SBC Convention Sermon Reaction and Review

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Hey guys, it's Keith Foskey and welcome back to Conversations with a Calvinist, where we give you scripture, culture, and media from a Reformed perspective.

00:07

Last week was the Southern Baptist Convention, and during the convention there was a sermon preached by a man named Todd Unzicker, I think I'm saying that correctly.

00:18

He is the executive director and treasurer for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.

00:26

And after his sermon was preached, I saw throughout social media there were several people saying that they had some issues with what he said.

00:33

Now I have not yet listened to his sermon.

00:36

I thought that would be something that we could do together as you, the audience, and me, the host.

00:41

We could listen to this sermon together, and I will give you some responses as I'm listening to it for the first time.

00:47

And I want to say right from the outset, one, I don't know who Todd Unzicker is, other than the fact that I just read he's the executive director and treasurer for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.

00:58

I don't know him as a person.

00:59

I'm sure he's a fine brother in Christ.

01:01

I'm not in any way taking a shot at him as a person or as a preacher.

01:06

But I did hear that there were some difficulties, some problems with this message, and I'm going in completely cold.

01:13

I have not heard anything other than the little bit of negative that I saw, and I thought this would be an interesting podcast to do this week.

01:19

Simply responding to the sermon, I'm going to listen to what he has to say.

01:23

I'm going to point out the good parts, bad parts, kind of just give a sermon review on this week's podcast, listening to it for the very first time.

01:33

And again, like I said, don't have anything against this person.

01:35

Not trying to make this personal.

01:38

But as a pastor, when we preach things, everything we preach is out for everyone to hear.

01:44

If anybody has thoughts about it or whatever, they're within their rights to offer up a response, and that's what I'm doing today, and bringing you with me as I go on this journey.

01:59

So a couple things as we're going.

02:01

I am going to be looking at this sermon in regard to exegesis.

02:06

Is this an exegetical message? And here's the thing.

02:09

Conference messages typically aren't really exegetical, because conferences typically have a theme or a topic that all of the different speakers have to talk about, and they come in and they address that topic, a lot of times using various scriptures.

02:26

So I'm not expecting a pure exegesis of a text like I would expect on a Sunday morning.

02:33

I understand that conferences aren't that way.

02:35

So right away, even though I'm going to be listening for how he handles the text, which you should be faithful to the text, whether you're giving a verse-by-verse exposition or not, even if you're doing a topical message, you should still be faithful to the text, because that's what we're called to do as preachers.

02:53

But at the same time, I'm going to be listening for what I have been told, or what I read, are some unnecessary things that were said in the message.

03:01

Are there some shots that were taken? Are there some things that maybe would have been better had they not been said? Does this sermon get personal? Those are some things I'm going to be listening for, and I encourage you to listen as well.

03:13

So without wasting any more time, we're going to get right into the sermon.

03:17

Again, this is Todd Unzecker at the Southern Baptist Convention.

03:22

I believe this was on Wednesday, is when he was preaching this message.

03:29

Wow.

03:32

Revelation 5, if you have your Bible, take it and turn with me.

03:37

Before we go there, I want to just tell you that it is an honor to bring God's Word to you this morning.

03:44

Usually, at this moment and in this time, you have the who's who of Baptist life in this pulpit.

03:52

This morning, you have the privilege of having the who's that of Baptist life in this pulpit.

03:58

And that's because I'm here—I'm not a New York Times bestselling author.

04:04

I didn't plant a multi-thousand megachurch, and you're not going to most likely find me headlining any of your major conferences.

04:14

Okay, well, again, I don't know this guy, and he just pointed that out.

04:18

He's not a well-known name, and that's fine.

04:21

There's no shame in that, so good so far.

04:26

But I can tell you, I am a guy that is completely and totally in love with Jesus and taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.

04:39

I adore my wife, Ashley.

04:41

We have the three best kids in the whole wide world.

04:46

And just a little bit about me, I love college football.

04:52

I love river bass fishing.

04:54

I think I'm the best in this room at that.

04:58

I love the Rocky movies, except Rocky V, of course.

05:02

Okay, now, sir.

05:06

Okay, all right, now you're speaking my language.

05:09

Now you're in movie language.

05:11

And don't be unfair to Rocky V, okay? It took a different turn.

05:14

It went a different direction.

05:15

Don't be hating on Rocky V.

05:17

Rocky got to be Mickey.

05:18

Tommy Gunn comes in.

05:20

There's a whole—oh, man, don't be hating on Rocky V.

05:23

I love you.

05:24

I love you that you love Rocky, but come on.

05:27

I am one of you, but I stand here not as a paragon of greatness, but a product of grace.

05:35

Have you all noticed coming in, have you noticed people on the streets and in the tents? Twenty years ago, that was me.

05:49

But God—you see, God put me in a Baptist church when I was in middle school in northern Virginia where I grew up.

05:57

And I first heard the gospel.

06:00

And then years later, I found myself in college at the University of Georgia.

06:04

That's the back-to-back national championship, University of Georgia.

06:12

And it was there that Baptists from a local BCM shared the gospel with this drunk at night and gave me waters and a ride home so I could be alive.

06:23

And then it was in my 20s when I found myself as a sports reporter covering SEC football—yes, I got paid to watch college football for a living—that I met a coach.

06:35

And this coach, he was a quiet guy.

06:39

His name was Mark Richt.

06:41

Y'all, I had—every athlete and coach I'd ever met thanked Jesus for a victory.

06:47

But this coach, he sat down and he said, we're in championships, but we are also here because Jesus sent us.

06:54

And then he went on to talk about how he loved his wife and his kids and that true religion cares for widows and orphans.

07:01

And y'all, I was completely intrigued.

07:04

And so because of this, I wandered into this church, a church that I knew in Athens, Georgia, was serious about Jesus and serious about loving its community.

07:14

This church, Prince Avenue Baptist, where I heard a Baptist brother, Bill Ricketts, plead every single week for sinners to repent and turn to Jesus.

07:25

Y'all, every week I wanted to leave that, that balcony of that old building and I wanted to walk down when Just As I Am was playing, but I just couldn't.

07:33

I would sneak out the back.

07:35

Until one morning, September 25, 2004, I found myself early in the morning, I found myself on the floor.

07:46

And a life there, I chased every single fulfillment that I could find.

07:56

Addiction, fornication, lying, cheating, stealing.

