WWUTT 1255 Q&A Reparations Math, Gandalf Ends Racism, Homeschooling Ideas, Miracles at Nazareth, Jeremiah Prophecies?

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How much money does it take for a divided people to be unified? Do we have any good homeschool curriculum we could recommend?

00:07

And what does Mark 6 -5 mean when it says that Jesus could do no mighty work in Nazareth? The answers to these questions, when we understand the text.

00:24

This is when we understand the text. A daily Bible study in the Word of Christ. Our hope and our peace.

00:31

That we may be filled with joy, abounding until the day of glory. Visit our website, www .utt

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.com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Do you realize that in two weeks.

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Two weeks. We will have been doing this podcast for five years. Five? Yeah. Wow, awesome.

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We started the first week in August of 2015. Yeah. So we're coming up on five years.

01:00

That's awesome. Ten years of marriage, five years of podcasting. This is when we understand the text.

01:08

And on the Friday edition of the broadcast, we take questions from the listeners. And you can send your questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

01:16

Before getting to that, there was another reason why I was mentioning that. So we've been doing this for five years. The videos have been six, a little more than that.

01:26

Not quite seven, but it's, yeah. I think the videos were around. Coming up on seven. Something like that, yeah.

01:31

Because it wasn't quite two years we'd been doing the videos when we started doing the podcast.

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So we're going to change something. Ever since I tried to do the East from West thing, people who remember that are going,

01:45

Uh -oh, Gabe's changing something again. What is he doing now? So the websites are going to change. We're moving over to the

01:52

Majesty's Men. We like what it is that they're doing. Yeah. With the website hosting that they provide, the articles that you can find published there.

02:02

And so I'm moving both my blog and the What website to the Majesty's Men. Still the same addresses to get to those things.

02:10

So to find my blog, you go to pastorgabe .com. And to get to the What website, it's www .utt

02:16

.com, just like you mentioned. Addresses will still be the same, but our host is going to be different.

02:22

And we're doing this to protect the ministry. Right. Definitely.

02:27

Because we don't want Google to shut it down. You know, like, hey, you guys are intolerant and you're saying things that are offensive.

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Contradictory. Yeah, right. Contradictory. Contradicting. Yeah. What we're promoting.

02:41

That's right. Yeah, something like that. It just doesn't go with Google's religion. The Google -igen.

02:48

The Google -igen. So we're moving over to the Majesty's Men. And check out their website if you'd like.

02:54

More information about them. And read some of the fantastic articles that they have there.

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Now, this first question that I have isn't really a question. We're going to dedicate this, though, to our friend

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Moo. All right. Who just loves math. Yeah, he does.

03:12

So we're going to do a segment here on math. Now, our favorite math joke here at When We Understand the

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Text is in regards to something that MSNBC did a few months back.

03:23

Yeah, it wasn't that long ago, was it? It wasn't. It seems like it was years ago.

03:29

I know it seems like there's been so much 2020 thus far. But this was just beginning of March.

03:35

Wow. This was a segment between Brian Williams. You would think that there would be enough time between then and now to kind of brush up.

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On math? But no. Everybody needs to. It gets worse.

03:49

That's right. Everybody needs to check their math skills. So this has been our favorite math joke between Brian Williams and Mara Gay of the

03:57

New York Times. And they're even reading a tweet from a gal who writes for, like, Teen Vogue and Glamour magazine.

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That should have been their first mistake, thinking that somebody from Glamour magazine could do math. But I'm going to go ahead and refresh your memory by playing this segment again.

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This is in regards to Mike Bloomberg, who was a former candidate for president of the

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United States running for the Democratic ticket. He was paying for his own campaign because the guy's a billionaire.

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And he spent $500 million on his campaign before he dropped out.

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And so Brian Williams and Ms. Gay here try to break down the numbers a little bit and totally embarrass themselves.

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And don't realize it. Yeah. Not until after the commercial break, because then

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Brian Williams actually did offer an apology. Somebody's pointed out to us that our math was wrong.

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But it's still hilarious that this came from a tweet on Twitter. An editor from the

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New York Times bought it. Brian Williams put it on the air. Somebody in that studio was creating the graphic to go on TV.

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And no one in this studio. Did the math. Did the math and was like, wait a minute.

05:09

This doesn't work, guys. OK, just play the clip. Let's go. Let's play the clip. Here we go. You see it as a possibility.

05:15

If he wants to spend a billion bucks beating this guy, he could do it. Absolutely. Somebody tweeted recently that actually with the money he spent, he could have given every

05:25

American a million dollars. Got it. Let's put it up on the screen. When I read it tonight on social media, it kind of all became clear.

05:35

Bloomberg spent 500 million on ads. U .S. population, 327 million. Don't tell us if you're ahead of us on the math.

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He could have given each American one million dollars and have had lunch money left over.

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It's an incredible way of putting it. It's an incredible way of putting it. It's true. It's disturbing.

05:53

It does. It does suggest what we're talking about here, which is there is too much money in politics.

06:00

Babe, I notice you still have your head in your hands. I do. I don't disagree. There is too much money in politics.

06:06

Right. But. How you got to that conclusion, though. Yeah, that's that's something that.

06:12

Whoa. Whoa. No, Mike Bloomberg could have given 500

06:17

Americans a million dollars each. He could not have given all 300 plus million

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Americans a million dollars each. Oh, goodness.

06:30

Yeah. So I know math is not a strong suit for a lot of people. But seriously, this takes everybody who has a phone, has a calculator.

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Like, seriously, back when I went to school, I know this sounds really strange. But back when

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I went to school, I had to work at math in my head because they said, you're not going to have a calculator everywhere you go.

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And guess what? We do. So seriously. I remember that, too. I know.

