Be Disciples Podcast
Discipleship Podcast - Dakota Smith, Kyle R. Morris and David Glavin walk through the Bible for the purpose of equipping their listeners to disciple others. To live as a disciple of Jesus Christ, all followers of Jesus are commanded to proclaim the gospel and teach people the word of God (Matt 28:18-20).
Be Disciples Podcast
Confronting Wokeism in the Church: Strengthening Pastors and Upholding Biblical Orthodoxy with Lucas Miles
Are you tired of wokeism seeping into the church? Join us as we tackle this issue head-on with the help of Lucas Miles, Senior Pastor of Nfluenced Church, faculty member at Summit Ministries, and founding member of the American Pastors Project. Discover how Lucas is helping pastors navigate today's culture by committing to biblical orthodoxy and empowering them to eradicate wokeism from the pulpit. Gain valuable insight into the statement on the American Pastors Project website (www.americanpastorproject.org)
In our captivating conversation with Lucas, as we discuss the book Woke Jesus: The False Messiah Destroying Christianity and how it is designed to help the Church understand Gnosticism and the heresies of the first century Church that impact the Church today. Don't miss out on our exploration of the Gnostic belief system, which places blame on God for our oppression and suggests that Jesus is the liberator. Uncover how this idea has evolved into modern theologies, such as liberation theology, and how it is perpetuated through the government's preference for Wokeism. Be inspired by Pastor Lucas Miles practical advice on engaging with these conversations and rejecting the lie that these topics are merely political in nature. It's time for courage and boldness in speaking truth into these areas, and this episode will equip you to do just that.
Welcome to the Be Disciples podcast with your host, kyle Morris, and Dakota Smith. Today we actually have a special episode, as normally we go verse by verse through the Bible as if we're sitting at a coffee shop having a conversation about God's Word, just to show what it's like to go through scripture together to disciple somebody one on one. And today we're going to be interviewing Lucas Miles, who is the author of Rope Jesus the false messiah destroying Christianity. He's also a senior pastor of Influenced Church, a faculty member at Summit Ministries and also the founding member of the American Pastors Project. Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Hey, thanks for having me, guys, good to be with you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the first thing we want to talk to you about is the American Pastors Project. What in your life kind of led you to starting this project? Do you go to start a project that speaks to pastors, that wants to talk about really the false ideologies in America and make sure the pulpit is the place where we stand on the word of truth and that pastors are doing that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. First off, i appreciate you have me on. It's always an honor to be able to talk through these things, especially with you know, from a more of a pastoral lens. There's oftentimes where I get to talk to news media and you know more of the conservative conversation, but my heart is really for pastors and this is really what this pastors project is all about. The website is americanpastorprojectorg, and really what this is is. It is an initiative for pastors that we have developed that is really for the purpose of helping pastors to navigate the times that we're in.
Speaker 2:I know that you know, there was a time in my life where I felt like I was kind of like the only guy left that I call it. I was that prophet in a cave, you know, and I felt like everybody else was dead and gone And I needed to hear the Lord say that I've reserved 7,000 that have not bowed the knee to Baal And and I think that you know, in many ways a lot of pastors are in that place now, in their cities is they're looking around and if they hold to a biblical worldview, they're starting to feel like they're in the minority, if they're, if they're taking a strong stance on some of these cultural issues and what does the Bible have to say about these things? They feel like they're in the minority And I think that it's important that we band together, that we reach across denominational lines. We find agreement on primary doctrine, first and foremost, in our unity and Christ, and and I think you know so, we really developed this in guess, in initially two things. So there's a statement on the website at AmericanPastorProjectorg where you're signing a statement that is, first and foremost, a commitment to biblical orthodoxy based upon, obviously, scripture first, but we've taken elements from the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed and sort of provided some modern language.
