FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE ***Q&A with Mr&Mrs YourCalvinist***

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00:03

Live from the Theo shed in beautiful Callahan, Florida. It's Friday Your Calvinist podcast is filmed before a live studio audience

01:17

And Welcome back to your Calvinist podcast Friday night live with mr.

01:23

And mrs. Your Calvinist Yes, this is Keith and Jennifer Foskey coming at you for our last

01:29

Friday night live of the year. This will be the last time we do this show for 2024 next week.

01:38

It will be our first show of 2025 so thank you for joining us tonight and being with us for tonight's show

01:44

We have a lot of questions to get to that came to us through our email box I'm looking forward to walking through the answers to these questions with you

01:52

But before we do that, I just want to say Merry Christmas. I know

01:58

Christmas was a couple of days ago But if you're like our house, you're still sort of in that Christmas zone

02:04

Christmas movies are still playing on our televisions are everywhere. Yeah It's we're still dealing with the melee of all of the things all over the floor

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We have yet to really clean up. We've still got If you look around enough, you'll probably still find some

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Christmas wrapping paper, even though I am the wrapping paper just Monster when it's on Christmas morning

02:24

I'm not happy unless I'm collecting wrapping paper shoving it into a trash bag because that's my job

02:30

When somebody opens a gift, I'm like, that's great didn't even know I got it for you. But congratulations. Give me your wrapping paper

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Right. Yeah, what did we get? That's right It's like it was from you. I didn't know No idea

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I bought gifts for one person this year Her that's right. She bought for my mom

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My mom and stepmom she bought for my dad and stepdad. She bought for all of our kids She bought for all my nieces and nephews all my brother's kids

02:58

Wait, you know what? I'm I am fibbing. I did buy for one person.

03:03

I did buy for one person other than you Um, yeah, I know who that is my brother Bobby and my brother

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Bobby and I have a long -running tradition of buying each other movie -based

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Christmas gifts. So this year I bought him a Clock but it was the it was based on the dashboard of the delorean from back to the future.

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So it has all the times uh from the from the back to the future movie and it's got the red and the

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The the amber and the green light it's a really neat clock Um, so that was my gift for my brother.

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He got you a really cool gift. Oh, man You know what? I meant to bring it out here tonight

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He got me a cup that says pepsi and shoe polish. Why didn't

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I bring it tonight? Oh, man And he got me this really cool book.

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It's an ai book That tells the story of this podcast by by collecting information and printing it out

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It's just neat. I'll have to bring it on the next show Uh, I meant to bring it out here tonight and show it to you guys, but it's really cool so my brother and I we just have this kind of Tradition and and so that that was fun.

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But otherwise, like I said, most of my gifts are For this lady right here and um, do you have a good christmas?

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Did I do you right boo? You did boo. I did Okay, well good. I'm glad Well, it's good to see everybody out here tonight.

04:26

We are going to get quickly into the questions but before we do that, I just want to remind you of our

04:32

Sponsors, we have a few sponsors that we're going to be talking about through the show Our first one and longest running sponsor

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Is tiny bibles if you've been watching the show for any length of time and you haven't checked out tiny bibles yet Go do that today tinybibles .com.

04:46

It's the smallest printed bible on the market They also have the tiny gospel of john which is available, uh to read and give out they also have the 15 34 edition of the tindale new testament, which is able it's not tiny.

05:01

It's huge, but it's able to be purchased And they've got a new american standard bible version coming out in the spring

05:07

I'm going to have a commercial to show you in a few weeks as we begin to get closer to that So be on the lookout for that commercial when it comes

05:15

All right So we're going to mix up the commercials or the ads rather Into the questions so we don't spend all of our time at the beginning on that So we're going to move right into our first question

05:26

To get the ball rolling tonight because what we do here on friday night live is we answer questions that come in through email through YouTube through x and through facebook i'm calling it x now

05:35

I said I was not going to do that. I said I was going to keep it as twitter, but i'm calling it x People send in questions to us.

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We write those questions down on this little piece of paper right here And I don't write my answers down. I get my answers on the fly, but we put them all together

05:47

So that we're prepared jennifer asks the questions. I answer the questions We banter a bit and we move on if you have a question that you want to submit you can go to keithfoskey .com

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And send the question put it in the chat box. You can put it. Yeah, if you want to chat with us tonight We're watching this right here. I see some of our regulars to legit is here.

06:06

Factless cowboy is here Thank you guys for being here. We're so glad normal guy. I think I saw normal guys here

06:11

I think I saw mary up there. Yep. She's here You guys are awesome. And you guys who hang out with every time

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I see mary's name. I think mary mary Well, maybe let's hope not let's hope she's not

06:23

All right, but thank you guys for being with us. All right, jennifer hit me with the first question.

06:29

All right questions about sermon prep I hope this email finds you. Well, I was curious about your sermon prep steps

06:37

You mentioned your use of chat gpt for your email summaries and content help

06:42

Do you use that platform to help with your sermon prep? I have heard people champion it as a means to help them flush out their thoughts

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And I have heard people label it the devil. I am interested in your wisdom Thank you for your time and blessings to you and your family

06:57

First of all, thank you for that question Thank you for reaching out the person who asked that question

07:02

And this is a subject that I really enjoy talking about sermon preparation Is obviously one of the biggest parts of my job as a pastor.

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I preach every week Actually, I preach multiple times per week So a lot of my week is spent preparing for my sermon on sunday

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And then of course I teach on wednesday nights. I teach on thursday mornings at set free So i'm always preparing for those and for the academy class that I teach

07:24

So there's a lot of preparation that goes on a lot of reading a lot of studying And it's part of my job.

07:30

It's been part of my job now for almost 20 years. I enjoy it. I love it and uh, so I just so you know the person who asked this question and anyone else

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I did a series on on Practical tips for new pastors

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And and it was a series called not only water It was based on paul's admonition of timothy where he said take a little wine for your stomach and not only water

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Um, the idea was that was a practical thing that paul gave to timothy and I wanted to give a practical

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Bit of advice to younger pastors. I'm still younger myself I like to think but i'm not as young as some of you who may just be starting out

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So it was my sort of Way to give back, uh to try to help out so I will link the not only water

08:16

Um, i'm going to put that in my notes right here. I'm going to link that below because um

08:22

If anybody's interested in in looking at those I talk about prayer for pastors. I talk about sermon preparation

08:28

I talk about the steps that I take and all those things. Um, I don't talk about ai because I actually

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Made that series almost two years ago now And at that time ai wasn't as available is amazing how much things have changed in two years

08:43

Uh ai wasn't as available to me at that point And so I didn't include the use of ai

08:51

Because it wasn't something I was doing but I am now so i'll talk about it now so let's talk about the ethics of Artificial intelligence

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And real quick. I want to ask this question and maybe you might even be interested in in jumping in here.

09:09

Um, You know chocolate knocks Chocolate knocks from cross politic is a friend and he and I had talked about him coming on my show and doing an entire show about ethics

09:21

Surrounding the use of ai and how ai can be rightly used in like content creation and things like that So if you're interested in me doing that show i'm trying to get my schedule ready for 2025 and i've already got a couple of guys scheduled for the early part of january, but Pretty much my schedule is wide open and i'm looking to invite back some guests that i've had on before I'm gonna have layton flowers on again

09:43

I'm gonna have james white on again But if you are interested in me having chocolate knocks on to talk about artificial intelligence put that in the comments

09:50

I think that would be interesting Um, but I want I don't want to do it unless you guys want me to do it I want to know that there's an audience for my shows no reason to make a show if nobody's going to watch it

09:59

So let me know if you're interested in me having chocolate knocks on and uh, and i'll do that. Is this the question that's going to be

10:07

That's the next question, isn't it? Yeah, that's it that's coming up brother Uh, yeah that that that will be on in just a second.

