WWUTT 1575 Q&A Christian Liberty, Jesus on Social Media, Questions for Beki

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Can a Christian become an entertainment critic, like of music, movies, and television?

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Would Jesus have a social media account? And I've got a few questions to ask Becky, but don't tell her, on today's edition of When We Understand the

00:15

Text. Merry Christmas from your friends at When We Understand the

00:28

Text, a daily Bible teaching commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .wtt

00:35

.com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Who's actually with me this time around.

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Woo -hoo! So people aren't tuning in and hearing me go, she's not in the studio with me this week, and they're going, ah.

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Click off. Turn it off. I'll wait till she's back on next week. I really like listening to you.

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I don't know why they think that it's, I don't know. Well, I still got good response from last week, so I know somebody was listening to me.

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And I probably wouldn't have a lot to say about Dungeons and Dragons and all that stuff. Like, I like board games, sure, but not ones that take forever.

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If somebody didn't listen to last week, they're going, what were you talking about? What in the world?

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You'll have to listen. What does Gabe do when Becky's not here? Talks about Dungeons and Dragons, apparently.

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Guy stuff, I guess. I'm just kidding. Girls play it, too. You have to go back and listen if you wanna know the context of whatever it is we're talking about.

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So Friday is when we answer questions from the listeners and you can send those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

01:42

And we appreciate you sending in your questions because we can't even do the Friday broadcast. Definitely, yeah. Without your questions.

01:48

Yep, I like questions. I like easy ones, but I mean, they're all good. And this time around,

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I have some questions for you. For me? Yes. Oh dear. There was one email.

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You guys not prepped me for this. I haven't. I haven't told her what I'm asking. Because when I was asked these questions,

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I was not told what they were. So you don't get to know either. Uh -huh, thanks.

02:12

I mentioned last week, there were a couple emails I had. I was like, you know, I'm gonna wait on those. I'll do it when

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Becky's back on the program with me again. This is that week, so you get these questions.

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First one, though, comes from Andrew. And he says, dear Pastor Gabe, I've been enjoying the discussion on Christian liberty subjects.

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And I wanted to throw in another one. And then I had another question that's probably not a matter of Christian liberty.

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It's just something I was thinking about. All right. First, you said that you don't get specific about what kinds of entertainment you enjoy, music, movies, video games, because you don't want to cause anyone to stumble.

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But what if a Christian wants to be an entertainment critic or a video game programmer or work in a music studio, which might mean that they'll be producing music that is secular or unchristian?

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Is there room for Christians to enter into these realms? Second, I had a question about social media.

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I know we both agree there's nothing wrong with Christians being on social media, but sometimes I hear this question asked, would

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Jesus be on Facebook or Twitter? And I think the answer is no. And if that's the answer, is it okay for us to be on Facebook and Twitter?

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If you only have time to answer one of these questions, I appreciate it. Thank you for your videos and for your podcast.

03:33

Good questions. Good couple of questions here. Okay, so first, what about if a Christian wants to enter, wants to be a critic of music and movies and television, which means they're going to be watching these shows, they're going to be watching those movies, or if they want to be a video game programmer, then they're making some of these games and probably have control over what you're involved in making and what you're not.

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First of all, you have to assess your own weaknesses and decide,

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I mean, through prayer, but decide if you're able to handle being exposed to that kind of stuff and not sin.

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Right, you have to strengthen your conscience for, I mean, any job that you have, whatever sphere you would be working in.

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Right, make sure it doesn't hit a weak point. Like some people struggle a lot with being exposed to that sort.

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Certain things that other people, yeah, don't struggle as much with, correct, yeah. So I think that in itself would be the first step as to whether or not.

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Yeah, having good accountability, I mean, no matter what job you have. That's the next one, definitely. You need to have some good accountability.

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Friends that you would have at church that would be accountability for you, people you study the

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Bible with, you pray with, you encourage one another, texting each other, throwing out verses to one another in the

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Lord or something like that. These people would know what your job is and what it entails, so they know exactly how to encourage you or how to check on where your mind is at, what you're thinking about.

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Right, if you need to step back, step out. Knowing how to unplug from your job and then just go home and be with the family instead of constantly meditating on those kinds of things.

