WWUTT 1230 Q&A Christians Responding, Attending Protests, Exorcisms Needed, Good Seminaries?

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Should we be attending these protests, or even the riots, and sharing the gospel? An unrelated question, are exorcisms still needed today?

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And what's better for growing your faith, a church or seminary? The answer is when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ, that in view of God's mercies, we may present ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

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Check out our website at www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you,

00:44

Becky. You're welcome. This is the Friday edition of the broadcast, and we take questions from the listeners. And this week

00:49

I want it to be actual questions. Well, you know, typicality.

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Last week we only got to one. We just get super chatty. I know. And we use clips. Whenever we use clips, we don't answer as many questions.

01:01

That's true. You know. I mean, as much as we try to be concise with the clips, it's still...

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It takes up more time. Yeah. It does. I'd still like to begin today with some scripture. Okay. So with everything that's going on,

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I've received questions on Facebook and on Twitter and on, oh, and on Parler.

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Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that we're on Parler too. Well, yeah, you are. You're on Parler. I'm on Parler.

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Is what on Parler? No, I didn't start a what account. It's just Pastor Gabe. And apparently this is according to Nate Pikowitz, but it's pronounced

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Par -lay. Par -lay. Not Par -ler. Well, it depends on where you're at. Which is ridiculous. Are you pirate?

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French, because I'm French. Or are you in your parlor? If it was in your parlor, it would be spelled

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P -A -R -L -O -R, but it's spelled P -A -R -L -E -R. So it's not a parlor.

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No. I was thinking it was a parlor and that's how you spelled it. You don't spell it like that? Hence, with the E -R, with the

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E -R, it's Par -lay, but I'm not saying that. We're on Parler. So you can look us up,

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Pastor Gabe, Parler .com slash Pastor Gabe. I haven't even looked how you find an account there. But this is a, it's a more conservative, more free social media site.

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Yeah. Free speech site. They won't put you in Twitter timeout or block you on Facebook.

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And the way that they do their censorship is they follow the same censorship rules that the

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FCC applies to like television and movies and things like that. Got it. Therefore, it's a more conservative site.

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It's a little more user friendly. It's going to be more friendly to conservatives and those who want free speech, not those who are on the conservative side of things that Twitter keeps shutting down.

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Right. I mean, there's horrible content on Twitter, but that stuff doesn't get all over.

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It's really, really bad. And Twitter just seems to be getting worse and worse. There's a few of my friends that are, they're saying that they're going to be pulling the plug on Twitter altogether and maybe going entirely over to Parler.

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Yeah. I haven't quite figured out Parler just because it's enough different from the other social medias that I'm still kind of trying to balance everything right now with the

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Facebook, the Twitter. I'm more private on Facebook though. Parler, I can't figure out how to be private, so I'm just, it's going to all be public, so I don't know.

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Well, on Parler, I've noticed that the interface on the phone is easier to use than the interface on the computer, but it's laid out a lot like Twitter.

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So if you like Twitter, you'll like Parler. Yeah. That's really kind of the way that. But more character spaces. More characters.

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Yes. A thousand characters. Yeah. Whereas Twitter is 280. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

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Parler is a thousand. So you can look us up on Parler. Anyway, so comments that I've been getting on Twitter, Parler, Facebook, and I guess that's it.

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I'm also on Instagram, but I haven't even checked my Instagram in a few weeks. And emails. And emails.

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Yes. What are some things as Christians that we can be doing presently? I'll even get some comments from folks saying,

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I live in a town where the kind of stuff that's going on right now, Black Lives Matter, the riots, the protests, the kneeling and asking for forgiveness, on and on it goes.

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This kind of thing is not affecting us in our community. But is there something that I can be doing? Yeah, there's something that you can be doing.

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You can come to Romans chapter 12 and follow these instructions for believers.

04:43

Awesome. So let's begin by looking at Romans chapter 12. And I'm going to begin reading in verse nine here.

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I'm going to read the first through 13. So about the first four or five verses here.

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Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil. Hold fast to what is good.

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Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

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Do not be slothful in zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the

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Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer.

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Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. What we're reading here is the way a

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Christian should respond to anything that happens in the world. Whether you're talking about the kind of chaos that is occurring right now and you see it being widespread throughout the

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Western world, not just the United States, but we're seeing videos come in from Great Britain and Canada. It's everywhere.

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Not just these things that are happening now, but even if something personally tragic happens in your life or a certain disruption happens in your community that doesn't affect most other people, or maybe something that is happening in your church.

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How should we as Christians react? We respond this way. And we need to be a thinking people, especially as it says here, to be patient in tribulation.

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Because what we see in the scriptures regarding those who are foolish, not acting in wisdom, but acting in foolishness, they're responding to stimuli.

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They're just flying off the handle, or they're just dull and they don't react to it at all. This is what scripture says of a foolish response.

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Either reacting outrageously or feeling no sympathy toward anything that happens at all.

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Either one of those would be the foolish responses. Our kids have been going through the

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Proverbs series that Paul Washer has been doing on YouTube. And this was

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Becky's idea. She decided, hey, these would be great devotionals for the kids. So he does about a 20 -minute lesson.

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It's about the same length as the Bible studies that I do daily on the broadcast. So the kids have been going -

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Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Right. It's not every day of the week, but three days a week. So the kids have been doing

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Proverbs. They've been in chapter one. And I watched a couple of them this past week with the kids.

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There was one in particular with Paul Washer in Proverbs 1, where he talked about this very thing.

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And I'm going to go ahead and play the clip from Paul Washer. So here he's talking about what

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Proverbs chapter one says. And he's going to begin here reading verse 22 and how the foolish man responds and how we as Christians need to be a thinking people, seeking the knowledge of God and the wisdom of God.

