FLF Network Video - The Plan
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I am often asked "what should we do?" Here is my answer.
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- Hello there, this is AD Robles, and you're listening to AD on the Fight Laugh Feast Network.
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- Today's topic is something that I've been thinking a lot about, and I've been thinking about it for the last few years, and really, it's something that is related to the stuff that I normally like to talk about, the social justice stuff, but really, it can be applied to a variety of different areas.
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- One of the things that a lot of people will reach out to me and they'll say, they'll say, hey Adam, I like your content, but it's just like, this is so, it's a lot.
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- It's an awful lot. The social justice movement and evangelicalism seems to be almost unstoppable.
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- There's so much power behind it. The platforms that are pushing it are huge.
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- There's money behind it, and it just seems like every day, there's a new leader who has started beating this drum of social justice, and it's a lot, and it seems like a tsunami, if you will.
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- That's something that Dr. White talked about a while back regarding the homosexual agenda and all that kind of thing, and it is a lot.
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- I feel like it is a lot, and this is a battle that's being fought on multiple fronts. This is definitely in the evangelical church, no question about it, but it's being fought everywhere there's battle, and a lot of people, this past week, we even saw some of the media,
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- CNN, there's a whistleblower that's talking about, that has recordings of the leadership at CNN talking about how they are intentionally seeking to undermine
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- President Donald Trump, so they're not really reporting the news anymore, they're actually reporting a perspective.
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- They want, they're political operatives, they're acting in politics, and their propaganda has an agenda, like all propaganda does, and they are seeking to push forward a certain narrative and not others.
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- We've kind of already knew this was happening, but we got some whistleblowers from the Veritas Project proving that this is actually happening.
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- We also had this week, oh man, this was interesting. Did you see this?
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- It was CNN reporting on the conflict in Syria, and they had a reporter on the ground reporting how the conflict was going, and the war was raging behind them, and there was explosions and gunfire and all this stuff, you know, all that kind of thing, and it turns out that that was actually just a fabrication as well, that was a lie.
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- The footage that they showed you was from a gun range in Kentucky or something like that. And so, you know, the reality is, like, what do we believe at this point?
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- I mean, you could watch CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, but who do you believe? Who's putting forward truth?
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- And how do we know? How could we tell? I mean, if nobody had pointed this out about Syria, that would have been
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- Syria. That would have been the Syria conflict in my mind. So much of what we know about the world we get through media.
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- And so if the media has become untrustworthy, what can you do about that? What do you trust?
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- I mean, it's a valid question, right? What do we do? I mean, these are the power structures in our country.
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- These are the movers and shakers. These are the people that set the agenda for us, and we cannot trust them.
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- How do we combat this? Now, what's interesting about that question is often, I think when people ask that question, what they're really asking is, how do we replace these power structures, right?
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- How do we compete at their level? How can we raise up a
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- CNN except with Christian principles or conservative principles or whatever it is?
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- How do we do that? How do we compete with these organizations that are so well -funded?
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- How do we get to that level? You often hear this with social media, right, because social media suppresses content.
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- My content has been suppressed on YouTube, there's just no question about it. If you look at my videos, some of my videos have thousands of views, some of them have like a couple hundred, and you could predict based on the content which is gonna be which.
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- It's really interesting. I've been suppressed by this kind of stuff, and so oftentimes the solution is, okay, well, we need to build a
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- Christian YouTube, right, or we need to build a Christian Facebook, and it's like, well, do we really?
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- Is that even feasible? I mean, I guess that would be awesome, and there are some people that are positioned well to do stuff like that and compete in that arena, but not all of us are.
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- Not all of us are in a position where we could build a
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- Facebook that doesn't have suppression of free speech, you know what I mean? It's not really realistic to try to solve all of these problems all at once and try to compete at their level all at the same time.
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- I mean, they have lots of power, and we don't have the same kind of power that they have, and so when people ask me what do
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- I do, I know they're looking for an answer for how to win the war all at once, like in one fell swoop, right, in a very flashy kind of turn the tide kind of way.
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- That's what they're looking for, and the reality is I don't have an answer for how we can do that. Now, I'm not saying we should give up.
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- You know, I'm not saying that at all. I'm not saying we should give up that fight. I mean, the Fight, Laugh, Feast network is certainly trying to compete on equal footing with all this other nonsense and stuff like that, and we've got a long way to go.