08:00

Y'all, I'd become a bad friend, I had become a bad employee, I was a bad brother, a bad son.

08:07

I didn't see life worth living.

08:09

And then I was on the ground with handfuls of ammunition loading up the gun.

08:16

Something caught my eye and I saw a Bible sitting over on the nightstand that a Baptist had given me.

08:23

And I had heard, it was like the Lord was speaking to me.

08:28

I know my audience, it wasn't audible.

08:31

Okay, that was kind of funny.

08:33

But it was just as powerful.

08:34

And I heard the voice of Baptists who for years, God had used you in my life, tell me, you know what, in Jesus, there's nothing I've ever done.

08:45

He paid it all.

08:47

And so brothers and sisters, right in that moment, from the ground, with a gun across my lap, I just looked up and prayed the only sinner's prayer I knew, Lord Jesus, save me.

08:58

Save me and I'll do anything you want me to do and I'll go anywhere you send me.

09:04

It was Baptists.

09:05

It was Baptists like you.

09:08

Guys, I couldn't explain Baptist polity and church autonomy.

09:14

I didn't know Calvinism and Arminian and I didn't know what Complementarian was, but I knew the one thing because you taught me the one thing and the one thing is God so loved Todd that he gave his one and only son and that whosoever would believe in him would not perish, but have everlasting life.

09:33

You all did that.

09:36

Okay.

09:37

So just right away, began his sermon with a testimony.

09:41

Nobody knows who he is.

09:42

So nothing necessarily wrong with that.

09:45

Just sort of thinking through what he's saying.

09:47

But so far, I mean, God saved him.

09:49

That's great.

09:50

That's wonderful.

09:51

Saved him from taking his own life.

09:54

That's certainly wonderful.

09:56

So, so far, nothing, no bells are going off.

10:01

Okay.

10:02

Just want to make mention, I'm getting a little bit of a clicking noise from the sermon audio from his side.

10:07

Nothing I can really do about that.

10:09

I've tried to mitigate that as good as possible, but hopefully it doesn't get any worse.

10:13

And caring for my emotionally, financially, physically wrecked self, Kevin Chappie Hines, he just kept telling me I was loved.

10:28

He introduced me to another buddy of mine who's in this room, Sky Pratt.

10:33

And every single week, these two Baptists would sit and they would pour the scriptures into me over breakfast.

10:40

And they told me, Todd, look, you're a new believer.

10:42

You got to tell others about Jesus.

10:44

So for me, soul winning was not the end of the line.

10:47

It was where you began.

10:49

I couldn't wait to tell my friends about Jesus.

10:51

And then a month or so later, I went on a, on a Georgia Baptist disaster relief trip.

10:58

Y'all, I wasn't even trained yet to wear the yellow shirted heroes, you know, jersey.

11:05

So I go onto this job site and I went around to the back of the tent and I reached my arm in there and I grabbed one out.

11:13

I threw it on real quick.

11:16

Look, I was a new believer.

11:17

And the joke really though was the joke was, was God because I grabbed a medium.

11:25

So all day I was trying to work like this.

11:30

Okay.

11:31

He's making little jokes, trying to connect with the audience to talking about stuff.

11:35

I, I'm not Southern Baptist, so I don't know much about the, the thing he's talking about here with the, uh, with the, uh, shirt.

11:44

So I don't get that, but it seems funny to some people.

11:46

So that's cool.

11:48

It was shortly thereafter that this missions pastor, this mobilization pastor asked me a question that changed my life forever.

11:56

He said, Todd, how would you like to go on a short-term mission trip with us? I've said publicly before, I'm not a big fan of short-term missions.

12:05

So, uh, but, uh, they, they can be useful that maybe that's a time for another podcast.

12:11

I just, uh, sometimes short-term missions can be more just like vacations.

12:17

Uh, for people who want to, uh, feel virtuous.

12:21

So I've called them vacationaries.

12:22

So, uh, maybe I'll talk about that another time that that's not the subject right now, but just something to think about.

12:30

Yes.

12:31

Y'all.

12:32

I just thought that's what all Baptist did.

12:35

So I went on this trip and it was there that while I was on this trip that God began working into my heart and giving me a vision for the nations that there are people who didn't know this joy that I knew.

12:47

And so 11 months after I became a believer, I quit my dream job, sold my home, and I joined Baptist overseas as a missionary.

12:56

It was there that I actually met my wife.

13:00

No, she's not from Latin America, but she is from the faraway land of Connecticut.

13:06

And she would tell you if she was standing here next to me, she would tell you that she wasn't a believer.

13:12

Her parents just wanted her to go on a mission trip to get her away from the environment she was in.

13:17

So she took a Bible and a gospel track out and that a Baptist had produced and she just started studying the scriptures on a six hour flight.

13:27

And it was as that plane was landing, she would tell you that in that moment, in that moment, she realized, you know what? I need a savior.

13:38

And she gave her life to Christ right there on that mission trip.

13:42

It was Baptists like you that did that.

13:47

We got married shortly thereafter and we moved to Florida.

13:50

And it was through the generosity of you that I got a bachelor's degree at the Baptist College of Florida, where I learned to change the world through his unchanging word.

14:02

And it was because of you that I became a director of missions at AMS, the youngest in the whole country.

14:10

Y'all, I was so inexperienced and so unqualified for this.

14:15

There's a joke coming.

14:17

I can hear it.

14:18

Baptist Association had to change the bylaws just to hire me, which I believe shows God works miracles in Baptist life.

14:28

Nailed it.

14:31

And it was during those four years with normative sized churches that I realized that God doesn't see big and small churches.

14:38

He sees the Great Commission and all of us are to be a part of that.

14:42

Four years later, my now growing family, we moved to North Carolina, where because of your generosity, I received an MDiv at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, a Great Commission seminary.

14:55

Ashley did too.

14:56

And I had the joy of joining a local church where I got to mobilize thousands to hundreds, excuse me, hundreds to the ends of the earth to reach thousands.

15:07

This is through the International Mission Board and they are in some of the toughest places on earth.

15:12

I got to help dozens of church planners and support them with Sin Network.

15:18

And because of you, Baptist, today, I have the greatest role in the whole wide world.

15:24

I get to serve 4,300 N.C.

15:28

Baptist churches.

15:29

We are a movement of churches on mission together.

15:33

Brothers and sisters.

15:36

Thank you.

