F4F | Judah Smith's Shake It Off Empty Talk

Fighting for the Faith

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseborough, I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

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This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God. So, what is the job of a pastor?

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And what is the curriculum they're supposed to be teaching from? I mean, legitimate questions, because you'll note there are explicit commands in Scripture for those who are pastors to what?

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Preach the Word, in season and out of season. And the Bible gives very explicit instructions as to what we are to do as pastors as far as the curriculum we are to teach, and that is

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God's Word with the proper and right sense. Yeah, kind of important. Otherwise, if you take the

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Bible and you engage in that stupid little game, and that's what it is, where, you know, have you ever been to one of those small group

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Bible studies and there you are with Brenda and Jimmy and Bob, you know, from church, and you guys have had some tostitos and some bean dip, and then you decide you're going to open up the

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Bible and so you have a little prayer, and after having your little prayer, Brenda opens up the

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Bible and she reads one verse out of context. And then she says, what we're going to need to do now is we're going to work our way around the room and we're going to share.

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We're going to share what this verse means to you. And so rather than actually looking at what the passage means and what it says, now we're off to the races.

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You know, it doesn't matter what the verse means to you. The question is, what did God mean when he had that verse written, when he had that portion of Scripture written?

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So you get the idea. So what we're going to do is we're heading over to, in fact, let me whirl up the desktop.

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We're heading over to church home. This is Judah Smith. And I apologize, the acoustics in the sermon, they're not good.

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They're kind of bad, actually. Very echoey. I don't know why he decided he was going to preach from inside of a, well, a room with cement and cinder blocks.

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It doesn't make any sense acoustically, if you ask me. But anyway, this was from July of this year.

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Name of the sermon is Shake It Off. Wasn't that a song? Anyway, what we're going to listen to is him twisting the

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Scriptures, engaging in a form of what's called narcissus, reading himself into the biblical text, allegorizing portions of the

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Scripture, and then making about things in your life which they're not. And then we'll look at what the

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Bible says as far as, you know, what does it mean to preach the Word and how are we to understand what a pastor is supposed to be doing while handling

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God's Word? You kind of get the idea. So with that, again, I apologize, the acoustics are terrible, absolutely terrible, but here's

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Judah Smith. Church, I'm so excited to share this message with you. The title of this sermon is

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Shake It Off. In case you can't tell, we are in a studio here in Seattle. I've got about 30 of my closest friends, and we're excited to have a moment studying

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Scripture, but also to share this moment with you. Now, a little bit of a note here.

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Judah Smith is one of these guys, he's a celebrity pastor, he's the pastor to Justin Bieber, and he was one of these guys early on, you know, so, you know, like 10, 15 years ago was part of that first wave of young, hip, you know, skinny jeans, latte drinking kind of guys.

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He was in the same graduating class as men like Mark Driscoll, Steven Furtick, Andy Stanley.

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You get the idea. And he, also Perry Noble, but, you know, he's had a little more lasting power than some of those other guys who've flamed out morally.

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He hasn't. But the issue is, is that he exemplifies the methodology behind the so -called missional churches, the churches that are seeker friendly.

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He's all about relevance. I mean, he's got a really cool band, good, you know, multimedia presence and stuff like this, but always the proof is in the pudding, and the pudding's in the teaching, it's in the doctrine.

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So, he's one of these guys who really believes he's got to make the, you know, make the message relevant and stuff.

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But you know, he's doing, you know, he's doing to the Scriptures what you're not supposed to be doing, twisting them up really badly.

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But we continue. And it never ceases to amaze me every time we go to the supernatural storybook that has been called the

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Bible for thousands of years, we see Jesus in a fresh and new way.

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And I think that's going to happen here. I'm going to tell you a story and then just make a couple of observations about that story.

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That's all. And we're going to insert ourselves here in what is now called

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Acts 28. We're going to insert ourselves. I hope you mean by that, we're going to begin in Acts 28 because, well, in reality, he's going to end up inserting himself in the text.

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That's the problem. There were no chapters and verses when it was originally written. It was just one big long story about the first Christians and the first churches that form in the known world.

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By the time we get to Acts 28, there is this guy named Paul who used to be

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Saul. He's had a radical conversion. He hated Christians. He hated anyone of the way.

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He so hated followers of Jesus that he hurt women and children in the process.

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This was a man who was a murderer. He was not a good person. And God. None is righteous.

