WWUTT 855 Q&A Liking Each Other, Sermon Resources, and Expostory Preaching?

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What are some resources for looking up sermons by chapter and verse? What is expository preaching?

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And what are modern applications to old problems people dealt with in the Bible? The answers to these questions when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of God, so that we may have the mind of God.

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Find information on all our books, videos, and more at our website, www .tt .com.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. All righty. I don't have my Bible open to where we're supposed to be at today or anything.

00:47

I feel totally unprepared. That's okay. I have something to buy the time while you're finding your page in your

00:55

Bible. Okay. All right. What is it you got? All right. So I'm supposed to tell you hello from Anonymou. Hello.

01:00

Hi. Hi. And I should pull you on the air.

01:06

That's hard to change. I should pull me on the air? Yeah. I, me. You. I'm going to pull you.

01:12

You should pull me. P -O -L -L. Oh, pool me?

01:17

P -O -L -L. Pull me on the air. Not pool. I was hearing pull.

01:24

Not P -O -L. Like P -U -L -L. No. So you know how to run all of this?

01:29

No. No. No. That would be great. Oh, goodness. No. Big, fat no.

01:35

Okay. You're pulling me. You're pulling me on the air.

01:43

Yes. I'm honoring you. Okay. Here we go. Okay. So what type of chocolate do you like most?

01:51

Milk chocolate? Dark chocolate 50 % to 65 %? dark chocolate 66 % to 80 % or sin,

02:01

I mean, white. Sin is not usually white though.

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If I have to pick one of those four, it's going to be the milk chocolate.

02:15

Yeah, me too. I didn't know there were different grades. If I had to pick something off of that list, it would be

02:23

Swiss Miss. I'm not a chocolate person. I really don't, I don't like chocolate.

02:29

I don't ever go for chocolate bars. No, you really don't. That is never a craving. And even when somebody gets me a chocolate bar,

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I'm excited and I'm faking it. I'm just not excited about this chocolate bar.

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You'll eat Snickers though. Yeah, I will occasionally, yeah. If that's what's there. It's not a go -to for you though.

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But if it's there, you'll eat it. And typically only a snack size. If somebody gets me a full -size Snickers candy bar,

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I'll take a bite. But if I'm ever eating a Snickers, it's because it's the little snack size, the bite size.

03:03

That's pretty much. That's a waste. I'm just not a candy bar person. I think I did eat a lot more candy bars in high school.

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I don't remember clearly, but I do remember having just an explosion of acne on my face.

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And I'm sure that that was candy bar influence. Yeah. I ate more then.

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If you wanna get me any kind of candy, Reese's Pieces is the way to go. Yeah, but that has no chocolate.

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Does it not at all? It does not at all. Okay, so it's just a candy coated shell over peanut butter. Yeah, yep.

03:33

That's fine with me. Because I had a friend in college who was allergic to chocolate. And she said that's the only type of candy, rich candy that she could eat.

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Allergic to chocolate. Yeah, I know. Typically you're allergic to peanuts and nobody can have the Reese's Pieces. She said chocolate.

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I was like, oh, you poor thing. It's okay, more for me. That wouldn't bother me.

03:55

Right now we're kind of in a season of just being really cold. And so I'm great with hot chocolate.

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That's fine if you wanna boil me some water and pour some Swiss Miss in a cup. Yep. Because I don't drink coffee.

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Right, no. I do, coffee, hot chocolate, hot apple cider.

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Yeah, anything that's hot, you'll pretty much consume it. Yeah, but tea I have to. Not that hot.

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Tea I have to avoid though, because it hurts my back, my kidneys. There's a lot of tea there.

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It's supposed to be way more gentle on your kidneys. It doesn't. Okay. I don't know, my body's weird though.

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I'm not normal, I'm Abby normal. Well, since we got. As my mom has called me since way.

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Since we got sick and we've been totally messed up. All our clocks are off now.

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Oh man. My hair even parts the other way. It's really strange. What in the world happened there?

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I don't know. After everybody in the family got sick. We thank you for your prayers though. Yeah, thank you for your prayers.

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Oh man, it was a battle. It was a rough Christmas. It was, Christmas time.

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And then we thought we were through with it and suddenly Zij is running from the room throwing up again. Oh yeah, we don't need to give them that.

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Well, we're not transmitting any diseases by talking about it. No, but still, I get visuals. I'm sure other people are visual people.

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It's just not pretty. We're not even naming and claim it. So I'm not making you sick by talking about it. No, it's just bad.

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It was bad. Remember Gloria Copeland. I'm not getting the flu. We are not getting the flu.

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Jesus is your flu shot. Right, right, no. I curse that flu.

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I bind it in the name of Jesus. How many times did you watch that? Oh man.

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It played everywhere. Oh goodness. But I wrote a blog on it too.

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Oh yeah, that helps. All right, where are we at? I don't remember. What time is it? I don't even know.

05:59

Oh, I moved this window and that didn't even bring up my clock. Time to move along. Okay, yeah, we're over seven minutes in now.

06:06

Yeah. So that's our opening banter. We got that out of the way. Thank you, Anonymou. That's never intentional either.

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No, it's really not. It's like, here we go. We're starting a show. We need to talk about something.

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What do we do here? Well, being Friday, we take questions from the listeners and you can submit those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

06:26

Oh, before getting into these questions, I want to mention. So the book, 25 Christmas Myths and What the

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Bible Says. We're still in the 12 days of Christmas. Today would technically be the 10th day of Christmas because -

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Sunday's the - Yeah, Sunday is - Epiphany. Epiphany, almost said Jubilee. Seer of Jubilee on Sunday.

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Well, I mean, kind of, I suppose. We're happy. We're very jubilant. So it's still being the 12 days of Christmas.

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You can still pick up 25 Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says and still feel seasonable about making the purchase.

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I would feel seasonable all winter long, honestly, just because - It's because it's cold. Yes. And everyone in our neighborhood still has their

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Christmas lights up. They do. I don't remember it ever going this long. I think it's because it's so cold right now.

