A 16-year-old lifeguard saved the life of a 10-year-old boy in California. It's a beautiful sight. We should honor the lifeguard's bravery and skill. We should also be in awe at the power of God's creation. The bible speaks a lot about the ocean and waves. Why does God use this metaphor?

Welcome to Politics by Faith. This is where we take the news of the day, then we bring it to the Bible so we can walk away with peace and perspective. New headlines every day. Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. So thanks for being here to get the true story, the story of the day. Can we just do a nice one for once, please? 

Do we always have to take a terrible story and then work to make it hopeful? Can we just start with a nice one for once? Sorry, I just prepped like two hours. We just did a whole show on COVID and that got me ticked off. And then we did, uh, I just prepped for tomorrow's show on radio about this straight up crazy invasion of tens of thousands of Africans into Spain. Like what the heck? 

Uh, and it's the end of the week. And I just kind of feel like doing a hopeful one. Is that cool? A 16 year old in Santa Cruz, California, Northern California, South of San Francisco, a lifeguard, 16 year old lifeguard saw a 10 year old boy swept out by the waves. 16 years old. I was a lifeguard. 

Let me say it like this. I was a lifeguard when I was 16. A lot like this young man, except I did it at a pool. I was at a pool. I can't even believe we let 16 year olds be lifeguards at a beach, at a serious beach, like Northern California. That is tough work. 

That is man work. You got to be strong. I swam in college. And when I moved to San Diego, people asked me to go surfing. I was like, no problem. Surfing? 

I could definitely surf. I've never surfed in my life. Like, oh, it's so hard about that. Piece of cake. Getting out there? No problem. 

I'm an amazing swimmer. I will never forget it. I got smashed nonstop. Couldn't do anything. Couldn't, I couldn't get out there. I'm not even talking about like, Oh, I had trouble getting up. 

I couldn't get to where you were. You're supposed to go to sit on the board to wait for the wave to come. I couldn't even, it was awful. It was so incredibly humbling. I was just wrecked. could not get past the waves. 

How is this possible? And eventually you figure out, but you figure it out, but you don't get there by fighting it. You can't fight against the waves. You can't, you can't do as possible. You'll never win. You'll never win. 

The ocean is so powerful when you're 10. I'm guessing this boy wasn't swimming in the ocean. I'm guessing he was just like playing in the water, like up to his ankles or something. And then a wave comes in and sweeps him out. I'm guessing that's what happened. Cause the ocean is ferocious, but this lifeguard saw it and he ran out to get him two kids, two kids. 

10 year old boy and a 16 year old boy. Gosh, my oldest is nine. I think we could be strong enough to be a lifeguard like this one day. My goodness. And there's video of it. Someone took a video of it and the waves, they kept coming from, it seems like every direction. 

There's a couple of things that stand out from the video. First, they keep coming. You can't tell us from the video, but it's 58 degrees. Water's 58 degrees out there. So it's cold enough. It's gonna take your breath. 

That's hard enough. And then it just smashing you nonstop. But here's what I love about this lifeguard. One wave in particular was coming to get him. He grabs the boy and he leans into the wave. That's a move from someone who knows what he's doing. 

That's skill. That's excellent. I love it. seeing people who know what they're doing, who are excellent at what they're doing, who are skilled. I love seeing people who are skilled in their craft. Excellence is a virtue that we need more of. 

And the only way to get more of it is to admire it and celebrate it when we see it. It needs to be praised. And people need to have this extra desire. The praise we give on excellence is fuel for everyone to try to be more excellent. So when you see excellence like this and you're like, Oh wow, look what he did there. He, he grabbed the boy and lean into the wave so that he could pop up instead of just getting smashed by it. 

It's awesome. Another thing that stands out is at one point in the rescue, um, some guys who were on the beach try to come out and help the lifeguard. They can't swim that well. It looks, they can't beat the waves. They don't know what they're doing. Like the lifeguard does. 

So the waves start kind of hitting them about and the lifeguard, I think, I think this is what I'm seeing. The lifeguard sees that these guys could drown him. And it looks like the lifeguard, he like does something like this and it looks like he's calling them off. It looks like he's telling them to back off. You gotta be very careful when you're a lifeguard. That's why they have that buoy. 

