Leaving behind a Godly Legacy | Rapp Report Weekly 0036 | Striving for Eternity

Andrew Rappaport's Rapp Report

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Okay, so I have something a little bit special planned for today. This is an interview that I did on the

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Legendary Legacy Christian Mind Group with Jeremy Bettler.

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And so why is this so special? Well, for a very simple reason. The day that this is dropping happens to be my daughter's wedding day.

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And so as this drops, I will be at her wedding. And so that will be kind of special, talking about the legacy of a father on the day that I get to give my daughter away.

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So I'll give a quick shout out since I know she also listens, but she probably won't hear this one for a while because she'll be on her honeymoon.

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But I will say that, Shannon, I've always been so proud of you. And I know that I'm looking very forward.

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By the time you hear it, it'll be in the past, but I'm looking forward to being able to give you away to such a wonderful man like Nathan is.

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So that was a little plug for my daughter, a little private thing there. But folks,

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I hope you enjoy this podcast. Hope that you guys learn maybe a little of the legacy of a father.

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Welcome to the Rap Report with Andrew Rapoport, where we provide biblical interpretations and applications.

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This is a ministry of striving for eternity. For more content or to request a speaker or seminar for your church, go to strivingforeternity .org.

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Hello everyone. Welcome to Legendary Legacy Mastermind Group, Men of Faith.

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Specifically, I'm looking for fathers because fathers and business owners, they have unique challenges

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I think that are Christians in our world today. And I'm here with Andrew. Andrew, can you introduce yourself and maybe talk a little bit about, yeah, just talk a little bit about yourself, your background.

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We talked a little bit before. Maybe get started with your background with that. Does that sound good? Yes, that's fine.

02:07

My name is Andrew Rapoport. I'm the founder and executive director at strivingforeternity .org,

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Striving for Eternity Ministries. And my background, as we were discussing earlier, I come from a

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Jewish background. I was raised Jewish. Both my parents Jewish. A bit more misfit.

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A lot of people find that interesting. Came to Christ, I thought everyone comes to Christ the way

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I did, like in three and a half hours. The first time they hear the gospel, I've come to realize that's not normal. That is not.

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And there are different, I can talk a little bit about that after you share. Yeah, so I basically,

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I had a truck driver, a bus driver who was sharing the gospel with me. And in three and a half hours,

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I went from believing that Jesus Christ is Hitler's God to being a follower of Christ. And that is how

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I was raised. We are raised to believe that Jesus Christ represents the Holocaust, the Inquisitions, the

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Crusades. He wants to kill Jews. And so there's no love in the Jewish community for Jesus Christ.

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But logically, as we're going through prophecy, fulfilled prophecy, I stopped this guy

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Chuck and I said, Chuck, it is mathematically impossible for these prophecies, as detailed as they are, to be fulfilled by coincidence.

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Now, some could be self -fulfilling. I didn't look at those. Just ones that I put in the category of coincidence. It was beyond 10 to the 48th power, which is statistical impossibility, meaning the

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New Testament had to be written by God. I didn't believe it, but I believed it was written by God. Then he started saying

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Christ and explained his death, burial, resurrection. I'm like, Chuck, stop. People don't rise from the dead.

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They definitely don't rise themselves from the dead. I couldn't explain away the resurrection.

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I never read at that point Josh McDowell's evidence demands a verdict or more than Carpenter, but I had all of them.

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I came up with all of the false views for the resurrection all by myself. I have one that's to date is I think still original with me.

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My last argument to try to counter the resurrection is I said, Chuck, maybe they dug a hole underneath the tomb, came up through the center, grabbed the body and snuck out.

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And he's like, Andrew, like in three days, they didn't have heavy equipment. I'm like, ah, he's like, what's wrong?

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I said, if Christ rose from the dead, that means he must be God. He's like, yes.

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I said, then I have to follow him. I'm accountable to him. And so on the stairs of a Dairy Queen in San Francisco a long time ago, we won't say how many years, right now, look,

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I may have a daughter getting married, but my wife's only 25. Oh, okay. I'm not dumb.

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Okay. I'm not saying how many anniversaries of 25 she's celebrating, but she's 25. Part of keeping a legacy.

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Yes. Yeah. So there are a couple of questions in there that I had right away.

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So do most Jewish people feel that way? I hadn't realized that, that Jesus was

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Hitler's. God, I never heard that before now. So this is something new to me.

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So I'm curious what your stance is or what the Jewish faith is on that, to learn more about them.

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It's going to depend. I mean, folks who have gone through Hebrew school like I did, I mean, I was in Hebrew school for about 10 years, and this is where we would hear it.

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So it's going to depend how much they practice Judaism, how much they're raising their children the

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Hebrew school, whether they're going there, you know, just to be bar mitzvahed or whether they're actually,

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I mean, we would go, I think like three days a week. And so you end up having that's where that gets taught.

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Now, you're going to see that in different communities. Remember, I was a generation after the

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Holocaust, Jewish people do not want their children to forget the past.

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It's the reason we do a Passover. So we remember what happened all the way back in Egypt. And so that's a big part of Judaism is to not forget or we would go through and it would be explained.

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Now, I was teaching actually in New York City on how to witness to different religions. And we went out to a place called

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Union Square in New York City. And we had two, I think they were brother and sister or stepbrother, sister,

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I forget. But two Jewish, I want to say kids, but they were like in their 20s.

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And someone was evangelizing them and they made the mistake of bringing me over. And I always say don't because I'm a traitor to them.

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I like I kill a conversation when you bring me over and say, he used to be Jewish. It ends it. But basically they turned and said, look, your

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God is Hitler's God. And what they mean by that is that the Catholic Church supported

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Adolf Hitler financially. And for most Jewish people, they understand there's these differences between Catholicism and Baptists and Lutherans and they don't really get into that so much.

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It's all Catholic. I see. Would they lump that in with non -denominational

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Christians as well? All Christians? Okay. Yeah. I mean, like my sister bought me, when

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I graduated college, she bought me a Bible. She sent it to me and said, I bought you a Bible for graduation.

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It even has the Catholic part. I got excited because I was like, cool, I have the Apocrypha. And no, she meant it had the

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New Testament. So I mean, that's just the thing that we really don't get into.

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I mean, like most, most Christians don't really know much about the different divisions within Judaism.

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Maybe they know there's three main divisions, Orthodox, Conservative, Liberal, or what's really

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Reformed, I should say. That's all I would know. Yeah. But within the Orthodox, there's tons of divisions, right?

