Using Social Media For The Gospel

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Well, I feel better about dressing down today, that's nice. So this is an interesting one, we're going to pray in just a second here, interesting talk.

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Actually, I messed it up this morning when I was talking to Luke, I called it, what did I call it? I called it GASMOS and GIDGETS.

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I was like, yeah, I think I'm doing GASMOS and GIDGETS. So I don't even know what that really means and how to do a talk on that.

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So I prepared something that I hope actually works with what I was asked to do. This is an interesting one because I hope after last night's talk, combined with Doug's talk and then this talk, a lot of this will start making sense and we can start contextualizing it to our own personal experience and our own personal mission that God has called us to.

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And I do want to say that I'm really, really excited about this particular conference and that we're talking about these things because I think

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Doug is exactly right. We're, I think, getting to that turning point where Christians are realizing, oh wait, hey, this works.

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And oh my goodness, we're not like out of control now of the conversation.

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It's really interesting, right? I mean, I'll just, I'm going to go to this in my talk, but just to highlight this so you can be thinking about it in terms of the bigger picture, this last election is interesting.

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It highlighted a lot of interesting things. I was, as I told you last night, I was in Australia and New Zealand and I thought

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I was going to get a break from the election stuff. So I was in Australia and New Zealand about a week before the election day.

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So I leave the United States to go to Australia, turn the TV on and every single channel, all they are talking about is

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Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. I mean, it was every channel. It was obscene how much they were just obsessed with our election process.

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And so that surprised me that it was all over the news. And one thing that was interesting about what I saw, and my daughter was with me, she was my little sidekick on that particular trip.

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One thing that I thought was interesting was how obscenely liberal the media was in Australia and New Zealand.

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Worse, I thought in many respects to ours, at least in some respects, our media tries to pretend like they're not really, we're not really, really biased.

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Over there it was just blatant and just obscene liberal bias. I mean, it was really fascinating to see it up front like that.

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And so one of the things I noticed in Australia was they were saying over and over and over again, no way

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Donald Trump will win. They kept going over the polls. They said he's already lost. It's over and done with.

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Hillary Clinton, this poll, that poll, and Donald Trump. Who really thinks Donald Trump? I mean, come on. Did we all understand what's happening here?

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Everyone understands what's happening. It's a joke. I get home, election happens, and Donald Trump is our new president of the

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United States. Oh yeah, okay. And what was interesting about it was to see the reeling that took place a couple days afterwards.

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You guys know. All the reeling. How could we have gotten this so wrong? How did this happen? How did we not know?

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Look at the polls. What happened? All the polls went the other direction. How did this happen? And I was thinking the whole time,

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I know how it happened. How it happened is nobody's listening to you and nobody's really talking to you and you don't really understand what's going on.

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Because the internet media has provided us a way to get our information and to have our conversations apart from those who have dominated the conversation for so long.

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People get their news now from independent news sources. What's that mean? They find a person that they find intriguing and intelligent.

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Somebody that actually has an understanding that they think is qualified. And what do they do? They go to that person.

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They go to them on YouTube. They go to their podcast. That's where they get their information. They can select who they get their information from.

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They can decide. It's not force fed to them. They don't have to listen to the narrative that is controlled by a large organization.

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They can get their information elsewhere and they communicate elsewhere. I think what killed the last election from their perspective is

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Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. Why? Because the common folk could actually engage with one another and share articles and information in such a way as to essentially go under the major news organizations.

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And so how did this take place? Why was it such an upset? Why was it so confusing to them?

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Because God has provided a medium, a media to where we can share information in such a way as to change the conversation.

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We can control the conversation. And that is something very, very important in Doug's right. I think we're at the cusp of it now where Christians are finally going, wait a minute.

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Yeah, we can actually communicate the gospel, the biblical worldview. We can get the message of Jesus in the biblical worldview out across the world and into our own communities in a way that's really, really meaningful, that actually does do damage to the kingdom of darkness.

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I mean, just consider for a moment, what's one of the fundamental things we believe about the gospel? Romans 1 16, that it is the gospel that is the power of God for salvation.

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That is that message, the message of salvation, forgiveness, the authority of Jesus Christ, His work.

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That message goes out of our mouths, it comes out of our fingertips, it goes out into the world. And the spirit of God empowers that message to bring dead people to life, to raise them to newness of life, to give them eyes that see, ears that hear, to change their hearts from stony hearts to fleshy hearts.

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That's what God does with that message, right? And now we've been given an opportunity with all of these tools, all these resources that were given to the world by Jesus Christ for His glory and the good of His church.

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We've been given these tools where we can actually communicate those truths of the gospel 24 hours a day, 365 days a year at the click of a button around the planets.

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Nobody is in control anymore, nobody's dominating it. The Christian church can take ownership of this and actually start communicating in a way that is powerful.

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Consider for a moment this, we've complained and bickered for so long as Christians, you've seen the evangelical community, a lot of talk in Hollywood and the media elites and all the things that are coming into our children's eyes and ears.

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We talk about what's on the radio and what's on cable, we talk about that a lot. It's a big topic conversation.

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People that own the media, control the media, they control the narrative and they're the ones that are actually producing all of this content.

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And why does it bother us so much? Well, I think there's a couple reasons, but number one, I think it bothers us because Christians largely, when they make actually movies and television, it's garbage.

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It's garbage. It's really, really terrible. It's awful. It's bad story, it's bad acting, bad cinematography, bad editing, it's garbage.

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Why does it bother us that Hollywood's putting out all this content and are giving all our kids this stuff and it's just so awful and it's anti -Christian?