That's why they have the red flotation buoy thing. When you go out to rescue someone and they're thrashing about, you can't just go grab them because if they're thrashing, they'll drown you. So you keep your distance and you push your buoy to them so they can grab the buoy and then you can pull them in. If I remember my lifeguarding training from 30 years ago. But again, that speaks to the excellence and well -trained skill. Sorry, the story just popped in my head. 

This one's sad. I'm supposed to be happy. I forget where this was. I want to say Texas, but that may not be right. A whole family of people drowned. I don't exactly know who the family members was, but it was like a boy and then four adults. 

And they drowned trying to rescue the boy. They were all fishing in the river. The river took the boy away. They all tried to rescue the boy. And I think the police knew the situation because there was maybe a little boy who went up to the street. I can't even finish the story. 

to see this 16 -year -old risk his life to save this other boy. Spectacular. Pulls the boy ashore with the sounds of terrified and sobbing women on the beach. The guy who recorded the video said, I've never seen a rescue this intense before. So when I saw it unfolding, I just didn't know how it was going to turn out. I mean, people watching, everyone thought the boy was going to drown and maybe even the lifeguard was going to drown. 

The lifeguard's mom told the media, I'm blown away by the love kindness, gratitude, and respect you're sending his way. A few people have asked about a GoFundMe, but honestly, he was just doing the job. He was just doing the job that he absolutely loves. He could start a GoFundMe and probably make 50K, maybe more. But the parents are like, nope, doing his job, doing what he loves. This is the point of the podcast when we usually talk about something that's broken or like what the broken aspect of the story is, what the sin is in the story. 

It's called the fallen conditioned focus. Like what's the broken here? Broken part? Nothing. There's nothing broken about the story. It's wonderful all around. 

Maybe we'll find out his family are Christians or Trump supporters and the media will destroy them. I hope not. But I will say he was invited to the White House for a proper honoring. I look forward to that. They also talked about maybe the boy coming along as well. That would be a really nice thing. 

And I'm very much in favor of heroes being honored. I think it should be a regular occurrence and the White House should lead the way. It should almost be like a TV show. It should be like an expected TV show, like this month's heroes or this week's heroes. Just show Americans doing great things. That's how important it is that we lift up these virtues and that we can be reminded of who we are, and we lift these people up. 

This is who we aspire to be, all of us, each in our own way. Let's go to the Bible. First point of the Bible, the power of God, and we see it through nature. God, the creator of the universe, the precision of nature from the tiniest nanoparticles to the massive scope of the universe, all of it speaks to God's power. Last week in church, in the class before church, the preacher asked for adjectives to describe God. And everyone shouted out really wonderful adjectives. 

How would you do it? How would you, what word would you use to describe God? I was thinking, and the one that stood out to me was powerful. I think of God as powerful. We don't enough. I don't know. 

Do you think of God as powerful? We don't, we don't think about that enough on a regular basis. Heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his glory. Psalm 19 .1. And it's also looking forward to Jesus. Hebrews 1 .3 says he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. 

And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. As amazing as God's creation is, God is more amazing. He obviously created. Jesus is more amazing. And there's so much in the Psalms about nature. 

The heavens declare the glory of God. Active, tense. These heavens, they continue to proclaim every day how incredible God is. We should be in awe constantly of the stars, the sun, clouds, moon. We should be all of creation every day, constantly in awe. It's a great thing to do with your kids is to teach them to be in awe. 

And the way to teach them to be in awe is to be in awe. And not just have a nice sunset, although it's a great thing, but everything, flower, look at that cloud, wow, thunderstorms, whatever, any nature thing you're a part of, speak to the aweness of it. Like, whoa, this is huge, this is amazing, this is powerful, God is powerful. Someone gave me that advice when Jack was born. So I wanna pass it on to you. your kids or your grandkids. 

Psalm 104 31. May the glory of the Lord endure forever. May the Lord rejoice in his works. Who looks on the earth and it trembles. Who touches the mountains and they smoke. Earthquakes and volcanoes. 

