REFORMCON2016 | LIVE STREAM! (Day 1)

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Test, test, test, test, test, test, test, test, test, test, test, one, two, one, two. Ok. To ReformCon 2016, are you guys excited?

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This is not my real hair, I promise. If you don't know who

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I am, my name's Luke, or the Bear from Apologia Radio. We're so excited you guys are all here.

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I'm gonna be emceeing tonight. A couple things. I just wanted to again thank everybody for coming here.

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Again I want to remind everyone that this event, the purpose of this event, other than discussing reform theology, is to raise money for our church plant in Kauai, which we are working on.

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And if you're on the, if you're watching a live stream now, please, and guys here, please go to apologiacauai .com

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or go to the live stream. You can also donate there. Before I introduce

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Jeff, they also asked me to let you guys know that there's snacks out back.

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If you didn't see those, water, there's coffee. They made organic cotton candy and it's incredible.

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There's a Bananas Foster's one that is stupid good. So be sure to buy some of that.

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And then they also wanted me to remind you that, or let you guys know in the morning, they're actually gonna be serving breakfast here and lunch for tomorrow and Friday.

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So if you guys can come in here and eat here instead of going somewhere else. All the proceeds again go to our church plant, so we'd appreciate that.

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And also we got shirts in the back. We're asking for $20 donations for those. Again all this goes to the church plant.

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And so Jeff did want me to to remind everyone that this is not a typical church service, clearly.

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I'm wearing sort of a costume and holding a cigar, so it's not really church service.

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But we're gonna have fun, right? We're gonna have a costume contest tonight, which it looks like I'm the only one that dressed up, so I might win.

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But yeah, so we got that going on. So please have fun. We have in that corner, if you want, a prize room.

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So if they get a little crazy, feel free to take them back there. And I'm assuming you guys all got these super awesome pamphlet program things.

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They look amazing. So feel free. There's a notepad in there to take notes. And so right now

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I'm gonna introduce Jeff, who most of you probably all know. He's super, super awesome.

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And so I'm gonna read his bio real quick. Jeff Durbin is the pastor and elder of Apology of Church, along with myself, and also the co -host of Apology Radio and Apology TV here in Tempe.

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And he has worked for many years as a hospital chaplain. He has participated in outreach to various different religions and has engaged in public debates against atheists.

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Jeff was featured on a series for the History Channel called The Stoned Ages about the Christian approach to drugs and alcohol.

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Jeff hosts a weekly podcast called Apology Radio, which I mentioned. He also hosts Apology TV, which

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I also mentioned, and which can be seen on the NRB network. Jeff is a world champion martial artist with five black belts.

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Jeff has been married to his wife, Candy, for over 16 years. They have four kids, Sage, Imogen, Sailor, and Stellar.

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So that being said, Jeff, there he is. Come on up. Thank you,

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Pastor Luke. Welcome, everybody. Thank you, guys, for coming. It's a treat and a gift and an honor to have everybody here.

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And I just apologize for the weather. I'm sorry. Some of you guys came from Colorado and Indiana, and you guys left wonderful weather to come and enjoy this mess.

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And so some of you guys are like, it's not so bad. It's not a very big deal. I wanna check in with you again on Saturday, okay, when it's 117 degrees.

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So I guess I'll do a little bit of an opening as well, just sort of describe things the way that they are.

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This is our opening night for the conference, and people are still getting into town, and it's all the way through till Saturday.

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It's just a real blessing to be able to have teachers like Dr. White, John Sampson, Dr.

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K. Scott Oliphant. It's a tremendous gift to me. I don't know if I did this conference really for you or for me.

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So you guys are just kind of hanging out, so it's more maybe for me. But the conference itself, this is not an official church service.

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This is a gathering of Christians from across the nation is being actually live streamed now around the world to talk about the doctrines of the

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Reformation. We're gonna talk about reform theology, the importance and necessity of reform theology.

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We're here to fellowship. We're here to get to know God together. We're here to learn. And really,

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I think what makes ReformCon different in our minds, what we wanted it to be was an opportunity to have a gathering of reformed folks from across the country to get into some solid teaching, to be encouraged, to fellowship, to network.

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And then again, what makes it unique, I think, is we actually have people coming in to speak that are experts in areas that we really need to get into as reformed believers.

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So media, film, TV, writing, those sorts of things. We actually have breakout sessions and main stage sessions specifically in the area of media.

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And my hope is, just so you guys know where I'm at, I'm gonna be totally transparent. My hope is that through ReformCon, we provide an opportunity to herald and to revel in and to delight in the doctrines of the

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Reformation. And we go back to our communities and we spread these truths into our neighborhoods and our churches and our communities, our states.

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That's really the goal of ReformCon, is not just to come and be taught about the doctrines of the

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Reformation, but to figure out how we can work together to spread these doctrines into the world.

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Amen? That's the goal, okay? And so some of you guys are Presbyterian in here?

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How many Presbyterians? Who got a Presbyterian here? Okay, Presbyterians. Ooh, you're actually outnumbered today.

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Sweet. Baptists? All right. Okay, Reformed Baptists? Very good. Okay. So Presbyterians, you guys might feel a little awkward this week with the

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Baptists present as we yell out and say amen and things like that. Just don't run away.

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Don't think we're heretics. We just get very excited, okay? Sort of charismatic, a bit.

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Spiritually and biblically reformed, okay? So I was assigned the topic of...well,

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two topics, the necessity and importance of the doctrine of the sovereignty of God and the necessity and importance of the doctrine of Sola Scriptura.

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So very excited about that. And so we're going to open our Bibles right now and we're going to get right into it.

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So if you would, if you have your Bibles in front of you or if you need to turn your screens on, turn to Psalm 115.

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Psalm chapter 115. Hear now the words of the living and true

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God. Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness.

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Why should the nation say where is their God? And here is the substance of the

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Reformation. Our God is in the heavens. He does all that He pleases.

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Let's pray. Father, I want to thank you so much for this opportunity.

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God, the grace that you've given to us. Lord, the people that you've brought from across the country, the people who are watching this live stream now literally around the world.

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Thank you, God, that you have saved us in Jesus Christ. Thank you, God, that you are the sovereign.

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Thank you, God, that though men and women attempt to thwart your purposes in the world and in history,

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God, you remain God. You remain the one who wields history for your purposes.

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God, we all come to you and we're just grateful that you've given to us this opportunity to come together, to fellowship, to learn.

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Thank you, God, so much, most of all, that you've saved us in Jesus and we've got nothing to do with that.

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God, we only boast in you and we thank you, God, that you are the sovereign who before the world began, chose us in Jesus Christ, not according to works that we would ever do, but according to your mercy, your love, and your grace.

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Thank you, God, that you set your love upon people that do not deserve it, not now, not ever.

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God, we acknowledge you first and foremost as God. We boast only in you, and God, I ask that you would,

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Lord, in this time right now that you've given to me to open your word, I pray that you'd get me out of the way.

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God, speak through me to your people. I pray that you would open the eyes of the blind, and I pray that you would lift up your people.

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Lord, grant to us the courage to speak the truth. Grant to us, God, affection,

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God, and love for you and the world, and give to us, God, the grace and power needed,

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God, to serve you. Lord, I pray that you would, through this conference, use it to the glory of Jesus Christ, to his exaltation, to the spread of his fame and name to the ends of the earth, so that all the families of the earth would return and worship you,

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God. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. So Psalm 115 .3,

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to me, one of the most powerful single verses when it comes to the sovereignty of God.

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We talk about the sovereignty of God, we're talking about God, the thrice holy God, the only

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God, none before, none after, one God, the creator of all things, always existent.

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Psalm 90, verse 2, from eternity into eternity, you are God. And Psalm 115, verse 3, packs a punch to the heart and mind of any haughty, prideful creature.

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Psalm 115 .3, our God is in the heavens, he does whatever he pleases.

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And what the powerful thing about, I think, this passage is that, in the context of the passage, it is about God getting glory.

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It is about God's love, his faithfulness. God is at the center of this, and there's this question, why should the nation say, where is their

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God? And it's really a powerful thing, because that is the thing we confront all the time. You confront it all the time with atheists in our society today, secularists, people who are on mission to destroy the message of the gospel, the light of the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ in our culture.

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They say no to God, yes to their autonomy, their self -professed autonomy, and we face this often.

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We face it in theology, we face it in apologetics, and it's a charge against God.

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Where's your God? Where is your God? You hear it today, oftentimes in debates, public debate, between atheists and Christians.

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The problem of evil and suffering in the world, and the question is asked often like that. They'll say, where's your

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God? It happened actually last year in my debate at the Bonson Conference in California.

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The atheist, Bruce the atheist, threw up on the screen all kinds of examples of evil things that happen in the world.

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You know, this guy that went on a shooting rampage, this person that did this, and all these people dying of sickness and cancer and hunger in the world, and the question comes out, where is their

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God? Where's your God? And oftentimes Christians, we get so emotionally wrapped up in that charge, and we ought to because we have

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God as our foundation. Because we have God, we feel the weight of that claim and that charge.

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When we see evil and suffering in the world, we know who God is. We know about the image of God in man, in men and women.

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We know the inherent value and dignity in people as image of God, and so when we see evil and suffering in the world, it automatically affects us because we're emotionally wrapped up in that.

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So when someone says to you as a challenge in today's culture, where's your God? With the sick kids dying in a cancer hospital.

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Where's your God with the kids who don't eat today? Where's your God with the people on the streets, the families on the streets with no money?

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Where's your God in the emergency room? Where's your God? We feel the weight of that, and the amazing thing is, it nails the unbeliever in the, between the ears and in the chest.

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The answer from Scripture is, our God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases. It takes down the pride of human beings to hear those words.

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Our God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases. Now it can seem like such a cavalier claim, right?

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I mean, think about it for a second. There's a charge that comes out. Where's your God? And the answer from God is, our God is in the heavens.

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He does whatever He pleases. It seems, it seems kind of flippant, right?

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It seems kind of cavalier, like a really callous kind of response. Our God is in the heavens.

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He does whatever He pleases, but the answer is, if you know this God, if you know the true and living

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God, if you know the God of this revelation, the one who spoke and the universe leaps into existence, the one who spoke and Theanostas breathed out these very words, if you know

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Him, our God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases is the only answer that will do.

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Because God is just. God is good.

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God is holy. God is love. This is the God that you want running the universe.

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It's foundational. You know, I think that you cannot, you cannot do a conference on Reformed theology and the importance of Reformed theology without veil against it.

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Jesus came. Jesus said that He was the King. Jesus said that He brought the kingdom. He said that His church would come in and that the gates of hell would not prevail against it.

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And you see in church history, as the gospel went forth from that very limited number of disciples to growing all over Rome, Paul says in the first century in the letter of the

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Romans, he says that their faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. The gospel was moving forward in history.

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And as you see history, you see great moments of triumph in the church and in the kingdom of God with the gospel.

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And you see moments of slipping. You see triumph and slipping, triumph and slipping. You see grand moments where whole nations come to Jesus Christ through God's gospel.

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They're transformed. You see Scotland and John Knox. You have the story of Ireland and Saint Patrick.

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You have these moments in history where you see God sovereignly ruling in history, bringing His gospel and His light into the world.

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People being saved and knowing God. And you see moments of darkness. And the famous claim, cry, after the

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Reformation was, after darkness, what?

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Light. After darkness, light. The sovereignty of God is wrapped up in that whole entire movement where darkness had crept in, doctrine had been eroded, the importance of self and self -boasting and our own works had crept in to the church and to the world, and there was so much corruption and decay in doctrine and in the world.

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And after darkness, there was light. You see, the sovereignty of God is bound together with the

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Reformation. The doctrine of the sovereignty of God is really bound up with every great movement of the gospel in history.

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The Reformation gave to us the pillars of the Reformation. Amen? Reformed folks especially, you've got at least one shirt in your closet that says,

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Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, right? Sola Christos. It's the pillars of the Reformation. And wrapped up in the pillars of the

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Reformation is the sovereignty of God. Sola Scriptura. Scripture alone is the only infallible rule of faith and practice.

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That's God, the sovereign, speaking above any other standard, above any other person.

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God is the one who rules. He is the sovereign. Sola Gratia. We're saved by grace alone from beginning to end.

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It is God who does the work, and it's not based upon anything in the creature.

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Sola Fide. We are saved through faith alone. In what? Christ alone.

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Because of what? His work alone. God is the sovereign. It's wrapped up inside there.

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Sola Christos. God in Christ is our representative.

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We are saved. We are justified. We are forgiven because we are bound up together with Jesus.

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We are in Christ. And the final, and I think most glorious, cap to the end of it is what?

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Soli Deo Gloria. To the glory of God alone.

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The sovereignty of God is packed in there. It's underneath that. All of it is to the glory of God alone.

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No boasting in us, in our works, what we have done, are doing, or will do.

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It is to the glory of God alone. That's a recognition in the pillars of the Reformation of the sovereignty of God.

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The Reformation gave to us reformed epistemology. That is, how do you know what you know?

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And the answer is ultimately not because the church says so, not because the Pope says so, not because this person says so, not because I think so, but because God fundamentally has spoken.

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He's the sovereign. He's the one who rules. He's the one with all power, all knowledge, wisdom.

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This God has condescended and spoken, not only in creation, but specially through His Word and in His Son.

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You have men like Herman Bovink, and if you don't have Bovink in your library, shame on you.

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You're supposed to be reformed. Get some Bovink into your life. Read that.

