The Fear of the Lord: Awakening Hearts in 2026

Host: Dr. Isaac Crockett

Co-host: Hon. Sam Rohrer

Guest: Matt Neff

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 4/10/26. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.

Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.

Isaac Crockett:

Hello, and thanks for joining us on this Friday edition of Stand in the Gap Today. We’re going to be looking at the fear of the Lord and the awakening of hearts even now in 2026. With that, I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett. And before I get into discussing the latest news of the week with my co-host, the regular host of this program, the honorable Sam Rohrer, who’s the president of the American Pastors Network. We are excited to invite a guest on who we’ve heard from some of his friends and coworkers recently, especially just recently. Joshua Enck, the president of Sight and Sound was on and we have the CEO, Matt Neff of Sight and Sound on for a quick update on how things have been going with the Sight and Sound film, A Great Awakening. So Matt, thank you for stepping in. I know some things have happened last minute.

This whole thing has been last minute, but thank you so much for making the time to be on this program with us today.

Matt Neff:

Absolutely. It’s an honor to be with you guys. Thank you for who you are and what you do in the body of Christ.

Isaac Crockett:

Praise the Lord. Matt, at Sight and Sound, you guys don’t just do things little. You do big things. Your productions are incredible. I’ve seen so many of them and I love seeing the Bible come to life on your stage. It is bigger than life in some ways. And I know Joshua mentioned that even with the film parts of Sight and Sound, the idea is to use … They’re crafted for the big screens. It’s kind of this epic feeling in mind that makes history come to life for the viewers. For those who are listening to our radio program today, if you haven’t seen the latest sight and sound film, a great awakening, I know we’ve talked about it last month in different episodes. We’ve been covering this, but especially if you’re a pastor or a parent or grandparent or have somebody that you’ve been looking for something uplifting to share and there’s sometimes this complaint, there’s nothing good to watch.

I would highly recommend you find a theater in your area that is showing a great awakening. My kids are ages 11, 14, and 16, and they absolutely loved it. And all of my pastor friends that have gone out to seen it have been highly recommending it. Matt, what would you say, maybe one scene or one truth that could be a takeaway from this movie that you are hoping people leave with after they see this, as they walk out of the theaters?

Matt Neff:

And it’s a great question. It’s an impactful story. It’s a loaded story. But I would say for me consistently, there are numerous scenes that rock me when I see this film, and I’ve now probably seen it a dozen times and still get rocked by the Holy Spirit just revealing something fresh each time. But the most consistent scene for me is one, it’s earlier in the film. It’s when George Woodfield has really kind of gotten clarity on what God has done for him, how he saved him, and just a passion and a conviction for others to know the truth. And when that starts for him is when he is invited to preach in a church and just cuts to the heart of the gospel in a way that blows up dead religion. And of course it defends religious leaders, which sounds familiar. This is kind of what Jesus’ journey was like, obviously, with the Pharisees, but it’s very reminiscent of that.

And it’s sort of like you see God’s heart for us break through, which is not about man controlling other men, but it’s about true freedom in Christ being revealed and awakening our hearts to know Christ, to fully know him. So that scene, that moment, for me, just it blows me up every time and the church doors burst open and people who are able to come in and hear the word or those who would be the least of these, so to speak, that the church had kind of shunned. And it’s a moment where it sets George’s path and direction in a way that would reach far more people than if he had been confined to the church building. So it’s a great example of how the Lord just … He uses what looks like on the surface like a loss or hardship through persecution to actually increase and expand the kingdom in ways that don’t make sense in the natural.

So for me, that one rocks me, and it’s a call to the church to say, “Are we awake? Are we awake to Christ? Are we pursuing him? Are we following him? Are we seeking to reach and seek and save the lost around us?” So yeah, for me, that’s probably what’s hitting me the hardest.

Sam Rohrer:

And Matt, I want to follow up and just say, I know we don’t have much time and we appreciate you giving us the time here at the beginning of the program, but one of the things that I have noted, and I’ve seen most all that you’ve done on the big stage there and in Lancaster or on screen now, and that is taking profound truths, connecting it biblically and bringing to life deep truths. One of those that’s covered in this program, and I want you to comment on how it’s done, is that you’re connecting the political with Ben Franklin, with the spiritual, which is George Whitfield’s preaching, but deals with the issue of liberty and what we generally come to have love in this America is our civil freedom. Can you all start to take a biblical principle, how it’s shown there through Whitfield’s preaching about that concept of spiritual liberty and freedom, civil freedom?

