WWUTT 2410 Q&A The G3 Conference Cancelled, the Josh Buice Scandal, the People this Affects

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May 16, 2025

Responding to questions from listeners about the recent news of the cancellation of the G3 National Conference, what Josh Buice did and whom this affects, and also thinking through methods of evangelism. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!

00:00: In light of the news that has come out about Josh Bice and the G3 conference, how do we think about this?
00:06: What would drive a man to do this? Is there something we need to reconsider about the whole national conference thing altogether?
00:12: The answers to these questions, When We Understand the Text. This is
00:25: When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word, brought to you by Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.
00:33: For more information about our ministry, go to www .wutt .com.
00:39: Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Well, as advertised, we're going to be talking about the
00:45: Josh Bice scandal here in just a moment. Right. Responding to a question that we received from a listener.
00:50: Oh, wonderful. And you can send those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com, or we'd love to hear a voicemail from you.
00:59: Yeah. If you go to www .wutt .com, you'll notice that website looks quite a bit different, but you can still click on the voice tab there at the, or voicemail tab there at the top of the page.
01:10: Record us a voicemail from your computer or your phone. Let's begin by opening the
01:15: Word. So Proverbs chapter 10 is where we are, and I'm picking up in verse 22. The blessing of the
01:22: Lord makes rich and he adds no sorrow with it. Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool, but wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding.
01:33: What the wicked dreads will come upon him, but the desire of the righteous will be granted.
01:41: So let's look at that first one. That seems a little curious. The blessing of the Lord makes rich and he adds no sorrow with it.
01:49: So will we as Christians never be sorrowful? I think his blessings won't make us sad.
01:56: Yes. So sorrow will never be the end of us. Even when there is sorrow, there's always comfort and even contentment in it.
02:05: So it's not a, right. It's not an enduring sorrow. We don't die in sadness.
02:12: We die in hope, knowing that eternal glory awaits us for all who are in Christ Jesus.
02:19: So yeah, even we as Christians are going to be grieved by things that happen that we did not foresee that were going to take place, losing a loved one, being stabbed in the back by a loved one.
02:31: Things like this can certainly bring sorrow, but God is still working in that to some ultimate good.
02:38: So sorrow is not the end of it. The blessing of God will always bring joy and peace ultimately in the end.
02:44: The blessing of the Lord makes rich. That next one, verse 23, doing wrong is like a joke to a fool.
02:53: So he really doesn't think it's all that big a deal. But wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding.
03:02: So this is kind of tying into what we're going to be talking about here in just a moment.
03:08: Hearing about what has happened recently with G3, the cancellation of the conference, which is not going to happen now this coming
03:14: September. Hearing about what Josh Bice has done, which I'll talk about that here in a bit. This has brought sorrow, might seem joke, might seem like it's not a big deal to the person who doesn't have wisdom.
03:26: But then verse 24, what the wicked dreads will come upon him, but the desire of the righteous will be granted.
03:34: Josh was a guy who was trying to uncover the faults in everybody else and came to find that his own faults were uncovered, whereas a righteous man and what he desires, that the goodness of the
03:49: Lord would be done, that will be granted to him. And the goodness of God will be accomplished even in his own life.
03:56: I mean, it's really sad and disappointing that it happened in the first place, but to know that nobody is without fault.
04:04: Although we strive to be righteous in everything, we still have our tendencies to sin.
04:09: We have to strive even more in not only holding every thought captive in ourselves, but also praying for those who are in positions that lead others in godliness.
04:22: So it was on 139 where David says, search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
04:35: The righteous man will want to have those hidden faults exposed so that I know that I may lay these things down before God and receive forgiveness for them.
04:47: Yeah, exactly. Catch it soon. Yes. I know what kind of foolishness I'm capable of.
04:52: And I'm so grateful to God for the love that he has shown to me and has never let me go too far away from him.
05:00: Amen. And those times of conviction that he's brought upon me or even exposing my sin, that it may be rooted out,
05:06: I praise God for that. It may not be great in the... Comfort? Yeah. It may not be comfortable, certainly.
05:14: It's very uncomfortable. In the time that I have to go through this. And sometimes it makes me angry. I'm like, no.
05:19: I'm so rebellious in my nature. Oh, certainly. I'm just like, no, I'm fine. And then I realized later,
05:25: I'm like, oh, wait, no. No, I'm not fine. I need to fix that. It's kind of our immediate reaction is to go...
05:31: Deny it. Just deny it. Deny, deny, deflect. Yes. Blame somebody else.
05:37: Yes. No, it's him. Yeah. If this wouldn't have happened, I would not be like this.
05:43: Right. No, that's not true either. So what are we talking about regarding Josh Bice, in case you don't know?
05:48: Well, the... Maybe introduce who he is first. Yes. Josh Bice is the president of G3, the founder of the
05:55: G3 Conference. You're talking about a conference that began in, what was it, 2013. So 12 years ago, with just like 500 or 600 people attending this conference.
06:06: Yeah. About as many... I think it was mostly their church. Yeah. About as many as could be seated in the sanctuary at Praise Mill there in Georgia, in their own church.
06:18: And it's since grown to become this massive conference. The last one that they had two years ago had 6 ,500 people at it or something like that.
06:24: So it's gone from like 650 to 6 ,500 times 10. And here we are with...
06:32: And they branched out with the workshops and stuff like that. Yeah. And I've worked with those.
06:37: I've been a part of that. You've heard us promote the G3 Conference and say that we're gonna be there.
06:44: Many of these men are friends of mine because I've worked with them in some of the other ventures that G3 has been a part of.
06:52: I'm grateful that they've even sought my counsel on certain things, like have called me and said, what would you do with this or something like that.
07:00: Yeah. And at the same time, I've reached out to them and have sought their counsel. Yeah. How would you handle this kind of situation?
07:06: They've been an incredible resource and aid for evangelical churches, especially in the reformed camp.
07:14: The expository camp as well. Yeah. Exposition, things like that. So this has to be the largest reformed conference in the
07:25: US. Yeah. I would say. And now we know, or as you may have heard, because of a scandal that Josh Bice was,
07:33: I mean, it was a one -man show. He was to blame for it. Yeah. Now the conference has been canceled.
07:40: The conference that was coming up in September is not going to happen. All of this news just came out on Monday. So we're still kind of fresh on a lot of these things.
07:48: But let me read the statement that came out from G3, and then I'll get to an email that, there's actually two statements that have come out, but I'm going to start with this first one and then get to an email that a listener sent regarding the cancellation of the conference.
08:02: Okay. So here is G3 statement regarding Josh Bice. And none of us knew that anything like this was coming.
08:09: It's just on Monday, this dropped. Yeah. And took us all by surprise.
08:14: The Lord calls his church to walk in the light, to speak the truth in love and to uphold integrity, especially among those entrusted with leadership.
08:23: It is in that spirit of sober transparency and humble accountability that we, the board of G3 ministries, share the following statement regarding Dr.
08:33: Josh Bice, president of G3 and elder at Praise Mill Baptist Church. In recent weeks, the elders of PMBC uncovered irrefutable evidence that Dr.
