It seems a pastor was calling for violence against Elon for "stealing your Social Security check." He justified violence by quoting Jesus in Matthew 11:12, "...the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." What does this scripture actually mean?

Welcome to Politics by Faith.

I want to talk about this pastor in Chattanooga, who it seems is calling for violence against Ceylon and Doge and the whole conservative movement. We'll play the clip and maybe give him the benefit of the doubt. But I definitely want to take the opportunity to dive deeper into the scripture that I believe he takes very much out of context. We have a little background here.

We've been talking a ton about Doge and Elon on the Sirius XM show, because this is the conservative movement's fiscal dreams come true. We've been fighting for this, arguing for this for decades, and nothing's ever happened. We've had like Paul Ryan, like all the hope we had for Paul Ryan. And he didn't do squat and here it is finally happening all these cuts are

finally happening it's happening from Trump and Elon and it's absolutely incredible so part of me is like oh you know maybe we're talking a little bit too much about you know it's like no we cannot talk enough about doge and Elon and everything they're doing it's incredible now a lot of this still has to go through the legislative branch has to go through the house and then the Senate it's a little harder to get through the House.

It's amazing through the executive branch, and they can do a ton. It's still hard to get through the House right now. Everyone likes their own pet projects. A lot of this is gonna be really difficult to get through the Senate.

We still need, in a lot of these things, we need seven Democrats to vote for. But I have great hope that the negotiating tactics and power of President Trump and Elon, getting this stuff out to the American people and the pressure can be applied to these

Democratic senators to do the right thing. Is Slater calling for violence? No, no, no. Appropriate pressure, dealing with reason and common sense. Like maybe we shouldn't have $100 billion of fraud in our social security system.

I don't know, maybe if Elon roots out

and finds $100 billion of fraudulent social security payments, if you want to continue the social security system, if you want it to remain solvent this would be a good thing to root out that $100 billion of fraud. Wouldn't it? Doesn't everyone want to be on that team? Maybe not.

And this is it, this is the time. Elon said, this administration has one chance for major reform that may never come again. It's now or never. And he later said in another tweet, it's now or never. We are at a fork in the road of destiny. That's the mentality of Doge and Trump.

Trump got shot in the head the other day. If you remember that, it's now or never. There is a fervor. There is a zeal. There is a passion for doing what is right right now from Trump and his entire team.

So when a program is put in front of Elon and Trump, should we keep it or should we cut it? If there is any doubt, it's gone because it's now or never. And as we've said many times before, Elon, his entire mentality with business,

is you cut, cut, cut, and you know you cut enough when you have to add 10% back. That's the mentality they're gonna bring to government. We're gonna cut and cut and cut. When in doubt, cut, and if later you need to bring it back, great, you bring it back.

But you have to cut it now because it is now or never. Now, as they keep doing this, and they keep uncovering not only the waste, but more fraud and ultimately criminal behavior here shortly, soon, they're gonna face more and more resistance ultimately leading to Violence at first it was you know, they're young

Like the doge people to do guys are young. Who cares? James Monroe in 1776 was 18 Aaron Burr was 20 Alexander Hamilton was 21 James Madison who wrote the Constitution was 35 Thomas Jefferson was 33 John Adams was the ancient one in the group, he was 40. Or George Washington, he was the elder statesman, he was 44. Benjamin Rush, who was the doctor of the founding fathers,

the doctor, was 30. All right, he wouldn't even be out of med school today. So, young, whatever. The Manhattan Project guys, they were all in their 30s, a couple were in their 40s. Richard Feynman was 24.

Oh, let me see if I can find this quick.

Let's see, this is Elon, who started this. Okay, so, some guy, I don't know who this person is. Must commandos include guys who are 21, 23, 24, 25. One is 19 years old, his job title is, quote, expert. When you were 19, what were you an expert at? And Michael Dell said,

I started a company when I was 19. It's worked out pretty well so far. Founder of Dell Computers.

Great.

So the first thing, you're too young. Second thing is you don't have the experience. I love that one, experience. Where's experience gotten us? Not having government experience is the best thing about them.

