AD on FLF Network - Rejecting Despair in 2020

Hello there, this is A .D. Robles, and you're listening to A .D. on the Fight, Laugh, Feast Network. All right, all right, well today I wanted to start off the episode with a Bible verse. But before I do, I wanted to just say, if you have not considered becoming a Fight, Laugh, Feast Club member, please consider doing so.

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Highly appreciate it. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you had a great 2019, and I hope you will have a great 2020. What I want to talk about today from the Bible comes from Romans chapter 15. Romans chapter 15, one of my favorite books, one of most people's favorite books.

The God of Hope and Abounding in Hope

This is what the Word of God says. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope.

If you notice, it says the word hope twice, and God here is describing himself as the God of hope, and Paul is exhorting you to be filled with hope. He wants you to abound in hope, and he recognizes that the source of this hope is the God of hope because the power of the Holy Spirit, by that power, you can abound in hope.

Hope doesn't necessarily come naturally to us. It's just that simple. It's just that simple. There is something else that often comes naturally to us. Paul here is saying, may the God of hope fill you with hope.

I think that's more than a suggestion. Call me crazy. I think that's more than a suggestion. I think that's a command. We ought to be, if we're Christians, people filled with hope because we worship a God of hope.

Rejecting Despair as the Absence of Hope

Now, you might be saying, well, I saw the title of this episode, Adam. Why are we talking about hope? Well, if you think about despair, right? I want you to reject despair in all its forms, right? I want you to reject despair in all its forms.

If you look at Google and you Google the word despair, a lot of times we have an idea of what a word means, but sometimes Google can help you with some exactness. Here's what Google says about despair.

It says, despair, noun, the complete loss or absence of hope. The complete absence of hope. And so if the word of God tells you to abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit, the God of hope, we ought to be a people that rejects despair because despair is the absence of hope.

And so that's what I really want to impress upon you today. But here's the thing though, right? Because we all kind of understand that we should reject, you know, hardcore despair, right? And when you think about hardcore despair in your mind, I know, at least for me, I'll speak for myself, I think of people that are very depressed, right?

Can't get out of bed, hard to function, stuff like that. And it's very clear that many of those people are suffering from a lot of despair. They're despairing even of life. And oftentimes we kind of think of despair in that way, but that's actually not the only way to experience despair.

And I think we need to reject not only the extreme versions of despair, but also the sneakier sort of smaller versions of despair, because all of it robs us of hope. And the God of hope wants us to abound in hope.

Okay? And I know that I'm speaking in a very simple kind of plain way. And I know that there are complications in all of your lives. I know that. I know that. But what I want you to do is I want you to be aware of something.

And that thing that I want you to be aware of, and I think it'll help, I honestly do think it'll help, reject despair in all of its forms. But there is a very concerted effort. And I don't think this is a conspiracy theory to say this.

You might disagree, but there is a very concerted effort to keep you in a state of despair. Now let me show you what I mean. I'm just going to pull up Drudge Report today. I don't usually go to Drudge Report so much anymore.

I used to really like it, but I've grown to not like it. It's not for the reasons that a lot of people lately are hating on Drudge. A lot of people have said, well, Drudge is turned on Donald Trump, so I don't like it anymore.

And that's actually not why I started to hate it. But rather, I started to dislike it a long time ago. Because what Drudge Report is, in many, many, many ways, is a despair factory. It's a despair factory.

The titles and just the links and stuff like that, it's just full of despair. People feeling sorry for themselves, people wanting you to be very, very anxious, filled with anxiety, frustrated, fearful, angry, all of this stuff.

Now look, I'm not saying you shouldn't be informed about some of these things. But what I am saying, though, is that I found that in my life, a lot of this stuff that really has very little to do with me was filling me with anxiety, anger, and fear.

And I have to reject that stuff. I have to. Because I don't want to be a man of despair. I want to be a man of hope. Let's just look at some of these titles. Merry Christmas, You're Impeached, Witch Hunts, Then and Now, A Nation Divided, at a Historical Crossroad.

I mean, can you be more sensationalistic than this? I mean, I agree, the nation is divided. And everything, literally everything is historic. That's a pet peeve of mine. People always say, oh, this is a historic moment.

Everything's a historic moment. Everything's a historic moment. Like, okay, Trump is the third president to have been impeached. Do you think people wouldn't describe this as a historic moment if, like, 30 presidents had been impeached?