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- It's an uphill battle. I'm not saying we should stop that battle. I'm just saying that not every person is in a position to try to build another
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- Fight, Laugh, Feast network, and not every person should. I mean, not everyone's talented in that way.
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- Different people have different talents. Different people have different spheres of influence and all of that kind of thing. So when people ask me what do
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- I do, what do we do about this? How do we win this? I don't have a very flashy answer for them.
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- It's just that simple. It's just that simple. You know, one of the things that influenced me when
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- I was a young believer was a book by David Platt, and I'm sure
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- I'm not the only one. This book, Radical. I read this book right when I converted to Christ, very early on,
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- Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream, Radical. And I remember reading it, and I was at a time where I was very impressionable.
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- You know what I mean? Like, I had grown up in a church, but I never really took my faith seriously. And when
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- I first got saved as an adult, I used to consume tons of materials, right? Tons of Gospel Coalition, ERLC -type materials.
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- And I loved it all, for the most part. And I remember reading this book and thinking, you know, this is an interesting book, but I don't think that I agree with the main premise.
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- And people argue about what the main premise is, and I think David Platt has even backtracked a little bit from some of the main ideas in this book.
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- But basically, the idea of this book is that a Christian life should be a radical life, and radical basically looks like, you know, sell all your stuff and move to Ethiopia, you know what
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- I mean? And honestly, when I was a young Christian, I thought that that's what I would do, because I wanted to take my faith seriously.
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- I wanted to be a real disciple of Christ. I wanted to be a follower of Christ. And I wanted to do what
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- I was supposed to do. But I knew, even as I kind of, this book influenced me, and it pushed me in the right direction, and I don't hate this book, by the way.
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- I don't hate this book. I think there's a place for a book like this. But even though I was being influenced, and I said, I want to go to Ethiopia, I want to go to El Salvador, or whatever it is,
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- I knew that not everybody could do that. It's just not realistic. It's not rational for everyone to be living this, quote unquote, radical life, because some people have to support the people that go to Ethiopia.
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- So, some people have to be producing, you know what I mean? Some people have to actually be producing stuff, producing income that they can give to the people that are going to drop everything and go, you know, evangelize a village in Ethiopia.
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- And so, logistically, not everyone can be, quote unquote, radical. Not to mention the fact that, you know, there are some families that have a lot of kids, and moving to Ethiopia might be possible, but is it reasonable?
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- Is it feasible? And so, while I don't hate this book, the premise of the book is not something that I think is really reasonable for everybody.
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- Not everybody can do everything. Not everybody has the same sphere of influence. Not everyone is a foot.
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- Not everyone is a hand. Not everyone is a nose. And I kind of knew that as I read this book, even though this book influenced me very much.
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- And so, this is a book I have not read. So, don't beat me up if I'm getting this premise right.
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- But it's clearly a response to radical. I mean, it's the same book cover, but it's called
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- Ordinary. And the premise of this book is that, you know, not everyone can be radical.
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- In fact, the Christian life oftentimes is a very ordinary life. Ordinary in kind of the traditional sense.
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- You know, find a wife, raise a family, rinse, repeat.
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- Find a wife, raise a family, rinse, repeat. I mean, that's very ordinary, but Michael Horton, I think, is making the case in this book that that is the
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- Christian life. And in fact, in our culture, that's kind of like a radical lifestyle, just to not, you know, just be a fur mommy or something like that, or a fur daddy, and travel the world and all this kind of stuff.
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- Like, look, I've traveled. I've traveled. But that's almost like the holy grail these days, is instead of having a family,
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- I'm going to travel first, you know, I'm going to have a career and stuff like that. So, Horton says that the
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- Christian life is ordinary. And I think that Horton, if I had to say, again, I haven't read this book, so I could be totally off on this.
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- But I have to say, just based on the premises of each book, radical and ordinary, I think
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- I probably fall more on the ordinary side. I think that that's actually really what the
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- Christian life is all about. Here's Acts 2, Acts chapter 2,
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- Pentecost. I mean, nothing could be more radical than what happened at Pentecost, right? Thousands of people coming to Christ.
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- They hear Peter's sermon. The Holy Spirit descends on them. They're all speaking in foreign tongues, preaching the glories and the mysteries of Christ, right?
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- And then thousands come to the Lord, it says. It says thousands come to the Lord when Peter says, you should repent and be baptized, each of you, for the forgiveness of your sins.