Hillary Clinton tried that line, she wrote against the to the Secretary of Transportation. She said they have no relevant experience. Most of them aren't old enough to rent a car. Are you gonna let them mess with airline safety that's already deteriorated under your watch? I love under your watch. He's been the Secretary of Transportation for like a week. And he wrote back, Sean Duffy, he said, Madam Secretary, with all due respect, experienced Washington

bureaucrats are the reason that our nation's infrastructure is crumbling. You need to sit this one out. Then they tried unelected. Oh, Elon, he's unelected. Elon is the most elected non-elected government employee ever. So first of all, everyone in the executive branch is unelected,

except for the president and vice president. The secretary of defense is unelected. Like whatever, it doesn't mean anything. Trump, we elected Trump, Trump put his people in power to do his will, the will of the American people. End of story, that's the end of it.

But Elon was a package deal and everyone knew that Elon was a package deal with Trump. You voted for Trump, you knew you were getting Elon. So that's a ridiculous argument. Then they said, well, Elon's gonna steal my social security number?

We had a guy, Sean, from South Carolina call in the other day who literally said this. He said, I don't want Elon looking at my mother's Social Security number. I'm like, what do you think he's gonna do? What do you think he's gonna open up a checking account

in your mother's name or something? What are you talking about? So that's the concern. So none of this is going anywhere for them. So ultimately, it very well could resort to violence. Elon tweeted out a bunch of messages

that people put on the internet. We've got to kill these people, and we know where they live, and we know their names, and all this stuff. Ed Martin, chief of staff of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote a letter to Elon saying that we will protect all Doge work and all Doge employees.

Quote, we will not act like the previous administration and look the other way, as the Antifa and BLM rioters as well as thugs with guns trashed our capital city. We will protect those and other workers no matter what. This right here is the most official call for violence that I've ever seen. There's some Congress people who are out there saying like we got to take to the streets stuff like that. I think this one is in the lead so

so far. This is Dr. Steve Caudill, CAUDLE from the Greater Second Missionary Baptist Church

in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And from the pulpit. In this nation, I'm worried that we are on the verge of bloodshed. This is a an attempt to take us back to a day that we do not want to go and we So therefore, there will be conflict. I pray that the peace of God will win out and overcome the madness that is attempting to take over this nation. And I will say to you, beloved, no one likes violence, but sometimes violence is necessary.

When Elon Musk forces his way into the United States Treasury and threatens to steal your personal information and your Social Security check, there is a possibility of violence.

Okay, all right, all right. We got to go. We got to go back. We had a guy call in last week who said, so we're on channel 125 on SiriusXM. 126 is Urban View. So we had a guy call and he said that every once in a while, turn over to Urban View and just see what's going on over there. He said, it's crazy. They're absolutely freaking out and it's insane what they're worried about. Maybe this is what they're saying,

this is what people think.

So let's start, when Elon forces his way into the United States Treasury, what do you mean forces? Trump won the election, put Scott Besant in charge of the Treasury Department. Scott said, hey Elon, come on in.

There's no force, threatens to steal your personal information. Who's stealing your personal information? And stealing your social security check? What do you think, the richest man in the world wants your, you know, thousand dollar check or something? I don't even know what, what are you talking about?

So like, all of that is wrong. All of that is wrong. Okay. But, but then that leads to what?

And your social security check? There is a possibility of violence. Sometimes the devil will act so ugly that you have no other choice but to get violent and fight. Well someone might say, now Reverend, you know you shouldn't be talking about violence. This is the Christian thing to do. Well I will say, why not talk this way? Because Jesus did. Jesus said in this key verse, didn't He? The kingdom of heaven suffers what? Violence. And the who? The violent take it by force.

The kingdom of God is a war zone. It is a battlefield. You did know this, right?

Okay. So, let's chat about this. Let's do benefit of the doubt first. Would you get benefit of the doubt? thinks Elon is committing violence by stealing your social security check. And you, people in this church, you are going to be the victims of it because Elon is violent and violent people will steal your social security checks.

Maybe. Maybe that's what he meant.

I'm trying my best.

So I wanted to see if there's any more context here. I wanted to see if he's given any statements. So I searched up his church and I looked at his Facebook page. I thought maybe this church would have a nice Facebook page and they would say something.

So the first one I clicked on, it says, it's come to our attention that a message delivered on this time, blah, blah, blah, has led to misinterpretations and strong reactions from individuals across the country. And it's like, oh, I found it, found the church.