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No, not one. Paul exemplifies the mercy and grace that is available to all of us sinners.

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All of us. God transforms him and he becomes not Saul, but Paul and is used to write more than half of the

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New Testament and plant probably more communities and churches than we can necessarily even count.

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Planted communities? No, he was a church planter.

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By the time we get to Acts 28, he has been on a lot of missionary journeys. He's planted a lot of churches and he's on an island called

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Malta and a very, very interesting little story unfolds.

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Let's start reading Acts 21, excuse me, Acts 28, verse 1, after we were the.

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All right. So, all right. We. All right. Let's see what he does. We were brought safely through.

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We then learned that the island that we landed on was called Malta. Safely through what?

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So, you'll note that we're not getting the full story here and he's not teaching a sermon series on the book of Acts and it's true.

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He gave us some of Paul's history, but we don't really know the context of what's going on here.

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Brought safely through what? Hmm. Do you immediately think of malt milkshakes?

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I do. I just admit, I see like Frosties for Wendy's immediately. The native people showed us unusual kindness.

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For they kindled a fire and welcomed us all because it began to rain and was cold.

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I love these details. It's like, we don't totally need this, but it makes for a great story. It's a historical narrative that shows the historicity of the account.

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When Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand.

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When the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another,

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I mean, this guy's clearly a murderer. He's escaped the waters, the shipwreck, the sea.

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Right. The shipwreck. That's the context there. Yeah. But justice has not allowed him to live.

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In other words, he's being judged. He is damned and he is doomed. He must have done something really bad.

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The court of public opinion is in play very quickly. He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.

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They were waiting. You've got to see this video. So they're just waiting, watching Paul waiting for him to swell up or suddenly fall down and die when they waited a long time and saw no misfortune come to him.

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They changed their minds. The court of public opinion. Here we go again.

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So now twice he's mentioned the court of public opinion already.

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We're not engaging in exegesis here. This is something very different. And they went from you are damned and you are doomed to you are divine.

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How quickly did that happen? You're not being judged. You are the judge. You're not a murderer.

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You're a God. And the next verse, now in the neighborhood of that place where Lance belonged to the chief man of the island named

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Publius. Most awkward name in the New Testament. There's no reason other than to read that just to let you know.

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That's it. I just wanted to read Publius because it is the worst name in the

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New Testament, maybe in the whole of the Bible. But anyway, shake it off. We're living in the times we're living in.

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And I wanted to say we're living in unusual times. But who's ever said differently in their point in history?

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And the point is, or the reason for that is no one's ever been this far before. Shake it off.

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No one's ever lived this far before, huh? All right.

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So let's open up the Bible, shall we? So number one,

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I would note that the text that he read, I have no quibble with the fact that he read a large portion of scripture.

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It's just that we don't really have the real context of it. And he wants to zoom in on the words, shake it off.

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And again, I can't get that song out of my head. But this is an account then where the

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Apostle Paul performs legitimate miracles. And in 2 Corinthians 12, verse 12, we read this, the signs of a true apostle will perform among you with the utmost patience with signs and wonders and mighty works.

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You'll note that the Apostle Paul was a true apostle and he can perform the actual signs of the apostles and signs and wonders.

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And this is an account where that is taking place. So you get the idea here.

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So let me back up into the context, you know. So our three rules for sound biblical exegesis are context, context, and context.

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And that's going to require us to pay attention to what's going on. The Apostle Paul is on his way to Rome to stand trial before Caesar.

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He's a prisoner and is under the watchful eye of a

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Roman centurion guard. And they are traveling via ship to Rome.

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And in verse 9 of chapter 27, since much time had passed, the voyage was now dangerous. So it's late in the year, they're getting into the fall season and Nor 'easters come up and things like that.

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Because even the fast was already over, Paul advised them saying, sirs, I perceive the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship, but also of our lives.

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But the centurion paid more attention to the pilot and to the owner of the ship than to what Paul said.

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And because the harbor was not suitable to spend the winter in, the majority decided to put out to sea from there on the chance that somehow they could reach

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Phoenix, a harbor of Crete, facing both southwest and northwest, and then spend the winter there.

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Now when the south wind blew gently, supposing that they have obtained their purpose, they weighed anchor and sailed along Crete close to the shore.

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But soon a tempestuous wind called the Northeaster struck down from the land.

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And when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along, running under the lee of a small island called

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Cauda. We managed with difficulties to secure the ship's boat. After hoisting it up, they used supports to undergird the ship.

