So interesting question came in today on the podcast, and by the way, if you need to email me, email podcast at grangersmith dot com and we'll walk through whatever you got going on. Whatever your question is could be about work or love or church or faith or struggle or heartache or music. We haven't had a good music question in a long time, but whatever it might be, feel free. We just walked through this like people sitting in the cab of a truck and walking through something.
And I wanted to read this one. I think it's an interesting question. I think it's kind of worth digging into here. And the question comes from Ali Ali from Georgia, and Ali says, I know I should keep my focus on Jesus, but should I still seek truth in my curiosities? I know God doesn't want me to be ignorant. However, the Internet is full of opinions and people claiming to know something that I don't, such as the Earth is flat, Antarctica is there's a wall around it, our government is
a deep state, so I shouldn't vote. I'm twenty eight years old and I'm feeling very dumb. Is the answer to not buy into any of it? Or does knowing prepare me for the future. Thanks for all you do and for others and for God. Ali, that's crazy. I think it's a good question, and I don't think it's It's ever been asked in that way, in that form, and so that's why I think it's I think it's an interesting question to kind of start this podcast with. Really,
you're saying it's interesting. Your second sentence is interesting where you said, but should I seek? But should I still seek truth in my curiosities? And you know, I think what you're also asking at the same time by saying that is are there other truths out there? Granger? Is there one truth? Or are there many truths? I know I should keep my focus on Jesus, but I'm kind
of wondering how many truths I should think about. And that kind of leads me to a discussion I was having on my radio show after midnight, and that the question was is morality subjective or objective? And what I meant by that is, how do you know what's right or wrong? How do you know right from wrong? And it's deeper than just saying well, you're raised that way. You're raised as a kid to know right from wrong
by whoever raised you. But that's that's easy to rebuke that because you could just say, well, who taught the people that taught you? Well, you say their parents, who taught them? Where does it come from? Like, where's the source of morality? Right from wrong? And is it subjective or objective? Like I said, and that means is it your truth or my truth? Or is there does everyone have an opinion about morality? Which is I think Ali, you're mainly asking that. I don't think you're saying, how
can I know if the Earth is flat? I mean you can get on an airplane. You know that, like you can. There are some things you could know today. Does Antarctica have a wall around it? Do you really want to know that? Are you really interested in that question? I don't think so. I think you could. You could find that out if you dedicated your life to discovering more about antarctica, you could. But I don't think that's
what you're asking. I think you're you're asking as you look at social media and you see everyone's got an opinion about something, You're you're kind of asking, who do I know how to trust? Who do I know who to trust? And how to trust? And where does trust come from? And more importantly, I think your question is what is truth? It's it's crazy, ponscious Pilot asked Jesus that same question, what is truth? We don't know? And the way that was written in the Gospel, we don't know.
Probably we probably think most people would interpret that is Pilots. It's kind of saying that in a frivolous way, like what is truth? I don't know? Could anyone know that? That's kind of a tone that it seems Pilot had what is truth? He's not really asking like what is truth? Tell me? You know he's not. It's it's more of just a retort of hey, here, I don't know what you're talking about. No one could know that. So let's dig into this. This is what I've been saying on
the radio show when it comes to morality. C. S. Lewis had something pretty interesting about this, and he was commissioned during World War Two. C. S. Lewis the author Chronicles of Narnia and many many other books. He was commissioned in World War Two in England to host a radio show, and so they wanted him to write a monologue.
