Honor The Son

A miracle happens, a man stands up after 38 years, and the first reaction from religious leaders is to argue about a rule. That single moment from John 5 exposes a trap that still catches us today: we can become so devoted to the letter of the law that we miss the heart of God right in front of us.

We walk through the Pool of Bethesda story and the escalating conflict over the Sabbath, then follow Jesus’ own words about His relationship to the Father. The point is not vague inspiration, it’s a direct claim of authority: the Son gives life, the Son judges, and honoring God means honoring Jesus Christ. Along the way, we connect Scripture to real life, including what religious freedom is supposed to protect, and how a culture can confuse “tolerance” with pretending all beliefs are the same.

The conversation also turns personal with a marriage devotional from Song of Solomon and a practical warning from Proverbs 14 about anger. Stress doesn’t just test us, it reveals us, and we talk honestly about how spiritual distance shows up in our words at home. We close by remembering courage and sacrifice: an honor killing that shows the cost of evil ideas, a Medal of Honor act of self-sacrifice, and a 9/11 reflection that calls us to thank the police, firefighters, military, and everyday providers who rarely get noticed.

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Transcript

Scripture Authority And A Headline

SPEAKER_00 0:02

John five, starting with verse twenty one. For just as the father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the son gives life to anyone he wants. In addition, the father judges no one. Instead, he has given the son absolute authority to judge. So that everyone will honor the son just as they honor the father. Anyone who does not honor the son is certainly not honoring the father who sent him. Yasmin Nilfar, April 2026, Fort Myers, Florida. Woman killed by bludgeoning with a hammer outside of a gas station by Haitian illegal immigrant.

Welcome And Gratitude To Listeners

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope back with another episode of the American Soul Podcast. Hope y'all are doing well. Wherever y'all are, whatever part of the day you're in, sure to appreciate you joining me and giving me a little bit of your time and attention. I will try and use it wisely. I know y'all have other things you could be doing. So thank you for joining me here. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast and pray for me for the podcast, thank you very, very much.

Opening Prayer For Strength And Mercy

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, Father, and your son Jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love and your mercy, your grace, and your forgiveness of sins through the merit of your son Jesus Christ alone. Thank you that we have salvation and eternal life because of our faith in your son Jesus Christ, and that you raised him from the dead, so that we wouldn't have to die, Father. Forgive us our sins, forgive us our greed, our pride, our lust, our covetousness, our judgment of others, gossip and slander, rash words and actions, our cowardice and our unbelief, our greed, our lies, theft. Help us to overcome them all, Father. We do believe. Be with those who are hurting and alone, who feel abandoned, those who are anxious, depressed, scared, suicidal. Comfort them, heartbroken, help them to feel your presence, draw them near to you, Father. Be with those around the world and here inside the United States as well, who are suffering for the sake of the name of your Son Jesus Christ. Please help us to care for them and defend them and comfort them in any way possible. Help us to truly care for the widow and the orphan, the poor and the needy, with deeds and actions, not merely words. Help us to truly follow the commands of your Son Jesus Christ, to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Keep us on the narrow road all the way home to you. Father, please forgive us when we stray, bring us back. Help us to save any that you put in our path for that purpose, Father. Be with our leaders in the pulpit and the state. Be with our military, our law enforcement, our firefighters, keep them safe, bring them home safe, and be with those listening to the podcast, Father, please. Be with them and their families, bless their marriages and their children. And guide my words here in your sons' name we pray. Amen.

Marriage Verse And Daily Attention

SPEAKER_00 3:23

Marriage verse for today, Song of Solomon 6, 1 through 3. Where has your beloved gone, most beautiful of women? Which way did your beloved turn that we may look for him with you? My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices to browse in the gardens and together lilies. I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine. He browses among the lilies. We give so much time and attention to other things besides our spouse after we get married. A lot of times we do a really a much better job of loving our spouse prior to marriage when they're a boyfriend or a girlfriend than we do once they're actually our spouse, which makes no sense, right? We've talked about this analogy before, but you're going to pay a lot more attention to a bank account that you've had for 20 years that has half a million dollars in it than you're going to pay to a bank account that you've only had for a couple months that just has a few hundred dollars in it. The marriage should be the same, folks. We ought to put more and more effort into our marriage the longer we have our spouse. Realize that what a treasure that is, the longer we have them.

