Pastor Josh Howardson

The only way to get real, lasting peace is to know the Prince of Peace himself.

Carlos Arasman

We obsess over the what, and then we forget about the who has called you.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

What God wants to do is not dependent upon who you are, but on who God is and what he wants to do.

Carlos Arasman

Well, hey, Live Free Nation. Before we jump into the episode, this podcast is recorded right here at Lake Pointe Church in Dallas, Texas. But the Live free Nation is spread all over the country and all around the world. So if you've been watching and thinking, man, I wish I could be part of something like this. We want to invite you to take a simple next step, and that is join us for church Online. Every weekend we stream our services live on YouTube, Facebook and our church online platform. And it's more than just watching a service. There are live hosts in the chat, prayer teams ready to stand with you and people all around the world worshiping together in real time. And so whether you're exploring the faith, coming back to church, or just looking for a place to start, start Church Online is a great way to jump in and experience what God is doing here at Lake Point. We would love to see you in the chat this weekend and now enjoy the podcast. Well, hey, welcome back to another episode of the live free podcast.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Wait, here it comes.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

We are so back.

Pastor Josh Howardson

We are back for America 250, baby. Come on.

Carlos Arasman

Come on, man. My name is Carlos Arasman. I'm here with Pastor Josh Howardson and Pastor. Pastor Paul Cunningham. Let's kick this pig.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Let's kick this pig. We're America maxing right after the 250Fifty birthday United States. I got my shirt on. I got grandpa's hat on. International Harvester. Very American. And then do we even have a shot of the. Do we have the wide shot? We got the flag up here. We're all in, baby.

Carlos Arasman

Come on, man.

Pastor Josh Howardson

And the boys are back.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Yes, we are back together for the first time.

Carlos Arasman

Hey, we're gonna have a great episode today. We are going to be talking about what is the secret meaning behind the name of God. Yahwe. We got chat gpulsy ready, locked and loaded. Pastor Josh, you will be explaining a little bit more about these heated controversy on X on Christians and immigration and faith, man.

Pastor Josh Howardson

I'm a total stranger to that. This is all new territory.

Carlos Arasman

We are going to be asking, hey, how can I discern the will of God for my life? And we're going to be talking about this trend of high profile intellectuals and scientists exploring faith.

Pastor Josh Howardson

And. And we're gonna Talk about how Paul was in a pride parade in Santa Fe last.

Carlos Arasman

What did you hear about that?

Pastor Josh Howardson

Okay, hey, I heard you were in a pride parade in Santa Fe last week.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Okay, how did this get to you? I only told like three or four people, man.

Pastor Josh Howardson

I just. All the activists were so excited to have Chad G. Paul C. Gosh of Live Free fame in their pride parade in Santa Fe. So, Paul, explain yourself.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

I can feel myself getting red as we speak. I am turning a deeper.

Carlos Arasman

What is going on here?

Pastor Paul Cunningham

I usually. Yeah, so I was in town. Good segue. In a few minutes, I was in town for high school camp Shout out. We were downtown and we're in a parking lot and we got trapped by pride praise.

Pastor Josh Howardson

That's what they all say. That's what they all say.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Big, big pride celebration. So we get trapped and we go and we ask like, we go and ask the manager like, hey, how long is this going to take? Because I was supposed to be getting to camp, bless our staff and get to hang out with some students and ask them, answer some questions. And so we're just. They're like, hey, another hour. And so I'm like, okay, I got it. We got to get out of her. So I thought we should go right because there was a road right there and immediately go. My wife, amazing woman that she has told me to turn left and wait.

Pastor Josh Howardson

I just want to clarify this. So right was away from the pride stuff, but a leftward direction was towards

Pastor Paul Cunningham

a right with me in the floor. I was going to wait for a break. I love how you're framing this.

Pastor Josh Howardson

I was going to wait for a

Pastor Paul Cunningham

break in the parade, turn right and go out of there. So I listened to my wife and we turned left and then we were stopped by a few.

Pastor Josh Howardson

You never turned left?

Pastor Paul Cunningham

We never turn left. Actually, there might be some hidden meaning behind this mistake. So we go left and they're like, stop us because maybe they thought we were like, ram them or something. So like, hey, turn around. So we have to turn around and then for the next about 100ft, we have to be in the pride parade. And so immediately my family is like, take off your lake point.

Pastor Josh Howardson

They had their lake point gear in the. This is what I was relayed to me.

Carlos Arasman

It's the Mission field.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Why are you trying to get away

Carlos Arasman

from the Mission Field?

Pastor Paul Cunningham

I took it off and like kept my head down. And then, yeah, the second we got to that street where I talked about, I got. I took a right and high toed it out of there.

Carlos Arasman

Paul, this is why we have Lake Point merch so that you can represent in the places that need it the most.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Listen, I. I get it. My. My sweet daughter, my sweet 11 year old, she was wearing like her Kingdom shirt. She's like, dad, do I need to take it off? And I was like, no, you need to be proud about that. You do not hide that. You can be ashamed. And so. But yeah, so we'll find out who got that news to you. There's only a few people I told.

Carlos Arasman

If the world is proud to get out of the closet, Christians can be proud to, by the grace of God, represent.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Can I say. Can I do a shout out? This is very, very not. This is very unpred paradish.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Okay.

Pastor Josh Howardson

So dude, this is legit. So again, we're. We're America maxing for the 250th anniversary. So dude, we got a shot on this. I want to make sure we see this. Who, Who. What's the best angle on this guy right here? The middle one. All right, I'm going to get.

Carlos Arasman

No, no, no, no. Right here, right here. Okay, There you go. That works.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Okay. You can barely see it. Here's what this is. I just got handed this today. So this was sent in. If you can see it, it has live free engraved on the steel casing. Here's what this is. This guy's name, retired colonel from the US Air Force, Ryan Zombie Freeman sent this guy in. Dude, this is hardcore right here. So he sends us in live free listener. This 20 millimeter shell was fired from his F16 in support of U.S. navy SEALs and U.S. air Force combat controllers in north and central Afghanistan in active combat. Live free listener got live free on the shell casing. Shout out. Ryan Zombie Freeman, retired colonel in the US Air Force. Boom. Wow. Boom. Live free brother.

Carlos Arasman

That's amazing.

Pastor Josh Howardson

That's awesome right there. Wow.

Carlos Arasman

Hey, you mentioned high school camp, man. We got a lot to celebrate from camp.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Yeah. And then let's get to it, man. I do. I just got to shout this out. We'd be nuts. Not too. So last week, that's where my.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Me and.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Me and Paul and my. My family was. My. My oldest daughter Ellie and I was at high school camp. So we're there. We're there. I think it's third night of Camp Clayton King preaching the gospel. That guy's anointed. So I want to show this video. So he just preaches like a straight up gospel message. Conviction, repentance, and then he calls for people to respond. What you're seeing right here is the moment, third night of camp where 170 students stand up in front of everybody to bend their knee to the lordship of Jesus in front of all their friends. This wasn't like a bow your heads, close your eyes, and do it in secret. This is them standing up in front of their friends. All those people streaming backwards are students responding in faith and giving their lives to Christ on the same night. It was unbelievable. So I think across the. Across all the camp. How many students across all the camps went to camp? Tim, what do you think? No, no, no. That was just high school campus. 1300. It pushed. Pushed 2600. So 2600 kids from Lake Point. We're at all our camps and I mean, dude, ain't nothing like camp.

Carlos Arasman

That's amazing.

Pastor Josh Howardson

It was amazing, man.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

We had so many salvations. My daughter actually got called to ministry in high school.

Carlos Arasman

Come on, man.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Yeah, man. Yeah. It was a special moment. That's a special moment, getting to talk to her. So I'm just saying, like, God does a lot of work in a little time at camp and we got to experience that in our family side. That's amazing.

Carlos Arasman

Speaking of special things, this week we are exc. Are starting a brand new sermon series. Pastor Josh, what is it?

Pastor Josh Howardson

Yeah. Okay, so we do this once a year. It's called at the movies. And I always like to do this every single time because, you know, online, especially online, angry reform people hate at the movies. Here's. So here's what this is. We're not.

Carlos Arasman

You're preaching movies, right? That's what you're doing.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Yeah, we're just preaching movies.

Carlos Arasman

That's all we're doing.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Movies.

Pastor Josh Howardson

No, what. What it is, is, is using movies to illustrate biblical truth. So it's kind of the same concept as what Jesus did, is Jesus would take modern day popular modern day stories. And then there are some of Jesus parables that Bible scholars will say, man, that was actually a popular story in Jesus day. And then he either he tweaked the end or he used it to illustrate a biblical truth. It's kind of the same thing. I use sermon illustrations in every sermon. So what it does is it's using movies to illustrate biblical truths. So you're preaching the Bible and illustrating it with movies. So it starts this week. We will see an insane number of people saved. It is not online. And so if you were ever going to visit a Lake Point campus, this is a great time. Come hang out. Can I. Let me do this. And then I want to actually just get into Exodus 3 and start deep diving this thing. Can I tell you the story of why I started wanting to do this? Here's why I started wanting to do this. So you know the story of C.S. lewis conversion. Okay. A lot of people don't know this CS Lewis dude, who wrote Chronicles, Narnia and all the things. C.S. lewis was converted largely by J.R. tolkien, who wrote Lord of the Rings. I'm a super Lord of The Rings nerd. J.R. tolkien.

Carlos Arasman

Okay, yeah, that's great.

Pastor Josh Howardson

So here's. Are you making fun of me?

Pastor Paul Cunningham

No, he's not as much. That's a different conversation.

Carlos Arasman

Different conversation. Go ahead. No, no, no.

