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Open Air Theology “Reunion”
What are you doing?
He never let a cigar that way. You use a wooden match.
Preserves the flavor, you see.
But the worst curse would come upon the one who seduced him. Whose head would be crushed by the seed of the woman. And the punishment was too severe.
What's wrong with you people?
Are you ready to get back to work?
With pleasure.
So, Senor Kramer,.
What is this about?
I choose to believe the Bible because it's a reliable collection of historical documents written down by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report to us supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies and claim that their writings are divine rather than human in origin.
Don't any of you have any guts to play for blood?
I'm your huckleberry. But because of his own purpose and grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.
I don't know why you're clapping. I'm talking about you. I didn't come here to get amens. I didn't come here to be applauded. I'm talking about you. We did not come here to be applauded. But we came here to rumble.
I don't think it gets better than that right there.
Let's get rid of rumble.
Washer's last statement there.
You did.
You were right on point with that. Just drop down. That was perfect.
I was trying.
Yeah, that's awesome. My name is Tom Shepard. I'm with Grace Bible Church of Birney, Texas. A member there. Also a co-host of Open Air Theology and another co-host for Striving for Eternity Apologetics Live.
We just want to welcome you. We have a great show today. We have two guests today. But first, before we get to those, I want to introduce my left.
I'm going next?
My name is Brayden Patterson. I'm the pastor here at Grace Bible Church in Moorpark, California. It's a great blessing to be here. Our services are at 1030 on the Lord's Day Sundays. It'd be a great blessing if you live in the Ventura County area.
Simi Valley or somewhere nearby there. You should come check out our church. It'd be a great blessing. Get plugged in. Worship the Lord with us on Sundays. Also, I have a YouTube channel called Reformed Ex-Mormon.
Before we go any further, let me just say this. Our show is Open Air Theology. We would love for you to go onto YouTube, look up Open Air Theology, subscribe to that channel, share it with your mom, your stepmom, your stepgrandma, share it with your second cousin as well.
Share it with everybody and tell them to subscribe and tell them to share it as well. Also, just a great blessing to be able to partner here with Striving for Eternity. Just love the fellowship that we share with Andrew Rapoport.
Show him some love as well and go like and share his stuff as well. On that note, I'll pass the mic down to my brother below me, our special guest that we were waiting to announce.
Go ahead.
Special, not so special. As you can see, my name is Aaron Dufresne. That's Dufresne like Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne. Not Dufreshni, not Dufresni, but Dufresne. It is French. That's all you need to know about me.
No, I'm just kidding. Member at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California. Born again, Christian. I guess those are synonymous terms. I don't usually even say that. I just say Christian. That's what's the most important about me.
Married for going on 10 years to Ali and two beautiful children, Hadden, who is two years old and Talitha, who's seven. That's me.
We have one more. One more, but he's well-known. He is the one and the only, Paps Addison.
What is up, y 'all?
How you doing, Paps?
I'm doing pretty good, man. I love Idaho.
My name's Paps Addison. I go to Agape Bible Church in Payette. I'm the founder of Passing the Torch School of Apologetics. That's what I like. I like apologetics and I evangelize and do all that fun stuff.
All for the glory of God.
What's Idaho like?
I don't know anything about that.
That's bigfoot country. Straight up, dude. I live in a little town called Windsor, Idaho. I help my brother. You guys know my brother's got some medical conditions. I help him run a show on WhatNot called Open Air...
I mean, not Open Air. It's a good name.
It's called.
Idaho Coin Exchange.
I do coin auctions.
I love it.
That's awesome. As you guys noticed, I think Braden talked about it earlier, we are partnering with Striving for Eternity. Andrew Rappaport has allowed us to come alongside him. If you are seeing this stream through Striving for Eternity or on one of his Facebook page or one of ours, please go to Open Air Theology.
On YouTube, subscribe, like, and share it with everybody. Today we have a really cool show. We've gone to AI to find out what are some of these random questions that AI is going to ask us. We have to answer them and try and give a biblical answer.
Most importantly, we're here to point people to Christ. We want to see people saved. We want to announce to everyone that Christ is King, that we are all sinners, and that we need a substitute. We need to be covered by the blood of Christ.
If you don't know Him, repent and believe the gospel today.
Before we jump into AI questions, because that's what we've been really enjoying doing. By the way, if you're in the audience and you would like us to answer some questions, please shoot them over our way.
We would love to be able to interact with those things. This show is Reunion. We haven't talked to Haps Addison in a long time. Haps, what have you been up to in the last year? You just did a show the other day.
It was good to see your face back on the interwebs.
You know what? I've been going through something called the wilderness experience. I think that every believer should be taught. I think it's something every believer should go through. It's a reminder as we're wandering in the wilderness and everything, it's a reminder that it's the Lord that provides everything, the food, the clothing, the shoes not wearing out.
Just this. It was a beautiful experience. The Lord is our protector and we can hide behind Him and put our hope and faith and trust in Him. He has provided everything for me and my wife here. Just everything.
Now we're able to give back. We're able to help out this small little community here. It's beautiful.
When you say you've been through the wilderness, tell everybody what you mean by wilderness.
I was just talking.
About this with another pastor the other day that had a wilderness experience.
When.
The ministry the Lord gave me shut down, I was like, I don't have a career or anything like that. I'm an ex-criminal. I have nothing to go back to. I understand completely what.
The.
Followers of Jesus Christ, the 12 that were left standing there, and he said, don't you want to go with them as well? They said, we have nothing to go back to. Your words lead to eternal life. It was just this, where's my place now?
When you do full-time ministry for years and years and years, and you're so embedded into your community, and it's just.
This,.
Yeah, it's highs and lows, and a lot of emotion. Then there's,.
You know,.
You come under a spiritual attack as well.
You're not.
Hearing anything from God. I don't mean like a charismatic, like Shyamalan Ding Dong, but.
It's where you have to sit there.
And you're just like, gosh, you know what? Then it was like three days before Christmas, like that. It was just like, it was like, this peace came over me that I can't even explain. It is true. It's a peace that surpasses all understanding.
Then all of a sudden, I got a phone call from you guys.
You know what's amazing is that, and I know what you mean by going through a trial and tribulation, when you said peaks and valleys in our walk with Christ, that there are times when it seems like we're alone, but we know that God is faithful, that He never leaves us, He will never forsake us nor abandon us.
He's always there. In that peace, knowing that we have a hope that this world is not our home, we trust in Him that regardless of what we're going through, we're not to respond like the world does, but we're to have faith and trust in Christ and live a life, continue to be pleasing to Him, right?
Yeah.
Yo, what do you say?
You're sounding all prim and proper tonight. What's up?
I actually took a shower today.
So did I, dude.
So did I.
That's what it is.
I'm all spiritual and everything. I dress like an adult and everything.
That's why I haven't said anything yet, because I have not showered.
So, Abs, thank you, brother. Aaron, so this is your first time on the show. You're going to definitely be coming back on another day, Lord willing, of course, but Beacon Hill Binding. Tell people about that.
Boom.
Yeah, and I just want to add to what Hap said, too. Those are the most glorious times, I think, in our lives, the wilderness experiences, because beholding Him as an emir, beholding the glory of the Lord as an emir, it's when we see the glory of Christ.
The most clearly, is when we're going through seasons where the world is becoming less and less fulfilling, I guess you could say. We're not getting what we either expected or whatever.
From.
Greetings, brother. Let's continue to shower this way.
But yeah.
So I was just saying, seeing the glory of Christ more clearly in the world less and less. We went through... It's funny. I have been desiring to rebind Bibles for a long time before it all blew up. But it's kind of funny that now that it's all blown up, that's when I started.
But it doesn't bother me whatsoever because though the rebinding market, some viewers will know, some won't, that rebinding Bibles is kind of like a... It seems like a sort of a fad right now, in a sense, because there's so many people coming in and doing it.
And in one sense, that is great. And I think if people do it to the glory of God and their heart is in the right place and wanting to restore those specifically starting... Because this was my desire.
I'll just tell you my desire was those closest to me, those around me locally and stuff like that, dealing mainly with people that I know or don't know, but that I run into that are like, hey, I have this Bible.