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- That's awesome. That's awesome. And then he says this. Listen to what he says here. He says, repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the
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- Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, as many as the
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- Lord our God will call. And so then he says, he continues his preaching.
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- He says, many words telling you to be saved from this corrupt generation. And then what does it say right after?
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- It says the church starts to grow. Thousands get baptized that day. Thousands get baptized that day.
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- It says 3 ,000 people were added to their number. And the church grows from there. One sermon, 3 ,000 converts, and then it multiplies from there.
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- And what does it say that they do? This is so interesting to me because Peter is one of these radical types that David Platt's talking about, right?
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- A preacher, charismatic guy, you know, going to the nations and all this. But not everybody's doing what
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- Peter was doing. Listen to what it says about the growing church. It says they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.
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- Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles.
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- So the apostles were living that radical lifestyle, right? The apostles were following David Platt's advice, so to speak.
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- And then it says this. It says the believers, all the believers, were together, and they held all things in common.
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- They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all as any had need. Every day, they devoted themselves to what?
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- To meeting together in the temple and breaking bread from house to house.
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- They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.
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- And every day, the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. They were doing normal stuff, ordinary stuff.
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- They were meeting at the temple. They were hearing about God, and they were living their lives.
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- Breaking bread, just eating, you know, normal stuff, living with each other. You know, if one of them had need, you know, one would sell their stuff and give it to the other, just normal, everyday stuff, living their lives with their family.
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- The promise, remember, the promise was for them and for their children. The promise was for their families.
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- And what did they do when they received the Holy Spirit and they received that promise? What did they do? Well, the apostles were living that radical lifestyle, selling everything and going to the poor and going to the nations and all that stuff.
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- And some, I would assume, of the new converts did that, but most of them, they went to church and they ate their food with gladness with each other.
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- They lived with each other. They did ordinary things. You see, the majority of you who are under the sound of my voice right now are not going to have a
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- YouTube channel with a million subscribers. I probably will never have that. You know what I mean? A lot of you probably won't even have 2 ,000 subscribers to listen to what you say.
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- And there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with that.
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- Because, you see, here's the reality. Here's the plan. Here's the plan. The plan is very ordinary.
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- The plan to beat CNN at their own game, the plan to turn the tide of this monstrosity of socialism, which social justice really is just socialism.
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- That's what is being pushed. So, you know, the word social justice isn't necessarily synonymous with socialism.
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- But when people in our day talk about social justice, nine times out of 10, they're talking about socialism. And it's a monstrosity.
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- And it's an anti -Christ system. Socialism is an anti -Christ system. And so this is a monstrosity that we're facing.
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- And do we need to fight it on its own terms? I'm not saying we should stop fighting, but we don't.
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- See, the plan is ordinary. It's not sexy. It's not flashy.
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- It's not going to be a big, epic battle, like at the end of Lord of the Rings, where they're just clashing with each other.
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- And it's just like the unstoppable force meets the unmovable object, or whatever it is.
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- It's not going to be like that, most likely. It's going to be ordinary. So here's the reality.
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- A lot of you have asked me over time, what do I do? What do we do? And here's the answer. You have a family.
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- You find a wife. You have kids. You teach those kids about the
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- Lord. You teach those kids about Jesus Christ. You baptize them, teaching them to obey everything that Christ commanded in every area of their life.
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- That's it. And you watch them grow. You watch them start their own families, baptize their kids, and teach them to obey everything that the
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- Lord commanded. Then you watch those kids grow up. They start a family. They baptize their kids.
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- And it goes on and on and on and on and on. And what is going to happen? God's people will dominate the face of the earth through ordinary means.
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- Because look at our opponents, right? Look at our opponents. What are they doing? They're killing themselves. They're killing themselves.
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- They're offing their own children in the womb in record numbers so that they can travel the world and eat, pray, love, whatever they want to do.
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- And they're promoting sexual unions that are perverted, that cannot bear fruit.
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- That's what they're up to. And so whose seed is going to dominate the face of the earth?
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- It's going to be the ordinary Christian who all they did was find a wife, train their kids in the way they should go, baptizing them, teaching them everything that they need to do, and all of that.
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- Again and again and again and again, generation after generation after generation. That's the plan. What does
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- God say in the scripture? He says, why does he bring man and woman together? Well, one reason is he wants a godly offspring.