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It bothers us because we know that really the best stories, the best cinematography, the best movie making is actually made by the unbelievers.

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We just don't like that we're being fed their worldview in the midst of the higher quality art. And so that bothers us and it bothers us because we say things like, well, they're in control and they're the ones producing all the content and what do we have?

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We have this garbage, right? But we're in a position now as Christians, as the church, with these gadgets and gizmos.

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Gadgets and gizmos where, guess what? Now we are not force -fed that stuff unwillingly.

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Now we can actually produce content, movies, television. We can produce media that glorifies

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God, tells a better story and we can do it in such a way that it has an impact and we can change the conversation.

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So consider that as we get into this talk today, a little unusual talk for me, but consider all those benefits and tools and blessings as we move forward with the discussion on using them.

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Let's pray. Father, please bless the talk today. God, I just pray,

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Father, that you would allow me to speak in a way that blesses your church, your people. I just pray, God, that this would not just be just a talk that goes over many of our heads and we just listen and consider how interesting, but we don't really do anything about it.

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I pray that, Lord, you would work, Lord, through the people that are in this room right now, that you work in their lives, and you would work through what's being filmed right now and that's gonna be sent around the world.

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I pray that you would touch the hearts and minds of people, Lord, your people, that you would work in them in such a way as to empower us and to send us into the world to use these things for your glory.

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In Jesus' name, amen. So I'm in a unique position right now because I have a typical way

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I like to do messages and talks, and that is talk as little about me and my experience as possible.

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I don't like to put myself into messages a lot, except where it's relevant, it might be an experience that's encouraging or blesses you, and so it's an awkward position because what

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I'm gonna talk about today in this is a lot about what God has done through our ministry, and so it's a bit awkward for me for preaching or teaching normally, and so there's a temptation, perhaps, when you listen to this talk, a temptation to believe that there's maybe some bragging going on, those sorts of things.

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I wanna sort of highlight that for a moment and say the reason we're talking about some of these statistics and the things that I'll share with you from our own ministry is hopefully to give you some encouragement that a little church in Tempe, Arizona that started out of a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center, a hospital, from zero, with a lot of just drug addicts, some of them on detoxification medicine, most of them in halfway houses, that a church like that can produce content for the glory of God, and it could end up changing the world, literally, in many, many ways, and if God can do it through unworthy people like us,

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He can do it through His people. He can empower you, He can bless it, and so I hope you're encouraged to engage, and hearing the things today as I give a couple of examples as to what

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God has used in our own ministry, I hope that it encourages you to engage the world with the gospel in a bold way, in a meaningful way.

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So I wanna remind you first and foremost of the foundation, our context. I told you last night we have to orient ourselves to the context.

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What part of the story are we in? Well, I'm not gonna go over all of it again, but let me just say and highlight that a fundamental assertion is this,

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Jesus is in charge of everything. Okay, let that hang for a second, and don't do the typical

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Christian, oh, yes, amen, and give me the t -shirt, Jesus is in charge of everything,

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I wanna start getting the bumper stickers and putting it out, and it's one of those things Christians say, but we ask the question, do you really believe it?

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Is that something we actually embrace, and we embody it in our lives, do we really believe that Jesus is in charge of everything?

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Do we believe that He's the boss of it? And when you go out into the world and you see something, if it's a business, if it's a movie, if it's television, if it's art, if it's music, if it's politics, if it's education, if it's family, if it's church, when you see something in the world, do you say

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He's the boss of it? He's the boss of that, and there are ways where that has to be put under His feet.

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Do you do that? Do we do that? Do we actually look at something and we say, how can I put this under the feet of Jesus?

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How can I influence this in such a way that it brings glory to Jesus Christ? Not just for me, but for 10 generations after me.

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Do we approach the world in that way? Because that's our context, because fundamentally the Bible teaches that Jesus wins.

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He wins, not just at the end of history. He wins. Psalm 1101,

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I told you, I said so you can remember it, it's God's favorite Bible verse because it's the most quoted in the

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New Testament from the Old, Psalm 1101. If you want a basis, if you want a place to camp out, to hang out, to put your roots down, to say, okay, this ought to give me my hope, this is what

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I'm going to go back to when I'm sore and I'm scared and I feel like there's disharmony around me, if you want a text, 1

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Corinthians 15, that should be where you camp. In that text, the Apostle Paul is telling you the story,

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God's story of history, where are we going, and what's he do? He quotes that famous passage,

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Psalm 1101. He says that he must reign until all of his enemies are a footstool for his feet.

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That's where we're going right now. Enemies of God, footstool for God's feet, the Messiah's feet, and then what?

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The last enemy to be defeated is what? Death. So it's God's enemies under Jesus' feet, and then we have death defeated, and then the final judgment and the victorious return and that kingdom delivered over to the

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Father, that's our position in history right now. So we look around and we say, okay, where are his enemies?

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Where are the things, where are the people who are opposed to this king? He's the boss of everything.

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He has all authority in heaven and on earth. He's not just king over this invisible realm.

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He is king over the here, the now, this world that he's actually made, he's in charge of. Jesus is the boss of it.

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And so we look around and we say, where are his enemies? Where are those who oppose his authority and his rule?

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Where are the people that say, you will not rule over us? And as Christians, we have to look into those areas and ask the question, how will this be put under the feet of Jesus?

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Well, we know the means, don't we? We know the means of how things get under the feet of Jesus.

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Well, it's through the gospel, it's through the work of his church, his bride, telling the world of his glorious salvation and rule.

