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Angels, Dinosaurs, & Answering Your Kids’ Questions about God
August 16, 2023 · 29 min
There are a number of truths every Christian should know. From angels and dinosaurs to temptation versus testing, the core beliefs of the faith are vitally important. But how do we explain something like spiritual warfare or why going to church shouldn't be an option to someone who’s not a Christian, or even more importantly, to our own kids? On this week’s episode of Unapologetic, Julia sits down with her dad (and favorite pastor!) Dr. Robert Jeffress to do just that!
During this candid discussion between father and daughter, Julia asks the questions so many of us want to know about God, including how we explain the Trinity, are angels and demons real, does God tempt us, and more! These concepts are sometimes hard to wrap our heads around (especially when we wonder where dinosaurs came in!). Dr. Jeffress helps answer each of them in such a way that one of our kids wondering about the same thing could easily understand.
Julia and Dr. Jeffress also talk about why sticking with a church is so important, why it’s never too late to start taking your kids on a Sunday, and how making worship optional will only hinder your kids’ faith. The two wrap up the episode with Julia sharing an incredible story of recently encountering God at a low moment. Don’t miss this special conversation!
Dr. Jeffress’s book—What Every Christian Should Know—is available everywhere now! Connect with him at ptv.org or by listening to the Pathway to Victory podcast.
Series Unapologetic with Julia Jeffress Sadler August 16, 2023 · 29 min · Unapologetic with Julia Jeffress Sadler
There are a number of truths every Christian should know. From angels and dinosaurs to temptation versus testing, the core beliefs of the faith are vitally important. But how do we explain something like spiritual warfare or why going to church shouldn't be an option to someone who’s not a Christian, or even more importantly, to our own kids? On this week’s episode of Unapologetic, Julia sits down with her dad (and favorite pastor!) Dr. Robert Jeffress to do just that! During this candid discussion between father and daughter, Julia asks the questions so many of us want to know about God, including how we explain the Trinity, are angels and demons real, does God tempt us, and more! These concepts are sometimes hard to wrap our heads around (especially when we wonder where dinosaurs came in!). Dr. Jeffress helps answer each of them in such a way that one of our kids wondering about the same thing could easily understand. Julia and Dr. Jeffress also talk about why sticking with a church is so important, why it’s never too late to start taking your kids on a Sunday, and how making worship optional will only hinder your kids’ faith. The two wrap up the episode with Julia sharing an incredible story of recently encountering God at a low moment. Don’t miss this special conversation! Dr. Jeffress’s book—What Every Christian Should Know—is available everywhere now! Connect with him at ptv.org or by listening to the Pathway to Victory podcast. ...more Show the full description Show less There are a number of truths every Christian should know. From angels and dinosaurs to temptation versus testing, the core beliefs of the faith are vitally important. But how do we explain something like spiritual warfare or why going to church shouldn't be an option to someone who’s not a Christian, or even more importantly, to our own kids? On this week’s episode of Unapologetic, Julia sits down with her dad (and favorite pastor!) Dr. Robert Jeffress to do just that!
During this candid discussion between father and daughter, Julia asks the questions so many of us want to know about God, including how we explain the Trinity, are angels and demons real, does God tempt us, and more! These concepts are sometimes hard to wrap our heads around (especially when we wonder where dinosaurs came in!). Dr. Jeffress helps answer each of them in such a way that one of our kids wondering about the same thing could easily understand.
Julia and Dr. Jeffress also talk about why sticking with a church is so important, why it’s never too late to start taking your kids on a Sunday, and how making worship optional will only hinder your kids’ faith. The two wrap up the episode with Julia sharing an incredible story of recently encountering God at a low moment. Don’t miss this special conversation!
Dr. Jeffress’s book—What Every Christian Should Know—is available everywhere now! Connect with him at ptv.org or by listening to the Pathway to Victory podcast.
Series Unapologetic with Julia Jeffress Sadler
270K followers
Julia Jeffress Sadler is bestselling author, licensed counselor, and the Next Gen Minister at First Baptist Dallas. She's passionate about discussing God’s Word on today’s topics.
