Today we’re talking about something we see far too often: living with one foot in the world and one foot in the faith. It’s time to make a choice, to stop hedging our bets, and go all in with Christ.

In this episode, we share our own struggles with lukewarm faith and explore what it means to commit fully to God. We look at examples from Scripture—like Elijah calling out the people on Mount Carmel and David’s heartfelt psalm of trust—to remind us that God doesn’t want a half-hearted relationship. Advent is a time to prepare, reflect, and decide: Will we give our all to Him, or keep clinging to the distractions of the world?

Victor and I are passionate about helping you find the joy, peace, and purpose that only Christ can bring. This episode is a wake-up call for anyone who’s ready to stop living a “safe” faith and start living a fulfilled one.

Don’t miss this one, and as always, share it with someone who might need to hear this message. God bless!

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 Well, welcome back to the Pew everybody. I’m your host, John Edwards, and here across the table from me as always is my. Co host and cohort, Victor Adams. You know, uh, it finally got comfortable here. It was an ice box in here earlier. Um, I had to wear some layers today because I knew this is like kind of like the out, you know, it’s attached to your house.

It was great. It’s an amazing studio. If anyone wants to come and do a tour, let John know. We’re going to need to do some background checks before that. But no, you’re right. It was cold in here. I mean, some days I stay in the house and work just because. It’s a different heating system and all that. Yeah, it says 55 when you come in.

We all know, well, we all know that, you know, in the wintertime those gas bills can get crazy. So, if I’m not working out here doing calls with parishes and stuff, sometimes I’m just, right now I’m spending a lot of time writing the book. So I can sit in the house when the heat’s already on. Right, I find out why you keep a call for me to stay asleep, uh, stay awake.

That’s right, yeah. Cause I, in the old days Trying to turn your headlights on. Right, in the old days. We were just doing like, you know, no, no video. There was times where I was like this. Oh yeah. John be like, John be like nudging. Cause we were sitting next to each other. We did, uh, The old, uh, what was it?

Cafe? Cafe Catholic. Cafe Studio. Yeah. Studio. Yeah. So you would sometimes nudge me and I’d be like, bless, pray. Praise God. Yeah. Oh, Jesus, here. Yeah. Yeah. It’s . So, uh, so you know, we would, yeah, we used to set up IVs, uh, of coffee for Victor, just a straight coffee in the whole time, espresso shots. So anyways, that’s, that’s the history of this, this kind of story.

So, yeah. No, but it’s, yeah, it’s, it’s, uh, we’re in the middle of Advent, right? We’re going into, this will be the third week of Advent. So, you know, we’re continuing talking about, uh, the things that we’re going to talk about in the context of Advent. You know, we had the episode with Heather Kim and then last week, uh, we talked about, uh, preparing the way of the Lord, uh, and staying awake.

Yeah. When, prepare yourself, stay awake. Staying awake. That’s right. So right on your point of what you were talking about. So we’re going to jump into another topic today that I’ve just really been praying about and thinking about during Advent. Before we do that, I just want to invite everybody. And remind everybody that we do have that pilgrimage coming up, uh, going to Greece and Turkey to walk in the footsteps of St.

Paul with my good friend, Father James Clark from the Diocese of Memphis. That is taking place September 9th through the 20th, um, of next year. We already have a bunch of people signing up, Black Friday and all that stuff. They had sales. It’s already starting to fill up. We’re only taking one bus. That means less than 50 people.

Um, so if you’re interested in going with us, you can go in the show notes and click and register and find out more about the trip there. Or you can go to just a guy in the pew. com, go to our event page and right below our calendar is a whole section on the pilgrimage. And you can download the brochure.

You can do all that there and then register straight from our website. But we’re going to be doing a lot of amazing stuff. We’re going to be walking the footsteps of St. Paul. We’re going to see churches. We’re He wrote letters to places where he preached places where he traveled with Silas and some of his other, uh, disciples and brethren there.

