WWUTT 2240 Q&A Saved by God or by Faith, Poofing Out of Nothing, Ministering to the Sick

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September 6, 2024

Responding to questions from listeners about whether we are saved by God or by faith; if the Juidaizers taught that you had to be saved by circumcision, then what about the women; what are some arguments for the existence of God; and what are some tips on ministering to the sick. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!

00:00: Are we saved by faith, or are we saved by God? If the Judaizers taught that you had to be circumcised in order to be saved, how were the women saved?
00:10: And what's some good counsel for ministering to people in the hospital? Some answers when we understand the text.
00:24: This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word, that we may grow in Godliness.
00:32: Tell all your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here once again is
00:37: Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Proverbs 4. Uh -huh. Hear, O sons, a father's instruction, and be attentive that you may gain insight.
00:49: For I give you good precepts, do not forsake my teaching. When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, he taught me and said to me,
01:02: Let your heart hold fast my words. Keep my commandments and live.
01:08: Get wisdom, get insight. Do not forget and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.
01:16: Do not forsake her, and she will keep you. Love her, and she will guard you.
01:22: The beginning of wisdom is this. Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.
01:29: Prize her highly, and she will exalt you. She will honor you if you embrace her.
01:35: She will place on your head a graceful garland. She will bestow on you a beautiful crown.
01:44: Now I love that word in verse 7. The beginning of wisdom is this. Get it. Get wisdom.
01:51: That's the beginning of wisdom right there. So the desire of it is to obtain it.
01:58: If you desire it, it's what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.
02:06: Ask and you will receive. I'm not putting those in the right order, but you know. So if you have the heart that desires wisdom, then you're going to go after wisdom.
02:14: It's not just you sitting around going, I wish I were wiser. But you yearn for it.
02:22: You seek after it. Yeah. So you can't just pray, Lord, give me wisdom, and then that's it.
02:29: Like, it's done? Yeah, you should do that. You should pray and ask of God. No, I mean, but not seek for wisdom.
02:36: Well, I would think the beginning of seeking wisdom would be to pray, because that is seeking wisdom.
02:44: Because remember the verse in James 1, I think it's verse 5. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives generously to all without reproach.
02:54: So the beginning of seeking wisdom is praying. That is seeking wisdom.
02:59: That would be the first place you should go. Awesome. And then, of course, we seek God's word. That's what we've been doing here.
03:05: And the Proverbs will give you all kinds of practical wisdom that you can apply to your life and living.
03:13: It's awesome. And it is also listed as a spiritual gift in 1 Corinthians 12. Remember that?
03:19: Proverbs? No. Yeah. Well, Proverbs. Oh, you mean wisdom. Yeah. Wisdom is a spiritual gift.
03:25: Oh, I gotcha. So knowledge is one gift, and wisdom is another gift. Right. Knowledge. And one of the things that had communicated to me when
03:33: I was a young age, when I was at a young age and I'm seeking wisdom, is that knowledge and wisdom being two distinct gifts means just because you have a lot of knowledge doesn't mean you automatically have wisdom.
03:46: Oh, yeah. For sure. So what I was doing was storing up a bunch of knowledge. Right. You know, reading all the articles I was reading online or reading the books that I was reading.
03:54: Yeah. And so I'm storing up a bunch of knowledge. But then not knowing what to do with it. Right. Or how to apply it appropriately.
04:01: Yeah. Right. Not knowing how to apply it, I did it inappropriately, and you can become a terror to people that way.
04:09: Yes. Yes. Very, very true. Because remember what Paul says to the Corinthians is, knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
04:16: So you can have a bunch of knowledge and actually end up being a very dangerous person. Yeah. Wisdom, then how do you apply that?
04:22: So there are some teachers that are really gifted with knowledge and know how to give a bunch of information to you.
04:29: Yeah. But you might have to seek another godly man or woman to teach you then how to use that knowledge.
04:35: Yeah. That you may live according to those things. That's true, because it's not the same gift. Right. So it's not hand -in -hand.
04:41: Yeah. And just - Always hand -in -hand. And just because they're not the same gift doesn't mean that you can say, well,
04:47: I just have the gift of knowledge and I don't have wisdom. Everybody needs to seek wisdom. Of course. But some people are going to have that gift better than most other people generally do.
04:57: So that's the person that you should be going to - Who has it naturally. Exactly.
05:03: Yeah. Well, naturally. Spiritually. They have it spiritually. Okay. Fair enough. It's a spiritual gift. I meant like it comes naturally.
05:10: Like it's just, it flows out of them. They don't have to work at it kind of thing. It's a figure of speech.
05:16: Not literally natural. Understood.
05:22: I just thought I would provide the distinction there. Fair enough. Yeah. Well, this is the
05:28: Friday edition of the broadcast. We love taking questions from the listeners, and you can send them to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com
05:35: or our voicemail, go to wwutt .com and click on the voicemail tab there on the top right of the page.
05:42: We've got a couple of voicemail messages here. I think two voicemails. Yay. Two emails we're going to try to cover -
05:49: In this episode. Oh, somebody had asked, I don't have this email up in front of me, but somebody had said that they wanted to send us a gift and they could not find through the website how to send us something via Venmo.
06:04: Oh, okay. I don't have the Venmo address on the website. Right. So isn't it Gebekehues?
06:09: Yes. Okay. So that's - G -A -B -E -K -I -H -U -G -H -E -S.
06:16: Yes. I don't know why I don't put that on the website. How susceptible is that to people messing with it?
06:23: I don't know. I'm going to prank these guys by giving them money. Right. Anyway.
06:30: So yeah, I just, I don't put that information on the website, including our email address. I mean, the email address is still attached to PayPal, so you can send it that way too.
06:38: When we understand the text at gmail .com, the Venmo again is Gebekehues, G -A -B -E -K -I -H -U -G -H -E -S.
06:48: Yes. Gebekehues. Because we figured out Gabe and Becky go together. Yes. And it has our picture on it.
06:55: Oh yeah. Our picture's there too. So you'll know you're sending it to the right thing. Isn't it our sketch pic? No. Is that what it is?
07:01: No, we have our what shirts on though. Oh yeah, from G3. Yes. When we were at G3. I think so. I remember that now.
07:07: And we want to say thank you to everybody who has donated. Oh, we have been praying for you guys.
07:13: It's been such a blessing to be helped. Yeah, we can't even tell you. We would not make it through this year.
07:19: Nope. If it were not for the gifts that we've received. Yes. It's been amazing. I mean, the church has been wonderful too.
07:25: Right. And they can only help so much. Sure. And we're expensive apparently.
07:32: We are very expensive. Well, in case you're unaware, it's because our house in Texas hasn't sold.
07:38: So we're paying rent and a mortgage. Yes. And then the school year started and we had all the school expenses that came along with that.
07:46: Yeah. So we did get an offer on the house for those who've been praying. Yes. It was absurd.