Pastor Josh Howardson

All right, so here's the story. So C.S. lewis was a professor at Oxford, is famously a staunch atheist. Famously a staunch atheist. He becomes friends with these two guys. JR Tolkien obviously writes Lord of the Rings. And a guy named Hugo Dyson. C.S. lewis writes after his conversion. He tells a story. There's this one night where these three guys, they just sit in a room and they're smoking cigars and drinking brandy and they just start talking about life, philosophy, literature and religion. And J.R. tolkien, and from what I understand, Hugo Dyson, they have already bent their knee to Jesus. J.R. tolkien was notoriously a very committed Catholic Christian. So they just start talking and, dude, my. My eyes start sweating every time that. So Jared Tolkien begins explaining to CS Lewis, he was a professor that studied in particular. They called them fairy stories. Fairy tales. Medieval fairy tales. So Tolkien starts explaining to CS Lewis, he's like, hey, man, do you know why you love all these stories? And do you know why in every one of these stories there's these little themes that it doesn't matter what culture the story came from or what year it was written in all the stories that move you the deepest, they have the same themes. And C.S. lewis, well, why? And he starts explaining, book of Ecclesiastes, because God has written eternity into the hearts of man. And he starts explaining, like, hey, man, do you know why you love these stories about how, you know, it's always, it's kill the dragon, get the girl. Or it's a brave prince from a far off country, you know, comes and awakens the princess from the sleep of death. Or it's man, somebody dies in order to set the captives free. And he just starts explaining, well, because there's a story underneath every story, and all the stories that move you the deepest, they resonate with the story underneath all the stories, and it's the story of the gospel. And he starts explaining, bro, he's like, hey, man the whole story of the gospel is Jesus is the far. The warrior from a far off country who comes and he slays the dragon to get the girl his bride. The church. And Jesus is the brave prince from a distant land that comes and awakens the princess from the sleep of death with his kiss. And Jesus is the. The warrior that dies and trades his life to set the captives free. So what he Ben's explaining to C.S. lewis is like, Jesus is the true myth. Now you fast forward CS Lewis later. He doesn't become a Christian at night, but it leaves an impression on him. Later in 1931, from what I understand, he writes a letter to a friend named Arthur Greaves and he's explaining why he became a Christian. This is what he says. He says, now the story of Christ is simply. And he starts telling him what Tolkien explained to him. A true myth. A myth working on us in the same way as the others, but with this one tremendous difference. It really happened. Now here's what he says. On September 28, 1931, just nine days after my conversation with Tolkien on Christ being the true myth, it says this. Lewis took the final step in embracing the divinity of Christ while riding in his older brother's motorcycle sidecar on the way to the newly opened Whipsnod Park Zoo in Bedfordshire. Go ahead and toss that picture up here. This, that road right there is literally the road that C.S. lewis is on the side of his brother's motorcycle when what I'm getting ready to read happens to him. So he's thinking about all this. Christ is the true myth, the story underneath every story. He's riding on a motorcycle on that daggum road right there. And this is what he says in his letter. I know very well when, but not how the final step was taken. I was driven to whips nod one sunny morning when we set out. I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. And when we reached the zoo, I did. Yet I had not exactly spent the journey in thought. And right there.

Carlos Arasman

Wow.

Pastor Josh Howardson

CS Lewis became a Christian. Why? Because somebody showed him that there's a story underneath every story. And every story whispers his name. That is part of the reason we do at the movies. So dunk on me all you want. I'm all in. It's gonna be awesome. Starting this week, come hang out.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Come on.

Carlos Arasman

Come on, man. Actually, I took my 3 year old son to the movie theater for the first time Recently.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Toy Story 5. What'd you think?

Carlos Arasman

Okay, so let me super quick, let me give you a quick Movie review of Toy Story 5.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Oh, goodness.

Carlos Arasman

Heads up. Some minor spoilers. So if you haven't seen it, you know, do what you need to do. First of all, man, when people ask me, how was it? Generally, it's a good movie, It's a good movie. Characters are funny, story is entertaining. There's lot of things that are true in a movie. That's what you want to do every time you watch a movie. What's true and what's not true. Again, dangerous on technology, bravery, friendship, all the themes. Having said that, there's at least two things that I'm like, ah, I'm not a fan of those things. So for context, Toy Story 5 makes Jessie the main protagonist of the movie, which is great. The movie's about her. But oftentimes what you'll see in some of these Pixar and Disney movies is that the female hero will be elevated, oftentimes at the expense of the male characters. And so what will happen is that the female hero, you'll see, she's brave and she takes initiative and she exercises her leadership. Again, all good things. But then you. They'll also make the male characters intentionally more passive, more less competent and more dumb by comparison.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Fact.

Carlos Arasman

And so what you'll see in this movie, again the movie, the joke is on Woody. He's like a little bit older, he's got like a big belly, he's balding. And you know, he's. He's arguing over Buzz over who's in charge after Jesse's gone. And then Buzz, on the other hand, he used to be this like, strong, decisive space ranger. Now he's portrayed as like this, we insecure. And he's constantly trying to get Jesse's approval. And then at the end of the movie, Buzz tries to propose again to Jesse, and Jesse takes over. She takes control, kisses Buzz first. And then Buzz's leg kind of like goes up. Kind of like this classic movie cliche where, like, the woman is kissing the man and she swept off her feet. And then during the wedding of Buzz and Jesse, Jesse takes the role of a husband. She's wearing a bow tie while waiting at the altar. And then Buzz is wearing this kilt. For whatever reason, he's walking down the aisle the way the bride traditionally does, kind reversing the roles a little bit. And so here's what I'd say. As Christians, we don't consume entertainment passively. We consume it with discernment. And so because every story is shaping a worldview and we want it to be the word of God, not the world that shapes ours. And so two things on that. One, this idea that a woman can only be strong and empowered only by making the man more weak, more diminished, and more ridiculed is not true.

Andrew Huberman

This.

Carlos Arasman

I want to teach my son that that's not who he's called to be. He's not called to be perfect, but he is called to be strong. And he is called to take responsibility over common securities and be a leader. So two, regarding the whole Jesse and Buzz kind of swapping gender roles, also in the movie, in the relationship, people might just say, well, that's just a. It's a joke. You know, you're supposed to have fun with it. It's playful, maybe, But I also want to teach my son that the Bible says that God made men and women, husbands and wives, to be equal in value and dignity, but different in function and roles. And those are not interchangeable because designed differently. And those are not there to oppress you. They are there to bless you. To bless you in your relationships and in your marriage. And so what happens is when you deviate from that design and from those roles and you think that your way is better, at the end of the day, disorder and chaos happens. And so again, does that mean that Toy Story 5 is terrible and it's evil and you should never watch it? Not necessarily, no. You can enjoy with your family. That's fine. First, Thessalonians 5. 21 says, Test everything. Keep what is good, reject what is not. But I would say this. If you're a Christian, do not settle for just passively consuming entertainment. Because if you parent, do not disciple your children, Disney and Pixar will.

Pastor Josh Howardson

That's right, bro.

Carlos Arasman

That's my review.

Pastor Josh Howardson

That's my review, bro. That's Carlos. Good job, dad. Yeah, seriously, good job, dad. Because it's like you're. What you're doing is like, even from a young age, you're teaching your kids to walk in. I call, hey, man, let's have our lie detectors on. Because people don't realize, like, hey, man, like, stuff like that movies are sermons.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Yeah.

Pastor Josh Howardson

And there's sermons. And you got to figure out, is this a Christless sermon or a Christ full service? Fantastic. Good job, dad.

Carlos Arasman

Hey. To participate in this week's giveaway comment hat on YouTube or Spotify. Also, don't forget to subscribe. And all the things. Pastor Josh, I have a question for you.

Pastor Josh Howardson

I will allow it.

Carlos Arasman

What did it make it to the sermon, by the way? Welcome back.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Hey, man.

Carlos Arasman

Hey, man.

Pastor Josh Howardson

You feel right at home that's right, man.

Carlos Arasman

Just home, man.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

That's it. That's it.

Carlos Arasman

Yeah. Because of that. Exactly that. That's right.

Pastor Josh Howardson

All right, dude. So honestly, a lot didn't make it into the sermon. So let me just take a deep breath. Shoot you real. So here's the deal. All the Bible is equally true. Not all the Bible is equally important. If the Bible was a mountain range, Exodus 3 would be like Everest. So honestly, what's tough about a sermon like this is like, I'm not joking. In the middle of the week. I was like, oh, this one passage could be four sermons. You could do a whole. I mean, I could do the whole thing. You do a whole sermon on name of God. Take off your feet. Take off the sandals. Feet which place which you're standing as holy ground. Something. I'm going to talk about this in a second. There's a pretty significant theological thing that happens in this passage. It's called a christophany. That is very significant. We'll get to this here in a second. There's a whole bunch of stuff. So let me just do this real quick. So first of all, let me back up. So obviously what we're doing right here to close the series, this is about reigniting, a calling in fuego, fire, all this stuff. That's what happens here. So this is Exodus. Go ahead and toss it up here. This is a little fun fact. I took this picture when we were in Greece last time. What's really interesting is the name Exodus. It literally just is a. Well, it's both Greek and Latin. It's a transliteration of. It's the Greek word Exodus that just means to come out of. So literally, if you go to Greece right now, I took that picture while we were over there. That's the second letter right there is called. It's C. Is that how you pronounce it? Yeah. So it's. That's Exodus. That's what you're saying. That's still the. That's all their exit signs. So the book of Exodus is about the exit or the going out, obviously, of the people. Now, what you got right here in Exodus 3 is. This is the calling of Moses at this point. I'm getting this here in a second. A lot of people don't realize this. Moses is 80 at this point. You don't get to that later in the passage. That becomes significant in a second. I will show you this because this is really cool. For centuries, Bible critics would point to the Exodus story. And this is fascinating. For literally centuries, they would be like this never happened. It's just. It's a national sort of, you know, Semitic myth for national pride. And somebody made this up. And actually kind of the narrative was the Israelites literally were never in Egypt. That literally, for a long time was the thing. Bro, this is so fascinating. Okay, so then a few years ago, they dig this up. Go ahead and point this, go ahead and toss that first thing up. So what they do is they go to this place and a few years ago they find a burial place in Egypt of Egyptian nobles. And they find. What you're seeing right here is on the wall of a noble. I'm trying to get this right. The guy's name was Rekhmire. The noble's name was Rekhmire. R E K H M I R E. And this guy, this is on the side of his burial place. He was the second in charge for two pharaohs, a guy named Thutmose iii. That by dating and just sort of context clues, almost everybody thinks that's the pharaoh who wanted Moses dead. So when there's a whole story about kill all the Egyptian boys and Moses gets thrown in the Nile, he's the dude that issues the command, slaughter the boys. That's what they think. And then Rekhmire was also the second in command for a guy named Amenhotep II that almost everybody thinks is the. He's never named in the book of Exodus. But people think, dude, that's the. That's the guy that was the pharaoh. Okay, so this guy, Rekt Meyer, this is the side of his burial tomb. And he's the one, the second in command of both these guys. Now, bro, what you're seeing right here, this is crazy. So for centuries they're saying, oh, they were. This is all a myth. They were never in Egypt. Right in the middle there, look at these people bending over. You'll see right in the middle of that little part there, you're going to see this guy that's bent over and he's got a brick wall in front of him. And underneath him, you look right underneath it and there's these people bending over on these hay little heaps. What you're seeing right here is these are Semitic, or at least non Egyptian slaves making straw bricks. So they discover this, the guy that is second in command and the history during his time. And he's during Exodus. It is literally depicting non Egyptian, probably Semitic slaves making strawberry. It's right there, Right there. Now you go a second. I'll also say this, the mural, when they Dated it in his tomb. The dates that they give are 1479-1425 BC. That is right in the middle is the estimated early date of the Exodus. So 1446. So anyway, dude, I always just want to say the same thing over and over again. This stuff really happened. Now here's another one that's really funny I ran across this week to this day. If you go to the British Museum, they have one spot that's an Egyptian sort of display thing that is from this period. And they have. And they don't even comment on it from what I understand about it being tied to the biblical narrative. They're just like, here's a brick that was made by slaves in this era. Show a picture of that brick. And if you look real close, right in the middle of the dadgum brick is straw. Now if you are a Bible reader that has read Exodus 3, 4, 5, the whole story is about them. They're slaves. They're making bricks with straw. Whenever Moses asked for them to be set free, Pharaoh's like, you gotta make bricks without straw. And all of this stuff is confirming exactly what you got in the middle of your Bible. So I wanna say the same thing over and over again. The Bible really happened?

