WWUTT 1390 Q&A Dividing a Portion, Fleeing from Satan, and Plurality Eldership

WWUTT Podcast

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Why does Isaiah 53, 12 say that Jesus will receive a portion, doesn't he get everything?

00:07

How can I know that I am after the things of Christ and not the things of Satan? And let's talk again about plurality eldership when we understand the text.

00:24

This is when we understand the text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ, which comes to us not only in word, but also in power and in the

00:33

Holy Spirit and with full conviction. Visit our website at www .utt

00:38

.com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Welcome to the program.

00:45

Yay. It's good weather, so we made it. That's right. Well, it's kind of good weather. It's still storming.

00:51

Yeah, we went from, there was a foot of snow on the ground this time a week ago in East Texas.

00:58

Yeah. There was a foot of snow on the ground and now there's thunder and lightning. Oh yeah. It feels like we're back in Kansas again.

01:05

I know. It's so weird. But the 60 degree, 75 degree weather yesterday was really nice.

01:12

Boy, that was really nice. That was really nice. I enjoyed that a lot. That can come and stay, but no, we're going to have a week of rain now, it seems like.

01:22

So we've had a lot of emails this week from folks saying, hey, praying for you guys in your move or congratulations on the move and all that.

01:29

That's not happening this week either. Well, it fell through. Yeah. Again. Yeah. I think we're on our third delay.

01:36

I think so. Yeah. So it should have been last week, but because of the mountain of snow that dumped over East Texas.

01:42

Right. Everybody was closed. Yep. I don't blame them. There was nothing that we can do. There's no snow plows out here.

01:50

No. There's no salt. They had scrapers out. They were scraping, literally scraping with scrapers to get the snow plowed off.

01:59

See, I know you're talking about tractors with the shovel underneath. Is that what you're talking about? Yeah. Yeah. I see that as people got out there with their ice scrapers for their car and they're like.

02:08

I'm talking. Yeah. It's like mopping the floor with a toothbrush. Yeah. It's me coming from working with a mine.

02:14

Sorry. Becky worked at a mine. Yeah. So she knows all the tractor names. So we got delayed again.

02:22

We should be moving in March. There's a question mark. Moving in March. Moving in March. Moving in March.

02:28

Yeah. Yeah. Tentatively now, the move day is March 6th, which is a Saturday. Which is the day after my dad gets done with surgery.

02:35

Oh, is that right? Mm -hmm. So that's on a Friday. Yeah. It'll be a big weekend. We thank you for all the well wishes.

02:43

Oh, yes. We're just sorry it doesn't apply right now. Yeah. It'll come. It'll come in handy. All in the

02:49

Lord's good timing. That is right. We're still very appreciative of Timberline Baptist Camp that has allowed us to stay there while we're in.

02:59

So kind. We're still in transition. Yes. They're being so patient, too. Yes. They're awesome. So if you're ever looking for a good place to gather in East Texas.

03:08

That is a great place. They have a lot. Check out Timberline Camps. Yes. Definitely. And we have another announcement to share.

03:15

We do. Not just about the move. Everybody knew about the move. You don't know about this one. Yeah. Or this number five,

03:23

I guess I should say. Yep. It's not this one. It's number five. Yep. Becky's expecting.

03:29

I'm pregnant and it'll be in the beginning of September. So it may or may not affect me going to G3.

03:38

Yes, that's true. So G3 is coming up in October this year. It depends on everything, how it goes.

03:45

We'll have an infant. Yes. But I've done that before. That's true. G3 conferences with an infant.

03:51

That was TGC, actually, that we went to with Aria. Is that the one you were thinking of?

03:57

We didn't go to G3 with an infant, did we? Who was it? It was Aria. No, not Aria.

04:03

Mariah. Oh, Riah. Yeah. Since we've been attending G3, only Mariah's been an infant.

04:08

Aria was an infant in 2015 when we went to TGC. Right. That was before TGC got too wonky and we were...

04:16

I barely remember that, though. Oh, man. I loved that trip. That was Orlando. That was before they moved to Indianapolis and it was like, we're not even leaving the heartland for that trip.

