WWUTT 820 Q&A Faith Growth, Phone Church, and Judah Smith?

What is faith and how do we grow in our faith? Can you go to church on your phone?

And what's the problem with Judah Smith? The answers to these questions and others when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible teaching podcast in the Word of Christ that we may teach and admonish one another in all wisdom with thankfulness in our hearts to God.

Tell your friends about our website, www .utt .com. And once again, it's

Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. You nailed that while I'm still opening my Bible to the place I needed to go to.

That was pretty awesome. I thought you were just doing a run through. I was. I didn't think we were just, here we go. It was great. We're on the air.

Woo -hoo. Hello, everybody. I can't say like, hello out there in radio land.

Nope. No. Then I choked. That was what I used to say in radio. I used to say, hello out there in radio land, you know, very in jest, but.

Broadcasting land. Yeah. Broadcasting land. Podcast land. Internet. Hello out there.

Out there. Out there. Out there. It echoes and it goes on and on and on.

It's the worldwide web and we are heard all over the world. Yes. How exciting.

So indeed, let your friends know about our podcast and the videos that we share on the Friday edition of the podcast.

We take questions from listeners. And the first question that we have today actually is a comment. Awesome. About one of the most recent videos that I posted.

Okay. You know, it had been almost a month since I had done a new video. Oh, I know. Terrible.

October was a really busy month. And then after that. It was super busy. We both got like the sinus stuff.

Oh, yeah. Still kicking it. Yep. Still trying to kick it. Still haven't totally gotten rid of it. And so because of that.

And it's going through a whole family too. It is. It's all the kids having it. And I couldn't record anything.

My voice was terrible. I don't like recording videos that are going to last for years when my voice is all sounding like this.

So I waited until that cleared up before I did another video. Sounded like how? When my voice is all sounding like that.

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. You know, that's what those videos would sound like if I was trying to record it all.

Oh, is this Gabe? Congestion and everything. Made it through a couple of podcasts, but my voice wasn't holding on very well.

It was kind of starting to fade there toward the end of it. So I finally got another video done, and I'm doing a series on Born Again right now.

The next one should be up on Friday. Well, on that note, the most recent one had to be uploaded because there was a typo.

Oh, no, not again. Several people pointed that out. Gary was one of them.

Thank you for your email, Gary. He says, thank you for your what videos? I've shared them with friends on Facebook.

Just a minor thing, but there's a reference in the video on being born again to John 3, 12 through 13.

I believe you meant it to be John 1, 12 through 13. Thanks again for your outstanding ministry.

So the conversation that Jesus has with Nicodemus is in John 3, but there's a reference later on in the video that I make to John 1, 12 through 13.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

And because the teaching of the video was primarily out of John 3, that's the reference that I put on it.

Of course. And it drives me crazy when I get that wrong. Yes, it does. Drives me nuts.

I can't leave the video. I have to take it down. I have to make the correction, and I have to re -upload it.

So that's what's happened. I did that. First world problems.

Touche. So I did that. I'm sorry. I did that Thursday night, and now

I have a new video to upload even on Friday. So you can watch the born again video again. Again again.

Again again. Born again again. And then the next video is born of water in the spirit, which is the next response that Jesus gives to Nicodemus in that conversation.

What does it mean to be born of water in the spirit? Right. So the first question, what does it mean to be born again? The second one is, what does it mean to be born of water in the spirit?

So you get both of those videos back to back now that you get to watch born again again. And then you can be born of water in the spirit and find out what that means.

Hopefully not again. Yeah. Thank you, Gary, for the email and for others who caught that.

Bravo, bravo for catching that the reference was not correct.

You go over those so many times. I do. I'm surprised that you don't catch things. That's one of the things.

Even if they're minute. Yeah. That's another one of the things that gets so frustrating about that is that I've went over that a thousand times.

At least. How did I miss? Usually what I'm combing it for, though, is like grammatical and spelling errors.

Even those will slip by me about once every 20 videos or so. Right. But I'm looking down at my

Bible and I'm looking at the screen and I'm going back and forth and I'm like, OK, I got all the wording right.

Yes. But I don't look at the numbers. That'll learn you.

Yeah. I didn't even consider that the reference wasn't correct there. It didn't even cross my mind.

Anyway, I got that taken care of, re uploaded, and then another video is coming out. So it's going to look like you got two videos back to back, but not really.

And I lose all the viewers on that, too, because the views on Facebook, it was like three or four thousand views.

It's OK. But people have shared them. Let it go. So they've been on their Facebook page. It's OK.

And now when someone clicks on it, the video is not going to be there anymore. It'll be fine. They'll just have to go find it again.

Like I said, it drives me crazy when I make those kinds of mistakes.

But thanks for bearing with me. You can submit your questions or corrections.

Yes. To when we understand the text at Gmail dot com. It was a few weeks back that we were talking about Flat Earth.

And so Frank sent me a wonderful little meme. Oh, and it was a joke that I had heard before, but nonetheless was a great laugh.

And so thanks for sending the meme by email as well. The only thing that flat earthers have to fear is fear itself.

Thanks for that, Frank. That was very good. I like it. OK, so this this next question now, this is this is an actual concern.