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Nobody wants - They're waiting for the 50s. Exactly. Tomorrow. That's, yeah, that's coming up this weekend.

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We're gonna have 50s. But nobody wants to get out in this cold and take their lights down. So anyway, 25

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Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says. If there's anyone out there who has read it, either by Kindle or you happen to have picked up the print book,

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I can't imagine you've already received that in the mail, but amen if you did. If you've read the book, would you kindly please do a review on Amazon and get rid of that one -star guy that's on there that left the negative review?

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By the way, I know who that was, and he has a vendetta. So he didn't actually read the book, and it's just irritating.

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What's funny, though, is that every time I publish a book, I always get a one -star review first.

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You do. Somebody has a bone to pick. I can't imagine why.

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Yeah, right. It's like, this is their revenge. And I just posted the book a day ago, so there's no way you read it and are now posting your one -star review.

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Anyway, so if you've read the book and you can give an honest review, I'm even okay with three stars just as long as the review is honest.

08:28

Your daughter gave it four stars. She did. And when I asked her why, she said, well, there were two typos.

08:36

By the way, I took care of those. I'm pretty sure I did anyway. At least the Kindle version, you can upload the, you can re -upload the

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Kindle version, and then it takes out the typos. That's one of the nice things about having this on Amazon.

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You go through a publisher, it's published, that's kind of it. There's not really anything you can do about it.

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But on Amazon, you can do updates. It takes a couple of days for them to take effect, but if anybody catches an error,

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I can make the necessary changes and there you go. That's awesome. And I don't feel too bad about it because even,

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I can point to a book on my shelf, I won't say which one it was, but even books that I get from publishers have errors in them.

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It's like, how many editors did this go through and it still had that kind of typo in it?

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Yeah, even the kids' curriculum books. Seriously? Yeah, oh yeah. A homeschool book ends up with a typo in it.

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That's funny. And some of the math problems, they get the math all wrong. It's like, what? So anyway, so my daughter gave me four stars because she found two typos.

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Typos happen. She's not on Amazon, she can't do a review. So if you can do that, I would appreciate it.

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25 Christmas Moves and What the Bible Says and now available on Amazon for the first time, the book that I wrote in 2016, now available at the start of 2019, 40

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Mormon Beliefs and What the Bible Says. And you can find that one on Amazon as well in print and in Kindle format.

10:07

Both of those books I will have at G3. My folks live in Atlanta.

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I was not gonna be able to get those books shipped to me in time, but I can ship them to my folks in time.

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So the books are gonna arrive with my parents in Atlanta and then I just have to pick them up and I have to see my mom and dad.

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Oh, shucks. Just kidding, I love my mom and dad. That's so exciting. So I can pick the books up at their place and then

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I'll have them there at G3. Don't forget the G3 conference in Atlanta, which is coming up in two weeks. You actually still can get tickets.

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Oh, wow. Yep. That's awesome. Go to the letter Dree, I'm making up letters now.

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Interesting. You're that tired. Yeah. It's Martian, the Martian alphabet.

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The letter G, the number three conference .com and hope to see you there in a couple of weeks.

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Right now the - Are we gonna be doing the Q &A that Friday? We'll have everything recorded in advance.

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Awesome. Yeah, I'm not lugging equipment down there. I've got everything done for our trip.

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I'm not thinking about something else that I need to get together for on the way down there. So what was

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I gonna say? Oh, Founders Conference. Yeah, the Founders Conference is going on right now. I've seen pictures of it, but I haven't listened to any of the messages.

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They probably don't have the messages online yet. And I'm not gonna catch SHEPCON this year because I'm heading to Utah for a men's conference.

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So those of you who are going to SHEPCON for the 50th, 50 years of John MacArthur, grace to you.

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How about that? That's amazing. That is fantastic. Interesting thing. I did not even think of this until my dad posted it on Facebook.

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What's that? But my dad is celebrating his 50th year of broadcasting in the same year that John MacArthur is celebrating 50 years of pastoring at Grace Community Church.

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So cool. Yeah. I liked his little picture, the pre and the like the beginning.

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Yeah, my dad in the 70s looks like me with a mullet. 69, yep. That was a 1969 photo?

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Uh -huh. Oh my goodness, I thought it was in the 70s. Nope. Wow. Same attire. So if I had a mullet,

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I would look like my dad did in 1969. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. All right, questions, questions and comments.

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Yes, questions. Send them to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. This first one comes from Amber. And she says, hi,

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Pastor Gabe and Becky, I hope I spelled that right. One too many Ks, Amber. That's okay. B -E -K -K -I is how she spelled it.

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I'm very forgiving. Just B -E -K -I. Here's a good way to remember it. If you put our names together, it's

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Gabecki. G -A -B -E -K -I. Yep. Because the first two letters of your name are the last two letters of my nickname.

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You know, there was the Ben Affleck. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, when they were together, they were

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Bennifer. Yeah. And Brad and Angelina, weren't they like Bradgelina, Brangelina?

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I don't know. You know, the celebrities get those combined names together. So we're Gabecki. Yeah, sure.

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Okay. Anyway, I'm catching up on your podcast. Well, there went my voice.

13:25

How was that again? Have a good night, guys. We'll talk to you later. I'm catching up on your podcast.

13:31

I recommend it to everyone, BTW. And I heard you guys talking about how Alexa doesn't really do podcasts.

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I have a Google Home Mini, and sometimes I run into a similar problem, but thought there could be a way to turn

13:45

Alexa, I guess technically the Echo or whatever iteration you have, that's what we use as the Echo, into a

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Bluetooth speaker, so that you could still listen to the podcast on the speaker and there is. All you have to do is say

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Alexa pair Bluetooth speaker and she'll set up the rest. So you have it playing on your phone.

14:02

Right. And you've got, you're using the Echo as. As your speaker. Well, see,

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I tried to put Alexa and Echo together in one of those superstar names and it would have come out Echo. You did, you are very tired.

