Psalm 2 serves as a profound discourse on the nature of divine authority and the anticipation of a messianic reign, as articulated in our first episode of "The Bible: After-Hours" since last summer. The Foul-Mouthed Preacher elucidates the stark contrast between the expectations of a vengeful king and the reality of Jesus as a harbinger of peace and hope. This episode critically examines the misconceptions surrounding Jesus' first advent and the erroneous belief that his second coming will manifest in violent retribution. We delve into the historical context of the psalm, exploring how it reflects the Israelites’ yearning for liberation amidst oppression, while also probing the implications for contemporary interpretations of justice and mercy. As we transition towards discussions on the book of Revelation in forthcoming seasons, the insights gleaned from Psalm 2 will serve as a foundation for understanding the eschatological themes that permeate biblical literature.

Engaging with Psalm 2, The Foul-Mouthed Preacher articulates the complexities surrounding the expectations of a vengeful Messiah among the ancient Israelites, juxtaposed against the life and teachings of Jesus, who embodied peace and reconciliation. The episode posits that the anticipation of a violent uprising during the second coming misinterprets the character of God as revealed through Christ. Instead, it argues for a transformative understanding of God’s actions—where the emphasis should lie on spiritual warfare against sin and societal injustice rather than physical violence against individuals.

The discussion proceeds to dismantle the notion of Christian nationalism, exposing its fundamental misalignments with the Gospel’s core message of love and inclusivity. The episode concludes with a reflective segment, prompting listeners to evaluate their own beliefs and desires for justice and mercy in the context of their faith. This introspective approach encourages a deeper connection with the teachings of Christ, advocating for a vision of faith that transcends mere adherence to doctrine and embraces a profound commitment to love and grace in action.

Takeaways:

1. The anticipation of a vengeful Messiah among the Israelites was ultimately misplaced, as Jesus embodied peace and hope during his first coming.
2. The notion of a violently retributive second coming of Jesus contradicts the peaceful nature of his initial mission and the essence of his teachings.
3. Christian nationalism misinterprets the Great Commission, seeking to impose a singular belief system rather than promoting love and inclusivity among diverse nations.
4. The tensions between the expectations of divine violence and the call for mercy underscore the complexity of scriptural interpretations, particularly as we transition to discussing Revelation.

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The people of God were waiting for a vengeful king to be their Messiah and have a violent take over the government. But instead, Jesus came as a beacon of hope and peace. And that's how we know that the second coming is going to be extra violent.

Since he was so peaceful last time.

All the people I didn't like or who don't like me, or who look or sound differently than us, they're all going to be viciously killed the next time Jesus comes. Amen. This is the Bible after hours.

Can

you hear me? Is this thing on? Okay, good. I am the foul mouthed preacher and this is the underground church.

The word vulgar originally just meant to speak the common language of the people. It's what Jesus did, it's what Paul did, it's what the apostles did. And that's what we're going to do here today.

So if you have children listening, be warned, there will be some strong language. So maybe listen to this some other time.

The church above simultaneously wants you to believe that the prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament came to fruition, but people misunderstood God's intent. That's why they thought he'd be so violent.

Instead they got this little bitch ass piece guy they want you to believe how they read the same passages though how they read them now and similar passages in Revelation are actually prophesying a literal violent takeover. Next time Jesus comes. The last time they got that wrong. But next time it really will be violent.

They try to justify a violent demeanor towards the world by pointing to the scriptures they say that other people misunderstood, but they got it right. This time it will be violent. Last time they misunderstood the violent parts, but this time it really is going to be violent.

They claim all this while still claiming that they intimately know Jesus Christ, the man who lived a peaceful life with peaceful protest, who died on a cross at the hands of the government because God so loved the world.

World claim to know that God and they want to come back with this bullshit that yeah, they were wrong about it being violent last time, but next time it's gonna be fucking violent. Come on, give me a fucking break. For a large part of my life though, I believe that same bullshit. I believe that too.

