James Meehan - Should Christians Watch UFC » Watch Online Sermons 2024 (2024)

James Meehan: So good! So good!

Vince Parker: Okay.

James Meehan: Do you what now?

Vince Parker: The vocals.

James Meehan: Yeah, that's right.

Vince Parker: The vo-cals.

James Meehan: Come on.

Vince Parker: Alright then There's so much to talk about today. I don't think we have time to list it all well. Let's just dive in.

James Meehan: Yeah, I'm here for it.

Vince Parker: Cause lots of things happening in culture, but we don't let that dictate because we are culture makers...

James Meehan: Oh, okay.

Vince Parker: And we dictate.

James Meehan: Culture doesn't make us, we make culture.

Vince Parker: Yes, sir.

James Meehan: Throw it in the comments!

Vince Parker: All right. So let let's go. Switch Music released a new song.

James Meehan: Yeah!

Vince Parker: Good friend came out on 9/10. If you have not copped it, go copy it. Spotify, Apple Music. Are you a Spotify or Apple Music person?

James Meehan: I'm a Spotify person.

Vince Parker: Spotify. Team Spotify. When Riley's on here, she's all talking about Apple Music. I can't find anybody even who uses apple music. Anyway...

James Meehan: Here's an embarrassing thing though, I don't have Spotify Premium. So I get the ads still.

Vince Parker: I got the Premium. Go ahead, get the family plan. Get the premium. Get out the ads. On YouTube. Did you get the YouTube Premium?

James Meehan: Uh, no.

Vince Parker: Just go ahead and pay the extra $10, $12 bucks. Shout out commercial free.

James Meehan: Nope, not doing any of that.

Vince Parker: Man. You are so cost-efficient well, let's keep it moving. Britney Spears is engaged.

James Meehan: Yeah!

Vince Parker: To Sam... I can't say his last name.

James Meehan: Okay.

Vince Parker: So shout out to you, Brittany. We know you watch. Congratulations to you.

James Meehan: Yup, so proud of you.

Vince Parker: That's exciting.

James Meehan: ...if you ever want to be on the show, just let us know.

Vince Parker: Yeah, hit us up, Britney. Yeah, we'll have you. You can take my spot, you interview Britney Spears.

James Meehan: Oh, come on!

Vince Parker: Right? That'd be nice. So we got all these things been going on, Sam's been her boyfriend throughout the fiasco, when you know, it was kind of, that stuff was kind of wrapping up. Not really wrapped up yet, but they're engaged. So that's exciting.

James Meehan: That is super exciting.

Vince Parker: Good news for her. 9/11 this past weekend, 20 year anniversary. Did you watch any of the things that were happening?

James Meehan: I saw some of the stuff, but not a whole lot of it.

Vince Parker: Yeah, man, I remember where I was at. I don't know if you remember where you were at, but man, that was, it was crazy. And it, it's one of those things that happens, that things going forward, it's like what happened in America? I don't think people realize back then things kind of changed in how we do things in the country. So to all those who have lost someone, our continued prayers go out to you.

James Meehan: Right. Well, I think one thing that is interesting to think about is the fact that there are a lot of sociologists who will point to, if you can remember where you were on 9/11 then that makes you in the Millennial generation.

Vince Parker: Okay.

James Meehan: If you can't, then you're in the Gen-Z generation.

Vince Parker: Our listeners are probably Gen-Z.

James Meehan: I'm right on the edge of Millennial because I'm just a little bit over it. But I was six years old living in St. Louis, Missouri.

Vince Parker: Okay.

James Meehan: And I remember when it all happened, I saw like a little footage on the news. And as a little six year old, I didn't understand the significance of it.

Vince Parker: Right.

James Meehan: But I could tell just the atmosphere of the room that I was in, the attitudes of the people that were around. Like, I can remember feeling how different things were because of that. And it's really interesting to try to look back now, 20 years later and think like you mentioned, how different our world is because of that. And I think the thing that I hope we can always do, as followers of Jesus, is be able to mourn with those who mourn and recognize that there are people who are still dealing with traumatic memories and aftereffects of the events that took place. And there are people all over the world who that, like, single event shaped the last 20 years of their life. And I know there's a lot of people who have all sorts of emotions, of anger, hurt, sadness, mourning, all of those things. And the best thing that we can do is just be there for those people. Not by necessarily giving them answers, but simply being with them.