Matt Neff:

Absolutely, because I don’t think you could ignore the parallel of what Christ did for us and how it compels us to want the same for those around us, for our fellow man. And we believe there was a very clear line that you, if you study our history and you look at what God did through the great awakening, how that stirred people’s hearts towards him, but it stirred them with a desire to live in a way that was free from tyranny. And so I would

Isaac Crockett:

Agree

Matt Neff:

With what we proposed of the film or what we would portray there, and that is that you have no revolution in 1776 without revelation that happened through the work the Lord was doing through not just George Whitfield, but through Jonathan Edwards and the Wesleys and others. It just, I think it teed up a hunger for people to fully experience Christ, walk out that liberty, live out that liberty in their daily lives and their civic government, and it helped them look at some things that were completely unjust and unhealthy and not God’s best and say, “This isn’t right. Something’s got to be done about this. ” I’ve heard it said, I think it was I was going to say he contrasted two different kinds of liberty. The one is the liberty to do what we ought to do, the liberty to do what is right, freedom to live from sin, as opposed to the false liberty, which is do whatever you want.

And so when we see God awaken our hearts, it’s an invitation to be about our father’s business. And so I mean, part of our hope is to see that awakening happen in our nation, like that we would hunger and thirst for righteousness. First is the church, and then that invites the world to the true freedom of what it means to follow Christ, which is actual freedom, freedom from sin, freedom from death,

The things that make life less than what God’s best is, what he designed for us.

Isaac Crockett:

That is so well said. And Sam and I have been working on a series on our TV program about hungering and thirsting after righteousness as we look at the beatitudes and we were just covering that. And when we’ve experienced that hunger and thirst for God and we’ve been filled, we’ve been satisfied in his righteousness seeking first his kingdom. The next thing is we ought to want to tell all those around us who need it as well. And I so appreciate that strong gospel message, the great history, and then just the high quality that’s in this film. And I hope, again, if you haven’t watched it, that you’ll be able to find a theater near you that is showing this and watch it, maybe take friends, maybe neighbors or folks from church, family members, and see this program. Use this as a tool for God’s kingdom.

Well, Matt Neff, thank you so much for being with us today. We’re going to be right back after we hear from some of our partners, right back to talk about some of the current events today and ask Sam some biblical worldview questions about it. All right. Well, welcome back to the program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett, and joining me is the regular host of this program, the honorable Sam Rohr. Today we’re looking at the fear of the Lord and awakening hearts today in 2026. Sam, so many times we talk about wanting to see revival or see our nation renewed. And I think we need to go back to some of the basics. Proverbs chapter nine, verse 10 says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. And when you think about that, all these talking eds and all these supposed very smart people out there, if they don’t have knowledge of the Holy One, they don’t have understanding.

If they don’t have the fear of the Lord, they don’t have wisdom and true knowledge. And so I think we can see this throughout history, even this film that we’ve been talking about a great awakening. We’ve had Joshua Ink, one of the writers and the president of Sight and Sound. We’ve had him on talking about this just today. We had the CEO, Matt Neff on talking about that film, but it goes beyond that. And I think we can see, even just looking at what we call nature, looking at God’s creation, looking at God’s handiwork, we see that and fear the Lord, our creator. And so it’s been interesting right now to see this NASA’s Artemis two mission launched on April 1st and Lord willing, unless something has changed, I think they’re due back tonight to come back super, super fast, like 24,000 miles per hour, I think at some point and come back and hopefully return to earth safely.

But in that group, in that mission, the person getting a lot of the attention is the pilot, Victor Glover. And he claims to be a committed Christian. He’s a Sunday school teacher and been outspoken about his belief in the Bible. And I don’t know him personally, but I like some of the things I’m hearing during the lunar fly by, he publicly shared portions of scripture and talked about God’s command of loving God so that we can love others and delivered basically his Easter reflections about creation and faith, even as he’s over close to the far side of the moon and he has said things like, “We need Jesus no matter where we are, whether we’re on earth or orbiting the moon.” So Sam, as we look at this pilot, the Artemis two pilot, Victor Glover, sharing these things of his faith and sharing scripture from outer space, which isn’t the first time, we’ve talked about this before too, not the first time that scripture has been shared from outer space, but how does that remind you, seeing this connection of going beyond just earth’s atmosphere of the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, even when we get into the realm of science and space exploration.