That's my first Bible. It's got all my notes in it and stuff. It's falling apart. Can you help me? Because they heard through word of mouth that I was repairing Bibles or something. Because that's kind of how I started.
I love books and love just binding. I always had attraction to... One of my closest friends and mentors is John Stone, who's the Dean of the Masters Seminary and Masters University Library. With his knowledge of books and everything like that, he kind of took me under his wing.
Well, his knowledge of really the Puritans and things like that. Obviously, my love for books and Bibles and things goes far beyond the binding of them. That goes without saying.
However,.
I just always had sort of an attraction to how are these bound together, the beauty of them when they're done with leather, especially like leather overboard. That's something that I'm going to be learning to do as well, rebinding old books and things like that.
To make a very long story short, that was over a six-year span from now. Six years ago, just starting to take apart Bibles and see the binding and stuff like that. Then just going, man, I really would love to be able to do this someday.
Well, to start in Bible rebinding, you have to have money. That's something we never have. But the Lord opened a door. Hey, Ben. There's another fellow rebinder right there. He's a great brother. The Lord opened a door because there's a brother named Tom Pennington, who calls himself Tom the Lesser because he's not Tom Pennington in Texas at Countryside Bible Church.
Not that Tom Pennington, but Pennington up north, same exact name. They're both pastors, but Tom Pennington up north in Oregon is he does rebinding, has been doing it for a long time. His rebinding company is Telltale so it is finished rebinding.
Anyway,.
He's the one who always encouraged me to get started. Then the Lord opened a door where he texted me one day and he's like, hey, there's a bindery that's really old bindery up here in Oregon that is shutting down.
I know the guy. He's got like over $7 ,000 worth of rebinding equipment. I think we can get it for dirt cheap.
That's what.
We did. We pulled the trigger on that, got it for dirt cheap, and that's what's sitting behind me. I have this really cool from this guy. This is a 1930s Hamilton typeset dresser and it has like over $6 ,000 worth of typeset, which I will never use.
I've used some of it, but I'm coming to find out in rebinding I really just need like two types.
And I have.
Like thousands. But yeah, so I got all this equipment and really it was just the Lord's providence and huge blessing.
Do you have that one? Have you sold that one yet?
The ESV?
No, it's behind me, I think. The ESV?
Show that one, the new King James version, and then show off the 16... Do you have that 1689 in front of you right now?
Real quick, while he's looking for that, it's so funny because when he mentions Tom Pennington, I remember friending a guy by the name of Tom Pennington on Facebook thinking that it was Tom Pennington the greater.
Hey,.
Tom has some funny stories, bro, of people that know Tom Pennington's name but don't know his face. Tom the greater's face.
Are you unwrapping that Bible right now? I didn't mean for you to unwrap it.
I wanted to use it. I wanted to smell it anyway, so. Fair enough.
So,.
Tom Pennington would be at Shepherd's Conference. Tom Pennington the lesser would be at Shepherd's Conference and people would come up to him and see his name tag and he would side their Bible for them.
No.
Hey, Caleb, what's up, man? Nice seeing you, brother.
Let me say this, too.
Yeah, I know. I love the smell of the new Bible, too. Let me say this. Tom literally went out of his way. Picked all this stuff up for me. I mean, heavy-duty presses, stamping machines for where you stamp the gold gilding on the Bible and everything like that.
They're big. All this stuff, he picked it up for me, drove four hours south to meet me in Redding, California, and I drove eight hours.
North.
It was just amazing. He was just like, yeah, man, I want to bless you. That right there is the heart of a fellow rebinder who's not in it necessarily to undercut somebody else but to build other brothers up, and Tom really showed me the way in that.
He was never like, hey, I'm worried about you. You know what he told me? He goes, you're going to be a top rebinder, and I want you to be, and I'm going to help you get there. I'm like, that's not going to happen, but thank you.
The attitude is great. That's what that's all about.
Let's see that one.
Yeah, let's see that. This is a King James.
No, this is the ESV.
This is the ESV, English Standard, and I just went my own route on this stamping. I knew it was going to be confusing to some people because they might think it's an LSV, but people who know the legacy, it's a single column legacy.
From ESV.
People who know that text block would know when it says on the spine English Standard and legacy together, you're going to know it's this beautiful...
Yeah. That's good, dude.
It's just a very soft, it's called Aloran native goatskin with a dark navy liner, maroon end sheets, and this is just one of many black.
Beresfords.
From the United Kingdom. Those are like top of the line.
I saw you recently stitched one as well.
Yeah, so that one's off in the mail to its owner, and that was my first stitch job.
Yours look better than mine.
Look at that, dude. That's so cool.
Come check it out tomorrow, dude. You'll see it tomorrow. Yours look way better than mine.
Those are from the tale of the Crips. What is it? Indiana Jones.
Listen, this one, I did this one because the death of death and the death of Christ from John Owen, it just inspired me that on the hill of Calvary, the school is where Christ paid my sin debt.
Anyway.
Aaron, real quick, that's my wife right there. She says she wants a King James, so we're going to have to put you to work.
Let's do it. That's great.
Braden, is there anything else before we get on with the show?
I don't think so.
Give a shout out.
Real fast to the YouTube channel.
Again.
I don't have the little things. We are partnering with Striving for Eternity and Apologetics Live with Andrew Rapoport. There it is right there. We are Open Air Theology. Andrew is helping us get popular.
If you guys have not done it,.
Get popular.
If you guys have not done it, go to the YouTube channel. I've got to say it the way it is. I just say things.
I'm sorry.
Go get another shower.
I need to clean up. I'm already dirty.
I'm a Baptist. I don't want to get bathed. I want to get submerged.
That's right. None of this sprinkling stuff. Anyway. Go to the YouTube channel that says Open Air Theology. Click on Like and Subscribe and Share it, please. Yes, I know. I know, Melissa. We're losers.
That's why we're here. Losers together.
Today's show is about answering questions. We want to be able to answer your questions. Hopefully, we'll be able to edify other believers. If you don't know Christ, we want to be able to answer those questions as well.
Because we're just now introducing this, we went to AI to ask some random questions that AI popped for us. If you have questions of your own that you want answered, shoot. The hard ones, we're going to give to Braden and Haps.
Me and Aaron are going to take the easy ones.
Real quick, before you start, let me just bend. The stitch took three to four hours, I think. I did it in sections. I just wanted to answer his deep theological question there first before we got going.
It was a Q &A nonetheless.
Haps, real quick, pick a number between one and ten.
One.
And ten.
Seven.
AI question number seven. It says this. Is post-traumatic stress disorder a legitimate condition, or is it overdiagnosed in today's culture?
It is a real condition. A lot of the men that I would get back from overseas when they would come into my program. I'm a stickler on that. It's a real post-traumatic stress disorder is real. They can be talking to you and like that, be back over there.
They're not there right now. They're over there. Do I think it gets overdiagnosed?
Sure.
I think so. I really dealt with the real deal. There's a lot of over...
There is.
There's a lot of that.
You can't throw the baby out with the.
Bathwater either.
Let me ask you this. There's a follow-up to this. It really doesn't matter our opinion and stuff like that, not that that's just your opinion, but what does the Bible provide for sufficient resources to address these issues, or does God also provide additional tools other than.
Scripture? He provides tools, of course, with Scripture. You have doctors. If there's something wrong with your health, what if something's wrong with your mind? Your mind's still a part of your body.
Sometimes, like my dad. My dad was in Vietnam. My dad was... Have you ever seen the movie Hammond or Hill? Yes.
That's my dad. My dad was.
The sergeant of that platoon. Growing up, we couldn't watch The Deer Hunter or anything like that because he would just snap. He was a believer in Jesus Christ. I mean, hardcore. He went to shepherd school through Calvary Chapel.
Him and my uncle planted a church in Hosanna. He would definitely have those moments, but now that he's older,.
He.
Can't go out and hear fireworks and stuff like that, but he's not the same dad when I was younger. I do see some healing over time.
Braden, being a firefighter, a fighter-fighter?
He's a real fighter. He's a.
Fighter-fighter. Fighting fires,.