10:13

So before we get there, let me finish this ai question All right so I think that ai as a tool

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Is going to become just as common in the next 10 years in our internet usage as search engines were 20 years ago when they came out.

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I remember I worked for america online Oh, by the way, I didn't ask you. What do you think about chocolate knocks coming on?

10:41

I think it's great You like him, right chocolate knocks a great guy. Funny guy family man. Good man.

10:47

All right Sorry, I didn't believe that. I was gonna ask you and I forgot to ask you Yeah, I love having very interested in ai

10:53

I don't know a lot about it Do you use ai at all? No None at all.

10:58

None at all. Okay No, well i've become Uh more of a user of it and like I said, I think in the next 10 years

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It's going to become just as common maybe even more than maybe even sooner than 10 years It's going to become just as common as search engines were 20 years ago when

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I started working for america online in 1999 If you don't know what america online was they used to give out the internet on cd -roms

11:20

If you can believe that the internet came on a disc like a thousand It said we'll give you a thousand hours for free

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And by the way for a person who worked for aol if you know anything about aol and you saw those little cds

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One would say a thousand hours another would say twenty five hundred hours. Another would say three thousand. It was all a lie It was unlimited.

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They just didn't want to say unlimited because nobody wants unlimited. They want a Amount they want to see that they're getting a thousand hours two thousand hours five.

11:43

It was all marketing It was a big scam and I know that because I was told that by corporate so It was a lie insider secrets.

11:51

Absolutely Absolutely All right. So, um, I see genie just put down you've got mail.

11:57

I can't take an email during the show Um, if you want to if you want maybe they've said you've got mail like oh, yeah, you've got mail like yeah

12:04

Okay. Well, I thought she meant she sent me an email Well, okay, cool. All right, so, um

12:10

Speaking getting back to ai Where ai is good Is ai is good as a tool

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But it is it's not something that should take the place Of the work that we normally would put in to sermon preparation

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So for instance, where would it be? Absolutely unethical what would be unethical to say?

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Okay this week i'm preaching john 1 1 2 3 go into sir. Uh, uh Um Chat gpt and say okay write me a sermon 2500 words on john 1 1 2 3

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And it does it now it can do that. I've seen it happen And you know what?

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Sometimes it's not that bad. Sometimes it's even better than what some people might write on their own

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Here's the problem That is not something That you drew out of the text and that you're presenting to the congregation based on the holy spirit's work in your life

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As you're studying and preparing the text to preach That isn't that is a machine doing that for you.

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I would say right away. That's unethical That would be wrong. That would be the wrong way to use the tool

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However, here is a potentially right way to use the tool in john 1 1

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There are three clauses There's john 1 1 a in the beginning was the word and rk ain't halagas

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There's john 1 1 b and the word was with god kai theos or uh, kai

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And the word uh, kai, uh halagas Prostantheon, uh, sorry.

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I missed I was trying to be all fancy and I messed it up now like a fool And then the last clause is john 1 1 3 which is uh

13:59

Sky net writing service john 1 1 3 kai theos and halagas and and the word was god in the third clause of john

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There's something called a predicate nominative, which is the there are two nominatives in that sentence there's theos and there's lagos and Halagas is the nominative of the sentence.

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It's the subject That's the subject case in greek and then theos is what's called the predicate nominative

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It's still in the subject case, but it's used as in in english. We would call that the predicate. I know you're like, yeah, that's okay

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Yeah, it's sometimes It's just sometimes these overly technical things aren't really helpful.

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But this is one of those times where There is some technicalities here that are helpful

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So if you went into chat gpt and said how could I explain a predicate nominative?

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To a group of people how what's the best way to explain predicate nominative? And get an idea from ai on how to better present a

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Subject how to better present a fact How could I better present the predicate nominative in john 1 1 c right?

15:08

I don't think that's unethical I think you're getting help in the same way that you might pull out a commentary or you pull out a book

15:14

I think that's the way that you could use it and it would be helpful Also, I just got done teaching eight weeks on The subject of church history early church history and there were times where I just needed dates for stuff

15:29

I needed the date of like the um, the diocletian um the diocletian persecution

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Uh, and uh, or no, i'm, sorry the demetian persecution, which was the first empire -wide persecution now

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It was in the book that I was using for the class, but I didn't know what page it was on So I quickly put it in I could google that but chat gpt is like google, right?

15:51

It's it's it's pulling up information and it's telling me where the information's coming from So that's helpful.

15:56

That's a quick way to get a small piece of information I already know this but I did

16:02

I had forgotten the date. So I need the date. It was 249 to 251 I remember it now so those are times when um uh

16:12

Dr. White's whiskers are trembling here and keith's great. Hey, don't give me a hard time. Okay, i'm doing my best here

16:18

I should be using this for homeschooling. Yeah So I think that chat gpt

16:23

I think that grock I think that uh, whatever facebook's got going for it now Which will never be as good.

16:29

Um, I think these are tools that can be useful. I think that it's interesting that um

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We're having to ask this question because it's showing how quick the technology is is coming at us

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And here's two predictions. I'm not a prophet nor the son of a prophet not even the husband of a prophet

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But i'm gonna tell you this Two things I I predict are going to happen. Number one

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I think seminaries are going to start having classes on the proper way to use ai ethically

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I can't say that's going to happen, but I believe it's going to happen because I think it's it's it's coming

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And and the second thing I think companies like logos and accordance And all of these other programs that are already providing us materials

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In ways that we never had 50 years ago. Nobody had bible works or logos or any of this stuff 50 years ago

17:25

I think they're going to start having ai tools in the software And I think it's probably going to be for the better.

17:32

So that's my thought on ai What are some of the dangers it could make people lazy only if you allow it to make you lazy

17:39

Only if you allow it to make you unethical The tool itself is not unethical. It's how you use it

17:45

The kid who is doing a paper for school and he says hey write me a paper about the second world war And it writes a paper that's unethical, but the kid who's doing research wrong.

17:54

Yeah Yeah It's gonna say something about a certain christian prince Uh bazinga gotta be careful

18:04

Awkwardly. Yeah, it's gonna be you know what I heard a a teacher This was brilliant to to to help catch children who were

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Just putting her instructions into chat gpt and getting their papers she would have

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In the small print of her instructions where like if they just copied and pasted it in there It would have something like add the word unicorn into this somewhere awkwardly

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And like she would read it and if she saw the word unicorn she would knew I made it because it did that so that's so Genius the the person who is doing that Uh, okay.

18:41

Somebody say careful now. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's that's dangerous Okay. Um All right, don't know what's going on.

18:50

Okay. All right. So that's um, my my thoughts about ai Um, oh by the way, this is something interesting sheldon just said something

18:59

I want I want to respond to that he said The ai is only trained on the input. So the input is wrong.

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Everything will be wrong. That is correct And and and I have proof of that which is really cool The other day

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I was on chat gpt and I just asked it a very simple question I said, how would you summarize the prologue of john's gospel john 1 verses 1 to 18?