OK, I have to respond to this is from Robin. And Robin says,

I don't want to assume Robin's a guy or a girl. That name could go either way. Right. So Robin says, do you have any teaching videos on what it means to put your faith in Jesus or to have faith in Jesus or any videos about using commentaries and concordances and other resources for studying?

Many have believed and continue to teach that one does not have faith if one has to use commentaries and concordances and other resources written by men to interpret or better understand the word of God.

I'm not sure where this teaching started or why it is taught. They claim it is not having faith or that you are not letting the

Holy Spirit lead you if you choose to use such resources. I've been accused of this myself, and it seems using

Ephesians 411 doesn't persuade them. They believe that the Holy Spirit is all they need to guide them into truth.

And they've made outrageous claims about scripture that do not line up with its teaching. So I know this is not the

Holy Spirit directing them. That's very astute. Yes. Good job. That's that's good discernment there to recognize that what they're saying is from the

Holy Spirit doesn't line up with the scriptures. So therefore, it can't actually be from the Holy Spirit.

So Robin goes on. First, I'd like to understand what type of faith this is that they say is lacking or what faith they are talking about.

Isn't there only one faith? Faith in Christ. So if faith in Christ is what they say is lacking by using commentaries and other resources to study and understand

God's word, then why did God give the church apostles and prophets and preachers and teachers any help in understanding where they are getting this info or why this is taught would be greatly appreciated.

Robin, it seems to me that you've got a pretty good handle on this. Yes. You're just running into a group of people that are not sound in their belief.

Now whether or not they're unbelievers or they're heretics, that's I don't know enough details or enough information to be able to say.

But it is clear that they're relying upon their own thoughts and feelings. Their own understanding.

Right. To guide truth rather than what is said in the scriptures. So let me offer you a few more passages of scripture here.

First of all, your question about faith. Like what is faith? So the best description that we have of faith or the best definition is

Hebrews 11 1. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

So that's what Paul describes faith is. It's being sure of something.

It's assurance in the things that are hoped for. And so sure are you of those things that you are convicted to believe them.

Now faith is not blind. We don't practice a blind faith. Right. We believe the gospel which is written down for us in the pages of scripture.

You would not know what the gospel is or what Jesus taught without the

Bible. Very true. It's not that the Holy Spirit just conjured up some sort of belief spontaneously in your mind.

You came to faith through the word of Christ that was preached to you.

So Romans 10 17 faith comes through hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

So you came to faith because someone preached to you what Christ said in the

Bible and what God has said through his prophets who gave us the Old Testament and Christ's apostles who gave us the

New Testament. That's how you came to faith. And it's how you are growing in your faith.

Right. It's not just a conversion experience. There is also a growth that must take place.

And that growth happens through the word of Christ. Jesus said, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him.

That's John 14 23. Next verse, whoever does not love me does not keep my words.

And the word that you hear is not mine, but the father's who sent me in Isaiah 66 to God said, all these things my hand is made.

And so all these things came to be declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look.

He who is humble and contrite in spirit and who trembles at my word in the gospel of Luke.

Jesus said, whoever is ashamed of my words, I will be ashamed of him on the day of judgment.

What does contrite mean? Whoever has a a repentant spirit before the

Lord. Okay. So in Romans chapter 15 verse five, we are told no, sorry, verse four, whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we have hope.

So how do we have this hope and how do we have this faith that we have? It's through the instruction of the scriptures.

That's how we come to this. So you cannot grow in your faith without the Bible. It makes no sense that anyone would make the argument that, well,

I grow in my faith because the Holy Spirit is revealing things to me. And if I'm relying on the

Bible or through commentaries or other things that would help me understand the Bible, then

I'm not relying on the Holy Spirit. Right. Well, the Holy Spirit speaks through his word.

This is how God communicates to us. He does not speak in random voices or thoughts in your own mind.

So the same passage there or the same book of the Bible that I gave to you for a definition of faith,

Hebrews 11, one, when you go back to the very start of Hebrews chapter one, verse one, long ago at many times and in many ways,

God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things through whom also he created the world.

So Christ has spoken all things into existence by his word, and he is commanding us and growing us in faith and in love and in steadfastness through his word as well.

Yeah. And who was it that they didn't have the Bible for a long time and then they got out the scriptures and then they read through it.

We just read it in a Thursday night Bible study. Well, we've been going through Job. I think it was before Job, though.

So we were in, oh, oh, you're talking about like in Nehemiah? I think so.

So in Nehemiah, Ezra came forward with the law and preached it to the whole people.

Yes. And they were cut to the heart over the law that was read to them. Right. And then they also had the priests who helped to give the sense to the law.

Right. So that they could make sense and understand it and application and things like that. Exactly. Right. That right there, commentary in old school.

Absolutely. Yeah. So you have a mention even in the Old Testament of the need for teachers who would help us to understand the text.

They had what back then? Yeah. How about that? So Robin had mentioned

Ephesians 4, 11, and that was a great go -to verse, Robin. So like I said, I think you've got a good handle on how we're supposed to come to an understanding of faith and grow in this faith.

