WWUTT 2150 Q&A Is Jesus Yahweh, Why not Bethel or Hillsong, Who is Cliff Knechtel
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Responding to questions from listeners about Jesus being called Yahweh in the Scriptures, if there are any cessationist worship leaders, and is Cliff Knechtel a sound teacher. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
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- Is Jesus Christ Yahweh? And what scriptures would we use to point to that? Why would we discourage listening to Bethel Hill Song and Elevation Worship?
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- And who is Cliff Nettle and is he sound? The answers to these questions, when we understand the text.
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- This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Be sure to tell your friends about our ministry at www .wutt
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- .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Psalm 17.
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- Hear a righteous cause, O Yahweh. Give heed to my cry of lamentation.
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- Give ear to my prayer, which is not from deceitful lips. May your judgment come from your presence.
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- May your eyes behold what is upright. You have tested my heart. You have visited me by night.
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- You have tried me, and you find nothing. I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.
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- As for the deeds of men, by the word of your lips I have kept from the paths of the violent.
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- My steps have held fast to your paths. My footsteps have not stumbled.
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- I have called upon you, for you will answer me, O God. Incline your ear to me.
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- Hear my speech. Marvelously show your lovingkindness. O Savior of those who take refuge at your right hand from those who rise up against them, keep me as the apple of the eye.
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- Hide me in the shadow of your wings. From the wicked who devastate me, my deadly enemies who surround me, they have closed their unfeeling heart.
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- With their mouth they speak proudly. They have now surrounded us in our steps.
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- They set their eyes to cast us down to the ground. He is like a lion that is eager to tear, and as a young lion lurking in hiding places.
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- Arise, O Yahweh, confront him, bring him low. Protect my soul from the wicked with your sword.
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- From men with your hand, O Yahweh. From men of the world whose portion is in this life, and whose belly you fill with your treasure.
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- They are satisfied with children and leave their excess to their infants. As for me,
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- I shall behold your face in righteousness. I will be satisfied with your likeness when
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- I awake." So not finding satisfaction of the things that the wicked are satisfied with, but being satisfied with God.
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- Amen. Well, this is the Friday edition of our broadcast, and we take questions from the listeners, and you can send those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
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- This first question comes from Corey in Winchester, Kentucky. He says,
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- Dear Pastor Gabe, I have heard you say that Jesus Christ is Yahweh. Where is that in the
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- Bible? I agree, but how would I prove that to someone who doubts it or wants to argue with it?
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- I have friends who don't believe it. They will say that only the Father is called Yahweh. Would you call that heretical, or are they just mistaken?
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- So as we've read in this particular psalm, as we've read in Psalm 17, right at the very beginning of the psalm, hear a righteous cause,
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- O Yahweh, give heed to my cry of lamentation. Yahweh is the name that God's people knew him by.
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- He revealed himself to Israel as Yahweh. Is Jesus Christ Yahweh, or is that the name that we only know the
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- Father by? And those of you who don't have the legacy standard, Yahweh is in place of capital
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- L, capital O, capital R, capital D, in your other
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- Bibles. Yeah, right. In most English translations, including the King James, although the King James will occasionally throw in Jehovah, but it's not a lot.
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- That's also the Yahweh. It's the Germanic, entering the
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- Germanic vowels into the Tetragrammaton, which is Y -H -W -H. So in the
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- Hebrew, there weren't vowels, so you just had Y -H -W -H, and then we've inserted vowels in there.
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- To help us pronounce it. Yes, right. And have alliterated it as Yahweh.
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- For us phonics learners. I can't remember which German monk it was, but he had inserted the vowels from Adonai into Yahweh, and that's what made it
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- Jehovah. The German Y was pronounced like a J. Right. So that's where Jehovah came from.
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- It's really both the same name. But more than likely, Yahweh is more, is closer to the correct pronunciation.
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- Of course, in Hebrew, it would probably be something like Yahweh, because you've got to sound like you're hawking a loogie when you speak
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- Hebrew. Yeah, of course. So anyway, when we see that name Yahweh, capital
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- L -O -R -D, or understanding his name is Yahweh, is it right, is it appropriate that we would refer to Jesus Christ as Yahweh?
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- Yes, the Father is Yahweh, the Son is Yahweh, the Holy Spirit is Yahweh. So you can refer to them individually as Yahweh, or the
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- Godhead you can call Yahweh. All of that applies. Now how do we prove that, though?
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- How do we show that Jesus Christ is Yahweh? It's one thing to say Jesus Christ is Lord, but now when you say
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- Jesus Christ is Yahweh, it's almost like you're entering into more deeply theological territory than you thought you were entering into when you were just saying
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- Jesus Christ is Lord. Right. Well, there are different passages you can go to, like John 8, 58, before Abraham was
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- I Am, Jesus says, I Am is Yahweh. John 10, 11,
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- I Am the Good Shepherd. And as Jesus is saying, I Am the Good Shepherd, that comes from Psalm 23, the
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- Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Right. Well, the correct understanding of that is Yahweh is my shepherd, because when you go to Psalm 23, you'll see capital
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- L -O -R -D, unless you're reading, again, from the LSB. Now those are good passages to go to.
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- That's not typically the scriptures that I use, though, to show that Jesus Christ is Yahweh. The first place that I go is
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- Philippians 2, where it says, at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is
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- Lord to the glory of God the Father. So that statement that Jesus Christ is
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- Lord is a statement that Jesus Christ is Yahweh. Now to make the
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- Old Testament connection to that, so that you see Yahweh is connected to that declaration that Jesus Christ is
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- Lord, I go to Isaiah 45, 23, where Yahweh says, to me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.
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- That's what Paul is citing when he says that in Philippians 2, 9 through 11.
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- He's citing that passage from Isaiah 45, where Yahweh says, to me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance that Jesus Christ is
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- Lord, Jesus Christ is Yahweh. So that's the first place I go. Second place is
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- Hebrews 1, 10, where it says, and you, Lord, in the beginning founded the earth and the heavens are the works of your hands.
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- They will perish, but you remain. They all wear out like a garment and like a mantle, you will roll them up.
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- Like a garment, they will also be changed, but you are the same and your years will not come to an end.
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- Well, that's talking about Jesus. Psalm 102 is what's being quoted there in Hebrews 1, 10, but Psalm 102 begins, oh
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- Yahweh, hear my prayer. So Psalm 102 is being addressed to Yahweh. Hebrews 1, 10 shows that Psalm 102 is talking about Christ.
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- So there you have a direct connection to Jesus being called
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- Yahweh. And there are other places like the words of Joel 2, 32, where it says, everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh will be delivered.
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- That's the tetragrammaton that appears right there. And then that verse is quoted in Romans 10, 13, whoever calls on the name of the
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- Lord will be saved. And that's in reference to Jesus. In first Peter 2, 3 through 4,
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- Peter says, you have tasted the kindness of the Lord and coming to him as to a living stone, which has been rejected by men chosen and precious in the sight of God.
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- That's about Jesus, right? Psalm 34, 8, which says, oh, taste and see that Yahweh is good.