270K followers
0:00 God has specifically chosen you to be here at this time and in this place. You have incredible potential, purpose, and calling to push back the darkness and be a light for Christ.0:12 Stand for nothing and you'll fall for anything. It's time to stand your ground. This is Unapologetic. Hi everyone and welcome to Unapologetic. Today, I am honored and excited to0:24 interview my dad, Doctor. Robert Jeffress on this show. He is the author of his new book, What Every Christian Should Know. So we're asking all the hard questions, everything you wanna know, from angels0:36 and demons to exorcism, to what to do if you've messed up as a parent or grandparent, how to pick a church, and lastly, the exciting life that God invites us to. Please help0:48 me welcome to the show my favorite pastor and dad, Doctor. Robert Jeffress. Hi, dad.0:53 Hello, Julia. Thank you for having me. It's great to be back on my favorite podcast, Unapologetic!0:58 Thank you. Okay. So we're gonna start out asking, well, you've been on the show before, but maybe your answer has changed a little bit. What do you wish Christians would stop apologizing for?1:08 I wish they would stop apologizing for the core beliefs of the Christian faith, like Christ is the only way to heaven or the bible is really true. And I know we've got an1:20 upcoming show we're going to do about those core beliefs, but I wish they would stop apologizing for what God has given us. Mhmm.1:28 Do you think I know I come across people, they don't know what the Bible teaches. Like, even if they do profess to be Christians, the topics they're not well versed in. That's right. What do you think is
1:40 the easiest way to learn tenets of the faith?
1:43 To get my new book. Yeah. That we're gonna talk about next time, I think.
1:48 Okay, in all seriousness though, your books, I'm a little biased, but they are my favorite as far as Christian books go because they're not difficult to understand, they're very topical, and they relate to
2:00 our lives today. So you take very difficult ideas like the end times and truths of the Trinity and make it where we can understand them. So there's a plug for you
2:10 from Well, I appreciate it because, you know, I got that idea really from my former theology professor, doctor Charles Ryrie. Many people know the Ryrie study bible. But he was a
2:22 very educated man, but he said when you teach Bible truths, you ought to try to put it on a sixth grade level. And it's interesting, even though he was a learned seminary
2:33 professor, he taught children's church at our church every Sunday and learned how to take those complex truths Yeah. And make it understandable for everybody.
2:42 Alright. Well, it sounds like this is what this show is gonna be about, so we'll just get right into it. 1 of the biggest blessings of my life was being raised by you because you could answer my questions. Also, you're
2:54 really fun and we're a great dad. But I never, and this is no credit to me, I never had a crisis of faith in the sense of, is God real? Do I really believe this? And I did become a
3:06 Christian when I was 5, but the reason I believe I didn't have a huge crisis was you were always able to answer my questions, any question I had. But everyone doesn't have a theologian as a
3:17 father, and maybe they don't have good teaching at their church. And really, questions can lead us either away from the faith or closer to God. So how do you see questions impacting people's
3:29 faith today?
3:31 Well, you know, Peter said we need to be ready to give an answer to anybody who asks us for the hope that is within us. And I don't believe you have to have a seminary degree to be able to explain the Bible. I think
3:42 every parent has a responsibility to know how to answer their children's questions. And that's 1 reason I wrote this book. Actually, I've written 2 books on the topic. You've talked about I think we've talked about my
3:54 book, How Can I Know? That I answer the 7 most common questions Mhmm. About Christianity. How can I know the Bible is true? How do I know Jesus is the Son of God? How can I know Christianity is the
4:06 right religion? I think it's important that we have answers to those questions. And in that book, how can I know? I, you know, used hundreds of books to help distill into 30
4:17 pages for each questions the best arguments for each of these Christian positions. I realize most of the listeners of this program won't be able to look at hundreds of books, but I wanted to distill it
4:29 in an easy to understand way for parents to communicate to their children or friends to communicate to their non Christian friends. So my big point is that every Christian can give
4:41 answers if they're ready to these basic questions. And so I would say, you know, get a resource whether it's mine or when Lutzer has some good resources about those topics as well. But you
4:53 have a responsibility to answer your children's questions.