Exactly. In Ephesians 4, 11, we are told, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the

Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ.

Speaking the truth in love. Where do we have the truth? Right. In Christ. The Bible. From whom the whole body,

Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

And the way we started this section was with the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and the teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry.

That's right. So they help us understand what the Bible says and how it applies to our lives.

And Robin, you had asked in your question about how many faiths there are.

Isn't there only one faith? Faith in Christ. You're absolutely right. Exactly. In fact, there in Ephesians chapter four, that's what we have.

We are eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

And again, we come to understand what God says to us through his word, not through random thoughts and knowledge that pop into our head, visions and voices, et cetera.

Those kinds of things are exactly what Paul describes in Ephesians four as being tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine.

Mm hmm. Yes. I remember whenever I was just, I knew about scriptures, but I didn't know a lot.

So it wasn't quite a baby in the faith, but I think I was still infancy area, maybe toddler.

But anyway, I was relying on my own feelings about what the Bible was telling me. And I'd open up to any page of the

Bible and just read. And it was like, I had no idea what

I was doing. And I was coming up with, oh, yes, this is how you can apply this verse.

And I probably was one of those that quoted Satan saying that it was Jesus, you know? Oh, yeah.

Like in Matthew four, Satan's talking to Jesus and you're quoting Satan. And it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

I probably did that a time or two, you know, like totally took the text out of context.

And yeah. So don't rely on yourself. Yeah. Just read it as a whole.

And I think you're doing a great job. One of the things that as Paul is talking about this with the

Ephesians, Ephesians four, 11 through 16 is what I read. When he talks about how God gave the shepherds and the teachers to prepare the saints for the work of ministry, the church, the body of Christ, all of us together growing in the teaching of his word.

So we're listening to the teaching of the word from the pulpit. All of us are being grown under that same teaching and knowledge of God that comes from his word.

And we become a protection to one another. The church is a protection against false teaching.

Right. So you're not being tossed to and fro by every shifting wind of doctrine by human cunning and craftiness in deceitful schemes.

Rather, we are holding fast to one another who are all holding fast to Christ.

And we are being grown together through the knowledge of his word. Amen. A sound teaching church, one that is committed to the teaching of the word of God to expositional preaching becomes a safety to one another.

And with all that comes peace. Yes. A peace that surpasses all understanding. Right. Guarding your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, Philippians four, seven, and a peace that surpasses all understanding in the sense that it is peace with God.

Right. Which is better than, you know, peace that we get in our bodies, in our physiology, for it is peace with God.

We are no longer under the judgment of God, but we are in his favor through Jesus Christ.

And all of this assurance, this understanding, this comfort that we have comes from his word, the

Holy Spirit who speaks to us through the Bible. In second Peter chapter one, verse 16, for we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our

Lord Jesus Christ. But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty for when he received honor and glory from God, the father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory.

This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven for we were with him on the holy mountain.

So if somebody claims that they have heard the voice of God in their minds, in a dream, in some sort of vision or otherwise, they are claiming to be on par with the apostle

Peter. You mean to say that what's popped into your head couldn't possibly be just your own random thoughts.

Right. But you have seen something as glorious as Peter, James, and John saw on the Mount of Transfiguration and heard the voice of God say, this is my beloved son with whom

I am well pleased. Yeah. You must be very, very careful when you make such claims because you are claiming to either be equal to or greater than what the apostles have given to us in eyewitness accounts, which we have written down in the

Bible. Right. So then Peter goes on and he says, we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

So this is growing in faith and knowledge of God. Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the

Holy Spirit. Right. What we have in the Bible comes from the Holy Spirit. Right. What comes pops into a person's mind that they claim is some vision or voice from God does not come from the

Holy Spirit. Right. And Robin, you have a good handle on that, comparing what they are saying with what is in the scripture. And you're seeing that the two things do not line up.

As you were trying to witness to these people who are saying these things to you that are not biblical.

I would just encourage you to be patient and kind with each other that you show more patience with them than they are probably showing with you.

Oh, yeah. And you're going to get some pushback on it because they want to believe that they are right, that what they have that's popping into their minds does come from God, that God is on my side.

Right. And yet you're saying that you have a truer word in your Bible than what

I got in the vision or voice that I received. And so they're going to be offended by that. Oh, yeah. You have to be patient and you have to bear with the failings of the weak.

Romans 15 verses one and two, we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up.

For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.

So when there are people who are going to mock you for loving the word of Christ, they mocked

Christ first. Yes. And you are sharing in Christ's sufferings and that you are experiencing the same ridicule that he experienced.

Thank you for your question. And I hope that that was encouraging to you. I want to pray for you when we get to the end of the broadcast here.

Yeah. Make sure I remember we're praying for Robin. Okay. When we get to the end. All right. So Judah Smith, do you know who

Judah Smith is? Ever heard this name before? No. Okay. He's not a teacher that I've really talked about a lot, but he's on par with like Stephen Furtick, Ed Young Jr.

Hillsong. He does a lot of stuff with Hillsong and even Bethel Church and Jesus Culture and kind of some of that brand. Judah, who was the other guy

I was thinking of? Craig Rochelle down in Life Church down in Oklahoma City.