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- So that's the way that you can show directly using New Testament references to Christ and seeing how they're taking
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- Old Testament passages and using it in the new, applying it to Jesus. When you go back to those
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- Old Testament references, seeing Yahweh is the name that's used there. And you don't have to have a legacy standard to show that, because again, as you mentioned, if it's the capital
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- L -O -R -D, you know, that's the tetragrammaton. That's the name Yahweh, the covenant name that's used there.
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- So would you consider that to be heretical? Oh, yeah. Right. So the other part of his question, is it then heretical if somebody denies that Jesus Christ is
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- Yahweh? I would say it's ignorance. Most likely it is. Because it's a name. Yeah.
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- Unless they're indicating that they don't believe that Jesus is God, you know, like the trinity.
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- Right. Then, sure. Then that's a problem. But if it's just the name, then that's, that's just, they don't know.
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- So take those scriptures and show it to them. Yeah. And then if they continue to reject it, I mean, those clear connections between Yahweh and Jesus Christ, if they continue to reject it, there might be a deeper problem there.
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- Yeah. I mean, you might let them mull over it a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Give them some time to look it up themselves.
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- I mean, I see it on social media every once in a while. When I will make this declaration, because like you said, Cori, you've seen me say before that Jesus Christ is
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- Yahweh. So if I make that statement online, and there's Christian pushback on that, no, he's not
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- Yahweh. He's Lord, but I don't know that he's Yahweh. I think the Father is Yahweh. You know, when somebody says something like that, they're probably saying that in ignorance.
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- So just show them what the scripture says. Yeah. And see how they receive that. Right. Before you decide there might be, you know, a deeper problem going on there.
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- I may have been in the same place, you know, however many years ago when I was a kid or whatever.
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- Yeah. Not understanding that Jesus Christ is Yahweh. It's maturity. Yeah. Using scripture to interpret scripture.
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- And not just maturity as far as age goes, but just maturity in the faith. Yeah. That's primarily what
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- I meant. Yeah. Yeah. This next question comes from Emily, and this was more directed to you,
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- Becky. So Pastor Gabe and Becky, listening to your April 19th Q &A, you were talking about common names.
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- I was born Emily Smith. Oh, dear. So when it comes to common names,
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- I win. Yes, definitely. That would be, I just,
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- I don't know. I feel like that would be a difficult place to be, because you go into a place and, okay, what's your name?
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- Emily Smith. Okay, which Emily Smith? You know? What's your middle initial? Yeah. Okay, that narrows it down to 10, you know?
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- We had a situation in Junction City. We were living on 6th
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- Street at the time. I'm Gabriel Hughes, living at 6th Street, and whatever street number it was,
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- I can't remember the number exactly, but don't tell me. We'll leave it off air. Sure. Because somebody else lives at that address now.
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- It was 8th Street. Yeah. Okay. 8th Street turned into 6th Street. Yes. I remember that. Okay, so anyway, but 8th
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- Street, as it continued down on the east side, it was kind of weird how it split. Yeah, it's a weird road.
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- So 8th Street would continue into 6th Street, but then 8th Street would pick up at another place somewhere down the way.
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- Anyway, so on the east side of town, 8th Street had the same number as our house.
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- And there was a Gabriel Hughes that worked at that address. And I was the
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- Gabriel Hughes that lived on the west. It was the same number, 8th Street, same number.
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- Same name. So sometimes we would get each other's mail. The other place was a business.
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- Weren't we banking at the same bank for a little bit too? We were even banking at the same bank. So we had to make sure that they had your correct account.
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- I've never personally met another Gabriel Hughes, but that was an occasion in which we were in the same locations.
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- We never met each other, but he would send my mail to me and say, hey, I got your mail. I had a friend who was prohibited from writing checks at Walmart because a lady with her same name got into financial trouble with returning checks.
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- And so she, even though it wasn't her, she still couldn't write them because they shared the same name.
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- So just the terrible things that you don't even think about, that you would deal with.
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- Anyway, go on with our letter. So she goes on, yes. I appreciate the podcast. I am thankful for you.
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- My husband pastors Sharon Baptist Church in Wichita, Kansas. Oh, really? Yes. That's awesome.
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- We know Wichita very well. Exactly. Yes. That's very cool. In fact, when we moved last year,
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- Central Kansas was one of those areas we were looking at possibly going to. All the doors closed for us getting back to Kansas.
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- And now we love being here in Arizona, but that was a place that we thought we were going to end up back there.
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- The Lord was going to bring us back to the heartland. So Emily goes on, my questions are more personal in nature and don't need to be read on the broadcast.
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- Thanks. Ha ha. Are you planning on going to the
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- SBC annual meeting in Indy this summer? If you are going,
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- Becky, would you go to the minister's wives lunch? Normally, I love going to the lunch, but this year's speaker from what
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- I've read on X is supportive of women pastors, so I'm boycotting. Anyway, if you're going to Indy, I'd love to buy
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- Becky lunch. Oh, that's so sweet. I am not going. No, we're not going this year.
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- We're no longer part of that convention. Well, we are. I mean, we were not Southern Baptist, right?
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- We don't advertise ourselves as a Southern Baptist church, but we do give to the cooperative program.
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- It's to the disaster relief ministry of the Southern Baptist convention. So that counts as giving to the cooperative program.
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- Okay. And so, therefore, we could go and vote. Yeah. Or I could just go to Indy because Indy's fun.
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- And my brother lives up that way. I'm sorry. I thought you knew that. I thought we could still go and vote.
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- No, I didn't know that. Yeah. But I mean, it's fine. We went last year to New Orleans. We did. We had already decided even last year when we were in New Orleans, we're not going next year to Indy.
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- Yeah, we did. And we were living in Texas then. Yeah, we were. And I do agree with the boycotting.
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- There was quite a few times, not necessarily the SBC convention, but other conventions where they had pastor wives things, there would be a group of ladies who would just go to lunch and have a nice devotional and just spend the day together or hours or whatever length of time.
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- So I do recommend you getting together with a group of ladies. I wish
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- I was going, because then it would be really fun to have lunch with you. It'd be wonderful to meet up. But I will be in Kansas.
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- That's true. So maybe we can look each other up if I've got a couple extra hours. Because when we send you to Kansas, are you going to be flying?
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- I guess it would be easier to fly into Wichita. Yep. Because your parents are closer there. Yeah. Yeah, we're just discussing our future plans right here on the podcast.
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- It's good. Thank you for your question, Emily. Yes. And God bless you and your husband in the ministry that you do there at.
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- Let me read the name again. Sharon. Sharon Baptist Church in Wichita. If you're in the
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- Wichita area, there's a good church to check out. Yeah, definitely. Because they listen to when we understand the text. Of course.
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- So it's like totally, you know. That's how we know it's a good church. Now, this is going to be an important convention.
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- Of course, you've got the law amendment that's going to be voted on for the second time. Oh, yeah, that's right.
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- It passed in New Orleans. But in order for it to be a constitutional amendment in the Southern Baptist Convention.