4:56 I think 1 reassuring thing for me is we have the Internet. So, I mean, I can look it up. If I can't answer it immediately, I can go to a trusted source.
5:05 Yeah. And but the key is a trusted source. There are lots of things on the Internet that are just not true.
5:11 And that more we can research the answer.
5:14 Yeah. If you know how to do research. But I would say to parents listening right now, you may not have the answer for everything, but you can take them to a church where the Bible is taught. And I think that's
5:25 another key responsibility of parents is to make sure that they give attention to their children's spiritual development. Parents are so concerned about their kid's academic progress or social
5:37 progress, their athletic progress that sometimes church is seen as optional, and it's not. You know, growing up, you know, church wasn't optional for you. You love going to church and so
5:49 forth. But there were some hard decisions to be made about church when it conflicts with other activities. Mhmm. But I think it's important to communicate to your children that their relationship with Christ is most
6:00 important.
6:01 Well, and I don't have any trouble talking about that. I was, just patting myself on the back here, by God's grace, a very good soccer player, and I was not allowed to skip church on Sundays. And it was something I was
6:11 very bitter about for a long time, but it didn't change the fact that that was the right thing to do. Yeah. There's definitely something about church not being an option. I get confused now whenever I talk
6:23 to people and they're church shopping, which you can only do in certain areas of the world where there's so many churches. But I think there's really something about sticking it out and making it work
6:34 Yeah.
6:34 Where you are. What do you say to people that are trying to decide if they should stay at a church or leave? How do you know?
6:41 Well, I think it's important to understand. I think we make a commitment to a church. The church has a responsibility to us. We have a responsibility to the church. You know, the Bible says
6:53 in Ephesians 5, Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. And I think if we're gonna be Christ like, we have the same commitment, the same faithfulness to a church that we have to
7:04 Christ. And that's not popular to say today. We think of the church as just some human organization. The church is the only organization that God created. He's the 1 who came up with the idea of the church.
7:16 And his word says that our assembling together is not just to be sporadic. It needs to become a habit. Hebrews 10 says, don't neglect the assembling together of yourselves as
7:28 has become the habit of some. We need the presence of other Christians to encourage 1 another. I tell people, Julia, it's like, you know, if I cut off my hand, my hand will
7:40 quickly wither, and it will cease to receive the oxygen and blood that it needs to stay alive. And when a Christian is separated from the rest of the body of Christ, he doesn't get the spiritual
7:51 energy. He needs to stay alive spiritually. So we need the church. And I would just say, unless there is a case of gross doctrinal error Mhmm. You
8:03 ought to stick it out with the church. If the pastor leaves or has an affair or something else, the church needs you to be loyal to it.
8:11 Yeah. I used to think you should stick it out no matter what, but now I've seen where sometimes people have such hurt or struggle with people that they just leave altogether before finding a place that they can
8:23 fit in. I mean, we are supposed to forgive other Christians, and it is kinda like a family with family problems. But I don't know what that teaches children. A lot of parents leave because their children wanna go
8:33 somewhere else. That happens a lot in students. I've heard kind of legalistic teaching that that should never happen, and then I've heard the perspective of, well, we want our kids to accept Christ. They wanna go here.
8:45 We want them to be excited about their faith. What do you say to families struggling with that?
8:49 Yeah, I would just say you're teaching your children a lesson, whether you learn it or not, about their attitude toward the church. And I think you ought to find a church that you can be faithful in and you can serve,
9:01 and you ought to just stay there. I really do. I think church hopping never benefits anybody, and eventually, children hop away from the church completely. No. I just I think
9:13 there ought to be a loyalty to the church, and, it ought to mirror our loyalty to Christ.
9:18 Okay. So you never gave me a quiz after church. Like, I do wanna talk about this because I feel like it's something you did really well. Yes, I always had to go, but it also was so clear
9:30 that church was because of my relationship with God, not because I was pastor's daughter, not to put on airs, not to pretend like I was perfect or anything. And I've always tried any pastor's kid I ever talked to. I
9:42 want them to know, like, God is for them. Like, the church is for them. This relationship, the Holy Spirit is for them, not because of who their family is. And you were just so good about that. When I was little and I'd
9:53 say, God's telling me, you wouldn't be like, I don't think so. You're just 5. Mean, you were really good about helping me listen to the Holy Spirit and develop my own faith. Do you have pointers on that for how
10:04 kids can develop their own faith?