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And if you're involved in it, then you know about them. And if you're not, you don't. And that's the same thing, like Christians would just say they're

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Orthodox and Jews would say they're all Catholic. I see. Okay.

08:17

Thanks for sharing that. That's an interesting background. And you mentioned something about you thought that all people came to faith like that.

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So, and we talked beforehand about specifically the main doctrine that I care about is that Jesus is the

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Savior of our world, Savior of all people, and that he is true God and true man 100%.

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And that's the main thing that he died for all people, but not all people will be in heaven. And we discussed a little bit about that.

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But there's also something in Christianity that I was baptized

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Lutheran, so we believe, and I don't want this to be about doctrine and about things, but we believe that when you're baptized, there's a miracle that can happen and you can come to faith.

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But there's a lot of my Christian friends that have had a experience like you that have came to faith after being part of another religion, and they made a choice, a logical choice to choose

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God. What I'm saying about, what I'm going to say about this is all that really matters is that we believe that Jesus is their

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Savior. It doesn't necessarily matter how we got there, because I believe personally that God chose us from the beginning of time, and we are getting a little bit into doctrine.

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But the point is that I think as Christians, we need to understand that we're all together, that we want to spread the gospel, that we want people to know the truth, and that's the main point of all of this.

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But I am curious about your experience that you've had not being, because if your life would have ended at that time, where would you have believed you would have been?

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Oh, I would have, before I became a Christian, I would have been in hell. Yeah. That's a tough thing to say, especially to other people.

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But let me make it even harder. My mother passed away when I was 10 years old.

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I have no, and people think I'm horrible for saying this, but I have no reason to believe that I will see my mother in heaven.

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She was Jewish. She rejected Jesus Christ. She was a sinner like every other human being.

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I loved her dearly, but I have no reason to believe that she's not in hell right now.

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And that sounds so horrible, but the difference is this. Am I going to trust that God is just or do

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I think that I get to set the standard of justice? I am one that believes that God is just and that even though I love my mother and don't want her to be in hell, the moment

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I die, I believe that I will fully understand God's justice in a way I cannot comprehend it today. And it will make perfect sense even more than it does right now.

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And let me touch base with something you did say. I've written two books. What do they believe?

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What do we believe? Okay. What do they believe is on world religions. It covers Judaism, Catholicism, Islam, Jehovah Witness, Mormonism, Christianity.

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It looks at six major doctrines. What's their authority, their view of the Trinity specifically, their view of Christ deity, man's sinfulness, salvation, and time.

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So it looks at those doctrines. Then I have a book, What Do We Believe?, which is Christian doctrine, looks at those more in depth, looks at things like the church.

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Best chapter, most important chapter, I should say, is the second chapter in that book, What Do We Believe?, because it talks about biblical reliability, why we can trust the scriptures.

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They haven't been edited like people say to try to discredit it. But here's the thing I never expected on what do they believe.

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I didn't expect how many people would buy that book for other people as if it's an evangelistic tool, and it was never meant to be.

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Oh, interesting. It wasn't meant to refute them. It wasn't meant to defend

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Christianity. It was meant to say, here's accurately what they believe. So when you talk to someone of that faith, they would go,

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Oh, you really understand my religion. I like that because I think that's a great way because too many times, evangelical

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Christians, we can focus on how we're right and they're wrong, but instead we should focus on what they believe so that we can understand them better.

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I like that. Well, that's a big part of what we do on my podcast, The Wrap Report.

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When I have others on part of what we do with the Christian podcast community, eventually you're going to see we're going to end up on Christian podcast community.

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We're going to have a theological throwdown. Everyone in the community can discuss a theological topic and disagree. We're going to do it in love and charity.

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Matt Slick and I actually travel to debate one another. We get asked to go to conferences so we can debate one another.

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Is Matt Slick another Christian? He's a Christian apologist at CARM .org. One of the largest apologetics websites,

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C -A -R -M .org. And he and I disagree theologically. He's Presbyterian.

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I'm Baptist. He's covenant theologian. I'm dispensational. But you don't disagree that Jesus is the savior of the world?

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No. And that's the thing. What I ended up doing in the second edition that just came out of What Do They Believe?

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is to make it more evangelicalistic. I added an epilogue.

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I added a section on what makes Christianity unique. What is it that we as Christians agree? What makes it unique from every world religion?

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You brought up actually two of them. Okay. First, I didn't intend this. This is not scripted in any way, people.

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Here's the thing, though. First one, it's only within Christianity that you have a

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God who is fully just, fully merciful. If there is a punishment for a consequence, a judge can be just and punish, or he can be merciful and let you go, but he can't do both.

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However, the judge, in this case, could take the punishment himself. Now it's been paid, and because of that, he can offer mercy.

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Only within Christianity do you see that. Only within Christianity do you have, as you mentioned, it's based on a specific person.

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You can have Mormonism without Joseph Smith. You can have Islam without Muhammad. You can't have Christianity without Jesus Christ because he's 100 %

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God, 100 % man. Being fully God, he can pay an eternal fine that we owe. Being fully man, he can pay a fine for other human beings.

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The third thing, and you mentioned this, it is by faith alone. It's because of whose works.

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That's what it really comes down to. All human religions add human effort in some way to getting right with God.

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Only within Christianity do you see God did all the work, though it's a religion of divine work or human work.

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Yeah, but then the argument comes, oh, so you're saying, and then they'll bring out the worst person in history,

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Hitler or whatever. They could be in heaven, and you know what? That isn't ultimately for me to judge, but there's also, and this is biblical in James, I believe specifically it talks about this, is that by our actions you will know them, and in other parts of the

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Bible too, I'm sure. You'll probably know better than I will, but the point is that if you do have faith, you will do your best to keep the commandments.

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You will do your best to be a disciple of Christ and be more like Christ, so to say.

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I always kind of laugh because we cannot be like Christ because we cannot be perfect, and we cannot be

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God. I'll ask it this way, and this will show you the problem that people that ask that question, the problem is their starting point.

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Yes. Jeremy, would God be just if he punished every single human being that ever lived, is living, will live to hell?

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I'm going to say yes because of sin, but I don't know if that's where you're going.

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Yeah, that's exactly where I'm going. Okay, yeah. The starting point that people that argue the way you said is they think that somehow our starting point is heaven and God sentences us to hell.

