WWUTT 1085 Q&A JD Greear's Preferred Pronouns, Preaching Every Sunday, Playing the Lottery, Abraham and Hagar?

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Did J .D. Greer say you have to refer to a person by their preferred pronouns? Must we preach a sermon from the

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Bible every Lord's Day? And what does the Bible say about playing the lottery? The answers to these questions and others, when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ, that we may with confidence draw near to the throne of grace.

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To receive mercy and to find grace, to help in time of need, visit our website at www .tt

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.com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. So if you want to pick up the book, 25

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Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says, go to Amazon .com

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and type in that title. It'll take you straight to it. We have sold quite a few copies this past week.

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Yeah, it's been very exciting. Yes. I've even given a few away for free. Thank you to those who have taken pictures of the book and shared it on Twitter and say, hey,

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I'm reading this book now. Yes. And if you would please, after you read it, leave a review on Amazon.

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We have to try to push out some of those one -star people that very clearly did not even read the book.

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Yeah, it's kind of awkward. I'll say something controversial on Twitter. And since the top, you know, the pinned tweet that I have on there.

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Is your book. Is plugging the book. Yeah, of course. They'll go to the book and leave a bad review because they were angry about something

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I said on Twitter. Of course. So, yes. If you can read the book and leave an honest review.

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Yes. That would be appreciated. That would. Now, as we go through the questions today, some of these topics are going to get more mature as we go on.

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Okay. So I'll let you know kind of where the point is like, okay, now we're going to get into some more mature subject matter here.

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Check. But we start with a couple of stories that, unfortunately, by their nature, probably are a little bit mature.

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I just won't get descriptive with them. This first one comes from Life News, Pete Buttigieg.

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You know who Pete Buttigieg is? No, I don't remember. He is. I've heard the name, though. He's the mayor from South Bend, Indiana, who is running for president.

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Okay. He's attempting. Okay. Attempting to get the Democrat nomination. Okay. Of course.

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And he's actually doing quite well in the polls right now. Okay. Even beating out Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in a lot of different districts.

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So he's doing quite good. But Pete Buttigieg, being a liberal, claims that the

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Bible says babies can be aborted up to their first breath. That's terrible.

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He says that the Bible allows this. That's terribly wrong.

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Yes. I mean, it's a sick and satanic twisting of scripture. But of course, this is a man who claims to be married to another man.

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And of course, that's the only way he's going to read the Bible, twisting it to suit his own demonic ends.

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It just so happens that I've done a video on this. And this is not a new concept. This goes back a long time of various people who say that until the baby is born and takes a breath, the baby's not actually alive.

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It's not really a person. So you can destroy the baby in the womb up until the point that it takes its first breath.

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You know, a baby is breathing in the womb. Yeah. That's what I was going to say. Anyway, so I've done a video on this, and it was actually in response to something that someone played at my church.

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And it was from a teacher named W .O. Vaught, who used to be a vice president of the

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Southern Baptist Convention. He was a spiritual advisor to Bill Clinton, and Clinton claimed that he got his views about abortion from W .O.

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Vaught. And Vaught used to teach that a baby is not actually alive until it's born and takes its first breath.

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So in response to that, looking back how far that particular teaching went, and because, like I said, this even came from a teacher within the

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Southern Baptist Convention, I made this video. The debate continues as to when life begins and when it ends.

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President Bill Clinton's spiritual advisor, a Southern Baptist minister, taught that because Adam wasn't alive until God breathed life into him, then a child isn't alive until the baby takes his first breath.

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This is not the view shared in Scripture. About 30 times in the Bible is there a reference to a child in the womb, and in every one of those instances, the

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Bible speaks the same of a child inside the womb as it refers to a child outside of the womb. Consider in Luke chapter 1 when the angel

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Gabriel appeared to Mary and said she was going to be with child, conceived of the Holy Spirit, and she would call his name

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Jesus. Mary went to visit Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist, and when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child in her womb left with joy.

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Science has only recently caught up to the fact that children express emotion in the womb as early as 8 weeks.

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If they'd only read Luke 1 .41, they'd have learned we already know that. Jesus verifies and sanctifies every aspect of human life from conception to natural death because He experienced it all.

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Yes, even death is sanctified by Christ. He even sanctifies suffering because He suffered.

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We argue about whether or not a person should suffer when the Bible tells us to rejoice in suffering, to share in suffering, be patient in suffering, and that our present suffering does not compare to the glory that awaits us if we endure.

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Therefore, we must protect and cherish every aspect of life from beginning to end, a gift from God, made in the image of God, when we understand the text.

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So in light of the statement that Pete Buttigieg made, you might have some folks that'll talk about that, where this might become a talking point in certain circles.

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If you're looking for that particular video to answer some of these questions that people might be raising in light of this news story, go to YouTube, and you type in WWUTT and Life Begins at Conception, and that'll pull up that video for you.

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That'll be good. In fact, that's a good way to search for what videos on YouTube. You just type in WWUTT and whatever word topic you're looking for, and you're probably gonna find a video on it.

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Yeah, likely. Since we're nearing 300 videos. Yep. There's very few that people ask you about, and you're like, oh,

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I hadn't thought of that yet. Yeah, and then there are some times when somebody will ask me about a video topic, hey, could you do a video on this one?

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And I'll go, yeah, sure. And then I go to start working on the video. And then it looks familiar.

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Yes. I'm like, wait a minute. I already did one. I think I've covered this already. That's happened a couple of times when

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I've been working on the script, I've been writing the script, and I'll go to save it, and that title already exists in my save folder.

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I'm typing up exactly the same title. I'm going, oh, I already did that one. Well, there you go. So then

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I go back to the old script, and I'll bring it up and go, yeah, but I could say that better.

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And I managed to morph that into a different video that kind of covers the same topic. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's good, because they're only 90 seconds.