There would be multiple shows for multiple radio shows in England during World War Two, during a time when people needed to know truth, they needed to know about morality, about right and wrong, where morality came from, is it subjective or objective? And they got C. S. Lewis to write about this, not saying it like I just said it, but instead going through the back door and just making
people think, exploring this. And the reason this this is going down like this is because you gotta imagine, you got mamas in England that could not understand the atrocities that were happening in Germany in the Nazi regime. They couldn't understand that kind of evil that their sons were going in to fight against. And I'm not talking about German boys. I'm talking about the Nazi regime, the idea of the Nazi regime and what that was doing. People
could not reconcile. And I can't either because I didn't live in that time, and no one listening can really either. It's very difficult to reconcile, especially raising, raising a Christian boy and sending him into that kind of evil and he he leaves on the train with his uniform on, and you're crying and you're saying goodbye as the train rolls away, and he's going into the jaws of hell,
the unthinkable horrors of World War two. And they knew a little bit about this because a lot of the husbands and our grandfathers were in World War One fighting a different kind of evil from the same enemy. And so in order to reconcile, how do I how do I sleep at night knowing my boy is over there. I'm now I'm questioning morality. I'm questioning humanity. I'm questioning evil and good, all of it together. They get C. S. Lewis and he comes in, and he comes at it
a very different way. I promise, Ali, I promise, I'm getting to your question. C. S. Lewis comes in and he starts with human nature, and he calls it the law of nature, and he says something interesting. Somebody called, let me say it this way. Someone called my radio show and said, Granger, I got an answer for you. I got an answer to where does right and wrong come from? How do you know what's right and what's wrong? I got an answer to how you know that? And
it's because you'll react according to your fears. And that's the way we've evolved. He says, you do what inherently you go against, inherently what you fear. It's basically what he's saying. So if you trace that back far enough through human evolution, whatever we fear, whatever our ancestors feared, we built a system in avoiding that. So murder, we know murder is wrong, the caller says, because we've grown
and we've evolved to be afraid of death. Therefore, afraid of someone that would lead someone to their death, Murder is wrong morally because we've learned to fear it. Basically, he said, everything that all morals could be taken from that, and it's really an evolutionary standpoint. And so C. S Lewis kind of tackles that idea, and it's isn't it crazy that all the years, all these years have gone by and we're still dealing with these same kind of questions.
So C. S Lewis says, okay, you have you have a fire. Now I'm making this up. C. S. Lewis had a different scenario. I'm gonna say the scenario that I set on the radio. Say there's a fire in an apartment complex and you're walking by and you see this fire, so you rush in to see if you could help. And there are people, able bodied people and you're helping them, and you're you're getting out. There's a mother and she's got a child, a baby, and you want to help them, get them out. All of us
would say that's morally right, you need to help. And the evolutionist, the the guy that's very practical in this, says, yes, there's something in you that driven by fear. Ultimately that says, I got to get this woman out and this baby out because this is how the human race survives. We have to do this otherwise we all we all die and the human race is no more so instinctively, through our evolution, we're going to we're gonna be we're gonna desire to help someone, to pull him out of this fire.
So you're helping out these able body people. You got this woman and you got the child, and you're you're helping everyone out. Right. Now, there's a problem. This C. S. Lewis recognized this problem. This is what he's saying on the radio show. Essentially, what happens then when in that fire you see the old man in the corner and he's in a wheelchair. This is the scenario built on the radio and say, say this old man. Not only is he old and he's in a wheelchair and he's paralyzed,
but he also has some kind of dementia. There's often there's obviously something wrong with him. He can't think straight. He to put it practically, he's just a drag on society. He ain't helping anybody. He's not helping the community. In fact, evolutionary, evolutionarily speaking, if he dies in that fire, we're actually better. We're better as a species because he's kind of a drag on the healthcare system. He's just kind of a waste of food that you know, he's a waste of resources.
We're spending time and effort on this old man in a wheelchair who's got dementia, and we're kind of wasting when we need to be focused on the woman and the child and the able buddied people to move on as a species. But that's not what happens, is it. See as Lewis recognizes this, and the listener of this podcast recognizes this, that when you see that old man, something in you goes against that evolutionary spirit and says, help this old man. I gotta get this old man
out of here. Hang on, sir, I'm gonna help. I'm gonna I'm gonna get this. I'm gonna get these boards pulled out of here. I'm gonna hang on a second. Well, I'm gonna get this wheelchair up over this thing. I know you're stuck here, but i'm gonna get you out. You hang on, sir, We're gonna we're gonna get this
figured out. And you start helping the old man out of the burning fire, and that goes against it, that goes against everything that's practical, that says we evolved and we're driven by fear because you just went into the fire, which is fear driven, and then you're doing something that's against everything that helps the species evolve. Animals don't do this.
