We need more clarity, confidence and courage for the truth. No more weak pastors. No more weakness on what matters most.

Thanks for listening to Politics by Faith. I mean that really. Thank you for being here. Thanks for searching this out, this podcast, making it a part of your day. You could be doing anything right now and I don't want to talk about it too much because now you're thinking, well, I could be doing this and I should be doing that.

No, no, no. I'm glad you're here. Try to keep your attention. We did a TV special the other day on John MacArthur, we're gonna put it right here in the podcast feed as well. And the theme that emerged after talking about him for that hour was clarity and confidence and courage.

We'll add another C. Three things we need more of in America for all things that are true. We need clarity for truth, confidence in it, and the courage to share it. After recording this episode, I came across a poem.

If you've noticed that I've been quoting a lot more poetry lately, it's because I bought a book called The American Anthology by Edmund Steadman. It's just an anthology of amazing, the best American poems from 1790 to 1901. The book was published in 19, uh, from 1700, excuse me, 1790 to 1900. The book was published in 1901 and it's great. I've just been going through it and, uh, every poem is awesome.

So this one is from Timothy Dwight. I think we talked about Timothy Dwight the other day, the former president of Yale university from 1795 to 1817. He gave the commencement address in 1776. That's what we shared the other day. So a couple hundred years ago, wrote this great poem.

I love reading old things, old books, old poems, because you realize just like in the Bible, there's nothing new under the sun. And that gives me confidence that we can make it through. And these people who have been through these things often have solutions to these problems too, or at the very least what not to do. But he wrote this poem called The Smooth Divine. He says, There smiled the smooth divine, unused to wound the sinner's heart with hell's alarming

sound. No terrors on his gentle tongue attend, no grating truths the nicest ear offend. So this poem is about a preacher who does not have clarity, confidence, or courage. He's scared, but not even scared, he's too gentle. Doesn't mention hell. Doesn't mention anything that might offend anyone.

I don't want to offend anyone. I want to be politically correct. So I'm just going to speak gently. I want to appeal to as many people as possible. Nothing convicting. Nothing that smacks of judgment. We don't want to, you know, I don't want to say anything that may lead to rip to

repentance. No, no, nothing frightening, nothing upsetting, no terror on his gentle tongue. No grading truths. Don't want to offend anyone. That strange new birth, that Methodistic grace, nor in his heart nor sermons found a place. The Methodistic grace here, this is good. This is your

sinner. You need to repent and experience God's grace. That's what it is. That whole thing? No, not in that preacher's heart or in his sermons. Does that ever come out anywhere? So what does come out? Plato's fine tales he clumsily retold. Trite, fireside, moral seesaws, dull as old. So today the joke is, oh, that preacher

just gives a TED talk or a motivational speech. Back then it was Plato's fine tales he clumsily retold. But it's just empty rhetoric, doesn't mean anything, nothing convicting and nothing of God's word. His Christ and Bible placed a good remove. Guilt, hell deserving and forgiving love.

So we're not going to touch the important stuff. We're going to put Christ, the Bible, it's out of reach, don't need it. To his best, he said, mankind should cease to sin. Good frame required it. So did peace within. So like at best, this preacher's up there and saying, being a good person, just be a good person. Stop sinning. Everyone, okay, we'll just be nice. Let's just all be nice and if we're all nice, you know, love is love, and that's all we need to worry about.

Why? It'll make your life a little better. Good fame required it. You know, people will think nicer of you if you're just a nice person, be a good neighbor, and you'll feel a little better inside.

It's all the same reasons why atheists say you should be a good person. They don't believe in God, but some reason they still believe in good. Okay, fine. Their honors, well he knew, would never be driven,

but hoped they would still please to go to heaven. So the people in the audience who like it, who like the TED Talk, this preacher knows that they're of such high status, their position in society, the preacher knows they'll never give that up. They'll be like the rich young ruler, they'll never give up what they need to.

So why bother? Don't upset anyone. At best, maybe we can hope that everyone kind of wants to go to heaven a little bit. Each week, this preacher, he paid his visitation dues. Coaxed, jested, laughed, rehearsed the private news. Smoked with each goodie, thought her cheese excelled.