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Yeah, right. I mean, what can you cover in 90 seconds? Well, quite a bit. But at the same time, it's usually just one topic.

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Yeah. So if it deviates from that any, then yeah. I remember G3, this was a couple of years ago, but I was talking with Phil Johnson and Justin Peters at the same time.

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Wow. The two of them were standing together talking, and they both were like, how do you do all of this in 90 seconds?

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Right. So I don't really think of that as being a skill, but it was my years in radio.

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I'm too wordy. Yeah, I know. And I know you don't get that here on the podcast very much, but I really am.

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I try to land the plane, but I like to explain myself very clearly. And so, yeah,

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I think it's quite wordy. I don't think you're really all that wordy. You don't think so? No, I think that...

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I feel like I talk a lot. Maybe it's just because I repeat myself all day. To children who don't listen to you?

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Is that... I don't think that you talk a lot.

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I think that you have trouble finding what it is that you're going to say. Yeah, that might be it.

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So it might seem like... It takes a minute. Yeah, it takes a little bit to get around to what you're actually trying to get across.

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I always start at the end of my point, and then I work my way back, so that way...

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I don't know why I do that. My thought process has already finished the beginning part, so it just jumps to the end.

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Yeah, that's right. Yeah, because there's a few times she'll start in the middle of something. We might even both be on the couch and reading, and then she'll just say something, and I'm like, what are you talking about?

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Yep. Like, why didn't you go with me? Come on. Weren't you reading my mind? Yes. Weren't you reading my mind before that finally came out?

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We usually have a good laugh over it. So if you feel like you talk too much, that's the reason why.

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But you don't. Okay. I say way more words than you do. Well... But by the time we actually get to sit down with each other,

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I have said so many words all day long. Well, that's the same with me. Then I get all worded out.

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And that's what they'll tell you in those marriage courses. They'll say, hey, be prepared when your husband gets home.

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He doesn't want to talk, because he's been talking all day. That's me. It's actually quite the opposite for me, because I'm usually alone at the church most of the time.

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Yes. Which makes up for it, because then I don't feel like I have to say something to carry on a conversation.

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All I get to do is, mm -hmm, yeah. And I'm completely content. And so are you. It works out well.

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That's right. Now, where were we? What were we talking about? Okay. Other news story that I got here.

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Other news story. So this one is from Discern. And I'm not sure if you're aware, but Adam Ford, who's the creator of, well, of course,

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Adam Ford Comics. Okay. But then he went on to create the Babylon Bee. Right. He sold the Babylon Bee.

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It's under different ownership. But Adam Ford will say what the Babylon Bee is now is even way above and beyond what he imagined it being.

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So he's really proud of what it is, what it has become. Barnabas Piper, who's one of John Piper's sons, had made a comment on Twitter one time about how

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Adam Ford must be embarrassed by what Babylon Bee has become. And Adam Ford had to correct him and came right back and said, no,

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I'm really quite proud of what it is. Yeah. And the guys that are in possession of it now, including

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Kyle Mann, who's the editor, have taken the Babylon Bee and done even far more than...

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No, it's terrific. Yeah. It's seriously like this is what the internet was made for, the Babylon Bee. They really are kind of owning the net right now.

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But Adam Ford has gone on to start other projects. And I know that he tried to do like a news aggregate at one point.

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I don't know if he's still doing that anymore. But it was something similar to the Drudge Report, where it's he's not writing the news, but he's putting together a bunch of news stories from different places he's finding on the web.

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Yeah. Well, he has since started his own news site. Okay. And it's called Discern. Okay.

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D -I -S -R -N. Oh, I have seen that. Yeah. Floating around.

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Right. I've shared a bunch of articles and I'll post articles from them on our church

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Facebook page even. Okay. So this came from Discern. This is where I'm getting this particular headline.

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Southern Baptist President, who is J .D. Greer, says that he prefers to call transgender people by their chosen pronouns.

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Okay. And he calls it pronoun hospitality. Southern Baptist Convention President J .D.

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Greer revealed on an Ask Me Anything episode of his podcast that he prefers to call transgender people by their preferred pronouns.

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Greer said that while there is room for disagreement and Christians should disagree charitably, he sees it as a hospitable courtesy to refer to transgender people by their chosen pronouns despite knowing that their sex does not match their descriptors.

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Now, see, if you can't tell, I can understand why you would struggle to pick the right pronoun.

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If you don't know, then it makes sense that you're going to go by the pronouns the person tells you or they're going to introduce themselves as a man or a woman.

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Well, if you can't tell, then you're just going to go by what they say. Right. They're the ones that are lying if they're telling you they're a man when they're really a woman.

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Right. That's on them. Yeah. That's not your responsibility to have to know that in case they are mistaken.

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So J .D. Greer says even if he knows that that's a man, but that man wants to be called a woman, he's going to call him a woman.

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That just, I don't know, I can't I can't even describe it. It just reminds me so much of that.

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I don't even remember where it was, California, maybe. But the school board had allowing the boys who identify self -identify as girls go into the girls locker room.

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Oh, I saw that story. Yeah. It was just this week. But I can't remember where that was. Yeah. I don't remember.

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I don't remember. But anyway, it was it just reminds me of that. Like, are you going to allow those men to go in the women's restroom?

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You know, I mean. Yeah. So like these folks. I mean, everybody has a stall. Sure. But at the same time, nursing moms go into the bathroom.

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Yeah. I didn't listen to the podcast and there is a link to the podcast in the discern article. But I would like to know, was there any follow up questions to this?

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Like, OK, so if a man comes to our church and he identifies as a woman and you can tell that that's a man and not a woman, are you going to let him go walking into the women's restroom?

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Yeah. You're going to use the preferred pronouns. You have to follow it to the end of what the LGBTQ lobby says you have to do.

