{Ep.120} How "He Gets Us" Forgot Jesus

Seen by 123.4 million people, The "He Gets Us" ads are stirring up a lot of discussions among progressive and conservative Christians. In this episode, Kevin breaks down the six most concerning messages displayed by the controversial Super Bowl ad. Using scripture as his backdrop, Kevin takes you thoughtfully through the mission of the "He Gets Us" campaign to the results it's bringing and what the Bible has to say about it.

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Transcript

Kevin Wilson (00:00.798)
Welcome back to the Thinking Out Loud podcast. My name is Kevin Wilson and I am excited to be back with you guys this week for another week of the show. And man, what a, what are the last couple of episodes? If you haven't had a chance to listen to those, I urge you to listen to them. I think you will be inspired. I think you will be blessed. I think that you would be encouraged.

by the story of Hannah Overton. So again, if you have not, and if you've listened to the first episode, it's a two -parter. So you listen to the first episode, you listen to the second one, make sure you listen to that. Man, such a great testimony she has. And yeah, it's just, it's awesome. So great to be back with you guys this week and...

I'm hoping everybody's getting through the first of the year. We're already in February. Crazy. Time is flying, it seems like. I know it's like every year it seems that way. It's crazy because we just came off of...

Super Bowl weekend and we're going to talk a little bit about something about the Super Bowl. No, not necessarily football, but I do want to talk about something that I think is on a lot of people's minds. And, but before I get into that, I just want to say how, man, I was so bummed, so bummed. Those of you who,

don't live in Michigan. I live in Michigan and so our podcast is recorded here in Michigan. And so our football team is the Detroit Lions. And so if you know anything about football, the Detroit Lions, they are, they were just not a good team for so many years. I mean, many, many, many years. I mean, even when we were going to win a game, we were up.

Kevin Wilson (02:12.478)
Uh, over our opponent, we at the last minute would just do some dumb things and end up losing the game. So, uh, this year was one of the best years the lions have had in a long time, like over 30 years. And so, uh, you know, I was hoping to celebrate a little bit differently, uh, the super bowl because our, the Detroit lions actually had a shot. Which is even.

Crazy to say but actually had a shot to be in the Super Bowl this year. I was at the For I was at Ford Field when they were playing their last game that would determine whether they would be they would be playing in the Super Bowl or not and Wow, it was crazy. I was at Ford Field and they weren't even playing there. They were actually they were actually in a different state, but

Um, the Ford field decided to do a watch party. And so they had these ginormous screens there and man, that first half, oh my goodness, that first half of the game, we were up 17 points. And all I can say is 37 ,000 people in, uh, Ford field was just electric. I mean, just the fact that we were just running all over the 49ers. It was, it was crazy. Uh, the energy in that room.

Uh, I seen total strangers hugging, hugging each other and high -fiving. And I mean, it was, it was insane. Uh, it was actually really, really cool to watch and just really cool to feel that energy in the room. And so, man, just, it was just a great time, but you know, as well as I do, Oh man, that second half, we just lost our ever loving minds. I don't know what we were thinking.

But we just started playing just a bunch of unanswered. Uh, it just, oh my God, drop. We were dropping the ball. We were, it was just, it was just crazy. That's all I can say. I don't know what we were thinking, but with that said, that's not the end all be all. Oh, we have next year. And I think that next year is going to be an awesome year for us. And I think we'll, we'll, we have a huge shot.

Kevin Wilson (04:34.654)
at getting back where we were this year and even further. And so anyway, I just say that because I'm from Michigan and that was, that was a huge thing here. So, um, and if you watch football or know anything about the Detroit Lions, you know that this is like one of the best years we've had in over 30 years. Uh, so it was really cool, really, really, really cool, but that's not what we're here to talk about today. But like I said, we do have something that we're going to talk about that is, um,

about the Super Bowl, but not football. We're going to talk about the ads that ran in the Super Bowl. And one of the ads was from or two of the ads is from this organization called He Gets Us. Right. And they ran ads in 2023 during the Super Bowl this year. They ran ads again.

There was a couple of them. One was a foot washing ad and then another one was who is my neighbor. The one that's who is my neighbor is really not that controversial. Nobody's really talking about that one. The big one that everybody's talking about social media and you know, podcasters, other people. You know, I've seen some things, some, some things written up in a lot of the different papers and different things like that. People are just.

They're either on one side or the other either they're saying hey that was really really cool That Jesus was displayed during the Super Bowl that many people got to you know see You know something about Jesus and there's other people who are saying, you know, it's a gross rest Misrepresentation of Jesus. It's terrible All the things right we're hearing all kinds of things from all sides and I'm sure

that you're probably gonna have family members or friends who are gonna talk about it. And just like we do any other time, we wanna make sure that you know our thoughts about this, right? And understand from a biblical perspective, how should we look at this as Christians? How should we interpret those ads? So, you know, cause like I say, family, friends,

Kevin Wilson (06:55.07)
People are gonna ask us, they're gonna be talking about it. And I think we should always be ready to help other people understand how to navigate culture, as we say all the time, from a biblical perspective. And so that's where we are. I didn't plan to talk about this. This was not something that, we've got a couple of really fascinating guests that are coming up and.

