WWUTT 595 Q&A Women Preaching Alcoholic Beverage Resolutions?

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If a woman has been given a gift of oration and leadership, how should she use those gifts?

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Does the Bible prohibit the consumption of all kinds of alcohol? And are New Year's resolutions okay?

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The answers to these questions when we understand the text. Happy New Year from your friends at When We Understand The Text.

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We are committed to producing Gospel -centered, Biblical content year -round. Find all our resources on our website at www .utt

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.com. With our last episode of 2017, here's

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. And we have a question about some New Year's resolutions, which will be coming up a little bit later in the program.

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Still getting some emails expressing appreciation for the ministry. This one from Sly. Your ministry has been a blessing to me and to my friends, and I pray for God's strength, blessings, and wisdom to be with you.

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Aw, thank you. Hopefully, next year, I'll get settled financially and hope to support what? And maybe send some more books.

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Woo! Yay! Thank you. So, yeah, that's another way that you can support the ministry. We're still putting books into our library at church, so you can send those books to 1220

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West 8th Street, Junction City, Kansas, 66441. And by the way, that's

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First Southern Baptist Church. Yes. Not going to our house. Nope. It's going to the church. Yes. And they will go on our shelf.

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And our church benefits greatly from the great literature that you have sent to our church.

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Some folks have even sent piles of tracts. Oh, wow. And that's been great. Some of those tracts written by guys like J .C.

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Ryle. That's awesome. He authored tracts back during the days of his ministry. So we don't need more tracts, though.

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We're good on tracts. And we're good on MacArthur? MacArthur books. Yes. But we've asked for kids books.

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Some scroll books would be good. We only have, I think, two different scroll books. So J .C.

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Ryle, that would be another one, since I mentioned that name. I don't think we have anything by him except for the tracts that were sent to us.

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Right. And if you would like to send a note of encouragement or if you've got a question for the broadcast, our email address is whenweunderstandthetextatgmail .com.

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I did get a message this week about a certain video that somebody was looking for on the website related to Grace, but they couldn't find the video.

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When you go to our website and you search, what you're searching for is not the videos. You're searching the transcripts to those videos.

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And unfortunately, we don't have all the transcripts on the website yet. So because we have over 200 videos now, so trying to get all those transcripts up is a little bit difficult.

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However, if you go to YouTube. He does talk a lot in that 90 seconds. Well, I have the transcripts.

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I just need to copy and paste them. But doing all of that and putting the video link on it, it just takes time. But anyway, if you go to YouTube and you type in what,

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WWUTT, and any theology keyword that you're looking for, you'll find the video of it, even if we don't have the transcript yet.

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So if you try to use the search feature on our website, you're going to have. We'll let you know when it's all done.

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Might have to give me a month or so. When it's caught up. All of the most recent videos, those transcripts will get put on.

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But some of the older videos we don't have up yet. But anyway, thanks for your patience there. And we'll get all that ready to go.

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Again, the email address when we understand the text at gmail .com. This question has to do with what we've been talking about on the podcast this week out of First Timothy Chapter two.

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So we're up to the section where Paul is saying or he's got specific instructions for the men and specific instructions for the women.

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And part of those instructions is that a woman is to learn quietly with all submissiveness.

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The role of pastor is designated for a man. That's what Paul's getting up to when we get to chapter three.

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But everything we're reading at the end of chapter two is still in that same context. So verse eight begins,

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I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.

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Likewise, also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self -control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness with good works.

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Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man.

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Rather, she is to remain quiet. That's verses 11 and 12. That's what I posted on Twitter earlier this week.

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And then verse 13 for Adam was formed first and then Eve and Adam was not deceived.

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But the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self -control.

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And that concludes chapter two. And then you get to chapter three and you almost have to consider it without the chapter in verse dividers.

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The saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.

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So the position of overseer is meant for a man to fill, not a woman. And Paul has explicitly stated at the end of chapter two that that position is only supposed to be for a man and not a woman who is supposed to learn quietly with all submissiveness.

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So that was what I posted on Twitter earlier this week were was those two verses, verses 11 and 12.

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And specifically, it was in the context of somebody who made this particular comment.

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They said, Dear Paul and Timothy, it would have been great if you had a heads up that your words would be read as forever instructions.

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I wish you could have added a disclaimer to your letters so people wouldn't be using your letters to oppress slash silence women thousands of years later.

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Oh, I'm not silent. My wife is not silent. And so that prompted me to issue from the

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Apostle Paul, this statement, Dear 21st Century Church, let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.

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I do not permit a woman to teach her to exercise authority over a man. Rather, she is to remain quiet sincerely in Christ, the

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Apostle Paul. So it's plainly stated. And we know that this instruction applies to all cultures at all times because Paul appeals to the creation order in order to make his point.