10:06 Well, I'm glad you had a positive experience. I'm grateful for that. Look, I would say, of course, there may be some listening to this or watching this program. You're in a church ministry or a parachurch
10:18 ministry. You know, the worst thing to tell your children is you need to do this or not do this because of who you are. Mhmm. It's important to say it's because you're a Christian. It's not because you're the pastor's
10:29 daughter or the youth minister's son. It's because you are a Christian and your responsibility is to God. So I think that's the overarching idea. I think secondly, don't become
10:41 panicked when your children do start asking questions or start questioning. It is a natural process for teenagers and young adults to begin
10:52 personalizing their faith. They don't just believe it because their parents did. It's because they have embraced it. And don't get panicked if your children, you know, start asking real questions about the Bible. I
11:04 went to a period that I did that. But it's important that you know where to point them for the answers.
11:10 Right. I heard someone say question responsibly. Like, it's okay to question, but you have to actually search out
11:15 Yeah.
11:15 The answers and that God's big enough to handle all of our doubts and questions because it is the truth. Okay. So we're gonna kind of think about this because you talked about how your book answers and addresses big
11:27 theological ideas in a way sixth graders can understand.
11:31 Yeah. The book is called what every Christian should know, and the subtitle is 10 core beliefs for Standing Strong in a Shifting World. And what I did in the book was to go back to the 10 basic doctrines
11:42 of the Christian faith, what every Christian should know about God the Father, whatever Christian should know about Jesus and the Holy Spirit, whatever Christians should know about the Bible, whatever Christians should
11:52 know about angels and demons. And I took these 10 core beliefs and distilled them in a way that people could understand what those doctrines are and why they matter to us today. And the book
12:04 has a study guide with it. We're finding a lot of small groups are using it as a small group study, but it's something parents could use with their children as well.
12:13 And I use that book as a resource too where maybe I obviously don't have the whole book memorized, but when question comes up, I'm like, oh, hang on. And we also give it as gifts to graduates whenever they graduate high
12:24 school. Okay. So switching gears here, what do we need to know about angels and demons?
12:29 Well, that they're real. That's important to know. First of all, that's an encouragement to us when we know about angels. You know, the Bible says, I call angels God's triple a service. You know, they're always available
12:41 at any time, you know, to And angels are real. They are ministers of eternal life to those who inherit salvation. And I've had experience, I think, what I would attribute
12:53 to angels. Mhmm. You know, 1 of the questions that comes up is does every Christian have a guardian angel? And there's really nothing in the Bible that indicates there's 1 guardian angel to
13:04 yeah. Yeah. You must have lot of the things you've been through. But that's the point is what's even more encouraging than 1 guardian angel is the idea there's a whole legion of angels that God
13:16 assigns for our need when we need them. So the angels in a positive sense are very good news. Of course, fallen angels are demons. We believe they're demons because the Bible talks
13:28 about Satan and his angels. Okay. And these are angels that apparently fell with Lucifer, and they are available. They can bring oppression into the
13:40 life of a Christian. I think they tempt us. I think there's a boy in the Bible that was continually trying to kill himself, and Jesus attributed that to demons. I
13:52 think they're somehow able to tempt us even to do things like to harm ourselves. And so we need to be aware of demons. We don't need to be fearful of demons.
14:04 The Bible says in Ephesians 6, we struggle not against flesh and blood but against the unseen forces of wickedness. I think that's demonic witnesses. People don't understand this that Satan can't
14:16 be more than 1 place at a time. Mhmm. He's not omnipresent like God is. Satan is not the opposite of God. He's the opposite of Michael the archangel. Oh. And he can only be at 1 place at
14:28 a 1 time. He's not all just seeing. He doesn't have all knowledge. He doesn't have all power. He's not omnipotent, and he's not omnipresent, but he does have a legion of angels that are available that we ought to be
14:38 aware of.