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We tell the world about salvation. We call people to repentance and faith. We know that's how that's done, but we think we broaden it, we have to start to consider now, well, we've got a world that in many ways is an enemy of God.

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It's in many ways opposed to God. How do we actually communicate that gospel? And we look around and we say, well, how is the world talking to each other?

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How are they talking to each other? How are they communicating? Because believe me, they are communicating.

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We have to actually take a foundational thing. This is vitally important to get. It's so important to understand this and begin to live now as a

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Christian in light of it. I mentioned it last night, but it is so important. The myth of neutrality.

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Nobody is neutral. It's a myth. Everybody has a particular worldview.

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Two things I want you to think about in terms of neutrality. Two things. First and foremost, neutrality is a myth biblically.

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What does God say in his word? Romans 1, verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness, what, suppress the truth.

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That which is known about God is evident within them for God has made it evident to them. What's that say?

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That God has made himself evident, known to every single person.

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Every person. It's not a problem of light or evidence. It's a problem of suppression. They know the true and living

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God. It's not that they don't know the true God, not that they just know some God. They know the true

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God. God has sent that message into the heart of every single image bearer that he has created.

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The problem is simple suppression. In Romans 1, Paul says what? He says very clearly that the

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MO of the human race is to switch God, the true God that they know, switch him for an idol.

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And so that is what we do. Calvin said that the human heart is a natural idol making factory and it is never idol in producing idols.

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That's what we do. And so we switch God for idols. We become fools. We profess to be wise and our thinking becomes futile.

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And what happens? In the switching of God for idols, we devolve. We break down.

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We go against the created order. We start worshiping the created things. We start engaging in disharmonious relationships with one another, with our parents.

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And then we know these things are evil, but what do we do? We know that those who do them deserve to die, but instead of repenting, we suppress and we applaud those who do these things.

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Now if there's no greater description of American culture in the 21st century than Romans chapter 1,

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I mean, it's right there on the page. That's what we're dealing with. And we think in terms of what the

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Bible says about neutrality. It says they're not, and you're not supposed to be. What's Jesus saying?

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Whoever's not with me is against me. They know God. They suppress the truth of God. They switch God for idols.

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They construct very complicated erudite systems to oppose

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God. They don't want Him in their knowledge. They don't even want to know Him. And what does it say in Romans 5?

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Paul says that all of humanity is in one of two representatives. You're either in Jesus or you are in Adam.

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And Paul says if you're in Adam, there is death. There is condemnation. If you're in Jesus, there is the gift of eternal life and righteousness.

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So all of humanity is covenantally bound to one of two representatives,

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Adam or Jesus. That's our context, no neutrality. So when we face the world, when we face their television, when we face their movies, when we face their stories, when we face their music, when we face their politics, we have to recognize they're not neutral and we're not supposed to be.

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First thing, biblically speaking, neutrality is a myth. Second thing, philosophically speaking, neutrality is a myth.

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It's absurd to suggest that any of us are actually neutral when it comes to metaphysics, ontology, what is reality, the doctrine of being, what is all of this, what's the nature of it.

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It's absurd to suggest that we're neutral in any way when it comes to how we know what we know, a theory of knowledge.

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It's absurd to suggest that we're neutral ethically speaking. Everybody has a worldview. Everybody has a particular perspective.

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We've all been affected. Now perhaps when it comes to worldview, many of us have actually had a dramatic change in worldview.

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We thought one way, we were committed to it, we met Jesus and then it flipped. Our heart changed, our mind changed, and we went through a pretty difficult process where we used to be a certain way, think a certain thing, and all of a sudden now with a new heart and new eyes, we don't want to be that way anymore.

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We don't want to think that anymore. And so what do we do? We go to the Word of God. Our minds are changed, our hearts are changed, and then we flip.

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We change. There's dramatic change. Sometimes there's those kinds of worldview shifts.

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But sometimes we adopt worldviews and we don't really think about it. Sometimes we get it from our grandfather.

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Maybe that's a good thing in some cases because we're getting the Word of God, but sometimes we don't think about it. We got it from a science teacher.

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Sometimes in our culture, we get it from Lady Gaga. But believe me, it's an ethic.

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Is this an ethic that is neutral towards God? I was born that way?

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In terms of facing the issue of homosexuality in our culture, is Lady Gaga neutral when she says,

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I was born this way? Not neutral. How about when Macklemore sings a song that I tried my best to sing?

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I'm not a singer. It's for you. Last night, when he says, when the song says, I can't change, even if I tried, even if I wanted to, is that neutral towards God?

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It's not neutral. It's an ethic. Everybody has a worldview. Everyone has a view of how they know what they know and how they should live their lives.

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And here's the thing. Ready? Movies are preaching, television is preaching, music is preaching, books are preaching, education is preaching.

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Everybody is preaching. Here's the thing. When Christians disengage from utilizing these tools, when

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Christians disengage from media, when they disengage from the news and movies and television and writing stories and education, it's not as though nobody is now imposing a worldview.

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It means because we've disengaged, the world is doing the preaching. And so here's the sum of the message today,

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Christians. You need to preach. You need to start preaching. You must start using these tools to communicate the gospel and start preaching because us disengaging from the world has only allowed the world to begin to propagate and enforce their position, their position.

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We recognize it instantly, don't we, in terms of education? I love the fact that not very long ago, there wasn't the kind of hostility towards public schools that there is now.

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I love that there's so much hostility to public schools today. I think it's beautiful and it is wonderful.

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Don't you love that recently when Betsy DeVos was put into her position, don't you love?