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But in 22, how long, O naive ones, will you love being simple -minded, and scoffers delight themselves in scoffing, and fools hate knowledge.

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Now fool here, the idea is that of a non thinker. You know,

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I used to do a little bit of scuba diving. I used to, I really loved that basic and open water scuba diver and all that.

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And there were these plants, I forget what they were called. I think they were plants, something. They were alive.

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And I remember a dive instructor taking me down and he said, before we went down, he said,

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I'm going to show you something that is so fast you won't be able to believe it. And it was this little thing,

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I don't know what it was, but it was a creature or a plant or whatever. And you could stretch forth your finger and you could touch it.

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And not only did it move, it moved so fast that it literally disappeared before your eyes.

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Now it did not have a complex brain system, I can tell you that.

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It was stimuli response. You touch it, it moved, and I mean it moved quick.

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That's kind of this type of person. Not necessarily does he have much of a brain, or is not using his brain very much.

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He's just stimuli response. You say something that sets him off, and he's not going to think.

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He is just going to scream. And that's what a fool is. And we see that, don't we?

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I mean, there are certain things that we could say, I mean, I could stand up in university and say, you know, I don't believe in macroevolution, that species change from one species to another.

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I don't believe that at all. I believe that man was created by God and there was a literal

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Adam and Eve. I mean, the moment I say that, a war is going to break out.

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I mean, everything from laughter to cussing to everything else. It's not because of thinking, it's stimuli response.

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That's what a fool is, a non -thinker. Another way of looking at it is an insensitive dullard.

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That's kind of an old word, but someone who's just dull. I mean, it's like, you know, you'll see sometimes, you know, my wife will do this sometimes when she's talking to the children and they're not listening and she'll go bing, bing, bing.

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It's like it's not going into your head. You see that. And we don't be that.

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We don't want to be that way, but we can become that way. That's why we need to study primarily the scriptures and be open for instruction.

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I think you can relate to that last part, giving instructions to the kids and it's just not going in. Oh, yeah.

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It's just bouncing off of their heads. Yeah. They have that like antique look in their eyes.

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Yeah. Right. They have no idea what you're saying. Yeah. But this is what we see happening in the world right now is people reacting to a stimuli response.

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They're not thinkers and they're not even being trained to be thinkers. The public school system has not been educating our children to think, they're just being educated to react, especially with the multimedia or social media, computer technological stuff that's in front of our faces all the time.

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And you see this video and you're reacting to that tweet and you're responding to this picture on Instagram.

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And it's just one thing after the next. And you're just scrolling through and reacting to things as they're put in front of your face.

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Yeah. Maybe they still do this online. I don't know. But the hot or not, where you would scroll through pictures and you would click it was either hot.

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Oh, I don't know if they do that or not. Click another picture or not. Yeah. I remember that. I don't know if that was. I think they were. I think that was a thing in college.

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It was even before Facebook. Yeah. You could just participate on hot or not. Anyway, it's like we're still doing that.

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We're still scrolling through one thing after the next and reacting to it. I like this.

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I don't like that. Yeah. And the stuff that's happening right now is a response to a video that played online and everybody is losing their minds, taking a position and having this opinion and that opinion.

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And it's being spun off into these movements that may be or may not be related.

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It's just people taking advantage of a situation. Yeah. And so we have nothing but this chain reaction of stimuli response.

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And this, as Christians, is not the way that we're supposed to be. We must be patient in tribulation, constant in prayer.

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And even considering how, verse 13 again, Romans 12, 13, how we can contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

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Seeking to show hospitality means we actually go look for ways that we can show kindness and generosity to each other.

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Yeah. Not just wait for something to come up and go, okay, well. Well, as soon as the opportunity arises,

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I'm going to act on it. Exactly. We should be. How often does that happen and you don't act?

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And you make an excuse as to why you can't act at this time. Maybe next time. Right.

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Yeah. Then the opportunity comes up and you don't do it. Right. And you have a reason why you didn't do it.

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So we need to seek the ways that we can show the love of Christ to one another. Verse 14.

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Bless those. I'm going to keep going here. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them.

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That's not the way of our culture. Oh, no. That is very countercultural to be that way. Rejoice with those who rejoice.

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Weep with those who weep. Now, that verse I've seen taken out of context a lot lately with people saying all we need to be doing right now is rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping with those who weep.

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Yeah. Or they'll just say, they'll just do the weep part, weeping with those who weep. But not teaching bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them.

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Live in harmony with one another. Verse 16. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.

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In other words, be friends with people who cannot give you anything in return.

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You could not benefit personally by being friends with this group of people.

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That's what it means to associate with the lowly. You're not just looking for people in your clique. You're not just looking for people who can prosper you or profit you or something like that.

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You are associating even with those who could not benefit you. You would receive nothing in return from them.

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You have nothing to gain from your friendship with them. Although there is something gained. There is unity and maturity in the body of Christ.

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Yeah. Growing in character. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought.

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There we go. That instruction to be a thinker. Give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

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If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with everyone, beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God for it is written, vengeance is mine.

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I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary. If your enemy is hungry, feed him.

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If he is thirsty, give him something to drink for by so doing, you will heat burning coals on his head.

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Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. So here are the instructions that we are told to follow and we do so in light of the mercies of God.

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As Becky had quoted, starting the program off from Romans 12 one, I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, which is your spiritual worship.

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Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind so that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

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And this is in light of the mercies of God, which of course the mercies of God are the gifts that we receive by faith in our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Justification, forgiveness of our sins, the promise of eternal life, the hope of glory, the sanctification that we are in being transformed and growing in holiness and maturing and being made more like Christ.

