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Responding to questions from listeners about the subjects Jesus talked about the most, whether money was one of His favorite topics, and the marks to look for in a good church. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
What were the subjects that Jesus talked about the most? Did he talk about money more than any other subject? And how can we find a good church? The answers to these questions and others, When We Understand the Text.
This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ, that we may press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com.
Here once again is Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Hey, do you remember where we ended last week?
Yes, it was to be continued.
Yes, it was. We read the question and I said we would come back to it the next week. With an answer. Yes, with an answer. I forgot to do that. Oh, no. I'm just kidding. No, I'm ready. I was like, really?
Sorry. What I didn't get done, though, I said that I was going to do a video on the topic. Oh, right, right, right. I didn't finish that. But you did work on it. I did work on it. Yes, so progress has been made.
It may get uploaded today. Awesome. You'll just have to check the YouTube channel for any new videos. Right. Now, there's two YouTube channels. We don't talk about this very often. No, we don't. But the main channel is www .utt.
In fact, I think you can just type in youtube .com slash www .utt. And it will get you to that page. The other page doesn't have that easy an address. But you're looking for what ext. So it's www .utt .ext.
And that gets you to extended videos, stuff that's longer, doing commentary and things like that. When you have a little extra time. When I have extra time. Not the 90 seconds. Hence the ext. Right. Because that could mean either extra or extended.
Right. That's what I think of. Yep. Now, it's a pun because it's text. Yeah. Www .utt .ext. Yeah, that's right. Text. So anyway, yeah, the main channel is where you're going to be looking for a new video today if I get it up.
And the topic is... What was the number one topic Jesus talked about the most? Yeah. Was it money? We'll get to that question here in just a moment. But first, being Friday, we take questions from the listeners.
And you can submit those questions to WhenWeUnderstandTheText at gmail .com. The first question this week is the last question from last week. Yes. Which we didn't answer. So this is Jeremy, who says, greetings, WUD.
Thank you for all of your videos. I have an idea for a WUD video I would like to see. Ever since I was a kid, I have heard that there was no subject Jesus talked about more than money. I know this can't be true, but how often did he talk about it?
Where does money rank among the subjects Jesus did talk about? I think that would make a great video. Thanks in advance. That's a great suggestion. So Jeremy, I'm putting that one together. And that's the video that, God willing, will be out sometime later today.
Now, when we talk about the subjects that Jesus mentioned the most, this is actually kind of tricky for a couple of reasons. Sometimes the subject Jesus is talking about, he doesn't explicitly say. Like for example, the parable is supposed to give an illustration for something.
But the explicit meaning of the parable may not be stated. So that leaves us to interpretation, looking at context to see exactly what it was, the point that Jesus was making. And it would have to do with the audience that he's talking to.
Was he addressing his own disciples? Was he talking to the Pharisees? Because that plays into the meaning of the parable.
Oh yeah. And sometimes there was like a double up of parables, like back to back. Yeah, right. And then that changes the meaning too.
Where you have Luke 15, you have the parable of the lost sheep, you have the parable of the lost coin, and then you have the parable of the prodigal son. Right. And so many people misinterpret the parable of the prodigal son because they don't see it in the context that it came following the previous two parables.
That's what I meant by, you know, it changes the meaning whenever you actually put it together. Yeah.
So, yeah. And who Jesus was talking to and the question that he was responding to. We don't recognize in the parable of the prodigal son that Jesus is talking to the Pharisees. Yeah. And so the main character in the parable of the prodigal son is actually the older brother.
It's not the prodigal son, which Vodie Bauckham has said, the parable has been misnamed. It has. Like the Bible doesn't give names to the parables. Right. We give names to the parables. Right. So it really should be called the parable of the older brother, but we call it the parable of the prodigal son.
Right. Because we've missed the context, usually. That's the reason why. So that's one reason why it's difficult for us to summarize or kind of figure out, like, what topic is Jesus talking about here?
He may mention money and somebody says, oh, well, he's talking about money. Right. But he's actually using money as an illustration for something else. Right. The parable of the talents would be a good example of that.
So in the parable of the talents, Jesus talks about a master that's going on a journey. Yeah. And he has three slaves. Right. That's the one I was thinking of, too. Oh, were you thinking of that one? Yeah.
