The Emotional Christian | Fed or Just Hyped? | Bible, Bros, & Brew

Feelings are easier than discipline. They always have been. If we are really keeping it real, many of us have built our entire faith life on how we feel on any given day. The problem? Feelings lie. They are fickle, they shift with the weather, and Jeremiah 17:9 already warned us that the heart is deceitful above all things.

What happens when the emotional high wears off and God feels distant? What happens when the worship song does not hit the same way and the fog machine cannot save you?

In this episode, David, Phil, and Jon kick off a brand new series called The Emotional Christian — and they are not pulling punches. They dig into what happens when the church stops feeding believers the Word and starts feeding them an experience instead. Fog machines, hype men, TED Talk sermons, and spiritual gimmicks designed to keep you emotionally charged but spiritually empty. Sound familiar?
There is a difference between being fed and being hyped. One builds your life. The other just feels good on Sunday.

Grab your Bible and your best brew, and let’s get into it.

⬇️ Have you ever walked out of church feeling pumped but empty? Drop it in the comments — we actually read them.

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📧 Questions or topics? Reach us at gotbrew@biblebros.net

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Transcript

A New Series: The Emotional Christian

David McIntyre 0:00

God created our emotions, but he never intended our emotions to lead our faith. Truth leads, emotions follow. On this episode of Bible Bros and Brew, we're turning the corner on a new series called The Emotional Christian. Now, when we talk about the emotional Christian, we're talking about being led by our emotions and our feelings versus being led by what the Word of God says and what Jesus has instructed us to do as believers. I think you're going to find that there's a lot to talk about here. And we're going to start with looking at the church and looking at some very important elements that lead to that emotional state in the first place. Up next on Bible Bros and Brew. And of course, the person who helps that space to be safe is Philip Rich over there on the far side. And the one who has the keys to the door sits right in the middle. That's John on the ones and twos. As long as he locks the door, everything is great, and our safe space is unviolated. We're so glad that you joined us today, and we are excited about what we're about to talk about. You know, we have um there's a lot to be said about this, but I hope that this series that we're about to start challenges you. Oh no. Sorry, I hit the wrong button. No problem. Can you hear me okay? Yeah, I meant to mute. Sorry, guys. No, you're good, then all good.

Phillip Rich 3:53

But uh, I am drinking Peregrine Columbia. Finca El Roble. Yes, for the rolling R. Finca El Roble. Um, this is an amazing coffee, guys. I I'm gonna try not to be too insane about it, but uh the notes that are on the little label here say orange soda, violet, and blackberry. Now, again, I don't know that my palate is sophisticated enough to detect all of those. What I do know is they all combine and coalesce to form one of the most amazing coffees you'll ever to ever grace your palate and taste buds. So um, I am happily drinking that tonight. And once again, giving a shout out to Peregrine out there, the peeps in Colorado. They are top-notch.

David McIntyre 4:45

So um you you had me at coalesce.

Phillip Rich 4:52

Yes, that's what it's all about, dude. When you can coalesce, it makes how about you, John?

David McIntyre 4:59

What are you drinking tonight?

Jon Dzyuba 5:01

Uh, you know, I'm glad you asked. I actually had to pull out something different, something spicy, right? This is coffee's like like second cousin, right? Uh I had to pull out a tea today. I had a few issues this past weekend just about with health and feeling a little rough. And I noticed that coffee, whenever I drink it, uh it just makes my throat like more scratchy after already being irritated. So for the sake of just feeling better, I pulled out a peppermint herbal tea from keeping it simple, keeping it fresh. It's peppermint I love, and it's so that makes it like really fresh. But yeah, dude, it's listen, I'm I'm taking it back all the way to my roots and drinking tea tonight. That's good stuff. Good stuff. How about you, Mr.

David McIntyre 6:00

You know, we are we are um we we of course are a mostly coffee podcast, uh just just from a global perspective, uh tea is actually more uh uh uh drunken, more drunk. People drink more tea than they do coffee in the world. Uh there was one statistic that said there are five billion cups of tea served every day compared to I think it was it was either two or three billion cups of coffee. So um, yeah. So John, you're perfect, it's appropriate for you to bring a cup of tea in from time to time. Uh we forgive you, and we know that that is not a shortcoming, it's a brew, so it's accepted here, just like you and you and your all you coffee and tea drinkers are all welcome. Uh, in my cup today, um, John said something a couple of weeks back. He had a mocha turtle coffee, a members mark coffee, and I had made a note to myself that may be actually good. And um, I am drinking the mocha turtle coffee tonight, and I low-key don't like it.

Phillip Rich 7:28

Oh no, do you know what it is?

David McIntyre 7:32

I but now let me explain. Here's why tonight might not be the best night to hear from David on this coffee because I don't know, I didn't know what I wanted, what my taste buds were. Uh so I didn't have something I could just go grab. There was maybe one that I wanted, but I don't have it in stock right now. Yeah, and so the combination of disappointment and not knowing what you want may be leading to me being a little more rough on this coffee than I should be. I do get the mocha though in it. Um, it's very present. I don't get the rest of the turtle, which should be the caramel as much. Uh it is somewhat smooth. I think the problem is it's just a little, it's just a little too low-key. I need something that you know is singing in my cup. Oh my god! And it's not helping me to be as conversational, but the Lord's going to help me today. Come on now, as conversational as I need to be, because I'm not emotional, and so I don't need my coffee to make me more conversational. It's an aid.

