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Hello there. This is AD Robles, and you're listening to AD on the Fight Laugh Feast Network. Alright. Let's do this. It has been a slow week. In fact, I have not done a single video or podcast this week at all.
And the reason is because I have the Covey. That's right. I've got the Covey. I got my symptoms started on Saturday like in the afternoon or maybe Saturday night and It was it was pretty rough for a few days.
I started feeling better really yesterday for the most part. Still sick. I still feel tired and I'm coughing a little bit. My throat hurts a little bit. Most of the severe symptoms are are gone and I'm okay now.
But but any it's been a wild ride. My whole family had it my son like my three-year-old had at first and he healed and then everybody else got it. Which was crazy because everyone else is feeling like death and my three-year-old is running bouncing off the walls.
Anyway, it's been it's been quite quite a challenge. I would say that on the scale of Diseases that I've had it's not as bad as as as the swine flu that I had when I lived in New York City. That was way worse.
But it's a little it's worse than a regular cold. That's what I will that's what I'll say. But luckily the symptoms went away very quickly. So Thank you for the prayers. If you were praying for me to recover I have for the most part and Hopefully by the next few days, I'll be totally better in any case I did want to do a follow-up to last week's Video and I'm not talking about the fishing video.
Although somebody got real aggressive in the comments of the fishing video it was like trying to get me to disavow right response ministries and Joel Webben and Come out against post-millennialism. Dude, this is a fishing video.
What are you even doing? In any case I want to talk to the video before that one the one about Christianity for ordinary people that got a lot of pushback and I'll be totally a transparent with you. I expected that to get a lot of pushback.
I really did I was not expecting a lot of the kind of visceral emotional responses. I did get quite a few of those and in fact a lot of people were throwing accusations my way. That were it was very out of place and I could it was a very emotional reaction.
I don't really want to focus on those, but I I was a little confused about that. But I was not confused about the pushback at all. Most people were quoting verses to me that I I've considered and of course I know them very much and I did want to I did want to clarify a few things.
I'm definitely doubling down on that video. I I believe what I said in that video. I still do and But I do want to explain myself a little bit because there were some Misunderstandings and I'm gonna take ownership of that.
I probably wasn't explaining it as well as I could have so I do want to clear some of that stuff up right now. But I think so. So here's the thing about about that video, right? Basically, the premise of that video is that the normal Christian the everyday Christian goes to church faithfully.
Who's raising his children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, but you know, they're not pastors, right? They're not vocational ministers. They're not the workmen that's working for the Lord in ministry in that capacity right and vocationally.
They have a different life. They have a different expectation of their engagement with the Word of God than a pastor would. Because they're there they're there a workman in another area. Maybe they're a plumber.
Maybe there's something else and so your your Bible reading or your Bible study is really what that was all about. It's gonna be very different than a pastor. It's not gonna be super in-depth all the time.
And I mean it can be and this is that this is one of the misconceptions that I think I want to clear up Right now. I'm not against daily Bible reading, right? I'm not against studying the Bible and I thought that was clear in the video because in the video itself I talked about a time when I studied the Bible very in-depth when I didn't have something that I was doing like I wasn't preparing for a sermon or I wasn't preparing for Teaching Sunday school or writing a book or something like I just had a personal project About prayer that I wanted I was interested in and so I came up with my own project.
I don't do that all the time and so I'm not against Bible reading Bible study. A lot of people responded and said Bible reading is precious AD. Why don't you understand that? It's like I absolutely do understand that in fact in the video itself.
I said I recommend that you read the Bible. So I'm not against these things, but what I wanted to do is just make sure that the expectation is Properly set because I do believe that people think and actually some of the comments show this.
That know that the standard life for a Christian is basically the life of a pastor if you're gonna mature in your Christianity your your your life should look like a pastor's life in the sense of you're Constantly studying your in-depth reading every day, and that's what you spend your time doing.
It's like well, that's actually not the expectation that the Bible puts forward. That's not. You know people quoted to me a lot from first Timothy and a lot of these verses come from Timothy. And it's like you know study so to show yourself approved a workman that does not need to be ashamed.
That's not a direct quotation, but these are the verses people were quoting to me, and I I know those verses. But that's my whole point that verse is for Timothy. What is Timothy? He's a minister. He's he's in vocational ministry.
That's what his life is looking like as a minister, and so it would be a very listen. I'm not saying that a plumber shouldn't read the Bible, but their study and and and reading. It doesn't need to look like a pastor's looks.
I think a lot of people put this unrealistic Expectation on their quiet times and their study and all this kind of stuff and it basically makes it seem like like maturity. Christian maturity is. How faithful you are with your devotions and your quiet times and things like that and that's just not what the Bible presents.