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I agree with Dr. Oliphant. Read Bovink and be changed forever.

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The Reformation gave to us covenant theology, a re -emphasis on covenant theology, and wrapped up in the doctrine of covenant theology, or that truth of covenant theology, ultimately is the sovereignty of God.

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God coming into covenant. God actually bringing people into relationship with Himself.

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And of course, the thing people love most about the Reformation, right? The doctrines of grace.

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It's everybody's favorite. The doctrines of grace, tulip,

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T -U -L -I -P, total depravity. The doctrine of the sovereignty of God is wrapped up in total depravity.

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What do we recognize? That human beings are in the imago dei, in the image of God, but we are fallen, and we are not just sick.

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We are corrupt to the core. We are dead in our sins and trespasses, Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2.

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Jesus says in John 6 44, no man can come to me unless what? Unless the

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Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up.

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There's the sovereignty of God right there in that doctrine of total depravity. It must be

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God, the sovereign, who acts to save sinners, rebels, who are not sick, are not in a fight with God.

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They are at war with their creator. They are at enmity with God. It's not a small fight.

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It's a war. We are haters of God, hostile towards God, helpless sinners, the

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Bible says. The U and tulip, unconditional election, the sovereignty of God is packed up tightly into that doctrine.

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What is unconditional election? That God elects, not based upon anything in the creature, not foreseen faith, not foreseen repentance.

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God, before the world began, tells us that our names are written in the Lamb's book of life, when?

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Before the foundation of the worlds. That God has a plan. The triune

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God of scripture has a plan, the Bible teaches us. The father predestines, the son comes into the world to save his special elect people.

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He sets his love upon them, and he accomplishes everything necessary for their salvation and glorification.

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And the Holy Spirit of God applies that salvation and dwells believers, brings them to life.

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The sovereignty of God is wrapped up in unconditional election. Limited atonement or definite redemption, again, right there, the sovereignty of God wrapped up in that doctrine.

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That God is the one who saves, provides redemption, and when he saves, he saves perfectly.

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And in the glory of the Reformation, and what the Reformers said about the atonement, is actually making the atonement mean something.

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The Reformed doctrine of the atonement, that God actually accomplished salvation for his people, is one of the most beautiful truths,

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I think, about the Reformation. Not that salvation and the atonement is a possibility, not that salvation is ultimately dependent upon people and their decisions and their will, their moving towards God, but that God provides in Christ a perfect atonement, and that when

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God determines to save, he saves perfectly. Amen? The angel says about Jesus, call his name

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Yeshua. Call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

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The sovereignty of God is wrapped up there. Irresistible grace. One of the distinctives of the

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Reformed faith over against other, I think, man -made philosophies and systems is that God, when he wants to do something, gets to do it.

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Seems simple enough, right? It sort of sounds like our God is in the heavens, and he does what?

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Whatever he pleases, all that he pleases. Irresistible grace, that God comes into a sinner's life as the sovereign.

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They hate God. They're at war with God. They don't want God. They're enemies of God, and God comes into their life, and he loves them so much that he refuses to leave them in the state that they're in.

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He comes into the life of a dead sinner who is hostile towards him, and he chases the rebel.

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He does for them what they could not do for themselves and would never want to do for themselves.

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He comes into their lives as the sovereign, and he brings them to life. The sovereignty of God is wrapped up in irresistible grace, and finally, the preservation of the saints.

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It should be obvious. The sovereignty of God wrapped up in the preservation of the saints, because what does it say?

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Not that we believe in Jesus Christ and pray a magic prayer, and we walk away from Jesus after he punches our tickets, but the preservation of the saints teaches that God, as the sovereign, saves people perfectly, brings them to life, indwells them, and watch this, causes them to persevere in the faith.

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God promises that he will conform us to the image of Jesus Christ, so we know the hope we have in the gospel is completely miraculous, that God accomplishes all his will for his purposes and glory.

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Why is this controversial? Doesn't this sound delicious? Like, theologically speaking, right?

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It's wonderful, right? Every Christian in the world should be saying to reform theology, yeah, yeah, right?

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It's amazing, right? It's beautiful. So, why are people resisting these truths?

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Now, I'm not all knowing. I don't know the answer to what's going on in every single person's heart, but when

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I contemplate why anybody would argue with these beautiful truths, I can only imagine that it has something to do with that fall we've been talking about, that in the fall, people don't want

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God telling them what to do. They don't want God being the sovereign. Think back to our first parents at the beginning of the creation, when

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God creates his image in the garden, the jewel in the crown of creation, the image of God.

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What's that first fight? It's ultimately over whether or not God gets to say, whether or not

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God gets to tell us here but not there. You see, that goes back to our first parents.

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In the fall, we want to determine for ourselves what is good, what is evil. We don't want God telling us what to do.

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Reform theology strips human beings. Reform theology strips us of our pride, our boasting, our haughtiness before God.

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Reform theology ultimately makes God look very, very big, and it makes us look very, very small.

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Dr. White often talks about when he presents Romans 9 to people,

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God who mercies, God who hardens, giving grace and mercy to whom he chooses and pleases.

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He often remarks that when he tells people that, people will often say, I will never worship a God like that.

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I would never worship a God like that. I think Dr. White is right when he tells them, that's right, you never will until God changes your heart, until God comes into your heart and removes stone, until God comes into your life as a sovereign and removes your pride and your haughtiness, you would never love a

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God like this. Now, to start here talking about the sovereignty of God in the

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Reformation and the importance and necessity of it, we have to recognize that in the Reformation, there were certain foundational truths that were just on everybody's lips.

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This is what everybody was talking about. So if we're going to have a Reformation in our day, in the

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Christian church in the West, in the world, in the 21st century, we need to be talking about and meditating on and dwelling on the things that they were talking about.

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Because theology matters, amen? Hashtag theology matters. Make sure you put that out there, that's a good one, okay?

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Theology matters. Things don't happen in the world in a vacuum just because.

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Things happen in the world because of certain beliefs, worldviews, things that are foundations to what does happen in the world.

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And if we're going to have a Reformation in our day, if we're going to have change happen in our day, we need to be talking about the things that Christians were talking about when there was darkness and light broke in.

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Two central themes of the Reformation. They focused in upon God as He is.

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That's what they were talking about. God, what's He like? They had a strong doctrine of God, the triune

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God. They talked about God's holiness, they talked about God's justice, they talked about God's power, and they talked centrally about God's sovereignty.

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The next thing was, in the Reformation, foundational, the fact that God has spoken.

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God has condescended. How do we know what we know? Well, it's because God talks to us. Every fact is a fact of God.

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All of creation shouts to us about God, and God, the sovereign, has condescended and He's talked to us.

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How can we rebel against Rome and the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and their dogmas?

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How can we rebel against their doctrines over their soteriology and how a person is saved?

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Answer, the Reformer said, because God says. He's the sovereign. God has told us the way things are.

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God has told us what He's done in Christ. Here's how we know. God says. That was foundational.

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So, God as He is. What were the Reformers talking about? Central. There is only one

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God. There is only one God. Isaiah 43 .10. Before me, there was no

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God formed, neither shall there be after me. God says in Isaiah 44 .6 and 44 .8.

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I am the first and I am the last. Besides me, there is no God. The prayer of Jesus and every

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Jew, what they would have said in the morning and evening prayers.

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The Jewish people say it today. If you see a little Jewish boy running around in the mall with a little yarmulke on his head,

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I've done this before. Be careful doing this, okay? But, asked him, can you say the

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Shema? Can you quote the Shema to me? And they'll do it even today. Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4,

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Shema Yisrael, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh Echad. Hear, O Israel, the

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Lord our God, the Lord is one. There is only one God. And Jesus said that as a central affirmation.

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Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.

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There is only one God. Deuteronomy chapter 4, verses 35 and 39. He is

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God alone in the heavens above and on the earth below. There is no other. The Reformers were heralding the holiness of God, that God is holy, holy, holy.

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Isaiah chapter 6, the vision of Isaiah before the throne of God, the angels shouting out, holy, holy, holy.

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Isaiah getting confronted with God, this holy God, the most righteous man in Israel from our perspective, more disciplined than you and I, more righteous in his behavior outwardly, he gets a glimpse of God's holiness.

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And his response in the presence of holiness is to cover his mouth essentially and say,

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God, kill me. Woe is me, is a way of calling down the curse of God upon yourself.

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The prophets would often say, woe to you, to pagan nations and civilizations. They would say, woe to you, woe to you, woe to you.

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But in Isaiah's case, when he's faced with the holy God, he says, woe is me.

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He catches a glimpse of his own sin and depravity. He says, I'm a man of unclean lips.

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He's immediately aware of his own sinful mouth. Contrary to what he says in Isaiah 53, where he says about Mashiach, the

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Messiah, he says, there is no deceit in his mouth. He knew the difference. He says,

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I'm coming apart at the seams. And the reformers focused in upon the holiness of God.

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He's the only God. He's the holy God. He's the sovereign

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God. That was the essence, brothers and sisters of the Reformation. This is not a side issue.

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This is not merely an in -house debate. Are Christians wrong in this area?

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Yes, so was I. I didn't come into the kingdom of Jesus as a hardcore pipe -hitting

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Calvinist. I am one now, but I didn't come in like that. Now, is it possible to be a

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Christian and be wrong about the sovereignty of God? Absolutely. It's faith in Jesus Christ that saves. But it is a deadly error to believe falsely regarding the sovereignty of God.

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It destroys the grace of God in the gospel. It destroys us and our apologetic when we get this wrong.

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It destroys our ability to effectively minister to people when we get this wrong.

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The sovereignty of God is central. And if we want a repentance in the church over our sin, but I believe that we need to believe and teach and herald, proclaim the sovereignty of God in all things.

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God is sovereign over the church. God is sovereign over me. God is sovereign over the family.

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God is sovereign in the world, over every area of life. When we find in our own minds and hearts a love for this doctrine of the sovereignty of God, it changes everything.

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It doesn't just change us. It changes the world, I believe. But the sovereignty of God, again, was a central theme for the reformers.

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And amazingly, if you want to get worked over in this area of the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, I encourage you guys to go to Isaiah chapters 40 through 46.

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Isaiah 40 through 46. And while we're talking about that, I want you to go quickly for a moment now to Isaiah chapter 46 itself and get ready at verse 5.

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Now the amazing thing here in Isaiah 40 through 46 is that this is the showdown between God and false gods.

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Idolatry has always been a problem in human history because in Romans chapter 1, we know about human nature, what

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John Calvin said, that the human heart is a natural idol -making factory and it is never idol in making idols.

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Our default position is, in fact, idolatry. We know God. We know the true

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God. He has revealed himself to us. It says in Romans chapter 1, starting in verse 18, what?

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The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

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For that which is known about God is evident within them, for God has shown it to them.

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God's revealed himself. In Romans 1, we know about idolatry, that even with the creation shouting to us about God, clearly about God, we are left unapologetius.

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We are left what? Without a defense. We're left without an apologetic.

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And so what do fallen people do in our own sinfulness? We don't want

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God in our knowledge. It says that. We don't want to know him. We don't want him in our thinking.

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We don't want him in our heads, between our ears. And it says what? They exchange

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God for an idol. It's the problem of humanity, creating gods in our image, saying no to God and his ways and how he says that he is.

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We say no to God, yes to us, and we create all these little idols. And so in Isaiah chapters 40 through 46,

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God deals with it. God has a conversation about idols and false gods, and I want us to go here to see the uniqueness.

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Brothers and sisters, listen. Here's what people say, like, well, Arminianism and Calvinism, like, you know, there's great men and women of God on both sides of the issue.

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And the answer is, yeah, that's absolutely true. People that I admire that are Arminian in their perspective. Okay, but watch this.

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Does it matter? Yes. Do the differences matter? Yes. And they matter because God specifically identifies himself as distinct from the false gods that people have created in the area of his full sovereignty.

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This matters so much because God has said that it does. And in Isaiah 46, when

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God talks about false gods, he says in verse 5, Now, I got to say this.

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I love this. I love it. I, you know, I can't catch the tone, but I get it that God is trash -talking idols.

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That's really, I think what it is, is God is calling them out on the mat. And what's he saying?

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These people that worship these false gods, they got to take money out of their pocket that they went and worked for, and they got to go to a guy, they got to pay the guy so he builds the thing out of stuff that I made.

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And he builds the idol, and they put it there, and it doesn't move. Just sits there.

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I love it. You make this false god, you put it up there, stuff that I made, and I'm controlling the whole process, and there you are with your sin and your idol, and it sits there, and it does nothing.

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You cry out to it, it doesn't respond. Now, watch this. It gets bigger and better, and here's what

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God says in verse 48. Remember this and stand firm. Recall it to mind, you transgressors.

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Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me.

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Here we go. Declaring the end from the beginning. And from ancient times, things not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.

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God's counsel stands. He accomplishes all of his purpose.

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Now, watch this. As though it was not enough that God says he declares the end from the beginning, and he accomplishes his counsel, everything, his purpose.

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It says, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country.

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I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass. I have purposed it, and I will do it.

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Brothers and sisters, that is a far cry from the gods that people have created in their own imagination.

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This is the God who wields the universe. He wields history. He wields everything for his own purposes.

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He declares the end from the beginning. This is the God that we worship. God is the sovereign.

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Now, watch this. One of the things that I think is important for us to capture as Christians in the area of the sovereignty of God, this is essential, is that God distinguishes himself from false gods and idols in the area of his sovereignty.