Sam Rohrer:

Isaac, I think it’s a great question and I think it’s right to highlight the comments there because as you said, I think there are two things. I’ll just say this and then can go further on it. One is that our purpose, the purpose of all people is to glorify God in all circumstances. Last night with our life group, the bringing glory to God, honoring God was the focus of that which we talked about in our small group last night, about how that can be done. Well, in all things that we do, we can honor God, our speech, our actions, our thoughts, and when given the platform, as Victor did here, to do it from space, not going to have that opportunity, but he did that. So I think that’s the first thing. Our purpose is to glorify God, and he used that opportunity. So to the extent that he commented on creation, that brought attention and glory to God, that’s a testimony.

When he talked about the command to love God and to love others, okay, that takes us to Jesus Christ and what he said in the New Testament. That’s glorifying God. That’s one thing. The other thing is that when we acknowledge God as creator, which he was able to do by looking down on the earth, God has created…That’s the most fundamental duty, I think, of all men, but I’m going to say it’s a choice. Fearing God is a choice. Pursuing truth is a choice. Honoring God is a choice. And we all choose whether or not to pursue the truth based on the truth that we have. And that made me think, Isaac, of this part of Romans chapter one. It says, and I’ll read three verses here. Romans 1:18 to 20 says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” So it’s God, creator, judge.

And then it goes on, “For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them.” How? Well, all around us. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made all around us, so they’re without excuse. Those are the two things that makes me think of that, Isaac, is that God by creation, all that we see around us, when we look in the mirror, when we look at other people creating the image of God, that should cause us to look up to God as creator. And when we do that, to say, “Hmm, I want to know more. That’s a choice.” And when that happens, when we choose truth, we will ultimately be led to Jesus Christ, but no one, as it says, Apostle Paul says, “No one is without excuse.” There’s so many things wrapped up into that, but the fear of God is profound and the implications it have are just so broad.

Isaac Crockett:

You and I actually were having some discussions just a few days ago, earlier this week about that, these things where sometimes people almost become Christian fatalist, but this idea that God can be seen in the design of his creation, and as we draw night to God, he draws near to us. Well, and that kind of brings me to another thing, a statement that’s been getting a lot of attention from pilot Victor Glover, which I guess he’s a naval officer. I think he was a test pilot or like of F-18s or something like that. And I didn’t realize until this week that he had spent a very significant amount of time in space. So this isn’t his first trip into outer space. And he was talking and he said, just like you hear there’s no atheist in foxholes, people all of a sudden believe in God.

He then he said, “There’s no such thing as an atheist on top of rockets.” And it’s interesting. I’ve also heard sailors tell me something similar when you’re out in the middle of the ocean where there’s nothing around it, you just look up and you see the skies, you’re seeing space from the ocean, they say, “You know there has to be a creator, there has to be a designer behind that. ” And he’s gone on and credited his faith for sustaining him in high risk missions. But going back to where you started seeing what are some of the biblical principles maybe that we could use as parents teaching to our children or grandchildren or as pastors or Sunday school teachers about how we can trust God’s sovereignty even as we look at the wonders of creation versus all the fears that this modern world and so much of the screen time that we have is just people trying to pump our brains full of fear and anxiety and we contrast that with the overarching sovereignty and providence of God for his loved ones.

What would be some of the comparisons we can make there?

Sam Rohrer:

Isaac, one of those would be just Romans 1:20. It says that because all of these things are so clearly seen, that’s a clearly seen that all men are without excuse. In other words, no one ever from creation are going to be able to stand before God, which we all will one day and say, “I had no idea.” That’s not possible. And so that’s one thing. And that’s why I tell my children, look, there is a God. You can just look around and see Yahweh is his name. God’s made himself clear in creation and as creator, he’s demonstrated so clearly we’re always that excuse. That should lead everyone. And I’ll tell my children, my grandchildren, that enough should cause us to want to know more about our creator, who’s also our savior and redeemer and judge and king, and that’s a choice. So it starts there.