Speaker 2:You know, with these, i tell people all the time, heresy is the thing that defines orthodoxy. Because you know it, heresy oftentimes came first in church history and then orthodoxy would have to respond and give a proper definition in order to count, you know, counteract that heresy, and so you know the same is true today There, the, the, what we're seeing, these violations of understanding of God's created order in regards to gender and sexuality, or violations and what we call sphere sovereignty, basically this idea that God has given certain spheres of sovereignty to, to the church, to the state, to the family, and the violations that we saw throughout COVID on these things. These are times where the church has to respond in order to kind of push back against these false beliefs. And so, you know, first and foremost, it's a commitment to orthodoxy. Second of all, it's a commitment to help eradicate wokeism from the American pulpit.
Speaker 2:There's too many pastors right now that are teaching, you know, marxist ideas like critical race theory, or you know that are, that are starting to teach universalism, or that are, you know, starting to, you know, bring some form of what would be known as speculative theology. You know, into the pulpit. These are all false ideas that are that are, you know, antithetical to scripture, and as pastors, we have to stand against that. And so we're inviting all pastors to check this out. And then I invite people this is a great tool that, if you are maybe trying to wonder if your pastor's going to woke, bring them our website and see if they're willing to sign it, and it's a great little witness test there to see, you know, what they feel about these things to go, hey, do you have a chance to look at that website? What did you think about it? and oh, i had some concerns. Or I signed it or you know, and just because they didn't sign, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're woke, but it very well could mean.
Speaker 2:And so it gives people a chance to get a sort of a baseline on where does my church line up on these issues and how do they really stand. You know, how do they view these biblical ideas in light of, you know, the church's doctrine, and so that's really the heart behind it. We're creating some resource pages and all sorts of other partnerships. We just did a partnership with the Freedom Center at Liberty University. They're working with us on some roundtables for pastors around the nation. So I want to be traveling around to some major regions and looking for pastors who are willing to host a roundtable where we can gather 50 plus pastors together to talk about these issues, and so lots of great stuff happening there. But that's, that's at least a little bit about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one of the great tools you have on your website is the map, right? Oh yeah, For churches to actually go on and say we agree with this as a church and people can go on and find a church. Maybe you've moved to a new area or you're traveling and you just want to go to a church that you know that you have somebody who's pledged to this, So I thought that was a really good tool. I know that it's important for us. We noticed, at least in our little city here there's nobody else but us as we're talking about that, So it's cool that you have that. I think that's a great tool because people are having a hard time finding churches that are teaching the word, And this is a great resource for that.
Speaker 3:One thing that's happened to our church from 2020 onward is we were a church of about 70 people And then, through COVID and everything that took place, we didn't stop meeting. We didn't stop, you know. We didn't give in to all of the agendas And everybody's been flocking to our church from this town and now we're a church of almost 400 and we're sitting here thinking like, okay, so God has stewarded people to us. How can we get them biblical resources to keep them sharp in the days that we live?
Speaker 3:One of the reasons why I'm really just thankful for your ministry is because I was reading Eric Metaxas' book, a Letter to the American Church, and then I saw your Fox News article, along with hearing about you at the American Family Radio, and I thought, man, that's what Metaxas was talking about. There needs to be something to sign Like. We need some type of grassroots effort here where we can start standing for truth. So I'm thankful that you took the step to put that into action And we're thankful for your leadership in that area. I was also on the last conference call, i think.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah absolutely A week and a half ago. Speak a little bit more about the conference call and what you hope to get out of that.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 2:So let me back up to the locator first. is that so for the locator? we don't, as a signer, you don't have to have your church listed, but we encourage churches to be listed. It's on an automatic. So we actually have a lot more signers than we have churches listed right now. I think that'll start leveling out as more people understand all the offerings of the pastor's project, But we're working on getting as many of those churches that are signers on the map as possible. We're approaching probably close to 500 signers right now, so it's been really exciting to see the growth there.