I was going to do that, but I thought we should pause as we do sometimes just to talk about something that's very prevalent and something that's very popular in culture right now. And we need to know how to, how to answer that. And so, so let's, let's talk, let's, let's just talk about this particular commercial. So.

The foot washing commercial is the one that everybody's talking about, okay? And the foot washing commercial is basically, they were taking a mod, it was a modern take on the biblical story of Jesus washing the 12 disciples' feet, all right? At the Last Supper.

Obviously we know this was a sign of humility. This was a sign of preferring someone else over ourselves. It's a sign of selflessness. It's, I mean, all the things that Jesus embodies, right? That's basically what we know that that foot washing is, right? That's what it represents. Now, you know, I feel like that this ad that he gets us, folks,

They really took this to more of a, uh, kind of a political, they had a political bent. They really leaned in, uh, to kind of our culture today. And so they had a police officer kneeling with a, with a, with a black guy. Uh, they had a protester, uh, with a woman that was, she was visiting a family planning clinic.

Kevin Wilson (09:08.094)
They had a Caucasian woman who was before a migrant mother. They, you know, and I think the really controversial one is they showed a priest that was washing the feet of a homosexual man. Okay. The way he was posed, the way, you know, he looked, he looked very, you know, it looked like he was part of the LGBTQ community. Right.

And so that's the one that's really getting everyone up in arms. And, you know, there's there's there's a bit to say here. And we're going to I want to keep this concise because I want to keep this to I want to talk a little bit about who he gets us. What is their mission? All right. Because I think a lot of people don't even understand what their mission is. They haven't went to their website. They don't know anything about who's behind this.

Uh, and all of that. So I want to talk about that, but I also want to talk about, uh, a few things that I think that I had takeaways, uh, and I think that we need to, to look at. So there's about six things that I think that we need to look at. And of course I want to use scripture, um, to really dissect what happened in those commercials. Uh, so here's.

Here, here's my take on it. Okay. And then I'm going to, I want to back this stuff up by scripture, but I also want you to understand where they're coming from that he gets us campaign where they're coming. And this is taken directly from their website. Some of the things that I'm going to read to you is directly from, uh, their website. Uh, but one of the things that I want to say is the worst lie.

that any person could ever believe is to believe in the wrong Jesus.

Kevin Wilson (11:14.782)
Right. Let me say that again. The worst lie you could ever believe is to believe in the wrong Jesus. Right. You see, well, the wrong Jesus, I thought there was only one. Well, the Bible is very explicit and says that there's going to be a lot of people who is going to misrepresent Jesus in the last days. The Bible specifically says that there are going to be people who are going to teach false Jesus and false Christ.

that are gonna come into the world and they're gonna teach all kinds of heresies and different things like that, right? That's what the Bible says. So we shouldn't be surprised. We shouldn't be taken off guard. We shouldn't be shocked. We should just know that obviously the Bible is true. So we're gonna see those things, okay? But the other thing I would say is every false religion, every false religion.

starts with a fundamental misunderstanding of who Jesus is. Every false religion starts with a fundamental misunderstanding of who Jesus is. If we don't get anything else right, we have to get that right.

Like, we can't miss Jesus. We can't miss who He actually is. We can't misinterpret Scripture. We can't, on the things that are important, yes, we're going to disagree as Christians about some minor things or some secondary things. But when it comes to the main and plain things, when it comes to who Jesus actually is, what He stands for, what He can do,

dims, what he calls sin, what he calls righteousness. These are things that are extremely important that we have to agree on. There's no middle ground. There's no gray area there. These are things that we just have to know that is right. And so let's talk a little bit about the stats because it's really important for you to understand.

Kevin Wilson (13:39.078)
the gravity and the reach that these ads had. Okay. Cause you might say, well, Kevin, you know, I didn't even watch the Superbowl. I didn't, you know, I didn't even see the ads. Who cares? Why are we doing a whole podcast on these ads? Well, let me help you to understand the, the, the wide audience that they had. So first of all, they spent, so the going rate for a 30 second.

national slot for the Superbowl for an ad was about $7 million. Estimates are saying that they could have spent close to $17 .5 million on these two ads, just based on all the things that go into getting these ads on the air in front of that many people.

there was 123 .4 million people who watched the Superbowl. 123 .4 million. All right. So if you didn't watch it, I understand. The issue is a lot of other people did. Okay. So this is why we're talking about it. Now, since the ads aired over 700,

700 ,000 people Have went to that website that he gets us website over 700 ,000 people That is wild right and that's what we would expect right for an ad that was reaching a hundred and twenty three million and that was just the initial people who went to Their website. I'm sure there's gonna be people

after, you know, and there has been, I'm sure, and the numbers haven't come out since these numbers that I'm reading right now, but I'm sure there's a lot more people that have went to their website. And I want what I want to do is I want to read to you what their mission is. All right. And I might have a little commentary as we read this, but I think we need to understand, you know, I can say they have they had a gross.

