WWUTT 2000 Q&A G3 Day 2, Christianizing Nations, AI Sermons, Watching The Chosen

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Did Jesus tell his disciples to Christianize the nations? Can a preacher use

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AI to help write their sermons? And what really is the problem with watching something like The Chosen?

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The answers to these questions and others when we understand the text. This is the 2000th episode of when we understand the text, a daily

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Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the word of Christ. Thank you for listening and telling all your friends about our ministry.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thanks, babe. You're welcome. 2000 episodes.

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Oh my goodness. And we're doing this at the end of the second day of G3. Yes. Where there was a bomb threat.

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There was. That was how the second day of G3 ended. So they were about to show

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The Essential Church movie. Uh -huh. Right. And right at the beginning, I saw one of the guys that's been involved in the creation of this film.

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Of course, this was put out by Grace Community Church. We've talked about it in past episodes. Yes. But right before one of the producers was about to take the stage and talk about the movie, he's mic'd up, he's ready to go.

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Yeah. Bomb threat comes in. They have to evacuate. That's crazy. The convention center. That's crazy.

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Thankfully, everybody's. And there's a lot of people there. Oh, over 8 ,000 people. A lot of people. Now, granted, this was kind of like the -

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Towards the end. It was kind of an after party sort of a thing. Yeah. Where they've had these movies they've shown both nights.

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So, last night, it was the cessationist movie. Right. Great film, by the way. Which had you in it.

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Not because I'm in it. My little plug for you. You're right. I wanted to see it regardless of whether they kept my stuff or not.

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Sure. But it was a perk. Then the essential church movie put out by Grace Community Church was supposed to be tonight.

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Right. And they didn't show it. As far as I know, they didn't ever show it because they had to evacuate the building.

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So, yeah. Oh, to get everybody back in. Right. Settled. Settled. Oh, man. And get the mics and everything going.

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Oh, man. Get all that started again. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure they didn't take the time to shut everything down. Well, yeah. No. Of course not.

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Not in that kind of situation. Yeah. Right. But just to make sure everything's on the up and up, that'll take some time to get it back.

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Yeah. Not sure if that - I don't guess they'll ever be able to make up the time on that. Man. Disappointing.

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Definitely. Nonetheless, thankfully - But it was only a threat. It was only a threat. It wasn't like a true thing.

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Yeah. So, praise the Lord for that. Somebody really had it out for G3, though, on that second night, very unfortunately.

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But glad everybody is safe. Yes. So, this being our 2000th episode, we wanted to do this from the convention hall at G3.

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Right. The exhibition hall. Yes. But we had our five kids with us. Yes. There was -

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And the two -year -old by himself - Oh, my goodness. Is a full -time job. Full. For two people.

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I swear. You can't do it by yourself. It takes two people to handle that kid.

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Oh, man. So, we just were not able to get around to recording at our table, which we were hoping to be able to do.

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Right. Take questions from folks as they were coming by and things like that. I did grab some questions from some people, so that's what I have here.

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On the Friday edition of the broadcast, we take questions from the listeners. These questions were received live.

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Otherwise, you can submit your questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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Right. And then, next time, God willing, next week, when we're at episode 2005, we will respond to some of those questions we receive by email.

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Yes. But before getting to that, let's continue as we've been reading in Psalm 71. Okay. I'm picking up in verse 17, reading out of the

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Legacy Standard Bible. Oh, God, you have taught me from my youth, and I still declare your wondrous deeds.

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And even when I am old and gray, oh, God, do not forsake me until I declare your strength to this generation, your might to all who are to come.

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For your righteousness, oh, God, reaches to the heavens. You who have done great things, oh,

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God, who is like you? You who have shown me many troubles and evils will revive me again and will bring me up again from the depths of the earth.

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May you increase my greatness and turn to comfort me.

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The theme of the G3 Conference has been the sovereignty of God. Yes. And here, the psalmist acknowledges

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God in his sovereignty, that he will not forsake, he will deliver me up, though he shows me many troubles and evils,

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God will revive again and will bring me up from the depths of the earth and increase my greatness and turn to comfort me.

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This is God who does this. And as we read elsewhere in the Psalms, he is God in the heavens. He does all that he pleases.

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So we read here that your righteousness, oh, God, reaches to the heavens. You who have done great things, his rightness and his goodness are so amazing.

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It's beyond comprehension. And yet it's right after that line. Right after the psalmist says that, that he then says, you have shown me many troubles and evils will revive me again.

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So your righteousness, everything you do is right. And even though I go through troubling times, you who are sovereign have led me through these troubling times and you will revive me again.

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That's right. And I don't look at the troubles and the evils that befall me as God being unjust.

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Oh, yeah, definitely. Because I know he will deliver me up and he will, he will bring me to the place where he is as high as the heavens.

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Right. I think sometimes we actually go through troubling times just so we remember that this is not our home.

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Yeah, right. And that the only perfect place that's going to be without any problems is going to be heaven.

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We remember even in those troubling periods that all things work together for good.

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For those who love God and are called according to his purpose. Amen. So in verse 17, God, you have taught me from my youth and I still declare your wondrous deeds as you and I talked about recently.

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I think it was earlier in Psalm 71 where we were talking about this, but that you remember God in the days of your youth,

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Ecclesiastes 12, 1, before the days of your age come, days of trouble will come and you have no delight in them.

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So while you're here, while your mind is sharp, while you can store up the knowledge of God, while your body is still in good health.

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You're not thinking about it constantly because it actually works like it's supposed to. That's right. Or at least we could say this, your body's in better health than it will be later.

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Very true. Maybe to put it that way. So remember God and hold fast to him. Things are going to get harder, but remember that God comes and comforts us in our troubles and he will revive us again.

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Even though death will one day overtake us, God revives us and will turn to comfort us and we will dwell with him forever with the most high in glory.

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What a wonderful Psalm. It's been a wonderful time at G3. Oh yeah.

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Such a blessing. The music's been incredible, the preaching's been incredible, and of course the fellowship.

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Now we have great fellowship at our church. Yes we do. Because we just have a good church family and we experience wonderful, heavenly, godly fellowship.

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Yes. I say heavenly because it's a foretaste of that fellowship that we'll enjoy in glory.

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We enjoy that every single Sunday. But it's great to get together at a conference like G3 and be able to meet some of the folks that listen to the broadcast, that have watched the videos and been encouraged by those things, and then meeting new faces.

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Yes. And from all over. Everywhere. Everywhere. Yeah. From Alaska to Florida, opposite corners of the

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U .S., to people in Canada. Israel. Israel. That's right. Different parts of the world, across oceans.

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Yes. Have come to this thing. Man, it's been great to meet everybody. I wish I could remember all your names so I could give shout -outs to all of you.

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I know, right? You know, speaking of which, so there were people that would come up to our booth and I would say, oh, hey

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Charlie, hey Pamela, you know, something like that. And they would be astonished. You remember us?

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Yeah. You got that face a lot. It's on your name tag. Yes.

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It's right there. It's right there. If the name tag was facing the right direction. That's right.

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Oh my goodness. So many times, I'm like, I know your face and I think I know your name, but I want to double check.

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And I look down, I'm like, oh, never mind. It's the schedule. I think the name tags were generally oriented to be turned around.

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Yes. So that the name was facing the person rather than, you know, you're looking at the schedule on the back of the.

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Yes. But anyway you put it, it turns around. It would always pivot back around. That's right.

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Because I've even tried to like take off the lanyard and put it on the other direction.

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See if that would hold it. And it still does the same thing. It's like the name tags weighted that way. I think it's the hook.

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Oh, okay. The little. The little hook that hooks to the, yeah. Swoop hook thing that the tag goes on.

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Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Cause that's the thing that flips, you know? I know, but I think it's, I just think it's the tag.

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You think it's the tag? I think it kind of bows a certain way. Maybe. And that causes it to, you know, the aerodynamics of the tag when the wind catches it and it just spins it.