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All of these blessings and these benefits that we get from faith in Jesus in view of these things, this is how we should be.

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So maybe in understanding how you should be responding to what's going on in the world, take a good big helping of Romans chapter 12 first and read about what we are called to as Christians in Christ in the way that we should live.

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So let's get to some of these questions here. And once again, the email address when we understand the text all spelled out, all one word at gmail .com.

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This first one is from Timothy in Florida. Hey, Pastor Gabe, thank you, brother, for your ministry.

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I'm learning and so thankful for you sticking with scripture even during this time of racial tension and just all the other craziness that's going on.

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Many blessings to you and to your family. Thank you for the encouraging word. This next one has to do with the riots and stuff that's going on and the person asked that I keep them anonymous.

17:35

Dear Pastor Gabe and Becky, thank you for your ministry. Your faithfulness to God's word and your solid tweets.

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I'm glad in the midst of all the crazy craziness on Twitter that my tweets have been a blessing to you as well.

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I live in Southern California where there has been a lot of protests and rioting. One of my friends asked me if I wanted to go down to a scheduled protest to pray over people and offer hugs.

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I think there is a more effective and biblical way to preach the gospel than that. But I have been thinking about going.

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Not that I have made a decision yet, but it has caused me to think about our role as Christians during mass protests and lawlessness.

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Not necessarily the same thing. God is the only one who can and does change hearts and ultimately save people from God's justice in the end.

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Is it okay or should ambassadors of Jesus be going to these protests and preaching repentance to the people there?

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How can believers be actively engaging the lost with the gospel and not just on social media during this time?

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Some things to consider. And then he has a list here. Police have been working overtime and are tired and frustrated.

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The physical danger of potential riots and or anarchists intermixed with the crowd being perceived as supporting potential riots and lawlessness and therefore as part of the problem rather than the solution.

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We are still under lockdown, even though the government is very inconsistent with its application of the lockdown.

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That's an understatement. I would love to know what you think. Grace and peace.

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So first of all, going back up here, would it be okay for you to go to a protest and be sharing the gospel?

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If you're sure that the protest that you're going to is not going to break out in a riot, then sure, it would be fine.

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But if you're there at the protest sharing the gospel and it does turn into a riot, get out of there fast.

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No joke. I don't think that a Christian has any responsibility to be in that environment attempting to preach the gospel to people who are acting like wild animals.

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Wouldn't that be throwing your pearls before swine? Yeah, exactly. So Jesus says in Matthew 7, 6, do not cast your pearls before swine for they're just going to trample on them and then turn and attack you.

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So by the command of Christ, we know that this group, this mob acting fanatically is not going to listen to what it is that you have to say.

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They're wanton lawbreakers. They are thieves, they are destructive, they are sinful, and they will face the judgment of God.

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And they're a huge mob. Yeah. Yeah. And they're violent. People have died. Yeah.

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There are people who have gotten away with this kind of violence and won't get caught because people are running around with face masks.

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And everybody's all right with that because of the COVID -19 pandemic. I know. I know it all seems like all of this stuff has been orchestrated.

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But whether or not you believe in such conspiracies, the fact is that Satan has definitely worked his way to bring these things about into the chaotic manner that they are in.

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So if anything ever starts to get that radical, the people are not going to listen to you.

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Don't stick around trying to preach the gospel. If you're just hanging out there and police do show up and start making arrests, you could be arrested and wrongly accused, even though you were only there to maybe try to calm people down and keep things from getting worse.

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Yeah. Nothing's going to calm them down, especially a couple of people out there attempting to share the gospel.

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So stay away from anybody that's rioting and looting. If you get some of those people, and I know this is the case, this has to be something that occurs in these places where there's rioting and looting.

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You're going to have an instance where the next day or the day after that, somebody that's participated in some sort of mob riot is going to have an attack of conscience and they're going to be thinking about what they did and they are reflecting upon themselves.

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I don't think this was right and it's not going to accomplish the thing that we wanted to accomplish unless what we were trying to accomplish was just random chaos.

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Right. And when you encounter a person like that who's beginning to question the meaning and the purpose of all of this, then you have an opportunity with a person's attack of conscience to give them the law, you've broken the law of God, and then to resolve that with the gospel.

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Now I saw a clip from Todd Friel recently that was really, really good. He was sharing... When are they not good?

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Sure. But he was sharing the law with a young man and he was agreeing with Todd that he was a sinner and if he were to stand in front of God today for judgment, he would probably go to hell.

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But Todd did not give him the gospel there. And when he broke away from the clip, he said, now why did

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I not give him the gospel? And Todd said, because in that situation, what was best for that young man, and he could assess the situation better than I could, you know, watching the video clip.

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Right. But he said, in that situation, what was best for that young man was to think about what it was that I said, until he actually came to a conviction of his sin.

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Because he was giving the right answers when Todd was asking the questions. But was he truly sorry and repentant?

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Yeah. He was giving the right answers, but was it really getting into his heart? Right. And so you give...

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And there's a difference. Yeah, definitely. There's a difference between, oh, I'm sorry, and, oh, I'm really sorry, you know?

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And more than just acting. You certainly don't want to give a person the impression that if I just say these words...

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Right. Oh, my goodness. No. Because that's the whole problem with the altar call and the repeat -after -me prayer.

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It's like you're reciting a magic incantation. If I just say these words, boom, I'm automatically getting into heaven.

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And God has to let me in because I prayed the prayer. Well, I'm saved. I was baptized, like, 15 years ago, and I mean, who needs to go to church?