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- It has to pass again. Has to pass a second time by a two -thirds majority. Now, in case you don't know, the law amendment would make it to where a church that has a woman pastor would be in contention with the values of the
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- Southern Baptist Convention. And so, therefore, cannot be in a church in cooperation with the
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- SBC, according to the law. Of the women's speaker, the women's ministry speaker.
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- I'm not surprised. Yeah. I mean, there are people in the convention that are trying to stack the deck.
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- They are. And trying to prevent this amendment from being passed. Now, Becky and I shared this before. I think we talked about this on the podcast months back.
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- But again, we were there in New Orleans. We were sitting in the back of the room when the law amendment was being voted on the first time.
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- And again, it has to pass by a two -thirds majority. I was not convinced by the cards that I saw go up in the air.
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- I was not convinced that was two -thirds. Oh, really? It looked... Oh, yeah. We did talk about this. Yeah. It looked a lot more like 55 -45.
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- Like just barely over half. And I'm surprised that they didn't go to a written vote.
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- Yeah. Now, my suspicion there is that several of them just decided, hey, to keep the peace in the
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- Southern Baptist Convention, let's get it to pass this time. And then we'll make it a battleground in India as to whether or not there is...
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- It stays. Yeah. Yeah. There's sufficient votes in order to actually make the constitutional change.
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- Now, there are already churches that are leaving the SBC because they have women pastors. I read another story about that just today.
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- Oh, another one. Yeah. Another church that was saying, well, we're out. It was a church in Virginia because they have ordained women on their staff and have other women that they're ordaining.
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- Oh, from that side of it. Yeah, from that side. I thought you meant the other side. No. Well, there have been churches leaving that way too.
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- Oh, yeah? Yeah. No, the SBC is too liberal for me now. Yeah. And it could be that a church is more reformed and not wanting to cooperate with a number of things that the
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- SBC is doing. I don't think it's just that. It's kind of like the straw that broke the camel's back. Yeah. Sort of a thing.
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- Just to add another thing. So, I'm not sure if the law amendment is going to pass in Indianapolis or not. And that's not to discourage anybody from going.
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- No, you should go. Yeah. And make a vote. We're just down in Arizona.
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- And we've pretty much said no to almost all conferences this year.
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- Yeah. Just to kind of take a - Except for those that are happening like within an hour of us. Yeah, you're right.
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- I'll go to those. Those and the one in September. September, I'm speaking at a church.
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- Right. So, yeah, that's a little different. It's not exactly a conference. Yeah. So, I'm going and speaking at a church in Georgia.
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- I'll give you the details about that later. Yeah. But otherwise, yeah, we're kind of hunkering down in Southern Arizona this year.
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- Still haven't sold the house in Texas. Right. And so, not a lot of money to spend anyway. Nope. Running out of room at our church.
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- We're having to figure out what we want to do. Space -wise to accommodate people coming in, which is a great problem to have.
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- It's a wonderful problem, but it's still a problem. It's still, yeah, still something that needs to be solved. It's a positive problem.
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- But be in prayer for the Southern Baptist Convention is those are some big things that are going to be on the table. And coming up soon.
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- Yeah, just next month. Yeah. We're just about a month away. And of course, all of this is happening right after the
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- United Methodist Church Convention, where they voted to lift the ban on LGBTQ clergy.
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- So now if a person is gay or trans, the United Methodists are now affirming of a person who is
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- LGBTQ becoming a pastor or priest in a Methodist church. I thought they had already.
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- Was it not them who had already okayed that? Oh, there was already. There's been a split. I mean, it's a split.
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- Oh, okay. It's a downright schism. That's what I'm remembering. Yeah. Okay. It's like over a third or something like that of United Methodist churches have already left the
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- UMC. Oh, wow. So they saw the writing on the wall. They knew this was coming. Yeah. They went ahead and left. Not a surprise to them.
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- Yeah. And there's probably going to be more that leave. But it's like the majority of them had already pulled out.
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- We had a friend who was part of United Methodist Church. That church had said, we're absolutely not leaving the
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- UMC. Yeah. And so he said, well, then we're out. Yeah. And that happened last year. Yeah.
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- So that was even before we got to this thing of the UMC saying, if you're LGBTQ, you can be a priest.
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- Yeah. Pastor. I mean, if your denomination is affirming of women becoming pastors, it's only a matter of time.
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- Yeah. That's been the pattern. Historically, that's been the pattern. True. This next question comes from Kiyoki in Honolulu, Hawaii.
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- Oh, fun. Aloha, Pastor Gabe. Are you aware of any current Christian artists or songwriters who are cessationists?
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- Meaning that they believe that the spiritual gifts were during an apostolic period.
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- They are not in regular use today. We're talking about the miraculous sign gifts, like speaking in tongues, doing miraculous healings, casting out demons, giving prophecy of things that were going to happen in the future.
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- It's not that God doesn't heal anymore. God may heal. Yes. But there is not that kind of regular healing that was happening in the apostolic ministry like we read about in the
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- Book of Acts. Right. So that's what a cessationist believe, that these miraculous sign gifts, as talked about in Hebrews 2, the
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- Apostle Paul saying in 2 Corinthians 12, 12, you know that the signs of apostleship were displayed among you, saying to the
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- Corinthians that you saw the miracles that I performed and you know that I am an apostle sent from Christ.
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- So we have numerous references in the New Testament of those being sign gifts, not just something that is always happening in every charismatic church in America or the world.
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- Okay. So are there any singers and songwriters out there who are cessationists? Seems like most of them are continuists.
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- I like the music at my church. We don't do Hillsong, Bethel, Elevation, etc. Well done.
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- Most of the current songs and hymns we use, about a half to two -thirds of the songs we sing are hymns and psalms, are from people like the
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- Gettys, Matt Boswell, and Matt Papa, Sovereign Grace, and City of Light, to name a few. But it occurred to me that I don't know where these people stand on the issue of continuationism, cessationism, except for Sovereign Grace, because they're continuous.
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- I mean, that was C .J. Mahaney, and he was very much a continuist. And perusals of their websites don't seem to reveal this.
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- I ask because it seems to me like continuationist musicians, who are good, will inevitably associate themselves with troubling groups at some point.
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- I would certainly be more comfortable with and want to support a Christian artist slash songwriter
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- I thought I was more closely aligned with. Thank you in advance for your thoughts and wisdom regarding this and for your ministry in general.
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- Your ministry has blessed me immensely, and what episodes are always at the top of my podcast playlist, especially the
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- Friday Q &A. Aw, that's awesome. Blessings to your family and new church as well.
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- Thank you. Kyoki, you're right that a lot of the popular music that's out there comes from artists that are largely continuationist.
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- And you are also correct that it does seem like a lot of them will eventually go...
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- Wayside. Yeah, into partnerships with Bethel and Hillsong. But I would say don't pass judgment on those kinds of things too quickly.
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- Again, just like Sovereign Grace, for example. Sovereign Grace will come and lead worship at Grace Community Church.