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For Adam was formed first, then Eve. That's reason number one. Why the position of pastor is designated for a man and not for a woman.

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And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. And that's reason number two.

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Right. So reason one, Adam was formed first, then Eve. Reason number two,

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Eve was deceived and became a transgressor rather than Adam. Adam just straight up sin and he blamed

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God for his sin. Right. Eve was deceived. Because you gave me Eve. Right. That's what he said.

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The woman you put here with me gave me the fruit and I ate it. I've always wondered what was going on between Adam and Eve when they were expelled from the garden after that.

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I mean, surely the relationship wasn't terribly warm. I'm sure it was filled with sin.

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Boy, there had to be some serious mending going on at that point and no one around to give them any marriage counseling.

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Oh, no. Anyway, so there are some who will say that this instruction doesn't apply because this had to do with the fall in the

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Garden of Eden. And if we live perfect lives of holiness as we should and we are given righteousness in Christ Jesus, then shouldn't women then be able to preach because they've received the forgiveness of Christ and so therefore this instruction wouldn't apply?

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Well, then you would only be arguing for the second instruction that would not negate the first. The first being

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Adam was formed first and then Eve. Right. And so because Adam is first in the created order, this is the reason why

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God is designated for teachers of the church to those who carry the authority of preaching the

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Word of God. And it's the Word of God that has the authority, not the pastor, technically.

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But it's that he is the administrator of that word. That is a position that is designated for a man, not for a woman, because Adam was formed first and because Eve was deceived and became a transgressor.

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She listened to the words of the serpent, not Adam, and then took the fruit and ate it, then gave it to Adam and he just ate it because he was aloof and stupid.

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All I can think of is how to get to a man's heart is through his stomach. Yeah, that's probably quite true.

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That was so true. It was part of the reason for the fall. Yeah, so anyway, so the question that we got that you received was from Abby in Tennessee.

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Yes. And she said... And this was after I posted that statement on 1

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Timothy 2 on Twitter, quoting verses 11 and 12. So then she said, what do I do if God has given me a voice and leadership abilities?

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I'm not asking this to be petty. I'm genuinely curious and I would like to know. One of the traps

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I've seen many women fall into, those who desire to be pastors or preachers, one of the snares

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I've seen them fall into is believing that I've been given this ability to be a pastor.

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And so therefore, this must be my calling. And whatever verses that would say that a woman is not supposed to be a pastor, there must be a different context or a different reason for those verses.

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Because I feel so strongly about this. Exactly. Because I feel strongly about what it is that I should be doing with these gifts that God has given to us.

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Right. Clearly, He didn't give them to me for no reason. Right. Or to suppress them. Or, yeah, right.

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To be suppressed. To be oppressed. Right. And that's a ridiculous conclusion that the feminist culture will make about passages like this.

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This isn't at all telling you to shut up and therefore oppressing you. That isn't this passage at all.

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Oh, no. Not at all. No. And like I said earlier this week, it should be your joy to learn quietly with all submissiveness.

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Right. And because there are plenty of other people in the church that have to submit to the gifting of the person that's been called into the pulpit to preach.

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As a mother of four, I enjoy quiet. I enjoy listening.

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Amen to that. So there are plenty of people that must submit to the gifting of the person that's in the pulpit to preach the word of God.

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He's been given an ability to teach. That's stated in 1 Timothy chapter 3. And not everybody has that ability.

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Right. But it's for women to be the picture of submission in the church because the whole church is supposed to submit to Christ.

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Right. We lead that example. Exactly. Women have the privilege of being able to present that example to the whole church.

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Right. So this is not silence and oppression to any degree. Oh, no. Especially considering that women can teach.

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And we talked about that out of Titus chapter 2. I mentioned that it was either Monday or Tuesday that women teach other women or teaching children.

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And you have the occasion in Acts chapter 18 when Priscilla and Achilla corrected

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Apollos. He was preaching boldly in the synagogue, but he did not understand the way of God accurately enough.

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So Priscilla and Achilla helped him out, filling in all the blanks that Apollos didn't have concerning the testimony of John the

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Baptist was pointing toward Jesus Christ. And Christ was the fulfillment of everything that John the

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Baptist was preaching. So they brought Apollos to correction. And that's something that Priscilla did with her husband.

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So a woman can be an evangelist. Right. You can teach others in other environments that's not standing at the pulpit preaching to the whole congregation.

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And you can lead Bible studies for women. Yes. Like you said, teaching children.