08:43: Bice has, for the past three years, operated at least four anonymous social media accounts, two anonymous email addresses, and two substack platforms.
08:54: These accounts were used to publicly and anonymously slander numerous Christian leaders, including faithful pastors, some of whom have spoken at G3 conferences, several
09:04: PMBC elders and others. These actions were not only sinful in nature, but deeply divisive, causing unnecessary suspicion and strife within the body of Christ and particularly within the eldership of PMBC.
09:17: Dr. Bice had been asked on multiple occasions over the past two years whether he had any connection to these anonymous accounts.
09:27: In each case, he denied any knowledge of them. On Sunday evening,
09:32: May 4th, after clear and comprehensive evidence emerged linking the accounts directly to him, the elders of PMBC confronted
09:39: Josh. For some time, he continued to deny his involvement. Only after further evidence was presented and much pleading with him to walk in the light did
09:49: Josh finally confess to his actions. Since then, Josh has acknowledged his sin, expressed sorrow, and asked for forgiveness.
09:58: His desire is to personally ask forgiveness of every person he has slandered or lied to.
10:03: While Josh has acknowledged with the elders that he is presently disqualified from serving as an elder, we do not believe at this time that his sin is necessarily permanently disqualifying.
10:14: Accordingly, his content will remain accessible via the G3 website and G3 Plus.
10:20: That's since changed. They've since taken Josh's, all of his material down.
10:26: Okay. But we'll come back to that here in a bit. To be clear, no other employee or board member of G3 knew
10:31: Josh was engaged in this activity. He acted alone. On May 8th, after some members of the board privately encouraged
10:39: Josh Bice to resign, the board received and unanimously accepted Josh Bice's resignation as president of G3.
10:47: In light of these events, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the upcoming
10:53: National G3 Conference and all 2025 workshops. All registrants, exhibitors, and publishers will receive a full refund of registration fees.
11:01: G3 plans to continue G3 Plus, G3 Press, the G3 student retreat, and other media content.
11:09: As we look to the ministry's future, we will prioritize the publication of helpful biblical content that strengthens the church and avoids the dangerous celebrity culture that has unfortunately come to characterize so much of modern evangelicalism.
11:24: We grieve for the harm caused to the body of Christ and to those faithful ministers who were targeted.
11:30: We likewise reaffirm our commitment to walk in the light, to speak the truth in love, and to labor together for the building up of Christ's church in holiness and unity.
11:40: We also ask for your continued prayers and support for G3 as we work towards fulfilling our mission to educate, encourage, and equip local churches with sound biblical theology for the glory of God.
11:56: So that's the first statement. And then a second one came out a couple of days later saying that they were taking down all of Josh's material from the
12:04: G3 website. Founders Ministry put out a statement in which they also said that they were removing all of Josh Bice's stuff, the articles that he had written from Founders website.
12:13: And I've since followed suit. I had a video, a What video, that was promoting the cessationist documentary, but it featured me and Josh together, and we were the only two figures in that video that were talking about the work of the
12:26: Holy Spirit to bring a person to salvation, that regeneration that precedes faith. And I've taken that video down.
12:33: Is it untrue? No, of course not. But no promotion should be given to Josh, especially while he's in this season of recognizing his sin and coming to repentance and bearing fruit in keeping with repentance.
12:49: So in light of this, I've actually heard statements from some different people.
12:54: Some have casually kind of reached out to me on social media. And then we also received an email from a listener asking, why did these things happen the way that they happened?
13:06: And unfortunately, I've heard accounts of people being out a lot of money, not just the money that they paid for the conference, because G3 has said that they're going to refund that.
13:16: But any airline travel, booking a hotel or a, like, what would you call it, reserving an
13:25: Airbnb or a Vrbo or something like that. And you're putting down fees that you won't get refunded, buying tickets to other things and making a whole vacation out of it.
13:37: And there's money that they won't get back from that now. Not just the
13:42: G3 registration. Time off work. It's already done. Yeah. Yeah. Something to that effect.
13:48: So this email comes from Carly, and she says, hi, Pastor Gabe. I figure you'll speak on this anyway, but I was hoping that you could give some of your thoughts on the
13:56: G3 Josh Bice situation. My assumption is that the things he was saying must have been really bad if the
14:02: G3 board decided to completely erase all of his work from their platforms. I'm wondering if you have some thoughts on why he would do something like this.
14:11: Why or what would be the purpose of slandering people he'd otherwise call friends, especially men of the faith who we all admire and have learned extensively from.
14:21: Another aspect of this is how devastating it has been that they have canceled the G3 national conference. We've had our tickets purchased for over a year and had already paid for housing, travel and other activities while we were in Atlanta.
14:34: My husband and I have lost over $600 in plane tickets, Airbnb fees and Georgia aquarium tickets we bought, none of which are refundable.
14:43: We both had taken time off work already, and I've seen some people say that they can't cancel their time off requests due to their work policies.
14:52: I'm curious if the G3 board thought about this aspect of canceling the conference when they made that decision.
14:58: I don't think I've seen anyone talk about how much money has been lost by supporters of G3's ministry, and I don't think they've even apologized for any money spent outside of the conference tickets that we may lose as a result of the cancellation.
15:12: This has been one of the most hurtful aspects to me. I appreciate any insight you have into this situation.
15:19: You are especially gifted at bringing clarity and wisdom to situations like this. We appreciate your ministry so much and the work that you do to share
15:27: Christ and his truth. Well, I thank you so much for your email and for following the ministry, and I'm not sure how much clarity and wisdom
15:34: I can bring to this for you. But I'll certainly try.
15:40: Let me first talk about the money you've spent, then address the question you have about why
15:46: Josh acted this way, and finally, why did G3 make the decision to cancel this conference?
15:52: And why was it the best decision that they had to make? So first of all, my heart breaks for you and for anybody else who has been expressing this.
16:02: They had already invested a lot of money into this, and it's money that you can't get back.
16:07: I mean, money is not supposed to be our number one thing, but at the same time, it matters. It matters big time, yeah.
16:14: And especially losing that much money all at once for nothing. I mean, we know the burden of that.
16:21: We know, yeah. We get it. We've been there recently, and we had already said a couple of weeks ago, two or three weeks ago on the broadcast, we were not going to make it to G3 this year.
16:32: And a lot of that had to do with distance. There's no animus that I've ever had toward G3 about anything.
16:40: So I think it's wonderful, the ministry that they've done. And like I've said, I've worked with them in the past through the expository workshops and things like this.
16:47: I hope it's a ministry that can continue, but this is a big deal. It is a big deal. The national conference, that's their flagship.
16:55: And so to have to cancel it, that not only hurts the name G3 itself, but any future conferences.
17:04: It hurts all the extensive stuff that they do outside of the flagship conference, because some of that money that they'll bring in for the main conference will then go to help some of these other smaller things that they do, or even scheduling the next conference.
17:18: And on top of that, and I haven't heard many people talking about this, I guess a few have, but this hurts the whole concept of big national conferences like this altogether.
17:32: Right. Because, hey, maybe there's another - It promotes more of the smaller. Yeah, right, right.
