Losers Are Worse Than Unbelievers

Hello there, this is A .D. Robles, and you're listening to A .D. on the Fight, Laugh, Feast Network.

Alright, well, I was waiting. I wanted to talk to Gabe Ranch before I did this episode.

Gabe was supposed to call me. Well, I guess I was supposed to call him, which I did do, but he has not called me back yet.

In any case, I want to do a fishing show on the Fight, Laugh, Feast Network. That's right.

I've been doing a lot of fishing, and I've been learning a lot, and it's been a lot of fun.

I've been very successful lately, and so what I wanted to do is do a show that can get those of you who are into fishing, or maybe you want to get into fishing, get you some pointers on how to get started and things like that.

I've bought a lot of stuff, and you actually don't need to buy a lot of stuff to do fishing well, and have a good time, and be in nature, and enjoy

God's creation, and all of that. I have an idea for a show, and I was going to talk to Gabe about it, but he hasn't called me yet.

If you're interested in a fishing show on this network, I don't think it'll be a podcast.

I think it'll be a video. Yeah, it'll be video form. If you're interested in that, let Gabe know. Reach out to Gabe Wrench and let him know.

AD Fishing Show. We've got to do it. We've got to do it now, in any case. If it's not going to be on the

Fight Lab Feast Network, that's okay. No hard feelings, Gabe. I've got a YouTube channel set up for fishing videos.

In fact, I've got a few videos up there already. The videos that I have up there, it's not going to be like that.

The actual show is not going to be like that. These are just technical tests. I'm just trying a few things out, seeing how they work, so that I can build over time into the videos that I want to create.

In any case, fishing. Yeah, I've been killing it, man. I've been catching smallmouth bass like crazy.

They're awesome. I've got to put some videos up of some of my catches, because they jump three, four feet in the air when they get hooked.

Oftentimes, that gets them off the hook. They're smart. Just huge fights, too.

It takes a while to reel them in. It's been a lot of fun. I hope you've been finding those videos helpful.

I want to talk about something serious today that I saw on Twitter. Before I do,

I wanted to show you this. This is hilarious. I made this image, but I have to be honest,

I did not have the idea for this. Someone on Twitter, and I don't remember who this was, but whoever you are, this was a genius catch.

Have you ever seen the leprechaun video that they ran on the local news?

I think it was in Mississippi or Alabama or Georgia. They're all the same down there.

Louisiana. If you're from that area, sorry. From a

Yankees perspective, all those are the same state. In any case, there was this mysterious leprechaun in this urban neighborhood that everyone would claim to have seen.

He was a leprechaun. He only came out at night, but if you shined the light on him, he would disappear instantly.

Everyone was looking for the leprechaun because he had gold. They wanted the gold. There was one guy, I want the gold.

Give me the gold. My favorite part is there's a woman who goes, they're interviewing some people about the leprechaun.

This woman goes, it could be a crackhead who got hold to the wrong stuff. It could be a crackhead.

That's true. Listen, leprechauns and crackheads, they got a lot in common, at least in my opinion.

In any case, this picture on the right here was an amateur sketch that they used on the news report of what the leprechaun looked like.

Here it is. It's an amateur sketch. This is what the leprechaun looked like. Somebody said, that looks an awful lot like Eric Mason, which it does.

If you haven't seen this video, you have to watch it. It's very, very funny. You might say,

AD, what are you talking about? Leprechauns are Irish. Obviously, Eric Mason is not

Irish. There is a man who calls himself a leprechaun hunter. He has a homemade leprechaun flute and all this kind of stuff.

He's black and he says he's Irish, 100 % Irish. I believe him, frankly. I totally believe him.

I think that Eric Mason could be the mysterious leprechaun that nobody could find.

As you know, not only does he look like him, this amateur sketch looks exactly like Eric Mason. If you remember his famous reparation sermon, he seemed to have an unusual penchant for gold.

Gold! Hallelujah! Silver! Do leprechauns like silver? I think they only like gold.

They have a pot of gold. They don't have a pot of gold and silver. Anyway, he really likes gold. Let's just face it.

We solved the mystery. The reason why you couldn't find the leprechaun in Mississippi or Alabama or wherever is because he moved to Philadelphia and planted a church.