Kevin Wilson (16:01.05)
misrepresentation of Jesus. And I'll tell you, I mean, it was a gross misrepresentation of Jesus. Okay. The Jesus that was on that screen and they were trying to portray is not the Jesus of the Bible. I'm so sorry. I know that there are some of you to say, but, but Kevin, but what about the fact that Jesus was even, even mentioned, isn't that good? Well, let's talk about it. Okay. Let's see. Let's see if.

If that was, is, is good enough. Okay. Um, so, but, but as, but I want, I think it's fair. Right. I don't think we need to talk about the, he gets us campaign without actually seeing what they say their mission is. Right. Cause we could talk about it all day and say, well, they this and they that and whatever. No, we need to know exactly what they're saying.

their mission is. That's super important for us to know what they're saying. This is the point. This is why that they do what they do. So this was taken right from their website. And I think I have everything here but the last paragraph on their mission and why they do this and who they are and all of that, which that last paragraph was nothing of consequence. I just.

You know, it, again, there's a lot of content here. So I wanted to make sure, um, I took out stuff that didn't really matter. Uh, but the stuff that I do have down here is the stuff that matters. All right. So, um, let's read. This is the mission statement right off the website of he gets us. Okay. Uh, how did the story of a man who taught and practice unconditional love, peace and kindness, who spent his life defending the poor and the marginalized, a man who even forgave.

his killers while they executed him unjustly, whose life inspired a radical movement that is still impacting the world thousands of years later. How did this man's story become associated with hatred and oppression for so many people? And how might we all rediscover the promise of the love his story represents?

Kevin Wilson (18:29.63)
Those are the questions at the heart of He Gets Us. We've done a lot of homework on our culture. We researched how people feel about each other and what they think about Jesus and Christianity. We've connected with thousands of people of various faith traditions and those who claim no religion. We spoke to all kinds of people, different backgrounds, beliefs, and yes,

political affiliations. And this is what we've learned. From politics to sexuality and religion, so many of us feel like our values, beliefs, and identities are under attack by the ideological, quote, others around us. Many perceive those who differ with them on issues of justice, dignity,

and humanity as not just wrong or misguided, but also as evil, as enemies. We often see these quote, others unquote, as close minded or as close minded, selfish, hypocritical. And if we're honest, many of us or many of us respond in kind. All right. So here's, here's you see you, you.

You have to get through all of the word salad. All right. You've got to get through all of this speak, you know, because there's a lot of stuff being said here that is underlining that if it sounds flowery and, and pretty and, oh, let's all come together and sing Kumbaya and let's just, oh God is Jesus is about love in all of these. And yes, he is about love.

Yes, he is. But let's look at some of the read between the lines. Notice where it said, where I read, and this is what we've learned from politics to sexuality and religion. So many of us feel like our values, beliefs and identities are under attack. Folks, I submit to you that when they're saying that, uh,

Kevin Wilson (20:54.684)
So many of us feel like our values, beliefs, and identities are under attack. I submit to you that those identities that they're talking about is how people are identified in culture right now. They're identifying as a trans person or a bi person or as a pansexual. Women are identifying as men and men are identifying as women. All of these types read between the lines. This is exactly what they're saying.

Right? So when they say things like identities, but here, here's the issue. And I'm not going to go on a soap box here because I want to continue to read this, but think about identities. Okay. When a, when I, if I, as a man say I'm a woman, is that my true identity? I just, I'll just leave you there. Okay. Uh, I'll go on the more ideologically defensive we become.

The more we are willing to sacrifice things like kindness, patience, and the respect and dignity of others for the sake of victory. The righteous ends justifying the dehumanizing means.

Kevin Wilson (22:09.694)
And it's tearing us apart, they say. We experience it in politics, in the workplace, in schools, and even in churches. And at the heart of the conflicts is a fundamental disagreement about what it means to be good. Throughout our shared history, Jesus has represented the ultimate good that humankind is capable of aspiring to.

And though some no longer believe in God, most are still compelled by the idea of a person capable of unconditional love for others, despite their differences. Here, I want to pause there.

Sounds good, right? It's like all their painting Jesus in such a beautiful light, right? You know and though some no longer believe in God most are still compelled by the idea of a person capable of Unconditional love for others despite their differences despite their Differences. Here's what you have to understand about Jesus. Okay. Yes Jesus loves us unconditionally

But you know what's part of that love? Truth. You can't love somebody without telling them the truth. You just can't. Right? You, you, you, you, you, you, you go to somebody who has cancer, right? If a doctor, and I've, I've used this example before, and I'm sure you've heard this example before, but if a doctor has a patient that he runs tests on and that, that, that test comes back to that, um, that that person has cancer.