Before you said it. Okay. So one slave gets five talents, which is a form of currency. It's not like he got the talent of skateboarding and he got the talent of drawing and yeah. And playing guitar. And playing guitar.
Yeah. I play a mean air guitar. So he gets five talents, another slave gets two talents, and then the last slave gets one talent. The master goes away. The first two slaves invest their money and they double it.
So the master comes back, hey, you gave me five talents, here, I invested this money, now I have 10. And the master says, well done, good and faithful slave. Now great is your reward. That's where we get.
It's from this parable that we get that from Jesus saying to the saints when we arrive in heaven, well done, good and faithful servant. It's from this parable that we get that phrase, that response from Jesus.
So then the next slave who had the two talents, he said, I invested in both and now I've got more to return back to you. And again, the master says, well done, good and faithful slave, now great is your reward.
The last slave says, I knew you were a hard man and so I didn't want to displease you, I took the talent you gave to me and I buried it. And it's safe, here it is right here, and he gives the talent back to his master.
The master says, you wicked slave. If you had just taken the money and put it in the bank, at least it would have accumulated interest and you would have been returning to me more than I gave you. But because you did not invest the money and you did not use it wisely, then what you have will be taken from you.
And he takes the talent from the slave who has one and he gives it to the slave who now has 10, now he has 11 talents. And the wicked slave who did not invest the money is cut up and thrown out with the hypocrites where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Yeah. A very gruesome end for a guy who just didn't invest his money wisely. Right. But that's not the point of the parable. That's not what it's about. What? It's... Hey, well done. I need to put that...
I should put that on a video. It'll be Becky's what at the start of a video. So the point of that parable is to endure in faith and obedience until the return of Christ. So the point is actually faith and being obedient to God.
Right. Even though faith and obedience are not mentioned in the parable, but the context determines that. It's in Matthew 25 where Jesus is talking about the end times. And right after that, we have the gathering at the great white throne of judgment.
Yeah. There in Matthew 25. And it's to the ones who did what the master told them to do that they received the great reward. Right. And the ones who did not do are the ones who are cast into the fiery hell that was prepared for the devil and his angels.
That comes right after the parable of the talent. So you read that in context and you understand exactly what the talents were supposed to represent. Right. So that's not a parable about money, even though all kinds of people use that parable to talk about, see, we need to invest our money wisely.
Yeah.
I mean, sure, invest your money wisely, but that's being good stewards of what God has gifted you with.
Yes. So as Jeremy asked, how often did Jesus talk about money? Well, indeed, he did talk about money. Right.
And like Becky said. But are you going to make two separate categories? Like one, he talked about money, but two, he meant money. Like that was the purpose of his addressing.
Right. I would say that the parable of the talents does not go in the money column at all. Yeah. I was thinking no also.
And the lost coin, I was thinking that too. That one too.
Right. Like the parable of the woman with the lost coin. She has 10 coins. She loses one. She scours the house for it. She finds it, rejoices with her friends because her coin was lost. Yeah.
And now she found it. And that. And then the also, sorry, go ahead.
Well, just the point of that parable is that there's more rejoicing in heaven when one lost person is found. Right. Than over the nine that had already. Right.
Right. Yeah. And then I was thinking of the two coins that the lady, like she donated and it was all that she had. Yes, exactly. Or the one coin. Was it two? The two mites. Mites. Yes. Yeah. And I don't think that's about money either.
No. It's about how the Pharisees were. Well, it is about money in the sense that it was the Pharisees who were praying upon the widows. Oh, yeah. And so when Jesus singles her out and says she gave out of all that she had, everybody else gave out of their abundance.
She gave all that she had. That's not an illustration of a person giving all they have for the sake of the kingdom or giving to the church or something like that. That's the way that story gets used. Right.
But it's actually about how the Pharisees were praying off of the widows. Jesus was singling her out to show the disciples, see what wickedness the Pharisees do. Right. Not see what generosity this woman does.
She was doing that because the Pharisees were making her do it. Right. So that was the, or guilting her into it, rather. Yes.
But that was what was going on there. I was just going to have you explain the Pharisees just in case we have some young listeners.
Oh, the Pharisees, yeah. So there's the Sanhedrin, which is the place where the scriptures are read and legal matters are determined in Israel. And you had two sects, S-E-C-T-S, that word is always hard to say, but anyway.
