Ep 50 | The Devil Leads to Death | Strange Encounters with Rick Burgess

0:00Hello and welcome to Strange Encounters, the podcast. My name is Rick Burgess. Host of the Rick Burgess Show. You can find out all the things we do on a weekly basis. We do a daily show and that can be found at Rick Burgess Show.com. That's a lot different than what we're doing here. We talk about this kind of stuff from time to time. There's also a lot of comedy and a lot of things we talk about what's going on in the world today. So obviously some of this creeps in. But this podcast is designed for us to go much deeper, for us to just specialize in the supernatural from a biblical worldview. There seems to be sometimes even an unhealthy obsession with the supernatural. We certainly don't want to be there. But there's also the other end of the spectrum is to be unaware of it completely, therefore unprepared for the spiritual battles that are waging all around us according to scripture.

1:01And also we can see the evidence of that with our own eyes. And we'll touch on some of that again today. We do also men's ministry, themanchurch.com is a full discipleship strategy that is sustainable for years to come reaching and discipling men. We have all the resources. We have the strategy. So if you're interested in that, themanchurch.com can help you. And if you'd like to follow what my wife and I do in marriage ministry and the things she does in women's ministry and some of our other resources, you can go to burgisministries.com. Today on Stranging Counters, we are going to get into demons in the headline. Yes, there's demons in the headlines. It seems every week, unfortunately, sorry, but they are there. We'll unpack those. We'll look at it from a supernatural standpoint from a biblical worldview. Last podcast actually was trying to get in a topic that a lot of you have asked us about concerning some of the yellow and maybe even red flags involving some of the worship

2:04music that is being written today and that we sing. So we will do that in this episode. I'll make sure we'll get that in in this episode. And then we're going to look into something called Ibagain. It is a treatment that is producing some good results involving things like drug addiction, PTSD, things like that, some brain trauma. But there seems to be some things that are also happening with this treatment that may be a concern. And so we'll talk about that in today's edition of Stranging Counters as well. So let's start with demons in the headlines. Remember, some of this stuff is difficult. We do always encourage you to, if you're going to take on some of the episodes that we do, you might want to kind of wait in first. Be careful with children being exposed to some of the things we're talking about.

3:06Be careful if you have people that are maybe not believers or they're immature in their faith. You want to kind of guide them because this is serious stuff. And some of it is hard to listen to but is important to understand. So we have a former Detroit lion, Denver Bronco cornerback, Alfonso Smith, Jr. Sadly has taken his own life at the age of 40. So you may be thinking to yourself, Rick, why is that making Stranging Counters? Well it's because of some of the things that he said. He left behind a Facebook post. He started posting some things that were very concerning. He was drafted by the lions in the second round in 2009 before being traded to the Broncos. Unfortunately, he took his own life this week at a housing community in Florida. So there was an alarming post on social media kind of showing the fragile state that he

4:11was in sadly. But for Stranging Counters, some of the things that we need to look at here, he is telling everyone that he is about to take his own life. He said, I apologize for this. I'm sorry, but this is it. He's come to the end of his rope. So why? He says, don't cry for me. I tried everything in my power to fight the demons behind the ones that someone put into me. I do not want to be that way. I know I have disappointed many folks. This is a demon in me. Not only me, it's everyone. I have hurt so many. I needed help and I did not get it. So well, first of all, listen to the thing he says at the end. I needed help and I did not get it. So for the love of all that's good and kind, if you're struggling and you need help,

5:13seek it. Okay? Even, I mean, we're very, very crystal clear on strange encounters. We are not in the camp that we think that everything that happens that falls into mental illness is demonic. We certainly don't think that. The brain is just another part of the body and just like all of our other, like our hearts, our livers, our kidneys, sometimes they need help. They get sick. Well, our brains can get sick too. And mental health in our country, I believe needs a lot of work. We need to, we don't just need to always have compassion for people when things happen that are for mental illness. We should have compassion, but I wish we would focus more on getting people help as opposed to just giving them our compassion. We need to go further than that.