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Yeah. You have to let him identify as a woman and let him go into the women's restroom. Are you going to do that in your church,

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J .D. Greer? Right. That's I mean, that's where my mind would go. Right. Is how far are you going to go with this?

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Because that's seriously concerning. He goes he goes on to say he and he it says that Greer wrote this in the podcast description.

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There is a spectrum of generosity of spirit versus telling truth.

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And I tend toward generosity of the spirit. What? I mean, it's almost like that makes sense.

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Yeah. It's almost like he's pitting generosity against truth. Sometimes you have to be generous at the expense of the truth.

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That's really the argument that he's making there. Yeah. That's crazy. That's crazy talk. But then again, this is coming from the man who said, stay home for Christmas instead of going to church.

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Oh, yeah. Yeah. That wasn't I wasn't. Was it Christmas? Yeah, it was. You're right. It was their big Christmas shindig that they did.

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Yeah. So instead of coming to church. Hey, we had this big get together. So now we're just going to cancel church the next week.

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Yeah. Yeah. Kind of odd. He's inconsistent in a lot of ways. But yeah, so in Ephesians chapter four, we are commanded to speak the truth in love.

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Right. That's what we're commanded to do. Precisely. So if you're leaning toward generosity at the expense of the truth, then you're not being generous.

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If you're not speaking the truth in love, you're not being a generous person. It sounds noble, but it's really not.

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Yeah. Yeah. It's generous to lie. Right. You know, that's what he's saying there.

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It makes you feel guilty about not being generous. You know, like, am

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I being generous in doing this? Am I being, you know, giving the extra love and support that they need?

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And then it's like, yeah, that's what they want you to think. And then you need to stop yourself and go back to the

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Bible. Yes. Stop listening to outside world. Stop listening to your feelings. Yeah. It's crazy because they actually took me down that road of questioning whether or not that I'm being loving.

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Right. Which is called gaslighting. Okay. Sure. That's what that is.

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I mean, it's emotional manipulation. Yeah. I'm going to make you feel bad for my sins so that you have to accommodate me in my sin that I want to do.

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Yeah. And I mean, but that's really, whenever I saw the headline, I was like, oh, well, that sounds good.

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You know, being generous. You know, maybe we should. And then I'm like, no, no, no, no, Becky, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.

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That is not what the Bible says. And that is what we should go off of. We have to follow scripture.

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Yeah. Right. Which Mark 10, six. But from the beginning of creation,

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God made them male and female. And earlier this year, at the start of 2019, we've already heard how

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J .D. Greer twist Romans one when he preached through it. I did a video on that.

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So this is very disappointing coming from the president of the Southern Baptist Convention. I cannot wait until he's out.

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Albert Moeller is going to be the next nominee, according to H .B. Charles Jr., who is going to nominate

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Albert Moeller, Albert Moeller Jr. to be to become the president of the

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Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando in 2020. I would like to see him run unopposed.

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That would be nice. Because who in the world could possibly be Albert Moeller? I don't know.

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I really hope that Albert Moeller takes a strong stance. Yes. And a courageous.

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Yes. And really cleans up the mess that the Southern Baptist Convention is starting to spiral into.

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Yeah. We have. A big mopping bucket. We have, as a convention, been in some dire straits in the past, before the conservative resurgence came about in the late 70s, early 80s.

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So if we can get cleaned up like that, the way that we were 40 years ago, then

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I don't have any doubts that we can do that again. If it is the will of God and his spirit moves through the convention, we can see things shift back to the sufficiency of scripture again, which is what we're leaving.

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That's what J .D. Greer is dismissing here when he says we need to lean toward generosity instead of the truth.

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Just quit playing with my emotions like that. Just stop. I need to focus back on the word so I don't get suckered into those things.

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That's right. Yeah. It's bad. So this is the Friday edition of the broadcast and we take questions from the listeners.

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You can send a question to whenweunderstandthetextatgmail .com. On that note, if you send me an email with a link in it, and the only thing you say in the email is, hey, watch this and give me your thoughts,

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I'm not going to click on the link. Yeah. You got to give me more than that. Okay. Because it could be spam.

19:01

It could. You're right. Your email could have been hacked. Right. Even if I know who you are, even if we've exchanged before.

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Because, yeah, you could have clicked on something funny on Facebook or something like that. Now your email's hacked and it's just sending emails out to all your list.

19:16

Yeah. Everybody on your list. I can't even send you that type of email. No. You won't open it. I won't open it. Yeah. And you'll come to me and ask, did you send me this?

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I'm like, yeah. Yeah, I did. Open it, you know, or whatever. I don't think there's ever been a time that I've said, no,

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I didn't send you that. So I'm glad for that. I know. But at the same time. I'd still rather be safe than sorry. You're still very, very cautious about that.

19:36

Yeah. Rightfully so. But. I'm getting emails from one person right now.

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It's somebody that we know and I can tell by the email, okay, she's not really sending me this. Yeah.

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And so I've tried to contact her and say, hey, are you really sending me this email or have you been hacked? And she hasn't responded.

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So anyway. Probably hacked then. That's probably an offline conversation, but off -air conversation.

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Off -air. Hey, you sending me those junk emails, knock it off. But yeah, please include something with a little bit more detail as to, hey,

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I'm so and so. I love listening to what. So at least I see something personable is happening in the exchange.

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And then, hey, a friend of mine sent me this. Would you watch it and give me your thoughts? If you send me a 40 minute video,

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I'm likely not going to watch it at all. And this has happened a few times where somebody sent me something that's really long.

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I just don't have the time. If there's a certain part in that video that you want to zero in on and say, hey, this starts about 646 in the video.

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If you'd start watching there, I'd appreciate your thoughts. That would be helpful. Right. Narrow it down a little bit.

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But generally, if you send me a 40 minute to an hour sermon or something like that, I just don't have time to watch it.