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- And so God did that in order to get godly offspring. You best believe he's going to get and raise up godly offspring.
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- That's the plan. That's the plan. So if you want to know what do I do to stop the tide of social justice?
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- Well, one thing you can do is love your wife, baptize your kids, and teach them to obey everything that Christ commanded in every area of life.
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- Because if you teach your kids what justice is, they're not going to fall for social justice. If you teach your kids what
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- God says you should do, they're not going to fall for some smooth -sounding huckster telling them, well, yeah, but also this, too, over here.
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- This is better justice. They won't fall for it. They won't fall for it.
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- You know, here's the other thing, too. You know, I think that one thing that you should consider, especially if you listen to Christian media, because if you listen to Christian media, chances are you're the kind of person that takes your faith very seriously, right?
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- And I hope what I am about to say doesn't get misconstrued, right? You know, what is the
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- Great Commission, right? So, you know, baptize the nations, teach them to obey all Christ's commands, right? That's what the
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- Great Commission is. And, you know, what does it say in Acts 2 that the people did that converted?
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- It said they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching.
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- What do you think the apostles were teaching, right? That's the question. So what kind of teaching should we devote ourselves to?
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- Well, I think it's a teaching that will benefit and lead to action, to doing what
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- Christ commands, right? That's what I think it is. And so, please, don't misconstrue this, okay?
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- What do we often study when we study theology? We study about God, and we study about the hypostatic union, and we study about the
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- Trinity, and all these things. And these are great things, and these are foundational to our faith, right?
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- And so, and I think that if you do this appropriately, it'll lead to the correct actions, right?
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- So knowing God will definitely lead for you to obey him, right? But I think we should spend more time, you know, we shouldn't neglect the hypostatic union.
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- We shouldn't neglect these kinds of things. But I think we should spend more time studying what the
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- Bible says that we should do in business, right? Like, how do we conduct ourselves economically?
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- How do we conduct ourselves when we think about, you know, our future generations?
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- Like, how do we do things now according to our beliefs? Because what we believe is that God has spoken in his word about how we should live, right?
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- How should we then live? That's the question. We believe that the Bible speaks about that in every area, whether it's you at work, whether it's you, you know, in your personal finances, whether it's you in politics, whether it's you, it doesn't matter, in every way, sexuality, all these ways.
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- And so I think we should, you know, read the scriptures, study the scriptures, read the confessions of faith, but we should do it not just so we can know everything there is to know about God.
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- We should do, we should know things about God, but we need to read and study and do these things so that we're prepared to act.
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- Because what we can control, I can't control how much power CNN has, right? What I can do is live in such a way that I'm being consistent with my own beliefs.
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- This is a great quote. This is a great quote from the Chalcedon Foundation, right? This is Rush Dooney.
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- They post quotes like this all the time from Rush Dooney. This is one of my favorite ones. Here's what Rush Dooney says. He says,
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- And so we should study the Lord and how he is and how he's commanded us to act.
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- We should study that so that when the time comes and we are faced with a challenge or a problem or a confrontation that we know the mind of God well enough to know how we should act in that situation.
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- When something, a conflict happens at home or a conflict happens in the street or whatever it is, we wanna be prepared to act for the
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- Lord. And the only way we can do that is if we study what the Lord is like and what he has commanded us to do.
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- Baptize the nations and teach them to obey everything that is commanded.
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- If you're gonna teach people to obey everything that's commanded by Christ, you need to know what's commanded by Christ in every area of your life.
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- That's the plan. That's how we win. This is how we compete with CNN.
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- It's gonna be gradual. It's gonna be gradual because we're gonna teach our kids not to believe when the pagans have ridiculous pagan nonsense and pagan ideas that are being presented and pushed in our public schools.
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- We can't beat the public school at its own game. But what we can do is teach our kids not to fall for that cockamamie nonsense.
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- That's what we can do. And then they'll teach their kids to do the same. And eventually, over time, we beat them, not necessarily at their own game, but we beat them by playing the long game and trusting
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- God and trusting that the promise really is for us and for our children and for our children's children and the generations that follow.
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- So if you wanna know what to do about social justice, you wanna know what to do about fake news, you wanna know what to do about the march of socialism, here's what you should do.
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- Love God, start a family, and baptize and teach your kids to do the same.
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- Anyway, I hope this was helpful. God bless. Don't forget to tune in next week on Thursday for AD on the