WWUTT 2285 Q&A It's Over, Christians Suing Christians, What is Diwali, Post Election Thoughts

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November 8, 2024

Responding to questions from listeners about Christians suing Christians, can a Christian participate in Diwali, and sharing some post-election thoughts. Also, praise God, the Hughes home is sold! Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!

00:00: Are there any allowances for a Christian to sue another Christian? Can a
00:06: Christian partake in the festival Diwali? And now that the election is over, how should Christians be thinking about it?
00:11: The answers to these questions and others, when we understand the text. This is
00:25: When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word, so that we may be conformed to the image of Christ.
00:33: Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here once again is
00:38: Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Just to let everybody know how much Becky loves you.
00:46: She woke up for this. I did. She got up and texted me and said, hey, do you want to record?
00:53: I was like, I figured the night was done. No. It wasn't going to happen. I woke up because I hadn't gotten ready for bed.
01:00: I just like fell asleep. Oh, I saw. I was still in my jeans and everything. I just let you be.
01:09: And then, yeah, my body just woke me up, and I was like, well, okay.
01:14: Let's go record now. Let's do this. And I hadn't started anything yet, so that works.
01:19: And I was going to be up for a while. There you go. Might as well. So here she is. Yeah. And you look lovely.
01:26: Aw, thank you. It doesn't even look like you just woke up. You look like you're supposed to be here.
01:31: You could say that because it's radio. It's okay. Proverbs chapter six is where we left off last week, verses 12 to 15.
01:41: A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, winks his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger.
01:51: With perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord.
01:57: Therefore, calamity will come upon him suddenly. In a moment, he will be broken beyond healing.
02:05: That's very timely in this political season that we're in right now.
02:13: And I'm not even thinking so much about the candidates. Oh, yeah. I'm thinking about where people have kind of drawn their loyalties and have divided.
02:24: We've seen Christians divide from one another because of political lines that they've decided to draw.
02:31: Some reasonable, some lines that need to be drawn, and then others where we're being divisive for no reason.
02:39: We're probably even on the same side, but we're still finding a reason to divide.
02:45: But that statement there at the end, calamity will come upon him suddenly. In a moment, he will be broken beyond healing.
02:53: I've said this many times. You will dabble in sin thinking that it's not a big deal.
03:01: Eventually it kind of takes you over to the point where you think that even the small things, you've reasoned it as being small, so therefore it's not a big deal, not realizing that it's drawing you into deeper and deeper stuff.
03:14: And God is very likely just turning you over to your own depravity, to the point that where all of a sudden, calamity has come upon you in a moment you're broken beyond healing, as if there could be an event horizon in the sin that you're choosing to entertain.
03:32: And once you've crossed that event horizon, there's no coming back from it. And calamity has overtaken you, and now you're broken beyond healing.
03:40: I look at that as if many times in the Bible, especially Old Testament, where God lifts his hands from someone, so he's no longer protecting them.
03:50: He's no longer with them. Or yeah, taking his spirit from them. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, they don't even know.
03:57: And yet, boom, calamity. Samson is one that I think of.
04:03: I was thinking of the one who went to war. They were like, yes, we have
04:08: God on our side. But they didn't. Oh, yeah. That was when some of the Israelites were deciding, well, we're going to go into the promised land anyway.
04:17: Yeah. Even though God has said, we're not going to take it. We're going to go anyway. Yes. And they lost. Yes. And Moses warned them,
04:23: God is not with you. You had your chance. Right. Now you're going to try to do it on your own. Right.
04:29: And they suffered massive losses. So that sort of thing as well. They're not realizing that the spirit is not with them anymore.
04:35: Hence why David prays in Psalm 51, take not your Holy Spirit from me, restore unto me the joy of your salvation.
04:45: So you continue in sin, you tiptoe in it, you throw your whole body into it eventually.
04:52: How far do you go before God has finally said, you're on your own then and takes his spirit from you?
04:58: Didn't that happen to Saul too? Saul, yes. Not Saul who became Paul, but Saul. Oh, I know.
05:04: Old Testament Saul. Old Testament Saul. Because Samuel said that to Saul.
05:10: Okay. That God has taken his favor from you. Yeah. Yeah. The Lord said to Samuel, I regret that I have made him king.
05:16: Right. And so now his blessing was going to be upon his neighbor was what Samuel said.
05:22: Right. A man after his own heart. Yes. Who was David. That was foreshadowing of David. Yeah.
05:27: Okay. And so it's almost as if kind of in Psalm 51, I wonder if David's going through that same thing in his mind.
05:33: Have I become like Saul? Is God going to take his spirit from me? That's true.
05:39: And so pleading with the Lord, take not your Holy Spirit from me. Create in me a clean heart, oh
05:44: God, and renew a right spirit within me. Yeah. So all of this to say, don't continue.
05:50: Don't dabble in sin and think that you're going to be all right. I can give this up whenever I want.
05:57: Right. It's kind of like the... That's like the ways to trick your mind, you know. Yeah. Like you're trying to convince yourself.
06:04: Okay. Or the person who wants to deny that they're addicted to anything, I can give it up whenever I want to. Yeah. And every once in a while, you'll hear these stories of persons who are living sinful lifestyles and they will say something to the effect of, oh, before I die,
06:16: I'll get right with God. How do you know that? Yeah. How do you know you'll even want to when you get to that day?
06:24: So don't be so confident in yourself. Turn from your sin to Christ.
06:29: Yeah. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. I remember saying it when I was younger, like, oh,
06:36: I can do that. I can give it up whenever. And then it was just like, no, I couldn't.
06:42: Wasn't as strong as I thought I was. Yeah, right. Like I believed I could, but then whenever I tried, it was like, nope.
06:49: I've been there. I understand that. Well, let's come back to this passage again next week, because I also want to examine the different parts of this.
06:56: A worthless person, a wicked man goes about with crooked speech. Let's come back to that section next week.
07:02: Okay. In the meantime, we've mentioned politics. We can say here, it's over. Yeah. The election is over.
07:09: Lord willing. Yeah. Unless somebody finds a bag of ballots. Yeah. Right.
07:14: Hey, wait a second. We didn't count these. Surprise. No, just kidding.
07:19: But no, it's over. And also, babe. Yes. It's over. It is.
07:25: Yes. The house is sold. Amen. So, we have two it's overs for this broadcast.
07:32: The election is over. We know who's going to be president in 2025, and also our house has been sold.
07:40: Actually, last week when we recorded, did we record on Thursday? It was Thursday night.
07:46: Okay. Yes. So, when we were talking about how the house was supposed to sell, we were going to close on Wednesday.
07:53: I think we were still talking about that then. I think so. We knew when we were recording the program that the house was closing the next day.