20:54

I thank you, though. I thank you for valuing my opinion in something like that. But I have to keep my.

21:01

We like our family time with him. That's right. I want to see my family today. Everybody asks you, like how how you manage all of these things, writing a book and doing the podcasts and doing study and, you know, working your job and preaching and all that stuff and prep for those things.

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And I mean, the and having family time, you know, and keeping the family happy enough that we get to see your beautiful face, keeping the family happy, not just doing my husbandly or fatherly responsibilities, but just keeping you happy.

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Well, I mean, we have to see you enough to to keep us happy. I know. I know. It's just funny the way you put that.

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That's that's all I'm pointing out. So anyway, so whenever you you send extra lengthy things, it's just not it's really not doable because we are maxed.

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We value every second. Yes. Together. And that shortens up times.

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And unfortunately, even though I don't have much time and I'm and I'm a very busy person,

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I will still get distracted by stupid links that I'm clicking on on the computer that I I'm just wasting time.

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I'm just clicking dumb articles. Yes. That's why I I am precious of time.

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I make sure that precious time. And there are times when I'll be doing that and I start getting convicted and I'm like, my wife is way more lovely than than whatever it is

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I'm clicking on here. Just reading these ridiculous articles and watching stupid cat videos.

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So I'm going to go find my wife and talk to her because that's much more enjoyable than this anyway.

22:44

See, I mean, you get on the computer, you just start clicking stuff. And it's easy. It's so easy to start wasting time or I'll watch those videos.

22:51

That's like, did you see what happened in this movie? It's analyzed and explained. I don't ever watch that.

22:56

Yeah. Well, because I you watch them and you tell me about it, I'm glad I didn't waste my time.

23:04

Something documentary like or something like that. You told me in less than five minutes what you watched and like over an hour.

23:10

Yes. But that's only whenever you're waiting on something to load up or whatever.

23:16

Yeah. Yeah. And that's when I'll get increment. That's when I'll get in trouble. Yeah. Because I'm waiting for something to load.

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Like I'm uploading the podcast and I'll start watching a couple of videos. Well, the upload finished 20 minutes ago and I'm still watching videos.

23:28

Sucks you in. Yeah, sucks me right in. Okay, so let's go to this email.

23:34

Another email. From Jeanette. She says, hello, Gabe and Becky. Let me start off by saying, I thank and praise

23:40

God for the ministry and the work that y 'all do to further his kingdom. My husband and I just got married a little over a month ago.

23:49

Oh, congratulations. He is the one who introduced your show slash podcast to me.

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Now that we are married, we get to listen to it next to and with one another.

24:01

Oh, that's so fun. Thank you for posting it early because we get up at 4 a .m. Whoa. Wow.

24:08

That's an early start. Yeah, I don't get up that early. Becky starts the day before I do, but not that early.

24:15

Yeah. After we wake up, I get my coffee. That's the way Becky starts hers. And by the time we get moving, which is 4 .30,

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5 o 'clock, the podcast is usually up. It's much appreciated. What time zone do you live in?

24:28

Yeah, I'm curious, too, because I've had it. I have it uploaded around 1 or 2 a .m. So yeah,

24:34

I'm not sure why it would wait until 4 .30 or 5 o 'clock anyway. So she goes on to say some mornings.

24:41

Very rarely. Rarely. Yeah. Very, very rarely. There have been some where there's been some sort of computer snafu or something like that.

24:48

It probably takes three to four o 'clock before it finally gets loaded. Central time. Yes. So we're in the central part of the

24:54

U .S. So anyway, she says, I drive my husband. I'm still trying to get used to saying husband. I drive him crazy.

25:03

I was thinking she was about to say I drive him to work. I drive my husband, parentheses,

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I'm still trying to get used to saying husband, crazy. I make him put his phone by me so that I can pause or go back a million times.

25:16

It usually takes us twice the time, an hour, to listen to it all. I'll take or I'll ask questions or we'll talk about it or you have me acting out what people's expressions were.

25:28

It's not just the kids that have a vivid imagination. Going through acts has been fun. I have had him in stitches.

25:35

For example, when the angel helps Peter escape from prison and get to Mary's house and then

25:42

Rhoda recognizes Peter's voice and she runs off, leaving him standing there. I was like.

25:48

I like that part, too. I was like, can you imagine him standing there, lifting his hands, shrugging and he's got this puzzled face going, huh?

25:56

What's going on? Um, hello. I'm trying to come in. I'm kind of escaping from prison here. She says or like yesterday in Acts 13, 13, when

26:05

Paul stood up and start speaking to everyone, it was almost like Ben was waiting for me to say it because I start giggling.

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I pause and say, Ben, seriously, can't you just see him? Paul with both arms up loudly, almost like proclaiming, saying with me, lowering my pitch and lifting my arms and hands, bit of Israel and you who fear

26:22

God, listen, can't you see it? He put his hand on his face. He shakes his head and laughs at me.

26:28

My stomach hurt from laughing so hard. What can I say? It helps me remember. That's awesome.

26:34

Again, thank you so much. And praying for the ministry humbly in him, Jeanette, she even gave us a few emoticons in there.

26:42

Yes, that's awesome. I hope everybody even understood what I was reading there from Jeanette because it was even quite colorful in, uh, in its language, in the email there.

26:50

It's too bad we don't have you on video because you even raised up your hands. I will. I see. I gesture a lot doing this.

26:57

I really do gesture a lot. Yes. So you don't see that anytime you hear a or something like that.

27:03

I'm just knocking the mic stand is what I would. My arms going everywhere and they start bumping into stuff.

27:10

Uh, Becky uses motion and movement and actions to help the kids memorize as well.

27:16

Yes. So as Jeanette says, it helps me remember that's, it is a good learning method. It is. You know, helps you remember.