No, of course not. Every election is the most important election of our lifetime. Every, you know, you see what I'm saying? Everyone just wants to ratchet up the anxiety. And in some ways, I get it. I get it.

But the despair that I see going on with people about these huge, big things that have no impact on their lives, that they actually can reject and refuse to go along with in their own families, and it's really not that big a deal, is crazy.

And again, don't hear me saying that politics doesn't matter. It does matter. It does matter. But just the wringing of the hands and the high blood pressure that comes with some of this stuff, it's just not worth it.

It's just not worth it. And Christians ought to reject that because we worship a God of hope. I mean, just look at these things. Catastrophic. Pelosi wins impeachment, sets up Lawson 2020. She emerges as Trump's most powerful adversary.

The U .S. warns over spy ship over the East Coast. Apparently the Russians are spying on us. Russia's top general warns World War III is coming. Drinking Diet Coke means more likely to put weight on. Doctors warn CDC.

Ready? The CDC puppies may be making people sick puppies. And so now we're anxious about puppies. Despair over puppies. For goodness sake. For goodness sake. Fifteen horses shot and killed in Kentucky.

Facebook can still locate users who opt out of tracking. Unbelievable update update. All right, NASA, get ready, guys. Earth's magnetic North Pole is moving at unprecedented speeds. Like, does anyone understand anything about that?

Anything about that? I mean, seriously. So this is obviously very sensational. It's unprecedented. The magnetic pole is moving. So let's just say it moves at unprecedented speed. What's going to happen?

What's going to happen? Nobody knows. I'm sure some of you know, because the audience of the Fight Last Feast Network is very smart. I'm sure some of you know, but I'm willing to bet that if you gave this, if you did a video, if I did a video and I titled it, Earth's magnetic pole is moving at unprecedented speeds.

And in the thumbnail, I had a very scared looking picture or shocked picture and things like that. Or I said, disaster. I bet you I could get a lot of people to think it was a disaster, even though they have no idea what it means.

So you gotta understand. And this is just some of, this is just some of the titles of the articles that I could give you. Female obesity gets worse. I can't believe it. French pensions are at a standoff.

The strike enters a third week. Okay, so let's take a step back for a second. All you have to do is visit Drudge Report one time and know that there are people that are making a concerted effort to keep you filled with anxiety and filled with despair.

Resisting Cultural Panic and Trusting God's Sovereignty

The climate change thing is such a perfect example of this too, because the climate change, we've got people that are wringing their hands, not having babies, freaking out, in a state of depression, seeing counselors because the weather is going to be bad in the future.

And they're filled with anxiety and despair because of the weather. Something that you have literally no control of. You might as well shake your fist at the sky. And yet we've got millions of people doing it.

Shaking their fist at the sky because it's not the way they want it to be. And it puts them in a state of despair. Now I said earlier that despair can come in many forms. And it can. And it can. Again, don't hear me say none of these things are important, right?

Like your diet, it's important. Your health, it's important. All of these things. But as Christians though, but as Christians though, do we trust our God or not? I mean, we can, we ought to be studying these issues, whether it's climate change, whether it's the validity of how good Diet Coke is for you, whether or not puppies can make you sick, the earth's magnetic pole shifting at unprecedented speeds, impeachment, all of these things, immigration, all of these things.

We ought to be able to talk and think about these things in a way that's different from the pagan that's full of despair, right? We ought to be able to do that in a way that's different than the pagan that's full of despair.

We ought to be able to do it in a way that we can talk about how serious it is, yes. But understand that God is in control of our future. And we know how God operates, right? Like, I don't know if the stock market is gonna go up or down today.

I don't know if the economy is gonna grow or shrink today. But I do know that God promises in his word that there are blessings and curses for nations who obey and disobey him. And so in the long run, I know what the economy is going to do in the United States.

I know without a shadow of a doubt, because God has promised this in his word. I know what God says. I know what God is like. I know how God deals with nations. And so I don't have to be full of despair.

I don't have to be full of despair because I know our nation has turned its back on God and God is not going to allow that in the long run. So I know that we are going to have economic problems in the future.

But I don't have to be full of despair about that. Now, lest you think that, lest you think that it's just pagans that want you full of despair. It's not, it really isn't. Many Christians want you to be full of despair as well.