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Yes.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Wow. This is not a myth. It's not a story, it's an event. The Bible really happened. The real Jesus died on a real cross for the real you. And if you give him your life, he can really change you forever. So we got that. Now can I deep dive some stuff in the bathroom?

Carlos Arasman

Let's go.

Pastor Josh Howardson

I told you this is like so a couple things. And then I'm going to turn over to Paul and he's going to talk about Yahweh and all the stuff under the name of God. That's insane. It's absolutely insane. So what you got right here? I'm just going to read it. Exodus chapter two ends like this. It says, during those many days, the king of Egypt died and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery. And they cried out for help. This is really important. Listen real close. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God and God heard their groaning. And God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. And God saw the people of Israel and God knew number one. I just want to point this out. You are the answer to somebody else prayer. I just want to say that we're going to talk in a second about fulfilling your calling. Whatever call God puts on your life. Hey, man, it's not just about you. You are the Answer to somebody else's prayer. Their cries go to heaven, and their prayers move heaven. Heaven moves Moses. Moses moves for deliverance. So that's it. Number two. It's really interesting. What they do here is it just emphasizes all these. The things God does. So it's God heard, God saw, God remembered, God knew. And, dude, there's this whole thing about how most people think about God is this very impersonal force. And it's really just like, you know, when stuff happens, it's kind of like, well, man, what are you gonna do? It is what it is. But with God, it's not an impersonal force. He's a personal God. He sees, he hears, he remembers, he knows, he. And he answers. So with God, it's not. It is what it is with God. He reveals himself. I am who I am.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Wow.

Pastor Josh Howardson

So it's like, hey, it's personal. It's personal. Now you get in this passage, Moses is 80. A lot of people don't realize this. Moses spends first 40 years of his life in Pharaoh's court. That's gonna be important here. In the second 40 years of his life, he. He's doing shepherd stuff for. The guy has two names, by the way. In Exodus, I think two, he's called Reuel. And then Exodus 4 or 5, he's called Jethro. It's kind of like Kanye and easy. It's one guy, two names. Very different character, hopefully, but two different names. But I do just want to point this out, man. I wish I'd have had time in the sermon to talk about the number of people in the Bible who. The greatest thing they do for the kingdom of God is in their old age. I really wish I'd had time. I just want to list this. I had to cut this last second. So moses here is 80 when he begins the most significant calling of his life. Wow. Abraham is 75 years old when God calls him and he moves. Anna is 84 years old when she's interceding and fasting and prayer, and she's the one that recognizes the Messiah. Daniel is 82 years old when he gets tossed in the lion's den. John is in his 90s when he writes the book of Revelation, Sees Jesus eyes, flame of fire, and all the things. David is 70 years old when he sets out to build the temple. Jehoiada, who's a total guy's a. I can't say that word. He's amazing. He's hardcore. Jehoiada was 100 years old, by the way, when he leads a national coup, overthrows the wicked queen, installs Joash, and leads the entire nation in national revival. The dudes 100. By the way, that guy's story is awesome. He's the only priest that ends up buried among the kings because God said what you did was as significant as what any of them did. And he did it when he was 100 years old. Caleb's 85 years old. When he conquers Hebron, he drives out all the Anakim giants. Here's all I just want to say on this. I wish I had time to say this. Psalm 139 says that every single one of our days before we're born is written in God's book. And he knows the full span of them every single day. So, ChatGPT, there's two days in your life that have been set in stone. Your birthday. And you know exactly when that day is. But there's another day that's just as in stone as your birthday. You got no idea when it is. It's when you breathe your last breath and you go and you hug Jesus. Those two days set in stone. And what that passage says is, every single day, God determines for you there's a purpose for that day. So I don't care. Listen. You may be listening. And you know, J.C. ryle has this old quote where he says, what Satan says to you when you're young is, it's too soon to serve God. And then what Satan says to you when you're old is, it's too late to serve God. And what I want to say is, like, man, if you're somebody who, like, man your age might start with a 6, 7, 8, 9, I'll even venture we've got some listeners whose age starts with a one and a zero, maybe. And you may be going like, hey, dude, you know, my time probably passed by and I probably already had my chance to do whatever was the great thing, man. I just want to say to you, listen, may soup cans and Advil have expiration dates, but in the kingdom of God, people don't.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

That's right.

Pastor Josh Howardson

And if you've still got a pulse, God's still got a purpose for your life. God's 80 years old when he begins the most significant thing in his life. All right, so this happens here. Now, can I talk about two other things? And I want you to talk about the whole Yahweh thing. This is going to blow your mind. Okay? One, it is very significant to me. So you read the passage, and Moses, he walks up on the you know, it's the burning bush thing. The bush and it burns, but it's not consumed. This is really heavy on me coming back from camp. And by the way, what I'm getting ready to say in the next 45 seconds is not hating on camp. I'm a camp guy through and through. I love camp. It is very significant that throughout the Bible, arguably the most frequent way God reveals himself is as fire. Like, this is. You stop and think. It's like you.

Andrew Huberman

There it is.

Carlos Arasman

That's right.

Pastor Josh Howardson

That's like usually. So you got. Again, we're just Bible nerding out for a second. Like, just let me do it. You got during the Abrahamic covenant. I think it's Genesis 13 or Genesis 15. Actually, I think it's start in Genesis 13. It's repeated in Genesis 15. God puts Abram to sleep and then it says he appears as a smoking fire pot and he passes through the pieces. That's one of the coolest passage of the Bible. I don't got time to do it. When he's leading the children of Israel through the wilderness. It's a piece pillar of cloud by day, but a pillar of fire fire by night. When God gives the law on Sinai, it says that he descends and that our God is as a consuming fire. Fire. You fast forward. When Solomon dedicates the temple, it says fire comes down from heaven. The glory of God filled the temple and it says, I think smoke was so thick with the glory that the people could not stand in the temple. But again, it's fire and it's smoke. Fast forward to Daniel 7. Again we're Bible nerding. Keep Bible nerding with me. Daniel 7. He sees a vision of the ancient of days, who is by the way, a pre incarnate Jesus, which by the way, I'm about to blow your mind. Jesus is in this passage in Exodus 3. This is freaking awesome. He sees the ancient of days, and the ancient of days is sitting on a throne of fire. Now let's go. New Testament, Acts chapter 2. When the Holy Spirit descends on the apostles and their preaching, it says, divided tongues as of on fire. Revelation chapter 1. The apostle John sees the incarnate Jesus and loses his mind. He like falls on the ground. He's like, I'm gonna die. And what he sees when he sees Jesus, who is God, he's like, man, it was crazy. I see Jesus and he's got hair and it's like white as snow. And he's got legs like burnished bronze. And he's Got a. You know, he's got this robe on. It's like a. It's white as snow, by the way. He's coming to pick a fight, and with judgment. And this is an old preacher joke. If a guy comes to a fight dressed in white, you know you're gonna lose because he knows I'm not getting blood on me.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

That's right.

Pastor Josh Howardson

If he intentionally comes dressed in white, you know you're gonna lose. So Jesus got his white robe on, but John looks in his eyes and he freaks out. But he's like, his eyes, man. His eyes, man. He's like. His eyes, they were like flames of fire. Now, I just want to point this out. Here's why people always think the younger you are, the more you need to understand what I'm about to say. People always think that, like, the sign of the presence of God is emotion. And, like, man, I was there, and I was singing this song, and I started crying, and it was the presence of God. I'll shoot you really straight, dude. I traveled and preached a billion youth camps before becoming an actual church pastor. And listen, man, third night of camp, you're sleep deprived. You drank 47 energy drinks, and you're all coked up on sugar, and you're with all your best friends, and you just burned your secular CDs and whatever it is. Like, honestly, man, the third night of camp, I could get you to rededicate your life to a leprechaun. It's like. It's like there's just so much emotion. Here's my point, man. Is the sign of. The presence of God is not emotion. So here's the question. Why does God throughout the Bible, reveal himself as fire? Well, think back to your chemistry class. Whenever something catches on fire, it literally restructures the chemical composition of the thing. Before something was on fire, it was on. It was one thing. Then it catches on fire. And literally, when it's finished being on fire, it's another thing. Here's the big idea. The sign of an encounter with God is not emotion. Listen, it's rearranged priorities. Yes, I'm gonna say that one more time. The sign that you had an encounter with a living God is not emotion. You're gonna have emotion, but you can have emotion without God. The sign of an encounter with living God is not just emotion. It's rearranged priorities. It's, oh, man, now I care about stuff I didn't care about before, and I hate some things that I used to love. Dang. What happened to Me, well, before that encounter, I was this thing. And then I encountered some fire. And now that I'm done, I'm this thing. And I'm not the man I used to be. And I don't gotta do the things I used to do. Because in Christ I'm a new creation. You see what I'm doing there? Okay, so this is why God reveals himself to Moses as fire. Now he tells him to do something here. That is again, you start getting into the deep end of the pool here and then I'm going to do the deep end of the pool and then I'm going to turn it to Paul and he's going to go one layer deeper. Okay, so it's really interesting. I'm going to read this passage. Because this kind of thing, if you're just a normal Bible reader, you just skim right past a dude and you have no idea. You just read something. Stinking mind blown. Okay, so this is what it says, verse one, chapter three. Now, Moses was keeping the flock of his father in law, Jethro the priest of Midian. And he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. Listen real close, listen real close. And what's that next word, Paul? Are you looking at it? Are you looking at it? Okay, you're fine, you're fine. It says and the, that's so important. It says and the angel of the Lord. And Lord is in all caps, by the way, sometimes Lord is in all caps in your Bible and sometimes it's not. He's going to explain that in a second. There's something different stinking mind blowing about that. You're gonna hear that in a second. It says, and the angel of the Lord appeared to himself to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. Okay, what you are seeing right here, virtually every Bible scholar, by the way, I'm getting ready to give six reasons for this. I got them from Bible, I got them from old Driscoll. So I'm just giving attribution here. But what you're seeing right here is nearly every Bible scholar everywhere identifies this right here. Whenever you see the phrase the angel of God in the Old Testament, almost every Bible scholar everywhere acknowledges this is a pre incarnate appearing of Jesus. So dude, in a very. I'm going to show it to you in the Bible here in a second. Moses is meeting Jesus 1500 years before Jesus is born. This is Jesus. Okay, now I'm real quick. This is, we're going to. Again, we're theology nerding out here. I'm going to give you seven reasons that we know. This is what theologians call a Christophany or some people call it a theophany. Or is it? No, it's Christophy. Theophany is just an appearing of God.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Christophany.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Yes. Theos equals God. Theophany. Christophany is appearance of Jesus. So this is Christophany. Okay, number one, the passage the six reasons I'm a rapid fire em. Number one, the angel of the Lord is identified as God himself. For the rest of the passage it says God spoke to him out of the flame of the fire. Even though it's called the angel of the Lord, that's number one. As God, this guy's identifies God. Number two, the New Testament specifically tells us that what the Son does is make the Father known. That's what the Son does. So John 1:18 says this. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father has made him known. By the way. That's why that stinking awesome. It's the Christmas Carol. Which one is it? It says veiled in flesh, the Godhead.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