Have you run with people that have lost their homes. Or maybe you've lost a loved one that may be driving by their home? What happens? Is there post-traumatic stress disorder? Is it real?
It absolutely is a real thing. I would.
Say yes. It.
Can be in a very... All things in the world right now, it seems like there's over-diagnoses with so many different things, but it is a real thing. I would go back... A couple things. I think going back to something that Hap said is true.
We go to doctors. We have math teachers that is secular but helpful to us. Math could be improved to us if we had a presupposition taught to us in math school that God is a logical, consistent God, therefore we can trust these math methods.
You can go that route, but still, the secular math thing helps. I think even in the medical side of things as well, on one hand, we should be trusting our diseases with God, but that doesn't mean that He hasn't given us the command to go out and subdue and take dominion over the world.
Part of that, I think, is to fight against those parts of curses, the curse that we experience in the world from the fall. I think one of those things is mental things. Mental things of different capacities.
Going to the firefighting example, yeah, no. Firefighters pulling out burned, charred.
Dead bodies.
Parents losing children. Real things that affect people in a long, drawn-out.
Course.
Sometimes, are they a result of sin? They can be, but not all the time. Like, for example, a mental chemical imbalance is something that almost every woman experiences after having a child. They have a child, and guess what happens?
Post-partum.
Depression.
It's chemical-related, not related to actions or a lack of ability on their side. It's a chemical imbalance, and that's what's going on right there. When it comes to PTSD, there can be things that will affect people in the long run, and it's something that they have to battle with.
They should be living up to God with and helping with in different ways. I hope that answers your question.
It is good, but I want to move on to another question on this, because it's very much related. Aaron, and you're up.
That's a good answer to this one.
It's going to be very related, so I think it's going to tie it in great. Can Christians use psychotropic drugs for conditions like anxiety or depression, or does the reliance on medication reflect the lack of faith?
Follow-up, before you answer that. Is anxiety purely a spiritual issue, or is it possible for physical and spiritual factors to coexist, and where would you go in the Bible to look for biblical trust or medical sciences?
Sure. I think, first of all, I don't want to say too much because this was kind of like when I read when I was looking through some of these questions. They're important questions that I think you know, Brayden answered, I think, even the one that you just asked really well, because it's a both-and.
It's a both-and situation because Scripture does give answers, and I got some here, and I even want to speak to it on a personal level of personal experience, which isn't authoritative, but I'll tell you it's authoritative when it got submitted to the Word of God.
But.
I did want to say that Brayden answered that well because what you have in these situations is you have the common grace of God given to us through certain mediums like doctors and stuff, but yes, I think just to rewind just a little bit, just like Hap said right away, that yes, it can be over-diagnosed because we live in a fallen world, and there's going to be thousands upon thousands of doctors who have no authority to stand upon, and so they're diagnosing things that they believe are the solution, not just diagnosing, but giving a solution that may not be the full and final good solution that God would have for this person in a fallen world.
And so it's a both-and. I think you have to be very careful with who you source out for those things, but I don't want to speak directly to a psychotropic situation either because on the surface, I would disagree as far as I've never seen anything good come out of psychotropics, but again, that's a non-authoritative statement in a sense because I don't know enough about that drug.
So without even getting into the details of that specific drug or other drugs, I think Brayden just nailed it on the head saying that there's common graces God has given us.
I think what's expected sometimes from either the watching world or even other Christians who are frustrated with their spiritual state, whether it be PTSD or something else like spiritual battles that they're going through, they don't want people to come along and just slap a sticker on it or a scripture sticker on it and say, get over it.
However, I think that there's a way to do that without just saying, okay, here's this text, go and be alone with this text. There's a way to come along somebody with the text and encourage them in the text of scripture to trust God rather than.
Just.
Like I said, giving them a scripture and saying, get over the issue.
Which I think that goes back to that part of, part of, so I think that that's seen in the church, right? Because.
As a shepherd, as a pastor, you're supposed to.
Be shepherding those that are a part of your flock, those that Christ has given you charge of, those that you are acting as an under-shepherd over. And part of that is that you are caring for them in ways that you can't, which is sometimes in these depressed, anxious states and it's not just a, all right, we had one meeting, high five, all right, bye, I'm not going to do that again.
It's a matter of discipleship over a long period of time that can see those, that fruit. I mean, all of us need to be continually reminded in different means and methods from different portions of scripture in different seasons of our lives to keep our trust and eyes on Christ.
And so, no one's above that. And so, we can all follow those seasons.
So, I think that's an important thing to do, too, is, especially as for Christians, is if the Bible is going to speak on it and if we can get help from the scriptures, you know, from whatever we're struggling with, first and foremost, seek your spiritual help from your pastor, from somebody who is caring for your soul.
And.
Start there. That should be the number one priority. But there are cases where, there are extreme cases where people, you know, does it mean that it's just simply a lack of faith? Does it mean that your anxiety is when you feel your heart beat coming and so anxious that you can't even breathe?
Is that some, is that brought on by a sin issue? You know, perhaps, maybe, maybe there is some guilt there. And you need to talk that out with your pastor.
But not always.
But not always. Yeah, but not always. There are other times, like you brought up post-traumatic stress, or postpartum stress, right, with a baby. I mean, that happens. Me and you were talking about this the other day, Brayden, and you were talking about that some drugs that they give you actually cause, one of the symptoms of it, actually cause you to be more anxious.
That's right. So how can that be a sin issue?
Yeah, I mean, that just proves that there's something chemically that's going on right there. If it can produce more anxiety, it doesn't mean that it's a function of low faith. It means that there's a chemical there's something going on inside of you that's causing that to take place.
I think scripturally, too, I think you can see a very clear, in my opinion, on how I would interpret this, in Timothy, where Paul is instructing Timothy to drink a little bit of wine, that's on the coattail of do not accept an accusation against an elder, but on the basis of two or three witnesses.
Don't accept an anonymous accusation. And then right after that, drink wine for your upset stomach. Why would Paul be instructing Timothy that? Because Timothy is going to experience.
The previous said verse with.
Accusations coming in against him. So I think, what is that going to produce in Timothy at the time? As any pastor,.
Any pastor that has ever shepherded.
Any flock, guess what's going to be inside of your gut.
Is worry.
And Paul tells Timothy, it's not because it's a lack of faith on your side. He says, go ahead and drink a little bit of wine to help soothe your stomach. Take this medicinal.
Type of object.
For you and your help.
And we know wine cheers a man's heart, right? Absolutely. I mean, according to Scripture.
I also.
Think that.
One thing that being a pastor all those years and everything and having to really, you know, talk to people in your congregation and everything,.
Nine times out of ten when I started seeing them having to take some type.
I'm having anxiety.
It was always an excuse to continue sinning and continue to take certain like marijuana or I take gummies because I can't do this or that. And then it's like I show them grace and mercy and I sit down with them and I go, okay, well, you know, for how long?
How long?
I remember one guy telling me, he goes, well, I've been, you know, I started. I never done weed in my entire life and then all of a sudden I got married.
I mean, I got divorced.
I got married. Wait, what? I got divorced.
And I go, okay.
And he goes, I was just like really and I go, all right, you know, and I go, well, what was that? He goes, ten years ago. And I go,.
You know, so, you know,.
There's always there has to be an even balance, you know, because it could become habit forming and idolatry, you know, and I mean like full blown. But, yeah.
So, Brandon Skousa asked this, he goes, is the chemical imbalance no longer simple? And I think what he's saying that, correct me if I'm wrong here. Hey, what's up, Michelle? If your chemical imbalance is causing a person to sin, okay, now we have an issue.
Because there is no excuse for sin, especially for the Christian. So, if you can't blame your sin on a quote unquote chemical imbalance. Right. We would all agree with that. And so, I think the counsel there from, for every, not being me, not being a pastor, would be to repent, you know, repent of these sins.
And whatever is causing these issues, I mean, listen, and I think somebody else wrote it, they said, you know, you can't just throw a verse at it. And I've seen some biblical counselors say, here, repeat this verse.
If you're suffering from anxiety and worrying and stuff like that, what does the scripture say with regards to anxiety? You know, be anxious for nothing. Repeat this prayer 30 times a day. That's not the way the Bible's meant to be read.