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And it gave me a paragraph summary in that paragraph summary. It said these words it said the the prologue of john demonstrates superior theology

19:32

And I said what? Superior theology It knows who it's talking to it knows it's talking to me because that's my line the input with somebody on this channel

19:44

Well, no, i'm the inputter. I'm the inputter in the outdoor Okay All right, all right you guys out there

19:54

I was just kidding with the whole thing I see No, y 'all know i'm anyway,

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I see that Stuff popping up there. Okay. So my answer is

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You have a responsibility to your congregation to read the text interpret the text and apply the text according to Your effort and how the spirit has given you wisdom and skill and uh education

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Ai is a tool ai should not be the one doing the work. That's my answer All right crosswalk church of daytona

20:30

Who's that is that it's chris, where's he at Guys, if y 'all don't know this guy chris chris, it's great to see you brother and I look forward to seeing you next year our church may be hosting the uh southeast regional

20:46

Fire conference and I hope chris and brother mitch who are the pastors at crosswalk of daytona will be with us

20:53

Love you guys. It's good to see you. Thank you for watching tonight All right, let's uh, let's before we jump to the next question that was a great one let's just quickly talk about this

21:05

This is what do we believe it is an introduction to systematic theology? It answers a lot of questions about what we believe as christians.

21:13

It is put out by striving for eternity ministries And right now if you go and purchase this book and you go to the link that's in the description

21:22

Which will be in the description when this show is done because I haven't put the links in yet But when the link is in the description you go and purchase this book use my name keith as a coupon code

21:30

And you will get a discount So don't forget if you're interested in looking for a book that will help you

21:36

If you're teaching systematic theology if you're learning systematic theology, if you just want to learn more about the bible

21:42

Go check out that book at the link below All right, jennifer. Let's move to the next question, which the person who asked it is in the in the comments

21:50

So let's get to it Okay thoughts about snake handling churches All right, so from ai to from ai to snake handling that is one extreme to the other friday night

22:03

Okay I've known about snake handling churches for a while, but I haven't thought much about them

22:08

I've never seen one in my life. Have you ever interacted with brothers from those churches? Apparently they also drink strychnine a poison

22:17

Okay so, um, I all cards on the table

22:23

I have never had a conversation Interaction or email exchange with anyone from a snake handling church

22:32

I am Crazy aphidiophobic. Yes, and if you don't know what aphidiophobia is that is the fear of snakes

22:41

I am like 10 times indiana jones and if you know anything about indiana jones He was very much afraid of snakes and i'm afraid of his fear like i'm so afraid of snakes it's crazy one day my wife

22:54

Texted me. I was sitting in this office. She texted me. She goes your son Has caught a snake

23:00

And I said I typed I texted back. I said not my son He does not carry my dna. I don't know who this child is.

23:07

You're talking about that. Not my child I walk outside my son is holding the snake by the tail like moses

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He is sitting and it's dangling and he's doing this sort of um, uh crocodile hunter.

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Oh crikey Looking at this thing swinging it around and i'm going nuts. She's laughing and I am not

23:29

I uh, this was the craziest thing i've ever seen I don't care if it was voted the nicest snake in its class.

23:37

It's a snake and it's awful He was not holding a cobra. It's in the bible It was

23:44

It was a friendly snake, by the way, I just quoted bill ingvall for anybody who knows Okay, james

23:51

Hey james james Yeah, well if you yeah, I want to I want to invite you james to not do that, please don't do that Uh, but it's good to see you out there brother.

24:01

Hope you're feeling better. Uh, it's uh, It's good to see your face in the picture, of course all right, so Um, so everything i'm going to say about snake handling churches is um

24:15

It is is not in direct contact with snake handlers. I've never had a direct contact with snake handlers

24:21

I've never got involved with any of them, but I did grow up going to holiness churches with my mom's side of the family

24:32

And and the only reason why I bring that up is some of the same beliefs Have some crossovers in the holiness movement and in the snake handling movement because a lot of these pentecostal sort of hyper charismatic movements

24:51

Sort of all swim in the same water now Just to be clear. My mom's church never handled snakes.

24:57

I don't think they believed in handling snakes I'm, just saying I remember being in churches with her when

25:03

I was younger and there was a lot of shouting a lot of running Around a lot of being slain in the spirit.

25:08

That was very common um I've told the story before about how I would see the pastor walking on the pews and I remember seeing his leather shoes walk by And he's snapping his fingers going.

25:18

Are you going to hell? Are you going to hell? I mean he was very very animated And he's uh, he's he's a good man.

25:24

I know him. He's actually a friend of mine looks just like ned flanders Tell me i'm wrong, you know exactly what i'm talking about too, right?

25:32

Great guy But he's he's very charismatic hyper I would say hyper pentecostal hyper charismatic so with that being said, um

25:43

The belief in snake handling obviously comes from and What I would say is a wrong interpretation

25:50

Of the final verses of mark's gospel now This takes on a whole other issue and that is the question of whether marks the ending of mark's gospel

26:00

Is even authentic because those who study textual criticism know that there are three major textual variants in the new testament

26:07

Which is the longer ending of mark the pericope adultery and the kamiohonium all three of those are

26:13

Argued by by people who practice textual criticism as to whether or not they're authentic and i've done shows on those before In fact, my buddy who's often here.

26:22

He may even be here tonight Does a channel, uh, his name is duane green he does a channel on textual variants

26:29

He and I did a show together. I did it on his channel on um on textual variation so But let's just say for argument's sake that mark 16 is authentic.

26:40

Let's just let's just Not make the variant the issue it does say that there are those who will um be bitten by serpents and they will not die they'll drink poison and not get sick and so Those who take that scripture and apply it to this practice of handling snakes drinking shrek 9

27:02

I watched the person who sent this email and sent in a video And or with that with the email and I just it was too long of a video to show

27:10

And the video was these people just screaming this guy was saying I went to the doctor and he said

27:15

I had A disease and I forget it was like hepatitis or something and he said I went back the next day and I didn't have it

27:20

Anymore, so they're very confident in this But here's what I know um there is no reason to tempt the lord or to put the lord to the test and Anything that we see in scripture like paul being bitten by the snake on the island of malta

27:41

And that snake not hurting him. That is not an encouragement to us to go out and pick up snakes and expect to not be injured

27:49

That's that's not what those texts are there for I don't even think that that's if that's if mark if mark 16 is authentic I don't think that that's what mark 16 is trying to tell us

27:58

I think mark 16 is actually pointing to what happened in the life of Paul paul was bitten by a snake and it didn't hurt him.

28:06

It was a demonstration of his Uh protection from the lord for his apostolic ministry

28:11

But it's not something that we're supposed to go out and tempt the lord to go out and and and try

28:17

Last uh, not last year, but a couple years ago james white did a debate with um him and jeff durbin debated two atheists and one of the atheists

28:26

Pulled out antifreeze pressed on antifreeze and he said drink this antifreeze prove that you're a real christian

28:32

Because if you're a real christian you can drink this and the and the poison is not going to hurt you And then he screamed at the audience and said you see this guy

28:39

He really doesn't believe it if he believed it he'd drink this antifreeze In fact anchor just mentioned that Literally you beat me to it.

28:47

Yeah, you did. Um so I think that people who practice this

28:55

And this is not i'm not trying to impugn them as people as i'm not trying to impugn them as Their intelligence or anything like that, but I do think oftentimes this is a replacement

29:08

This is a replacement for genuine spirituality These grandiose activities drinking poison

29:17

Handling snakes and all of these things are replacement for simple lived out christianity

29:23

The fruit of the spirit is love joy. Peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self -control against such

29:29

There is no law the fruit of the spirit is not handling snakes and drinking poison And that's just the simple answer.