04:26

But Aria didn't sleep. So... No, she didn't. I don't remember anything for like two years of her life.

04:33

I remember the teenage usher guy telling me to get the stroller out of the aisle.

04:40

I was so frustrated with that guy. He's like, you little squirt, you come here.

04:48

So I went to the back. That's because we couldn't sleep. We're so grumpy. I went to the back with the stroller and I just stood back there.

04:56

Becky comes back in the room. She wasn't even with me at the time. Yeah. And she sees me standing back there all huffy and everything. Yes, you were very angry.

05:02

I remember that. She's like, what are you doing back here? Oh, that little teenage squirt over there, he told me

05:08

I had to get my stroller out of the aisle. Yeah. And Becky said, well, just leave the stroller here and come sit down.

05:15

I was like, oh, yeah, I could do that. I wanted to stand there and be grumpy.

05:22

Well, you know. So everything's bigger in Texas, including the

05:27

Hughes family. That's right. Baby number five on the way. And Becky. Baby number five and Becky.

05:34

Becky will be bigger in Texas. Okay, I got it. I got you.

05:42

The kids are super excited. Oh, yeah. New house, new baby. Yes. It's just awesome.

05:49

Nothing but joy in the Hughes household. Amen. All right, let's get to our questions here.

05:54

Friday is the Q &A, taking questions from the listeners and responding to them on the podcast.

06:00

You can submit a question to when we understand the text at gmail .com.

06:06

Before getting to this first question, though, Becky was sharing a story with me off mic before we hit record.

06:12

And and yeah, what do we do when we hit record? We started doing the program.

06:20

He's over here gesturing. I'm gesturing. I'm trying to find it. What do we do? What do we do when

06:25

I hit record? Is there a term for this? We blank. That's right.

06:31

So she was sharing with me that she was talking with a friend about Bible study. Right. And this friend was kind of grumpy during Bible study or something like that.

06:41

So how did that go? Well, no, she wasn't grumpy. She was just teaching. And she said that she didn't feel like she was really focused, focused in the moment, you know, as passionate as she should be.

06:53

She felt like she was very monotone, like it wasn't it wasn't her best. Right. Like she wants it to be right.

07:00

And so we kept talking. She had brought up that she had listened to a thing on like a kind of a podcast or an interview, maybe.

07:09

I think it was an interview on the way before she got to Bible study. The interview was with someone who is causing division right now and is not solid.

07:21

So this was a false teacher. It was a false teacher. She was on the way to teach and she's listening to a false teacher.

07:27

Yeah. Saying some. Did she know it was a false teacher? Yes. So she's listening to the false teacher.

07:33

She went into the whole situation knowing full well what she was getting into. And that's what she's listening to on the way to teach

07:40

Bible study. Right. Well, I mean, that even distracts me. You only have a short amount of time to listen to stuff.

07:46

And so, you know, you get to you get in your car and you're like, OK, I've been wanting to listen to this.

07:52

I'm just going to plug it in, you know, not even think about it. I get that. But I I know myself well enough that I get super agitated and I get like I'm normally a happy person.

08:05

I think like to think so. I don't know. You can vouch for that. I just described you to somebody today as being a very spunky person.

08:15

OK. Yeah. So whenever I hear false teachers, I don't even have to know their voices.

08:24

Just stuff that they'll say is off. And it's just off enough that it's irritating and it's like nails on a chalkboard for me.

08:31

Like, I can't handle it. And I can't go rebuke them for it because I'm not there in person.

08:38

So it's even more frustrating. Becky does not allow it in the house. No, I have to listen to my false teaching at work.

08:46

I can't bring it with headset on or with headphones on. Seriously, if I'm ever critiquing the room and I'm like giving him a look like what on earth is this?

08:57

It's so bad. It doesn't even have to be. She doesn't even have to gather what it is they're saying exactly.

09:04

It's like there's just something there she knows this is not God honoring Christ centered teaching.

09:11

Yep. And it bugs her that much. You know, we warn people so much about being careful with the teachers that you're listening to.

09:19

Right. And we hear a lot of people saying, well, most of what they say is good. You know, you just don't listen to the stuff or you ignore the stuff that's bad.