27:22

Everybody learns differently. So some people have to write it out. Some people have to read it. Some people have to act it out.

27:29

Some do something while they're listening to it. You know, there's, there's different things.

27:34

Like I tell you to do a jumping jack when you take your allergy medicine in the evening so you remember that you did it.

27:40

Right. Yup. Jump up in the air. Yeah. Cause I get so tired by that hour.

27:46

I'm like, did I take it? She's like, did I take it? Yeah. I don't remember. I don't know, babe. I'm going to be miserable tomorrow if I didn't.

27:52

So you'll find out tomorrow, oh, I didn't take my allergy medicine last night. Yup. Anyway, that's awesome though.

27:58

That's great. I love that you get such a kick out of it. This next one comes from Marco in Texas.

28:04

Greetings, Pastor Gabe and sister Becky. It's your friendly Texan Marco reaching out to you from Uvalde, Texas.

28:12

How y 'all doing? Anyways, my question for you is this, must there be a sermon for every

28:20

Lord's day? I recently had a discussion with a pastor about this subject when he chose not to have a sermon for his

28:29

Sunday morning service and instead had a special guest speak on church membership.

28:34

There was no Bible in any of the guest speaker's speech. Okay. I don't know how you talk about church membership and you don't even reference scripture on that.

28:44

Yeah, that's kind of odd. So what sort of lesson is this supposed to be if the

28:51

Bible's not there? Yeah. Is the church coming under submission of the

28:56

Holy Word of God regarding church membership or is church membership one of those things where, no, we don't really need the

29:03

Bible for this. Yeah. I just, I'm still really confused.

29:08

I know. That's the way that comes across. See, we don't really need to submit to the Bible on this subject. Yeah. You just need to do it.

29:15

You just need to do it. Yeah. So would that be tradition over scripture? Probably.

29:21

Yeah. That's almost Catholic. Yeah. So you're going to say tradition trumps scripture in this particular place.

29:27

He goes on to say, I was taken aback by the act and had a conversation with the pastor of that church and informed him of my concern.

29:34

His response was, well, do we have to preach every Sunday? Okay. I believe the correct answer was an obvious yes.

29:43

He didn't think so. I told him the scripture portrays the importance of preaching every Lord's Day and he told me

29:50

I was being legalistic. Oh, wow. Yeah. And that's a very common response. You go to the scripture and you say, here's what the

29:55

Bible says and a person who doesn't want to submit to it will say, well, that's just legalism. I'm just blown away.

30:04

So yeah, Marco goes on, am I wrong in thinking that it's biblical to have the word preached every Lord's Day?

30:10

Was I being legalistic? What does scripture say? Thank you both. And in the words of the apostle

30:16

Paul, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you.

30:22

Second Corinthians 13, 14. Well, Marco, you even brought us the word in your email. Yeah, no joke.

30:28

So do you think that the word is important to preach every

30:33

Sunday? But I tell you, people just get in our heads so easily to make a second guess.

30:40

You know, because whenever you're a Christian and you're trying to follow the word, follow scripture as it states in there and guides us, you are going against the majority.

30:54

I mean, that's just... You're going against the world. Yeah. Right. And the world is going to look at you like you're not going with us.

31:00

So you are obviously wrong. And it makes you second guess every step, at least those that you're not 100 % confident about.

31:08

Yes. So... Which is why the apostle Paul to the Galatians. Galatians 1, I think this is verse 10.

31:14

Am I trying to please God or man? Right. If I'm trying to please man, then I would not be a servant of Christ. Right.

31:19

So we must remember that we fall on the word of God before we fall on the opinion of man

31:26

Right. And we must test every opinion and everything that would be raised up against the knowledge of God.

31:34

We must destroy with the word of God. That's actually the instruction in 2 Corinthians chapter 10.

31:40

Yeah. That the word of God has the power to destroy strongholds and every lofty opinion that's raised against the knowledge of God.

31:46

So Marca, when you bring this to your pastor, you did this the right way. Exactly. You brought the word of God to him and pointed out to him.

31:53

I'd be curious to what scripture you used. But yeah, you bring the word of God into this situation.

31:59

The apostle Paul says to Timothy, 2 Timothy 4, 1, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

32:41

And this is exactly what we were talking about with J .D. Greer a moment ago. It's like, I'm going to err on the side of generosity rather than the side of truth.

32:50

They turn away from listening to the truth and they wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, which is another way of saying preach the word and fulfill your ministry.

33:05

So do you think there with Paul talking to Timothy, who he had sent to Ephesus to be a pastor there in Ephesus, do you think it's necessary to preach the word every

33:14

Sunday? Absolutely. I think you're wasting your Lord's day if you're not preaching the

33:20

Lord's word on a Sunday. Man, I just, I mean, if he needs a break, okay, let him sit in the pew and have somebody fill in the pulpit that actually will preach, you know, but to not even bring in any

33:39

Bible references, that's... And this is the apostle Paul who remember when he went to the church in Corinth, when you read about this in the book of Acts, he brought them the full counsel of God.

33:51

And when the Jews there in the synagogue in Corinth, did I say the church in Corinth? It was the synagogue in Corinth that he went to.

33:58

And because this was before he then took it to the Gentiles and then those who believe the gospel became the church. But as he's preaching there in the synagogue, he brings the full counsel of God.

34:07

They rejected it. They would not listen to him. So he shakes his garments and says that he's free of them.

34:15

And your blood is on your own heads because I gave you the full counsel of God. From now on,

34:20

I'm going to the Gentiles. So then he went out and preached to the Gentiles. And he said also to the church in Ephesus in Acts chapter 20, that I have preached to you the full counsel of God as he's weeping with those elders there, knowing that he's not going to see those elders again, this side of heaven.

34:37

He says that I've preached to you the full counsel of God. And gives them warning and exhortation. See, there was an example there of me knocking something on the desk.