He's kind of all part of that same genre of teachers. Okay. They sound very spiritual.

They'll even quote some things from the Bible. And sometimes they're very knowledgeable of the verses that they use.

They know how to use the quick Iwana verses that they memorized, you know. Okay. Yeah. But they don't preach the gospel.

Now, Judah Smith, I have actually heard him teach the gospel. So I know that he knows it.

Okay. But it's very, very difficult to ever find that. It's few and far between. He's going to give you the feel good messages, not try to offend your spirit in your flesh with the gospel that you need to hear.

Offend their feelings. Right. So Judah Smith has this church. It's called, I want to say it's church.

It's. Oh, yeah. I remember now. It's Church Ohm. Ohm? That's the name of his church.

Like what you say whenever you're trying to mimic meditation.

It's spelled C -H -U -R -C -H -O -M -E. Oh. So it's supposed to be church home, but they're trying to be cute with the name.

Right. So it's C -H -U -R -C -H -O -M -E instead of church home.

Right. You know what it reminds me of? Okay. There was that movie,

That Thing You Do. And the band in the movie called themselves The Wonders.

Yes. But first they spelled it O -N -E. Yes. D -E -R -S.

So everybody was calling them The Oneeters. Yep. It's one of those occasions where you just try to be too creative and it.

Backfires. Right. Doesn't come out well at all. I think everybody knows what they're looking at when they see that name church home, but it's still it's church ohm.

Church ohm. Church ohm. That's the way that it's spelled. I've never heard anybody at that church actually pronounce it.

So I don't even know how they enunciate it. But anyway, it's a silly church name.

I'm going to dog on the name. It is a silly church name. Until I learned that that was the name of his church, when somebody would ask me, what church does he pastor?

I would say, I don't know, Judah Smith Church. It's just built around Judah Smith. Yeah. So earlier this month,

Judah Smith debuted a new app for his church and it's. An app?

Yeah. Okay. An app on your phone. You know what I'm talking about? So this app is church on your phone.

Okay. He actually pitched this as we have a new church plant.

It's on your phone. Oh, okay. That guy. Yes. So, okay. So you heard about this?

Yeah. I saw a retweet of it. Okay. Yeah. It kind of blew up on Twitter about a week and a half ago.

I don't even know what circles on Facebook were saying about it. But everybody. I don't know. We're seeing now

Judah Smith is throwing out a church plant. Yeah. With this phone app.

Yeah. And this is how. Not a plant. The app even has like a lobby that you can go in and meet people.

Oh. So it's just like a church. Wow. It's church. It's church on your phone, babe. No. I mean, we live in a virtual world.

Yeah. Technically. Seems that way. But not that virtual. Right. I can still go out and knock on my neighbor's door.

That's not fellowship. That's not fellowship at all. Whatever we do on social media, you're presenting a side of yourself.

Just one side. Yeah. And you get to control all of that. Yeah. You control what people see of yourself and things like that.

And it's not intimate at all. No. No one gets to see how you live, who you are.

They don't hear inflection in your voice. Oh, no. Yeah, definitely. There's no seeing. Because you can totally take something the wrong way.

There's not any true admonishment or encouragement that's going on there. And not to say that we can't give uplifting words to one another or pray for one another.

Right. We can certainly do that. But the way that... But it's different when you're in person. Yeah. You listen to When We Understand the

Text or any of the other Bible teaching podcasts that you listen to, to get something extra in addition to what you receive from your church on Sunday.

But we, as a ministry, still encourage you to go to church. You need to be with a body of believers whom you are fellowshipping with, growing with, hearing the word of God preached, just as we talked about a moment ago.

And together, you are singing songs and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in your hearts unto

God, as we read about in Colossians 3. Go to 1 John 4 and tell me how you're supposed to do what

God is commanding us to do there in 1 John 4, loving one another and doing that in a virtual world online.

Hebrews 10, verses 24 and 25. Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.

And all the more as you see the day drawing near. Jesus telling his disciples to fellowship regularly and break bread with one another and partaking in the

Lord's supper, the bread and the cup. And as often as you do this, do it in remembrance of me.

Meeting together at the table, the instruction about how to properly handle the Lord's supper that's given in 1

Corinthians 11. How can you virtually engage in the Lord's table together?

You can't do it. How do you submit to your elders? The instructions we have in 1

Peter 5, Hebrews 13, 1 Thessalonians 5.

The instructions that we have to submit to those who oversee the care of our souls.

No one is overseeing the care of you online. This happens at church.

Now, Becky and I have some wonderful friends and associations that we have on Twitter, but that's not church.

Right. And that's not even for Becky and I, these relationships that we have online aren't even remotely close to the relationships that we have in our church.

Right. We host people in our homes who come over to our house, who eat with us.

We open the Bible and study the scriptures together. We ask how one another is doing. We pray for each other.

We consider the needs of others in our church and how we can reach out to them and help them up. We're meeting new people and welcoming them in.

We're helping them get planted and acclimated in the community that they just moved into. Here's a good example.

If someone's in the hospital, would you rather have someone come visit you and give you flowers or feed your dog at the house or whatever while you're in the hospital, take care of things so you don't have to worry about a thing?