Yes. There were two sects in the Sanhedrin. There was the Sadducees and the Pharisees. And the Sadducees were like the rich aristocracy. They were well-connected politically, especially in the time of Jesus.
They were politically connected with the Romans, always wanted to have the favor of the Romans. The Pharisees were actually the everyman. Okay. So they were your typical blue-collar guys. They worked with their hands and labored with everybody else.
And the Jews largely liked the Pharisees. They weren't crazy about the Sadducees. The Sadducees and Pharisees didn't get along. Okay. But the Sadducees had most of the power. The people loved the Pharisees.
And we think of the stories that we read about in the Gospels during the time of Christ, we think of the Pharisees being the bad guys. Yeah, often. And then Jesus is like the sheriff that rides into town to get rid of the bad guys that have kind of been running the place.
Right.
No, the people loved the Pharisees. Oh, that takes a spin. Yeah.
What the Pharisees were teaching was they were adding to the law. And the people didn't recognize that. It's so common now with prosperity theology. Definitely. You just take somebody like Kenneth Copeland or a Joyce Meyer or a Benny Hinn or anybody like that.
They are either adding to the Bible or they're taking away from the Bible and they tie heavy burdens onto people without lifting a finger to relieve them of the burdens that they give to them. It's exactly what Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for in Matthew 23.
And same that we see with those false teachers today. And you see how beloved they are. Joel Osteen has as much money as he does because he has a massive following. Yes. He gets tens of millions of likes on Twitter every week.
Whoa, that's a lot of people. So does Stephen Furtick.
Oh, my goodness. They're that popular because people love them. And it was the same way with the Pharisees. They were false teachers. The people love the Pharisees. Jesus calls out the Pharisees to warn the people about the false teaching that they were giving.
Now in Matthew 23, he did say to his disciples, listen to what the Pharisees say to you. But don't do what they do. So what Jesus was referring to there is that since the Pharisees are in the Sanhedrin, since they are in the synagogue and they're reading the scriptures, they're the learned men that know the scriptures, then what other option did you have?
You had to go into the synagogue and listen to the Pharisees read. It's not like everybody had their own personal Bibles at home, which would have only been the Old Testament at the time, but they don't have their own little Old Testaments at home.
They have to go to the synagogue to hear the scriptures read in order to meditate on the word of God and do what God expects. So Jesus said, listen to them, but don't do what they do because their actions don't line up with what it is that they teach.
And what they teach is not pointing to Jesus. They're not going to say Jesus is the son of God. Right.
Or the Savior at that point, because it's Old Testament.
And so that's what the apostles, the apostolic ministry becomes then, is they're going out with the message of the Old Testament, but showing how that points to Christ. They've got the gospel, the fulfillment of all of the law and the prophets.
Yes. Yeah. So anyway, that was a question about the Pharisees. What was our question overall? Sorry, I kind of added on to that. Okay. Yeah. We were talking about how often did Jesus talk about money?
Right. Okay. Well, let's consider other things that Jesus talked about. Now, this is going to be an estimation, and I've done this based on various word searches and things like that. But oh, I didn't finish this.
Okay. So I mentioned the first problem with knowing what topics Jesus talked about and how often. The first problem is sometimes he'll use something as an illustration and he's actually talking about something else.
Oh, right. Okay. So that was the first problem. I didn't mention the second problem. Yeah. Sorry. How do we count what Jesus talked about how often? The second problem is you have things repeating in the gospels.
Right. You have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Having different accounts. Exactly. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are synoptic gospels. Synoptic means the same. So you have a lot of the stories and the miracles and the parables are roughly the same or at least very similar.
Yeah. I mean, when you read the gospel, you need to tell the difference between Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And sometimes one gospel will use the same thing as another gospel, but it be in a different setting and have a different point to it.
So anyway, because things repeat in the gospels, like how do you count that then? If you find the same parable in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, do you count that three times or do you just count that one time?
So that's a Because Jesus would be talking, so he would only talk the one time, right?
Yeah. Well, like you have the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, but in Luke it's called the Sermon on the Plain. Oh, yeah. So do you take those topics and count them twice or are some of the things that are mentioned there, is it just one time?
No, I don't know. So because of that reason in the gospels, because things repeat, that can kind of affect the numbers of how often did Jesus talk about this subject really. You know what I mean? Yeah.
Okay. So those are our two things.