I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. Isn't that great? But God's more powerful. He just has to look or touch. That's That's it. 

Boom. Check out this conclusion from David, Psalm 83. When I consider your heaven, heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind? That you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them. Oh my gosh, this powerful, all powerful creator. And he cares about us? 

You have made them man a little lower than the angels and crown them with glory and honor. God is powerful and he loves us. A lot of these verses I just shared have to do with like the cosmos and that's great too, but the oceans, he talks about the oceans. Psalm 89 .9, you rule the raging sea. When its waves rise, you still them. God's in charge of all of it. 

Job 38 .8, oh my goodness, all the Job quotes about creation. God sets boundaries for the sea and says, When the waves must start and stop, he's in control of all of it. Psalm 146 .6, God is the maker of heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them. Amos 9 .6, the Lord summons the waters of the sea and pours them out on the earth. God is in control of all of it. So when we see the ocean, we hear the ocean, we feel it. 

We should be in awe at the power of God. I was humbled. Sorry, just even just saying the word feel the ocean. I can't remember my first surfing expedition. And I guess, boy, was I humbled. I didn't know at the time to think, man, God is great. 

I should have. This is the God that we love and that we serve. I prefer to be on his team. But I also want to comment the final point here on the metaphor. of a common Christian metaphor of when we're in trouble. Well, there's two, actually. 

There's difficult and deceit. Let's do the deceit. We don't want to be deceived, right? And the Bible says we don't want to be deceived. We can no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. Rather, speak in the truth in love. 

We are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head into Christ. I can't be deceived, tossed to and fro. I don't even know what I think, what's going on, where am I? Let's read the Bible. That's your rock. How many people in life feel like that? 

Every day they live like that, just tossed around by deceit and the devil schemes. We are, I don't want to say we're a lifeguard. Jesus is the ultimate lifeguard, if you will, but you know what I mean, right? We can help rescue people from the chaos, just like that lifeguard in California. And the ocean metaphor that's often made too is when life is difficult, right? Psalm 46 one says, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Jesus calmed the storm. Of course, the sea became still. Peter sank in the waves, but Jesus reached out and saved him. Psalm 93 ,4, mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the Lord on high is mighty. Isn't it incredible how much, how much is in the Bible about waves and water? 

This isn't everything, of course, just shared a couple here. And of course I'll end here. We are called to build our house on the rock. Matthew 7, 24, Jesus says, everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them, or if I may add, hears these scriptures The psalm about God and the ocean and his power and doesn't care or isn't in awe. 

Foolish man who builds his house, who builds his life on the sand. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it. So three points on today's episode. First, let's celebrate heroism and virtue and excellence. Let's be in awe of the waves and let's build our house on the rock. youtube . 

com slash at politics by faith. If you listen to the podcast, thanks for listening. You can also subscribe and watch on our YouTube page. If you don't watch it, if you could subscribe, that still be helpful so we can get the message out there to as many people as possible. YouTube . com slash at politics by faith. 

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I can't believe Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch could be so ignorant about our founding. I can only assume he's "just" a coward. I'm always happy to defend the Christian roots of our country.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. It's where we take the news of the day, we bring it to the Bible, so we can walk away with peace and perspective. There's new headlines every day, but Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. So thanks for being here to get the true story, the story of the day -to -day Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch denies our founding. Here's what happened. Conservative Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch was on PBS. 

This clip is just totally ignorant about our nation's founding. This is very sad. It's very disturbing that someone could become a conservative Supreme Court justice and get this so wrong. It's bad enough that like a Sotomayor or a Justice Jackson gets it wrong. You expect that out of them. You would think at least we can rely on a conservative justice to get this right. 

And he's not even close. And he's oddly giddy and confident about it. If you can see this clip we're going to play here, if you're watching on our YouTube page, which by the way, youtube . com slash apolitics by faith, you can see not only him, but pay attention to the person interviewing him, Margaret Hoover. If you see the clip, she's like, oddly aroused by this. It's weird. 

She loves what Gorsuch is saying. She loves it. She loves when he says that we are not founded as a Christian nation. It's very, very weird. So here's Neil Gorsuch, conservative Supreme Court justice. You make the point also that there is no common religion or cultural heritage of Americans. 

