Middle Eastern Christian Festival Today

This is the Truth Network. Welcome to the Christian Car Guy Radio Show.

I say this calls for action and now. Of goats and sheep today on the Christian Car Guy Show. So you might be wondering like, what do goats and sheep have to do with that music? Well, you know, for the Christian Car Guy, you think of a GTO as a goat.

That was kind of what we talked about. And then, of course, the Dodge Ram. When you think about it, it's a bighorn sheep, a very bighorn sheep, especially a 250 Dodge Ram. So how fun on this idea of sheep and goats today. We are live, actually, from the Middle Eastern Christian Festival this year in Clemens, North Carolina. And it has a lot to do with sheep and goats.

But I've got my good friend who's done this with me many, many times. Kareem Locus here with us, one of the pastors here at the Bible Church of Clemens. And you guys have the most amazing Middle Eastern Christian Festival every year. And so for our listeners that have never heard about this before, explain a little bit about it. Well, Robbie, thank you.

I mean, you're always gracious to have us on your show. And I'm very interested to hear more about goats and sheep. The event is something our church kind of was born by the Lord in our church. And the idea was to share the love of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ, to all our neighbors, and to show them, just like Revelation 3 shows, that the body of Christ is actually quite interesting. It says that every tongue, tribe, and nation was gathered around the throne. And so you see brothers from all over the world, different languages, but one Lord, one Spirit, one Father, as Paul says, one baptism, and one great calling. Yeah, and if you're here with us, like, I'm sitting across right now.

Of course, if you're watching on Facebook or YouTube, you can see it. But there's a tent right there from Egypt. There's a tent from Lebanon. There's a tent from Jordan. There's a tent from Syria. And, of course, you were born in Egypt and grew up in the Sudan, right?

That's exactly right. Yeah, and it is a different world in many aspects. As I'm sure many people listening know, Sudan is in turmoil, civil war.

Egypt is a fairly stable country, but every nation has its challenges. And I'm very thankful for this country we live in. Yeah, so one of the neatest things I've always enjoyed so much, and I guess this is probably at least the eighth or ninth time we've done this together, is it's the Christian face of the Middle East. In other words, here you're going to see these same people that are at war all over the place, especially right now, but, man, they have their arms around each other.

I mean, they love each other. You have to be hugged by somebody here at this festival to appreciate a good hug. And if you like food, oh, my word, but it's a different kind of food. I've got to tell you that maybe you've eaten before.

These words, I've been working on them for years, but I know that my personal favorite is the kofta. And so the kofta is like a long hot dog. Excuse me, it's like a long meatball that has all these obviously Middle Eastern spices, and you can smell those things cooking for miles and miles because they're cooking it all out here fresh right now. They've got the kebabs that have got the, it's called shish chicken, am I saying that right? Yes, shish chicken, yes, on a skewer. And then I just had some falafel, but I still feel wonderful. No, and falafel is like, if you've never seen it before, maybe you've enjoyed it, but what it appeared to me, it looked like a not-so-greasy hush puppy, right? But it tastes like all that you can tell the Middle Eastern spices in there and a lot of sesame seeds maybe?

Peas and sesame seeds, and it is all goodness and health and tasty. Oh, yeah, and so this is absolutely free. If you happen to be in the area anywhere in North Carolina, it's worth the trip. We're going to be here ourselves until one, but it's going to be open until four this afternoon. Am I right?

Actually six. Until six, and then tomorrow you can come worship with them under the tent, and it's going to be open again tomorrow until six, and it's a family event. They've got bouncy houses, kid's face painting, and cotton candy and all that stuff.

So, yeah, absolutely amazing. So you don't want to miss this. Again, it's in Clemens, North Carolina.

It's 2470 Harper Road in Clemens, actually. But getting back to the idea of goats and sheep, so if you're a big Pontiac fan, you know exactly what I'm talking about, that a goat is a really, really fast car, and goats are pretty fast, too. I'm just saying, but if you're in a particular situation, and like he talked about, if you're in a pinch, you're going to need that winch, and you're going to need that four-wheel drive at one point in time. You're probably going to want to dodge ram, but, you know, Jesus was pretty specific on this whole sheep and goats thing, because in Matthew 25, if I were to read it to you, 25, 31 through 34, he said, When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne in his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one for another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats, and he will set the sheep on his right hand but the goats on his left, and then the king will say to those in his right hand, Come, you blessed my father. That would be the sheep, by the way.