There is God. Now, I want to know more about him. That’s a choice. And when that happens, it will lead us to the point of accepting Jesus Christ as our savior through faith alone. I think the second, Isaac, is that the word of God was given to us so that we can know our creator and personally know Jesus Christ. What we know about God and Jesus Christ is in his written word. So why don’t we learn it more? So the third thing would be, therefore, read the word of God, hide it in your heart, memorize it. Fear of God, we’re talking about, and keep his commandments. What are his commandments? The word of God. And I think those are the three things. There could be a whole lot more than that, but God has made us innately in his image, but he’s made us as human beings with the innate desire to worship something.

Now, it’s desire to worship him, but it was the devil who came in in the garden and tempted Eve and then Adam voluntarily sinned. He beguiled Eve, but to worship something else. It’s not just God, but the Bible says, no, it’s one way. Well, how do we know that? It’s in the word of God. So those are things I tell my children. There is a God. You have to choose to know him. It’s in God’s word. You will know more about him. And then beyond that, when you know him, you will worship him and bring glory to his name. That is, to me, the culmination of what it really means to fear God.

Isaac Crockett:

And this fear of the Lord isn’t some sort of earthly, “Oh no, I hope I didn’t mess up or something,” but it’s this faith in God. As we put our faith in him, we fear him as we see him high and lifted up, truly Yahweh, the God and creator of the universe. I would recommend that any of you listening, if you want to hear Sam and I talk more about this, go to our Stand in the Gap TV archives. You can get there on our app, you can get there on our website, Lighthouse TV, but you can even go to YouTube and look up Stand in the Gap TV and look at our series on faith and how many of these people, they feared God and they didn’t have as much access to the Bible as we have. I think of Rahab and Jericho, how looking at God’s handiwork, she put her faith in God.

Well, we want to ask Sam some more questions about this, talk about the things of the day, talk about biblical justice and the fear of the Lord. How did these things go hand in hand? There have been some judicial cases coming out right now that we want to talk through with Sam. So don’t go away. We’re going to hear from more of our partners. We’re right back on Stand again. Well, thank you so much for listening. Thanks for tuning in. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett. And I’ve been talking with the Honorable Sam Rohr about fearing the Lord and the awakening that can happen in our lives and in our nation. Even now in 2026, we talked with a friend of ours from Sight and Sound at the beginning of this program and then looked at the Artemis two flight that’s been going on and some of the statements that have been made from that.

But before we go any further, I want to see if we can get the man from behind the curtain, our program producer that keeps everything running smoothly and wears, sometimes they say he wears more hats than a hat store. But Tim Schneider, if he could come up to the microphone if everything will be okay without him behind the scenes for a moment and give us some updates on what’s going on here at American Pastors Network and Stand in the Gap Media.

Tim Schneider:

Isaac, sometimes I don’t know how I’m going to respond to what you say sometimes. So I’m just like, okay, I’ll pull the curtain back and I’m not wearing any hats today, but physically, maybe metaphorically, obviously, but not physically. But I do have some stuff to tell you about. One of those things is you set up well, Isaac, a little bit earlier in the program, but we’re on YouTube and I want to ask you, have you checked out our YouTube channels? We have three of them, three YouTube channels, American Pastors Network, Stand in the Gap TV and Stand in the Gap Radio. I encourage you to check them out to see our archives and all the content being posted. If you would go over there right now and take a look, you’ll see that some of the most recent stuff we posted is a sermon on the Mount series that Sam and Isaac have been doing.

Got four episodes up and I believe there’s more coming down the road. We also have some other great stuff. We have 300 and something TV episodes at this point since I think 2017 or 2018 when the TV program started. So there’s a lot to see there on our YouTube channel and we encourage you to subscribe to our YouTube channel by searching for American Pastors Network, Stand in the Gap Radio and Stand into Gap TV, search and subscribe to these channels so you can be notified when new content is posted. Also, besides the YouTube channels, we also encourage you to please pray for our ministry. We cover your prayers for the things that are to be done here in this ministry. We understand, obviously, and we hope as you understand that prayer is catalyst and it helps things get done and God hears us on his terms and in the way he would desire for us to be praying.