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- And you know John MacArthur's a cessationist. Right. And yet it's from Sovereign Grace that there's been a lot of continuous teaching that has come from there as well.
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- So you can see that the two of them can partner together for worship, even though there's probably a disagreement regarding the present use of spiritual gifts.
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- And we don't see Sovereign Grace partnering with Bethel. And so in that instance,
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- I think that we can have some brotherly disagreement there.
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- Yes. And there's not a reason to have to cut off with Sovereign Grace just because, well, the tendency for most continuationists is to eventually end up at Bethel Church singing reckless love.
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- Yeah. It's sad that that happens, but I don't think you need to cut those things short just because of that.
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- Yeah. But can I name for you cessationist musicians? I really can't. No? No, this isn't something that I have sat down and gone through and like I'm looking for cessationist worship leaders.
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- I really have never done that. You have stumped the pastor. I mean, of course, if you've got music that comes out of Grace Community Church, and there are songs that come from there.
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- Yeah. Or G3, because that organization is also cessationist, then you can know that you're getting music from there.
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- In good company. Right. Yeah. In that sense. But I'm not really looking for that when I listen to songs.
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- Most of the time, the songs that I hear and love and will even worship to personally,
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- I don't look into the background of the artist and even the backstory behind the song or anything like that.
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- I don't get into that right away. That might come later. It's just not first thing on my mind.
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- I'm looking at the content of the song according to what Scripture says. Right. So that's the first thing.
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- Like, for example, It Is Well With My Soul by Horatio Spafford. I think many people are familiar now with the fact that Horatio Spafford was, he may have been a heretic by the end of his life.
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- Still a wonderfully edifying song. And I don't know that he was necessarily that steeped in heresy at the time that he wrote it.
- 27:24
- Oh, Holy Night is another one. The two guys behind writing that song, one was not even a believer at all.
- 27:31
- And the other one was a Unitarian Universalist. So are you going to dump Oh, Holy Night? Because these two men eventually, you know.
- 27:40
- Oh, this gets deep. Yeah. There's so many songs out there that are traditional that we just know you can just sing it from memory.
- 27:53
- Yeah. You don't even have to look up the words hardly. And just to know that they're like sketchy backgrounds.
- 28:01
- I know the background of a lot of people that have written a lot of hymns just because I've done that study.
- 28:07
- But I don't expect most people to do that. Yeah. The reason why we put such a caution on Bethel and Hillsong and Elevation is because when you consume that music, these are active ministries.
- 28:21
- And I use ministry very loosely, of course. They're heretical. Organizations.
- 28:26
- Yes. But they're actively out there teaching. And listening to that music can draw people into that teaching.
- 28:34
- And you're giving them money to fuel this and keep it going.
- 28:40
- Right. It's like you're benefiting them by consuming their music. Yes. And I've heard stories.
- 28:46
- I've listened to stories from people. And there are people that have sent me emails talking about this of those that were listening to Bethel music and got sucked into Bethel Church and suddenly started listening to Bill Johnson and Todd White and everybody else that's connected with some of that new apostolic reformation.
- 29:04
- There are people that have come out of that, praise God. But we've also seen like Bill Johnson and there's been other teachers from Bethel Church that have said this as well.
- 29:14
- They've outright said that they use music as a vehicle to get people in because they know what most people are probably going to hear is the music.
- 29:25
- And so they use that to snatch people and then draw them into the teaching of the church. They've outright said that. So that's why we tell people don't have anything to do with Bethel, Hillsong, and Elevation.
- 29:35
- There really are songs that come out of Bethel and Hillsong in particular that are fine.
- 29:41
- Right. And I've critiqued these before. Like I've played songs or I've read lyrics and I've said, look, there's nothing wrong with this song, but it still comes from Bethel.
- 29:51
- And so you know that when they're singing about this and I'll read the line, you might have the orthodox interpretation of that line, but they don't.
- 30:00
- They mean something heretical by it when they say it. It's kind of like those songs that you can either sing it to God or you can sing it to your girlfriend.
- 30:09
- Yeah, right. You have said that before. If you can't tell the difference, then you might need another song.
- 30:18
- So there are obviously some deep problems with their teaching. There are some songs that they put out to the songs are bad.
- 30:25
- And as I've said, personally, on a personal level, if you want to listen to something like Hillsong, I would still strongly encourage you to stay away from Bethel and Elevation.
- 30:36
- Don't even listen to them at all. Hillsong, though, will put out some stuff on occasion. They'll have a whole album that's perfectly fine in its theology.
- 30:45
- And if on a personal level, you want to just sing that in your car, I wouldn't see why there's anything wrong with that.
- 30:51
- Yeah. I sing along with Christian artists from back in the 90s that weren't sound then.
- 30:57
- And they're not really sound now either. But I loved the music. It was the music
- 31:02
- I grew up with, especially if you listen to secular music, like maybe you were raised listening to. I'm not going to name bands, but whatever it was you were listening to back in the 90s or the 2000s, pop, rock music, whatever it was.
- 31:16
- And you'll probably go back nostalgically. Can you turn that into an advert? You'll go back and listen to those and kind of reminisce or whatever.
- 31:27
- And they're not even Christian songs. They're secular songs. And if you would do that, then there's nothing wrong with listening to lyrics that come from artists that are probably not sound in their doctrine, but the song could still be giving praise to God, especially the way that you sing it, if you'd be singing along in your car.
- 31:45
- Not the pop songs. Not the pop songs. Yeah. The other. It's just that some of those songs may not be for corporate consumption.
- 31:54
- Yes. You don't sing it corporately as with a church, but it could still be okay for you to be listening to and worshiping along with.
- 32:01
- But as you said, most of the songs that you sing in your church are hymns and psalms. You're safe with that.
- 32:08
- Yeah. I think maybe Kiyoki is... Kiyoki? Yeah, Kiyoki.
- 32:13
- Kiyoki was looking to expand the listening, like the amount or the song.
- 32:23
- What do you call it? His library. Playlist. Yeah, right. His music library. Yeah. Certainly. And as now we've said it, if there's anybody out there that knows specifically cessationist artists, let me know, send it our way.
- 32:36
- We'll mention them. I'll give them a plug here. We've done that before. Seeds Family Worship. Yes. I don't know that they're cessationists.
- 32:43
- I have no idea. Yeah. But it's catchy. Right. And they're Bible verses. Exactly. So. Great music to listen to.
- 32:49
- Yeah. This next one comes from Virginia in Kanai, Alaska. We've heard from Virginia before.
- 32:55
- Virginia in Alaska. We went from Hawaii to Alaska. That's right. Okay. Hi there, Pastor Gabe and Becky.
- 33:00
- Just wondered if you heard about Rick Warren becoming honorary chancellor of Spurgeon College and what your thoughts are about that.
- 33:07
- I imagine he's sitting on the sidelines waiting for the next SBC convention to try to push his egalitarian views that got squashed the last time.
- 33:15
- And while waiting, he thought to himself, I should take over Spurgeon College and see what I can do to plant egalitarian seeds.