08:01: So, we actually closed on Friday. We had already filled out the paperwork. We air mailed it to the title company so that the buyers would be there.
08:10: All they had to do was walk in and sign. We had the paperwork all done. We had to bring money to closing, so we got nothing out of the sale of the house.
08:19: Yeah. All of our equity is gone. But praise God. Amen. It's gone. It's gone. It's over.
08:25: So, we knew that. We knew that the house was sold, and we were still saying on the broadcast that we had a few more days because we wanted to tell our church family first before we told the podcast listeners that the house had been sold.
08:41: So, we let everybody know Sunday morning at church that the house was sold, and then we started spreading it out to everybody else.
08:49: Yes. But they've been with us every step of the way. They have prayed with us, cried with us, have given so much support to us financially and other things.
09:01: So, we wanted to share that with them first, but also wanted to let you know because we have some listeners out there.
09:08: Yeah. I mean, dozens and dozens of you. Yes. It's not just five or six.
09:14: Right. Right. That kind of gave us something. There was a lot of you that gave something. And a lot of you gave a lot.
09:20: Yes. Some of you gave a little. Some of you gave a lot. But every dollar still was extremely meaningful because if you gave 10 bucks, it probably bought us a couple sandwiches that week or something like, you know, it was helpful in some way, shape, or form, or it bought us, yeah, a couple of cartons of eggs, which by the way, we have so many eggs in our fridge right now.
09:42: It was a mistake, but it's okay. I'm looking at that going, well, we're going to eat some eggs this week.
09:48: I got to come up with some egg recipes. We can have an egg salad, you know, do some
09:53: French toast. We cannot thank you enough. Yes.
09:59: For what you have been through with us this year. Yes. We thank
10:05: God for you. We did not know how God was going to show us this year how many people loved us and in what ways.
10:13: Amen. And it's been amazing. And I can't thank you enough.
10:19: We have thanked God for you with tears. Becky and I have laid in bed and held hands and looked at the budget and thought, how are we going to do this?
10:29: In two weeks, we're going to have to decide which bill we can't pay.
10:34: Yeah. That's the point that we were at. This happened two times where we hit two months where we were like, we're at zero, we can't do anything.
10:43: Yeah. And then suddenly, it would just be this flood of giving that would happen all at once.
10:50: And we didn't do much to ask. No. It would just be, guys, we need some help.
10:56: And then suddenly, boom. It just came. It was such a blessing. It was such a blessing.
11:02: There was one fellow I remember having a conversation with and he told me, there was something in your voice that I just knew it was hard.
11:12: Yeah. And I'm not that kind of person. I'm just not the kind of person that wants to show my hand.
11:19: And yet he heard it and knew I've got to help. And that was amazing.
11:27: I don't know what kind of insight God gave you in that moment. Yeah. But the gift that he gave was exactly what we needed at exactly that time.
11:36: Oh, amen. And it was just incredible. I can't begin to thank you enough. Yes. The church had approved for us a certain amount of money in February.
11:45: And it was right when those gifts had come in, in February. We also got our tax return then in February.
11:51: So those things had helped us out a lot. So I told the church I was very, very thankful for their gift.
11:57: But as much as I could possibly help it, I was not going to touch it until we absolutely needed it.
12:03: Right. It was six months. And July, we finally had to say, okay.
12:09: Now's the time. Now's the time. Yeah. I was hoping the house was going to sell in that amount of time. I know. I know. So I managed to hold off for that long.
12:16: But I think that it was still in God's providence. He wanted me to accept that gift. You're at this church now.
12:23: You're with these people. You're invested in their lives. They're invested in yours. So they've promised you this money and you're going to take it.
12:31: Yeah. And now you're going to be that much closer because of it. Yes. And you're going to have to rely on them.
12:37: That's really what the lesson that we were learning in that season. Yes. And so anyway.
12:43: And we thank you for your prayers. Oh, yes. Oh, my goodness. It has been felt. It has been heartfelt.
12:50: I can't even begin to tell you. Our children, they knew the situation was rough.
12:57: Yeah. But they didn't - Because they weren't getting their allowance anymore. Yeah. Yeah. There was that.
13:05: But they didn't... I don't know how to explain it. It didn't affect their spirit.
13:11: We found fun things to do even if it... That was free. That wouldn't cost us money.
13:16: But the thing of sacrificing for them or with them, they just rolled with it.
13:24: And that would not have happened without prayer and without the Lord and without all you guys just helping us out.
13:31: So it's just been all around such a blessing. I'll tell you a mistake I made, and you can kind of take this for what it's worth.
13:39: Okay. You can say this was a mistake, but no, no, no, you did what a dad should do. Okay. Back at Christmas time, it was right after we moved.
13:46: So we had only been here a little over a month. Right. And I just decided I'm going to give my kids a good
13:53: Christmas. And so we really spoiled our kids this past Christmas. And then when
13:58: January hit, I was going, oh, man, I should not have done that. Well, we were thinking within the first two months, we would sell the house.
14:06: We thought the house was going to sell. And so it was with that in mind. It was like, oh, how long is it going to take us to sell this house?
14:14: Where the house was located was such a prized neighborhood. Everybody else was selling their houses.
14:21: The price that we were putting on that square footage, you couldn't get any better. And yet it just wouldn't sell.
14:28: We could not get it to sell. And yet it got better. Yeah. Because we lowered that price. We lowered the price. Lowered it a lot.
14:34: It is sold. Yes. I'm not complaining about that. So we are so thankful. It is an answer to prayer, huge answer to prayer.
14:42: So thank you all so much. So we are immensely grateful to you for the kindness that you've shown to us.
14:50: We have no equity. We are in a rented house. The prices of homes around here are going to have to come down if we're going to be able to buy anything.
15:03: This house is great. I hate the idea of renting where we're just giving somebody else money when
15:10: I could be putting into a mortgage. And then that money stays with us. But the house is great.
15:15: The ability that we have to do this podcast, because we have a room to be able to do this in. And I didn't realize until we moved to Texas how hard it was to find a room where you can record a podcast.
15:27: Yep. Then we found this one moving to Arizona. It was like, it's got a room to record a podcast.
15:33: It does. We got to stay here unless, you know, something. We don't have to build you one.
15:39: Really convenient. Yeah. Yeah. We got to build something, which is what we did in Texas. And then I only had it for a few months and then we moved.
15:45: It was very helpful during those few months. It was. It's like, why didn't I do this in the very beginning? This is what
15:52: I wanted to do from the start, but kept talking myself out of it. Yeah. No, it can't go here. It's got to go here.
15:57: Yeah. I should have built it from the very first when we got there. I should have just gone ahead and built the room. But anyway, here we are.
16:05: So elections over. House is over. Yes. Amen. And amen. Let's get to some questions.