Or would you rather have somebody send you a message saying, I hope you feel better soon. I'm praying for you.

I mean, there's the difference. Sadly, at my dad's church, she got the latter instead of the former.

My poor dad. That's a whole nother can of worms. Yes. Anyway, so right there is only so much you're going to get online and you should not be developing the closest relationships that you have on the internet.

Right. The closest relationships you have should be your personal acquaintances. Yeah. Okay. Coming back to the

Judah Smith thing. So we've gone off on that tangent. Okay. Yes. We're coming back to the Judah Smith app now.

I'm going to let him do his pitch for his app and then I'm going to respond to some comments that came about this

Judah Smith app. All right. Hey, church. How are you? I am so excited to share with you probably the biggest reveal

I have ever had the privilege of doing in our church. It is our brand new location.

That's right. You're hearing it from me right now for the first time. We have a new location and that location is everywhere.

That's right. It's global. We now have Church Home Global. You can go to your favorite app store.

You can download it today. There's going to be regular content, daily content, fresh content, brand new content every single day.

One of my favorite parts is before the live worship experience, before the live service begins, you can meet new people in the lobby.

I know that sounds crazy, but there's an actual lobby where you can connect, meet people.

We're passionate about connecting people with God and each other. And this is going to be maybe the most effective platform we have ever used in doing so where people can actually build real tactile relationship all over the world.

So download it today. I love you so much. Thanks for watching. Okay. So he said the name of the church in there.

He said it Church Home. Yes, he did. Yes. Just to clarify. That is how you pronounce that even though it isn't spelled that way.

So anyway, there's his pitch for the church app. He pitches it as church on your phone.

And so I presented that on Twitter with the comment that Judah Smith is as false a teacher as this is as false a church.

This is not church. Church on your phone. You can't do church on your phone. No. And after making that comment, here was some of the other comments that I had in response.

Fellow by the name of Grant said, but he's wearing glasses and looks kind. How could he possibly be a false teacher? I know that's sarcastic, but I like the comment.

Second Corinthians chapter 11. Paul says even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, so you can't judge by appearances.

We have to judge who he is as a pastor, according to what he teaches, which I'm going to get to here in just a moment.

Okay. Matthew from Grand Island, New York. I wasn't aware of false teaching by Judah Smith. Care to elaborate.

Lizzie also on Twitter. I've not heard one thing heretical. He has said I'm on the radar of false teachers.

Well, I didn't say he was a heretic. I said he was a false teacher. Yeah. So it's the same as with Stephen Furtick or Ed Young, Jr.

Oftentimes you won't hear them being heretics. It's not like Joyce Meyer is a heretic or T .D.

Jakes, who denies the doctrine of the Trinity, but they won't teach the gospel or what version of the gospel that they teach will be incredibly distorted.

Right. Now, I think the general public puts the two together, like false teaching and heritage.

Yeah, they put them together like it's the same category. Like Beth Moore is a false teacher, but I've never heard her say anything that I would deem to be heretical.

Right. Bond from California. He said the following about this app. There's a group section of 340 plus groups that anyone can create as a ministry of the church.

Two were titled transgender Christians and queer Christians. So not a church.

Okay. From New Zealand. Is he a false teacher or is he just not a very good teacher?

I would say that he is a false teacher and he is also not a very good teacher. Yes. But I'm not going as far as calling

Smith a heretic because I haven't heard him say anything heretical. Right. Doesn't mean he hasn't.

I've not followed his sermons like I've followed Stephen Furtick's. Furtick is a

Southern Baptist guy and he's my age. And when I became a pastor, there were people that were kind of directing me his direction and say,

Hey, have you heard this guy, Stephen Furtick? I think you'd really like him. The very first thing I ever heard from Stephen Furtick was a train wreck.

So I knew right away that this was not going to be some sort of pastor I was going to follow, but I was going to hold fast to what

God's word says. Exactly. And so anyway, Judah Smith is right along in that vein.

He's just like Furtick, but he's the Furtick of the West Coast. Okay. Stephen Furtick's in North Carolina.

Judah Smith is up in Washington. And so I've not paid as close attention to Smith as I paid to Furtick, but there have been bits of pieces of things that I picked up from Judah Smith over the years that just further reassures me that he's not a teacher that anyone should be listening to.

So what you're going to hear is an interview that Judah Smith did with Maria Shriver, Arnold Schwarzenegger's ex -wife.

Can't pronounce Schwarzenegger. How is that again?

Can't pronounce Shriver. I can't pronounce pronounce. So you're going to hear

Maria, I'll just stick with that. There we go. Ask him a question here. They're kind of pushing a book of his and it's

Judah with his wife and they're being interviewed by Maria. And so Maria is going to start with a question and Judah is going to respond.

In the clips that I'm going to play for you here from this interview, you'll never hear the gospel. You'll hear plenty of opportunity for the gospel.

Judah won't share it. And in fact, he's even going to dodge when asked for it. Oh, all right.

So here we go. This is Maria asking a question about how to change the world and Judah Smith's response.

You talked about thinking we can live in a better country. What do you see and what do you imagine we can be?