6:13But do I believe that a lot of what we see is demonic? I do, because of the things scripture tells us to look for. And even if you're having a chemical imbalance, it can open your mind up to demonic possession or oppression. And in this particular case, we see that this person is telling us that as far as he can discern, he believes that what's happening to him is demonic. And he even says, these are demons that someone put into me. Now I don't know what he means by that. I really don't. I do not want to be that way, meaning I'm not doing this on purpose. I'm trying to come out of this. I understand the disappointment that I have for, you know, his friends and his family. He said, but this is a demon in me. And then he goes on to say, not only me, it's everyone.

7:13Now I don't know what he means by that. Does he mean that everyone that's doing this type of stuff, they too are likely struggling with the demon or demons he's talking about? And then he said, of course, like I said, again, I've hurt so many and I needed help and I didn't get it. So that's in the headlines this week. And I think we need to take note because one thing that is a calling card of demonic activity and you see this throughout scripture, is it normally at the end of this oppression or possession, they normally kill the host. And usually when we see that ending, that's a marker to look for. But again, I'm not trying to discern mental illness versus demonic activity or accommodation of both, I'm simply reporting what the man said himself and how he was seeing it. And then of course, there was another story this week, knife, wielding woman accused of

8:17stabbing two in Times Square before being shot by police. So this is a sad story again, 49 year old Pamela Cisneros of Queens, New York. Police said they were aware of her. They have dealt with her in the past. Once again, there seemed to be some indication of a struggle with mental illness. But when you, and we all saw this one, I mean, it was captured. And so I know that some of this can be disturbing to see. But we actually have a video, but let me tell you what happened before we take a look at it on strange encounters. They actually taged her in an attempt to bring her under control and it didn't work. It didn't have enough effect on her. I take a note of that. She tells police, I'm not dropping anything. I would rather kill both of you. I will kill you.

9:17Now keep in mind, when she's saying this to the police, she's injured one person and killed another just randomly stabbing them, taking these knives from her kids. And then the kitchen out of a target bag stabs one person who would praise God is stable in the hospital in the stomach. But then she stabs another person in the stomach that dies from the wounds. So she has injured one, killed another, and now is standing before the police saying she's going to kill them too. And they cannot get her under control. And unfortunately, this is how it ends. And you can see she's holding the knives now. They're asking her to just put the knives down. They obviously don't want to hurt her unnecessarily. And now she's taking these huffing breaths. And then she's going to begin to take the knives and just start spinning them. And then she's going to charge the police and try to stab them.

10:18And they're telling people now to back up because here she goes. Now she's waving them and then she's about to take off. After telling them she's going to kill them. And unfortunately, she is shot and killed. Keep in mind, it's important to know that there was a attempt to taser and it wouldn't work. There were already been two people injured. One of them died from their wounds. So she's already proven that she won't just say she's going to kill you. She will kill you. The fact that when they went to tas a woman, that the tasing did not render her unable to still attack, that's very demonic in nature because there seems to be some strength that she has, which if you've ever dealt with demonic activity, folks, I'm telling you, even small women can be incredibly strong. These demons have incredible strength. And then there she goes out to kill, still and destroy.

11:22And of course, the end result is she herself gets killed. And we're seeing this more and more and more. We do the daily show and these stories just seem to come out every single day with the demonic activity. If you look at a place like New York City and you see all the things that are going on there, all the things that are being embraced, all the things that are being perpetuated, and you see that this is just a cesspool for demonic activity. My son lives there. He and his wife live there. I hear firsthand that this city is getting darker by the day. It's gone through dark times in the past and then they kind of came out of it for a little while, but they've now have gone back into just buzzardness around every corner. And here's this woman they knew they had trouble with her before. So what's wrong with our system that we can't seem to keep her off the streets and keep

12:28her from harming other people in herself? But again, a lot of signs here of demonic activity. The next thing we kind of want to wait into after demons in the headlines is there's so many podcasts out there. We're one of many. It's a new era. I have been in radio for over 40 years and there are producers been in radio for a long time. So we kind of hit a sweet spot where we've watched radio, the changes going forward. I can still remember the first time I heard the word podcast. I had no idea what anybody was talking about. So what's happened now is there's just so much out there and it's a different format. It is conversational. It's not in a hurry. It's hours of content. Those of you that are accustomed to podcast and not radio shows, you probably noticed that when when I host a podcast, it feels a little different.