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I thought it was spectacular that Betsy DeVos was put into her position and now all the liberals, all the secularists are going, well, we'll just homeschool.

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I thought, win, hashtag winning, right? Kill the public schools, right?

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Make them into, I don't know, turn them into something different. Turn them into paintball arenas, right?

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That's a fantastic use and they'll continue to make money that you can give to, trust me, they need to go away.

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But I thought it was fantastic that now the liberals are going, uh -uh, if she's in charge, she's going to be communicating a worldview and I don't want my children to hear it.

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Now isn't that what Christians have been saying for a long time about the public schools? Is that you're propagating an entire view of the world.

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You're telling people about history, you're telling people about science, you're telling people about literature and you're doing it apart from Jesus.

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And that's why my kids aren't there. But don't we understand that the world is preaching and when we disengage from using these tools and doing it well, then the world steps in and they say,

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I'll take over from here and they begin to propagate an anti -Christian worldview. It's time that Christians recognized that the meek shall inherit the earth.

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So recognizing that Jesus actually wins and he's putting his enemies under his feet. Final thing

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I'll say in this, this is important, what's wrong? What is it? What's wrong?

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Is the gospel not the power of God for salvation? Was it in the first century?

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Was it then? Just some miraculous work of God that he just had in store for that generation and maybe a few moments throughout the history of the church, just these little moments where he sort of brings light and it pops and blows up and he goes, okay,

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I'll finish up later. I'm not really concerned any longer. Is that what the story is? What is it?

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Is it the gospel that's not the power of God for salvation? Is it the spirit of God who's no longer able to bring dead people to life?

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Is that what it is? Is God no longer interested in actually reconciling all things to himself?

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Is God no longer interested in actually putting all things under the feet of Jesus? I don't believe that's the case.

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I think that if there's something wrong in the world, if the culture is in any way the report card of the church, if the culture is in any way the report card of the church, then that means that there is something in us, something that we're not doing, something about our faithfulness.

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Now, mind you, we're all hardcore, pipetting Calvinists, yes, I like how Doug says it, black coffee drinking, run your face over broken glass

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Calvinists, that's what we all are, right? I understand God is sovereign, I understand his grace and he's the one that wields all of this.

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I get it. I get it, his providence, we're in this position because he's the one that determined it.

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I understand that. But we all recognize as good Calvinists that God uses means.

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And oftentimes we are guilty in the midst of God's providential plan, amen? And so we have to start asking ourselves, well, what is it?

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If the culture is in any way a report card of the church, then how are we doing? What are we not doing?

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What should we be doing as a church? And that's really what the gadgets and gizmos is all about.

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Think for a moment about the early church just quickly in terms of how the engagement took place.

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In the book of Acts, you won't get far into the book of Acts and you discover that the Christian church was focused inward, yes, focused on teaching, breaking bread, fellowship, we were focused very much on one another, loving

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God, loving each other, taking care of one another's needs, yes, that's a highlight moment in the book of Acts, of course.

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What else do you see in the book of Acts? You see a methodology of evangelism and cultural engagement that looks very, very different than the common form of engagement that we see today in North America.

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What's the common form of engagement in North America? We see, well, the gospel of nice, right?

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How will you win the world? Well, it'd be nice, right? If I'm nice to people, then

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I win them to Jesus, really? Have you read the book of Acts, bro? The book of Acts, what do you see in the book of Acts?

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Book of Acts kicks off and it's immediate engagement with the culture in such a way that it leads to,

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I don't know, a couple beatings and some stonings and people wanting to kill Paul.

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Acts chapter 9, the apostle Paul's on his high horse, he's going to destroy the Christian church. He says in Galatians that he's so zealous that he tried to destroy the church.

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That's where he was at. We see in the book of Acts that as soon as Jesus knocks him off his high horse and his eyes are open, what's he do?

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He takes a beeline to Damascus, Acts 9. Takes a beeline to Damascus to do what? Well, he goes to earn the right to preach the gospel to them.

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He goes to create five -year -long friendships where maybe he'll earn the right to preach the gospel to them, right?

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No? He goes to tell them to live their best life now? He goes in Acts chapter 9 to do what?

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He goes to his beeline to Damascus and what's he do? He goes to the religious context and he argues with them for the sake of Jesus and the glory of God.

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He actually argues. Yes, Christians arguing for the glory of God. Christians arguing.

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What took place? What was the result of the apostle Paul colliding with the culture of his day, the religious culture there in Acts 9?

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What's the result? It says that the church was built up, they experienced peace and they were multiplied and it says that some people wanted to kill him.

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They wanted him dead. Right? Oftentimes in our culture today, we see Christians engaging in such a way that it is with kindness and grace and boldness and people look in on that as Christians and say, oh, that's not how you win people.

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That's not how you win people. How do I know? Because they don't like you now. You see, they have to like you and that's how you know you're being like Jesus, right?

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Because they like you. But you see, in the Bible, we don't see that kind of engagement. We see an engagement that actually is truthful, that actually engages and collides, preaches the gospel and the results are the church is built up, it expands and grows.

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People are added to the church, God is glorified and then some people actually form pacts.

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I'm not going to eat until this sucker is dead. Right? Like, that's what it looks like.

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I'm just trying to use the modern vernacular, okay? All right. This is going out like to different places, so that's what it looks like.

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People actually communicate in such a way in the New Testament that it creates conflict and persecution.

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They go into places and they preach the gospel, not being jerks, not in any way being unkind and hateful and mean -spirited, but they go in such a way as they tell the truth.