Speaker 2:And you mentioned Metaxas. Eric's a friend And I always say when I grow up I want to be Eric Metaxas. I mean just incredible guy and thinker, and I'd love to tell you I taught him everything that he knows. but that's not true in a completely lie. But I'm honored to do work alongside people like that. We've been on some panels together in the past and tend to show up to some of the same places to speak at times, and so just love him and love the work that he's doing.
Speaker 2:As far as the pastor's project some of the things that we're working on right now we just launched the first of what will become monthly And, we're hoping eventually, weekly conference calls for our pastors And so, as we really get to this list, to critical mass, to be able to have a place where pastors can jump on a phone call as often as they're available throughout the month to be able to hear from national thought leaders, to be able to learn about certain issues or policies. I mean, how beneficial would this have been after the overturning of Roe, how beneficial would this have been after the death of George Floyd, to be able to process these things together about what's an orthodox response to these questions of injustices in the world, or how should the church be responding after this overturning of Roe And what does that look like, and really holding people accountable to a biblical worldview on these issues. And so we're in Pride Month right now. What's the church's response to this? Do we just show up in Boycott? Do we do different things?
Speaker 2:I mean, i saw one gal on TikTok And I kind of like love this approach. She dressed up in like full rainbow garb and she went out to a pride parade And she literally just blended in and she was doing street evangelism With people at the pride parade and I thought like look, not everybody could pull this off, but she just had the personality where she could do it and And like and I kind of loved it, like I don't think that we all need to be doing the exact same methodologies, but the heart behind it, the message behind it, the doctor behind it, there shouldn't be differences, you know, because Christianity is a defined thing and sure, there's secondary beliefs And there's probably even tertiary beliefs that we could debate, but we should have unity and agreement over these primary things. And so the pastor's project is really a way to try to draw people back to that unity. in some ways, it's a digital, um, you know, long-distance church council, uh, that we're trying to, you know, bring people together on and really help reestablish a baseline for truth in the american church.
Speaker 2:And so, um, you know it's, it's been very exciting, met some tremendous people, such as yourselves, you know, through this project so far, and we're just really we're excited to see where this, this goes. We have some, uh, some pretty significant partnerships We're working on right now that we're hoping is going to fuel this even further. So, uh, it'll be. it'll be interesting to see how the days that had play out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, i think it's very encouraging to know that there's going to be a place that I can jump on a conference call to pastors around the country To hear from, because we only have, you know, our spheres of a network. You know We're both originally from Arizona, so we have pastors in Arizona that we know well and and then from bible college and seminary. But to hear from all the states, from all around, to know what pastors are going through, that helps us as pastors to really speak to our church about what's going on in our nation, and so that resource is going to be extremely valuable. So thank you for that.
Speaker 3:Awesome.
Speaker 2:Awesome, absolutely.
Speaker 3:I think in transitioning here There'd be really good, because you mentioned, you know, there are things that just Christians believe. I mean, if you don't believe this, you're not a Christian, right? You've got the trinity, you've got salvation, you've got the scripture, or so on and so forth. But let's, let's look at the other side of that, what's antithetical to Christianity, and let's move into your book woke Jesus. Um, this coming sunday, actually, i'm preaching a sermon called understanding the times, looking at our nation's history, our nation's present, and then what are we supposed to do as Christians today? And some of the resources i'm going to be using is straight from your, your book. So can you educate our church? if someone doesn't have a moment to read it, or you want to prime them to read it? Yeah, what's woke jesus all about and how can you encourage us?