See, the incarnate deity. It'll come to me. It'll come to me.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Which one is that? What Christmas carol is that feeling in flesh of God. I feel dumb. Look it up. I can't do it off the top of my head.

Carlos Arasman

The Godhead seed.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Yeah. Hark the herald, by the way, Hark the herald Angels Sing is the best Christmas carol. But when that passage says it's talking about Jesus and it's the best theological line in any Christmas carol. It says veiled in flesh, the Godhead. See, it's saying Jesus put on this veil, this lens of flesh, and you're seeing the entire Godhead revealed in the flesh of Jesus. Okay, number three, it uses the phrase. This passage uses the phrase the angel of the Lord. And this is repeated throughout the Old Testament. So you'll notice in the Old Testament if you pay very close attention, sometimes it'll say an angel of the Lord, referring to like Michael or Gabriel or whoever. There's only three angels that are mentioned by name. Michael, Gabriel and Lucifer are the only three angels. Sometimes it'll say the angel of the Lord, sometimes it'll say an angel of the Lord. This is the angel of the Lord. You will notice this. This is your little homework, you theology nerds. Go study every single passage where quote, the angel of the Lord appears. Whoever this mysterious. The angel of the Lord is he receives worship. He speaks as God in the first person. He is identified as God by those who encounter him. And this passage says that God called to him Moses out of the bush. So you got that right there. Reason number four, a lot of people miss this. This passage has a holy ground parallel with Joshua chapter five. I did not realize this until studying this passage this week. Okay, so this is Joshua chapter five. It says nearly the exact same thing. Angel. The angel Lord appears to Joshua and it says, the commander of the Lord's army replied, take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy.

John Lennox

Interesting.

Pastor Josh Howardson

And Joshua did. So. Now here's what people miss in the previous verse. Now before I say this, there's an angel in the book of Revelation that John falls down on his knees and is tempted to worship. And the angel wigs out on John. He's like, bro, get up. I refuse to receive worship. I'm just an angel. Okay, well, whoever the angel of the Lord is, in Joshua chapter five, it says this. And he said, no, but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, what does my Lord say to his servant? And whoever this mysterious the angel of the Lord is, he receives the worship. Okay, number five, the I am statements of Jesus. So as Paul's going to talk about here in a second. Jesus reveals God's name in this passage as I am who I am. Jesus throughout the book of John reveals himself. And he's doing this very on purpose. As the I am. He goes, I am the bread of life. I'm the light of the world. I'm the door, I'm the good shepherd, I'm the resurrection of the life. I'm the way of the truth and life. I'm the true vine. The reason he's repeating, I am. I am, I am, I am. He's going, hey, bro, I'm the guy from Exodus, chapter three. That's me. That's what he's doing. Now let me do the last two, because the last two are the most mind blowing. So Jesus says this in John. This is what gets Jesus killed. This is what starts getting Jesus killed. So Jesus, he's having this big old argument with the Pharisees, you know, the hoa presidents of his day. And he very truly, I tell you, Jesus answered them, for this is mind blowing. He says, before Abraham was born, I am at this. They picked up stones to stone him. But Jesus hid, slipping away what he literally says to them, and this is why they start stoning him, is he's literally saying to them, I'm the one that was in the burning bush and revealed that I was the I am. And all of them immediately realized this guy's saying he's God. If anybody ever tells you that Jesus never said he was God, bless their heart, they're too dumb to talk to. This is what Jesus is doing right here. Now let me do this last one. And this is the. This is the one that, like, I was like, I wish I had time to get into this, this sermon. Okay, all right, so let me. Let me coil up here. All right, so Moses walks up to Jesus in Exodus 3. And Jesus, it's a little weird. You're like, why is he doing this? Jesus says, moses, take off your feet for the place on which you're standing. Or take off your shoes for the place on which you're standing is holy ground. And Moses feet gotta hit the dirt. Okay, now there's this weird passage in Exodus 4 that when you read it, you're like, huh? Like, what the heck is that doing there? It feels so stinking weird. Okay, so it's in the middle of all this and all the cool stuff's happening with the bush and, okay, let's go get all the Egyptians out of Israel. And then there's this weird, like Non sequitur verse 24. At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met him, Moses and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah, Moses wife took a flint cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses feet with it and said, I know it sounds weird.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

It does.

Pastor Josh Howardson

And said, surely, listen, you are a bridegroom of blood to me.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Hang on.

Pastor Josh Howardson

So he let him alone. And it was then that she said, a bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision. Now you read that, you're like, what the heck, man? You know, take off your shoes and feed. And we got to put blood on the feet.

Carlos Arasman

That didn't make it into the Prince of Egypt movie.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Didn't make it into Prince of Egypt. So you're like, what's happening here? Well, part of what's happening is you're seeing this theme of sinful things have to be redeemed by blood in order to come in contact with things that are holy. And remember, what you got right here is this is a christophany. This is a pre incarnate appearance of Jesus. Now Fast forward nearly 1600 years and Jesus shows up and all of his Disciples are with him for that last supper, and they're getting ready to see him go to the cross and be crucified. And Jesus has spent his entire ministry talking about, how do you know who I am? I'm the bridegroom, and you're the bride. And he sits him down at this table and he's like, do you know what I'm going to do before I go to the cross? Hey, everybody, take off your sandals. I need to wash your feet real quick. And then Peter pipes up like an idiot. And Peter goes, yeah, actually, Jesus, I got a better idea. He's like, you washed my whole body. And Jesus, this is the Josh version. Jesus, like, shut up, Peter. And Jesus essentially goes, hey, man, what I'm doing here is this is a symbol. The water is a symbol that I'm about to touch you with my blood, and unless I wash you, you have no part with me. So the bridegroom leans down and he grabs their uncovered feet with no sandals. And as a symbol of the blood he's about to shed, he touches their feet with a symbol of his blood. And then he goes to the cross and they all watch him shed his blood. And what I think all of them would have been thinking of is, surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me. And in that moment, Jesus Christ, the bridegroom of blood, he cleanses our sin so that you and me can stand on holy ground face to face with God. Wow, dude, I didn't know that, bro. Before this week. Me neither. The Bible is amazing.

Carlos Arasman

Wow.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Can I back up a few days, though? Or even months?

Pastor Josh Howardson

You do your thing, Chad.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Gposi so there's another place in the Bible where GP Jesus meets with Moses on a mountain.

Carlos Arasman

That's right. Ah, that was the first time.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Do it.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

This little place called the Mount of Transfiguration, where all of a sudden, Jesus is revealed for his divine glory and for who he really is. And it says that two people appear with him, Moses and Elijah. And here's what's interesting. That's why I got distracted for a minute when you asked me a question, because I was looking it up to get the exact passage. There's this interesting phrase, though, in the book of Luke. It says that he appears and they're in glory. And it says that he is speaking of his departure. This is Jesus speaking of his departure. You know what that word is in Greek? Exodus.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Oh, no way.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

He is speaking of his exodus because when he appears with Moses in the Old Testament, he is speaking of the exodus of Those people which he was going to have most help him with here he's speaking of the Exodus he's going to accomplish, but not by having other lambs slain, but by him slaying his own life so that he can set his people free from sin. Wow. Wow.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Listen, I got a weird connection. Have you ever seen that YouTube video of Brian Scalabrine, who people used to say was the worst NBA player ever, like absolutely dominating a college basketball player? Have you seen it?

Pastor Paul Cunningham

No.

Pastor Josh Howardson

All right, well, Brian Scal. Just let me do my thing for a second here. So Brian Scalabrini, who people used to say was the worst NBA player ever, he got tired of people saying it and he. He asked a D1, a good D1 basketball player to play him one on one. And he beat him like 10 to one. And when he finished, he said, he said, I'm closer to LeBron James than you are to me.

Carlos Arasman

Whoa.