I thought Jesus brought love and peace and he was a way out of sin, but that next time he's gonna come back because he's, you know, the same unchanging God that brought love and peace and whatever.

He's unchanging, but next time he's gonna come back, rule other over others, destroy the Planet kill any fucker that didn't believe the exact right rules, right things, right they don't have their belief was slightly off. They got the thing about women practice wrong, but fucking dead, killing them.

Same God who was Jesus, who came to love, show mercy to the weak, bring liberation through peace. But he's unchanging. I believe that. I believe he was going to throw people into hell for eternity.

That same God who doesn't change, who came to the earth to love everyone, to bring peace and hope. It's incongruent, but that's what I believe for a long time. We see stuff in our world just like this. We see Christian nationalism in our country.

It uses this kind of thinking and it misunderstands that Great Commission, right? So if you don't know what Christian nationalism is, a lot of people think it's just like Christian patriotism, that's different.

And some people mean the same thing by them. They're just not educating what nationalism is.

If you're saying Christian nationalism, what you really mean is that Christians who are patriotic, cool, man, go in peace. But that's not just not what, that's not what it means. Nationalism is this mindset, this ism.

It's a belief that your nation is better than others, that you should prioritize your ethnicity. Your people like you should be the ones ruling the nation and your nation should be greater than others kind of deal.

So nationalism is a specific belief. It means something.

And to say Christian nationalism is what you're saying is that the nation should be people who are Christian, who believe like you, to the detriment of everyone else, that you're better than everyone else, that Christians should have the power. Jesus didn't fucking seek power. Jesus didn't say come one and all become exactly alike.

God didn't create a world of diversity because he wanted them all to stop being diverse. That's just dumb shit, man.

No, no, nationalism is just a heresy saying that Christian nationalism is saying that, well, the Jesus we want is the Jesus that rules and that's what we're going to do. And they misunderstand stuff. Like the Great Commission that says, go and make disciples of the nations.

They go, well, that's saying that we need to make all nations like us and believe Jesus. And that's not what it says for multiple reasons. One, go out, make disciples of all the nations. Isn't like learn your Greek.

It's not saying literally make the nations Christian. It's saying go to the nations and disciple people. So you're just Misunderstanding, like the actual verb tenses of the words.

But then also, what did they think Jesus meant by disciple? Did they not read all the book beforehand? Jesus, when he discipled people didn't say, you're wrong, I'm right, here's how we do it.

He came beside people and loved them. He let him walk with him. He didn't tell them, this is what you had to believe, here's what you had to do.

He did say, follow my ways, follow God, follow the wall. He said stuff like that, but that's not what the discipling was.

When he discipled people, he was bringing them along side him to see what he did and to participate. He loved them, he showed them mercy, he washed their feet, he served them.

Persian nationalists typically aren't trying to serve the other nations and make us lower than them. They're trying to get power. They want to be served. That's not Christianity, it's bullshit. Now we all want justice and it's easy.

If we're not Christian nationalists, we like the idea of justice of those who did us wrong, getting what's coming to them, of the fuckers that fucked us, getting fucked, right. We all want stuff like that.

It's easier to think that our opponents are going to be destroyed rather than to think those who come against us, rather than thinking that those that we fine to push back against our beliefs, against us, who make us uncomfortable, to think that they're actually going to be loved back into God's arms. It's easier to think, oh we're gonna, God's gonna get them in the end, than to think God's gonna love them in the end.

Here's where a lot of more progressive people who are probably in my camp are maybe not gonna like this part. But I think a lot of this is spiritual warfare. We see the Bible talking about these things.

It's hard for us as humans to imagine spiritual war happening. So we put it in this context, we put in this idea, this language of like actual violence, actual physical whatever.

And then we say it's either that or the Bible's wrong. And we can't say that maybe there's something in between, maybe there's a spiritual warfare that's going on.