I even had a commenter that says that every Christian needs to study Greek at least at some level. That's not true. If you want to study, I'm not against studying Greek. I've studied Greek. So this is my point like like people hear me saying that I'm against these things.
I want to clear that up. I am NOT again if you are not a pastor, but you decide you want to study Greek. That's something that you want to do. I'm not against it. I think it could be very beneficial to some people.
But it's not for everybody and so nobody should be made to feel like a lesser Christian because they're not studying a certain amount of time or learning Greek or You know referencing and a certain amount of systematics when they're reading through their their Bibles.
Like I just don't see that as the standard in Scripture. What I do see and and this is this is kind of where this is coming from, right? Like I think that if you if you take it out of the context of this conversation, right?
And you just go to a random Christian a good, you know faithful, you know Christian and you say what is Christian maturity look like? What what is the what are you aiming for as far as a Christian Christian maturity?
What what do you see as a as a man or a woman who's mature as a Christian? I honestly do believe a lot of people would be focusing on time spent in devotions. Time spent in in in in in quiet time and stuff like that and and to be honest again.
That's not what the Bible presents. The Bible talks about things like the fruit of the Spirit right love joy peace patience kindness. These are all character traits things that you that that that you that you are that you do and and this is the other thing.
Too like and I made this point in the video before I'm not against Bible reading in fact in the video I said. You need to know enough about God to teach your kids and to do the things that God requires to do what God?
Commands of his people, but you see that's the primary focus the actions, right? Almost every passage about the Word of God and and and how important it is in the life of a believer. Almost every passage connects it to works.
It's like the Word of God, but not just for the sake of it. Not just for you know, you think that something magically is going to happen if you're reading the Bible. No, it's to just to prepare you for good works.
It's to drive you to good works. It's the works that are that are at focus there and it's like so so so this is the thing I think that we've got it all twisted that that actually the mature Christian life is someone whose life is filled With good works unto the Lord.
They've got faith in Christ and in and they love Christ and the reason you know. They love Christ. How does what is what does Jesus say you you should go to Christ himself if you want to know? How do you abide in the love of Christ is it spending time in devotions is it is it quiet time?
Is it taking is it writing a poem to Jesus? Is that how you abide in the love of Christ again? I think that if you take it out of the context of this conversation, you just ask a random Christian, you know.
Faithful God-fearing Christian. How do you abide in the love of Christ many of them will be like quiet times. Spending time in prayer. These are all good things. I'm not against them. I need to emphasize that That's not what Christ says though Christ says you abide in the love of Christ by doing what he commands.
That's what the life of a mature Christian is it's doing what Christ Commands and yes Christ does command that you spend time in prayer. This is definitely true. Christ does command that you that you you you you you you do not neglect the assembly that you do corporate worship that you Sing songs unto the Lord that you meditate on the Word of God.
But you see what it doesn't say though is and the way to do that is to make sure you get your daily Bible reading and that's the only way to truly and just truly study it. That's the only way to meditate on the Word of God.
That's not what the Bible teaches. Is it a bad way? No, I'm not against it. See, this is a need to keep emphasizing this because everyone's gonna hear what I'm saying here and still think that I'm somehow against it.
These are not bad ways to meditate on the Word of God, but they're not the only way. That's this is my point. And when you read the scripture again, I think that the primary mode that it teaches you from you you you you engaging with the Word of God is Through the person sent to preach it.
That's that's that's that's scriptural, right? You're you'd be very hard-pressed to find Verses that say that you're required to read it devotionally every single day. Is this a bad idea? No, it is not a bad idea.
In fact, it's a blessing to have the opportunity to read the Bible every day. It's a blessing that most people haven't known and that's my whole point. Most people haven't known this blessing. Therefore.
It can't possibly be a requirement. You see what I'm saying? It can't possibly So. So that's my whole point here. And and so I'm not against Bible reading. I'm not against devotions. I'm not against quiet time.
I'm not even against taking a picture if that's what you want to do. If you are the kind of person that takes a picture of your little coffee in your Bible and you want to write a poem To Jesus and you put it on Instagram I'm okay I'm not against all that kind of stuff.
But but let's not mistake that kind of stuff. For the life of a mature Christian and life of a mature believer because there could be an extremely extremely mature believer who's a construction worker and really doesn't have the time that a lot of people dedicate to Study in the scripture that for himself because he's you know, he's running a business, right?
In any case so so that I do want to make sure to emphasize that. And I also I kind of want to address something else as well. This isn't this is one that came up a lot also where people were saying that our current doctrinal Knowledge as a as a body of believers in the United States is abysmal.
