F4F | How to Biblically Critique a Sermon Part 1

Why Sermons Must Be Judged by Scripture, Not Entertainment

Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseborough. I am your servant in Jesus Christ, and this is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God.

Now, real quick, what we're gonna do today, and in fact before we even get started, go ahead and like the video. Don't forget to subscribe and ring the bell. We got all the YouTube things taken care of now.

What we're gonna do today, we're gonna do a little bit of deconstructing lab work, and here's the idea. I receive a lot of emails, a lot of emails or messages from people requesting that I review specific pastors or specific sermons.

Now, in the archives of the podcast of Fighting for the Faith, you know, three, four times a week we would review bad sermons as part of the second hour of the program. It's been a while since I've done full-on sermon reviews.

So what I thought I would do, if now, there's kind of two things you can do. You can go back into the archives of Fighting for the Faith, listen to those old episodes when I do the bad sermon reviews, so you can kind of, you know, you can see how things deconstruct.

But what I thought I would do on this installment of Fighting for the Faith is give you some of the basic things I'm looking for in evaluating a sermon. And the idea here is, it's not about the standards that I'm putting forward, because always and again, the question is, how do we think biblically about the sermons in the churches that we are attending?

And so as a result of that, what I thought I would do is just give you some basic ideas so that you can take these things and apply them to sermons that you are hearing. And the one thing that the COVID -19 pandemic has created is the ability for you to listen to a sermon in isolation from the dark room, the smoke machines, the lights, and things like that.

Because I would note that one of the things that has been occurring for the better part of a decade, more than a decade now, is the the environments inside of churches have completely changed. You've gone from having actual churches to having experience rooms, or whatever that is, and you'll note that what is happening is that you show up with the assumption that I can tell whether or not this was a good service or a bad service, whether this is a good sermon or a bad sermon, and you intuitively are using the criteria that you use to judge whether or not a movie was a good movie or a bad movie, or a television show or a Netflix series was good or bad.

The problem is you're using the standards of entertainment to determine whether or not what's happening in a particular church is good or bad, if it's biblical or not biblical. But the standards of Scripture are actually very different in evaluating whether or not you're in a good church or a bad church, and it's important to keep those standards in mind.

Nehemiah 8 and the Pastor's Job to Give the Sense of Scripture

So what I thought I would do today, in fact, let me whirl this up, and we're gonna head over to Amplify Church. They have...this is a multi-site megachurch, you know, following the seeker-driven, purpose-driven model for church, or attractional model, and which, by the way, is not a valid biblical model at all.

But we're gonna listen to a fellow by the name of John Lloyd. I've never reviewed a sermon by John Lloyd, at least I don't think I have. This is a fellow that is not well known, and as a result of that, this is gonna help us.

The reason why is because when I review somebody who's super popular or well known, what happens is that people are really entrenched emotionally as to whether or not that person...they think that person is a good teacher or a bad teacher.

You know, case in point, we've received a lot of pushback on the Francis Chan video, the one we did before this one, from people who are incensed that I would, you know, say that Francis Chan was saying something that wasn't true or biblical.

And so oftentimes when somebody has, you know, you've thought the person was solid or sound, and then, you know, a guy like me comes along and...you know, by the way, watching Fighting for the Faith, or even listening to the podcast, is kind of the theological equivalent to the Ice Bucket Challenge.

The reason, in part, why is because when somebody has shown themselves to be a false teacher, or a twister of God's Word, or a liar, or a, you know, you get the idea here, then I don't, in my inflection and even in some of the sarcastic statements that I made, I make it very clear that I don't think they're rightly handling God's Word and that they're teaching false doctrine.

I treat them as dangerous, and it shows up in my tone. And so as a result of it, I, you know, like, you know, when Francis Chan made his comment, you know, that was for the purpose of establishing his credentials.

He went on a four-day camping trip with Jesus. You know, when somebody has to, you know, basically say, I'm telling you the truth because I had an experience with Jesus, then you already know you're dealing in the category of a false teacher.