- 33:22
- And voila, that's what happened. I wrote this with sarcasm. But however, when I first heard the news, it was with a very heartfelt and saddened, oh, no,
- 33:31
- I'm just surprised. I'm really not seeing a whole lot from the folks I listened to about it, but perhaps it's not just that big a deal.
- 33:38
- What are your thoughts? Well, Spurgeon College is the Spurgeon College in London. Oh, okay.
- 33:44
- Not the Spurgeon College that is part of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City.
- 33:50
- Yeah. They also have a Spurgeon College. Yes. So, it's not that Spurgeon College. Okay. I am aware of it.
- 33:55
- It's something that happened last year. And there's Christian news organizations out there,
- 34:01
- Wretched being one of them, Protestia. They have said things about this, that Warren became chancellor of Spurgeon College.
- 34:10
- That's on Spurgeon College. What in the world were they thinking? Yeah. And Spurgeon would have had a field day with it.
- 34:16
- He would have grabbed Warren by the seat of his pants and booted him out of there. Yeah. So, this is totally antithetical to the doctrine and the theology of Spurgeon, certainly.
- 34:27
- But yeah, it's over in London. They're dumb for doing it. They're going to pay the price for doing it.
- 34:33
- And really, if they're looking at numbers, he sure has a lot of them. I question the integrity of them.
- 34:41
- Right. But nonetheless, he claims that he has a lot of success. And so, from a business standpoint,
- 34:47
- I can see why they were drawn towards him. And he's a kind of smooth talker, too.
- 34:54
- Oh, he's a very smooth talker. Yes. So, you know, you kind of get schmoozed. But they'll figure it out, hopefully, soon.
- 35:01
- Well, yeah, if they have discerning hearts, they'll figure it out. But yeah, like you said,
- 35:06
- Warren can appeal to any audience. Oh, yeah. And we've seen, you know, demonstrations of this.
- 35:11
- Him turning around to a Muslim group and saying, you know, we serve the same God. And then turning around to a
- 35:16
- Christian group going, I never told them that. I never said that. He's not the same from right to left.
- 35:22
- So he's definitely a person to be wary of.
- 35:28
- But if you're not familiar with him, and he applies for this position, I mean,
- 35:33
- I could see how they can have the wool over their eyes type of thing. But yeah, it is sad.
- 35:40
- It's also the will of God at this point. Right. Well, Warren is a judgment on those that would rather have their itching ears scratched, as talked about in 2
- 35:51
- Timothy chapter 4. Next question comes from Joaquin. Happy Friday. I wondered what your thoughts are on Cliff Nechel.
- 36:01
- K -N -E -C -H -T -E -L. I've never actually known how to pronounce his last name.
- 36:08
- Okay. But I have seen his videos on TikTok and stuff like that. Okay. Joaquin says he's a very popular preacher that has been blowing up all over TikTok.
- 36:17
- In fact, I haven't seen him on TikTok. Let me make that clarification. I saw them on Instagram and on YouTube shorts.
- 36:24
- Yeah. But I know he's generated an audience on TikTok. Yeah, I see a lot of them in my feed, even though I'm not on TikTok.
- 36:31
- Yeah. Where it says TikTok down at the bottom. Right. Yeah. It'll have the logo on it. Yeah, the label thing.
- 36:36
- So he's the founder of the Give Me an Answer ministry, going on a Q &A style outdoor preaching on campuses.
- 36:42
- It's kind of what he does with his ministry. Oh, okay. Second question is this. What are your thoughts on him attending Fellowship Church this weekend in Dallas, Texas, where Pastor Ed Young Jr.
- 36:51
- teaches? P .S. Shout out to my fiance, Kate. We just got engaged this weekend while at the
- 36:56
- San Antonio Fiesta. Aw, that's awesome. Congratulations, guys. Yeah. Now, this email was a week ago.
- 37:04
- Last week, we didn't take questions. Oh, right, right. Okay. So this would have been the week.
- 37:09
- So they're like old news now. That's old news, right. Just kidding. Everybody knows they're engaged already.
- 37:15
- So this would have gone back, not this past Sunday, but the Sunday before that Cliff was preaching at Fellowship Church.
- 37:23
- Okay. Now, I listened to part of the sermon. I didn't listen to the whole thing, because, you know, hey, if somebody's there preaching, fine, but I want to know what it is that he's saying.
- 37:34
- Somebody can go preach at Stephen Furtick's church. If Stephen Furtick invited me to come preach at Elevation Church, I would go.
- 37:40
- He would do it, yeah. They wouldn't invite me back. Right. But I would go. So, yeah, if somebody's going to be preaching at Ed Young Jr.'s
- 37:49
- church, I want to know what it is that they're saying. So I listened to him. It was very philosophical.
- 37:56
- And any time that he referenced the scriptures, at least in the sermon that I heard, I listened to about two thirds of it.
- 38:01
- Like I said, I didn't go all the way through it. But any time that he referenced the scriptures, he referenced them as kind of an assumed way.
- 38:09
- Like the book of Job is about this, you know, but he doesn't really quote the scriptures. Oh, okay. Whenever he says those things.
- 38:14
- Sure. But everything that he said was very logic reason based. Here's why you can trust Jesus. And it wasn't really rooted in scripture.
- 38:22
- It was kind of based on logic. But he also said some things that were like, God limited his power.
- 38:31
- I've heard that. Yeah. Yeah. He deliberately limited his power so that we could have free will or something to that effect.
- 38:38
- But he's fully God. Yeah. It's ridiculous. It's complete nonsense. It's just that we can't wrap our heads around it.
- 38:45
- That's the problem. R .C. Sproul would say that Cliff was taking the position of an atheist there.
- 38:51
- If he's going to say that. Right. Like it's no difference than practical atheism. If you're going to say that God has limited his sovereignty, that's absurd.
- 39:00
- So, you know, he makes statements like that. He's not a trustworthy theologian. I know that he has a well -known evangelist ministry.
- 39:09
- I've criticized it before in the past on social media. And when I do that, there are some
- 39:15
- Cliff loyalists that will kind of come out of the woodwork and say, oh, you just don't know him. And, you know, that might have been, you might've seen one bad video or something like that.
- 39:24
- Well, let's listen to a few. Now, these are 60 seconds.
- 39:30
- They're not very long. So we're just going to get clips here. Well, that's a relief. I want to play one for you, babe.
- 39:36
- And you tell me if you can identify the problem with this. Okay. All right. Ready?
- 39:41
- Okay. Before Jesus was crucified, he prayed to his father. So was he like praying to himself?
- 39:46
- God is spirit, which means you cannot confine God to a torso, two arms and two legs and a head.
- 39:52
- God is not a material object. God is a spiritual being. That is why God can be in New York City and San Marcos, Texas at the same time.
- 39:59
- He's not limited to the physical. Jesus Christ claimed that this God, who is spirit, chose to humble himself and become a human being.
- 40:07
- God, the son of Jesus, limited himself. And that's the key right there. He chose to limit himself and confine himself to a body, which means when they nailed his hands, it really hurt.