17:37: Is that what you mean? Value to more of the smaller things, certainly, which become more local church centered.
17:43: And that's the way G3 started out. It was Praise Meal Baptist Church. But then it got bigger.
17:49: It got to be this bigger thing. But no, I'm speaking more specifically toward the idea of a big conference, however many other huge conferences there are out there.
17:59: Oh, okay. Is somebody really going to risk investing in that conference now? Oh, I gotcha.
18:06: Paying the big cost. I see. Yeah. Planning time off work, making a whole big trip out of it. If something like this could happen, that's a risk.
18:13: I could be out hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. So true. And so - Especially with a family our size.
18:19: Yeah. That's definitely not an easy decision to make. It wasn't easy for them to make it. I heard of another family that had lost $1 ,800, and they won't get any of that back.
18:31: And so I can say that the level of what Josh was saying and doing,
18:37: I'm not on the inside of G3 anymore, so I'm not speaking from what... It's not like I've called those guys up and they've told me things, and now
18:45: I'm sharing them with you. Right. But I can say the level of what Josh was saying and doing, and the level of dishonesty by which he was doing it, was bad enough that scrubbing his material from G3's website is warranted.
18:58: And I think - We had a chat about, is it to that extreme?
19:03: Right. We even evaluated. We didn't just follow suit blindly. We did take time to think about it and discuss it and worry about it.
19:14: Becky and I talked about it. Yeah. I asked two other pastor friends of mine about it, like, what would you do in this situation?
19:20: And I didn't even say, hey, I'm going to take Josh's thing down. But they saw that I had done it already and had responded and said,
19:29: I think you made the right call there. Yeah. And again, it doesn't mean that all the stuff that Steve Lawson ever preached was wrong.
19:39: It doesn't mean all the stuff that Josh Bice ever preached was wrong. But we're just kind of in this new territory of technology now where you preach a sermon, and it's not just the moment you preach the sermon.
19:51: It keeps on preaching. Yes. As long as it's out there on media and stuff like this. So maybe there's a time in which that material would come back on later.
20:00: But for now, I understand the reason to have it taken down, kind of have it hidden from view. So why would he do something like this?
20:08: I have no idea. Okay. I mean, I cannot pretend to be in the guy's head.
20:13: Well, that's true. To know what he was thinking about. But pride would be the biggest thing. Insecurity.
20:20: Okay. Ingratitude. Okay. So when you're talking about him going after people who are speakers in the
20:26: G3 conference. Yeah. That was weird. Men who have invested time and their own ministries in helping
20:34: G3 be what it is. And yet he's behind the scenes in this secretive way, trying to expose them for wrongdoing.
20:43: And doing it through these anonymous accounts and these anonymous emails, even going after his own elders at church about this.
20:50: I mean, there's just this ungratefulness toward people that he has. Also lacking compassion.
20:56: Yeah. And of course, you know, the big one, the ninth on the list of the fruit of the spirit, self -control.
21:03: Yes. Lacking self -control. Yes. And those things that we see in 1 Timothy 6, 4 through 5, about a person who is constantly sowing division, has evil suspicions about others.
21:18: This is a person who is not grounded in the gospel. But they've given themselves over to other ideas outside of having a mind that is controlled by Christ.
21:29: Having the mind of Christ, as said in Philippians 2, 5. Josh has destroyed everything that he's accomplished over the last 12 years.
21:37: Can there be someone who like steps in his place? Like, you know, whenever a
21:43: CEO happens to get fired or something like that. It's a big deal. They just replace the CEO.
21:49: So they replace the CEO. So is it the same kind of deal? Or is it like the kind of thing where, because it was so much based on their church and he was head pastor, that it just kind of falls apart.
22:03: So this gets into... Because of the camaraderie and the connections,
22:08: I guess. So this gets into answering the question of why did they cancel the conference at all? Because G3 is not
22:16: Josh Bice. Right. He didn't want G3 to be Josh Bice. And so the conference should be able to continue without him.
22:24: However, as you've heard, as was said in this statement, and as was also said in the second statement that came out,
22:31: Josh was attacking even speakers that he had invited to participate in the
22:36: G3 conference and was even trying to expose them for wrongdoing. Yeah, that was strange.
22:43: And to give you an example of this, because this example has been made public. This has already come out as public because Julie Roys posted it.
22:49: But Josh contacted Julie Roys, who's a gossip rag. She is not a credible journalist, however much she thinks of herself as being one.
22:59: He contacted Julie Roys through one of these anonymous email accounts and told her to investigate
23:06: Votie Bauckham in the way that he handled money that came to him for his heart surgery when he was about to die.
23:13: Remember all of that? Yes. I mean, I was personally involved in that. Right. Because I went to a
23:19: Verizon store to get Votie a phone so that he would have a phone while he's traveling the
23:24: United States to get the heart procedures done that he needed to save his life.
23:31: Right. So there was a money raising thing that was put out by founders. They raised over a million dollars for Votie.
23:38: Yeah. And so Josh contacted Julie and said, look into that because the heart procedure only costs $300 ,000.
23:46: So what is Votie doing with all this other money? Setting aside that when you have a heart procedure done, it doesn't just end with the heart procedure.
23:54: It doesn't. No. So there's all kinds of expenses that will continue after that. Yeah. Not to mention maybe another heart procedure.
24:02: Right. That would come later on down the road. So I have no problem with that. Not only that, but you're taking off of work.
24:08: You're also like not physically active. So you need to get physical therapy. You have all of these things that you have to get done.
24:15: There's a ton of stuff. There is. There's so much. And he's not even in the country. Like he doesn't. At the time. He wasn't living in the country at that time.
24:22: Right. So it was like, he's a whole sea away. Yeah. Ocean away. But I mean, aside from that, just the diabolicalness of Josh contacting
24:33: Julie and saying investigate Votie for this. Yeah. That's bizarre. It's unreal.
24:38: Yeah. So that's one of those things that I can certainly say, because again, that's already been made public.
24:44: Right. But there's other things that Josh said that we can't bring out. I don't know that I could give you the specifics of them anyway, but we can't make those things public.
24:54: And the G3 folks can't make those things public. Right. Because now they implicate the person that Josh was making an accusation about.
25:02: Right. And it brings that accusation public, which is slander. It's a question about that.
25:07: Right. It shouldn't have even been said in the first place. Right. And I've been in this situation before. Yes, you have.
25:12: Many times. We have had somebody at our church, not our church now, but in the past, somebody that was bringing slanderous accusations against somebody else.
25:22: Yep. And we would discipline them. We as elders know what the accusations are. Right. But we're not going to make that public.
25:28: Right. Because there's no credibility to it whatsoever. This person does - Just don't even put that in anybody else's mind.
25:35: Right. Exactly. There's no point. This person does not get a platform - Right. To be able to make their false accusation.
25:40: Exactly. So there are people that are saying, well, G3 is just sweeping this under the rug. For the sake of the innocent people that Josh was falsely accusing -
25:48: Right. These things shouldn't be made public. Exactly. And I'm totally okay with that. But now those speakers are put in this awkward position of like, there's a conflict of interest between me and G3 now.