34:45

So I'm gesturing the whole time I'm talking about this. But yeah, Paul brought the word. He preached all the time.

34:51

Lord's Day, any time. There was nothing lacking in the stuff that he preached. He brought the full counsel of God.

34:59

Amen. Yes. Every Lord's Day. Yes. Bring the word. Yes. It's the Lord's Day. Preach the

35:04

Lord's word. And because, I mean, it is so important because they are,

35:10

I mean, you're sending them, the congregation back out into the world to face. Yeah. I mean, everything that we face every day.

35:17

And not equipped with the sword of the spirit you should have been teaching to them on Sunday. This is like, this is very troubling to me.

35:24

Marco, you got us all worked up. I will pray for you.

35:31

Yes. I hope that was just like a church you were visiting. I think it's courageous of you to have gone to your pastor and you take the scripture to him and you show him that and don't stop.

35:43

Yeah, don't. Don't stop. Hopefully he will be convicted over this and he will change his mind and he will apologize.

35:51

And he'll realize I wasted that Lord's Day. Right. You might as well do what

35:57

J .D. Greer was doing and just not have church on Sunday. If you're not even going to preach the word. No joke. But do it in patience and gentleness.

36:05

Of course. Absolutely. Don't get as overwhelmed as I am right now. 1

36:11

Peter 3 15, always be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within you. But do this with gentleness and respect.

36:19

Right. So we must be respectful and non -combative. Right. And when

36:25

I say combative, I mean in the earthly way that we might yell at one another or, you know, get in a fight.

36:32

We're certainly combative in the sense that we're bringing the sword of the spirit, which is God's word. Yes. Which according to the book of Hebrews has the power to pierce the human soul, discern the thoughts and tensions of the heart and convict the person who has done what is contrary to what the word has said.

36:50

Right. Next question. This comes from Matt. He says, hello, Pastor Gabe and Mrs. Hughes. Keep up the hard work.

36:56

Your labors are doing good. I'm sure of it. My question is about buying lotto tickets.

37:03

I had a debate with some family members of mine recently, and I stood all alone saying that even buying a lotto tickets and scratching them off is sinful.

37:12

Am I wrong to be so rigid? Is there any room for charity or is this black and white?

37:19

I see in scripture that we get money by working for it through labor or by a gift or an inheritance.

37:25

Can playing the lotto or buying a scratch off ticket ever so often be considered just playing a game?

37:32

Thanks so much for reading and have a great day. That always makes me think of this question because I've heard it before, but it always makes me think of the three that had money.

37:46

What did they do with it? One buried it. One invested it. Yes. And one. Yeah, the parable of the talents.

37:53

Yeah, that's it. And so that's what it reminds me of all the time. And what is lotto tickets?

38:00

It's basically burying your money. So did he get in trouble for that? Yes, he did. Oh, yes, he did.

38:05

Big time. That's right. The guy that did not invest the money or use the money to become fruitful and multiply essentially is kind of the direction of the parable there.

38:17

And since he just buried the money so that nothing would happen to it, he squandered what the master had given to him.

38:22

Right. And the master took that from him and gave him to the one who had the most talents. Yeah, you're squandering.

38:29

Yeah. I can't come up with a better word. You're playing a game of chance. And furthermore, the way that the lottery is designed, it is designed to take.

38:39

To have you lose. Well, of course that. Sorry. Yeah. I didn't mean to take your word. The house always wins.

38:45

Yes. But it is designed to take advantage of those who are basically lower class.

38:52

It is designed to take advantage of the poor because it has this promise of this get rich quick scheme.

38:58

Yeah. And those who are of the lower income bracket are usually the ones that play the lottery.

39:04

So it's taking from the poor. And when you play the lottery and support that state sanctioned gambling is really what it is, then you are likewise taking advantage of the poor.

39:17

If you were to win, like you're maybe middle class or something like that, you win the lottery. Whose money was that?

39:23

Whose money was it? Right. Right. I mean, it was the states. The people gave it to the state. Right. But you are taking.

39:31

Encouraging. Yeah. Because somebody won the lottery. Right. So that gets everybody excited about, oh,

39:36

I could be the next to win the lottery. Yes. Yeah. So there's nothing in scripture that explicitly says don't play the lottery.

39:44

But we do have instructions in scripture that would definitely warn us away from playing such games of chance and investing our money in those things, which, like you said, it's just burying your talents.

39:56

It's worse than that. You're just throwing the money away. So Mark 419, the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word.

40:07

And it proves to be unfruitful. Ouch. In Jesus' parable of the sower in Mark 419.

40:13

We were just in Mark 10 a moment ago. So in verse 25, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

40:23

Yeah. The apostle Paul gives warnings in 1 Timothy 610 that those who desire riches fall into a snare.

40:31

He doesn't say that it's wrong to be rich. It's not a sin to be rich.

40:36

Right. But for you to desire riches will cause you to fall into a snare.

40:42

You will love the things of this world rather than the things of God. And that's just the desire for it.

40:49

Right. Can even a poor person desire riches? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And a rich person can desire riches.

40:55

And then a rich person can desire riches. Albert Moeller speaking on the briefing. I think this was last week where he talked about Michael Bloomberg, who's just entered the race for president in the

41:06

Democrat Party. He is listed in the top 10 richest men in the world on the

41:11

Forbes list. I think he's number nine, number eight or nine or something like that. But he was talking about even those who are immensely rich, who are billionaires, which

41:20

Michael Bloomberg is, they are not satisfied with the billions that they have.

41:25

Right. They still need billions more. Yes. And there's that venture to become even higher on the

41:31

Forbes wealthy list than just number eight or nine. That's just crazy to me. But at the same time, I mean,

41:36

I understand striving for more. You know, I struggle with that, too. So, yeah, it's easy to fall into.