Maybe instead of God killing my enemies, maybe what God's going to do, he's going to come back and he's going to do away with hatred, with avarice, with lust, he's going to do away with these spiritual enemies. Maybe that's what's going on here because that's What Jesus did the first time, he didn't come back and was never violent. He flipped the tables.

He did that, right? What Jesus did is he spoke out against the people who were being pretentious. He was not speaking out against them.

He was speaking out against arrogance. He was speaking out that spirit, that I'm high and mighty, that I am this religious person, you're lower than me. He spoke out about against ideas.

That's what Jesus is going to do.

The spiritual warfare that Jesus commits is what's going to happen in that final coming as well, is going to be taking over the spirit, that there will be no more lust, anger, violence. This is what is going to happen in the end. I believe. I believe that what Jesus is fighting isn't people, but it's principles.

We're going to be transitioning, as you if you couldn't tell on this podcast, we'll be transitioning to talking about the book of Revelation. We're going to give up on the Psalm thing, mostly because my voice actor refuses to keep doing Psalms. He's gotten bored, apparently.

Just a little bit of a disagreement.

My voice actor, Joshua Null1, he's talking right now, struggles with doing the same thing for too long, and that's why you haven't heard an episode in a while. We talk to each other and he thinks it's a good time to talk about Revelation.

And I argue we can't talk about Revelation until we do some of this context stuff, which also includes talking about one of his favorite chapters, Zechariah 4, so he can't be too mad. But we're going to finish up Psalms. We're going to finish this season on Psalms.

We're going to do two or three more that are actually going to pertain to our conversation in Revelation later. Then we're going to do a season that's the road to Revelation.

So we'll be talking about some of the chapters in Genesis, Isaiah, Zechariah, Daniel, even some of the New Testament ones. We talk about the Antichrist to prepare for another season where we're going to talk about Revelation.

So we're kind of going to be doing this transition.

It's going to take some time to get there because I think to read a book with so many references and little, like, cameos and stuff, you need all the context. So that's what we're going to be doing next. But before we get there, time for another segment with Stefan Crossbear.

Hey, guys, have you ever heard of Absalom? Yeah. David's son that guy was real evil, right?

That fucker, you remember because he saw that his sister was sexually assaulted by his brother and that his dad did nothing and somehow he got upset about that. What kind of evil man is upset that? When a king does nothing about someone being assaulted, right?

So then what we see is as Absalom starts to have whatever, he kills the one who did the sexual assaulting. Very bad of him to seek revenge. David's fine though, because, you know, why would you do anything about any of this?

He still doesn't punish his son or do anything. And that's great.

Absalom dead starts to recruit everyone from the kingdom to be on his side and turn against his dad because let's take over the kingdom.

That evil, evil man who is so upset about sexual assault and David, the righteous man who did absolutely nothing about murder or sexual assault, ends up on the run. Poor David. Then of course, what ends up happening is David says no one kill him, because that's my son, I like him.

And he gets hung up by a tree and one of David's man comes by and chops his head off. That's what that fucker deserved. How dare he be upset about sexual assault? Am I right? And in the end, David was really sad and everything was fine.

And then he had a son and his lineage continued. And that's the lineage that Jesus decided he wanted to be a part of. Jesus was part of this family drama. What's up with that?

This was Stefan Crossbear.

All right, so that out of the way, time to talk about today's thing. We're going to be going into Psalm 2.

And when we're talking about stuff like eschatology, the end times, Revelation, Psalms 2, we're talking about these different. There's different views that theologians have argued about all that. Like millennialism, right?

We have this like, was it pre millennial that the second comes happen before the millennial, like thousand year reign that Revelation talks about? Amillennial. Are we currently in the millennium right now of that reign before Jesus comes back?

Or is it post millennial, like there's gonna be a thousand years, it's gonna suck, but then Jesus is gonna come after. We just have to suffer a little bit like where do we fall? We have views on hell. Is hell a literal place? Is it a metaphor?

Is hell just being separated from God? There's a lot of different views on this around eschatology, around what it means to be saved. Did Christ die for your sins?