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Right. Yeah. Like, that doesn't save you. So, Todd, in this situation, knowing what this young man needed was to hear how he was guilty and to think about that until he felt guilty.

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Right. Until he understood his own guilt before God, and then he would be ready to hear the gospel.

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And when you're attempting to minister to those persons who are beginning to question some of these things, is this right?

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There's got to be more to life than this, you know, maybe even asking something that philosophical. Right. That's where you will have the opportunity to share with a person what you have done is sin, and you will be judged for it.

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But if you feel guilty over this, Christ is a savior, and let me introduce you to him.

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And then take him through the gospel, through the scriptures, understanding that Christ has died on the cross for our sins, risen again from the dead.

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Whoever is in Christ is a new creation. Yeah. The old is passed away, and the new has come.

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So, turn from your sin and sin no more, and walk in the righteousness of Christ.

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But by faith in him, you're clothed in his righteousness, and the guilt that you have before God is atoned for in the precious blood of Christ.

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This is where you're going to have the opportunity to share the gospel with some of these individuals. Out at the riot or out at the protest may not be all that effective.

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Now, I'm not going to discourage you from going to a protest and handing out tracts, or maybe you want to stand and read the word of God.

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That would be perfectly fine. But the people are out there. Hugs might be a little awkward during COVID. Yeah, don't do that. Yeah. Yeah.

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And there's going to be some people that would not be friendly to that. So, if you're going to offend people, offend them with the gospel.

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Yes. Not because you want to give them a hug. Let me phrase that a little bit better.

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Let God offend them with the gospel. There you go. Don't be a jerk about, you know, the way that you've proclaimed the gospel to them.

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And in wisdom, talk to some other people. Don't go by yourself. I think it would be wise to go with somebody else.

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Talk to your pastor. Ask him to pray for you. Ask for any counsel or guidance that he might give you.

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But make him aware. Make somebody else aware of what you and a friend are doing. So that if something does happen, now you've got somebody that would be able to vouch for you and be able to say, no, they told me they were going down to this protest and they said they were going to share the gospel.

26:25

And then it just turned into a riot. But these guys, they weren't part of that. They were trying to do something else.

26:30

Right. That would be a good safety. It's always a good idea to have somebody who is aware of what it is that you're going to go do.

26:39

Even if you're just heading down to the park to hand out tracts. See, I think about that guy who was off the coast of that tribe that hasn't had any interaction.

26:50

Oh, yeah. I know. Yeah. And he didn't have, I mean, he wasn't associated with anybody, but he was supposedly there to share the gospel and then he ended up dying.

26:59

Yeah. He was killed by that tribe. Yeah. So there was a little island with a tribe that was very isolated from the rest of the world and many other missionaries had tried to go to that people and not been able to communicate with them.

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And so this young man was doing it by himself. He was just doing it. And it really was unwise.

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And anyway, a lot of people have kind of shared their opinion. Not to bring that up. Yeah. Right. But just saying that, I mean, if you have to have an example as to why you need that safety net, that's a prime example.

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Have that safety net. Have somebody knowing what you're doing and where you're doing it. And hold you accountable.

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Yes. You know, make sure that you don't get into a bickering session while you're there because things can get heated very easily.

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Absolutely. Don't quarrel. Don't quarrel. Yeah. You're just there to convict others of sin and bring them the gospel of Christ if they will listen to it.

27:55

So as Anonymous goes on here and mentioned some things to consider, police have been working overtime and are tired and frustrated.

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Don't forget to share the gospel with police. I know that they need to kind of pay attention to what's going on.

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So you don't want to be distracting. Yeah. But they need prayer, too. Man, I just I hate hearing from people saying, don't pray for police officers.

28:16

We're not praying for police officers right now. We're praying for Black Lives Matter. People say that.

28:21

Oh, yeah. I'm in a hole over here. I listened to Judah Smith say it in a clip from him just I think it was last week.

28:29

So he was. Who's he? Oh, yeah. He's the pastor of that church.

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Oh, oh, OK. Remember, I've made fun of the church name. Yeah. And it was through his church thing that he was delivering some sort of message about Black Lives Matter.

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I've got the clip. I've got it recorded. I'll probably. Yeah. Let me play play it for you right here.

28:52

There you go. All right. You asked. So here we go. I did not ask. For Caucasian Christians in this country, history proves it true.

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To insist that all lives matter, to insist that though a people group has every right to protest 400 years of oppression, we would like to add that we should also pray for business owners and police officers.

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We don't need to say that anymore, my brothers and sisters. We don't need to say that anymore.

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For where there is pain, Jesus is there the most. So I'll say it again.

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All lives do not matter until black lives matter. It's not complicated.

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Just think about the absurd logic in that. That is absurd.

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Where is that biblically? Don't pray for anyone else and you can't care about anyone else's life until black lives matter.

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That is ridiculous. And I'm sorry I triggered everybody with that clip, but Becky in particular,

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I think I took the wind right out of your sails. I am fuming. What did we just read in Romans chapter 12?

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It doesn't reflect what Judah Smith was teaching at all. Bless those who persecute you.

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Bless and do not curse them. So even if you could say, I don't believe it's real, but even if you could say that America's police radically oppress

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African -Americans, the statistics don't support it, but let's say that that cultural narrative that's going on right now is true.

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Biblically, you should still be blessing them and do not curse them. And Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 that you are to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

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So here you have a pastor who is encouraging people to do the opposite of what

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Jesus said toward those whom they believe are persecuting them, even though that's not the reality.

31:24

That's absolutely nonsense. And this is coming from the biggest pulpits in America.