15:38

Thank you.

15:40

OK, so this part up till now, it's basically sort of been a Baptist rah-rah session, which, again, it's fine.

15:45

This is a Baptist conference.

15:48

This is the Southern Baptist Convention.

15:50

This is the message meant to sort of, you know, encourage the base, tell them, you know, there are good things that have been done and we should be thankful and praising God.

16:01

And so, you know, so far, it's a rah-rah message.

16:05

Again, nothing wrong with that.

16:09

Interesting things.

16:11

A lot of I.

16:13

I did this and I did that.

16:15

But again, he's sharing his testimony.

16:17

I don't want to be too critical.

16:18

Just listening, sort of picking up on what the focus is here.

16:24

So let's continue.

16:27

You were on mission to meet us.

16:31

Dr.

16:32

Aiken and Miss Charlotte, Sandy and Joanne Cheeves, Shelly and Kelly and Carol Chandler, the late, great Bill Prince, his son-in-law Brad Waters, Mitch Kimbrell, John and Sarah Wilson, Ken Yates, Stacey and Ann Stafford, Mike and Stephanie Orr, Miss Polly, Eddie and Diane Eaton, Kent Lamp, Ryan Begu, Ryan Helms, Dean and Chrissy and Sarah, James Ross, Craig Colberth, Craig Carlisle, Ray Gentry, Edgar Abonte, Ken Whitten, Morris Chapman, Ted Traylor, Bruce Frank, Alan Blue, Milton Holifield, Steve Scoggins, dozens of NC Baptist pastors, including a man who's like a dad to me, James Merritt, and of course my own pastor, J.D.

17:09

Greer and his wife, Veronica.

17:11

Oh, okay.

17:12

So he's a part of J.D.

17:14

Greer's church.

17:14

Guess I didn't realize that.

17:16

I think, I think somebody mentioned that he might be a member of J.D.

17:20

Greer's church.

17:21

Okay.

17:22

So that's, that's interesting.

17:23

That's interesting.

17:24

Thank you.

17:25

What this convention, what you set out to do, we are a product of.

17:30

This convention founded to send missionaries, plant churches, and train up the next generation.

17:37

You have done that for Ashley and I.

17:40

We have seen that firsthand.

17:42

It's why we are here.

17:44

So here's what we're going to do today.

17:46

I'm going to make the parliamentarians really nervous.

17:50

Everybody pull out your ballot.

17:54

Pull out your ballot.

17:58

If your story this morning is that it was Baptist that reached you and Baptist that poured into you, can you raise your ballot right now that this is your story? Keep them high.

18:10

Keep them high.

18:13

This is the picture that I want to remember us by.

18:17

What God did.

18:19

Do you see it? You can put them down.

18:21

Do you see it? By the way, the vote was unanimous.

18:24

Do you see what we have in common today? There are 16,000 people in this room representing millions of people who are from independent, local, autonomous churches that are on mission together to send missionaries, plant churches, and train up the next generation.

18:43

That's it.

18:45

Okay.

18:46

I do want to say something.

18:47

And again, I'm not trying to be critical, but, um, I am looking at this sermon trying to, trying to give it some mode of an examination.

18:57

Uh, one, I can't talk about any exegetical things so far because quite frankly, there hasn't been a Bible opened or read.

19:04

Um, this has been, we are 12 minutes and 51 seconds into this, uh, message.

19:10

And so far it has really been a rah-rah Baptist session, but I have not heard the scriptures, uh, a couple of scriptures maybe referenced, uh, in passing, but have not seen or heard the Bible open.

19:26

So that's just something to consider.

19:28

I hope, hopefully we're going to get there soon because that's when this is going to really start to matter.

19:32

Have a solidly Orthodox conservative statement of faith in the Baptist faith, the message 2000 that every single one of our entities follows.

19:42

Every single one of our seminaries teaches from, and this is what our mission boards and our church planning networks do.

19:48

This is what your state conventions do.

19:50

This is what the associations do.

19:52

And anyone who tells you different is a liar.

19:57

Oh, okay.

19:59

Okay.

20:01

So that right there, that may be the moment because we got the finger and, uh, this might, this might be a good thumbnail.

20:12

Okay.

20:13

So, uh, we got the, um, got the finger, got the person, anybody who tells you different, all of our entities follow this Orthodox statement of faith, which is the Baptist faith, the message, uh, 2000, which, um, you know, that, okay.

20:31

So I, I, I see this, this may be starting the, uh, the issue.

20:35

Let's see.

20:37

Let's celebrate what God is doing in our midst.

20:40

So here's my question.

20:42

You were on mission together to reach me.

20:45

My question to you is from this day, will we be on mission together to reach others or are we going to concessively fight and quarrel? Are we going to give weight? Somebody said, come on.

20:59

There's somebody in the audience.

21:00

Who's with you, Todd.

21:02

He, somebody's out there.

21:04

Somebody's giving you the, come on.

21:07

People in this convention who give nothing.

21:09

Are we going to give weight to people in this convention who tweet more than they tithe, who posts more than they pray, who raise objections to reforms instead of raising protections for the vulnerable.

21:26

Ooh.

21:27

Uh, yeah, yeah.

21:28

He's, uh, he's, he has, he has changed direction, uh, from telling everyone how great they are to now telling everyone, uh, that there are some out there with whom he disagrees, are we going to be a people who sue the saints or are we going to be a people who sow seeds of the gospel? I think that's pointed at some people who are going to listen to the spirit of fear.

21:56

By the way, the spirit of fear, what is our God's inerrant, infallible, inspired, all sufficient words say the spirit of fear doesn't come from God.

22:05

So if somebody is peddling fear, where do they come from? Are we going to continue to be shaped by divisive groups on social media, tweets and blogs and videos and podcasts and cheaply made Senate docs? They have this.

22:23

Hey, it was a cheaply made.

22:26

Look at, look at here, man.

22:28

Uh, doing the best we can.

22:30

Don't be a, don't, not everybody has the, uh, not everybody has the, the money to do a fancy, uh, video.

22:43

Some people are actually recording from a shed, which, uh, which should tell you doesn't, doesn't mean that the voice is any less important.

22:53

All purpose of stirring dissension and trust and discouragement.

22:58

Yeah, this is the part.

22:59

This must be it.

23:00

This must be what everybody was talking about.

23:02

And we get to join him on it.