09:27

You eat the meat and you spit out the bones. Right. That's typically the phrase that goes along with that. Right.

09:32

You just don't have any idea how much bad teaching is affecting you.

09:38

Very true. That it's even affecting perceptions and moods and clouding your thinking and stuff like that.

09:46

And like even whenever you're in the word and you're trying to teach the word to others that affects you.

09:53

Yeah. And oh man, it's just it's poison. It is. Now, I listen to bad sermons and I will intentionally listen to them to know what's out there.

10:04

And then he's like, Becky, Becky, come here, come here. And I'm like, no, don't make me do this again.

10:10

I did that just the other night, didn't I? You did. Oh, it was with one of the what videos I did recently. Yeah. I was like, stop.

10:17

Yep. I did a video. It was the one where I was responding to that gal from TikTok that had the awful take on the appearance of the word homosexuality in scripture.

10:28

But I had heard just enough of it. I was like, no, I'm not listening anymore. Babe, it's just a 20 second clip.

10:35

Come on. No, too much. I was heading to bed. There was no way I was going to sleep.

10:42

So get your mind into solid teaching. Don't even flirt with those teachers that are just like, well, sometimes they say some good things and it doesn't matter.

10:54

Songs, they're all the same. Be careful about what you let in your mind. Be careful, little ears, what you hear.

11:00

Yeah. What you meditate on, what you remember, especially if it's songs, because they stick in your brain, you know, for a long time.

11:08

Right. I've got to be very careful about music, because I have that musically inclined brain that once I hear a song, it's just stuck in there.

11:17

And so even when it comes to critiquing and editing music and stuff like that, I have to be careful what I listen to. Sometimes when

11:22

I used to do a talk on a fairly regular basis with youth groups, I would do this about two or three times a year.

11:29

I would talk to them about the songs that they listen to and going through Jude and second

11:34

Peter chapter two on how these guys are false teachers. They are false prophets telling you worldly, awful things.

11:42

And I would go through the top 10 songs on the chart, whatever week I'm speaking to that youth group in,

11:50

I would see what's on the billboard top 10 for that week. Yeah. And I would go through lyrics, not necessarily

11:55

Christian music, but none of it's Christian music. Right. Yeah. It's all secular music. So I would grab the lyrics from those top 10 songs and show them this is what is popular right now.

12:06

This is what you're listening to. Whenever I would watch the music videos for it, because I would also say something about the videos,

12:12

I'd have them on mute. Yeah. So I never hear the song. I don't I don't even know what the song sounds like to this day.

12:20

I'm very proud of this fact to this day. I have never heard a Justin Bieber song.

12:26

Wow. Never have heard Justin Bieber. That's impressive. I've managed to keep myself from pop music enough that much.

12:33

But I know that when it gets into my head, it's stuck in there. Yeah. And it's really difficult to get it out, even when it comes to addressing youth with the kind of music choices that they make.

12:43

I'm careful about what I watch and what I listen to. Anyway. OK, so that's that was all that to say.

12:50

Yeah. Don't put poison in front of you. Don't eat poison. Don't eat it.

12:56

Yeah. It's not even a matter of eat the meat and spit out the bones. It's just straight up poison. There's you.

13:01

You say that with the impression that there's always something good there for you to get.

13:07

And sometimes there's not. Sometimes there's nothing beneficial for your soul whatsoever. Right.

13:13

And there can be heresy in something that is so deep and so bad that it doesn't even matter if there was like 30 minutes of solid teaching, but two or three minutes of heresy, the heresy poisons all of it.

13:26

Exactly. Remember Philippians four, eight and nine. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things, what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me.

13:52

Practice these things and the God of peace will be with you. As Paul said back in verse seven, the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

14:06

Yes. So focus on that, which is good and honoring and exalting of Christ the Lord. All right.

14:12

Let's get to our first question here. This one comes from Kat. She says, hi again, Pastor Gabe.

14:18

I hope and pray the move to your new living place went smooth and sound. Hope it still does.