Eric Mason is the leprechaun. Let's move on to something serious. Alex Kochman tweeted this.

I thought this was such a good catch, a good tweet, and it made me think of something.

Here's what he says. I'll just get right to it. He says, And I totally agree.

I totally agree. What he's referring to is 1 Timothy 5, 8. He says this.

He says, And I've thought a lot about this verse in terms of financially supporting your family and things like that, but Alex is so right.

It actually applies very nicely to abortion. Like Paul says very clearly,

Look, if you don't provide for your own household, your own family, you're worse than an unbeliever.

That puts you outside of the faith. What Alex is saying is we didn't need a Bible verse for fathers, provide for your family.

We didn't need that. And so if you're not doing that, you're obviously not a believer.

Like some things are written into creation and they're so basic and natural and obvious that if you don't do it, you're obviously an unbeliever.

And killing your own children obviously puts you in the camp of an unbeliever.

And especially if you're doing it and you just don't care at all. Like, you know, you're unrepentant. You would do it again, like that kind of thing.

Look, obviously we're not saying that people who have had abortions can't be saved because Jesus Christ can save anyone from any sin.

Anyone who repents of their sins, no matter how serious it is. You could be a murderer or a rapist or whatever it is.

Think of the most disgusting person that you can imagine. God can save people and has saved people with those kinds of sins.

There's one guy that I always think of. It's this guy, that guy

Watts, right? The guy who killed his two daughters and his wife. Disgusting. Just a complete animal.

And so he's in prison now and he's claiming to have found God and stuff like that.

And I looked in the comments and it's just like people just denying the possibility that God could even save—Chris

Watts is his name—could even save such a man. And I don't deny that possibility at all.

I don't know Chris Watts. I mean, maybe he's faking it. Who knows? But why should we doubt?

Why should we doubt the ability of God to save a sinner as depraved as Chris Watts when we know full well our own thought life, what we're capable of.

Yeah, maybe we haven't killed anybody, but we know because we've read the Scripture how vile our own sins are before a holy

God. And if he forgives us, even after we get saved, we still sin.

We still sometimes stray. And it's like, if he can save us, he can save anybody. And so obviously we're not talking about that.

But the reality is there are plenty of people who think that it's totally fine to be pro -abortion and be a

Christian. In fact, some people think it's a Christian position to be pro -abortion. And it's absolutely insane. That obviously puts you outside of the camp of believers.

He's right. Some ethical realities, like providing for one's family, are so basic.

They're so obvious. They're written into nature and creation itself that to deny it obviously means you hate the

Creator, obviously means you hate Christ. I want to read the true context here of 1

Timothy 5 because I think this is such an important passage. Every passage is important.

But to our context today, let me just read it and tell you why I'm thinking this. I'm going to read kind of the surrounding context a little bit.

I'll start at verse 3. The Scripture says this. Honor widows who are really widows.

But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show piety at home and to repay their parents, for this is good and acceptable before God.

Now she who really is a widow and left alone trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, but she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives, and these things command that they may be blameless.

But if anyone does not provide for his own, especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Do not let a widow under 60 years old be taken into the number, and not unless she has been the wife of one man, well -reported for good works, if she has brought up children, if she has lodged strangers, if she has washed the saints' feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has diligently followed every good work, but refuse the younger widows, for when they have begun to grow wanton against Christ, they desire to marry, having condemnation, because they have cast off their first faith.

And besides, they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not.

Therefore, I desire that the younger widows marry, bear children, manage the house, give no opportunity to the adversary to speak reproachfully, for some have already turned aside after Satan.

If any believing man or woman has widows, let them relieve them, and do not let the church be burdened, that it may relieve those who are really widows."

Now, that's the end of the passage I want to read. There's a lot there, and I'm not going to comment on all of it.

But what Paul's saying here is that, you know, Christians ought to be busy taking care of their own, right?

Taking care of their own, making sure that their own families are taken care of, their own families.

And I think that if you extend this in our culture today, which, you know, obviously our families are kind of far away from each other, and stuff like that, we can still take care of our families far away from each other, but I think you can even apply this to your own communities as well, like your own church bodies as well.

And we ought to be busy doing that kind of stuff. And there's two things that I often think about when

I think about this passage. One of them is that this is going to require some capital.