Her pipe he lighted and her baby held. So he makes his visits. He has fun, socializes, or placed in some great town with lacquered shoes. Trim wig and trim her gown, glistening hose. He bowed, talked politics, learned manners mild, most meekly questioned and most smoothly smiled.

So, well, maybe we'll do a little social climbing. If I'm in a nice town, then things will be a little bit nicer here, but I'll be all things to all people. At rich men's jests, laughed loud loud their stories praised. Their wives knew patterns gazed and gazed and gazed. Most daintily on pampered turkeys dined, nor shrunk with fasting nor with study pined."

So he'll laugh, play along, do the whole thing and get fed. Whew, man, feast on these delicious, delicious dinners. Never fasting. As the Bible says, when you fast, never bother with that and never want to just study God's word, never pined after studying. All right, here's the conclusion here.

Yet from their churches saw his brethren driven." So the preachers, these soft preachers who are leading these churches. See men leave. See his brethren driven, who thundered truth and spoke the voice of heaven. Chilled, trembling guilt in Satan's headlong path, charmed the feet back and roused the ear of

death." This is good. So this man sees the strong preachers, the men who want to be, who have the courage and the clarity and the confidence to go out and thunder truth and speak the voice of heaven and speak of sin and fight back against Satan and rouse the ear of death. So what does the preacher say? Let fools, he cried, starve on. All that fasting stuff.

While prudent, I snug in my nest shall live and snug shall die." So these blasphemous or weak churches that never shared the gospel message. The great men left and they spoke the truth. The preacher saw that and he said, whatever. Snug in my nest, I shall live and snug shall die. He wanted to be comfortable all the way to the end. How great is that? That poem's over 200 years old.

The moral of that story is go find a church with a preacher who thunders the truth and surround yourself with friends who thunder truth. I read Job 26 this morning. Job thunders that he will keep his integrity amidst it all. He says, as long as my breath is in me and the breath of God in my nostrils, my lips will not speak wickedness nor my tongue utter deceit till I die. I will not put away my integrity for me. My righteousness I hold fast

and will not let it go." And then my final point, Job 27, he's talking about wisdom here. And he talks about how people will search all over the world for gold and silver and iron and copper and search everywhere for it But what about wisdom? But where can wisdom be found and where is the place of understanding? People go anywhere to find the gold But where do they find wisdom?

Because they can find the gold and the silver and all these other jewels. It talks about all this other stuff. You should go read the whole thing, chapter, uh, Job 26, 27, all these different sapphires and all the rest. And those are valuable, but you can't buy wisdom with it. So how does he conclude this importance of wisdom to man?

He, God said, behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. And to depart from evil is understanding. Wisdom is the fear of the Lord. This concludes my mini sermon. Three points. Find people who thunder the truth. Hold fast to your integrity and never let it go. And the most valuable thing in the world is to fear the Lord.

Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Transcript, commercial free. Website Mike Slater, Outlocals.com, transcript, commercial free. Website, Mike Slater.locals.com

Of all the accolades and titles and fame and praise, Terry Bollea wants to first and foremost be known as a Christian.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. Hulk Hogan has passed away. Real name Terry Bollea. 71, heart attack, we're told. People know his wrestling persona, of course.

Jesse Kelly said, I'm not one of these everything was better back in my day people But I cannot properly describe how much different the 80s were than what we have today It was fun and happy and patriotic and ridiculous and over-the-top It was wonderful and Hulk Hogan was a big part of it and he put a picture of Hulk Hogan in there ring holding this huge American flag my wrestling childhood Was after Hulk Hogan that was more of the Rock era

but Hulk of course transcended what was just his peak of wrestling. And then of course more recently people know him as speaking at the Republican National Convention for Trump just a week after Trump got shot remember that and got up there and gave a great speech. But do you know that Hulk Hogan was recently baptized and that he would want you to know him first and foremost as a and gave a great speech. But do you know that Hulk Hogan was recently baptized? And that he would want you to know him first and foremost as a Christian.

Public baptism. You have said the greatest moment of your life.

Yes, without a doubt.

Terry, what did that mean for you?

