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All right, well, let's get started for the week. I think it's gonna be a good week. You know, I know it's gonna be a good week. You know why I know it's gonna be a good week? Because this is the day that the Lord has made.
Let us rejoice and be glad in it. You know, this is the thing, guys. God is better to us than we deserve. We understand that, right? Like, he is more good to us than we deserve. I was just reading in Deuteronomy earlier this morning about God telling the Israelites to go and take the land that he promised them to possess it.
And God is very clear with them. It's like, it's not because of your righteousness that I'm giving you this land. Like, he's like, so don't get a big head and all that kind of stuff. Man, that just really humbles you so much because God blesses us and blesses us and blesses us.
And we're just, we're not, we don't deserve it, right? We don't deserve it, but we'll definitely take it. And so that's how I'm going into the day. You know, this, I know one thing for sure. God is gonna be better to me than what I deserve.
And so I'm grateful for that. I hope you're grateful for that as well. I had a good Sunday and, you know, was with the church. And we're gonna talk a little bit more about the importance of church and gathering for church and all that kind of stuff in just a minute.
But before I do, I wanted to give an update. In case any of you were wondering, we did a, a lot of you missed the video on Friday. I would recommend going to see it. It's called Greg Thompson, Duke Quan, and how I'm about to get paid, son.
Paid, I'm gonna get paid. But I don't know, because I checked my PayPal this morning and I didn't get the $10 ,000 that I requested, nay, demanded from Greg Thompson. Because Greg Thompson, he says that if you're a Christian, you can't defend yourself.
Like, like you don't have to exonerate yourself. You just have to meet the felt need. Well, I've got a felt need, Greg, and you owe me $10 ,000 or 5 ,000, depending on what you wanna do, $10 ,000 or $5 ,000.
You have, you have abused me. You have, what have you done? You've, you've oppressed, you've oppressed me. Greg Thompson has oppressed me. I'm Latinx. He owes me $10 ,000 and he wouldn't want to do the un-Christian thing and attempt to exonerate himself.
So I'm expecting that Greg Thompson will give me $10 ,000. I challenged him. He's gotta do it. I mean, he's gotta do it. Otherwise his whole project is null and void. But you know, we'll see what happens.
Because I think he's a man of his word. Greg Thompson will give me $10 ,000. And listen, what I choose to do with it, Greg, after that, that's up to me. You just owe me, you've oppressed me, Greg. You have oppressed me.
So give me $10 ,000. I don't have it yet, but then again, maybe he missed it. A lot of you guys missed my video on Friday. I'd recommend watching it. It's a very funny video and it's also very informative.
But anyway, just wanted to give you guys an update on that. If he does give me the $10 ,000, I will let you know that as well. And I'll have something very good to do with the $10 ,000. I'm not a greedy person.
I'm not gonna keep it all for myself. I'm gonna divest myself of some of it. But first, before I can do that, Greg's gotta divest himself of what he, without any doubt, owes me for the oppression that I've experienced at his hands.
10 ,000 smackaroos, right there. Put it in my hand or my PayPal or my Cash App or my Bitcoin wallet. If you prefer Bitcoin, I'll take Bitcoin. You know what, I'll give you a break, Greg. If you give me Bitcoin, I'll only charge you 7 ,000.
We'll call it even. We'll call it even at 7 ,000. So anyway, let's jump into it today. I had a tweet, not a tweet, I had a gab this morning. I don't tweet. What kind of a crazy person do you think I am?
I don't go on Twitter. Oh, did you guys hear about Trump? Trump's gonna have a social media platform called Trumper. That is so dumb. I'm so sorry. I think Trump is funny, but this is a stupid idea, in my opinion.
Trumper, you send trumps on Trumper. Somebody said you send trumpets on Trumper. I like that, trumpets, that's pretty good. Anyway, so I said on gab today, if I could smash Zoom in the church context into a million pieces, I would.
I would, if I could press a button and no one would be allowed to use Zoom for church ever again, I would press the button and I wouldn't even feel any sympathy about it. Now, you might be saying, AD, that's not fair because you've used Zoom for church and that's true, I have.
And you might say, AD, that's not fair. What about people who are sick and they can go to Zoom? And I understand all that. I would push the button and I'd smile doing it because here's the reality. If people are sick in your church and you're a pastor, we have a word from the Lord on how to care for those people, right?
We have a word from God about what to do with people in your church that are unable to come to the gathering, they're too sick to come. And guess what that word doesn't say? Remote access. It doesn't say anything about remote access because God understands the difference between Zoom videos and church.
He understands the difference between Zoom and the actual gathering of the saints, the actual gathering of the body of Christ. He understands the difference. And so we have a word from the Lord on what to do with people who are sick.
We should cancel Zoom for church. Guys, we need to get rid of it. It's no substitute and it's way too tempting for people to substitute church for a video screen. This is just what's happening, guys. And it's bad for your soul.