It's not a prescription for a condition. You know, get in the Word of God and read what God is saying about your situation. Well, also. Yeah, go ahead.
I would just say it's also important to state, you know, I think we're, we have the presupposition, all four of us right now, we presuppose that this person is in Christ. And if they're not, then it is, the answer is repent and believe the gospel.
But secondarily, if they're in Christ, I think that Brandon brought up a really good point. And I think you're answering it well. And what comes to my mind right away is Colossians 3, right? The put on and put off.
Therefore, if you've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above. What are the things above? Well, obviously, what we have from above is down here, the Word of God. And where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
And I think, well, let me just finish reading it. For you have died. That's the point. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry, just like Haps was saying.
Skip.
Down to verse 8, but now you also put them all aside, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.
Verse 10, and have put on the new self, who is being renewed to a true knowledge, according to the image of the one who created him. So I think the thrust of this passage, obviously, is you've died with Christ, and you're considering the members of your earthly body as dead to these sins.
And as you consider that, you're setting your mind. And so a big part of anxiety, even with a chemical imbalance, is going to be in the mind. And setting your mind on those things that God has prescribed is the answer.
So, matter of fact, I want to follow that real quick. In Romans chapter 12, verse 2, it says, And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, just like what Aaron was saying there in Colossians.
It starts in our thinking. So, Christian, what are we filling up our minds with? Are we filling up our minds with the world? Are we filling up our minds with trash? Are we filling up our minds with everything other than the means of grace, by the very Word of God?
Are we going to church? Are we spending time with God and His Word? Are we spending time meditating on the cross of Christ? So that is the solution. So there are many ways that the Bible is the answer for whatever we're going through, that the Scripture is the answer.
Yeah, and you know, just before we move on, I think earlier on, when you had first posed that question.
To me,.
One big thing, when you even first started asking Brayden the initial question, one thing that pops in my mind right away, and I was saying about a, you know, yeah, Brandon's bringing up some good points, by the way, as he continues to say, just anxiousness is a sin, and it's all to be repentant of.
Absolutely, yeah.
But,.
You know, from personal experience, but then personal experience back with the authority of the Word of God, which came into my life, back in 2006, July 12, 2006, I was not a believer. I was 18 years old.
My brother Luke was 19, and he had a heart attack, and he died. Instantly. And this is when we're living back in Massachusetts, where I'm from, and you know, those are, you know, I don't want to go into the whole story, because it's very long, but I'll just never forget that time, right?
Obviously, I was not in Christ. My world was flipped upside down. He was my best friend. We did everything together, action, sports, skateboarding, snowboarding, snowmobiling, you name it. We lived on a farm.
We did everything together. And then all of a sudden, he was taken in the blink of an eye, and nobody knew it. He had six-pack abs, ran four miles a day, raced dirt bikes. I mean, the guy was healthy as a horse.
So he had what was called a rhythmogenic dysplasia of the right ventricular valve. So the right valve in his heart became fatty tissue instead of muscle tissue, and nobody knew it. And then all of a sudden, his heart stopped.
So when that happened, I can distinctly remember in the weeks following that that I would be just... I wouldn't even be thinking about him. I would just be talking to somebody just like I'm talking to you guys.
And it was like Haps hit the nail on the head when he talked about people that he's known. All of a sudden, I would almost black out. My heart would beat out of my chest, and I would have full-blown panic attacks where I couldn't even stand up.
And so I never got diagnosed, and I don't know anything about post-traumatic stress disorder. But what I can tell you is that there is stress after something happens.
Traumatically,.
Right? And it's just.
Like you were saying too, Braden, about people seeing certain things in the field. For me, it was the loss of my brother. And the reason I bring that up is because nothing, absolutely nothing changed.
I went years, six-year span in which my mother was praying fervently for me through this whole entire time because she came to the Lord in 2006 after wanting to end her own life because of how difficult this loss was of losing her son.
She wasn't in Christ. She grew up around the church and stuff, but then she came to faith in Christ. Everything changed for her, and she prayed for me fervently. And in those prayers was God protecting me over the six-year span of sin.
And then I can remember my anger being so anger, the sin of anger, the sin of anxiety, all of this to the extent where I was like, wanted to fight people that even talked good about Luke, even brought him up and naturally like, Luke was a great dirtbiker and I'd be like, shut up or I'm gonna kill you.
Like that's how bad my anxiety was and stuff like that. So this was before I was converted, right? Well, I got converted and the text, it was all the Bible. And my mom can testify to this. I remember she came, I was in a program at the time, and she came and visited me and I remember she was just like her jaw dropped on the floor because I told her I want to go to Bible college.
Like that's all I knew at the time when I got converted was I just wanted to study the Bible. And, but all of the anxiety, all of that, it's not that it went away completely. It's that it was always taken care of with the Word of God.
Be anxious for nothing, like Brandon said, is a, sorry, I'm reading this comment now I'm getting distracted. It is a command. And so when you love Christ, you want to follow His commands, but you can't do it without the help of His Spirit.
Yeah, go ahead.
Yeah, real quick. So Braden, pastorally speaking, as a pastor, Melissa talks about what if your anxiety is due to abuse or trauma, which typically it is, it would be something that you've gone through, some type of a trauma, and this actually has been brought up.
Aaron shared his experience. Haps has known people that have gone through this. Let's say, for example, and this was brought up in a Sunday school class a while back, a young lady, a young girl is getting raped, you know, and.
A.
Terrible, horrible experience. And she is, the guys didn't get convicted, it's a relative or whatever, and every time she sees this man, you can imagine what's going through her thoughts, what's going through her mind because of the trauma that she's experienced.
In what way would that be sinful?
Yeah, I wouldn't say that that's a sinful, that that's a normal. Honestly, I think that that response is actually a good God-given response. Part of our human gifting from God being created in the image of God is having emotion, and that's a, that is an emotional response.
Absolutely, it needs to be tempered with eyes focused on Christ, trusting in His sovereignty, not denying any of those things, but I definitely think that that is an example where that, we would be cruel, and it would be wrong for anyone to look at that woman and say, you're in sin right now.
You're in sin right now. Something that always comes to my mind in this conversation is, I think we end up defining a lot of things as anxiety that I don't think always is. So what I mean by that is, there's a difference between dread.
Anxiety. There's a difference between trusting in God's sovereignty and being completely out of control, not knowing what tomorrow is going to bring. For example,.
To the point of not being able to function, is that what you're saying? Yeah, so.
Christ in the garden before He's crucified. Not my will, but Your will be done. What happens to Him? He's sweating large bloods of blood, sweating drops of blood, and in this dread, I would say, Christ is not being anxious for tomorrow, but He is experiencing the agony of what is to come.
And so I think that you and I can experience things trusting in God's sovereignty and it's not dipping into that anxious, being anxious for something. Does that.
Make sense? Yeah, I like that. I want to go to 2 Corinthians 1. You know, God is always at hand working in us in our sanctification, right? So there's things, there's affliction, sometimes we fall, we sin, and we need to be disciplined.
And God works all things out for the believer, right? For our good. So no matter what we're going through, we know that God's hand is in it. You know, and when we read 2 Corinthians 1, verse 9, it says, Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves that we would not have confidence in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.
And I think what happens is sometimes even when things are going so good in our life, you know, Haps was talking about the wilderness experience, you know, that sometimes we get complacent. You know, sometimes we stray, we are prone to wander.
Lord, I feel it, you know? And we walk away instead of being dependent upon our sovereign God in all things. So no matter what you're going through, Christian, regardless of what it is, it's so that you don't depend on yourself, but to depend on our sovereign God, depend on Christ.
And I think if we keep our eyes on Christ, that He'll get us through it no matter how hard it is.
That's right. I really, I'm confident with what you just said, Tom. I think that that is very well said.
I have to look back.
At the example of Christ, though, in the garden, and it says that He was in agony. Yeah. And that wasn't because Christ was in a sinful state. And you and I can be in agony that a lot of people would define as anxiety.
Even though it's not anxiety,.
We're feeling.
Dread for what is around us or what is to come to us, a conversation that's going to take place because we still trust in the sovereignty of God, right? Amen. There's a lot of things that can produce that.