The reason why is because we have a biblical text, we have a Bible, we have a word from God to work with, and whether or not somebody is a good teacher or a bad teacher, a false teacher or not, is going to be judged by how well they give the correct sense of what the Bible is teaching.

So I kind of, you know, my attitude is this. You don't need to give me the benefit of the doubt. I don't care if I make you laugh. At the end of the day, the question is going to be, have I rightly given you a proper understanding of what the Bible teaches?

That's the question that should be on the table. So you don't have to get, you don't have to watch with an open mind, you need to watch with an open Bible. And I help along the lines because I always will give you the biblical text, you can read along with me when I reference the original languages, you can see them for yourself, and even if you're not sure how to use, you know, like Hebrew tools or Greek tools, if you do a little bit of research, you can fact-check me, and that's kind of the point.

So you don't need to listen with an open mind, open Bible. And if I'm straying from what the biblical text says, then the argument needs to be, Roseboro, you missed this text, this text says this thing, what about that?

See, that's a biblical argument, we can have a conversation. But oftentimes it's, you know, the feedback is, I believe Francis Chan is a man of God and you're a meanie poopy head because you questioned whether or not he had that encounter with Jesus.

Of course I did, because ultimately it comes down to not whether or not the Bible is a prop, but whether or not we're opening it up biblically. The idea, so you kind of get the idea, and I'll back this up so that you can see this.

So you know, we're gonna go to Amplified Church, Pittsburgh area, multi-site, seeker-driven model, they have a vision casting leader. John Lloyd looks like one of the fellows that is up and coming through the ranks, and during the summertime at seeker-driven churches you'll oftentimes get guys who are on the B team who will have an opportunity to take a crack at the stage there.

And yeah, it's not a pulpit, it's a stage, and you'll see that. But let's take a look at a biblical standard, shall we? And you'll get the idea. So of all places to go to, we're gonna start in the Old Testament, Nehemiah chapter 8.

The people of Israel have come back from captivity in Babylon, and they've re-established the worship, they've got the temple back up and running, and there's an account here in Nehemiah chapter 8 that is going to help us, because this kind of lays the foundations for pastors and preachers and teachers today, you'll see that.

So Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 1, and you'll note that always and again, three rules for sound biblical exegesis are context, context, and context. That applies to me, like doubly so, by the way. So all the people gathered as one man into the square before the water gate, so this is in Jerusalem.

They told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the Torah, the law of Moses, that Yahweh had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the law, the Torah, before the assembly, both men and women, all who can understand what they heard, and on the first day of the seventh month he read from it, facing the square before the water gate, from early morning until midday.

So here you have the people of Israel in Jerusalem gathered for the purpose of hearing the Word of God. And by the context it looks like, you know, they're gonna hear the first five books of the Bible read out from morning until noonday, that gives you an idea what's going on here.

So in the presence of the men and the women and those who can understand, in the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose, and beside him stood, and this is the Hebrew language, word challenge here, Matithiah, Shema, Ananiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maasiah, and on his right hand, Petadiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashim, and this is a this is a mouthful, Hashabod, Danah, Zechariah, and Meshulam on his left hand.

And you'll note that when you're reading a biblical text and there's names like this that appear, this just screams at you that this is historical narrative. This is not legend, this is not myth, no myth or legend reads like this.

So these little details are never throwaway details, and in fact when you read them in your Bible as you're learning how to read God's Word and you're in the Word of God, and you get to these texts and you see things like this, it's often easy for us to just go, oh I just want to skip over that.

I get it. I really do. But understand, this is just a little note to you from God, this really took place in human history. So yeah, that's the idea. So Ezra then opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and he opened it, he opened it, all the people stood.

So if you've ever been in a church that still follows the historic liturgy, and this is the the order of that the church has followed for millennia, you can trace these elements all the way back, all the way back into the ancient church.

So if you've ever been in a church where when the gospel is read, everybody stands up. You sit and you go, oh wait a second here, so he went to read and everybody stood up. Yeah, that's where the idea comes from.