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My math teacher used to say the same thing. Why don't you use it? It's right there.

07:08

You even planned the segment. Nobody stopped to pull out their phone. Nobody. And punch it up on their phone and figure out, wait a minute, this math doesn't work.

07:18

Mike Bloomberg could have bought. Or even go through the comments because you know somebody. Somebody had already corrected this gal.

07:23

Somebody had already done that. I know that. Yeah, right. You didn't even look at the comments. Mike Bloomberg could have bought every

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American a Coke. That's basically how that could have gone. Well, it depends on where he bought it from. Yeah, that's true.

07:37

I've seen some Coke prices. It's not like they're a dollar and a half anymore. Yeah. So anyway, we start with that.

07:44

I wanted to start with that segment because we found just this past week. It tops it.

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Some math that's even worse than that. Even worse than this math that was done by Brian Williams on MSNBC in cooperation with the

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New York Times and Glamour Magazine. How did these people get jobs? Everybody that was involved in that. I know. And keep them.

08:07

Incidentally, after that whole thing happened, Mara Gay wrote an op -ed for the New York Times in which she blamed white people for the reaction to her bad math.

08:20

Okay, the reaction, sure. But was it the cause of the bad math? Well, you see some of the stuff that's going on on social media right now.

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I didn't pull this up. Yeah, because we are blamed for them not getting the education they deserve.

08:34

Well, no, it's not even that. There's some people that are saying 2 plus 2 equals 4 is a white construct.

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So that's racist to say 2 plus 2 equals 4. Okay, I'm just going to go on the record here and say whoever is building the bridges that I'm crossing better have 2 plus 2 equals 4.

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That's right. Better know your math. And the tunnels.

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Or the airplanes you fly on. Oh my goodness, no joke. And the car that I'm driving.

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You want some people with some math skills, folks. Those who can't do math, go work for MSNBC or the

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New York Times. There we go. So this math is even worse. Good thing I'm not a reporter. This math is even worse than what

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Brian Williams and Mara Gay were doing. And this is not on the Washington Examiner.

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They're just reporting the story. This is the U .S. Conference of Mayors. A whole conference of mayors who did this terrible math.

09:36

Let me read you the story. The nation's mayors on Monday backed a national call for reparations to 41 million black people.

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A program that could cost taxpayers $6 .2 quadrillion.

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The U .S. Conference of Mayors released a letter backing a Democratic plan to form a reparations commission to come up with a payment for slavery.

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We recognize and support your legislation as a concrete first step in our larger reckoning as a nation.

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And a next step to guide the actions of both federal and local leaders who have promised to do better by our black residents, said the letter from Conference President Greg Fischer, mayor of Louisville.

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No, this is not a Babylon Bee article. This is a real thing. $6 .2

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quadrillion. Do you have any idea how big a quadrillion is?

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Why don't you enlighten me? First of all, a quadrillion has no practical application, which is why you've probably never heard of this number or used it in everyday language.

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Unless you were just being overly dramatic. What? And exaggerating.

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A quadrillion is 1 with 15 zeros after it.

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Mm -hmm. Now, that number is so large, it's difficult for us to quantify.

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How do you quantify a quadrillion? Well, let me give you an idea. If we were to have a quadrillion stars in the sky, it would take 2 ,000 galaxies, like our own

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Milky Way, over 2 ,000 galaxies, to total a quadrillion stars.

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Wow. Now, we know that there's more stars than that in the universe. Right. But to just come up with a quadrillion stars, it would take more than 2 ,000

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Milky Ways to have that number of stars. That's a lot. There's nothing on Earth that you can really equate a quadrillion to.

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And we have that much money, right? No, we don't even have that much money. If you were to liquidate everything in U .S.

11:50

dollars, you would come up with 1 .2 quadrillion dollars. So, as far as currency in circulation, there's 37 trillion

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U .S. dollars in circulation, and that includes physical money, money deposited in savings and checking accounts, etc.

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So, if you were to take all of that out, you would only have 37 trillion. The national debt's, what, 25 trillion right now?

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Yeah. So, we could pay off the national debt if everybody were to just... And be super broke.

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We would all be really broke. But then, if you were to take all the money that we have in the form of investments, stocks, bonds, precious metals, cryptocurrencies, etc.,

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then you would come up with 1 .2 quadrillion. Mm -hmm. Okay. Now, it's not possible...

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And how much are they asking? They're asking for 6 .2 quadrillion. Okay. There's 1 .2 quadrillion dollars.

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So, what's a couple more quadrillion? And then, yeah, just multiply that. Just might as well. Toss it in there.

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Yeah, come up with 6 .2 quadrillion. So, have they stated how long we have to pay this back?

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Well, there's no way. There's just simply no way to do it, because we don't even have that much money. So, if you were to take 6 .2

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quadrillion divided by 41 million black people, that's what it says in the article. 41 million black people in the

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United States. If you were to take 6 .2 quadrillion divided by 41 million black people, that's a total of 151 million dollars per black person.

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Okay. That's reparations. That's reparations for slavery. Every black person in the

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U .S. gets 151 million dollars. Okay. Well, what about the taxpayer who has to pay for that 151 million dollars?

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That's like winning the lottery. That's pretty... So, if you were to take 6 .2 quadrillion divided by 197 million white people in America, that means that each white person would be paying 31 .5

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million dollars in taxes per white person just to cover the cost of reparations.

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Yeah, I don't got that. You and I will never make 31 .5 million dollars in our lifetime. No. But that's how much it would take per white person to cover this cost in reparations.

14:01

How do you like that math? I mean, again, how long does it take to pull up Google?

14:08

This is how I did that math because, again, quadrillion is not a practical number. You can't just do that in your head.