26:00: I'm going to go speak at this conference who was headed up by a person who doesn't like me.
26:06: Yeah. Right. Right. And attacked me. Yeah. And falsely accused me. So yeah, I get it.
26:11: And so now the speaker is put in that awkward position of withdrawing. And then everybody who probably paid to attend the conference to -
26:19: For that speaker. Perhaps to hear that speaker - Yeah. Is going to be mad about that. Right. And then you get - It was just - Then you have to choose as the audience if you're going to support this ministry of -
26:30: Yeah. Granted, it's not Josh Bice ministry, but it's still - Josh Bice was a big part of it too.
26:37: Founder and president. Yeah. Yeah. So you're right. It wasn't just anybody at G3 that was doing this.
26:44: It was the guy that even was sending out the invites to these speakers to speak at the conference. Yeah. And then was targeting them with these slanderous accusations.
26:54: So anyway, as we kind of come to the end of this half hour segment here, be in prayer for G3.
27:00: Yes, please. If you're listening to the podcast, we're going to keep going. We're going to continue talking about this.
27:07: But for now, be in prayer for the organization. Pray for Josh. Yes. Pray that he would be convicted. And again, as said, bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
27:16: Yes. That the fruit of the spirit that we read of in Galatians chapter five would be exhibited in his life.
27:21: That he truly comes to understand the wickedness of what he has done. And as we said, this is going to hurt a lot of people.
27:30: It is. It destroys friendships. It's already affected. Yeah. Yeah. It's affected a lot of people's lives, including the lives of the people who've sent us emails like this.
27:39: So we understand, and I wish there's more I could do for you. I really do.
27:44: Yeah. But in the meantime, we continue to entrust God with these things. That's what
27:49: I was going to say. We have a great big God, so he can do miraculous things.
27:54: He's purifying his church. Yes. And in the meantime, we desire to show the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.
28:07: Amen. Against such things, there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires.
28:17: Let us draw near to Christ and desire that his gospel would continue to be proclaimed in the earth.
28:22: Once again, if you have any questions, any other follow -up to this, send us an email when we understand the text at gmail .com.
28:29: God bless and thanks for listening. Jesus founded the church.
28:41: So yes, Christian, you have to attend church. As Spurgeon has said, don't go where there is fine music, grand talk, and beautiful architecture.
28:48: Go where the gospel is preached and go often. Here are five tips for finding a good church. First of all, pray.
28:55: If you have a family, pray with your spouse and your children that the Lord would lead you to a good church. Secondly, seek the counsel of a pastor, elder, or church teacher.
29:03: Perhaps you know someone who is sound in their understanding of the Bible who can help you find a sound church. Third, as you start visiting churches, know your priorities.
29:11: Does this church clearly teach and affirm the gospel? Is the teaching faithful to the scriptures? Have they defined a clear statement of beliefs?
29:18: Do they properly administer the Lord's Supper and Baptism? Are there requirements for membership and do you agree with them?
29:24: Fourth, consider these five qualifying questions. Would the care of your soul be a priority for this church's leadership?
29:31: Will you experience meaningful fellowship and accountability? Is this a place where you can serve God's people with your gifts for their benefit?
29:38: Would you want a spouse or your children brought up under this teaching? And does this church have a heart to reach the lost, preaching the gospel of grace and calling for repentance from sin?
29:47: Fifth, be close to your church, both geographically and in your heart. Geography is not crucial, but still important.
29:54: If you're too far away, you won't be regularly involved. But once you've found your church, stay there. Be committed in sickness and in health.
30:02: The church is not your high school girlfriend. She is the bride of Christ when we understand the text.
30:08: So in light of this whole Josh Bice thing, this scandal that this has become, we still need to look at this with an understanding that we must humble ourselves.
30:19: Yeah, it's very eye opening as far as like self -check moment of, you know, what am
30:25: I letting out of my, out of what am I bringing in that's worldly and taking my eyes off of the
30:32: Lord in this process? Because it's so easy and it happens so fast and so sneakily that you're, you just don't even realize half the time, you know, that that's happening.
30:44: Like have you gotten out of that habit of reading your Bible every day? Or have you gotten out of the habit of praying all day long?
30:51: And you know, like we routinely pray before meals, but since my schedule has changed,
30:59: I realized just yesterday or day before that I quit praying before those meals.
31:05: And I'm just like diving into food because I'm starving by the time I get there. And I'm like, why?
31:10: Why did that just disappear suddenly? Like how did that get replaced with just, oh, me, food, okay, done.
31:18: Now let's go on, you know, rather than thanking God for the meal that he provided for me.
31:23: Because that comes back into that ingratitude again. Yeah, totally. And I was so convicted over just that, that, and that wasn't even including the
31:32: Josh Bice thing and, you know, having that in perspective or anything like that.
31:38: That was just me reflecting while I'm eating, wait, did I pray? No, I didn't, you know?
31:44: And then, and so it's so important to have that self -check continuously, not just, you know, here at New Year's, what are my
31:57: New Year's goals going to be or, you know, whatever. Whenever the calendar changes, then we start evaluating.
32:03: It's not then, it's all the time. We should be doing this constantly. Examine yourselves. Yes. James 4 .10,
32:09: humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. So Romans 1 even talks about how those who have fallen into these grave sins that we know
32:18: Romans 1 for describing, that happened because they were ungrateful to God.
32:25: Yes, yeah. So because they did not acknowledge God or give thanks to them, their foolish hearts were darkened.
32:33: And with Josh, not saying that he's now in Romans 1 sin, but he's taking his eyes off Christ, like you said.
32:41: How can you say in the midst of any of that that he was doing, that he's actually looking at Christ and going, how can
32:47: I honor you with anonymously trying to slander or go after, you know, gatekeep or whatever you might call what it was he thought that he was doing, trying to protect his brand, not having the courage as a man to confront somebody face -to -face, even a person who was 20 feet down the hall from him, you know, he's going after elders in his own office and doing this through these anonymous means, instead of going and talking with him face -to -face and expressing, here's why
33:15: I disagree with you, or I don't think that this is the right decision, or here's the suspicion that I'm having.
33:20: Can you help me with this? Something like that. Yeah. Instead of doing that, he's going about it in all of these weaselly ways.
33:27: That is descriptive of the way the fool shuffles his feet and shifts his eyes, as talked about in the book of Proverbs.
33:36: Instead of being an honest, humble man and coming to brothers in the Lord and treating them with respect, there's no respect for other human beings when he was acting in these kinds of ways, certainly not characteristic of the kind of godly leader that he needed to be in the position of an elder or in the position of the president of G3.
33:59: Yeah. So I got a comment from one friend who had reached out to me, this was a DM that I got on social media, and had said to me, why is it that this is even a big public thing?
34:09: This sounds like something that could have been taken care of behind closed doors, maybe
34:16: Josh resigned or whatever, but why does it have to be the big public spectacle that he is?
34:22: Or maybe he's unqualified as an elder or a pastor, but why does that mean that the
34:29: G3 conference has to be canceled? Sure. And that's something that we talked about too. Right, we talked about that.