Uh, we’re going to see the Island of Patmos and the grotto where St. John wrote revelation. We’re going to see the house where Mary, uh, was said to have lived her last days up until the Assumption. There’s just so many amazing things the seven churches of revelation Um, and there’s a cruise it’s a four day cruise involved in it, too So you’re in land and you’ll be through the Aegean sea Going to all these islands like Mykonos and Patmos and Rhodes and all these beautiful, uh other places So Folks, if you’re interested in that, go to the link in the show notes below in the description, go to our website, just to get on the pew.

com and you’ll see a pilgrimage thing at the top. Click it and join us there. We’d love to have you also for any of you that are looking to bring us in to help you start and launch vibrant life changing ministry to men, or you’re looking to do leadership summits or have us for conferences and do do multiple things like that.

Then, uh, we are taking reservations and bookings now, uh, through the latter half of 2025 and into the entirety of 2026. So if you’re looking to have us come help you start a life changing ministry for men in your parish, you want us to come in and do a leadership summit in your diocese, uh, to help get groups going in many parishes, just reach out to justgardenview.

com. Click the, the, any of the buttons on the page that say, find out more. It’ll pull up a place where you can put in your information. You can even schedule a call with me. And we’ll get all that set up. So folks just wanted to say that also. Thank you again to all those that gave on giving Tuesday and continue to give each and every day we’re growing those monthly partners in the pew, and it is helping us be able to move forward.

Um, we’re actually moving in a different direction with what we’re doing with marketing and we’re bringing on an admin, and then we’re going to be looking to bring on those missionaries we’ve been talking about for a long time. So please pray for that. And please, if you haven’t give given yet, please consider becoming a partner in the pew.

It really helps us in our mission. You can do that by going to just get on the pew. com too. All right, Victor. So let’s jump into it. So we talked about it. We’re here in Advent, the third week of Advent. And, you know, I’ve just been having this wonderful walk with the Lord personally. Um, you know, we were talking before the show, I was kind of lamenting over some things that have happened at the year that have been a little difficult.

You know, just things I didn’t know were going to happen. You brought your lyre out and you’re singing the harp of David and lamenting. I was impressed, you know, but, uh, it was one, you know, it’s just, it’s some things here at the end of the year. That have been difficult that I wasn’t expecting to deal with.

So the Lord’s been giving me a really great grace to just, you know, sit and prepare the way and, and to wait as you’ve said, and to really just sit in peace. And so I’ve had a lot of time to pray about a lot of things and reflected over 2024. And. Um, a lot of the relationships and a lot of the places that I’ve seen men and, and really just the church men and women in the church today.

And so I was praying their day and I was thinking about some of that stuff and you know, a big problem that I’ve seen a lot in, in the men that I’ve journeyed with and some of the men that are in, in the men’s groups that we walk with, um, you know, people that are just in the church. Um, there’s been this sort of problem of, of just man, this sort of one foot in and one foot out in the faith.

And again, I, I live my life a long time that way. Talk about hokey pokey. Yeah, just sort of this special hokey pokey and, and really just this, this, like this desire to not want to pick and choose a side, right? Like I’m going to try to live in the world and I’m going to try to live in the church. And yes, we have to have jobs.

We have to have things. I’m not talking about like the literal sense of having to live in the world, but it’s almost like, okay, I know that there’s God and there’s all the promises that he has, but I’m not sure that that’s real. And so I don’t want to like put all my time into that and go crazy and give my whole life to God.

And then find out at the end that nothing’s really there and it was all just something someone made up And so I I don’t want to lose what I could have had in my own life So there’s just kind of one foot one one in One foot in one foot out and this kind of desire to play it safe with god like i’m going to do enough with god to where Like god knows who I am and and possibly if if jesus were to come back tomorrow that maybe i’d make it in But I also am going to continue to flirt with the world and the things that they offer, because I want my cake and eat it too.

Like I don’t want to choose one or the other, because what if whatever I choose isn’t a safe bet, right? What if whatever I choose doesn’t turn out to pay out right. In the sense of like, Diversifying your money, right? For instance, well, what if I put it, if I put it all in that Apple stock and it crashes, then I’ve lost everything.

So I just want to diversify my money and put it everywhere, which is a smart thing, but it’s not always so smart to do in your faith because you’re pretty much hedging your bets. And God doesn’t like that. God wants us to make a choice and he wants us to choose him. It’s not about spreading out your, your life and yourself so that you can walk in both worlds and kind of jump back and forth with, you know, whichever, whichever way the balls.