This is going to require some capital. And I remember when I was a young Christian, you know,

I would read all of the pop Big Eva books, you know. I read Radical by David Platt. I read, you know,

John Piper stuff. Not that much John Piper, more articles from Piper. Just all the pop

Big Eva books. And I got this distinct impression from the people that I was reading that, like, almost like busying yourself with, like, work and making money and trying to make more money and making sure that you're financially in a healthy place.

Like, I almost got the impression that that was, like, dirty. That was, like, it was totally irrelevant and stuff like that.

And this is ironic because Ruslan KD, I don't even know why I'm talking about him again, but it just came to mind.

Like, I just talked about him in the last video, and now I'm going to talk about him. He actually went through this kind of experience as well.

He blames it on Calvinism. Man, that was a terrible Ruslan KD accent.

I haven't done it in such a long time. He blames it on Calvinism. It's obviously not

Calvinism's issue. But there definitely was an impression by Big Eva that some of that stuff, you know, working on building your income, building your wealth, that was something that really wasn't for Christians.

You know, a Christian ought to be selling everything he has and moving to Zimbabwe to preach the gospel to the

Zimbabweans. And it's like, I always knew when I read those books, and I read

Radical and stuff like that, it's like, yeah, you know, like, obviously, you know, we need to send missionaries and stuff like that, but that takes capital.

I always had an understanding of economics, you know, when I first became a Christian. Like, that takes capital.

And so obviously not all of us can go to Zimbabwe, right? Like, and it's not not trusting God to work on your income, to make sure, yeah, man, my income needs to improve.

Like, you know, inflation's eating it up. I need to start building other sources of income. I need to start building my skill set.

I need to start spending some time building a business and growing my revenues and things like that.

Like, these are not unworthy things for a Christian to do. Like, I really want to make sure to implore you guys that that is totally legitimate.

In fact, I would argue a Christian should be doing those things, making sure that their financial position is strong.

And it's like, it's not so that you can, you know, buy whatever you want and spend it on yourself.

Sure, you can spend money on yourself, too. Like, I bought a fish finder the other day, and, you know,

I have the money to do it. I wanted it, and so I got it. Like, there's nothing wrong with that. I feel like Big Eva thinks there's something wrong with that, but that's not what drives me and motivates me to make money.

What drives me and motivates me to make money is my family and making sure that, you know,

I could be the one that's there if anyone needed help, if anyone needed any, you know, their mortgage payment, you know, they were a little short that month or whatever.

If anyone needed something, they could come to me, and I could help them, right? And I could, see, you need capital.

You need to be in a good financial position in order to be able to accomplish some of these things.

Now, obviously, excuse me, if you have nothing, you can still give, right? We get that. The widow's mite and all that kind of stuff, we get that.

But the thing is, I want to be in a position that I can absolutely accomplish what

Paul says is necessary here in my local community, in my church. I want my pastor to be able to call me up when he hears a need in the community and say, you know, hey,

AD, you know, here's the need. You need a couple thousand dollars, like, for this situation here.

You know, I've talked to her, and she really is in need. She has no family, all this kind of stuff. You know, could you help us out?

Like, I want to be in that position, right? And if I'm not in that position right now, I need to figure out how to get myself to that position.

There's nothing wrong with that. There's everything good about that. And I just feel like it's almost been made, like, if you're trying to be financially healthy, you're trying to be, you know, somewhat stable or have a certain amount of wealth, like, it's almost like that's automatically idolatry.

It's obviously idolatry if you're trying to become wealthy, right? You're trying to, you know, you're investing, and you're expecting to be a millionaire by the time you retire or stuff like that.

Like, no, that's not automatically idolatry. Obviously, people, there are plenty of Christians, good,

God -honoring, God -fearing, God -obeying Christians that are wealthy, that are very wealthy, and they aren't worshiping money.

You know what I mean? Like, it sounds stupid to say that, because obviously there are, but I feel like it's almost like if someone's making money, there's, like, side -eye that's instantly given to them.

And it's like, honestly, like, and look, there might be something to that if they're making money off the backs of their churches, and they're, you know, they're double -dipping, you know, they're writing their little sermons, you know, docent research group, and then they're taking the sermons that they got through docent research group, and then they're putting it into a book and making tons of money and charging tons.