Did he defeat hell and the grave and your Sins like, look what atonement theory we can go with. And our ideas around salvation, hell, eschatology, all the things have been evolving and changing for thousands of years.

So any fucker who's like, this is what the church is always believe, you better believe that they're full of shit. Church never always believed a thing. Our views keep changing on this, and that's because the Bible doesn't give us a lot of clear answers.

It's ambiguous and it's intentionally ambiguous.

So when the Bible is taking multiple sides, it's often using languages that we tend to misunderstand or to think, oh no, that means Jesus is going to come back and kill all the people I don't like. You know, whatever, let's just throw it out there.

We're not smarter, we're not more spiritual, we're not better than the Israelites who were looking for a violent messiah in their times during the Roman oppression. So if you don't know the story of Jesus, Jesus came in a manger. He was a peaceful man who chose death. He peaceful protest, non violent.

He came during the time of Roman oppression over Jerusalem, over God's people in Israel who were waiting for a Messiah who was going to come and kick Rome's ass. And instead what they got was a Messiah who was peaceful, quiet, good, gentle, loved peace and hope.

He brought love to everyone, even a few Roman centers, that was the Jesus they got. But the Jesus they read about like, oh yeah, the Daniel 7 and then Isaiah, he's going to come back, he's going to kick some ass.

That's not the Jesus they got. And again, a lot of churches have then taken and said, well, they were wrong.

The first coming of Jesus, he was peaceful, but the next time he really is going to kick ass. And that's where I'm like, I don't know, that doesn't sound like an unchanging God to me.

And we're going to look at that as we continue to go through this stuff with Revelation today though, we're going to read from Psalm 2 and I'm going to take a few different saints on this. I want to read it in its own context as if, like, what were the original hearers listening? Read it as? How was it redacted?

Why was it put in the context of those psalms that are surrounding it? Then read it as a messianic psalm, which is what a lot of people just jump to and only do that part.

But, and I think the part's important, but I think we need to see the Other stuff as well. So Psalms 2, and I'm reading from the New Jerusalem Bible because my voice actor will be over on that one too.

He's his protest accomplished, maybe too much. We'll see. So Psalm 2, why this uproar among the nations, this impotent muttering of the peoples? Kings of the earth take up position.

Princes plot together against Yahweh and his anointed. Now let us break their fetters. Now let us throw off their bonds. He who is enthroned in the heavens laughs.

Yahweh makes a mockery of them, then in his anger rebukes them. In his rage he strikes them with terror, saying, I myself have anointed my king. On Zion, my holy mountain, I will proclaim the decree of Yahweh.

He said to me, you are my son, today I have fathered you. Ask of me, and I shall give you the nations as your birthright. The whole wide world is your possession.

With an iron scepter you will break them, shatter them like so many pots. So now you kings, come to your senses, you earthly rulers, learn your lesson in fear.

Be submissive to Yahweh in trembling, kiss his feet, lest he be angry. And your way come to nothing, for his fury flares up in a moment. How blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Well, I'm going to look at each individual section of this for, for a second and to think of again that original audience. You're part the people of Israel who are hearing this probably at a coronation, probably one of the David's lineages just becoming king.

They're reading this to honor him as the coming in king. They're surrounded by other nations. Everyone always just hates Israel, right? So they are surrounded by people who hate them.

They're coordinating this new king. Why this uproar among the nations, this impotent muttering of the peoples. Kings of the earth take up position.

Princes plot together against Yahweh and his anointed. Now let us break their fetters.

Now let us throw off their bonds, saying, we're going to break off these nations who hate us, who keep trying to attack us, who, like they're seeing real violence and they're saying, these people come against us, let's do away with them. Let's finally overcome what's coming up. Not just against us, but we're God's people. So they're coming against God too.

In fact, they are literally mocking the God of Israel. And you know, yeah, hey, I'm with them. Yeah, let's overcome. And that's a great thing with a king coming to coronation.