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Yeah. Right. You know what I mean? Sure. Exactly. Yeah. There's a physics lesson in this. I am smiling and nodding.

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Uh huh. So toward about halfway through the second day,

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I quit just addressing people by their names. I'll let them introduce themselves because I always got these puzzling looks.

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How did you know that? Did you hear me talk to that guy? No, it's on your name tag. It's right there. I thought I was being charming, you know?

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Well, you were until you gave it up. Everybody realized that you were just reading.

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Just looking at your name tag. That was great. So if you're a new listener,

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I said this yesterday, but you weren't on with me yesterday. Yes. So if you're a new listener, you're probably joining us because a cute little blonde girl came up to you.

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Oh my goodness. They were everywhere. We have two cute little blonde girls, by the way.

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Eight years old and six years old. Yes. And they were running around handing out our brochures all over the exhibition hall.

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And so was a friend. A redheaded friend. That's right. She was doing a great job too. Yep. So. Carly was with them.

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Yes. With Aria and Mariah. And if we had let them, they would have run out into the main hall.

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Oh yeah. For sure. Gone all the way down to the bookstore. Every exhibition hall, they would have been in it.

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Just handing out brochures to people. They've been a better promoter of when we understand the text in two days than I've been in eight years.

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That is a true story. You know, it was great. We were happy. It was great meeting people that have said things like,

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I've used your broadcast to help me in Bible study preparation, in Sunday school class, like I'm teaching a class and I went through your study in first John or something like that.

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Or I told my youth, go through Gabe series in James, or I listened to first and second

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Thessalonians or something like that. That has all been very, very touching. And it's so great to hear that what we basically sit here and do in front of a microphone in a room by ourselves can reach that many people and have that kind of an impact.

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That has been such a blessing to meet people and hear about that. And again, you know, going back to our own church, we have a good church family.

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I hear it from folks in our church family. Just saying how much the broadcast means to them when they're driving in the car, when they're heading to work, just when they're doing breakfast in the morning and they have something to play in the background.

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It's great to hear the word of God being taught, you know, those kinds of things. So we have been so blessed by God to be able to do this.

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What a wonder of technology. All of the episodes this week have been recorded from my parents' home.

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We've been in Georgia. We've been in Atlanta all this week. So this isn't even from my nice little studio that some people donated to that I could build at home.

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But with some of that extra donation, I purchased this equipment. Everything but the microphones and the mic cables is brand new stuff.

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So the rest of this is something that I added that we could travel on the road with a little bit better.

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And incidentally, with this device, so I got this new little, much smaller than the mixer that I use in my studio that we go through with all the preamps in it and everything.

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So this new device has a neat little feature to it that I'm going to play for you, babe.

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So anytime now that I pull one of those dad jokes, there's a little button on this device.

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If anybody has ever invested in the device that I'm talking about, you already know which device this is.

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When I push this button, you will know. Are you ready? Okay, sure. So for all my dad jokes, all

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I have to do is go, nice. That wasn't very loud.

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I think I can get it louder. No, it wasn't loud. Oh, oh. There we go. Okay. There we go. Oh my. And when

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I make just this awesome theological comment. Yay.

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Oh, yes. Well done. The crowd goes wild. Well, where was that when we said 2 ,000th episode? Oh, yeah, that's right.

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It's our 2 ,000th. Do it again, babe. It's our 2 ,000th episode. Yay. Yay. All right.

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That's our live audience at G3 right there listening to us. That's awesome. Well, my thanks to the guys that put together

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G3. I know it is a lot of work. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because it's Praise Mail Baptist Church. I think they've got some other folks,

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I want to say, they have some other folks even outside the church that kind of help them pull all of this together, volunteers.

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I'm sure there's tons of volunteers. But this all started with one little church in Douglasville, a little reformed

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Baptist church that wanted to put together a conference committed to solid teaching, which they were doing at their church.

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At their church, yeah. Until it got too big. All in -house. Yeah. That they couldn't do it there anymore. So people that will rip on a conference like G3 and say that it's just all about the money, that is not the way that it started.

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Nope. It began as just something to feed their church. And it ended up edifying more and more people and spreading further and further out until it's become this thing that thousands of people are coming to, 8 ,500 people this year.

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Yeah. To hear 8 ,500 people in that hall singing hymns a cappella. Oh, it was awesome.

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It was very amazing. So we're thankful to everybody who put this together, doing it in such a quality way.

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The speakers that give their time to preparing these messages. Yeah. And it's a lot of work to prepare these kinds of messages.

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It's not just that these guys just stand up there and wing it. Right. And so they prepare these sermons and they feed the sheep.

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And then we've all got to go back to our respective communities, our churches that we're a part of.

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But I hope that when we go back there, we're bringing some of the things that we received at a conference like this, exalting

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God and praising him for his sovereignty. And I hope that's going to come into my preaching on Sunday because I'm the one that's got to do the sermon this week.

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Yes. Tom is flying back. I'm driving back. Yes, with five kids.

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With five kids. But I'm the one preaching. It'll take a little bit of time. It's good. That's right. It's good. So we're not going to make it on Saturday.

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I'm going to preach though. That's so wonderful. Oh, I love it. That's not a complaint because I love preaching. And in fact,

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I love preaching right after a conference. Yes. You are all fired up after a conference. That's because I am ready to go.

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I hate getting done with a conference and then waiting a few weeks before I have to preach. I'm ready to jump right back into it.

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The fire is there. Let's go. Yes. So I'm looking forward to preaching this

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Sunday. And yeah, well, let's pray for safe journeys for us because we're not going to be back at the conference on Saturday.

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Since I have to preach Sunday, we're going to leave Saturday morning and head out. We'll miss Steve Lawson. But his sermon on Thursday, Mike Riccardi.

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That's right. That's Becky's favorite. It was Mike Riccardi. I'm so sad. I was like, I'm going to make it in there for that one.

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No. No. Nevermind. Sorry. I even tried. I was hoping that there was some breakout session he was doing.

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I can get you to as well. I noticed that he was like doing an interview in the hallway, like in that main hallway right before you go outside.

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Yeah. Yeah. They had like a stage kind of thing. Right. Like a halftime show desk. Yeah. It was.

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It totally was. But I wasn't able to listen because I was following little girls to and fro.

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So it was, and it was super busy, so I didn't want to lose them. And I would have sat there and just listened and would have lost them in the process.

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They kept trying to go into every one of the exhibition halls and I was like, no, not this one. No, not this one.

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They're telling you, Mom, we hadn't handed out brochures in here yet. I know. Right. So, again, with the questions that we had grabbed from people,

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I was kind of like I'd have a conversation with somebody and when they'd walk away, I jotted down on my phone. I don't know that I got everybody's name on here because I had to remember their name as they're walking away and I'm jotting down the note.

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But here's some of the questions we were asked at our table and decided we wanted to pull some of these questions into our 2000th episode here.

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So Bethany came up and she said, I saw someone online say that Jesus commissioned his disciples to Christianize the nations.

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Is that an accurate summary of the great commission? So someone online said that Jesus commissioned his disciples to Christianize.

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Did I say that right? Commission his disciples to Christianize. Just want to make sure I didn't say Christianize his disciples to commission.

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Did Jesus commission his disciples to Christianize the nations? Well, let's look at the great commission and then

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I'll also go to Acts 1 and we'll look at Acts version of the great commission. They're in Acts 1 .8.

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But this is Matthew 28 verses 18 to 20. And Jesus came up and spoke to them saying this is on a mountain in Galilee before he is about to depart from them.

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This is after his crucifixion and resurrection. He says to his disciples, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

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Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the

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Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you. And behold,

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I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Okay. There's one version of the great commission.

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And then we have another one in Acts 1. So Jesus says, beginning in verse 7, it is not for you to know the times and seasons which the father has set by his own authority, but you will receive power when the

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Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all

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Judea and Samaria and even to the end of the earth. So in those two versions of Jesus commissioning his disciples to go out to the nations, do you get the impression from that that Jesus is saying,

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Christianize the nations. What does it mean to Christianize the nations?