07:53: Yes. Like the person was wanting to live in the house for a little while and pay rent, but nothing up front.
08:01: Like I'm going to live in it for a month and then pay rent. And it was low rent even for that area.
08:06: Yeah, right. Really low rent. The rent they were asking to have to pay was less than what
08:11: I pay on my mortgage. Yeah. So I was going, no, I don't think so. We got an offer. They said, we're going to live in it this long and then we're going to buy it.
08:19: And I turned it down. So that's out the window. That one's no good. Yeah, it didn't work out.
08:25: The house was vandalized a month ago. I mean, there's been all kinds of drama going on with this.
08:33: So your prayers appreciated. Your financial support has been amazing. And then our friends there, too, to help us take care of all of that fiasco.
08:41: Yes, right. They have been amazing. We've had friends in Texas that have been helping us cover for things that we can't do because we're 16 hours away.
08:50: Yes. Too hard to get there. You know, our church, like Becky said, our church has been hugely supportive as well.
08:58: And when we say thank you for supporting us, we're also saying thanks on behalf of our church.
09:04: Yes, definitely. We've shared tears. We've prayed for you guys. We are just delighted in the support that we have received.
09:12: And know that we're being as responsible as we can be with the money. Yes. When our church had even, at one point, voted to give us a certain amount of money, we didn't touch it for six months.
09:25: Because we had enough listener support that we could tell the congregation, we don't need this right now.
09:30: Right. So we're going to sit on this until later. And hopefully we won't need it. And hopefully we won't. We were hoping the house would sell.
09:36: That was our hope and our prayer. Six months went by. We sat on that money for six months until finally a point came where we said, all right, we're taking you up on your offer.
09:49: Yeah. But yeah, the church is also very grateful for the support that we've received.
09:54: It's just, you know, the way that we as brothers and sisters in the Lord can help one another. Yes. And if we get on the other end of this, we get the house sold and we have some extra, we're going to pay it forward to somebody.
10:06: And we'll want to help them through a difficult situation as well. Definitely. So thank you guys so much.
10:11: Thank you very much. Well, let's get to some of these questions here. We'll start with this voicemail.
10:17: I can't remember who this is by. So we'll find out together. Awesome. Here we go. Hello, Gabe and Babe. If I recall,
10:24: I think I'm the first person to say that in a recording. This is Daryl from Florida. I have a question regarding something my pastor said this previous
10:32: Sunday in his sermon. He was preaching on how we are saved by faith and not by our works.
10:38: He was kind of rapid firing some things off. But in the middle of a statement, he said, we are saved by Christ and not by our faith in Christ.
10:48: I've been kind of dwelling on that, and I'm not quite sure if he misspoke or if that's something he actually meant to say.
10:56: But I'm conflicted on the meaning of that. But I was wanting to know your opinion on that statement to see if you would agree with that or not.
11:05: I didn't get a chance after church to ask him what he meant by that exactly. But I would just love to hear your take on it.
11:12: Thank you both, and God bless you both. Hey, I appreciate you, brother. Thanks. Thank you. So what do you think?
11:18: Are we saved not by faith, but by Christ? God saves us.
11:25: Is that correct? Not according.
11:30: I mean, kind of, sort of. Yeah, it is. I mean, it's hand in hand. It's correct. Christ saves us. Yeah. We are saved by God.
11:38: Right. And because of that, we have faith automatically. Because of that, we have faith. Yes. Yeah. So that's why
11:44: I was saying it's hand in hand. Right. But it, I mean, we don't start that. It's an evidence that we have been chosen for salvation.
11:52: Yes. But God is the one who saves. Right. So consider, you know, kind of the main verse that we go to when it comes to being saved by faith, we go to Ephesians 2 .8.
12:02: Right. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
12:14: Because a faith in Christ would be a works. No, it's not a work. No? I want to argue that it's not a work.
12:22: Okay. Like, I understand what people mean when they say, well, if it was by our faith, then we would be doing the work.
12:29: And it's not our work, it's Christ's work. So I understand what they mean when they argue that.
12:35: But whenever scripture talks about faith, it talks about it in a different category than works.
12:42: Oh, okay. Like it's God's thing. Yes. God gives us the faith. Right. And when he gives us the faith, like when we understand
12:49: God giving us faith, it doesn't mean he believes for us. Right. Of course not.
12:55: Our hearts were unbelieving, God came in and here, now I'm going to make you to believe. It is
13:00: God changing our heart to believe where previously we did not. We could not. Right.
13:06: We were incapable of coming to God, because our natural disposition was to run away from God.
13:13: Right. It was to turn away from God, it was to go do our own thing, it was to go after our sin. Romans 3, 10 through 12.
13:21: As it is written, none is righteous, no not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God.
13:29: All have turned aside, together they have become worthless, no one does good, not even one.
13:37: Even choosing God is a good thing. And you can't do it unless God has chosen you first.
13:44: Right. And has transformed your heart by the Holy Spirit, we have the regenerated heart.
13:50: And being regenerated, now we desire God, where previously we did not.
13:56: Right. Regenerated heart helps us to see our sin, our need for a savior and that Christ is that savior.
14:01: Yes. And then putting faith in Christ is the outworking of a heart that has been regenerated.
14:09: Regenerated, yes. Okay, I see, yeah. But the salvation itself is what
14:15: God has done, he has saved us. So we don't do anything to save ourselves,
14:22: God has saved us. Well, of course, yeah. The faith that we have in Christ, which is necessary, but that faith happens because of the work that God has done.
14:30: It is an evidence of the fact that we've been chosen for salvation, that he has saved us. So even when we talk about works being an evidence of that faith, when we do good works, it evidences the faith that we have in Christ.
14:44: It isn't the works themselves even are not the cause of our salvation. They are the evidence that we've been saved.
14:50: Well, in that sense, faith also becomes an evidence that we have been chosen for salvation.
14:56: So by grace, you have been saved through faith. Faith is the mechanism that God has designated as being that way he will transmit all of the gracious benefits of salvation to us.
15:12: But the salvation happened before we directed ourselves toward God.
15:18: Yeah, because we were dead. Yeah, we're dead in our sins and our transgressions in which we once walked.
15:24: Right. Following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
15:41: That's the first three verses of that chapter. Yes. I don't know how anybody reads that and goes, oh, so what you're saying is
15:47: I chose God. Yeah. You were dead. Yes.
15:52: Dead people don't choose to do anything. So then the next line, verse four, those beautiful, great words that are in themselves a gospel message in just these two words, but God.
16:05: Amen. Being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead and our trespasses made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
16:32: Now, thus far, faith hasn't even been mentioned. True. Yeah. So by grace you have been saved.
16:40: And now, verse eight, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing.
16:48: It is the gift of God. No one of those three things there, saved, grace, faith, none of those things are our doing.
16:55: Right. That is all the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast.