You see where they're coming from, right? Go a little bit further. He who is enthroned in the heavens laughs. Yahweh makes a mockery of them. Then in his anger, rebukes them.

In his rage, he strikes them with terror, saying, I myself have anointed my king on Zion, my holy mountain. So again, you feel you're surrounded, like they're being.

There's this yoke of just every nation around you fucking hating you, constantly attacking you. And I said, yahweh is up there, and he's just laughing out because he's so much stronger than them. Our God is awesome.

And he's placed this new king in position so that we can finally shake off these bonds, come against them, and we can defeat them. Again, you see, they're coming from this. This violence. They live in a world of violence.

They're seeing this new king come to position, saying that we are going to fend off the violence coming against us because God has anointed you as king. Kind of seeing that going on.

And specifically, I always want to point out, when it says Zion, especially if we're going to get into Revelation, you need to know Zion is this mountain that represents eternal hope. That's like an eschatological thing. If you see Zion, he's talking about hope. So he says, I myself anointed my king on Zion.

They say this king is to bring you hope. So in all these other nations, all this shit's coming against you. You now have this new king. He's giving you hope, talking to the people of Israel.

All right, we can go a little bit further here. I will proclaim the decree of Yahweh. He said to me, you are my son. Today I have fathered you.

Ask of me, and I shall give you the nations as your birthright, the whole wide world as your possession. With an iron scepter, you will break them, shatter them like so many pots. There's a lot going on here.

So again, Yahweh is now talking to this new king, saying, you are like a son to me. A lot of times in king coronation and basically ancient times, you would call the king like the son of God, whatever your God was.

So this was really wasn't abnormal for the Hebrews to be doing the same thing. And he's saying, y' all gave the nations you as your birthright. You're going to overcome them. You're going to take their land even.

Because, like, how dare they come against you. All this making a lot of sense.

The thing that's interesting, it talks about with an iron scepter, a lot of people talk about shepherd because it's talking about a shepherd's tool. But an iron scepter is really weird because you're going to break them.

So when a lot of times we think shepherds, we typically think there's this peaceful person bringing sheep in and it's all a quiet thing. Oftentimes they had to, like, really get physical with these sheep to gather them together to keep them safe.

Sometimes they had to even break legs to like, keep the sheep together and safe because there were lots of things that wanted to come eat the sheep.

So an iron scepter is not just showing you, like, oh, he's going to be guiding, he's going to be this caregiver, but showing some strength that he's willing to get physical. And that's something. And a king, especially in this time, that you would want to hear that your king was going to be shattered in like so many pots.

Obviously, I think that reference is pretty basic. Move on a little bit further here. So now, you kings, come to your senses, you earthly rulers, learn your lesson in fear.

Be submissive to Yahweh with trembling, kiss his feet lest he be angry. And your way come to nothing. For his fury flares up in a moment. How blessed are all who take refuge in him.

And now it's turning back to Yahweh, turning back to God and saying, you, even you other nations need to submit to God because otherwise he's going to make your way come to nothing. His fury can come up and just slaughter you for coming against him and his people.

Now, again, I don't actually think violence is bad if it's, hey, kill or be killed kind of situation.

And to think that God is on your side when everyone's against you, when shit's all against you and God being able to protect you, yeah, that's a good thing. Again, a lot of us are anti violence. Even all throughout the Anazole network, we have a lot of people who are anti violence.

But here I think God is saying, I'm willing to get violent if you people are going to come against my people. Fury can come up in a moment. Think of like, if you have a pet or a child and something happens to them, your fury could come up in a second.

You're willing to beat that bitch to a pulp.

How dare they touch your dog, your cat, your son, your wife, your husband, you know, whatever, what they're trying to depict here is that you're always the same way. Like, how dare you touch my people? So you don't want to mess with Israel. You don't want to mess with this new king.

We're coronating because God can fuck someone up. That's what they're saying here. So looking at that in its context. Yeah, coordination, display of strength. I get it. It's not ideal for me.