13:28It's moving a little quicker because that's what I was trained to do. I wasn't trained to take long pauses and sit here and there's nothing wrong with that. I understand it's different. But I've had a lot of people encourage me to listen to Sean Ryan. Sean Ryan has a very, very popular podcast. He's a former Navy SEAL and he has recently declared, as he will in this clip we have from his show, that he has a saving faith in Christ. He's new to the faith. He's still like all of us. He's got a lot to learn. He's in the process of sanctification. I've actually had people reach out to me even recently saying, you got to be on Sean Ryan's podcast and talk to him about some of this. Well I'd love to but I don't know how to get invited to Sean Ryan's podcast. If we can find a way to do that and they would honor me with that invitation, I would absolutely go on that podcast. I'd love to sit down and talk to Sean Ryan.

14:30Y'all pray maybe that opportunity will present itself. Because the thing that I'm a little bit concerned about is that Sean Ryan is absolutely bringing people to help him with his growth in his faith that are positive. Pastor Josh Howard to an out of Dallas, we play clips from him from time to time on this podcast. I think he's one of our new great communicators of the faith and it's in things like spiritual warfare. He's been on and I listened to that entire podcast and Josh did a super job helping Sean work through some things and questions that he has. But the only negative side is that he also has guest zone and gets in conversations that may be more detrimental to his faith. But this one was very interesting. It's one of his latest. He's interviewing a fellow former Navy CEO, Clint Irmason. I think that's how you say our Emerson. It's EMER S O N. And so he has Clint there and it's a fascinating podcast.

15:33They talk about why they wanted to be Navy Seals and how they grew up and Clint talks about all the training he went through and his time serving our country. I'm grateful for both of them and what they've done. But like a lot of people that have been through difficult things in their life and have been in hard situations in their military service, especially something like Navy Seals and special forces, they struggle with PTSD and that's a real thing. There's treatment that now has been talked about. It's called I Began. This is a new treatment. Really the first time I started hearing about it, doing radio was when I was asked sometimes to do commercials because they were seeing results of this treatment helping people get off drug addiction, especially painkillers, opioids.

16:38And it was showing some success. So what exactly is it? I've tried to research I Began therapy. It's still kind of what they're still calling it experimental. It uses a plant derived psychoactive compound to help interrupt substance use disorders and address psychological trauma. So it is, listen, it is going, the product that's in I Began, it interacts with brain receptors, serotonin, dopamine, here's talking about dopamine all the time, opioid, I mentioned that receptors. And what it's trying to do is to get in there, if you become addicted because of these brain receptors, which we all have in our mind, that's why social media has become so addictive to people because it's playing to these receptors in our brain. So what I Began is supposed to do is to come in and reset the brain chemistry and kind

17:40of reduce the cravings. Well, since it seems to be showing some success on that, they're saying a session, it's kind of multi-phase experiences. It can sometimes last 24 hours or longer. They begin with vivid dream-like visual memories and they get into deep emotional introspection. And they do this, they put a mask on and it's like a virtual thing, very odd, I'm trying to understand it. But they also have begun to use it and Clint and Sean both have done this because this is what they're talking about when we join them. It's supposed to also help, not with just drug addictions, but post traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, depression, and I mentioned traumatic brain injuries as well. But is Ibergain something to be concerned about because of what we're doing?

