Who You Following?

Dan: All right, fellas, you ready for some real talk? Maybe The Coach: Absolutely. Dan: next week we can do so do a holy hot take. But this week we got some real talk. I think it's the best part of the show. we titled it, Who Are You Following? You know, we live in an age. of the follow button. We we follow athletes and influencers and politicians and podcasters, but usually we follow voices that like affirm us and not challenge us. You know, the the algorithm rhythm feel feeds us what we already like. And this is what culture tells us. Follow your feelings. You chase your desires. Do whatever makes you happy. You know, every athlete knows that a coach can who only tells you what you want to hear isn't coaching you. They're just cheering you on. You know, Jesus, he never said, follow whatever feels like, feel whatever feels right. He said, deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow me. You know, the world offers affirmation. Jesus offers transformation. So here's the question: Who are you actually following? That's the theme of our talk today. Why don't we start with you, Drew? Go ahead, brother. Drew: Yeah, when desire becomes the authority, our culture increasingly tells us that our deepest wants and desires reveal who we truly are, and that denying those desires is unhealthy or even harmful. on the other hand, Jesus presents a very different way of living. He talks about denying ourselves, surrendering our lives, and following him, even when his direction conflicts with something we genuinely want. So here's the tension. The world says denying your desires keeps you from becoming your true self. Jesus says denying yourself is part of discovering who you were created to be. So let's hear your The Coach: Yeah. Drew: guys' thoughts on that. Dan: Go ahead, Joe. The Coach: Yeah. I would say it it's it's interesting. I can drew you've got kids and we got our nephew now, and you can see that they always want something and the first the first instinct is to say no. But then it's like, they're crying or they're not gonna eat, or they're d you know, they're causing chaos. Just you just give in, right, to that desire of like so and so wants this, fine. But When you start putting boundaries up and you start saying no and you start teaching that child this is why we do something, you see that change, that desire change to instant gratification towards, okay, this is this is why I'm not doing something, why I am doing something. And that growth piece as you know, happened as adults too, is understanding that as a sinful creature, my initial desire isn't the right thing. And now that I've know the truth, and now that I have the Bible, which is, you know, my core belief system, I can understand, yeah, lust is not my true self. you know, looking at pornography or looking at gambling or lying or whatever the whatever it is, that's not what Jesus wants me to be. And you have to fight against that, that. Those earthly desires to say I'm a new creation in Christ and I'm going to be tempted. Like, yeah, sure, I'm be tempted. But Jesus was tempted. So I'm not going to get away away from being tempted. But it's understanding how do I keep myself in the right mindset and that pure mindset of saying, I want to be like Jesus each and every day. But also giving yourself grace because you're going to fall. You're going to make mistakes. And that That true self is like you said, the algorithm feeds you what you want to see, and and marketing see feeds you what they want you to see. And social media tells you, you should be like this, dress like this, act like this, think like this. And when we talk about counterculture and being a Christian, it's saying, What is what is reality? What is truth? Because truth isn't negotiable. And how do we we follow that and and pull ourselves that way to deny the the wrong things and move towards the right things, despite what other people think. Dan: Yeah, no, for sure. You know, like I I see like athletes know that if you follow what every desire has that you have is not going to make you better. Just reminded me of Zion Williamson. He he is not only following chasing after women and all the stuff the world has to offer, he's also has to take care of his body. You know, when he plays, he's one of the most efficient, one of the most best points slash plus minus per minute in the game. But Because he doesn't take care of his body, because he's chasing after these things, it it's just really leading to a failing career. You know, you yeah, faith is is kind of the same as well. You know, our desires, they may be real, but they're not meant to lead us. We get this this idea in in the Christian walk that desires are are are all good and and everything I want should happen. But no, my desires don't get to be my coach. Jesus does. Jesus gets to be Lord over all my life. Drew: And these are also things that we what made me think of is is like no one likes to practice. And The Coach: Hmm. Drew: we all just wanna like, we wanna play the game, we wanna play the game. And I think about that when it comes to golf, it's like there's some days when I just need to go to the range and work on stuff. But it's so tempting to just like, go out in the course and play a few holes. It's boring to be on the on the on the practice green and stuff, practicing stuff, but