While we respect all houses of faith, we want to clarify that Second Missionary Baptist Church is a separate congregation and we're not affiliated with Greater Second Missionary Baptist Church. They're like, oh, okay, wait, wrong church. Wrong church. Okay, alright. So this is the Second Missionary Baptist Church and we're looking for the Greater Second Missionary Baptist Church in Chattanooga,

Tennessee. My bad, it's down the street. Okay, so they don't have a Facebook page. I didn't see any statement, but the local Chattanooga News did an interview with him, and in no way throughout the entire interview did he in any way say, oh, that was taken out of context. Here's what I really said.

We're a people of peace. I would never condone violence against Elon and Trump and conservatives. And in fact, I was saying that they're violent. Nothing, he didn't explain it in any way. He doubled down on everything he said. Okay. So let's take

this as an opportunity to talk about this verse and what this verse really means, what Jesus is really talking about. It's Matthew 11 12. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and the violent take it by force. What does that mean from Jesus? What is Jesus saying? We actually talked about this verse a bit the other day. We referenced it the other day because it ends with,

He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Anyway, the word violent here in Greek means strong and forceful and energetic. If you look at the original Greek, strong, forceful, and energetic. This is a tricky scripture so I went to a lot of commentaries to learn how this has been analyzed over the centuries. This is Myers New Testament

commentary from 1832. In this way is described that eager, irresistible, striving, and struggling after the approaching messianic kingdom. It is as though it were being taken by storm. That's not like a violent storm, right? Strong, forceful, energetic. Those of whom, the, and then the Greek word for violence, holds true, achieve a speedy success. And that while they press forward to join the ranks of my followers, they clutch at the approaching kingdom as though they were seizing spoils and make it their own. So eager and energetic no longer calm expectant is the interest in regard to the kingdom

the Greek word here is be a states it is translated as one who is forceful in eager pursuit in Jewish culture it was a zeal for God's law back to Myers New Testament commentary he says the be a states those who are forceful in their zeal, are believers struggling hard for its possession. Matthew Henry, 1706, his commentary, it shows us what fervency and zeal are required of all.

Self must be denied. The bent, the frame and temper of the mind must be altered. Those who have an interest in the great salvation will have it upon any terms, and not think them hard, nor quit their hold without a blessing." So I will do whatever it takes, and I'm not going to complain about it.

It won't be difficult because it's obvious that this is what I'm going to do. That's the forcefulness that I have, the zeal. Barnes' commentary from 1830. He says there was, this is Jesus, "'Was a great rush or a crowd

pressing to hear John the Baptist. Multitudes went out to hear him, as if they were about to take the kingdom of heaven by force. Jesus says that since the kingdom of heaven or the gospel has been preached there's been a rush to it. People have been earnest about it. They've come pressing to obtain the blessing as if they would take it by violence.

There's an allusion here to the manner in which cities were taken. Besiegers pressed upon them with violence and demolished the walls. With such earnestness and violence, he says, people had pressed around him and John since they began to preach. Vincent's Word Studies says this word means overpowered, taken by storm. Christ thus graphically portrays the intense excitement which followed John's ministry. The eager waiting, striving, and struggling of the multitude for the promised king. Real quick, just to be clear, this does not say that we should go kill Elon Musk because he's taken

away our Social Security check.

Pastor!

The word take by force means literally to snatch away, carry off. It's often used in the classics of plundering. Those who use violent efforts drag it to themselves. They that make violence pull it unto them. Christ speaks of believers, they seize upon the kingdom and make it their own." I love this ancient idea. The passage recalls the old Greek proverb quoted by Plato against the sophists who had

corrupted the Athenian youth by promising the easy attainment of wisdom. It was Plato and this old Greek proverb, good things are hard. Dante seized the idea. I'll translate this. This is one of Dante's poems. He said, this is the more modern translation, the kingdom of heaven is taken by storm, not through force, but through passionate love and a living hope so strong and aligns with God's will. It's not like how people overpower each other, but instead it triumphs because it wants to be won over. And in being one, it wins through

kindness and grace. John 6 15, perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. That's the same idea by force like that shows the fervor that people had and it's the fervor we need again for Jesus and for the gospel not fervor against Elon finding a hundred billion dollars in the social security payments that are fraudulent like he has fervor for that. Elon that's good. Like Elon you go have a zeal for

that. We are called to have a zeal for Jesus and that pastor if I may should well pray about him. Let me end with Charles Spurgeon. He wrote frequently complaints are made and surprise expressed by individuals who have never found a blessing rest upon anything they have attempted to do in the service of God. They'll say, I have been a Sunday school teacher for years and I've never seen any of my girls or boys converted.