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Teaching people at work. Oh, yeah. And I don't know if you have, what sort of opportunities you have in the world in which you operate, work, play, pleasure, whatever, as you have opportunities to share

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Christ with other people. Well, a woman absolutely has a calling to be able to do that. This passage is not in any way telling a woman to shut up and she can't ever talk about God.

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Of course not. People just go to extremes because they want to try. They want to be heard.

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Yeah. Right. They do. They just want it to be them, them, them. Right. And it is selfish. Me, me, me.

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Yeah. I don't want anybody to tell me that I have to be quiet. Right. So I want, even if my pursuit is not to become a pastor.

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It's like a rebellious child. It is. It's a petulant child. Petulant. Yes. Even if the opportunity is not for them to become a pastor, they certainly want that option to be there.

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Right. So it's oppressive and it's silencing women if you believe 1

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Timothy 2 verses 11 and 12. Those passages don't exist in a vacuum. Paul has been setting the stage for that in the passages prior to that.

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And then, of course, we'll talk about elders and overseers when we get to chapter three here in a couple of weeks.

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So it's a very common thing for a person or for a woman in particular to believe that because she has this gift, then

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God must want her to use it in the pulpit. Well, you probably do have a very wonderful speaking voice and you have a type

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A personality in which you can lead others. But there are other ways that you can exercise those gifts that don't necessarily mean that this is a sign that you should be a pastor in a church.

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Right. If you do try to become a pastor, which is something that the Bible explicitly says a woman shouldn't do, then you would be using your gifts in disobedience, not in obedience to the

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Lord. So it cannot be about what you feel like you should do. I use my loud, wonderful voice on this podcast for one.

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And I do think my wife has a very wonderful speaking voice. Oh, thank you.

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I was being a little facetious. Anyway, I also am a bit fiery, but I have learned to channel that.

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I love to give advice and help people through things and just be there for one another.

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Ministry gives me that opportunity as a pastor's wife. I mean, I don't have to be the pastor to lead everybody, but I can lead a lot of people, a lot of women.

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And then encourage the men to help their women, too, kind of in a roundabout fashion.

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Certainly. And my wife has had good advice for men on how to love their wives in a proper way, in a way that she can see what the wife is feeling that maybe the man can't get.

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And so she's had good advice. So even in her role as a pastor's wife doesn't mean that she can't give advice to men.

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It's just when you're talking about the corporate setting, preaching from the pulpit, and you are administering the authority of the word of God, that's a role that's designated for a man.

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And I've noticed in my previous days of trying to be in front of everybody and not really preaching at them, but whenever I was rebellious still, but I was trying to be loud and all about me and get everybody's attention,

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I was not as successful as what I am now in being an influence in people's lives with that one -on -one.

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So when you were aggressive, it actually hindered you, as opposed to when you learned to be more submissive or to temper that fieriness that you have, like you had talked about.

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And use it in different ways. Like, I'm still very, very passionate about things. Oh, yes. Very passionate.

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But I have been able to pull that back and apply that in different ways of highly encouraging people or using stronger words and less voice and that sort of thing.

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So, yeah, the strength of what you're saying, not the way you say it. Right. Yes. So my wife used to work at a rock quarry.

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Yes. It's always hard to say as a rock quarry. Stop it. Anyway, but you drove, what was the size of the dump truck that you used to drive?

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It was how big? It was a 60 -ton haul truck. Yes. It was a Tonka toy. A giant

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Tonka toy. It wasn't the biggest, though. A wheel bigger than our garage. Whenever you watch them on the, like, you know, rock quarry things on YouTube or whatever.

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Or like you watch Modern Marvels or something like that. They always show the gigantic ones. The biggest ones. Mine wasn't those. Mine wasn't those.

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Okay. But I've often said that in my wife's heart roars the engine of a 60 -ton haul truck, which she used to drive when she worked at a rock quarry.

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So, there are some women, it's a little bit more difficult to be submissive than others.

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Very. But she does it, and she does it well, and she does a wonderful job.

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So, she becomes an even greater picture of submission than maybe most women would be.

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Because you're actually witnessing a woman who is suppressing a lot when she is being submissive.

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And yet, I still don't feel oppressed. I really don't. I don't feel like it's oppressive by any means.

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Because it's your joy. Because it's freeing. Yeah. It's very freeing. Because I'm like, here, I'm going to put this on the table for you to think about, and you can make that choice.

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Yeah. That's great. And I don't have to think about it anymore. Right. My bride is certainly like that.

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But there's also a delight, delighting in God to live the way that He has.

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Oh, for sure. Yes. Living out the calling that He has placed upon you as a wife, as a mother, as a pastor's wife.

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It doesn't make life easier to be a Christian, but it definitely makes it just freeing.

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The truth will set you free. Yes. So, Abby, I hope out of all of that. Our ramblings, too.