It broke down that fourth or fifth wall to tell people the truth about my Lord and Savior How you know you should look at things or how you should care for people and not judge people. It set me free It wasn't that perfect vessel that I should be or should have been. Once I was baptized

I felt I was all I knew. It really was a major pivot in my life. These two clips right here. I want to talk about Identity. It's a question we all have to come to terms with. Who are we? major pivot in my life. These two clips right here, I wanna talk about identity. It's a question we all have to come to terms with. Who are we? And where do we get our identity from? And someone like Hulk Hogan

would have a harder time than most trying to figure out who they really are, because he was having to live a dual life always. In this interview he says he knew, because he's a good man, so he wanted to give people what they wanted.

So he knew that people wanted the persona, they wanted Hulk. So he'd be walking down the street and the mailman would say, hey Hulk. And he wouldn't be like, hey Jim. He'd say, oh, what's up Hulk, what's up brother?

Like he'd do the thing, because that's what people wanted. But you do that your whole life and it'd be really easy to not know who you are anymore. But after becoming a Christian, he knew what his proper identity was.

Well, the moment I come home, the headband comes off the bald head. And you know, it's just Terry. Dad, father, husband, friend. I have no wrestling pictures in my house. I have no wrestling belts. Just Terry. The problem is the moment I leave the house, the moment I walk out the front door, the world doesn't want Terry.

I can't imagine the ego that would be built up over the decades of being Hulk Hogan, right? That'll mess you up. You go on Madison Square Garden, you have tens of thousands of people cheering for you. That'll really mess you up. So he was all out of whack, but once he became a Christian,

he knew what his true identity was, and he knew what he brought to the table compared to his creator.

So what Terry brings to the table is a meat suit, you know, a meat suit filled with the spirit of Christ, and it's a testing ground for me. I accepted Christ as my savior when I was 14, but I derailed. It wasn't my life. He has given me the opportunity to prove that I'm faithful,

and I'll never make those same mistakes again.

I never heard this story from, about Hulk before, about Terry. It's about his dad and it ties in so perfectly because we seek approval. We're looking for our proper identity and when it's not in Christ we're so lost we don't know what to do. That's why I was lost but then I was found. But also we seek approval and one of the people we seek approval from the most of course is our earthly father and

Terry never got that and that could cause a lot of trauma a lot of wounds and Really hurt Terry until this happened. This is his answer to the question. What's your most memorable moment as a wrestler?

It didn't have anything to do with being in the ring It had to do with after the match at Madison Square Garden, January 23rd, 1984, where I wrestled the Iron Sheik for the WWF title. Iran had 444 American hostages, and they were keeping our Americans in.

The Iron Sheik, he was the actual bodyguard for the Shah of Iran. He was the real deal, and the fans knew it. And I was the all-american character Hulk Hogan. That night I flew my parents up and and you know my dad and I didn't see eye to eye because I was going to University of South Florida here in Tampa and I was majoring in finance and

management. But when I left college and didn't become an accountant or whatever that degree would lead me to, there was a huge divide as far as communication with my dad and I. You know, so it kind of was a void. And so that night after Madison Square Garden, you know, my dad goes, man, you know,

Terry, I'm very proud of you. You made the right decision. I love you so much, I'm so sorry that I tried to make you do something you didn't wanna do. So that was the greatest night for me, for my dad to say that to me. Because I really didn't know if I was right or not,

it's just I was doing what I love doing. And to me that felt right, but then to have my dad confirm it, but I had to be the main event at Madison Square Garden to get him to break. But that was probably the greatest part of my wrestling career to have that moment with him because I really valued what he thought about me.

A lot of people when they're first becoming a Christian are trying to figure out who God is. And that is very much informed by their earthly father. For better or worse, often for worse. But your heavenly father will never let you down. Your heavenly father is absolutely perfect in every way. Where earthly fathers will surely let their children down, your heavenly father never will. I'm reading John Steinbeck's East of Eden right now.

And I just read this last night. It says here when a child first catches adult out, when it first walks into his grave little head, that adults do not have divine intelligence, that their judgments are not always wise. They're thinking true. Their sentence is just.

His world falls into panic, desolation. The gods are fallen and all safety gone. And there's one sure thing about the fall of gods. They do not fall a little. They crash and shatter or sink deeply into green muck. It's a tedious job to build them up again.