Yes. We are a creedal nation. Creedal because we believe in the creed, we believe in those three founding ideals which you mentioned previously. That sentiment, particularly as expressed by you, has received some criticism from conservative circles and drawn backlash, where people have said how wrong you could be about this. But how would you respond to those who say, we absolutely had a common cultural heritage and religion? 

Well, first of all, did you know that there is a Catholic signer on the Declaration of Independence? Charles Carroll. Right? And we were founded in a lot of our colonies for religious pluralism, right? And the opportunity to practice your own faith in your own way. And we were never supposed to be a nation that was about one race or one religion. 

It was about those ideas. Those things are perfect ideas that speak to every human heart and that unite us all. Is there a revisionism in, as we tell our story now? We're not just a creedal nation. We have a creed, sure, but we are a real actual place made up of particular people who came from a particular place, who created a nation based on particular values, based on a particular culture that they came from. We are seeing now more than ever, that there are other peoples from other places with different values based off of different cultures from different places. 

And they're not the same. And you can't snap your finger and become an American just like that. All of our founders, all of them, rejected this idea that you could just magically become an American all of a sudden. All of them rejected it. But now Neil Gorsuch knows better. And his proof of religious pluralism, the problem with that is it opens up the door for Muslims. 

which are totally foreign to our founding fathers and still to our country today should be. And he's opening up the door to this religious pluralism talk because of Charles Carroll, because he was Catholic. Come on, Neil. I don't want to stop it again. Let me just finish the end. We've always been a white Christian nation. 

I just don't see it that way. I mean, Charles Carroll, right. From Maryland. Catholic. Right. When he went to sign his name, they kind of poke fun of him when he went to sign his name on August 2nd. 

and said, Charles Carroll, that's like John Smith. The British will never figure out who you are. So he added of Carrollton, his hometown, so that everyone would know exactly who it was. And America is supposed to be about those ideas. And America is available to each and every one of us. And it's up to each and every one of us to see that those ideas continue to flourish. 

But you refute the idea that we came from the same heritage and the same religion. Well, I mean, it's demonstrably not true that we came from the same religion. I mean, think about the Amish who came here in the 1600s on a handful of rickety boats, a third of them dying along the way for their freedom and populating much into Pennsylvania and down into the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia and now throughout the rest of the country. What, they weren't part of the American experiment? Of course they were. The Quakers, same story? 

Of course they were. And so America was not found, I mean, we have a First Amendment for crying out loud. No established religion. Everybody has the freedom of religion. Everybody has the freedom of speech. We are all equal under law, okay? 

Now, you cannot believe in those ideas. Fair enough. Then we have a problem. But those three ideas are something all of us can unite behind. Yeah, we got a problem all right, Neil. His point of bringing up Charles Carroll is so ridiculous. 

Charles Carroll was from Annapolis, Maryland. Back then it was pronounced Maryland because it was a colony that was originally founded as a safe haven for persecuted Roman Catholics. Now, Puritans then took over the government and it became less of a particularly Catholic colony. Of course, its influence was still there. And also they, of course, still allowed Catholics to positions of prominence. But to take that religious freedom, and then extrapolate that to Muslims and Buddhists and Hindus and pagans and Wiccans. 

That is suicidal, Neil. Absolutely suicidal. You think you're a good person. You think you're so pluralist and open and blah, blah, blah. That is suicidal to our nation. Our religion in this country is Christian. 

That is how we were founded. And then as other evidence are the Quakers and the Amish. Our religion is Christian. I'm more than happy to go over the religious tests of every colony and then state. that they had to run for office, a religious test, a religious test that was so fundamentalist that most Christian churches in America aren't as stringent as like the state of Delaware. Like to join a church today, you barely have to proclaim these truths. 

Like you used to have to run to be the dog catcher. The, uh, we'll go Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, 1776. I do believe in one God, the creator and governor of the universe, the rewarder of good and the punisher of the wicked. And I do acknowledge the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be given by divine inspiration. That's your oath of office in Pennsylvania. Delaware said, I do profess faith in God, the Father, and in Jesus Christ, his only son, and in the Holy Ghost. 