14:39 1 of the most interesting books I read on that was this present darkness. Yes. It was kind of the, contemporary version of Screwtape Letters. And that for our listeners, it takes a family and a town
14:51 and a church and all the different dynamics and problems going on, and then it'll span out and show what was going on between angels and demons. And it didn't scare me. It just helped me
15:03 realize things like, well, when everyone on staff is having a hard time, that's demonic because we have a job to do. And it just helps you see things in that way. But some people do get kind of fixated
15:14 on spiritual warfare. What do you think is the balance between being scared of it, being fixated on it, and just having victory
15:21 over it? First Peter 5 8 says, be on the alert, be of sober spirit, for your adversary the devil prowls about like a roaring lion seeking somebody to devour. And the only people who aren't
15:33 aware of that spiritual battle become what I call spiritual roadkill. So we need to be aware of it. We need to take the armor of God that he's provided. I've talked about that in my book, the divine
15:44 defense, about that spiritual armor that God has provided us. But I think we need to be aware of it and be prepared for it.
15:52 And sometimes it's really obvious. Like, I've had thoughts that are just, like, intrusive. It's like, where did that come from? Yeah. I'm like, oh, like, that was spiritual warfare. But sometimes it's trickier. Like,
16:00 it's not necessarily so overtly evil.
16:04 Yeah. James asked the question in James 4, what is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is it not your own pleasures that were as part of these thoughts come from our own fallen nature that
16:15 we have, sometimes that's exacerbated by demonic activity, I believe.
16:21 So do we need to cast out demons and
16:23 You know, there is no command in scripture for us to cast out demons.
16:28 I mean, I'm not going to.
16:29 Yeah. There's no reason to think that we have the ability to. It's true. The apostles had a limited ability to do that, but it was to authenticate their message that they were truly
16:41 disciples of Christ, and the message they were preaching was true. It's interesting. Even Jesus talked about the limited effectiveness of cast out demons. He said if you cast out 1, 10 others can come back. And the
16:52 important point I make in the divine defense is since the book of Acts, when you go to the epistles, the responsibility for living a demon free life, a life
17:04 free from demonic influence isn't in some third party exorcist. We have the responsibility for making sure our lives are not open to demonic influence and activity by
17:16 what we read and what we don't read and measures we take. You can't make my life demon proof. I'm responsible for doing that. And that's the emphasis, not casting out demons from other
17:28 people Yeah. But making sure our lives are demon proof.
17:31 That's interesting because sometimes people get uncomfortable. They don't wanna spiritualize things. We talk about that a lot, my generation does. We're kinda like, I don't wanna say this is a satanic attack, but you can
17:42 see it in your home if you're actually paying attention and you have, for pastors' families, everyone has this story, that Saturday nights are the night. Something's gonna happen on Saturday nights because you have to
17:54 get up and preach. Ryan has to get up and teach. And even if you're not in a pastor's family, hopefully you're trying to get your kids to church. There's something about Saturday nights. Now we don't have to be scared of
18:04 that, but we can be prepared.
18:06 That's right. Be aware of it. I think that's really important.
18:09 I know another thing that's happened in my life is whenever there's a big spiritual breakthrough. Like, we had Tell the World where we were encouraging teenagers to witness all over Dallas, old fashioned street
18:20 evangelism. And it was this incredible time of ministry that was a horrible personally. And I think I see that a lot in my life, and I've seen in other people's. If they have a big
18:32 victory, then there could be a lot of temptation around it too
18:36 Yeah.
18:36 You know or activity, whatever you wanna
18:39 friend Bob Beale told me 1 time, said, a lot of people look at their life like a roller coaster, ups and downs and up and down. But he said a better picture of our life is like railroad tracks. Wow. You
18:51 can be having the best experience spiritually in your life or in your ministry or in your work or in your marriage or whatever, but right alongside of it at the very same time, some of the hardest challenges
19:03 you've ever experienced. It's not usually either or both things are happening.
19:07 And that's a reason, just like Deuteronomy says, we should tell stories, we should write down what's happened to kinda keep track of it. Okay. This is just privilege because I know your material probably better than
19:18 anybody. Can you explain how it's the same word in the New Testament for tests and temptations? Kind of explain that.