14:23

Yep. Hasn't happened yet, but I sure appreciate the good wishes. Yes. I have another question for the

14:30

Friday Q &A. While reading Isaiah 53, it caught my eye that verse 12 says, therefore,

14:36

I will divide him a portion with the great. Why a portion?

14:42

Jesus said, I have been given all power and authority in heaven and on earth. Matthew 28, 18.

14:49

I am the resurrection and the life. John 11, 25. No one comes to the father, but through me.

14:56

John 14, six, et cetera. Thank you and God bless. Good scripture references there,

15:02

Kat. That was just great to read anyway. Let's look at Isaiah 53. It's just 12 verses.

15:07

So let's go ahead and read the whole thing here. All right. Always good for us. Verse one, who has believed what he has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the

15:17

Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground.

15:24

He had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him.

15:31

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

15:37

And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not.

15:44

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

15:53

But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.

16:02

And with his wounds, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.

16:08

We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

16:15

He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent.

16:25

So he opened not his mouth by oppression and judgment. He was taken away.

16:31

And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people, and they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth.

16:50

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for guilt.

16:59

He shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. The will of the

17:05

Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied.

17:13

By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

17:21

Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors.

17:34

Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors.

17:40

And of course, in that passage in Isaiah 53, that's all in reference to Christ that is prophetically pointing to the

17:48

Christ who would come 700 years after this was prophesied about him.

17:53

So the question that Kat had was regarding that last verse, verse 12. It says, therefore,

17:58

I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong.

18:04

Why just a portion? If Jesus has said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

18:12

Well, this is actually a metaphor here. I will divide him a portion with the many. What's the metaphor?

18:17

Do you know? Do you recognize that? Is it where, like, the king goes and conquers a land and then divides it amongst people?

18:26

Yeah, then he divides the spoil. Yeah, right. Exactly. So this is, Jesus is victorious and the father gives him everything.

18:34

Yeah, the word portion is used, but it means that the father has given all to the son. That's what it is.

18:40

It's metaphorical to that language that's used whenever a king conquers a people and a portion is received.

18:46

It's not a portion like we think of a portion. Well, I've got a drink. Yeah, that's right. I'm going to drink it.

18:52

I'm going to give you a portion of it. I have a pie in here. Here's a portion of the pie. But all of it does go to the son.

18:59

That's really the reference. So when Christ says in Matthew 28, 18, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, that's him saying,

19:09

I've received a portion, right? Yes. That all that the father would give to the son has been given to him.

19:17

Jesus receives all of the rights of the firstborn. That's the reference that's made in Colossians chapter one, right?

19:24

He is the firstborn of all creation. Doesn't mean he's the first creation, right?

19:30

It means that the father has given all of creation to the firstborn, the son. So, so just like the firstborn son receives all that the father has, right?

19:39

That's the reference there to Christ. So this is that same language here, just as a king conquers and then gives a portion of the spoil.

19:47

So it has been given to Christ and where it says he shall divide the spoil with the strong.

19:53

We who are in Christ are fellow heirs with him of his kingdom.

19:58

So we receive what the king gets. Yes. We who were formerly rebellious against the kingdom of God.

20:05

Now we are inheritors of the kingdom of God through faith in Christ. Amen.

20:10

Good question, Kat. Thank you for emailing that one in. This next one comes from Mark. He says, hello,

20:16

Pastor Gabe and Becky. I hope you are both doing well and I thank you for your wonderful ministry. I am a young man who suffers from severe

20:24

OCD or obsessive compulsive disorder. I have this fear of selling my soul to Satan in a moment of weakness and I am very afraid to mentally assent to some kind of pact.

20:37

It feels as if there is another mind inside of me that pressures me to blurt out blasphemies, obscenities and declarations of allegiance to Satan in return for success in life.

20:52

I hate it. I know that a Christian cannot be demon possessed, but some days it certainly feels like it.

21:00

I just want Christ more than anything and I want nothing and no help from Satan to accomplish anything in this world.

21:06

Only God's help and blessings. But it seems as if when I put effort into doing accomplishing tasks, there are thoughts in my head saying that I am selling my soul to Satan if this task succeeds.

21:22

And then when I am successful at something, I wonder if it was true that my soul has been sold to Satan and that this is irreversible.