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Maybe some incredible mathematicians can. All I did was I went to Google and I typed, what is 6 .2

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quadrillion divided by 41 million? And it gave me 151 million dollars. And most phones have

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Google search on them. I don't know that I wanted to type out 15 zeros at the end of that number.

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I was going to check to see if mine was available for that. So, what is it? 6 .2? 6 .2.

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So, you're typing 6, 2, and then 0 14 times. 14.

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Okay. So, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.

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Now, divided by. No, it's telling you it won't do it. Won't go more than 15 digits total.

14:58

So, it does not go an extra 16. Okay. Gotcha. So, you can't even do a quadrillion on a phone calculator.

15:06

You can't even do a quadrillion. Wait, wait. I wonder if I turn it sideways if it'll let me do more. Hold on.

15:12

Let's try it one more time. So, you're doing it in the panoramic view. Yeah. It won't let me add anymore.

15:18

Just thought I'd check. Maybe it's because I was doing it in the vertical way. Yeah. Well, I mean, the vertical kind of ran out of room.

15:24

So, I tried the horizontal way and nope. That was a pretty practical application there, babe.

15:31

That was good. I was trying to be a problem solver. So, yeah. Math that's even worse than MSNBC and the

15:38

New York Times. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. I was like, you got to be kidding me. 6 .2 quadrillion.

15:43

I've never even heard of that number. 6 .2 quadrillion. I wonder how they came up with that. All of this is just incredibly ridiculous.

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But it's where this whole race baiting thing has gone. The whole racist argument and squabbling and stuff like that is going on in our nation today.

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And it's not just among the Democrats. We've got, unfortunately, a lot of Christian pastors that have bought into this race hustling.

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Using the topic of race to swindle people. Charlie Dates, who's a pastor in Chicago and he's also a

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Southern Baptist minister. He said on Twitter earlier this week, Reconciliation is not possible without reparations.

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Really? So, the gospel can no longer reconcile us. Apparently not.

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The power of Christ can no longer bring people together. You have to pay money in order to achieve reconciliation.

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What was it that Paul said to the Corinthians about being given the ministry of reconciliation? Apparently that has to do with paying reparations.

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Yeah. The ministry of reconciliation is I'm paying reparations for sins I'm not even guilty of. And money is the root of all evil.

16:52

Right. Well, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Yeah, that's what I meant. You got

16:58

Thabiti Anywubwile a few weeks ago who said black solidarity before Christian. So again,

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Christ is not enough to bring us together. Relevant Magazine rebuked me for sharing the gospel with Chancellor Rapper instead of bowing to his charges of white supremacy and systemic racism.

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I mean this. Idols. Yeah, right. Exactly. It is. This race hustling that exists even implementing a white tax even within Christendom is because they've let the world in.

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It's worldly philosophies have taken them captive instead of trusting in the inerrancy of Scripture and the sufficiency of Scripture.

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And guys, this should scare us into clinging to the Word of God even more.

17:41

That's right. And staying in there. Realizing how far from the truth we're getting when we're starting to say things like reconciliation is not possible till you've paid a sum of money.

17:52

Yeah. This goes back to Catholic indulgences. Like you got to pay money to knock years off your purgatory.

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Yeah. So if you want to be reconciled with me, you better pay up. Yeah. That's how all of this is going.

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And again, just like this number here too. The $6 .2 quadrillion for reparations.

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That number won't satisfy anybody. It's not like racism will magically go away once that $6 .2

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quadrillion is made. You'll still get people complaining. Where's my money? I haven't received this. Will you owe me because you're white and your ancestors enslaved my ancestors and all this.

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It does not solve a thing. In fact, the more that we deal with this kind of stuff, the more that we deal in this kind of language.

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Let me put it that way. The more divided we are, it divides people. It doesn't unite anybody.

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So our unity is in Christ. Our unity is in the gospel. It is not in paying reparations.

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But good news. I've got some good news for you. Oh, finally. As of this past week, racism doesn't even exist anymore.

18:59

Oh. Because at Bethel Church. Bethel Church in Redding, California. They did a nice little ritual for everybody declaring the end of racism.

19:08

And they used the Lord of the Rings to do it. Wait, what? So after this little spectacle that they did on stage, racism doesn't exist anymore.

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And we have Bethel Church in Redding to thank for it. Lord of the Rings? Did you not see this segment?

19:23

No. I know I didn't share it with you, but I thought maybe you saw some other friends that were talking about it online.

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I've been trying to avoid a lot of hoopla. A lot of this craziness online.

19:35

Yes, it is abounding. So thanks to our friend Bart out there in California who sent us this segment.

19:42

This was, this actually happened at Bethel Church. And it included several

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New Apostolic Reformation preachers. Bill Johnson being one of them, of course. He's the pastor of Bethel Church.

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Che Ann, Ed Silvoso, and also Marlene Barrett.

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Now she is, she's an actress. But she's the one that was dressed in this wizard costume and had this

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Gandalf staff. And she said, we're going to use what Gandalf did in the

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Lord of the Rings to declare the end of racism. So you might remember the segment in the Lord of the

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Rings, the first one, the Fellowship of the Ring. Okay. Where the Balrog is coming upon them and Gandalf, you know, slams his staff down and says, you shall not pass.

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You know, when they're on that bridge. Yes. Everybody else had already crossed except for Gandalf.

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He's trying to hold off the Balrog. You shall not pass. Okay, so they're going to do that here in the name of Jesus to declare the end of racism.

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This woman's dressed like a wizard and she's got a wizard staff, but they're going to call upon Lord of the

20:50

Rings to declare the end of racism. They did this in a serious way?