16:10: Yes. What? So this question comes from Virginia. Actually, it's a comment about last week's broadcast.
16:18: Hey there, Pastor Gabe and Becky, just wanted to let you know that on this podcast, which was last week around 50 minutes, when you were referencing
16:26: Trump and abortion issues, you said Trump and his wife Kamala came out with a book instead of Melania and you did it twice.
16:36: The book that Kamala came out with. Of course I did. I know. But if you go back and listen to that episode now, you won't find it because I have edited both of those mistakes out.
16:49: Well done, babe. Thank you for alerting us to that, Virginia. I appreciate it.
16:55: Thanks for the broadcast, she says. I so appreciate all you guys do and I'm praying wholeheartedly that your Texas house sells.
17:02: Aw, thank you. This is what we're talking about. We thank you so much for praying for us.
17:07: Now she says, your sister in Christ, Virginia, formerly of Kenai, Alaska, now in Coeur d 'Alene,
17:15: Idaho. Oh, interesting. So from cold to cold. Yeah, that's right.
17:20: From really cold to cold. Pretty cold. And we've had somebody else that wrote to us from that city.
17:30: Oh, really? Yes, because I remember we had the conversation about how you pronounce that. Oh, right. Yes. Coeur d 'Alene,
17:37: I think is how you pronounce it. But somebody can - I don't remember. It's been too long. Correct me again. Right.
17:42: Exactly. It's been too long and I don't remember how we pronounced it before. Yeah. But Virginia, you're going to have to share the story with us now.
17:49: So send us an email. Yeah, why'd you move? Why'd you move? That's awesome. I would not be surprised if it's climate, but let us know.
17:57: This next one is from Chris. Hello, Pastor Hughes. Recently, the whole issue with McLean Bible Church has made its way into the news cycle with David Platt and a documentary that was released on YouTube.
18:09: I don't know if you've seen this documentary. I don't know if it's on YouTube. Maybe it is.
18:14: I'm sure it is. It's got to be spread there eventually. But it was on a website that was
18:20: David Platt documentary. Hang on. Let me see if I can find it. The Real David Platt? The guy that wrote Radical.
18:26: No, no, no. Isn't that what it was on? Oh, you're saying that the website was called The Real David Platt. You're right.
18:31: That is it. You got it. The Real David Platt. Oh, okay. The RealDavidPlatt .com. That's where it is. I remember seeing that tagline everywhere.
18:38: Yeah. I mean, not everywhere, but whenever I saw it. People were sharing the link because that was where the documentary was.
18:43: Yes. So part one and part two is right there, and I believe it may also be on YouTube by this point. But anyway,
18:49: Chris goes on to say, I'm not asking your opinion on David Platt or what is going on with that particular church, but I am interested in understanding how what is taking place squares with what is written in 1
18:59: Corinthians 6. I have seen several takes on what is happening and who each particular commentator ascribes fault to, but I've yet to see anyone address the fact that there are church members suing their church leaders in court and whether that is an action that is disobeying what
19:17: Paul wrote. Am I incorrectly applying 1 Corinthians 6 when I say that this lawsuit should not have been brought?
19:25: Talking about the members of McLean Bible Church who sued the church leaders of McLean. I'd appreciate your thoughts on this prayers that the house in Texas sells soon.
19:35: Oh, that's so sweet. Thank you so much. So, yeah, let's go to 1 Corinthians 6 and read this once again, where Paul talks about lawsuits brought against believers.
19:45: When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?
19:52: Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases?
20:05: Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life?
20:12: So, if you have such cases, why do you lay them down before those who have no standing in the church?
20:18: I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers?
20:25: But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you.
20:35: Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?
20:41: But you yourselves wrong and defraud, even your own brothers. So it's from this passage, 1
20:47: Corinthians 6, 1 through 8, that we've come to an understanding that we as Christians should not be suing each other.
20:54: A brother should not be taking brother to court. But even when it comes down to handling these things between brothers, we're not supposed to have lawsuits at all with one another, even if you could keep it in the context of being in the brotherhood.
21:10: Because consider the line, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you.
21:17: Why not rather be defrauded? Do you not realize how much this kind of thing divides brothers more?
21:26: And then when you go into worldly courts, when you go into the world and try to get an unbeliever to settle this matter for you, you're subjecting yourself to their judgment when the reality is that we who are in Christ will be sitting on thrones and judging the world, talked about in Revelation chapter 3.
21:45: It also is a scourge on the church. It brings a reproach against the gospel.
21:51: Because the world sees us suing one another and going, where's the love of Christ among you guys?
21:56: You people who say that you have the love of God and here you are taking one another to court. It's a terrible thing to do in the eyes of the world.
22:04: And it's a terrible thing to happen in the context of the church. So what is my opinion with regard to McLean?
22:09: I think the lawsuit is horrible. And it would have been better for them to have just been defrauded.
22:17: It would have been a terrible thing. There would have been a lot of losses. There would have been a lot of heartbreaks, certainly.
22:22: But the lawsuit does nothing. And I know the way people will try to rationalize this, they'll say something to the effect of, well,
22:30: David Platt and all these guys that did that crooked thing, they're not even Christians anyway. Guys, I'm sorry, but no.
22:38: It's still within the church. It's still in the church. And I don't think that you have the judgment call to say that David Platt is hellbound.
22:48: What they did was crooked. Everything that you see going on, I'm used to that kind of politics because I've been
22:54: Southern Baptist for a decade and a half. I know exactly, none of that stuff was surprising to me.
23:01: But it's still a horrible thing to try to rationalize in that way. Well, I can sue a fellow believer because...
23:08: You might even try to say something like, well, I wasn't suing an individual, I was suing an entity. It doesn't matter in the eyes of the world.
23:15: It's Christians suing Christians. There's no loophole here in 1 Corinthians 6.
23:21: Christians should not be suing Christians, period. And when Paul says, I say this to your shame, it is a shameful thing.
23:29: And I want you to hear where I'm coming from. Becky and I have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars in our time of ministry.
23:40: And I'm talking by believers who have defrauded us to some degree. I'm not going to say when and where, in what context all of this stuff happened.
23:51: We keep that private because we don't want the church to be divided over this.
23:56: And we don't want to bring that stuff out before the world. God has still taken care of us, even though we've been through stuff where we've been defrauded.
24:05: Amen. And we're still provided for. So there's no reason for us to make a case out of it, no pun intended, but we continue on in the love of Christ, trusting
24:18: God. God is going to sort all of that out and anybody who had done evil toward us, that's going to be between them and God.
24:26: But we continue on with ministry. I'm just letting you know that. I'm not trying to gloat or anything like that. I just share that with you because this is coming from somebody who's experienced in this.