You know, whichever side’s winning, right? Or whichever side is offering you more at the time. But I see that in a lot of lives of men today. I see it in a lot of the people we’re working with. Like, hey, I want to change my life, but I still want to do all the other things I’ve been doing. I just really want to feel better about myself for a little while.

I don’t really want to change. So can I sort of keep walking this life over here and then kind of stick my toe in the life of a Christian? You know, because we’re not just talking about Catholics. It’s every Christian out there. It’s a lot of parts of the faith you see this in. where people are trying to put on the pose of, I’m a good Christian and I’m giving my life to Christ on stuff.

But they’re still over here living fully in the world and they haven’t made a choice. They’re playing both sides of the table. Yeah. Um, that’s kind of like what you’re talking about. The world’s very good. at giving misdirections or distractions. Uh, every day we go about setting the course that we need to do in order to provide, uh, income for our family and to answer emails and to do everything we can.

And then sometimes during that busyness, we kind of like forget that God’s even part of our life. You know, cause we’re distracted by everything else. So that is the, the encouraged, uh, I guess, incursion of misdirection of what the world tells us to focus on. And the danger of that is, is that over time, we not only neglect going to God or spending time in prayer, we start developing our own philosophy.

Yeah. We start justifying, well, you know, I mean, life’s pretty good, you know, I mean, we’ve missed, you know, for, for Catholics, you know, we’re, we’re supposed to go to mass every, every Sunday. Yeah. And that’s just, that’s just the expectation, you know, of, of being a Catholic. Yeah. Um, and not to say that every person that’s not in the Catholic faith, you know, don’t, doesn’t go to a Sunday worship all the time, but I do know a lot of people, cause I came from that, that, uh, that faith that sometimes golfing or, uh.

Hunting or fishing fishing sports. Yeah, right usurp that time, you know, that’s the important part and you know, everyone needs recreation I totally get it. I’m not, you know land blasting people like that because sometimes you just you know Sometimes unfortunately sporting events are always on like sunday.

Yeah, even within the catholic faith. We have volleyball basketball I mean, so it’s kind of like catholic run sports organizations, right? so there is that that that process that sometimes we We don’t know We negate the sense of worship and community worship and we, we, we create our own philosophy and say, well, uh, uh, God loves me, you know, but I believe more spiritual life rather than religious life.

And when we start divesting, you’re talking about, you know, financing stuff, we start divesting faith from spiritual or religion. from spirit, we, that’s what the danger we form, we form our own faith, we form our own philosophy and we get further and further from the truth and we make up our own idea of who God is or who Christ is or who Buddha is or who, uh, you know, uh, Allah is.

And so it gets to the point where we’re, we’re, we’re so convoluted in our faith that we don’t really know who it is we believe in. And then we started to believe more in ourselves. Yeah. And we, you just start to struggle and you’re wearing these masks and things, right? Like that’s the thing. A lot of us, and I know, cause again, I’m not pointing my finger at anybody but myself here, you know, in my past and things.

I would, I would put on the Christian mask and the church mask on Sunday, just like I would the work mask and the, this friend mask and this guy mask. Yeah, for an hour and a half you wear it. Yeah. And wear it. And you’re like, okay, I did enough to check the boxes to. You know, if I die tomorrow, if I have a heart attack, get hit by a bus, maybe God will look mercifully upon me and I’ll go to heaven because I, I did some things and that’s dangerous because you, you start to, it’s almost like you’re, you believe you can earn your way into heaven and that’s not what it’s about.

We’re supposed to be doing things out of love, but it’s like love doesn’t hedge their bets and I keep saying that phrase and. You know, I’m sure everybody listening is familiar, but if you’re not like hedging, your bets is really just, it’s a phrase. It’s like, I don’t want to, I’m afraid of making a mistake.

So I’m going to, I’m going to spread things out. Right. I’m going to put things out there, um, and play both sides of the issue so that I come out either way. It’s that gambling turn, right? I’m going to hedge my bet while things like hedge funds, right. It’s, it’s playing things so that. There really is no opportunity for loss and that you come out smelling like a rose, no matter what happens, but we can’t do that with our faith.

God, you know, what does Jesus say in the Bible? You can’t serve God in mammon, right? Like you can’t. He, he says that multiple times. You can’t have a foot in this and a foot in that. It’s one or the other, right? You can’t put your hands to the plow and then turn back and look back because guess what?