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Well, that's what I was going to ask. What does that mean? It just, it kind of seems to me to say

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Christianizing the nations would be to spread Christianity. I would assume so.

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So make everything Christian themed? Well, no, because we see how bad that can go.

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Yeah. If you're understanding Christianize the nations as go therefore and make disciples of the nations, then sure.

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But if you're talking about Christianizing the nations is just, you know. Like what we have in America right now?

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Right, exactly. The whole God bless America thing. Yeah. But which God are we worshiping?

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What are you talking about? Right. Or even Jesus loves America or something to that effect.

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Is it the Christ of the Bible that you love and honor or are you taking his name in vain? Right. So what do you mean by Christianize?

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That you just have, you know, the theme of Christ around or that people actually know him and love him and worship him?

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Yeah, as his true self. Right. Observe all that he has commanded. Because when

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Jesus says here, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, I don't see that as Christianize the nations.

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Christianizing the nations could be something that results from going out and spreading the gospel.

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Sure. From making disciples of all the nations. If it's a result, then it's just fine.

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And that result would be by the providence of God. Yes, exactly. Because he moved in the hearts of the people for that to happen.

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But there are plenty of places where the gospel goes out where... It just makes them feel better. Well, that wasn't where I was going with that, but yeah.

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You know, oh, you know, Jesus is in this or Jesus' name was mentioned and so this is okay.

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You know, like this makes me feel better and Jesus wants me to be happy. So it's whatever makes me happy. Yeah, right.

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You know what I mean? It always makes you feel better. I mean, there are other places, what I was saying, there's other places where the gospel goes out and you don't see a lot of change.

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You do see some people come to Christ, but it's not huge. It doesn't result in this massive transformation of the nation, even years and years and years down the road.

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So was something done wrong there? No. The measure of whether or not the gospel was successfully preached is not in how many people come to Christ or if that nation becomes

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Christianized. It's in knowing that the gospel that was preached is actually the gospel that we have from the

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Bible. Right. It is. It is God. It is the Holy Spirit that transforms the heart and the mind.

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We have no power to do that. None. So you could actually you could change everything in the nation.

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You could Christianize it and it could still be a lost nation. There was the

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Philadelphia preacher Donald Barnhouse back in the 90s or 1900s.

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This wasn't in the 90s. But anyway, he had a radio show that was broadcast in Philadelphia and I think was picked up by some other stations around the country as well.

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And on his radio show, he had done this exercise or done this thing in which he had said, what would

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Satan's America look like? And he talked about how everybody is happy and great.

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Crime is down. Everybody's got nice houses. The economy is good. There's white picket fences. There's faithful marriages.

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And everybody goes to church on Sunday where Christ is not preached.

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Ah. Yes. So Satan's America would look like what we might consider to be

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Christianized America. Right. You could even have in God we trust on all of the currency. Right.

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But they go to church and Christ is not preached. That would be Satan's America because he's fooled everybody into thinking that you're right.

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You're good. You're good. You've got it. Yeah. And God loves you and his favor is upon you. Yeah. And yet they don't worship or honor

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Christ. Right. And Satan's scheme has worked in that particular case.

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Now that was certainly. But they feel good. Yeah. They feel good. Right. Makes me feel good. Gives me the warm fuzzies.

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Yeah. I mean, we've got to remember we were saying this during wokeness, but now with this

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Christian nationalist push, it's like when we were saying this, it totally got forgotten. But it was

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Martin Lloyd Jones who was in one of his sermons had said that it is a tragic thing to think that all you need to do is improve a man's environment and you can improve the man.

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Ah, yeah. That is a tragic fallacy, he said, because it was in paradise that man fell.

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So true. We will never make America what the Garden of Eden was. Yeah. So don't think that if we just improve the environment, then everybody will be better.

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Right. We need to be out there preaching the gospel. And it doesn't matter what condition or state the country is in.

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Folks, the country is in the state that it's in because the judgment of God is coming upon it.

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Right. You can't reverse that. Right. Ecclesiastes, who can straighten what he's made crooked?

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And so if it is God's determination that his judgment and his wrath is going to be poured out on America because of the sin and depravity that's been going on for years and years and years and just getting worse and worse and worse, then it doesn't matter if things are good or bad.

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We need to be out there preaching the gospel because that's what saves souls. Right. You cannot make

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America Christian today, but you can share the gospel with someone today. Yes.

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Very true. Saving lives. And if all you're trying to do is Christianize America or make it in a better state than it is now, then you're just giving everybody a comfortable seat on their way to hell.

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The gospel has to be there. It has to be proclaimed. And don't take the outcome or a potential outcome of the

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Great Commission like a Christianized nation and make that the

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Great Commission. Right. The Great Commission is to go out and make disciples of all the nations.

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In other words, people in all the nations. Right. Not Christianizing the nations, because maybe that nation will remain in depravity.

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Right. But we have won people out of the kingdom of darkness that's coming to destruction into the kingdom of Christ, which lasts forever, baptizing them in the name of the

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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you, teaching who to keep all that I commanded you.

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You're teaching the disciples that you just made. Yeah. You can't teach people who are not of Christ to follow

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Christ. Right. They're already in rebellion against Christ. They'll rebel against it when you teach them.

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Yep. They have to be shown their sin and given the gospel so that they'll repent and come to Christ, and then they will observe all that Christ has commanded.

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Yes. But we're teaching that to disciples. We're not teaching that to the world. That's casting pearls before swine.

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And that's explicitly, Jesus said in Matthew 7, 6, not to do that. So anyway, yeah, understanding what do we mean with that definition,

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Christianizing the nations versus going out and making Christians, discipling.

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And I've got another question about that coming up here in just a little bit with regards to discipling. First of all, this question from Bart.

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Okay. Bart says, have you covered anything about using chat GPT or AI to write sermons?

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Is it ethical to get a song or a sermon from AI, even if it's solid?

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Well, your voice was accused of being AI at one time. So. That's true. No, I'm just kidding. It has nothing to do with the question.

27:50

Just because you have an AI voice on your videos doesn't make them right. It was some sort of comment like that.

27:56

It's weird. So in case you don't know, AI stands for artificial intelligence. Chat GPT is another form of AI where you can bring up a chat

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GPT program app, something like that. You can give it certain cues. Like for example,

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I'm preaching this weekend in Romans chapter five, verses 18 to 21. So I could say, give me a sermon on Romans five, 18 to 21.

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Give me quotes from Charles Spurgeon and Martin Lloyd Jones, and give me some study notes from Matthew Henry or something to that effect.

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And then hit return. And it could give me a sermon that is solid.

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It's biblically solid and even includes all those elements that I wanted it to include.

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Give me like a Greek word and define that Greek word for me or something to that effect. How many words or how long?

28:48

Yes. Yeah. And you could do this twice or multiple times. So I enter those prompts into the program.

28:57

It gives me a sermon. If I did those prompts again, same prompts, same request, put it into chat

29:04

GPT or whatever, AI produces a different sermon than it just gave me.

29:11

So it's not like if you just enter the right prompts that it will give you a, it has like this cookie cutout sermon that it's going to give every time that you enter those prompts.

29:21

It will be a different sermon. And it's really astonishing how incredible this works, but that we're developing this and perfecting this and it's becoming more and more prominent and it's going to become more and more problematic as well.

29:38

And I don't just mean in the sense of like preachers won't be preaching their own sermons anymore. I mean that we're literally giving our own conscience over to artificial intelligence.

29:48

The more and more we involve ourselves in these things. Why even use your brain? Right. So is it ethical to do this?

29:55

Well, here's the, here's the thing. You could like, say you want to do song lyrics. You just want to do song lyrics.

30:00

What could be the harm in that? So you come up with one line and repeat it 50 times and you're good. Not a

30:07

Bethel church version. Not like that. So you give it like a song on the theme of the sovereignty of God or something like that.

30:16

And maybe you even say, so I just read from Psalm 71. You say, include some lines from Psalm 71.