it's the same thing in our faith. We need to be working on stuff. And sometimes those are the hard things to do, but when it comes to the game time, then you'll be ready to do what you have to do. The Coach: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. we're shifting gears a little bit here. When we we've been talking about standing on truth, and we live in a culture where standing on biblical truth can quickly get you labeled as intolerant or hateful. And and Christians have now become afraid, especially here in North America, have become afraid to to say what they actually believe in. We soften the truth, we avoid difficult top topics and sub and subjects, and we remain silent when we don't want to offend it. If We feel like we're gonna offend somebody else. But there's another extreme with this is that speaking truth as a Christian without compassion, using the Bible to attack people rather than point them towards Jesus. And I know we've all heard of examples of people talking to us about Christianity, and it's like that soapbox kind of you're going straight to hell, and and and of course that's gonna not gonna don't spread the love of God the way you want it to, but and and Jesus didn't do it that way. Jesus never changed the truth to gain people approval. He never used the truth to humiliate people either. He stirred firmly on what was right and generally loved the person standing in front of him, no matter who they were. So here's attention truth isn't hate just because someone hates hearing it. But it stops looking like Jesus when we weaponize it. What are your thoughts on this, Drew? Drew: Yeah, it it's a tough balance to have because depending on your personality, like I I'm just a very ama matter of fact person. I wanna tell people what they need to hear, but I also need to hold people's feelings in the balance as well. Like I'm a pastor, I'm I'm I'm cared with looking after people's souls is basically what a pastor is. And You don't want to beat them down so bad that they never come back up. But th there does come a point where there's the other f the other the the other side of that is holding holding people's hands on their way to hell, right? And saying everything's The Coach: Mm. Drew: okay and and just do whatever you feel is right. Yeah, so you really have to learn to get to know the person that you're talking to as well. it's very hard to speak truth into a situation that you don't know the full context of. So yeah, it it's it's a lot harder when you get to know someone to to be too firm. but Jesus Jesus gives us great guidelines of how to speak truth in love. I know that's an overused phrase, but we speak truth while loving that person, knowing that Jesus died for them too. but there is a call to repentance that the gospel clearly gives us, which I think is the missing piece in this whole progressive Christianity. There is no call to repentance. but Jesus is very clear, even with the woman caught in adultery, go and sin no more, right? Like he not that that she obviously didn't live a sinless life after that, but he calls us to take up our cross, to follow him, to leave the worldly stuff behind. each and every day to become more and more like him. So it it's getting to know people, but also calling them to repentance, as well as having the humility to realize that we also need to come to repentance. There's things that we need to repent of. Dan: Yeah, it's really good. This really made me think of even your thought, Drew, made me think of Joel's coaching style. Cause like at at Linden, basically a lot of the teams had half the players that could play and they they knew what they're doing and half the players that were well just really green, we'll say. And, you know, you don't just have to ignore the half the team that can't play. Coach Joel would go out of his way to help hold those players improv improve. No, not just ignore them and And that's how even you even coaches that ignore what's wrong and and and and just let the players keep going, that's bad coaching. You have to p point out what's wrong, but you don't do it to humiliate them, you do it to correct them, to help them get better. Now I think truth should be motivated by love. And it's aimed at helping people, not proving that they're that we're better than them or or that you're not worthy or anything like that. You know, following Jesus means refusing to water down the truth and refusing to weaponize it at the same time. It's this it's it's walking I like I like how you phrase it true. It's really good. The Coach: Yeah, absolutely. And and I I think we've gotten to this point where we allow everybody else to say what they want to say. And we say, Okay, we're gonna be tolerant of that. We're gonna accept that. You can have your view, even though it undermines what I believe in and makes fun of me. But as soon as you think about pushing back, it's like, you're being intolerant, you're you're not being loving, you're not listening to anything. And it's like that's Totally unfair, right? Jesus is a great example because when you read about the stories where Jesus gets mad, he's not mad at the unbelievers. He's mad at the people who claim to be believers and claim to know, hey, this is I'm following this, this, and this. So when we look at that, it it's it's like, how do I treat how do I treat those