So Ezra blessed Yahweh, the great God, and all the people answered amen, amen, and lifting up their hands, and they bowed their heads and they worshiped Yahweh with their faces to the ground. So also, Yeshua, Bani, Sherebaiah, Jamin, Akub, Shabbathai, Hodiah, these are tough words, Maasaiah, Kelithah, Azariah, Jezebad, Hanan, Peliah, and the Levites helped the people to understand the law while the people remained in their places.

They read from the book of the law of God clearly, and they gave the sense so the people understood the reading. And so you can see here then that the gist of what a pastor does today is he's to preach the Word, and I'll show you that from the biblical text.

And there's a real...the real effort then of a pastor is to help the people in the congregation. The Church has gathered together to hear the Word of God, to have the Lord's Supper together, or to witness baptisms, or things like this.

And these are the tasks that the Church has been given to do. For instance, see Jesus in the Great Commission, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I've commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

So the idea then is that the pastor is going to help the people who have gathered, and the Church is the people who have gathered, and it's not the building. You can call your building a church, by the way, there's nothing wrong with that.

But understand that when the Church enters the building, it's when the people are there. The people are the ones who are called out. We are the Ecclesia. So the idea then, a pastor is filling a teaching office within the Church for the purpose of preaching the Word and helping the people understand clearly the true sense of the Word of God.

That's the idea. This is why a pastor must have studied and showed himself approved as a workman who need not blush with embarrassment, who can rightly divide the Word of Truth. And then when you look at the marching orders of a pastor, I always like going to 2 Timothy chapters 3 and 4, and 4 is where we see the explicit command, but there's a context in which that is stated.

And so you'll note then that pastors are sinners just like everybody else, and their temptation is to stray from their marching orders, just like a soldier would stray from the orders given to him by his superiors or things like that.

So the idea then is in 2 Timothy 3 says, understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. We're in the last days, by the way. People will be lovers of self. There's a word for that, by the way.

It's called narcissists. You know, so you'll note, in the last days there's gonna be narcissists. It's like, wow, we got a bunch of those running around. Right! Lovers of money. Oh, just watch TBN. You know, so $1 ,000 seed offering.

Oh yeah! Proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness.

So you know, these are people within the Church, and you know, sitting there going, sounds a lot like what's going on today. Right, exactly. Having the appearance of godliness but denying its power. So Scripture says, avoid such people, which means you're gonna have to make some judgments.

And before you sit there and go, well, you know, judge not lest you be judged. Let me see if I could find this real quick, because while I'm on this, 1 Corinthians 5. 1 Corinthians 5. There's an account of a fellow who, in the Corinthian Church, was sleeping with his father's wife.

Even the pagans would go, what? And so here we have the orders of excommunication given by the Apostle Paul to the Church of He says, it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that's not tolerated even among the pagans.

And for a man has his father's wife, and you're arrogant. Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. Church discipline, excommunication. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit.

And as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

Now you're boasting. You're boasting about this fellow. It's not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened.

For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. So let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Now I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with the sexually immoral people, all right? So as Christians, we're not to associate with sexually immoral people. You sit there and go, but the world's just chock full of them right now.

Now watch what Paul says. Not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world. Oh, yeah. Or the greedy, or the swindlers, or the idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. Yeah, that's not what he's talking about.

But I'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he's guilty of sexual immorality, or greed, or is an idolater, a reviler, a drunkard, or a swindler, not even to eat with such one.

And then watch what he says next. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the Church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside, so purge the evil person from among you.

So you'll note here that we are to judge the people inside the Church, and this is going to include doctrine, it's also going to include their lives, and things like that. So people who are impenitently sexually immoral, reveling in their sexual immorality, and yes, that means you're gonna have to follow a biblical standard for understanding and defining what sexual immorality is, you got to call them to repentance.