I spent church on Sunday at a local church. It's actually the local church that I would probably end up going to. We'll see what happens. But it just so happens that my pastor from the church that I go to in Vermont, it's an hour away, I traveled to go to this church.
That's not ideal, guys. I'm not in an ideal situation, I get it. I love my pastor, I love my congregation, but driving an hour to church is not ideal. So I'm doing it, but my pastor actually came from this local church right in my town.
And so he came to preach for this Sunday, so we decided to go to that local church. And it was great. It was a very blessed time. We got a lot of great conversations. There's friends there. There's young kids for my children and all that kind of stuff.
And now it's a Baptist church and I'm a Presbyterian, so that's not ideal, of course, but it's a good church. It was just so great to be there with the saints. Now, listen, this church has their masks on and stuff like that, a lot of them.
I didn't wear my mask for the majority of the service. I did have it with me just in case there was somebody that was uncomfortable. I'm okay with that, I'm not a zealot, right? I actually believe it's a matter of conscience, right?
I actually do believe that. And I'm not saying that, a lot of people say that, but it's a covert way of saying obey me, peasant. That's the thing, when you say something's a matter of Christian freedom, you can't then turn around and say, so therefore, you must wear the mask in order to be eligible for worship.
That's how a lot of people are using it low-key. They're like, it's not worth dividing over, so wear the mask. And it's like, dude, you don't understand that you can't do that, right? So if somebody's wearing a mask for me, I'm not gonna judge them for that.
I'm not gonna judge them. I understand the arguments against that. I get it, I get it. But nobody made a big deal of it, nobody did. So we sat with people that weren't wearing masks, and we had a great conversation with an older couple that actually knew of the church that we come from, and they had their masks on, but when they saw us without them, they took them off, and we had a normal human being conversation and all that kind of stuff.
It was great. And so it just was such a refreshing, pastor brought a great message, and it's just different, guys, like it's different. And actually, I had heard the message before, but actually, I heard it on Zoom.
I heard it on Zoom because my kids were sick, so I dialed into Zoom and we heard the message. And I'm just, I'm telling you guys, it's just very, very different to hear the same. And listen, you hypocrite, you use Zoom.
Yeah, that's true, I use Zoom because it was available to me. I wish it wasn't, I wish it wasn't. There you go, how do you like that? Anyway, so it's like, it's just different, man. Like I heard this message, and I see all my brothers in Christ around, they're hearing this message, exhorting them to pursue good works, exhorting them to rest in Christ's perfect righteousness.
And I see all my brothers and sisters there, and they're nodding their heads, and they're amening, and I know that it's hitting everyone exactly where it needs to hit them. And I know that we're all in the same boat.
Christ loves us, we're God's people. He loves us, he gives good things to us, even though we know all of us together, none of us are perfect, right? All of us have areas in our life where we're capitulating too much, where we're pursuing the things of this world too much, and we fight against it, and we're all there, we're all in this together, and we're all in it together in such a way that we're gonna help each other out too.
Maybe you're strong in this area where I'm weak, and we can come alongside each other, and we can work together to do this. And it's just, it's different than when you're getting it in a, you're alone, you're home alone, and you're watching a screen.
And the pastor's saying the same words, it's the same message, it's just different. It's different, guys, and God knows this. And we used to know this. Even John, John Lehman knows this. As last year, he's encouraging you to not be too brave, don't, coronavirus is very scary, we don't wanna use our cultural capital, but he knows, he knows full well that not gathering hurts you spiritually.
John Lehman, I know you have no reason to listen to me, none, and I know I've said a lot of nasty things about you, and I believe all of them, so I'm not apologizing for that at all, but John, let me speak to you, look inside and say, why did I do and recommend something to millions of people that I know would hurt them spiritually?
John, you need to take a good look in the mirror, this is a good article. It's not perfect, but it's very good. Not, it's called, not gathering with the church hurts you spiritually. Not gathering with the church hurts you spiritually.
John, why did you do something to your church and to other churches, encouraging them to do something that you know, without any doubt, hurts them spiritually? John, it's not right. It wasn't right then, and it's not right now.
John, you ought to apologize and change your mind on this. This article is not a changing of mind. This article is an acknowledgement that he knows what is right. He knows there's a difference between watching a video like you're doing right now and talking to me face to face.
He knows there's a difference, and I'm not saying there's anything spiritual happening here. This is just a, I'm just a YouTube commenter, right? A commentator, right? But like, the thing is, like, you know, and those of you who have met me know that it's just different.
It's different to be with me. It's different to talk to me and get the give and take and to see my body language, and it's just, you know me a little differently if you've met me in person than if we've only spoken via video.