My chickens, when one of my chickens gets sick, they they the other one's peck her till she dies, because it's survival the fittest, and it's you know, only the strong will survive, and they help their own little communities by just getting rid of the week. It helps everything. Humans don't do this. There's a nut there's something else outside of us, outside of everything that's practical and outside of everything that your brain says you should do, there's
something else. There's a consciousness that says, help the old man. What is that? Where does that come from? That's what we need to know. Why do we have that in us to help that old man. Now we can do a whole podcast about just that what is that? But my point to Ali from Georgia is there that is enough evidence that there is a truth out there outside of ourselves, outside of our opinions, outside of our subjective
I like this, you like this. There's something else pulling at us from our gut, from a guttural instinct, from deep down in our heart. There's something else that says, say that old man, Get that old man. Why that defies all odds. So you say, Ali, I know I should keep my focus on Jesus, but I'm going to stop you at the butt and said, to keep your focus on Jesus, you have to go to his word,
as he's revealed himself in the Bible. Jesus has revealed himself in one way, and that is through his revealed word. The Book of John starts in the Gospel. The Book of John starts in the beginning, was the Word and the word was with God, and the word was God. And then you see in John one fourteen it says, and the word became flesh. Jesus is the Word. He's revealed himself in the Word, and the word became flesh. So to know him, to keep your focus on him, would be to go back to his word, or to
be involved with the preaching of his word. To be in a faithful church that declares and preaches his word on Sundays, to be around other people who hear his word and talk about his word, and wrestle with his word and pray his word. To be close to Jesus. To keep your focus on him, what be to keep your focus on his word. When you do that, and when you seek instead seek you seek the Kingdom. As Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, all these
things will be added to you. So when you say your second sentences, But should I still seek truth in my curiosities? I think your curiosities are fine, your desires are fine. Seek the Lord. First. Delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. You see, So, if you're seeking Jesus through his revealed word, through his people, in a church revolving around his word.
That's really revolving around the preaching of his word that if you're seeking that he will give you the desires of your heart. In fact, he will give you the delight in his word that then lead to the desires of your heart, which I think is the same thing you're asking when you say my curiosities. So I've kind of established here is that there is a truth outside of ourselves. There is something pulling us to save the
old man on the fire. And recognizing that there is a truth outside of ourselves, we know that we need to keep our focus on Jesus, knowing that he is the source, a source of truth capital t and when we keep our focus on him, everything else just seems to work out. Either you're talking about our government is a deep state and should you vote or not? It
leads right back to his word. How because you're you're in a church, you're in a local church lowercase C. You're with people that you trust that are focused on his word just like you. You're doing it in community, and you go, what do we think about this government? Do you? What do we think about this voting thing? And you wrestle with it. But you're wrestling with people and you're you're having a discussion with people who are first focused on the Kingdom of Heaven. They're eternally minded
people instead of temporarily minded people. People that go, yeah, yeah, this could happen, and this could happen really bad. But in the end, we know who the king is, we know who wins in the end, and so yeah, maybe we should vote depending on these policies, and I agree with this policy, you agree with this policy. We disagree here, assuming that morality is out of this, because morality should
be objective for a Christian. But you're wrestling with these things in a community, with the church, and these other things like the flat Earth, the Antarctic at the wall, the government, the deep state, everything else you see on social media just starts to fade away in the background. It it just becomes white noise that you could slowly turn that volume down to nothing. Understand, there is a capital T truth. It is objective. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life seek Him, seek the Kingdom
of Heaven, the reign of Jesus in your heart. Essentially that means and all these other things will be added to you all the other things you need will be added to you. All your desires, your curiosities will bring him glory because you won't worry about other worldly temporal things. Okay, if you want to get a hold of me, go to cameo dot com slash granger Smith and I could send you a video message made right here on my phone whatever you want me to say, Happy birthday, happy anniversary.
