Go M.A.D.
Go M.A.D. means "Go make a difference". Together we discover how we can make the greatest possible impact through Jesus for the people in your world. Whether in conversations, on social media, at home or at work, you can be that M.A.D. person starting today! We'd love to connect with you on social media as well!Connect with us on social media and / or email:Twitter - @GoMADPodcastFacebook - facebook.com/gomadshowInstagram - @gomadshowYouTube - @gomadshowEmail - gomadshow@hutchcraft.comOr find out more about us on our website: gomadpodcast.com
Go M.A.D.
The Israel Impact: What Does It Mean for Us? (With Ron Hutchcraft)
Go M.A.D. Season 3 is underway! We are so excited about this season and can’t wait to share what’s in store. For now, Doug and Brad are joined in the studio by master of puns and fellow Hutchcraft, Ron Hutchcraft. In today’s episode, the guys turn their attention to the place the whole world is watching: Israel. What is going on and what is God doing in all this? No politics, no future predictions, just some clear steps forward for the ambassador for Christ wondering, what does this all mean for me?
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Thank you for listening and Go M.A.D. today!
Go Mad, season 3 is underway. We are so excited about the season and can't wait to share what's in store for you. For now, Doug and Brad are joined in the studio by Master of Puns and fellow Hutchcraft, Ron Hutchcraft. In today's episode, the guys turn their attention to the place. The whole world is watching Israel. What is going on? What is God doing in all this? No politics, no future predictions, just some clear steps forward for the ambassador for Christ, wondering what does all this mean for me? Stay tuned and let's go Mad.
Speaker 2:Welcome everyone to season 3 of Go Mad with Doug and.
Speaker 3:Brad, season 33,. I cannot believe. No, not 33.
Speaker 2:What it may feel like that, no, it is season 3.
Speaker 3:Season 3. Still, that's pretty hard to believe. This is awesome.
Speaker 2:You know we want to thank everyone for just tuning in the first couple of seasons the feedback we've gotten. It's been so encouraging and we are really excited. We're going to talk about season 3 in just a minute, but if you're one of them where we're starting, I can tell you it's not where we thought we were going to start. This is not the episode that we had talked about doing, but the reality is when you turn on the news, you can't help but see Israel. You can't help but see the Middle East right now. So today we're going to have a conversation about Israel, but much more than that, just about what's going on over there right now. And no matter who you are, you'll want to stay tuned in. We're not diving into political commentary, but we are going to talk about some very practical application steps we can take in our own lives right now in light of what we are seeing unfold on the world stage. So that's where we're heading today.
Speaker 3:Now, before we jump into that, we're going to talk a little bit about how excited we are about season 3 here. We have got an unexpected special guest with us today.
Speaker 2:We do. We do To kick off season 3 and we'll be talking about it.
Speaker 3:He's looking around the studio trying to figure out who it is. It's you, Ron, you Dad.
Speaker 2:Ron Hutchcraft, who happens to be our father.
Speaker 3:I'm so glad Dad is with us. I don't know anybody that I trust more when it comes to biblical issues. Man, I wonder what's happening with the left behind series right now on Amazon. It's got to be going number one again, I always love the names in those Like the names were like super heroic names, like comic book names, like Joseph Long Shoulder, like that. I don't know if that one was. I think one guy was Nicholas.
Speaker 2:And the bad? Yeah, no on, the bad folks had bad names.
Speaker 1:You knew, you knew where the lines were drawn when they introduced the person like I know who that is.
Speaker 2:But I have to tell you, one of the things we really do appreciate about the podcast and having this forum is this year we're going to talk about a lot of things. In fact, in the next episode we're going to be talking about some of the fears that parents have a failure and things like that.
Speaker 2:But right now we're also able to talk about current events and what we said. If you saw our kind of teaser on social media, we're going to be talking about the things that God cares about. God cares about Israel, he cares about the situation in the Middle East, and so we just had to say, hey, that's what we're going to dive into today.
Speaker 4:I have a current event right now that I just got noticed the powers out of my house. Yeah, that's not a good current event.
Speaker 3:That's not current events. No, was upon, current, that was upon, oh right. Current events, that's right.