30:22

Make the second and fourth lines rhyme. So you get this song that's produced by AI.

30:30

It's a solid song. It has all of the elements that you inserted into the prompt and all you got to do is add music to it.

30:37

I'm sure there's probably AI that can do that for you as well. But now you've got these lyrics.

30:42

So what would be the harm in doing something like that? Now I don't know that that's necessarily sinful.

30:50

I don't know that I could call that sinful unless you're taking credit for it and saying you came up with this.

30:56

That there's also the fact that it's a form of worship. So are you really able,

31:04

I mean like, are you worshiping through that? Like as you're writing something from your brain and your heart and from the

31:13

Bible itself, it's a form of worship in that, in at least how

31:18

I think about it, is you're giving glory to God. You're giving honor to God and to have a computer do it, nothing is giving glory or honor to God.

31:28

It's just putting words together. You're right on the train of thought that I was thinking of as well.

31:33

So you couldn't necessarily call it sinful, but is it wise? Right. Because this is not you, you're basically asking a computer program to worship for you.

31:46

Or to give you like how to worship. Something like that, right.

31:51

Now I could see where this would be a useful tool. So say for example, I've written songs before,

31:58

I've done song lyrics. I'm trying to rhyme something, but I can't find a word to rhyme.

32:04

And so you pull out a rhyming dictionary and you find other words that have, yeah.

32:09

So it becomes a useful tool in helping you write. And it helps with your creativity. It's not that your rhyming dictionary is helping you to worship or worshiping for you, something to that effect.

32:21

Right. So I think you can use AI in that way. And it can be something that is a helpful tool.

32:27

I'm not going to write off AI entirely and say that nobody should ever use this, it's sinful. Again, I do think this is taking us down a very, very dark road.

32:35

Yes. That's a conversation for another time. It could. Yeah, it could. It definitely could.

32:40

But in the meantime, just what we're seeing with AI and the way that you can use it now on an app or something like that, it could be a tool like you're using a thesaurus or a rhyming dictionary or a dictionary itself.

32:53

Sure. Something to that effect. It would be a tool just like that. If you're using it to that degree, like help me spur on the idea that I just can't find.

33:02

Give me some inspiration. Sure. Something to that effect. I think that that could be very useful.

33:08

But to let it do that for you. And especially when it comes to writing sermons,

33:14

I won't ever use AI to write a sermon, period. I am never going to decide today is the day that I'm finally going to use this as a tool to help me write a sermon.

33:22

I don't need it. And I've got enough material. It's like people trying to sell me on using

33:27

Lagos. I'm sure that Lagos is great. And I'm not harping on anybody that uses

33:33

Lagos. I just don't need it. I love the resources that I've got. I like the system that I've put together.

33:40

And this system helps me to study. It helps me to dig deeper. Lagos might be easier, but it's just not where I want to go as far as like the way

33:49

I invest myself in the study and preparation that I do for writing a sermon. I just don't need Lagos.

33:55

And there's other alternatives to that. What is the one that James White uses? It's Ascension or something like that.

34:01

So there's other programs. It doesn't have to be Lagos. Lagos is also a huge memory drain. And I've got all my what videos on my computer, and I don't have any more memory on my computer with all the podcasts and everything else.

34:14

So anyway, but yeah, just with preparing a sermon, I don't have any use for AI. So I'm not even going to let my mind go there.

34:22

I'm going to continue to prep sermons the way that I do sermons. But with using AI, I could see how you could make the argument that it would be a useful tool.

34:31

But once again, how far do you go in that where you're taking credit for something that a computer did, or you're not letting the word of God get in you?

34:41

Because the thing that came up with the plagiarism scandal with Ed Litton, with J .D. Greer, with Docent, with Mark Driscoll had been using

34:50

Docent as well. So you're using somebody else or some agency to help you write your sermons or even writing the sermons for you.

34:58

And then Litton and Greer were preaching whatever it was that was given to them. So the thing that came up during that period of time, one of the arguments that those who were plagiarizing, one of the arguments they were using was that I just don't have time.

35:14

All the responsibilities I have as a pastor and I don't have time to do all the sermon prep. In fact, this was

35:19

J .D. Greer's endorsement of Docent when he was talking about all the busyness that he got into. I just don't have time for this.

35:25

And Docent helps me with my sermon prep and all this kind of thing. And so that could be the excuse to use

35:32

AI. I just don't have the time. And plus, AI is even one of those tools where maybe it doesn't even come back that I'm using somebody else.

35:42

You can't, you won't even figure it out. That I've used somebody else's material, I'm ripping this off of them, or I've gone to an agency and had them write sermons for me, now

35:51

I can just use AI and it produces everything for me right there. And it's unique. It's right.

35:56

It's something unique. You can't use the same prompts and come up with the same material that I just did. There are churches that are already doing this.

36:03

There are churches that are having all AI worship services. Yeah, that's weird. That might be, we ought to do a program on that to cover that sometime.

36:14

That by the way, that's going to end up in my, I can already tell you this is going to be there. So when we get to the end of the year, we're doing our 40 biggest events of the year.

36:22

The first AI service, which happened earlier this year. That's going to be one of those events because it's not going to be the first time we're going to see more and more of this happening a little bit later down the road.

36:32

So AI helping you come up with all your entertainment driven worship services, you have your songs and all this other kind of thing.

36:40

It's happening. It's coming down the road. But yeah, how much of that then replaces that you as a pastor should be letting the word of God get in you, conforming your thinking, driving your heart, having a passion for your people, knowing what they're going through and how you need to be speaking into their lives from this passage that ministers to this flock.

37:03

If you're using AI to take your heart out of the sermon, then your congregation's heart isn't going to be in it either.

37:11

You're missing people and all you're doing is checking a box, filling in the quota, making sure

37:17

I'm meeting my obligations and then no one is none the wiser. Well, yeah, there is one who is the wiser.

37:23

Yeah. You know that you've lied and God knows that your heart is dishonest as well.

37:30

Yeah. That your heart is not in this and you run that risk of coming into that place as Jesus rebuked the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2.

37:39

You have forgotten your first love. Yeah. Like you have this passion for doing all of these things in my name, but you've forgotten your first love.

37:48

Yeah. So return to me. I see that that's the way that AI could very easily pull a person away from what the word of God needs to be doing, that work that's in you.

38:02

After all, Jesus prayed in John 17, 17, Father, sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth.

38:08

If you're not letting the word do that, you're letting a computer program do that. You're not being sanctified.

38:14

Right. You're taking something away from your sanctification. So yeah, great question,

38:19

Bart. And I think that that's a topic we definitely could delve more into with regard to how

38:24

AI is coming more and more into worship services. Crazy to think about.

38:31

This next question comes from Will. Did Satan need God's permission to enter

38:37

Judas just like Satan had needed

38:43

God's permission in order to torment Job? Right. Okay. Now, this is recorded in two places.

38:49

It's in Luke 22 and also in John 13, where it says that Judas, or Satan rather, entered

38:55

Judas. Okay. So I'm going to read John's account. This is beginning in verse 21, John 13, 21.

39:01

When Jesus had said these things, he became troubled in spirit and bore witness and said, truly, truly,

39:08

I say to you that one of you will betray me. The disciples began looking at one another, perplexed about whom he spoke.

39:15

There was reclining on Jesus bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved, which we know that to be John. So Simon Peter gestured to him to inquire, who is the one whom he is speaking?

39:27

He leaning back thus on Jesus bosom said to him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, he is the one for whom

39:33

I shall dip the piece of bread and give it to him. So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he took it and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.

39:42

And after the piece of bread, Satan then entered into him. Therefore Jesus said to him, what you do, do quickly.

39:50

Now no one reclining at the table knew for what purpose he had said this to him. For some were thinking because Judas had the money box that Jesus was saying to him, buy the things that we have need for the feast or else that he should give something to the poor.

40:04

So after receiving the piece of bread, he went out immediately and it was night. So there you have the reference to Judas Iscariot with Satan entering into him after the exchange of the piece of bread.