You know you see those those those surveys that people do you know where people don't even know about the Trinity and things like that and. And people are citing that stuff and they're saying and here you are encouraging people to read the Bible less.
Again, I did no such thing in that video. So again, if you hear me challenging the presupposition that that every Christians required to study the Bible every day. Just because I'm challenging that doesn't mean I'm against studying the Bible.
It's these are two completely different things. So, please hear me not saying that because I'm not saying that. But anyway, so they're saying, you know, you're you're encouraging people to read the Bible less in a time when we have Horrible doctrinal understanding and things like that and and here's the thing guys like I Don't think that your prescription of just reading the Bible is really actually gonna solve anything because if you think about it like Statistically speaking we have more access to the scriptures people are reading the scriptures more than they ever have before In in history, and I'm not saying like literally every day.
It's like more than the day before but just with the amount of access we have and the amount of I mean every store sells Bibles I mean you can get a Bible at a gas station and in a truck stop these days and they they have them there because People purchase them right?
So you have a lot of access to the Bible people are reading it. That's not the issue. So I don't think just reading the Bible has much to do with biblical literacy. In fact, here's the thing a Lot of people were were who who who reached out to me and some of these Republic some of these are private.
They would reach out and they push back and say how dare you say this and by the way, you know when you emphasize the Lord's Day worship the Lord's Church is not a building. And so a lot of these people that are focused on on their daily devotions and and emphasizing, you know Every day in-depth study of the Bible.
They don't go to church and I have to say like like like the people that read the Bible a ton. But don't go to church are probably the most biblically illiterate people around. So just reading it is really not enough and I think a lot of the responses that I got.
Again, there was a there was a lot of responses that went along these lines that said if you don't read the Bible every day Ad, how are you gonna correct your pastor when he's wrong? As if the primary reason to read the Bible is to correct your pastor.
It's like guys, I think a lot of people have a low Opinion on what happens on the Lord's Day on Sunday like like the Word of God that is preached on Sunday is very powerful and. And and that is that is such a primary thing for the people of God that that we should not be De-emphasizing the importance of that like if you are, you know.
You work three jobs and you know, you're trying to feed your family and stuff like that. You don't have a whole lot of time for Bible study and really the primary way you're getting the word is through your faithful pastor.
On Sunday people worked in the comments were saying if that's you then you're gonna be spiritually anemic you're gonna be how are you meditating on the Word of God and I'm thinking like You know for a lot of history.
This is almost everybody that this is how they got their word. What was everybody before the 20th century an anemic Christian? I don't think so I don't think so like if you have a faithful pastor and you're hearing the Word of God and you're thinking and Meditating on that word that you heard on Sunday that precious word by the way I think the word is precious too, right?
So people that are trying to say how could you say that's precious 80? Yeah, I agree but if that's you and you're and that's how you get it and you think about you're thinking through. Like like I was thinking the other day about what my pastor preached the last time I was at church.
Unfortunately, I couldn't go last Sunday because I was I had the Covey but he was preaching on Melchizedek and man I love this. I love Melchizedek that whole thing in Hebrews with Melchizedek I thought about it a lot and my pastor gave me some extra insight on Sunday about Melchizedek and and the connection to Christ and things like that and and I was just thinking about it just in awe of This of this story that that God has woven over Millennia, I'm just thinking through that and what that means and he can weave the story together.
Over millennia, like what is he weaving in my own like there's just so much to meditate on and think about and and and. That counts guys. That is how you meditate on the Word of God. That's it's not like if that's all I do throughout the week is just think about The passage that my pastor preached on and the different insights that he had and things like that.
That's okay. Right. I don't have to get my study Bible out and my in my Interlinear and things like that to really just dig in and study the word again. I'm not against those things but that is enough.
You're not gonna have an automatically anemic life if you just do that I just I but but you will have an anemic life if you don't go to church. And so I my mind was boggled by get all the feedback that I got from from Christians who who don't go to church.
But they're like but you have to study every Christian has to study the Bible in depth every single day and I'm like Give me the verse for that. Give me the verse for that again, the whole point though is that You as as as a Christian, you know your your engagement with the scripture.
It's gonna look different depending on your season of life depending on Who you are and you know, what kind of? What kind of Life you have and what kinds of. There's so many different things that would change how this would look and that was basically the point of that video.
I got a lot of comments that said, you know ad everyone needs to study Bible. It might look differently for different people and it's like that's kind of what I said in the video. Like I don't know why you would think I'd disagree with that.