17:01: We can't even boast in our faith. So I believed. Yeah. And that's why
17:07: I made it here. Mm -hmm. No, you came to faith because God came to you.
17:12: Right. We love God because he first loved us and gave his son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
17:20: Right. So, yeah, it is true to ultimately say that salvation is not by our faith.
17:27: Salvation is given to us by God. We're saved by his grace through faith, which, again, is that vessel, that mechanism, that device.
17:37: I mean, whatever crude word you want to use there for the way that God has transmitted his grace to us because we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
17:48: So, great question. Yeah. Appreciate the brain teaser forcing us to think through that.
17:54: Right? Because I was stumped, really. I mean, you're saved by grace through faith.
18:02: Yeah. So it's kind of like the same area, the same thing at the same time.
18:08: And one of the foundational truths to being reformed, as we are, is justification by faith.
18:16: So it's justification by faith and not of works. Right. We are justified, we are declared innocent before God by our faith in Jesus Christ.
18:24: Right. Not by anything that we have done. Right. But still understanding that the fact that we have even come to faith in Jesus Christ is a work that he has done in our hearts.
18:34: It's not a work that we just decided to do one day. That's true. Or something that we chose. We conjured up.
18:40: So consider Romans 12 .3 as well. For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
18:59: Mm -hmm. So there are some that have a deeper, greater faith, outworking of that faith than other people have.
19:08: Yeah. And part of that, as Paul will go on in those instructions, you get to Romans 15 .1, we who are strong, we're stronger in faith.
19:16: We have more maturity, more years behind us, more experience. We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves, but to please our neighbor for his good to build him up.
19:29: Right. But still understanding that even that building of our faith didn't come by our work.
19:36: Right. That is the spirit at work in us. That's true. To mature us in Christ Jesus. Let's go to this question next.
19:43: This is from Shelly. Hello, Pastor Gabe and Becky. My name is Shelly, and I live in Oregon.
19:49: I am a regular listener to your podcast. I've been greatly encouraged from your ministry, and Pastor Gabe, you are a very gifted verse -by -verse communicator when it comes to expositing
20:01: Scripture. I appreciate it greatly. So here is my question. Maybe you've addressed this before.
20:07: I'm not sure, but nevertheless, here we go. So if the New Testament Judaizers believed that you had to be circumcised to be saved, how could women be saved?
20:16: So Titus 1, 10, and 11 says, For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of dishonest gain.
20:30: I appreciate your time, and I look forward to your answer in Christ, Shelly.
20:37: So if the Judaizers were saying you had to be circumcised to be saved, where does that leave the women?
20:44: Yeah. Now, we're pondering this question based on this claim that the
20:49: Judaizers were making. So when the Judaizers were spreading this false doctrine, this was the very thing that Paul was confronting with the
20:57: Galatians as well. Because the Judaizers had come in and were saying, yeah, if you want to be saved, you can follow
21:02: Jesus, but you also have to be circumcised. If you're not circumcised, then you're not saved. So if that's the message that they're spreading, then what are we saying about the women?
21:12: Were women saved? Were they not saved? Acts 15 .1, where you have the Jerusalem Council there in Acts 15.
21:20: But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.
21:30: And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and to the elders about this question.
21:41: So Shelley has even kind of come with this question. Okay. Yeah. Well, if that's the deal, then how does that work with the women?
21:50: Well, understand something about circumcision itself. Circumcision, which we understand what we're talking about regarding that, the physical act of circumcision.
22:00: Literally circumcision. Yeah. Not play on words or anything. What was it that Mel Brooks would say?
22:05: You nip the tip. Nip the tip. Yeah, that's right. That's old school right there.
22:11: Right. So that's what we're talking about. The act of circumcision. Now, even the physical act was supposed to be pointing toward a spiritual act that all of us must have in our hearts.
22:21: Right. And even all of Israel was told this in the book of Deuteronomy before they're going into the promised land, though their males had not yet been circumcised before going into the promised land.
22:30: It was being said to all Israel, you must circumcise your hearts. So you're cutting yourself off from the world and you're uniting yourself to God.
22:39: You're not going to whore yourself out with all these false gods, as we've been reading about going through Hosea.
22:46: Yeah. Being united to Christ in your heart. There is a spiritual aspect to that as well.
22:51: But understand the sign of the covenant that was given to Abraham and then to his descendants, which was circumcision.
23:01: The sign did not make the covenant. So just because you did it doesn't really mean you're in the covenant.
23:09: Okay. The covenant is made between Abraham and God and God ratifies this covenant with a sacrifice of animals.
23:18: We read about that in Genesis chapter 15. It is applied, the covenant is applied to Abraham and to all of his descendants.
23:27: But then circumcision is what God told Abraham to do. And his sons and all the males in his household, this was the sign of the covenant.
23:38: And it was supposed to be a witness or a reminder of that covenant that God had made with Abraham.
23:45: Now a refusal of the sign, like if they refuse the sign, well, that could have been an indication that you and your heart, you're not united to God.
23:55: Yeah. So your refusal of the sign is refusing to want to be with God. But the sign of the covenant is not the covenant itself.
24:05: So think of this also with regards to the rainbow. Okay. Because this was the sign of the covenant that God made with Noah.
24:13: And no one has to see a rainbow in order to be in that covenant promise, right?
24:18: True. Like if nobody has set their eyes on a rainbow, then they're going to die in a flood someday.
24:24: True. Fair enough. We wouldn't say that. Right. And in fact, the way that you read of the rainbow when
24:30: God gives it in Genesis 9, it's not a reminder necessarily to Noah as much as it is even a reminder to God that God is not going to bring this judgment on mankind again.
24:46: That's not that God is forgetful and he needs to tie a string around his finger. Right. Oh, yeah, right. I remember now that I wasn't going to destroy mankind with a flood.
24:54: But just to give us comfort. Right. To show in the heavens. That he remembers.
25:00: That God remembers. And he is not going to bring a flood upon the earth again. Not going to destroy the world in this way again.
25:07: Right. But as we're told in 2 Peter 3, the heavens are being stored up with fire.
25:13: So there is going to be a destruction of the world that will come later on with fire. Right. But a flood won't happen again.
25:19: So you consider the rainbow as the sign of the covenant. It's not the covenant.
25:24: Right. It's not the covenant. But it is the sign. It's the reminder of the covenant. Mm -hmm. So now in the
25:30: New Testament, in the New Testament church that we are now a part of by faith in Jesus Christ, the sign of our covenant is baptism.
25:39: Now, it's not a replacement of the covenant of circumcision. I know you
25:45: Presbyterian brothers, that's what you like to believe. But circumcision is circumcision. Mm -hmm. Baptism is baptism.
25:51: They are their own signs. It's baptism. It's not the replacement of circumcision. Because, again, there is still a need to be circumcised, but we're spiritually circumcised.