And I'm sure he said a lot more that was not recorded in the Bible, too. Well, yeah. And John tells us that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we A lot more miracles and a lot more of everything. Yeah.
Toward the end of John, it says, if we were to write down more of the stuff that Jesus did, there would not even be enough books to contain all the things that he did during his earthly ministry. Yes.
So we're taking those two things into consideration when I give you this list. So this is going to be kind of a general Gabe's list. Yeah. Gabe's list. Right. It's kind of an estimated, here's the topics that Jesus talked about the most.
Sure. Now, I'm still kind of shaping this list. I think that it could be a little more beneficial in the future to have, like, how many times are these things actually mentioned in the gospels and like put a number next to it, which I haven't done that yet.
Okay. So I'm just telling you my own findings based on certain word searches. I don't have numbers connected to it, but sometime in the future I might. Sure. Then I'll publish an article at PastorGabe .com.
Okay. Something like that. Okay. Sounds good. So, did Jesus talk about money the most? I'm guessing no. No, he did not, although we hear this all the time. Yes. And when I Googled this, I found websites that claimed, and I would see the same claims over and over and over again.
Things like 11 out of 39 parables were about money, which means just about a quarter of the parables, like 25 of the parables that Jesus taught had something to do with money. Yeah. But we've already talked about how that's not the case.
Right. Because sometimes he's using money as an illustration. Right. I also found this claim, one out of every seven verses in the Gospel of Luke are about money. I didn't even test to see how true that was, but I'm sure it's not.
Okay. Anyway, and so then another claim is, Jesus talked about money more than faith and prayer combined. What? No. That one's got to be false. And here's another one, after the kingdom of God, money was the favorite topic that Jesus addressed.
And if you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you. If you don't understand that joke, which Becky didn't, I'm going to leave it to you to research that one on your own. I didn't at first. You have to explain it to me, yes.
Then you got it. And then it was funny. It's a common myth, and megachurch pastors love to repeat this, that Jesus talked about money after the kingdom of God, he talked about money more than anything else.
But like we said, sometimes money was an illustration for something else. So where you see Jesus talking about money, it might not actually be about money. If you were to list the subjects that Jesus talked about most, what or who do you think would be at the top of that list?
God. There you go. Of course. I mean, that's a Sunday school answer. Yeah. And it is the answer. He talked about God more than anything else. God the Father. Yes.
That's kind of a no-duh. Yeah. I was a little concerned that it was too easy.
It really is that easy. He talked about God more than anything else. Because Jesus shows to us the Father. That's at the beginning of John. It's in John 1. We've come to know the Father through the Son.
In Matthew 11, no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. So we have come to know the Father. We come to see God.
We know the Holy Spirit. We've been given the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ. He talked about God more than any other subject. Yes. Second, what would be the second thing that Jesus talked about the most?
I kind of mentioned it already. Heaven? Yeah, pretty close. Yeah? The kingdom of God, heaven. If you kind of connect that all as the same subject, that would be what he talked about second most. Okay.
So first is God. Second is kingdom of God or heaven. Third. Because the kingdom is at hand. Yes. Right. That was his first words that began his ministry in Matthew 4, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
So third, what did Jesus talk about? He talked about hell. Yeah. The kingdom of God is second. Third, Jesus talked about hell, warning about the final judgment and eternal fire. Fourth, are references to himself as the Son of Man.
Okay. Son of God, good shepherd, and so on. Okay. All references to himself, the I am statements in the gospel of John, things like that. Yeah. Those are the things Jesus talked about the fourth most.
Okay. Fifth, Jesus talked about preaching the gospel and making disciples. You'll go out as my witnesses. And then after that, and this is a list that after those five, this is one that's kind of incomplete.
But then Jesus talked about prayer, faith, love, good works, and sin. Now one thing I didn't look up, I didn't think of this until later. So I'm going to have to figure out how this fits into my list, is how often Jesus talked about the scripture itself.
I would imagine that's probably up there in the top ten. Yeah.
Referencing scripture, Old Testament especially. And see that one's difficult.
Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Yeah. Yeah. That one's difficult to search because you can't find that one with a word search. Right. Because he might be referencing the Old Testament and then he's talking about scripture, even though he's not saying the word of God or the scripture says or something like that.
Right. So I got to figure out where that one fits in my ten list. That'll take a while. Yeah. This is taking a while, which is why I said just take this as kind of my general estimation thus far of the topics that Jesus talked about.