in my sphere of insul influence? The right way to show A, the love of Christ, but B also how not to fold under pressure. Right. And I think a lot of times, like Dan and I, you were talking about, you know, role models for athletes. I think an athlete shouldn't be a role model. They don't live in the same reality that I do. At if you gave me $20 million at 19 years old, I I'd have a tough time walking the straight and air, I'll tell you that right now. Dan: The Marotum. The Coach: so like and and I get why we want to put role models and musicians and things people like that onto our role models and how we want them to to to emulate what we believe in, but for the most part, they're not educated in many of the topics that are stemming cultural divide today. Right? And they just talk out of their side of their mind. Miles, like many people do, but they have this influence because they're a celebrity. Whereas I myself want to talk out of the talk with clear facts. I want to speak on truth that focuses on on facts based from my my biblical point of view. Right. And and I don't want to take things out of context. I want to be loving and kind, but at the end of the day, we only We know there's only one way to heaven. There's not multiple ways. There's not, you know, different gods you can look at to get there, there's one way to heaven. And that's what I have to believe in, and and not have to that's what I choose to believe in from my faith. And that's what I have to stand for, despite what other people are saying. And if if somebody gets upset by that, well, that's that's part of life. We're allowed to be upset. But if you want to have a conversation, sure. If you wanted to scream, yell, and curse at me, you can find Dan: Sure. The Coach: you can do that too. doesn't mean I'm not I'm gonna listen to that. I'm still gonna love you, but you know, I won't have to sit there and and take it. I can just leave and go somewhere else. So standing on your faith and standing on the truth is hard. Again, we bring up the countercultural point we've talked about for years now, but it's it's You have to do that because Jesus did it and we want to follow Jesus. Drew: When following Jesus costs you. We're told to be ourselves, follow our desires, express what we believe, and expect others to affirm us. But that acceptance can disappear quickly when our beliefs are shaped by Jesus. Christian convictions are increasingly misunderstood, misrepresented, or labeled as harmful before people even take the time to understand what we actually believe. Christians should always be transparent, accountable, and above reproach, but we can't allow the fear of being misunderstood, falsely labeled, or rejected to silence our faith. Following Jesus has always been counter-cultural. The challenge is to remain courageous without becoming angry, defensive, or hateful towards the people who oppose us. So the tension is this culture tells you to be unapologetically yourself until you're unapologetically. Christian. But if our faith only survives while culture applauds us, we were never following Jesus. We are following approval. The Coach: Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That's that's a pretty heavy statement when you think about it, right? If if you can't you can't express your faith and continue to love God and and follow the tenets when things are going against you, were you really following it because you believed it or following it because you you felt like you should at that time? Like we all grew up in Christian homes, right? It would it would be weird if if we Rejected the faith down the line, right? Because we were, you know, all very heavily taught about God. And it it comes to this point where you're growing up, you have to make your faith your own. Some people, it takes longer than others, some people are shorter than others. But you you you guys can have you have your own stories where there's a point in your life where you're like, I am going to do this because I want to. I'm going to do this because I choose to. Not because of pressure from my parents or school or friends. but I'm doing this because it's me making this choice and being accountable for this choice. And and at times it's it's hard. You're gonna be put into situations where you don't know what to say, or somebody asks you a tough question or challenges you in a in in a in a weird place, whether it's at a party or at, you know, standing in line at the grocery store, whatever. And It's okay to say, you know what, I really don't know. Not everything, we don't have to have the answers for everything. And I think that's the part that makes a lot of people uncomfortable is, I should study more, I should read the Bible more, I should do this. And and yes, we we need to do those things, but it's also okay to say, I don't know. And let me look into that. Let me get back to you. Let me, you know, talk to somebody who's a little more learned in these learned in these things. Because that genuineness of not making up an answer and and not being fake is what is what people are going to appreciate. Right. They're they're they're gonna they're understand hey, this person is talking what they actually believe. It's not just some facade, it's not just some mask they put on on Sundays, right? And I think that's you know, unapologetically being a