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This article is fairly new and explains it in more detail and then she gives the link to the article. Thank you for your ministry.

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P .S. I love, love, love the Friday editions because you guys are so stinking cute together.

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Aw. You can tell how much you guys love spending time with each other. And I love that while you might not know as many fancy theological terms as Pastor Gabe does,

14:39

Becky, you still have really good theological nose, so to speak.

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A really good theological nose and can always sniff out something fishy or off.

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I know that your gut is telling you something is off because you've spent so much time getting to know the real

14:56

God through the Bible and that's encouraging. Aw, thank you. That's, I love.

15:02

That is very sweet. I love and appreciate that note for Becky Amber because she does get discouraged about where she's at.

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And even when like somebody will ask someone, another woman in our church a question and they don't ask

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Becky, she will come to me later and say, I feel like I should have known that because I'm a pastor's wife and it's a reason why they didn't come and ask me.

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Don't take it personal, babe. I know. It's no big deal. I know the world's not just about me.

15:30

It's a self -conscious thing. It is. Feeling like she needs to know more than she does as a pastor's wife,

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I don't know, thinking that she needs to be on my level. There's no - And a podcast personnel.

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No qualification in 1 Timothy 3 for you to have to know the same thing that I need to know. Well, no, not the same.

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I didn't say the same. Well, I know that. But more than what I do. Right. You know, you always strive for more.

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Sure. It's fine. And you do. I do. Becky has a really tough time retaining names and it's not just in theology, it's everything.

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I ask her about, she'll sing a song from the 80s and I'll say, who is that, babe? I have no idea. At first, when we first got married, it was like, you don't know?

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How do you not know who that is? But now it's just a joke. And there was one time we were watching football and I was like, where's

16:23

Pittsburgh? And he goes, Ohio. And him and mom are snickering. And I'm like, what?

16:29

It's not? She totally bought it, yeah. Totally bought that Pittsburgh was in Ohio. It's so bad. I'm sorry if that offends anybody.

16:35

That's a different problem, though. That's totally. But it's names, it's all names.

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Well, sure, all names. It is, it's crazy. So now it's just a running joke.

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Now it's just like, she'll sing a song. Hey, who was that, babe? I don't know. And then we like throw a party when she can remember that.

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I know, it's amazing. I get so proud. I think it's a, I think she's, it's a conspiracy.

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She's trying to keep our expectations low. Yeah, that's it.

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We'll go with that. She really knows the whole time, but it's just so she can have a party thrown for her. Whenever she throws those names out.

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But yeah, your comment about how much we like each other. I love my wife. She's my best friend. There's nobody

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I want to spend time with than her. There are things that'll happen in my day.

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And there's been a time or two when somebody's come to me and they've seen that something has happened to me. Like they've observed from afar.

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Somebody criticized me, or I've taken more heat than I should over a particular issue or something like that.

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Or they can see there's a certain conflict going on, maybe in the church or in the community. And so they'll come check on me and ask and see how

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I'm doing. And I'll, you know, I'll visit to some degree, but in my mind,

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I'm thinking the more personal side of myself and how I'm reacting to this issue is only for Becky.

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Nobody else will get to see that but her. So there are things that the rest of the world doesn't get to see.

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She gets to see all the sides of me. And there's, she's my best friend. So what can

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I say? And the feeling is very mutual. Of course. I know it is.

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We just like each other. And so what you hear coming out on the podcast is not an act. Nope.

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It's a... It's never scripted. Though sometime, I will say this. The intro and the outro.

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Right. Yeah, if you are listening to the outtakes at the end of the podcast, yeah, none of that's scripted.

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Some of that is unknown to me. Yeah, she doesn't know what I'm recording and then playing and then

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I'll come downstairs on Friday morning. And when her and the kids are just starting breakfast around the table or finishing up breakfast, as it may be.

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And she's giving me this look like, I can't believe you recorded that and put it at the end of the podcast.

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It's so embarrassing. So last week

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I got her singing and... And I still haven't heard that episode. Oh, you haven't heard that? Yeah. So then

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Sonya has been asking us to sing something on the podcast. Constantly. And when

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I got you singing and had it at the outtake, Becky didn't know it was there until Sonya came over and said, oh, thank you for my song at the end of the podcast.

19:26

What song? What are you talking about? You know, as we're talking about this, somebody is hearing for the first time that we have outtakes at the end of the

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Friday edition of the podcast. Listen for after the music. It's every

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Friday. Every once in a while, I'll still get an email from somebody saying, hey, I think you left your mic on at the end of the...

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Nope. So funny. There's podcast or yeah, outtakes at the end of every Friday edition of the podcast.

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There was something else I was gonna say about that too. I don't remember what it was. Cause we're talking about liking each other.

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Oh, I remember what it was now. So sometimes we've had a completely full week.

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Like I've had meetings all week or I've been out and about. Maybe I've been on a heavy writing project or research project or something like that.

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Becky has had stuff going on with the kids. Maybe she even took a trip to see family further west side of the state or something like that.

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So then we sit down and to record the podcast on Thursday. And it's like the first time we've seen each other in a couple of days.

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Right. Like, hello, how have you been? Yeah, right. So if we started saying things and Becky's like, really that happened?

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And you on the other end of this are going, have they not ever talked about this? This is our talking.

20:44

Right, yeah. Talking about this. It's like, we're finally sharing it while we're sitting down and recording the podcast. But anyway, thank you,

20:51

Amber. Appreciate that very much. Next question comes from Kenny in Oklahoma. He says, is there a website that provides sermons that are searchable by book, chapter and verse?

21:02

I teach an adult Sunday school class at Baptist Church that he attends in Oklahoma. I'll leave the name out.

21:08

And often refer to resources by pastors to prepare lessons. Any assistance is appreciated, thanks.

21:15

Yeah, the website that I use most often is monergism .com. M -O -N -E -R -G -I -S -M .com.