And we haven't, a lot of us haven't spoken. This is a one-way kind of relationship for a lot of you, right? And there's nothing wrong with video. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with video, right?
That's not what I'm saying. But what I'm saying is, in the church context, in the gathering of the saints, where there is something spiritual happening, where there is commandments from God, like God hasn't commanded what to do in the case of a YouTube commentator.
Like, yeah, if you wanna watch a YouTuber only on YouTube, that's fine. If you wanna call him up or email him, that's fine. If you wanna have a face-to-face personal relationship with, that's fine too.
God hasn't spoken definitively on those things, right? We've got options in our everyday lives on how to communicate, but one thing he has spoken clearly on, clearly on, is the gathering of the saints, the local bodies, what is required there.
Like, what do you do there? What don't you do there? Like, there are clear words from God in the scripture about that. And there is no footnote that says, if there's a pandemic, well, you know, do what you wanna do.
It doesn't say that. And the thing is, Jonathan Leeman is still kind of giving, giving space for that. I wanna leave space for differing circumstances and consciousness. It's like, dude, there's no space for it.
We've got words from the Lord here. And it's like, oh, what if they're too sick? What if they, it also talks about that specific situation. What to do when they're sick. The elders go lay hands on the sick and pray for them.
Guys, it's not, why do we insist on overcomplicating this? Guys, everybody needs what I had yesterday. Everybody needs it. Every Christian needs what I had yesterday, a time of encouragement, a time of blessing.
God was just blessing the congregation through my pastor's sermon, through the congregational singing. Everyone was singing. Some of us knew the words, but we had like a little bit of an electrical glitch yesterday.
So like the words for the songs weren't available for everybody. But some people just knew the words and it was just amazing to listen to. And I'm just kind of humming to myself. I don't really know the words, but I'm hearing everybody else singing.
And it's just wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. My church in Vermont, my church has started to incorporate psalms weekly in our singing. And man, I just love that because you're getting this pure, unadulterated, biblical theology.
The Holy Spirit is speaking to us and through us as we sing the psalms of God. The songs he wrote for his church, we're singing them back to God. And it's like, that's just so amazing. We need it. We need it, guys.
And this article, this is not a bad article, by Jonathan Lehman. There's some things I'd want to quibble with, but I don't really, that's not what I do. I'm not trying to quibble with people here. You know what I mean?
There's a lot of things I can quibble with, but I don't. It's just the thing, like this is a good article. And so every pastor, God forbid if you're still closed, guys, open your church if you're still closed.
But if you are, like you need to change your mind on that. You need to recognize that you've sinned if you've encouraged people to do something in their church context that you know will hurt them spiritually.
You know, a lot of us did it, guys. And look, we can be forgiven for that. We can be forgiven for the sins of closing down our church's lot. My pastor did it, my church did it, and I supported it at the time.
God forbid that I would ever do such a thing ever again. Right? So we need to learn our lessons. This is not like an unforgivable sin, but we need to actually learn that lesson, guys, because Jonathan Lehman is exactly right.
Not gathering with the church hurts you spiritually. And likewise, elders who support it or encourage not gathering with the church or make it possible for people that they know are being tempted to sin by not gathering with the church, making it possible for them to continue to sin, need to take a good look in the mirror and reconsider.
And I'm not saying act unilaterally if you're in an elder-led church or a group-led church, but you need to start making that case where we need to start shutting this thing down because I know there are people that are being hurt spiritually by the fact that we give them this out to have Zoom church instead of real church.
We gotta remove that temptation from people, guys. We gotta remove that. We get it when it's like, okay, yeah, we shouldn't have girls with their cleavage all out and stuff like that. That's probably not appropriate for a church setting.
We understand it there. We understand the yoga pants. We understand we don't want guys wearing tight pants and show their junk and stuff like that. We understand that when it comes to dressing. Why are we allowing this temptation to remain for people who are not gathering with the church because they're terrified out of their mind of this disease that we understand now and we understand it's not the bubonic plague?
Sorry this has turned into a rant. I was so encouraged yesterday, but I want the same thing for you guys, man. And I talked to so many people that their church is still not meeting or still doing onerous things as far as masking or whatever.
Even some churches talking about passports for the vaccines and stuff like that. I've heard all kinds of stuff. I've heard all kinds of stuff. And it's just not something that's an option for us. Yes, we have an option if you're gonna talk to 80 Robles.
You have an option of just listening on YouTube. You have an option of texting me. You have all kinds of options in our everyday lives. But when it comes to what the church does and how the church gathers and what the church does when it gathers and all of those kinds of things.
What to do in cases of sickness and things like that. Like we actually have words from God on that. And so we dare not replace our Fauci inspired imaginations to what goes on in the church. We dare not do such a thing.
Guys, it can be forgiven. This is not the forgivable sin, but it's time to make the stand right now. I hope you found this video helpful. God bless.