You’re going to have the most crazy line that you, you’ve ever, you know, dug in the sand to plant crops. Like you’re going to be crazy and all over the place. So Jesus tells us that over and over again. But the thing is, it’s, it’s human nature for us to want to hedge our bets, right? Like we’re so afraid.

Of choosing wrong in things right instead of instead of like what is my heart leading me to or what is god calling me to? So we hedge our bets when we’re not sure what to go all in on, right? We want the safe play and we don’t know You know, we we start becoming a little bit everywhere and we get everywhere.

It’s like Trying to do 8 million things well, you’re never going to be able to do that because you can’t, like, you can’t give enough yourself to all these different things to really do all of them well. That’s why people like, very rarely do you see an athlete play football and baseball, Deion Sanders and Bo Jackson’s like, that’s it.

But how many players have ever played in the NFL, right? Or in the major league that weren’t able to do that because it’s, it’s a crazy talented person that can do that. For the most part, we have to concentrate on the one thing, right? And that’s why Jesus says, again, there’s one thing that matters, right?

There’s one thing. And so, We have to quit hedging our bets and this time for admin is a perfect time to do that Like as we’re preparing for the lord, that’s what we should be doing Like lord, where are the places in my life? Like we talked about last week that that i’m not surrendering to you that i’m not giving to you Where are the places that I still have?

My leg over in the, in the, in the secular world. Right. And still trying to live and have my cake and eat it too. Like I want to tell Jesus, I love him and I’ll give him my life. But over here, I’m still doing all these simple things that I know I shouldn’t be doing. And I’m not really making that much effort to stop them.

Or I’m turning all my attention to. to building up treasure on earth and all those things instead of using my gifts for what God wants them for. So there’s a lot of that that I think that we see like guys will come to us and we see it when they come to the group. It’s like, man, I want to change my life.

And I, I just, you know, I need help. And then they start to find help and then they disappear and you see them. You’re like, well, what’s going on? I’m fine now. I felt better. I went to confession. You guys really helped me. And six months later you see them and they’re in the same mess again. It’s because we can’t, it’s like trying to, to stand on two different skateboards and somebody push you as fast as they can down the road.

Eventually because of the curvature of the road, the obstacles in the way, those skateboards are going to start to spread and you’re either going to get cracked like a wishbone, you’re going to fall off and hurt yourself, or you’re going to have to choose one to jump on and with both feet and ride to avoid danger, to avoid falls in the pitfalls of life.

And that’s what, what we need to be thinking about here in Advent is like. I need to start making this choice and and stop being the people that that are really Just giving in to this hedging my bets and and out of fear Trying to live in both worlds because what if what if I give all my life and my time to god and none of that’s It’s all mumbo jumbo right and and i’m just dead and then I missed out on this opportunity to have this amazing life because I, I gave my life to the Lord and did all the things he wanted because again, so many of us look at equate giving our lives to Christianity and to Christ is becoming a servant, like a slave, not a servant, but a slave where it’s not like the amazing life that waits for you is in Christ, but we just can’t get out of the world.

So we, you know, we kind of make a deal with God. We’re like, okay, well, I’m going to continue to kind of do things over here. I need you to look the other way, but I’ll show up on these days and I’ll try to basically live by the commandments and, and I’ll try to partake in the sacraments every once in a while.

And, and maybe I’ll find a little time for prayer here and there. Usually when I need something, but like I’ll try to pray a little bit more than that. Maybe some prayers of gratitude and we wind up living this mediocre life, right? It’s not choosing either side and, and we know what the Lord says about that too, right?

He talks about that in scripture, being lukewarm and spitting you out of your mouth. We’re going to talk about that too, but this is a struggle that, you know, we’re trying to, to live in that world of Christianity and to do things as a Catholic we’re called to do, which is good. We should, but we also have to make that choice in that firm decision of the will.

That like when I start to move over to this Christian life, I can’t be, I can’t play both sides. It’s just like dating two women in your life is not a good idea, right? You’re going to wind up hurting one or both and losing both of them, stringing two jobs along forever that you’re trying to decide because you’re afraid about what if you pick this one or what if you pick that one and you don’t make a decision, you wind up losing an opportunity for both, right?