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And I think even monergism .org will get you to the same website. Right there, the search bar that pops up as soon as you bring the site up.

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Type in the book that you're in and the chapter that you're looking for. So say for example,

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Romans chapter 12. So we just type in Romans 12. Don't try to narrow it down by verse because no matter what you type in there, it's going to give you every sermon that they have in their database within that particular chapter.

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And you just kind of have to scroll through to see what person taught through which verses of that chapter.

21:59

And it's usually, you know, three or four pages or something of sermons. And you've got guys in there like Votie Bauckham, John MacArthur, Sinclair Ferguson, Alistair Begg, R .C.

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Sproul, Kent Hughes, Kevin DeYoung, John Piper, Scotty Smith, Joel Beek, Kim Riddlebarger, Albert Muller, Ligon Duncan, Martin Lloyd Jones.

22:19

And you'll even have written sermons in there by Charles Spurgeon and John Owen, and even commentaries by dead guys like John Calvin.

22:26

That's really cool. So whether it's an audio sermon, excuse me, whether it's an audio sermon or, you know, some written thing somewhere.

22:36

Now on occasion, a very rare occasion, I would say it's maybe one click out of every 20 or something like that.

22:43

I'm gonna end up on a site that doesn't exist anymore. So Monergism doesn't actually keep all of that audio on their site, but they've got a list of where you can find those sermons linked to other places.

22:57

Sometimes they do have sermons on their site, but not always, because they're not necessarily backing up everything.

23:03

It might be through a particular person's ministry, like for example, Alistair Begg. So when you click on his, it will take you to Alistair Begg's website and the sermon that he's got through his ministry.

23:14

And same with John MacArthur. You click on MacArthur's, it's gonna take you to Grace to You, because they've got all that stuff at GTY.

23:21

That's really cool. Anyway, that's the site that I would recommend. You get the, I think the best variety of pastors.

23:28

Obviously, you're gonna get this from the monergistic perspective, meaning that the salvation that we receive in Christ is the work of God's alone.

23:36

It's not synergistic. It's not us and God working together to bring about our salvation.

23:42

So everyone who takes the perspective of monergism in justification, those are the guys that you're gonna have there on that website.

23:51

So cool. Yeah, free for anybody to use. I mean, it's a great resource for somebody who's teaching a Sunday school class, like Kenny said, or if you're just looking for something to listen to, or if you're a pastor that's preparing sermons and you want to hear sermons preached by other guys on that particular subject.

24:07

Or if you're homeschooling. You're just driving in the car and you're looking for a sermon. Yeah. Yeah, anybody can access that website and still a resource that we even have linked to through our page, www .utt

24:21

.com. And if you click on links, I've got the monergism site there.

24:26

Now, something that they did just last year, I think they just did this in 2018. They put together a page of something like the 50 greatest sermons or something like that.

24:36

It might be more than that. It might be a hundred greatest sermons. So they just had this list compiled of the greatest sermons ever preached.

24:43

Wow. And not necessarily like, you're not talking to guys like, Jonathan Edwards, sinners in the hands of an angry

24:51

God, unless it's that sermon and they've got it as read by Max McLean.

24:59

Okay. Cause I know he's got a version of the sermon that he did and Max McLean's got that, you know, theater voice.

25:06

When you listen to the ESV Bible in audio, you can either listen to that main guy they have. I can't remember his name or you can listen to the

25:13

Max McLean version. I think he's even done several translations of the Bible. Cause Max, yeah.

25:18

He just has that voice. And he's also got a radio program. I think it was entitled, listen to the

25:26

Bible. It's great for the soul. That was his tag at the end of that. It was like a minute of him just reading

25:32

Bible. And then at the end, he would tag it with listen to the Bible. It's great for the soul. Something like that.

25:37

Anyway. He's a tidbits. Yep. He attends a Presbyterian church in New York.

25:43

I know that. But anyway. All right, going on. The next question.

25:49

This comes from Alan in Maryland. And he says, dear Pastor Gabe, I listened to your podcast where you said that every single passage in the

25:56

Bible has application for us. I think that was last week I mentioned that. I have a couple of questions about that as it relates to expository preaching.

26:06

My pastor likes to say that he's an expositor. He teaches through books of the Bible and then he might do a six week series in between.

26:15

But when he teaches through books, he skips sections, sometimes entire chapters, or he might group three chapters into one sermon.

26:23

When I've asked him why he does that, he will say that the topic being dealt with had to do with a specific group of people in a specific time and it doesn't apply to us.

26:34

So he'll teach it, but he wants to move on to other areas that do apply to us.

26:40

Here's my two part question. One is a general question and another is more specific. Here's the general question.

26:46

Is this expository preaching? Here's the more specific question. How would something like 1

26:52

Corinthians 10 apply to us today? Obviously we don't have meat markets where the meat being sold was previously sacrificed to idols.

26:59

So is this a passage that we should just skip over or can we find a modern application?

27:05

I ask this, I ask because this was one of the chapters our pastor previously skipped.

27:12

Thank you, Alan. All right, so let me answer your questions in that order. First of all, let me explain expository preaching.

27:18

So whenever we're talking about exposition or expository preaching, we're talking verse by verse preaching.

27:23

So what I do is expository preaching. The other word for this is exegesis, which means to draw out of the text it's intended meaning.

27:33

But exegesis can be a little bit more broad than expository preaching. Expository is a pastor that's committed to his congregation and teaching his church, the whole

27:45

Bible, is gonna make that his ministry. So from the moment that he begins teaching in his church, he's basically teaching through the whole

27:54

Bible. And that's what I've been doing. So in the eight years that I've been at my church, I'm about to finish up.

28:01

In 2019, I will probably finish all of Paul's letters. So in the eight years that I've been there, well, nine, nine or 10 by the time

28:10

I finish up. Anyway, whichever comes first, nine comes first. I'll have preached through all of Paul's letters.

28:19

So we started midway through Ephesians and coming up in January, well, it is

28:24

January. This month, I will start teaching in Galatians. This has been my commitment to preaching and this is expository preaching.