Speaker 2:Yep, absolutely So. Um, I'll reference, uh, some comments that I make in the introduction of the book is that, uh, during the the first century, there were essentially two heresies in the church There were the judaizers and there was the nostics, and the first century church struggled in some ways to deal specifically with Nosticism. Uh, judaizers I think that paul, you know, put a pretty good nail in the coffin on, you know, with books like galatians And you know others. But when it came to the nostics, we're really just starting to see in the new testament The church speak to nosticism. They didn't even actually address it by name in the new testament. This is something that kind of you know, uh, really, you know, kind of fully, uh, fully became, you know, present and evident later on. And so there's a church, um, uh, we would call a church patristic church father named iranaeus, who Was alive during the second century and he wrote a book in 180, around 180 ad called against heresies, and in the forward of that book he talks about why the first century church struggled to refute Nosticism, and it was basically his. His premise was that they didn't understand it fully and so he wanted to make sure that they understood it. So he write. He wrote the 600 page book against heresies in order to help them understand it. In that heart and spirit is Why I wrote woke jesus.
Speaker 2:There's been a lot of resources about wokeism or critical theory or marxism In in just kind of more of the secular arena. Uh, there's, there's great, you know, thinkers like james lindsay that's done a lot to you know Kind of bring some of this attention out there just in the marketplace and and in academia and everything else. But but there hasn't been a lot of um, i should say this way I didn't feel like there was a definitive work On on wokeism and christianity that was there, and so I really wanted to set out to write something that would be a resource, a The resource that somebody could hang on to, you know, for the next decade, to give a framework and a roadmap for this, because we haven't seen the end of this. I don't think that we've reached the top of wokeism yet, or the bottom we might better define it that way And I think that the church, if we don't understand it fully, we are not gonna be able to refute it. It's not just enough to go CRT's dumb. That's been a lot of the conservative response. Right It's, we have to go. Why is this unbiblical? How is this antithetical to scripture? It's not just Marxism bad, it's. Why is Marxism bad? And to really be able to empower people and arm people for these conversations, and so far it's been.
Speaker 2:The book just came out about 30 days ago. It's been just amazing to see the reception. It's lived kind of number one bestseller on Amazon on several lists, and actually Metaxas just bumped me off on with his book Letter of the American Church last night. I think I'm sitting in the number two spot now on the bestseller list but within that on Amazon. But this is a book I believe that if the church were to read, specifically if pastors read, but I think it's I mean I'm finding a lot of just everyday Christians, congregants, laypeople, whatever your terminology is that are grabbing a hold of this. They're feeling empowered And they're using this to minister to their friends in ways to help have those hard conversations about sex and gender and race and wokeism and really like, was Jesus woke? Is Jesus really transaffirming, like that influencer says on TikTok, is Jesus really a socialist? Like, what's our position on these things? And so we dive into all of that, i think in a very definitive way and try to bring that to the masses here.
Speaker 3:One thing in the book that you've made mention of is it's actually wokeism itself is actually a religion. It's got a meta narrative to it creation, fall, redemption. You know. They've got answers to things like what's their view of God, creation, people, purpose, morality, history, destiny. It's truly a religion. And a while back I was thinking man, the Gnostics, like they hated anything that was of external reality. They love to elevate their own internal reality. Can you speak a little bit more to the religious aspect of wokeism? How? are you making those connections?
Speaker 2:And I would say wokeism is a form of neo-Nosticism and Marxism which is really, you know, cultural Marxism is really what wokeism is. Wokeism is just a euphemism for cultural Marxism in some ways. But these ideologies, they're inherently Gnostic And the reason is, you know, there's a push We see this probably most evidently in critical race theory right now is that there is this push for this higher revelation that if you and that's really where wokeism kind of started is in the conversation of race, which now it is, you know, adopted sexuality and everything else in it as it's expanded, but you had to have this higher consciousness of injustice or suffering in order to really be able to understand and to see, there was and that's, a Gnostic belief. Gnostics, as you mentioned, they had this emphasis on the spiritual over the material. Most Gnostics believed in a pre-existent state of man prior to creation, and so there was a pre-existent spirit that was there, that God then subjected to a state of oppression when he put us inside of creation and physical bodies, and that the whole way out of that was to basically learn of the truth of your spirit, and that knowledge, that secret knowledge, would elevate you out of this. The term Gnostic was actually sort of an insult in many ways of referring to these people, and it means those who know, or essentially the know it. All That's kind of how they were viewed is that, oh, you know something that everybody else doesn't know and that's what makes you special and that's what you think redeems you. And so Gnostics believed that God, the creator, yahweh, was the one who subjected us to oppression when, or to this oppressive state when he placed us in creation, but that Jesus, as a separate being, came to redeem us from that oppression and to liberate us and to bring us up out of that. So God, it's basically God is the oppressor, man is the oppressed and Jesus is the liberator that comes to free us.