The doctor has two options. Okay. He could come back into that room and tell that patient, you know what? Uh, all your tests came back good. Um, you know, just go ahead and continue to live your life like you live your life and I'll see you next year. Okay. He could do that. And guess what? Everybody's going to leave happy. The doctor doesn't have to have the hard conversation. The.

Kevin Wilson (24:24.318)
the patient leaves and they get to go home until their family, oh yeah, my test, you know what, whatever that was that was going on with me, you know, that blood that I saw where it shouldn't have been and all of these other types of things, you know what? I shouldn't, the doctor said I had nothing to worry about. I'm totally good. Okay. Right now everybody leaves. There's no conflict. There's peace and there's love, so -called love. There's all of this thing, but here's the problem. Here's the problem.

If that doctor really wanted to help that patient, you know what that doctor would have done? The doctor would have came in the room and said, you know what? I'm so, so, so sorry to tell you this, but the test came back and said, you have cancer. But listen, here's what we're going to do. We're going to put you on a treatment plan. Here's some, we've got some new things that are some experimental drugs. We've got some things that we're going to try. Um, and some therapies and some.

all of this and let's, you know what, let's kick this cancer's butt, right? Let's, let's do this together. I want you to get plenty of rest. I want you to, I, you know, I want you to eat as well as you possibly can. I want you, I mean, all of those things, right? You know, here's the thing. He can say it, the truth with grace. And yes, does that person want to hear that? Nobody wants to hear that. They don't want to hear that.

But what's worse is if they need to hear that and somebody is too weak to tell them what they need to hear as opposed to what they want to hear. Because guess what? If that cancer patient didn't get treatment, that cancer patient is going to die. You say, well, Kevin, they're going to die anyway. Not necessarily. Right. Some people go into remission. Other people, they at least have longer to live.

so that they can shore up things with their family so they can spend and have another couple of vacations or whatever they want to do. But if that doctor came in and just lied to that patient and said, you know, you have nothing to worry about, just go home, relax. I'll see you next year for your next visit. Right. By the time that they saw that person the next time that person is going to be in dire shape or could be dead. So why in the world would the doctor do that?

Kevin Wilson (26:49.254)
Why?

Kevin Wilson (26:54.718)
Most are still compelled by the idea of a person capable of unconditional love for others, despite their differences. Here's the thing. Jesus loves us enough to not want us to stay in the place that we're in.

Right. It's fine. Yes. He loves the LGBTQ community. He loves the, the adulterer. He loves the person who's addicted to, to crack cocaine or porn or what you name it. The vices that, that some of us have had to deal with. Right. We all, none of us are perfect. We all had our vices and does Jesus love us? Yes. He proved that by dying on the cross before we were even, before we were even born, he died for us.

Right? So, so, so we don't, you know, I don't need to convince you. Look at the cross. That will convince you enough of God's unconditional love. I'll read on. But many of us simply cannot reconcile the idea of that person with the way our culture experiences religion today. Interesting. Whether it's

hypocrisy and discrimination in the church or scandals, both real and perceived among religious leaders or the polarization of our politics. Many have regulated Jesus, relegated, excuse me, Jesus from the world's greatest love story to just another tactic used to intensify our deep cultural divisions. How did we get here?

they go on to say. And what might we learn from the example of Jesus to help move beyond the animosity we feel for one another? How can we rediscover the life and teachings of Jesus, the world's most radical love activist? Oh boy.

Kevin Wilson (29:04.35)
This is the problem with this is it's incomplete.

It's incomplete. Are they right that Jesus was love and he had radical love? Absolutely. He did. Are they right that Jesus had unconditional love? Yes. Jesus has unconditional love. The issue is that it's incomplete. Like I, I, I don't know the other to say that this is an incomplete message and I'm going to.

we're going to talk about how this is an incomplete message here in a second. Okay. All right.

Um...

Kevin Wilson (29:47.294)
They say, they go on to say, this is our agenda. And he gets us to move beyond the mess, the mess of our current culture, cultural movement to a place where all of us are invited to rediscover the love story of Jesus. Right? Like guys, it's love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love wins, love wins, love wins, but.

What are you pouring into the meaning of the word love? Because if you're pouring into the meaning of the word love, that I don't tell you the truth, right? That you're getting ready to jump off a cliff, that your car is getting ready to go on the wrong side of the freeway, right? That you're getting ready to run out in front of a bunch of cars. Love. But love, a lot of times for our progressive culture is saying, you know what? You know what? Just you do you boo.

Do you if that's your truth you just live your truth?