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Then fearing that they would run aground on Certus, they lowered the gear and thus they were driven along.

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Since we were violently storm -tossed, they began the next day to jettison the cargo. And on the third day, they threw the ship's tackle overboard with their own hands.

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When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, no small tempest lay upon us.

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All hope of our being saved was at last abandoned. Since they had been without food for a long time,

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Paul stood up among them and said, Men, you should have listened to me and not set sail from Crete and incurred this injury and loss.

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And yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.

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For this very night there stood before me an angel of God to whom I belong and whom

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I worship. So you'll note that this is a text that's going to ultimately point us back to Christ.

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Who did Paul preach? Jesus, right? He's an apostle of whom? Of Jesus Christ. And so the miraculous saving of life, not one life was lost.

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This was a fulfillment of a promise given by God through an angel to the apostle

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Paul, and that stood as a sign that the God he worshiped, the God he proclaimed, well, is the true

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God. That's kind of the point. All of this is to point us to Christ. So he said,

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Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar and behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.

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So take heart, men, for I have found in God that it will be exactly as I have been told, but we must run aground on some island.

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And so when the 14th night had come, two whole weeks, by the way, and you know, the apostle

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Paul, this is a text I point to that he never stood on the bow of the boat and said, I command and decree and declare you, nor Easter, that you just go away.

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Because we Christians don't have authority over the weather. We pray to God who does, right? So when the 14th night had come, we were being driven across the

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Adriatic Sea about midnight. The sailors suspected that they were nearing land. So they took a sounding and found 20 fathoms a little farther on.

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They took a sounding again and found 15 fathoms. Uh -oh, things are getting interesting, right?

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And fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come.

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And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship and had lowered the ship's boat into the sea under the pretense of laying out anchors from the bow,

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Paul said to the centurion and soldiers, unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved. So then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship's boats and then let it go.

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And as day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take food saying, today is the 14th day that you've continued in suspense without food, having taken nothing.

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Therefore, I urge you take some food for it'll give you strength and not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you.

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That's right, God promised him this. He's an apostle of Christ. This proves that God is with him.

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And so when he had said these things, he took bread and giving thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and he began to eat.

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And they were all encouraged and ate some food themselves. We were in all 276 persons in the ship.

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And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship throwing out the wheat into the sea. And now when it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach on which they planned, if possible, to run the ship ashore.

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So they cast off the anchors and left them in the sea at the same time, loosening the ropes that tied the rudders, then hoisting the foresail to the wind they made for the beach, but striking a reef, they ran the vessel aground.

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The bow stuck and remained immovable and the stern was being broken up by the surf.

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The soldier's plan was to kill the prisoners lest any should swim away and escape. But the centurion wishing to save Paul kept them from carrying out their plan.

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So he ordered that those who could swim to jump overboard first and to make for land. The rest on the planks or on pieces of the ship.

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And so it was that all were brought safely to land, just as the angel had said.

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And so afterwards we were brought safely through. We then learned that the island was called Malta.

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The native people showed us unusual kindness, for they kindled a fire and welcomed us all because it had begun to rain and was cold.

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And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand.

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So, you know, and in the ancient world's way of thinking, oh, wow, this prisoner, he escaped the sea, but God's going to give him justice, right?

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But Paul's a preacher of Christ's forgiveness. And he is capable of operating in the signs of the apostles.

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So when the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, no doubt this man is a murderer.

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Though he has escaped from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live. He, however, shook off the creature into the fire, suffered no harm.

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And they were waiting for him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But when they had waited a long time and saw no misfortune come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a

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God. Now, in the neighborhood of that place that were lands belonging to the chief man of the island named

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Publius who received us and entertained us hospitably for three days.

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And it happened that the father of Publius lay sick with fever and dysentery. Paul visited him and prayed and put his hands on him and healed him.

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And then, and when this had taken place, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases also came and were cured.

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You'll note that Paul, this prisoner who escaped the sea, that he now operating in the signs of the apostles,

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God shows mercy on the people of this island and their sick are coming.

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And who are they hearing about when Paul is performing these signs of the apostles? They're hearing about Jesus, they're hearing about the forgiveness of their sins, of mercy and grace in Christ.

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And so you get the idea. So they also honored us greatly. And when we were about to sail, they put on board whatever we needed.