24:36: Yes. Well, and when we were going through it, you know, I've got a little bit of a temper at times.
24:45: You're German. It's okay. I am. And Irish. And it's just, you know, it's hard to battle that.
24:52: And if we would have taken any sort of action against it, it would have just fueled my anger.
24:58: And I would have just been angry longer and more angry than what
25:03: I was. And instead it was like snuffing out the flame, you know, it was just. It would have made you bitter.
25:09: Yes, totally. There would have been resentment. Every once in a while, it will come up between you and I and there will be one of us has to get on the other one and like, it's over, right?
25:23: We're not bringing it up anymore. I know, but it's still a thing, no? But the Lord provided and he has answered.
25:30: And in the most glorious way possible, that he can give him the glory. But in a case, you know, in the courtroom against, you know, brother against brother kind of thing or whatever, it just, it wouldn't, it would not glorify
25:46: God. Yeah. And I've been in situations before too where, I mean, I've lost friends over this because they wanted to sue and I opposed them.
25:57: And that became a conflict between us. I can't believe you would stop me from doing this. First Corinthians six is really clear.
26:05: It's very clear and very strongly worded. Very strongly worded. I mean, like, yeah.
26:12: This is one of those, there's no ambiguity here. And Jesus talks about this as well in the Sermon on the
26:17: Mount. It's not like it only occurs here in first Corinthians chapter six. Yeah, that's true. So we are to, we're to have grace with one another, we're to be forgiving of one another.
26:27: We are not to sue each other, take one another to court. And yeah, very unfortunately, I think it's a very defeating thing for McLean Bible Church.
26:37: Those that were themselves cheated out of what they believe rightfully belonged to them.
26:43: It was not good for them to then turn around and sue the leaders in McLean Bible Church. It would have been better for them to have just been defrauded.
26:51: Turn the other cheek, right? Right, yeah. Anyway, if you want to watch the documentary, we've given you the website, therealdavidplatt .com,
26:58: and you can kind of make your own judgments regarding that. But as far as the lawsuit question goes? It's pretty clear.
27:05: Yeah, the answer is no. Well, that's going to bring this first segment to a close. In the second portion, we're going to answer a question about Diwali and also going to talk some politics.
27:14: I'm going to share some kind of closing thoughts to the election. If you're listening on the radio, you're only getting about a half hour here.
27:21: The second half hour you can get by subscribing to our podcast. Go to www .utt
27:27: .com. And there, once again, you can send us a question when we understand the text at gmail .com
27:33: or click on the voicemail tab there in the top right. And you can record your question to us because we would love to hear from you.
27:41: So once again, www .utt .com. Thank you for listening and God bless.
27:47: Amen. Did Donald Trump just come out with a
28:01: Trump Bible? No, he did not. The God Bless the USA Bible is actually sold by Lee Greenwood, the guy who wrote the song of the same name,
28:08: God Bless the USA, which came out in 1984. Former President Donald Trump has endorsed the
28:13: Bible and urged his supporters to buy a copy for Easter. But it's not Trump's Bible, nor is it a new
28:18: Bible as it's been in print for a few years. In addition to the King James version of the text, it also contains the
28:24: U .S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Pledge of Allegiance, and of course, the lyrics to Greenwood's famous song.
28:30: Now, some conservatives genuinely believe that the U .S. Constitution is divinely inspired like the
28:35: Bible. We were a nation founded upon not the words of our founders, but the words of God because he wrote the
28:42: Constitution. So it's probably not a good idea to print the Constitution in the Bible.
28:47: But that aside, this is not the first time someone has published a Bible like this. The Geneva Bible Patriots Edition includes a prayer by George Washington, the
28:56: Magna Carta, the Mayflower Compact, as well as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. There's also the
29:01: Patriots Bible, which includes a bunch of articles about the history of the United States. You can also find the
29:07: Young American Patriots Bible, the Founders Bible and the American Woman's Bible. Various ways to market a
29:12: Bible with patriotism. While it's good to remember America's Christian roots, do not confuse these national documents with sacred scripture.
29:20: Only those 66 books that make up the Bible are breathed out by God, given by his
29:25: Holy Spirit, and contain the words of eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord, when we understand the text.
29:32: All right, next question here. And by the way, we didn't mention where you can send your questions to. When we understand the text at gmail .com,
29:40: or you can send a voicemail. I don't have any voicemails this week, but you can go to www .utt .com.
29:46: Click on the voicemail tab in the top right corner of the page. And record for 90 seconds or something like that.
29:54: Ask us your question. Yeah. We'd love to hear from you. Literally. This is from Genevieve.
30:00: Greetings, Pastor Gabe and Becky. How much could a Christian celebrate Diwali with their
30:06: Indian neighbors in an effort to reach them for Christ, or maybe as just an effort to love them?
30:12: By celebrate, I mean lighting sparklers while wearing a saree and a bindi on your forehead, and maybe eating some
30:20: Indian snacks. What do you think of this? My Christian parents and friends just sent me a picture of them doing this very thing with their
30:26: Indian neighbors. I would love your thoughts on this. Thanks, and happy Reformation Day. So I believe that was
30:31: October 31st when I received that question. I don't know enough about Diwali to give you a straight yes or no answer to this.
30:43: I know it's a pagan holiday. The whole concept behind the holiday kind of depends on where you live, because different parts of India will celebrate
30:52: Diwali for different reasons. There's Diwali celebrating that Lord Krishna destroyed the demon
30:59: Naraka, who is said to have imprisoned people, tormented his subjects.
31:06: And so here, Lord Krishna defeated him, and we're celebrating the defeat of Naraka. Okay. And then there's another region of India that will celebrate the return of Lord Rama and his wife
31:18: Sita and brother Lakshmana from a 14 -year exile in the forest. Okay. And it's celebrated not just by Hindus, but also
31:26: Sikhs and Buddhists. There are various different faiths, traditions that will partake in Diwali.
31:33: That's not just Hindu, although it's primarily Hindu. Are there aspects of it that you could partake in that wouldn't be pagan?
31:43: And that's where I don't know enough about Diwali to give you a straight answer on that.
31:49: Because what's the reason why your Christian friends are lighting sparklers and celebrating with their neighbors and using that as an opportunity to share
31:59: Christ with them? Right. See, that's where I don't know enough about Diwali to know what their reasoning would be for doing that.
32:06: Yeah. So is it partaking in just the festivities part of it, or is it part of the ritual?
32:14: Is it just tradition that they've lost all the meaning for it, but they've kept up with the fun stuff?
32:20: Kind of like Christmas. There's a lot of people that still have a tree and still do presents and still...
32:27: That's not pagan. No, no, no. I'm saying from the other aspect.
32:33: There's a lot of pagan people that will do it because... Because they believe it has pagan symbolism.