Kevin Wilson (30:53.63)
Folks, that's just not Biblical. We can't bring Jesus along for our own theology, for what we've set up and we've propped up as what we think Jesus is.

And actually not what we think he is, what we want him to be. It doesn't work that way. I don't care how many word salads you put together. All right. OK, moving on. We're almost done with this part. They say to move beyond the mess of our current cultural moment to a place where all of us are invited to rediscover the love story of Jesus, Christians, non -Christians.

and everybody in between all of us. Okay. Sorry. I know I'm reading it weird, but it just, this is the, this is that mentality is, Oh, let's just all come together and hold hands and sing kumbaya and you're okay. And I'm okay. Like that's not real life. Right. Everybody can't be right. Right. J Jesus didn't just.

I would argue that even when Jesus said things that hurt, it was love. And we know that. We know that. Okay. So here are the things, here are the things that I want to bring to your attention really quick. Okay. So one of the things that this, and, and, and like I said in the beginning, this is a gross rep, a misrepresentation of who Jesus is.

just a gross misrepresentation, period. Okay. Now, the first thing that I think that they try in these ads is they try to make Jesus palatable, right? It's like, oh, you know, Jesus has been so misrepresented and Jesus has been so, you know, there's so much hate associated with Jesus. There's so much discrimination.

Kevin Wilson (33:06.288)
associated with you. There's so much insensitivity. There's so, you know, you know, people are just so against, you know, other people and diversity and, and identity and all, like they try to make Jesus palatable. Right. Here's the thing. And I will level with you has the church at times through our history, misrepresented Jesus. Absolutely.

Right? We go, we have one extreme to the other. One extreme is firing brimstone. Everyone's going to hell. You can't look like the world, smell like the world, act like the world, this like the world, that like the world. Everything's the world. You know, stay in your little bubble. Don't go out. Don't, don't, don't, you know, thanks for letting us out, Paul. You know, we're going to stay in our bubble. We're not going to, you know, uh, go out into the world because the world's going to contaminate us.

And let's just be in our country club churches and you know, yes, that's ridiculous. And long ago we have realized that there are, there are some, some parts in the church that have went overboard, overboard trying to be quote, holy, trying to be quote righteous. And it's almost as if you can't even.

look at the world or you can't even do anything or associate yourself at all with unbelievers because somehow that's, it's catchy and it's going to, no, that's not how God called us to be. But I think we've spent a lot of years correcting that. And I would argue we've over corrected to the point of there is no justice with God. There's no wrath.

There is no truth. There is no righteousness. There is no holiness. It's just love.

Kevin Wilson (35:02.302)
Right? Like, it's just love.

Right? You know, how much does my kid love me when I say, you know what? You're too young to be with this boy alone. Right. Or, or with this girl alone or you, you, you, my, my, when my kids were very, very little, well, you can't play in the street. Don't play in the street. You, you play in the street. You're going to get hit by a car. But mommy, but daddy, but I want to, it doesn't matter what you want to do. Right. I know what's best for you. So I'm asking you to come in and play behind this fence.

where you can be safe in the yard. Okay. It doesn't matter what you want. It matters what the truth is. Well, it's the same way when you become an adult, you just don't get to do whatever you want and think that everything you do just because you think it's right, it's right. There is no way that we can make Jesus look more palatable. He doesn't need help. Read the scriptures. Read the scriptures.

Jesus, and we'll talk about this in a second, is full of grace and truth. He's full of love, but he's also holy. He's not going to just accept anything. That's not how that works. All right. And I level with you that the church has missed it when it comes to the LGBTQ community. We've missed it.

For years, we missed it. We've acted like it's catchy. We've acted like, oh, well, you know, we, you know, who are, we looked at people that are in the LGBTQ community like they're exhibits. That should never be. We should be accepting these people in our church. We should be loving on these people. We should be having them over for dinner. We should be exposing them to the truth of the gospel.

Kevin Wilson (37:04.094)
We shouldn't be ostracizing them. We shouldn't be calling them out of their name. We shouldn't be using derogatory slangs to describe them. We shouldn't put the fact that they're LGBTQ over their salvation. People don't go to hell because they're LGBTQ. They go to hell because they have no relationship with Jesus Christ and they are not living a life.

that God wants them to live because they're not saved. So we've tried to skin the fish before we caught the fish.

So yes, have we, have we grossly in ways misrepresented Jesus? Yes. Because we've basically, there are some sex of the Christian, of Christianity is basically looked at a homosexual person and said, Hey, you're gay. You're going to hell. No, you're going to hell because you don't have Christ in your life. Once you get Christ in your life, you're going to understand the new identity that you take on and you're going to understand that homosexuality is not an identity. It's a behavior.

Kevin Wilson (38:20.382)
See, there's more to it than a 60 second commercial about love.

Kevin Wilson (38:29.084)
All right.