Speaker 2:This carries on into modern theologies like liberation theology, which holds to a very similar viewpoint. It sort of, you know, pretends to hold to the trinity at some level, but I would argue even, that's a flawed perspective within or flawed or false theology, within liberation theology. And you know, we still see this push for oppressor versus oppressed, this liberation that's necessary, and what it fails to recognize is that it's actually placing the blame for liberation on all the wrong things. Gnostics placed it on God. Hegel, could, you know, place it on history. To some degree, our own understanding. You have Marx, who placed the oppressor you know, state was on the bourgeoisie in liberation theology it's rich, rich versus poor, and black liberation theology It's essentially, you know, white theology is the oppressor versus black experience.
Speaker 2:You know, we go on and on and now we have like fat theory where it's, you know, skinniness is oppressing, you know, obese people, and so you know, all of this just keeps evolving into something, you know, you know more and more radical in many ways. But I think it's very important that we understand the beginnings of the frameworks of this. So, as you mentioned, we can see that this is a religion, it is a, it is a false belief, it's something alternative to the gospel. And the reason why wokeism is perpetuated is because the government does not recognize it as a religion and it's giving preference to it. That's right And so that, you know, according to our constitution, the government should not get preference to one religion over another. But that's exactly what's happening Wokeism. As long as they don't acknowledge that Marxism is a religion, then then you know, leftist elites can give preference to this in the government and allow it to really thrive and continue.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's no such thing as neutrality, though, so you know, neutrality is a myth.
Speaker 3:You know, one thing that I've thought of recently and this is really my fear of wokeism is, you know, as Carl Truman would coin the term I think he coined the term expressive individualism The problem with elevating our own internal reality is when? when does it reach the point where we're now elevating our internal realities onto other people? And you know, now, now you get into conversations about pedophilia and things like that. Like, you can start, you can start making people out to be something that they actually aren't, and now it's becoming further and further oppressive.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, yeah, For the last few minutes, let's. I just want to hear from the pastor, from you, shepardine, your people And you know some of the questions that we get is hey, i agree with you guys, what you guys are saying is biblical, we want to fight against evil, but how do I do that? practically Boots on the ground. What do I do day to day in my life, as I work, as I, as I raise my family? What does that look like for me? I'm you know most people aren't pastors. They're not out there preaching or writing books, so so what do they do? What does your congregation do? What does that look?
Speaker 3:like I can't even just jump in and maybe add to it for a brief second not just us, but I mean, once our congregation hears of the truth, you know, some practical things that they themselves can, can carry out.
Speaker 2:Absolutely No, that's great. So I think, first off, we have to start with rejecting the lie that these cultural topics are political Abortion, sexuality, marriage, you know even the environment These are not political conversations, they've been politicized, but they're first and foremost theological and moral. And so the lie is that the church can't speak about anything political, which I don't think is true to begin with. But those that hold that sort of extreme separation of church and state, in the sense that the church can never talk about something if it's politically, you know, if it's part of the political conversation, this is all a method to try to silence Christians, to be able to prevent them from speaking into these areas. And so I think the first thing that we need is we need to, we really need to kill timidity. Timidity is the thing that that prevents you from being bold. Now, i have to balance that, and I can't do this for anybody, but we have to personally audit ourselves, to ask the question like am I in danger of weaponizing truth? Because the the the flip side to this is, i've had people take my work, and, whether it's Metaxas or Carl Truman or myself or you know, or James Lindsay or somebody else, it's easy to take these ideas and and sort of use them as a weapon to just judge and attack and kind of go on these theological witch hunts, you know, against other people, and I think that that is that's not what I've intended the work to be And that's that becomes dangerous.