34:35: So I said to this person, do you agree that what he was doing, the lying and the manipulating, creating these fake email accounts, pretending to be somebody he was not in order to get whatever desired outcome he wanted to have happen, even if it was just tearing another person down, making them feel bad and he felt like there was some sort of victory in that.
34:58: Right. Would you agree that that's slanderous behavior, it's lying behavior, and it's uncharacteristic of a pastor?
35:07: This is not a godly man who should be qualified for the position of pastor based on the qualifications we see in 1
35:14: Timothy 3, Titus 1, and places like that. So you would agree that his behavior was at least worthy of being removed as a pastor?
35:23: And they said, yes. And I said, okay, well, if he's not qualified to be a pastor, which is really the higher position, because the local church, that's what matters.
35:38: That's important here. That's more important than G3. Right, exactly. So if you agree that he's not qualified to be a pastor at his own church on that level, then why should he still remain president of G3 and that conference still happen?
35:53: It's a ministry, not just an organization. Right. Especially when all of these things were like falling apart from the inside.
36:04: This was him sabotaging the very thing that he built. And so it wasn't just one man who did something, he's going after everybody even within the organization.
36:14: So the whole foundation is crumbling. It's not built upon Christ, it's built upon the will of Josh Bice.
36:22: And so when he gets removed as pastor and that casts the shadow on G3 that it's now become, we should see how the two things correlate.
36:35: If he's not qualified to be a pastor, he can't be the president of G3. If he's removed as elder, then what sort of questions are people going to be asking about G3?
36:44: Okay, well, Josh, who was the president of G3 can't be a pastor. So what's happening? What's going on?
36:50: Yeah. Like they were going to have to make public everything that was going on. That's why this became the public news that it was.
36:56: Did they make it public because what he did was public? Or like, say he was doing this same thing, but in private.
37:05: So like sending private emails or something like that, would that make a difference on how they handled it?
37:12: Would it be public or private? Nobody had a clue, so it wasn't public. It's true. No, no. What he did was on like X and things like that.
37:19: Well, okay. So there was public. There were suspicions that some of these anonymous accounts were
37:24: Josh because they sounded like Josh. Okay. And I can say, because I witnessed this happen, or at least
37:31: I saw the screenshots of it. I saw the aftermath of it. Okay. Where there was an occasion where one of these anonymous accounts of Josh's was saying something and a person commented something to the effect of calm down,
37:42: Josh. And when he said that, the account like shut up and sort of went away for a while.
37:49: Okay. And when that person was asked about it later, how did you know? He said it was just a suspicion.
37:57: And yet I put that out there as a response, and it looked like it was true that that was actually
38:03: Josh Bias. So there were people that were suspecting some of those accounts were his because they sounded like him.
38:10: And eventually, when they came up with the evidence to be able to present to him and say, we know it's you, it was irrefutable.
38:16: He couldn't deny it, although it sounds like from that first statement, he was denying it initially. Yeah. They had a long meeting with him in which they were trying to convince him.
38:24: We know it's you before he finally admitted that it was him. And so anyway,
38:31: I can't remember where I was going with that. But yeah, it wasn't public.
38:36: So it wasn't like everybody had knowledge of this or there was suspicion of these things happening.
38:42: Okay. Like, we did not know this was coming until the news broke Monday. Right. That was the perception of the public.
38:50: We had no idea any of this was going on. Right. So it definitely was a behind closed door sort of thing.
38:55: But G3 has taken the principled position of. Letting the church know.
39:00: Of letting everybody know about this. Yeah. Here's what you're investing your money in when you come and be part of the
39:05: G3 conference. You need to know that this is going on. So it was good of them to do that. But yeah, like I said in the previous segment, this was not an easy decision to make.
39:15: I mean, it's huge for them. Oh, yeah. I can't even imagine. To cancel the conference. Not just financially, but just emotionally.
39:24: You know, that would be so devastating. On a personal level. Yeah. But like I had said also in that first segment about, you know,
39:34: I know the foolishness that I'm capable of. Yeah, me too.
39:40: Not of you, but of me. Right. I'm giggling about myself. I mean, I've never been in a position where I've had the kind of authority that Josh had.
39:48: Right. With the G3 conference and everything like that. Sure. I would like to say that I wouldn't be so insecure in that position and be.
39:55: But we also say that we would support Jesus with him going to the cross and everything too. So we wouldn't be the ones sending him.
40:01: Yeah, we would have been right there going, he's going and dying for me. Yeah. You know. Yeah. We think we know better than everybody else there.
40:08: Yeah. I don't know if it's like we just assume we're righteous because I know that there are times that I'm swayed very easily and stupidly, stupid easily even.
40:24: And it's just that it's astonishing whenever I get out of that. I'm like, wait a second.
40:30: Why did I even choose that to begin with? You know, like that was so dumb. I don't know. Six or seven years ago, we were disciplining an elder who had been caught in adultery.
40:41: And the elders and the deacons were all sitting around a table talking about how this was exposed, the next steps we needed to take and things like this.
40:50: And one of the deacons at that table was just blown away by the whole thing. Because this elder had been a mentor to him.
40:57: And he said, if it could happen to him, it could happen to any of us. Exactly. That very deacon who said that has since fallen from faith, has even pretty much come to the position of renouncing his faith, not believing that God is really there.
41:14: That's true. And so I had to witness that. Where over a period of time, he fell away from the faith as well.
41:24: And it can happen to any one of us if we're not careful. I mean, I'm definitely, you know that I'm reformed.
41:30: I believe in the perseverance of the saints. I believe that once saved, God will hold you in his hand.
41:37: No one can snatch them out of my hand, John 10. Right. But that is a big perspective that God has that we don't.
41:45: It's the same argument as saying that God knows who the elect are and we don't.
41:51: Right. So he knows who's going to come to salvation. He knows who's going to stay in salvation. And those who come to salvation will stay in salvation.
41:59: Right. I mean, if that's not the case, then it's not salvation. You're not actually saved if you're going to fall away from the salvation that God has given.
42:07: The two things that come to my mind whenever you say that is like the sower and the seeds, you know, that land on the different paths and stuff like that.
42:14: Yeah, the parable of the sower. And then also, wasn't it Paul who was preaching with someone, but then he was really sad to announce that he had gone the way of the world or something?
42:27: Oh, you're talking about Demas. Demas. Yes. So Demas deserted me and went back to Thessalonica because he was in love with the world.
42:34: Yes. Yeah, that's in 2 Timothy chapter four. Yes. And I mean, it happens. It's just,
42:39: I don't know. It's just sad. The whole book of Hebrews is a warning.
42:46: Yes. To not fall away. Right. From the faith. Yes. So we... To stay fast to the
42:51: Lord. Exactly. To hold fast to Christ. He is everything. Yes. He is the greater Moses, the greater
42:57: David, the greater word, our great salvation, the great high priest. It's Christ.
43:02: It's all of Christ. Don't think there's another way. Right. You start thinking there's another way or you start getting enticed by the ways of the world.
43:11: You're going to take your eyes off of salvation and you're going to go another way. Right. The apostle
43:16: Paul also, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, these things, talking about what happened with the Israelites falling in the desert in the
43:24: Old Testament, these things happen to serve as a warning to us. Right. So, yes, it's true.