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Yeah. That this is helpful for you. It is certainly okay to ask, and the question was not at all received as some sort of petty inquiry.

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Oh, no. Not by any means. Yes. But it is a gift for you to have the voice that you have, and maybe a certain personality in which you could make a strong leader.

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I would encourage you that in the opportunities that you have in the place where you're in right now, that you be faithful to the

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Lord, give praise to God for any and all opportunities that come your way. Right. And study, study, study.

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Exactly. Listen to the elder ladies and the elders. Yes. So, as the instruction is for younger women to learn from the older women, you must be humble to learn from them.

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Right. And you're not there yet. There's still a long way for you to go, things that you have to learn, and wait for those opportunities to arise.

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Right. At the proper time, God will open that door for you. In the meantime, rejoice in Christ in everything that you've been given, every opportunity that you have in the present.

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Right. And who knows, you may be leading the next Women's Conference. Hey, we hope to see you in the future. Yes. Next question comes from Randall, and he had a question about alcohol.

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He said, I commented on a blog on Facebook that I didn't believe that Christians should drink alcohol.

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You probably already know the responses I got. Like, Jesus made wine out of water, Paul told Timothy to drink wine, and that I was being legalistic.

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He says, I replied that it was representing a bad example to the Word and other

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Christians. What are your thoughts on this? So, I had a little bit of an exchange with Randall, and then in a later email, he clarified that he's asking beyond just examples of wine, but he's referring to beer and mixed drinks and where they are consumed, bars, nightclubs, and parties.

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Oh, got it. So, is it okay for a Christian to drink beer or any mixed drinks, and should they be visiting bars, nightclubs, or parties?

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So, this is about more than just wine. Well, the Bible does actually distinguish between wine and other alcoholic beverages.

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Right. So, any and all references to wine are not technically references to all kinds of alcoholic drinks, although, at least in the

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New Testament context, it usually is. So, when we see a reference to wine, you could throw beer in there with it.

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It's arbitrary in that sense. So, it could apply to any kind of alcoholic beverage.

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But then you have references to strong drink. So, sometimes in the Old Testament in particular, it will distinguish between wine and strong drinks.

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So, strong drink will be any other kind of alcoholic beverage other than wine. Right. Wine comes from the fruit of the vine.

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When it becomes fermented, that's wine. Then any other kind of strong drink could be made any other way.

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You could be talking about liquor, malt liquor, beer, any of these things. Right. So, here is what Deuteronomy 14 verses 22 through 27 has to say.

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And I'm going to read this whole section. This is concerning tithes, but it does mention wine and strong drink.

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And I think that this is a great example to use in response to this question. So, the instruction that comes from God through Moses is this.

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You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year.

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And before the Lord your God in the place that he will choose to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the

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Lord your God always. And remember, a tithe is a tenth. Right. So, you're giving a tenth of your produce, a tenth of your flocks as well.

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And if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe. So, they're tithing this to take it to the promised land and consume it there.

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When the Lord your God blesses you, because the place is too far from you, which the Lord your

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God chooses to set his name there, then you shall turn it into money and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place that the

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Lord your God chooses and spend the money for whatever you desire. So, again, you're tithing a certain amount year by year.

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You're going to go to the promised land to consume that tithe. But if the tithe becomes too plentiful, there's too much of it for you to travel from here to there and consume it in the promised land.

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He's making them rich. Right. He's blessing them with abundance. Then turn that tithe into money, which is easier to carry.

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Right. Then go to the place that God chooses. Now, here's verse 26. Spend the money for whatever you desire, oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves.

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And you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household. And you shall not neglect the

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Levite who is within your towns, for he has no portion or inheritance with you.

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Because the Levite didn't have a specific plot of land on which to dwell. Oh, I gotcha. They were provided for as they gave service in the tabernacle.

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Oh, that's nice. Yeah, this was also considered the Levite so that they may rejoice with you.

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So notice there that God is commanding Israel to spend money on wine or strong drink and consume it and rejoice in the

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Lord. There is no prohibition in the Bible on wine and strong drink, meaning that nothing in the

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Bible commands that you should never drink wine or strong drink ever. Now, there are certain vows that a person could take, and by taking that vow, they shouldn't drink strong drink.

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So you're thinking of like the Nazarite vow. If a person would be committed as a Nazarite, then they wouldn't drink any strong drink.

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Samson wasn't supposed to drink strong drink, but he did and broke his vow. Paul, we have mentioned somewhere in Acts, I can't remember the chapter now, but it mentions that he went to a certain place because of a vow.

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It was when he went to Jerusalem, so I believe this was chapter 20 or 21. So some scholars have said that this was the

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Nazarite vow, and Paul himself was committed to that Nazarite vow. So he went to a certain place in keeping with that vow.