And I think maybe one of the differences between dread and anxiety is pending the person's perspective and trust on God's sovereignty. Would that be a fair way of saying.
That? So almost like saying that a person is actually wallowing in their dread.
Yeah. Maybe in the dread, maybe instead of having your eyes, you could have your eyes focused on two places, either up at God at that time in the dread or looking down at your hands and worrying that you have your hands empty.
God, why did you do this to me?
Right.
And ultimately, it's hard to differentiate with because we all have these different emotions and feelings and whatnot. But I really, I am, I just think back, Christ couldn't be sinful, but yet he was feeling agony and dread the day before he knew what was coming that night.
He knew it. And that's why he was in this state of sweating drops of blood was because of the pressure, right? The pressure that's on him. That's the pressure. We couldn't look at Christ and say, Oh, Christ, you're just not trusting in God's sovereignty.
You're acting sinful right now. No. No, he's not. He's trusting fully in God's will to be done, the Father's will to be done. Yet he still had agony. He still had dread. He still had pressure. He suffered all those things for you and I.
Yeah. I mean, think about, you know, number one, I mean, that place that he was at. What was to take place? The entirety of hell was getting ready to be poured out on him. His Father was going to crush him.
Wow. I mean, yeah.
And that's where I'm saying, I really, I'm a firm believer that just because you believe in God's sovereignty doesn't mean that you don't have dread in your life. Right. And it would be, I think, I think it would be erroneous of us to say that the feeling of dread is vanquished at a trust of God's sovereignty.
That's not the case.
You know, I.
Also think that, you know, like when it, you really gotta take a step back and see, you know, like where is this person in his walk? That's right. In the Lord at the time. You know, are they infants in Christ?
Are they going through growing pains as they're starting to mature in Christ? Are they mature Christians that are going through something, anxiety of some sorts and stuff like that? I think that's, you know, a lot of times pastors, when they have dealt with this so many.
Times,.
They become desensitized, you know, by the reality of somebody struggling or having anxieties or, you know, and knowing how to bear their burdens and how to really...
So, in a way, showing a lack of compassion to people who are suffering?
Yes. Yes. And so, you know, because we're all sinners in need of a Savior, you know, we all fall short of the grace of God. And none of us have got this all figured out, you know, but we have the Scriptures, we have, you know, fellowship, you know, and, you know, again, if you're plugged into a solid church and, you know, there's just so many.
Prescriptions.
That have been given to us through Scripture and through the finished work of Christ that we can stand and we can know that we can stand on His promises,.
You know.
I just, you know, having just gone through everything that my wife and I had just gone through just for the last... It's been a long two years, you know. And there'd be times when I was just so angry, I wanted to take it out on everybody, you know, and then there was times of repentance, you know, and so it's just...
Wilderness experience is fun, you know.
You know, but.
Yeah, I just...
That's all I got to say.
Let's do this one now. Kind of shift gears a little bit here. Not so much on the anxiety and stuff like this, but still in the realm of suffering and persecution, but question number two is this by AI.
It says, the Bible teaches that true believers, that Christians, will suffer persecution. What does it mean? What does it say when there is a lack of visible persecution in American Christianity? What does it indicate about our faith and our witness?
That is interesting.
So let's do this again. This could be convicting really for everybody in the United States watching. When we're talking about true persecution, we are talking that every true believer in Christ should suffer.
Paul's expecting that. As a matter of fact, in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says, if there be no resurrection, that we above all men should be most pitied. You know, why? Because he's assuming that we are making sacrifices to live this Christian life, that we are forsaking the world, that, you know, there should be a difference in us going to church, and the only difference between us and our neighbor is the car has gone in the driveway on a Sunday.
So let's think about this again. The Bible teaches that true believers will suffer persecution.
Why.
In the United States aren't Christians suffering?
How do we know they're not?
Well, I mean, really suffering persecution for the sake of the faith. I don't know anybody.
Who's...
So, yeah, we're going to have to define suffering. I don't know anybody who's really truly taking a beating because of their faith in the United States.
You mean like evangelism?
Just, I mean, what kind of persecution is anybody facing here? Yeah, and I think.
That defining persecution or suffering and persecution is obviously important because I think we all know people who. You men have done plenty of open air preaching and never been punched in the face.
I shouldn't say never. I'm saying it doesn't happen all the time.
So, obviously, we understand that the severity of the persecution is going to vary. It's always on the spectrum. I understand what the question is getting at insofar as you know, why is there such a lack of persecution?
Well, it's obviously because there's a lack of evangelism. There's a lack of open truth-telling, whether it be an open air preacher, which is very, very valuable, which is, I think, is part of another AI's question, is that a lot of the American church sees it as very, very invaluable.
They look down upon that form of evangelism, which is the silliest thing ever. And we could talk more about that, I guess. However, I think that I mean, like, I'll just take my own church, for example.
Every single Sunday, there is a large group of people who go out and evangelize every Sunday after church in our local community. And there's one group that goes out to the bus station and open airs. There's another group that goes door to door.
But not everybody has a story of being struck or hit or spit on. But a lot of people have stories of being mocked and laughed at and scorned and stuff like that. So, and most of the time, with a mature Christian, you also have to remember that people aren't going to go and boast about that type of stuff.
That's something you wear in your heart. But on the other hand,.
Yeah,.
Obviously, what the question is getting at is the lack of evangelism in the American church, which suffers no persecution then. I mean, the result is.
No persecution. So what would happen, let's say, and on that point, you know, let's say if the American church was faithful. I mean, just think about it. If all of our churches were full of a congregation that were to go out weekly and do door to door evangelism.
So the question was here brought up. It says, I think also we should take into account the more just laws in America that is restraint in the persecution that could be. Yes, but at the same time, I guarantee you if the church would be active the way that we should be active, it would be illegal tomorrow.
Right, because of the truth and the light and darkness. So the more light that's going to shine, the more darkness is.
Going to come out. Yeah. Also, you know, like a scripture that comes to mind is Philippians 129. Not only has it been granted, gifted for you to believe in the name of Jesus Christ, but also to share in his suffering.
So what does that imply? And so and then.
You know, it's like like up here in Idaho.
Let me just say this. It's like over in Illinois when I was preaching out in Illinois and everything. They were really fascinated. A lot of the pastors and churches out there were fascinated that I would do open air you know, just do open air and preaching and evangelism and stuff like that.
And they go, it's still foreign to them because where they lived, they lived out in farmland. They go, we evangelize at the church. We've had them bring people to the church. And you know, Braden hasn't been in Cali that long and stuff like that, but there is a grip load of evangelists all out there.
I mean, grip loads,.
You know, and yeah, Rick Comfort's out here. Yeah, he's down there in.
Bellflower.
That's my hometown.
Aaron and I are going to be doing it here soon, huh, Aaron? You're coming out with me.
You're going to have a blast.
I would even say it goes beyond evangelism. I mean, you look at the hecklers that John MacArthur has at Grace Community Church and the reviews that go against because of the biblical teaching because truth is being proclaimed from the pulpit as well.
So Braden, watch out.
Out in California.
You're going to have so much fun out there evangelizing.
Yeah, I'm so excited for it. We actually, that's going to be at our next leadership meeting. We're going to be discussing some of that stuff. So listen, I'm getting installed tomorrow and so listen, I'm excited.
I'm super stoked about what the future has just to be able to herald Christ.
And everywhere we go.
It has already been done in place. It's going to be good.
Okay, another question. You got a couple more? You guys up for it?
Let's do it.
Okay, question number one. Another evangelism question. Why is there so much pushback among Christians regarding evangelism? Follow up on that. Well, let's go ahead and answer that and I'll do the follow up later.
I just do evangelism by the way I live. I don't need to tell nobody about it. The best evangelism is done when I don't open my mouth.
Maybe so. Yeah, you just.
Keep quiet over there, all right?
Don't say a word.
If somebody has that perspective, they don't have a biblical perspective anyway.
That's right.
Not much to say if you don't have a clear biblical understanding of the gospel. I think there's pushback for that reason. I think obviously we've been dealing for a long time now with churches that are filled.
With.