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And what happens when they tell the truth? A riot breaks out. A riot breaks out.

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Paul in Acts chapter 17, more than likely was being brought up on preliminary charges of the

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Areopagus. They're not just saying, hey, let us know what you think. They're engaging in a sense of mockery.

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He goes to the place of highest philosophical debate and discussion, and he does what? He says that God commands you to repent.

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God's not asking you to try Jesus out. God's not asking you to let Jesus into your little hearts.

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Where is that anyways? The gospel comes as a total system, full and total allegiance to Jesus Christ.

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God commands you to repent and believe. That's the kind of engagement you see. Where is that in our culture?

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Brothers and sisters, if you look in history at these amazing moments where God has moved through the gospel and changed the course of history, where an entire nation turns to Jesus Christ, where whole towns turn to Jesus Christ, when you see those moments, you can always find that the truth of the gospel was shared, foolproof.

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You can always see that it was a call to repentance and faith. There was a call to total allegiance to Jesus Christ.

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That's what you see. Now, it's important to recognize that we often, as Christians, when we use these tools, these gadgets and gizmos, and we have something like Facebook or YouTube or Twitter or Instagram or whatever the tool may be, we think that it's persecution when we get befriended on Facebook.

31:07

What? Right? I got a message from a sister in Christ a couple weeks ago.

31:16

She said, Pastor Jeff, I've been so encouraged by all the work in the area of abortion, seeing all these babies saved and all this ministry, and I finally decided

31:24

I was going to finally say something in this area and try to communicate the truth. She says, and I'd said one thing on Facebook today, and I got blasted, and I had people coming after me,

31:34

I had people befriending me, and it was horrible, Pastor Jeff. And I had to think for a little bit about what to say about that.

31:42

What do you think is going to happen? When you take a stand for Christ in a hostile culture, when you bring the truth, you're going to see sometimes the church built up, you're going to see it experience peace, you're going to see it multiply, and you're going to see some people that want to befriend you on Facebook.

32:00

Brothers and sisters, the early church wouldn't say Kaiser Kyrios. They wouldn't say Caesar is

32:06

Lord, and they died for it. They get wrapped in pitch and tied to stakes and lit on fire.

32:12

We get befriended on Facebook, and we think that that's persecution. Brothers and sisters, we have got to gird up our loins in a big way.

32:25

I want to just remind you that all that we have before us in terms of these gadgets and gizmos are ultimately, and you can trace this back in history, a

32:33

Christian advancement. Science, medicine, technology, at some point in history, there was somebody who held to the biblical worldview, somebody who loved

32:43

Jesus, that gave us the parts and pieces to make all of this possible. I mentioned to you guys just one example last night that is the foundation for all that we have today in terms of our smartphones and our internets.

32:56

Samuel Morse, a Calvinist, who created something that is still the fundamental basis of how we use this technology today.

33:05

So if not for that Calvinist, if not for his mother reminding him in a letter that his first chief end is to glorify

33:15

God and to enjoy Him forever, if not for that kind of instruction and catechism, if not for that, we wouldn't have smartphones today.

33:23

So thank Jesus for your smartphone. We're in a unique position with all these tools.

33:29

I just want to give you a couple things that I think are encouraging in terms of broadening our vision.

33:37

And this is 2016 social media statistics, a couple things that are important to know.

33:45

In terms of popularity by country, your ability right now to say something or to create something and then to send it out.

33:54

Facebook. What do you think is the most popular country that uses or engages in Facebook?

34:00

I hate these Britney Spears microphones, okay? What do you think...

34:07

How does she do it when she's like snapping her head and it's like, it doesn't flop around? Some magic or demon.

34:15

How... What do you think is the most popular country that uses Facebook? U .S.

34:22

U .S. That's actually what I thought. It's not the U .S. Anybody else? What's that?

34:27

China? India. Okay. I'm going to go down the list because we think, oh, we're the ones that are using all this.

34:35

It's our thing and advancing. This is surprising. Philippines, Mexico, Turkey, Argentina, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Brazil, Thailand, Malaysia, South Africa, UAE, Taiwan, Singapore, Spain, Italy, Hong Kong, Canada, Ireland, Poland, USA.

35:03

That's how far down the list we are for Facebook use and communication. What's that mean?

35:09

It means there's a whole other world out there that is utilizing these platforms and this form of communication that we get to talk to.

35:19

We get to reach. We do. Just a quick, a brief hopeful moment, just quickly.

35:26

When I went to Australia and New Zealand to preach and teach a bunch of times all over Sydney, Brisbane, Christ Church, it was really interesting.

35:35

I go there and people are blessed by our ministry and encouraged and they're starting ministries and different things. But one of the things that was kind of shocking to me is they were all saying, this abortion stuff,

35:46

Pastor Jeff, this abortion stuff, we've got to get involved here in Australia. I discovered that in Australia, nobody's doing this

35:52

Frontlines abortion ministry except for one guy. Everybody in Australia knew the guy. One guy, he's on the news all the time.

35:58

One guy. It's the guy in Australia that does it. Everyone knows. They all think he's nuts. They said,

36:03

Pastor Jeff, we're going to get involved. So I preached on it. As a result of getting there through the social media platform, that's what got me there.

36:10

That's how people understood our ministry, what we're doing. We got there and now after leaving and preaching there, now there are groups forming in Australia to do

36:17

Frontlines ministry to preach the gospel at abortion mills to save babies. Went to New Zealand, nobody's doing it in New Zealand.