Speaker 2:There are those that we need to root out within the movement and within the faith. We need to expose for what they are. But the goal of this is unity that we could unify around primary doctrine and not and not look for every single secondary or tertiary issue to go. Well, i think they're a secret. You know a secretly woke or a Marxist that they just haven't said that you know, like we have to, we have to allow some some variety and variation. So I hope the heart's coming behind. That is like you know. Look, i'm the guy who wrote the book woke Jesus and the Christian left. Woke ism is a problem in the church, but but I think that that we have to. We've also not been very good historically at loving people And so if all we do is take this material and then double down on kind of like elevating truth over love, we can really end up in a bad place.
Speaker 2:I say this in multiple works that I've written, is that the elevation of grace over truth will make you a progressive. The elevation of truth over grace will make you a bigot. It'll make you a judgmental, a Pharisee. In those things, the only way forward is fully embracing grace and truth. It is hanging onto these things, you know, in such a way that we are utilizing them every time we minister. When I'm running into somebody who has, you know, they have a distorted view of their own sexuality or gender or something like that, they probably don't need a theological, you know, treat us at that time. What they need is they need somebody who has a good hold on the truth to be able to love them where they are, but call them in Christ to a life that's free from that.
Speaker 2:As much as the left talks about liberation, they don't really understand it, because true liberation is being liberated from the thing that actually shackles you the most, and that is sin and death. And the only way to get really free of sin and death is not gonna be Marxism, wokeism, any of these other things. Those are, you know, false ideas. The only way free of that is the person of Jesus Christ. And so if we're just winning battles with conservative talking points but never actually leading people to Jesus, then we're still missing it. This whole world could become, you know, the whole nation could become moralized and around even a biblical, judeo-christian moral framework, but if the nation isn't actually meeting Jesus and having a personal relationship with him, then we haven't really accomplished the mission.
Speaker 2:And so you know this is, i'm not just trying to build a conservative utopia, as opposed to the Marxist utopia that they're trying to make. I'm trying to I wanna be an ambassador for Christ, leading people out of this deception and darkness so that they could come to a personal knowledge of their savior and find true freedom from the things that hold them in bondage and overcome their own depravity in that and experience an eternal utopia which is heaven, and it's the only place utopia is ever gonna actually exist. And so, yeah, i don't know if that's exactly where you know you wanted to go, but that's at least the things I'm chewing on, you know, this week, and I think it's very important for us to hang on to grace and truth. And so, practically, let me just say this when I'm ministering publicly, i'm very truth forward. When I'm ministering individually, i'm very love forward because, you know, i'm able to kind of project that onto that person right there where, when I'm talking, you know more holistically, it's ideologically.
Speaker 2:You know, first and foremost, i think that you know, make sure you don't go to a woke church, make sure you're not funding a woke church. You know and you can do. Take your pastor, the American pastor project, see what they think of it. That's going to tell you real fast. Get some resources, educate yourself on these topics, you know, so that you're really prepared. Because what comes next if we don't figure this out, is, is and I hope I'm wrong, but potentially is is a phase of, and a season of immense persecution for the church. And if we don't figure this out now and if we refuse to speak about our faith now, we're definitely not going to be able to speak about it later. So we have some work to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, i love that you frame that up, that you know you speak in truth but individually is an opportunity to love them and talk to them. I know that's something you and I practice. Where we speak truth, we're on the university in our town where we say a lot of things but we always give the opportunity to hey, meet with us. We want to sit down with you and have coffee, we want you to have conversations with us and be able to work through those things And we want to love you, and so ministering to the people amongst the conversation is really, really important for what we do as pastors.