41:44

Yeah. And it's not like I want to be wealthy enough to be famous or anything. I just want a little bit more to make ends meet.

41:53

Right now, can we can we end every month in the black? That would be great. So and I'm not

42:00

I'm not one to complain about that. Now, whether on the other hand, I complain quite a bit.

42:06

Sometimes sometimes not ending in the black is our own fault. Exactly. It's not not that we don't have the money.

42:12

We just didn't handle the month. Right. It was what we did. But yeah, you so it's easy to fall into that.

42:18

You know, if I could just have a little bit more. Yes. Then I would be satisfied. Yes. Be convicted in those moments.

42:25

I do. I am. I am convicted in that of am I being content where I'm at?

42:30

Yeah. And am I showing enough thankfulness and gratefulness of what the Lord has given us?

42:36

Yes. You know, and am I being am I dealing with what we do have well and taking care of that?

42:45

Or are we just surrounded by stuff? Yeah, there's there's the old adage. Convict me.

42:50

Yeah. There's the old adage. The more stuff you own, the more your stuff owns you. Yes. Yeah, definitely.

42:57

So when the Apostle Paul was talking in Philippians chapter four,

43:03

I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Philippians 413. Right. What he was talking about there was not winning a marathon or winning an

43:10

NBA championship or something like that. Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah. It's not if you just believe hard enough, then you'll win.

43:17

You'll be a winner. Then it's not going to help me through my walk tomorrow. What that means is that I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance.

43:28

I've learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.

43:33

I can do all things through him who strengthens me. I can get through the tough times through Christ who strengthens me.

43:41

I can hold on to Christ and not be tempted by the things of this world, even when I have plenty through Christ who strengthens me.

43:48

Right. So that's what Paul was talking about there. Being content in Christ. That's what Philippians 413 means. Next question comes from Eric in North Carolina.

43:56

And this is the point where I said things are going to start to gradually get more adult. OK. We may not even get to some of these later questions.

44:03

We just have about a dozen minutes left here or something. But Eric in North Carolina says, Gabriel, I've listened to a lot of your podcast and I appreciate the depth you bring about the word of God, which is why

44:13

I'm sending you this message. You did a series of questions on divorce, which was very insightful.

44:19

However, I believe there's one thing the church does not address about divorce and leadership that I'd like for you to expound upon.

44:25

In the US, the laws make it easy for someone to get a divorce apart from infidelity. So if a man and a woman are lost and without Jesus, their divorce is legal in the sense because of the laws that are in place.

44:39

Then said man gets converted and receives Christ as his Lord and Savior, and he has already remarried.

44:46

How is it that his past divorce, his past divorce pre -conversion is held against him by the local body if he believes that he is being called by God to be a leader of God's people?

44:56

I look forward to your insight on this. So there are some churches, and this is very common within the

45:02

Southern Baptist circles that we're in as well. If you have been divorced at all in your past and then remarried, it doesn't matter if you weren't a

45:11

Christian when you got divorced. You now, in their eyes and based on the way that they understand scripture, you now have two wives.

45:19

Right. Because you divorced your first wife and married another wife. So now because you have two wives, you're unqualified for the pastorate according to the qualifications for eldership that we have in 1

45:30

Timothy 3, 1 -7 because it says you must be the husband of one wife. So that's the way that they interpret that.

45:36

I'm going to tell you, Eric, and anybody else that would be curious about this particular subject, you just have to understand that's something you're going to run into.

45:44

Right. And you have to submit to that. Like if a church is going to say to you, we're not going to hire you as pastor because you're previously divorced and now you're remarried, doesn't matter that this happened before you became a

45:56

Christian. You're just going to have to accept that. I would say not to be combative over that.

46:02

Don't argue and don't fight over it. Just, okay, thank you for the opportunity. Thank you for talking with me about it.

46:08

And if you still feel so led to be a pastor, which by the way, I don't think it's a decision that you should make on your own.

46:14

I think you should have a church behind you as you venture into that. Okay. Or taking seminary, getting advice and counsel from those seminary professors, things of that nature.

46:23

There are, I would say that there are some instances, even that if a person is previously married,

46:28

I would not hire them as a pastor either. Like, for example, if you're still paying alimony or child support,

46:34

I probably wouldn't bring you on staff. And it's because your interests are divided. Plus of the qualifications for elders in first Timothy one, or sorry, first Timothy three, one through seven, it says he must also be thought of well by outsiders.

46:49

Well, if an outsider sees a pastor paying alimony and child support, they don't care what the backstory is.

46:55

It just looks to them like, what, you got a pastor who's been unfaithful to their spouse and to their kids.

47:00

And you've got this guy working for your church. In those kinds of instances,

47:06

I would say that it's probably best that you don't become a pastor. Still other ways that you can minister.

47:14

You can go out with the church and lead their evangelism ministry and go share the gospel downtown. There's still things like that that you can do.

47:21

But as far as holding the office of pastor, yeah, you have to understand that there are going to be some limitations.

47:28

And I think those limitations are rightly said. Right. And I think that it's right that we scrutinize those things and not just have this blanket acceptance of like, oh, well, it doesn't matter.

47:39

You can still come and be a pastor because all that happened before you got married. All those things need to be tested. And like we've talked about regarding these things concerning divorce before.

47:49

Each situation is different. Yes. And needs to be addressed as such.

47:55

Yeah. You need to take it on a case by case basis. There we go. So thank you for your question, Eric. I'm going to do one more here.

48:01

And then I think I'm going to have to save the next question until another week. This is from Allison.

48:07

Hello, Pastor Gabe and Becky. First, let me say how blessed I am by your podcast and the what videos.

48:12

I so appreciate how you are faithful to the text and how you both obviously desire to honor the

48:18

Lord. Smiley face. I have a question that has come up with some people that I know. Pastor Gabe, you did a blog post recently on the supposed rape of Bathsheba by King David.