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Paul himself may have not drunk strong drink, but that would be speculative because we don't exactly know what the vow was.

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Luke 1 15, when the angel appeared to Zechariah and told him that Elizabeth was going to be with child, and that child was going to be

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John the Baptist. It was told to Zechariah that he must not, John the Baptist, must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the

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Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. So we know John the Baptist never consumed wine or strong drink.

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So there are specific cases in which a person should not because of a certain vow.

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But as I said, there's no absolute prohibition on the consumption of wine or strong drink.

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Now, when it comes to consuming them in bars, nightclubs, or parties, which was the next part of Randall's question,

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I consider the bar to be the antithesis of the church. So this is like the secular world's church, the bar.

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And one of the examples that I use to go along with that is the show Cheers. Remember the theme song to Cheers.

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Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came, and you're basically going to the bar to forget all your troubles.

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This is your community. This is your group. That's all in the theme song of Cheers. And it's the theme song for going to the bar, basically.

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And people kind of made that. That's their bar song. This is exactly what the bar is for me.

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So when you're hanging out at the bar to drink strong drink, the bar is making money off of you.

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Always costs a lot of money there to go to a bar. And you're talking about what tends to be a very seedy environment.

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People smoke in abundance. Used to not be that way, but it is now. Well, they don't smoke indoors anymore.

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Can they not at all? Not in Kansas. Oh, really? Okay. I wasn't sure. So even at a bar, they can't be smoking in the bar?

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Interesting. So you have what's otherwise a pretty seedy environment with the kind of music that's played there, the kinds of company that you're hanging out with there, and the kinds of things that they have in the bar to attract people there.

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And oftentimes, lewd images. There's one bar here in Junction City that I can think of that's got a certain painting of a woman on the side of the bar.

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On the outside. On the outside. Right. And that's to attract people in there. It's not even a strip club, but they've got that picture on the bar.

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Just kind of put into men's minds, hey, here's where you can come and meet women and have a good time.

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And so you have a very worldly atmosphere that appeals to the flesh.

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I do not recommend that Christians should ever be in bars, nightclubs, parties.

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I don't know. I mean, parties. That's kind of general. General. I mean, you could have like a very innocent party.

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Yeah, sure. You could have a very not so great party, like a college kind of party is what I think.

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Yeah, right. Exactly. So if it's a party that's to get together and get drunk, well, that would be sin.

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Right. But if it's just something that's tasteful and you happen to have alcoholic beverages there. Right. As long as you are looking out for one another and not letting a person fall into drunkenness.

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Because while the Bible does not place an absolute prohibition on all kinds of alcoholic drinks, it does say that you cannot get drunk.

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You should not get drunk. Right. And this is, I believe that God has given a gift of wine.

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It's a picture of abundance. We see that over and over again in the Bible. And we've got a what video about that, by the way.

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Yes. But the wine is a picture of the abundance of the

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Lord. I believe it is also a picture of how anything can be consumed with joy in moderation.

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But you can abuse that substance to the point of excess.

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And you can do that with anything. Not just alcohol. With food. Right. With sex.

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Right. Even that is a gift from the Lord. Working. Right. Yes. Working is a gift from God.

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It is a command of God that you must work. But you can even do that to excess. Exercising. Oh, okay.

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Yeah. Yeah. There's people that do it all the time. Idolize your own. It gets a full -time job. You can idolize your own body.

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Yeah. So, yeah. Plenty of things that God has given gifts to us that we can become too excessive with to the point that it becomes sin.

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Watching television. That's another one. Certainly. Being on the internet. Watching movies.

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Oh, yes. Internet. Listening to music. Twitter. Yep. And so, there are things that we do to the glory of God.

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Give glory and honor to the Lord because he has gifted you with something that brings you delight.

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There is no reason to feel guilty about having fun. Right. But it can be so excessive to the point that it becomes sin.

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And alcohol is just one of those examples, one of the best examples we have of how something can be enjoyed when used in moderation, but in excess, it becomes debauchery.

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Right. Leads to debauchery. So, I hope that helps to answer your question, Randall. Once again, kind of summarizing the argument, consuming alcohol is fine when done in moderation, giving glory to the

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Lord. Stay away from bars and nightclubs. I don't think you should be there. And also, consider who you're – not your audience, but your surrounding people are.

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If they struggle with it, don't drink around them. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. And that goes to something that Paul said with the

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Corinthians, if my eating meat is going to cause a brother to stumble, then I'm just not going to eat meat. Right.

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Because I'm not going to cause my brother in his heart to sin, believing that my eating meat that had previously been offered to an idol is somehow pagan.