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I mean, if you're gonna be a television and movie critic, there's some things that,

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I mean, you're gonna know your limits or you're gonna know what you don't want to put before your eyes, and then that's just not part of your department, right?

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Right. I don't review that kind of TV show, I don't review those kinds of movies. Right. You already know right away, as a

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Christian, this would not be good. Yeah, you would not be telling a Christian to watch or view those kinds of things anyway.

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Now, I have some friends that are in this realm of journalism, so they watch shows, movies, and they will give updates or reports on those kinds of things, and there are some things they've had to watch that I'm going, yeah,

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I don't know. If I was your pastor, I'd probably telling you, yeah, I don't even, even for purposes of review,

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I don't think you should be watching that, unless you can watch it through VidAngel or some kind of thing, actually censors out the bad parts and then you can't watch it.

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Right. And then you're reviewing the substance of the show, but even still adding in, still, you have to understand, these elements are in the show, and it's not a good idea for you to watch for this reason or whatever, yeah.

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And again, this is a conscience issue. It definitely is. Just like with anything else, so there's a case -by -case basis thing that's going on with this as well.

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True. In and of itself, it's not bad to be a music, TV, or movie critic, but you still -

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There's a lot of bad out there. Yeah, right. And probably gonna be subject to more of it than anybody else who's just watching based on their tastes.

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Right. Rather than having to review everything. Everybody's weakness is different. So I have a friend that said that she can't watch the romantic movies just because she held a higher expectation of her husband.

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Oh, that's interesting. And it caused conflicts. Yeah. So you have to be self -aware and have a lot of self -control.

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Yeah, that's an element of like rom -coms I hadn't thought of. Usually we're just thinking of, hey, if it has like sex or nudity in it, don't put that before your eyes.

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Right. But there may be elements of the story that could lead your mind to go places that you're just not very good at keeping it from going there.

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Yeah. So why put that - Why expose yourself to that? Don't put that kind of stress on your marriage or your life or your family.

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Yeah. Don't do that. Yeah, the same thing goes for being a video game programmer or working in a music studio.

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Now, when I was in radio, I had lots of friends that worked in various aspects of music production.

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And even those producers who were producing Christian music, they're still probably also recording songs from artists who aren't

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Christian. You just might know them as, you know, being this artist producer. Right.

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Because it's your favorite Christian artist that you like to listen to, but you don't realize that they're doing some of the technical side of things for artists that aren't

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Christians. Yeah. And so, yeah, I mean, I had friends that worked in those fields and they were able to decide what jobs they wanted to take and whatnot.

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You know, I am gonna produce your stuff, not gonna work with you. Or if they were working in a studio, if they were like lower down the totem pole.

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Yeah. They just had to do what they were told. And again, it's whatever you know that in your conscience you can do and be able to do this to the glory of God.

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Yeah, I don't think I would be able to critique the Christian realm of things very well, because a lot of those movies and music, it just gets my nerves.

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It's cringe. It's cringey. Yeah, I can't even listen to some of the people you listen to.

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I'm like, nope, turn it off. Or put your earphones on. I can't,

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I can't do it. But I'm listening to this because we're gonna respond to it on the Friday broadcast, babe.

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No, no, I only have to listen to it once and that's too much. Yeah, so it's okay for me to not hear that often.

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I just, I think that I would be, I think I would be more angry if I were that type of, like exposing myself to that.

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Yeah, right, you'd be grumpier about it. Oh man, I'd be so. So angry. The false teaching that's out there, yeah. Well, like anytime something goes viral, like, you know,

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Stephen Furtick said something this past week and it's the clip that everybody's watching or whatever. I don't watch those.

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I'll send them to you so you can see them, but I don't listen to them. Well, some of the things, so I'll listen to stuff like that and the kids will go, hey, is this a good guy or a bad guy?

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Oh yeah, they do. And they've picked up pretty well and it doesn't take them long.

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No, it doesn't, it's very surprising. They can hear tone and cue words and things like that, like within 30 to 60 seconds, they're going, oh, why are you listening to that?

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They have my response. That's right. They're pretty sharp. They pick up on those things pretty well.