23:04

Baptist.

23:05

We get to join him on it.

23:07

Some Baptists want to dwell on decline.

23:10

I just want to mention that the claps have gotten a decreasing, the caps, the claps are decreasing.

23:17

Uh, the, uh, the amount of, uh, support, not when it was rah, rah, it was great.

23:26

No longer rah, rah.

23:27

And, uh, things have changed.

23:30

Say in this room that things aren't the way they used to be.

23:34

I say that's fantastic.

23:37

With 3,500 unreached, unengaged people groups, our best days are ahead Baptist and God's word says it.

23:46

That's because revelation five, we see the end of the story.

23:51

Okay.

23:52

And what we're going to do right now is we close is we're going to go as we close, you haven't opened the Bible yet.

23:59

Oh, come on, dude.

24:01

The destination.

24:02

This is an earthquake of a passage.

24:04

I believe it's a passage that will take your breath away, but we're closing with it because it's a time when God comes to the apostle John history tells us he's 90 years old, he's been faithful.

24:19

Okay.

24:20

I, mm.

24:21

All right.

24:22

Uh, I take a, uh, I take a little different, uh, this, this is going to, this is going to get some comments.

24:27

I take a very early view of, uh, of, of revelation or early date of revelation.

24:34

I know there's big, big debate on that.

24:35

I am a partial preterist, meaning I believe that a revelation was written prior to 80, 70.

24:40

So, uh, don't think John was 90 when he wrote this, but.

24:44

Uh, if you disagree and leave a comment and tell me all about how, why, how I'm wrong and gotten used to that.

24:51

He's got tons of Sunday school pens and what he gets as his, has his reward is he's placed in boiling oil left for dead and sent to the Guantanamo Bay of his time to the Island of Patmos.

25:04

And it's there in that moment that God gives him a vision.

25:08

Now, some of you were talking visions and we're talking revelation.

25:11

You're getting really excited right now.

25:14

But I'm going to tell you, this isn't one of the really weird, complicated or stranger things, types of passages.

25:20

In fact, if you're not really keen on my end times and what we're talking about, I want to hear from you.

25:25

You can email me at Bart at FPC farmersville.com but revelation.

25:32

Okay.

25:33

There's something funny about that, but I don't know what it is.

25:35

If you know what it is, leave, leave me a comment is not meant to be that.

25:39

Anyway, revelation means it's an unveiling.

25:42

It's a disclosure.

25:43

And this vision is for us today because we believe that this inspired, inerrant, infallible and all sufficient word.

25:52

John says, I saw on the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals.

26:01

And then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who's worthy to open the scroll into lucid seals and no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was ever was even open to open the scroll or to even look at it.

26:17

So I wept much.

26:18

Now, by the way, some Bible scholars will tell you this is the only time that tears are associated with heaven.

26:26

And John.

26:27

What? What does that even mean? Realizes that nobody is worthy.

26:33

Not Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses, not Solomon or Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Peter or Paul, not Martin Luther, John Calvin, not Charles Spurgeon, Billy Graham, not Adrian Rogers, Charles Stanley.

26:45

No one is worthy.

26:48

And you may be thinking, wait a minute, this is John the apostle.

26:51

He's the one whom Jesus loved.

26:53

Like, wouldn't he know that it's Jesus? Well, I don't know about you, but sometimes in dreams or great distress, we don't see things very, very clear.

27:02

And brothers and sisters, I know that things out there, there's a lot of distress and confusion.

27:09

But let's set our eyes here and look what happened, because he says, I wept much because no one was found worthy to open or read the scroll or look at it.

27:19

But one of the elders said to me, do not weep.

27:22

Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.

27:30

And I looked.

27:33

I got a pretty good idea what song is coming after this.

27:36

Are they going to sing? Is he worthy? I bet they sing, is he worthy? By the way, we're all going to do this.

27:42

And I looked and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as though he had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out to all the earth.

27:56

And then he came and he took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne.

28:01

And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders, they fell down before the lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

28:12

And listen, they sang a new song saying, you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and you've redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

28:26

And you've made us Baptists.

28:28

You've made us kings and priests to our God and we shall reign on the earth.

28:33

And then I looked and he said, I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000.

28:43

Maybe your Bible says myriad of myriads and thousands of thousands.

28:47

And they're all saying with a loud voice, let me just stop you right there.

28:50

I love college football.

28:53

What? Oh, OK, and it's really easy right now for me to picture, even in a group this big, it's really easy for me to picture 93,000 of my closest friends rooting on the Georgia Bulldogs.

29:09

It's really easy for me to picture a hundred thousand enemies in Neyland Stadium with the Tennessee Volunteers.

29:16

It's easy for me to picture the LSU Tigers shaking the stadium and all of that.

29:21

I can understand about Alabama.

29:23

Now let's forget them.

29:24

But anyway.

29:27

You finally got to the word of God.

29:29

Come on, come on.

29:30

You can do it.

29:30

You can finish the text.

29:32

But just seeing a multitude of millions and millions as far as the eye can see.

29:37

And what are they doing? Instead of cheering a bunch of 18 to 20 year olds kicking a brown leather ball, they are worshiping.

29:44

And they're saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.

29:54

And every creature, look at this, every creature which is in the sea and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea.

30:01

All of them, they're all saying blessing and honor and glory and power be to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb forever and ever.

30:10

And then the four living creatures, they said, amen.

30:12

And the 24 elders fell down and they worshiped him forever and ever.

30:17

And all God's people in this room said, this is it.

30:24

This is where we're all going to be.

30:28

This is our destination.

30:30

In fact, the great Martin Luther said, I have two days on my calendar, this day and that day.

30:39

So what are we going to do from this day to that day? Number one, I would tell you this, if we're going to be on mission together going forward, we better be people of prayer.

30:49

We better be people of prayer.

30:51

Verse eight says that the elders had golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

30:58

Baptists, you know this, brothers and sisters, that God hears our prayers.

31:03

We know that.

31:06

When's the last time you were reminded that he not only hears your prayers, but he savors them.

31:12

He delights in them.

31:15

They're a pleasing aroma to him.

31:19

And I know this, that some of you, you came to New Orleans with some really heavy burdens, maybe a wayward son or a grandchild, maybe a looming medical diagnosis, maybe just burdened by what you see around in the world.

31:39

Maybe there's some contention and friction that some of that nonsense on the internet is spilling over into your own congregation.