Phillip Rich 8:49

Come on, although it certainly doesn't help. Yeah, exactly. It's a supplement, nothing you absolutely.

unknown 9:00

Oh my god.

Setting The Text: 2 Timothy 4

David McIntyre 9:03

All right, um, that's good stuff. Well, that that's what's in the cup, and you know, pray our strength in the Lord, and uh let's jump into the word. Yeah, that's right. That's a good idea. So tonight, tonight we are talking about uh the emotional church and the emotional Christian, and um maybe we'll just start in with um a little bit of verse to kind of get us started and where we're going. I want to take us over to 2 Timothy uh chapter uh four. And I think I'm gonna read this from the um I think I'm gonna read this from the ESV tonight.

Phillip Rich 9:53

Oh, good stuff. Uh so like the ESV.

Itching Ears And Trendy Teaching

David McIntyre 9:57

Yeah, it's a it's a good read. And one of the con one of the upcoming episodes we need to do, Philip, is because I watched a couple the other day that were really helpful. We need to take an episode and talk about Bible translations. Uh we we've talked about it a little bit before, but we need to talk about Bible translations, what you kind of get out of that translations, what that out of that translation, and then um maybe give people a little bit of uh help and concept on where they might what they might choose to read, uh in order, you know, how they stack up in our lives and what they might choose to read. So um I think that I think that may be good. So uh second Timothy four, I think I'm gonna start at um I'm gonna start at one and I'm gonna run my way down to four, maybe, but it might even go a little further than that because this is so these are Paul's letters to Timothy, and um Paul was doing a lot of stuff, he was actually covering a lot of ground in these letters. Uh, in one sense, he was encouraging Timothy, in another sense, he was setting some boundaries around the church and some things that Timothy should be looking for and leaders. He was also giving Timothy insight on how people ought to govern their lives, including himself, and some of the things that he was going to begin to see functioning in the church. And um, it's that latter part at the end where Paul almost becomes kind of in one sense, maybe prophetic, even though as you read this, you'll begin to see that, you know, we look at the church today and look at the church that these guys were dealing with, and we it becomes very clear we've struggled with some of the same problems for centuries. And um we've we just know that when there are issues at your church, issues in your life, they're not necessarily uncommon. We just sometimes don't connect the dots in the Bible to what we're seeing in the real world and say, oh, okay, I get that, and then look to read and find out what the answer, what the solutions are that we can then apply to our real world lives as well. So as we look at 2 Timothy 4, um, verse 1 says, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is the who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. Listen up now, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine, or the ESV says sound teaching, the KJV says sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfill your ministry. So we see here in verses three and four that Paul is telling us that there is a time coming. Excuse me, Paul is telling Timothy that there is a time coming when people aren't going to be able to stand up to or they won't stand for sound doctrine, that they're going to look for people who basically teach what they want to hear. And what they want to hear may be based around whatever their passion is. So, you know, we've seen in our world, you know, there are what people call the prosperity gospel. Um, I think there are more prosperity churches who preach a prosperity gospel, then I would blatantly just lay that across the board to everybody. Because in some cases, uh history shows me that people will apply the concept of prosperity gospel to some churches. And they did that because of a message that they heard, not because they heard the whole doctrine of that church and rightly rightly applied that concept. But there are churches out there, and I think that what Paul is warning us is that people are going to want to hear what they want to hear. They want to hear God's gonna make me rich, and they're gonna want to hear the ways God's gonna do it, and they're going to connect themselves over there. There are gonna be other people who are going to want to hear that God just loves me and He loves everybody, and that's all that matters, and they're gonna connect themselves with churches that teach that. They're going to uh be looking for self-help, and so they're gonna find the church that does TED Talks and preaches self-help, self-help, self-help, and they're going to connect there wherever their passion lies is where they're going to try to go to connect because he says they have itching ears. Well, what does that mean to have itching ears? I think it's to have it means to have a desire, an appetite, a want to hear whatever sounds good, whatever scratches that ear and makes it feel better. And so Paul warns us of this time, that well, he warns Timothy of this time. And one of the things I think we could take away from what Paul says to Timothy is that if that happened then, then surely we would see it happen now. And I think we do. And the reason why I think we do is that people are very caught up in their emotions and their feelings, and I think that's what drives some of the itching in those ears that drives them out into places to only hear what they feel passionate about and not to hear the whole sound gospel of Jesus Christ and be made whole. What's your thought, Philip?