28:34

Exegesis may not necessarily be that broad of a definition because when you listen to a guest speaker come in, he might do expository preaching with that text, but you don't necessarily have that as the context because you haven't been with him through his entire ministry.

28:52

So you don't know if he's been teaching entire books of the Bible at a time. But nonetheless, when he stands up and he pulls out a chunk of scripture, he's still expositing the text and he's exegeting it because he's drawing out of the text its intended meaning.

29:07

The contrast to expository preaching would be topical preaching. And the other term for topical preaching is eisegesis.

29:16

It means to impose yourself onto a text. So a topical sermon would be somebody comes up with an idea of what they wanna preach on.

29:26

Like, here's the topic that I'm gonna address. Or like what Alan said here, his pastor will do a six week series or something like that.

29:33

So he'll come up with the topic. This is the topic that we're gonna address. And he already knows what he wants to say.

29:40

He's got the beginning, he's got the middle, he's got the conclusion. He's got the agenda. Yeah, exactly.

29:45

He's got the points that he wants to make. Exactly the message that he wants to communicate to his intended audience.

29:52

Then he's gonna find the Bible verses that support his view. Now there is a right way to do that.

29:58

But the problem with that kind of teaching is usually those verses get pulled out of context and you just use them and manipulate them to support what it is that you wanna say, but you're not actually drawing out the intended meaning of the text from the

30:14

Bible, from the scriptures. Certainly the scriptures are not preaching. You're preaching and you're just using the

30:22

Bible to back you up rather than the Bible being the thing that is preaching to the people of God.

30:28

You're just using the Bible to sound biblical. Yeah, right. Yeah, that's really the best way to put it.

30:35

Now, when a guy does a sermon, he comes as a guest speaker or he speaks at a conference.

30:41

That's probably the best example, somebody at a conference. And he's drawing out a particular text and it fits the theme of the conference.

30:49

So at ShepCon, they're gonna have a theme every year. Last year, it was, I will build my church.

30:55

The year before that, it was the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Something about Christ being central to everything.

31:04

I can't remember exactly what the slogan was for that year. G3, we've got coming up, missions is gonna be their focus.

31:11

So all the sermons are gonna be geared toward that. So does that mean that everybody that's preaching at that conference and their sermons are fitting that theme, does that therefore mean all of the sermons are topical?

31:25

No. Not necessarily. No. They're still doing exposition because what's probably going on is like, say

31:32

Josh Bice, for example, who oversees the G3 conference, he's probably asked each one of his speakers to preach and he's given them their assignment.

31:42

So he said, we wanna give you this and preach on this particular passage of scripture.

31:49

Would you please fit this to missions? And because oftentimes when you attend the conferences, you'll hear the preacher come to the podium and he will even say,

31:57

I've been asked to preach on this. So he's given his assignment on what it is that he's going to preach to the people who are in attendance.

32:05

Now he's still expositing the text when he does that. He's still going verse by verse through that.

32:12

He's given you context and exactly what that verse means according to the context in which it was being said.

32:19

Who's saying it? Who's the intended audience? He's using scripture to interpret scripture.

32:25

So he's pulling verses from other areas to even back up what it is that he's reading. That's exactly what expository preaching is.

32:32

So even though he might not be teaching through the entire book of Matthew in order to expose the text on Matthew 16, 18,

32:41

I will build my church. Nevertheless, he's expositing that particular verse.

32:48

Albert Muller was the one, by the way, who last year at ShepCon was preaching on that section. It was the best sermon on Matthew 16, 18

32:57

I had ever heard. So of course they were gonna ask Albert Muller to do that. And what he did was still expository preaching.

33:05

It was not topical, it was expository. Another example of that that I think of is

33:12

Steven Lawson. The year before at ShepCon, he talked about the cost of discipleship from Luke chapter 14.

33:20

And he went verse by verse through that section where Jesus is talking about consider the cost. What you have to give a builder doesn't start building until he considers the cost of his labor or a king doesn't go out until he considers a plan of action.

33:37

And so Steven Lawson went through that entire section with us and he even drew out points.

33:42

Point number one is this, point number two is this. I think he had like seven points that went with that section. And I know he's written a book on that topic as well, but what he was still doing, that was still expositional preaching.

33:54

It was exegesis as he's drawing out from the text exactly what the

33:59

Holy Spirit means to communicate through that particular passage. Isagetical preaching, topical preaching is when a person imposes what they want the text to say onto the text.

34:12

Narcigetical preaching, that's a term that's been coined by Chris Roseborough at Pirate Christian Radio.

34:18

He came up with narcigesis. That's when a person puts themselves in the story.

34:24

So like they're the star of the show and they're preaching it like they're the hero. That makes sense. That's narcigesis.

34:31

And I love that Chris Roseborough came up with that term. So it's even a sharper criticism than just saying that the person's being isagetical.

34:39

Right. They're narcigetical. Right, being narcissistic. Right, taken from of course narcissism and putting themselves into the text.

34:48

So there's our terms clarifying what we mean by expository preaching versus topical preaching exegesis versus isagesis versus narcigesis.

35:00

So now getting to this first question that Alan asked, is this expository preaching?

35:06

What his pastor is doing, preaching on certain sections, skipping over chapters, lumping chapters together.

35:13

The answer to that question is no. Right. There's somewhat of expository preaching there. He could still be doing some exegesis, drawing meaning out of the text, but he's not actually doing exposition because he's not going verse by verse through it.

35:28

And for whatever reason, he thinks that there are passages that don't apply to us today.

35:34

Yeah. And like I said, we can draw. It's like me telling you, oh,

35:39

I love you, but only parts of you. Yeah, right. And it's no. Not all of it.

35:45

You can't do that. Don't talk to me about this because I don't wanna get, well, I mean, there are things that I talk.

35:51

That's the living word. Yeah. I was gonna say, there are things I talk about you don't want me to talk about. That's true. We'll go into examples.