So that's a pretty fair summary of the top ten subjects.
What I found interesting about that is in your top, I think it was four. Okay. So the, yeah, I'd say four, because it's God, the Father, and then it's the kingdom. Right. So holiness and where you want to go, and then hell is next.
Yes. So he's telling you about your sin. Right.
And then himself. Right. So you're having multiple subjects that are being talked about in there. Huh?
I was thinking about, that's how you share the gospel with someone. Oh, I see. I see. Okay. And then Jesus is the fourth one because he's the savior. Okay. He's the one that you believe in to be saved from your sins.
Makes sense. Yeah. So anyway. Right. He's walking you through the gospel.
Okay. Reference to law. You know, that would be another one that would fall into the scripture category. So yeah, I got to figure out where that one fits in there. I thought where you were going by talking about that was showing how, as Jesus is talking about the kingdom of God, he's also talking about these other subjects.
Oh, well, I mean, yes, but that wasn't my point.
Because when he would talk about, when he talks about hell or warning about judgment, he's also telling you to repent. Yes. Like Luke 13, five. Yeah. Repent or something worse is going to happen to you.
And what are you repenting from? Your sins. Yeah. So yeah, exactly. And then he's talking about sin. Right. Yeah. It's all connected. Yeah. Like I said, so it's difficult to kind of quantify that, but you can tell by that top 10 list what's not in there.
Not money. It's not money. Yeah. As I tried to figure that out, it's somewhere around 15 or 16. Okay. So in a top 20, it's probably breaking the top 20, but it's not in the top 10. It's definitely not number one.
Yeah. Common myth, but it isn't. It isn't true. Interesting. There you go. Thank you for setting me on that task, Jeremy. Yeah. That was fun to do. I had done that before years ago, but yeah, I don't know where any of that was and I don't...
All that info. I didn't remember it off the top of my head either. This next question comes from Amelia. How long have we been doing this now? Okay. We're almost at half an hour. Anyway. It was like five years.
I've not been... That wasn't Amelia's question. That was my question. I haven't been watching our time, so I was kind of looking at where we are. Anyway, Amelia says, Pastor Gabe, I was enjoying your Sunday school lessons through the Book of Judges and then suddenly they stopped.
Are you planning on publishing the rest of the series? And the answer is? Well, you want to say what the answer is? Yes. No, the answer is no. No. So there was a couple of Sundays ago where I was recording it.
I was trying to catch up on previous lessons that I've missed. Becky knew I was recording. She saw me wearing the mic and she came up to me at the end of the Sunday school lesson. Oh, yes. Do you remember this?
I remember this. Okay.
Yep. What'd you say? I said, you had a lot of flubs.
No, the first words you said were, don't publish that one. Yeah, I did. I did say that.
You'll want to re-record that one.
Because it was like, I kept messing up Amorites and Ammonites and I said the Book of Samson instead of the Book of Samuel.
I was trying to say First Samuel. I said First Samson. Yes, there was a lot.
Apparently, there were multiple errors.
Yes, and I didn't even catch them all, I don't think. I mean, it was just one after another.
It was just one of those Sunday mornings where I just could not get the thoughts to go in the right place. Yes. We were talking about Samson. It was the first two chapters. Samson covers four chapters, chapters 13 through 16.
And it was when we were in chapters 13 and 14, and yeah, I couldn't get it straight. Everybody thought the lesson was great, but I kept messing up, yeah, Amorites and Ammonites especially.
When you're there in person, it's a little different. You can forgive a lot, but whenever I'm listening to audio, I have a hard time following after so many, you know. So many mistakes. Yeah. Like, oh, not Amorites, but the Ammonites, and then, you know, I'm like, ah, wait.
So I was already behind on the series anyway because I had some errors in a couple of recordings like the recording didn't work. Oh, yeah. Uh-huh. And so I was going to have to go back and rerecord those anyway.
Yeah. And so after that, so two weeks ago when Becky told me, don't use it, yeah, I just decided, you know what, I'm done. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be discouraging. No, no, no, no, no. I mean, it was just going to be too much work.
Oh, okay. And I've already done Judges on the podcast. I just haven't, you know, these were the Sunday school lessons that I was publishing. Yeah. And the main reason I was doing it was for the Sunday school class.