Speaker 2:Take a moment process that listeners, and then we just lost 10. We never have that special guest.
Speaker 4:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 3:Dad, tell us, tell us what you're seeing on the news. What do you feel when you're, when you're seeing all this, all the carnage and all of the stuff that's going on?
Speaker 4:Well, somebody is saying, you know Israel. I mean, okay, that's bad and it's all over the news. But so what does that have to do with me?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's the big question for believers. I had to pay my bills, raise my kids pass an exam.
Speaker 4:So what does that have to do with me? And there's, I think. To put it in context, just real quickly, you got to realize that God has, for his own purposes, put the Jewish people in Israel kind of like right in a very center of a lot of his plans, including his plans in the countdown to the final days of human history. Right, and there's some stuff that he said was going to go on. There's a lot of prophecy in the Bible and nothing that that already has occurred in the world. The prophecies were never wrong. There has not been one single thing God prophesied that now is a part of history that he was wrong about, even though it was prophesied a thousand five hundred years in advance. So it's the only predictions that are about a thousand. And so God said that he did choose people of a people group to be the people through whom he would send his laws and Commandments right and through whom he would send his Messiah Jesus right, and through whom he hoped to have, you know, somebody that would represent him on earth. Now, like all of us, you know, do good job, sometimes not such a good job sometimes. He also promised them a land, and that land, hello, is Israel. So there has been a God idea that there was, that his People would have a land that would be theirs.
Speaker 4:However, for 2000 years they weren't there. They were scattered all over the world. You know when, when the tent, their temple, was destroyed, you know the Roman Empire and so on, and so they haven't had no home. So when they say I'm gonna go home, there's no home. It's like you have no house, you know, and for 2000 years it arguably they've been the most persecuted people on earth. I mean it. I mean it goes back, you know, all those 2000 years.
Speaker 4:Everybody comes, seems to come after the Jews. We know the awful, horrific, unspeakable things that happened during the world war two. Finally, the world said you know what? They're the only people that don't have a place to go back to. They need a land. Wait, they have a land. Historically, you know they. And that's where, in 1948, the United Nations said hey, you can have a home. Now You're gonna have a house to go home to. And they've been coming home ever since. The Bible's full of predictions and God said there's gonna come a day when I'm gonna gather you from all over the world and bring, bring my people back together Because they're gonna have a home to go to. That place is the land of Israel. Of course, the Palestinian folks were, were there. It wasn't just. It wasn't just desert sitting there, and so that's where the tensions have come in and have gone on for a long time. I do know this God loves Palestinians and God loves Jews.
Speaker 4:That's right, and Jesus died for him and for Jews, and Jesus died for Palestinians and all the people involved. He loves so, but with the events going on there, maybe telling me and telling you that it might be the fourth quarter and you play different than the fourth quarter.
Speaker 3:It's almost impossible to watch the news right now, especially as a believer, and not be thinking whether we're watching Bible prophecy Unfold right in front of us. I mean, people have thought it was time for a long time. Mm-hmm. You were telling me yesterday, dad, when, when it well Share with everybody where you were telling us because people have been sure other times that oh, it is Prophecies coming will watch the skies, it's about to open up.
Speaker 4:Well, since I'm about 110 years old, you know I've got I can. Geologists just discovered the remains of my high school, but so I could go back a little bit. I've got a little perspective on this. So and this is crazy, I was so bored. I'm sorry, wait, nobody's listening. Are they are watching? Course now? I was so bored when my parents dragged me to Winston I pair meeting a church. I'm a teenager, so I go down in the basement and, and now it's. I read the World War two prophecy books. Hmm, they had it all figured out women, hitler's, the Antichrist and Mussolini, and Italy, there's the Roman Empire and there's and, and, and it's all figured out that Jesus is coming any minute during World War two. I'm sitting here years later.
Speaker 3:This is hilarious, but a few things were missing, weren't they? A few things were missing back. Oh yeah, a lot of things have happened since then big thing was missing.