36:00

No, thank you. because she doesn't wanna hear it. Nope. But yeah, skipping over sections.

36:09

And I don't know why he thinks that there's no application there. There's always application.

36:15

There's always something that can be applied. And you can even come up with 10 ,000 different applications for that particular passage.

36:22

So the quote that I gave last week from R .C. Sproul is how many meanings are there in a text?

36:29

How many interpretations are there? One. There's only one meaning to the text, but how many applications might there be?

36:35

10 ,000 applications. Yes. Who knows how many we could draw out of that or apply it to whatever situation.

36:41

So there's always gonna be an application. So then we get to the general question that Alan asks, or I'm sorry, that was the general question.

36:48

Yes. Now we get to the more specific question. How would something like 1 Corinthians 10 apply to us today? Obviously we don't have meat markets where the meat being sold was previously sacrificed to idols.

36:59

So remember the problem that was going on in Corinth is that some of these guys who used to be pagans did not wanna eat the meat that was sold in the meat markets because they knew that meat had been sacrificed to false gods at the temples.

37:14

Right. Sometimes the temples were even butcher shops. So they would bring in the animals, they would sacrifice the animals on the altar, they would butcher the meat, they would sacrifice a portion or offer a portion of it up to the false god and burn it up there on the altar.

37:28

And then the rest of it, they would eat there in the temple or they would sell it in the meat market. So when somebody went to buy meat, they would know this meat had already been sacrificed to a false god.

37:39

So therefore it's tainted and unclean and I can't eat it or else I'm gonna be a partaker in this false god worship.

37:48

The point that Paul made from that in 1 Corinthians 10 is that it doesn't matter. Food for stomach, stomach for food, both of which are gonna be destroyed.

37:57

And we know that an idol is an empty thing. So it really doesn't matter. But I'm not going to eat food that is going to cause my brother to stumble.

38:09

So let me start here, 1 Corinthians 10, 14. Therefore my beloved flee from idolatry. I speak as two sensible people.

38:17

Judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless is it not a participant in the blood of Christ?

38:25

The bread that we break, is it not a participant in the body of Christ? Of course, here he's talking about the Lord's table, which he then continues talking about in chapter 11.

38:35

Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body for we all partake of the one bread.

38:41

Consider the people of Israel. Are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?

38:47

What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything or that an idol is anything?

38:53

No, I imply that what pagan sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.

39:01

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the

39:06

Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

39:12

And this is not Paul saying that you shouldn't eat that food that has been offered to demons. He's saying, don't be participants in that ceremony.

39:20

Right. That is offering the food up to demons. Don't go into the temples and - Don't take your meat there to have it butchered.

39:27

Yeah, right. So then going on verse 23, all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful.

39:34

All things are lawful, but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.

39:43

Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For the earth is the

39:50

Lord's and the fullness thereof. If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience.

40:02

But if someone says to you, this has been offered in sacrifice, then do not eat it for the sake of the one who informed you and for the sake of conscience.

40:10

I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else's conscience?

40:17

If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?

40:23

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.

40:29

Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God. Just as I try to please everyone in everything

40:35

I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many that they may be saved.

40:41

So the principle that you have there is gonna be that of Christian liberty. If there's something that is not explicitly condemned in the

40:49

Bible, like for example, the Bible does not say you cannot watch movies. So you can go watch movies to the glory of God.

40:57

You could probably even go see an R -rated film to the glory of God. An example of that being the

41:02

Passion of the Christ. Just use that as a safe example without causing too much controversy by saying you can go see

41:08

R -rated movies. But the difference is going to be what is beneficial for someone else.

41:19

Like you don't feel a guilty conscience by going and seeing some kind of a movie,

41:24

PG -13 or R, whatever film is out there that's controversial. You don't have a problem in your conscience.

41:30

Let me use something a little bit more simple, Iron Man. So you don't have a problem going and seeing

41:35

Iron Man. But there's a couple of scenes in that film that somebody's gonna say, really, you're a

41:40

Christian, you're going and seeing that? When Tony Stark is a drinker, he's a heavy drinker and a partier, and there's some scenes that show that.

41:48

And he gets around with the ladies and it kind of displays that in the movie as well. You think that's okay?

41:53

It's okay for you to sit down and watch that? Now, if that's gonna cause somebody else to stumble, don't parade that around.

42:01

And which is why I am very hesitant to ever talk about movies I watch or TV that I watch, because that is so in the area of Christian liberty that what

42:12

I'm watching is fine for me. And I don't feel any guilt or even,

42:17

I don't feel like I'm violating my conscience, and I don't feel like I'm even taking my brain into a dark place when

42:23

I'm watching some of the shows that I watch. Now, just to let you know, I'm pretty much on the conservative side of most of the things that I watch.

42:30

But I'm still not gonna talk about those things because there might be somebody who's even more conservative in their viewing choices than I am.

42:39

And saying what I watch or talk about the movies that I watch might cause them to stumble.

42:44

And so it's just better to not talk about it. So we have within our home, we know what we can watch, what we like to watch.

42:51

We try not to let ourselves go into places we know we're corrupting our conscience or our thinking.

42:58

And therefore it's displeasing before God. And we've stopped watching things before too. Yeah, Becky and I have even, we've had those moments where a movie, some new film will come up on Netflix that, and it's not a new movie, it's an old movie, but they just added it to Netflix.

43:14

And Becky and I are going, hey, I remember watching this back in the 80s. So we'll pull it up and start watching it.

43:20

There's just things start coming up, whoa. What happened to this movie? I don't remember that being in the movie.

43:25

So we'll stop it. We don't keep going. You think of the principle that Paul lays out in Philippians 4, whatever is good, whatever is pleasing, whatever is honorable.

43:38

If there is anything praiseworthy, think about these things. So if it's taking your mind to an area that is not, you cannot give glory to God or focus on God in any of the things that you're watching or listening to music wise, any of that kind of thing, then stay away from it.