36:25

I preached on abortion in New Zealand. It was moving what took place there, not because of me, just communicating what

36:33

God has done. People were sobbing. They were in tears. And as a result of getting there, now in New Zealand, there are ministries popping up to go to the abortion mill to bring the gospel there.

36:43

That's the kind of thing that God is doing in the world. How did it start? It started because of social media. It started because of all these gadgets and gizmos.

36:52

Here's another one. YouTube. Who do you think is the highest user popularity on YouTube?

37:01

Who uses it the most? Who do you think? Egypt. Yeah, Egypt. Nope. No.

37:10

Mexico. Argentina. Vietnam. Turkey. Philippines. Thailand.

37:15

Brazil. India. Malaysia. Indonesia. UAE. Saudi Arabia. Taiwan. Singapore. Italy. Russia.

37:21

Spain. South Africa. Hong Kong. Ireland. Sweden. Canada. Poland. USA. We're near the bottom of the list.

37:29

That's how much opportunity there is for engagement. We're in a unique position.

37:36

Just to give you some encouragement here, Apologia starting, when we started this work, here's how it started.

37:47

We were doing Apologia Christian Ministries. We wanted to equip the church. We wanted to engage the cults and atheists.

37:53

We wanted to bring the Christian worldview into collision. And so Pastor Luke and I went to Radio Shack.

37:59

We bought a $30 voice recorder. We set up an appointment with some Jehovah's Witnesses.

38:04

We met them in a park. I sat the recorder down on the table. We talked to these

38:09

Jehovah's Witnesses for a little while. Recorded it. Went back home. I took the audio from that.

38:15

I put it into a YouTube video. It was just a black screen. We're talking major low budget here, okay?

38:23

It's just a black screen with audio. You're only guessing about this birds flying over and the airplane flying over, right?

38:32

That's all you have is a blank screen with audio. That we put up as one of,

38:37

I think, our very first video. It got shared around the world. Seen tens and tens and tens of thousands of times.

38:46

We've received messages from all over the world from Jehovah's Witnesses who listened to that one low budget bootleg video.

38:57

And they've come to Jesus as a result of listening to it an evangelism encounter that took place at a park table in Chandler, Arizona.

39:06

We recognized, wow, Christians are using this and they're being blessed by it. People are coming to Christ as a result of it.

39:12

We just started going out doing the regular evangelism we were already doing. We just started turning on the recorder.

39:18

We started filming it with a low budget camera. We got home. We put it up online and we'd send it out. We'd get messages from Mexico and Canada and all over America and Ireland.

39:28

You name it. We'd get messages. Hey, Pastor Jeff, I was a Jehovah's Witness. I was a

39:33

Mormon. I came to Christ as a result of listening to this conversation. We'd have atheists engage us.

39:39

We'd have Christians say, hey, we use these videos now in our Bible studies. I get that all the time.

39:45

We use these videos in our Bible study to understand how to evangelize Mormons or atheists.

39:51

These are just things that we were doing naturally. We just turned the camera on and started filming. And then as time went on,

39:57

God started blessing us. We had a radio show. Redemption Radio was our first radio show. We recognized something in this show.

40:03

It was terrestrial. We had actually been on the radio all over Arizona. But we would get a copy of the show we did in Arizona and we'd put it out on the

40:12

Internet. We recognized that we were getting more listeners to our clip on the

40:17

Internet than we were actually getting listening to the radio in Arizona. We were one of the most popular shows on the radio in Arizona.

40:24

We recognized this is going all over the world. All over the world. I had Dan Barker on, a well -known atheist.

40:32

And Si Ten Bruggencate. We did a radio program with Dan Barker. That episode was shared and kicked about the

40:39

Internet hundreds of thousands of times. And what did we expose on that radio show?

40:46

Dan Barker says that rape is not, according to his atheistic system, ultimately wrong.

40:53

It won't matter. We actually were able to engage him with the gospel, call him to repentance, and put his worldview on full display.

41:00

And we kicked it around the Internet and shared it hundreds of thousands of times. Another radio program we did,

41:06

Si and myself engaged the head of the Atheist Society at ASU. We dropped the episode.

41:12

It was shared over 350 ,000 times in the first six months. All over the planet.

41:19

We had people that listened to that radio program and came to Christ as a result of it. Christians who listened to that radio program who actually said they were on the verge of actually denying

41:28

Christ. And after they listened to that and understood the strength of the Christian worldview, they actually legitimately came to Christ.

41:36

God used it. After Apologia Studios started, we have now one million downloads, approximately one million downloads of Apologia Radio every year.

41:46

God just blessed it. And it's all over the world. God's blessed us with an opportunity to share content, teaching, stuff

41:54

I've done with Doug all over the world. People have seen it millions and millions and millions of times.

42:00

Let me just give you an example of the kind of reach you have with these tools. YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.

42:07

I'll give you a good example. Two years ago, we went from Apologia Radio, how we were doing things, to God blessed us with the ability to start our own studio.

42:17

The story of that is amazing and fascinating, but I won't share that for the moment because it's just amazing how

42:22

God did that. We opened our own studio two years ago. And since that time, we have on YouTube alone almost five million new views.

42:35

Five million new views. And let me just tell you some of the statistics as we've pulled them down so you guys can hear the current stuff.

42:43

The United States, in the last two years, just since starting Apologia Studios, our channel has been watched.

42:52

These many minutes have been watched. 38 ,314 ,617 minutes in the

42:59

U .S. alone. 38 ,314 ,617 minutes were watched of our channel in the

43:08

U .S. alone. That's incredible. In Canada, 2 ,455 ,090 minutes watched in Canada in the last two years.