18:43I mean, we are tampering with the brain. We are going in with this plant derived, psychoactive compound. So there's going to be a psychedelic experience here and it's going to go in and try to reset the brain receptors. Just me saying that, it feels like, well, this could get a little dicey. Well, Sean Ryan went through a process of believing in God and when he didn't believe in God and has gone further now and believes that Jesus Christ is who he says he is. And he has redeemed all who are willing to repent and Sean says that he has saving faith. He is repentative as sin. He's given his life and asked for forgiveness from Jesus who he thinks can forgive him and has left his own authority is under the authority of Christ.

19:43Now he's been justified, but he's now in the sanctification process, which that has a lot of highs and lows. He brings in Clint Emerson and they have been talking about a lot of things. So they get to the end and they're talking about the, the obligation treatment that they both have had and he starts to ask Clint to talk about what happened to him and they're having this conversation and then Sean Ryan asked him a question about God and we'll pick up the conversation there. Do you believe in God? I do. Yeah. I didn't always, but even in the eye of the game, I asked, you know, you can get to about like whatever they tell you like around seven or eight hours and start asking and I have to gain questions. And so I remember saying, hey, show me God. And like a film strip coming down from the top of my mask and there, in cursive white

20:47writing. And it said, show me God, exactly what I was thinking. And then it kind of kept going. It's like a very, like a movie reel almost, right? Then the very next thing that started to come down was this black medallion. It's like, look like it was probably this big when you're under the mask, right? And it had cutouts in it. And as you know, you try to focus on anything in there. It goes blurry on you, right? And so I was using my peripherals trying to make out what the cutouts had. But they're kind of the eerie part of the whole thing was it was backlit by a raging fire. So the only reason I could see the cutouts on this medallion or coin was because it was backlit by this fire that was burning. And it slowed.

21:47I could try to keep it there, but it just kept on moving down, down and disappeared out of the bottom of my mask. It was really odd. You? What about me? Would you? You ask, do I believe in God? Oh, yeah. Something on the second run that... There was, I mean... I believe... Are you a Christian? When I say God, I mean... Yeah. Do you believe in Christ? Yes. I don't know. Could I not have really... Don't know about the Christ part? Oh no. I'm 100% sure. Oh, God. I have a game part. Yeah. There's been a lot of good that's come from it. I am now ready to share everything that I've been through yet and that I've been

22:49going to continue to go through. Yeah. But I will say... I think there's a possibility that that is a problem that we as humanity should not have access to. So that's important. And if you go here, the whole podcast, and I would encourage you to do that, and that is courtesy of the Sean Ryan podcast, he says, I'm not so sure about it now. Now that he's become a believer and a follower of Jesus, because they have a conversation that they both admit that since they've had the Ibergain treatment, that they feel some sort of sense, and both of them say it's not positive.

23:50One of them describes, I feel like I can see down a long hallway, and I am feeling some sort of spiritual presence, but both of them say, but it doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel like light. And they acknowledge this treatment has done some good, but Sean Ryan is starting to wonder whether some treatment that has a psychedelic component to it, connecting with our brain receptors, certainly opening up our mind, but is it opening up our mind to something that could potentially be spiritually dangerous? I would say yeah, because here's the problem. Scripture tells us that we're to be sober-minded and alert. We are told not to do anything that would cause our mind to be compromised. And certainly would include drug abuse.

24:53Anything that we lose control of our mind, we're not sober-minded, we're not self-controlled and alert. And why did Peter tell us that? Be self-controlled and alert because the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to destroy. And what Clint describes this, show me God. He never said it was comforting to him. He said there was, now when he says raging fire, that doesn't always necessarily mean Satan. I acknowledge that God appeared as a pillar of fire, leading the Israelites across the desert. So I acknowledge that. I do believe that God, when he finishes the earth and is going to destroy it by fire according to what Peter also told us, God promised he wouldn't destroy us or the world again by water. And many believe, as do I, based on Scripture, that when he refines the world and he creates

25:58the new heaven and the new earth, that it will be refined by fire, Scripture seems to point to that. And it is a major deal. Okay. So I'm not saying fire necessarily means bad. What I don't like is that Clint is not clear. God did not identify himself. An angel didn't identify what was going on. He just saw this coin and these different things, raging fire behind it. I heard this. I tried to focus on it, but I couldn't, and more I tried to focus the more blurry it became, all concerning, all concerning. And the fact that they both acknowledge that the senses they have from the experience in the spiritual realm are not comforting. They're not positive. And Sean goes as far as to say, I'm not so sure as human beings, we should be tampering with other human beings this way.