Speaker 3:Can you close this up with your understanding of Ephesians chapter six? You know Paul writes to the church about putting on the armor of God and it's been said before. This is not just some Sunday school lesson where we get some crayons and color in a picture of a soldier. You know. So tell us, you know, practically speaking, tell us your understanding of Ephesians six. I think this is a good time to land the plane.
Speaker 2:Absolutely So. So Ephesians six and I write about this and woke Jesus is that that. You know this is really our, our, the tools that we have as believers to overcome heresy. And you know, right from the start, you know we put on the helmet of salvation. So the helmet of salvation shows us that we weren't entitled to salvation previously. It's something that had to be put on and it was. It's put on by grace, through faith, and that there's a knowledge of salvation, that there's a confidence in salvation, and it's not a confidence based upon my work since, a confidence based upon his work on the cross. And I know that because I have the breastplate of righteousness. And that breastplate of righteousness It shows me that there is a standard. You know that we see that there is this thing called righteousness And again, i don't have it inherently. I have to put that on and I put that on through really taking on this, this faith, righteousness from Christ It's a gift of righteousness is what scripture speaks up And so that protects me, that from you know the things of this world.
Speaker 2:Woke is, woke is I'm in all the. You know different variations of that. Today It doesn't have, you know, it takes more of a post structuralist view of morality. That's sort of there's room for interpretation and there's no real standard and everybody can believe this or that, what? what the breastplate of righteousness reminds us is that there is a standard. You know, that's there. We see that in the belt of truth, that this belt that there, it's not belt of your truth and belt of my truth, it is the belt of the truth, right, that we see there is, there is a singular truth. That that is that is fixed upon us, that holds us together, that keeps the rest of our you know, you know components, you know, in place. That becomes sort of that lynchpin for everything else in our lives.
Speaker 2:We see our feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace, right, that this is, that, this is. It's a push for evangelism. There's a lot of talk of universalism that God's so good. Everybody save you know, unless you voted for Trump or something like that, then of course you're going to Helen. Gasoline underwear is sort of that's the narrative on the left. And so you know the the the feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace. It shows us that evangelism matters you. You're not going to hear a Christian leftist talking about evangelism. You're not going to hear them talking about heaven and hell and repentance and the need for. You know. You know, changing your ways like that's, that's not a narrative, because they have let go of the gospel of peace.
Speaker 2:That is this readiness, of this evangelistic spirit, of course, the sort of the spirit you know that we have, that this is, this is our, this is our, both our offensive and our defensive weapon that this really comes down to. You know the, the. We see the truth of the word, we see the. You know the spirit of God that leads us in all of these things. And so you know, properly fitting ourselves within the armor of God or with the armor of God, protects us from false ideas, and I go through that much more in depth in the book. But it would, if you actually put on the armor of God in your life, woke ism could have no place. It would root out every single false doctrine that you have. Amen and demonstrate what's true in the word versus. You know these false alternatives that we see.
Speaker 3:We love it. We love what you're doing. We love your ministry. We're encouraged by it. We pray that our congregation is blessed by what you're doing as well. We were just talking before this episode. It would be a great honor if you would let us pray for you. Oh, we love it for your ministry right now. Just that God would protect you. You know there's a lot of flaming arrows that's going to be coming your way. So, pastor Kyle, why don't you pray us out?
Speaker 1:All right. Father, i thank you for this time that you have given us together. I thank you for all that you're doing, lord. I thank you for the word of God that we stand on, that we can continue to trust you each and every day. I thank you so much for Lucas and his ministry, whether that's pastoring his church, shepherding the people, educating not just his people but all of us around the nation and around the world. I pray for protection over him and his family and his church, that his ministry would continue to thrive, that the truth would continue to move forward and that we would win people to Christ, that we would be soul winners, that we would care about people and where they are going for eternity, and that would drive us to love people, to show them grace and to teach them your word, lord. So I thank you so much for Lucas and his time. I bless him and his ministry and continue to see the fruits that come of it. Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.