31:31

Judah Smith is not the only one. I heard, oh, what's that guy at Hillsong? I don't know.

31:39

Hillsong, New York. He's the one that with Oprah had denied that Jesus was the way, the truth and the life.

31:46

I can't remember his name now. Anyway, it's escaping me. I've mentioned it before, but somehow his name isn't coming to me at the present.

31:52

Oh, you've got it. Hang on. It's coming up. Carl Lentz. Carl Lentz. Yep, it's him.

31:57

Yep. He's the guy. So he said it to Google it just so you know. He's he's talked about it also.

32:04

And I've heard it from guys even within the Southern Baptist Convention about the importance of black lives matter. Don't say all lives matter because we all believe all lives matter.

32:12

But right now, black lives matter. This is this is a ridiculous narrative that's going. It's dominating absolutely everything.

32:19

And you're saying we can't focus on anything else, not even cops who lose their lives or business owners who lose their business in this senseless rioting and looting until we get this right, even though you can't even you can't tell us what the end game is.

32:37

When do we get to the point where black lives matter? Like, like, where does that end? It doesn't.

32:42

No, there's no conclusion to this. There's no grace in this. There's no forgiveness in this.

32:48

No, there. What are the sins that we're asking to be forgiven of?

32:54

They're all based on assumption. They're not based on fact. They're not sins that I've committed. I'm not going to apologize for sins that I haven't done.

33:01

We are cheapening grace and we are cheapening a right understanding of homardiology, which is the study of sin.

33:10

We are weakening these things so that no one really has a true understanding of your sins and your responsibility to what you have done.

33:20

I mean, are they coming out with this like from the perspective like Christians mainly, are they coming at this from the perspective of, you know, because Adam sinned, everybody of his seed has sinned, you know, is born a sinner.

33:37

So therefore we do have to pay reparations for ancestors.

33:45

I mean, if that's a case, we might as well ask for forgiveness for all of our sins. Everybody should be asking for forgiveness for all of our sins.

33:53

Clear back to Adam. Well, Ezekiel chapter 18 says that if your father had committed iniquity, but you don't repeat the sins of your father, you don't pay the sins of your father.

34:04

There you go, people. That's where, that's where you can go and find that passage. Ezekiel chapter 18.

34:10

There you go. I did a what video on reparations where I talked about that. So if you look up, if you go to YouTube and you type in WW UTT and then the name of any topic, you'll find the video on that.

34:21

But, uh, reparations would be the one that you are looking for in particular, and it will give you those passages of scripture.

34:28

Uh, in fact, uh, Hey, I'll just go ahead and play it right now. Are reparations biblical?

34:37

Absolutely. To pay reparations means to make amends for a wrong that was done. Another word for this is restitution and the law required the person responsible to restore more than what was lost.

34:48

For example, in Exodus 22, it says, if a man steals an ox or a sheep and kills or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep in Leviticus six, an offender had to repay what was lost plus extra, plus take a sacrifice to the priest to atone for sins.

35:05

In Luke 19, Jesus went to the house of a tax collector named Zacchaeus, who said the half of my goods

35:11

I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.

35:16

And Jesus said today, salvation has come to this house in view of Christ. Zacchaeus made reparations, but how about reparations for slavery in Deuteronomy 15, it says when a master freed his slave, he was supposed to load him up.

35:31

But anyone who was not a slave is not entitled to compensation. And anyone who did not own slaves is not required to make restitution.

35:37

In Ezekiel 18, the Lord said that if a man fathers a son who sees the sins of his father and does not do likewise, he shall not bear the penalty for his father's iniquity.

35:47

The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself and the wickedness of the wicked upon himself. All have sinned against God and owe a debt so great we could not pay it.

35:57

But by faith in Jesus, we are forgiven our debts. So we must forgive our debtors when we understand the text.

36:05

That video was real scripture heavy too. There was more scripture on the screen than there was in the voiceover that you heard.

36:12

So you may want to watch that video and pause it in select places to do a little bit more study in those scriptures.

36:18

Unfortunately, very many pulpits in our country right now are not faithful to the scriptures.

36:24

We're reacting according to emotions and not stopping to think, not listening to what the word of God has to say, basing things off of assumption rather than speaking the truth in love.

36:39

Ephesians chapter four, I saw one guy that was really praising of a sermon that was shared on CNN with Anderson Cooper.

36:48

I can't remember the name of the black preacher that was preaching with Anderson Cooper. It was about a 10 minute clip that I watched.

36:54

They were like, this is like the best gospel that I've heard in a long time. I watched it. There was no gospel there at all.

37:01

Christ, I don't even think Christ's name was even mentioned. Wow. So there was nothing about Christ dying on the cross for our sins.

37:08

By faith, you are forgiven. You must repent. See, that's where I'm wondering, do people really fill in all those blanks or do they really think that is the gospel?

37:20

They think that doing these good works is the gospel. Wow. OK, this is very, very common to be preaching.

37:28

It's the social gospel. We've been warning about the social gospel before the social justice stuff started jumping into the social gospel lanes.

37:40

And I could name pastors, but because I don't have clips to back this up, I'm not going to do that at the present.

37:45

But there are other pastors who have said there are times when you just need to do these works.

37:51

Just do this. Just do this. Just do this. And don't try to share the gospel with them.

37:57

Yes, because because that's not needed in this moment. So the gospel is not healing enough for them.

38:05

We have to do these works and these works. And this is just a gospel of works. It's a social gospel.

38:11

All you need to do is love and charity for people. And that's sharing the love of Christ, not preaching the gospel to them, which actually saves their soul.