27:02What is it opening us up to? Yes, I know the attempt is to help us and to help addiction and to help PTSD and to help brain trauma. He says I acknowledge that. But what we're opening ourselves up to may ultimately do more damage than good. They don't like that. They're having a weird experience with it. And you can go listen to the whole podcast to hear them talk about it further. And if you don't want to hear the whole podcast, it's a whole podcast. It's toward maybe the last 20 minutes or so of the podcast. Just start there. And you'll hear their conversation. So I began treatment here on Strangin counters. Are we waving a red flag? Well, I don't know enough about it yet to wave a red flag. But I'm easily going to wave a yellow flag for the obvious reasons that Sean is concerned about.

28:02It looks like Clint. He hasn't learned as much about the faith as Sean is learning. But I think what Sean says is probably coming from the Holy Spirit that he now has. And there's an uncomfortable pause in his spirit. I mean, he openly said it. So this is interesting. I think this is something that we need to continue to follow. And I would caution those of you out there that may be seeking this treatment. You know, for something like drug addiction in your family or for yourself, our PTSD or brain trauma, I would be very, very careful because what's happening here anytime our mind is we lose control of it. It's opening up a door to demonic activity.

29:03So let's talk about the other thing that I've been asked about over and over again. Now I will tell you that if you go back in the former show that I did for over 30 years with Bill Bussey, Rick and Bubba, we did something called Rick and Bubba University. And we have tackled this topic before then. But a lot of you have said, hey, I want to hear it on strange encounters because there is some concern. So let's talk about music. First of all, music can be wonderful. But remember what we've also talked about on this podcast many times. There is God's intention. And then there is Satan's counterfeit of God's intention. We see this in things like marriage. God's intention is clear. Satan offers counterfeits. We see it in sexual purity. God's demand for sexual purity is clear. Satan gives you a counterfeit version of this intimacy between the husband and wife that has been abused. And it just goes on and on. Well, the same is true for music.

30:04And I will tell you that music greatly affects us. It greatly affects us back to kind of what we just talked about with the IBegane. There is a part of our brain and our brain receptors and our spirit that is drawn to chord progressions. And of course, certainly what we hear affects us just like the things that we see. You know, we're all affected by what we let in. And so you hear secular songs and we've talked about that. That it's so obvious that that's not of God or something God would want you to be listening to. Those are easy. But I think sometimes you got to be careful in the spiritual realm. These are almost like if you've ever, I think I've used this analogy before, but it's been a while. If you ever have had fun playing with small children, that you're own or maybe your nephews and nieces or grandkids or just a friend's kids, and you do the thing where you get them to look at this hand and then you pop them inside the head a little bit. Not hard, just a little, hey, look over here. I think sometimes when we hear this dark, dark music, it's almost like Satan's going,

31:09yeah, y'all go chase that. Now I'm going to enter into worship music and I'm going to corrupt that. And you're never going to see that coming. And it can be crazy deceptive. Okay. So I want you, I just start thinking, how can I kind of nut shell this? Because I'll take a few individual songs, but how can I nut shell? Because I'm not going to be able to come up with every single song you should be concerned about. I'm not asking you to look for bad theology around every corner when it comes to worship songs. I'm not saying newer worship songs are bad and old hymns are good. I'm not saying any of that. Any of them can be problematic because ultimately Satan didn't just start trying to be deceptive like in the last, you know, 20 years. Okay, or even 30 years. He's been deceptive since the beginning of human beings. Okay. So let me give you some themes to kind of look for when you're being introduced to a worship song that would be, that would be yellow and red flags.