No, and the reason most likely is that you have never been violent about it. You have never been compelled by the divine spirit to make up your mind that converted they should be, and no stone should be left unturned until they were. You've never been brought by the Spirit to such a passion that you've said, I cannot live unless God bless me. I cannot exist unless I see some of these children saved. Then falling on your knees in agony of prayer and putting forth afterwards your trust with

the same intensity towards heaven, you would have never been disappointed, for the violent take it by force." That is what that scripture actually means. Mike Slater, dot locals dot com. Transcript and commercial free on the website Mike Slater Mike Slater, dot locals dot com. Transcript and commercial free on the website Mike Slater dot locals dot com.

It has been an incredible 3 weeks in DC. We need to keep pressing and keep winning and turn the Swamp into a Desert. You were made for a time such as this.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here.

Josh Howerton. He is the pastor of a church in Texas. I know nothing about him. I do not endorse his theology. I don't know anything about him. But he made this post on the Twitter, which I think is worthy to share.

He said, I've been asked or demanded to apologize for, repent, or remove the pre-election sermon that I preached calling Christians as salt of the earth to vote for the set of policies between the two choices that very obviously best slow to societal decay. I don't know, I don't endorse his sermon, I don't know what he said. But he said, we got two choices here people. And the result of him probably suggesting that Trump was the better of the two choices. He said he was the victim of internet mobs Organizations threatening legal action my home address doxed again

That means revealed made public our home insurance application initially denied because of that sermon due to increased threats of vandalism or assault He says based on what we know now Three months later just three weeks into the trump administration. I do not regret it at all for the following reasons. And he goes on, he posts a bunch of stories that have happened in just the last few weeks from a Christian perspective. First, international Planned Parenthood to lose $61 million due to Trump's executiveorder.

Next, expanding educational freedom and opportunity for families. Third, the Trump administration has reportedly tracked down 80,000 of the over 300,000 missing children, missing migrant children. 300,000. The Obama administration didn't know where they were. Most likely sex trafficked.

Or used as like a type of slave labor. Another executive order protecting children from chemical and surgical mutilation. Ending USAID funding, which created a, at the least, a perverse incentive for Christians. They would go to different places around the world and say, hey, Christian culture or this Christian organization in wherever, you have to preach about LGBTQ rights or whatever is even against your theology if you want the money. The first public appearance of Vice President J.D. Vance

was at the March for Life rally in Washington, D.C. The evangelical President W. Bush never went to a March for Life rally after eight years. Pete Hegseth's first words as Secretary of Defense, all praise and glory to God, his will be done. Similar from Marco Rubio,

said the same thing he thanked Jesus. Another executive order defending women from gender ideology, extremism, and restoring biological truth to the federal government. It's transgender stuff. In that executive order, female means a person belonging at conception to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.

People miss that part. People just focus on the transgender part and that's great, but they notice that inside the executive order itself, they define the word female as at conception. Of course, Trump in maybe the first week pardoning 23 pro-life activists, many of which sent to prison.

Restoring freedom of speech and ending federal censorship. Are you with me on the list here? Ending radical indoctrination in K through 12 schools. Ending boys competing in girls sports, one of the most iconic political photos of all time, him surrounded by all the adorable little girls,

signing that executive order. Trump at the National Prayer Breakfast, America is and will always be one nation under God. Signed the executive order eradicating anti-Christian bias. The establishment of the White House Faith Office. I got some thoughts on who's leading that faith office, but whatever, we'll work on

that. Josh Howard said, no, I haven't accepted the GOP into my heart. I do not think President Trump is a savior, nor do I think politics can save anyone from hell. But also, we Christians have a responsibility to do the best we can in the culture that we're living in.

It came up today on the radio during our gratitude segment, which has been fantastic. And by the way, when we do the gratitude segment, so at Sirius XM, we start every Monday, what are you grateful for? And we do that because if we want to save our country,

we can't just do it politically, not just with political victories, it's not that easy. We also need to be more virtuous. And Cicero said the parent of all virtues is gratitude. So we start with gratitude first. That's how this all started.