21:30

Even though within me, I know I don't want any help from Satan or demons. If I tell other

21:35

Christians all of this, I'm afraid they will tell me to seek out psychiatric help, even though I've done much of that, been on many drugs and it's all useless.

21:43

I want spiritual help, not secular psychology. I don't know how to get rid of all this constant superstitious thinking.

21:52

Thank you for any help that you can give. Well, first of all, Mark, let me share this with you.

21:58

I had a friend several years back in the church that I was pastoring in Kansas at First Southern Baptist Church, which, by the way, congratulations to Ryan Sickinger and his family on their move to Junction City.

22:12

I've already seen a picture of him in my pulpit, the pulpit that I built.

22:17

It's hard. I rejoice to see him there. Yes. It's awesome that he has taken that up and he is continuing faithful biblical teaching there in that church.

22:28

That's great to see. But it's still tough. It's like, oh man, I built that pulpit. God bless you guys.

22:35

Enjoy that a lot. But anyway, so going back to First Southern Baptist Church there in Junction City, I had a friend there and he and I were both reading

22:43

Martin Luther at the same time. And so we had a lot of conversations about Luther. Luther was a tortured soul.

22:50

And it's not like he would necessarily say some of the same things that you're saying here,

22:55

Mark, but he certainly felt that way, like he hated any tendency in his flesh to go after the desires of his flesh rather than be passionate about the things of Christ.

23:08

So Paul's saying at the end of Romans 7, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?

23:15

That was like Martin Luther's slogan for his life, who will deliver me from this body of death?

23:21

And so there were constantly ascetic things sometimes that Martin Luther would do to himself.

23:26

Asceticism is that idea that, you know, maybe I can punish myself and that will get all the bad out.

23:32

But that doesn't work either because that just becomes legalism. That becomes I can purify myself.

23:39

Right. That's you doing something right to make it right. Or I must purify myself before I can come to God because I'm not worthy to come to God.

23:46

Well, there's nothing that you can do to purify yourself. Right. When you when you use dirty hands to wash dirty hands, you're still going to end up with dirty hands.

23:55

So the cleansing that we need only comes from Christ. And really, I would tell you to just continue to focus on the

24:03

Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the instruction that we have from James Chapter four, where we are told submit yourselves, therefore, to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

24:15

Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners and purify your hearts, you double minded, which again that that purifying and that cleansing comes from when we draw near to God and we cling to Christ.

24:31

Right. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

24:38

Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. So there is a certain sense here,

24:44

Mark, where your humility is very, very good. It is good for us to be humble before the

24:50

Lord because that's exactly what it says in James four, six. God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

24:57

At the same time, you must be careful not to fall into despair. Right. And if you're not truly focused on Christ, that will happen.

25:05

Right. You will despair in yourself and you will think Satan has conquered me rather than understanding that I am more than a conqueror because I'm in Christ Jesus.

25:17

Right. That's Romans chapter eight. So you do have an ability, uh, by the power of the spirit that has been poured into your heart to seize these things and surrender them unto

25:27

Christ and hold onto Christ and he's your assurance. You know, you're saved.

25:33

You know, the devil has no grip on you at all because you are in God's hand.

25:40

And as Jesus has said in John chapter 10, the father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one can snatch them out of my father's hand.

25:50

Right. No one can snatch them from Christ. No one can snatch them from the father. It's like you have the father and the son with two hands right there on you and nobody who can, who can overcome

26:00

God to snatch you out of the father's hand and the son's hand.

26:05

So true. So here would be an exercise or a little bit of encouragement that I might give you so you can have a little more assurance than you have presently.

26:16

This is advice I've given before. Nate Pickowitz, I believe, writes about this in his book, How to Eat Your Bible.

26:23

His new book, he instills some disciplines on how to read your Bible. In this particular book.

26:28

So here's my advice. I would tell you to read through all of 1 John, all five chapters in one sitting and do that every day for 30 days.

26:40

Read all of 1 John every day for 30 days. When you get done, do it again.

26:48

Do it a second time. Reading all of 1 John every day for 30 days.