20:56

Yeah, this was all serious. Okay. Absolutely serious. They're even doing cosplay up on the stage dressed like a

21:04

Lord of the Rings character. And grabbing ahold of this staff and saying it together, you shall not pass.

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Are you ready? No. Here's the segment. Hold on, babe. Hold on. Here we go. Here it is.

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He puts both of his hands on the staff and he said, I said.

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And he hits it. And that authority is what we're talking about that can only be released by an apostolic decree.

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The authority must be given. And that's why I revealed what we heard tonight. So is that clear?

21:40

So please stand up with us. So if you could stand because you're standing in authority because you're all kings and priests and all of us, we're an apostolic people.

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So as an apostolic team with the authority that God's given to us, we decree and declare that racism will end.

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It's over in the Ephesia from this night forward in Jesus mighty name.

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Let's lift it up and bang it. Hallelujah. Come on. Give him a praise. No more.

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I'm sorry. We did it twice. We need one more. One more. We need you to agree with us.

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Okay. On the count of three. On three. Shout with us.

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One, two, three. The name of Jesus Christ.

22:40

There you go, babe. It's the end of racism as we know it. Thanks, Bethel Church.

22:48

You know why we still have racism after that? Why that didn't work?

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Why is that? Because they didn't even do it right. Gandalf doesn't say thou shalt not pass.

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I know this movie pretty well. Okay. He doesn't say thou shalt not pass.

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He says you shall not pass. Listen close. Okay. You'll catch it.

23:10

Ready? Okay. You shall not pass.

23:20

Great, babe. Now they're going to do it again. Because they didn't get it right the first time.

23:29

Oh, yeah. Bethel Church. That's right. If there's anything that 2020 has not failed to deliver, it's more antics from Bethel Church.

23:39

They just have to stay the same, and they get lost in all the rest of the kookiness in 2020.

23:45

I mean, did it? I don't even know.

23:51

I want to know. What were you going to say? It's so like they don't have a leg to stand on because all of their proclamations are falling flat in their face.

24:06

Yeah. And because, I mean, they're in California of all places. So everything that can be is right now.

24:15

And so I just I don't. Well, it's because, I mean, it's because there's people buying it.

24:20

Yeah. They scratch itching ears. But I don't understand. Yeah. And then on top of that, like what on earth are they taking movies and like didn't make them feel powerful.

24:33

They wanted to redo it. Sure. They can't come up with their own stuff. Sure. Or they're running out of their own stuff.

24:38

I mean, they're cooped up forever. So they're like, oh, let's just do this. Or what? I don't.

24:44

I could have done this better since I'm an actress. I don't. But babe. I mean, there's just so many things going on in my head that you really don't want to know.

24:53

Babe. Babe, we're Southern Baptists. I know. Every Southern Baptist mega church does this.

25:00

What? I mean, not everyone, but yeah, you know, doing the little movie gimmicks and stuff like this.

25:05

And they always have their little series that's based on Star Wars or Game of Thrones or you know what

25:11

I'm talking about? Flying in. Flying in on a zip line. Yeah. It was the

25:16

Church of the Glades out there in Florida. David Hughes. I think his name was. The pastor out there.

25:22

Was? Well. Is? Just is. Yeah. Oh, okay. Well, the way you were going,

25:28

I'm like, oh, no. What happened? Yeah, no. No, because it was all that hoopla surrounding the. Because you were like, zip line.

25:33

And then he was. And then I'm like, oh, no. What happened? No, no, no, no, no. I was thinking of like the pastor's conference fiasco that happened back in February when it was announced what the pastor's conference was going to be for the

25:44

Southern Baptist Convention in June in Orlando. David Hughes was one of the speakers, and he's from Church of the

25:50

Glades. And I did that blog showing like all the crazy weird stuff that they do out at Church of the

25:57

Glades. Right. Andy Stanley's church does the same thing. They've got. No, not anymore.

26:03

Well, well, I know I'm getting to that. Oh, okay. He's also not Southern Baptist. True. But just kind of show you that level of pragmatism that is practiced by these churches to attempt to draw people in.

26:13

So we're making fun of Bethel Church doing that. But I mean, it's. It's all over. It's most mega churches. It's American churchism.

26:20

That's what they do. I just. Oh, man. We're going to we're going to adapt some sort of secular gimmick, some sort of entertainment thing that's out there that's that's through and through godless, but we're going to seize it.

26:33

And we're going to put it in our church because that's how you attract godless people. But then you've got to continue to keep up those antics in order to keep those people there, because that's the reason why they came.

26:41

They didn't come to hear the gospel. They came to watch you look like a fool on stage. Definitely get a show and maybe even food.

26:50

Right. So none of this pragmatism is ever going to reconcile people, whether you're talking about the movie gimmicks that's done on stage or you're talking about the reparations that you say that we have to pay.

27:02

Let's be reminded once again, the word that we have in Ephesians, chapter two, starting in verse eleven.

27:08

Therefore, remember, remember, remember, come back to the word.

27:13

Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands.

27:24

Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the

27:30

Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

27:39

But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two.

28:07

So making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

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And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near for through him, we both have access in one spirit to the father.

28:30

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

28:41

Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the

28:51

Lord. In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit.

29:00

So my friends, let's not break up the bricks of this building by using worldly mortar that does not hold this spiritual house together.

29:10

We must be united in the word of Christ making who has made peace by the blood of his cross.

29:19

And it is through faith in Christ that we are reconciled to God and we are reconciled to one another.

29:25

If you want to say reparations is the way that we're reconciled to one another, put a put a money amount on it and it still won't be enough.

29:32

$6 .2 quadrillion is still not enough to unify a people. And shame on any shame on any pastor who has been race hustling, insisting that that needs to be done in order to be reconciled.