32:41: No, because of tradition. It's just something that they've done. They don't do it for Christ, but they do it because it's just something they've always done.
32:48: They grew up with it. That's a pagan perspective, though. I'm trying to find a way to bring that...
32:55: That I don't have. That I don't have. You know how things just become more of a tradition rather than a ritual or a worship?
33:06: Okay, yes. Yeah, I see what you're saying. Do you see what I'm... Right. Okay. Right. So it's that aspect of it.
33:12: You could be Hindu and essentially be atheist or Buddhist and be atheist.
33:18: Even though there's a whole pantheon of gods that exist there in Hindu, you don't actually have to worship any of them.
33:25: Right. And so there might even be Hindu atheists or Buddhist atheists that are partaking in Diwali that don't care about Lord Krishna destroying
33:35: Naraka and all that other kind of thing. Probably don't even believe any of that. Right. But they're still partaking in that. So how much of that, even though it has...
33:43: It definitely has pagan roots to it. Right. But how much of the festivity aspect of it is actually itself celebrating something pagan?
33:51: Again, that's where I just don't know enough about it to give you a straight answer. Right. Sitting where I'm sitting and looking at what
33:58: I know about Diwali, I would tell you, no, a Christian should have absolutely nothing to do with it. But what's your
34:04: Christian friend doing when they're lighting sparklers with their neighbors during Diwali? I would like to know.
34:11: I want to sit down with them and go, okay, well then explain this to me, because what I know about Diwali, I would never...
34:17: I could not in good conscience partake in any celebration that's Diwali. Oh, really? So what are you doing?
34:25: You believe that you can do this as a Christian and be ministering to your Indian neighbors through this as well.
34:32: And why would they pick that particular event? Diwali?
34:38: Yeah. Like, why not just every day? Why would they pick a festival?
34:44: Well, it was probably... This is, again, assumption, because I don't know the story behind this. A ceremony or whatever. The neighbor invites you over, hey, come on over.
34:51: We're celebrating Diwali. We're going to eat some food. We're going to light some sparklers. Okay. So is this the sort of thing where Paul talks about food offered to idols in 1
34:59: Corinthians 8 -10? And if the pagan knows this food has been offered to an idol, and now
35:06: I'm giving it to you, Paul says, don't eat it. Because now you're communicating to them that I can celebrate with your gods and still worship my
35:15: God. Even if in your conscience, you're clear to eat this food, and it's not going to defile your conscience at all.
35:23: It's going to harm them. Right. You're communicating something to your unbelieving neighbor. Right. And so therefore, don't eat it.
35:29: Or if you've got a brother who is weaker in conscience than you are and sees you eating meat that he knows has been offered to idols.
35:39: And so then that brother goes, oh, well, then I can do it too. And he does it, and his conscience is defiled.
35:45: He's sinned and you've sinned because you've caused your brother to sin. Right. So these are the things that Paul kind of lays out in those three chapters, 1
35:53: Corinthians 8, 9, and 10, regarding meat offered to idols. So that's one of the reasons why
36:00: I don't know that I could participate in Diwali. Because if my neighbor has a pagan belief in this holiday, and here
36:08: I come over and I'm just lighting sparklers with you. I don't care. I'm lighting sparklers. We do this for the 4th of July.
36:14: Right. In my conscience, I'm not celebrating a false god. But in his, does he think
36:20: I'm celebrating Lord Krishna with him? Right. So in that sense,
36:26: I can't go partake in that. So that's why I would have to know what about Diwali do
36:33: I don't know that your Christian friend thinks that he can celebrate with his Indian neighbor, and he's not communicating these pagan things to him, but actually using this as an opportunity to share the gospel with him.
36:44: Yeah. Or is it the kind of thing where I went to your event. Now you can come to my event. Yeah, I don't know.
36:50: You know what I mean? Again, I don't know how you reason that with... Yeah, I don't know either. If it is a pagan celebration.
36:57: Yeah. An idol is an empty thing, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians. Right. But yet it's still going...
37:04: It means something to them. Right. It means something to them. It's gonna communicate something to them. Right. So you have to be mindful of that.
37:11: Even in respect to like, what are the other neighbors saying? Yeah, true.
37:16: That's still something that in my conscience, I don't see how I could partake in that.
37:22: I would rather use my abstaining from it to be the door that I could then share the gospel with my neighbor.
37:30: I appreciate your invitation. Thank you. I'm not going to do it, and here's why.
37:36: And then be able to share the gospel with him in that way, instead of doing something that, you know, now you've communicated some element of syncretism to your neighbor.
37:46: Yeah. You can have your false gods, but you also have to worship my God. And that's untenable.
37:52: Because as Paul says in 1 Corinthians, you can't dine at the table of demons and at the table of the
37:59: Lord. That's so true. Yes. So good question, Genevieve. Complicated question.
38:05: Complicated, very. And I... Need more information. Right. To make it.
38:11: Read 1 Corinthians 8 through 12 or 8 through 12, 8 through 10. I'm giving you a big assignment.
38:18: Three chapters, 1 Corinthians 8 through 10. Read through that. Pray about that. Yeah. Ask your friend who went to go light sparklers these questions.
38:28: Like why? How is it okay? What aspect of Diwali allows you to be able to do this?
38:35: And you're not compromising your conscience or believing that you are communicating something pagan to your pagan neighbors.
38:43: Yeah. There are things that we as Christians should abstain from, even if in conscience, we don't feel any guilt over that.
38:53: But we should not do it because we know what it's going to communicate to somebody else. And so in that compassion that you would have for others, for the benefit of their souls.
39:06: Yes. Be mindful of this, which is why Genevieve's question is such a good question. It is.
39:12: It's good to think through that, but be sure that we are doing this in a godly way, communicating the gospel of Christ to other people and not compromising on that gospel, just because we want to have fun and light some sparklers.
39:23: Right. And eat some Indian food. Right. Thank you again, Genevieve, for your question. I did a couple of videos this week that I meant to have out on Monday, the day before election day, and just didn't get them done.
39:35: One video was on some of the things that Kamala Harris was preaching on, things that she was teaching, because she's been preaching in churches leading up to the election.
39:47: And then also, I look back on the assassination attempt on Donald Trump's life back in July.
39:53: So these are these two videos back to back. And then I'm going to share some post -election thoughts. Leading up to the 2024 election,
40:02: Kamala Harris, who claims to be a Christian, was welcomed into several churches to preach. My earliest memories of those teachings are about a loving
40:12: God. A faithful God. A God who asks us to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.
40:22: You mean like children in the womb? Proverbs 31 .8 says, Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute.
40:29: Psalm 139 .13 says, For you formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb.
40:35: But Kamala's top priority was the right to murder children in the womb. And when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom.