19:26 You know, Jesus prayed in the Lord's Prayer, taught us to pray, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And, you know, the Bible is very clear in James 1 that God
19:38 does not tempt anyone. Let nobody say when he is tempted, I'm being tempted by God. Tempting means to entice to evil. God never entices us to evil.
19:49 Satan tempts us to destroy us,
19:52 but
19:54 God tests us to strengthen our faith. That's the difference from a temptation and a test. Temptations come from Satan to destroy us. Tests come from Jesus to strengthen us. But
20:05 what's interesting is the Greek word is the same, cherasmus, for both temptation or a test. And so you'd say, well, how can that be? Well, the word parosmos literally means a
20:17 difficult situation. We lose our job. We're told our wife has cancer. Mhmm. Our children are running with the wrong crowd. That's a difficult situation.
20:28 Satan uses that difficult situation to tempt us to abandon our faith. God uses that very same word, that very same experience to test us, to
20:40 strengthen our faith. And whether a difficult situation turns out to be a temptation that destroys us or a test that strengthens us is our decision, how we respond to it.
20:51 Wow. Okay. So this is kinda how I always feel if I have a giant of the faith sitting here, and you're also my dad,
20:58 so we have
20:58 all of those different complexities. What do you say to people who they've just messed up? I mean, they didn't take their kids to church. Maybe they go sometimes. They have not walked the
21:10 road. They're saved, but they just definitely have failed in this area of spiritual growth in church and with their kids. It's tempting to be like, well, too late now. Yeah. What is the encouragement
21:21 to start where you are?
21:23 I think it depends on the age of the child, obviously, but I think at almost any age, if that's been true, that you failed to be honest with your kids and say, you've made a mistake. And,
21:35 you know, by the way, you can't give away what you don't have. You can't say, children, you all need to be in church, and so your mother's gonna take you or your dad's gonna take you. They need to see you in church. They
21:47 need to see spiritual things a priority with you. But I would be honest with your kids, say, we may messed up, but I care about you. I care about your long term success in life. A relationship with God is the
21:59 most important thing. And so from this point on as a family, this is what we're going to do.
22:04 I've had the privilege of hearing lots of stories like that from teenagers whose parents became Christians in their teenage years. And 1 of really the cool benefits of that was they saw life without Christ and then saw
22:15 what you do in a family. I know what you just said is so true. That's also in counseling, we encourage people so much. It's hard and it's humbling, but to ask your kids forgiveness or admit when you've done something
22:27 wrong. Well, I do that all the time. I have 3 little ones that are like, I don't think that was the right thing. The Bible talks about addressing things immediately and repairing
22:46 talks Yeah. And that's even a principle in AA and other organizations that you need to repair immediately and try to restore relationships.
22:47 And I would say if your kids are already grown and out of the house at that point, I think you still need to go to your adult children Mhmm. And ask for forgiveness and just in a positive way say, I don't want
22:59 you to make the same mistake with your children that I made with you.
23:03 Yeah. And everyone makes mistakes. No family's perfect, right? And then we're gonna talk about, in our next episode, we're gonna talk about what to do when people fail, when Christians fail, when we fail. But I wanna
23:14 talk about 1 more thing before you go today. Can you explain why we need to understand the Trinity and the different functions, the different roles of different persons?
23:24 Well, trying to explain the Trinity or other state that will cause you to lose your mind. I mean, it's an inexplicable truth Mhmm. That we serve 1 God who's manifest in 3
23:36 persons, and every attempt to illustrate that falls flat. You know, I used to tell you, you know, I'm your dad Mhmm. But I'm my wife's husband, I'm my father's son, and yet I'm
23:48 all the same person. Amazing to
23:50 me, but that's not good?