Vince Parker: Yeah. That's true, man. our continued prayers go out. James, did you watch the MTV Music Awards? I already know the answer to this question.

James Meehan: Nope, not a chance.

Vince Parker: James, for the very first time I can say I did not watch either.

James Meehan: What?

Vince Parker: I know.

James Meehan: Dude, what happened? Because last year you were all about it. Wasn't it MTV Music Awards?

Vince Parker: No, it was The Grammy's...

James Meehan: It's The Grammy's! I'm trying to remember. There's the one I remember where you said you had to, like close your eyes for the party.

Vince Parker: Yeah. It was like this. Now I heard I would have had to close my eyes.

James Meehan: Oh, for the MTV ones?

Vince Parker: Yeah, I heard, you know. I didn't watch but, hey, did you know Conor McGregor tried to fight Machine Gun Kelly?

James Meehan: Yeah, I heard about this and here's the thing. Like, my heart breaks for Connor McGregor.

Vince Parker: Oh, okay.

James Meehan: You know, he's gotten to the point where I think he just realizes that he just kind of lost it...

Vince Parker: Oh!

James Meehan: ...and tonight he's just trying to regain some confidence, by just picking fights with people that aren't professional.

Vince Parker: Wow, okay. Alright.

James Meehan: Listen. But like no shame, man! I get it! You need to come back fight. I get it.

Vince Parker: But Machine Gun Kelly, is it? Okay. Did you hear about the Vittor Belfort...

James Meehan: Holyfield fight?

Vince Parker: Yeah. Vitor.

James Meehan: Vitor. What did I say?

Vince Parker: You said Vittor.

Vince Parker: Ooh.

James Meehan: Vitor Belfort and Evander Holyfield. Yeah. I was super interested. I didn't watch the fight. Obviously. I don't, I don't pay money to watch things, but I was actually really excited cause I was a huge Vitor fan when he was in the UFC, loved watching him fight. And then, you know, he like all fighters had that moment where he was past his prime and he wasn't as good anymore, but I still really enjoyed getting to watch him fight. 'Cause he was just a great competitor. Evander Holyfield was a dude who bested Mike Tyson. Who's considered one of the greatest boxers of all time.

Vince Parker: Yes. And so I was super excited to hear like how the fight went. Especially knowing that first of all, Vitor's past his prime and Evander's been past his prime for a long time. No shame against either. I mean, they're both still great athletes, in great shape...

James Meehan: Yeah. but there's a difference when you're, you know, 30 years old and then when you're 45 and 55.

Vince Parker: That's night and day difference.

James Meehan: Yeah.

— Well he won and then immediately he called out Jake Paul.

— Come on Vitor, teach him a lesson!

— I don't, I don't get these Jake Paul fights.

— Bro!

— I've got friends who go check them out, who, like, I fly over the country wherever he's at and they go check them out and they feel really entertaining.

— Sure. And it feels like a great marketing. It feels like there's a lot of smart things behind it, but they'll fights themselves feel...

— Well, this is, this is the thing though...

— ...should I say?

— But this thing you got to appreciate about Jake Paul, the dude is a marketing genius.

— Yes!

— Like literally he and his brother Logan start out on Vine, which is like, what was sort of the Tik-Tok before Tik-Tok became kind of, and like they started on vine, then they got on YouTube, made it big. And then both of them decided to start boxing. And they've just been headlining these cards that are getting a lot of attention.

— A lot!

— And with Jake, he just keeps on beating people, making everybody angry. So now other people want to fight him. And so he's just continuing to make a lot of money for himself. Back in the day when like WWE was the thing...

— You feel like this is like a WWE.

— Cause there's always the villain that makes a name for themselves, and people want to watch them get beat by somebody.

— Right.

— But the villain just keeps on winning. They keep playing the bad guy. And then when they upset the hero, people get angry. And so they want to pay more money to watch the next hero, try to take out the bad guy. And I think that's, what's happening with Jake Paul, where he is just... Listen, whatever you think about Jake Paul, You got to appreciate the fact that he's getting tons of attention.