Pastors because it starts from the pulpit, right? What I mean by that is that people like priests because their teaching isn't strong on the absolute necessity of the truth. That's one thing our pastor has been so strong on since the beginning, right?
You have to give them the content of the message or else they cannot be saved. Just by the way, another shout out to Ray Comfort. He has been such a huge help to me whenever I have given the gospel. I've always gone, and it's been my own flavor in the sense that it comes from my heart and my mind in the scripture.
But I'll tell you, it is... I feel like we share this same personality. When people ask him, how long do you need to get to know somebody before you give them the gospel? The answer is usually three seconds or something like that or five minutes or whatever.
The reason is because you already know everything you need to know about that person to give them the gospel. Sure, you can... On an earthly level, you can connect with somebody and want to be friends with them, but that should not create a barrier between how fast you get them the truth of eternal life.
You already know that they are under the wrath of God and if they're not in Christ, and that they need to hear the truth. Literally, everybody... I work for a company called American Vision Windows. I used to install...
Now I'm in the warehouse, but I used to install... There's 19 crews. Every single person has heard the gospel from my lips because I've had them stuck in my truck, which was awful. Every single time, I've done the same exact thing.
I haven't had to beat around the bush. I've had to just say to them, did you grow up going to church? No, not really. My parents are this, my parents are that. Oh, that's cool. Have you ever heard the gospel before?
They're like, no. And I'm like, okay, so let me tell you. I literally just tell them, let me ask you a question, and I bring them through the law. By the time I bring them through the law, they're like, yeah, I mean, I guess, wow, yeah, I'm on my way to hell.
I'm like, does that concern you? Yeah, that concerns me. Well, it concerns me too. Or if they say, no, it doesn't concern me. It's always the, well, it concerns me. And let me tell you what God did so that you wouldn't have to suffer His judgment.
And almost every single time, because of a clear gospel message that these people have never heard because they grew up hearing God loves them. Almost every single time the people have said to me, wow, I've never heard that before.
I think what it is is that most people have a wrong understanding of who God is, that He's going to be an all-loving, tolerant God that's just going to dismiss their sin in the end, and that they'll be able to negotiate some type of a deal when they die.
A lot of people have that understanding. They think their good's going to outweigh their bad. Or, and far less people, at least the people that I meet, some people actually think that their life has just been such trash that God won't forgive them.
Again, failing to understand who God is. On the forgiven side. Yeah, on the forgiven side. And so when we tell people about that, and I think the question really talks about the pushback among Christians, and I think that's a pretty broad paintbrush, but I think it still applies to even people in Reformed churches.
I mean, when you look at the percentage of the people that's actually doing, and I'm not saying going out onto the streets, that's a very low percentage. But even in their everyday lives, I mean, doing what you do, Aaron, is uncommon.
Even in Reformed circles.
And,.
I don't know the answer to that. I don't know why. I don't know why people are failing to do that. I think it's fear.
I mean, I've talked to many Christians that that's the thing. I work with Christians, right? And every single time I'd share the gospel, they would be like, wow, man. People say that to Ray Comfort all the time.
You have a gift. You have a gift. How do you do that? Dude, just open your mouth and say it. Stop being a wuss and just give them the gospel. Loosen out, man. We've all done it. But, especially if you're a man, just man up.
If you can look like a fool in front of somebody else for a worldly reason, why can't you do it for Christ?
It comes down to, are you ashamed of the gospel? Because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for all those that believe. It's just like, why wouldn't you want to go?
When I came to know.
Jesus Christ, let me tell you, dude. I wanted to tell everybody, dude. I'm free.
I'm free. It'll never stop. I mean, even though.
I'm not doing what I was doing before, I got people that come in here to my work. I get evangelized. I'm on WhatNotSellingCoins. Boom. I get to evangelize them.
I like that you say, I get to evangelize them. I get to.
Partner in this.
For me, it.
Gets me pumped up, dude. I get so pumped up when I talk about Jesus, dude, that it's so funny because I send people on my show to either Matt Slick or Rap Report if they have any questions because a lot of them had questions.
On there about cults and stuff.
Like that. Now, I'm evangelizing. I got.
My nephew.
Married a Mennonite.
Her whole family got kicked out of the Mennonites.
I've.
Been getting to evangelize them. I'm like,.
You've been in this your whole life? Yeah. What's the gospel? I don't know. I'm like, oh,.
This is where God shows up.
I give them the gospel.
Now,.
She wants to hear sermons. Now, she wants...
I get to see God at work. Our God that saved us, we get to see Him. Or sometimes we don't.
We don't get to see that. We know that God is at work because God's word said, so therefore it is.
This question or this statement right here, send them to Ray. That's not a bad idea. That's not a bad idea. The point is, if you don't believe that your gifting is to be able to share the gospel, if you think that you're going to fail or have a hard time sharing the gospel, point them to somebody who can.
That's what Andrew did. Andrew went to his brother. He showed him to his brother. When you look at the parable of the talents, Jesus came back. He came back as the owner who gave the talents to be a steward over one talent.
He said, why didn't you invest it? Why didn't you invest it? All he was saying is, hey, you know what? Go invest it. Give it to somebody who can do it. If you're not able to get up and go, help. Send them to people who can do it, who will be able to influence them and share the gospel themselves.
I just want to clarify what I said too because I was obviously hammering on those who can and.
Don't.
Hammering in a good sense, encouraging. Open your mouth. You have a Bible. You have the knowledge.
Yes, it needs to be nuanced a little in this sense. One, there are people that can't. We understand that. What is it that brother Paul Washer always said? There should be marks on your hands from either holding the rope or going down.
If you're holding the rope, you're giving. You're doing other things to sow into those who are doing that other work. Also, the other end of it would be that I don't believe it's a gifting. However, there are going to be people who are more articulate than others and also.
People who.
Talk more. I guess that's what I mean by articulate. There are other people who are introverts, but at the same time, that doesn't excuse you from the command, the obvious command in Scripture to do it.
Send them to Ray in this sense. This could be going anywhere to get the training. That could be a saying just to say, go somewhere and get trained. Also, just get the confidence in your God, in the Scripture, in the power of the Scripture where even if you get four words out, you'll feel so.
Happy.
That you honored Christ as opposed to not saying anything. Just don't make an excuse of like, I'm not good at talking. That's what Moses said. I don't have lips, dude.
You know what's interesting in that sometimes when we go out, there's a kid named Noah who comes out with us sometimes. I think he's an 11-year-old boy. We were talking about how God puts somebody in front of you when you go out.
He'll walk up to people, and he'll look at adults, and he'll start communicating the gospel. Now, no doubt, I could be able to communicate the gospel better than this guy, this little boy, but I'm not going to go over there and interrupt this little boy.
God put that man in front of him, and God will use you. He will use you. The words that you're going to say, your personality, your mannerisms, you will be the instrument that God uses to communicate exactly what the words that come out of your mouth is what God ordained you to say.
He'll use that.
That's another thing, too. I've walked away from many conversations sometimes where I'm like, man, I blew that. This is my prayer. God, use the weakness. Whatever I just said that was true of your word, use that to convert the person, and they get the glory.
I just want to answer, Melissa, I think every single one of us here would say, leave tracts.
Everywhere. Absolutely. 100%. What do you think about tracts there, Brayden?
Terrible idea. Never use them.
Brayden's.
Saucy today.
People have to see my hands.
If I do that. I like to keep my hands.
In my pocket, small hands.
Anti-spurgeonite, bro.
No,.
Obviously, I will say this on tracts. Tracts, I think, are an important topic. Tracts, when I was LDS, I found a tract in the Desert Industry bookstore, and I still remember seeing how my parents reacted to that.
Tracts have a special place in my heart in what they communicated to me when I was very young. However, I have seen tracts, I think, on one hand, tracts can go places that a lot of people can't. They can be handed out somewhere and then end up in somebody else's pocket, end up on this table, end up wherever.
That right there says a.
Worthy amount of weight with tracts,.
A lot of times I think people can utilize tracts as an excuse to not tell somebody the gospel.
Just don't do that. Good point.