Inherit the kingdom prepared from you from the foundation of the world. So now I want you to think, well, maybe you have thoughts along these lines, and you can always call us at 866-348-7884. We would love to talk to you about that, but I was thinking about it, and so I did quite a study this week on what's the difference between a sheep and a goat, and, by the way, if you're looking out in a pasture, and, by the way, hare sheep look a lot like a goat, but if their tails are up, you pretty much know that's a goat, and if their tails are down, because they're humble, then that's pretty much a sheep. That's the quick reference, but here's the bigger deal from my perspective. Think about what a sheep eats versus what a goat eats. Like I have a friend, he had a goat out in his yard with his Honda Civic. It's a car story, because after his goat spent a little time with his Honda Civic, it was no longer a Civic, it was just an ick, because he ate the C and the I and the V off the Honda. In other words, a goat will eat just pretty much anything, but a sheep actually has a very unique palate where they get only the choice of grass, and actually having done many Passover Seders and processed many sheep myself, you will never see a cleaner animal inside than a sheep.

It's absolutely amazing. If you've processed other animals and you see a sheep, you're like, man, how did this get so clean? Well, Seth is clean, and it has to do with what it eats, right? And I don't know if you've thought about what you eat as a Christian, but you're actually grazing all the time. Whether you realize it or not, you're watching TV, you're grazing, right? You're taking in media, Facebook, whatever it is, you're grazing.

Whether you realize it or not, that's what's happening. But when you're reading the Word of God, right, it says, 119 Psalms, How shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word? In other words, the word itself, it cleans you from the inside out, because it's sharing these ideas of where it is that you could come closer to God and how you could be more fruitful in your marriage, how you could be more fruitful at work, how you could be more fruitful at your church. All that stuff comes from where you do your grazing, right, Karim? Amen, amen. So many thoughts are coming as I'm listening to you on that. You know, our Lord was the Lamb of God.

Right? Not the goat, right, who takes away the sin of the world. He's the chief lamb. He's the head of the church.

He's the one we model after. And he picked that animal to be the symbol of him. That lamb was what Abraham offered. And he was born in Bethlehem. It was actually a sheepfold, if you really think about what it was, because in Bethlehem is where they raised the lambs for the Passover. And so a stable in Bethlehem, I guarantee you, it was a sheepfold. And so, you know, when Jesus is talking about the sheepfold in John chapter 10, he was born there. Yes, my sheep hear my voice.

Right. They follow me. And how would the best way to, you know, I love to hear the voice of God every day as I'm praying all sorts of stuff, but there's nothing like reading his word and praying about it. And then all of a sudden the light comes on, like, oh, that's what that means.

And I'm hoping that's happening for you. Well, guess what? That's his voice. And it's right there in his word. And so, you know, as we think about, like, what is the difference between a sheep and a goat? You know, it's really, to me, has a lot to do with faith. So when we come back, we got more on sheep and goats. We got more from the Middle Eastern Christian Festival. And I got to tell you, we're having so much fun, but it would be more fun if you'd come join us and I could meet you.

And that would be awesome. And so, again, live from the Middle Eastern Christian Festival on sheep and goats today. We'll be right back. Of goats and sheep today on the Christian Car Guys show. And we are, yes, we're live. If you hear a lot of music in the background, excitement, that's because we're at the Middle Eastern Christian Festival.

And this is a yearly event that we've taken part of for years. And I just can't tell you what a joy it is. I love what my friend Kareem said, that the body of Christ is so interesting. Like, these people are just amazingly sheep.

I guess that's the best way to go. And I'll tell you why I say that. Because the difference between sheep and goats, when they're under danger, do you know what a goat does? A goat will actually scatter and do its best to find higher ground. It climbs its way up out of trouble.

Have you ever been there? I don't know how many times I've tried to climb my way out of trouble, only to find myself up a tree out on a limb. There's plenty of pictures, if you Google that, of goats out on a limb because that's where you're going to probably find yourself. However, a sheep is a different kind of thing. They naturally flock. In fact, if they're under danger, they flock even closer together, and guess who they're looking for?