Kevin Wilson (38:33.054)
The second thing, and I'm not going to get too far into this because I'm not getting into politics, but it makes false claims about Jesus life. It, you know, I think it was the last I think it was the last Super Bowl. It talked about Jesus being an immigrant. Jesus is not an immigrant. Jesus is not a refugee. Stop. Oh, number three of things that I just.

took from this. It tries to make Jesus like us.

He gets us. He understands. He's right down there with us. Jesus is not us. He never has been and he never will be. He's God.

There's a big difference.

I don't care how much you try to get Jesus down to our level as humans. He will never get down to that level. Cause do you know when he was walking the earth as a human, even when he was walking the earth, the Bible says he was tempted in all points as we are, but yet without sin, he was a sinless man. There is no human on the planet that has ever lived.

Kevin Wilson (40:05.406)
who has been sinless like Jesus. No one. Okay?

every area that jesus walked into a sin situation jesus acknowledged the sin situation and there were times that other people wanted to condemn right remember the woman who was caught in the act of adultery and jesus said hey the first person who who hasn't sinned first to cast or

cast the first stone. Remember that? And all of them started walking away. And he looks at the woman and he says, who are your accusers? And she says, I don't see any. He goes, neither do I condemn you. But the next words out of his mouth.

Kevin Wilson (41:06.558)
drops the mic on He Gets Us. You know what he said to the lady? Go and sin no more. Jesus was full of grace and truth. Yes, Jesus said, hey, look, I'm not going to condemn you either. I get that you're a sinner. I get that you're in need of grace. But, but the only way.

that your sins can be forever forgiven?

is listen, you need to go and don't do that stuff anymore. Right? Don't, don't do that. Live in your new identity. Live in the place where, and at that particular time, Jesus was still on earth. So they didn't understand the Holy spirit and all of that, but all of that stuff was coming. Right. But Jesus said, go and sin no more. He didn't just say, Hey, I love you. Oh, I don't condemn you and just let her go on her way.

Right. And that's, but, but see, that's what the, he gets us ad did. It's like, they stopped the message of Jesus at why don't condemn you imagine how that would have turned scripture on its head because we were like, wait a minute, Jesus himself. I mean, red letters. Jesus tells this woman that is literally caught in the middle of adultery. She's caught in the middle of adultery.

And all of these people are around and they were going hey this woman look Jesus come over here. She's actually caught in the act ye right. She's actually caught in the act of adultery and they thought for sure Jesus was going to just you know lay the hammer down on him on her.

Kevin Wilson (42:51.806)
But he didn't.

He said, neither do I condemn you, but see, if that was a commercial, that's where he gets us would have cut it off.

Kevin Wilson (43:06.814)
Let's give Jesus commercial about 30 more seconds and it changes the whole story. Go and sin no more.

Kevin Wilson (43:22.686)
The other takeaway that I got from this is was there some truth there? Well, really, the only truth that I saw in that commercial was the fact that that they even just said anything about Jesus. OK, right. Because we know that Jesus is real. We know that Jesus lived. We know that Jesus, you know, was on this earth and he did some of the things that they're saying that he did in his commercials. Here's the problem.

Yes, that stuff is true, but it was mixed with poison. And I've said this many times on this show. I can have a wonderful, cool, crisp glass of apple juice. And if that apple juice has just a little cyanide in it, it's still going to kill me. It doesn't matter how good it tastes. It doesn't matter how good it looks. It doesn't matter how much

apple juice I have in there, that cyanide is enough to kill me.

Kevin Wilson (44:29.598)
And that's the problem with the, he gets us ad. There are some, some minute less than 1 % of truth in those ads. And people go, but, but Kevin, but Jesus was, you know, at least Jesus was mentioned G like, like, aren't you happy that Jesus was mentioned? No, I'm not happy when Jesus is misrepresented and the wrong, the false Jesus.

Is the one that a hundred and twenty three point four million people see no i'm not happy about that at all because if there's one person you can't misrepresent It's jesus you if there's one thing that you should never do is lie to people or Insinuate that jesus is a different person than who he actually is because then g people will start

following a false Jesus.

Kevin Wilson (45:31.774)
Right?

Kevin Wilson (45:37.886)
Another thing it did is it insinuated that Jesus condones what the Bible calls sin because it wasn't balanced. It was incomplete.

Kevin Wilson (45:59.678)
And the last thing is it just simply misrepresents Jesus. Right? Right? The act of washing feet doesn't mean that Jesus condoned their sin. And I put down here so much better than that. So much better than that. Jesus was more concerned about washing their soul than he was their feet.

Right? The disciples got, listen, there were times, all right, come on. He gets us. All right. If any of you are listening to this show right now, let's, let's, let's open the Bible. Let, let's really talk about Jesus and him watching the disciples feet, because that was just one snapshot of something that he did in a whole three and a half year ministry or so that.

that he was around and he was ministering. And when there were times that he ministered around the disciples, there was a moment in the Bible where they said, oh, when he starts saying, you need to eat my flesh and drink my blood, they go, this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? Basically saying, Jesus, this is too much. I can't, we can't take this. What about that?