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And it's interesting, because watch this. In Isaiah, in this specific section here, God says what makes him different from false gods is specifically his sovereignty, his decree, his ability to control history.

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Think about it for a second. What separates God from false gods, watch, is that he says he can tell you the future before it happens.

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Now, that's, by the way, that's one of my favorite things about Jesus, is that everything necessary to know

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Jesus as Savior and as Lord is already written down for us in the

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Old Testament in high definition, vivid display, all the details, the who, the what, the where, the when, the why, the how, everything about Jesus laid down in the

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Old Testament long before Jesus touches the earth in his earthly ministry. That, to me, is one of the most glorious things about the

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Bible. It truly is. I love to talk about it, think about it, teach it, the prophecies of Jesus Christ coming into the world.

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It is majestic. And God does it. He says, this is going to happen.

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My brothers and sisters, it's one of the coolest things ever in evangelism with the cults. What you say is, look,

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God's test of a prophet is Deuteronomy chapter 18, verses 20 through 22. How should we know the word which the

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Lord hath not spoken? God says, when the prophet speaks in the name of the Lord and the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the word which the

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Lord hath not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him. That's what God says.

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How do you know the prophet's from me? God says this, well, I control history. If he tells you something's going to happen and it doesn't happen, false prophet.

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That's magnificent. That's the sovereignty of God. That is a powerful, mighty God who controls everything, who wields everything for his own purpose.

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Now watch, it doesn't stop there. God also says, this is what distinguishes me from false gods.

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Not just the ability to tell you in advance what's going to happen in history for my purpose.

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But God says this, he challenges the idols to tell them the things that happened in the past.

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Watch, watch. And why? Did you catch that?

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God says, what makes me different from your false gods is I will tell you history before it happens and I will tell you history and why.

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Only the sovereign God could do that.

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My son is a huge history buff. He loves history. He listens to George Grant, like, for fun.

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Like, seriously, like, he re -listens to the same lecture about, like, the American Revolution over and over and over while he's, like, playing video games or something.

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He's weird. It's weird, okay? But watch, George Grant is probably one of the best teachers of history and worldview, like, in the history of the church.

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I mean, I really mean that. I love the man. But George Grant can do that. George Grant can tell you history.

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He could say, well, this happened there and then this happened there and then, you know, here's Whitefield's move in America and the first great awakening and that's how this impacted all these different areas over here.

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But what George Grant can't do, my son can't do, nobody can do is tell you history and why.

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What was God's purpose in decreeing that that event took place?

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How and when it did. And God says, false gods can't do a lot of talking.

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They sit there. They stand around. Don't do a lot of moving around. Can't cry out to them. They don't do anything for you and they can't tell you what's going to happen or what has and why.

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And so one of the marks of, listen, true Christian religion. Let me say that again.

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One of the marks of true Christian religion is a biblical doctrine of the sovereignty of God.

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He's not kind of sovereign. He's not almost sovereign. He is so sovereign, nothing happens in his universe without his decree saying yes or no for his purposes.

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It's one of the glories of our faith, brothers and sisters, and I think that what we need to be committed to as brothers and sisters in Christ in the church universal is a healthy, rigorous, biblical doctrine of the sovereignty of God.

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God is sovereign in the scriptures over the macro things. Ephesians chapter one, if you're taking notes, if you're going into your

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Bible, there are so many texts that could have been drawn from, but I have sins in the area of time and so I go over a lot and I probably will today, but I can only give you so much.

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So God is sovereign in the Bible over the macro things, the whole entire story. Ephesians chapter one, verse 11, loved by all reformed folks, in him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works what?

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Come on now. You can pretend to be Baptist for a weekend, Presbyterians. Come on. Who works what? All things.

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All things. According to the counsel of his will. He works all things, not some things.

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He works all things according to the counsel of his will. He's the sovereign over all things, the macro things, the entire story.

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Sovereign. He rules. He has the power. God is sovereign. It's amazing. By the way, on social media,

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I'm committed to just promoting truth and loving God and barely ever getting in a fight in Facebook.

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You're like, Jeff, I see you on Facebook all the time. Never seen you in a fight. That's because I don't care. You should not care too, a lot.

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Spread the truth. But I did see something the other day. I had to say something. I couldn't resist.

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The Calvinism in me wouldn't let me. I was talking about the atonement of Jesus Christ and how we should reject any idea of the atonement that says that God became a man, lived a perfect and sinless life, obeyed

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God's law, died a bloody death, rose again and conquered death, and yet that atonement accomplishes nothing for whom it was apparently given when people go to hell.

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And so somebody said to me something to the effect of, well, what you teach is wrong, election and predestination which are not biblical.

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They really said that. Election and predestination which isn't biblical. I thought to myself, do you read your

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Bible, bro? It's there in our

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Bibles. God predestines us and it gets worse. It's not just predestination.

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It's that he works all things according to the counsel of his will. He is sovereign over all things.

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And the amazing thing, watch this, is the Bible doesn't just give us a picture of God who's sovereign over the big story, the whole thing.

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God gives us a picture in his word. He is sovereign over the macro things, declaring the end from the beginning, telling you what is going to happen, what happened in the past and why, the whole story, but also over the micro things.

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And that's the hope we have as believers in our walk with God daily. Let me tell you right now, I just want to be honest with you.

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As a minister of the gospel, I don't know how I would be a minister. I don't know how to pastor people without the hope of the sovereignty of God.

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That God is sovereign over the micro things, the small things. He's sovereign. I love this. It just over the hairs of my head.

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Even someone like Dr. White who has no hair, God knew that. He was sovereign over it.

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He's sovereign, Jesus says, over the sparrows. I love it. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?

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And yet not one of them falls dead apart from your Father.

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And it's just so crazy because it's such an insignificant thing for us. We don't care. We don't care.

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How many hairs are on my head? Don't care. Some of you are starting to care.

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You're like, I kind of care and it's bothering me. I'm thinking about it a lot lately, right?

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So maybe you're thinking about it a lot, okay? But God knows and God cares the hairs on your head. But it's amazing because birds cares.

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I don't, we don't care. The birds, not one of them falls apart from your

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Father's will and decree. Not one. Those little things that we think are insignificant,

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God couldn't possibly care about wielding that for His purpose. God cares about the sparrows.

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God is sovereign in the Bible over the things that we think, no big deal.

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The birthplace of Jesus, Micah 5, 2. God's happened to get

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Jesus into Bethlehem to be born in that place.

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What does He have to do? He has to get a census going. He knows when, He knows where,

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He knows how. He's sovereign over the birthplace of Jesus. Those little things we don't care about. The genealogy of Jesus and all the sin in that genealogy.

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Think about it for a moment now. I was preaching through, I am preaching through Matthew. It's been like 10 years now or something. We're in chapter 6.

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Pray for us, okay? The genealogy of Jesus, it's crazy.

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Matthew chapter 1, Luke's account of Mary's genealogy, it's just weird because it's not a who's who's list of righteous people.

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It's amazing. Man -made religion always tries to whitewash the lives of their leaders. They always try to whitewash their leaders.

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No, they were good, they were fine and they didn't do this and they didn't do that. It's amazing. The Bible just puts it right on display. Look, look, look how ugly.

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Look, see how ugly? Okay, not pretty, not righteous, no, not good. Moses, failure. David, failure.

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Peter, failure. Paul, failure. Liars, murderers, adulterers, liars, okay? And then the genealogy of Jesus is right there.

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Jesus, grandma, grandpa, all the lines. Sinners, ugly, messed up people, right?

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Genealogy of Jesus. God wields the genealogy of Jesus for His purposes.

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The timing of Jesus' death, how many times did they want to kill Jesus? How many times did God restrain them when they wanted to kill

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Jesus? I am the Father of one, pick up stones to kill them. Many good works have

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I shown you from the Father. For which of these did you stone me? For thy good works be stoned thee not, but for blasphemy in that you being a man make yourself

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God. Pick up stones to kill them. They knew what He was saying. Jesus says, ego eimi, before Abraham was,

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I am. Pick up stones to kill them. He slips out, gets away. How many times did they want

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Him dead? How much were they conspiring against Him to murder Him, to kill Him? The text doesn't tell us how many times.

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It had to be a lot because the text does tell us about the times that it happened.

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They wanted to kill Jesus, but they couldn't kill Jesus until it was God's appointed time. They couldn't kill

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Jesus until Jesus gave them permission. Judas stealing from Jesus.

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People often say like, oh God, we know the church is messed up and, you know, I want to get away from the church and the people in the church hurt me and so much sin there and evil and everything else.

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It's like you're talking to Jesus who in His earthly ministry, sovereign over the whole situation, was betrayed by those who love

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Him in church, was stolen from. They said they didn't even know

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Him. They ran from Jesus and He was sovereign over the whole thing. And in Jesus' ministry,

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Judas is stealing from the bank and then Judas goes to turn Jesus over. But watch, at the table, it is

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Jesus, the sovereign, who has to give Judas permission. What you must do, do quickly.

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Judas couldn't even betray Jesus until Jesus says, go ahead, for His own purposes.

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Peter's betrayal of Jesus. Jesus told him what was to come. The armies of Rome against the

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Jews. The war between the Jews and the Romans. The three and a half year war, 70

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AD. Jesus prophesied that. Matthew 22 gives Him the parable of the wedding feast and what does

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He say? The King sends His armies to destroy their city, to burn it to the ground.

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God wields the pagan armies to destroy the covenant breakers. God is sovereign over people's decisions.

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God is sovereign over the big story, the small things. Some texts. Psalm 115 .3.

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Our God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases. Romans 8 .28. Let's do it together.

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Pretend you're Baptist for a second, okay? God... Come on, let's start it.

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Go ahead and say it. There you go, come on now. God works all things...

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You're getting better, Presbyterians, okay? God works all things together for good to those who love

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Him and are called according to His purpose. One text I want us to land on before we finish up here is

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Daniel chapter 4. Go to Daniel 4. Daniel chapter 4. Daniel chapter 4, verse 35.

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Daniel 4, 35. Let's actually start in 34 to get the little bit of the context here.

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At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, pagan ruler, lifted my eyes to heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the

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Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever. For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation.

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All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and He does according to His will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay

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His hand or say to Him, what have you done? There is a pagan ruler testifying to the truth that is all throughout the scriptures.

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You see, I think here's what people like. People love Jesus being king over Netherland.

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People love Jesus ruling in heaven. Nobody has a problem with Jesus being king of kings in heaven,

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Lord of lords in heaven. Secularists don't have a problem with Jesus being Lord in between your ears.

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No problems there. But you see, the Bible goes further than saying God is sovereign in the heavens over the spiritual things.

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The Bible says that God does according to His will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay

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His hand or say to Him, what have you done? That is a sovereign God who has ultimate power and ultimate freedom.

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The Reformation was very, very theocentric, God -centered.

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All of the religions of man are anthropocentric. They are man -centered.

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Man is at the center. God is on the outskirts. But biblical faith, the Reformed faith, is theocentric.

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God is at the center. God has all power. God has the will. God has the wisdom.

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God has the might, and God controls and decrees all things. This is the

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God that we worship. Let's talk for a minute about God ruling over the decisions of His creatures.

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Let's talk for a minute about how important for us it is for us to have this doctrine down. Go to Isaiah chapter 10.

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How sovereign is God? Can He be thwarted by His creatures? Is He sovereign over their decisions?

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Isaiah chapter 10. This is one of my very favorite to show God as the sovereign over people's decisions.

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Here is the people of God in sin. Rebellious, covenant -breaking, against God in sin.

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And watch. God takes a pagan nation to punish

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His own covenant -breaking people. Watch what He says here. Isaiah chapter 10, verse 5. Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger.

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The staff in their hands is my fury. He calls a pagan nation the rod of His anger.

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Against a godless nation I send Him, and against the people of my wrath I command

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Him. Now this is powerful. To take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

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But He does not so intend, and His heart does not so think.

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But it is in His heart to destroy and to cut off nations, not a few. For He says, Are not my commanders all kings?

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Is not Kalno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad?

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Is not Samaria like Damascus? As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria, shall

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I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and her images? Powerful.

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When the Lord has finished all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in His eyes.

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How you like them apples? God takes Assyria, a pagan nation, at war with God.

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Hates God. Not His covenant, not His covenant people. He takes a pagan nation, calls them the rod of His anger, and He sends a pagan nation who are also sinners against His covenant breakers to judge them.

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God says, I'm against you. And you think, a pagan nation against your own people?

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They're in sin? Breaking covenant with God, sinning against God, and God says, these sinners are going to go against those sinners.

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And Assyria is like, ha ha, being used by God for His purposes. And God goes, yes, and then when you're done,

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I'm going to punish you for your arrogance. People say, well, that seems awfully mixed up.

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Until you consider the fact that God is the holy God looking at the same sinful lump. Assyria and His people, all sinners before God, all deserve the same thing, judgment.

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And for His own purposes, God has Assyria, this rabid dog that wants to destroy on a leash.

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And what God does is He lets go of that leash to allow

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Assyria to have what it wants to destroy. But He does so only by divine permission when

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He's ready to judge His people for His purposes, and He lets go. And when that rabid dog destroys only as far as God allows, then

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God turns around and He breaks the dog. God is sovereign over everything.

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God is sovereign in the book of Acts, chapter 4, verse 27. One of my favorites, all that had to take place in the murder of Jesus, the most awful, wicked event in the history of humanity, the only truly innocent one,

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God in the flesh incarnate, righteous, blameless, love in flesh.