32:11Okay. If the song is me centered, you know, shifting the goal of worship from glorifying God to personal comfort, emotional highs, individual earthly reward. If I do this, then God will do that. Anything that seems like God is enamored with us as opposed to us being in all of Him, that's a flag. Okay. So also a misrepresentation of God's character. You've heard me go on and on. There's one song that I think is one of the worst doing this and we will cover it today. It's like it's taking human flaws and carelessness and a lack of sovereign control and acting like that God, you know, vacillates and shifts and moves by his emotions just like we did. You know, he's careless. He's flawed. God's not flawed. God is perfect.

33:13He is a God of order. He is a God that is in control. Matter of fact, his sovereignty means he's in control of all things. There's nothing he doesn't know. He is omnipotent. He's omniscient. He is omnipresent. And if you're singing the song that takes these characters, characteristics of God and changes them to be more like humans, that's a problem. Okay. And then, like I said a minute ago, this transitional faith in songs. I did this so you did that for me. You know, because I was doing this, you blessed me. And you know, if God never did another thing for any of us, the cross was enough. He's not a little genie in a bottle. And if we say the right things or mild the right mantras, then he's going to pour his blessings out on us. If he never did another thing, but the cross and the tomb, he's done enough.

34:17We didn't deserve any of that. Okay. So let me give you a couple now of examples of what I'm talking about. And y'all know the one I'm going to do first, a lot of you who know me. And that is reckless love by Corey Ashberry. This is a red flag song. I won't read it. I will not sing it. I actually was in a worship service one time where this was being sung. And I looked at my wife and I said, my spirit is so troubled right now. I have to leave. I cannot believe that we are singing this about God. Now, it's a catchy tune. Okay. And Corey's tried to explain himself and every time he's tried to explain himself, it really just feels worse. Every attempt to explain it just makes it worse. God is not reckless. He is a God of order. He does not have a lack of caution. He doesn't have a lack of wisdom. He doesn't have a lack of care. He is calculated.

35:20He's purposeful and he is holy. He is not reckless. Falling all over and saying like he's in love with you, like a little school girl. That is not God. So that's a red flag song. If I go to speak somewhere and they have it scheduled, I will say do not sing that song. And it's even I like in my writer. Don't do reckless love. So and then you get to some others like what a beautiful name it is by Hillsong. You go, bird, how can you be upset with that? Well, there's a lyric in what a beautiful name it is. You didn't want heaven without us. Now where where in scripture do we see that God is incomplete? We don't see that. Has God been gracious to us and has he been so gracious and wonderful and does he love us and offered redemption to us? Yes, but he's not incomplete without us.

36:23Heavens just fine whether we're there or not. He did not create human beings because he was going unfulfilled. He created human beings because he is a creator. He created animals. He created all these things and human beings was, you know, he created in his own image. But he certainly is not saying, well, if the human beings don't repent, then heaven is a bust. I mean, I just, I don't know that I want to be who I am without these human beings. They complete me like we're watching, you know, Tom Cruise in Renee's L.W. I mean, this is ridiculous. So yeah, that line bothers me a lot. I'll go yellow flag on what a beautiful name, but I do not like the lyric because it is not biblically saying you didn't want heaven without us. That is just, that's just not true. He's not lonely. He's not needy. He's not incomplete.

37:24That's just ridiculous. Almost, it's really kind of silly is what it is. But it is not something that we should sing or say. Another one, and this one, I've had people debate me on it, and I'm just telling you, this is more of a theological thing. And that is the goodness of God, goodness of God by Jen Johnson and Bethel Music. First of all, anything by Bethel Music, I'm going to raise a flag. Bethel Church is, so that's bizarre, man. I mean, they got some stuff going on at Bethel that I completely oppose and do not agree with. They're out there. Okay, so you got to always be concerned if it comes from Bethel. Any song from Bethel, I would start vetting. He'll song to a degree, but Bethel to a high degree, okay, because of the things that they actually teach. And I've had people tell me, well, if the song Bethel puts out is theologically sound,