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And so here, what happens? The gospel reaches this small place in the antiquity when

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Paul washed ashore. It's a great story and it all points again to Christ because over and again,

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Paul performs his miracles as a sign of the apostles and he's an apostle of Jesus Christ. And if you know anything about the apostle

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Paul, he's always telling everyone about Jesus. In fact, Paul himself says of his own ministry in 1

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Corinthians chapter 2, he says, When I came to you, brothers, I didn't come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.

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For I decided to know nothing among you except for Jesus Christ and him crucified. And so Paul preaches

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Christ and the people of Malta receive the word of God, the good news of the forgiveness of their sins.

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It's good stuff. But what exactly, what exactly is, well,

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Judah Smith doing? Well, if we consider again, the text in Acts 28, he wants to zoom in on the words shook off the creature, shake it off.

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And he kept making a point about, oh, public opinion. And unfortunately, and you'll see this as the sermon develops, he's going to take the word shake it off, allegorize it, and basically say that this text is teaching us that when public opinion is torturing us on social media, you know, whether we're being canceled by the canceled culture or we're being affirmed as a celebrity and an influencer, that we need to have this mindset.

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We need to shake it off. We need to, that's not what this text is about at all though, far from it.

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And so, you'll note by not exegeting, by hijacking the text, reading things into it that are not there, he's taking us away from what this passage is really saying and who it's pointing to.

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It's pointing to Christ and the apostle Paul is an apostle of Jesus Christ. And so, this isn't about teaching us that when it comes to social media and the things that are happening on the internet, that we just need to take the mentality of shake it off, far from it.

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So, why is this important then? Because you think, well, I mean, he's not exactly teaching heresy, but the problem is even though he's not teaching heresy, he's not doing his job as a pastor and it's vital that pastors do their job.

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So, with that, I would like for you to consider a few passages of scripture with me, shall you?

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Number one, when it comes to preaching, we go to the prophet, not the prophet, the book of Nehemiah.

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And in Nehemiah, we have an interesting account that kind of lays the groundwork for what the job of a pastor is.

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And you can see it very clearly in this passage in Nehemiah chapter eight. And here's what it says, all people gathered as one man in the square before the water gate.

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And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the Torah of Moses that Yahweh had commanded

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Israel. So, Ezra the priest brought the Torah before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard on the first day of the seventh month.

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And he read from it, facing the square before the water gate from early morning until mid day in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand.

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And the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law, the Torah. And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose.

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So, you got to know, stood on a wooden platform they had made for the purpose. This is kind of an example of like the first, not stage, but really kind of a pulpit concept here.

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And beside him stood Matathia, Shema, Ananiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, Maasaiah, and on his right hand,

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Petahiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbadanah, Zechariah, and Meshulam on his left.

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And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people.

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And as he opened it, all the people stood. And Ezra blessed Yahweh, the great

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God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshiped

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Yahweh with their faces to the ground. Also, Joshua, Bonnie, Sherabiah, Jamin, Akub, Shabbatai, Hodiah, Maasaiah, Keletah, Azariah, Jazabad, Hanan, Peliah, and the

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Levites helped the people to understand the law while the people remained in their places.

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They read from the book of the law of God clearly and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading.

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And there you go. In Nehemiah 8, verse 8, that's really kind of the idea of what pastors are supposed to be doing.

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Their job in preaching the Word is to preach it clearly and help people to understand the proper sense of these texts.

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And you'll note by the time that Nehemiah exists, that the culture and language had changed just enough in Israel that they needed somebody to guide them in this way so that they understood the proper sense of the biblical text.

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So, that being said, when Judah Smith says that we need to learn how to shake it off, you know, and is pointing to Acts chapter 28 and saying,

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Paul shook off the viper and that we need to learn how to shake off the court of public opinion, is that the true sense that the

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Holy Spirit intended us to understand this text? Answer, no, not even close.

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So, he's not helping us understand the proper sense at all. And I would remind people that when it comes to Christ's church,

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Christ gets to pick what goes on in his church and what's taught. I'm not in charge of the church. It ain't my church.

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It's Christ's church. I'm a pastor within Christ's church and I have a very specific job.

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But as Christians, then, you'll note that Christ in Matthew 28 says, all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me.

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Go, therefore, make disciples. A disciple is a learner. Make disciples of all nations.

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Well, if they're learners, what are they learning? Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

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In other words, we're supposed to focus, you know, as our discipling work, focus

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Christ's disciples on the Word of God, the things that Christ has commanded, the things that he has taught.