29:44

Shame on them. You may you make an offense of your office and you disqualify yourself as a pastor. Just to put it bluntly.

29:50

Let me read Ephesians 4 1 I therefore a prisoner for the Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all humility and gentleness with patience bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

30:11

There is one body and one spirit just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.

30:18

One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

30:28

But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men.

30:42

What Christ has given us, what he has purchased with his blood is of far greater value than you could ever put a money, a money amount on a dollar figure on.

30:54

Yeah. Oh, amen. Amen to that. All right. This next question comes from jaw and his question has to do with Mark six, five.

31:03

This was where Jesus went to his hometown of Nazareth and it says in verse five, he could do no mighty work there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.

31:13

So here's jaws question. Hi all. And pastor Gabe, I'm trying to seek wise counsel to make sure

31:18

I'm accurately understanding this verse in the right context. He could do no mighty works there.

31:24

I'm saying, I'm saying, or sorry, it's saying that no matter how many things he said or would do to show himself to be the

31:32

Messiah, they would not believe or see anything he did as mighty works in their eyes, even though they were witnessing him do them.

31:43

Mighty works of belief could not be done in them. Question mark. So he's, he's making that statement as, is that how we are to understand the passage?

31:52

Right. Okay. Kind of leading. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Am I understanding this correctly?

31:57

So let me read that again. Just make sure that I've got it. So no matter how many things that Jesus said, no matter how many things he did to show himself to be the

32:08

Messiah, they would not believe or see anything he did as a mighty work in their eyes, even though they were witnessing him do them.

32:17

Mighty works of unbelief could not be done in them. Mighty works. I'm sorry. Mighty works of belief could not be done in them.

32:25

I'd say that's a pretty good summary there, jaw. I think you've got that right. So yeah, no matter what he did, it wasn't going to change their minds.

32:31

And this was a demonstration of just how hard their hearts were. Now in, in Mark's account of this, in Mark chapter six, his account of this says that he could do no mighty works there, but in Matthew chapter six or sorry,

32:46

Matthew chapter 13, where Matthew recounts this same story, Matthew says he did no mighty works there because of their unbelief.

32:56

So we read, he could do no mighty works there. And we think of it as like Jesus was incapable, right?

33:03

But he's Jesus. He's Jesus. He's God. His power is not dependent upon a people to will it to happen.

33:12

Like we don't, we don't will God's power. And therefore he does it right.

33:17

If Jesus wanted to show you, yeah, something like that, right. Just like we were hearing from Bethel church a moment ago, see, that's not how that works.

33:26

So, uh, and notice that he was doing mighty works there. He laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.

33:33

So it wasn't like he was prevented from doing any sort of miracle. He was doing miracles among them, but we read that he could do no mighty work there.

33:43

And we think that it means that Jesus was prevented. It just simply means just as Jock concluded there, he, he could do nothing that was going to convince them that he was the

33:52

Messiah. All they wanted to see him do was, was something miraculous to appease their own flesh, but not because in their spirits they wanted to worship the

34:01

King of Kings. Oh, definitely. It was probably something like, uh, Oh, can you do this? So can you do this?

34:07

You know, like nothing satisfied, right? It was always one thing more after one thing more. Heal our sick.

34:13

We just want you to heal us. It's all we want you to do. We don't want to worship you. So they want all of the things, all of the gifts that God gives, but they don't want the giver.

34:22

Right. That's what I got out of it. Right. And that's really a pretty good summary of American Christianity.

34:29

On top of that, you want the gifts, but you don't want the giver. There's a lot of people stumbling through their

34:35

Christianity just like that. Hard to watch. Yeah. Pretty good summary of prosperity theology as well.

34:41

We want the things that the giver gives, but we don't want actually want to worship the giver himself.

34:48

We just, you know, it's, it's a genie in a bottle mentality. Jesus is just my genie.

34:53

Or Santa. Yeah. He's Santa Claus. Right. Yeah. Be good. Equality. So that you'll get a good gift at Christmas time.

35:02

I also did a video on this. So there's a what video on exactly this topic. Oh yeah. Let me go ahead and play it and then we'll, we'll transition into the next question here.

35:10

Sure. In Mark 6, Jesus went with his disciples to his hometown of Nazareth.

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And on the Sabbath, he began to teach in the synagogue. Many who heard him were astonished saying, where did this man get these things?

35:26

What is this wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, whose family we know?

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And they took great offense at him. And Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own household.

35:42

And he could do no mighty work there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.

35:47

He marveled because of their unbelief and went to go teach in other villages. Now this part right here where it says he could do no mighty work there.

35:55

This doesn't mean Jesus was powerless because the people lacked faith. Obviously it doesn't mean that because he did heal people.

36:02

This also does not mean you must believe the Lord will do a mighty work for you to unleash his blessings upon you.

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Here's what we're meant to understand. Without faith in Christ, you will not be blessed to have the favor of God nor be in fellowship with him.

36:17

No matter what Jesus did at Nazareth, they wouldn't believe. They'd known of his miracles, but only those who believe his words will be his disciples.

36:25

So he healed a few on whom he had compassion, and then he left and did not return. Hebrews 11 .6

36:30

says, without faith, it is impossible to please God. For whoever would draw near to him must believe in him and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

36:40

When we understand the text. You know, that's an aspect about faith that we don't often think about, but we're commanded to believe that he rewards those who seek him.

36:52

Yeah, that's true. Whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

37:01

Hebrews 11 .6, Jesus saying in the Sermon on the Mount, you know, you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children.

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So how much more will your heavenly father give to you who ask of him? Right? Yeah. I mean, that's that's repeated over and over about the birds and about him taking care of the birds.