Christian Joy, Eschatological Optimism, and Rejecting Despair in the Church

I remember when I first started doing my YouTube channel, I've had the same kind of personality the entire time on YouTube. So I've always thought that these things about social justice and politics, I've always thought that they're serious, but at the same time, I've always kept a sense of humor about it.

I've always had fun with it because again, to me, and I'm a very optimistic guy. My eschatology is optimistic. I think God is going to have victory here on earth. I don't think the victory is reserved just for some time later and all of that.

No, I think God is putting his enemies under his feet now. So I'm an optimistic guy in general. So when I talk about serious issues that I think are dangerous for the church, I will often talk about them in a way that maintains a state of joy.

I have fun with it. I have fun with it. I tell jokes. I'm a little bit spicy, you might say. I smile a whole lot on my channel and hopefully you do when you watch me as well. We have a good time. There's just no question about it.

And I remember somebody, a Christian, this irked him so much. One of the very first criticisms I ever received about my YouTube channel was the guy with just disgust, with just disgust in his face was like, it's not that you're against social justice, Adam.

It's just because you have such a good time with it. It's the sport of it all. It's just like a sport to you. And I said, well, what do you mean it's a sport to you? And he was just in that, how dare you have fun?

You know what I mean? That's basically what it boiled down to. I have too much fun with it. It's the sport of it, he said. I'm having too much fun. That man wanted me to be in a state of despair. He would have preferred that I'd been in a state of despair over what's going on in the SBC or the PCA or whatever it is.

That's what he would have preferred. He said that, he literally said that. He literally said that. And I reject that. I reject that because I worship a God that I know is powerful. I worship a God that I know is victorious.

You know what I mean? Is putting his enemies under his feet. Do you think he forgot to put his enemies under his feet? Like he gets to the right hand of the father, but he just forgot about that part where he destroys his enemies.

No, no. We're in a serious battle. We fight serious enemies, but God is on our side. Like he's going to win, right? So we can have joy. We can be cheerful about these things because we know how it ends.

Our leader is perfection. You know what I mean? He's going to have his way with his enemies. It's just that simple. It's just that simple. I mean, we're on the Lord's side. Is there a better reason to feast than that?

Dominion, Family Responsibility, and Focused Christian Mission

And so I want you to avoid despair. I want you to reject it because there's lots of stuff going on in Congress and in the federal. People like to rage about the Federal Reserve, and I get it because the Federal Reserve is evil and it will destroy the economy.

Congress, spending all this money we don't have, it will destroy the future of this country. No question about it. And it's Republicans and Democrats. Don't get me wrong. This is not a Democrat thing.

They go faster than the Republicans, but we both do it. We're both destroying the future of this country. Republicans and Democrats alike are destroying the future of this country. There's no question about it.

There's no question about it. There's lots of difficulties that are going to face us in the future because of what the Congress does now. But guess what? I think the math tells us we're at the point of no return.

Like there is no fixing this. We should stop. So like if you get yourself in trouble with credit cards, obviously you should stop using the credit cards. But at a certain point, you're at the point of no return, right?

You're at the point of no return. So what do you do? Do you just sit in despair and rage online about the Federal Reserve? You can, I suppose. And I don't have a problem with ranting and raving. If you watch my YouTube channel, every now and then I'll rant and rave.

But there's no despair here. There's no despair here. Because here's the reality. God just wants people who will worship in spirit and truth, right? In spirit and truth. And so whatever happens in Congress, you have no control over the vote in Congress.

There's a veneer of a kind of control, but you have very little control over what Congress does. And the way our government is set up, there's a lot of unelected officials that you definitely have no control over that do all kinds of shenanigans.

But here's the thing. This is how you reject despair. You can care about that stuff. You can read that stuff, but whatever they do, you follow God. Whatever they do, you obey God. You see, you don't have to submit to it.

You don't have to consent to it. What does the Bible say? The Bible says this about what we should do. James chapter four, verse seven, "'Submit yourselves therefore to God. "'Resist the devil and he will flee from you.'".

Romans chapter 12, "'Do not be conformed to this world, "'but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, "'that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, "'what is good and acceptable and perfect.'".

First Peter chapter four, verse 12, "'Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial "'when it comes upon you to test you "'as though something strange were happening to you.'". So you see, there are going to be trials that the Congress is going to cause, right?

There's gonna be trials that the Federal Reserve will cause, and it will come to you and you will be affected by it, right? But here's how you avoid despair. Instead of wringing your hands in frustration and anxiety about something you have absolutely no control over, the fiery trial comes to you.