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So the next part of Andrew's question here, he said, second, I had a question about social media. I know we both agree that there's nothing wrong with a

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Christian, with Christians being on social media, but sometimes I hear this question asked, would

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Jesus be on Facebook or Twitter? And I think the answer is no. I would agree with you,

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Andrew. I would agree too. I don't think Jesus would be on Facebook or Twitter, but Paul would be.

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Oh, yeah. True. See, there is a difference between what

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Jesus would do and what the apostles did. Yeah, that's true. Because he never wrote anything in the

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Bible. Right, none of what we read in the New Testament was Jesus in his incarnation, taking a pen in his hand and writing it down on paper.

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All of that was written down by the apostles. But I mean, there were other things too, like baptism, for example.

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Jesus did not baptize. According to John 4, it was the apostles who baptized, but Jesus didn't.

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Because the baptism that Jesus gives is not in water, he baptizes with the

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Holy Spirit and with fire. So, and seeing some of those kinds of things between what

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Jesus did and what the apostles did, I don't believe Jesus would have had a social media account.

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Definitely not, I don't think so, yeah. But the apostles, who were the ones that wrote the things that the

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Holy Spirit guided them to write, maybe they would have a social media account. Maybe. I mean, all that's real speculative anyway.

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Yeah, I mean, it kind of makes it easier to talk to people on the other side of the world though. Yeah, that's right.

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So, as long as you do it for the glory of God, or to the glory of God. And we have pastors here who have done devotions with pastors in other parts of the world.

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And I just recently did a sermon with a church in the Philippines. Right. And we were able to do that online.

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Yes. So see, there's benefits to social media, but like with anything else, we need to be careful by what we say.

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The things you say on social media, or rather, you can put it this way, the words that you say on social media need to be just as governed as any word that you have come out of your mouth.

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As David prayed in the Psalms, set a guard over the door of my mouth.

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And what I would say would be pleasing unto you. We also have in James chapter one, verse 26.

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If anyone thinks himself to be religious while not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart, this man's religion is worthless.

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If we don't guard our words, then are we demonstrating that we really have a heart that is for Christ?

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For, as Jesus said in Matthew two, out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.

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That's what I was gonna say. Yeah, Matthew two, Matthew 12. Yes. Yeah, different chapter of Matthew, anyway. But yeah, so what we say, even what we type online, it comes from the heart.

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Right. So may we have hearts. And it's what you've been dwelling on. Yeah. Because by the time it comes out of your mouth, or typed out.

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Onto the keyboard. Yeah, you've been thinking about it. Yeah, what we text, what we type, what we say, all of these things,

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God knows all of our thoughts, even before we put them into words. And so let us have minds and hearts that are governed by Christ.

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We don't sound like the world when we talk. Right. We are someone who is a citizen, a member of the kingdom of God.

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Amen. Next question, this comes from Justine. She says, dear

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Pastor Gabe, greetings and salutations from the frigid North. And by North, I mean,

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Nebraska. Yep, that is frigid. I just became a subscriber of the

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Babylon Bee. Awesome. And as a new subscriber, I'm able to listen to the subscriber only portions of interviews and I listened to yours.

14:18

I was wondering if you could feature on a Friday Q &A, the questions that the

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Babylon Bee guys asked you, or is that against the rules and it's only for Bee subscribers?

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I enjoyed your answers and I thought the non -subscriber portion was more goofy and the subscriber portion was more biblical and gospel focused.

14:41

I think I remember you saying that too. I can't remember. Is you said that you did a more, it was,

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I don't think you said serious, but it was something of more focused,

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I think. Yeah, the first questions that they asked me, so in the non -subscriber portion, the portion that most everybody heard, was they did like a pastor segment where they were asking me, is this sin or not?

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And actually went right along with the Christian liberty issues that we're talking about here, the liberty of conscience matters.

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Most of the answers were that way. But then when we got to the portion, the second half of the interview that was more, like only if you were a subscriber to the

15:26

Babylon Bee would you have heard that portion of the interview. They asked me about tweets, things that I've said on Twitter, stuff that was controversial that got me banned.

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Oh yeah. And the tweets that I get banned for usually have the gospel in them. So there was more gospel conversation in the second half of that interview than in the first.