37:18

How much more will he take care of you? If he cares for the swallows and he cares for the lilies of the field. How much more is he going to care for you?

37:25

And clothe you. Right. That's in there. So we should ask. We should ask of God and we should believe that he will bless us.

37:31

But you're asking for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, as Jesus taught us to pray.

37:37

You're not asking for a Ferrari, right? You're not asking for the biggest house on the block, right? You know, that's these aren't the kinds of requests that we're asking for, because that's your will.

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That's the material stuff that you want in your flesh. It's not actually wanting

37:51

God. Right. But if you are asking of God, forgive me of my sins. Give me your righteousness.

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Lead me in paths of righteousness today. Give me those opportunities that I may share your word with somebody else.

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Give me peace in my spirit. Help me to worship you day by day. Let me see your will done in my life.

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These kinds of questions, these kinds of requests that you ask of God. He will answer and pour out upon you in abundance.

38:20

Yeah. And you must believe that he will. Believe that he will do that. He will show himself to you through his son as written in his word.

38:28

We have everything that we need to know about God right here in the Bible. Yeah, definitely.

38:35

I mean, everything, the Bible is complete. That's right. Now, this next question, babe, is probably going to be your territory a little bit more,

38:44

I think. Oh. So, we're hearing from Celia in California. Do you remember Celia? Hi.

38:50

Hello, Gabe and Becky. Hello. My husband and I have always had a debate whether to homeschool or not our future kids.

38:57

If you're living in California, you should homeschool your kids. Yeah. You know. And well, I am 100 % on board with the idea now.

39:05

It's something that I have prayed for and I am still new on this topic. I wouldn't even know what books or what sites to look at.

39:12

For starters, I think we should have kids first. That helps. That helps.

39:17

You know. Yeah. You should have children first. That's right. If you're going to homeschool your kids, there must be kids to homeschool.

39:23

Yeah. That's pretty important. But now that I am on board with the homeschooling idea, I was wondering if you and Becky can talk about your experiences with that or how did you begin with it, maybe share your thoughts on homeschooling.

39:36

Thanks. So, do you have any little pointers that you could give or hear about preparing to homeschool, maybe?

39:43

Well, first and most importantly, it needs to be

39:48

Christ -centered because that's the whole purpose of homeschooling versus going to public school.

39:54

And once you've got that established and you know your beliefs and you have narrowed down – because that will considerably narrow down your curriculum, available curriculum out there.

40:09

Because you're looking for biblically -centered curriculum. Yes. Things that's going to point the students to Christ.

40:15

Biblically -centered as in shares your beliefs. Because there's a lot of curriculum out there.

40:22

Avoid the Darwinian evolution stuff. That's biblically -centered, but I'm using quotations.

40:29

They say it's biblical. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know what else to avoid.

40:34

I don't know names very well because they just don't stick in my head. Yeah. I know that, Becky, there's certain stuff that I've brought her.

40:41

Like for example, back in February, we went to Nashville. And when

40:47

I say we, I mean Zieg and I. So, I took my son with me. We went to go see my dad receive an award at the

40:55

National Religious Broadcasters Convention for 50 years of radio. Which was awesome. Yeah. 50 years of doing

41:00

Christian radio. And there was a homeschool convention going on at the Grand Ole Opry Hotel at the same time.

41:06

Right. And we got free admission to it. If you were there for NRB, you could go to the homeschool convention as well.

41:14

And their exhibit hall was way better than NRB's exhibit hall. It was like three times bigger too.

41:20

It was massive. And so, we went in there and I grabbed as much curriculum as I could for Becky.

41:25

I don't think any of it stuck, did it? No. And I knew that about most of it. I mean, there was a couple things that I was interested in, but I knew that it wouldn't work for right now.

41:33

Gotcha. Yeah. And they're like flyers, so I'm not going to keep that forever.

41:39

Well, right. There were a couple of books that I grabbed and stuff like that. Some of it I knew probably wasn't going to go, but at least

41:45

I'm helping Becky out, giving her an idea of where she wants to go in the school year or something like that.

41:52

So there was a bunch of stuff that I grabbed and gave to her, and it didn't take her long. We never really even talked about what she liked and what she didn't like.

42:00

I could just see she opens it up, flips through it, nope, trash. It was that quick.

42:06

That's right. She's gotten so adept at this that she knows exactly what she's looking for and what doesn't work.

42:11

And really, that takes time. And it really does. To develop that. To develop to that point.

42:18

Start with, I mean, I even use Christian Bookstore, isn't that a thing?

42:25

Yeah. CBD, Christian Book Distributors. Yeah. They're a magazine that you get in the mail. You can get homeschooler things in the mail, flyers, that they're like booklets.

42:36

And you can flip through and you learn a lot about the curriculum just by that alone. And then you can go to their websites of those curriculums, and then you can learn even more if the ones you're interested in.

42:50

They can even, some of them even give you like a test that your child can take to give you kind of a preview of what grade that or what level your child should start at.

43:06

So that way it's not too hard or not too easy for them. And so they can kind of get a feel for how it works and that sort of thing.

43:14

So I mean, those things are really, really helpful and nice, but what to go with and what not to go with.

43:22

If you have one child, you can pick anything that works for you guys. Like if you enjoy the tedious stuff, then go for tedious.

43:31

If you like the fun and outdoorsy stuff, go for the fun and outdoorsy stuff. But when you have more than one and you're trying to teach more than one grade or even two kids in the same grade, it gets overwhelming.

43:46

I'm just going to be straight with you. So less is more.

43:52

And then spend time doing what they love and incorporate what you can into their play.

44:02

So like when you're outside. Yeah, that's like the Deuteronomy 6 principle. When you get up, when you rise, when you go out by the way, you let my word be as on your hands and frontlets between your eyes.