So we encourage you to please be praying for this ministry. Also, if the Lord has blessed you and you consider giving financially, we would be happy for that also. No, not too big, no not too small is too much, but however the Lord might bless you and want you to give to this ministry, we certainly encourage you to please do that. You can do that on Americanpastorsnetwork.net or standinthegatmedia.org or even if you have our app, you can also do that there. So those are some things that I have, Isaac, and I will go ahead and send it on back to you.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, thanks for that, Tim. And I love the reminders that you give us that we can pray. Every one of you listening, you say, “Well, I wish I could help or I wish I could give something.” Prayer is the most important thing. Praying for different ones of us, praying for our ministry, praying for the people who are listening. And then word of mouth, just telling people about this resource. It’s a free resource. Even our app is free. So much of what we have online, it’s all free. The radio broadcast, free for you to use. And then if you are able and the Lord would lead you to give, you’re not just buying something for yourself. You’re not just going out and purchasing something online. You’re giving to a ministry that is able to make this available for you, for family members, for neighbors, for church friends, for people all over the world actually, that your gift helps sustain this ministry that is going out to all of those.

So you can be part of this community through any of those ways. Whatever you can do to help support what the Lord is doing here is so appreciated and it is an answer to prayers. Sam, I want to go back to this idea of fearing the Lord and I want to talk about biblical justice. We talk about biblical worldview and a lot of times on Fridays, we’ll try to take either listeners questions, which feel free to send us your questions, come to think of that too. We’d love to ask Sam some really hard questions. So send your questions, maybe not have to be super hard, but just what you’re thinking about the news of the day. But I’m looking at the different headlines just coming out constantly. And so yesterday, today, I’ve been talking with you, Sam, trying to put some of this together, but one of the things that just recently came out, and there’s a lot of Americans that are outraged over us, is that they’ve learned that this ruling from a judge in North Carolina in a case against DeCarlos Brown Jr has declared him quote unquote incapable to proceed in the murder trial for this unprovoked stabbing where it would appear he murdered Iriana Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee.

She was riding a train in Charlotte, North Carolina area. I think we’ve all heard about this. Sam, there are many people saying this isn’t justice, that if he was capable to go out and register to vote, and he was capable to buy the weapon, and he was capable to do all these different things, he’s capable to stand trial for what he has done. And there are many saying, “What about justice for the victims? Where’s the wisdom of the courts?” In fact, I don’t know, I haven’t searched into this enough to make sure, but some are even saying that the president of El Salvador, who has done a lot to change that country’s criminal record, that he’s saying that we as Americans need to be impeaching judges who are not standing for justice. And so I just wonder, as we look at this through the lens of a biblical worldview and some of the verses that you were just talking to us about last segment, how does the fear of the Lord shape this biblical view of what biblical righteous justice is and balance it with the mental health of somebody, but also protecting the vulnerable and the innocent?

Sam Rohrer:

Isaac, we could spend a long time on this because the concept of justice is tied with our understanding of God and who he is.

It varies. It could from nation to nation. Interesting that you mentioned El Salvador president because true justice, biblical justice is universal in its understanding of what it is. If we understand who God is and how do we know who God is like we talked about in the last segment from reading his word, the Bible and how do we know what that means? Well, because he puts there what it is. That’s how we find out about who God is and what justice is. And one of the things, Isaac, that is very, very clear is that a true fear of God, a fear of the Lord must precede any proper understanding of justice. And the Bible tells us a true fear of God will always be accompanied by keeping his commandments. So all the way through the Old Testament, and it is fearing God and keeping his commandments always walk together.

And that makes me think of this, that there is a difference between those who talk about God and those who talk about God, but don’t obey his word.

There’s a problem that’s happened in our nation where justice has become substitutable with social justice and they’re not at all alike. There is this concept that justice is whatever you choose to make it. And obviously we have judges who are thinking that, but justice from a biblical perspective is always the same because it’s consistent with that which God lays out in his word today. And it makes me think of the condition Isaiah told the people of old back during his time as a prophet, and Jesus requoted it in Matthew 15:18. And he says this, “This people draw with nigh unto me with their mouth and they honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me and in vain, they do worship me teaching as doctrines, as biblical truth, the commandments of men.” So that’s one I just want to put there that when it comes to understanding justice Isaac, it does not happen by just talking about God and God’s love. That’s not sufficient.