In the words of Jesus, I didn't come to be served, but I came to serve and give my life.

I imagine life like that. I imagine myself being more of that man with my wife, with my children, with my friends in the community that I live in.

Okay, he's attempting to quote Mark 10 45 there. But what did Jesus actually say? For even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Mm hmm. Judah Smith is taking that passage out of context to say we just need to serve one another.

Ah, yes. Jesus came to lay his life down to die on the cross for our sins so that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

Right. And Judah is avoiding saying that. Instead, he's taking that passage out of context to say, see, that's just what we need.

We just need to be servants to one another. We just need to do nice things for people and will make the world a better place.

Folks, if you do nice things for people with every breath that you have till your dying day, you will succeed in doing only one thing, making the world a better place for a person who's going to hell.

You will give them a comfortable seat on their way to judgment. And that's it. Yeah. You will not have saved anyone and you will not have provided anyone with anything that they need in preparation for their own death and appearance before the judgment seat of Christ.

The only way that you can be a blessing to someone in this life, preparing them for the next is to give them the gospel, the very thing that Judah Smith would not give in that answer.

You might think, well, that was such a short clip. Does he not say it as we go on? Nope. He doesn't say it as we go on.

What if we woke up with an intention to live beyond ourselves and serve one another?

You can stop right there and just fantasize and dream and go. I mean, so much would change.

So much of the systemic pain and problem and issues that we're facing and doing our best to counter,

I think, gets back to the willingness to say, look, I want to serve. And of course, for me and my faith, what compels me to serve is not just nobility or discipline or because I think it's a great idea.

It's because I believe that Jesus has served me and given His life for me. And so it is my highest privilege and honor.

Paul, one of the great writers of the New Testament, said, it's my reasonable service to offer my life daily as service to you,

Jesus, and to humanity. And I dream of people who really internalize that, believe that, and start living their life in all fields of life.

Doing acts of service is an awesome thing to think about and dream about.

That is the social gospel. And I can't think of a better example of the social gospel than what

Judah Smith just did right there. Yeah. He said, we're just supposed to serve one another. We're just supposed to do kind acts of service for each other.

Right. Right. You give a person a comfortable seat on their way to hell. That's what he's talking about. Now, somebody might say, well, he said in that clip, give your life.

Jesus gave his life. Yeah, he didn't qualify that statement in any way. An atheist can give his life serving other people.

A soldier can give his life for the freedoms that we enjoy here in this country. That doesn't mean that he's done anything to save us from our sins.

Right. Jesus Christ died on the cross so that by faith in him, we would have the forgiveness of sins and we would have his righteousness so that we become acceptable in the eyes of God.

And now having repented of sin, we're to no longer walk in our old sinful ways, but we are to put on the new self being renewed in the image of our creator as we grow and become more like Christ growing in sanctification.

Right. It was preaching the gospel that the apostles did and they were martyred for.

Judah Smith is on stage talking with a liberal who is not offended at all by what it is that he's saying faith in Jesus is.

And in fact, one of the questions that was asked of him was, what is faith? We've been talking about that on the podcast today.

Yeah, we have. What is faith? That was a question that was asked of him too. Let's get to that part here. You write about faith and you describe faith and people struggle with the concept of faith, right?

So I'd love for you to define faith as you define it in, I will follow

Jesus. And for people who are struggling with that concept, because it's hard to put your hand on it.

How do you encourage them to trust in faith? And you also write about trust and your description of both is a little similar.

So I would like to know also what the definition is, how they are different and why you need both. In some ways,

I'd say faith is believing for things that are still in the future or yet to come.

And trust is having a peace in circumstances that are currently happening that you don't understand.

I know for us. Okay, stop it right there for a second. Judah Smith's voice changed.

Oh, yeah. Got a little bit higher. That's actually his wife who's with him. And I missed her name.

I'm sorry. I forgot what Judah's wife's name was. But anyway, the two of them are there because the book that they're being interviewed for, they wrote together.

She is a pastor of Church Home Church. Is that what you call their church?

Church Home Church. Oh, sorry.

Again, it's just one of those things where it's like, you just made this more confusing for people. You didn't really you didn't really create something that people are going to go.

Oh, Church Home Church. In the pitch for the app, he just said Church Home. I know, but it's ridiculous.

But she's a pastor there. So, of course, that goes against the instruction we have in First Timothy, I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man.

It is for a man to fill that position of a pastor in a church. So there is a deliberate rejection of scriptural instruction, of submitting to the authority of scripture in that church already.

But you heard her definition of faith there. She's saying that faith is trusting in things that are going to happen in the future that you don't see yet.

That's not what the Bible says. No. That faith is also believing in what

Christ has done. So where does where does believing what Jesus did on the cross for our sins come into that?

That's already been done. And we have it written about in the scriptures. And when we have faith, we are given an ability to believe what

God has done for us through his son, Jesus Christ. So it's not just future. It's past and present, as well as future.

It's understanding what God has done, what he is doing and what he is going to do. That all plays into faith.

But that's not what she said. It was future something.

And then trust has to do with trusting in God for the here and now. Anyway, all of this is coming off of the top of their heads.