They never quite shine. And the child's world is never quite whole again. It's an aching kind of growing. We realize our father is not God. But how wonderful to know that God is God. All powerful, all knowing, and loves you.

All Christians need to go through this process of finding their true identity in Jesus. Galatians 2 20, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I

get sick and tired of myself. You know, The two people in my head, the ego and the real I am, I mean, I just surrendered. I just said, I can't do it anymore. And I went back to the Bible and I started reading again. And I'm either all the way in or all the way out with whatever I do.

So if you're with me, there's no guesswork. If I'm with my Lord and Savior, I'm all the way in.

What message do you now convey at this stage of your life?

It's a spiritual war in this fallen world. To turn to the truth, seek him and you shall find. To step outside their comfort zone and accept Christ, knowing that he would heal the land and heal this nation and heal the people. It just seems like such an easy choice for everyone. If you'll just surrender, accept him as your savior.

A lot of people are going to be reminiscing and talking about the legacy of Hulk Hogan, but I think Hulk Hogan would want his legacy to be as one of a Christian

and a slave of Christ. I just read this poem yesterday. It's by St. George Tucker.

It's probably written late 1700s. Let me see here. St. George Tucker, born in 1757, died 1827. So we're gonna go late 1800s or late 1700s. Ready for this poem? George Tucker, born in 1757, died 1827. So we're gonna go late 1800s or late 1700s. Ready for this poem? Just read it yesterday. Gosh, this is true for all of us,

but I just think Hulk Hogan, because of his so much strength, right? In what he was doing as a wrestler, and then we all die. It's called Days of My Youth. It says, days of my youth, ye have glided away.

Hairs of my youth, ye are frosted and gray. Eyes of my youth, your keen sight is no more. Cheeks of my youth, ye are furrowed all over. Strength of my youth, all your vigor is gone. Thoughts of my youth, your gay visions are flown. All those good times, strong, vigorous, our youth, it vigor is gone thoughts of my youth your gay visions are flown." All those good times strong vigorous our youth it's all gone her eyes are her

hair, her cheeks, strength all gone right? Days of my youth I wish not your recall hairs of my youth I'm content ye should fall. Eyes of my youth, you much evil have seen. Cheeks of my youth bathed in tears have you been. Thoughts of my youth, you've led me astray. Strength of my youth, why lament your decay?" So this first stanza, it's like, oh, I'm so sad. I hate that my strength and vigor has gone away. Oh, my youth, I hate that it's gone. And the first stanza, it's like, oh, I'm so sad. I hate that my strength and vigor has gone away. I, oh, my youth.

I hate that it's gone. And the second stanza is, oh, but there was so much pain, actually. There's so many days that I don't even want to think about again. So many tears, so many thoughts that I've had that have sent me in a bad direction. I've seen so much evil in my life. And it ends with this stanza, days of my age. All right, so now here we are, older, reflecting on right now. Days of my age, ye will shortly be past. Pains of my age, yet a while ye can last.

Joys of my age, in true wisdom delight. Eyes of my age, be religion your light. Thoughts of my age, dread ye not the cold sod. Means being buried. Don't dread dying. Hopes of my age be fixed on your God. Can I do this last part real quick?

Eyes of my age be religion, your light. Thoughts of my age dread ye not the cold side. Hopes of my age be fixed on your God. Let's take it from Hulk Hogan that the most important thing in life is being a Christian. Mike Slater dot locals dot com for the transcript and no commercials Mike

Christian Scottie Scheffler won the British Open last weekend. What Nike did with his win could be a sign of the cultural shift we need in America. But Scottie's boldness led the way.