26:02: Right. Circumcised in heart. We're also physically baptized, but our water baptism is showing outwardly something that's happened inwardly.
26:11: Right. So thus far, I really haven't answered Shelley's question yet. No. So how did this work then with the women?
26:19: Well, there's an interesting discussion in the Talmud about this. So the Talmud is where you have rabbinic
26:26: Judaism, all the rules and laws of the Jews. Okay. Post -Temple period, they still follow this stuff.
26:34: Okay. In the Talmud. And there was a rabbi named Yochanan who happened to live in the first century.
26:41: So he may have been among those Judaizers who were making these statements about, you have to be circumcised in order to be saved.
26:49: Oh, interesting. He could have been among them during that time. Now, he was making an argument over something that was in the
26:55: Talmud about who could conduct a circumcision. And only those who are circumcised can do a circumcision.
27:02: But we know that Moses' wife circumcised Moses' son. Uh -huh. So his argument was that a woman is already naturally circumcised.
27:12: So the Talmud would say that a circumcision is already present in a woman.
27:20: Now, we don't know. So all women are automatically saved? Yeah, I guess. Okay. Well, there you go.
27:26: All Jewish women. So I guess in that case, in their position, it might be if they refused, like they didn't marry a man who was circumcised, well, now you've given up what you already naturally had.
27:39: Or if she refuses to have her son circumcised or something like that, then she's giving up what she already naturally had.
27:46: So that could have been... So you could betray it. Yeah. Sure. The Pharisees, of course, had all their laws, all their rules, man -made traditions.
27:55: So they probably had a whole spell of things that they would go through with regards to what women had to do or whatever else.
28:02: Scripture doesn't really tell us. But that gives us a pretty good idea of maybe the way they regarded women with this legalese that they were laying down.
28:13: You have to be circumcised in order to be saved. I mean, it wasn't even true in Abraham's day that you have to be circumcised in order to be saved.
28:21: This goes back to the discussion we just had about you're saved by God. Yes. He saves you. Yes. And then faith is evidence or it's something that a person is going to have if God has saved them.
28:33: They will show it by faith. They will show their faith by their works. So, yeah, just the same with circumcision.
28:40: It was never something that affected the covenant. God's covenant was already made with his people.
28:46: It was a sign of the covenant. Yeah, interesting. And some of that is theory, but there's the answer to the question there.
28:54: All right, we're holding off on these next questions until part two. Those of you who listen on the radio, this is the end of part one, and you can hear the
29:04: Be sure to send us an email. Drop us a voicemail. We'd love to hear from you. God bless.
29:09: May the peace of Christ be upon you. Yes. Amen. Carl Sagan once said that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
29:26: You know what? We agree, though not in a way that an atheist might think, if it could be said that an atheist thinks.
29:31: The burden of proof is more on an atheist to show there is no creator than it is on the Christian to prove that there is.
29:37: Why? Because all human beings inherently understand design. This is referred to as empirical adequacy.
29:43: Pick any object and you inherently know it was created. But no atheist will ever be able to refer to anything coming into existence without cause or creator.
29:51: Even if he were to cook up some example of random processes, he runs into what is called the implied creator paradox because he had to create his example of non -creation.
30:00: The statement made earlier about how atheists don't think we aren't trying to be derogatory. We're simply following their logic.
30:05: If we're nothing but the result of accidental processes, then human beings are just walking sacks of chemicals. And chemicals cannot reason.
30:12: They only react. That's a pretty good description of some atheists. Romans 1 19 -21
30:17: For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made.
30:30: So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.
30:40: There's no reason to have to prove God's existence because everyone inherently knows God is real and his word is true.
30:47: All of the evidence is already there when we understand the text. That's an old video.
30:54: That one's 10 years old. Wow. That was one of our first year what videos?
31:00: The first year that I was making them. Interesting. And that's with regard to the argument.
31:06: How do you prove that God exists? Well, the burden of proof is not on the theist or the person who believes in intelligent design to prove an intelligent designer because intelligent design is inherently understood.
31:23: So if you're going to claim that there's not an intelligent designer, well, you actually have the burden of proof to prove that.
31:30: So that was where I was coming from with that particular video. But that said, I got this question from Stephen and he said, so very thankful for your short, concise explanations.
31:39: Has what tackled the topic of the existence of God? And there you go.
31:45: That was it. Now, I could certainly be more broad. That was just a minute and a half video.
31:50: And there's certainly more things to say. Oh, yeah. R .C. Sproul has a whole series where he goes through arguments on the existence of God.
31:58: You can read books by Francis Schaeffer where he spends the whole book talking about an argument for the existence of God.
32:04: So you can certainly go deeper than that. But there should be, as you're making an argument for the existence of God, there should be an appeal to the obvious.
32:14: So you're helping an atheist, a skeptic or whoever else to recognize what their foolish heart darkened by their sin won't let them see.
32:25: You're trying to take the blinders off. Right. Or the way that Francis Schaeffer put this was you're trying to take the roof off.
32:31: Sort of like you're opening the roof of this house that they have built for themselves and have remained contained in.
32:37: Yeah. And you're taking the roof off and helping them see, oh, there's a whole big sky above me. Right. This was made by God, you know.
32:45: So helping to draw out obvious observations like this. Why is there something rather than nothing?
32:52: Where did this come from? Yeah. And there's a common, you know, it's commonly said among skeptics that, well, who created
32:58: God? Well, the law of causation is whatever is caused must have a cause.
33:04: But God is not caused, so he doesn't need to have a cause. True. That's the law of causation. So you can have an eternal uncaused being that is eternally existent living outside of the caused time and space in which we live that has caused this thing to exist in which we live.
33:24: Now, that doesn't have to mean that God himself has a cause. But repeating again what was said in the video,
33:31: Romans 1, 18, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
33:41: For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made.
33:55: So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts are darkened.
34:06: They know that God exists. We inherently know that God exists. Just like you know that you did not just come into existence without parents.
34:15: Even if a person never knew their parents in their entire life, they have no memory of their parents whatsoever.
34:22: Yet they can't say that I didn't have parents. Right. You had a mother and a father that contributed to your existence.
34:30: It would be absurd for any person to say, I didn't have a mother or father. I just came to be. Right. And you work that all the way back.
34:37: Poof, there I am. To an atheist basically claiming that we poofed out of nothing, which doesn't work.
34:45: That doesn't happen. I like that phrase, poofed out of nothing. Poofed out of nothing. Even a poof has to come from somewhere.
34:59: That's awesome. So that's a good place to start when it comes to making arguments regarding the existence of God. And I encourage you to check out books by Sproul and Francis Schaeffer.
35:09: Yeah. Two good places to begin. This next question, or it's a comment rather, comes from Chris.
35:14: He says, hey Pastor Gabe, I'm sure others have told you this by now, but you can thank
35:22: Bugs Bunny for thinking Nimrod was a synonym for dumb. Ah, interesting.