38:19

And as I've shared this with my congregation and told them to avoid this kind of thinking and this kind of mentality,

38:25

I've said, all you're doing, if all you're going to do is do charity for people, but you're not going to share the gospel with them, you're just giving them a comfortable seat on their way to hell.

38:34

That's all you're doing. Now, it's not that you need to sit there and bash them over the head with it until they get it.

38:40

No, but you need to try. The word of God is what saves. That's right.

38:46

Faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10, 17. Yes. And as it also says in Romans 10, how will they know unless they are told?

38:55

Yes. And how are they told unless we send somebody to preach it to them? So churches need to have these kinds of outreaches.

39:02

I think it is great to go out into the community and help the poor and help the needy. I think that's a great ministry for a church to have.

39:10

But the gospel needs to go with you. Yes. And be said. Yeah, that's right. It's not just doing good things for the sake of doing good things.

39:18

It's to have a door to be able to open to somebody that they may walk in and want to hear the gospel shared.

39:26

Let's see. That was that was in relation to police have been working overtime, tired and frustrated. A little bit of a rabbit hole, but you know, it all it all kind of comes together.

39:36

Maybe something that you can do. And this has been done in our community. We've done this before. But you get together a little bag with some goodies in it, maybe a bottle of Gatorade, some snacks.

39:45

And we call them Leo bags because they're for our law enforcement officers. But we've done this for EMTs and fire department as well.

39:52

Yeah. But you just get a little bag of some stuff together and put some tracks in there. You know, a good thing, a good little book to add to that little baggie would be

40:01

The Man Who Split Time. Oh, yeah, that's a great book by Todd Freel and Phil Johnson. And it's skinny enough that it'll fit right.

40:08

That's right. A little bitty booklet that you can drop in the bag. And it gives you 22 proofs of why

40:13

Jesus Christ is the Messiah. And it's a great little book. We read it as a family.

40:19

That's something that you can use maybe as a tract. The kids loved it, too. Yeah, they did, too. They enjoyed it a lot.

40:25

We would do suppertime and the kids would say, OK, daddy, read another. Yep. Another little thing out of out of The Man Who Split Time.

40:34

So, yeah, the rest of these, let's see, being perceived as supporting potential riots. We're still under lockdown.

40:40

Right. I mean, you need to be smart. And that was where the backup came in. Right. Yeah. Talking with a pastor and making sure that he knows that you're going out and doing that.

40:48

Yes. Anyway, I hope that provides also keeping you accountable for not losing your temper. That's right.

40:55

Because, you know, they're going to try to push buttons. So, yeah, have somebody that you are accountable to. Definitely.

41:01

This next question, this comes from Jeff. Hello, Pastor Gabe and Sister Becky. Praise God for this ministry and to your lives.

41:08

I'm Jeff from the Philippines. And this is my question. Hey, from the Philippines. Awesome. With regards to the gifts of the

41:15

Holy Spirit, specifically in casting out demons. Is it being practiced these days?

41:21

If so, is it in the manner of supplication, asking God to remove the evil spirit or in a manner of declaration, declaring our authority through Christ over the evil spirit?

41:34

My wife and I enjoy listening to your podcast, especially the Q &A. We are newly married and are very blessed by your involvement in the ministry as husband and wife.

41:45

Oh, God bless your ministry. And may each reach more across the world.

41:51

May each reach more across the world. Yeah. May each episode. Maybe that's what he meant to throw in there.

41:57

Congratulations. Yes. On being married. Yes. On the newlyweds.

42:03

You were thinking about that. I was I was just reading an email. Let me share a story with you here.

42:10

OK, so the question is, are there still demonic possessions? Are evil spirits still being cast out?

42:16

I'm going to answer this question by saying yes, that there are still evil spirits affecting people and they can be exercised, so to speak.

42:27

But understand what I mean by that. Not like in the Catholic sense of like the movies.

42:33

Yeah, not like a priest coming in with a crucifix and holy water and doing some sort of an exorcism on a person in the demon gets cast out.

42:41

OK, let me share this story with you. And I've shared this before. I know that I preached it in a sermon and you can find the video on our church

42:49

YouTube channel. There was a young man that came in the church once and he said, I need to talk to somebody about doing an exorcism.

42:58

And I believe he came and talked to Vicki first, our secretary at the time. And Vicki was like, well, you need to talk to Gabe.

43:05

And and so he he said, I've visited several other churches in town and asked about doing an exorcism.

43:13

And I even went to the Catholic Church and they told me they didn't do that anymore. I would imagine maybe because of lawsuits or something.

43:22

He said, would you be able to do an exorcism? And I told him, I've never done one before. But let me ask you first why you think you would need an exorcist.

43:31

And he said that he had these two friends and the girl was actually somebody that he used to date.

43:37

But now she was with another guy and they were living together. But he remained good friends with her and they were all friends together.

43:45

And some things began to start happening in her life. She began to start getting depressed.

43:51

But then this depression even turned into suicidal thoughts. But she didn't know why. She didn't understand what reason she had to be depressed, but she still couldn't shake it.

44:00

There was nothing that she could do. And furthermore, she even felt like there was a presence in the room. And no matter what this guy and her boyfriend would do to show her that there's nobody there, there's no one outside peeking in the windows, nothing like that.

44:12

She still couldn't shake the feeling. Somebody's in the room and something's haunting me. And she felt like there was somebody else in the bed with them at night when they were going to sleep.

44:21

They even went to a shrink who even prescribed her a medication. But he said, even though he said that the medication worked at first, but over time it actually got worse.

44:32

She started to relapse back into it again and had to quit the medication because it was making her feel worse than she was before she started taking it.