By the way, if you're a Muslim, you couldn't do that. You couldn't say that because you don't believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. And in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed forevermore. And I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are given by divine inspiration. That's Delaware. Maryland? 

The law says that as it is the duty of every man to worship God in such manner as he thinks most acceptable to him. Ooh, does that mean Muslims? Here's the rest of it. All persons professing the Christian religion are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty. Christian religion, Neil! That's our founding. 

New Jersey said, there shall be no establishment of any one religious sect in this Providence. No, see, that allows Muslims too. And it goes on, and that no Protestant inhabitant of this colony shall be denied the enjoyment of any civil right on account of his religious principles, but that all persons professing a belief in the faith of any Protestant sect shall be capable of being elected to any office of prophet or trust. " This was never about protecting Muslims and their right to hold office. My goodness, Neil. Does he not understand that the First Amendment is not about, it's about create, it's about not creating a national religion. 

But the reason why our founders didn't want to create a national religion and didn't want to give the federal government the power to do that is because every state already had their own religion. It wasn't because they hated religion. It's because they loved theirs so much of their own state. They didn't want a federal government mandating it for theirs. How can Neil Gorsuch be so ignorant about that? That is so sad. 

Our special this weekend, give you a little sneak peek. is about the consequences of sin. And one scripture I want to go over is Proverbs 14, 34, which says, righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. And this fact is true for people, it's true for individuals, for families, for towns, for countries. And I love this analysis from Charles Bridges, early 1800s. He said, no nation is so low as not to sink even lower under sin. 

The strongest nations are given an indelible blot if they're overcome by sin. Check out this line. What an enemy. an ungodly man is to his country. He may talk eloquently about his patriotism, but even if God should elevate him in his work, he will only bring disgrace on his people. " Wow. 

That's amazing. All right. So what's broken in this story, what Neil Gorsuch did right there, my producer gave a kind assessment of Gorsuch, more kind than I wanted to give initially. We'll go, we'll call it a charitable take that Neil Gorsuch, he's less of a fool, more of a coward. Maybe that's more charitable. Maybe he's not. 

He's a coward. Let me show you this quote from William Bradford. He was the governor of the Plymouth colony. He came over to Mayflower. He's talking about the courage that it took to come over to America. And he said, and surely it could not be thought, but the very hearing of these things could not but move the very bowels of men to grate within them and make the weak quake and tremble. 

He says even hearing about how difficult this journey was going to be made people afraid. And then he went over all the excuses that people made not to come to America, that it was too expensive. It was going to cost too much once we got here. So many people failed before us. Other colonies didn't make it. He said when the Pilgrims went to Holland, that was hard. 

And that wasn't that far away. Imagine how hard it's going to be. to the new world. So what did we do? He said, it was answered that all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties and must be both enterprised and overcome with answerable courage. It was granted the dangers were great, but not desperate. 

The difficulties were many, but not invincible for though there are many of them likely yet they were not certain. Amazing. He said, yeah, it's going to be hard, but we're going to be courageous. He went on to say, we're going to plan the best we can, but why are we going to survive? We're going to survive because it's what he said. Their condition was not ordinary. 

Their ends were good and honorable. They're calling lawful and urgent. And therefore they might expect the blessing of God in their proceeding. Yay. Though they should lose their lives in this action, yet might they have comfort in the same and their endeavors be would be honorable. So it's sort of like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, their real names, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. 

As they said, even if we die. We still love God. And that's what the pilgrims are saying. Even if we die, it doesn't matter. Our effort is noble and worthwhile and honorable and righteous. Our cause is righteous. 

What cause? What cause, Neil? The cause to preserve a pure church and live faithfully under Christ. The reason for crossing the ocean and starting a colony, which eventually became the United States, was for the glory of God. To worship God according to the Bible. You know, most of the men who are on the Mayflower, weren't pilgrims, they were sailors that were here to help us get us over here. 