Right? It wasn't all about love.

Kevin Wilson (47:37.766)
Incomplete, incomplete, incomplete. I want to read you a portion of scripture. And one of the reasons why I want to read you this portion of scripture is because I think it's really important that you understand where Jesus was coming from. When he was on earth, who truly was?

Jesus, right? Was he this person that is being represented in this commercial? Let's look at what Jesus actually says in our closing moments here. In Matthew,

chapter 10. So this is Matthew chapter 10. I'm gonna start at verse 29. Okay, and I want you to hear what Jesus, what Jesus actually said. Okay, all right. Starting at verse 29. He says, are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your father. And even the very

hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows. So Jesus is just talking about at this, in this particular moment, he's talking about how valuable we are as people, right? There's that love, there's that grace, there's that, that, uh,

You know that, that mercy, there's that compassion there. Like all of that's wrapped up. He goes, look, there's not even a sparrow that falls to the ground without me knowing. I know exactly what's going on. I'm here. I'm overseeing everything. I'm, I'm taking care of you. And even when bad stuff happens, I know about it. Right. And nothing is going to go unanswered.

Kevin Wilson (49:42.91)
He says, even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Sounds like he really knows us. Sounds like he's really compassionate. Sounds like he really cares. So do not be afraid. He says, you are worth more than many sparrows. Okay. Now verse 32, therefore everyone who confesses me before men, I will also confess him.

before my Father in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my Father in heaven." So Jesus is basically saying here, if you confess me, right? If you promote me, if you validate, not validate, that's probably the...

bad word because you don't have, I mean, whether you validate Jesus or not, it doesn't matter. But if you confess me, if you promote me before men, I'm going to mention your name before my father. And I'm going to confess you before my father, which is in heaven. But if you deny me, if you say that I'm not who I really am, if you misrepresent me like the he gets us campaign does, and if you.

teach a false Jesus and you spin a narrative about Jesus that's not true just so that you can quote bring everyone together. Yeah, I'm also going to deny you before my father in heaven. That's Jesus. Jesus said that Kevin didn't say that right.

You might be, you might w you might be driving down the street or jogging or doing whatever you're doing. Listen, this podcast, you might say, well, but Kevin, that's not, I don't like that.

Kevin Wilson (51:37.406)
Yeah, bring it up with Jesus. That's what HE said.

Verse 34, this is the key one right here. Okay? Because remember, he gets us talking about, oh, we just want to bring everybody together. And Jesus has been associated with all of the bad things. And he's been associated with all of the hate and all of these other things and hypocritical people and stuff that's tearing us apart and dehumanizing and...

You know all of these things right i'm just reading i'm looking at some of the things that they they said in this Using some of the words that they use right dehumanizing All right club, you know selfish All of these things right

Listen to what Jesus says in verse 34, Matthew 10, do not assume that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword for I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter in law against her mother in law. A man's enemies will be the members of his own.

household, there are going to be things that you're going to say, there's going to be stances that you're going to take that you know what, your own child might turn against you. Your own husband or your own wife or your own, you know, he says literally in verse 36, a man's enemies will be members of his own household. This stuff may happen because you're standing for truth. Now, it doesn't mean now again,

Kevin Wilson (53:31.742)
Let's go back to what I said a little bit earlier. It doesn't mean that we don't love people. It doesn't mean that we don't do the things that we're supposed to do. Right? Because we should love people. Well, we should do what we were supposed to do. We should read, um, you know, make dinner for people. Right? We don't ostracize people and say, well, you're LGBTQ community. I don't want you around my children. I don't want you in my house. I don't want you like that. That folks, that is dehumanizing. They are humans.

We can't treat them like some exhibit.

That is what I'm talking about, right? Those are the type of things that we shouldn't be doing. But here's the problem. We can do all the nice stuff. We can make them, we can make dinner for them. We can, we can, you know, hang out. We can go to the movies. We can do whatever, but you know what? That will not stop the division of people who don't want Christ because guess what's going to happen? You can be nice. You can do that. But the moment you start.

speaking the truth, people get angry. But I say that we should continue to speak truth but do it in love, do it with grace and with truth. Notice what he says here again, verse 36, a man's enemies will be the members of his own household. Verse 37, anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

I literally can't get any more plain than that. And these are not my words. These are Jesus words. Anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Kevin Wilson (55:19.966)
Yikes. And anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. You know what your cross is? Your cross is your identity. Your cross are things that you think are right. That aren't right. And you have to lay that down and say, God, I bow my knee to your truth, not my truth, your truth.