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And we killed Him. People say oftentimes, atheists love to say it to me. Well, you know, if your

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God is God, then make Him show up. Call Him down. Make Him show up. How come

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I can't see God? How come He's not around? The truth is, well, God has come.

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And when He came, we killed Him. That's how rebellious we are.

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And the amazing thing is all the acts and things and feelings and emotions and desires and wicked thoughts and plans, deceit, that had to go into the murder of Jesus.

01:06:38

And the early church says what? As they are praying, they say, gather together against your holy servant

01:06:45

Jesus. And they name Him Pontius Pilate, Harold. Harold.

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Harold. Hey, Harold. Okay. Okay. Herod. Okay. The peoples of Israel, the

01:06:55

Gentiles, to do what? To do whatever your hands had predestined to occur.

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Everybody has different motivations, right? Herod, Pontius Pilate, peoples of Israel, Gentiles, all different.

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They all want different things. And they wanted it. And it says what? It was according to God's plan.

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He predestined it. The worst and most evil act in history, working together for our good and God's glory.

01:07:25

I want to say, why is the doctrine of the sovereignty of God so necessary and important?

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I mean this with all my heart. I do a lot of ministry to the cults. We do a lot of outreach to people of different worldviews and religions.

01:07:42

And I want to say that if we get the doctrine of the sovereignty of God wrong, we jeopardize the biblical gospel.

01:07:53

You see, that's what this is about. People say, is this a side issue? It's a tertiary issue? It's like, not really a big deal. I want to say this.

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If you get the sovereignty of God wrong, it will creep into your theology and destroy the gospel.

01:08:07

The grace of God and salvation is at stake. We need a biblical doctrine of the sovereignty of God over all things in order to preserve the gospel of grace.

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When you lose the sovereignty of God, it wrecks grace. When it wrecks grace, people go to what their natural inclination is.

01:08:29

And what is that? To climb a moral ladder to God. To somehow boast.

01:08:37

Someone called me a couple weeks ago. He came, actually he came into church a couple weeks ago and he said, hey I want to get to know you and talk to you.

01:08:43

He goes to an basically Arminian -ish church. So I gave him my number and we talked for about two and a half hours one night.

01:08:52

And it was amazing to listen to this man who has really a distorted view of the sovereignty of God.

01:08:58

Everything went back to him. Every discussion went back to him. I said, well why are you saved and this person's not? You both heard the gospel.

01:09:05

He said, well because I thought about it more. Because I had this.

01:09:10

Because I had that. I said, have you noticed something that every time that you talk about your salvation, somehow it involves you and what you've done and how you did this or you did that or you didn't go there.

01:09:20

It's because you've worked hard. You've done this. But have you noticed that when someone like myself talks about the salvation, we talk about what

01:09:27

God has done in salvation. It's God -centered, not man -centered. It preserves the gospel of grace to understand the sovereignty of God.

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Think for a moment now about big sections. Not little sections, not a verse here or there, not a proof text here or there, but whole sections of scripture that talk about salvation, eternal life, justification.

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Think about the big discourse say of Jesus and John chapter 6, my favorite passage of scripture. John chapter 6,

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Jesus says what? He's come down from heaven not to do his will, but the will of him who sent him.

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So this is God in the flesh on mission. He cannot fail to do what the

01:10:07

Father has sent him to do and he says this, I've come down not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me.

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And he says, this is the will of him who has sent me that I should lose nothing of all that has been given to me.

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That's the glory of the gospel. God loves rebels.

01:10:30

God has chosen to save rebels. God will not lose those rebels.

01:10:39

If you want to know what Calvinism is and its soteriology and its doctrine of salvation,

01:10:45

I present to you John 6. That's Calvinism. Those are the doctrines of grace.

01:10:52

What does Jesus say? As the sovereign, John 6, 44, we said at the beginning, no man can, no man is able to come to me unless what?

01:11:01

The Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up. Do you notice that when

01:11:09

Jesus talks about salvation, he talks about salvation in terms of what he does and what the

01:11:17

Father does, not what we do. Man -made religions and philosophies constantly want to focus in upon what we have done as our action, our activity to get to God.

01:11:30

And did you notice in John 6, it's the giving of the Father of a people to Jesus Christ that precedes their coming to Jesus Christ.

01:11:41

It's God's work. It's his activity. Do you notice in John 10, Jesus says,

01:11:47

I am the good shepherd. He lays his life down for the sheep. And then he says, other sheep

01:11:53

I have which are not of this fold, them I must also bring. They will be one flock with one shepherd.

01:12:00

And he says, he knows them and they know him. And the glory, watch, in this, in the sovereignty of God over salvation and the perfect atonement that Jesus talks about there is in the very same text,

01:12:11

John chapter 10. They say to Jesus, like how long are you going to keep us in suspense?

01:12:18

Like if you're the Messiah, tell us. And Jesus doesn't say, oh, maybe you missed the early morning sermon, right?

01:12:29

You weren't at Wednesday night service. Okay. You didn't get the message. You didn't get the newsletter. You haven't been following my tweets, right?

01:12:35

You haven't heard me talk about it. Jesus says, when they say, tell us,

01:12:40

I love it. He says not, oh, you missed it. He says, I told you. And he says to them, the reason you don't hear me is because you are not of my sheep.

01:12:55

Here's the sovereign. You're not of my sheep. That's why you can't hear me. And watch what he says. He says, my sheep hear my voice and they come and they follow me.

01:13:06

And I give them eternal life and they are in my hand and nothing can snatch them from my hand.

01:13:12

They're in my father's hand and nothing can snatch them from my father's hand. What do you have there in Jesus' discussion of salvation and eternal life?

01:13:19

The absolute sovereignty of God. Brothers and sisters, this is an essential doctrine.

01:13:26

Do you notice that in Romans chapter nine, the apostle Paul, as he explains the gospel and justification apart from any work of law, it's all the work of God.

01:13:37

It's all Jesus. He says in Romans chapter four, it's a gift gift. It's a gift by his grace through the redemption that's in Jesus Christ apart from works of law.

01:13:48

As he moves through that whole discussion, it's all God apart from works. You're in Christ, death to life, in the spirit, not in the flesh.

01:13:56

It's God who foreknows, calls, justifies, glorifies. It's all there.

01:14:02

God does this. He works all things after the counsel of his will is what Paul's teaching is.

01:14:08

Did you notice that after a discussion of the grace of God and salvation, that it's not of works, it's all of God, did you notice that it ends up in Romans nine?

01:14:17

It has to. I was talking to a Jehovah's Witness once. I have no idea how they got my number.

01:14:25

Every once in a while, I got to change my number to like outsmart them, right? Okay, but he calls me and I'm on the phone with this

01:14:31

Jehovah's Witness and all I'm doing is I literally, brothers and sisters,

01:14:36

I was just quoting Romans the whole way through. He would say something and I would literally quote it, like I'm just walking him through Romans one, two, three, four, five, six, and amazingly, it was so glorious.

01:14:49

I'm walking him through the gospel of God's grace apart from any work of law. It's all God, it's all God, it's all

01:14:54

God, and this Jehovah's Witness stops me and he says, right when we're like at Romans eight, he goes, hey wait, wait, you're saying it's all

01:15:04

God? I said, yes. You're saying it has nothing to do with me? I said, yeah. He's saying it's all faith in Jesus and I'm in Christ and it's only through faith and apart from work?

01:15:14

I said, that's right. He goes, well then that would mean that God determines who he saves.

01:15:21

I said, amen. I wish most

01:15:26

Arminians would get it. I said, you got it. I said, I actually revealed, I showed my cards for a second.

01:15:33

I said, isn't it interesting that I walked you through Romans? All I was doing just now, I was taking you through Romans.

01:15:39

Isn't it interesting that you landed on the same conclusion that Paul does? He mercies whom he wills and he hardens whom he wills and what's the answer from every person that's centered on themselves?

01:15:50

They say, what? Well then why does he still find fault for who resists his will? And the answer?

01:15:57

Who are you who answers back to God? Isn't it sound very much like Psalm 115?

01:16:06

Our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases. Final thing I want to say.

01:16:11

We started a little late today, so I'm going to take advantage. I just want to say this from the heart.

01:16:20

Okay, this is important to me. I want to just be honest with you guys and this may not be like preaching here, but if we don't have a biblical doctrine of the sovereignty of God, I believe we lose the gospel.

01:16:37

I think we destroy our ability to have a consistent apologetic. And with so many tough questions from a hostile world these days, if we do not have a biblical doctrine of the sovereignty of God, we destroy our apologetics.

01:16:52

No question. We can't answer the tough questions in any meaningful way. We lose.

01:16:59

We end up making God look impotent. We destroy our ability to show the glory of God and his might.

01:17:10

But I want to say this. I mentioned it to you guys. I don't know how people can effectively minister to anybody in this fallen, broken world that Jesus is wrapping up.

01:17:25

I don't know how they can do it without understanding the biblical doctrine of the sovereignty of God.

01:17:33

I was a pastor for four years full -time at a hospital, day and night.

01:17:41

It was a wreck. I mean, it really was. I didn't expect it. It was just one of those things that God had a plan and he put me in it and I didn't see it coming.

01:17:50

And I found myself in front of the most broken people on a regular basis.

01:17:56

I saw the ugliest of life every single day. It was amazing because for a while I didn't think it really affected me.

01:18:03

I thought I can check out and I can leave it at the hospital. I'll come home. And it was amazing.

01:18:08

You can ask Pastor Luke and a few of the deacons. One day we were at church and I had had like a rough week of counseling, just face -to -face with people in the worst situations.

01:18:17

And I remember like we were having a regular meeting over nothing special, nothing even serious. All of a sudden

01:18:23

I started talking and I just lost it. I just started bawling. I had to leave the room. I couldn't even catch my breath because it was just so much ugliness all the time.

01:18:33

So much brokenness right in front of me every single day. I can tell you about a time I would sit in front of,

01:18:39

I mean, five times a day one -on -one counseling and the night sessions at night with groups and people were just in the most broken of places and they were talking to me.

01:18:49

I sat down with a young man, 19 years old, was selling drugs for the Mexican cartel.

01:18:57

Two days or so before, he was sitting in front of me. He was in trouble with them, with his friends, not giving the money to them, not doing they were supposed to do.

01:19:10

And in order to teach him a lesson, they held him down on his belly, grabbed his hair back and they threw his friend in front of him into a wood chipper, right in front of him.

01:19:21

And now he's sitting in front of me, looking at my eyes, asking questions like, where's

01:19:27

God? Talking to countless, countless people who are molested by family members.

01:19:40

Horrific stories. Talked to a girl once, she came in and she met with me.

01:19:46

She sat in front of me and she was being treated at the time for genital warts, herpes,

01:19:56

HIV. She was on detoxification medicine. What had happened to her, she was downtown in Phoenix and some drug dealers had kidnapped her, brought her to a crack house, chained her to a bed.

01:20:13

For four days, she was pumped full of methamphetamines, drugs, heroin, while these people who came in to buy drugs had their way with her.

01:20:26

And I gotta say, if we don't understand the sovereignty of God, we don't have a meaningful, coherent answer of hope for people in the real world.

01:20:42

This is just, this is not just a theory, it's the stuff of life. It's the stuff that meets you at 9 a .m.

01:20:50

when you're at home on a Saturday and the phone rings and you find out that people that you love have just lost their one -year -old baby.

01:21:01

It's the answers that matter a lot. We have a

01:21:07

God in the Bible that shows himself to us as the sovereign God who wields all things towards his purposes and glory, either for blessing or judgment.

01:21:18

We see in the story of Joseph, his brothers trying to destroy him, selling him into slavery, throwing him into a pit, not caring, going into a dungeon ultimately, and God does what?

01:21:28

Exalts Joseph, his brothers come back and he says, it wasn't you who sent me here, it was God. And when their father dies, what's the answer?

01:21:35

They come, they say, look, Dad just wanted one thing, don't kill us. And he weeps and he says, am I in God's place? As for you, you meant evil against me.

01:21:43

God meant it for good. Parallel, your intention evil, wrong, wicked,

01:21:50

God's intention good in order to preserve for you a remnant, your sin, God used to bless you.

01:21:59

God has a purpose in every single detail in the world and I want to say, I'll end on this, three things.

01:22:09

One, only with God and his revelation as our reference point do we have a meaningful way to talk about evil and suffering at all.

01:22:19

When people would sit in front of me crying their eyes out, sometimes on their knees over stuff that had just happened to them, the first thing

01:22:28

I would say to them is, listen, if you abandon God, if you let go of him and you say he's not there, then what happened to you is meaningless.

01:22:37

If we are all just protoplasm in a purposeless universe, godless universe that doesn't care about us, then what happened to you just happened.

01:22:45

It's not evil, maybe it was painful, so what? It doesn't matter. But only with this

01:22:51

God can you have any meaning in that suffering and call it truly evil because you have the standard by which to measure.

01:22:57

He is good, that is evil, and with God you have God who will answer it someday.

01:23:03

With God. The second point is I always point people to the fact that God has a purpose. I would point out to people oftentimes that watch, even with their life of rebellion and sin against God and all the evil things that had happened to them, now here they are in this drug and alcohol rehab center talking to a pastor on a

01:23:21

Saturday afternoon about Jesus Christ and his love for sinners, people that hate him, he saves.

01:23:28

Many of those people came to Jesus Christ as a result of the evil things that had happened to them. They were in front of me and they're redeemed.