44:40

And so this young man said, I grew up in church. I haven't been to church in a long time, but I remember things about Jesus casting out demons.

44:50

And I remember hearing stories of friends of mine who said that they cast out demons. And I went to my friends and I said to them, do you want to accept the possibility that what's happening to you may be a demonic possession and you might need to do an exorcism?

45:05

Because if you want to do that, I can go try to find somebody for you who would be willing to do that. And they both said, yeah.

45:11

And and he said, I've gone to all these other churches. Nobody wanted to help me out. Some people even thought

45:17

I was crazy. Do you believe my story? And I told him, I have no reason not to believe you.

45:24

I said to him, we can go to the house. I can pray over her. We can anoint her with oil if you want, as it says in James 5, ask the elders of the church to come and lay hands on you and anoint you with oil.

45:37

If you want the elders to come and do that, we can do that for you. But before we do anything, can I read something to you first?

45:43

And he said, sure. So I took him in the sanctuary at the church and grabbed a Bible. And I opened it up to Luke chapter 11, verse 24.

45:51

And I read I read him this. When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest and finding none, it says,

46:03

I will return to my house from which I came. I wish I could do that in like my best Vincent Price voice.

46:10

I'd have to practice that. And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order.

46:16

Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself. And they enter and dwell there.

46:24

And the last state of that person is worse than the first. As Jesus said, these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed.

46:39

But he said, blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

46:47

And I looked at this young man and I said, would you acknowledge that your friends, this guy and this gal who are living together, would you agree with me that they are living in sexual immorality?

47:02

And he sat there for a moment and he said, do you mean, do I think that they are committing adultery because they are in a they're sleeping together and they aren't married?

47:14

And I said, right, like in the eyes of God, that would be sin. And he said, right.

47:20

I, you know, based on what I understand that the Bible says, I would have to agree that they're living in sin.

47:25

And I said, so here's the situation. I can come to your friends and I can lay hands on her, bless the house, whatever, to try to cast out whatever this is that's haunting your friend.

47:40

And what's going to happen is this. If they don't repent of their sin and follow Christ, that spirit's going to come back.

47:47

And the attack, the spiritual attack that's going to be on her the next time is going to be worse than if I had never done anything at all.

47:56

When it comes down to it, based on the words that we have here of Christ in Luke chapter 11, is

48:02

Jesus saying that if you follow him, then you will be protected from these things.

48:08

And he was really excited about that when I shared that with him. And I said to him, you have to repent of your sin too.

48:15

So you're going to take these words that I've shared with you back to your friends, but you have not repented of sin.

48:21

You're not attending church. You just had this belief or this passing opinion several years ago.

48:26

And something popped into your mind that maybe that could help, but you're not a follower of Christ either.

48:32

And he was convicted by that. And so I said, uh, that you also need to repent of your sin and you need to follow

48:40

Jesus and then take the good news of the gospel to your friends and tell them to repent.

48:46

And whatever it is that is haunting this young lady, I'm telling you it's happening because of the sin that they're living in and they just don't even realize it.

48:55

So you could do nothing at all and she will perish in this sin and it will be far worse than, uh, than what she's dealing with now.

49:03

Tell your friends to repent and trust in Jesus Christ and walk in righteousness. As Jesus said here, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

49:14

That goes for you. That goes for your friends. And he asked me for that Bible as though that one was the one that had all the power in it.

49:22

You know, it, it almost seemed a little superstitious, but I said, yeah, sure. You know, closed it, handed it to him, take it with you.

49:30

I think I gave him another book on top of that and said, these resources should help you. And I never saw him again.

49:37

I don't even know if he was from Junction City. He might've been from out of town. Uh, I never saw him again, but Vicki, our secretary did say about two weeks later, she said that same young man that came before came back and he said,

49:50

I just wanted to express my thanks to pastor Gabe and everything that he said and did for us. It was very, very helpful.

49:56

That's all I got. So I don't know if, if they repented and they believe the gospel and maybe they found a good church.

50:02

I'm not sure if that was the result of all of that. Uh, but nevertheless, that story that I shared with that young man is the same story that I would share with you,

50:11

Jeff. Yeah. When it comes to, uh, uh, vanquishing evil spirits, the best remedy that we have for that is

50:18

Christ by faith in Christ. Those who hear the word of God and keep it will be protected from the devil schemes.

50:25

Now, that doesn't mean that we won't go through trouble and tribulation. You have that story of the apostle Paul in second

50:31

Corinthians 12, who asked God three times to take away a tormentor of Satan from him.

50:37

Oh yeah. But the Lord said to him, my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in your weakness.

50:45

And that trial was given to Paul to keep him from becoming conceited. Right. So it was humbling him exactly.

50:53

That he would, he has no control over that. Right. Yeah. That he would rely on Christ. So sometimes those situations are going to happen to teach you a lesson.

51:01

Doesn't mean you're demon possessed, but it just teaches you to rely more on Christ who raises the dead.

51:07

Yes. You will have tribulation. Jesus said to his disciples in this world, you will have trouble, but take heart,

51:15

I have overcome the world. All right, here we are with, uh, like, uh, at 50 minutes or something here.

51:21

I think we got time for one more. Well, this one's, this one's kind of lengthy, but let's see what we got. Dear pastor

51:27

Gabe, I am very thankful for your ministry as I can hear you preaching the gospel, sharing the biblical points from the gospel and teaching us

51:34

Christians about how to live a godly life recently, as I'm about to enter the stage of adulthood,

51:39

I am an adolescent, I am facing a question about which college will grow my faith as a

51:45

Christian, my mom would recommend to go to the college that she works at, which is a

51:51

Christian college, and it would mean the tuition would be free because she works there. However, as I walked through the campus,

51:57

I began to notice that the theology of this university is influenced by secular ideology, for example, though my memory is hazy,

52:04

I saw a book in the theology seminary about being neighbors with Muslims, though I wouldn't recommend disrespecting

52:11

Muslims, but it still concerns me as it felt like a winking reference to postmodernism.