It’s about all of God’s commandments, which is the completeness of God’s word and understanding God and interpreting justice from that perspective. And secondly, without applying God’s word in its entirety, equally to all, there can be no justice. So if we don’t start with God’s word and ends with God’s word, there will be no justice. It may happen from time to time, but there will be nothing predictable. A judge cannot meet it out. People cannot expect it. It won’t happen. It starts with knowing who God is, fearing God and keeping his commandments and applying God’s word equally to all.

Isaac Crockett:

Without that, it’s like the book of judges where every man does what’s right in his own eyes. In the film, A Great Awakening that we were talking about at the beginning of this, we see gridlock from the beginning days of our nation and we see it now in our capital. And so we see our founding fathers wisely, and I think in a godly way, try to set up guardrails to protect true righteousness and true justice. Sam, what do we have as far as biblically and even constitutionally for guardrails for our nation? I know we don’t have much time, but maybe you can make some comments on that as we get ready to close our program.

Sam Rohrer:

Well, our system of government here and our justice system, Isaac, cannot be separated from the way it began. How did it begin? It was fixated and it was built on the concept that there was sin. Depravity of man’s heart will always lead to evil. What was there is the basis for the termination of justice? The 10 commandments. That’s why it always hang, and still it does in many cases, behind the judge’s bench. And that’s why it was used to be in our public schools. And our founders made very, very clear that if a citizen did not voluntarily submit themself to God’s universal moral law, and those in office did the same thing. You could not ever have a republic. You would not have justice. That would be one thing. And the second thing, our founders understood as well that you had to take and separate the power of civil government.

Checks and balances comes from the fact of understanding the sinful nature of man’s heart and the fact that a sinful man will try to consolidate all of that so they separated the powers of government. And all of those things, and plus much more, Isaac, we’re all there to help be guidelines to ensure justice for all.

Isaac Crockett:

Sam, this is very good. We’re going to take another quick break, hear from some of our partners and come back to wrap up. But I kind of want to go back to that and apply what you’re talking about right there to how we respond as Christians and how there are things that we can look to, to find true real justice in this world. So don’t go away. We’ll be right back on standing the gap today. Welcome back to this program, The Fear of the Lord, Awakening Hearts in 2026. This is our Friday edition of Stand in the Gap Today. And I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett. I’m here with the honorable Sam Rohr. Sam, time flies when we’re having fun, I guess. Our program is just under an hour long and we have four segments kind of broken up. And we’re already here. We’re already at the last segment to wrap things up.

But I want to go back to what you were just commenting on right before the break and this idea of going back to the beginning of where our country found our morality, where we found our laws, where we found true justice and what was able to make our country what it was. And you pointed us back to the Bible, you pointed us back to several passages, but you were showing the 10 Commandments, which is the law. And that kind of wraps up the Old Testament. And Jesus comes, and you and I have been talking about this a lot in his sermon on the Mount. We’ve been talking about this on our TV program with the beatitudes, but Jesus, on the sermon on the mountain, he says, “I have come not to abolish the 10 commandments, not to abolish the law, the Torah, but I have as Yeshua, I’m here, the Meshia, the Messiah, the Christ, I’m here to fulfill it and to bring it into full satisfactory fulfillment of what has been promised.” And so it really is based on that.

It goes through God’s covenants and it brings us now to the New Testament that we’re in. And I’d like to just have you maybe apply that to us listening today. Maybe there’s a pastor listening right now. How does he apply this to his congregation or parents or just how do we as Christians individually respond with wisdom and compassion as those who fear the Lord, even when our justice system does not seem to get it right, even when it feels like there is no justice sometimes coming down from those civil authorities that are charged with instructing us and giving justice.

Sam Rohrer:

That’s a big question. I think the simple thing I would start with, Isaac here is what we talk about on this program so often and so much is that what is the difference between a person who is a true disciple of Jesus Christ and one who is not in word only. Like I read earlier from Isaiah and Jesus said, “There is a people who talk about my, talk about me, may even describe themselves as a Christian.” As a follower of Christ, but in their heart, they do not follow me at all. All right. Well, what’s the difference? Well, actually fearing God and keeping his commandments. And now in this age in which we live, since Christ has come, we just celebrated Easter. What’s that all about? Well, we have a risen Jesus Christ who now was raised a victorious over death and hell and meets God, his father’s.