Listen, I understand there might be something there, right? I'm not talking about that, though. What I'm talking about are regular people like you and me.

We're not in ministry. We're not pastors or anything like that. We have a day job, and we work hard and diligently at it, and we try to improve at it, and we try to make more money using our skill sets outside of, you know, outside of the ministry.

There's nothing wrong with trying to set yourself up, set your family up, and all of that, trying to leave a legacy.

In fact, the Bible talks about this. It's like, where did we get this idea, right?

Like, the Bible says that a righteous man leaves an inheritance to his children's children.

His grandchildren ought to get an inheritance. That's what a righteous man does, thinks about how to set themselves up and their own finances and their own investments and their own capital so that their children's children will reap some of the benefit when their time comes, when they pass away.

Their grandchildren will reap. I ought to be thinking about my three sons, but also their sons, the people that come after them.

How do I set myself up? If I'm spending money on a fish finder, but I've completely neglected my investments, completely neglected my, you know, if I have debt or whatever like that, that becomes a problem.

That becomes a problem. And I think that right now, there's going to be an inordinate amount of time focused on finances and economics because in my opinion, we're heading for a very tough time economically in the country.

Now, we're going to be okay. I'm not a doom and gloomer, right? So we're going to be fine. You know, people survive depressions and recessions all the time, every day in every country, even when there's hyperinflation, people survive and people figure out a way to make ends meet.

And you're going to make ends meet as well. But you're going to be spending a lot more time thinking about your personal business, your personal finances, your personal situation, adding another source of income.

Do I need to take a second job? Do I need to, you know, how do I cut expenses? And you know, all of that. You're going to be spending a lot more time in the future thinking about those things than you do right now.

Pay no attention to all of these big evil losers who try to make you feel bad for that.

They try to make you feel like that's actually not, that's not the way of a pious Christian. And it's like, no, absolutely not.

Absolutely not. This episode is titled that losers are worse than an unbeliever. And I mean that completely.

I don't mean people that lose in a game or things like that. But here's what it is. Anyone who does not provide for his own, that's a loser.

If anyone does not leave an inheritance for his children's children, that's a loser, right? And so if you're not even thinking about those things, that's not even in your radar.

I would argue that you're worse than an unbeliever if you're not even thinking about taking care of your own, setting yourself up to be in a situation where your family, your children are not going to starve if there's a prolonged recession or depression.

You need to set yourself up. And if you can't do it financially, then do it with an extra skill set or joining a community of people that you can kind of get together when things are tough and game planning.

Okay, you'll grow the eggs. I'll grow this. They'll do that. There's ways to do this without having tons of money.

But it's okay to improve your money situation too. Don't hear me saying that it's not. But the thing is, someone who doesn't provide for his own, that's a loser in my book.

And the Bible says that losers are worse than unbelievers. So I just, all this to say, and actually

I was thinking about this too because the most recent Fight, Laugh, Feast magazine came out and I told a story, a personal story about the law of God and how

I discovered it and things like that. And it kind of got me thinking along these lines as well because when

I was in youth group, the way that my youth group leaders would teach the

Bible is the way that Big Eva teaches it. The stuff of everyday life, that's kind of dirty and like, oh, you got to be careful.

If you're thinking too much about fishing, maybe you're an idolater. Maybe I just want to get good at fishing.

Is that okay? Maybe I just want to get good at my job. Is that fine? Because you got to put flesh and blood on this.

Paul worked on his own, right? He was a tent maker. He spent a lot of time working on tents most likely.

And I'm pretty sure he didn't feel bad about that. Anyway, I think

I've made my point. I love you guys. God bless you. I hope that you didn't see this as doom and gloom.

I don't think it is at all. I think that if you're diligent and you're thinking about these things and you look at the stuff that God has given you already, the stuff that you have right now, your assets, your capital situation, all of that, if you look at that as a gift from God and you seek to give

God a return on what he's given you, I think that that is something that God will honor, that in faith, if you do that,

God will bless it. He'll give it growth. Anyway, so don't... I hope it's not doom and gloom.

But in any case, that's where we're going to end it. God bless you all. I hope you found this podcast helpful.