29:35

There's no reason to do it It's foolish and many of these people have died

29:40

There are documented cases of these people handling snakes drinking poison And it taking their life and I think it did

29:47

I think it was a demonstration of foolishness And therefore I do not endorse it I think the people who are practicing it are often practicing it in ignorance and the most dangerous thing in the world

29:59

Is a person who is confidently ignorant We were just talking about that most dangerous thing in the world is confident ignorance

30:07

And that's what happens when people are handling snakes and drinking poison So that's my thoughts about that All right, jennifer.

30:15

Let's move on to question confident about things on the internet that they don't know about. That's right I think

30:22

I Okay. Now I have to mention this I I I um I do work with set free ministries.

30:30

I've talked about that before i've done a podcast, uh during set free fundraiser and um

30:35

I go there a lot and a lot of those guys who are new coming into set free are just off the street Some of them are just getting off drugs and things like that And oftentimes they when they start sobering up they start wanting to argue the bible

30:47

Which is not the time to argue the bible You need to start listening not arguing and one of the things that I often want to argue about is the nepheline

30:54

And so I I told my brother who works there. He works and ministers there I said I was going to have a shirt that says if you care more about the nepheline than you care about g or If you try if you if how did how did it say it?

31:05

If you if you if you ask as many questions about jesus as you do about the nepheline you'd gross You would have a better spiritual life.

31:12

I think is how it said, but but basically that's that's this kind of thing We want to deal with this stuff over here.

31:18

That doesn't matter The nepheline don't matter. I mean, it's a great question and you know, people can talk about it

31:25

But it doesn't matter if you don't know who jesus is it doesn't matter if you figured out the nepheline All right

31:32

Okay All right Okay, wait, I want to I want to answer this question great question

31:39

Biblicist just asked a great question and it's a follow -up So let me pull it up here.

31:45

All right Biblicist asked this question. What about people who don't take medication for sickness?

31:52

Oh man Now I I want to say this right off. That's a great question.

31:58

And I do put that in one in a slightly different category um, because It it really

32:04

I think depends on the the medication and the reasoning so for instance

32:12

Let's say a person says um I I have terrible cancer

32:20

I know that I only have six months to live and If I take chemo

32:26

I might live another year or two But the chemo is going to drastically decrease the quality of my life and therefore i'm choosing not to take the chemo

32:33

But to live my life the last six months Right. I think that's different Than someone who says god has healed me.

32:40

I'm not taking the medicine and confident in something that hasn't happened

32:46

Or confident in something they believe is going to happen, but doesn't I think there's a difference there and I think people who say

32:52

I don't want medicine Are in in one way um simply

32:59

Forgoing a blessing that god has given us god has given us the blessing of medicine God has given us the blessing of surgery of which has saved my life on several occasions.

33:09

I've had surgery. I've had life -saving surgeries um My wife has had surgeries that are essentially life -saving um and Thanks.

33:20

Thanks. Thanks me to god. That was the medium of his Spirit's power in that healing process and every time

33:26

I go to pray by a bedside every time I pray at a hospital I pray the same prayer that god is ultimately the author of all healing but he uses different mediums or he uses different Methods for bringing about his healing and I do believe medicine is one of those methods

33:41

So ultimately if a person said I don't use medicine because I don't believe god wants me to use medicine

33:47

I would want to ask them to prove that to me from the bible Because even the bible references using certain things for the good of the body like when paul

33:57

Exactly. It's you you beat me. Everybody's outrunning me tonight But paul told timothy take a little wine for your stomach for your for your many infirmities, right?

34:07

Why because it was a helpful thing. It was it was a it was like a medication. It was a balm

34:12

It was it was healthy for him to do that. It would help his health So I do think medicine is um a good thing a um

34:22

It If somebody said I don't want to I don't want the medication because The medication is going to make me more sick.

34:31

Like I said, sometimes chemo does that that's one thing But I will tell this quick story you could argue maybe holistic

34:37

Yeah, and there is and I and I believe that there are certain holistic things that are that are useful and helpful I want to tell this story and um, this might seem like an aside, but I think it's useful

34:49

And you remember this We had a we had a young lady at our church Uh who was diagnosed with a terrible tumor?

34:57

And it was a brain tumor and it was um an inoperable brain tumor which was

35:03

Always fatal. It's one of those things. It's you know, uh, it was a fatal They they knew what was coming and she was a teenage girl and Um, we prayed and prayed that god would heal her we

35:17

Helped raise money for her to get some special treatments that might help um

35:23

She did eventually pass away and it was a very Very sad time for our church But here's the part that really

35:30

Really was was hard When we were doing the fundraiser to raise money for her to get some treatments

35:36

A man was there and I prayed publicly for this young girl And I prayed that god would heal her

35:44

And I prayed that prayer every day for her for the year and a half or so that she had that terrible disease

35:51

And this man chastised me Not publicly. He at least pulled me to the side

35:58

But he chastised me because he said You don't need to pray for god to heal her god told me he already healed her

36:08

And therefore you just need to be praying and thanking god that she's already healed And I have never in my life wanted to slap the slobber out of somebody's mouth more than I did in that moment

36:21

Because number one it was obvious the young girl was not healed in that moment. She was very ill from the sickness and number two

36:29

This guy chastising me for praying for her healing and instead saying I should agree with his prophetic utterance

36:36

Which was nonsense Was very angering to me very frustrating to me

36:44

And quite honestly, that's the kind of thing that I think Is sickening in the body of christ that people would make pronouncements of healing because when she didn't get healed and she did die

36:55

It is my absolute certainty that that guy blamed everyone else Because he had the faith for her to be healed

37:01

But nobody else did and that kind of sick Twisted hyper charismatic mania that exists in the church is absolutely disgusting

37:13

And uh, lindsey I prayed for patience. Yes. She said did you pray for patience? Yes. Um, I I I I was very angry with that man that day

37:23

Uh, and my heart still breaks for that family uh, because not only And i've seen i've seen wild stuff.

37:31

I've seen a young man die And a and a lady showed up Who was unknown to the family unknown to anybody she showed up at the funeral

37:41

And laid on him in the casket laid her body across them and started yelling and shouting

37:47

And I had to make her move And she and she was trying to raise him from the dead and the family was

37:56

Devastated And I was so angry Because that type of hyper charismatic nonsense

38:03

Is not useful for the body of christ I'm telling you that's not useful for the body of christ and you remember that I remember that both both those stories

38:12

So, I mean i've seen i've seen this is what going back to the whole snake handling thing It's not useful for the body of christ ultimately not useful so, uh

38:22

Okay All right I got a little emotional there Uh, but that absolutely happened.

38:28

I remember the family asking me. Can you can you stop her? In fact the the the because they they they were so mortified

38:35

And I I just said I will absolutely stop her and I walked up to the man next to her who would will come in With her I put my hand on her shoulder.

38:42

I said you need to get her off of him right now or i'm going to And I I mean i'm not an unassuming individual when

38:49

I want to be I don't know and he's and he reached down grabbed her say you need to go you need to go

38:56

And she did. All right, so Uh All right, we are only two questions deep and we're 40 minutes in let's let's uh, let's try to move actually let's do this

39:08

I need to take a quick break get a little sip of uh, water, let's hear from our uh, our good friend over at uh

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40:32

He's an awesome guy and We're going to move now to question number three. Okay Why would you describe revelation 13 as an all male believer?