01:23:35

Some of them are among us at Apologia Church to this day. God won. And the third thing

01:23:42

I want to say is this, with the sovereignty of God, one of the things that causes my heart to fill is that God isn't just the sovereign who declares the end from the beginning and wields history, the good things, the bad things he's in control of.

01:24:01

I think the glory of Jesus Christ as the sovereign is he's not just sovereign over it, he came into it.

01:24:14

It's incomprehensible. He was sovereign over everything that ever occurred in his ministry, and yet he tasted it.

01:24:22

When someone says, he seems so far off, he seems so distant, he's sovereign.

01:24:29

That's above me, beyond me. No, he is the God who is very much near. He is not only sovereign and wielding it all for his purposes, but he comes into it and he tastes it.

01:24:41

Everything that you can possibly imagine, you've tasted. Women would come to me and they'd come to me and they had just been raped, and they would say things like, how could you say

01:24:55

God is loved or good or that he's in control when

01:25:02

I was just raped? And they would bring that to me and I would show them that God casts judgment upon that action, but that God wasn't silent.

01:25:20

And I would tell them this, watch, I would say, in Jesus, you have the person who understands your pain.

01:25:31

How could God possibly understand my pain? Because Jesus knows what it's like for someone to take him places and to do things to his body that ought not to have been done.

01:25:47

Jesus knows what it's like for people to handle him, to abuse him. You see, he's not just the sovereign over your pain, he's the sovereign in your pain, he knows.

01:25:59

And this is the Jesus who brings salvation to all who believe in him.

01:26:06

Brothers and sisters, if we lose the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, we lose everything. This is the central theme.

01:26:14

My call to you as your fellow worker and brother in Christ is to fall in love with the sovereignty of God.

01:26:24

Make it the theme of your life to know this truth, to love this truth, to defend this truth, and to herald it every place you can.

01:26:35

Let's pray. Father, please bless what went out today. I pray that you'd put your hand on it,

01:26:40

God. I pray that people forget me and remember you. In Jesus' name, amen.

01:26:49

All right. Thank you, Jeff. So we're going to take, yes, you guys can clap.

01:26:55

I heard one person clapping. We're going to take a quick, we're a little behind schedule, we'll take a quick five, 10 -minute break.

01:27:04

So please use the restroom, buy some of that cotton candy before Marcus does, because I see him right now eating it all up.

01:27:12

So get some of that, and then we'll come back and do the costume thing, which you might just stare at me for 15 minutes.

01:27:22

So yeah, we'll see you in 10 minutes. Come on in, have a seat.

01:46:19

Can someone shut that back door for me? The foot thing keeps falling down on it.

01:46:26

Please and thank you. Marcus, you good?

01:46:35

We're live, so we're good. Lights, please. All right.

01:46:43

Well, I'm very excited for this next speaker. Good friend of mine for several years, and I'm really excited about what he's going to be speaking on, which is

01:46:55

Star Wars and Christian theology. So Elliott, he just danced a jig.

01:47:03

He was so excited. So vocab,

01:47:08

I'll read his bio, which I had ready. There it is. Vocab Malone is a pastor and teacher and outreach, it says outreach, at Roosevelt Community Church here locally, a sister church of ours.

01:47:22

He has a master's degree from Phoenix Seminary and is a doctoral student at Talbot School of Theology. He hosts

01:47:28

Urban Theologian Radio and has over a dozen recorded debates on various apologetic issues.

01:47:34

Vocab and his wife Nicole have four children who have been adopted. He enjoys reading, coffee, baseball, and geek culture.

01:47:43

Vocab, a former recording artist, so this is the artist formerly known as John Mark, also plays a role on Roosevelt's music team, both as a slam poet and hip -hop artist.

01:47:55

Please give it up for Vocab Malone. Thanks, man.

01:48:04

Any theories why Luke wanted to be Professor X? He's in a wheelchair, so he can sit down the whole time.

01:48:15

That's why. Come on, that's a great creative diss. All right,

01:48:21

Star Wars and Christian theology. I was going to call it Star Wars and Calvinism, but then

01:48:27

I felt like if there wasn't enough Calvinism in it, you guys would get mad. But this is going to be an interactive panel, so part of your job is going to be to help me put the

01:48:38

Calvinism in. You'll see where the spots are, you'll see where the spots are. But first, we just start off with a game of trivia.

01:48:49

What do you guys think? Star Wars trivia, but you have to be under 18 to play.

01:48:56

How many under 18 kids are still in here? Are there any? I see like one.

01:49:03

Are there any? All right, well, okay. Okay, so name for us out of the six

01:49:14

Star Wars movies the three colors of lightsabers you could have.

01:49:22

I got one hand raised. Any other kids under 18? Way in the back,

01:49:27

Princess Leia. That's one, but you got to name all three.

01:49:38

Oh, there's actually four. It's a trick question. What's the other one? Uh -oh, she doesn't know all of them.

01:49:49

Okay, should I give her something? It's going to be way too big for you. I have this large Star Wars shirt.

01:49:55

Oh, perfect. Didn't hit anybody right in the middle of the aisle. All right,

01:50:01

I don't know what you want to do with it. You could re -gift it, but I know the large fits an older body, but it sounds fun if all the adults play because then it gets, anyways.

01:50:12

Okay, Star Wars and Christian theology. All right,

01:50:17

I'm going to click this and you tell me if it's ready to go. That appears

01:50:32

Yoda is reading the Bible or perhaps he is reading the Institutes.

01:50:39

Can we go with that? Can Yoda read the Institutes? I think so.

01:50:44

If a long time ago is within a span of 400 -500 years, he could hypothetically somehow be reading the

01:50:52

Institutes. He does need to read them to get all that Easter mysticism out of his theology. So Star Wars and Christian theology.

01:51:01

Before I begin, I always love to recommend books to people. So let me recommend two great books on Star Wars and theology, and I think actually these are the only two good books out there.

01:51:14

There's a few others, but they're just not that good. The first one is called A True Hope, Jedi Perils in the

01:51:20

Way of Jesus by Joshua Hayes. There are spots where it's a little dry, but it has so much systematic theology in it off of Star Wars universe, and in a critiquing way at times, and in other ways drawing parallels.

01:51:35

It's like a book I would want to write if I was going to write on it, but it needs a little spice. But it's a great book still nonetheless.

01:51:41

You learn about Star Wars. You learn about theology along the way. This is the best one called Finding God by a

01:51:47

Reformed Baptist. Finding God in a Galaxy Far, Far Away, Timothy Paul Jones from the

01:51:53

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. That is where he teaches these days, isn't it?

01:51:59

Maybe, yeah, it is where he teaches these days. And we've had him on the show before, and we talked about Star Wars, a spiritual exploration of the

01:52:05

Star Wars saga. And this book, he writes it almost in an evangelistic way. So if you're like,

01:52:11

I want to talk more about what you're talking about, I want to do this kind of thing, go grab those two books. The other ones, like I said, you know, they're not as much, but there's another way to approach this.

01:52:21

Star Wars can help us learn the arts. Not a joke, not a joke. What's happening to Shakespeare, right?

01:52:28

It used to be part of the common cultural narrative. Shakespeare, the King James Bible influencing the

01:52:34

English language. It's seeping out, and almost in its place in a lot of ways is comic book movies, kind of taking place of what we would refer to.

01:52:43

I mean, think about an axiom people go around saying these days, with great power comes great responsibility, things like that.

01:52:49

Well, I have a solution. William Shakespeare's verily a new hope.

01:52:57

It's Star Wars in Shakespearean language. It is beautiful, it is funny, it is witty, it is so well done.

01:53:06

The empire striketh back. My point is, get these books, read them with your kids, because you'll learn

01:53:13

Shakespeare, you'll learn Star Wars in its great literature. The Jedi doth return, and not as much, but the adaption's better.

01:53:24

The Phantom of Menace and the Clone Army attacketh. So, I always like to put in plugs for good books.

01:53:32

Those are good books, and they'll kind of get you on this journey, because what I'm going to try to do is use

01:53:37

Star Wars as an entry point into art, and I think we could justify some of that cultural exploration when we look at what

01:53:43

Paul did in Acts 17, where he freely quotes poets of the day and integrates them, and he even really kind of subverts them for an explicitly

01:53:53

Christian meaning. I think we can find ways to do that. There's a way to analyze culture that is what

01:54:01

I might want to call a thin analysis, a thin analysis. Star Wars clearly presents and promotes

01:54:10

Eastern mysticism, Zen Buddhism, and therefore should not be watched, or something like that.

01:54:18

It is true Star Wars presents those ideas to you, as truth it seems, but it's also true that Star Wars presents ideas of redemption, and even grace, and love that's sacrificial, and even though it's inconsistent at points, it even presents the will of the force.

01:54:45

That's an interesting concept. I wish we could talk all about that. How does the force have a will? Anyway, how can there be chosenness?

01:54:51

We'll get back to that when I think if we have time, but there's a lot of ways we can explore theology with Star Wars, and I think we should go with a thick analysis, where we're willing to critique the bad and say, here's the antithesis, here's the problem with it, according to the

01:55:08

Christian worldview, but a thick analysis says, and here's a touch point with redemptive history, here's a touch point with Christian theology.

01:55:18

I do think there are some pieces of art that in a certain sense are beyond redemption.

01:55:24

What I mean by that, before you misquote me, what I'm saying is I don't think we could say, what are the touch points here with this rated x movie that I can talk, right?

01:55:34

Oh, look, they're made in the image of God, right? I don't think that's appropriate, but there are things where I think we can dive in, not harming our sanctification, being wise and saying, how can

01:55:49

I use this for God's glory? I'm going to enjoy it, but there's a way, and I want to try to show the beginning of a way here today.

01:55:57

Let's take one scene from each of the real trilogy. How many Star Wars movies are there, by the way?

01:56:05

There's three. There's three Star Wars movies, everyone. That's like a purist speaking, you know, only the original trilogy are the real ones.

01:56:13

No, seven, whatever, but we're going to look at the original trilogy, and can anyone tell me what of the original trilogy this scene is from?

01:56:24

Anyone know? Yes, good job, good job. Does anyone know what's being said there?

01:56:32

Don't you call me a mindless philosopher. You guys remember that? That's R2 -D2 with the diss against Threepio, a mindless philosopher.

01:56:43

That's like, that's pretty heavy actually when you think about it, right? Philosophy, the love of wisdom, he's a mindless philosopher.

01:56:50

He's calling him the scarecrow from, you know, Wizard of Oz. That's what

01:56:56

R2 -D2 is doing there, everyone. No, but it is quite a diss, a mindless philosopher.

01:57:02

I think actually that's similar to what Paul meant when he said vain philosophy, but let's look at a scene here and compare

01:57:08

Darth Vader and Han Solo. Now, I do not actually like what I've titled this, science versus religion, science versus faith.

01:57:18

However, that's how our culture speaks, and so I'm entering you into that world, but we all know that science is impossible without the reality of what

01:57:28

God has made and the regulatory nature that God has instilled into his creation.

01:57:34

We all know that it's not able to be done outside of that context, so there is no science versus religion.

01:57:42

It's science because of Jesus. Really, you can say that, but let's look at that debate in Star Wars itself.

01:57:53

Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the force.

01:57:59

Who does Darth Vader say that to? It's not

01:58:04

Tarkin, but you're close. You can be vague with it. Yeah, one of the imperial admirals at the table with the bad

01:58:15

British teeth and the bad hair. One of those guys, right? Because what's the guy say? This station is now the ultimate power in the universe.

01:58:22

I suggest we use it, right? You remember that? And Darth Vader is like totally Debbie Downer here, right?

01:58:28

He's like, I know you just spent a lot of money and everything, but actually, guys, don't be too proud of this technological terror, right?

01:58:38

Because force power. That's what he says. Hey, check it out. End of episode four.

01:58:45

How does the Death Star get blowed up? What happens?

01:58:54

How does, yeah, Luke turns off what? Turns off his targeted computer and instead trusts the force.

01:59:03

By the way, it's still a little, it's not a hundred percent, you know, he's in an X -Wing fighter. He's firing what?

01:59:12

Proton blasts or whatever. It's not like he's not using any technology, but I guess the visual scanning thing,

01:59:19

I guess the, you know, the targeted computer, that's like too much tech. I mean, I'm just making fun of some of it, but the dialogue, what you see is trust this instead of this.

01:59:29

And Darth Vader is actually right on this. I can't even think of a biblical parallel where God says something like what

01:59:39

Darth Vader says here. Multiple places, but let's think of actually maybe even an event.

01:59:45

Genesis chapter 11. What's in Genesis chapter 11? The Tower of Jeff?

01:59:55

What'd you say? Oh, the Tower of Babel. Sorry. The Tower of Babel. Right.

02:00:01

So you have the Tower of Babel. What were they doing there on the plane of Shinar? Right. God says what?

02:00:15

Check it out. They're monolingual, right? They have one language.

02:00:21

They might be able to do anything they want. Let's confuse their language. He dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth and they left off building the city.

02:00:31

By the way, they're being disobedient at that point because God said, hey, yo, go out, do the

02:00:38

Dominion thing all over, multiply all over. Don't huddle up in the plane of Shinar trying to reach me, homie.

02:00:44

So they were already being disobedient and it was quite a technological Tower of Terror, wasn't it?

02:00:51

This ziggurat that's going up and up. I mean, what were they going to do if they got to God? Don't know. But God says, don't be too proud.