— He has it down to a science.

— Now, but listen, for those of us who are followers of Jesus, we cannot just do whatever it takes to get attention. Okay? Because we were called to a much higher standard than that. Now we can appreciate it. We can, you know, honor all of that. But for us, the goal is not making it big. The goal is not getting famous. The goal is not making a ton of money. Our goal is always to love and bring people closer to Jesus. And so Jake Paul, you do you, and we're going to do what Jesus has called us to do. We set the culture, not follow the culture.

— Come on. That's good.

— All things Football this weekend. NFL's back.

— Come on, dude. I had a lot of friends that were super excited about it.

— Tom Brady?

— Greatest of all time.

— That's what I say, let us know in the chat. What do you think? Man. That was a great game to start the NFL off. I don't know I you watched it I watched it-

— Of course not.

— Great game. Well, it was amazing. It was free though.

— It was on the regular TV.

— This week, it was my wife's birthday.

— Oh, happy birthday to her!

— Yeah. 26.

— Did you have a good time celebrating?

— Yeah, it was fantastic.

— Did you do all the things she wanted to do?

— Yeah, we ate out a lot. It was delicious. Spend time with her family.

— One of her favorite things to do is eat out?

— Oh absolutely. It was absolutely is amazing. So this is what we did, We went out to eat. We had a babysitter watch our son so that we could have a date night, just the two of us.

— Nice.

— And then we went to Home Goods.

— Okay.

— That's what my wife wanted to do. And so that's what we did.

— Did you buy anything, like maybe a new sofa?

— No, we bought, gosh...

— A piece of artwork?

— We bought one of those meat tenderizer hammers.

— Okay.

— And we bought some new like dish towels and I think that's it.

— Okay. Well, very nice, very nice Did you know in college football, Notre Dame's quarterback, I forget his name, forgive me, threw a winning touchdown with a broken thumb. Have you ever done anything with a broken thumb?

— No. I've never broken a thumb. I've broken my nose twice.

— Oh, like falling down or in a fight? 'Cause you used to talk about how you fought a lot there's several episodes.

— Yeah. The first time, what's funny is the first time that I broke my nose, it kind of knocked it out of place.

— Okay.

— Second time I broke my nose it knocked it back into place. So I never had to get like surgery or anything. The first time I broke my nose, was I got kicked in the face.

— Was that like in a match? Or like some kids who crossed the room?

— No, it was in jujitsu training. Dude threw an arm bar, His heel came down on my nose, busted it, blood everywhere. Second time I broke my nose, I was riding on the back of a golf cart, like hanging off the back. And my friend crashed into a tree.

— James Meaghan, you have lived quite the adventurous life and everyone out there, in the Culture Maker world, learn from James Meaghan lessons. Don't need to break your nose.

— Yeah, yeah. The lesson to learn is don't do what I did...

— Yeah, learn from that, you don't have to live that out, but hey, if you think James Meaghan should begin to train for the next 18 months.

— Oh, to take on Jake Paul?

— Yes.

— I could take Jake Paul, give me 18 months.

— We can market it, out there.

— The thing is, though, the problem is I'd want to do, I'd want to compete in Mixed Martial Arts. 'Cause jujitsu is my background.

— Right.

— So, I don't know if 18 months would be enough time for me to be even boxing. If it was the kickboxing, I think I could take him.

— Maybe you make it up in the UFC in 18 months and then come back around 18 months later and challenge him if he's still doing that thing, right there.

— Yeah, maybe, who knows.

— So this next topic you want to talk about.

— Come on.

— I'm going to say it, and then I'm gonna let you talk.

— Sounds good, bro. Okay? Are you ready?

— Yeah, I'm ready.

— Here we go. The Texas Abortion Law. You wanted to talk about it. Discuss.

— Yeah. So you probably saw something on all things, social media over the last several weeks about everybody and their grandma getting into tizzy.

— I did see all that.

— Because of this bill that was passed in Texas. The bill makes it illegal for somebody to get an abortion after six weeks.

— Lot of controversy about it.