Phillip Rich 16:41

Yeah, I mean, it's interesting because Paul was saying, you know, preach the word in season and out of season. Basically, um, and if you look up that phrase in season and out of season, it actually means preach it, preach the word whether it's fashionable or not. I love that. It's like whether it's you know, aligning with the trends of the day or aligning with the culture of the day or not, you preach the word and stay on the word. And then he then he goes into that kind of that segue. He's like, because the time's gonna come when people were not are not gonna endure sound doctrine. You know, and if you think about like what that means, like the word endure, it's almost like it's hard for them to even bear it. You know, it's too much of a weight for them to carry in some kind of a way. Um, to just be able to take sound teaching in and go, yes, uh, I'm gonna align my life with this teaching. But they would rather have something that fits the personal preferences that they have. And that's where you start going off track because, you know, and and I've heard this from a minister we used to listen to a long time ago. He says, you don't change the word of God to fit what you think. You change what you think to fit what the word of God says. You know, you conform your mind, your thinking, your life to God's word, not the other way around. You can't, you know, make God in your own image, basically. But um, I wanted to, if you don't mind, David, I wanted to um uh zero in on that one verse in that near the end of that passage we just read where it says they'll turn their away their ears from hearing the truth. Uh verse four. Verse four. Um, John, if you don't mind, if you could go to the King James, the way that it's worded there, it really to me kind of hits like packs that punch. Um it says, they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. Now, when I was researching this in uh the I have a Kenneth Weist, I think you've probably heard me talk about it before, but the Kenneth Weist Word Studies uh Greek New Testament thing, uh it's it's like a it's a big thick book where he goes into the the details about the Greek uh phrases and words behind the English translations. And he said, when it talks about how they turn away their ears from hearing the truth, uh that is a voluntary act that they can. It's like they decide to not want to hear the truth anymore. But then the second half of that phrase, it says, and they shall be turned unto fables. He said, in the Greek, it's actually when you're being acted upon by something outside of yourself. I thought, like, whoa. So, in other words, once you have voluntarily decided that you don't want to hear truth anymore, or or whatever it is, you just don't have time for it. I'd rather find something that fits the way I, you know, what tickles my fancy. Um, you shall be turned to fables. The enemy will then be able to twist your thinking, twist your perception, twist your mind uh over into believing, possibly believing flat out lies. And that's the danger and the risk that you run by not wanting to hear the truth and not even being tolerant of the truth anymore. It's almost like a you know how they say I'm lactose intolerant, you know, some people are like truth intolerant at this point. It's so hard for them to bear it. Oh and that's not a good place to be.

Truth, Trust, And Testing God’s Word

David McIntyre 20:15

That's so good, Philip. You know, when you think about I I I'm sitting here thinking, you know, why is it so hard for us to accept and deal with truth in our lives, especially when that truth comes from the Bible, right? Because one of the things I think is that I beg I trust the word, I trust what God says, and I've learned through my life that I can trust and depend on what he says. But I think one of the reasons why we struggle and struggle with the truth here is because we don't trust that word. We don't we don't necessarily believe that what God said is true. Part of that is because we've never tried it, right? You don't realize how true God's word is until you test it or you need it, and then when you test it and need it, and you see God do exactly what he said he would do and come through for you, you begin the foundations of an unshakable faith. And so you we we don't believe that what God says is true, is probably a big centerpiece for why we struggle to believe and trust in his word and not give ourselves over to our emotions. The other thing I want to point out, like you were saying about verse four, there, Philip. When we become emotional in our in our walk with God, it seems like what that scripture is saying, it's inevitable that you're gonna give yourself over to myths and just just think. About that for a moment. In other words, that means you're going to give yourself over to over to myths and fables. In other words, things that aren't true.

Phillip Rich 22:11

Yeah.

David McIntyre 22:11

Things that are conspiracy theory in in nature in some senses, or unproven things, if you will, if you want the nice version. And you're going to give yourself over to those things. And let me tell you, once you give yourself over to those things, it's hard to fight back. You can fight back and you win. And you can win. But when you give yourself over to those things and you now find yourself following myths and fables, you're so far gone from the word of God that you'll actually turn from it into other things. I know Christians, for example, who believe it's okay to burn sage. And they'll get those sage bushes and walk around their house, you know, burning it and you know, saying, I just need to clear the air. I'm using this sage to clean the space. And I'm like, never once did we see Jesus pull out a bushel of shade of sage and start trying to cleanse the air around himself.

Phillip Rich 23:18

I'm gonna be honest with you, David. I've never heard of that before.

David McIntyre 23:21

Oh my you you've got to look that up. It's um it's uh I would dare say it's kind of a it's a new world, old world thing, you know, where the hippies love to burn sage. I I see it, I see it growing, right? Because I've watched a couple of podcasts and videos where all of a sudden I'm like, this guy has a smokestack coming up next to him, and then he pulled it out, and then he started doing this across the air. And I'm like, is this dude burning sage trying to cleanse the air? It's the wildest thing, but the we inevitably that's what that's what happens when we turn over, turn ourselves over. And now notice it's not God turning us over to fables and myths, it's us turning ourselves over to fables and myths, and inevitably when we do that, we start believing such wild and interesting things, and what inevitably happens too, Phil, at least this is how I've seen it, people will hold on to a piece of truth, yeah, and let it ignite the lie that they start living in and dwelling in. I mean, do you have you seen that?