Sometimes you have no control over that fiery trial that comes to you, but instead you obey God. You do what's right with your own family. You see, I think a lot of men especially are in a state of despair because they're trying to figure out, like they're worried about, and they're anxious about things they have no control over.

But everyone, let's just try to focus in 2020, right? Let's try to focus in 2020 about our mission. One of the things I liked about the verses that I just quoted is it focuses on you. It's instructions for you.

You see, you have a mission, and forget about whatever what else is doing. They've got their own responsibilities and mission. You've got a mission before God. You've got a mission before God, and this is how you avoid this despair because you don't like what's going on in the culture.

You don't like how little boys are becoming little girls and stuff like that, and the schools are teaching them weird things and pagan things and stuff like that. Well, okay, you take responsibility for your family.

Some men aren't even having families these days. You have a problem with the direction of the country, and you're not having a family right now? That's insane. That's insane. How do you expect to command the future on your own?

No, what you gotta do is you gotta get a wife and love that wife, and then make babies and love those babies and train those babies and teach those babies in the way that they should go. That's how you command the future.

You have to have a future in order to command the future. So focus on your mission. Focus on your mission, and the Congress is gonna do what the Congress is gonna do. Drudge Report and all the CDC and NASA and the GSA and all these, they're gonna do whatever, they're gonna try to get you filled with anxiety so that they can justify their own existence.

Ignore the nonsense. If you spend even two seconds worrying about the geographic, I'm sorry, the magnetic North Pole moving at unprecedented speeds, that's probably way too much time to spend worrying about that.

Instead, put that energy into taking care of your family, having a family, finding a wife, things like that. That's how you command the future. This is the plan of attack, guys. This is the plan of attack.

Reject despair and focus on your mission because it might not seem like a lot to you, but this is the mission God has given you. What did God say to the people, to his people? What did God say to Adam?

Be fruitful and multiply. He didn't take that back, by the way. Some people act as if he took that one back. No, be fruitful and multiply. That's the mission, okay? Take dominion over the land. That's the mission.

It does you no good to shake your fist at the sky saying, ah, it's too hot. It does you no good to do that. It does you no good to be losing your mind because the magnetic North Pole is moving at unprecedented speeds, even though you have no idea what that means.

It does nobody any good, but what does do people good is for you to find a wife, love your wife, have kids, have a family, teach them to do the same. And that's how you have dominion over the earth. I mean, being fruitful and multiplying and the dominion mandate, they're connected, obviously.

We ought to fill the earth with Christians. Fill the earth with little kids who are taught how to love the Lord and taught what the Lord wants us to do. That's how we do it. That's how you avoid despair.

Focus on those things. You can control those things. I can't control what the stock market does today, but I can control what I do with what I am given. One thing we should remember is that God has given us things, given us gifts, given us talents, and God expects a return.

He expects us to be productive. And this doesn't necessarily mean that we need to all figure out how to get a financial return on every dollar that we get, although that's probably a good idea. You should do that.

But God has given you lots of gifts and He expects a return on that. That's God's our master, right? So we should be trying to please Him and being fruitful and multiplying and taking care of your family and teaching them the way they should go and those kinds of very basic, simple things.

If you focus on that as your reason for existence, as your mission, that's how you avoid despair. So if you wanna talk about these big things, these big issues and all that kind of stuff, go ahead and knock yourself out.

Just make sure that you are not focused only on that stuff that you can't control, but rather you pour your life into the mission that God has put before you. If you're married, you've got a mission. If you're not married, you've got a mission.

If you have kids, you've got a mission. And obviously we need to work outside of the house too. This is a question about that as men. But stay focused on the things that you have the modicum of control over.

And in that way, I think that's a very practical way to avoid despair. Second Corinthians chapter four, the word of God says this, but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We can be perplexed, that's okay. But we are to reject despair, leave despair in 2019. That's just that simple.

Whoever's elected in 2020, reject despair. It doesn't, it's not part of our lives. It shouldn't be anyway. Let's be a people of hope and reject despair and focus on the things that we can control and the things that we cannot control.

Let's pray to God because he's got it and we don't have to figure that stuff out necessarily. Anyway, sorry for the ramble. That's what I wanted to say. I hope that this was helpful. God bless. Tune in next week on Thursday for AD on the Fight, Laugh, Feast Network.