44:16

So it's constantly taking the word of God with you and teaching them godly things, even in our constant interactions.

44:23

Right. And with that in mind, keeping the word of God in front of you at all times, because you are not doing it for yourself.

44:35

You are doing it for your kids and for the glory of God. Yes. Ultimately.

44:40

Right. And so it's hard. It is not easy. Teachers have hard jobs.

44:48

They do not have easy jobs, but they are able to teach one subject, one class, like everybody's learning on the same level for the most part.

45:01

Don't get me wrong. Teaching 18 children the same thing is not easy.

45:07

Don't hear me saying that's easy. But I'm saying teaching four children, four different grades, four different subjects, it makes you equally want to pull out your hair.

45:20

Becky talking about teaching our own four kids. Yes. That's what she's referring to there. Yes. So, yeah.

45:26

We're not going to endorse a particular curriculum. The nice thing about homeschooling is you can decide this curriculum is good for this subject.

45:34

And you might choose a different curriculum for a different subject. Right. So, you can kind of piecemeal it together.

45:40

You can. And I mean, they really work together well with putting whole curriculums for your grade level together, but you don't have to do that either.

45:55

You can do the piecemeal thing. And each child is different. Yeah. So, also understand if this one's going to work for this child, will it work for this child?

46:06

Right. And don't don't force it. So, choosing for your first child is probably going to be easier than picking for the rest of them.

46:14

And even that is difficult. But the first few years,

46:21

I think the younger you can start, the better, because then you can kind of well, I just recommended to a friend tonight before we recorded this, that when they're young, you can choose a little bit of like one subject from this curriculum that you think they might like and one subject from this curriculum and so on and so forth.

46:41

And so then you can kind of try out the curriculum before investing a whole bunch of money because you can waste a ton of money.

46:50

We have wasted a lot. Because I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm going to make this work. And it doesn't work.

46:57

And yeah. And we'll get even recommendations from some other friends. They will say, oh, this was terrific for my kid on English.

47:04

And then we'll try it with our kids and they're not getting it at all. It just didn't work. Yeah. There was there was something better that we could have grabbed and applied for our children that worked for that family.

47:15

It just didn't work for us. Yeah. Yeah. So you just kind of figure it out as you go. Yeah. But definitely do your homework on it.

47:24

And you can write. And as Becky said, you can be talking to people now. You've got some people in your church who are homeschooling and talk to them.

47:31

Talk to those that you can have personal interactions with. And and maybe you can even see in their kids because you have them there in church.

47:40

You can see what they like, what they like. You can ask them. Yeah. Ask them.

47:46

What's your favorite? Yeah. You can go ask the kids. What's the subject that you like the most? How does your mom teach you? You know, ask ask mom and dad's permission first, but and then

47:54

I also highly recommend going to those conferences, the like the homeschool conference.

48:00

Yes. What was that? What was that called? I don't know. The one in February in Nashville had a whole bunch of letters.

48:06

Apparently it's always there. Yeah. Everybody knew it. But me. Yeah. So bad because everybody talks about.

48:12

Hang on. Let me I'll even bring it up here. Let's do it. Let's do it. In real time. We're doing it. Nashville. So anyway, if you go to those conferences, they will allow you to thumb through the books so you can actually look at the curriculum rather than getting a couple of pages and getting a feel for it.

48:28

So here he's got it. What is it? The Teach Them Diligently Conference. There you go. And I was going to say

48:35

Phil Johnson. That's not right. Todd Freel was one of the speakers there. Phil Johnson was there for NRB and he came and listened to Todd.

48:42

Oh, OK. I gotcha. I gotcha. But yeah, Todd Freel was the speaker there. Anyway, Teach Them Diligently.

48:48

They had it in 2020 because it was February and it was before COVID. So who knows?

48:55

Yeah. Who knows how that's going to go before 2021. But anyway, seemed great to me. That's worth checking out if you're interested in doing a homeschool convention.

49:04

I'll tell you that. I'm sure they have one smaller that's closer to you, but I think that's the nationwide one.

49:10

Yeah, that's that's right. And that one in particular was, I think there were more people at the

49:16

Opryland Resort than there were. There were more people there for the homeschool conference than were there for NRB.

49:23

Yeah. Because I saw way more kids and parents and homeschool badges, you know, that they were wearing.

49:30

I saw more of that than I saw NRB. Well, yeah, like whenever people started talking to me about it, like everybody knew about it but me.

49:36

And I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about. I had heard of it, but I, I honestly did not even know that was going on there at the same time.

49:43

Yeah. If I. Yeah, I might have done something to try to plan a little bit better. We could all enjoyed some time at Opryland.

49:50

That's alright. Yeah. Next time. Hindsight's 20 -20. Yeah. That's how that goes. All right. Let's get this one last question in here. This one's from Caleb.

49:56

He says, Hello, Pastor Gabe. I have a question that comes out of Jeremiah. In Jeremiah 7, 11, and 14,

50:03

God tells Jeremiah not to pray for Judah, but interspersed through all of that are calls for Judah to repent.

50:11

The spirit behind those calls for repentance is embodied in Jeremiah 36 -3. See also 2

50:17

Kings 23 -26 and surrounding texts. Are these things inconsistent? Well, first of all, keep in mind that Jeremiah is a prophet and the

50:27

Lord is revealing things to him that he is not going to reveal to the people because the prophet is going to go take the word of God to the people.

50:36

So these are not general commandments that we're reading regarding some of these things that God is saying to Jeremiah.

50:43

These aren't general commandments as in the law, nor are they instructions given to Christians like in the epistles.

50:49

So we don't have an instruction. Don't pray for them. Let them be destroyed. We don't have that command anywhere in scripture that's like that.