- 40:17
- He wasn't just a spirit floating around. It means he really got hungry and that's why he ate. He was the eternal
- 40:23
- God who is spirit. When Jesus walked on earth, heaven was not empty. Jesus is not all of God.
- 40:29
- Jesus is part of God. God, the son who humbled himself, took upon himself a body, but he was not just a man.
- 40:35
- He was God in human form, but he wasn't all of God. That's why he talks to his father. That's why he talks about the Holy Spirit.
- 40:41
- So was Jesus just part of God? He contradicts himself there. He says he's fully
- 40:47
- God, but then he's part of God. Yeah. So what? In the words of one of our favorite
- 40:54
- YouTube videos, that's partialism, Patrick. Yes. Yes. Partialism?
- 41:01
- Yes. Partialism. Yeah. Where he's saying that Jesus is part of God. Yeah. But he's not really fully
- 41:07
- God. And yeah, like you said, he contradicts himself because he says he's fully God, but then he's part of God.
- 41:13
- Yeah. And trying to follow his words as he's like turning circles with the music, I really felt like I was turning circles.
- 41:20
- I'm dizzy now. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Sorry, I can't do anything about the music.
- 41:27
- They're in all the videos. Oh, your editing skills are not that great, huh? Colossians 119.
- 41:33
- In him, I know that. In him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.
- 41:44
- Did Jesus limit himself? Absolutely not. Is he just part of God? So what was her question again?
- 41:51
- I got so distracted by his bad answer that I forgot the question. And the music. Before Jesus was crucified, he prayed to his father.
- 41:58
- So was he like praying to himself? Oh, yeah, right. So, I mean, the best way to answer this question is you need to be catechized.
- 42:04
- Yeah. And I'm sure that Cliff is not into catechism. So what do the catechism say regarding this?
- 42:11
- Benjamin Keech's catechism. Question 10. How many persons are there in the Godhead? There are three persons in the
- 42:17
- Godhead, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And these three are one God. The same in essence, equal in power and glory.
- 42:25
- There are three persons. They're one God. Or as I've heard James White said, it's one what and three who's.
- 42:33
- Yes. And so the Son, who is God, prays to the Father, who is God. Is Jesus praying to himself?
- 42:39
- No, he's praying to the Father. But Cliff doesn't give that answer. He gives this, he tries to do this logic answer.
- 42:47
- And you'll end up falling into heresy. Not saying that Cliff is a heretic. But his answer is not orthodox, right?
- 42:54
- Yeah. It's not a correct understanding of the relationship between the Father and the Son. And so when you go away from a biblical answer, a biblical understanding of these things, and you try to reason it logically, you can't reason the
- 43:07
- Trinity logically. No. With human logic, you can't do it. No. And as we've said before about the
- 43:13
- Trinity, the reason why we don't understand how God is one God and three persons is because we're not
- 43:18
- God. Yeah, exactly. But I don't know why it was so difficult for him to be able to tell the girl, just tell her something like, no, he's the
- 43:26
- Son and he's praying to the Father. Jesus is God. He's praying to the Father, who is God. That's going to lead to other questions.
- 43:33
- But you answer those questions as you go. Instead, it was just kind of like he was trying to sound smart. Well, I mean,
- 43:39
- I kind of understand how he was saying he limited himself because, you know, he was God.
- 43:45
- He is God. And then he puts himself in a human body. So like going from spiritual to human.
- 43:53
- He emptied himself as the way that it said in Philippians 2 .5. Yeah. So, I mean, the wording is sketchy, but I mean,
- 44:01
- I kind of understand where he was going with that. Well, then he got lost. There's answers in the catechism related to understanding the incarnation as well.
- 44:12
- Again, when he's trying to reason it out himself. Yeah. Instead of understanding what is historically taught.
- 44:19
- Right. What the scripture says. When he tries to go beyond that, then yeah, he's getting into muddy territory.
- 44:25
- And that's precisely why we encourage catechism. Yeah. For children, for adults, it doesn't matter.
- 44:31
- There's a great app for that. Let me pull this up. So you're looking for an app that is called
- 44:37
- Reformed App. It's simply the name of it. And when you pull the app up, it has four categories.
- 44:42
- Confessions, catechisms, creeds, and contact. Everything starting with a
- 44:47
- C. They've got to be Baptist. And you can listen to, you can read any of the confessions.
- 44:55
- There's the Westminster Confession, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith.
- 45:01
- And then there's also the catechism category, Category C. Now there's so many C's here.
- 45:08
- I can't get away from it. There's even a kid's catechism. So one with very simple questions that you can ask.
- 45:15
- Neat. About who is God, what's expected of us, things like that. There you go. Well, let's continue on with these videos.
- 45:22
- So here's another one. I was trying to talk a little extra. Here's another one from Cliff. We're not quite at the end yet, babe. Okay. Here we go.
- 45:29
- So if I don't believe in God, but I live a good life, I'm kind, I'm generous,
- 45:35
- I'm very moral, but I don't believe in God, am I going to hell? If you're an atheist, why are you concerned about hell?
- 45:41
- Well, I'm just wondering from the perspective of someone who doesn't believe in God. If there are people who don't believe in God, but they're good people, do they go to hell?
- 45:50
- If you are truly good all the time, 100 % of the time, don't go to heaven. You're a morally perfect person.
- 45:56
- But if you're like me, someone who tries to do good, but too frequently does evil. If you're like me, someone who's chosen to rebel against God, then you wouldn't want to go to heaven.
- 46:04
- Because heaven, you have to live together with God. So hell would be better because in hell, you're separated from God.
- 46:10
- And if you want to be separated from God, he'll grant you a request. I'm kneeling here praying that you're going to put your faith in Christ and go to heaven.
- 46:22
- I'm so confused. What was that? Yeah. Again, with the music, just turn it down.
- 46:34
- Oh, my goodness. Okay, so she's asking because she's a good person because she's kind.
- 46:39
- Am I going to go to hell? I just don't understand his response. What was that? Yeah, nothing at all about how you've rebelled against God.
- 46:48
- He kind of rebels against God. Well, he made it a personal testimony thing. Like, I try to be good, but I fail and I don't want to go to hell.
- 46:58
- So I'm going to believe in Jesus. But he doesn't put it on her. He doesn't even show her that you can't really be a moral person.
- 47:04
- You think you're good, but you're not. The only person who has ever been capable of being perfect and good is
- 47:14
- Jesus. And that's because he was God. Oh, man.
- 47:21
- He just dropped a perfect opportunity. Did not do anything to try to help her see that she's not as good as she thinks she is.
- 47:30
- He just said, well, you want to not be in the presence of God? He's just going to give you what you want.
- 47:37
- And that was weird. He was like making it a personal testimony. And then he said that he wouldn't want to be in the presence of God.
- 47:47
- And then he started using the word you after that. And it was like, so you don't want to be in the presence of God?
- 47:56
- But how does the present? But now you're praying.
- 48:01
- What he should have been doing there, again, as I said, showing her that she's not as good as she thinks she is.