Pastor Josh Howardson

And he's right. Yeah, okay. But then he said this. People looked at that and they said, there's levels to this. Listen, dude, what you. If you're listening, here's what just happened. There's levels to this, bro. When you're reading your Bible, there's levels to this. You can just do the surface thing and then you can get like, bro, go under the surface. The bridegroom of blood and like seven different connections. And then freaking Chad G. Paul C. There's levels to this. He's going Greek words on transfiguration mountain, Exodus. Listen, listen. There's levels to this. There's levels to this, man. Levels to this. All right now, Paul, let's do this. And then I want to talk about high profile intellectuals, the certain eternity of God. There's two crazy clips that we're going to play real quick. So God reveals his name in this passage and this becomes arguably the most significant thing in the rest of. In some ways the entire Bible in one sense. And it has major tie ins to even how people read their Bible. There's things that people have seen that they don't know that they're seeing that are related to the rest revelation of God's name. So do your. Do your thing.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Do my thing. We'll get to the differences that people see in their English New Testaments here in just a bit. I want to walk you through first, the Hebrew. We're going to get fancy and go into some of the Hebrew together. I think actually we've got what's often referred to as the tetragrammaton. The idea of God appears here and reveals his name. So oftentimes there are titles used for God in the Old Testament, like Elohim or Adonai. That is what God is. He is God. Adonai means master or Lord. Yahweh is, is who he is. It's his name. It's his personal description. And it is by far the most used in the old testament. Over 6,000 times, almost, maybe even 7,000 times that this is used more than, I believe, Elohim and Adonai combined. Now, what you often see when you see this in Old Testament manuscripts is right here. If you're seeing this, if you're watching YouTube or seeing the video on Spotify, you're only seeing what are called Hebrew consonants. So this has no vowels. Vowels are often represented by. People think they look like dots or little marks or stuff like that. What are you about to say, Pastor Josh?

Pastor Josh Howardson

Well, I'm just going to point out. So, first of all, so Hebrew is the only C I ever got.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

It's a hard language.

Pastor Josh Howardson

It's the only C I ever got. I got a C and it was Dr. Dubas. Man shout out Dr. Dubas. He crushed me. So two things about Hebrew. No vowels, and it runs right to left, not left to right.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Exactly. And so even when I say, in a second, I'm going to read the Hebrew right to left, the English is left to right.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Isn't it wrong? Because at the bottom it goes Y

Pastor Paul Cunningham

H, W, H. That's what I want to say. So the Hebrew is right to left, but then the English is left to right. So the reason they call it the Tetragrammaton is because tetra means a Greek word. Meaning for grammatos is letter. So it's four letters. So in Hebrew is yod he. VAV would be the modern pronunciation, although in Old Testament it would be wa and hey, so yah or yod he, wa, he. And so you only appear the constants. In fact, I think I've got some stuff from what's called the Dead Sea Scrolls. These were found in the 1900s, and I know right date somewhere between 300 and 100 BCE, so very old. And what you would see if you really kind of look closely is again, there's no vowels in this. The letters that are highlighted are actually yahweh in a very ancient Hebrew script.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Yeah, I've never seen that.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

So when people were writing it, even when they would get not all the Dead Sea Scrolls, but some of them, when they would get to his name, they would try to preserve as close to the Original as they could, because this was a sacred name that they wanted to preserve as much as possible. Then if you fast forward, we have what's called the Leningrad Codex. Over time, you have this group of people. I know it's great reading on a Wednesday night.

Carlos Arasman

That's what he reads before going to bed every night.

Andrew Huberman

It is.

Pastor Josh Howardson

That's why he sleeps better than me.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

And by the way, I'm building up to like, why do we. Why do we pronounce it yada way? Yahweh? How do we know that we're getting there? Just follow me for a little minute. We'll build this a step at a time. This is from the year 1013. It's the oldest complete Hebrew manuscript we had. There's this group of people called the Masoretes. And what they did is, is that the pronunciation of the words were maintained by tradition, by an oral tradition they actually went through. And to help people pronounce and help people read, it would go through and they put all the vowels in. So if you ever heard something called the Masoretic text text, this is the Hebrew with the vowels in. I'm actually going to have that originated when the Hebrew. The. This One is from 1013. It's within a few hundred years. So, yeah.

Pastor Josh Howardson

So if you're ever, you know, and I know this is like super nerdy stuff, but if you're ever seeing Hebrew writing and it has dot, little dots underneath it, those dots are the vowels that they tried to put in, like, you know, 2,000 years after the language was actually spoken.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Exactly. And so actually, I think we've got a second picture that's going to zoom in, because this right here is actually showing Yahweh or Y, H with those vowels in there. So here is how we came to the belief, and most scholars would hold to this, that this is pronounced Yahweh because, again, we don't have the original vowels. And it was a sacred name. So even scribes would not often say this name at all. They, when they write it, they would wash themselves afterwards or they would use a fresh pen. And this is really connected to the idea of. In the Ten Commandments, it says, do not take the Lord's name in vain. We often think of that as don't say GD or say OMG or anything like that. For them, it was the idea of don't take God's name lightly. So to preserve that commandment, they said we shouldn't even pronounce it. So here's the thing.

Pastor Josh Howardson

They literally wouldn't even say it.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

They wouldn't say it. And I'll get to in a minute what they would say in its place or what they would write in its place. Because it's really important to know. So how do we know it's pronounced Yahweh? So early Greek writers would often give us hints of, hey, here's how they would say so early Christian writers would really help us understand that the E that we pronounce would be the pronunciation at the end. In Hebrew grammar, the word Yahweh, it originates from the word hayah, which simply means to be so even when. Yeah, so I think we don't have.

Pastor Josh Howardson

I was joking.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Can we put it up? This is probably a little too much. But if we go to Exodus 3:14, 15. Now the other one, Exodus 3:14, 15. So this is where. And God said to Moses, it says, I am. That I am. And then you see Yahweh beneath it. So you can see they're very close to each other. So the word Yahweh literally just comes from the verb, verb I am. And so that's a little bit of how we would know that first part is pronounced Yah. Also think about some of the names or words in scriptures. Hallelujah, praise Yahweh, or Isaiah, Jeremiah. Their last part of their name would have been yeah, for God. So this is a little bit of

Pastor Josh Howardson

how we know that.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Basically piece together of how we know it's Yahweh. Yahweh. Okay, so then where do you get things like, for example, over time you have things like Jehovah.

Pastor Josh Howardson

This is important. Important.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

This is really important.

Pastor Josh Howardson

A lot of people have no idea what the word Jehovah is.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Yeah. And. And it's actually really interesting because when the Masoretes put in the vows, they still wanted to preserve and to protect the sacred name Yahweh and keep it sacred. So they put in other vows, specifically from the word Adonai, which means Lord. So they took the vows from Adonai, put it to Y, H, W, H, and basically you got eayo, or if you then put that into Germanic language, Y became J and W became V. So you get Jehovah. And so Jehovah is a little bit of a made up word that basically happened where you take the vowels that the Masoretes put into the name Yahweh, you change the language a little bit and you get Jehovah. But that's not the original pronunciation of the word.

Pastor Josh Howardson

So the word Jehovah, like technically the word Jehovah is not in your Bible. It's not in the Bible because all it is is. It's the. Is the consonance of Yahweh Exactly. With the vowels from another word that they just sort of made up because they had such a reverence for the name of God, they didn't even want to say it. So. Exactly. Let's say this word that's kind of like it.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Exactly.

Pastor Josh Howardson

But that is not it. Because we want to treat God's name as holy.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

And by the way, Jewish people often do still do this today. Instead of saying Yahweh, they'll say Adonai or they'll say Hashem.

Carlos Arasman

That's where the vows come from, Right?

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Exactly. That's where the vowels. That's where those vows come from. From and everything like that. Okay, so some things that'll help you as you're reading your Bible and translate, like the translation, help you understand a few, Few deep cuts here. Number one, a cool little thing that connects to Jesus is that when they translated the Hebrew Testament into Greek, whenever they got to Yahweh, they would pro. They would translate it as kurios.

Pastor Josh Howardson

What?

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Curious.

Pastor Josh Howardson

What?

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Or Lord In.

Pastor Josh Howardson

In the Latin Vulgate.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

No, in the Greek. In the Greek. In the Greek, they would translate it as curious.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Kurios is the Greek word for lord.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Lord, exactly. They would translate.

Pastor Josh Howardson

So they didn't translate the name?

Pastor Paul Cunningham

No, they didn't. So when you see. Because this is going somewhere, even why it's in our English translations the way it is. Actually, I'll go ahead and jump there. So like, if you're reading. If I'm reading Exodus 3 and I'm. Any place where I get to Yahweh's name, for example, it says the Lord, the God of your fathers. That Lord, if you look closely, is in all capital letters. And this really comes from the idea of, hey, when they put into Greek, they made it Kyrios, which means Lord. And so today, to mark out where we see, it's in all caps, that means Yahweh is simply when we read Lord, that's what it means. If you see Lord in the lower case, in the Old Testament, that's the word Adonai. So if you're reading your Old Testament and you see Lord in all caps, that literally just means that in the Hebrew, it's saying Yahweh.

Pastor Josh Howardson

That's right.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

If it's in lower caps, it simply means Adonai, which is a. Basically just a term of. Of Lord or master.

Pastor Josh Howardson

That's right.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Where was I going? Oh, well, here's what's interesting about that. In the Old Testament, when they translate it into Greek, they use the word curious, which means Lord. Besides Messiah. Any guesses of what one of Jesus main titles is used to describe him in the New Testament?

Pastor Josh Howardson

Lord.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Lord, but specifically Kurios.

Andrew Huberman

Yeah.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Wow.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Not a coincidence that they take the name that in Greek was over and over again used to designate Yahweh. And then when they're getting to the New Testament, anytime they want to call Jesus Lord, they use the word curiosity. Same exactly.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Who did that translation?

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Oh, that was. I mean, you get to the early church. I mean, the early church.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Okay, so early church.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Sorry, I love. So I mixed up a little thing.

Pastor Josh Howardson

So, no.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

So like the gospel writers and the Apostle Paul and all them. Oh, yeah, they use the word curiosity. Sorry, I got a little mixed up. I thought we were going about to go into Septuagint and some of that.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Yeah. So like the New Testament biblical authors, you're saying they did this, they did that.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Yeah, yeah. So again, I got a little mixed up.

Pastor Josh Howardson

I don't think I've ever heard that before.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Oh, yeah, this is one of the fun parts. So this is the. When you mentioned earlier about. Oh, like, Jesus never referred to as God, we talked about this before, but literally, like, if Jesus did only things God could do, he knew only things God could know, and he said things only God could say. Well, well, if. If it looks like a duck, walks like a God and quacks like a duck, it's. It's a duck. Same thing is the early writers knew exactly what they were doing. They used the titles that were only used of Yahweh in the Old Testament. So again, sorry, I got a little mixed up there. I thought we were about to go into Septuagint mode. So, yeah, so Jesus. One of his biggest titles is Kurios, which is the word they would have used for Yahweh in the Old Testament. Yeah, so that's just kind of a little bit of a deep up. Anything you want me to double click on? I know I went through a lot

Pastor Josh Howardson

and you want to talk just real quick about. I don't know if you want to do this. So the question I think a lot of people have is, okay, why did God reveal himself as I am, that I am? You want to talk, there's a few different directions. You go, you want to go aseity, you could talk aseity. Let me do one. And then you add on, let me do one. That you add on, and then I'm going to do one that's like a little speculative. I'm going to do the breath thing. I'll do one that's a little speculative, and we can do it. So, number one, it's really interesting if you look at all the names in the Old Testament when other people give their names. So here's the question we're answering. Why does God reveal himself as I am, who I am? Okay, well, here's. In all the other names in the Old Testament, you'll notice their names are always given in reference to something else.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

That's right.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Okay, so I'm Joshua, son of none. I'm Moses, the son of, you know, whoever, you know, that sort of. Or they'll be in reference to a geography. Oh, this was this person who was from here. So all their names, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus of Nazareth. And that's a bad one, because he is God. That's right.