The role that he sent Jesus Christ, his son who came here for what reason? Well, because God so loved the world. That’s where the love of God really is. Manifested in a person, Jesus Christ. And what did he did sacrifice his life for us because there’s nothing that we could do to redeem us dead in our sins so that we could be reunited in reunion with God, our Father, but only through Jesus Christ. Now that’s the salvation message. How do we know that? Well, through God’s word. What do we emphasize here all the time? The authority of scripture. And this is the one thing I think, Isaac, that if it were done by pastors and the pulpit, by individual people, and that is in all cases, start with the word of God

And end with the word of God. One of the things that Dr. George Barna and you and I have talked about so much on the program that his surveys find out is that people have gotten comfortable with picking bits and pieces of God’s word. They take the part that they want that is easy to understand or to apply the blessings of God. We all want that, but then they leave off the other part. Well, we’re not making the word of God authoritative. We’re making ourselves God because we’re saying that something, God, you have it written in your word. It’s not good for me or I can pick and choose. No, we don’t have the authority or the right to pick and choose. So start with God’s word. Finish with God’s word. And everything that comes into our life, the word of God speaks to everything in form of principle or command so that never ever should a person who says, “God, you are my God and I fear you to ever be in a position where we don’t have clarity as far as how we ought to live and choose.” That would be where I would start, Isaac, because whether it’s a matter of determining and defining justice or how we look at whether and to choose whether or not something we hear in the news is right or not, or some political leader says this or that, if we’re not continually taking everything that is done through the filter of scripture, a biblical worldview, we’re not going to be in the right position and we will be fooled, but we don’t have to.

And God does not want us to be confused or to be walking around different from the world. If we’re a disciple of Christ, we’re going to emulate Jesus Christ and everything we need to know about how to do that is in God’s word.

Isaac Crockett:

That’s very helpful. Let’s continue down that path here for a few moments. So as we’ve been talking today, real justice comes from God’s word. It’s not always going to be seen in politics or in the courts, and it ultimately comes from a fear of the Lord. And that brings this real wisdom, biblical wisdom. Again, we have technology, we have cultural trends, and we have TikTok influencers, but that’s not where the real knowledge, these people promising conspiracy theories. And here’s real knowledge. We know that it comes from the word of God, like you just said, like Jesus preached, that we are to be salt and light, that our sword is the word of God. It’s a double edged, it’s a two edged sword that pierces dividing us under of soul and spirit. So as we close, you’ve talked about that. You’ve talked about knowing the word of God and using it.

Are there any more practical steps to take the word of God that you could urge our listeners, that pastors could urge their church families, that parents or other family members could urge family members ways to be salt and light to awaken hearts like the great awakening, to awaken hearts close to us and maybe others in the community or throughout where we could defend biblical justice and trust God even in times of uncertainty.

Sam Rohrer:

Isaac, one thing we know from research, again, as George has told us, is that only a very small percentage of people in America, about 4% is what he says actually truly evidence the fact that they are born again as defined by scripture and really are adopted into God’s family. That means there are many, many, many who think that by maybe doing good things or maybe by going to church once in a while or even reading their Bible without faith in Jesus Christ is going to get them to heaven. That is one place I would start. You’ve got to make sure that salvation is secure and that’s number one. And then number two is that in my life, in my choices, in my thoughts, who is getting the glory for what is done? Am I pointing people to the God of heaven? Am I subjecting my thoughts in my heart?

Those things that find their way out in my mouth and my words and my writing and my decisions? Are they reflective and do they draw attention to the honoring of God above the glorifying the God of heaven or are they glorifying me or someone else? And do I really and am I really living? And I think this is key as well. Romans 12 talks us about needing to not be conformed to this world or world system, the way this world thinks. We’re being bombarded all around all the time with how the world thinks, how the world thinks. That’s not how believers think. And we need to recalibrate our thinking not one time, but every day. How by reading God’s word, we need to be conformed by the renewing of our mind according to what scripture says. And that’s not a one time thing. That is a recurring thing.

So it’s kind of like a multi-step thing. It’s not difficult, but it requires continual attention and dedication.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, that it does. That does. And I thank you all for listening, Sam. Thanks for answering all these questions. Those of you listening, thanks for listening. And I hope that you will pray for our nation, that you will pray for those closest to you and those far away, and that you will allow the Lord to work in your life. And I hope that until next time, you will stand in the gap for truth wherever you are today.