43:57

Don't have anything to do with it. And there are kinds of music friends you should not be listening to.

44:03

Right. There's hip hop, pop music out there just sorted and bad.

44:08

Even stuff that I used to play when I was a DJ in college on those secular radio stations.

44:15

And I would play some of those songs and I'll go back and listen to songs that I played 20 years ago. And I'm going, wow,

44:21

I just can't listen to that anymore. And I don't think anybody should for that matter.

44:26

So there are things that you should not be listening to because it does influence your thinking and it does pollute your heart and your mind, whether or not you wanna say that it does.

44:35

There's all the research in the world out there that proves it. People know how to manipulate your thinking through television and music.

44:45

Most definitely. Look at those commercials. I mean, they're so short. Well, majority of them are short, but they're just a short clip and it's like, oh yeah,

44:53

I need that. That would be so handy. Yeah, that's manipulating your thoughts.

44:59

Watch on some of those commercials sometimes, the images that they put in front of your face are not even on screen for longer than a second.

45:07

But that's how fast your brain can grab it and process it. You don't need to see it more. Oh yeah, because you put yourself there.

45:13

Yeah, you've got somebody who's sweeping the kitchen floor with one of those

45:18

Swiffer mops or something like that. Just take a commercial like that. The images that you're seeing are only on screen from anywhere between half a second to a second and a half.

45:26

That's as long as those shots are on there. Really? Yeah, that's it. Interesting. So you're talking within the span of the commercial, you've seen 30 shots in a 30 second commercial that are all a second long.

45:39

Wow. That's all it takes. And they've done all the research in this. They know how to manipulate your thinking, whether it's through music, whether it's through imagery, the colors that they put on screen, all of this stuff.

45:52

All of it is intended to manipulate your mind. And do not be jaded as to think that it's not, or do not be naive in that sense.

46:00

All of it is meant to manipulate your thinking somehow. That's their job. That's right. They want to keep you coming back, watching more of the show.

46:07

They want to sell you more product. It's just the way all of this system works.

46:12

But we like entertainment. People like entertainment. They want to be entertained. They want to feel good.

46:18

We want to hear a good story every once in a while. There's nothing inherently wrong with that.

46:23

So that's where we fall into the realm of Christian liberty. So passages like 1 Corinthians 10 can talk about that.

46:30

Romans chapter 14 is usually the go -to chapter on the subject of Christian liberty. But there's various other passages and verses that discuss these things.

46:39

That's one kind of application that you can draw out of 1 Corinthians 10. Let me give you one that's a little bit more direct that has specifically to do with food, since that's what it is that Paul is talking about in 1

46:50

Corinthians 10. When I taught on this passage, I directly translated it to food, because we will actually get into these arguments in our culture today over what's okay for us to eat and what's not okay for us to eat.

47:07

Oh, yes. And it might be diet. It could be chocolate. Could be chocolate.

47:13

There could be, I mean, seriously, it could be chocolate. Because there are people that come out of certain religious movements where they have been told that chocolate's wrong, caffeine is wrong.

47:24

Mormonism is that, by the way. So check out my book, 40 Mormon Beliefs and What the

47:29

Bible Says, available now at amazon .com. While you enjoy your piece of chocolate. There's my plug.

47:36

Somebody though might be convinced by even Jewish dietary laws that we should not be eating bacon.

47:42

Even Rick Warren has said, by the way, in his Daniel Diet book, that bacon's bad for you.

47:48

Anything that comes from pig or pork is bad for you. Joel Osteen. I listened to a sermon from Joel Osteen where there was a section in the sermon where he deviated from what he was teaching on and actually went through the

48:01

Jewish dietary laws and said we should not be eating pork. Christians shouldn't be eating pork.

48:07

It's like the one command I've ever heard Joel Osteen give. But he actually said in a sermon that he doesn't believe that we should be eating pork.

48:18

It's incredible. So people will hear that because they think in the Bible out of the Leviticus dietary laws that we should not be eating pork so therefore they're convinced that they shouldn't eat pork.

48:29

So those kinds of conversations, those theological discussions, disagreements exist even today.

48:36

Right. So when you have that friend come over, you don't serve them pork. Yeah. And cause them to sin.

48:44

Well, you know, when we had the Palauan church that joined with our church and we were inviting

48:50

Palauans to come over to our house and eat, I was making sure, I don't know what Palauan dietary laws are like.

48:56

So I was sure to ask, do you guys eat pork? And they're all looking at each other like, yeah, we eat pork.

49:01

Well, I'm just making sure. I don't know what you eat or don't eat in Palau, pretty much everything.

49:09

Yeah, pretty much everything. They were good with me making my pulled pork sandwiches. Whenever we talk about pulled pork,

49:15

I always pop the mic the whole lot. Anyway, so you think of, there are different organizations right now, big major companies that will dump a bunch of money into some sort of major political cause.

49:29

And it might be something like same -sex marriage. So you'll have Lay's potato chips, for example, will come out and they'll say, let me pick one that I know for sure has done this.

49:40

So I'm not slandering somebody who hasn't done it, Oreo. So Oreo one time, they came out with this six layer

49:49

Oreo, six layers of icing. And every layer of icing was a color of the gay pride flag.

49:57

Now there were people that would never wanna buy Oreo. I remember seeing this, people online would say, never buying an

50:04

Oreo again, because quite frankly. I remember that, yeah. Quite frankly though,

50:09

I like Oreos. So I was still gonna buy an Oreo, even after that whole thing.

50:15

And I think I can tell this story now and not cause anybody to stumble. When Oreo did that with the six layer

50:22

Oreo, with the icing, it was rainbow. I went and bought a pack, because I'm like, I wanna eat a six layer

50:28

Oreo. I don't think

50:33

I'm contributing to any gay rights cause here by eating this Oreo, but I'm gonna make sure nobody sees me do it.

50:39

Right. So to cause them not to, or to not cause them to stumble yet. So I went and bought a pack of Oreos.