And when we got here, there was some animosity, the whole journey, but there was animosity between the pilgrims and the sailors. The sailors were ready to take over, maybe even kill the pilgrims. So William Bradford was able to come up with what today we know as the Mayflower Compact. It starts off with, in the name of God, amen, is the opening line. But then it says, we, whose names are underwritten, having undertaken for the glory of God an advancement of the Christian faith, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one another covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic for our better ordering and preservation. It's right there, Neil. 

It's right there. The pilgrims having undertaken this mission for the glory of God, not Allah, not Buddha, not for the glory of money, but for the glory of God. I will always defend our Christian founding from the pagans and from the useful idiots and the cowards. Let's end here and tell the story of the faithless spies. Moses sent spies to scout Canaan. This is in Numbers 13. 

And the spies came back to Moses and Aaron and told them everything. Numbers 13, 27, we came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. These are giants. 

They went on to say that we're like grasshoppers compared to these people. And the people who heard this, the Israelites, they wept. They wept. And then everyone complained and grumbled against Moses. This is when they said, Oh, if only we just stayed and died in Egypt. You know what Moses said? 

Moses said, if the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us. A land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord and do not fear the people of the Lord. for they are bred to us, bred for us. Their protection is removed from them and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them. 

God can do anything. Why are so many elites? Why are so many intellectuals? Why are they afraid of our founding? Why are they ashamed of him? We are not. 

YouTube . com slash at politics by faith. I'm going to go take care of the kids right now. Tell them to quiet down, even though the podcast is already over. YouTube . com slash at politics by faith. 

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Somehow, Rand Paul published Tony Fauci's diary. The contents of the diary prove, of course, that he lied, but it also reveals a fact about human nature: people like to be exalted by men. But we all know what happens after Pride...

Welcome to Politics by Faith. It's where we take the news of the day, we bring it to the Bible so that we can all walk away with peace and perspectives. New headlines every day. Ben Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. So thanks for being here to get the true story, the story of the day today. My Fauci, the hero. 

Fauci's diary has been released. That's a very funny sentence. I don't know. I really don't know what that means. Like did Rand Paul find it under Fauci's bed? I don't know how this, I don't know how they found it. 

I don't know how it got released. But we'll try to talk to Rand tomorrow or the next day and we'll get to the bottom of like, what did he hand it over? Is that Gabe Hughes diary? Or was it like, wasn't there someone, what was the diary that had something to do with Hunter Biden? Or was it like, was it maybe like Joe's daughter or something that had a diary that she was in a halfway house and then she left. And then the person who came to the halfway house after found it underneath and tried to sell. 

There's some weird story like that. So did Fauci sell a house and the new owner found the diary and handed it over to the Rand? What happened there? All right, a couple of things that we learned from this diary. He lied a lot, all thinking he knew better. January 26th, 2020, Fauci wrote in his diary, dear diary, now we know the market was not the source, it was the amplifier. 

Again, this was January 2020, where the wet market was already taken off the table, even though we were told that's how it all started. Related to the lockdown, in many interviews, he said, I didn't recommend locking anything down. I have a diary entry here that says I spoke with Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York City, and convinced him based on what I was hearing. publicly in my conversation tonight, to close the New York City schools. I went on to tell him that we should close the bars and restaurants of New York City. He said that he would base this on my recommendation. 

I had a similar call with Anne O 'Leary of Gavin Newsom's office. Anne said that based on my TV appearances today and yesterday, the governor has decided to close the schools in California as well as the bars and restaurants. We'll throw this in here. When I left the White House and crossed Pennsylvania and 17th Street, several cars honked their horns and shouted, thank you out the window. We'll get back to that one later. So he's out here saying I had nothing to do with me. I didn't know. 

I didn't recommend shutting anything down. Meanwhile, he's saying, dear diary, today I shut down New York City and all of California. He was a hero. People thanking him for it. And so this clips out there of him saying, I mean, I didn't know. I didn't recommend we shut down the schools. 

And here he is writing in his diary. I recommended to everyone that we shut down the schools. This is a noteworthy one too. This is the day that Trump knew he was hoodwinked on the whole thing. This is April 23rd, 2020. Fauci wrote in his diary, after the presser, Deb Burks texted and then called me saying it was good that I was not there since after the press, the president called her into the Oval and started yelling at her saying, you and Fauci have destroyed the country and the economy. 