31:48

Again, he's got an ax to grind.

31:51

You can tell he keeps bringing up whatever's going on on the internet.

31:56

And he's focusing in on that.

32:00

And pastors, maybe if some of you are really honest, it's a lack of vision for what God's calling you to do in this jacked up crazy world.

32:08

I hate that.

32:09

Well, the term vision and vision casting and pastor vision, all that stuff, that's a phrase that's become very popular.

32:19

It's very corporate.

32:21

You know, we have to have vision.

32:22

And I know the Bible says, you know, my people perish for lack of vision.

32:25

But I, I, I think we often misunderstand what that means.

32:28

And, and, and, you know, the vision should be preach the gospel and proclaim the truth and, and, you know, love your people.

32:37

And I don't know, this idea of, I just, I don't always get it, this corporate language, brothers and sisters go to the Lord in prayer.

32:46

They are a pleasing aroma to him.

32:49

And if we're going to be on mission together, then our prayer lists need to reflect the reality of Revelation 5.

32:57

Listen, I believe in praying for the sick and the aging.

33:01

I do.

33:02

I have a dad that is aging and I pray that God is, is, is merciful and heals him in this, in this next chapter of his life.

33:11

I have a dear friend, Ashley and I do.

33:13

Her name is Rachel and we begged God to heal her from cancer this past year.

33:18

And he did.

33:18

I believe in the healing power of prayer.

33:23

But as I drive around every week visiting churches and see the prayer list, I wonder if this day is first in our minds.

33:31

My question is, are we praying more for saints to stay out of heaven than we are for sinners to stay out of hell? Yeah, oh yeah.

33:39

We've noted declines in baptisms and evangelisms and we've talked about the need for more evangelistic strategies and meetings and we should, but our evangelistic methods will only be as effective when we pray with the heart of God for the laws and cry out to him for a great harvest of souls.

33:59

So can I just ask you a little, little question? You don't have to answer this.

34:03

You don't have to go to the mic and answer it.

34:06

If God miraculously saved today, everyone that you prayed for by name in the last seven days to be saved, how many people would be in the kingdom of God? Okay.

34:17

That's a pretty common, I've heard that before.

34:21

That's nothing new.

34:22

And, and there, obviously there's an important truth that we should be praying for people's salvation.

34:28

Um, but sometimes that can be, uh, somewhat of a somewhat manipulative, you know, you know, look what you're not doing.

34:36

Look what you could be doing.

34:37

Look what you, you know, do better, try harder.

34:39

That's the, that's certainly not, you know, well do better and try harder is not the gospel, just, just to be clear.

34:49

If we're going to be on mission together, then prayer isn't our last resort.

34:54

Prayer is our primary strategy.

34:56

And I've just, I wrote this down.

34:57

I'm probably going to mess everything up, but I will just tell you this.

35:00

Maybe we should tell the COB chair and our president that instead of doing more business and more resolutions that don't mean anything a month from now, maybe what we should do as 16,000 people is cry out to God together.

35:17

Maybe the microphones weren't working yesterday was a sign from the Lord, but the last thing on earth, this earth needs is more of us to air our opinions, but we want to hear from God almighty.

35:31

If we're good.

35:31

Do you really want to hear from God though? Dude.

35:35

To be an on mission together, people that we must be people of prayer.

35:39

Secondly, we must be people who are willing to suffer.

35:43

Y'all, this is not a fun point.

35:45

I hate this one.

35:48

I'm like the guy that like turns it down to like 65 in the summer.

35:53

Like I like my comfort, but I know that they were singing and they were singing, Jesus, you were slain and have redeemed us to your, by your blood.

36:03

And we know that God saved the world through the suffering of his son.

36:07

And God said that in this world, we would suffer too.

36:13

Suffering could take a lot of different forms for us.

36:16

I recognize that there could be, and likely is suffering in the form of government and cultural persecution.

36:24

And while we pray, then work to see that this is not happened.

36:28

We know that it's not uncommon in the church of Jesus Christ.

36:32

And can I just, can I just say this? Like as a side, it's not, I got a feeling something.

36:39

Okay.

36:40

This is going to be another ax.

36:41

I just got to feel this ax to grind right here.

36:43

This is just my opinion.

36:44

I haven't heard it yet.

36:46

Suffering.

36:47

If Facebook censors your post, it's not suffering.

36:52

If your local school or business says happy holidays.

36:56

Y'all, we have many of our best from our midst, hundreds of them.

37:02

Some of them we commissioned on this very stage with the international mission board, and they are serving in areas of great persecution.

37:12

I know that our African American brothers and sisters know this and have known this for hundreds of years, great persecution right here.

37:20

And we need to be prepared for that day.

37:23

And we need to understand that if we are going to be on mission together, then brothers and sisters in this room, we need each other.

37:34

Not only do.

37:37

Okay.

37:38

I, um, the, we need each other.

37:41

I got it, but it just seems like, it seems like a lot of, you know, we need each other, but you know, we, we, we don't want those who are complaining.

37:51

We don't want those who are on the Facebook saying things and, and, you know, you're really not suffering if you got your Facebook post and I get that.

37:59

I've said, you know, I think that the Merry Christmas thing is, is often overblown and we do, we do come up with artificial persecution.

38:07

So I don't disagree with that necessarily.

38:10

Um, it's just interesting.

38:12

The tone in this is certainly polemic, uh, in some, some ways, uh, addressing people with him, he obviously disagrees.

38:22

We need each other, but we have got to preach and never waver that salvation is in Christ alone.

38:32

We must preach that salvation is in Christ alone.

38:35

What does it say here in the text? How were they redeemed by his blood? Brothers and sisters, there's a very beautiful and difficult fact in acts four 12, that there is no other name under heaven by which men are saved.

38:49

Except the son, the name of Jesus and all saving faith is focused and found in the son of God.

38:57

There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and centers plunge beneath that flood.

39:05

Lose all their guilty stains.

39:08

I don't know about you, but guys, when I hear the discussion in this room, are we forgetting the fact that there are thousands of people groups, thousands who have never heard the name of Jesus, men and women, boys and girls, people in our own city in the tents here.

39:27

The best thing we can do is say, we got to go preach Jesus.

39:33

That's what you did for me.

39:35

And I understand we should unapologetically build consistence around doctrine.

39:40

Look, the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, y'all, that's all I know.