It's a great way for you and I to stay in contact and to get someone a gift that might seem to have everything. Hey, get him a gift at cameo dot com slash Grangersmith. Next question, says Granger, Please keep me anonymous. I'm not sure if they are listening to your podcast, It says Hey, Grangeer recently lost her relationship with someone I truly love. The old me was the party type. I finally found a woman that I
wanted to share the rest of my life with. Our relationship was great, but all this all of a sudden, it ended, and it wasn't the best excuse me. I wasn't the best boyfriend or step parent by any means, but I tried the best I could. The person was literally the best thing I knew I just couldn't figure out how to tell them in their language that they were Fast forward a couple months later. We now live
separately and rarely talk. I've done everything to get them back, including quitting that dip in my lip and gotten so close to God. I go to church a lot, found a lot of brothers and sisters in Christ, made amends with my family, improved to myself that I don't have to live that party mentality. I want to prove to her so badly that the old me is out, but she doesn't seem to believe me because in the past
I didn't change. What are some of the ways to understand if this is God's will to let them go or if he wants me to keep fighting for my family talking about God, I'm honestly scared of this going on the podcast because of them hearing, and I'm scared of losing my faith and going back to my old sinful way. Is please help me get over this? Help me please? Okay? Interesting, I wonder if if the person is actually hearing this on the podcast, wouldn't that be something? Okay,
So let's get into this, Anonymous, Where to start? I'm seeing four paragraphs here By the way, if you want to, if you want to email me podcast at grangersmith dot com, I'll answer this any any question you have, I'll put it into the queue, just like I'm doing right now. First of all, I want to say, this sounds just like a country song. You see, this kind of stuff happen all the time. Many country songs are written situations just like this. You had someone, you lost to someone
and you wish you had them back. You wish you could just have said the things that that person needed to hear and then everything would have been right. You know, there's that old song by Steve Warner says it's not what I did, It's what I didn't do, And that sounds like a nineties country song wrapped around your situation. So, first of all, I say that in a way to just say, hey, you're not alone. This is a good
old fashioned heartbreak. But there are some things that worry me in in it itself, and I don't know, I don't know how old you are. It's it's always concerning when there's when there is kids involved, and there's there's kids involved in this scenario, because you're you're talking about I wasn't the best boyfriend, I wasn't the best step dad.
And then so I'll probably start there. Out of everything, I'll probably start there and go, oh man, it's so tough when you're you're not only making a mistake to the the girlfriend, but you're also making a mistake to the girlfriend's kid. And it's just it puts a whole new wrinkle on it. It makes it that much more difficult. And I say to everyone else that's listening, got you gotta be so careful when when she has a child. And I'll say this to the single mother as well.
You can't get serious like this in a way that you can get hurt in front of the child, because it's confusing for the kid. The kid's going the kid's now going through the breakup as well. Right, I guess you could say the same thing, especially that one line that says I wasn't the best stepdad. I think I would probably say too. I would. I don't even like that word stepdad. If you weren't you weren't a stepdad
to begin with. How you said stepparent, I wasn't the best boyfriend or stepparent by any means, but but you weren't you weren't a parent, you weren't a step parent. You were just dating the mom carelessly, okay, And so we're gonna put that aside. We're gonna put that part of it on the shelf. That's the first paragraph. The second paragraph, you you live separately, and you know what that implies, right, you say, fast forward a couple months later.
Now we live separately and rarely talk. The implication of that is that you were you guys were living together. You're dating her, and she had a kid with another man, and you moved in with her, and then you screwed it up and she's gone. And it's one thing for the mom. For the girl, it's bad for her, But think of what you're doing for the kid. What what
message is it sending for the kid? You say, I go to church a lot, and I found a lot of brothers and sisters in Christ lower case C. I made amends with my family and proved to myself that I don't want to live that party mentality. I want to prove to her so badly that the old me is out, but she doesn't seem to believe me, and I don't either, Because, first of all, here's the reasons and brother By the way, this is tough love. This
is not a knock on you. I'm doing my best here to give you the information that I think you need. And first of all, only a couple months you say have gone by. If you say it's been seven years, I'm a new man. Now I'm believing you. You say a couple months have gone by and I've changed my way as granger, I don't believe you, and that's okay. Time will build trust. So consistency and time will build trust. You're going to church a lot and being around brothers
and sisters in Christ. That's a good step, But that doesn't mean you're healed. That just means something you're doing. You where do you say you gave what? You gave up some bad habits and you've gotten so close to God? First go First of all, God didn't want you live in with that woman. That's what you would call a sexual sin, which is really bad in the Bible. Not that not that Christianity is work based, but meaning let me, let me explain that you don't do anything to earn
your relationship with God. You don't give up dip and you don't you don't move out from your girlfriend's house and quit sexual sin to get close to God. It doesn't work. God goes, oh, you've already messed it up. You're already guilty. That's like saying to the judge. Imagine you get convicted of murder and you go to the trial and they're trying you for murder, and the jury comes in with their verdict and it is guilty. All evidence. You're guilty. You're caught on video, it's just obvious. They
have the murder weapon. And the judge says, you're convicted, guilty. What do you have to say? And you say, Judge, that was a couple of months ago. I've been going to church and i've been I've quit some things and I don't do that murder stuff anymore. The judge goes, thanks for the story. You're still guilty, right, So that's what God says. When you say, but God, I've gotten a lot better. He goes, you're guilty. In fact, you've always been guilty. And same with me, same with everyone listening.