That's my whole point, right? You know getting your quiet time and your devotions in every day Might be a challenge for some people that's just reality. That's just reality and it's not being flippant and saying Oh, I just don't have time for it.
No, it's just I'm just being realistic right being realistic with this and so let's not make things commands that aren't commands if You're if you're if you're going to church on Sunday hearing the preach word of God.
Singing psalms hymns and spiritual songs and throughout the week you're focused and you're meditating on what you heard from God's mouth on Sunday and you're singing songs to yourself and you're praying to the Lord.
I give you insight into that and things like that guys that you're doing well, you're doing well. It's not even about the the the the reading is not the fruit I guess is what I'm trying to say. So I feel like a lot of people and I'm not saying every commenter that pushed back on me was like this.
But I feel like a lot of people Think that the reading of the scripture daily and the devotions time is the fruit that you're looking for in the life of a true believer. I just don't think that's the case at all.
I think that the fruit is good works the fruit is the fruit of the Spirit and You read the Bible so that you do these good works in fact, a lot of people quoted Psalm 119 to me and I was one of my favorite psalms and Even how Psalm 119 opens it's with a word of God.
So that you do these good works and you can live righteously, you know, you know how to walk and things like that. In any case like I just I just wanted to push back on on some of this stuff and double down on this because.
And a lot of people get it too, you know a lot of people, you know reached out to me and said hey, you know I I really needed to hear this that kind of thing and I don't think any of those people were like, oh good.
Phew, I don't have to do anything like I just want to be lazy. I get to be lazy now. He says I can be lazy. I don't think any of the people that were Happy about the video. We're saying that I don't think any of those people are against reading the Bible and all that kind of thing but I Think I think that one of my one of my pastor friends actually said it really well I could I couldn't find it.
But basically he was saying, you know when you're when you're doing your own. You know Bible reading or you're reading your kids or whatever like like that that's you know, you know private You know kind of family worship stuff and that's all good stuff.
Nobody's against it. But if you do that and then you neglect or downplay or downgrade the corporate worship, which is actually the required. You know, that's what God commands us to do. That that doesn't make any sense at all.
That's like practicing six days in the week and then skipping the game on Sunday like doesn't make any sense to do that at all and really what that was such a good good insight because I didn't Think this through at the time, but but yeah, I think a lot of people over emphasize private worship Over and they put it over corporate worship.
And that's why I think a lot of people were kind of saying, you know You got to correct your pastor. You got to know and like you sure you do have to know if the pastor is telling you lies or not. But it's not a bet.
That's not why you read the Bible. You read the Bible so that you're prepared for good works like like I Feel like I feel like that what happens on Sunday in many subtle ways Has been de-emphasized and I think I think that it honestly has more to do with our biblical illiteracy.
Than than than than anything because we really don't I Don't want to say this carefully a lot of people Don't actually think what they're hearing on Sunday is authoritative. They know better they've studied the Bible and they're there they know more than their pastor in many ways and it's like Maybe you do maybe you don't but I don't know.
I just I think that there's a there's a There's a Degraded view of what happens at church and with your church family than there needs to be you know to be honest like I Don't even know if I should mention this I will.
So it came to my attention some somebody somebody brought to my attention that I guess JD Hall's decided to not submit to church discipline anymore and I guess that there's some disagreements on what the church discipline should look like and You know as as much as it pains me to say that I cannot support that because God God provided JD with those elders for this exact time for this exact moment.
And quite frankly like you're in know when you're the one that's being disciplined you're in no position To decide what's appropriate? Right like like this this is the thing like We need to trust our pastors more and if you have a pastor that you can't trust then you need to find one that you can and and I I really think that a lot of the pushback that I got was was good and healthy, but some of it really wasn't and And there's definitely a I don't know I I think I think I've made I think I've made my point.
But but but guys the point here is is reading the Bible is is not enough. Read reading the Bible is good. I read the Bible. You know a lot of people were saying I don't and that's why I made the video I read the Bible.
Reading the Bible is good, but it's not enough. Reading the Bible is not the fruit that we're looking for in the life of a true believer a true believer will read the Bible most likely but It's a fruit of the Spirit.
It's the good works. That's what the Bible itself teaches and so You know we don't we dare not be like those that that that search the scriptures because they think that that's where They'll find eternal life, but it's the scriptures that actually point to Jesus.
They're the scriptures that actually teach about Jesus. Jesus is where eternal life is found. That's that's the point and so in any case I know that this is not going to satisfy everybody because that's fine.
But I I definitely want to double down and I but I also wanted to clarify just a little bit more of whatever I Was coming from I hope you found this podcast and video helpful. God bless.