— And there's a ton of controversy behind this. The reason why we're talking about it now is because we wanted to wait until after the storm of emotions died down. And so instead of feeding the arguments, we could actually come out on the other side and speak a little bit of what we would hope is wisdom for those of us that are followers of Jesus. Now, here's what we always want to remember is that almost any issue that has turned into a political issue, where you've got one side arguing with the other side, once that happens, the truth gets obscured. And we stopped seeing the other side as human beings to be loved. And this is what we have to resist with every ounce of our beings. We have to refuse to choose either this side or that side, and instead of fight to stand in the middle and bring people together. Because unfortunately this debate around abortion has been framed as you either care about moms or you care about unborn children. As followers of Jesus, we cannot take this side or that side because both sides include human beings made in the image of God. And so our stance always has to be, we're going to fight to bring about the good for both sides. Instead of finding ourselves caught up in all of the unhelpful debates that dehumanize one side or the other, that blame moms, or assume that unborn children, aren't human beings, let's choose to love. Let's choose to remember that both sides of the debate include people that are made in the image of God. Both sides of the debate, honestly, are trying to do the best they can in what they think is right.

— That's true.

— And that's why there's so much emotion and passion on both sides of the debate. And so for us, as followers of Jesus, what we want to be able to do is always remember that the calling that we've been given is to love our neighbor as ourself and the people who are our neighbor actually are on both sides of the debate.

— But that's good, James, what I hear you saying is, correct me if I'm wrong, there's a scripture. I forget which one, but it says "they will know us by our love".

— Come on, John 13:34 and 35.

— And I don't think it goes on to say by the sides you choose. It says "they will know you by your love". There's a lot of ways to get caught up in different things.

— Yeah.

— But you have to love people.

— Yeah. The best way we love our neighbor is not by voting once every four years. And it's actually what we do every single day. It's how we choose to interact with the people around us. And I think this is the thing that I really, really am thankful for. That you, as a generation are growing up in a world where you have seen just how divisive, how angry, and how destructive the current way of doing politics is in our nation. And my hope and my prayer is that you will choose a better way that you will choose to follow the way of Jesus that says, you know what I'm going to try to do? I'm going to try to bring people together because the thing that a divided world needs, as our Senior Pastor says often, is a united church. And when we, as followers of Jesus, can come together as Democrats and Republicans, as those who are pro-life and those who are pro-choice and choose to work for the good of all parties, then I think what we'll actually be able to do is proclaim the good news of who Jesus is and what he came to do because it is in Christ that here's neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free male, nor female, but all are one in Christ, Jesus. And I think that should extend to in Christ, Jesus there's neither Democrat or Republican, but we are all one in Christ Jesus. And so instead of getting bogged down by all of the political division, let's choose to see with clarity that both sides include human beings made in the image of God that we have been called to love.

— Remember we do not follow culture. We are culture makers. And so continue to do that. So James, quick question, as we wrap up here, any new music, did you check out any new music? Have you listened to Don to yet?

— Nope, but I've been listening to that Switch Music. Come on!

— Okay. Any new movies? Have you watched? Did you watch 10 Rings yet?

— I haven't watched 10 Rings. I did watch this new movie called The Courier with Benedict Cumberbatch.

— I have not seen that yet.

— Dude, it was incredible. Literally fantastic.

— Okay.

— I think watched it on, like Amazon Prime. It's relatively new, I think. But it's during the cold war, he's like a businessman who becomes a spy.

— I think I've heard of it, just never seen it.

— Dude, there's this one scene. I got chills.

— Oh, a scene that gives you chills. One last question before you get out of here.

— Yup.

— At what temperature is it okay to start wearing hoodies? 'Cause I got all of these hoodies and in Oklahoma it's still in the nineties.

— It depends on, are you're going to be inside or outside most of the day?

— Inside. Most of the day.

— I think if you're inside most of the day, then once it dips below 90... if you're gonna be outside most of the day. Yeah. You you're going to have to wait a while.

— So what questions do you have for us, Culture Makers? Let us know below. Make sure you share, like, all the things that the algorithms like

— Come on! Comment, like, subscribe, do the things. We're so glad to spend time with you.

— It's always a good time. Love you. Peace. We'll see you later. Bye-bye.

— See you all.