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No, our starting point is hell because of sin and God for some reason. The question isn't why does

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God send anyone to hell? The question is why does God allow anybody into heaven? Yes, and then people are like, well, are you saying that you're better?

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No, this isn't about us. This is about one man that died on the cross and rose from the dead who also happened to be

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God. See, I always tell people that the most controversial person that ever lived,

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I don't think was Hitler. I don't think it was anybody else. I think the most controversial person that ever lived was

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Jesus. And then the next question though is why? Why was he the most controversial person that ever lived?

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And Andrew, I believe that's because he was God and there was nobody else that was God. So that's my faith.

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That's what I believe. With that being said, I want to go into, if you don't mind,

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I want to go into a legendary legacy for men and what I'm building and what

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I'm doing. I have done more self -improvement stuff than anybody else that I know.

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When you say self -improvement, you're talking physical as well because you've got a bunch of stuff on physical.

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My name, Andrew, may mean manly, but I think you're living up to it better than me.

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I'm just saying. Yes, physical fitness is part of that, but I have always, not always,

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I have felt that, especially recently, that I wanted to be more than fitness for myself.

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There's a great book out there and I want to throw this out there. My group already knows this. It's called Called to Create.

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It's for entrepreneurs and people that create anything. Artists and singers, please read that book.

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I think it'll give you energy and it'll give you faith that you may not have had in your calling.

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I believe that any work that a Christian does is their calling, but I want to point out here is that being an entrepreneur and being a business owner can be very, very challenging, but in that book, he talks about how, you know what?

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Maybe it's your calling to do that and God wants you to do that just as much as a pastor.

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I think there's also something in our society that pastors and people that are in authority that way, that they're somehow better and that's not true.

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Any work that a person does is their calling, whether they're a stay -at -home mom, a stay -at -home dad, whatever they're doing is part of their calling.

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So can you speak about your background? Did I see that you are science -based or into IT or something?

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Can you talk about that and how that has shaped and formed maybe your belief systems or your faith?

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Yeah, well, I have a wide variety of backgrounds, but my formal training is in computer science.

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Wow. So I do have years of programming websites, things like that. Okay. I have a background which also forms things physically.

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In the physical fitness, I used to be a runner, I should say that. I haven't been running as well, but I used to train for marathons, never actually got to do one, would either get injured or got food poisoning the night before.

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Horrible. I had all the training. I have a background in martial arts, so I do enjoy that.

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I do enjoy jiu -jitsu called the gentle art. It has none of the Eastern mysticism in there and whatnot.

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That's an important point. You bring up a lot of good things. I think a lot of people, Christians, they're into yoga and they don't realize that's centered in different religion and the religion is, help me out, is it

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Hinduism and Buddhism? Hinduism and Buddhism, yes. The Eastern religions have this idea with the yoga where stretching is good.

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I like how Matt Slick from CARM, how he explained it. He says there's a difference between stretching and yoga.

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Yes. Strength stretching is what I like to call it. If you want to, you can focus on God.

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You can focus on the Bible and that's fine. A lot of times, they either subtly or even more directly, they have the faith of like you said, the religions of Hinduism and Buddhism and stuff like that which a

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Christian would obviously not believe in. That's okay. In our society, we should have freedom of faith and we can want to believe whatever we want to believe and that should be fine.

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As Christians, I feel like you can have sometimes any faith but if you start talking about Jesus, watch out.

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You're going to get in trouble. You can see that in the corporate world all the way all the way all over the place.

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Well, I think here's the thing that I'm starting to think through a lot more especially because there's been this influx of social justice warriors coming into the church and trying to argue that the church needs to be focused on social justice.

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I think the church needs to be focused on exalting God, edifying and equipping the saints and evangelizing the lost.

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That's our vision at Striving for Eternity. That's what the church should be doing.

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Now, it's really kind of interesting because what have we seen? We've seen a culture in Western culture where they have been trying very hard to remove

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God from culture. However, God created us community based.

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God created us where we everywhere you go in the world you have people that will have a

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God consciousness. They have they identify with other people that are like them and they're willing to die for that.

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There are people flying themselves into you know buildings and planes because of what they believe.

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True or false isn't the issue. The issue is they're willing to die for what they believe. You remove

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God what is it that these people are all holding as community? Well, it's their social justice now.

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That's why you're seeing people that it's starting to become very crazy. I don't know if you saw the guy who kicked the woman that was standing outside of a pro -life you know she was basically she was pro -life and I guess she was outside of an abortion clinic or something and the guy did something to destroy her property and then he kicked her and it's like he thinks that's you know it's like it's okay to kick her phone you know he kicked her he said he just wanted to kick the phone but he in his mind it's justified to damage other people's property just because I disagree with you that's scary that is the same kind of religious fervor that they complain about religions and that's the interesting thing they don't recognize that they have it the difference

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I think that I have and many Christians have is we recognize that people can do that and have that mindset they don't but when you talk about a legacy

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I'm also at a different stage of life having I mean now I have a daughter who is soon to be married and so congratulations thank you and I'm trying desperately to fit into the tux

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I actually bought the tux before she was before she was even before he even came to my house and asked me so I was a little bit excited just saying it was on sale

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I did reestablish I'm Jewish right I'm gonna save money but here's the thing you know

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I've gone to the stage now where I've raised my children how many children do you have can you speak about them yeah

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I have two children I have my son he's I don't think marriage is on the horizon yet for him he just entered his master's program for occupational therapy oh okay great he's out in Texas my daughter completed her degree in cellular biochemistry at Cedarville University great university by the way

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Cedarville is that a public or private university that would be private it's a Christian university it is a Christian university

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I went to a Christian college so I'm gonna have to look them up when I'm done here that's great I was just gonna ask are they

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Christians so they're they're not Jewish they're Christian here's here's the thing what I really loved when

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I this private side note but we got there for the parent orientation and Dr. White is explaining about basically all the things they want to do to train the students spiritually to help them mature to help them grow in their spiritual faith so that they would go out and evangelize in whatever field they go to work in and he's like oh they're gonna get a good education you're spending the money for an education they're gonna get that too you know

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I got to know him well after that because I was like I was so impressed that the major concern that they have is training them to influence the world not letting the world influence them and so I love

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Cedarville big supporter of them but my daughter is now gonna get married and so we're at that stage now where you know my in -laws have passed away and I my wife is

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Asian so this becomes a big deal in Asian culture but the family actually made me the head of the family which and I'm like an outsider but I'm with that next generation where I'm now what