43:29: Once saved, always saved. But we should not think so highly of ourselves to think, well, I'm always saved. Right.
43:34: And I'm not going to fall into sin. It's not going to happen to me. Right. Otherwise, there wouldn't be that whole thing that's blowing up right now on T -shirts and stuff that, you know, he left the 99 to come for me.
43:49: The 99 sheep, you know. Yeah. To go for the one sheep that ran away. So, I mean, there is still that.
43:56: You know, we're not saying that Josh isn't saved. We're just. Oh, yeah. Not at all. To come back full circle.
44:03: We're not saying that. It's just a matter of, you know, like, we don't know. I was saying it more in the context of that deacon that has fallen away.
44:10: And that's why I wanted to clarify. Right. Yes. And likewise there, you know, it doesn't mean that he can't still be saved.
44:17: Right. But he's just he's certainly not showing any sort of evidence of ever having been saved.
44:23: Yes. So, First Corinthians 10 .6, these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did.
44:31: Do not be idolaters as some of them were, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
44:37: We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did. And 23 ,000 fell in a single day.
44:43: We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer.
44:54: Yes. Now these things happen to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come.
45:04: Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
45:10: No temptation is overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.
45:19: But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.
45:27: And that's even in light of this, something that we have to think about. It's easy for us to sit here and point the finger at the other guy.
45:34: Right. Oh, so, so true. So true. And to some degree, we do need to make light of those things.
45:40: We do need to acknowledge this was evil. It was wicked. And -
45:45: Oh, you mean like show light on it. Right, right. You said make light. Make light of it. Yes. So Ephesians chapter five.
45:52: Oh, okay. So have nothing to do with the fruitless works of darkness, but rather expose them.
45:57: Yes. Okay. I thought you meant like make light, like find it funny. No, no, no, no.
46:03: Yeah, yeah. Sorry. Wrong phrase. It's not a lighthearted thing. Yeah. It's serious. It's a very serious thing.
46:09: So we do shine a light on it in that way. Yes. That we recognize this is wicked.
46:14: We condemn it. This is not how a Christian should act. So that we understand the conduct, the character that is becoming of a
46:23: Christian in the way that we should go pursuing Christ, being aware of our own weaknesses and shortcomings that could put us in that same kind of position to fall into temptation and otherwise.
46:35: So that now we, now our spiritual caution flags have been raised.
46:41: Right. Yes. And we know to watch out for this in our own lives and keep those kinds of things in check.
46:46: And again, keep our eyes on Jesus, who is the author and the perfecter of our faith. Yes. Now the remaining
46:53: G3 staff are doing the best that they can with what they have left all while grieving over this painful chapter.
47:01: Oh, yeah. I mean, they've lost a friend and Josh still is their friend, which is why they're still alongside him trying to direct him in the way of repentance.
47:13: Yes. Some of the people who work for G3 uprooted their lives to move there and become part of this ministry.
47:20: So however much you might've thought you've lost in them having to cancel the national conference,
47:26: I can tell you these guys are, they're not making these decisions lightly. Right.
47:32: Will they even still have a job after all of this? I mean, that's something that we need to be praying about. I've reached out to a couple of them.
47:39: I've heard back from a couple of them, but I know they're very busy. Oh, yeah. And I just continue to pray for them.
47:46: So what else can we do here? What can we do with regards to money that has been spent?
47:53: And I can't refund it. Yeah. I can't give you your money back. I wish that I could do something like that.
47:59: I really do. But let me tell you about another conference that's going on. I know now we've just been talking about one conference.
48:05: Now I'm going to throw at you another conference. Sure. It's like, okay, well, the first conference didn't go so well. So now what's going to happen with this one?
48:11: Like everything is still in place that you can travel. Right. And you will be in the
48:16: Atlanta area. If this is not going to cost you anything extra. Right. Then let me tell you about the
48:22: White Harvest Conference. It's going to be in Marble Hill, Georgia. So that's just a little bit north of Atlanta. Now they intentionally put this conference next to G3.
48:31: Right. So that there was a smaller thing that people could come to if they wanted to do that. They might even be able to get some of the same speakers from G3.
48:40: Right. To come to their smaller conference. Kind of piggyback it. Yeah. Piggyback off of it a little bit. Yeah. I'm one of the speakers.
48:46: And all of us who have been committed to that conference are still in the conference.
48:52: Yes. So even though what has happened with G3, that's not changed the White Harvest Conference. So again, this is happening in Marble Hill, Georgia.
49:00: It is on September 6th and 7th, which is a Saturday and Sunday.
49:06: And then what would have been the G3 conference would have been just like days after that. Yeah. So it was set up that you would go to the
49:13: Harvest, the White Harvest Conference, and then go to the G3 conference. But we're still on for the
49:19: White Harvest Conference. Yes. And it's Justin Peters, Jim Osman, myself,
49:25: Jimmy Hicks, who you might know from Wretched. Oh, yeah. And I think, I hope
49:30: I'm not like letting a cat out of the bag, but I think Todd Friel is going to be there. Oh, fun.
49:36: That'll be a nice speaker again. He's not on the speakers list, but I think he is going to be there. And then
49:41: Scott Klusendorf was just added. Oh, nice. So he's the bioethicist that came up with all these great arguments that you can use to convince a person of life in the womb beginning at conception.
49:54: Oh, wow. And why we as Christians take that position, but not just from a Christian perspective, even from just a natural general revelation sort of perspective, understanding that life begins in the womb at conception.
50:05: So the focus of this conference is going to be evangelism. The name of the conference is commissioned.
50:11: So that's the theme of what we're going to be talking about this year. So how do we share the gospel with others?
50:17: And we're not approaching this from a big, okay, now you're ready to go out in the street, stand on a soapbox and preach the gospel to everybody.
50:25: But we're approaching this from how do you just share the gospel with a friend? How do you share it with a coworker, with a family member or something like that?
50:33: Giving real practical ways that a person can more deeply understand what it means to share the gospel and then how to do that with somebody else.
50:43: Yeah. Are you guys gonna mention anything about how to jump on the opportunity, like make the opportunity to do it?
50:50: How to even break the ice. Like, I mean, sometimes I really wanna share the gospel, but I'm just awkward.
50:56: I don't know how to start. And I don't know how to get there. Other than, thank God and I'll pray for you and honest things of putting those in there.
51:07: But if the question's never asked, I'm always very awkward at continuing.
51:13: Or starting rather. I need to mention Charlie Parish too. So he's the pastor of the church that's hosting
51:19: Foothills Community Church. Yeah. There in Marble Hill. And I loved getting to know
51:25: Charlie and his family last year. He was incredibly gracious. And I really didn't know what
51:32: I was going into. Jimmy Hicks, I knew just casually through Wretched. And he was the guy that initially called me and said, hey, can you come speak at our conference?
51:40: And so I came, but I ended up loving it. Really, really enjoyed myself.
51:46: It was a lot of fun. So Charlie does great. The people of the church are just wonderful. And so I hope if it's something that you wanna do, if you still have these tickets to things and you don't know what to do with them, if it works out for you to do it, the
52:00: White Harvest Conference, September 6th and 7th. Yeah. This is gonna be a much smaller sort of thing. I think the church is only three or 400 seats or something like that.
