7,000 Have Not Bowed The Knee

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Good afternoon, everyone wanted to give a quick travel update to encourage your hearts. I've been going across the

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Midwest I've been in four different places three churches and then of course Nini's deli the last few days and I'm heading out to Oklahoma from southern,

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Indiana right now to go to some political events and you could pray for me because As we all know just because someone's politically conservative doesn't mean that they know the

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Lord Jesus Christ so I'm gonna be sharing the gospel and We'll see what happens but at the churches that I've been to so far

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I just want to encourage everyone because my heart's encouraged There are 7 ,000 who have not bowed the knee to bail

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There really are and they may be the kinds of people we don't hear from often. They don't have the platforms that many in elite

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Evangelicalism have but they are out there and there are many of them and they are concerned and I asked for a show of hands at the three different churches that I've been to for Conferences or just talking about the issue of social justice.

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I said if you have Had a strained relationship or you've lost friends or family members or you know

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I have a strained relationship with you because of the social justice movement raise your hand and it's been between about 75 and 90 percent of the audience's raise their hand and for me

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It's just so clear that this issue is affecting everyone across the country it's leaving no one hardly hardly anyone unaffected by it and I've heard of many church splits

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In fact two days ago I had a young man came to me just in tears because he had been following David Platt for Eight years or so and kind of had some bitterness

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I guess he said against the American Church for being complicit and all sorts of horrible things and just realized kind of that in the last year or six months or so that this was all a lie that David Platt was it was hypocritical that he had bought into something false and that And and now he's he he realizes it

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But he links of those eight years and it grieves him But he's now coming around and he's seeing he's seeing what true

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Christianity is and he's seeing he's loving the people around him the people That he actually lives with and that kind of thing.

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And so I as as hard as this is for some people It's bitter. We don't want to think that some of our leaders are this compromised or preaching a false gospel or hypocrites

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It's really I think people's eyes are really starting to be opened and They're seeing it and and the truth is going out there and it's rescuing people from enslavement to false ideas and in propaganda and Honestly things that prevent them or a barrier for them

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Actually loving the people around them the actual flesh and blood fellow brothers and sisters in Christ so This is something that I'm seeing happening all over the place and people are motivated

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They want to take a stand I from the three churches I've been to the leaders of these churches have basically told me look we do not care

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What kinds of names were called we don't care what? What kinds of consequences come our way?

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We are going to stand for the truth. We're gonna stand for Jesus Christ we're gonna stand for the gospel and we're gonna stand for Christian ethics and if We are called to compromise no matter who it is.

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They could be the leaders in denominations or Organizations that we might have even respected in the past.

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We will not bow to that We will only bow and bend to Jesus and the

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Word of God His divine revelation and so I'm encouraged by this. There's some real guts out there.

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There's some real bravery There's some real courage to stand and it doesn't exist in the elite circles and I can tell you that as someone who?

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Who has kind of dipped my toe in the proverbial? Lake and I've Seen what it's like in various Christian schools seminaries universities denominational life and Even now

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I still have relationships In very high places in some of these arenas and I can tell you that courage is

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Exceptionally rare and I'm saying like 98 % and I don't think I'm exaggerating there 98 % of the people that have the ability to do something in many of these arenas will not do it

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It's very rare to find that person who is willing to suffer personal deprivation and Do what's best for the people around them because they love the people around them and they they want the truth to be to be

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Out there. Most people are thinking about their jobs. They're thinking about their reputations They are trying to game the system somehow thinking that you know if they just do this this and this somehow it's going to come out, okay for them in the long run and and and Rather than just being simple about it and here's the truth and we're just gonna go with the truth come what may

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Very rare that you have that spirit and I know it's discouraging because many of you sense it You know that that's rare, you know that this whole winsome thing where everyone wants to be winsome

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Which is just a personality trait. That's all that is. It's not virtue. It's not actual internal character.

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It's just personality Everyone wants to do that as the chief moral good But no one wants to have courage and those are the kinds of things courage bravery willing willingness to suffer deprivation sacrificing oneself

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These are the kinds of things that we build monuments to men and women for because we recognize in them internal virtue

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And that's the kind of thing that we need more of now and it exists but it doesn't exist in the elite circles it exists

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In your small towns with flesh -and -blood people who are leading their congregations through this whole

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Movement and all the challenges that come with it and they're encouraging their people to take stands in their places of employment they're taking stands, you know in their communities wherever that may be and In regards to the whole situation right now in the medical field

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I've met several people across the country who are retiring because and not even the medical field other fields as well

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They're retiring. They're quitting their jobs they're getting fired because of the pressure to take this experimental medication and I see this in some ways.

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It's very connected to what happened last year We're just we keep new issues keep arising but the pressure that's exerted on people to violate their conscience and And in some ways in some cases to not just violate their conscience, but violate what they know to be true biblically

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It has been Insurmountable and there's no resources hardly any if any coming from evangelical elite denominations

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Conferences all you know the whole that whole complex whatever that evangelical industrial complex There's hardly anything you might be able to point to a few things here or there

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But there are small -town pastors who are just opening their Bibles. They're finding people online

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Who they can network with share information with? Listen to I you know, one thing

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I wanted to mention here as well Many people have been saying to me. Hey, John, I really appreciate you and a

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D that's an often a coupling that I get is we like what you say, we really like what ad

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Robla says as well and And sometimes they'll mention a few other people in there, you know, we like right response ministries we like you know,

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I don't know there there was there's there's a few that have been mentioned but There's people out there who are small -time pastors or they don't have these platforms that are putting information out

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They're thinking deeply about the situation confronting us opening their Bibles trying to sort out what actually is going on and what the right response will be to that and Their material is getting picked up and it's getting picked up by these small -town pastors and country pastors and maybe even in some urban areas pastors who

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Just care about the truth and they could care less about what man thinks about them And I'm just wanting to encourage you with this.

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They're out there They may feel like they're not in your community. I don't know where you live, but Look hard try to find them and if they're not there consider being that person yourself or moving to a place where that person does exist

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There's a lot of reshuffling of the deck people are moving to areas of the country where they know there's gonna be a solid pastor

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I I think that is completely appropriate Even if they don't know quite how they're gonna make a living

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They're just they are concerned for the spiritual well -being of their family and they're making the trek even if it's a couple thousand miles

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They're doing it. I Say that's completely worth it Being in a place where you are being spiritually fed and led is so important I can't underestimate.

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I can't I can't I can't tell you enough how important that is. I can't underplay that at all It is probably the most important thing other than just the relationship you have with your the

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Lord and your family is having a good relationship with a local church and Suffering through the church that isn't willing to take a stand is vague about everything wants to be just winsome

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Doesn't see clearly what's going on doesn't want to apply biblical solutions because they don't even really want to know ignorance is bliss

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Don't don't don't just don't toy around with it I've seen that there are pastors out there who are willing to be courageous and And seeing that motivates me even more to just tell you and encourage you

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Find those people and be those people and move if you have to do it That's my encouragement to you because they do exist and that's that's that's something that we can all take some heart in So hey,