They're looking for a shepherd because he's going to have a rod in the staff that's going to be able to take on whatever it is that might be threatening them. And those sheep, if you think about it, they must have faith in one another. So the idea of grace is favor, right? And so to me, when you're in somebody's presence that is full of grace, then you feel like you're their favorite. And I can tell you from having come to this for years and years, when you get a big old hug from one of these folks, you're going to feel great. So you're going to say, man, they're really, really glad I'm here. This is really, really exciting. Well, the neat thing is it's really mind-blowing to me if you come here, and the idea of sheep and goats is that here will these people be from Egypt, and then there are some people from Israel, and then there are some people from Jordan, and you would think they were the best friends that ever walked on the planet Earth.

Why? Because they're sheep. That's right. And you remind me, Rabi, as you mentioned that Paul says, I believe in Ephesians, maybe four, we have one Lord, one Father, one baptism, and we have all drank of one Spirit. And the beauty is this, which is astounding.

It's always amazed me in my life. I grew up in a very international community in Sudan because I went to an American school. And I can meet Rabi. He grew up in a different continent, different parents, different language, different culture, different food, different traditions, different congregation. But when we see each other and we speak to each other, we realize we have the same Spirit of God in us.

And I can feel more intimacy sincerely with you, Rabi, than my uncle who lives in Sydney, Australia, who does not know the Lord. Yeah, it's exactly how I feel, and you brought up something else I did want to talk about for a minute, is that yesterday I had the absolute joy of interviewing Joel and Luke Smallbone, who are King and Country, of King and Country, right, because they have this new movie coming out called Unsung Hero. It actually came out in theaters, and by all means, it's quite a story of how they came from Australia and their dad was totally broke. They were literally going door to door trying to do house cleaning and doing people's yards and stuff like that, when they realized that their sister, Rebecca St. James, was this amazing vocalist. Her dad was sort of a record label guy, and next thing you know, she becomes a big star, and then the two boys, Joel and Luke, right?

So I have a sound bite from that interview yesterday, because listen to the grace in these guys' voices as I'm talking to them. In other words, I've never met these people in my life, never saw them before. They're huge stars.

We're talking about four Grammys, 17K love. You know, these guys are huge. But when I talked to them, it was like I'm talking to you.

You can tell the love in their voice, whatever. So listen to the sound bite real quick. Again, we were talking about their new movie, Unsung Hero.

Go ahead and play that, Nick. King and Country, the Unsung Hero movie and new soundtrack. It is released in theaters all over today. Get out to the theaters, we have Joel and Luke. The true story, absolutely amazing.

True story. So, Joel, as you hear that trailer, it almost brings tears to my eyes and I can imagine what it does for you. Oh, yeah. I mean, for both Luke and me, you know, obviously this is the definition of a passion project, Robbie. But the truth of the matter is for us, not only is it a passion project, but we've prescribed as musicians to this idea that the closer that you get to your own heart with your art, the further it reaches out into someone else's. And this is the definition, as I said, of not only a passion project, but also of a project that is really close to home for Luke and me. So there have been messy, many weepy moments as we sort of, you know, find the team to bring this thing to life and now present it to the world. Yeah, so the story, Kareem, is actually the unsung hero is their mom.

Oh. And so they're hoping that enough people get out to the theaters and see this so that they'll be in theaters still for Mother's Day, which is coming up here in a couple weeks, because, you know, the father loses everything. She agrees to move to America, you know, to try to, and then he loses the job in America and the church. And she come into, you know, just this amazing thing and watch God's miracles start to happen, you know, for Rebecca St. James and certainly for King and Country.

And so it's an amazing story and a chance, really, it came out in 2800 theaters yesterday. And it's a chance to show that family-friendly movies, because if you watched any trailers for what's coming out this weekend from other places, there are goats out there eating this stuff. That's right.

No, that's true. And we've got to show them that, you know, American people love to eat good food, right? And that's what we're doing here at this festival is like, so what's your favorite food, Karim?