And if they won't repent, you know, discipline comes into play, okay? So note the list then is going to include sexual immorality, greed, oh, I could think of greedy people within the visible Church who are, well, they're running rampant and no one's calling them to account.

Or an idolater, this would be somebody who's teaching false gods. A reviler, this is an interesting one, and I'm thinking about doing an episode of Fighting for the Faith. This is dealing with what's called the sin of calumny.

Now, this is like a forgotten sin, if you don't know what calumny is. So a reviler is like a super slanderer, you know, who basically makes a point of slandering men who are in the pastoral office, or people who have authority within the Church, and not on the basis of doctrine, but, you know, they just, revilers.

So this is the sin of calumny, and so you got to put somebody who is committing this sin out of the Church. A drunkard, an impenitent alcoholic, a swindler, yeah, there's lots of those. Not even to eat with such a person, you're thinking swindlers, well, that would get rid of all of TBN.

Exactly, and no, is it not those inside the Church whom you are to judge? Right, we're supposed to be judging people within the Church. That means that your pastor doesn't get a pass. He doesn't get a pass.

Alright, so the idea here is that when it comes to his theology and the things he's teaching, then you'll note that the idea behind preaching is to give the proper sense of what the Bible is saying. So coming back then here, so then talking about the state of affairs as we get closer and closer to the return of Christ, so there's people who are lovers of self, lovers of pleasure, they're reckless, they're treacherous, they're swollen with conceit, brutal, not loving the good, they're slanderous, they're unappeasable.

Avoid such people, you know, which requires you to make a judgment. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning, never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth, just as Jonathan Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also opposed the truth.

And where are they opposing the truth, by the way? In the Church! That's where they're doing it, okay? From the pulpit or on the stage, okay? These men are corrupted in mind, they are disqualified regarding the faith, but they will not get very far for their folly.

And note here that it describes what they're doing as folly, you know, which means you can kind of make fun of it. It's like, really? You think that if I sow a thousand dollar seed offering, God's gonna make me a millionaire?

Uh-huh. You get the idea. Their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. By the way, Janice and Jambres, they were the sorcerers of Pharaoh, so when Moses cast his, you know, his staff down and it turned into a serpent, Janice and Jambres were the the magicians of Pharaoh who did the same thing.

So yeah, just a little bit of a note. So all right, but now then, note that 2nd Timothy is written by Paul to young pastor Timothy, who is a pastor of a Christian congregation of the Christian Church in the city of Ephesus.

Here's what he says to young pastor Timothy, You, however, you followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, which persecutions I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me.

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Oh, there's a promise right there. Have you embraced, have you decreed and declared this promise for your life yet? Don't worry, you don't have to decree and declare it at all.

If you want to follow Jesus, this is just gonna happen. No decreeing or declaring necessary. Anyway, so while evil people and impostors, listen to this, they're gonna go from bad to worse, this is what they do, deceiving and being deceived.

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you've learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings. And here's the bit, okay?

You are looking ultimately for a Church where God's Word is being brought out in huge heaping quantities, think meal here, and we are to be in the Word of God. And your pastor needs to be rightly handling the Word of God rather than mishandling it and then opposing the truth by using mishandled text.

That's kind of the idea here. So, you know, and the idea here, you've been equated with the sacred writings, these are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. So note, faith in Jesus Christ is going to be an important thing here.

Without it, you're not going to really understand God's Word properly. And all scripture, that is, breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.

There is no good work that God's going to call you to that the Bible will not prepare you for. And by the way, 2nd Timothy, last letter Paul writes. This is the one that, you know, shortly after he finishes this, he writes this from prison, his head gets taken off his shoulder by a Roman centurion.

So, you know, this is kind of like Paul's last will and testament. So watch where he goes then. So he says, I charge you then, young Pastor Timothy, in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom, preach the Word.

Be ready in season and out of season. You know, every time I hear the word in season, the phrase in season and out of season, I cannot help but think about Bugs Bunny. Yeah, it shows you about my growing up, because Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duckie and Elmer Fudd, remember, there was a fight between them, you know, whether it was rabbit season or duck season.