39:46

I started following Jesus in 2004.

39:49

You taught it to me and I stand by that unwaveringly, but we should always be aware of the urge to purge.

39:59

And if we're going to break fellowship with one another, then I pray we would do it in tears and not cheers.

40:07

Treven Wax, one of our own, said, short-lived will be the movement more passionate about hunting heretics than making converts.

40:16

Is it true that there is an abundance of people who are always trying to find fault wherever they go, always trying to divide the church on every small point of doctrine? Is that true? Yes, it is.

40:31

But, you know, this is, again, in one sense, it's the Pharisee and the tax collector situation.

40:44

Oh, God, I'm glad I'm not like that man, because I'm not hunting heretics, except for the heretic hunters.

40:53

I'll tell you, they're bad.

40:55

So it's sort of somewhat disingenuous.

41:00

And I'm afraid, judging by the way some of you go to the mics over and over and over and over again, and year after year, and your posts on social media, I'm afraid that some in this room live more for the convention than they do for the mission.

41:16

Okay, you know, why do you come to, why have a convention if you're not going to have people share their thoughts and feelings and concerns? You know, I wonder if he feels the same about Rick Warren going to the microphone.

41:31

I don't know.

41:31

Again, I don't know this man, but, you know, I imagine that there's a sense in which it's okay if some people go to the microphone, but not the people who I disagree with.

41:43

And again, why have a denomination? And why have a group if there's not going to be some concern about what is the truth? Can we discuss it? Can we actually come to some conclusions? Can we make some decisions? You know, it reminds me of, I think it was last year, the year before, where Rick Warren said that, you know, why are we being divided over secondary issues? And I remember saying, I remember saying denominations are built on secondary issues, okay? All Christians should believe the essentials.

42:17

You know, the reason why I have good relationships with like my Presbyterian friends and Anglican friends and all who love Jesus and who love the gospel is because we agree on the very essential things.

42:30

We agree on the gospel.

42:32

It's the secondary things that create denominations, and honestly, it really is that it's the things that, you know, I can have a difference of opinion on baptism with my Presbyterian brethren.

42:47

It doesn't mean that I don't love them, doesn't mean that I don't believe that they're Christians.

42:51

I do.

42:52

I believe they're wrong on baptism, but it's that secondary thing that creates the denominational distinction.

42:58

And when somebody like Rick Warren stands up and says, we don't need to be divided on secondary issues, dude, the denomination is built on secondary issues.

43:05

So that doesn't make sense.

43:06

That argument doesn't hold water.

43:10

So same thing here.

43:12

The convention is, the microphones are there for a reason, and you're chastising people.

43:18

In the sermon, I just don't know if this is, I don't know if this is the issue people took with this, but it's sort of, it's certainly the issue that I'm concerned about as I listen to this message.

43:35

And what if we took half of the amount of time tweeting and posting on Facebook and we started getting back to gospel sharing soul winning? What if we spent half the amount of time reading and reacting to the daily airing of grievance, festivist style posts, and we got serious about making disciples? He referenced Seinfeld.

44:01

Okay.

44:02

I'm back in.

44:04

Why are we letting our convention get sidetracked from preaching Jesus? Because we listen to these guys who put away, who forget what Ephesians 4 says.

44:13

To put away all bitterness and short temper and anger and slander and shouting.

44:20

But you're obviously upset.

44:23

Being on mission from this day to that day means that we show and we share the love of Jesus, and I pray that everyone in new Orleans, that's what they would think about when they think about our Baptist family.

44:38

Somebody yelled out, preach.

44:40

I just, but overall the clapping is not, that's a big room for what little bit of applause I can hear.

44:52

I'm about to.

44:54

Oh boy.

44:56

Being on mission together means that we are people of prayer, ready to suffer, proclaiming Christ alone, but we got to show it.

45:08

Being kind and compassionate, forgiving each other in the same way God forgave you.

45:14

Remember this one, love one another.

45:16

Just as I have loved you, Jesus said, you're to love one another.

45:20

How about this one? Love one another with brotherly affection, outdoing one another in showing honor.

45:27

Don't seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, God's word says, and do nothing, do nothing out of selfish ambition.

45:36

Vision or vain conceit.

45:40

We don't want to just make people more comfortable on their way to hell.

45:43

We're not going to just show people the love of Jesus.

45:46

We're going to share the love of Jesus.

45:48

That's what Peter said when he said, we must always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that's within us, but do so with gentleness and respect.

45:58

Remember that part? We are therefore Christ ambassadors as though God was making his appeal to us.

46:04

And Peter said early in Acts 2, repent and be baptized.

46:08

Brothers and sisters, what if 16,000 of us just went out this afternoon and we went and told 16,000 other people, imagine what would be said about this convention of us being on mission together.

46:20

I do have a question.

46:22

And again, I don't know this man, so you can tell me in the comments.

46:25

Um, does he go out and street preach? You know, we, we believe in open air evangelism at our church.

46:32

Uh, I'm connected with some other men who do open air evangelism men that I know and love and trust.

46:38

He's talking about what if we did that? Well, some are doing that.

46:41

And are we encouraging that? Or are we saying, no, we shouldn't go out and actually preach out in the open air because that makes us look like fanatics.

46:48

Again, I don't know him.

46:49

I don't know what he would say to that, but that would be a question I would have on mission together means that we are a people for all peoples who is here in this passage and who is John talking about all peoples? Yes, I know that doesn't mean all people.

47:07

We're not universalist, but all peoples, because God is going to win for himself.

47:12

People that don't just look like you and me.

47:15

I think of it this way, an analogy 16 years ago, I learned about a topic that I had never known before.

47:22

This topic was something I don't even like to think about anymore, but it was the topic of diamonds.

47:30

Uh, Betty's going to talk about how the diamonds, uh, on the black felt shine the brightest.

47:36

I don't know.

47:37

I've heard an illustration about diamonds.

47:38

I just, I'm at this point, I'm just trying to anticipate what he's going to say.

47:42

I was about to propose to Ashley.

47:44

So I went and visited all these jewelry stores.

47:48

And I remember like these jewelers would tell you these things.

47:50

And, you know, there's like the four C's remember that like car cut, clarity costs.

47:57

I remember that one.

47:59

I don't remember much else, but I knew about was the really good diamonds that you can put a really good diamond in a pitch black room.