There's a lot of different things. In terms of what we're here serving at the festival, and I'd encourage you to come out, you know, if you are more of the vegetarian health inclined, well, if you've heard, if you've gone to your doctor, they tell you the Mediterranean diet, right? Oh, yeah. That's what we eat. So hummus is chickpeas and sesame paste, and it's absolutely delicious and very popular across the entire country. It's become like a mainstay.

You can now get it at your local grocery store. That was falafel. We've got to go to a break.

Falafel. My friend, Karim, always just a joy to have you. When we come back, we're going to have a whole lot more on sheep and goats and more folks from the Middle Eastern Christian Festival. So stay tuned. Looking forward to having you with us. We'll be right back.

I'm here with Andy Andrew. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And so, Andy, always right more than fun to me to have a chance to spend time out here and see right the Christian face of the Middle East. Yeah, absolutely.

And so, you know, I was here with Karim, but Andy's kind of the different, the next generation, right? Yes, yes. Yeah, so I'm pretty, pretty active, which I love at the church, right? I mean, we, my wife and I help out in the English ministry mainly and just kind of wherever is needed, we help out. So yeah, it's been, it's a lot of fun serving our God, right?

The honor of that. So were you born in Lebanon? No, I was born and raised here. My father immigrated here in the late seventies and him and my mom got married, right? And then they found themselves in North Carolina and I was born in 89 in Greensboro. My wife was born in Iraq. She immigrated here about 12 years ago or so and we met here at the church. So it's been great.

Yeah, Don is really amazing. And then you have a son, Benjamin? Yeah, so we have a one and a half year old son named Benjamin.

We have a second child on the way, also a boy, due in July. So she is rearing up and ready to go. And what a delight.

And she's been singing up here and it's absolutely wonderful. So, yes, we're talking about sheep and goats today on the Christian Car Guys show. And the idea being, you may know that a GTO, a lot of people think of it as a jeep. I mean, excuse me, as a goat. I had never, I was going to say jeep. I'd never heard that one before. No, no, it's thought of as a goat because it's a GTO kind of thing.

And when you think about a GTO, it was really fast, really fun. But, you know, the sheep, as the case may be, would be as we're describing it in this particular show, would be the Dodge Ram, right? And a Dodge Ram has all kind of ability to haul things and all those kind of things. But when it comes to sheep and goats, you know, Jesus kind of said that he's going to separate them. And so you see these two...

In comparison. Yeah, these two groups. And some of them are going to be on the right and some of them are going to be on the left. And I'm saying that there's gnashing of teeth involved with those goats.

And, you know, that's not going to be pleasant. And so when you look... We've been talking about it, Andy, the habit of sheep versus the habits of goats. And sheep, what they eat is very...

They're very particular. They eat only the finest grass. And again, sheep eat the Word of God, if you're right.

And it help cleans you from the inside out. And as you're grazing, you know, there's so much media out there you could be grazing on right now. If you are like a goat and you can eat tin cans or you can eat, you know, flour, whatever it is that you happen to find, you know, they'll eat a stick easily. Sure.

No problem. If it's just a dry piece of stick. A goat, away it goes. So, you know, to some extent we are what we eat. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I grew up with my dad always saying that whatever goes in comes out, right? So, I mean, we're a reflection of whatever we absorb and whatever we listen to and hear. And if we're not hearing the truth of God, then we're hearing something completely else. And that's what we output. So that's a big thing with our child, Benjamin.

We're very careful with what we say and how we say it and how we act, right? Because he's absorbing. He's allowing other people to influence the way he thinks and acts. And if we give him garbage, then he comes out with garbage. Or we give him prime truth, right?

And that's what he'll output as well. Oh, absolutely. And part of the reason that sheep really differ from goats is when a goat is threatened, they scatter and actually look for a higher ground. They'll climb up to your car or your house or whatever they can find to try to get up away from things. And maybe you climbed away from trouble in your life.

I've tried that too. You end up on a limb somewhere. Yes. However, sheep, because they have faith, that's the difference. They have faith, A, in each other. That's why they flock together. So when they're hurting, they get very close in a group because they trust their brother is going to have their back and they trust each other. They have grace. And then they also trust the shepherd, right?