35:29: Remember having this conversation a couple of weeks ago? Yes, the Nimrod. Yeah. And it means not dumb.
35:34: Yeah. So mighty hunter or mighty warrior or whatever it was, but Nimrod was known in Genesis as a mighty hunter.
35:42: Right. He was a mighty hunter before God. Right. Bugs was calling Elmer Fudd a mighty hunter,
35:49: Nimrod. Ah. Like we might call someone a real Einstein after making a dumb mistake.
35:55: Gotcha. Okay. Anyway, love the show.
36:00: I've been listening to the podcast since 2020 and the YouTube's for even longer. I think it's cool that you're a part of FIRE, the
36:08: Fellowship of Independent Reformed Evangelicals. Uh -huh. Our church is part of FIRE. Yes. I've been in a
36:14: FIRE church since 2016 with Pastor Glenn Dunn. That almost sounds like a Pentecostal statement. I've been in a
36:19: FIRE church. But we could be fired up. Oh, yeah. That's good. Absolutely. One thing
36:25: I'll share is a poem I wrote a year or two ago. Since you mentioned ego I me during the week where Jesus says
36:33: I am, ego I me. It's an acrostic and I tried to include a reference to every time
36:39: Christ said it in John. So, this is a poem that's an acrostic. You go down the left side and it's
36:45: E -G -O -E -I -M -I. Okay? Yeah. Existing before Abraham's day, good shepherd whose sheep in pastures lay, only one and narrow way, enter, eat the bread and stay.
37:03: In the vine your hideaway, man and God overlay, I am
37:09: Yahweh. Oh, that is so cool. That is awesome, Chris. I love that.
37:15: That is fantastic. I'm going to keep that. Yeah. I want to find a way to frame it even. I'll stick it on. That's what
37:20: I was thinking too. Yeah. Put it in my office here. What a great poem. Well, thank you for that insight.
37:26: It had never even occurred to me before. This is Bugs Bunny calling Elmer Fudd Nimrod. And that's where it comes from.
37:33: There you go. It's more new than we thought. Yeah. See, babe, that was a bit of trivia I didn't know.
37:39: I'm surprised. Yeah. So thanks for letting me in on that one. I have another question I could beat my wife at now in Trivial Pursuit.
37:46: Because I'll forget. Trivia Pursuit, not Trivial Pursuit. Trivial. It's all trivial.
37:54: That's why she won't play with me. Yeah. All right. This next question, this comes from Chief. Okay.
38:00: That's his name. Awesome. Dear Pastor Gabe, I came across this today by Dane Ortlund.
38:05: And I wondered what you might think of it. I volunteer as a hospital chaplain, so it was of particular interest to me.
38:11: But I cannot say that I agree with all of it, especially number six. Would you share that concern or am
38:18: I reading too deep into this? Thank you for your ministry, Chief. Okay. So here's what
38:24: Dane Ortlund posted. I looked this up and found out that he had posted this on X earlier the week.
38:30: Who is this? Excuse me. So Dane Ortlund is the author of Gentle and Lowly.
38:38: He is one of the children of Ray Ortlund Jr. Okay. Who has contributed some of the study notes to the
38:45: ESV Bible. Ray Ortlund very unfortunately got caught up with the woke stuff. Oh, okay.
38:51: So he's not a teacher that I recommend any longer. But that's not to say that there haven't been some beneficial things that have come from the
38:58: Ortlunds. Sure. So Dane Ortlund had shared this on X. He said the following, Last night
39:04: I took a ministry resident for a hospital visitation. On the way over,
39:09: I gave him the usual speech for his unique ministry venue. Okay, so that kind of sounds confusing.
39:17: Point being that he is telling an understudy who he's teaching about doing hospital chaplaincy.
39:25: Okay. Here are some good steps to follow. Oh, okay. So these are 10 things that a good minister in a hospital should remember to do.
39:34: Or a pastor doing hospital visitations. Okay. Whatever you might apply this to.
39:40: Okay. I wouldn't think you even need to be in an official ministry capacity. You're going into a hospital just to witness to people who are there sick in hospital beds.
39:49: Okay. Or in a nursing home. Yeah. Whatever that might happen to be. Here are the 10 pieces of advice that he gives.
39:55: Number one, silence the phone. Fair enough. Okay. Makes sense. Yeah. Number two, grab a breath mint.
40:06: That's something you probably would not think about. But yeah, good idea to grab a breath mint.
40:13: Maybe. Unless they're nauseous. And then maybe not. Well, yeah.
40:18: I mean, don't get close anyway. Yeah. If that's the case. Because my mom, whenever I was in labor, she was trying to help me breathe.
40:26: And she had drank some coffee. It was awful. I couldn't breathe.
40:32: I couldn't think about anything other than the smell. Smell of her coffee breath. When you're in pain, it just is the worst.
40:40: So then she apologizes and apologizes. And she goes and she comes back with mint coffee breath.
40:47: I was just like, oh, no. She took a mint. She did. She tried. She tried.
40:52: And I still love her. It didn't damage our relationship by any means.
40:58: But it was so difficult to breathe through the pain. Understand. Okay. With any sort of flavorful breath.
41:10: Yeah. Anything. Right. Just don't breathe on me. Don't get close to me at all. Just no strong breaths or smelling breath.
41:18: There we go. To have neutral breath is quite a feat. Yes. And extremely rare. It is.
41:25: But I think it could be done. Just keep your distance. Yeah. Keep a friendly distance.
41:31: Probably a good idea. Yes. Yeah. So number one, silence the phone. Number two, grab a breath mint. Number three.
41:37: Can't argue with this one. Bring a Bible. Yeah. And this Bible that I have open in front of me here, as a matter of fact,
41:44: I've probably taken this Bible on more hospital visits than any other Bible I own.
41:49: I would believe that. Yeah. This one's been a lot of places with me. This is my oldest
41:54: ESV Bible. It fits in your hand so well. Yeah, it does. Yeah. This is my oldest ESV.
41:59: So this was the very first ESV that I bought when I started preaching from that translation. I need to get it rebound.
42:06: You do. So I need to call Jeffrey up and say, hey, Post Tenebrous Luke's Bible rebinding.
42:11: Yes, please. Help me out here. Help a brother out. Number four, talk little, listen much.
42:20: Now that's good counsel, but here's where I would push back on that. You might be talking to somebody who cannot talk.
42:30: And I've had plenty of encounters like that. In fact, I would say it might be half of my hospital encounters.
42:36: Yeah, I was gonna say quite a few. Especially if I'm going and visiting somebody who's on hospice. Their breath is already really, really weak, have trouble articulating anything or talking at all.
42:48: And I want to be able to speak words to them that are reassuring. And plus, when you're talking to a person that's so near to the end of life like that, they generally don't want to be left alone.
42:58: Now, I'm typically not coming to them alone. There's family that's around.