- 48:07
- And then if she's convicted over this, recognizing, yeah, if I have to stand before God, according to his moral standard, then of course,
- 48:13
- I'm not getting into heaven. I'll be sent to hell. And then saying, well, there's a solution to that.
- 48:19
- It's Jesus Christ, who is the only perfect man who ever lived, just like you said, who lived the perfect life that we could not live, who died the death that we were supposed to die.
- 48:28
- And by his death on the cross, took our sins upon himself. So that when you believe in Jesus, who died for sins, he transfers to you his righteousness.
- 48:39
- So that when God looks at you, he doesn't see the sinful person anymore. That is deserving of the wrath and judgment of God forever in hell.
- 48:47
- You then become a child of God. Because you've been adopted into the family of God through Jesus Christ.
- 48:53
- He loves you. He's going to give you eternal life. He's going to make you a fellow heir of his eternal kingdom. And going somewhere like that, instead,
- 49:01
- I don't know what it was he said there either. Okay, so my question is - How was that supposed to help? I have a lot of questions.
- 49:07
- But one that I'm going to start with is, was it really a minute that he talked with this gal in real life?
- 49:15
- Or did he like cut pieces out of the video?
- 49:20
- Yeah, these things are definitely cut down to 60 seconds. But this is the way -
- 49:27
- This way is more confusing. Understand this is how everybody sees this.
- 49:33
- Yeah. And when I pulled these videos, I've got four of them right here. These are the first four videos
- 49:38
- I watched. So I didn't even have to hunt for the bad ones. Every one that I brought up was a mess.
- 49:47
- Yeah. And I'm sure the guy's got good intentions. And I will say this - Maybe he did say the whole thing to her and it just got cut out?
- 49:54
- I don't think he did. No. I don't think so at all. Because I've listened to long form teaching from him and he never -
- 50:00
- It's always like this. Oh. It's just more words. Nevermind. But I will say this, he's out there doing evangelism.
- 50:08
- We need more people out there doing that. Yes, we do. Have the courage to go out there and do it. Yes. At least he's got the courage to go out there and do it.
- 50:15
- Right. But if we need better evangelists out there, then become a better evangelist and go out there and do it. Or if you know the guy, go help him with catechism.
- 50:23
- Now see, yeah, here's the thing. And I was thinking about this too as I was watching some of those videos. Maybe this could be an
- 50:29
- Apollos situation. Yeah, totally. Where somebody with some sound doctrine can take the guy aside.
- 50:35
- Yeah. Just like Akilah and Priscilla did with Apollos. Yes. And you take him aside and teach him the way that -
- 50:42
- Totally. What he's missing, the blanks that he's trying to fill in, but he doesn't have the right stuff, the right tools.
- 50:50
- He's trying to do things logically. Yes. Instead of having a solid biblical foundation.
- 50:55
- Let me do one more. Okay. I said I had four. I'll do one more. Okay. We'll close with this one.
- 51:01
- All right. Compromising. Why do I need religion? You don't. You know, you say - You do not need religion. You say Christian is the best.
- 51:07
- The Muslim guys say Islam is the best. And, you know, whoever has his religion say that's the best. You should follow this because this is the best.
- 51:13
- Why should I follow any religion? You shouldn't. Do not follow religion. Follow Jesus Christ, not religion.
- 51:20
- Religion has been used to justify the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, enslaving
- 51:26
- African Americans. I think you'd be an idiot to follow religion. Jesus Christ is totally different from religion.
- 51:33
- I would never follow religion. Never. So you would just follow a guy?
- 51:39
- I would follow God. I would follow Jesus Christ. Yes, sir. If you think I'm going to follow
- 51:44
- American Christianity, no way. Absolutely no way. I'd be a fool to follow
- 51:51
- American Christianity. To follow Jesus Christ, that's radically different.
- 51:58
- Totally different. To follow Jesus Christ has nothing to do with being a Republican. Has nothing to do with being a
- 52:04
- Democrat. It has to do with following God, following Christ. That's the bottom line.
- 52:10
- Jesus talked about the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. He called people to follow him. Again, I have so many questions.
- 52:18
- So he does leave you with more questions than answers. Yeah. So he just used Republican and Democrat as religions?
- 52:27
- Right. I don't know why that even needed to be said. Okay. Now, in one sense, he's right.
- 52:33
- You don't follow a religion. You follow Jesus. Sure. But giving the answer the way that he gives it leaves a person with, like,
- 52:40
- I can go live my life the rest of the way that I want as long as I believe in. Yeah, it's the me and my
- 52:46
- Bible Christianity. Yes. Which is a religion in itself. Jesus instituted a ritual meal when he gave the last supper to his disciples, breaking bread and saying, this is my body.
- 52:59
- Eat this in remembrance of me. Passing the cup and saying, this is the new covenant in my blood, which has been spilled for the forgiveness of sins.
- 53:07
- Drink in remembrance of me. That's a religious practice. So if you take this.
- 53:13
- And he went into the synagogues. Taught the scriptures. Yeah. And he went into homes where they were all gathering anyway.
- 53:21
- Yeah. And yeah, so he pretty much encouraged church all the way.
- 53:28
- Exactly. Baptism is a religious practice. Yes. The fact that he calls out the church, he says in Matthew 16, 18,
- 53:35
- I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. This is religious establishment.
- 53:41
- So now I'm curious if he just follows Jesus. Does he ignore the rest of the Bible? That's a good question.
- 53:47
- Yeah. Yeah. You don't know. No, I don't know. Okay. I was just curious. He obviously does go to church because he spoke at fellowship church once again.
- 53:58
- And another problem with that sermon is at the very beginning of it. He said, you should go to church and you should come to this church.
- 54:07
- No one should go to Ed Young Jr's church. So the man lacks discernment.
- 54:13
- He's a poor evangelist. And so I don't recommend his teaching at all.
- 54:18
- There's not enough here for me to say that the guy's a heretic or that he's not a believer.
- 54:26
- I'm not saying that. He just needs some serious guidance. He needs better teaching.
- 54:31
- Yeah. I don't think he has a good grasp on the scriptures and he certainly hasn't been catechized.
- 54:38
- So he doesn't have good answers to those questions that he's been asked. Now, the other video that I have, which we're not going to play,
- 54:44
- I won't get to this one. He shares his personal testimony. And he talks about how going through middle school and high school, friends of his would just come to him and ask him questions.
- 54:52
- Middle school, high school, and college. So it kind of forced to put him in a place where have to reason these or answer these questions reasonably.
- 55:00
- And so that really does kind of reveal in his testimony. Oh, yeah. That he was trying to reason his way into Christianity rather than understanding what the scripture says.
- 55:09
- Yeah. And believing by the conviction of the Holy Spirit, that he's a sinner in need of a savior and that Christ is that savior.
- 55:16
- And I think that he would say that based on other things that I've heard him say. And even based on what we've listened to here.
- 55:22
- Okay. He understands that he needs Christ and only by faith in Christ can you get into heaven. Yeah. We kind of heard that in the first one.
- 55:28
- Right. Yeah. But he's just very poor at answering these questions and helping a person who's asking these questions.
