The Don’t Knock It Podcast

For the ninth episode of Season 4 titled "The Hard Sayings of Jesus,” I am joined by my brother in Christ, Matthew Merricks, to help us unpack our ninth hard saying of Jesus: You must hate your family to follow Me.

In this episode, we share how God used us to minister to one another within the game of baseball and mentorship. We praise God for allowing us to meet, and reminisce on the lessons we both learned from each other, and taught each other. So with both of us being family men now, does Jesus really command us to hate those we claim to love the most in order to be His disciples? Tune in to Episode 33 to gain insight on how we reconcile this command with the character of God!

Questions covered:

Is hatred of our families really a prerequisite to loving Jesus?

How do we reconcile this idea of a good, loving God, and this command to “hate”?

What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?

When we make Jesus a priority as His disciples, in what ways do our families benefit from that?

For the eighth episode of Season 4 titled "The Hard Sayings of Jesus,” I am joined by my brother in Christ, Adam Terrazas, to help us unpack our eighth hard saying of Jesus: sell all of your possessions.

In this episode, we reminisce on the sovereign hand of God in how we met, and how that interaction came at such an opportune time in Adam’s life. Tune in to Episode 32 to gain insight on how the same words that drove a rich, young ruler AWAY from Jesus, drew my friend Adam TOWARDS Jesus.

Questions covered:

Why does Jesus tell the rich, young ruler to sell all of his possessions?

How does this passage relate to your recent life experiences?

How does this command from Jesus relate to our constant need of surrendering to Him?

For the seventh episode of Season 4 titled "The Hard Sayings of Jesus,” I am once again joined by my brother in Christ, Joshua Camper, to help us unpack our seventh hard saying of Jesus: fear Him who destroys body & soul in hell.

In this episode, we tackle two of the most difficult doctrines in the Christian faith: the fear of the Lord and hell. I knew that once I asked Joshua to address this particular hard saying, he would knock it out of the park and indeed he did by the grace of God! Tune in to Episode 31 to understand what Jesus meant when He spoke of the fear of God by mentioning His ability to destroy body AND soul in hell.

Questions covered:

What does the Bible mean when it tells us to fear the Lord?

What are some common rejections that you’ve heard to the biblical concept of hell?

Is hell really the “absence” of God as many describe?

How do we reconcile this idea of a good, loving God, and a place where people go to suffer for eternity?

How does the fear of God extinguish all our fears of men?

For the sixth episode of Season 4 titled "The Hard Sayings of Jesus", I am joined by a wonderful friend and fellow brother in the family of God, Andres Estrella, to help us unpack our sixth hard saying of Jesus: let the dead bury their own dead.

The grief that someone experiences through the process of arranging funeral services is inexplicably enormous. With that being said, why would the loving Son of God have the audacity to say something so bold to someone who was in the grieving process? How could He have come off so rude? Tune in to Episode 30 to understand what Jesus meant and how it should empower us to live out our unrivaled allegiance to Him through keeping the Kingdom of God as our highest priority.

Questions covered: 

What is your faith background (tell us a little bit about your testimony)?

What does Jesus mean when He says “let the dead bury their dead?” Why does that matter considering what He tells him to do instead? How can we be “fit” for the kingdom of God?

Now that we're halfway through Season 4, I thought it would be the perfect time to introduce two new features that I'll be incorporating into the podcast: video and Spotify subscriptions! As you can tell from this episode (if you listen to podcasts on Spotify), there is now video available! In addition to the new video format, there is now a way you can contribute to the podcast's growth by subscribing to get exclusive access to particular episodes with the "lock" symbol. Tune in to this episode to find out how you can support us! Grace and peace family!

For the fifth episode of Season 4 titled "The Hard Sayings of Jesus", I am joined by a faithful brother, Vincent Serrano to help us unpack our fifth hard saying of Jesus: he is guilty of an eternal sin.  If you grew up Christian or around Christians, you have heard (hopefully) of the surpassing love of Jesus and His eternal forgiveness of sins. It is one of the foundational truths of the Christian faith. 

But did you know, Jesus Himself says that there is one UNFORGIVABLE sin? How could this be? 

Tune in to Episode 29 to understand what Jesus meant and how it should empower us to pursue holiness in both our speech and actions! 

Questions covered: 

How long have you been a believer? 

Tell us a little bit about your ministry? 

Who is the person of the Holy Spirit? 

What did Jesus mean when He taught us about the unforgivable sin? 

What does the context of this passage reveal about “blaspheming against the Holy Spirit?” 

Are we as believers at risk of committing this sin? Should we walk around afraid and paranoid, or are we in the clear?

What about deliverance ministries?

For the fourth episode of Season 4 titled "The Hard Sayings of Jesus", I am joined by my good friend Tommy Pinneri to help us unpack our fourth hard saying of Jesus: pluck out your eye, and cut off your hand. 

So many things keep us from being/doing exactly what God has called us to be/do. Oftentimes that’s the case because we refuse to do away with our sins and what causes us to sin. Yet with Jesus’ hyperbolic statement in Matthew 5:29-30, He emphasizes the threat of remaining in your sin and refusing to acknowledge how easily we can be entangled in the enemy’s schemes.

Questions covered:

Who is Tommy Pinneri?

How long have you been a follower of Jesus?

Referring to the text at hand, what does Jesus mean by this? Is He really telling His listeners to do away with the pieces of our bodies that we sin with?

How can we as believers be prayerful and vigilant to recognize what will/does cause us to sin?

For the third episode of Season 4 titled "The Hard Sayings of Jesus", some of my dearest friends (Dario, Livya, and Sarah) join the podcast to help us unpack our third hard saying of Jesus: I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 

But doesn’t this seem like a contraction? Isn’t Jesus the “Prince of Peace?” Didn’t He say “blessed are the peacemakers?” Why would Jesus promote division within a family? All of these questions and more are answered here, so tune in to see how my friends and I have come to understand this passage. 

Questions Covered: 

If I were to ask you the question, “what did Jesus come to do?” What would you say? 

What did Jesus mean by this? 

If these are marching orders to the apostles, how can they possibly apply to me? 

What were the Jews expecting the Messiah would do?

For the second episode of Season 4 titled "The Hard Sayings of Jesus", my brother in Christ and pastor, Dave Johnston, joins the podcast to help us unpack our second hard saying of Jesus: eat My flesh & drink my blood. Was Jesus really commanding us to eat His body and drink His blood? If not, why did some of His disciples walk away after He said it? (John 6:66). This saying is difficult to accept because it seems quite literal, so tune in to see how my brother Dave helps us embrace it and not run from it. 

Questions Covered: who is Dave Johnston? From a plain reading of the text, what did Jesus mean by this? What can we conclude, especially as we consider the whole context of John 6, what can we conclude Jesus meant? Have there ever been, or are there any faith systems right now, who do take this literally? So because this is a command from the Lord Jesus Himself, what would it look like for us as believers, to put this into practice today? How important is the Lord’s Supper in the lives of believers?

For the first episode of Season 4 titled "The Hard Sayings of Jesus", my brother in Christ, Joshua Camper, joins the podcast to help us unpack our first hard saying: depart from Me, I never knew you.

Many of us have heard these words preached to evoke fear in us to obey…but was its only purpose to frighten believers? To scare us into obeying a God we never come to truly know? This is one of the most well-known, hard sayings of Jesus and I'm thankful for my friend Joshua and the wisdom & insight he brought to this conversation.