Because they’re going to hire somebody else. They’re not going to wait on you forever. And that’s why God and, and Jesus in, in parts of Matthew and other parts of scripture is very adamant about like standing guard and being ready and, and keeping watch and staying awake during Advent because it’s this, it’s this, it’s this constant calling to say you have to leave those other things behind.

You have to put that other stuff behind you. And if you don’t, you’re going to always struggle and there’s always going to be difficulty. Right. Well, you’re talking about essentially the soul. Our soul is essential because God created us, you know, God’s creation is our soul, but yet he gives us that, that free will to either love him or not love him, you know, and like going back, what I was saying is like, you know, I think everyone has this Exploratory phase in our life.

What is God in my life? What is my identity in Him? Do I believe in Him, or should I believe in Him? Those are fine. You know, we’re not questioning that. I mean, I did that when I was in my youth. You know, I say, okay, this is my mother and father’s faith, Presbyterian Church. You know, I believe in God, I believe in Jesus, but what does that mean?

It means something to them, but what does it mean to me? You know, and, and, uh, by the way, we’re, what we’re saying is like, if, if you know God is important in your life, Christ is important in your life, we’re just, this is a wake up call saying, dive deeper into it. We’re not, we’re not chastising people who are, who are, don’t know it about it because they weren’t taught about it, where this is a call to action, you know, but we’re talking for people who know better like myself and like you, we talk about, we know better and we know that we have to set aside.

What’s in our life is important, and that is serving God, that is loving God, that is loving others, and that is choosing God’s will above our own will. And we’ve had a lot of Hard Knocks Life lessons about how we would go against that sometimes. But for a lot of us, we’ve gotten to the point where we know what’s important.

What is healthy for us? And, and that is what this is all about is that, you know, we’re, we’re pleading for you guys who, who are, have your feet in both faith and also in the world. It’s not a happy place to be in. There’s no good returns on this. Right. You can’t, you can’t ever be whole. I mean, Because when you’re hedging your bet, you, you, you’re refusing to commit to anything, right?

It’s like, I’m just going to kind of be with both and never really fully commit. And you can’t have a relationship without commitment, right? Like you can’t have a real relationship. I remember in college, like I really liked this girl and she was very popular. You know, we started to see each other and then next thing you know, I was like, Hey, so, you know, where are we in the status of things?

Like, are we seeing other people? Are we not? She’s like, well, I like you a lot, but I want to see other people. Like, I want to continue to date other people. And I remember I took her out one night and then like, I took her back to her apartment. And it was early. We went to dinner or something just one night just to hang out.

And then I went and met some buddies at a bar and she was already there with another guy that she like had gone on two dates in one night. And I remember what that made me feel like. I was like. Geez, like I dropped you off like 20 minutes ago, you’re already like out with another guy, right? And it just made me like, I loved her.

I wanted her to love me. I, I, I don’t know if I was crazy in love with her, but I certainly had feelings for her. And, you know, and to see like, to be treated like that is not a way to treat anybody. And when we continue to walk in this light, that’s the way we treat God is like, God, I know you love me and you’re always going to be there for me because you said you will be.

And eventually I might choose that. But until then, like, I kind of want to, you know, I kind of want to keep dating around, you know, I want to date my job and my success and my money and my, you know, whatever else, my addictions and everything else, instead of like committing to the Lord and the Lord doesn’t like that behavior.

He doesn’t, and you can’t. You can’t do that in the faith because it leads you to indifference, right? You know, it leads you to indifference and that’s one of the biggest You know downfalls of christianity and the and the people that claim to follow it in the world today Is this just indifference i’ll do enough to check enough boxes But really like i’m indifferent to what happens like I just want to live a good life and whatever happens happens And it’s, it’s pretty dangerous and we’ve got some quotes here from some of our favorite folks.

You know, Bishop Sheen, Fulton Sheen, we’re going to, Archbishop Fulton Sheen, we’re going to quote him. But, you know, he says, by the mere fact that we do not go forward, we go backward. There are no planes in the spiritual life. We are either going uphill or coming down. Furthermore, the pose of indifference is only intellectual.

The will must choose. And even though an indifferent soul does not positively reject the infinite, the infinite rejects it. The talents that are unused are taken away and the scriptures tell us, but because thou art lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth. That’s Revelations, right?