Speaker 4:Yeah so many of the prophecies, like, for example, the Battle of Armageddon, a lot of people. They don't want it is, but they've heard of it. Yeah, it's a place. I I've been to the Plain of Megiddo where it's gonna be fought. It's in Israel, yeah, so here's the deal. There was no Israel, so it was something missing in the prophecies and a lot of the state of Israel.
Speaker 3:No official state of Israel right.
Speaker 4:There were Jewish people and, and the land was there, but it wasn't. You know, it was called Palestine at that time, right? So what? In 1948 was a very important year, I think, because now you've got the Jews back in their land, which kind of has to happen for a lot of the prophecies to happen right one other little thing is that a lot of the prophecies have a global dimension to them.
Speaker 4:It talks about people being able to see events happening all over the world. It talks about a Message spreading to every corner of the earth, and things like that the gospel message spreading.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and sin and sinful message, that's right garbage in the gospel kind of going across the planet right, that couldn't happen until now.
Speaker 4:Look at this. These are hi everybody.
Speaker 2:That's it.
Speaker 4:It's a technology that makes those prophecies possible, because a lot of them are global in their domain. So all that is to say, now I am not prepared. Today I was going to, and then I my lunch wasn't, didn't really agree with me, but I was going to name a date for Jesus to come back.
Speaker 2:Yeah right.
Speaker 3:No, I wasn't, but you know what, you and 92,000 guys and they've been laugh, They've been laughed away, you know and here's.
Speaker 4:Let's just say this, this I will say I Think the world today, looking at how the nations are arranged and what's going on even right now in Israel and and the Headlines day after day, I would say the world looks more like the kind of world Jesus said he would come back to then any time I know of in history. Does that say he's coming tomorrow? I don't know. I know this he's gonna come back to a world that looks more and more like ours.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what we're gonna spend. A lot of our time is on that fact that we are seeing more and more signs that Jesus is coming back soon and yet we're not naming days or even years or anything like that. We just know he's coming soon, based on world events. But a couple things that I do want to point out that you covered dead, that I think are really important to that stick out. Our first of all is we watch the news. As we watch these things unfold, remember to be praying for everybody.
Speaker 2:There are a lot of people who have lost their lives recently, who don't know Jesus and we need to be praying that hope will come into that situation On both sides of the issue. So we want to make that clear.
Speaker 2:the other thing that really it boils down to is, whatever your feelings are about the conflict and what's going on, and we know that there have been a lot of political decisions that have been made that are not humanitarian in how they're played out, and so we know that there's tensions, we know that there's been human factors in this, but the reality is Israel is important to God and it's important in his plan, and so are the people of Israel.
Speaker 4:There's the land of Israel, which is there's no doubt from the Bible the promised land. The Jews are God's chosen people. There's no doubt about that. Scripture all over the place. For that that does not mean that every decision that the political entity or the state of Israel makes are chosen by God or directed by God Absolutely Any more than our government or any other government. So. But the land and the people, those are pretty well fixed in God's plan.
Speaker 2:There seems to be a couple of things that play here that I just want to make sure our listeners caught that, as you were sharing. First of all, that there are people on both sides of this war that we need to be praying for because they need the hope of Jesus. That's right. So we're, without no matter what your views are, be praying for everyone in this situation. The other thing is that Israel has a place that's important to God as far as the future events that are to come. We know that Israel was important in the past and we know that Israel continues to have an important presence in prophecy going forward.
Speaker 3:You know, odds are, if you're listening to this podcast, or someone who is at least interested in Jesus, you probably love Jesus, you're a follower of his and you're going. Man, what does this mean exactly? I mean, does this mean Jesus is coming back soon? And if so, remember what Peter said. Well, how then shall we live? He said. Actually it was in 2 Peter 311. He says since everything will be destroyed in this way, talking about the end times, what kind of people ought we to be? So let's get into that a little bit. Look, jesus said there'd be wars, there'd be rumors of wars. There always have been, but something really intense is happening right now on this planet and people are taking up sides. Four things we know are true from God's Word when it comes down to prophecy, and it's these four things Jesus is coming, trouble is coming, judgment is coming and Jesus wins.