48:08

You put that diamond in and if one little bit of light from underneath the door, maybe if it hits that diamond, it begins to twinkle and light begins to hit that diamond from various angles.

48:19

That diamond begins to shine bright, even in a dark room.

48:23

And I am here to tell you that our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ is that bright diamond that will shine from every corner of the earth.

48:31

And I believe God wants us to be those who do that with him.

48:36

You see, he isn't some tribal deity.

48:39

He isn't some tradition that we have on Sundays for the Southern fried Pharisees.

48:44

And some of you who like to shout solely Deo Gloria will never know that God's glory is only truly experienced when it comes from every nation and every tribe and tongue on earth.

48:55

It seems to have been a shot across the bow, perhaps at the reformed guys, because we tend to be the ones who shout solely Deo Gloria, but, uh, don't want to read too much into it.

49:10

And God's going to destroy racial pride.

49:13

That's what this tells us.

49:16

Some of you are like, Oh, here he goes getting all woke.

49:20

Well, are you? Cause you've mentioned race a few times in the sermon without any real context.

49:28

Um, but I wonder what you're going to say next.

49:32

Y'all, this isn't woke.

49:33

This is wonderful.

49:36

They didn't come together.

49:39

They didn't come together to celebrate diversity.

49:42

They came to bring them together to celebrate the one who brought them diversity.

49:47

This isn't a political issue.

49:49

It's a blood of Jesus Christ issue.

49:52

And what's mind boggling about this passage right here is not just that God gave and made us right through the substitutionary death of his son.

50:02

It was not just this.

50:03

He made us right with one another.

50:06

Calvinists and Armenians, different ethnicities, rich and poor, slave and free, rural and urban, single site, multi-site, and may from this day on, may we be a people who are defined as on mission together people for all peoples.

50:25

Last thing I'll close with this and I'll really close.

50:29

I didn't learn this Baptist trick.

50:33

We need to be people of worship, great worship in all that we do.

50:44

Why do I say that? Because the reason we do missions is because worship doesn't exist.

50:53

And I care about numbers.

50:56

I care about them greatly.

50:58

I want to see them go up.

51:00

I want to see baptisms up.

51:02

I want to see church attendance up.

51:04

The number of disaster relief volunteers doubled.

51:06

I want to see our church planning numbers doubled.

51:10

And some of you will say, well, you know, I don't care about numbers.

51:13

I care about people.

51:15

I'll say, well, Charles Spurgeon famously said the only people who didn't care about numbers were those who didn't have any.

51:22

And God cares about numbers.

51:24

He cares about numbers so much.

51:26

He's got a book called Numbers.

51:29

Okay.

51:30

Okay.

51:31

I think that there's, this is, this is a, it's a classic example of talking past one another.

51:37

When someone says, I don't care about numbers, I care about people.

51:40

That's, that's sort of incorrect because each number is a person.

51:44

But what, what is meant is we don't want to, we don't want to have numbers at the sake of truth or numbers through manipulation, and that's what the, those who say that are concerned about.

51:59

And yeah, we don't have a giant church, like some churches are very big, but that doesn't mean that we don't care about every individual and want every individual to hear the gospel.

52:08

It just, again, this is, this is, uh, it's polemic, it's argumentative, it's somewhat taking jabs.

52:20

But I'm here to tell you this is that we do all of this because we want to see the worship of Jesus Christ go from this place to every place on earth.

52:31

And we get to do that on mission together.

52:34

We get to do that together.

52:36

Our convention exists to be a movement of churches on mission together because God desires more worshipers and because Jesus is worthy.

52:47

He is worthy and he is alone.

52:51

Can you guys picture it? How about you in the back? One day being around the throne, no more tears, no more sin, no more sickness and death, no more factions, no more exaggerations, no more fear mongering, no more divisive podcasts, no more abuse, no more racial pride, no more systemic injustice.

53:20

He mentioned podcasts.

53:22

I'm touched.

53:24

He also mentioned systemic injustice, again, language, not woke, but I'm going to use the language.

53:30

No more gender confusion, no more politics, no more lawsuits, no more amendments, no more disfellowshipping.

53:37

My fellow Baptists, from this day to that day, may we be a people who are on mission together.

53:43

You are on mission for me.

53:46

You are on mission for my wife.

53:50

Brothers and sisters, may from this day to that day, may we be a people who are on mission together.

54:02

Okay, well, we've heard the entire sermon together.

54:04

You were with me the whole time.

54:05

You heard what little comments I had while he was preaching.

54:07

And now I want to give my review of the sermon.

54:11

And again, right away, I can see why there were some people who listened to this sermon and took offense to it, because there were obvious axes that were grinded, and there was obviously things that were said during the sermon, which were intended to be pointed at certain people, those who come and speak in the microphones, those who have podcasts and social media influence, those who have said something negative or may be involved in a lawsuit.

54:46

And there's all kinds of stuff going on in the Southern Baptist Convention, of which I'm unaware.

54:50

So some of the things that he's talking about, I don't even know about.

54:53

But the question is, a lot of people said this is a terrible sermon.

54:57

There was nothing good about it.

54:58

So I'm going to be fair and I'm going to give my review in the positive and in the negative.

55:04

In the positive side, when he spoke from the text, there wasn't anything necessarily unorthodox about anything that he said.

55:18

He said that we need to be people of prayer, people who are willing to suffer, people who are willing to seek after Christ alone.

55:24

Those three things are true.

55:26

Obviously, he had an outline that was memorable, because I didn't write it down and yet I still remembered it.

55:30

So on that side of it, it wasn't an exposition of the text, but I said from the beginning I didn't expect it to be, because this is a conference.

55:39

Conferences are not known for being highly exegetical.

55:43

Even if you go to a Ligonier conference or a G3 conference, you might get some heavier, more robust biblical teaching, but you're still having people who are preaching the conference theme, you're still having people preach the topic of the conference, so it's not a surprise.

56:00

That the sermon wasn't getting into the more interpretive aspects, but at the same time, half the sermon took him to get to the text.

56:20

Basically, what he had was a devotional that was with a 20-minute introduction, or 15-minute or so introduction before he really got to the text.

56:32

So, and again, that's what we saw.

56:38

When I said I was going to say positive, okay, so looking at it from a positive perspective, trying to be as kind and gracious as I can, I didn't hear anything in the sermon regarding the text that was necessarily just wrong or unorthodox, but that's the positive.