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Yeah. I have not gone back to that interview to know exactly what questions there were that they asked of me.

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However, at the very end, I think it was like the closing 10 minutes or something like that, they had these questions that they ask of every guest.

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Okay. And I don't know if I'm allowed to answer those questions outside of the subscriber portion, but Ethan and Kyle didn't say

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I couldn't ask you those questions. Oh, okay. So I'm not gonna ask every question that they asked of me, but here's a few of those questions.

16:20

Oh dear. From the Babylon Bee subscriber portion, I'm gonna ask them a Becky. You're putting me on the spot. Yep, now they said of me, have you ever heard us ask these questions before?

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And I said, no, I've never heard this portion of the program before. I didn't know the questions, so you don't get to know them either.

16:35

Thanks. Here we go. Becky's getting her own interview right here on when we understand the text.

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Number one, have you ever met Carmen? Carmen Sandiego?

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I knew when I asked this question, it was like this wasn't even Becky's era of Christian music.

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Oh, no. The artist Carmen, just Carmen. Okay, no. No, you don't even know who

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Carmen is. I don't know names. Now we talked about him when he passed away because he died earlier this year.

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Okay. And so when he passed, I talked to you about him and was like, hey, these were songs that I used to listen to when I was a kid.

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I met him when I was really young. Okay. I barely remember it, but I know that I met Carmen. It was another one of those backstage experiences.

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Yeah. My dad used to promote a lot of concerts and so I met a lot of those artists and Carmen was one of those artists.

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Neat. But yeah, no, Becky hasn't met Carmen. No. She doesn't even know a single song from Carmen. No, probably not.

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Although I could play a few of them for you here and you'd be like, you would be rolling. It would.

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Okay. It is so epitome of 90s Christian music. Oh, okay. I mean, Carmen really encapsulated that 80s and 90s genre of contemporary

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Christian music. Awesome. Who's in the house, JC. You've probably even heard that done just for fun.

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Yeah, I think so. Who's in the house, JC. That's a Carmen song. Oh, okay.

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Yeah. Satan bites the dust. I'm not kidding.

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All right. We need God in America again. That really was a great song. Okay. That was a great song from Carmen. And then there were other ones that I like to listen to that weren't his more well -known songs, like, oh, try to pull them off the top of my head.

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Lord, I love you with every passing day I know. Lord, I love you completely and forevermore.

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I don't know what the title of the song is, but that's the chorus. Jesus is the way.

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That was another song. Enjoyed that one too. Anyway, but yeah, not your genre. Nope, sorry. Or not your era, rather.

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Not my era. She knows some of the later stuff in contemporary Christian music because you didn't become a Christian until you were mid -twenties?

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Yeah. How old were you? I was about 25, 26. Yeah, 25, 26. It was right after you got baptized was when we met.

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Or did you meet me before that? I have no idea when I met you. I just know where I met you.

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Okay, that's what it was. Timing, she doesn't remember. So timing was somewhere in that realm.

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Dates and order of events, that's my area. I remember all of that. I think your memory is sharper on the details.

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Probably, yes. Of those circumstances, but I remember exactly when and where they happened. We make a good team.

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Yeah, that's right. Okay, next question. Yes. Calvinist or Arminian?

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Neither. Well, we lean more on the Calvinist side of things.

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Okay, I lean, but I don't. I'm not like hardcore either, so. No, you don't proclaim yourself to be a

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Calvinist. No. I mean, even when, so the Calvinist. The Babylon Bee guys asked me this question and I believe

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Kyle is Calvinist and Ethan is Arminian. Okay. So, and when they asked me, I said

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Calvinist because what I believe about scripture is in agreement with Calvinist doctrine or the other way around.

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Calvinist doctrine is in agreement with what it is. Like I came into these things like the doctrine of God's sovereign election.

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I believed that before I understood what Calvinism was. And then to have a

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Calvinist friend who explained it to me, it was like, well, yeah, I agree with all of that. And he goes, okay, well then you're a

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Calvinist. Yeah. It didn't have anything to do with studying Calvinism and I, okay, I'm gonna be a

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Calvinist because I believe that's what it, no. It's that everything that I understand scripture says is in agreement with the doctrines of grace.