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And then he goes and violates his conscience by eating something that he previously thought was wrong. Right. So, it's just better for me to not eat meat.

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If you know somebody that has struggled with alcohol, and there was at one point in their life, they were an alcoholic, so they can't touch the stuff anymore because they know what it will lead to, don't be around it when you're with them.

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Don't think that you have to have it. Right. And certainly don't try to pressure them into, oh, you know, it's fine, man.

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You're over that. Here, have a beer. Right. You have no idea what you're awakening in their spirit with that.

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So, it would be better for you to not drink than to cause somebody to stumble in that way.

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I've heard Votie Bauckham say, especially within Southern Baptist churches and Fundamentalist churches, that pastors will tend to pop their collar and say, hey, you know, look how righteous and holy

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I am because I don't drink. Well, there's nothing to boast about in the fact that you don't consume alcohol.

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Whenever they're like, I follow John the Baptist. And I follow Cephas. And I follow Jesus. And I follow

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Abalos. Right. Right. The person that boasts and the person that it is that they follow. Chest thumping.

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Yep. That's all it is. Collar popping is what, the way Votie Bauckham put it. So, you're not holier than thou because you don't consume alcohol.

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If you are a person who drinks alcohol, just be sure you're doing so in moderation. And responsibility.

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Right. To the glory of God. All right. Last question. This comes from Jeannie in Oregon. She says, are

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New Year's resolutions realistic or legalistic? Haha. I like your use of rhyme there.

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A resolution to do something simple like lose weight seems innocent enough. But what about setting bigger goals like achieving your hopes and dreams or getting out of debt?

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Can such goals ever be godly or is it always selfish? Oh, getting out of debt is not selfish.

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Well, here we have a video about that. Yay! Ah, the new year.

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Time for a fresh start. New beginnings. Bogus prophecies that don't mean anything. Seriously, watch out for those

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Yahoos declaring this is the year of your breakthrough. By now you've made a few New Year's resolutions of your own.

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Perhaps you want to lose a few pounds or break a bad habit or learn a new skill. And then in two weeks when you epically fail at your resolution, you'll say, eh, there's always next year.

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Is it a good idea for Christians to be making resolutions? Sure. Why not? There's nothing wrong with setting personal goals.

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Just remember that whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it to the glory of God. Unless your resolution is to diet, in which case don't eat and don't drink to the glory of God.

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Consider also these words from James. Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.

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Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

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Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogance and all such boasting is evil.

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Yeah, it's straight up evil to think that you control your destiny. But as Job understood, the days of a man are like the days of a hired hand.

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His days are few and predetermined, and God has appointed our limits that we cannot pass. Jesus said not to be anxious about anything, what you shall eat or drink or wear.

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Your heavenly Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

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And all these other things will be added to you when we understand the text. Alright, that pretty much answered the question.

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Yeah, I think so. Very well. So, I was curious to know, what does the secular world consider to be realistic resolutions?

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What would be the advice on making such resolutions? And then are there some Christian blogs that talk about making

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New Year's resolutions? So, here's what I found on the Forbes website. So, you know,

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Forbes is big on, you know, here's how to become filthy, stinking rich. Oh, right, right, right. So, Forbes set out these five standards for setting a

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New Year's resolution. Number one, be specific. Number two, break big goals into smaller increments.

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Right. So, it becomes... That's something they taught in school, too. Oh, okay. Alright. Easier to do, then.

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Easier to accomplish. And then you celebrated each one. Oh, okay. Alright, success. Yay! Number three, forgive yourself for not achieving them.

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Number four, set deadlines. Okay. And number five, celebrate your success.

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Ah, see? There it is. There you go. So, from Forbes, that's how you set realistic or achievable

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New Year's resolutions. Alright. Now, here was from a Christian blog, and this was from a reputable, well, reputable, popular...

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Okay. Popular Christian blogger on doing New Year's resolutions. Okay. So, number one, be specific.

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Oh. Number two, ask God specifically for what you want. Oh. This is the same as the number one on the

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Forbes list, strangely enough. Except you're asking God. Number two, have faith that you can accomplish your goals.

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Number three, forgive yourself when you make mistakes. That was the same as the Forbes list. Number four, set deadlines.

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Also the same as Forbes. Number five, celebrate your success. Four out of five of those standards from Forbes also appeared on that Christian blog.

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Oops. I wonder if one ripped off the other. Anyway. So, then another popular

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Christian blogger did New Year's resolutions for your church. So, this isn't just about what you can accomplish, but what your whole church should be able to accomplish.

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Right. So, number one, be specific, once again. Ask God specifically for what you want.

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Set big goals for your church. It doesn't even say break them up into smaller increments like Forbes did.