So sometimes you might think and your emotions and your heart and your mind and your circumstances and other people may say one thing about you and those things may not be true. Right? You may be a man listening to me and you say, I just feel like a woman though. I really feel like a woman and my heart goes out to you because I don't know how that feels. And I'm not going to try to, to, to,

to act like I know how that feels. I don't know what that feels like. Gender dysphoria, I don't know what that feels like because I'm a man and I've never wanted to be a woman. But let me tell you, there's other things that I have a proclivity towards. There are other things that I've had to lay down for the cause of Christ and it wasn't easy.

Right? It wasn't easy, but I had to lay it down and I didn't take on those things as identities. And if the things that I did maybe take on as identities, I had to lay those down at the foot of the cross and take up my cross and follow Jesus.

And so, so brother that's listening to me, sister that's listening to me, man, woman, boy, girl, whoever you are, the call of Christ is for you to crucify your flesh, crucify and lay down the things that you think are right. He gets us campaign, lay down the identities, lay down all of the drama.

Kevin Wilson (57:28.446)
Lay down the, the, oh, Jesus is not palatable enough. Lay that stuff down. Take up your cross and follow Jesus. Not everyone's going to like you. Not everyone's going to agree with you. Not everyone's going to sit around the tree and sing Kumbaya. Not everyone's going to, going to want to be a part of your friend group. Not everyone's going to, and that's okay. Jesus, even as much love as Jesus.

Displayed when he was here on earth. There were still people who hated him his own Pharisees the people who claimed that they knew who God was and they claimed to be They claimed to be religious. It was his own people who crucified him Jesus literally said if they hated me, they're gonna hate you

Kevin Wilson (58:27.998)
Thurst verse 37 again, anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life,

will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Think about this. Verse 39, whoever finds his life. So if you're out there, you're trying to find yourself, right? You're trying to find, well, I just want to be the best version of me that I can be. No, you need to be the best version of who God's called you to be, not who you think. Well, I got to go out there and find myself.

Honey, if you go out there and find yourself, you're not going to find the right thing. You need to find Jesus. He will help you to find your true identity. And then you live through that. That's the identity that you live through.

Kevin Wilson (59:37.95)
There's a lot of people out there finding themselves. And the funny thing is when they quote, find themselves, it looks nothing like the scriptures. It looks nothing like the plan of God for their lives. It doesn't look anything like the way God designed them. That's why he says, whoever finds his life, you think you found your life. You're going to lose it.

But he says, whoever loses his life loses the, your identity loses what you think you should be loses what your plans and your per what you think your purposes are. If you lose that for Jesus and say, Jesus, I surrender my plans, my identity, my everything, who I am, what I am, who I wish to be, whatever my aspirations are. If I would, if, if you just surrender that to Jesus.

Guess what? You're gonna find your life.

Kevin Wilson (01:00:44.254)
You are listening to a man right now who thought he knew his identity, who thought he knew what his life was supposed to be, who had preparations and plans to do something totally different than the things that I'm doing today. I never dreamed in a million years, I'd be doing what I'm doing right now.

Kevin Wilson (01:01:06.43)
I am so much more fulfilled doing what I'm doing right now than I would have ever been doing the things that I had planned for myself. But I wouldn't have known the joy that I have right now doing what I'm doing unless I lost my life, unless I lost the identity that I thought I had, less. I, I lost the plans and the things that I thought were great.

You'd have never told me I would have been a preacher. You would have never told me I've been a worship leader. You would have never told me I would have been on this mic. Right? It just wouldn't have. No, that wasn't my plan.

Right? My plan was to be very wealthy, a very wealthy music producer. I was also, I had also planned to be a clothing designer and all, all kinds of stuff I had planned to do. And it doesn't mean that those things are wrong in and of themselves, but for me and my life, that's not what God called me to do. He says, yup.

That, you know what, that could have been a way that I went, but that's not what he wanted me to do. So I'm doing what he's called me to do. And I feel way more fulfilled. I feel way more happy. I feel way more. And even if I didn't, I bow my knee to Jesus.

Kevin Wilson (01:02:32.958)
Whoever finds his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

What would you say if you had 60 minutes?

Kevin Wilson (01:02:50.398)
not 60 minutes. See? If we all had 60 minutes to share the gospel, we could share a pretty complete gospel, couldn't we? Right?

Kevin Wilson (01:03:06.686)
But the he gets us ad didn't have 60 minutes. They had 60 seconds and they paid a high price for it.

If you had 60 seconds to share the gospel, what would you say? How would you fit in?

Kevin Wilson (01:03:30.014)
message of Jesus and actually get the right message across. How would you do that in 60 seconds? I want you guys to send me just send it to the to the uh our show line 248 301 2010 send me

how you would take that same 60 seconds that he gets us dead.

and how you would share the gospel in the appropriate way. I would love to read those and I'd love to even read them on the air if I get enough of them. I'd love to do that. God bless you. I love you. We will see you next time.