Personally, one thing, it was some years ago, now when I'm doing street preaching, I have no issue with handing out tracts, but at one point, I was like, man, I don't want tracts in my hand, because that will then tempt me just to hand something to somebody and not tell them.
And let them walk away. That's a good point. Here's a better idea. If you have a tract in your hand, walk them through the tract. Usually, there's a lot of the tracts that we use. They have the gospel on.
Go through the verses. What does it say about God? What does it say about man? What does it say about sin? What does it say about the substitute? What does it say about the resurrection? Walk them through the...
I think Melissa's point was many times I would leave... Ray has so many good tracts. He had a credit card one. That one's sick. You literally leave it in the credit card slot at a gas station. Somebody's got to take that.
The wallet one, did you ever see.
That one? I haven't seen it. Drop that sucker.
On the ground. It looks like a dang old wallet.
Drop that sucker on the ground.
And you leave that. Somebody's going to pick it up. Of course, they're probably going to be PO'd that it's not real, but they'll probably be interested enough to read it. I don't know. You don't know.
But at the same time, I think you should drop tracts everywhere if you have them. Because now, just like Brayden said, it's not that complicated. I think that if you have tracts, drop them everywhere, but don't rely on them.
Use your mouth to get good at that.
I think that a lot of times,.
I didn't.
Really use tracts that much. Maybe a few times. That just wasn't my.
Get down.
But I think that when we're out there, what we need to remember, we're doing this to glorify God. We want God to be glorified, to be exalted up on high.
A lot.
Of people, they just bring them to their pastor to hear the gospel. It's like, well, is the pastors training those within the church and reminding them of the gospel? Is communion being served regularly?
You have the gospel on full display right there.
I would.
Even say, to be honest with you, I wish Christians did that at the very least, though,. Haps. Asking people, hey, come to church with me. If every Christian did that, man, man, oh, man, oh, man, it'd be a lot worse than we have today because we're so timid to even ask somebody how they're doing in the morning, let alone ask them if they would come to church, let alone tell them if they've repented and believe in the gospel, or to tell them to repent and believe in the gospel.
I do.
Agree with you, though,. Haps, that everybody,.
The Great Commission, it should be on the whole church's shoulders, not just on.
Your pastor's shoulder.
I will say, too, tracts can play a different role, too, as well. Actually, if you want to train people up in evangelism, they can be a great starting point to at least have a person go out there and hand out tracts as training, and then walk along another person who is handing out tracts to actually communicate the gospel.
It's a good introductory way to start a conversation, the Ray Comfort tracts with the million-dollar bill on it. I mean, that's a good way to introduce, to start a conversation. Then, once you get to that point, so we could use it.
I think there's so many people that are so critical of evangelism methods. Don't go out and street preach. You're just going to scare everybody away. Or don't do the one-on-one evangelism. You could reach more people if you go to a crowd.
Just be faithful in going.
Out and.
Share Christ. I think it's like what Aaron said. Open your mouth. If you can communicate about your mom and be able to explain who your mom is, what she's done, what she's done for you. If you know Christ, you should be able to say that exact same thing about Christ.
What has He done for you? Who He is?
Let me just say this. My mom actually just texted me, and she brought up a very good point as she's listening to us right now.
My mom.
Real quick digression.
Like I said, she was the one that was praying me into the kingdom of God. I have fond memories of sitting in her living room after getting out of Teen Challenge program and getting saved. Sitting in her living room every morning listening to J. Verna McGee because she still listens to him and is on the Bible bus.
That dude was hilarious. His sarcasm was on point. What she said to me was, J. Verna McGee would always say, a good reminder is to always pray before you start the conversation with the person. I think that's just such an element that obviously we just missed because we want to hit the punch of get out there and do it.
That's.
Very important to open our mouths and do it, but before we open our mouths, let's open our hearts in prayer or our mouths in prayer to God to open the person's heart and our own hearts and give us also the ability to speak and he will.
I think it's a lot easier than what people make it out to be. I was on the phone with Tom the other day and I was lying out.
A Chick-fil-A and the.
Lady, it was an expensive. You'll be there.
Often now. Yeah.
We had one up in Twin up in Idaho.
It's the Lord's chicken. I'll just leave it there.
That's blasphemous right there. Chick-fil-A. There's a Chick-fil-A in Israel.
Here we go.
I'm pretty sure that's the temple right there.
That's the start of Revelation 5. I'm in this Chick-fil-A line and we're going through the line and so you don't get that long with the person taking your order. Seriously, I'm on the phone with Tom as he's listening to me.
Give this lady our order.
And I just told her, I was like, this is how I started the conversation. I just want to let you know you're doing a great job. I don't know what you're going through in life right now but Christ says, come to me you who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
I don't know what you're going through but I would really encourage you to repent and have faith in Christ today and His burden is light. Tom couldn't see it because he wasn't seeing it but she was genuinely you could see it affect her just hearing somebody say that there's rest in Christ and so I don't know it's intimidating but it doesn't have to be as scary as what you make it out to be.
It's not as hard as what you think it is.
If your church has an evangelism ministry, go out with the people who go out and I think you will discover that you're going to say, this really isn't that bad. As a matter of fact, I can guarantee you this if you go out, I promise you, you're going to be blessed.
I promise you that in some way, you're going to know that God is going to show you that you've contributed some way to advance the kingdom of God. That is what we are commanded to do. It's a peace. It really is.
It's not burdensome to go out there and serve the Lord to go out and evangelize people. It's an awesome thing and we should all be doing it.
It's a privilege.
It is a privilege. Like Hap said, we get to go out and evangelize. One more. Let's do one more. Somebody pick a number.
10, bro. 10.
10. How do we reconcile the idea of God's sovereignty with the command to evangelize? We just did evangelism.
I just.
Wanted.
To hear what everybody has to say about this. Because I love the double-sided coin of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. I have a really easy answer. Why don't you guys go first and then I'll follow it up with the easiest answer.
What's.
The question again?
The question is, how do we reconcile the idea of God's sovereignty with the command to evangelize? The idea.
The scriptural idea. I personally.
Just order a pepperoni pizza and sit down on my couch and I'm just kidding, of course. That's not what evangelism is. That's the typical hyper-Calvinist.
View of saying, God will save the elect so therefore.
I don't need to do anything. I would just.
Say it's God is sovereign.
It's not just an idea. It's a theological truth. He has predestined all things, but God has also commanded us things. At the end of the day, are we going to be obedient and make that choice to be obedient, to go out and follow the orders, the commands.
To go forward?
Or are we going to sit at home and be sinful and be held responsible and held accountable for those actions?
It's Christ who knew sovereignty, who was sovereign, went out and preached and evangelized to those who would never repent, would never believe in the gospel, and gathered the elect even in those days, too, along with that.
Matthew 9, 35 -38, that's the text I'm preaching on tomorrow at Grace Bible Church here in Moor Park, 1030 Sundays. If you live in Ventura County area, I hope to see you.
Little plug, little plug.
Come check it out. It'd be a blessing. It says in there that Christ went throughout all the cities and towns going into their synagogues and teaching the gospel of the kingdom. The gospel of the kingdom.
And then he was performing acts of miracles is what he was performing after that. So the proclamation was being validated by his abilities, his sovereignty over creation itself. And then following that,.
It says that he had.
These crowds coming to him, and then he looked out and he said that they were sheep without a shepherd. And he loved them. He cared for them. He loved them in this.
Then after this, he says that we ought to pray to the Lord of Harvest to send out more laborers.
Into his harvest.
Christ,.
Who is sovereign, Christ who knows the Father's will, Christ who knows who the sheep are and who the goats are, he still did the exact same thing that you and I commanded to. And he was a much better theologian than you and I.
Much better theologian.
Perhaps what do you got in less than a thousand words like Braden?
Hey. I don't know.
Turn my back.
What can I say?
It's just your command to go do it.
Go do it.
How does God's sovereignty work in it?
I don't know.
Yeah. Okay. Well, no, no.
I mean, that's, you know, like.
It's gonna harden somebody's hearts or it's gonna give somebody a heart.
I mean, yeah.
So the question again is how do we reconcile the idea of God's sovereignty with the command to evangelize? It is because God is sovereign that he's determined who he's gonna save and he's also determined the means in which he's gonna carry that out.