Where, where Jesus is saying, like, you got to pick or I’m spitting you out of my mouth. Like, I’m not going to, I’m not going to be the side piece to the world. Right. Like, I hate to say it like that, but I’m not going to be the second option to the world. Like you give your life to me or there’s going to be consequences.

No one wants to be treated like that. And I love what he says. Like. You’re either going forward or you’re going backwards. There’s no flat land where you just get to stop and rest. The faith is forwards and backwards, uphill and downhill. And the, the pose of indifference is only intellectual. It’s, it’s in your mind, the will, your heart, the will has to choose.

Right. And so he really warns us there. And then St. Maximilian Colby, another great man. I mean, he says the most deadly poison of our time is indifference. And that’s what we see is like. I’m going to do enough of this and I’m still going to be this man over here. And whatever happens is like, either way, I sort of win because if I die and there is no God and there’s no heaven and none of that stuff, then at least I got to have a fun, successful, amazing life.

And awesome. I didn’t lose, but if there is a God and I do enough. To where I slide in the back door before St. Peter closes the gate all the way, then, then, Hey, I made it. And, and what did it hurt? Right? So it’s just this crazy place of not choosing and standing in the middle of the road, and when you do that, you get run over and.

That’s what, uh, the last thing I’ll quote here is Francis Chan. He’s a very popular Protestant pastor. I love some of the things he has to say. He says this lukewarm people don’t really want to be saved from their sin. They want to only be saved from the penalty of their sin. Right? So like, I don’t really want to live the life.

I just want the forgiveness. I just want the grace. I want the mercy, but I what makes me feel good, but not get penalized. Yeah, that’s it. I don’t really call it sin, but. But just minimize it. Yeah. Yeah. No, you’re exactly right. I mean, it’s just like, I want my cake and eat it too. And that’s not what we’re supposed to do.

We can’t hedge our bets. And, you know, there’s some old Testament examples of this that I wanted to bring out too. And really a bad example and a good example, because at the end of it all, like I said, it’s about committing to and cultivating a relationship with God. You cannot hedge your bets with God’s it’s like I’m either I’m not gonna play both sides of the field I’m either I’m all in like I’m pushing all my chips to God’s table and I’m gonna live my life that way If you don’t then then you’re gonna be pretty disappointed at the end of your life Right, and I think there’s gonna be a lot of so called christians in the world that are very disappointed when that day comes The thing all I have to do is just be saved by the blood of Christ and live a decent life, but not actually live the way that Christ called me to, right?

There’s action that has to take place with our, with our yes to the Lord. We have to, we have to partake in that salvation. It’s not just a one time thing. It’s at least that’s what we believe as Catholics and it’s what I knew to be true because why the heck would Wow, what’s the point of living any sort of good life or a christian life?

If you just get a free pass to heaven, right no matter what you do It’s it’s doesn’t make any sense and jesus certainly doesn’t preach that himself. So This is all about committing to and cultivating a relationship with God. It’s a choice. And, and the thing is like, God always asks people to make choices.

And I love this. I was reminded of Elijah and, and the prophets, right? When he had to basically go to the Mount of Mount Carmel. And, and, and have a one man standoff with like 400 prophets of mm-hmm . Of this, these false gods all God. Yeah. Right. The, the, the kingdom had fallen under the, the, the control and the power of these pagan gods and ball and all this stuff.

And so the Lord calls Elijah. Right. And even the king of Israel was under the influence of Yeah. Of Pagan. His wife. Yeah. All of them. And it happened multiple times in the Old Testament. I. Come on guys. Yeah. It’s like, how many times does God have to show you who he is? But like, Oh, signs and wonders. Well, how many do I have to give you a part of the red sea?

I, I did all of these things. I saved you from the lion’s den. I did all this stuff. Like, what else do I have to do for you? I sent you my son, right? I sent you a King that slaughtered a giant. Like I’ve done all these things, but. So, you know, obviously at this point, you know, we’re in first Kings, but, but, um, Elijah, you know, he goes this mountain and I love what it says here.

I mean, it’s just a couple of verses I want to read. It says, so Ahab sent to all the sons of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel and Elijah came near to all the people and said, how long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him.

The next line is key. And it’s where a lot of people are today. And the people did not answer him a word so basically looked at him like yeah, we We’re gonna just kind of keep both feets in the same thing right now We’re gonna do enough to keep god pleased over here, but we’re also we’re going to do.