50:46

Let me just say. How'd that treat you? I think I had one or two of them. It was way too much icing. You don't really like sweets,

50:54

I'm surprised. No, I don't, but it was a six layer Oreo. I had to try this.

51:00

I had to use one of those big wide cups to dunk it in the milk. Oh my goodness.

51:05

You couldn't get it in the milk. That's so funny. Anyway, there was.

51:10

Diving in after it. There was my adventure on eating something I shouldn't have been eating.

51:16

Get stuck in the mug. Yeah, so that's one area where we'll have conversations about that.

51:23

Somebody will be like, hey, don't you know that Coca -Cola, that's another company I know supports gay rights. Don't you know that Coca -Cola supports gay rights?

51:30

You should not be drinking a Coke. Right. But I don't have a problem with that. That's on Coke.

51:36

That's not on me. So I don't have a problem with drinking a Coke. Is there any company out there anywhere that's not contributing a whole bunch of money into something majorly liberal?

51:49

Right. Well, Chick -fil -A and Hobby Lobby. You know, there's probably gonna be the only two, but they're not grocery stores.

51:54

Right, we've gotta eat. We still, well, yeah, you go to Chick -fil -A. Oh, well, I mean, like you said grocery stores.

52:01

I mean, nevermind. They still even have salads and fruit. They're not open on Sundays. They're not open on Sundays.

52:07

There you go. That's when you fast. Oh, right. You fast. See, Chick -fil -A knows what's good for us.

52:13

And they know that we need to fast on Sundays. It's called a family time, not fasting.

52:20

Right. Anyway, so you can't live, you can't live off of just Chick -fil -A and Hobby Lobby.

52:27

Where could you go to get all of the other things that you need to buy? Okay. Anyway, now

52:35

I've lost my train of thought. So basically what you're saying is that you can't stop living in order to avoid all the supporters.

52:46

Right. Now, if you are, if you do have a guilty conscience over buying at Walmart, because you hate the way

52:54

Walmart does their wages to their employees. That's the one that liberals hate, you know.

53:00

Okay, sure. They hate Walmart and they hate the way they give wages to their employees or something. So you can't shop at Walmart. Fine, don't go shop at Walmart.

53:07

If you feel guilty because of that, because McDonald's is, right, McDonald's has come out and said that you have to support gay rights cause or you're un -American or something like that.

53:17

And so therefore you wanna boycott McDonald's and you don't wanna go to McDonald's, then that's fine.

53:24

If that's gonna, if you're gonna feel like you're violating your conscience by participating in that, then don't participate in it by all means.

53:31

Cause as it is stated in Romans chapter 14, whatever is not done in faith is sin. So if you're convinced that something is sin and you do it, even if it's not sin, you've still sinned.

53:44

Right. Because you've gone against your conscience. But Paul, once again, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it to the glory of God.

53:52

Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience.

54:01

Here's what Paul is saying there. Ignorance is bliss. Sometimes it's better to just not know what other companies are into.

54:10

So true. Eat that chicken sandwich and enjoy it with love. All right.

54:16

That's it. All right. Thank you, Alan, for your question. I got another one, but it's gonna take way too long to answer.

54:23

I'll just bump it on to next week. But if you wanna submit questions, send them to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

54:30

God bless. We'll be back next week, continuing in John 6, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, the Book of Job on Thursday.

54:37

And God willing, we've got another Q &A for you next week as well. Yes. Let's pray. Our great

54:43

God and Savior, we thank you for the mercy and the grace that you show us every day. And I pray that we would be gracious to each other.

54:50

May we have the grace that you have shown to us and show it to one another. May we consider one another's conscience and not think about all the things that we're free to do because of Christian liberty, but we consider that something that we do might cause someone else to stumble.

55:08

So being considerate of each other, even in those things that we can enjoy, to your glory and to your praise.

55:16

And if there is a place where a brother or sister is weak, that we not quarrel over opinions, but we welcome one another and be encouraging of each other, building one another up in love.

55:28

May we understand that the scriptures were given to us to instruct us and guide us.

55:34

What was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through the endurance and encouragement of the scriptures, we have hope.

55:43

And our hope is Christ Jesus, who died for our sins, rose again from the grave so that all who believe in him will not perish, but will have everlasting life.

55:53

Jesus is our hope and our peace. And I pray that that continues to be the thing that we rejoice in every day.

56:01

And we delight in this truth in your gospel so much that we are compelled to share it with others that they may hear and turn from sin and believe.

56:10

Thank you for your forgiveness and grace. Your mercies are new every morning. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

56:16

Amen. Good.

57:20

Next question comes from Kenny in Oklahoma. Is there a website that provides sermons that are searchable by book, chapter and verse?

57:28

I teach an adult's Sunday school class at the Baptist church that he attends in Oklahoma City.

57:34

I'll leave the name out. Often, there goes my voice again. Thanks folks, we'll see you next week.

57:41

Again. Again, right. Anyway, so I teach a Sunday school class at the

57:47

Baptist church that I attend in Oklahoma City and refer often to resources by pastors to prepare lessons.

57:54

Sorry. And often refer to resources by pastors to prepare lessons. Any assistance is appreciated, thanks.

58:01

Yes, the one site that I go to the most regularly is monergism .com.

58:08

I think monergism .org will even get you to the same website. But anyway, monergism .com, M -O -N -E -R -G -I -M.

58:16

M -O -N -E -R -G -I -S -M .com. Only one M at the beginning, not two, like I just said.

58:24

Oh, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I stumbled, right, yeah. It's not monergism .com.

58:33

Although they should consider that for a slogan. If you type in, if you type in the book chapter, sorry.

58:56

My eyes are watering. Are you gonna make it? Yep, sure. I've warmed up.

59:09

I'm just laughing because you're laughing. I think I could have kept going. I know, I'm sorry. Okay, go ahead.

59:20

You need a fan in your eyes? Yep, I do. I'm gonna say burn. Stop. Woo, back of my head hurts.