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I always saw my parents as I'm the one that's gonna have the grandchildren and be the fatherly figure for the family and it's a new experience in that way and you gotta deal with that because life ends up happening but a big part that you have to do as your children get older that I think for many younger parents younger fathers have a plan to let go maybe this because I have 25 years of counseling specifically with marriage and you end up realizing that a lot of people either having problems with their parents having not let go of them and still wanna be controlling and it affects a marriage or people that can't let go of their children or their children become the whole focus so when their children move out they don't know what to do have a plan for that have a plan

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I mean when my kids were in high school they didn't even know this was happening until they grew up my daughter ended up sitting down with one time and said she ended up realizing that in high school our relationship started changing letting them make their own mistakes being less productive and letting them suffer the consequences decisions they made by sophomore year

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I was focusing on what do you want to do the rest of your life let's have a plan so that when they started looking at college

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I started letting go year by year so by time they got to being a senior they were acting as adults while they were in my house they knew they had to set their own rules while they were still in my house they set their own bedtimes they set their schedules

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I just let them suffer natural consequences why because I didn't want them getting to college and not having that so by senior year

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I transformed that relationship into more of a coaching relationship with them so that they could come to me with things and start building that in where now they're away from college whenever there's issues they can call me they can call me from anywhere and say what do you think about this

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I want to do this and I'm giving advice and I'm helping them but I'm not trying to control them

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I'm saying whatever you want to do and what is your future husband think about this right she's she's trying to make some career decisions does she go for her

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Ph .D. in cellular biochemistry and do research or maybe teach at a university or does she do something different if she spends five years getting a

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Ph .D. and starts having kids that could be a waste of time say what you should do

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I need to recognize her husband should have left mother and father leave now they cleave to one another and interweave relationships so that they are one.

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And I need to encourage that as a parent. So I need to be saying, hey, have you spoken with your fiance about this?

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Yes, okay, so what do you guys think about that? Now I'm giving the advice from that perspective. That is something most parents don't think through.

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But if you wanna leave a lasting legacy, you need to know up front the stages of life that your children are gonna have and be appropriate in each of those stages, even though the kids don't understand.

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Like I said, my daughter didn't pick up on some of the things I did when she was in high school till she was halfway or three quarters away through college.

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And so it could be six, seven years before they see some of the things that we were doing. And she ended up saying she didn't realize it until she started hanging out with other friends, with their parents.

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She would go home as a college student and go home with other friends and see how her other friends are with their parents and be like, man, my dad is not that way.

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My mom's not that way. They're not so controlling with us. They treat us like adults, not like we're still children.

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And it's a big problem that people bring into marriages when that doesn't happen. I mean, my mother was that way.

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A Jewish mother, very controlling, lots of guilt. And if you don't, if you haven't experienced

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Jewish grandmother guilt, you know, you haven't experienced guilt, just saying. But here's the thing.

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When I got married, my mother tried to pit my wife versus my mother.

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She wanted me to make a decision between my wife and my mother. Very early on,

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I had to explain to my mother. I sat her down and said, mom, look, I love you. And it's my stepmom, obviously, since I mentioned my mom passed away.

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But I still call her mom. So I said, mom, I love you very much, but I need to be very clear and upfront with you.

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My wife will always take priority in my relationships. And if you ever expect me to choose you over my wife, you will lose 100 % of the time.

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I will always put my wife, my bride, before you. And it's one of the things people, my wife and I are gonna be married, this

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May we'll be married 25 years. Congratulations. Thank you. She is still my bride.

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People always ask me about that. You always, online, you always refer to her as your bride. That's right, because I never want that honeymoon to end.

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I never want it to be a point where she's just the old lady. I mean, listen to the way people speak of their spouses.

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Their old lady, you know, wife that's just like, no, that bride is that excitement where you love being with her.

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There's no one more other than Christ that I wanna spend time with than my bride. And that is the way we have to be within marriage.

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I just did a podcast. I have a daily podcast, Monday through Friday. It's two minutes long, called

32:43

The Wrap Report. And then I have a weekly hour -long one. And the two -minute one that was released today when they were airing, or recording,

32:52

I should say, I did it on lashing out of your spouses. And I talk about the fact, after years of counseling, there are so many couples

33:00

I counsel who lash out in anger toward one another because they're comfortable with it.

33:06

They got used to that pattern. And they would rather, even though they know it's damaging their marriage, damaging their relationship, hurting themselves, they'd rather do that than change because change is uncomfortable.

33:18

And people get into these routines that they must change. Here's the motivation

33:23

I give for why that couples should never be lashing out in anger using harsh words toward their spouses, trying to purposely hurt them just to end conversations.

33:37

Because that's what commonly happens. Someone will say something, they know they're pushing the buttons, it's purposely hurtful, they know they're gonna cause great pain to their spouse, but they do it because they want the conversation to end.

33:48

Here's the reason that you don't do that. What does marriage reflect? Your relationship with Christ.

33:55

Exactly, exactly. Do you want Christ lashing out with you the way you wanna lash out at your spouse?

34:02

Not unless there was something like the temple. That's the only time that, well, there are other times.

34:08

And that wasn't believers he was doing this. No, that was set up in a way that they had put earthly things above God.

34:17

And then we could talk about money too and how money is not the root of all evil. That passage is incorrect.

34:22

The love of money, which I believe is greed. But I didn't know, I didn't realize that you had done. The passage is correct, it's the way people quote it that's not correct.

34:32

Correct. You quoted it correctly with what the passage says. Exactly, so thank you.

34:38

So you have done marriage counseling, so you have a unique, so can you talk about that, like what is a legendary legacy,

34:46

Christ -centered of course, and I use legendary legacy and it almost like the focus is on you and it's not meant to be, but I just like those words, but it's focused on Christ.

34:58

I think that you cannot have a legendary legacy until you have that, but after you have Christ, what does a legendary legacy mean for you in your marriage, for your children, and as a believer, as a

35:12

Christian in general? Could you share with us? Yeah, and let me do it in those ways. So let me start with the marriage.

35:18

A legacy would be that as much as humanly possible, my bride and I reflect the relationship that Christ has with his church.

35:29

As much as humanly possible. I'm a sinner, you clearly, she knows that.

35:36

But the reality is, is that in a marriage, it wants to be that reflection of Christ and the church.

35:43

Now, when it comes to the family, the children, you have two categories. I am of the belief that we do not get to save our children as much as we might want to.