And so He’s calling out to us the way that God is calling us. We’re living in a society like that today, surrounded by all sorts of pagan gods and terrible things that are calling us away from the Christian life and away from the Catholic faith. And away from being the people that God calls us to be.

And we’re standing there in the middle of it going like, well, I don’t know, I kind of like these pagan gods. They’re a little bit more lax on the rules, right? And I get to do a little bit more of what I want over here. And, and, you know, I want to be a better person. I want these better things, but also like a lot of this over here too.

Right. You know, and so, What we’re trying to say through this episode today is what Elijah, you know, said to these people there when he’s saying, will you, how long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. Make up your mind. He didn’t say follow God or go to hell.

He’s like, make a choice, make a choice. You’re either in or you’re out. That’s what he’s saying. That’s what God sent him to say. And so he does, it calls down, you know, they build the two temples in the fires and he pours water three times over his fire and God lights it and everybody converts back to God.

But we shouldn’t have to continue to ask God for signs. We got the greatest sign in the world from Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ went all in. He didn’t hedge his bets. He didn’t sit up there and go. Well, you know father. I don’t know like I know you want me to do this But maybe something will happen, you know Maybe maybe the things that we think happen won’t happen and they’ll just kind of find their way back I’d rather sit up here because it’s comfortable and i’m in charge of everything and there’s not all that pain and death and whipping and nails and suffocation and Rejection and all that stuff.

So I’ll just I’ll kind of stay up here. Maybe the last minute I can just kind of swoop down there and snap my finger and fix things. He didn’t do that He pushed his chips all the way in as we’re going to see that starts in this advent season As he can’t chooses of his own will he made a choice right to become flesh to become vulnerable To live 33 years and then be tortured in the most horrible death that anybody’s ever faced Because he made a choice for love You And that love led him to choose us.

Right. And so that’s what we’re talking about here in the faith is it’s time to get off the fence. It’s time to quit hedging our bets. And we need to be like another person of the old Testament. I want to read one more thing really quickly. And then we’ll start talking about closing out here, Victor, but like, you know, David, you know, we, we’ve talked about David a bunch, David, warrior King, David falling to lust and adultery and sin.

David was human. He made mistakes, but at the end of the day, He’s a man after the lo over after my own heart is what God said about David. So we see David in Psalm 16 and he starts to cry out the Lord and it’s actually called a song of trust and security in God. This is what it looks like to make a choice.

David said, preserve me, oh God, for in you. I take refuge. I say to the Lord, you are my Lord. I have no good apart from you. Right? Then he says, as for the saints in the land, they are the noble and whom is all my delight. Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows. Their libations of blood I will not pour out, or take their names upon my lips.

The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup, you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Yes, I have a god, a goodly heritage. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel. And the night also my heart instructs me. I keep the Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand. I shall not be moved.

Therefore, my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices. My body also dwells secure, for you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your godly one see the pit. You show me the path of life, and your presence there is fullness of joy, and your right hand are pleasures forevermore. That’s somebody who’s making a choice.

David says right there. I don’t want, those who choose another God multiply their sorrows. Their libations of blood I will not pour out or take their names upon my lips. You are who I choose. You walk by my side. You are my part. You are my steadfastness. This is the men that we’re called to be. That’s like what Joshua said, you know, he said, as for me and my family, we worship the Lord.

I don’t know what you’re going to do, but we’re going to worship the Lord. Yeah. So make a decision and choice. Yeah. And, and, and it changed the dynamic because they came into the, the land with milk and honey, but there’s always been problems. There’s always been people who are wavered, who are indecisive.

And, and that is because probably, you know, in all aspects. Um, with, with the sense of study, with a sense of faith, with a sense of prayer, sometimes, you know, that’s, that’s great, but there’s probably something like a traumatic event or something that happened to them. We don’t know. Yeah. You know, and like I said, I’m not going to go dive deep into that in the, in the behavioral health side, but I know there’s been a lot of people have been hurt by people who have been in the power and authority of the church.

We’ve, we’ve, we’ve recognized this and we’re, we’re sorry to hear that that ever happened and within all kinds of faith. It happens, you know, and, and we recognize that, that that’s probably some people may be struggling with that. And we’re, we’re not getting onto you at all, but we’re saying we, we understand, but, but God is love.