You know, I would like more nonviolence. I wouldn't like it to be all about, like, God gonna fuck him up.

But you see where this is coming from in the context that this would have been sung, right? Now we want to look at it in context of the other psalms. Thinking of the editors, you know, we do a little bit of redactor criticism here.

Psalm 2 comes right after Psalm 1. We talked about Psalm 1 a long time ago when we first started the psalm series.

And Psalm 1 is talking about, like, individually, here's what the righteous is going to be like. Here's what the wicked is going to be like. And it's about the individual, the one who does what right and the way the world should be ordered.

Psalm 2 is taking it from the individual, talking about the nations. God's people should be protected. The king should stand up, should be strong enough to withstand all the shit that's coming against Israel.

Again, it's what should be. Psalm 1 and 2 is giving this ideal depiction of the righteous man, the righteous nation.

If the world were to submit to Yahweh's ways, what things should look like. And then the next few psalms, we get Psalm 3 onwards, at least until we get to Psalm 42.

Because Psalm 41 is the end of, like, what's known as, like, Book one of Psalms, right? You have all these Davidic psalms, and things just aren't panning out the way that it said. Man. Psalm 2 is like, yeah, God's gonna fuck him up.

And then Psalm 3 is God, they're fucking me up. Where are you? I need your help, Yahweh. I can't do this. I don't have that iron scepter that we talked about. I'm not gonna fuck the nations up.

I need God to step in and do it for me. And we see that again, the King's being defeated. So here some people like, oh, the king's got this. He's gonna fuck everybody up.

And then we see, actually the nations are. They're getting one over on his God, what's going on? And God, you're stronger than this.

Even if the king is the one singing sometimes saying, I'm not that strong. I need you, God. So Psalm 102, kind of depicting this as it should be. Psalms 3, 41 are more of a what's actually going on?

What are the prayers of people that the real world, not what we said during the coronation. Because, you know, presidents make promises, don't always have. You know, how it goes.

So that's what we're looking at when we look at this in the context of the other psalms, how the redactor placed the psalms together, at least in the book one of psalms. Now, with all that in mind, let's look at it.

The Messianic view, when you look at it, talking about the Son of God again, you know, I think that this is originally was probably more about, hey, that's what a lot of kings call themselves. They were the son of whatever God their nation was.

I think maybe it's all stuck in a little bit more here because you see talking about the Son of God and then turning into Yahweh himself. And I don't think the Israelites were trying to equate their king with God. So there's a little bit of obscurity here.

And when you go to the New Testament, they play on that a lot like, hey, this is what it should have been. The king should have been the strong, the iron scepter. You know, all that. That shit that we were talking about, Right. But he wasn't.

He didn't live up to that. But there is one who does. God's actual son, Jesus Christ. And that's where we see Jesus is the true son of God.

And that's when we start thinking of the eschatological stuff of the end times when Jesus actually comes back and he's going to. He's going to everybody up. My problem is I still don't think the way that God's going to everybody up.

The first time, it wasn't through violence like this psalm talks about. I don't think it's going to be the same the second time. I don't think that's how God does when God fucks him up.

I think God's more concerned with their spirit than he is killing people that were made in the image of God. I don't think he's like, I made you special and in my image and I'm about to fucking kill you. No, I think God's more. I'm gonna love you.

That spiritual warfare that's going around you, I'm gonna Take care of it.

The things that have grasp on your soul, that lust, that ambition, that self centeredness, that anger that has taken a hold of you, I'm gonna fuck it up. I'm gonna kill that. I'm gonna break your chains.

Going back to the top of this verse, talking about breaking the chains of the other nations, God's breaking the chains of the spirits, the spiritual warfare, I think that's what Jesus is all about. So I don't think even in the second coming we're not going to see Jesus come fuck up all the other people that we don't like.

I think he's going to win them back. We're going to see that second coming being a revival where the spiritual warfare is finally won. And we are meant to be members of that in my belief.