Carlos Arasman

That's right.

Pastor Josh Howardson

They're all giving names. And, oh, the way that, you know, who I am is in reference to something else. One of the things that God is doing is going, hey, man, I am not in reference to anything else. Everything else is in reference to me.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Exactly. Well, and even think of the context, because he says, hey, when I go back and tell them which God is this? What am I to tell them? He's going back into Egypt, which is a polytheistic place, which is a bunch of gods, but usually tied to something, specifically Ra, the God of the sun. And then even many people would say that each of the plagues is an attack on a specific God of Egypt. Basically, God says, systematically saying, hey, I own this joint. I'm the one in control.

Pastor Josh Howardson

He's dunking on everybody.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

He's dunking on everybody. He could have wiped him out in one plague. He did tend to systematically show that he was God and the false gods of Egypt were not. And so all these gods would have been attached to a specific thing. He's basically saying, like, no, I just am. I am the God of all. And you mentioned this word of Sati. It's a fancy word, but let me break it down as simply as I can. God doesn't depend on anything else besides himself to be himself.

Pastor Josh Howardson

That's right.

John Lennox

Yeah.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

And he. Because that he needs nothing. He gets his source of being from nothing. He just is. And because of that, by the way, he can be the source of joy and everything else that we need in life because he doesn't depend upon us.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Amen.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

He just is who he is.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Amen.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

He's the foundation of all reality. I could go into more. We're leaving a lot out, but I want to be careful not to take people too far into the deep end.

Pastor Josh Howardson

There's two fun little things on this. And then let's talk. I want to do this. Stephen Barlett and. Is Andrew Hubert Superman?

Carlos Arasman

Yeah. And we're gonna. I want to ask also, but we'll do it quick.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Yeah, yeah, that's right. That's right. Let's do this real quick. So one, here's. Here's an interesting way that God's name is used. So it's, you know, Moses in this passage, he's got all the insecurities, and he's like, man, I can't talk. And God's like, you know, basically what God does? Moses like, I can't talk. And God essentially is like, well, I can. That's kind of his. Basically, the I am is whatever. You're not, I am.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

That's great.

Pastor Josh Howardson

He's got to fill in the gaps.

John Lennox

That's great.

Pastor Josh Howardson

So what's really interesting is throughout the rest of the entire Bible, like, all those little names that you'll sing in little hymns or whatever, and they're like, Jehovah, Jireh, Jehovah Nisi, Jehovah, Rapha, Jehovah. And honestly, I'm like. When everybody says that, I'm like, that's real weird.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

I'm not the same way. Okay.

Pastor Josh Howardson

That felt Jamaican to me. I don't know why it does not, but it feels weird to me. But here's all those names for real. This is really interesting. So, obviously, what we just learned is Jehovah. That's just another way to say Yahweh.

Carlos Arasman

Yeah, that's right.

Pastor Josh Howardson

So what he's saying is, I am.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

I am.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Okay, so this is really interesting. Throughout Israel's history, whenever there's something they realize they're not that they need, God will reveal his name as the thing that's going to fill in their gap. Okay, so, for instance, Jehovah Jireh essentially means Yahweh, our provider. I am your provider. Okay. So they're like, hey, we don't have enough. Well, he goes, I'm Jehovah Jireh. You don't have enough. I do.

John Lennox

Wow.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Jehovah Nisi, the Lord our banner. It's a war terminology. Hey, we're not powerful enough. Well, I'm Jehovah Nisi. I am. Hey, Jehovah Rapha, the Lord our healer. We can't heal ourself I'm Jehovah Rapha. I can. And all throughout the Bible what he's doing is he's going whatever. You're not. I am. And it's. He's essentially going, I'm the gap filler. Whatever you need. I got that. That's one. Now here's another one. Now this is goes back to I think some Jewish rabbis that it sounds a little speculative but I know people have been talking about it for centuries. People have pointed out before this is a little weird, man. It's a little mysterious that the way that you pronounce Yahweh that in that some of the ways that people would vocalize it, particularly in ancient cultures, it sounds like inhaling and exhaling. So like just real close it's like Yah way, you know, Yahweh way. And that part of what God might be signaling is from the very beginning in Genesis is that he knelt down and he breathed the breath of life into them. If that is true now I want you to think about it. Every single person who is ever born, the first word they ever speak, Yah. And then the very last thing that they say when they breathe their last yeah way the breath of life.

Carlos Arasman

Yeah.

Pastor Josh Howardson

There may be something to do that.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Oh I think there is. Well and it's. And one quick thing because it's just to me it's always been encouraging when I've been discouraged in my call can actually. Can I throw up the Exodus 3, 7, 10. It's really interesting because you talk about how we get discouraged and even Moses was what's interesting. If you actually go to the calling of Moses I highlighted in yellow all the places where it talks about God or his actions and the two little small places where he says now to Moses you go that you may bring the people, my people, that's my sons out of Egypt. And so he puts the emphasis not on Moses and who he did is and what he has to do, but on who God is and what he is going to do. And even little interesting fact the next chapter Moses like but I have the stutter. And it's interesting God, you know in our most English translations it says I will teach you what to speak. And the Hebrew literally says I will be with your mouth. And so it uses God's name. He says I am you with. With your mouth. Because again the emphasis anytime you're any find you're discouraged in your calling or the difference you can make, just remind yourself that that what God wants to do is not dependent upon who you and you are, but on who God and who God is and what he wants to do.

Carlos Arasman

We've done a lot of theology, and, you know, if somebody's asking right now, man, what is this? There's a lot of, like, Hebrew and I don't know what this has to do with me. People need to understand too, that this whole story, it is literally like your life and how Jesus saved you. You. The. The whole. There's so many levels to this. Pastor Josh. Like, literally the whole story of Moses, it just screams the gospel. Jesus is everywhere. Like we said. Like, if you think about it real quick before we ask the following question. The people of Israel were in bondage to Egypt under the rule of Pharaoh. Egypt represents the slavery of sin, and Pharaoh is Satan before Christ. That's. That's literally our story. We are all slaves to sin under the rule of Satan. In Exodus 3, God says, I have seen and hurt my people, so I have come down from heaven to rescue them. Jesus literally says in John chapter six, I have come, come down from heaven to seek and save the lost. The final plague of the. Of the firstborn. The death of the firstborn. There's a curse and a death. That is the people are passing over the people that are covered in the blood of the lamb. And then they were set free. Jesus, the Bible says, is the firstborn of all creation. He takes that curse and that death upon himself and those that are covered in his blood are now in him. We are set free because of that, the people of Israel. So that's salvation. The people of Israel were set free, and then immediately they went through the waters of the Red Sea, leaving their old life behind and coming out a new life and a new identity. That's called baptism. After you and I are saved, we go through the waters of baptism. We leave our old life behind and we have a new identity in Christ. The people of Israel were spent 40 years in the wilderness. 40 in the Bible is the number of testing and preparation. That's called sanctification in the life of a Christian. And finally, interestingly enough, Moses, who gave us the law, led God's people to the edge of the Promised land. But he did not go in. Instead, he points to another leader named Joshua, so that God's people could actually finally enter the promised land. Joshua in Hebrew is the same name as Jesus. Yeshua, which literally means Yahweh, is salvation. So here we see Moses literally pointing us towards Yeshua. For us to be able to enter the promised land, our promised land ultimately is not a place that is a person. His name is Jesus. Jesus, who said, I promise you I will be with you and I will never leave you and I will never forsake you. I will always be with you forever. So again, this is literally your story. Where Israel failed, Jesus succeeded. With the law exposed, Christ fulfilled. And whom sin enslaved, Jesus said to free. The whole story is about Jesus saving sinners like you and me.

Pastor Josh Howardson

There's levels to this.

Carlos Arasman

There's levels to this. Hey, my question real quick as we're going to move on here is so great. That was Moses. What about me? How do I figure out God's will for my life? Well, hey, before we get back to the episode, I want to tell you about something coming up at Lake Point that we're really excited about. This summer we're hosting at the Movies a four week sermon series where we'll use movie clips and stories to illustrate powerful biblical truths. It's one of the most fun and creative experiences we do all year here at Lake Pointe and it's designed for the entire family. And so every weekend at our physical locations, we'll feature unique movie themed experiences, fun characters in the lobby for both kids and adults, incredible worship and practical teaching from the word of God, and of course, popcorn and drinks for everyone. So whether you are here and maybe you're a longtime churchgoer, someone who's been away from church for a while, or maybe, maybe you're looking for an easy way to invite a friend, neighbor or coworker to church. This right here is the perfect series for you. At the Movies is an in person only event and begins July 11 and 12 and continues through August 1 and 2. And so if you're in the Dallas area, we'd love for you to join us at one of our campuses. You can find service times, locations and more information by texting the word atm to 20411 now. Now let's get back to the conversation.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Yeah, that's honestly what I think this passage is practically most helpful for is what the Bible says, is that God created us in advance. He created good works in advance for us to accomplish. That's what the New Testament says. So somehow in some way, every single person God ever created, there are good works that he preordained and designed for you to accomplish with your life. Honestly man, that's what I think this passage does is the best way to do it. I did a little Venn diagram and this is the best way to think about about it is this. If you look at this passage, it's like a Venn diagram of what is at the intersection of ability, affinity, and opportunity.

Carlos Arasman

Say that one more time.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Yeah. Ability, affinity, opportunity. All right, so let me explain. It's like, ability is if you ask the question. Watch what happens with Moses here. How does Moses figure out what he's supposed to do? Okay. Ability. What am I good at?

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Yep.