40:41

Does the all male view describe this chapter differently than the pre -mill dispensational view? It sounds like real people in real time

40:48

I don't view the millennium as an actual 1 000 years of christ on earth before the end.

40:54

I view the present day as The end times with satan still loose today to deceive and jesus's return imminent

41:02

This chapter confuses me though because I hear john mccarthur's interpretation in my head.

41:07

Could you point me in the right direction? Yes, thank you for asking a question about amillennialism

41:14

Because you know I'm the king. Where's your crown? I am the king of amillennialism

41:21

I'm sorry Just have to hold that title as long as I can Um, no, uh, let me say this about the question

41:31

Amillennialism is a particular interpretation of revelation 13 but it it

41:38

The it it is not a ubiquitous understanding of all of revelation

41:44

There are amillennialists who take different positions on revelation And revelation has at least four different ways that it can be understood

41:53

The four different ways are preterist which means it took place in the past. That's what preterist means

41:59

It just means that it's already happened or took place in the past There is the idealist position that sees it as being somewhat of an analogy for the for Evil and and good in the battle that is waged throughout time

42:12

There is the historicist position that says it's being worked out through history. This is one of the positions that was taken

42:19

By some of the reformers and we see this in some of their writings And there's the futurist position that says revelation chapter four and beyond is all things that are going to happen in the future

42:29

And dispensational premillennialism often says that that's going to begin with the rapture of the church And then everything after the rapture is what happens from revelation chapter four all the way to the end of the book.

42:40

So there are different positions on revelation And being an amillennialist

42:47

Doesn't mean you absolutely take one of those four positions. I am a partial preterist amillennialist

42:56

Which is it simply means that I believe that revelation up to chapter 19

43:02

Are is referring to things that happened in the past and that the 20th chapter of revelation is talking about The entire church age i've taught on this i've done debates on this

43:17

I debated lucas cursio on revelation chapter 20. You can look that up on my channel So revelation 13 is a hugely important chapter because that's a chapter that talks about the mark of the beast

43:28

Talks about the beast rising up out of the sea. It talks about the false prophet talks about Not being able to buy or sell without the mark of the beast all of those things happen revelation 13.

43:37

So that's a huge marking point Depending on where you are is going to be how you understand that For the partial preterist we think that the the number 666 and that refers to nero

43:50

Therefore we see this as referring to something that happened in the first century However, we even people who take my position will often talk about the motif

43:58

Which is in the new testament referring to the antichrist figure and how throughout the ages

44:06

There are others who carry on that motif and there are some of us who say there there could be in the future

44:13

One who rises up similar to how nero rose up in the first century May rise up again and carry out those same types of vicious attacks against god's people so um so that That may sound like having your cake and eating it too, right?

44:28

Like like you're trying to have the best of both worlds, but this is what you would say Is a partial preterist view intermingled with somewhat of an idealistic view, right?

44:37

It's it's there's sort of a combination of these two things But again, I just want to I just simply want to go back and say

44:44

That being an amillennialist does not mean that you take a specific view of futurist preterist or idealist or uh historicist because there are amillennialists who kind of fall into each of those camps

45:00

I just happen to be a partial preterist amillennialist and um, what do you think about this question?

45:06

Okay No, don't threat me next time. Just throw it up there. I mean just like I don't know if i'm gonna know the answer

45:12

I can't Sarah bull might be the one person who takes apart my entire podcast because I she threw you just threw it up there

45:22

And then it'll be it's your calvinist podcast with sarah bull, all right, it's your calvinist podcast with sarah bull

45:31

I don't know if she has a beard or bow tie Okay. Anyway, all right. Do you believe in a future antichrist like sam storms kim ritterbarger anthony hawkema and others?

45:40

That's what I was just saying I do believe that the antichrist figure is a motif which we see in the new testament that is

45:47

Seen throughout his history and I do believe it's possible that there is a coming future antichrist who will wage war against god's people

45:53

Yes, I do believe that's possible. I don't believe it's absolutely necessary, but I believe it's definitely one possible way that it will work out and um, that's my that's my thoughts on that.

46:03

Thank you for asking cerebral Apparently you won't be taking this the the crown from me tonight All right

46:10

And then humble you could do it. Oh, yeah. Oh, baby My baby, you're brilliant.

46:15

You can answer all I don't know about all that But thank you and then the humble clay says don't forget 616.

46:20

There is a textual variant which uh, some some manuscripts say six, uh, six 166 some say 616.

46:30

So there is a textual variant there. Um, but uh, but that's a That's kind of a road i'm not ready to go down tonight.

46:37

But yes that does exist All right. Um I hope

46:42

I did we answer good enough to think we can move on. Okay All right. So now we're going to go to the next question.

46:47

We're at 46 seconds 46 minutes, right? So is it appropriate for women to read scripture publicly in corporate worship?

46:56

All right The reason for this question the person who emailed said that they're in a church that recently began allowing women

47:05

To stand up in corporate worship from behind the pulpit and read scripture during corporate worship

47:11

And the person in the email said that there were some people who were leaving the church over it And they were wondering if they should leave the church over it

47:18

And I think this is an important question and it gets down to the issue of what is the woman's place in corporate worship um right away

47:29

Yeah, you know how to be silent no no Apparently not

47:36

You and sarah bull gonna get the whole podcast yourselves. I'm just gonna leave and let y 'all just have the whole thing

47:44

Okay, uh, all right, so I think that It is not appropriate for women to lead the worship service, uh in in the reading or in the the the

48:00

The calling of the congregation to stand and sit and all of those other things I do that I think that's a place for a leader to be a man but I don't think it's an absolute violation of scripture.

48:12

I just think it goes with the the overall understanding of leadership in the church, um

48:21

In this in this way, like I I I think a woman who is preaching and teaching men in the church is wrong and sinful

48:29

But I don't think a woman who is reading scripture in church is wrong and sinful in the same way

48:35

I just don't think it's in in line with the order and structure that god provides for us of male leadership in the church

48:42

So in that sense, I would say it's not good. I don't think it's right I think it's a conversation you should have with your elders

48:50

I don't think it's a reason to leave by itself right now But I do see that as a potential door

48:59

That may be opening to other things that may be a bigger issue in the future So That's that's my answer is because your answer do do should you leave?

49:12

And my i'm i'm always For trying to make things work if as long as you're in a church that's preaching the gospel

49:20

That's teaching the word that's doing their best to do things, right? If something like this comes up, it's it's always my you think people should look for When should you have that conversation?

49:31

I think they should have that conversation now. Thank you for asking I think that they should have that conversation now because If they're allowing women to get up and have that that role.

49:42

Um of speaking. Um I think that uh, that's a conversation that needs to be had.

49:50

Why are we doing this? What makes you think this is right? and that may that may

49:58

Cause you to learn a little bit more about where your elders are coming from with this. Why is it happening? Are there are there men who are unwilling to do it?