40:45: Which is code for murdering unborn babies. As President of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law.
40:53: Yeah, they really cut to a baby right after she said that. But Kamala wants you to believe that you can still be a
40:59: Christian and support a woman's right to an abortion. You don't have to abandon your faith or deeply held beliefs to agree.
41:06: The government shouldn't be telling her what to do. Yes, the government can tell you it is wrong to murder your children.
41:12: As it's wrong to murder anyone. If you permit what God has clearly said in the Bible is evil. You have abandoned the faith.
41:19: But despite saying if you like your faith, you can keep your faith. She will force doctors, nurses, employers, hospitals and taxpayers to like her faith.
41:27: What concessions would be on the table? Religious exemptions, for example. Is that something that you would consider? I don't think we should be making concessions when we're talking about a fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body.
41:38: Jesus said, I have this against you. That you tolerate that woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality.
41:48: Repent and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins before the day of the
41:54: Lord comes when we understand the text. On Saturday, July 13th,
42:03: President Donald Trump, while campaigning in Pennsylvania for a second term, was nearly assassinated by a gunman when the bullet caught the top of his right ear.
42:11: He moved his head in a split second as the gun was fired. And by the mercy of God, Trump was spared.
42:17: Unfortunately, there followed a lot of scripture twisting on social media. Internet personality Jack Posobiec said the bullets were fired at 6 11 p .m.
42:25: Ephesians 6 11, which says put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
42:32: First, chapter and verse markers are not divinely inspired. Second, that verse has nothing to do with dodging actual bullets.
42:38: The armor of God consists of putting on the breastplate of God's righteousness, the shoes of his gospel, the shield of faith in Christ, the sword of the spirit, which is
42:46: God's word. And I hate to break it to you. That armor does not characterize Donald Trump. Just days later at the
42:52: Republican National Convention, Pastor Lorenzo Sewell repeated this twisting of scripture. Well, sort of.
42:58: Did you know that President Trump was shot on 6 11? And do you know that Ephesians chapter number six, verse number 11 says be strong in the
43:10: Lord and in his mighty power? No, it does not say that. Praise God that Trump lived that day.
43:17: But God is not pleased with treating his word like a fortune cookie. Far better would it be for a nation to fear
43:23: God and know his word. As Daniel 2 21 says, he changes times and seasons.
43:29: He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding when we understand the text.
43:39: Now, in fairness to Pastor Sewell, what he was most likely attempting to reference was
43:46: Ephesians 6 10, not verse 11, but verse 10. Finally, be strong in the
43:52: Lord and in the strength of his might. That's verse 10. Put on the whole armor of God that you may stand against the schemes of the devil.
43:59: That's verse 11. But the point remains that you can't take
44:04: Bible verses out of context like that and try to apply them on a situation as if that verse applies to that situation.
44:12: Because Donald Trump was not spared that day because he was wearing the whole armor of God. God certainly spared his life.
44:21: And we would look to passages that talk about, you know, God being the one who sets up kings or tears down kings.
44:26: He's the one that changes times and seasons. And it was not in God's will that the season would change at that particular time.
44:33: He spared Trump's life for a reason. And Trump should certainly give praise to God for that. Turn from his sin to the
44:40: Lord Jesus Christ and be guided by the wisdom of God in the task that is ahead of him as the next president of the
44:46: United States. He's now the 45th and 47th presidents of the
44:51: US. But Trump does not wear the armor of God, which is a spiritual thing, not a physical thing.
44:57: What is the armor of God? Take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day.
45:04: And having done all to stand firm, stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.
45:17: In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.
45:24: And the flaming darts of the evil one are false teaching, not literal physical bullets.
45:30: And take on the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the spirit.
45:38: Again, that's not Donald Trump, but we can certainly pray that it would be. That he would come to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and then put on the full armor of God.
45:49: But you and I need to be equipped with that armor every day so that we may resist the schemes of the devil that he was attempting to do through the
45:57: Democrat Party and my friends, the schemes that he's attempting to do through the
46:03: Republican Party as well. This is the most leftist
46:08: Republican victory that there has ever been. It's true that we managed to stop the more leftist agenda through the
46:17: Democrat Party that would have ushered in Marxism, communism, all different kinds of demonic ideologies that would have come from the
46:25: Democrat Party. We managed to avoid that. We saved the constitutional republic that is the
46:31: United States of America with a Trump victory. And he will no doubt put some things in place that will at least try to prevent something like this from happening again, at least this far left.
46:42: The Democrat Party is unlikely to learn anything from this. They're just going to regroup and re strategize. They're going to have more time to be able to put something together before the 2028 election.
46:54: But it's very unlikely that anything on the Democrat Party ticket is going to become more conservative as a result of this loss.
47:01: They're still going to be as left and as demonic as they have ever been. But on the
47:06: Republican side, we've seen a shift leftward as well. Donald Trump is the first president of the
47:12: United States to enter office pro -LGBTQ. It wasn't Barack Obama.
47:18: Obama came into office in 2008 saying that marriage should be between a man and a woman.
47:26: But then when he was running for re -election in 2012, then he changed and said, now we should let love be love, you know, that mantra of the of the pride movement.
47:38: But he came into office proclaiming traditional marriage. Donald Trump came into office in 2016 being pro -LGBTQ.
47:48: And so it was the conservative candidate, quote unquote, conservative, because really when it comes down to it, there's no conservative party anymore.
47:57: The Republican Party is not really conservative. They're just more conservative than the Democrats, but they're not conservative.
48:03: So it was the conservative candidate who was the very first one to enter office in favor of the pride movement.
48:10: As as pro -LGBTQ, maybe not as radical in the pride movement as the Democrat Party, but still in favor of gay marriage.
48:20: When I went to bed on Tuesday night, I stayed up through the election results up until the point that Trump gave his victory speech.
48:28: And then when the speech was over, I went to bed and I posted this online before I went to bed. I said, grieved and relieved.
48:36: Good night, friends. And I had some people posting to me I had no reason to be grieved.
48:43: And frankly, I just don't know how you can say that. When all the language that was in the
48:52: Republican platform in 2016 about valuing the sanctity of human life and upholding traditional marriage, all of that language was gone from the
49:05: Republican Party platform in 2024. I don't think there was a published platform in 2020 because we did not have a
49:15: Republican National Convention. Both the Democrat National Convention and the RNC were done kind of remotely.
49:22: We watched it on TV, but there was no audience that any of those speakers and presenters were talking to.
49:29: There wasn't a live audience because of COVID happening then in 2020. And so it was there was not a published.
49:37: They did not release a Republican National Convention platform. So the last one that we had published was in 2016 before the one that was published this year in 2024.