40:16

And apparently this was happening in such a fashion that all the disciples are eating and they don't notice that even though Jesus said, the one to whom

40:22

I give this bread is the one who will betray me. Then Judas is the one who does it and like, oh, well, Judas is going to betray him.

40:29

Apparently that didn't register with them because they're all kind of just eating and talking.

40:35

Sure. So Satan enters into Judas. Was Satan able to enter into Judas without God's permission?

40:41

No, Satan can't do anything without God's permission. So and that's really the answer.

40:48

So the same is the way we see it in Job with God saying to Satan, have you seen my servant

40:54

Job? And Satan responding to him, well, yeah, you give him everything. And that's why he praises you.

40:59

That's why he's so faithful to you because he's got a good life. But let me strike him and he'll curse you to your face.

41:05

And so God permits him to be able to do that, but he cannot afflict his body.

41:11

And so then we read the accounts of, right at first, and then we read the account of everything that happened to Job, even his children being taken from him and all of the devastation that he suffered in but a moment.

41:22

And then yet, Job says, the Lord has given and the

41:28

Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised. And so God says to Satan, look, your scheme didn't work.

41:35

But Satan says, yeah, because he's healthy. Let me strike his body and he will curse you to your face.

41:41

And so God permits him to do that. Well, just the same as with Judas, that Satan could not have entered

41:48

Judas without God permitting Satan to enter Judas. And of course, all this is in fulfillment of prophecy that has been made in the scriptures.

41:56

He who has eaten bread with me has lifted his heel against me, as said in the

42:02

Psalms. So Judas, fulfilling this prophecy as the son of perdition, later on, as I mentioned earlier,

42:08

Jesus' priestly prayer in John 17. He says in that prayer, I have kept all those that you have given to me and I've not lost one of them except the son of perdition.

42:19

And that's referring to Judas Iscariot. Back in John 6, when

42:24

Jesus says to his disciples, after he says, unless you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.

42:32

And the people are going, this is crazy. Who can understand this? And Jesus saying, none of you can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day.

42:41

This is why I said to you, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. So then they turn and walk away.

42:47

Jesus turns to his disciples, the 12, and he says, how about you? Are you going to leave me too? And Peter comes up with that great

42:55

Sunday school answer and says, Lord, to whom shall we go? You're the one who has the words of eternal life.

43:03

And Jesus says, but didn't I choose you, the 12? So once again,

43:08

Jesus' statement with what he said in verse 44, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him, even his own disciples.

43:17

You were brought to me, I chose you. And then he says, but one of you is a devil, referring to Judas.

43:24

So Judas never truly had a heart for Christ. It's not that he was excited about following Jesus and then his enthusiasm went away and he ended up turning from him and betraying him and all this thing.

43:34

It was never there for Judas. He was always a servant of Satan, but Satan entering into him to commit this final rebellious betrayal was only by the permission of God, that God allowed

43:51

Satan to go into Judas and do that. So yeah, even with that, I think it was Martin Luther who said,

43:58

Satan is God's devil and a devil still. So something to that effect.

44:03

I know that's an odd statement to make, but. Well, would you consider

44:09

Judas Iscariot, like whenever Jesus said about the sower with the seeds, like some will fall on the rock and some will fall in the bush and some will fall on good soil.

44:23

Yeah. Would you consider him to be one of those or was he just? Well, he is mentioned in that parable.

44:30

So it's when - Oh, he is? Yeah, the seed is cast and it falls on the path and the birds come and snatch it away.

44:38

This is the devil who comes and snatches the word from you before it can take root. So there's that sense in which when the gospel is preached, there are some that hear it and they believe and that's the

44:51

Holy Spirit that has worked in their hearts to believe. There are others that don't believe like immediately when they hear the word, they just don't believe it.

44:58

Well, that Jesus says is Satan that comes and snatches away the word before it has time to take root.

45:05

The other two soils, the rocks and the thorns are both the work of Satan, but not

45:12

Satan itself. So the birds were Satan that snatches away the word, but the rocks is a work of Satan in that the word never takes root.

45:22

So it might spring up and appear to be flourishing for a time, but it has no root in itself.

45:28

And that really is demonstrating the weakness of a person's own flesh. They themselves can't make themselves believe.

45:33

And so after a time, they just kind of lose their enthusiasm for it and that's it. And then with the thorns, that's the cares of this world.

45:41

So that's demonstrating, I mean, you really have the world, the flesh and the devil in those three soils, the path, the rocks and the thorns.

45:48

The path is the devil that snatches it away. The rocks is the flesh, of course, that has been corrupted by the schemes of Satan and our rebellion against God.

45:57

But we enthusiastically believe for a time, but then fall away. And then the thorns represent the cares and concerns of this world, which choke out the word and it proves to be unfruitful.

46:11

So those three soils are the world, the flesh and the devil. Okay. So you think it was like the first one where the bird snatched it away?

46:19

Right. That would be Satan snatching it away. Okay. Wait, wait, wait. So you mean like, you're asking that with regards to Judas?

46:27

Yeah. What would Satan have been then in that exchange between Judas? He wouldn't have been the birds that come and snatch it away,

46:35

I wouldn't think. Because I mean, Judas followed him for a while. Judas was listening to what

46:40

Jesus said. I mean, he could have been. We're not really given much insight into -

46:45

That's true, we're not. Like which of the soils Judas would be. You probably could say that he was like the message that fell on the path.

46:55

So on the rock, he receives it for a time, but then it proves to be unfruitful.

47:01

He has no root in himself, so it proves to be unfruitful. That's his own flesh. Cares and concern by the world.

47:07

I don't know, you could say all three probably apply to Judas. That's true. That's true. I don't know.

47:12

That's a good question though. I like that one. Thanks. I stumped the pastor. Hey, there you go.

47:19

Yeah, because I'm just deferring to all of the above. Yeah. That's the wrong way. Answer D. So there were several men, men and women, all kinds of folks had asked me this particular question because leading into G3, there were quite a few who had seen the interview that I just did with Justin Peters on his channel talking about The Chosen.

47:41

I think that put my face fresh in everybody's head. And so as soon as I walked through the door, hey,

47:46

Gabe. Yeah. You just saw me on Justin Peters' video. That's how you know who I am. Because normally you wait until he talks. That's right.

47:52

And then you're like, hey, I know that voice. When I say something, then you, oh, okay, I've heard this voice before. So there were several that as a result of that interview had asked me, what really is the problem with watching something like The Chosen?

48:05

Oh, man. So there were some that came up and would just make conversation and we'd get into talking about The Chosen. They've either read my blog or saw all the interviews that I did with regards to the show.

48:15

So their question is, what really is the problem with this that makes it so bad for us to watch

48:20

The Chosen? One person told me, I've got this friend that watches it. They've even had like The Chosen watch parties and they'll say, hey,

48:28

I'm not trying to replace scripture. I know the Bible is the word of God, but this is just a useful tool or something that helps to fill in the blanks.

48:36

Now when they said that, when whoever it was that said this to me and said, The Chosen is used to kind of help fill in the blanks.

48:44

Annie was right there, our oldest, who's 15. And Annie chimed in and said, well, what are the blanks that she thinks she needs filled in?

48:52

Yeah. You know what I mean? That's a great question. That's a good question. I was like, hey, way to go, Annie. That was a good chime in there because it would be to say that scripture has blanks in it that I need filled.

49:03

Right. I mean, there's certainly things that we have questions about, like we just asked about Judas. Right. Maybe there's some things explicitly that aren't said that we wish we had a little bit more detail into.

49:14

But because the word of God doesn't say it, that doesn't mean that just because a show does that it fills in the blanks for us.

49:21

Right. I don't want a show telling me exactly what Judas was thinking and everything because it could be totally wrong.

49:29

And then it changes the meaning of the Bible to me because I'm mentally like, you know, stuck on this.

49:38

Like, oh yeah, poor Judas, you know? Yeah, right. I know. Now, my point blank answer is the chosen is just bad.