Phillip Rich 24:39

Yeah, yeah. Um, because every you know, every deception, if it's a good one, if it's an effective one rather, not a good one, but if it's an effective one, it will contain like a grain of truth in it, you know, and it's meant Satan has always been a master of that, of taking what is blatantly true and then just putting a little bit of a weird spin or tilt or kind of tweak on it to where, okay, you know, it's almost like that. You ever heard of the Socratic method where like Socrates would ask these questions and he'd get you to agree with question number one and question number two, and then by the time question number three came, he's putting in something that he knows you might not agree with, but then you're so used to agreeing with them that you just go along with number three as well. Right, it's kind of that same principle. Um, but oh, I don't want to, I would be remiss if I didn't say uh shout out to Peregrine who uh showed up in our chat earlier. I wanted to say I appreciate you guys for showing up, man. Good stuff. But um I do that.

David McIntyre 25:39

Well look the the the unofficial sponsors of this podcast. Thank you, unequivocal use of Peregrine in in each episode. So yes, uh but it's great, it's great coffee, and they've been very good to us. So we're sure to see them. What were you gonna say?

Jon Dzyuba 26:05

Um man.

David McIntyre 26:07

Have you seen the sage, John?

Jon Dzyuba 26:09

I have I know what you're talking about. It and I see when I see it, I just avoid it because it doesn't make me happy when I see it. Um it's but to me it all just boils down to just cherry picking. And unfortunately, it's it's it's like one of the is I probably should know this. The commandment where it says there should be no other gods and worship, and then you know there should be no other idols before you know you don't worship other gods basically. And I feel like when we make these versions of our religion, we're making a version, an idol, a version of Christ, a version of God that just isn't the real Jesus that that is in the Bible.

David McIntyre 26:59

Oh, for sure.

Jon Dzyuba 27:00

Um I heard somebody say this, and I'm not gonna say what denomination because I don't want to be divisive on the internet, right? But um, there was an analogy that was or a metaphor where they said that you know Christianity is this giant glass orb, right? And just imagine this orb fell on the ground and shattered, right? And then you have every single piece is just a different denomination of Christianity where you have your Catholics, your your Methodists, your Baptists, all you know, fill in the blank. And this he said that the the biggest chunk, that's them, that's their denomination. They're the most correct, they got it the most right.

David McIntyre 27:43

Oh god, that's the Baptist.

Jon Dzyuba 27:46

Well, you see, every denomination is gonna think that they're the one that got it the most right. That's true. It's so funny. Well, it wasn't the Baptist, I'll say that.

unknown 27:56

I'll say that.

Hype Versus Worship: Emotions In Church

Jon Dzyuba 27:58

Um, but it's so interesting to hear that coming out from somebody who's who's like it's it's such a bizarre metaphor. Like you think that the Christianity, Christianity just falls into these different pieces, and you're just you're just the most correct when the Bible talks about, you know, we are all different parts of the same body of Christ. And so it's so oh man. I we can I feel like we can just I'm about to go just down this crazy rabbit hole, but you're talking about like these different things and practices. Okay, um, you create separations in the church because one church, well, you have one church that preaches prosperity, and one church preaches, well, you know, we all speak in tongues, you know, and then you got the Quakers, and then you got the Protestants, and you got all these different denominations that causes them, like I feel like Christianity has the most division amongst its religion than any other religion in the world. It's kind of sad because that is the one religion that preaches being different parts of the same body of Christ, right? And so, like I said, I can go down this rabbit hole for so long just talking about the different separations, but I feel like these different decisions that people make in like you know, this type of Christian goes to church, this type of Christian doesn't. Um back to the whole emotional Christian, it creates a false Christianity, a false religion, a false idol, which is not good.

David McIntyre 29:28

No, not at all, not at all. You know, we have um we gotta also just, you know, we gotta talk about our emotions too. Our emotions and our feelings, you know. When God created us, you know, he made us a three-part man, spirit, soul, and body. And our soul is what houses the mind, the will, and the emotions. And you know, there is um we've we've come to a place in our lives where we're really driven by our emotions. Honestly, our emotions and so many things are leading the way in a way that God never intended them to be. Let me, you know, I maybe an example is I'm in church and we're doing worship, and in the midst of worshiping God, and there's actual a real worship song that acknowledges and exalts him and brings and drives the attention to the father and who he is and all that, and exalting him. Um, in the midst of exalting him by choosing to raise my hands, by choosing to sing along, by choosing to worship him, I also get an emotional feeling in that that makes me feel that um as I do that, I'm drawing nearer to God. I don't think that there's anything wrong with that because the word says if you draw near to God, he'll draw near to you. And my emotions at that point seem to be testifying that by my choice of doing those things as acts of worship, that I was drawing nearer to God, versus I'm in the worship service, and the singer is just tearing the house down. And so she's singing it, and I got my sing finger on, I got my I got my sing face on, saying, And we got all of that going on, and I get to crying and carrying on. I'm like, and I walk out and say, Woo, she sang that thing, boy. She had me in my feelings this morning. That is not the same thing, that is being driven by your emotions because you got moved by the singer singing, you got moved by a bunch of other stuff that may have been happening around. There might have been an emotionally charged atmosphere. And let me tell you what we see happen in churches, and Philip, I know you can testify to this. John, you probably have seen it too. So many churches have hype men, yeah. They have hype men, and they come out, you know, whether it's it's opportunity. I guess in one sense, there's nothing wrong with being excited about giving to God, but there's another thing when people do these things to get people emotionally lifted and engaged. We saw a singer one time who got stuck in Donnie McClerkin's stand, and he bypassed stand altogether and was like, You pretty and you cried, and you cried, and for like 10 minutes he was there. And he was looking for the emotional reaction. The singer knew that what he wanted was an emotional response from the people who were watching, yeah, which meant he wasn't leading us in worship, he was leading us to our emotions. Oh my god, and so sorry, and so we even have to be mindful that even when we go to church and we're in certain places, that depending on where people's hearts are, they'll lead you into the emotional side of things, but leave you high and dry on the word side, and then if your pastor follows that up or follows the hype man up and doesn't give you any word, gives you two scriptures, a quote from Lincoln, a quote from Spurgeon, and then goes on and none of it makes any sense. What are you walking away with that helps to anchor your soul that whole week long, or if you're sick, helps you to realize that God is your healer? What is it that anchors you in a way that you know that even though weeping endures for a night, joy comes in the morning. So hold on to God's unchanging hand in this and don't let go. What helps you to understand we walk by faith and not by sight? Not a TED talk. Absolutely just doesn't it doesn't work that way, but we're so in our emotions, and we look so much at how they're dressed, we look so much at how long is the message, we look so much at all these ancillary things that really are about feeding your emotion and not feeding your spirit, right?