50:05

And so the women are doing it because the men are unwilling to do it. That doesn't make it right Please don't say i'm don't think for a second i'm saying that makes it right

50:13

But have you made yourself available if you are a man? Have you made yourself available to read scripture? Or are they simply choosing women because they think that that in some way is becoming more inclusive

50:22

And and that's the right thing to do So I would say there's conversations that need to be had before you leave and here's my constant call to everybody

50:33

If you're going to leave your church Over an issue with the church with a decision by the leadership or anything like that Have a conversation with them before you leave even if you even if you don't think any good is going to come of it

50:46

As long as you can have a civil conversation with the leadership I know there's some churches that have heavy -handed leaders that are that are just Overreaching with their power and authority and things like that I know that I know those exist, but if you can if you can have a positive conversation with the leadership of your church

51:02

Before you leave and talk to them about the things that are concerning you even if you disagree I think it's good to do that Because one of the things that hurts as a pastor as a leader is when people leave and they ghost you and they have no

51:14

Reason and they don't explain what's happened That leaves a thousand question marks in the head of the pastor um

51:22

And the pastor's wife Yeah now now lindsey is lindsey is asking a good question.

51:28

I want to uh, Um right here. I think this is lindsey asked this question if it if it completely excludes explanation

51:35

The reading is okay, and that's that's the question That's why I said I don't think it's on the same level as a woman preaching or teaching

51:42

But it's still a position of leadership in the corporate worship service So that's why I still think it's not it's not good

51:49

I i'm not willing to put it on the same level as preaching and teaching as being wrong But I don't think it's I don't think it's best and I and I think it can lead to other things that are worse so, um

51:59

That's my thought on that All right uh Oh, okay.

52:05

I didn't I totally did not mean to click on that but harris household Is making your calvinist song into a ringtone.

52:12

How do you if you can share that with me? I'd love to share it on the website. So yeah, yeah, i'll make it my ringtone today

52:19

All right. God bless you okay, so we are now at Question I think that's as far as I want to go on that one.

52:27

Yeah now to question number five Let's let's do it How should we view psalm 137 9 as christians blessed shall be

52:37

Shall he who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock? Okay Read that text again

52:45

Uh blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock? Okay, read the rest of the question.

52:52

Hi keith. How should a christian view psalm 137 9 i'm struggling to see how What that verse describes in any good light doug wilson seems to think it's okay to even sing this verse

53:03

When we sing the psalm in church Okay All right uh

53:09

Psalm 137 is a difficult passage for many people to reconcile

53:16

With the idea of god's goodness and god's righteousness because it specifically says blessed are those who take your little children

53:24

And crush their head against a rock or dash their head against a stone And so the question is how can we see that in any positive way?

53:36

In the christian church and the person who asked the question said well Doug wilson says we can sing this in church.

53:43

We can sing it and sing it with gusto um, and so Here is is the first thing anytime

53:52

That you read a passage you need to read it in its context in the context here in psalm 139 is the

54:00

Um the destruction of the edomites the destruction of the enemies of god and it's referring to those people who had who had abused god's enemies and who had

54:12

Who had sought to destroy israel? and um It says it's it's a blessing when they receive the judgment of god.

54:21

It's a blessing when they receive what is deserved for the enemies of god, so That's the context of this passage.

54:29

So it fits within a broader scope and that is the scope of The righteous punishment that will be leveled upon the enemies of god

54:43

And so where this is a real issue is the issue of children

54:50

Because it's it's not hey blessed is he who crushes the enemies of god

54:56

But it's blessed is he who crushes the head of the child of the enemy of god And and right away we we said but wait a minute the child isn't guilty.

55:04

It's the enemy who's guilty But at the same time we're very aware in scripture that the the the children of any people often are the recipients of either the blessings or the curses that befall that people

55:20

And we see this throughout the old testament when when when god sends israel in to destroy he says destroy everyone

55:28

Uh destroy them all Because even though the children are not personally guilty they're corporately part of that group who is receiving that judgment and so this is something that we see as Just A picture throughout the old testament is that that this this idea of of corporate cursing corporate cursing um

55:56

And so the The idea of the psalm is it is a blessing when the enemies of god receive their punishment

56:07

It's a blessing to the people of god when the enemies of god receive their punishment That's that's the idea now

56:13

That still is hard to understand in light of and mary just asked but what a what wait a minute

56:19

We get to the new testament and the new testament says to pray for our enemies and love them And that is true

56:26

So how do we reconcile all of this together? I have i've said from the pulpit of sovereign grace family church

56:32

There are times where I have prayed in precatory psalms I have prayed in precatory prayers and people say you can't do that If you're a christian,

56:41

I think that we can I think that we do pray And this is the way that i've prayed i've prayed god

56:48

For your enemies. I pray that they be saved or that they be wiped out wiped away that Yes, break the teeth of the false teachers.

56:57

I've prayed that because that again comes straight from the scriptures that that Those who would preach falsely against the gospel would have their teeth broken that they would not be able to speak

57:07

Have their jaws wired shut whatever because we're praying That these things would happen

57:14

On behalf of the truth on behalf of the gospel on behalf of the righteous And so that is that's how that prayer works out like change their heart or yeah, um

57:25

Save them or stop them. I think that's that's um, what mary just said save them or stop them.

57:31

I agree and so um The other thing comes to comes to play into this too is when jesus tells us to pray for our enemies

57:41

He's not telling us to pray for our enemy's success in being our enemies

57:47

The greatest way that we can pray for our enemies is that we pray that they no longer be our enemies

57:52

And the only way that they will be reconciled is through the only way anyone has ever reconciled and that is through the gospel of jesus christ

57:59

So we pray that our enemies would become our friends through the gospel Um, but as we said those who continue

58:06

I pray That god would break the hands of every abortionist in america

58:12

So that they can no longer perform abortions I pray that when they get up in the morning to go to work all their tires are flat, right?

58:20

Stop them lord in whatever way is necessary stop them because they're killing babies, right?

58:26

So I pray for that um And in the same way this this psalm is is using a very very vivid picture

58:38

Regarding the judgment against the unrighteous the wicked by saying it's a blessing even when their children

58:45

Receive the punishment because it's a demonstration Of god's holy wrath against them.

58:52

So, um So that's my understanding and I think that we can sing it as long as we understand it within its context

59:00

All right, before we get to the next question. I want to remind you guys about our channel sponsor this month It's squirrelly joe's coffee. I've mentioned them a lot.

59:06

They've been on a lot of our videos lately But in just in case you forgot you can get a free bag of coffee by going to squirrellyjoes .com

59:12

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59:18

All right, guys, we're right at the hour mark here Let's look at our final two questions and then we're going to close out for the night keith

59:24

This is a question about assurance I've been struggling with the assurance of salvation the past six or seven months or so One thing i've been thinking a lot lately about a lot lately is

59:35

I don't think I really love jesus What do you do if you aren't loving jesus? How do you love jesus when you don't want to and how much of assurance of salvation is just trusting in jesus versus knowledge of assurance

59:49

Okay all right, this is a This is a very personal and difficult question it's it's it's

59:57

It really is something that it the person who sent me this when you hear this I want you to know

01:00:02

That I hope that you're in a church And if you are in a church, I hope that you're taking this question to your pastor because as much as I Really care for you.

01:00:14

I i'm I I'm not your pastor. I can't pastor you through this I can only give you a few thoughts

01:00:20

But if you if you're not in a church Where you are being discipled?

01:00:26

Where you're being loved and where your pastor or your elders or your deacons are investing in you I encourage you to do that um, because uh that That's my first a lot of people who struggle with assurance

01:00:41

Need to be encouraged and to be discipled And i'm thankful that our show is benefiting you and blessing you and you felt like you could reach out and I want you to Continue to do that But if you're not in a church, please find one and if you can't find one email me and i'll help you find one

01:00:55

So, uh, so that that's right away, um second of all When it comes to loving jesus uh

01:01:04

None of us love jesus as much as we should and r .c. Sproul had a um

01:01:11

Had a story he told about this some of you already mentioned in the channel, but I was gonna I was gonna go there So it's interesting.