So what are you grateful for? And people call in, and it's all over the map. It's wonderful, beautiful, amazing stories. But they always, and I don't do this, I don't mention this, this is just spirit-led. People calling in, talking about Jesus,

talking about God, God saved them. Today, a guy called in, and his wife was baptized this weekend. I didn't say what's your Christian story. But people call in with these incredible stories and biblical themes and it's wonderful. Because when you're doing good, that's where it always

goes to. When you work with the good, the beautiful, and the true, you can't help but go to biblical truths. So someone brought up Esther 414, you were made for a time as this. So Mordecai tells Esther that she was placed in this position as queen, quote, for such a time as this. Spurgeon expands that a little bit. God fits the man for the hour and the hour for the man. There is a voice for the hour and an hour for the voice.

I mentioned we had a lot of callers call in from all over the country with different accents.

And I was like, you know, we don't have anyone

from Boston ever call in. They said the Ben Affleck commercial at the Super Bowl. It's like we never get any Boston accents. So a woman called in from Boston. She didn't have an accent, but she was from Boston, nonetheless, and she's very frustrated

because she lives in Boston and she doesn't see any real positive change like we're seeing in DC, in Boston, and I spoke to that for a little bit. My political point is there's going to be so much winning out of DC if we continue on this pace, where in the past a progressive in, let's say, Boston

knows what they live in. And conservative governorship has always been this, it's not never, it's never happened. We've never had this Trump conservatorship before, right? Running the show. So it's always like this theoretical thing and people are going to go with what they know versus a theoretical idea for the most part. But if we can continue to drain the swamp and drain it fully and completely and govern well, then we will be able to go to the cities across our country and be like, hey, here's your options.

We can doge Boston now. We can doge Chicago. We can doge LA. And all the wonderful things that are happening in the federal government can happen in your city too. So that was my encouraging word to her is to stay where you are, be encouraged, let's

keep winning, and that winning will come to your city too. Come to a city near you very soon god has you there be there keep doing it, keep working

Ephesians 1 11 says we serve the God who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will there's no way you can be watching what's going on right now or by the way

what happened in 2020 where if you were a conservative you were disappointed it's all working according to God's will. He understands all of this, everything that's happening. But be patient. I know we quoted this the other day. I'll do it even if I'm wrong.

T.S. Eliot said, the world is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail. But we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse. Meanwhile, redeeming the time so that the faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us

to renew and rebuild civilization and to save the world from suicide. You need to stay where you are and keep the faith and the time will be right. In his time. That doesn't mean sit back and do nothing.

You have to redeem your time, as T.S. Eliot said, every single moment of it. There's so much good stuff happening in the political world, I can't contain it. It's unbelievable. But politics is not everything.

We can't save our country through politics. Let's say Elon totally cleans house in DC, drains the swamp of every last drop of water. Every swamp creature shrivels up and dies. The swamp turns into the Sahara. We don't call it the swamp anymore, we call it the desert. It will be absolutely incredible and we will be freer

and our lives will be more materially prosperous. Great! But then what? With that more freedom and with that more prosperity, we need more virtue. We will need more fruits of the Spirit, which means we need the Spirit, which means we need to follow Jesus

and be more like Him every day. I'm so excited for these political wins, it's awesome. Let's be encouraged by them, and let's take them and run with it and win just as much in the cultural parts of our country as well.

Mike Slater, dot locals dot com. That's the website where we put this up a little bit early and there's a transcript and there's no commercials there. and there's no commercials there. Mike Slater dot locals dot com.

The secular world has the "red pill", but we have something even better: eyes that see and ears that hear. 

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. Someone on SiriusXM's show today called in. We were talking about Maha, Make America Healthy Again. And this wonderful woman called in and at the end of her comment she said something like, when will people just wake up? Something about waking up.

And I said, ah ha! Actually we were just talking on my podcast about that very theme right now. I once was blind and now I see. We were just talking in the middle of this two-part episode about being blind and now seeing even the story of God intentionally blinding people spiritually because that's what they wanted. They wanted to be blind and God made it so. But as Romans 13 says, now is

high time to awake out of sleep. When will people wake up? This idea of waking up of scales falling from our eyes the imagery today in secular culture is the red pill it's from the movie the Matrix and the other guy in charge been forever since I seen it but the guy in charge of the Matrix whatever is he Morpheus is his name I don't know if he's in charge of the matrix whatever but he tells Neo who's Keanu Reeves he says take the blue pill and the story ends and you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.