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So I love the doctrines of grace. I believe that they're completely biblical. They summarize things that we find in the

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Bible. They're not an invented doctrine that came along later. It's a summary of biblical doctrine.

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Just like you would have a statement of faith or a catechism. This isn't adding to the Bible, shouldn't be taking away from the

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Bible. It's summarizing things that we read in the Bible. And that's exactly what Calvinist doctrine is for me as well.

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You've never found a place where I've proclaimed myself, I'm a Calvinist. Right. Unless I've said it like that.

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Just like that. Yeah. But I've never positioned myself as being a five point

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Calvinist or something. I don't disagree with it. And everybody else calls me a Calvinist. That's fine.

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I don't take offense by it. I would rather you call me a Christian, but I love the doctrines of grace. I teach them and I uphold them because I believe it's exactly what we find in scripture.

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Now I've got a debate coming up with Leighton Flowers. Some of you are aware of that. It's next month. We're gonna be debating

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John six. Now to have a debate, I have to have a position before we come into that debate.

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So I have said, I'll take a reformed Baptist position on a reading, on an interpretation of John six.

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He's of course going to take a provisionist perspective on John six because he claims to be a provisionist, which

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I believe is a term he made up, I think. So he calls himself a provisionist. Well, in order for us to have a debate, we have to have a difference of perspective on John six.

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So I'm going to see it according to a reformed Baptist soteriology. And he's gonna be reading it according to his provisionist soteriology or rather his anti -Calvinist soteriology because that's his entire approach to his ministry.

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So anyway, summary of where we are as far as like Calvinism versus Arminianism. Since it's been advertised that I'm doing this debate with Leighton Flowers, I've started getting hate mail.

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Oh, really? Like people are saying you Calvinists are so anti -biblical and anti -church.

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And I mean, I'm getting all kinds of stuff like, I have never, I wouldn't say never, but I hardly ever get emails like that until it was announced that I was gonna be part of this debate.

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And now I'm getting stuff. All right. It's like, well, yeah. And after the response

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I gave to something Leighton Flowers said, it was on this podcast a few weeks ago. I got some angry emails after that too.

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Anyway, I don't outright position myself as a Calvinist, but I am not in disagreement with Calvinist doctrine and all of the teachers that I follow.

23:14

Mm -hmm. My favorite teachers are Calvinist. Yep. Okay, these were questions for you, not for me.

23:20

All right, coming back. It's all right, I like listening to you. Next question. You get to add a book to the

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Bible. Oh. What would it be? If you could, now when they asked me this question,

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I said, hey, sorry, I hold the Bible in such high regard. I can't even make believe that I'm gonna add a book to the

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Bible. So they said, okay, well just your highest recommended book, what would it be? Outside of the

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Bible, what are you recommending somebody to read? I really don't know.

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Is there just a book that you just give to people? You just, you have to read this book. No. No?

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Okay, that's fine. Sorry. Becky reads plenty, but there's just not a book that you would just kind of, everybody has to read this book.

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She's looking at my shelf. I am looking at your shelf. She's turned her eyes over, what book can

24:17

I say? Pilgrim's Progress. Pilgrim's Progress. There you go, okay, great.

24:23

That's a good pick. That's a good one. Yeah, very good. That is a good one, yes. I bet you if I prepped you on this, you'd come up with a better answer.

24:29

Probably yes. You're asking me names and titles.

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That's true. Again, not your forte. No. You get to hang out with any three people, living or dead, other than Jesus, who are they?

24:47

What three people would you hang out with, living or dead? Who's somebody in the present day you just wanna meet, and you've got a bunch of questions for them?

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I know it's names again. Yep. I was gonna name all my family, because I haven't seen them for quite a while.

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Family and friends. That's all right. You are, yes, you are a family person. You love extended family.

25:14

I do, I have a lot of it, too. You wanna raise some dead relatives? You're named after Rebecca Boone, how about that?

25:20

Yeah, that'd be awesome. There you go. That'd be really cool. Sit and chat with Rebecca Boone, Daniel Boone's wife.

25:25

Yep, because there's no pictures of her in record. Oh, is that right? Next one, what's the first thing you would do as president?

25:35

First thing? Yeah, very first thing you'd do as president. I don't know anything about being a president. What I would like to see happen?