Right. So that people who had to be gone on a Sunday would still be able to catch it on the podcast. Yeah. But then, yeah, then I just got behind so far. And we have had people from the class. Lois was one.
Uh-huh. It's like, hey, that's not fair. You publish like the first three or four and then we're just gone. Yeah.
Now we can't catch up when we're gone. Except a cliffhanger is something that you actually do wind up getting back to. So I guess it wouldn't be a cliffhanger.
This next one from Angie, dear what, have you considered getting on TikTok with your videos? The answer's no. I'm not getting on TikTok. I'm not even on TikTok. We are presently locked out of Facebook, as a matter of fact, and not sure that we're ever going to be able to recover it.
And I noticed that the podcast has stopped publishing to Facebook. So that's probably it. The what Facebook page might be gone. So even anybody that's been listening on the Facebook page is not hearing me talk about this.
Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, guys. Just to let you know, Facebook page is there. Thank you to all my 20 ,000 followers. But that might be that might be it. Subscribe to the what channel. Yes.
Just do that. That's follow what on YouTube or what .com or the app that's supposed to come out. It's not out yet.
Yeah. Yeah. I've got a couple of people checking on it for me and they've said it's not there yet. Yeah. So I'm not planning on getting on TikTok. I am on Instagram and I'm running it. So it's what guy W .W .U .T .T. guy.
If you have Instagram, subscribe there. I throw up memes, throw up memes there, have a meme, what most memes look like anyway. And then what videos and stuff like that will get on there, too. So yeah, check it out.
What guy. If you're on Instagram, but not planning on getting a tick tock. I draw the line at tick tock. Yeah. You, however, can take what videos and put them on tick tock. You're welcome to do that. By all means.
Go for it. Next question from Danny. These are some quick ones here. So I think I can I can do this one. Hello, Pastor Gabe and Becky, we're from Ontario, Canada, and my husband and I just moved to another city and we don't know where and how to start looking for a new church with a lot of false teachers out there.
We want to be careful and ensure that we're in biblical churches, Bible based churches. Can you give us any guidance on this? Thank you in advance. For Canada, I'm not really familiar with a Canadian church search.
Does Michelle Leslie's site go up that way a little bit? That's where I would recommend.
Yeah. So if you go to MichelleLeslie .com, isn't that the page? Okay. MichelleLeslie .com. She's got a church search on there and links to other church searches. Right. So like founder's page and stuff like that.
So go through her website. I've got a few of them on the what website, too. If you go to www .utt .com, click on links, the links category, and there toward the top, it'll have a church search on there for you, which includes a master's universities church search is on there.
Yes. And then I was thinking, if you are listening to this from the Ontario, Canada area, go ahead and shoot us a little shout out or something and maybe we can put it on the website, add it to our list.
Yeah. There you go. And so, you know, that'd be awesome.
Now I know there's a lot of problems with the gospel coalition. People have grave concerns with TGC and I share those concerns. I don't recommend TGC as a good resource for the articles and the theology that they will put out.
Right. Just saw one this past week. I was going, what are you guys doing? However, they do have a church search. Now you got to take it with a grain of salt because just about everybody and their dog uses it since TGC is such a widespread site and they've got branches into Australia, Canada, Africa, Europe, so on.
Okay. So there is a Canadian TGC and you can use their church search, but be careful, like pay attention to the church that's on there because sometimes assemblies of God or four square churches and things like that will be on there that are heavily charismatic.
Check out their website first. Yep.
Look for a statement of faith. Yes. Yes. And then also kind of skim it for phrases that are red flags.
You know what I mean? I don't even know where to start with that, but yeah. I mean, I totally get it.
Yeah. So if just something raises a concern or a question, go ahead and call up the pastor and see if you can get an answer from them. Yeah.
Ask him just straight up to tell you what the gospel is. Yeah. That's a square one. Yeah. If it's filled with a bunch of works, you're going, yep, you don't know what that is. Yep. Well, don't tell them that.
Maybe you can share the gospel with them. Well, there you go. You know, take advantage of the opportunity, but we do understand being isolated from a good church is not a good place to be spiritually.
So we do encourage you to plug in and find one as quick as you can. And you know, not all churches are perfect. None of them are. None of them. That's true. I said not all. Yeah. That's right. None of the churches are perfect.