43:03: Yeah, yeah. But nonetheless, you don't want to leave the space open and make it awkward for the person to have to fill it when they don't have the strength to be able to do it.
43:15: Yeah, or you're gonna exhaust them. Yeah, something like that. Yeah. So I think it's good here.
43:21: Number four is good counsel. It's good advice, but it's not absolute. So talk little, listen much.
43:27: Sure, fair enough. It's gonna have to be a case -by -case basis. Yes. And you can evaluate whether the person can't talk.
43:35: It's actually wearing them out to have to talk anymore. Right. And you can talk. And also, be wise and try to feel out the situation as to whether you need to be there longer than you are.
43:47: Mm -hmm. So talk little, listen much. That's good counsel, but maybe there's occasions in which they want to hear you talk.
43:54: Yeah. And you might need to be the one talking. Number five, read a psalm, then pray it over them.
44:02: That's great. Now, if you don't know what else to do from Scripture, that's a good fallback. Mm -hmm.
44:08: Find a psalm. Be equipped with the psalms. Know the psalms well enough that you know what psalm you might apply to what situation.
44:15: Yeah. Don't have to be there pulling your Bible out and kind of thumbing through it. Like, not this one. Let's see.
44:21: Maybe this one. No, not that one. Yeah. Maybe the next one. I don't know. Or you start reading one.
44:29: And then it switches. Yeah, right. It's like so positive, and then all of a sudden it's like, you're a terrible person.
44:35: Or break the teeth of the wicked. Yes. Slay my enemies. Like, well, that probably doesn't help you here.
44:41: Well. That's still a good word. It is. Maybe not for that occasion.
44:46: May not be the most fitting for the situation. So be familiar enough with the psalms you know where you're going.
44:52: Right. And also be practiced in what it means to pray a psalm over a person.
44:57: So taking the words of that passage of scripture and how you might pray them in such a way that's honoring of God and applicable to the person hearing it.
45:05: Yeah. Now, again, it doesn't have to be a psalm. That's a good fallback. But you want to find some passage of scripture.
45:13: There are many other passages that I've gone to. I've not always just gone to the psalms. I would say, again, that's about a 50 -50 thing.
45:19: Half the time I've been in the psalms, half the time I've been elsewhere in scripture. Sure. But be familiar enough with the scriptures that you know how they might be applied to any situation.
45:29: And incidentally, there are some good books that you can find just doing a search on, you know,
45:34: I don't know, Amazon. I hate to give Amazon a plug. Banner of Truth or one of those kinds of sites that sells good
45:41: Christian books. Uh -huh. Look for some of those category books that will say, like, God's promises for a hard time or something like that.
45:49: Okay. I'm just kind of making up a title. Yeah. But it'll be under that kind of a heading. Bible verses for when things are hard.
45:56: Uh -huh. And what those small little booklets will often do is take a bunch of passages and then stick them into categories that are like what to pray or what to read when you're sad.
46:11: What to read when you're happy. Yeah. What to read when you've experienced a loss in the family, something like that.
46:16: Uh -huh. So, you'll find these books that'll separate verses out like that. It's a good place to go that you can equip yourself to know what passages fit with what kind of situation.
46:26: Yeah. Oh, Open Bible on Google. So, let me see if I can bring that up here. Openbible .com.
46:34: If it's the site I'm thinking of. No. Oh, openbible .info.
46:41: That's what it is. Oh. I had the wrong thing. I wondered if it was another dot. Yeah. A different one. Yeah, a different dot something, right?
46:47: Yeah, dot something. There we go. So, if you were to just Google search and you type in Bible verses about grief.
46:54: Uh -huh. Then you'll get one of those search results will be from openbible .info. Okay. Almost always.
47:00: It'll be like in the top five. Sure. So, if you just Google that and it'll give you a whole list of verses.
47:06: It's usually in the English Standard Version, but it'll give you a list of verses that are under that category.
47:12: So, right here I just typed up, what does the Bible say about grief and sorrow? So, it's giving me a list of verses beginning with Psalm 34, 18.
47:20: The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Revelation 21, 4.
47:26: He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death will be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away.
47:38: 2 Corinthians 1, 3 through 4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
47:44: Father of mercies and God of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
47:59: There you go. Definitely. You got a good reference there to find verses that might fit in a category like that.
48:06: Good way for you to familiarize yourself with verses that could fit any occasion. Definitely, yeah.
48:12: All right. Where was my list here? Coming back to this. Okay. Now, this is the one that Chief said that he felt like he had the biggest problem with.
48:19: Okay. Number six. Tears are okay, but no preaching, no advice, no counsel.
48:29: And I have to say, I totally disagree with that. So, it's okay to cry.
48:34: It's okay to share tears with them, but don't preach, don't give advice, and don't give counsel.
48:41: No. There are situations where it's necessary.
48:51: Okay. So, what I was going to say was, if it's like medical advice, yeah, you don't need to be giving medical advice.
48:58: No, of course not. That probably doesn't need to come from you. That's when you talk less and listen more.
49:05: Right. There you go. Right. Yeah. I mean, everybody needs to hear the gospel.
49:10: Right. You have to share the gospel. Everybody needs to hear that the Lord is with them, and that he's there for them, and he is their peace, and he is their comfort.
49:20: Right. Because they're not getting it from their bodies, obviously. And I just don't understand how they can justify that.
49:28: And I've had a situation before where I'm talking to somebody who had attempted suicide, and that's why they're in the hospital, and they don't have a great chance of surviving.
49:38: Like, this is how severe the attempt was. Yeah. Critical. Right. It was a very critical situation.
49:45: Yeah. Still conscious, though. Okay. So, when I talked to this person, I told them, this could be it for you.
49:51: And now you've tried to kill yourself and may yet succeed. We don't know what the end of this is going to be yet.
49:59: And so, you have right now to seek Christ with all your mind, all your heart, all your soul, all your strength.
50:07: Confess to God that you are wicked, you deserve to die, but it is only by faith in Jesus Christ that you are going to be saved.
50:15: And either it will be God's will to lift you out of this hospital bed, and you'll get to live for Christ from this point on, who has given you life.
50:24: Yeah. Or it could be God's will that this is it for you, but he's let you live this long to hear this message.
50:31: Turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. Call out to him, grieve before him, confess to him your sins, and he has promised that he will forgive you, and you will have everlasting life with God.
50:44: That was the only time I was going to get to share the gospel message with that kid. Yeah.
50:49: And so, I pleaded, I begged with him to turn to the Lord Christ. He was in a situation where he couldn't even respond to me with the way that, you know, he was all hooked up with everything.
51:00: But he could look at me, he knew that I was there, he could hear my message, and so I told him, this is what you need to do.
51:08: And I don't know actually what ended up becoming the result of all of that, unfortunately. I never spoke with him again after that, so never had any contact with him after that.
51:17: I know that he did get out of the hospital, but I don't know what ended up happening. Yeah. So, anyway, so those kinds of situations require preaching.