50:58

So the point here is that the judgment of Judah is going to happen and Jeremiah's intercession for them is not going to turn back

51:08

God's word or turn back his hand, the hand of judgment that's going to come upon them. So consider

51:14

Jeremiah 14, verse 11, the Lord said to me, do not pray for the welfare of this people.

51:20

Though they fast, I will not hear their cry. And though they offer burnt offering and great offering,

51:27

I will not accept them, but I will consume them by the sword, by famine and by pestilence.

51:34

So God is saying here, the judgment that he means to deliver to Judah is going to happen and Jeremiah's intercession for them is not going to change that.

51:43

So this was also going to happen swiftly. Hence why God was telling Jeremiah, you need to go tell the people this and not waste time praying and interceding for them, because that's not going to change what's about to happen.

51:55

But then you get to Jeremiah chapter 36, and I know this can get a little confusing here, but it says in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the

52:07

Lord. Take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations from the day

52:15

I spoke to you from the days of Josiah until today. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the disaster that I intend to do to them so that everyone may turn from his evil way and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.

52:30

Well, that sounds like a contradiction because God was just previously saying to Jeremiah, don't pray for this people.

52:37

He means to judge them. Oh, I took that as everybody else watching

52:42

Judah. Everybody. No, this is for Judah. Oh, okay. So that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations from the day

52:51

I spoke to you from the days of Josiah until today. So yeah, you have Israel and the nations there.

52:57

So there could be a turning back from their evil way from those who are even standing far off and see the judgment of God implemented on Judah.

53:05

Surely there could be some repentance there, but Judah is still included there. So how could

53:10

Judah repent if repenting was not going to change the fact that God's judgment was going to come upon them?

53:17

Well, you must understand that God, though he does reveal things to his prophets, he doesn't reveal everything.

53:25

And so he means for Jeremiah in this particular case to preach this so that Jeremiah would be preaching it with the intention that he might see his own kinsmen turned back from their sin, repent and so be saved.

53:39

But the reason why God wants Jeremiah to declare this is so that the judgment of Judah would come to its full measure.

53:51

So their hearts are, it's demonstrated that their hearts are against God. Nothing that is said to them is going to make them turn back so that God may be just in his judgments when he brings that judgment against Israel.

54:04

Of course, he's going to be just in his judgments anyway. But Jeremiah would see and would testify and we would see as well.

54:11

See, we're looking at the book of Jeremiah with a total picture, a more full picture of what's going on here than even

54:17

Jeremiah had. So at this time, he's still hoping and he's still declaring that Judah may turn from their sin.

54:23

We know that they didn't and judgment came upon them. But God had an ultimate purpose in this.

54:30

And you read even in Isaiah. So Jeremiah was the witness to see that God appealed and then judgment was made.

54:39

And then judgment came upon them anyway, because they would not turn from their wicked way. Right. But when you read in Isaiah, you read about how the people did turn back and God did accomplish something great in them.

54:50

And ultimately, what he's going to fulfill through them is the bringing of the Messiah. So he is going to protect

54:56

Judah from their destruction. He will not allow them to be annihilated, which was the word that was given to them in Chapter 29.

55:03

That's where we have that famous verse, Jeremiah 29, 11. So the promise was that they would not come to destruction.

55:09

They wouldn't be annihilated. God was still going to be faithful to his covenant with them because he's going to bring about the

55:15

Messiah who is going to save not only Jews who believe, but even from the Gentiles, those who believe

55:22

Israel and Judah and all the nations who would turn to Christ and believe will be forgiven their sins and have everlasting life.

55:30

And again, that is the thing that reconciles us unto God and to each other. It's not by our works, but it is by grace through faith that we are saved.

55:41

And this is the gift of God, not by our works, lest any man should boast. Amen. All right.

55:47

Thank you for your question, Caleb. And to everybody else, you can send an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

55:53

God bless you. God willing, we'll see you next week. Amen. Let's pray. Yes, let's.

55:58

Heavenly Father, we thank you for our time together. And I pray that your word would rest heavy on your ministers, on those men who have been charged with preaching the word of God to your people.

56:14

And they may recognize that what needs to be declared is the gospel. The power of the gospel is what leads to salvation for everyone who believes.

56:25

It is not by our works. It's not by paying reparations. It's not by any good deed.

56:30

It's not by believing in material blessings that would be heaped upon us. It is by faith in Christ.

56:37

Jesus is the gospel. Jesus is our reconciliation. He is our salvation.

56:43

He is our fellowship with God. May Christ be proclaimed in this nation so that we turn from our wicked ways and we would love the

56:52

Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Deliver us from this wicked time.

56:58

And may we be able to pray with the Apostle John in Revelation chapter 22.

57:04

Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Bring your judgment and your deliverance.

57:09

We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. I'm eating a cookie because Sonia said

58:19

I needed a cookie before I recorded. Okay, didn't you just drink coffee?

58:25

No, I had tea. That was in your coffee cup? Yeah. Okay.

58:32

You were stirring it. Because I always have honey in it. Oh, oh, okay. Apparently she thought

58:39

I was grumpy. So you got to eat your cookie so you're not grumpy with me on the podcast.

58:48

I didn't say cokie. I said cookie. I have it recorded here.

58:56

I can verify. I said cookie, not cokie. Would you run up and give me a can of cokie before we get started?

59:05

No. Oh, wait, that might be the grumps. She's getting grumpy.

59:13

She was referring to. Grumpy already. You won't submit to your husband.

59:18

I'll submit. If I really feel that it's, I'm just kidding.

59:24

If it benefits you, then yeah, right. That's funny.

59:31

I don't think that's how patriarchy works, but it all benefits me.