48:29

I agree with your assessment in that post. Unfortunately, this woman I know has stated that Abram raped

48:35

Hagar. Then I heard and when I heard that said I was floored. I know this is wrong.

48:41

I went to her about her comment a few days later and explain why I thought what I thought.

48:46

I also asked her where she got this understanding from scripture, and she seemed to boil it down to this. A. Hagar was a slave.

48:53

B. Therefore, she had no choice. Therefore, C. She was raped. So Abraham and Sarah were given this promise by God that I'm going to give you a son.

49:03

Sarah knows she's beyond childbearing years. So she brings her slave Hagar to Abraham to sleep with her and have a son with her.

49:10

And we know that the son that resulted from that union was Ishmael. But Ishmael was not the promised seed.

49:17

Isaac was the promised seed who would come about later. God fulfilling his promise to Abraham and Sarah.

49:23

So the argument then becomes that Abraham therefore raped Hagar because Hagar was a slave and had no say in this.

49:33

Well, just like I said in the video with David and Bathsheba, where you have this narrative now that seems to become more prominent in modern evangelicalism that David raped

49:46

Bathsheba. Right. In that video, I said that there's not enough in the text for us to draw that conclusion.

49:53

So you're actually taking cultural sensibilities and impressing that upon the text to draw the conclusion that you're drawing.

50:00

And that's the same with the story of Abraham and Hagar. You really can't say that Hagar was unwilling in that union because there's not enough in the text to tell us that.

50:12

Right. We don't have any reason to believe that Hagar did not think that she was going to become one of Abraham's wives.

50:20

If I sleep with this man, if I give him a son, he's going to make me his wife.

50:25

And therefore, all my needs and so on and so forth are taken care of. We're taking current modern

50:31

American sensibilities. Yes. And especially the trends of controversies and topics that are going on right now.

50:37

And we're trying to take those talking points and impress them upon the scripture. Another problem with that is that we're basically telling the

50:44

Holy Spirit, who inspired the Word of God, hey, you should have been more clear as to what happened here.

50:51

And because you didn't give us explicitly the problem, well, I'm going to take it over from here and give a little bit more detail to this story than you gave.

50:59

Right. So, it's throwing the Holy Spirit under the bus and saying, you were not clear enough in your text. So, I'm going to add to this text what

51:06

I think is going on to the end of this story. The Apostle Paul explicitly told the Corinthians, do not go beyond what is written.

51:13

Right. And this is also what he was warning Timothy about in 1 Timothy 1, about delving into myth and endless speculation, which just leads to controversy and quarrel.

51:23

Right. And that's what this... Because there's no answer. We do not have an answer. Yeah. And we don't have a way to answer it.

51:29

You're impressing things on the text and demanding answers from the text that really has nothing to do with the story.

51:36

Right. It's, again, just you're taking your feelings about current events and issues and trying to draw that out of the story.

51:43

I'm sorry, what was that? Feelings? Feelings. Look at that. Being governed by our feelings.

51:50

So, Allison goes on. I'm going to go ahead and finish this out, even though I've basically given my answer now. Yep. So, the woman who made the comment was very gracious and kind and listened to what

51:58

I had to say. I basically applied what you said regarding David and Bathsheba to this situation.

52:04

We do work in an environment where many women who come to us have been abused, and yes, some of them have been raped.

52:10

It just seems to me that trying to use the Bible to compare Hagar's situation to the women who come to us isn't constructive and could lead to a wrong understanding of Scripture.

52:19

You're absolutely right, Allison. Yep. I really tried to emphasize the fact that God never rebuked David or Abram saying that they raped or abused

52:27

Bathsheba or Hagar in any way. I agree that what was done was sinful. Yes, you're right about that.

52:33

Yeah. But to try to know the exact mind and actions of people thousands of years ago and assess them according to our 21st century standards seems unhelpful and dangerous.

52:43

Exactly. If you could address this on one of your podcasts, I would be grateful. Thank you so much for all you do. I pray

52:48

God will continue to bless your ministry and your family in Christ, Allison. Well, God bless you, sister, and thank you so much for your question.

52:57

Let us conclude with prayer. Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you for our time together always.

53:03

It is always a joy for me to be able to do this with my wife and interact with listeners and receive these questions, and I pray that we do you honor when we answer the way that we do, that it comes from the pages of scripture and not from our feelings and our sensibilities, not from our prejudices or influenced by the culture.

53:22

But we come and test all things by the word of God. I pray for J .D. Greer, who has obviously been influenced by the world and is being driven by his own feelings and that he would be convicted over the direction that he's headed, which seems to be further and further down the slippery slope, and that he would repent over some of the things that he is saying and ground himself firmly upon the sufficiency of the scriptures.

53:47

He's the president of the largest denomination in the country, and he has a lot of influence and people are going to be misled by some of the things that he's doing and saying.

53:58

So may your spirit impress upon him a love for the truth, and may he walk in this and guide his congregation and others within the denomination in this as well.

54:08

Forgive us of our sins. Help us not to become too prideful or think that we know better than most, for all of us walked in darkness before the light of the gospel shone into our hearts and drew us to you through our

54:21

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Hold us fast to you and keep us unstained from the ways of this world.

54:29

And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Ephesians chapter four, we are commanded to speak the truth in love.

55:40

Right. That's what we're commanded to do. So if you're leaning toward, well, I'm going to lean toward generosity.

55:46

That sounds noble. And not so much the truth this time. Yeah. It sounded like a vibrating phone, didn't that sound like?

55:53

Yeah, it did. I thought it was yours and when it wasn't, I looked over at mine and it's not mine either. I bet you it was a truck on the interstate.

55:58

Yeah, probably. Revin. Anyway. All right. I don't know where I was. Okay, going back, find out where I messed up.