26:53

After you do that, two sets of 30 days in a row, do it again.

26:59

Read all of 1 John again, all five chapters every day for 30 days.

27:04

When you've done that, go read the Gospel of John. So you have had now for three sets of 30 days, you've had 1

27:15

John instilled in your brain. It has filled up your heart. And there are things where after every reading, you see stuff that you did not see in the reading that you saw before.

27:25

I'm not giving you something legalistic to do. I'm not telling you do all of this and you will be saved. That's not what

27:30

I'm saying. Right. I'm saying that you are disciplining yourself to read God's word and conform your thinking to what is there in the

27:39

Bible. It's filling up your heart, desiring and possessing the mind of Christ.

27:45

And then you go from 1 John to reading the Gospel of John. And the Gospel of John now makes that much more sense because you've had

27:52

John's teaching in 1 John guiding what he teaches in the

27:58

Gospel of John. And then these things, it's just going to light up for you. And you're going to see Christ in the scriptures in such an amazing, powerful way that maybe you've never felt like you've seen before.

28:08

Yeah. And all of these things, I truly believe by the power of the Holy Spirit, Mark, I believe will give you assurance.

28:17

I believe will help you to understand what that means to cling to Christ. Because of course, of course, we're talking about something.

28:22

We're talking about something spiritual, not something you physically do. So just like you're asking here,

28:28

I don't want secular psychology. I need spiritual help. Right. You do. We all do.

28:34

Yes. It just may be that this is a blessing that God has given you that brings you to this realization more so than a lot of us have this realization.

28:43

A lot of us tend to think, hey, I'm just fine. Yeah, I'm doing good. That's right. Yeah. But maybe the

28:49

Lord is using this to draw your attention to him all the more. And so see this as a blessing.

28:55

Thank God for it. Rejoice in the Lord always. Seek after Christ. And I would truly encourage you to do that, especially as somebody who is

29:03

OCD. Yeah. It's going to become obsessive every day that I have to get in my word.

29:10

Yeah. Praise God for that. Amen. Amen. That's awesome. And when you work, work for the

29:15

Lord, and then you know that you have done well because you weren't doing it for yourself.

29:21

You weren't doing it for others. You were doing it for God. That's right. So that will give you assurance in your work as you're going through this process.

29:28

That's right. You are doing this not for your benefit. You are doing it because you want to see

29:35

Christ. Yeah. But you will benefit. Yes. It's not for you. It's for God.

29:41

Right. But he will bless you in this. I got one more question I want to get to here, but why don't we take a moment and pray for Mark?

29:48

Okay. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this man's heart, a real desire that he has to want to see

29:56

God. And as is said in the Beatitudes, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see

30:01

God. And so I pray that you would give that to Mark and give him some assurance and some understanding of what it means to have the righteousness of Christ, to be purified and cleansed by the washing of water through the word, fill up his heart with the

30:17

Holy Spirit and help him to come to your word with humility, desiring to see

30:23

God and give him assurance that has promised us whenever we cling to Christ, we will know that in Christ Jesus, nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our

30:34

Lord. I pray you would give this assurance to Mark and may he never tire of seeking

30:39

God and wanting to know you with all of his heart, soul, mind and strength.

30:45

Give him some good men around him who are able to encourage him and build him up. And we pray and ask these things in Jesus name.

30:52

Amen. Amen. May we all be as diligent as that. Yes. To want to see God and grow in the

30:58

Lord and grow each other in the Lord. Yes. In that as well. All right. One last question. This one's from John, because we've been talking about John.

31:06

We have a question from John. Greetings again, Pastor Gabe and Becky. It's been a while since you have discussed plurality eldership and exactly what that means.

31:16

In fact, it was while you were still pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas, that you last discussed it.

31:21

I think so. Yeah. And its benefits. Well, yeah, there's a lot of things I haven't discussed since then because we've only been here for about three months.

31:27

That's very true. I have spoken to a couple of pastors at church as I have visited, and they have great trepidation on the concept of plurality eldership.

31:38

And they explained that they did not want a body telling them what they could and could not preach.