38:25what's the harm in singing it? And I think you can make an argument for that. The only thing that concerns me about that is if what if I like a Bethel song and that makes me pursue everything Bethel does, that's my concern. It's yellow, not red, if the song itself is theologically sound. But if I start pursuing Bethel because I like their music, will I then be exposed to the bad theology that they have in their church? See, that's a concern. If it takes me to that road. But the song bothers me because there's a running lyric in it. I've even talked to people who disagree with me on this, okay? Your goodness is running after me. It's running after me. Your goodness is running after. It's running after me. And your goodness is running. It's running after me. See, if I was writing this lyric, I would take this and go biblically sound and say,

39:28because of your goodness, I'm running after you. I think that's theologically sound. The prodigal son, we never see in the prodigal son, which is an analogy Jesus told us about God, the Father, and our relationship with Him. We have abandoned our Father and we have said, the prodigal son of remember said, I won't mind Herodence right now, which mainly means he wishes his dead. He was dead. And his dead instead of denying him the inheritance gave it to him. He goes off and squanders it. And Jesus is telling us this. And then it says that he found himself out of money, all the people that claimed they were his friends. They left him because he ran out of everything because he's no good to him anymore. He's in a hog pin, feeding hogs, and he's so hungry, he wants to eat some of the slop. And he says to himself, I would be better being a slave back at my father's house than to be here. And he began and it says that he came to himself.

40:32He came to himself. He recognized his sin. He recognized that he should have never left his father. But when we realize we should have never rejected our Holy Father by sending against him. And what does he do? Do we ever see the Father run into the hog pin and grab him? We don't. Okay. We see the prodigal return to his father. He is running back to his father because of the goodness of his father. The father isn't running after him chasing him with goodness because he's obsessed with it. He lets him come to himself and work his way back to his father. Now when the father sees him repent, okay, when he sees him repent and he begins to come forth, then the father begins to go get him after repentance. And then he's actually brought into his father's house and he is celebrated and he is forgiven and everything is made right between him and his father. So this just makes, once again, God feel like he's silly and kind of awkward and he's

41:37just running after us. He's running after us. He's running after us. Now he may draw us to him. I got no problem with that because that's scripture. But he's running after us. So I would take that lyric and say because you're good or because of your goodness, God, I am running after you. I'm running to you. I'm coming to you to be redeemed. Not I'm out here going through my day and I look back and God's running after me, you know, like some puppy dog. I just don't like that picture of God because I don't think it's a bit of a sound. So now this is one that I've had some people. I have people who agree with me 100% on reckless love. They agree with me 100% on what a beautiful name it is. But they disagree with me on the goodness of God. They don't think the lyric is an issue. I think it is. But that's just my opinion. And I think I can make a biblical case against that lyric more than some I can make a

42:42biblical case for that lyric because all I've ever seen, even in God's sovereignty, was Jesus telling me that his father draws us to him. I've never seen any one scripture where it says that he is chasing after us. And he's certainly not reckless and he's certainly not incomplete because I'm not there. Okay. Be careful. So let's review that again. Let's be careful with me centered focus. Any song that sounds like God's worshiping us, we're not worshiping him or red flag. Any misrepresentation of God's character, human flaws, carelessness, lack of sovereign control, red flag, transitional faith, the health, wealth and prosperity. If I did this, so you're doing this for me. Now the only thing we can really say on that when I repented, you forgave me. There you go.

43:43But this, if I do certain things, you're blessing me financially, you're blessing me in some physical way. You don't desire that I'm sick, that kind of stuff. Just not true. So be, be, be leery of me focused, misrepresenting God's character and transitional faith. Those are some markers that you gotta be careful of when you're letting him or praise and worship music into your life because I'm going to tell you something, whether you want to believe this or not, you're living in a fallen creation. And as Adrian Rogers said many times, when you are looking and trying to be cautious about Satan and his demons, never fail to also check the pulpit, check the church, check the worship leader. Because you may think you're in a worship service when actually you are experiencing a

44:45strange encounter.