49:48: And let me just read to you a little bit of what was in that 2016
49:53: Republican National Convention platform. They were committed to, quote, traditional marriage and family based on marriage between one man and one woman, which they called, quote, the foundation for a free society.
50:09: It was the institution entrusted with rearing children and instilling cultural values, unquote.
50:16: And they also said this, quote, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed.
50:27: We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the 14th
50:33: Amendment's protections apply to children before birth, unquote. All of that language was in the
50:39: Republican Party platform in 2016 when Donald Trump won that year as the 45th president of the
50:46: United States. But all of that language was gone from the Republican Party platform in 2024.
50:54: It is no longer the value of the Republican Party to uphold life in the womb or to be committed to traditional marriage and family based on one man and one woman.
51:08: This Republican Party is further left than the
51:13: Democrats were in the 1990s. And my friends, that's nothing to be excited about.
51:21: I am relieved that the Democrat Party was defeated this week because they were way worse.
51:29: But do you realize what was given up to defeat them? Donald Trump is the leader of the, quote, unquote, conservative.
51:38: I have to put that in quotes because it's not conservative. He's the leader of the conservative movement now.
51:46: And what he's doing is where the rest of the movement is following. We have an opportunity here as Christians to use this victory to our advantage, to continue in those things that God instructs us to do in the word.
52:03: We have more of an opportunity to do that under a Trump administration than under a Kamala administration.
52:09: So in that sense, I am grateful to God for the little bit of grace that he certainly showed us this week.
52:17: As said in Ezra 9 8. But for a brief moment, favor has been shown by the
52:24: Lord our God. And so how are we going to use this moment? Are we going to squander it?
52:31: Or are we going to see really a revival happen in the church in America in which the word of God is valued, upheld, preached, the gospel is proclaimed, sin is called out.
52:42: And from the church, we have evangelists going out into America preaching the gospel of Christ, because no kind of revival is going to happen in America without the preaching of the gospel.
52:54: I do believe that more Christians should be involved in the political process. And I hope that certainly happens because in order to keep what we would hope to advance, there's going to have to be more
53:05: Christians involved. But it is not in the passing of laws that hearts are changed.
53:12: It is only through the preaching of the gospel, the work that the Holy Spirit will do in the life of a person who heard the gospel, who heard of their sin and need for a savior and turn to the
53:21: Lord Jesus Christ. That's where real heart change happens. And that's not going to happen in America without the preaching of the word.
53:28: And Donald Trump and his administration are not going to do it. They're going to continue to advance a more leftist agenda.
53:35: It has to be done through the church. That's to whom God gave his word, that we would be a pillar and a buttress of the truth, as said in first Timothy chapter three, we hold up the truth and we defend it from being maligned.
53:50: It is our duty to preach the word to be ready in season and out of season to reprove, rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching.
53:58: As Paul instructed, Timothy and second Timothy chapter four, for a time is coming, Paul went on to say.
54:04: In which people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will store up for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.
54:12: And one of those teachers, my friends is Donald Trump. And I'm very concerned at the number of Christians that will be selling themselves out to a
54:25: Trump agenda and compromising on biblical ethics in order to have what his administration will promise.
54:36: One of the things that I said last week, as I was sharing some thoughts going into the election, one of the things that I said was,
54:42: I believed that Donald Trump was going to win. I thought I was able to gauge the cultural narrative pretty good to see that he was going to win this week.
54:52: But I said that all of the abortion amendments, and there were 10 of them in 10 states, all of the abortion amendments were going to pass, that we're going to allow for the expansion of abortion in those states.
55:04: I'm thankful to say that on that end of things, I was wrong. Seven out of 10 of them passed.
55:11: But those that were stymied, all except for one, it was really, really close.
55:17: Let me lay out for you here, what the different amendments were in those respective states and where abortion rights have been expanded in many of those states.
55:28: So let me begin with my state, the state of Arizona, where we had Proposition 139. I preach against it in my church, encourage the members of my church to vote no on Proposition 139 and anybody else that would listen to any of my messages also.
55:43: I did not get a transcript of one of those messages that I did out online before the election, but I'm going to get that.
55:50: It's an expanded transcript because it's longer than what I actually preached. But I am going to get that online and with updated information now in light of these things that happened in the election, these states that passed these various abortion measures.
56:04: So in Arizona, Proposition 139 passed by a margin of 61 .7
56:11: % yes to 38 .3 % no.
56:18: Now, only at the time that that result was posted, only 60 % of the vote had been counted.
56:24: Arizona is actually not done with counting the vote. So we don't know who's won the Senate race.
56:29: At the time of this broadcast, we don't know who's won the Senate race and some of the various state
56:36: House and Senate seats. Also, we're still waiting the results for that. Arizona has a different way of tabulating.
56:43: There's nothing crooked going on here. It's just a different process of tabulating of counting ballots.
56:48: And it would be a lengthy explanation to give you an understanding of this. I was talking with one of the elders at my church who is more in tune with Arizona politics than I am since I've only been here for a year.
57:00: But anyway, nonetheless, Proposition 139 is going to pass with over 60 % of the vote.
57:06: That is a massive margin. Most of the state is pro -abortion, even though this would probably be considered a red state or a swing state, because I guess it went blue for Biden four years ago.
57:21: And yeah, and this time went for Donald Trump. So it's probably a swing state.
57:27: Might be a purple state. But nonetheless, greater than 60 % of the vote is pro -abortion.
57:35: Colorado, the state of Colorado. I'm a four -corner state, so let's go up to Colorado. They had
57:40: Amendment 79, and it passed with a similar margin. 61 % of the vote, yes.
57:47: And 39 % of the vote, no. Florida Amendment 4.
57:53: This was the one that was probably the biggest in the news. Amendment 4 failed.
57:59: Now, when I was talking about this last week, I was looking at Amendment 4.
58:05: I was looking at the numbers in Florida, and it was trending. 57 % were in favor of Amendment 4.
58:14: That would have expanded abortion in Florida. And so looking at that number, I was like, well, it's going to pass. There's no way they're getting that number down below 50 % in time for the election.
58:23: Even the margin of error, it's just not there. What I did not realize, though, when
58:28: I made that prediction last week, I did not realize that it needed 60 % of the vote. So even though 57 % voted in favor of Amendment 4, it didn't pass because they had to get over 60%.
58:41: In Arizona, it would have passed. In Colorado, it would have passed. But in Florida, there was enough of a conservative movement to keep it from passing.
58:49: And that is in thanks to Governor Ron DeSantis. He put his reputation on the line and opposed
58:57: Amendment 4. So he really, as governor of the state, he put himself out there against it and grateful to him for that because, therefore, the amendment didn't pass.
59:09: It's still grievous, though. It still grieves my heart to see that in the hearts of Floridians, greater than 57 % of them are in favor of abortion.