We were born with this sin. We've inherited sin as humans, and it is so bad. It has infested us so bad that we have broken the law of God and the worst sin we could do, the worst implication of sin that we could do is break the commandments of God God, and we've all done that, and the verdict is guilty. So he says, you can't earn your way back. It's already done. There is nothing you could do. In fact, the Bible says that all your good works, all your
good deeds, are like garbage to me. It's like dung to me. It means nothing. And so knowing this, God sent forth his son Jesus one hundred percent God, one hundred percent man to earth to live the life that you couldn't, the perfect life that didn't live with a girlfriend, who had a kid, that didn't do all the bad habits that you did, didn't have the party life that
you have. Instead, Jesus fulfilled all God's commands perfectly. And then it was taken to the cross and murdered, becoming But it was planned, purposed so that he could become the final sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice that took on that death, that punishment of your guilty verdict. He was made guilty. He who was innocent was made guilty for the sake of the guilty. To be innocent, you you see what
it means. So Jesus became guilty for you. He was the only innocent man that became guilty for you, so that you, a guilty man, could be made innocent if you trust in him. So those with trust in Jesus are set free. They're released from the penalty that you've been accused of. That's the gospel. But let me go
back full circle to what I was saying. I will know and anyone will know that that gospel truth has taken root in your heart because you will no longer want to be part of anything that remotely smells or looks like sin. That's not to say that you won't, but you will hate it and you'll do everything you'll scratch and claw to get away from it, because it's an infestation of sin. And that's the sign of a believer, is not that he's sinless. It's that he is doing
everything he can to eradicate the sin itself. So he's doing everything you can't to get away from it. And two months go by and you've moved out from your girlfriend's house and you've quit putting dip in your lip and you're not partying as much. That's not enough. Of a track record for me to go, Oh yeah, that gospel has taken root in your heart, you see what
I mean? And then lastly, your last your last question here, what are some ways to understand that that is God's will for me to let this girl go or if he wants me to keep fighting for my family? It's not your family. Don't say it that way. You're not a step parent and it's not your family. This is a girl friend until it's time to get things together and put a ring on her finger. It's a girlfriend. And so that you've messed up by the way, And
so you say, I'm honestly scared. I don't know. I'm scared of going back into my old sinful ways over this. That sums it up right there. If you see Jesus for the value that he is, the sacrifice that he made to free you from hell. When you see that, when you see that, you deserve hell and you have a ticket punched for it, same as me, and you realize what Jesus did to free you from that. If you realize that, then you're saved and you don't want
to go back into those old ways again. Once again, It's not like you were free and clear of it. But you don't want to. You don't sit around and go I'm so worried I'm going to get back into my old sinful ways. You go, I'm not going back there. I've seen the truth, I've seen the treasure. I don't want any part of it. So what do you do? You go back to hearing the truth again. Hopefully that's preached in a good church. If you're in college station, which I think you are, I would go to Mosaic Church.