02:01:01

Don't be too proud. So Darth Vader actually is right on this one versus Han Solo, who

02:01:08

I think is wrong here. Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blast at your side, kid.

02:01:15

What happens right before that? Why does he say that? This is a quiz without t -shirts, but it's still a quiz.

02:01:23

Does anyone know? Say it loud. Luke gets shot by what?

02:01:32

Right. You got it. All right. Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them.

02:01:38

Anyways, Obi -Wan says that after. That's actually not logically 100 % coherent. Your eyes can deceive you.

02:01:44

Don't trust them. It should be like, your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them all the time or something like that. But anyways, it's okay.

02:01:50

It's not as witty. So this is interesting, isn't it? Look at this quote here. Hokey religions and, so this is a conjunction, ancient weapons are no match for what?

02:02:03

He's about to do some superlative stuff here. For a good blaster at your side, kid. So the blaster actually would be parallel with what out of the first part of his sentence?

02:02:13

Ancient weapons, right? The blaster, the weapon. That makes sense. There's kind of a parallel. Ancient weapons and modern weapons.

02:02:21

Han, one day, the good blaster is also going to be an ancient weapon. Just want to tell you that.

02:02:26

But nonetheless, he throws this in there. Hokey religions. Hokey religions.

02:02:33

So your belief system and the weapons that you utilize apparently along with it are no match for this.

02:02:42

But Han becomes a converted skeptic, doesn't he? Does anyone remember what he does say in the newest

02:02:49

Star Wars The Force Awakens? It's true. All of it. Except for the parts that they made non -canonical.

02:02:56

Those are just legends now. That's a nerd joke, by the way. That's a nerd joke. It's a slam on Disney nerd joke.

02:03:04

But forget I just said that part. Because he changes his mind because of what he had seen and experienced.

02:03:11

But prior to that, he says, kid, I've flown from one end of this galaxy to another, and I've never seen anything.

02:03:19

You remember that? Making me think there's one mystical energy frail controlling my destiny. Remember that? So he based his disbelief in the power of the

02:03:31

Force upon his experience, which can be a faulty epistemology, can it not?

02:03:37

If you base your epistemology strictly on your experience, it's limiting. And really, you don't even operate that way anyway.

02:03:46

It's not even true when people say that. But that's what he bases it on. But then his experience changes, and his worldview at that point changes.

02:03:55

But I'd like to kind of juxtapose these two together to show you. In this instance,

02:04:01

I think we should agree with Darth Vader. He's saying there is something more powerful, something metaphysical, something indeed, at least at this point, invisible, something outside of the realm of your control, something different than just your tech.

02:04:21

And it's more powerful than it. And in fact, Death Star 2 also destroyed because of a

02:04:28

Force event, in a sense. It seems like there's a direct correlation between Luke's defeat of the

02:04:34

Emperor and when the Imperial fleet in Return of the Jedi began losing the battle. In fact, that theory is put forth in a book called

02:04:41

Heir to the Empire, which is supposedly non -canonical now. That's interesting, by the way. We could do a whole thing on the idea of canon in Star Wars.

02:04:49

It's very interesting the way. And it's funny how important it is to Star Wars fans, whether some comic book they read is canonical or not.

02:04:58

Did I just read this and it doesn't mean anything, it's a waste of time? Oh, now they want to know, does this count?

02:05:04

Did this really happen? Is it true in the fictional universe that is Star Wars, though? But they're concerned about it.

02:05:13

But where was I? What was I saying? Oh yeah, about the Force canon, canonical, non -canonical. Oh yeah, theory put forth in a book written by Timothy Zahn, Heir to the

02:05:21

Empire, where the Grand Admiral Thawne, who was running the remnant of the Empire at that time, says the reason why the rebels were able to win the battle over Endor against a superior fleet, by all respects, had to do with the

02:05:38

Force connection that the Emperor himself gave to his forces. And so in that particular story, this is a little bit of side trail, this is

02:05:45

Star Wars nerdiness, Grand Admiral Thawne actually locates a clone of a dark Jedi and has him work with him to actually coordinate the fleet as well to make the new

02:05:56

Empire more formidable. It's an awesome book, by the way. But if you pronounce it, don't say Heir to the

02:06:01

Empire, say Heir or something like that to the Empire. H -E -I -R. It's a hard word to say, but just don't call it Heir, whatever you do.

02:06:07

People do that. So the point here is that Star Wars has some of this that we want to actually affirm about a greater metaphysical reality than human technology.

02:06:20

Let's go to the greatest movie ever made, as even confirmed in the latest

02:06:27

X -Men apocalypse movie film called Apocalypse, right? More stuff.

02:06:32

We could do this all day, right? But in The Empire Strikes Back, let me do another rabbit trail real quick since I've got the picture in here.

02:06:42

Star Wars toys are crap. Look at that picture. Five points of articulation, right?

02:06:55

That's all they got. Kenner, no good. And people bought that stuff by the droves.

02:07:01

Star Wars toys aren't really... The vehicles are okay from the original line. They made some new ones that are a little bit better, but they cost so much.

02:07:08

G .I. Joe is a much better action figure, ladies and gentlemen. Many more points of articulation without all the gimmickry going on.

02:07:15

Just look at that and you'll be like, yeah, vocab's right. But anyways, onto the scene related to that so it wasn't totally unrelated.

02:07:25

Remember the cave at Dagobah. So what happens?

02:07:31

What's happening right before Luke goes into the cave? Everybody remember? Let's walk through the scene together. Let's do sequential order.

02:07:38

What's first? Yoda's on his back.

02:07:45

Jedi master like treated like, you know, an infant. It's kind of weird. I mean, Yoda's like, after pee,

02:07:53

I must let me down, you know. But he's on his back, right? And then what happens? What does

02:07:58

Luke say? What?

02:08:04

You guys have no confidence in the force, or you? Does anyone in general, what does he say?

02:08:11

Does he literally say? I don't know if that's literally what he says. You should bring it up on your phone. But something about the cave,

02:08:17

I feel cold, right? And then Yoda's, what's he say about the cave?

02:08:26

A domain of evil it is, and you must go. Remember that? By the way, anyone ever wondered why did

02:08:32

Yoda let a domain of evil just chill in his backyard for 20 years? I guess all you could say is he was waiting for this day for Luke.

02:08:39

It was like his training spot, I guess. But like Yoda's been on Dagobah by himself the whole time.

02:08:44

He's like, I'm just going to let this domain of evil be right there. Talk about not doing the

02:08:50

Joshua judges thing, right? You know, leaving all the Canaanites. Yoda left this domain of evil, but okay,

02:08:55

Yoda. Then what happens? And you must go. What's Luke do? What's Yoda say?

02:09:05

Your weapons. You will not need them. Remember that too? What's in there? Only what you take with you.

02:09:13

Who does Luke see in the cave? Darth Vader.

02:09:20

Wouldn't it be messed up if it said it was like Uncle Owen? Because this is supposed to be like a possible future, right? Who would you rather have as your possible future?

02:09:27

Uncle Owen or Vader? It kind of goes Vader. Like, isn't Uncle Owen like a grumpy loser?

02:09:33

I mean, you know this guy? Anyways, if you know who Uncle Owen is, you know what I'm talking about. But he goes in there, sees

02:09:39

Vader. He defeats him in battle. What does Luke see underneath the helmet? It's not David Prowse.

02:09:44

Who is it? He's himself. Signifying what? What? Your own greatest enemy?

02:09:56

Fear. Himself? Okay. What does it mean that Luke could become

02:10:02

Darth Vader? He could give in to the dark side. But what did

02:10:07

Yoda just say? Only what you take with you.

02:10:13

What did Luke take with him? Let's say, since we all know

02:10:20

Calvinism isn't true, that Luke has an Ephesians 2 2 heart.

02:10:26

He's a son of disobedience. James 4 1 2. Why do you fight and quarrel? Your own wicked desires that you don't get.

02:10:34

That's why you fight and quarrel. To achieve those. Matthew 5 19. What comes out of the heart?

02:10:41

All kinds of filthy stuff, Jesus says. He's not as worried as much about what you eat. He is worried about the issues that flow out of the heart.

02:10:49

You carry that everywhere you go. Jeremiah 17 9. You know that one. What's that one say? Who can know it?

02:11:01

Luke takes his own total depravity into the cave. By the way though,

02:11:06

I think this is sort of at odds with part of the Star Wars universe. Because if you look at the way these

02:11:11

Jedi masters talk, it's as if there's almost your like natural default is either neutral or good.

02:11:21

And the dark side is like a deviation. There's places where they refer to the dark side as unnatural, for example, in the movies.

02:11:28

But we know that's not true. This though is a little more true when it comes to human anthropology.

02:11:34

Luke's natural bent is to give in to anger. In your anger, sin not.

02:11:41

I think Luke did sin when he went buck wild against dad on the bridge of Death Star 2.

02:11:50

What do you guys think? I think so. Maybe he even sinned by wearing all black. I don't know.

02:11:55

Jedi aren't supposed to wear all black guys. I don't know if you know that. They're not supposed to. But there he is.

02:12:02

What does he take with him? An evil wicked heart. You have to ask yourself, why is it possible that someone seemingly as good as Luke Skywalker would have this as a possible future, as a temptation?

02:12:14

And what does Yoda later say about it? The cave, remember your failure at the cave.

02:12:22

So it's considered a failure for some reason. Now no one knows, would he have seen this, what he saw, if he didn't take the weapons in?

02:12:32

What do you guys think? If he didn't take the weapons in, would he have still seen this?

02:12:42

These are just, we're just doing counterfactuals. That's what philosophers do. And it's just where you say, well this could have happened, what if this happened?

02:12:51

And so it's interesting to ask these kinds of questions here. But Luke does see a potential future about what he could become, only what you take with you.

02:13:01

So what I'm saying is, you can find a little bit of Calvinism in Star Wars. Not all of it, but there's spots.

02:13:10

All right, I'm gonna go return to Jedi, but let me stop for a second here. Does anyone have any questions about the scenes we've covered so far?

02:13:18

Maybe a critique or a question or something you want to add about those scenes? Or maybe you're like, oh I got another idea, another scene that kind of does the same thing.

02:13:25

I'd like to see if you guys got a little something along those lines, because we've kind of been interactive. We can be more interactive.

02:13:31

I'll take a minute and let you think. Yeah, I think we can go with that.

02:13:58

What do you guys think? And that does sound like Han Solo. No, no, like that, that makes sense.

02:14:06

I mean, for example, you see that type of autonomy shining forth when

02:14:12

Han says in the same movie, listen your worshipfulness, I take orders from only one person, me.

02:14:21

Okay, yeah, so reliance on instead of, and so maybe that's kind of along the lines of religion is a crutch type of thing.

02:14:35

I like that, that was excellent. Could someone follow that up? See, this is why we need to stop for a second, take some comment, question, critique,

02:14:42

Q &A, because there's some nerd here who's like, oh Volkat didn't say this, and he got this little fact wrong about the color of something.

02:14:48

So this is the time to just say it, just do it right now. This is why we're doing the thing instead of later on. All right, we're going to the

02:14:55

Return of the Jedi, if no one else. That was good though, that was worth it. All right, so on to Return of the

02:15:01

Jedi. That's the end there. Great scene, great scene.

02:15:10

It's kind of macabre though. The Ewoks are playing drums on Stormtrooper's helmets.

02:15:17

Presumably heads were in there prior to them becoming instruments of percussion, and now they're all like, but we're going to talk about that because the

02:15:25

Ewoks actually have a savage side indeed. Now I still do wish instead of a bunch of Ewoks, it would have been a planet filled of Wookiees, but nonetheless let's talk about the

02:15:37

Ewoks in relationship to Mr. Goldenrod himself, Mr. C -3PO. They get captured, 3PO rises up.

02:15:47

What do the Ewoks begin doing when they see C -3PO? Can you guys do the chant?

02:15:59

Coordinate it. Okay, fine. I was trying to see how loud it could go. I do believe they think

02:16:06

I'm some sort of god. Now this is crazy. Has god or a god ever been mentioned in the

02:16:13

Star Wars universe anywhere at all? I mean, okay, we're talking about the, we'll do the seven movies. I'm focusing in on those.

02:16:21

There's talk of the force. That's it. It's called an ancient religion, yada, yada, yada, but there's no idea.

02:16:29

However, what is C -3PO? What is he? He's a droid.

02:16:35

Okay, so who constructed him?

02:16:43

Yes, Anakin. It's kind of odd, I know, but let's just say at the very least, like all droids, a human being.

02:16:50

So they program them, right? Which again, it's weird because when 3PO is about to get an oil bath, right before he says, thank the maker, he's like thanking

02:17:00

Anakin, right there. You see what I'm saying? Thank the maker. This auto bath is going to feel so good.

02:17:05

He's like, thank you, Darth Vader. It's weird, but he probably doesn't know because he's had a memory wipe since then.

02:17:12

But nonetheless, he says this. That means someone, Anakin in this case, pre -programmed

02:17:18

C -3PO, it appears to have the capacity to understand the idea of a god, right?

02:17:24

But yet, there's the force, but maybe it's false. Maybe it's false religions. Maybe it's understanding those.

02:17:30

Maybe that's what it is. Although Anakin, when he first created 3PO, was kind of young, so yada, yada, yada. But let's look, what could we say about people who believe in gods from this scene, all right?

02:17:44

First of all, what do the Ewoks, once they arrive at the Ewok village, which was a very fun playset, by the way, when they arrive at the

02:17:53

Ewok village, what do the Ewoks begin doing to Han Solo, Luke, Chewie?