49:47

The people who create it are heretics. Don't watch it. Okay. And there's my answer. And that's enough.

49:53

But let me give you a more charitable answer than that. All right. Something a little bit more more guiding,

50:00

I suppose. Okay. All right. So even if you have the best of intentions with the show and maybe the intentions of your heart are perfectly innocent,

50:07

I would still say to you that the the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

50:13

So you think you've got the best of intentions with this. I can even use it as a tool to help introduce people to Jesus. And maybe you think it's innocent enough and you're clear of conscience in this.

50:23

You think that something actually could be useful in this. But you just don't understand how much a show like this is actually shaping your thinking and your hermeneutics in the way that you read the scriptures and interpret them.

50:38

Yeah. It is affecting your mind and you just don't understand how much. And the more you watch it, the more it will affect the way you think.

50:46

Right. I cover myself in a lot of God's word. So even my watching the show and as much of the show as I've watched, even for the purpose of critique and the extra footage that I've watched, you know, things outside the show that I've watched.

51:01

Yeah. I have to come at all of this through God's word. And it's my love of God's word that makes me hate some of the stuff that people say that are connected with the show that are just outright in opposition to what

51:15

God's word says. And then also some of the things that get depicted in the show that are contrary to what

51:21

God's word says. Right. I hate that because I love God's word. And you want to innocently use this as just kind of a tool that will help guide people.

51:30

But you don't realize that the version of Jesus that they're putting forward in this show is going to be the version of Jesus that gets stuck in their mind.

51:39

And that will be their hermeneutic. That's going to be the lens that they read the scripture through.

51:45

Right. So it doesn't help them learn the scripture. It helps them twist the scripture. Right. Is what it does.

51:51

Yeah. I mean, it goes back to what we talked about in the beginning.

52:00

Oh, I remember it was the quote where, you know, Satan's America or whatever.

52:07

Okay. Right. Right. Right. From Barnhouse. Yes. Yes. About how everything's perfect in our lives.

52:13

But then the church doesn't give you the gospel. Yeah. So it's kind of the same thing. It's everything's perfect, except it's not the gospel.

52:21

Everything is awesome. But yeah, the gospel isn't there. Right. Or it's presenting a false

52:27

Christ. Right. The Jesus that everybody believes in. And how scary is that? Yeah. I mean, we should be frightened that we don't get

52:35

Jesus portrayed correctly. Yeah. And who could portray him correctly? Right.

52:40

Exactly. Nobody. Nobody can. I mean, even with, like you were saying, with the best intentions, there's just no possible way we could even pretend to be a perfect Jesus.

52:54

Yeah. It's because the scriptures are not sufficient. And that's what I hear in that answer from that woman, too, who said, you know,

53:01

I just want to use it to help fill in the blanks. Scripture's not sufficient. Right. So I need something else to kind of help me along with this.

53:08

That is very concerning that anybody is thinking along those lines. That was the same sort of thing that Sarah Young said.

53:13

Sarah Young, by the way, just passed away a couple of weeks ago. Oh, I didn't know that. The author of Jesus Calling.

53:19

So she said the same thing when she wrote Jesus Calling, that prayer and meditation on God's word were not enough for her.

53:25

Yeah. And she felt like God could speak to her another way. And so she got into this automatic writing, which is a pagan practice, just trying to empty your mind of everything and let

53:36

God's word speak to you. And then whatever he says, I'm writing down on the page, which, how do you know the difference between the thoughts that are popping into your head and what

53:44

God is saying? Right. How much of that stuff that she wrote down didn't make it into the book?

53:50

Yeah, right. Because maybe she cross -referenced it with scripture and said, well, I know that statement can't go in the book because somebody's going to think that's wrong.

53:57

And like I said, in one of my critiques for Jesus Calling, that book sounds a lot like a woman living in America rather than Jesus of the

54:07

Bible. That Jesus sounds like an American woman. It doesn't sound like the

54:15

Christ of the New Testament. So anyway, yeah, like I said, the stuff that you watch, the things you're filling your mind with, it is going to affect your interpretation of the scripture.

54:24

So don't think that you can innocently enter into this stuff that claims to be of God, even with your best intentions in mind.

54:34

If it's not a true Christ of the Bible, have nothing to do with it. And I think that myself and some other people who've done these critiques have pretty well demonstrated that the

54:44

Jesus of the chosen is not the Christ of the Bible. All right, this next question.

54:49

This comes from two young men, whose names I didn't jot down. But they said, a member of my family, actually,

54:57

I think this was a friend of theirs. So a friend of theirs used to be Reformed. Now he's not. He hasn't fallen away from the faith, but he has a much softer theology than he had before.

55:09

So what can you do? I would imagine something Arminian, something that is a lot along the lines of antinomianism even.

55:17

So like grace just covers all my sin, I can do whatever I want and God will forgive me for it, you know.

55:23

So what can you do to bring someone back to Reformed theology? So they were once Reformed, once claimed to be

55:29

Reformed. They're still Christians, but their theology has gotten worse.

55:34

What can you do to bring them back to Reformed theology? Well, I would first say of that young man that he was not truly into Reformed theology in the first place.

55:45

It was just a passing fad. So it was an interest, it was probably brought on by the

55:50

Young Restless in Reform movement, you know, something to that degree. Preachers that he listened to that he really liked, that were charismatic to him, that drew him in.

55:57

Sure. Maybe it was the higher thinking or even the deep intellectual books that you could get into.

56:03

All of that could have been what pulled him or wooed him into Reformed theology. But it turns out...

56:09

Or the beard. The beard. That's right. How could I forget the beard? Yeah, could be the beard. Just growing out full beards.

56:16

Could have been the attire, could have been the fellowship, could have been the Reformed coffee. You know, whatever it is. There are different things that could have enticed this man's interest.

56:27

But it was just a fad. It was the thing that he was into, it was a passing opinion for that time, and he just lost interest in it.

56:36

So he was never really into Reformed theology, he was just kind of part of the club for a little while. Sure.

56:41

So now it's perhaps that his true theological sensibilities have revealed themselves.

56:48

So how do you bring him back into a more solid theology, or a more solid foundation,

56:56

I suppose? You come back to the scriptures. That's what I was going to say. Yeah. I know that it would be tempting to go to the confessions, and the confessions are good.

57:06

The confessions summarize things that we have there, and your understanding of the confessions can indeed help answer his questions and things that he'll have.

57:13

But you don't want to guide him through tulips to bring him back to Reformed theology.

57:18

You want to take him through scripture. And so the recommendation that I made to these two young men is follow the

57:24

Romans' road. The concept that is presented to us as a summary of the theology of Romans.

57:33

So you have the depravity of man in chapter one. You have in chapter three, there is none good, no not one.

57:39

Not one. You have Romans 3 .23, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus to be received by faith.

57:49

Right. You have the statement in Romans 4 .5 that it's not by our works that we are justified, but by faith. Romans 5 .1,

57:57

therefore, since we've been justified by faith, we have peace with God to our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 6 .23,

58:03

for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So it's as you're going through Romans and you're pulling out the theology summarized by just the verses that I've selected, that you're bringing him to an understanding of his sin and need for a savior.

58:19

The realization that all have sinned. The understanding that it's only by God's grace that we are saved.

58:26

It's only by faith that we are justified. Yeah. These things, as you take him through the scriptures, and then as he develops that scriptural foundation of good theology, then you can take him into deeper concepts of saying like, see this theology that we taught you actually has a name to it.

58:42

It's this. And those things will probably come back to his mind if he was indeed in Reformed theology at some point.

58:49

Yeah. But it could be that his theological leanings when he was in Reformed theology were based on very surface level things rather than something that really got into his heart.

59:02

Good. So he knew the doctrines. And if you know enough of the phrases, I mean, you can have a conversation.

59:07

Exactly. Right. He knew the terminology. He could recite it back to you, but it was never really getting into his heart.

59:14

It's the word of God that is going to transform the heart. Right. Again, on the Romans road is Romans 10, 17.