43:22

And some of you are saying, I wouldn't use that number. That means you lost. Take a minute to think about it.

43:32

Canada. Okay. Okay. United Kingdom.

43:38

2 ,232 ,134 minutes have been watched in the

43:43

United Kingdom. Australia, 1 ,531 ,453 ,000.

43:51

South Africa, about a million in South Africa minutes watched. New Zealand, half a million watched in New Zealand.

43:59

Half a million minutes watched in Philippines. Half a million in India. The Netherlands.

44:06

Yeah, the Dutch. 239 ,098. Sweden, 207 ,949.

44:13

Singapore, Malaysia, Norway, Mexico, Ireland, Kenya. Brazil, Japan, Trinidad, Finland, Jamaica, South Korea, Saudi Arabia.

44:24

These are the places that are watching this content. They're seeing it. They're understanding it.

44:29

I'll say this, too, in terms of gadgets and gizmos. We decided last year that we would do an event, a live stream event, to try to get the church mobilized to do the kind of work that we do in the area of abortion, just bring the gospel to the abortion mills, communicate the truth, offer help, and to work towards the end of abortion immediately in our nation, to bring justice immediately for the fatherless children.

44:53

So we put together a live stream event with these new tools we have with YouTube and Facebook, live stream event, high -quality cameras.

45:01

It doesn't have to just be a smartphone. You can do this at really relatively low cost. We held an event with three weeks' notice.

45:08

It ended up costing us $5 ,000 in travel expense stuff and new equipment needs we had.

45:16

We held an event that was seen by over 20 ,000 people the first four hours.

45:21

There were churches across the nation that actually set up at church with large screens and dozens and dozens of people to watch the live stream.

45:30

So we were able to communicate across the United States to local churches to get involved and get to the abortion mills to bring the gospel.

45:39

As a result of that, many ministries have popped up, and the gospel has been proclaimed thousands of times.

45:47

And we did all of that by using YouTube live stream. And by the way, that was free.

45:53

The only other costs were costs that we needed for the additional things like travel and the equipment.

46:01

Amazing thing that God has given to us. In the last couple of weeks, some of you guys know, we've started EndAbortionNow.

46:07

EndAbortionNow .com is where you guys can go to get linked up. The website is actually in the final stages now, getting ready to be released, so churches across the country can get connected.

46:16

When churches come to this website, there are training videos and tools, actual engagement with us on the website.

46:22

We actually send you free tracks, free resources and signs to use at the abortion clinics.

46:28

And there's an entire page where you go in, you type your name, you type your address, and you type in your email, and you push a button, and it sends from there a letter addressed from you from your website or from your email directly to the current legislators in your area, communicating to them that you want immediate justice for the fatherless, that you demand the criminalization of abortion in the area, and that you will support them, all at the click of a button.

46:59

How many servants would that take? How many hours would it take you to research in your state who actually the current legislators are, where you get a hold of them?

47:10

How many hours would that take you? We have it on a website with a button, and it immediately kicks out letters.

47:16

The United States can be full of Christians in every state sending letters to their legislatures demanding the immediate end of abortion in their state and telling them, we will support you when you do it.

47:27

All that's an end abortion now. We were able to raise, because of social media, because of Facebook, because of YouTube, all those tools, we were able to raise $250 ,000 in about three weeks.

47:39

$250 ,000 to fund all that we're doing. Another good example, Marcus was talking about this last night, it's fascinating.

47:48

Marcus and I went out to the Mormon temple in Mesa, Arizona during Christmas time. We got a device that cost,

47:55

Marcus, how much did that device cost? The device itself? The small one?

48:01

Okay, 600 bucks. 600 bucks, a little streaming device that he plugs into his camera, and it connects his camera, high quality camera, to Facebook Live.

48:12

Well, we gave it a shot. We plugged it in, we go out, we just start doing evangelism. We have no idea what's gonna happen.

48:18

We're literally standing there, and nothing can happen. It could be the most boring live stream ever. Just this.

48:27

And all of a sudden, God started bringing them. And we got into conflict at the Mormon temple, engaging with the gospel, and people were loved, and Christ was communicated to them.

48:37

And all of a sudden, I look over at Marcus, and he is happy, smiling. He's like, there's 650 people watching live at this very moment.

48:45

By the end of it, by the next morning, it had been seen by over 300 ,000 people.

48:51

And Marcus mentioned something. He had in his hand a $600 device that connected him to the world that essentially was what used to be a half a million dollar satellite truck.

49:03

We went from having satellite trucks owned by major media corporations to now a Christian ministry in Tempe, Arizona has a little device that's a satellite truck in our hands that communicates around the globe.

49:17

We have our own cable channel. We can make our own movies, our own

49:22

TV shows. We can communicate around the globe in a way that's better than they could do even in the 80s.

49:29

A good example of this, think about this. When we did our End Abortion Now event last year, when we did it last year, we were able to communicate to over 20 ,000 people live across the country.

49:39

That was in the year 2016. We would have only been able to do such a thing in around the year 1996 for probably millions of dollars.

49:51

And we were able to do it for near nothing. You can change the conversation.

49:57

We have Facebook Live, YouTube Live, all of these media mediums.

50:04

Change the conversation. I mentioned to you guys the last election and how the media was saying they couldn't believe it.

50:10

It was because of independent news. It was because of social media. That's how everyone's communicating. People were getting their information from Infowars.

50:18

Careful. They were getting it from Young Turks. They were getting it, very careful, they were getting it from independent news sources.