59:20: In Maryland, they had what was called Question 1, and it passed with nearly 75 % of the vote.
59:28: Of all of the abortion amendments that passed, Maryland is, without question, the one that got the most pro -abortion vote, 75%.
59:39: Three out of four people living in Maryland are in favor of the murder of unborn children.
59:46: Missouri had Amendment 3 narrowly passed, 51%, with 49 % opposed.
59:55: And Missouri is a red state. So interesting to see that Amendment 3 was still able to pass, even though it was a narrow passage, but the state largely in favor of pro -abortion causes.
01:00:08: In the state of Montana, they had Amendment 128, and it passed with a 57 % vote.
01:00:15: 57 % favor margin. 57 % yes, 43 % no.
01:00:22: In Nebraska, Proposition 439 failed.
01:00:28: The yes vote was 49%, the no vote was 51%. And so there you had a true majority that was opposed to abortion.
01:00:39: There were really only two states where you had a majority that were opposed to abortion, and that was in Nebraska. The other one was
01:00:46: South Dakota. Amendment G failed with 60 % of the vote opposed and 40 % in favor of it.
01:00:55: That's where you have the most pro -life margin, it seems like, South Dakota. And so these are the first two states in Nebraska and in South Dakota, and really by some measure of default,
01:01:06: Florida as well. So three states where these abortion amendments have not passed. There have been conservative states where abortion amendments have passed, like Kansas and Kentucky, for example, my former home state of Kansas, where a pro -abortion amendment passed several years ago.
01:01:26: Then we've got two other states to look at here. Nevada on Question 6 passed. That's probably no surprise.
01:01:33: 64 % yes, 36 % no. And then New York had Proposal 1, which passed with 62 % and only 38 % opposed.
01:01:45: Now, of course, New York, the state of New York already had enshrined into law an expansion of abortion rights, but that was done at the state level.
01:01:55: This was done at the voter level. But the voters have now since ruled on Proposal 1 that the abortion rights will remain in the state.
01:02:05: And frankly, Donald Trump's in favor of that. Through the justices, the
01:02:10: Supreme Court justices that he appointed to the Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade was struck down, and I'm thankful for that.
01:02:17: It punted it back to the states so that you could have states like South Dakota, Nebraska and Florida where the expansion of abortion rights could be opposed.
01:02:28: Praise God for that, that it's not on the federal level. This is being imposed upon everybody. But nonetheless,
01:02:34: Trump, though he punted it back to the states, he wants the allowance to be something like within 12 to 15 weeks.
01:02:42: You can have an abortion ban after 12 to 15 weeks, but anytime before that, abortion is permissible, according to the
01:02:51: Trump administration. It's certainly better than what Kamala was going to do.
01:02:56: So in that sense, like I said, I'm relieved and I'm grateful that God has shown grace to us in this time and place.
01:03:02: But let's not squander these moments. We still have a lot to do. And even though there are states in which these abortion measures have failed, the abortion measure itself was not going to change the hearts of the people anyway.
01:03:19: It would save lives. It would certainly have saved lives. But we still need to be out there with the gospel because that's where the real heart change is going to happen.
01:03:30: Abortion laws won't change hearts. It's the gospel that will change hearts. So we need to continue advancing the gospel of Christ.
01:03:38: We need to see the darkness and the depravity that is prevalent in our nation and need for a savior. God has allowed for this moment that we could use this time and this opportunity to be out there with the gospel.
01:03:50: And so let's do so. Let's not squander the moment. Let's use it to the best of our abilities that other people can come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and be saved.
01:03:59: If it be by the will of God, let it be that such a movement, such a love for God's word and his gospel overtakes
01:04:08: America. And we see repentance come into the hearts of this people and revival as people turn from their sin to the
01:04:16: Lord Jesus Christ before the day of judgment comes. Let me pray and as I close in prayer here,
01:04:25: I'm going to reference Ephesians chapter five in my prayer. So you'll hear the words of Ephesians five and what
01:04:31: I pray and you may join me in prayer if you so desire. Heavenly father, teach us to be imitators of you as your beloved children.
01:04:43: And may we walk in love as Christ has loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God.
01:04:54: Let sexual immorality and impurity and covetousness not even be named among us.
01:05:01: And when I say us, I mean your people, your church, may none of these things be named among us, though they are loved in the world and they are being advanced in the world.
01:05:13: Let it not happen in your church. Protect your church. May we be guarded from the schemes of Satan that he's doing in the midst of a crooked and depraved in generation.
01:05:22: Let us do what is proper among the saints. Let there not be any filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place.
01:05:31: But instead, may our hearts be filled with thanksgiving. We know that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous is an idolater and has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
01:05:47: So let us, your children, not be deceived with empty words, because we know that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
01:06:00: Therefore, let us not become partakers with them, for at one time we were darkness, but now we are the light of the
01:06:09: Lord. So teach us to walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true, according to your word.
01:06:23: Help us to discern what is pleasing to the Lord, taking no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead exposing them.
01:06:32: For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.
01:06:42: Therefore, it says, awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
01:06:52: Help us, Lord, to look carefully how we walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
01:07:05: May we not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
01:07:13: And it's in the name of Jesus Christ that we pray. Amen. So I have three questions.
01:07:30: Okay. We will get, um, well, we'll mention something about the election.
01:07:37: I'll probably save the politics for the second half hour so you don't have to hang out for that. Okay. And, uh, trying to think what else was in here.
01:07:46: We got to talk about the house. Okay. So the election's over.
01:07:52: Have you told your house is over? Yes. I talked to my dad today for about an hour. Oh, yay.
01:07:59: How are they doing? They're good. Mom and dad are good. Did they get to watch
01:08:04: Annie's play? No, I didn't even ask him about that. I did tell him about her sprained ankle, told him the house sold, you know, got up, got caught up on all of that.
01:08:15: Okay. We talked, most of it was politics. We were talking politics from us. Yeah. Sounds about right.
01:08:24: Are you ready? No. No, I didn't think so. I can't hear anything.
01:08:31: Oh, that better? Uh, yeah, that's much better. Thank you.
01:08:37: Is that high enough? Is that too high? It's a little high. Bring it down. Yeah. Right there. Check, check, check.
01:08:42: Check, check, check. Now, as long as you don't yell, we're good. I can't make any promises.
01:08:48: Oh, well, you are saving politics for later. All right.
01:08:56: Let me take a drink. We'll start. Hopefully my stomach won't be loud. I apologize.
01:09:05: Now that we're, now that we're nice and quiet, my stomach would like to, uh, imitate a whale call.
01:09:18: I sound more like, uh, the creature from The Thing. You do, yeah, that's, that's true. It's fair.