I know not everyone on the network is going to agree with that, but I think as we continue to read these astrological texts which when we get to some Daniel, Ezekiel, when we get to Revelation especially, we're going to see that I don't think Jesus is meant to come back to just fuck some people up. I don't think that's who Jesus is. Jesus's role in this conversation is really unique. You know, I mentioned we saw how things should be.

Psalm 1 and 2 is how things should work. 3 through 41 is how things actually are. We talked a lot about those psalms in previous episodes. Jesus goes beyond that.

He says it's actually more than how things should be or how things are. There's something greater. There's a greater freedom, a greater blessing, a greater covenant that he offers.

You know, the Old Testament, the law says an eye for an eye. Jesus taught something better than that though. Because I say forgive, an eye for an eye, the whole world goes blind.

I say forgive, show mercy, show love. Does that mean that the law was wrong, that these psalms were wrong? No, it means that those are right. That is how things should be.

But there's something greater than even how things should work. And that's mercy, it's grace, it's love. It's the way of Jesus is greater than even the way things should work.

Now there's a way that's even greater than that. A freedom beyond that, a love greater than any of how the world currently works.

And what we have to do is find Jesus and realize that way way and then act it out, act out Jesus's way. That isn't we're gonna do things right and up the other nations who are trying to come against God's people. That's how it should work.

We're gonna do something greater though. We're gonna love those other nations. We're gonna show them mercy.

We're showing grace when people around us are causing harm to other individuals, when your government is causing people to die in the streets, innocent people are being detained. How it should work, if we come up, we're gonna violent with violence, we're gonna, we're gonna fuck them up for that. Jesus way, I think is different.

We're gonna love them. We're gonna show them that their way, what they're doing is wrong.

Through peaceful protest, through non violence, through loving them as they have not loved others. We're gonna love them as Jesus has loved us.

Not based on their actions, not based on how right or wrong they are or whether or not violence would be more, you know, maybe violence would be more effective. It doesn't matter. Jesus way is greater than that.

Greater than what's effective, greater than what should be, greater than what is, is the love of Jesus, the grace, the mercy, the peace that comes with Jesus. It's what he brought the first time, it's what he'll bring again. God is the same.

Now I'm not saying that God can't change his mind or can't do whatever like all that, because I was saying is the characteristics Jesus did not come as love once and hate the next time. That's bullshit. He's still love and he's still calling you to be Christ in the world today.

Which means to be love, to be mercy, to be grace, to be mercy and grace to those who are illegally in your country. To be mercy and grace and love to those who are persecuting those who are illegally in your country. To be mercy and grace and peace.

That is what Jesus has called his people to. Something better than what is something better than what what should be. That is Jesus and that is what the church is meant to be. The body of Christ.

Today. We are meant to be better than what is, better than what should it be we're meant to be.

Grace, love, mercy, peace, gentleness, goodness, kindness, self control, you know, the whole fucking spiel. That's what we're meant to be. Let's fucking do it. We all need to examine our own hearts today. Soon as this is over, turn it. Turn everything off.

Just find some space, some quietness. And I want you to examine yourself. Think about yourself.

When you think about what you want in the world, what you want to see in the world, not for yourself, what do you want to see in the world?

Do you feel more like you're really looking for judgment, like you're really looking for violence against those who you don't like or who you think are doing wrong? Are you more looking for a future warrior king and Jesus that's going to everybody up and make it right in the end?

Or are we looking more for a Jesus who is mercy? Are we looking more for love in this world? Are we looking for peace? Are we seeking the salvation of all so that none may perish?

How you answer that question, if you're honest with yourself, if you find a moment of quietness and see where, where's your heart really, what are you really hoping happens in this world? There's a lot going on now, a lot of good reasons to want other people to get fucked up, to get what's coming to them, to get retribution.

There's a lot of reasons to want those things. If that's where your heart's really settling when you think about what you want in the world, I think something's wrong.

Not because you're not right, like that's how things should be, but because there's something greater. And our hearts, if we're Christians, to be closer to Jesus heart, not closer to what should be, but closer to what's better than what should be.