It's not according to what scripture says. Hebrews 11, one faith is an assurance of things. Hope for a conviction of the things that are not seen.

We hope for what God is going to give to us in the future. And we hope for those things based on what we know he has done in the past as he has been faithful to his promises in the past.

So we know he is going to be faithful to his promises in the future. And if we have faith in God, we will demonstrate that we believe in him by obeying what he has told us to do.

Obedience is the evidence of our faith. Right. All right. So now going on, I had to interrupt her there since Judah Smith's voice changed.

Our journey, our relationship with God. Judah's dad passed away five years ago. And that wasn't a time for faith.

That was a time for trust. Whoa. I forgot that was there.

I would have let the clip play a little bit longer. Wrong kind of faith, honey.

Wrong kind of faith. That's not a time for faith. Oh, merciful heavens.

That's like the best time for faith. That's exactly when you trust in Christ.

And in this difference that they put between faith and trust, what is that about? Trusting in Christ is faith.

Well, because their definition is off. Yeah. So it has two totally different definitions.

Yeah. And either of which have to do with Jesus being our Savior. Or what the Bible says. Or what the Bible says.

Yeah. They haven't even talked about Christ as Savior here. He does mention somewhere in the interview about Christ being a

Savior. But again, it's still given in that whole worldly sense of, we just struggle and we go through things and Christ saves us from that.

It's not about forgiving us of our sins. It's almost like they say it enough in the right way that those who are sound in their doctrine can put it through their filter and think they know what he's talking about.

And those who are not sound in their theology and their knowledge of scriptures, they just, yeah, man, it makes me feel good.

They can put it through their own filter. It's that Mad Lib theology. Yes. Where you have to fill in the blanks on Mad Libs.

Yep. Right. And so he's not filling in the gaps. He's not even saying what the gospel is or giving sound definitions of biblical terms.

But I can see how somebody with sound doctrine, listening to him can't hear anything wrong with what he's saying.

Yeah. He's, yeah. I believe that. Yeah. I agree with all of that. Right. Yeah. So anyway, it's interesting.

Until you get to, well, that's not a time for faith. Yeah. That was, whoa, breaks.

Continuing on with Mrs. Smith's response. All right. That was a time for us as a son and a daughter -in -law, but also children of God to say, you know what,

God, you love me so much and this hurts so bad, but I trust in you.

And the peace that that brings to the human soul when we actually function in that trust for our current circumstances that we don't understand.

And I think faith is that element of things that are in the future that are going to happen or that are happening in the world that we don't understand.

And both have to have an admission of, I don't understand. I don't know this.

Of letting go. You have to be, acknowledge your powerlessness and have faith that you're on as you wrote in here or God wrote or Jesus wrote.

Somebody wrote in here. Maybe everybody's the same. Where's Mary? Where's Mary?

That's a great question. There's some empowered women in there. Gosh, I will follow Mary. That's part two.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Gotta get that on the move now, but. Now, unfortunately, all of whatever they're joking about right there is so jumbled.

I can't really make sense of it, but it sounds like Maria is making a comment about following Mary and Judah Smith just said that's in part two.

That's in the next book about following Mary. That's what I got out of that too. And in the video, when he says her fault, he pointed to his wife and said her fault.

That was the reason why Mary wasn't in the book. Okay. So I don't know what was going on there. Apparently there's some sort of an inside joke between them that I don't understand what that was supposed to mean.

Yeah. You know about the idea of letting go and trusting in God that things will work out, having faith that you're on the path, even though you don't understand it.

I completely agree. I think control is one of the biggest delusions in the human experience. I think this idea that we're in control is absolutely comical and hilarious.

And I think faith is fundamental to our entire experience, whether we acknowledge it or not, I guess is the point. It is real.

And it's been said before that everybody listening here or the chairs that I'm sitting in, I didn't even think about it.

I never even crossed my mind to think that possibly the chairmaker didn't do a good job. And when I sat down, I would fall on my back and maybe hurt myself.

It's possible. But I didn't even think about it because, again, I trust. I trust the constructs of this chair.

So faith is actually this active thing that's a part of our life every day, whether we're aware of it or not. So this call that preachers make or pastors make or priests make for faith is not this radical, outlandish request to believe and trust.

And I think people who are like, how could I believe in God? It's like, well, you believe in a lot of things.

It's just kind of in our makeup to do that. And I think... How do you answer that question? What's that? How can

I believe in God? You know, I've just... These terrible things have happened. I don't have a job. My parents are dead.

You know, I don't have any money. Why should I believe in God? Nothing's going my way. Yeah, well,

I tell them to talk to my wife. I think she has a lot of great answers. And then we talk about the

Super Bowl. But I think, you know, like, diversion's a powerful thing

I've learned. Yeah, right up there with denial, right? Boy, it's been hot, huh?

Obviously. What a coward. Yeah. That's the word I've got for him there. He's a big coward. He's a pastor.

Yeah, he's the one that you're supposed to be able to go to with these questions. The pastor, meaning shepherd, to give an understanding of what

God's word says to people who are asking. And yet he diverts it to his wife.