25:44

Hold on to that one. Okay. Okay, hold on, and maybe we'll come back to it at the end, see if something kind of triggers in there.

25:49

Sure. Okay, have you, the next question, have you ever punched anyone or been punched?

25:57

Does the arm count? Punch them in the arm? I think this question is basically like,

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Punch them in the face? Have you been in a public fight? Have you been in a fight in public before? No. No, yeah.

26:08

Now when I - I mean, when I was little, I kicked my brother in the face. I don't know if that counts or not.

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And when I was asked this question, I said no, but then when I thought about it later,

26:20

I did martial arts for a few years. So we always put on pads and we would spar.

26:25

Sure. So if that counted, yeah, I've been in fights before. I took a self -defense class.

26:31

Yeah, right. So that was somewhat public. It wasn't really public.

26:37

It was just a class. Yeah. But it's not like I've ever exited a bar or something and somebody came up to me and socked me one.

26:44

Yeah, I've never been in a public fight. No. Even when I was in more questionable crowds in college,

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I still wasn't with a group of people that were sprawling and fighting all the time, so. Even if, I mean, even when

26:57

I was confronting someone verbally, it wasn't ever, it didn't ever get out of hand, like an argument, like a loud argument or anything.

27:07

It was always quiet, like a conversation. Right. A tense one.

27:12

Yeah. But conversation. Next question. You can attend a concert by any band in history.

27:19

Who do you go see? Oh, I would love to go see some of those, like the

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U .S. Oh, like the Rockettes? The Rockette. No, like the

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Boogie Woogie Boogie Boy Company. Okay, yeah, right. Like those kind of. Old big band kinds of.

27:41

Yes, I would love to go to those. That's what you wanted. The old USO shows. Yes.

27:46

Yes. So you're actually talking USO shows. Yeah. I was like, Rockettes, no, wrong direction.

27:53

No. When I answered this question, I said Michael W. Smith. Of course you did. Yeah, but when

27:59

I thought about it, like after we got done with the interview and I was thinking about it, I was like, no, there is an event in history, in musical history that I wish

28:08

I could have been there for the very first performance. What was that? The performance of Handel's Messiah.

28:14

Oh. The very first time that was performed. I would have loved to have seen that.

28:19

So yeah, if there's any, if I could go back to any musical event in history, that's the one

28:24

I would go see. Number eight, or final question here, I guess. With every head bowed and every eye closed, do you accept

28:33

Jesus as your Lord and Savior? This is a question?

28:40

Right, it is. Do you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Of course. Yes. So when I answered this question,

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I thought that's what they were asking me was like, are you a Christian? Yes, I'm a Christian. Right. That's why

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I kind of give you a look, because I'm like. But did I do this? Did I come to be a

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Christian this way? You know, the whole evangelism altar call thing.

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No. Everybody have your eyes closed and your heads bowed. Yeah, no. And then you stand up and you walk forward and you pray the prayer, and then you write down in your

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Bible exactly what day that happened. Nope. Nope. I have no idea what day it happened. Now that's.

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It's just, it was gradual. Yeah, same with me. I don't know exactly what day it was

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I was saved. I remember praying and asking the Lord to forgive me of my sins and do with me whatever he wants to do with me.

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I remember that, putting my faith in Jesus Christ, but I don't know exactly what day it was.

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And it was, I mean, just like sanctification, it's been a process for me too. Yeah, I mean,

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I remember being broken, but I don't know when it turned from me being selfish in my prayers to me being.

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Actually honoring of God. Right, yeah. Seeking Christ. Right, yeah, so I don't know when that change happened.

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Now, while I wasn't saved through an altar call, I used to do them, and I'm grateful that nobody ever responded to them.

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Yeah, you'd be calling them back up, be like, hey, how's your walk? I used to lead a band and then

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I would be asked to come and guest speak places and then they would ask me, they would say, hey, would you do an altar call at the end?

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And I would do it, but everybody there was pretty much already a Christian or believed they were anyway.

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So nobody ever came down front and prayed to receive Jesus. So I used to do those, never had anybody respond to them and don't do it that way anymore, obviously.