Churches are filled with sinners. Yes. You know what's wrong with your church? You are. Yes. You're what's wrong with your church. Yes. So do understand that part of things. It's not going to be a perfect, you know, church, but as long as they have the gospel and they preach from the Bible with no works added or taken away, then I think you're good to go.
Yeah. At least on a good foot. They call out sin.
They call to repentance. The three marks you want to be looking for, I know that Mark Dever has his nine marks of a healthy church. Yes. You really whittle this down to three. Okay. So you're looking for expository preaching.
Yes. Good preaching from the word of God from the pulpit on a Sunday morning. You are looking for the right practice of the ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper. And then thirdly, you're looking to see if they practice church discipline.
Now technically that's two marks. So you're looking for, you're actually looking for expository preaching and you're looking for how they handle the ordinances. Because if they're handling the Lord's table correctly, church discipline falls under that.
Also regenerate membership. Because they're examining the people that come in and want to become members of the church. They're not just taking anybody. Yeah, sure. Sign the card and now you're a member.
They're going to see that a person truly understands the gospel and they're showing fruit that they are part of the body of Christ. That they've been baptized before they're coming to the table, things like that.
So under a right practice of the ordinances, you have regenerate church membership and you have church discipline. So there you go. A couple of things you want to be looking for with regards to a good, healthy Bible teaching church.
Yeah. And that'll narrow down your phone calls. That's right. At least the conversations. And so Dani, we'll be praying for you about that and we'll do that here in just a moment. Also want to say here at the close of the program, thank you to the state of Oklahoma for passing what so far is the strictest anti-abortion law in the country.
So they are protecting life from the time of conception. Thank you to the state of Oklahoma. Something that Louisiana should have done a few weeks ago. Definitely. But thanks to some of those pro-life groups that won't abolish abortion outright.
Or the ERLC, they were part of that as well, kind of helping to throw doubt on that particular bill in the state of Louisiana. Because of all of that, that bill did not pass. It was very sad to see that.
We're still praying for the Supreme Court because it could be any day that we're about to hear their decision on Dobbs versus Jackson, which will overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood versus Casey.
So be praying about that. Yes. We also want to be in prayer for Uvalde, Texas. Because of the school shooting that was there earlier this week. We've been praying for that community in our own home. We've been praying for them in our church.
And so keep them in your prayers. A whole community. A whole community. Yeah. And so be in prayer for those families and ask that the gospel of Jesus Christ would be proclaimed there in Uvalde so that people would hear the hope of the gospel of Christ.
That's our only hope. That we would not mourn in vain or mourn with no hope, but we hope in Christ who raises the dead. Amen. So let's finish now with prayer. And we'll start by praying for Danny. Yes, let's.
Heavenly Father, I thank you for the church that you have given to us. That we could be a part of the people of God. You have called us out of darkness into your marvelous light. And so now being called out from the world, we've been called to be a part of the people of God.
We are reconciled to God by faith in Jesus Christ. And we are reconciled to one another as well. So may we all be in good, sound churches with people that we can, with whom we can grow. We encourage and admonish one another according to the word of God.
And we are holding fast to this word of life so that we may not labor in vain. So that we may be with Christ on that day of glory. And as Danny and her husband deeply desire to want to worship with a church, growing in faithfulness with one another, I pray that you would guide them to a good Bible teaching church there in Ontario, Canada, so that they may rejoice with the saints, hearing the word of God proclaimed, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in their hearts to God.
We thank you for what has been accomplished in Oklahoma this past week. We pray for the Supreme Court, that they're about to pass Dobbs v. Jackson that will overturn Roe v. Wade. We pray that they would be steadfast in their convictions there and this would happen.
And we pray, Lord, also for the community of Uvalde in Texas. Be with those families, comfort their hearts. May the gospel be proclaimed to them. Pull the people to Jesus Christ, that they may cling to you and find comfort in the promises of your word.
Be with the pastors and the churches in that community, that they may minister to those who are hurting or people who are just asking questions. Why would God allow something like this to happen? And may it be something that draws people all the more to Christ, recognizing the sin and the evil that is in this world, but there is a judge who is coming back to judge the living and the dead.
We pray with the Apostle John at the end of Revelation, come quickly, Lord Jesus. And in so praying, we're asking not only that we would be delivered out of this world into your kingdom, but that the wicked would be judged finally and forever.
And we will dwell with you in your perfect kingdom where sin will be no more. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.