. I got to let him. And that's where that comes into play in our lives. We talk about recovery. Recovery is not just from drugs and alcohol or gambling or sex or eating or whatever. Recovery is any hurt habit or hang up. [00:38:43] Speaker A: That's right. [00:38:44] Speaker B: Which, in essence, is just sin. [00:38:47] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. [00:38:48] Speaker B: It literally is just sin. Now, with chemical addictions, that's a whole nother scientifically proven thing that it is. [00:39:00] Speaker A: But you know what's interesting, and Linda said this to me recently know, the pastor at the Bridge did this sermon once called The Escape Room. It was a sermon series called The Escape Room, and you could probably go find it on their Facebook page or on their website. Right. But at the end of every session of that sermon series and throughout, as he's doing the preaching, he continually says, no one gets out alone. If you go to an Escape Room, you're not going to solve it by yourself. [00:39:35] Speaker B: Right. [00:39:36] Speaker A: Because it's teamwork, because it's all about community and teamwork and relationships. And so he's saying, everything that you do, you're not going to do it alone. You can't be successful alone. And that's what the Escape Room is about. And a lot of the sermons, he's talking about mental health and different things like that, but he's saying you can't do it alone. Nobody gets out alone. [00:40:06] Speaker B: That's so true, though. [00:40:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:09] Speaker B: Whether it be in mental health or recovery or recovery. [00:40:16] Speaker A: How do you do it alone? Right. [00:40:17] Speaker B: You don't. [00:40:18] Speaker A: That's right. That's why AA. Or celebrate recovery. [00:40:24] Speaker B: That's why I failed so many times, is because I tried to do it alone. [00:40:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:29] Speaker B: And until it was my intent to surrender my will and my being yeah. Not going anywhere. [00:40:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Just hamster on a will. [00:40:43] Speaker B: Well, and that's the classic definition of the difference in clean time and recovery. And it's the same thing with sin and walking in wholeness I could string together three 6911, 13 months, whatever, clean it's over. But it wasn't until I dealt with it and walked through bona fide proven steps to be able to walk in recovery. The same thing with sin. I can separate myself from what the temptation is, but until I join together with what I know to be the truth, the way and the life, I'm not going to be able to resist that for very long. [00:41:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:41:46] Speaker B: It doesn't matter what the hurt habit or hang up is, whatever you want to call it, whatever the sin is, whether it's addiction, whether it's something that we need to surrender, whatever that is, until we go the route. Of scripture. Until we go the route that leads back to Jesus, until we figure out that we are the prodigal, there's not going to be any change in the path. [00:42:18] Speaker A: That's right. I think that's kind of like a key phrase. Till we realize we are the prodigal. [00:42:27] Speaker B: That's it. [00:42:28] Speaker A: Right. [00:42:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:29] Speaker A: How many people don't realize that? [00:42:33] Speaker B: People that are slinging yeah. Slinging insults at Kat von D. Yeah. People who know trying to prove that they are more holier than thou. [00:42:47] Speaker A: Yeah, I would agree with that. [00:42:51] Speaker B: There are so many different avenues to go to make sure that we as a Christian body are built up so that we're encouraged, so that we live life together instead of trying to sling mud at somebody to make yourself look better or to draw in a crowd to be able to get a larger tithing contribution. Why? [00:43:25] Speaker A: I don't understand it. [00:43:26] Speaker B: Meism yeah, that's it. Because they want to be greater. And what does John 330 says? I've got to decrease so that he can increase. [00:43:39] Speaker A: Amen. [00:43:40] Speaker B: So what I do doesn't need to be seen as much as what God does through me, right? Man, I can do all kinds of stuff. [00:43:51] Speaker A: It might not be the right stuff. [00:43:52] Speaker B: Well, I mean, even the right stuff sometimes. What I'm saying is, for instance, as a young man, I was a terrific I'm talking about amazing water skier, okay? I could throw a slalom, dude. [00:44:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:44:10] Speaker B: I mean, I could hit six buoys, and of course, all right? And I could throw an elbow down. I could get low enough to the water. I could throw my elbow in the water and recover. I had a custom made I could do all this. [00:44:22] Speaker A: Right? Yeah. [00:44:22] Speaker B: But that doesn't matter because of what I should be doing the whole time. So no matter what my exploits were, no matter how many trophies I got, no matter that doesn't matter. What does matter is somebody taught me how to do that. Somebody showed me how to come up on a ski. Somebody showed me how to use the force of the boat to get through the turn. Somebody showed me those things. Right? That's the exact same way it is in our walk with Christ. There are people that come along that show how to study a particular scripture, right? There are people that come along that show how to share that scripture. There are people that are going to come along in our lives. They're going to show us how to evangelize. There are people that are going to come along in our lives to show us how to disciple other people and how we should be discipled. None of that. None of any of that that I just described, whether it was me water skiing or whether it was us in our Christian life, had anything at all to do with what I can do. It's all because of people who are around me that want to be accountable, people who are around me that want to hold me accountable, people that are around me that want to see God's best in our lives. That's true Christian community. And those people that may show me how to proselytize are those people who may show me how to disciple are those people who may show me there may be people in there that only read the King James version. There may be people in there that read the loud Bible. The amplified version. [00:46:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:46:12] Speaker B: Right. [00:46:13] Speaker A: Or the message. [00:46:15] Speaker B: The message. But those people want to see God's best in my life so that I don't become the prodigal again. But if I do, I become the prodigal and come right back. And that's what Christian community should be. [00:46:34] Speaker A: It absolutely should be. I think that's a topic for another podcast. Right. Can you lose? If you walk away, what happens? I'm serious. [00:46:45] Speaker B: I agree. We should have that conversation. We should. [00:46:48] Speaker A: Because I think there's a lot of maybe misconceptions. Right? There are once saved, always saved, or whatever it may be, right? Yeah. Maybe we'll talk about that next. [00:47:02] Speaker B: Okay. [00:47:03] Speaker A: Because we said we never plan. [00:47:05] Speaker B: We don't. [00:47:06] Speaker A: All right. So anything you want to add? How do we land it? [00:47:09] Speaker B: I think we just did. [00:47:10] Speaker A: I do, too, but I just want to make sure. [00:47:13] Speaker B: I think that the way that we land this is by just reminding ourselves that the path that we take because of our choices doesn't have to define our ending, because we can change that path right back to Christ at any moment and remain on that path so that the ending is glorious. [00:47:44] Speaker A: Amen. Amen. I'm not going to even add to that. Well, it's been a pleasure, as always. When we go this long without getting together, I just long for it. [00:47:57] Speaker B: I do, too. [00:47:57] Speaker A: And I appreciate it. [00:47:59] Speaker B: I do, too. I appreciate this chance. Since we started doing it together, it's something I've always looked forward to. Like Friday afternoon I'm going to sometime Friday I'm going to Rick. And so when things crop up and get in the way, it's like I end up looking at my watch and going, right about now, I would be at Rick. [00:48:19] Speaker A: That's right. I do the same thing. [00:48:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:23] Speaker A: All right, so everybody remember, this is Rick and Rob with the Nomad Pastor podcast. We're on every platform that you could probably think of. [00:48:31] Speaker B: And you can YouTube us. You can watch how ugly we are. [00:48:33] Speaker A: You could watch us on YouTube, but always remember to love God and love people.