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But yeah, a lot of people have come to faith in Jesus Christ that way. It doesn't mean that your faith is ungenuine, but that is not the way that we see the gospel being presented in the

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Bible. Right. The disciples weren't doing every head bowed, every eye closed, raise your hand, I see that hand, come down front, pray and ask

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Jesus into your heart, that's not the way that it was done. You have the declaration of judgment that is to come, like you take

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Acts chapter 17, for example, the apostle Paul preaching at the Areopagus, that the times of ignorance

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God has overlooked, but now he's commanding all people everywhere to repent. Amen.

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For he has fixed a day upon which he is gonna judge the world and he has shown by whom he will judge the world, by raising him from the dead.

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And that's of course, Jesus Christ. So the judgment of God is coming, therefore turn from your sin to the

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Lord Jesus Christ, same way that Peter preached at Pentecost, save yourself from this crooked and wicked generation, put your faith in Jesus Christ and so live.

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That's the presentation of the gospel that we see in the Bible. Right. So it's not close your eyes, bow your head, raise your hand, come down front.

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The sign of one having come to Christ is not because they responded to an altar call, it's because they get baptized.

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So through baptism, they confess that I have been washed of my sins,

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I've been buried with Christ and I'm risen again to new life. That's what baptism is for. It's kind of like the altar calls replaced what the testimony of baptism is supposed to be.

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Yeah, it seems that way. Yeah. So anyway, there you go. There's your questions. Yep. So I'm gonna come back to two,

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I'm gonna come back to the number four question again. What's the first thing you would do as president? First thing.

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Well, who's gonna say step into the White House? I'm sorry,

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I'm first. You're going super practical, really, really practical.

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That's the way my brain works, sorry guys. We're just strolling right into the White House. Well, first thing

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I'm gonna do is unpack my bag. You know, I'll move in. I might go to the bathroom, you know.

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Take a tour. That's right. Is this the same toilet that Abraham Lincoln used?

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Wow. Well, there you go, folks.

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You don't get more profound answers than that. I hope you enjoyed it.

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Oh man, that was priceless. I'm not even gonna ask you for more than that. We're just leaving it at that.

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Awesome. Becky's going to the White House. That's first act as president.

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Oh, my tummy hurts. There's no one less controversial than my wife.

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And it's completely genuine. She's not even trying to please everybody. Just everybody likes her, so.

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That is the most bipartisan answer I think that you could possibly give.

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Everybody knows why I love this woman. So we were visiting my parents recently and somebody had, what was it my mom asked?

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It was something like, who do we hang out with? Or I can't remember what it was. But my answer was, no one in the world makes me laugh more than Becky does.

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We crack each other up, so. Yep, that's so true.

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We laugh every day. Yep. I like it. There are no gloomy days in the

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Hughes household. Well, we should put it rather that there are no days that stay gloomy. Very true.

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In the Hughes household. We still have hard days like anybody. Yeah, even when we're sick, we still manage to make each other giggle.

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That's right. And then we get angry with one another because you made a giggle and now I have to cough. Now I hurt because you made me laugh.

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Well, thank you for your questions. Once again, we couldn't get this way without your help in asking such great questions.

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So you can submit them to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. Have a

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Merry Christmas. God willing, we will be back on the program again next week. Yes, Merry Christmas.

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Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for our time together and may you be honored and glorified in what we say and do.

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Put a guard over our lips. May we speak in a way that is honoring of God.

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May we speak in a way that builds others up. As it says in Ephesians 4, 29, not tearing each other down, but building one another up and giving grace to those who hear as fits the occasion.

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As we live in a world that is so ready to complain, that argues and bickers and is in constant conflict with one another, may we as Christians demonstrate the love of Christ.

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As we sing in the old hymn, they'll know that we are Christians by our love. We speak in such a way that's not like the world.

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It is honoring of Christ and it's building each other up that we may be encouraged, even in the rough times in which we live, to look always to Christ.

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And we are praying with the Apostle John, come quickly Lord Jesus, that we would seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

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And all the things that we need here on earth will be added to us as well. We remember the gift of your son here at Christmas.

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May we remember this all the time. Turning from our sin to the Lord Jesus Christ, warning others of the judgment that is to come so that they would believe in Jesus and so be saved.