Yeah. Sorry, I'm doing therapy here. Anyway, the basic idea here is that note that the Apostle Paul is telling us there's times coming when to preach the Word, to actually substantively handle God's Word and to give its proper sense, it is going to be out of vogue, it's going to be out of season.

And so when that happens, what are you supposed to do? Preach the Word. It doesn't matter what season it is, it doesn't matter if it's popular, doesn't matter if you... all the successful churches, they've chucked the Word!

Yeah, they just give us two or three Bible verses out of context and give us some life motivational coach therapy kind of stuff. Yeah, it doesn't matter. The job of a pastor is to preach the Word, whether it's in vogue or not, in season or out of season.

And then you'll note here, the fun parts of being a pastor. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort. Sounds like some negative stuff. And nobody gets out of this, by the way. If you're a pastor, these are your job duties, right?

Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching or doctrine, for the time is coming, and I would like to say it is now here, when people will not endorse sound teaching. And here, didaskalia, you could translate that as doctrine.

People will not endorse sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. And when you think about passions here, think about the desires of your sinful nature.

I want to be rich. I want to be wealthy. I want to be influential. I want to run the world. I want everybody to say how important I am. It's all about me, me, me, me, me, because in the last days, people will be lovers of self, right?

So you'll note, early part of 2 Timothy 3 tells us what kind of passions we're looking for within the Church, people who suit their own passions. Greed, and malice, and things like this. And so they will turn away from listening to the truth, and they will wander off into what?

Myths. Alright? But as for you, be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. So kind of like rule number one, whenever I'm listening to a sermon, and you know, considering a segment here in Fighting for the Faith, if it's going to be a sermon, and I'm going to be reviewing part of it, okay, it doesn't matter to me how popular the person is.

At the end of the day, the question is, are they rightly handling the Word of Truth? Are they teaching sound doctrine? Or are they manipulating God's Word, teaching myths, and then manipulating the Word in such a way so as to suit my passions?

You know, kind of rule number one, if you would. So with that in mind, let's take a look then at the sermon. Again, I don't know who John Lloyd is. I, you know, until I saw this sermon, at least began to preview it, I could tell you nothing about him.

In fact, I still can't tell you anything about him. But I can tell you that very early on, it doesn't take very long at all. You're gonna see that this sermon is exactly the kind of sermon that the Apostle Paul warned us about, and doesn't fit within the pattern of Nehemiah 8 .8, where he's not giving us the right sense, the proper sense of what the Bible is teaching.

And instead, he's scratching itching ears. And you can see this rather readily. So the best way I can put it, I think I'm gonna have to do several of these videos, because this is like only one aspect of it.

So as I'm previewing, you know, teachings and things like this, but the idea here is that you should be able to spot this along the way. You know the standard now, you know what the passions are that drive people, you know the things we're supposed to be looking for in the last days.

Now the question is, is this guy rightly handling God's Word, or is he twisting it? That's really all it comes down to. And note this, that if, you know, if you are attending a church like this, the whole worship set, it's really long, you're on your feet a lot, it's in the dark, there's strobing lights, and the beat of the drum, it's almost as if everything in the beginning worship part of the service is designed to take your brain and put it into a mashed potato masher, and just mush it up, which makes it more difficult for you to think critically.

Whereas watching the sermon online, this gives you the ability to have that experience room in the rock-and-roll show not have its impact, so that you can come at it with a sober mind and without having been emotionally manipulated.

Now here's the thing, you're gonna note then, it doesn't matter to me whether or not somebody is a good orator. It doesn't matter to me if they can tell a good story. It doesn't matter to me if they can, like, bring you to the highest heights of emotion and then just bring you crashing down and have you weeping in their hands.

These are the skills that I want movies and actors to have, not pastors, all right? So it's not about how it makes you feel, and that's the issue. So when you go into a service with the idea is, how did it, how did that, oh man, that service, I mean, I cracked up, I laughed so hard, it was the best thing ever!