Spiritual Gimmicks And Money Manipulation

Phillip Rich 34:58

You know, it's interesting, David, because at the end of the day, the only thing that really provides spiritual nourishment is the word of God, period. Not uh a 20-minute worship song with a fog machine and flashing lights. Uh, all that's good, you know, in terms of okay, it can get you into a place, into a mood, into to kind of a okay, I'm now acknowledging God's presence and all those things. That's fantastic, but it doesn't matter what type of emotional high you get in church if you don't walk out with something of substance that can take you through the week, yeah, take it really just through the day, for heaven's sakes. Um, you need spiritual nourishment. And if if the church service has everything, including the lights in the fog machine, and uh maybe they're doing a Star Wars theme for you know, like a Millennium Falcon flying through the sanctuary, whatever they're doing, I don't know. But if they can have all that, but if they are very light on the word, you know, you may have the Bible getting referenced one time through for the whole 45-minute sermon, and the rest is just more motivational, inspirational, uh kind of cool catchphrases or whatever, you're not getting spiritually fed, you're getting emotionally hyped. And sadly, I think that there's some kind of a uh I've I hesitate to say this, man. There's like a learned helplessness that happens where Christians who are serial church attenders, they feel like they need to have that injection of emotional hype every week. It's almost like you're you're coming back to get another hit from the from the dealer.

Jon Dzyuba 36:54

Right.

Phillip Rich 36:55

I'm sorry to put it that way, it's kind of rough, but uh what it feels like. Yeah, it's it's like, oh gosh, I'm so low, you know, I'm I'm going through turmoil in my my life, my household, da-da-da-da. But man, if I can just get to church, you know, and and for what? To to shout and scream and run around the church for a few times, and and but you still don't have one single answer from the scripture for anything you're dealing with in life. That ain't the way to go, man. That's not the way to go.

David McIntyre 37:25

You know, um it it's it's wild, Philip. I'm looking, I'm looking here at Jude, right? Um, I just I just pulled it up. I think I'm gonna try the New Living Translation here. And if you look at verse eight, you know, he says, after he just finished describing in verse five, he says, I want to remind you, though you already know these things, that Jesus first rescued the nation of Israel from Egypt, but later he destroyed those who did not remain faithful. Um he goes on to say, and I remind you of the angels who did not stay within the limits of authority God gave them, but left the place where they belonged. God has kept them securely chained in prisons of darkness, waiting for the great day of judgment. Verse 7, and don't forget Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, which are filled with immorality with immorality and every kind of sexual perversion, those cities were destroyed by fire and serve as a warning of the eternal fire of God's judgment. But in verse 8, it says, in the same way, these people who claim authority from their dreams live immoral lives, defy authority, and scoff at supernatural beings. And then it goes on to verse 10, and it says, But these people scoff at things they do not understand, like unthinking animals, they do whatever their instincts tell them, and so they keep so they bring about their own destruction. What sorrow awaits them? For they follow in the footsteps of Cain, who killed his brother, like Balaam, they deceive people for money, and like Korah, they perish in their rebellion. And so we see it, and it'll even go just a little bit further in verse 12. It says, When these people eat with you in your fellowship meals, commemorating the Lord's love, they are like dangerous wheat reefs that can shipwreck you. They are like shameless shepherds who care only for themselves. They are like clouds blowing over the land without giving any rain. They are like trees in autumn that are doubly dead, for they bear no fruit and have been pulled up by the roots. They are like wild waves of the sea churning up the foam of their shameful deeds. They are like wandering stars doomed forever to blackest darkness. Look, the reality is here, you know, well, there there are a couple of things here, but you know, it looks like if I don't look at verse 11, you know, people fall into one of three categories when they go after these fables and myths and all of this stuff. They're either like Cain, who killed his brother, they're either like Balam, who do what they do for money, or they're like Korra and they're rebellious. And you know, we we see so much of that even in the pulpits, and it talks about even when they're eating with you, they're shameless shepherds, and they care only for themselves. I'm telling you that we are we're not we as a church we're not sober when we walk into churches.