His rod and his staff, they comfort me. Absolutely. And so when you think about what happens as a result of eating these things, you can either grow in your faith or you can grow in your independence. Yeah, you're right. Absolutely. Absolutely.

So which to me paints this picture of what we're seeing out here. Number one, the food is spectacular. It is. I can smell the grill from here, actually. Oh, who couldn't?

I mean, I smelled it. The moment I drove up, I'm like, all right, I'm at the Middle Eastern Christian Festival. And so if you can make your way out here to Harper Road, 2570 Harper Road, like, man, you will. And again, this is a kid's event. I see a little girl right now in pink, and she must be about two. And she's got her cotton candy, her pink cotton candy to go with her pink outfit.

And she's going to get her face painted here in a minute, and there's a bouncy house and all that stuff. But one of my favorite things that they do is, over here, I'm looking at the Jordan tent. And I still have a picture of my granddaughter at that tent because they will dress them up in traditional Jordanian wear.

Yeah, absolutely. So at the end of it, I mean, as much as we love food, we're also a cultural event, right? We want to expose our community to the Middle Eastern culture, and that's part of it.

This is, hey, well, this is very traditional. And while it may not be 100% practiced in the Middle East still, but it's still the origins and the culture of where they're coming from. So we have tents of every kind of country in the Middle East.

We have Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, and each one's got a little bit of a history and kind of an experience for you to, hey, this is what the Middle East, these are what Middle Easterners, who they are and the culture that we have. Yeah, and it's a rare opportunity to see all that that is, and then there's the music, and there will be line dancing. We're hoping to have that on YouTube here shortly, because when they start kicking up their heels, and the beauty of this one, to me, is they want you to join in, right? If you want to do that circle dance, what do you call that? We call it a depki. A depki? There you go.

I need a depki. I don't know where that originated from, but it's a group event, right? It's a group kind of celebration where we get in line, and there's a couple feet step, right? It's a one, two, three kind of step, and it kind of just progresses on, and it's a group kind of celebration feeling, yeah.

It really is, and when you see how much fun they're having doing it, then you just are like, man, I want in on that. And then over to my left is something I don't remember being quite as extravagant in the past. They have the peace tent.

Explain that. Yeah, so I mean, we came back to the idea of, like, as much as we love our food, as much as we love our culture and the fun of dancing, et cetera, this is also an evangelical event. So the idea is, hey, how can we share the peace of the Middle East as well? There's a lot of turmoil.

There's a lot of stuff on the media and the news that is kind of overshadowing other parts of the Middle East is, hey, no, we are peaceful people. We are loving people. So it's a tent to where people, hey, if you need prayer, come sit down and pray with someone. If you want to get more information about something, we have that. Hey, if you want to just talk, you have questions about God, let's sit down. Let's have a conversation. So it's kind of a tent to where, hey, anyone's welcome.

Come have a conversation with us and then we can enjoy the rest of the event as well. Yeah, and beautifully for me, when I came up, they were all praying. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, in a great big huddle, there they were. And so I just jumped in. I said, would you pay for my podcast? Yeah.

For this broadcast and all this going on because I'm like you. I really would love, love, love for so many people to see what it's like when we realize that we're all in the same family. Absolutely, absolutely.

Yeah, cultures and countries are certain things, but then you look deeper, right? If we're all Christians, we are all one family. We're one body, one group.

And if we can pray together and pray for each other, I mean, that's the beauty of Christianity in Christ. It really is. And feeling loved and feeling like man, this is something that, again, it's a beautiful Saturday. You guys got the weather this year.

Yes, finally. We've had a lot of years in the past where it's been raining on Saturdays, and it kind of dampens us a little bit, right? Pun intended. But no, right now the sun is shining. Clouds are kind of giving us a nice little cover as well.

But it's a beautiful day out here. Yeah, it is. And, you know, certainly with all the tension in the Middle East, you know, kind of, I'm just curious, what's your take on all that? That's a big question. I know it is.

I was not expecting that one. Well, I know it's on the lister's heart. Yeah.

Right? They're thinking, you know, man, we're praying for the peace of Israel. Absolutely. And without getting very political here, I mean, what's happening is sad from both camps. Innocent death is innocent death. And it shouldn't be something that's like, hey, no, we're better than you.