01:01:17

We're all on the same page um, r .c. Sproul had a story told where he said a lady had come to him and you know

01:01:23

Was dealing with the assurance of salvation and he said do you love jesus? as much as you should

01:01:32

And she said no He said do you love jesus as much as you want to she said no

01:01:38

And he said but do you love jesus at all? And she said yes

01:01:44

And he said well, that's the key because none of us love jesus as much as we should None of us love jesus as much as we want to But the issue is do you love jesus at all?

01:01:55

right that that that that spark that that seed of loving christ is is

01:02:02

Is what has to be there? And I know that's the question That you're asking because you're saying

01:02:07

I don't know that. I love it I don't know that. I love it and the bible does say right in first corinthians 16

01:02:13

If we don't love the lord, we're cursed right? So we are commanded to love him so My question to you would be

01:02:22

Do you not feel do you not believe that you are loved by him? Right is his sacrifice is his stepping down From eternity into this world into time into the person into the flesh

01:02:39

Into the the person of jesus christ and and going to the cross and dying and giving himself a sacrifice for sin

01:02:46

Is that not an action of love that you can receive? And if you have received it, what is the natural response to that love?

01:02:57

but to love back And to and our love is always a response

01:03:04

To the love that god has given to us. Jesus even said to his apostles. You love me because I first Loved you so, um

01:03:13

Nothing in your hands I breathe but only to the cross I claim that's right the the hymn the great great hymn um, and so my thought for you is to Think on the lord.

01:03:27

Jesus christ to think on what he has done and To meditate on the fact that he is lovely

01:03:37

That he is lovable that he is Love incarnate and um

01:03:45

Ask yourself. Is it that I don't love him or is it that I don't love him? Like I know I should because if you don't love him, like, you know, you should then

01:03:54

We're all there But if you don't love him at all Maybe that would be a place to really

01:04:02

Ask yourself why? If he has demonstrated such love toward you And ask yourself, you know, do do

01:04:10

I not love him at all? um And I want to I want to mention this

01:04:16

And this is a no way a segue to something else because this is such an important topic But I I've thought about putting together a reading

01:04:23

List for 2025 and my thought was because we've been talking about this because we always read together

01:04:30

And what I think i'm going to do is I think i'm going to produce a Chronological gospel reading where we read the gospels chronologically multiple times through 2025

01:04:42

And the purpose would be to know jesus better and love jesus better So my encouragement to you is to spend time in the gospel spend time with jesus

01:04:54

The best way to learn to love someone more is to learn more about them. This is my girl sarah

01:05:01

You need to grow in your relationship with jesus through prayer reading the bible spending time with mature christians That's exactly what i'm saying and and that would be a help y 'all want do your own podcast.

01:05:11

That's it You and sarah um No, I I think

01:05:16

I think that's very helpful. Sarah. Thank you and How do you deal with doubt well it it

01:05:22

The the other side of that is this if we are trusting in our own faithfulness We will always live in doubt

01:05:30

But if we are trusting in the faithfulness of christ, we will have assurance if we are trusting in how much we love him

01:05:36

We'll always be disappointed. But if we're trusting in how much he loves us We will be satisfied so It's it really is learning to trust him

01:05:48

And not yourself And that's my encouragement to you, but I agree with sarah Spend time in scripture

01:05:54

If you're not in a church find a church that will disciple you and help you to learn more about christ so that you can

01:05:59

Love him more so That's my encouragement I think the holy spirit also

01:06:06

Gives you that absolutely the spirit bears witness with our spirit that we're children of god. Absolutely And and and and that that can be somewhat a subjective thing

01:06:15

But at the same time it's not because it's it's objective in that we have confessed christ We have received him and we now have the spirit within us

01:06:24

That is an object of truth and then we experience that through our life

01:06:30

All right Okay last question Okay, how do you know when or whether to keep praying or stop praying for something?

01:06:39

I'm 37 and wifeless Entering into my ninth year of unwanted singleness

01:06:45

There's really no match at my small church and i've just about exhausted every dating app imaginable to no avail

01:06:52

Not sure whether to continue praying for a spouse or just accept that i'll probably be alone for the rest of my life

01:07:00

Well, these last two are very personal and very serious questions and I I hope hopefully they'll be beneficial to Uh, everybody who's listening but specifically to these people.

01:07:12

I hope that that the answers will be somewhat of a blessing Um, the question is how do you know whether to stop praying for something or to keep praying for something?

01:07:21

and um I I I can only say this Unless it is so confirmed in your heart

01:07:29

And usually that's by some kind of objective way unless it's so confirmed That it's that it's time to stop praying

01:07:36

Then I would say continue to be persistent in prayer like the persistent widow who continued to go to the king You continue to go to the king persistently until you receive an answer

01:07:46

And right now it doesn't seem like you've received an answer. So you continue to go um

01:07:51

So for instance, like how would how would I know? Well, let's say i'm praying for someone to be healed

01:07:57

They're about to die Right, I I might I might at a certain point stop praying for their healing and start praying that god would prepare their family

01:08:04

For this loss, right? There are times where the prayer changes when it's obvious what god is doing in this person's life um, and that's not to say a person can't have a deathbed healing or something like that, but i've been in i've

01:08:16

I've been at the deathbed of many many people i've watched people die And sadly i've gotten to the point where I even know what it looks like when it's coming um

01:08:26

There's just a certain look that that that is accompanies death and it's and it's and so um preparing the family for that is something that god

01:08:37

I think god calls us to do to begin to pray that god would help with this transition help with this thing.

01:08:43

So Are there times when you stop praying? Yes, but but it has to be

01:08:48

Obvious and objective it should not be simply i'm exhausted praying for this thing

01:08:54

That's that's not that's not what should cause us to stop praying um, so I say be persistent in prayer until god so confirms in your heart and life objectively that this is not what he has for you

01:09:08

You're 37 years old. You want to be married? You're in your ninth year of unwanted singleness, which my assumption would mean

01:09:15

That you had a spouse at one time because you didn't say you're in your 37th year of singleness

01:09:21

You said you're in your ninth year singleness, which means you had a spouse at one time But you no longer have that spouse the email doesn't tell me whether you are widowed or whether you are divorced

01:09:31

Now the divorce situation may change Somewhat your where your position is.

01:09:38

Um, and I don't want to get into tonight because I don't have time to break down Uh issues of divorce and remarriage and things like that because there are things that go along with that question

01:09:48

Is your previous spouse remarried is your How did how did the divorce come about all those things?

01:09:53

But let's just assume That you're in a situation where you can biblically remarry Okay I'm going off of an assumption because I don't know you and I don't know the situation.

01:10:03

All right, so let's just assume that You can be remarried Um, I would say that and you said you've tried all the dating apps you've tried

01:10:15

Um to find somebody in your church, that's fine the um

01:10:20

I would continue to pray that if this is the will of god for my life If this is what I desire and I do believe that god gives us

01:10:27

Holy and righteous desires. I do believe that we're we're told if you have a desire to be married get married

01:10:33

Don't don't simply burn with desire for it, but but do it Um, I will

01:10:38

I will pray jennifer and I will pray for you that god would present a spouse to you Um Unfortunately, I don't have any methods of giving you um, you know any type of uh pointing out anything

01:10:54

I will say I will say one thing this is I guess I can give you one method.