51:26: I mean, you don't want to let a situation like that pass by. Right. But it's not like, what do you call that, street preaching?
51:33: Yeah, it's not street evangelism. Yeah, that's it. So, it's not the same, but it's still giving them the gospel, because,
51:42: I mean, even if somebody's saved, they still need the gospel, because, who is it, Paul, that said, you know, it doesn't hurt, it's good for me and it's good for you?
51:50: Right. Yeah, so. You'll remember the guy that I witnessed, too, in the hospital who had MRSA.
51:55: Yeah, I remember him. And he had all kinds of... Well, I didn't meet him, but I remember the story. Yeah. He had all kinds of equipment hooked up to him, and could not respond to me either.
52:05: Yeah. So he could look at me, and I asked him, are you saved, do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? And he nodded his head.
52:11: Mm -hmm. And so, I read scripture over him, I prayed for him, and then all
52:17: I could do was sit in a chair on the other side of the hospital room. Nobody is with him, he has no loved ones.
52:22: Yeah, he was out of town. Because he was from out of town. Yeah. And the best I could do was sit over in the chair and just sing hymns to him.
52:29: Mm -hmm. And I did that and watched his heart rate plummet the entire time. So, you know, in that situation,
52:36: I can't listen to him do anything. Right. So, I preached to him, I sang to him, and there's been occasions too where I have given advice,
52:45: I have given counsel, you're here for this reason, and God is giving you this opportunity to repent and turn to him.
52:52: Or you're here sick, that's why you're in the hospital, you're sick. Yes. I can't make a moral judgment as a result of that, but God is giving you an opportunity here to seek
53:03: Christ, even in the midst of this, that you would turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. As said in 2
53:08: Corinthians 1 .9, this happened to us so that we would rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.
53:15: Mm -hmm. And so, even the reason why you're in the hospital might be that. Yes. A friend of mine was in a car accident, he's strapped down to a brace, he can't move at all, he's laying on his back when
53:28: I get there finally and I'm able to pray for the man. But yeah, that sort of situation.
53:33: He's even got his jaw clenched up like this, with all the stuff that was around him. Right. So he can't talk, but I'm sharing the gospel with him.
53:41: And I knew this man, and I knew he wanted me to share the good promises of the word with him.
53:47: Yes. So, he got preaching advice and counsel in that whole thing.
53:54: Number seven, treat them with dignity in their felt vulnerability.
54:01: I don't know what felt vulnerability means. Well, I mean, when I'm ill or when
54:08: I'm in the hospital, for whatever reason, I still feel awkward and very humble when people come to visit me.
54:17: Mm -hmm. So, is that what he's talking about? It could be that. And now that you mentioned being sick and in the hospital, so it could be specific to the reason why the person is there.
54:28: Okay. So, how are you ministering to them in their need, I guess to say, in their vulnerability, but felt vulnerability?
54:36: That's such an odd statement. Yeah. But treat them with dignity? Absolutely. Yes. Yeah.
54:41: For sure. I mean, whether they're conscious or unconscious. Yeah. So, like I said, with regard to a person who's sick and in the hospital, and there's no moral cause.
54:51: Mm -hmm. There's no reason for me to know morally why they ended up there. Right. It wasn't drug abuse.
54:57: It wasn't a suicide attempt or anything like that. Right. They're just sick and in the hospital. So, you're going to be sympathetic to that.
55:05: Mm -hmm. Showing dignity to them, I guess, in their felt vulnerability. You can just say sympathy.
55:10: I don't know why it has to be worded like that. That's an odd wording. Yeah. Number eight, speak of God and eternity, not the weather.
55:21: But what if they bring up the weather? I would bring up the weather. But that probably is why
55:27: I'm not a pastor. It's a beautiful day out. I mean, what's wrong with talking about the weather? Yeah. That's great. This is the day the
55:33: Lord has made. Yeah. I mean, they probably can't see it. Yeah, right. So... It's a gorgeous day out there.
55:39: You need to get up on your feet so you can go enjoy this air. That's right. It might encourage them to get out.
55:45: Like, you know how you always see the patients in wheelchairs being wheeled outside and enjoying the fresh air and stuff.
55:53: So maybe that would encourage them and uplift them. Speak of God and eternity.
55:58: I mean, that's very good. Yes. The passage that I just quoted from a little bit ago, Revelation 21 .4, that's one that I use quite often, in fact.
56:05: You'll wipe every tear from our eyes. That verse usually comes into a prayer that I might pray.
56:11: Lord, we know that you have promised us that you will wipe every tear from our eyes and death will be no more.
56:17: And I mean, it's fairly common to repeat those words and we're both sobbing at the end of it.
56:24: Yes, right. Because being there with them in a hospital room and praying for them, it reminds me of my own mortality, too.
56:34: It's certainly not an attitude of me standing there going, boy, I'm glad it's not me in that hospital bed.
56:40: It's a reminder that it could very well be me that's laying there in that position. And so I need these promises.
56:48: I need these reminders as well. A benefit to be able to minister to you in this way. And then the
56:53: Lord ministers to me in what we what we seek in the word together. So speak of God and eternity.
57:01: Yes, that's good. Not the weather. And I don't think that necessarily means needs to be tacked on whatever the patient wants to talk about.
57:08: First and foremost should be God. Yeah, of course. Yes. Right. There was one guy, his name was
57:14: Ben, that I would go and visit on occasion. And Ben loved to talk about Obama.
57:21: Okay. And Obama wasn't even president anymore. Okay. He didn't talk about Obama in the nice way either.
57:27: Oh, okay. He talked about all the things that he disagreed with in President Obama.
57:34: When I met Ben and when I ministered to Ben, Obama wasn't president anymore. So he still had a chip on his shoulder about President Obama.
57:43: He held on to that. So I would just learn, you know, whenever I visited Ben, how
57:48: I can talk with him and agree with him on some things and turn to scripture with other things that he would say.
57:55: Yeah. Because Ben, Obama's not president anymore. Right. I understand you think he's probably to blame for problems that are going on right now.
58:05: Oh, he would call him Biden's puppet master too or something like that. Oh, funny. Anyway, okay, this is, let's see, number nine.
58:15: Yes. Thank and honor the nursing staff. Very good. Oh, yeah, for sure.
58:21: Yeah, that is very good. I always try to be very respectful to any of the doctors or nursing staff that's around.
58:27: I'll ask questions of them as well. And I'm usually told I can't share that with anyone, but the patient or the spouse or something like that.
58:36: It's usually what I hear, but I still I want to inquire anyway, if anything. And on occasion,
58:42: I've left a card like my own business card or I've written something down and left it with the nursing staff and have said, if you need me for anything, the worst turns or whatever, and the person doesn't know who to call.
58:57: Here's my number and you can call me and I'll be down here. And sometimes I'll leave that information. Say, if you want me to come down for anybody else, even, you can call the number on that card.