59:20

Faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. So that's how you're going to guide him into that. And again, the doctrines that you know, as someone who is

59:29

Reformed, confessions are good. Creeds are good. Catechism is good. Oh, yeah. Those things are going to help you in the way that you have those conversations, because even those things are summaries of what's said in scripture.

59:42

The Romans road is a summary of what's said in Romans. Yes. So even those things will be helpful to you in the way that you give your answers.

59:49

All I'm encouraging you in is like, don't jump straight into, well, let me lay out for you the doctrine of original sin.

59:55

This is how you're wrong. Yeah. Right. Here's total depravity. Here's limited atonement. And I just don't think you're going to win that or win his heart with that.

01:00:04

You're just going to get into a surface level theological battle rather than really getting to the heart of the issue.

01:00:10

And the heart of the issue is that his trust, his foundation is not in God's word, and that's where it needs to be.

01:00:17

Yeah. I agree. All right. Now, there was this last question. And this kind of comes back to our first, so there was somebody that came up to me.

01:00:26

This was Nathan. I jotted the name down as Nathan who said the following, I've seen some guys online saying that the gospel centered movement was such a failure because while a lot of popular preachers in the reform camp preach the gospel, they didn't preach about how to apply it.

01:00:43

Do you think there's anything to that? Now I've heard this critique before. And in fact, there's a video that I found from somebody that I've saved.

01:00:52

And whenever I find some free time, I plan to respond to it. But right now I don't have any time.

01:00:57

Okay. This is true. We're getting home from Atlanta. I'm doing my sermon for Sunday. And then

01:01:03

Monday I am going to crash. I'm telling you that right now. So exhaustion is going to set in. Then you have to catch up on the week that you missed.

01:01:10

That's right. I do. I got all that work I got to do. Okay. So repeat the question.

01:01:17

Okay. So Nathan said, I've seen some guys online saying that the gospel centered movement.

01:01:22

Now what is that? So where everybody was saying that everything is gospel centered, it needs to be the gospel, preach the gospel.

01:01:28

Everything has to come back to the gospel. So this really was, you know, I've heard people say this.

01:01:34

I've heard some guys critique what they call the gospel centered movement. I think they're giving a new name to the Young Restless and Reform Movement.

01:01:41

Really think it's the same thing because the preachers they'll cite are all the same folks from the Young Restless and Reformed. It'll be like guys like John Piper, Matt Chandler, Tim Keller, or Mark Dever.

01:01:54

Some of those guys in the YRR that were preaching the gospel and everything like that.

01:02:00

However, I was caught up in that movement and the gospel ministered to me deeply in the midst of that movement because I was coming out of sin in that time.

01:02:10

And I was needing the gospel. And I was praying to God, asking for preachers to give me the gospel.

01:02:16

I was going to churches and not hearing it. And so I pulled it up online. And the guys that I was listening to were

01:02:23

John Piper, Paul Washer, and even Tim Keller that were preaching the gospel to me.

01:02:29

And I'm telling you, I never once heard a sermon from those guys where they not only preached the gospel, but they also said, now in light of the gospel, here's how you're to live.

01:02:39

Every single one of them did that. So I've heard these guys, and I mentioned to you a video a moment ago.

01:02:45

So there's some of these guys, and there's a video that I've even pulled out, which sometime where I have free time,

01:02:50

I'm going to respond to this video. But he's done the same. He did the same thing in his video. The gospel -centered movement was all about preaching the gospel, but it would not say what you are to do now that you believe the gospel.

01:03:04

And again, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. I could go to any one of those guys' sermons,

01:03:10

CJ Mahaney, John Piper, anybody. I could pull out a random sermon from somewhere in the early 2000s and play it for you.

01:03:17

And I promise you, the sermon that I will play will not only include the gospel, but they will tell you, now in light of this, this is how you're supposed to be living your life.

01:03:24

They all did it. So it's absolutely wrong that this gospel -centered movement was just all about the gospel, but it wasn't telling you the way that you should live.

01:03:34

I think that there was a shallowness to some of the stuff that they were doing, which was why wokeness came in and apprehended so many of these preachers, including

01:03:43

Matt Chandler, Eric Mason, John Piper, and some of these other guys. The wokeness stuff,

01:03:50

I'm not really sure how it kind of ended up that way, but that they got caught up in the fad part of it, rather than truly understanding the depth of what it was that they were preaching and teaching.

01:04:01

Notice that a lot of these guys were not really from a confessional background.

01:04:07

John Piper is not confessional. Matt Chandler's not confessional. Right. So they don't have something like a reformed confession of faith behind the reformed theology that they claim to have and were preaching.

01:04:20

Okay. I'm sorry. Hold on a second. I'm caught up in the fact that you had mentioned Paul Washer earlier.

01:04:26

I did. Okay. So he's in this movement as well? I think that guys like Vodie Bauckham and Paul Washer were all part of this, the

01:04:32

Young Restless Reform Movement. Okay. But they were inadvertently pulled into it because they themselves were reformed.

01:04:42

Oh, okay, okay, okay. But they've continued in their confession. Right. They've not made shipwreck of their ministries like some of these guys have done.

01:04:51

Oh my, yes. And I'm not saying that John Piper has made shipwreck of his ministry, but there's just some things that he's...

01:04:58

There's some that have. Right. Excuse me. There's this guy. There is a direction that he's gone that's been heavily influenced by the wokeness stuff that started coming in.

01:05:06

Right. Especially around the 2020 era. And it was even before that because Piper was, he was involved in the

01:05:14

MLK 50. Oh, yeah. Saying the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

01:05:20

He preached at that. Almost forgot about that. Oh man, that was a train wreck. That really took popular evangelicalism in a whole other direction.

01:05:27

Yeah. So anyway, so I was talking with somebody else at our tables. Okay. And his name was

01:05:33

Brian. Okay. And so we started talking about the same thing. So the critique of the gospel -centered movement, which again,

01:05:38

I still think it's just a critique of the Young Restless and Reform movement. Yeah. But the whole idea that they preach the gospel, but they weren't telling anybody how to live now in light of the gospel.

01:05:49

Supposedly. Right, supposedly. And I was telling Brian what I just said to you. That's wrong. They were saying that because I was listening to those sermons and they were ministering to me in that time.

01:05:58

What Brian said, and I really appreciated this comment. I thought it was really good. Okay. They were telling you how you should live in light of this, but there was no discipleship.

01:06:09

So there was no true discipling that was happening where one man comes alongside another man and shows him how to live, guides him in his living.

01:06:20

Right. It was just kind of like this. Okay. It was like a non -interactive,

01:06:26

I guess you could say, or it was an impersonal. Yeah. Sort of discipleship wasn't really happening.

01:06:33

So the gospel was being preached. The implications of the gospel were being preached. But were the people listening to it actually being discipled then from that point on?

01:06:43

Was there real discipleship that was happening? Or was the popularity of the stuff that was happening?

01:06:49

Did that become the fad they were latching onto and they were trying to perpetuate the fad? Yeah. Rather than doing any true deep discipleship.

01:06:59

Now I'm saying that's a theory. I'm not saying that that is what failed about the movement. Right. Because I don't think there was a gospel centered movement.

01:07:07

I think this is somebody trying to drum up an argument. I do agree there was a Young Restless and Reform thing that was going on.

01:07:14

It was identified by secular magazines and newspapers. There were even people on the outside of these circles that were looking and going, what is with this new wave of Calvinism that's coming?

01:07:24

Oh, yeah. People just seem to be loving Calvinism all of a sudden. And it was given this name,

01:07:30

Young Restless and Reform, because they were young people. They were restless, but they were grabbing to this reform theology.

01:07:37

Yeah. But again, I just think it was very shallow. It was characterized by beards, like you said. Yeah. Coffee shops.

01:07:44

Yes. Being able to have deep philosophical conversations, but not really understanding and being guided by the word of God.