I should have never listened to you. You have completely destroyed us. He kept saying this over and over again and was yelling at her. I encouraged her that we are okay and at the end of the day, she and I will be loved by the people we care about. She was relieved and after wrote me a text sincerely thanking me. stolen from him in 2020. 

His presidency was stolen from him, but really it was stolen from him eight months earlier with COVID. Fauci told Larry Kudlow that the economy wouldn't crash, but he also wrote in his diary, the stock market dropped by 3000 points, the biggest percentage drop in history. XOXO, love me. He didn't write that last part. Bigger theme though of this diary release, again, weird sentence, is from 2019, end of 2019 to early 2020, how excited he was to be the center of attention. I got a hunch that this was true, but now we see it in his diary entries. 

May 21st, 2020, he wrote in his diary, big front page article about me appeared in the Washington Post, very flattering. The situation with my national and international fame is explosive and really unimaginable. It is not hyperbole to say that today I am the most famous and talked about person in the country and one of the most recognizable person in the world. Felt so good writing that. He wrote about in his diary, he wrote about a correspondence with Barbara Streisand and how Barbara Streisand wrote her a letter, wrote him a letter thanking him for his constant guidance, patience, and reassurance. He wrote in his diary that they kept in contact and they would speak over the phone and that Barbara Streisand reached out to Fauci directly for medical advice, including on whether or not she and her husband should get COVID -19 boosters. 

Now here's what's important about this part of the story. One aspect of human nature is how desperately people want to feel special. Now there's good versions of this, right? It's, it's, someone may say, I want to be admired by people. Jack was just playing the piano a second ago. I want to be admired by people as a great piano player. 

Okay. Now a better goal is to just be a great piano player or to play this Beethoven piece well, to have a goal that's not dependent on other people's perceptions of you. because you can't control other people's perceptions. So that's a silly goal. The goal should be what you are in charge of, and that is playing this piece well or not. So there's something weird about wanting to be special for something great that you do, like ambition. 

But I think what I'm trying to get at here is something more than wanting to feel special, more than wanting to be admired. It's this desire to feel like you're just the VIP. You are very, very important. I got a taste of this early on in my career. A dear friend of mine was running Glenn Beck's book tour. This would have been, I don't know what year, 2010, maybe? 

And I got to go on a few stops on Glenn Beck's book tour. And they gave me the t -shirt, like the official t -shirt, and they gave me a lanyard with a plastic pass on it. And I distinctly remember the feeling of all these people lined up like chumps waiting in line to talk to Glenn Beck, but I could go under the rope. I could go anywhere I wanted. I could go in the front of the line, more than the front of the line, but why? I didn't need a line. 

I could go behind the line, like I go behind the ropes. I could go where regular people weren't even allowed to go. Regular people had to stay behind the rope, wait in line all day. I, with my lanyard, I could go under the rope and behind the scene. I could walk around like I owned the place. And I'm sure I did. 

I was 23 years old. I felt very important. So imagine you're Tony Fauci. This time it would have been 79 years old from Brooklyn, okay? You're a nobody. No one knows you. 

You've never been interviewed. No big deal, you're just some scientist who, yeah, you achieved the top of your game at the what? The National Institute of whatever that no one cares about. You're still generally a nobody. But then all of a sudden, Barbara Streisand calls you? Fellow Brooklyn native, same age as you? 

Barbara Streisand calls you, asking for your advice? Just imagine that scene for Tony, for Tony Fauci. He's sitting on his couch and his wife says, Tony, Tony, you're not gonna believe who's on the phone. Barbara Streisand. Abs is on the phone for me, are you kidding me? Okay, okay, okay, okay. 

Hello, Ms. Streisand. Yes, how are you? Yes, wonderful. Just wonderful. Oh, thank you, Ms. Streisand. It's an honor. 

No, no problem at all. You can call me anytime you'd like, Ms. Streisand. Yes, a booster. Yes, a booster's a very good idea. Absolutely. You're welcome. 

No, no, no, it's, it's, It's a scary time for everybody. These are scary times, but we'll make it through together. Miss Streisand, together. If everyone does their part, of course. Now, it's no problem at all. Miss Streisand, you call me anytime you need me, Miss Streisand. 