You know, and all this kind of stuff. You're judging it not on a biblical standard, you're using the standards that we use to determine whether or not a movie or a television show is entertaining, and that's the problem.

So so many of these churches, they're basically, they're not checking their assumptions, and they're not looking at the biblical standard for what they're supposed to be doing. They've just set everything up according to the the Hollywood standard that we all intuitively know, because we've grown up in a society that values entertainment.

The Sermon's Comedy Routine and the Problem of a Dream-Driven Message

All right, so let's get to it. Let's see what we can do with the sermon.

So I'm from the South, right? And from the South, being from the South, I know that flavor is king, right? Flavor is king. I'm from the part of the South where we deep-fry the thing, and then we re-deep-fry it.

So it's like double deep-fried. It's basically, you're just clogging your arteries, everything that you eat in the South.

All right, so notice the sermon has begun with what sounds like a stand-up comedy routine, and this is what they teach guys to do in the secret-driven movement. You know, you need to learn your comedic timing from the best comedians out there right now.

Yeah. So my immediate question is, what's the biblical text we're gonna be hearing today? Because the job of a pastor is to preach the Word, and to give the right and proper sense of it, to teach what's in accord with sound doctrine.

And so already we've got a problem because we haven't begun with a biblical text. Now that doesn't mean that a biblical text hasn't been read earlier, except for in these churches that rarely ever happens.

So I'm a confessional Lutheran, we follow a historic order of service, and not only that, the biblical texts that I preach on on any given Sunday, they're assigned. So it's called a lectionary. If you want to know what I'm going to be preaching on six Sundays from now, you look ahead in the three-year lectionary, we're in Series A, and you can say, okay, Pastor Roseboro's gonna preach on either the Epistle text, the Old Testament text, or the Gospel text, or find a way to weave them together, but I'm gonna be preaching on one of those three texts, and they are assigned.

And with these guys, it's fascinating, we don't really get any substantive exegetical work through the Bible on any given Sunday, nor do we get it over a long period of time. In fact, if you're gonna learn the Bible from this type of preaching, you're not gonna learn it.

That's part of the problem, but we'll see what's going on, let's keep going.

Right, but it's so good, so good. So growing up, I was a picky eater. Anybody in here a picky eater? Or you were a picky eater at one point in your life, right? How many parents got kids that are picky eaters?

Right, a lot of hands there. Amen, I'm with you on that. I'm convinced my oldest son only likes chicken nuggets and peanut butter and jelly, that's it. It's the diet of champions.

All right, so definitely this is stand-up comedy. Now what I'm gonna do is I'm going to speed this up, because there's like no substance here. This is designed purposely to get a laugh or to entertain, and I'm not sure what function it would play within a good Christian sermon, because this isn't gonna help me understand a biblical text.

But growing up, I was a picky eater, and like a lot of kids, I think, I sort of shuddered at the concept of anything green, right? Like celery? Get that away from me. I don't want celery. Broccoli? Pfft.

You kidding me? I don't eat broccoli. And so my mom growing up...

Okay, notice, he's talking about himself.

She made this broccoli casserole. I'm not even really sure what a casserole is. It's just like, you take everything you can find, you put it in this long dish, and you bake it in this casserole. But my mom used to make this broccoli casserole, and it had like, obviously broccoli, but it had this like, super melty cheese in it, and it had this rice in it.

Am I getting like, hungry for this right now? Right? My goal today is to just make you hungry. That's what I came to do this morning. But she would make this broccoli casserole. And you know me, I'm a picky eater, I'm a little kid, and I'm like, get that away from me.

I don't want that at all. And so my mom would constantly say, my mom's probably watching actually online right now, and she would always say, if you just try it, what? You'll like it. Any parents ever said that to your kids?

If you just try it, you'll like it. You know what I'd say? I'd say, no, I won't. No, I won't. Well, how do you know you won't like it if you've never tried it? And me in my, you know, fifth grade, all-knowing wisdom, I just know.