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Just think big. Dream big. And accomplish those goals. Number three, don't doubt that you can accomplish them.

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And God will give you the desires of your heart. Oh, boy. Number four, set realistic deadlines.

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And number five, give praise to God for your success. But you notice that in all three of these, whether you're talking about Forbes, the blog for Christians, or New Year's resolutions for your church, all of these things are rather self -centered.

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Very. And I think the advice that James gives there is the best advice. You are foolish if you say, hey, let's go into this town and make a fortune and we'll do this or that.

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But rather you should say, if the Lord wills, we will do this or that. Right. Now, I think it's perfectly fine to set goals for yourself.

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I have set a goal for myself that by the age of 40, I will speak fluent Spanish. How's that coming?

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I'm working on that. I'm still working on it. It's in the evening after you go to bed, I do my Spanish lessons. Not always, but, you know, that's what

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I'm trying to do. Right. And I have asked the Lord. I have asked me that he would give me the desire and the steadfastness.

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You said, I would ask me. I would ask me. What did I say? I asked that he would give me.

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That's what I was trying to say. There you go. Boy, that suddenly went south.

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That went weird. Went in a strange direction all of a sudden. I asked the

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Lord that he would give me. There we go. Yeah, the steadfastness of heart to pursue that.

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That it's not something that I would start for a period of time and then lose my interest, but I would truly desire to do it. And my goal for doing that is that I would be able to turn what videos into Spanish.

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And also that we would be able to offer a Spanish service at our church. Because at the present, and this was at the conviction of several people in our community who came to me and talked to me about this.

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At the present, there is no reformed teaching in Spanish at all in the

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Junction City area. And yet we do have a significant Hispanic population in Kansas altogether.

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We do. And so in a desire to want to do that, I want to learn Spanish so that I might be able to offer that.

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And it's going to take some time and it will take a lot of hard work because I have to be fluent in it.

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And I've got my Spanish Bible. I've bought that. I'm hoping reading the Bible and learning that will aid me in my

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Spanish as well. I've talked to some other missionaries to Spanish countries asking their advice on what it is that I can do to help to cultivate this language in my own brain a little bit better.

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I've been told just to dive in. That seems to be the advice that I get. Yeah. When I get to a certain point,

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I need to start watching Spanish movies or Spanish TV shows without the subtitles.

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Right. Well, with the subtitles at first and then without the subtitles. Okay. So that way I'm I'm starting to I'm lining up words.

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Okay. Yeah, I get that. I got right. Okay. And then then take the subtitles out. Or just do your familiar movies and listen to them in Spanish.

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Well, I've tried that. Because, see, I've tried listening to the Bible in Spanish. I'm not getting that at all.

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No. No. I mean, like a movie that you're familiar with. Well, sure.

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On the children's movies, you can pick Spanish or English. Well, that's true. On a lot of them. Yeah. And so.

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But I don't I don't like doing that just because their mouths don't always line up with the words. And it's confusing.

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Okay. I would rather watch a film that was specifically done in Spanish. Okay. And then. Well, you can find that.

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But I'm not even there yet. So I'm still doing my regular. My textbook studies. Your soap opera. Yeah. Repeat a lot of words.

40:42

You know, when we were clearing out one of your storage garages. Storage garage.

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Storage facility. Shed. Shed. There you go. Storage shed. Storage shed. That's the word. Okay. Anyway, Becky and I got married and she had some stuff in a storage building.

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Two of them, I think. Well, kind of. I shared it with my folks. Oh, that's right. So we cleared out a bunch of that stuff.

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We moved it into our garage when we lived at the Parsonage. But then when we bought our own home, we were moving all of that over to the house that we bought.

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Right. And never actually went through it. We just transferred it from one location to the other. So when I was going. Because we had help.

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Yeah, we did. And I was big and pregnant. With Aria. I remember that. And I wasn't able to go through the things like I wanted.

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Anyway. So I found a Spanish book in your stuff. Uh -huh. Were you aware of that? Yeah. That you had a Spanish book? Yeah. I think it's right over here on the shelf.

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Yeah. Anyway, so that's. I took Spanish. I've been using that. Good. And some of the. I took Spanish in college, but hardly any of it stuck.

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What mostly stuck was what I learned from working at JCPenney. Oh, well, there you go. As a cashier.

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I learned a lot there. Some of the folks that I've talked to have said, you know, I'm using Rosetta Stone. And I've yet to have anybody tell me that that didn't work.

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Right. In fact, one of the missionaries to Mexico that I talked with said, oh, yeah, you can get pretty fluent using

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Rosetta Stone. So that's that's encouraging, knowing that I had already invested in that and I didn't invest in something that wouldn't work.