01:11:00

I've been at fight laugh feast for the last two years, which is a conference that's put on by cross politic and They do a singles thing at their conference.

01:11:09

There have been at least one or two marriages. I think that have come out of that So if you're in a small church where there's no one to meet

01:11:16

You may want to attend a couple of conferences again Don't go there simply to you know to to scout the women that would be awkward and weird but but at the same time

01:11:27

Opening yourself up to meeting new people Letting the people in your life know that you're praying for this and asking them to pray with you pray for you

01:11:35

May be helpful going to your pastor saying I really want to be married and and i'm looking for someone to marry me

01:11:41

Maybe some people at church or some your elders or but maybe they know someone maybe not at your church, but Networking.

01:11:50

Yeah, exactly. And again, I mean, um I'm gonna tell a quick story about my daughter.

01:11:55

Um, I think she would be okay with me telling this She is about to be married in february. Um, she's always wanted to be married

01:12:02

Um, but she she's 27. It took her a few years to find the right young man

01:12:07

Um because she wasn't wanting to just go out and just date anybody and she didn't date a lot of people she didn't do

01:12:13

You know, we didn't we we were you know, kind of in the courting Situation it kind of that's a whole other conversation.

01:12:18

But we she didn't just go out meeting a bunch of people Yeah, but god brought a young man into her life.

01:12:24

We're at a small church. We're in a small church Yeah, there wasn't a pool within the church for her to draw from there wasn't a lot of young men in the church um, but god eventually she's 27 now god eventually brought the young man in her life for her to be married, um

01:12:39

And and so i'll pray that god will open that door for you if again it is the right thing for you

01:12:46

I can't tell you the future. I can't promise you anything, but I do know this. Um, god is faithful and Uh, my my encouragement to you is to not stop praying

01:12:57

So long as god as the door is still open And I think at this point you're not you're not in a position that I can see that the door wouldn't be open necessarily um uh, so Uh, mary says mary made a good point and I do want again

01:13:14

I'm, so thankful for all of my listeners, especially those who hang with me for the whole time here And she did say this she said to be content in all circumstances can only be done with the holy spirit single or married

01:13:22

That's true. We are called to be content with where we are So I do say this if you desire to be married you can pray for that But as you wait to get married as you wait for god to present that person to you, please

01:13:37

Continue to seek contentment in christ and and and parker said something great, too This is parker at the watch world podcast

01:13:43

He said don't let the desire for the marriage overtake your desire for the biblical standards for marriage That's a great piece of advice for that with our daughter and that came from a fetus.

01:13:53

So I mean I jokingly call parker A fetus because because he is my he is my great good friend and I make fun of him for his youth

01:14:05

Yes, don't just settle because a person comes into your life You know become absolutely seek to marry in the lord seek to marry someone who uh, who glorifies who seeks to glorify the lord and um,

01:14:20

Seek someone who is pursuing christ more than they're pursuing you that's hard But you ought to be that person too

01:14:26

You're pursuing christ more than you're pursuing them because that will make you a better husband to that person and them a better wife to you

01:14:34

So I want to Again, thank you for that very thoughtful question. I hope this is helpful and we will pray for you

01:14:41

And pray that god would uh would would bless you Uh with uh with the desire of your heart

01:14:47

All right so, um This is funny joy said the fetus is 37 months old.

01:14:54

That's funny Yeah You know, my mom still calls me on my birthday every year at 8 23 a .m

01:15:01

Because that's the moment I was born And she calls and tells me yes, it's like, you know

01:15:07

It's just such a sweet thing. It's like hey keith. He's 468 months today He needs a nap

01:15:15

Cranky, I do need a nap. Oh my goodness how much I would love a nap All right. Well speaking of naps guys, it's about time for us to close down the show

01:15:23

Uh, was there any last one our last one of 2025 But not our last one because you guys have encouraged us to keep going and so many of you have been so encouraging

01:15:32

You've been sending us messages. You've been saying sweet things about my beautiful bride, which i'm so thankful for and uh

01:15:39

And i'm just thankful i'm i'm thankful that that you guys are out there Uh, we look forward to friday.

01:15:46

There's anything else that they want us to talk about send send the messages Yeah, you got it. You got a minute to send in a message if you want us to say anything else

01:15:54

We will we'll hang out for a minute or two and then we'll uh We'll drop in the the final song here

01:16:02

Feckless cowboy man. Thank you for all your encouragement. You're always on. I appreciate you mary's out there too legit out there

01:16:09

Appreciate you guys Seeing some new faces tonight, which i'm very thankful for Okay, I see we have a little bit of a baptism debate going on in the in the comments that's that's good uh, i'm not engaging tonight because i've

01:16:26

I don't have another hour um Thank you. Mary for those kind words.

01:16:32

That's very sweet All right. Thank you Uh, I send to Love you too.

01:16:38

Jane. You send two questions biblicalist. Did we not answer them? What was the other question? I we answered one of them

01:16:46

All right, what can we pray for you about oh, well, that's a great one. Thank you joe um a couple things, uh

01:16:54

Don't you dare don't you dare? We're not talking about head coverings tonight. If you want us to do a podcast on head coverings

01:17:02

Send an email in and and and we'll do it in six months when we get ready now, um

01:17:08

Uh, what can what can we pray about? I we always ask that you pray um for our church specifically for our um, our elders to lead well our deacons to serve well and for um for god to continue to bring the people in that he wants us to minister to and wants to minister along with us we've seen a lot of We've seen a lot of families come and go over the years and that's often difficult in ministry but um

01:17:38

We've been seeing sort of a season of growth over the last year. That's been good But with growth comes change and with change comes discomfort.

01:17:45

And so we just want to manage that well And one of the most difficult things we're having trouble with is our wednesday night services have almost gone away because so many people are not

01:17:55

Participating and so we want to pray that god would make the right use of the time if if if he wants that to continue

01:18:02

To to bring people back and give us the right way to minister to them on wednesdays. We live in jacksonville

01:18:08

And we literally have people spread out all over the city and jacksonville is one of the biggest landmass cities in the united states

01:18:13

So sometimes it's hard to get there on wednesday nights. It's come some people drive over 45 minutes sometimes even an hour

01:18:19

We don't even live in jacksonville. We live outside in the suburb and and so ultimately Um prayers for our church would be a blessing prayers for our family.

01:18:28

Our children are always a blessing for those who are not yet um confirmed as believers we pray that god would would would draw them to himself and give him give them the gift of faith and That we would be um faithful and and pointing them to christ every day

01:18:43

Uh, so we ask for that prayer as well All right, guys Uh anything you want to add about that's perfect All right

01:18:51

Well, you're perfect Oh last thing i'll ask this leave in the comments if you would

01:18:57

Who do you want me to interview this year? What shows do you want? I have a couple of ones cooking in my brain, but I want to know what you want to watch

01:19:06

So if you have things that you want me to do people you want me to interview bow tie dialogues you want me to do

01:19:11

Please please please send them in to me. All right, guys, we're going to close out with that So thank you again for watching your calvinist podcast

01:19:19

If you like this episode hit the thumbs up button if you didn't hit the thumbs down button twice

01:19:26

All right. God bless you Sometimes I feel the weight of the world fall down on me

01:19:33

And I need a friendly voice with some good theology

01:19:42

So I mix a manly drink Then I hit the youtube link

01:19:49

And I feel my troubles all melt away It's your calvinist podcast with keith foskey kids and bow ties

01:20:07

Laughs till sunrise It's your calvinist podcast with keith foskey