Speaker 3:Jesus said so what do we do with these signs? Well, it gets kind of simple. Two words be ready. First, john 2.28 says now, dear children, continue in him so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. So I like the way dad put this, I like the way Ron put this. He said you got two end time reactions oh boy or oh no.
Speaker 1:And it all depends.
Speaker 3:It all depends if you've been living for him or not?
Speaker 3:That's right. Matthew 24, 12 and 13,. Because of the increase of wickedness, jesus. The disciples asked Jesus. So how are we going to know when it's getting close? Well, he said, because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most he's talking about believers is going to grow cold. That's awful, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. So you got two big things happening here. As the days are winding down, you got believers who are kind of running into their homes and kind of huddling in and don't bother me and I won't bother you. The love, their love, is growing cold. They're not going out and making a difference for the kingdom for Jesus.
Speaker 3:But then you have others who are like man. If he's really coming back, it is time to tell my neighbor, my friend, my family member about him. I got to get serious about this. Two lists, two lists right the cold list and the bold list and two other lists, two other lists.
Speaker 4:I thought we were going to end up at the same place.
Speaker 3:We got lists.
Speaker 4:No, there's two lists in life the things that really matter and things that really don't. Our lists get mixed up and things that really don't matter end up on the things that really matter list, and vice versa Things that really matter slide over to okay.
Speaker 4:This helps us get that figured out. I was just going to say, when you say, man, when you look at the way the world is moving and what God said was going to happen as it's winding down, it's the countdown. I mean you play different in the fourth quarter than you do in the first quarter and there's a two-minute offense, for sure when there's a two-minute warning. I got a story. I got a story I got to tell you, Okay.
Speaker 4:So a friend of ours you knew her as a teenager, and Mandy is her boyfriend's coming for the weekend. He lives a couple states away, so she's like time to clean my room because I can't find the floor. And so she is, and it's really hot, it's summer, and so she's in her room and all bedraggled, you know, obviously in her grubbies, and so she's got everything. You know how you gotta mess things up before you clean them up. So it's in its disaster. Suddenly the phone rings and, and, and you know what it her Tim called. Her boyfriend called Yay. He just said I'm looking forward to seeing you. See, ya, love you, Bye. And she's like, oh, it'd be nice to see him tomorrow. Suddenly there's a knock at her door. It's Tim. He was downstairs when he made the call he surprised her, hi Surprise.
Speaker 4:And she is there hair all matted, stinky dirt, you know, and she's like this is so embarrassing, she was so ashamed. Well, I thought she wasn't ready for his coming any time, and that's exactly what you just read Doug, ready or not, here he comes. And that verse you read in 1 John 2, 28, that people will either be confident when he comes hi, oh, yay, you're here. Or the oh no, I'm in a mess, I can't believe what I'm doing.
Speaker 4:When he came, I can't believe I did not clean up. I am not ready for him. Ashamed. You're either confident or ashamed when he comes, Boy, that's something to think about. And this all of a sudden, all this stuff going on in the world isn't some distant newscast, it's a mecast, because I'm in it all of a sudden.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wow, but I think it's so important to realize this. But I think one of the challenges that people really face today you hear people talk a lot about younger generation, that they, man, they don't care about stuff. Why isn't this important to them? Why don't you know different things that people kind of pigeonhole them with? And the reality is, do they see you caring about these things? Because it's easy to look at news where we're bombarded in a news cycle with wars and rumors of wars, as the Bible talks about, and sometimes it can just be another conflict we're hearing about. And I remember growing up, dad, where you said, man, you've gotta have the newspaper in one hand and the Bible in the other. Now I know most people aren't having a newspaper nowadays, but you've gotta have and you wouldn't wanna drive like that, so that is true, You've gotta have your phone in one hand.
Speaker 2:you've gotta be watching news one end and the Bible in the other, because it's for some.
Speaker 2:Honestly, it would be easy to say I see what's happening over there, but it's not happening here, and what bearing does that have on my life? That's what we're talking about today is when you see the world as God sees the world. God so loved the world. We're to be world-minded Christian. We're not to be world-minded in how we think and everything, but we're supposed to look at the world as Jesus looks at the world and say how am I supposed to make a difference there and how do these current events impact my life?