31:44

I told them it was nothing like that. And I would like to get some information from you as to the proper context of what plurality eldership offers.

31:53

I know this is a big weekend for you guys. I pray that all goes well with the move.

31:58

I also want to reiterate how much I love listening to podcasts like yours while I'm driving to and fro between Georgia and Maryland every week.

32:07

Oh, wow. God bless you and your family and the ministry that you are doing. Well, I sure appreciate that, John. And thanks for following us.

32:13

Yes, thanks. Even though we've gone from Kansas to Texas, you've followed right along with us. That's right. Well, this is a tall order, and we're actually at the end of our time that we wanted to invest in a

32:24

Friday podcast. So it's difficult for me to want to do like a whole I don't know, you kind of have to.

32:31

You want to do a big thing about. I do. Yeah. Yeah. Like a 15 minute talk.

32:37

Let's do a whole spill on plurality eldership. Let's do a 90 second. I know

32:44

I have to live up to my reputation here. Can you think of a way to pull this into just a short couple of minutes here?

32:51

Okay. So the benefits of having plurality of elders is that you keep each other accountable.

32:59

It's not that you tell each other what to do, but you can encourage one another. You can bring everybody through what they're going through because there's things that pastors can't share with the congregation of what weighs on their heart, but they can share that with the elders.

33:16

That's right. And there's protection in that. And there is, um, there's, there's so many benefits.

33:22

You can, you can probably give more information about that than I can, but I just know you were, you were so much more comfortable having that plurality of elders around you and you just, your mood just lightened up so much when you were able to have those weekly meetings with the elders and, and talk and pray and study together.

33:44

And it was, it was just a different, it's on a different level because you guys are shepherding, you're teaching and, and you come at the

33:53

Bible study at a different angle and you come at, um, learning from the Bible and gleaning from the

33:59

Bible from a different angle because you guys have a different position and it's not that it's better, it's not that it's worse, it's just different.

34:07

And the things that weigh on your heart, I know they weighed big time on your heart. And it was just such a relief to be able to talk that out with others and be able to trust them.

34:18

That trust is a big thing. Yeah. And how that protection of, okay, this is going on.

34:23

How can we solve that? And it's not just up to one person. And because that,

34:30

I mean that all that weight comes down to that one person. And then if, if things go awry, he has no one to back them up, back him up.

34:39

He has no one to say, yeah, I can vouch for this. He has, he has nobody. There's nobody, there's no security in that.

34:47

So anyway, you can keep going. That was my 90 seconds. That was wonderful. That was great. Might've been closer to three minutes, but.

34:54

Regarding like a, a good ecclesiology, which is the study of the church, how churches function, operate, the structure of the church, things like that.

35:04

Uh, we come to the scriptures to understand that and plurality eldership is part of a good, solid ecclesiology.

35:10

You just go to Acts chapter 20 and when Paul comes to Miletus and he knows he's never going to see the

35:18

Ephesian elders again, he summons the elders to come to him. There's one church in Ephesus, but it's very clear there.

35:25

There's a whole plurality of eldership. And when he sends Timothy to Ephesus, Timothy is sent there to be like a pastor, like an overseer.

35:34

He's almost considered a first among equals. So he's among the eldership, but he's probably going to be their lead pastor in that.

35:42

Just kind of like here at, uh, at first Baptist church, we have plurality eldership, but pastor Tom is he's the pastor.

35:50

Yeah. He's the senior pastor. A typical Baptist sort of a mentality in all of this is that, uh, you know, the pastor operates like a

35:57

CEO and the deacons are his board of directors. That's a very American way to approach the leadership in the church, but it's not what we see in scripture.

36:06

And it doesn't, I mean, God made it best. He designed it. So that's the best way to have it.

36:11

And things work so much better whenever you're biblical. Yeah. Oh yeah. Just so much smoother. That's right.

36:18

So Titus one, five, Paul says to Titus, this is why I left you in Crete, that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders plural in every town singular as I directed you.

36:31

So you have churches that have been planted there on the Island of Crete, but they have not yet had eldership appointed in those particular churches.

36:39

Those men who are over or who are going to oversee the teaching and the spiritual needs of that church deacons care for the physical needs, right?