57:05

And that doesn't sound positive because it still sounds kind of negative, because I didn't hear anything wrong, that sounds positive.

57:11

Well, what I mean is, so I don't think necessarily mishandling the text, even though it wasn't the most robust handling of it I've ever heard, certainly fit within what some might come to expect from conferences like these.

57:30

Now, the negative side of it.

57:31

I mentioned some of this during the watching of the review, and so if you've watched it with me, you heard some of these things, but I want to reiterate.

57:39

It's obvious there was an axe to grind.

57:41

I can see why certain people would say that this message was not a good sermon, because the focuses of the message were, we need to be on mission, we need to be focused on our mission as Baptists, and we need to be opposed to those who would be opposed to our mission.

58:02

But then the question is, okay, well, what's the determination factor here? So we're not concerned about egalitarian versus complementarian, we're not concerned about Arminian versus Calvinist, we're not concerned about all these other things, all right? According to basically what he was saying in his sermon, these things all really shouldn't matter because they're just in the way of mission.

58:26

So we don't really have concern about doctrine.

58:30

And I remember years ago I read a book, and I think it was...I think it was Erwin Lutzer, but I could be wrong about that, but it was a little small black book.

58:41

It was called Doctrine Divides.

58:43

And I remember reading it, and I remember thinking that it's true, that doctrine does divide people.

58:49

Doctrine creates divisions within churches.

58:53

Doctrine creates divisions within conventions and denominations.

58:59

But the question of the book was, is doctrine worth it? And if I remember correctly, and again, this has been 20 years ago I read the book, but if I remember correctly, what the overall emphasis was, was that doctrine is necessary, and therefore the divisions that it brings sometimes are necessary.

59:17

Now some things are not necessarily worth dividing over, but there are things that are worth dividing over.

59:23

There are some things, you know, he mentioned at the end about disfellowshipping.

59:28

Obviously, in my mind, a reference to what was happening to the churches that had been disfellowshipped over female pastors, Saddleback and a few other churches.

59:36

I don't know that that's what was on his mind because I can't read his mind, but based on what I know about what was happening at the convention, I'm pretty sure that was what was on his mind.

59:44

So, um, that's, you know, he's, he's obviously concerned about that.

59:50

And he, and he thinks that those who are concerned about that, those who are pushing for that, or those who are, who are, who have that as their agenda or concern are essentially not on mission.

01:00:03

And you guys need to get off of those things and you need to get on mission with us, whatever that means.

01:00:10

That means going out and preaching the gospel in the open air.

01:00:13

He didn't say, he said, what if all 16,000 of us went out and preached the gospel? Well, you're not, you're not doing that.

01:00:19

Now you may, you may do that another time, but that's not what the convention is.

01:00:26

Should you even, should you have even had a convention if you feel so strongly that these things are unnecessarily impeding progress? They're unnecessarily in the way.

01:00:40

And so raises a lot of questions, raises a lot of issues.

01:00:47

So what's my final thought? Some people said worst sermon they've ever heard.

01:00:52

I wouldn't go that far.

01:00:54

I wouldn't say it's the worst sermon I've ever heard.

01:00:55

I think that would be tremendously unfair.

01:00:58

I think that the sermon itself obviously had an axe to grind and whoever, whoever was the object of that, whether it be the people who were supporting the disfellowshipping of some churches or whether it was the people who were trying to create issues over other doctrinal matters or even, even legal matters.

01:01:22

He mentioned suing more than once.

01:01:24

And I know there's some legal issues that were going on and some concerns.

01:01:31

I do want to take this thought into consideration.

01:01:37

How different would it have been had he walked up to the pulpit, introduced himself, and said, hi, my name is Todd.

01:01:50

I know you don't know who I am, but God saved me through Baptist church.

01:01:57

And I'm grateful for what Baptists have been in my life and what we can be in the lives of others.

01:02:03

So let's open our Bibles and let's look at the blessing of what we see as a vision of heaven, where people from every tribe, tongue, nation, and language are worshiping around the throne of our God, who is the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is worthy to receive glory and honor.

01:02:26

And he started with the text.

01:02:27

How different would it have been had he started with the text, focused on what the text says, he could still have said the things that he said, that we do need to be a people of prayer.

01:02:36

I agree.

01:02:38

We do need to be a people who are willing to suffer and maybe talk about some of the real suffering that is going on around the world, maybe spend some time actually addressing how we need to be holding the rope for our missionaries who are, as it were, like down in a hole and we're up holding the rope and we're sending them and we're sending them means and funds and abilities to continue doing what they're doing.

01:03:05

And then, you know, people who are focused on the gospel of Jesus Christ and actually give the gospel.

01:03:11

Now you say, well, why would I give the gospel in a room full of people who are Baptists? These people know the gospel.

01:03:17

Martin Luther said that I give the gospel every week because every week my people forget it.

01:03:26

One thing that was missing from this sermon really was a clear presentation of the gospel.

01:03:33

And I'm not saying every sermon has to be, you know, a walkthrough of the method of salvation or the plan of salvation, because obviously there are times where we give it differently.

01:03:44

And I'm not saying there was no gospel in this, but I'm just saying how different could this message have been and how much more unifying could it have been? I think this message was very divisive.

01:03:54

I think it was purposely polemic and purposely pointed at a group with which the man preaching disagreed.

01:04:03

And here's my thought on that.

01:04:05

He's upset because there are disagreeable people.

01:04:09

And so he gets behind the pulpit and he preaches about his disagreements with their disagreements.

01:04:16

And I don't think that that's really the solution.

01:04:22

So those are my thoughts.

01:04:23

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

01:04:28

And I want to remind you that Conversations with a Calvinist is a weekly podcast, and I love to talk about things that you want to hear about.

01:04:35

So if you have questions or things that you'd like for me to discuss, please send me an email at calvinispodcast at gmail.com.

01:04:42

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01:04:45

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01:04:52

Wearing my Church Soup shirt today.

01:04:56

And if you haven't seen it, I am posting it on our YouTube page as well as the audio version on our podcast.

01:05:04

So go back and check those out.

01:05:06

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01:05:12

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01:05:15

Or again, send me an email at calvinispodcast at gmail.com.

01:05:18

Thank you for listening today to Conversations with a Calvinist.

01:05:21

My name is Keith Foskey, and I've been your Calvinist.

01:05:25

May God bless you.