That mercy, that love, that grace that we're talking about here. Where's your heart? Really sit in meditation for a moment. Really contemplate that. Now think, how do you react? How do your actions reflect that?

In your moment of meditation, you're thinking about where your heart really is. Now I want you to ask yourself, how do your actions reflect that? How do my actions reflect that? Are we trying to enact an eye for an eye?

Getting tit for tat? Are we getting back at those who got us? Are your actions where somebody fucked you over at work, so you fuck them over?

Your actions where you see someone hurt your children so you're gonna find a way to hurt them, Are you trying to sue someone because something bad happened to you? And I'm saying, you know, lawsuits or if you need to do it, you need to do it.

But, like, what are your actions really saying about where your heart is? Did your neighbor do something wrong so you do something to get back at him?

You don't like his light, so you couldn't put something up that he doesn't like? Or, you know, your football team, someone puts up a flag of a team you hate, so you do something that they hate.

Like, hey, look, I'm all for Football. But where's your heart at in all of your actions, the little ones and the big ones, how you're voting even?

Are your actions because you're trying to get retribution or your actions because something deeper? Is it more love? Is it more mercy? Do we hate our fellow man? Do we hate Donald Trump? Do we hate Kamala Harris? Do we hate Joe Biden?

Do we hate, you know, fucking beat, exit, whoever like? Is there hate for these leaders? Is there hate for your neighbor? Is there hate for your boss, for your co worker? Do you have hate in your heart?

Or are you hopeful that each of these people, Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, your neighbor, Pete Hegseth, your boss, your co worker, all fuck finds Jesus, all finds love, finds mercy. That rather than getting what's coming to them, rather than retribution, they find something greater. They get grace, find mercy.

They have a change of heart. They find love. What are you really hoping for?

Be honest with yourself and how do your actions reflect that in your voting and how you live as a neighbor in your community and how you work at your job? How are your actions reflecting where your heart is? Are we hopeful for a second coming to see violence take over the world?

Are we hopeful for a second coming of Jesus because we want to look upon the face of love and mercy itself and ask in bewilderment and in astonishment, look at what he does next. What are we hoping for in the second coming? What are we hoping for in the world we live in today?

And how are our actions, from the smallest action in your neighborhood to the large to your voting to your workplace? How are your actions really reflecting your desires as you reflect on these things? I think it's going to help us see where our hearts really lie.

If you're being honest, you're going to see where your heart really is in your actions, in your feelings. Here, then you could say, am I in sync with the heart of a loving savior? Am I just hoping for more violence that happens to be against people?

I don't like this time. Once we learn where our hearts really lie in the US we can begin to pray.

We can begin to seek real transformation of ourselves and of others, of our hearts and minds, so we can be like Christ in a way where we find grace, where we prioritize love and mercy over judgment and violence. Guys, I don't want you to share this on your public social media accounts.

If you think it might offend somebody, if you think you can post it without offending anybody, that's great. Or my motive isn't to offend people with strong language and awe. Isn't that funny? That's not why we do this shit.

It's because I genuinely care for people and think it's best if we can speak the language of the people to the people and we can really wrestle together and try to engage honestly with what scripture saying, who Jesus really is.

If you're with me, you don't think that it's congruent to say that Jesus, who came the first time, who showed love and mercy and gentleness to those around him, who came against the empire with nonviolence and peace? If you think it's incongruent to think that that Jesus is going to come back to fuck up the nations and kill the bad guys, share this with somebody.

Somebody else needs to hear that. I promise you.

Somebody else needs to think and to hear that maybe Jesus, maybe those who are following the ways of Christ actually care more about love and grace and mercy than they do judge in violence and retribution. Somebody needs to hear it.

So share it with a friend, with a family member, someone who you think might benefit from hearing that message, who maybe are willing to engage with you honestly in conversation. Engage one another. Let's bring the church back to the common people. Thank you so much for listening.