52:16

Uh, now I don't know what the context was of that statement that you read there, but we are supposed to be neighbors with Muslims, I mean, the statement that Jesus says to love your neighbor is yourself, and this is the fulfilling of the law, a

52:30

Muslim can be your neighbor. Now, if it was saying that you should be brothers with Muslims, that would be a little bit different.

52:37

Yeah, we are neighbors with Muslims, but they're not part of the brotherhood, right? They're not brothers in Christ because they don't even believe in Christ.

52:45

Uh, anyway, continuing on another university that mom and I would like to attend is,

52:51

I'm sorry, that mom would like for me to attend, thank you, would be Wheaton College because according to my mom, this college has a standard of being

52:57

Harvard. However, I am rather concerned about this choice since when you bring up the topic of Genesis, the majority of the professors act like this part of the

53:06

Bible is not inspired by God and will give a different interpretation contrary to the biblical interpretation.

53:11

That's one of many problems with Wheaton College, by the way, there's many other issues.

53:17

One college that I'm interested in would be Cedarville College since I felt like this is a threshold of learning and biblical teachings.

53:24

In fact, this college seems to be a true biblical college that stands on the authority of the scriptures. However, my mom didn't approve my choice since this college is very far away from our town and is very expensive in terms of tuition.

53:37

Yeah, they just recently had a scandal that brought them into the news. And and so I wouldn't recommend

53:45

Cedarville right now either. I don't want a counterfeit Christian college to be detrimental to my spiritual health.

53:52

In fact, I would cry with despair when my poor mom chose a counterfeit Christian college and would realize that it's too late for me to turn back.

54:00

Gabe, do you have any recommended options of a good Christian college that could grow my faith and my learning and some advice about college?

54:09

May God bless you and your ministry. Anonymous. Yes, here's my recommendation. Go to master's seminary or attend one of the corresponding expositor seminaries.

54:21

Talk with somebody there and see what maybe you what sort of options they might have for you, what field of study you're wanting to go into.

54:30

They would give you counseling for free. Yeah, they're not going to charge you to counsel you on your education decisions.

54:36

But that would be my first recommendation. Pick master's university or one of the corresponding expositor seminaries to attend.

54:45

Yep, there you go. But it's it's very wise to take the approach that you're taking because I went to secular college and I'm having to undo a lot of what they taught me.

54:58

That's true. And trying to relearn and replace it with what the Bible is teaching me now that I am saved.

55:04

So that's a lot of extra work. And I'm quite frustrated and angry about having to relearn everything.

55:12

Every day is a new day for learning. Yes, it is. Now, I understand that your desire to go to college is to is to grow yourself as a

55:22

Christian. I really think that the best place that you grow yourself as a Christian is going to be in your church, not in the seminary that you go to.

55:28

But I understand. I get what you're saying. And if that's what you want, then yeah, master's would be the place to go.

55:34

If you think that you can get good, sound teaching from a good, solid pastor in a church and you can just attend the college to get the piece of paper, regardless of what it is that they're teaching their theologically, if you think you can be protected from that and it would not affect you when you're going to have to get some really wise counsel on that, don't take my word for that, then

55:58

I would say go to the place where the education is free. Yeah, get the solid teaching from the church. Just get your education done at the college if you're getting the piece of paper for free.

56:09

But I would not recommend that at all if there was a risk, if you think that there would be that possibility that it could affect you with some sort of liberal theology.

56:20

Don't do that then. Yeah. You have to assess how weak in the flesh you actually are. That's true.

56:26

Yeah, because they can be sneaky. Get some good counsel. There you go. There is wisdom in many counselors, as the scripture teaches us.

56:34

Let's conclude with prayer. Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you for our time and we thank you for your word that gives us answers and guidance in these dark days.

56:45

As we read in Psalm 119, your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path.

56:52

Jesus is the light of the world and our way is guided and illuminated that we may walk in such a way that is pleasing unto the

57:00

Lord. And as we go this way, help us to hold fast to the gospel and also share that with others that they may turn from their sin and so be saved.

57:09

Everything that's going on in our culture right now, we ask that the gospel would break through in those dark spaces where people need to hear the good news of Christ.

57:22

And maybe the chaos that's happening causes people to ask for a little bit more common sense.

57:28

What is going on? Surely there's got to be more to life than this. And they find their answer in the solution in the gospel, the way to everlasting life, the forgiveness of sins.

57:38

We pray for our police officers that you protect them. And we pray for our pastors in these churches that they not be led astray by this cultural narrative that is going on right now.

57:47

But hold fast to the word of Christ and teach the gospel to the people of God. We continue to humble ourselves before you and ask for your forgiveness for our sins and lead us in paths of righteousness for your namesake.

58:02

In Jesus name we pray. Amen. My nose is starting.

59:09

I went outside. Don't do it. No. The dog. Do you need a Kleenex then?

59:15

Blow your nose first. Blow your nose first. Was I shaking you or just bugging you?

59:23

Because I was wiggling. Just bugging me. Go over there and get a

59:29

Kleenex. No, I refuse. You'll just hear me sniffle. No, go get a

59:36

Kleenex. Just kidding. I'm fine. We're good. Patriarchy.

59:42

Go get a Kleenex. No. Matriarchy. No. 2020.