Speaker 2:So if you're wondering why that young person in your life is saying what's the big deal with Israel? What's the big deal over there? What about the other side and everything else they're struggling with trying to make sense of all of it, and if you look at things through God's word and if you look at how does this impact my life and the urgency I'm supposed to live with, then you can have them start caring more, not about an issue, not about a conflict. You can have them start caring more about the word of God and how they're supposed to live, because the Bible is filled with a glimpse of current events.
Speaker 3:You know, it really feels like you watched the news just for a minute and it feels like Revelation 12, 12, that says that the devil is full of fury, he's enraged. Because he knows his time is short, he reads the Bible.
Speaker 3:He reads the Bible and so he hates people, he hates God's creation, so he is going to try to do everything he can to get as much of that destroyed and desecrated. So then, what do we do if he's doing that? Well, I hope that we're saying if the enemy is getting all excited about doing the worst he can, are we getting all excited about getting off our couch and doing what we can to share the gospel? I hope that this is light in the fire under us. To go, man, if Jesus is coming back soon, every knee will bow, the Bible says, and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord. But at that point there's not an option anymore for the people you love.
Speaker 3:There's not an option anymore for your neighbor or your friend or your classmate. So tell them now.
Speaker 4:Jesus is here and I didn't tell them.
Speaker 2:Here's what guys. Taking us back here to 2016, may of 2016, when, doug, you and I lost our mom and dad. You lost your wife, over 50 years, the your help me, your partner, and all of a sudden, we're like looking at things a little differently because, yes, I had seen loss in my life. I had seen things unfold, but not like this.
Speaker 2:Where it was, mom was doing well and her health was doing well and everything else, and all of a sudden she was gone to eternity. And all of a sudden you look at things different, because we never know how much time we have left with those that we love. Now, so grateful mom, passionately love Jesus, but there are those in our lives that we don't know how much time we have left, even without the fact that, yes, jesus is coming back soon. We don't know what's gonna happen to these people around us tomorrow and the next day.
Speaker 2:He's coming for people, individuals, every day, there are hundreds of people, well, and there are hundreds of people, who are over a thousand now, a couple thousand on both sides of the conflict, that had no idea when their last day was coming so soon, and so we don't know that, and so the verse that's been hitting me is Proverbs 24-11,. Rescue those being led away to death. Hold back those staggering towards slaughter. When we're about rescue, we are passionate about that and we're not saying well, it can wait until tomorrow. That is something that we all should be living, because we know that time is short. We know the two-minute warning has sounded. We you look at that countdown clock, the what's it called the doomsday clock or whatever, and it keeps ticking down, closer and closer.
Speaker 4:Closer. They put it closer to midnight than ever.
Speaker 2:Everyone everyone sees that the end has come, that things are getting worse. God's people need to be the first ones on the line saying we see it and we've got an answer. And his name is Jesus.
Speaker 4:I got a question that might be good for us all to ask ourselves. If Jesus came today, what would my regrets be? What would I wish I had done? What would I wish I wasn't doing? How would I have done it differently? A good, a very good question, because even if Jesus doesn't come today, it's still the right question to be asking. And you know, honestly, if it's not gonna matter when he comes, if it's not gonna matter in heaven, why does it have to matter so much today? The things are gonna matter then are to be the things that matter now dad, you're describing Luke 12, 35 through 40.
Speaker 3:I believe it will be good for those servants Jesus Talking about when he comes back. It'll be good for those servants that are ready for him, that aren't living in constant sin, that are being obedient. You also must be ready because the son of man will come. Here we go, brad, what you just said, when you least expect it. Dad, you remember you took us to Washington DC when we were kids and you brought us to a place called the tomb of the unknown soldier.
Speaker 3:Yeah and one thing I really remember from. I remember a lot from it. I don't remember everything we were young but I remember one thing you telling me that the the soldier who would come up to the other soldier and relieve him one time when I was there.
Speaker 4:I actually heard this exchange. You heard them say this and you told I got up close that time.
Speaker 3:I, and this was amazing. What when? When the soldier comes up to the other soldier and he relieves him, he says orders remain on, changed.