Pastor Josh Howardson

What do other people say? That I'm good. A better way is what other people say that I'm good at. Because a lot of people think they're good at something. They're not good at something. It's like, heads up, by the way. That's why you need people's eyes on your life. Because, like, your whole life is the first two episodes of American Idol every season where you think you're awesome and nobody ever loved you enough to tell that you weren't awesome at that thing. And it's like, the people who. They think they got the spiritual gift of singing, but nobody ever seems to have the spiritual gift of listening to them. It's like, okay, man, so you need to ask, what do other people say that I'm good at? Well, look at Moses life. It is not a coincidence he spent 40 years in Pharaoh's court learning how to. At the executive level, how to lead a nation. So think about the skills that got downloaded into Moses in those 40 years. Well, God put him in a position so that he'd be able to someday lead 2 to 3 million Israelites out of. You see what I'm doing there? Okay, so ability. What am I good at? Like, what skills do I have? Okay, affinity is. Ask this question. It's a little counterintuitive. Not just like, what's my heart sort of vibrate to ask this question? What can you not stand? And here's like, when you see this in Moses life, in. I think it's Exodus 1. The first time we ever see Moses as an adult. He kills a guy. He murders a guy. Why? Because he saw an Egyptian taskmaster beating a Hebrew slave, and he just could not stand to see the injustice of the slave slavery. He's like, I can't. Literally, I can't. I can't say, make me kill somebody. Well, ask your. Don't start killing people. But ask. Ask the question. Like, what is it that when you see it, you're like, bro, I literally cannot even watch. Like, I'll be honest. It kills me. It kills me. I'll be honest, dude. So, like, all the best student ministry volunteers or all the best kids ministry volunteers, you know, they are. They're people who, when they see kids who don't got spiritual fathers and mothers, it's just like something just wants to snap inside of them. They're like, they gotta have this. Or there are people who are like, I didn't have that and I know what happened and it just grates on me. And hey man, if you walk past the kids ministry room and the thought of those kids growing up without a spiritual dad or a spiritual mom, like, you just. Yeah, I just can't stand it. That's probably part of your calling.

Carlos Arasman

That's good.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Like for me, man, honestly, when I hear a bad sermon, it's like, I can't, I can't do it. Like, literally, I'll just turn it off.

Carlos Arasman

You go on Facebook and you criticize.

Pastor Josh Howardson

No, I do not. No, I do not. I just, I literally, I cannot listen. A bad. It just, it's does something so emotionally eviscerating in me. I'll just turn it off.

Carlos Arasman

Can I ask you this, Pastor Jos? Because I'm sure people are curious. Is, was that always the case? Is that was what your thing was.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Very, very, very early. Very, very.

Carlos Arasman

You always had a thing for preaching

Pastor Josh Howardson

very, very, very early. Like I, we don't need to get into this. But like, and I know this sounds weird, it's just what God did in my life. I'm a third generation pastor and for some reason, dude, when I was. I think I was like 13, I had a really gifted communicator. That was my childhood past pastor. And my parents would get the little tapes. Carlos, A tape was this thing. I know that my parents get the sermon tapes.

Carlos Arasman

The, the round things, right? That's. That's what the tape was.

Pastor Josh Howardson

And they were a buck a piece. They were a buck a piece. My parents would get the sermon tapes and from the time I was 13 to the time I graduated from high school, every night I fell asleep listening to one of those tapes. That's how I fell asleep every single night.

Carlos Arasman

You had a tape recorder?

Pastor Josh Howardson

No, I had a. No, I had a tape player. Stop, man. Stop man. We don't have time for this. And literally every night I had like 30 of those tapes of like his best of sermons. And from the time I was 13, Thomas 18, that's how I fell asleep. And it's just. I don't know, man. I just, it just. I can't listen to that. So the second question is affinity. What is it? Like I'm drawn to what drives me nuts. And the last one is opportunity. And the question you Asked there is, what's the open door? Or what's the greatest need? So notice this, bro. This is fascinating. Because of Moses being raised in Pharaoh's court, two things he's probably. He might be out of 2 to 3 million Hebrews, the only one that's bilingual. Number two, he almost certainly was, out of 3 million Hebrews, the only one who had access to the palace of the pharaoh, he was the only guy who had that opportunity. So you need to start asking yourself the question, what's the. The Apostle Paul says in the New Testament, for a wide door of effective service has been open to me. You need to ask the question, what's the thing that's the door that's open to me? Or you might ask it like this. Walk through your church and ask the question, where's the greatest need? Yeah, because that was the other thing. Where's the greatest need? And I'll just tell you right now. It's. It's kids ministry. I don't care what church you're in. I don't care what church you're in. It's like you need somebody to be spiritual mamas and spirit daddies to all the. All those kids that always wear his hat. So those are the three. And then once you sit down and like, literally, I'd encourage you to do it. Sit down, draw a little Venn diagram. Three concentric little circles that overlap. Okay. Affinity, ability, opportunity, and whatever is the one spot in your life where all three intersect. Boom, there's your calling.

Andrew Huberman

There it is.

Carlos Arasman

So good. Ability, affinity, opportunity. That's really good, Paul.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Now, I was just going to give some advice. Probably more of our younger people, because you may be. Not even. You mean, you may not even know yet what your abilities and affinities are. So I would actually say, if nothing else, lean into those opportunities. Because you asked Pastor Josh earlier, like, did he know from an early age? We probably didn't know until he actually started preaching and was listening to preaching.

Pastor Josh Howardson

That's a fact.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

And so the same thing I'd say if you're on the younger end, if you're, you know, man, middle school, high school, college, young adult, try some different things. See what it seems like God has his hand on. And both you have a knack for, you have an ability for and an affinity for, and then lean into that. So that was going to be more for some of our younger people is that you actually might need to just try to get some opportunities to help learn what those other two are.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Just get reps and figure out which pitches you can hit. You just gotta do it. You gotta get a whole bunch of reps doing a whole bunch of different things, figure out which pitches you hit.

Carlos Arasman

Yeah. Last thing I'll say, because, you know, we obsess over the what and then we forget about the who has called you. Right. I think before you're called to an assignment, you are called to a person.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Mark.

Carlos Arasman

Even when you look at the gospels, Mark, chapter three, verse 13, 14, it says, I'm just gonna read it. And Jesus went up the mountain and called to him those whom he desired. And they came to him, and he appointed 12 whom he also named Apost, so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach. So the being with him comes before sending them out to preach. What happens often is we obsess over that what God has called us to do. And we oftentimes disregard the who God has called us to be with. And so ultimately, again, if you're young trying to figure out and run towards Jesus, make sure you obsess over how do we get to know Jesus more, how do we pray more, how do you get in, fall in love with him more? And ultimately you will get more clarity about the what before we shift gears to have a conversation on the air.

Andrew Huberman

War.

Carlos Arasman

Pastor Josh, we cannot continue right now. Before taking a moment. This week is your birthday, you jerk.

Pastor Josh Howardson

You jerk.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

So.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Because before we an hour talk.

Carlos Arasman

I know, I know, but this is important. We're just gonna take a second to. First of all, man, happy birthday.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Happy birthday.

Carlos Arasman

And before your birthday, we created a song for you that I'm gonna play. It's a very short song.

Pastor Josh Howardson

You gotta be kidding me.

Carlos Arasman

Specialized for you. Here it is. I'm gonna make sure we get it right. So. Happy birthday, Pastor Josh.

Pastor Josh Howardson

What?

Carlos Arasman

Wait, hold on, hold on.

Pastor Josh Howardson

I'm sorry. I'm glad. I'm glad it didn't play.

Carlos Arasman

Why is my phone not working?

Pastor Josh Howardson

This is providence. This is to do a Bluetooth on something.

Carlos Arasman

I. I hope not.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

I did not give you the opportunity.

Carlos Arasman

Okay, hold on, hold on.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Oh my gosh.

Carlos Arasman

This is classic.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Happy birthday, Pastor Josh.

Carlos Arasman

What is wrong with the lyrics are intentional.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Pastor Josh walks on stage with a grin so big. First words out, let's kick this pig. If you got your Bibles, open em up. Because we got Bible verses for that. Then somebody shout bro. Literally after the sermon, don't forget to check out Live Free. He'll say, one second.

Carlos Arasman

That's your line, bro.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Come on, guys. Why? Why?

Pastor Paul Cunningham

He's been listening. He's been watching his music.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Thank you for that. Spiritually enriching 50 seconds.

Carlos Arasman

80s, baby.

Pastor Josh Howardson

But 90s.

Carlos Arasman

Amen. Honestly. Hey, honestly, we mess around here a lot. Happy birthday.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Happy birthday.

Carlos Arasman

You are a great pastor, great friend, husband, father. We honor you for that.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Thank you. Thank you, Matt.

Carlos Arasman

And now let's keep going.

Pastor Josh Howardson

We're finished talking about this. I want to. Let me kind of say this.

Carlos Arasman

Please, go ahead.

Pastor Josh Howardson

I want to finish by this. So first of all, Trinity, will you toss that graph up? I think what you're starting to see, bro, I keep saying this over and over again. If you're looking at things in our culture right now, the tide is turning. I want to let that sit the tightest. Something is happening that I have not seen in my lifetime that is now 43 years. Okay. That there's something I've not seen. Okay, Now y' all want to see. This is gallop. So what you're seeing right here, Americans who say religion is, quote, very important in their own lives. Now, some trends that are not awesome, you see some things that are not awesome. A lot of those lines are down and to the right. All right, now look at that green line. There is something that is happening right now among men, especially young men, and you're seeing a massive jump. It went from in, like, two to three years, 28% to 42%, according to Yallup. I just want to say that again, 28 to 42% are jumping from religion not super important to religion super important. And in America, the vast majority of the, like, vast, vast majority is Christians. Something is happening. Something. There's a sea change happening underneath the surface with men, in particular, young men. Now, this is a whole different podcast. And, you know, don't get mad at me on the Internet before I get a chance to explain everything. Usually what happens the way that God has designed the world is things will happen in a man or men before they happen in the rest of society. That's just how God's made the world. You can call that whatever you want, toxic whatever. That's just how God made the world. So I'm hopeful about that. Now, what's interesting to me, I'm getting ready to show this to you. You're starting to see stats start to trickle up into, like, pop culture and above the surface, where now you're starting to see the stats become stories. So while I was. I watched these while I was working out on vacation with Jana. Best vacation I've ever taken. And there were two dudes that a bunch like, very High profile podcasters that both said something really interesting. So this first clip, I'm going show them back to back real fast. Fast. And we're shut this thing down. First one is a guy named Andrew Huberman. Right. Am I pronounced that right? Huberman. Jana listens to him. I never listen to him because he's a healthy guy. Right.