35:54

Nope, we can only mentor and lead them and coach them. Like you said, I thought that was really good. And I have younger kids, so that was good advice.

36:01

I like it. Yeah, your kids are still young. You can't save them as much as you're gonna want to. That is between them and God.

36:08

So there are people who have unsafe children. There's those that have safe children. So I wanna speak to both because a lasting legacy would be different.

36:17

My prayer when my kids were growing up was always the same. I'd kneel at their bedside. Even when they got older and they're sleeping,

36:25

I don't sleep. So when I would go to bed, they were out like a light. I'd go to bed about four in the morning.

36:31

And so I would be praying each night for them. And I would sit at the bedside while they're sleeping and I'd be praying the same prayer for each of them, that I would ask that God would do a work in their life so that they would grow to be a godly man and a godly woman who would do things to glorify

36:53

God. What's the motivation? I want God to glorify himself through their life.

36:58

Amen. That actually works whether they're a believer or not. I've had the opportunity with my daughter who really,

37:06

I'm starting to see her spiritual walk is really growing.

37:13

How our conversation is very different. We discuss theology. She'll come to me with passages of scripture.

37:20

And it really is an interesting thing because when you grow up with a father who travels and speaks at conferences, it's like, ah, do we gotta go with him here?

37:28

And they get tired of hearing dad speak. A lot of it changed when

37:33

I spoke at her university. All of a sudden it was, it's her dad that's speaking, right?

37:41

The relationship really changed at that point because now it's not, oh, that's my dad, yeah, he goes and speaks.

37:50

She has speakers come to her university and they know who

37:55

I am, I know who they are. And she had one guy, she mentioned, oh yeah, I think you know my dad.

38:01

And she's like, oh, who's your dad? Andrew Rapport. And he was just like, he said he called me.

38:07

He's like, I met your daughter. He's like, I was so upset she had to rush. I was hoping we could sit and I'd buy her lunch and just talk with her.

38:13

And she's like, why would he wanna do that? I'm like, because we're good friends. She thought there was a different aspect of it.

38:21

Here was the thing that was interesting. She started to see me in a different light. Why? Because of the way

38:27

I started treating her long ago. See, that's when she started to notice some of that. And we have a very different relationship now than we did a year ago, two years ago, five years ago.

38:39

It's very different. And I'm starting to see in her the man she's choosing to marry and the concern she has for someone that's gonna lead her spiritually, someone who's gonna challenge her intellectually and spiritually.

38:53

That's a legacy. I don't think that she would have had that mindset if I was trying to tell her everything she should do, if I was trying to make sure she did the things

39:04

I think she should do. Now, you can have parents who say, well, okay, but I don't have children or I may have a child that doesn't believe.

39:14

What's a lasting legacy? Well, here's what would be the lasting legacy. I used to do, well,

39:19

I still do this sometimes. When I run into these guys that are the hardcore atheists, I do a lot of street evangelism.

39:25

And when I'm out on the street and I talk to people, hand them a gospel tract, trying to have a one -on -one conversation, they say they're an atheist.

39:32

And they're really hardcore atheists. I always ask, so what church did you grow up in? Do you know only once someone didn't have a church that they could tell me?

39:41

So much of it, they're responding and reacting to the way they grew up, either the church, something happened in the church, the legalism in their church, or hypocrites in the church.

39:51

And they're really not hypocrites. The church is where we have sinners that act like sinners. If you wanna avoid the hypocrites, don't go to work, don't go to the malls, don't go to the movies.

40:00

That's where people say they're a good person. Don't be alive because you yourself will be a sinner. And I have seen that.

40:06

I'm glad you brought that up with people that were Christian and they're like, well, they're such hypocrites.

40:14

And then you gotta take a step back. When they say that somebody else is being hypocritical, what they're actually saying is

40:21

I'm being a hypocrite, calling them a hypocrite. Yeah. And people don't - Because I say

40:27

I'm a good person. Yeah, oh yeah. And you know, I always tell this to people. You expect the church full of people that claim they're sinners that have been forgiven.

40:36

You think they're not sinners? Like, how's that? They're admitting they're sinners. Yes. That's like the entrance to the church.

40:43

You don't need a savior if you're not, if you don't have any, if you're perfect, you don't need a savior. Yeah. And now, through God's eyes -

40:51

And you and I talked about this beforehand. We don't become perfect until we die.

40:57

It's not because we're Christian that we suddenly become perfect. We try. Yes, and we're perfect in God's eyes.

41:03

But that's, again, the whole doctrine. That's the whole faith. We're perfect because God decided.

41:09

And there's a great video out there, and for the listeners, I think you should watch this. It's about this guy.

41:15

He's putting his son on a train, and the train, have you seen this, Andrew? And the train ends up, they have to, the father has to let the son die to save the rest of the people on the train.

41:28

And it's just a great, yeah, so it's a great - Well, I know, I haven't seen a video on that. I know there's an analogy that people often use, where the father -

41:36

There's a sermon, an analogy. Yeah, the sermon - There's a video on it, and I highly recommend that you watch it, because it tears you up, because God sent his son that had to die.

41:45

There was no other way for us to be able to be in heaven, and that is such a freeing thing.

41:51

That is not a legalism thing. That is a freeing thing, and you can call me a

41:56

Jesus freak, whatever you wanna call me on that, but the truth of the matter is, is if that's the truth, then believing in that is freeing, not the legalism in the church.

42:08

And yes, and what kind of church do you go to, Andrew? I'm curious. I go to a Baptistic church.

42:14

It's a Bible church, non -denominational. I've always been non -denominational since I've been in churches.

42:21

Which is a denomination of non -denominational. Yeah, it is. It really has become, and really, unfortunately, the problem

42:28

I'm starting to have with non -denominational churches is that you end up seeing, that's where there's less accountability, and you get all kinds of craziness, but I should finish up with the encouragement to the parents who have unsaved children.

42:45

Yes, thank you for getting us back on track. What does a lasting legacy look like for them?

42:50

Here's the thing. A lasting legacy is not just that someone is going to believe in Christ, because we can't control that, but I can present the truths of Scripture in such a way that my children, whether they believe it or not, know that I was living as faithful as I could to the truths of Scripture, and that I was accurate with not only what

43:20

I believe, with others believe, because when they start to think you're being hypocritical, it becomes an excuse to reject it.

43:27

I'm very clear about my sin. When I sinned against my children, I'd be very quick to ask their forgiveness.