52:08: And I did look at the registration recently and there's 170 tickets remaining. Oh, that's not too bad.
52:15: So there's still room. There's still room, yeah. For people to get in on this. I wanna say too, the attendance was a little bit low when
52:23: I did it in September last year. I think we were competing with a football game that weekend.
52:28: It was a major, like Georgia was playing so -and -so. I can't remember.
52:34: It seems like there was something like that. Now we're getting you booked. This far in advance, so no matter what game is coming up, you have to be there.
52:44: That's right. You gotta be at the White Harvest Conference. And I think, or am
52:49: I coming in the family maybe? I don't, we're still talking that out. We're still talking. Yeah, we were still talking that out.
52:54: I couldn't remember if we had decided that or not. It's been too long. So my parents live just south of Atlanta.
53:01: They're in Jonesboro. Yeah. And my dad was gonna come and he was gonna participate in the conference last year.
53:07: And had to bow out, even when I'm landing, like I'm coming into Atlanta and landing and he's going, man,
53:13: I was really trying to come, but I can't do it. He was having kidney stones. So not great to be in a car.
53:20: No, especially not that far. That's miserable. So even things like that can happen that will end up, you know, canceling your trip can cost you a lot of money.
53:31: I know it's hard and unforeseen circumstances can be an incredible burden, especially in the time that you have to handle them.
53:38: But if this is something that works out for you, again, the website for it, Forest, I was like combining
53:46: White Harvest. Anyway, it's whiteharvestmen .com.
53:53: Whiteharvestmen .com. Give you all the details, information. They've even got stuff on there about hotel.
53:59: Oh yeah, nice. Where you can reserve a hotel space. So yeah, there you go.
54:04: That's about the best I can do to offer you an alternative. But I can certainly understand a person's hesitation with that going,
54:14: I don't know, I just scheduled myself for one conference and it got canceled. Now you're telling me about another one.
54:20: Just make the most of what you can make the most of. That's right. I'm not put out by attending conferences.
54:27: I still want to attend the Ligonier conference, which by the way, we don't talk about this, and I'm not going to go into this subject much either because I don't have any details to give.
54:38: But I forgot his name all of a sudden, Burke Parsons. So the successor to R .C.
54:43: Sproul, the lead teaching pastor at St. Andrew's Chapel in Sanford, Florida.
54:50: Yes. So he's not in that position right now because he's under discipline. Oh, right.
54:56: That's public knowledge that's been out there. I forgot about that. But we don't talk about that one.
55:01: That one has not gotten as much attention, but also with whatever discipline he's under for whatever reason,
55:07: I really don't know the details of why he's under discipline. The Ligonier conference still happened.
55:13: Yep. And Burke Parsons withdrew his name. He was not one of the speakers.
55:19: But of course, that's a completely different scenario. This wasn't Burke Parsons attacking all of the speakers of Ligonier and then being disciplined for that because he was anonymously going after, even his fellow elders.
55:32: What we're assuming anyway. Yeah. Or the fellow fellows, as they're called, the Ligonier fellows.
55:38: He wasn't going after them anonymously or anything like this. And so it wasn't this self -destructing thing that was happening within Ligonier.
55:48: Whereas with this, it was like G3 was being sabotaged from the inside.
55:54: Yeah. And so that's why the whole conference ends up getting canceled, even though Josh was a one -man show.
56:00: In this regard. So yeah, anyway, we've probably talked about that as far as we can.
56:06: Yeah. For now anyway. I mean, maybe something else will come to light and it'll be praiseworthy.
56:13: We're just praying for that. Still praying for G3, the people at the ministry. And we'll do that here in a moment too.
56:18: We'll close with prayer for them. Yeah. But to get to another comment. Oh, I wanted to read this one from Chris Honeholz.
56:25: So Chris had made this comment. I'm just grabbing this off of social media. He said, I found this part of the
56:31: Mosaic Law interesting this morning from Leviticus 5 .1. If anyone sins in that he hears a public adjuration to testify, and though he is a witness, whether he has seen or come to know the matter, yet does not speak, he shall bear his iniquity.
56:51: And Chris goes on to say, God deemed one's unwillingness to testify to the truth of a matter that he had seen or had come to know as a sin.
57:01: Let me read that statement again. God deemed one's unwillingness to testify to the truth of a matter that he had seen or come to know as a sin.
57:10: In other words, if we know of another sins and evil actions, but purposely keep quiet so as not to cause a problem, we bear moral culpability.
57:20: That should be a stark reminder to all of us, especially in light of recent events. Yeah. Very wise,
57:26: Chris. So well said, Chris, appreciate that. So this is an email from Louie, and he says, Hey, Pastor Gabe and Becky, what would you recommend for good biblical evangelism training?
57:36: Our church is looking to offer some courses on how to effectively share the gospel.
57:41: What are your thoughts on the Way of the Master evangelism method from Ray Comfort? Thanks, and I love you guys.
57:48: Aw. So I think the Way of the Master is terrific. I use the way that Ray Comfort shares the gospel with others in many ways, many times.
57:59: Yeah. So that's a great book. His video courses on that are really good. Watching his videos and seeing how he does that, where he talks to a person and brings them to a knowledge of their sin by giving them the law.
58:11: Have you ever stolen? Have you ever lied? Have you ever lusted after somebody? Have you ever had hateful thoughts towards someone in your heart?
58:18: Have you ever used God's name as a swear word? We've just gone through five of the 10 commandments, and by your own admission, you are a lying, thieving, adulterous, murderous, blasphemer at heart.
58:32: So on the day of judgment, what do you think is going to happen to you? Is God going to let you into heaven or hell, or is he going to send you to hell based on that standard?
58:40: And so that's a great method, and it's called the Way of the Master because that was the way that Jesus had convicted the hearts of people that he also brought to a knowledge of their sin, like in the account of the rich young ruler, for example, going through all these things you've done.
58:57: Even the account of the Good Samaritan, the parable of the Good Samaritan, is in that way also a revealing to the
59:04: Pharisee or the lawyer that challenged him that he's not as good as he thinks he is, and revealing to him from the law as well that you're also guilty of the very sin that you want to exalt yourself in thinking that you've done righteously.
59:18: So the Way of the Master is a great evangelism method. Also listen to the way that Todd Friel kind of adds a spin on it.
59:26: If you listen to Wretched Radio on Wednesday, they do their Witness Wednesday. And so listen to the way that Todd will do that with the people that he talks to.
59:34: It's not strictly Ray Comfort's method, although he's largely inspired by that. It even mixes in a little bit of what's called the evangelism explosion.
59:44: And that was something that D. James Kennedy started back in the 70s. And you can still find books on that.
59:50: The Evangelism Explosion by D. James Kennedy. I think there's even a workbook that goes along with it. So that's another course that you could do.
59:57: I'm a fan of the Romans Road. Yeah. In fact, when I speak at the White Harvest Conference, that's going to be the method of evangelism that I talk about.