Hey, no, we're better than you. It's sad regardless. And what's happening is really sad. And kind of what this event is also saying, hey, like, not all Arabs are violent or not all other nationalities are violent. We are one people, one church, one group. We have some people that are born in Israel here.

We have people that are born in Palestine here. And we are like a living image of saying, hey, we can coincide and we can live together and we can worship God together. Yeah. And that's what we want. Right? I mean, that is the peace of Israel eventually.

Right? It is like you talked about. It's in revelation that all tribes and all nations are going to come together like this and have a chance to see it. And again, I'm sure that just like we have certain things based on our culture, we were raised around our families and all those kind of things.

You know, if you'd had a bunch of your family injured by, you know, the arm, then obviously you might. Sure. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Of goats and sheep today on the Christian Car Guys show. And we are live from the Middle Eastern Christian Festival here in Clemens, North Carolina. So if you happen to be in North Carolina today, I realize some people are in Seattle and you're in Utah and all that. And we so appreciate you being with us. And I got to think that, man, everybody ought to taste this, even if it's just the audio version of it.

Absolutely. It's a Middle Eastern Christian festival. It's on Harper Road in Clemens, North Carolina. It's the Christian face of the Middle East. And we've talked a lot about that. There are tents. And it's kind of a perfect symbol of the Middle East to have tents, you know, when you think about it. But there's a tent for, you know, if I'm sitting here looking at there's Syria, there is Egypt, there is Lebanon, there's Iraq, there's Jordan. And each one has their own culture and their own people. And you get a chance to get a hug from all of them if you want to.

Yeah, absolutely. And then, you know, get a chance to see their culture. I love the Jordanian tent especially because there you can dress up in the traditional Jordanian wear and get your picture taken.

I still have a picture of my granddaughter in that from a few years ago. It's a keepsake because it's a neat thing to experience. I love what Kareem said about it, the interesting body of Christ. Like you can learn so much from people that have such a completely different background than you do. Yeah, I feel like a lot of times we're so stuck in our own ways and we're not really open to experience anything else and we kind of have my stereotypes or whatever it is. And we don't allow ourselves to experience other cultures, other ethnicities, whatever it is, because of just our way of life or maybe we're just so busy. So this is a good break.

Get a break out of your daily life and kind of come and experience a different culture, different music, different food, plenty of it. Yeah, and you know, again, the prayer tent, the peace, and certainly, you know, for me, I hate people couldn't hear what you were talking about during the break, but I'm just going to highlight a couple of things because we were talking about the peace in the Middle East and I loved what Andy said. He said, I'm not for terrorism in any way, shape, or form. So that part of Palestine, you know, I'm not, you know, how could we support terror?

That would be an absolutely horrible thing. But the Palestinian people, you know, each one of them is in the image of God and each one of them is a precious soul and God's not willing that anyone perish. And it's the same way for the people in Lebanon, the people in Jordan. In other words, every single one of them is precious, but again, when they believe they have the right to take another person's life and all those things, then obviously there's another whole level of things.

Absolutely. And it brings back to what you said kind of reminded me of a children's song as God loves the little children of the world. God didn't specify God loves this and this and this. No, God said red and yellow, black and white, they are all precious in His sight.

And that's what it is. God loves the Palestinians and we love the Palestinians. God loves the Israelites, we love the Israelites. And that's kind of another thing you mentioned about the tents and kind of the quintessential part of it is all comes to the peace tents, right?

Yes, we have different cultures, but it all kind of falls under the umbrella of, hey, peace, love, love of God. This is the truth of God. That is what the love of God. Absolutely. So many people's starving souls, they don't realize the reason they're so angry and they're so hateful is their souls are literally starving to death. They'd have been eating these tin cans.

They don't realize that the word of God would meet their need and then a relationship with Jesus Christ and being cleansed from their sin. All that stuff is there at peace. Absolutely. And so, you know, I've been thinking about it all week. The good shepherd, you know, he's going to have you there in the sheepfold, which has to do with being around people that you can trust, people that you can love, people that have your back, that you know you would be there. But also, you know, you've got the shepherd there that is going to lead you out.