36:49

The, uh, the elders care for the spiritual and the teaching needs of the church. So they're knowledgeable.

36:55

They're able to teach. They fit all of the qualifications that are listed here in Titus one and in first Timothy chapter three, one through seven, but they're all shepherds in the church.

37:05

They're all responsible for, uh, for shepherding the flock of God as an elder is called to do that word.

37:12

Pastor means shepherd, right? Though we all have an equal responsibility in shepherding the flock of God.

37:19

All of us are equal in that calling. There's still one guy. That's going to be the one that's leading the charge.

37:25

And we see that in scripture. Like you've got all over, right? You've got James who was clearly the overseer of the church at Jerusalem.

37:33

And Timothy, as I mentioned, was being sent to be that main teaching guy there in, uh, in Ephesus.

37:41

So you see that pattern given throughout the scriptures. It's just, like I said, that might be a, uh, an ecclesiological layout for another time, but you did good in laying that, uh, a good summary out for me.

37:54

I appreciate that. Thank you for your question, John. And for everybody else, uh, you can send questions to when we understand the text at gmail .com.

38:03

And God willing, we'll be back next week. Yeah. Tell your friends about the program.

38:09

Yes, please. We sure appreciate you listening and coming back every week, even when Becky's not here. We promise it'll work out.

38:17

And then eventually we'll be able to do this from home and not our little storage closet at the church.

38:25

Heavenly father, we thank you for our time together. And I pray that what we've shared here on this program today becomes a blessing to somebody else, that the word of God goes forth, fills up hearts and minds with the, with the promises of your word, that we have everlasting life through faith in Jesus Christ, our

38:43

Lord, that our sins are forgiven and we have fellowship with God, convict our hearts.

38:49

Let there not be any worldly way in us to go after the things of this world, but help us to have the mind of Christ.

38:55

As we go throughout the rest of our weekend into the weekend, it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. So there was this story today, the associated press

40:10

Hasbro has dropped the mister off of Mr. Potato Head. I mean, they had a Mrs. Potato Head, so why would they have to drop the mister?

40:17

So Hasbro responded and they have the box of Mr. And the box of Mrs.,

40:23

but it just says potato head. It's Mr. Potato Head on the box, but it's just potato head.

40:28

Oh, but, but the announcement makes it better. Yeah. The announcement didn't show that. Okay. It was just Hasbro drops the mister from Mr.

40:38

Potato Head. Okay. Mr. Potato Head is no longer a mister.

40:43

Hot potato and lost. So I wrote down, I wrote down my favorite reactions right here.

40:51

Samuel C. People who make these decisions are potato heads. Nice. And this is the guy,

40:59

Jim Antley, I think is how you pronounce it. He's the editor for the Washington Examiner. Okay. So he says Hasbro should also delete the bro at the end of their name.

41:08

No joke. And then this one was, um,

41:14

Allie Beth Stuckey. Why is everything so unbelievably stupid? Yup.

41:21

My question is exactly whose life is better because of this decision? Well, I'm not triggered anymore.

41:28

Yeah. Cause that was a, that was a big problem on the flip side. I am triggered now. That was a big problem.

41:34

People walking down the toy aisle and seeing Mr. Potato Head and going, Oh, this world is oppressing me.

41:40

And a Mrs. Potato Head. I mean, even if you're wanting to be the other gender or the other, that implies that implies they're married.

41:49

It implies Mrs. Potato Head means she's married to Mr. Potato Head. But Mr.

41:55

Potato Head doesn't mean that he is married. The ring on his finger does. True.

42:02

So why didn't they get rid of that stuff? I don't know that there is a ring. I'm just saying. No, there was.

42:08

You could, you had a ring that you could put on Mr. Potato Head? No, no, no, no. It came with the ring. There's one that had a ring.

42:14

I think it might've been Mrs. though. It might've been the Mrs. Potato Head. Anyway, well, because back in the day, only the woman wore a ring.

42:23

Oh, really? It's only become a more recent fad that the guys started wearing a ring too.

42:28

We couldn't trust you. Could be. I'm just teasing. Uh, what a mess.