01:07:51

And I think the Christian nationalism stuff is being guided by that as well, especially when you consider the pinnacle work of Christian nationalism right now is a book called

01:08:00

The Case for Christian Nationalism by Stephen Wolfe. And he says in the introduction to that book that he's not going to make an exposition of the scriptures in his argument in his case for Christian nationalism.

01:08:10

So he's not even using the scriptures in his case for Christian nationalism. Right. This is that YRR movement that's influenced this.

01:08:18

It's that we can philosophically get ourselves there, and we don't really need a real foundation of the word of God in order to take us to that God -honoring place, you know?

01:08:28

Wow. So anyway, that's the theory that's been put forth then.

01:08:33

Sure. That maybe it was the gospel was preached, the implications of the gospel were preached, but no real discipleship was happening there.

01:08:41

Sure. Whether that's the answer or not, I still think it's a good testimony of the fact of how important discipleship is.

01:08:50

Yes. And so I come back to, as we're kind of bringing things full circle here, we come back to that commission in Matthew 28, 18 to 20,

01:09:01

Jesus saying, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. That's been the theme of G3 this week, the sovereignty of God.

01:09:11

Yeah. All authority has been given to Christ, and he commissions his disciples, which has been happening for the last 2000 years, demonstrating that all authority has been given to Christ.

01:09:23

Right. If Jesus told his disciples to go out and make disciples, but none of that had happened, well, then all authority has clearly not been given to Christ.

01:09:30

Even his own subjects can't do the thing that he told them to do. Right. So all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, go therefore and make disciples.

01:09:42

What does that entail? And we're not going to answer that question because we're at the end of our broadcast, but just thinking about those things, what does it entail to make disciples?

01:09:53

Right. You preach the gospel and you disciple them. Yeah. Those that are converts to the gospel, you now grow them.

01:09:59

This is an investment. And even Paul was not just going into places and making conversions and then leaving and going on to the next place.

01:10:06

Right. He was discipling those men. He was in Corinth for a year and a half. He was in Ephesus for two years.

01:10:12

Yes. And he had disciples around him, men whose lives he poured into, Titus, Timothy, among them,

01:10:19

Barnabas. Barnabas had John Mark. So you had these guys that they invested in.

01:10:25

They helped disciple. They helped to grow them up. If you're a father, you automatically have disciples.

01:10:31

Yes. You have children that you can disciple and help raise them up. And it's got to be more than just surface level stuff.

01:10:37

Yes. Hey, we're a good Christian family. They're being raised in a Christian home. We listen to Christian music. Sometimes we do devotions.

01:10:42

I spank my kids. Something like that. Yeah. That can all be on the surface. Chuck all the boxes. Right. What are you really doing to pour into their lives to help to grow or nurture their hearts?

01:10:54

Mm -hmm. Paul saying to the Galatians, I feel like I have to preach Christ again until Christ is formed in you.

01:11:01

Right. So there's that discipling that needs to happen, that they understand right from wrong.

01:11:07

They know what it means to observe all that Christ has commanded. Mm -hmm. Baptizing in the name of the

01:11:13

Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. So consider these things. What does it mean to not just convert somebody to Christianity, not just convince somebody, but to disciple them?

01:11:24

Even my answer to those two young men before about the friend they had that was in Reformed theology and he's fallen away.

01:11:31

Right. Disciple that guy. Yes, definitely. You say he's still in the faith. Well, disciple him and bring him back to a solid understanding of good doctrine.

01:11:40

Well, not back to, but... What's that? Not back to, because you established that he didn't have it. Didn't have it in the first place, but yeah, right.

01:11:47

I mean, coming back to he was on the path before, didn't really get into his heart.

01:11:52

So now bring him back to that sound doctrine. Right. That he should love. That was just laying foundation. Try again.

01:11:58

That's right. Exactly right. So anyway, there's our questions for today.

01:12:05

We went over an hour. Yeah. I hope you guys didn't mind the tardiness. The tardiness.

01:12:11

Oh yeah, right. Because... Posting. This is the end of Friday for us. Yes. That's right. That's true. Even though...

01:12:16

And I'm still going to get it on Friday. It's still Friday. Maybe another time zone.

01:12:23

No, I think I can get it online before it even hits midnight for us. Oh, that's awesome. I think we can do it. So we're going to give it a shot here.

01:12:29

But yeah, so we thank everybody for listening. Can't thank you enough for...

01:12:35

We would not be doing this. We would not have been able to do this for 2000 episodes. Why would we care to just sit here and talk like this for 2000 episodes if it wasn't for you?

01:12:43

Talk to you for the rest of our lives. Now, if it was every episode, just you and me talking,

01:12:49

I think we can make something of that. Sure. But it isn't always that. I do New Testament study

01:12:54

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Old Testament Thursday. And then we do this Q &A on Friday.

01:13:00

Yeah. So God willing, we'll be back to that schedule next week too. And we pray for everybody at G3 to have safe travels home.

01:13:06

Yes. Glad everybody's safe after that bomb threat. Amen. That it wasn't a real thing.

01:13:12

Somebody told me that there was somebody in custody. Right. So hopefully they were able to find somebody.

01:13:17

Yeah. What a ridiculous thing. We were just having too much fun at G3. And those

01:13:22

God haters are like, we can't let those Christians be having that much fun. I'm calling it a bomb threat. Just crazy. Yep.

01:13:29

But worshiping God, and it doesn't take a conference like this to do that. Go home, be with your church.

01:13:36

Yes. Your brothers and sisters in the Lord that you regularly grow with, disciple with. Yes. That's what

01:13:41

I was gonna say. Make more disciples. There you go. Yep. Disciple them, be discipled by them.

01:13:47

Yes. Until the day of Christ, Philippians 1, 6. I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it at the day of Christ.

01:13:57

Amen. All right, babe. That's 2000 episodes. Yay. Let's pray.

01:14:03

Yes, let's. And we'll be done. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for just giving us the chance to do this.

01:14:08

What a blessing it has been. And it was great to be at G3 and hear from so many people how this has blessed them.

01:14:14

It's great to hear from our friends at church who have told us that the episodes that we've recorded all the time that we've invested in doing this has been such a blessing to them.

01:14:24

And I pray that even the things we've talked about in this particular episode, the questions that we answered while we were at G3, things that we brought back up here, coming back to the word of God, I pray that these would continue to be guiding convictions, the

01:14:37

Holy Spirit that is drawing the heart back to God's word and let God's word be the thing that shapes us, conforms us to the image of Christ, grows us in sanctification, prepares us for that day of glory.

01:14:50

When Jesus returns, all of his saints will be gathered to him. Those that were the first to die, the dead in Christ will rise first.

01:15:01

We who are left will be caught up with him in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. We will be with you forever in your glorious kingdom, where as it says in Revelation 21, there will be no more dying, no more sin, no more pain.

01:15:14

He will wipe every tear from our eyes and all the former things will have passed away. Lord, we pray that you continue to work these things out in our hearts, that our minds and our attention would be to the things of Christ in our daily activities and that our disposition would be, as Paul says in Colossians 3, that we would seek the things that are above where Christ is.

01:15:37

Keep us faithful to this according to your word. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.

01:16:51

Whenever you're ready. This is the 2000th episode of When We Understand the

01:16:57

Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the word of Christ. Thank you for listening and for telling all your friends about our ministry.

01:17:05

Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. 2000 episodes.

01:17:12

And we are coming here on the second day of, let me start again.

01:17:18

Okay. Me too. You want to do it again? No. Yeah, you do have to do it again.

01:17:25

All right. Okay. Sorry. Whenever you're ready. That's okay. This is the 2000th episode of When We Understand the

01:17:35

Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the word. I'm like spooked up.

01:17:40

You don't like it? The text. Text. You can totally do a hairband thing.

01:17:47

The text. Wow. The 2000th episode.

01:17:57

There we go. All right. I can't get that high anymore. It's not possible.

01:18:04

It's just, sorry. It started making me laugh and I couldn't stop. Well, control yourself.

01:18:10

I got it. I'm about to start again. I got it. I got it. All right. This is the 2000th episode of When I Got My Giggling.