01:00:07: Whenever I write my tracks and hand out a presentation of the gospel in some sort of written form or flyer or otherwise, it's almost always a
01:00:16: Romans Road presentation. So going through Romans and showing a knowledge of sin and then an understanding of our need for a
01:00:24: Savior and that Savior being Christ. That's another method. One thing that I also like to do and I've taught my students in is there are three respective pieces of Scripture, passages of Scripture that when you understand them and memorize them, you can use them as kind of like a mental tract of how to share the gospel with somebody else.
01:00:49: And it's John 3, verses 16 to 21, Ephesians 2, 1 through 10, and Titus 3, 3 through 7,
01:00:59: I believe. So memorize those sections of Scripture. And if you have that memorized, then you have kind of in your mind a tract method of how you will share with a person, you're a sinner in need of a
01:01:12: Savior, and Christ is that Savior. I did martial arts when
01:01:18: I was in college, and we would learn these katas. If you've ever done martial arts and you know what a kata is, it kind of looks like a dance.
01:01:26: But each move in the kata is some sort of move that you would do in sparring or in combat.
01:01:33: Right, like the old movie Wax On, Wax Off. Yeah, right, exactly. Karate Kid. Karate Kid when
01:01:39: Daniel is - The first one. Daniel's son is learning to paint the fence and paint the garage and wax the car and all that.
01:01:45: Yeah, all those are different kata moves. Right. So he learns this process of how to block a punch or a kick or something to that effect.
01:01:54: So when you memorize those sections of Scripture, they work as being like katas.
01:01:59: So now you have this motion in your mind of, we are sinners and we need a
01:02:06: Savior, and Christ is that Savior. And so now through those passages of Scripture, you've now equipped yourself and your mind on how you respond to each person.
01:02:14: And using all three of them, memorizing all three of those sections of Scripture, so that when a person will raise an argument or will ask a question, you're ready.
01:02:26: You've got a response to that. And maybe you're not quoting a Scripture exactly. I have a verse exactly that I can quote you, chapter and verse reference to respond to that.
01:02:36: But you at least know how to respond to that because of what the Word has said. Right.
01:02:41: Even if you're not necessarily - So sort of paraphrasing. Yeah, even though you're not necessarily quoting a memory verse.
01:02:48: Right. You're still giving that person a biblical and scriptural answer. Right. Through the memorization of those passages.
01:02:54: So those are some other methods that I can recommend to you. Like I said, this is going to be the subject matter of the
01:02:59: Harvest Conference as well. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. We won't have Ray Comfort there.
01:03:06: But if we do get Todd Friel there. Yeah. Then you'll get probably some real life examples of him doing this in public.
01:03:16: True. So appreciate your question, Louie. And if anybody else has any questions, you can send them to us when we understand the text at gmail .com.
01:03:22: Or once again, a voicemail. Go to www .utt .com and click on that voicemail tab up there at the top of the page.
01:03:32: We'd love to hear from you. Yes. Anything else, babe? Anything else you think we need to mention or cover?
01:03:38: I was just wondering, isn't there an R .C. Sproul book that talked about evangelism? I'm sure there is.
01:03:44: I don't remember which one though. And I was trying to look around the room for it. See if you can spot the spine of it here.
01:03:50: Yeah. Let me type this in here. R .C. Sproul evangelism. And it says...
01:03:58: R .C. Sproul, the methods versus the message. That's... Nope. That's an article. It's through the church leader's site.
01:04:08: So ultimately evangelism is less about the method one uses and more about the message one proclaims. Very good.
01:04:13: Yeah. Okay. Let me see if there's a book there on that. I know that if Sproul does have one,
01:04:19: I've not read it. That's one Sproul book I haven't read. Oh, then we don't own it. Yeah, then we don't own it.
01:04:26: That's true. Getting the gospel right. So maybe that...
01:04:32: Oh, here we go. No, that's not a Sproul book. So I guess getting the gospel right. Maybe that's the one.
01:04:37: Yeah. If you're looking for an R .C. Sproul book, that would be one to check out. Another approach.
01:04:43: He's got the small books too that are like 60 pages or something.
01:04:48: And it's always answering a question. What is the gospel? What is evangelism? That's what I'm thinking of. Okay. That's what you're thinking of.
01:04:54: So surely there might be something like that. You can find one of those little Sproul books. Yeah. As well.
01:05:00: All right. That was it. Okay. Let's close with prayer. We'll pray for G3 and kind of end everything out here.
01:05:06: Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the goodness that you show to us every day.
01:05:12: And I pray that we would be continually grateful, that our hearts would be overwhelmed with gratitude for how good you've been to us in Christ our
01:05:21: Savior. And we understand our own weaknesses and shortcomings, that we would keep our eyes on Jesus every day.
01:05:28: We know that you will uphold us with your mighty hand, as said in the book of Jude, that you are the one who is able to keep us from stumbling and present us blameless before the presence of your glory with great joy.
01:05:42: And so, Lord, we humble ourselves and ask that you would continue to sustain us with your mighty right hand.
01:05:51: And Lord, we ask for Josh Bice, that he would be repentant, that he would bear fruit in keeping with repentance, and that you would likewise uphold him with your mighty hand.
01:06:02: If he still needs to be convicted over this sin, that your hand would even be heavy upon him, as said in the
01:06:08: Psalms, that he may recognize that he is guilty before God and confess these things to you, as he also has expressed a desire to want to apologize to those persons that he's hurt and offended and seek forgiveness from them as well.
01:06:24: And I pray that he will do so, following along with that, kept in the watchful eye of his elders and the people in his church to guide him back to the path of righteousness.
01:06:35: Those things that he in the past had been so committed to uphold and teach and walk in, and Lord, I pray that they would be the desire of his heart once again.
01:06:48: Lord, I ask for the people that work at G3 and these difficult decisions that they've had to make, the grief that they're no doubt feeling.
01:06:55: I read an article from Virgil Walker just last night where he was expressing his thoughts, his feelings of grief and all of this, but also recognizing
01:07:03: Christ is bigger than all of this. But I pray for their hearts, that though they are no doubt hurting, that they continue to seek
01:07:09: Christ as Virgil is doing, even in the midst of all of this, and continuing to serve and labor in whatever ministry that you have called them to, and would do so to the glory of your name, that Christ would still be glorified even in the midst of this, as you are pruning your church and purifying it and making it holy.
01:07:28: And last of all, Lord, I pray for those people who have been affected by the cancelization of the national conference.
01:07:36: I pray that they won't be so terribly discouraged that they're unwilling to ever participate in anything like this ever again, but would still have a love and affection for their own local body, their own local church, that they would desire to see
01:07:50: Christ proclaimed and the ministry of the church expand out in whatever ways that you would desire for it to go out, preaching the gospel of Christ.
01:07:59: And Lord, if there is any unpaid bills and things like that that may have ended up as a result of the national conference being canceled, that there would be a way that those families could be blessed and even be able to pay it forward to somebody else who might be in need.
01:08:15: Lord, I ask once again for our hearts to be humbled and your name to be glorified.
01:08:21: And as said in Psalm 23, lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake. It's in Jesus' name we pray.