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And that requires a pastor to, well, understand the Word properly.

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And his job is to help people understand the proper sense that the scriptures are written in.

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Titus, Paul puts it this way in Titus, talking about the qualifications to be a pastor.

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Paul says to Titus, this is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained in order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you.

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If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, his children, our believers, not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination for an overseer as God's steward must be above reproach.

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Must not be arrogant or quick -tempered or drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self -controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.

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He must hold firm to the trustworthy word, watch, as taught.

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And here's the thing, where in Christian history can anyone point to Acts 28 and Paul shaking off the viper as an example of us adopting the shake it off mentality when it comes to the negativity of the court of public opinion?

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This is a clear innovation and no one in the first century would have taught that text in this way, because that's not what the text means.

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So, a pastor must hold firm to the trustworthy word as it's already taught.

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You're not supposed to invent your own opinions here or twist the text or do things with it that the church has never done, so that he may be able to give instruction in what?

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Sound doctrine and to rebuke those who contradict it. For there are many who are, watch these words, insubordinate, and we're going to point to this phrase here, empty talkers.

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When somebody refuses to address and preach the biblical texts as they were meant to be understood and instead hijack the biblical text to make them mean whatever they want, they fall then under the category then of an empty talker and a deceiver also.

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But you'll note that this is what Judah Smith is. He's an empty talker. This text has nothing to do with shaking off negative attitudes from social media.

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So, he's an empty talker and pastors are not supposed to be empty talkers.

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They are instead, pastors are the ones who are to silence empty talkers.

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So, because empty talkers upset whole families, teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach, right?

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So, you get the idea. But let me give you another text along these lines. In 1 Timothy, Paul, writing to young pastor

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Timothy, says this, Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

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Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.

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Do not neglect the gift that you have, which was given to you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you, and practice these things.

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Immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress. So, immerse yourselves in the right understanding of the

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Word of God, right? And then keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching, okay?

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Persist in this, for by doing so, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

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So, this is a great example where you can see pastors are admonished to immerse themselves in the

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Scriptures and the right understanding of it, devote themselves to the public preaching and teaching of God's Word.

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And as Nehemiah points out, correctly, the correct sense taught. And then 2

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Timothy puts it in these words, Remind them of these things and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearer.

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Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who need not be ashamed, rightly handling or dividing the

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Word of truth, rightly handling, rightly dividing the Word of truth, and avoid the irreverent babble for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness.

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An irreverent babble is empty talking, right? And empty talking doesn't lead to repentance and faith in Christ and producing the fruit of the

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Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self -control.

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No, rightly handling God's Word leads to more and more what? Ungodliness.

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And Paul then describes that as like gangrene, their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are

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Hymenaeus and Philetus. Yeah, that's right. He named names who have swerved from the truth saying the resurrection has already happened.

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They're upsetting the faith of some. So, they had problems all the way back at the time of the first century, the first, with at the time of the apostles, there was a bunch of false teachers back then too.

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So, you'll note scripture makes it clear. We're to preach the Word, preach which is in accord with sound doctrine.

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We are to rightly handle the biblical text. Pastors are to give a clear sense. They are to exegete, not, you know, exegete and put things into the text that are not there.

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And Judah Smith is not doing that. No, he's doing exactly what scripture tells him not to do.

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We're all collectively living in the unknown. No one's lived 2021 before. No one's been this far in human history before.

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Empty talking is what's happening here. Now, there are some similarities. People groups have lived together in certain points of history and they've all done what we're all doing together at the same time, though we've never done it before.

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And that's called dying. We're all dying together. At about 18, we all start dying together.

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Okay, our cells start dying. Okay, I got a haircut today and the

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Joe is his name. Amazing guys. First time he's ever cut my hair, but I know him. He's just a really great guy, also a golfer.

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And Joe said, wow, you have a lot of gray hairs. Thanks, Joe. I would know it's kind of funny that the young shiny guys with the skinny jeans who were all put forward as the relevant ones we were supposed to be listening to and that the church was supposed to get rid of their old crusty pastors and replace them with guys like Judah.

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Now they're getting old. Oh, well, we're dying. We're dying. And I've never died before.

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I don't know about you. I've never died before. So this is new. I've had a July before, but not this.

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How is what he's saying helping me to rightly understand Acts 28? Answer, it's not.

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It's not at all. Far along of a July. I've never been this far into July. Like this July 2021.