43:37

You know, it was funny. I did something to my son once, and he was like, dad, will you stop asking me to forgive you every time you do something wrong?

43:46

What am I trying to do there? I mean, he picked up on that. He picked up on it and ended up realizing that this is something we do.

43:56

When we do something wrong, we ask forgiveness. I had a father who never did that.

44:02

My father, we talked a little bit about this, but my father is a very prideful man just with the way he was brought up and whatnot, and he never admitted wrong, like ever.

44:15

I don't think I've ever heard my father say he was wrong. Even when I tried sharing the gospel with him, and he punched me, and as I said to you privately, he was a

44:25

Golden Gloves boxer in the Army. He knew how to throw a punch. Even at 72 years old, his right cross had a nice punch to it.

44:34

But the thing is that - I'm sorry that that did happen. Yeah, but even in that, we sound like that, we're on better terms now.

44:43

He never even asked forgiveness for that. That's not a lasting legacy. A legacy of that,

44:49

I'm never wrong, even though you know your kids know you've done wrong at times. That lasting legacy is your kids always knowing that you recognize when you do wrong, and you're quick to ask forgiveness.

45:02

I want it to be where if I have unsaved children, and this would be the lasting legacy for folks, is that they can't blame you for their unbelief.

45:13

That you have done everything to get yourself out of the way so that Christ would shine.

45:19

And so that when they reject the gospel, it is clearly because they hate

45:25

Jesus Christ. That should be the thing. Now, how's that a lasting legacy?

45:31

In one sense, because they're not gonna be misrepresenting who Christ is, even if they don't believe.

45:39

That is the big thing I end up seeing. A lot of people, they misrepresent Christianity in their unbelief.

45:45

I would want my children to accurately portray what Christianity believes, even if they don't believe it.

45:53

And that would be the lasting legacy because you never know what God is gonna do in their heart.

45:58

You never know what God is gonna do through them. What about in terms of, that's great with your family.

46:04

What about in terms of your work and your career and things of that nature?

46:10

We didn't really get into that, your background with computer science, I think you said.

46:16

You could tell you're very intellectual. Sometimes intellectualism can,

46:22

I don't wanna say get in the way of, people can try to explain away God.

46:29

I don't think it works, but I have faith. So yeah, can you speak about what a legacy means for you in terms of your health, your fitness and your career?

46:39

Yeah, so let's go through them. So my health, I actually used to be a glutton.

46:46

That's what actually killed my running. I used to jokingly say that I ran to eat so I could eat like a pig and it wouldn't show.

46:52

And I used to joke about it, but when I was counseling a guy who had food issues, I actually started realizing as I was counseling him that I was the glutton.

47:00

I had a problem. And when I came to terms with that, I actually, it ruined my running.

47:06

I never got into long -term running. I don't have time to do the exercise I'd like to do.

47:11

I really enjoy doing jujitsu. It's just a time thing now. I do enjoy running and lifting.

47:18

I try to do those things, why? Because I wanna honor what God's given me. I'm not, I'm a little overweight, not much, but I can't allow myself to get much overweight.

47:28

That would be to me, God's given me this body to have a stewardship over.

47:36

I need to take that stewardship. That's a good way of putting it. As far as work, I have a thing when I would, at secular work,

47:43

I'd come into a new place. And by the way, I met my wife at work. I discipled her at work.

47:48

That's how we met. I was discipling her. Basically, I would take people that I work with out to lunch.

47:57

I would pay. I would tell them I'm paying, why? Because if I'm buying lunch, I can pretty much say whatever

48:02

I want. And they're willing to listen. And they're guaranteed to be there.

48:09

So I say, hey, I'd like to buy lunch for you. Just to get to know you better. And this first part of the conversation,

48:15

I will always spend asking them about themselves, learning more about them. Second half of the conversation, I'm gonna spend sharing the gospel.

48:22

I run with people at lunch. And all the secular places

48:27

I worked, I would work. I'd run during lunch, and I'd grab guys that we could run with.

48:34

Or I should say most of the secular places that I worked. So the thing is, is if there were believers there,

48:41

I would use lunchtime, my own time, for discipling. Like I said, that's how I met my wife. Now, what do

48:47

I do? I'd come in early and pray with other believers. We used to get in early, and we'd pray and read scripture and do a

48:54

Bible study. We'd get together for lunch and do Bible study. I'm trying to build that at work.

48:59

Here's the thing. I wouldn't proselytize or share the gospel, evangelize, on work time.

49:08

But people knew that I was a Christian. Almost every job I worked at, people would turn to me, they'd use foul language, like, oh, sorry,

49:14

Andrew. I never asked people to correct the language, except for once that I would do it. If people use

49:19

Jesus Christ's name as foul language, that's when I would address it. I had one workplace where there was this guy named

49:28

Bill. He professed to be a Christian. I don't believe he was a Christian. I don't think the others we worked with believed he was a

49:35

Christian. Now, I went to - Ultimately, though, that's up to God. No, I can't judge his heart.

49:41

I'm only looking at fruit. But here's the thing that happened. Here's this guy. I talked to him privately. I pulled him aside and said, look, you keep using the name of Christ as foul language.

49:54

You want to use foul language that's part of the way you speak. I understand that. But I'm asking you if you have any respect for me.

50:01

This is someone who died in my place, who I love dearly, and you're dragging him through the mud. I mean, would you want the name of your wife, your mother to be dragged out that way?

50:11

And he's like, no. I said, well, I'm just asking you, at least around me, it hurts me when you use the name of Jesus Christ as foul language, that you drag his name in the mud.

50:21

And it bothers me. And so we were in a meeting once, and he did it accidentally and was quick to go, Andrew, I'm sorry.

50:26

I used Jesus's name as foul language. Forgive me. And this other guy was like, hey, how come you never watch that around me?

50:35

And this was his words. He said, because Andrew believes what he preaches. You see, the world was watching, and they knew that I carried out.

50:45

I tried to do my work with integrity. I tried to show love and care to my fellow coworkers.

50:52

They saw a difference. So at your workplace, it's not the place to be evangelizing, but there are ways you can do it.

51:01

I take guys out. I have guys that like sushi. Hey, I'll buy the sushi. Nobody refuses someone buying sushi because it's expensive.

51:09

Will I be willing to pay for sushi just because, and for you sushi haters, sorry.

51:17

Am I willing to pay for that just to share the gospel? Yes. Yes, I am. Because I won't take the money with me, but if that person hears the gospel, that has eternal value.