I got back this last weekend from a three hour drive with the family and loved it. It was great. I like car trips because we're all together. I came across this clip recently from this TV show called the middle. I've never heard of the show, never seen the show, am not endorsing the show, I know nothing about it.
But I came across this one scene where the mom and dad, I'm guessing they have older kids who are out of the house now or on the way out, and the dad's reminiscing.
You know when I was happiest? I mean really happy? When I was driving everybody. When they were small, I'd be driving, didn't matter where. It was just me at the wheel and you next to me, those three idiots in the back.
I knew everything was okay. I was driving. And I had it.
I had everybody.
We have a nine hour drive coming up in a couple months with the whole family. Can't wait for it. We spent the night at my house my wife grew up in and we love doing that because it's like 1200 square feet and we all camp out in the living room, big slumber party in the living room. Johnny and I sleep in the lazy boy reclined all the way back.
They've never seen a lazy boy before, I guess. So they're like, what is this? So that's just as good as it gets. Did you see the newest Nike ad? I saw it and I thought it was fake. I didn't confirm that it was true.
And indeed is true. So Scottie Scheffler, he won the British Open in golf and after he won, him and all the big wigs are on the final green and up waddles in the scene his one year old son and then he trips on the little hill, the sloped green, falls down, oh the whole crowd.
Dad goes over and gets him and it was a nice little moment. So Nike took that moment as inspiration and they made a new Nike ad and it's a picture of Scottie kneeling down with his putter in front of him and the baby is crawling towards him reaching out for the club and the ad says in the Nike font it says says, you've already won. This could be a data point of a massive cultural shift that's happening in our country.
And I pray that we keep having in our country. Every Monday on Sirius XM show, we have gratitude Monday. People call in the first segment of the show and say what they're grateful for. And guy called in yesterday said he was excited because he's getting married soon it's awesome and and I asked him first are there no oil the old ball and
chain or none of that none of those jokes because it's a beautiful thing and marriage needs to be celebrated and I asked him why why get married why not just yeah keep shacking up Are you just doing it for tax purposes? What's the reason? He said, Oh no, we're doing it so we can help each other get to heaven. He was getting off the night shift at a chemical plant in Louisiana. The answer he had to that question had more wisdom to it than anyone at Ivy League school or wherever.
So Scotty Scheffler, when he won, he said, the first person I look for is my wife. She's always the first person I want to celebrate with. So just a lot of loving your family. A lot of celebrating families. That's a good thing.
I saw this video, I saw like 10 seconds of this video and what I heard, I was like, oh, that's Ecclesiastes. I didn't know he's a Christian or not, but sure enough, his Instagram handle says Christ follower pro golfer. So he has his priorities, right? Oh, one last thing about Nike ads.
This cultural shift, like people have been posting like old Nike ads, actually old, like 2020, 2021 Nike ads where our culture was really leaning hard into ugliness and it'd be like an obese black woman grinding and be like, get on the floor. Nike. I like what, gross. And here's Scotty Shuffler, him, his baby, you already won, you're like, oh yeah, like that's clearly the direction we need to be going in as a country.
So here is Shuffler, this is before he won. This is a couple of days before in the press conference. It's a few minutes long, but it's worth it all.
You know, I think it's kind of funny. I think, you know, I think I said something after the Byron this year about like, it feels like you work your whole life to celebrate winning a tournament for like a few minutes. It only lasts a few minutes, that kind of euphoric feeling. And I like to win the Byron Nelson championship at home.
I literally worked my entire life to become good at golf, to have an opportunity to win that tournament. And you win it, you celebrate, get to hug my family, my sisters there, it's such an amazing moment. And then it's like, okay, now what are we gonna eat for dinner, you know? Life goes on.
Is it great to be able to win tournaments and to accomplish the things I have in the game of golf yet? I mean, it brings tears to my eyes just to think about because it's literally worked my entire life to become good at this sport and to have that kind of sense of accomplishment I think is a pretty cool feeling.
You know, to get to live out your dreams is very special, but at the end of the day, it's like I'm not out here to inspire the next generation of golfers. I'm not here to inspire somebody else to be the best player in the world, because what's the point? This is not a fulfilling life. It's fulfilling from a sense of accomplishment, but it's not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart.
There's a lot of people that make it to what they thought was going to fulfill them in life, and then you get there and all of a sudden, you get to number one in the world, and then they're like, what's the point? And I really do believe that, because what is the point? You're like, why do I wanna win this tournament so bad?