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I've done July 2020. I've done a July called 2019. Now I can't speed this up because that echo in there makes it impossible to understand what he's saying.

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If I speed it up, I'm going to jump ahead. I'm going to jump ahead and let's just drop the play head, you know, around the 10 -ish minute mark and see what he's doing.

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Let's see where he's developed. If you have a puppy or a dog or not, I don't slow down for cats.

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But well, he clearly hasn't gotten to the point. I'm like, oh my gosh, look at your baby.

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That's amazing. Like I'm into it. And I kind of slowed down on the spider. Hey, right by this guy goes,

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Judah Smith, we love you, man. Thanks for all your hard work. Thanks for everything you do. And I'm like, oh, man, thank you.

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And it's like, I'm like, should I stop? I'm like, I really want to go get a coffee. So I didn't stop. All right.

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Now, it does this. Does this sound like it has anything to do with the Apostle Paul performing the signs of the apostles while he preaches the gospel on Malta after the shipwreck?

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Not even close. I peddled faster. I'm kidding. Um, but I like six or seven minutes left of the bike ride, you know, to get the coffee with Chelsea.

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I was way ahead of Chelsea. I mean, she's she doesn't ride like I ride. But for the next six or seven minutes,

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I had this conversation with myself. It's amazing how many encounters

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I can tell you about verbatim when the same thing happened on a bike ride or in a mall, walk in a neighborhood and someone's like,

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Judith Smith, sell out. Right. I can tell you about all the encounters. I have someone confronting me in front of my family at a pool, you know, and I'm like, oh, thank you.

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Please stop. And I noticed while I was driving by that I was like, oh, that was nice.

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And almost immediately put it away and just keep driving. And I thought to myself, Judith, you fool.

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Are you like me? Do you feel sometimes like everyone's against you suddenly? What does this have to do with the text?

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You're like, that's just not true. And wherever you are in the world and whatever you're facing, isn't it amazing how the critical, categorical, canceling, cultured people who insert across your path.

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Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And that's what you go to bed going.

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Why they said that? Trying it. And that's what you focus on. And all the people are like,

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I love you. Oh, man. Good to see you. How are you? Dude, you're always such a great character. I love your smile.

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It's amazing how we forget all that. And we obsess over. I don't know what it is.

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It's called our nature. It's our nature. And we can see this in scripture.

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So this brings us to what are we going to do? Yeah. What should we do here? What should we do?

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Because here's the reality. The court of public opinion used to be in play. Court of public opinion?

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For people on platforms or people in the public view. Have we noticed that the orientation of this game has changed dramatically?

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You don't need a following anymore to be assessed by the court of public opinion.

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We're all subject to it now. We're all in it now. Now, if you're like me and you do anything public facing and you're like on Instagram live or whatever, you're like,

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OK, I hope I don't say anything dumb. I don't know. Wait, what? This has nothing to do with this text. This is a self -help lecture.

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This isn't a biblical sermon. There's a big difference. And unfortunately, it's guys like Judah Smith and all the people that have come after them that have bought into this idea.

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We got to make the church relevant. We got to save the church from being irrelevant. So the first thing that goes is properly handling biblical text and preaching what the scriptures say and what they mean.

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And hijacking biblical text like this. So now, Acts 28 is the shake it off thing to teach you how to have a shake it off mindset when people are speaking negative things to you on social media or in public.

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Or what's behind me, what's happening, right? Because there's so many things that people will be offended.

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Come on. Before these cameras turned on, you can tell. I've had a little the last couple of years is

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I've offended a lot of Christians. OK, let's just call it what it is. And there's a part of me that just kind of wants to be like, well, well, fine.

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I'm I'm just going to like, just leave me alone, right? Like, I just want to love my friends and love my city.

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Like, just stop being mean. And and here's what I can tell you.

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Prepare yourself for an incredible news. Life will happen to you.

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And y 'all know what I mean? This has nothing to do with Acts 28. Nothing. Everybody wants to know.

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I mean, you're going to get bit. You're going to get bit. So so the

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Viper now is the is is the acting agent of the court of public opinion. Here's the facts.

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You're going to get bit. Now, if I was the pastor who had biblical presence to tell you there are there are a couple of things you need to do to ensure that life never takes a bite out of you.

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I'm teaching. I would if I could tell you here are three ways to ensure life never.

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So when life takes a bite out of you, Acts 28 teaches you to shake it off, takes a bite out of your heart, your soul, your brain, your values, the people you love.