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So but anyway. So that's a resolution that I have for myself. That's not even necessarily a

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New Year's resolution. That's just a desire. By the time I get to age 40 that I'm fluent in Spanish so that I might be able to preach in Spanish.

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And that's that's what I want to do with that to honor God with that gift. So setting goals perfectly fine.

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Just give glory to God with those goals and know that it is only within God's will that you live or breathe or do anything.

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And this this actually could even go back to the question that Abby asked earlier when she said, what do I do if God has given me a voice and leadership abilities?

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Well, just because you have the voice and leadership abilities doesn't even necessarily mean that it doesn't even mean that God is going to use that to put you in a position of leadership and make you a leader.

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I know that's that's not necessarily the most encouraging answer, but but just to say in all things, give glory to God.

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Amen. The the will that has been revealed to us from God is what we have in the

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Bible. Whatever is related to your future. We don't know what that is yet. And do not listen to any teacher telling you, well,

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God is doing this for you because he's revealing to you his will for you in the future. No, he's not. Give glory to God in every opportunity that you are given.

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Seize those opportunities. I mean, climb the corporate ladder for crying out loud. There's nothing wrong with that.

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If you if you have a chance to be able to excel in the job or the career that you are in, do it all to the glory of God.

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They need Christ up there, too. Yes, precisely. At the top of the ladder. There's nothing.

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We need Christ in the presidency. There's that in the White House. Yeah. In our elected officials, especially.

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There's nothing wrong with pursuing those kinds of things. Just be sure that you're giving glory to God no matter what happens.

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The door opens, the door closes for you. It was either God's will or it wasn't. But you can't know what

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God's will is simply because you have a gift or an ability. Because as I said, and as Becky mentioned, you need to use this time to just learn and grow.

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And then if the opportunity is afforded to you later, then you can use your gift as that opportunity.

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Go all for it. Yep. Go all in. Doing all things to the glory of God, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it to the glory of God.

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Amen. And as Paul said in Colossians 3, remember that you work first for the Lord Christ before you work for man.

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And this is another holiday that everybody celebrates, right? New Year's. New Year's. All right.

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So happy New Year, everybody. God willing, I'll be back on Monday as we continue our study of 1

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Timothy 2. Yay! Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this year, 2017, celebrating the 500th anniversary of the

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Protestant Reformation. What a great year this was in terms of biblical teaching, remembering our roots, church history, the things that you have brought the church through because you are faithful to your promises.

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The church that is built upon Christ Jesus as the cornerstone, a foundation of the apostles. And so I pray that we would be faithful to Christ and the apostolic teaching that has been given to us in the word of God.

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May this year be a reminder of that. We still mourn the loss of a great teacher and brother in Christ, R .C.

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Sproul. And I pray that his ministry Ligonier continues in faithfulness to the standard that Dr.

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Sproul had set so many years ago for faithfulness to the word of God and helping the people of God come to understand what you have revealed in your word.

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I pray that as we head into this next year, that the church would be all the more diligent about adhering to God's word and teaching it faithfully.

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We pray for faithful men of God to be filling the pulpits, men who are expositors, teaching verse by verse, bringing the whole body of Christ into submission under the authority of God's word and also helping the people understand the sufficiency of God's word.

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It is sufficient for our every need as well. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in Christ, as Paul said to the

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Colossians. And so I pray that we would seek these things all the more diligently as we look to the future, giving each day to the glory of God.

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And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Happy new year from your friends at when we understand the text.

47:36

Happy was totally lost. Happy new year. Happy new year.

47:41

Happy new year. Happy new year. Happy new year. From your friends at when we understand the text.

47:51

Happy new year from our friends. Sounds like we've been knocking back the eggnog a little bit.

47:57

I've had two fun -sized, they're not wrappers, it sounds like you're about to admit to drinking alcohol.

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Well, I've had two. No, no. I'm sorry. I'm trying to think of the right word. Stop. I've had two little fun -sized

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Skittles. And so my tongue is kind of, um, a little tart. Yes.

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It is quite sour. I'm glad that's all it was. It was just Skittles. Well, you know, when you don't start until 10 o 'clock.

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We'll get you some espresso. Oh, that would be awesome. Then it'll be happy new year from your friends at when we understand the text.

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Happy new year. Wow. From your friends. Give me some more of that espresso.

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When we understand the text. Oh, dear.

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Okay. So see that enough, that joking was enough to get the blood going, ready to roll.

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Not really. Sure. Action. Happy new year from your friends at when we understand the text.

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We are committed to producing gospel -centered biblical content year round.

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Happy new year from your friends at when we understand the text. We are committed to producing gospel -centered biblical content year round.

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Just say biblical. Biblical. Oh. All right.