Speaker 4:And really in the other, the Iran, coming on Says orders acknowledged and that exchange has been going on for something like 70 years, every half hour or hour, depending on what day of the week or what time of day that the orders remain unchanged.
Speaker 3:So isn't that us? I mean, what, what? Okay, so Things start to look like we're coming down to the final countdown here. It has before, maybe not as much as now, but the bottom line is, if we're his followers and he says he's been saying for a very long time that the fields are ripe for harvest, therefore, pray that the God of the harvest will send out workers into those white, those fields. White for harvest ready. It means people are ready for Jesus. We just need to open our mouths and get out there. That was the order then. That's the order, if it's possible for it to be the order, more than ever, even now then that's it.
Speaker 4:So Jesus stands on a hill in Israel and it's talking to 11 guys and that's where the original orders were given. And the orders were go into all the world and Tell everybody about Jesus. And they said, in essence, orders acknowledged, and somewhere along the way they pass that on to another generation. And the orders remained unchanged. And for 2,000 years now, orders remain unchanged. They are still the same, still coming from general Jesus, still handed down to us. We're responsible for the lost people in our world, in our generation today, and you don't, when you see general Jesus, when he returns, want to be in that victory parade and know that you have been part of that victory, because I want to march with him in victory when we see others as Jesus sees them.
Speaker 2:It Means that, yes, we are going to be about rescue, and what that means is that it. Another practical application is take a look at the relationships around you right now, because there may be someone, yeah, that you've been and you've been bitter towards you, haven't been able to forgive. And when you look at it in light of eternity and the realize that realize the time is short. All of a sudden, you've got to reevaluate that. You have to reevaluate that person at work that you have been Not wanting to talk to because you're scared of how they may respond.
Speaker 3:You don't know well, maybe they're just strange or something and no one talks to him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's actually true, and so all of a sudden, you have these moments where we need to be looking at what do I need to adjust to my life as well, that Broken relationship with a son or daughter that you have been saying, man, I, how do I fix this? Well, seek the Lord on that. Seek him to see how can I start just showing them that I still love them and that Jesus loves them. Your social media posts Are they seasoned with salt and light? Are they showing the grace of Jesus to others? There's so many areas when you live in light of eternity. It impacts everything we do.
Speaker 4:You know what the the message, after all, is when you read, as you said, brad, the Bible on one hand in the newspaper and the other for thousands of years. I don't know if the newspapers are on stone slates then, but the news and the Bible have matched up and you, and it's evident that God was all over it Well, hundreds of years before it ever happened. He is today and if there is a bottom line message because a lot of us live with a lot of anxiety and worry and stress and fear and In fact Jesus said people's hearts will be failing them for fear when they see the things going on on earth With the message, ultimately, of the prophecies of the Bible and the events of our day, say is God is standing there, commas can be in heaven going.
Speaker 4:I've got this, god's got this and for yeah thousands and thousands of years, wars, rulers, dictators, tragedies, massacres, violence. God has stood in heaven saying I Am still seated on the throne, I am still in charge, and His fact that he's predicting all these things is because he is, as it says in the book of Revelation, the Alpha and Omega, the A and Z in the Greek alphabet. And it's interesting that at the beginning Jesus says I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning. In the end, then the book of Revelation, all this stuff, the anti-Christ and army getting in the mark of the beast, and All this stuff happens. And then at the end, jesus goes I'm still Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. And so if you belong to Jesus, he's got this and he's got you. And there is one safe place in a world out of control that's still in his control and that safe place is in the arms of Jesus man man, I can't think of a better way to wrap us up today.
Speaker 3:We are so thankful for you Listening, for spending some time with us friends. We hope that this is has meant something to you. I know it's meant something to me, sitting here with my brother and my dad, and I've been very encouraged. Guys, we have such an amazing season 3 planned for you. There are like surprises. I wish I could tell you what they are, but then I realized something. Then they wouldn't be surprises.
Speaker 3:Someone told me that whoa and it's a great point deep me right deep very deep, but so we'll have a lot of deep, we'll have a lot of fun and we are praying for you that whether News has gotten a lot better is since we recorded this, or whether things have gotten even crazier. We pray that you will always go mad.