And it's through evangelism. Go out there and do evangelism because he's commanded it because he is sovereign. That would be my answer. What you got? Your real quick short one.
Somebody commented both really good answers. One was actually from my memory as well.
Which was a quote from somebody, but obviously the scriptural text from Michelle. She put Acts 13 .48 which is a really.
Those are pointed unto eternal I believe.
And so we all know that and that's what we're talking about. The sovereignty of God and salvation that he's sovereign who will just like Hap said, who will get a new heart and whose heart will be hardened.
And he hardens those whom he will, right? Then why do you say back to God? Wow, I'm losing it.
Are you joking?
It's okay.
He's camera shy guys. Don't worry about it.
I'm just I'm losing the text in my mind right now and I don't have it open.
Do you want me to read it to you?
Wow, way to interrupt Aaron as he was about to say it.
Oh, okay. I'm sorry. No, go ahead.
No, I'll just I'll just skip that part and get to. Because Humble Clay said, why do Calvinists evangelize? That was a question asked at a Ligonier conference.
Like why?
Like it was snarky, right? Like why do Calvinists evangelize? And it was the greatest answer. If you see it there, that was the answer. It was dead quiet on the stage and then one dude picks up his mic and he goes, guaranteed.
Success.
Well, actually the question was, why do Calvinists get up in the morning and evangelize? And he said, guaranteed success. So that's number one, but number two also is this reality that like man's responsible for rejecting the gospel, but man is unable to believe the gospel.
And that's where people get hung up and they go, well, why? And the question was, how do you reconcile that? And I love just again, another quote was Spurgeon. He said, I don't have to reconcile friends.
Why are they friends? Because they're in the text. And that right there, when you don't argue anymore with the text and you just submit to it, that shows a heart of worship. That you're saying, you see it there, that wow, everybody that I know is fully responsible to believe this truth I'm telling them.
And I tell them, God now commands you to repent. And yet I know that that person cannot repent without God giving them the grace to do so. And you just, and the reason why I say that's such a simple fix or whatever you want to call it, a simple answer is because the text says it and you just go, yeah, I'm down.
Like just half said, I don't know, just because.
God does it.
Part of the thing that I also, let me add a thousand and one hundred words real quick. I wish you were camera shy. I think evangelism, to get out and do it regardless, you should be a Calvinist and do evangelism obviously.
You should be a Reformed Baptist and do evangelism obviously. But I think evangelism needs to be founded on, a lot of people jump to saying that we should love our neighbor, and we should. But loving neighbor, I think comes after loving God.
And if we love God, we will be obedient to God who we understand because of out of our love, we have learned who he is, which we learn that he is sovereign and in our understanding that he is sovereign, if we truly love him, we'll be obedient to him, which then also results in the love of neighbor.
And so we go out to evangelize because we love him, because he first loved us, and we also love our neighbor. There's a multitude of things going on there.
That's it. Those are the best 100 words I've ever heard you said.
Thank you.
Well everybody, we are an hour and a half in. I think there's another question, you guys want to keep going or are you guys ready to close it out?
I got to get going.
Can I plug the.
Rebinding business. One last time?
Hold on a second. What's the name of it again? Something Beacon?
Beacon Hill.
Number one,.
Beacon Hill comes from my grant. I'm from Massachusetts, and it seems like what I talked about in the beginning was people's, you know, like the rebinding market is completely flooded, and it seems like I was talking to Tom about this, that everybody is starting a rebinding business, and it's called John 3 16 Rebinds or the Cross Rebinds or something like that.
Those don't even exist, but I'm just like being facetious, and not that those are bad. Those are really good names, and I think people should point to the scripture, but I wanted more of an old school name, and my grandfather lived on Beacon Hill, a very famous spot in Boston, Massachusetts, Beacon Hill, so I thought it would be kind of an old school feel to it, and that's not what I wanted to say really.
What I wanted to say was one thing that Tom graciously posted about on Facebook was that I had the best prices on Facebook, and that's just what I want to say to anybody that's watching, that if you want a quality rebind, and that's something you're looking for, I'd be glad to serve you, and serve you well by, look, you go and buy a rebind from most of the top rebinders today.
They are great, and I do support them, and I do encourage you to go to them as well, but you're paying upwards to $450. You're going to get a rebind from me from anywhere between $200 and $250. Just save yourself a lot of money.
Haps, last words?
Glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
Amen.
I should have said that. I'm like, over here.
I got to do.
A long plug, so.
I'm not going to be able to... You want me to go next?
Yeah, go ahead. Okay.
Thank you everybody for watching again, and then I wanted to tell everybody again, remember about Striving for Eternity. We're partnering with them. Thank you, Haps, again, for joining us back. Aaron, talking about the Bibles and your work in the Bibles.
I pray that God will bless you and your business there. You guys, I hope this show blessed you tonight. I hope we were able to give God-honoring questions or answers to your questions. Good Lord, my mouth is gone.
It's worse than Aaron's. If you haven't shared the gospel this week, make it a point to go out tomorrow, this week, and open your door, open your mouth, and share Christ with somebody. Tell them how they can be wise into salvation.
Use words and share the gospel this week. That's all I got.
Okay, mine has to be longer because of what I'm doing. Go check out Open Air Theology.
Yeah, other way.
Open Air Theology. Go check out Striving for Eternity. Thank you, Andrew Rappaport, for letting us jump on your different platforms. We'd love for any viewers that are not already to go check out Open Air Theology on YouTube.
Go subscribe to it. Share it with your grandma, grandpa, and so on and so forth. It'd be a great blessing to be able to see everybody here again next week. We should be going live again on Saturday.
With Andrew Rappaport.
Andrew Rappaport.
Himself! The man, the myth, the somewhat legend. Andrew, the cold plunge.
Rappaport. Hey, wait, we need to go ahead and plug two weeks from now after Andrew Rappaport. Tell them who we're having in the book. Who are we having on in two.
Weeks? I can't think that far out. Jacob Tanner.
Jacob Tanner just got through. Oh, we got Jacob Tanner on two weeks. Yeah, Jacob Tanner just wrote a book on a biography on John Knox.
You need to go, listen.
Everybody, you need to go on Andrew's. Hopefully that's more readable than Knox's works.
That would be helpful. It's gonna be. It's gotta be.
It's all in French.
Go check out.
Founders. It's gonna be on, it's selling on Founders in April is what he said, right? Is when it's coming.
Out? Yes, but I think I'm not sure. Yeah, I think he could pre-order. I think there's gonna be a discount. There might be an open air theology. We're gonna push for an open air theology.
Discount. We're gonna try our best. I don't know if we can promise that or not. Go check it out. It should be a great book. Really looking forward to it. He's a great brother in Christ. Really looking forward to talking with him and interviewing him and just talking.
About. Also, we have a couple of sponsors to announce. Squirrelly Joe's Coffee. They're not a sponsor yet, but we're gonna try and get them. We have no sponsors.
If you wanna be a sponsor, don't reach out to Tom. He won't tell me about it. Reach.
Out to me.
Hey, you know what my sponsor is for my show? Let's hear it.
What? He lift up a gold.
Coin. Repent body detergent for absolute absolution. Are you living in sin? Grab two on us.
Grab two on us.
That was great. Church tomorrow. Grace Bible Church, Moorpark. 1030. It'll be a great blessing. See anybody in here that lives in the Ventura County area. If you know anybody that does, let them know.
It'd be a great blessing.
Bring a fire extinguisher.
Yeah, bring a fire extinguisher. Fires are kind of crazy.
We'll fight. We'll both fight the fires of.
Hell and the fires of California. We're almost.
One in the same. Hey, thank you guys for having me on and letting me ruin your show.
No, you didn't. We'll have to have both of you guys back. It was a great blessing. It was a great, great blessing. We learned tonight. Go out and do evangelism. We learned that there's a difference between agony and anxiety.
That we should always trust in God's sovereignty no matter what. And we learned a little bit about Bible rebinding as well as what it means to be in the wilderness. God bless you guys.
Wait, wait, wait, wait. What? Hold up that big old hand of yours. All five points.
Can you even see them?
And that's.
How we end.