That's something that I wrestle with on a daily basis. It's like, showing up at the Masters every year, it's like, why do I wanna win this golf tournament so badly. Why do I want to win the Open Championship so badly? I don't know. Because if I win, it's gonna be awesome for about two minutes. And then we're gonna get to the next week and it's gonna be like,
hey, you won two majors this year, how important is it for you to win the FedExCup playoffs? And it's just like, we're back here again, you know? So we really do, we work so hard for such little moments And I'm kind of a sicko. I love putting in the work. I love being able to practice. I love getting out to live out my dreams. But at the end of the day, sometimes I just
don't understand the point. Because I don't know if I'm making any sense or not. But am I not? It's just one of those deals. I love the challenge. I love being able to play this game for a living. It's one of the greatest joys of my life,
but does it fill the deepest wants and desires of my heart? Absolutely not. I mean, I love playing golf. I love being able to compete. I love living out my dreams. I love being a father.
I love being able to take care of my son. I love being able to provide for my family out here playing golf. And every day when I wake up early to go put in the work, my wife thanks me for going out and working so hard. And when I get home, I try and thank her every day for taking care of our son. It's just, that's why I talk about family as being my priority,
because it really is. I'm blessed to be able to come out here and play golf. But if my golf ever started affecting my home life or it ever affected the relationship I have with my wife or with my son, that's going to be the last day that I play out here for a living. This is not the be all, end all. This is not the most important thing in my life.
And that's why I wrestle with why is this so important to me because I would much rather be a great father than I would be a great golfer. At the end of the day, that's what's more important to me.
But I think that's why I asked the question,
what is losing like for you?
It sucks.
I hate it.
I really do. But that's part of the competition. That is, and I think that's why we try to work so hard to not lose, but golf's a game where you just lose a lot more often than you win. I mean, that's just a simple part of it.
You know, in basketball or football, when there's only two guys out there, you can win a lot more than you lose. But I think I was looking at stats. It was one of the best tennis players. It might've been Federer or Djokovic or somebody.
They only won like 48% of their points or something like that. I mean, playing professional sports is a really weird thing to do. Like, it really is, just because we put in so much effort, we work so hard for something that's so fleeting. I mean, it really is. Like, the feeling of winning just doesn't last that long. You know, when I sit back at the end of the year and, you know,
I kind of try to reflect on things, like having that sense of accomplishment from winning the Masters Tournament, from winning the PGA Championship. I have a deep sense of gratitude and appreciation for it, but it's just hard to explain how it doesn't, it just doesn't satisfy, is how I would describe it. It's an unsatisfying venture. And so I guess what I'm trying to say is this is not the place to look for your satisfaction.
This is something that's where you can have a great appreciation for and a great amount of thankfulness for being able to do this. And it's, I mean, like I said, it's literally one of the most fun things that I can do in my entire life.
I love being able to come out here and play golf and compete. But at the end of the day, it's just not what satisfies me. I'm right here, Jamie, where are you?
You're right there. You could sit there and you could sit that chair if you want. Or you want to come in daddy's lap. He says, I want to go in daddy's lap. Jamie, good timing, by the way, but okay. You could sit right there.
Uh, here is a bit of a more explicit explanation of what does satisfy him.
I would say that, I mean, in the simplest of terms, we have a Creator. You know, God created the earth and he sent his Son to save us. I mean, the Lord covered our sins on the cross and victory was secured over death. We will live forever with Christ when we eventually pass on from this earth and Jesus saved us. He died and saved us from our sins. It's really just as simple as that.
So the victory is secure whether or not I win a golf tournament or never be able to play golf again. You know, my identity and victory secure, know that I'm going to spend eternity with Jesus.
You want me to go downstairs?
Okay.
Jamie, can I just make one last point here?
Okay.
Let me take one last point here. Someone posted on this video.
Hello.
So I'm posting on the video, uh, a quote, if you're not good enough without the gold medal, you're never going to be good enough with it. That is from John Candy in the film, Cool Runnings. It's not fulfilling, of course, none of this stuff is fulfilling because what we are all searching for is eternal meaning
and these earthly things will never give that eternal meaning. The only identity that you can have for eternity is in Christ. And I'll leave you with this because Jamie says, I need to go downstairs.
Second Corinthians 5.17, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is passed away. Behold, the new has come. Mike Slater dot locals dot com transcript commercial free on the website,
Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Jamie, come here, say hi. He's playing with the printer. Come here. Come say hi, you wonderful boy. Say hi to everybody.