- 55:37
- Understand why they need Jesus. Yeah. And all these answers that we've heard, we've not heard him try to show them.
- 55:44
- Here's why you need Christ. And this is where Todd Friel's Evangelism Wednesdays that he does.
- 55:50
- Witness Wednesday is what he calls it. Yeah. Those would be really, really helpful. So if you listen to Wretched's podcast, any
- 55:56
- Wednesday, he goes on to the college campuses in the Atlanta area. And he'll ask students questions and helps them to see that they're sinners in need of a savior.
- 56:07
- Yes. It begins with showing them the law. Do you believe you're a good person? Yeah, I believe I'm a good person.
- 56:12
- Well, can I ask you some questions to see if you're a good person? Have you ever told a lie before? Have you ever stolen anything before?
- 56:18
- Have you ever looked at somebody with lust? And you go through basically what are questions from the law, from the 10 commandments.
- 56:25
- Yeah. And when a person realizes I've broken the 10 commandments, you're helping them to see that they've sinned against God.
- 56:32
- And then according to what the scripture says, what do they deserve for that? Right. And then for those whose hearts have been convicted, showing them the gospel.
- 56:40
- There are times in which a person can be so resistant to that, that you don't give them the gospel.
- 56:45
- Because then they're just going to hate God all the more. They're going to become more hard hearted to it. Right. So if you can sense in those conversations, this isn't going to go anywhere.
- 56:53
- Or go well. It's not going to go well. As Jesus said in Matthew seven, don't cast your pearls before swine.
- 57:00
- That's what I was thinking too. Dust your feet off. Yeah. There's occasions in which you just walk away.
- 57:06
- But if you're helping a person to see if they're beginning to recognize, according to what
- 57:12
- God's word says, the Holy Spirit is working on their heart. And they have that effectual call.
- 57:18
- Yeah. To follow Jesus when hearing the gospel, then bring a person's heart to an understanding of who
- 57:24
- Jesus is so that they will worship God. Not through reason and logic. Yeah. And I'm not to say that our faith is unreasonable or illogical.
- 57:33
- And that's what I was thinking too. So yeah. He's just using reason and logic that's not scripturally based.
- 57:39
- Right. Right. It's earthly and finite based. Yeah. That's. Yeah. It's impossible to make that apply to God.
- 57:47
- You can use general revelation or what we might also call natural apologetics or something like that.
- 57:55
- Okay. You can use that to help a person see the truth. The Apostle Paul did it. True. But again, even the nature based or the logically based apology, general revelation, even those things need to be based in scripture.
- 58:10
- So in other words, if anybody knows this gentleman personally.
- 58:15
- Yeah. Just go and say, hey, let's do a Bible study together or something. Politely pull them aside.
- 58:22
- Yeah. And the way that I think that you show him his errors is the same way that he's not helping a person see their errors.
- 58:30
- Ask him questions. If you listen to him, do evangelism and you get the chance to talk with him privately, be able to say, okay, you asked this person this question and you gave this answer.
- 58:42
- Do you see why there might be some problems with that or helping him to see? Scripture says this, but you said this.
- 58:49
- So do you see why that might not be consistent? Yeah. And something like that. So helping him to recognize how he could be better at it.
- 58:57
- If he has a real heart for wanting to save sinners and bring them to a knowledge of the gospel,
- 59:03
- God can use even poor presentations of the gospel and bring people to saving faith.
- 59:09
- Amen. But still on his part, he needs to be responsible. With the handling of scripture.
- 59:17
- Yeah, exactly. With the opportunities that God has given to him, he's going to have to answer for that. Right. And of course, in the meantime, if you're so led to go do what he's doing, do it better.
- 59:29
- Well, thank you for listening. If you have any questions you'd like to submit to the broadcast, our email is when we understand the text at gmail .com.
- 59:37
- And when you go evangelize, you can have this handy app called YouTube and look up the what?
- 59:45
- What videos? That happens too. And I've had people tell me that while they were witnessing to somebody on the street, they remembered there was a video about this.
- 59:54
- And because the videos are just a minute and a half to two minutes, it's easy to get a person to just at least stand there and watch it for a minute and a half.
- 01:00:01
- Yeah. So pulling up a video and sharing that with somebody else. And that's wonderful. Glad that they can even be used as tools on the street.
- 01:00:09
- Amen. And I don't know that when we started this, that could have been the case.
- 01:00:14
- There were smartphones then. Yeah. But it may not have been as bountiful as it is now.
- 01:00:21
- And just about everybody's carrying one now. So you got an opportunity right there to share a video with somebody on the street.
- 01:00:27
- Share a video on the street. Who would have thought we'd been saying that 20 years ago?
- 01:00:34
- Not I. It's next year, 2015, that YouTube or sorry, 2015, 2025.
- 01:00:40
- I was going to say, where did we go? I'm a little behind. Time travel.
- 01:00:47
- It's next year in 2025 that YouTube has their 20th anniversary.
- 01:00:53
- Oh, really? They went online in 2005. Wow. That's pretty amazing.
- 01:01:00
- We did not have YouTube when 9 -11 happened. Mm -hmm. Yeah. When I graduated.
- 01:01:05
- Hey, that was when I graduated college. It was 2005. Oh, is that right? Yeah. How about that?
- 01:01:12
- Whoa, that was 20 years ago. I dropped out of college. I'm just now putting that together.
- 01:01:21
- I dropped out of college in 2003. Well, yeah, there you go. Let's pray and then we'll be done.
- 01:01:28
- Heavenly Father, we thank you for our time together. We thank you for being able to open up the word and understand what you have said, according to your scripture, and I pray that we would be faithful to these things, looking and examining our own errors, as David had prayed there in Psalm 17, that you have examined me and found me to be without fault.
- 01:01:48
- But if there is any area in which we do stumble, we do fall, there are weaknesses, there are sins that we may not be aware of, that the
- 01:01:57
- Spirit would convict us of those things, that we may lay it before the Lord and be cleansed and walk in righteousness in the path that you have set before us.
- 01:02:07
- Forgive us and help us in our weaknesses to seek Christ, to have the mind of Christ, and help others to grow in the knowledge of Christ as well, rightly handling the word of truth.
- 01:02:19
- It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Amen. A half to two -thirds of the songs we sing are hymns and psalms, are from people like the
- 01:02:36
- Gettys, Matt Boswell, and Matt Papa, Sovereign Grace, and City of Light, to name a few. But it occurred to me that I don't know where these people stand on the issue of continuing it, yeah.
- 01:02:49
- Sorry, I'm so creaky. I know. I will do something about the chair later.
- 01:02:58
- Later? Okay. Well, if I do something about it right now, it could be 15 more minutes, yeah, right?
- 01:03:04
- It'll be tomorrow, that's what it'll be. It'll take too long. Can't move, no creaky.
- 01:03:12
- You'll make the chair creak. You're just going to have to block it out. Do my magic of editing and edit out all the creakiness out of the chair.
- 01:03:25
- I seriously can't move at all. Okay.