My buddy Sam Chrites is the pastor there, and that is a good gospel teaching church. Mosaic Church, Sam Christes, he's a good friend of mine. Tell him I sent you. And let's deal with this last question here. How do you know God's will? How do you know if it's God's will for you to get back with this girl
or not? Romans twelfth two. There's always a good good go to It says, do not conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you can discern the will of God what is good and acceptable and perfect. So don't be transferred. Don't look like this world, don't don't conform to this world instead be renewed by by the Word, by being around other believers that keep you accountable to say, hey man,
don't go back into that sense. Hey man here, let me save the gospel to you again, like Granger did on the podcast, let me show you the treasure so you could so show you what you've been saved from if you are that person that has faith in Christ and then all of those things when you realize that your main issue right now is that is that you have a one way ticket punched to hell. If you realize that that's your main problem right now, you're not
gonna worry as much about the girlfriend. But the crazy thing is, as you start considering what Jesus did for sinners to redeem them to God, to make things right in that court room, remember to make things right. After you got declared guilty by the jury, Jesus comes and says, I'll take the fine, put it on me, put it on my body. I pay the penalty for him. He's mine. That one's my child. I redeem him, I restore him, I adopt him as a son. He's an heir, a
co heir to the kingdom. It's everything the Father has given to me by my divine right. I give it to him by implication of what it did on the cross. That one's mine. Don't touch him when you realize that's you. When you realize you are that child, everything changes. Everything
comes off of that. Everything is as far as the way you treat this girl, the way you interact with your friends, the way you want to want or not want to party anymore with them, the way you treat this step kid, the way you treat your boss and your employees and your coworkers, and your mom and your dad, the way you value church and your brothers and sisters there, the way you value your own finances, the way you value your free time. Everything changes when you realize you're
that guy that Jesus says, that's mine. Don't touch him. Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice, and they follow me, and I know them. I give them eternal life, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. That's mine. No one snatches him out of my hand. When you realize that's you, everything changes. So to you, Anonymous, I'm saying is that you are you realizing that? Are you still like? Yeah, I'm trying to get close to the lowercase Gee God, I'm trying to understand my brother's in
lower case see Christ. But what I really want, Granger, is I really want to get all my stuff and bring my truck back in the driveway and move back in with that girl who I really like, and I want to make things good again, and I kind of want to party too. I think I've been really clear
on this answer. Next question comes from Bryn. Brnn says, Hey, Granger, I've been going to the same church my whole life, and I've recently been baptized as a teenager, and I'm not exactly sure on what my church thinks about women preaching the gospel. I'm not referring to leading the church. Instead, I would like to know if I could speak at my school's FCA Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and would that be okay and not against what the Lord says about
women preaching the gospel. I could just share my testimony, and I feel like others would get more out of this if I gave them a little bit of a short speech. I guess you could call it. She says. It would just be a short sermon and I would talk about my relationship with the Lord. I've attended FCAA meetings where women either give testimonies or short sermons. I think it's okay for women to share the gospel, just as long as they're not leading a church as a
preacher would. And I've asked my youth leader about it, and he really couldn't give me an answer. I just need help on this, and I hope your answer could be helpful to me in some way. I hope you're able to help me. Thank you and God bless Okay, Brent, Yeah, thanks for the question. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with you sharing your testimony and sharing the gospel. In fact, it
would be weird if you didn't. As Christians, all of us men women were called to be ministers in our lives, and we are ambassadors for Christ and God makes his appeal through us. Isn't that crazy? So yeah, share your testimony, share the gospel. This is not talking about the qualifications for elders like a Titus one qualification for elder or shepherd or pastor or church leader. This is not talking
about anything that I think you're trying to confuse. You giving a Sunday morning sermon with sharing the gospel and your testimony at an FCA meeting. Absolutely nothing wrong and absolutely there's no discrepancy there. Next question comes from Jared says, hey, grangdeer, my name is Jared. I'm twenty years old. I am pursuing a Sorry. I'll keep putting on these glasses because it's just so much easier to see. I'm twenty years old and I'm pursuing a career in electrical construction. I'm
a Christian man pursuing a relationship. For a good couple of years now. I couldn't help but notice that my church here in small town Cottonwood, Arizona, is dying. My church is fairly large and has around six hundred seats, but only about fifty people attend. The congregation consists of mainly older folk around sixty years and up, and there's no young people. I've got a good group of buddies that I've grown up with that attend here, and that's
about it for young people. It's hard because this church, this is my home church and I grew up here, but I also want to branch out and meet new people. It's sad to see my home church that I believe is dying. Any ideas for tackling a dying church. I was thinking about your second sentence, I'm a single Christian man pursuing a relationship. I kind of threw me off a little bit because that's nothing to do with that.