23:51 But it's really not, it falls flat. About water? You know, water it exists in 3 forms. It can be a liquid, it can be a mist, a steam, and it can be
24:02 ice, a solid. But I would leave it there, but not worry about that. These are 3 persons but 1 God that we serve. But what I do is, you know, people wanna
24:14 know usually to whom do I pray in the trinity. And Jesus taught us in the model prayer, we pray to God the father, our father who is in heaven. Well, that's politically incorrect, apparently, to say right now to
24:26 call God father. Jesus did. Oh. He said our father. We pray to God the father. We come to him through the son Mhmm. On the authority of the son, and we do so in the power of the holy
24:38 spirit. But I think each member of the godhead has unique functions that are important to Christians. I mean, God is our help in times of need. He
24:50 is a loving father who seeks our return to him. Jesus, the son, is the 1 who gave his life for our sins. The holy Spirit is God in us giving us the power to
25:02 do the same things Christ did. So, again, in my book, What Every Christian Should Know, we talk about each of these members of the Trinity and what they mean to us.
25:11 And it's comforting. We don't have to explain everything No. In scripture. Because
25:16 there's no sin in saying, I
25:17 don't know.
25:18 I don't understand. There's some things we won't know till we get to heaven.
25:21 Right. It's kind of the saying, the Bible says it, so I believe it, and that settles it. But some people do really want to talk about theology and the mysteries and all of that. What do you think the balance
25:33 is there of leaving some mysteries?
25:36 Well, I mean, if we can explain everything, then we don't need God. I mean, fact that we can't explain everything, God doesn't fit in our very limited brains.
25:44 Yeah.
25:44 It's more of an argument for the reality of God.
25:47 Okay. Have a question. The Holy Spirit prays on our behalf. So the other day, I didn't know what I was supposed to pray, but I did feel like there was a spiritual, like, heaviness, presence, didn't know what it was. And
25:59 so I asked the Holy Spirit to pray for me because of the scripture, the Holy Spirit intercedes when groanings too much for words. Was I not supposed to do that?
26:08 I think that's fine.
26:09 Oh, okay. And then sometimes we get too hung up maybe on what's right and wrong Right. When really the bigger picture is prayer.
26:17 There have been times in my life I said, Lord, I know I'm not supposed to ask for a sign, but I need 1 now if you can send 1. Sometimes he doesn't, but a few times he has.
26:26 Okay, can I tell you my sign story? Okay, Ryan and I were broken up, as you know, we
26:31 Before we were
26:32 married. Yeah, yeah. We met when we were 12. We broke up a lot before we got married. And the last time we were broken up, I said, God, I need a sign. And I was on the tollway, and I looked up, and there's this building
26:44 that says Ryan, like, as tall as it can be. And I was like, all right, that'll do. Then
26:49 after And it went Seacrest? No. Okay. So
26:51 Ryan's out there.
26:52 Oh, okay.
26:53 But I think God knows I need him to be obvious. And sometimes, of course, that hasn't happened. But I wanna tell you a story because it was so amazing to me. We were at the beach, and there was something
27:05 just really spiritual going on in the last few months, and I not have I went very spiritual that day. I did not have really the concentration or the motivation to read my Bible or pray for
27:17 an hour or anything. All I said was, God, will you do something? I just needed encouragement. I didn't know what it was. Nothing happened, and I was alone on this beach. It was early in the
27:28 morning, and I saw a fisherman out. He just ended up out there by himself, and he asked me to come fish with him. And it was just the most wild thing. And I mean, I don't
27:40 fish. I shop. Like, you know, I'm not a fisher. It was angel or just divine appointment. It was so neat just to see God do something so creative as having me fish
27:52 and remember the point of the gospel in Christianity is to be fishers of men. And so I just say that to say when we talk about theology or spiritual ideas, it can seem like a to do list or something
28:04 that's an obligation. It's really exciting to live by the Bible and live by spiritual and asking God to do something and ending up fishing on a random beach with a fisherman that I never saw again.
28:17 But, you know, there's freedom, there's excitement, there's joy in learning these things about the Bible. Can you tell us where we can get your book?
28:24 What Every Christian Should Know is available at Amazon dot com or all etailers or many bookstores as well.
28:31 Awesome. Thank you for being here today.
28:33 Great to be with you, Julia. Thanks.
28:35 Thanks. Thanks for tuning in to Unapologetic! Remember that you can hear today's episode and more at ptv dot org slash julia. Also make sure to tune in to Doctor. Robert Jeffress
28:46 podcast, Pathway to Victory, wherever you get your podcasts.
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