Carlos Arasman

He is a neuroscientist.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Yeah. All right. That's not my thing. So I do listen to the next guy, but he's apparently like pretty, pretty big.

Carlos Arasman

He's got a big podcast. Yes.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Okay, so explain real quick who this guy is before I do this.

Carlos Arasman

Yeah. So the first clip, if we're going to watch the Andrew Huberman, he's Huberman. Huberman. Huberman.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Yeah.

Carlos Arasman

Either.

Pastor Josh Howardson

How is it Jason Huberman. Huberman.

Carlos Arasman

Huberman. There you go. Thank you. Jason. Neuroscientist and professor of neurobiology at Stanford School of Medicine. So he's got his own podcast. The clip we're about to watch right now, he's in a different podcast. It's called Modern Wisdom, hosted by Chris Williamson. And this is a podcast basically on self improvement philosophy and psychology.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Okay, now what you're getting ready to see here is while I was on vacation, he essentially, if I understand correctly, like, had his coming out as a person of faith and moving towards Christianity. All right, now check this out. I want to explain a couple things here, but check this out. And Trinity, I'm going to have you stop it at a certain point.

Andrew Huberman

And, and, and you know, it's my, you know, I love teaching science. I love learning and teaching science. I hope that's obvious to people. I. But it's my one wish for, for people that at some point in their life they at least explore the possibility and, and get morning sunlight. But the.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

He's known for that.

Pastor Josh Howardson

But be open to faith and get morning sunlight.

Andrew Huberman

I hit 50 recently and. And I will say, if I look back on my life, I sure I wish I had done certain things differently. I mean, who, who doesn't? Right? This notion of like, no regrets, like, yeah, I wish I had made certain decisions, not others. Um, but by and large, I'm very, very happy with the decisions I made, by and large. And I was happy to discover resistance training and running and neuroscience and, you know, cuttlefish and ferrets. I had a pet ferret and I don't recommend bulldogs. And I have an amazing relationship to family and friends and I'm very blessed in my personal life and my romantic life is feeling awesome these days and and it's just like it's overwhelmingly positive despite a lot of strain and hardship. But the one thing that I wish that I had done earlier was to stop resisting the voice in my head that said, you know, I think. I think there's a God and I'm going to pray. I kept pushing that away. It was like incompatible with my notion of what it meant to be a scientist. It was just incompatible with things I just kept pushing down and yet at

Pastor Josh Howardson

the same time wishing, okay, first of all, now I'm going to show. But first of all, he spent his whole life doing this thing. Hey, man, it feels like faith is incompatible with science. And being a scientist now, first of all, you're seeing a bunch of this Ayaan, Hirsi Ali. There's a bunch of different scientists and intellectuals. You're seeing the same trend in. I just want to point this out. So you're not, you're not old enough for this, Carlos. But I'm going to be 43 for a second here. Okay. When I was growing up, that was like the dominant narrative.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Yeah.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Is, hey, man, like science and faith completely incompatible. One of the things that's driving what you're seeing right now is the exact opposite. Is starting to, like, it's leading in different conclusions. So if you go back, Wall Street Journal published this article. I think it was Eric Metaxas years ago. The title of the article was just Science Increasingly Makes the case for God. When I was growing up, there was like a much more limited level of awareness and people felt like it led it in one way. Now it's the opposite for a few reasons. One, you're seeing guys like this. You got issues like fine tuning of the universe. That's the whole deal of, you know, astrophysicists now. No, like, it's just the, hey, the force of gravity, strong and weak nuclear forces, electromagnetic force. Like people understand, understand. If any of those little physics things were an infinitesimal fraction different, a universe couldn't exist. Interesting little side note, somebody asked Christopher Hitchens before he died, what's the thing that's the strongest argument that you don't know what to do with? And he was, he said, hey, fine tuning universe keeps me up at night.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Wow.

Pastor Josh Howardson

It keeps me up. So you got that, you got complexity of life. It's just like, hey, dude, you know, 60 years years ago, people thought cells were just sort of amorphous. Blobs was like, bro. Now they know, like, there's like a complex human city inside of every one of your cells. Protein delivery mechanisms. There's a human language written into the double helix inside of every DNA strand in your body that's more complex than a computer programming language. Like, so guys like this, they're starting to get their heads around this stuff. What they're here's boiling all down. Here's why. I think some intellectuals are starting to kind of go like, hey, man, as opposed to atheism, agnosticism, I've got a problem to deal with. Guys like that are starting to realize, man, an atheist has to believe in at least six miracles. They got to believe in something from nothing, order from chaos, life from non life, personal from the non personal, reason from non reason, and morality from matter. And dude, for guys like this, it's becoming really difficult to believe that everything and everyone came from nothing and no one. Okay, so you're seeing this now, but watch what he says happened to him when he starts moving towards Jesus. Check this out. Watch what he says for it.

Andrew Huberman

And recently on my 50th birthday, I had to give an uncomfortable toast because, believe it or not, I'm somewhat introverted, especially in large groups. I'm happy to talk signs and talk like this with you, but. And I. And I said it then, and I'll say it again now. Now, like, I'm 50, and for the first time in my life, my entire life, I've experienced sustained times of real deep peace. Like just peace. Like just the. Like, everything's okay. Everything is as it should be. Not just some little mantra that you say when you're on the big surcoast.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Pause. Okay, now, dude. Now notice, note that where I'm coming back to it. He says, first in my life, I'm experiencing real sustained peace. So I'll just toss this out. St. Augustine said this in his confessions. He said, you have made us for yourself, oh Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Wow.

Pastor Josh Howardson

And what you got right there is you got a scientist who's like been all up here. I got to understand. I got to understand. I got to understand it. He's. I got peace. What he's saying right there, right? He's literally saying, I can't quite explain it. Yeah, I got this. Peace. Peace that surpasses understanding. That sounds a little familiar. By the way, in order to get the peace that surpasses understanding, you have to give up your right to understand. And you got this guy that's going, hey, man, if God's the size of the Pacific Ocean and my mind's the size of a Coke can, there's probably going to be some things that don't fit. Yeah. But man, when I get up in there, there's some peace I've never had before now. All right, so I see that clip. The next day I'm working out in the little workout gym and I run across this. Now this is my favorite one of the two. What you're getting ready to see is a guy named John Lennox. So he's in this clip you're getting ready to see. He's like the 80 year old white dude. John Lennox is the professor of mathematics at Oxford who, by the way, fun fact, before C.S. lewis died, he gave a series of lectures about his Christian faith at Oxford. John Lennox is just old enough to have attended those lectures. Oh, okay. So John Lennox, professor of mathematics at Oxford, is a Christian man. Yeah, he's on Stephen Bartlett's podcast. I know you love. Explain who Stephen Bartlett is real quick.

Carlos Arasman

Yeah, Diary of a CEO, one of the most popular podcasts for interview format. And Stephen's just a great interviewer. My favorite.

Pastor Josh Howardson

That's killer.

Carlos Arasman

Other than the live free podcast, that's my podcast.

Pastor Josh Howardson

And his pod is huge. Like it's absolutely enormous. Okay, Diary of a CEO. Now this one, I'm not going to interrupt it either, even once. I'm just going to let this clip play to let the force of it fall on you. All right, so he does. I listen the whole thing. He does like a two hour interview with John Lennox about faith. Bartlett's not a Christian. Lennox is a Christian at the very end of the interview.

John Lennox

This happens in a world with so many challenges. What can we do to restore hope and trigger engagement,

Pastor Josh Howardson

give people a real basis for hope that transcends this world. And the only place I know where to find that is in Christ and in Christianity.

John Lennox

John, thank you. One of the most compelling arguments for God that you've presented and your way of seeing the world in being is not actually necessarily anything you've written in your books or not necessarily anything you've said. It is, it is actually you. And you have a certain peace and contentment that I rarely see in people that I interview, but I often see and I've almost always seen in the Christians that I've interviewed. And this is a interesting phenomenon for me. I interviewed Wesley Huff recently. Do you know Wesley Huffman? Yes. Yeah, he was the same. Canadian.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Yeah, Wesley's a bright cookie.

John Lennox

Yeah, he was very much. He gave me the same feeling as you. Just like, feels like a really happy person. Very sort of content rounded. Well, there Are many of us? Yeah. But it seems to be a trend that, you know, a lot of the Christian apologists that I've interviewed have that anchoring that, yes. So many of us are looking for.

Pastor Josh Howardson

There's a real sense of that. You know, I sit in front of many people, and of course, of course they often ask me questions I don't even understand. But in life, that peace is very important to me. And also what we started with, when I look at you, I see someone who's of infinite value, made in the image of God. And so what I say to you or think about you is hugely important to make me. And I wish you well.

John Lennox

Thank you.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Now, listen, what you just saw is the reality that there are five gospels. There's not four. There's Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and you. And if you watch the interview, dude, it is fascinating. You got this guy, towering intellect, professor emeritus of mathematics at Oxford University. University. You watch the interview multiple times. The interview, Bartlett asked him a question, and he literally says, I don't know. Literally, I don't know. That's tough.

John Lennox

I don't know.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Listen, he didn't have all the answers. He had something far better, a piece that surpasses understanding. And what everybody needs to understand when they watch stuff like that is that the only way to get real, lasting peace is to know the Prince of Peace himself. And that is what those guys are responding to. And so we got to do is watch stuff like that. And honestly, we just have to go. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good, and I'm going to say spirit and glorify your Father who is in heaven. That's what you're seeing.

Carlos Arasman

Amen. Amen. Now, Pastor Yash, would you pray for us?

Pastor Josh Howardson

I'll be honored. Father, would you please make every single person sitting at this table, in this room and listening to this podcast, that type of man or that type of woman, Jesus Christ, I pray that you would be the Prince of peace and the presence of peace to everybody that knows you and draws near. And, Father, I pray that you would. That you would send us out like light in the darkness, like your word says, as sheep among wolves. But that everywhere we go, we would simply be people who know you and love you and enjoy you. And we just let people see that we know you and we love you and enjoy you, and our life just naturally says, come play. Father, I pray for anybody that's listening to this that they don't know you yet, that they would bend their knee to Jesus Christ, the Prince of peace. And know that peace that we want them to know. And I pray those things in the name of Jesus Christ himself risen from the dead. Amen.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Amen.

Pastor Josh Howardson

Amen.

Carlos Arasman

Live free, brother.

Pastor Paul Cunningham

Live free.