Phillip Rich 40:59

Come on, man.

David McIntyre 41:01

We go into churches and and fellowships with people, expecting everybody to just love the Lord, just embrace Jesus, and our hearts will just lead us. Well, the scripture says your heart is full of all kinds of evil. So, how can that lead you? But we go in blind and we just think just because it's a church, that means it already starts with three positive checkmarks. Wow, but he's telling you here in the scripture that there are shepherds and leaders who don't care anything about you, the only thing they care about is themselves, which means they will willfully stand in a pulpit and mislead you for their own personal gain. Goodness gracious, and inevitably what happens is that we allow them to mislead us, and then we find ourselves off track, but then like you were sharing earlier, Philip, and you might want to share that, off track, but defending their wrong. Goodness, it's just the wildest thing, man.

Phillip Rich 42:09

I'll tell you what, John, if you could pop over to 2 Peter, because you you made me think of this, David. Um, 2 Peter 2. This he just he what blows me away about these passages, the Jude one you just went over, David, and the 2nd Peter one, is that we've been dealing with this stuff in the church ever since the church started. Eons, bruh. It's absolutely insane. Like it's been thousands of years, and we've been dealing with this stuff, and it's it's just as relevant now as it was back when these guys wrote it, you know. And uh, and we were talking in in the pre-show, uh, I guess it's pre-show, um, about uh something that I heard Philip Anthony Mitchell mention recently about uh one of the biggest warnings that came from Jesus and from Paul was about false prophets, about wolves in sheep's clothing. Over and over again. He didn't they weren't even really focused on what I'm gonna say they weren't focused on, but there wasn't a whole lot of emphasis on like the Antichrist or watch out for the wiles of the devil. It was more about what a minute, these false teachers coming up in the church, they're gonna infiltrate and they're not gonna spare the flock, and their whole end is destruction. Um, but it right here in verse 1, 2 Peter 2, verse 1, it says, But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. There it is, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And listen to this here. And many will follow their sensuality. Do we not see that now, David and John? Do we not see that? We see some of these churches with people who are, in my humble opinion, blatantly false prophets. Blatantly false teachers. Thousands of members yelling and screaming every time they say something that sounds rasmatazzy or whatever.

David McIntyre 44:08

Not even the word, not even the word, Philip. They're not even saying the word.

Phillip Rich 44:12

Not even the word.

David McIntyre 44:13

Yeah, they're just saying something that sounds fancy.

Phillip Rich 44:16

Yeah, it's fancy. It's exciting. They say it with itching ears that they're scratching. You know what I mean?

David McIntyre 44:25

Philip, I saw somebody, I saw one, I think I told you guys this already. I saw one message uh where this lady said, you know what? Now, after she'd been castigated over a situation with a dress that looked like she was wearing a nude dress out, this is a Christian woman. Her husband gets up in the pulpit and defends her, saying, I bought the dress. And you Christians and you church folks, the real problem is y'all can't handle it. And it's like, okay, it's us. Okay. And then she's preaching another sermon, and she comes out and says, Don't go places where they can accept your gift.

SPEAKER_02 45:03

What?

Phillip Rich 45:03

You know, uh, the classic signs of total narcissism is always flipping it around to where now you're the victim. You know, and that's what these people do. They're they're blatantly false teaching, they're blatantly false prophesying, they get called on the carpet for it, and all of a sudden they're under persecution now. Oh gosh, these people are coming against me. You're gonna have enemies out there, guys. All this stuff they say, and it's like, have you ever looked in the mirror? You know, you ever thought about what you're really doing right now? Right.

David McIntyre 45:36

Um, you're thinking, Peter, sorry to have interrupted you.

Phillip Rich 45:42

No, no, you're good, you're good. No, um, but yeah, it says in verse thr, oh sorry, verse two, and many will follow their sensuality. So it's like they're gonna get a crowd, and because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed. That's sad. But then but here's the kicker to me, man. The fact that this is in the Bible is actually like mind-boggling to me. Verse three, and in their greed, they will exploit you with false words. Yeah, um, and I think the King James says they'll make merchandise of you, they'll make merchandise of you. Do we not see that all over the place right now? Yeah, um, with just people you know getting up on the pulpit, okay. I need a thousand people to sew a thousand dollars a piece. You know, you got to be obedient to the Lord, sew a thousand dollars.

David McIntyre 46:36

Remember the preacher who went and literally locked the doors to the church. The close the doors moment, yes.

Jon Dzyuba 46:43

We talked about it last week, yeah.

David McIntyre 46:45

Until people gave the amount of money wanted them to give, he locked the doors to the church, told the users I ain't playing, yeah, yeah, and then got on the internet and once again justified it.

Phillip Rich 47:00

Yeah, he's the victim, he's the guy that's being under persecution for trying to obey the Lord, and um, and what you really come up with, and it's sad, what we these people keep coming up with is a bunch of spiritual gimmicks. That's really what it boils down to. It's just a bunch of gimmicks to to get people's money, and I I just you know, whether it's a word or a prophecy or a miracle or a breakthrough or whatever they want to call it, it's amazing how any of those things and all those things always involve us giving them money. I don't know why that is.