You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. So the point is the blue pill, you go back into the matrix. You live in ignorance once again, but it's happy and it's comfortable and it's safe. That's the blue pill. The red pill causes you to wake up and the scales to fall from your eyes and you see reality. If I remember, it's been forever since I've seen the movie, but there's one character

in the movie, I think he has a funny mustache, and he chooses, I think he betrays the good guys and he chooses comfort over the truth. and being really sad because he happily chose ignorance. I think he even said ignorance is bliss. And you're like, oh man. And as sad as that scene in the movie made me,

I should be way sadder when I choose ignorance over the truth. And my point of bringing that up is it's this is a common imagery and it's all throughout the Bible. So let's go to Matthew 13. Jesus just told the parable of the seeds, right? You know that one of course. Some of the rocks, birds eat them up, thorns choke them out, all that right? Everyone knows that parable. But at the end of the parable, Jesus wraps up with

this. He says, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. What does that mean? It's a funny thing to say at the end of it. He who has ears to hear let him hear. Well everyone has ears. So what do you mean? But not everyone has ears to hear. Everyone has ears that can hear. Like I hear the words. But not everyone is spiritually sensitive enough to actually listen. So you may have ears, but do you have ears to hear? This is all in reference to Isaiah 6. God says, whom shall I send and who will go for us? And Isaiah says, here I am, send me. It's a famous line. But God

says, go and tell this people. This is what I want you to say. Keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes. Lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed." The part at the end is so wonderful because there are people who do hear with their ears,

and people who do see, and people who do understand with their heart and what happens when you do well you return to God and when you do that you're healed how wonderful is that as opposed to people who see but don't perceive and hear and don't understand and their heart is dull i don't want my heart to be dull or numb i don't want that. I want my heart to be healed. So the next line in Matthew says, And the disciples came to him and said, Why do you speak to them in parables? And Jesus answered and said to them, Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries

of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand." Charles Spurgeon said, they have become so morally and spiritually diseased.

You know, and let me jump back to secular quick. It's the midwit meme that I love so much. Oh, JD Vance actually highlighted this perfectly. Let me pull this up here. We're gonna do this one, we're gonna talk about this next week.

JD Vance, our new vice president, made some comment about the heat map. Remember that heat map we talked about the other day about who your like ordered affections and who you prioritize your time and attention to? And he spoke about that.

And someone criticized him and said, well, we'll do this next week, but a Yale professor criticized him. And JD rebuked him and then ended with this. He said, I'll say it, I've said it before and I'll say it again.

The problem with Rory, this Yale professor, and people like him, is that he has an IQ of 110 and thinks he has an IQ of 130. This false arrogance drives so much elite failure over the last 40 years. He wrote that yesterday as vice president.

And Trump was asked at a press conference about the plane helicopter crash in DC. They're like, well, how do you know that it's DEI? How do you know the report hasn't come out yet? How do you know? And Trump said, it's common sense.

Okay. It's just common sense. These are people who have clarity. And when you have clarity, you can look at something and be like, oh yeah, well that's simple. Like, I get it.

It's the midwits in the middle, the Pharisees, all right, who are like, I don't get the story. Oh, you know, what's, but if you have clarity, you're like, yeah, I get it.

That makes sense.

I see and I perceive and I hear and I understand. Spurgeon says, to this day, marvels of creation, works of grace, deeds of providence are all as voiceless music to carnal men. They hear not their teaching, they feel not their power. So many people are, and I too often am, seared,

have lost feeling, have lost connection with God and the Holy Spirit. And that's just the worst thing. But to have ears that can hear, how incredible is that? Spurgeon says, Happy men to be chosen for such a privilege. Grace has opened our eyes and ears.

Blessed are your eyes, for they see. What wonders, treasures, revelations do they see? Eyes are blessed which gaze upon the mysteries of divine love. And blessed are your ears, for they hear. Hear something sweeter than the song of angels, even the voice of everlasting love from the heart of Jesus.

You have learned the great secret. The counsel of the Lord has been revealed to you, and you are blessed. You under the gospel are made to know what the greatest and best of men under the law could not discover. You have ears that can hear. So let's look, and let's listen, and let's go to God and have our hearts restored.

Isaiah 55, come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come buy—no money, who have no money—come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me and eat what is good and you will delight

in the richest affair. Come, give ear, come to me, listen that you may live." So, in conclusion, let us not be the hard-hearted Pharisees. Let us not be blinded by the world or blinded by comfort or pleasure or any other distraction. Let us listen to God and let us see His blessings. Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Transcript and commercial free on the website. Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Transcript and commercial free on the website. Mike Slater dot locals dot com.