Pool Of Bethesda And Sabbath Conflict

SPEAKER_00 4:38

John 5, 1 through 23. Afterward, Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. Inside the city near the sheep gate was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. Crowds of sick people, blind, lame, or paralyzed, lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, Would you like to get well? I can't, sir, the sick man said, for I have no one to put me in the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me. Jesus told him, Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk. Immediately, instantly, the man was healed. He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking, but the miracle happened on the Sabbath, so the Jewish leaders objected. We have a lot of problems with that in America today, folks, with being more concerned about the legality, the letter of the law than the intent of the law, right? We do it with religious freedom, which we don't even understand anymore, the purpose of the establishment clause and freedom of religion. Freedom of religion was so that we could each practice Christianity in our own way, not to pretend that the false religions were equal to Christianity. But we do it so often. We look at people, maybe principals or administrators or police chiefs, fire chiefs, people in the military. Pick a job, whatever job you have. And instead of looking at if they're accomplishing the intent of their job, not perfectly, folks, because nobody's going to do their job perfectly, we want to hammer down on a legality. But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, you can't work on the Sabbath. The law doesn't allow you to carry that sleeping mat. Imagine telling that to somebody who had been ill, paralyzed, unable to walk for 38 years, almost four decades. Oh, it's the Sabbath, you can't walk. But he replied, The man who healed me told me, Pick up your mat and walk. Who said such a thing as that? They demanded. The man didn't know if Jesus had disappeared into the crowd, but afterward Jesus found him in the temple and told him, Now you are well, so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you. Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him. So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules, but Jesus replied, My father is always working, and so am I. So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him, for he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.

Why Jesus Is Equal With God

SPEAKER_00 7:34

When people tell you that Jesus didn't claim to be God, that's a good verse to come back to, folks. So Jesus explained, I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son does also. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. In fact, the Father will show him how to do even greater works than healing this man. Then you will truly be astonished. For just as the Father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants. In addition, the Father judges no one. Instead, he has given the Son absolute authority to judge, so that everyone will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son is certainly not honoring the Father who sent him. We can't get to God without Jesus Christ. We don't need a particular denomination, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Baptist, Methodist, Church of Christ. We don't need Mary or Joseph or the disciples or the thief on the cross or any pope or pastor or priest or bishop or cleric or anything else, folks. We need Jesus Christ.

God Delivers His People With Power

SPEAKER_00 8:48

The Lord brought his people out of Egypt loaded with silver and gold, and not one among the tribes of Israel even stumbled. Egypt was glad when they were gone, for they feared them greatly. The Lord spread a cloud above them as a covering and gave them a great fire to light the darkness. They asked for meat, and he sent them quell, he satisfied their hunger with manna bread from heaven. He split open a rock and water gushed out to form a river through the dry wasteland. For he remembered his sacred promise to his servant Abraham. So he brought his people out of Egypt with joy, his chosen ones with rejoicing. He gave his people the lands of pagan nations, and they harvested crops that others had planted. All this happened, so they would follow his decrees and obey his instructions. Praise the Lord.

Anger Under Stress Reveals Character

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Proverbs 14, 28 through 29. A growing population has a king's glory, a prince without subjects has nothing. People with understanding control their anger. A hot temper shows great foolishness. Kazon 29, folks, I think this so often. When people are under stress, the person they show, the character they show, that's the real them. That's the real us. When we show people when we're under stress how we're acting, that's who we really are. Not the facade that we present, you know, we present 90% of the of the rest of the time. And so much of that depends on our relationship with Christ, right? Like when I'm stressed out and I lash out at my friends or my wife or my spouse or my parents or whatever else, guaranteed I have put distance between God and me. Right. And then the first one, I don't know why. This is just my opinion. I I don't really, I don't have anything to back that up necessarily. But 28, a growing population is the clean king's glory. A prince without subjects is nothing. To me, that always strikes me as just another way of God telling us as husbands and wives to have as many kids as we can have. At least that's one of the meanings I see.

Book Recommendation And Listener Support

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Uh, Countryside, Book of the Wise. If you get a chance, check it out. If you're looking for a middle-grade fantasy, kind of like Narnia the Hobbit, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter. This is the first book in the series, The Book of the Wise. And if you enjoy it, that one or the second book, if you'd leave a review online somewhere, those help immensely. This is a five-star review by Holiday on Amazon. The book The Wise was a fun read. I recommend it for fans of Fablehaven or any individual who wants to move to a fancy estate that has dryads, pixies, and centaurs in the backyard. Also, if you feel like you're getting something out of the podcast, if you would leave a review wherever you listen to the podcast. And if you have five or ten dollars a month, there's links in the show notes both to purchase the book or to set up that donation, and that helps a great deal. So thank you in advance.