David McIntyre 47:38

Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm hearing something right now. Yeah, yeah. What do you what are you hearing? Praise God in the next 58 seconds. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. If 100 of you will give 58 dollars, oh my god, you receive a blessing by Thursday, and that's tomorrow.

Jon Dzyuba 47:58

You go take my wallet.

David McIntyre 48:03

Right now, you got 58 seconds. Use them, Lord, use them.

Phillip Rich 48:08

Or they'll, and I love it when they put a scripture with it, like the Ezekiel 33 verse 5 offering. Oh my gosh, and then they want you to give 33.50 or go all the way, move that decimal over a few places, give 333 and 50 cents, whatever it is, you know what I mean. It just gets ridiculous after a while.

David McIntyre 48:28

And God may speak to some of you to give three thousand thirty-three dollars and thirty-thend. Whatever he's saying on your heart right now, but the bigger the gift, the greater the blessing.

Phillip Rich 48:41

Oh, yeah. Oh, and the bigger the sacrifice, the more the Lord will, bro.

David McIntyre 48:45

Can I Lord, Lord, Lord, forgive us? Yeah, forgive us for all of this foolishness, forgive us. And and you know what I say, forgive those of us who are sitting in the pulpits, yeah, and believing something other than what the word says. Do you mean to tell me that the only way God's going to bless you is if you sow a$58 seed? That's that's the path to the blessing, not obedience, not keeping his commandments, not loving your neighbor as yourself and loving the Lord, not all that. It's your$58. Yeah, that's going to make the difference in it all. Just we gotta we gotta sober up, we've gotta sober up as a church and realize this sounds like it's going left. And you know what? I'd rather leave a church and maybe be wrong than stay in it and be led to be wrong for sure.

Phillip Rich 49:39

Come on, man. Come on, dude. And you know what? Sadly, emotional Christians, emotionally led Christians are the ones who fall victim to that stuff over and over again. Everything is it's this number one, this uh this idea that um honestly, and I hate to say it this way, but it's just truth. This idea that you this idea that you can get something from nothing, it it's it's permeating uh the body of Christ, the mentality of people, yeah, yeah. Where all I think they think they can fast track the blessing, yeah. You think you can speed run God's blessings, and it just doesn't work, dude.

Jon Dzyuba 50:24

You know, yeah, go ahead, John. I'm sorry. No, I was just saying, like, it sucks to suck, but that's unfortunately, you know, you don't get two-day shipping on your blessing. Um, I I wanted to add uh I keep hearing people like talking, it's very easy to compare Christianity and the church to a cult, and it's leaders like that. It's the people that that take weak-minded people and just take their money. And it's usually like a charismatic person who who speaks very fondly to people's emotions and and strums their heartstrings, and and and that's what gets that that right there is what makes people perceive Christianity as a cult, unfortunately, is because it's bo borderline is, especially when regarding like taking people's money. Yeah, but yeah, um, I I just I'm like connecting that dot right now, and it's so it's so irritating because it's like yeah, like you know, we identify as Christians, but anybody looking out in, especially who's had a bad experience with the church with stuff like this, they immediately get turned off to anything you have to say. True indeed. True indeed. And it just makes a bad, not that reputation is everything, but it doesn't make a great impression upon people who've already experienced that type of church, where well very charismatic leader, and it's all about the vibes and the yeah, and yeah, but you know what, John?

Phillip Rich 51:55

That's exactly what Second Peter said. It said that because of these kind of people, the way of truth will be evil spoken of, evil spoken of, and so isn't that exactly what's happening now? Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent. It's like people are more willing to write off everything about Christian, just write off Jesus and God all the way because of the foolishness of you know, some prominent preachers and things like that who are doing this stuff. Um, it's sad, you know.

David McIntyre 52:26

And you know what makes it even worse? It's like it's especially so when it's your grandmother, it's your mom, it's your aunt, it's someone like that who is taken advantage of by these people, and then you begin to wonder why that person thinks all of you church people are criminals and thieves, and it's because they've had a very real experience trying to pull somebody out of the fire from a bad church or a bad engagement, uh, and it's tainted how they see you know the church. I I'll throw another one at you guys if I might. Um, how about all these Christians who are so desperately looking for love and looking for the husband? They go to their they go to the local church where all the people are their age and and they're looking for a spouse or a husband. See, you walk in the door already, not focused on God, not thinking about God at all, and you're focused on hopefully out of this I will get what I want. And that doesn't mean that I get anything of what God wants for me.

Jon Dzyuba 53:42

Yeah, man.

David McIntyre 53:44

I mean it's we're out here wild, y'all. We in these streets, oh my god, that's all you can say.

Division, Denominations, And Idols

Phillip Rich 53:52

It's it's um, yeah, that's a whole other like a whole other uh segment of the current church that really, really um where a lot of things can go awry. I'll put it that way. I'd love for us to do a series on that, honestly. Yeah, because there's a lot of things that we could kind of address that you know, and I mean I'm I'm not saying we have all the answers, but I have seen enough foolishness to know what doesn't work, so not foolishness, tomfoolery, tomfoolery and it needs a whole nother explanation, yeah. Especially anything that starts with God wants you, God told me you're gonna be my wife. Oh no, stuff like that is already way off the mark.