Yeah. Like, I'd rather talk about the Super Bowl. That's a question to her. You can't answer the question, why should

I believe in God? Let's start with this. Because you are a sinner who is under the wrath of God.

And you need a savior, lest you fall into judgment. And God has provided that savior in his son,

Jesus Christ, so that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. Amen.

For crying out loud, man, you could have responded with John 3, 16 to that question. Yeah. And he couldn't even do that.

Yeah, and that's an unwanted verse. That's one of the key verses that you learn in Sunday school, in kindergarten level

Sunday school. Yes. And he could not respond to a question my kids could have answered.

Why should I believe in God? He diverted it. He diverted it over to his wife, who didn't answer the question either.

And then he just skipped ahead to Super Bowl. Yeah. I'd rather talk about the Super Bowl. In my opinion, with the answer to that question right there, he has disqualified himself as a minister.

The guy is a fraud. And it doesn't matter if he's a heretic or not.

So again, the question was posed to us, well, I've never heard Judah Smith say anything heretical. Right.

Doesn't matter. He is a coward. He cannot even preach basic concepts of the gospel of Christ.

And everything that he's talked about up to this point is a very feel good message that who would disagree with it?

Right. Who would disagree that we need to help people and we need to make the world a better place?

Sure. But he just made sports more important than church right there. Right. With that answer, right?

Said, hey, it's okay for you to drop church to go watch the Seahawks. Yeah. Instead of, you don't even need it.

You've got it on your phone. Yeah. It's right there. That's right. Go to church. Go to the lobby. The lobby and make more friends.

I laugh, but really my heart's grieved over that. It disgusted me seeing that interview.

That was about two years ago. So like I said, I don't listen to many sermons from Judah Smith, but the bits and pieces that I catch are always awful.

And that's a prime example of that. That's so sad. He can't even respond to basic questions like that.

So yeah. Stay away from Judah Smith. Stay away from church home. Don't have anything to do with that app because it's not church anyway.

And it's going to do incredible harm. That's what I was going to say.

To people. It's going to do way more harm than good. Right. So thank you so much for listening today.

Yes. And again, if you want to send your questions, the email address is when we understand the text at gmail .com.

We are getting closer and closer to the G3 conference in January in Atlanta, Georgia. Yes, we are.

And you can still register for the conference by going to the letter G, the number three conference .com.

And we're going to be there. We've got a booth there still working on getting the booth together. And if you would like to help us out with some of those funds, you would be donating to our church.

So it's a tax deductible donation. Still have opportunity to do that before we get to the end of the year and write it off in your taxes next year.

That's right. So our website is www .utt .com and click on the give tab.

Either give online or you can send us a check. We'll take it either way. And then stop by our booth and say hi. Yeah, please.

Please come and say hello to us. And with what we're putting together for this booth, it's not just for the

G3 conference. Correct. If we have opportunity to do some other conferences in the future, we want to be able to make appearances there as well.

Yes. All right, let's conclude with prayer. We want to pray for Robin. Yes. Lord God, we thank you for the guidance that you have given to us in your word.

And it is through the preaching of the word of God that we have heard the gospel. And we've been convicted of sin.

And we've turned from unrighteousness to receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

And through this, we have become adopted sons and daughters of God. Right now, we are your children through faith in Jesus Christ.

And what a wonderful gift that has been extended to us in that while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us. And may that be the praise that is upon our lips every day. Thank you for the salvation that we've been given in Jesus Christ.

I pray for Robin, who emailed us today and asked this question about those around Robin, who are talking about faith in terms that are not being used in the

Bible. And believing that the Holy Spirit reveals these things to us apart from the

Bible. And if we rely on commentaries and teachers, and we're not actually trusting it and relying on the Holy Spirit.

I pray that you would give Robin a soundness of speech, a consistency in speech, preaching the gospel of Christ and helping to guide those who are not sound in their understanding.

And that Robin may do this in a patient way. So that these other individuals would be led out of the misunderstanding that they have.

And they would submit to the authority of the word of God, as it has been presented to us in the

Bible. And we would come to understand this growth of faith that we have comes only from God's word.

I pray that these people, Robin, ministers too, would come to understand that.

I pray for people who are being misled by Judah Smith and this ridiculous app that he has come up with.

May they see what the church is, according to what the Bible says the church is. A called out assembly of believers in Christ Jesus, who are praising

God together and growing in the knowledge of his word, encouraging and admonishing one another.

We are holding fast to Christ, the head of the church.

And we are becoming more and more like Christ together, helping one another in that process of sanctification until the day of Christ comes.

Keep us steadfast in the faith, longing all the more for that day of the

Lord to come. Not holding fast to this world, but we are looking heavenward, where we are seated with Christ above in glory until his glory is revealed.

And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. This is when we understand the text.

That was weird. Is that better? Oh, it wasn't you. It was me.

Oh, okay. Hang on. I need to... I need to open to...

I'll go through it while you're opening. This is when we understand the text.

A daily Bible teaching podcast in the word of Christ. Hey. There you go. I was reading that.

You said you were done. I didn't have my Bible open. Go. I never said

I was done. I never said that. Okay, go ahead. No, you told me 20 minutes. So I gave you much, much longer.