02:18:01

What do they begin doing? Yes, why are they going to cook them in the fire?

02:18:10

A banquet in whose honor? Who is, according to the Ewoks' worldview at this point, a god?

02:18:19

Who, it seems, maybe except, here's a good way to say it, Sans the

02:18:25

Sand People, who is the most primitive species we encounter in the Star Wars universe in the movies? Ewoks, it seems.

02:18:32

Who do you think is more primitive, by the way? What do you guys go with? Sand People, Ewoks. Jawas? Ah, but they deal in all that tech.

02:18:41

See, they deal in all that tech. I can't, I don't know. I can't go there with Jawas, because they're clearly able to rig stuff together, and they've got a sand crawler.

02:18:50

You know, Sand People ride Banthas, which are kind of like Mr. Snuffleupagus, if you think about the way they look.

02:18:57

Gamorrean guards? Well, see, Gamorrean guards do wear more clothes than Ewoks, so that's a consideration.

02:19:05

And this is kind of, the Gamorrean guards wear the clothes of the furry, so they wear, you know, they've got something, they've killed something,

02:19:13

I don't know. Ewoks have minimal clothing, it appears. But then again, if those are leather, that means they've also killed something.

02:19:18

Anyways, so, but the Ewoks are doing all of this, which is going to be cannibalism, it appears, because I think they're probably going to have

02:19:28

Leia eat some of it, but at the very least, they're going to be eating humans. I guess they're going to give some of the food to Threepio, he can't digest it, but it's all because their belief in a false god.

02:19:38

Now, we could take this a few ways. We could just say it's just a scene, but we could take it as, look at what worship of false gods does, because we all know, this is the joke,

02:19:48

Threepio was not a god, right? That's what makes it humorous. Except if you became the steak, it would not be humorous at that point.

02:19:55

But it's humorous until you become the filet mignon. So, they're doing all of this, the capturing, the seasoning, the firing, what would become the cooking, then the eating, you know, all that, because of, it appears, preconceived religious beliefs.

02:20:12

But that actually matches with scripture, doesn't it? Doesn't it? The Bible talks about we'll worship, if we don't worship the one true god, a false god, something that was created, like Threepio, who was created, and do ridiculous things because of it.

02:20:31

Read Isaiah, how they critique and mock. And so, we could take it as, well, they're just saying, this is what religion makes you do, primitive people believe in religion.

02:20:39

But then again, the Jedi appear religious of a sort, so it doesn't seem like it's an overall critique of religion. But it's interesting to take a scene like this and then talk about it, think about it in light of Star Wars.

02:20:50

So, next time you see this scene, I want you to think, oh, we did some analysis of that.

02:20:56

Let me think some more about it. Let me see what they're saying here. Let me see what's going on. I think it's kind of fun to do that sort of thing.

02:21:04

Now, let's do a little search mission, and this is kind of the end. We're winding down.

02:21:12

Can we find the doctrines of grace anywhere else in the Star Wars movies? This is where I want us to think if there's some other spots.

02:21:20

I think we can have a touch point with total depravity and only what you take with you.

02:21:26

But are there other spots where we can find something? Can we find unconditional election?

02:21:37

Say what? Anakin what? Right. So, Anakin appears to be who?

02:21:46

Chosen one. Does anyone know Kung Pao? What is that thing?

02:22:01

There's so many things in that movie, right? If you've seen it, you know what

02:22:07

I'm talking about. There's so many things. Swinging the chain, swinging the chain.

02:22:16

Okay, sorry. All right. Say what?

02:22:24

Oh, yeah. I am bleeding, therefore making me the victor. All right.

02:22:31

I go, baby, standing up. All right. So, check it out. Unconditional election. Anakin is called the chosen one, right?

02:22:40

All right. And there's even a prophecy about him. Say what?

02:22:48

Yeah, he seems to be a virgin conceived. All right. Now, let's look at this, though.

02:22:54

There's other times where the Jedi, when they're sitting around in their little

02:22:59

Jedi beanbags and in other places in other parts of the canon where they talk about the will of the force.

02:23:06

Now, let's think about this. And Han Solo makes references to that too when he says, there's no mystical energy field controlling my destiny.

02:23:15

And Darth Vader often speaks of what? It is your destiny. Therefore, he's saying you've been predestined to do this.

02:23:22

Now, they're wrong, aren't they, about the will of the force. But how does, excuse me, how does the force have a will?

02:23:29

Will is a function of what? Who has wills? Don't say a truck. Right.

02:23:36

A person. Does this chair have, it's not a wheelchair, does this chair have a will?

02:23:47

Does this chair have volition? Why not? Do mosquitoes have a will?

02:24:01

There's a lot to talk about there. We could get way off, couldn't we? I lean towards a certain way.

02:24:08

But nonetheless, I think once we get to something that is a person, it's clear that one of the functions people possess is to have a will.

02:24:19

Right. In fact, do you know, according to biblical worldview, you can be a person without being a human.

02:24:29

You can never be the other way, but check this out, right? God is three, but he's not.

02:24:35

So he's a person, but he's not a human. Angels appear to be persons, but not humans. Angels appear to, at least prior, have had a will as well in some manner of speaking.

02:24:48

Now, what does that mean as well? Because I think it's okay for Calvinists to say free choice.

02:24:55

Free will gets problematic because people automatically, kind of in their own mind, put the word autonomous, or that's how they think about it, autonomous when they say free will.

02:25:02

But free choice, I think, is a biblical idea and goes well, okay, with compatibilism. I think if you understand what you're saying when you say free choice, meaning you freely choose what you want to do, that's why we sin.

02:25:12

That's what we want to do. But our will is limited. Therefore, we can write books. Great book, by the way, kid.

02:25:18

Bondage of the Will. Martin Luther did that. So I think you can find it when you get to this concept of chosen, unconditional election, that Anna can do anything prior to being born to be considered the chosen one.

02:25:32

No. And the Star Wars universe seems okay with the concept of chosen one, doesn't it? But how does the force have a will?

02:25:42

See, this is where I think, and this is from Timothy Paul Jones, to tell a good story, to tell a compelling story, you can be off on points, but you have to at key points, important junctures, significant spots, you have to borrow from the

02:26:01

Christian worldview to tell a good, compelling story.

02:26:07

I think here it's borrowing with this idea of chosen one.

02:26:14

I'm not saying George Lucas is like, oh Calvinism has this, therefore I'll do this. It's more like what works in a story, but notice that it's still there and it has an important function and Star Wars, again, doesn't seem to have a problem with it.

02:26:29

You don't even hear people saying, well, why isn't someone else the chosen one? By the way, there is a theory running around that actually

02:26:36

Obi -Wan's the chosen one. Have you guys heard this? The Kenobi family, the Kenobi line, go online and you'll see it.

02:26:43

It'll trip you out. Obi -Wan Kenobi's the chosen one. Because even Yoda, doesn't he say, a prophecy that misread could have been.

02:26:50

Yoda, if anyone could be accused of misreading you, probably you, backward syntax, but in all seriousness,

02:26:57

I think when we get to unconditional election, I think we can see chosen one, but is it possible for something that is not a person to have a will?

02:27:09

No. In fact, you can use the dark side of the force or use the light side of the force.

02:27:17

Does the force have a say in how wielders use it? It appears not.

02:27:25

It doesn't appear the force says, no Darth Vader, it's messed up to make me choke that guy.

02:27:31

Don't do it. It doesn't seem like the force has that as a function, but yet it chooses

02:27:37

Jedi and even it's kind of messed up. You could see maybe why things that aren't persons don't deserve wills in the first place, because how does

02:27:47

Anakin bring balance to the force? It's really a messed up way that he does it. I mean, part of the process is, you know, kill all the

02:27:52

Jedi, all this stuff. So it doesn't even seem like the force makes the greatest decision when it's given the chance, but how does the force make a decision?

02:28:00

See, it's incompatible. It does not make sense. Something impersonal that is a force.

02:28:05

I mean, it's called the force, for goodness sake, therefore then has a will and can make choices and have a chosen one. Is that the only choice the force ever made?

02:28:13

You see what I'm saying? So nonetheless, it's there. Now, limited atonement.

02:28:20

I had trouble with this one. I wasn't able to find it. Does anyone see a spot where you could have limited atonement?

02:28:26

Now, again, just so everyone understands, here's what we're doing with this. We are not saying George Lucas is a

02:28:32

Calvinist making Calvinist movies. What we're saying is, in our culture and in films, especially that focus on metaphysical realities, there are spots where you see

02:28:40

Christian truth shining and what we can do is explore those spots for a few reasons. I actually think it's productive to think on these things.

02:28:48

I think that's Philippians 4. We're thinking on these things. I think tonight when we leave, you'll say,

02:28:53

I can't analyze things in a different way. I can go deeper. And isn't it a great question when you're sitting with a

02:28:59

Star Wars buddy, Star Wars nerd, to say, how does the force have a will? And to begin to talk about this.

02:29:05

Do you see how this is a legitimate end to a legitimate conversation? Because the metaphysical realities are already being discussed in some way in the film.

02:29:12

This is something we can use to converse with people if we know the systematic theology. Now look, if you don't know nothing about Star Wars, pick something else.

02:29:22

I'm doing this because I know this, but there are a multitude of things we can do this, I think with literally everything.

02:29:28

I mean, if you enjoy fishing, oh my goodness, how is there not a thousand things ends you have into the gospel while you're with a dude fishing.

02:29:38

Have you heard a really messed up joke, by the way? You probably all heard it, but someone hasn't, so whatever.

02:29:44

How do you prevent a Mormon from drinking all the beer on a camping trip? Bring another Mormon. It's messed up,

02:29:51

I know. But does anyone find limited atonement anywhere?

02:29:58

Midichlorians, okay, help me out. I know, like how would it work though? Okay, so yeah, the question, how are midichlorians distributed throughout a person though?

02:30:12

Like how does that get determined is what I wonder. See, if that was also in some way the will of the force, then that gets you close to limited atonement in a way.

02:30:22

By the way, I don't like the idea of midichlorians. I think the original three movies had a more of a, there was a, there's still an aspect of awesome and wonder at the metaphysical reality that was the force.

02:30:35

Once you have midichlorians, it actually becomes biologically determined, and then it changes the nature of it in a lot of ways.

02:30:42

So I have a friend who says, George Lucas bought into modernity with the advent of the midichlorians. Actually, it gets less compelling storytelling as well, but going on that, you might be able to do something with that in some way.

02:30:55

Some of this is just fun, okay. My plan was to be the geekiest presenter at Reformed Con, like to be the most con -ish, because everyone else is going to be the most reformed -ish.

02:31:06

I was going to be the most con -ish, you know what I'm saying? Irresistible Grace, what about that one?

02:31:14

You know where I was going. You know the tool of, some of you, so you could already be thinking ahead, okay, how do I find the next one? Let me sound cool, you know.

02:31:20

Irresistible Grace? Destiny?

02:31:26

Yeah, I mean, some of these concepts kind of weave in and out. Again, hey, the petals do hang together, do they not?

02:31:33

So yeah, the pea is my favorite though. I do have a little something, something for that one. Perseverance of the saints, or better yet, preservation of the saints.

02:31:41

What's up with that one? Yoda says to Luke, once you go down that dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.

02:31:53

He's saying, if you go here, it's forever.

02:31:59

Forever means forever, Yoda. Was Yoda right? He's not right.

02:32:06

By the way, I mean, watch the prequels, Yoda's not right really about anything, hardly ever, right? But he's not right, is he?

02:32:15

Who's the counterexample? I can think of one. All it takes is one counterexample to offset a truism.

02:32:22

Darth Vader. In fact, how do you know that Vader, we're going to get

02:32:27

Roman Catholic here, died in a state of grace? Because what happens at the end of Return of the

02:32:32

Jedi? He's part of the Star Wars trinity, right? Anakin, Yoda, and Obi -Wan, the three dudes, right?

02:32:41

He's there. Now, it shows that it will not forever dominate your destiny there.

02:32:49

So it's kind of like Yoda thought there was a perseverance, not of the saints, but perseverance of the

02:32:54

Sith. See what it did there? But actually he was incorrect. In fact, I guess the force is more

02:33:01

Arminian? I don't know. What are we going to do with that? Really, what I think we could do with that is show that redemption is always possible.

02:33:08

Because think about how it seems unfair. But what's the parable? There's guys who start work in the morning, at the end of the day they clock out, they get the money that the master said he was going to give, the boss.

02:33:21

There's dudes who came in at the last second, worked like an hour, they get the same amount of money. The dudes who were there at 8 a .m.

02:33:27

start complaining. Oh, I didn't get this. Hey, it's my money, I can do with what I want. By the way, that's a little bit of capitalism in the

02:33:33

Bible. It's my money, I could do with what I want, right? He basically says that. I'm just saying, I think he's right there.

02:33:38

You got to be careful with the parables. I mean, I still think it's true. But he says that, he says,

02:33:44

I gave you what you were guaranteed. There's some workers rights to a certain extent, right?

02:33:50

You got to keep your word. Okay, okay. What is it to you? And what a lot of times do even say

02:33:56

Mormons say, so you're telling me somebody could be an axe murderer for 20 years, in the last second our deathbed has a conversion, da -da -da, they'd be okay?

02:34:03

The answer actually, of course, is yes. We have an example of a

02:34:09

Vader -like moment in Scripture itself. In a sense, do we not? Jesus, where? On the cross.