David McIntyre 54:41

Oh my gosh, we watched that happen. Yes, it was a disaster, no, God, please, no, no, no, no, I couldn't help it, but you guys, the reason we're we're we're both passionate about this, and John, we're all passionate about this, yeah, and but some of it is because we've we're not telling you stuff we hadn't actually seen.

Phillip Rich 55:14

I've seen it firsthand, dude.

David McIntyre 55:16

We all have we've seen all this stuff, but we uh at the time when we saw it, or so many of it, it's as we the more we grew in Christ, the more we recognize that's a problem, yes, something's wrong there, yeah. That doesn't add up, and it began it began to shape us and how we are seeing things, and then you be it helps you to become much more careful about where you hook your wagon, where you feed your family, the stuff that you listen to. You know, there are I'm about to say something crazy. There are literally hundreds of Christian podcasts and so forth on YouTube. I don't hardly listen to any of them. And unless I know where you're coming from, or I might give you a minute to two to communicate where you're coming from. Man, if I smell a fish, then I I don't I don't go swimming there. Yeah, I just don't. You have to be so careful because everybody, and that's really the gist of what we're saying tonight. Well, not the gist of what we're saying, but it's part of what we're saying. Everyone and call every Bible says it this way everyone who cries, Lord, Lord, is not necessarily of the Father. Come on, dude. And we've got to stop connecting ourselves to these people and allowing our emotions to lead the way in these relationships and these connections because ultimately, like that scripture says, it causes us to turn from God and be led into myths and fables, and those myths and fables allow us to shipwreck our faith. Goodness gracious, and then we begin, then we've got then we've got a real problem. But I I'm telling you, I want to invite you guys to stay connected with us as we talk about this. If you have questions and things that pop up around it, send us those questions. You can add them in the comments, you can shoot them over to us at got brew at bible bros.net. Um, but we want to tackle this because we ultimately our heart's desire is to see as many believers as possible connected to healthy feeding grounds and recognizing that the first healthy feeding ground is the one that you create for yourself in your own home, in your own life. And then the next one is where you might connect yourself uh for church or for community and that connection and making sure that you're getting healthy, good stuff from there, and then even the community of people that you begin to connect around as a result of those things. You want to stay healthy, healthy, healthy so that you can be of use to the Father, growing in your knowledge of the word, growing in your knowledge of Him, walking by faith day by day, and it's that walking by faith that is going to be the difference between when you say to that mountain, be removed, because you believe that mountain will be removed, but you'll never remove a mountain thinking that you've got to send$58 first for it to move.

Jon Dzyuba 58:42

Right.

David McIntyre 58:44

Final thoughts, Philip or John?

Phillip Rich 58:47

Um, I just wanted to point out something that that popped out to me from that Jude scripture, and I'm not gonna spend a long time on it, but just uh when it said that these these false teachers and so forth, they're like hidden reefs. Um I never I never paid attention to that for some reason, but wow, what a statement, dude. It's like you know, kind of like how the Titanic sank because they they didn't really know how close they were to that iceberg. You know, these people, the the the danger with a lot of them is hidden from your view. You know, you could be going along fine, sailing your little boat, have no idea you're so close to a reef that you're about to crash and mess up the the hole of your ship or whatever. Um, that's that's that's fascinating to me, man. Like hidden reefs, things that appear to be one way on the surface, or don't even uh show us necessarily, and then there's all kinds of danger underneath the surface, dude. That'll preach uh any day of the week, man. Any day.

David McIntyre 59:50

That's good, Philip. Philip. Final thought, John. Anything?

Sober Faith And Healthy Feeding Grounds

Jon Dzyuba 59:55

Man, just we can talk about this later, I'm sure, but build your foundation on God and that will fail you and let your house crash. Come on, no. Your your emotions are not, your emotions are sand. They will change, but God does not. That's right.

David McIntyre 1:00:18

And the Bible warns us that when you build on any other foundation, eventually that foundation is going to be tested. Yeah, and the risk is that the foundation that you set yourself up for catches fire and burns completely up.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:34

Yeah, yeah.

David McIntyre 1:00:36

And then fortunately, what the word tells us is that God is going to rescue you, but let your foundation burn.

Phillip Rich 1:00:47

Yeah, so wow.

David McIntyre 1:00:50

All right, everybody, that's that it for this episode. Um, boy, we have gotten pretty wild in this thing here.

Phillip Rich 1:00:58

I think it was a good introduction to what we're gonna be doing.

David McIntyre 1:01:02

So, yeah, yeah, we we definitely feel some kind of way about this topic here, so for sure. Uh yeah, so stay tuned. Yeah, stay tuned. Make sure you like and subscribe, uh, hit that notification button uh so you can be notified every time there's a new episode. Remember, we record on Wednesdays. The actual podcast episode hits every Monday morning early. So if you want to grab that when you get up first thing, start listening, make it a part of your Bible study for the week. Uh we hope that you'll use it for that. Until next time, I'm David. He's Philip, that's John, and we are out.