Honor Killing Story And Ideology Warning

SPEAKER_00 11:51

Samiya Shaheed, July 2016, in Pakistan, but it was a British woman from Bradford, 28-year-old mother, was murdered by her family in an honor killing after she refused a forced marriage and sought divorce. Her ex-husband and father were convicted in Pakistan of murder. And again, this just shows folks Islam is no respecter of borders or ethnicities or heritage, right? It doesn't matter what your skin color is, what your gender is. Islam is just like leftism, right? Marxism, socialism, communism, Nazism, fascism, it's a cancer. And you can't peacefully coexist. Your body can't survive with a cancer inside of it.

Medal Of Honor Self Sacrifice

SPEAKER_00 12:43

Medal of Honor winner for today, Elmer J. Burr, first sergeant, World War II, India Company, 127th Infantry, 32nd Infantry Division, U.S. Army, December 24th, 1942. Oof, Buna, Buena, New Guinea. For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action above and beyond the call of duty. During an attack near Buna, New Guinea on 24 December, 1942, First Sergeant Burr saw an enemy grenade strike near his company commander instantly and with heroic self-sacrifice, he threw himself upon it, smothering the explosion with his body. First Sergeant Burr thus gave his life in saving that of his commander. Christmas Eve, 1942. When you think you're having a bad day, folks, accredited to Meneshaw, Winnebago County, Wisconsin, awarded posthumously, born May 11, 1908. Wisconsin died December 24th, 1942. New Guinea buried Oak Hill Cemetery, Veteran Section 163. Ninaw? Ninaw, Wisconsin. Definitely Elmer J. Burr. One of those names we need to remember, right? So I wanted to read a little segment, a passage out of a book by Lance Wubbles, I believe is how you pronounce

9 11 Heroes And Everyday Thanks

SPEAKER_00 14:08

the author's name. September 11, 2001, A Time for Heroes, also titled Simply A Time for Heroes. And I think this is just a little section. Maybe out of the preface. I'm not real sure. But September 11, 2001. It was a day of unthinkable horror and destruction. But it became a day for American heroes. Heroes were everywhere you looked. Giants rose out of relative obscurity to cast long shadows across the smoke and dust and rubble. Ordinary American citizens suddenly caught in the crossfire of terrorism, put their lives on the line to preserve the lives of others. They emerged as the truly mighty and valiant ones of Flight 93. Among the smoldering wreckage of the Pentagon, they stood with undimmed spirits, as firefighters unfurled a gigantic flag from the roof of the burned-off structure. And at Ground Zero, hundreds and thousands of people on dozens of fronts searched the mountain of unstable rubble in an epic battle to win back as many lives as could possibly be spared. In that sudden moment of time, the real heroes of our world stood out as brilliant luminaries cast against the darkest night. Most of them remain nameless to us, but their undaunted faces are engraved forever upon our hearts. They are the firefighters. They are the police officers. They are the rescue workers, they are the passengers on Flight 93. They are the ordinary citizens who became extraordinary in a moment of crisis. It is little wonder that the world seems so empty when they are gone. And I thought to myself how little we appreciate the the heroes, the true heroes that keep our country going, the ones whose names you never know, who just get up each day as a husband and a father and go to work and suffer through heat and cold and rain and snow day in and day out to take care of their family, to take care of their wife, to take care of their children. And they don't get any praise, and they get overlooked so often, sadly, too often. Um in fact, there's another paragraph out of this little excerpt that I found in the American Patriots Bible. Let's see if I can find this paragraph real quick. In a world where rock superstars, athletes, and celebrities have been elevated to hero status, we were given a lesson on true heroism and patriotism. Such acts of selfless devotion are nearly beyond our imaginations. It is little wonder, folks, that the world seems a little darker when we lose these people. We need to remember those everyday heroes every day. And tell people thank you. The police officer you see at the restaurant, firefighters you see on the side of the road or wherever. We have some hope still, folks, in America. We have some hope.

Lord’s Prayer And Farewell Blessing

SPEAKER_00 18:09

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. God bless y'all. God bless your families, your marriages, if you're married, your nation, wherever you are around the world listening. God bless America. We'll talk to y'all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.