Where? He's going to lead you out to pasture. But part of that is if you're going to be fruitful, right? If you're going to have to receive a blessing, I don't know if you've ever thought about this, Andy, but to receive a blessing, you need a vessel. Yes.

Right? And that story, you know, of Alicia and the vessels, like how many vessels have you got? Well, your vessel is love. Yes.

Because if you have love, God can pour out all the blessing in the world because he knows you can be trusted with that blessing because you're going to bear good fruit. You're not going to be multiplying shenanigans. Absolutely. Absolutely.

And so, you know, those are the opportunities that are here that, again, I'm hoping everybody that can come join us will. But, hey, if you're in Utah today or maybe you're in Seattle, Washington, or Michigan, or wherever, hey, why not get with your Arabic community and say, you know, they do this in North Carolina. Have you ever thought about doing this Middle Eastern Christian Festival thing because I really want to taste some falafel? Yeah.

I've been wanting to, Robbie's been talking about this kofta for years. I keep hearing about it, this long meatball thing. That's right.

You got to, you know. That's a good way to look at it, long meatball thing. Yeah, I've never heard that one before.

I've never heard it. And, of course, if you like pita bread and you like chickpeas, like you've come to the right place, I'm telling you. I mean, we get a lot of things wrong. The Arab community gets a lot of things wrong, but what we get right is our food and we have a lot of it. Like Robbie said, we have chicken kebabs. We have kefta, which is similar to a meatball, different spices. We have hummus. We have salad.

We have you name it, we've got it. Yeah, so if you love food and you're hungry in the Clemens area, come on out. Ice cream, cotton candy, and I'm pretty sure that those plastic things over there, they've got some baklava or something. Yeah, so a lot of the ladies of our church the past couple of weeks have been kind of making desserts. My wife made some traditional Middle Eastern cookies. I think her mom made some baklava. There's some other stuff. So tell me about a Middle Eastern cookie. Yeah. What is that?

I don't know how to define it. They're really, really good. I don't know much about cooking.

I know about eating. She spent most of yesterday kind of making this cookie, and it just kind of melts in your mouth, and it's got a little pistachio on the top, and they're excellent. I'm going to have to try to eat that. That sounds like awesome. I'd like the melt-in-my-mouth pistachio feel.

That's right. You know, that's the thing to me about the Christian life is your soul is starving before it came to Christ. I didn't really know what love was. I didn't think anybody... You know, when I really think about it, I didn't have a friend in this world. I had people I knew, but there was nobody that I could call at 3 o'clock in the morning if my ox was in the ditch or whatever the situation may be. But I have a feeling in this community here that you guys have at this church, you have a number of people you could call. Yeah, it's funny.

We were talking about it right before the break. Our one-and-a-half-year-old son, when we come to church, we're kind of just like, hey, you're at church, and he kind of goes, and he just wanders off, and it's okay because I know everyone here. I have a lot of actual physical family here, but we have a lot more spiritual family here, and he kind of just goes, and this person takes care of him, or this person plays with him, or this person or this person alive because we've created a family knit, which is the body of Christ. And while sometimes I feel closer to my brothers in Christ than I feel to my personal family.

Why? Because we have that connection. We have that mutuality of, hey, we both know the love of God and experience that love of God, and it creates a bond, I think, far greater than blood, and that's the beauty of it. Yeah, because to an extent, you live life together. Yes, absolutely.

And you share passions, and you share interests, and it's an amazing thing. So, again, as you are thinking about what we've talked about today, sheep and goats, I would challenge you to spend more time grazing on the good stuff, whatever that may be in the Word of God that you can hardly go wrong with any chapter or any verse, and certainly spend some time in a Christian community and try other cultures, wherever you may be today, because I'll bet you anything, there's some churches in your community that really do things different, but you may be shocked at how much they love you, you know, just when you show up. So it's a little hard for me to hear, and I think we're coming up on this, so I'm going to say my famous, remember, slow down. Jesus walked everywhere He went. Got it all done in 33 years, and I'm so grateful for all that listened today to the Christian Car Guy Show again, live from the Middle Eastern Christian Festival, 2570 Harper Road in Clemens, 27012. This is the Truth Network.