I think that was just background information. Okay, yeah, so so Jared, I appreciate the question, and yes, you're right, it is sad to see a church dying, and we see we see many churches dying, especially in towns like this,
and there are many symptoms of a dying church. I think I could say here I should probably insert that the Lord will keep his church, the Lord will sustain his church capital c. It doesn't always have to mean that a certain churches needs to be meeting in a certain location, and that door could be closing, a door could be
opening towards a merger. Maybe there's another church that's doing that's doing well, and they woult e merge with your fifty people and they're three hundred people, and then you got a new church of three fifty. You emerge leadership if if you guys have really close on doctrine and you agree on leadership, a church merger is a good thing. I don't think you're into that. I don't think you're interested in that. I think you are more about leaving, because it seems to me that you're saying, I want
to branch out and meet new people. So certainly it's you know, a merger could be cool, but it sounds like you're wanting to just move on the thing. To prepare yourself against the best way to prepare your church against dying is having a good leader or leaders that preach the Gospel, that teach expositionally through the Bible, where the point of the message is the point of the sermon, the point of the passage or the Bible verse, that the pastor's reading is the point of the message, and
not the other way around. If you want, you want more messages that come expositionally, meaning the point of the message is the point of the sermon. Unless there's a topic and this is a really cool lesson on finances or love or relationships or heartbreak or loss or careers or friendships, and we're going to use the Bible to support the topic at hand. It's a man centered gospel, it's a man centered teaching, and it typically fails, whether
sooner or later. That's a good way to kill a church a good way to sustain a church and to fuel it, and think of it as an engine and the church, the engine loses fuel without the gospel. The gospel is going to fuel the church and more people will be sustained by it. Man man center teaching. Man centered preaching eventually is going to drive out everyone because they're gonna be they're gonna be left hungry and they're gonna be starving, and they're gonna need real food and
not fast food that they're getting or salad. They're gonna want steak and potatoes, and they're only gonna get steak and potatoes with a church that teaches expositionally, I don't even say, if you've noticed on this podcast of the last several years, I don't even say things like a church that preaches that teaches from the Bible. I don't use that anymore because that seems to be what everyone says,
Thank goodness, my church teaches from the Bible. Well, it'd be weird if you wouldn't even be a Christian church at all if you didn't teach from the Bible. So let's let's say there's a new level of course, you teach from the Bible. But I'm talking about teaching from a passage, and the passage is the point, the whole point. Like, welcome,
open your bibles. Today, We're gonna be in First Corinthians, and I want you to turn to this page, this chapter, and we're going to read these eleven verses, and then we're going to talk about the point of those eleven verses, and then we're going to talk about how this applies to our lives today. What can we learn from Paul in this message that he was speaking to the Corinthians that we could apply to our lives today. Here we'll here's some applications for us in light of what Paul
was saying. Instead of saying, Hey, we've got these problems, let's go thumb through the Bible and see if we could find some solutions to it. You see what I mean. I don't I can go a thousand directions on answering how what to do with your dying church? And it's tragic either way. But having a pastor that is bold and courageous and loves the Word and loves people and loves the sheep, and has given his life to faithfully preaching a solid gospel that uses the Bible and teaching
expositionally out of it. You're in good shape if you have that. Even if you have fifty people, there's nothing wrong with fifty people. Essentially. I've been in churches around the world that meet under a tree and there's seven people, and it's a healthy church. It's not based on it's never been based on numbers. And so you have a bunch of empty seats, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad church. I think the sign that is dying is there's less and less every week. I think that's what
you're saying. And there's no young people. That's a good sign too. So I hope that answers and I don't think that I don't think any of that's your question. I think truly your question is grangeer. I think I'm leaving. Where should I go? And so I say, Okay, it's not necessarily your job to save the church you grew up in. That's not your job. You are a you're pursuing a career in electrical construction. Okay, that's not you
to save the church. But what you can do, being twenty is plant yourself in a church that's teaching expositionally with a pastor who loves people and loves Jesus and cannot wait every Sunday to give you the message that you need to hear from the Bible. Rights. That's where I would go with this. I think that's what you want to do, and you'll know a healthy church when you see it. Let me say one more thing. There's a great book. It's a nine marks book. It's called
What is a Healthy Church? Everyone? Write that down? What is a healthy Church? It's a very short book. If you're not a reader, grab it on audible or some kind of audio book format. What is a healthy church? What is a healthy church? Read it? Super short, super simple. A dear dear brother of mine wrote that book, and I think it will give you. It would expound on all the ideas I said, plus some. Okay, I love you guys, See you next Monday. Thanks for joining me
on the Granger Smith podcast. I appreciate all of you guys. You could help me out by writing this podcast on iTunes. If you're on YouTube, subscribe to this channel. Hit that little like button and notification spell so that you never miss anytime I upload a video. Yi