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Here's how you ensure everything is safe. Everything is secure. Everyone likes you and everything goes well.

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Are you ready? I don't have that sermon. It's not in the book. The Bible says

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Paul, he's not Saul anymore. If Saul got bit, we'd all be like, yeah, he should.

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Somebody put more snakes on it, right? Like this dude's killing women and children. But the snake bites him when he's the apostle.

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The snake bites him like when we see him at the end of his ministry.

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This man has got some wins under his belt. This man has done some damage for Jesus.

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And the Bible says he was doing some pretty basic stuff that I would actually, by the way,

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I'd like to say, Paul, if you can pick up sticks and add to the fire, every other preacher I know should be doing some more basic stuff too.

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You know, it's good for preachers to pick up some sticks and build a fire, right? So Paul's doing some real good, simple stuff here.

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Picks up some sticks, trying to add fire. Why? Bigger fire, more warmth, more people can be by the fire.

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This is great. The text doesn't say that Paul used the snake as kindling or as fuel for the fire.

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It just shook it off and people thought he was going to die and he didn't. And that was a sign to them that the

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God he worshiped and the Jesus he proclaimed and the forgiveness that he proclaimed in him was true.

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He's doing something good. He's holy. He's godly.

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And the Bible. Well, you know what? I was going to say the Bible doesn't tell us why he gets bitten, but actually it does.

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A viper came out because of the heat. That's why.

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Now, listen, I could preach the metaphor of this and I could tell you how vipers come out when things get hot and it turns out.

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How vipers come out when things get hot. What's the viper in your life that came out when things got hot in your life?

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That's not the proper sense of this text. That's not why God the Holy Spirit had it written. Far from it.

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Up in the culture and spiritual heat. Here comes the viper and here comes the enemy of your soul.

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I could do all of that, but let's just let it be what it is. The snake came out because there was a fire.

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It's called nature. It's called the circle of life.

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I'm kidding. It's not. It's actually not. He should have done it.

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It should have gotten a job as a standup comedian. He's good at that. In other words, the viper just came out, man.

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The viper is not Satan. Come on. The viper is not a demon. The viper is not like everything is not the devil coming against you.

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Sometimes it's just a snake that was already in the woods and wants to get close to the fire.

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And you are in between the snake and the fire. It is important for us. It really is to look at this passage and understand that life happens, right?

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Here's if I was Paul, here's what I would do. I would hold up the snake dangling from my hand and I would go just like this.

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I promise you I would. God, why?

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I serve you. This is how you repay me on Malta.

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Oh God. Are you like me? Is he preaching the text? Is he helping us rightly understand it?

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Not even close. Everything is like either God or Satan. There's no in between.

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I was like, son, I made snakes. My bad. You know, like not my bad. That's unbiblical.

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You know what I mean? But like, like it's just happens. And I want to say this. I, I think sometimes we do need to be spiritually keen.

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We do need to be and be like, man, this is, this is an attack. This is resistance. But sometimes it's just life.

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You missed the stop sign. So the other car clipped the front of your car and now you got $6 ,000 worth of damages.

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But here's the good news. You're alive and okay. You know what

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I mean? So at no point, apparently Paul's theology is informing him better than ours.

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His theology was in for it was informing him shaking the Viper off. That may have been just like, you know, a response, an involuntary response to the fact that,

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I don't know, it kind of would hurt to have a Viper stick its fangs into your hand. Because he literally, his theology isn't,

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God, why? He's like, take that thing off. So, so here, here's the thing.

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So, Judah Smith isn't teaching heresy here, but what he is doing is he's engaged, engaging in the category of false teaching known as empty talk.

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He's not rightly handling the biblical text. He's not teaching the word as taught.

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He's come up with his own interpretation of it. And it's nonsensical if you just take a little bit of time and exert just a little bit of effort using that gift that God gave to you called your brain.

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When you, when you apply yourself this way, you sit there and go, he's not teaching the word and he rarely does.

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So, this is an example of deception via emptying the text of its true meaning.

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So, people show up week after week and they hear what they think are biblical sermons, but he's an empty talker.

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And so, they leave unsatisfied, they leave confused, they leave not with more clarity as to what the

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Bible says, but instead more ambiguity and more fuzziness as to what it says. You get the idea.

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So, hopefully you found this helpful. If so, all the information on how you can share the video is down below in the description.

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And until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.