50:25

And the major news media, brothers and sisters, is dead, especially

50:31

CNN. They're never gonna recover. You are fake news. What did he say this week?

50:36

He said, no, I have a new name for you. You're very fake news, right? How are you gonna recover? They're still reeling, figuring it out.

50:43

You've now been identified. Fake news. People realize, can't trust them.

50:48

So who can we trust? Well, us. Us. And how are we gonna communicate?

50:55

Who's gonna listen to us? Well, let's go live. That's how it works.

51:03

That's how quickly you communicate with the world now. It's that fast.

51:09

That's how you get the message out, that fast. Let's go live. Like that. Can you imagine?

51:16

The Apostle Paul had to travel thousands of miles by foot. Sore feet, in danger from robbers, in danger from his own countrymen, shipwrecked to do what?

51:26

To communicate the gospel. He had to get to a certain place, communicate, do what he did, go to the next place, communicate in danger, difficulties, and now we have

51:35

Christians that can go, let's tell the world about Jesus. I'm gonna go live. Like that.

51:42

All over the planet. But no, Christian, the world is not getting better.

51:49

Quickly, last things, I know I'm a little over on time here. Cameras. Can you consider for a moment now that about 10 years ago, about 10 years ago, or a little less, to get a

52:02

RED camera. RED cameras were, they filmed Pirates of the Caribbean with the

52:07

RED cameras. They're filming all these new major movies with the RED camera. To get a RED camera was about $65 ,000.

52:13

Big price, but actually a decent price in terms of making a movie with a camera that was better than everyone.

52:20

Now you can get the same quality as the RED camera for about $8 ,000 to $10 ,000. So what they were using to make major films can now be put into the hands of the common person for about $8 ,000 to $10 ,000.

52:36

So you as a Christian now have the ability to produce movies, television, media, content for only thousands of dollars rather than millions and millions of dollars.

52:48

And you think, what about editing? I can make a movie now, but how do I edit it? Do you know that now the editing software that Quentin Tarantino used to do

52:57

Pulp Fiction this is not an endorsement for the movie by the way, but the editing software that he used to make

53:05

Pulp Fiction is available for free online. How many awards did that movie win?

53:13

How many people saw it? Now you can get cameras that are major cinematic movie cameras and an editing software that's for free.

53:23

Cable, by the way, is dead. It's dead. What are people now using to get their media and their movies?

53:30

What are they using to get their TV shows? Tell me. Netflix, Hulu. Hulu and Netflix annihilating cable.

53:38

What's that mean? People now can be discerning about what they want to see.

53:44

Now people are able to communicate to people who are making films, I don't like that,

53:51

I'm only gonna watch this. Whereas when cable providers were in charge, what are you getting? You're getting their choices, their media, and they feed them to you and you're a slave to their preferences and their worldview.

54:03

Now Christians have the ability to communicate with our click what we want to see.

54:09

We have the ability to create content and put it before the entire world. Nate's film,

54:15

The River Thief. I was amazed a couple weeks ago, I turned on Netflix, my wife was like, what are we gonna watch tonight?

54:21

And all of a sudden I was like, River Thief, Nate Wilson on Netflix. That's fantastic.

54:28

That's the kind of control that we have today. Cable is dead, major news media is dead.

54:36

Remember this, movies are preaching, news media is preaching, music is preaching, politics and law is not neutral.

54:44

The early church engaged at every level, boldly, with confidence.

54:50

You must suffer. Final thing, you must suffer.

54:57

Christian. Philippians 1 .29 says, it has been gifted to you, it has been granted to you, not only to believe in Christ, that's a gift, but also to suffer.

55:13

Every Christian goes, thank you for the first one, keep the second. Right? Both are gifts from God.

55:21

It's a gift to believe in Jesus, and it's a gift to suffer for his sake.

55:28

And I always want to check my own heart on this as well. Am I addicted to comfort?

55:37

Am I addicted to being liked by people? Or am

55:42

I willing for the cause of Christ and the glory of his kingdom, am I willing to lay my life down?

55:48

Am I willing to be hated by others for the glory of Christ? Who am I a slave to?

55:54

Am I a slave to Jesus who owns the world, who's the ruler of it, who has all authority? Or am

56:00

I a slave to somebody else? They're liking me. You must suffer.

56:08

The gospel is the power of God for salvation. Preach it in every avenue. Use all the gadgets and gizmos to do so.

56:16

Preach it. Preach it in your movies, Christians. We need Christians that will actually live a life that is dedicated with their own passion that God has given to them to creating amazing films that tell stories that are consistent with the biblical worldview, and they are films that do not stink.

56:38

Christian movies are awful. Please, somebody fix it.

56:46

We need Christians that are willing to dedicate their lives to actually glorifying God with good stories, good art, good cinematography, and put a movie out that the world goes, hey, that's a better story.

56:58

That's a better story, and it communicates the biblical worldview. Preach it in your movies. Preach it in your

57:04

TV shows. Preach it in your books and stories. Preach it in your politics. Preach it in education.

57:10

Preach it in science. Brothers and sisters, preach the gospel. Everywhere, and use every tool that God has given to us to do so.

57:19

Let's pray. Father, I pray that you'd bless what went out today, Lord. I know that there's so much more I could say and do on this.

57:26

I just pray that you would, Lord, raise people up. Raise people up that understand the context.

57:34

Raise people up that understand the story. Raise people up that will live lives that are godly, risky, missionary sacrifice.

57:44

Please, Lord God, wake your church up. Give us boldness and courage, and put your gospel on our lips.