59:07: And then number 10, Dane says, above all, I wouldn't say that this is above all, above all, don't stay long.
59:16: How is that above all? I don't know why that's above all. I think above all, remember Christ, bring
59:23: Christ into the conversation. That's above all. But yeah, above all, don't stay long. And see, even there,
59:29: I don't know that that is an absolute rule that you should hold on to. And he's putting it above all.
59:35: Yeah. But that's not an absolute, because again, you might be in a situation where somebody wants to talk for a long time, especially if I've gone and visited with somebody who's been put in assisted living.
59:47: Oh, yeah. They want you to stay and talk. They do. And it's actually, there's a distance that I feel if I stay standing.
59:58: So like, I walk into the room to talk with somebody, and I'm still standing there talking the entire time.
01:00:04: Well, they have a feeling of, you're not here long. Yeah. You're still standing up like you're gonna head out.
01:00:10: But if I sit down, whatever tension was there is gone. Oh, yeah. And now it's like, oh.
01:00:16: I could see that. We're friends. Yeah, sure. And now we're just chatting and having a great conversation. Yeah, you got time for me.
01:00:21: Exactly. Yeah. Right. And so there's some situation. Again, that's a wisdom thing. You have to gauge the moment.
01:00:28: You have to kind of evaluate. There have been situations where absolutely, I'm here real quick. I'm here to pray for you, and I'm stepping right back out.
01:00:34: Right. Because something's going on, and maybe a nurse needs to come and check a bedpan or something like that.
01:00:40: Yeah. It's something embarrassing. Right. I remember, I'm not gonna say his name, but very sadly,
01:00:47: I was the last person outside of his family that ever saw him alive. And when
01:00:53: I went and visited him in his room, he was super embarrassed that I was there. Was an admirer of mine.
01:01:02: He loved my preaching. He loved my podcast. And when I walked in, immediately he was embarrassed.
01:01:09: Aw. And the reason why was because he's hardly wearing anything. And Gabe's seeing me almost naked in here.
01:01:16: Yeah. And so he didn't outright say, Gabe, I want you to go, but that was definitely there.
01:01:22: Yeah. And it was sad because I knew he was dying soon, and nobody else outside of his family saw him again alive after I walked out of that room.
01:01:31: But I understood, and I didn't want him to feel undignified in the condition that he was in.
01:01:38: And so I just prayed for him real quick and stepped right back out again. So I get that. Sometimes a patient can be kind of embarrassed.
01:01:46: It's not the best of circumstances. You're not really seeing them at their best.
01:01:52: Right. Yeah. But again, you gotta gauge the situation. Do they want you to be there? Is this a ministry to them just that you would sit and spend time with them?
01:02:02: Or is it one of those awkward kinds of situations that get in and get out? Yeah, come back another time.
01:02:08: There you go. That might be a better way to say it. There was one I remember going and visiting where the husband wanted me to stay.
01:02:16: So the husband's by his wife's side. The husband wants me to stay and chat. I was not getting the same vibe from the wife.
01:02:23: And the wife is the one in the hospital? And she's the one in the bed. Yes. So I was kind of like, hey, let's go out here and talk.
01:02:31: I was kind of pulling him outside. So again, yeah, you just kind of have to feel it out and be able to tell that way.
01:02:39: It is a wonderful ministry. And Chief, I appreciate the work that you want to do there and your desire to even want to get better at it, which is why you're reading that list and then even asking what my advice or counsel would be with that.
01:02:53: And in fact, Chief, if you got anything that you want to pass on to me based on things that I've said here, there's always more that I have to learn in this area of ministry as well.
01:03:03: So I'll take your counsel also if you want to share a story with me or something like that. I was just going to add,
01:03:09: I know that you have left cards before. Yes. Whenever they're sleeping or they're still in a procedure or something, and you don't know when you're able to come back and visit.
01:03:20: Right. Usually it's a short stay. And so you'll leave a card saying, hey,
01:03:25: I was here. I was thinking about you, praying for you. Yeah. That sort of thing for them. I have cards in my truck for just that reason.
01:03:32: Right. So if I've got to, you know, it wasn't even planned that day, but I get a call, somebody's in the hospital.
01:03:38: I can go. And if I get there and they're asleep or there's something a doctor has to do or something like that and I can't get in.
01:03:45: There was one time I was called. I was notified that somebody was in the hospital. When I got there, they were already in surgery.
01:03:50: Right. So that was going to be several hours. So I went ahead and wrote a card and left it there. So that's a good thing to do, too.
01:03:57: Yeah. Hold on to cards or something like that, that you can write something out and be able to leave it at the desk.
01:04:02: Yeah. So anyway, I thought I'd put in those two cents. Yeah. Good reminders. Yeah. Appreciate it.
01:04:08: Well, thank you guys so much. Again, appreciate your writing, voicemailing, typing, whatever else.
01:04:15: When we understand. That's right. When we understand the text at gmail .com is the email address.
01:04:21: And once again, voicemail. If you go to www .utt .com, click on the voicemail tab and you can record your voicemail either through your phone or through your computer and it'll get to us.
01:04:34: We love hearing from you guys. Yes. Let's finish here with prayer. Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the kindness that you show to us in Christ.
01:04:42: And I pray that as we have been filled with the love of Christ, that we would show that love to others. We would also grow in that love.
01:04:49: The instruction that we have to love one another in the brotherhood and even love our neighbor as ourselves.
01:04:56: These are areas we don't just automatically are. We don't come equipped to be good at it.
01:05:02: We grow in that area that we might learn how to love others better.
01:05:08: And so equip us with those tools that we need to show the love of God, the love of Christ to others.
01:05:14: Help us become more familiar with your scriptures so that we know a good word from the
01:05:19: Lord that we might speak into a situation might be exactly the word that a person needs to hear.
01:05:25: From the word of God, not some subjective esoteric thing, but what you have already said in your word.
01:05:33: These promises that you've given to us in Christ. May we know how to communicate these promises to others in a way that edifies and builds up and gives hope, the hope that we have been promised in Christ our
01:05:46: Lord. He who died on the cross for our sins, rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of God, is coming back again to judge the living and the dead.
01:05:57: All who believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. Help us to have such boldness and comfort in that message.
01:06:06: And we're also sharing that with others for it is only by faith in Christ that a person can be saved. Thank you for your continuous love and affection to us, growing us, disciplining us in Christ.
01:06:20: It's in his name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, let's get to some of these questions here.
01:06:35: We'll start with this voicemail. I can't remember who this is by, so we'll find out together.
01:06:41: Okay. Oregon, I am a regular listener to your podcast. Wasn't what I meant to do. Let's start with this one.
01:06:47: That's something he actually meant to say, but I'm conflicted on...
01:06:53: Good grief, you dumb thing. It doesn't let me rewind it. I have to let it play through.