God loves you very much. God, it wasn’t that person that harms you or the person that spoke evil of you or threw you out of the church. That wasn’t God. That was, that was that person’s own faith, their own philosophy that they were letting their lives. Lead their lives and not act as a Christian individual, right?

And that’s God gave his life for yours. Yes That’s what he did. He gave his life for yours He thought you were worth dying for so much So that as we’re gonna see in a couple weeks here as we celebrate his birth that he chose of his own volition Like I said, he didn’t hedge his bets He pushed all his chips the middle of the table and said I’m willing to give everything for them, right?

So and you hear it in John 17 So I am with you and they can be with you as I am with you, right? So that they can be and they can know that you love them as you have loved me. That’s what Jesus says. That’s his whole mission for coming here is to show that love. So we have to be like David, even though it is mistakes, right?

We’ve all made mistakes as you were just alluding to. David still pushed his chips to the middle of the table. He went and he asked for repentance. He asked to be forgiven. Then he lived the rest of his life as best he could in the, in the ways of the Lord. Right. Even though there were some consequences and things for his decisions He still grew that and cultivated that relationship.

That is what the christian life is about. It’s about making a choice It’s saying i’m not going to choose these things anymore. I’m going to choose you doesn’t mean i’m perfect Doesn’t mean i’m not going to fall But it does mean that with everything that I do just like when I go to confession I’m going to make a choice i’m going to make an amendment To live my life a different way.

Right. And I’m going to try everything in my power to make sure that I do that. That’s what the Christian life is called to. That’s what waits. That’s what, if you want joy and you want purpose and you want peace in your life, that is the cost is simply that I’m going to make that choice. I’m going to stop hedging my bets, push those chips in the middle of the table, and then live that way for the rest of my life.

So Evan is a chance Victor, for all of us. To to make a choice and to make a stand right? Let this be the year if you’re tired of it If you keep telling yourself well john, I try and I keep going back to little things Then you haven’t really made a a choice of the will is built as fulton sheen was saying you haven’t really chosen from your will Right you haven’t that choice of the will is i’m going to do this no matter what happens No matter if it kills me i’m going to give my life to the lord So we have to make that choice.

We have to take that stand And we have to let go of the things in the world that will never fulfill us and go all in our relationship with Christ. That’s the only way that we’re going to find the joy, the peace, and the happiness that we’re looking for. So. You know as we leave out here, I just want to say like make up your mind and do it Stop settling for a mediocre life.

Stop playing it safe Like push all your chips to the middle of christ’s table and watch what happens. That’s what happened in my life That’s what’s happened in yours and I know that both of our lives are better because of it Yeah If you spend time looking in the rearview mirror and thinking about what you’re going to lose and what you didn’t get Then you’re never going to be happy.

But if you turn straight forward, you keep your hand to the plow and you look ahead of you and stop looking back and you make that choice to continue to do that, you’re going to have a life that you can’t believe. So folks, again, thank you for listening to the show. Um, it’s been a joy traveling through Advent with you.

We’ve got another great show coming up next week. If you love the podcast, if you. If you’ve just happened upon us for the first time today, like and subscribe, whether it’s on Apple or a Spotify or YouTube channel, whatever it is, like and subscribe, that’s going to help us grow our subscribers, our followers.

It’s going to help us get out in front of more people. And then look, take and copy that link. If you were helped by this episode and share it with somebody in your life that needs to hear it, share it on Facebook, Instagram, share it with somebody that you know, one of your children, your neighbor, whoever it is that may need to hear it.

Because it’s an easy way to evangelize. And if you’ve gotten something out of it, chances are other people will too. So Victor, as we close in prayer here, I just want to read and pray. I want to pray this Psalm because that’s what we do. We pray the Psalms. I want to pray the beginning and the last part of the Psalm and then we’ll end the show.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Psalm 16. Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, you are my guide. I have no good apart from you. Therefore, my heart is glad and my soul rejoices. My body also dwells secure for you. Do not give me up to shield or let your Godly ones see the pit.

You show me the path of life and your presence. There is fullness of joy in your right hand or pleasures forevermore, and the name of the Father of the Son and the Holy Spirit.