Thank you. You too. Thank you. Barbra Streisand, he and his wife like jumping up. Barbra Streisand called me. Me, she called me. 

Oh, I hate COVID so much. That'll mess with someone's head. Mess with their heart too. I got a list here of all these movie stars. This is, he wrote in his diary, I did a zoom call with a whole host of movie stars and athletes organized by Kim Kardashian. Here's the list. 

And he went down Michael Buble, Ariana Grande, Kendall Jenner, Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, Gwyneth Paltrow, James Corden, Dwayne Wade. Oh my goodness. Let's see, who else do I know here? Orlando Bloom, Chris Rock, Katy Perry, Eric Stonestreet, the gay guy from Modern Family. Oh my goodness. are listening to me. 

It's amazing. You're gonna start to think a lot about yourself. So let's go to the Bible. Let's talk about pride. Proverbs 16, 18. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall. 

Many examples of this. One that I think about is Daniel 4, starting verse 29. Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was walking on the roof of his royal palace of Babylon and the king answered and said, is not this great Babylon? which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty. While the words were still in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken. 

Kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men. and gives it to whom he will. " Verse 33 says, immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles feathers and his nails were like birds claws. Pride. God humbled him. Turned him into a beast. Verse 34, at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven. At the end of the seven year period, lifted my eyes to heaven and my reason returned to me. And what did he do? I blessed the Most High. and praised and honored him who lives forever." Love that story. One of my favorite verses on this point, and I love this so much because the Bible is the opposite of the world. And there's a couple of these that are so beautiful. 

It makes that point very clear. 1 Peter 5, humble yourself, God will exalt you. James 4 .10, humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. Luke 14 .11, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Just sit on that one for a second. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. 

The way to not be prideful is to acknowledge that all good things come from God, that we are capable of nothing on our own. All gifts come from Him. If we think that we are capable of things on our own, we will be humbled. You're humble, and only then will God exalt you. I want to leave you with a final point from our preacher this weekend. He made the point that your purpose is almost never about you. 

It shouldn't be about you. Your purpose is to make disciples and glorify God. And if you're not doing that, whatever you are doing, it's not your purpose. You may be doing it, and it may be fun or whatever, but it's not your purpose. It's not the purpose God gave you. Your purpose is to make disciples and glorify God. 

Your purpose is not to exalt yourself, for sure. Joseph is a wonderful example of this. Joseph was betrayed by his brothers. It was his older brother Judah's idea to sell him into slavery instead of kill him. So they got sold into slavery years ago by, you know, the whole story. If you don't, you should get reading Genesis 37. 

It's an incredible story. 22 years after he was sold into slavery, he becomes the number two guy in Egypt and his brothers come back and there's this beautiful reunion. But check out this insight. Why did God do all this? What's the point of that story? Genesis 45, 7, Joseph's talking to his brothers, telling them that he's not mad at them. 

And Joseph said, God sent me before you to preserve life. He goes on, God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. And if you read the whole story and you realize everything that Joseph went through, realize what an incredible sentence it is. But check out this insight. Not there yet. 

Here's the real part. Genesis 49, Jacob, the dad, doesn't bless Joseph. Jacob blesses Judah. Joseph wasn't point of the story. Joseph wasn't the reason. Joseph wasn't the promise. 

Joseph protected the promise. Matthew 1 starts off with the genealogy of Jesus, son of David, son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac, the father of Jacob. Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers. Jesus came from the line of Judah. 

That's why Jesus is called the Lion of Judah. Because in Genesis 49, Jacob blesses Judah, again, who Joseph protected, blesses him and talks about him as like a lion. I still have this idea that Joseph wasn't promised. He wasn't the main character. I don't understand. He was the main character of the story in the sense that he was the most talked about, but he wasn't the purpose of the story. 

Judah was, who ultimately, it was Jesus. So my point of this all is, if you exalt yourself as Fauci did, bad things will happen. The Bible says so. If you humble yourself, then God will use you to spread the good word and spread the gospel and to glorify him. And that is the best purpose in the world. youtube . 

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