Are You Following the Real Jesus? Intimacy, Scripture, and the Cost of Knowing Him (MINISODE)

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Hello,

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everyone.

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Happy New Year,

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if you were listening when this was first recorded.

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This last episode of 2025 was a spectacular episode.

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I enjoyed talking with

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Phil Tague.

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We had an amazing conversation about the difference between the God we think we serve and the God we actually serve.

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Airbrushed Jesus and the real Jesus.

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This was a powerful episode.

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I hope

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It encouraged you.

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If you did not hear it yet,

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please go to the show notes and click the link to listen.

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It is a great episode.

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It will empower you to start your new year right.

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I want to discuss something he mentioned in the episode.

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He talked about his book and what it actually meant.

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It's called Jesus Be the Centerfold.

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It doesn't necessarily deal with his addiction to pornography that he had.

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He says it's more about how we have a desire for intimacy without the cost of intimacy.

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All the good benefits of a feeling,

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but you don't want the cost of a relationship.

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So he talks about intimacy as being fully known and still chosen,

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not sexual intimacy.

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And the book is not.

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necessarily about pornography.

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Again,

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it's about his addiction to pornography affected his idea of intimacy.

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And because of that,

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that's why he felt compelled to write this book,

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because we need a change of perspective of what we think

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Jesus looks like.

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We all have our ideas of what we think Jesus This looks like it was shaped.

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Through our childhood,

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whether we grew up in Christianity or not,

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throughout life,

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we have been shown ideas,

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thoughts,

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and pictures of what Jesus would look like,

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literally look like,

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or what he does,

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what he says,

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how he says it,

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all these things.

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But how do we know which one is actually real if we are not paying attention to his word?

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His word is what is going to transform us.

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His word is what's going to show us who

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God really is.

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So if you are not reading your Bible,

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you will have no clue who

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Jesus is.

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He's throughout the Bible.

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Even in the Old Testament,

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you can see glimpses of Jesus.

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You won't know him if you don't read the Bible.

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So intimacy is being fully known and still chosen.

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That is what he mentions in the episode,

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intimacy with his wife.

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is not the sexual part that's part of it,

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but the main thing is being fully known and still chosen by his wife.

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He mentioned how he doesn't look the same as he did when they first met,

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but she still looks at him and she still chooses him despite his flaws,

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the things he does wrong.

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She still chooses him.

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That's how Jesus sees us.

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He knows our flaws.

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He knows what we've done wrong.

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He knows what we're going to do wrong.

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And yet he still chooses us.

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Do we?

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still choose God,

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even though we've seen the things in the Bible that maybe rub us wrong or the things that Jesus has had preached about that we don't really like or we don't understand?

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Do we still choose him despite those things?

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We can't make him into who we want him to be to make him our fluffy genie Jesus.

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He can't be the airbrushed person you see on Instagram.

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This is the King of Kings,

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the Lord of Lords.

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He is everything.

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He created everything.

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He doesn't belong to us.

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We belong to him.

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So this is a subject that is very dear to my heart because I have had many different voices in my head chirping at me about who Jesus is,

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what he does,

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what he doesn't do.

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And I'm sure you feel the same way.

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There are social media platforms.

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that are always talking about,

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this is how Jesus would handle this.

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This is what Jesus says.

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But do we really know?

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If we are not in the word,

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we will not be able to discern truth from lies.

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The bottom line here is we need to know who Jesus is.

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And the only way you are going to do that is by reading your Bible.

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So this is absolutely the best way to end this year is by reading your Bible and to start the new year reading your Bible.

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really digging into who Jesus is,

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seeing him throughout the whole Bible,

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Old Testament and New.

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He's there in the Old Testament because he was there from the very beginning.

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We cannot put him

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in a place where he does not want to go.

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We are his hands and feet.

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So we need to be careful with what we say about him.

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And we need to make sure it lines up with scripture.

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We can't make him into our Trump loving Jesus.

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We can't make him into our

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Trump hating Jesus.

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We can't turn him into Black Lives Matter Jesus.

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We can't turn him into abortion hating Jesus or abortion.

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loving Jesus.

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We can't turn him into who we want him to be.

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He is who he is.

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As he says in Exodus,

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I am.

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He is who he is.

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You can't change him.

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He's supposed to be changing us.

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So let this be a sobering reminder going into the new year that we are not in control.

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We think we are,

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but we aren't.

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our holy savior knows all,

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sees all.

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and he has still fully chosen us.

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If you know him as your savior,

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praise him for that,

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that he rescued you from death.

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If you don't know him,

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I am inviting you now to know him.

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There is no better time than now to know who Jesus is.

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He loves you.

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He already fully knows you,

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but he wants you to fully know him.

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He wants to have that intimacy with you.

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Stop chasing all the...

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good benefits of a feeling but not wanting a relationship.

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Stop desiring intimacy without a cost of intimacy.

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Just jump in and allow him to take hold of you and transform you so that this year coming up will be your best year because you have trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior.

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Let's make sure that we are following the real Jesus,

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not the one that we have been told about

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or the one that we think we know,

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let's look in the Bible.

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Let's read it with sober eyes,

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and let's not try to change him because something makes us feel uncomfortable about him.

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Let's look at why he says what he says or how he says it,

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and let's realize that he is sovereign,

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that he is righteous,

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that he is holy,

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and we will never be able to fully grasp why he says and does the things he does,

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but we need to still accept him.

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and fully choose him.

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All right,

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everyone,

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I hope you have a great New Year's.

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God bless.