02:34:15

The thief. He deserved. But what does Jesus say to the man next to him? Truly, you will be with me in paradise.

02:34:24

Today, he says, truly I tell you today you will be with me in paradise. Redemption is always possible.

02:34:31

And see, without that Vader redemption moment, the Star Wars movie is nothing like what it could be.

02:34:37

He'd just be another Palpatine dead, right? But there's that redemption that makes it all the more compelling.

02:34:46

Now, they told me to go to eight to nine. It's almost nine, so I'm going to wind down and be done.

02:34:51

But let me put in plugs for my other stack of books. Some of what we did, of course, today was some theological analysis.

02:35:00

Some of it light -hearted, some of it more serious. But my point is, what is happening, for better or for worse, media, film, movies, all that stuff is becoming more and more the sort of cultural common bonds people have, more and more and more ways.

02:35:17

And that's not entirely good. There's reasons why we want text to always be prominent.

02:35:24

It's better when text is prominent in a culture. I'm not saying no movies, no film. I'm just saying when it's all visual or more visual, there can be problems with that.

02:35:32

Nonetheless, we should be like sons of Issachar who knew the times and knew what to do.

02:35:38

So, Star Wars and philosophy is one way to do some of this. There are some books along these lines.

02:35:43

Star Wars and philosophy is more powerful than you can possibly imagine. There's another book they have as well. Now, a lot of these don't have

02:35:49

Christian philosophers doing the entries, but you'll find a few that do. And you can say, how are they analyzing with a secular worldview a lot of times?

02:35:58

What can I do with this same type of analysis? My point is, if you think this is a waste of time, you're like, well, that was just silly.

02:36:04

The world is actually doing what I'm talking about from their own worldview already. In fact, there's a whole series by Open Court called the and philosophy books.

02:36:14

I'm sure you've seen them when you go around. The Chronicles of Narnia and philosophy. Transformers and philosophy.

02:36:20

More than meets the mind. Superheroes and philosophy. So, they are doing it.

02:36:27

I would say when you see those kind of books, if you know you're a Zia and you use book section and philosophy section, you see one for five dollars, pick it up.

02:36:34

See how they're doing it. And then say, what would a Christian response, what is a biblical analysis of this, these same themes look like?

02:36:43

I mean, when you watch, say, X -Men Apocalypse, it jumps out at you how many points of contact there are and things we need to talk about from a

02:36:52

Christian worldview in a movie like that. A couple other books by Christians that are along these lines.

02:36:59

The thing is, a lot of these books are not that good. As this culture becomes more and more superhero, all this type of stuff, we need to do better work in this area.

02:37:07

So, the entries now are meager, but what I'm saying is, we need to do this kind of stuff. The Gospel According to the

02:37:13

World's Greatest Superhero. Of course, Superman with that one. Comic book character. Better book than it looks like.

02:37:19

It's actually got some good stuff about character development in relation to that. And here's another one, Real Spirituality Theology and Film and Dialogue.

02:37:28

There's a ton of books like this. Like I said, a lot of them are meager. There's some really good ones, but I think

02:37:33

ReformCon is a place for us to think about how to better do that in our own personal lives. And I'm going to try, by God's grace, to do that actually

02:37:42

Friday at Phoenix Comic Con. Now, I'm not telling you to go there because you're here, but I'm just telling you where I'm going to be while you won't see me.

02:37:49

I'm doing a panel, it actually got cleared, called Philosophy and Theology in Star Wars. And you see all the information up there.

02:37:56

They cut Ramon's name off at the bottom. Yada, yada, yada. But it's kind of interesting what we do is, this is the second year we've done a panel like this.

02:38:02

Last year we did one called Thor, Thanos and Theology. Love the title. This year,

02:38:07

Philosophy and Theology in Star Wars. And I'm going to talk about some of these same things here, but also on the panel with me is an atheist friend of mine, and he's going to do some of the philosophy side.

02:38:16

A guy named Forrest, some of you guys have known, maybe heard his podcast. And he's going to talk about some things, and we're going to see where we come together, where we butt heads, and we're going to do this.

02:38:25

And last year at the panel, I would say it was quite a success. Meaning, I got to see some good things that you can find ways to do this.

02:38:33

Because things like a Phoenix Comic Con are only growing. But if I go down the program guide right now, and I do control

02:38:41

F, LGBT, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Tons of entries about superheroes in relation to LGBTQ stuff.

02:38:49

It's just non -stop. There's even, I mean, you should look at the program guide just to be shocked at this.

02:38:55

It's a minor element of society, and yet it's heavily represented, over -represented. And you might see one panel that has something

02:39:02

Christian with it in some way, and it's usually pretty vague. I think ours is the one entry this time.

02:39:08

And I mean, you say, whoa, there's not really a Christian representation in places like this.

02:39:14

But I think there needs to be. And so I would like to end with this. Think of some ways in which

02:39:21

God has given you passion in relationship to art, to some of these things that are relevant to culture.

02:39:27

It doesn't have to be all of culture. It doesn't have to be pop culture. There are subcultures that are important for us to reach. And say, dear

02:39:34

Lord, how can I analyze these with a more biblically sound mind? And then proceed to be more intentional in how you watch things and how then you discuss them.

02:39:44

It's okay to say, I really like that scene where he blah, blah, blah. But keep track of your head of dialogue.

02:39:50

Keep track of your head of the message being sent. And find out ways to discuss those.

02:39:57

Find out ways for your own spiritual love to think about those. I think it'll be a legitimate part of your sanctification process you do this, and can give you, as you see the doors, places to share the gospel with people.

02:40:10

With that, let me pray, and I am done. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you very much for an event like this, a unique event, but a timely event.

02:40:21

We look around us, and we see the chaos in our society, but then we also see the rise of a new language of comic books and superhero film.

02:40:33

And it's not always as antithetical to the gospel as some of the culture is, yet it's popular.

02:40:40

Dear Lord, let us be wise and say, how do we get a conversation where the gospel can be prominent as we think and talk about these things?

02:40:51

Dear Lord, give us minds that are wise and cunning and we can love the

02:40:57

Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength as we watch. Don't let us just be passive Christian watchers.

02:41:05

Let us jump on these things and think, how would Paul incorporate this into a sermon?

02:41:11

Dear Lord, I do pray that you give us greater wisdom in this area and realize it can lead to real gospel conversations.

02:41:24

Dear Lord, we want to be those kind of people. As Colossians 4, 5, 6 says, we're always ready to give that answer.

02:41:31

We know how to answer each one, and our conversation is seasoned with salt. I think it means it preserves, but I also think it means it has some flavor.

02:41:40

We speak clear and we're gentle. We're walking wise towards outsiders because we know the time.

02:41:46

We redeem the time. Help us to look at that and say, dear Lord, help me to do that in the own spheres you've put me in. And with that, we thank you for this evening and for all of ReformCon.

02:41:55

May your name be glorified here these next few days in our minds and our hearts. Amen. All right.

02:42:03

Thank you, vocab. Nine o 'clock. Boom. What? Look at it.

02:42:09

Nine o 'clock. Nice. Boom, dude. That's how you do it, homie. Sorry. I'm just glad because it says nine.

02:42:16

Yeah, I can't even believe we ended at nine. That's incredible. So this is it for the night.

02:42:22

Thank you, everybody that made it out for the first night. As a reminder, for those that are watching the live feed, thank you for watching, and I would like to remind you that this is not a church service.

02:42:33

This is fun. Theology can be fun, right? How are we going to be salty to the culture if we have no flavor?

02:42:40

So I just want to remind those that are watching the live feed. Also, if you're watching the live feed, please take a moment to donate, even if it's 20 bucks, to our church plan.

02:42:47

This is what this is for, to go towards that. So please help us with that. I would like to remind you also, we will have breakfast at eight o 'clock in the morning.

02:42:54

If you guys can come here and get that, I know they're doing breakfast burritos, bagels. There's coffee.

02:43:01

There's probably going to be some more cotton candy if you want that for breakfast. So, Marcus. So there'll also be lunch tomorrow.

02:43:08

The lunch menu is incredible. If you guys didn't see that, there's some really good Hawaiian -themed stuff.

02:43:15

So I think Jeff wanted to say a couple things, and then we'll wrap it up tonight. Thanks. You guys having a good time?

02:43:22

Yes? So I think that, yeah, you can definitely applaud. So I think that one of the great things that I'm looking forward to over the next couple of days is getting to know all of you guys and getting to meet you guys.

02:43:34

And one of the really central themes we wanted for ReformCon, which is a conference, a gathering of Christians, not a church service, is the fellowship, the time together to eat.

02:43:45

So we try to provide opportunity here to be able to spend time here together, to eat, to interact with the speakers.

02:43:51

It's also very important for us that you feel that you're able to interact with the speakers, to ask questions, those sorts of things, network with one another.

02:43:57

We have times, you can see on the schedule, after ReformCon on Thursday and Friday to get together at a restaurant together and just to talk and get to know each other.

02:44:06

And so we try to provide all those things for you guys and I want to encourage you to take advantage of it, okay? So it's important that you do not feel like the speakers and participants are a mile off, okay?

02:44:21

We really are trying to create the atmosphere of connection and just a really, a closeness, all right?

02:44:27

So it's sort of up to us to develop that here, to be able to do that. We don't want this to be sort of a cold, kind of stiff, separated kind of conference.

02:44:35

This is a good opportunity for us to get to know each other in a network. And one of the things that is another theme of ReformCon is that we're trying to address the deeply theological issues that are important for us to know, to teach, to preach, but also how we can get those truths into our current culture.

02:44:55

So I just want to say this. We have been given so many gifts today by God in terms of what the

02:45:01

Christian church blessed the world with, in terms of worldview, and in the infrastructure we're able to put in. Marcus's breakout session,

02:45:10

I don't want to take away from whoever's competing with Marcus there, but it's going to be incredible. Okay, John.

02:45:16

Well, he's not here right now, so go to Marcus. No, so Marcus is going to talk a lot about what the

02:45:22

Christian church gave to the world because of the Christian worldview. I mean, media, communications, just,

02:45:30

I mean, and so the goal, like even with like vocab here just now, is let's get out of our ghetto.

02:45:39

For some people watching a live stream, they need to at least start with getting out of their basement. First step, okay. We need to get out of our

02:45:47

Christian ghettos, and we need to start interacting with the world in every single area.

02:45:56

So whether it's film, whether it's television, YouTube, blogging, writing books, novels, we ought to be doing everything better because we have a better God and a better worldview.

02:46:09

I mean that, and so purpose of ReformCon is to gather Christians from across the nation, hopefully one day from around the world, to get together, to network, to learn, to grow, to fellowship, and to go back home and to blitz the world with the truth.

02:46:24

So we actually have like lessons here on like film at a

02:46:31

Christian conference, like on film, and then like on writing, and those sorts of things. Media, how can we actually advance the message of the gospel first and foremost, and then the doctrines of the

02:46:41

Reformation in our current context and culture. So that's kind of the goal. I know it's big and it's grand, but that's what we want to do.

02:46:48

And I'm post mill, so I believe we can do anything. So you know, that's how it works. So I just want to tell you how grateful

02:46:54

I am for you guys all coming. So we have people from Colorado, we have some foreigners from Toronto, another country, another planet,

02:47:07

Vancouver, where else? Come on, help me out. We got Texas, what's that? New York, Milwaukee, Chicago, Alaska?

02:47:19

Yeah, Alaska. I mean, it's just fantastic. So I want to get to know you guys this week, and I'm looking forward to it.

02:47:26

And one last thing I will say, Apologia Kauai is our next church plant.

02:47:33

Apologia Church was planted out of a drug and alcohol rehab hospital over six years ago, and this is where we meet now on Sundays.

02:47:43

And so God has called us to plant another church, and we're going to plant it on the island of Kauai.

02:47:50

They lost their one visible reform church that they had on that island, 65 ,000 permanent residents.

02:47:57

It's an awesome opportunity for the gospel. We're going on another trip out there, missions trip in July, and so be praying for us.

02:48:04

But everything we're trying to do here is also to try to raise funds for that. So you guys can participate and you guys can help.

02:48:09

If you're watching a live stream right now by going to, Marcus, is it on ReformCon's page?

02:48:18

Okay, so reformcon .org slash live. The links are there for that.

02:48:23

We also did a video. It's up on YouTube now, Apologia Studios, a little mini documentary on our church plant to Kauai.

02:48:30

So be praying for that, be thinking about it, and that's what all this is ultimately moving towards is helping with that.

02:48:37

So thank you guys, every one of you guys that we think it's great that you came. We want to thank you also because when you came and you blessed

02:48:43

Apologia Church to make all this possible, you're also helping with that. So thank you very, very much.

02:48:50

Tomorrow morning, 8 a .m., breakfast, 9 a .m., we are going to do some fellowship and worship together, and then

02:48:56

Dr. James White, 9 .45, first opening.

02:49:02

I'm going to be here for that, so that's going to be awesome. So praise God. Let's pray. Let's ask God to bless us on our way home tonight.

02:49:07

Thank you, God, so much for putting all this together. Thank you, Lord, for giving us this opportunity to be together, to learn, to grow, to have a good time, to network, and to be sent back home to get to work.

02:49:22

And we're grateful. Pray you keep us all, Lord, safe tonight as we go home and give us good rest tonight so we can get up tomorrow,

02:49:29

Lord, and glorify you and to enjoy you. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you guys.