51:28

That's actually the meaning behind our whole ministry, striving for eternity, that we would have an eternal mindset.

51:35

Look at that, which has eternal lasting value. That's why when you say a legacy, this is the thing we have at our ministry that goes far beyond.

51:44

We're looking at that legacy of sitting at the feet of Christ. Why is it that I can have discussions of different people theologically that disagree with me, and yet we get along.

51:56

I do a podcast with the host of Theology Gals. She's Presbyterian. I'm Baptist. We talk about our differences.

52:02

We just did a podcast on the Sabbath. We have differing views on that. What is it that everyone is saying when they listen to that?

52:09

Man, you guys have such strong, differing views, and yet you get along so well. Yes, that's important.

52:15

I have another podcast that's responding to my podcast on the Sabbath. They're Reformed Baptists. They disagree with me on the

52:23

Sabbath. And the way they're doing it, they're ripping me in a more joking way because I joke with them.

52:30

We have a lot of fun back and forth about our disagreements. I am wrong theologically.

52:38

Jeremy, I hope you don't get upset, but you're wrong theologically. We just don't know where that is.

52:44

If we did, we would change. We will know. That's our sinful human nature that we can never avoid.

52:52

And that's why I like that you're bringing this up because in the end, as Christians, we need to focus on the similarities.

53:00

Yes, we can talk about these things, and yes, they are important, but we need to focus on the unbelievers and the ones that do not have faith.

53:12

And you said something that we're not able to evangelize, and I understand what you're saying. I do wanna challenge you, though.

53:19

I think that by your actions, you will know them. So evangelizing can be without words, and it can be by your actions.

53:28

And I think that that's another way that we can evangelize in the workplace that maybe is secular.

53:33

I happen to be able to decide and have been in places where Christian faith was part of the business.

53:41

So I hope that makes sense, and I hope that that's a challenge to you and to the listeners that by our actions, you can implement doing the right thing, having integrity, taking people out if they want to for dinner or for lunch, things of that nature.

54:00

So that was great bringing that up. Yeah, I mean, I think you and I agree on this is salvation is a work of God, not us, and therefore,

54:08

I'm not, by my actions and behavior, going to cause anybody to be saved.

54:13

No. I'm not gonna cause anybody to lose their salvation or to reject Christ. God does that work.

54:21

But he can work through you, though. Exactly. He works through actions

54:26

I do. I could be offensive and cause somebody to allow their pride to suppress the truth even more.

54:34

I don't want that. So what do I do? I wanna do everything I can so that the only offense is the gospel alone, and I remove myself from being the offense.

54:45

Great. Is there anything else that you would like to add before we finish up today? I enjoyed our time here, and if you want me on your podcast, too,

54:54

I'm willing to do that. I'd like to know what to speak about, but be prepared.

55:00

I would be nervous if we're gonna talk about fitness with your background because I may feel even more guilty that I'm not devoting enough time as I should.

55:10

Well, there is a passage in the Bible, I'll just say this, that physical training is of some good, but spiritual training is of utmost importance.

55:21

I find that's a great verse because I find this really interesting. I've yet to have this not be true, but there's two ways people interpret that passage.

55:30

Yeah, I wanna hear your. I find that people like you and I who try to stay in shape and try to stay fit interpret that physical fitness is good.

55:44

It has really good value. It has value. But compared to the spiritual value, the guys that are out of shape always seem to say, like, that's just a little good, but it's the spiritual that we should be focusing on.

55:59

Justifying their behavior is what you're saying, yes. I do, I seem to have noticed that trend.

56:06

Hey, but I'll encourage folks, you could go to strivingforeturning .org. Yes, please, please share.

56:12

We have a lot of resources out there. We have an online school that you can take for free. Yeah, that's how we make our money.

56:19

Something's wrong with our business model. No, we offer the classes on YouTube for free because I don't wanna put a price tag on training people.

56:28

And so we charge for the syllabuses that people can get. That's how we can afford to put those classes on.

56:34

So we have several classes, hundreds of hours of lectures, classes on how to interpret the

56:40

Bible called Harmoneutics. We have classes on Systematic Theology, how to disciple people.

56:47

We have classes on Introduction to World Religions. So we're working on more. We also do,

56:53

I travel and speak. So I come to churches, we have seminars we do. I do a seminar on Bible Interpretation Made Easy.

56:59

We have seminars on apologetics, presuppositional apologetics, evangelism, creation science.

57:05

We have an expert, one of the leading experts in Georgia is one of our speakers on the issue of sexual abuse.

57:12

And he's got scary statistics. So many churches think that they could just trust the fact that they go and do background checks.

57:19

He counsels hundreds of sexual offenders a week. And he said that every time, or he said the statistics show that 75 % of offenders are first -time offenders.

57:30

In other words, they've been committing these crimes for multiple times before they ever got caught.

57:36

So the background checks only catch the 25 % that got caught. That's it.

57:41

So you need to be able to identify how to spot people that are grooming people in the church, things like that.

57:47

Those are seminars that we do. Obviously, we have some books. I mentioned What Do They Believe?

57:52

You can get it at whatdotheybelieve .com. Or What Do We Believe at whatdowebelievebook .com.

57:58

We get both of them at strivingforattorney .org at our store, where we have some other books that we produce.

58:05

We are working on a podcast community, a community of podcasters helping one another to improve their podcasts, to grow, and to be able to have mutual benefit.

58:15

My podcast is called The Rap Report, if you get my last name, Rapaport. I thought it was the corniest thing.

58:22

I was convinced that Dr. Silvestro, that I was gonna prove to him that this was a corny name. We went to a Shepherd's Conference, and I'm sitting there polling everybody.

58:31

And everyone's like, that name's great! I'm like, I am stuck with this thing. So it is

58:36

The Rap Report. I started a new podcast with my friend Matt Slick from CARM called Apologetics Live.

58:41

That's every Thursday night. We do it right now on Google Hangouts. But if you go to apologeticslive .com,

58:50

you can watch it there, you can join. If you have apologetics questions, you have challenges for Matt or I about what we believe.

58:58

We have a lot of professing atheists that come in and challenge us. We've had some

59:03

Roman Catholics that wanna come in, Mormons. So we get a lot of different things, a lot of different people that come in there.

59:09

And that's a live show. It's like two hours, so it becomes an extended time that we can talk with folks. And so that's a new venture that we're just starting.