Christian is where you need to be. And if you know you struggle with that sometimes, that's okay. But people will applaud that versus somebody who's just, you know, Christian on Sunday, but you know, going to the bars rest of the week or doing whatever they're doing the rest the week. So it is being counter-cultural, but remain courageous. Don't be despondent when you don't have the answers or you don't know what to say or do, because that's just an opportunity for God to work in you and help you grow and also. Give me the right words to say to somebody else. Drew: It's also important that we surround ourselves with people that don't always think the same as us as well. I know it was tough and I don't wanna say it was a bad thing growing up at at a Christian school and going to church on Sundays, but you're surrounded with people that agree with you. And it's it's really easy to follow Jesus. when you go to a Christian school and but I can I'm not saying all, but I I know a good chunk of my graduating class doesn't doesn't follow Jesus anymore because they got outside of that space and they didn't have a faith to actually ground The Coach: Mm. Drew: them. They weren't grounded in their faith. And I'll say the same for myself. It it really wasn't until I got out into the world that I realized I needed a better footing. I needed a better grounding in my faith in order to stand strong. Dan: Yeah, and you was in the world, like in Drew: So I think sometimes yeah. Dan: the world. Drew: Yeah. Like and I and I for sure think Dan: Me too. Drew: that my parents I I give them all the cred like they did the best that they could, right? And and to give me what to fall back on. So I would never I would never change my upbringing because I Dan: Mm-hmm. Drew: still had that to lean back on. But there is something to to actually going out into the world and Standing strong for your faith, not just like you said, Joel, in the places that it's easy. Dan: Good. The Coach: Before you go, Dan, just I just brings up one thought or one one story. I I was doing before after school care one day at Linden and I was walking through the halls with the kids and I heard this parent was talking to each other and they're like, I I just don't let my kids hang with anybody who's non-Christian. I I you know, I don't want them to mix. And I'm like, and as I I was walking past it, I was like, that's just a terrible mindset to have. Because what happens when your kid goes to a different school or goes to university or starts You know, talking to the kids on their street. They don't have this ability to to say, hey, I can hang out with somebody different. I can interact with somebody different. Like Jesus didn't just hang out with his disciples. You know, he met people where they are. He he met all types of people. And you have to, like you said, interact with those kind of people. Otherwise, you just become insular and you don't have your own faith. And it becomes very easy to just follow Christ, like you said. Dan: Really good, fellas. Really good. I have written down here in closing. And my initial thought is like, okay, I gotta call the worship team up now. no, in closing, you know, following Jesus means my desires don't get the final word. Truth doesn't get abandoned or weaponized, and cultural approval doesn't determine my obedience. Everybody follows someone. The real test comes when Jesus challenges what you want and what you believe or what others expect from you. You know, if Jesus only leads you where you already wanted to go, you may not be following him. You may be asking him to follow you. So our encouragement is stop asking Jesus to follow the life you want. Surrender every part of your life and let him lead. Treasure Jesus above all things else. That's the the best thing you best decision you could ever make. Coach, why don't you give him a rundown of how to follow, how to help grow the show, all that good stuff. The Coach: Absolutely. for those of you watching on YouTube, make sure you subscribe to the channel, hit the little bell for notifications when we post our pods and shorts, and give the video a like for all your other streaming services like Apple Music or or Spotify, we are on there as well, so you can subscribe there. Instagram is also a great way to follow us. We post a lot of different things there. Like and subscribe and share it out. And if you have any questions about you know where to find Answers for your faith, or even if you're looking to understand who Jesus is, reach out on Instagram. One of these guys will will help point you in the right direction and and and give you some some good advice on on what to look for. So all the social media tweeters, Twitter or X, I guess, some TikToks, Facebook for all you old heads. I almost forgot about you guys. Facebook were there too. So make sure you like, like and and share. And and remember, for those of you Christians out there as well. This show we do love sports. We also love spreading the message of God to others. So post it out there. Don't worry about who's gonna like or dislike. Just share the love of God with with others on. Dan: Awesome, thanks for tuning in in everybody. We're no experts, but we are the sports reverends. The Coach: Sports reverends. Drew: Sports reverends. Dan: we are horrible at that. The Coach: Not getting any better.