59:16

It's part of our Christian podcast community. As that's continuing to grow. So those are just a few things that we got going on.

59:23

Oh, you got a lot going on. Yeah, and I do a lot of travel. If folks who know the name

59:29

Justin Peters, Justin and I are trying to, we're having to raise some money. We're looking to go to the

59:35

Philippines where the prosperity gospel is running rampant.

59:41

And Justin's an expert in that area. So we're looking to go over there and do some seminars and conferences on discernment on several different islands.

59:51

And so we're looking to do that. That's ways people can help support us is there's ways to donate.

59:57

And that helps us keep this thing going. We don't charge. We try not to charge for stuff.

01:00:04

I mean, I gotta charge for things that are printed because it costs money to do that. Nope, I understand. We have to charge for the books on Kindle because Amazon charges us for them, so.

01:00:15

And there is nothing wrong with making a little money or a lot of money as long as it is done with, in my opinion, with Christ at the center.

01:00:28

And I don't care what business that is. If you're a Christian and you have faith and you're gonna be a good steward,

01:00:35

I think it's absolutely fine and good to do.

01:00:41

Okay to do. Yeah. Yeah, and I think that there are some people that tell me that I should be living by faith.

01:00:48

And I always ask them if they do that at their secular job. I mean, go into your office, your boss's office, and say, look, I don't want you to pay me anything.

01:00:55

You pay me what you think. You know, if it's nothing, it's nothing. I'm just, I'm gonna live by faith. Yeah. They don't seem to wanna do that, but somehow they think that if you're in full -time ministry, you should be doing that.

01:01:06

Yeah, and if you haven't read Called to Create, I think you would enjoy that book. It's got really high ratings and it's written by a

01:01:13

Christian guy and how some people are called to do different things in terms of career now.

01:01:20

We're all called to spread the gospel and we're all called to work and provide and do all that.

01:01:26

But it's a great, it's one of the best books that I ever read for entrepreneurs, artists, and podcasters.

01:01:33

I mean, it would be a good example to anybody that's creating something. He, it's just a great book. I can't speak highly enough about it.

01:01:40

And then I just wanna share my group is Legendary Legacy Mastermind Group, where we put

01:01:46

Christ at the center. I'm especially interested in helping fathers and married men, because that's the season of my life.

01:01:55

And I think that I can help people because I have seen, I wanna finish up with this. I have seen that Christians, Christian men, fathers, can be good at making money.

01:02:06

They can be good at, they can be good at their careers. Maybe they're good at being a parent.

01:02:13

Maybe they're good, but getting them all together is really the key of the group with Christ at the center.

01:02:19

As long as Christ is the inspiration, the motivation, getting all those areas together.

01:02:24

Fitness, obviously, being a fitness professional for 14 years. But I wanted to branch out and be more of,

01:02:31

I know this sounds bad, but a self -improvement Christian -based thing. And when I say self -improvement,

01:02:36

I'm not talking about us doing it, but Christ working through us in our sanctified life.

01:02:43

So I know Andrew's very doctrinally minded and knows the Bible, so I wanna be very clear about that.

01:02:51

And hopefully you can get behind that in terms of, now that we have Christ, we are, we are actually, the

01:02:58

Bible tells us we are to maximize our life. We don't know what that might be all the time.

01:03:05

We might think it's this thing, but it's actually something else. But the

01:03:10

Bible is clear that we are to keep the Ten Commandments to the best of our ability and we are to provide for our family and we are to work.

01:03:20

So the Bible's clear on that. And the spirit, what we talked about in terms of the physical fitness, I think we are commanded to be healthy and fit because we can't spread the gospel if we're not alive.

01:03:30

You bring up a great point, just to highlight it. It is the fact that fathers are really have that responsibility.

01:03:37

So many fathers just think that, hey, as long as I'm bringing money home and taking care of the family, and they're absentee fathers.

01:03:44

They're not there. And they think that their job is just to, you know, it's easy to run away from the family and those difficult responsibilities for the people you work with.

01:03:53

And because you don't really have to live among them. You can always quit and go take another job.

01:04:00

So it's easy, you can't, well, some people think you can quit your family, but it shouldn't be.

01:04:07

And this is, you wanna have a legacy. Unless in areas of unbelief, abuse, neglect.

01:04:16

Yeah, I think that the issue is we'd be working to try to reconcile it as best we can all the time.

01:04:22

And here's the thing. What you end up seeing is this, you wanna have a legacy in America. This is so hard because in America, there's such the individualism that America was based on.

01:04:32

And yet you wanna have a lasting legacy. It doesn't come in who you are as a person.

01:04:39

It really comes in the legacy that you leave behind. This is what cultures that have a sense of honor always understood.

01:04:48

That you don't do things because it will bring shame to your family name.

01:04:54

But in our case, it's even bigger. Don't do things because it brings shame on the name of Christ.

01:05:01

Yeah, and you do it to bring glory to him and point to him. And that's where the legacy comes from.

01:05:09

And I wanna pray for the men in that, that their legacy is always thought about.

01:05:14

Now, we are never gonna be perfect, but we can work, strive for excellence and perfection.

01:05:21

And I challenge Christian fathers in all areas of life. Don't just focus on one or the other.

01:05:27

Focus on all areas of life. That's fitness, that's your career, that's your family. That's, and then centered with Christ.

01:05:35

So I hope I'm clear about who I wanna help and how I wanna help them. Don't focus on one area so much that you lose track.

01:05:44

And obviously, you wanna be into the word yourself. And somebody said, oh, do I need to be at church?

01:05:49

Yes. Do I need to be in the Bible? Yes. Do you need to be in the, yes. I think people think because of what you said before, and I've seen this over and over again, where they've been wronged, but the person with, what does

01:06:08

God say? The person that's without sin throw the first stone, you know, I'm dropping that stone. Well, you just brought up another area we didn't talk about.

01:06:15

Yeah. Which is the church. There's a legacy to leave in church. Yes, yes, and that's part of it too. And that's something to do.

01:06:21

There is a legacy there, you know. You sound familiar, you have it, you should bring up on another episode.

01:06:28

We, absolutely, we could do this again and we'll be in touch. Hey, thanks for listening, everybody.

01:06:34

And I hope you gleaned some wisdom. And check out Andrew, follow him on Facebook, get to know him, and I love what you're doing for Christ.

01:06:45

I appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Yep. This podcast is part of the Striving for Eternity ministry.